ERRORS,
ERRORS AND MORE ERRORS
By
Garry Breitkreuz, MP – February 26, 2002
“The
old gun registry was riddled with errors and so is the new one.”
NOTE:
All
errors in firearms licences and registration certificates should be reported to
the Minister of Justice and the Auditor General of Canada.
All errors that either violate your privacy rights or have the potential
to do so should be reported to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Contact information is provided at the end of this document.
1.
300,000
“UNCLAIMED” GUNS IN OLD HANDGUN REGISTRY:
An internal Department of Justice document, dated January 9, 2001,
revealed that only 600,000 of the 900,000 guns registered in the old RCMP
Restricted Weapon Registration System would be re-registered by the end of 2002.
This would leave 300,000 previously registered firearms that would be
declared as “unclaimed” by the Department.
Remember, on March 10, 2001, the RCMP and the Canadian Firearms Centre
were still claiming (on their website) that there were 1, 150,000 registered
firearms in the old handgun registration system. It looks like half of these guns were now the victims of
registration errors.
2. 57 REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES FOR 16 GUNS: On February 5, 2002, Chuck Cadman, MP for Surrey (BC) told the Standing Committee on Justice about one of his constituents who had received 57 registration certificates for the 16 guns he has been trying to register.
3.
RE-REGISTRATION OF 10 HANDGUNS RESULTS IN 50% ERROR RATE: On
January 28, 2002, I wrote the Auditor General of Canada to provide her with
documentation of a firearm owner in BC who re-registered 10 handguns (that were
perfectly identified in the old registry) and 5 of the new certificates came
back with errors. A
prohibited handgun was re-registered as restricted. Three handguns were re-registered with the wrong barrel
length and one handgun was re-registered with no “make”. The Auditor General replied: “As you know, we are
currently examining the costs of this system, consistent with our audit
priorities and resource levels. Consequently, it is not possible, at this time,
to expand the examination to include other issues.”
4.
WHO IS RIGHT – THE JUSTICE MINISTER, THE CFC OR THE RCMP?
When it comes to documenting the number of guns registered, it all
depends on whom you ask.
On
September 22, 2000, Justice Minister Anne McLellan wrote to the
Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and told him “More than 1.6 million
guns are registered.”
On
March 10, 2001 the Department of Justice posted on the Canadian Firearms
Centre website that under the registration system there were 1,800,000 firearms
registered, another 216,000 in processing for a total of 2,016,000
“Firearms Known to Police.”
On
December 17, 2001 the
RCMP reported: “As of November 22, 2001 there were a total of 1,431,731
distinct firearms registered since December 1998.”
5.
80% OF ERRORS ARE REGARDING DESCRIPTION OF FIREARMS:
On October 29, 1999, Andersen Consulting prepared a paper on the Canadian
Firearms Program titled: Analysis of Options to Consolidate Select Functions
at the Central Processing Site and the Canadian Firearms Registry.
Under the General Assumptions section on Page 7 the consultants
stated:
6.
MUZZLELOADER REGISTERED AS A SINGLE-SHOT MACHINE GUN:
In a Letter to Editor of published in the January 9, 2002 edition of the
Gananoque Reporter, Mac Donnelly wrote: “I
DO NOT HAVE A MACHINE GUN, but when complying to the federal gun registry demand
my circa 1860 cap and ball relic has been deemed a restricted weapon.
It is, no less classified as, a 'single shot machine gun' according to
The Centre for Firearms Control.”
7.
THREE RIFLES REGISTERED TWICE:
A man in Surrey, BC received three registration certificates for his
three rifles in December of 2001. In
February 2002, he received three more registration certificates for his three
rifles with different firearms identification numbers.
8.
THREE RIFLES REGISTERED TO THE WRONG MAN:
In February 2002, an Ontario man received three firearm registration
certificates for three guns that he didn’t own all assigned to a firearms
licence number that was not his.
9.
REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES SENT TO WRONG MAN:
The February 2002 issue of the Canadian Firearms Journal (Page 3)
reported: “The security of the CFC paperwork system is a joke.
I have been given a copy of a firearms registration confirmation for an
individual in Northern Ontario that was included with several registration slips
sent to a different individual in Southern Ontario.
Had this piece of paper gotten into a criminal’s hands, he would know
just what firearms were at the specific house in Northern Ontario.
The funny part about this particular registration is that it includes a
Winchester .32 calibre lever action carbine, with a twenty-inch barrel.
Someone having spotted the .32 calibre designation has classed the
firearm as prohibited. But they
tell us everything is working well.”
10.
HANDGUN REGISTERED TO THE WRONG MAN:
In January a man from Lethbridge, Alberta complained to his Member of
Parliament that he had received a Firearm Registration Certificate for a handgun
that he does not own. The firearms
owner wrote: “Never registered this gun. Never owned this gun. Never
even seen this gun.”
11.
28 DUPLICATE FIREARMS REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES ISSUED:
A response to request made pursuant to the Access to Information Act
dated January 24, 2002 (DoJ File: A-1-0245), the Department of Justice advised: “There
are 28 people that have duplicate registration certificates issued to them,
resulting in 34 registration certificates.”
12.
DUPLICATE SETS OF REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES RECEIVED:
In December of 2000 the wife of Ottawa area firearms owner complained: “My
husband registered all his guns in March of this year.
We heard nothing for months. In
September he received 2 of 17 registrations.
We heard nothing else until two weeks ago when he received 14
registrations (2 of these he had already received in September).
To put the final candle on the cake, two days ago he received a second
set of registrations. How much more
incompetent can the whole system be?”
13.
TWO RIFLES REGISTERED AS SHOTGUNS:
In a Letter to the Editor to the Toronto Sun published on December 28,
2001 (Page 15) James Hull wrote: “Last
week, 15 months after applying, I received a summary of my firearms along with a
request to check the information for errors.
Having meticulously filled out the original forms (of which I retained a
photocopy), I was amazed to discover the people recording the information had
somehow managed to change the designation of two units from rifles to shotguns.
This in spite of the fact they were identified as rifles on the
registration forms and described as .22 calibre (a bore column to rifles, not
shotguns).”
14.
COMMON HUNTING RIFLE REGISTERED AS “RESTRICTED WEAPON”:
Another firearms owner complained when he received the registration
certificate for his Model 94 Winchester, lever action, 30-30 rifle and found
that the Canadian Firearms Centre had registered his hunting rifle as a “restricted
weapon” which obviously it is not.
15.
SIX IDENTICAL REGISTRATION CERTIFICATES ISSUED FOR ONE GUN:
In January 2001, a Toronto firearm owner sent us copies of six
registration certificates he had received for his one handgun.
Each certificate had a different number but the description of the
firearm was identical on each and every certificate including the serial number
and the Firearm Identification Number assigned by the Canadian Firearms Centre.
16.
GUN REGISTRATION RECEIVED FOR A GUN HE DOESN’T OWN:
In October 2001, an Ontario firearm owner complained that he had received
a registration certificate for a 12-gauge shotgun he didn’t own and never
owned. He complained, “I do
not want to be responsible for a firearm that I do not possess.”
1. GUN REGISTRY HAS ALREADY LOST TRACK OF 38,000+ LICENCED GUN OWNERS: The $700 million gun registry has failed its first big test. As of February 21, 2002 they had mailed out 1,625,915 envelopes to licenced firearm owners as part of their “Free” Registration Program. So far 38,629 envelopes have been “Returned to Sender” by the Canada Post. So only a year after the licencing deadline the Department of Justice has already lost track of more than 38,000 or 2.4% of licenced gun owners. This despite the maximum two years in jail if licenced gun owners fail to report their change of address. This was the same problem that plagued the old handgun registration system. People move, people die and they don’t report the change to the authorities or as you will see later, the bureaucrats fail to update their records when told. The Department of Justice estimates there are 300,000 “unclaimed” guns in the old Restricted Weapon Registration System.
2.
832 DUPLICATE FIREARMS LICENCES ISSUED:
A response to request made pursuant to the Access to Information Act
dated January 24, 2002 (DoJ File: A01-0245), the Department of Justice advised:
“There are 832 valid licence holders currently in possession of more than one
valid firearms licence.”
304
held two or more Firearms Acquisition Certificates
301
held a Possession and Acquisition Licence and a Possession Only Licence
134
held two Possession Only Licences
49
held a Possession Only Licence and a Firearms Acquisition Certificate
30
held a Possession and Acquisition Licence and a Firearms Acquisition
Certificate
14
held two Possession Only Licences
3.
RCMP TRY TO SEIZE FIREARMS FROM LICENCED FIREARMS OWNER:
One
night in January 2002, three RCMP officers showed up at a home in Langley, B.C.
at 10 o'clock at night and advised the owner that they were there to seize his
firearms because he did not have a firearms licence. The homeowner took his valid firearms licence out of his
wallet and showed it to the three officers. The RCMP officers said that there
must have been a mistake in their records and left. Maybe the solicitor general
would like to explain why harassing law-abiding gun owners is a higher priority
for the RCMP than tracking down suspected terrorists. Maybe the justice minister can explain why his super-duper,
$700 million gun registry cannot even let RCMP officers identify gun owners with
a valid firearms licence. Was not the whole point of setting up the registry in
the first place to save police time and resources? Two ministers have fumbled
the firearms file. Will this new minister be the third, or will he do the right
thing and put an end to this firearms fiasco?
4.
REGISTRATION FORMS SENT TO WRONG ADDRESS:
In January 2002 a Manitoba woman complained:
“I find the federal government gun registry very unsafe for the law
abiding citizen. They say it is
working so good – they are so full of it!
Here is a good example of what has happened to us.
I am sending you a letter they have sent to us.
The gentleman has the same last name but doesn’t live in this
household. His first envelope of
registration forms we received we put back in the mailbox marked wrong address
but they kept putting his letter back in our mailbox.
I then took it to the main post office and had to tell them that it was
not our mail and to my amazement the postal clerk said this is not the first
ones. We don’t need all our
information about our guns and personal information being delivered to the wrong
households.”
5.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOT UPDATED BY CANADIAN FIRERMS CENTRE:
At the end of January, a BC firearms owner complained that she had used
an on-line service on the Canadian Firearms Centre website to advise them of her
change of address in November of 2001 within 30 days, as is required by Firearms
Act Regulations. Failing to do so a
firearms owner faces a penalty of a maximum of two years in jail.
More than two months later, the firearms owner received firearms
registration forms that had been sent to her previous address.
The firearms owner complied with the law but the Canadian Firearms Centre
did not.
6.
WOMAN’S PHOTO ON MAN’S FIREARMS LICENCE:
In September of 2001, an Alberta firearms owner complained that all the
information on his new firearms licence was correct except for one key item –
the picture was of a woman. He
wondered whose licence his picture ended up on.
7.
MAN’S PHOTO ON WOMAN’S FIREARMS LICENCE:
In May of 2001, a firearm owner from Prince George, BC complained about
her new firearms licence: “The only problem is, the licence is made out in
my name, my birth date, my height, my licence number, my husband’s picture,
and my husband’s gender. I called
the 800 number to report the error, and the woman who answered acted like this
problem happened all the time.”
8.
THREE WINNIPEGERS GET THE WRONG PHOTO ON THEIR FIREARM LICENCES:
On May 14, 2001, the Winnipeg Free Press (Page A4) reported: “It
seems Les Doherty isn’t alone. Les
is the former Free Press photographer who found a photo of someone who looks 50
years younger on his federal firearms licence.
Well, there are at least two other Winnipeggers with the same problem.
Raymond Dwarnick found a face that didn’t fit on his firearms licence
and so did Val Johnston’s husband.”
CONTACT
INFORMATION
The
Honourable Martin Cauchon, P.C., M.P.
Minister
of Justice
Room
312, West Block
House
of Commons
Ottawa,
Ontario
K1A
0A6
Telephone:
(613) 995-7691
Facsimile:
(613) 995-0114
E-mail :
Cauchon.M@parl.gc.ca
Mrs.
Sheila Fraser
240
Sparks Street
Ottawa,
Ontario
K1A
0G6
Telephone:
(613) 995-3708
Facsimile: (613) 957-0474
Facsimile: (613) 941-8286 (Commissioner)
E-mail: communications@oag-bvg.gc.ca
Mr.
George Radwanski
The
Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112
Kent Street
Ott
K1A
1H3
Phone (613)
995-8210
Toll-free 1-800-282-1376
Fax (613) 947-6850
E-mail:
info@privcom.gc.ca