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Soumission complète

(Soumis en anglais seulement.)

Auteur : Derek Chase
Envoyé : Saturday, March 17, 2001 9:39 AM

Hello,

With reference to the following clause,

24. (1) The head of a government institution shall refuse to disclose any record requested under this Act that contains information the disclosure of which is restricted by or pursuant to any provision set out in Schedule II.

If Section 17 of the Statistics Act were removed from Schedule II of the ATI Act Statistics Canada would no longer be able to refuse turning control of Post 1901 Census records over to the National Archives. Once under the control of the National Archivist, provisions of the Privacy Act would permit public access to those records, 92 years after collection.

I would like to submit to you and emphasize the need to remove Section 17 of the Statistics Act from Schedule II, thus allowing transfer of control of Historic Census Records to the National Archivist.

My submission is as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am Derek Chase, a Realtor and Deputy Mayor of Saint John New Brunswick and a genealogist. I have been following at a distance the debate over the access of historians and genealogists (or proposed lack thereof) to census records despite the passage of 92 or even 100 years ! This is incomprehensible to me as someone who has spent hours and hours in the Saint John Free Public Library and in the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, attempting to discern the origins of my family name and the whereabouts of my ancestors. This work involves poring over thousands of feet of microfilmed census records, archived by our ancester-bureaucrats who saw the importance of keeping these vital statistics.

But it is especially incomprehensible to me in this particular way : we are at a time when governments are breaking silences and secrecies to allow people TO FIND THEIR BIRTH MOTHERS AND FATHERS! So, obviously the principles are being unfairly applied, over different jurisdictions, with the resultant being pledged secrecy from state adoption agencies and birthing records from the Salvation Army and other charitable hostels being opened and exposed !

Obviously, the very thing meant to ensure secrecy , the 100 year rule, would be useless to someone seeking their birth mother and, I admit , they shouldn't be allowed to do it, promises were made, pledges by state agencies that the records were secret, and it is indeed wrong .

But it is not wrong to seek and find family groupings from 100 or more years ago ! That is the essence of my argument. Is there evidence that people today will NOT comply with the census rules if their details are likely to come out 100 years later ? What details would they like to have hidden all those years from now ? Why ? Or is it a generalized feeling of malaise that comes with anyone anywhere "requiring" you to fill out papers ? It is easy to make such a snap decision or quick answer when it is linked to something you find unfair or an infringement on your rights as many people feel the census to be.... you say-- -"OK I'll fill it out . But I don't like it ...and NO while we're at it I don't want you allowing details out I don't care if it's a thousand years!!!" Simple psychology really.

Please keep in mind, we do not wish to have access to every little detail...just family members their ages, their religions, dwellers in the same house . We are not looking for mis-deeds or hidden fortunes or criminality...we are seeking age, place of birth, place of death, people living in a home at a given point in time, and their relationship to the Head of Household. That's all. What could be more innocuous ? ? ? How would one find linkages, especially relating to average people who never find their way into the newspapers of the day ? It is painstaking "proofs" through census, marriage birth and death records. Even church records are either not kept, or are often useless, or have been destroyed by mishap such as fire.

I "believe" for example that my Chase family came from England in 1630, and settled at Yarmouth Cap Cod, MA. But I have not as yet been able to "prove" that by finding a record in New Brunswick, because the first census was not done until 1851 , a FULL 67 or 68 years after the United Empire Loyalists were driven from what was to become the United States of America ! Average Loyalists had small parcels of land given them which they cleared, farmed and lived upon. Many left and went elsewhere. It was hard. Census records were obviously not foremost in anyone's mind during that first half century. While much of the pleasure is in the quest, I could certainly celebrate right now IF I was able to turn up a census of , lets say 1831 or 1821.....The gaps that would fill in for me in my knowledge, would be enormous. So too would be the incredibly interesting quest into my maternal line, which appears to have been almost all of Irish origin ! Ireland doesn;t have the greatest system of records because of many different factors, and it would be an incredible boon to be able to find early 1800's information on my Irish ancestors here.(prior to the great famine which is fairly well documented as to who the people were and where they came from.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, as I write this your web site is not coming up so the details of submissions escape me. I hope and trust my words will find a sympathetic ear, as I believe this is an issue involving bureaucratic intransigence over the application of the rules, and with some common sense , instead of being hide bound to a policy, access to census records for genealogists 100 or more years from now will be assured. Of course, that's why you are holding these hearings isn't it ?

I began my interest in the family origins when I was in my 30's, it became more of an interest and hobby in my late 40's and I am now in the first half of my fifties. I feel it is important to at least express to you that family historians come in all manner of packages and from almost every age group that has curiosity. I am just one of those, and hold no special status. You will see my profession is Realtor, I am a former broadcast journalist and commentator. I hold in extremely high regard the rights of the individual, but I also hold in high regard the principle of "reasonable limits" on rights. In my view, it would be unreasonable to seal census records forever and ever amen!

Thank you,

Derek Chase

*I am aware that your process is transparent and do not object to my name and my submission being in the public domain.

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