The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to give Quebec one last chance to argue that Ottawa should not be able to destroy Quebec data from the defunct long-gun registry.
While data collected on gun owners across Canada has been destroyed since the federal registry was abolished last year, Quebec has been fighting to create its own registry and to use the federal data on Quebec gun owners as a base.
Until the case is resolved, Quebec gun owner data is preserved.
The federal Conservatives have fought the case, arguing that Quebec has the right to create its own registry but it must start from scratch.
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The gun registry data on file is unreliable, outdated and federal property, it says.
In June, the Quebec Court of Appeal agreed with Ottawa.
“The Parliament of Canada, which considers the data at issue to be pointless and inefficient and believes that its existence in a registry infringes the right to privacy, can certainly decide to stop compiling and preserving that information,” the court ruled.
The Quebec government, supported by gun control advocates, appealed that decision and the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case sometime next year.
In the meantime, none of the data collected on Quebec gun owners for almost 20 years will be turned over to the Quebec government.
Federal public safety minister Steven Blaney vowed to fight against the Quebec case.
