The federal Conservative government scored a major legal victory June 27 in its determination to end the long-gun registry and destroy all the records when a Quebec court sided with Ottawa.
The federal registry was abolished last year after a heated parliamentary debate, and the government said the end of the registry meant more than a decade of data collected on long-gun owners also would be destroyed.
The Quebec government, opposed to ending the gun registry, immediately said it would create a provincial registry and went to court to demand that Ottawa not destroy stored gun owner data collected on Quebec gun owners.
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Ottawa has not disputed the provincial right to create a gun registry, but it argues the data stored for more than 16 years is out-of-date, inaccurate and federal property. Any provincial registry should start to collect its own data.
Quebec won a lower court judgment ordering Ottawa not to destroy the historic data.
The federal government appealed and the Quebec Court of Appeal strongly supported federal arguments that the registry and its database are federal jurisdiction and federal property.
Quebec quickly said it is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, so the data may not be destroyed until the appeal is settled.
It is a difficult Quebec political issue for the Conservatives, who hold little political support in the province and just a handful of its 75 parliamentary seats. All provincial political parties in Quebec support keeping the gun registry.
Still, federal public safety minister Vic Toews celebrated the Appeal Court decision.
“Our Conservative government committed to stand up for the rights of law-abiding hunters, farmers and sports shooters in all regions of the country, including Quebec,” he said in a statement after the judgment was released.
He said opposition politicians do not support that position.
