November 2, 2000

The Editor

The Moncton Times and Transcript

2 pages sent by fax: (506) 859-4904

Dear Editor:

Your readers will definitely need some clarification after reading James Foster’s front page story ("Alliance would close Miramichi gun centre" – The Times and Transcript, Page A1, Wednesday, November 1, 2000). Of course, a Canadian Alliance government is going to keep our five year pledge to repeal Bill C-68. In fact, we have already drafted the Orders in Council that will put Bill C-68 on ice the day after we are elected.

Unfortunately, when the Liberals created this useless regulatory scheme they also created false expectations among the citizens of Miramichi that the 400 jobs they created at the firearms centre would last for life.

Once elected, an Alliance government will bring an immediate end to the harassment of millions of responsible firearm owners with onerous user fees and miles of red tape. Because the workers in Miramichi are responsible for depositing these user fees and processing the miles of red tape, many will be laid off. Depending on how our negotiations with the provinces go it may very well be closed. We didn’t need the Canadian Firearms Centre before Bill C-68 was rammed through the House of Commons, so I can’t see why we would need it after C-68 is repealed.

Although your article didn’t make it clear, your readers are probably aware that law-abiding firearms owners aren’t being registered, they’re being licenced – legally owned guns are being registered. With the repeal of C-68, there would be no "keeping track of firearms" as your article stated. The registration of rifles and shotguns will end but the licencing of new gun owners will likely continue just as it did before C-68 became law in 1995. The only reason the Alliance can’t say how the replacement legislation, "..would unfold completely," is because we refuse to ram firearms laws down the provinces throats like the Liberals have done. Unlike the Liberal’s useless gun registry, the target of our replacement legislation will be to reduce the criminal use of firearms. In order to succeed, any regulatory gun control regime has to be implemented with the complete cooperation of the provinces and with the full support of law abiding gun owners.

Your readers will no doubt recall, that in February, eight provinces and territories challenged the licencing and registration provisions of Bill C-68 all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Your readers will also recall that the Canadian Alliance supported the provinces’ position that civil rights, licencing of firearm owners and regulation of private property is an exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces in our constitution. How could we possibly be precise about replacement firearms legislation unless we were prepared to abuse the federal government’s criminal law powers in the constitution just as the Liberals did with C-68? Just because the Supreme Court said the Liberal government had the power to impose C-68 on the provinces didn’t make it right! Prime Minister Chretien’s government imposed his useless billion-dollar gun registration scheme on the provinces and look where it got them. In addition to the Supreme Court challenge, the three prairie provinces have completely opted out of all federal gun control laws, Ontario has opted out of the registration component, and Nunavut has launched their own court challenge. Canadians can rest assured a Canadian Alliance government will not make the same silly mistake.

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Contrary to what your article said, the Alliance platform plank to make the breaking of a restraining order a criminal offence does relate to the criminal use of firearms. This measure is being proposed by a number of provincial Justice Ministers and strikes at the heart of the domestic violence problem regardless of the type of weapon abusive spouses may use. Judges can revoke the firearms acquisition licences of abusive spouses until they’re blue in the face; judges can even prohibit them from owning firearms, but that still doesn’t stop spouses from getting killed. We need to send a message to abusive spouses that breaking a restraining order is going to land them in jail. This will be a more effective tool to fight domestic violence than any gun control law the Liberals have yet devised!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain the rationale behind our platform and policies to your readers.

Sincerely,

Garry Breitkreuz, MP

Yorkton-Melville