Many constituents have contacted my office following reports of the RCMP’s confiscation of firearms during the High River flood. This matter has been taken very seriously by myself and my Alberta Caucus colleagues, including our Prime Minister.
If there was any impropriety by the RCMP in High River, this will come to light in the investigation being performed by the on-going Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. We are awaiting the results of that inquiry. The RCMP Complaints Commission is an independent agency created by Parliament to be responsible for ensuring that complaints made about the conduct of RCMP members are examined thoroughly, fairly and impartially. The Commission is not part of the RCMP.
We all accept that whenever a local state of emergency is declared, police have authority to take extraordinary measures such as entering homes to ensure they are secure, or to see if someone needs to be evacuated. The RCMP claims that as part of search and rescue efforts, when they came across unsecured firearms in plain view, they “stored them for future return to the lawful owners.” Many constituents were concerned that homes with firearms were identified through the use of the now-defunct long-gun registry and targeted by the RCMP.
As your Member of Parliament, I took this matter very seriously. Throughout my tenure as your democratically elected federal representative, our opposition to the Liberals’ long-gun registry was consistently the number-one political issue, until our Conservative government ‘scrapped’ the registry in 2011.
Following the events at High River, I contacted the RCMP in Ottawa and locally, regarding our concerns. I have asked repeatedly if the RCMP has access to the old long-gun registry. I have repeatedly been told “no”. I have pressed further by asking whether there was an ‘old listing’ or other surviving registry data, or any other way that the long-gun registry can be used and I have been repeatedly told, “absolutely not”.
Most recently, our new Minister of Public Safety, the Hon. Steven Blaney has responded to me by providing information from the report of the audit of the destruction of the long-gun registry nation-wide that was completed in December of 2012. An oversight committee, including third party members, provided ongoing advice and guidance throughout the process of destroying the long-gun registry data. This committee: observed on-site the destruction of electronic records in the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS); created and ran queries to determine if electronic records identified as being related to the registration of non-restricted firearms still existed in the CFIS; analyzed with computer-assisted audit tools to determine if any electronic records were erroneously omitted from destruction; and obtained confirmation from the Director General, Canadian Firearms Program and the RCMP’s Chief Information Officer that the electronic records identified as being related to the registration of non-restricted firearms in CFIS were destroyed.
The RCMP reports that they are in contact with affected parties in High River to ensure the safe return of all firearms to their lawful owners, a process that is underway. I am confident to report to my constituents that based on my own investigation, I can conclude that that the Liberals’ wasteful, ineffective and costly Long-Gun Registry HAS BEEN DESTROYED.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this or previous columns you may write me at 4945-50th Street, Camrose, Alberta, T4V 1P9, call 780-608-4600, toll-free 1-800-665-4358, fax 780-608-4603 or e-mail Kevin.Sorenson.c1@parl.gc.ca.
