Madam Speaker, on May 8, 2003, I asked the Prime Minister if he regretted saying that some of the bureaucrats in charge of the billion dollar sinkhole known as the gun registry had been demoted and fired when it is now known that the statement is not true.
In fact, no one was fired and no one was demoted. In fact, some of the bureaucrats in charge of this mess were promoted and many of them got bonuses.
The Prime Minister did not answer the question and neither did the fourth minister in charge of this mess. His predecessors said repeatedly that they were fully accountable and responsible for the gun registry screws-ups, but to date no one has been held the least bit accountable and responsible.
What good are words if they are not followed up by actions? Why has no one paid for this billion dollar mistake? When will someone, anyone, be held fully accountable and responsible for this billion dollar mistake?
It has been 10 months since the Auditor General blew the whistle on the biggest error in accounting estimates ever made in the history of this country, and Parliament is still being kept in the dark. In the last 10 months, the government has repeatedly failed to answer our questions: How much will it cost to fully implement the gun registry and how much will it cost to maintain?
In my supplementary question, I asked the Solicitor General why his billion dollar gun registry fails to track the addresses of 131,000 convicted criminals who have been prohibited from owning firearms. These 131,000 most dangerous individuals get to roam Canada free while two million licensed gun owners have to report their change of address within 30 days or they could go to jail for up to two years. Where is the logic in that?
Last weekend the Toronto Star reported how absurd the Liberal logic is. The Star reported that Daniel Greig, who was on parole and prohibited from owning guns, illegally acquired the following weapons: a six shot .44 calibre Smith & Wesson; a .45 calibre Glock semi-automatic; a .45 calibre Heckler and Koch semi-automatic; a 12 gauge Franchi pump action shotgun with a pistol grip; an M-16, a .223 calibre Colt semi-automatic assault rifle; and several rounds of ammunition. The Star reported, “Why the police are sad: Greig was able to buy all these guns...with no trouble at all”.
Why would the Solicitor General insist on keeping a billion dollar gun registry whose only purpose is to monitor the activities of millions of law-abiding citizens and not monitor at all the activities and whereabouts of 131,000 dangerous criminals like Daniel Greig? Why does the Privacy Act protect the privacy rights of 131,000 convicted criminals but not the privacy rights of millions of law-abiding gun owners?
Last May 8, the Solicitor General failed to answer this question about the highly questionable target for the failed Firearms Act. Instead, he chose to obscure this fact with more bogus numbers. He told the House that the gun registry had assisted in 325 actual police investigations. However, an Access to Information Act request revealed that the minister's department was unable to produce the documents to back up his claim.
My questions: Why do MPs have to file Access to Information Act requests, why is most of the information blacked out when we get it, and why is Parliament still being kept in the dark?