http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=34639F87-C45B-4FDC-8175-D08EB01B2E7B
PUBLICATION:
National Post
DATE:
2003.07.10
EDITION:
National
SECTION:
Editorials
PAGE:
A19
SOURCE:
National Post Laws and regulations; Canada
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Wayne
Easter's misplaced pride
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Wayne
Easter, the federal Solicitor-General, claims Ottawa's firearms registry has
"stood the test." Indeed, Mr. Easter is so proud of the program, he
had his officials sing its praises this week at the United Nations, and
encouraged other member states to follow Canada's lead. But given the many
scandals that have plagued the program, these comments raised eyebrows back
home. Indeed, this month brought a fresh gun-registry outrage: Thanks to
Ottawa's incompetence, 300,000 law-abiding gun owners were turned into criminals
on July 1.
Ottawa's
firearms law required all gun owners to have possession licences by Jan. 1,
2001, and to register all of their guns by Jan. 1 this year. However, there are
at least a quarter-million licensed owners with no guns registered to their
names. All last year, Ottawa warned such owners they had to have at least one
firearm registered against their names by the end of 2002 to avoid
investigation: Under the new gun law, it is a criminal offence to be in
possession of an unregistered firearm, for whatever reason. Even a mistake on a
registration form that causes Ottawa's computers to reject an application can
technically make an owner a criminal, and liable for up to 10 years in prison.
(Mr. Easter claims the sentence is six months, but Section 92(3)(b) of the
Criminal Code says otherwise.)
There
are still at least 250,000 Canadians in this boat -- in possession of a valid
owners licence, but without a single gun registered in their names. By default,
Ottawa now considers these duck hunters and target shooters to be criminals.
Thanks to the frequent crashes that afflict the clunky, patchwork computer
system at the Canadian Firearms Centre, certificates could not be produced fast
enough to meet the deadline, but the burden is on gun owners: If the system
screws up, Ottawa considers them to be criminals -- even if they have done all
they can to comply with the silly and draconian registry scheme.
Forget
the United Nations: Mr. Easter cannot even get Canadian police to enforce his
law. A half-dozen members of the Canadian Unregistered Firearms Owners
Association have been presenting themselves at police stations across the
country since the July 1 deadline. They have been showing police that they have
no registrations and asking officers to charge them. So far, no takers. Why?
Because it is hard for anyone -- except Mr. Easter -- to imagine such charges
not being laughed out of court.
On
top of this, Ottawa's compliance numbers are screwy, and seem to have been
massaged to make the registry appear a greater success than it is. As recently
as May, 1998, for instance, Ottawa estimated there were three million gun
owners. But as the deadline for licensing owners approached, Ottawa revised its
estimate downward. Now, instead of 3.3 million -- itself a low number based on
historic ownership data -- there were suddenly just 2.3 million. Thus does a
compliance rate of about 60% become nearly 90%.
The
same deflationary phenomenon was observed in regard to estimates of the number
of guns. Earlier federal estimates put the figure at 10-to-15 million firearms
-- again, consistent with historic statistics. But then, 10-to-15 million became
just 7.9 million.
Garry
Breitkreuz, the Alliance critic for firearms, estimates a compliance rate for
owners' licences of as low as 38%, and very likely no more than 58%. He pegs
compliance for registering guns at between 36% and 54%. Why would we take the
word of an Opposition pol over that of the government? Because Mr. Breitkreuz
has a strong record on the file: For years, he has been warning that the
registry was going to cost Canadians $1-billion, even as the Liberals assured us
the true net cost would be 1/500th of that. Last December, the Auditor-General
proved Mr. Breitkreuz correct.
Canada's
gun registry has become a sad symbol of government overspending and
incompetence. The last thing Mr. Easter should be doing is encouraging other
nations to copy Canada's billion-dollar folly.