Waterloo says new cemetery photo bylaw won't affect historians, family

People researching their family's genealogy, or history in general, don't need to be concerned about new rules in Waterloo's cemeteries, city staff say.

Starting Sept. 1, a change to the city's bylaw for the operation of the Parkview and Mount Hope cemeteries states no one will be permitted to take "any photographic or video imaging within any cemetery except with the prior permission of the manager."

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Genealogists worried the bylaw meant they might not be allowed to take photos of gravesites, and raised those concerns on the Ontario Genealogical Society Facebook page as well as a blog post for the Canada GenWeb's Cemetery Project, which was worried the bylaw "would have a major impact on genealogy."

"For genealogists, cemeteries are invaluable and it's difficult to put into words," Sherri Pettit, spokesperson for the Cemetery Project, said in an email to CBC K-W.

"Photographs can last longer than a headstone. Either due to vandalism or the march of time, many headstones can become illegible and a photograph can be the only remaining record of its existence," she said.

"We understand the need to protect and preserve our cemeteries and the role that municipalities play in ensuring that cemeteries are protected. But we also understand the need to be allowed reasonable access to create and preserve our personal histories."

Rule not unusual elsewhere

Bryce Crouse, the city's manager of cemetery services, said the city does not plan to restrict access for people doing research or who want to take a photo of a family member's grave.

"We have no intention of interfering with that," he said. "That's part of the family's experience in the cemetery and we're very much supportive of that and would hope that continued in the way that it's always continued. So it's business as usual in that regard."

Crouse said the changes are more to stop people who might be using the cemeteries for photographing or filming for commercial purposes.

It's also meant to maintain proper decorum in cemeteries. While there have been no cases of people doing anything to desecrate cemeteries, Crouse said having a bylaw on their side can help if they ever do face that kind of situation.

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"If someone came in and started doing something now and we approached them and said, 'We'd like you to shut that down,' they would say, 'Well, show me in the bylaws where I can't be doing this,' and right now, we don't have that," he said.

The changes are not out of line with rules in other cemeteries across the province, Crouse said, including the Mount Pleasant Group Cemeteries in Toronto, one of the largest cemetery operators in Ontario.