Greetings all. My apologies for the length of this message. It is the text of a message that I have just sent to Statistics Canada protesting some recent actions relating to the Town Hall Meetings and Focus Groups being held on access to Historic Census Records. It will be interesting to see what response I get. 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 ======================================= You will recall that on Thursday 29 November 2001 I sent a rather lenthy email communication to Dr. Ivan Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada. In this message I expressed a number of concerns relating to the then upcoming Town Hall meetings and Focus Groups. I asked a number of very specific questions requesting very specific answers. While your reply, dated Friday 14 December 2001, on behalf of Dr. Fellegi, did not fully answer my questions I was relatively satisfied with your response -- until now, that is. I am disturbed by communications I have received regarding certain events relating to these Town Hall meetings and Focus Groups. In my message to Dr: Fellegi I asked: ..... What is the criteria for choosing participants of the focus groups? Specifically what questions will be asked of prospective participants, and for what reasons will those contacted not be considered for participation? On what basis will prospective participants be accepted? Your response to this query was as follows: ..... The selection of participants for the focus groups will be done using education as a selection criteria, with one group in each city composed of individual with post-secondary education and the second group composed of those with no post-secondary education. All selections for the focus groups will include a mix of genders, age groups (all 18 years and over), occupation and income, and will follow market research standards for recruitment. The selection will be made by Environics. It would appear that the criteria you stated is not the only criteria for determining participation in these focus groups. The following is a part of an email that I received on Thursday 10 January 2002. "I was invited to attend a focus group this evening at Research House,1867 Yonge Street in Toronto. The topic was to be something "general consumer". At the beginning of the session the facilitator, Chris Roberts, introduced himself as from Environics. He said that he lives in Ottawa and travels around the country conducting focus groups. He then asked all the participants to introduce themselves, saying what they did for a living and what they did for fun. I mentioned my work and then said that my hobby was genealogy or family history. The facilitator then asked whether I belonged to any societies. I said yes, the Ontario Genealogical Society. He then said that he would have to ask me to leave. He accompanied me out and explained in the hallway that the topic was the release of the historic census." I am extremely upset regarding the content of this message. Contrary to the stated purpose of these consultations, i.e. that a broad range of Canadians have an opportunity to express their views on the issue of access to Historical Census Records, the appearance is that there is an attempt to prevent anyone that might have any knowledge whatsoever of Census from participating in these focus groups. This does little to dispell the fears expressed in my letter to Dr. Fellegi that information provided to participants in these endeavours, and the questions asked of them, will be biased so as to elicit negative responses. In addition to the above, I have been advised of individuals seeking to participate in the various Town Hall meetings being refused simply on the basis that they admitted belonging to an organization from which they were told someone else was already booked to make a presentation. This has happened even though there were time slots available. I am advised that in one instance where this happened, there was at least one time slot left vacant for the specific meeting requested. In most provinces there are blanket historical and genealogical societies. These blanket organizations may have many different chapters and people from some of these different chapters may wish to participate. The Ontario Genealogical Society, for example, has dozens of chapters througout the province. In our view it is not justifiable to refuse the participation of an individual who admits to being a member of the OGS simply because there is already a member of the OGS participating. Those requesting to participate could come from chapters on opposite ends of the province, and have very different points to make. While I am on a roll I will voice a few other complaints regarding these proceedings. We are aware of the solicitation by Environics (or Statistics Canada) of certain people to appear and speak at the Town Hall Meetings. Those solicited are individuals that might logically be expected to speak against access, such as privacy advocates and statistical employees of provincial governments. I was personally advised of such solicitation by the privacy consultant and researcher that appeared at the Ottawa meeting. It must have been a shock when he did not speak out against access of 1906 and 1911 Census records. At the Halifax meeting there were two provincial government bureaucrats who spoke. We suspect that both of these individuals were 'invited' to participate. At least one of them thanked the moderator for the invitations to speak. Both, of course, opposed access. They are the only participants of any meeting held to date that opposed access. It is interesting that people expected to be opposed to access are being 'invited' by Environics to participate, while those expected to support it are not. We will be watching with interest to see who, at other meetings, will have been 'invited' to participate. We of course object to the pushing of the unsubstantiated 'promise' and the so-called 'third option' or 'compromise solution' at these meetings. We do not expect, however, regardless of our objections, that anything will change in this regard. In regards the Vancouver meeting, at which I am scheduled to speak, the date originally scheduled was 4 February 2002. The date of this meeting was changed without notification to participants to 30 January 2002. It was only by accident I found out about this change. I wonder how many others granted spots to speak on 4 February have not been notified about the change in date. Environics will not inform anyone who is scheduled to appear until the morning of the meeting. By that time it will likely be too late to inform anyone of the change. I am aware of a number of people intending to travel a great distance to attend these meetings. If any meeting date or time is changed, Environics should be contacting those scheduled to advise them of the change. I will look forward to receiving a response to my concerns from Statistics Canada. Thank you. 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 ==== LUNEN-LINKS Mailing List ==== Have you signed a post 1901 census petition or written a letter?