TRANSLATION
FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH
Publication:
La Presse
Date:
2003.09.13
Section: Canada
Page:
A
10
By-line:
Toupin, Gilles
Dateline:
Ottawa
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIREARMS:
Registry’s integrity in doubt, says Alliance MP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
infamous federal firearms register, whose exorbitant cost of more than $1
billion outraged the Opposition in the House of Commons last winter, is in
trouble again. To date, according to Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz, at least 1
million owners have not yet registered their firearms.
"The
government’s own reports,” the Canadian Alliance gun registry critic said on
Thursday, “reveal that hundreds of thousands of owners have not yet registered
their firearms.” The MP for Yorktown-Melville (Saskatchewan) defends his
statements using official government documents obtained through the Access to
Information Act. According to this information from the federal Department of
Justice, dated July 5, 2003, 428,639 licence holders have not registered their
firearms. Moreover, 324,768 handgun owners, who were supposed either to register
their guns again or get rid of them, have done neither. The documents obtained
by Mr. Breitkreuz also show that 355,000 owners have not obtained a firearms
possession licence and that 304,375 owners of registered handguns have not
applied for a licence.
“You
should know that the government tried to hide this information,” Garry
Breitkreuz said to La Presse. “I had a hard time getting this information
through access to information. It is a giant cover-up. They tried to tell us
that the firearms registry was a success, but it really is just a joke. How can
the Liberals keep saying that the police use the registry when it doesn’t even
have information about millions of weapons belonging to a million owners?”
asks the MP.
The
Alliance MP contends that the federal government’s estimate of the number of
firearms in Canada is far too low. Ottawa estimates the number of firearms in
the country to be around 7.9 million. Mr. Breitkreuz calls this figure, obtained
from a telephone survey, “not very accurate”. “If someone calls me up and
asks whether I have any guns,” he explained, “I wouldn’t really want to
share this information with just anybody. Actually, our calculations show that
there are at least 16.5 million firearms in Canada.” Ottawa acknowledges in
its documents that 1.5 million firearms have not yet been registered, and
645,921 handguns still have to be reregistered.
Eight
of the 10 provinces have said that they would not continue to prosecute
offenders under the Firearms Act, sending a clear message to Ottawa, according
to Mr. Breitkreuz, about the registry’s inefficiency. “This is an example
where many provinces have decided this is a failed experiment, a waste of money
and it must end,” New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord said last month. “We
don't want to perpetuate this waste of taxpayers' dollars.” The Charest
government, for its part, will maintain the policy of the PQ government and will
prosecute offenders, according to a statement to
La Presse yesterday by Jacques Tétreault, spokesperson for Minister of
Justice Marc Bellemare. “Basically, the Quebec government is in agreement with
the legislation,” he said. Prince Edward Island also plans to enforce the Act.
As
for the cost of the registry, slammed last December by Auditor General, Sheila
Fraser, “it will certainly be over $2 billion in the next two years,” says
Garry Breitkreuz.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW
CAN POLICE USE A GUN REGISTRY MISSING GUNS FOR A MILLION GUN OWNERS?
“Using the Liberals’ 1976 estimates of the number of guns, fewer than 40% of the guns have been registered.”
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/GUNS92.htm