Thank you Muriel for your moving submission to the Expert Panel. It may interest people that pre-1949 census records from Newfoundland are being used by researchers to trace specific diseases, do gene research and hopefully develop drugs to help or prevent the diseases. The Globe and Mail had an article on January 5, 2000 that reported on this. It mentioned that the privacy laws in Newfoundland did not prohibit the use of census data to trace families, there has been a constant pool of people in the province and there are also good medical records. The article said "Newfoundland's mix of good medical records and accurate genealogies is unique in Canada and nearly unique in the world. . . In the BBS study, six Newfoundland families yielded more useful data than 91 BBS families in the rest of North America" The article went on to state this type of research could lead to high-paying scientific and technical jobs in Newfoundland. In my letter to Mr. Manley I mentioned this and another article on the use in Britain of census records along with babies' birth rates from hospital records to identify mothers who might be at risk of a heart attack. Of course my letter was passed on to the Expert Committee from which I received a polite form letter. Ruth Dibbs