BERNARDO: RCMP incompetence put 2.2 million Canadian gun owners in harm’s way and the Liberal government hid it

Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have proven themselves incompetent and untrustworthy before, but never at this scale.In 2021, the RCMP presided over a massive data breach. More than 2.2 million licenced firearms owners were affected.Names. Addresses. Contact details. Licencing records.A veritable Christmas wish list for criminals, and everyone responsible for it stayed quiet.This was not a minor IT mishap. It was a catastrophic failure of basic data stewardship.The RCMP outsourced core functions of the Canadian Firearms Program to an unidentified third party. That vendor was hit with a ransomware attack.The RCMP insisted that, while there “was no indication that any personal information was viewed or extracted, it is not possible to confirm that it was not accessed.”Read that again.“It is not possible to confirm,” yet the RCMP chose to give themselves a full pass instead of holding themselves accountable..Again, those who follow such things know this is nothing new. It’s long and well-documented that this is exactly how the RCMP operates.Protect the institution.Blame everyone except themselves.While Canadians slept, while the RCMP downplayed the risk to their political masters, and while Public Safety Minister Bill Blair hid the data breach from licenced gun owners. Organized criminals had a target-rich list to choose which guns they would steal and from whom.The breach occurred in March 2021, but the RCMP reported it only months later. During this time, the Minister of Public Safety deliberately withheld information from the public.No warning. No disclosure. No urgent guidance for the millions of people and their families placed at risk by the RCMP’s incompetence and Minister Bill Blair’s cover-up.Bill Blair’s decision to hide the RCMP data breach exposed families to burglary, intimidation, and theft.Every break and enter of a licenced gun owner can arguably be placed at the feet of the RCMP and then-Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair.As the former Chief of the Toronto Police Service, Bill Blair understood exactly what a mass exposure of firearms owner data meant.Yet, in longstanding Bill Blair fashion, he chose to protect his career instead of doing his job: protecting the lives and property of 2.2 million licenced Canadian gun owners.It was more important to insulate himself and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government than to issue a valid and urgent public warning..That’s not leadership. That’s criminal negligence.When you are uncertain, it is important to inform those who might be affected. In situations where millions are at risk, it is crucial to respond with urgency. Additionally, when mistakes occur, it is essential to be honest and transparent about the truth.That’s the opposite of what happened.The Liberal government intentionally hid the scale of the data breach for years. The vendor was never named, oversight was always deflected, and accountability never entered the process.Lawful firearms owners did everything required of them. In return, the Canadian government failed its most basic duty: to protect the data it demands from the people it regulates.This is why trust within the RCMP and this Liberal government is broken.Public safety is not a press release. It is a responsibility.In 2021, that responsibility was abandoned by the RCMP and the Liberal federal government.The RCMP must be held accountable for operational incompetence.The Liberal government must answer for its deliberate lack of transparency, which put 2.2 million Canadians in harm’s way.And Parliament must demand independent oversight, mandatory data breach notification, and consequences for officials who choose silence over public safety.Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

BERNARDO: RCMP incompetence put 2.2 million Canadian gun owners in harm’s way and the Liberal government hid it

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