Mon français

est très, très, très mauvais. Je vais donc m'exprimer en français. La

coordonnatrice pour la coalition du contrôle des armes est devant moi si

je ne peux pas comprendre. Mais je parle en anglais, merci beaucoup.

As I said, the Coalition for gun control has worked with the province of

Québec for almost 30 years. We are approaching the 30th year of the Montréal massacre. We

were formed after the massacre and include representation from more than

a hundred organizations in this province and more than 300 accross the country.

am here today really to say thank you, to say that we believe that

Bill C -25 introduces a number of amendments

to the legislation that, in our view, are an

acceptable compromise to ensure effective implementation of this important

legislation. And having worked on this issue

for more than 30 years, having worked on the implementation of

Bill C-17, Bill C-68 and many

pieces of legislation since we recognized that often we have to think about

implementation very carefully, that often, when we create laws, we find obstacles or road blocks to their

implementation. And without implementation and enforcement, the laws are

only words on paper. So, we support the proposed amendments.

would however, in addition to thanking you for your leadership and support on

this issue, make recommendations that are beyond the

scope of this legislation that we believe would help strenghten Québec's public

safety strategy.

first is that we worked very hard with you to preserve the Federal firearms

registration data for Québec. We were interveners in the court case and while we

lost the case, there was enough of a delay that the government was not

able to destroy the data. We believe that

even though that data is old, you know, it's current only to about 2010‑2012,

it's still valuable in terms of

complementing your efforts to collect more data and get more people into the

system. So we worked very hard to get

Bill C-71 passed at the federal level to ensure that you would have access

to that data, and we would encourage you to make use of that and we are happy to discuss further ways in which that

could be done. But because we did experience the implementation of Bill C-68, we know that the government of the

time used the restricted firearms registrated data to help implement the new registry data that was collected

on rifles and shotguns we do believe there are ways in which that data

can really complement your efforts and improve compliance because I think that

you have made very good progress with the compliance of the law and with the

pourcentage of Québec gun owners who have registered their firearms, but

obviously there is still a gap that you want to fill.

second or the third recommendation that we have, and this is based in part on

our observations in other provinces but also based on the fact that the law, as

written, can only be

effective to the extent that there are resources available for the administration of the law. Historically, Québec's Chief Firearms...

Chief Provincial Firearms Officer has been a very

important office, not just in terms of

insuring rigorous application

of the law in this province, but also in setting a standard for the rest of the country. And we would encourage you, through the

administration of the law, to ensure that the Chief Provincial Firearms Officer has the resources and the mandate

needed to effectively implement the law. That would include, for

example, ensuring that references are

checked. We have the screening process for firearms in this country that is

intended to reduce the risks that

dangerous people would get access to guns. And yet we know, at least in my

province, that references on passports are

more likely to be contacted than references for firearms licenses. We know

that, in many cases where there are tragedies, it's because references have not been contacted. Often, after there's a

shooting, people will say : We knew he was dangerous, we knew he was making threats, we knew he was a member

of a white supremacist organization. Often, an information is actually in the community, but, without the

resources and the mandate, it's not access. So, we would encourage you

to use the law to its fullest extent to

ensure rigorous implementation of the tools that you have, both at the

provincial level and at the federal level.

fourth thing that we would encourage you to think about is... I know that you

have done a masterful job at strongly supporting the importance of the registration of

firearms, educating the public on what their obligations are, continuing

to argue that people should comply with the

legislation. There may be other dimensions that you could consider in

implementing a public education program to

reinforce the implementation of this particular legislation, but also the other

measures that are available. And, in 2002 to 2004, the coalition with

the province of Québec and other community organisations, for example, had a public education program that

didn't just target gun owners, but it targeted the people living with gun

owners to help them better understand what the risks were associated with guns

in the home that were not registered and stored properly. It also targeted public health organizations, domestic

violence organizations, policing organizations, teachers and community groups, to make sure that people

understood the risks associated with having guns in the home when

somebody was experiencing mental health

issues, or stress, or depression, or there was conflict, or a child was having

trouble at school. And we think

there's an opportunity, without spending a lot of money, to really increase

public awareness around some of those issues. And frankly I would say

that, based on what we know from the polls, even though in Québec more than anywhere in the country, there is a high level of

support for this legislation, even among gun owners, people who live

with gun owners, i.e. most often their

wives, are even more supportive. And I think there are opportunities to engage

in a more broad-based strategy to shift the focus to safety as opposed

to focusing on the administrative challenges associated with the legislation.

fifth thing that we would ask you to do... and again, it's beyond the scope of

this legislation, but, given that I'm here, I wanted to take the opportunity to make

a request, and that is that you use your expertise, your strength and

the strong public opinion in Québec to lobby the federal government to ban

military assault weapons and ban hand guns.

finally, we would encourage you to continue to support research and data

collection so that we understand the extent of

compliance and how to improve the public policy.

that's an overview of what I wanted to say today, but I did really want to

emphasize that while, within Canada, it may seem that Québec is swimming against the tide, in fact Québec's position on gun control is consistent with what we see in most civilized

countries around the world. Your legislation, for example, is aligned with the

European Union's directive. We're

seeing countries like Switzerland introducing the registration of firearms,

countries like New Zealand introducing the registration of firearms. I'm

embarrassed that the Canadian Government does not have the courage and the focus on public safety that you

do in the province of Québec. Thank

you.

Président (M. Bachand) :

Merci beaucoup. Nous allons maintenant débuter la période

d'échange. Mme la ministre, la

parole est à vous. Merci.

Mme Guilbault :

Oui, merci beaucoup, M. le Président. Est-ce que je devrais parler en anglais?

Président (M. Bachand) :

Non, non, il y a traduction, alors soyez très... Que tout le monde soit très à

l'aise, on a un service professionnel de traduction. Alors donc, il n'y

a aucun souci là-dessus. Parlez la langue que vous voulez.

Guilbault : O.K.,

bon, parfait. Alors, bonjour, madame. Je vais parler en français puisqu'on a la

traduction simultanée, mais merci beaucoup

d'être ici avec nous ce matin, très apprécié, très intéressant. Bien que votre

exposé et votre mémoire, d'ailleurs,

couvrent, je dirais, la problématique ou la question beaucoup

plus large des armes à feu que ce qui nous occupe dans cette commission-ci, à savoir le projet de loi n° 25 sur des modifications au registre des

armes à feu à une loi qui a déjà été

adoptée ici, la

Loi sur l'immatriculation des armes à feu, c'est très

intéressant de vous entendre et c'est tout à votre honneur de... je ne dirais pas mener le combat, parce que je

trouve que le champ lexical est mauvais en l'occurrence, mais d'être

active comme ça dans cette question de la lutte contre les armes à feu.

Alors, comme

je disais, nous, ce qui nous occupe principalement dans cette commission-ci,

c'est vraiment le projet de loi qui a trait à des

assouplissements, des modifications qu'on veut faire sur la

Loi sur

l'immatriculation des armes à feu, sur

le registre des armes à feu. Et donc je me demandais, plus spécifiquement, sur

notre projet de loi, est-ce que vous avez des impressions, des opinions, des commentaires que

vous souhaiteriez nous partager vraiment plus ciblés sur la question des armes à

feu sans restriction et de notre registre des armes à feu au Québec?

Cukier (Wendy) :

As I said, you know, in my experience, it is very important to have legislation

that can be implemented.

When I read the legislation, and I've also read, for example, PolySeSouvient's

brief on the Bill, I've read the opposing

briefs on the Bill, it seems to me that the measures that you were introducing

are relatively minor. If they address irritants faced by gun owners and the people

implementing the law, and if, as a result of making these compromises,

you have more compliance with the legislation,

these are perfectly reasonable. And, you know, I can go through them. I

have read the legislation, I can go through

them, but, from my perspective, they were relatively minor technical

amendments, and I really think that

the focus needs to be on ensuring compliance with this legislation, not being

punitive and not alienating gun owners

unnecessarily because you want them to register their guns. And the more you

can focus your efforts on increasing compliance,

and that was the focus of my recommendations, the more successful you will be,

and the more successful you are, the better example it sets for the rest

of Canada.

Mme Guilbault : Oui,

effectivement quand on regarde vos

recommandations, vous recommandez carrément... la première recommandation que vous faites, c'est

d'accepter les... Bien, vous dites : Les amendements inclus dans le

projet de loi C-25, mais je présume que vous voulez dire d'adopter le projet

de loi n° 25 tel qu'il est présenté actuellement?

Oui?

Mme Cukier

(Wendy) : Yes, yes. Sorry.

Guilbault : Parfait, merci. Il n'y a aucun problème.

Mme Cukier (Wendy) : Sorry, it's partly my English, and

partly, perhaps, the translation. But no, the intent of

the first recommendation is to say : Accept the amendments as presented,

and we can revise that if it's important to be on the record.

Mme Guilbault : Je pense qu'on comprend tous le principe. Bien,

c'est très positif pour nous de

savoir que vous êtes d'accord avec notre projet de loi.

regardais aussi dans votre mémoire des statistiques très intéressantes à

l'effet que les homicides commis à l'aide d'une arme à feu au Québec sont les plus bas au Canada. On a le taux le

plus bas au Canada, à la fois en 2016, 2017, et je présume que 2018 va aller aussi sensiblement dans

la même lignée. Donc, une très belle nouvelle. Merci de nous faire part

de ces données-là dans votre document.

Donc,

je vais vous remercier à nouveau, pour ma part, et céder la parole à mon

collègue de Gatineau, qui a... c'est-u ça, Gatineau? Chapleau,

excusez-moi.

M. Lévesque