Photo by Whitehorse Star
Yukon Party’ justice critic Brad Cathers,
House approves motion on firearms confiscation program
A Yukon Party Official Opposition motion urging the territorial government to ensure RCMP resources are not used to enforce the federal government’s gun confiscation program was passed Wednesday.
A Yukon Party Official Opposition motion urging the territorial government to ensure RCMP resources are not used to enforce the federal government’s gun confiscation program was passed Wednesday.
The legislature adopted the motion with the support of Yukon Party and NDP MLAs.
“All Yukon Liberal government MLAs voted against the motion,” the Yukon Party noted in a subsequent statement.
The motion reads:
“THAT this House urges the Yukon government to ensure that territorial policing resources are not diverted to assist in the implementation of the Government of Canada’s gun “buy-back” program.”
Brad Cathers, the Yukon Party’ justice critic, brought forward the motion. He noted it’s important to ensure that police resources are not diverted from focusing on organized crime and other serious public safety issues – problems the Yukon RCMP highlighted in a major report released over the summer.
Cathers emphasized the need to respect licensed firearms owners, including people who depend on hunting to feed their families.
“The National Police Federation, which is the union representing RCMP members, has made it clear that the Trudeau government’s order-in-council prohibiting various firearms and the ‘buy-back’ program will divert police resources away from dealing with organized crime,” Cathers said.
“RCMP members said the federal Liberal government’s firearms measures actually divert important personnel and resources from where they are needed most.
“We are happy the motion passed, and hope the territorial government will respect the will of the Yukon Legislative Assembly.”
Several western Canada premiers have also spoken out against the confiscation program and the concept of using RCMP resources to enforce it.
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Comments (33)
Up 5 Down 1
Andrea Forte on Oct 21, 2022 at 4:05 am
I speak for myself. My father was a true hunter not only to have wild game once in a while on the table but also for the sport and time to get away from the 7-7 work day once a year. I had the privalage on growing up surrounded by firearms as well as my other four sibblings. Never ever was there an attempt to handle any firearm as you know back in the sixties and seventies firearms were on a gun rack always displayed. Ammunition was never in reach. All I am saying is from this we are all law bidding citizens who have and are able to afford this sport either recreational or hunt for wild game. Gun range is a great asset for those people like me, who will not hunt for food, but rather enjoy my hobby at the gun range as often as time allows. To the many citizens out there who also feel this way if you have not spoken up then now is the time to do so.
Taking away and or banning hand guns particularly from registered law bidding holders is taking away freedom and a hobby enjoyed by many. The politics behind this is just that. Let's put the retail owner out of business, the sales clerk out of a job, the manufacture to begin layoff's. Rather why has the goverment taken away funding from the law enforcement who were at one time preventing as best as they could the smuggling of illegal guns into this beautiful country of ours. Maybe this is one reason there are so many gun's out there. How many of those are registered by the undesirables. But yet let's focus on the leagal's as we know for certain they are easy prey. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Ontario needs to follow suit and ban together like the other provinces and territory has, if not this is only one of many steps this province and country is in for. We will never know what is coming next but rather than finding the solution let's be political and take from the innocent.
Up 3 Down 0
Ghost on Oct 20, 2022 at 12:16 pm
@ Stats - Your comment is a logical Fallacy.
Up 48 Down 6
Yukon Proud on Oct 17, 2022 at 9:27 pm
Now that the NDP is willing to play ball with the Yukon Party, hopefully they will help to bring down this leftist liberal government so we can get the conservatives back into power. Let's have an election Kate!
Up 50 Down 3
Groucho d'North on Oct 16, 2022 at 9:33 am
Identity politics for inanimate objects like firearms? Sure it helps to sell the Liberal ideology. I'm a Winchester Model 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge shotgun, commonly called a 'goose gun', but I identify as a Benelli M1014 military weapon. Same guts basically but I'm dressed up with the fancy carbon fibre pistol grip and forestock, the large scope adds better sighting and helps to swell my ego by its black phallic profile. The large banana magazine lets me keep my ammo in a safe & easy to access place rather than stuffed loose into my pockets.
The thing common to both of my identities is that I require respect and training in order to use me for whatever purpose this old tool will be asked to perform. Like all others that modify their appearance to express their self-image, It can frighten some who don't understand.
Up 41 Down 3
peter on Oct 15, 2022 at 9:53 am
An interesting sad fact lingers here. Liberals and most NDPers are reviled by "black scary looking plastic guns". But apart from the fact these can be molded into precise ergonomic shapes and are light weight and resist most damp weather issues and are generally faster and less expensive to produce than wood stocks, most people do not realize that woodstocks are becoming less numerous on the market.
A simple reason for this exists, there is less and less supply of furniture wood on the world market that is suitable for firearms, and the reasons for this vary between climate issues, drought, economic disparity where the good wood ends up in fancy-man's estates overseas and elsewhere.
To get a truly beautiful outstanding wooded firearm will cost big bucks.
Plastic or wood, they are all hunting, and target, firearms adaptable to individual needs. I prefer the artistry of wood, but am caught up in the same mess as others, so don't revile and despise that plastic, it's not my fault that the forest industry now caters to the rich and overseas market.
Up 21 Down 1
Josey Wales on Oct 15, 2022 at 5:35 am
Hey Jim...with BnR...it’s right in the moniker Brain not Running.
You sir are pissing in the wind trying logic with the illogical.
Up 3 Down 13
Bandit on Oct 14, 2022 at 9:11 pm
Please people, watch this 7 minute video instead of being a keyboard warrior and then make an informed decision.
https://www.youtube.coVLziZdMrX8Um/watch?v=
Up 45 Down 5
Douglas Martens on Oct 14, 2022 at 8:41 pm
Thanks guys! This is wonderful news.
It means that instead of dealing with a local officer, the guy across the table at breakfast, we will only have to satisfy a brand new federal force of trained, primed, and ready to use violence (where necessary), goons hired and trained by those whose chief desire appears to be to disarm the people of what used to be known as Canada.. Why they are bent on doing this, is yet another question begging an answer.
Personally, i don't own any military-style weapons, as i am profoundly anti war and find the whole concept of war revolting, and always have. However, calling a weapon an "assault weapon" because of it's appearance seems a little racist, if you will! All firearms are designed with the purpose of delivering an impact at high velocity to a target, distant or near, so the appearance of the delivery device is of very little relevance to the target. "oh no! I've been shot by an assault weapon". "Oh sorry bro, my wound is from a bolt action sporting rifle, so i'm all good."
By far, the majority of ammunition fired is exhausted in practice or for simple enjoyment, along the lines of golf or soccer, or crocheting as a hobby. People get together over a common interest and enjoy the time discussing their hobby.
Must we put an end to this brief joy too because "woke" or some such crap?
So i support those who prefer the military type weapons and think they should be allowed to pursue their hobby unimpeded provided they don't ever abuse their rights of ownership by harming anyone.
In fact, if we were at all serious about stopping guncrime, the simplest solution would be to implement a drivers license sort of system whereby you train for different levels of licensing and gain complete freedom of ownership all the way to the inclusion of fully automatic arms and handguns, with the caveat that if you ever commit a violent crime using a firearm, you are never to touch another one the rest of your boring days.
Wouldn't that work better than this one-size fits-all-everyone-assumed-to-be-a baddy nonsense? It would reward those whose behavior is stellar and put a big red dot on every gansta in the hood.
Up 31 Down 6
bonanzajoe on Oct 14, 2022 at 4:43 pm
@Stats: "the fewer guns you have floating around in society the less murders and mass shootings you have in general." I think you got it wrong Stats. The truth is, the less illegal guns owned by the criminal element in society, the less murders and mass shootings you have in general. Of course we're talking in Canada, not in the USA.
Up 31 Down 2
These people promote intellectual fornication… While travelling in circles, no less… on Oct 14, 2022 at 4:42 pm
At TheHammer on Oct 14, 2022 at 10:20 am; Stats on Oct 13, 2022 at 10:53 pm; Thick Wool on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:59 pm; and BnR on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:58 pm:
You are espousing very dangerous ideas. The reason they are dangerous is because they lack any evidence and are based on emotional reasoning.
It is also cowardice because rather than target gun-wielding criminals you are targeting law-abiding gun owners… All while you encourage criminal conduct with firearms due to light sentencing and quite often no sentencing…
Here we have a ‘Gladuist’ shooting a Muslim man, killing that man, and the ‘Gladuist’ gets away with it - Wow!
“Jamie Sarkonak: The Ontario homicide case that has ended racial fairness in court. Suppressing criminal history for Indigenous people facing trial, another way judges are softening the laws on books.”
Indigenous peoples can have guns as they are exempt and they are allowed to shoot them within city limits… Great job their courts!
You people are disgusting, hypocritical, and ‘stew-piddly’ ideological.
Shuddup!
Up 53 Down 6
DB Cooper on Oct 14, 2022 at 2:23 pm
The hammer apparently doesn’t respect property rights or constitutional rights regarding private property…such a sad state of affairs that there are people out there with a political mindset that agrees with hitler and other tyrants in the world that have or had the worse human rights record ever.
Up 30 Down 4
Baby steps on Oct 14, 2022 at 2:08 pm
Alrighty, then! Now that the duly elected are so brazen as to tell cops what they cannot spend resources on, how about some bold, new directives as to what they CAN spend resources on? IE policing. That would be utopian. If not, I give thumbs up for the cutest political stunt Kate’s performed in weeks. Kudos to Brad, too. Red meat surely does makes strange bedfellows.
Up 69 Down 6
Jim on Oct 14, 2022 at 1:59 pm
@BnR, you state that all of these 1500 guns on the list are designed to kill “other” species rather than used for hunting. Maybe you can advise all us gun nuts why the Department of Environment bought their officers a couple dozen guns off that same list. They apparently said it was to protect themselves from animal attacks, like bears charging, etc. I guess the public doesn’t have the same rights. Actually though, I must confess. Haven’t owned a gun in over 30 years. But I don’t think what I do should affect what other law abiding citizens do. The only reason the Liberals all voted against is because they are a direct extension of the dictator in Ottawa. If they were voting for their constituents, at least one or two would have voted for.
Up 82 Down 5
Excellent News - Thank you! on Oct 14, 2022 at 1:07 pm
Let's rewind a little. The fact is that Trudeau used the tragedy in Nova Scotia where a psycho who dressed up as a cop slaughtered people to pass this gun ban / confiscation.
Let's remember that the psycho in question used guns that were smuggled into Canada from Maine. No amount of gun bans would have stopped him.
Second, the majority of the rifles banned are semi auto firearms that are restricted to 5 rounds in Canada (like all other centre-fire semi auto rifles). The term "assault style" was coined by the liberals because saying "scary looking" would have made them a laughing stock, which they are anyway. Some on the ban list are also rifles with power over 10,000 Joules. This means bolt action hunting rifles like the .460 Weatherby Magnum, Safari rifles like the .600 Nitro express and of course the .50BMG. None of these were ever used in the commission of a crime, and some of these run into the twenty thousand dollar plus range.
This is a bad law that punishes the most law abiding and vetted part of the Canadian population. Name me another hobby in this country where you forfeit your personal privacy rights. Don't know what I mean?
Every 24hrs Canadian firearms owners have their name run through a database (CPIC) by RCMP to ensure they remain law abiding. This is called “continuous eligibility screening”. It’s a daily check up on gun owners.
So please, don't be surprised that the Yukon is now part of the five standing up for firearms owners. This includes Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and as of today New Brunswick, with hopefully many more joining to stop this senseless confiscation from happening.
To all those who support the confiscation of legal property, please do a little research before commenting, you sound like you are either anti gun, pro Trudeau or both, which is a scary thought. Please stop telling us what we need or what we should own, specifically when I have had some of those on the banned list for close to 40 years in my gun vault.
Up 13 Down 76
Fetish? on Oct 14, 2022 at 12:43 pm
Gun owner. Hunter. Not a fan of Trudeau. Don’t need tacticool to feel powerful. 30-06, 12G and 22LR are more than enough to feed the family.
RCMP, where and when can we drop them off? I’ll donate the money to the food bank.
Up 18 Down 75
TheHammer on Oct 14, 2022 at 10:20 am
Yukon Proud@ 'now we are one more jurisdiction lined up'... with Donald Trump and the NFA, and American politics. Proud of what I'd like to know?
Up 81 Down 9
JC on Oct 14, 2022 at 6:47 am
This is great news for the firearms community. Hopefully more provinces join.
Up 85 Down 9
Stephen Robertson on Oct 14, 2022 at 5:43 am
What bothers me about this is that many of the guns on Public Safety's list are not any different from our run-of-the-mill hunting guns. The only difference is what they look like. If you read about this, you will see mention of "assault style" firearms. It's only about what they look like, not what they can do. It seems to be more virtue-signalling for votes in the urban centres. If it were about reducing violence, tackling illegal gun smuggling and addressing mental health would be far more effective.
Up 65 Down 11
Josey Wales on Oct 14, 2022 at 5:00 am
...and as predictable as cows to a salt lick, more uninformed state sycophants loathing freedoms of any kind will saturate this thread with mega projecting of child like thinking.
Attention anti gunners, if it makes you feel better, and it’s all about feelings....
Just do your favourite, and “pretend” that everything a bullet strikes whether a target, game, or yes even a violent repeat offender trying their craft on ya...is an unborn human.
Then you should be completely okay with all firearm activity.
After all the termination of a wee human without a voice, despite being the highest stakeholder...flaming lefties love killing wee humans typically.
Morality has more value than virtue...speaking of projections 🧐
Last point...in real time the current government of formerly known as Canada, is using your taxes to take YOUR guns...AND is also buying guns and other weapons for Ukraine to defend borders they do not recognize here...clearly.
Apparently guns can be used to defend human life in Ukraine, “but not in Canada”...said the biggest idiot our parliament has ever hosted, Emperor Blackface itself.
Up 58 Down 4
North_of_60 on Oct 13, 2022 at 11:40 pm
The LIBgov will counter with saying they will send extra RCMP to the Yukon specifically for the gun confiscation program.
The answer will be:
"Thanks for the additional RCMP staff. Yukon will task them to target organized crime bringing drugs into the Yukon which causes expensive and harmful drug addiction problems."
Up 11 Down 109
Stats on Oct 13, 2022 at 10:53 pm
Shame on the Yukon Party and NDP for opposing a piece of gun control that will remove some guns from society.
For those who say that criminals will always use illegal guns, look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that legal guns are never lost, stolen or illegally sold into the black market. Even if most illegal guns come from across the border, many are still obtained through the methods I just mentioned.
Data shows again and again that the fewer guns you have floating around in society the less murders and mass shootings you have in general. Also, the suicide rate jumps immensely for people living in households where firearms are present.
Just watch American news for 10 minutes a day and you will see reports of a mass shooting. I believe there was one in North Carolina just today.
So thanks for selling out your principles Kate White.
Up 63 Down 9
bonanzajoe on Oct 13, 2022 at 9:09 pm
@BnR on Oct 13, 2022. Did it ever occur to you that decent law abiding citizens just like to take these guns to the gun ranges and play with them? No, I guessed not. And just a thought, wouldn't it better for the government to pass a motion that would make the police go after the illegal fire arms of the criminal element? Let's take the killing weapons off them instead of the law abiding citizens. By the way, which one do you belong to?
Up 48 Down 10
Red Rover, Red Rover, please let Kate come over! on Oct 13, 2022 at 8:29 pm
Well done Kate White and the NDP. It’s right when the left turns right to finally get it right. Hopefully the Liberals see this as a shot across their bow. Hopefully that was what was intended. However, when you’re looking straight up at the nose of a sinking ship you tend to miss a lot. But then I am not too sure that the Liberals can perceive reality in the first place.
Their constant hyper vigilance to an imagined threat diminishes their capacity for executive function. The cortisolic flooding down regulates executive control processes while upregulating amygdalae function - A steroidal booster juice for this midbrain structure increasing the size of its bilateral mass of pending emotionalism, normatively fear based stimulus reactive…
The collective impairment of a frontal lobe disconnectivity is preventing our collective mind’s discovery of Liberalism’s repugnance. This repugnance, a mass of cancer eating away at the vitality of what it means to be human.
Thank you Kate for showing us that there is occasionally at least, bits and pieces of humanity that dare to show themselves in public now and then. You have a green light Kate White - Fire at will!
Up 8 Down 26
Thick Wool on Oct 13, 2022 at 6:35 pm
Keep tearing it down and never grow up, Grunge Generation. Y’all really have no idea what you’re doing, do you? Forget meaningful investment in the coming years. Good job creating more overt poverty while claiming to do the opposite. No one knows which way things are going to go minute-by-minute with you all. Your beliefs and principles are endlessly fluid. That’s not the role of government. You are supposed to be the rock, not the tide. Please, please deal with the victim chip on your shoulders, grow up and get back to work. Being freeloading agents of chaos is not the job.
“Any business anywhere in the world looks for a form of political stability, a form of regulatory predictability and a society with some social cohesion that respects the rule of law,” he said. “The bigger problem here right now is a regulatory regime is unpredictable and unstable, because it’s been politicized by governments, including the preceding government.”
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada
Up 62 Down 12
Dallas on Oct 13, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Obviously Bnr and thick wool are card carrying Liberals and don’t respect private property or individual rights, here’s a fyi to those two, nobody's takin away peoples vehicles permanently when they are caught drinkin and drivin or peoples phones when they are caught not using hands free devices and those two situations have killed way more than firearms…
Up 53 Down 8
Thick skull on Oct 13, 2022 at 5:04 pm
@Thick Wool
I’m so glad criminals follow the law… don’t you agree?
Up 33 Down 14
Josey Wales on Oct 13, 2022 at 4:51 pm
Thick wool...empty head.
Up 29 Down 134
Thick Wool on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:59 pm
Hmmmmmm.
If illegal firearms and illegal transfers of firearms from legal owners to persons prohibited from owning a firearm weren’t making headlines in the Yukon and Canada on a routine basis, including the firearm used in the recent high-profile killing in Faro, I might buy into this as something more than pure political stunt. The NDP position is very surprising. Seems like part of the increasingly obvious disconnection from reality and a wholesale abandonment of the law-abiding tax-paying work-a-day folks they treat as suckers now.
It does seem as if Canada is becoming a country where the rule of law goes to die. It’s going to be interesting to see the reaction here in the comments. I predict the same crowd that goes nuts about exceptions being made for others will turn around and applaud this.
Dear territorial MLAs, If you are willing to effectively ignore laws written by elected representatives, how can you then expect us to follow the laws you all write in your elected positions? You have signalled to the entire population here that we can disregard the law based on our political beliefs. Good luck trying to govern moving forward.
Poor coppers. Even two of them being murdered by firearm this week doesn’t garner them any support. To say nothing of the rifles seized from treasonous radicals at Coutts, AB. Several of them considered legal owners prior to that moment.
Hope the extra votes are worth it…
Up 38 Down 124
BnR on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:58 pm
“Cathers emphasized the need to respect licensed firearms owners, including people who depend on hunting to feed their families.”
None of the firearms on the list are typically firearms one would use while hunting. Well, unless you’re hunting *other* species.
You’re average firearms owning hunters 30-06 or 12 gauge is not in danger.
Blow that dog whistle Brad.
Up 89 Down 13
Wilf Carter on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Great move
Up 119 Down 12
Charles on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:21 pm
Thank you to the NDP for voting for common sense. And thank you to the Yukon Party for standing up for our rights from Day 1. Liberals should have thought this one through a little more - they do, after all, represent their constituents and do not often have our best interests in mind.
Up 124 Down 11
Positive change on Oct 13, 2022 at 2:19 pm
NDP supporting people’s freedoms? Who would have thought.
Up 126 Down 22
Yukon Proud on Oct 13, 2022 at 1:24 pm
This is surprising but great to see. The NDP have finally seen the light when it comes to gun control policies. Now we are one more jurisdiction lined up against the federal Liberals along with Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Naturally the local Liberals voted to further control our access to guns since they love being Big Brother.
You know the Liberals are off track when even the NDP agree with Brad Cathers and they don't, lol.
I can't believe I'm saying this but thank you Kate White.