‘Ridiculous Program’： Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery Torches Ottawa’s Gun Confiscation Plan
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Summary
In this episode, we speak with the Minister of Public Safety and Correctional Services in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service in Alberta, Ms. Elizabeth May. We discuss the changes the province intends to introduce regarding self-defence cases involving firearms, as well as the proposed gun buyback program in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Transcript
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uh just to start what exactly does the province intend to change regarding how police handle
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self-defense cases involving firearms well look we've said for a long time that albertans have
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the right to use reasonable force to defend themselves that is enshrined in our criminal
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code it's enshrined in our culture and society we'll continue to make sure that that is the case
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we're going to work with our crown prosecution service we're going to work with our policing
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detachments to let them know that albertans deserve the right to protect themselves they're
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entitled to do so they were allowed to use reasonable force and there's nothing that's
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going to change what we are doing is we're revisiting our guidelines and our protocols to make sure that
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that is enshrined both within the crown prosecution service as well as our policing services here in
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alberta and is the goal to introduce new legislation or is this going to be an order in council or a
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ministerial directive essentially what it will be is you've heard the premier earlier today said that
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a motion will likely come to the legislature floor next week and that is a legislative assembly motion
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urging a number of different things certainly i have taken the initiative of looking at our current
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prosecution guidelines and i'll be looking and revisiting those as well to make sure that they
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reflect what albertans are looking for and how will this new legislation operate with the federal
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criminal code well look we're always going to be able to operate within the federal within the criminal
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code but what is important to take away is how it is interpreted by the current prosecution service
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when deciding whether or not there's a reasonable likelihood of conviction as well as whether or not
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prosecuting is in the public interest and that's the important component here is it in the public
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interest to prosecute innocent law-abiding albertans who are defending their homes themselves and their
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families i don't think it is of course we're going to have to look at those on a fact-sensitive fact
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case-by-case basis but in generally speaking we want albertans to know that we will stand behind
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law-abiding individuals in defending their homes and their families and are you expecting any legal
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challenges from the federal government is there a chance the notwithstanding clause is used on this legislation
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very unlikely in both cases and i say that because again we will be working within the parameters of
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the criminal code we want to educate albertans what is appropriate and what's not appropriate
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and the criminal code is very clear you can use reasonable force to defend oneself and one's family
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and that's what we're going to make sure that our uh our provincial agencies uphold and is there going
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to be any standardized protocol given to police officers for responding to these cases it's
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probably a question better for minister ellis minister ellis is the one who's responsible for
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for those types of guidelines and protocols i'm responsible for guidelines issued to the alberta
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crown prosecution service and as i've said earlier i am visiting that and looking at ways to improve
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those guidelines and uh on to the gun buyback does the province intend to prohibit police participation
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in the buyback or only limited enforcement for the people who aren't complying look we've said that
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the type of gun confiscation scheme that ottawa has devised is not going to do anything to protect
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public safety it does nothing for input to improve our borders it does nothing to put funds into law
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enforcement it does nothing to support our courts or our crown prosecution service and so we think that
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the entire program is misguided and it is not going to address any of the issues that the federal
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government seeks to address they call it the uh the ban on assault style rifles or assault style firearms
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and the fact is in the word itself it is misleading because assault style brings in a number of different
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firearms that don't necessarily pose any public danger these are the guns that are being used by farmers
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and sports shooters and law-abiding gun owners to hunt uh for to provide for their families so the
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reality is that we don't think that the gun confiscation scheme is going to achieve any of
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its intended purposes and we said that we're not going to cooperate with any of the federal government
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initiatives and given that the uh pilot police chief for the gun buyback program in nova scotia
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mysteriously retired how did that impact your decision making when it came to this policy
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well look the the policy that was developed in alberta has always been the case and that we've
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been saying that for years that law-abiding gun owners should not be made into criminals-in-waiting
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that's not going to change the fact of the matter is if you hear from some of the initial rumors that
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are coming out of the pilot program in cape breton it appears that only from initial reports that 22 guns
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were bought back and that's a ridiculously low number i have more than 22 guns in my gun safe and so you
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can tell that there is canadians are not buying into this ridiculous program they don't believe in
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this ridiculous program and we're certainly not going to aid a program that wastes three-quarter
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of a billion dollars on a program that doesn't achieve anything for albertans or canadians and
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that is to say that this program will not improve public safety it will not reduce gun violent gun crime
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and it will do nothing to address some of the problems that the federal government is trying to
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convince canadians that it is going to achieve uh and given that federal public uh public safety
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minister gary annandis angry called it a sham on a leaked audio do you have any advice for the other
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provinces or other municipalities on what to do with this gun buyback program well look the great
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news is this we were recently at a federal provincial territorial meeting where every single justice
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minister and public safety minister across canada met together here in alberta in beautiful kananaskis
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country to talk about justice and public safety related initiatives and one of the conversations
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that came out of that was whether or not the gun buyback program was a program that was going to
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achieve any of its intended purposes we heard from provinces like saskatchewan and we heard from
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provinces like ontario that they are aligning their policies to that of albertas and that is to say
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that they will not cooperate either with the federal government's gun confiscation scheme and that makes for
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a very difficult environment for the federal government they don't have provincial police
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agencies if they don't have provincial prosecution agencies and if they don't have provincial buy-in
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into this program i cannot see how they will successfully implement the program i think that
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they need to reevaluate and reassess from their end whether or not spending three quarters of a billion
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dollars and probably more is a good use of public money for a program that is not going to improve
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public safety whatsoever and do you have anything to say to any albertans who may be unsure about
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going against the gun buyback policy most certainly i would say look the the government of alberta stands
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behind law-abiding gun owners these are the people who have taken the necessary programs they've gone
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through all of the hoops they have taken the gun safety courses and they know how to safely handle a
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firearm and to those people i would say that we will do everything possible to make sure that we protect you
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from being prosecuted for a program an ill-conceived program i should say that the federal government
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has devised we will not accept a program that creates criminals out of law-abiding albertans
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and we can continue we will continue to stand behind albertans every step of the way thank you so
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much for your time minister thank you thank you very much