Why is Stephen Harper ignoring the police?

So a couple of years ago, Canada signed a UN treaty to control the trafficking in firearms. One of the provisions of the treaty was that countries agree that small arms be marked with the country they were made in or imported to.

Canada’s police associations support this initiative so they can identify smuggled guns that are used in crimes.

So surprise then when the NDP’s public safety critic Penny Priddy yesterday asked the government why they ignored the police and stalled implementing the treaty for another two years!

Anyone expecting a sensible response from Day didn’t get one:

“ . . . there are significant concerns that go with that, which have, in our view, questionable effects on reducing gun crime. We want to consult, not just with groups and organizations in Canada, but with the European community, which is being very slow to implement this because it has concerns. Liberal MPs have raised it with us. That is why the previous Liberal government deferred this. We will continue to look at it.”

So what’s going on? The NDP and the police have it figured out: the Harperites have caved to the gun lobby. Groups like this one.

But of course, the Liberals have nothing at all to say on this. They signed the treaty in 2002, wrote the regulations in 2005 and when they were to come into effect in April 2006, they irresponsibly delayed it for another two years so it would fall into Harper’s lap.

When so many of the guns that are used in crimes in Canada are illegally smuggled across the border, why is Stephen Harper ignoring the police?