When police arrested drug dealer Matthew Kwasi Asare-Boah on January 28, 2021, they charged him a series of drug and firearms offences, including two counts of Possession of a Firearm Contrary to Prohibition Order.

Less than two weeks later, the Ontario Provincial Police arrested Matthew Kwasi Asare-Boah again and charged him with three new drug offences and two counts of Failure to Comply with a Release Order.

We can, perhaps, breath a small sigh of gratitude for the fact is being held until his next bail hearing unless our ‘catch-and’release’ justice system continues doing what it does best.

Assuming it does, Las Vegas bookmakers are giving 7-1 odds that Matthew Kwasi Asare-Boah will be arrested AGAIN within two weeks of his next anticipated release.

And Public Safety Minister Bill Blair can’t be bothered to lift a finger to stop it.

He is, as we’ve seen by the legislation tabled in the House of Commons yesterday, far more concerned about harassing licensed firearm owners who obey our firearm laws than he is with stopping violent, repeat offenders like this drug dealer.

I will never understand why Bill Blair’s repeated ignoring of violent offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders doesn’t cost him and the Liberal Party votes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  It’s there that drug dealers, gangs and other violent criminals continue to shoot up Toronto city streets and kill innocent 12-year-old boys and seriously injure innocent 12-year-old girls.

Apparently, dead and injured teenagers are the price Torontonians must pay for Bill Blair’s virtue-signalling on behalf of the Liberal government.

Liberal government ministers sleep peacefully at night knowing they’ve tabled more useless firearm legislation while the family and friends of murdered and maimed 12-year-olds are left to cry themselves to sleep – all the while wondering why this Liberal government refuses to take seriously the carnage produced by violent criminals with Firearm Prohibition Orders.

I wish I could tell those families it made some kind of sense, but I can’t. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

These repeat offenders don’t care about a piece of paper – for that’s all a Firearm Prohibition Order is – a useless piece of paper.  They only care about getting their hands on their next illegal gun so they can ‘protect themselves’ as they commit more crimes and send more of our children to the hospital and the morgue.

I pray to God there will be a price to pay for this Liberal government but so far, virtue-signalling is carrying the day.

I will never comprehend why.

 

Canada’s Firearm Prohibition Order system is broken

Matthew Kwasi Asare-Boah is another example of how Canada’s Firearm Prohibition Order system is broken and must be fixed.

Common sense dictates our scarce police resources should be devoted to those individuals who pose the greatest risk to public safety, yet these are the people Canada’s legislators and police totally ignore.

People with a history of violent offences are a proven danger to public safety, yet these are the people our government refuses to check on or track.

• No police agency in Canada tracks individuals with Firearm Prohibition Orders registered against them.
• There is no legal requirement for police to track individuals with Firearm Prohibition Orders registered against them or routinely check on them to ensure compliance.
• There is no legal requirement for individuals with Firearm Prohibition Orders to notify police when they move to a new residence. Police have no idea where these people are.

There is a better way.

Britain devotes specialised police units to check on individuals under Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO). Think of Britain’s SHPO as Canada’s Firearm Prohibition Orders but for sex offenders, and with powers of enforcement our FPO system totally lacks.

Under British law, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order places specific obligations on the offender, and it also gives police the power to ensure individuals convicted of offences under the Sexual Offences Act obey those judicial restrictions.

This is the same Firearm Prohibition Order system New Zealand is trying to implement today.

Individuals with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (Source) registered against them must:

• Notify authorities if they do not have a fixed address;
• Notify authorities of any change of address or name within three (3) days;
• Notify authorities of any place they have resided or stayed for at least seven days, whether for seven consecutive days or for a cumulative period of seven days in any 12-month period;
• Notify the police of information contained in, or in relation to, their passport, bank account, credit card or debit card at each notification;
• Declare their SHPO to any actual or potential employers;
• These notifications must be made in person and police may, at their discretion, take photographs and/or fingerprints each time.

All Sexual Harm Prevention Orders are registered in the Police National Computer (PNC), Britain’s version of our Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) – Canada’s central police database where law enforcement agencies can access a wide range of information.

In Canada, Firearm Prohibition Orders are accessible via CPIC, but no police agency is tasked with checking on or searching these violent offenders to ensure they are living within the terms of those orders.

British police have the right to check on and search individuals with an SHPO at any time to ensure compliance.

Canada must apply this same strategy to dealing with repeat offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders.

The only thing standing in the way of Firearm Prohibition Order Reform is Justin Trudeau, his Minister of Public Safety, Bill Blair, and his Justice Minister, David Lametti.

 

Contact the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Public Safety

If you, like me, want to see violent criminal offenders tracked and checked on to ensure they are abiding by all of their conditions of release, including Firearm Prohibition Orders, please write Justice Minister David Lametti and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and demand they introduce legislation to implement these reforms immediately.

The Honourable David Lametti
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
Email the Minister of Justice

The Honourable Bill Blair
Minister of Public Safety
House of Commons
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0A6
Email the Minister of Public Safety