By Canadian Press

End assault-style gun sales now, Polytechnique survivors group tells Liberals

Nov 26, 2019 | 3:03 AM

OTTAWA — A leading voice for stricter gun control is calling on the Liberal government to place an immediate moratorium on new sales of assault-style firearms as well as a permanent ban on the importation and manufacture of handguns.

In a letter sent Monday to Bill Blair, the new federal public safety minister, PolySeSouvient urges prompt steps to fulfil the Liberal campaign promise to ban military-style assault rifles and crack down on handguns.

PolySeSouvient includes students and graduates of Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, where 14 women were gunned down 30 years ago next month.

The letter, made available to The Canadian Press, is signed by PolySeSouvient co-ordinator and engineering school graduate Heidi Rathjen and group spokeswoman Nathalie Provost, who was wounded in the 1989 shooting.

It was sent on behalf of several relatives of victims of the Polytechnique massacre and a deadly 2006 shooting at Montreal’s Dawson College, the father of slain police officer Thierry LeRoux and the president of the Quebec Mosque, where six people were fatally shot in 2017.

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Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for Blair, says the minister has received the letter, looks forward to reviewing it and appreciates the group’s support of the government’s promise to ban military-style assault rifles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2019.

The Canadian Press