Ford criticizes Trudeau’s gun ban
Premier says $600M could be better spent on fighting smuggling
Premier Doug Ford yesterday took aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s newly announced ban on military-grade assault weapons during the province’s daily pandemic media briefing.
The estimated $600-million cost of Ottawa’s program would be better spent stopping smugglers at the border and cracking down on gun-wielding gangs that are “terrorizing innocent people,” the premier said Saturday in response to a question from a reporter.
On Friday, the Trudeau government outlawed a wide range of assault-style rifles, saying the guns were designed for the battlefield, not for hunting or sport shooting.
He has also promised a buyback program for all legally purchased rifles that would fall under the new ban, with owners offered fair market prices for their guns.
But in a Friday briefing, federal civil servants told reporters in a technical briefing that gun owners who already possess the kind of weapons that were used in the Nova Scotia massacre in April, will be allowed to keep them even after the ban takes effect — a fact that wasn’t mentioned by Trudeau or his ministers.
Gun owners will have two years to decide whether to have their weapons bought back or to have them grandfathered under a still-unspecified program, reporters were told.
“I can’t help but think that money could be put to much better use, hunting down the violent criminals and stopping illegal guns at our borders. I’m ready to work with our federal government and to partner up with them to stop the guns coming in from across the border,” said the Ford, who has refrained from criticizing the Trudeau government throughout the COVID-19 lockdown.
Ford’s comments echo those made by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who has said the gun ban will criminalize law-abiding Canadians.
“Let’s strengthen the sentences rather than giving these nasty criminals, the gang bangers, a slap on the wrist,” Ford said. “You think the violence is going to go down in Toronto? I don’t believe it’s going to go down in Toronto based on taking legal guns off gun owners.”
For the second week in a row, the premier also lashed out at protesters at Queen’s Park for endangering lives by gathering together and disrespecting the country by flying a Canadian flag upside down.
The protesters, who last week Ford called “a bunch of yahoos,” want the province to open up businesses and ease the rampant unemployment brought on by the COVID-19 economic lockdown.
Ford said he understands people are hurting but flying an upside down flag disrespects Canadian military men and women overseas, including those lost in the crash of a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter off the coast of Greece last week.
“They have the nerve to fly our Canadian flag upside down and disrespect the men and women of our Canadian Armed Forces, and disrespect the people of Canada who have all been united through this (pandemic) challenge,” he said of the protesters.
As a few businesses prepare to open up on Monday, Ford said he wants to see infection rates decline consistently for a couple of weeks before he loosens more restrictions on the economy.
Despite the ongoing battle to fight the virus in Ontario’s longterm care homes, there are signs that infections are slowing in the broader public domain, said the premier. But Ford said he couldn’t provide a precise timeline for more openings.
“The lower we get, the more we can open up and get back to the new normal, and get people back working, getting people out and about,” he said.