NDPer would decriminalize failure to register long guns

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This article was published 08/10/2010 (5767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A New Democrat who formerly opposed the federal long-gun registry will table a private member’s bill Friday that he hopes will make the database more palatable to rural Canadians by decriminalizing failure to sign up.

Charlie Angus, MP for Timmins-James Bay in northern Ontario, was among six New Democrats who helped save the gun registry by withdrawing their support last month for a Conservative backbencher’s bill to scrap it.

Angus said Thursday that his bill “finds common ground” between supporters and foes, who have been locked in a polarized debate for 15 years over the effectiveness of the gun registry.

The bill, however, is not near the top of the queue for private members’ bills and NDP spokesman George Soule predicted there is little chance it will make it through the Parliamentary process before a federal election call, which could happen within the next year.

Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner’s bill to kill the gun registry was defeated two weeks ago by a narrow 153-151 vote, after passing handily in a preliminary vote last November. Eight Liberals and six New Democrats who supported her the first time around switched sides.

NDP leader Jack Layton, in the hope of preserving the registry, convinced half of his rural caucus to change their votes by coming up with a counter-plan to “fix” the registry. He promised a private member’s bill that would let first-time offenders off with a warning, and second-time offenders would get a ticket under the little-used federal Contraventions Act, in which fines of up to $500 can be imposed for failing to comply with minor, non-criminal violations to federal law.

As it stands, it is a criminal offence to fail to register a long gun.

The current maximum penalty is a $2,000 fine and six months in jail. However, a Conservative government amnesty against prosecution for failing to register long guns has been in place since 2006.

The NDP bill also proposes to make registration free, streamline the process and protect aboriginal treaty rights.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has rebuffed opposition calls to sign on to a plan to make the registry less cumbersome for long-gun owners, saying that the Conservatives will continue their long fight to eliminate it.

 

— Postmedia News