Lost his last election, in 2000, with 6% of the vote.
Gun Control March 14th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time the justice minister has locked people out of his meetings. In Calgary last January there were more people standing outside the meeting in the cold than inside the building.
Will the Prime Minister instruct his justice minister to begin to listen to the people and meet their concerns about his gun control bill and stop locking them out of meetings?
Gun Control March 14th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice will be at a meeting in Manitoba tonight at the request of Dauphin-Swan River constituents concerned about Bill C-68.
I have been advised that there are hundreds of people who will be denied entrance to this meeting.
Why is the justice minister meeting behind closed doors with only 50 or so people who are attending on an invitation only basis when there are hundreds who want to attend this meeting? Why is the justice minister refusing to meet with these people? Why is he locking them out of this meeting?
Firearms Act March 13th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, of course I would like to see support for the amendment to split this bill. That is the way we should proceed.
I received some information with regard to the registration system recommended by the minister. The minister has said both inside and outside this House that it is going to be a simplified system, that it is going to place a tool in the hands of the law enforcement agencies to help them do their job and maintain a safer society. All the law-abiding gun owner will have to do is pick up a card at the post office or one of the stores in his or her community, fill in the make, model and serial number of their firearm and mail the card in.
Last week I visited three of the RCMP forensic laboratories and spoke with their technical experts on this matter. Either the information they have is not getting through to the minister or he is ignoring it. When I asked them about this concept of having the gun owner fill in a card and send it in, they laughed.
I also found out that these labs have what they call a standard collection of firearms, meaning they are one of a kind. No two firearms are the same in the collection. These standard collections are in every one of their labs across the country.
In this one lab the technicians had examined the long guns of which there were just under a thousand. They found that 20 per cent of those firearms did not have serial numbers and 1.7 per cent could not be identified.
I do not know how the justice minister is going to create a registration system when 20 per cent of a standard collection that is fairly representative of the firearms in this country do not have serial numbers. How are we going to register a firearm that does not have a serial number?
When I asked these questions the technicians' response was that they would have to be brought in. Brought in where? To the labs that do not as yet have but would have the technology to handle the thousands of firearms that would have to be brought in.
Already they are examining the feasibility of what form and what type of system ought to be used to place a serial number on a firearm. Certainly it is going to cost more than $10 a firearm. Certainly it is not going to impose a simple constraint on a gun owner to fill out a form. I ask the minister, how in the world can a serial number be written on a card if there is no serial number on the gun?
I was also told that many firearms in this country are over 100 years old. A firearm does not wear out. A firearm is usually maintained fairly well by the owner. Many of those firearms do not have the manufacturer's name, the calibre, or any identifying marks other than perhaps a model number or a serial number.
I was shown a firearm that had been imported from Russia. There are thousands of them in Canada, according to the information given to me. All it has on it is a serial number consisting of two Russian letters and three numbers. There is not the calibre, the make or any other identifying features on that firearm.
If we are going to develop a registration system which is truly going to be a workable and a valuable tool in the hands of our law enforcement agencies, we had better take a careful look at what we are going to do.
It is important, proper and wise that we consider the amendment before the House now. If the minister will consider splitting this bill, let us put our efforts together to devise a bill directed at the criminal use of firearms. If there are people who honestly and sincerely believe that universal registration will help, let us examine it before we go forward. Let us not hurry
into something that our technicians are telling us will not work and will certainly cost a lot more than $85 million to establish.
I ask the minister if he would consider these proposals. This kind of information is going to be laid, lock, stock and barrel, before the standing committee, through witness after witness we will bring forward, from either the RCMP or the city police forces from across this country which have to deal with the problem. They are now faced with a situation in which they have to give a legal opinion in court instead of a technical opinion. I will give the House an example.
If the minister goes forward and creates an offence for a person in possession of a handgun based upon its calibre, such as the .32 and the .25, that will create a serious problem. The reason for that is simple. Although the offence, the charge, the information in court will indicate that the individual is in violation of a section by virtue of the fact that they are in possession of a .32 calibre, all the defence counsel has to do is ask the technical witness about the calibre of the handgun?
Although marked on its side that it is a .32 calibre, the definition of calibre, according to these technicians, is not what is marked on the side, but by the size of the projectile it fires. The .32 calibre, according to them, fires a .30 calibre projectile.
I asked them what they would say on the witness stand when asked about the calibre. They said they would simply tell the court that it is designed as a .32, its markings are that of a .32, but it fires a .30 calibre projectile and they would let the judge decide. If they had respond yes or no to whether the firearm is .32 calibre, they said they would not respond. I asked them if they have ever considered a career in politics.
My point is that there are a host of technical difficulties. When it comes to placing the identifying features from a firearm on to a registration card that the police will be able to identify without question, if they come across an individual with a firearm in the back seat of a car or in the trunk of a car for example, they are not going to be able to positively identify that firearm.
All we have to do is look at the Terence Wade report in which he outlined the problems within the present handgun registration system. Approximately 30 per cent of the information contained in that system is simply useless.
I understand from some of the legal opinions I am hearing that soon the challenges in court will render the handgun registration system invalid within a court of law because it cannot be relied upon.
There are so many different types of firearms that we are going to have an extreme degree of difficulty registering them to the point at which the registration card issued can identify one specific firearm out of the 7 million to 20 million that exist in Canada today.
I point out difficulties that the registration system will have. It flies in the face of what the justice minister has said in terms of simplicity.
If it is going to be as simple as the justice minister has indicated, then it is not going to be worth the powder to blow it in the hands of the police officers as an enforcement tool.
Let us take a look at this. Let us go forward with the portion directed at the criminal use of firearms. Let us take a second look at the other part.
Petitions March 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the last petition I present today on behalf of my constituents concerns the Canadian Wheat Board.
The petitioners request that Parliament continue to give the board monopoly powers in marketing wheat and barley for export.
Petitions March 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the seventh petition requests that Parliament oppose amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act or Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which provide for the inclusion of the phrase sexual orientation because such an inclusion will provide certain groups with special status, rights and privileges.
Petitions March 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, the petitioners of the fifth and sixth petitions which I have here wish to draw Parliament's attention to the consequence of legalizing euthanasia.
The petitioners request that Parliament not support euthanasia or doctor assisted suicide.
Petitions March 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I am pleased to present a number of petitions today. The first four petitions collectively contain well over 3,000 signatures.
The petitioners are requesting that Parliament not attack the recreational firearms community and support only legislation which severely punishes one who uses a weapon, including a weapon other than a firearm; protects the rights and freedoms of the law-abiding recreational firearms community to own and use firearms responsibly; passes careful scrutiny to see that it will improve public safety in a cost effective manner; repeals present firearms control legislation which features tortuous language and which has been characterized by the courts as one of the most horrifying examples of bad draftsmanship.
Firearms Act February 27th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I was impressed by what the member had to say and the concerns she expressed for a safer society. I think that is what we are all looking for. I wonder if the member would address the possibility of changing existing laws that allow violent offenders to enter society after serving only two-thirds of their penalty. That is something we could do right now.
Melanie Carpenter, for all intents and purposes, was murdered by someone who was released because of a mandatory requirement included within the statute and the laws that this Parliament has created. We can change that.
I wonder if the member would be willing to support that kind of legal initiative in this house that would prevent violent offenders from being automatically released into society before they expend their full sentence within prison to at least protect society to that extent.
Firearms Act February 27th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the speech and I have heard remarks like violence begets violence, firearms are meant to kill, and access should be limited.
I do not know how much of the hon. member's speech related to the issue we are wrestling with in Bill C-68, that is bringing forward a bill that enhances the safety of our communities, homes and society.
If the member honestly believes the registration of rifles and shotguns will reduce the criminal use of these firearms, would he tell the House how that will do it?
Young Offenders Act February 20th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to commend the hon. member for his speech. I enjoyed it very much. It is that kind of attitude that certainly we can work with on this side.
There are some things that the government can do and there are other things it cannot do to help people out. My hon. colleague from Wild Rose mentioned this point. We have a problem with pornography and these other things which eat away at the moral fibre of our society, in particular the moral fibre of our young people.
Would the hon. member be prepared to support the elimination of pornography, pass laws that would do away with peep shows where people for a fee can come in and watch girls dancing and gyrating on the other side naked? Would he be prepared to pass laws to support the elimination of naked dancing in bars and lap dancing? Would the member be prepared to support legislation, initiate legislation, on the government side to eliminate this kind of conduct that has such a terrible, negative-