Federal public safety minister Gary Anandasangaree recently got himself into a bit of a pickle, when an overly-candid conversation he had with a tenant about the government’s gun buyback program was leaked to a firearm lobby group. Whoopsie daisy, that’s a tough day at the office.
It’s pretty clear the minister didn’t know he was being recorded because over the course of a few minutes, he trashed the majority of the controversial and long-delayed program that he proceeded to roll out just days later with a completely straight face.
The feds intend to buy back more than 2,000 different models of firearms, largely semi-automatic rifles that they’ve deemed “assault-style weapons”, following through on a promise made in the wake of the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting (in which the shooter obtained all his guns illegally). It’s true that many of these models are essentially “tacticool” fashion accessories for gun-enthusiasts and don’t serve a purpose for hunting (though there are plenty of strange additions to the list). However, trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube by prohibiting them is incredibly wasteful public safety theatre. If these rifles really were such a pressing threat, why would the Trudeau government dillydally so long instead of actually getting rid of them?
While the buyback program has focused on businesses so far, Anandasangaree’s update last week was to announce a pilot project in Cape Breton where owners of now-prohibited firearms can “voluntarily” surrender their guns to authorities, or have them put out of commission. The roll out to the rest of the country is planned for later this fall.
Already, provincial governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan have said they would obstruct the process and the Ontario Provincial Police has publicly refused to participate.
In the recording, the minister said that municipal police forces would likely not have the resources to enforce the buyback, and added that the $742 million budget (yes, you read that right, three quarters of a billion dollars) for the project would be capped.
According to CTV News, that eye-watering figure is the total allocated for the program since 2020, however, it’s estimated only $248 million would go towards actual compensation for businesses and individuals. What exactly are we getting for the other $500,000,000? How many people will actually end up fairly compensated when this all shakes out?
According to the Toronto Star, which obtained a copy of the recording, there was a telling exchange when the minister was asked why he would stay the course with a flawed project:
“Don’t ask me to explain the logic to you on this, OK?” Anandasangaree says.
“But we’re not the problem, Gary,” the tenant says, referring to legal gun owners, to which Anandasangaree replies “I realize that.”
“This is the mandate I was given by [Mark] Carney to complete this, and not revisit this,” Anandasangaree continues. “That’s my objective: just put an end to this and move with other additional criminal justice tools . . . ”
It’s honestly refreshing hearing a politician say the obvious out loud instead of sticking to their party’s talking points: “Yes, I know this doesn’t make sense, but I’m just following orders.”
Anandasangaree added to his tenant that the legislation “is something that is very much a big, big, big deal for many of the Quebec electorate that voted for us.” The Liberal Party has historically had its voting base centered in Montreal and added École Polytechnique massacre survivor Natalie Provost to their caucus in the last election (Carney made headlines at the time for flubbing her name and the school she attended). This has always been more about pandering to the Liberal base than public safety. Legally owned firearms were used in the Polytechnique shooting, as well as the Quebec Mosque shooting, but make up a small part of the picture when discussing violent crime in this country.
According to Stats Can, half of firearm-related violent crime in Canada involves a handgun, while 15 per cent involves rifles and shotguns. An enormous number of handguns are smuggled in from the United States and criminals now also have the option of 3-D printing firearm components. In addition, firearm-related crime is a small percentage of overall violent crime reported in Canada.
Rather than focus their energies on the primary driver of firearms into the hands of criminals, namely sharing an enormous border with the world’s biggest arsenal, it’s easier for politicians to over-regulate legal owners. Rural populations rarely factor into the calculus of political parties, we just don’t have enough votes to interest them.
The Liberals are appealing to urban and suburban voters who wouldn’t know the difference between a .22 and a 12-gauge rather than addressing root causes of violent crime.
Their fixation on so-called “assault rifles” is an outgrowth of Canadians’ obsession with American media, but our society is (thankfully) not awash with blood from near-daily mass shootings.
At a time when the Parliamentary Budget Officer is projecting a $68.5 billion deficit, dumping hundreds of millions into a flawed, inefficient initiative kicked down the road by the previous government seems like the last thing we should pursue.
But as the minister acknowledged in private, it seems that the powers that be have already made their calculations and plan to stick to their guns, unfortunately.
