Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale posted a cute infographic titled, “Break and Enter to Steal Firearms” on Twitter[i] on March 7, 2018, during his Guns and Gangs Summit.
That graphic showed over 1,200 break-ins to steal firearms and cited Statistics Canada as the data source.
Where those numbers really come from is a mystery as Statistics Canada data shreds Minister Goodale’s credibility.
Total break-ins to steal guns[ii] went from 5 in 2013 to a high of 18 in 2016 and 2017, not north of 1,200.
Public Safety also didn’t “confuse” break-ins to steal guns with the total number of break-ins either. From 2013 to 2017, that number[iii] was roughly 22,500 per year.
Goodale’s infographic is a total fabrication, a propaganda piece – a lie.
Four months later, in an interview[iv] on CBC’s The House, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Bill Blair, stated guns used in crime are “often stolen or illegally diverted or smuggled in from the United States.”
A search of court decisions, newspaper articles and Commissioner of Firearms Reports 2003-2016 shows only 24 cases where people were convicted for “illegally diverting” firearms to criminals.
This includes former RCMP member David Alan Kift, convicted of selling guns to gangs in 2006[v] and convicted again in 2014 [vi] for violating his Firearm Prohibition Order along with 60 other firearm-related charges.
Esteemed researcher Dennis Young wanted to get to the bottom of the statements made by Ministers Goodale and Blair so he filed the following Access to Information request:
“For each of the years 2001 to 2017 and for each province and territory, please provide copies of records, reports and statistics showing the number of firearms stolen in Canada and where they were stolen from.”
The government’s response?
“A thorough search was conducted and Public Safety Canada was unable to locate any records responding to your request.”[vii]
- What is the real source of the statistics in Ralph Goodale’s pretty infographic?
- On what does Bill Blair base his claim that guns are “often stolen or illegally diverted?”
- Why do government ministers continually deceive Canadians?
- And when will our bought-and-paid-for media outlets start behaving like real journalists and ask the hard questions required to get to the truth our government keeps hiding from Canadians?
Canada’s lawful firearm owners are tired of being lied about and manipulated for political ends. We are tired of being the scapegoat for the inability of politicians to deal with crime. Call and/or write your Member of Parliament and demand they tell the truth about gun ownership in Canada.
Most importantly, remember this when you vote next October.
PS: A heartfelt “THANK YOU” to the handful of skilled journalists that have the integrity to print the truth about firearm ownership in Canada. We appreciate you!
Sources
[i] https://twitter.com/ralphgoodale/status/971433487667404800
[ii] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.actionpid=3510017701&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.36
[iii] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.actionpid=3510017701&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.35
[iv] https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1287252547509/
[v] https://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2014/2014oncj625/2014oncj625.html
[vi] https://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2014/2014oncj454/2014oncj454.html
[vii]https://dennisryoung.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Public-Safety-ATIP-Response-No-Records-on-Stolen-Guns-Oct-25-2018.pdf
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