ONTARIO-L Archives

From: "Gordon A. WATTS" <>
Subject: [Ont] ATI roundtable discussions.
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 13:03:45 -0800

Greetings All.

As indicated yesterday I am reporting to you the results of our involvement
in the roundtable discussions being held by the Access to Information Act
Review Task Force. This Task Force, you will recall, is the body which
Industry Minister Brian Tobin indicated was being charged with conducting
the "further broad based discussions with all Canadians" relating to public
access to Historic Census records. More on that below.

It had been my thought, prior to the discussions being held, that I would
have to be prepared to "do battle" in order to convince other participants
of the importance of public access to these records. I was pleasantly
surprized to find that this was not the case. Of the seventeen participants
listed on the schedule there were three of us whose primary concern had to
do with public access of Historic Census for reasons of Genealogy. Those
were myself, Lyn Winters, and Dave MacKenzie from the Ontario Genealogical
Society. I was particularly pleased to see as a participant in these
discussions, and was honoured to meet Chad Gaffield who was one of the
Expert Panel on Access to Historic Census Records, and is now President of
the Canadian Historical Association. During our lunch break and later we
were able to have an interesting discussion with Mr. Gaffield.

The remaining participants were mainly chief librarians or archivists from
prestigious institutions, mostly various Universities, or heads of companies
that were users of Access to Information. In reading the impressive
credentials of the other participants, I felt a little out of place.

The Agenda of the discussions was to span a period of five hours, including
a break for a working lunch. The issue of public access to Historic Census
records was brought up almost immediately, and all told was discussed for
almost a full hour. I was able to have my say on the issue and had prepared
something to read but ended up not using it. As my forte is being able to
put something down on paper, rather than speaking "off the cuff", it was
fortunate that Lyn Winters and David MacKenzie were present to more
eloquently verbalize our concerns. I fully intend to submit a written
submission to the Task Force to support what was stated during this
roundtable discussion.

In the end run, the opinion of those present was unanimous in that public
access to Historic Census should be allowed after 92 years, as permitted by
the Privacy Act and its Regulations.

While the overall discussions were interesting, and hopefully productive,
perhaps the more interesting conversation was that held outside of the
roundtable discussions. While they did not take part in the discussions
themselves, there were three members of the Task Force present as observers.
During the lunch break, and after the roundtable discussions finished, those
of us whose primary interest was in regaining public access to Historic
Census, were advised that perhaps the ATI Act Review Task Force was no the
best route to take to achieve that goal. We were advised that there would
be likely little said about this issue in the final Report of the Task
Force. We were further advised that a review of the Privacy Act formed no
part of the mandate of the Task Force. The members of the Task Force had
not been advised that a review, with subsequent recommendations, relating to
public access to Historic Census, was included in their mandate.

This was reinforced by a conversation Lyn Winters had with Mary Anne Stevens
of the Task Force on Wednesday the 28th of March. Ms. Stevens maintained
that the reason the four of us had been invited to participate in the
discussions was that the Task Force was interested in getting comments from
a wide cross section of people using the Access Act. She said the group
represented on Monday was a cross section of users including Librarians,
Archivists, Lawyers, Genealogists, and Historians. Their purpose was to
seek our views on the ATIA and its administration, NOT the specific issue of
access to Historical Census records.

On Monday evening, following the end of the roundtable discussions, I wrote
an email to Industry Minister Brian Tobin detailing much of what I have
stated above. I asked for a personal response to the concerns and questions
raised. I do not expect I will hold my breath waiting for his response. I
have in mind some other things that I will seek through Access to
Information, including any or all documents support the claim of the
Minister that "further broad-based discussion by all Canadians" would be
included in the mandate of the ATI Act Review Task Force. It would appear
that someone, somewhere, is not telling the whole truth.

Happy Hunting.

Gordon A. WATTS
Co-chair, Canada Census Committee
Port Coquitlam, BC

Keep up to date on Post 1901 Census information at
http://globalgenealogy.com/Census
en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm

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