NEWS RELEASE

February 2, 2001

For Immediate Release

JUSTICE MINISTER CONTENT TO LET NON-COMPLIANT GUN OWNERS FLAUNT THE LAW

"If Liberal gun laws aren’t serious enough to be vigorously enforced, they should be repealed!"

Ottawa – Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, started the 37th Parliament right where he left off in the 36th, by firing another volley of questions at Justice Minister Anne McLellan for making such a mess of Jean Chretien’s legislative legacy - Bill C-68. The result wasn’t much different from last year – reasonable questions, irresponsible answers.

 

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, last Thursday the Globe and Mail's front page headline read "Gun Law Creates 320,000 Canadian Outlaws". Even if anyone still believes the justice department's numbers, this still qualifies as the biggest act of civil disobedience in this nation's history. Hundreds of thousands of gun owners are now in a catch-22. They cannot comply with the Firearms Act without admitting to the government that they are already guilty of owning firearms without a licence, nor can they register their guns without one. What is the Minister of Justice going to do with the 320,000 criminals that she created?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this gives me the opportunity to bring colleagues in the House up to date on the phenomenal success of our firearms registration program. In fact, as the hon. member may not be aware, well over 2 million of the some 2.3 million Canadian gun owners have sought licences and have complied with this law. We continue to work with those who at this point do not have their licences. Let me in fact inform the House that the success of this program is phenomenal. Since December 1, 1998 over 65,000 potentially dangerous gun sales have…[cut off by the Speaker].

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, defiant firearms' owners on and off the reserves have repeatedly admitted publicly they are now in unauthorized possession of firearms. These people are flaunting the Criminal Code of Canada. The code states that every person who knowingly is in possession of a firearm without a licence or a registration certificate is guilty of an offence under section 92 and subject to a penalty of up to 10 years in jail. Since the justice minister cannot answer the question, what is the solicitor general going to do? Is he going to admit that he cannot enforce these laws?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have made it absolutely plain that the criminal law of Canada applies to all Canadians. It would not be appropriate for myself or the solicitor general to comment upon law enforcement activities of local police forces in local communities around the country. I will assure the hon. member that these local police forces will enforce the criminal law, as they do now, and as they will continue to do whether it is in relation to firearm offences or other offences.

"Each answer is so full of holes none of them would hold water, but I’ll limit myself to one; namely, her reluctance to demand the prosecution of gun owners who are thumbing their noses at the Criminal Code of Canada. This is a very unhealthy development in our justice system," warned Breitkreuz. "The Minister implies that provincial attorney’s general and police officers are using their "discretion" not to lay charges against these hundreds of thousands of non-compliant gun owners. The Minister should check again. This use of officer "discretion" to not lay criminal offences has only developed since the licencing provisions of the new gun laws came into force on the first of January. Some police officers I contacted could not recall one occurrence in their careers where they had used their "discretion" not to proceed with criminal charges when they had enough evidence to proceed. The evidence the police need is obvious to everyone except the Justice Minister. People are openly admitting their guilt in the newspapers and on national television," said Breitkreuz. "Open defiance of the law cannot continue. If Liberal gun laws aren’t serious enough to be vigorously enforced, they should be repealed!"

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TALKING POINTS

 

JUSTICE MINISTER’S ANSWERS ARE FULL OF HOLES

by Garry Breitkreuz, MP – February 2, 2001

Background

 

See Garry’s news release issued this same date: JUSTICE MINISTER CONTENT TO LET NON-COMPLIANT GUN OWNERS FLAUNT THE LAW - "If Liberal gun laws aren’t serious enough to be vigorously enforced, they should be repealed!"

 

TALKING POINTS

 

McLELLAN MYTH #1 - Claiming the gun registry is a "phenomenal success" because she says it has blocked 65,000 "potentially dangerous" gun sales.

THE TRUTH IS:

  1. The fact is that most of these "potentially dangerous" gun sales were blocked because of improperly completed paper work. In presenting these statistics, the Minister should say how many of the 65,000 legal gun sales proceeded after the gun owner had successfully manoeuvred through the maze of government red tape.
  2. The Minister failed to mention to the House that law has required Firearms Acquisition Certificates since 1979. By administering the old FAC program more effectively the government could have blocked just as many "legal" gun sales. For example, United States blocks thousands of legal gun sales every day without a gun registry, just by conducting criminal record checks before a person is allowed to buy a firearm.
  3. The Minister also failed to point out that any gun sales that were blocked were only "legal" gun sales. The Firearms Act only regulates legal gun sales, not guns sold on the black-market. Her own User Group on Firearms warned her that the Liberal’s onerous gun laws were actually increasing black-market gun sales because it was driving licenced firearms dealers out of business.

McLELLAN MYTH #2 – Claiming it would be inappropriate for her or the Solicitor General to comment on law enforcement activities of local police.

THE TRUTH IS:

  1. If the Minister’s statement is true, how did the Assembly of First Nations get the impression from a meeting with the CEO of the Canadian Firearms Centre that AFN Vice Chief, Bill Erasmus wrote all the Chiefs in the country saying the CFC "would advise law enforcement agencies not to charge First Nations citizens under the Firearms Act and Criminal Code if then Chief had forwarded up names of First Nation band lists." [In lieu of an individual firearms application required by law from every gun owner]
  2. If the Minister’s statement is true, why did she feel it was necessary to set up a firearms enforcement support team in her department? Does she not have faith in the Solicitor General, the RCMP, provincial attorney’s general, and the regional, city and municipal police forces to do their jobs?
  3. If the Minister’s statement is true, why did the CEO of the Canadian Firearms Centre convene a meeting of 50 or more chiefs of police and police organizations on December 14th and 15th in Ottawa to discuss "the Firearms Act compliance scenarios as of January 1, 2001"?

 

 

 

McLELLAN MYTH #3 – Bragging about the 2 million gun owners who applied for licences.

THE TRUTH IS:

  1. The Minister is actually hiding the fact that even her previously flawed surveys (showing between 3.3 and 3.8 million gun owners in Canada) were closer to the truth than the most recent survey that produced the numbers she’s using now. The truth is there are likely more than a million non-compliant gun owners, rather than the 320,000 the government now admits to.
  2. Gun owners planning to ignore the gun registry are highly unlikely to answer questions honestly when posed by a stranger over the phone claiming they’re doing a survey for the federal government. Even the government’s own Firearms Safety Course says it’s a duty of a firearm owner not to tell anyone they own guns because it invites theft.
  3. This is how ridiculous the Minister’s claims are. If the federal government is convinced they can get civil disobedient citizens to admit to their actions over the phone they shouldn’t have any trouble catching the millions of people who cheat on their taxes. – just pretend you’re doing a survey for the government and ask them!
  4. During the election last fall, I estimate that half of the gun owners I talked to in my own constituency were not aware that they had to have a firearms licence by January 1, 2001. The fact is that the government’s advertising was misleading. The ads said you needed a firearm licence to buy ammunition. Most gun owners don’t use their guns and don’t need ammunition so they ignored the government ads. This is called "official misdirection" and an excellent defence if they are ever charged.

McLELLAN MYTH #4 – Misleading Canadians by implying that the Justice Department is working with those who do not have licences.

THE TRUTH IS:

  1. The fact is she does not have the legal means to work with someone who is already in violation of the law unless she brings in an amnesty to protect these individuals from criminal prosecution. If the Minister is "working" with these new criminals that she created, then she is also breaking the law by not following an Act of Parliament (see section 126 of the Criminal Code).
  2. As I pointed out in my question, these people are in a Catch-22 situation. If they apply for a Possession and Acquisition Licence and then try to register the guns they already own, the gun cops will be asking where, when and how they acquired the guns. The police will do this because they can’t acquire guns without a licence. Nor can you transfer a gun to someone else without it first being registered.
  3. As a result, non-licenced gun owners are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If the Minister were being truly honest, she would immediately announce an amnesty for these 320,000 (or so) non-compliant gun owners.

McLELLAN MYTH #5 – Implying that the gun laws apply to all Canadians equally.

THE TRUTH IS:

  1. The Minister has granted relaxed rules for Aboriginals and foreign hunters and sport shooters visiting Canada.
  2. If these relaxed gun safety rules for Aboriginals and foreign visitors are good enough to protect the public from the misuse of legally owned firearms then these rules should be offered equally to all other Canadian firearm owners. Isn’t that what the Charter right to equality means? Isn’t that what plain-old common sense would dictate?