No progress has been made on assault-style firearms, deplores PolySeSouvient

Photo: Graham Hughes The Canadian Press Nathalie Provost, survivor of the 1989 École Polytechnique shooting, speaks at an event in Montreal on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020. PolySeSouvient is concerned the Liberal government is abandoning its commitment to enact a complete ban on assault-style firearms, saying no tangible progress has been made.

Jim Bronskill – The Canadian Press in Ottawa

Published at 11:34 a.m.

• Canada

A leading gun control group fears the Liberal government is abandoning its commitment to enact a comprehensive ban on assault-style firearms, citing no tangible progress on key steps to fulfilling that pledge.

In an open letter addressed to the Minister of Public Security, Dominic LeBlanc, PolySeSouvient spokesperson Nathalie Provost is concerned that they will not see these measures implemented materialize in their lifetime while time is running out and federal elections must take place by October 2025.

A record of wasting public support and wasting various opportunities over the years would constitute a “devastating legacy” for liberals, wrote Ms. Provost, a survivor of the 1989 anti-feminist attack at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.

The group wants the government to follow through on plans to buy back banned assault-style firearms, including the AR-15, ban those that have slipped through the cracks and tighten regulations on high-capacity magazines.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc's office said in a statement to The Canadian Press that it “continues to implement tough measures to combat gun violence.”

PolySeSouvient's letter comes about a week after an assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump using what was described as an AR-15-style rifle.

Late last year, Parliament passed a bill that tightens restrictions on handguns, increases penalties for firearms trafficking and aims to crack down on homemade ghost guns.

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The legislation also included a ban on assault-style firearms, which fall under a new technical definition.

PolySeSouvient cautioned that the potential public safety benefits of most of the key measures would depend on upcoming regulations that would spell out the details.

Conservative MPs and some gun owners have vehemently opposed Liberal efforts to ban certain firearms, seeing them as an attack on law-abiding citizens.

Mr. LeBlanc said the government would reestablish the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee to independently review the classification of existing models that fall under the new definition of a prohibited firearm in the bill.

He told senators in October that the exercise would identify weapons legitimately used for hunting, which would be excluded from the ban.

The Minister of Public Safety said the government would also implement a buyback of models and variants of firearms, including the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini- 14, which have already been banned by decree in May 2020.

In addition, the government announced that it will issue regulations ensuring a complete ban on high-capacity chargers .

PolySeSouvient says tens of thousands of assault weapons banned in 2020 remain in the hands of their owners, while hundreds of arbitrarily exempt models remain legal and new ones continue to enter the market.

Despite federal promises and commitments, PolySeSouvient maintains that there has been “no tangible progress” on the relaunch of the advisory committee which will decide which current models should be banned, the planned buyback program, consultations on the introduction of a pre-authorization process for new firearm models to ensure they are properly classified and consultations on strengthening regulations on magazines.

Given the delays, the letter says, “we are beginning to suspect that either the Liberal government is not competent enough to keep its nine-year promises to ban assault weapons or that it has abandoned its commitment to do so because he fears further inflaming the anger of the gun lobby.”

In its statement, Mr. LeBlanc's office recalled that the government was committed to establishing a program that would provide current owners with fair compensation for their assault-style firearms.