Amazon and Walmart Canada have so far ignored the requests of the NDP government to restrict the online sale of machetes to the mannitobans, says the province.
The main distributors have not responded to two letters from the provincial government, issued on December 6, 2024 and February 6, 2025, asking them to “fulfill the intention” of the provincial legislation by selling machetes and other long -term weapons online, the government confirmed.
The new provincial rules, which entered into force on December 31 and only apply to sales in the store, require companies to sell only to adults with photos identification and keep records of their sales for two years.
They must also keep the items stored in a way that prevents buyers from accessing them without help.
But the provincial law does not apply to online sales and, as a result, clients of sites such as Amazon and Walmart can buy machetes, a type of weapon that is frequently used in violent crimes, without revealing their age or providing an identification.
CBC News found dozens of machetes for sale on Amazon and Walmart websites. Both companies can deliver these products to customer doors.
‘Obligation to be good corporate citizens’
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said he is disappointed that online giants have not honored the applications of the province.
“I can tell him that we are frustrated that these retailers online do not take this seriously in the way we were asking for,” he said in an interview last week.
Amazon had not responded to multiple requests for comments from CBC News before the publication. Walmart said that in an email his stores are following the law, but did not answer a question about why he ignored the applications of the province regarding online sales.
Wiebe said those retailers “should consider the impact … on public safety” to continue selling machetes without restrictions.
“They must understand their obligation to be good corporate citizens, in the same way as when we communicate with the retailers here, such as Canadian Tire or Cabela’s, they were willing to work with us,” Wiebe said.
The website of the Outdoor Articles Cabela (now marked as Bass Pro Shops) informs customers trying to buy online machetes, the product is only taken to their points of sale.
The Canadian tire only stores machetes in the store as well. CBC found a machete available for online sale last week, but the article of the article had teeth, and the mountains are exempt from provincial legislation.
Online sales should not be exempt: Critic of PC
Wayne Balcaen, the progressive critic of conservative justice, said that although the provincial law is “better than anything”, online sales should not be excluded.
“If a person can enter a retail store and are controlled about what he can buy, but, nevertheless, he can connect and buy the same article without sanctions, what is the feeling of having that law? Because a large percentage of purchases occurs online,” he said.
Balcaen, a former Chief of the Brandon Police Service, acknowledged that enforcing regulations around online sales would be a challenge.
But “surveillance is difficult to do, and being a victim is difficult to do,” he said.
“I think it is up to us as legislators to put the effort and put hard work for our voters and for the people of Manitoba.”
He said that the provincial government should be associated with the federal government to reinforce legislation around the use of machetes, such as obtaining stronger criminal sanctions.
Wiebe said in an interview that he has been asking the Federal Government to impose stronger restrictions.
In a letter to the Federal Justice Minister last October, Wiebe urged the liberal government to ban a variety of machetes and other long -leaf weapons that do not serve “no legitimate purpose that is not inflict damage to others.”
The Machete de Manitoba legislation is modeled after a bill by the former progressive conservative government that restricts the sale of bear spray, which led to a 25 percent reduction in crimes involving aerosol, Wiebe said last fall.
The Minister of Justice said last week that he is confident that Machete’s law will have a similar positive effect, but so far there are no data available.
The law ‘makes sense’: retail
Kaitlyn Peters, general manager of the Pollock Hardware Cooperative, supports the law because it puts obstacles to people who may be buying machetes for dire purposes.
“I think it makes sense to help protect the community and also retailers. It is important that these things do not end in the wrong hands.”
The hardware store in the northern end of Winnipeg stopped selling machetes voluntarily in 2021 after listening that were the weapon of choice in several crimes.
Pollock was not selling more than one or two a year, Peters said, but still “he wanted to do our part to protect the community.”
“We really didn’t see the need to have such items in the store,” he said.
There have already been cases in 2025 of machetes that are used in violent crimes in Winnipeg.
A 16 -year -old was arrested after balancing a machete in a passer -by during an attempted robbery in the King Edward neighborhood at the end of January.
And when an argument on the rent in the neighborhood of Fort Garry intensified earlier that month, a building caregiver attacked a tenant with a machete.
