The federal government has passed new regulations allowing Canada Post to store and transport restricted firearms as part of its firearms buyback program. The Oct. 16 order-in-council will allow couriers at the postal service to transport prohibited firearms to disposal facilities to be destroyed. The Liberal government’s firearms buyback program is expected to begin in the fall of this year.
Canada Post had previously refused to collect banned guns because of employee safety concerns, and in a statement to The Epoch Times on Oct. 25, it said that’s still its position.
“Canada Post has made it clear that it would not participate in Phase 2 of the buyback program due to employee safety concerns. Phase 2 involves the public returning restricted firearms,” the statement said.
“Our position has not changed.”
In April, Canada Post told the federal government in a letter it had concerns about collecting the firearms. The Crown corporation said it feared employees could end up in conflicts with gun owners hesitant to give up their guns. The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights backed Canada Post, saying it was justified in refusing to carry out the task that would “put their staff in direct danger.”
When introducing the regulations in May, Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said Ottawa would provide businesses with more options to participate in the buyback program and dispose of the affected firearms and devices they hold in their inventory. The government noted that Canada Post already delivers guns to Canadians purchasing them online, and said they were in talks about a compromise in which the corporation would transport the weapons without being responsible for directly retrieving them from gun owners.
PolySeSouvient, a gun control group representing survivors and families of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, said in a statement it was “deeply disappointed” by Canada Post’s refusal to support the buyback, noting that the corporation has experience delivering guns to Canadians from retail stores.Buyback Program
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the 2019 and 2021 election campaigns that his government would conduct a buyback of semi-automatic weapons. The Liberal government announced a ban on the use, sale, and importation of more than 1,500 makes and models of so-called “assault-style weapons” following a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in April 2020 that left 22 people dead. The shooter had acquired five of the firearms illegally, including three that were imported from the United States.
In May 2020,
the government put an amnesty in place until April 30, 2022, that allowed gun owners and businesses to come into compliance with the law by disposing of their prohibited firearms. The amnesty was extended in March 2022 for an additional 18 months until Oct. 30, 2023, and was
then extended again until Oct. 30, 2025.
The federal government announced Bill C-21 in February 2021, which introduced the buyback program for banned firearms. The l
egislation, adopted in December 2023, also imposed a national freeze on the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns in Canada. Justice Minister Arif Virani said the changes to Canada’s firearms laws would protect Canadians from gun violence.
“We will continue to crack down on firearms smuggling and trafficking, target violent crimes involving handguns and address the alarming role of guns in gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence,” he said.
The buyback program
will come in two phases. The first targets businesses such as firearms retailers, distributors, and manufacturers, and the second is directed toward individual gun owners who have a valid
Possession and Acquisition Licence. Both groups will be provided with compensation for their firearms.
Ottawa has said it will give Canadians between $1,300 and $6,200 for each banned firearm they return. While the government initially estimated the buyback program would cost between $400 million and $600 million, internal government documents later estimated it would cost nearly $2 billion. Firearm violence remains an “
increasing concern for communities in Canada,” Public Safety Canada said in a May 24 Inquiry of Ministry. It said gun violence increased 8.9 percent from 2021 to 2022 and noted that most of Canada’s mass shootings over the last 40 years have involved “assault-style firearms,” which the department defines as guns “designed for military use.”Opposition to Buyback Program
Several provinces have come out against aspects of the firearms buyback program. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick have urged Ottawa to “halt plans to use scarce RCMP and municipal police resources” to take away the firearms.The Toronto Police Association
criticized the Liberals’ gun control policies on Oct. 21, noting Toronto had experienced a 45 percent increase in shootings and a 62 percent increase in gun-related homicides compared to October 2023.
“What difference does your handgun ban make when 85 percent of guns seized by our members can be sourced to the United States?” the group asked in a post on social media.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberals of banning the firearms of law-abiding Canadians while “completely ignoring the gun smuggling and crime wave his NDP-Liberal government has unleashed across the country.”
“Justin Trudeau’s ban is not about handguns or so-called ‘assault-style firearms,’” he said in an Oct. 25 press release. “This is about Trudeau dividing Canadians to distract from their criminal justice failures, and law-abiding Canadian sport shooters, hunters and Indigenous people are paying the price.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
