Question Period Note: Government Measures to Reduce Gun Violence

Commitments to strengthen gun control and reduce gun violence.

• Gun violence is on the rise. It has had devastating effects in both rural and urban areas. Canadians expect bold action.

• That’s why our government is removing guns designed for mass casualties from our communities. We will go further by making it mandatory for all owners to either surrender these firearms for destruction, with fair compensation, or make them permanently inoperable, at our expense.

• The evidence is clear; reducing the number of firearms reduces deaths. Our government will remove more firearms from our communities by providing more than one billion dollars to implement a ban on handguns and by further limiting the number of rounds gun magazines can hold.

• We put in place lifetime background checks to prevent those with a history of abuse from obtaining a firearms licence and restored limits on the transportation of restricted and prohibited firearms. We will introduce additional laws to fight gender-based violence and help prevent suicides.

• We will soon bring into force mandatory licence verification so that only individuals with a valid firearms licence may purchase firearms, and new business record-keeping requirements to provide police more tools to investigate and trace crime guns.

• These are but some of the many measures our government is taking to control firearms, fight trafficking and smuggling, and keeping Canadians safe from gun violence.

According to Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime statistics in Canada, in 2020, while firearm-related violent crimes have been a small proportion of all police-reported violent crime in Canada, the rate of certain violent offences specific to firearms increased for the sixth consecutive year
(a 15% increase compared to 2019). Firearm-related homicide has doubled from 2013 (134) to 2020 (277). In 2019, 51% of firearm-related homicides were related to gang activity, the majority committed with handguns (78%). The number of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence where a firearm was present increased 65% from 2013 (401) to 2019 (660). Further, suicide by firearm also continues, with over 500 deaths identified in 2019. There have been nine high-profile mass shootings across the country since 2014, which have captured public attention.

Prohibition of Assault-Style Firearms

Rising firearm-related violence is fueling public concern and giving rise to demands for federal action to curtail the availability and use of firearms. The May 1, 2020, prohibition of over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms and their variants includes prohibiting nine principal models of assault-style firearms as they have semi-automatic action with sustained rapid-fire capability (tactical military design with large magazine capacity), are of modern design, and are present in large volumes in Canada. Also included are two categories of firearms that exceed safe civilian use — firearms with
20 mm bore or greater or with a muzzle energy of greater than 10,000 Joules. In addition, the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 pattern firearms have been prescribed as prohibited devices. A two-year Amnesty Order, in effect until April 30, 2022, protects owners of the newly prohibited firearms from criminal liability while they come into compliance with the law.

The government also announced its intention to establish a buy-back program to offer fair compensation to affected owners and businesses while making sure the program’s implementation is cost-effective. IBM Canada — under contract by Public Safety (PS) — developed options for a compensation model, including for notification, collection, evaluation, and payment as well as a compendium of international lessons learned and a pricing list derived from international sources (e.g., United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand). Work continues on the design, development, implementation, and management of the buyback program. PS was allocated approximately $4M for FY 2021–22 to support the design and development of a buyback program, including the development of pricing, compensation, and program design options.

There are currently a number of court applications challenging the May 1, 2020, Order in Council prohibiting certain assault-style firearms. The grounds for review include: alleged breaches of the Charter; alleged violations of the Bill of Rights; and an allegation that the decision is ultra vires the enabling authority under the Criminal Code.

Bill C-71

An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms (former Bill C-71) received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019. Two elements were brought into force via an Order in Council on July 7, 2021: 1) expanded background checks to determine eligibility for firearms licences from the previous five years to the entirety of a person’s life, as well as enhanced screening to consider harassment, restraining orders, and a history of violence; and 2) re-instatement of the requirement for a separate Authorization to Transport when transporting restricted and prohibited firearms to any place except to an approved shooting range or to bring the firearm home after purchase.
On June 26, 2021, two regulatory amendments were pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, for public comment: 1) licence verification, which would require vendors to verify the firearms licence of the buyer with the Registrar of Firearms before transferring a non-restricted firearm; and
2) requiring businesses to maintain inventory and sales records for non-restricted firearms for a minimum of 20 years. The Firearms Act requires that regulations be tabled in both Houses of Parliament for up to 30 sitting days. Any changes recommended by Parliament may be incorporated, and the regulations published and brought into force thereafter.

Comprehensive Suite of Firearms Measures

In Budget 2021, an investment of $312M over five years was announced, starting in 2021–22, and $41.4M per year ongoing for PS, CBSA, and the RCMP to implement a suite of measures to help protect Canadians from gun violence and to fight gun smuggling and trafficking. This funding will: support the establishment of a secretariat to oversee the buy-back program and launch a public awareness campaign; increase the capacity of the Canadian Firearms Program; increase RCMP capacity to trace crime guns and detect straw purchasing; and enhance CBSA intelligence and investigative capacity at the border.

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