Firearm lobbies unhappy with timing of gun-ban-contract announcement By Tim Naumetz. Published on Jan 5, 2021 5:16pm Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to unveil his government s latest bid to strengthen Canada s gun control laws this morning. (Canada Border Services Agency handout photo)
The government’s decision to choose the lead-up to the new year to launch the first step of a ban on assault-style rifles has drawn the ire of two senior gun lobbies.
The ban took effect on May 1, 2020, and this initial contract will cost Canadian taxpayers $1.2 million.
The surprise revelation that the government had contracted a buyback plan to compensate thousands of gun owners who will lose their weapons by April 2022 came through a routine notice on the government’s procurement web site. There was no companion news release from a federal department or cabinet office.
Public Safety carrying on with rifle buy-out despite barrage from gun owners By Tim Naumetz. Published on Dec 22, 2020 12:04pm Public Safety Minister Bill Blair (Andrew Meade/iPolitics)
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s department is drafting yet another request for procurement offers to get a key element of the Liberal government’s firearm ban on track after a fierce Twitter onslaught by gun owners who hate the prohibition.
It will be the third attempt to kick-start a program that would establish a buyback system allowing thousands of semi-automatic rifle owners to be reimbursed for the loss of their sport rifles.
iPolitics By Tim Naumetz. Published on Dec 14, 2020 4:34pm The 22-calibre Mossberg assault-style rifle (Toronto Police Service photo)
A new government method of providing insight into Ottawa’s ban on assault rifles while maintaining cabinet confidence indicates that top-level planning for the prohibition began in March.
But the content of a government defence of its response to requests for documents at a Federal Court challenge of the ban, which took effect on May 1, also suggests the pace of planning increased suddenly in April when a lone gunman killed 22 people in a shooting and arson rampage in central Nova Scotia.
During the same period, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his top ministers were on the edge of another crisis, as reported cases of COVID-19 in Canada spiked from zero in early February to 2,000 by mid-April.
Evening Brief: COVID-19 vaccinations begin By iPolitics. Published on Dec 14, 2020 6:05pm COVID vaccines arriving in Canada last month (Canada Border Services Agency photo)
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In the news we’ve been hoping for seemingly all year, the first of the COVID-19 vaccinations began in Quebec and Ontario, after arriving on Canadian soil last night.
Limited supplies of Pfizer’s BioNTech vaccine were administered at Toronto’s University Health Network for long-term care home staff, including nurses and personal support workers (PSW), beginning with Anita Quidangen a PSW of more than 30 years working at the Rekai Centre in downtown Toronto.