Greetings listers. Through my research of the various statutes etc. relating to collection of Census since 1906 it is my opinion that the "promise of confidentiality in perpetuity" touted by Statistics Canada and Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips does not exist. I copy below a letter that I have sent to Mr. Phillips. So far I have not received and answer. I sent a similar letter, with appropriate changes in wording, to Senator Lowell Murray. My apologies for the length of this post. This post has been sent to other lists. Feel free to forward it to lists to which you belong. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net - ----------------------------------------------------------- 22 November 1999 Mr. Bruce Phillips Privacy Commissioner As one of those leading the campaign to obtain release of Post 1901 Census records to the public, I have been concerned with statements in the press attributed to you in opposing the release to the Public of Post 1901 Census records. You have been quoted as stating "The issue here is privacy. It's having control of your own information - and not having people with a vested interest in getting into your personal information, without your consent, deciding what the rules are." I submit to you, Sir, that information in Census relating to my ancestors belongs to me, and to my brothers, sisters, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and every other relative that I have. This information belongs to me by right of inheritance. It belongs to me by right of the taxes my ancestors paid to have the Census collected. If wishing to know the names, birth dates and places, relationships, places of residence, living conditions, religion, country of origin, time of immigration, etc. of my ancestors causes me to have a vested interest, then I plead guilty. As things stand today, I do not have control of my information - you do! I am not deciding what the rules are - you are! You are deciding those rules on the basis of a misinterpretation of 93 year old legislation. You have been further quoted as stating "People who give information to the government under penalty of law on an unqualified promise of confidentiality are entitled to expect that that trust will be honoured." Statistics Canada in the past few years has produced various documents that have made reference to a promise of confidentiality in perpetuity. They have widely circulated a document entitled Access to 1911 and other Post-1901 Census Records. Many MPs, in responding to letters from their constituents, have quoted much of this document verbatim in a poor attempt to explain why Post-1901 Census records cannot be released to the Public. This document, which I am sure that you have seen, included the question "Should Parliament declare, in effect, as invalid the explicit guarantee of indefinite confidentiality that was promised to Canadians when the data were collected?" I have spent considerable time in researching and studying various statutes, proclamations, Instructions to enumerators, etc. from the early part of the century to the present day. I believe that I have studied most of the legislation and documentation relevant to collection of Census since 1906. Have you? Or have you taken at face value what Statistics Canada has been saying about promises and guarantees? Nowhere in my research have I found any reference to a promise of confidentiality in perpetuity or of an explicit guarantee of indefinite confidentiality. There are of course, clauses referring to confidentiality. These clauses are written in the present tense and contain no reference to any time frame. I feel that if legislators of the day intended that Census records would never, ever be released, they would have included wording that would make that intent very clear. With the exception of the Privacy Act, I found no clauses that allow transfer of Census records to the National Archives. More to the point, I found no clauses that would prohibit that transfer. There is simply silence in reference to any time frame for confidentiality, or for transfer of Census records to the National Archives. In my limited experience with the law it has been my understanding that when one statute is silent regarding a particular issue while another statute is not, the statute that is not silent would govern. The Privacy Act provides for transfer of Census records to the National Archives 92 years after collection. As the Census Act, in it' s various incarnations, has been silent regarding transfer of Census records to the National Archives, the provisions for transfer in the Privacy Act should prevail. The citizens of Canada are of course entitled to their privacy. I would suggest however that they are concerned about that privacy in the present time, not 92 years down the road. Much has been said about striking a balance between privacy and access to information. In your letter to the Chief Statistician of Canada (11 January 1999) you referred to certain proposals to amend the Statistics Act to allow for the transfer of identifiable census returns to the National Archives. Your letter stated "It will come as no surprise to you that this Privacy Commissioner has not been persuaded that it represents an acceptable balance between the preservation of individuals' privacy rights and the interests of researchers and genealogists." Mr. Phillips, you appear not to believe in any such balance as your public position advocates total secrecy of Census records for ever and a day. If this is your idea of balance I would not wish to be on the end of your teeter-totter. Our legislators at some point obviously thought that 92 years was sufficient to protect the privacy of respondents to Census. Otherwise, they would not have included a clause in the Privacy Act that allowed transfer of Census records to the National Archives 92 years after collection Our research has found no indication that respondents concern about privacy in Census had to do with descendants seeking information on family 92 years down the road. All indications are that concerns had to do with a distrust of the government and a fear that information from Census may be cross-indexed by other government departments. This is borne out by the inclusion of a statement in Instructions to Officers, Commissioners and Enumerators for the censuses of both 1906 and 1911 that "The facts and statistics of the Census may not be used except for statistical compilations, and positive assurance should be given on this point if a fear is entertained by any person that they may be used for taxation or any other object." An article in the Calgary Herald of 26 May 1931 elaborated on this by stating that information from Census would "have nothing to do with taxation, military service, school attendance, the regulation of immigration, or the enforcement of any law." Mr. Phillips, in your 18 February 1999 report to the Senate, you responded to questions from Senator Kinsella. You indicated that the greatest number of complaints received by your department had to do with data matching (cross indexing) of information between government departments. Most notable were those between Human Resources Development Canada (671 privacy complaints) and Revenue Canada (356 privacy complaints). You indicated these were related to one particular issue. That issue had to do with data matching between Revenue Canada and HRDC in order to find people who were out of the country while receiving unemployment insurance benefits. It would appear that even today, distrust of government, and fear of cross indexing of information between government departments has been justified. Nowhere in your report to the Senate, or in your Annual Report, did you indicate that you had received a single complaint regarding release of individual identifiable information from Census 92 years after collection. Responding to specific questions regarding release of individual identifiable information from Census Reports, both Louise Desramaux of Statistics Canada, and Marta Khan of the National Archives indicated these departments had never received a single complaint of this nature. I would suggest that more than 98 years with no complaints regarding release of individual information from Census is a pretty good record. Relating to the purported promise or guarantee of confidentiality forever, some weeks ago I asked Statistics Canada to provide me with information as to where this promise appeared, how it was worded, and how this promise was conveyed to respondents of Census. Specifically I asked "In regards to Census taken from 1906 to the present I wish to know: Specifically what clauses of what Acts spell out this never ending promise? The form (wording) of said promise of confidentiality in perpetuity. The specific means by which respondents were advised that said confidentiality would be forever. If possible I would like copies of such advice or references to where they might be found." Statistics Canada, while very co-operative, to date has been unable to provide specific answers to my specific questions as above. As you appear to have based your position re: release of Post 1901 Census records upon this promise I would ask of you the same questions I have asked of Statistics Canada. Show me the promise. It is my considered opinion, and I submit to you Sir, that this promise of confidentiality in perpetuity does not exist except in the minds of those who wish it to be. A promise that was never made cannot be broken. If you can prove me wrong, please do so. I say again, show me the promise. Thank you. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net cc. Lorna Milne, Senator Rosemary MacLellan, Senator Murray Calder, MP