Trudeau promises more gun control and goes on the attack against Scheer

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Minister defends position on gun 'buy-back' program, as Liberals announce pilot for gun owners​

OTTAWA — The federal government announced Tuesday it was moving ahead with a pilot program for individual gun owners who want to receive compensation for prohibited firearms, while the minister responsible for the policy came under increasing fire.

The Liberals announced the pilot as a way to test the process for compensating gun owners who possess one of the 2,500 firearms the government has banned by starting the program in Cape Breton, with the cooperation of its local police.

The government plans to expand it nationwide later this fall, but with no specified date.

Doing so fulfills a campaign promise Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals made during the spring federal election and is a continuation of a policy introduced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Tuesday’s announcement came one day after audio of Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree was circulated to the media, which showed the minister, in a private conversation, casting doubt that local police would be able to enforce the program and saying that Liberal voters in Quebec were a major reason for why Carney’s government was sticking with the policy.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Anandasangaree emphasized that those comments were made in private and that he had “absolute confidence” in the program.

In the recorded conversation, which took place between the minister and a tenant of his, and was captured without Anandasangaree’s knowledge, the minister says that if he could redo the policy, he would “have a very different approach.”

In his statement on Monday, the minister said his comments were “misguided.” On Tuesday, however, Anandasangaree clarified his comments even further.

He said that what he meant by stating he would have taken a different approach was that he would have preferred the program to be rolled out sooner, rather than announcing the policy in three different stages, as the Liberals did, beginning with an initial ban of some 1,500 firearms in the wake of the 2020 mass shooting in Portapique, N.S.

Anandasangaree also said his comments regarding voters in Quebec referred to the fact that the province has been home to several mass shootings, including the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique shooting and the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017.

Asked about other comments the minister made, where, at one point, he told the man he was speaking with, who had identified himself as a gun owner, that he would pay the difference in compensation and even bail him out of jail, given the man informed him he would not comply with the order, Anandasangaree clarified on Tuesday that he said what he did in an attempt at “bad humour.”

“That is being misinterpreted,” he told reporters. “It was a bad attempt at humour on my part.”

The situation led to Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Tuesday repeatedly calling for Carney to “fire” Anandasangaree, saying that he was “incompetent.”

Asked whether he still has confidence in his minister, Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed that he did, speaking to reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.

The federal budget for the compensation program sits at around $742 million, with Anandasangaree saying officials would monitor the uptick of the program.

Earlier this year, the government introduced a compensation process for business owners with stock of the prohibited weapons, which it announced on Tuesday would be reopening. It reported that as of April 2025, some 12,000 firearms had been collected from businesses, to the tune of $22 million worth in compensation.

Gun advocates have warned that the compensation amounts would fall short of what it had cost to purchase and store the firearms for individual gun owners.

“No reasonable expert believes spending a billion dollars removing firearms exclusively from licensed gun owners is going to result in increased public safety,” the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights said in a statement.

Anandasangaree told reporters the order-in-council regarding the amnesty period set to expire at the end of October would be pushed back until October 2026, saying gun owners have one year to comply.

According to officials, affected gun owners have the option to either apply for compensation, have their weapon deactivated, or turn it over to police. Negotiations with police services about participating in the program were still ongoing, the officials said, adding that the government would be communicating with licensed firearms owners about their options and details for the compensation program.

Should they fail to act on the above options by the end of the amnesty period, they could face penalties under the Criminal Code or have their license revoked.

“There’s nothing voluntary about abiding by the law,” one official said.

Nathalie Provost, who serves as a secretary of state for nature and is a longtime gun control advocate who survived the Ecole Polytechnique shooting, appeared alongside Anandasangaree on Tuesday to say she believed the Liberals would be able to complete the program.

“All of the people in possession of one of the weapons that has been banned since 2020 and will not participate in the compensation program will have an illegal gun in its possession, and that’s a criminal act,” she told reporters.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, PolySeSouvient, a prominent gun control group comprised of former students of Ecole Polytechnique, which Provost herself once belonged to, called on the government to include new sales of the SKS, a popular hunting rifle, particularly among First Nations communities, among the list of prohibited weapons.

Anandasangaree and officials told reporters they will still be reviewing what to do about the SKS, with the need to consult with Indigenous rights-holders who have treaty rights to hunt.

“It is important that we respect those traditions,” Anandasangaree said.

In a statement, PolySeSouvient said it was encouraged to see the Liberals move on their campaign commitment and reiterated its call to see the government “immediately ban” the new sales of the SKS as well as ensure the full buyback program is launched by the end of October.

Ken Price, a spokesperson for Danforth Families for Safer Communities, a group formed in the wake of the 2018 Toronto shooting, welcomed the fact that more of a plan was in place for the gun buyback program after years spent waiting for one to materialize, adding that gun owners can now start making decisions on how to comply.

” Even a plan that has holes in it is better than no plan,” he said.

Minister defends position on gun 'buy-back' program, as Liberals announce pilot for gun owners

The government announced a pilot program on Tuesday for individual gun owners who want to receive compensation for prohibited firearms.

nationalpost.com

 

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Waste of money. Got bigger things going on with US and tarrifs right now to spend money on this.

 

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Here is the searchable List of Prohibited Firearms, and the possible compensation value for each:

List of firearms: for individuals - Canada.ca

Violent crime involving firearms is a threat to public safety. See the actions the Government of Canada is taking and how you can help end gun violence.

www.canada.ca

 

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Police across Canada say many details still missing as feds forge ahead with gun buyback

OTTAWA — Police across Canada say they are unsure whether they will participate in the federal firearms buyback, with many reporting a lack of detail from government officials.

It comes as time is ticking down to when the federal Liberal government plans to expand the compensation process being piloted in Nova Scotia nationwide later this fall, aimed at gun owners who possess one of the more than 2,500 firearm makes and models the government has banned since 2020.

Officials estimate that it covers around 179,600 guns.

Mark Campbell, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, says he is trying to arrange a meeting between the province’s municipal police leaders and Public Safety Canada, so they can pose their questions directly to officials.

“The current hesitation for a lot of services is not understanding the program,” he told National Post in an interview.

One of those concerns, he says, is the number of registered firearms belonging to each jurisdiction, which impacts collection efforts.

National Post contacted more than 60 municipal police services to gauge if they would participate in the program, with many saying the current answer was no, particularly in Ontario.

“We do not have the staffing, storage capacity, or resources required to participate,” said Andrew Harvie, deputy chief of Brockville, Ont., police. He added the service would continue to accept guns that were turned over to police, as is standard practice.

Durham Regional Police, one of the largest in the Greater Toronto Area, said it was trying to get more details.

“(Durham Regional Police Service) has not been informed of the program details, nor have we been afforded an opportunity to ask questions,” wrote spokesman Const. Nick Gluckstein.

In Hamilton, Ont., the city’s police chief says they last met with former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino in 2023 to discuss the program, but have had no further conversations since.

“The scale of such a program would require careful planning, clear coordination, and effective communication with resources and funding. At this time, no structured framework or direction has been provided to Hamilton police.”

Police in North Bay, Ont., said much of the same. Peterborough Police Chief Stuart Betts said their force lacks “sufficient information or details” to say whether it intends to participate, while Barrie police said it has no plans to do so and “have had no conversations about participating.”

Brantford, Ont., police said it was still evaluating the program, while Toronto police would review details once they were announced in full.

“We remain focused on apprehending criminals who use illegal firearms and we continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners to address the flow of illegal firearms coming across the border,” a Toronto police spokeswoman wrote.

Campbell of the Ontario police chiefs association, who also serves as the chief of Strathroy-Caradoc police, says expectations around enforcement have been among the issues it has been encouraging federal officials to detail, given that “overwhelming evidence” suggests guns being used in crimes are those being smuggled illegally over the border.

“The impact of long guns that are owned by community members who lawfully own those guns aren’t part of the overall priority issues when it comes to crime involving the use of firearms,” he said.

A spokesman for Ontario’s Solicitor General said the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the province’s largest police force, has expressed concerns about the program, which it shares.

“The federal government’s gun buyback program has done nothing to address the root causes of gun violence in our communities,” wrote Oleksandr Shvets.

An OPP spokesperson added it was engaged in “ongoing consultation” with the ministry to determine its involvement.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has vowed against enforcing the program, with municipal police services like in Medicine Hat., Alta., saying they were reviewing the program. Edmonton police say they remain committed to speaking with other law enforcement to see how it could lend support “without impacting our existing resources.”

Meanwhile, police in Regina said it was awaiting direction from Premier Scott Moe’s government.

Police in Fredericton and Winnipeg were the only services to confirm they intend to take part. Winnipeg police said the city approved an agreement that would see Public Safety Canada cover the costs associated with doing so, which federal officials say they are prepared to do for other agencies.

https://nationalpost.com/news/polit...lacking-as-feds-forge-ahead-with-gun-buy-back

 

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Liberals' botched gun buyback program may create a dangerous ‘grey market’​

It was obvious to anyone familiar with the data that the government’s ban on assault-style weapons was never going to make Canada safer. The poor implementation of the policy now means that it will likely end up making Canada more dangerous.

The government’s justification for the ban was weak from the beginning. When former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced the prohibition by Order-in-Council in the aftermath of the Nova Scotia massacre, significant problems were already clear. The government could not define what they wanted to ban. Instead, they created a laundry list of infamous guns with equivalent firearms left out.

Despite pressuring the RCMP commissioner to release the list of guns used by the Nova Scotia shooter to improve the optics of the ban, it soon emerged that the massacre was carried out using smuggled guns from the United States.

Even though the emotive draw of the policy was high, the evidence justifying it was weak. There is no evidence in the academic literature to show that bans on assault-style weapons are effective, especially since Canada already has many stringent firearm laws in place to keep us safe. This is not America, after all.

Yet, even though the policy is misguided, its implementation has been worse. There were early signs that this was not going to be easy. Western provinces, police forces, and even crown corporations like Canada Post have stymied the government’s efforts by refusing to participate or by legislating against it outright. Most recently, Ontario’s provincial police force declined to participate, citing a lack of resources.

Five years since the ban was announced, the government has barely collected a fraction of the banned guns from businesses, and few to none from individuals.

The Minister of Public Safety, Gary Anandasangaree, knew this. He was caught on tape admitting the policy will not work and blaming pressure from Quebec for his government’s reluctance to abandon the policy.

On any other issue, this would have been game over. Somehow, the Minister had the audacity to announce the next phase regardless, and in a way that will undoubtedly sew confusion and result in increased noncompliance with the buyback.

The language the government has used in their announcement defies logic. They have claimed that the program is “voluntary,” not a confiscation. At the same time, they have said that failing to “dispose of or permanently deactivate their assault-style firearms by the end of the amnesty period” would be risking “criminal liability for the illegal possession of a prohibited firearm.” Translated into plain English, the ban will be voluntary in the same way that paying taxes or attending jury duty is voluntary.

Further, by the Minister’s own admission, it is clear that gun owners will not be fairly compensated for the full value of their firearms. This is not just unfair to the people who have sacrificed significant amounts of time, money, and privacy to comply with Canada’s stringent gun control laws, it creates a structure for firearms to move to the grey and black markets.

The famous Australian gun buyback of 1996, while widely touted as comprehensive, left behind a large number of firearms that were never handed in. These firearms form what experts call a “grey market,” legal guns that are sold outside of the legal system that can end up being used in crimes, as they have no more value on the legitimate market.

By botching the buyback of banned firearms, the government risks creating an even larger grey market here in Canada, while police simultaneously already struggle to keep up with the influx of black-market American handguns.

The ban has gone from ineffective to dangerous, and it is time for the government to seriously reconsider before it’s too late.

Noah Schwartz: Liberals' botched gun buyback program may create a dangerous ‘grey market’

As in Australia, previously legal guns which are not properly compensated for may be sold illegally and used in crimes

nationalpost.com

 

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Ottawa Won’t Send Buyback Guns to Ukraine Due to ‘Extremely Limited’ Interest​

Ottawa is no longer planning on sending guns collected through the federal buyback program to Ukraine after the country expressed “extremely limited” interest in the firearms.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government had committed to working with the Ukrainian government to send prohibited guns from Canadian firearms businesses obtained through the buyback program to Ukraine to support its defence against Russia.

However, Prime Minister Mark Carney has now cancelled the plan after Ukraine has shown interest in an “extremely limited” number of firearms collected through the program, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s office told the Toronto Star on Sept. 25.

A “vast majority” of the collected firearms do not meet NATO compliance standards, the minister’s office said, adding that this wasn’t a “practical or effective way to support Ukraine’s defence.”

The Trudeau government announced its intention to send firearms to Ukraine last December in tandem with outlawing another 324 firearm makes and models, which the government said belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters.

Ottawa first banned approximately 1,500 makes and models of so-called “assault-style” firearms after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, which involved stolen and smuggled weapons. By March of this year, the prohibited firearms list was expanded to more than 2,000.

Former Defence Minister Bill Blair said offering assistance to Ukraine was a “worthwhile investment of [Canada’s] collective time and efforts.” Ukraine had identified 23 types of firearms that could be useful to its military in its war against Russia, a government official said last December.
The Department of National Defence said only new firearms would be sent to Ukraine so the department wouldn’t have to inspect them for safety or maintenance first.
Ottawa has provided approximately $22 billion in financial support to Ukraine since its war with Russia began in 2022, largely in the form of loans.

‘Weapons of War’

The Liberal government has described the recently prohibited semi-automatic rifles as “weapons of war” that are “designed to kill as many people as possible in the least amount of time possible.”

Meanwhile, Tracey Wilson from the Canadian Coalition of Firearm Rights says the government’s decision to not send banned guns to Ukraine “proves our point that these aren’t ‘weapons of war.’”

“No military in the world would send their troops into combat with a bunch of semi automatic, 5 round max hunting and sporting plinkers,” Wilson told The Epoch Times in a Sept. 26 email.

Wilson said she’s hopeful the Liberal government will scrap the buyback program entirely and “focus on criminals, violence and gun smuggling instead of Canada’s most vetted citizens.”
Ottawa launched the buyback program this week for individual firearm owners, starting with a six-week pilot in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where the local police service has agreed to participate in the program.

The program will be launched nationwide later this fall and will be open to all eligible firearm owners, Anandasangaree announced this week. He said there are approximately 180,000 registered firearms in Canada that are subject to the prohibition.

Carney has said the program aims to take “guns off the street in a voluntary fashion,” and has noted his government is moving forward with the program to fulfill its promises made in the election campaign earlier this year.
The Alberta government won’t be participating in the program, Premier Danielle Smith said in a Sept. 23 X post. She called the program a “gun grab against law abiding firearms owners” and said her province’s municipal police forces will focus on “real” policing priorities instead.

Some police associations have also criticized the buyback program, saying it won’t address illegal gun crime and is a misuse of police resources.
Toronto Police Association President Clayton Campbell told MPs at a Sept. 25 parliamentary committee meeting that the program won’t bring down crime in Toronto since the majority of firearm offences involve illegal firearms, not licensed guns.

Canadian Police Association President Tom Stamatakis has said police forces in Canada don’t have the resources to manage the program, while National Police Federation President Brian Sauvé said the government should focus on illegal firearms coming from the United States.

Ottawa Won’t Send Buyback Guns to Ukraine Due to ‘Extremely Limited’ Interest

www.theepochtimes.com

 

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Finally, a Liberal tells the truth about gun confiscations​

The public safety minister admits it's impossible to enforce. It also punishes hunters and sport shooters

The Liberals’ gun “buyback” program, which is being piloted in Nova Scotia and will be expanded across the country later this fall, is a costly and ineffective government boondoggle that will not help reduce gun crime on our streets — and even the minister in charge of the program knows this.

Earlier this week, National Post obtained an audio recording of a private conversation between Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and a tenant in a building he owns. In it, the minister says he can’t “explain the logic” of the program, which aims to confiscate an estimated 180,000 privately owned firearms that Ottawa has made illegal over the past five years.

And neither can we. The Liberals have been intent on banning as many firearms — what they erroneously call “assault-style” weapons — since the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, going as far as putting pressure on then-RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki to release sensitive details about the case to further the government’s political agenda.

The fact that the shooter had obtained his weapons illegally did not matter. The Liberals banned around 1,500 previously legal guns in 2020 and added more models to the list in 2024 and 2025, for a total of 2,500. Meanwhile, police throughout Canada have been quite clear that the vast majority of gun crimes are committed using weapons that are smuggled in from the United States.

Testifying before the House public safety committee in 2022, Myron Demkiw, then-deputy chief of the Toronto Police Service, said that 86 per cent of guns used in crimes in Toronto the previous year had been illegally imported from the U.S. A more recent Statistics Canada report found that in 2023, the perpetrators of 91 per cent of all solved homicides involving firearms did not have a valid license.

Anandasangaree further admitted that his tenant, who said he will not give up his legally purchased firearm, is likely not at risk of being arrested because, “I just don’t think municipal police services have the resources to do this.”

Indeed, the Ontario Provincial Police has already said it will not participate in Ottawa’s $750-million gun confiscation scheme, and a National Post survey of 60 municipal police forces across the country found that many of them also do not plan on enforcing the new rules.

A spokesperson for Ontario’s solicitor general said, “Ontario police services do not have the resources to attend residential addresses to confiscate previously lawful but now prohibited firearms from lawful gun owners.”

And Mark Campbell, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, noted that, “The impact of long guns that are owned by community members who lawfully own those guns aren’t part of the overall priority issues when it comes to crime involving the use of firearms.”

Opposition to Ottawa’s continued targeting of legal gun owners is even stronger in Western Canada. A couple years ago, the Government of Saskatchewan preemptively attempted to stymie the Liberals’ confiscation scheme by passing legislation requiring RCMP and others participating in the program to receive a license from the provincial government.

Earlier this month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she won’t allow police in her province to confiscate previously legal weapons, and this week directed two of her ministers to “relentlessly defend Albertans’ right to lawful and safe possession of firearms and right to self-defence.”

So if the government’s own statistics show that legal gun owners are not a major source of crime and Canadian police forces are complaining they don’t have the resources to participate in Ottawa’s theatrics, why is Anandasangaree pushing forward with the plan? Well, he has an answer for that, too.

In the leaked recording, he said that, had he been involved with the file since its inception, he “would have a very different approach,” and admitted he has no real power: “This is the mandate I was given by (Prime Minister Mark) Carney to complete this … and not revisit this.”

Anandasangaree also confessed that the policy is largely political, saying, “Quebec is in a different place than other parts of Canada, right? And this is something that (is) very much a big, big, big deal for many of the Quebec electorate that voted for us.”

Pressed on the issue by CTV’s Vassy Kapelos, the minister cited high support for gun-control measures among Quebecers. “Are they more important, though, than the 70 per cent of Albertans and Saskatchewans who don’t support the program, just because you have more MPs there?” asked Kapelos. Anandasangaree did not have a good answer, but Canadians know the truth.

Properly implementing the Liberals’ confiscation scheme would be immensely costly. While guns bought at stores are logged, any that are purchased at gun shows or through private sales are not, meaning that police would have to dedicate significant resources to tracking them all down if they are not given up voluntarily.

It would be far better for the federal government to focus on strengthening border security and the criminal justice system, and for law enforcement agencies to dedicate their scarce resources to fighting the actual crime that has been plaguing Canadian cities in recent years, rather than turning many of Canada’s law-abiding hunters and sport shooters into criminals.

NP View: Finally, a Liberal tells the truth about gun confiscations

The public safety minister admits it's impossible to enforce. It also punishes hunters and sport shooters

nationalpost.com

 

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The Liberals just can't leave duck hunters alone​

The Liberal Party of Canada, like all political parties, makes its share of mistakes. But there often seem to be moments where Liberals don’t learn any lessons from past political blunders. They go back to the well to find a single drop of water to help quench their thirst.

The most recent example? The Liberal gun ban and buyback plan to compensate gun owners who turn in banned firearms. Even the minister in charge seems to realize this program is badly flawed.

Several news organizations reported on leaked audio involving Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and a resident in a Toronto property that he owns. Their discussion shifted to the Liberal government’s gun buyback plan, in which the minister said, “Don’t ask me to explain the logic to you on this.” It was the mandate that Prime Minister Mark Carney gave him, and “it’s been constant, constant discussions on this to see what’s next, right, and the conclusion is, ‘Let’s finish this because we committed to it in the campaign.’” Anandasangaree told the resident “if I were to redo this … like from scratch, I would have a very different approach on this.”

The minister also said he would pay the difference between Ottawa’s compensation for the gun buyback program and what this resident paid for his firearms. Anandasangaree offered to pay the man’s bail if he was arrested for non-compliance, but “it’s not going to go that far.” As he put it, “I just don’t think municipal police services have the resources” to enforce this.

In spite of this jaw-dropping audio being released, which was recorded without the minister’s knowledge, Anandasangaree actually told Parliament it was a “good thing” that it was out in the open. “My comments were misguided. … Having said that, Mr. Speaker, it’s important to have the program in place. It’s what Canadians are looking for.”

Good Lord. That’s the best he can say about spilling the bullets … errr, beans about the gun buyback program? In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, “what a maroon.”

What has Carney done about this? Nothing. The prime minister has stood by his minister, suggesting that what he’s doing “is doing it right, he’s correcting an inefficient system to provide Canadians with fair compensation … to return illegal firearms, illegal assault rifles.” How fascinating. Anandasangaree’s solution to a supposedly inefficient system is to point out the inefficiencies of the Liberal gun ban he’s the public face of, and Carney somehow believes this was the right tactic to take? It makes you wonder what lengths his ministers would have to go in order to not just be offside, but really and truly offside.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre immediately pounced. “His own minister of public safety says this government is doing it wrong. He was caught on tape saying the program won’t work,” he said in Parliament. “The police say they won’t implement it, the minister says it’s a bad idea, but they’re only doing it for political reasons.”

The Liberals employing political ideology when it comes to dealing with guns? That’s what they always do.

Consider the federal long-gun registry. It was originally supposed to cost $2-million of taxpayers’ money, with registration fees to cover other expenses, but turned into a billion dollar boondoggle due to massive cost overruns and was eventually scrapped. The Liberals ignored other components of this wasteful registry that should have immediately raised red flags, too. This included: criminals would never register their weapons, the bloated costs played a role in reducing law enforcement’s ability to deal with immigration laws and terrorist cells, there was no available mechanism to target illegal weapons, and a missed opportunity to crack down on violent crime since the police would be the only ones in possession of data sheets of legally registered long guns.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also introduced Bill C-71, which expanded background checks for firearms licenses and reestablished an Authorization to Transport for certain restricted and prohibited firearms, among other things. Conservative MP Rachael Harder suggested this bill would bring back the “useless and ineffective long-gun registry.” An e-petition ended up with over 86,000 signatures. While a growing number of Canadians were clearly irritated, it still ended up receiving Royal Assent on June 21, 2019.

The Trudeau Liberals also announced a permanent ban on 1,500 different models of “military-style assault weapons” in May 2020 after the violent shootings in Nova Scotia. Another 300 additional models were added in Dec. 2024. Many gun owners and some non-gun owners were furious. Military-style assault weapons generally fall under the category of automatic weapons, which are already banned in Canada. The Liberals went after semi-automatic weapons, which don’t typically fall under this category and would have minimal effect in reducing violent crime. Trudeau didn’t even recall Parliament to enact this measure. He used an order-in-council to push through this gun ban. While it wasn’t against parliamentary procedure, it was definitely undemocratic.

The Liberal obsession with gun control, bans and buyback programs is a massive attack on our individual liberties and personal freedoms. It affects diverse groups like farmers, Indigenous communities and duck hunters. It frustrates urban and rural communities alike. You would think that Carney, who knows the Liberals have been bloodied politically during these controversies, would leave our guns alone. He won’t.

Alas, I can’t explain his logic, either.

Michael Taube: The Liberals just can't leave duck hunters alone

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nationalpost.com

 

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WATCH: MP Andrew Lawton cross examines Canada's largest law enforcement stakeholders on the Liberals gun 'buyback' program.

#cdnpoli #canadians #canada #ontario #québec #manitoba #saskatchewan #alberta #britishcolumbia #newbrunswick #novascotia #pei #newfoundland #northwestterritories #nunavut #yukon #fyp #viral #news… | Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights

WATCH: MP Andrew Lawton cross examines Canada's largest law enforcement stakeholders on the Liberals gun 'buyback' program. ▫️Tom Stamatakis - 60,000 front-line officers nationwide ▫️Brian Sauvé - 20,000 RCMP officers ▫️Clayton Campbell - 8,000 civilian/uniform members All are against gun...

www.linkedin.com

 

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Canadian Taxpayers Federation Pushes Back on Ottawa’s Costly Gun Scam​

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is going on the offensive against the federal government’s controversial gun buyback program, calling it a costly and ineffective confiscation scheme that unfairly targets law-abiding Canadians.

Devin Drover, General Counsel for the CTF, warned that taxpayers are being forced to bankroll a policy that will not improve public safety.

“Taxpayers in Cape Breton and across Canada are being asked to fund a confiscation scheme that is both costly and ineffective,” Drover said. “Criminals are not sourcing their firearms from licensed gun owners in Cape Breton, and confiscating hunting rifles and sport-shooting equipment does nothing to stop the flow of illegal guns into this country.”

The CTF noted that the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates compensation costs alone could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with some experts warning the total bill could climb into the billions. That money, Drover argued, would be better spent on frontline policing, securing the border, or easing the tax burden on families already struggling with inflation.

To push back against Ottawa’s agenda, the CTF is offering free legal advice to firearm owners in Cape Breton, the test site for the buyback pilot. Drover emphasized that despite the government’s rhetoric, no one is legally required to hand over firearms right now. Ottawa has extended the amnesty until at least October 2026, meaning owners cannot be compelled to comply.

“Cape Bretoners should not be pressured or misled into thinking otherwise,” Drover said. “If Ottawa wants to use Cape Breton as a guinea pig, then Cape Bretoners have the opportunity to send a strong message to the rest of Canada: this program is a failure, and it should not be expanded.”

Ottawa’s Troubled Program

The federal government, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, has chosen Cape Breton as the launch pad for its firearm confiscation scheme. Marketed as a way to reduce gun crime, the initiative has faced backlash from experts, police, and even within the government’s own ranks.

The most damning evidence came directly from Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree himself. In a private conversation with his tenant , later leaked, Gary admitted that the Liberal gun grab was fatally flawed:

“If I were to redo this from the beginning, I would have a very different approach to this.”

He acknowledged what police and frontline officers have said for years: that the real problem isn’t licensed owners in Cape Breton or anywhere else, but the flow of illegal weapons across the southern border. As Gary conceded:

“More than 95% are traced back to the U.S… Absolutely. 100%.”

Pressed further, the minister essentially admitted the government was plowing ahead for political reasons, not public safety. The tenant asked bluntly why Ottawa wouldn’t change course. Gary’s answer was chilling:

“This is the mandate I was given by Carney to complete this… We’ve had constant discussions… and the conclusion is let’s finish this because we committed to it in the campaign.”

Even he recognized how absurd that sounded. At one point, after conceding the program would turn law-abiding owners into criminals, Gary tried to reassure his tenant:

“Okay, I will come and bail you out if that happens. I will. You call me.”

This is the unprincipled reality of the program. The minister in charge knows it won’t work, admits it unfairly criminalizes responsible owners, acknowledges that crime guns overwhelmingly come from the United States, yet insists it must go forward to appease a Liberal campaign promise and voter blocs in Quebec.

Meanwhile, the numbers don’t back up the political spin. Police data show that up to 90% of gun crimes in Canada involve weapons smuggled illegally across the U.S. border, not the hunting rifles and .22s now being targeted under the buyback. At the same time, gun crime has surged by more than 130% during the Liberals’ time in office, underscoring the failure of their approach.

Rather than redirect resources to border security, gang enforcement, or bail reform, the Carney Liberals are sinking $742 million into a scheme their own minister privately called “bad policy.” It’s politics first, public safety last, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

The Bigger Picture

For the Carney government, the buyback is not about crime, it’s about politics. It’s a nearly billion-dollar program designed to appease urban progressives and Liberal voters in Quebec, not to make Canadians safer. The minister himself admitted it: the mandate came from the campaign, not from evidence.

And the evidence is overwhelming. Up to 90% of gun crime in this country comes from illegal guns smuggled across the U.S. border. Every police service in the country knows it. Every frontline officer knows it. Even Gary, the minister pushing the buyback, conceded it in private:

“More than 95% are traced back to the U.S… Absolutely. 100%.”

So instead of hammering gangs, smugglers, and repeat violent offenders, Ottawa is blowing $742 million of taxpayers’ money to confiscate property from the most vetted Canadians in the country — licensed hunters and sport shooters. People who submit to daily background checks, people who lock their guns in safes, people who follow the law down to the smallest regulation.

Think about what else a billion dollars could buy: thousands of new border officers, state-of-the-art scanners at ports of entry, real enforcement to stop the flood of illegal weapons. Instead, that money is being burned for headlines, so Mark Carney can tell progressive voters he “did something” about guns.

Lets be clear. This is pandering dressed up as policy, a political calculation paid for with your tax dollars. And Cape Breton has been chosen as the guinea pig. That’s why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has stepped in, offering free legal support to firearm owners who refuse to be bullied. As CTF’s Devin Drover put it:

“This program is a failure, and it should not be expanded across the country.”

And lets be clear Drover is right. This is the frontline battle over more than just guns, it’s about taxpayers’ money, property rights, and whether Ottawa serves Canadians or exploits them for electoral math.

And here’s the part the Liberals don’t want to talk about: Canada is already drowning in deficit spending. The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects a $68.5 billion federal deficit this year, even higher than the Liberals’ own election pledge of $62.3 billion. In fact, Ottawa already posted an $8.7 billion deficit in just the first quarter of 2025. That’s the financial hole we’re in, and yet they can somehow find nearly a billion dollars for a gun grab that their own minister admits won’t work.

If you’re going to spend that kind of money, money we don’t have, it had better be effective. It had better actually reduce crime, secure our borders, and keep Canadians safe. Instead, this billion-dollar boondoggle does none of those things. It ignores the 90% of crime guns smuggled illegally across the U.S. border. It ignores gangs, repeat violent offenders, and broken bail laws. Instead, it targets the people who are already vetted, licensed, and law-abiding.

This is deficit spending at its worst: wasteful, performative, and punishing the wrong people. Every dollar spent on this buyback is a dollar not spent on CBSA officers, RCMP resources, port scanners, or gang units in our cities. It’s a dollar stolen from taxpayers who are already crushed by inflation and higher taxes.

If Ottawa insists on blowing a billion dollars, then Canadians have every right to demand it be spent on policies that work not on pandering schemes designed to win headlines in downtown Toronto or votes in Montreal.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation Pushes Back on Ottawa’s Costly Gun Scam

Canadian Taxpayers Federation fights back with free legal advice for gun owners targeted by Ottawa’s failed buyback

theoppositionnewsnetwork.substack.com

 

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[SpringFever2359]

Canadian Taxpayers Federation Pushes Back on Ottawa’s Costly Gun Scam​

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is going on the offensive against the federal government’s controversial gun buyback program, calling it a costly and ineffective confiscation scheme that unfairly targets law-abiding Canadians.

Devin Drover, General Counsel for the CTF, warned that taxpayers are being forced to bankroll a policy that will not improve public safety.

“Taxpayers in Cape Breton and across Canada are being asked to fund a confiscation scheme that is both costly and ineffective,” Drover said. “Criminals are not sourcing their firearms from licensed gun owners in Cape Breton, and confiscating hunting rifles and sport-shooting equipment does nothing to stop the flow of illegal guns into this country.”

The CTF noted that the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates compensation costs alone could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with some experts warning the total bill could climb into the billions. That money, Drover argued, would be better spent on frontline policing, securing the border, or easing the tax burden on families already struggling with inflation.

To push back against Ottawa’s agenda, the CTF is offering free legal advice to firearm owners in Cape Breton, the test site for the buyback pilot. Drover emphasized that despite the government’s rhetoric, no one is legally required to hand over firearms right now. Ottawa has extended the amnesty until at least October 2026, meaning owners cannot be compelled to comply.

“Cape Bretoners should not be pressured or misled into thinking otherwise,” Drover said. “If Ottawa wants to use Cape Breton as a guinea pig, then Cape Bretoners have the opportunity to send a strong message to the rest of Canada: this program is a failure, and it should not be expanded.”

Ottawa’s Troubled Program

The federal government, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, has chosen Cape Breton as the launch pad for its firearm confiscation scheme. Marketed as a way to reduce gun crime, the initiative has faced backlash from experts, police, and even within the government’s own ranks.

The most damning evidence came directly from Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree himself. In a private conversation with his tenant , later leaked, Gary admitted that the Liberal gun grab was fatally flawed:

“If I were to redo this from the beginning, I would have a very different approach to this.”

He acknowledged what police and frontline officers have said for years: that the real problem isn’t licensed owners in Cape Breton or anywhere else, but the flow of illegal weapons across the southern border. As Gary conceded:

“More than 95% are traced back to the U.S… Absolutely. 100%.”

Pressed further, the minister essentially admitted the government was plowing ahead for political reasons, not public safety. The tenant asked bluntly why Ottawa wouldn’t change course. Gary’s answer was chilling:

“This is the mandate I was given by Carney to complete this… We’ve had constant discussions… and the conclusion is let’s finish this because we committed to it in the campaign.”

Even he recognized how absurd that sounded. At one point, after conceding the program would turn law-abiding owners into criminals, Gary tried to reassure his tenant:

“Okay, I will come and bail you out if that happens. I will. You call me.”

This is the unprincipled reality of the program. The minister in charge knows it won’t work, admits it unfairly criminalizes responsible owners, acknowledges that crime guns overwhelmingly come from the United States, yet insists it must go forward to appease a Liberal campaign promise and voter blocs in Quebec.

Meanwhile, the numbers don’t back up the political spin. Police data show that up to 90% of gun crimes in Canada involve weapons smuggled illegally across the U.S. border, not the hunting rifles and .22s now being targeted under the buyback. At the same time, gun crime has surged by more than 130% during the Liberals’ time in office, underscoring the failure of their approach.

Rather than redirect resources to border security, gang enforcement, or bail reform, the Carney Liberals are sinking $742 million into a scheme their own minister privately called “bad policy.” It’s politics first, public safety last, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

The Bigger Picture

For the Carney government, the buyback is not about crime, it’s about politics. It’s a nearly billion-dollar program designed to appease urban progressives and Liberal voters in Quebec, not to make Canadians safer. The minister himself admitted it: the mandate came from the campaign, not from evidence.

And the evidence is overwhelming. Up to 90% of gun crime in this country comes from illegal guns smuggled across the U.S. border. Every police service in the country knows it. Every frontline officer knows it. Even Gary, the minister pushing the buyback, conceded it in private:

“More than 95% are traced back to the U.S… Absolutely. 100%.”

So instead of hammering gangs, smugglers, and repeat violent offenders, Ottawa is blowing $742 million of taxpayers’ money to confiscate property from the most vetted Canadians in the country — licensed hunters and sport shooters. People who submit to daily background checks, people who lock their guns in safes, people who follow the law down to the smallest regulation.

Think about what else a billion dollars could buy: thousands of new border officers, state-of-the-art scanners at ports of entry, real enforcement to stop the flood of illegal weapons. Instead, that money is being burned for headlines, so Mark Carney can tell progressive voters he “did something” about guns.

Lets be clear. This is pandering dressed up as policy, a political calculation paid for with your tax dollars. And Cape Breton has been chosen as the guinea pig. That’s why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has stepped in, offering free legal support to firearm owners who refuse to be bullied. As CTF’s Devin Drover put it:

“This program is a failure, and it should not be expanded across the country.”

And lets be clear Drover is right. This is the frontline battle over more than just guns, it’s about taxpayers’ money, property rights, and whether Ottawa serves Canadians or exploits them for electoral math.

And here’s the part the Liberals don’t want to talk about: Canada is already drowning in deficit spending. The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects a $68.5 billion federal deficit this year, even higher than the Liberals’ own election pledge of $62.3 billion. In fact, Ottawa already posted an $8.7 billion deficit in just the first quarter of 2025. That’s the financial hole we’re in, and yet they can somehow find nearly a billion dollars for a gun grab that their own minister admits won’t work.

If you’re going to spend that kind of money, money we don’t have, it had better be effective. It had better actually reduce crime, secure our borders, and keep Canadians safe. Instead, this billion-dollar boondoggle does none of those things. It ignores the 90% of crime guns smuggled illegally across the U.S. border. It ignores gangs, repeat violent offenders, and broken bail laws. Instead, it targets the people who are already vetted, licensed, and law-abiding.

This is deficit spending at its worst: wasteful, performative, and punishing the wrong people. Every dollar spent on this buyback is a dollar not spent on CBSA officers, RCMP resources, port scanners, or gang units in our cities. It’s a dollar stolen from taxpayers who are already crushed by inflation and higher taxes.

If Ottawa insists on blowing a billion dollars, then Canadians have every right to demand it be spent on policies that work not on pandering schemes designed to win headlines in downtown Toronto or votes in Montreal.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation Pushes Back on Ottawa’s Costly Gun Scam

Canadian Taxpayers Federation fights back with free legal advice for gun owners targeted by Ottawa’s failed buyback

theoppositionnewsnetwork.substack.com

F kn pathetic pack of liebrals is all I can say

 

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[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

Why police forces must refuse Ottawa’s firearms confiscation scheme​

From crimefighters to confiscators: Ottawa wants police to trade public safety for political theatre.

The federal government’s Firearms Confiscation Compensation Scheme is not about public safety. It’s about control, optics, and votes.

Canadians aren’t stupid.

They know the difference between chasing violent criminals and harassing law-abiding sport shooters.

They know the difference between disarming criminal gangs and confiscating rifles from hunters.

If police forces bow down to Ottawa’s agenda, they risk shredding the trust that gives their badges legitimacy.

When police officers become pawns in political theatre, their credibility collapses.

No Framework. No Answers. No Integrity.

Police chiefs across Ontario admit that there’s no clarity, no funding plan, and no logistics to Ottawa’s gun confiscation scheme.

Durham Police weren’t even given the opportunity to ask questions.

Mark Campbell, president of Ontario’s Chiefs of Police Association, said it best.

"Lawfully owned rifles aren’t driving gang violence or crime. Smuggled handguns are."

Yet Ottawa wants police to ignore violent criminals with illegal guns so they can seize shotguns from duck blinds and hunting rifles from deer stands.

That’s not public safety. That’s political cosplay.

“We do not have the staffing, storage capacity, or resources required to participate [in the gun confiscation scheme],” said Deputy Chief Andrew Harvie of Brockville.

Police already battle violent crime, fentanyl deaths, and mental health calls with too few boots on the ground.

Diverting them to deal with tens of thousands of confiscated rifles and process mountains of “compensation” claims is a dangerous misuse of scarce police resources.

Every police officer wasted on this confiscation scheme is one less police officer out there stopping drug traffickers, breaking up gun smuggling rings, or saving lives.

Toronto Police said their priority is stopping criminals with illegal guns, not confiscating legally-owned firearms from licenced gun owners.

If police forces stop chasing criminals and start raiding the homes of law-abiding firearms owners, the fallout will be brutal.

Rural communities will feel targeted.

Hunters, farmers, and target shooters will feel betrayed because the message will be unmistakable.

Police no longer serve the people they are sworn to protect.

They serve politicians and their political whims.

Even the confiscation’s architect doesn’t believe in the scheme.

Minister Gary Anandasangaree himself admitted in a leaked audio recording that enforcement would be impossible.

If the confiscation scheme’s champion doesn’t believe in it, why should frontline police officers put their integrity on the line?

Alberta and Saskatchewan already refused to impose Ottawa’s hair-brained scheme.

Other provinces should follow their lead.

Police forces must stay out of Ottawa’s mandatory Firearms Confiscation Compensation Scheme.

Yes, mandatory.

Despite Mark Carney’s and Minister Anandasangaree’s lies, this is not a “voluntary” program.

There is no option to keep your firearm.

Your only option is to surrender your firearms, with or without compensation.

The government’s own website makes this crystal clear.

“Our Government is committed to implementing a mandatory disposal program so that the assault-style firearms we banned in 2020 are safely and permanently removed from our communities.”

Failure to comply means you face 10 years in prison for refusing to obey the law.

The “voluntary” portion of this scheme, if Carney is to be believed at all, is this: If you give up your firearms quickly enough, you may get some compensation. Not the true value of your firearm. Just some amount the government decrees is “enough.”

There is no upside for police forces because there is no public safety benefit to this confiscation scheme.

Violent criminals will still have their illegal guns.

Gang members will still have their illegal guns.

Smugglers will still bring in more illegal guns.

But those pesky hunters, farmers, and sport shooters?

The government is committed to confiscating their legally-owned firearms in exchange for a paltry 20 pieces of silver.

Police are sworn to serve the public, not the government of the day.

Their obligation to actual public safety measures is clear.

Pursue gun smugglers and other criminals.

Dismantle drug-dealing gangs to protect our citizens.

Choke off the flow of illegal firearms from the United States to help keep Canadian streets safe.

Seizing hunting rifles from farmers or target rifles from sport shooters can never accomplish these goals, and any politician who claims otherwise is lying.

When law enforcement kneels to political whims, every community loses because trust is broken.

When police anchor themselves in truth and defend it courageously, they protect both public safety and the rule of law.

And on that day, they have the support of citizens, as they should.

We urge every police force across Canada to stand firm and say “NO” to Ottawa’s firearms confiscation scheme.

Refuse to be willing props in Prime Minister Carney’s gun confiscation photo ops.

Protecting Canadians from criminal violence is your duty and your role, not confiscating firearms from Uncle Joe and Aunt Nellie.

BERNARDO: Why police forces must refuse Ottawa’s firearms confiscation scheme

The federal government’s Firearms Confiscation Compensation Scheme is not about public safety. It’s about control, optics, and votes.

www.westernstandard.news