Does $34,000 or $3 million sound like a lot of money to you? It doesn't to Bloc Quebecois MP Maria Mourani. Mourani won the dubious distinction of having the largest phone bill of all MPs last year at $34,205. Mourani accused Israel of war crimes; and, while she spent a month in Lebanon in 2009, billed taxpayers for the phone calls she made "keeping in touch." This MP also sits on the Public Safety and Security Committee to examine Bill C-391 to abolish the gun registry, but says the registry is money well-spent.

In her reply to a Canadian Taxpayers Federation supporter (who asked Mourani to allow the CTF to testify before the committee in hearings on Bill C-391), Mourani said that claims that the gun registry wastes money are "purely an attempt to win support" by the Conservative Party and the gun lobby, and that the costs would only be $3 million annually. (Note, Alan Rock, the Liberal justice minister that introduced the registry, himself estimated it would cost $2 million. By now it's well past $2 billion).

Mourani continues by saying, "Not all crimes are committed by criminals. Too often, unfortunately, an ordinary person can be transformed into a murderer in a moment of intense anger or during a period of depresion. The registry makes it easier to seize weapons when there are signs that a person may be headed for a crisis."

This reply does not address whatsoever the actual purpose of the original letter, which is the request that CTF Federal Director Kevin Gaudet could testify before the Public Safety and Security Committee. Instead Mourani suggests the CTF supporter should lobby the leaders of the Liberals and NDP to whip the vote and force their MPs to support the gun registry.

If anyone would like to speak to Mourani about the gun registry, her phone bill, or anything else, click here for her contact info. And to sign our petition to end the long-gun registry click here.