Welcome to Alberta where you can now be a law-abiding citizen while defying the law!
Says who?
Says Tyler Shandro, minister of justice, who announced that the province will be taking over handling charges under the federal Firearms Act so people who violate the act but who our United Conservative Party (UCP) government thinks ought to be able to violate the act won’t be charged under the act when they violate it.
You know, because they’re law-abiding firearms owners.
Surely this is something new and unique in the annals of justice?
To put this another way, as Premier Danielle Smith did in the government’s press release headlined “Alberta takes back constitutional jurisdiction” (which isn’t what’s actually happening here, but never mind), our UCP government is going to make Alberta safer by taking over enforcement of a federal gun safety law and not enforcing it.
Smith’s actual potted press-release said quote: “As government, we do all we can to ensure the safety of Albertans. The federal government’s firearm ban does not stop illegal guns from crossing the border and making it into the hands of criminals. Instead of targeting criminals, the ban targets law-abiding firearms owners. Taking back Alberta’s constitutional jurisdiction and the authority to handle charges under the Firearms Act is one more way our province is pushing back against federal overreach.”
If you parse this paragraph, you will notice that each sentence isn’t really connected to the next one.
It starts talking about public safety. Then it drops the subject of Ottawa’s new gun-safety rules (which a reasonable person could argue are unlikely to be effective) and instead makes the case that smuggling guns is a bigger threat (which may or may not be true). Then it says the law targets law-abiding gun owners (tautologically untrue, unusual in rhetoric). Then it says the government is pushing back against federal overreach – although whether this law is federal overreach has not been established.
Are you confused? Don’t worry about it. You’re supposed to be.
Anyway, it’s going to get even more confusing, and we’ll get to that in a minute.
But first, here’s part of Shandro’s press release quote: “By taking back our constitutional jurisdiction, we are not only asserting Alberta’s rightful place in Confederation but also better serving Alberta’s law-abiding firearms community.”
This contains an important point, although possibly not the one Shandro ought to be making if he values his political survival in his suburban Calgary riding. To wit: Since Smith became premier, the UCP has been completely captured by the Q-adjacent, anti-vaxx, anti-gun-control nuts of the Take Back Alberta political action committee.
As such, the party is now taking a National Rifle Association (NRA) line on gun control, so you bet the UCP is “better serving Alberta’s law-abiding firearms community.” It has, however, no more interest in serving Albertans concerned about public safety when it comes to guns that it did when it came to masking to prevent circulation of respiratory diseases or requiring health care workers to be vaccinated against infectious disease.
Smith and her apparent bosses at Take Back Alberta think this is a winning issue in Calgary. It’s said here that is far from certain.
Be that as it may, Teri Bryant, Alberta’s “Chief Firearms Officer,” who was hired last year by then-premier Jason Kenney’s government to obstruct federal firearms laws, had a speaking part in this little drama too.
“Having provincial jurisdiction to handle firearms offences makes sense and is in the best interests of Albertans’ rights and safety,” she said supportively in the news release, and more of the same in the news conference.
You’ll notice the key factoid here that is not mentioned in the release, to wit, that the UCP government will be directing Crown prosecutors not to enforce a law party leaders don’t agree with.
READ MORE: Kenney’s habit of advocating U.S.-style gun laws bears remembering
Wait, wait! Said Shandro in response to a reporter’s question at his news conference: “There is no direction to prosecutors in these matters. There’s advice. There is no direction, and there should be no direction.” After all, he conceded, prosecutorial independence is constitutionally entrenched.
But while insisting the province’s directives are mere advice, a mere protocol, he also said: “The protocol states that it will not be in the public interest to proceed with the prosecution of a charge of the possession of a banned firearm where the following factors exist: First, that the accused lawfully obtained the firearm or prohibited device before May first 2020. Second, that the firearm or prohibited device was reclassified as prohibited on May 1st, 2020. And then third, the accused has not been charged with any other offence in relation to the possession or use of that firearm.”
Of course it’s a freakin’ directive.
And don’t forget, owners of guns declared illegal have until next October to turn them in, and be compensated for them.
Well, whether Smith, Shandro, Take Back Alberta and what’s left of the UCP like it or not, Ottawa can still lay charges under its own legislation if it chooses to.
That would probably suit Smith in her desire to pick fights with the federal government to the better to pursue her sovereignty-association agenda.
Whether gun safety is the right hill to die on, metaphorically speaking, to pursue that agenda is another matter entirely.
Shandro, meanwhile, sounded at times like a man who had an inkling he may be signing his own political death warrant.
No doubt the federal government will get back to him in due course.
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