CANADIAN SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION / CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 4, 2011
Quebec Premier Charest has flip-flopped on gun registry
Former Conservative leader who fought federal registry now embracing provincial equivalent?
The same party leader who slammed the Liberals long-gun registry proposal in the mid-1990s is now telling the media he wants to have the data for his very own.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest is criticizing the current federal Conservative government for its plans to delete the corrupt data from the outdated and infirm long-gun registry. Charest says he may have plans to create his own registry in Quebec, even though he chastised the Chrétien Liberals for creating it in the first place.
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association is charging Charest with self-serving political expediency to win votes in Quebec at any cost.
"This is the flip-flop of the century," says Tony Bernardo, executive director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action. "It appears Mr. Charest will say anything to anybody to garner public support. Has he forgotten all those stories in the media from the mid-'90s that quote him criticizing a long-gun registry? He is acting like he thinks the press clipping archive caught fire. I'm sure he wishes that data was deleted."
Media accounts from 1995 and 1996 show Charest railing against the Liberal gun registry and threatening to use the Conservative-dominated Senate to stall or amend the legislation. He was the scourge of the anti-firearms lobby and various victims' groups of the day, many of which are still active. With the exception of the Charest flip-flop, much of the 15-year-old news coverage bears a striking resemblance to present-day media accounts.
"The premier's notion to create a provincial registry is pure folly," say Bernardo. "Even the federal Liberals have now come clean on the horrific $2 billion price tag for a registry that isn't even half finished. We can only caution the good people of Quebec not to take Charest's bait. If they do, they will get the government and looming black hole of debt they deserve.
"A provincial registry could easily make the debt from the Montreal Olympics look like loose change, and they will have nothing to show for it," he adds. "Charest knew back in 1995 that the registry was a useless solution for solving crime. He said so publicly many times. There is only one type of person who does a desperate about-face on something so important – it's a politician in trouble at the polls."
Here are just a few examples of Charest's past media coverage on the gun registry:
* Tory leader Jean Charest says westerners will flout any attempts to force gun owners to register their weapons. He predicts that if gun control legislation passes, enforcement of a national gun registry may be "very lax'" in Manitoba and other provinces. Charest told a Winnipeg audience yesterday he'll oppose the bill when it comes to a final Commons vote next month. --Broadcast News, May 24, 1995
* "The gun registry won't work." -- Jean Charest, Canadian Press Newswire, May 24, 1995
* The House of Commons gave approval in principle to new gun controls in April, by a 120-vote majority. Charest, who was absent from the earlier debate, said he'll oppose the bill when it comes to a final vote in June. -- Canadian Press Newswire, May 24, 1995
* Alberta -- backed by Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the two territories – is challenging key provisions in the law requiring that all guns be registered. Alberta says gun registration is an intrusion on the lives of law-abiding Canadians. And Jean Charest's Progressive Conservative party adopted a resolution at its August convention to scrap gun control... Charest maintains that 90 per cent of weapons used during crimes are illegal weapons, making registration of rifles and shotguns useless... -- The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, December 5, 1996
The CSSA maintains that the only thing that has changed since Charest's comments in the mid-'90s is the ample proof available now that the long-gun registry was never intended to save lives.
"We knew the registry could never work from the very beginning," explains Bernardo. "Now we've had a chance to witness the complete and utter registry failure. The only people who argue to retain it are charged by emotion and still believe it's some kind of gun control. Responsible firearms owners don't want anyone harmed by guns either, but we know the registry doesn't address that. It was a federal Liberal pacifier, and it is demoralizing to think it could someday become a provincial Liberal pacifier. Given Jean Charest's track record as a rational thinker on the registry, we are dumbfounded."
-30-
For further information contact:
Tony Bernardo
Executive Director
Canadian Institute for Legislative Action / Canadian Shooting Sports Association
abernardo343@rogers.com905-571-2150
Connexion
Inscription
FAQ
Rechercher
