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

Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
1st Session, 37th Parliament,
Volume 139, Issue 36
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
The Honourable Dan Hays, Speaker



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Access to Census Information

Presentation of Petitions

Hon. Lorna Milne Honourable senators, I am at it again. I have the honour to present 862 signatures from Canadians from the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia who are researching their ancestry, as well as signatures from 126 people from the United States who are researching their Canadian roots. A total of 988 people are petitioning the following:

Your petitioners call upon Parliament to take whatever steps necessary to retroactively amend the Confidentiality-Privacy clauses of Statistics Acts since 1906, to allow release to the Public after a reasonable period of time, of Post 1901 Census reports starting with the 1906 Census.

These 862 signatures are in addition to the 9,704 I have presented in this calendar year, for a total of 10,722 signatures presented to the Thirty-seventh Parliament and over 6,000 to the Thirty-sixth Parliament, all calling for immediate action on this very important matter of Canadian history.



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QUESTION PERIOD

Delayed Answer to an Oral Question

Hon. Fernand Robichaud (Deputy Leader of the Government): Honourable senators, I have the honour to table in this House a delayed answer to a question raised by Honourable Senator Rivest on May 1, 2001 regarding the census questionnaire and Canadian linguistic duality.



Statistics Canada

Census Questionnaire-Canadian Linguistic Duality

The reporting of ethnic origin or ancestry has changed over time partly as a result of changes in census questions and partly as a result of the way individuals identify their origins. However, the census can be used to measure the number of anglophones or francophones for Acadian or any of the cultural groups reported in the census.

Canada is a world leader in the collection of data on language. The census can be used to monitor a number of trends in the number and characteristics of anglophones and francophones. A question on mother tongue has been included in all censuses since 1921 and questions on home language and knowledge of official languages have been included in more recent censuses.

Moreover, for the 2001 Census, there are two new questions that will allow for an even more in-depth analysis of language knowledge and use. In particular a question on all languages spoken at home and a new question on language of work has been added to the census.