Supreme Court will hear Quebec appeal to preserve gun registry data

OTTAWA (CP) — The last remnants of the federal long-gun registry will survive into 2014.

The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to give the Quebec government one last shot at making the case for the preservation of provincial registry data.

Records detailing more than five million rifles and shotguns owned by Canadians in the other provinces and territories were fully destroyed a year ago, but a series of court battles has preserved Quebec — the birthplace of the registry — as the last holdout.

“For the moment, we’re satisfied with the situation and we’re preparing for the eventual creation of a Quebec arms registry,” Stephane Bergeron, Quebec’s public safety minister, said in Quebec City.

His federal counterpart, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, issued a statement saying the Conservative government “will vigorously defend our legislation, adopted by Parliament, in front of the Supreme Court.”

The majority Conservatives killed the registry in February 2012 and Quebec has been fighting the decision ever since.

The province was on the losing end the last time it argued the case.

In June, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled the province “has no property right in the data” and upheld Ottawa’s right to act as it saw fit.