'He can’t hide behind the fact, making arguments about dates for this and dates for that. This is a live issue before Parliament. The information should have been made available,' says NDP MP Jack Harris about the delay of making a report on the long-gun registry public.
PARLIAMENT HILL—RCMP Commissioner Robert Paulson told MPs this week he was not given a Mountie report supporting the long-gun registry with examples of its use fighting gun crimes until three weeks after its completion and only two days before it was hand-delivered to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews—one day too late for tabling in Parliament before a six-week winter recess.
The apparent delay, after former RCMP Commissioner William Elliott had completed the report prior to Mr. Paulson’s appointment last Nov. 21, meant that MPs and registry supporters did not see the positive report until well after a controversy over government plans to dismantle the gun-control system and after one of the most sensitive events for the Conservatives at the time—a Dec. 6 memorial anniversary of the Montreal massacre of 14 women that led to the establishment of the registry more than 15 years ago.
A spokesperson for Mr. Toews (Provencher, Alta.) and an RCMP media relations officer gave The Hill Times conflicting views over the past week about when the Mounties delivered the report, which includes statistics showing a steady increase in use of the computer records of gun owners and their addresses, to the Public Safety Minister.
The RCMP media relations department said twice that the Mounties delivered the report to Mr. Toews on Dec. 16; but Mr. Toews’ communications director, Michael Patton, told The Hill Times the document went to the Public Safety Department, located in the same office building as the minister, but bureaucrats did not forward it to Mr. Toews until Dec. 20, leaving only Jan. 18 as the first opportunity to table it in Parliament during the winter Parliamentary recess.
RCMP Sgt. Julie Gagnon, in an email communication on behalf of the Canadian Firearms Program within the RCMP, confirmed that Mr. Elliott had completed the report before he was succeeded by Mr. Paulson on Nov. 12.
Sgt. Gagnon noted Mr. Elliott signed the message at the beginning of the report, in his role as Commissioner of Firearms within the RCMP and added, in explaining the delay getting it to Mr. Toews: “Once the report is drafted, there is content review/editing, translation and production of bound copies. The Report was delivered by the RCMP to Public Safety on Dec. 16.”
Although the House adjourned on the evening of Dec. 15 for the recess, Speaker Andrew Scheer (Regina East-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) received a message from the Senate the next day reporting royal assent for Bill C-20, a government bill that will increase the number of seats in the House of Commons.
Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac Saint Louis, Que.) questioned Mr. Paulson about the report’s delay when the Commissioner made his first appearance at the Public Safety and National Security Committee on Tuesday.
“I was appointed in late November. The report showed up in my office on, I think, Dec. 14. I think I signed a covering letter to it on Dec. 15 and it was hand-carried to the Department of Public Safety on Dec. 16,” Mr. Paulson said. “I think I held my end up pretty good there.”
NDP MP Jack Harris (St. John’s East, Nfld.), who earlier questioned the delay passing the report to Mr. Paulson, said Mr. Toews was likely fully aware of its contents as he attacked the registry through the end of December.
“This information is available to the minister. He can’t hide behind the fact, making arguments about dates for this and dates for that. This is a live issue before Parliament. The information should have been made available to the committee while it was making its deliberations,” Mr. Harris said.
Opposition MPs were also critical of Mr. Toews Wednesday after a CBC news report on Tuesday disclosed that several witnesses who testified at Public Safety committee hearings into Bill C-19, Eliminating the Long-Gun Registry Bill are members of a panel of citizens in the firearms community who were appointed to consult with Mr. Toews on the usefulness and use of the registry.
A Hill Times review of the committee witness lists on Wednesday showed that six members of the 12-member panel, all of whom opposed the registry, testified at the hearings without identifying themselves as members of Mr. Toews’ advisory panel.
They included: Linda Thom, a prominent sport shooter who opposes the registry; Gary Mauser, a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University who has long furnished registry opponents with studies and data supporting arguments to dismantle it; police officer Murray Grismer, who described himself as a ‘sergeant’ at the hearings; Tony Bernardo, director of a vocal sport shooting group that opposes the registry and Greg Farrant, who only described himself as ‘manager, government affairs and policy.”
Mr. Scarpaleggia and NDP MP Françoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.) said Mr. Toews and the witnesses misled the committee by not disclosing the role of the witnesses as government advisers.
“It would be like having a staffer to the minister as a witness,” Mr. Scarpaleggia told The Hill Times.
Ms. Boivin said it appears the government wanted biased witnesses to testify at the hearings, which the Conservative majority passed through the committee on Nov. 29.
“They are so biased,” Ms. Boivin said. “They don’t even bring witnesses that will better the legislation, they bring them to tell a story that is either going to freak out people or play with the facts, and they don’t use their title, when they know they’ve got links with the minister.”
Mr. Patton defended the testimony of Mr. Toews’ gun registry advisers at the committee, despite their failure to fully identify themselves.
“The (Firearms Advisory Committee) is composed of Canadians who are concerned about firearms issues,” Mr. Patton said in an email. “These individuals advise the Minister on the views of their community. They are, however, independent individuals. Their primary concern is ending the needless targeting of law-abiding hunters, farmers and sport shooters.”
A government document Mr. Toews tabled in the Commons earlier this week identified the members of the advisory committee, and also disclosed the group spent $19,863 on travel expenses and $4,238 on hospitality on two teleconference meetings and two two-day meetings in Ottawa between January 2008 and December 2010, when the panel’s latest meetings were apparently held.
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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