TOWN HALL MEETINGS
CHARLOTTETOWN -- 16 JANUARY 2002
This page contains correspondence from Fred Horne, Archivist - MacNaught History Centre and Archives, relating to the Town Hall Meeting held in Charlottetown. His presentation to the meeting follows. Fred attended the afternoon session of these meetings.
From: Fred Horne
To: Gordon A. Watts
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 9:12 AM
Subject: presentation to Town Hall meeting in Charlottetown
Dear Mr. Watts:
I presented the attached pretty much word for word at the Jan 16 session in Charlottetown. My apologies for not gettting to to you earlier.
When asked what I thought of the so-called "compromise solution" I dismissed it outright, saying we are a small community archives with one employee, two at the most, and that we can't handle such a proposal. And the tone of my presentation will tell you that "access" is high on our priority list - not construction of roadblocks. I also stressed how things change with the passage of time and asked what is your own personal concept of 92 years and the impact that has on one's life, should one be so lucky to survive that long.
Thank you for all your efforts on Canadians' behalf over the last several years.
Fred Horne
Archivist
MacNaught History Centre and Archives
Wyatt Heritage Properties
City of Summerside, Box 1510 C1N 4K4
Prince Edward Island
Town Hall meeting in Charlottetown, January 16, 2002 regarding continuing release of Canadian Census records.
A presentation from
THE MACNAUGHT HISTORY CENTRE AND ARCHIVES
(MHCA)
Thank you for this opportunity to address the release of Canadian census records for 1911 and 1906.
My name is Fred Horne and I am the Archivist at MacNaught History Centre and Archives, Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Please allow me to briefly explain the interest of the MacNaught History Centre and Archives in the issue at hand by first saying who we are and what we hold close, for our benefit and the benefit of future generations. The points I wish to make fall within these three general areas.
1.0 First I will give you basic background information on the Wyatt Heritage Properties and the role of the MacNaught History Centre and Archives within those properties and within the City of Summerside. I will include sufficient detail to show what we do at the History Centre and Archives.
2.0 Next I will explain the importance of access to several types of historical records for our audience and community. This will include the importance of census records for historical researchers as we see it - speaking from a small history centre and archives that is recognized as a community resource - not unlike hundreds of communities across Canada.
3.0 In concluding I will list further reasons why we feel the way that we do. We at the MacNaught History Centre & Archives know there are thousands of people interested in "connecting" with their individual and collective past as it relates to our city, county, province and country. We believe wholeheartedly that Canadian census records must - after a prescribed period of time - say, almost a century, such as the current 92 years - continue to be released back to the general public from whence they came all those 92 years ago.
1.0 MacNaught History Centre and Archives
The MacNaught History Centre and Archives is a new local history and genealogical research facility owned by the City of Summerside and operated as part of the Wyatt Heritage Properties of that city, located in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. The other components of Wyatt Heritage Properties are the Wyatt House Museum and the LeFurgey Arts and Cultural Centre. Encompassing three heritage houses, together they make an important contribution to the life of the City as well as to the rich cultural or heritage tourism product of Prince Edward Island.
The MacNaught History Centre and Archives is named in honour of its distinguished former owner the Honourable J.Watson MacNaught successful lawyer, politician and Minister in Prime Minister Pearson's cabinet in the mid-1960s.
1.1 The purposes of the MacNaught History Centre and Archives may be stated this way:
1.1.1 to archive and make available to researchers the collection on paper accumulated over the 102 year life span of local heritage advocate, philanthropist, community leader and diarist - Miss Wanda Wyatt (1895-1998)
1.1.2 to archive and provide public access to historical papers of anyone having had a connection with the town of Summerside specifically and Prince County generally during their lifetime
1.1.3 to provide a genealogical research centre accessible on-line and on-site for the growing number of people interested in tracing their family roots
1.1.4 to provide a repository of historical information and documentation related to the City of Summerside and surrounding county for professional and amateur social science researchers, whether the final product be a newspaper article, a full length book of local history or any siimilar work.
1.1.5 to provide the casual visitor or resident of Prince Edward Island, life-story details such as the location or street number of a childhood or ancestral home or a photo of a favorite part of town.
1.2 Holdings of MHCA pertinent to perpetual public release of census data 92 years after date of census.
1.2.1 Among the genealogical and local history holdings of the MHCA is data from every surviving census conducted on this Island since it became a colony of Great Britain. These include 1798, 1841, 1848, 1861, 1881, 1891 and 1901.
Like so many other sites across Canada such holdings of MHCA are available to anyone who wishes to research, harmless information gathered about the lives of the everyday people who were part of history.
1.3 The outputs or outcomes from the access provided at MacNaught History Centre and Archives may include a student paper, a family tree, a published academic or popular history, a community history, a tourism targeted promotional brochure and many more. Perhaps it is as simple as learning that another archives has placed the Santa Claus parade from your grandfather's day on the internet....regardless, all are about clear access of today's and tomorrow's generations to a distant yet relevant past.
2.0 The importance of access to historical records
2.1 This importance should be self evident. Secondary sources such as newspaper accounts or primary sources such as daily journals provide eye witness accounts of the past. They are of no use if locked up or destroyed by fire or otherwise inaccessible - they might just as well not have existed at all when viewed from a present cut off from its past.
2.2 When we use the term "access" we mean access for all who wish to spend time searching our holdings. We do not mean access for a select few who are somehow deemed especially worthy of the task or the premises.
2.3 If access stops, then history soon follows - dead in its tracks. We have no interest in dead history! We want history to reflect as many of the interesting bits as possible - maybe as many as does daily life, lived today. We fully realize there are limits, just as there are limits in what we can say and do in the present. When we see a proposal like the one before us to restrict or deny the release of Canadian census records beyond the 92 year limit we ask: "why stop history"?
2.4 Why should access to history stop at 1901, when history itself clearly did not stop. We must not lose sight of the fact that IT IS HISTORY we are talking about. This issue is not about today, but it is about understanding where TODAY came from; not just for a privileged few whose ancestors made the news and the rules, but for every person whose name you may find looking back at you carved on a gravestone or copied onto a census return.
2.5 Tidbits of information about another time or about ancestors long gone are cherished by living people. The census record is an important way of connecting with history and re-connecting with the significance of lives of ancestors. Perhaps we could think of the information as having been on loan or deposit with the census gathering authorities for these 92 years and now that it is no longer of use for their purposes nor is it particularly sensitive - but it is of importance to a general public wishing to know its past.
2.6 The census records, having served the national purpose for which they were collected, migrate to a new purpose becoming a way of connecting to the past and only by releasing them - a letting go, if you will - can they truly serve a purpose well beyond their allotted time, not unlike the real people who played a part in their creation. For many searchers the single census entry record is the person and these we neither destroy nor dishonour. We treat them and their countless descendants with respect - as we have in the past for so many years since census records first began to be released - 92 years after the fact.
3.0 A list of further concerns from MHCA that tell us the Canadian Census Records should continue to be released to the public after the precedented 92 year passage of time.
3.1 We support the findings of the Expert Panel Report commissioned in 1999 and released in 2000.
3.2 We believe that the "confidentiality" referenced in regards to the gathering of the census information refers only to the confidentiality that the enumerators were required to keep. The alleged fact that a politician promised secrecy or confidentiality forever begs the question "Why?"
3.3 We believe that individuals have the right to search all branches of their family tree in order to gather information related to genetically related disease and that they themselves should have ready access to such records.
3.4 We believe that the census is a snapshot of a moment in time and for the City of Summerside for example the 1911 Census will reveal invaluable information about the impacts of the International Silver Fox Fur Industry headquartered in Summerside. This industry was literally no where in sight in 1901 and it reached a pre-war peak in 1913. Therefore the release of the 1911 Census on those grounds alone is essential for our whole community to better understand and appreciate its past.
3.5 Canada must remain in line with other countries such as the USA and Great Britain - where 60 to 100 year withholding periods before release is used to provide reasonable protection of census information.
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