"OTTAWA — The Conservative government announced
plans to scrap the registry of rifles and shotguns, in a move that the
government said will render records on 90 per cent of all guns that are now
registered "obsolete," but reduce the registry's budget by only 12 per
cent. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced an immediate
one-year amnesty so that owners of rifles and shotguns will not have to
register them, and promised legislation to kill the long-gun registry "soon."
That law is far from certain to pass in the minority Parliament, however, and
opposition parties accused the government of an undemocratic "abuse of
Parliament" in ordering an amnesty to gut the registry, even though it does
not have the approval of the Commons to kill it. All three opposition parties
oppose scrapping the registry, and the governments of Canada's two most
populous provinces, Quebec and Ontario, vowed to fight to keep it, arguing it
is a tool to fight crime. It remains unclear whether enough opposition MPs
will break ranks to allow the Tories to pass the bill, which Mr. Day said he
hopes to table in June. "I'm very surprised that the government has declared
here that there will be an amnesty, that they are prepared to suspend the law
while it is in place," said Liberal public safety critic Irwin Cotler.
"Without a bill, it's an abuse of process, it's an abuse of Parliament, and
it's an abuse of the democratic process." The amnesty, until May 17, 2007,
means that owners of rifles and shotguns will not be prosecuted for failing to
register each of their guns, but it also goes further. Long-gun owners who did
not renew their licences to own a gun after 2003 will also not be prosecuted.
There are 7.1 million guns now registered, of which 6.6 million are
unrestricted long guns such as rifles and shotguns. Transfers or purchases of
such guns will no longer have to be registered under the Tory plan. The Canada
Firearms Centre -- popularly called the "gun registry," but in fact the
organization that licenses and registers all guns and gun owners -- will be
dismantled, and its remaining operations transferred to the RCMP. But the
spending budget will be reduced by only $10-million a year -- from
$82.3-million to $72.3-million -- because most of the budget, $61-million, is
for licensing firearms owners, which will continue, rather than registering
weapons, which costs $15.7-million. In fact, the Conservative moves will make
the gun registry more expensive for taxpayers, because they will also stop
charging most licence fees, which were to bring in $22.7-million this
year.Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control. She said
long-gun registration is important to supporting police investigations, making
gun owners accountable and combatting illegal gun sales. "If you have a
licence that allows you to buy as many guns as you want, and there's no record
kept of the fact that you own those guns, there's nothing to keep you from
selling those guns illegally," Ms. Cukier said. "Remember, every illegal gun
begins as a legal gun." In 1995, there were 176 homicides committed with
firearms in Canada, including 61 with rifles or shotguns. In 2004, there were
172 gun homicides, including 37 committed with rifles or shotguns. Yesterday,
provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec joined forces to fight Ottawa's
plans to scrap the long-gun registry. Ontario Attorney-General Michael Bryant
said he and Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis agreed to work
together to keep it intact. "Ontario's committed to doing everything it can to
fight gun crime and address the illegal gun trade, including placing controls
on the illegal gun trade," he said. "We do not support amnesties from
public safety, amnesties from safe storage and amnesties from gun
control.""
I got news for S Harper and his
Conservatives, you cannot hope even win re-election with out the news media
support, and the news media does not support the obvious losers, and daily
more and more reporters are wrting negative articles about S Harper and his
government as well.
(Prov 13:20 KJV) He that walketh with wise
men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.(Prov 24:6
KJV) For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of
counsellors there is safety.(Luke 12:57 KJV) Yea, and why even of
yourselves judge ye not what is right? 58 When thou goest with thine
adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou
mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.59 I
tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last
mite.
"Sheila Fraser: The audit unearths
some disquieting facts and figures. "The Hamilton Spectator (May
18, 2006) As expected, Sheila Fraser's latest report produces damning
testimony about recent Liberal governments. But more than just chronicling
enormous gun registry costs, sneaky accounting habits, or millions spent on
air force training that was never used, the auditor-general's reality check
reveals an Ottawa pattern that's as disturbing as the head-spinning list of
individual money wasters. A
recurring aspect of Fraser's latest findings is that, even when officials are
alerted to serious problems involving huge amounts of public money, they often
can't -- or don't try to -- fix the problem."