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Gun registry - back in the news
April 5, 2012 - 12:41pm
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Gun registry: Final sprint to save the Québec data
This is really breaking news at this point. The judge has apparently just ruled that the status quo is "frozen" till Thursday, when the injunction request can continue to be heard more fully. Meanwhile, Vic Toews (unfortunately recovered from his illness) apparently has announced that he will personally throw the data into the furnace on Thursday, which is when royal assent becomes effective.
My apologies if I got all or part of that wrong, but things should be clearer shortly.
CBC news says Mr. Justice de Grandpré has just granted an interlocutory junction forbidding destruction of the data until next Thursday, when arguments can be heard.
Got that? CBC news said that. What really happened? Don't know yet. But at a minimum, it sounds like a small victory. Up yours, Toews!
Ok, now the somewhat slashed CBC is calling it a "temporary injunction". That's more like it. An interlocutory injunction would require an actual hearing.
Where's Bärlüer when I need him???
Quebec judge halts destruction of gun registry data
So:
1. The NDP governments don't give a damn.
2. The federal NDP no longer gives a damn, because they lost the vote - except to support the Charest government's action (which enjoys the support of all parties in the National Assembly).
Greg Selinger says Harper's tough-on-crime Bill C-10 isn't tough enough. But I suppose he supports everyone's right to bear arms without having to fill out a form.
Darrell Dexter... well, I guess he's busy bringing socialism to Nova Scotia.
One huge problem with the NDP is that when they're in opposition, they'll say just about anything, and when they actually control the levers of power (minority govts, or actually forming the government), they'll do just about nothing.
I've heard the Bär-signal.
Well, it's sort of a Matryoshka thing. You've got (possibly) your permanent injunction, your interlocutory injunction, your provisional interlocutory injunction, for urgent cases (it's only good for 10 days, but can be renewed) and the "ordonnance de sauvegarde" (safeguard order...?), for even more "urgent" cases, when the file is incomplete, to safeguard the rights of the parties.
In this case, a safeguard order was granted by the judge.
ETA: I've glanced at the government's motion... and I think that their chances of success on the merits (declaring unconstitutional the section of the Act that provides for the destruction of the data) are slim.
Yeah, I knew all that, I was just testing you.
Thanks!
ETA: Whoops, just saw your ETA. That's too bad...
Darned NDP. It's all their fault the Liberal gun registry failed.
Righteous fantasy #137
If I were a law enforcement agent, I'd export all the data, encrypt it and store it on a safe server. Of course, if the information continued to be used the source would eventually be discovered and it would be expunged, but still ...
Some Conservative prick was yelling "free at last, free at last" after the death of the gun registry was passed by the Senate today.
It's not their fault. It can't be their fault. If you never do anything, how can you be at fault?
If they had actually gone to court the way the (barf) Charest government did, then Hyer and Rafferty would have broken down weeping cuz they'd lose their deposit next time. Can't have that. Better to just let it all go. Like all the other forgotten causes. Kyoto. Afghanistan. Libya. EI reform. Bye bye. We got Mulcair now, the next PRIME TIME MINISTER!
I know I'm new here, but I can't help but weigh in. In my opinion, the LGR is so low on the issue ladder, it's pretty much not on the radar. Putting aside all the rhetoric, any benefit from the registry was dubious and intangible. Was that really worth driving a wedge between voters? I am not talking about the financial cost, it was a pittance compared to other government expenses, but the social cost. There are issues that one must remain firm, but there are others that compromise is appropriate. I believe this is one.
Did quebec want all the data or just the Quebec data?
Quebec data only. But Conservative MP Candace Heoppner said yesterday on P&P that the government will fight Quebec over this all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary.
With thousands of firearms being traded and sold among licenced owners every day, what use is there in keeping the registry data? The registry was incomplete before its cancellation. Now it's going to be more and more inaccurate every day as firearms are transferred between old and new owners.
Québec is establishing its own registry, which would import the existing data and continue from there. In the case of the other provinces, though, you're quite right - Rebecca's proposal would be of little or no value. That's why I questioned the cowardice of the NDP governments (and the provincial NDP in opposition) for doing and saying nothing about gun control.
At least the federal NDP is supporting Québec's initiative - which is more than can be said for some folks around here, who prefer division to unity, mockery to solidarity, and the status quo to the risks of losing some votes.
Nope, that's not what the Supreme Court decided. It said that the Firearms Act is a valid exercise of the federal power over criminal law (a position which Alberta contested using the mechanism of the Reference [by which a legislature asks the Court a constitutional question]). That's it.
It's possible that a federal registration scheme could be a valid exercise of the federal power over criminal law and that a provincial registration scheme could be a valid exercise of the provincial power over property and civil rights. The Supreme Court explicitly left undecided the latter question.
http://www.vicnews.com/news/138811769.html
http://www.vicnews.com/news/138811769.html
So a thief stole 159 firearms from his employer. Registration didn't prevent the theft. Registration didn't prevent him from using the firearms in further crimes and if he had sold the firearms onto the black market, registration wouldn't have prevented their misuse by other criminals. Seems to me that Sgt Jantzen is grasping at straws to make the lgr seem more important than it was. At the end of the day Sgt Jantzen was able to say that after the firearms were already stolen, the police were able to prove who they were stolen from..... If convicted, I hope that this criminal is given a long sentence.
One of my good friends is a 33 yr member of the RCMP with a combined 30 yrs in the drug and biker squads. His wife has 24 yrs with the RCMP and is currently in the human smuggling dept. Neither of these veteran officers relied on the long gun registry. They always approach potential criminals as if they are armed regardless of what the info in a data system would tell them. For example- even if they were searching the premises of a licenced firearms owner, they wouldn't print off a list of guns from the registry that were in the name of the suspect and assume that that is all the firearms in the suspects possession. They would search the suspects premises and vehicles until they were certain they had found all potential weapons regardless of what the registry said the suspect owned.
I understand that there are lots of anti gun folks out there. Just as there are plenty of folks who have no issue with firearms- 1.8 million licenced owners to start with. Arguments can be made that licencing owners may weed out some people who shouldn't own guns (or knives, cars, bats etc). That safe storage and handling laws can help to prevent the misuse of firearms. But the registering of firearms, as a part of criminal legislation no less, is as effective at preventing gun crime as vehicle registration is at preventing impaired/distracted/carless driving. Registration served no positive purpose in preventing any crimes, but it sure made it easy for otherwise law abiding Canadians to become criminals if their paperwork expired.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/757440--fiorito-the-cops-came-and-took-my-gun
Victory? The only victory here is the one that gun owners of this country, the law abiding people of Canada, have finally achieved, after 17 years of statist oppression.
This little tempest I a teapot, the tantrum that Qubec threw will be over on Thursday when the courts rwd previous Supreme Cours decisions regarding firearms and provincial/ federal division of powers.
Not true. I am a Conservative/conservative and a city dweller. I am totally against any kind of firearms registration.
The question I have for the pro-LGR crowd is this:
Abolute mayhem was being predicted for the streets of Canada if the LGR ends? Has it started yet? When?
Nice to see the NRA following babble! We should charge admission here.
Lefty freeloaders don't like to pay for anything. Requiring admission would lose you the 99%
Here in Victoria, the Police caught a guy working in a local gun shop who pilfered a huge quantity of guns (159) from the store. It was pretty big news. They (police) don't think they would have caught him or would have caught him much later, if it was not for the registry. http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Saanich+police+arrest+after+guns+s...
Thankfully he was just a gun nut who stole them for his personal collection. He stole them over 4 years!
The message here is pretty clear. It is easy in Canada to steal guns. And the Conservatives want to make it easier.
The criminals need easier access to better tools. How else can you fill the new prisons?
Before you know it, your local friendly dopehead/ part-time dopedealer will be retired and he will be replaced with a gun carrying brute (with a sampling of harder drugs). This guy will be affiliated with a much meaner bunch of people for his own protection.
This is all part of Harpers plan to relocate first nations from reserve to prison, and give a boost to the arms industry and to his select friends in the construction, slave labour ( outsourcing prisoners) and catering industry, (Cheap shitty food for prisoners but billed to the tax payer at 5 star rates). "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" is a battle cry for idiots.
Bullets kill people, but without a gun, it is kinda difficult to get them up to speed.
I'd happily pay a couple bucks to destroy your Uzi collection.
An ounce of prevention, as they say.
Anyway, it's hard to see how we can take power, and keep it forever, unless we disarm the law-abiding populace first - preferably using their own hard-earned tax money to do it!! LOL! That's the genius of gun control. It's Socialism 101.
How'm I doin', pardner?
Toodles Dlink and Dushan.