http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2004/12/06/768463-cp.htmlGun registry should survive vote to scrap it
By ALEXANDER PANETTA
OTTAWA (CP) - The much-maligned gun registry will survive an attempt to strike it down in the Commons later this week, sources from all major federal parties predicted Monday.
Those predictions came on the same day as top federal officials cringed at the timing of a dissident Liberal MP's plan to engineer the program's demise.
The massacre of 14 women at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique exactly 15 years ago on Dec. 6, 1989, should give pause to critics of the gun-control program, top Liberals said.
"Today . . . we remember in the most tragic and poignant way the challenge we face as a society as it relates to violence against women," said Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.
"I would be disappointed if anyone (proposed scrapping the program) - but particularly disappointed when that person comes from the government and the Liberal party."
The motion by Ontario Liberal Roger Gallaway to strip the program of its funding was expected to fall flat Thursday because most MPs continue to support the costly registry.
But Gallaway's efforts earned him a rebuke nonetheless from the office of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"This would strip Canada of the tools we use to deliver effective gun control," said Martin spokesman Scott Reid.
"The certain consequence would be that Canada would have weaker rather than stronger gun controls than those in the United States.
"On this, the 15th anniversary of the tragedy at L'Ecole polytechnique, we believe that would be a terribly mistaken approach."
The massacre became a rallying point for gun-control advocates and for victims' families who successfully lobbied the Liberal government to create the gun registry in 1995.
But a program that was initially supposed to cost $2 million has ballooned to well over $1 billion.
Only the Conservatives appear poised to offer their full-fledged support to two Gallaway motions that would strip a total of $96 million from the program this fiscal year.
Backing from the 99-member Conservative caucus means the motion would, with a full House of Commons, need about 56 more votes to pass.
"If you do the math, I don't think it passes," said one Conservative, echoing remarks from colleagues in other parties.
All of the Bloc Quebecois' 54 MPs are expected to vote against Gallaway's motion, as will the majority of the NDP's 19-member caucus.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said all his MPs would toe his party line while NDP Leader Jack Layton said he will let his members vote freely on the issue.
One NDP source not only predicted the survival of the gun registry but also lashed out at the timing of Gallaway's initiative.
"It's so stupid. . . . It seems to me that the timing is in bad taste," he said.
"(But) if the Liberals keep their people together, we're okay."
One well-connected Liberal MP predicted only 10 to 15 of his colleagues would support Gallaway, saying "They won't have enough."
Gallaway could not be reached for comment Monday.
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