Gun Registry and Data Destruction

My holidays have been delayed, much to my frustration! But on the plus side, I was at my desk for the Quebec Court of Appeal's decision in the gun registry appeal: Canada (Procureur général) c. Québec (Procureur général), 2013 QCCA 1138.

I criticized the decision in an oped for the Montreal Gazette yesterday. Here is a taste:

The court of appeal’s neglect of “cooperative federalism” led it to these two errors. Despite its admonition that the principle is an important “interpretive tool,” it did not use it. Properly applied, the principle would have pointed toward a narrower interpretation of the scope of the power to repeal legislation and of the power to destroy data in the original Firearms Act. The legal course consistent with this principle would have been to delete the records in the registry gradually, rather than in one fell swoop, or even better, to send them to the provinces.

These errors of law should be corrected by the Supreme Court. Permission to appeal will be sought by Quebec, and the country’s highest court ought to grant it in order to rectify the flaws in the reasoning of the appeal court.

My previous posts on the case (in reverse order) are collected below:

 

http://administrativelawmatters.blogspot.ca/2013/03/some-thoughts-on-oral-argument-long-gun.html

http://administrativelawmatters.blogspot.ca/2013/03/more-on-unconstitutionality-of.html

 

http://administrativelawmatters.blogspot.ca/2012/09/data-destruction-and-public-law-part-ii.html

 

http://administrativelawmatters.blogspot.ca/2012/09/data-destruction-and-public-law-part-i.html

http://administrativelawmatters.blogspot.ca/2012/05/why-abolishing-long-gun-registry-is.html

More on the Unconstitutionality of the Destruction of Gun Data

Next week, the Quebec Court of Appeal will hear argument in the Gun Registry Destruction case: Québec (Procureur général) c. Canada (Procureur général), 2012 QCCS 4202 (unofficial English translation of the first-instance decision).

I have previously explained why the attempted destruction of the data by the federal government is unconstitutional (see my posts here, here and here). Having read the written submissions of both parties to the Court of Appeal, I have some further thoughts.