A Canadian Samizdata reader alerted Samizdata to a story in Canada’s National Post. The Post reports that costs for Canada’s gun registry have overrun by a factor of 500. No, that’s not an overrun of 500% (which would be bad enough) but a final cost of five hundred times the original estimate. Did I say final? I meant cost so far; it’s not final yet.
Well, at least Canadians are safe now. Only they’re not. He adds:
“Herewith is another example of why gun registration programs don’t work. Canada has a history different from the US with respect to firearms (which explains, in large part, why this became law in the first place). I think that violent, gun-related crime in Canada’s urban centers has probably increased since 1995 (but I don’t have any hard evidence to support this assertion). I can say that, in Toronto, there was a series of gang related shooting in October where every weekend (for a month) different gang members ended up dead in different parts of the city. Further to this, the gun control law has had no impact on the Hell’s Angels in Montreal.”
As chance would have it I had posted earlier today about how Simon Jenkins of the Times should not believe all that Michael Moore says about Canada being a paradise of trust. Moore is right about one thing. America does have an anomalously high murder rate. But all the strategies put in place by countries who boast that their lower murder rate is the result of gun control, and that they therefore need more of it, keep on failing. Expensively.
That would have been a good sign-off line, but I’ve one more thing to say. I was struck by the sentiments of Allan Rock, a Liberal Party bigshot who the opposition attacked for keeping mum about the spiralling costs of the gun registry. The report said:
Mr. Rock defended the registry, saying it has “saved lives” and reinforced “Canadian values” by distinguishing Canada from the United States on the issue of gun control.
Were his actual words as thin and shabby as this paraphrase implies? Does he really see mere difference to the United States as a merit in itself?
Were his actual words as thin and shabby as this paraphrase implies? Does he really see mere difference to the United States as a merit in itself?
Yes, it is exactly as bad as it sounds and he is. I caught a news-bite last night on TV..
Allan Rock is a full blown statist happy-clappy transnazi. He was the Miniister of Justice when this boondoogle was started. He is now the Minister of Health,,, and is possibly the 2nd runner in the race to replace Jean Cretin as Prime Minister.
From the National Post, Dec 4. front page: (nationalpost.com)
“Canadians have been kept in the dark about the skyrocketing costs of the government’s $1-billion gun registration system, which has run to hundreds of times the initial estimate of $2-million, Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, reported yesterday.”
The *really good* bit:
“We stopped out audit when iniitial review indicated that there were significant shortcomings in the information provided. We concluded that the information does not fairly present the cost of the program to the government.” Sher said it was the first time her office had discontinued an audit because it could not get the information it needed to complete a job.
In other words, no-one can actually tell what i it really costs.
Meanwhile, back in the trenches,, 2 20-something men were attcked by 3 knife-wielding robbers outside a subway (underground) station in Toronto. One is now in hospital having been stabbed in the chest.
Must-isseu concealed carry laws anyone?
Geoff
Might I add that we’re not getting a gold plated registry — it’s the same ol’ useless registry, just horribly horribly expensive. And the ball’s just getting rolling…
How many police officers could have been hired to actually catch criminals for that amount?
It seems that many policies of the government of Canada has as its driving force nihlistic Anti-americanism.
I lived in eastern Canada for a while. Beautiful country, nice people, awful winters.
However, while I was there, I noticed that every Canadian seemed to share the same unspoken, overriding nationalist sentiment (not that Canadians would actually admit to being nationalists, that’s something those arrogant Yanks do). It was the general idea that no matter how bad life was in Canada, it was *always* worse in the States.
Example: The Canadian Health System is horribly inefficient.
Canadian retort: Oh yeah? Well, at least no one goes without health insurance, like in the US!
And so on.
This is the first time I’ve seen it expressed openly by a high government official.
Kevin
Mr. Rock’s statements are, in fact, that bad.
Politicians serving in this Government’s Cabinet have shown a tremendous lack of respect toward our neighbours to the south. Canadians (and their politicians) have always had an ambivalent attitude towards the US (which can likely be traced back to the days of Loyalists fleeing north at the time of the American Revolution) but comments such as those of Mr. Rock show how foolish these politicians can be.
A Federal programme is C$1Billion in the hole and the best Mr. Rock can say is that it somehow represents Canadian values by distinguishing it from the US. Rubbish.
I suppose we might have used that extra billion dollars to properly outfit and support the Canadian military so that it could better assist the Allies in taking the fight to the enemy.
Mr. Rock’s statements are, in fact, that bad.
Politicians serving in this Government’s Cabinet have shown a tremendous lack of respect toward our neighbours to the south. Canadians (and their politicians) have always had an ambivalent attitude towards the US (which can likely be traced back to the days of Loyalists fleeing north at the time of the American Revolution) but comments such as those of Mr. Rock show how foolish these politicians can be.
A Federal programme is C$1Billion in the hole and the best Mr. Rock can say is that it somehow represents Canadian values by distinguishing it from the US. Rubbish.
I suppose we might have used that extra billion dollars to properly outfit and support the Canadian military so that it could better assist the Allies in taking the fight to the enemy.
I have heard that people in Alberta are different from people in the rest of Canada (but I have never been there – so I do not know).
I have also heard that responsible Canadian fire arm owners (so different from the “stupid” Americans) that Mr Moore goes to meet have something in common with Mr Moore.
Something that Mr Moore does not have in common with the Rev J. Jackson.
However, I have not seen the film (and do not intend to) so this may not be true.
There *are* Canadians who are not anti-american, but since very few of us are in/on the media, you do not hear about us, but I am one.
The Liberals are so reflexively anti-American, that when John Manley (the deputy Prime Minister and also a contestant to replace J. Cretin as P.M.) made some comments that Canadians should not always disagree with US policy, another Liberal backbencher said (something like) “It is not a foreign policy to say ‘yes’ to everything the US wants”.
Of course, the fuckwit missed the irony of the fact that saying ‘no’ to everything the US wants is ALSO not a foreign policy.
There is a lot of vacuous sanctimony in the government and civil service.
The fact that no-one will accept any responsibility for the registry boondoggle is just one example.
Of the approximate $650 Million Cdn spent so far, only about $80 Million was *actually* debated about. The usual route was a one-line Supplementary Estimates request, tabled and passed without debate or mention…..
That will change. There is already pressure on the Prime Minister’s office about this sort of thing.
But it is bad…
Geoff
Last night (Saturday) they were talking about Revenue Canada auditing some Junior A League out west out west and Don Cherry says, “Well, they need the money for the gun registry.”