By Dave Workman
Virtually half of Canada—several provinces and two territories—are saying “No” to the federal government’s multi-million-dollar buyback scheme, with the National Post reporting this week that the government of Newfoundland is also refusing to participate.
According to the report, “This now means that half the provinces, along with two of the three territorial governments, have declined to participate in the buyback: only Quebec, British Columbia, the Maritimes and Nunavut are left.”
Extending support across the border for this stunning rejection is the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, based in Bellevue, Washington. Calling the proposed buyback “compensated confiscation,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb declared in a statement to the media, “This is a remarkable—and welcome—wake-up call to Canada’s liberal national government, and it is long overdue. Gun control in Canada has crossed the line when it pushes a massive ‘buyback,’ which is really nothing more than compensated confiscation. What the governments in those provinces, and the territories are saying on behalf of the citizens is that this massive gun control scheme is a non-starter.”
Canada does not have the equivalent of the Second Amendment, so there is no recognized fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
But governments in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon have rejected the plan. Gottlieb noted that’s virtually half of Canada’s land mass.
“The people in those provinces need guns for their very survival,” he said, “and their voices are being heard.”
In a statement issued by Newfoundland earlier this week, the government said, “Government has raised concerns about the program’s practicality, the strain it could place on policing resources, and whether it would deliver meaningful improvements in public safety for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. The Provincial Government believes police resources should be directed toward tackling violent crime, drug-related activity, and repeat offenders — not toward measures that risk targeting law-abiding residents.”
The central government in Ottawa has a list hundreds of guns it wants people to turn in, and according to the National Post story, some $250 million has been allocated to compensate gun owners for their surrendered firearms.
But rural Canadians—except in British Columbia—are having none of it.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham explained, “As Premier, I call on the Federal Government to further engage provinces and territories on this issue, and to re-allocate the resources allotted for this program toward reducing crime, drug-related violence, and repeat offenders. Decisions are being made at a federal level that are isolated from legitimate civilian use of firearms. The Federal Government should focus on criminals, not law-abiding hunters and our way of life.”
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com
