CAN-ONT-COCHRANE-L Archives

From: "Muriel M. Davidson" <>
Subject: [COCHRANE] Post 1901 Census - reconvening of Parliament
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 17:58:21 -0400

To all:- YOUR reaction and thoughts re the following posting will be
welcomed by or
Let's keep on working!!! -- Muriel M. Davidson
-------------

Greetings All.

On 24 August I posted a message regarding Prime Minister Jean Chretien's
announcement that he would not seek re-election for another term. With
his comment that he would spend the next 18 months tending to the
business of government it was felt that we could expect some stability
in government and that we would not likely be facing a snap election
that would interrupt our Census campaign and require us to start over
once again with another new government.

It would appear that I spoke too soon. We have seen no evidence of an
election in the offing. However.............

Last week it was announced that Parliament would not resume sitting
until 30 September. Our sources in Ottawa advise it is expected that
shortly after, the current Session of Parliament will be prorogued and a
new Session started so that the Queen, on her visit to Canada in
October, might present a Speech from the Throne.

Should this proroguing of Parliament take place you might ask what
effect this will have on our efforts to regain public access to Historic
Census records?

The effect is that all unfinished business from the prorogued Session
will cease to exist. All Bills and Motions - government or private
members - that have not been fully processed and completed, end up in
the dumper.

This includes Bill S-12, Senator Lorna Milne's Bill on access to
Census, that we expected to achieve third reading in the Senate shortly
after Parliament resumed sitting after the summer recess.

It is expected that both Senator Milne, and MP Murray Calder will
re-introduce their respective Bills in the Senate and the House of
Commons. This would be a second chance for Murray Calder's Bill which
was deemed non-votable and received only one hour of debate in the House
before being dropped from the Order Paper. However both Bills would be
starting from square one, having to go through first reading and all
other steps that they had been subjected to previously. It means that
the Bills, when represented, will have new numbers. It means more time
and further delays before we achieve what we seek.

This would be the third time that our Bills have had to start from
scratch. With a new start we must renew our efforts to gain the support
of those elected and appointed representatives who have not responded to
our questions. We urge all to check the position of their own
representatives on the MP and Senator Scoreboards on the Post 1901
Census Project website at the URL following my signature. Send letters
to them, either thanking them for the support they have already
expressed, or seeking support from those who have not given a definitive
answer to our questions (i.e. fence-sitters or no response). If you
have, or receive, a response that differs from the position shown for
your representative, please forward a copy to me so that I might update
the Scoreboards.

We must also renew our efforts in collecting signatures on petitions.
Not having had an election we are not starting over again on petitions,
but we need to continue with efforts to obtain new signatures. So far
we have sent more than 55,000 signatures to Ottawa, however with a
population of Canada in excess of 32 million, there remains a great many
people interested in genealogy and history that have not yet signed a
petition. I am currently holding approximately 2000 signatures for the
House of Commons and Muriel Davidson is holding a similar number for the
Senate. We will be submitting these as soon as we know for sure that
the current Session of Parliament has been prorogued and a new Session
started.

Some may question the effectiveness of our petitions and the need to
continue collecting signatures, saying that having already sent more
than 55,000 signatures, adding to these numbers will have little
additional effect. The fact of the matter is, however, that numbers of
signatures on petitions is the ONLY tangible, visible, evidence we have
to show that genealogists and historians seek to regain public access to
Post 1901 Census records. Presentation of petitions in the House of
Commons and the Senate, showing the numbers of signatures received, is
permanently recorded in Hansard, showing for all time that we seek these
vital records.

Letters and email to MPs, Senators and other officials are very
necessary. They may, in fact, outnumber the number of signatures on
petitions. However, we do not have any means of knowing the numbers of
letters and email sent and so cannot point to them, as we can with
petitions, as proof of our desire for access.

Do not give up hope. We may have come to another snag in our efforts to
regain public access to Post 1901 Census records. There is no question,
however, that with the help of all we will achive that goal. It will
just take a little longer to do so.

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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