Minister defends position on gun 'buy-back' program, as Liberals announce pilot for gun owners

OTTAWA — The federal government announced a pilot program on Tuesday for individual gun owners who want to receive compensation for prohibited firearms.

The Liberals announced the pilot as a way to test the process for compensating gun owners by targeting the program in Cape Breton initially, with plans to expand it nationwide later this fall, but with no specific date.

Doing so fulfills a campaign promise Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals made during the spring federal election and continues a policy introduced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Tuesday’s announcement comes one day after audio of Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree was circulated to the media, which showed the minister, in a private conversation, casting doubt that local police would be able to enforce the program and saying that Liberal voters in Quebec were a major reason for why Carney’s government was sticking with the policy. 

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Anandasangaree emphasized that those comments were made in private and that what he meant to express was that the program could have been rolled out sooner. 

Officials who spoke to reporters in a not-for-attribution briefing said the government was discussing what the dates would be for a new amnesty period, where firearms owners and businesses in possession of the 2,500 firearms the Liberals have banned since 2020 would need to dispose of them.

The officials said affected gun owners have the option to either apply for compensation, have their weapon deactivated, or turn it over to police.

Should they fail to do any of the above by the end of the amnesty period, one official said they could face penalties under the Criminal Code or have their license revoked.

More to come …

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