Folks, For those of you who do not know about the Canadian Bill S-13 and hearings, you should go to the link below to read about the problems Gordon Watts has found with this bill. In summary, the S-13 proposal would not allow access to all of the census contents for 112 years, and such limited portions which are available would require the viewer to not share the information with others by the signing of a special document, and other regulations that may be modified by various government parties. This would be effective for the 1911 census - due to be released under the 92 year rule in June of this year. Hearings will be held this Thursday. If you have Canadian research interests and have not contacted the committee holding these hearings, scroll down and do it quickly! Please make your statements to the committee brief and pointed. Gordon Watts has completed a detailed analysis of the problems, so folks would be most effective in summarizing their beliefs. For example, from my perpsective: This bill does not abide by the recommendations of the special study conducted by the Canadian government nor the tens of thousands of people who have petitioned the Canadian legislature to release the post-1901 census in the same way every other Canadian census has been released. The study recommended legislation to remove all ambiguity and release this historical data, as intended and desired by census contemporaries. Privacy legislation should address contemporary issues, not historical facts. There has never been a complaint about the millions of records released in pre-1911 census. The overwhelming public response to the online release of the 1901 Canadian census and the 1905 Western province census should underscore this consistent record. Restricting census information access and dissemination for 20 years in addition to any privacy period (currently 92 years) will severely hamper the detailed analysis and collaboration of millions of family history researchers. Every piece of information contained in a census is a clue for the reconstitution of family groups - which must include collateral lines for proper evidential analysis. Requiring persons accessing this data in the 20 year purgatory period to not disclose the data to other persons is a wasteful administration cost, fodder for large scale civil disobedience and an immediate test case. The multi-disciplinary education process of family history research has far-reaching benefits for individuals and society. People without formal educations work side by side with highly educated people. Older generations mentor younger generations. Younger generations share new tools and concepts. It is a collaborative and synergistic community. Sharon Sergeant Forwarded messages: Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 12:47:00 -0400 From: "joseph macdonald" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: [CCC] Agenda for the meeting- on Bill S-13, An Act to amend the Statistics Act. Dear List, I thought that you might be interested in knowing the agenda for the meeting. Hopefully everyone has sent in their submissions to the Senate Standing Committee. Please don't delay any longer if you haven't done so. Once again the address for submissions. The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology The Senate, Ottawa Ontario, Canada, K1A 0A4 Attn: Line Gravel, Committee Clerk The email address is [email protected] ............................................... Social Affairs, Science and Technology Thursday, February 27, 2003 11:00 a.m. Location: Room 705, Victoria Building 140 Wellington Street OASIS (MHz): Floor: 94.7 English: 95.5 French: 95.1 Clerk: Line Gravel (613) 990-0088 Agenda for the meeting - Senate Item Details 1. Bill S-13, An Act to amend the Statistics Act. Witness(es) >From Statistics Canada: (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) Yvan P. Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada >From National Archives of Canada: (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) Ian E. Wilson, National Archivist >From the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada: (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) Mr. Alan Leadbeater, Deputy Information Commissioner >From Canada Census Committee: (12:00 p.m.-12:30 p.m.) Gordon Watts, Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee As an individual: (12:00 p.m.-12:30 p.m.) Terry Cook, Professor 2. 12:30 p.m. Clause-by-clause consideration of Bill S-13, An Act to amend the Statistics Act ......................................................................... Gordon A. Watts not only will make an oral presentation, he has written an excellent submission and for those interested in reading it can be accessed at: http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/S13written.htm Gordon all the best to you on Thursday when you make your oral presentation. Regards Juanita MacDonald From: "Gordon A. Watts" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: [LL] Post 1901 Census -- Petition Totals Greetings All I have just finished collating the petitions for the House of Commons that I have received since 28 October 2002. The break down is as follows: Province Previous Current Total ============================== BC 2886 462 3348 AB 5770 57 5827 SK 1076 21 1097 MB 473 56 529 ON 3872 528 4400 PQ 985 120 1105 NB 571 23 594 NS 1014 119 1133 PE 99 0 99 NF 260 0 260 YT 7 33 40 NT 0 0 0 NUN 0 0 0 =============================== Totals 14842 1419 18432 I will be presenting these 1419 signatures to MP Murray Calder while I am in Ottawa to attend Senate Committee hearings on Bill S-13. Senator Lorna Milne has, as of 5 February 2003, presented 20,672+ Canadian and Non-Resident signatures on petitions to the Senate since the election of November 2000. Prior to the election she had presented more than 6000 signatures. This brings the total number of signatures on our petitions alone, since the November 2000 federal election, to 45,104+ Add to this figure the estimated 16,000 signatures on petitions, letters and email to MPs, and submissions to the Expert Panel on Access of Historical Census Records sent prior to the election of November 2000, we achieve a total of 61,104+ signatures sent to Ottawa. This figure does not include additional unknown numbers of signatures on letters and email sent prior to, or following the November 2000 election, or on petitions not directed through either myself or Muriel before or since that election. Neither does it include signatures on petitions that may have been sent by groups other than the Canada Census Committee. We have no means of tracking numbers of letters or email sent. Happy Hunting Gordon A. Watts [email protected] Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en fran�ais http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm ===== Sharon Sergeant Ancestors and Ephemera http://GenealogyFair.com Bring Your Ancestors Home!