Critics raise eyebrows over plan to send prohibited firearms to Ukraine [Video]

Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc speaks virtually at a press conference on new measures to strengthen gun control in Ottawa on December 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle

Ottawa’s plan to send prohibited firearms to Ukraine to fight the Russian incursion has some experts scratching their heads, while staunch Ukraine supporters worry it could unintentionally pit aggrieved gun owners against the war effort.

The Liberal government announced last week it will work with Canadian businesses to donate select weapons banned in Canada to Ukraine, though details about the new plan remain sparse even days later.

Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and defence-procurement expert, said this isn’t the sort of equipment Ukraine really needs to win the war and that it already suffers from a lack of standardized weapons.

“In some ways it’s symbolic and yet in other ways it’s not …