Liberal MPs are demanding the immediate reinstatement of the Director General of the Canadian Firearms Program after the Harper Conservatives ousted him for making the gun registry a model in police protection.
“Chief Supt. Cheliak is being punished by the Conservatives for protecting police with an effective firearms program,” said Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland. “We are demanding that Mr. Harper reinstate Chief Supt. Cheliak immediately.
“It’s no coincidence that, just as Parliament is about to resume battle over the Hoeppner bill and as Conservative MPs crisscross Canada to raise funds for the gun lobby, Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak has been sent packing by the Harper government, only 9 months into his position, for supporting the long-gun registry and promoting its effectiveness alongside Canada’s chiefs of police.”
Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s private members’ bill C-391 to scrap the registry will be debated and voted on next month, and she has been visiting a dozen ridings late this summer in a last-gasp bid to save her bill. At least one Conservative MP, Greg Rickford, has been using his Parliamentary resources to help the gun lobby raise funds to help dismantle the registry.
“Ms. Hoeppner still has not said who, exactly, is paying for her ‘tour’,” pointed out Mr. Holland. “She needs to come clean, because all signs point towards it being backed by the gun lobby.”
The Liberal Party has written to the Chair of the Board of Internal Economy asking for an investigation into this seeming violation of the guidelines that forbid Parliamentary resources to be used to further the interests of a private organization.
“Just as Stephen Harper is attacking accurate factual information collected by the mandatory long-form census, he is now attacking the information collected on gun ownership and the effectiveness of the gun registry,” said Liberal MP David McGuinty. “This information protects police in their dangerous frontline work, and shows just how dangerous Conservative ideology is to our public safety.”
The Liberal Party supports the gun registry. A future Liberal government will improve the registry by eliminating fees, streamlining forms and, for those who fail to register the first time, by issuing a ticket rather than a criminal charge.
