Good morning everyone: Unfortunately I have to take some time this morning to take issue with some comments made by Gordon Watts in the Bella Online article that Gilbert Provost posted yesterday. In particular I am shocked and disappointed at the comments made by Gordon that the political party that has been the most supportive of the Canada Census Project has been the Conservative Party and its predecessor, the Canadian Alliance. That would have been bad enough, but he went further to say that the Liberal Party has been the least supportive of this issue. The fact of the matter is that there is only 1 MP or Senator currently actively working on this file and that is Senator Lorna Milne - and she is a Liberal. The only MP to have ever taken this issue seriously is former MP Murray Calder who was also a Liberal. I can also tell you that there have been more than a few cabinet ministers that have been pushing for the release of the census, but because of cabinet confidentiality issues, they can't do so publically. What is even more disappointing in Gordon's comments is the number of times that he has dealt with our office, has met with Senator Milne, has plotted strategy with Senator Milne, and has asked Senator Milne for advice. How he can possibly say that he has had more support from Conservatives is absolutely beyond me. I would have thought that by now Gordon would understand that it is very easy for an opposition member to say that they support someone 100% because they never have to deliver anything. As far as Gordon is concerned all that a party has to do is pay lip service and say yes to his questions and he will give them all the credit in the world. However since Senator Milne is a government member and has to deliver on this file, her 5 years of work, endless meetings with 5 different cabinet ministers, 3 privacy commissioners, 2 access to information commissioners, dozens of MPs and Senators and more speeches in the Senate and to caucus than I can count, simply do not add up to enough support for Gordon to even warrant a mention when directly asked about how much political support he has received. I will be very blunt by telling everyone that we do not and we can not list everything that Senator Milne does to work on this file on this listserve. If we did, no cabinet minister would ever meet with us on any issue ever again. Since you folks last heard from me there have been numerous meetings on this file. We are pushing very hard to get the government to act. I know that there is huge support within the Liberal Party to get this resolved. But if we announce baby steps and maybes and all of the ups and downs of negotiations that would be the end of this project. The fact of the matter is that Gordon knows all of this very well, and there have been times over the years that we have let him in on various things in advance and in secrecy in order to properly measure what the response of the genealogical community would be. He knows that we have been working on this file on an ongoing basis. In fact Gordon knows that Sen. Milne has been working to find a champion in the House of Commons for this one. We even talked about that last week. I find it quite amusing that one week he would suggest that we find a Liberal to champion the cause in the House, and the next he would be complaining in the media of the lack of support from the Liberal Party. That all having been said, I want you all to know that this file continues to be a very very hot one in our office. We've been meeting with and talking to people as recently as this past Monday on the file. I hope that this kind of support by Liberals is sufficient for Gordon's liking. Yours truly, Jeff Paul Policy Advisor Office of the Hon. Lorna Milne Ph: (613) 947-9744 Cell: (613) 715-2965

I would like to express great gratitude to Jeff Paul and Senator Milne for their tireless work on our behalf. The unfortunate thing about this situation is that the currently governing party has allowed Mr. Fellegi to "get away" with his obstructionism, sort of like aiding and abetting, so supporters of what appears to be the lawful position in this case have to go to the political opposition to press the issue and get public recognition for our position. The Privacy Act has many deficiencies in it or alternatively has been abused by those lacking in common sense. I have had personal experience with this type of situation in a case of a relative dying without a will and the result has been what could be called stupidity, speaking most charitably; obstruction of common justice might be another way to describe it. Most incredible! Perhaps in this case Mr. Fellegi is looking to create a reason for his early retirement with a healthy severance package - he deserves no respect for this action. Again thanks to Mr. Paul and Senator Milne for their battle for common sense. More profuse thanks will arrive when the battle is finally won. Herb Westman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul, Jeff: SEN" <PAULJ@SEN.PARL.GC.CA> To: <CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 9:58 AM Subject: [CCC] Bella Online Article > Good morning everyone: > > Unfortunately I have to take some time this morning to take issue with > some comments made by Gordon Watts in the Bella Online article that > Gilbert Provost posted yesterday. In particular I am shocked and > disappointed at the comments made by Gordon that the political party > that has been the most supportive of the Canada Census Project has been > the Conservative Party and its predecessor, the Canadian Alliance. That > would have been bad enough, but he went further to say that the Liberal > Party has been the least supportive of this issue. > > The fact of the matter is that there is only 1 MP or Senator currently > actively working on this file and that is Senator Lorna Milne - and she > is a Liberal. The only MP to have ever taken this issue seriously is > former MP Murray Calder who was also a Liberal. I can also tell you > that there have been more than a few cabinet ministers that have been > pushing for the release of the census, but because of cabinet > confidentiality issues, they can't do so publically. > > What is even more disappointing in Gordon's comments is the number of > times that he has dealt with our office, has met with Senator Milne, has > plotted strategy with Senator Milne, and has asked Senator Milne for > advice. How he can possibly say that he has had more support from > Conservatives is absolutely beyond me. I would have thought that by now > Gordon would understand that it is very easy for an opposition member to > say that they support someone 100% because they never have to deliver > anything. As far as Gordon is concerned all that a party has to do is > pay lip service and say yes to his questions and he will give them all > the credit in the world. However since Senator Milne is a government > member and has to deliver on this file, her 5 years of work, endless > meetings with 5 different cabinet ministers, 3 privacy commissioners, 2 > access to information commissioners, dozens of MPs and Senators and more > speeches in the Senate and to caucus than I can count, simply do not add > up to enough support for Gordon to even warrant a mention when directly > asked about how much political support he has received. > > I will be very blunt by telling everyone that we do not and we can not > list everything that Senator Milne does to work on this file on this > listserve. If we did, no cabinet minister would ever meet with us on > any issue ever again. Since you folks last heard from me there have > been numerous meetings on this file. We are pushing very hard to get > the government to act. I know that there is huge support within the > Liberal Party to get this resolved. But if we announce baby steps and > maybes and all of the ups and downs of negotiations that would be the > end of this project. > > The fact of the matter is that Gordon knows all of this very well, and > there have been times over the years that we have let him in on various > things in advance and in secrecy in order to properly measure what the > response of the genealogical community would be. He knows that we have > been working on this file on an ongoing basis. In fact Gordon knows > that Sen. Milne has been working to find a champion in the House of > Commons for this one. We even talked about that last week. I find it > quite amusing that one week he would suggest that we find a Liberal to > champion the cause in the House, and the next he would be complaining in > the media of the lack of support from the Liberal Party. > > That all having been said, I want you all to know that this file > continues to be a very very hot one in our office. We've been meeting > with and talking to people as recently as this past Monday on the file. > I hope that this kind of support by Liberals is sufficient for Gordon's > liking. > > Yours truly, > > Jeff Paul > Policy Advisor > Office of the Hon. Lorna Milne > Ph: (613) 947-9744 > Cell: (613) 715-2965 > > > > ==== CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN Mailing List ==== > How to unsubscribe from Mail Mode. Send a message to > CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains > (in the Subject line and body of the message) the command > -- unsubscribe -- and no additional text. > >

I have been aware but keeping quiet about the debate within cabinet about the release of the post 1906 census. This is a critical factor in how others view this whole thing. However, some Alliance MPs were very interested as well, in particular, Jason Kenny. We have not informed you about all our past dealings with the Alliance Party. So let's just agree that no one person knows all that has been going on behind the scenes and that this is not a partisan issue. This is a cross-party tug of war between (misplaced) privacy concerns and freedom of information. I disagree with Gordon's emphasis on the silly conditions on access to the historic access for an additional 20 years. The big issue for me is the proposal to have an opt in/opt out box to tick in all future census returns. This seriously degrades the value of all future census as a historical records of the nation. The rest, in my view, was a fair and reasonable compromise - a trade off between stupid annoyances and certainty that the 1911 and later census would be released to the public. Jeff knows this but perhaps the rest of the list may not know or understand my position. I would never have risked a second Federal Court Action over the stupid strings to have been attached to access to the 1911 and later census. Going to court is always very risky. Settle if at all possible. And for the gentleman who wondered why I decided not to appeal my/our loss in Federal Court, a loss in the Federal Court of Appeal would be even more serious. I therefore decided not to take that risk. Sorry I cannot consult all my hundreds of paying clients. I cannot be blunt on a mailing list like I can be with clients behind closed doors. Which brings me to the topic I planned to address to the list tonight before I say Jeff's email. We are "calling out the troops" to get signatures on the petitions in Calgary. This is the third time I have called on the members of the Alberta Family Histories Society to do this. No doubt they will deliver lots and lots of signatures again. No doubt the Alberta Genealogical Society will do the same and also the disparate family history groups in British Columbia (especially those outside Vancouver). It is NOT, I repeat, NOT a good thing for this to be a Western issue. It is especially not helpful to have so much of the support from the Far West. Alberta in particular is not viewed favourably in Ottawa. The residents of B.C. may be viewed more favourably but not taken more seriously. In short, the OGS must stop leaving it to others to do something about getting the 1911 census released. It is ridiculous that Calgary can gather more signatures on these petitions in a month than the OGS with all its branches and all its members can gather in a year. Lois Sparling Calgary, Alberta Paul, Jeff: SEN wrote: >Good morning everyone: > >Unfortunately I have to take some time this morning to take issue with >some comments made by Gordon Watts in the Bella Online article that >Gilbert Provost posted yesterday. In particular I am shocked and >disappointed at the comments made by Gordon that the political party >that has been the most supportive of the Canada Census Project has been >the Conservative Party and its predecessor, the Canadian Alliance. That >would have been bad enough, but he went further to say that the Liberal >Party has been the least supportive of this issue. > >The fact of the matter is that there is only 1 MP or Senator currently >actively working on this file and that is Senator Lorna Milne - > >