Edmonton Journal
July 8, 2003

By Steven Edwards

UNITED NATIONS - Canada called for an accelerated effort to track small arms throughout the world, despite massive problems completing its own national gun registry, at a United Nations conference Monday.

"Marking and tracing, record-keeping ... and collection and destruction of small arms" is the responsibility of all governments if they are to conform to UN goals to reduce the number of hand-held weapons in the world, said Robert McDougall, a Foreign Affairs official heading the Canadian delegation.

He also signalled Canada favours greater international efforts at restricting gun ownership.

"Further attention must be given to the question of the civilian possession of arms, particularly those designated for military use."

Ottawa's attempt to register guns owned by Canadians has been costly, controversial and, according to critics, ineffective.

As the deadline for Canadians to register firearms passed last week, those opposed to the registry said the number of weapons not declared runs into the millions.

Opposition critics have lambasted the Liberal government for the cost of its registry program which is expected to exceed $1 billion, despite an initial estimate of only $2 million.

One of Canada's leading critics of the program will address the UN conference tomorrow to warn that Canada's losses will be just a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a worldwide gun control program.

"This hasn't worked in Canada, a developed country with a lot of resources, so similar gun control programs will be even more expensive in less-developed parts of the world," said Tony Bernardo, executive director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action, which fears gun registry is a first step to banning gun ownership by civilians in Canada.

As with all UN programs, rich Western countries pick up most of the tab, including any overrun.

The week-long conference opened Monday to take stock of progress in curbing the spread and use of illegal small weapons in line with a plan of action drawn up at the first meeting on the subject two years ago.

The United Nations estimates that such weapons kill 500,000 people annually.

Opening the conference, Nobuyasu Abe, the UN's new undersecretary general for disarmament, said small arms "are truly a global scourge."

A leading activist group in favour of strict global gun control said in a report Monday that Canada has been among the leading countries pushing for strict implementation of the UN plan.

"Canada has taken a leading role in tackling issues relating to (small arms) proliferation and misuse, and in particular has been supporting a ban on the transfer of military weapons to (non-governmental groups)," said the report, compiled by the International Action Network on Small Arms.

A gun-tracking system devised by the RCMP has been "particularly helpful" for countries in Latin America seeking to trace illicit weapons, explained Owen Greene, a director of peace studies at Bradford University in England.

"They have helped with providing software for computer programs that trace these weapons, and basically facilitated regional information exchange," he said.

Presented at the 2001 conference, the system involves marking guns at the point of manufacture so they can be traced once they are discovered in the hands of arms traffickers or rebels.

Canada has also helped Bulgaria and Romania place greater control over arms exports, and spent $15 million to reduce the number of weapons in West Africa.