A few thousand pro-gun demonstrators gathered Saturday outside the National Assembly to demand that the Quebec government withdraw from the federal buyback program. Their message: “Our guns are not for sale!” Protesters accuse Ottawa of unfairly targeting law-abiding gun owners. “Quebec is the only province that agreed to take part in this buyback. It’s absurd that for $12.4 million, they’re targeting legal gun owners who have done nothing wrong and who are not represented in crime,” said Sophie Béland, Quebec director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, in an interview with The Canadian Press on Saturday. She says she is in contact with Quebec Public Security Minister Ian Lafrenière and feels he is listening. “That’s already a big step for us,” she said. The organizer of the protest said people came from across Quebec and Canada. “I’ve got people coming from British Columbia, Alberta, Cape Breton,” she said. Stéphane Bacon is a sport shooter, as is his wife. They came from Montreal to protest. “The problem is mental health, not firearms,” he said. Some demonstrators interviewed by The Canadian Press did not want to give their full names. One man identified himself only as Pat and declined to give his last name, citing social media and pressure from the “anti-gun lobby.” “If you look around, it’s full of fathers, hunters, sport shooters who simply don’t want to be deprived of their property,” he said. Speeches rally crowd despite snow and rain The event began under snowfall that quickly turned to rain. The poor weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of gun-rights supporters. “Today, you showed us one thing: no one is going to divide us anymore. We are firearm owners and the federal government wants to extort us (…) What we’re telling them is: No!” shouted Guy Morin, president of the Quebec Association of Shooting Clubs, to the crowd. Protesters responded with cheers and applause. Many carried signs with slogans such as “My guns are not for sale!” In an interview, Guy Morin said the buyback program is not generous enough. “It’s capped. There’s a maximum of $250 million for all of Canada and that represents about one per cent of owners who could be compensated,” he said. He noted, however, that he opposes the program. “But unfortunately, we can’t really stop it,” he conceded. “There are people who have decided their guns are not for sale, not for giving away. No! They won’t hand them over. But there are others who would like compensation, and these people deserve fair and equitable compensation at market value,” Morin added. The protest comes about six weeks after the start of the registration period allowing gun owners to take part in the federal program, which offers financial compensation in exchange for surrendering or permanently deactivating firearms Ottawa considers suitable only for battlefields. Since May 2020, the Liberal government has banned about 2,500 types of firearms, including the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14. Prohibited firearms and devices must be disposed of or deactivated by the end of the amnesty period on Oct. 30, 2026. “Shameful” Gun-control advocates criticized the protest, held just weeks after the mass killing in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, that left nine people dead. “It is shameful that, in the wake of this tragedy, pro-gun groups choose this moment to continue their campaign to stop the removal of assault-style firearms that are commonly used in mass shootings and were banned for public-safety reasons,” the group PolySeSouvient said in a statement earlier this week. Organizers defended themselves by saying the event had been planned before the tragedy. “We stand in solidarity with British Columbia. We are all affected and that’s why we’re here. Because what happened in British Columbia should never happen again. It’s a failure of governments, of legislation; it’s a mental-health problem, not a legal-firearms problem,” said Béland. When announcing the program last month, federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the aim is to target only “firearms designed for war, for killing.” According to federal authorities, roughly 19,000 makes and models of firearms remain legally available for hunting and sport shooting in Canada. Nearly $250 million has been allocated to compensate participants in the program. The government expects that amount to cover about 136,000 firearms. Owners of prohibited guns have until the end of March to signal their interest. Quebec supports the federal compensation program, but several other provinces and territories — including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador — have rejected the plan. With files from Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 28, 2026.
