Greetings All. With the meetings at Vancouver yesterday, and the Focus Groups to be held today, the series of meetings and focus groups held by Environics Research Group dealing with public access to Historic Census comes to an end. The report resulting from these meetings is due to be submitted to Statistics Canada by 15 February 2002. We will be watching for it's release to the public and look forward to seeing the results that it contains. From all reports received so far regarding these meeting the overwhelming numbers of presenters have supported access with only three or four opposing it. Perhaps one or two have supported the 'compromise solution' or 'third option' but the vast majority have rejected it outright. Attendance at the Vancouver meetings was disappointing -- perhaps because of the weather, although it was not that bad. 16 attended in the afternoon and 18 in the evening. On asking, I was advised that there was only a single advertisement about the meeting in the Business Section of the Vancouver Sun on 23 January. This might help explain the low attendence. A number of those attending and some making presentations were people that I have corresponded with but had not met before. Among those were Candy-Lea Chickite from Campbell River and Roz Griston from the Sunshine Coast (my apologies if I have the locations wrong). Lyn Duncan who I had met once before and with whom I had a pleasant conversation with as I drove her home to White Rock after the evening session. Scheduled speakers at the afternoon session were: Candy-Lea Chickite who spoke on the need of Census for First Nations people for various reasons, not the least of which was to establish their entitlement to rights accorded to registered Band members. Candy-Lea has been a Census enumerator and spoke on her experience relating to that experience and the fact that most people she spoke to in that capacity wanted their information available in the future. Carol Graham, a retired librarian, spoke on the need of Census for documenting the life of the common person. She also spoke of the need to be able to identify people in our ancestry who may have been subject to genetic diseases. Her own family has been affected by retinitis - a genetic disease that eventually causes blindness. Census is important in this regard so people can find out if they are at risk. Eric Sager - Professor of History at University of Victoria and Director of the Canadian Families Project. Professor Sager spoke on the importance of Census as an Historical Treasure, or Monument, which seeks to preserve and to commemorate all Canadians -- famous and anonymous, rich and poor, young and old, women and men in all parts of the country -- all of them named in one great Memorial. He explained how the 1901 Census has been used in the Canadian Families Project and how release of subsequent Census would enhance their study of the Canadian family. Roz Griston also spoke of genetically inherited diseases, in particular one that has affected her family -- Prolonge QT Syndrome. She suggested that Dr. Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada should take a well deserved retirement. Non-scheduled speakers included Neil Sutherland - a retired professor from UBC. He spoke regarding use of Census in tracing treatment of children in relation to fostering etc. He raised a number of questions he would like to see answers to, including how were foster children described in the household in which they lived. Stephanie Kurmey - librarian in the genealogy section of the Cloverdale Public Library. Described the use of those facilities and the frequent use of their microform reader by people searching for their roots. Indicated that the most frequently used information by those visiting the library were the Census records. Lyn Duncan spoke on need of Census for tracing genetic disease, not only for physical ailments, but of mental disese as well. Janet Tompkins supported access to the records. When there were no others wishing to speak I spoke briefly on a couple of points that would not be covered in my presentation at the evening session. I mentioned other records readily available with information at least as personal as Census. These included the 1941 Civil Registration of all people in Canada, online C.E.F. Attestation Papers of those Canadians serving in WW I, and the fact that I was able to obtain the full military record of my grandfather. Only two speakers were scheduled for the evening session -- myself and Sherry Edmunds-Flett. In my own submission I covered most of the points that Statistics Canada has been concerned about. I detailed why the 'promise' that confidentiality of census was not intended to last 'forever' and that Statistics Canada had been unable to produce a single piece of documented evidence that such a promise existed. I suggested that in the lack of such evidence that Statistics Canada should cease to make reference to it. I suggested that in that regard they should either put up -- or shut up. I presented the moderator with a copy of my critique of the 'compromise solution' and stated that no genealogist or historian could possibly accept it. I stated that it was discriminatory, too restrictive and too expensive to administer. As my presentation was six pages of single spaced type I had to speak rapidly to get it all in. I was informed by an Environics worker that he had timed my presentation and I went 30 seconds over the alloted 15 minutes With only two scheduled speakers, the moderator questioned me somewhat longer than the normal five minutes but did not ask anything that I was unable to answer. Non-scheduled speakers included: Dana Taylor. He expressed surprize that no one was in attendence making a case for the opposition. Dana raised some laughter from those attending by suggesting the 'promise' may have been something conjured up in a 'seance' of former Prime Minister Mackinzie King. He expressed his opinion that suppression of the Census was a result of the "supreme arrogance of faceless bureaucrats". Fay Hicks. She indicated that her family had come up from the US somewhere around 1909. Her family has Parkinsons, another genetically inherited disease. She has no living family to ask and requires access to the 1911 Census to build her family tree in order to trace the source of the Parkinsons in her family. Vivian Kranenburg spoke about the revenue that genealogy and historical research brings by those seeking to add to their family tree and that one of the main source of information sought by these people was the Census. She urged the moderator to tell the government that Census would be opened and that Canada was 'open for business'. Elizabeth Walker - a retired librarian spoke in support of access. Angus Gunn - a lawyer, supported access and spoke of the importance of census as a legal facility. (Should Angus read this, and have family connections to Nova Scotia, please contact me regarding a possible connection between your GUNNs and my mother's line of PERRIN) Gordon Elliott - retired History Professor (?) and authour. Explained the need for Census in a project to compile the history of a small community in BC. Commented on the minimal advertising of these meetings. Asked if the refusal to allow access had to do with today's obsession with 'political correctness'. Suggested that people had already stated their support for access through the Report of the Expert Panel and asked if the government was 'deaf and dumb'. Stated that these meetings were a waste of our time and the taxpayers money. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted.