Ottawa, ON – Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Pierre Paul-Hus and Deputy Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Glen Motz, released a statement today following the release of Minister Bill Blair’s mandate letter for Border Security and Organized Crime:

“Conservatives know that the safety of Canadians is the highest responsibility of any government. However, we also know that whenever Liberals attempt to crackdown on gun violence, they end up going after law-abiding firearms owners.

“Firearms owners are already highly vetted. By focusing on them instead of criminals, by ignoring data that shows gun related crime correlating to gang activity and weapons smuggling, and by refusing to address cross-border gun smuggling, the Liberals are failing to keep Canadians safe. Nowhere in the Minister’s mandate letter is any mention of any of these issues.

“Further, the Liberal’s current gun legislation, Bill C-71, still does nothing to address the problem of gun crime. In fact, there is absolutely no mention of the words “gang” or “organized” crime anywhere in the legislation.

“The Liberals have also failed to target criminals by reducing the penalty for gang-related crime to a fine and by not appointing the number of judges needed to keep criminals behind bars.

“They refuse to acknowledge that most guns used to commit crimes are illegally sourced. Justin Trudeau must come up with a fact-based, rational solution for reducing violence in the Canadian context. He has had three years to do so, and has failed.

“Canada’s Conservatives will vigorously oppose a blanket firearms ban on law abiding, highly-vetted Canadians and will instead focus on criminals who illegally obtain guns and use them to commit violence.”

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For more information:

Office of Pierre Paul-Hus, MP
Pierre.Paul-Hus.a1@parl.gc.ca
613-995-8857

Office of Glen Motz, MP
Glen.Motz.A1@parl.gc.ca
613-996-0633