Greetings All. The long awaited report of the Expert Panel on Access to Historic Census Records has finally been published on the Statistics Canada website. It can be viewed at http://www.statcan.ca/english/census96/finalrep.htm . The following two paragraphs extracted from it give an indication of the input received from the many listers concerned with obtaining public access to Historic Census records. "The Expert Panel held five working meetings during which time a number of sessions were held with specific persons or groups (see Annex A). Two telephone conferences were held with provincial genealogical associations. The Panel Chair and Dr. Gaffield also had the opportunity to meet with the Chief Statistician of Australia who made time available during his scheduled visit to Ottawa in February 2000. Over 2,500 letters, faxes and e-mails were sent to the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada, the Chief Statistician and numerous Members of Parliament prior to the announcement of the Expert Panel. These were made available to the Panel members. During the seven month duration of the Panel, a further 1,055 letters were received from Canadians active in genealogical societies. The Panel received 95 submissions from historical, archival and genealogical associations as well as other interested Canadians." I have not yet read more than the first page or two of this Report as I wanted to notify you that the Report had finally been released. I look forward to seeing what the full report has to say. On behalf of the Canada Census Committee I wish to extend thanks to all who have participated in the campaign to gain public access to Historic Census records. The battle is not over by any means, but the release of the Report of the Expert Panel is another step towards our goal. I urge all readers to continue writing letters and email to their MPs, sign petitions, and keep up the efforts to inform others about the problem regarding public access to Historic Records. Thank you all for your interest and support. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census and http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Farm/7843/poll.html Download and circulate Post 1901 Census Petitions now from http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/petition.htm