Canada opposition leader, under pressure, scraps vow to end assault-weapon ban By Reuters

By David Ljunggren

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – The top of Canada’s opposition Conservatives on Sunday scrapped a marketing campaign promise to remove a ban on some assault weapons after Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused him of cozying as much as the gun foyer.

Conservative chief Erin O’Toole has been beneath strain from critics forward of the Sept. 20 election due to his occasion’s place on gun management, a delicate concern in Canada, particularly following crimes together with a lethal 2020 capturing rampage in Nova Scotia.

Liberal governments over time have tightened gun legal guidelines, that are stricter than these in the US. Canada’s fee of gun violence is considerably decrease than that of its southern neighbor.

Of their platform, the right-of-center Conservatives stated they might scrap a 2020 ban on 11 sorts of assault weapons, together with these utilized in quite a few mass shootings. O’Toole beforehand stated the restrictions unfairly penalized hunters and farmers.

“I need to make my place on firearms completely clear,” O’Toole instructed reporters in Vancouver. “The current ban on quite a few … firearms that had been reclassified in 2020 will stay in place.”

O’Toole, pressed on the matter, didn’t clarify the shift and accused Trudeau of partaking in American-style politics and “dividing individuals, pitting East versus west, rural versus city.” As an alternative of scrapping the ban, the Conservatives would launch a public assessment of how firearms are categorised.

The Conservatives acted to stop Trudeau from turning the matter right into a wedge concern that would damage them, stated a senior occasion member, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the state of affairs.

Earlier within the day, Trudeau accused O’Toole of pandering to the far-right parts of his occasion.

“Group security isn’t up for negotiation with the gun foyer. And also you actually do not hand them the pen to put in writing your platform,” he instructed reporters in Markham, Ontario.

The weapons banned in 2020 embrace the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, which a gunman used to kill 14 girls in Montreal in 1989.

Gun management is about to characteristic in two televised leaders’ debates this week, when Trudeau will attempt to revive a marketing campaign that insiders concede is struggling amid voter fatigue and unhappiness in regards to the election timing.

Trudeau known as the vote two years early to function a referendum on his dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A rolling Nanos Analysis survey of 1,200 individuals for CTV on Sunday put the Conservatives at 34.9%, with the Liberals at 33.4% and the left-leaning New Democrats at 18.9%.

A day earlier, Nanos had the Conservatives at 35.5% and the Liberals at 33%.