FIREARMS
FACTS - UPDATE
STATUS
OF FIREARMS “VERIFIER NETWORK”
Updated:
May 30, 2003
RCMP
RESPONSE TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
FILE:
03ATIP-18117 dated May 30, 2003
BREITKREUZ
ATI REQUEST – Dated April 29, 2003
“Reference
is being made to the RCMP’s response to ATIP2002-44709 dated January 23, 2003
and complaints we are receiving from firearms owners across Canada who are
unable to contact verifiers from lists provided by the Canadian Firearms
Registry and complaints about verifiers from those same lists who refuse to
verify firearms when requested.
Please
provide copies of reports showing the number of “active” Volunteer Verifiers
in each province and territory. For
the purposes of this request an “active” volunteer verifier would be an
individual who has agreed to verify firearms for the general public (as opposed
to verifying only for his personal use or business) and has verified firearms in
the last year.”
RCMP
RESPONSE Dated: May 30, 2003
TOTAL
NUMBER OF ACTIVE PUBLIC VERIFIERS
– As of May 5, 2003
Province
Number
Newfoundland
336
Nova
Scotia
92
Prince
Edward Island
87
New
Brunswick
342
Quebec
700
Ontario
463
Manitoba
182
Saskatchewan
216
Alberta
226
British
Columbia
387
Yukon
3
Nunavut/Northwest
Territories 22
TOTAL
3056
RCMP
RESPONSE TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
FILE:
ATIP2002-44709 dated January 23, 2003
BREITKREUZ
ATI REQUEST – Dated November 5, 2002
“Please
provide copies of records and reports that show: (1) The total number of
firearms in the Canadian Firearms Registry (CFR) that have been “verified”;
(2) The total number of firearms in the CFR that can be uniquely identified
based solely on the description of the firearm provided by the firearm owner,
and (3) The current status of the “Verifier Network” and the verification
program.”
RCMP
RESPONSE Dated: January 23,
2003
1)
Total number
of firearms in the CFR that have been verified.
We
can confirm 1,081,589 firearms have been verified.
2)
Total
number of firearms in the CFR that can be uniquely identified based solely on
the description of the firearm provided by the firearm owner, 4,220,176.”
3)
Current status of the Verifier Network and the
verification program – To be done by Paul Timmins: The Verifier Network
currently maintains a National Coordinator, and two Provincial Coordinators on
each in Quebec and Ontario and 5,122 Volunteer Verifiers across Canada that
continue to support the registration program by assisting the public and
businesses with verification the of [sic]
firearms. The two Provincial
Coordinator positions will be terminated on December 31, 2002.
All jurisdictions with the exception of Quebec and Ontario are assisting
with training and maintenance of the network.
The administration, policies and procedures of the verifiers network are
the responsibility of the Canadian Firearms Registry.
Briefing
Note dated February 20, 2002
Project
Update: STATUS OF THE VERIFIER’S NETWORK
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/verifiersnetworkstatusreport20020201.pdf
HAS
THE “VERIFIER NETWORK” BEEN ABANDONED?
For
the last year and a half, Garry Breitkreuz’s office has been receiving
complaints from Volunteer Verifiers that they are no longer receiving any
support for their activities and are unable to contact anybody in charge of the
Network through the Canadian Firearms Program or the RCMP.
Here
are two typical complaints.
SASKATCHEWAN
– January 27, 2003: “I volunteered to be a
verifier back quite some time ago. In the beginning, everything seemed to be in
order. I received 'formal' training, information handouts, regular 'periodical'
mailings, and even updated versions of the FRT discs. I verified a few guns- mostly things that people found to be
- not worthy of keeping- or at least registering at that time! Things got quiet-
very quiet. I received a call from
the fellow who established the network here (Ron Read), and trained me,
informing me that his job had in fact expired and that all issues in regards
would be handled from a district office and a district supervisor in Edmonton.
Well... I have sent many- and I mean MANY e-mails to the verifiers
network, the R.C.M.P. and other in attempts to find out what was going on with
the verifying process- since the new- paper- registrations quite requiring the
verifying process. I raised concerns that the workload on volunteers was
potentially impossible. It did not
make much sense to introduce that process, then to overlook it until a later
date- in which ever gun in the registry would ultimately have to be handled yet
a second time and in effect- re-registering the information.
I have never received so much as a single reply. I asked some pretty
simple questions like; does the network still exist?? if so, who’s running the show???
Am I still a verifier??? Will
I still be called upon???? I can't
get a single answer to even one of my questions!!!!
I have people calling me on a regular basis for information in regards to
the registry. At one time, I was kept informed, and was able to tell the public
what was going on. Somewhere along the line, communication has completely failed
and I am left standing in the dark with every other gun owner in the land.
However, even though they have managed to exclude me from the 'loop', they have
not been so kind as to lose my phone number, as I still get many phone calls
asking me for information- & I don't have a clue what to tell people
anymore!! NICE hey! how
considerate! sure makes me want to
help out!!!!!
ALBERTA
– January 28, 2003: I took the course with 5 others and within
three years, the co-ordinator was let go. I
have had no contact from the so called "verifiers network" since the
co-ordinator wrote and said he had been fired. The verifier's review flyer was
maybe three issues and quit coming a couple of years ago.
I have told them on several occasions, including when I signed up, that I
had no interest in public verifying but have had several tell me that they were
given my name. How's that for a privacy issue?
One of the guys I took the course with was called up and chewed out
because of all the complaints, namely he refused to verify unless they paid him
and he never had a computer fast enough anyway. Maybe if they called me for a
change, I could get my name dropped too but for now I have to spend my phone
time trying to get more forms. The
program was poorly written and for what little it contained, an old pentium I
486 at 66hz took almost three hours just to load the program.
The laptops that they trained us on would be locked into a search for
about three hours if you accidentally tried to search for something without
enough blanks filled in. There were
warnings not to load this program onto a police or customs computer as this
apparently crashed the CPIC for as much as ten hours at a time.
I guess its programming mistook the FaRT disk for a query on every
firearm that they could find out about at the time.
ONTARIO
– January 31, 2003 - Recently I had struck a deal to sell an
old Winchester Model 94 rifle to a dealer in another province. When I called the
CFC the clerk told me that the rifle had to be verified before sale.
I asked where the nearest verifier was.
There were none in St. Catharines, Welland or Niagara Falls.
The closest one she could find listed was in Port Stanley, over 100 km
away. When I pressed the issue she
became very evasive. To my inquiry
about whether she had run into this before she said she had many times. I asked
how it was resolved and she said the seller had to find a verifier.
When I asked her how a gun could be verified if there were no verifers
her answer was "It has to be verified". When I asked if there was a way to resolve the problem she
said "Call your MP".
ARTICLE
FROM “THE ADVANCE” – www.simcoe.com
Dealer takes aim at more gun fees” by Jason Ballantyne: The Advance Jan. 30, 2003
Carl
Banting, owner of the Wolf's Den Sporting Supplies in Utopia, 10 kilometres west
of Barrie, said there is a little-known component of the federal government's
program that will make the initial costs look like a drop in the bucket - the
verification stage of registering weapons.
"When Canadians - whether they agree with gun registration or not -
see what verification is going to cost them, they will be up in arms,"
Banting said. "People should
call their MPs about this issue. It's not just going to affect gun owners - it's
going to affect anybody who pays tax," Banting said.
Click
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