Greetings All. I spent the afternoon the other day in the library of Simon Fraser University going through Orders in Council and Statutes of Canada from 1871 on. I was looking to check out and verify something that I have had in the back of my mind for some time. In trying to justify their stand in refusing access to Post 1901 Census records, one of the major points that StatCan has made is that the difference between the 1906 and later Censuses, and those conducted earlier is that the 1906 Census and Statistics Act gave Instructions to Enumerators, and the clause therein relating to "Secrecy", the "Force of Law". They claim that while Instructions before 1906 had similar clauses relating to confidentiality of information given, those Instructions did not have the "Force of Law". They state this is the reason records up to 1901 are accessible while those after are not. To paraphrase, "They know not of what they speak!". I did not check every book of Orders in Council but every book that I did check had a cover page that stated that Orders in Council, Proclamations and Regulations, and/or Orders of the Governor General in Council have the "Force of Law". In addition, the Orders in Council for 1891 include a paragraph stating, in part; "[Note. -- The Orders in Council, having the force of law passed since Confederation, are now being revised and consolidated. ............]" A Proclamation included in the 1891 Orders in Council directing the taking of the 1891 Census included the following statement: "That the details of information and forms to be used should be as indicated by Schedules thereto appended, and by the instructions and blank forms issued by the Minister of Agriculture for the working thereof. Vide Canada Gazette, Vol. XX!V, p. 1198" A similar Proclamation for 1901 stated: "That the details of information and forms to be used shall be as indicated by the schedules following and by the instructions and blank forms issued by Our Minister of Agriculture for the working thereof. The schedules and forms are published in the Canada Gazette Vide Canada Gazette, vol. xxxiv., p. 1318" For 1906: ".......... the country was divided into census districts, forms and instructions were approved and directions were ordered to be observed, as set forth in full detail in the Canada Gazette of May 21st, 1906. Vide Canada Gazette, vol. xxxix., extra issue dated May 21st, 1906." And for 1911: "9. That the details of information and forms to be used shall be as indicated by the schedules following and by the instructions and blank forms issued by our said Minister of Agriculture for the working thereof. The Schedules and forms are published in the supplements to Canada Gazette, No. 2, July 9, 1910, and No. 5, July 30, 1910." "What is the point of all this?" you might ask. I am not a lawyer, but to me the point should be simple. It seems to me that if Orders in Council have "the force of law", and it is easily proved that they do, then any documents -- such as Instructions to Enumerators -- referred to by those Orders in Council, will have that same "force of law". The clause in the 1906 Census and Statistics Act giving the Instructions to Enumerators the "force of law" was not necessary because the Orders in Council referring to the "instructions and blank forms", having themselves the "force of law", already gave the Instructions that force. If I am correct in this then Dr. Fellegi and Statistics Canada are incorrect in their position that Instructions to Officers and Enumerators of Census prior to 1906 do not have the "force of law". As I have pointed out many times in the past, StatCan is very quick to state that the "Secrecy" clause in the Instructions to Enumerators has the "Force of Law". They willingly ignore other clauses in those same Instructions that state very clearly that records of Census "will have value as a record for historical use", that it "is intended to be a permanent record" and it will be "stored in the Archives of the Dominion". If one clause of those Instructions have the "force of law", then so do all other clauses in those same Instructions. Statistics Canada cannot pick and choose which clauses of the Instructions that they want to have the "force of law". I will be going to the Vancouver Public Library this morning to see what else I can find. I will keep you informed on anything pertinent to our efforts to regain the public access to Historic Census records that we are currently denied by StatCan. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts [email protected] 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: 6.0.377 / Virus Database: 211 - Release Date: 7/15/02