Trudeau’s Curious Choices to “Keep Canadians Safe”

Justin Trudeau says his highest priority is to “keep Canadians safe” from the scourge of “gun violence.”

Justin Trudeau also says anyone who wants to end their own life should be permitted to do so, and his government has significantly increased access to assisted suicide, bizarrely named MAID.

Through MAID, Justin Trudeau’s government helps Canadians end their lives at a rate 4.45 times higher than the United States’ firearms suicide rate.[i]

Rose Finlay, a 33-year-old quadriplegic, applied for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), and was told it would take 6 to 8 months for her application for the essential basic care she needs to be approved.[ii]

Yet Finlay can end her life via MAID in just 90 days.[iii]

Is this Justin Trudeau’s idea of “keeping Canadians safe”?

Trudeau’s disconnect from reality doesn’t end there.

His rationale for banning semi-automatic rifles and shotguns on May 1, 2020, and freezing handgun sales and transfers on October 21, 2022, is to “keep Canadians safe” from the scourge of “gun violence.”

Yet he decreased penalties for gun smuggling and a host of other gun-related criminal offences.[iv]

“With handgun violence increasing across Canada, it is our duty to take urgent action to remove these deadly weapons from our communities. Today, we’re keeping more guns out of our communities, and keeping our kids safe,” Trudeau opined.[v]

Under “Quick Facts” – aka Liberal-Approved Lies – Trudeau’s press release states, “Handguns were used in 59 per cent of violent crime involving firearms between 2009 and 2020, and there are 70 per cent more handguns in Canada today than in 2010.”[vi]

Trudeau conveniently ignores the fact that, according to the Toronto Police Service, 85% of all “crime guns” seized by the TPS were smuggled into Canada.[vii]

The government not-so-subtly implies a correlation between violent crime (shootings and murders committed by drug dealers, gang members and other criminals) with 2.3 million Canadians who successfully completed government-mandated firearms safety training (with written and practical exams), passed an RCMP background check and were issued a federal permit to possess and use firearms.

Drug dealers, gang members and other criminals do none of the above, yet the Trudeau government disingenuously links lawful firearms ownership with the actions of criminals using smuggled and stolen guns.

“Recent changes to Canada’s gun policies have been shaped largely by political considerations and wedge politics, not by the government sincerely considering public safety research and concerns,” wrote Noah Schwartz and Tim Thurley in their report, “Gun Policy in Canada: Aiming Off Target.”[viii]

“We recommend that the government remove the freeze on legal handgun transfers, sales, and inheritances, or at minimum create significant exemptions to allow participants to fully engage in the shooting sports, including through equipment replacement. The existing measures are draconian and do not mirror those in even highly restrictive peer nations such as Australia.”[ix]

Unfortunately, the Trudeau government will continue to ignore the facts and the recommendations made by Noah Schwartz and Tim Thurley.

Bizarrely, ending your life with the government’s help and blessing will continue to be easier than accessing the essential health care you need to maintain a basic quality of life.

Our beloved veterans, police, firefighters and others struggle with PTSD, yet there never seems to be sufficient resources to help these heroes.  The mentally ill, homeless and eating from garbage cans, wander the streets of our cities but the means to heal them never seems to materialize.  Yet the solution is to give them more drugs until they die on a snow covered sidewalk or are killed in a violent attack?

 

Understand, or course, that the CSSA has no position on assisted suicide. It is simply outside our wheelhouse.  But we can see what we see.

 

From our view, it seems upside down when we – as a nation – place as high a priority to end someone’s life  as we do to save it.

 

Sources:

[i] https://crimeresearch.org/2023/07/the-assisted-suicide-rate-in-canada-is-4-45-times-the-firearms-suicide-rate-in-the-united-states/

[ii] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rose-finlay-medically-assisted-dying-odsp-1.6868917

[iii] https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html

[iv] https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-reduces-sentence-for-serious-gun-crimes

[v] https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2022/10/21/freezing-market-handguns

[vi] ibid

[vii] https://globalnews.ca/news/8845131/ontario-crime-guns-new-data-top-us-source-states/

[viii] https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/20230725_Aiming-off-target-SchwartzHurley_PAPER-v2.pdf

[ix] ibid