OTTAWA – Both the Liberals and Conservatives made last-minute pleas to the NDP to support their respective sides in the final debate on the long-gun registry ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
By virtually all accounts, the results are expected to be about 153-151 in favour of keeping the registry – if all MPs show up and vote as anticipated.
The expected razor-thin margin, and the prospect that a few MPs may abstain, prompted last-minute campaigning as both sides tried to shore up support.
"I’m asking that all members of this House vote against this motion. I’m asking that members from the NDP stand on principle, stand on what they have said to their constituents time after time again," Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, the bill’s sponsor, told the House during the debate.
Liberal MP Mark Holland, who introduced the motion to kill Hoeppner’s bill, said he hoped Wednesday’s vote would be a definitive end to a polarizing issue.
"This is a chance once and for all to explain to Canadians why we need the registry. Once and for all, put this debate to rest," he said.
"NDP votes will determine whether or not it goes through. This is a matter of principle. It’s imperative that all NDP members stand up and vote for something they know, as clear as day, works."
Joe Comartin, the NDP justice critic and a fervent supporter of the registry, sat alone on the NDP bench during much of the hour-long debate.
Still, he was adamant that the bill will be defeated Wednesday, primarily "because of the way the government has conducted themselves" in the lead-up to the vote. He suggested the Conservatives suppressed reports and attempted to discredit voices, such as the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, who support the registry.
All party leaders were absent from the debate in the House, as well as key NDP MPs such as Niki Ashton, Peter Stoffer, and Charlie Angus, and Liberal Yukon MP Larry Bagnell, all of whom previously supported the bill.
Earlier in the day, the effect of the long-gun registry on Canadian women played a central role as MPs prepared for a crucial vote in the Commons on whether to kill a Tory backbencher’s bill to abolish the database.
A coalition of women’s groups gathered on Parliament Hill to promote the registry as a lifesaver for women who suffer violence at the hands of their spouses, given that shotguns and rifles are the weapon of choice in spousal homicides.
"We support the long-gun registry as a public safety tool that makes women’s lives safer," said Ann Decter, a spokeswoman for the YWCA, the largest network of shelters in Canada.
"Women are saying clearly that dismantling the long-gun registry will not save the interests of women and children vulnerable to violence."
Female opposition MPs appealed to Parliamentarians who are still pondering their votes to consider the effect that dismantling the registry could have on abused women in their constituencies.
The RCMP, in a recent report on the registry, said that it is a valuable tool for police to tap when they respond to calls of domestic violence or potential suicides, and that knowing which guns are in the home permits police to confiscate them.
On the other side of the debate, three female hunters aligned themselves with Hoeppner, as she travelled to a farm in Carp. Ont., to spread her message that the long-gun registry is a waste of money, does nothing to stop crime and punishes law-abiding citizens.
Quebec hunter Helene Larente, who teaches other women to hunt, said the registry can in fact be harmful by making Canadians feel safe when they’re not.
"A gun registry gives people a false sense of security and it’s not true, it’s really false," she said. "It doesn’t change what goes on in criminals’ minds."
The Liberals attacked Hoeppner for saying in a CBC Radio interview Tuesday that the only defence police are able to come up with to support the long-gun registry is that it helps stop suicides and violence against women, not that it prevents crime.
"Candice Hoeppner thinks it’s okay to get rid of the life-saving gun registry, because in her mind, domestic violence committed with a firearm is a not a criminal activity," Mike O’Shaughnessy, a spokesman for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, wrote in an email distributed to reporters.
MPs are not voting on Hoeppner’s bill Wednesday, but rather on a motion from the Commons public safety committee to kill the proposed legislation. If the motion fails, a vote on the bill itself will be scheduled.
Her bill calls for scrapping the long-gun registry only, while maintaining licensing of gun owners and the hand-gun registry.
The bill passed handily in a preliminary vote last November, when 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals sided with the Conservatives.
This time around, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is whipping the vote to force MPs to toe the party line. NDP leader Jack Layton is permitting a free vote, but has convinced six of his 12 dissidents to publicly announce they will switch sides, giving the party the number it says is needed to preserve the registry.
The Conservatives have denounced the six New Democrats as turncoats and flip-floppers who will have to answer to their constituents.
"I think it’s pretty obvious if members of Parliament don’t keep their word, certainly, they answer for it," Hoeppner said. "And also, if they don’t keep their word on something they campaigned on for so many years, how can they be really trusted on any issue?"
With files from Meagan Fitzpatrick
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