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From: "Gordon A. Watts" <>
Subject: [CCC] Re: A note from Senator Milne
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 13:20:23 -0700


Greetings All.

I forward for your information the following message posted to the
Canada Census Campaign mail list by Senator Lorna Milne regarding Bill
S-13.

We are disappointed that the Senate Committee, after hearing from
Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski, and once again from Chief
Statistician Ivan P. Fellegi, did not see fit to consider the amendments
sought to the Bill. I will have more to say regarding this in a
subsequent posting, when I have had more time to digest the testimony
given to the Committee yesterday.

In the meantime I am working at putting yesterdays testimony on to a
page of the Post 1901 Census Project website. I expect to post it to
the website either tonight, or first thing Friday morning. I will post
to the lists when it is available.

While disappointed with yesterdays proceedings we wish to thank Senator
Milne, and Jeff Paul, for the endless work they have put in on our
behalf.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul, Jeff: SEN" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 12:00 PM
Subject: [CCC] A note from Senator Milne


Dear Friends:

Yesterday the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and
Technology met to make its final decisions on Bill S-13. Although there
is some good news, the results were disappointing. The committee
unanimously passed the bill, and it will now move on to third reading in
the full Senate chamber. Unfortunately, the committee chose not adopt
any amendments to the bill.

I know that all of you will be most disappointed with this outcome. The
immediate question that springs to mind is "why?". Simply put, we did
not have the votes there to pass the amendments. You should all know
that 5 of the 8 Liberal Senators present were supportive of the
amendments. Unfortunately, all 4 members of the Progressive
Conservative party were not willing to upset what they saw as a delicate
balance between all interests. In the end, the committee chose to not
consider the amendments proposed by Sen. Cordy any further. The bill
was passed without voting specifically on the amendments. The whole
matter was immediately approved and sent back to the Senate without
amendment.

I know very well that that all of you were counting on me to deliver on
these issues, and I did not. For that I apologize. I tried my best,
but simply could not convince a majority of Senators that further steps
needed to be taken. Just so you all know I spoke individually with each
and every member of the Social Affairs committee numerous times leading
up to the vote yesterday, and it simply did not work out. I am sorry
things did not go better.

As I said at the beginning of the email, though, all is not lost. The
bill will pass, rather quickly I imagine. We will get to see the 1911
census this summer. We will be able to see census returns for years to
come. There will still be a historical record; but it won't be the one
we would have shaped.

I thank each and every one of you for the fantastic amount of work you
have done on this issue. We have come a long way, but have fallen just
short. I hope in the long run we will see this for the great victory
that it is. Today, though, we'll just have to start to move on with
this proposal.

Yours very truly,

Lorna Milne


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