Harper opposes relaxed gun rules
Advisory panel’s proposals rejected
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued an unexpected rebuke to his government’s own firearms advisory committee, rejecting its recommendations and suggesting the group’s membership may need revisiting.
Documents obtained by the Coalition for Gun Control reveal the committee advising Public Safety Minister Vic Toews wants some prohibited weapons, including handguns and assault rifles, reclassified to make them more easily available.
The 14-member group is also pushing to make firearm licences good for at least 10 years, rather than the current five — a measure opposed by police who say the five-year renewals are a chance to weed out unstable gun owners.
Coming on the anniversary of Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique massacre — in which 14 young women died at the hands of a deranged gunman — the documents provided opposition MPs with new ammunition to fire at a government that earlier this year repealed and destroyed the federal long-gun registry.
The news also comes as the Quebec government announced Thursday its intention to create its own gun registry. Quebec Public Security Minister Stephane Bergeron said it will happen once Ottawa turns over Quebec data that was in the now-defunct federal long-gun registry.
But even as gun enthusiasts cheered the proposed reforms by the federal advisory committee Thursday on online message boards, Harper was pouring cold water on the committee in the House of Commons.
“Let me be as clear as I can be,” the prime minister said in response to a question from NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. “Prohibited weapons exist as a category under the law for essential reasons of public security. The government has absolutely no intention of weakening that category of protections.”
Harper stressed repeatedly the recommendations contained in a March 2012 “memorandum for the minister” are not government policy.
And when interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae suggested the government’s advisory committee — which is dominated by sport-shooting enthusiasts and those opposed to gun control — needed wider representation, including from police chiefs, those fighting domestic violence and groups dealing with suicide prevention, Harper all but agreed.
“I will take the advice of the leader of the Liberal party under consideration,” Harper responded.
“I’m obviously very concerned with some of the recommendations made in that report, and I think the committee does need some re-examination in that light.”
The prime minister’s comments will certainly be a comedown for gun enthusiasts who were cheering a Toronto Star report of the committee recommendations earlier Thursday.
“A shocking outbreak of common sense? What are they drinking in Ottawa these days?” said one poster on Outdoorsmenforum.ca.
“This is great! I am so glad we have a government that has some common sense ... at least for now,” wrote another.
Conservatives used the Liberal longgun registry as a prime fundraising tool and rural electoral wedge issue for more than a decade. But now that the registry is gone, the government appears to be playing down further changes — at least for broad public consumption.
Two important developments this fall —the final destruction of all gun registry data outside Quebec and the further postponement of gun-marking regulations — were proactively announced by the government to the gun lobby but not to a national audience via the news media.
Toews’ firearms advisory committee is co-chaired by Steve Torino, president of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. It includes antiregistry advocates including Tony Bernardo, a self-described gun-rights champion with Torino’s CSSA; Greg Farrant of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters; Linda Thom, an Olympic gold medallist in pistol shooting; and Niagara police constable John Gayder, who has written pieces such as “Is Modern Gun Control Hazardous to Police?”