Ottawa, June 9, 2017

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled Bill C-52 today in the House of Commons. The much anticipated legislation has had gun owners on the edge of their seats after some word-game name changes earlier this week.

Originally named "an Act to amend the Act to End the Long Gun Registry" was quickly changed to "An Act to amend Chapter 6 of the Statutes of Canada, 2012". A tiny bit of research shows us it is identical, but sounds less "scary".

The short title, "Supporting Vested Rights Under Access to Information Act" supports our suggestions earlier this week that this bill will indeed satisfy pending lawsuits in Quebec. The lingering lawsuits are in relation to how the access to information was changed and applied back in 2015. Quebec demanded the Federal government release the provincial records of long gun owners to them and launched multiple lawsuits to enforce this under provisions of the Information Act.

Today Goodale's Liberal government tabled a bill to do exactly that and satisfy the outstanding litigation.

Considering how inaccurate the data was back when it was collected, and how much time has passed since, it makes us wonder why the Quebec government is so eager to get this information. No doubt it is outdated and archaic.

Read the text of the bill at the bottom of this page