Alberta
Alberta Justice Minister says Feds planning to use RCMP to confiscate firearms starting in PEI
Federal confiscation program: Minister Shandro
Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro issued the following statement on the federal firearms confiscation program:
“Last week, Minister Mendicino admitted that the federal government has still not figured out how to implement their firearms confiscation program.
“This admission comes shortly after the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police called on the federal government to not to use police services to confiscate firearms.
“Now, media reports have drawn attention to a federal government memo that outlines Minister Mendicino’s plans to confiscate firearms across Canada.
“The memo admits that efforts to find private sector companies to implement the federal firearms confiscation program failed this summer.
“With no private sector companies willing to participate, the memo outlines how the RCMP will first be deployed to Prince Edward Island (PEI), which has been deemed to be an easy ‘low-risk’ target.
“The federal government is treating PEI as a ‘pilot’ that will help them learn on the job as they implement their confiscation plan through trial and error.
“This ‘program’ is expected to cost a billion dollars or more and has supposedly been in the works for three years.
“Despite a mountain of money and years worth of lead time, Ottawa appears to be lost – especially given their latest attack on hunting rifles and shotguns – at minimum, they should proactively extend the amnesty that is currently scheduled to end in October 2023.
“Such a decision, however, would involve showing Canadian firearms owners a measure of decency, something that Minister Mendicino and this federal government is seemingly incapable of.”
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Public Safety Canada’s Buyback Program
Overview
The Government of Canada committed to implementing a mandatory buyback program so that the assault-style firearms that became prohibited on May 1, 2020 are safely removed from our communities. Public Services and Procurement Canada’s role is to provide procurement services to Public Safety Canada (PS) to support their implementation of the buyback program.
Mandate
As of May 1, 2020, the Government of Canada has prohibited over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms (ASFs) and certain components of some newly-prohibited firearms. New maximum thresholds for muzzle energy and bore diameter are also in place. Any firearm that exceeds these is now prohibited. A Criminal Code amnesty period is currently in effect to October 30, 2023. The amnesty is designed to protect individuals or businesses who, at the time the prohibition came into force, were in lawful possession of a newly prohibited firearm from criminal liability while they take steps to comply with the law.
The primary intent of the buyback program would be to safely buyback these now prohibited firearms from society, while offering fair compensation to businesses and lawful owners impacted by the prohibition. PSPC is currently examining options for implementation of the buyback program, including the potential of contracting out specific activities.
Key activities
The program approach currently being considered by PS senior management envisages 2 phases, with a pilot in the first phase that would inform the national roll-out of the program:
- phase 1: commence in December 2022 and conclude at the end of the amnesty period. Primarily led by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with support from PS and other government departments. Prince Edward Island (PE) will be used as a pilot and will be the first point of collection based on the smaller number of firearms. As a result, lessons learned, gaps analysis and risk assessment would inform the phase 2 national roll-out
- phase 2: national roll-out is planned for spring 2023 once an information management/information technology (IM/IT) case management system is in place. It will be implemented in collaboration with other government departments, provincial, municipal and territorial governments and potential Industry partners
Public Services and Procurement posted a request for information on July 14, 2022 seeking feedback from industry on potential capacities to support delivery of the buyback program. It closed on August 31, 2022 and with very limited interest from the industry.
Partners and stakeholders
The program owner is Public Safety Canada. They are responsible for the buyback planning and oversight.
Public Services and Procurement Canada has been supporting PS with the buyback program since August 2021 supporting the development of procurement strategies for the delivery of the various potential requirements such as:
- collection and transportation
- professional services
- tracking
- storage solutions
- package inspection
- destruction
- post-destruction recycling
Shared Services Canada will assist with procurement of information technology (IT) solutions and other required IT support, based on its mandate.
The RCMP will start collection of ASFs in December 2022. They are also supporting the buyback program by providing a high level process map or written description of the programmatic phases.
Employment and Social Development Canada may support the buyback program with call-centres and payment solutions for the compensation.
Provincial, municipal and territorial governments are also being engaged to support the implementation and program delivery.
Key considerations
The prohibition applies to all current and future firearm variants that meet the criteria—now, over 1,800 firearms. These firearms can no longer be legally used, sold, or imported.
Currently owners have the option to dispose of their firearm by surrendering it to police, deactivating through an approved business or exporting the firearm with a valid export permit, all without government compensation. The buyback program aims to offer fair compensation to affected owners and businesses.
Work at the officials level is ongoing to develop, design and engage on the program. This includes public consultations on the government’s price list, which was posted on July 28, 2022 on Public Safety’s website and would be used to establish compensation levels for affected firearms.
Alberta
Media melts down as Danielle Smith moves to end ‘transitioning’ of children in Alberta
From LifeSiteNews
After Alberta’s Danielle Smith put forth legislation to protect kids from being gender ‘transitioned,’ the Canadian media went on a predictable melt down, citing ‘experts’ who blatantly lie to advance the LGBT agenda.
A year after announcing her intention to combat transgender ideology and protect children, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has tabled three pieces of UCP (United Conservative Party) government legislation:
- The Education Amendment Act 2024 will require parental consent for “socially transitioning” children under the age of 16 (changing a child’s name or “preferred pronouns”). The bill also gives parents an “opt-in” option for any sexual or content at school. Smith has emphasized that the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission has the power to discipline teachers if they decide to break the law.
- The Health Statues Amendment Act 2024 will ban the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, as well as prohibit sex change surgeries on minors.
- The Fairness and Safety in Sport Act will ban trans-identifying men from female sports teams.
Together, these three bills represent the most definitive pushback against gender ideology in Canada by any premier. Smith’s decision to announce her intent to pursue such legislation and then wait has turned out to be politically savvy—it has given the UCP government a good look at the LGBT response, and during that time the U.K.’s Labour government has successfully fought to maintain a similar ban in the courts and publicly rebutted many of the scare tactics used by LGBT activists.
Smith and the UCP are thus walking into this debate with eyes wide open, and are clearly certain that the public is on their side (it is) and that the legislation can survive the court challenges surely coming from LGBT activists. The policies are clearly popular with the UCP party’s base, who handed Smith a staggering 91.5% approval rating in her leadership review at UCP gathering in Red Deer last Saturday.
The party also passed 35 policy resolutions, including several that indicate the UCP’s willingness to go further in fighting transgender ideology, with resolutions that would restrict “exclusively female spaces” like bathrooms and changerooms to females and designating transgender surgeries as “elective cosmetic procedures” not funded by the taxpayer. The motions received near-unanimous support.
The Canadian press, unsurprisingly, is working hard to present policies that the vast majority of Canadians support as an attack on fundamental norms (albeit norms that only surfaced in the last few years and were never presented to voters). Global News ran the headline: “Alberta unveils 3 sweeping bills affecting trans and gender-diverse youth.” It is important to note that the press accepts the premises of transgender ideology as the starting point for their reporting, with heavy usage of nonsensical phrases like “gender-diverse youth,” which implies that there are many genders.
In fact, Global News and other Canadian outlets trotted out talking points that have been definitively rebutted by the U.K.’s Cass Review and multiple medical studies—in fact, even the New York Times has been reporting on the permanent harms of puberty blockers over the past several years. An example from Global News:
Alberta parents of gender-diverse youth like Haley Wray believe the new laws will give kids less choice — especially when it comes to health-care that is not permanent but instead, gives kids time to work through their identity struggles.
‘Hormone blockers are a very valuable tool,’ Wray said, explaining they have a very small window of effectiveness to pause, but not prevent, puberty. ‘It is reversible because nothing changes. And what that does is it allows youth and families to have that that pause, that break to explore further, validate, understand what this means and know that permanent changes aren’t happening.’
Wray believes the proposed legislation will make the province a less safe place for tens of thousands of Alberta kids who aren’t straight. It’s why, Wray says, a growing number of families with transgender children are now grappling with whether Alberta is a place they can stay. ‘I know people who have, and I know people who genuinely feel like there is likely nowhere to go,’ she said.
This is incorrect. Puberty blockers cause permanent damage, and children may be rendered permanently sterile after taking them for a relatively short period of time. Puberty is not something that can be “paused,” and it frequently causes irreversible rather than reversible damage. Smith and her government understand this, which is why they have decided to pass this legislation—not, as nearly every press outlet claimed, to “target trans youth,” but to protect them.
The CBC chimed in with sentences like this one:
Terms like ‘biological female’ and ‘biological male’ can be used to imply that transgender people are still their assigned sex at birth, despite their identity.
To translate: a scientifically accurate and precise statement is now an ideological one, but inherently ideological language invented by the transgender movement over the past decade is, in fact, technically accurate. People can identify as anything they want; it is irrelevant to their biology. The CBC presents pointing this out as some sort of propagandistic attack on vulnerable people.
Fortunately, Smith appears to know what she’s doing here. She’s taken her time to ensure that the legislation she has put forward will pass, and that it is defensible in court. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who has just led the Saskatchewan Party to its fifth straight majority government, is of a similar mind—he’s promised to put forward legislation protecting female spaces as a matter of first priority. It took long enough, but Canada’s conservatives are finally starting to move.
Alberta
Alberta calling for federal election! Premier Smith demands feds scrap dangerous oil and gas production caps
Premier Danielle Smith, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz and Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean issued the following statement on the proposed federal oil and gas production cap:
“This production cap will hurt families, hurt businesses and hurt Canada’s economy. We will defend our province, our country and our Constitutional rights.
“Make no mistake, this cap violates Canada’s constitution. Section 92A clearly gives provinces exclusive jurisdiction over non-renewable natural resource development yet this cap will require a one million barrel a day production cut by 2030.
“The evidence is overwhelming. Three reports from reputable firms have shown that these regulations will sucker-punch Canada’s economy, a million barrels cut every day according to S&P Global, $28 billion a year in lost GDP according to Deloitte, and up to 150,000 lost jobs according to the Conference Board of Canada.
“The losses to GDP mean billions a year will disappear from the economy. Billions that won’t be going towards new schools, hospitals and roads, all for a reckless ideological scheme that will not reduce global emissions.
“Ultimately, this cap will lead Alberta and our country into economic and societal decline. The average Canadian family would be left with up to $419 less for groceries, mortgage payments and utilities every month. Canadian parents and workers will suffer while Justin Trudeau outsources the duty to provide safe, affordable, reliable and responsibly produced oil and gas to dictators and less clean producers around the world. We could be the solution. Instead, Ottawa would rather sacrifice our ability to lead.
“Tweaks won’t work. This cap must be scrapped. Alberta’s government is actively exploring the use of every legal option, including a constitutional challenge and the use of the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act. We will not stand idly by while the federal government sacrifices our prosperity, our constitution and our quality of life for its extreme agenda.”
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