| NOTE:
Don Martin's Column also appeared in the Calgary Herald and the Ottawa Citizen
PUBLICATION: National
Post
When will the gun registry be gone?: Good bet that guns used in mass killings were not registered -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's just a hunch, but the guns used in southwest Ontario's biker gang mass murders last weekend probably won't be found in the billion-dollar-plus federal firearms registry. And double any wager that the poor farmer who discovered the bodies will have dutifully registered his hunting rifle in the New Brunswick-based computer banks. MP Garry Breitkreuz figures it's a sure bet. And he knows more than any MP about the Liberal-created gun registry that is still gobbling vast amounts of taxpayer money for no apparent crime-fighting purpose beyond tracking duck and gopher hunters. Breitkreuz has filed more than 500 access-to-information requests, tabled dozens of questions in the House of Commons and banged his high forehead against a Liberal wall of silence for a dozen years in the search for ammunition to take down the federal gun registry. Now that his Conservatives are the government, Breitkreuz has one more question he wants answered: When will it be abolished? Unfortunately, Breitkreuz's been frozen out of the decision-making loop and, even though he's been told nothing, has been ordered to stay quiet about an issue that's made him a one-MP political crusade since 1994. "I've been told to zip the lips," he says, doing a wonderful imitation of a deer frozen in headlights when I stopped him to chat yesterday. "And I'm late for a meeting." Having received hundreds of unsatisfactory answers from the previous government on the registry, Breitkreuz knows when he's given one himself. So he calls a couple hours later -- "against my better judgment" -- to elaborate on what he knows. Which is squat. He has asked, but has yet to meet with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to discuss the registry's fate. And he's clearly frustrated by the slow pace of progress on a file that's been displaced by the sudden emergence of five government priorities to the exclusion of all others. "We were absolutely clear about abolishing the registry during the election and at a policy conference in Montreal," he says. "My voters are wondering what's taking us so long." They could be forgiven for wondering why Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dragging out the death of a registry that doesn't work and continues to swallow tax dollars at $2-million per week. It's not like Harper's straddled the fence on his feelings. "On fundamental beliefs and principles, we will not budge. The gun registry is one of these core beliefs," Harper told hunters and anglers just 15 months ago. "And we have always been very clear on this: We will repeal the universal gun registry." Put another way, "The government's continuing support for it [the registry] is nothing more than a continuation of a managerial incompetence and ideological stubbornness.... There are, frankly, no concrete benefits.... The real purpose of this program is not public safety, it is paperwork," Harper said in January, 2003. "It's one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated by a government on an unsuspecting public," echoed then-justice critic Peter MacKay. You get the idea. The Conservatives don't like it. But as Prime Minister, Harper has dropped only vague hints of the registry's demise with cost savings diverted to hiring more police officers. His promise to kill it off is still in search of an execution date. But there is some urgency to acting quickly. Thousands of gun owners are now receiving stern letters (which started pouring out the day after the election) warning of revoked registration for firearms after they were slow to renew their licence. "You must lawfully dispose of your firearms," insists one. "You have 30 days to deliver your firearms to a peace officer," warns another. Harper might also want to keep an eye on the Auditor-General's reporting schedule. Next month, Sheila Fraser is scheduled to deliver a follow-up to her initial blast, in 2002, at the "astronomical" waste and excessive secrecy of the firearms registry. Finally, and this might not be showing in the polls yet, Harper needs to send a signal that the West is actually in after two months of governing with a fixation on all things Quebec. He has yet to set foot in Alberta (although he's scheduled to visit Calgary this weekend), while promising Quebec "transition" funding for daycare and unique representation at United Nations cultural or education conferences. So if the Prime Minister wants to keep a promise, save millions of dollars every week, ease growing aggravation in his core constituency and fund policing that works, he should mothball the gun registry and invest the money in more cops. The West is gunning to be in. So far, this key Western promise has failed to register on his agenda. Harper on the Gun Registry (Stephen Harper, address to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Feb. 19, 2005) "We, the Conservatives, are the only party in the House of Commons that opposes the gun registry. We have tried to scrap it in the House and in committee, but the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP always vote with the Liberal government on this issue. From the start of this minority government, I have said that I will co-operate with the government whenever the public interest is at stake. But on fundamental beliefs and principles, we will not budge. The gun registry is one of these core beliefs. And we have always been very clear on this: We will repeal the universal gun registry." |