Question Period Note: Efforts to Address Firearms Smuggling and Trafficking

Government commitments to address gun smuggling and trafficking.

Canadians want their government to reduce gun violence, and we are taking bold action to limit criminal access to firearms.
• We are providing the CBSA and RCMP with the tools and resources needed to combat smuggling and trafficking — such as x-ray machines, parcel scanners and detector dogs — to prevent illegal firearms from entering Canada.

• Working with police across Canada, these agencies are preventing illicit access to firearms and ammunition through increased intelligence, investigations and enforcement.

• A Cross Border Firearms Task Force — of Canadian and U.S. enforcement agencies — is also working actively to disrupt smuggling at the border.

• We will soon bring into force mandatory licence verification — to provide police additional tools to investigate and trace crime guns and “straw purchasing” — to prevent legally acquired firearms from being diverted to criminals.

• We will also introduce legislation to increase the maximum penalties for firearms trafficking and smuggling from
10 to 14 years, and strengthen storage regulations to deter theft.

Firearms smuggling refers to the illegal importation of firearms across an international border. Firearms trafficking is not limited to international borders and includes the illegal transfer of firearms through criminal diversion and straw purchasing.

Cross-Border Smuggling

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for facilitating international trade and travel across Canada's border, while ensuring the health and safety of Canadians. Specifically, the CBSA helps to protect Canadian communities by combatting the movement of illegal firearms into Canada.

The cross-border smuggling of firearms poses a threat to the safety and security of Canada. Given the availability of firearms in the United States (U.S.), including firearms that are strictly controlled or prohibited in Canada, most firearm seizures happen at the Canada-U.S. land border. The CBSA seizes large quantities of firearms every year from U.S. citizens, mostly from non-compliant travellers attempting to retain their personal firearms while travelling. In 2021–2022, CBSA has reported seeing its greatest upward trend with 692 firearms seized to-date less than five months into the fiscal year compared to total firearms seized in 2018–19 (695) and 2019–20 (752). With the removal of COVID-19 restrictions at the land border, CBSA anticipates that this trend is likely to continue. The total number of firearms successfully smuggled into Canada is unknown.

On February 23, 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joseph R. Biden met and unveiled the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, detailing commitments on various issues, including combatting firearms smuggling. Specifically, the Roadmap outlined efforts to enhance law enforcement collaboration between the U.S. and Canada, including the reestablishment of the Cross-Border Crime Forum (CBCF) to strengthen information sharing, address justice reform and cross-border law enforcement challenges to make communities safer.

The President and Prime Minister also noted their common objective to reduce gun violence and directed officials to explore the creation of a cross-border task force to address gun smuggling and trafficking. To help address this challenge, the two sides have formed the Cross-Border Firearms Task Force (CBFTF), under the CBCF, to be co-led by the CBSA for Canada and jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) within the Department of Justice (DOJ), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI) within the Department of Homeland Security for the U.S. Both sides intend to work together consistent with their respective domestic laws to identify the primary sources of illicit firearms and to disrupt their flow and the exchange of illicit commodities for such firearms across the shared border.

Straw Purchasing and Diversion

Straw purchasing occurs when a legal Canadian firearm license-holder purchases a gun and then illegally resells it on the black market, through a targeted campaign for individuals and retailers. Many illegal firearms in Canada are diverted into the illicit market through domestic straw purchasing practices and theft. Firearms tracing is a key tool in determining the sources of and diversion routes for illegal firearms. In 2019, approximately 12% of the 26,000 firearms seized by provincial and municipal police forces and other agencies including the CBSA were the subject of a trace request to the Canadian National Firearms Tracing Centre.

Theft from legal owners represents a growing source of illegally acquired domestic firearms. According to Statistics Canada, between 2010 and 2019, there was an increase of break and enters where a firearm was stolen (from 673 to 1,072 incidents). There may be cases where thefts are related to improper storage and transportation of firearms, but data on this is not available.

Former Bill C-21

Former Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms), proposed amendments to address gun smuggling and trafficking, among others increasing maximum penalties for gun trafficking, smuggling and related offences from 10 to 14 years imprisonment and increasing information sharing between RCMP and Canadian law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting firearms trafficking offences. Bill C-21 died on the Order Paper with the dissolution of Parliament. New legislation is required to meet platform commitments.

Government Efforts to Combat Smuggling and Trafficking

As part of the Government’s investment of $358.8M over five years, and an anticipated $100M ongoing, to establish the Initiative to Take Action against Gun and Gang Violence (ITAAGGV), it provided $125.0M to the RCMP and CBSA to enhance firearms investigations and strengthen controls at the border to prevent illegal firearms from entering the country. This investment enhances the RCMP’s regional firearms intelligence presence and creates a dedicated analytical capacity to develop actionable intelligence reports for law enforcement at the local, regional and provincial/territorial level. For CBSA, this funding provides them with greater operational capacity to screen passengers and examine commercial shipments, thereby protecting Canadians by preventing firearms and inadmissible people from coming into the country illegally. It also supports CBSA investments in an all-weather detector dog training facility, additional detector dog teams at key highway crossings, expansion of x-ray technology at postal centres and air cargo facilities, and key training in the detection of concealed goods in vehicles crossing our borders.

Building on these investments, 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 includes investments to 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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