Week in Review: Matt Gurney, Globe and Mail, Liberals, Doctors

Highlights of the Week: April 1 – 7

Following are some of the highlights of the past week affecting Canadian gun owners and shooters as the government prepares new prohibitions and confiscations.

Friendly

1. Gun Owners ‘Want Their Rights Respected,’ Conservative MP Candice Bergen Says
2. Matt Gurney of the National Post criticized an editorial in the Globe and Mail for its errors of logic and fact. (See below.)
3. Dennis Young started a Change.org petition calling on the government to be as strict with criminal offenders as with honest firearm owners.
4. The National Firearms Association was among those who opposed a motion by the government’s representative in the Senate to “ram through” Bill C-71 and other legislation. The senator withdrew the motion.
5. The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights published a video critique of a 2017 report on “firearm injuries” in “youth.” A group of doctors is using the report to attack lawful gun owners.
6. Twitter user Steve reported on a Toronto event by the doctors for the media.
7. CBC News: Firearm advocates say Calgary gun show sets a positive example

Neither Friendly Nor Hostile

1. National Post: Do the results of government questionnaire on handguns truly reflect how Canadians feel?

Hostile

1. Liberal MPs Attack Scheer Over University Club Range Day
2. The editorial board of the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper, called on the government to confiscate all handguns from their lawful owners and incarcerate people who don’t comply, aka “handgun ban.”
3. The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a show on Ontario’s TVO, aired a segment that critically analyzed a video and tactics of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights against a group of doctors attacking gun owners. The show didn’t disclose that one of its panelists was a friend and associate of the organizer and lobbyist of the doctors’ group.
4. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, a registered lobby group that campaigns against hunters, farmers and sport shooters, reiterated its support for Bill C-71 to the Senate committee analyzing the planned law.
5. TheGunBlog.ca reported: Canadian Government Reiterates It May Ban Guns, Won’t Say How
6. Minister Bill Blair, who is overdue presenting his examination of mass gun confiscations from their lawful owners, told the Senate committee examining Bill C-71 the government is “taking a very hard look at the weapons” that were used in last month’s New Zealand massacre and other attacks. New Zealand ordered the immediate surrender of many rifles and shotguns.
7. Senator André Pratte, the Senate sponsor of Bill C-71, told the committee examining the bill that it proposes “targeted adjustments” to firearm laws that “won’t have any impact on the vast majority of firearm owners and it will change absolutely nothing for them.” (See Senate video replay starting at 13:22:45.) This is false. Bill C-71 will affect every person who buys, sells, owns or wishes to own a firearm legally. The only people it won’t affect are people who wish to buy, sell, own or transport firearms illegally.
8. Senator Pierre Dalphond, appointed by Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, continued his e-mail and Twitter campaign to pass Bill C-71 and confiscate guns.
9. The national mass media promoted a group of doctors lobbying the government to prohibit and seize firearms from hunters, farmers and sport shooters, suggesting they are responsible for terrorism and murder. Examples: CBC News (video), The Canadian Press, the Globe and Mail, Global News. (Read TheGunBlog.ca’s Feb. 2 scoop on the doctors here.)
10. Toronto Mayor John Tory said on Twitter he welcomed the doctors and “Thanked them for their advocacy for a handgun & assault weapons ban.”