I received the email message below today. It was an answer to a June 2 email message to the three main candidates in Simcoe Grey riding in Ontario. I have copied my message below. It looks as though the Chief Statistician wrote the reply himself. The same old stuff we have heard before. Jim Dear Jim, This is the position that I received from the Liberal Party this afternoon. There was considerable debate with regard to Bill S-13 and this is a summary of some of the arguments in favour of protecting census data.In regards to Clause 8 being altered, there are some strong reasons why this data will not to be released to the general public.They are as follows: In the past personal census data has not been released to anyone prior to a 92-year waiting period. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada who made detailed submissions to the Expert Panel on this issue argued, when information is to be released for the purposes other than those for which it was collected, individual consent is required. Statistics Canada relies on public cooperation and is thus concerned with preserving the integrity of Canadas statistical system.Statistics Canada is based on an unconditional promise of confidentiality. An Environics poll, demonstrated that Canadians had concerns with the proposed legislation and the release of their personal data and they would be less likely to participate in the census, if their information was made public. Specifically, clause 8 is designed to prevent legal difficulties from arising with respect to future censuses.It is intended to ensure that, in the future, Canadians will be asked to give their prior consent to having their records stored in the National Archives. It is unknown how many Canadians will opt out, but it is presumed it will be low.Example: Stats Can did a Community Health Survey and less that 5% of respondents declined to allow their information to be released to local authorities. For the most part this information is kept confidential in order to allow Statistics Canada to continue its work effectively and with the assistance of Canadians. This is the information that I have been able to obtain to date. I have discussed this issue with Mr. Bonwick and he would like to see the release of the data from the 1911 census. He has been in touch with a number of officials requesting the expeditious release of that material. Kind Regards, Nancy Nancy Knight- Constituency Assistant to The Honourable Paul Bonwick, P.C., M.P. Simcoe-Grey My email message to the candidates: To the candidates in the 2004 Federal Election As the co-ordinator of the Beaver Valley Probus Club Genealogy Group and its 105 members who come from all the Probus clubs in the area, I am asking the candidates in the upcoming federal election to state their party's official position re the release of the 1911 and later census returns. As amateur genealogists we feel that the census is a unique resource in family research. In no other place can one find all the members of a family together in one record, giving us a reliable resource to determine the parents and children who made up a particular family at a given time and place. We would like to see unrestricted release of the census returns as has been done in the past up to the 1901 and 1906 census returns, i.e. after 92 years. We would especially appreciate receiving from you the official position of your party re certain clauses in Bill S-13, which was passed last year in the Senate but 'died' in the House of Commons. 1. Would you give unrestricted release of the census after 92 years and kill the provision of S-13 that would add another 20 years and more bureaucratic controls over the information. We recognize the need to protect privacy, but certainly 92 years is sufficient time to protect the privacy of the people mentioned in the census. In the USA the census is released after 72 years. 2. Would you release the 1911 census immediately. The Chief Statistician Ivan Fellegi should have released it last year to the Archives of Canada but continues to ignore the law. 3. Would you drop the provision for the 2006 census and later which would require that citizens check off a box to allow the information to be released after 92 years. This would be catastrophic for genealogical research. One member of a family could take away the rights of all other members to have their descendants view their information. Or a great percentage of people would unknowingly ignore the requirement, thus depriving their descendants of vital information. For further information go to the web site of the Canadian Census Committee at www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/ Thank you in advance for a speedy reply to our request. Jim Thatcher Thornbury NOH 2P0 jthatch@bmts.com