Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 09/00) - The outcry against gun registration in the rest of Canada has been loud but most Northerners have uttered only a quiet whisper.

Hunting and firearm use here is high, but instead of shaking their fingers at federal powers in protest, most Northerners have chosen to shake their heads.

"I do think it's silly," said avid hunter Billy Day from Inuvik. "I noticed a lot of people are upset but there's not much we can do."

Even those charged with enforcing the law are unsure of how gun registration affect Northern hunters.

"That's a criminal code issue," said renewable resource officer Michel Labine of Fort Smith. "I'll check a hunter as I did Jan. 31 and won't ask to see a licence or firearm because that's not in my mandate."

Labine said that when resource officers who enforce the Wildlife Act see criminal activity they refer the case to the police.

But at this point the Wildlife Act and the Firearms Act contradict each other on a key point.

"The Wildlife Act allows a loaded magazine as long as nothing is in the barrel, the firearms legislation says there can be nothing in the magazine," he said.

Day said he doesn't hunt much any more but has many guns and registered them over the summer.

"They also wanted me to take a course to learn how to use firearms and I thought, 'it's a little late for me now'," he said.

"I've used them for 63 years."

The RCMP said most NWT residents are willing to take the required administrative steps. But hunters like Day feel the law is unsuited to Northerners.

"I think sometimes people with authority just tell people what to do without asking them what they think," he said.

"In my family I never had to lock up my guns because I taught my boys how to use guns and how to respect them."

Legally, by Jan.1, 2001 everyone must have a valid FAC (firearms acquisition certificate) to possess a gun or buy ammunition. To get an FAC, applicants must submit to a background check. By Jan. 1, 2003 all guns must be registered.

The GNWT supported the Alberta government's unsuccessful constitutional challenge to the legislation.

Justice Minister Jim Antoine said the GNWT is still deciding whether any further action will be taken.

"We participated in the case because we understood the concerns of many Northerner people about the way the federal legislation would affect their lives," he said, after the June 15 ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada.

Northern people seem to have reluctantly accepted the legislation.

"The whole North I think is doing it now - what else can they do," said Fred Mandeville, chair of the Hay River Hunters and Trappers Association.

"It's in the city where they should have guns registered."

Day also doesn't think the legislation makes much sense up here.

"The whiteman brought traps into the country and showed us how to use them," he said.

"Now they want to ban them, they brought in guns and now they want to restrict them."