DRAFT TALKING POINTS
By Garry Breitkreuz, MP – January
14, 2003
NOTE: These
are the notes Garry used in responding to the CPA Executive's statement of
support for the Liberal government's billion-dollar gun registry in the National
Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday morning, January 14, 2003.
1. If
any of what the CPA Executive have said about the registration of rifles and
shotguns were true, the smuggling and criminal use of handguns in Canada should
be virtually non-existent. The law
has required the registration of handguns since 1934. Surely, sixty-eight years is enough time to prove that the
policy of gun registration doesn’t work.
Statistics Canada’s proves it every year when they publish their annual
Homicide in Canada report. These
reports have shown a steady increase in firearms homicides committed with
handguns from 27% in 1974 to 64% in 2001. Between
1997 and 2001, 74% of the handguns recovered from the scenes of 143 homicides
were not registered.
2. The
Canadian Police Association Executive does not concern itself with the costs of
the gun registry but we are answerable to taxpayers for efficient use of scarce
tax dollars to insure public safety and reduce crime.
The question that really needs to be asked is: “What in all of this is
worth a billion dollars?” How
does laying a piece of paper beside every gun in the country justify spending a
billion dollars?
3. Statistics Canada
reports show that the number of criminal incidents per police officer has more
than doubled since 1962. The City
of Toronto is short more than 400 police officers.
The Ontario Provincial Police are short 500 officers.
The number of police officers in Canada has remained stalled at 56,000
since 1990. In April of 2001 a
briefing note to Justice Minister Anne McLellan advised her: “There are
currently just over 1,800 employees associated with the firearms program.”
It doesn’t take much brilliance to know what would do more good. We could have put over 10,000 more police officers on the
street.
4. In
August of 1999, I spent three days at the Canadian Police Association Annual
General Meeting in Regina. At that
meeting the members of the CPA passed a resolution that made their support of
the gun registry “conditional”. Those
six “conditions” have not been met.
5. The
design of the gun registration scheme is so flawed that the system can’t tell
police where the registered guns are – the very thing three Justice Ministers
promised them it would do.
(a) Police will not know where the guns are because
the government does not require the 131,000 most dangerous
persons who are already prohibited from owning firearms to report their
change of address to police.
(b) Police will not know where the guns are because
there is no legal requirement for gun owners to store their
registered firearms at their home addresses or tell the government where
they are stored.
(c) Police will not know where the guns are because
the government does not keep track of registered firearms that
are loaned
between licenced firearms owners.
(d) Police will not know where the guns are because
between half-a-million and 1.3 million gun owners failed or
refused to obtain a firearms licence and can’t register their guns
without one.
(e) Police will not know where the guns are because
the government has lost track of at least 300,000 guns in the old
handgun registration system.
(f) Police will not know where the guns are because
the government still has to register between 2 and 10 million
guns.
(g) Even if police do find the guns,
there are so few identifying characteristics on the registration certificates
that it is
impossible to verify that it is the firearm registered in the system.
For example, 6 million registration certificates
have been issued without the owner’s name.
There are 3.2 million blank and unknown entries on gun registration
certificates that have already been issued - more than three-quarters of
a million don’t have serial numbers.
6. The
Attorney’s General and Justice Ministers in 8 provinces and 3 territories do
not support the position taken by the CPA Executive today.
These are the very people that our constitution gives responsibility for
enforcing the law in their jurisdiction. Eight
provinces and territories have completely opted-out of the administration of the
gun registry, Ontario refuses to implement the Liberal’s gun registration
scheme and several provinces are refusing to enforce the Firearms Act.
7. Here’s
what CPA President, Grant Obst, had to say at a rally in Saskatoon just two
years ago: “It bothers me that the public would not
support me in my line of duty. We’ve
never been at odds with the public before.
This issue has done this.”
8. Finally,
the CPA Executive would do well to listen to the following advice from
front-line police officers in Saskatchewan. “The
Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers does not feel Bill C-68 focuses on
the real problem. The real problem
is criminals, not further restrictions on law abiding citizens.
Saskatchewan’s’ municipal police officers see very little need for
further gun restrictions. We are of
the opinion that C-68 does little to prevent crime, or assist in the
apprehension of criminals. When a
Saskatchewan police officer thinks of a gun, he/she usually thinks of hunting
– not homicide. Saskatchewan
police officers, like other Saskatchewan residents do not have faith in Bill
C-68. We know it is not
enforceable, and furthermore will have a great deal of trouble adhering to a law
those we serve do not approve of. Saskatchewan
police officers are not interested in the creation of more paper trails which do
little to protect our loved ones. We
are not interested in arresting, or incarcerating, otherwise law abiding people
for failing to comply with unnecessary paper trails. We want governments at all levels to concentrate on lawmaking
which reduces risk on our streets. Laws
that identify criminals for what they are and keeps them out of our communities.
Laws that identify repeat and habitual criminals and treat them
accordingly. Laws that have teeth in them.
Laws that police officers in this province can enforce effectively, with
the true belief that they are having an impact on the criminal element we
continually battle. Bill C-68 has
impact and focus. Its impact and
focus is on the law abiding firearm owner.
This is not where Saskatchewan police officers feel the impact and focus
need to be. Impact and focus must
be on the criminal. We trust you
will deliver this message to Mr. Rock on our behalf”.
Sincerely, Grant Obst – President.
NOTE:
These quotes taken from a letter by Grant Obst, President of the Saskatchewan
Federation of Police Officers to the Hon. Robert Mitchell, QC – Minister of
Justice for Saskatchewan dated April 28th, 1995.
Here are the six CPA conditions that have
still not been met:
A.
The Auditor General of Canada conduct a thorough review of the firearms
registration system and release a public report on their findings to the people
of Canada.
GARRY’S
COMMENT: The Auditor General has
only reviewed the costs and not the effectiveness of the gun registry.
Justice Dept. officials told the Auditor General that it will take 3 or 4
more years to fully implement the gun registry.
CPA Condition Not Met!
B.
The accuracy of the information that is collected in the firearms registration
database be verified.
GARRY’S
COMMENT: The accuracy of the
information has NOT been verified! In
fact, more than 3.2 million registration certificates have been issued with
blanks and unknown entries. More
than 800,000 registration certificates have been issued without serial numbers.
The RCMP were removed from the gun registration process after they
reported it would take 8.8 years to properly verify and register all the
firearms in Canada. The RCMP’s 3,800 volunteer Verifier Network was abandoned.
The Auditor General reported that 90% of the licence and registration
applications had errors. The RCMP also reported serious errors in the 4 million
entries in the Firearms Interest Police database and concluded: “a tragic
incident could arise as a consequence of the poor data quality and that the RCMP
faces serious legal risks.” CPA Condition Not Met!
C.
The CPA receive confirmation that the registration system has the capacity to
meet the legislative timeframes established for firearms registration.
GARRY’S
COMMENT: Obviously, the legislative
deadline was missed. The Department
of Justice own reports show that hundreds of thousands of gun owners still
don’t have firearms licences and millions of guns remain unregistered.
CPA Condition Not Met!
D.
The CPA receive confirmation that the cost recovery plan for registration can be
achieved.
GARRY’S
COMMENT: As the Auditor General’s
report proved and as the government now admits, there is no hope that the gun
registry will cover the billion dollars wasted so far or the next billion
they’ll spend before it’s fully implemented.
CPA Condition Not Met!
E.
Meaningful consultations with the User Group take place to ensure that the
concerns of stakeholders are addressed in the review process.
GARRY’S COMMENT:
In the year since the Minister of Justice was appointed, he has still not
met with his own User Group on Firearms. The
Chairman of the User Group admits that more than half of their recommendations
have been ignored. CPA Condition
Not Met!
F. The CPA receive confirmation that the implementation
and operation of the system is not taking officers off the street.
GARRY’S COMMENT:
Of course, the gun registry is taking police off the street.
When the government employs 1,800 paper pushers those resources are
diverted from front-line policing. Has
the CPA Executive not been listing to Chief Fantino and Justice Ministers from 8
provinces and the three territories? CPA
Condition Not Met!
NOT ONE OF THE SIX CONDITIONS HAS BEEN MET!