If you've followed my little blog over the years you know how I feel about the long-gun registry. So you can imagine how I feel tonight.
Stephen Harper has begun the process of shuttering Canada’s long-gun registry, tabling a bill to scrap a database on firearms owners that for rank-and-file Conservatives stood as a powerful symbol of everything that’s wrong with big government.
Determined to drive a stake through the heart of the registry, which cost more than $2-billion to establish, the Tories are going so far as to destroy the data.
And I'm SURE you know how I feel about Candy Hoeppner...
“They’re upstanding citizens who work hard. They take their kids and grandkids out hunting and shooting and those kids, by the way, probably aren’t involved in gangs in the streets,” she said.
“These are good salt-of-the-earth people and for so long they have had really nobody in government who has been able to make any changes on their behalf.
As if they're upstanding citizens and those who live in cities i.e. most Canadians, are criminals. As if we should feel sorry for those too cheap, too dumb, or too paranoid to fill out a form. And register a gun like they register so many other things.
As if it was all about criminals instead of helping to protect the lives of police officers and paramedics. As if it was all about farmers and hunters instead of mental illness.
Or domestic abuse:
Or protecting the lives of women.
As if the Cons aren't the real criminals for endangering the lives of so many Canadians.
As if their decision to destroy the data wasn't an outrage against democracy.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said today that all the records of the gun registry are being destroyed for one reason -- to thwart future, more gun-registry-friendly governments.
And Stephen Harper wasn't a crazed authoritarian.
From last week, in the House of Commons:
(Stephen Harper) Mr. Speaker, the law of our constitutional system is extremely clear. A previous government cannot bind a future government to its policy.
Or a lying maniac who would do ANYTHING to change Canada beyond recognition.
But of course what bothers me the most is the way those misogynistic Cons are defiling the memory of the murdered women of the École Polytechnique...
And all those who worked so hard in their name to make Canada less of a gun-friendly society. A gentler, safer place.
How soon people forget the horror of gun violence...
But I won't forget. I vow tonight that however long it takes, however hard the struggle, that I will work to unite progressives, defeat the Cons, bring back the registry, and take back my country from those rabid teabaggers who would turn it into Amerika.
Oh boy. Tomorrow I'll be angry. Tonight I'm thinking of those poor murdered young women, and all those who loved them.
And I'm just so sorry...
9 comments:
Harper's has to fill up all those new prisions eh? If in fact crime is going down, the harpercons can't be taking away criminals options. No but seriously, we have to take all guns of the streets including those in the cops hands.
Hi Simon,
I think this is so much bigger than the registry itself. It speaks volumes of the overwhelming success the cons have had in framing issues to their advantage. The registry has been tainted with the notion that requiring the so called salt of the earth "sportsmen" to register a gun makes him a criminal. So ridiculous, but very effective. Given the chance they were on the same path with marriage equality, and virtually anything related to LGBT dignity. Also, it took them 2 years but they finally destroyed Michael Ignatieff's political career. Destroying the registry and the data is a huge error in judgement and they will have blood on their already filthy hands.
BC Waterboy
Harper initially supported long gun registry
A poll said his constituents supported it, so he voted that way. But then a later poll said his constituents were against it, and he voted the other way.
That was then. Now, of course, polls are those stupid not-plebiscites run by the evil undemocratic communists at the Wheat Board that speak gibberish rather than policy... We get instead ideological decisions that listen to nothing and no-one.
on CBC almanac at noon today, 3 men occupied the show with their views on how stupid and expensive the gun registry is, one was an SFU prof with lots of facts
near the end of the show, a woman from VAN called in and said, she is furious, this is just an action by fat middle class men with much to gain from it,and all that expense and work from years before is now to wiped out
in the evening on CBC, As It Happens, a woman said, now we can expect lots of business in guns, selling a hundred at time if they want to.
hi zoombats...Like you I find it ironic that the law and order Cons would be depriving police officers of a tool that can save their lives. With friends like that who needs enemies?
I would also like to live in a gun-free society, at least in the cities. But unfortunately we're way beyond that now, so all we can do is try to limit the damage...
hi BC Waterboy...yes you're absolutely right. This gun registry issue is just another wedge issue for the Cons, designed to pit rural Canadians against those that live in cities. They have never made the slightest attempt to reach a compromise that would satify everyone. But destroying the data is outrageous, they will have blood on their hands, and they will pay for it some day...
hi anonymous...yes thanks for reminding people about Harper's earlier position. Which actually makes him look even worse, if that's possible. He hasn't the courage of his convictions, just the urge to divide and conquer.
And an ideological fanaticism that is totally un-Canadian...
hi Oemissions...I have been very disappointed by the low key reaction to the destruction of the gun registry. I realize we can't do anything about it, but I refuse to give in to the gun nutz that easily.
As far as I'm concerned scrapping the gun registry is a backward step from a public health point of view, and I intend to make that point as loudly as posible, until the day we can bring it back.
My one consolation? My beautiful and oh so Canadian Quebec is talking about setting up its own registry. When they're dropping like flies in the streets of English Canda, I can always take refuge there... :)
I did a google search looking for info about people's opinions on the long gun registry. Too many are against it then I stumbled on this blog. I think it being abolished is stupid. It should stay. The things the people who hate the registry say are stupid. They think like everyone who owns a long gun is a good person or seomthing. Well they don't think about the mental health issues some people may have or may have later in life. Just stupid stupid people. I'm not happy.
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