Trudeau, Pierre clash in House over gun violence

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The ruling Liberals must have heaved a sigh of relief as a tumultuous session of the House of Commons that weathered three votes of no-confidence besides several heated skirmishes between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Leader of Opposition Pierre Poilievre, drew to a close.

The House that would reassemble after Christmas holidays in the last week of January saw the Conservatives making every possible effort to corner the ruling minority Liberals and its saviour New Democrats besides embarrassing the government by raising contagious issues like rising cost of housing, growing crime and inflation.

Growing incidence of gun violence, for example, remained the dominant issue during last few sittings of the House that mostly remained without any legislative work over the issue of the tabling of documents pertaining to 300 million green slush fund.  

Gravity of the gun violence can be judged from the statement made by the police chief of the Peel Region. “On average, we are seeing an illegal firearm seized by our officers every 36 hours,” said Peel Regional Police Chief Duraiappah. Peel Region is a part of the Greater Toronto Area.

Tim Uppal, Deputy Leader of the official Opposition Party, the Conservatives, took up the case of the murder of international student, Harshandeep Singh.

“After nine years, the NDP-Liberal government has lost control of crime. Violent crime has skyrocketed by 50 percent since Trudeau became Prime Minister. He held that 256 people were killed by criminals who were out on bail or another form of release in 2022, the latest year available with full data.

“Canadians witnessed the shocking, heinous murder of Harshandeep Singh, a 20-year-old security guard in Edmonton, Alberta. Singh was shot in the back while thanklessly doing his job as a night time security guard at a central Edmonton apartment building. A promising young life was snuffed out by a cold-blooded monster.

“One cannot imagine how Harshandeep’s family and friends feel,” said Tim Uppal, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this incredibly difficult time.”

Incidentally, Mayor of Edmonton, Amarjeet Singh Sohi, who remained a Cabinet Minister in Justin Trudeau government, not only condoled the death of Harshandeep Singh but also termed it as “unacceptable”.

Rise in gun crimes

Tim Uppal held that Trudeau’s response to the killing had been to crack down on law-abiding firearms owners and Indigenous hunters without doing anything to improve Canada’s public safety. Instead, violent gun crime was up by a staggering 116 percent since the Liberals formed government.

“Enough is Enough. Canadians deserve to feel safe in their communities. Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home safe streets by ending Justin Trudeau’s catch-and-release justice system and bringing jail, not bail, for repeat violent offenders.

“It appears that our so-called ‘justice’ system terribly failed Harshandeep Singh – just as it has outrageously failed so many others,” said Uppal. “Harshandeep Singh’s murder cannot be accepted as just an unfortunate, unavoidable reality in our society. Authorities should answer to (his killer) Rain’s prior police interactions and potential criminal history, including whether he was out on bail or some other form of release order.”

“Life wasn’t like this before Justin Trudeau. Since the NDP-Liberal government passed Bill C-75 and Bill C-5   which gave high priority to releasing repeat violent offenders and took away mandatory jail time for certain violent crimes, a crime wave has been unleashed across the country,” he said.

Trudeau vs. Pierre

After Tim Uppal, the issue snow-balled into a heated skirmish between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre.

Pierre blasted Justin Trudeau saying let us see what the police have to say about the growing incidence of gun violence in Canada.  

“After a 116 percent increase in gun crime under this Prime Minister and a repeat violent offender out on early parole allegedly murdered a 34-year-old woman (a separate case) in Toronto on Sunday. The Toronto Police had this question for the Prime Minister: ‘How was this person, with their history, allowed to access a firearm and be alone with a partner when they were supposedly living in a supervised community setting? What answers are you providing ... to the victim’s family, or our communities who continue to see the heart-breaking results of your weak policies on crime?”

Justin Trudeau responded saying despite Conservative opposition, “we continue to move forward on bringing in red flag laws and yellow flag laws to make sure that people who are charged with domestic violence do not have access to firearms. Conservatives stood against that and fought against that every step of the way. Just like they are working hard to make legal again assault-style weapons that we rendered illegal in this country four years ago, they want to unfreeze the handgun bans. Last time they were in office, they cut 1,100 workers from the CBSA who were there to prevent illegal guns flowing in from the United States.”

Pierre Poilievre retorted back saying “the Prime Minister has not banned a single gun. He spent over $60 million to fail to take a single gun off the road. He has had to give an amnesty to reverse all of the announced gun bans that he did, standing in front of a cartoon image of a scary Hollywood-style gun. What has been the sum total of all of this? It has been a 116% increase in gun violence since he became Prime Minister.

“When will he realize that banning Grandpa Joe's hunting rifle is not going to stop crime and that instead we actually have to lock up the criminals?,” quipped Pierre Poilievre.

Justin Trudeau remarked “instead of trying to scare Grandpa Joe, the member should be honest with Grandpa Joe. We have banned assault-style weapons and already we have seen thousands of assault-style weapons collected and destroyed.”

Pierre Poilievre taunted Justin Trudeau saying, “He admitted he does not even know what an assault rifle is, let alone be able to ban one. He spent $60 million and his government admits it did not take a single firearm off the road. There has been a 116 percent increase in gun violence under his leadership and 99% of the shipping containers that come in are not inspected at all, even though the previous Conservative government increased the number of frontline border officers.

“Why is the Prime Minister   so busy trying to protect turkeys from hunters that he does not protect Canadians from criminals?

While trying to hit back at Pierre, Justin Trudeau retorted: “not only has the House defined what an assault-style weapon is, over the objections of Conservatives, but we are now removing those guns and destroying those guns while we compensate those who lawfully purchased them. That is what responsible gun control looks like.

“Unfortunately, the leader of the Conservative Party has promised the gun lobby that he will relegalize assault-style weapons, reopen the frozen market for handguns and make things more dangerous for Canadians, and particularly for women, right across the country. Shame on him,” said the Prime Minister.

Worrying statistics

Before the House of Commons adjourned for its Christmas holidays, the Peel Regional Police, came out with its report over the firearms it had seized during the current year.

STEP, an initiative that operates as part of the Specialized Enforcement Bureau, the Peel Regional Police said, was focused on reducing gun and gang violence. It claimed to had removed 53 illegal firearms; 63 magazines; and 915 rounds of ammunition.

The murder of Pritpal Singh in Brampton falls under the jurisdiction of the Peel regional Police. Pritpal’s brother survived with a bullet injury.

Of the 53 seized by the STEP, 41 have been traced back to the United States of America and the remaining 12 are still being traced.

“The alarming increase of illegal firearms in our communities is a serious risk to public safety, and I want to commend our officers for their continued efforts to remove more and more of these weapons from our streets” said PRP Chief Nishan Duraiappah. “As a Chief and community member, it is re-assuring to know that we have dedicated officers working tirelessly around the clock to ensure our safety and well-being.”

The dedicated efforts of this team have also led to 50 arrests, 461 Criminal Code charges, and 40 drug-related charges in relation to these seizures. Of the 50 charged, 25 were released from custody, while 15 were already before the court facing charges and 31 had previous conditions.

While this has been an unprecedented year for the STEP, the firearms seized by this team only account for about a quarter of all the firearms seized by PRP. To date, PRP has seized 205 illegal firearms, up from 143 in 2023, including the largest seizure in the service’s history of 71 firearms seized as part of Project Chrome   in June.

“On average, we are seeing an illegal firearm seized by our officers every 36 hours,” said PRP Chief Duraiappah. “Addressing gun and gang violence is a top priority for our service, and the results of STEP are a prime example of what we can achieve with continued investments in policing and public safety.”

STEP was first introduced in 2007 through funding and support from the Government of Ontario. In 2022, PRP received a further financial commitment of $1.5 million (US $ 1.1 million) over three years from the Government of Ontario through the Gun and Gang strategy to enhance public safety by reducing gun and gang activity within the cities of Mississauga and Brampton.

“I am pleased to see Peel Regional Police made significant progress getting illegal guns off our streets this year,” said Solicitor General Michael Kerzner at a media conference. “We will never apologize for being determined when it comes to public safety including supporting services like Peel when they put forward proactive programs to keep our communities safe.”

He revealed that STEP officers were deployed in geographical areas that had the highest statistical concentration of gang, firearm and drug activity throughout the Region of Peel, conducting proactive patrols to enhance police visibility and assist with community safety and wellbeing.

“Getting illegal guns off our streets was essential to supporting public safety,” said Associate Minister of Auto Theft and Bail Reform and MPP for Brampton North, Graham McGregor. “Our government is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Peel Regional Police as they undertake important initiatives to protect our communities.”