Canada’s long-gun registry is a love-it or hate-it piece of government legislation now more than a decade old. Its proponents, which include victims of crime groups and different police associations, claim it is an important tool for police. Its opponents argue it is a billion-dollar boondoggle that punishes farmers and hunters. Regardless of what Canadians believe, the revelation that a Conservative minister withheld information he was legally obligated to disclose to Parliament is one more glimpse into the secretive, autocratic world of Stephen Harper’s government.
Bill C-391, a private member’s bill that calls for the elimination of the registry and all of the data contained within passed second reading back on Nov. 4. Two days later, then-Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan tabled a report in the House of Commons from the commissioner of firearms office that showed police forces across Canada were using the registry more than ever before — up 900,000 queries to a record 3.4 million in total in the 2008 year. But according to a series of documents, letters and memos obtained by the Canadian Press, Van Loan had the report in his possession well before the 15-sitting-day deadline under which he was required by law to table it in Parliament. The letters also reminded him of that deadline and his responsibility to follow it.
Ultimately, 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals voted with the government to scrap the registry, moving the bill to committee stage. Third reading has not yet taken place, but the fact our police are using the registry increasingly in their investigations might have been useful to some members of Parliament before the vote. According to the Canadian Press, Van Loan received the report on Sept. 16 along with a letter from RCMP Commissioner William Elliott reminding him of his legal obligations to Parliament. That means the minister was duty-bound to produce the report well before the Nov. 4 vote and well before the date he actually did.
If true, it is another Conservative attempt to do an end-run around Parliament. Just last month Speaker of the House Peter Milliken issued his historic ruling that the will of Parliament is supreme to the executive branch in the form of the government of the day and its cabinet. From the detainee scandal to the dismissal of former Conservative minister Helena Guergis to the report on the long-gun registry, Stephen Harper and his government, while pledging more openness and accountability when they first took office, have instead shown time and again that it favours secrecy to transparency, especially when it threatens the government agenda.
The registry has long been a Conservative pet project, one it has wanted to dismantle since it was revealed the projected $2-million project instead cost $1 billion. Its existence, especially at that price, might be questionable, but scrapping it will only save $3 million annually. Its social good — being able to trace firearms used in offences or know if there’s a gun at a house being searched — by now outstrips that cost, according the figures in the report. It’s information the public and their representatives had a right to know before the vote, not after.
