On Thursday, the eve of the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989, the federal government announced it was banning scores of new kinds of firearms. The government did not immediately have available for media a list of those firearms. And at first blush this might seem like an almost impossibly basic failure, even for this twitching, lurching zombie of a government.
As with most anniversaries, this one happens on the same day every year. The Liberals always co-opt it as a gun-control wedge issue, and often use it to unveil new legislation or regulations. How many hours in advance did they decide to do it this year, to have been so unprepared? Six? One and a half?
But I can almost see this gang being surprised at the question, because of course these announcements are never really about the guns themselves. Canada’s list of banned firearms includes “the AR15.Com ARFCOM” and “the AR15.Com AR15.Com.” AR15.com is a website, not a gun, no matter how many times in a row you say it. ARFCOM is also not a gun, but rather a nickname given said website by its users. That’s how seriously this government takes gun control, even as the vast majority of weapons involved in crime flow unmolested across the American border.
December 6 is an opportunity for Liberals to appeal to people who think all guns should be banned, or at least all guns that look to city folk like “assault weapons.” And this year’s gambit is even more cynical than average. A mandatory buyback program is in a “pilot project” stage for distributors and retailers, but won’t kick in for individual gun owners until October 2025 — which is, not at all coincidentally, the latest-possible date of the next federal election (at least under the current fixed-election-date law).
The list isn’t about the list. It never is. It’s about creating a wedge issue, hoping some Conservative MP will be crazy enough actually to stand up for gun-owners’ rights — at which point, the Liberals imagine, Canadians will swoon en masse in shock and abandon any hopes of changing governments. Vote Liberal or you’ll get shot, basically.
That’s not even close to the most cynical part, though. The Liberals really have outdone themselves this year. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says they’re looking at sending guns bought back from retailers and distributors — and presumably, eventually, from individuals — to Ukraine, to help its brave soldiers fend off the Russian menace.
We are to believe that after nine years of Liberal governance it is legal to sell and own useful weapons of war in Canada. That doesn’t just seem unlikely: The standard-issue rifle for the Ukrainian army is the AK-74, which has long been prohibited in Canada.
It should also sound to the city folk the Liberals are courting like a colossal failure of gun control.
But I’m sure the idea earned whoever came up with it many high-fives around the strategy table. Not only will they lure Conservatives into supporting gun-owners’ rights, they’ll lure them into revealing their sympathies for Russia. Vote Liberal or vote for Putin, basically. It almost certainly won’t move the needle; polls suggest Canadians don’t even want free money from the Liberals anymore. And the party will find itself in an even deeper pit of ignominy.
Three-and-a-half years ago, the families and friends of the École Polytechnique victims said they had finally had enough of being used as political props. “While you and your government may be able to deceive a large segment of the population with empty talking points and catchy slogans, you cannot fool the families and survivors who have been fighting for gun control for over 30 years,” some of them wrote in a scathing letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
They were angry, in particular, that gun-control legislation then before Parliament did not include a mandatory buyback provision. Well, they got their mandatory buyback provision … except they didn’t, because by the time it kicks in in earnest, the Liberals will almost certainly be gone, having accomplished nothing constructive on gun control — and indeed, leaving behind a violent-crime rate that’s almost 30-per-cent higher than when they took office.
For God’s sake, enough already.
National Post
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