NDP introduces legislation restricting retail sales of machetes, other ‘long-bladed’ weapons By: Malak Abas Posted: 2:50 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 Last Modified: 6:18 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 Updates

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Manitoba has introduced legislation to regulate the sale of machetes, swords and other long-bladed weapons in response to a spike in shockingly violent incidents across the province.

“Our message today to those who have used these weapons to commit heinous crimes — your time is up,” Justice Minister Matt Wiebe told reporters Wednesday.

“We’ll take our streets back from the fear caused by machete attacks, and this bill will help us to do exactly that.”

Bill 39, the Long-Bladed Weapon Control Act, aims to limit the supply by requiring retailers to securely store the weapons when on display, check the photo identification of buyers and keep transaction details for at least two years.

Similar controls were placed on the sale of bear spray in 2023 under the previous Progressive Conservative provincial government.

The bill would also prohibit minors from buying such weapons and would apply to online retailers shipping such items to Manitoba addresses.

The bill defines long-bladed weapons as having a metal blade at least 30 centimetres in length. The release said the definition could be expanded through the bill’s regulations to include certain features or characteristics.

Fines for breaking the rules are listed as up to $5,000 for an individual’s first offence and up to $10,000 for subsequent offences, and corporations can be fined up to $25,000 for a first offence and as much as $100,000 for subsequent offences.

The minister added the province plans to consult with retailers, law enforcement and Indigenous leadership to develop regulations in the coming months, along with contacting online retailers such as Amazon to inform them of the new restrictions.

Winnipeg Police Service Supt. Brian Miln called the legislation an opportunity to aid criminal investigations.

“The WPS strongly supports provincial legislation that restricts the purchase of long-bladed machetes or knives by those who are acquiring with the intent to use for an unlawful or violent purpose… the legislation is another tool to assist the WPS and law enforcement in keeping these weapons out of the hands of the gang and criminal elements,” he said in an emailed statement.

There has been a 25 per cent drop in the number of violent crimes involving bear spray since the regulations were changed, Wiebe said.

Inner-city advocate Sel Burrows, who has long advocated for restrictions on weapons sales, said he’s seen a “huge” change in the short time since bear spray regulations were put in place and is hopeful the same will happen with machetes and similar items.

“It should have been done a year ago… I’m very happy it’s happening,” he said.

“I hope that the implementation process won’t take too long, because machetes are very dangerous and they’re a weapon of intimidation in the inner city.”–community advocate Sel Burrows

“I hope that the implementation process won’t take too long, because machetes are very dangerous and they’re a weapon of intimidation in the inner city, which makes people feel unsafe.”

Many crimes involving machetes are never reported to the police, Burrows noted, so he and other advocates are working to put together a network that will seek out small inner-city stores selling them and provide information to inspectors.

“If we can get all the different inspectors looking out for bear spray and machetes, we can shut them down pretty quickly, because if somebody goes in and seizes all the machetes, they’re not going to sell them anymore,” he said.

Wiebe couldn’t provide a timeline for the legislation to take effect but said enforcement would start with businesses knowingly selling the weapons to customers using them for criminal purposes.

“What I’m concerned about is small retailers in the North End of Winnipeg or in rural communities who are selling these things out of the back of the storefront,” he said.

“I just think that there’s a very clear intent when you’re selling those into a community where there’s been challenges with violence and with crime; it’s incumbent on us to make sure that we’re we’re going after those folks.”

North End retailer Pollock’s Hardware Co-op stopped selling machetes two years ago after hearing concerns in the community about their use in violent crimes.

General manager Kaitlyn Peters applauded the new legislation.

“I think it’s probably the right call to make,” she said.

At Home Hardware in Neepawa, owner Michelle Gerrard said she stocks a range of tools with long blades, and she hoped the people enforcing the rules would be clear with retailers about what is and isn’t considered a long-blade weapon.

“Just having come through COVID, that was a little bit of over-regulation and a little bit of confusion about what was essential and what wasn’t essential, even within the provincial department,” she said. “So I would fear that they would not be clear within their own department, what was actually included in that regulation.”

The NDP government said on Oct. 2, the day the fall sitting of the legislative assembly began, that it planned to introduce legislation this month to further control the sales of machetes.

The decision came after a string of violent machete attacks in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba over the summer.

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An 80-year-old man was attacked on Pritchard Avenue on Aug. 4 after what police described as an unprovoked attack by three minors with machetes and an axe. The man required hospital care.

A 12-year-old girl and two boys, ages 14 and 15, were charged. The two boys also face multiple charges in an attack three days later on a 15-year-old boy, who required more than 20 hours of emergency surgery after a vicious machete attack on Selkirk Avenue. His arms were slashed to the bone and he lost a finger. Police said the victim and the suspects were not known to each other.

Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Chief Angela Levasseur renewed the call to regulate sales after a woman in the community was attacked with a machete in June, followed by another weeks later in which a man was severely hurt.

— With files from Carol Sanders

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.