While trying to justify stricter gun laws, Canada’s public safety minister Marco Mendicino cited misinformation that was factually incorrect — at least his fourth time doing so this year.
Mendicino introduced several new measures, including what appears to be a side-door gun-registry database. Effective May 18, police will now be able to access legal gun owners’ information without a warrant whenever police believe they have “reasonable grounds” to do so.
Yet, to justify this new measure, Mendicino claimed police relied on a similar database to catch Marc Lepine, the shooter in the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre who shot himself immediately following his atrocity.
“You keep referencing that he was apprehended by a gun registry, but he shot himself at the scene of Polytechnique there. Can you explain how a gun registry was assisting that?” asked a reporter.
After Mendicino offered up a word salad — one that didn’t remotely address the question — the reporter gave up.
Given his habit of spreading misinformation to justify drastic changes – then failing to acknowledge his errors – it’s unlikely Mendicino will acknowledge this recent one.
As reported by True North, Mendicino also spread “the debunked lie that the Freedom Convoy was responsible for an attempted apartment arson in Ottawa, and refused to retract it when called out by a Conservative MP.”
In February, Mendicino also claimed the Emergencies Act was needed to clear the border blockades, even though police had done so prior to this being implemented.
Around the same time, he had the gall to falsely accuse Freedom protestors of rape based on an anonymous post. No arrests were made, nor was there anything to confirm the anonymous post.
Ironically, Mendicino used the words “transparency” and “accountability” in his gun safety announcement.
