Parliamentary Committee Notes: Bill C-21
Proposed Response:
- The Government of Canada is taking a comprehensive approach to combatting gun violence, including taking steps to further strengthen gun control legislation in Canada.
- On May 30, 2022, the Government introduced Bill C-21: An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms).
- The Bill includes measures that respond to the different forms of firearms crime to reduce gun violence in communities across Canada.
- While this Bill re-introduces many elements of the former Bill C-21, there are elements that have been removed, such as non-permissive storage and municipal handgun restrictions, and introduces new and enhanced measures that will:
- Reduce firearm-related family violence and self-harm through “red and yellow flag” laws;
- Prevent most individuals from buying, selling and transferring handguns through a national freeze;
- Repeal the Governor in Council (GiC) ability to downgrade firearms classification;
- Enable registration certificates to expire immediately after a re-classification of a firearm.; and
- Add tools for law enforcement by amending the Criminal Code to expand the existing list of offences eligible for wiretapping.
- Overall, Bill C-21 will:
- introduce a national "freeze" on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns by individuals within Canada, and bringing newly-acquired handguns into Canada;
- help prevent firearm-related deaths in cases of gender-based and intimate-partner violence and self-harm;
- increase criminal penalties to target those that smuggle and traffic firearms;
- make it an offence to alter a gun magazine;
- enable police information-sharing needed to investigate firearms offences; and
- prevent illegal ammunition from entering our country.
- While a number of the measures in the Bill will come into force upon Royal Assent, there are several measures that will come into force via Order in Council thereafter.
- These legislative and regulatory changes are just one way the Government is taking action to better protect Canadians.
Background:
Bill C-21: An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms) was introduced in Parliament on May 30, 2022. The Bill passed second reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on June 23, 2022.
National "freeze" on handguns
The Bill includes measures that would essentially cap the domestic lawful handgun market in Canada by freezing the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns by most individuals within Canada, and prevent them from bringing newly-acquired firearms into Canada. This is part of the Government’s broader plan to combat rising gun violence and keep communities safe.
Owners of existing handguns would continue to possess their handguns, but they would not be authorized to import handguns, acquire new handguns or transfer their existing handguns (except to businesses or exempted individuals). Exempted individuals include those who hold an Authorization to Carry handguns as part of their job or for protection of life, as well as authorized high-performance sport shooting athletes and coaches.
Helping reduce firearm-related deaths in cases of family violence and self-harm
The Bill contains distinct measures to limit access to firearms by those who pose a risk of harm to themselves or others:
- “Red flag” law: the Criminal Code will allow anyone to apply to a judge for an order to immediately remove firearms from 1) an individual who may pose a danger to themselves or others, or 2) a third party who could provide firearms to such an individual. The order will for a period of 30 days. Such applications are now available only to peace officers, firearms officers, and Chief Firearms Officers;
- “Yellow flag” law: a new provision in the Firearms Act will allow a Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) to temporarily suspend an individual’s firearms licence if the CFO receives information calling into question their licence eligibility. During the suspension, an individual would be prohibited from using their firearms, and could not acquire new ones. This will provide a pause while CFOs assess whether to revoke the licence. If the reasonable suspicion is eliminated prior to the end of the 30 days, the licence will be reinstated;
- Require the surrender of firearms during a legal challenge of a licence revocation, and measures to facilitate their safe disposal if required. Owners will no longer retain their firearms while appealing a licence revocation;
- Automatic revocation of licence when an individual is subject to a protection order or has engaged in an act of domestic violence or stalking. Licence revocations would require disposal (e.g., sale, deactivation, surrender) of all of the individual’s firearms. Individuals could apply for a conditional licence if they need a firearm for sustenance hunting or for their employment in the only vocation open to the individual; and
- Licence ineligibility when an individual is or has been subject to a protection order, subject to certain exceptions to be determined in regulations.
Targeting criminal use and diversion of firearms to the illicit market
The Bill proposes a number of measures that will tackle firearms smuggling and trafficking:
- Impose stronger Criminal Code penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking and related offences. Increased maximum penalties from 10 years to 14 years imprisonment;
- Prohibit the import, export, transfer and sale to non-regulated airguns that look like modern firearms and that are capable of firing a projectile between 366 and 500 fps. Current owners will be allowed to keep those they already own, but they cannot transfer them to another person;
- Amend the Firearms Act to require presentation of a firearms licence to import ammunition to ensure that individuals without a licence cannot obtain ammunition from abroad (e.g., for an illegal firearm);
- Amend the Firearms Act to authorize the disclosure of information about firearms licence holders to Canadian law enforcement agencies when there are reasonable grounds to suspect the licence is being used for straw purchasing and weapons trafficking. A reporting requirement would be added to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Firearms to support transparency;
- Create a new Firearms Act offence for a business that promotes or depicts violence in firearms advertising. Maximum penalty of two years imprisonment, in the case of a first offence, and five years for each subsequent offence; and
- Create a new Criminal Code offence for altering a cartridge magazine to hold more than its lawful capacity. Maximum penalty of five years imprisonment on indictment or punishable on summary conviction.
Strengthen border controls to combat firearms smuggling, trafficking and other offences
The Bill proposes to enhance the security of federal entities with the following measures:
- Update the definition of public officers in the Criminal Code to include security personnel of the Bank of Canada, Royal Canadian Mint and other individuals prescribed by the GIC;
- Grant limited peace officer status to security personnel at Canada’s nuclear facilities and provide independent review of their actions;
- Improve the ability of the CBSA to manage inadmissibility to Canada when foreign nationals commit offences upon entry to Canada, including firearm-related offences. Technical amendments to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act would clarify that the existing regulation-making power may prescribe specific offences, whether in legislation or regulations, as applicable for this inadmissibility ground. Regulatory amendments will be made that would better focus the inadmissibility on the most serious cross-border offences, and would provide officers at ports of entry the authority to issue removal orders for the most straightforward offences, such as importing a firearm without a permit; and
- Transfer policy responsibility for transborder criminality from the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to the Minister of Public Safety. This would better align with the Minister of Public Safety’s existing policy responsibilities with respect to border management, immigration enforcement, and criminal law enforcement.
Technical amendments
The Bill proposes changes to enhance the administration of the firearms control regime:
- Add two firearms offences to the list of Criminal Code offences eligible for wiretapping;
- Repeal the ability in the Criminal Code of the GIC to downgrade the classification of a firearm despite technical characteristics;
- Automatically expire registration certificates when a firearm’s classification changes through legislative or regulatory amendments;
- Amend provisions for Authorizations to Carry (ATC) for personal protection to allow only the Commissioner of Firearms to approve, and formalize the approval requirements in regulations; and
- Make other technical amendments and ensure concordance of the English and French versions.
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