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Archiver > CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN > 2003-06 > 1055532827


From: "Gordon A. Watts" <>
Subject: Re: [CCC] Bill S-13
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 12:33:47 -0700
References: <WorldClient-F200306121840.AA40040053@mrdouble.com>


Hi Bill.

S-13 is NOT dead, although there are many who wish that it would be.
Unless the current Session is proroqued it WILL be debated when
Parliament resumes sitting after the Summer recess. It WILL be debated,
and it WILL receive second reading. The only question is WHEN this will
happen.

While Private Member Bills might 'die' after one hour of debate because
they have not been deemed 'votable', the same thing does not happen with
a Government Bill. A Government Bill will either be passed, or will be
defeated, but it will not 'die'. Should the Liberal Cabinet 'direct'
the vote on Bill S-13 it will most certainly be passed -- warts and all.
That is why we must do everything we can to ensure that there is a
'free' vote and that amendments we seek are proposed and hopefully
passed.

I have recently become aware that amendments cannot be proposed during
second reading of a Bill. They can only be proposed after second
reading -- either during deliberation during Committee proceedings
should the Bill be referred to Committee, during the Report stage where
the Committee refers the Bill back to the House, or during third reading
in the House.

Bill S-13 was introduced because the government would not simply direct
the Chief Statistician to obey existing legislation in the form of the
Privacy Act and Regulation 6(d) that provides that personal information
collected by Census would be made available to 'any person or body, for
purposes of research' 92 years after collection. They accepted the
unprovable 'promise' of never-ending confidentiality made by the Chief
Statistician and supported by the Privacy Commissioner. They have
chosen to ignore the desire of those who are concerned with the issue
that access to these vital records should be unrestricted, as have been
240 years of records up to now 1906.

As much as the Chief Statistician has denigraded the concept of
retroactively changing legislation from 1905/06, Bill S-13 does exactly
this in imposing its restrictions upon the release of the 1911 and 1916
Census records.

As much as we wish to see a successful conclusion to our efforts we are
happy to see that S-13 has not been rushed through and passed without a
thorough debate in the House. This gives us the summer to meet with our
elected representative and convince them of the need to remove the
conditions and restrictions imposed by Bill S-13

Happy Hunting.

Gordon

----- Original Message -----
From: "theoldmedic" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 4:40 PM
Subject: [CCC] Bill S-13


Is it possible that bill S-13 is dead?

Wouldn't that be the best thing that could possibly happen to it? It
doesn't seem to have a very high priority in the House of Commons. They
are spending their time arguing about whether or not the Minister should
be able to rescind a persons Citizenship without a Court hearing; the
travel expenses of the Privacy Commissioner, "Mad Cow" disease, and
what's going on with SARS. Each of those things is a lot more important
than bill S-13, and have justifiably dropped that bill right to the
bottom of the priority list.

Really, wouldn't it be much better if that bill were to just sit there
and die? Every obnoxious part of it would die along with the rest. The
courts will force the government to release the 1911 and 1916 censuses,
so they will NOT be impacted by this bill.

Then, next year when there is a new P.M., with different Ministers,
maybe we can get something that is appropriate. Something simple, like a
bill that clearly states that census records are to be turned over to
the archives after 70 years, or 92, or whatever, with no restrictions.

I'm just an old retired medico, who likes to putter around with
genealogy. I could never understand why Bill S-13 was introduced. I'm
happy to see that it is not being debated, and isn't getting a Second
Reading.

May it R.I.P.

Bill


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