Canadian bill S-18 passes!
Canadian genealogists have been involved for several years in an effort to make post-1901 census records available to genealogists. For background information, look at http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census.
Now a victory seems to be at hand. The following message is from Gordon A. Watts, Co-chair of the Canada Census Committee:
Greetings All.
At 8:10 AM PDT this morning I received a telephone call from the Honourable Senator Lorna Milne.
She advised me that at 8:00 AM PDT MP Dominic LeBlanc, Deputy Government Whip, rose and stated words to the effect that "If the Speaker would seek it, I believe he would have the unanimous consent of the House to deem Bill S-18 -- An Act to amend the Statistics Act, to have passed Third Reading" (not necessarily an exact quote). That consent was given.
Bill S-18 has now passed all necessary stages in both the Senate and the House of Commons and all that remains to be done to make it law is for it to receive Royal Assent. It is expected that assent will be received shortly.
There will be, I am sure, a great deal of cheering and celebrating when that happens. It is believed that the Library and Archives of Canada has already scanned images of the 1911 National Census of Canada and they should be available on line almost immediately.
We should now be able to spend our Summer researching the 1911 records instead of continuing the fight to see them released.
Genealogists and historian owe a GREAT debt of thanks to the perserverance and dedication of the Hon. Senator Lorna Milne, without whose support over the past several years, we would not have achieved this victory.
Those wishing to express their thanks to Senator Milne can do so through her Policy Advisor, Jeff Paul at
On behalf of Muriel and myself, and all members of the Canada Census Committee, I wish to express our thanks to all who have written letters and email, signed petitions, called their Parliamentary representatives, and generally supported our efforts to regain the public access to Historic Census records we beleived we were always entitled to. I expect that Muriel will likely be forwarding her own message of appreciation as well.
We look forward to hearing some of the stories of success in researching the 1911 Census records.
Happy Hunting.
Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net
Co-chair Canada Census Committee
Port Coquitlam, BChttp://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census
en francais http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htmPermission to forward without notice is granted
UPDATE: Collections Canada has posted the following notice on their website stating that they have received the official transfer of the 1911 census records from StatsCan and the information should be available to the public by early August: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/whats-new/013-233-e.html
Posted by: Dick Eastman | July 02, 2005 at 10:14 AM