Quebec awaits federal data to set up its own gun registry

QUEBEC — The Quebec government is marking the anniversary of Canada’s worst mass shooting by reiterating its intention to set up its own gun registry.

Public Security Minister Stephane Bergeron said in a statement on Thursday that it will happen once Ottawa turns over Quebec data that was contained in the now-defunct federal long-gun registry.

Bergeron later said he wasn’t sure if the legislation setting up the registry would be tabled before the resolution of an ongoing legal battle with the federal government.

Quebec and Ottawa are fighting over the federal registry, which the Conservatives scrapped earlier this year.

In September, Quebec Superior Court ordered the data on Quebec guns be preserved and turned over to the province.

The federal government is appealing that ruling and a hearing is scheduled for March.

Information provided by the other parts of the country has been destroyed.

The federal registry, created in 1995 by the Liberal government, has been controversial from the start due to conflicting claims about its effectiveness.

Quebec’s announcement comes on the national day of remembrance and action against violence against women — a day which stems from the slaughter by a lone gunman of 14 women at the Universite de Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique engi- neering school on Dec. 6, 1989.

In announcing the province’s intentions, Bergeron noted that he knew one of the victims, student Nathalie Croteau.

Vigils are being held across Canada to mark the Montreal Massacre and decry violence against women.