Josh Benoit-Wilson is one of those delightfully violent young men who Bill Blair, our Minister of Public Safety, loves to ignore while he focuses on confiscating guns from licensed firearm owners.

The 26-year-old’s latest (and lengthy) list of charges include 48 counts of violating his Firearm Prohibition Order.

As I note almost daily when I update the list of people arrested in violation of their firearm prohibition orders, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair refuses to fix Canada’s broken Firearm Prohibition Order system.

Why Minister Blair refuses to deal with some of Canada’s most violent, repeat offenders continues to baffle me each and every time I write about another person arrested for violating their existing prohibition orders.

 

A Promising Start

Josh Benoit-Wilson’s life didn’t start off this way.

When he was 15 years old, Josh Benoit Wilson won the 2010 Canadian Junior and Youth Boxing Championships and was, by the accounts I’ve read, a good boxer with a bright future ahead of him.

Eleven years later, it appears he’s now just another violent drug dealer who routinely violates Firearms Prohibition Orders, among other crimes.

 

Latest Arrest and Charges

Josh Benoit-Wilson was arrested on December 10th driving a vehicle believed to be used in a drive-by shooting of a home in Sault Ste. Marie on December 6th, 2020.

When police searched the vehicle after obtaining a search warrant, they found:

• two rounds of ammunition
• three spent shell casings
• a baton
• a spring-loaded knife and
• about two grams of suspected methamphetamine

After police obtained and executed a second search warrant for a private residence, they found:

• a loaded, sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun
• a loaded, sawed-off .22-calibre rifle,
• a sawed-off .50-calibre muzzle loader with ammunition
• an imitation handgun
• brass knuckles
• a flick knife
• fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, with a street value about $10,950

Josh Benoit-Wilson was charged with:

• Careless use of a Firearm (3 counts)
• Unauthorized Possession of a Firearm (3 counts)
• Unauthorized Possession of a Prohibited Weapon (5 counts)
• Unauthorized Possession of a Weapon or Prohibited Device or Ammunition, Knowing its Possession is Unauthorized (5 counts)
• Possession of a Weapon for a Dangerous Purpose
• Possession of a Prohibited or Restricted Firearm with Ammunition (3 counts)
• Possession of a Controlled Substance for the Purpose of Trafficking (2 counts)
• Possession of a Controlled Substance (3 counts)
• Possession of a Firearm or Ammunition Contrary to Prohibition Order (48 counts)
• Breach of Recognizance (14 counts)

 

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Not only is Canada’s Firearm Prohibition Order system broken, it was designed to fail from the very start.

Designed to Fail is a 45-page Special Report which explains, in detail, everything that’s wrong with Canada’s Firearm Prohibition Order system, then outlines a clear plan to fix it.

The only question is… Will the federal government take the action required to keep Canadians safe?

Or will they continue to pay lip service to Public Safety while doing nothing to stop violent, repeat offenders from illegally obtaining guns?

 

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