One Mouth, Two Tongues

French Canadians have an expression that goes, "She has one mouth, two tongues." It means that somebody contradicts themself or says two opposite things. It certainly applied to Phil McColeman yesterday. First, he behaved like a sore loser after losing the vote on the gun registry, which has proven to be an invaluable crime-fighting tool. In Parliament he said:

Twenty coalition MPs originally supported the simple and straightforward bill to scrap the long gun registry, but under pressure from their Ottawa bosses, they turned their backs on their constituents and voted to keep the registry. One of those flip-floppers…

On this side of the House, we do not believe in treating law-abiding hunters, farmers and sports shooters as criminals and we will continue to work to scrap the $2 billion wasteful registry.

Well you know what, Phil? If I don't register and insure my car I can be charged on summary conviction and have to pay a fine. In other words, I'm a "criminal." That's because a car can be used as a deadly weapon and can cause damage to property, in addition to being an invaluable tool. Kind of like a gun, don't you think?

Then, Phil spoke in favour of a nonsensical tough-on-crime bill regarding prisoner transfers, despite the fact that crime has been decreasing for decades in Canada:

…we have taken action on the economy and on many other fronts including cracking down on crime. In particular, we have introduced several measures to crack down on violent gun crimes.
…
The bottom line, as I mentioned, is that Canadians want a justice system that works.
…
[This bill], therefore, reflects this government's commitment we have made to Canadians to stand up for victims and to ensure our streets, our homes, and our playgrounds are safer places.
…
This act would ensure the protection of our society is given paramount consideration

So instead of preventing violent gun crime by making people register their guns, Phil would rather punish people after they've committed the crime. In terms of considering the victim, I think that your average victim would rather not be a victim in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Just ask MP Scott Simms what it's like to have someone in your family killed by a gun. He is one of the "flip-floppers" who voted in favour of the gun registry. If we can prevent even a single death, he said, the registry is worth it. He didn't mention punishment after the fact.

(Mr. Simms also doesn't go around posting tasteless photos of himself with assault rifles.)