Greetings All. I copy here for your information a news release from the office of MP Murray Calder. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted. ================================ April 10, 2002 For immediate release Stubborn StatsCan bureaucrats turn democracy on head - Liberal Murray Calder says The democratic process has been turned on its head, and the tail now wags the dog, said Liberal MP Murray Calder, after an unsuccessful effort to have his bill on historic census records voted on by Parliament. An "intransigent" and "stubborn" Statistics Canada bureaucracy is blocking the will of Parliament and its 301 MPs elected to represent Canadians, Calder said. Calder made the comment after Serge Marcil, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Industry Allan Rock, denied unanimous consent to put Bill C-312 to a vote at second reading debate Tuesday night. Calder's bill would provide access to post-1901 historic census records by genealogists, historians, and medical researchers after 92 years. The 92-year rule has been in place for census records prior to and including 1901, and these records are available through the National Archives. Calder is accusing Statistics Canada of violating a promise made to Canadians at the time of the 1911 and other censuses. Census instructions of the time state: "The census is intended to be a permanent record, and its schedules will be stored in the Archives of the Dominion." The Archives has requested the historic census records, but StatsCan has refused to turn them over. Calder said his office has received petitions signed by more than 14,000 Canadians over the past year calling for release of historic records. Added to the number received during the last Parliament, he has heard from more than 20,000 Canadians on this issue. In September 2000, Parliament passed a motion calling for the release of 1911 census records. Calder noted that since then nothing has been done to release them and that Statistics Canada bureaucrats have stonewalled. "Has the will of the people been done?" he asked the House. "No." An August 2000 confidential legal opinion by a senior lawyer at the Department of Justice concluded that pre-1918 census records can be released under present legislation. The same opinion recommends a minor legislative change to provide clarity in the case of post-1918 records. An expert panel of highly respected academics and jurists appointed by former Industry Minister John Manley in a 2000 report also recommended the release of the records. The panel rejected Statistics Canada's assertion that there ever was a commitment records would be sealed in perpetuity. In response to concerns about personal privacy, Calder's bill would allow Canadians with privacy concerns to object to release of their records within the 92-year period. An estimated 7.5 million Canadians are engaged in genealogy as a hobby. Census records are the only records that record data on entire families rather than individuals, and therefore they are useful to genealogists, as well as medical researchers gathering information on genetically inherited diseases. Further background information on the historic census issue is available on Calder's website at: www.murraycalder.ca/issues/census - 30 -