Go Ad Free

During the recent outdoor show at the Centre de Foire in Quebec City, a heated discussion took place regarding the radical anti-gun activism of Liberal candidate Nathalie Provost, endorsed by Mark Carney.

Provost, a survivor of the Polytechnique massacre, has since become a vocal advocate for stricter gun control under the organization Polysesouvient. However, many legal firearm owners feel unfairly targeted by her activism.

Provost has made her stance clear: "The issue with guns is not with criminal guns. It's with legal gun owners."

Since May 2020, the federal government has banned more than 2,500 varieties of so-called "assault-style" firearms. Ottawa also introduced a buyback program, which has cost taxpayers $67 million so far, with projections reaching $100 million by the end of the fiscal year. Despite this, gun crime has continued to rise, largely due to illegal firearms smuggled into Canada.

WATCH: Carney spoke about his new radical anti-gun activist candidate during an event today.

He mispronounced her name and mistakenly claimed she was a survivor of the mass shooting at Concordia, not Polytechnique. pic.twitter.com/v9MqPFrdYP

— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) March 25, 2025

Jason Warren, provincial field agent manager for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, expresses concern: "She definitely has some bias. So I don't really see how she could represent, in a non-biased way, her constituents. She seems to feel that licensed hunters and sport shooters are the biggest part of the problem. I rarely see them speaking about actual criminals."

Sadi Dessureault, podcaster at Au Pas de Tir, echoes this concern: "There's always one side that's heard and not the other. More gun control is the only narrative, but current gun control is already enough. Unfortunately, gun crime has only worsened since 2015. If these laws worked, we’d see a decrease in shootings in major cities. But we’re seeing the opposite."

The concern among gun owners is growing. "I'm expecting now that they're basically done with sporting rifles and pistols, they're going to move on to semi-automatic hunting rifles. Hunters are now starting to feel more concerned," Warren warns.

Dessureault points out the fundamental flaw in the government's approach: "The buyback is only for legal guns. Criminals aren’t selling their guns back to the government. The real issue is the flow of illegal firearms into Canada, and the Toronto Police Association even said that 80-90% of crime guns come from the U.S. Why aren’t we tackling that?"

As the federal government continues its crackdown on lawful gun ownership, firearm owners worry that their rights will continue to erode under the guise of public safety. "Why do you need to go hunting? Why do you need to do sport shooting? The question is not why we need it; it’s that it’s a legal activity. But targeting us is just an easy political win," Dessureault argues.