Marco Mendicino’s demand to use provincial resources to confiscate legally-possessed firearms was at the top of the agenda of the 2022 meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety.
At that meeting, New Brunswick joined Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to say they would not permit provincial crime fighting resources to be used to clean up the Liberal government’s mess.
“New Brunswick’s bottom line is this: RCMP resources are spread thin as it is,” said Public Safety Minister Kris Austin. “We have made it clear to the Government of Canada that we cannot condone any use of those limited resources, at all, in their planned buyback program.”[i]
The four provinces also called on the federal government to ensure that no funding for the Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund or other public safety initiatives be diverted to the federal firearms confiscation program.
“Two years ago, the federal government said that using police resources would be ‘expensive and inefficient,” said Alberta Justice Minister and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro, who was referring to Bill Blair’s statements before the SECU Committee on November 25, 2020.[ii]
“It isn’t my intention to have law enforcement administer that program,” said Bill Blair. “That would be a very expensive and, in my opinion, a very inefficient way to do it.”
Today, Public Safety Minister Mendicino insists it’s the only way to go, despite the obvious danger posed to public safety by removing police officers from their crime-fighting duties.
Common sense seems in extraordinarily short supply in Minister Mendicino.
“Now the federal government has resorted to using police resources to seize firearms from Canadians,” Shandro continued. “Make no mistake, the federal firearms confiscation program will cost us billions and will not improve public safety. Alberta’s government is not legally obligated to provide resources and will not do so.”
“While we fully support crime initiatives that focus on the issues related to the criminal use of illegal firearms, preventing and combatting gang violence and addressing the issue of illegal or smuggled guns in our province, we don’t support those that impact law-abiding hunters, sport shooters, ranchers, farmers and Indigenous people who use firearms for lawful and good reasons,” said Saskatchewan Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell.
“In Manitoba’s view, any buy-back program cannot further erode our scarce provincial police resources, already suffering from large vacancy rates, and away from focusing on investigation of violent crimes,” said Manitoba Justice Minister and Attorney General Kelvin Goertzen.
Yukon Rebukes Feds Plan
On October 12, 2022, the Yukon Party introduced a motion stating, “This House urges the Yukon government to ensure that territorial policing resources are not diverted to assist in the implementation of the Government of Canada’s gun ‘buy-back’ program.”
The motion passed with the support of all opposition parties. All Yukon Liberal MLAs, predictably, voted against the motion.
“The National Police Federation, which is the union representing RCMP members, has made it clear that the Trudeau government’s Order in Council prohibiting various firearms and the ‘buy-back’ program will divert police resources away from dealing with organized crime,” said Yukon Party Justice Critic Brad Cathers.[iii]
“RCMP members said the federal Liberal government’s firearms measures actually divert important personnel and resources from where they are needed most. We are happy the motion passed, and hope the territorial government will respect the will of the Yukon Legislative Assembly.”
Urge Your Provincial Government to Get On Board
If you live in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or New Brunswick, write your premier and ministers responsible to thank them for standing up for you against a federal government that cares only about its own vacuous virtue-signalling.
In all other provinces, please consider using these points when you write to your premier:
- The May 1, 2020 gun ban by Order in Council did nothing to make Canadians safer
- Confiscating firearms from licensed owners has no rational connection to any public safety goals, nor will it prevent a single criminal from obtaining an illegal smuggled gun
- There is no evidence or public safety principle to support these actions
- Their proposed confiscations are a disturbing use of billions of tax dollars for zero gain in public safety
- Ottawa had no plan when they announced their virtue-signalling gun ban and they have no plan today to confiscate the private property of Ontarians.
- Do not permit Justin Trudeau’s federal government to offload their misguided polices onto the backs of provincial taxpayers
- Do not permit Ottawa to force your provincial taxpayers to pay for its failures
- Join Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro, Saskatchewan Minister of Public Safety Christine Tell and Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen and oppose Ottawa’s overreach and, in so doing, support and defend all firearm owners in your province
In British Columbia, write Premier John Horgan (Premier@gov.bc.ca) and encourage him to join Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s lead and refuse to use provincial policing resources for Justin Trudeau’s gun confiscations.
In Quebec, write Premier François Legault (premierministre@quebec.ca) and encourage him to join Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s lead and refuse to allow Sûreté du Québec resources to be diverted from criminal investigations to another Ottawa gun grab.
In Nova Scotia, write Premier Tim Houston (premier@novascotia.ca) and remind him that provincial policing resources are paid for with your tax dollars and should not be diverted away from the very real job of protecting public safety to Justin Trudeau’s vanity project, his virtue-signalling gun ban that will not stop a single violent criminal from committing evil.
In Prince Edward Island, write Premier Dennis King (premier@gov.pe.ca) and ask him to stand up to Ottawa’s latest edict. Remind him provincial resources should never be stripped away from public safety to satisfy the whims of an out-of-touch Prime Minister.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, write Premier Andrew Furey (premier@gov.nl.ca) and encourage him to join Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s lead and refuse to allow provincial policing resources to be stripped from active crime fighting investigations and redirected to confiscating guns from licensed gun owners because Justin Trudeau lost his progressive crown to gun-banning Jacinda Ardern in 2019.
Lastly, in Ontario, it’s time for Doug Ford to act.
We urge Ontario residents to contact the Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, and politely encourage him to refuse to assist Ottawa’s gun confiscation efforts.
Ontario Provincial Police members are paid with Ontario tax dollars to serve Ontarians, not be Ottawa’s lackeys.
Premier Doug Ford
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Phone: 416-325-1941
Email: premier@ontario.ca
https://www.ontario.ca/page/premier
Sources:
[i] https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2022.10.0577.html
[ii] https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/SECU/meeting-9/evidence
[iii] https://www.yukonpartycaucus.ca/legislative_assembly_urges_liberals_not_to_use_resources_for_firearms_confiscation
Trudeau’s Blind Spot – Violent Criminals with Illegal Guns