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Quebec Tories rebuff pleas by police, women to keep gun registry
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n053127A
By: JIM BROWN
OTTAWA (CP) - Montreal police, women's groups and gun-control advocates, backed by the Bloc Quebecois, are calling on the Conservative government to reverse course and maintain the federal long-gun registry.
But Tory cabinet ministers and backbenchers from Quebec rebuffed the appeal Wednesday, insisting the registry is a waste of money and isn't effective in fighting crime.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, acting in the wake of a critical report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, has announced a series of fee waivers and amnesties for rifle and shotgun owners as a prelude to abolishing the registry.
The program has been plagued by cost overruns, and critics say its computerized files are riddled with errors.
But Yves Francoeur, president of the union representing Montreal police officers, said the registry remains a useful tool.
For example, he told a news conference, offices routinely check it when responding to a domestic violence call to see whether anybody at the address is listed as a firearms owner.
It's true there are some errors in the computer files, Francoeur said. "But it's better for a police officer to work with incomplete and imperfect information than with no information at all."
Serge Menard, the Bloc justice critic, said he is "scandalized" like everyone else at the cost of the registry, which ballooned to nearly $1 billion over its first decade of operation.
He has gone so far as to demand a public inquiry into how the former Liberal government let spending get out of hand in the program's early years.
But that's no reason to kill the registry now that management practices have improved, said Menard.
He pointed to federal statistics that show a long-term decline in gun deaths and other firearms-related crime and concluded: "I don't know how you can say the registry isn't working now."
Catherine Bergeron, whose sister was one of the female students gunned down in the infamous Ecole Polytechnique massacre, also voiced support for the program.
"I find it incredible this debate still persists," she said. "Possessing a gun is a privilege, not a right."
Gun control has long been a popular issue in Quebec, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper hopes to make further inroads in the next election in his quest to secure a majority government.
But Public Works Minister Michael Fortier insisted Wednesday that Quebecers are onside with the Tory decision to get rid of the long-gun registry.
"I speak to all kinds of people in Montreal," Fortier said outside a party caucus meeting.
"People understand very well what we've done. .?.?. People realize a colossal sum was invested in a program that didn't work."
Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said that, as a hunter, he supports the move toward abolition.
Similar sentiments came from backbencher Sylvie Boucher, who said that in her riding of Beauport-Limoilou, near Quebec City, "all the hunters are happy. They agree with us."
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n053127A
By: JIM BROWN
OTTAWA (CP) - Montreal police, women's groups and gun-control advocates, backed by the Bloc Quebecois, are calling on the Conservative government to reverse course and maintain the federal long-gun registry.
But Tory cabinet ministers and backbenchers from Quebec rebuffed the appeal Wednesday, insisting the registry is a waste of money and isn't effective in fighting crime.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, acting in the wake of a critical report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, has announced a series of fee waivers and amnesties for rifle and shotgun owners as a prelude to abolishing the registry.
The program has been plagued by cost overruns, and critics say its computerized files are riddled with errors.
But Yves Francoeur, president of the union representing Montreal police officers, said the registry remains a useful tool.
For example, he told a news conference, offices routinely check it when responding to a domestic violence call to see whether anybody at the address is listed as a firearms owner.
It's true there are some errors in the computer files, Francoeur said. "But it's better for a police officer to work with incomplete and imperfect information than with no information at all."
Serge Menard, the Bloc justice critic, said he is "scandalized" like everyone else at the cost of the registry, which ballooned to nearly $1 billion over its first decade of operation.
He has gone so far as to demand a public inquiry into how the former Liberal government let spending get out of hand in the program's early years.
But that's no reason to kill the registry now that management practices have improved, said Menard.
He pointed to federal statistics that show a long-term decline in gun deaths and other firearms-related crime and concluded: "I don't know how you can say the registry isn't working now."
Catherine Bergeron, whose sister was one of the female students gunned down in the infamous Ecole Polytechnique massacre, also voiced support for the program.
"I find it incredible this debate still persists," she said. "Possessing a gun is a privilege, not a right."
Gun control has long been a popular issue in Quebec, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper hopes to make further inroads in the next election in his quest to secure a majority government.
But Public Works Minister Michael Fortier insisted Wednesday that Quebecers are onside with the Tory decision to get rid of the long-gun registry.
"I speak to all kinds of people in Montreal," Fortier said outside a party caucus meeting.
"People understand very well what we've done. .?.?. People realize a colossal sum was invested in a program that didn't work."
Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said that, as a hunter, he supports the move toward abolition.
Similar sentiments came from backbencher Sylvie Boucher, who said that in her riding of Beauport-Limoilou, near Quebec City, "all the hunters are happy. They agree with us."
