O.F.A.H. slams Liberal spending on gun registry
Angler & Hunter Hotline - February 2005

Dissention in Paul Martin's Liberal ranks continues to put more nails into the coffin of the national gun registry. But it's not dead yet, unfortunately. It's merely on borrowed time after Liberal followers voted in mid-December to sink another $96 million into the Canadian Firearms Centre, home of the gun registry fiasco.

"When will this federal government stop pumping our hard-earned tax dollars into a program that has failed on every Liberal promise to reduce crime and avoid cost overruns?," asked Mike Reader, O.F.A.H. Executive Director.

Coincidentally, many Liberal MP's are now asking the same question, and some have supported the gun lobby to publicly retaliate against reckless spending on the national firearms registry.

Recently, Sarnia Liberal MP, Roger Gallaway, pledged to deliver a motion to slash funding for his government's own program. Predictably, however, Mr. Gallaway was forced to renege after a stern meeting with his boss, Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Instead, the motion was delivered courtesy of Conservative Deputy Leader, Peter MacKay, and supported by over 100 Members of Parliament (including some Liberals) in a vote that could have been the demise of the gun registry.

A long battle

Since the early 1990's, when Canadians entered heavy-footed into the topic of gun control, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters took a leading role in national protests to bring down schemes to register legally-owned firearms. Mountains of petitions, media campaigns, letters to editors and politicians, a Supreme Court of Canada challenge as well as two Parliament Hill rallies were supported by the O.F.A.H., which is still holding tight to the reins in the crusade to scrap the national firearms registry.

"Just over a year ago, Prime Minister Paul Martin sat down with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters but, following his minority-government election win, he obviously did not take heed of the concerns of O.F.A.H. members which we presented in that meeting," said Reader.

"Congratulations to Mr. MacKay and his colleagues for speaking out against more wasted tax dollars to fund the national firearms registry," added Reader.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, remains an outspoken adversary of firearms registration since Jean Chrétien and Allan Rock contrived their $1 billion dynasty over ten years ago.