6 May 20
The Orders-in-Council that banned many kinds of firearms in Canada, many previously unrestricted, contains a bit of racism. But it’s a therapeutic kind of racism – you know, the good kind.
Many people wondered why the Mini-14 wasn’t made restricted after the passage of the Firearms Act in 1995. The Mini-14 was the firearm used in the École Polytechnique killings; the AR-15 was made restricted, but the Mini-14 was left alone. The reason for that decision was that the Mini-14 was widely used by aboriginals in the far north to hunt seal. They would be put into legal jeopardy if the government restricted or prohibited the gun used to kill 14 women, and so the government restricted the uninvolved AR-15 instead. They had to look like they were doing something!
In those days, the government recognized that under Section 15 of the Charter, the provision of equal treatment and equal benefit of the law without discrimination, meant that one racial group could not have a privileged access to a type of firearm.
The government of today no longer respects Section 15. The Amnesty section of the Orders-in-Council contains a proviso that aboriginals who use the Mini14 for hunting will be permitted to continue using it as before. If you are not aboriginal, that ranch rifle you used against prairie dogs and gophers yesterday is now prohibited from use today.
Racism isn’t bad when it’s therapeutic. Therapeutic racism trumps the Charter.
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