Judge rules Quebec is within rights on gun law

Registry an issue of public safety, court declares

MONTREAL • Quebec’s long-gun registry doesn’t infringe on federal jurisdiction, says a judge who has rejected a motion seeking to see it shelved.

The National Firearms Association, along with a Quebec-based pro-gun group, had argued in court the province was wading into federal territory when it passed its own long-gun registry law in June, 2016.

The province began plans to establish the log after the Conservatives abolished the federal long-gun registry in 2012.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Lukasz Granosik ruled Wednesday the province’s registry is constitutionally valid.

Granosik wrote the Quebec law is essentially about public safety — which is related to provincial jurisdiction on issues of property and civil law as well as the administration of justice.

“The act aims to make the work of law enforcement safer and the implementation of court orders more effective,” the judge noted.

The gun lobby, through its lawyers, sought an injunction not long after the law was passed.

“From our perspective, it seems to us that the Quebec government is attempting to dabble in an area of criminal law,” NFA head Sheldon Clare said Friday.

“We have some concerns about the judge’s interpretation,” Clare said. “They’ve looked at it as an issue of property instead of firearms and criminal law, which is really what the issue is.”

As part of the lobby’s case, it provided the court with its own facts and figures about why it believed Quebec’s own provincial long-gun registry was unworkable and costly.

The province has pegged the startup cost of the registry at $17 million and an additional $5 million per year to operate.

Clare said his group wanted to demonstrate to the court that Quebec is headed down the wrong path. It has concerns other provinces will follow suit.

“Pieces of paper don’t prevent people with ill intent from performing evil acts,” he said.

The judge noted that question was not part of the court’s purview.

“All these elements, interesting as they are, are not relevant in this case, because it is not up to the tribunal to judge the expediency or the effectiveness of a law,” Granosik wrote.

Quebec fought a protracted legal battle against Ottawa in a bid to preserve the Quebec data from the federal registry, ultimately losing at the Supreme Court in 2015 — a case in which Clare’s group was an intervener.

In June, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled a bill in the Commons that would change the rules and allow the province to look at Quebec information from the old registry. It is currently sealed by a court decision. Goodale warned he’s not aware whether the data is still useful given the registry was abolished in 2012.

The now defunct federal long-gun registry was created by the Liberals in 1998 in response to the murder of 14 women at Montreal’s École polytechnique in 1989. They were targeted by a gunman because of their gender.

Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the massacre and spokesperson for gun control advocacy group PolySeSouvient, says she’s pleased with the decision.

“The judgment clearly recognizes the jurisdiction of the government of Quebec to regulate firearms on its territory, which is to allow the authorities to know which weapons are circulating in the province, to whom they belong and where they are located,” she said.

“It is obvious to us that such accounting is an integral part of effective gun control — objects that we must remember are designed to kill.”