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.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Okay.
Now, police officers who have testified have given examples of how it's very helpful. It's helpful in terms of the enforcement of court orders, obviously, so that when police officers go into a residence they know how many guns to look for. They know that's a minimum that they should keep looking for. In terms of domestic violence, it's the same situation; they know, at a minimum, how many guns to look for and to not stop looking until they have found that. For suicide it's the same idea, to prevent people who are at risk of suicide. There's also helping with the elimination or the reduction of possession of stolen firearms and smuggled firearms, and accountability for gun owners, because obviously, if they know that the gun is registered, they're responsible for that if it goes into other persons' hands. As well, for police investigations, as we were told even yesterday, it could cost a couple of million dollars for a police investigation; if, as part of that, they have to find out who owned the gun or where it came from, that adds to the cost.
You would agree that the registry helps all of that in terms of police officers, correct?
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
I'm going to read a quote. The sponsor of the bill, Ms. Hoeppner, indicated on September 28, 2009, when she was introducing it, “That is why if I believed that the long gun registry would help reduce crime or make our streets even a little bit safer, I would be the first one to stand up and support it.”
Mr. Dupuis, you would agree with me that obviously the gun registry helps make our streets a little bit safer, at a minimum, and I assume you would agree with me that, based on this, she should be seeking to withdraw her bill.
5:25 p.m.
Minister of Public Safety, Government of Québec
Mr. Kania, it will be very easy to answer that question.
Will you allow me to respond, Mr. Chairman?
I am glad that Mr. Kania talked about the safety of police officers, because we do not talk about it often enough. I was listening to Ms. Glover earlier, when she said that she was a police officer. There is no doubt in my mind that if Ms. Glover had to answer a call at a private home, it would be very useful, for her own protection—because police officers do get killed when answering calls—for her to know whether there was a firearm or not in the house she was about to enter. That is the purpose of the Registry.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Holland
Well, we're out of time...
Is it a real point of order or is it a point of debate? If it's a point of debate, we're out of time.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
If you're going to say that we're out of time and bang the gavel, go ahead.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Holland
--as is traditionally done.
I want to thank the witnesses for their time and for their appearance here today.
On the matter that the committee was dealing with earlier, I had a conversation with Mr. MacKenzie, and we'll hold that discussion over until Tuesday.
Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.