Greetings All. -- forwarded by Muriel M. Davidson I forward for your information the following message posted to the Canada Census Campaign mail list by Senator Lorna Milne regarding Bill S-13. We are disappointed that the Senate Committee, after hearing from Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski, and once again from Chief Statistician Ivan P. Fellegi, did not see fit to consider the amendments sought to the Bill. I will have more to say regarding this in a subsequent posting, when I have had more time to digest the testimony given to the Committee yesterday. In the meantime I am working at putting yesterdays testimony on to a page of the Post 1901 Census Project website. I expect to post it to the website either tonight, or first thing Friday morning. I will post to the lists when it is available. While disappointed with yesterdays proceedings we wish to thank Senator Milne, and Jeff Paul, for the endless work they have put in on our behalf. 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 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul, Jeff: SEN" <PAULJ@SEN.PARL.GC.CA> To: <CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 12:00 PM Subject: [CCC] A note from Senator Milne Dear Friends: Yesterday the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology met to make its final decisions on Bill S-13. Although there is some good news, the results were disappointing. The committee unanimously passed the bill, and it will now move on to third reading in the full Senate chamber. Unfortunately, the committee chose not adopt any amendments to the bill. I know that all of you will be most disappointed with this outcome. The immediate question that springs to mind is "why?". Simply put, we did not have the votes there to pass the amendments. You should all know that 5 of the 8 Liberal Senators present were supportive of the amendments. Unfortunately, all 4 members of the Progressive Conservative party were not willing to upset what they saw as a delicate balance between all interests. In the end, the committee chose to not consider the amendments proposed by Sen. Cordy any further. The bill was passed without voting specifically on the amendments. The whole matter was immediately approved and sent back to the Senate without amendment. I know very well that that all of you were counting on me to deliver on these issues, and I did not. For that I apologize. I tried my best, but simply could not convince a majority of Senators that further steps needed to be taken. Just so you all know I spoke individually with each and every member of the Social Affairs committee numerous times leading up to the vote yesterday, and it simply did not work out. I am sorry things did not go better. As I said at the beginning of the email, though, all is not lost. The bill will pass, rather quickly I imagine. We will get to see the 1911 census this summer. We will be able to see census returns for years to come. There will still be a historical record; but it won't be the one we would have shaped. I thank each and every one of you for the fantastic amount of work you have done on this issue. We have come a long way, but have fallen just short. I hope in the long run we will see this for the great victory that it is. Today, though, we'll just have to start to move on with this proposal. Yours very truly, Lorna Milne --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.470 / Virus Database: 268 - Release Date: 4/8/03