LONG GUN REGISTRY AMENDMENT: DATA TO QUEBEC

The bill previously mentioned that looked to amend the Ending the Long Gun Registry Act has been tabled. It does not institute nor re-open the topic of a federal long gun registry.

Its core purpose is to end the Quebec-based lawsuits being waged over the now long-defunct registry data that had, under the Harper Conservatives, been ordered destroyed. Unfortunately it ends those lawsuits by acquiescing to those in Quebec that have been pursuing the data as the starting point for a provincial registry:

"The Commissioner of Firearms shall — for the purpose of the administration and enforcement of the Firearms Registration Act, chapter 15 of the Statutes of Quebec, 2016 — provide the Quebec Minister with a copy of all records that were in the Canadian Firearms Registry on April 3, 2015 and that relate to firearms registered, as at that day, as non-restricted firearms, if the Quebec Minister provides the Commissioner with a written request to that effect before the end of the 120th day after the day on which the Commissioner sends written notice under subsection"

Interestingly, the law does not seem to include any restrictions on the data being produced, meaning the Quebec government may have unencumbered access to all federal long gun registry data including records relating to firearms registered in other provinces. Of course, the Conservative government reported that all other provincial data was destroyed, but nonetheless this obviously re-opens a significant privacy concern. Millions of records will be transferred to a provincial entity, meaning there may essentially be a duplicate registry in existence that may become compromised.

The logic of a provincial firearms registry makes about as much sense as filing lawsuits to obtain registry records that are now over two years out of date, and thus, entirely unreliable. With uncontrolled borders, and no way to enforce firearms transportation nor shipping between the rest of Canada and Quebec, the idea of a provincial government trying to enforce a long gun registry is, in a word, ridiculous. But will the Quebec government realize their costly mistake in time?

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