POST 1901 CENSUS PROJECT
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TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
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This page contains correspondence from Patricia McGregor, relating to the Town Hall Meeting held in Ottawa. A copy of her presentation follows. Patty attended the evening session of these meetings. From: Patty McGregor To: gordon_watts@telus.net Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2001 6:30 PM Subject: census presentation Hello Gordon, I just wanted to update you on the Ottawa session. I was one of four presenters in the evening session Dec 14. Along with myself was someone representing the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, a history professor from Ottawa U and a privacy consultant. Interesting that all but the privacy consultant had requested times to present, the privacy consultant was recruited by Environics 'to provide a balance'! The privacy person did state that as far as he was concerned, there were no privacy issues that would arise from the release of the 1906 or 1911 censuses, but subsequent ones might be problematic. There were about 40 people in the audience. A report on the Ottawa sessions should be on the environics website by Monday Dec 17, PM. After all the presenters, there was time for others to make shorter statements if they wished. There was a certian amount of scepticism expressed by some with respect to the focus groups and the possibility that the questions might be skewed towards a desired answer. We were assured that environics was far too professional and proud of their reputation to do that. Another gentleman wanted to know what had happened to all the petitions that had been submitted and why they were being ignored, and another woman complained that there weren't enough locations for town halls. There was no doubt that for this audience at least the vast majority were in favour of continued release of censuses after the 92 year closure as has been the practice to date. I heard no nay sayers. Patty McGregor Ottawa Presentation to the Census Committee Town Hall Dec 14, 2001 Introduction Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I am here as a private citizen, but also am a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society, specifically the Kingston and Kawartha Branches. My hobby is genealogy, but more than that, I am a family historian – ie – I am interested in more than just names and dates – and that is why the census information is so important to me. It allows me to gather familial rather than individual information. For example: who was living with whom? How common was the extended family? Who were my ancestors’ neighbours? Did they marry their neighbours? This information gives one a sense of community and a better understanding of how previous generations lived. I want to cover 3 issues in my allotted time:
2. The availability of other info without such debate 3. The ‘promise’ and the proposed compromise Census information is regarded among genealogical researchers as one of the four main primary sources. By that we mean records made at the time of the event by someone who was there. The others are civil registrations of birth, marriage and deaths, church records of christenings, marriages and burials and probate records. It has always been the rule of thumb for good researchers to provide corroborative proof and not rely on just one piece of evidence. Therefore we use all four primary sources to support information gleaned from other sources. To deny access to post 1901 census information, is in fact to deny genealogists one of the main sources of primary evidence. Census information is very important in building and following families through a number of generations. By tracing one family through all of the nominal censuses from 1851-1901, I have been able to develop a clear picture of that family in Canada. So far through clues from census information, I have been able to identify 6 brothers and their families who emigrated from Ireland and settled in Northumberland County between 1829 and 1837. I have followed all of those brothers and their children through the various censuses to 1901. That research will end with the 1901 census if future ones are not released and even the ‘compromise’ of which I will speak later would restrict my access so significantly as to make it impossible. My mother and her sisters always thought that their grandfather was one of a family of 6 boys – census information has told us that there were a total of 10 children in the family - 7 boys and 3 girls – 4 of whom died long before my mother was born. From the 1891 census, I found the initial clues that led me to the discovery that my great great grandparents adopted their daughter’s son and raised him as their own after she died in childbirth. In 1891 he was 3, in 1901 he was 13 – was he still living with them in 1911 when he was 23? I may never know if I’m not allowed to see the records. The wife of my 3rd great uncle died in Toronto in 1908 leaving him with three young children. He remarried in 1911, but because I may never get to view the 1911 census records, I may never know what happened to those children. They may have gone to live with his sister in Oshawa, but that must remain as speculation until I find some information to confirm it. As a result I have not been able to trace that branch of the family any further. From the 1901 census, I learned that my great grandfather who was a Presbyterian Minister in Fleming Saskatchewan was 56 years old, had a wife and three children and earned an annual salary of $800.00. I wonder how much his salary had increased by 1911? The agricultural census of 1871 tells me the Lots and Concessions where my ancestors lived; whether they owned or rented the land, how many buildings and what farm equipment they had, what livestock they raised and what kinds of yeilds the land produced right down to the number of bushels of potatoes, apples, oats and wheat. Issue 2: The availability of other information It is difficult to understand why there is such a furore over this issue. I can access freely other documents gathered by governments with few or no restrictions. For example: I can see the WW1 military records of my ancestors or for that matter anyone else’s – which contain info on where they enlisted, their next of kin, where they served, any injuries they incurred, when and where they were released from active service and their pay records. All this is free access with a searchable database on the web – BUT – information from the post 1901 censuses may be regarded as confidential so I cannot know where and with whom they were living, what if any occupation they had and how much money they made in 1911. Does that not seem a little ridiculous to you? It does to me. I can access the Dominion Land Grants – again with a searchable database on the web - and see their applications for land and find out whether or not their application was successful and if so, the location of that land. BUT I ma never be able to see the 1911 census to determine if that land was still in the family at that time. I can access Ontario Vital Statistics for births to 1903, deaths to 1928 and marriages to 1918 – with an additional year being released to the public every year. SO - I can find the death registration for my great grandmother who died in Toronto in 1924 which will among other things give me her age and cause of death. But I may never get to see the 1911 census to determine where and with whom she was living after the death of her husband in 1905. Issue 3; The ‘Promise’ and the Compromise Solution Finally, I would like to talk a little about the real reason these town halls are being held. It seems that there is a belief that a promise was made to Canadians that post 1901 census information would be confidential. Some people have taken that one step further to mean that the info should never be released and even possibly destroyed altogether. Although members of various genealogical communities have repeatedly asked through letters to Ministers and Members of Parliament as well as through requests for access to information, no one has been able to produce the promise of confidentiality which was supposedly made. Similarly, no one has been able to produce one piece of information that would indicate that census takers were instructed to tell people that the information they provided would never be divulged. So, we have this belief out there that some kind of promise was made, but no evidence to support that opinion. The initial task force set up to examine the issue recommended to Minister Manley that the legislation be changed to allow for censuses to be released on schedule. Senator Lorna Milne has presented a bill (S-12) to retroactively change the legislation to correct the assumption of secrecy that presently exists so that census records can continue to be released 92 years after their collection. And let’s just assume for a moment that there was a promise of confidentiality made. I have heard some folks claim that government could not go back on a promise that was made to their constituents 90 years ago. If that were to happen, I suspect that it would not be the first time a government reversed a decision made by a predecessor. Times were different then, issues were different and if indeed such a decision was made, I’m sure the future implications of that were not wholly understood. There apparently is a compromise solution on the table that the former Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips has said he could accept. While I put forward my own personal opinions on this, I believe that most if not all of us in the genealogical community would agree that the compromise solution is so restrictive, it is really little better than no access at all. One of the main problems with the compromise solution as I see it is that it is based on the assumption that indeed a promise was made when no clear evidence has been produced to support that. Until that promise can be produced, to me there is no need for a compromise solution. Another problem with this solution is that it would allow genealogists “access to historical records for…genealogical research about one’s own family”. On the surface this seems fine – it’s what we are asking for, but the restrictive definition of “one’s own family” defined as direct descendants of a direct ancestor would mean that I could access information on my great grandfather, but none of his siblings. So research on extended families (aunts, uncles, cousins, non direct line relatives connected by marriage) would be so restricted as to be almost the same as having no access. How would such access or non access be managed? How would people in rural areas access the information? Presently census information is on microfilm and available through inter-library loan. It would be extremely costly to set up such a system where applicants would have to prove relationships in order to access the records. And if I don’t know exactly where my ancestors were living at a given time, how is it determined what I would be able to look at? Similarly, if I want to publish my family history for future generations, this compromise solution would restrict my ability to do so. Based on the definition of family stated above, it would prevent me from sharing even the existence of ancestors discovered through the census records let alone including in my writings information discovered about them. I find it difficult to understand why Canada has taken such a restrictive approach when other governments are doing just the opposite. For example, England and Wales who release their censuses after 100 years are preparing to make their 1901 census available on The Internet by January 2002. The United States releases their census records after 72 years and is also preparing to make that information available on the Internet. A database of immigrants who came through Ellis Island is also now on the web. Other countries are moving forwards at a time when Canada is proposing to take a giant leap backwards. For all the reasons stated above, I cannot support this compromise. It will seriously limit not only my genealogical pursuits but my understanding of my extended family and their placement in the history of this country. At a time when we should be promoting history and heritage, it does not make sense to limit access to records that promote and support that understanding. To my mind I support Mr Gordon Watts who has been instrumental in keeping the genealogical community informed throughout this discussion and who will I believe be speaking at one of the town halls in Vancouver. There are three options available to resolve this issue and none of them are the compromise presently on the table: Option 1 Accept Senator Milne’s Bill (S-12) as a government bill, preferably without modification and see it passed by both the Senate and the House of Commons; Option 2 Accept the recommendations contained in the Report of the Expert Panel on Access to Historical Census Records, draft a government bill that reflects those recommendations and see it passed into law; Option 3 Add the notwithstanding clause suggested by the legal opinion of Ms. Ann Chaplin, Senior Counsel, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Department of Justice. Ms. Chaplin considered the whole picture and did not find a permanent prohibition to public access of census records and further suggested that the addition of a ‘notwithstanding clause’ to Section 4 of the National Archives of Canada Act would be all that is required to resolve the current impasse. In conclusion, I urge you to do the right thing. Find a solution which will provide reasonable access to historical census records for genealogical and historical research. Census records should be treated the same way post 1901 as they are pre 1901 – there should be no difference. Census records belong to Canadians and should be available through equal access to all to further the understanding of our heritage. There is nothing nefarious in this – we simply want to be able to know those who went before us, to understand the kinds of lives they lived and to put their experiences into a historical perspective. Help us do that by making these records available now and into the future. |
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