... Late last week, the federal government announced that it intends to roll out via some kind of executive order a prohibition on the importation of handguns into Canada. Up until very recently (technically for two more weeks), handguns, though regulated, could be imported by gun stores and then sold to properly licensed individuals. As part of their so-called “freeze“ on handgun ownership in the country, the Liberals had said they plan to pass legislation effectively zeroing out those imports, with some very, very narrow exceptions. Rather than wait to pass the legislation through normal processes and methods, the Liberals now say they will be using an executive order, likely an order-in-council through the cabinet, to accomplish the same thing on a temporary basis, with full legislation to come later.
The first point, which we’ve made many times before — sigh, so many times — is that this is entirely political theatre aimed at shoring up Liberal political fortunes in key urban and suburban ridings. This will have negligible public safety benefits, at best. Gun crime in this country is overwhelmingly the fault of organized criminal groups and gangs, using firearms smuggled easily across the U.S. border. The Liberals know full well that what they are proposing will have no real impact on violent crime in Canada, which is why they’ve been so lackadaisical over the years about actually doing anything. The Liberals talk about guns a lot and trickle out announcements any time there’s some big high-profile disaster (their "military-style assault rifles ban" came right after the Nova Scotia massacre, the latest handgun announcement after the debacle in Uvalde, Texas). But nothing they are proposing today couldn’t have been done seven years ago. The Liberals' use of firearms policy as a political wedge, admittedly an effective one, has scaled up in direct line with their growing political woes anywhere outside their safest ridings in the biggest cities.
They pretend otherwise, which always gives us a laugh. For all they like to bemoan misinfo and disinfo, even seeking to regulate the internet so that they may combat it on our behalf, they fling bullshit with the best of them when they think there’s another fraction of a percentage point of electoral support to be had somewhere in the 905. This week, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino continued his depressingly casual assault on the truth when he said that the import freeze would immediately begin bringing down the number of handguns in Canada. It won’t, of course. It will begin bringing down the number of handguns
legally owned by carefully vetted law-abiding collectors and target shooters, who are among the safest citizens in our society, with consistently low rates of committing violent crime. The number of actual handguns smuggled into the country for use by criminals will continue to grow. The minister somehow forgot to mention that during his remarks.
But we also had a funny comment made by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. Joly is already having herself a
little bit of a week. At the gun-control announcement, she enthused that the idea for the executive order sprang out of a conversation between her and Mendicino: "Working with Marco, we came up with this idea of creating this new system of requiring permits, but meanwhile, we will deny any permits from any commercial entity or people wanting to bring handguns to Canada," Joly said. "So this is how creatively we've worked, and that's why we're talking today about an import ban."
What’s so delightful about that comment is what it unintentionally reveals. The Liberals like to pretend that all their gun-control plans are just a gradual, thoughtful, evidence-based process. And then the Foreign Affairs minister, a woman whose staff seems to be make a habit of not telling her anything important lest it confuse her, moseys on up to a microphone and casually mentions that a major gun-control measure, using powers well within their legal rights since they were first elected, will be rolled out this month after the idea popped into their heads during a recent gab sesh.
Because
creativity!
We’ve been arguing for years that the Liberals make this stuff up whenever they see political opportunity. We’re pleasantly surprised to see Joly confirm that for us. They’re winging it, relying on their creativity rather than their, uh, well-established powers and jurisdictional authority. Okay! ...
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