Minimum cooperation with the Census is the foundation of the CountMeOut project. If we are to be successful, Canadians must buy into and use, the MINIMUM COOPERATION strategy.

CountMeOut.ca is not advocating outright refusal to provide census data for the short form. Refusal or not to answer the short-form 2011 census that everone will receive, is a personal decision that each Canadian can make. Based on messages we received in 2006, and also on comments by the Chief Statistician, hundreds of thousands of Canadians opted for not doing the census at all.

However the long, 40-page census form that 1 in 3 Canadians will receive about a month after receiving the short-form census,is no longer mandatory. You are under no obligation to complete and return the long form, now called the National Household Survey (NHS). You will, however, probably be nagged and pestered by StatsCan representatives to complete and return the NHS. They may even imply that the NHS is compulsory, which it is not.

Fortunately, Canadians can easily and effectively register their opposition to Lockheed Martin, free trade and the jeopardizing of personal privacy, through MINIMUM COOPERATION with the Census. In this way, StatsCan does eventually obtain its data, but the efficiencies which were supposedly to be achieved by contracting out part of the Canada Census to Lockheed Martin (Canada) will be more than nullified. The objective is to slow down the process and create extra work for StatsCan, by (1) NOT doing the census online, and (2) derailing the automation of the census data processing and necessitating more human intervention.

At the end of the minimum cooperation process, you will have met the legal requirement to provide your short-form Census information, but not without exercising several of the options offered you by Statistics Canada, or other fun techniques available to you. By doing this you have the empowerment to impress on Statistics Canada and the Government of Canada that Canadians will not tolerate the sellout of their sovereignty and the compromising of their personal privacy

This sort of opportunity to very easily, yet effectively register opposition to Lockheed Martin, NAFTA, and loss of privacy, while having a bit of fun, does not happen every day.

LETS ALL USE THIS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY!

[This is the MINIMUM COOPERATION MAIN PAGE. Use the navigation bar at the BOTTOM of this page to continue to the other minimum cooperation pages.]