LETTER

 

-----  Gun control: dishonesty is the policy

 

The Liberal government has aired a multi-million-dollar ad campaign touting its record on implementing gun control measures. Another attacks Erin O’Toole for promising to repeal gun control measures. 

Families of victims and survivors of the mass shooting at L’École Polytechnique who have been advocating for tougher controls for over 30 years feel shock and dismay with what they consider a completely disingenuous and obviously political, and taxpayer-funded, attempt to fool Canadians into believing that the Liberal government has stood up to the gun lobby and made concrete progress on gun control. 

  Barely any of the measures adopted by the Liberals related to both their 2015 and 2019 election promises have been implemented.  And the measures actually adopted or introduced are a shadow of what could have been done. Most consists of half or hollow measures riddled with concessions to the gun lobby. 

These ads indicate the Trudeau Liberals will run on gun control for a third time. Given their succession of broken promises, Canadians are asking: How are new promises different from the last two sets of broken ones? 

At least when Canadians vote for the Conservatives, they know they are voting in favour of gun lobby interests because the party’s position is clear: to repeal whatever modest progress the Liberals made.

We hope that media will look beyond Liberal talking points and scrutinize what the party has actually achieved. Because if you look at the details of the legislation and regulations, not much has changed since the Harper government decimated our gun control laws: tens of thousands of fully functional assault weapons remain in private hands, high capacity magazines remain accessible, handguns continue to proliferate, and major flaws with respect to background checks and preventative measures (in cases of suicide and domestic violence) end up in tragedy after tragedy.  

Nathalie Provost, Polytechnic 1989 survivor, 

Montreal