Don’t look now but the OPP has decided to not charge a man for shooting to death two young men who allegedly invaded his home near Cornwall last year.

The bad guys know what this means. It means they don’t have the advantage anymore and can end up dead themselves. The message is loud and clear to home invaders: Enter at your own risk because the legal system is sticking up for victims now.

It’s no longer a province where only the bad guys are allowed to have guns.

If you end up deceased at the hands of someone defending themselves in their own home, don’t expect the police or the Crown attorney to automatically lay murder charges and let the courts sort it out. Things have changed – f or the better.

No more sitting ducks in your home. Premier Doug Ford’s Ontario is sending a message to would-be criminals that they may want to think twice before breaking into someone’s home.

Cops not charging man defending home a breakthrough

Meanwhile, there are different ways people read and react to media headlines. A CTV story online this week is a perfect example: “Firearm charges laid against resident following fatal home invasion in South Glengarry, Ont.”

Stand your own ground proponents read that and thought here comes Big Brother government to charge someone for defending their family. Students of self defence history read the man arrested on weapon’s offences was not being charged for two people being shot to death.

Criminals read that and realized the system did not consider the alleged home invaders – Eddie Alobhouet, 19, and Tristan Simard, 18, both of Saint-Jérôme, Que. – to be murder victims. Police consider their deaths in a South Glengarry home on Feb. 2, 2025, to be the result of self defence.

This is a breakthrough.

What is up for debate, is the fact the OPP still tagged the homeowner with firearms offences.

Ozric Blanchard, 31, has been charged with four counts of careless storage of firearm, weapon, prohibited device or ammunition; two counts of unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm; possession of a prohibited device or ammunition; knowledge of unauthorized possession of firearm; and possession of prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition.

But that’s all.

“You’ll note that the homeowner (shooter) was not charged with murder, attempted murder or anything related to the self-defence part,” said Tracey Wilson, vice president of public relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR). “The charges are solely about the storage and possession of the guns.”

While some may see this as going through the back door and still hitting this man with criminal offences, Wilson is not of that view. She maintains if this was one of her members, who had all the proper storage set up, the legal licencing and appropriate paperwork in place, there would have been no charges at all.

“The takeaway here is he wasn’t charged because he defended himself, he was charged because he (allegedly) possessed those firearms illegally,” Wilson said.

This flew under the radar this week.

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People armed to protect their homes now part of conversation

Wilson reminds “the purpose of gun control should be to prevent the misuse of firearms, not the legitimate use” and the “CCFR has long supported, publicly, the right to self defence using any means available, including firearms.”

But in a legal way.

The charges against Blanchard have not been tested in court where he returns Dec. 2.

Storage of firearms charges are always a concern for victims because of the challenge they would have while under threat to get their gun from one locked box and their ammunition from another while locating their pin for assembly. But not having a licence, or proper paperwork, for a restricted or prohibited gun, is not something police can ignore.

Hopefully, in this case, the court is sympathetic to what Blanchard went through and a fair outcome can be found. He is the victim, after all. No murder charges shows that.

“Ten years ago, the very idea of having a conversation about self defence, with a firearm or not, didn’t even register,” Wilson noted. “People weren’t talking about it, nor did they want to.”

It’s different now. People are tired of being victimized on their own homes and even Premier Ford has expressed his frustration as he rightfully pushes for castle law legislation like they have in Florida. It’s needed.

The 2025 case in Lindsay , in which a man was awakened by an intruder with a crossbow and stabbed him, sending him to hospital, was one of the cases in which the Premier stood up for the victim and applauded the charges being dropped by the crown.

Premier Ford supports castle law

There have been more than 120 home invasions in 2026 in Toronto alone and a recent one in the Bridle Path in which three family members were shot by three thugs, who were also carrying a hammer, has upset many. This brave family fought against these criminals. But they did not have the firepower they needed to win.

My feeling is that if all four victims had died, many homeowners would now be in the process of arming themselves. I am surprised that didn’t happen last year after much loved 46-year-old dad Abdul Aleem Farooqi was shot in a home invasion in his own Vaughan home.

Premier Ford and Minister Stephen Lecce both knew and liked this guy. They were both outraged.

But people don’t want to be told by police to just let these violent thugs take their property or to leave their car keys at the door for potential car thieves.

Why wait until they come to your house? The way many feel is that if these expensive police departments, courts and jails are not going to protect people from those who would harm them, then they might as well protect themselves.

“Canada is experiencing a home invasion crisis with increasingly more brazen, violent attacks,” Wilson said. “Soft-on-crime Liberal policies keep churning repeat, violent offenders back out into the streets, despite law enforcement at every level begging for legislative changes.”

No matter how you read the CTV headline, police in the Blanchard case are saying they are not going penalize a man for defending himself.

“After a decade of crime, chaos and violence, the conversation is totally mainstream,” Wilson said. “More people than ever are signing up for firearm license courses.”

You better believe criminals took note that it’s not just them packing heat anymore and that homeowners have now been given the green light to defend themselves.

jwarmington@postmedia.com