BD
03-16-2001, 02:22 PM
NEWS RELEASE March 16, 2001 For Immediate Release:
PRESIDENT OF CPA SAYS POLICE AT "ODDS WITH PUBLIC" FOR THE FIRST TIME "McLellan's amendments won't fix the useless gun registry and will not bring the firearms community on-side."
Ottawa - Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, sent the Canadian Police Association a message before they convened this weekend to reconsider a tabled motion calling for the CPA to withdraw their support from the government's controversial gun registry. "I urge the CPA to quit playing politics and answer the real question on the mind of every police officer on the streets of every community in Canada: If the government was going to spend $600 million dollars to help police do their job and improve public safety, was the gun registry the best way to spend it? If the CPA asked their members, the answer would be a resounding, 'NO!' It's time for the CPA to cut their political losses, rebuild relations with millions of law abiding firearm owners and put an end to the waste of our hard-earned tax dollars on this firearms fiasco," recommended Breitkreuz.The Official Opposition Firearms Critic used comments from the police themselves to support his recommendation. "Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Western Canadian Firearms Summit in Saskatoon. During his presentation, Grant Obst, President of the Canadian Police Association, made a major admission about how the gun registry had actually made police work more difficult. He said, 'It bothers me that the public would not support me in my line of duty. We've never been at odds with the public before.
This issue has done this.'"Earlier this week, the Edmonton Sun and the Edmonton Journal reported the following comments by Staff Sgt. Al Bohachyk, President of the Alberta Federation of Police Officers:
* There's very little confidence among police of the accuracy of the information. If we're using gun information in an investigation we have to be 99% sure it's correct.
* Changes to the act might help the feds build their monument to public safety. But if we can't trust the information, it's a hollow act.
* He wants the Canadian Police Association to withdraw its support of the current gun legislation. In his view, it puts legitimate gun owners through needless hoops while doing little to block "the bad guys."
The phenomenal error rates in the gun registry are compounded by non-compliance. The Edmonton Sun also reported that police were concerned about "sluggish public compliance" with the registry. "Compliance is more than sluggish, it's abysmal!" commented Breitkreuz. Using the government's own preliminary licencing data, non-compliance with the gun licencing provisions of Bill C-68 ranges from a high of 60% on the prairies to a low of 37% in the Maritimes. "And this is what Anne McLellan calls a 'phenomenal success.' The government even admits that at least 320,000 gun
owners failed to apply for a firearms licence. They did this under threat of spending 10 years in jail," reported Breitkreuz. "Why would anyone expect these non-compliant gun owners to register their guns? In fact, they can't because there's no amnesty in place.""On Wednesday the Justice Minister tabled a bill with 22 pages of amendments to the country's gun laws. While this is a welcome admission by the government that Bill C-68 has failed, these poorly drafted amendments will actually make the registry even more error prone and of even less benefit to police," said Breitkreuz. "The gun registry is and always will be a horrendously expensive, flop, providing error-riddled information that is of no benefit to real police work. It's time the Canadian Police Association listened to what their front-line officers are saying - put the gun registry out of its misery, and redirect this money and human resources where they will do some real good."
Sask farmers ready to give RCMP the boot to avoid registering their guns
SASKATOON (CP) - Saskatchewan farmers are so determined to avoid gun registration that they are contemplating replacing their beloved Mounties with a provincial police force. A resolution calling for the province to end its policing contract with the RCMP was passed Thursday at the annual convention of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities. The move would cut historical ties between the province, where people claim to have more guns than hammers, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP's national training depot is located in Regina. Larry Grant, a councillor from the rural municipality of Val Marie, near
Swift Current, said farmers fear Ottawa plans to use the RCMP to enforce gun registration. Grant, whose municipality put forward the resolution, called the national gun registry a "total waste of time."This is not going to reduce crime," he said. "All it is is a strike against honest, law-abiding gun owners." He proposed that the province establish its own provincial police force. "Then we'll have a police force that's accountable to the people of Saskatchewan," he said. Grant thinks a provincial force could ignore the federal gun registration law the same way Quebec ignores Canada's policy of bilingualism in favour of its own French-only sign law. "There's a massive amount of people in our RM and in the province who are against gun registration," he said. "We can use that money that they're spending on gun registration for highways, education and health in this province. If there's something left over we can help our farmers." Saskatchewan had a police force from 1917 to 1928 when the RCMP refused to enforce a provincial prohibition law, Grant said. Sinclair Harrison, the association's president, said the resolution is a signal to Ottawa to pay attention to the concerns of rural Saskatchewan. "We want more attention," Harrison said. He slammed Ottawa for failing to send a representative to the meeting. "Just the fact that they're not here today reinforces the fact to us that
perhaps they don't care about rural Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan (or) Western Canada," he said. "We take it as a real slap in the face that they didn't take the time to come to Western Canada and meet with us." Harrison was acclaimed as president of the organization for his eighth term.
PRESIDENT OF CPA SAYS POLICE AT "ODDS WITH PUBLIC" FOR THE FIRST TIME "McLellan's amendments won't fix the useless gun registry and will not bring the firearms community on-side."
Ottawa - Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, sent the Canadian Police Association a message before they convened this weekend to reconsider a tabled motion calling for the CPA to withdraw their support from the government's controversial gun registry. "I urge the CPA to quit playing politics and answer the real question on the mind of every police officer on the streets of every community in Canada: If the government was going to spend $600 million dollars to help police do their job and improve public safety, was the gun registry the best way to spend it? If the CPA asked their members, the answer would be a resounding, 'NO!' It's time for the CPA to cut their political losses, rebuild relations with millions of law abiding firearm owners and put an end to the waste of our hard-earned tax dollars on this firearms fiasco," recommended Breitkreuz.The Official Opposition Firearms Critic used comments from the police themselves to support his recommendation. "Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Western Canadian Firearms Summit in Saskatoon. During his presentation, Grant Obst, President of the Canadian Police Association, made a major admission about how the gun registry had actually made police work more difficult. He said, 'It bothers me that the public would not support me in my line of duty. We've never been at odds with the public before.
This issue has done this.'"Earlier this week, the Edmonton Sun and the Edmonton Journal reported the following comments by Staff Sgt. Al Bohachyk, President of the Alberta Federation of Police Officers:
* There's very little confidence among police of the accuracy of the information. If we're using gun information in an investigation we have to be 99% sure it's correct.
* Changes to the act might help the feds build their monument to public safety. But if we can't trust the information, it's a hollow act.
* He wants the Canadian Police Association to withdraw its support of the current gun legislation. In his view, it puts legitimate gun owners through needless hoops while doing little to block "the bad guys."
The phenomenal error rates in the gun registry are compounded by non-compliance. The Edmonton Sun also reported that police were concerned about "sluggish public compliance" with the registry. "Compliance is more than sluggish, it's abysmal!" commented Breitkreuz. Using the government's own preliminary licencing data, non-compliance with the gun licencing provisions of Bill C-68 ranges from a high of 60% on the prairies to a low of 37% in the Maritimes. "And this is what Anne McLellan calls a 'phenomenal success.' The government even admits that at least 320,000 gun
owners failed to apply for a firearms licence. They did this under threat of spending 10 years in jail," reported Breitkreuz. "Why would anyone expect these non-compliant gun owners to register their guns? In fact, they can't because there's no amnesty in place.""On Wednesday the Justice Minister tabled a bill with 22 pages of amendments to the country's gun laws. While this is a welcome admission by the government that Bill C-68 has failed, these poorly drafted amendments will actually make the registry even more error prone and of even less benefit to police," said Breitkreuz. "The gun registry is and always will be a horrendously expensive, flop, providing error-riddled information that is of no benefit to real police work. It's time the Canadian Police Association listened to what their front-line officers are saying - put the gun registry out of its misery, and redirect this money and human resources where they will do some real good."
Sask farmers ready to give RCMP the boot to avoid registering their guns
SASKATOON (CP) - Saskatchewan farmers are so determined to avoid gun registration that they are contemplating replacing their beloved Mounties with a provincial police force. A resolution calling for the province to end its policing contract with the RCMP was passed Thursday at the annual convention of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities. The move would cut historical ties between the province, where people claim to have more guns than hammers, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP's national training depot is located in Regina. Larry Grant, a councillor from the rural municipality of Val Marie, near
Swift Current, said farmers fear Ottawa plans to use the RCMP to enforce gun registration. Grant, whose municipality put forward the resolution, called the national gun registry a "total waste of time."This is not going to reduce crime," he said. "All it is is a strike against honest, law-abiding gun owners." He proposed that the province establish its own provincial police force. "Then we'll have a police force that's accountable to the people of Saskatchewan," he said. Grant thinks a provincial force could ignore the federal gun registration law the same way Quebec ignores Canada's policy of bilingualism in favour of its own French-only sign law. "There's a massive amount of people in our RM and in the province who are against gun registration," he said. "We can use that money that they're spending on gun registration for highways, education and health in this province. If there's something left over we can help our farmers." Saskatchewan had a police force from 1917 to 1928 when the RCMP refused to enforce a provincial prohibition law, Grant said. Sinclair Harrison, the association's president, said the resolution is a signal to Ottawa to pay attention to the concerns of rural Saskatchewan. "We want more attention," Harrison said. He slammed Ottawa for failing to send a representative to the meeting. "Just the fact that they're not here today reinforces the fact to us that
perhaps they don't care about rural Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan (or) Western Canada," he said. "We take it as a real slap in the face that they didn't take the time to come to Western Canada and meet with us." Harrison was acclaimed as president of the organization for his eighth term.