Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during Question Period on Sept. 28, in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Alberta is intensifying the Prairie provinces’ challenge to Ottawa’s firearms buyback program, calling on the RCMP not to enforce it – a move the federal Public Safety Minister says is “reckless.”
At a press conference in Edmonton on Sunday, Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor-General Tyler Shandro stated that Mounties contracted to police communities in the province should focus on their regular duties and not participate in the federal government’s twin ban and buyback program for assault-style weapons.
This reinforces Mr. Shandro’s announcement last week that he had sent a letter giving this same advice to the top Mountie in the province, after which Saskatchewan revealed they had done so, too, while Manitoba has also publicly objected to the federal policy.
“This is further desperation from the federal government because they don’t have a way to operationalize what’s being proposed,” Mr. Shandro said Sunday, responding to recent criticism from federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Mendicino had dismissed Mr. Shandro’s position, saying all matters relating to the control, management and administration of the RCMP are under exclusive federal jurisdiction.
“Let me be blunt: It is a political stunt and it is reckless and it is an abdication of responsibility,” Mr. Mendocino said to The Globe when asked about Mr. Shandro’s direction to the Mounties. “He is undermining public safety and he is interfering with the RCMP’s legal obligations to enforce federal law as it relates to firearms. It’s all kinds of wrong.”
Since May, 2020, Ottawa has prohibited more than 1,500 different models of assault-style firearms from being used or sold in Canada. Mr. Mendicino said the federal government is still ironing out details of its promised buyback program, which would compensate affected owners and businesses. An amnesty order is in place until October, 2023, to give gun owners time to comply with the law.
On Sunday, Mr. Shandro said the RCMP “officer in command here in Alberta” has told him “informally” that he also disagrees with the federal plan.
Fraser Logan, the civilian head of communications for Alberta RCMP, said Sunday evening the RCMP was not commenting on Mr. Shandro’s remarks that were “made in private conversation.” Mr. Logan deferred The Globe’s questions to Mr. Shandro’s office or Public Safety Canada. Neither the Manitoba RCMP nor Saskatchewan RCMP immediately responded to requests for comment Sunday.
Part of the provincial objections to the federal policy relate to the additional costs they say it would impose, potentially forcing police to shift resources away from other important files. Mr. Mendicino suggested Ottawa is prepared to provide additional funding.
“The federal government will be there to work with provincial and territorial partners when it comes to addressing public safety priorities,” Mr. Mendicino told CTV on Sunday.
On the RCMP’s enforcement of federal law, Mr. Mendicino has pointed to Alberta’s policing agreement with Ottawa that establishes the service as the provincial police force. Mr. Shandro pointed to the same document during an announcement last week, saying the agreement has a dispute-resolution process – where both parties engage in good-faith discussion – that the province would invoke if Ottawa insisted on the RCMP enforcing the federal gun policies.
Mr. Mendicino told The Globe he is confident the RCMP will uphold the law and is in conversation with other provinces and law enforcement agencies to ensure proper resources are in place to move forward with the program. He said assault-style rifles are designed to kill people, pointing to the Nova Scotia mass shooting in 2020, the Quebec City mosque attack in 2017 and the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989.
“We have to make sure this never happens again,” he said.
Nicole O’Byrne, associate professor of law at the University of New Brunswick, said in an e-mail that the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan have crossed the line between appropriate policy direction and interference with police operations.
“Governments are responsible for policy directions taken by the police, however they must not interfere in law enforcement decisions that direct police to ignore the law,” she said. “The police are responsible for the law alone and their decisions regarding investigation, prosecution and arrest should not be interfered with by government officials including the minister responsible.”
Dr. O’Byrne said the RCMP maintain a federal policing role in Alberta above and beyond their provincial and municipal contracts. Should both provinces continue in the pursuit of contravening federal law, she said it could lead to “serious confusion” and further taint government relations.
Another expert, Eric Adams, said there is a grey area. The law professor at the University of Alberta said the very nature of RCMP officers being provincially contracted lends itself to tension between levels of government and differing interpretations of one’s role.
He said undergoing a formal dispute process, which is laid out in the provincial-federal policing contract – and as Mr. Shandro has mentioned – might be the best path forward.
“Sometimes, compromises have to be found, and in a case where both governments are unwilling to budge, then it’s possible that one party could seek a judicial review of the terms of the contract, but I really don’t see that as where this particular dispute is heading,” Mr. Adams said in an interview.
“They’re going to have to talk it out, and the federal government is going to have to decide how serious it is about trying to achieve the particular objectives of this program.”
Rod Giltaca, executive director for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, said news of the Western provinces pushing back against the firearms ban is encouraging. He said targeting responsible gun owners will do little to deter violence in Canada and the country should instead be focused, for example, on addressing illegal firearms smuggling.
Meanwhile, Heidi Rathjen, co-ordinator of gun-control group PolySeSouvient, said the resistance by both provinces to enforce the law is irresponsible but declined to comment further until the legal ramifications of their decisions are better understood.
With a report from Bill Curry in Ottawa