Greetings All. For some time consideration has been given to having a NEW Petition for release of Historic Census records. Our previous petition was worded in general terms. It had an effect. It did not, however achieve our ultimate goal -- that being the continued public access, without conditions or restriction, of ALL Historic Census records of Canada 92 years after collection, in accordance with provisions of the Access to Information and Privacy Acts and Regulations attached thereto. Our NEW petitions are worded in very specific terms -- giving explicit direction regarding what we seek, and the reasons for our request. There are petitions available for the House of Commons and the Senate of Canada, as well as a petition of support for those living outside of Canada. The NEW petitions in English are downloadable NOW from the Post 1901 Census Project website at the URL following my signature. French versions of the petitions will be available as soon as they can be translated by a member of the Canada Census Committee. We ask that concerned individuals, Family History and Genealogical Societies, and Historians -- anyone wanting to regain public access to Canada's Historic Census records, download and circulate these petitions. Attend the meetings of your local organizations to ensure that they are aware of the Census issue and the NEW petitions. Ask them to advise their membership through their newsletters. Ask them, if possible, to include copies of the petitions when mailing their newsletters to their membership. The current thought is that signatures will be collected and held -- probably until after the upcoming expected federal election. This would likely mean that the first signatures would be presented to Parliament after the summer. This would give us several months to collect signatures. There will be no deadline for collecting signatures on the NEW petitions. We will continue until we have achieved our goal. We would like to receive completed petitions as soon as they are available. Our original petitions sent more than 62,000 signatures to Ottawa. Let us make a concerted effort to beat that number with our NEW petitions. When sending petitions to us please include a note indicating where and by whom signatures were collected -- i.e. name of organization etc. With your help we WILL regain the public access to Canada's Historic Census records that are currently being withheld from us! 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