Juno News - April 09, 2023


Canada’s ongoing war against legal gun owners (ft. Tracey Wilson)


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

187.02856

Word Count

1,091

Sentence Count

78


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:00:07.900 And joining me is Tracy Wilson, the Vice President of Public Relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights,
00:00:15.020 a group that's always been a great supporter of True North, and I've always been a great supporter and member of them.
00:00:21.040 Look, I think it's not really breaking news to say that gun owners have been under assault with Justin Trudeau's government.
00:00:27.260 We've had the Order in Council Bill, C-21, a number of reforms and regulations.
00:00:32.760 And even just as we were chatting a moment ago, how do you even as a gun owner begin to tackle all of these things?
00:00:39.160 Because it really is a battle on many fronts that the government's waging.
00:00:42.340 It absolutely is. And in fact, to me, as a gun owner, I've been a gun owner for 27 years.
00:00:47.700 I'm a mom, I'm a grandma. I want to save her country too.
00:00:51.340 And I know it's not my community committing the violence.
00:00:54.020 So for me, the problem is, is it's sort of a breach of the social contract that I made with the government
00:01:01.080 where they said, here's the regulations in order to be a gun owner.
00:01:04.700 Here's what you can have. Here's what you can do.
00:01:06.540 And I said, OK. And I complied with them, regardless of how ridiculous some of them are.
00:01:11.400 And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
00:01:12.900 They just are still coming at us, still trying to confiscate our legally acquired property,
00:01:17.600 even though we've done nothing to warrant it.
00:01:19.580 And it's incredibly frustrating. So frustrating that, yeah, we're taking them to court.
00:01:24.840 We've seen a little bit of optimism, I'd say, in the last few months, not from the federal government,
00:01:29.300 but from provinces. I think Alberta really started this off.
00:01:32.680 They appointed a very firearms-focused, firearms-owners-focused CFO, Terry Bryan.
00:01:37.260 They've also now, under Danielle Smith, really said,
00:01:39.540 we're not playing ball with the federal government's gun confiscation.
00:01:42.440 Has this been an area where there's a bit of hope that you can lobby provincial governments
00:01:46.920 in a way that might not have been top of mind for your agenda?
00:01:49.820 Yeah. Well, in fact, when the CCFR first launched our federal court action back in 2020,
00:01:55.220 immediately after the big sweeping gun ban, we had written to the different provinces,
00:02:00.720 to the attorney generals of each province, asking them to intervene on our court challenge.
00:02:05.320 And we didn't hear back from any of them.
00:02:07.240 And then after Danielle Smith took over, we heard back from them,
00:02:11.740 they've actually intervened on our—they filed an application to intervene on our court challenge,
00:02:16.840 and it was approved by the Associate Chief Justice of the federal court.
00:02:20.920 So Alberta's all in. Saskatchewan's right behind them.
00:02:24.920 Manitoba, Yukon, and New Brunswick have all been very vocal against this.
00:02:28.700 Not Ontario, though.
00:02:29.580 We're still waiting for—well, that's the thing with Doug, right?
00:02:32.200 I think he's perfectly comfortable where he is, and he doesn't like to rock the boat either way.
00:02:37.240 At the same time, I've known Doug Ford a long time, and I know he doesn't support the war on gun owners.
00:02:42.540 He knows that the problem is crime violence and gun smuggling.
00:02:46.080 A lot of—I mean, you mentioned this a moment ago.
00:02:48.640 A lot of people might not realize, because gun owners probably seem a bit rebellious to the Canadian culture,
00:02:53.300 but they're very compliant, by definition, individuals.
00:02:56.940 You know, we get the paperwork, we get the forms, we, you know, make sure that this is locked and this is locked.
00:03:01.560 And at a certain point, you reach a breaking point, I think, where gun owners are saying,
00:03:06.440 it's just not worth being in this hobby anymore.
00:03:08.360 And that's my fear.
00:03:09.500 Are you seeing that, or are they really digging their heels in and saying,
00:03:11.740 no, I'm fighting for this right to keep my property?
00:03:14.240 There's two things I'm really afraid of.
00:03:15.940 Number one, people just giving up, getting rid of their stuff, and abandoning our community altogether.
00:03:20.900 Because it's—to the people who participate, it's incredibly important.
00:03:25.700 The other thing I'm afraid of is—is non-compliance, and I'll tell you why.
00:03:29.900 I know—I know a lot of people sort of promote that idea, but here's the thing.
00:03:34.240 In any functioning civil society and democracy, you don't want people willingly breaking the law.
00:03:40.920 But when you force people to that edge, when they've complied with every law and every regulation you've put before them,
00:03:47.580 and then you still come at them, and the idea is you're coming to kick in their doors and take their stuff,
00:03:52.700 people just say, forget it.
00:03:54.340 I am sick and tired of complying because it hasn't paid off for me.
00:03:57.940 So I think those are the two things that frighten me most.
00:04:01.200 And thirdly, the fact that all the effort, resources, and focus is on legal gun owners.
00:04:08.200 And meanwhile, we've got crime blowing up out of control all across the country,
00:04:12.560 and especially in places like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
00:04:16.520 Yeah, and gun owners are actually the toughest people in terms of wanting to go after gun crime.
00:04:21.540 The issue is just the Liberals have a very broad definition of what a gun criminal is,
00:04:26.320 and they basically think a gun owner is inherently a bad person
00:04:29.320 that needs all of these regulations heaped upon them.
00:04:31.500 Either that, or they at least want the public to think that,
00:04:33.900 because it's very politically expedient to beat up the opposition
00:04:37.960 or to beat up their opponents with, you know,
00:04:40.600 they're going to make assault weapons legal again, or scary things like that.
00:04:45.140 I think down deep, the Liberals know.
00:04:47.160 Marco Mendicino knows.
00:04:48.620 He's a Crown prosecutor in his previous business life.
00:04:53.240 They've got all kinds of lawyers.
00:04:54.580 They've got Bill Blair, who was Chief of Police in Toronto.
00:04:57.260 These people know full well what they're doing.
00:04:59.320 isn't going to have a demonstrable public safety benefit,
00:05:02.500 but they know it's going to have an actual political impact,
00:05:07.760 and that's why they do it, which is horrible, and it's un-Canadian.
00:05:13.080 Tracy Wilson, thank you.
00:05:14.420 Thank you.
00:05:15.600 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:05:18.220 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:05:23.660 True North at www.tnc.news.exe,
00:05:34.700 that's how it will be possible.
00:05:36.520 Hey, man, man, for you next time we have over.
00:05:39.260 I'm your family.
00:05:39.840 I'm your family.
00:05:41.680 I'm your family.
00:05:42.520 Tell me, you're a family.
00:05:43.920 Tell me, I'm your family.
00:05:46.020 I'm your family.
00:05:48.040 You across the world, you know what I want.