Recent remarks from Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell highlight what Canada’s lawful firearms community has argued for years: Ottawa’s Firearms Confiscation Compensation Program is political theatre that cannot make our streets safer.
Campbell cut through the rhetoric with one crucial fact: 90 percent of crime guns seized in Toronto trace back to the United States. The remainder are typically untraceable.
What about legal firearms?
According to Campbell, “I can’t think of a time when a legal gun has been used in a crime in this city, not one. It’s not legal gun owners involved in crimes in the city of Toronto. It’s a small number of thugs.”[i]
Any government that claims to base policy on evidence would drop this confiscation program in a heartbeat.
But this Liberal government, like Trudeau’s before it, insists on pouring hundreds of millions into confiscating legally-owned property from vetted, law-abiding citizens while violent criminals walk free under a revolving-door bail system.
Crime Guns vs. Political Targets
The contrast between the government’s priorities and real-world policing is stark and deep.
Lawful owners of restricted and prohibited firearms are among the most vetted of all Canadians. Their guns are registered, stored in safes, and subject to continuous eligibility checks.
These firearms are not fueling gang violence in Toronto or elsewhere.
Meanwhile, criminals smuggle illegal firearms across the U.S. border with relative ease, then use them to settle scores on city streets.
A recent Leger poll confirms that Canadians recognize this reality: 55 percent want the government to focus on cross-border smuggling. Only 26 percent support the confiscation of legally-owned guns.[ii]
The people, the police on the ground, and even the RCMP’s National Police Federation all agree: targeting lawful gun owners diverts resources from where they’re most urgently needed – stopping the flow of smuggled firearms.
A Case Study in Futility
The absurdity of Ottawa’s policy becomes even clearer in light of recent events in Brampton. Peel Regional Police pulled over a vehicle and found a loaded firearm along with drugs.
The man behind the wheel?
Ricardo Dawson, a 32-year-old from Toronto with a lifetime firearms ban due to a prior conviction for possessing an illegal gun.
Think about that.
The accused was already prohibited for life from owning or even touching a firearm.
Yet here he was, allegedly carrying a loaded weapon while also involved in drug activity.
This is the face of “gun crime” in Canada: repeat offenders who flout every law on the books.
No amount of door-to-door confiscation from vetted hunters, collectors, or sport shooters will stop criminals like Dawson. We’re fools to believe otherwise.
But strengthening bail provisions, enforcing existing firearms prohibitions, and ensuring that those who use illegal firearms face certain, serious jail time?
That will.
Priorities That Save Lives
Campbell is right to call the federal program a “waste of resources.”
Six years and over $100 million later, Ottawa still lacks a clear plan to execute its firearms confiscation scheme.
Not one firearm has been collected from licensed owners.
Meanwhile, Canadian cities continue to face rising violent crime from the very people that our judicial system repeatedly release back onto the streets.
The choice before policymakers is simple:
- Keep pandering to ideological agendas with an unworkable firearms confiscation scheme, or
- Get serious about stopping gun smuggling, repeat violent offenders, and meaningful sentencing reform.
If the goal is safer communities, the answer is obvious.
Leave lawful gun owners alone and put the bad guys in jail.
[i] https://www.junonews.com/p/toronto-police-union-boss-calls-liberal
