NATIONAL POST ONLINE

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/national/story.html?f=/stories/20010817/650835.html

August 17, 2001

Gun law stalls hunt in Nunavut
'They cannot buy bullets and cannot feed their families'

James Cudmore
National Post

The Canadian Firearms Centre has failed to provide newly mandated gun
licences to thousands of Inuit, some of whom have been waiting more than
year since they first applied, according to James Eetoolook, the president
of the powerful Nunavut land claims organization.
Mr. Eetoolook, who heads Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, an organization
representing 22,000 beneficiaries of the Nunavut land claim agreement,
said the licences that he and thousands of other hunters applied for
before the Jan.1 cut-off date had not yet arrived.
"If I haven't received mine, I have to wonder how many others haven't
received theirs," Mr. Eetoolook said in a statement. Without the licences,
Northern gun-owners are unable to legally purchase ammunition and
participate in the summer hunts that provide meat for their families for
the winter.
"They cannot buy bullets and cannot feed their families," Mr. Eetoolook
said. "We estimate that as many as 40% of [Inuit] who applied for permits
have not received them yet.
"We have also heard of some people calling the Canadian Firearms Centre to
find out where their permit is and being told that they will have to apply
again because there is no record of their application," he added.
According to the legislation, residents of Canada must have a possession
licence in order to own or hold firearms and to purchase ammunition. In
addition, they must also apply for a possession and acquisition licence in
order to purchase new weapons.
In January, the Canadian Firearms Centre, the federal agency responsible
for implementing the restrictions of Bill C-68, issued temporary
possession and acquisition licences that expired at the end of June.
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated is suing the federal government over Bill
C-68, the controversial Firearms Act, alleging the federal Justice
Department's showpiece legislation is in violation of the land claims
agreement that carved the new territory of Nunavut out of the Eastern
arctic.
In Edmonton yesterday, Michelle Snyder, a regional spokeswoman for the
firearms centre, said she was not sure how many applicants in Nunavut had
yet to receive their licences.
"I can't give you a number, but to say that people have not received them
yet, I can say yes," she said. "It's certainly a problem that we are
trying to address and we have all of our regional resources working on
clearing up these [outstanding] licences.
"Some of them are very easy to clear up. But if there are any safety
issues, that requires more time. But licences are being approved and
validated for all sorts of people every day."
In January, Anne McLellan, the federal Justice Minister, promised all
Canadians who applied for their licences before Dec. 3, 2000, would
receive them before their temporary permits expired at the end of June

"We are confident that everybody who is eligible to receive a licence will
receive a permanent licence by June 30th," she told the National Post at
the time. "If they applied by Dec. 31, we see no problem."
Ms. McLellan said the Firearms Act was enjoying a "fantastic" rate of
compliance among Canadians, even in the notoriously anti gun-control North
and that the bill was experiencing, "very few practical implementation
problems."
But yesterday, Ms. Snyder admitted there were problems with implementation
and said some applicants who had applied over a year ago could still be
missing their licences. She encouraged applicants to call the Canadian
Firearms Centre if they have not received their licences.
"Sometimes this can be cleared up in a phone call," she said. "If you
forget to fill in your eye colour, the licence can't move until all of the
information is filled in."


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Pay attention everyone!  Coming soon to a country near you![:D]

Heh.  Similar story here - I mailed in registration forms on Dec 1 '98.  Dec 2 '98 I called back to cancel the registration.  Months later, they still had no record of the forms.  Eventually I obtained assurances from CFC managers that they had found my forms and that the forms would not be processed as per my request.  Almost exactly one year after I had mailed the forms the CFC sent me a notification that the forms were missing information and that until I provided more information the registration forms [the ones that they had already guaranteed me would not be processed] would not be processed.  Don't register 'til you can see the dots in their paperwork.

I agree fully that we should wait to the last minute.  I submitted applications to register two firearms, one non-restricted and the other apparently prohibited.  Most fields were filled out as 'unknown'.  Then, the next day, I ahem changed my mind about registering until later on (immediately prior to 2003) which effectively allowed the CFC folks to search for a needle (my applications) in a haystack (all registration apps received during a month or so).  My applications were a bit of a special case.

PS sure the plastic cards are nicer than the old paper ones, but did you know that the CFC is asking for $25 per lost/misplaced/destroyed/stolen card?  At one per gun, that seems a bit steep and could amount to a fair bit of coin just for the replacement of a card.  It would be interesting to see what happens if someone is unable to produce a registration certificate and is unwilling to purchase a new one.  When I asked the CFC about that scenario, they hinted that police would probably confiscate all firearms owned by the individual.  Solely because - and I want to make this clear - the guy refused to buy a replacement for the card, regardless of whether the card was lost or stolen.  The law does say that you have to have possession of a reg certificate...

Their next logical step is to raise fees for firearm licenses.  Even $600M divided by about two million licenses... that's $300 per license.  Oh, but wait, there's another four and a half years before most have to relicense... say $600 per license.  Then when you don't renew, they know who you are, where you are and (if you register) what guns you have...

Always someone positive! I wont even talk about all the registration crap I have put up with and I am having to put up with still. 18 pistols/restricted weapons and 32 long guns... it just never pays to collect...

The good news is that the major paperwork difference between restricted and non-restricted firearms - registration - has been eliminated in C-68 since all 'firearms' must be registered by 2003.  Maybe we'll start to see more people buying ARs.

[pistol]