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The following article by Irving Abella appeared in the Globe and Mail 5 November 1999

Census secrets make no sense

Irving Abella – Toronto

Canadian history is in a state of crisis, this time for a peculiar reason.

At a time when Canadians are increasingly interested in their past, and private foundations such as the newly created Historica are committing millions of dollars to improve the teaching and dissemination of Canadian history, we may be barred from access to this history by some seemingly insignificant bureaucratic decisions in Ottawa. The most disturbing of these to scholars is the grievous problem of census materials.

For some time, Statistics Canada has refused to transfer to the archives all 20th-century data, except those from the 1901 census. In his recent report to Parliament, Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips apparently supports the decision not to let scholars look at any of the material gathered over the past 100 years.

While the Canadian Historical Association appreciates the concern of the Canadian government regarding census data, as it seeks to find a balance between legitimate privacy interests and the right of the Canadian public to conduct research into its past, Ottawa must realize that census material is an essential building block for historical inquiry by researchers, professional and amateur, and by a vast number of genealogists.

The availability of the 1891 and 1901 census materials is a case in point. These records – anonymous responses concerning housing, health, income and general social conditions – have been of tremendous benefit to understanding our country, and a vital source for individuals and communities searching for their roots.

The only difference between the 1901 census and the 1906 or 1911 censuses is a legal technicality in an outdated piece of legislation. The government of Wilfrid Laurier promised that information collected in the 1906 special western census would be acquired in confidence – a promise codified in 1918 to apply to every census thereafter. In other words, the Privacy Commissioner proposes to keep the 20th-century closed based on the wording of an 81-year-old statue passed in another time, with entirely different notions of the state, public policy, research and government accountability. This stance appears to violate both the letter and the spirit of the Privacy Act’s regulations, which allow for the release of census materials 92 years after the census was taken.

Much has changed since 1918, especially in the past quarter-century, as evidenced by the passage of laws on access to information and privacy. All kinds of records for which Canadians were promised confidentiality, and which contain far more sensitive personal information than census data have in due course been transferred to the National Archives and release for research without any public outcry. Military medical records are one example, as are RCMP and CSIS records, which, though acquired from Canadians in confidence, have been transferred to the archives to be released according to Access to Information and Privacy Act regulations.

Even the release of the 1891 and 1901 censuses by the National Archives provoked no protest or intervention by privacy advocates. No Canadian has complained that his or her family’s privacy was violated by allowing thousands of researchers to use those records.

In his report, Mr. Phillips notes that Australia has chosen to destroy all census material. That decision reflects Australia’s special concern about its convict immigrant past. The experience of the United States, our closest neighbour in the matter of public policy, is much different; the American government releases comprehensive census data, with much public fanfare, after only 70 years.

Statistics Canada has developed two possible options for resolving the census impasse. One is to amend the Statistics Act to allow all post-1996 census records to be transferred to the care and control of the National Archives of Canada. The other is to amend the act to allow all post-1901 census material to be transferred to the archives. In both cases, the release would be governed by the Privacy Act and its regulations, in particular the 92-year waiting period.

The first option, which would bar Canadians from their documentary heritage for the censuses of the 20th century, is unacceptable. To close all comprehensive census materials gathered from 1906 to 1996 would deliver a blow to humanities and social-sciences research in this country from which it would never recover. These materials are crucial to our understanding of 20th-century Canada.

There is only one acceptable option: Amend the Statistics Act to make it consistent with the National Archives of Canada Act, the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act and their accompanying regulations. This amendment must apply to all censuses from 1906 to 1996 (and thereafter) and be made effective before the 2001 census is printed and distributed.

The change would permit the immediate transfer of all census raw data in microfilm to the custody and control of the National Archives, and the maintenance of the electronic version of all post-1901 censuses according to the archives criteria governing disposition and preservation. This material would then be made available to the public on a regular and continuing basis in accordance with the strict provisions of the Privacy Act’s regulations. It is worth noting that the Information Commissioner has endorsed our proposal.

This solution is not, as Mr. Phillips presents it in his report, the threat of a special-interest lobbying group trying to thwart a fundamental promise made to Canadians. Rather, it is an attempt to remove a legal technicality that thwarts the balance laid out in the Privacy Act, whose regulations reflect the will of Canadians as expressed through their parliamentarians. It is hard to understand why the Privacy Commissioner wishes to use an 81-year-old legal technicality to block release of information to which Canadians are entitled under modern laws and regulations.

At a time when more and more Canadians are expressing concern about the teaching and researching of Canadian history, it would be foolhardy to rob them of the opportunity to learn as much as they can about their fellow Canadians earlier in this century. Our history, and ultimately our identity, would be needlessly endangered.

Irving Abella is president of the Canadian Historical Association, and the Shiff professor of Canadian Jewish history at York University.