JAY GOLDBERG: Ontario joins the battle to end federal gun scheme

Federal government program is being challenged at the Supreme Court

Published Jun 04, 2026  •  Last updated 24 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo by John Lawless /Postmedia Network

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After years of doing little more than speaking out against the federal government’s gun buyback program, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is getting off the bench and joining his Alberta and Saskatchewan counterparts in challenging the program in court.

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Every provincial government, other than the governments of B.C. and Quebec, has refused to support the federal government’s gun buyback program, citing its ineffectiveness. But until recently, only two provinces were willing to do something about it.

The governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan have asked the Supreme Court to declare the federal government’s gun buyback program unconstitutional. Ontario will now join them. The challenge originally was brought forward by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, which has argued that the government has overstepped its mandate by banning firearms by cabinet decree rather than through actual federal legislation.

In announcing the Ford government’s decision, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner made it clear where the Ontario government stands.

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“The federal government’s gun buyback program has done nothing to address the root causes of gun violence in our communities,” said Kerzner. “We share the concerns raised by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) on the federal government’s approach to the gun buyback program.”

“Local police resources should be focused on combating crime and keeping our communities safe — not attending residential addresses and confiscating firearms that were previously lawful but are now prohibited.”

There are two key problems with the federal government’s gun buyback program.

The first and most obvious problem is the program’s effectiveness.

“We know that the gun buyback program is going to have, essentially, zero impact on crime in Toronto,” said Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association.

The same can be said of crime across the country.

Why?

Because, as Mount Royal University Professor Doug King put it, “Individuals who have registered firearms are much less likely to commit criminal offences.”

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Canada’s gun problem, to the extent that the country has one, is driven by illegal guns flowing into the country from the United States.

Roughly 90% of guns involved in crime in Canada can be traced back to the U.S. Of the remaining guns, many cannot be traced at all, because their serial numbers have been filed off. In other words, the percentage of guns used in gun crimes coming from the U.S. could be well above 90%.

Illegal guns are the problem. And, to the extent that the federal government wants to solve the gun violence problem in Canada, its focus should be on border enforcement and preventing illegal guns from being smuggled into the country rather than targeting law-abiding gun owners who, in many cases, have owned their firearms for years, including thousands of models that Ottawa has suddenly declared illegal.

The National Police Federation, the union representing the RCMP, recognizes exactly that.

Ottawa’s gun buyback program “diverts extremely important personnel, resources and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms,” said the National Police Federation in a position statement.

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The second major issue concerns cost.

The federal government, as of the 2025 budget, has already committed $742 million to carry out its gun ban and confiscation scheme. But Gary Mauser, professor emeritus from Simon Fraser University, estimates that the cost could be much closer to $6 billion.

The federal government is currently running a deficit well north of $60 billion and plans to spill red ink as far as the eye can see. There is no reason for the feds to waste billions of dollars on a program that infringes on the rights of Canadians; one that law enforcement agencies have repeatedly said won’t solve the problems Ottawa claims it is looking to address.

Ford is right to join Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in challenging the federal government’s gun buyback program at the Supreme Court. If other premiers wise up, they should join the legal fight as well.

It’s time for Ottawa to start focusing on targeting the real cause of gun violence, illegal guns, rather than going after law-abiding gun owners.

Dr. Jay Goldberg is a political scientist and a fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

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