BADDECK, NS – NDP Leader Jack Layton’s failure of leadership will allow the life-saving gun registry to be killed by his own MPs, Liberals said today.
“If gun control dies on September 22nd, it will be because Jack Layton and the NDP failed to show leadership today,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. “Mr. Layton refuses to acknowledge the responsibility his party will bear if the life-saving gun registry is scrapped, because today he chose to put politics before principle.”
Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland said Mr. Layton’s argument that he never whips a vote on a private member’s bill just doesn’t wash. Mr. Layton himself said just last week: “Let’s be absolutely clear where this initiative is coming from… This is coming directly from Mr. Harper, and it goes way back to the Reform days.” (Toronto Star, Aug. 29, 2010)
“Mr. Layton is not fooling anyone – everyone recognizes that Bill C-391 is a government bill disguised as a private member’s bill,” said Mr. Holland. “It has the full backing and resources of the Conservative Party, who have spent years trying to get rid of the gun registry.”
Under increasing pressure to save the gun registry, Mr. Layton announced last-ditch gun control legislation that won’t even be tabled before the gun registry is killed, unless Mr. Layton can rally enough NDP MPs to oppose the bill.
“Now Mr. Layton proposes to improve the gun registry after the NDP will have allowed it to be killed,” said Mr. Holland. “Mr. Layton’s eleventh-hour intervention is just window-dressing to disguise his refusal to show leadership and save the gun registry.”
Last April, in consultation with the Liberal rural caucus, police and victims groups, Michael Ignatieff proposed concrete measures to improve the gun registry: first-time failures to register firearms would be treated as a simple, non-criminal, ticketing offence, instead of a criminal offence; fees would be permanently eliminated; and the registration process would be made much simpler.
“Michael Ignatieff has already worked with Liberal caucus to bridge the gap between rural and urban concerns, but the difference is that he’s taken a principled leadership position in favour of saving the gun registry,” concluded Mr. Holland. “If Mr. Layton truly cared about the safety of Canadians and the work that our police officers do, why won’t he vote to support our proposals and work with us to improve the registry instead of allowing it to be scrapped?”
