Canadian surprise ending

I don’t know if this is an outlier aberration, or maybe someone in Canada is actually using common sense. About guns. Who knew?

Seems that early Tuesday morning, a middle-aged  fella and an older woman  were in their home when suddenly three masked folks broke down their front door, claiming to be police.

The homeowner, using a legally owned firearm, shot one of the intruders. The suspects fled to a waiting pickup truck. One later turned up at a Toronto-area hospital with a gunshot wound.

York Regional Police released surveillance video of the break-in. Then they did something that, by Canadian standards, qualified as breaking news: they didn’t charge the homeowner.

In Canada? Really? Did someone make a mistake and this was Wyoming? Nope, Vaughan, Ontario.

Acting police chief Cecile Hammond said the immediate threat to life was paramount in situations involving armed intruders, before also warning that homeowners can still be held liable depending on the circumstances.

Ayeh, you can defend yourself, but we’ll probably still screw with ya, you betcha. But somehow this time – they didn’t.

You see a story like that in an American city, your first thought is “oh well, another day, another idiot got what he deserves. Canada – not so much. And sanely?

In January 2019, Cameron Gardiner was watching a movie in his Collingwood, Ontario, townhouse when three masked men kicked in his door. One had a sawed-off shotgun. They zip-tied the couple and ransacked the house. Gardiner’s son saw it on a surveillance camera, raced over, and intervened. During the struggle, Gardiner grabbed the intruders’ own shotgun. Two of them were killed.

Gardiner was then charged with second-degree murder. He spent six months in jail awaiting bail. The Crown did not withdraw the case until 2021.

Jeremy David McDonald, 44, in Lindsay, Ontario, was charged with aggravated assault (Summer 2025 – ed.) and assault with a weapon after using a knife against a home intruder who allegedly carried a crossbow and was already wanted on unrelated offences. Premier Doug Ford said “something is broken.” The Crown dropped the charges in February 2026. By then, McDonald had already spent months in the legal system for defending himself in his own apartment.

Remember, Toronto police are the ones who advised people to leave their car key fobs by their front door so aspiring car thieves wouldn’t have to break in their houses.

The advice was mocked internationally. But Toronto police backed the officer’s remarks in a statement while also saying there were better ways to prevent auto-theft-motivated home invasions. The force said home invasions and break-ins linked to auto theft had risen 400 percent in 2023.

Better ways. Yep, big hollowpoints. Big as you can handle.

On March 12, Conservative MP Sandra Cobena introduced Bill C-270, the Stand on Guard Act, to change Section 34 so that force against an illegal home intruder is presumed justified. It is the closest thing Canada has seen to a Castle Doctrine-style push in years.

McGill law professor Noah Weisbord called Canada’s current self-defence law “extremely permissive” and argued the burden is already on the Crown to disprove self-defence.

I’ll bet Messr. McDonald and Gardiner would disagree.

A pro-gun bill in Canada. Go figure.

Category: Canada, Guns