Muriel, The following was sent to the Expert Panel, as well as my MP, Bill Casey. I forwarded a copy to Gordon at the time, and he commented favorably on it. My reason for forwarding to you is to show another reason for release..namely a duty under our religion to do Family History. Also, I have signed the necessary petitions through the Colchester Historical Society; addressed three specific letters to my MP; one e-mailing to all Maritime MPs on the matter and anything else I can think of. Small thing that this is, if all who are interested in the matter do so, we get noticed and have some influence. Best regards, Tom Lynch ====================== Dear Esteemed Panel Members, The following was sent to my MP, Mr. Bill Casey a short while ago and I thought that there might be merit in sending a copy to yourselves. As you are no doubt aware, the reasons for petitioning for the revision of the Privacy Acts, post-World War One, are many. Some wish to follow their families back through time, using the census as a guideline or snapshot to keep them on track. This has worked well until the turn of the century, but for those who had great-or grandparents who immigrated to Canada post-1901,the census remains a closed book. In my case, I will never see the release of a census that will assist me, since my grandparents on my mother's side arrived in Canada in 1922, so would not show up until the 1931 census. They have been dead for over thirty years and the sole surviving child is my mother, who was only two years old at the time. Others wish to use the census as a control in establishing location of their families to aid them in tracking genetically -transmitted diseases. Of course the earlier census give locality, but in most cases deaths were not attributed to these diseases, since it would be years before they were properly identified. However, as post-1901 census material is released, the level of sophistication of data becomes greater and of greater usefulness to those people. As subsequent census are released, they will become more and more important to people struggling to track inherited or genetic diseases. Lastly, there are those of us whose religion demands that they identify and detail their ancestors. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) for over 27 years and part of our belief is the redemption of the dead. We are charged with identifying our ancestors, compiling their vital statistics and taking these names to our temple where we perform ordinances on their behalf. I will not bore you with particulars, but this forms part of our duties as Church members and are taken very seriously. However, as mentioned above, the non-release of post-1901 census will seriously hamper these efforts. Most genealogists will tell you that post-1901, there are other avenues to pursue to acquire this data. As a genealogist, I have to agree to a point. If you have sufficient data such as birth dates or dates of death, and enough money, you can acquire birth, marriage or death certificates, but this is painstaking, expensive and supposes that you have a level of data in the first place, plus the expertise to pursue this material. We have reached a new century, so the old saw about post-1901 material being too recent to be released has lost its truth..this is now history and for many history that will be denied them if StatsCan has their way. What of those who came to this country in the last great waves of 1905-10, 1919-30, 1946-55? Are we telling them that because they arrived too late and fall under legislation that was clearly intended to assure census respondents of confidentiality for the foreseeable future, that they will never be able to gain access? Clearly, I think it is up to our legislators to bring a measure of common sense to the lawyer-bureaucrats of StatsCan. I, personally, have responded to the 1971, 1981 and 1991 census and have no wish to see that my grand-children or great- grandchildren are denied this information. As mentioned, I have used the 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 census to gain knowledge of my Lynch ancestors and those families that married into the line. I know their professions, where they lived, the sort of house they lived in, the numbers of children (in one case, discovering several great-aunts and -uncles that I had no inkling of!), their ages, their state of health, and in some cases, hints of their parents, who in later years resided with them. All of this from the census. With this, I will close, urging you to support our cause. It is one that is just, is popularly supported, and is justified, when one compares our stance with that of the US, who will be releasing their 1930 census soon, even though they too had similar legislation, limiting release. Let common sense prevail, mixed with a measure of compassion. Thomas G. Lynch, 28 Pleasant St., #3, Truro, NS, B2N 3R7 (902) 895-4142 lyncan@col.auracom.com