Key plank in Mark Carney's crime platform has been Canadian law for decades
The Liberal Leader vowed domestic violence offenders have their gun licences revoked, but that's been part of the Criminal Code since the 1980s
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OTTAWA – It’s a bold plan to protect victims of intimate partner violence from guns – but it’s been on the books for decades.
During his campaign stop Thursday in Brampton, Liberal Leader Mark Carney unveiled his crime platform – anchored by plans for legislation to automatically revoke firearm licences for those convicted of intimate partner violence.
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Key plank in Mark Carney's crime platform has been Canadian law for decades Back to video
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“If elected, my government will automatically revoke gun licences for individuals convicted of violent offences, including intimate partner violence,” Carney said.
But under Section 109 of the Criminal Code of Canada – introduced into law in 1985 – anyone convicted of violent indictable offences against a person is already subject to a mandatory prohibition on possession weapons.
As well, subsection a.1 of the same section – specifically introducing intimate partner violence as a separate facet of the offence – was included into the Criminal Code by the Liberals in June 2019, as part of Bill C-75.
As well, licenced gun owners are already subject to daily criminal record checks as part of continuous eligibility screening.
“You can’t be serious about being tough on crime if you’re not willing to be tough on guns,” Carney said. “You can’t be serious about stopping intimate partner violence without being serious about gun control, when we know from our own tragic history about how often guns are involved.”
Shortly after blaming “irresponsible American gun laws” – and not Canada’s lax border policy – for the explosion of prohibited firearms used as crime guns in Canadian cities, Carney renewed his party’s work to confiscate firearms from law-abiding, licenced Canadian gun owners as a means to somehow reduce gun crime.
Experts, academics and even Canada’s police chiefs have testified in front of committees that the majority of crime guns – many that are already prohibited for legal sale under Canadian gun laws – are smuggled into Canada from the United States.
Carney also reiterated his party’s intention to press ahead with Trudeau’s costly gun confiscation program, which they’ve been attempting to enshrine into law since 2020.
Previous attempts to apply blanket gun bans proved so unpopular that even Liberal MPs spoke out against them.
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In 2022, the Liberals quietly tabled two amendments to their gun confiscation bill that would have outlawed legal rifles used daily by hunters and sport shooters.
The Liberals walked back those amendments after massive blowback from hunters, sports shooters and First Nations.
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