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Dear Mr. Blair
We are the Danforth Families for Safe Communities (DFSC), a group of families affected by the “Danforth Shooting”. We are joined by other individuals and families in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that have also been victimized by gun violence. You know many of us.
It is not easy to relive the night of July 22, 2018, nor any other occasion where gun use led to tragedy, shattering lives and the perceived sense of safety within a community. Nonetheless, we have shared our stories. For all of us, it is impossible to accept the senseless loss of life and long-standing health effects of the related injuries (whether they be physical or mental). For all of us, it is impossible to erase the direct and indirect impact of the trauma and the haunting memories for those who bore witness.
Unfortunately, the Liberal government’s response has been to acknowledge the issues but to inadequately address them, which is disappointing to say the least. Consequently, it is with great disappointment that we are once again forced to revisit our own grief and trauma as a means of having you and other elected officials take notice.
We do not accept this government’s record on gun control reform as meeting, or being on track to meet, its platform promises. Bill C-71 has yet to be implemented, with no recent update to stakeholders or the public. To then claim that Bill C-21 is the “most sweeping and significant gun legislation in Canadian history” is highly offensive to gun crime victims. Bill C-21 not only misses the mark on the most important elements that such legislation should address, but the messaging disseminated by this government actually masks the potential harmful effects of this bill for Canadians.
The bottom line is that your direct experience in Toronto law enforcement and representation as a Toronto MP should have resulted in a far stronger recommendation on handgun policy. Instead, during this government’s time in office, the number of Restricted Possession and Acquisition Licenses (RPALs) issued across Canada has grown at an alarming rate and, with that, the growth in private ownership of the most dangerous firearms that this government pledged to curb. Also, as you are aware, gun crime in both the City of Toronto and across the country has been greater in each and every year since this government came to power in 2015. The statistics speak for themselves but, using 2015 as a baseline, where applicable, the DFSC feel compelled to highlight the following:
You must do better. Canadians need this government to achieve outcomes similar to those of social-liberal democracies such as Australia, where the gun homicide rate per 100,000 population is half of Canada’s, or the UK, where they experience about 10% of the rate in Canada[6]; the obvious difference being that those countries have had the courage to prohibit private ownership and possession of assault weapons and handguns.
Now that Bill C-21 has progressed to the stage of consideration in committee, and since the implementation plan of Bill C-71 is undisclosed, we urge you and this government to take the action we’ve outlined below. Not only in the interest of public safety, but to also honour our loved ones who paid the ultimate price for a lack of balance between public safety and the desires of self-centered interests.
1) Withdraw the proposal for a municipally-determined handgun prohibition on storage and transportation in order to determine a more credible strategy, which must include reducing, and eventually phasing out, the private ownership of handguns in Canada. In addition, immediately cease to issue new RPALs for handguns and cease the further manufacture of handguns for, and importation of handguns to, Canada for sale to private citizens.
2) Remove, through a mandatory buy-back program, all of the newly prohibited assault weapons from circulation (or, in the very least, implement a program through which such weapons are rendered permanently inoperable).
3) Do not introduce an onerous and, potentially, dangerous “red flag” judicial process that would cede responsibility to those under the threat of violence to petition the court. Instead, hold authorities accountable. The government issueslicenses and allows peopleto have guns. It also needs to take responsibility for ensuring that they are taken away when public safety is at stake. In addition, develop a clear and responsive avenue for potential victims, and those that may act on their behalf, to ensure appropriate resources are mobilized quickly and effectively.
4) We also call on this government to publicly disclose the implementation plan for Bill C-71 and the status of each constituent part.
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