Western Standard - December 02, 2022


Canada handgun legislation & Bill C21


Episode Stats

Length

17 minutes

Words per Minute

175.17319

Word Count

3,026

Sentence Count

243

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

Tony and Corey join me to talk about the Supreme Court challenge to Bill C-21, and why they think the government is trying to take our guns and make them worth zero. We also talk about why the government should be compensated for the value of our guns.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey there, Tony. It's good to see you back on the show again. It's been a while. As usual,
00:00:04.140 it's under bad circumstances sometimes. Well, unfortunately, Corey, but that seems to happen
00:00:09.560 to us a lot these days. It's just something to do with those guys in Ottawa, I think.
00:00:14.840 I think it does. You might have caught part of my rant. I'm not typically very happy with them
00:00:19.280 anyways. But I mean, you guys are national and rightly so, because I mean, there are firearm
00:00:25.480 owners who are having their rights stepped on from coast to coast in Canada. This isn't just
00:00:30.200 a Western issue. This is nationwide. I guess we'll start with it because I mean, the development of
00:00:35.920 C-21 is a little newer. But first of all, I'd like to talk about you guys have launched a challenge
00:00:40.920 when it comes to that handgun freeze, basically. Yeah, actually, the challenge is against not just
00:00:47.720 the handgun freeze. The challenge is against all of C-21, because quite frankly, it wasn't written
00:00:53.520 properly. There's a bunch of things that are black letter law in the writing of legislation.
00:00:59.100 You have to do A and B in order to get C, and they have completely messed it up. We think we have
00:01:06.440 decent grounds to declare the legislation null and void, and we're going to pursue that on a technical
00:01:13.220 basis. But also, one of the things they did in there with the handgun legislation was the first
00:01:20.040 thing they did was they reduced our handguns to a value of zero. And they did this because you can't
00:01:25.480 transfer them in any way, shape, or form. So by making them untransferable, they now have a value
00:01:32.700 of exactly zero. And when you pass away, the handguns obviously go to your next of kin, except this time
00:01:42.240 they don't. They go to the federal government, and they don't have to pay compensation because the
00:01:48.760 value is zero. Now, this is absolutely wrong, because they were the ones who made the value zero.
00:01:54.600 And in doing so, they trampled all over existing Canadian legislation in this. And that's why we
00:02:01.000 launched the challenge, because these things are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, we're
00:02:07.640 looking right now, 1.1 million handguns in Canada, give an average price of about $1,500, and do the math on
00:02:15.420 that one. And you're quickly over a billion. And this is unconscionable that you can take,
00:02:23.180 you know, $1.5 billion of generational wealth that belongs to the citizens of Canada, and make it
00:02:30.600 disappear by going, poof, that's ridiculous. Who the hell thought that up?
00:02:36.540 And firearms, I mean, they're property, they're an investment. I mean, some of them were handed down
00:02:41.460 from people prior to us, some of us saved our money, and we purchased them. I mean, the property
00:02:46.760 right aspect alone, I mean, never mind all the rest of whether this is effective legislation or
00:02:50.680 making anybody safer or any of that. It's our property. And the government, as you said, I mean,
00:02:55.760 it's a roundabout way to, I talked earlier, and I feel it's a theft, even if they compensate you for
00:03:00.460 it. But their way of, okay, we're just going to turn the value to zero. Because as you said, if you can't
00:03:04.120 transfer or sell something, it is de facto zero, then they'll take it for nothing. It's beyond the
00:03:11.240 pale. Well, sure. And they're stuck in between a rock and a hard place, because there's legislation
00:03:17.880 that's gone through the Supreme Court years and years ago, that say that if they're going to take
00:03:23.640 your property, they got to compensate you fair market value for it. Well, these son of a bitches
00:03:29.340 just reduced fair market value to nothing. Like, this is insanity. And we don't think this will
00:03:36.560 withstand a court test. Courts tend to be pretty practical for the most part.
00:03:41.160 Well, I certainly hope not. I mean, I guess this is something we want to get this resolved as fast
00:03:46.980 as possible. But it's not the same as an immediate illegalization or seizure. So people still can hang
00:03:53.380 on to their property until hopefully when this court challenge goes through and hopefully wins. What
00:03:57.560 sort of timeline are you looking at with that? Well, you're looking for the challenge probably
00:04:03.120 a year and a half anyway. I mean, there's all kinds of things that could happen. There's many,
00:04:08.760 many, many chess pieces moving politically right now on this. Just yesterday, Saskatchewan said they
00:04:16.540 aren't going to play and they're not going to let the citizens of Saskatchewan play either. So they're
00:04:23.500 not even going to do anything with this thinking legislation. And we're expecting our friends in
00:04:28.980 Alberta will do the same, possibly even New Brunswick, Yukon and Manitoba. We're still working
00:04:35.120 on Ontario. And we still get a no comment out of the Ontario government. They're still not
00:04:40.660 willing to stick their neck out far enough to say that we should be spending the billions of dollars
00:04:46.920 it will cost to collect all these firearms and actually spend it on crime control.
00:04:53.200 Well, yeah, I mean, there's again, so many levels. I mean, the amount of money being wasted on every
00:04:58.540 level and kind of move on to the other firearms they're going after too. And we're talking about
00:05:02.640 billions of dollars. I remember making this case a long time ago with the failed registry when they
00:05:06.940 spent $2 billion on that, that pointless endeavor. How many crimes would have prevented perhaps if they'd put
00:05:14.500 $2 billion into substance abuse treatment or mental health treatment or support, things like that?
00:05:20.700 That's how you prevent crime. That's how you make people safer. Instead, they flushed it away on a
00:05:25.280 $2 billion bureaucracy that served nobody. That's right. And when questioned under oath, the
00:05:30.920 commissioner of the RCMP when asked, how many crimes has this solved? They said none that they were aware
00:05:38.960 of. I mean, it's just, it's just one of these ultra left woke ideological things. That's a lot like
00:05:48.660 unicorns and tooth fairies and stuff like that. And, and they think that because they, they put a
00:05:55.340 regulation on it, criminals will stop misbehaving. I mean, it, it, it's just wishful thinking on, on every
00:06:02.480 part. And you, you know, you can base your policies on, on fairy dust and unicorn snot, but quite
00:06:08.180 honestly, it's not going to go anywhere. Right. And Canadians are buying into this. This is the part
00:06:14.820 that's so absolutely amazing. The Canadians are buying into this nonsense. And we have to inform.
00:06:22.260 I mean, it's just the reality is okay. The firearms owners are now a minority within the country,
00:06:27.680 but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't have their abilities in that, but it does mean that
00:06:31.720 the majority doesn't necessarily understand what comes with responsible ownership or the mindset
00:06:36.320 again, with the vast, vast majority of people never want to hurt a fly. That's not why they
00:06:41.160 got any firearms. Just actually one of my commenters also pointing out, you might've seen that video
00:06:46.500 in a Calgary LRT station. They were shooting each other with a flare gun. Like criminals will find ways
00:06:51.980 to get dangerous no matter what laws you put in place against the law abiding.
00:06:57.080 Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, democracy is not based on the rights of the majority.
00:07:03.260 Democracies are based upon the rights of the minorities. And, and quite frankly, we, we expect
00:07:09.280 our governments to protect the rights of minorities. And if we're minority, that just means we need
00:07:15.140 even more protection than we did before. Absolutely. And I wrote about it last week as well, because
00:07:20.520 I've always felt it's been the liberal agenda since Cretchen's days and into today. They want to disarm.
00:07:25.640 They want to take every firearm out of every Canadian's hands. And this is just the new move
00:07:31.800 on to it. So rather than the registry route, now they're incrementally doing it through things like
00:07:36.280 C-21 and they're taking advantage of tragedies. I mean, the timing's no mistake. Every time they make
00:07:40.500 another grab is just after another tragedy.
00:07:42.860 Yeah, that's right. So this time they're going after they've expanded it in committee. So this
00:07:49.580 won't even get discussed in parliament. Basically hunting rifles.
00:07:54.860 Right. And, and, you know, when you, when you look back at this, you're absolutely right. The goal is to
00:08:01.580 completely disarm Canadian society. But if the people that they're disarming aren't the ones that are
00:08:07.740 committing the crimes and they're not, and that all these people produces no positive effect
00:08:16.220 on criminal activity in the country in any way, shape or form, and it doesn't,
00:08:21.180 you have to ask yourself the big question. Why are they spending so much time and money to do this?
00:08:27.260 Why do they need the public of Canada so effectively helpless?
00:08:33.900 It's, it's, it's ideological. And, and, uh, I do believe, I mean, I, I, you know,
00:08:39.500 an authoritarian is always nervous if the population is able to fight back if they push things too far.
00:08:45.260 Right. Yeah. But what do you think they're going to do that's so bad
00:08:50.700 that the Canadian people would rise up against them? I mean, this just, if you think about this,
00:08:55.660 they're doing this for a reason. They're spending billions of dollars over decades to do this.
00:09:01.900 And I don't think it's just because they've been influenced by a Hollywood movie. There's more to
00:09:06.300 it than this. And they're not telling us what it is. No. And they're failing. I mean, the public,
00:09:11.500 the firearm owners, we don't trust them. They, they can, uh, you know, re-categorize and legalize
00:09:17.660 whatever they like. I suspect, and I won't counsel people to commit crimes, but a whole lot of people
00:09:22.620 are not going to turn in their firearms. What it will do is turn those people into criminals,
00:09:27.500 as far as the law is concerned. I mean, in reality, they're not harming anybody,
00:09:31.660 but I, I can't see wide compliance with this. Not when it comes down to the hunting rifles now.
00:09:37.340 No. And, and, you know, some, some of the firearms they've taken are, are put on the list. Incredibly
00:09:43.420 common firearms. Absolutely. So common. You wouldn't believe it. And, and some of them,
00:09:48.940 there's like half a million examples of one type of firearm and are all non-restricted. So how do you
00:09:55.500 know where they are? Well, the answer is you don't. And, you know, when you're talking about
00:09:59.900 compliance, well, you know, my office is sort of like a hub of what's happening with compliance.
00:10:07.340 I haven't had a single person yet that say, oh yeah, I'm going to march right down there and give
00:10:11.500 them my guns. And, you know, the, this compensation thing, this is wishful thinking. Like we, we put
00:10:17.580 compensation into our lawsuit, not because we expect the government to give us money,
00:10:23.580 but how else do we restore the value of the guns that they've devaluated? If there's a compensatable
00:10:30.860 amount, when, when you perish, at least they're worth something at this point in time. And I think
00:10:37.820 that the average Canadians here would stand straight up if they honestly found out how much money we're
00:10:44.140 really talking about. With all the long guns that they've got now added into this and the handguns,
00:10:50.460 we're looking at about a third of the guns in the entire country. And my guess, eight to ten billion
00:10:56.860 dollars. Billion with a B.
00:10:59.820 That's just the bio. That's not the administration figuring out how to get these things, how to
00:11:04.620 process, how to deal with it. I mean, and that's something to keep reminding Canadians of. Even if you
00:11:10.140 don't have the firearms, even if you don't care if it's taken away from your neighbor. Okay. But are
00:11:13.820 you ready to reach into your own pocket to pay for it? Because this is going to cost you.
00:11:18.220 Well, at this point, I guess it's reaching into your great grandchildren's pocket, isn't it?
00:11:22.300 Yeah, there is. That's kind of a different discussion altogether. And I mean, I wonder about
00:11:28.380 some of the other hiccups. I mean, this is kind of out of the blue, but have you ever been in
00:11:32.220 communication with some of the First Nations communities? Like somebody had pointed out that
00:11:35.340 apparently a lot of First Nations people use SKSs for hunting. I mean, it's a low priced,
00:11:41.980 you know, very common actually carbine that people use. It's utilitarian. And that's a tool for their
00:11:49.020 livelihood and survival on those isolated communities. You're going to be taking away
00:11:53.820 something very important to them. And I don't think the government's thinking that through on the
00:11:57.260 problem they'll have going after those. No, they aren't. And I don't even think they care.
00:12:02.540 They're, you know, that they'll make a policy where they're not going to prosecute it in certain
00:12:07.340 spots and on other places they will, but mostly it'll be a charge laid as opportunity presents
00:12:14.620 itself to lay the charge. The thing with the SKSs, like I say, half a million of them in Canada right now,
00:12:21.660 online restricted. I can tell you, honestly, both my kids got their first deer with an SKS.
00:12:28.780 These things are absolutely perfectly acceptable hunting firearms. They work. They always work.
00:12:36.540 They're inexpensive and very, very common. On First Nations, the first thing they banned were
00:12:43.740 the Ruger minis, the series of mini rifles. And those minis were not banned in the first round of
00:12:51.020 this gun control legislation. And the reason they weren't banned back then, I was around back then
00:12:55.980 working on the legislation. The reason was, was because they were so ubiquitous within the first
00:13:01.260 nations and they didn't want to get the first nations all riled up at them. And so they left
00:13:07.340 the minis off the list, even though that was the time when it was still hot and fresh from the Montreal
00:13:12.300 massacre. But now they've gone ahead, banned all the minis and banned all the SKSs. And quite frankly,
00:13:20.220 I think they've got a tiger by the tail on this one. I don't think compliance will be anything.
00:13:26.620 No, I mean, provinces won't cooperate. Our Chief Firearms Officer in Alberta, she's fantastic,
00:13:32.780 actually. She's quite outspoken. She's not going to be helping along with this in Saskatchewan and
00:13:37.500 certain other provinces. They don't want to take on this headache. They got better things to do.
00:13:42.220 Well, I mean, all we can do though, we got to keep fighting back or we will lose. I guess,
00:13:45.980 kind of before I let you go, I really appreciate the work you guys are always doing,
00:13:48.780 keeping people up to date. I like reminding people to the CSSA has, you do stuff other than
00:13:52.860 lobbying. I mean, you've got all kinds of resources there that a member has as a firearm,
00:13:56.780 whether it's videos for say firearm operation or different sports or things like that.
00:14:02.940 Your organization where I let you go. And the best insurance products for firearms owners
00:14:08.940 anywhere in the country. We also ensure firearms and hunter safety instructors all over the country.
00:14:15.420 And we have some really fantastic products. We're also offering the only, you know, first aid
00:14:22.380 courses that are developed specifically for shooting ranges. Lots of stuff. There's so many things I
00:14:29.020 can't take all this time to say them all, but we're always working hard for our members.
00:14:33.580 Right. And I just really appreciate the work you do. And again, I just like to remind everybody,
00:14:37.420 it's more than just lobbying. I mean, if you're a firearm owner, that's a resource. As you said,
00:14:41.180 everything from the insurance to safe firearm use. And yeah, like anything you take seriously,
00:14:46.220 you should join an association of others and then work together. Because if we don't stand up for
00:14:49.740 ourselves together, we're done for. Well, our track record speaks for itself. In 62 years of existence,
00:14:56.460 we have had exactly zero fatalities on our shooting ranges. Yeah. Excellent.
00:15:01.340 I bet you the police can't say that. You can't have a ski hill claim that. No, exactly. Exactly.
00:15:09.580 Yeah. So we're very, very safe. It reflects in our insurance rates. And you know, it's a wonderful
00:15:16.060 pastime for those people who've never tried it. They really should get out there and try it. They
00:15:20.540 fall in love with it right away. Great. Well, thank you very much for joining us today,
00:15:24.860 Tony. And I know you got a lot to do. We'll, we'll be keeping an eye on it and we'll hopefully win
00:15:29.500 this in the long run. Thank you, Corey. Great. Thanks.
00:15:35.980 Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long,
00:15:41.820 long ago. These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms
00:15:47.740 regulations and legislation in Canada. And more importantly, educating the public about how we
00:15:53.340 keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people to become a member. It's absolutely worth every penny.
00:15:59.500 The current Lethbridge feed grain prices are as follows. Cash barley remains at $4.50.
00:16:05.980 Feed wheat is steady at $4.64 and corn is unchanged at $4.57 per tonne. In the milling wheat markets,
00:16:12.940 March Minneapolis futures dipped 11 and a half cents at $9.26 with local hard red spring bid for January
00:16:19.100 movement at $11.75 per bushel delivered. Over to the oil seeds, nearby canola futures spiked $24.70
00:16:25.980 cents at $839.50 per tonne with delivered values for December movement at $18.81 per bushel.
00:16:33.900 In the pulse markets, nearby red lentils are sideways at $0.33 a pound and yellow peas are at $12.75 per
00:16:40.300 bushel. And in the cattle markets, February live cattle climbed $0.62 and a half cents at $1.56.05 per
00:16:46.460 hundredweight. For more information on pricing and picked up on-farm options, give me a call at 403-394-1711.
00:16:56.140 I'm Vera Buziak at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.
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