On Tuesday afternoon, Minister Marco Mendicino appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU).
Rumours said Mendicino would introduce new amendments to Bill C-21, or at least introduce an “evergreen” definition of “assault-style firearms”. He did neither.
Conservative MPs Raquel Dancho (Kildonan—St. Paul, MB), Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB) and Glen Motz (Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB) came prepared for this meeting, unlike the Minister or his staff.
Raquel Dancho
“How common is it now to sentence someone to 10 years, the current maximum?” Ms. Dancho asked.
“I’ve worked on the front lines of the criminal justice system as a federal prosecutor,” Mendicino pontificated, “I will tell you that I have confidence in the judiciary to exercise good judgment when it comes to making sure that we separate those gun traffickers from our communities when we need to do so.”
Apparently the judiciary doesn’t believe that we have a need to “separate those gun traffickers from our communities.”
“Since the liberals formed government in 2015,” Ms. Dancho said, “not one person has been awarded the current 10-year maximum sentence.”
Minister Mendicino’s office was the source of her information.
Dane Lloyd
“In the case of the Portapique killer,” asked Dane Lloyd, “how would a gun ban have prevented somebody who smuggled firearms and didn’t have a license from possessing these firearms?”
Mendicino sputtered a non-answer.
“Minister, I had a direct question for you,” Lloyd said, cutting him off. “How would a gun ban have prevented the Portapique killer from accessing illegally smuggled firearms without a license?”
“The short answer,” Mendicino said, “is that by putting in place a ban, we reduce the possibility and the likelihood of there being any of these types of firearms in our communities.”
FACT: Three of the killer’s four illegal guns were smuggled into Canada by the killer.
But Mr. Lloyd wasn’t finished.
“Given that the killer was in possession of illegal firearms without a license, how could a ban, if they’re not being enforced, if the police – who knew that the Portapique killer had access to illegal firearms and weren’t acting – how would a ban do anything to prevent criminals from accessing firearms?”
Mendicino sputtered more Trudeau-esque nonsense before fleeing the Committee. Assistant Deputy Minister Talal Dakalbab picked up where his Minister left off.
“Can manufacturers legally import and distribute firearms in Canada without the approval of the RCMP and classification?” Dane Lloyd asked.
“If the gun that is manufactured in Canada,” replied Dakalbab, “they don’t require to verify with the RCMP to verify the classification.”
Dane Lloyd asked the question about importing firearms again, and received another answer about guns manufactured in Canada from Assistant Deputy Minister Dakalbab.
RCMP “has no evidence” and “does not track that information”
Dane Lloyd then spoke to the 10,000 joule muzzle energy prohibition that bans very expensive antique firearms used for hunting big game.
“Do you have any evidence,” Mr. Lloyd asked, “that these particular [antique] firearms that have been used for hunting purposes have been used to commit crimes in Canada that would justify their inclusion on this list?”
“We don’t have any evidence. We do not have that information,” said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Bryan Larkin.
“Commissioner Larkin, in 2021, that [StatsCan] study determined that a long gun, a rifle, or a shotgun, was involved or was present at 0.47% of all violent crimes,” Dane Lloyd stated.
“Out of that percentage, 0.47%, how many of those would be classified as an assault-style firearm?”
“We do not track that information, so we’d have to actually go back and do some homework and, uh, we could attempt to respond to that, but we don’t have that information available,” said Deputy Commissioner Larkin.
Glen Motz
“Did anyone on this committee provide the minister or the Ministry of Public Safety,” asked Glen Motz, “with any documentation or evidence that C-21’s proposed [changes] were actually going to make a difference, a positive difference on public safety in this country? Was there any evidence to support it?”
“It is important to bear in mind,” Dakalbab said, “that the bill is really a step among any many other pillars that are important. And I do believe that Bill C 21 is one of the steps, but not the full spectrum.”
“Well, I would disagree with that assessment and I can,” said Glen Motz. “I don’t see, and I’ve never seen, anyone produce any credible evidence that suggests that going after law abiding Canadian firearm owners will have any positive impact on public safety.
“We are all, everyone in this committee, all of the country, including the millions of firearm owners, are concerned and support the idea of improving public safety. This bill does not do that. And we’ve had witnesses at this committee who we thought would be very strong on aspects of the bill. They have said quite the opposite.”
Liberal Dumpster Fire Blazes On
The Liberal dumpster-fire that is Bill C-21 continues to burn and nobody, not even Marco Mendicino, seems interested in putting out that fire.
The CSSA and Canada’s 2.2 million licensed firearm owners are grateful to MPs Raquel Dancho, Dane Lloyd and Glen Motz for their dedication to the truth and for their diligence in holding this Liberal government to account.
You give us hope that common sense and integrity may, one day, once again grace the government side of the House of Commons again. It will never happen under this Liberal government, as today’s SECU meeting showed all too well.
Source:
SECU #62, April 25, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQ0yQgqpjU
Imagine if Firearm Prohibition Orders were Actually Enforced