Parliamentary Committee Notes: Firearms Smuggling and Trafficking

Date: May 10, 2022
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: PS/CPB

Proposed Response:

• We are taking action to limit criminal access to firearms by investing in policing, border enforcement and increased intelligence sharing.
• The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency have taken significant steps to stop the illicit flow of firearms across the border, trafficking within the country and diversion from straw purchasing and theft.
• Our Government invested $125 million to enhance the RCMP and CBSA’s capacity to detect and disrupt gun smuggling.
• These investments are working. We’ve seen increased gun seizures and arrests thanks to the hard-working members of the RCMP and the CBSA.
• We are doing more to protect Canadians. We are investing $312 million over five years, including $40 million for the RCMP to combat smuggling, $15 million for tracing, and over $21 million for CBSA equipment and intelligence sharing.
• These new tools and resources — such as x-ray machines, parcel scanners and detector dogs — are helping to prevent illegal firearms from entering Canada.
• The agencies are working with police across Canada and internationally to prevent illicit access to firearms and ammunition.  
• A Cross Border Firearms Task Force — of Canadian and U.S. enforcement agencies — is working actively to disrupt smuggling at the border.
• We will soon bring into force mandatory licence verification, an additional tool to investigate and trace crime guns and straw purchasing, that will help 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.
• These are only a few examples of measures we will bring forward as we continue to take action to combat gun violence, tackle smuggling and trafficking and strengthen our gun control framework.

Financial implications

• Our Government invested $125 million to enhance the RCMP and CBSA’s capacity to detect and disrupt gun smuggling.
  
• We are investing $312 million over five years, including $40 million for the RCMP to combat smuggling, $15 million for tracing, and over $21 million for CBSA equipment and intelligence sharing.

Background:

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 domestic transfer of firearms through criminal diversion and straw purchasing. 

Cross-Border Smuggling

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 Canada Border Services Agency (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 a large upward trend with 678 firearms seized to-date in the first half of the fiscal year compared to total firearms seized in 2018–19 (696), 2019–20 (753) or 2020–21 (548). 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.

Firearms Tracing, Straw Purchasing and Diversion

Firearms tracing is a key tool in determining the sources of and diversion routes for illegal firearms. Approximately, 21,000 firearms are seized annually by police. In 2020, the Canadian National Firearms Tracing Centre traced 2,144 firearms, with the vast majority of requests (approximately 93%) being submitted by Canadian law enforcement clients. This represented a 21.26% increase in traces from 2019 (1,768).

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 legal firearms in Canada are diverted into the illicit market through domestic straw purchasing practices and theft.

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.

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, the Government announced an investment of $312M over five years, starting in 2021–22, and $41.4M per year ongoing for PS, CBSA, and the RCMP to enhance Canada’s firearm control framework. This funding includes program measures that will:

• Strengthen services to support the lawful acquisition, ownership ad use of firearms by enhancing RCMP Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) services to Canadians and law enforcement.
• Combat illegal firearm-related activities by increasing RCMP capacity to trace crime guns and to continue to build a national system that allows for the flagging of straw purchasing of firearms, and provide RCMP and CBSA with additional resources to target firearms smuggling and trafficking.
• Enhance firearms policy advice and promote awareness of firearm programs by establishing capacity for the RCMP to begin the development of a buyback program for those firearms that were prohibited on May 1 2020; increase PS capacity to support the policy, legislative, regulatory, and program measures to deliver on the Government’s firearms commitments; and continue to develop and advance the firearms social marketing campaign that will raise awareness and educate Canadians on the need to reduce violent crimes through a variety of initiatives.

Prohibition of Assault-Style Firearms

On May 1, 2020, the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited, Restricted or Non-Restricted were amended to reclassify as prohibited approximately 1,500 models of firearms and their variants. Of those, nine principal models of assault-style firearms are prohibited as they have semi-automatic action with sustained rapid-fire capability (tactical military design with large magazine capacity), are of modern design, and are present in large volumes in the Canadian market. Also included are two categories of firearms that exceed safe civilian use: firearms with 20 mm bore or greater, or with a muzzle energy of greater than 10,000 Joules. In addition, the upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15 and M4 pattern firearms have been prescribed as prohibited devices.

The Government decided that these newly prohibited firearms and components are not reasonable for hunting or sport shooting purposes given the inherent danger that they pose to public safety. Following the ban, the Government declared an amnesty period until October 30, 2023. The Amnesty Order protects affected individuals from criminal liability for illegal possession of a now prohibited firearm in order to afford the individuals with time to dispose of the firearms. Further, the Government announced its intention to establish a buy-back program to offer fair compensation to affected owners and businesses while making sure the program’s implementation is cost-effective. This was reaffirmed in the 2021 Speech from the Throne and Minister’s mandate letter. There are currently a number of court applications challenging the May 1, 2020, Order in Council prohibiting certain assault-style firearms. The grounds for review include: alleged breaches of the Charter; alleged violations of the Bill of Rights; and, an allegation that the decision is ultra vires the enabling authority under the Criminal Code.

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.

Contacts:

Prepared by: [REDACTED] Policy Development, Firearms, [REDACTED]
Approved by: Talal Dakalbab, Assistant Deputy Minister, Crime Prevention Branch, 613-852-1167

Date modified:

2023-05-11