PRESIDENT OF CPA SAYS POLICE AT “ODDS WITH
PUBLIC” FOR THE FIRST TIME
“McLellan’s amendments won’t fix the useless
gun registry and will not bring the firearms community on-side.”
Ottawa – Today,
Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, sent the Canadian Police Association
a message before they convened this weekend to reconsider a tabled motion
calling for the CPA to withdraw their support from the government’s
controversial gun registry. “I
urge the CPA to quit playing politics and answer the real question on the mind
of every police officer on the streets of every community in Canada:
If the government was going to spend $600 million dollars to help police do
their job and improve public safety, was the gun registry the best way to spend
it? If the
CPA asked their members, the answer would be a resounding, ‘NO!’
It’s time for the CPA to cut their political losses, rebuild relations
with millions of law abiding firearm owners and put an end to the waste of our
hard-earned tax dollars on this firearms fiasco,” recommended Breitkreuz.
The Official Opposition
Firearms Critic used comments from the police themselves to support his
recommendation. “Last weekend, I
had the pleasure of attending the Western Canadian Firearms Summit in Saskatoon.
During his presentation, Grant Obst, President of the Canadian Police
Association, made a major admission about how the gun registry had actually made
police work more difficult. He
said, ‘It
bothers me that the public would not support me in my line of duty.
We’ve never been at odds with the public before.
This issue has done this.’”
Earlier this week, the
Edmonton Sun and the Edmonton Journal reported the following comments by Staff
Sgt. Al Bohachyk, President of the Alberta Federation of Police Officers:
·
There’s very little confidence among police of the accuracy of the
information. If we’re using gun
information in an investigation we have to be 99% sure it’s correct.
·
Changes to the act might help the feds build their monument to public
safety. But if we can’t trust the
information, it’s a hollow act.
·
He wants the Canadian Police Association to withdraw its support of the
current gun legislation. In his
view, it puts legitimate gun owners through needless hoops while doing little to
block “the bad guys.”
The phenomenal error rates in the gun registry are compounded by non-compliance. The Edmonton Sun also reported that police were concerned about “sluggish public compliance” with the registry. “Compliance is more than sluggish, it’s abysmal!” commented Breitkreuz. Using the government’s own preliminary licencing data, non-compliance with the gun licencing provisions of Bill C-68 ranges from a high of 60% on the prairies to a low of 37% in the Maritimes. “And this is what Anne McLellan calls a ‘phenomenal success.’ The government even admits that at least 320,000 gun owners failed to apply for a firearms licence. They did this under threat of spending 10 years in jail,” reported Breitkreuz. “Why would anyone expect these non-compliant gun owners to register their guns? In fact, they can’t because there’s no amnesty in place.”
“On Wednesday the Justice
Minister tabled a bill with 22 pages of amendments to the country’s gun laws.
While this is a welcome admission by the government that Bill C-68 has
failed, these poorly drafted amendments will actually make the registry even
more error prone and of even less benefit to police,” said Breitkreuz.
“The gun registry is and always will be a horrendously expensive, flop,
providing error-riddled information that is of no benefit to real police work.
It’s time the Canadian Police Association listened to what their
front-line officers are saying – put the gun registry out of its misery, and
redirect this money and human resources where they will do some real good.”
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