Justin Trudeau’s government, on the issue of banning military-style assault weapons, has been shooting blanks for four years. These deadly weapons may have been banned, but this prohibition has still not been sustained by their confiscation. And now the partner who was privileged to finally carry out the buyback program, still missing, is seeking to withdraw from the equation.
Ottawa hoped to be able to count on the collaboration of Canada Post and its employees to recover the confiscated firearms, which would be returned by their owners who had first unloaded and secured them. However, journalist Daniel Leblanc, from Radio-Canada, revealed this week that the postal company is refusing it. She is concerned about the safety of her employees when handling such goods, as well as receiving these packages from owners who may be upset at having to part with them.
The Liberals say they are continuing talks and looking for another solution. But five days before the fourth anniversary of the announcement with great fanfare of this ban – which remains theoretical since, although prohibited, these assault weapons have not been recovered – the government above all still seems bogged down. In fact, he has just lost the avenue that he considered the most efficient (Canada Post is already established throughout the territory) and the least expensive (the remuneration of these employees is well below that of the agents of police).
The heads of the police forces have also warned the government that they do not want to inherit this mess, arguing that they are already suffering from a shortage of personnel on the ground. And although Quebec has offered to support the federal government, since the Sûreté du Québec itself carries out the recovery and destruction of firearms, four Canadian provinces have warned that they will not do the same. Alberta and Saskatchewan have even adopted a law aimed at exempting municipal police officers or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from the federal buyout program — shared jurisdiction where it operates as a provincial police force.
The New Zealand scenario, where 56,000 weapons were requisitioned in six months precisely through the hands of the police, is therefore excluded. The repercussions of growing tensions between the federal government and the provinces are multiple.
The essential purchase of these assault weapons, so that they are irrevocably destroyed, is also a completely federal responsibility. It was up to Justin Trudeau’s government to ensure this from the start, with the budget to back it up, rather than getting bogged down in such improvisation. Especially since, as a minority, he did not have the luxury of time. Of which he has even less today, threatened with being replaced in at most a year and a half by the Conservative Party of Pierre Poilievre, which is sending gun owners and dealers the signal that he will give them back immediately the right to keep all their weapons if they have not been transferred by then.
Gun control — or the threat of its relaxation by the Conservatives — served the Liberals well during the last election campaign. This public safety priority should not, however, serve as simple ammunition for the divisive debates of the moment. In the absence of a rapid outcome, it will be difficult to conclude that the Trudeau government was also of this opinion.