Canadian police association may withdraw support for gun registry at N.S. convention

REGINA (CP) – There’s a good chance the Canadian Police Association
will withdraw its support for the federal government’s controversial gun
registry, says a police spokesman. An Alberta delegation is expected to
present a motion calling on the association to reverse its position at
the group’s annual convention in Halifax next week, Bernie Eiswirth,
president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers, said
Thursday.
The federation is a provincial chapter of the national group. When
the association held its convention in Regina last year, delegates from
Saskatchewan introduced a resolution calling on the group to withdraw its
support for the gun registry. That resolution prompted a lively debate,
although it was ultimately defeated. But Eiswirth says there is a good
chance delegates will feel differently this year.
“I think this time the motion will pass,” said Eiswirth, a sergeant
with the Regina Police Service. He said he believes delegates in a number
of provinces, including Manitoba and B.C., may revise their previous
positions and come out against the gun registry. There was already quite
a bit of support last year from police officers in Ontario for a
resolution withdrawing support for the registry, he said.
The Firearms Act, passed by Parliament in 1995 to protect Canadians,
requires that gun owners get licences by the end of this year, and
register each firearm owned by Jan. 1, 2003.
Eiswirth said he is concerned that many otherwise law-abiding
Saskatchewan residents will become law-breakers because they will refuse
to register their rifles and shotguns. “Whenever the government puts a
law in place to target law-abiding citizens it is a problem,” he said.
Many rural municipalities, hunters and residents have come out
against the gun registry in Saskatchewan, as has the provincial
government. And Eiswirth said he is still hoping the federal government
will rethink the legislation. The gun registry law will be expensive and
bureaucratic to enforce and of little value in reducing violent crime,
Eiswirth said. “We just don’t feel it’s necessary,” he added. Police
officers attending the Halifax meeting may also discuss a national
strategy to combat organized crime, Eiswirth said.
The issue of sentencing, particularly as it relates to first-degree
murder, is also expected to be a topic.
(Regina Leader-Post)