Digitizing immigration and residential-school records under Canadian access rules

What to take away

Why these two record groups are not handled the same way

Immigration records are bureaucratic files about individuals, created by the state and held under federal access law. Residential-school records are community records about children, families and survival, often created by churches and government and now controlled by Indigenous communities. The difference is not sentiment. It is legal authority and cultural authority.

Immigration files usually contain a person's name, date of entry, ship or flight, and sometimes a photograph. They are personal information under the Privacy Act. You request them, you receive copies, you can digitize what you receive.

Residential-school records often contain the same kinds of details, but the records themselves may be held by a national archive, a church archive, a provincial archive or a community. The community decides who sees them, how they are described, and what can be published.

That is community control, and it overrides the usual assumption that a public archive means public access.

A family historian may hold both kinds of files in the same box. Treat them as two projects, not one.

Before you scan anything, run a detection and containment checklist so a mixed box does not become a mixed-up digital collection.

Immigration records: access under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is the statute that governs immigration and refugee records, including many files now held by Library and Archives Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. You find it in the federal Consolidated Acts list under I. The Act is cited as the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27.

The Act matters to digitization because it sets out what is in an immigration file, how long it is kept, and when it can be released. You do not need to read the whole statute. You need to know that the file exists and that access is a request process, not a download.

For files about yourself, you request under the Privacy Act. For files about a deceased relative, you may need proof of death and relationship. For files about a living person, you need that person's written consent, or you wait.

Library and Archives Canada holds older immigration records, including passenger lists and some case files. IRCC holds more recent files. Provincial archives such as the Archives of Ontario or Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec may hold related provincial records.

Start with a written request that names the person, the approximate date and the port of entry. Vague requests take longer. A clear request can be answered with a digital copy you are free to keep for family use.

The standard federal request form is the Access to Information and Personal Information Request Form, TBS/SCT 350-57, available on the LAC and IRCC ATIP pages. IRCC also lists its own request route for immigration files.

Digitization planning should begin with an inventory of what you already have and what you are requesting, not with a scanner purchase. See Digitization planning for how to sequence that work.

Once you receive a digital file, check whether it carries restrictions. A copy for family use is not the same as a copy you can post online.

Residential-school records: community control and cultural protocols

Residential-school records and community control are the core issue. The records document children who were taken from families, and the communities those children belonged to have the right to decide how the records are handled.

That right is recognized in the work of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and in the mandates of many Indigenous governments and organizations.

The NCTR at the University of Manitoba holds survivor records and the National Student Memorial Register. Its website, nctr.ca, has a records request form and a contact page. Eligibility covers survivors, families and communities. The NCTR does not publish a fixed response time; it depends on the record and on community protocols.

For community records, start with the band council, the Métis Nation regional office or the Inuit community corporation. Friendship Centres can direct you to the right office. If a church holds the record, contact the church archive and the community together.

The federal Indigenous Peoples portal is a starting point for understanding the bodies involved and the records they hold. It links to programs and services that support survivors, families and communities, including record access and commemoration. See Indigenous Peoples - Canada.ca.

Cultural protocols vary. Some communities want records digitized and returned. Some want copies kept in the community and not published. Some want certain images, names or languages restricted. Some want ceremonies or Elder guidance before records are copied.

You do not guess these protocols. You ask the community or the institution that holds the records. If the records are held by a church archive, you ask the church and the community. If they are held by a national or provincial archive, you ask the archive and the community.

Consent may be collective, not individual. A survivor may consent to a copy for family use, but the community may still control publication. Both can be true at once.

Digitizing these records is often welcome. Publishing them without permission is not. The difference is the agreement you make before the scan, not the scan itself.

Consent, privacy and the Privacy Act in digitization projects

The Privacy Act applies to personal information held by federal institutions. That includes immigration files and many records about individuals held by Library and Archives Canada and other federal bodies. See The Privacy Act - Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The Act is cited as the Privacy Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. P-21.

For a digitization project, the Act shapes three things: what you can request, what you can keep, and what you can share. You can request your own information. You can request information about someone who has given written consent. You can request information about a deceased person if you can show the required proof.

The OPC also publishes guidance on requesting and handling personal information that is useful when you are building a project file. See Accessing personal information - Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Consent should be written and specific. It should say what will be digitized, who will hold the files, where they will be stored, who can see them, and whether they can be published. A general permission to "use family photos" is not enough for sensitive records.

Store consent forms with the digital files. If a community or an individual later withdraws consent, you need to know what you hold and be able to remove it.

For federal government privacy topics that affect records access, including retention and disclosure, the OPC's federal pages are the reference point. See Federal government privacy - Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

PIPEDA applies to private-sector organizations, not to family historians working on their own collections. It matters if you are part of a museum, historical society or other organization that collects personal information in the course of commercial activity. Know which law applies before you promise access.

Working with institutions and Indigenous communities

Institutional and community partners are not interchangeable. An institution may hold the records and control physical access. A community may hold the cultural authority and control what the records mean and who may see them. You need both relationships.

Explain what you have, what you want to do, and who will benefit. Ask what restrictions apply.

Federal requests have a 30 calendar day response deadline under the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act, with extensions allowed. There is no application fee for a Privacy Act request. An Access to Information request costs $5. Community review can take weeks or months, and that is reasonable.

Put the agreement in writing. A short letter or email that states the scope, the restrictions and the storage arrangements is enough. Keep it with the project file.

If you are working with a provincial or territorial archive, ask whether the records are covered by provincial access and privacy law as well as federal law.

Ontario and British Columbia use the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Alberta and Nova Scotia use the same name.

Quebec uses the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information. Manitoba uses the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Yukon uses the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

National bodies can help. The Canadian Council of Archives, the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property publish guidance on handling and preserving records. Canadian Heritage programs, including the Museum Assistance Program, may fund community digitization work.

Scanning standards and metadata for restricted material

Scan at a resolution that serves the record, not the scanner's maximum. For textual records, 300 to 400 ppi at 24-bit colour is a common working standard. For photographs, 600 ppi or higher is safer if you may need to enlarge details. Save a full-resolution TIFF and a smaller access JPEG.

Name files so restrictions travel with them. A file name like 2026-09-13_IRS_SchoolName_Box12_Item04_restricted.jpg tells a future reader more than scan001.jpg.

Metadata should record the source, the date of the record, the people named, the community or institution that authorized the copy, the consent reference, and the access level. Use a simple spreadsheet if you do not have collection software.

Access levels can be as simple as: open, family only, community only, restricted. Put the level in the file name and in the metadata. Do not rely on memory.

Back up to at least two locations, one offline. If you are working with disc media, choose formats and discs that will still be readable later. See formats and disc media for what to avoid.

Silent media decay ruins more digitization projects than bad scans do. See Silent media decay for the warning signs.

For home scanning of photographs, the settings matter more than the scanner. See Photo digitization at home for a practical starting point.

Manitoba mixed box: immigration papers and a residential-school record

A family in Manitoba holds a box of immigration papers and a photocopy of a residential-school record. The immigration papers name a grandfather who arrived in 1923. The residential-school record names an aunt who attended a school in the 1940s.

Step 1: Sort the box into two piles, immigration and residential-school, and label each item with a pencil number.

Step 2: Request the grandfather's immigration file from Library and Archives Canada, citing the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Privacy Act. Ask for a digital copy.

Step 3: Confirm the community or institution protocols for the residential-school record, including whether a digital copy can be kept for family use.

Step 4: Scan the immigration papers at 400 ppi, save full-resolution TIFFs, and record the file number and source.

Step 5: For the residential-school record, scan only what the community or institution permits, and mark the access level in the file name and metadata.

Step 6: Store both sets with the consent forms and the request correspondence. Do not publish either set online without written permission.

Pre-scan checklist

What not to publish, and why

Do not publish names, images, health details or school attendance lists from residential-school records without explicit permission from the community or the person named. Publication can identify survivors, expose family history that was never shared, and break an agreement you made before scanning.

Do not publish immigration files that contain information about living people without their consent. A file that is old is not automatically public.

Do not post restricted records to social media, genealogy sites or open cloud folders. A private link is not private if it is shared.

Do not strip metadata. Restrictions recorded in the file name or the catalogue entry are part of the record.

Do not assume that a public archive means public publication.

Common questions