--====979404853==== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable This e-mail has been sent to you by Muriel M. Davidson (davidson3542@home.c= om) from the globeandmail.com Web Centre. Message: To Brian Tobin: Please do not keep up the pretense=0D of census release -- 30=0D years of talking is more=0D than ENOUGH -- please =0D abide by the Report of =0D the Expert Panel -- that=0D is why it was appointed.=0D davidson3542@home.com The Globe and Mail, Thursday, January 11, 2001 Show us the data Historical census records are crucial to understanding ourselves as a peo= ple, says history professor BILL WAISER. Ottawa must make the material avai= lable By Bill Waiser Ninety-two years is long enough to wait. In the past weeks, editorial pages have speculated about a new challenge fo= r former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin (aka Captain Canada) in his new r= ole as federal Minister of Industry. Let me offer a suggestion, Mr. Tobin: = Implement the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Access to Historical C= ensus Materials and show us the historical data about Canadians. Just over a year ago, former industry minister John Manley appointed an exp= ert panel to recommend how the impasse over access to post-1901 census data= could best be resolved. On the one hand, Statistics Canada and the Office = of the Privacy Commissioner maintained that census material had been collec= ted in the past under the promise of confidentiality. On the other, the Nat= ional Archives, in association with heritage and genealogical groups, argue= d that census records constitute a national historic treasure and should be= made available for public consultation, in accordance with the existing re= gulations in the Privacy Act, 92 years after the census was taken. The five-member panel, including a former Supreme Court judge and two unive= rsity presidents, held several meetings with interested groups and individu= als, read 2,500 pieces of correspondence, and considered public opinion res= earch commissioned by Statistics Canada. The panel's report was delivered t= o the former minister's office at the end of June, 2000. But it was kept fr= om the public for almost six months. And when it was finally released on Dec. 15, Mr. Tobin, the new minister, i= n the best Mackenzie King tradition, called for more study. Is this the sam= e man who, as minister of fisheries a few years ago, was prepared to take o= n the entire Spanish fleet over the lowly turbot? Mr. Tobin's handling of the expert panel's report is troubling for a number= of reasons. First, it is readily apparent that the Chr=E9tien government does not like = the solutions proposed by the panel -- no matter how reasonable and judicio= us they are. Mr. Tobin has indicated that further public consultation on th= e census issue will take place as part of a larger review of the Access to = Information and Privacy acts. This process could take years, especially sin= ce the review of privacy legislation has not yet been announced. More impor= tant