Red Deer - Lacombe Conservative MP Blaine Calkins. (Photo Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Looking For Answers

Calkins claims former long gun registry information still out there

May 5, 2021 | 3:33 PM

The Conservative MP for Red Deer-Lacombe is looking for answers after recently learning data from the federal government’s former long-gun registry is still in existence somewhere.

Blaine Calkins says he was contacted by a lawyer recently who found a printed copy from a query done in 2019 that showed non-restricted firearms in a database.

Calkins says the only database that information would be in would be the former long-gun registry scrapped in 2015.

“The credentials on the document show that they came from the Chief Firearms Officer’s office in Ontario, via the RCMP database,” claims Calkins. “So that appears to show that the long gun registry once thought destroyed, and according to the legislation, ought to have been completely destroyed, still appears to be in existence.”

Calkins says he’s very concerned this information is still available.

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“The national firearms centre which is run by the RCMP (Canadian Firearms Program) testified at committee back in 2015 I believe, that the information in the long gun registry was destroyed,” recalls Calkins.

“I passed legislation as a member of parliament in 2012 to get rid of the long gun registry. We followed up with legislation in 2015 to make sure that the last straggling records after the Supreme Court ruling with the records from Quebec and all outstanding records that were used in other processes were to be destroyed.

“We received official confirmation at committee that these records were destroyed,” he continues. “And here I am now six years later with a copy of the records in my hand, dated 2019.”

Calkins says this means that somebody, somewhere, did not follow the law.

“So I’m calling on the government and my colleagues will be calling on the government to explain why these records are still in use,” he says.

“Somebody somewhere needs to account for this and I’ll be asking for these records to once again be destroyed, as they ought to have been subsequent Bill C-19 and Bill C-59, and I want this independently verified.”

In a Facebook post on May 3, Calkins noted the Liberals have stated that their ill-conceived buy-back program will cost between $300–$400 million and that the Liberals are expecting to “buy back” 150-200 thousand firearms.

“I specifically asked the Minister of Public Safety, back I believe on April 20, about where they’re (the federal government) getting their intelligence, or their information on their buy-back program,” he explains. “The Minister of Public Safety, Bill Blair, assured me, he said straight to my face in the House of Commons, that the long gun registry no longer exists, but we know now, that’s not true.”

As a result, Calkins says Minister Blair needs to figure out why these records are still able to be produced.

“If he has misled the House, then he has to explain why,” adds Calkins.

He says the issue boils down to transparency, and questions the very integrity of Canada’s laws.

“What’s the point in members of parliament passing legislation if nobody’s going to follow it? That’s the primary principal problem behind all of this. People who thought that their private and personal information was destroyed, have a right to know with confidence, that that information is destroyed, and were led to believe that that information was destroyed, and now have more than reasonable doubts to think otherwise.”