The government has made some vague promises of safer streets and safer homes by introducing mandatory registration of rifles and shotguns. The Minister of Justice has never explained how cracking down on law-abiding citizens is going to prevent the criminal misuse of firearms. Obviously, criminals are not going to register anything they own. I believe the legislation is nothing more than a very thin smoke screen to offer a false sense of safety to Canadians who are 16731 concerned about the growing crime problem in this country and to take pressure off a government that seems unwilling to do anything meaningful about it. There is a tremendous cost involved in the legislation.
Smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death.
The immediate causes of death are a wide variety of cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Yet 48 million young Americans still smoke. Twenty-four billion packs of cigarettes are purchased each year. As 70 per cent of smokers begin before the age of 18 years, discouraging smoking among the young is essential if we are to cope with this problem. It has been shown that the young prefer the most heavily advertised brands.