Greetings All My thanks to Sheila Ward who forwarded the message below to Muriel Davidson. It serves to bolster what I have said in some of my postings and letters to various government officials, and a couple of letters to the editor that I have written recently -- that public access to Historic Census has been a subject of discussion for the past thirty years. While I had not been aware of the specifics of this article, the Ontario Genealogy Society and the Canada Historical Association had both made representations in the 70's seeking public access to Historic Census records. It is my belief that representations such as these were responsible for the inclusion of regulations attached to the Privacy Act that specifically made reference to allowing records from Census to be transferred to the control of the National Archives 92 years after collection. The Access to Information and Privacy Acts of today both evolved from the same government Bill and were subject of considerable discussion in both Houses and in committees. They were enacted over a period of four years -- 1980 to 1983. The reason for the long period of enactment was to allow the various government departments and officials, and others, time to discover any problems with the acts and allow them to be resolved. We might assume the legislators of the day intended public access to census records and that no one found fault with the regulations allowing this. That regulation still exists today. I find very interesting the reference to the Private Member's Bill presented to Mr. Maine in 1978. On my return home next week I will be spending some more time in the library reading Hansard to find out what happened to this Bill. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net Port Coquitlam, BC Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/index.htm Join the CANADA CENSUS CAMPAIGN List at CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L-request@rootsweb.com Read my Post 1901 Census column in the Global Gazette http://www.globalgenealogy.com/gazette.htm Sheila Ward wrote: Muriel, Working tonight on some old notes I have clipped from the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society's newslater, and I came across this gem. SO, a quarter of a century ago we were trying to get release of the censusand the same arguments seemed to be in use then. Too bad Pierre Elliottisn't around to appeal to again. At least their might be some intellectual attention paid to the matter, as he obviously must have done back then. This was published in a section called "Notes and News". Thought you'd find it as interesting as I did. Plus ca meme change... "During the early part of 1975, Mr. HOOGEVEEN made an appeal to Mr. R. J. BALFOUR M.P. to have the 1881 Census of Canada released to the Public Archives of Canada. Mr. BALFOUR replied enclosing a letter from the assistant chief Statistician for Canada who stated that the Statistics Act guarantees, in perpetuity, the confidentiality of the individual records. A recent letter to our Society from Mrs. Jacqueline MCDONALD NORRIS of the Ont ario Genealogical Society gives us new hope. On Wednesday 16 November 1977 she had an opportunity to speak in person to Mr. P. TRUDEAU on the subject of 1881 Census release. After several minutes of discussion they concluded that she could appeal to Mr. F. MAINE,the M.P for Wellington. Mr. MAINE agreed to pursue the matter even if it meant presenting a Private Member's Bill. The S.G.S. has sent a letter to Mr. MAINE on behalf of all of the S.G.S. members supporting this cause. We would like ' to see our own members send a letter to their own member of Parliament asking for the release of this very valuable Census. We do not feel that the confidentiality of records "in perpetuity" is a valid argument in this day of credit cards, computerization, and accessibility to a credit-rating. P.S. Further to the above, Mr. MAINE presented a Private Member's Bill to the House of Commons on 1 March, 1978, for First Reading. It asked for the release of Census data for the last century. Mr. MAINE entered the Bill in response to concerns expressed by the Ontario Genealogical Society. The S.G.S. has expressed its support."