Public Safety committee  When our officers go into any kind of dangerous situation, they make an assumption that there are going to be weapons there. When they go in to do a search, they wouldn't assume that if the registry says three weapons, there are three weapons. If they're going to do a proper sear

Public Safety committee  It indicates that criminals don't use the registry, and you don't know who you're dealing with, so you err on the side of caution.

Public Safety committee  I would have to say that I can't speak on behalf of the entire Alberta association on whether that would be enough, because what we called for, I believe, also, was a review of all the components, to leave what works and take out what doesn't work. Certainly, a key piece would be

Public Safety committee  I know there have been inroads into streamlining it, but there are also multiple stories out there, personal examples from people, from many police officers, as a matter of fact, who have their own personal stories about how they haven't seen the benefit of that.

Public Safety committee  I couldn't explain why that would be. I can tell you that our concentration, over the last, certainly, two and a half years, with the gang problems we've had, is focusing on the criminal behaviours.

Public Safety committee  We're not against a registry that is properly administered and that decriminalizes the possession of sporting weapons.

Public Safety committee  By the way, as the president of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, and having just been at our meetings last week, I can tell you our resolution was passed unanimously. In order to get where we need to get to, the existing gun registry won't work because it criminalizes

Public Safety committee  What I'm presenting on behalf of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police is where we stand, that is, the long-gun registry as it sits today frequently is little more than a placebo for the serious crimes that occur on the street. When people in Calgary were being gunned down

Public Safety committee  However it's done, my fear, of course, is that the regional differences will be ignored. We're presenting what we feel is a reasoned approach to addressing the issues that does not create criminals out of regular citizens.

Public Safety committee  Good afternoon, and thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you on this very important topic of the long-gun registry and gun crimes in Canada. There has been a requirement to register hand guns and other restricted firearms in Ca

Justice committee  We thank you for making the time for this and for inviting us. It means a lot to us for you to take your time to listen to what we have to say. It really does mean a lot, so on behalf of all of us here, I ask you to please accept our sincere thanks for making time for us here tod

Justice committee  You're absolutely right. If I could I'd make just one point on that. If for serious offences, there's serious time, there's a protection in society, absolutely, in regard to deterrence. If there's one thing that this committee could recommend, it would be a recommendation to allo

Justice committee  They're going to jail, so--

Justice committee  Yes, mandatory treatment for a drug addiction while they're in jail, because many of them are masking a mental illness. Once they're detoxed, you can find out that it's not an addiction but a mental illness that's facilitating whatever crime they're involved in.

Justice committee  You've raised a very good point. The problem is in tracking those people who are on the margins of society. We're talking about those people who are drug addicts or prostitutes, about those who really may go missing for a period of time. Nobody reports them as missing. Or when th