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Petition e-2341, calling for a debate in Parliament over proposed Liberal gun control policies screamed loud and clear that gun owners wouldn’t be going down without a fight.
Initiated by Bradley Manysiak of Medicine Hat and endorsed by Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz on December 17, 2019, the petition declared, “We, the undersigned citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to put any new firearms laws, bans, buyback programs or changes to licensing before the House of Commons to be debated.”
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Gun owners are fighting to keep their legally-purchased
private property from being confiscated. |
The petition achieved 175,310 signatures, more than any other e-petition in Canadian history. The petition expired on February 15, 2020. Most of the petition signatures came from Ontario with more than 56,000, Alberta was next with 37,500, and then BC with 34,300.
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Bill Blair, has stated that he would “likely use an Order in Council” to ban military-style assault rifles in Canada instead of introducing a bill, which would require debate in the House of Commons.
According to the e-petition, “The use of an Order in Council is an egregious overreach of executive authorities, bypassing the democratic process of the House and the elected representatives of Canadians.”
As readers of this magazine and gun owners know, there is no such term as military-style assault rifles. According to MP Glen Motz, “The use of this term is a deliberate, politically motivated attempt by the Liberals to misinform Canadians and seeks to target certain firearms without a rational basis.”
Now we wait to see what the Trudeau-led Liberals do with the e-petition. Will they ignore the largest e-petition in Canadian history, perhaps relegating e-petitions to the status of meaningless?
The Liberals promised during the election to ban military-style assault rifles, give municipalities the power to ban handguns, and introduce stricter gun storage laws.
In response, our own Alberta Environment and Parks Minister, Jason Nixon, moved a motion back in November 2019 that the UCP “support the ability of Albertans to lawfully and in a responsible manner own and possess firearms.” The motion was passed in the Alberta Legislature.
Clearly a shot across the bow of the Trudeau government’s gun control policies. It’s expected that any municipal ban put in place by the Liberals would likely require approval from each province; meaning, Alberta has no intention of giving Alberta’s cities, towns and counties the right to ban guns.
Meanwhile, the anti-gun lobby continues to move forward trying to discredit the petition, calling it fake and meaningless. Yet, the anti-gun lobby used the same official e-petition site for their petition in 2019 that read, “We, the undersigned, Canadian citizens, call upon the Government of Canada to implement a ban on the civilian ownership of handguns and military assault weapons.” That e-petition managed to achieve a mere 20,110 signatures, far lower than the 175,310 signatures achieved by Manysiak and Motz.
No matter how you look at it, clearly, Canadian gun owners aren’t going to stand by and wait for a minority-led government to confiscate their property without reason, and not without a fight. ■
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