Gun Control | Two police unions urge Ottawa to act

(Ottawa) Two major Quebec police unions are calling on federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to come back to ban assault weapons permanently while avoiding including hunting weapons in the lot . The federal government intends to table new amendments to this effect by the end of the month, learned The Press.

They will be “easier to understand,” said Minister Mendicino’s press attaché, Audrey Champoux. “I hope people will feel that we have listened to them,” she added.

The government caused a surprise in February by withdrawing two controversial amendments that added a ban on assault weapons to Bill C-21 on gun control. The gesture was well received by all the main opposition parties.

Minister Mendicino will provide more details on the government’s intentions when he testifies before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety. His passage is scheduled for next week, but the date has not yet been set.

“We know that assault-style weapons that have been used in mass killings across the country have no place in Canada, but we can do this without attacking the rights, hunters and farmers who have shotguns,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated Thursday during his visit to Saskatchewan.

The new amendments would contain a definition of assault weapons that would be prohibited by law. Already about 1900 models are prohibited by decree. It is not known at this time whether these amendments would include a list of prohibited models like the previous ones.

This list of more than 300 pages had sown confusion and led to an outcry. In addition to the models already banned, it included the SKS, a military-style weapon frequently used by hunters and Aboriginal people.

The government plans to include some of the recommendations of the Mass Casualty Commission, which looked into the Portapique shootings in Nova Scotia. In particular, it suggested reforming the firearms classification system and developing a standardized, simple and consistent list of prohibited weapons. She also proposed to prohibit the use of a magazine of more than five bullets in the Criminal Code.

“An essential policy”

The Brotherhood of Police Officers of Montreal and the Association of Provincial Police Officers of Quebec (APPQ) are in turn asking that high-capacity magazines be banned. The Press obtained a copy of the letters that the two unions sent to Minister Mendicino last month.

“On behalf of the police officers of Montreal, this is to reiterate to you our position that style firearms assault should be prohibited and that prohibiting such weapons, of a military type, represents an essential policy to be implemented”, writes the president of the Fraternity, Yves Francœur, in his letter dated March 22.

It argues that these weapons “obviously and unnecessarily compromise the safety of the public as well as that” of its 4,500 members.

“Consequently, it is important that these weapons be extremely well defined in order to truly prohibit them, without however prohibiting those which are reasonably used for hunting”, he continues.

The letter from the president of the APPQ, Jacques Painchaud, dated March 10, adopts a similar tone. He points out that his 5,800 members “may one day or another find themselves confronted with this type of assault weapon in the exercise of their duties, as was unfortunately the case for the two Ontario police officers murdered in October 2022”.

He warns the government to include weapons “reasonably used for hunting” in a new definition of prohibited weapons.

“We therefore urge you to be as clear as possible in this regard in order to prevent pro-weapon groups from taking advantage of the confusion to misinform the population and thus sabotage a bill that is necessary, desirable and in the best interests. of all Canadian citizens,” he wrote.

The misinformation conveyed by the Canadian Coalition for Gun Rights (CCDAF) has been denounced by the group PolySeSouvient, which campaigns for the banning of assault weapons.

The two police unions also urge the federal government to better fund the fight against illegal weapons, “an epidemic that is wreaking havoc and greatly insecure the population of Montreal and Canada,” says Yves Francœur.

Jacques Painchaud writes that ” […] the prohibition of certain categories of weapons is not a panacea for the use of weapons in general by the criminal world such as street gangs, a phenomenon which rather requires muscular police interventions supported by adequate resources”.

He calls on Ottawa to “fund more” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Border Services Agency and the police forces in border towns.