WATCH: It didn’t take long for people of all stripes to weigh in after this week’s police shooting, many grasping for answers. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — Mayor Don Iveson addressed police deaths involving guns Wednesday, while Canada’s justice minister stood firm on the decision to dissolve the federal gun registry.
Many councillors, including Iveson, wore blue ribbons to the council meeting, to show support for the Edmonton Police Service and fallen Const. Daniel Woodall.
The 35-year-old EPS member was one of several police officers who went to an Ormsby Place home Monday evening to execute an arrest warrant for 42-year-old Norman Raddatz.
Woodall, a member of the hate crimes unit, was fatally shot. Sgt. Jason Harley, a southwest division patrol member, was shot in the lower back, but was wearing body armour and is expected to make a full recovery.
READ MORE: Edmonton police Const. Daniel Woodall, 35, killed in west-end shooting
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, council observed a moment of silence.
When the meeting began, Iveson noted 10 Edmonton police officers have died on duty. Six of them died from natural causes or accidents, he said.
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“But now, four have been murdered. All by guns. I want to make sure that we remember all of them.”
Then he read out their names:
“I just noted a fact,” said Iveson afterwards. “That the four police officers who’ve been murdered in the line of duty all happened to be killed with guns. That’s just a fact; no other editorializing.”
It was the second time since Monday’s shooting that Iveson expressed his concern about gun violence against police.
“I do have a concern with gun violence and I will say that the loss of the gun registry may be related to this,” he said at a Tuesday news conference.
“I think every opportunity our police have to have knowledge of where firearms are in this city would be to their advantage and the chiefs of police have been consistent on that. But notwithstanding that, this is a safe city in no small part because of the service our police members provide everyday to protect all of us.”
He later apologized for bringing up the issue so quickly after Woodall’s death.
The federal justice minister said it was “ill-timed,” “unhelpful” and “absurd” for Iveson to link the end of the gun registry to Woodall’s death.
On Wednesday, following Question Period, he defended his position.
“But more to the point, the gun registry has been an abysmal failure.
“There’s never been any nexus made between asking law-abiding citizens to participate in a registry that criminals won’t to saving lives. That’s why it didn’t work. That’s why it was a waste of money, and that’s why we got rid of the gun registry.”
On Wednesday, the mayor said starting any further debate over the federal gun registry is up to Canadians.
“That’s for Canadians to decide and Canadians to ask of decision-makers.”
Iveson said he won’t talk about the issue anymore.
“I think the focus for all of us has to be on compassion for the family and what they’re going through.”
READ MORE: How to show your support for Woodall family, Edmonton police
Iveson’s comments on Tuesday came at a particularly sensitive time for the Harper government, which is rushing through an overhaul of gun licencing and transportation rules before an expected fall election.
READ MORE: Bill casts veil of secrecy over long gun registry’s destruction
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, testifying at a Senate committee, called Bill C-42 the first substantive change to Canada’s firearms regime in 20 years.
Blaney said the Harper government is working with the firearms community to strike a balance between what he calls streamlining firearms paperwork and ensuring public safety.
The public safety minister said he was shocked by the tragedy in Edmonton, which he described as a cold-blooded murder by a member of a right-wing extremist group.
When Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht was asked Tuesday about the suggestion that Raddatz was somehow connected to Freeman-on-the-Land, he replied, “We have absolutely no information to that extent.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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