Send this page to someone via email
Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing by both the Liberals’ gun buyback plan and his embattled public safety minister who was caught on tape questioning the program.
Speaking in the House of Commons Wednesday, Carney resisted continued calls from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to fire Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.
Anandasangaree found himself in hot water this week after leaked audio of the minister questioning the efficacy and motivation of the Liberals’ gun buyback program surfaced online, leading to the Conservatives’ push to have him removed from his post.
“His own minister of public safety says this government is doing it wrong. He was caught on tape saying the program won’t work,” Poilievre said during question period.
“The police say they won’t implement it, the minister says it’s a bad idea, but they’re only doing it for political reasons.”
Story continues below advertisement
“What the minister of public safety is doing, is doing it right, he’s correcting an inefficient system to provide Canadians with fair compensation” for their firearms, Carney shot back.
“What this government is doing is providing fair compensation for Canadians to return illegal firearms, illegal assault rifles.”
2:17 Poilievre calls for Anandasangaree to be fired over gun buyback misstep
The program, first announced under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, banned more than 1,500 “assault-style” firearms and variants in 2020 after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia killed 22 people. Owners of the proposed banned firearms would be eligible for compensation.
Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
In the secretly-recorded conversation, which was first reported on by the Toronto Star on Sunday, Anandasangaree suggests to a constituent that municipal police forces lack the resources to enforce gun bans, and that he would approach the issue differently had he the chance.
Story continues below advertisement
The public safety minister also suggested the program was motivated by political considerations in Quebec.
“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.
In the recording, Anandasangaree said he would personally pay the difference between what the constituent gets from the buyback program and what he paid for his guns.
Global News has also obtained the audio and has spoken to the man who recorded the conversation with Anandasangaree.
2:04 Public safety minister criticized Liberals’ gun buyback program, leaked audio reveals
Carney told reporters in New York on Tuesday that he still had “confidence” in Anandasangaree.
“These are guns that are assault rifles, AR-15s and variants,” Carney said.
Story continues below advertisement
“The minister is doing important work … He’s got a lot of important work this session of parliament, including legislation on borders and others.”
It is not the first time Anandasangaree has attracted scrutiny during his short tenure as public safety minister.
Almost immediately after being appointed to the portfolio — which oversees the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Canada Border Services Agency — Global News reported that Anandasangaree put in place an “ethics screen” preventing him from making national security decisions related to the “Tamil community.”
Anandasangaree came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1983 and was a Tamil community activist and lawyer before being elected as a Liberal MP in Scarborough in 2015. After the Sri Lankan civil war ended in 2009, Anandasangaree helped hundreds of Sri Lankan migrants who paid human smugglers to ferry them to Canada on the MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea.
2:12 Carney says he still has confidence in public safety minister
The Associated Press at the time reported Anandasangaree said those on board the ships would have legitimate asylum claims even if some were members of the Tamil Tigers rebel group. Both Anandasangaree and his wife have been critical in the past of how Canada’s national security agencies — agencies that now report to him — handle Tamil refugee claims.
Story continues below advertisement
In July, Global News reported that before joining cabinet last May, Anandasangaree asked officials at the CBSA to approve the permanent residence application of a man the agency deemed a member of the Tamil Tigers.
“One of the major responsibilities of any member of Parliament, anyone elected, is provision of services to individuals seeking help from our offices,” he told reporters in July.
“So this is part and parcel of the work that every member of Parliament does, and in this particular case, I was executing my duties as a member of Parliament, one that I believe constituents expect me to do.”
Anandasangaree previously suggested he was helping a constituent, but Global News reported in July that documents suggest the applicant’s wife — a Canadian citizen — lives in Markham, not Anandasangaree’s riding of Scarborough-Guildwood-Rouge Park.
[SRC] https://globalnews.ca/news/11448812/carney-stands-by-gun-ban-minister/
