Juno News - Gun owners are safe for another six weeks

00:00:00.000 Canadian hunters are safe for at least six more weeks. At least that's what one conservative MP

00:00:04.600 told me when the House of Commons rose for Christmas break this week, pausing the Public

00:00:08.660 Safety Committee study on Bill C-21. Now, we have talked about this a couple times. I'm sure you

00:00:13.900 guys are somewhat familiar with the details by now. During clause by clause consideration of Bill

00:00:18.160 C-21, a couple of weeks ago, the Liberals introduced an amendment to ban hundreds more

00:00:22.660 models of semi-automatic shotguns and rifles, including those primarily used by hunters,

00:00:27.360 farmers, and sport shooters. Considering the outcry over the legislation, a Bloc Quebecois MP on the

00:00:32.660 committee put forward a motion on Tuesday, suggesting that the committee hear from more

00:00:36.760 witnesses about the specific amendment. The Bloc Quebecois MP, Christina Michaud, suggested two more

00:00:42.080 meetings to hear from witnesses. But it's safe to say that conservative public safety critic Raquel

00:00:46.440 Dancho was less than impressed by this suggestion. Take listen to her remarks now. What's really

00:00:51.360 frustrating for us as conservatives is this work should have been done by the Liberal government

00:00:55.040 and their vast resources. But now the committee, as you know, Mr. Chair, this is now our fourth week

00:00:59.840 talking about this. We're going to have to go back, sort of flip-flop through this backwards in this

00:01:04.840 committee process, because they didn't do their homework. And now they're sort of turning it around

00:01:09.600 and saying, well, okay, we'll do it in two meetings. So we have two meetings. We barely scratched the surface

00:01:14.520 of the people that are impacted by this ban. Again, the largest hunting rifle ban in Canadian history here.

00:01:19.600 We barely scratched the surface. For people who don't know, two meetings, as you know, Mr. Chair,

00:01:23.800 is about 12 witnesses. 12 witnesses. 12 witnesses. I don't think that that's nearly enough.

00:01:30.440 So we just feel that any suggestion that two meetings is adequate is, I'm going to say it,

00:01:37.660 I do feel that it's offensive to the people that are going to be impacted by this. It does not give

00:01:41.580 them the dignity of having a seat at the table. Because the House is now risen for Christmas break,

00:01:45.760 the committee won't get back to this amendment for another six weeks. So you guys are safe with

00:01:49.940 your guns for a little while longer, at least.

Juno News - December 19, 2022