(Ottawa) The ministers of the Trudeau government seem annoyed by the reproaches addressed to them by the government of Quebec and the City of Montreal since the assassination of Thomas Trudel, the 16-year-old teenager killed in Montreal, on November 14.
On Monday, Mayor Valérie Plante and Prime Minister François Legault called once again for Ottawa to better manage the handgun problem.
“We don’t want to shovel everything, we have responsibilities, Valérie and I, but there are also responsibilities in Ottawa, among others to better control the entry of these weapons at the borders and to negotiate together also how we can ban these weapons from fist, ”declared Premier Legault, while in Montreal.
Mayor Plante added, “loud and clear”, asking for “much better border control”.
Tuesday morning, upon their arrival at a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Mélanie Joly and Pablo Rodriguez recalled that Quebec has demanded the power to control these weapons, a request to which the federal government has acquiesced.
“There was a unanimous motion [à l’Assemblée nationale] which requires the ability to legislate on handguns. And we, after analysis, we said yes, we will move forward in that way. […] And in addition, we have set aside at least 1 billion to finance what the provinces want to do, ”said Minister Rodriguez, Quebec lieutenant of Justin Trudeau.
Ottawa initially proposed to transfer this handgun control power to municipalities. They had denounced the idea. In Quebec, the National Assembly then unanimously demanded that the province decide on handgun control.
It was during an election campaign that Justin Trudeau rallied to the idea and found the billion dollars now offered to the provinces.
Minister Mélanie Joly, responsible for Foreign Affairs, said she raised with the Americans last week in Washington the issue of arms crossing the border.
She reiterated her government’s commitment to do more, before inviting the other two levels of government to do the same.
“I think we will all have to do more because we cannot accept other tragedies like that of Thomas Trudel,” she insisted, after detailing the responsibilities of the city and the province.
“It is obvious that there must be more resources for the police forces. It must be a priority for the City of Montreal as well. And we know that the issue of managing street gangs is not necessarily the responsibility of the federal government, but more of the City and also of the police forces in Quebec, ”she insisted.
Minister Joly also made a point of recalling the sums transferred to Quebec for the training of police forces and for better management of street gangs. “These monies have already been returned to the Government of Quebec. It is also up to them to ensure that they do their job, ”she said.
“Quebeckers expect us to manage the problem rather than throw the ball around,” Minister Joly concluded.