Pleads not guilty for refusing to submit short-form census
CBC News, Nov 21, 2013.
A retired Toronto social worker is in court today over her refusal to fill out the short-form census two years ago.
Janet Churnin, 79, could face a fine, as well as jail time, for contravening the Statistics Act by not filling out the census forms.
However, Churnin’s choice was a deliberate one, made in protest of the cancellation of the long-form census, which she says was a valuable tool in helping marginalized Canadians, and because the form is processed by U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin.
Churnin isn’t backing down. She entered a plea of not guilty shortly after noon on Friday, in court at Toronto's Old City Hall.
"I wasn't going to fill it out because of the money going to Lockheed Martin and I wasn't going to fill it out because it was useless," Churin told CBC News in an earlier interview in her downtown Toronto apartment.
Her lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, said their defence will be built around Churnin's charter rights to protection against unreasonable search and seizure — rights he will argue are threatened by StatsCan’s “negligent” reliance on the U.S. company’s software.
"By allowing Lockheed Martin to have access to that data, it could end up being used for U.S. government purposes, which becomes a violation,' he said.
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Churnin's protest is very reasonable in light of this story, which has the potential to impact many of the clients Canadian social workers work with and those of us who develop occupational stress injuries as a result of our front line work [Editor].
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A Toronto woman is shocked after she was denied entry into the U.S. because
she had been hospitalized for clinical depression.
Hauch, V. (2013). The Star.
Ellen Richardson went
to Pearson airport on Monday full of joy about flying to New York City
and from there going on a 10-day Caribbean cruise for which she’d paid
about $6,000.
But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with the Department of Homeland Security killed that dream when he denied her entry.
“I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,’’ said Richardson, who is a paraplegic and set up her cruise in collaboration with a March of Dimes group of about 12 others.
The Weston woman was
told by the U.S. agent she would have to get “medical clearance’’ and be
examined by one of only three doctors in Toronto whose assessments are
accepted by Homeland Security. She was given their names and told a call to her psychiatrist “would not suffice.’’
At the time,
Richardson said, she was so shocked and devastated by what was going on,
she wasn’t thinking about how U.S. authorities could access her supposedly private medical information.
Richardson said she’d had no discussion whatsoever with the agent at the airport about her medical history or background.
Previous to her hospitalization in 2012, Richardson had attempted suicide in 2001, as a result of delusions. But medications put her on an even keel and stabilized her for years, with no incidents.
A personal relationship breakup in 2012 caused her clinical depression and hospitalization (there was no police involvement). But again, her condition stabilized and Richardson, who has a master’s degree in counselling, sees a psychiatrist with whom she has a very good relationship.
He cited the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212, which denies entry to people who have had a physical or mental disorder that may pose a “threat to the property, safety or welfare’’ of themselves or others.
The agent gave her a signed document which stated that “system checks’’ had found she “had a medical episode in June 2012’’ and that because of the “mental illness episode’’ she would need a medical evaluation before being accepted.
Richardson said she’d had no discussion whatsoever with the agent at the airport about her medical history or background.
Previous to her hospitalization in 2012, Richardson had attempted suicide in 2001, as a result of delusions. But medications put her on an even keel and stabilized her for years, with no incidents.
A personal relationship breakup in 2012 caused her clinical depression and hospitalization (there was no police involvement). But again, her condition stabilized and Richardson, who has a master’s degree in counselling, sees a psychiatrist with whom she has a very good relationship.
He cited the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212, which denies entry to people who have had a physical or mental disorder that may pose a “threat to the property, safety or welfare’’ of themselves or others.
The agent gave her a signed document which stated that “system checks’’ had found she “had a medical episode in June 2012’’ and that because of the “mental illness episode’’ she would need a medical evaluation before being accepted.
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