FYI - ------------------------------------------ Debates of the Senate (Hansard) 2nd Session, 36th Parliament, Volume 138, Issue 7 Tuesday, November 16, 1999 The Honourable Gildas L. Molgat, Speaker Panel on Access to Historical Census Records Hon. Lorna Milne: Honourable senators, I am very happy to rise today to emphasize to this chamber a recent announcement by the Honourable John Manley, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Statistics Canada. Last Friday, Minister Manley announced the creation of an expert panel on access to historical census records. The panel will report to the minister by May 31, 2000, with recommendations on an approach that will balance the need to protect personal privacy with the demands of genealogists, historians and archivists for access to historical census records. As all honourable senators are aware, I have been lobbying Parliament on this issue for over a year now. I am delighted to see the minister taking a proactive approach to this issue and appointing a panel of five well-respected individuals, one of whom is a former colleague of ours, the Honourable Dr. Lorna Marsden. I hope that this panel will be able to drum up a few fresh ideas on how to reach an acceptable compromise between the interests of protecting personal privacy and researching our Canadian heritage. Minister Manley has listened to my lobbying efforts, has taken note of the correspondence of Canadian genealogists, historians and archivists, and has now taken the first step in responding to our concerns through the creation of this panel. This is the beginning of results for all the effort that genealogical and historical groups have put into bringing awareness and public voice to this issue. I look forward to reading the panel's report early next year. - -------------------------------------------- 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 Subscribe to the CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN mail list at CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN-L-request@rootsweb.com This posting has been sent to the 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 this post to other list, genealogical or historical societies, or news letters to which you belong.