Evidence of meeting #15 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'll hold the rest of my pitches for the amendment. We'll move sequentially and allow Mr. Harris to move on this one.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm going to blame the chair for that one for calling my name.
NDP
Conservative
NDP
NDP
NDP
Françoise Boivin NDP Gatineau, QC
I won't read the whole amendment to you. Its purpose is basically to enable the Commissioner of Firearms to ensure that what is kept are:…all records in the Canadian Firearms Registry related to the registration of firearms that are neither prohibited firearms nor restricted firearms and all copies of those records under the Commissioner's control.
Once again, you'll remember from the various testimonies we heard, whether from Minister Dutil from the Quebec ministry of public safety, who told us about Quebec's great interest in preserving the data, from the privacy commissioner or from the information commissioner, who said that we were heading into the unknown. They did not necessarily talk about illegality on the part of the government, but a fairly radical distance from the principles of public information and other principles.
We are trying to keep the information, and this bill seeks to completely destroy everything. This ties in somewhat with what my colleague, Mr. Bevington, said, which really moved me. I respect the fact that he has always been a proponent of abolishing the firearms registry. As for me, a person who has always been in favour of the registry, I learned to qualify my statements. I also think that most of the witnesses who supported the registry and preserving the information have also learned to qualify their statements, through all the debates that have taken place over the years. We realized that there were irritations for certain individuals, who are fine citizens and who in no way deserve to be made into criminals. We still want to maintain the balance between the right of hunters and sport shooters to use their weapons and public safety.
These amendments fall under that. I would simply like to publicly repeat just how grateful I am of the proactive and very positive work of my colleagues, Mr. Bevington and Mr. Cullen, on this, knowing their background and how they got involved in all of it. I think the amendments we are presenting will open the door to a little more consensus and clarification on the issue of the firearms registry.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right, thank you very much, Madame Boivin.
Again, this amendment is deemed inadmissible. The amendment attempts to insert conditions upon the process by directing the commissioner of firearms to contact all provinces, territories, Indian bands. I think this is pretty well the same rendering as the last decision, so it is inadmissible.
But fear not, there will be some amendments that are admissible, and we'll move to them as quickly as possible.
Before we do that, shall clause 29 carry as is?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
They've requested a registered vote.
(Clause 29 agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)
(Clause 30 agreed to on division)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
A new clause has been added, with NDP-6, if they would like to introduce this.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Can you give us the reference number to make sure we're on the same one?
