“
Ottawa
– Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for
Yorkton-Melville, joined the chorus of Members of Parliament in criticizing the
federal government for failing to deliver on its promise to establish a national
sex offender registry by January 30, 2002. Breitkreuz is also the Official Opposition’s gun control
critic, and he slammed the government for forcing law-abiding firearms owners
– under threat of up to two years in jail - to report their change of address
to police, but allowing convicted sex offenders to roam free.
“The Liberals have turned the entire justice system on its head.
Instead of focusing on the known criminals who are a real threat to
society, they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars focusing on
law-abiding citizens who – by issuing a firearms licence – the government
has declared are no threat to public safety.
Breitkreuz
provided a horrendous example of bureaucratic intrusion into one law-abiding
citizen’s privacy. “In November we received a report from a man who moved
from Manitoba to a small town in Alberta.
A short time after he moved, he received a call from an official in the
federal Department of Justice noting that he had moved and asking if he owned a
firearm. The
man then moved to Calgary and the same thing happened,” he reported.
“This wasn’t a convicted sex offender the government was tracking!
Nor was he prohibited from owning a firearm.
In fact, he actually held a valid, government- issued Firearms Possession
and Acquisition Licence (PAL).
What in the world is the Justice Department doing?”
The main
problem was that the citizen the government tracked from Manitoba, to a small
town in Alberta and then on to Calgary, didn’t even own a gun – he just had
a licence to acquire one. “You
would think that after spending $700 million dollars on a gun registry that the
government might have gleaned this fact from the information on the man’s
file?” asked Breitkreuz.
“Only
the federal government could get their priorities so wrong.
It’s convicted sex offenders and those that are prohibited from owning
firearms that need to report their change of address to police - not law-abiding
citizens,” demanded Breitkreuz. “The government's own research shows that 50 per cent of child molesters
re-offend 10 to 30 years after serving their sentence!
Why the reluctance by the government to track the whereabouts of these
individuals? And their movements
have to be reported quickly too. Of
those victims who were abducted and murdered by child molesters – 44% were
dead within one hour of the abduction – 74% within three hours and 91% within
24 hours.
This
is why I introduced my Private Member’s motion today.
M-457 reads: That, in the opinion of this House the government should enact
legislation to require convicted sex offenders and those prohibited from owning
firearms to report any change of address to police.
“If the government continues to drag its feet on this important issue;
hopefully, we can force them back into the House to debate my motion,”
concluded Breitkreuz.
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