Canada’s public safety minister on Monday defended the government’s plans to revive a buyback program for banned firearms, one day after he was caught on tape appearing to question its effectiveness.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said during question period in the House of Commons that it was a “good thing” his comments were caught on leaked audio obtained by Global News, in which he acknowledged police may not be able to enforce the program that he suggested was only moving forward due to political pressure.
“My comments were misguided,” Anandasangaree said. “Having said that, Mr. Speaker, it’s important to have the program in place. It’s what Canadians are looking for.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hammered the minister over his comments, saying Anandasangaree “accidentally told the truth” that the buyback program “is not worth the money,” and that “they’re going ahead with the bad policy because it’s good politics.”
“Mr. Speaker, it’s a good thing there’s a recording of it so that Canadians can have a look for themselves,” Anandasangaree responded, adding later that it’s important to have a “real conversation about guns” and the need to prevent future mass shootings.
“That minister did have a real conversation about guns. Unfortunately for him, he was caught on tape,” Poilievre shot back.
The comments came after Global News obtained leaked audio of a lengthy conversation about the impending gun buyback program between Anandasangaree and a tenant of a Toronto residential property owned by the minister.
Anandasangaree said Monday the conversation, which took place Sunday, was recorded without his knowledge.
The audio starts with Anandasangaree saying the individual buyback program will be announced Tuesday. He later says it will begin with a pilot program in Cape Breton, N.S., with a budget cap of $742 million to compensate gun owners who voluntarily turn in their now-banned firearms.
In the audio, the man says he will refuse to turn over his firearms and voiced concerns about whether he will be arrested and charged by police, as well as other frustrations over the buyback program.
At one point in the back-and-forth, Anandasangaree says, “Don’t ask me to explain the logic to you on this.”
Throughout their conversation, the minister repeatedly tells the tenant that he would approach the issue differently if he had the opportunity to “redo” it.
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Later, the minister offers to pay the difference between the federal government’s compensation and what the man paid for his now-banned firearms.
He also offers to bail the man out of jail if he is arrested for non-compliance, but adds “it’s not going to go that far.”
“Let’s be frank about this: I just don’t think municipal police services have the resources to (enforce) this,” Anandasangaree tells the man, who points out the Ontario Provincial Police service has said it won’t directly participate in the program.
Details of the conversation were first reported by the Toronto Star, which obtained the audio after the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights shared excerpts of the conversation on social media Sunday.
The man, who asked not to be identified out of fear of repercussions, first shared the audio with the firearms owners’ group because he felt it was in the public interest. Global News has spoken to the man and confirmed the authenticity of the audio.
The Liberal government under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau first announced a ban on more than 1,500 models and variants of “assault-style” firearms in 2020, after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia that year that killed 22 people.
It promised to compensate those who owned such weapons through a buyback program and gave firearms owners a two-year amnesty under the Criminal Code, which was later extended.
The Liberals promised to revive the gun buyback program during the spring federal election campaign.
Conservatives, gun owners and several provinces have criticized the program, pointing out it will not combat the scourge of illegal firearms in Canada — many originating from the U.S. — that are used in gun crimes.
In the audio of the conversation, Anandasangaree points to the need to fulfil that campaign promise as the reason for the buyback program returning.
“This is the mandate I was given by (Prime Minister Mark) Carney to complete this,” he says.
“It’s been constant, constant discussions on this to see what’s next, right, and the conclusion is, ‘Let’s finish this because we committed to it in the campaign.’”
When the tenant points out that governments regularly break their campaign promises, Anandasangaree suggests there is ongoing pressure from Quebec to see the program through.
“Quebec is in a different place than other parts of Canada, right? And this is something that’s very much a big, big, big deal for many of the Quebec electorate that voted for us,” the minister says.
“I’m sure you’ve seen these articles where people have said, you know, this is one of the things we should not execute, like as a change from Trudeau’s policies, but we made the decision to go ahead.”
In a letter to Carney shortly after April’s election, PolySeSouvient, a prominent Quebec-based gun control advocacy group founded by survivors of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre, urged the prime minister to commit to “timely delivery” of the Liberals’ promised firearm policy reforms, particularly the buyback program.
Natalie Provost, a survivor of the Polytechnique shooting who co-founded the group and was its spokesperson, was recruited by the Liberals to run as a member of Parliament in Quebec and is now part of Carney’s cabinet.
Anandasangaree goes on to tell the man in the audio that “if I were to redo this … like from scratch, I would have a very different approach on this.”
He says he would prioritize strengthening measures against illegal firearm possession, particularly of now-banned models, including “mandatory” jail time — something he says Justice Minister Sean Fraser is “already working on.”
Near the end of the recorded conversation, after the tenant says he’s “not looking forward to your announcement on Tuesday,” Anandasangaree appears to ask for his forgiveness.
“Cut me some slack, OK?” he asks.
