Evidence of meeting #18 for Public Safety and National Security in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was firearm.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Nonetheless, 92% of less than 1% have used the registry, based on your own survey.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Based on the survey that you presented in your opening statement.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Thank you.
I want to talk about these 11,000 inquiries a day. I think you're right that 45% of them are automatically generated by CPIC, and I appreciate that, but I want to talk about the other 55%, which you indicated are normally in response to a domestic situation. Those are the ones I want to talk about.
Here's my scenario. Your officers are responding to a domestic situation. You run a search, and it comes back that there are no weapons at that residence. Are you telling me that your officers, or the members of your association, rely on that search and go into that house thinking that there are no weapons?
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Thank you.
Here's the second scenario. They run the same search, either by name or by residence. It doesn't matter. The registry comes back that there's one weapon. Your officers go in. They neutralize the weapon. They take it out of play. At that point, do they assume that they have a safe crime scene, or are they operating under the assumption that there might be more weapons?
President, Canadian Police Association
You always assume there are more weapons.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Okay. You've given me two answers and I agree with them both.
You did two searches. One's positive and one's negative. Your officers didn't rely on either one of their registry searches. In both situations they did not rely on that information. Is that correct?
President, Canadian Police Association
The reality is that when you attend as a police officer at a residence and you have access to the registry, it makes a significant difference whether the residence has one weapon or 15 weapons or 30 weapons.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
I understand that, but in my two situations they wouldn't rely on the registry either time, would they?
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Thank you.
I was visited by three of your members, very fine officers from Edmonton, two to three weeks ago during the police association day on the Hill, and they had three things on their mind. They wanted to talk about a bargaining unit for the RCMP, they wanted to talk about more money for front-line policing, and they wanted to talk about a fund for the families of fallen brethren.
If this is such a burning issue for the CPA, why was it not on the agenda of what they were dispatched to talk to me about?
President, Canadian Police Association
The gun registry issue is one of the many issues that we have as one of our priorities--
Conservative
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Okay. In fact, you did a survey in 2010. You surveyed your members, and you do that every year, right?
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Your website talks about a 2010 membership survey. You're not familiar with that?
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Would you agree with me that there were no questions about the long-gun registry on that survey?
President, Canadian Police Association
It wasn't a survey dealing with our priorities.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
What was it a survey of? You asked your members their thoughts about the Young Offenders Act. You asked about parole and penalties, but not long-gun control, not firearms control?
President, Canadian Police Association
No. That survey basically came from last year's strategic planning sessions, which didn't include--
