In his 1993 report on the Gun Control Program to Parliament, Auditor General of Canada Denis Desautels wrote:"27.3 As well, our review of the new regulations indicated that important data, needed to assess the potential benefits and future effectiveness of the regulations, were not available at the time the regulations were drafted." The Auditor General was referring to Kim Campbell's gun control regulations in Bill C-17. The Justice Department defended their lack of evidence with this statement: "In any event, the legislation and regulations were driven by clear public interest considerations, which needed to be acted upon despite the absence of precise data." The Auditor General went on to recommend: "27.50 The Department of Justice should undertake a rigorous evaluation of the gun control program." They never did.
In 1995, the newly elected Liberal Government also ignored the Auditor General's sage advice when it rammed its two-billion-dollar gun registration and gun owner licensing regime (Bill C-68) through Parliament, again 'despite the absence of precise data.'
