Greetings All. Senator Lorna Milne requested us to pass on the message below relating to her efforts in the Senate and the effect of the newly called Federal election on Bill S-15. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus.net Port Coquitlam, BC 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 This message has been posted to the Alberta-L, Canada-Census-Campaign-L, Can-British-Columbia-L, Census-Chat-L, Colchester, Lunen-Links-L, Nova-Scotia-L, Ontario-L, PictouRoots, Roots-L, Watts-L, and Wiltshire-EMI-L mail lists. Permission to forward without notification is granted. ============================== Greetings everyone! As you know by now, Prime Minister Chrétien has called an election for the 27th of November. I want to bring you all up-to-date on the implications of the election on Bill S-15, my Archives of Canada Act (census records). Bill S-15 had been referred for further study to the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. It has now died, along with that committee, but I intend to re- introduce the same bill as soon as Parliament resumes after the election. I expect that it will move through the Senate much more quickly this next time, as my colleagues will be familiar with the intent of the bill. My real agenda has always been to get the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada, formerly John Manley but now Brian Tobin, to introduce a Government Bill to solve our problem. Several of the key players in this exercise, including myself, the head of 'Stats' Canada, the Privacy Commissioner and the National Archivist worked all summer to hammer out a compromise position for a Government Bill. We had succeeded, and our proposition was placed before Cabinet just prior to the election call. Now, of course, all bets are off since after the election we will be dealing with a new Minister, a new Cabinet and a new Privacy Commissioner. Fortunately, the new Privacy Commissioner has already reluctantly but publicly agreed, in response to my questioning him in the Senate, with the compromise solution that brought the last Privacy Commissioner on side. In the meantime, I urge all of you to take advantage of this election to press all the candidates in your own riding for their stance on the Release of the Historic Census issue. Don't forget that it was the pressure you put on all Parliamentarians that helped me get the issue this far! As you all know, there is strength in numbers and elections are the perfect opportunity to advance a policy objective. As a Liberal Senator I will, of course, be out campaigning for the Liberal Party. I certainly do not want to lose the advantage I now hold that has enabled me to gain the full co-operation of a Cabinet Minister and to bring our issue directly to the attention of the Cabinet. Sincerely, Senator Lorna Milne