Police chiefs to hear report supporting gun registry, despite Cheliak's removal

The Canadian Press Posted: 22/08/2010 10:14 PM

EDMONTON - A conference of police chiefs will hear a report stressing the importance of the national long-gun registry, even though the man who co-chaired the committee producing it won't be there. RCMP Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak was originally supposed to present the report just weeks before Parliament resumes debate of a Conservative private member's bill that would kill the national long-gun registry. But Cheliak was recently replaced as the head of the Canadian Firearms Program and sent for French training, meaning he won't be attending this week's Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Edmonton. Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who also sits on the association's special working group on the registry, says the report will instead be presented by Supt. Brad Doucette of the Edmonton police on Monday. Blair says it will be presented in private first, and then to the public immediately afterwards. Blair also says Cheliak received an award in abstentia on Sunday for his work on the gun file.