Star Phoenix – Cotler misstated handgun ban support
Date: Jan 14, 2006 10:20 AM
PUBLICATION: The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
DATE: 2006.01.14
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Local
PAGE: A4
BYLINE: Betty Ann Adam
SOURCE: The StarPhoenix
ILLUSTRATION: Photo: (Irwin) Cotler
WORD COUNT: 344

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Cotler misstated handgun ban support: adviser

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Ontario is the only province that has endorsed a Liberal proposal to ban
handguns, an adviser to federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said
Friday.

Cotler said last weekend in Saskatoon that support for the Liberal
proposal is “not just in Ontario.” He mentioned Manitoba, British
Columbia, Nova Scotia and Quebec, saying some provinces would buy in and
others would not.

But Cotler did not intend to give the impression other provinces support
the plan, said Leigh Lampert.

Lampert said Cotler was talking about a bill to amend the Criminal Code
that was tabled before the government fell in November.

“Coming out of the federal, provincial, territorial meeting in
Whitehorse in November (Cotler) talked regularly about the three-prong
strategy to combat gun violence and that was tougher laws and penalties,
increase in the effectiveness of enforcement and what he’s called
recently the hope and opportunities package.

“When he was speaking with the reporters in the scrum on Saturday, when
he said he had the support of other provinces, it’s only Ontario that’s
supported the actual ban, but the other provinces he mentioned have
publicly supported the three-prong strategy to combat gun violence,”
Lampert said.

The ministers in Yellowknife talked at length about mandatory minimum
penalties, but they did not discuss banning handguns, Lampert said.

“If he left the impression he has commitment from each of those
provinces, that they’re 100 per cent supportive, that’s the not the
message he intended. It’s Ontario that requested the handgun ban,” he
said.

The British Columbia government does not support the Liberal handgun ban
proposal, said Mike Morton, press secretary for British Columbia Premier
Gordon Campbell.

The Manitoba government is not commenting on any proposals or promises
made by any of the parties during the election campaign, said
spokesperson Peter Dalla-Vicenza.

The handgun ban proposal was not part of the November meeting of federal
and provincial justice ministers, he said. The Manitoba government is
not in favour of the gun registry, Dalla-Vicenza said.

Nova Scotia also is not commenting on election promises, said Richard
Perry, spokesperson for the Justice Department in that province.

“I take issue with the fact he claimed a bunch of provinces support it
when they don’t,” said Eric Lerhe, a Nova Scotia target shooter who owns
three handguns, two rifles and a shotgun. “It’s a crazy idea,” he said.