Greetings All. As per my previous post I copy here my Letter to the Editor in response to the Toronto Sun article by Tom Godfrey - i.e. "Yanks will see your tax data" 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 ----- Original Message ----- From: Gordon A. Watts To: editor@tor.sunpub.com Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 12:38 PM Subject: EDITOR Editor - Toronto Sun Sir/Ms. Tom Godfrey's brief article (Yanks will see your tax data. - Toronto Sun - Thursday 8 January 2004) should be setting off alarm bells to all who have mistakenly assumed that information provided in their tax returns remained unassailable except where they gave permission to have name and address information transferred to Elections Canada. At the very least, learning that U.S. border agents have access to current immigration and tax records of Canadian residents will anger the tens of thousands of Canadian genealogists and historians who have been seeking to regain public access to 92-year old Census records. Those records have been withheld because the Federal Government does not have the 'cohones' to stand up to a very senior bureaucrat -- Chief Statistician Ivan P. Fellegi -- and direct him to obey the laws of Canada. (Privacy Act Regulations make specific provision for personal information from Census to be released for purposes of research 92 years after collection.) Six years of lobbying the Federal Government resulted in a Bill that allows access to these vital records. The Bill also places conditions and restrictions upon that access that go against all recommendations of a Government appointed Expert Panel, a series of Town Hall Meetings, and every survey conducted. There is currently unrestricted access to 240 years of Census records up to 1906. We seek the same unrestricted access for records after that time. For further information regarding our campaign, and a legal action currently under way, we invite you to visit the Post 1901 Census Project website at www.globalgenealogy.com/Census . Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee 1455 Delia Drive Port Coquitlam, BC Tel (604) 942-6889