Liberal Gun Control Bill to Become Law After Passing Senate

Semi-automatic rifles fill a wall at a gun shop in Lynnwood, Wash. The Canadian Press/AP-Elaine Thompson

The Senate has voted 60–24 to pass Bill C-21, legislation that cements handgun restrictions, increases penalties on firearms traffickers, and implements new “red flag” provisions.

Bill C-21 aims to ban guns that fall under a new technical definition of “assault-style” firearms. Such guns are semi-automatic, with centre-fire ammunition, and are designed to hold a magazine of six or more cartridges. The ban would only apply to such firearms manufactured after the bill comes into force.

The legislation also includes a red flag provision, which allows people to flag concerns about someone’s gun ownership if it may pose a risk to themselves or others. Such concerns “on reasonable grounds” can be submitted to provincial courts.

Additionally, the legislation increases the maximum penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking from 10 years to 14 years in prison.

It also enshrines into law the current freeze on the transfer of handguns, which was put into place in August 2022.

The Liberal government was forced to back down from a previous version of the bill in February that would have added hundreds of firearm types already exempted under the 2020 Orders in Council—some of which are used for hunting—to the prohibited list.

Cabinet then introduced an updated version of the bill and announced it would revive the Firearms Advisory Committee to review the classification of existing firearms. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told senators in October that the review would exclude guns legitimately used for hunting.

Amendments added to Bill C-21 in November 2022 would have banned any rifle or shotgun that was initially designed to accept a magazine with more than five rounds, guns that could generate more than 10,000 joules of energy or had muzzles wider than 20 millimetres, and some semi-automatic firearms without detachable magazines that do not meet this specific criterion.

Conservative and NDP MPs united in opposition to the bill, and the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution condemning the legislation for potentially infringing on First Nations and treaty rights to hunt and harvest.

Critics of Bill C-21

In reacting to the bill’s passage, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on social media that the Liberal government was “going after trained and tested, law-abiding Canadians instead of gangs and gun smugglers,” and warned that it was planning to ban hunting rifles.

“Common sense Conservatives will stop the Liberal hunting rifle ban and go after the real criminals instead,” he said on Dec. 14.

PolySeSouvient, a gun control group that represents survivors and families of the École Polytechnique massacre, said they welcomed the passage of Bill C-21, which “contains solid measures to better protect victims of domestic abuse from gun threats and violence.”

“These measures represent concrete and effective progress and will [save] many lives, in particular, due to the new automatic prohibition preventing an individual who is subject to a protection order from owning guns,” said Nathalie Provost, survivor and spokesperson for PolySeSouvient in a Dec.14 statement.

Tracey Wilson, vice president of Public Relations at the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 14 that legislation should instead focus on gang violence and illegal gun smuggling over the Canada–U.S. border. Instead, she said, the government enacted more gun control on the “very people not committing” gun violence.

Ms. Wilson warned that the red flag provision would put the onus on victims to go to court to flag problems instead of “allowing law enforcement to do their job.” She said Canada’s sports shooting sector would be harmed despite its “long, storied history of marksmanship and Olympic excellence on the world stage.”

Police officers would be made to attend the homes of legal handgun owners’ homes upon their death, and forcibly confiscate their property from their grieving widows and children, without compensation, Ms. Wilson said.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.