Evidence of meeting #21 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.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association
Ma'am, which question are you asking me? You asked me three questions there.
5:20 p.m.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
All right; I will be more specific. Are you for or against the registration of handguns?
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association
The registration of handguns is a different thing from the registration of long guns. Handguns have been registered since 1934. The registrations were done by police officers. When a handgun is registered now, it is a verified firearm, which means the information that's entered into the system is way more accurate--way more accurate--than the information that would be entered initially about a potential long gun.
Answering that question with a simple yes or no is not really doing anybody, including you, a service.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
I'll be splitting my time with Mrs. Glover, Mr. Vice-Chair.
Minister Dupuis, I have a question for you. I was quite intrigued by one of the answers you gave to Mr. Proulx, when you indicated that the assertion or the compromise, alleged compromise, by Mr. Ignatieff regarding a proposed amendment to this bill would earn favour from the Province of Quebec.
Did I understand that correctly?
5:20 p.m.
Minister of Public Safety, Government of Québec
No, I said that, because I was addressing the Opposition parties, because we are appearing before the Standing Committee and because I had heard the comments made by my hunter friends, I noted that the latter feel as though their rights have been infringed and that they are being targeted—that may not be the correct term—by this requirement to register their firearms. I also note that all the amendments suggested by Mr. Ignatieff would have the effect of reassuring our hunter friends, if the Registry retains its current status.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
This is a very simple question, and I just need a yes or no: would you support registration without criminalization, which is what I understand Mr. Ignatieff was talking about?
5:20 p.m.
Minister of Public Safety, Government of Québec
As long as the registration of long guns continues to be mandatory and that information is contained in that Registry, I would agree with that.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
Thank you.
I'm having trouble with that answer, because if there's any province that jealously protects its constitutional rights, it's yours. And you no doubt are aware that your province is suing the federal government over our legislation to provide a single national securities regulator.
So would you not agree with me that Quebec would disagree with that proposed amendment in that it would violate section 92 of the Constitution Act?
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
On a point of order, I'm being misquoted, because there was never a mention of an amendment to this particular bill.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brent Rathgeber Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
I agree with that. I withdraw that. It was not an amendment; it was an idea put forward by your leader.
5:25 p.m.
Minister of Public Safety, Government of Québec
Mr. Rathgeber, I came here to present the Government of Quebec's position on this issue. Like the members of the coalition who are with me today, my comments are addressed to the Conservative government. I am asking the Conservative government to maintain the Canadian Firearms Registry and to continue to require that long guns be registered. That is the only reason I am here today. I am not here to quarrel about the Constitution.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I just want to express my disappointment that there's been so much misleading information, so I'm going to cite numbers from our Juristat from 2008 with regard to homicides. There is a reason I want to do that.
Much like our chair said recently, that there were three or four people quoted during a specific debate, and then he went back to two... I don't like misinformation. I'm a police officer, and I like facts. The facts are these. In terms of homicide victims in 2001, which is when the gun registry came into place, the total number was 553, according to our Juristat. Now, as I look at the list in the Juristat, never, ever did it go underneath that number except once, in 2003. In 2008 we were at 611 homicides.
There have been some people who've come here and told us that homicides have significantly gone down, and the long-gun registry is being thanked for that. But I am a Métis woman, and I'm here to say that we have 580 missing and murdered aboriginal women. We have thousands of other missing women and missing children and missing men across this country. If tomorrow we found them and they were all victims of long-gun murders, all of these statistics wouldn't matter. Statistics are only that: they really don't show a clear picture. I would want you to take that into consideration, all of you, when we start to evaluate this, because they are only a small snapshot of the real picture, which is an immense picture.
I've been a police officer for 18 and a half years, and I tell you, there are thousands of police officers who agree with me. I have a Montreal police officer who is begging me to make sure this gets through. She believes the long-gun registry caused the death of another police officer because it is so inaccurate and so unreliable.
I will do my best, as my colleague across the floor has done, to protect Canadians. I will support this legislation and I will support making sure that we become a safer community and that we do everything we can to protect not only women but all Canadians.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Mr. Dupuis, Chief William Blair is president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. He has said, referring to this issue, that this is about public safety: “The registry has made Canada a safer country. The registry has saved lives. We lose it at our peril.”
Do you agree with that quote?
