On Parliament Hill

In the first week of the new parliamentary session, Conservatives secured two big wins for Canadians.

First, after a massive public backlash, the Liberal Government has backed down from their plan to ban hunting rifles.

The controversial amendments were made at the 11th hour at the Public Safety Committee back in November, as Liberal MPs tried to sneak these provisions into Bill C-21.

Bill C-21 is the legislative follow up to the Liberals’ 2020 Order in Council banning “military style assault weapons”. The legislation was later amended to also ban handgun sales in Canada.

The Liberal Government had promised repeatedly that hunting rifles and shotguns would not be included in the list of banned weapons.

Despite these assurances, the PM clearly laid out his plans on firearms in an interview back in December, stating: “Our focus now is on saying okay, yes, that we’re going to have to take away from people who were using them to hunt.”

This was just another in a long line of broken promises further solidifying that this Prime Minister cannot be trusted.

Nobody understands the responsibility and social covenant of owning a firearm better than licensed firearms owners. Nobody believes banning hunting rifles or further restricting legal firearms owners will solve the problem of gun violence. Sadly, instead of going after gangs and illegal guns flooding in from the United States, this Government continues their campaign against hunters, farmers, and other law-abiding Canadians.

On Friday, after two months of considerable push back from Conservatives and Canadians, the Government capitulated and agreed to drop the controversial amendments.

Another victory was the delay of the Government’s new medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation, announced last Thursday.

The Government’s MAID legislation was initially only for those for whom death was “reasonably foreseeable”. Then a Quebec court ruled that provision was discriminatory. Rather than appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the Liberals capitulated and updated their legislation to include those for whom death was not reasonably foreseeable. This included those with disabilities and those with mental health issues.

Since then, Canada has seen an alarming upswing in MAID being not only offered but pushed under the guise of “healthcare” on those who never asked for it, particularly the most vulnerable Canadians.

Advocates for mental health and those with disabilities begged the government not to proceed with this dangerous legislation, with one expert calling Canada’s MAID laws the “biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis.”

That’s why advocates, including the majority of Conservatives, were pleased to see the Government delay implementation of their new MAID rules for one year. It is my sincere hope that by the time they have their “ducks in a row” Canada will have a new Conservative government who will listen to the experts and advocate for palliative care and mental health supports rather than death for our most vulnerable citizens.

Canadians should not be fooled by the Liberal Government’s recent about face on guns and delay of MAID. Justin Trudeau still wants to ban all guns and the Liberals are still committed to having the most permissive MAID laws in the world. That said, in the short term, commonsense Canadians can breathe a sigh of relief.

Conservatives are working hard to get results for Canadians who are tired of Justin Trudeau; his broken promises and his broken government.