Juno News - Carney doubles down on Trudeau-era gun grab

00:00:00.000 Welcome to The Candace Malcolm Show. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the

00:00:07.600 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And when I say we have a special show for you, boy, do I mean it.

00:00:14.380 We're going to get right into the gun issue here in Canada. And I'm not talking about the gang

00:00:20.740 bangers on the streets of Toronto who are causing mayhem, ruining lives with illegal handguns.

00:00:26.920 I am talking about the federal government's confiscation of private property from legal,

00:00:34.820 law-abiding firearms owners. We're going to be speaking with an expert on this. We're also

00:00:41.020 going to be speaking with the Toronto Police Association, who is rightly speaking up and

00:00:46.540 saying, hey, we do have a gun problem on the streets of Toronto, but it's not the duck hunters in 0.99

00:00:52.760 Manitoba who are the problem. It's not the sports shooters in London, Ontario, who are trying to go

00:00:58.160 out to the range, who are causing the problem. It's the criminals who are committing the crime here.

00:01:04.240 The reason why we need to dive into this now is because it seems like the federal liberal government

00:01:10.500 is deciding to go ahead now with its confiscation rollout of lawfully obtained firearms. What that

00:01:21.020 means is if you had legally obtained a certain kind of firearm, okay, before May of 2020, unless you

00:01:30.520 surrender that firearm over to the state somehow, you will instantly become a criminal. So the language

00:01:37.500 we're now hearing from Ottawa goes something like this. Yeah, we know we've been kicking this around

00:01:43.380 for the past five years. Yeah, we know that we've actually ruined several normal gun businesses. And

00:01:50.620 yeah, we think that now that we're going to be dangling some form of monetary compensation

00:01:55.860 at cost to taxpayers, by the way, we're actually going to have more people happy about this,

00:02:03.020 happy to surrender their private property to the government. Now, this is the thing. I'm a firearms

00:02:09.360 owner, okay? It's easy to say, oh, well, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to comply.

00:02:15.240 That's not who people are within the law-abiding firearms community. Folks who are legally owning

00:02:22.420 guns in Canada are usually big sticklers for rules. That's because we have to go through major

00:02:30.600 screening when we want to legally own a firearm in Canada. Even if you just want to have a regular

00:02:36.720 rifle or a shotgun in Canada, like, you know, more than two and a half million-ish people do in Canada.

00:02:42.980 If you want to go do that, you have to get a firearms license. And there they do big background

00:02:48.700 checks. They phone all of your ex-boyfriends and girlfriends. You have to have an instructor sign

00:02:54.300 off on everything you do. There's storage rules. There's transportation rules. There's all sorts of

00:02:59.780 stuff that goes along with being a legal law-abiding firearms owner. So, yeah, unless you comply with

00:03:05.760 the government, you're going to be instantly a criminal. What an unfair situation for so many

00:03:12.720 firearms owners in Canada. Now, when we're talking about the cost to taxpayers, this is already going

00:03:19.220 to cost over a billion dollars with a B. We do not have the money for this. Just picture it.

00:03:26.640 Picture not just the compensation amounts that they're going to try to be offering to people

00:03:30.880 eventually. Picture the man hours, the people hours, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would

00:03:36.740 probably call it, of the law enforcement that is going to be required to what? Go door to door?

00:03:43.420 Say, now it's time to surrender your firearms? Or even somebody who's carefully approaching the

00:03:49.080 police station saying, um, I think I need to do this now. It's in my car. There's hours and hours and

00:03:55.660 hours of paperwork, right? So, this is going to cause a big messy problem and we wanted to highlight

00:04:02.040 it on this special show. So, this is the Candace Malcolm show. It's on Juno News. You aren't going

00:04:08.200 to hear this level of expertise in detail on the mainstream media and I'll tell you why. One, it's

00:04:15.500 just sometimes that they don't know. They see a movie like Rambo and they hear some politicians say

00:04:21.740 assault style weapons. And they picture some full auto machine gun. Some person spraying bullets by

00:04:29.500 holding their trigger finger down. Those guns are not legal in Canada. They have not been legal in

00:04:35.520 Canada since the 1970s. Okay? So, there's a lot of bad information coming out of the mainstream media

00:04:43.500 on this. A lot of ignorance. A lot of water carrying that is happening right now for the Liberal

00:04:50.120 Government. That is why it's super important for people to subscribe. Okay? Go to Juno News. Subscribe

00:04:56.960 to this show. Okay? Tell your friends, especially if you're within the legal firearms community and

00:05:03.860 you're at the range, tell them about this show. Share this show online. Okay? I wanted to play you

00:05:11.280 a clip which perfectly illustrates the situation we're in. I'm laughing because otherwise I'll cry.

00:05:17.540 Okay. I'm going to set this up. The person who's asking the question is Andrew Lawton. You might

00:05:23.900 remember him from such shows as right here. At least the previous incarnation of this show.

00:05:30.980 Andrew Lawton had his own show on True North for years and years. He is now an elected member of

00:05:35.960 Parliament. And he stood up in the House of Commons back when it was sitting, you know, for like 73 minutes

00:05:41.260 after the election. And he asked the public safety minister about the legal law-abiding right to own

00:05:50.500 a firearm in Canada. And he kind of quizzed him. And he kind of failed. So let's listen.

00:05:56.740 Does the minister know what an RPAL is?

00:06:00.220 The Honourable Minister.

00:06:01.260 I do not.

00:06:02.540 Member.

00:06:05.740 Does the minister know what the CFSC is?

00:06:09.100 The Honourable Minister.

00:06:10.520 I do not. No.

00:06:11.980 Member.

00:06:13.100 I'll stipulate, Chair, that is the Canadian's firearm safety course that all gun owners in Canada have

00:06:17.580 to do to get their firearms license. Has the minister ever done the Canadian firearm safety course?

00:06:22.540 The Honourable Minister.

00:06:24.020 Speaker, it's my third week on the job. No, I have not.

00:06:27.200 The Honourable Member.

00:06:28.700 Does the minister know what safety classes and safety demands are expected of law-abiding

00:06:33.300 Canadian gun owners?

00:06:34.780 The Honourable Minister.

00:06:36.080 This is not about law-abiding gun owners, Mr. Speaker.

00:06:39.320 The Honourable Member.

00:06:40.840 How can the minister make that claim when he doesn't know the basic fundamentals of law-abiding

00:06:44.820 gun ownership in this country, Chair?

00:06:49.000 Did you hear what the minister said there at the very end?

00:06:51.680 That is the most important part.

00:06:54.580 Now, it would be nice if the public safety minister, who is going to be the person in

00:06:59.160 charge of confiscating people's firearms, would know what an RPAL is.

00:07:04.920 So that's a restricted license.

00:07:07.120 Okay?

00:07:07.360 That's if you're able to own a handgun, not a shotgun or a rifle.

00:07:10.640 That's what an RPAL is.

00:07:12.240 It would be nice if he actually even had such a license.

00:07:15.680 But the very basis of him saying this is not about legal gun owners in Canada, yeah, it

00:07:25.700 is.

00:07:26.420 That's why we're having this conversation.

00:07:28.940 If the federal government were trying to crack down on criminals and gangbangers who are using

00:07:35.540 gun, like, this conversation would be over.

00:07:39.000 This show wouldn't exist.

00:07:40.240 None of these advocacy organizations, including the Taxpayers Federation, including the CCFR,

00:07:46.260 would be upset about this at all.

00:07:48.720 It would be, okay, fine.

00:07:49.800 You go do your government thing and make people safe.

00:07:52.160 But that isn't what is happening here.

00:07:54.560 What is happening here is something that the mainstream media is trying to euphemistically

00:08:00.020 call a buyback program.

00:08:02.060 That's incorrect, just on its face, just verbally, okay, using words, because the firearms owners

00:08:10.800 in question did not purchase their firearms from the government.

00:08:15.540 They legally acquired their firearms from lawful firearms sellers.

00:08:22.020 Usually, a private company of some now have gone bankrupt due to this confiscation.

00:08:29.000 And that's exactly what this is.

00:08:30.400 This is a confiscation program, and it is a confiscation program that we do not have the

00:08:36.640 money for.

00:08:37.460 I'll give you a perfect example to explain why we don't have the money for this and why

00:08:43.100 the Taxpayers Federation is fighting this.

00:08:46.080 Folks might remember something called the Long Gun Registry, okay, way back in the mists of

00:08:51.660 time when then-Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was around, okay?

00:08:56.780 Remember when they had a balanced budget?

00:08:58.360 That was magical.

00:08:58.960 Okay, so they had a long gun registry, and they wanted literally like duck hunters, okay,

00:09:06.020 and ranchers, because ranchers need to keep long guns on their property to take care of 0.96

00:09:10.080 pests and stuff and threats to their livestock.

00:09:12.240 They had a long gun registry where you would have to register your long gun with the government.

00:09:17.020 They estimated it was going to cost taxpayers around $2 million with an M.

00:09:22.240 By the time the smoke cleared, it cost us around $2 billion, so times $1,000.

00:09:30.680 So this is a huge problem.

00:09:33.360 It is a problem of cost, and it's a problem of private property.

00:09:37.240 How are people trying to push back on this?

00:09:41.620 How are people trying to convince Prime Minister Mark Carney, who says he's a pragmatist,

00:09:48.360 to look at the numbers, look at the spreadsheet, and walk away from this?

00:09:53.580 Because ultimately, this is the previous guy's mess.

00:09:56.740 Mark Carney, in good conscience, can say, you know what, guys?

00:10:00.580 This doesn't make sense.

00:10:01.980 We don't have the money for this.

00:10:03.800 My administration as Prime Minister is not going ahead with this.

00:10:07.700 We're dropping it.

00:10:08.700 We're going to focus on actually making the streets safer,

00:10:12.000 and not blowing money going after law-abiding people.

00:10:16.060 Who's in this fight?

00:10:17.960 How can we convince the government to do the right thing?

00:10:20.760 Let's find out.

00:10:22.040 Joining me now is Rod Giltaka.

00:10:24.380 He is the CEO and Executive Director for the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

00:10:30.100 You've probably seen their stickers on the backs of pickup trucks.

00:10:34.360 I know it is super popular around southern Alberta here, where I live, in Lethbridge.

00:10:38.840 They are a major advocacy organization for the legal ownership of firearms in Canada.

00:10:45.540 If you have not checked them out yet, I strongly encourage you to do so.

00:10:49.860 After this chat, I bet you, you just can't resist after listening to Rod.

00:10:53.260 Thank you so much for joining us today.

00:10:55.420 Thanks, Chris.

00:10:56.640 So, and I meant that.

00:10:58.120 I've been listening to some of your earlier podcast appearances,

00:11:00.600 and you're very passionate, very knowledgeable when it comes to the rights of firearms owners here in Canada.

00:11:07.260 Last I was looking, there was around 2.5 million of us here in Canada.

00:11:13.040 Are those the latest numbers you have, too?

00:11:15.140 Yeah, somewhere around there, just slightly under 2.5 million for all licenses, both restricted and unrestricted.

00:11:21.400 So, what he means, and I'm going to keep on translating for folks who aren't gun owners.

00:11:26.020 I am a firearms owner in Canada.

00:11:28.200 I was raised on hunted meat.

00:11:29.860 I see them as a tool, the same as one would have, say, a snowblower or a chainsaw or a pickup truck.

00:11:35.840 You have to use them responsibly, but I think that they're an essential element of Canadian culture, frankly, especially Western Canadian culture.

00:11:43.560 Now, when we're getting into what's happening here, this is not going to affect all firearms owners.

00:11:50.300 It is going to affect firearms owners who own specific kinds of guns.

00:11:54.480 And I wanted to reiterate, a lot of folks in the media keep calling this thing a buyback.

00:12:01.120 It is not a buyback.

00:12:02.640 I did not purchase my gun from the government.

00:12:05.100 This is a confiscation of private property, which was legally obtained.

00:12:10.120 And now they've changed the rules.

00:12:12.280 Do we have an estimation as to how many people, how many gun owners this is affecting, this rolling confiscation that it sounds like the federal government wants to go ahead with?

00:12:23.360 Well, it's funny. 0.63

00:12:24.460 The federal government says this affects somewhere around 140,000 firearms, which is absolutely ridiculous.

00:12:30.960 Nobody believes that for a second.

00:12:32.640 There are somewhere around 90,000 AR-15s.

00:12:37.540 AR-15s are registered. 0.96

00:12:39.100 They're restricted firearms.

00:12:40.020 So the government knows who has them and how many there are.

00:12:43.620 And so for them to say, after all of these successive bans and all of the bans via variant status from the RCMP, that somehow the total number of affected firearms is 140,000 is ridiculous.

00:12:57.980 It's probably, nobody knows for sure, because the overwhelming majority of these firearms are unregistered.

00:13:03.440 The government doesn't know who has them or where they are or how many there are.

00:13:08.740 But we think there should be somewhere maybe between half a million, 800,000, maybe up to over a million.

00:13:15.580 So it's a lot of guns.

00:13:17.200 Based on my experience and the family I have, that feels about right, right?

00:13:21.980 Yeah.

00:13:22.120 You start thinking about who among my family has certain kinds of firearms legally obtained.

00:13:26.760 And then you kind of work out the ratio.

00:13:29.760 That feels about right.

00:13:31.120 Now, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we're right there with you.

00:13:35.380 So we are fighting against this gun confiscation.

00:13:37.620 Last we checked, this current push to confiscate people's private property is going to cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars.

00:13:47.560 That's with a B.

00:13:48.960 And for folks who are saying, oh, well, their government's going to come in under budget.

00:13:54.400 That's never happened.

00:13:55.440 And I can point back to, of course, the long gun registry that they tried to do.

00:14:01.180 Back then, they said it was going to cost around $2 million with an M.

00:14:05.260 After the smoke all cleared, they were getting close to $2 billion with a B by the time they were done.

00:14:11.960 And it didn't make Canadians safer.

00:14:14.440 We are going to get into the whole safety issue.

00:14:17.700 We've got actually a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Association.

00:14:20.880 So somebody who's in connection with the boys and girls in blue right on the front line.

00:14:24.940 So we're going to get into the element that this doesn't make Canadians safer.

00:14:28.060 What I wanted to focus in on with you, Rod, is how undemocratic and really unfair this is to have your lawfully purchased private property seized by the state at great expense to you.

00:14:42.740 Keep in mind, the government doesn't have a magical money pot.

00:14:45.320 But they're blowing taxpayers' money to do this, to set up these registries, to set up all the administration, to try to get the police, you know, who are already strapped for time and people, to try to go pick up these firearms.

00:14:59.280 And there's also the element of sellers.

00:15:02.520 Do you guys get into that at all?

00:15:03.940 I personally interviewed a gun seller, wonderful lady, mom of like five kids up in Prince George.

00:15:09.640 She had to shut down her business because she had so many stranded assets sitting on the shelf.

00:15:15.280 Are you guys in contact with the actual retailers too?

00:15:18.080 We are.

00:15:18.960 So many, we have a business member program.

00:15:21.540 And so we are in touch with a lot of people and we have longstanding relationships in the retail space as well.

00:15:27.680 But yeah, they've had to hold on to all of this property that was banned by, you know, via OIC, Order and Council, by fiat, basically, for over half a decade.

00:15:40.600 Now, some people probably were sitting on $100,000 worth of inventory.

00:15:45.500 Many businesses use a line of credit to fund their inventory.

00:15:49.320 So you can only imagine the situation that some of these retailers were in.

00:15:53.080 And just going back to something you said about the long gun registry costing $2 billion instead of $2 million, you know, that's only 1,000 times over.

00:16:03.480 So that's actually a pretty reasonable budget underestimate for the government.

00:16:08.520 But I think one of the most important things for people to remember is this won't cost $750 million like the government, the highest estimate, the government thought.

00:16:18.100 It'll probably cost $2 to $8 billion.

00:16:20.340 And the situation we're in now, that's borrowed money.

00:16:24.980 So it will be borrowing $2 to $8 billion at interest.

00:16:29.360 And again, not to step too much into your topic, but I think people forget right now, Canada is paying $4 billion a month just in interest on the national debt.

00:16:40.400 That's before anything.

00:16:41.940 That's before policing.

00:16:43.080 That's before employment insurance.

00:16:46.140 That's before pension.

00:16:46.860 That's nothing.

00:16:47.880 That's $4 billion a month.

00:16:49.580 So this is just going to add to that, which is even more of a slap in the face to hardworking Canadians.

00:16:54.920 Man after my own heart.

00:16:57.340 Preach, brother.

00:16:58.460 Yeah.

00:16:58.880 To put it this way, okay, what he just said is exactly true.

00:17:02.380 Okay.

00:17:02.500 The interest just on the federal debt, we're not counting the provincial debts, just the federal government's debt is a billion dollars a week.

00:17:09.980 So picture everybody gathering around on a Saturday night, and instead of watching hockey, we burn down a hospital, build it up brand new, wait, don't send anybody in yet, burn it down instead.

00:17:21.920 That's how much we are spending on the interest on the debt.

00:17:25.440 So exactly to your point, Rod, the federal government is now thinking that we're going to borrow more money to go out and confiscate and compensate these law-abiding firearms owners.

00:17:38.680 Now, I know a lot of the viewers of the Candace Malcolm show will be, will have their PAL.

00:17:43.720 Okay.

00:17:43.900 They will have firearms licenses, but if you can speak to their brother-in-law and their sisters and people who perhaps aren't in what I would call the gun world, the law-abiding gun world.

00:17:56.160 Can you explain to them why this is important?

00:18:00.360 Why should non-firearms owners, which there are many in Canada, care about the fact that tons of people are getting their property seized by the government?

00:18:10.320 It's not so much that they have to care about it.

00:18:13.060 They have to transfer the same set of values that they do for everything else in our society over to people that lawfully own firearms.

00:18:20.940 So in Canada, there's a very strict system that is in place to regulate legal firearms.

00:18:28.360 You need a license.

00:18:29.580 You need to prove competency by taking a course.

00:18:31.860 You need to have extensive background checks.

00:18:34.020 You get a background check every 24 hours.

00:18:36.800 Handguns are registered so the government knows where they are, where they're being stored.

00:18:40.640 You can only shoot them at an approved shooting range.

00:18:42.800 You can't shoot them out in the bush. 0.93

00:18:44.820 Same thing with some long guns like AR-15s.

00:18:47.500 All this stuff is very, very tightly regulated.

00:18:49.680 And I think what a lot of people miss is civilian firearm, private firearm ownership is a feature of free societies where you are not a slave.

00:19:00.940 You are a citizen.

00:19:02.020 You are entrusted with a variety of responsibilities, just like you are entrusted with a driver's license.

00:19:08.180 We do not ban cars.

00:19:09.720 I don't like there's so many analogies floating around all the time.

00:19:12.600 Right.

00:19:12.780 I've heard them all and I've heard them ad nauseum.

00:19:14.520 So it's, you know, but we'll just use this one for now.

00:19:17.120 So I guess I'm talking to myself to not get annoyed with them.

00:19:20.400 But, you know, everyone is entrusted with a driver's license and there's no criminal background check required.

00:19:26.780 But yet the odd person drives drunk, wipes an entire family out.

00:19:31.440 And that's and that's real.

00:19:32.700 But the first reaction of the government or the public isn't like, you know, obviously people shouldn't own cars or they should only go to and from specific places with permission of the government.

00:19:44.380 Of course not.

00:19:45.100 They're like these people broke the rules. 0.93

00:19:46.780 Throw them in jail.

00:19:47.980 Give them a lifetime driving ban.

00:19:50.400 When there was a van attack in Toronto and the if the van attack was a multiple victim public shooting, of which we've had very few in Canadian history.

00:20:00.520 Thank God.

00:20:01.480 Yeah.

00:20:01.960 You know, you would think that that people would be up in arms like, why can you take eighty dollars down to the van rental place with just a driver's license and drive away with a van?

00:20:12.620 Nobody said that ever.

00:20:13.720 Nobody even it never even crossed anyone's mind to increase the restrictions on renting vans.

00:20:21.000 But for some reason, it's guns.

00:20:23.220 And the reason for that is not everyone sees value in firearms.

00:20:26.400 So if I were to to to forward one important message, firearms are incredibly important to the people that own them.

00:20:34.300 You can have firearms in Canada for hunting, sport, shooting, collecting.

00:20:37.840 You can pass them down.

00:20:39.340 There are a variety of different things.

00:20:41.180 And Canadian gun culture is a beneficial, super positive culture.

00:20:46.740 So people sport shoot with these guns.

00:20:48.900 Hunting is a way of life.

00:20:50.460 And then it's people are like, well, it's a hobby.

00:20:53.040 And it's not.

00:20:54.160 And I'll tell you why.

00:20:55.820 Because these are not, you know, if you think of a golf club as a hobby, but at the worst moment in your life, when no one's there to help you, this tool, this sport shooting or hunting tool can save your life.

00:21:08.360 So this makes them extremely, extremely valuable property people.

00:21:12.760 So we are qualified to own them.

00:21:14.980 We are tightly regulated.

00:21:16.800 Right.

00:21:17.220 All the people get criminal record checks every day.

00:21:20.340 There's we have storage requirements.

00:21:22.420 These are laws.

00:21:23.220 We have transportation requirements.

00:21:25.080 And licensed gun owners do not represent a disproportionate risk to public safety.

00:21:29.060 And then the other side, sorry for going on, but this is important and it takes more than a couple of soundbites to explain it.

00:21:34.600 When you're talking about bans or further restrictions or buybacks as were confiscation programs, you're not just taking guns from people that didn't do anything to deserve it.

00:21:44.020 You're destroying the shooting clubs.

00:21:46.280 You're running up the national debt.

00:21:48.480 You're destroying a culture that is older than Canada itself and that represents billions in real estate and billions in property improvements and taking away the central hub, the community hub in a community that that's at least 2.5 million people strong.

00:22:05.880 So there's there are many moving parts.

00:22:08.200 It's not so it's it's not a simple situation.

00:22:11.380 And it is devastating to the people that, again, haven't done anything to deserve it.

00:22:15.520 It's bad policy.

00:22:16.440 Amen.

00:22:18.120 I have a few more questions I want to get into here, and some of them are kind of specific.

00:22:22.460 So bear with me, audience.

00:22:24.320 Can you explain in the best of your ability what kinds of firearms the current federal liberal government is trying to ban?

00:22:33.980 Because I want to stress this may sound silly for those of us who understand firearms culture.

00:22:39.080 So folks, just bear with me.

00:22:40.240 In Canada, the machine gun that you will see on like a Rambo movie or something where the person just holds down the trigger and sprays bullets, those have been big time illegal since before I was born.

00:22:55.800 Okay, in the early 70s.

00:22:58.320 So the full auto thing like that, that is not accepted in Canada.

00:23:04.360 Those are not what the government is banning.

00:23:07.640 When people say, oh, they're banning semi-automatics.

00:23:10.700 Okay, what a semi-automatic means in normal people talk is if you've got your firearm up, it's squeeze, bang, squeeze, bang.

00:23:21.540 You have to pull the trigger every time.

00:23:24.200 There's no holding your finger down and spraying rounds at people.

00:23:28.280 So like this is where I do think there's a big education gap between the folks who understand normal, safe, law-abiding firearms ownerships with all of our trigger locks and our gun safes and all of our background checks.

00:23:42.360 Okay, when you go even just for your regular pal, okay, your regular, you know, non-restricted, if you want to own a rifle or a shotgun, they phone your ex-boyfriends and girlfriends.

00:23:53.120 Okay, like they do a really thorough background check to make sure things are all in the up and up.

00:23:59.020 So all that said, can you please describe for people what kinds and styles, I think is the better term, of firearms the federal government is trying to confiscate?

00:24:10.640 So the most important thing is assault weapons, they don't exist in Canada.

00:24:15.420 The only people that have assault weapons, as you're describing, full autos, right?

00:24:19.120 Hold the trigger and the firearm continues to discharge bullets, right?

00:24:24.560 Those, it was actually the late 70s that those were banned.

00:24:28.480 And it was a long time ago.

00:24:31.280 We definitely agree on that.

00:24:32.560 And the only people that have those are movie armorers and museums, basically, and the police and the military, of course.

00:24:38.620 And then a handful of people that had a specific status, like even me, I'm too young to have gotten a prohibitive license, a prohibited firearms license.

00:24:49.500 So really important.

00:24:51.720 I have so much experience with the legacy media in Canada, showing stories about the so-called buyback and the Bill C-71 and Bill C-21 and all these different, all this different legislation and orders in council.

00:25:07.600 And then while they're talking about these measures, they show full autos in the United States being discharged.

00:25:14.720 Like when you say education gap, it truly is propaganda.

00:25:18.260 And of course, it's wildly frustrating.

00:25:20.440 So these guns that are being banned are a wide variety of guns.

00:25:24.460 So you have regular semi-autos that look like machine guns, but just aren't.

00:25:29.060 And these are guns that have been tested by the RCMP to make sure that they couldn't be easily converted to full autos.

00:25:35.180 Okay, these are tried and true guns that we've had for decades upon decades in Canada.

00:25:40.680 Then hunting rifles and target shooting rifles that are too powerful.

00:25:45.360 So they say over 10,000 joules, but basically you look and they're like, you know, big game African hunting rifles.

00:25:52.400 So there's a wide variety of different firearms that fall under their assault style, you know, ban.

00:26:00.080 And some of them are even single shot rifles.

00:26:02.460 Many bolt actions.

00:26:04.120 There are even some shotguns are too dangerous to own.

00:26:07.900 So it is, they continue to call them assault weapons.

00:26:10.780 And they even can, they tried to call them assault style weapons.

00:26:15.940 Anyway, I don't know if anyone, a lot of people bought into that, but there are no assault weapons in Canada.

00:26:21.520 So these are firearms that are held by people like me that I use for target shooting or training or recreational shooting or what have you.

00:26:30.140 And yeah, it is an absolute mess.

00:26:32.700 And it's government overreach in the extreme.

00:26:35.620 Some of it, I'm glad you described it with the mainstream media.

00:26:39.060 That's why I belabored the point of like, this is, this is not, you know, I love me a Stallone flick, but this is not a Stallone flick that's happening here in Canada.

00:26:47.960 Not from law abiding firearms owners anyway.

00:26:50.560 I wanted to get into exactly what you guys are fighting and what you guys are proposing.

00:26:54.720 Because you mentioned the old, you know, I would say, you know, more restricted firearms licenses.

00:27:01.980 In some cases, way back in the day, again, before I was born, thank you.

00:27:07.280 There were some of those firearms that were then grandfathered in.

00:27:11.740 Okay.

00:27:12.820 Are, is that what your organization is looking at with some of these versions of the firearms, which are mostly cosmetic?

00:27:20.120 I will point out like they're, they're finding ones that have like the removable, you know, stock so you can shorten it, which a lot of women use by the way, because it makes it easier for shorter arms. 1.00

00:27:29.720 Right.

00:27:30.520 They're removing, taking away the guns that are, you know, painted black.

00:27:34.160 Okay.

00:27:34.640 But the, the wood grain version is okay.

00:27:36.520 Like a lot of this is cosmetic.

00:27:38.880 So what is the CCFR doing as far as negotiating with the federal government?

00:27:45.080 Are, are you guys looking at like a grandfathering in to try to get the government to back off on this?

00:27:51.820 Well, the government is marching forward with their buyback and we have information that they, they are.

00:27:56.780 And I, we really, we released a video, uh, I don't know, but a week and a half ago and basically where the situation that gun owners are in is we've been fighting this since May 1st, 2020.

00:28:10.340 We sued the government in the largest lawsuit in the history of Canada for, on behalf of gun owners.

00:28:16.400 Uh, we took the government to federal court.

00:28:18.380 We cross-examined every witness.

00:28:20.580 We fought every intervener.

00:28:22.540 We filed three injunctions.

00:28:24.360 We went toe to toe and put $3 million into that.

00:28:28.400 That's never been possible for gun owners before.

00:28:30.400 So that's great.

00:28:31.900 We lost.

00:28:32.840 We went to the court of appeal.

00:28:33.940 We fought them again.

00:28:34.700 We lost again, and we are still fighting it because we've, uh, made an application to go to the Supreme Court of Canada.

00:28:40.320 So we'll see whether or not that's accepted.

00:28:41.920 So we're continuing to fight this to have it completely repealed, but I don't know.

00:28:48.200 I don't want to be too cynical.

00:28:49.680 I just, the courts are a funny bunch.

00:28:52.140 Let's, uh, let's just put it, uh, put it that way.

00:28:54.660 We also participated at an unprecedented level in the last election.

00:29:00.120 The last election was for everything.

00:29:03.420 Yeah.

00:29:03.600 If the conservative would, conservatives would have won, all of this would have been being unwound as we speak.

00:29:10.060 So unfortunately the, uh, CCFR still alone, but we were actually the fifth largest third party advertiser in the entire country, including unions and, you know, all the rest of that stuff.

00:29:21.300 So we took a real swing at them during the election.

00:29:23.680 Now they're moving forward with their buyback because they won again.

00:29:26.480 I wish more people had jumped in, um, not to be too self-serving, but more people had jumped in during the election.

00:29:33.820 Maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation, but as a last ditch effort to total confiscation over the span of one year, we said, Hey, government, there's an opportunity for you not to spend all this money for you to leave all the good people alone.

00:29:47.840 Right.

00:29:48.340 Maybe divert that money into dealing with firearm related violence, which has never been higher by issuing grandfathering.

00:29:54.060 Now, grandfathering means that, uh, gun owners that have these types of firearms can continue to own them.

00:30:00.080 No new ones can come into the country and that we could buy and sell between us.

00:30:03.920 So we can move these firearms around with people who have the same license status.

00:30:08.220 So that would cost the government, nothing.

00:30:10.460 Taxpayers would save.

00:30:12.480 A unimaginable amount of money.

00:30:15.700 Gun owners could be not victimized at least at, at the extent that they would for, with immediate confiscation, which is what the government is rolling out.

00:30:22.900 And then it's also to us, the most important delay tactic.

00:30:27.380 We need to keep physical possession of these firearms so that there's something to roll back.

00:30:33.060 Should there be another election sitting around waiting for total confiscation is not an option.

00:30:40.260 A lot of people love that.

00:30:41.400 And people love to do nothing because it's the easiest thing to do.

00:30:44.420 So if you sit around and do nothing, you're going to get nothing.

00:30:47.000 So I guess we'll see what happens.

00:30:49.000 That's why we rolled out a suggestion of grandfathering and grandfathering has now been rejected.

00:30:53.220 They want to go forward with their multi-billion dollar program to take guns from me whilst people get shot in the street with illegal guns.

00:31:02.500 To that point.

00:31:03.380 So they've officially rejected your offer of grandfathering?

00:31:07.220 Well, we got a notification from the prime minister's office.

00:31:10.580 We read your document very carefully.

00:31:12.880 I'm sure you read it very carefully.

00:31:16.300 It was a six page document.

00:31:17.580 So I don't know how much effort that would, would require.

00:31:20.300 They forwarded it to the, to the minister of public safety, which we had sent it to anyway.

00:31:25.360 We sent it to every liberal, liberal MP.

00:31:27.400 We sent it to every liberal staffer that we had information for.

00:31:31.460 Of course, the prime minister and all the, the cabinet ministers that mattered.

00:31:34.620 But they, they know how to do this.

00:31:36.960 They've done grandfathering before.

00:31:38.640 So for them to turn.

00:31:40.340 So in a way it's good and bad, right?

00:31:42.880 For them to turn away from that shows they only want to take firearms from licensed gun owners.

00:31:50.600 They are not concerned about criminals that are shooting houses and drive-by shootings and all the rest of us and kicking doors in.

00:31:57.860 They're not concerned about that.

00:31:59.260 Only licensed gun owners.

00:32:00.720 So I don't want to fall down the rabbit hole, but think about that for a second.

00:32:04.620 They're willing to spend billions of dollars in deficit spending.

00:32:08.480 They're willing to make people like me absolutely furious, like turn their lives upside down.

00:32:15.260 And when they have a viable, a viable alternative, but no, they're going to go forward with it.

00:32:21.440 So there's a lot going on with this.

00:32:23.820 And I don't want to get too inflammatory about it, but I think people should just think about that and, and see where this government is going.

00:32:30.120 We are going to be speaking with a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Association, who I will point out as a group are being brave by speaking up about this.

00:32:39.760 Usually police are hesitant to wade into things like this.

00:32:43.880 They're pretty stoic in my experience.

00:32:45.120 But they're actually speaking up basically to, to summarize what they're saying is, Hey, it's not the sport shooters and the hunters and the law abiding firearms owners that we're having trouble with here on the streets of Toronto.

00:32:57.580 It's the gang bangers with the illegal guns, which are often smuggled across the border.

00:33:03.660 I know that is no surprise to any rational person who's listening right now, but it's really important.

00:33:09.160 I think, uh, to have a respected law enforcement organization like the Toronto Police Association speak up, um, on an issue like this.

00:33:18.140 Are you hearing from other, uh, police officer groups saying, Hey, yeah, we have a gun problem in Canada, but it's not with the duck hunters.

00:33:27.420 Yeah, of course.

00:33:28.000 I mean, even the national police Federation, uh, had put out a statement.

00:33:31.400 And that's the union that represents all of the frontline police officers of the RCMP, which is one, I think one of the biggest police agencies on the planet because a national force, obviously.

00:33:41.920 Right.

00:33:42.040 But even there, you know, these are frontline people.

00:33:44.460 These are the people that have to deal with people wielding firearms in a, in a criminal manner.

00:33:49.740 And even they are like, just leave the, leave the, the licensed gun owners alone.

00:33:54.500 But the government isn't listening to police.

00:33:56.440 They only listen to police when the police, when the police are saying something that works for them.

00:34:01.400 When the police are saying something that, that goes against their politics or their ideological pursuits, then it's like, well, we don't listen to police.

00:34:08.340 So, you know, good for Toronto police for standing up good for the national police Federation and the countless other police forces.

00:34:15.900 Although there are some that have signed agreements with the federal government for money, for funding to roll out this confiscation program.

00:34:25.560 Winnipeg police being one of them.

00:34:26.840 And I think there's one, uh, in Eastern Canada as well.

00:34:29.360 I think the OPP are looking at it too.

00:34:31.540 I guess we'll see, but you got to wonder what's going on with these police forces that are signing on to this.

00:34:38.460 It is, it's pretty monstrous.

00:34:40.420 It's for the record, uh, Alberta premier, Daniel Smith has instructed, uh, saying her province isn't going to be putting taxpayers money into this.

00:34:48.320 So that was, that was nice to hear, uh, Rod, that's all the time we have, uh, where can people find your work?

00:34:55.100 If they want to tune into your show, if they want to jump on board the advocacy train, if they want to speak up for law abiding firearms owners, because you may not own a firearm today, it may not affect you today, but it could be your gas powered car next week.

00:35:08.920 Okay.

00:35:09.480 If we let this go through, Rod, where can people find your work?

00:35:13.280 Well, of course they can go to ccfr.ca.

00:35:16.180 You can also see our podcast, the CCFR radio podcast on YouTube and all the other social media platforms.

00:35:21.920 And we also have a nationally broadcast television show on wild TV going into our fifth season called CCFR radio on the air.

00:35:28.820 So you can find us through, uh, through all that and the socials.

00:35:32.460 Rod, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:35:34.240 I appreciate it.

00:35:35.200 Thanks, Chris.

00:35:35.900 Good luck.

00:35:37.380 Once again, that is Rod Giltaka.

00:35:39.400 He is with the Canadian coalition for firearms rights, the CCFR.

00:35:44.280 You've probably seen their big logos.

00:35:46.340 It's kind of like half of a maple leaf and half of a long gun on the other side.

00:35:50.760 Again, they are an advocacy organization that are fighting for the rights of legal law abiding firearms owners.

00:35:57.240 The Canadian taxpayers federation.

00:35:59.200 We are also in this fight from, of course, the financial angle, because as he pointed out with the debt, we do not have the money to spend on things like this.

00:36:08.980 Okay.

00:36:09.420 We cannot afford to be paying for a huge amount of compensation for the confiscation of firearms.

00:36:16.160 And we also can't be affording how much it is going to cost.

00:36:21.100 Just imagine how much this is going to cost police, police to do this.

00:36:27.500 Imagine them having to go door to door, all of these man hours, door to door to legal law abiding firearms owners saying, knock, knock.

00:36:35.760 Who's there?

00:36:36.320 The police.

00:36:36.940 We're here to confiscate your property.

00:36:38.300 Or even if people are safely coming up to the police station saying, here, I'm here to, you know, allow the state to take away my property.

00:36:47.640 I've got it in the car.

00:36:49.720 You have no idea how many hours and hours and hours of police time that that accrues.

00:36:55.840 Now multiply that by however many thousands and thousands and thousands of people are going to be stuck in that situation.

00:37:02.860 And we have un-money to exactly what Rod was talking about.

00:37:08.160 Okay.

00:37:08.520 This is not trying to combat the actual street level gang crime that people are seeing with handguns, which are illegally brought over often from across the border in the United States.

00:37:22.000 We hear time and time again from police organizations saying, um, yeah, we have a gun problem, but we don't have a gun problem with the normal law abiding firearms owners.

00:37:32.860 Who are out there as sport shooters and hunters.

00:37:36.880 How much of a problem is this?

00:37:39.020 Who is speaking up on this on behalf of the police?

00:37:41.860 Let's find out.

00:37:43.520 Joining me now is Clayton Campbell.

00:37:45.640 He is the president of the Toronto Police Association.

00:37:49.600 Basically what that is, is the union representing the frontline guys and gals in blue on the streets of Toronto who work as police officers.

00:37:58.620 So, sir, Mr.

00:38:00.280 Campbell, thank you so much for joining the show today.

00:38:02.860 I know it really matters when associations like yours speak up on this stuff.

00:38:07.100 Yeah.

00:38:07.300 Thanks.

00:38:07.720 Thanks for having me.

00:38:08.700 And, uh, it's great to, to speak to an audience outside of Ontario.

00:38:12.460 So thanks for the invitation.

00:38:14.140 We really appreciate it.

00:38:15.420 Now, the reason why we invited you on the show is because I saw your statement posted on X and we can probably pull it up here just to kind of summarize.

00:38:25.380 You're basically saying here, if I put on my glasses in the city of Toronto, which is the focal point for a lot of the conversation around gun violence, it will have little to zero impact on firearm crime.

00:38:37.240 We're seeing in the city, it is a small number of gangs or organized crime members involved in firearm violence in the city, and it is not legal gun owners.

00:38:48.400 Now, of course you're referencing there, the so-called buyback program that is being rolled out by the federal government.

00:38:54.700 Um, as a law abiding firearms owner, I would describe it more as a confiscation rollout, uh, but for argument's sake, let's call it the buyback.

00:39:02.860 Why did you feel it was important to speak up against this form of the buyback?

00:39:09.120 Yeah, I mean, since I've taken this role and you mentioned, I'm so fortunate I get to represent about 8,600 members, their police officers, special constables, dispatchers, our IT people all across, uh, the great men and women that keep Toronto safe each and every day.

00:39:26.220 And the firearm, uh, issue in the city of Toronto is really the focal point when it comes across all of, of Canada.

00:39:33.900 And so it's important to talk about the things that actually work and the things that don't work.

00:39:38.340 And what we find in the city of Toronto is that last year, uh, our great, uh, men and women seized about 700 illegal guns in the city.

00:39:47.900 Uh, about 90% of those were sourced, uh, to the United States illegally from the United States.

00:39:53.720 The other 10% are, were probably from the U S but very difficult to source everything.

00:39:58.600 If there's, if you're a gun owner, serial numbers scratched off, uh, things of that sort.

00:40:03.360 So what we found, it is not legal gun owners.

00:40:06.660 It's certainly not hunters or target shooters.

00:40:08.860 They're involved in crimes in the city of Toronto.

00:40:11.480 It's a small number of thugs, criminal, uh, gangs, organized crime that are involved in terrorizing, uh, our great city.

00:40:21.320 And really, we thought that that's a waste of resources to, to spend that amount of money on this gun buyback program.

00:40:27.280 And we can think of many ways it could be spent that would actually keep, uh, the city of Toronto safe.

00:40:33.360 You know, as a firearms owner and I've got, uh, law enforcement in my family, I'm just trying to picture what that would look like.

00:40:40.420 Trying to get Toronto police or any other police, uh, team trying to confiscate the otherwise legal property of law abiding gun owners.

00:40:51.460 Just, you know, the man hours or the, the people hours involved in this of, you know, would you have to go door to door?

00:40:58.620 Uh, it'd be tough, right?

00:41:00.940 I mean, these are a lot of the times they're unrestricted firearms.

00:41:03.760 So we, we don't, we don't know where they are.

00:41:06.820 Uh, and really just a waste of resources in my opinion, uh, in, in the city of Toronto, we've seen luckily an increase of investment in public safety.

00:41:14.940 Well, we've seen, uh, the city of Toronto and our police services board, that's the employer for all of our members start to reinvest, uh, in the city of Toronto and in public safety, uh, after many years of defunding the police.

00:41:27.600 So we're starting to head it in the right direction, but we're not there yet.

00:41:31.460 Uh, we still take a long time to get the radio calls.

00:41:33.820 We're still short staffed in many areas of the service.

00:41:36.500 So it would really be, uh, uh, a ridiculous use of resources.

00:41:41.620 And what we really need to focus on in the city.

00:41:44.000 And I think the federal government does is on the legal, uh, use of firearms by bad guys, not live by any citizens.

00:41:52.460 And I think a lot of the time it's just a, a lack of understanding from people that maybe don't possess firearms.

00:41:58.080 They hear something like we're going to ban guns and someone that doesn't have any interaction with guns would think, okay, then just no one's going to have guns and no one's going to get shot.

00:42:08.480 The reality of it is only the bad guys don't follow the rules.

00:42:11.700 And what you're going to be doing is really punishing law abiding citizens instead of focusing on, uh, the bad guys that are causing the violence in our city.

00:42:19.840 Yeah.

00:42:20.280 It's not typically the criminals who are getting the government bat signal saying, Oh, what I'm doing is illegal.

00:42:25.040 Let me go turn in my legal guns anyway.

00:42:28.220 Well, yeah, exactly.

00:42:29.140 Like there are, they're already in possession of an illegal gun.

00:42:31.840 Uh, I can't think of a time when a legal gun in the city has been used in a crime.

00:42:35.520 I can't think of one.

00:42:36.760 We have hundreds of shootings in this city.

00:42:39.080 Uh, we're a large city.

00:42:40.980 Uh, we just had an eight year old, uh, it was just a horrible story, uh, shot and killed while he was sleeping in his, uh, bed, eight years old.

00:42:49.520 So sad.

00:42:50.200 And I know, uh, when our investigators identify and arrest who was involved in that, this is not some legal gun owner.

00:42:56.360 It certainly isn't somebody target practicing at one o'clock in the morning in a park.

00:43:00.960 Uh, this are going to, these are going to be thugs.

00:43:02.900 These are going to be gang members involved in illegal use of firearms, uh, not legal firearm owners.

00:43:09.060 That was just a terrible story.

00:43:10.480 It's just like your worst nightmare as a parent, right?

00:43:12.540 You put your child to bed.

00:43:13.800 It's hard to even really articulate.

00:43:15.680 Um, to your point, I'm just going to go out on a limb here.

00:43:18.880 Uh, you mentioned the person likely responsible.

00:43:22.740 It's also likely that they're already known to police, right?

00:43:25.960 It's also likely that that person already has a rap sheet.

00:43:30.340 And frankly, you know, as a taxpayer, a lot of people forget we already have a lot of these resources there.

00:43:36.520 Like the laws are supposed to be on the books.

00:43:38.700 The bad guys are supposed to stay away from the good guys.

00:43:41.800 Can you, can you expand on that a little bit?

00:43:44.660 Like what would actually help the frontline police keep people more safe in places like Toronto and not have something like this cumbersome government heavy buyback program against law abiding normal firearms owners?

00:44:00.040 What tools do you guys need?

00:44:02.660 You know, it's pretty basic stuff.

00:44:04.520 It is, we need, uh, changes to the criminal code to keep repeat violent offenders in custody.

00:44:10.380 And we're not talking about people involved in a theft or people involved in making a mistake as a youth or something like that.

00:44:16.860 We're talking about gang members involved in violent carjackings, firearm offenses, home invasions, murders, shootings.

00:44:24.640 They need to be kept in custody and they need to be punished.

00:44:28.400 They need to be kept in jail.

00:44:29.900 And one thing I've said many times to the media is that, uh, I can guarantee you one thing.

00:44:35.040 If that gang member involved in that illegal firearm offense was in custody, they wouldn't have shot that second person.

00:44:41.760 And I think we need to really put victims first.

00:44:44.360 We need to focus on those bad guys.

00:44:46.220 And there needs to be some minor changes, really small changes to the criminal code to keep them in custody.

00:44:51.120 Uh, we lobbied for, I've been at the, uh, the police union for seven years.

00:44:56.220 We lobbied the previous, uh, liberal government every single year.

00:45:00.560 And all we saw was changes that actually made it harder to keep bad guys in custody.

00:45:06.200 Uh, an election's been held.

00:45:07.760 We have a different, could be a different liberal government.

00:45:10.600 So we're going to see what they do as far as bail.

00:45:14.200 Um, but we need some minor changes to the criminal code.

00:45:17.240 We're very lucky in Ontario.

00:45:18.660 We have a super supportive provincial government.

00:45:21.280 A conservative government led by premier Doug Ford, who is very supportive of public safety and our members.

00:45:27.540 And, uh, we're hoping in the fall, we'll see some changes, uh, to the criminal code to keep these, uh, these thugs in jail.

00:45:34.260 I have to stress as a spokesperson for the taxpayers federation, I need to repeat all of this money is being spent anyway.

00:45:41.280 Like the police are being paid, you know, the prisons are being run, all of this stuff is already on the books.

00:45:46.560 It's all at taxpayers' expense, but the cost of the time of the rotating in and out and in and out and in and out and having the same group of people, in some cases, just a small handful of people causing thousands of crimes over and over again is a huge strain on the public purse.

00:46:06.160 And this whole buyback program thing, we've had experts speaking from even universities guesstimating that this is going to cost more than a billion dollars with a B.

00:46:16.100 And again, to your point, you're going to have, you're going to have police officers being tasked, maybe going door to door.

00:46:21.640 And I just have this picture in my head, even if they don't have to go door to door, say you have a law abiding firearms owner show up at the police station, walk into the foyer saying, um, Hey guys, I have something in my trunk.

00:46:34.080 Like the amount of paperwork that that would incur, correct?

00:46:38.100 Yeah. And I mean, uh, I, we, we support, uh, and you look in city of Toronto, our mayor, um, is in it from the NDP party.

00:46:46.840 We have a, uh, federal, uh, liberal party.

00:46:49.760 We have the conservative provincial party.

00:46:51.300 We work with anybody, but we base, uh, our arguments on truth and evidence.

00:46:56.920 And we know that the gun buyback program is going to have essentially zero impact on the crime in Toronto.

00:47:02.560 Uh, there's lots of better ways that we can invest, uh, taxpayers money.

00:47:07.340 Uh, clearly there's a problem at the border when we're seeing 90% of the illegal firearm seized source to the U S clearly a problem there.

00:47:15.840 And we can definitely use the resources to, uh, hunt down these, these criminals, check on those that are in bail.

00:47:23.000 And like you mentioned, it's a revolving door in and out of, of custody.

00:47:27.580 It's the same individuals, and it's very expensive to continue to arrest them.

00:47:31.940 Uh, the legal costs behind it, the court costs behind it.

00:47:35.400 You know, it's simple.

00:47:36.180 If you shoot an illegal firearm in the streets of Toronto, just put them in jail.

00:47:40.640 We don't need that in the city of Toronto and just leave the legal gun owners alone and put the bad guys in jail.

00:47:45.760 That's really our message.

00:47:47.040 Yeah.

00:47:47.940 Lastly, and, uh, I don't want you to have to get too political on this or speculate, but we have heard prime minister, Mark Carney, in his own words, describe himself as a pragmatist.

00:47:57.720 Um, as a long time political analyst, I've been in the game for a long time.

00:48:02.040 It's frankly easy for the new person to say, you know what?

00:48:05.200 That was the previous guy's plan.

00:48:07.080 Uh, that was the previous government.

00:48:08.380 I'm coming in fresh.

00:48:09.600 I'm the pragmatist.

00:48:10.820 I'm going to drop this, this, and this.

00:48:12.920 Are you hopeful that this could be dropped, that they could start focusing more on keeping bad guys in jail, on strengthening the border, reducing the amount of illegal guns coming across the border and flooding places like Toronto?

00:48:26.520 Are you, are you hopeful?

00:48:28.700 Well, we try, right?

00:48:29.740 We took an unprecedented step.

00:48:31.680 We, we did support the federal conservatives in the last election.

00:48:34.620 It was purely around their public safety platform.

00:48:37.700 They've been talking about bail reform, uh, for a long time, and we were very supportive of it.

00:48:43.540 I'll say we at least heard in the throne speech conversation around bail.

00:48:48.940 Um, so my job is to advocate on behalf of the members, uh, that I represent and also really the citizens of Toronto, uh, to make sure they're safe.

00:48:57.720 So we're speaking with conservative MPs and liberal MPs right now.

00:49:01.740 We had a meeting yesterday with a conservative MP talking about some changes to the criminal code.

00:49:05.740 We're going to be meeting with Sean Frazier, the minister of, of justice.

00:49:09.180 Um, so we have to continue to advocate whoever is in power, uh, to try and bring for forward some reforms that are going to keep the citizens safe and, uh, a gun buyback program isn't going to do that.

00:49:21.140 And we can, like I said, think of many areas that we'd rather redirect those funds to actually keep, uh, the citizens of Toronto safe.

00:49:29.240 I know we're out of time and I know that many of our viewers are really happy to hear what you're saying here.

00:49:34.440 Is there any way for them to support what you're saying or to spread that message to make sure that their elected officials hear what you're saying?

00:49:43.220 Yeah.

00:49:43.380 I mean, we live in a democracy, right?

00:49:44.900 So you, we can hold the politicians accountable, let them know, um, really what they're believing in.

00:49:51.100 And I think one of the challenges is a lack of understanding for people that are not involved in firearms, not involved in law enforcement.

00:49:57.860 Um, and when they hear, like I mentioned earlier, uh, we're just going to ban guns.

00:50:03.100 They, they think, okay, then we're going to have no guns.

00:50:05.920 It's, it's really the reality of it is that it's the criminals that are already in possession of illegal guns when they don't have a license.

00:50:13.460 So I think it's really, uh, important to educate everybody, you know, look, most people living in an urban environment in the city of Toronto have never shot a gun or been a hunter or a target shot.

00:50:24.080 So we can't really blame them for not understanding.

00:50:26.560 So I think there needs to be an education piece and that's what I'm trying to do based on evidence and things that are actually going to work in listening to the over 8,000 members that are out there every day, keeping, uh, the citizens of Toronto safe.

00:50:38.920 Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto police association, representing the frontline police officers and peace officers there in Toronto.

00:50:47.620 Thank you so much for your time today.

00:50:49.960 You're welcome.

00:50:50.440 Thanks again for having me.

00:50:51.820 You bet.

00:50:53.320 Once again, you just heard it from him.

00:50:55.020 That was a really important interview.

00:50:56.820 So I have some homework for folks.

00:50:58.840 Can you please share this story?

00:51:00.960 Share this video.

00:51:02.500 It's not often.

00:51:03.760 Okay.

00:51:04.160 Speaking from experience as a long time court reporter.

00:51:06.880 It's not often that you hear representatives of the police speak up on something like this because they're just there to do their job.

00:51:15.460 They're there to follow their orders.

00:51:17.200 They're there to enforce the law.

00:51:19.040 It takes a lot for them to say, you know what?

00:51:21.860 This is really not working here, folks.

00:51:24.040 We need to make some changes here.

00:51:25.720 And you just heard directly from a spokesperson who represents, you know, a huge number of police officers on Canada's, the streets of Canada's biggest city.

00:51:36.460 That we do have a gun problem in Canada, but it is illegal guns coming from the United States.

00:51:44.140 And that if we're going to spend taxpayers' money fixing what is actually the gun problem, it shouldn't be going after confiscating normal law-abiding firearms owners' property.

00:51:54.380 We should direct those resources into actual street-level crime prevention and thickening that border to make sure that guns like these are not coming into the country in the first place.

00:52:06.740 So it's really important for you right now to head over to Juno News, become a subscriber if you're not one already, and most importantly, share this story.

00:52:17.780 Send this video to your MP, to your MLA, to your family and friends.

00:52:23.720 Make sure they know that the police themselves are saying this current gun confiscation thing is not going to work.

00:52:32.100 Thank you so much for watching.

00:52:36.740 Thank you.

Juno News - August 20, 2025

Carney doubles down on Trudeau-era gun grab

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