Police Associations Speak Out Against Trudeau’s Failed Record On Gun Crime

October 25, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – After nine years, the NDP-Liberals are not worth the crime or the chaos. Violent crime has increased by 50 percent since Justin Trudeau first became Prime Minister while violent gun crime has increased by 116 percent.

Despite this, Justin Trudeau decided to brag about banning the firearms of law-abiding Canadians, while completely ignoring the gun smuggling and crime wave his NDP-Liberal government has unleashed across the country.

As a result, police associations from across the country were forced to correct Trudeau. The Toronto Police Association (TPA), for instance, wrote to Trudeau telling him that “criminals did not get your message.” They went on to say that “our communities are experiencing a 45% increase in shootings and a 62% increase in gun-related homicides compared to this time last year. What difference does your handgun ban make when 85% of guns seized by our members can be sourced to the United States?”

This was followed by similar condemnations from the Vancouver Police Union and the Surrey Police Union. The Vancouver Police Union wrote that Trudeau is “not aware of the ongoing gang war here in B.C. which is putting both our members and public at risk on a daily basis. Where do you think their guns are still coming from?” The Surrey Police Union also wrote that Trudeau’s “handgun freeze fails to address the real issue: the surge of illegal firearms coming across our borders and ending up in the hands of violent criminals.”

In Ontario, the York Regional Police Association, called Trudeau’s statement “very disappointing” and pointed to the evidence that police reported firearm crime has only increased under Trudeau’s government. The President of the Hamilton Police Association also corrected Trudeau, saying that there had been “54 shootings, [with] 30 people arrested facing 196 charges and 323 guns seized. Repeat Offenders – on bail – for gun charges [and] 89% of crime guns are smuggled in from the USA.”

Instead of listening to these legitimate concerns, Trudeau’s Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety called the Toronto Police Association a member of the “gun lobby,” showing how desperate they are to smear anyone who calls out their failures on gun crime. The TPA is not the gun lobby, they’re an organization that protects 8,000 police officers and their families who serve on the front lines of Trudeau’s crime wave.  As the TPA later said, “shame on anyone who suggests otherwise.”

Justin Trudeau’s ban is not about handguns, or so-called “assault-style firearms.” This is about Trudeau dividing Canadians to distract from their criminal justice failures, and law-abiding Canadian sport shooters, hunters and Indigenous people are paying the price. And all the while they celebrate their failed ban, Trudeau has made life easier for violent criminals by repealing mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes with Bill C-5, making it easier to get bail with Bill C-75, and failing to stop the flow of illegal guns across the US border.

Canadians deserve a government that will bring home safe streets for Canadians. Only Common Sense Conservatives have a plan to support our police, secure the borders, jail violent criminals and stop the crime.