Toronto murder case shows why Carney has to get serious about fixing Canada's justice system...

Plus just 25 guns seized, what Venezuela will do to Canada and Iranian protests.

The details of the story behind how Babatunde Afuwape ended up on parole are infuriating. They confirm every inkling you’ve had about our broken justice system, one that puts convicts and their needs ahead the rights of victims and the protection of society at large.

Police announced this week that they were charging Afuwape, a 28 year-old Toronto man, with the December 23, 2025, murder of Shivank Avasthi. According to police, Afuwape was on the campus of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus that day armed with a gun looking for someone to shoot. For reasons that have not been revealed, Afuwape shot Avasthi a 20 year-old visiting student from India.

In today’s Toronto Sun, Michele Mandel details how it came to be that Afuwape was out on parole part way through his sentence of more than five years for conviction “robbery, fail to comply with probation, discharge firearm reckless life/safety, possession of a prohibited/restricted firearm with ammunition, and several more fail to comply with court orders.”

You really should read the full story to understand how messed up it is that Afuwape was ever out on parole, but here is a taster of what he’s been charged and convicted on since 2108: forcible confinement, possession of a weapon, violent assault, stabbing, auto theft, possession of an illegal gun and more. He has failed to show up for court appearances, failed to comply with bail conditions, cut off an ankle monitor, been arrested for violent crimes while awaiting trial on other charges and at each turn the system cut the poor misunderstood man some slack.

Now an innocent man is dead, Afuwape stands charged and I won’t be surprised if once again, he is cut some slack. Mark Carney needs to get serious about fixing the justice system, and fast.

Carney’s failing gun policy…

I was writing about Afuwape in contrast to the failing Liberal gun policies. This guy was subject to a court ordered gun ban but was still able to get a handgun easily.

Meanwhile, legal gun owners, the folks who have taken a safety course, presented themselves for background checks, submitted lists of their conjugal relationships over the past several years and sought spousal approval for a gun licence are facing more scrutiny.

The pilot project for the government’s so-called “buyback” program, was supposed to collect 200 guns in Cape Breton this past fall, they collected 25 instead. As my colleague Bryan Passifiume pointed out, these guns cost taxpayers more than $26,000 and came from just 16 people.

The people in the know who I’ve been speaking with say that the area where the pilot project was running likely had as many as 2,000 guns on the banned list but returned just 25. That is an incredible failure, but the Carney Liberals are still going ahead and expanding this program nationally.

On Friday, I spoke with Bob Freberg, the Commissioner of Firearms for Saskatchewan about the “buyback” program, the failure of the pilot program and changes that he and the Moe government have made in their province to protect the rights of licenced gun owners.

If you haven’t watched the interview yet, you can watch below.

Carney is getting his head squeezed…

That’s what Kevin O’Leary was saying about Mark Carney on Fox Business on Friday as he was being asked about the impact of Venezuelan oil on Canada.

I’ve written quite a bit on the topic this past week and I still believe the real issue for Canada is that Venezuela will suck up all of the capital investment over the next while, which will make it harder for new projects - like pipelines - in Canada. Just look at the assembly of oil executives at the White House on Friday.

Meanwhile, the spot price for Western Canadian Select, the heavy bitumen produced in Alberta is trading at $45, a discount of 23% compared to West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for oil in North America. A year ago WCS was trading just over $65 a barrel and WTI at $78 a barrel meaning a 17% discount.

None of this is good for Alberta’s oil patch or Canada’s economy.

I’ll have more to say on this in coming days, and on Monday the latest episode of the Full Comment Podcast will be released featuring an interview with a journalist on the ground in Caracas who covers Venezuelan politics and a former member of the opposition who was jailed by Maduro.

On Sunday, I’m hoping to release a detailed look at the American economy - the one we keep hearing is tanking but isn’t. If things go well, that will be out Sunday morning sometime.

Iran is not forgotten in its hour of need…

There has been a lot of commentary online about the mainstream media ignoring the protests in Iran. To a large degree, that is true as CBC and BBC give the protests scant coverage at best - CBC as no problem giving wall to wall coverage of protests in Minnesota and Portland though.

The Toronto Sun has been giving coverage to this issue from the beginning with either wire stories or localized content from our own readers.

We’ve had stories on Iranian-Canadians being concerned about their family members after phone and internet signals were cut. A story on calls for the Canadian government to increase pressure on Iran amid the protests.

We also ran an editorial asking where the support for these protestors is, a column by Lorrie Goldstein on Carney’s empty words and a column by Ben Shapiro that deals with the issue a bit.

The Sun will continue to cover what is happening and be on the side of freedom and democracy, so keep checking their site.