On consecutive days this week, Alberta and Saskatchewan pushed back against Ottawa’s war on law-abiding Canadians, saying they will not allow provincial resources to be used to confiscate legally-owned guns from their citizens..On Monday, Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro denied Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s request to pull RCMP members from their provincial policing duties and send them to confiscate guns from licensed Alberta firearm owners..“Alberta’s government will not help the federal government confiscate about 30,000 legally acquired and used firearms from Albertans,” Minister Shandro said on Twitter..“Alberta has been told,” Minister Shandro said, “that the federal government will use the RCMP to confiscate firearms — as they did during the 2013 floods — when the RCMP seized over 600 firearms during the notorious High River gun grab. Actions taken today will seek to prevent history from repeating itself. Further options are being explored and all options are on the table.”.“I am gratified to see today's announcements as concrete indicators,” said Alberta Chief Firearms Officer Teri Bryant, “of the steadfast position of Minister Shandro and the Alberta government as a whole to support law-abiding firearms owners and to oppose Ottawa’s misguided measures by all means available under current legislative frameworks.”.Minister Shandro’s letter to the commanding officer of the RCMP in Alberta stated, “pursuant to the Provincial Police Service Agreement (PPSA), the confiscation program is not an objective, priority or goal of the province or the provincial police service (Article 6.0), nor is such deployment ‘appropriate to the effective and efficient delivery of police services’ (Article 2.3a). Consequently, the RCMP should refuse to participate..On Tuesday, Christine Tell, Saskatchewan minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, followed suit, informing RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of Saskatchewan RCMP, “the Government of Saskatchewan does not support and will not authorize the use of provincially funded resources for any process that is connected to the federal government's proposed ‘buy back’ of these firearms.” .“The Government of Saskatchewan fully supports anti-crime initiatives that truly focus on the issues related to the criminal use of illegal firearms, preventing and combatting gang violence and addresses the issue of illegal or smuggled guns in our province,” Tell said..“We do not and will not support initiatives that only impact the law abiding, RCMP vetted, hunters, sport shooters, ranchers, farmers and others who use firearms for lawful and good reasons.”.“That said, we will not authorize the use of provincially funded resources of any type for the federal government’s ‘buy back’ program.”.Saskatchewan’s Public Safety Minister Christine Tell and Alberta’s Justice Minister Tyler Shandro are unequivocal in their positions..Provincially-funded RCMP personnel and resources will not be removed from the very real job of protecting and defending public safety in order to pander to the Liberal government’s useless virtue-signalling agenda..Saskatchewan Chief Firearms Officer Robert Freberg added a teaser, “We’ll be coming out with a pretty significant announcement later in the fall as we get towards the legislature sitting again that I think is going to address many of the issues that responsible firearms owners in this province have, in addition to supporting enhanced initiatives in public safety,”.The two provinces clearly comprehend what Justin Trudeau and his Liberal ship of fools do not: Using the brute force of government against federally-licensed, RCMP-vetted firearm owners while ignoring violent repeat offenders is ridiculous — deserving of ridicule — and will not be tolerated..For example, news outlets across Canada report so far this year, 627 violent, repeat offenders who were arrested for committing other offences, were also charged with 1,445 counts of breaching their Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO)..Statistics Canada data for 2021 shows 1,796 repeat offenders were charged with violating their Firearm Prohibition Orders, down slightly from the high of 1,857 in 2020 and the only exception to the trend that rises every year..Despite the steady increase in repeat FPO offenders, Liberal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino refuses to lift a finger to fix Canada’s broken Firearm Prohibition Order System to address this serious and ongoing public safety issue..This Liberal government is far more concerned with virtue-signalling to their voters than with keeping Canadians safe..Thankfully, the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan are far more concerned with keeping their citizens safe..We are grateful to Shandro and Tell, Chief Firearms Officers Teri Bryant (AB) and Robert Freberg (SK) for their forward thinking, hard work and dedication on behalf of the lawful firearms owners of Alberta and Saskatchewan..Tony Bernardo is the executive director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
