Greetings All. Well, the debate on MP Murray Calder's Bill C-312 has taken place with few surprizes. Murray started the debate with a good speech that strongly supported our case for access to Post 1901 Census Records. He made the case that Statistics Canada was evading the law in refusing to turn control of the records over to the National Archivis as per Regulation 6(d) of the Privacy Act. He agreed with Statistics Canada that there had been a promise made to the people of Canada, but it was not a promise that confidentiality of Census would last forever. The promise was made in instructions to Enumerators that the records were of Historical value and would be stored in the Archives of the Dominion. Murray finished of by asking for unanimous consent of the House to make Bill C-312 votable. Among a chorus of yeas, there was a couple of nays (Hansard shows a single nay.) Jason Kenny (CA) voiced his support for C-312 and made reference to motion M-160, which he had presented to the House and was debated in March, April and September of 2000, and sought the release of the 1911 Census after it was placed in the National Archives. Jason has been a strong supporter of our efforts to regain access to Post 1901 Census from the beginning. Stephane Bergeron (BQ) spoke at length. In reading what he said in Hansard, for much of his speech he appeared to be supportive of C-312. In the end run, however, that support was diminished by his comments relating to 'promises' of confidentiality and parroting the Privacy Commissioner. There were a few inaccuracies in his statements and while he did not specifically so state, the appearance is that he opposed Bill C-312. Mr. Bergeron has never responded to our questions of support. He is shown on the MP Scoreboard as having a blue question mark indicating no response. Peter Stoffer (NDP) spoke in favour of Bill C-312. He made a second motion for unanimous consent to make the Bill votable. As with the first motion on this, a few nays were heard among a chorus of yeas. Mr. Stoffer stated "We in the New Democratic Party believe it is time to support the release of census information to the archives afte 92 years for genealogical research.............. I find it unfortunate that we cannot have unanimous consent on such a worthwhile bill but I thank the hon. member for bringing it to the attention of the House." Serge Marcil (LIB) is another that has failed to respond to our questions of support and is also shown on the MP Scoreboard with a blue question mark. He spoke at length opposing the Bill. He said a lot of words but little of what he stated were of his own composition. He spoke of the 'promise' that cannot be substantiated, stating that this was contained in the legislation and regulations. He made reference to the Instructions to Enumerators having the 'force of law' and therefore the clause in them titled 'Secrecy' was the promise that confidentiality of Census would last 'forever'. He conveniently ignores the fact that if that clause has the 'force of law', so then, does every other clause in those Instructions, and they cannot pick and choose the ones they want to support their position of non-disclosure. He chooses to ignore the clauses that state that Census has value as a Historical Record and that they will be 'stored in the Archives of the Dominion". The largest part of Mr. Marcil's speech was a repitition of what we have been fed from Statistics Canada since the start of our efforts to regain the same public access to Post 1901 Census records that we have had for those records up to and including 1901. For all intents and purposes he might have been a ventriloquist's dummy sitting on the lap of Chief Statistician Ivan P. Fellegi. It was Mr. Marcil's mouth that was moving, but the words were those of Ivan Fellegi. Mr. Marcil summed up his speech by stating "I would like to assure my colleagues that the minister responsible for Statistics Canada really wishes to find a balanced solution to this issue. This is why I believe we should wait for the minister to see the results of these consulations with the people of Canada." These words are almost word for word identical to those spoken by another MP speaking against Jason Kenny's motion M-160 almost two years ago, while we waited for the Report of the Expert Panel to be released. Minister Rock has had access to the report from Environics for almost two months -- surely he has read it by now. To suggest that he has not is a cop out. John Bryden (LIB) spoke strongly in favour of C-312. He has also supported our efforts from the beginning. He suggests that the problem may be more with Justice Canada than with Statistics Canada. He states that more and more, in cases where Justice becomes involve in issues relating to privacy and access to information, the ruling more often than not comes down in favour of privacy, even when it has been a long standing practice to allow access. He suggested that should C-312 have been deemed votable it would have passed in the House by at least a two-thirds majority, if not three-quarters. Debate wound up with Murray Calder expressing his disappointment that C-312 failed to get unanimous consent of the House to be made votable, and attempting a final time, without success, to obtain that consent. The Speaker advised that the time for debate had expired and that the Bill was now dropped from the Order Paper. There were three attempts to have C-312 made voteable. Each attempt was defeated. On the final attempt there was a single NAY voiced. I am advised that this NAY came from Serge Marcil. Mr. Marcil is Parliamentary Secretary to Industry Minister Alan Rock, and as such can be presumed to speak on behalf of, and under the direction of that Minister. This would make it appear that Minister Rock did not wish to see further debate held on C-312. How many more surveys and reports must we endure and wait for to see a resolution to this issue? We are on our third 'Minister responsible' for Statistics Canada. How many more 'Ministers responsible' must we go through before we get one that will act 'responsibly' and give directions to the bureaucrats to obey the law and transfer control of Historic Census records to the National Archivist? When do we get a 'Minister responsible' that will GIVE direction to the bureaucrats, rather than TAKE it from them? What are they afraid of? Why don't they want 92 year old records released? Who can be harmed by any information in records that old? Are they out of their minds? Why do they not even want to discuss the issue in the House? These are questions that I am constantly being asked. I do not have the answers for them. Everyone seems to feel Statcan and the government must have an ulterior motive for keeping the records hidden, but no-one has any idea of what that reason could be. It is most frustrating. Bill C-312 is dead and gone. That does not mean that the battle is over. There is currently another Private Member Bill by MP Mac Harb (C-380) that would see the transfer of Census records to the National Archives. MP Cheryl Gallant has presented a motion (M-238) that would also see the records of Census transferred to the National Archives and requests that they be made available after 92 years. It remains to be seen if they will ever see the light of day and all we can do is encourage the submitters to push for them to be debated. Senator Lorna Milne's Bill S-12 is waiting in Committee to receive Dr. Ivan Fellegi to make a presentation. This is to take place on 17 April and the Committee is to refer the bill back to the Senate no later than 30 April 2002. If S-12 is passed in third reading in the Senate it will be referred to the House to go through the hoops in that place. Should that happen, it is expected that Bill S-12 would have to be considered votable and, unlike C-312, woud receive a full debate. 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.