Polytechnique students fight for long-gun registry

MONTREAL – A provincially administered long-gun registry established in case the federal registry is abolished would be "better than nothing," a spokesperson for Polytechnique Students and Graduates for Gun Control said Monday.

But Heidi Rathjen, who survived the École Polytechnique massacre 22 years ago that left 14 female students dead and 13 others wounded, said the most effective means of controlling firearms in Canada would be for the nationwide registry to be maintained.

"Gun control should be at the federal level," she said. "You’ve seen what’s happened in the United States where they have piecemeal laws from state to state.

"We’re not giving up on the federal registry and we’re still going to fight for it. But as a last resort, (a provincial registry) would still have some benefits, but there would also be a lot of problems."

Quebec Public Security Minister Robert Dutil has said provincial bureaucrats have been assigned to work on a "Plan B" in the event the federal Conservative government scraps the 16-year-old long-gun registry.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has maintained that the registry is wasteful, ineffective and punishes law abiding gun owners. Quebec has been equally consistent in taking the opposite tack, contending the registry has reduced the number of gun deaths through murder and suicide.

Dutil said the best solution would be for Ottawa to leave the registry alone. But if it is voted out of existence, Quebec would seek the power from the federal government to create its own database of long-gun owners, he said.

The minister repeated that the most effective registry would be nationwide, as firearms circulate freely from province to province.

Michael Patton, a spokesperson for federal Public Security Minister Vic Toews, said Monday that Quebec or any other province is free to establish its own gun registry "within their jurisdictions."

Patton said, however, that for reasons of privacy, records held by the Canadian Firearms Program would not be shared with provinces.

Patton suggested that Dutil’s "Plan B" might have to be put into effect sooner rather than later.

"Canadians gave our government a strong mandate to end the long-gun registry once and for all and that is exactly what we intend to do," he said.

Supporters of the contentious registry include the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which says it’s essential to officers who use it thousands of times a day.

In September, the registry survived a 153-151 vote in the House of Commons on a private member’s bill seeking to kill the program under a minority government. The Tories won a majority in the May 2 federal election.