CUFOA

Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association
Association canadienne des propriétaires d’armes sans permis

The Honounable Vic Toews
Minister of Public Safety
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Toews,

Re: Bring Some Honesty to the Ministry of Public Safety; Honour Conservative Commitments

Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Public Safety. We look forward to your bringing some badly needed honestly to the Ministry of Public Safety.

While “Mission Creep” is quite often a problem with government programs, firearms owners have faced a massive “Mission Retreat” by Mr. Harper and many Conservative MP’s who have abandoned their publically stated commitments to protect the Rights of responsible Canadians to “own and use firearms” in a responsible manner by repealing the Liberal’s Firearms Act.

Since Mr. Harper allowed a former Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Stockwell Day, to contemptuously endorse “Enhance Licensing”, we have witnessed the appalling spectacle of many Conservative MP’s and Senators denying that, as the Official Opposition, they promised to repeal the entire Firearms Act. Mr. Harper has so deceitfully morphed “Repeal C-68” into “scrap the long-gun registry” than many newly elected Conservative MP’s and recently appointed Senators have apparently never even read the Conservatives’ Policy Declaration on firearms.

As the new Public Safety Minister I trust you will follow the well-founded admonition your Conservative colleague Garry Breitkreuz gave to former Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2004:

scrap the whole Firearms Act and sit down to work cooperatively with the provinces and responsible firearm owners in Canada, (stop) playing politics with gun control (and put) the tens of millions you’re wasting on the firearms program every year into real police priorities that actually improve public safety.

Our lives, and the lives of our families, depend upon your heeding this sound, logical advice.

Sincerely,

Edward B. Hudson DVM, MS
Secretary

Encl: Conservative Policy and Promises Re: Repeal of the Firearms Act

CC: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Conservative Senators and Members of Parliament
National Council of the Conservative Party of Canada

Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association
Association canadienne des propriétaries sans permis
402 Skeena Court Saskatoon
Saskatchewan S7K 4H2
(306) 242-2379 (306) 230-8929
edwardhudson@shaw.ca
www.cufoa.ca

Mr. Harper’s Promise to Firearms Owners

I was and still am in total agreement with the statement made in the House of Commons by former Reform Leader Preston Manning on 13 June 1995:

Bill C-68, if passed into law will not be a good law. It will be a blight on the legislative record of the government, a law that fails the three great tests of constitutionality, of effectiveness and of democratic consent to f the governed. What should be the fate of a bad a law? It should be repealed ... .

Bill C-68 [The Firearms Act] has proven to be a bad law and has created a bureaucratic nightmare for both gun owners and the government. As Leader of the Official Opposition, I will use all powers afforded to me as Leader and continue our party’s fight to repeal Bill C-68 and replace it with a firearms control system that is cost effective and respects the rights of Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly.
- Stephen Harper, January 2002

The Conservative Party of Canada Policy Declaration

As approved by the CPC Montréal Convention, 19 March 2005
81. Firearms -- A Conservative Government will repeal Canada’s costly gun registry legislation and work with the provinces and territories on cost-effective gun control programs designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals while respecting the rights of law-abiding Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly. Measures will include: mandatory minimum sentences for the criminal use of firearms; strict monitoring of high-risk individuals; crackdown on the smuggling; safe storage provisions; firearms safety training; a certification screening system for all those wishing to acquire firearms legally; and putting more law enforcement officers on our streets.

The Promise of the Conservatives while Serving as the Loyal Opposition

“There is only one to fix this mess and that is to elect a Conservative government. We promise to repeal Bill C-68 and return the gun laws to the way they were before 1995. Then I personally promise that I will start the task of fixing all the flaws in federal firearm laws by requiring that they be subjected to a public safety test administered by the Auditor General of Canada. My proposal includes a sunset clause on all gun control laws that have been proven by the Auditor General not to be cost effective at reducing the criminal use of firearms and improving public safety.”
- Garry Breitkreuz, M.P., Yorkton-Melville (SK), Conservative Firearms Critic, 08 July 2005

Register Criminals, NOT Duck Hunters
Garry Breitkreuz, MP, 25 February 2004