When this government cancelled the long-form census I was outraged. With a degree in physics and a minor in mathematics, I know that a voluntary survey can never be accurate -- as most statisticians, social justice organizations and businesses have protested.

This is just the tip of the iceberg because it further demonstrates the government’s overall lack of respect for real data in a number of areas. When the short-form census was launched on Election Day, I decided to use it as an opportunity to protest their inaction on climate change, contempt for democracy and general disregard for facts.

Let me explain why I think my protest is justified.

Climate change is the ultimate challenge of our time and this governmentʼs unwillingness to confront it is a crime against all species. Not only do they refuse to take effective steps to mitigate it, they repudiated our ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and go to great lengths to obstruct international negotiations.

This governmentʼs ‘climate change action plan’ is all smoke and mirrors. It has few hard targets and contains many vague, weasel-like, phrases such as “continuing to advance the Clean Energy Dialogue with the United States”.

The vast majority of climate change scientists say that we must reduce our emissions by at least 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020; the European Unionʼs target is 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, yet Canadaʼs target is 2.5 percent ABOVE 1990 levels!

Late last year, without debate, the Conservative dominated Senate defeated Private Memberʼs Bill C-311 (The Climate Change Accountability Act), after it had been passed by the House -- the Senate has never before defeated a Bill without debate.

This government cuts funds for essential climate change research, slashes Environment Canada’s budget and muzzles government scientists.

This government aggressively promotes the tar sands, conspires to defeat the European Unionʼs regulations on imports of dirty fossil fuels and lobbies the US government to permit the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline -- which will increase Canada’s exports of fuel from the tar sands.

Despite our G20 pledge to end fossil fuel subsidies, Canada still provides over $1 billion in annual tax breaks to this very destructive industry compared to a paltry $105 million for renewable energy and conservation projects.

Earlier this year, this government cancelled the ecoENERGY Home Retrofit program, then reinstated it for less than ten months -- the ONLY federal program that promotes home energy efficiency.

New regulations on coal-powered electricity generation do not start until mid-2015. This has created a loophole with the appalling result that Maxim Power has obtained a permit to build a 500-megawatt coal plant -- with a free pass to pollute for 45 years thereafter.

In December 2008, this government prorogued Parliament to avoid a vote of non- confidence after they introduced a fiscal update that did not include plans to weather the economic crisis.

This government continues to misrepresent the proposed 2008 coalition of the Liberal and NDP -- with the support of the Bloc -- as undemocratic, even though this kind of co-operation is common in the majority of the worldʼs parliamentary democracies like those of India, Pakistan, Brazil and Japan.

This government appears to prefer a US style presidential system instead of our Parliamentary democracy as exemplified by their refusal to accept Parliamentʼs supremacy. This almost caused a constitutional crisis when, for months, they refused to comply with Speaker Peter Millikenʼs ruling that they had to turn over all documents related to the treatment of Afghan detainees to a Parliamentary committee.

The Speaker rebuked International Co-operation Minister, Bev Oda, for misleading Parliament after she denied knowledge of the alteration of a CIDA report which had recommended funding for the church-based aid group, KAIROS, and then admitted that she had ordered staff to insert the word “NOT” to reverse the recommendation.

Earlier this year, this government was found in contempt of Parliament -- a first in Canada -- when they refused to provide cost details on a number of budget items, which resulted in defeat on a vote of non-confidence. Then they misrepresented this as a rejection of the budget.

Despite the fact that the crime rate has fallen for several decades, this government threatens to waste billions on new and expanded prisons. They have no regard for science and accurate statistics; only accept facts when they fit their ideology and reject them when they don't.

I am a law-abiding senior citizen who votes in all elections, has never participated in civil disobedience and has always believed it is my duty to complete the census. But this year, despite a growing stack of notices and several visits from Statistics Canada, I have refused.

This is illegal and most probably will result in a fine or jail. I hope my family and friends will visit me.