Open the door to Canada's Historic Census
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TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
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This page contains the presentation of Gordon A. Watts relating to the Town Hall meeting held at Vancouver. Mr. Moderator. I appear before you today to voice my support for public access to Post 1901 Census records, 92 years following collection, as per Regulation 6(d), of the Privacy Act of Canada. I do so on behalf of the estimated 7.5 million people in Canada who, to one degree or another, have an interest in genealogy and family history. Statistics Canada contracted Environics Research Group to conduct these meetings to find out how ordinary Canadians feel about public access to Census records from 1906 and 1911. One might wonder what genealogists and family historians are if we are not ordinary citizens. As this is the last of these meetings to be held, I think it unlikely I will be telling you much that you have not already heard. You will be aware we view these meetings as an unnecessary expense for the taxpayers of Canada. The people have already expressed their desire for access to Historic Census Records. They have done so in submissions to the Expert Panel commissioned by John Manley in 1999, in letters and email to MPs and Senators, and on petitions supporting access. The Report of the Expert Panel was reluctantly released to the public 15 December 2000. It supported access to all Census records, past, present and future. It expressed caution only in the legislative method used to achieve that access for Census records after 1918 to the present. It expressed the opinion that there were no legislative restrictions to the immediate release of the 1906 Census, and the projected release of the 1911 Census in 2003. This was not what Statistics Canada wanted to hear. Many feel these meetings are yet another attempt by Statistics Canada to obtain negative reaction to access. Not having obtained the negative response they sought in surveys held on behalf of the Expert Panel, they now seek them in the current round of meetings and Focus Groups. How many more similar efforts will take place before Statistics Canada finally accepts that the people of Canada want access to these records, and will not stop until that access is achieved. You will also be aware that we have concerns regarding the Focus Groups that follow each of these meetings. While the meetings are open to the public, the Focus Groups are closed and not subject to the same scrutiny. We look forward with great interest to reviewing the final report of these proceedings. In advocating total and permanent closure of these historic documents, Statistics Canada seems to consider our motives for seeking access to be devious and nefarious. Nothing could be further from the truth – we simply seek information on our ancestors. We seek to find out who they were, where they lived, and what their lives were like. We seek to find relatives that we did not previously know existed, so as to add limbs to our family trees. In his presentation to the Senate Committee reviewing Bill S-12, Dr. Ivan Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada, stated:
Dr. Fellegi’s ordinary Canadians have had exactly the same opportunity to voice their opinions that genealogists and family historians have had. They have done none of these things! Why have they not done so? Where are those who would oppose access to these records after 92 years? The simple answer is that ordinary Canadians who have opinions regarding this issue have expressed those opinions, and continue to do so though these meetings. The overwhelming majority of those expressing opinions have supported access. To date, in excess of 42,000 signatures supporting access have been sent to Ottawa. There has been no corresponding representation to the government by people opposing access. The silence from any opponents to access proves that the people of Canada are NOT concerned information from Census could be accessible 92 years after collection. They do not view it as an issue they should be concerned with. The great opposition of the Canadian people, as espoused by Statistics Canada, is just not there. There is an Old Russian proverb that reads, “We live as long as we are remembered”. This proverb perhaps at least partially explains why genealogists and family historians seek information from Census, and other records. They seek to find their ancestors, to know something of their lives, to honour them, and to remember them, even though they may never have known them personally. In so doing, the ancestors they find will live in their minds, and in the documents they leave for future generations to see. The first decade of the Twentieth Century saw the greatest influx of immigrants in the history of Canada. From 1900 to 1910, 1,819,930 immigrants from 49 different ethnic origins came to Canada. 1,573,432 came from 1911 to 1920, and 498,752 came from 1921 to 1925. Without access to Historic Census Records descendents of many of these immigrants will never know where their ancestors came from. Without access to these records, ancestors of people living today will no longer live because their descendants will not know them. Genealogists and historians do not seek something new. We seek something old. It is old, both in respect of the information involved, and in the fact that it is something that we have had in the past. We seek something that has been taken away from us because of misinterpreted legislation and the fact that a few paranoid government bureaucrats fear that someone, sometime, might decide to look at records that may contain information about their ancestors. Unfortunately, those bureaucrats have control over the records we seek. 235 years of Census Records – all that survive – from the first Census of New France conducted in 1666, up to and including the 1901 Census of Canada, reside in, and are under the control of the National Archives. As such they are available to any person or body for purposes of research. Copies of these records are available for purchase by academic institutions, libraries, genealogical and historical societies, and individuals. They are available through inter-library loan. We suggest that access to 235 years of records constitutes a substantial precedent. We see no reason that access to subsequent Census should now be withheld. Obviously, Statistics Canada has a different view. They claim that as far back as 1905, the people of Canada were given unconditional promises and guarantees that confidentiality of Census would last forever. They cannot substantiate these claims. Access to Information Requests for documented evidence of the existence of such promises and guarantees have been submitted. Statistics Canada was unable to produce any such evidence. A great many people have spent a great deal of time seeking any evidence that the government of 1905 had made a promise that confidentiality of Census would last forever. Not one piece of such evidence has been found. Despite the fact that he cannot produce any documented evidence of the promise of never-ending confidentiality, Dr. Fellegi continues to make reference to it, as does Statistics Canada, in information sheets and propaganda that is put out to those seeking information regarding access. In his presentation to the Senate Committee reviewing Bill S-12 Dr. Fellegi makes references to: I do not mean any disrespect to Dr. Fellegi. It is my opinion, however, that unless he is able to produce a single piece of legal, documented evidence that proves that a promise was made that confidentiality of Census was intended to last forever, he should cease to make reference to it. He should either put up – or shut up regarding it. To continue disseminating such information is deliberately misleading, and could be considered fraudulent. Statistics Canada would have us believe that because legislation relating to Census and Statistics makes no mention of any time limits, the intent of the legislation is that access of the records would never be allowed. Not so! There is a maxim that, when one statute is silent on a particular matter while another is not, the statute that is not silent should govern. In this case, Regulation 6(d) of the Privacy Act provides for transfer of Census records to the National Archives and it should govern. Statistics Canada’s response to this, and to suggestions that confidentiality in Census was intended to be contemporary, or should last only until the 92 year period mentioned in Regulation 6(d), is to quote a clause of the Interpretation Act, i.e.:
The Access to Information and Privacy Acts were born of the same Bill and were enacted over the period of 1980 through 1983. Part of the Statement of Purpose of the Access to Information Act states: “This Act is intended to complement and not replace existing procedures for access to government information and is not intended to limit in any way access to the type of government information that is normally available to the general public.” From the start, Dr. Fellegi and Statistics Canada have fought against continuing the previous practice of allowing public access to Historic Census records after a reasonable period of closure. They choose to ignore the true spirit, intent and meaning of the legislation that governs access to Census. Statistics Canada wants our opinions regarding their so-called compromise solution, or third option. I have prepared a critique of that document which I will present to the moderator of this meeting. It is my opinion that there is no way any genealogist or family historian could find this to be an acceptable alternative. It is discriminatory. It is too restrictive in what records might be accessed, who may access them and where they might be accessed. It would be too expensive and too difficult to administer, and would create a new bureaucracy simply to administer the limited access it would allow. For the majority of Canadians that would find it difficult to travel to a government office it would still mean no access at all. For those able to travel to a government office the access allowed would be little better than nothing at all. This compromise would set up Statistics Canada as the only government agency that would not be subject to direction of the National Archivist regarding what documents have, or have not, archival or historical value. It could set the scene for other government agencies seeking similar exclusion, and thus increasingly diminish the value and effectiveness of the National Archives of Canada. Dr. Fellegi expresses concern that knowledge information from Census would be accessible after 92 years would cause people to participate in Census less fully and less honestly than previously. He fears that such knowledge will cause trust in Statistics Canada to be diminished. He states “Canadians are sufficiently worried that, if [Bill S-12] was passed, their cooperation with future censuses and with Statistics Canada in general could be affected.” In our view, exactly the opposite is true. Many messages sent to me express the opinion that if Census records are not accessible by descendants, there is little reason for fully and truthfully completing Census forms. Many suggested boycotting the Census if the information they provide will not be accessible in the future. Statistics Canada no longer refuses our request for access on a strictly legal basis, likely because they realize that in a Court challenge they will lose. Their emphasis at this point is on protecting the integrity of the agency. Dr. Fellegi claims that this integrity “relies primarily on our effectiveness to keep our unconditional promise of confidentiality; and on the quality, relevance and objectivity of the statistical information that we provide to the public. We readily agree that Statistics Canada has an international reputation of being one of the best statistical agencies in the world and that their integrity in this capacity is second to none. We do not agree that their reputation and integrity is primarily due to keeping of an unconditional promise of confidentiality that does not exist. Rather it is a result solely of the other points that are mentioned – the quality, relevance and objectivity of the statistical information provided. The integrity of the agency will not be harmed by allowing access to Post 1901 Census records on the same basis as those records up to and including 1901 have been – rather, it is more likely to be harmed by their continued refusal to do so. Other countries frequently used by Canada as examples are taking steps to make their Census, and other Historic records, more readily available. England and Wales have recently placed indexes and photographic images of their 1901 Census returns on the Internet and are preparing to do the same with their 1881 and 1891 Censuses. Scotland has Census records for 1881, 1891 and 1901 online – with images of the original returns for 1891 and 1901. Censuses of Scotland, England and Wales are released after 100 years. The United States releases theirs after 72 years. At least two major companies in the US are digitizing and making available online their Census returns with the intention of doing the same with all available Census Records. Statistics Canada, on the other hand, would close our Census forever. In the past century, in England, the United States and Canada, there have been an estimated 620 million people enumerated. There has never been a single recorded complaint regarding release of personal information from Census after a reasonable period of closure. There is simply no justification for total closure of Canada’s Historic Census as espoused by Statistics Canada. Thank you. |
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