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Justice

Ottawa’s gun buyback is rightly falling apart

Published

2 days ago

5 minute read

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Gage Haubrich

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gun ban and buyback policy is running out of steam.

And it hasn’t even left the station.

The buyback is broken. Law-abiding firearms owners don’t want to lose their guns. It doesn’t go far enough for gun-control advocates. And taxpayers don’t want to pick up the massive bill.

“It’s a waste of Canadian’s money,” said a spokesperson for PolyRemembers, a prominent gun-control advocacy group. “We are not reducing the risk level. It’s just for appearances.”

Instead, PolyRemembers wants the government to go further and ban even more models of firearms.

But if the recommendation is to ban more guns, the solution brings a lot more problems.

And Ottawa already tried that. The federal government tried to dramatically expand the list of guns banned with committee amendments. One of the additions included the semi-automatic SKS rifle, of which there are estimated to be more than 500,000 in Canada.

After the introduction of amendments to Bill C-21 that would have seen many common hunting rifles banned, the Assembly of First Nations passed an emergency resolution opposing the ban.

“It’s a tool,” said Kitigan Zibi Chief Dylan Whiteduck about the list of rifles to be banned. “It’s not a weapon.”

“No government has a right to take that away from us and regulate that,” said said Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Vice-Chief Heather Bear. “That is our job as mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and hunters

The government backed down and removed the amendments.

Expanding the buyback to include even more firearms would mean more resistance from current firearms owners and a larger cost to buyback even more guns.

The government says the aim of the ban is to keep Canadians safe, but the evidence shows that it’s unlikely to help, even if it was expanded to include more firearms.

The federal government announced a ban on 1,500 types of what it called “assault-style” firearms in May 2020. It promised to provide “fair compensation” to gun owners whose firearms it confiscates.

New Zealand tried a gun ban and buyback program that was more far reaching than Ottawa’s, banning almost all semi-automatic firearms, not only so-called “assault style” rifles.

It didn’t work.

During the decade before the buyback, according to data from the New Zealand Police, violent firearm offences averaged 932 a year in New Zealand. In 2019, the year of the buyback, there were 1,142 offences. In 2022, the number of offences was 1,444.

New Zealand’s buyback wasn’t cheap either. Costs to administer the program were more than double the initial estimates.

Experts in Canada have seen enough to know the policy is a failure.

The National Police Federation, the union that represents the RCMP, says Ottawa’s buyback, “diverts extremely important personnel, resources, and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.”

And it’s a lot of funding and resources.

In total, estimates show that Trudeau’s scheme could cost taxpayers up to $756 million to buyback the guns, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That doesn’t even include the administration costs – it’s just the cost of compensating firearms owners.

Instead of taking away firearms from Canadians, that’s enough money to pay for the average salaries of 1,000 police officers for more than seven years.

The government has a history of ballooning costs for these types of programs. The government initially promised the long-gun registry would cost taxpayers only $2 million. The final tab was over $2 billion. The registry was scrapped by the Harper government and stayed scrapped under the Trudeau government.

If those were the overruns just to register the guns, how much money would the federal government waste trying to confiscate them?

Ottawa’s buyback has already cost taxpayers $67 million since 2020. Not a single gun has been “bought back” yet.

It’s time for Ottawa to cancel its gun ban and buyback. Because right now, all it looks set to do is cost taxpayers a boatload of money without making Canadians safer.

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Trudeau claims under oath that Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson are funded by Russia

Justice

Trudeau claims under oath that Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson are funded by Russia

Published on October 17, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

“Hey Russians! Where the hell is my money?!”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed U.S media personality Tucker Carlson and popular Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson are being funded by a Russian-state-funded news site, blaming the foreign nation for “amplifying the chaos” surrounding the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests. 

Trudeau made the claim Wednesday during under oath testimony at the Foreign Interference Commission, after he was asked about Russia’s alleged role in the Freedom Convoy.  

Trudeau said, while speaking in French, that he “certainly agrees that Russia amplified the chaos, disagreements and divisions in Canada surrounding the convoy.”  

Trudeau added that “Russian activities related to propaganda, disinformation and misinformation are quite constant in our social media and within Canadian democracy.” He then claimed that it was “Russian propaganda” that “greatly amplified” opposition to the COVID shots which was spread by “right-wing media.” 

He then claimed that Russian state-funded broadcaster Russia Today (RT) was funding Carlson and Peterson, saying, “We saw many of these channels shift to pro-Putin propaganda.” 

“We recently saw that RT is funding right-wing bloggers and YouTube personalities in North America,” said Trudeau, adding, “including well-known names like Jordan Peterson or Tucker Carlson to amplify messages that destabilize democracies.” 

Trudeau’s comments were immediately blasted by Peterson. 

“Hey Russians! Where the hell is my money?!” he wrote on X Wednesday about Trudeau’s accusatory comments.  

Peterson’s daughter also took to social media, suggesting that Trudeau’s comments might warrant a lawsuit from her father.

“This might be worth suing about,” wrote Mikhaila Peterson on X.

 

“As much fun as lawsuits are, this seems like an easy one,” she added. 

As of press time, Carlson, who has been an open critic of the prime minister, has yet to issue a statement in response to Trudeau’s allegations.  

Currently, the Commission on Foreign Interference, which is largely focused on Chinese meddling in Canadian politics, is taking place in Ottawa, headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue. She had earlier said she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics. In January, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.” 

The commission was struck after Trudeau’s special rapporteur, former Governor General David Johnston, failed in an investigation into CCP allegations last year after much delay. That inquiry was not done in public and was headed by Johnston, who is a “family friend” of Trudeau. 

Johnston quit as “special rapporteur” after a public outcry following his conclusion that there should not be a public inquiry into the matter. Conservative MPs demanded Johnston be replaced over his ties to both China and the Trudeau family. 

The potential meddling in Canada’s elections by agents of the CCP has many Canadians worried as well. 

As for Trudeau, he has praised China for its “basic dictatorship” and has labeled the authoritarian nation as his favorite country other than his own.  

Peterson for his part has been critical of Trudeau and his Liberal government for years.  

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Alberta

Charges dropped against 50 Freedom Convoy-inspired Coutts protest

Published on October 17, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Government attempted to bring charges against individuals and companies who allegedly had equipment parked on and near the highway during the Coutts Freedom Convoy protest.

Some 50 truckers who protested COVID mandates by participating in the 2022 Freedom Convoy-inspired blockade protests at the Canadian-U.S. border with have seen their tickets dropped, the freedom-orientated legal group representing them has said.  

In a press release, The Democracy Fund (TDF) announced that in partnership with Williamson Law (WL) it was able to successfully “defend against tickets” issued under Canada’s Use of Highway and Rules of the Road Regulation and other regulatory statutes, for some 50 or so truckers who protested at the Coutts, Alberta border with the U.S. State of Montana in 2022. 

“WL lawyers requested disclosure and held multiple discussions with the Crown, resulting in the withdrawal of tickets for all but 11 cases,” noted TDF. 

As for the remaining 11 cases, the Crown was “determined to proceed” with them, so TDF with WL’s help “sought subpoenas for the Alberta Premier’s Office, Alberta Sheriffs, Edmonton Police Service, Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta (CISA), and Provincial Security and Intelligence Office (PSIO) to give evidence in respect of disclosure issues.” 

TDF observed that because of seeking the subpoenas, along with additional “discussions” with the defense counsel, it was able to “resolve” the 11 remaining tickets for only “$1 each.” 

“As a result, no client was convicted at trial and all matters were successfully resolved,” noted TDF. 

Lawyer Chad Williamson of WL reacted to the results saying it “represents an outstanding victory for civil liberty clients of The Democracy Fund.” 

“The Government attempted to bring charges against individuals and companies who allegedly had equipment parked on and near the highway during the Coutts Freedom Convoy protest. In the face of a robust and steadfast defence, we were successful in having close to 50 charges withdrawn immediately,” he said. 

Williamson added that when the Crown sought to “prosecute the remaining 11 truckers, we sought subpoenas for parties we believed had relevant knowledge of the underlying events.” 

“These cases show that a strong and vigorous defence is the best protection against charges levied by the Government against peaceful protestors.” 

While many Canadians who fought COVID fines, charges, and rules were successful in getting them overturned, others have not been successful.    

As reported by LifeSiteNews, a Trudeau-appointed judge recently sentenced two men involved in the same 2022 Freedom Convoy-inspired border blockade protest in Coutts, Alberta, to six years in prison.

Also, Canada’s Supreme Court recently decided it will not hear appeals to two high-profile cases brought forth by People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier and former Premier of Newfoundland Brian Peckford. The pair had alleged their “Charter rights” were violated because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s COVID jab travel mandates, which banned the vaccine-free from flying.    

COVID vaccine mandates, which also came from provincial governments with the support of the federal government, split Canadian society. The mRNA shots have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.   

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