'Listen, I’m a gun owner and the fact is that the underpinning of the entire message of the Conservatives is "Once we know where the guns are, they’re going to come and take your guns away," which is not at all part of the Canadian psyche or possibility,' says Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.
PARLIAMENT HILL—The Conservative government’s plan to scrap the federal long-gun registry and destroy its records has won banner headlines at the National Rifle Association of America, inspiring opposition MPs to compare the Conservative policy in Canada to right-wing U.S. lobbying that has long fought tougher gun laws south of the border.
The NRA website as of Monday featured five news stories about the government’s long-gun initiative in Canada, including the Conservative plan to trash all the long-gun registry records that have been accumulated over the past 11 years and a possible battle with Quebec over preservation of the data so the province can establish its own version to keep track of rifles and shotguns.
The attention from the powerful U.S. gun lobby prompted Montreal Liberal MP Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) to argue that the government’s decision to not only scrap the registry, but also its records on gun owners, is a “very, very ideological exercise.”
Mr. Trudeau—who disclosed in an interview he has long been familiar with firearms and has a licence to buy and own both long guns and restricted weapons such as handguns—told The Hill Times that the Conservative gun registry measures promote fears among gun owners that the registry records might some day help a government of another stripe confiscate hunting rifles and shotguns.
“There’s no question that this is a very, very ideological exercise,” Mr. Trudeau said. “Listen, I’m a gun owner and the fact is that the underpinning of the entire message of the Conservatives is 'Once we know where the guns are, they’re going to come and take your guns away,' which is not at all part of the Canadian psyche or possibility. It’s just a question of recognizing we’re better off knowing where those guns are.”
As if to counter the Conservative claims that the Liberals or New Democrats are intent on one day renewing the registry out of a philosophical opposition to hunting or sport shooting, Mr. Trudeau said he has been around guns his entire life, in his upbringing with his outdoors-loving father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, to now, with his brother, Alexandre, keeping a firearm at the family’s country place in Quebec.
“I was raised around guns, raised shooting, we have guns up at our country place, they were registered until they were stolen in a break in a few years ago, but it’s something that is part of my life,” Mr. Trudeau said.
“I’m not much of a hunter. I’m not a hunter at all actually, but I certainly understand that it’s a part of Canada,” he said. “Last time I wielded a gun I was a high school teacher on a trip through the North and we were hiking with kids in polar bear territory and I had a loaded 30.06 slung over my shoulder.”
Mr. Trudeau told The Hill Times that his father was also not a "big hunter" and that RCMP officers around him taught them how to shoot guns. "I mean I’m okay with a handgun, quite good with a rifle, but best with a shotgun, things like clay pigeons. It’s something, for me, that is Canadian. I just don’t think there is cause for tremendous fear or angst about this, and it certainly is no cause to create divisions between Canadians," he said.
He said he is not concerned the government maintained records on the family’s firearms.
“No, they know what kind of car I drive too,” he said. “I mean this worry about the man, it goes back almost to the mountain man in the United States, the anti-government activist. I mean we’ve got an anti-government government [in Canada] right now, and there is this lack of faith that we are all trying to figure out collectively what is best for Canada.”
Mr. Trudeau said the NRA interest in the Canadian firearms registry since its controversial launch in the mid-1990s under the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien is a reminder of the kind of polarization that has seized the issue of gun regulation in the U.S., and other aspects of political and national life.
“The arrival of, not just American right-wing politics like this, but the polarization that comes with it, as we look at how polarized the United States is, that really worries me,” said Mr. Trudeau. “The entire long-gun registry debate has been pitting urban against rural, in ways that for me seem completely irresponsible.”
NDP MP Francoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.), who confronted Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.) in the Commons Monday about the plan to end the registry and destroy its records, said the NRA attention to the issue should be expected, not only over its position on gun freedom but also because Canada imports most of its firearms ammunition and rifles and shotguns from the U.S.
“It’s a big business,” said Ms. Boivin.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.) noted that the NRA also attempted to exert influence as the Firearms Act was being passed and implemented. The U.S. lobby group circulated at least one video concerning the Canadian registry and its president, former actor Charlton Heston, came close to entering Canada to lobby against the law.
“There’s no question that the NRA has really always had its sights on Canada as being too liberal for them, and it’s been really important for them to, when at all possible, influence the way we make decisions up here,” said Ms. Bennett.
“The American right to bear arms is not part of our Canadian values, up here we’ve chosen peace, order and good government,” she said. “They’ve chosen life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the right to bear arms."
Origin
Source: Hill Times
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