The Liberal government will be introducing a new bill related to firearms on May 30, according to the House of Commons notice paper.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will be presenting the bill, titled “An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms).”
The content of the new bill is currently unknown but its title is identical to Bill C-21, which was presented in the last Parliament and died when the government called an election.
The bill also sought to address cross-border criminality by amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and designating the public safety minister as responsible for establishing policies on “inadmissibility on grounds of transborder criminality for the commission of an offence on entering Canada.”
Mendicino was tasked with requiring the permanent alteration of long-gun magazines so that they cannot be altered to take more than five rounds and with banning the transfer or sale of magazines capable of holding more than the legal number of bullets.
The letter also included working for the introduction of “red flag” laws to remove firearms from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others, and providing financial support to provinces or territories that want to ban handguns.
The Conservative opposition has criticized that last measure as a veiled resurrection of the long-gun registry, which transfers responsibility from government to businesses.
The Tories view Liberal measures as unfairly targeting legal gun owners while being soft on criminals.
According to Statistics Canada, 11 percent of those who committed murder with a firearm in 2020 had a valid firearms licence.
Toronto’s deputy police chief Myron Demkiw, who testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety on Feb. 8, said that 86 percent of handguns used in crime in 2021 in his city came from the United States.
The Liberals say Bill C-5 is a measure to address “systemic racism” by reducing the proportion of incarcerated blacks and indigenous people.