Liberal about-turn on Bill C-21 marks failure of historically significant gun control reform

HALIFAX—The Liberal government's decision to withdraw amendments to its proposed firearms legislation, Bill C-21, means the failure of one of the most significant gun control measures in Canadian history. These amendments would have prohibited many semi-automatic weapons capable of carrying large amounts of ammunition by introducing a new "evergreen" firearm classification system. This proposal was designed to prevent mass shootings, which are usually carried out with semi-automatic firearms that allow shooters to fire with each pull of the trigger. The amendments produced howls of protest from Canada's gun lobby, which claimed the government was unfairly banning hunting rifles. But, just as there is no legal definition of an “assault-style” rifle in Canada, there is also no legal definition of a "hunting rifle." What should determine the classification of firearms is not their appearance, but their design and capabilities. Professor R. Blake Brown is chair of the Department of History at Saint Mary's University. Photograph courtesy of R. Blake Brown Unfortunately, the peculiar legal history of gun control has resulted in a firearms classification system that both advocates and critics of stricter firearm laws have called inconsistent. For more than 40 years, classifying firearms has been done in two main ways. First, the Criminal Code states that certain characteristics of weapons, such as firing mechanism and length, should determine how guns are classified. Second, Canadian law allows the federal cabinet to issue orders-in-council to name models as restricted or prohibited. In 1977, federal justice minister Ron Basford said he wanted to curb the use of some semi-automatic rifles because "as a matter of public policy, it seems to me that we should endeavour to restrict their availability and use in Canada as much as possible." The Liberals thus passed legislation making semi-automatic rifles with short barrels restricted weapons. The government also used an order-in-council to restrict the AR-15. After the 1989 Montreal Massacre, then-Progressive Conservative justice minister Kim Campbell asserted the government's desire to restrict access to what she called "modern semi-automatic military assault weapons." The PC government used orders-in-council to declare many models of such firearms as restricted or prohibited weapons. The Liberal government of Jean Chrétien subsequently used orders-in-council to restrict or prohibit more models of semi-automatic rifles. This system came under stress over time. New models of semi-automatic rifles often entered the market as non-restricted weapons because governments did not declare them restricted or prohibited weapons, and because the new models had characteristics that avoided the statutory definitions of restricted or prohibited firearms. Despite the resulting inconsistencies in the classification regime, governments proved unwilling to tackle what had become a thorny political and policy issue. In May 2020, with great fanfare, the Trudeau government announced it would ban several models of “assault-style” rifles using an order-in-council. This update to the list of prohibited weapons helped rationalize the classification system. However, as commentators quickly pointed out, similar models of rifles still remained legal. In the last federal election, the Conservative Party appealed for gun lobby support by promising to adopt a “simplified classification system” that would have made the law more uniform, but also have made rifles like the AR-15 much more widely available. The Liberal Party did not include a revised classification framework in its 2021 election platform, though minister Bill Blair had said the government would create an “evergreen” system to cement a new classification system. The amendments to Bill C-21 would have done this by declaring as prohibited any rifle "capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner and that is designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges of the type for which the firearm was originally designed." If the amended Bill C-21 had been passed and implemented, it would have made the Canadian gun classification system more uniform. The Trudeau government also would have made Canadian law similar to nations with lower gun violence rates, such as New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The federal Liberals have suggested they will revisit this proposal. If they don't, Canadian firearms law will remain complicated and continue to allow gun owners to purchase some models of semi-automatic assault-style rifles. Professor R. Blake Brown is chair of the Department of History at Saint Mary's University and the author of Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada, published by University of Toronto Press. You can follow him on Twitter @rblakebrown. The Hill Times

Liberal about-turn on Bill C-21 marks failure of historically significant gun control reform

The amendments would have prohibited many semi-automatic weapons capable of carrying large amounts of ammunition by introducing a new 'evergreen' firearm classification system.

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Liberal about-turn on Bill C-21 marks failure of historically significant gun control reform

The amendments would have prohibited many semi-automatic weapons capable of carrying large amounts of ammunition by introducing a new 'evergreen' firearm classification system.

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