Canadian Supreme Court Rules On Firearms Registry
BY Herschel Smith
9 years, 7 months ago
Ottawa (AFP) – Canada’s high court struck a blow against gun control on Friday, with a decision that clears the way for the federal government to destroy data on owners of rifles and shotguns.
Ottawa ordered the database destroyed in 2012, but Quebec went to court to try to stop it, hoping to use the names of Quebecers on the list to build its own firearms registry.
The Supreme Court’s decision means that while Canadians must still obtain a license to own a gun, most will not have to disclose that they own a long gun.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a longtime advocate for the gun rights of hunters and farmers, said he was “happy” with this outcome.
But in Quebec, which also fought to maintain the national firearms registry created by parliament in 1995, there was disappointment.
The province pressed Ottawa to hand over parts of the database relevant to Quebec after the federal government shut down the national firearms registry three years ago.
But Harper’s Tory government refused, citing critics of the registry who complained the original had been an expensive intrusion on gun owners and should not be repeated.
Furthermore, the Tories argued, the registry did not help to stem crime.
With both sides refusing to yield and Quebec vowing to create its own registry from scratch, firearms regulations are sure to become a hot campaign issue in upcoming elections.
In a five-four split decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec had simply failed to establish a legal basis for its claim to the data.
The court added that the disagreement over the fate of the information in the registry should have been negotiated in a political process, rather than adjudicated.
So here’s the scene. The firearms registry is being done away. Quebec wants the information, and this court case decided the issue. Quebec doesn’t get it. In the process, the Canadian supreme court looks a lot like the U.S. supreme court and other morons, and stipulated that in the future, the political process must be used to restrict God-given rights. But it gets better.
Quebec Public Safety Minister Lise Theriault said the province would move ahead with its plans for a database of its own, allocating Can$30 million (US$24 million) for the project.
If the centralized government won’t help, they’ll do it themselves. Sounds like New York or Connecticut, no? But wait. It gets even better than this.
Earlier this month, Harper earned widespread scorn over comments he made which seemed to wrongfully imply that Canadians have the right to shoot intruders.
“My wife’s from a rural area, gun ownership wasn’t just for the farm, it was also for a certain level of security when you’re ways away from police, immediate police assistance,” he’d told the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities on March 12.
Legal experts and the opposition pounced on the comments to suggest Harper had urged Canadians to take the law into their own hands.
“It’s vigilantism,” former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant was widely quoted as saying.
“People are going to find themselves facing the criminal justice system and being charged with serious crimes if they decide to follow what the prime minister is suggesting.”
Rather than being a God-ordained duty, self defense is “vigilantism” according to Bryant. The former attorney general of Ontario is a damn communist. And the damn communists (and Harper’s Tories) notwithstanding, the reasons for ownership and bearing of arms goes beyond hunting and self defense (American “Fudds” also notwithstanding). It also enables us to kill people just like them. The extent to which Americans get that will be directly proportional to the liberties we retain in the face of men just … like … the … rulers … of … Quebec in the U.S., federal, state and local.
On March 30, 2015 at 7:25 am, Sgt Rock said:
Well said Herschel.
On March 30, 2015 at 7:17 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
It’s amazing how many people won’t bother to look up the definition of “vigilante” before tossing it about improperly. No, on second thought, I guess it’s not…
On April 1, 2015 at 6:00 am, robins111 said:
The province of Quebec won’t start a registry, it’s all political posturing. The only way they’d do it, is if the could weasel the money out of the rest of Canada. The 30 million dollars is a pipe dream also, the Federal Registry was supposed to cost 2 mil.. and boondoggled into 2 billion over 4 years. In regards to the widespread outrage over PM Harpers remarks about self defence, the only outrage was by the lefties and the media (But I repeat myself)
On April 1, 2015 at 3:04 pm, GomeznSA said:
Thanks for digging up the actual costs – couple that massive expenditure with the virtually total ineffectiveness of the law and one has created a liberals ‘best’ vision of success.
On April 1, 2015 at 8:52 am, Mitch Rapp said:
When I finally take my Alaska vacation, instead of treking the Alcan highway, I’ll take the ferry from Seattle to Haines. Hey idiots in Canada! Think of all those dollars that I won’t be spending in your country!
On April 1, 2015 at 3:08 pm, GomeznSA said:
Um, Mitch, you do realize that you do have to cross back into Canada – specifically British Columbia and the Yukon Territory in order to get into interior Alaska? You would have to go all the way to Valdez to avoid travelling in Canada………………just sayin’.
On April 2, 2015 at 6:22 pm, Oregon Hobo said:
Hitchhiked the Al-Can a couple of decades back from Anchorage to Seattle. An interesting tidbit for those who do take the land route: if you buy pepper spray on the U.S. side of the border it has to be labeled for defensive use against people only — no hurting the cute furry animals. On the Canadian side it’s the reverse — for use on animals but not people. On either side, possession of improperly labeled pepper spray indicates criminal intent to use said pepper spray in a manner not in accordance with law. I was warned multiple times that the police on either side are on the lookout for rubes with the “wrong” pepper spray for an easy bust.
I ended up giving up on that crap and just relying on my folder after the spray can’s safety latch snapped in my pocket while I was climbing into my hammock, emptying half the can into my crotch region. At least I was toasty warm that night.
#OREGON HOBO#
On April 2, 2015 at 11:51 pm, Herschel Smith said:
I don’t believe you. You emptied half a can of OC spray into your crotch and you’re still alive? How could that be? Can you still reproduce? Can you breath? My God!
On April 1, 2015 at 9:17 am, UNCLEELMO said:
Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant is another fine example of a guy that has lived in a city his whole life, and has absolutely no idea what it’s like to live in a rural area, where, instead of minutes away, emergency help is an hour away. In my particular case, they probably couldn’t even find or get to the place without help.
Chances are if he ever was in a place like mine alone for the night he’d probably wet himself.
On April 2, 2015 at 7:02 am, robins111 said:
Michael Bryant is famous for claiming that Canadians have no legal right for self defense.
However about 6 years ago, he got boozed up in a bar, and on the drive home, he got into an altercation with a pedal bike driving guy. He then proceeded to deliberately run the guy over with his BMW convertible ad killed him…
He was not charged with vehicular homicide, as “He Claimed Self Defense” Since then he’s become the spokesman for the Coalition for Gun Control Canada, (Our version of the Brady Campaign.)
PS, they also didn’t do a blood alcohol test on him, because, You Know, Attorney General and all.
On April 2, 2015 at 7:29 am, UNCLEELMO said:
Wow. Amazing, but not surprising. Just another lib-progressive, gun-grabbing psych case with a law degree. A self-hating, privileged elitist.
I’ll bet you he keeps a loaded 1911 under his pillow at night.
On April 1, 2015 at 1:13 pm, Oregon Hobo said:
Having grown up in Canada for the first 17+ years of my life, I can tell you that, much like here in the U.S., urban and rural Canada are two completely different realities. Also similarly to the U.S., there is a severe east/west skew. The eastern “big 3” cities of Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec form the epicenter of Canadian anti-gun idiocy, and are mostly ignored by the rest of the country. This is why the Canadian long gun registry had an estimated 10~20% compliance rate. Canadians were refusing to comply long before it was cool in WA, CO, CT, or NY. ;-)
Among the factors attributable to the difference in perspectives between east and west, two that I would point out are:
1) the prevalence of griz in the western plains and Rockies – rawr
2) the massive influx of the children and grandchildren of the old Kuomintang heroin lords from Hong Kong in the ’90s and ’00s surrounding the city’s return to Chinese control, which drove a relatively new phenomenon of Asian drug gangs in Vancouver and Victoria and a concomitant spike in violent crime, all in the face of gun laws that would make a Brady blush
Writing off all Canadians may offer a warm feeling of righteousness, but it makes about as much sense as writing off all Washingtonians, Coloradans, etc. We have more than a few ideological allies north of the border, forced to contend as best they can with the hordes of fools and tools that would rule them. It is in our own best interest to support them and count them as friends than to leave them to the isolation and attrition that our enemies would so dearly prefer.
Happy trails,
#OREGON HOBO#
On April 2, 2015 at 7:05 am, robins111 said:
Oregon Hobo… In reference to your low compliance rate,..
We entertained ourselves by messing with they system, and registered things like glue guns, staple guns, drills, curling irons, etc. One enterprising fellow even registered a Jack Russell Terrier.
On April 2, 2015 at 11:58 am, eaglesnester said:
I live in Canada , I also live in the country in the central interior of B.C.
There are grizzly bears, black bears, and cougar a plenty. There are also just like every place else in the world 2 legged predators. The two legged kind would be well advised to not ply their trade in my neighborhood as we are all armed and many of us own back hoes. Hey its big country.