Establishing motive

Why are the Harper Tories hell bent on destroying data from the life saving long gun registry?

A high profile Toronto lawyer thinks he knows why:

It's like throwing a bomb into a crime lab because they didn't want any evidence left there.

We couldn't have said it any better.

An imbalance of outcomes

Gun lobby vs. shooting victims

When actions speak larger than words

Ten days ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was eagerly criticizing NDP leadership Thomas Mulcair over his French citizenship.  The Prime Minister emphasized his Canada-first and always patriotism.

In my case, as I say, I'm very clear. I'm a Canadian and only a Canadian.

If the Prime Minister thinks that being Canadian is important, he has a funny way of showing it.

Yesterday, he launched the Conservative government's attack on retirement security for Canadians ... in a speech in Switzerland.

That lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.

And that je ne sais quoi starts with the letter "c".

The sum of some

Earlier today, federal, provincial and territorial justice and public safety ministers finished their annual meeting in Charlottetown.

Among the items under discussion, was Quebec's request that the Harper Tory government transfer data from the life saving long gun registry to provinces wishing to establish their own.

According to the agreed press release, some jurisdictions supported the request.  In common usage, some is generally more than one.

We already know that Alberta supports Quebec's request. Premier Redford said so.

But we sure would like to know who the rest of "some" is.

Making it up as they go

In 2009, the Harper Tories had a clear plan to replace the long gun registry with something that could work:

We want to return to the better system of having retailers record their sales of non-restricted weapons instead of having to register them with the long-gun registry.
- Guy Lauzon, MP (Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry)

We want to return to the better system of having retailers record their sales of non-restricted weapons instead of having to register them with the long-gun registry.
- Tim Uppal, MP (Edmonton-Sherwood Park)

We want to return to the better system of having retailers record their sales of non-restricted weapons instead of having to register them with the long-gun registry.
-Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls)

Etc.

So what happened?

And why.

Everybody knows that goalies are special

Anybody who follows hockey knows that good goaltenders sometimes live in their own world.

Boston Bruins star goaltender Tim Thomas reinforced that image with his refusal to join his teammates in the celebration of the Bruins Stanley Cup victory at the White House.

Frankly, we don't care if Thomas would rather go to Burger King than the White House.

But the thought of the Bell Centre (or any other NHL arena) full of fans in Obama masks on a Bruins game night just leaves us giggling.

Harper Tories release suppressed gun control report: Report leaves more questions than answers

Five days after the Minister of Public Safety tabled the overdue 2010 report of the Commissioner of Firearms, the government finally got around to providing it to the rest of the country.

Sensible Canadians should be concerned that the report took so long to be made available.

Judging from it's contents, preparation was only partly responsible for the delay.

We only need to turn to the first page to get a sense of when the report was completed and ready to be tabled in Parliament.

The signature found on the bottom of that page belongs to now former RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott.  As everybody knows, Elliott was replaced on November 21, 2011 by Bob Paulson.

The Elliott signature block means that the 2010 Commissioner's Report was - at the very latest - finalized in November 2011.

Yet for whatever reason, it was not released until late January 2012.

Why was it not released immediately?

Is it because the House of Commons Public Safety committee had not finished its review of the Harper Tory (and certain New Democrats) supported bill to repeal the life saving long gun registry?

We certainly think so.

The law requires the Commissioner's report to be tabled in Parliament within 15 sitting days of when it is received by the Minister of Public Safety.

Even if the final report was provided to the Harper government on signatory Bill Ellliot's last full business day as Commissioner of the RCMP (November 18, 2011), the tabling deadline would still have been last year, December 9 to be exact.

As we have lamented previously, if ever there was a case for mandatory minimum penalties...

Now this is interesting

We suspect that some of our readers will be upset that the UFC has banned gun ads.

Others, we suspect, just won't care.

Harper Tories still suppressing critical firearms reports

Two months ago, we wrote about the Harper Tory government's penchant for suppressing RCMP reports on the life saving long gun registry.

At the time, the House of Commons Public Safety committee was studying the most recent long gun registry repeal bill and another favourable report would have again undermined the credibility on the government's anti-registry talking points.

Earlier today, our attention was drawn to the fact that the 2010 Firearms Commissioner's Report was tabled (House of Commons rules allow for documents to be tabled on certain days when the House is not sitting) yesterday.

It was available at the Library of Parliament today.

But more than a day after it was tabled, this public document is still not available to the public.

No report. No press release. No mention at all.

Some habits die hard.

Alberta supports Quebec long gun registry

Last week while we were busy doing other things, Alberta Premier Alison Redford visited Quebec.

Over the course of the visit, the Premier was asked about her views on the life saving long gun registry.

Redford told reporters that she respects Quebec's decision to establish its own long gun registry and does not oppose transfer of registry data from the federal government to those provinces that want to do so.

This will make some of our readers very angry.

Very angry indeed.

Heh. Heh. Heh.