“It is part of a victory,” said Louise De Sousa, mother of Anastasia De Sousa, an 18-year-old student who was killed in the 2006 shooting at Dawson College. De Sousa was at the Montreal courthouse when Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard rendered his decision, and she was smiling afterward.
“(The registry) is a tool we need, and I think the judge saw that,” De Sousa said.
But she acknowledged the decision is likely to be appealed by the federal government, which adopted legislation this year aimed at fulfilling its long-held promise to abolish the long-gun registry and destroy all of the data gathered through it over the last 15 years. Immediately after the legislation was adopted, Quebec launched a legal challenge seeking to maintain its part of the registry and to receive all data pertinent to the province.
On Monday, Blanchard ruled that since the registry was developed through partnerships between the federal government and its provincial counterparts, each should have a say in what happens to it.
Eric Dufour, one of the lawyers who represented Quebec in the case, said that in his opinion Blanchard correctly defined those roles.
“The data are shared by the two governments, federal and provincial, and the federal government can’t proceed to destroy all that data collected by all the members of the partnership. It is a partnership between the two. One cannot destroy all the data simply because it wishes to without the consent of (the other partner),” he said.
Dufour declined to speculate on the possibility of an appeal from Ottawa.
“If there is something to get across to the public, it is that this means things are status quo for the long-gun registry,” Dufour said. “In practical terms, for the people of Quebec, it means that all transfers of long arms and hunting firearms are still required to be registered with the controller of firearms.”
The verdict came after the province obtained a series of temporary injunctions safeguarding the Quebec data, which means long guns continue to be registered here, unlike elsewhere in the country.
Blanchard ruled that the federal long-gun bill adopted this year was ineffective, as it applies to “the data that came from Quebec or that concerning citizens of that province.”
Blanchard ordered that the federal government turn over all of the pertinent data to the province within 30 days. Moreover, he ordered that Canada’s attorney-general and the federal director of the registry continue to register firearms so as not to create a gap in the data.
When asked to give an example of how the registry can help police, Dufour created a hypothetical scenario with reference to last week’s fatal shooting of Denis Blanchette outside the Métropolis nightclub where Premier-elect Pauline Marois was giving a victory speech following her election win. Almost all of the more than 20 firearms owned by the suspect, Richard Henry Bain, were registered. Bain was arrested at the scene.
Dufour said if a suspect had fled following a similar shooting, and left a registered firearm behind, the police would have had evidence to help track down the shooter.
“(If the data were destroyed), police would have had one less tool in their task to bringing him to justice,” Dufour said.
Within moments of Monday’s decision, the federal government all but announced plans to appeal.
In a statement, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he was “disappointed” with the ruling and that the federal government would “thoroughly review” it.
“The will of Parliament and Canadians has been clear. We do not want any form of a wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry,” he said.
Heidi Rathjen, spokesperson for gun-control advocacy group Polysesouvient, which represents survivors of the 1989 École Polytechnique shooting of 14 women in Montreal, conceded it is likely the province’s fight isn’t over, and will likely end up before the Supreme Court of Canada.
“All we can say is that based on past behaviour, the Conservative government has had total disdain for public safety, for victims, for the opinions of police officers and police chiefs. Their priority always seems to be the gun lobby so we expect them to appeal. Hopefully they don’t — that would be great news — but we expect them to appeal,” she said.
Dufour and Rathjen highlighted the fact that in his 42-page decision, Blanchard noted the federal government did not challenge statistics brought forward by Quebec to highlight the merits of the registry. Since it was established 15 years ago, Quebec experienced a drop in the number of cases of fatal conjugal violence involving firearms. The overall number of homicides where a long arm firearm was used has dropped 30 per cent and the province is seeing “a marked improvement in the fight against the trafficking of illicit firearms.”
“I know that the (federal) government is going to say that the registry hasn’t saved one single life,” Rathjen said. “But it is an essential crime prevention tool.”
NDP justice critic Françoise Boivin said she was pleased with the Quebec Superior Court decision, but that she expects the Conservatives will appeal it, wasting even more taxpayer dollars.
She also slammed the Conservatives for trying to blame the NDP for its decision to trash the records.
Boivin said nobody’s interested in recreating the boondoggle the Liberals initially set up, nor does anybody want to “criminalize hunters.”
It’s about keeping “dangerous” weapons out of the hands of “crazy” people, she said, adding many police and victims groups have called the registry a valuable tool in investigations.
While the ruling may open the door to other provinces that would like to preserve the data and create their own registries, Boivin said they may have missed the opportunity since the destruction of data has already started.
“Don’t forget that Quebec contested at the start,” she said.
Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: Paul Cherry
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