Yesterday's gun registry morons today

In response to Jack Layton's commitment to do nothing useful to protect the long gun registry yesterday, Canada's cop hating, radical gun lobby put out a press release.

Lobby groups, even unregistered ones, putting out press releases on something they feel strongly about isn't really news.  It's what they do.

But this one is remarkable for what it doesn't include.

Jack Layton's attempt at compromise includes empowering municipal government to ban handguns.

As a matter of faith, the gun lobby believes that gun registration is always implemented to support gun bans and confiscation. 

For some reason, however, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association's (CSSA) response to Jack Layton ignores the proposed gun ban.

CSSA used to have strong views on gun bans.  Why nothing now?

There are really only three possibilities:

1) The press release was approved before Jack Layton actually started his press conference.

2) The CSSA didn't actually read the NDP plan before they issued the press release.

3) The CSSA's PMO handler told them not to mention the gun ban.

Two of the three options suggest incompetence.  The other, a willing conspiracy.

Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Jack Layton has a plan to fix the gun registry.

And it's not a bad plan.

In fact, it looks very much like the plan that Michael Ignatieff proposed well before the summer.

A press availability as ill-advised as Andy Scott's post-Proctor-airplane scrum

Jack Layton, however, seems to have missed a step.

Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal caucus understand that the long gun registry can only be fixed if it is not defeated.

That is why Liberal MPs will vote unanimously to defeat the Harper Tory government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry.

But Layton must lack confidence in his proposal.

He still won't whip NDP MPs to save the long gun registry.

It's not about protecting Private Members' Buisness anymore

Jack Layton's counting on an ad hoc coalition of Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Gilles Duceppe and Garry Breitkeuz to take the vote out of his MPs hands.

Without unanimous consent of all MPs - the House of Commons' very own notwithstanding clause - to block the vote on Mark Holland's motion to kill the bill, NDP MPs will have to line up on one side or the other of the gun registry.

If Holland's motion is defeated, the NDP then will have to chose between emabling Stephen Harper and protecting vulnerable Canadians.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn

It's ironic that a the leader of a party that claims to be protecting private members' business by refusing to protect vulnerable women and children would propose a scheme only works if a back room deal to strip his MPs of their vote on the future of the gun registry is agreed.

Without the whip, it's the only way Layton's poorly thought out scheme could possibly work.

Even the Red Deer Advocate...

I don't think that the Red Deer Advocate has ever had a nice thing to say about the long gun registry.

Not until this week that is.

The long-gun registry, once an expensive boondoggle, has evolved into a cost-effective, efficient and important tool for law enforcement and health-care professionals.

The common man would do well to take a closer look at their evidence instead of listening to a government that claims that protecting our safety is a priority, yet acts counter to it.

Methinks the NDP doth protest too much

We've always liked NDP MP Joe Comartin.

As a Parliamentarian, he treats allies and opponents with respect.  At committee, he asks questions based on the witnesses' actual testimony not the traps or preconceived notions so common on the Harper Tory side of the room.

A a New Democrat, Joe has always seemed to operate from within his party's social justice conscience tradition.

That's why we were so surprised and disappointed to see Joe's letter to the editor in the Ottawa Citizen today.

We'll give Joe this.

It was wrong for the Citizen to include his photo with the 12 NDP MPs who voted for the Harper Tory government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry.  Joe has been a consistent support in public and, presumably, within the closed doors of the NDP caucus room.

But the political screed that follows is shockingly out of character for Joe:

Jack Layton is the only national leader working to bridge the genuine cultural divides between urban and rural Canada, even as Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper continue to play cynical wedge politics with the safety of our communities.

Jack Layton is the only national leader who is trying to position his party on both sides of this issue. Layton claims that he is for the long gun registry, but despite repeated calls for "a vigorous public safety regime capable of empowering our valiant police services to effectively protect the Canadian public and themselves" from within the NDP and beyond, Layton won't take the steps necessary to ensure that this Conservative Party election promise meets the end it deserves.

Even Tories know that is is the last chance for the Harper Tory Government to repeal this valuable protection for vulnerable women and children. Dave MacKenzie, Parliamentary Secretary to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, told his local newspaper:

If that (private member's bill) fails, I would suggest ... it doesn't make sense for another bill to come forward at this time

Jack Layton has a choice

He could whip the vote to stop the Harper Tories' cynical abuse of Private Members' Business to advance a government initiative.

He could whip the vote to protest the Harper Tory government's apparent unwillingness to allow Parliamentarians timely access to the information they need to make informed decisions about the long gun registry.

He could just do the right thing and whip the vote.

Or Jack Layton could let Stephen Harper win.

What if an MP went on a junket and her hosts didn't even notice?

It is as if Candice Hoeppner wasn't in Taiwan at all.

And to think that she passed up a chance to fight for her fake private member's bill to scrap the long gun registry all for a big fat official nothing.

Here a Tory MP on a junket, there a Tory MP on a junket, everywhere a Tory MP on a junket

So why wasn't Candice Hoeppner, the erstwhile proponent Harper government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry, around while the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police debated her bill?  It wasn't as if the CACP conference should have come as a complete surprise.  It is always held at the end of August.

The fans of irony at this blog hoped, oh God how we hoped, that Hoeppner had gone off on French language training.

Alas, it was not to be.

She was on a junket to Taiwan.  But that's OK, she's just not that into "her" bill.

And anyhow, the government already had another PMO-approved spokesperson in place to defend its Throne Speech endorsed initiative.

One day, we hope, Jack Layton will realize this is just a government bill in a blonde drag wig.

Everybody else does.

On Jack Layton's gun registry non-stand: Ignatieff calls it as Canadians see it

Penticton Western News
August 24, 2010

He didn't stop at Harper, as he also took aim at NDP leader Jack Layton, saying "asking Jack Layton to show leadership is sometimes a bit of a stretch, but we live in hope," when speaking about issues surrounding the gun registry.

Ignatieff also put past rumours of his openness to work with other parties to overtake Harper's government to rest as he said, "I feel very strongly on running to win a Liberal government," when asked about a coalition.

However, not before saying, "Let's make it clear on issues like gun control and maintaining the registry, I think Jack has chickened out."

Even in rural Canada, police use the long gun registry to make tactical decisions

In October 2009, Camrose police identified a suspect in a drug store robbery.

Doing what lawyers would call due diligence, Camrose police checked the gun registry to see whether they might encounter firearms at the suspect's home and what of kind firearms there could be:

After discovering their suspect had several guns registered to him, Camrose police decided to call in the RCMP Emergency Response Team, Foreman said.

So what kind of guns did the now holed up suspect have?

A Camrose man allegedly fired more than 30 rounds from a high-powered rifle at police during a day-long standoff that ended yesterday evening with the man shooting himself in the chest.

That's right. He had a rifle. Buddy was shooting at cops with a long gun.

And knowing what kind of firepower he had access to gave the Camrose Police the information they needed to plan their response more effectively.

The long gun registry gave them that information.

Long gun registry information used in urban Canada too

When a man with a long gun walked into the Workers Compensation Board building in downtown Edmonton last year, fired off a shot and took workers hostage, police ran his name through the national firearms registry to learn what firepower he was carrying.

Edmonton police Supt. Brad Doucette said the registry told them the likely type of weapon, and they cleared every street corner in range as a precaution.

A clear choice

Stephen Harper doesn't think that police responding to potentially armed stand offs need to know what kind of rifle a holed up suspect has access to.

And, despite the fact that the ammunition used in many common hunting rifles will penetrate a police officer's bulletproof vest, Jack Layton won't whip NDP MPs to vote against the Harper government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry.

Refusing to whip his caucus, Jack Layton is putting cops' lives at risk.

A maroon indeed.

Not charged with illegal possession of firearms

Could this cop shooter be one of those law abiding firearms owners we keep hearing about?

Or this distraught Albertan?

Maybe it's just an Alberta thing.

But we doubt it.

Debunking the notion that firearm registration doesn't help police solve crime

From the Vancouver Police Department's August 2010 report "Missing Women Investigation Review" into the investigation of the Pickton pig farm murders.

On February 4th, 2002, the Missing Women investigation took a dramatic turn. A junior Coquitlam RCMP member, Constable Nathan Wells, obtained a search warrant for the Pickton farm based on an informant’s information that Pickton was in possession of an illegal firearm. Because Pickton was entered on CPIC as a person of interest to the JFO, Constable Wells advised the JFO of his information and invited JFO investigators to attend while he executed the search warrant the next day.

The JFO was not then targeting Pickton, but it was agreed JFO investigators would wait near the property while it was searched. During the search for the firearm, the investigators observed a piece of identification and an inhaler belonging to two of the Missing Women. As a result, the JFO investigators were called on to the property. The weapons search was suspended and the property was sealed off. JFO investigators began work on a warrant to search for evidence related to the murder of the Missing Women, which was executed the next day.

Later in the report, VPD writes:

Had this serendipitous investigation not occurred, a person who may become Canada's, and North America's, most notorious serial killer may have escaped undetected.

And they wouldn't have had that luck without a tool that helps police tell registered, legally owned firearms from illegal ones.

Jack Layton putting Tories before vulnerable women and children

As we noted yesterday, Jack Layton has decreed that Canadians should not blame the NDP if NDP MPs give Stephen Harper the votes required to repeal the long gun registry.

He apparently did so without the slightest hint of irony.

His decision, or more accurately capitulation, puts the lives of vulnerable women and children at further risk.

Ann Decter of YWCA Canada wrote a blog piece that everybody concerned about Layton's leadership failure should read.

For YWCA Canada, the nation's largest single provider of shelter for women and children fleeing violence, gun control has always been about women's safety. The long gun registry is clearly a public safety tool. Saving it is saving lives.

Despite this, Jack Layton still won't whip the long gun registry vote.

The old Jack Layton would not have stood for such translucent stupidity.

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"

The day that Jack Layton jumped the shark

Jack Layton says that Canadians should not blame the NDP if NDP MPs help Stephen Harper repeal the long gun registry.

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"

Let's get this straight

Stephen Harper is the leader of a minority government. He doesn't control the votes necessary to repeal the long gun registry.

Recognizing that reality, the Harper Tories thought that maybe - if the other parties weren't really paying attention - they could fool the opposition and pass a government initiative that even Jack Layton knows "goes way back to the Reform days" as a private member's bill.

So they found a Conservative MP to introduce one.

The BQ figured the game out quickly and unanimously opposed repeal at second reading.  No fools there.

The Liberal Party and the NDP weren't that observant.  Opposition votes advanced Bill C-391 to committee study.

Belatedly, Michael Ignatieff caught on, found some changes that were acceptable to the Liberal caucus and Canadians, and announced that subsequent long gun registry votes would be whipped in the interests of vulnerable women and children.

That leaves the NDP

When the Bill comes back to the House of Commons in September, either enough NDP MPs vote to defeat repeal or it passes.

It really is that simple.

Jack Layton says we shouldn't blame the NDP if the House of Commons puts vulnerable women and children at further risk.

You know what?

He's right.  We blame Jack Layton.

Jack Layton claims to be a leader.

Yet on this issue, he's failing vulnerable Canadians.

Layton must whip this vote or he should turn in his white ribbon.  There are no other options.

And then, the NDP needs to find a real leader who will put vulnerable Canadians first.

What if the Tories had a gun rally and no one showed up?

On August 11, Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner launched her party's most recent anti-gun control campaign in the riding of NDP MP Niki Ashton.

Ashton was one of twelve NDP MPs to vote against vulnerable women and children by supporting the Harper government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry.

A meeting was held

Hoeppner, along with much of the Manitoba Harper Tory caucus, hosted their gun registry meeting at Thompson's Chicken Chef restaurant.

Restaurant staff told the Thompson Citizen that the anti-gun registry event drew more or less nobody other than the out of town politicians.

Even the Harper Tories recognized their failure.  They left the Chicken Chef after a little over an hour of the scheduled three-hour event.

To summarize

The spokesperson for Harper government's initiative to repeal the long gun registry went into an NDP riding to hold a meeting on her bill.

Demonstrating the large and passionate level of opposition to the long gun registry in this NDP riding, more or less nobody showed up to hear from the MP or any other Manitoba Harper Tory MP.

Aware of their failure, the Harper Tories fled Thompson early with their tails between their legs.

But still, Jack Layton is prepared to give Stephen Harper another win by refusing to whip NDP MPs to protect vulnerable women and children.

In Ottawa, an unfortunate pattern of behaviour reveals itself again

The removal of the head of the Canadian Firearms Program reveals an unfortunate pattern of behaviour.

On a visit to Nova Scotia today, Prime Minster Harper was clear. "This government strongly favours the abolition of the long-gun registry," he explained.

Unwilling to waste precious time from the government's legislative timetable, however, repeal of the long gun registry has been punted to a backbench MP advancing a private member's bill to implement this government policy.

But it's not really a private member's bill

Private member's legislation doesn't usually come with Conservative Party radio ads.

Private member's legislation doesn't usually come with campaign websites "Authorized by the Registered Agent of the Conservative Party of Canada."

Liberal MP Keith Martin understands what the Conservative Party is up to:

«Ne vous y méprenez pas, la tournée de Mme Hoeppner est une tournée politique pour pouvoir amasser de l'appui pour le Parti conservateur. C'est tout ce que c'est. Et elle se sert du registre des armes à feu comme outil», a martelé M. Martin, en entrevue téléphonique.

It's up to the NDP

Michael Ignatieff has announced that Liberal MPs will be whipped to protect this valuable public safety initiative.

Despite overwhelming evidence that the legislation before Parliament is a nothing more than a government bill in a five and dime store wig, Jack Layton still refuses to do the right thing.

That refusal complicates the life of NDP Justice critic Joe Comartin.

That refusal frustrates New Democrats.

That refusal put the lives on vulnerable women and children on the line.

And that is truly unfortunate.

Isn't that interesting?

Smuggled cop killer pistol seized at Alberta border crossing.