OTTAWA—An uproar over the federal Conservatives’ plan to kill the long-gun registry gained steam Tuesday as the federal privacy commissioner shot down the government’s supposed rationale for destroying data.In response to a query from the NDP, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said nothing in the Privacy Act prevents the federal government from sharing personal information collected under the Canada Firearms Registry with provincial governments.
On the contrary, the act permits disclosure of personal information, as long as it is through a federal-provincial agreement “for the purpose of administering or enforcing any law or carrying out a lawful investigation,” Stoddart says.
Quebec wants to use the federal data to set up its own registry. But Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty is warning against a “hodge-podge” of provincial registries.
Stoddart, in a letter to the NDP’s Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic), wrote: “In appropriate circumstances, an information sharing agreement or arrangement put in place for the purpose of administering or enforcing any law (including provincial law) could assist to ensure any transfer of personal information was in conformity with the Privacy Act.”
Her opinion appears to contradict the federal Conservatives’ claim that the registry’s data on long-gun weapons must be destroyed. Archivists are also warning that destruction of federal records sets a worrisome precedent.
The NDP released the letter on a day the government invoked closure, shutting down preliminary debate over the bill. After just three days’ debate at second reading, the Commons voted 156-123 to send the bill to parliamentary committee for study — a committee where it holds a majority. The Conservatives got two NDP votes for their bill. But an attempt by the NDP to kill the bill over its failure to share data with Quebec failed.
McGuinty said he was “disappointed” with Ottawa’s decision to axe the registry but made clear that Ontario will not be setting up its own system.
“Are we going to be pursuing our own provincial gun registry system? No,” McGuinty said in Ottawa Tuesday.
“I support a national gun registry system. Not a hodge-podge of various and sundry provincial registry systems. That, to my way of thinking, is not what we need. It is less than ideal,” the premier told reporters during a visit to Algonquin College in Ottawa.
Instead, McGuinty said that the federal Conservatives should listen to the concerns of police and put in place some system to alert officers to the presence of weapons in a house.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper slammed the door on that possibility Tuesday.
In response to a story in the Star, the opposition demanded the government act to prevent weapons — including high-powered sniper rifles — that are currently “non-restricted” from falling into dangerous hands.
Harper told the Commons he has no intention of further restricting any weapons that are currently “non-restricted” and thus soon to be freed from registration controls, and no intention of helping other levels of government to reestablish the registry.
“The system for the classification of firearms was established long ago. The government follows the process. It is not changed in any way by this particular bill,” said Harper. “. . . . The government will not do anything to support the creation of registry by other levels of government.”
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, in his speech last week on the bill, had declared: “This information should never have been collected in the first place. To maintain the registry and the information is a complete violation of law and the principles of privacy that all of us in the House respect.”
But Stoddart’s letter adds pressure on the government to justify its decision to destroy the data on other grounds.
During the final hours of second-reading, Conservatives continued to insist data destruction was a matter of “privacy.”
They also insisted the registry “does not save lives” or prevent crime, but Liberal leader Bob Rae pointed to 7,000 registration certificates that the “were pulled by police” last year, “which means 7,000 guns were pulled out of people’s houses,” he said. “And so when people say — they get up on their feet and they say that no crimes have been prevented by the registry, that is just absolute crap.”
The Conservative government faced calls from Ontario’s police chiefs who also want to see the registry data retained and made accessible.
Waterloo Regional Police Chief Matt Torigian conceded the Conservatives campaigned on the promise to end the registry, but said the data is “valuable.”
“We have to respect the democratic process. Notwithstanding all of that, our leadership in this is about what we feel is the most important safety tool for our communities and investigative tool for police officers,” he said. “We think it is a very valuable tool, something we’d prefer to see kept intact.”
The Ontario chiefs association called the delisting of powerful sniper rifles and other self-loading weapons “disturbing.”
“Our view has always been the only people in this country who should have access to those types of weapons are either law enforcement or the military,” said Joe Couto, director of government relations and communications for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. “It is disappointing, to say the least.”
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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