Forwarded by Muriel M. Davidson muriel_davidson@sympatico.ca ==== Greetings All. I copy below for your info my letter sent to all Senators by email, and that will be sent by Canada Post this afternoon. We hope that many others are sending letters to the Senators to express their opinion regarding the restrictive conditions of Bill S-13. Once we learn the final draft of what the Senate will forward to the House of Commons we will need your help in writing to your Members of Parliament as well. In writing your letters please use your own words. Do not simply copy those written by someone else and say "me too". Such letters would likely be viewed as form letters and will likely be ignored. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted. ================================ Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 10:16 AM Subject: Bill S-13 needs a full debate in the Senate. 1455 Delia Drive Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 2V9 23 April 2003 Honourable Senators Senate of Canada Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4 Honourable Senators. For most of my adult life, I have believed that in Canada we live in a Democracy. Living in a Democracy I believed that we elect people to represent us in the House of Commons, and that those representatives should put forth the views of the people they represent. In so doing I believed that the common people had an opportunity to make a difference - to seek redress and right wrongs perpetrated by the bureaucracy. Senators are not elected but are appointed by the Government - also to represent the people of Canada, but additionally to provide a "sober, second look" at what those in the lower chamber are up to. For the past six years the people of Canada have been involved in a campaign to regain the public access to Post 1901 Census records that has been improperly, and believed illegally, withheld from us by the Chief Statistician of Canada. Petitions containing more than 62,000 signatures have been sent to Ottawa and have been presented in the Senate and the House of Commons. Untold numbers of letters and email have been sent to Members of Parliament and Senators. All have sought the same thing - to regain the same, unrestricted access to records of Census after 1901 that has been available for 235 years up to that time. On 24 January 2003 the government unconditionally released the 1906 Census of the North-Western Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Within minutes of the announced release of these records, scanned images of the Schedules of Census were made available online for the entire world to view and research. In releasing these records the government conceded that current legislation, i.e. the Privacy Act and Regulations attached thereto, allowed them to do so. After five years of campaigning the government finally introduced a Bill to deal with the concerns of those seeking access to Historic Census records. In so doing, however, they ignored what those concerns were. The opening 'Summary' of Bill S-13 states "this enactment removes a legal ambiguity in relation to access to census records taken between 1910 and 2003". Bill S-13 does considerably more than remove a legal ambiguity. It provides for transfer of Census records to the control of the National Archives 92 years after collection. It specifies that the purpose of that transfer is to permit examination of those records for genealogical or historical purposes. However, in so doing it imposes conditions on access for which there has been no demonstrated need, and that were not envisioned in existing applicable legislation, or in the Instructions to Enumerators of Census that have, and always have had, the force of law. It was expected that some of those conditions would be removed, or amended, during debate and consideration of Bill S-13 by the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. Such was not to be, however, as the proceedings of the Committee hearings were shanghaid by Senator Lowell Murray using a political ploy that resulted in S-13 being reported back to the Senate without amendment. Because of that political ploy there was no clause-by-clause deliberation of Bill S-13. Neither was there any debate relating to tabled amendments. Those amendments were supported by four of five witnesses that testified at the first Committee hearings. It is believed that Honourable Senators, being Honourable in more than just name, likely believe in the principles of democracy - that the purpose of government is to serve the will of the people, not the other way around. In drafting Bill S-13 government has listened more to one apparently very powerful bureaucrat than to representations by tens of thousands of Canadians. The conditions imposed by Bill S-13 do NOT reflect the will of the people. We call upon the Honourable Senators, being Honourable in more than just name, to permit in the Senate what did not happen during the Senate Committee hearings. We call upon you to conduct a full, free debate on the merits, or otherwise, of restrictive conditions of access imposed by Bill S-13. We call upon you to conduct a full, free debate on all of the amendments sought by the people of Canada. We call upon you to send to the House of Commons a Bill that is truly reflective of the will of the people. The amendments to Bill S-13 sought by the people are, in order of importance: * Removal of Clause 8 - the supposed "informed consent" clause. This clause, if retained, will destroy forever any possibility of Census from 2006 and on being used for any scientific, demographic or historical research, and will prevent many genealogists from being able to research their ancestry. Barring total removal of Clause 8, clarification must be made to make it an OPT-OUT provision rather than OPT-IN. Such a provision would ensure that only those who have given conscious thought to the issue, and that specifically object to access of their information 92 years in the future, would be excluded from the records. * Removal of all restrictions or conditions for access for at least the 1911 and 1916 Records of Census. The 1911 and 1916 Censuses were conducted under the same legislation and similar Instructions to Enumerators as was the 1906 Census. Records of the 1906 Census have been released without restrictions of any kind, and have been placed online for the entire world to view. * Removal of the "twenty-year" period during which only partial disclosure of information found in Census records might be made by a researcher. Removal also of the need to commit to an "undertaking" regarding this partial disclosure. Need for these conditions have not been demonstrated. They contribute nothing to the privacy of respondents to Census. They do not prevent information from being known. They create a costly, bureaucratic procedure that in the end run will simply be an inconvenience for those that would share information through their family history. We do not oppose Bill S-13 as a whole, but we most certainly oppose the unwarranted conditions it imposes on the access to Historic Census records that we believe is already permitted under the Privacy Act and Regulations attached thereto. If the purpose of Bill S-13 is, as stated, to remove an ambiguity - that being the transfer of control of Historic Census records to the National Archives for subsequent public access - let it do just that. Do not allow it to impose conditions on that access for which there has not been any demonstrated need. I remain available for any clarification you might seek regarding this issue. Thank you. Sincerely, Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-chair, Canada Census Committee Tel (604) 942-6889 Fax (604) 942-6843 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.474 / Virus Database: 272 - Release Date: 4/18/03