QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Public Safety
Mandatory Minimum Penalties
May 31, 2023
Minister, crime is now at a record level in Winnipeg, as it is across the country. Winnipeg saw a record of 53 homicides in 2022, and 30% of them were committed with firearms.
In Bill C-5, the Trudeau government eliminated eight mandatory minimum penalties involving the use of a firearm in crime, including robbery with a firearm, extortion with a firearm, discharging a firearm with intent, using a firearm in the commission of offences and four others.
You seem to think that creating more gun laws is the answer.
Minister, how did the Trudeau government’s elimination of mandatory penalties involving the use of firearms help combat the rise in violent crime?
As the honourable senator will know, Bill C-5 was a direct response to a number of Supreme Court of Canada decisions that had systematically struck down mandatory minimum penalties, which had stripped the judiciary of their independence and constituted overreach by violating the Charter. Conversely, our government has looked at putting in place important gun-control laws, like Bill C-21, which will reduce gun violence because it strengthens the ban against AR-15-style firearms and puts into place a national freeze on handguns. Those are initiatives that the Conservative Party has committed to repealing, and the result of that would be to relegalize those guns, which have no legitimate recreational purpose.
I would conclude by saying that when it comes to the Winnipeg Police Service, they have acknowledged that the government’s investments, including the $390 million that I just recently announced, will help them do the job on the ground. That is work we will continue to do in partnership with all provinces, territories and municipalities, as well as the police that work in those respective jurisdictions.
