Greetings All. FYI. The following extracts from Hansard show the latest petitions to be presented by Senator Lorna Milne in the Senate, and MP Murray Calder in the House of Commons. 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. =================== Tuesday, May 8, 2001 Access to Census Information -- Presentation of Petitions Hon. Lorna Milne: Honourable senators, I have the honour today to present 1,394 signatures from Canadians in the provinces of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia who are researching their ancestry, as well as signatures from 116 people from the United States and 17 from Great Britain who are researching their Canadian roots. A total of 1,527 people are petitioning the following: Your petitioners call upon Parliament to take whatever steps necessary to retroactively amend Confidentiality-Privacy clauses of Statistics Acts since 1906, to allow release to the Public after a reasonable period of time, of Post 1901 Census reports starting with the 1906 Census. So far I have now presented petitions with 9,734 signatures to the Thirty-seventh Parliament. The numbers are climbing. I have presented petitions with over 6,000 signatures to the Thirty-sixth Parliament, all calling for immediate action on this very important matter of Canadian history. ========================= Thursday, May 17, 2001 PETITIONS -- CENSUS RECORDS Mr. Murray Calder (Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I rise to present another petition to the House calling for the release of historic census records to the public. The petition is signed by more than 5,500 Canadians. Combined with the signatures of the previous petitions that I have presented on this subject in this session of parliament, the total number is now over 9,000. The petition points out that an estimated 7.5 million Canadians are engaged in the pursuit of their family history and that census records are a valuable tool for such research. The records have been used in historical research, for tracing genetic diseases and in settling wills and estates. The petitioners are calling upon parliament to take whatever steps are necessary to retroactively amend confidentiality clauses of the Statistics Act since 1906 to allow the release to the public, after a reasonable period of time, the post 1901 census records.