Mr. Speaker, I guess we are getting into quotes, so I have a couple.
The current Chief of the Toronto Police Force, Bill Blair, stated, “we know the gun problem in Toronto is overwhelmingly a problem of illegal handguns.” That was in the Toronto Star, on May 17, 2006.
Gangsters who carry guns in the city of Toronto do not register those guns, so any changes in the gun registry are not going to have a significant impact on our efforts to control the operation and use of illegal handguns on our streets.
That was also said by Chief Bill Blair.
Former Chief Julian Fantino of the Toronto police force and currently the commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police broke ranks with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police that supports the long gun registry saying that it should be scrapped. He recognizes that forcing law-abiding Canadians to register their rifles does nothing to reduce gun crimes and the money would be better spent on front line police resources.
Perhaps more important, retired Montreal police Detective Sergeant Roger Granger, who investigated the Polytechnique massacre, said that the federal gun registry—