The Written Word: Rafe Mair Sept. 15th
By Rafe Mair
Friday, September 15, 2006 11:15 AM
It’s sad to see Jean Charest, Quebec’s Premier, on the political ropes, turning the Montreal shooting catastrophe into raw politics.
It’s more than sad, it’s unforgivable.
When terrible things like this happen it is a big part of the elected official’s job to console the victims and people in general but to bring up the gun registry is cruel and divisive.
Everyone with half a brain knows that gun registries are not going to stop those who want one from getting one. This gun was probably registered. If it wasn’t, no difference for there is a black market in hand guns as there is for any illegal or controlled commodity. One only has to look back at Prohibition in the US which resulted in more people drinking and more whisky being made and sold than ever before.
Jean Charest is in deep political trouble at home. Polls show him a country kilometer behind the Parti Quebecois. He knows that he has Stephen Harper by the gonads because the PM and his party are so opposed to the present registry, which opposition resonates across rural Canada where his real political strengths lie. If he doesn’t leap on Charest’s side and call for tougher registration rules the Quebec Premier can say to voters (who also vote federally it hardly needs adding) “see … those Tories are hard hearted politicians who put their politic ahead of their duty to the masses” costing them federal seats in Quebec. If Harper makes any noises about tougher gun laws, he could lose enough votes in rural Canada to cost him the next election.
Jean Charest knows that these terrible scenarios – the Lepine horrors, Tabor Alberta, Columbine High and last week’s shooting in Montreal have nothing whatsoever to do with licensing guns but he is in enough political trouble to know he needs a way out and thinks making political hay out of an unspeakable horror will help.
And politicians wonder why people don’t care for them very much.
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The sooner the better.
It will be a great day for Canada, in my opinion, and may even save a few lives.