Court to referee legal shootout over gun control:
Provincial, federal governments head to Alberta for appeal
The Ottawa Citizen
8 September 1997
Lawyers for four provinces ride into Edmonton today for a legal shootout with the federal government over the constitutionality of federal firearms laws.
Alberta, along with Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, will argue before the Alberta Court of Appeal that federal gun laws are unconstitutional because they involve civil rights and personal property, both of which fall under provincial jurisdiction.
The four provinces, backed by the two territories, the Shooting Federation of Canada and the Alberta Fish and Game Association, object to the new federal rules because they include the licensing and registering of firearms.
They say the laws will do little, if anything, to deter crime but everything to prejudice the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Ontario refuses to develop a gun registry until the Appeal Court rules.
The federal government, backed by the Coalition for Gun Control, the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, the cities of Toronto and Montreal and the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, will argue there is irrefutable proof that registration prevents death and injury.
Lawyers will argue the case before five judges. The hearing is expected to take at least a week.
The law requires that Canada's estimated seven million firearms, including hunting rifles and shotguns, be registered by 2003.
Only about 1.2 million handguns and other restricted weapons are currently registered. The government estimates registration will cost $85 million over five years.
''We have done all we can,'' says Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control. ''The Alberta government says that licensing and registration hasn't worked in other countries but we have experts from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom who say it does. ... The evidence is compelling that this is a good law and will improve public safety.''
David Tomlinson, president of the 100,000-member National Firearms Association, says the federal government is violating the Constitution with its firearms legislation.
''But when you take anything before five senior judges, it's a crapshoot,'' he said.
Mr. Tomlinson predicts years of legal challenges whichever side wins but, he says, the federal government might pause if the provinces win.
''The law is so badly written and so full of holes that they might be glad to see it go down the toilet.''
(Copyright The Ottawa Citizen)
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