Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present 705 more pages of petitions with 16,486 more signatures of concerned citizens from seven different provinces.
About half these petitions are from the province of Quebec and the petitioners find it regrettable that they cannot find an MP in Quebec to present these petitions calling for the repeal of Bill C-68.
My constituents have asked me to keep a running total of the repeal Bill C-68 petitions I have introduced. This year I have introduced 1,509 pages with 35,321 signatures.
These petitioners request parliament to repeal Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, and redirect the hundreds of millions of tax dollars being wasted on licensing 8 million law abiding, responsible firearms owners and registering 21 million legally owned guns to real crime fighting measures. These 35,000 petitioners also provide the government with a list of higher priority criminal justice programs where these billion dollars of public money could be much better spent such as putting more police on the street and fighting organized crime and biker gangs. Many people are appalled that the RCMP is cutting back on essential services while the government has wasted $200 million more on gun registration.