39th Parliament, 1st Session
(April 3, 2006 - )

Edited Hansard • Number 022

Friday, May 12, 2006

http://www.parl.gc.ca/PDF/39/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/Han022-E.PDF

Questions on the Order Paper

Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 6, 7 and 8.

Question No. 7--

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz:
How many individuals are there in Canada who are considered too dangerous to own firearms including: (a) number of convicted violent criminals, prisoners and parolees; (b) number of persons prohibited from owning guns; (c) number of persons with an outstanding criminal arrest warrant; (d) number of persons charged with a violent criminal offence that are out on bail; (e) number of persons with a restraining order against them; (f) number of persons that have had their firearms licence refused or revoked; and (g) number of firearms licence holders that are under investigation for incidents that may result in their firearms licence being revoked?

Hon. Stockwell Day (Minister of Public Safety, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, with regard to Correctional Services Canada, CSC, for the purpose of responding to part a) of the member’s question, CSC has provided statistics on those federal offenders that have been convicted of murder or at least one Schedule 1 offence. For a complete list of Schedule 1 offences, please refer to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

Of the 12,661 federally incarcerated offenders, 756 are serving a sentence for a 1st degree murder offence , 1,661 are serving a sentence for a 2nd degree murder offence , and 7,229 are serving a sentence for a Schedule I offence. Total equals 9,646.

Of the 8,340 federal offenders in the community, 168 are serving a sentence for a 1st degree murder offence, 1,415 are serving a sentence for a 2nd degree murder offence, and 3,554 are serving a sentence for a Schedule I offence. Total equals 5,137. The data is as of March 26, 2006.

With regard to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, RCMP, the Canadian Criminal Records Information Services, CCRIS, and the Canadian Police Information Centre, CPIC, contain criminal justice information entered by police agencies and some government agencies such as the Canada Border Services Agency and Correctional Services Canada. Although able to enter appropriate information, no agency is legally obligated to do so except in the case of Youth Criminal Justice. For this reason, the statistical information provided about data in CCRIS and CPIC repositories is not reflective of overall Canadian statistics. The RCMP was able to answer sub-questions b), c), d) and e):

b) The RCMP can only provide information on the number of records within CPIC where persons are prohibited from possessing a firearm, not the number of people prohibited from owning a firearm.

The number of records entered on CPIC for “prohibited from possessing firearms” is 201,097.

It should be noted that a person could be prohibited more than once or in more than one province and each prohibition will be captured as a separate record.

c) The CPIC system is designed in a way to capture all warrants. The system was not designed to differentiate between a criminal arrest warrant, for serious offences and a warrant for arrest, for such offences as non-payment of fines. As such, to provide this information, a manual search in the system would have to take place which would represent a major undertaking that would not fall within the limited time of response.

d) The RCMP is unable to provide this information as CPIC does not maintain this kind of statistical information. The CPIC system was not devised as a statistics tool, but rather a police investigative tool. As such, each police service would have to be contacted to verify if a specific individual is released with or without conditions.

e) There are 161,916 records on CPIC for probation category with recognizance orders. These orders include peace bonds (not of a criminal nature), recognizance and restraining orders.

With regard to the Canada Firearms Centre, CAFC, the center is able to answer sub-questions f) and g) only:

f) As of March 31, 2006, there have been 6,311 licence applications refused, and 10,915 licences revoked.

g) As of March 31, 2006, 11,050 licence holders were under investigation for incidents that may result in their firearms licence being revoked.