Title : Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor
link : Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor
Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor
For years, hunters and farmers in this country have voiced their displeasure with registering their long guns.
Even so, the province of Quebec has vowed to resurrect a provincial version of the failed federal registry — but one former band councillor in Kitigan Zibi, north of Ottawa, says he has no intention to add his firearms to the list.
"I think we, as First Nations people, should have been consulted by Quebec, since it affects constitutional rights that we exercise on our territory," said Joel Odjick.
"I think they're out of their jurisdiction ... it shows that we're not often taken into consideration in things we should be consulted on. To be quite frank, I think there really should have been a conversation between us and the province before this took place."
Deadline has already passed
The deadline for Quebec residents to register their firearms was Tuesday. And if preliminary numbers are any indication, compliance rates have been soft.
One of the major obstacles for the government plan has been the reticence of the province's Indigenous communities. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador says the province's approach to its soon-to-be- implemented registry does not address First Nations issues, jurisdictions or rights to traditional and subsistence practices.
According to Odjick, when the provincial registry was announced in 2016, the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador offered to create a registry for Indigenous gun owners — but was ignored.
Another problem with the registry, Odjick said, is that information about registration is only available in French, and many communities speak English or Indigenous languages.
Leaving the province to hunt
Bobby Patton, a Mohawk from Kahnawake, Que., said he'd prefer to have a registry within his community or with other First Nations.
"There's going to be infringements on our traditional hunting rights for sustenance and it's going to have a large impact," he said.
Patton said he's already had bad experiences hunting in the province and now goes to New Brunswick or Ontario.
"Before we used have much more land to hunt and trap for our sustenance. But now we've got towers all over the place, highrises, highways and industrial zones — and it's all been on our traditional land," said Patton.
"So [for] modern-day Natives, what are you going to do? They're going to travel where the hunting grounds are, and that's what needs to be respected."
Quebec is the only province requiring that long guns — including shotguns and rifles — be registered. Gun owners who don't face penalties of up to $5,000.
Thus Article Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor
You are now reading the article Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor with the link address https://coneknews.blogspot.com/2019/02/quebec-out-of-their-jurisdiction-with.html
0 Response to "Quebec 'out of their jurisdiction' with long-gun registry, says former band councillor"
Post a Comment