There is an online consultation that you can take on Justin Trudeau’s idea of a handgun ban and it is a complete farce.
You can find the consultation form here, fill it out as often as you want until November 10.
I wrote about it for the Toronto Sun here.
Suffice to say, this consultation is a joke.
I’ve filled out the form several times myself. Every time that I filled it out I used the same computer, the same browser and never once cleared my cache. Stopping people from spamming forms is something that has been possible with online surveys for a very long time.
Basic tech security is missing.
The Trudeau Liberals didn’t use basic web security technology.
It’s the same thing with letting people from outside Canada fill in the form. People not in Canada could easily have been blocked, stop that Russian bot, but Trudeau’s Liberals chose not to.
Why?
I think it is so they can skew the results and get the results they want.
And they want a handgun ban.
Blair’s office dodged questions.
Now I did reach out to Minister Bill Blair’s office for comment on these problems with their survey on October 16. I heard nothing back that day before filing despite two calls and two emails.
Then at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, days after my column was published, I got a response.
Not from the minister’s spokesperson, who has never acknowledged my questions, but from a bureaucrat in the department. Despite these being from the bureaucratic side the lines were clearly political.
They had been put through the process.
Tim, the nice man I had spoken with at the department while trying to track down Blair’s overpaid political flack, told me this online engagement tool was just one method of consulting Canadians.
As for why you can fill it out as often as you want from anywhere in the world, he offered this answer.
It is designed to be an open, anonymous and barrier-free tool that will provide meaningful feedback to the Government of Canada, including from Canadians living and working abroad.
Or Russian or Chinese bots.
Or American gun control advocates working with their Canadian colleagues.
There are so many problems with this survey.
The email went on to ensure me that the technology involved was robust.
It is important to note that there are measures built into the online tool and our server infrastructure that help deter cyber-attacks and ensure that responses have been submitted by a human, instead of computer scripts, commonly used by hackers.
Well colour me skeptical but I didn’t see any of the tools I’m used to seeing to stop bots.
Not a poll.
It is worth noting that the email also said, “this is an engagement tool and not a survey or polling tool.”
Which means the results won’t worth a thing.
Yet I have a feeling that if 85% of those using the engagement tool call for a handgun ban that it will be reported as if it is 85% of Canadians.
The questions in the survey were loaded and leading.
It will be interesting to hear what the in-person consultations are like. Those are about to start and I know some of the people that have been invited.
I’ll report back then.
As for the need for a handgun ban, or lack thereof, I’ve written about that countless times.
It is the wrong solution to a real problem of gangs with guns. Taking guns away from people that obey the law won’t help.
If you want to share columns that deal in fact check out this one here and a second one from this past summer here.