The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - July 22, 2026


The Liberal Gun Confiscation Program： It’s Targeting the Wrong People

Hosted by
Jamie Schmal
Mentioned
Pierre Poilievre Tracy Wilson Aaron Cregan Bob Zimmer Jamie Schmael Rod Giltaka Olivia Chow Myron Demke Trudeau Carney
Canada’s Immigration System： Once the Gold Standard Bill C-240： Recovery from Addiction is Possible

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

186.37

Word count

2,787

Sentence count

141

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On today's show, we are talking about the Liberals' firearms confiscation program, which has now been delayed for a year. To get the details, we bring on the one and only Bob Zimmer, the member of Parliament for Prince George, Peace River, Northern Rockies.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
00:00:07.880 your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Caworthal Lakes, with new
00:00:11.420 content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment,
00:00:15.960 subscribe, and share this program. On today's show, we are talking about the Liberals'
00:00:20.540 firearms confiscation program. It's now delayed about a year. So to get the details, we bring
00:00:26.480 on the one and only bob zimmer the member of parliament for prince george peace river northern
00:00:31.380 rockies thanks for coming on the show thank you jamie good to be here again and co-chair of the
00:00:35.900 all parliament parliament outdoor caucus outdoor caucus so appreciate the work on on that you do
00:00:42.440 but it's because of that expertise and your advocacy for legal and responsible firearms
00:00:48.260 owners that we bring you on the show today to talk about a developing situation here where the
00:00:54.560 government seems to be fumbling along. So the amnesty program, it's been delayed. A bit of a
00:00:59.340 breather here. Yeah. So basically what's happened, it's based on a court case by the CCFR. Many of
00:01:05.460 the viewers out there will recognize Rod Giltacker or Tracy Wilson, who are a big part of that
00:01:10.480 organization. But they have filed a court case, an appeal of that decision. And now the court,
00:01:17.760 the Supreme Court has decided to hear their case. So the way the wording is, is that it's going to
00:01:24.260 be, the amnesty is going to be extended until sometime in 2027. So what that looks like,
00:01:30.280 the court case has to be heard first. So we don't know how long that will take.
00:01:33.840 And then a decision 90 days following that Supreme Court decision. So it gives the government quite a
00:01:39.160 bit more time. I personally think it's a bad issue for the prime minister and he's just trying to
00:01:43.740 punt this thing down the road, but we'll see. So let's rewind the clock a bit for if you're just
00:01:48.300 an individual joining us today yes you will know that the government decided that they wanted to
00:01:54.620 let's give them benefit of the doubt wanted the shootings in some of our major centers to stop
00:02:00.260 let's say that's their i don't know if that's it but so they decided what can we do well let's start
00:02:06.840 to look at all the firearms that are out there possible and make a list yeah and you know say
00:02:15.600 whatever one looks the most scary seems to be included on the list that they're going to take
00:02:19.560 away. And they started moving forward with that. They started a program out in the East Coast that
00:02:25.000 got like, what, 22 firearms? Like for millions and millions of dollars. And they're trying to
00:02:31.260 expand this throughout the country. But you fill us in here. You know more about this than I do.
00:02:35.620 Yeah. Well, that's basically summarizes it well. It said, hey, we're going to take scary guns off
00:02:40.420 the streets, because as most viewers know, crime is on the increase. It's been on the increase
00:02:45.720 since 2016, and it's gotten to be a terrible situation in many of our communities, not just
00:02:51.880 urban, not sort of Toronto and Vancouver and those places alone. It's reached into rural Canada and
00:02:57.380 to our communities as well. So the government's response is, we're going to take away law-abiding
00:03:01.660 firearms owners' firearms. And so we say that's the wrong-headed approach, because we know that
00:03:07.420 the law-abiding firearms owners, people that have firearms licenses in Canada, there's over 2 million
00:03:11.420 of them, dutifully follow the law and that ownership of those firearms. And we don't think
00:03:18.000 they should be penalized just because they're firearms owners. So I think it's more about
00:03:22.100 government and sort of left-leaning governments wanting to have gun control implemented. So,
00:03:26.940 and it's a matter of time before they have all the firearms in their possession and not in law-abiding
00:03:32.900 firearms owners' possession. So, I think that's the game because, again, if they really wanted
00:03:37.980 to crack down on the crime on our streets and the shootings that are really happening,
00:03:42.780 they would target illegal guns coming in across the border being used by criminals.
00:03:47.240 So, we just, and we're just not seeing them do that.
00:03:50.060 No, it seems that it's all about control too. The government wants this. The government will
00:03:55.840 slam its hand down on the table and they'll start to affect law-abiding firearms owners.
00:04:02.400 Let's queue up cut one. We call it confiscation for a reason because you and I did not purchase
00:04:09.140 our firearms from government, right? So you can't just say, the government can't say I'm buying it
00:04:14.000 back. Well, I didn't buy it from you in the first place here, but it could go to the next step too.
00:04:19.660 And Tracy Wilson will talk about that. Play cut one. It's not really just about guns. It's about 0.82
00:04:24.300 property rights. It's about the question that you and I have beat back and forth a few times now.
00:04:29.040 Can the government step into your life despite you doing nothing to deserve it and take your legally acquired property from you by force?
00:04:37.820 I need to know that. And I think you need to know that, too.
00:04:40.280 I think that that's a good question to ask because it asks what else is next, right?
00:04:45.580 If the government can wake up one day and decide something that you own is is no longer legal, what else can they keep taking from you?
00:04:54.520 yeah and that's it's a great question and just because they label it something that
00:04:58.600 is scary or whatever uh doesn't you know isn't the case like um you know we said so many times
00:05:04.840 that the licensed firearms owner in canada of which there's two million uh are law-abiding
00:05:10.360 citizens right and there's the stat that i've said in in previous times is that so of the license
00:05:17.480 holders that we have in the country uh how many are even accused of homicide per hundred thousand
00:05:22.760 right? And it's only, it's less than one. They're even accused of homicide. And then compare that
00:05:27.780 to the rest of the country who aren't licensed firearms owners or don't have a firearms license.
00:05:33.500 The average per 100,000 that actually kill somebody or commit homicide are two per 100,000.
00:05:39.240 So here they are, the government of Canada, you know, targeting some of the most law-abiding
00:05:43.760 citizens that we have in the country, some of the most safest citizens that we have in the country.
00:05:48.140 I mean, it's just it's wrongheaded. And again, our whole, you know, our proposal.
00:05:53.380 And I think, again, what Pierre had said last election, that argument is winning the day because in places like Toronto or Vancouver, they see what we're saying is true.
00:06:02.920 Because, you know, whether it's Trudeau or Carney now, they've been in government for 11 years and it's just gotten worse and worse and worse, despite all their gun control legislation.
00:06:11.800 And we just know because it's been wrongly focused, it's spending millions of dollars in places where it doesn't work.
00:06:17.360 and um and keeping money from things that do work yes how about fun things that are actually going
00:06:23.440 to you know tighten up our borders and more police dealing with illegal uh firearms coming across the
00:06:29.220 border criminals committing crimes and like you said lock these guys up keep them behind bars
00:06:34.380 instead we're seeing you know the recidivism they're getting locked up for just hours and
00:06:40.060 then they're released back on the streets to keep on committing crimes so that has to change and if
00:06:44.260 they ever do make it to the part where they're convicted it's a lesser sentence it's the least
00:06:48.680 sentence possible right so like how frustrating is that for police and that's what we saw with
00:06:53.360 bill c21 this is the legislation we're talking about it's kind of based around that but c22
00:06:57.960 was two days later uh from a previous liberal government that actually lessened consequences
00:07:02.740 for firearms or related crimes yeah and so you know the one thing that liberals do great is they
00:07:08.540 they talk in front of a camera and say a bunch of stuff but they don't really uh you know do what
00:07:13.160 they lead people to believe that they're going to do so uh you know we see the right way to tackle
00:07:17.880 this and it's to really lock up criminals and uh leave law-abiding firearms owners alone all right
00:07:22.640 let's trip cut to we have a gentleman here from the toronto police association kind of explaining
00:07:30.480 if you want the crime to go down actually address it to your point just a second ago play cut to
00:07:36.440 the bomb line the city of toronto is the the gun buyback program would not have any impact on the
00:07:42.860 violence we're seeing in the city. The violence we're seeing in relation to firearm offenses
00:07:47.720 is essentially exclusively to a small number of gang members, thugs using illegal firearms.
00:07:55.060 Most of the time they come across the border, but 90% of the 700 illegal firearms we seized
00:08:00.980 last year came across the border. And most of the time people on bail are prohibited from using a
00:08:07.220 firearm. And I can say in the city of Toronto, it's a very challenging thing when it comes to
00:08:12.540 funding public safety. And I'm sure if you asked the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, or Chief Myron
00:08:18.820 Demke of the Toronto Police Services, how they could use even a fraction of the $750 million,
00:08:24.540 we'd find a lot of better ways to spend that money to actually improve public safety in our
00:08:29.780 great city. Yeah, that doesn't make sense, right? Like, let's actually go after the real problem.
00:08:35.760 And for some reason, control, just to show the big flex of government, I don't know, maybe it's easy, right?
00:08:45.700 Maybe it's easy for them because they know law-abiding firearms owners are going to turn over it.
00:08:49.720 Well, most of them will do what the law says, right?
00:08:52.240 Well, yeah, and I think it looks like they're busy doing something instead of actually really doing something.
00:08:55.920 You even remember from I-9 Committee, Indigenous Northern Affairs Committee, there were on how many police chiefs did we hear on First Nations communities or First Nations community chiefs that said that, look, we don't want to use already sparse resources.
00:09:11.960 We already are lacking in officers and there's been numbers where they're down by 25%.
00:09:16.640 They don't want to use those sparse officers to go collect somebody's guns.
00:09:20.800 It's a law-abiding citizen, whether it be on reserve or not on reserve, right?
00:09:24.660 So they see that it's wrongheaded, and so many, thankfully, even the Premier of Ontario has said it's wrongheaded, and we agree.
00:09:32.540 Yeah, it's kind of strange, too.
00:09:35.140 There are people on a certain spectrum of the political aisle here that will demonize police every chance they get,
00:09:41.920 but then will want them to help them go door-to-door for law-abiding firearms owners.
00:09:47.000 It's unbelievable.
00:09:48.060 Cut three.
00:09:48.860 Let's cue it up here.
00:09:50.620 More to your point regarding the resources on reserve. 0.95
00:09:54.660 More resources need to go to Indigenous policing, play type three. 0.99
00:09:58.700 Authorities in New Hampshire say they have cracked an international gun smuggling operation
00:10:03.300 that trafficked illegal weapons through First Nations land,
00:10:07.100 citing the Akwesasne Reservation that straddles New York, Ontario and Quebec.
00:10:12.120 Tribal police were also at this news conference.
00:10:15.500 New Hampshire's district attorney, Aaron Cregan, said that 13 people have been charged
00:10:20.020 and five have pleaded guilty.
00:10:22.300 Cregan said they traced some of those firearms back to the scenes of violent crimes in Canada.
00:10:28.360 Now, last Friday, three men, including two Canadians, appeared in a New York court,
00:10:33.180 and they were charged with smuggling after police found a suitcase packed with dozens of rifles and stolen weapons.
00:10:39.900 It has long been a problem, and statistics show the majority of crime-related guns coming into Canada are from the U.S.
00:10:47.560 Yeah, something we knew from the United States.
00:10:49.960 But even to your point earlier, six years ago, six or so years ago, the government, the liberal government, same government, committed to making indigenous policing an essential service.
00:11:02.340 They have yet to do that.
00:11:03.580 And so now we have indigenous police chiefs saying we need more resources.
00:11:07.760 Like the government's been shortchanging us.
00:11:09.860 If you want us to do the job, you know, help us out here.
00:11:12.840 And they turn their back again to another opportunity that could actually solve crime and get firearms off the street.
00:11:18.880 And I think we heard that even in these communities.
00:11:21.140 They're actually saying we don't have enough resources.
00:11:23.480 Give us more resources so we can tackle this problem.
00:11:26.300 It would seem like this is the biggest hole in the bucket.
00:11:28.640 You think the government would want to plug the biggest hole that they know exists, right?
00:11:32.120 They all know that this is where they're coming across.
00:11:34.800 But it's just easier, even though to target law-abiding firearms owners.
00:11:39.040 To me, it's silly because really what it comes down to, to me, is that mother of two in Toronto or Vancouver,
00:11:45.620 she's afraid to take her kids downtown because the kids might get harmed by by one of these stray
00:11:51.860 bullets or or get caught in a crossfire and you know how about we deal with what the real problem
00:11:57.780 is we know what is it's staring us right in the face yet again government keeps going after law
00:12:03.000 abutting farm centers like you and I so we'll keep fighting the fight and we appreciate groups like
00:12:08.300 CCFR, CSSA, and others who are fighting on our behalf every day.
00:12:14.660 A bit of an unknown, and you probably know this, but I learned about this during the pandemic
00:12:19.720 because it closed. Union Station in downtown Toronto once had a shooting range, a firing range,
00:12:25.320 and it was a range that allowed handguns. And how many in those 80 or so years that the
00:12:33.020 the range wasn't open what was an operation did a shooting occur right probably not zero
00:12:39.280 zero and nobody would know that people are walking in and out and and this is what's going on
00:12:46.240 because they're responsible and if you have a restricted license you're on parole your name
00:12:50.340 is checked in the database every single day yeah you're on parole so you're going to do everything
00:12:55.780 possible to follow the law and that's what we want and the other fact that pointed out like
00:13:00.840 your area my area we we do have a lot of hunters and sports shooters and and and the like and and
00:13:08.600 i would say per capita our rates of firearms ownership is quite high yeah if the government
00:13:14.520 is alleging that law abiding firearms owners other problem your area my area would be just a crime
00:13:21.000 ridden right you know just a place that's on fire right we're not right we're not right so let's
00:13:28.620 address the problem. Let's go after the criminals. Let's give police the resources to do their job.
00:13:33.140 Absolutely. Well, I think that's what they want to do. I think, sadly, some of the police officers
00:13:38.920 are caught in the middle with this, and they're often blamed for some things that occur. But,
00:13:43.500 you know, when we see that criminals, you know, and I've told so many stories about the in Prince
00:13:49.140 George or wherever, these people are being arrested. And within hours, they're back out
00:13:53.980 on the streets recommitting offenses and then re-arrested again that same night. And there's
00:13:59.900 so many examples of that that, you know, to me, it just seems obvious that they need to focus on
00:14:05.160 that. But for some reason, they keep focusing on us instead. So again, we'll keep fighting the
00:14:10.700 fight. And thank you for standing up for law-abiding firearm owners in Canada. And I know
00:14:15.280 us as a party and Pierre Polyev will continue to do that. It's the right thing to do. And again,
00:14:21.140 And property brings a whole other conversation into it, as Tracer brings up.
00:14:26.440 But whatever angle you come at it with, it's wrongheaded the way the government's approaching firearms ownership in Canada.
00:14:34.040 Yeah, I agree.
00:14:34.660 Bob Zimmer, thank you very much for your time.
00:14:36.280 Really appreciate it.
00:14:37.120 Thanks for having me.
00:14:37.640 Bob Zimmer, Member of Parliament for Prince George Peace River, Northern Rockies.
00:14:42.240 Appreciate his time.
00:14:43.240 Appreciate yours as well.
00:14:44.540 Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program.
00:14:47.720 We'll have new content for you every single Tuesday, even throughout the summer.
00:14:51.140 1 30 p.m eastern time so until next week remember low taxes less government more freedom that's the blueprint