| Name: | Mr. Bill Casey |
| Political Party: | Conservative |
| Constituency: | North Nova |
| Province: | Nova Scotia |
| Telephone: | (613) 992-3366 |
| Fax: | (613) 992-7220 |
| Email: | Casey.B@parl.gc.ca |
| Address: | House of Commons, Ottawa K1A OA6 |
| Constituency Address: | 28 Esplanade Truro, Nova Scotia B2N 2K3 103 Albion Street South Amherst, Nova Scotia B4H 2X2 |
09/25/2000 - email to MP Bill Casey from Thomas Lynch.
Date: Monday, 25 September, 2000 To: Casey, Bill - M.P. Subject: Re: Support of Post 1901 Census Dear Mr. Casey, I cannot express my satisfaction that you have chosen to express your support of the release of post-1901 census material to the public after an appropriate interval of time! One begins to develop a sense of helplessness when one sees a government department steamrollering the wishes of a large portion of the general population, especially when there seems to be a hidden motive. The only recourse we have is our Member of Parliament and our appeal through him than saner minds prevail. I have taken the liberty to pass your e-mail on to Mr. Gordon A. Watts and Muriel Davidson, directors of the Canadian Census Campaign Committee, and the scoreboard maintained by the committee will be updated by the former within a couple of days. Again, many thanks for the positive response! Thomas G. Lynch, Truro, NS,
To: Thomas G. Lynch Sent: September 25, 2000 11:28 AM Dear Mr. Lynch, Thank you for your letter regarding accessing 1911 census records. I have received many letters on this issue. I appreciate hearing the views of those who support the release of this information. Many of my constituents, along with many other Canadians have been quite vocal in their support for releasing census records for research purposes. Genealogical research is increasingly important to many Canadians in search of their roots. Given the overwhelming support for the release of these records, I believe this must be recognized. I support the release of this information and will urge the Minister of Industry, the Honourable John Manley to proceed with the necessary changes. Thank you again for your letter. Sincerely, Bill Casey, M.P. Cumberland Colchester
Hello: I live in Amherst, and I run into Bill Casey quite often, as we share public duties, he as MP and I as Town Crier. I confronted him a week or so ago about this issue and his vote, and he has stated to me that he is voting YES to the release of the census. He did not seem to be aware of the internet address keeping track of the MP responses. So, take heart! There is another YES vote in the mix. Jerry Randall
In this day and age when we have so many problems requiring deep and ponderous thought, this census thing should be a really easy call. I've been chasing my family roots for 13 years and, as a past time, I don't think there's one better. I know there are lots of arguments from the privacy gang but let's use some common sense....do you really have privacy concerns if someone publically and proudly acknowledges your name as that of their great grandfather in a hundred years? Haven't you or your children done a little family tree climbing over the years? There is a very active contingent of genealogists, professional and amateur, living in Cumberland County. You can see many of them regularly at the Cumberland County Museum in Amherst where many archival records are kept and many of them are active on the internet. I'm sure you are aware of this. Please show your support for the release of this valuable research tool. Carol Cummings Springhill, NS
To: Sent: September 21, 2000 9:57 AM Subject: M-160 Dear Mr. Casey, Watching the debate on Motion M-160 on C-Span, I was disturbed to see the Liberals once again trying to 'water down' the text of this Motion. It is my belief that the wording of MP Jason Kenney's motion should remain intact and hopefully voted upon and passed. It is only a tiny step, but it would be a first. I am hopeful that you will support the motion, whenever the vote comes to pass. I would suggest that you have one of your assistants look at "Myths of the Canadian Census" by Gordon Watts to counter the skewed information that has come out of StatsCan. Granted they are reading their desired interpretation of the law to control this information forever, but this must be balanced out by other arguments as to the laws surrounding such information gathering. I do know that if the post-1901 censii are not released in a timely manner, I intend to demand copies of every census that I have been involved in (1951 forward) and make copies of the 2001 that these may be left to my children and grandchildren. So much of my parents and grandparents history will be denied me, since (and especially with my Goodyer line) the post 1901 censii will perhaps never be released. Sometimes I wonder at being Canadian.. we get so tied up in relatively simple things such as this, while Ministers squander funds, with little more than a slap on the wrist by the Auditor-General. Our health care, roads, mass transit, etc., are coming unraveled at an ever-more alarming rate and we have a government dedicated, single-mindedly on doing nothing more that deficit-reduction. It happened over thirty years and its paying off should be slated to take the same amount of time. The matter of ASW and SAR helicopters in this country has us as a laughing stock of NATO and if I was a manufacturer of helicopters, I would be adamant in demanding payment up front before sinking a nickel into responding to a Canadian RFP. A political plank in a political hack's platform during an election may end up costing us further lives of Canadian airmen in the not to distant future. If so, I hope their families take a page out of US legal foolishness and sue the government for negligence. Probably wouldn't get far, but imagine the headlines! As a last comment, I have a copy of Gordon Watt's entire submission to the Expert Panel on CD-ROM that I would be more than glad to deliver to the Truro office. Sincerely, Thomas G. Lynch, Truro, NS
I have written you on this subject last year, and with various bills now before the House of Commons and Senate, I will do so again. As you are no doubt aware, the reasons for petitioning for the revision of the Privacy Acts, post-World War One, are many. Some wish to follow their families back through time, using the census as a guideline or snapshot to keep them on track. This has worked well until the turn of the century, but for those who had great- or grandparents who immigrated to Canada post-1901, the census remains a closed book. In my case, I will never see the release of a census that will assist me, since my grandparents on my mothers side arrived in Canada in 1922, so would not show up until the 1931 census. They have been dead for over thirty years and the sole surviving child is my mother, who was only two years old at the time. Others wish to use the census as a control in establishing location of their families to aid them in tracking genetically-transmitted diseases. Of course the earlier census give locality, but in most cases deaths were not attributed to these diseases, since it would be years before they were properly identified. However, as post-1901 census material is released, the level of sophistication of data becomes greater and of greater usefulness to those people. As subsequent census are released, they will become more and more important to people struggling to track inherited or genetic diseases. Lastly, there are those of us whose religion demands that they identify and detail their ancestors. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) for over 27 years and part of our belief is the redemption of the dead. We are charged with identifying our ancestors, compiling their vital statistics and taking these names to our temple where we perform ordinances on their behalf. I will not bore you with particulars, but this forms part of our duties as Church members and are taken very seriously. However, as mentioned above, the non-release of post-1901 census will seriously hamper these efforts. Most genealogists will tell you that post-1901, there are other avenues to pursue to acquire this data. As a genealogist, I have to agree to a point. If you have sufficient data such as birth dates or dates of death, and enough money, you can acquire birth, marriage or death certificates, but this is painstaking, expensive and supposes that you have a level of data in the first place, plus the expertise to pursue this material. We have reached a new century, so the old saw about post-1901 material being too recent to be released has lost its truth..this is now history and for many history that will be denied them if StatsCan has their way. What of those who came to this country in the last great waves of 1905-10, 1919-30, 1946-55? Are we telling them that because they arrived too late and fall under legislation that was clearly intended to assure census respondents of confidentiality for the foreseeable future, that they will never be able to gain access? Clearly, I think it is up to our legislators to bring a measure of common sense to the lawyer-bureaucrats of StatsCan. I, personally, have responded to the 1971, 1981 and 1991 census and have no wish to see that my grand-children or great-grandchildren are denied this information. As mentioned, I have used the 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 census to gain knowledge of my Lynch ancestors and those families that married into the line. I know their professions, where they lived, the sort of house they lived in, the numbers of children (in one case, discovering several great-aunts and -uncles that I had no inkling of!), their ages, their state of health, and in some cases, hints of their parents, who in later years resided with them. All of this from the census. With this, I will close, urging you to support our cause. It is one that is just, is popularly supported, and is justified, when one compares our stance with that of the US, who will be releasing their 1931 census soon, even though they too had similar legislation, limiting release. Let common sense prevail, mixed with a measure of compassion. Thomas G. Lynch, 28 Pleasant St., #3, Truro, NS, B2N 3R7 (902) 895-4142 lyncan@col.auracom.com
Dear Ms. Davidson Thank you for your recent letter regarding the use of Census data for genealogical purposes, and the possible presentation of a Private member's Bill by John Bryden, M.P. It was decided not to release the 1911 Census to the public as a result of recommendations made by the Department of Justice upon a review of the legislation. Starting with 1906, censuses have been conducted under various Statistics Acts, each containing strict confidentiality provisions that protect the information indefinitely. The confidentiality provisions found in the Statistics Act override the section of the Privacy Act and the related regulations that allow personal information from a census or survey to be placed in the public domain 92 years later. It was determined that Statistics Canada does not have the legal authority to transfer records from censuses conducted after 1906 to the National Archives for release to the public. Discussions are ongoing in the Senate and several Senators, including Senator Janice Johnson, are scheduled to speak about this issue in the near future. No legislation has been introduced in the Senate at this time. The Government is currently considering two options submitted by Statistics Canada:
Section 17 of the Statistics Act dealing with the issue of secrecy, including exemptions to this rule. In particular, Section 17(2)(d) states that, "The Chief Statistician may, by order, authorize the folowing information to be disclosed: information available to the public under any statutory or other law." any exemptions would require an act of Parliament to specifically deal with the concerns of those seeking specific exemptions for genealogical or other purposes. M.P. Jim Jones, Industry critic for the Conservative Party brought this issue to the attention of the Honourable John Manley, the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada. In the event that the Government's current review fails to be satisfactory, Mr. Jones is prepared to examine possible legislative action in his role as Industry critic. I hope that this information is helpful in addressing your concerns. Sincerly, Bill Casey, M.P. Cumberland Colchester
A web site has been posted at http://globalgenealogy.com/census to record MP's responses, so that those who are interested, will know the position that their elected representative has (or has not expressed) on the issue. Also included on the web site, is a correspondence log for each Member of Parliament, which will contain responses to this e-mail plus any other correspondence from the MP. The Question: "Would you, as an elected Member of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada, vote FOR or AGAINST a Bill supporting release to the Public, of Post 1901 Census Records, 92 years after they were recorded. ( 1911 census information available in 2003, 1921 in 2013 etc)" If you would like to expand on your position, your entire response will be posted to your individual correspondence log. The Post 1901 Census web site is sponsored by Global Genealogy & History Bookstore. A vast number of e-mails and calls from subscribers and web site visitors, clearly demonstrates that this issue is extremely important to them. Many readers have expressed that their current MP's position on this issue will weigh heavily in their decision process during the next election. |
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