True North

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney sharply criticized the federal government gun ban, making it clear that his government opposes the move.

“Today’s order by Ottawa does little to target criminals. Instead, Ottawa is singling out law-abiding Canadians who purchased their property legally, have owned these items safely for years, and who have committed no crimes,” he said.

On Friday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on 1,500 types of guns, including AR-15 and Mini-14 models.

Effective immediately, Canadians are not allowed to buy, sell or import any prohibited guns.

Kenney added that evidence suggests that taking guns away from law-abiding owners will not stop gun crime in Canada.

“We know that the overwhelming majority of firearms used criminally in Canada are smuggled in illegally from the United States. Instead of addressing this, Ottawa will instead spend vast sums of money to criminalize law-abiding Canadians,” he said.

“That money would be far better used to pursue the smugglers and drug gangs that plague our society.” 

In November the Alberta government passed a motion vowing to protect the rights of gun owners and support their ability to own guns.

Alberta Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer said that the government will be considering this motion when deciding on an appropriate response to the gun ban.  

“The Government of Alberta will scrutinize today’s move by Ottawa and explore potential responses through this lens,” said Schweitzer.

Schweitzer said the province is considering appointing a new chief firearms officer (CFO) for Alberta to replace the one appointed by the federal government. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau banned 1,500 different guns effective immediately on Friday morning. 

Legal gun owners will have two years to surrender their firearms to the government for “fair compensation,” though no details about the compensation structure were available Friday.

The Liberals have been promising to ban what they call “assault-style weapons” for some time and had included the promise in their election platform.

“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — only to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” Trudeau said.

“You don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”

Variants of the popular AR-15 and Mini-14 models were included on the list.

Canadians can no longer buy, sell, import or transport these guns, unless they are transporting them for the purpose of surrendering them to law enforcement.

“As of today, the market for assault weapons in Canada is closed. Enough is enough — banning these firearms will save Canadian lives,” said Public Safety Minister Bill Blair. 

The Liberal government has refused to define “assault-style weapons” or “military-grade weapons.” The firearms on the prohibition list are semi-automatic rifles, though other semi-automatic guns were not banned through this order-in-council.

Gun rights activists have blamed the Liberals of unfairly targeting law-abiding citizens while ignoring the larger issue of criminal gun violence and policing. 

A recent parliamentary petition, which received the most signatures of any in Canadian history, called on the government to bring the issue of gun laws up for debate in the House of Commons and to not resort to an order-in-council which would effectively bypass the democratic process. 

“The use of an Order in Council is an egregious overreach of executive authorities, bypassing the democratic process of the House and the elected representatives of Canadians,” claimed petition E-2341. 

“This executive order would strip law-abiding Canadians it has approved through the RCMP Canada Firearms Program, of their legally purchased property.” 

Several policing experts across the country have also doubted the effectiveness of a gun ban.

In July 2019, Winnipeg Police Inspector Max Waddell said that a ban would not do anything to curb gun violence and that those seeking to break the law would find other ways to do so. 

“The reality is, if criminals want to get their hands on [a gun], they’re going to get their hands on it. [A ban is] not going to do anything. It will come from illegal means again. If people wish to get and claim an illegal gun, they’re going to do it,” Waddell told the Winnipeg Sun.

Three friends who were eating burritos and playing reggae in a Calgary park have each been slapped with fines of $1,200 for breaking public health orders. 

The men claim that they followed social distancing rules, and say they will be fighting the tickets.

Joe Viszmeg met up with two friends at a park on the Elbow River on April 24.

“We messaged. We were all cooped up. It was really nice out and we were like ‘What can we do to see each other that’s reasonable?’” Viszmeg told CTV. 

“We ordered some burritos, picked them up, biked down here to eat the burritos and we were following Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s quotes exactly. It is OK to be outside even with people you don’t live with as long as you’re separated, and we were doing just that.”

Aside from trips to the grocery store, Viszmeg says his trip to enjoy a burrito in the park was the only public outing he’s been on since he started social distancing several weeks ago.

Two Calgary bylaw officers approached the three friends, demanded to see ID, and immediately issued the $1,200 tickets.

“We weren’t given any kind of warning. We weren’t given any kind of order requiring us to separate. It was just IDs, tickets, now,” Viszmeg recounted.

The men say the bylaw officers made them stand by the police vehicle while writing the tickets, which Viszmeg said made physical distancing impossible.

“I’m lucky that I have the situation that I’m in. I have some savings and I don’t have a family to support in all this. But there are people out there that do and if they get pinned with a ticket like this, this is detrimental,” he said.

In recent weeks, many Canadians have faced hefty fines for breaking public health orders. Many have faced significant punishments for relatively minor violations.

One Ottawa teen was fined $700 for playing basketball by himself in a public park, and an Oakville family was fined $880 for rollerblading in the empty parking lot of a community centre.

Last week, the president of the Canadian Police Association said officers may be “overzealous” when enforcing public health orders, adding that many are having trouble dealing with ambiguous orders.

Canadians residing in Mississauga or Toronto can expect to hear a regular Islamic call to prayer every evening during the month of Ramadan. 

The cities of Mississauga and Toronto have granted permission to mosques in the region to publicly broadcast the sound on a daily basis, according to the Toronto Sun. 

Councillors with the City of Mississauga voted to temporarily lift noise restrictions on Wednesday. The call to prayer will be permitted to broadcast in the open until May 24, 2020. 

Ramadan is a month-long celebration practised by Muslims worldwide. This year, Ramadan begins on the evening of April 23 and extends to May 23. 

The new measure means that the calls will be played publicly for “a maximum of 5 minutes.” 

“Council’s decision today to support the symbolic broadcasting of the call to prayer during Ramadan this year will provide inspiration, familiarity and comfort to our city’s Muslim community during this challenging time,” said Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie. 

“During this time of isolation and unknowns, it will be comforting for many to hear the familiar call to prayer.”

According to Crombie, the decision was made after the city received requests from the Muslim Council of Peel and several mosques in the region. 

The City of Toronto has granted similar requests. According to Toronto spokesperson Tammy Robinson, any mosque that asks permission to broadcast a public call to prayer will be granted the request. 

“Normally amplified sound would not be allowed, but at this time, any mosque requesting the call to prayer is being granted,” Robinson told the Toronto Sun.

Meanwhile, the Church of God in Aylmer, ON is being urged by police to stop their drive-in church services for Christians, even though churchgoers listen to the pastor via FM transmitter while isolated in their vehicles. 

An official description of Mona Fortier’s role as the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity has failed to provide any clarity on the position.

In response to an order paper question tabled in the House of Commons Fortier’s parliamentary secretary, Sean Fraser, responded to a question posed by Conservative MP Pat Kelly on “how does the minister define and measure prosperity?” as follows:

“Strictly defined, prosperity is the state of being successful in material terms and of thriving financially. While fostering the right conditions for Canadians’ material well-being is a primary objective of government, an even broader view of prosperity is appropriate for assessing the quality of life of Canadians and establishing policy priorities,” wrote Fraser in the government’s response, first noted by an iPolitics editor.

“This is because many of the factors that are important in the day-to-day lives of Canadians cannot be measured by income and wealth alone, including access to childcare, access to adequate housing and access to good, well-paying jobs, among other factors.” 

The official definition has only further clouded Fortier’s seemingly obscure cabinet position, which was created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his second term.

Since the new ministry was announced, Fortier has been plagued by an inability to properly define key aspects of her mandate. 

Fortier had trouble explaining her role during a CBC Radio interview last year. 

In a segment of The Current with Laura Lynch, Fortier was repeatedly asked “what exactly” her job was. 

“I’ve been mandated as Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance to work with my colleagues to make sure we have that lens enabling the fact that we want to put measures in to continue to grow our economy,” said Fortier.

When asked for her definition of what the “middle class” was exactly, Fortier said it could mean sending your kids to play hockey. 

“I define the middle class where people feel they can afford their way of life, they have quality of life and they can send their kids to play hockey or even have different activities,” said Fortier.

Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau struggled to give a solid answer on how he defines the middle class during a year-end interview on Breakfast Television, saying that “Canadians know” who makes up the group. 

“Canadians know who’s in the middle class and know what their families are facing and we focus more on the actual issues,” said Trudeau on Breakfast Television.