The Trudeau government announced yet another round of models will be added to its long gun ban, further prohibiting over 300 firearms that were not included in its initial sweeping ban introduced four years ago.
Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc said an additional 324 firearms will be added to the original list of 1,500 that were banned under Bill C-21 in 2020, which passed through the Senate last year.
“These firearms can no longer be legally used, sold or imported in Canada,” LeBlanc told reporters on Thursday.
The added measures will also include donating some of the confiscated firearms to Ukraine to aid the country in its fight against Russia.
“The Department of National Defence will begin working with the Canadian companies that have weapons that Ukraine needs and which are already eligible for the assault firearm compensation program in order to get these weapons out of Canada and into the hands of the Ukrainians,” said Defence Minister Bill Blair.
Owners of the prohibited firearms have been granted an amnesty period until Oct. 30 2025 and all newly added models will be rolled into the government’s existing buy-back program.
While the government announced that Phase 1 of the buyback program is officially underway, not a single firearm has been confiscated to date, despite the program already costing taxpayers nearly $100 million.
Additionally, new measures stemming from Bill C-21 include provisions that reduce the threshold for firearms licences to be revoked from people who commit violent acts.
The announcement comes on the 35th anniversary of the mass shooting at École Polytechnique in Montreal that killed 14 women, timing that some critics of the ban view as political.
“This is clearly a political move. The Liberals are desperate to change the channel from multi-billion-dollar scandals to ‘keeping Canadians safe,’” Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights’ executive director Rod Giltaca told True North
“They’ve done the complete opposite over the last nine years. Second, this move is astoundingly cynical. The Liberals know full well that they will confiscate zero firearms as they are out of time and there is no doubt the Conservative will form an indisputable majority government within 10 months.”
Giltaca pointed out that firearm-related violence has increased by 116% over the last nine years with “no legislative effort to stem the violence, only a quadrupling down on destroying licensed firearm businesses, fish & game clubs and licensed gun owners.”
This sentiment was echoed by the Toronto Police Association which responded to a social media post from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October announcing the second anniversary of its handgun freeze.
“Two years ago today, we froze the handgun market and stopped handguns from being bought, sold, or transferred anywhere in Canada,” wrote Trudeau on Oct. 21. “We choose your safety over the gun lobby — every time.”
The Toronto Police Association responded sharply by saying, “criminals did not get your message.”
“Our communities are experiencing a 45% increase in shootings and a 62% increase in gun-related homicides compared to this time last year. What difference does your handgun ban make when 85% of guns seized by our members can be sourced to the United States?,” wrote TPA in a post to X.
According to Giltaca, Friday’s announcement has “nothing to do with public safety.”
“The debate on that is long over. Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois consistently choose ‘divide and conquer’ politics over public safety,” he said. “After being devastated in the polls for over two years, we’ll have to wait and see what path these people take.”
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