NOTE:
Versions
of this story were also published in: The Ottawa Citizen, The Calgary Herald,
Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon Star Phoenix and the Victoria Times Colonist
PUBLICATION:
Edmonton Journal
DATE:
2003.09.30
EDITION: Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
A1 / Front
BYLINE:
Tim Naumetz
SOURCE:
For CanWest News Service
DATELINE:
OTTAWA
ILLUSTRATION:
Colour Photo: The
Canadian Press, File / The Canadian Firearms Processing Centre in Miramichi,
N.B.
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Ottawa
report blasts gun registry: Unreliable data threaten key screening goal of
program
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OTTAWA
- An internal Justice Department report on the firearms program cites major
weaknesses in the ability of the gun registry to provide crucial information to
firearms officers and police.
The
report says one of the chief goals of the program -- continual screening to make
sure gun owners remain eligible for licences -- is threatened by unreliable
information contained in a massive database that is supposed to tip police and
the Canada Firearms Centre to individuals who should not own firearms.
The
report, dated last April, also says RCMP concern about privacy rights is
delaying or preventing access by firearms officers to information they need to
judge whether a person should be issued gun licences.
As
well, firearms officers told Justice officials who prepared the report they were
concerned about delays receiving copies of court prohibition orders that could
prevent individuals from acquiring firearms or force them to surrender them.
Furthermore,
police officials expressed concern about the length of time it can take to
obtain information from the registry on all the firearms that may be registered
to a gun owner at a specific address. Each individual serial number must be
searched on the registry.
The
report, obtained by Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz through the Access to
Information Act, also pinpointed major failures in the original design of the
program which led to the explosion in costs Auditor General Sheila Fraser
outlined in a scathing report last year.
The
report was prepared by the Justice Department's evaluation division, which
conducted a review of the firearms program covering the period from 1995, when
Parliament passed the Firearms Act, to September 2002, three months before
Fraser released her report.
The
Justice Department report contains further detail about aspects of the program
which Fraser also questioned.
It
says police agencies do not follow consistent procedures when entering
information in the Firearms Interest Police (FIP) database, an RCMP computer
information record which contains files on four million individuals for the
purpose of gun licence screening. Local police forces contribute about 75 per
cent of the information in the database.
The
report notes the database is a major component of the firearms program's ability
to ensure licence eligibility of gun owners is reviewed continuously -- one of
the main arguments the government has used to argue the Firearms Act will do
more for public safety than the previous licensing system.
"There
appear to be several issues that threaten the effectiveness of FIP," the
report says, explaining some police agencies enter information that is
irrelevant to gun ownership, files are duplicated whenever a FIP file is
modified and information on individuals in the database is often vague. For
example, the report said surnames are often entered only with the initial of the
person's first name.
Police,
however, say they have more time for front line work now that the firearms
centre has taken over responsibility for screening would-be gun owners.
The
report said key personnel interviewed for the evaluation, including Canada
Firearms Centre officials, were "nearly unanimous" that the centre's
structure was poorly designed at the outset, with separate policy and operations
branches that reported to an assistant deputy minister who had duties in other
areas within the Justice Department.
As
well, the department initially had a "consensus approach" to
management which attempted to accommodate too many divergent views and
interests.
"The
search for consensus had a cascading effect on the entire implementation of the
Canadian Firearms Program," the report says. "At least in hindsight,
the initial implementation timelines and the ambiguous net estimate of $85
million to implement the (Canadian Firearms Registration System) were quite
unrealistic and damaged the credibility of the program," the report says.
Firearms centre spokesman David Austin noted that the
report was delivered following changes to the program the government had
initiated earlier in response to Fraser's report.
NOTE: This
contradicts what Solicitor General Wayne Easter told the House last week:
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/questions/sept-25-2003.htm
Breitkreuz
predicted it will cost the government millions to fix the weaknesses outlined in
the Justice Department report.
The
latest flaws in the registry followed last week's revelation that it has been a
dismal failure at tracking stolen guns over the last five years, matching only
4,438 firearms with descriptions of more than 100,000 stolen weapons the
firearms centre attempted to trace.
All
the stolen guns which were located had been registered under the Firearms Act,
according to RCMP records obtained by Breitkreuz. The owners apparently acquired
them without knowledge they were stolen.
The
records also revealed that serial numbers for 250,305 firearms logged in the
registry matched the serial numbers of the 101,835 guns police reported stolen
since 1998.
Because
of the duplication of serial numbers, a weakness of the gun-making industry
years ago, all the stolen rifles and shotguns that were traced had to be found
through manual comparisons of other features, such as the manufacturer's name,
model and brand.
It
is estimated that setting up the gun registry will carry a price tag approaching
$1 billion.