LANA PAYNE
The Telegram

In less than a month, Canada will mark the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

And instead of renewing government and societal efforts to end violence against women, the federal Conservatives, with help from the Liberals and the NDP, will kill the long-gun registry and deal gun control a mighty blow in our country.

It was the families of some of the 14 women murdered by a lone gunman at a Montreal university on Dec. 6, 1989 who successfully lobbied for gun control and the registry.

But after years of maligning the registry, the federal Conservatives are about to get their way - thanks to Canada's very own Sarah Palin.

Rural MP's bill

Candice Hoeppner - a Conservative MP from Manitoba - has been leading the charge. It's her private member's bill that will result in the eventual demise of the long-gun registry, destroying records on millions of guns and who owns them.

The registry has the support of police forces, women's groups and victims' rights advocates across the country. So you'd think a tough-on-crime government would actually want gun control. Not so. And not so in the United States either, where the Republicans and the gun lobby have been successful in curbing any gun control measures.

Police opposed

Yves Francoeur, head of Montreal's police union, said last week that the registry is a useful crime-fighting tool that had assisted with the recent seizure of six firearms and 40,000 bullets from the home of a suspect in a violent crime.

Francoeur also told the media that Canada's police departments use the registry more than 10,000 times a day. In addition, Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme pleaded with Ottawa politicians to vote to keep the registry.

Toronto police Chief Bill Blair also called for politicians to support the gun registry, saying it is an issue of public safety and "public safety is everybody's issue."

The mother of one of the young women gunned down in the Montreal massacre also pleaded with politicians.

Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Anne-Marie Edward, said in a letter to the editor that shoulder firearms kill just like handguns. She also lobbied for the registry after her daughter and 13 other women were murdered. It was a long gun, not a handgun that killed the engineering students that December day 20 years ago.

But these cries have fallen on deaf ears.

That's because the Conservatives may as well have a majority.

The bill had the prime minister's support and the support of an expensive media campaign in ridings where the Conservatives felt pressure could be bought to bear on the opposition Member of Parliament.

Free vote

Both the Liberals and New Democrats allowed their MPs to vote as they wished, freely rather than whipping them into line, as they would be forced to do if it was a government bill rather than a private member's bill.

This is despite the fact that the Liberals and NDP voted in favour of a Bloc motion back in April supporting the registry.

Some of those MPs who were targeted by the Conservative campaign in their ridings felt they had to vote against the registry in order to save their political hides. Sad but true. Principle, it seems, and politics are often at odds.

There is a lesson in this. Persistence clearly pays off. At least it has for the Conservatives who have kept this issue alive for the past 14 years since the registry was first enacted.

So what is next? The passing of Hoeppner's bill will eliminate a wedge issue in many rural ridings in the country, meaning future candidates will have to find another hot-button issue. So what's next for the Conservative backbenchers? Abortion? Same-sex marriage? And how many times do we need to have these debates in our country?

If they can turn back the clock on gun control efforts without a majority government, imagine what they will do a real majority.

Why not guns?

And perhaps the real question should be what is wrong with asking law-abiding citizens to register their guns. We have to register our cars, so why not our guns?

Priscilla de Villiers is a victims' rights advocate.

Perhaps her words about this Conservative attack on gun control said it best: "It is incomprehensible that after all these years we should still be held hostage by a relatively small group of citizens, gun owners, who demand the right to possess, exchange or use weapons without the same restrictions that we, in a civil society, demand from owners of vehicles and animals."

Lana Payne is president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour. She can be reached by e-mail at lanapayne@nl.rogers.com. Her column returns Nov. 21.