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Archiver > APG > 2002-04 > 1018532023


From: "Nancy Coleman" <>
Subject: [APG] Census Release
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 09:35:41 -0400


To make up for my latest faux pas, this may be of interest
to some.
Best regards. Nancy.
Nancy Coleman

http://www.genealogyPro.com/ncoleman.html

Greetings All.

I copy here for your information a news release from the
office of MP
Murray Calder.

Happy Hunting.

Gordon A. Watts
Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee
Port Coquitlam, BC

http://globalgenealogy.com/Census
en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm

Permission to forward without notice is granted.

================================

April 10, 2002
For immediate release

Stubborn StatsCan bureaucrats turn democracy on head -
Liberal Murray
Calder says

The democratic process has been turned on its head, and the
tail now
wags the dog, said Liberal MP Murray Calder, after an
unsuccessful
effort to have his bill on historic census records voted on
by
Parliament.

An "intransigent" and "stubborn" Statistics Canada
bureaucracy is
blocking the will of Parliament and its 301 MPs elected to
represent
Canadians, Calder said.

Calder made the comment after Serge Marcil, Parliamentary
Secretary to
Minister of Industry Allan Rock, denied unanimous consent to
put Bill
C-312 to a vote at second reading debate Tuesday night.

Calder's bill would provide access to post-1901 historic
census records
by genealogists, historians, and medical researchers after
92 years. The
92-year rule has been in place for census records prior to
and including
1901, and these records are available through the National
Archives.

Calder is accusing Statistics Canada of violating a promise
made to
Canadians at the time of the 1911 and other censuses. Census
instructions of the time state: "The census is intended to
be a
permanent record, and its schedules will be stored in the
Archives of
the Dominion." The Archives has requested the historic
census records,
but StatsCan has refused to turn them over.

Calder said his office has received petitions signed by more
than 14,000
Canadians over the past year calling for release of historic
records.
Added to the number received during the last Parliament, he
has heard
from more than 20,000 Canadians on this issue.

In September 2000, Parliament passed a motion calling for
the release of
1911 census records. Calder noted that since then nothing
has been done
to release them and that Statistics Canada bureaucrats have
stonewalled.

"Has the will of the people been done?" he asked the House.
"No."

An August 2000 confidential legal opinion by a senior lawyer
at the
Department of Justice concluded that pre-1918 census records
can be
released under present legislation. The same opinion
recommends a minor
legislative change to provide clarity in the case of
post-1918 records.

An expert panel of highly respected academics and jurists
appointed by
former Industry Minister John Manley in a 2000 report also
recommended
the release of the records. The panel rejected Statistics
Canada's
assertion that there ever was a commitment records would be
sealed in
perpetuity.

In response to concerns about personal privacy, Calder's
bill would
allow Canadians with privacy concerns to object to release
of their
records within the 92-year period.

An estimated 7.5 million Canadians are engaged in genealogy
as a hobby.
Census records are the only records that record data on
entire families
rather than individuals, and therefore they are useful to
genealogists,
as well as medical researchers gathering information on
genetically
inherited diseases.

Further background information on the historic census issue
is available
on Calder's website at:

www.murraycalder.ca/issues/census

- 30 -


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