Gun Bill passes Senate with ease

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Everyone said it was going to be a close race. They were wrong.

On November 22, after a final four hours of debate, nearly two-thirds of Canadian Senators voted in favor of Justice Minister Allan Rock's controversial gun control bill, without amendment.

That means starting next year, everyone who owns a gun will have seven years to get a new firearms license and register each of their weapons with the Canadian government.

It also means those who don't follow strict storage guidelines, those who lend their guns to someone else who doesn't have the right paperwork, will be breaking the law and could face harsh penalties under the Canadian Criminal Code.

Sixty-four of 99 senators voted for the gun bill, 28 voted against it and seven abstained, including senators Charlie Watt and Willie Adams, both from the predominantly Aboriginal ridings of Nunatsiaq in the Northwest Territories and Ungava in northern Quebec.

The bill will be proclaimed into Canadian law in sections over the next few months. A policy on how to implement certain sections which impact on Aboriginal people is being developed and should be submitted to the House of Commons within three months, said James Hayes from the federal Department of Justice.

That policy will address how the federal government plans to deal with subsistence hunters who are refused firearms licenses, hunters who cannot afford the fees, and hunters who speak Aboriginal languages, Hayes said.

Senators seemed resigned to passing the bill after they were divided over proposed amendments submitted by a Senate Committee.

Since June 22, the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs has had 24 meetings and heard from 140 witnesses who told senators why they should or should not pass the bill. Based on that testimony, committee members drafted 14 amendments to the proposed bill.

Those amendments included exemptions for Aboriginal peoples until the federal government could determine whether the gun law infringed on treaty or Aboriginal rights, delaying implementation of the bill in certain provinces and territories, and lowering the penalties for breaking the rules.

Justice Minister Allan Rock opposed the amendments saying they gutted the bill and rendered it useless.

Senators voted 46 in favor of the amendments and 53 against. The amendments then discarded, senators voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill.

The day following passage of the bill through the Senate, the justice department announced the creation of a one-woman, 14-man committee to advise the government of the development and implementation of the new firearms registration system.

It's called the User Group on Firearms and it includes five policemen, several hunters, outfitters and guides, firearms collectors and retailers, and sport shooters.

The group has roughly two years to come up with some advice on how to implement the new gun registration system. The government has set a Jan. 1, 1998 deadline to have the system fully up and running.

A news release from the justice department reports that licensing and registration will be phased in. Starting in 1996, gun owners will have five years to get new firearms licenses (to replace their old firearms acquisition certificates). Then, from 1998 to 2003, gun owners will have to get each of their guns registered.

Justice Minister Rock predicts the registration system will cost $85 million but opponents say that figure is way too low.

Here is what some senators had to say about the gun control bill before voting on it November 22, 1995.

"We are a patchwork of cultures across this country, and some groups such as trappers, hunters, farmers and Aboriginal people have argued quite convincingly that this legislation runs counter to their lifestyle. I think they have a point. However, this legislation will prove to be nothing more than an inconvenience to those groups."

- Senator Janis Johnson

"The duty of Parliament is not to say that this legislation isinconvenient to our Aboriginal peoples; the issue is much deeper, and it does a disservice to the Aboriginal people and to our history to say that, to them, it is simply inconvenient legislation.

- Senator A. Raynell Andreychuk

"Look at the Application for Registration forms with the 20 questions. This was another issue that was raised at the hearings. A Native chief from Kamloops said, 'I hate to tell you this, but there are many in my tribe who cannot read or write,'"

- Senator Edward M. Lawson

"Why should Aboriginal peoples have to waste their money, and taxpayer's money, in litigating to have parts of this bill struck down by the courts when their rights have already been recognized in constitutionally protected agreements?"

- Senator Charlie Watt

"The Aboriginal people are asking only for consultation. They are saying, 'We have a way of life here which is different from yours in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. We have a way of life which is essential to us. To us, a rifle is a tool. It is an essential defensive weapon. We are law-abiding citizens."

- Senator John Lynch-Staunton