POST 1901 CENSUS PROJECT
Open the door to Canada's Historic Census
TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
|
This page contains correspondence from Gwen Christie, relating to the Town Hall Meeting held in Halifax. Gwen attended both sessions of these meetings. From: Gwen Christie To: Gordon A. Watts Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 3:45 PM Subject: Post 1901 Census - Halifax Town Hall meetings Hi Gordon and Muriel: Mary Ann Bohaker, a speaker at both sessions yesterday, well prepared in evening session, and off the cuff in the afternoon (but just as effective) said she would report to you, so I decided not to bombarb you with the same stuff, but here I am. The first speaker was Darce Fardy, an Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner for the Province. I had contact with him years ago when I was with the Supreme Court and had a chance before he spoke to give him my opinion, not knowing that he would be so negative. I'm sure he overheard many of my negative comments following his speech. The second person, a Mr. Pilley (who has some genealogical interests) (thinks his name once might have been Pelletier) works for the Finance Dept. Statistical Div. for the Prov. of N.S. He too was negative but at a break, he came over to speak with us and assured me over and over that he will never recommend to the Prov. Gov't that they support any legislation which would prevent the release of census info. He tried to assure us he was speaking in a personal capacity....but it's possible he was the person who thanked the Chair for the invitation...certainly one of them did. I told him he should not have identified himself as he did if he was not there in an official capacity. Anyway, as Mary Ann will probably tell you in more detail, everyone else shot their theories to pieces and I doubt anyone even remembers what either of these senior civil servants said. All presenters were wonderful...some, like Mr. Barnaby, spoke from the heart about his deep heartfelt desire and pride for his heritage and wish to continue to pursue it. I talked with him briefly, Muriel...he seems like a very kind sincere man and I'm sure he impressed everyone. Then there were others who had a lot of facts and could quote articles and facts... some of these presentations were terrific and it was most impressive to sit there and listen to these people speak. However, it was also just great at the end of each session when there was some time available to hear those with unrehearsed and unprepared speeches take the chair and speak from their heart. While standing in the hallway near the elevators after the session, I overheard Mr. Chris Baker (the moderator) speaking with his assistant who said how impressed he was with those who came unprepared. Mr. Baker agreed but said they, of course, had the benefit of listening to everyone else before they spoke. The elevator door closed. I hope before this is over that someone can and will convince Mr. Baker to read the legislation so that he will discontinue using the term, "promise of confidentiality that the info would never be used". I think we convinced him that it's StatsCan's responsibility to prove this exists, and we know they can't do that. There was a lady attending the evening session from StatsCan...we learned this when she wouldn't sign Mary Ann's petition. All in all, I thought it was wonderful with one exception....it was a dreadful waste of time and money and will continue to be so. Do they have to rent the Commonwealth Ballroom at the Westin Hotel (the old Nova Scotian Hotel)? And don't think they weren't reminded of this. However, Mr. Baker is supposedly an unbiased third party and has probably been given a budget which would fund this Province for a year. For anyone watching Newsworld this a.m., we were on at least once this morning. If you saw it, it was Darce Fardy who was speaking. I personally liked Mr. Baker and thought he was very fair. Can't imagine he could ever have walked away last evening with anything but a positive feeling about the feelings of the folks in N.S. and how deeply and sincerely they care about this subject. Gwen |
Post 1901 Census Project Site Sponsored by:
Everything for The Family Historian!
1-800-361-5168 Bookstore Website
Copyright © GlobalGenealogy.com Inc. 1995-2009
