CARLYLE, Sask. – Saskatchewan may challenge Ottawa in court and gun groups may attack the national pocketbook in attempts to stop proposed new gun laws.
Saskatchewan justice minister Bob Mitchell told a gun rally here Jan. 11 he is considering challenging the federal government’s right to make laws on firearms registration.
He said Ottawa has jurisdiction now because gun laws are included in the Criminal Code, which is a federal responsibility. But he said he doesn’t think gun registration belongs there.
Under criminal code
Read Also
Saskatchewan RM declines feedlot application, cites bylaws
Already facing some community pushback, a proposed 2,000-head cattle feedlot south of Swift Current, Sask., has been rejected for a municipal permit, partly over zoning concerns about the minimum distance from a residence.
“It’s not like murder or sexual assault, manslaughter or treason,” he said about breaches of gun laws. “Is the failure to register a 12-gauge shotgun – that’s been in your family for three generations – that kind of misconduct, that it needs to be in the Criminal Code?”
If the province can convince a court that gun laws should not be in the code, Ottawa will lose jurisdiction over the area, Mitchell said.
Liberal MP Bernie Collins took the same tack, suggesting “if they want something in Ottawa or Toronto or Montreal, you can bloody well do it” by enacting a bylaw.
Saskatchewan Tory leader Bill Boyd said gun possession in the West should be seen in the same light as culture in Quebec.
“If Quebec can have jurisdiction over language laws, Saskatchewan should have jurisdiction over gun control legislation,” said Boyd.
Gun owners resent the proposals because “we’re law-abiding citizens and patriotic people, but they’re turning us into criminals,” said Alameda farmer Ray Markosky. “There aren’t enough jails” in Canada to house all the gun owners who won’t follow new regulations, he said.
Dennis DeForest, of the Western Canadian Gun Collectors and Owners, told the rally it is the role of the provinces to “defend the rights of their citizens” by doing separate evaluations of the gun law proposals. If evaluations show the proposals are flawed, the provinces should not enforce them, DeForest said.
But Mitchell said the provinces have no choice but to administer the Criminal Code. Getting fire-arms laws out of the code would be a better path to follow, he said.
Financial repercussions
Ed Begin, of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, said gun owners can turn the financial screws on the federal government in several ways.
“What if hunters considered cancelling all their Canada Savings Bonds?” he asked, in an interview after the rally. Hunting groups will urge their members not to buy waterfowl permits this year, and to not hunt, in an attempt to take millions of dollars in licence fees out of the government’s hands, Begin said.
And those same hunting groups might urge American hunters not to come to Canada if the new gun proposals are accepted.
“They bring in $440 million and spinoffs a year, and we can’t afford (to lose) that,” Begin said.
