OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – The Canadian federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is attempting today to shut down debate over a bill in the House of Commons that would ban many types of guns and mandate a buyback program.
This afternoon, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre called attention to a federal government motion before the House that would speed along with the committee approval process for Trudeau’s gun grab Bill C-21.
“Breaking news from the House of Commons. The Liberals have just moved extraordinary powers to shut down the debate on the bill. That is the next step in their hunting rifle ban. I have my public safety shadow minister who’s ready to stand on her feet in just moments to fight back against this hunting rifle ban,” Poilievre said in a video posted to Twitter today.
CPC MP Raquel Dancho, who serves as Public Safety Shadow Minister, said that “Liberals are coming up with their partners in NDP to limit debate” on Bill C-21.
“And as you know, it is the largest, largest attack on hunting rifles in Canadian history. This is another blow to democracy and (that) they are forcing this through the House of Commons to limit debate is deeply concerning and we’re going to fight it all the way.”
Liberal motion No. 25, “Proceedings on Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms),” states that “not more than one sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration of the bill at report stage.”
The motion also reads that “not more than one sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration of the bill at the third reading stage,” as well as reading that “not more than 20 minutes be allotted for debate on any clause or any amendment moved.”
The motion will be voted upon later today.
Bill C-21 is currently awaiting the third reading and is now in the committee phase.
Critics have long blasted Trudeau’s gun grab efforts, with most of the recent ire being directed at his government’s Bill C-21.
Much of this controversy arose because Bill C-21 was initially introduced by the Trudeau government under the guise of restricting handgun sales, and the Trudeau government only added certain hunting rifles to the list of banned firearms under C-21 after the debate period of the bill had concluded.
The last-minute additions were blasted by Indigenous Canadians, hunters, farmers, and opposition MPs as a crass attempt to try and ban most guns and take them away from their legal owners.
After initially denying his bill would impact hunters, Trudeau eventually admitted that C-21 would indeed ban certain types of hunting rifles.
While the Trudeau government is standing by the controversial bill, C-21 has faced rare bipartisan pushback, which ultimately led to the legislation being placed on hold until this spring.
This also resulted in the Trudeau government removing a change to the bill that would have mandated that specific guns being banned would be defined.
However, at the start of the month, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said that assault-style weapons would be included in the ban, and broader definitions of what guns would be banned would soon be announced once C-21 becomes law.
A total of five Canadian jurisdictions – four provinces and one territory – have announced their opposition to Trudeau’s federal buyback schemes.
Trudeau’s gun control efforts began immediately after a deadly mass shooting in Nova Scotia in May 2020 in which his government banned over 1,500 “military-style assault firearms” with a plan to begin buying them back from owners.
If the ban is enforced, legal gun owners in possession of the federally regulated Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) would be barred from buying, selling, transporting, and even importing a slew of guns the government has categorized as “assault-style” rifles.
In March, the province of Alberta pushed back against Trudeau’s federal gun grab by introducing a bill that would strengthen the province’s role in regulating the firearms of its citizens.