FREDERICTON, New Brunswick (LifeSiteNews) – New Brunswick has joined three other provinces and one territory in saying no to a semi-automatic gun buyback program enacted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government.
“New Brunswick’s bottom line is this: RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) resources are spread thin as it is,” said Kris Austin, Minister of Public Safety for New Brunswick, in an October 14 joint statement with three other provinces on Trudeau’s gun grab.
“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.”
Austin’s statement added New Brunswick to the growing list of provincial governments – Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – who have released a joint statement saying they are fighting back against Trudeau’s plan to use “scarce RCMP and municipal police resources to confiscate more than 100,000 legally acquired firearms from Canadians.”
“The four provinces also called on the federal government to direct all communications related to the federal firearms confiscation program through appropriate channels – provincial and territorial ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety,” the statement adds.
In addition to provincial pushback, Yukon, a territory in northern Canada, has also expressed its unwillingness to follow Trudeau’s buy-back scheme.
Last Wednesday, all MLAs from the Yukon Legislative Assembly from the Yukon Party, and even members of the left-wing Yukon New Democratic Party (NDP), voted for a motion calling on its government to resist Trudeau’s plan.
Trudeau’s gun-grab was first announced following a deadly mass shooting in Nova Scotia in May 2020, in which Trudeau banned over 1,500 “military-style assault firearms” with a plan to begin buying them back from owners.
If the ban is enforced, legal gun owners in possession of the federally-regulated Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) would be barred from buying, selling, transporting, and even importing a slew of guns the government has categorized as “assault-style” rifles.
Under Trudeau’s decree, gun owners were given a two-year amnesty to comply with the ban.
In May, the Trudeau government took further steps to limit gun ownership, enacting what is in effect a new long-gun registry system.
Later that same month he also announced controversial plans to freeze all new and used handgun sales through Bill C-21.
Despite Trudeau’s own Privy Council Office reporting that such a measure would be ineffective, the bill is expected to pass and has already reached the second of three reading stages in the House of Commons.