ONTARIO
NOT PROSECUTING GUN REGISTRY LAW
BROCKVILLE _ The Ontario government
will not prosecute citizens charged with failing
to register their long guns under the federal
Firearms Act, Norm Sterling, the Attorney General
repeated Tuesday.
Bob Runciman, Leeds-Grenville MPP,
revealed weeks ago the province had no intention
of prosecuting cases under gun registry law.
He described the gun registry as
“an unbelievably offensive waste of taxpayers
dollars, a sinkhole that provides little or no
public safety benefits.”
In his announcement Tuesday, Sterling
said if Ottawa wants to prosecute this “misdirected
law” then it should fall to federal prosecutors.
This is the same position taken by provincial
governments in Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan
and Alberta.
Runciman’s opposition to the
gun registry began when the law was first introduced.
He spoke out against the law then and his predictions
have proven true as the cost of administration
is already at $1 billion and is expected to reach
$2 billion within five years. When the law was
introduced, the Liberal government pegged the
cost at $2 million.
This year he organized a petition
demanding the federal government repeal the law
and more than 12,000 names were collected. The
petition was filed with the federal government.
“There are many things the
federal government can use this money for to prevent
crime,” said Runciman.
“Instead of developing and
implementing an effective sex offender registry
to help track down child killers and prevent future
attacks, they’ve focused on law-abiding
Canadians and have wasted millions of taxpayers
dollars in the process,” said Runciman.
Runciman said it boggles the mind
that there is so much that can and must be done
by the federal government to protect citizens
and instead it focuses its efforts on a law that
costs millions of dollars and produces no benefits.
“It’s incredible that
provincial Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty and
his gang support this registry,” he added.
“The only thing is, he can’t explain
why.”
Like the other provinces, Ontario
will act on gun charges under the Criminal Code
but not the Firearms Act. The federal government
requires that long-gun owners have their guns
registered on July 1 or face the possibility of
legal action.
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