QUEBEC MAY GET ACCESS TO LONG- GUN REGISTRY DATA

Quebec may finally get access to data from the defunct federal long-gun registry. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled a bill in the Commons Friday that will allow the province to look at information from the registry if the legislation passes in the Commons and the Senate. But the minister says he does not know whether the data is still useful given the registry was abolished in 2012 by the Conservative government, which considered it obsolete. Quebec fought the Tory government all the way to the Supreme Court to obtain the data related to long- gun owners in the province but lost in March, 2015. The province took steps last year toward creating its own registry. The National Firearms Association criticized the introduction of Bill C- 52 in the Commons. “This appears to be nothing more than a workaround for the federal Liberals,” said association president Sheldon Clare. “They said they wouldn’t bring in a long-gun registry, but they didn’t say they would get the provinces to set up their own. This is a huge betrayal.”