The following is an excerpt from And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence, by Pamela Cross, nominated for this year’s Donner Prize, one the best public policy books of the year.
‘The government has to rely on the private sector and qualified businesses to do the work,’ said the University of Ottawa’s J.L. Gilles LeVasseur.
Bills that received royal assent on Dec. 15 as the House wrapped up its work for 2023 include Bill C-21, the Liberals’ gun control legislation; and Bill C-56, the Affordable Housing and Groceries Act.
The bill, currently under study at a Senate committee, would make permanent a May 2020 regulatory ban on the use, purchase, and sale of more than 1,500 types of firearms, and bring into law several other gun control measures.
Bill C-21, the Liberal government’s firearms legislation, will be up for consideration by the Senate’s Defence Committee this fall.
The Liberals’ failure to ‘do their homework’ and consult with Indigenous communities burned political capital and left the government back where it started last fall, says NDP strategist Cam Holmstrom.
After three years and more than $25-million, it is inexplicable that the commissioners did not do a deeper dive into how the RCMP was structured, writes Sheila Copps.
The Liberals pulled back controversial amendments to Bill C-21, which critics argued would restrict access to hunting rifles. But gun control activist Heidi Rathjen says ‘disinformation has won over the facts’ on the bill.
The amendments would have prohibited many semi-automatic weapons capable of carrying large amounts of ammunition by introducing a new ‘evergreen’ firearm classification system.
Carey Price learned that lesson last week when he weighed in on the current anti-gun debate roiling in the House of Commons.
Bill C-21 amendments are a ‘no-lose’ scenario for the Liberals, regardless of NDP support, says Nik Nanos, who expects more ‘sensational’ behaviour as parties look to fill campaign war chests in 2023.
