Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise in the House today to speak to the motion of my Reform colleague to split Bill C-68 into two logical and rational bills that separately cover the two different topics included in Bill C-68.
It may well be that tough action on the criminal element will eliminate the extremely costly, not to mention intrusive and unproven registration aspect.
It is obvious to all in the House that the crime control measures included in Bill C-68 are long overdue. Canadians have been calling on the government to get tough on smuggling for a year and a half now. The stiffer sentences prescribed in the bill will act as a deterrent to those who consider smuggling an
occupation, but only if the government actually starts enforcing the law everywhere along our borders.
The mandatory minimum sentencing requirements are also crime control measures that Canadians have been demanding for a long time. They have repeatedly asked the government to crack down on violent offenders. Unfortunately the provision will directly affect only a small portion of weapons related crimes.
According to the Centre for Justice Statistics over 94 per cent of victims killed or injured in a robbery were harmed by weapons other than firearms. The minimum sentencing provision should be extended to the use of any weapon in the commission of an offence.
On the other hand the bill contains measures that will force citizens to register all their firearms. This issue must be considered separately from the crime control measures in Bill C-68. Gun control is not related to crime control and has no place in crime control legislation.
The justice minister may believe that future restrictions on law-abiding gun owners will somehow reduce crime. However he has completely failed to explain to the House what crimes will be reduced and how gun registry will accomplish it. All available research indicates exactly the opposite. Tighter restrictions on law-abiding citizens will only encourage the criminal element. After all, criminals will not register their guns.
The Auditor General pointed out that the current gun registration system has never been properly evaluated. Why would the justice minister forge ahead with his expanded registration system plans when we do not even know what good the current system is?
How many crimes has the current system prevented? What use has the current system been? Until these questions have been responsibly answered there is absolutely no reason we should consider spending more money on gun control. No one would be against additional gun controls if they could be proven cost effective in their ability to save lives and reduce crime.
The minister has made a great many inconsistent statements in the debate over registration, confusing not only the public affected but even members of his own caucus.
We hear the statement that people register their cars so why should they not register their guns. Does this seem like a reasonable comparison? I think not. We do not ask people to prove they need a car to get a licence. We do not introduce policies to grandfather the ownership of automobiles or ban the sale of replica cars. Unlike an applicant for an hour-long driving test, a firearm owner must go through a three-month safety process including an extensive police background check. There is no comparison.
As we know the licensing of cars is mainly a revenue gathering tactic. It does little to prevent 100,000 car thefts annually or over 3,000 traffic deaths. Gun registration will do nothing to prevent theft or death either. It is another bureaucracy creating, tax collecting excuse for the state to intrude further into the lives of private Canadians. If the justice minister thinks otherwise then let us see the evidence he has to back up his claims that registration will save lives.
A second inconsistency is found in the sentencing provisions of the bill. The crime control provisions call for mandatory four-year sentences for certain violent crimes. Reformers support the measure. However the bill will make failure to comply with the registration requirements a criminal offence with sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
Given these facts it is conceivable that a rapist who used a gun could receive a four-year sentence, while on the other hand a farmer who has an old shotgun out in the barn which is used occasionally for pest control may find himself serving ten years for failing to register a little used farm implement. The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. I suggest the government has no business in the barnyards of the nation either.
The minister's proposal for registration was followed by many statements about how the rates of suicide and accidental death will fall. The justice minister thinks he knows what is best for us. He even said he was doing this regardless of what others thought because it was right.
It is my duty to point out to the minister that Canadians who fear the dangers of firearms have always had a choice. Each Canadian already has it within his or her own power not to own firearms, not to keep them at home, and never have anything to do with them if he or she so choose. However, for those Canadian homes, about half of them, where citizens feel comfortable with their guns, their kitchen knives, their cleaning solvents and many other dangerous items they may have around, why does the justice minister think he should dictate what Canadians may have or do? It is time for governments to have more faith in the common sense of the common people.
Another key indication that the gun registration section of the bill is a poorly thought out Liberal attempt at problem solving is its obvious intrusion into areas of provincial jurisdiction. Here again we find a reason for the bill to be split. The crime control measures are clearly Criminal Code issues that must be dealt with by the federal government. The gun control measures intrude deeply into provincial jurisdiction in the areas of property rights, taxation and education.
It seems as though the Liberals have not learned their lesson yet. It was just last month that they started to cut federal spending for provincial social programs they had no business
being in. Now a whole new social program, gun registration, is being introduced in another area of provincial jurisdiction.
Under our Constitution the provinces are guaranteed the right to deal with property issues. Guns, cars, houses, land and money are all examples of private property. This is one reason the federal government is not in the business of registering automobiles. It has not right to. It should not assume it has any right to register any of the other private properties of Canadians either.
The second area of intrusion is in education. Currently firearms training courses are run by the provinces. The new legislation forces a federally designed course on all provinces. It is yet another example of federal intrusion in an area of provincial constitutional jurisdiction.
Because enforcement of any of the registration provisions will have to be investigated and prosecuted by the provinces, the administrative costs of the legislation will have to be borne by the provinces.
In closing, why not first place the emphasis on the criminal use of firearms? Once the get tough policy on smuggling and the violent use of firearms has been employed, the need to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars and harass law-abiding gun owners may well be eliminated. Why not give it a chance? I would encourage all members to do so.