1997 RCMP Commissioner J.P.R.
Murray's Letter
On July 21, 1997, RCMP Commissioner J.P.R. Murray
wrote a letter to the Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney
General of Canada regarding the misrepresentation of the 1993 RCMP
statistics for firearms involved in crime used by the Justice
Department..
RCMP Statistics stated that 73 firearms were involved
in violent crimes investigated by the RCMP in 1993. The Justice
Department were using the figure of 623 firearms involved in violent
crimes for justification for increased gun control.
"We determined that our statistics showed that
there were 73 firearms involved in a violent crime compared to the
Department of Justice findings of 623 firearms involved in a violent
crime."
"Furthermore, the RCMP investigated 88,162 actual
violent crimes during 1993, where only 73 of these offences, or 0.08%,
involved the use of firearms."
Here's the entire 4 page letter from RCMP
Commissioner J.P.R. Murray.
Garry Breitkreuz's Press Releases on this issue:
RCMP Commissioner says Justice Department Misrepresented
Statistics for Firearms and Violent Crime During Debate of C-68
For Immediate Delivery
March 9, 1998
Ottawa -- "Last July, the Commissioner of the RCMP accused officials
in the Department of Justice with misrepresenting RCMP firearms
statistics by overstating the number of firearms involved in violent
crimes. He also criticized the use of these false and misleading
statistics during the debate of the still controversial Bill C-68, the
Firearms Act," revealed Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville.
The Saskatchewan MP released copies of the Commissioner’s damning
letter which was obtained through an Access to Information Request. Here
are some excerpts from RCMP Commissioner J.P.R. Murray’s letter to the
Deputy Minister of the Department of Justice dated July 21, 1997:
"The RCMP investigated 88,162 actual violent crimes
during 1993, where only 73 of these offences, or 0.08%, involved the use
of firearms."
"‘The Firearms Smuggling Working Group was concerned
with the number of long guns involved in crime.’ This statement is not
significant when we consider that in 1993, the RCMP investigated 333
actual homicide offences, including attempts, but only 6 of these
offences involved the use of firearms according to the statistics
provided to the Firearms Control Task Group."
"We determined that our statistics showed that there
were 73 firearms involved in a violent crime compared to the
Department of Justice findings of 623 firearms involved in a
violent crime."
"It is of particular concern that the Minister of
Justice and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police relied on these
statistics while Bill C-68 was being processed in Parliament as
evidenced by statements in the report, ‘Illegal Firearm Use in Canada."
"The incorrect reporting of RCMP statistics could
cause the wrong public policy or laws to be developed and cause
researchers to draw erroneous conclusions. Considering the data is
clearly marked as belonging to the RCMP, we must accept ownership and
responsibility for the harm the data may cause. For these reasons,
something must be done to remove it from circulation."
"We depend on public servants to implement laws passed by Parliament,
however, we don’t expect them to manipulate RCMP statistics to help
politicians achieve questionable political objectives. How will we ever
know when Justice Department officials are telling the truth? Justice
Minister Anne McLellan has to tell us if she and her predecessor, Allan
Rock, knew about and condoned the use of these false statistics by their
officials. Public servants should not be playing politics." concluded
Breitkreuz.
For a copy of the RCMP Commissioner’s Letter, please contact:
The Office of
Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.
Yorkton: (306) 782-3309
Ottawa: (613) 992-4394
RCMP Won't Swear Affidavit That Firearms Statistics Introduced by
the Justice Department in Alberta Court of Appeal are "Accurate"
For Immediate Delivery
April 2, 1998
Ottawa Yesterday, Members of Parliament Jack Ramsay, Garry
Breitkreuz and Peter MacKay, met with officials from the RCMP and the
Department of Justice to hear them "clarify" misleading firearms and
violent crime statistics published in a federal government report,
The Illegal Movement of Firearms in Canada published in May 1995.
"It became clear as I listened to the explanation of the government
bureaucrats that their report was grossly misleading," said Breitkreuz.
All three MPs took Department of Justice officials to task over how
they presented their data in Table 3 of the report which is titled,
Firearms Involved in Crime: Type of Firearm Recovered According to
Offence.Under questioning, the Justice Department officials
admitted that many of the firearms recovered by police were not actually
"involved in crime" as the title of the table suggests. "They confessed
that using the word ‘involved’ in the table was not the best choice of
words," said Breitkreuz.
"The RCMP officer would not say that the Justice Department’s
presentation of firearms statistics was ‘accurate’, only that it was
‘reasonable’. Breitkreuz declared, "You don’t put together statistics to
make them look ‘reasonable’. You gather statistics to reflect the facts.
Reasonableness is a very subjective view. Reasonable in whose eyes?
Canadians need accurate statistics from their government, not ones
bureaucrats think are reasonable! There’s obviously still a problem
when the RCMP advise they would not be willing to swear an affidavit in
court attesting to the accuracy of the RCMP statistics used in the
government report and filed six times in the Alberta Court of Appeal,"
said Breitkreuz. The RCMP’s excuse for not swearing an affidavit: "We
didn’t reconstruct the data set."
"Now the government, Justice Department officials and the RCMP are
saying the statistics presented in RCMP Commissioner Murray’s letter
dated July 21, 1997 are wrong," reported Breitkreuz. The RCMP
Commissioner clearly stated, "The RCMP investigated 88,162 actual
violent crimes during 1993, where only 73 of these offences, or 0.08%,
involved the use of firearms." During the meeting the RCMP official said
it is "unreasonable" to say that only 73 offences involved firearms. On
March 31st in response to questioning in the House of
Commons, Eleni Bakopanos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Justice said, "The Member for Yorkton-Melville indicated that only 73 of
the 88,000 violent crimes investigated by the RCMP involved firearms.
This is simply not possible."
"The presentation of the number of firearms involved in violent crime
in Justice Department’s 1995 report are false. The government says the
statistics in the RCMP Commissioner’s letter are false. Does anyone in
the government know what the truth is? The federal government used
this false firearms information in at least six affidavits filed in the
Alberta Court of Appeal. When will this false and misleading information
be corrected in court and in public?" asked Breitkreuz.
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For more information, please contact:
The Office of
Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.
Yorkton: (306) 782-3309
Ottawa: (613) 992-4394
