PARLIAMENT HILL—Lines hardened between supporters of the federal long registry and its opponents Wednesday as a member of a coalition opposing a bill to dismantle the gun-tracking system said Conservative MPs would be “hypocritical” if they attend remembrance ceremonies next week for victims of the 1989 shooting massacre of 14 women engineering students in Montreal.Heidi Rathjen, a survivor of the attack who went on to help form local and national gun-control groups, told The Hill Times Conservatives should stay away from any commemorative ceremonies on Tuesday Dec. 6, one of which is scheduled for Parliament Hill, because legislation the government forced through a Commons committee this week will destroy current protections under the registry and licensing and gun sale system and increase gun violence against women.
In the wake of Bill C-19’s passage on Tuesday through the Public Safety and National Security Committee—and Ms. Rathjen’s earlier comments that the Conservatives will have “blood on their hands” because untraceable gun sales and transfers will result in firearms ending up in the hands of people who could not otherwise obtain them, —diehard opponents of the registry and licensing system sent a small flurry of emails to The Hill Times to condemn Ms. Rathjen and groups who have long opposed Conservative promises to dismantle the system.
“They are not experts, they mostly let their emotions get in the way and they have an axe to grind, as is evidenced by some of the wacky claims they make in the media,” said Barry Glasgow, one of the registry’s active opponents in the Ottawa area.
Another registry opponent, who used only Mike as his email signature, wrote about the report of Ms. Rathjen’s comments: “The amount of raw, unfiltered stupidty in this article is staggering. ... I find it shocking, amusing, and frightening that you are able to, so easily, pollute the public domain with your ignorance. Please, go kill yourselves.”
Meanwhile, despite criticism of Bill C-19 because it eliminates any requirement for gun sellers to require proof of valid firearms acquisition licences from gun buyers and also the requirement for a record of firearms transfers and sale, over and above the destruction of the federal registry itself, NDP MP John Rafferty (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.) told The Hill Times he plans to once again vote in favour of Bill C-19 to pass it through the Commons.
He said a majority of his Northern Ontario constituents oppose the registry.
“You have to understand one thing, I worked on my first NDP campaign more than 40 years ago and I grew up with maybe a different view as to what an MP or any elected official for that matter, whether it’s municipal or provincial or federal, what their first responsibility is, and their first responsibility is to be a voice for their constituents, whether they’re in Toronto, whether they’re in Ottawa or whether they’re in their own community,” Mr. Rafferty said. “I know that the majority of the people in my riding want to get rid of it, that’s my first responsibility.”
NDP MP Bruce Hyer (Thunder Bay-Superior North, Ont.), also voted in favour of Bill C-19 as it went through the Commons into committee study. NDP Interim Leader Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer, Ont.) has already penalized the two MPs for breaking ranks, stripping them of the critic posts and banning them from committee involvement and House affairs, and the term of the penalty was until the legislation passes through the Commons.
Ms. Rathjen said if Conservative MPs attend commemorative ceremonies on Parliament Hill or anywhere else next week to mark the 1989 massacre at L’Ecole Polytechnique it will be “nothing but show.”
“The whole point of these commemorative ceremonies is to remember and to act to prevent violence against women.” she said. “Conservatives are doing the opposite. They are going to reduce the safety of women. They are going against the wishes of women’s groups, victims’ groups who fight against violence against women every day.”
She said she doesn't believe that victims' families would want them there. “It’s hypocritical political grandstanding to act as if they care but they really don’t,” she said.
Conservative MP Candice Hoepnner (Portage-Lisgar, Man.), who shepherded the bill through the committee as Parliament secretary to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.), did not respond to a telephone request for comment on Ms. Rathjen’s comments.
But Conservative MP John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, N.B.), a former communications director to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), said all politicians have the right to attend commemorative events for the shootings.
“In a democratic society, we can disagree and still be civil,” he told The Hill Times. “This is of course a heated, heated debate, but that ceremony is one that any Canadian should be able to attend and to do so respectfully, and I think that’s what people will be doing on both sides of the aisle.”
A spokesman for Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) confirmed the government intends to go ahead with a moment of remembrance for the Polytechnique victims in the Commons.
“It is standard practice for there to be a moment of silence in the House of Commons to commemorate this solemn day,” communications director Fraser Malcolm said in an email to The Hill Times. “We expect that will continue this year.”
Liberal MP Francoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.), a member of the Public Safety committee who along with other opposition MPs failed in efforts to amend the bill, agreed with Ms. Rathjen that there is a “sense of hypocrisy with the whole thing.”
“It’s going to be a weird feeling next week and I kind of share the way they are feeling. I said so in the committee. My last plea was, ‘Come on, next week we’ll all be there with our hand on our heart and thinking about all these women, but we’re not listening to what they’ve been saying to us,'” she said.
Origin
Source: Hill Times
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