Eby supports police on guns and gangs, flanked by four law enforcement candidates

B.C. Premier David Eby waits to speak during a news conference at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, June 18, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

NDP Leader David Eby promised Sunday to support police in British Columbia to keep illegal guns off the streets and protect communities, but accused B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning to make the province less safe.

Eby, speaking while flanked by four New Democrat candidates with law enforcement experience at a news conference in Surrey, said Rustad has repeatedly said he would direct police not to enforce federal gun laws if elected to form government on Oct. 19.

The NDP will ensure police have the tools to keep illegal guns from criminal organizations and protect families from potentially deadly domestic violence, he said.

Eby said the NDP will continue to support the federal hand-gun and semi-automatic weapons seizure law and back B.C. police anti-gang programs, including the Integrated Gang Homicide Team, which focuses on gang-connected homicides and improving police surveillance of gang activities.

“It is unfathomable to me that anyone who would seek to run to be the leader of the province of British Columbia would direct the police not to enforce federal laws designed to go after gangsters, criminals, people who beat up family members," said Eby. "I can't understand it, and I don't stand for it."

Last month, Canada's National Firearms Association posted on social media a video of a Rustad news event where he discussed his party's gun law plans.

Rustad said during the event that federal gun law to take away guns from law-abiding citizens is "the wrong approach," especially towards residents living in rural areas.

“So from my perspective, I think that’s an overreach by the government, and so I will not have any provincial resources being spent on their initiative," Rustad said. “If they want to go ahead, fill their boots. But that’s not something that, from a province’s perspective, that we would spend any resources doing."

The B.C. Conservatives have yet to release their campaign platform, but have made law and order, especially curtailing street disorder, a promised focus if elected to form government on Oct. 19.

Rustad has mentioned on several occasions that Eby wrote a book when he was working for the advocacy group Pivot Legal Society, prior to him entering politics, that detailed how to sue the police.

Eby said the NDP will ensure law enforcement has the tools available to disrupt illegal gun activity.

"The idea that we would go backwards and pull tools away from police designed to keep us all safer is bizarre," he said. "I don't want, nobody wants, except for, apparently, John Rustad, to import lax U.S., style handgun and semi-automatic gun rules that make us all less safe."

The NDP says domestic homicides account for 15 per cent of all murders in B.C.

Rustad also announced a plan Sunday to turn B.C.'s tech sector into a global leader.

The plan, called “Igniting B.C.’s Tech Future,” will focus on creating conditions that attract and retain people, boost local innovation and turn the province into an industry destination, he said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2024.