trudeau poilievre
In a Question Period exchange Tuesday with Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed recent stabbing deaths in Vancouver and Toronto on gun ownership.


Vancouver police charged Inderdeep Singh Gosal, 32, with second degree murder in the stabbing death of Paul Stanley Schmidt. Schmidt , 37, was stabbed outside the café at the corner of Granville and West Pender streets around 5:40 p.m. following a "brief altercation," according to police.

Another incident occurred in the Greater Toronto Area last weekend when a homeless man, identified as Jordon O'Brien-Tobin, was charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing teenager Gabriel Magalhae. The youth was apparently sitting on a subway bench, minding his own business when the unprovoked attack occurred.

But when Pollievre bought up the tragedies in the House of Commons this week, Trudeau could only talk about how his government had "strengthened gun control" and how it had "continued to strengthen consequences for violent offenders," a point that Poilievre disputed, saying violent repeat offenders are routinely being released on to Canadian street, saying people are "released the very same day in Vancouver" as a "result of the prime minister's easy bail system."

Trudeau urged Poilievre to support the Liberal government's Bill 21 - which will make "assault-style" weapons illegal in Canada - at its third reading in the House. He accused the Conservatives of "being in the pockets of the NRA."

Poilievre responded that he found it "unbelievable" how Trudeau "thinks that a hunter in Nunavut is responsible for the stabbings in downtown Vancouver!" He called Trudeau's policy "ridiculous" for " targeting law-buying citizens while we're allowing repeat violent offenders to go out on the street again" resulting in a "32 percent increase in violent offenses."