“There is no good reason why a law-abiding individual needs to possess these kinds of weapons,” Councillor Alex Norris told city council.
Montreal city council voted unanimously Monday to demand the federal government outlaw the private possession of handguns and assault weapons.
Councillor Alex Norris, who chairs the city’s public security committee, tabled the motion, which is a declaration that Montreal demands the federal government strengthen its proposed gun law, Bill C-71, with a clear ban on the possession of assault weapons and handguns by anyone except members of the Canadian Armed Forces and police officers.
The city’s declaration also asks the federal government to beef up screening restrictions so that suicidal, violent or mentally unstable individuals cannot obtain authorization to own a gun.
“Today we speak with one voice asking the federal government to ban these weapons,” Norris told the council meeting. “There is no good reason why a law-abiding individual in Canada needs to possess these kinds of weapons … that were conceived principally to kill human beings.”
He said council will not be satisfied by changes in the rules around transportation or storage of guns and ammunition, nor would a local ban on possession be effective.
“We need a federal ban, and we also need a better screening system,” he said. “Too often we are seeing that people with clear tendencies toward suicide or violence are getting authorization to possess these weapons.”
The declaration notes that gun crime in Canada increased by 33 per cent between 2013 and 2016, and 60 per cent of those crimes were committed with handguns. Toronto has experienced a rash of deadly shootings, including the attack last month on Danforth Ave. that took the lives of a child and an 18-year-old woman.
Though gun crime in Montreal is at record low levels, this city’s history of gun violence is dramatic and recent enough that gun control is a unifying issue here. The motion’s preamble makes mention of the 1989 massacre of 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, the 1992 shooting at Concordia University, the 2006 shooting at Dawson College and last year’s deadly attack at a mosque in Quebec City.
To a standing ovation by all councillors, Norris acknowledged the presence of several anti-gun activists on the balcony of the council chamber, there to show their support for the council’s declaration. These included survivors and family members of victims of the Polytechnique and Dawson shootings, as well as leaders of student associations that have passed similar resolutions.
Heidi Rathjen, a Polytechnique graduate who has been on the front line of the fight for tighter gun control laws in Canada for almost 30 years, said cities like Montreal and Toronto are right to speak up to remind the government of the views of the majority of Canadians.
“A lot of the noise is coming from a very vocal minority who are against all gun controls,” Rathjen, coordinator of the gun-control group PolyRemembers, told reporters after the motion passed. “So for Montreal to come out, like Toronto, and make louder noise, is really essential since over 80 per cent of Canadians want to ban assault weapons, and 60 per cent want to ban handguns.”
Toronto adopted a motion last month asking the federal government to prohibit the availability, sale, possession and use of handguns, assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms in Canada, except by members of the armed forces and police officers.
Rathjen said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has attempted to deflect attention from the essential question of whether or not private citizens should be allowed to own handguns and assault weapons by focussing on restrictions on how these weapons should be transported and stored.
“That is not what we’ve been asking for,” she said.
Jim Edward, whose sister Anne-Marie Edward died in the Polytechnique shooting, said victims’ families are tired of waiting for more tragedies to push the government to bring in effective gun-control measures.
“It’s very frustrating for the families of the victims to go through this over and over again, and we definitely want to see Ralph Goodale take Canadians seriously that this is something that needs to be dealt with now,” he said.
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