Why it important for Canadians to sign this petition

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Rights are like keys that open our abilities to do specific things. When we lived in caves we had full rights. We could declare the cave was our own, could make a fire, could hunt or forage for whatever we wanted and sit around the fire at night discussing whatever we wanted. Over time, a few individuals stole our rights and enslaved us. Over the millennia, our ancestors fought to reclaim our rights. Even 100 years ago, people did not have the right to vote who would represent them in government. Only during WW1 did non-landholders earn the right to vote. Shortly afterward, women were given the right to vote. Even in the decades which followed, we have had to take back rights including things like the right to demand equal pay for women or members particular religious groups to join golf clubs.

This petition is an example of what happens when a few people decide to take rights away from other people. While I don't own a gun, I hold the right to do so. A person not a criminal or insane has given away that right. Sometimes people give away their rights indirectly by agreeing to elect a person to represent them in parliament. Even if the person who is elected isn't the one a person has chosen, the participation in the process assumes that one gives a proxy to the assignment of personal rights.

The decision to ban the ownership of about 1500 types of guns (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gun-control-measures-ban-1.5552131) was made as an Order In Council. This process circumvents the normal process of government. It set something in law without the process of having it voted upon by parliament. It is arbitrarily decided and set in law by the Prime Minister. While there are some things that can be handled in this way (eg. allowing a Foreign Bank to operate in Canada) there is always an avenue to reverse a decision by an Act of Parliament. It is also conceivable that Order In Council decisions can be made in the case of Majority governments ... assuming that such a decision would be commonly held by the ruling party.

My biggest concern is that an Order In Council decision has been taken which removes rights from individuals in society ... specifically the right to hold a type of property. Under normal conditions, something like this would need to be passed as a bill through parliament. This would at least give the opportunity to debate an issue if not defeat it entirely.

At this point in your mind, this act is justified especially as it was introduced immediately after a mass killing in Canada. This is a convenience as none of the guns used in this crime are the ones being included in the ban. Imagine banning all knives because someone was clubbed to death. That is one of the reasons that I am asking the reader to consider the underlying threat.

Imagine if a Prime Minister arbitrarily relayed an Order In Council declaring every one of an ethnic background needs to be interned in a concentration camp. Imagine that a person said that today every one of Ukrainian descent needs to be put into an Internment Camp. Between 1914 and 1920, 8,579 "enemy aliens" (Ukrainians) were detained in internment camps in Canada. Source By allowing a Prime Minister to make these arbitrary decisions could have a far greater impact. What if a PM decided to remove property rights from Women, or the ability to vote from anyone who doesn't own land. As we are in a period of time that the government is unable to sit, our current Prime Minister is able to make decisions with impunity. This is being echoed provincially and municipally. While I don't think that it is a good idea to risk going into public spaces, no one has given up their "right" to do so. A country like China that has no regard to the rights of its people, has even extended it to the point they weld people into their apartments. These people have only been able to be fed do the charity of their neighbours lowering food to them through their windows. A day or so ago, police detained a person dressed up wearing a Star Wars outfit and sporting a plastic blaster, injuring her to the point of bleeding when they forced her face down in the costume. This is just an example that arbitrary rules echo from the top.

Sign the petition here: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2574