EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD -- PROCEEDINGS OF CANADA'S SENATE :

Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
2nd Session, 36th Parliament,
Volume 138, Issue 7
Tuesday, November 16, 1999
The Honourable Gildas L. Molgat, Speaker



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Panel on Access to Historical Census Records

Hon. Lorna Milne: Honourable senators, I am very happy to rise today to emphasize to this chamber a recent announcement by the Honourable John Manley, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

Last Friday, Minister Manley announced the creation of an expert panel on access to historical census records. The panel will report to the minister by May 31, 2000, with recommendations on an approach that will balance the need to protect personal privacy with the demands of genealogists, historians and archivists for access to historical census records.

As all honourable senators are aware, I have been lobbying Parliament on this issue for over a year now. I am delighted to see the minister taking a proactive approach to this issue and appointing a panel of five well-respected individuals, one of whom is a former colleague of ours, the Honourable Dr. Lorna Marsden.

I hope that this panel will be able to drum up a few fresh ideas on how to reach an acceptable compromise between the interests of protecting personal privacy and researching our Canadian heritage.

Minister Manley has listened to my lobbying efforts, has taken note of the correspondence of Canadian genealogists, historians and archivists, and has now taken the first step in responding to our concerns through the creation of this panel. This is the beginning of results for all the effort that genealogical and historical groups have put into bringing awareness and public voice to this issue.

I look forward to reading the panel's report early next year.



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ORDERS OF THE DAY

Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Bill
Second Reading-Debate Continued

On the Order:

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable Senator Murray, before you begin, under our rules you are allowed 45 minutes as the first speaker after the sponsor of the bill. However, you did use up 37 minutes. Therefore, you have eight minutes left.

Hon. Lowell Murray: I shall do my best.

Honourable senators, I was looking upon this as the second half of a speech which I began to deliver on November 4, when I opened debate on behalf of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition on Bill C-6.

Before proceeding, I wish to correct the record in respect of an inaccuracy that I placed thereon during my speech on November 4. I was discussing efforts that had been made in the past by various political parties to entrench in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms a right to privacy.

I stated, mistakenly, that Mr. Chrétien had been Minister of Justice in the Trudeau government prior to the 1979 election. He was not. Mr. Chrétien became Minister of Justice in the Trudeau administration that took office in March of 1980.

In the course of my speech on November 4, I also opened a parenthesis concerning the confidentially of census data. That matter was raised earlier today during Senators' Statements by our colleague Senator Milne.

I referred to the campaign presently underway which would change the law brought in by Sir Wilfrid Laurier that guaranteed the confidentiality of personal and private information collected in the course of the census. At that time, I expressed my opposition to a change in that law as a matter of principle. Since that time, I have had a number of indignant - indeed, in some cases irate - letters from various people, notably those interested in genealogy. These people represented to me that adequate safeguards could be devised if we would but change the law. My response to them has been and is: Show me the safeguards and we will consider them, if and when Parliament is asked to change that law. However, on the general principle, I am unmoved. I believe that personal and private information collected from individuals by the government in the course of a census on the basis of a law that guarantees confidentiality should be kept confidential. I believe, as a matter of principle, that we should not lightly change that law. After all, census-taking over the years has become more and more intrusive, and just because people die does not mean that the government should be relieved of the commitment of confidentiality it made to those people.

That is my opinion, honourable senators. In places like the Senate, we should be on guard against the apparent attempts by some historians, social scientists and journalists to persuade us that the right to collect and disseminate information should trump every other right in the book. That is why I have advocated that we revisit the idea of entrenching a right to privacy in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I cheerfully acknowledge that what we have here is a conflict or a clash between two legitimate principles, one having to do with access to information and the other having to do with privacy. As in any similar conflict of principles, one must try to strike a balance. This clash of principles or of values is also apparent in the bill that is before the house today.

(The above represents the beginning part of Senator Lowell Murray’s statement in continuing debate of Bill C-6. The remainder of his statement is not copied as it is not pertinent to the purpose of this document.)