“How
many promises are the Liberals going to break when it comes to their gun
registration scheme?”
Yorkton – Today,
Garry Breitkreuz, the Official Opposition’s gun control critic, blew the
whistle on another Liberal broken promise when it comes to their failed firearms
registration scheme. Access to
Information Requests from the RCMP and Canada Customs reveal that between
January 1, 2001 and October 31, 2001, more than 65,000 foreign residents
declared 89,820 firearms as they arrived in Canada and, contrary to promises
made in Parliament in 1995, the RCMP didn’t register them and the government
has no idea how many of these firearms remain in Canada today.
“The
government’s own procedures have exposed the Liberal’s hypocrisy and have
undermined the Minister’s rationale for setting up the gun registry in the
first place. What point are the
Liberal’s trying to make by forcing thousands of foreign residents to fill out
a firearms declaration form for every firearm they bring into the country and
then not track the firearm while it’s in the country or when it leaves?”
asked Breitkreuz. “This proves
beyond any doubt that government doesn’t honestly believe these tens of
thousands of unregistered firearms represent any threat to public safety when
they are in the hands of law abiding foreign visitors.”
On
November 30, 1994, Justice Minister Allan Rock tabled in Parliament, The
Government’s Action Plan on Firearms Control. On page 11 of that document, the Minister promised, “For
every firearm that enters or leaves Canada, the person responsible will be
required to have either an import/export permit for commercial use or a Customs
declaration for personal use, so that the movement of all firearms crossing the
border can be tracked.” Promise
made – promise broken. The
firearms are declared but they are not being registered and they are not being
tracked!
On
February 16, 1995, the Minister told the House of Commons, “Registration
will enable us to record what arrives and track it to the point of sale into the
hands of a lawful owner. Registration
will enable us to stop the kind of leakage that now occurs, to reduce the
incidence of people illegally selling that which is legally imported.” [Hansard
– Page 9708] Promise made – promise broken.
The firearms are recorded when they arrive at the border but the
government immediately loses track of them thereby defeating the stated purpose
of the registry.
“This
most recent failure of the gun registry to track these incoming firearms is even
more apparent when the Customs documents reveal that more than a thousand of the
firearms declared by foreign visitors in just the last 10 months were either
restricted (693) or prohibited (357) under Canadian criminal law,” observed
the Saskatchewan MP. “The
Liberals have wasted more than $685 million trying to implement their totally
useless gun registry. More than
half the provinces and territories aren’t even helping the federal government
implement the registry any more. It’s
time to put this burgeoning billion dollar boondoggle out of its misery and
redirect the money to real law enforcement priorities,” he recommended.
“In
1995, the Liberals were repeatedly told that their plans and promises about the
registry were unrealistic but they refused to listen to anyone.
In fact, on December 7, 1994, Allan Rock dismissed the province’s
advice in Parliament saying, “We govern by what is right.” [Hansard
– page 8705] Now all we can do is
report all the times they are wrong and hope that public safety priorities will
eventually win out over political priorities,” concluded Breitkreuz.
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