This morning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland and Justice Minister David Lametti took to the airwaves to announce their sweeping new ‘gun control’ election platform, Bill C-21.i
Before we look at what’s in Bill C-21, it’s important to take note of what’s not contained in this draft legislation.
Firearm Confiscation Compensation
Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety said this legislation was required in order to implement their much-talked-about Firearm Confiscation Compensation program.
Not one line of Bill C-21 deals with funding for a compensation package for firearm owners who agree to surrender their legally-acquired firearms to the government.
Quote: “Details of a buyback program will be announced later.”
New Safe Storage Requirements
The federal government appears to leave any new firearm storage requirements in the hands of individual municipalities. Bill C-21 says an individual must store their firearms in compliance with any municipal storage requirements that may be issued.
Quote: “comply with strict storage conditions (to be prescribed) and confirm periodically they are still in compliance.”
So what’s in the bag?
Now we can get to what’s included in Bill C-21. This legislation will, if passed; redefine ‘replica firearm’ to include pellet and BB guns.
On Twitter, Doctors for Protection from Guns moronically called these items “gateway guns” in their effort to demonize childhood.ii
Make it a criminal offence to unpin a “high-capacity” magazine: Possession of a “high-capacity” magazine was already a crime. No explanation was offered for why we need a new criminal offence for these magazines.
Allow anyone to make an ‘ex parte’ application for a Firearms Prohibition Order against another person
After decades of dealing with the current Firearms Act ‘red flag law’ we know many complaints are made to “get back at” or “punish” a former intimate partner, not because there is a legitimate fear for personal safety. The ‘ex parte’ application contained in Bill C-21 will likely see this percentage of abusive and baseless complaints rise significantly.
Allow police officers to enter your home without a warrant.
Bill C-21 will allow police officers to enter a home without a warrant to “search for and seize any such thing, and any authorization, licence or registration certificate relating to any such thing, that is held by or in the possession of the person.”
Note the legislation does not say the subject of these invasive measures must be a gun owner. All that’s required to set this train wreck in motion is for someone to lodge a complaint.
When the state can enter your home – “search for and seize any such thing” – without a warrant – we no longer live in a nation of laws. We live in a nation of cancel culture, wokeness and second-class citizens where anyone, not just firearm owners, can be attacked using this provision.
Increase the maximum penalty from 10 to 14 years for some Criminal Code offences.
Since the current penalties for Sections 95, 96, 99, 100 and 103 are almost certainly unconstitutional (the primary reason Private Members Bill C-238 was defeated last week), this change seems pointless since the penalties will be tossed out by the Supreme Court when they are eventually challenged.iii
Municipal Handgun Ban
The primary emphasis of Bill C-21 is to allow municipalities to ban handguns within their municipal boundaries and possibly the creation of so-called “central storage facilities” using existing firearm businesses.
(a) the individual must not — within the boundaries of a municipality — store a handgun at a place other than a business that is the holder of a licence that authorizes it to store prohibited firearms or restricted firearms, in the case where
(i) a by-law to that effect is in force in the municipality,
(ii) the municipality has notified the federal Minister, in the prescribed manner, of the passing of the by-law, and
(iii) the municipality has provided the prescribed information to the federal Minister, or a person designated by that Minister, in the prescribed manner;
The municipal handgun ban cannot take effect until 180 days after a notice is sent to the Minister “in the prescribed manner” and includes “the prescribed information” – neither of which is defined in C-21.
No Explanation for Constitutional Overreach
The federal government has no jurisdictions over cities as they are the creation of provincial authorities. The federal government does not explain how their patchwork handgun bans will survive a constitutional challenge.
These are some of the provisions contained in the Liberal Government’s pre-election platform on firearms.
Not one line of this legislation addresses criminal misuse of guns. It focuses entirely on licensed, RCMP-vetted firearm owners – AGAIN!
But Wait! There’s More!
There is much more to come from Bill C-21 as we’ve only scratched the surface in today’s brief overview of the legislation’s low-lights.
We will do our utmost to unravel the complicated mess created by Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Justice Minister David Lametti and explain it to you, as best we can, in the days and weeks ahead.
Sources:
i https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/bill/C-21/first-reading
ii https://twitter.com/Docs4GunControl/status/1361793595624292356
iii https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15272/index.do
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