Liberal Leader Mark Carney shows his inked finger after having his fingerprint taken by students while visiting the Sheridan College Police Foundations department in Brampton, Ont., on April 10.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Liberal Leader Mark Carney says he will reinvigorate the gun-buyback program that the federal government has failed to launch for several years as part of his plan to crack down on organized crime and strengthen gun control in the country.
Mr. Carney announced a slew of public-safety measures Thursday in Brampton, Ont., as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledges tough-on-crime laws.
The Liberal Party first proposed a buyback program for assault-style rifles in the 2019 campaign, and the government says the program is expected to launch later this year.
Mr. Carney, whose federal campaign has heavily focused on trade and political tensions with the United States, tied public-safety issues to the U.S., saying that tariffs are not the only threat coming from south of the border.
“Criminals are taking advantage of irresponsible American gun laws and their weak border enforcement to bring illegal guns into Canada,” he said on Thursday. “Large American online platforms have become seas of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate in all its forms, and they’re being used by criminals to harm our children. My government will act.”
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The Liberal Leader committed to making it harder to get bail for individuals accused of violent car theft, car theft for a criminal organization, home invasion, and certain human trafficking and smuggling offences, particularly those who are repeat offenders. Mr. Carney is pledging to do so with a reverse-onus provision, which shifts the burden to the accused to make the case for why they should be released.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced bail reform that included a reverse onus on some crimes, which came into effect last year.
Mr. Carney’s public-safety plan also includes a commitment to automatically revoke gun licences for individuals convicted of violent crimes.
To crack down on organized crime, Liberals say they will recruit 1,000 additional RCMP personnel and train 1,000 new Canada Border Services Agency officers.
The plan outlines several changes to the Criminal Code as well, including allowing for consecutive sentences for some crimes and creating more penalties for intimate-partner and sexual violence.
It proposes making murder motivated by hate, including femicides, a constructive first-degree offence. The Liberals say they will also make it a criminal offence to distribute non-consensual sexual deepfakes and increase penalties for the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
Mr. Poilievre has made tough-on-crime policies a cornerstone of his campaign, proposing Wednesday a “three strikes” plan that would imprison repeat violent offenders for a mandatory minimum of 10 years. The Conservative Leader has also frequently promised “jail not bail” for repeat offenders.
Conservative candidate Larry Brock said in a statement that Mr. Carney is trying to “trick” Canadians and “hide” from the Liberal record on rising crime over the past 10 years.
Liberal candidate Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, was asked on Thursday whether the government was not tough enough on crime.
“Crime has gone up, and people are becoming afraid, and we need to demonstrate to Canadians that we are prepared to respond appropriately to that,” Mr. Blair told reporters.
According to a Statistics Canada report released last summer, the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada increased in 2023 for the third consecutive year, rising by 2 per cent. The federal agency said that upward trend began in 2015.
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