Federal solicitor general Wayne Easter probably is finding he has fewer friends in the farm community than he once did, says an Alberta Canadian Alliance MP.
On April 1, Easter took over responsibility for the Canadian firearms program.
Kevin Sorenson said during a House of Commons debate that he understood farmer Easter, a Prince Edward Island Liberal, once opposed the gun registry before ascending to cabinet last autumn.
“He was the president of the National Farmers Union,” said the Crowfoot MP during debate on legislation to create a Canadian Firearms Centre to administer the gun licensing and registration programs.
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“I would like him to return to his farmer friends and tell them he is now the one in charge of the firearms registry. He will find out how loved he is in the agricultural sector because that is suicide.”
The legislation, C-10A, is mired in procedural wrangling and opposition delays in the Commons. It is expected to be back on the agenda when Parliament resumes sitting April 28 after the Easter recess. The government has threatened to use closure to end debate, although it is wary that some dissident Liberal MPs may vote against it.
The government thought it had finished with the legislative issue in the Commons last autumn when it pushed through amendments to the criminal code affecting both cruelty-to-animals and the gun registry.
Instead, the Senate took the almost unprecedented step of splitting the legislation in two and sending the gun provisions back to MPs.
The cruelty-to-animals bill, C-10B, remains before a Senate committee where amendments are expected to satisfy fears from farmers, trappers and medical researchers that the original bill could be used by animal rights activists to harass those performing normal practices involving animals.
The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies has warned it will oppose any weakening of the bill.
However, the government’s first challenge is to win Commons approval again for the firearms program amendments.
Opposition MPs have been making the procedural argument that the unelected Senate had no right to thwart the will of the elected Commons by splitting the legislation.
And they continue to argue that the firearms registration program is ineffective, offensive and wrong. The auditor general has said the program’s costs have spiralled from estimates of several million dollars in 1995 to projections of $1 billion by 2005.
In the midst of a procedural argument, Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MP Gerald Keddy said too much time should not be taken up debating procedure.
“I think Parliament has missed the point entirely …(which) is it’s a poor piece of legislation,” said the rural MP. “It is severely flawed.”
