Thread by @timthurley

Regularly receive questions on why I discuss Indigenous-specific issues when it comes to firearms so often when #BillC21 impacts most lawful firearm owners in Canada for no additional public safety benefit.

It's a good question. I'd like to go into some of the reasons:

First, the government has a specific duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous peoples in areas that adversely impact established Indigenous legal rights. Hunting is a well-established Indigenous right. #C21 adversely impacts it by prohibiting important tools.

The #Liberal government makes a grand theatre of respecting #Indigenous rights but regularly fails to follow through. This is one such instance. The government failed to hold a single meeting specific to the central issue of #C21 (the ban) with Indigenous groups.

In addition to being a sign of hypocrisy, if the government cannot even consult relevant parties when it has an established legal duty to do so, how can it be expected to take seriously the concerns of those - Indigenous or not - who lack those legal rights?

Second, this is a sign of just how little effort went into the process.

The government is advancing the most consequential gun ban in Canadian history without even consulting those it has a legal duty to consult.

Third, it is a sign of how little the government can be trusted to do proper stakeholder engagement on this issue.

The government is now saying they're attempting to listen to 'get it right,' but they didn't even ask those they *had* to ask before presenting the amendments.

Fourth, while Indigenous people are not the only subsistence hunters in Canada, they make up a disproportionately high proportion of the subsistence hunters in Canada.

To paraphrase NWT Premier @CCochrane_NWT, supporting these amendments would be supporting people starving.

On a personal note, I live in a place where half the population is Indigenous. I know and have hunted with Indigenous hunters and can see first-hand how important this issue is to Northerners.

Their concerns deserve a platform and serious consultation. They weren't given one.

Fifth, I regularly discuss how these amendments impact firearm owners as a whole across stakeholder groups. Giving a specific focus on one group gives context on how the government is failing all impacted groups.

It is important to remember that no firearm owner is an island.

Closing firearm businesses hurts sport shooters, it hurts Indigenous peoples, it hurts both subsistence and recreational hunters. Failing to consult even one of these groups is a failure to consider any of them.

This is another reason OiC-style exemptions aren't a solution.

In closing, the failure to consult even those stakeholder groups who have the closest thing to a right to firearms that exists in Canada is an important sign of how this government is approaching firearm legislation for everyone, and that deserves discussion.

#cdnpoli