Greetings All. FYI Gordon ------------------------------------ I send greetings to all Members of Parliament. In the past year or so, all Members of Parliament have been sent numerous e-mail and letters requesting an answer to the question of how they would vote on a Bill that would allow public access to Post 1901 Census records as allowed by Regulations attached to the current Privacy Act. Responses have been varied as detailed below: - NO response - Your concerns have been noted and directed to the Minister responsible - Your concerns have been directed to Statistics Canada - Please send your full mailing address to receive a reply - Mr/Mrs/Ms MP does not respond to questions from outside their constituency - Enclosed find information detailing why Census records cannot be accessed - There is no Bill before the House to vote on - It would be immoral for Parliament to retroactively break a promise given to the people by the government of Sir Wilfred Laurier in 1906 - The law explicitly prohibits access to Census records after 1901 After a great deal of research I can state unequivocally that: - The "promise" of never ending confidentiality of Census records promoted by Statistics Canada does not exist. Statistics Canada and Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips have been asked to provide documentary evidence re: the existence of this "promise". To date they have been unable to do so. There is no evidence whatsoever that respondents to Census of 1906 and later were told about this non-existent "promise". I have asked Statistics Canada and Bruce Phillips to prove me wrong -- if they are able. - There is no law that "explicitly prohibits" access to Census records after 1901. There are no clauses in any Statute, from the date of Confederation to the present, that would prevent transfer of Historic Census to the National Archives of Canada to be placed under the control of the National Archivist. There is no law that would prevent the subsequent release to the public as per Regulations attached to the current Privacy Act. - What prevents the transfer of Census to the National Archives is a policy of Statistics Canada -- a policy based on untried legal opinions that consider only one clause of several contained in Instructions to Enumerators for the Census of 1906 that had been given the "force of law". These legal opinions consider only the clause titled "Secrecy" while ignoring other pertinent clauses in these same Instructions, also having the "force of law", that state that Census had value for historical purposes, would be stored in the National Archives, and would be available for future research. Your constituents, in writing to ask how you would vote on a Bill to allow access to Post 1901 Census are well aware of the position of Statistics Canada and Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips. They are well aware that an Expert Panel to study Access to Historic Census has been appointed by Industry Minister John Manley. They await the recommendations of this Expert Panel, originally due 31 May 2000 and now delayed until the end of June 2000. They are confident that the report of the Expert Panel will come down in favour of allowing access to Historic Census records. Your constituents voted for you, presumably because they felt that you were a reasonably intelligent, rational, thinking individual, capable of formulating opinions and making decisions. As such, they are seeking an answer from you, on how you would vote on a Bill to allow access to Historic Census records. In all likelihood they have already expressed their concerns to Statistics Canada and Industry Minister John Manley directly and do not seek to have their MP duplicate what they have already done. On 2 June 2000, Liberal MP Murray Calder presented Private Member's Bill C-484 for first reading and printing. This Bill is identical to Bill S-15 presented to the Senate by Senator Lorna Milne on 16 December 1999, and currently in second reading in that House. These Bills would amend the Statistics Act and the National Archives of Canada Act. They expressly authorize the transfer of all census records from Statistics Canada to the National Archives of Canada for permanent safekeeping. They give access to the records to genealogists and other researchers 92 years after the census, subject to a privacy right they create that allows individuals to object to the disclosure of personal information in the census records. Jason Kenney's Motion M-160, presented to the House 13 October 1999 urges the government to take all necessary steps to release the 1911 census records once they have been deposited in the National Archives in 2003. Mr. Kenney's Motion was deemed a votable item with debate limited to three hours. To date, two of those three hours of debate have taken place. Bearing in mind the Bills of Mr. Calder and Ms. Milne, and the Motion of Mr. Kenney, I would again ask of you the following question: Would you, as an elected Member of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada, vote FOR or AGAINST a Bill supporting release to the Public, of Post 1901 Census Records, 92 years after collection? I would respectfully request a direct answer dealing specifically with the question. Your response will be recorded in your correspondence log on the Post 1901 Census Project website located at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census This website includes a "Scoreboard" listing all MPs and showing how they responded to, or neglected to respond to, the question above. I invite you to visit this website and check the position we show for you. As I am the person responsible for updating this website, should you find anything about yourself with which you disagree, please advise me directly. For those Members of Parliament who have already given us a direct answer to the question posed above I extend my heartfelt thanks. For those who have given a non-committal response, or who have not bothered to respond to our question I would respectfully request that you answer it at this time. On 24 April 2000 I sent to you an e-mail with the files constituting my written submission to the Expert Panel on Access to Historic Census attached. Titled "The Myths of Census", this submission is the result of several months of dedicated research and details proof of what I have stated above. I urge you to read this submission to verify my statements. I would extend to you the same invitation I gave to Statistics Canada and the Privacy Commissioner -- "If you can prove me wrong, please do so." If my e-mail of 24 April 2000, and the attached files, have gone astray I would be quite happy to resend them to you. I have compiled a CD containing much more support documentation than that contained in my written submission. I would be happy to send a copy of this CD on request. Should you have any questions or comments regarding my Submission to the Expert Panel, or to this message, I would be more than happy to discuss them with you. I can be reached by e-mail, by telephone at (604) 942-6889, by Fax at (604) 942-6843, or by Canada Post at 1455 Delia Drive Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 2V9 To the francophone Members of Parliament I extend my apologies for not having a translation of this message. I regrettably neither speak nor read the French language. Sincerely, Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net 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