Greetings All. I have today been advised that the Ottawa Citizen newspaper today (Thursday) had an ad on page A7 advertising the first of Statistics Canada's Town Hall meetings -- the first of Industry Minister Brian Tobin's announced "further broad based consultations with all Canadians" regarding public access to Historic Census Records. What is interesting about this ad is the heading of it, which was reported to me as "Express your views and opinions on releasing the individual 1906 and 1911 census questionairres." While only the 1906 and 1911 Census' are mentioned, it is expected that these hearings will have a bearing on access of later Census as well. Environics Research Group has been contracted to conduct Town Hall Meetings in 14 major centers in each of the Provinces and Territories, as well as two focus group surveys in each of these centers. This is the same company that conducted the focus groups and national surveys by Statistics Canada for the Expert Panel on Access to Historical Census Records. The first meetings are to be held in Ottawa. Date: Friday 14 December 2001 One from 2:00 - 4:00 PM and another from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. Location: Sir Guy Carleton Room, Mariott Residence Inn 161 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa Presentations are in English or French on a first come, first served basis. To confirm attendance, which they request, once can call (613) 230-5089 or email censusconsultations@environics.ca There is some concern, because attendence is requested to be confirmed in advance, that these meetings will not be as open as one might hope. We sincerely hope that no one who wishes to attend will be prevented from doing so. Information regarding these meetings is expected to be on websites for both Statistics Canada and Environics Research, however, at the time of this writing, the Environics sites are 'under construction' and there is nothing on the Statistics Canada website as yet. Perhaps there will be tomorrow. Environcs Research's home page is located at http://erg.environics.net/ On the upper left side, links for English and French are shown under a heading of "Census Consultations" The link given for Statistic Canada was http://www.statcan.ca/english/census96/histcrd.htm which is the same page on Statistics Canada's website on which the link to information on the Expert Panel is located. It is vitally important that those who wish to see public access to Historic Census Records make an effort to attend these meetings, and express their opinions regarding access. If we do not do so we stand a chance of losing these records forever. It is our feeling that the focus groups and surveys conducted for the Expert Panel were biased towards obtaining a negative response to access. We are concerned that information provided and questions asked during these town hall meetings and focus groups will be similarly biased. I have attempted to obtain information from Dr. Ivan Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada, regarding what information would be provided to participants, and what questions would be asked of them. So far he has declined to respond. I would appreciate it if some-one attending these meetings would let me know what transpired and how they felt the proceedings had gone. Let us know as accurately as possible what information was given and what questions asked. I am particularly interested in knowing if the unsubstantiated "promise" of Statistics Canada is introduced, and what degree of emphasis is placed on it. I would like to think that a transcript of the proceedings will be kept and made available to the public, but I think the odds are against this happening. Watch your local newspapers for notices of meetings and focus groups to be held in your area. Meetings in other areas are expected to be held in December and January. Final reports from Environics are to be given to Statistics Canada by 15 February 2002. I cannot stress enough the importance of attending these meetings to let those conducting them know that we need, and want access to the Post 1901 Census records on the same basis as those up to and including 1901 have been, and still are. Please forward this message to all Ontario mail lists. 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.