Trudeau government scraps controversial gun bill amendments after backlash

OTTAWA - The Liberal government bowed to immense public pressure Friday and scrapped controversial amendments to an existing gun bill that would have broadly expanded the list of banned guns in Canada.

The surprise move sends the Liberals back to the drawing board when it comes to moving ahead with their pledge to enact the toughest gun laws Canada has seen in a generation.

But Public Safety Marco Mendicino said Friday that the government has listened to concerns that its efforts to do that via Bill C-21 were flawed.

We hear those concerns loud and clear, regret the confusion that this process has caused and are committed to a thoughtful and respectful conversation that is based on facts, not fear," he said in a statement.

This is an emotional issue, and Canadians are counting on us to get it right."

Two specific packages of proposed changes to the bill were withdrawn Friday.

One was known as G46, that include hundreds of pages listing firearms makes and models that would be banned when the bill passed.

Some of the guns on the list were already illegal under regulations, but the Liberals were seeking to legislate the bans to make them harder to remove. The list also contained dozens of makes and models that are currently in widespread use throughout the country.

Another amendment, known as G4, would have created an evergreen" definition of what kinds of guns would forever be illegal in Canada.

The amendments had been dropped with little notice on the desks of MPs on the public safety committee last fall as they were studying C-21, a bill that had been focused on a banning handgun sales and other related firearms offences.

The Conservatives pounced swiftly, accusing the Liberals of deliberately wanting to curtail the livelihoods of hunters. New Democrats objected too, saying Indigenous people would have their right to hunt curtailed.

The backlash also came from Indigenous leaders who condemned the bill at a major meeting in Ottawa, territorial premiers who slammed it, a star NHL player whose photo of himself holding a gun went viral, and even members of the Liberal caucus, who spoke up about the confusion that was being created.

Mendicino had tried to clean up the political damage by, among other things, embarking on a tour over the winter recess to meet with hunting groups and others, but the message he kept hearing was that the amendments had to go.

More discussions, including with Indigenous communities, are crucial. That's why we continue to take the time to engage with people from all walks of life - victims and survivors, First Nations, Metis and Inuit, hunters, rural folks and more," Mendicino said in his statement.

As we've said time and again, the government's intent is to focus on AR-15s and other assault-style weapons - not guns commonly used for hunting."

Just as the introduction of the amendments caught the opposition by surprise, so to did the decision by the Liberals to pull them, a move that came at the start of a public safety committee hearing Friday morning.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had signalled earlier this week that changes might be on the way, telling reporters the list was going to be changed.

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz