Canada enacts ban on the importation, sale, purchase, and transfer of handguns, and implements mandatory assault rifle buy back program E LaMont Gregory MSc Oxon
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will reside in history as one of the greatest leaders that Canada has ever produced
... on guns, Trudeau leads, while US bleeds
Trudeau began his premiership with a pledge to eliminate poverty in Canada, which brought Canada into direct competition with Xi's promise that China would be the world's first major economy to do so. Thus, putting into play the kinds of international competitions that are to be encouraged, that is, the goal of achieving what will amount to a great service to the people of Canada and China, and which requires just as much skill with the purse, as the deft use of the sword.
The big business community of Canada, ever willing to hold their collective noses in relation to Conservative social policies, in exchange for business-friendly taxation and environmental protection legislation and enforcement prerogatives, clamored to be put on an equal and level playing field with US businesses. And tried to convince the voting public that a Liberal government would not support their stated goal.
Trudeau reached an historic political agreement with President Biden that accomplished just what the Canadian business community had been calling for. The agreement - made in Canada, is made in America - put Canadian businesses firmly on a level playing field with their US counterparts.
The Trudeau/Biden agreement gave Canadian business access to US markets in ways not even the NAFTA accords had afforded.
Nonetheless, not long after the reality of having to compete with US businesses without many of the protections for Canadian businesses that the Harper government had implemented (that is, for the Canadian businesses that Harper did not spearhead to sell to the US and China), that same grouping, with less of them holding their collective noses, now went running to Conservative challenger, O'Toole, with a singular demand, 'protect us, protect us, restore our privileged position of having government protection from free and fair competition in North America'.
And now, that same group of free, but protected market business interests, have aligned themselves with the new darling of the illiberal right, Poilievre. Who promises to deliver the unholy grail prize of Canadian business dreams, that is, the breakup of the provincial health care system, and replacing the current universal heath care, free at the point of delivery system, with an American-style privatized for-profit system, run by big Canadian business interests. Business interests, who shamelessly proclaim that they can do a better job with taxpayer money, and it is taxpayer money they want control of, than a not-for-profit dedicated group of medical service managers and technocrats.
Naturally, Premier Ford of Ontario is leading the healthcare privatization charge, and one just has to look at Ford's privatization of foster care in Ontario to judge the wisdom of such a course.
The announcement of the - made in Canada, is made in America - agreement, was accompanied by another announcement that certain Canadian nationalist hate groups had been proscribed, but full implementation is linked to other necessary actions, which are critical to removing these hate groups, and the establishment demagogue politicians that cheer them on, from the Canadian institutional, political and social landscape.
These matters are discussed in a separate article: Why Ottawa Police Chief Bell, must resign? - watch this space -
Bill C-21, introduces a freeze on the importation, sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns, anywhere in Canada
Bill C-21, imposes an immediate 'freeze' on the sale, purchase, importation and transfer of handguns in all of Canada, with the notable exception of a well defined and a highly limited number of individuals and businesses, most of whom are involved in the sports and security industries. Bill-21 does not completely ban the use of all handguns.
It is worth noting that under existing Canadian law, it is illegal for anyone, except (for the most part) police and military personnel, to possess guns on an ongoing basis.
The law restricts the right to carry a handgun by requiring a registration certificate and a permit, which are issued under limited and temporary circumstances only.
In addition, it is also permissible under current law to own handguns and some other restricted firearms for the purposes of target practice, target shooting competitions, and collecting, if you have the proper licenses, certificates and permits, which must be obtained, in advance, and specifically for the aforementioned limited purposes.
In reality, Canada is far from a dry handgun society, and we have a plethora of shootings with handguns to prove it.
Deviating from reality for a moment, onto the Conservative press, especially those vying for the Alex Jones truth in the media award, have sharpened their pencils, trying to find the most extreme polarized position from which to counter sanity in relation to guns.
Primarily, because their old mantra, which states, albeit erroneously, that the focus on limiting handgun ownership unfairly targets law-abiding owners, while doing little, adherents of the mantra suggest, to stamp out the root problem, that is, guns smuggled illegally across the border. That is to suggest that it is not the gun that kills, but the real killer is the means by which the gun is transported into the country. Few, well the Conservative media is not going to show any proof which supports this notion, and access to the print and broadcast media for opposing views, is to put it mildly, limited.
However, in contemporary Conservative culture, the mantra of the gun-loving mob and the demagogue, has become one that suggests that gun-control measures are simply, anti-white.
Returning to reality, that is, to a world where guns do not have more rights than people, what Prime Minister Trudeau has done is the right thing to do, towards achieving the stated goal of safer communities.