Greetings Listers My apologies in advance for the length of this posting. Next Monday will be 20 September 1999, the day that the House of Commons is due to reconvene. While there have been rumours that the Fall Session may be delayed, the Senate started up on their scheduled date and is currently meeting. While we have tried to keep the Post 1901 Census ball rolling through the summer it is unsure of how sucessful we have been. It is time now to step up our letter writing and campaigning for the Release to the Public after a reasonable period of Post 1901 Census information. For the benefit of those who may be just coming on board regarding the Census problem and the Post 1901 Census Project Page it may perhaps be useful to recap the situation as I understand it. Up to and including the 1901 Census in Canada, Census records were transferred to the National Archives (or the equivalent of the day) and were subsequently made available to the Public 92 years after collection. This was possible because clauses in the Privacy Act (or the equivalent of the day) allowed identifiable individual records to be transferred, subject to other legislation that might override the Privacy Act. In 1906 the government of the Sir Wilfred Laurier, by Order in Council, introduced regulations which prevented release of any identifiable information from Census without the written consent of the person who provided the information. These regulations contained no time limitations. >From all that we today have been able to determine, the major reason for the new regulations being brought into effect was a fear by the population of the day (1906) that information from identifiable individual Census would be accessible and used by other Government departments for other purposes, i.e. taxation. Whether it was a concern about possible incoming Personal Income Tax, or some other form of taxation, i.e. on property or possessions, has yet to be conclusively identified. . Nowhere have we found any indication that their concern was that identifiable information would be used by historians or genealogists 30, 60, or 92 years down the road. Nor have we so far been able to find documentation that indicated that respondents had been informed information collected by Census would be kept secret forever. In 1918 the regulations were codified by the Borden government in the new Statistics Act. The pertinent clause of the new Act read, in part: "15 (1). No individual return, and no part of an individual return, made, and no answer to any question put, for the purposes of this Act, shall, without the previous consent in writing of the person.. be published, nor, except for the purposes of a prosecution under this Act, any person not engaged in connection with the Census be permitted to see any such individual return or any such part of any individual return." The applicable clauses in today's Statistics Act read as follows (emphasis is mine): "SECRECY Prohibition against divulging information 17. (1) Except for the purpose of communicating information in accordance with any conditions of an agreement made under section 11 or 12 and except for the purposes of a prosecution under this Act but subject to this section, (a) no person, other than a person employed or deemed to be employed under this Act, and sworn under section 6, shall be permitted to examine any identifiable individual return made for the purposes of this Act; and (b) no person who has been sworn under section 6 shall disclose or knowingly cause to be disclosed, by any means, any information obtained under this Act in such a manner that it is possible from the disclosure to relate the particulars obtained from any individual return to any identifiable individual person, business or organization." There are of course allowable exceptions to the rule. Section 17 continues, in part: "Exception to prohibition (2) The Chief Statistician may, by order, authorize the following information to be disclosed: (a) information collected by persons, organizations or departments for their own purposes and communicated to Statistics Canada before or after May 1, 1971, but that information when communicated to Statistics Canada shall be subject to the same secrecy requirements to which it was subject when collected and may only be disclosed by Statistics Canada in the manner and to the extent agreed on by the collector thereof and the Chief Statistician; (b) information relating to a person or organization in respect of which disclosure is consented to in writing by the person or organization concerned; (d) information available to the public under any statutory or other law; It is the wording of 2 (a) above that causes us problems today, i.e. information when communicated to Statistics Canada shall be subject to the same secrecy requirements to which it was subject when collected. This reflects back to the original wording of Clause 15(1) of the Statute passed in 1918. Because the clause contained no time limitations, Statistics Canada has taken the position that these records cannot be transferred to the National Archives and will remain secret FOREVER. Unless we are able to persuade the government of today to make retroactive changes to the legislation WE WILL NEVER AGAIN SEE ANOTHER CENSUS RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. This of course is catastrophic for historians and genealogists. We can make a difference by writing letters to our MPs and Ministers expressing our dismay with this situation, and requesting that they make retroactive changes to the legislation to allow transfer of the records to the National Archives, and subsequently to the Public, after a reasonable period. Even though you may not be currently residing in Canada you have every right to write letters as well. Write them to The Honourable John Manley Minister for Industry House of Commons, Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 The Honourable Sheila Copps Minister of Canadian Heritage House of Commons, Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 Mr./Ms. (Name of your MP) MP - (Name of your riding) House of Commons, Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6 The Honourable Lorna Milne The Senate of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A4 A formal Petition to the House of Commons of Canada has been drawn up and has been circulated Canada-wide. This petition, for citizens/residents of Canada to sign, urges the Government of Canada to take whatever steps necessary to retroactively amend Privacy/confidentiality clauses of Statistics Acts since 1906 to allow Release to the Public of Post 1901 Census records after a reasonable period, starting with the 1906 Census. This petition is downloadable from the Post 1901 Census Project page at << http://globalgenealogy.com/census >> Available from the same website is a French Language petition, identical in content to the English version. These petitions will be presented to the House of Commons in October 1999. After many requests from people living outside of Canada, a petition to be signed by citizens/residents of countries other than Canada, but having roots in Canada, is also downloadable. This petition has been worded to compliment the petition to the House of Commons and will be used as support in the Senate by Senator Lorna Milne. Also available at this site are sample letters to write to Members of Parliament and the appropriate Ministers, excerpts from Hansard that detail efforts by Senator Lorna Milne in the Senate of Canada, to bring attention to this problem, and links to other websites that have information regarding the problem and our campaign. There is a Scoreboard that lists all 301 Members of Parliament, their e-mail addresses, and shows how they would vote on a Bill to Release to the Public Post 1901 Census records. Click on your MP's name to bring up a correspondence log for him/her. The Scoreboard has been recently updated with further letters from MPs. Unfortunately most of these are from "fence-sitters". I encourage all to write to MPs who have responded expressing your satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with their position on how they would vote on a Bill to Release to the Public, Post 1901 Census information. A mailing list has been set up to be used as a forum for genealogists and historians interested in Post 1901 Census issues. Everyone having an interest in Canada's Census information is more than welcome to join the list and participate in the discussion. To join this mailing list send an e-mail to << Canada-Census-Campaign-L-request@rootsweb.com >> with ONLY the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and the body of the message. Please do not have any other text, or signature files, in the body of the message, or the server will reject your e-mail. - ---------------------------------------------- This message has been sent to the Ontario, Nova Scotia, Lunen-Links, PictouRoots, Colchester, British Columbia, Wiltshire-EMI, Roots-L, Watts, Census-Chat, and Canada-Census-Campaign mail lists. Please feel free to forward this posting, or any else I write regarding Post 1901 Census issues, to other mail lists, Genealogy or Historical Societies and Newsletters. Thank you for your support. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@bc.sympatico.ca Port Coquitlam, BC ICQ # 9183352 Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/index.htm Download and circulate Post 1901 Census Petiton now from http://www.globalgenealogy.com/census/petition.htm Read my column on Post 1901 Census News at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/gazette.htm Subscribe to the CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN mail list at CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L-request@rootsweb.com