Reprinted from TheGunBlog.ca:
New Gun Laws Coming in ‘Near Future,’ Goodale’s Office Says
The Canadian government will present new gun laws to increase paperwork and restrictions for lawful gun owners in the “near future” this year, beyond today’s statement about funding related to firearms and gang violence, the Ministry of Public Safety said.
The Liberal Party, which controls parliament, said in its 2015 election platform that it would require more checks when buying or selling guns, more procedures and paperwork to take firearms to a shooting range or gunsmith, more list-keeping by gun stores, and new markings on imported guns.
“Work on a legislative package is underway and coming in the near future,” Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for the office of the minister, Ralph Goodale, said today by telephone. “We’ve said all along that we are committed to pursuing effective firearms measures that prioritize public safety while ensuring fair treatment for law-abiding gun-owners.”
Bardsley declined to comment on the specific timing, or whether the government would announce the new policies around the anniversary of the deadliest shooting in recent Canadian history, the Ecole Polytechnique massacre of Dec. 6, 1989.
Goodale was in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, today to announce a funding package related to gangs, as well as a Criminal Guns and Gangs Summit next March.
“As part of its commitment to make it harder for criminals to get and use handguns and assault weapons and to reduce gun and gang violence, the Government of Canada is announcing up to $327.6 million over five years, and $100 million annually thereafter, in new funding to help support a variety of initiatives to reduce gun crime and criminal gang activities,” Goodale said today in a press release.
The plan is in line with what the Liberals said in their election platform.
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Canada’s gun registry isn’t gone after all.
Despite a clear vote in Parliament to destroy it, despite a Supreme Court ruling that it could be destroyed and despite assurances from politicians and top bureaucrats – including a senior Mountie – that the data was all destroyed, it turns out there are two copies left of the Quebec portion of the registry.
Questions about the existence of backup copies of the registry surfaced last week after Liberal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled a bill that would give the Quebec government all the records that existed from the registry on April 3, 2015. The bill would also allow the Information Commissioner to review the records in order to settle an outstanding claim.
Goodale refused to answer questions about where the data was being sourced considering the data was supposed to have been destroyed. Rumours of backup copies have long persisted among Canada’s gun owners but never been confirmed, until now.
Goodale’s press secretary, Scott Bardsley, confirmed to me via email that two copies of the registry still exist all thanks to Harper era Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney.
“Under the previous administration, a complete copy of Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) from April 3, 2015 was maintained by the RCMP in a secure location due to an investigation by the Information Commissioner into an Access to Information request received in March 2012,” Bardsley said.
Another copy, this one just containing the Quebec gun registry records requested by the Information Commissioner is kept under seal by the court while the case is being heard.
Yes, that’s right, there are still copies of parts of the gun registry and it is thanks to the Conservatives and not the Liberals.
What is significant about the date of April 3, 2015 is that it is exactly one week prior to the date the RCMP claims they began destruction of all the Quebec registry records. Testifying before a Commons committee on June 4, 2015, Deputy Commissioner Peter Henschel told MPs the Quebec records had been destroyed, just like the records for the rest of Canada.
“The RCMP deleted the remaining Quebec records from the Canadian Firearms Information System between April 10 to April 12, 2015,” Henschel said.
Turns out, that testimony wasn’t true and now the hard drive copy the Mounties have will be turned over to Quebec, after the passage of bill C-52, to allow the province to start their own gun registry.
Groups representing gun owners are furious.
Canada’s National Firearms Association, which is suing to block a Quebec registry, said this goes against a law passed by Parliament.
“It is disturbing that the records of the Quebec portion of the firearms registry have remained intact despite the clear will of Parliament to have them destroyed,” president Sheldon Clare of the NFA said.
“It is outrageous that this type of behaviour by the RCMP is tolerated in a modern democracy,” said Tony Bernardo of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
“Is there no one that has the courage to deal with the out-of-control RCMP brass?”
Bernardo has a point. Why would Deputy Commissioner Henschel testify before Parliament that the registry records had been destroyed when his department was sitting on a hard drive with the data he claimed was deleted?
The public was lied to by politicians and the Mounties, now they are owed some honest answers.
New Gun Law Pushed to Next Year, CTV Says, Quoting Goodale Staff
TheGunBlog.ca News Thursday 30 November 2017Monday 04 December 2017 1 Minute
Canada gun laws government firearmsScreenshot of article, Nov. 30. Source: CTVNews.ca
(Update 04 Dec.: See this post for the possible new timing.)
(TheGunBlog.ca) — The Canadian government’s package of new gun laws is being delayed until next year, CTV News reported today, citing a spokesperson for Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale.
The spokesperson told CTV that the government wouldn’t be introducing anything before year end, the news organization said. The legislation will be presented “in the near future,” CTV quoted the spokesman as saying.
Spokespeople for Goodale’s office couldn’t be reached tonight when contacted by TheGunBlog.ca.
Two weeks ago, a spokesman for the minister’s office told TheGunBlog.ca that the government planned to present the new laws this year.
Delayed Gun Control Bill expected this Spring: Goodale.
The federal government plans to introduce new gun control legislation, which is expected to fulfil promises made during the 2015 election campaign, sometime this spring.
Aimed at restricting access to handguns and assault weapons, the Liberal bill was originally expected late last year, but that didn’t happen. On Thursday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed the new timeline.
“There have been many efforts in the past by different governments dealing with firearms safety that have foundered in the process,” the Regina Wascana MP told reporters at an event in Saskatoon.
“We’re working very hard to make sure that we get a piece of legislation that actually achieves the objective, does so in a way that enhances the safety of Canadians but at the same time respects the rights of law-abiding firearms users.”
Since taking power, the Liberals have stripped firearm manufacturers of their right to determine weapon classifications and overhauled the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee to include “a broad range of interests.”
The government has also announced $327.6 million over five years, plus $100 million annually thereafter, with the aim of reducing gun crime and gang activity, Goodale spokesman Scott Bardsley said in an email.
However, the Liberals have been slow to enact other promises made on the campaign trail.
Those include the introduction of enhanced background checks for those seeking to buy a restricted firearm — a classification that includes pistols, revolvers and some semi-automatic rifles — and rules requiring vendors to keep inventory and sales records.
Last spring, the Liberals quietly deferred plans to introduce a controversial set of rules requiring every new gun made in Canada or imported into the country to be marked with the year and either “Canada” or “CA.”
Gun advocates have said the rules — which have been delayed eight times by four successive governments — would increase the price of every gun sold in the country, including paintball markers. Goodale admitted at the time they needed “substantial re-writing.”
“To be clear, we have said all along that we will not recreate a federal long-gun registry, and we won’t,” Bardsley said in the email.