Skip to main content

Conservatives are 'fearmongering' over assault-style gun ban: public safety minister

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Share
OTTAWA -

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is accusing the Conservatives of "whipping up fear" that the Liberal government is outlawing ordinary long guns and hunting rifles.

The government only wants to reinforce a regulatory ban on assault-style firearms such as the AR-15 by enshrining a definition in legislation, and it is prepared to work with MPs to get it right, Mendicino said in an interview.

"The government has no intention — no intention whatsoever — to go after long guns and hunting rifles," he said. "And this is simply Conservative fearmongering."

In May 2020, the Liberal government announced a ban through order-in-council on more than 1,500 models and variants of what it considers assault-style firearms, such as the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14.

The Liberals recently proposed including an evergreen definition of a prohibited assault-style firearm in gun-control legislation being studied by the House of Commons public safety committee.

The description is intended to ensure gun manufacturers can't tweak designs of prohibited firearms in a bid to get around the ban and reintroduce them to the Canadian market.

Among other technical specifications, the proposed definition includes a centrefire semi-automatic rifle or shotgun designed to accept a detachable magazine that can hold more than five cartridges.

The Conservatives claim the government's amendment amounts to the most significant hunting rifle ban in the history of Canada.

At the committee last week, Conservative MP Glen Motz said the definition would effectively prohibit hundreds of thousands of firearms, including many non-restricted guns.

Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho said the party was closely examining the latest list of firearms, tabled as an amendment, to be covered by the ban.

She specifically objected to inclusion of the Simonov SKS.

"The SKS is is a very popular hunting rifle in the Indigenous community. So I'm very interested to see what they think about this," Dancho told the committee last Thursday.

"It's very insulting to insinuate that hunters in this country have weapons of war when they're perfectly legitimate tools that they've been using for well over a century."

Mendicino said any new models that fall under the prohibition are consistent with the criteria laid out more than two years ago when the regulatory ban was announced.

But he also indicated a willingness to address any concerns about the bill's wording.

"I said that I am always open to working with all members of Parliament — on the committee, in the House — to make sure that we get this right. But we will not compromise on prohibiting assault-style firearms of the AR-15 variety because they have no place in our communities."

The public safety committee's clause-by-clause consideration of the firearms bill quickly became bogged down in debate over the assault-style provisions. Members are expected to resume review of the bill this week.

It is no surprise that Conservatives are stirring up the fears of law-abiding gun owners "because they've never had a plan," Mendicino said.

"And the only thing they appear to be proposing is to make assault-style firearms legal again, which would be a step backwards and place at greater risk the lives of Canadians."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2022. 

IN DEPTH

Who is supporting, opposing new online harms bill?

Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sweeping online harms legislation is before Parliament, allowing key stakeholders, major platforms, and Canadians with direct personal experience with abuse to dig in and see what's being proposed, reaction is streaming in. CTVNews.ca has rounded up reaction, and here's how Bill C-63 is going over.

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

opinion

opinion Don Martin: ArriveCan debacle may be even worse than we know from auditor's report

It's been 22 years since a former auditor general blasted the Chretien government after it 'broke just about every rule in the book' in handing out private sector contracts in the sponsorship scandal. In his column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin says the book has been broken anew with everything that went on behind the scenes of the 'dreaded' ArriveCan app.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Local Spotlight

Record-setting pop tab collection for Ontario boy

It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.

Stay Connected