Greetings All. It is with great pleasure that I advise that the ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN ARCHIVISTS has joined our effort to regain public access to Historic Census Records. I copy below, for your information, most of an email message sent to the membership of the ACA, containing two resolutions made at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Canadian Archivists in Winnipeg, June 8 2001. It was sent by Bryan Corbett, President of the ACA. We welcome the participation of the ACA. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en francais http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted. ================================ The attached resolutions were discussed and passed unanimously at the annual meeting of the Association of Canadian Archivists on June 8 in Winnipeg. The Census resolution is being sent to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Leaders of the Opposition, the Minister of Industry, the National Archivist of Canada, the Information Commissioner of Canada, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the Chief Statistician of Canada. The Access Resolution is being sent to the Access to Information Review Task Force, the Minister of Justice, The National Archivist of Canada, John Bryden, Member of Parliament, the Information Commissioner of Canada and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. As President of the Association of Canadian Archivists I would ask you to write to or call these individuals and Offices to support these resolutions ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN ARCHIVISTS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - 8 JUNE 2001 Motion of Membership on Release of Historical Census Moved by: Terry Cook Seconded by: Tom Nesmith Carried by: UNANIMOUS vote of approval In that the historical censuses of Canada are essential records that allow individual Canadians to situate themselves and their families within the fabric of Canada and serve as a foundational historical record for research in many disciplines necessary to understand aspects of our nation, its peoples, and its identities not available through any other documentary source; In that the Government of Canada after much public lobbying by many interest groups established an Expert Panel of well-respected Canadians representing all aspects of the census-release issue to investigate and resolve this matter thoroughly; In that the Expert Panel issued its report over six months ago recommending release of the historical censuses according to the terms of the Regulations of the Privacy Act of Canada that balances release of government information and protection of personal information while it is still sensitive, a position that this Association formally supports; In that the Expert Panel found that after researching the relevant records that there never was an alleged promise of confidentiality to Canadians regarding the census, and that by contrast depositing the census in the National Archives was explicitly an accepted part of early census policy; and In that national censuses of 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901 have been released for many years now to hundreds of thousands of users via microfilmed copies in numerous Canadian archives, as have all Newfoundland censuses before 1949, and that there has never been a single privacy complaint lodged against the release, widespread use, or publication of any of this historical census data; Be it resolved, that the Association of Canadian Archivists * strongly urges the Government of Canada to implement immediately the findings of the Expert Panel without change, and especially without the unnecessary additional delays of awaiting possible reviews of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act; * strongly urges the Government of Canada to release immediately to the custody and control of the National Archives of Canada the Western Census of 1906 and the National Census of 1911 so they may be released 92 years after creation as legislation directs, and directs Statistics Canada to arrange for the subsequent transfer of all subsequent census data to the National Archives for the years 1921-1991, and to protect electronic versions according to National Archives' instructions for the years 1996 and onward; and * instructs its President to convey this motion to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Leaders of all Parliamentary Parties, the Minister of Industry, the National Archivist of Canada, the Information Commissioner of Canada, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the Chief Statistician of Canada. ASSOCIATION OF CANADIAN ARCHIVISTS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - 8 JUNE 2001 Motion of Membership on Access to Information Review Task Force Moved by: Terry Cook Seconded by: Tom Nesmith Carried by: UNANIMOUS vote of approval In that the Government of Canada has created an Access to Information Review Task Force (P.O. Box 1178, Station B, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5R2) to review the clauses and operation of the federal Access to Information Act; In that archivists as information professionals have vital interests in Access to Information either directly at the federal level or through federal legislation often being mirrored in other jurisdictions; In that archivists have long experience in administering access to information/freedom of information legislation across Canada, and in dealing with researchers using that legislation to access archival holdings covered by such legislation; Be it resolved, that the Association of Canadian Archivists * supports the Government of Canada in its review of the Access to Information Act; * urges the Task Force to use the expertise of archivists in its deliberations through direct contact with appointees of the Association's President * urges the Task Force to maintain the historical and just balance between citizen's rights, on the one hand, to access government information for many research purposes and to hold government accountable through reliable records as the basis of democracy, and, on the other hand, to prevent the early disclosure of sensitive personal information that constitutes an invasion of privacy; * urges the Task Force to recognize the clear linkage between any realistic implementation of the right of access and the effective management of the information of Government in all recording media (including especially electronic records), grounded by control of authorization of all records destruction by the National Archivist of Canada; * urges the Task Force to strengthen the authority (and resources) of the Information Commissioner and National Archivist in promoting better records management, including expanded punitive powers and penalties for non-compliance with record-keeping directives; * urges the Task Force to expand the scope of the Act, so that the schedule of departments and agencies subject to the Act is made identical with those of the Privacy Act and the National Archives of Canada Act with which they are related; * urges very strongly the Task Force to introduce a passage of time clause, requiring that all government records should be released by their creating department or by the National Archives twenty-five (25) years after their creation. A passage of time clause exists in Privacy Act regulations and in the more effective access-lease rules before 1983. If there are rare exceptions to this blanket release date, save only for sensitive personal information that has longer passage-of-time release dates already, these should be justified for continued closure only on a case-by-case basis made before the Information Commissioner, who would rule on their validity, subject to appeal to the courts. This places the burden rightly on government to demonstrate why records should remain closed rather than on citizens to request (at their time and expense) that they be opened; * urges the Task Force to consider, in light of recent impasses on this release of historical censuses, inserting an explicit census release clause in a revised Act; and * instructs its President to convey this motion to the Chair of the Access to Information Review Task Force, the Minister of Justice, the National Archivist of Canada, the Information Commissioner of Canada, and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Bryan Corbett University Archivist University of Alberta Archives University of Alberta Book and Record Depository (BARD) 100, 8170 50th Street Edmonton, Alberta CANADA T6B 2E2 Tel: (780) 466-6123 Fax: (780) 466-5210 E-Mail: Bryan.Corbett@ualberta.ca The University of Alberta Home Page is located at http://www.ualberta.ca/archives/ The home page of the Association of Canadian Archivists is located at: http://aca.archives.ca The home page of the Archives Society of Alberta is located at: http://www.glenbow.org/asa/home.htm