Ottawa Allocating Over $3 Million to Ontario City for Initiative Aimed at Curbing Gun Crime

Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino speaks at a news conference in Ottawa on Sept. 26, 2022. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The federal government is giving over $3 million to the city of London, Ont., for an initiative aimed at curbing rising gun crime in the area, says the Department of Public Safety.

“Investments in grassroots efforts in London are essential to addressing the social conditions that lead youth and young adults to get involved in a life of crime. Put simply, we must stop gun and gang violence before it starts,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said in a news release on Jan. 16.

London Mayor Josh Morgan said in the release that the city has experienced “a steady rise in violent crime in recent years.”

In total, the federal government will be giving up to $3.09 million to its “Building Safer Communities Fund” (BSCF), which Mendicino announced the creation of in March 2022.

The government describes the fund as “an initiative to bolster gang prevention and intervention programming at the local level,” and also says it supports other local initiatives that “help young people make good choices.”

The government launched the fund last March with a $250 million investment.

“This funding will help address the underlying conditions that give rise to crime,” said a Public Safety Department news release, referring to the $3 million investment in the BSCF for London.

“It will support community-led projects to prevent violence among young people who are involved in gangs, or at risk of joining them—helping them set themselves up for success in life.”

Border Security

The department also acknowledged that “no single initiative” can solve gun and gang violence and said the federal government’s prevention measures begin “at Canada’s borders.”

“We’ve added resources to fight smuggling and stop guns from coming into the country,” the news release said, adding the government banned “assault-style firearms like the AR-15 two years ago” and will soon begin a buyback program “to get these weapons of war off of our streets.”

Many smuggled guns are entering the country through railway transit, a witness told MPs on the House of Commons public safety committee in February 2022.

According to Mark Weber, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, just one-millionth of all rail cargo that crosses into Canada from the United States is examined “effectively.”

“In other words, there’s almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found,” he said on Feb. 1.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in November 2022 that it has seized less than 5,000 illegal guns at the border since 2017, and Mendicino’s department said in a briefing note last year that it does not know how many guns are regularly smuggled into Canada.

“We are providing the Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP with the tools and resources they need to combat smuggling and trafficking such as X-ray machines,” the department said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said in October 2022 that the federal government will be increasing border security investments which will allow the CBSA to deploy x-ray truck scanners.

Isaac Teo contributed to this report.