Public Safety Committee on June 7th, 2018

[Rob O'Reilly]

According to section 101, yes.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Then, the suggestion that there is a need to have transfers, because there is no requirement now to do that, is wrong. Because there are criminal sanctions now, a firearm cannot be lawfully sold or transferred to another individual by a gun shop if the individual receiving it does not have a firearm licence. Is that correct?

[Paula Clarke]

The transferor would have to have knowledge that that person was not in possession of a firearms licence.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Willful intent to commit a criminal act.

[Paula Clarke]

I'm sorry. I didn't hear your statement.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

That would be obviously what the intent...of a criminal activity, generally speaking, which is where we should focus our efforts.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

I have a question for our legislative clerks.

Since the committee, in amendment CPC-2, has unanimously declared that this is not a gun registry, and there is a clause in which it looks as though it could be a gun registry, is that clause then in conflict with what we have already passed and therefore out of order?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I am reliably advised that the passage of amendment CPC-2 does not, in effect, affect amendment CPC-23, and that both could stand independently, or one could stand independently.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

It's interesting then, notwithstanding what we've done in amendment CPC-2, that any substantive clauses that are really, in effect, a registry—because it still makes it a registry....

[A voice]

This is about transfers.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Well, it does.

[A voice]

It's not about a registry.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

You have to understand the entire concept of a registry.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I'm advised that the allocation of a registry number does not, therefore, make it a registry.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Really?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

No, a transfer number: a transfer number does not make it a registry.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Okay. Thank you.

With that statement, can one of the officials tell me who keeps the transfer number records?

[Rob O'Reilly]

The transfer number, as proposed under Bill C-71, would be kept in the Canadian firearms information system database, in a segregated database as part of CFIS.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Right, which is a registry, and the registrar manages that. Correct?

[Rob O'Reilly]

Well, no, CFIS is an amalgam of databases and it contains licensing information. It contains registration information related to restricted and prohibited firearms. It's proposed that it contain a segregated database that would contain the data elements necessary for this particular element of the bill.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

What we're really doing is playing semantics.

That's just a statement as opposed to a question, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Ms. Damoff, then Mr. Dubé.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I was listening to some of the questions being asked on the other side, and I have a simple question for Mr. Koops.

If a crime is committed with a firearm, does it enhance public safety if the police are able to catch the perpetrator?

[Randall Koops]

I would think so.