National Post
Saturday, December 28, 2002
Byline: Dave Obee
Source: The Times Colonist
VICTORIA - This should be a time
of celebration for historians and genealogists
across Canada, because 2003 will
mean 92 years has passed since the federal
government took its census of
1911.
Old census records, which list
virtually every resident of the day, are valuable tools
for anyone doing research into
families, communities, demographics and more. And
the government ruled in the 1980s
that old censuses are to be opened 92 years
after the information was gathered.
That's why so many researchers
were so busy back in 1993 -- the 1901 census
was opened that year, with microfilm
copies made available through hundreds of
libraries across the land.
But when it comes to the 1911 census,
there's a catch. As a result, all of those
researchers aren't celebrating
-- they're firing off letters and petitions and
freedom-of-information requests
to Ottawa.
Old census records are made available
to the public through the National Archives
of Canada, which in turn gets
them from Statistics Canada. This time around,
Statistics Canada won't release
the microfilms, citing confidentiality agreements
made three generations ago.
The National Archives is keen to
get its hands on the 1911 census and Canada's
Information Commissioner, John
Reid, says he's prepared to take Statistics Canada
to court to ensure that the material
is released. Statistics Canada is standing firm.
While this little battle makes
for fascinating politics, it doesn't help the people who
are trying to gain a better understanding
of our nation's history.
And speaking of history, here goes.
There have been census enumerations
of one sort or another in Canada since
1666, when Jean Talon put together
a list of everyone living in New France.
The first post-Confederation census
came in 1871, including only Ontario, Quebec,
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Ten years later, the people were tallied again, and
this time the census included
Western Canada and Prince Edward Island, as well
as the original four provinces.
National censuses have been taken every 10 years since.
In the mid-1880s, the federal government
noticed that a lot more people were
settling in the West and the population
was growing much more quickly than in the
rest of the country. So it started
a series of Prairie enumerations in the middle of
each decade, along with the national
ones.
These special censuses of Alberta,
Manitoba and Saskatchewan continued to 1956,
when the mid-decade census was
deemed such a good idea that Ottawa made it a
national event. That's why we
have two national censuses every decade.
For the record, the census isn't
taken just to give researchers a great source of data
a century or so into the future.
The census is a key part of government planning and
spending; grants can be based
on the population of different areas, and
representation in the House of
Commons is based, to a certain extent, on what the
census-takers learn. (That's why
a redistribution is always done after the first
census of each decade.)
So the use of the returns by researchers
is only a byproduct, a great way to get
added value from some old government
forms that would otherwise simply be taking
up space.
There's a bit of a tussle over
the 1906 Prairie census, which the government has
declined to release for public
consumption. The theory is that getting the 1906
enumeration made available will
set a precedent for release of the returns from 1911
and later.
This raises the question: If the
1901 census is already out-- in fact, it's available
online on the National Archives
Web site -- why is one from a decade later so
important?
Well, it depends on a person's area of interest.
For those with a desire to learn
more about the people and development of Western
Canada, the 1911 count is crucial.
This is the census taken during the largest influx
of immigrants in Canada's history
-- and most of those new arrivals came to the four
western provinces.
Consider these numbers: In 1911,
the population of Saskatchewan was up 439%
from 1901. Alberta was up 413%.
British Columbia's population grew by 119%, and
Manitoba's numbers rose by 78%.
Ontario, on the other hand, saw its population
rise by only 15%, and Quebec's
was up by just 21%. That's healthy growth, but
almost insignificant compared
to what happened in the West.
The reluctance at Statistics Canada
to release the 1911 census means that a major
resource to use in the study of
Western Canadian development is simply not
available. It also means that
many people whose ancestors came to Canada in the
early years of the 20th century
-- again, the Western provinces were the primary
destination then -- are shut out
of research using census returns.
The disagreement between bureaucrats
would be comical if the access to so much
of history was not being cut off.
But it is, just because the good people at Statistics
Canada read the rules one way,
and the people at the archives read them quite
differently.
A couple of months ago, the government
announced that it would come up with
legislation that would allow access
to the old census returns. There has been little
movement since then, but that's
no great surprise -- consider how long it took for the
legislation on endangered species
to work through the system.
The ancestors we will find in the
1911 census are, for the most part, dead. So
researchers can't claim the urgency
of a species at risk.
They'll just have to rely, I guess, on common sense.
An expert panel on access to historical
records has already said the census should
be opened. So has the National
Archives and the Information Commissioner -- but
as long as Statistics Canada has
the key to the microfilm cabinet, those reels will
stay locked inside. The 1911 census
could be released in 2003, as it should be, if
the federal government decides
to do it. It's as simple as that.
All it would take is legislation that would be clear to all the bureaucrats involved.