Scheer plans border agency task force to stop illegal guns coming in from U.S.

TORONTO — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will get Canada’s border agency to do more to try and stop illegal guns from crossing into Canada from the United States.

Scheer is in Toronto today, where calls are loudest for governments to do more to combat gun crime.

He is critical of the Liberals for promising to allow cities and provinces to ban handguns, saying that won’t get at the biggest source of the guns used in crimes.

Scheer cites Toronto police chief Mark Saunders in saying that 80 per cent of guns in the hands of gang members are coming into Canada illegally from the United States.

The Conservative crime platform also includes new mandatory minimum sentences for some gang offences and an automatic parole violation for convicted criminals who return to their gangs after getting out of prison.

Scheer also says a Conservative government would label gangs as criminal entities in the Criminal Code, and change Canada’s drug policies to focus more on treating addictions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2019.

The Canadian Press