POST 1901 CENSUS PROJECT
Open the door to Canada's Historic Census
TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
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This page contains the presentation of Brian Gilchrist to the Town Hall Meeting held in Toronto. Brian attended the evening session of these meetings. “On the occasion of each decennial census enumeration, assurances have been given that the information collected regarding any individual will not be disclosed … proclamations have been issued prior to decennial censuses assuring [that] the information given to the census enumerator will be confidential. Repudiation of this pledge would seriously reduce public confidence … The insurance of confidentiality is an important element in securing reliable information from the public. If the confidence which people have in census operations were to be shaken, the problems of getting reliable information and the cost of the census would be substantially increased…” The above quotation is not from a Statistics Canada statement - but rather is cited from a 42 year old letter from the Personal Census Service Branch of the United States Census Bureau, dated January 12, 1960. The result is that the people and Governments of the United States of America have found ingenious legislative ways to allow total public access to these documents that were once deemed confidential. In a few weeks the United States of America will be opening their 1930 personal census enumeration’s to the public following the legislated lapse of a 72-year period of closure. Just a few days ago on January 2nd, 2002 - The British Government opened their fully indexed and automated 1901 census images following that country’s 100 years of legislated closure. In the case of the English census, it is interesting to note that the anticipated demand would be one million “hits” per day. This has been grossly under-estimated and the news release currently posted on the Public Record Office web site states that approximately 1. 2 million attempts are being made at any one time to access the system. Legislative terms such as “confidential”, “privacy laws”; “Access to Information Laws” and “Records scheduling process” are by their very nature statutory and or regulatory creations. To be sure, if these terms are to be effective pieces of legislation and regulation they must be living breathing documents which can be changed and modified after careful and due deliberation, consultation and consideration – which is the very purpose why we are gathered here today. I have been doing genealogical and historical research in libraries and archives for 35 years. It is my professional and learned opinion that most of the public has an assumption (even an expectation of) census records being open and accessible after some passage of time has occurred. Indeed there are other records which have been generated by Statute, which promised permanent confidentiality, and with changes in society’s norms and mores are now open and available. Specifically I refer to Adoption records. While in Canada, this process is a provincial jurisdiction, many other countries have grappled with the question of access, and in most cases, the result was that the records became available. Finland opened their Adoption records in 1925, Scotland in 1930, Israel in 1960, Great Britain in 1975 and Australia in 1984. It is also interesting to note that another piece of Federal Government legislation, which was also supposed to be temporary, has now become the chief cornerstone of the funding of our Government. I refer to the Income Tax Act. It was July 25, 1917 when Sir Thomas White, then Minister of Finance rose in The House of Commons to record in The Hansard that the time had come for a temporary national measure of taxation. The statement he made that day has a direct implication upon us here today: “We cannot see very far ahead in these days. We do not know how long this war will last. We do not know what the attitude of the people of this country will be upon the many questions, social, industrial, financial and fiscal. Therefore, I have placed no time limit upon this measure but merely placed upon Hansard the suggestion that in a year or two after the war is over, the measure should be reviewed with a view of judging whether it is suitable to the conditions which then prevail.” Another example of the impermanence of legislated terminology in documents is taken from the fact that many of the early settlers of this country were given land grants from The Crown. The Letters Patent usually naming the settler, “and their heirs and assigns “forever’ to have possession of the land. This “forever” usually lasted but a few generations when Federal government agencies began expropriating the land for transportation needs such as The St. Lawrence Seaway, airports, and other needs to suit the changing face of the Canadian society and culture. The Canadian decennial census enumeration’s are without doubt the single most important document which can fulfil the needs of other types of legislated research needs. A specific situation here is the work of the many Provincial Public Trustees who are regulated by legislation to trace heirs of certain individuals for a myriad of reasons. The post 1901 census enumeration’s are also the first which allow studying of national local histories from coast to coast to coast. Many of our metis and aboriginal peoples from both the western and eastern provinces will be found in these records for the first time. The decennial census enumerations are the one unique record that Canadians have which allows the study of a family unit at a specific point in time. Indeed many Canadians and the descendants around the world of those enumerated in our post 1901 census pages are in need of these documents for medical genealogical purposes. For some of these people, the tracing of their genealogical connections is indeed a matter of life and death. What would be the reaction of Environics Research and or Stats Canada themselves be if a research situation arose in which they needed to study vitally important, unique records, available only in a private academic institution and to be told, sorry you can not have access to them? In conclusion, I have to agree with the opinion of Professor Chad Gaffield of the University of Ottawa and a Member of the Census Expert Panel. Doctor Gaffield has stated that the 92-year rule (which is already in place) seems to be an adequate safeguard to individual privacy. We Canadians should be as creative as our American neighbours and our English associates who have already found the ways and means of allowing their once confidential census enumeration records to become part of the public records of our national heritage. Thank you. J. Brian Gilchrist |
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