Greetings All. FYI Gordon ----------------------------------- Dear Mr. Epp. I am writing in regards to your email of 20 September 2000 sent to Muriel M. Davidson. I must state at the outset that it is a genuine pleasure to hear a politician such as yourself remark that "I am YOUR representative and therefore it would be much more useful for YOU to tell me how YOU would like me to vote!" In many communications with all 301 Members of Parliament over the past 2-1/2 years this is the FIRST time an MP has responded in this manner. Your colleague from St. Albert, John Williams would do well to take a lesson from you. He, unlike yourself, appears to have a "closed door" policy, at least so far as responding to questions relating to Post 1901 Census is concerned. I am pleased that you have stated your support for Jason Kenney's Motion M-160, and thus by association for allowing access to all Historic Census. I note however that you have some reservations in that you comment "Originally, the census information was gathered with a commitment of confidentiality." You further state "there is still the dilemma of 'how long do you wait until it is okay to break your promise?'" and that you "struggle a bit with that conundrum." Allow me to ease your mind, and permit you to vote in favour of allowing access to historic census with a clear conscience. To begin with, the " commitment of confidentiality" to which you refer was a directive in Instructions to Commissioners and Enumerators of Census that they were not allowed to divulge information from Census to anyone else, in particular to any other government departments. While the census forms may have had a statement regarding confidentiality, there was no statement then, nor on any form since that time, that confidentiality would last forever. The "promise" of never ending confidentiality to which you refer did not exist in 1905, does not exist now, and has not existed at any time in between. Several months of concentrated research by myself, and others, found no evidence that the promise so often touted by Statistics Canada as having been made by Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1906 ever happened. There is nothing in Hansard, the Canada Gazette, Proclamations of the Governor in Council, or any newspaper that indicates that any such "promise" was ever made, much less conveyed in any manner to the people of Canada. I have, on a number of occasions, asked of both Statistics Canada and former Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips to "show me the promise". They have been asked for documentary proof that the "promise" exists. They have been asked to prove me wrong in stating that "the promise does not exist." To date, they have been unable to do so. I could go on further here, however my submission to the Expert Panel on Access to Historic Census, titled "The Myths of Census" explains the situation quite well. The files for my submission were sent to all MPs by email attachment on 24 May 2000. For your convenience, in case they have gone astray, I have attached them to this message as well. I urge you to read my submission. Should you have any questions or comments regarding it I would be more than happy to hear them. In doing my research I compiled a great deal of support information, most of which I have placed on a CD-ROM. At your request I would be happy to send you a copy of this CD-ROM. Thank you. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net Port Coquitlam, BC Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census and http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Farm/7843/poll.html Download and circulate Post 1901 Census Petitions now from http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/petition.htm "Epp, Ken - Personal" wrote: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 7:17 PM Ottawa Ms Muriel M. Davidson: Thanks for your e-mail which I received on the 18th. ________________________________________________ Here is what you wrote: Q: Will YOU support Jason Kenney's Motion M-160? A: Either YES or NO, please. Now, my response: ====================== First, I think we have it backwards! I am YOUR representative and therefore it would be much more useful for YOU to tell me how YOU would like me to vote! I hope that you will still do that! At the present time, I am inclined to vote for the motion. This is based on the fact that I have received a number of submissions from constituents (and others around the country) who are urging us to support this Bill. I have received very few (if any -- I don't remember getting even one) asking me to continue to block these records. I am sure you know the dilemma. Originally, the census information was gathered with a commitment of confidentiality. Now it is clear that by the year 2003, there will be very few people left who gave information in the 1911 census, but there is still the dilemma of "how long do you wait until it is okay to break your promise?" I struggle a bit with that conundrum. However, as many people have pointed out, the information would now be very useful to many people who are doing research, both historical and genealogical. What harm can possibly be done by releasing the information for people whose descendants now want to know? So there you are. I have answered according to your spec. If the vote were held today, I would vote YES. Does that agree with your position? I would really like to know. Now, just a little further to the situation. This bill was debated this evening. In fact, the debate just ended about ten minutes ago. The Liberals moved an amendment which basically does nothing. It will allow the Liberals to vote in favour of the amendment, thereby changing Jason Kenney's motion -- in fact it effectively neutralizes the motion. So they will vote in favour of the amendment and then they will vote in favour of the amended and demasculated motion. That way they don't need to vote on a controversial issue. After all, they don't want to alienate anyone with an election coming up soon. (Am I sounding too cynical?) I better quit. Thanks for writing. Please e-mail me back. If you use eppk@parl.gc.ca it will come to my assistant; if you use eppk9@parl.gc.ca, that will come directly to my computer, and you will have my personal response. Sincerely, Ken Epp, MP Elk Island