Supreme Court won’t hear Finley’s census appeal
Sandra Finley reached the end of the road in her census challenge when the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed her appeal.
Finley, 64, fought her conviction under the Statistics Act of not complying with the 2006 census in Saskatoon right up to the country’s top court, which refused to hear her case on Thursday.
She opposed filling out the census because her information would be processed using software from U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin. She argued that the mandatory census violated her right to privacy of personal information.
Finley was charged before the federal government changed its policy in 2010 and made completion of the long-form census voluntary rather than mandatory.
“What I think this means is we don’t have a Charter right to privacy of personal information in Saskatchewan,” Finley said Thursday morning from her home in B.C., after learning the Supreme Court had dismissed her appeal without costs.
“The only avenue left then for Canadians to claim the Charter right to privacy of personal information would be through a court action coming up through one of the other provinces.”
Even though Finley was found guilty in January 2011 after a trial in Saskatoon provincial court, she was granted an absolute discharge, which means the conviction would not remain on her record. The judge in that case said Finley “is clearly a person of good character who refused to fill in the form on the basis of principle.”
Finley, a former leader of the Saskatchewan Green Party, appealed the conviction to the Court of Queen’s Bench, then the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, then the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, a Toronto woman who didn’t fill out the census — also citing concerns about Lockheed Martin’s involvement — was found not guilty of the same charge. In the Ontario case, 89-year-old Audrey Tobias argued being forced to comply with the census violated her Charter right to conscience and free expression. The judge rejected that argument, but found her not guilty due to questions about her intent at the time of refusing to fill out the census.
Finley said she will continue to disseminate information about the role of the American military and surveillance operations in Canada.
“What it means is that all of our databases are open game for that American military complex, and that situation is very, very worrisome,” she said. “It’s very reminiscent of the tools of a police state.”