Reading the Hansard reports from the debate re Bill S-13 is truly depressing. But not necessarily because I now sense that S-13 may never make it out of the Senate. Over a month ago it was a foregone conclusion that S-13 would be passed without any problem by the Senate, would go to the House and would be made into law there. There was great jubilation in some quarters. Now it seems that might not be the case as the Senate seems to have bought into the paranoia regarding privacy and security that has been introduced into every aspect of our lives since 9/11. How, 92 or 112 years after the census, releasing details on people should provide fuel for identity-theft or terrorism is quite beyond me. The really disturbing part of this whole exercise is the fact that the Senators who are debating this bill seem unable to stick to the subject: the release to Canadians of the historic census. The subject is not the SIN; it is not the gun registry; it is not student loans; it is not one's medical record. (Surely all Senators are old enough to realize that medical records are not private and are required by all sorts of organizations.... have you tried to obtain long-term medical-care insurance? If you do not permit access to all of your medical records you will be denied insurance. If you have a test scheduled by a physician for an unknown reason you will be denied insurance until that test is performed... even if there is a 1-year wait for a MRI which turns up nothing.) The Senators have mentioned almost every other Bill that has been passed in the 20th century that they now believe has defects, and they seem to think that they will be perceived as being great legislators if they come down really toughly on the historic census. If the Privacy Act, the Access to Information Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act need changes then let the government draft new legislation to amend those acts. In the meantime Bill S-13 is about the historic census and it would be great to see the Honourable Senators sticking to the subject and not bamboozling their fellow Senators, who may not be conversant with the subject, with extraneous arguments. It will undoubtedly be difficult for some Senators to separate Bill S-13 from all of the other Bills that mention confidentiality and privacy. Most of the Senators who have spoken through May 15 would not earn passing grades from any debating club, not even in elementary school! Norma