Mr. Speaker, I rise to present another petition to the House calling for the release of historic census records to the public. The petition is signed by more than 5,500 Canadians. Combined with the signatures of the previous petitions that I have presented on this subject in this session of parliament, the total number is now over 9,000.
The petition points out that an estimated 7.5 million Canadians are engaged in the pursuit of their family history and that census records are a valuable tool for such research. The records have been used in historical research, for tracing genetic diseases and in settling wills and estates.
The petitioners are calling upon parliament to take whatever steps are necessary to retroactively amend confidentiality clauses of the Statistics Act since 1906 to allow the release to the public, after a reasonable period of time, the post 1901 census records.