Forget Justin Trudeau... Christine Tell Is Coming For Your Guns.
... and whatever else she wants. Wake up, Saskatchewan. For the love of your province AND your country, wake up.
This is a continuation of my previous post.
I think we can agree if Saskatchewan and/or Alberta governments are the first in Canada to do something, whatever it is will require scrutiny.
The Saskatchewan Firearms Act is a first in Canada.
And as the Minister responsible for this shitshow Christine Tell puts it,
Pretty sure “they” aren’t going to get “mad” at Tell.
These children are ridiculous.
Saskatchewan and Alberta are the first two jurisdictions to deal with the “seizure agent piece” because Saskatchewan made up the “seizure agent piece”.
That’s not a term that’s ever been utilized by the federal government or RCMP.
Again: the Liberals gun buyback program has been grossly mismanaged, probably because Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is absolutely useless.
There is plenty of validity to the charge that the federal Liberals should be putting the resources they’re using for this buyback scheme into controlling the longest unsecured border in the world between Canada and the US.
Into reducing rising gang crimes.
I understand that there are arguments against what the Liberal government is doing here. Not that any of the Conservative MPs that could have made those arguments actually did.
For example, this was Regina MP Warren Steinley’s stellar contribution to the discussion:
Thank you, Warren, for that long-winded, riveting and entirely irrelevant half-story on an unrelated administrative processing issue.
Mendicino and the federal Public Safety agency have barely commenced what they’re calling “Phase 1” of the buyback program, which is limited only to industry (retailers) holding inventory of newly banned guns and gun parts.
Phase 1 is “expected to begin later this year”. Phase 2, for individual owners, “will follow”.
I’m no fortune teller but if Phase 1 doesn’t start until later this year it’s unlikely Phase 2 will go ahead before the amnesty period ends in October 2023, which will likely be extended again.
In the meantime there is zero information available on how the buyback program is going to work for individuals. I’m not saying that’s a good thing. I think Marco Mendicino might be the most incompetent Minister in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet and that takes effort.
However there is also nothing out there that suggests the feds might not go the voluntary route. Nothing that says the Canadian government is going to order the apprehension of newly-illegal firearms or parts, during the amnesty period or afterwards.
So thank god the Sask Party wrote and passed legislation, then promoted the living shit out themselves (and the Saskatchewan NDP lol) as heroes…to battle a thing that doesn’t exist yet.
Parts 1 and 2 of the Saskatchewan Firearms Act are largely administrative.
Part 3 is special.
Currently, to receive a gun license, or Possession and Acquisition license (PAL) in Saskatchewan one must apply through the Saskatchewan Chief Firearms Officer using a federal form.
That process is not slated to change, but now it’s a two-for-one.
So congratulations, you now have two gun licenses if you live in Saskatchewan. What an efficient reduction in government red tape.
The good news is a Saskatchewan firearms licence will keep us all safer.
It’s about time.
I’ve never understood why we send murderers to jail with a toothbrush and their licensed firearms.
Seriously folks… if a licensed Saskatchewan gun owner is convicted of a violent crime today, the conviction is conveyed to the Chief Firearm Officer. The convict’s guns are then confiscated, whether or not the licensed firearm was used to commit the crime.
The rest of Part 3 of the Act reads the same way until the end, which deals with alternative measures.
The Criminal Code of Canada introduced alternative measures in 1996 as a tool for Crown prosecutors to use at their discretion.
Public Prosecution Service of Canada Deskbook puts it this way:
This aspect of the administration of justice has been handled for almost thirty years.
Yet the final section of Part 3 of the Sask Firearms Act provides a smorgasbord of alternative measures the prosecutor can choose from. It also admits the prosecutor can do whatever they want.
All this was already enshrined in current federal laws and regulations, managed by Saskatchewan’s Crown prosecutors, Saskatchewan’s Court of King Bench and best practise. It’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Part 4 of the Act is titled “Seizure Agents”.
As we’ve seen from Christine Tell, the NRA’s talking points on Canada’s pending buyback program have inspired the Sask Party’s prediction of the use of force to remove newly-illegal firearms from gun owner’s homes.
The term “seizure agent” fits nicely into that politically-contrived dystopian landscape. The Sask Party is not using the term “seizure agent” to motivate anything other than fear, because these long, drawn out and taxpayer-financed theatrics are even more irrelevant if there’s no boogeyman.
Part 4 introduces a second license, this one for seizure agents, who are not:
Got it.
To further complicate things:
This means if a Saskatchewan resident wants to box up and send their firearms to another province or Ottawa for federal buyback, they would not be able to unless the courier company or Canada Post, including individual staff members, all have a “seizure agent license” approved by Christine Tell.
Pretty sure Purolator isn’t interested.
The Sask Firearms Act also limits the number of firearms a licensed “seizure agent” is allowed to transport to three. Here’s the explanation:
The f**k?
This imaginary new world for which the Sask Party is creating legislation is insane.
First of all, I can go online right now and order a magazine or firearm from another country and have it couriered to my home without a problem.
Second, are you seeing how much money and resources have been poured into these twisted Sask Party fantasies?
This has got to be the first time in Saskatchewan, perhaps Canadian history that a provincial government has kneecapped its residents ability to comply with federal laws. In other words, the first time a provincial government is deliberately turning some of its residents into criminals under the Criminal Code of Canada and the federal Firearms Act.
Part 4 goes on to outline the absolute power Christine Tell has, as the Minister responsible for this shitshow, over issuing licenses to seizure agents, including the fact she can refuse if she believes the “applicant will not conduct the applicant’s activity or business with integrity;”
Are you f**king kidding me?
We’re putting Christine Tell in charge of judging conduct and integrity?
Of course, she later retracted that pile of word vomit on Thatcher and issued copious apologies when she realized her moral compass was set in the opposite direction of the majority of Saskatchewan people. Or just the majority of people, period.
The rest of Part 4 goes on and on for pages detailing the conditions, steps and minutiae around when, why and how a “seizure agent” can do their job.
Part 5 of the Saskatchewan Firearms Act is titled “Compensation and Testing re Firearms”.
It explains the long, expensive taxpayer-backed process the Saskatchewan government claims will be followed once their government-appointed seizure agents take a gun. You can be certain the Sask Party will be paying more than the federal government is prepared to pay, so you can also be certain your tax dollars will be paying that premium instead of funding K-12 education.
This might be my favorite quote, articulated by Blaine Beaven, a Saskatchewan defense lawyer who has been retained by the Chief Firearms Officer:
Canadian gun owners complain they feel they’re being portrayed as criminals by the federal government, which has stated it only plans on destroying relinquished firearms.
In Saskatchewan, Christine Tell and Robert Freberg are going to take your gun, then send it for ballistics testing to see if it was used to commit a crime.
That’ll help with that whole criminal perception thing.
Beaven confirms “firearms change hands”, which is literally the ENTIRE point of the federal buyback program… to get these particular guns out of the public domain so they can’t “change hands”.
Part 6 - “General” - is where things get downright frightening.
After Christine Tell and the Sask Party select politically-appointed agents to take and then test your gun, their mandate doesn’t end there.
We knew that this Act was going to handcuff Saskatchewan police forces from accepting funding from the Canadian government to enforce the changes to the Criminal Code and federal Firearms Act, but it doesn’t stop there.
Section 4-1 of the Saskatchewan Firearms Act defines “specified law” as:
I really can’t overstate how shocked you should feel right now.
Sask Party politicians have decided they will dictate what federal laws Saskatchewan law enforcement agencies are allowed to enforce.
There is no real historical precedence for this anywhere. It smacks of unconstitutionality.
Law enforcement leaders I’ve spoken to from all four corners of Saskatchewan were unanimous: the idea of politicians cherry-picking which components of the Criminal Code of Canada, or any other law under the Canadian Constitution, they can enforce is ludicrous.
It gets worse.
If the Sask Party decides anyone, whether a gun owner or a seizure agent or arguably, a cop isn’t following this draconian, authoritarian bullshit:
Christine Tell and the Sask Party have assigned themselves broad-based powers to tear apart the life of “the person” they’ve decided needs to be investigated.
Their business.
Their finances.
Their home and other assets.
Part 6 of this Act even gets into how the Sask Party can obtain a warrant from a provincial court judge or justice of the peace for the minister or a person designated by the minister to enter your home or business to conduct this “investigation”.
Are you awake yet, Saskatchewan?
I don’t care if you hate Justin Trudeau, or if you’re as conservative as they come and/or you believe the sun shines directly out of the Sask Party’s ass - your blood should be running cold at this sickening level of government overreach.
The Saskatchewan Firearms Act, under the guise of protecting residents from the federal government, is one of the most blatantly authoritarian, power-grabbing and frankly frightening laws the Sask Party has ever passed.
They were able to do so by lying to their own political base that they’ve done this for their own good.
Let’s recap:
Scott Moe, Christine Tell and the Sask Party government have repeatedly and continually lied about the purpose and status of changes to the Criminal Code of Canada and the federal Firearms Act;
they have spent untold amounts of taxpayer dollars by way of public servant salaries, time in the Legislature, communications campaigns and god knows what else to create the Saskatchewan Firearms Act, in response to a federal program that doesn’t exist yet;
provincial government lawyers admit that in the event the Saskatchewan Firearms Act is put to the legal test, particularly around its constitutionality, it will fail and go to court, hemorrhaging more of your tax dollars on a pro-Sask Party political stunt;
under the guise of protecting Saskatchewan firearms owners, the Sask Party have created laws that empower politicians to tear into private citizens’ affairs.
Here’s the kicker.
In early April Sask Party made a huge deal about the “unanimous” (openly mocking the Saskatchewan NDP for their support) passing of the Saskatchewan Firearms Act…
…a month later the entire exercise was rendered even stupider when the Sask Party quietly opted not to enact much, if not most of the Act.
I’m not going to go back and explain those clauses because the reality is the Act is non-existent without them.
In other words, after all this expensive bullshit and fanfare - there is no Saskatchewan Firearms Act.
Because the purpose of this absolute f**kery has been to rile up Saskatchewan people even more against their own country by stirring up more fear and more outrage, ultimately to subvert the federal government and the laws of Canada.
In other words, sedition.
‘C’mon Tammy’, I hear you saying.
‘Sedition, really? That’s a little much.’
If that’s your mindset then tell me - how much rebellion against your country’s government are you prepared to accept? How comfortable are you with the Sask Party putting you increasingly in the position of fighting against Canada?
Where’s your line?
Are you Canadian or not?
This is just pathetic. It is not sustainable.
All the time, energy, information and hyperbole from the Saskatchewan government on its Firearms Act… for nothing. For an Act that stoked up plenty of fear and rage, particularly in already fearful, outraged rural Saskatchewan… then was quietly shelved.
This is not sustainable.
Your public services are crumbling, yet this is the kind of distractive, dangerous and fraudulent song and dance Saskatchewan’s elected officials and government actors are focused on.
These are not serious people.
Have a great week,
