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Posts Tagged ‘RCMP’

Canadian Provinces Refuse to Assist in Trudeau’s Gun Grab – The New American

Posted by M. C. on December 6, 2022

Just like US, there are two Canadas. There is hope.

https://thenewamerican.com/canadian-provinces-refuse-to-assist-in-trudeaus-gun-grab/

 by David Kelly

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau banned some 1,500 makes and models of military-grade “assault-style” weapons in Canada in May of 2020, shortly after the mass killings in Novia Scotia. That ban ended licensed gun owners being allowed to sell, transport, import, or use these sorts of weapons in Canada. 

At that time, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said, “As of today, the market for assault weapons in Canada is closed. Enough is enough…. Banning assault-style firearms will save Canadian lives.”

Now, Trudeau and Canada’s Liberal government are preparing to launch the mandatory buyback of the outlawed weapons, and several provinces and territories say they won’t assist in the process.

“The most strident opponents, including the United Conservative Party government in Alberta, are suggesting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police [RCMP] ‘refuse to participate,’” reported The Washington Post.

Part of the provincial government’s concern is that this gun confiscation program pushed by the Canadian federal minister in charge of the RCMP is unfunded. In a press release, Alberta’s provincial government stated that “Alberta taxpayers pay more than $750 million annually to fund the RCMP as our provincial police service. Alberta’s government expects that no tax dollars or police resources be wasted implementing a program that will not increase public safety…. Alberta is not legally obligated and has informed Ottawa it will not offer assistance.”

They also advised the commanding officer of the RCMP in Alberta that “pursuant to the Provincial Police Service Agreement (PPSA), the confiscation program is not an objective, priority or goal of the province or the provincial police service, nor is such deployment ‘appropriate to the effective and efficient delivery of police services.’ Consequently, the RCMP should refuse to participate.”

The release continued, “Despite taking this step, the federal government may still direct the RCMP to serve as confiscation agents. To prevent this from happening, Alberta will formally dispute any attempt to do so by invoking Article 23.0 of the PPSA.”

The Post continued:

Marco Mendicino, Canada’s public safety minister, has cast Alberta’s “reckless” position as a “political stunt.” But Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick have also balked at using “scarce RCMP resources” for the program. 

“New Brunswick’s bottom line is this: RCMP resources are spread thin as it is,” said Public Safety Minister Kris Austin in a press release. “We have made it clear to the Government of Canada that we cannot condone any use of those limited resources, at all, in their planned buyback program.”

The New Brunswick release added, “The four provinces also called on the federal government to ensure that no funding for the Guns and Gang Violence Action Fund or other public safety initiatives be diverted to the federal firearms confiscation program. Instead, they said, funding should be used to fight the criminal misuse of firearms by addressing border integrity, smuggling and trafficking.”

The disagreement over the planned gun grab is adding to the tensions between Ottawa and the provinces. “Alberta and Saskatchewan, long estranged from the capital, recently introduced bills to seek greater ‘sovereignty’ for their provinces and to fight what they see as federal ‘intrusion,’ said the Post.

See the rest here

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‘Shameful Day for Canada’: First Nations Encampment Violently Raided, Land Protectors Arrested | Common Dreams News

Posted by M. C. on November 11, 2019

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/08/shameful-day-canada-first-nations-encampment-violently-raided-land-protectors?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook

Reacting to footage of the “invasion” by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Monday, author and activist Naomi Klein said it was “a shameful day for Canada, which has marketed itself as a progressive leader on climate and Indigenous rights.” (Photo: Michael Toledano/@M_Tol)

More than 50 protests have been planned for across the globe on Tuesday in solidarity with a First Nations group fighting against the construction of TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory, with the number of protests rising overnight after Canadian police broke down a checkpoint gate erected by Indigenous land protectors and arrested more than a dozen people.

Reacting to footage of the “invasion” by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), author and activist Naomi Klein said it was “a shameful day for Canada, which has marketed itself as a progressive leader on climate and Indigenous rights.”

Klein condemned the government’s raid on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and the arrest of First Nations land defenders, “all for a gas pipeline that is entirely incompatible with a safe climate.”

People at the Gidimt’en camp have been anticipating the arrival of the RCMP, who are enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court injunction that came last month in response to another camp on the territory formed by another Wet’suwet’en clan, the Unist’ot’en, in opposition to the fossil fuel company’s proposed route for the fracked gas pipeline.

“This is Canada’s response to unarmed Indigenous defenders asserting their own rights on their own territory.”
—Mike Hudema, Greenpeace

“Camp members faced both uniformed RCMP and camouflage-wearing Emergency Response Team tactical unit officers through the barbed wire,” according to the Toronto Star. “Police climbed a ladder over the top of the gate, circumventing a secondary blockade formed by the bodies of the camp members themselves. Then they began to arrest people.”

The Mounties established a “temporary exclusion zone,” and said in a statement that “there are both privacy and safety concerns in keeping the public and the media at the perimeter, which should be as small as possible and as brief as possible in the circumstances, based on security and safety needs.” The statement noted that “during the arrests, the RCMP observed a number of fires being lit along the roadway by unknown persons, and large trees felled across the roadway.”

Journalists and supporters of the land defenders posted updates from the scene to social media and called out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the clear contrast between his claims that he wants to build a legacy of “reconciliation” with First Nations and how his government has responded to objections from the Wet’suwet’en people over the pipeline.

As Common Dreams reported Monday, although TransCanada claims it has signed agreements with First Nations leaders along the pipeline routes, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs were not consulted, and say that those who signed off on the pipeline, which is set to cut through traditional lands, were not authorized to do so under Indigenous laws.

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