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BILL C-68 STILL ISN’T REPEALED
SO I’M RUNNING FOR MY 6TH TERM!
By Garry Breitkreuz, MP, Yorkton-Melville, Sask. – December 15, 2006

NOTE: Excerpts from a speech given to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association in Toronto, Ontario, on November 25, 2006.

I know many of you have followed my 12-year fight to kill Bill C-68. Firstly, I want to thank you for your years of support and encouragement. Many gun owners don’t realize that it was your constant letter writing, phoning, petitions and rallies that kept me going. Without your constant grassroots involvement and political pressure, the fight against expensive, ineffective gun laws would have died years ago – just like it did with Bill C-51 in 1977 and Bill C-17 in 1991.

Secondly, there are few gun owners in Canada that think I have dropped the file, but I want you to know that I’m working harder on the firearms file now that we’re the government than I was when I was the opposition Firearms critic.

The difference is when I was in opposition, we made sure you saw everything we were doing on the file. Now, most of my work is done behind closed doors including: raising key issues in Caucus; writing and talking to the Prime Minister and key Ministers and working with senior officials in their offices. But rest assured we are making progress and we will keep our promises to you and the millions of gun owners in Canada. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be while we’re in a minority situation. Despite some signs that you may have perceived as negative, I’m asking all of you to stick with us for one more election so we can finish the job we started in 1995.

STEPS THE GOVERNMENT HAS TAKEN

Introduced legislation and regulations to:

  • Make it much tougher for people accused of gun crimes to get out on bail.
  • Increase the mandatory minimum penalties for gun crimes;
  • Impose stricter conditions on dangerous offenders;
  • Ban house arrest for serious offences;
  • Transfer responsibility for the Firearms Act and regulations to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP);
  • Implement firearm license renewal fee waivers and refunds;
  • Eliminate physical verification of non-restricted firearms;
  • Introduce a one-year amnesty to protect previously-licensed owners of non-restricted firearms from prosecution;
  • Reduce the annual operating budget for the firearms program; and
  • Repeal the requirement to register non-restricted long-guns.

While the horrendous shooting at Dawson College has slowed our legislative initiatives down a bit, it proved our Party’s resolve to defend the rights and freedoms of law-abiding gun owners in Canada. All attacks by the opposition parties to keep the long-gun registry and their calls for more expensive, useless gun control laws were effectively countered by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Safety and by Conservative MPs.

For example, on September 16, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the CBC Radio program, The House, "Let's find out the facts and make sure that our actions fit the facts. A decade ago people ran out and created a gun registry that, in fact, didn't do anything to prevent these kinds of tragedies and did so at an enormous cost. We want to make sure that what we do is actually effective."

And on September 19th, Stockwell Day said in the House of Commons: The fact remains that Canadian taxpayers have spent more than a billion dollars, yet we still do not have an effective system. But that is exactly what we want: an effective system that will work for all Canadians.

This fall, the government initiated an extensive process to consult with the provinces, territories and other stakeholders across Canada on further measures to streamline and improve Canada’s firearms laws. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has assured us that these measures will be aimed at ensuring that gun control in Canada is focused on fighting crime, keeping firearms out of the wrong hands and minimizing burdens on law-abiding gun owners. You each have a chance to make your views known right now, and I encourage you to do so. Finally, you have a government that is listening because so many of you helped draft the Conservative Party’s firearms and property rights policies.

In October, the Minister’s new Firearms Advisory Committee met in Ottawa for the first time. The difference between the Liberal government and the Conservative Government is obvious by the names of the people that make up the committee. They include the following firearms and policy experts:

  • Professor Gary Mauser of Simon Fraser University
  • Tony Bernardo, Canadian Institute of Legislative Action
  • Linda Thom, Ladies Gold Medal Pistol champion
  • Murray Grismer, police officer from Saskatoon
  • Mike Ackermann, medical doctor from Nova Scotia
  • Robert Head, former RCMP assistant commissioner
  • John Gayder, Niagara police
  • Greg Farrant, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters
  • Linda Baggaley, a firearms expert and dealer from Alberta
  • Steve Torino, firearms expert and dealer from Quebec
  • Alain Cossette, Quebec Wildlife Federation
  • Louis D’Amour, firearms expert from New Brunswick Gerry Gamble, Sporting Clubs of Niagara

STEPS I HAVE TAKEN TO KEEP MY PROMISE TO YOU

  • Introduced Private Members Motion M-113 that would have the Auditor General conduct a public safety test or cost-benefit analysis on each gun control measure on the books;
  • Re-introduced Private Members Bill C-223 that would strengthen property rights in federal law;
  • Introduced Private Members Motion M- 247 on November 8, 2006 that reads: That, in the opinion of the House, the government should conduct a review of all non-regulatory means to recognize, protect and promote Canada's hunting, trapping and fishing heritage activities, and implement an action plan to achieve these objectives;
  • Commissioned the Library of Parliament to prepare the following reports:
      * An amendment to “decriminalize” the simple possession of a firearm by redefining “unauthorized possession of a firearm;

    * An amendment to Allow Registration of Subsection 12(6.1) Handguns Under the Firearms Act;

    * An amendment to section 7(2) of the Firearms Act Regulations that would permit holders of expired Possession Only Licences (POLs) to renew their POLs rather than forcing them to take another test to get a Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL);

    * An amendment to require all 201,097 persons prohibited from owning firearms (or other ineligible individuals) to report their change of address within 30 days, and to permit periodic inspections of their residences to ensure that they are not in possession of firearms;

    * The Benefits of Firearms Ownership – Hunting and Wildlife Management;

    * The Societal Benefits of Firearms Ownership – Self-Defence; and

    * The Economic Impact of Shooting Sports in Canada.
  • Finally, in March of this year, I started the first-ever non-partisan Parliamentary Outdoors Caucus whose mission is: “to entrench in law fishing, hunting, trapping and shooting sports as acceptable, traditional, environmentally-sustainable outdoor heritage activities with a safety credo and a conservation ethic as our highest priorities.” We currently have seventy-eight members in the Outdoors Caucus, representing both Houses of Parliament, all four political parties, ten provinces and two territories.

Rest assured Garry Breitkreuz will never betray the firearms community. We have been united in our 12-year fight to repeal Bill C-68. I will never give up and I hope you will stay with us until it’s dead and gone.

I leave you with the promise then leadership candidate Stephen Harper made to us all in January of 2002: “I was and still am in total agreement with the statement made in the House of Commons by former Reform Leader Preston Manning on June 13, 1995: ‘Bill C-68, if passed into law, will not be a good law. It will be a bad law, a blight on the legislative record of the government, a law that fails the three great tests of constitutionality, of effectiveness and of democratic consent of the governed. What should be the fate of a bad law? It should be repealed…’ C-68 has proven to be a bad law and has created a bureaucratic nightmare for both gun owners and the government. As Leader of the Official Opposition, I will use all the powers afforded to me as Leader and continue our party's fight to repeal Bill C-68 and replace it with a firearms control system that is cost effective and respects the rights of Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly.”

COMME LE C-68 N’EST TOUJOURS PAS ABROGÉ, JE BRIGUE UN SIXIÈME MANDAT! Par Garry Breitkreuz, député de Yorkton-Melville . . . click here