Ottawa

BTC: Names please

From Friday’s Globe story on the bus beheading. 

“Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called Thursday’s incident horrific and said his heart goes to the family of the victim. However, he played down the possibility of enacting tough security measures in Canada’s bus terminals, similar to what exists in airports…

“He also dismissed talk by some opposition MPs of a ‘knife registry,’ saying that millions of them are bought each year simply for kitchen use. He added that there are already provisions in the Criminal Code against crimes and assaults.”

As a Liberal blogger asks, who are these unnamed opposition MPs lobbying for a knife registry? Let them present themselves so that they may be good and truly mocked.

A Google search finds nothing. But a quick look through Parliamentary records shows two uses of the phrase “knife registry.”

The most recent mention was sarcastically made May 15, 2007 at a committee hearing by Daniel Petit, a Conservative and, therefore, a government member.

The last opposition MP to raise the specter of a knife registry? That would be Conservative Gord Brown, who made equally ironic mention of such a thing in asking a question on April 15, 2005. Brown, not to be confused with the man who is presently running Britain, now joins Petit on the government backbenches.

But perhaps the Minister is blessed with better sources. His portfolio, mind you, does include CSIS.

(All of which assumes the accuracy of the Globe account. The Post’s version makes no mention of our mystery members.)

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