Quebec government says it will take the feds to court over maintaining records on the province's gun owners, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper says, 'The provinces have the right to pursue their own policies, but this government will not help [establish] a registry through the back door.'
PARLIAMENT HILL—Prime Minister Stephen Harper brushed off the threat of a court battle with Quebec over preservation of the federal long-gun registry’s database Tuesday, prompting opposition MPs to describe the Conservative’s determination to destroy $1-billion worth of information on firearms in Canada “perverse.”
Despite recent RCMP statements that destruction of the registry means a decade’s worth of federal records on rifles and shotguns will disappear once the government’s Bill C-19 takes effect—and there will no longer be records of long-gun transfers and sales—Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) told the Commons his government won’t help Quebec create a new registry “by the back door.”
“Our election promise is clear,” said Mr. Harper. “We don’t support a registry for long guns. This position has been clear for a long time. The provinces have the right to pursue their own policies, but this government will not help [establish] a registry through the back door.”
The Prime Minister was responding to a question from Interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) after Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil announced once Bill C-19, the Elimination of the Long-gun Registry Bill, passes through Parliament and takes effect, the province will ask a court to order the federal government to preserve the registry’s records on Quebec long-gun owners. He also announced that if Quebec wins the case it would then introduce provincial legislation to set up its own registry with the federally-held data.
The federal insistence on going ahead with its plan to dismantle the registry and destroy its records prompted questions on Parliament Hill about Mr. Harper’s political strategy for Quebec, coming as it has with the government’s defiant position on the Koyoto Protocol and a new greenhouse gas reduction strategy to replace the failed accord, as well as its decision to swiftly pass an omnibus crime bill through the Commons that reflects right-wing justice philosophies that are unpopular in Quebec.
“I don’t know if they have decided to start a tug of war of some kind with Quebec, but when I look at the bill that we are debating right now, on C-10 [the Omnibus Crime Legislation], on the [Commons] seat distribution [which Quebec opposes], when I look at so many other decisions that they are taking, it doesn’t seem that they are listening to what is happening in Quebec, what people from Quebec are all about,” NDP MP Françoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.) told reporters.
“Mind you, it’s not just the people of Quebec, it’s not always Quebec versus Canada, it’s actually the whole Canadian public who are saying there are problems with those bills.”
The costs of the federal registry have dropped sharply since former Auditor General Sheila Fraser raised an alarm over projections that it would cost $1-billion over 10 years as it was being phased in from 1996 onward—which proved to be the case as the program experienced massive computer and administrative challenges when it was being established.
But the RCMP recently indicated to The Hill Times that the cost of firearms tracing in the event of gun crimes and homicides may increase once the registry and its database of records—available online to every police force in the country—disappears.
Mountie spokesperson Sgt. Julie Gagnon said investigations might also be delayed.
“With the elimination of registration records, tracing will be more challenging and will require more in-depth police investigation,” Sgt. Gagnon said in an email response to questions.
Ms. Boivin pointed out the government has not put the registry bill at the forefront of Commons debate since the Public Safety and National Security Committee reported it back to the House last Nov. 30 following hearings and evidence from supporters and opponents of the legislation.
“I hope that this will assist the government in changing their mind, and that the public pressure, not only from the government of Quebec but from people who are concerned about the public safety implications of this will be finally listened to by the government,” Ms. Boivin said.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) said the government’s refusal to cooperate with Quebec likely means the Conservatives fear other provinces could take up a similar position and also establish their own registries for rifles and shotguns.
The Liberal government that incorporated Criminal Code offences into the Firearms Act when it established the registry in 1995 won a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2000 that the program was a constitutional use of federal criminal power to protect public safety. But provinces could also establish registries, using provincial statutes and regulations outside the Criminal Code for enforcement, because they have constitutional jurisdiction over civil property, such as long guns.
“I think that [Public Safety Minister Vic] Toews and Mr. Harper see the existence of records as creating the potential for other jurisdictions to take up the job of a long gun registry, and they simply don’t want it to exist at any level of jurisdiction,” Ms. May told The Hill Times. “It’s certainly perverse and it goes against the historical approach to archive records of government action, of registration of lists that don’t have to infringe on privacy to be useful to future generations that want to look at our historical records. This is very bizarre to insist on burning records, to essentially destroy records of a government program.”
Liberal MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.) said the Conservatives are determined to deliver on their promise to kill the registry to garner support from gun owners in the next federal election. A total of 1.8 million gun owners are now licensed under the firearms program, but members of the firearms community say the actual number of long-gun owners and the actual number of rifles and shotguns is much higher.
The Conservative government has had an amnesty program in place since 2006 for licence renewals and long-gun registration.
“The biggest cost was the setup of the registry, was obtaining the information in the first place, that’s where the costs really were and now you just throw away all that expenditure,” Mr. Easter told The Hill Times. “If some provinces want to use it, fine, let them use it, if there’s some provinces who don’t want to use it, fine, they don’t have to,” Mr. Easter said. “I think part of the reasons why they’re going the way they are is they want to be able to say to the gun community in the next election, ‘Look, we got rid of the registry, we destroyed all the information, don’t you guys still love us?’”
Critics have argued the Conservatives have delayed Bill C-19’s passage to preserve its political usefulness as a controversial issue that divides the NDP and its supporters.
Origin
Source: Hill Times
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