The City of Montreal is preparing to call for a ban on assault and handguns in the federal government a few weeks after a similar motion was passed by municipal officials in Toronto.
It will be presented to City Council on Monday by Alex Norris, Chair of the Public Safety Commission. He wants the Trudeau government to strengthen C-71, its gun control bill, by banning the private possession of assault weapons and handguns for everyone except for law enforcement officers.
Montreal will also ask Ottawa to tighten the purchasing criteria for firearms, to prevent them from falling into the hands of at-risk, or violent individuals.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, visiting Val-d'Or on Wednesday, said he hears the requests from the two largest cities in the country.
The Montreal statement recalls that assault or handguns were used in several local attacks - the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in 1989, Concordia University in 1992 and Dawson College in 2006. It is also refers to the more recent attack on a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.
Toronto's city council passed a resolution in July calling on Ottawa to ban the sale of handguns and assault weapons on its territory a few days after a gunman opened fire in the Danforth neighborhood, killing two people and injuring 13 others.
(With files from The Canadian Press.)
