Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said law enforcement officers seized 11,000 illegal guns at the Canada–U.S. border last year, admitting that the majority of guns used in crime in Canada originate from the United States.
“You could take statistics that range anywhere between 50 to 75 percent. There are some who say that that number is even higher,” he said.
Mendicino said the federal government is using new technology and wiretapping to go after ghost guns, such as firearms printed using a 3D printer. Mendicino said the federal government “put in place a national ban on assault style firearms.”
“There are AR-15 style firearms that have been used in shooting tragedies like in Portapique, in Truro,” said Mendicino.
Mercedes Stephenson, host of The West Block, challenged Mendicino on his statement, saying, “Just to be clear, in Portapique, those guns were smuggled in from the United States, though.”
Mendicino responded: “Which is why the first item that we just discussed is another show of our commitment to strengthen our work at the border. But coming back to the buyback program. You can ban them, but you’ve also got to make sure that you remove them from our communities.”
Portapique Shooting
The public safety minister’s reference to Portapique was the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in April 2020. The shooter, Gabriel Wortman, was not a legal, licensed firearms owner, and killed 22 people with illegal guns.All of the guns were illegally obtained, and three of the guns were smuggled into Canada from the United States. As he was not licensed, he was not entitled to legally possess or own the guns. Wortman also had the government-issued weapon belonging to an RCMP constable he killed during his shooting spree.
The RCMP later said the killer obtained one of the firearms from the estate of a friend who died, and all of the pistols were restricted at the time of the shooting, meaning they were already illegal.
Federal Gun Ban
The public safety minister said that with the “cooperation of gun business owners,” the federal government was going to “get those first 11,000 assault-style firearms off our streets and out of our communities.”Mendicino said the Liberal government is “strengthening our borders to stop the illegal flow of gun smuggling into our country.”
“In the last couple of years, the RCMP have increased their capacity to trace illegal guns by 250 percent,” the public safety minister added.
Reuters quoted Regina, Saskatchewan Chief of Police Evan Bray, who said, “We really think that restricting lawful handgun ownership doesn’t meaningfully address the real issue, which is illegal handguns obtained from the United States.”
Reuters said it obtained exclusive data for Ontario, Canada’s most highly populated province. When handguns involved in crimes were traced in 2021, they were overwhelmingly—as in 85 percent of the time—found to have come from the United States, Reuters reported.
Gun Tracing
Reuters cited data from the Ontario Police’s Firearms Analysis and Tracing Enforcement (FATE) program, which found that 70 percent of all traced guns used in crimes in Ontario came from the United States. Police can only trace guns if the serial numbers have not been removed.Mendicino told Reuters last year that the federal government “came to the judgement that a national handgun freeze would be the fastest and most effective way” to reverse a rising firearm homicide rate.
Reuters quoted Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Andrew Steinwall, who said trying to stop gun smuggling into Canada was an “unwinnable fight.”
“We don’t have the resources to seize every gun in this country that’s come in illegally,” he said.
Organized Crime
In December 2022, Toronto police announced they had completed an eight-month investigation into an armed organized crime group involved in illegal gun trafficking, and laid 260 criminal charges.“Every one of these guns was destined for our streets; our communities,” said Police Chief James Ramer in a Dec. 5 release.
Of the 62 firearms seized in the investigation dubbed “Project Barbell,” four AR-15-type guns had no serial numbers and were untraceable. Fifty-eight were traced, and of those, 57 were traced to the United States, specifically Arizona and Texas. One firearm was traced back to Ontario and found to be a stolen gun from a break-and-enter crime in 2021.
Watts said that none of the guns seized were legally purchased in Canada. They were all illegal guns, smuggled over the border into Canada for profit. Watts said criminals can purchase a Glock handgun in the United States, regardless of model, for less than $1,000. They illegally smuggle it into Canada and sell it for $6,000, he said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre reacted to the news of the arrests at the time, saying on Twitter that the federal government should “put resources into keeping illegal US guns out, rather than banning rifles used by our hunters.”In response to opposition from hunters, politicians, indigenous groups, and industry members, the federal government on May 1 announced a revised plan for its gun ban under Bill C-21, which Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said will ban certain types of “AR-15 style” firearms after the legislation comes into effect. The Liberals’ national handgun freeze would remain in place.
Mendicino told The West Block that once the government gets “assault style firearms” out of communities, “then after that, we’re going to roll out our program, which will focus on individual gun owners.”