STATISTICS DON’T SUPPORT RCMP’S LETTER TO PROVINCES
“Instead of ‘a continual increase’ in firearms forensic cases as the Assistant Commissioner’s letter stated, new RCMP documents show the opposite was true.”

Ottawa – It took almost two years and six Access to Information Act (ATI) requests for Saskatchewan M.P. Garry Breitkreuz, the Conservative Firearms Critic, to prove conclusively that a letter sent by the RCMP to all Provincial Wildlife officials in 2003 was factually incorrect. “We had inside information before but now we have the RCMP’s own statistics. No wonder it took four complaints to the Information Commissioner to finally drag the truth out of them.”

On August 28, 2003, the RCMP officer in charge of the six RCMP forensic laboratories across the country, Assistant Commissioner Joe Buckle, wrote: “Due to a continual increase in service requests and pressure on our Firearms services…” AND "Unfortunately, due to the heavy pressure on our firearms services, FLS can only continue to provide analysis in those instances where there is associated criminal activity. As an example, firearms analysis of exhibits associated with Wildlife Act and Regulation contraventions can no longer be accepted.” [See scanned copy of letter below] “The effect of this reduction in services to the provinces based on this bit of RCMP fiction was to jeopardize the prosecution of hundreds of poachers and put wildlife conservation programs at risk all across Canada,” commented Breitkreuz.

The new documents sent to Breitkreuz by the RCMP in response to his ATI requests and complaints contradict Assistant Commissioner Buckle’s claim. In fact, the statistics provided show a significant drop in the number of firearms cases received by the RCMP forensic laboratories each and every year since 2001:
• In 2002, 1360 firearms cases were received - a drop of 165 cases from 2001;
• In 2003, 1106 firearms cases - a drop of 254 cases from 2002 and a drop of 419 cases over 2001; and
• In 2004, 864 firearms cases - a drop of 242 cases from 2003 and a drop of 661 cases over 2001.

“In 2003, while Assistant Commissioner Buckle was trying to convince the provincial wildlife enforcement agencies that the firearms forensics discipline was being overwhelmed with requests, the caseload actually declined by 35 percent,” exclaimed Breitkreuz.

“Not only did this fabrication by the RCMP put federal/provincial relations at risk, but they have also misled me and by extension all Members of Parliament. What consequences are there for the RCMP officials involved in this cover-up or were they just following a Minister’s orders? Why didn’t they simply transfer a few million to this much needed program from the useless gun registry?” asked Breitkreuz. “What a mess the Liberals are leaving for us to clean up!”

Assistant Commissioner Buckle’s Letter
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/BucklesLetter_2003_08_28.pdf

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Le 9 mai 2005 LES STATISTIQUES CONTREDISENT LES AFFIRMATIONS DE LA GRC