In a recently released audio recording, Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree claims that the Liberal government’s so-called “assault-style firearms compensation program,” slated to cost an estimated billion dollars, is intended to retain Liberal votes in Quebec, while the gun ban underpinning the program will not be enforced.
In short, Anandasangaree indicates that the program amounts to the Liberal government spending a billion dollars to buy votes in Quebec with a program he states isn’t enforceable.
In the conversation, recorded by an unnamed individual, Anandasangaree says he cannot explain the logic behind his government’s 5-year-old long gun ban and invites gun owners who possess firearms prohibited by his government to simply ignore the ban, saying that he doubts police have the resources to enforce it. He reinforces this opinion by later offering to pay the cost of bail for the gun owner who recorded the conversation.
Anandasangaree also indicates that he’s been told to initiate the confiscation program by Prime Minister Mark Carney, and states “one of the main reasons” his party insists on continuing the unenforceable ban and ensuing confiscation/compensation program is that the ban “has been a big deal for many of the Quebec electorate who voted for us.” He also states that “Quebec is in a different place than Ontario,” ostensibly seeming to indicate he is aware that the Quebec voter coalition he’s referring to has a more positive attitude towards the ban than voters elsewhere.
Furthermore, Anandasangaree stipulates that the budget is “capped” at $742 million, which, combined with the amounts spent since the ban’s announcement in 2020, brings the program’s total taxpayer cost to roughly $1 billion. Anandasangaree also indicates that when that sum has been exhausted, no additional compensation will be offered to gun owners who choose to participate in the gun ban, which he continuously refers to as “voluntary.” When the gun owner he is speaking with on the recording broaches the subject that the compensatory amounts previously floated by the government were significantly below the amount he had paid for firearms that have since been prohibited, Anandasangaree offers to “personally” compensate the individual for the difference.
The Liberal Party of Canada currently holds 44 seats in Quebec, including
Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville, held by novice MP and former gun control lobbyist Nathalie Provost.
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