Introducing a bill in the Senate is unusual — 98 per cent of bills are presented in the House of Commons.
[...]
Some observers said the move is likely more strategic — the Conservatives can blame the Liberal-dominated Senate if the bill is voted down.
...which is to say they expect it to get voted down in the Senate, which stays Liberal until at least the end of this year.
Another hopeless piece of legislation, then, to substitute for real action? Another purely symbolic gesture to the goobers comprising the Tory political base?
Update: An unusual outburst of knowledge from Kate's comments:
This no news at all. C301 is dead in the water. Will likely be withdrawn, and will certainly fall if voted on.
The opposition choked on the the other housekeeping amendments in the bill, in part because the RCMP is actively trying to rewrite the rules for semi-automatic non-restricted firearms (like the Ruger 10-22, and many of the firearms favoured by trap and bird hunters).
The bill is being replaced by senate bill s-5
(here)
which amends ONLY for non-restricted (long gun)registry only.
However, it doesn't eliminate a registry, just the federal one. The provincial CFOs still have to approve the transfer of any long gun and in order to do so, the gun must be identified to ensure it is in fact eligible to be unregistered. Anyone who believes the CFOs will not create their own database of transferred un-registered long guns is dreaming in technicolor. THAT can be accomplished with any basic database program, including the one in Open Office.
Something not quite clear from this is, while this bill has been introduced today, the vote on bill C-301 ( Garry Breitkreuz's) has been delayed until at least May, and possibly forever.
So one long-shot bill gets exchanged for another? Motion substituting for progress, once again.
