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From: "Muriel M. Davidson" <>
Subject: [Can-Ont-Carleton] Fw: Post 1901 Census - Report on Senate Committee Hearings
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 23:54:54 -0500


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon A. Watts" <>
To: "Canada Census Campaign" <>
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 10:44 PM
Subject: Post 1901 Census - Report on Senate Committee Hearings


> Greetings All
>
> The hearings on Bill S-13 by the Senate Standing Committee on Social
> Affairs, Science and Technology took place on Thursday, 27 February
> 2003. Senator Michael Kirby chaired the meeting. The Committee heard
> testimony from two panels. The first being comprised of Ian Wilson,
> National Archivist of Canada; Dr. Ivan P. Fellegi, Chief Statistician of
> Canada; and Alan Leadbeater, representing John Reid, Information
> Commissioner. Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski was not present,
> and was not represented by anyone. The second panel consisted of
> myself, and Professor Terry Cook.
>
> I must state and the outset that the hearings did not go as well as I
> had anticipated. It was expected that clause-by-clause deliberation was
> expected to take place immediately following testimony of the witnesses.
> However, this did not happen because of the indecisiveness of a couple
> of Committee members, and their desire to hear what Privacy Commissione
> George Radwanski had to say about Bill S-13. As a result,
> clause-by-clause deliberation was put off until after a two week break
> which started Friday, 28 February 2003. In the interim, Senator Kirby
> was to contact the Privacy Commissioner and request, in writing, his
> comments regarding S-13. The Committee is expected to meet again
> shortly after the current break is over.
>
> In the end run, only two amendments were placed on the table -- the
> first would see the 1911 and 1916 Censuses treated in exactly the same
> way the 1906 was released -- without restrictions of any kind. The
> second amendment would change the "informed consent" clause to make it
> an OPT-OUT, rather than an OPT-IN choice.
>
> Ian Wilson was the first to testify. He was supportive of the Bill in
> order to get the issue before Parliament for discussion. He stated that
> it was a compromise. He went through some of the history of Census and
> noted that with the release of the 1901 and 1906 records, as with the
> release of earlier records, there had been no complaints. In later
> questioning he supported access to the 1911 and 1916 records on the same
> basis as the 1906 was released -- without retrictions of any kind. He
> would support an OPT-OUT option and felt that S-13 would permit indexing
> of the records after 92 years.
>
> Ivan Fellegi spoke next. He supports Bill S-13 as presently wording but
> was not happy with the idea of amendments to it. He opposed treating
> the 1911 and 1916 records in the same manner as the 1906. He strongly
> opposes the concept of an OPT-OUT rather than an OPT-IN option for
> future access. His opinion is that indexing would not be possible prior
> to 112 years after collection.
>
> Alan Leadbeater, representing Information Commissioner John Reid was the
> last of this panel to speak. His position was that the compromises in
> S-13 have serious flaws. They felt that the 1911 and 1916 are
> accessible without restriction under existing legislation and saw no
> reason to impose any restrictions on them now. For access to records of
> the future he stated "there is no justification for allowing Canadians
> to throw a blanket of secrecy over census information forever, merely by
> withholding consent for disclosure after 92 years". The Information
> Commissioner represents that census records, past and future, be open
> without restriction 112 years after collection. Second, as indicated in
> paragraph 4, census records collected after 1918, the date of the first
> Statistics Act, and for the future, should be open to researchers 92
> years after collection, subject to a statutorily defined restriction on
> disclosure until the 112 years have elapsed.
>
> My own oral presentation briefly summed up recommendations made in my
> written submission which I included in my last Global Genealogy column
> which is accessible at:
>
> http://globalgazette.net/gazce/gazce90.htm
>
> Other than that it concentrated on sub-section (8), stressing that there
> should be no "informed consent" option for access to future census, but
> if we were forced to accept an option it must be an OPT-OUT provision
> where records for anyone not responding to the option would remain
> accessible.
>
> The final witness to speak was Professor Terry Cook, representing the
> Canadian Historical Association and the Association of Canadian
> Archivists. His testimony supported unrestricted access to the 1911 and
> 1916 records. It supported unrestricted access as well to records from
> 1921 to 2001 and suggests removal of all references to the extended
> 20-year period beyond 92 years. Professor Cook's presentation also
> objected to "informed consent" for access to future census records and
> suggested the removal of that clause, or at the least, making it an
> OPT-OUT option.
>
> Those testifying before the Committee were requested to limit their
> presentations to about five minutes so as to allow for questioning by
> Committee members. It is difficult to get any points across with only
> five minutes and I would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss things
> further. Such was not to be, however I did manage to speak to a couple
> of Committee members briefly after the hearings were adjourned.
>
> The full, unrevised testimony given at the Committee hearings will be
> posted on the Post 1901 Census Project website at:
>
> www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/S13committee.htm
>
> It will be posted this evening. 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
>
>
>


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