New law would allow cities to ban handguns
Advocates ‘disappointed’ Trudeau won’t push for harsher measures
OTTAWA—The Liberal government’s new gun control law would slap criminal penalties on those who break municipal handgun restrictions, a move that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed Tuesday as fulfilment of a key promise.
It also stops short of the national handgun ban that Toronto Mayor John Tory and families of shooting victims have called for.
Ken Price, a gun control advocate whose daughter Samantha survived the deadly shooting on the Danforth in 2018, welcomed some elements of the proposed law but said he is still left “disappointed.”
As spokesperson for the group Danforth Families for Safe Communities, Price questioned whether the legislation would prevent similar horrors in the future, pointing to how the Danforth shooter used a gun legally purchased in Saskatchewan and later stolen.
“Anything short of prohibition will probably fall short,” he said. “We need to have a national law, not a regional law and a patchwork of laws across the country, which I think will be difficult to understand and enforce.”
Government officials who briefed journalists on the new law also confirmed it doesn’t change the fact that provinces determine areas of municipal authority. That means provinces that have opposed Trudeau’s pledge to allow cities to ban handguns — including Ontario — can still prevent municipalities from restricting them.
Saskatchewan, for instance, passed a law last year that prevents municipalities from limiting handgun ownership through local bylaws.
For cities with the power to act, however, the law would attach federal and criminal penalties to local bylaws that prohibit the storage or transport of handguns within municipal boundaries. Anyone who breaks such laws could have their gun licences revoked and be jailed for up to two years.
Trudeau said Tuesday this means Ottawa is allowing cities to “ban handguns,” something he has promised to do since the 2019 federal election.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart pounced on the news, declaring on Twitter that he is moving to prepare a local bylaw to ban handguns in his city.
Stephen Warner, a spokesperson for Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, said in a statement to the Star that the province is reviewing the proposed law to figure out how it affects Ontario, “as the federal government chose not to consult” them on the legislation.
Tory said Toronto is also reviewing the legislation to figure out how the provisions supporting municipal restrictions on handguns will work. In a statement to the Star, Tory said he supports “any actions” Ottawa takes on gun control, but that city council “has been clear that it supports a national handgun ban.”
The legislation tabled Tuesday, Bill C-21, also includes a range of measures that Trudeau said follow previous measures to ban “military-style” rifles and expand background checks on people who want to acquire guns.
If the new bill passes through Canada’s minority parliament, it would create “red flag” laws to take firearms away from potentially dangerous people. It would also introduce new and tougher consequences for gun smuggling and illegally increasing how many bullets a gun can carry, including increasing maximum prison sentences from 10 to 14 years.
More controversially, however, the bill spells out how people who own more than 1,500 types of weapons that were banned last year can keep them under a voluntary buyback program that Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said could cost up to $400 million.
“Getting these weapons off our streets and out of the hands of criminals means less violence, and that means safer cities and communities,” Trudeau told reporters.
The buyback program has angered survivors of shootings such as the 1989 massacre at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, who want Ottawa to follow New Zealand by forcing gun owners to give up their banned weapons. Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, a group of health-care workers that welcomed the bill despite calling it “imperfect,” also said Tuesday that it “remains concerned” the planned buyback program is voluntary.
Trudeau and Blair said Tuesday that the government studied various buyback programs in other countries and concluded that making it voluntary was best.
That’s partly because it’s hard to ensure the success of a mandatory buyback program when the government doesn’t know how many banned guns are in Canada, Blair said. Senior officials estimate Canadians own at least 155,000 of the banned weapons but said there are likely more. Police consulted during the process also said they would need to know where the weapons were located to implement a mandatory buyback, Blair said.
But the strength of the government’s ban, which makes it illegal to shoot, transport, sell, import and bequeath banned weapons, will create “a very strong incentive for people to voluntarily surrender them for compensation,” Blair said.
He also pointed to incoming rules around the safe storage of banned weapons that owners choose to keep, as well as requirements for special licenses and registration.
And while details of the buyback program are still being sorted out, Blair said the government estimates it will cost between $300 million and $400 million to buyback between 150,000 and 200,000 banned guns at an average cost of “approximately $1,300 per firearm.”