Mr. Speaker, in 2006, someone said that the gun registry should continue. Who said that? None other than Senator Boisvenu. That statement is in sharp contrast with his most recent one, to the effect that the register only has symbolic value.
However, the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Association of Police Boards as well as the survivors of École Polytechnique, to name just a few groups, are quite definite on that point. Far from being symbolic, the registry is an efficient and practical tool that helps save lives. It is consulted more than 13,000 times per day.
Twenty years later, with the future of the registry at stake, time has come to stand up for the rights of women and children and help fight violence against them. Well beyond a white ribbon campaign, if the NDP leader wants to do something, he should get his entire caucus to vote in favour of maintaining the firearms registry in its entirety.