A history of the gun registry in Nunavut

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

SARA MINOGUE

On January 1, 2001, Canada’s toughest gun laws went into effect.

Since that date, every gun owner must be licenced to buy firearms and ammunition. Gun owners may either get a possession-only licence (POL) which allows you to own a gun and buy ammunition, or a possession and acquisition licence (PAL) which also allows you to buy a non-restricted gun, such as a hunting rifle or shotgun.

To obtain a licence, all Canadians must complete the Canadian firearms safety test. You can challenge the test directly with the Canada firearms officer, or you can write the test as part of a firearms safety course.

Gun owners also had two years – until January 1, 2003 – to register all of their guns with the federal government.

In Nunavut, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. opposed the gun registry, pointing to articles in the land claim which says that Inuit may hunt without having to get any kind of permit or registering for a fee.

In November, 2000, the Government of Nunavut joined NTI in a lawsuit against the gun registry. In that lawsuit, they asked Ottawa to postpone the Firearms Act in Nunavut until it could be adapted to the North.

On July 6, 2003, the Nunavut Court of Justice upheld an injunction that exempts Inuit from having to register their guns until a court challenge could be heard.

That was expected in early 2004, but has yet to occur.

At the same time, Justice Robert Kilpatrick also denied a federal application to have the matter thrown out of court.

That same summer, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of the Firearms Act when several provinces and territories, spearheaded by Alberta, challenge the federal government’s jurisdiction over gun laws.

In November 2004, the Conservative party’s associate gun registry critic, Gary Breitkreuz of Yorkton-Melville, Sask., posted a news item on his website titled, “firearms centre seems unconcerned about gun registration being suspended for over two years for Nunavut Inuit.”

Breitkreuz had filed an access to information request seeking copies of “documents, reports and correspondence showing the current problems and status of implementation of the licencing and registration provisions of the Firearms Act in the Territory of Nunavut.”

In its response on Dec. 13, 2004, the Canada Firearms Centre said it had “no statistical reports on compliance rates,” and provided instead numbers of licences issued and the number of firearms registered.

The only other document the ATI request produced was a single email, sent from David Migadel, then the CFC’s regional director for the northwest region and chief firearms officer for Nunavut, sent to Virginia Kuash on Nov. 23, 2004.

“In response to the query related to this request, please be advised of the brief meeting I had in March 2004.

“On March 3, 2004, Hall Major, district manager for prairies and Nunavut and I met briefly with Richard Paton, chief operations officer and Steve Armstrong, legal counsel, Nunavut Tunngavik (NTI).

“Hall and I were in Iqaluit meeting with others in the community and arranged for a brief 30 minute meeting to introduce ourselves and to make an offer of assistance, if required. There was no agenda for the meeting and neither Hall or I made any notes.”

In a planning document outlining the CFC’s 2005-06 plans and priorities, there is no mention of the gun registry or firearms safety specific to Nunavut.

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