Greetings All. As they say in the movies, "I'M BACK!!!" I arrived home from Ottawa late last night after more than five hours in the air. Not much energy expended just sitting there, but bery tiring. I detail here a few of the highlights of the trip, but will save my report of the roundtable discussions of the ATI Act Review Task Force, held Monday, until tomorrow when I have caught up on my sleep. A number of things happened while in Ottawa, some planned, and some not. I arrived in Ottawa Friday evening and made contact with Lyn Winters. Saturday he and his lovely wife Jan picked me up at my hotel, gave me a tour around the city and took me back to their home in Kanata, and later to dinner at a nice restaurant. After that, back to my hotel. Tuesday I visited the National Library of Canada where I deposited two copies of my submission to the Expert Panel on Acccess to Historic Census Records. On a whim I decided to see if I could possibly meet with Mr. Ian Wilson, the National Archivist of Canada. He was unavailable at the time but I was able to get an appointment for later in the afternoon. On my return we met and discussed the Census situation for about 40 minutes. I found Mr. Wilson very much a gentleman, and I was pleased that because of previous email correspondence with him, that he was aware of who I was. Wednesday was a busy day. I met with Senator Lorna Milne, at her gracious invitation, for lunch in the Parliamentary Restuarant. This is not a place that the general public get to frequent. Patrons must be parliamentarians or their guests. It was a very elegant place with linen table cloths. I was told Wednesdays was the best day for people watching and eating. Caucus meetings are held Wednesday mornings and on those days there is a buffet lunch. I had a very enjoyable lunch with the Senator. She is a very gracious and elegant lady. She had also arranged for me to have my own private tour of four rooms of the East Block (where the Senator's offices are) that had been restored to their original 1910 state. One of these rooms had been the office of Sir John A. McDonald. Following lunch, I met with MP Murray Calder and presented to him the second batch of petitions for the House of Commons. After that meeting I accompanied him to the House of Commons where he got me into the Visitor's Gallery without having to wait in line. During the afternoon sitting he presented our first batch of petitions containing almost 1200 signatures, and re-presented his Bill C-312 to the House for first reading and printing. This Bill is identical to Bill S-12 of Senator Milne. It was something special to be in the gallery of the House when something that I have been involved with was presented. Now we must hope that his Bill is drawn in the lottery to be placed on the order of precedence in order to be debated. While meeting with Senator Milne, she advised me that her Bill S-12, on Tuesday, had received second reading and was referred to Committee. She also advised that she had added my name to her list of witnesses to testify before the Committee so I may be going to Ottawa again at some point, possibly in April. All in all, an interesting and in some ways exciting five days. More on the roundtable discussions tomorrow. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net Co-chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm