The possible abolition of the federal long-gun registry would make it harder for police to respond to reports of domestic violence, says an Okanagan advocate for women.
Micki Smith of the Kelowna Women‘s Resource Centre says the registry provides police with important information about the number and type of firearms in a home.
“I‘m not sure abolishing the registry would necessarily increase violence against women, because it‘s already bad enough,” Smith said Saturday.
“But the registry does allow for firearms to be tracked,” she said. “It‘s an important investigative tool for police to have when they‘re responding to calls about domestic violence.”
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, two dozen people gathered at the Women‘s Resource Centre to watch the documentary Polytechnique, which focuses on the day when a gunman killed 14 women at the post-secondary institution.
Today, people are invited to gather at the centre, located at the corner of Bernard Avenue and Richter Street, to attach the names of 70 Kelowna-area women who‘ve been victims of violence to individual roses.
“I‘ve just sort of perfunctorily put the names on the rose myself for years and years,” Smith said. “I thought it might have more meaning (or) carry more impact if we did invite other people to come in and put the names on the roses.”
At 6 p.m., the roses will be carried from Springvalley Elementary School, 470 Ziprick Rd., to the Mindy Tran memorial in nearby Mission Creek Regional Park.
“We normally get about 60 people out,” Smith said. “I‘m thinking it may be more this year because of the 20th-anniversary aspect, and there seems to be more memorial events happening across the country.”
Organizers of many of those events, as well as survivors of the massacre, are angry that Conservative MPs, bolstered by a handful of Liberals and New Democrats, narrowly voted in principle last month to kill the federal long-gun registry. The tally was 164 for and 137 against.
The private member‘s bill, which would end the decade-old registry of most shotguns and rifles, now goes to a Commons committee for further study and possible amendment.
Conservatives say the registry is a billion-dollar waste that targets honest gun-owners while doing nothing to fight crime.
Proponents, including police and victims-rights groups, say the registry is a useful investigative tool and has led to more responsible gun ownership, reducing the number of suicides and deadly crimes of passion.
Heidi Rathjen, a former engineering student who escaped the shootings at the Ecole Polytechnique, was among those who worked to reform Canada‘s gun laws and set up the registry in the wake of Marc Lepine‘s attack on the school on Dec. 6, 1989.
“I feel that what the Conservatives are doing, especially at this time, is a slap in the face to the victims of the Dec. 6 massacre and all victims of gun-related crimes,” she said on the eve of the tragedy‘s 20th anniversary.
“What does it say about all future gun victims? If this goes through and the registry is abolished and gun-related murders and crimes go back up, the Conservatives will have blood on their hands.”
Both the NDP and Liberals freed their MPs to vote as they saw fit on the bill.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, while supporting “the principle” of the registry, has said it needs to be revamped to make it more palatable to rural Canadians.
Rathjen said she has spoken to some of the families of the Polytechnique victims, and that they are “devastated (and) terrified that this is going to go through.”
She had scathing words for Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton, saying they demonstrated a “complete lack of leadership on this issue, allowing a free vote on what they absolutely knew was a disguised government bill.”
She said the Liberal and NDP actions were a “betrayal” of the two parties‘ commitment to victims of violence and women.
“What good are all these wonderful Liberal values (and) NDP values if you can‘t stand up when it really counts? Words are just words. It‘s action that counts.”
Rathjen, who joined an anti-tobacco organization in Montreal after the gun legislation was passed, said she‘ll rejoin the fight to help the Coalition for Gun Control to protect the registry, which she says has been an unrelenting target of misinformation.
She said former students are getting organized and will head to Ottawa for hearings on the bill.
Rathjen did have praise for the Bloc Quebecois, which she said had shown unstinting support for the registry.
There have been a number of expressions of support for the registry from unions, women‘s groups and police.
The mother of Anne-Marie Edward, one of the women gunned down at Polytechnique, said on the day Parliament voted that she was disappointed the Conservatives have dedicated so much energy to eliminating the registry.
