This just in from a post on the CBC News web site of 16 February, 2023:

A student was rushed to hospital in critical condition Thursday after a shooting outside a northwest Toronto high school, police and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) say”.

Apparently the student was just leaving the school, Weston Collegiate Institute, on his lunch hour and a vehicle pulled into the parking lot and someone shot him in the chest. He ran back into the school and emergency response was required. He was taken to a trauma centre were he was in critical condition.

Noon hour, a daylight, drive-by shooting, no less. Brazen disregard for the law and the safety of everyone in the area.

With a sense of what the late Yogi Berra would say was; “deja vu all over again”, we have yet another indication of how effective the current proposals found in Bill C-21 can be.

I have a simple question to put forth to the Honourable Minister of Public Safety. Could he please provide the empirical evidence, from your exhaustive consultation processes with the public at large, as to how Bill C-21 will protect students at post secondary educational facilities and the public at large if passed?

Did your temporary hand gun freeze help?

Could the Honourable Minister of Public Safety also explain why, during a recent visit to the Yukon, Indigenous representatives had to explain to the Minister the workings of certain models of firearms used to sustain their families in the North that were found on the list of proposed prohibited firearms under Bill C-21?

Perhaps the Honourable Minister of Public Safety could also provide details as to how

Murray Smith, Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, made the decisions on which firearms fell under the spell of Bill C-21’s prohibited list and what criteria was used? Inquiring minds want to know.

I was going to write to the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with respect to some of these pressing questions, but, I realize that at this moment she is very busy operating the office document shredder and planning her get-away (no pun intended) to sunnier climes until Bill C-21 becomes part of Canadian folk lore.

Should this young student not survive his injuries, what is the Honourable Minister of Public Safety going to say to his family at his funeral?

Don’t worry folks, Bill C-21 will rectify all the gun-play in Toronto and the rest of Canada, you have my word”.

Yes, Minister!