Feds told to hand over long-gun registry data

OTTAWA— A federal court has ordered the Conservative government to turn over the backup of Quebec’s long-gun registry, siding with the fear of Canada’s information commissioner that the data could otherwise be deleted.

The court order is an early victory for Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault’s office, which is mounting a larger Charter challenge against the Conservative government’s move to retroactively shield registry data from the Access to Information Act. The court order comes despite a written assurance from Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office, presented by government lawyers on Monday, that the data would be preserved.

“I don’t take comfort in an assurance not to destroy records when there’s destruction plans ongoing at the same time and, in fact, destruction did occur,” Richard Dearden, the lawyer representing Legault’s office, told reporters. The Conservative government moved to scrap the long-gun registry in October 2011 after winning a majority in the federal election, but the registry data were still subject to the Access to Information Act.

According to previous court filings, Legault wrote former public safety minister Vic Toews in 2012 reminding him that the data would have to be preserved for previously filed requests. Toews assured her that the department would comply with access law, the documents allege.

Despite those assurances, an affidavit submitted by one of Legault’s investigators suggests there was pressure from Toews’ office, the Prime Minister’s Office and the RCMP to hasten the destruction of the records.

The destruction of the long-gun data, including backups, was completed by Oct. 31, 2012. The one exception was Quebec, where the provincial government had gone to the courts to attempt to retain its data — some 1.6 million records.

In a letter to Blaney’s office and the RCMP last March, Legault stated her investigation had concluded the Mounties broke the law in deleting the data while she was investigating the file. Legault referred the file to Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s office.

The following month, the majority Conservatives brought forward their latest omnibus budget bill, Bill C-59. Tucked inside the legislation was a section that retroactively exempted the long-gun registry from disclosure under Access to Information legislation. The bill also prevented those responsible for the destruction of the long-gun data from facing civil or criminal charges.