Ottawa’s new firearms bill be released this afternoon

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This article was published 29/05/2022 (843 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—A new firearms control bill is expected this afternoon from the federal Liberal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as cabinet ministers responsible for public safety, justice, emergency preparedness and women and gender equality, are scheduled to address the public on the contents of the bill at a 4:30 p.m. news conference, shortly after the proposed legislation is tabled in the House of Commons.

Gun control advocates, as well as local politicians, are also expected at the event, which comes as the House of Commons begins a final stretch of sitting days before breaking for the summer.

The bill is expected to revive the Liberals’ previous legislative efforts to more strictly control firearms but also chart new ground in Canadian firearms legislation.

A major gun bill in the last Parliament, C-21, failed to pass before the 2021 election.

Among other measures it included the ability for people to ask the courts to remove an individual’s access to firearms, known as red-flag or yellow-flag laws, as well as increased criminal penalties or new offences related to guns and ammunition.

The law also sought to help municipalities enact bylaws to ban handguns, and during the 2021 federal election, the Liberals promised a $1 billion fund to help provinces also get bans in place.

They recommitted late last year to setting up the fund.

But Northern Ontario mayors were among those who have argued municipal bans would create an unworkable tangle of rules, while Saskatchewan and Alberta have passed legislation prohibiting towns and cities from unilaterally putting gun bans in place.

Handguns are already a restricted firearm in Canada, meaning owners must have a licence to own them, and there are numerous restrictions on how and where they can be used legally.

But gun advocates have urged the Liberals instead to make it illegal for anyone to own a handgun.

In 2020, the Liberals did ban 1,500 of what they called “assault-style” weapons, and in the last election further promised to make it mandatory for owners of those guns to sell them back to the government.

The amnesty for those owners was pushed back a year as the federal government continues to try and get the buyback program in place.

Monday’s legislation bill follows a Statistics Canada report released Friday on trends in gun crime between 2009 and 2020.

The report found handguns were involved in about 75 per cent of violent robberies, and 60 per cent of homicides, other violations causing death and attempted murders.

Handguns were also involved in 54 per cent in sexual offences and 51 per cent of firearm-specific violent offences in 2020, the report said.

Rates of gun crime in 2020 were highest in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Territories, the report said.

Cities with the highest proportions of gun crimes were Regina, Brantford, Ont., Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Windsor, Ont., it said.

“It is worth noting that Toronto had a relatively low rate of firearm-related violent crime, but these firearm-related crimes accounted for a relatively high proportion of all violent crime,” said the report.

The report noted, however, that the source of the guns is not data that’s available to parse.

“Of particular concern, there is currently little information available to determine the source of firearms used in crime: for example, whether a gun used in a crime was stolen, illegally purchased or smuggled into the country. This information is sometimes not recorded by police services, recorded inconsistently or, in some cases, the information is simply not available,” the report said.

With files from The Canadian Press

Stephanie Levitz is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @StephanieLevitz