OTTAWA –
The Canadian government is moving to ban the importation of restricted handguns, effective Aug. 19.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Friday that the federal government has decided to push ahead with the importation ban without the approval of Parliament, moving to make the policy change through regulatory restrictions.
The measure will prevent individuals and businesses from importing handguns into Canada, the government says.
The government says the coming regulations will effectively speed up aspects of the planned freeze. The move is temporary though, with plans for it to remain in effect only until the previously-promised permanent importation ban is passed in Ottawa.
“This ban is a stopgap while the handgun freeze in its entirety moves through the parliamentary process, preventing shelves from being restocked in the immediate term,” Joly said.
In late May, the Liberals tabled Bill C-21, legislation which if passed would further restrict legal access to handguns in Canada. The bill includes a specific section that stops short of a complete ban, opting instead for a national “freeze” on the sale, purchase or transfer of handguns in Canada that allows current legal owners to keep theirs.
Bill C-21 also seeks to create systems to flag individuals who may pose a risk to themselves or others, and increase the maximum penalties for firearm-related offences such as firearm smuggling and trafficking.
The incoming regulations announced Friday will include “narrow exceptions that mirror those in Bill C-21,” the government said.
Joly said that the Liberals have decided to do this because when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Bill C-21, there was an “uptick” in guns being purchased in Canada.
“We want to prevent that. That is why we’re announcing this import ban… We know that the vast majority of handguns in the country are imported, as there’s no handgun producer in the country,” Joly said.
The move is likely to receive mixed reaction from gun control and gun rights groups, but according to the government, law enforcement agencies seized more than double the number of firearms at the border in 2021, compared to 2020.
There were approximately 1.1 million registered handguns in Canada as of 2020, according to federal data.
More to come…
With files from CTV News’ Michael Lee