Critics slam latest gun control legislation
Trudeau says feds won’t scrap proposed amendment some say will unfairly ban hunting firearms
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government won’t scrap a proposed amendment to its latest gun control legislation, as criticism mounts over surprise changes that opponents say will unfairly ban firearms commonly used for legal hunting.
On Thursday, the Assembly of First Nations denounced the proposed amendments to Bill C-21 through an emergency motion on the final day of its chiefs’ summit in the capital. The motion called on the Liberal minority government to conduct “proper and adequate” consultations with First Nations on the proposed law, refrain from banning any long guns commonly used by Indigenous Peoples in subsistence hunting, and ensure First Nations police forces have the resources to tackle gun violence.
Matachewan First Nation Chief Alex “Sonny” Batisse told assembled delegates on Thursday he was “pretty disgruntled” with the bill, saying he teaches his grandson his community’s traditional ways and values, including how to use a gun.
“Does the government want to take that away from our people? How many things have they (taken) away?”
Speaking before the resolution passed, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Chief Dylan Whiteduck said some of the firearms caught up in the proposed changes are used as tools in First Nations. “It’s not a weapon. It’s a tool, and back home most First Nations know that it’s a tool and you respect that tool,” he said.
With the emergency resolution, the AFN joins opposition Conservatives, New Democrats and some backbench Liberal MPs from rural ridings who have expressed concerns that the changes add too many guns used for hunting and farming to the government’s list of banned firearms. However, gun control advocates such as PolySeSouvient, a group representing victims and survivors of the 1989 shooting massacre at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, have applauded the amendments and said the criticism is fuelled by “disinformation.” Bill C-21 is the latest Liberal gun control effort. It was originally meant to formalize the government’s freeze on handgun sales, and beef up police powers to investigate alleged firearms crimes, among other things.
But the proposed changes introduced last month would now also ban about 480 additional makes and models of firearms on top of the roughly 1,900 previously banned as “military-style” assault weapons through regulations first published in May 2020. The changes would also create a so-called “evergreen” definition of firearms that would automatically be banned if they met a set of criteria designed to prohibit guns the government deems to have been designed to kill people.
Earlier Thursday, the prime minister defended the proposed amendments, which he said are meant to legally enshrine his government’s regulatory ban of “assault-style” guns. Describing the effort as a “complex issue,” Trudeau said the government’s goal is to define which guns fall under this banned category without “going after shotguns and rifles that are primarily used for hunting.”
Asked if the government is reconsidering the amendment, Trudeau said no, but added it is listening to concerns about the list of guns the amendment would ban.
“We understand that there are concerns by hunters … and farmers that we’re going after their shotguns and rifles. We are not, and that’s what we’re going to make sure with fine-tuning of the legislation,” Trudeau told reporters on Parliament Hill. In an effort to heed those concerns, Liberal MPs on a parliamentary committee studying the gun control bill joined the Bloc Québécois and NDP on Thursday in scheduling two “urgent meetings” to discuss the proposed changes. Speaking to the committee on Thursday, Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed said the government wants to take time to address “myths” around the gun legislation and improve it before it could become law.
“We want to make sure that we work collaboratively to make that there are no guns that are commonly used for hunting captured within these proposed amendments,” Noormohamed said.