To all:- YOUR reaction and thoughts re the following posting will be welcomed by gordon_watts@telus.net or muriel_davidson@suympatico.ca Let's keep on working!!! -- Muriel M. Davidson ------------- Greetings All. On 24 August I posted a message regarding Prime Minister Jean Chretien's announcement that he would not seek re-election for another term. With his comment that he would spend the next 18 months tending to the business of government it was felt that we could expect some stability in government and that we would not likely be facing a snap election that would interrupt our Census campaign and require us to start over once again with another new government. It would appear that I spoke too soon. We have seen no evidence of an election in the offing. However............. Last week it was announced that Parliament would not resume sitting until 30 September. Our sources in Ottawa advise it is expected that shortly after, the current Session of Parliament will be prorogued and a new Session started so that the Queen, on her visit to Canada in October, might present a Speech from the Throne. Should this proroguing of Parliament take place you might ask what effect this will have on our efforts to regain public access to Historic Census records? The effect is that all unfinished business from the prorogued Session will cease to exist. All Bills and Motions - government or private members - that have not been fully processed and completed, end up in the dumper. This includes Bill S-12, Senator Lorna Milne's Bill on access to Census, that we expected to achieve third reading in the Senate shortly after Parliament resumed sitting after the summer recess. It is expected that both Senator Milne, and MP Murray Calder will re-introduce their respective Bills in the Senate and the House of Commons. This would be a second chance for Murray Calder's Bill which was deemed non-votable and received only one hour of debate in the House before being dropped from the Order Paper. However both Bills would be starting from square one, having to go through first reading and all other steps that they had been subjected to previously. It means that the Bills, when represented, will have new numbers. It means more time and further delays before we achieve what we seek. This would be the third time that our Bills have had to start from scratch. With a new start we must renew our efforts to gain the support of those elected and appointed representatives who have not responded to our questions. We urge all to check the position of their own representatives on the MP and Senator Scoreboards on the Post 1901 Census Project website at the URL following my signature. Send letters to them, either thanking them for the support they have already expressed, or seeking support from those who have not given a definitive answer to our questions (i.e. fence-sitters or no response). If you have, or receive, a response that differs from the position shown for your representative, please forward a copy to me so that I might update the Scoreboards. We must also renew our efforts in collecting signatures on petitions. Not having had an election we are not starting over again on petitions, but we need to continue with efforts to obtain new signatures. So far we have sent more than 55,000 signatures to Ottawa, however with a population of Canada in excess of 32 million, there remains a great many people interested in genealogy and history that have not yet signed a petition. I am currently holding approximately 2000 signatures for the House of Commons and Muriel Davidson is holding a similar number for the Senate. We will be submitting these as soon as we know for sure that the current Session of Parliament has been prorogued and a new Session started. Some may question the effectiveness of our petitions and the need to continue collecting signatures, saying that having already sent more than 55,000 signatures, adding to these numbers will have little additional effect. The fact of the matter is, however, that numbers of signatures on petitions is the ONLY tangible, visible, evidence we have to show that genealogists and historians seek to regain public access to Post 1901 Census records. Presentation of petitions in the House of Commons and the Senate, showing the numbers of signatures received, is permanently recorded in Hansard, showing for all time that we seek these vital records. Letters and email to MPs, Senators and other officials are very necessary. They may, in fact, outnumber the number of signatures on petitions. However, we do not have any means of knowing the numbers of letters and email sent and so cannot point to them, as we can with petitions, as proof of our desire for access. Do not give up hope. We may have come to another snag in our efforts to regain public access to Post 1901 Census records. There is no question, however, that with the help of all we will achive that goal. It will just take a little longer to do so. 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 | | --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.386 / Virus Database: 218 - Release Date: 9/9/02