Quebec disappointed with gun registry vote
Bloc jumps on issue ahead of byelections
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 5:05 PM ET
CBC News
On Wednesday MPs adopted a private member's bill calling for the abolition of the federal long-gun registry. (CBC) Quebec politicians, police officers and victims' rights groups are expressing frustration with plans to abolish the federal long-gun registry.
On Wednesday the House of Commons narrowly passed a private member's bill calling on the government to scrap the federal long-gun registry.
The vote comes one month before the 20th anniversary of the shooting at Montreal’s École Polytechnique.
Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said he was disappointed but not surprised by the vote: 164 for, 137 against.
The vote is only one step in a long process to abolish the registry for rifles and shotguns, Dupuis said.
Dupuis said he will continue to press Ottawa not to go through with the Conservative government's plan and will testify at upcoming hearings before a Commons committee.
The vote was also a disappointment for Montrealer Suzanne Laplante-Edward.
'It's been a monument erected to our daughters, and we are not about to let is disappear,'—Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Polytechnique shooting victim
Edward’s 21-year-old daughter Anne-Marie was one of the 14 women gunned down at the École Polytechnique on Dec. 6 1989.
Edward said she and the members of other victims' families fought hard for the creation of the registry.
"It's been a monument erected to our daughters, and we are not about to let is disappear," Laplante-Edward said. "Why this government is hell bent — hell bent — on destroying gun control is beyond my comprehension."
Montreal police have also weighed in on the issue.
The registry is checked by police officers across Canada 10,000 thousand times a day, said Insp. Daniel Rousseau.
Rousseau said the registry helped Montreal police prevent at least one potential tragedy.
Soon after the Dawson College shooting in 2007, Rousseau said police received information about a young man making similar threats.
Through the registry, Rousseau said police were able to learn the man owned several firearms.
“So he was arrested. We seized the firearms before the commission of the criminal act,” Rousseau said.
Campaign issue
Meanwhile, it seems the Bloc Québecois is ready to leap on the emotional gun-control debate ahead of byelections next week in two Quebec ridings.
The Bloc's blood-oozing, bullet-riddled campaign posters suggest the pan-Canadian parties are one and the same when it comes to gun control.
McGill University political scientist Antonia Maioni says this is just the sort of emotional wedge issue the Bloc was looking to seize on, to boost its support.
Voters go to the polls Nov. 9 in the Montreal riding of Hochelaga and the riding of Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup in the Lower St. Lawrence region.
With files from The Canadian Press
