I am passing on an email that I received from one of our branch members. We may be seeing the light at the end of the census tunnel if the email she received from John Bryden is true. ------------ Dear Elaine Hamm, Thank you for your recent email regarding the 1911 Census. I have spoken to Industry Minister John Manley and he assures me that the 1911 Census records will be preserved and a method developed to permit appropriate access. I believe an announcement is imminent. Yours sincerely, John Bryden -------------------- -----Original Message----- From: Ed Hamm <ehamm@home.com> To: brydenmp@interlynx.net <brydenmp@interlynx.net> Date: Monday, September 25, 2000 7:57 PM Subject: 1911 census Dear Mr. Bryden: Please do what you can to be sure that the 1911 census is released to the public. Canada is a relatively new country and especially so here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For the first 75 years or so we concentrated more on our wings than on our roots in a struggle for survival in a land that can be very harsh. Now we need, as a society to search for our roots. For many of us, knowledge of our families has been hidden from us, not because our parents and our grandparents wanted to hide anything, but because they were dealing with more immediate problems such as food and shelter. Now, we, their children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren want to know about where we came from. For many of us, whose families came after 1901, the only way we can do that is by finding our families on the census and hoping that it will give us the elusive clue we need to find our roots. Please do not take away this possibility. I spend a great deal of time on the census. Norway has 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900 freely available on the internet in a searchable form. >From that I have been able to find the roots of all of my father's family. Mom's family is another matter. My grandmother's family I have found. Grandpa is so far staying hidden in London, a large city even in 1900 when they married. I dearly hope that the 1911 census will give me a better clue where he was born so that I can search church records. I do not believe that any privacy commissioner or any focus group of the ignorant (I have been a member of focus groups and they ARE a meeting of the ignorant) have a right to keep me from knowledge of my history. I can go to the USA and get the census up to 1920 and 1930 will be out shortly. In Canada we have a 92 rule. This is surely enough to protect people. By this time most of the people who were alive then are gone and the rest would not care if you found them as children. People who were running for their lives will be gone from the area for generations and so would not be in any danger. I also resent the suggestions of Bruce Phillips that there are things in the census that would not bear the light of day. I know that statistics Canada is now very intrusive about our work, our sex lives and even how many condoms we purchase. This is NOT, however, part of the census questions, which merely ask about ages, relationships, home ownership and other innocuous things. Mr. Phillips is merely trying to inflame a situation for his own personal reasons and I believe that he needs to be over ruled. I plan to make the release of the census the pivotal question in my own voting decision whenever the Prime Minister drops the writ. I plan to ask my extended family and all of my friends to do so as well. The government interferes enough in my life without trying to "protect" me from my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I would ask that it butt out in "protecting" my grandparents, as well. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Elaine Hamm ================== Note to Elaine Hamm:- The Member of Parliament Scoreboard has been prepared for easy publication, province by province. At first it was in alphabetical order -- but Gordon Watts has changed this in preparation for an election date. Many residents of Canada will be choosing their Member of Parliament from the GOLD list!!! Muriel M. Davidson <davidson3542@home.com> Canada Census Committee http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/index6.htm [John Bryden is in the GOLD group!!]