Canadian GUN REGISTRY BEING USED AS A SHOPPING LIST BY CRIMINALS?

August 3, 2005 – COMPLAINT TO INFORMATION COMMISSIONER WITH COPIES TO THE PRIVACY COMMISSIONER & AUDITOR GENERAL

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We know from reports to our office by individual firearms owners (particularly owners of registered handguns) that there maybe as many as nineteen suspicious thefts in the Edmonton area alone. Most of these reported thefts involved the theft of multiple handguns from each residence and were reported to either the RCMP or the Edmonton Police Service or both. In the police reports filed by the victims, specific mention has been made about their suspicions that the thieves may be obtaining personal and private information about the types of firearms they own from the firearms registry.

It is inconceivable that these theft of handgun reports to the police haven’t raised red flags in the RCMP and in the CFC. At least, there should be reports saying that these suspicions have been investigated and that there was no evidence that the gun registration information systems had been compromised.

It is also just as inconceivable that both the RCMP and the CFC failed to anticipate the possibility that their firearms registration information systems could be compromised by officials with access to the systems or by criminals with the technological means. Both the CFC and the RCMP must have prepared reports and plans on how to deal with such an eventuality. Even CPIC is accessed illegally a few hundred times every year. This matter has also been a constant concern expressed by firearms owners and opponents to the gun registry (inside and outside Parliament) since 1995 and must have been the subject of reports, correspondence, Risk Assessments and Privacy Impact Assessments by both the CFC and the RCMP.

We hope your investigator can find out what these departments are doing about these suspicious firearms thefts and what they have done to allay the longstanding fears of firearms owners. As it is now, the CFC and RCMP responses to our ATI requests leads everyone to believe that they have done nothing.