Greetings All. The Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology is scheduled to meet on Bill S-18 - An Act to amend the Statistics Act, on Thursday 24 February 2005. The meeting will be held in Room 705, Victoria Building, 140 Wellington Street, Ottawa. Witnesses scheduled to appear are Jennifer Stoddart - Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Raymond D'Aoust - Assistant Privacy Commissioner, and Dr. Ivan P. Fellegi - Chief Statistician of Canada. I am not aware of what Ms. Stoddart's position will be when she appears, but I believe that it will likely be substantially different than her immediate predecessors Bruce Phillips and the discredited George Radwanski. I was encouraged in reading a speech entitled 'Supporting Transparency and Safeguarding Privacy' that she gave to a conference for the Access to Information and Privacy community 1 April 2004. In that speech Ms. Stoddart made considerable reference to British public administrator Samuel Pepys and a diary he kept (in shorthand) from 1660 to 1669. Ms. Stoddart concluded her references to Samuel Pepys by stating: 'Pepys's approach to his diary has, I suspect, a lot of lessons for us about the social interests in privacy and in open governmental records, and I hope that in some way it can serve us as a model, at least to stimulate our thinking about how to balance the two, for example in looking at census data.' For those interested in reading the rest of her comments re: Samuel Pepys, her speech may be found at http://www.privcom.gc.ca/speech/2004/sp-d_040401_e.asp Chief Statistician Ivan Fellegi has been reported as supporting Bill S-18. Readers will forgive me if I remain somewhat sceptical about just how strong that support might be. I am open to being convinced of his support however, and will listen closely to what he has to say to the Committee. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts [email protected] Co-chair Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census en francais http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted