Greetings listers The following excerpt was taken from Hansard Senate Debates of Thursday 4 November 1999. The remarks were made by Senator Lowell Murray while debating second reading of Bill C-6 "Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Bill" The article referred to was titled "Erasing History" and was found on page C1 of the 4 November 1999 Globe and Mail newspaper. The excerpt states: - --------------------------------------- "By the way, honourable senators, there was a lengthy article in The Globe and Mail this morning dealing with attempts made by the history industry to overturn the commitment that Sir Wilfrid Laurier had written into the law to protect census data. I know that Senator Milne has a view about this. Many historians wish to get their paws on personal data that was given in confidence to the census takers since, I believe, 1906. The historians are arguing vigorously in favour of removing that restriction. Mr. Phillips, the Privacy Commissioner, is arguing just as vigorously against removing that restriction. Let me say that I agree with Mr. Phillips. If my grandfather or great grandfather gave personal information to the census taker on the basis of the commitment made by Sir Wilfred Laurier, I believe that that should be respected. I certainly would not want Michael Bliss or Ramsay Cook pawing over all that information and coming to their own tendentious and highly prejudicial interpretations of the data. I say long live Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Bruce Phillips and to hell with these historians." - --------------------------------------- It is unfortunate that we do not have an elected Senate. Possibly Senator Murray would appreciate some letters regarding his opinion of historians (and genealogists). Happy Hunting. Gordon A. WATTS gordon_watts@telus 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 This posting has been sent to the Canada-Census-Campaign-L, Alberta-L, British Columbia, Census-Chat-L, Colchester, Lunen-Links-L, Nova-Scotia-L, Ontario-L, PictouRoots, Roots-L, Watts-L, and Wiltshire EMI-L mail lists. Feel free to forward any of my postings re: Post 1901 Census issues to any mail lists, genealogy societies or newsletters to which you subscribe. In forwarding please delete unnecessary header information so as to include only the message.