If this is about public safety, why are the Liberals giving special treatment to Indigenous communities — who are disproportionately affected by violence?

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If the Liberal government in Ottawa is proud of its “Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program”— the long-discussed gun buyback program — then it has a very odd way of showing it. Governments often dump news they’re not happy with late on a Friday, the Friday of a long weekend, if it’s really bad, in hopes of attaining minimum media coverage. The Liberals went one better this time around and announced the buyback program’s official launch in Montreal on Saturday, and while Prime Minister Mark Carney was occupying most available reporters with his unabashed supplications to China and Qatar.

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It’s good that they’re not proud of it. That’s the first step toward abandoning it, which they eventually will; the only question is how much money will have been pissed away in the meantime. It’s a disaster on arrival, and a boondoggle in the making.

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