Federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino says the federal government’s plan to stem gun violence in the country is based on three pillars and central to the first pillar is Bill C-21 which will implement a freeze on handguns, address the role of guns in domestic and gender-based violence and take aim at organized crime. It also includes a ban on assault style weapons and the buy-back program.

He invoked the names of two slain Ontario constables saying they owe it all victims of gun violence to take action. Constables Devon Northrup and Morgan Russell, died in Innisfil, Ontario Tuesday night after exchanging fire with a man armed with an SKS semi-automatic rifle.

Mendicino was speaking at the close of a meeting of Canada’s justice and public safety ministers that took place in Nova Scotia this week.

The federal minister also said the tragedy at James Smith Cree Nation is a reminder of the work that needs to be done to ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again. Which Mendicino says relates to the work they are doing together on First Nations policing.

“We’re committed to a two-track process: advancing the co-development of legislation that recognizes First Nations policing as an essential service and working with individual communities to establish new police forces along with the national Indigenous organizations.”

The federal public safety minister says he is scheduled to travel to James Smith Cree Nation next week to move the concept forward.