FIREARMS FACTS UPDATE

CFC HAS NO RECORDS ABOUT 2,633 AFFIDAVITS

DECEMBER 14, 2004 - BREITKREUZ ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT REQUEST

The Hon. Roy Cullen, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness sent an e-mail to all Members of Parliament on December 6, 2004 stating: "So far in 2004, the Canada Firearms Centre (CAFC) has already produced more than 1100 affidavits to support the prosecution of firearms related crime.  A further 1152 affidavits were prepared in 2003 building on 381 affidavits produced in 2002."

Please provide copies of documents, reports or correspondence that show the actual results that the issuing of these 2,633 affidavits achieved in reducing violent crime including information such as: (1) The number and types of “firearms related crimes” being investigated that prompted the need for these affidavits to be requested and issued; (2) The number of individuals charged and the sections under which charges were laid as a direct result of these affidavits; (3) The other Criminal Code offences these persons were charged with; and (4) The number of charges that were laid just because the persons had failed to obtain proper licence or registration certificates required by the Firearms Act.

JANUARY 7, 2005 - CANADA FIREARMS CENTRE NO RECORDS REPLY [FILE: A-2004-0051]

We must advise you that a search of the records under the control of the Canada Firearms Centre has revealed none on the subject.

JANUARY 18, 2005 – BREITKREUZ’S COMPLAINT TO INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

It is simply incredible for the CFC to claim that they are unable to find any records that would support the Parliamentary Secretary’s original claim about the affidavits issued.  It is even more incredible that the government would provide this information to all parliamentarians and not be able to back up the information with the results achieved by issuing the affidavits.  What if the all the affidavits were never used in any prosecution?  What if they never helped obtain one conviction?  What if they all had errors and were thrown out of court?  Issuing affidavits is just a statistic about the amount of paper pushed.  Parliament can’t do its job until and unless the government produces evidence to prove that the affidavits are actually doing some good and that these benefits exceed the cost.  Despite all the warnings by the Auditor General, the government persists in keeping Parliament in the dark.