OTTAWA — In a preview of the election messaging likely coming this fall, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Liberals will be promising more gun control measures while Conservative leader Andrew Scheer will roll back some measures already passed.
“We look forward to the very next time Parliament is sitting, hopefully under a Liberal government, where we will be able to introduce further measures to strengthen measures against guns,” Trudeau told reporters at an event with Toronto Mayor John Tory.
But he declined to get into details, saying only that he looks forward to “the election campaign in which we will be able to share with Canadians our vision for how to keep Canadians more safe … and that involves strengthening gun control, but it also involves investments that (Tory) has pointed out are so deeply needed in community infrastructure.” Trudeau used that point to attack Ontario Premier Doug Ford for dragging his heels on infrastructure funds.
Trudeau also said a federal Conservative government would, by contrast, repeal the firearms legislation already passed by Trudeau — legislation the Conservatives argue is ineffective because it only put more restrictions on legal gun owners rather than target criminals. The Conservatives unveiled their own proposed gun policies last fall , including lifetime bans on owning guns for anyone convicted of gang-related activity or certain violent crimes.
Tory said he requested Tuesday’s meeting with Trudeau following a spate of gun crime, including over the August long weekend when 17 people were injured in 14 separate shootings.
“At a time of increased anxiety and troubling criminal activity in our city, I’ve asked the Prime Minister to consider doing more,” Tory said. “We have to address the root causes of gun violence and get much tougher with criminals who often laugh at things, literally laugh at things, like bail and sentencing practices. … People are expecting us to do more together.”
Though Trudeau didn’t offer specifics on what his party’s platform will contain, Liberal cabinet minister Bill Blair, who ran the government’s public consultation on a handgun ban, gave interviews earlier this year in which he outlined what he expects some of those measures to be.
In one interview with The Globe and Mail, Blair said he doesn’t believe a national ban on handguns would be effective, arguing they would still be smuggled in over the U.S. border and it would be too expensive to buy back handguns that are currently legally owned.
But Blair did suggest that a ban and buyback program for some assault weapons may be on the table (though there is no clear definition on which guns qualify as “assault weapons”). Blair also suggested more power could be given to provinces and municipalities to enact their own gun restrictions.
At Tuesday’s news conference Trudeau pointed to Bill C-71, firearms legislation that passed in June and brought in stronger background checks, more reporting requirements for gun sales and more control over when restricted guns can be transported. He then transitioned into an attack on Scheer.
“It is, in parenthesis, of concern that Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives have committed to rolling back a number of those stronger protections we brought in,” he said.
Last year, Scheer promised to repeal and replace Bill C-71, arguing it only penalizes legal gun owners while doing little to address guns in the hands of violent criminals.
“All C-71 does is target the most responsible and the most vetted members of our society,” Scheer said at a news conference Sept. 19, 2018. “Should Bill C-71 pass this fall, a Conservative government elected in 2019 will repeal it and replace it with a law that targets criminals, protects Canadians, and respects sport shooters and law-abiding firearms owners.”
In November, Scheer outlined his own plan for gun measures, including the lifetime ban for certain convicted criminals. He also called for a lifetime ban on anyone found guilty of “straw purchases” — where guns are legally purchased with the intention of diverting them into the black market.
Scheer’s plan calls for a task force on preventing guns from being smuggled over the border, prison time for knowingly possessing a smuggled gun and temporary gun seizures for people detained under provincial mental health legislation.
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