XPost: can.politics, mtl.general   
   From: slamspam@astraweb.com   
      
   If Quebec is not allowed to keep its long gun registry, the few Conservative   
   votes left in that province will be gone.   
   If Quebec *is* allowed to keep its long gun registry, it will spur other   
   provinces to re-establish theirs.   
      
   Either way, the Harper government is going to be losing on the long gun issue,   
   come Friday.   
   ___________________________________   
   — The Canadian Press — Mar 23 2015   
      
      
   Supreme Court to say whether Quebec can keep part of the defunct gun registry   
      
      
   OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada says it will rule Friday on Quebec's   
   effort to preserve part of the defunct long-gun registry.   
      
   The Harper government's law to end the registry ordered the destruction of all   
   records of long guns, but Quebec objected, saying it wanted to set up its own   
   registry, using the federal data as a starting point.   
      
   The province went to court to preserve the records on Quebec-owned rifles and   
   shotguns.   
      
   A Quebec Superior Court ruling in September 2012 sided with the province, but   
   the Court of Appeal reversed that decision.   
      
   In November 2013, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Quebec's appeal and ordered   
   that the records be preserved pending its decision.   
      
   The records from the rest of the country have already been destroyed.   
      
   While the Superior Court found that the federal government could not   
   unilaterally destroy the data, the appeal judges found errors in the reasoning.   
      
   They said the federal government was entitled to handle the records as it saw   
   fit.   
      
   In its argument before the Supreme Court, the federal government said the   
   records were collected and kept under the sole control of the registrar of   
   firearms, a federal public servant.   
      
   "Quebec has no right to the records and cannot demand their transfer in order   
   to create a provincial registry 'as it sees fit,'" the federal factum said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)