With the support of two northwestern Ontario New Democrats, the Conservative majority last week voted in principle to end the long gun registry.
The House of Commons public safety committee is expected to open public hearings on the bill when Parliament resumes Nov. 14 after a week’s break. Public safety minister Vic Toews is scheduled to be the first witness.
The bill passed second reading approval-in-principle by 156-123.
The government used closure to limit debate and force the vote after just several days of debate.
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Thunder Bay New Democrat MPs Bruce Hyder and John Rafferty, who promised voters they would vote against the registry, stood with the Conservative majority. New Democrat sources later told some reporters that party leadership is reprimanding the two for breaking party ranks.
British Columbia New Democrat Nathan Cullen, a candidate for his party’s leadership, and Dennis Bevington from the Arctic have spoken against the registry but did not vote.
Liberal Wayne Easter, formerly a gun registry opponent, voted with his party against the bill.
Toews surprised his critics by not just proposing to abolish the long gun registry as expected but also vowing to destroy 16 years of records collected under the system.
It has triggered another law-and-order standoff between Ottawa and Quebec.
The province supports the registry, is vowing to create its own and is demanding that the federal government turn over to it all the data collected on long gun owners in Quebec.
It has ordered Quebec’s chief firearms officer not to destroy the data despite federal orders.
In the House of Commons, Quebec New Democrat MPs have been making the provincial case by demanding that Ottawa recant and save the gun registry data.
Toews has so far refused, arguing that it is data collected on law abiding gun owners and is outdated.
“Our legislation will destroy the records which are inaccurate and unreliable and becoming increasingly so over time,” he said Nov. 2.
