Tories extend gun ownership amnesty; No Prosecution

[Spiel]

Tories extend gun ownership amnesty; No Prosecution

 

(Saskatoon Star Phoenix)

 

OTTAWA - The Harper government has extended the two-year-old amnesty that protects firearms owners from prosecution if they fail to register their rifles and shotguns. The Cabinet approved a directive on May 8 that extends the amnesty to May, 2009, virtually guaranteeing the Conservatives will not have to risk defeat of a bill scrapping the controversial registry before the next federal election.

 

A senior Liberal MP who once was in charge of the registry as a solicitor-general says the essentially inactive registry, now under RCMP management, has become a bigger waste of money under the current government than it was under the Liberals.

 

Prince Edward Island MP Wayne Easter pointed to a published report last month that the government has foregone $56.5-million in fees through the amnesty and a separate waiver for licence-renewal fees over the next three years while the registry is expected to cost $35.9 million.

 

"They're wasting far more money now," he said. "All they are doing is playing political games. They're not implementing the law the way it was supposed to be implemented, and they're not getting rid of it either."

 

The Conservative government first introduced the amnesty on May 17, 2006, to protect individuals, according to the Cabinet order, "from incurring criminal liability under the Criminal Code as a result of the illegal possession of unregistered non-restricted firearms."

 

The previous day, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser had tabled a follow-up report on the gun registry after her first explosive expose in 2002 ignited a firestorm, confirming the registry had cost taxpayers $946-million from its inception in 1995 to 2005. Fraser's second report found the Canada Firearms Centre had made "satisfactory progress" implementing her 2002 recommendations on financial reporting, but the audit also found accounting errors that resulted in the Department of Justice under-reporting the centre's cost by $60-million over two years.

 

Ms. Fraser also found weaknesses in the centre's management of firearms information and contracting problems.

[Billy Bob]

This is the beginning of the end to your gun ownership and hunting rights