Officials from three Canadian provinces have stated they do not plan to use their police resources to enforce a mandatory gun buyback program of “assault-style” firearms.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba this week informed officials with the Canadian federal government of their opposition to any such scheme, National Post reported.
In May 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government was enacting regulations to ban the sale, purchase or use of “military-grade assault weapons.”
The decree includes 1,500 models and variants in all.
Trudeau said there would be a two-year amnesty period during which the government will set up a program to provide fair compensation to buy back the guns. The amnesty period will end on Oct. 20, 2023.
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“The vast majority of gun owners use them safely, responsibly in accordance with the law, whether it be for work, sport shooting, for collecting or for hunting,” the prime minister acknowledged. “But you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”
Assault-style firearms designed for military use have no place in Canada. By removing them from our streets, we will limit the devastating effects of gun-related violence and help make our country safer. Learn more about today’s announcement: https://t.co/HiUTrYwSK3 pic.twitter.com/hB6S94EnMt
— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) May 1, 2020
Trudeau engaged in a straw-man argument, because while an AR-15 might not be necessary to shoot a deer, it can prove very helpful in exercising one’s God-given right to self-defense.
Should more Canadian provinces join this resistance to protect their peoples’ rights?
In a Monday letter to the provincial leader of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Alberta Justice Minister and Solicitor General Tyler Shandro wrote, “We are disturbed by reports that federal civil servants have decided to deploy the RCMP to confiscate firearms under the buyback program.”
“Alberta taxpayers pay over $750 million dollars per year to fund the RCMP as our provincial police service,” he added.
“We expect that those dollars not be wasted to pay for a confiscation program that will not increase public safety.”
National Post noted, “While the RCMP is a federal police force it provides contract policing to eight provinces and three territories with only Quebec and Ontario having their own provincial forces.”
The federal government covers 30 percent of the costs of the RCMP and the provinces cover the rest.
Shandro plainly stated, “We will not tolerate taking officers off the street in order to confiscate the property of law-abiding firearms owners,” according to Global News.
Alberta is telling its RCMP to ignore Trudeau’s gun ban.
Solicitor General Tyler Shandro says “We will not tolerate taking officers off the street in order to confiscate the property of law-abiding firearms owners.”
Tell Trudeau: https://t.co/TTs0E4GGlP pic.twitter.com/uzgylEcKjq
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 26, 2022
In a Tuesday letter to the highest-ranking RCMP in her province, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Corrections, Policing, and Public Safety Christine Tell wrote to say local resources will not be used to collect firearms.
“The Government of Saskatchewan does not support and will not [authorize] the use of provincially funded resources for any process that is connected to the federal government’s proposed ‘buyback’ of these firearms,” she related.
“It would seem to be counter intuitive to take our front-line resources from our provincial policing service to carry out a federally mandated administrative program,” Tell added.
And in a Wednesday Facebook post, Manitoba Attorney General Kelvin Goertzen quoted from a letter that he wrote to Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, conveying his province’s opposition to the buyback program.
“We feel many aspects of the federal approach to gun crimes unnecessarily target lawful gun owners while having little impact on criminals, who are unlikely to follow gun regulations in any event,” he explained.
“In Manitoba’s view, any buy-back program cannot further erode precious provincial police resources, already suffering from large vacancy rates, from focusing on investigation of violent crime.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for British Columbia’s public safety minister said their office is willing to work with the federal government, but enforcing the gun buyback program is not a “top priority,” according to National Post.
Here’s to these three provinces for opposing an oppressive federal government, and here’s hoping the other seven and the territories do the same.
It just takes a few to stand up to give a backbone to the many to do the same.
Canadian truckers inspired the world last winter with their stand against COVID-19 mandates, and now Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are doing the same in the cause of individual rights and freedom!
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