Another Peek At Proposed Federal Firearms Confiscation Plans ... With Provincial And Municipal Help!

The Liberal government's proposed Bill C-21 amendments, the controversial G4 and G46, are barely dead and buried by the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU). And yet, we're already seeing another peek at the plan to confiscate firearms with help from the RCMP and municipal police forces. The groundwork appears to already be laid, and four provinces and several cities (including Edmonton and Calgary, surprisingly) appear to be interested in cooperating with the federal government on this plan.

Earlier today, the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (CCFR) published a two-page document that it says "appears to be an outline or agenda for an upcoming meeting between the Public Safety Minister and his provincial counterparts." At this February 21-22 meeting, Minister Marco Mendicino is presumably going to offer an update on federal gun control bans, based on the document's text (see below). Or perhaps that was the original idea, but the plan has changed; note the reference to Bill C-21 amendments, which are no longer in place.

The CCFR did say how it acquired this document.

If this document is indeed current and valid, it offers considerable insight into the federal government's plans for gun control this year:

• The RCMP is listed as the primary law enforcement agency performing the planned firearm seizures. The document says the cost of those seizures will be on the federal government's budget, and that "front line priorities will always take precedence over firearms collection." While that may initially appease some who are OK with gun control but not OK with its expense, the reality is that RCMP detachments are already understaffed in many areas of Canada. More staff will be needed, and that means more expense. Man-hours are without cost, no matter which division of government is responsible, and all levels of government are funded by the same taxpayers.

• As far as businesses affected by gun seizures, the document suggests a private partner will conduct those seizures, obviously at further cost to taxpayers. There have been rumours of such a partnership for months already, and it seems likely that interacting with businesses is the only place such a partnership would operate smoothly.

• Public Safety says it is "encouraged" by the number of jurisdictions who are interested in cooperating on these seizures, and that it hopes to have agreements-in-principle with those jurisdictions by the middle of 2023. These jurisdictions include the provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. On the municipal level, there are some cities you'd expect to see listed (Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg) along with some surprises, in regions with many conservative-leaning voters (Calgary, Edmonton). Other cities may frequently vote Liberal (Charlottetown, Saint John), but would have significant numbers of law-abiding gun owners living in their rural boundaries and no high-profile firearms crime reported, certainly none involving the firearms the Liberals were keen to ban with Bill C-21.

• The document singles out Indigenous communities, but does not say they will be exempt from the seizures. It only says there will be "engagement ... to more full understand their concerns and unique considerations, as part of a broader engagement strategy on reducing gun violence." That is certainly no promise that First Nations will be allowed to retain firearms that other Canadians must surrender.

What next?

If the meeting indicated on this document still runs in a week's time, there will no doubt be changes to the agenda, as Bill C-21 saw G4 and G46 amendments withdrawn (expect to hear more about that in the SECU meeting on February 14). But even if the Liberals' plans have seen a minor setback (remember, the rest of C-21 still stands for now), expect this push for firearms bans to continue.

So, if you want to do something, get back to applying political pressure. The Opposition members of the SECU were quite open about the massive volume of mail they received, indicating opposition to C-21's amendments. If you live in one of the provinces or cities mentioned above as considering cooperating with Public Safety on this plan, contact your mayor, your councillors, your MLA, your ministers in charge of public safety and justice, and the premier's office. As always, be polite, be reasonable, but let them know that voters are unhappy with this plan.

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