Leaders search for ways to keep bear spray out of criminals’ hands

Several attacks involving bear spray over the weekend in Winnipeg are again bringing the issue to the forefront. and has community leaders and politicians looking for ways to keep it out of the hands of criminals.

On Sunday morning, police responded to multiple assaults in about a three-hour span, where three people were hit by bear spray. Officers are looking for two men, approximately 20 years old, who are considered armed and dangerous.

READ MORE: Winnipeg police respond to several bear spray assaults

This comes after 11 people were assaulted with bear spray in three separate and seemingly random attacks earlier in the month.

0:29 Winnipeg police say no motive determined in bear spray spree

Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth says conversations need to be had.

“Whether that’s with the industry itself, whether they want to try to regulate it more in terms of sale or whether it’s a legislative thing,” Smyth said. “There are a number of different ways this could go, but right now it’s just far too easy to acquire bear spray and use it in a way that it’s not intended to be used.”

Manitoba’s justice minister Kelvin Goertzen says he’s asked officials in his department to determine how Manitobans who use bear spray as a weapon are purchasing it.

“If it’s coming online and it’s coming across provincial or other borders, that’s a different or other discussion about how you prevent that from happening,” Goertzen said. “If it’s coming from a small number of retailers or places, that’s a different discussion.”

If it’s just something that needs a little bit more of a speed bump to not prevent people from legally obtaining it, but preventing those are illegally using it, then that’s a different discussion.”

Goertzen has asked the Federal Department of Justice to make changes in the Criminal Code to include bear spray that is modified for use on people as a prohibited weapon and to make it more difficult for those who use bear spray to assault individuals to obtain bail.

Winnipeg police told Global News in December there had been 889 crimes involving burning liquid as a primary weapon from January to September of 2022.

Rick Shone, owner of Wilderness Supply, which sells bear spray, believes cracking down on online sales could help prevent future attacks. He says the rules for selling the item are already strict in Manitoba.

“You need to have a pesticide licence, and you need customers to fill in a certain number of forms that can verify their address and who they are,” Shone said.  “And then we have to submit that documentation annually to the province to renew the licence for the next year.”

Shone believes a lot of the canisters may be coming from online stores in other parts of the world, where guidelines may not be enforced.