Our legal case is progressing more or less as expected, although we have modified our Application slightly. Our original Application sought only to have the Court make an Order "compelling the Chief Statistician to transfer the nominal returns and schedules of the 1906 Census of the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to the National Archivist, and, further and in the alternative, for an Order directing, or alternatively permitting, the National Archivist to make this information available to the public for research purposes". The modification to our Application seeks further, and in the alternative, Declarations: (a) that the National Archivist, and not the Chief Statistician, has care and control of the records from the 1906 Census; (b) in the alternative, if, contrary to the Applicants submission, the Chief Statistician does have care and control of the records from the 1906 Census, then Chief Statistician is under a legal obligation to transfer control of these records to the National Archivist; (c) further, upon being declared to be in care or control of the records from the 1906 Census or upon being transferred control of such records, the National Archivist has the power to disclose this information to members of the public upon request for research purposes. In order to amend our Application to include a request for Declaratory Relief and to extend the time limit for us to file our Applicants' Record we required the agreement of parties on the other side. The lawyer for the Privacy Commissioner consented right away. The Justice Department, on behalf of the Attorney General, National Archivist and Chief Statistician took longer to state they "do not oppose" our application. Not opposing the application is not quite the same as consenting to it. The Prothonotary (don't ask - that is the term Lois used) will now consider our written application and presumably grant it promptly since it is unopposed. As of 12 September our Applicants' Record was ready to go except for the copying and binding. The key part of our Record is the written argument. The Respondents then have to file their Respondent's Record with their written argument. Lois will then requisition a Hearing. If there are no more unexpected delays, she hopes the hearing will be before Christmas. This will not be like a trial since all the evidence is in the Affidavits. There will be no witnesses. Lawyers will present oral argument and be quizzed by the Federal Court Judge. This will take place in Calgary and be open to the public. The Federal Court rooms in Calgary are not all that big and crowds cannot be accommodated. Legal arguments are not terribly interesting to non-lawyers, however, other circumstances being considered, I have hopes that I will be able to be in Calgary to observe the proceedings. 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