statism watch

Holland probably has a point here: “I think the real issue here is they are much interested in playing politics with this as long as they can maybe even into a next election,” said Mr. Holland. “They are far more interested in that than actually scrapping the registry.”

Related: Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Jane Taber, The Globe and Mail
June 8, 2010

(Update: Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland’s motion was delayed and is expected to be made in the House on Wednesday.)

The Ignatieff Liberals are redoubling their efforts to save the long-gun registry, introducing a motion in the House of Commons this morning to keep the registry intact.

Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland devised the motion – that the House should not proceed with the Conservative bill to destroy the registry – as a way to circumvent the Harper Tories’ efforts.

After he presents it, his motion will eventually have one hour of debate in the Commons and then it will be voted on; if it passes, the gun registry will live another day.

“I think they (the Conservatives) are losing the information campaign right now,” says Mr. Holland, noting that police have come out strongly in favour of the usefulness of the registry.

However, he said he believes that there is some foot-dragging on the part of the government on this bill:

“I think the real issue here is they are much interested in playing politics with this as long as they can maybe even into a next election,” said Mr. Holland. “They are far more interested in that than actually scrapping the registry.”

Meanwhile, if Mr. Holland’s motion fails, the House will vote on Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner’s private member’s bill to abolish the controversial registry.

That bill has been in the committee after it passed second reading last November with the help of eight Liberal MPs and 12 New Democrats.

This has been a highly contentious piece of legislation, especially for the Liberals who brought in the gun registry under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien – and at considerable political cost.

Since the November vote, opposition leaders have been working on their members who supported the government to change their votes on third and final reading.

In fact, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he he will whip the vote, meaning that any of his MPs who do not vote with him will face discipline.

It is usually not the practice for a party leader to whip a vote on a private member’s bill.

It appears the NDP will not whip their members, but they are hoping some acceptable amendments will come out of the committee that could change their members’ votes.

Still, if the 12 NDP MPs support the government, the registry will die.

Now, this could all be rendered moot by the machinations of the Liberals – if the Holland motion passes, then the registry will survive.

In the Commons during Question Period Monday, Ms. Hoeppner accused the opposition of “political game-playing” with her bill.

“The NDP, Liberal and Bloc coalition joined forces and passed a motion that would keep the wasteful and completely ineffective long-gun registry intact,” she said.

“This motion (the Holland motion) proves that when it comes to the long-gun registry, this coalition is more interested in political games than representing their constituents.”

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews replied:

“The choice is now clear, even to the member for Malpeque (Liberal MP Wayne Easter, who voted for the bill on second reading, but appears to have changed his mind and will vote against it), they either vote to keep the long-gun registry or they vote to scrap the long-gun registry.

“No more political games by members … the constituents deserve better.”

Source | See also under Rights: Canada can’t deny suspected terrorists of rights on basis of UN blacklist, lawsuit claims | Accused in Toronto bomb plot not aware: lawyer | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | US Federal Trade Commission considers taxing online speech | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | CIA drone killings trouble UN rights expert | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Canada’s inhumane prison plan | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | UK Torture claims investigation ordered by Foreign Secretary | Pot activist Marc Emery on his way to US jail | Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet approves bill to ban full Islamic veil | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated in Australia | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Marc Emery, ‘Prince of Pot’ will be extradited | MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Media can’t shield sources all the time, court rules | Bill would strip terror suspects of U.S. citizenship | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Treat Khadr as child soldier: UN envoy | UK Government cannot use secret evidence in Guantánamo torture case, court rules | Wildlife documentaries infringe animals’ privacy, says report | Tories reintroduce anti-terror act provisions that cross line, former CSIS chief warns | French government prepares total ban on full Islamic veils | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | Abdelrazik’s bank assets frozen | School laptops took thousands of images of students: Lawyer | Ont. smoking club appeal tossed by top court | Access to information risks being ‘obliterated’: report | Niqab gets 2nd Quebec student expelled | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | Recent mass grave of the ‘disappeared’ uncovered in Columbia | UK: Pupils forced to submit to fingerprint scans for lunch, parents not consulted | Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content | CETA worse than ACTA — EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | UK: Met Police launch net café spy operation | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Google reroutes uncensored search to Hong Kong, raises stakes in row with China | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Net produces new generation of human rights activists in China | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Ontario street racing rules upheld | Copyright conviction raises privacy concerns | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | NDP tables torture-prevention bill | Government Internet Censorship Begins In Stealth In New Zealand | ‘Security Certificate’ victim Charkaoui to sue Ottawa for $24 million | Canada ‘regrets’ Israeli settlements | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | Military trials possible for Sept. 11 terror suspects | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Rights & Democracy dissidents fired | Ontario closer to handing over Ipperwash park to Chippewas | Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections | UK: Government fury as judges attack MI5, security services | CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights | CSIS Agents likely contributed to Toronto man’s torture: Inquiry | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | More Details Emerging About School Laptop Spying, And It Doesn’t Look Good | School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe | Poland releases details on CIA ‘black sites’ | Inuit group blasts Cannon over summit | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | Former terror suspect Hassan Almrei wants apology | Ivory Coast protesters killed | Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit | Google Books Fosters Intellectual, Legal Crossroads | Khadr’s lawyers dispute government decision | Ottawa reluctantly asks U.S. for assurances Khadr trial will not use evidence CSIS obtained in violation of rights | Google Bans Sale of DVD Critical Of Obama Administration | Bruce Anderson: We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty | Feds push for tracking cell phones | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | The government has your baby’s DNA | Men at Work plagiarized Kookaburra tune, Australian court rules | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Crotch bomber bill before Congress: Treat all ‘terrorism suspects’ as enemy combatants. Domestically. | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Pie tossing is terrorism, MP says. Seriously. | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Court approves raw milk co-op | Raw milk farmer vows to fight on | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | China tells web companies to obey controls | RCMP ends search — and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘Unclear’ Whether US Air Security Profiling Violates Canadian Charter: Baird | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | For more see The Memory Hole — Rights

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