View From the Legislature

As every province in Canada deals with increases to violent crime, more than ever, resources and efforts need to be focused on ways that have the most impact in improving safety. Manitoba has been a leader in this area. Last fall when provincial and federal Minister’s responsible for Justice and Public Safety met in Nova Scotia, I advanced several proposals to strengthen the federal Criminal Code based on concerns that were being seen in Manitoba and elsewhere.

These proposals included making it more difficult for criminals who use weapons such as knives and bear spray in the commission of a crime to get bail. These initiatives were supported by all provinces and while the federal government indicated that there would be further considerations to changes to the Criminal Code, to date, there has not been advancement on these initiatives. And yet, almost weekly, we learn of another person who has become a victim of a violent crime committed by someone who was out on bail awaiting a trial for another matter.

Where the federal Liberal government has instead invested a great deal of time is targeting law abiding gun owners. Early in 2022, this took the form of notifying provinces that the federal government intended to use RCMP resources to go to homes to confiscate guns that were purchased legally and whose owners had not been accused of any offence. Manitoba was quick to express concern to the federal Liberal government noting that the high vacancy rates in the RCMP already make it difficult for these rural Manitoba officers to respond to calls for service and to follow up on stolen goods and other criminal matters.

Using RCMP resources to target law abiding gun owners will do nothing to make communities safer and may in fact have the opposite effect by making scarce policing resources even more scarce. These concerns were echoed by provinces around the country, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and New Brunswick.

This was compounded in the fall when the federal government announced that it was further targeting farmers and hunters by increasing the number of guns that they were planning to confiscate.

What Manitoba has been asking the federal government to do, in addition to making changes to the Criminal Code to make bail more difficult for violent offenders, is to support our efforts to reduce the illegal importation of guns across our borders. This includes 3D printed guns and ghost guns (which have no identification and serial numbers). Across the United States we are seeing the proliferation of these types of weapons along with the ability to 3D print small modification parts that are both illegal and make guns more dangerous.

Illegally trafficked and manufactured weapons have increasingly been found in Manitoba and across Canada. These are the type of weapons and criminals that we need the federal government to focus both time and resources on, instead of law-abiding farmers and hunters.

As every province in Canada continues to grapple with the increase in violent crime, we need all governments, provincial and federal, focused on efforts that will have the most impact in keeping our communities and residents safe.