Eve Stegenga, yoga teacher and census refusenik, pleaded not guilty in court to federal charges stemming from her not filling out her Canadian census in 2011.
Stegenga is one of 54 Canadians who has been charged under the Statistics Act for not filling out the mandatory short-form census. In 2011, StatsCan received 13 million completed census forms, a 98 per cent response rate.
“I plead not guilty because this is a ludicrous charge,” said Stegenga.
She chose to not fill out the form as a protest against the federal government’s contract with a software subsidiary of Lockheed-Martin, the American weapons giant.
When the census enumerator visited her Lund home, Stegenga told her that she wouldn’t complete the form and why.
Despite consulting a lawyer, Stegenga has chosen to represent herself in court and because of the nature of the charges is not entitled to legal aid representation, she said.
Gregory Reif, who is giving Stegenga legal counsel but not representing her, said that while census protestors like Audrey Tobias, an 89-year-old peace activist and WWII veteran, have made charter arguments in their defence, none have yet succeeded. Tobias was acquitted after the Crown prosecutor failed to prove her intentions beyond a reasonable doubt.
Stegenga was given until November 6 to file arraignment papers about the specifics of her case and how many witnesses she will call. Once those papers are filed a court date can be set.
Under the Statistics Act, if convicted, she could face a fine of up to $500, up to three months in jail or both.
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