NEWS RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

June 21, 2000

For Immediate Release

POLICE SAY: GUN REGISTRY IS "DEEPLY, AND POSSIBLY, FATALLY FLAWED"

Police Association letter: "To think criminals will be affected by this legislation is asinine."

Ottawa – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Official Opposition Firearms Critic and MP for Yorkton-Melville, made public a copy of leaked letter that adds credence to his claims that the police associations are getting ready to withdraw their "official" support from the Liberal’s useless $400 million gun registry. "We always knew that the vast majority of police on the street opposed the gun registration scheme, now we have proof that the executive who represent these rank-and-file officers are finally starting to get the message."

Breitkreuz released a copy of a letter from the Ontario Senior Officers’ Police Association to Solicitor General Lawrence MacAuley dated Friday, January 21, 2000. The 8-page letter provides even more evidence that the gun registry is in serious trouble and corroborates reports given to Justice Minister Anne McLellan by her own User Group on Firearms. The letter states, "There is little doubt that the legislation is deeply, and possibly fatally flawed. There was ample time to research and prepare appropriately for a feasible and workable act – this was not done, in our view."

Here are a few more quotable quotes from the police association letter to the Liberal government:

This…has produced bitterness, acrimony, divisive bickering…and an act which, to be kind, is ineffective .

It has created a bureaucratic quagmire and its deterrent effect is questionable, at best.

A glance at Bill C68 is all that is required to realize that a law degree is required to understand and use it.

Several thousand FIP hits…because they have been extracted several times for the same incident.

The original matter has to be re-investigated. Surely, this is not how the system was designed to work.

Transfers now take up to three days to complete. The sale or purchase of a house can take less time.

Firearms businesses are closing because of the…legislation as it is presently constituted. This is outrageous.

The program still lacks the proper modules for Firearms Officers.

It does not store information, and never will, back to the CFRS system, which was supposed to be the case.

The system is extremely slow (licence applications take seven minutes on average each to open and approve).

The computers are as slow now as at the outset of the program.

The CFRS system is not user friendly. It is cumbersome and awkward. It is slow and painful.

This training had to be conducted throughout the province at a substantial cost to the taxpayer.

The question is why does Quebec have their own site at all!

The implementation of the act should be halted, or funded and staffed to appropriate levels.

They all recognize a disastrously flawed piece of legislation, which is a bureaucratic miasma.

The police association letter to the Solicitor General ended like this, "It is never too late to correct a situation, provided the political will exists." I couldn’t have put it better myself," concluded Breitkreuz.

-30-

For a copy of the letter please call:

Yorkton Office: (306) 782-3309

Ottawa Office: (613) 992-4394

E-mail: breitg0@parl.gc.ca

Web Site: www.garry-breitkreuz.com