Rota and Angus prepare to shoot down long-gun registry bill

by Jim Patrick
Speaker Reporter
TEMISKAMING SHORES -- Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner’s bill C-391 dealing with the fate of the federal gun registry comes before the House of Commons September 22. And there’s a chance that it might be shot down aided by Temiskaming’s two MPs.
The rookie Manitoba Conservative MP introduced the private member’s bill in May, 2009 to fulfill a long-held Conservative promise to scrap the controversial long-gun registry.
While it is a national issue, it seems Temiskaming’s two MPs who in first and second readings voted in favour of the bill will now be instrumental in its death.
Timmins-James Bay NDP MP Charlie Angus and Nipissing-Timiskaming Liberal MP Anthony Rota say they are aiming to defeat the bill.
What makes the gun registry controversial is recent polling that suggests 44 per cent of Canadians want the long gun registry scrapped. Most are from the rural areas where guns are tools, not weapons, to be used for hunting or protecting livestock from predators.
Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz cited key reasons why the gun registry should be targeted. Reasons such as costs exceed benefits and costs are out of control; cuts and lack of police resources for real crime-fighting initiatives, registry information riddled with errors; millions of guns not registered because of non-compliance and alienating millions of honest citizens that police rely on to help them fight crime.
These were some of the reasons why the bill came on the floor and why MPs wanted to take a closer look at the issue.
MP ANGUS
MP Angus said, “I supported it (the bill) to get it to committee because I felt and I still feel that there are lots of problems with the way the registry has been implemented. I felt, after hearing from my constituents that they wanted these issues addressed, not pushed under the carpet.”
It might seem to be a flip-flop vote to get the bill on the floor and then killing it, but Mr. Angus blames the Conservatives for his change of heart.
“The Conservatives would not produce the evidence necessary for my vote.
“They tried to suppress the police audit on the registry and I’m not going to vote based on the threat they are going to run attack ads.
“I’m going to vote on the facts and those police audits show a very different picture than what the Conservatives claim.”
Regarding the billion dollars spent on registering firearms, MP Angus remarked, “I’m sure people in urban and rural Canada would agree that it was a waste of money. But the money has been spent so what do we do now?
“Simply holding a billion-dollar bonfire of the records isn’t a good social policy to me. We all agree it costs way too much.”
POLICE
But Mr. Angus maintains that internal audits recently released reveal the cost to maintain the registry has dropped dramatically and is well within a reasonable limit now that it is being administered by the RCMP.
The other issue is whether police are using it or not.
Mr. Angus was told by police he interviewed that while criminals don’t register guns, they do steal them and when police seize these arms they can trace them back to the licenced owners and thereby establish to the courts that the firearms were, indeed, stolen.
“I think the final straw for me was the attack on the police last week by the head of the Conservative Public Safety Committee. The Conservatives didn’t produce the evidence and they are using the politics of division so they don’t have my support.”
MP Angus says NDP party leader Jack Layton recognizes there is a lot of rural resentment to the gun registry and that there are a lot of problems with it.
“Because I’m voting against it doesn’t mean I’m leading a big brass band for the registry. I want the problem fixed.”
To solve the problem, the NDP has brought forward a number of issues including that of decriminalization.
For example, filling out the form incorrectly becomes a criminal offence.
“Decriminalizing the offence is one of the responses we are pushing for. Then there’s the technicalities of how guns are registered. This could be a lot more streamlined -- less of a hassle, less in your face.”
Mr. Angus says matters have to be straightened out with registration as it affects people of the First Nations.
“I’ve talked to my constituents about the issue. Some are happy with my position, some aren’t. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the job. Some issues have no simple solutions. But this bill with its lack of evidence at this time is not one I’m going to support.”
MP ROTA
Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Tony Rota said he initially supported Bill C-391 despite the fact many other of his Liberal colleagues refused to support it.
“At the time, I made it very clear that mine as not a vote to dismantle the gun registry but rather a vote against the status quo.
“Simply put, the current firearms legislation framework doesn’t work and my vote reflected this reality.”
He added, “I was hoping the committee would have an open discussion and resolve the problems with the gun registry and licensing in Canada.”
MP Rota said he wanted the “criminal” feature of people not registering their firearms removed.
The other issue centres on the fact that there are two levels of gun ownership in Canada.
One licence is for possession only. It is called a Possession Only Licence (POL). This reflects the gun owner inheriting a long gun from his father or grandparent or simply owning a gun prior to the registry coming into effect.
PAL
The other level is a PAL -- possession and acquisition licence. This allows the licensee to not only possess a non-restricted firearm, it also allows him or her to purchase a firearm.
“I would have liked to have seen POLs converted to PALs.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rota says it is the POLs that have created problems in the district.
“People have come into my office in North Bay and said their POLs are expiring and they haven’t been able to get them renewed.”
If expired POLs aren’t renewed within the prescribed time, the POL disappears and the gun owner has to write another exam to get a new one.
Looking over the recent committee actions, MP Rota says he was disappointed with the outcome.
“Basically, they (committee members) dug their heels in and it was more about scoring political points than it was about finding political solutions,” he said.
In a statement, Mr. Rota said he wanted the committee to undertake a reassessment of the penalties that currently deal with the possession of unregistered firearms so that law-abiding gun owners aren’t targeted as criminals. He also wanted a review of the two separate gun licensing processes in Canada to ensure that all licence holders are treated equally under the law.
Mr. Rota said he wants changes and the commitment he received from Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is that “once we are in power, a gun owner found with an unregistered firearm will not be charged on the first offence”.
MP Rota says the Hoeppner bill is flawed in that anyone with an expired POL is still in jeopardy of losing their firearms unless they apply for a new licence.
The MP said he got this concession from his party that a gun owner can get a POL renewed at any time even beyond the expiry date and because of this commitment he will vote with his party against the bill.