Quebec will move to create its own long-gun registry
Quebec should be able to move forward with a provincial long-gun registry with few legal hurdles, experts suggest, even if it no longer has access to federal long-gun registry data dating back to 1995.
Within hours of a Supreme Court of Canada decision giving the federal Conservatives the right to destroy nearly a decade’s worth of federal long-gun registry data from the province, Public Safety Minister Lise Thériault had announced her government’s firm intention to “roll up our sleeves and move forward” — with or without Ottawa’s help.
That will mean drafting, tabling and passing new legislation for a provincial registry by the end of this parliamentary session, Thériault said. The proposed legislative base will, in turn, set up a timeline for the establishment of a new database.
Based on “conservative” estimates, a provincial registry will cost at least $30 million, but Thériault acknowledged that the number could fluctuate. The federal long-gun registry, created in the aftermath of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, set Canadian taxpayers back $1 billion.
While police organizations and Quebec’s opposition parties supported the Liberal government’s pledge to create a $30 million gun registry on Friday, a brother of one of the victims of the École Polytechnique massacre is spearheading the Quebec movement to have it quashed.
Claude Colgan is the director of the Quebec branch of the National Firearms Association gun owners lobby group, which has 75,000 members across Canada. He is also the co-administrator of the Tous contre un régistre Québécois des armies à feu (All against a Quebec gun registry) Facebook page, which has 9,000 followers. He is the brother of Hélène Colgan, a third-year mechanical engineering student who was among 14 women shot to death in December 1989.
It was a sick individual, not a gun, that was responsible for the death of his sister, said Colgan. His family has a long history of gun ownership, he said, and he is tired of gun owners being treated like criminals.
“The registry is useless,” Colgan said. “There is already a system of gun permits in Canada, and all police services have access to it. ... To have another system in order to register serial numbers is just a waste of public funds.”
Quebec and Canada has already paid enough for the failed federal long-gun registry, he said.
“Whether guns are registered or not, criminals won’t respect the law. That’s why they’re criminals.”
Colgan’s comments were echoed by the National Firearms Association, which said on its website it was “delighted” with the Supreme Court decision, calling the registry “expensive, inefficient and invasive.”
“As proud and happy as we are of today’s victory, we must acknowledge that many battles remain to be fought,” NFA president Sheldon Clare said. “We may have another one looming in Quebec, in view of yesterday’s announcement, although we are skeptical of Quebec’s ability and resolve to move in that direction.”
The NFA is holding its annual general meeting in Quebec City in May, the first time the event has been held in the province.
Nathalie Roy of opposition party Coalition Avenir Québec said the party was disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision and supports a provincial registry.
“We do not understand why the federal government wants to destroy records already compiled and paid for at great cost by the taxpayers of Quebec,” Roy said. Françoise David of Québec solidaire said Premier Philippe Couillard promised in December to create a gun registry as the province commemorated the 25th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre.
The Montreal Police Brotherhood told CTV News the court ruling will make it more difficult for police to conduct their investigations, because they “check the registry 300 times a day.”