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MONTREAL — A Quebec court has sided with the Harper government: It says the province has no right to the federal long-gun registry data.

Quebec’s highest court has ruled against the provincial government, which is trying to save data for that province from being destroyed.

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In its verdict, the Quebec Court of Appeal also ruled that the provincial government should pay the court costs for the case.

“Quebec has no property right in the data,” said the 14-page verdict.

“The data does not belong to Quebec, and the provinces have no control over it… The Parliament of Canada, which considers the data at issue to be pointless and inefficient and believes that its existence in a registry infringes the right to privacy, can certainly decide to stop compiling and preserving that information.”

The verdict marks the latest round in a legal battle over an emotional topic in Quebec, where the battle for gun control intensified in the wake of the 1989 Polytechnique massacre.