Canada’s territorial premiers raised concerns on Friday about last-minute changes to the Liberal government’s proposed gun-control legislation, adding to a growing backlash over the amendments, which would
criminalize some firearms commonly used by hunters.
Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane offered a forceful rebuke of the late changes to Bill C-21, emphasizing that many Indigenous people in the territory rely on rifles for hunting to buffer against extremely high costs of food.
When asked by a reporter on Friday if she supports the bill in its latest form, Ms. Cochrane said: “If they didn’t look at the needs for hunters, then I could not support it because then I would be supporting people starving.”
Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane offered a rebuke of the late changes to Bill C-21, emphasizing that many Indigenous people in the territory rely on rifles for hunting
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Criticism has been mounting in the weeks since – from both Conservative and NDP MPs, and even from within the Liberals’ own party. On Thursday,
First Nations chiefs, who’d gathered from across Canada for a meeting in Ottawa, voted unanimously in favour of a resolution opposing the bill.
The Liberals may claim their recent amendments to Bill C-21 – that would outlaw hundreds of popular rifle and shotgun models – do not target hunters, farmers and sport shooters. But the simple truth is, the amendments will only affect law-abiding gun owners.
Gun-toting criminals will not be impacted in any way, so who other than hunters et al do the Liberals imagine their amendments will target?
The prime minister, the justice minister, the public safety minister and a score of Liberal backbenchers have all insisted, beyond any measure of believability, that the last-minute addition of over 400 pages of long-gun models to their bill banning all handguns is not what it very clearly is – the most massive, sweeping gun-control bill in the history of Canada, and very likely in the history of Westminster democracies.
On top of that, the more evidence has piled up that the Liberals are singling out hunting guns for confiscation, the louder and more vehement have been their denials. As if the bolder their lies, the more likely their urban, firearms-ignorant supporters are to believe them.
For weeks now, the Liberals have been using procedural rules to prevent testimony from anyone who isn’t friendly to their ban. Apparently, without consulting the Conservatives, the Liberals worked out a deal with the NDP and Bloc to allow two days of outside witnesses from an approved list. So when the Conservatives objected that that was a sham, the Liberals pounced, claiming it was the Conservatives who were determined to keep Canadians from hearing the truth about Bill C-21.
There’s an ancient tradition, which even predates Canada having its own Parliament, that one MP may not accuse another of lying. Indeed, members go to great lengths to think up euphemisms by which they can call one another liars without actually uttering the word. In Britain, MPs often accuse...
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Harder for the Liberals to brush aside are the objections from the Assembly of First Nations and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations to the long-gun ban.
The Libs pay great lip service to reconciliation with First Peoples, but their commitment seems mostly to apply only when First Nations are going along with Liberal policies.
Now these two large, Indigenous lobbies have claimed the hunting-gun ban violates their treaty rights.
No doubt the Liberals will pretend to hear. They may even go as far as they did back in the days of the long-gun registry and set up a separate set of rules for Indigenous citizens – two-tiered gun control.
It certainly appears that the decision to parachute two controversial amendments into the government’s gun bill, C-21, at the committee stage on the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre was taken because it was judged to be a useful political wedge. As one minister sanitized it privately, it would offer voters “a stark choice.”
Liberals tried the U.S.-style base strategy to ram through Bill C-21 and are coming up short
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The bill originally sought to put a freeze on handgun sales and tighten gun ownership, a move opposed by Conservatives but supported by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.
But the Liberals have shattered that progressive coalition by introducing the 11th hour amendments without consultation, offering an “evergreen” definition of what constitutes an “assault weapon” and, even more flagrantly, submitting a 480-page list of prohibited weapons, some of which (for example, the wood-stock, single shot Ruger No. 1) clearly do not meet that definition.
The Liberals banked that the move would be wildly popular among a progressive, downtown voting base that wouldn’t know a Remington 870 shotgun from a Remington typewriter.
But Indigenous groups, hunters and farmers are up in arms at seeing previously legal weapons on the prohibited list, while both the NDP and Bloc want the amendments removed or watered down. They may be as rare as hen’s teeth, but even Liberal members with rural ridings, such as Yukon MP Brendan Hanley, have broken ranks with the governing party, saying the bill would negatively impact constituents who hunt for food and recreation.
“Millions of hunters will be impacted by what they’ve done. And they brought it forward at the 11th hour in the most sneaky and underhanded way,” she (Manitoba Conservative Raquel Dancho) said, as she was ejected from the House of Commons Thursday after accusing a Liberal MP of lying and refusing to apologize.
The fiery exchange began when MP Vance Badawey said Conservatives were standing in the way of more testimony at a committee debating Bill C-21
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The proposed change at the heart of the controversy — amendment G4 to Bill C-21 — seeks to widen the definition of a “prohibited weapon” to include “a firearm that is a rifle or shotgun, that is capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner and that is designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges of the type for which the firearm was originally designed.”
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he, personally, is open to voting for the amendment, but needs some 'clarity' first from experts
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