OTTAWA — The Conservative government’s decision to destroy records from the soon-to-be defunct long-gun registry sets “a terrible precedent” for the retention of historically important documents, says an organization representing Canadian archivists.The Conservatives are continuing to stick by the provisions that would require the commissioner of firearms to destroy the database, as part of legislation that ends the registration of most rifles and shotguns.
The bill, C-19, specifically says that it overrides the Library and Archives Act, which requires written permission of the chief archivist before shredding records. The Association of Canadian Archivists said the government should reconsider the provisions that require destruction of the records and bypass existing rules on records retention.
“It sets a very dangerous precedent for future legislation,” said association president Loryl MacDonald. “It’s not exactly transparent at all if the government thinks it can do what is politically expedient and override.”
MacDonald said her group’s concern is not with the nature of the gun registry records themselves, but with a process she said undermines the government’s own practices for keeping records.
Archivists and bureaucrats typically meet to determine how long different kinds of government records should be kept. The Firearms Act, MacDonald said, required the gun registration listings be kept for 10 years after the “last administrative action” on each record.
“The government might proceed to go about over-riding other records schedules, and records that might have long-term value might be destroyed,” MacDonald said.
She noted that the government has not yet agreed to transfer future censuses to Library and Archives Canada. Statistics Canada resisted turning over the 1911 census to the Archives and only agreed when the Statistics Act was amended, under pressure from historians and genealogists. Firearms advocates say the government had no business collecting the long-gun registrations in the first place so the listings should be permanently erased.
In question period Monday, the NDP called the plan to destroy the records “a $2-billion bonfire,” in reference to the purported cost to establish the registry under the Liberal government. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews responded by saying the records it created have no value.
“Just because the Liberals spent $2-billion on a long gun registry does not mean it is worth anything,” Toews said. “In fact, the only thing it does is target law-abiding Canadian citizens improperly and is obtrusive in their private affairs.”
The federal government has retained records of some of its most discredited programs. To make reparations, the government used documents related to the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, the collection of head taxes from Chinese immigrants, and listings of First Nations children forced into residential schools, for example.
The government of Quebec wants the government to turn over its firearms registration records so the province can start its own version, although the usefulness of the data and legality of such a transfer are uncertain. The long-gun registry is just part of a larger registry maintained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that will continue to list restricted or prohibited firearms, such as handguns and fully automatic firearms.
Destruction of the existing records may not be simple as pushing the “delete” button.
The RCMP would have created backup versions that, presumably, also will have to be destroyed. But that could be a complicated process if the records of non-restricted long-guns are integrated in the backup version with listings of other registered firearms that cannot be erased.
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Source: National Post
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