The government last week announced some minor amendments to proposed gun control regulations, and then made it clear the Liberals expect gun control to be a good election issue.
“The time will come in the not-too-distant future when the people of Canada will have the opportunity to express themselves on the subject,” justice minister Allan Rock said April 21 as he taunted a Reform party questioner.
“On that occasion, the members of the Reform party, the Tories … and the NDP are going to find out the cost of opposing what Canadians want – gun control.”
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Behind Rock, urban Liberal MPs applauded. Some rural Liberal MPs facing a stiff challenge to gun control plans sat silent, displaying little enthusiasm over the prospect.
Some provincial governments on the Prairies are public in their disapproval of the bill. Last week Manitoba’s justice minister said the province will not enforce the law.
Vic Toews said RCMP have been instructed not to administer registration requirements, and Crown lawyers won’t prosecute alleged breaches of the law.
The justice minister made his comments in response to a complaint from Alberta Reform MP Jack Ramsay that a Calgary man had to turn in his legally acquired but soon-to-be-illegal firearm without compensation.
“How can the minister of justice seize property that was legally acquired and lawfully held, without compensation?” asked Ramsay.
Rock did not answer the question of compensation. Instead, he highlighted the difference between the policies of the Liberals and their political opponents in English Canada.
Later, Vancouver North Reform MP Ted White said the issue is not gun control but confiscation without compensation. Then, he asked about victims rights.
Rock went on the offensive again. Liberals have passed laws to help victims of crime, he said.
But victims groups who have come to Ottawa also agreed that fewer guns would mean fewer crimes and victims.
“I say to him, his colleagues in the Reform party, the Conservatives and the NDP that they will have to answer to the Canadian people in the upcoming months why they did not listen to the pleas of victims and join with us to adopt meaningful gun control,” said Rock.
He said the government will accept some recommendations from the Commons justice committee which studied proposed gun control regulations.
The government will reduce the proposed fee for businesses selling firearms to $100 in 1998 and $125 in following years, Rock said. Initially, Ottawa proposed to set the fee at $400 next year and $500 later.
Some exceptions
He said the government agrees gun control should not unduly limit the ability of museums and historical re-enactors to display guns otherwise restricted.
And he said the government agrees that native communities should be involved in administering the firearms regulations for their members.
Rock said changes will be made to allow owners to leave non-restricted guns in an unlocked vehicle in “wilderness areas” as long as they are hidden and “rendered inoperable by a secure locking device. A locking device would not be required if the firearm was needed for predator control.”
Rock rejected a committee suggestion that the government create a “mediation mechanism” before which applicants for firearms acquisition certificates could challenge information they considered false or misleading.
