Alberta won't help federal gun ban efforts, says justice minister

The prairies are once again going to be a battleground in Canada's political war over gun control, it seems. For months, the Alberta has appeared to be setting its own course on firearms safety. Now, Alberta's justice minister says his government will not direct RCMP officers to begin seizing firearms this fall, as the federal government wishes.

Discrepancies between provincial policies and federal law regarding firearms are nothing new. When the federal long gun registry was in place, some jurisdictions saw provincial law enforcement such as fish and game officers basically ignore any firearms-related paperwork. On the other hand, Quebec currently has its own long gun registry that exceeds the limits of current federal law. However, that's the biggest exception these days. Generally, in the years following the demise of the long gun registry, it seemed most provinces have more-or-less played ball with the federal government on firearms issues. This seems to be true whether their provincial Chief Firearms Officers were locally appointed, or appointed by the feds.

But, in the past couple of years, that started to change out west. Firearms owners across the country were incensed by the Liberal government's sweeping Order in Council bans of May, 2020, which arbitrarily outlawed everything from big game and varmint hunting rifles to tactical and sporting firearms. In the months since, even more firearms have been added to the list, along with a handgun import ban.

Saskatchewan and Alberta both have appointed their own provincial Chief Firearms Officers in the midst of this blitz of tightened gun control, and Alberta's new CFO, Dr. Teri Bryant, has been particularly outspoken in opposition to the federal government's plans.

That still left the question: What will the provinces do, if they disagree with the feds? Now, the province of Alberta has ended the suspense, and says it will not cooperate. Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro told a press conference that "Alberta will not assist the federal government in this or any federal effort to strip lawfully obtained personal property from our residents." Shandro also told journalists the bans were politically motivated, that they wouldn't make Albertans any safer, and that the term "assault weapons" was being improperly applied.

See the Calgary Herald's video coverage of the event below, including comments from CFO Bryant:

There's no wiggle room in those statements.

So what next? Can the feds force Alberta to cooperate? Or at least, force the RCMP to obey federal orders? No doubt there is a major political showdown ahead this fall.