Public Safety Minister Mendicino: ‘Bill C-21 — strongest gun reform in a generation’

Public Safety Minister Mendicino: ‘Bill C-21 — strongest gun reform in a generation’

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino

By Michelle Chermaine Ramos

LJI Reporter

The Philippine Reporter

On June 6, 2022, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government’s plan to freeze handgun sales in Canada, the proposal stirred up reactions especially with the recent school shooting in the U.S. and rise in gun violence in Canada.

Legal gun owners maintain they already go through the present lengthy stringent process through which they must undergo a proper firearms safety course and pass exams, get screened and evaluated by the RCMP, and get approved for a membership at a legal shooting range all before they can even be allowed to purchase a handgun.

Meanwhile stores can already claim they already have a strict vetting process through which they must verify each buyer’s license through the RCMP’s online portal along with their purpose for purchasing before they are allowed to release any firearms.

Quick to weigh in on the issue,  the Canadian Association of the Chiefs of Police issued a statement May 30, 2022, stating: “We believe that a handgun freeze is one method of reducing access to these types of firearms, while allowing existing law-abiding handgun owners to practice their sport. However, we continue to maintain that restricting lawful handgun ownership will not meaningfully address the real issue: illegal handguns obtained from the United States that have led to the disturbing current trend in gun violence that is largely related to gangs, street gangs, and more sophisticated organized crime groups.”  

As for the members of the general public, recent news of shootings in the U.S. and Canada have prompted them to raise concerns about their safety. (See related article on page 4)

Meanwhile, gun control advocates wonder whether the proposed Bill C-21 would be sufficient to reverse gender-based violence and domestic violence in connection with guns with red flag laws that will allow anyone to request a judge to suspend the firearms license or confiscate firearms from someone who poses a threat to anyone or to themselves and the person making the request can have their identity protected.

The government is also planning a mandatory buyback program for assault rifles by the end of the year.

Some focus concern on the smuggling of illegal firearms through the US border?

As Minister of Public Safety, Marco Mendicino shares some key points on the current concerns on the gun issue with The Philippine Reporter in a phone interview on June 8, 2022.

TPR: What are the proposed solutions to the pressing concerns on guns?

MM: First thing is Bill C-21 represents the strongest gun reform policy package in a generation. And among other things, it addresses some very important priorities. First, it would introduce a national handgun freeze, and handguns are the most frequently used type of firearm in homicides. So by capping the market, it would reverse the growth of the universe of the total number of handguns in Canada, which has been growing year over year by about 55,000 new handgun registrations every year, for about the last decade. So that’s the first thing.

Second thing is that C-21 targets organized crime and it does that in some very tangible and concrete ways at the border.

TPR: What specifically are the initiatives being done now?

MM: We are investing over $350 million into an anti-organized and anti-gun and crime fund. That puts more resources into the front lines of our border including CBSA, RCMP to give them more people, more resources, more technology. And I have seen it firsthand with my own eyes in the form of x-ray technology so that we can find those guns, which had been secretly hidden in commercial traffic.

Current x-ray technology is improving. It’s becoming more efficient and better at detecting guns which have been hidden in commercial vehicles or in boats or even in the sky. Speaking of commercial vehicles, it used to be you have to do it manually, which can take up to several hours. Now, you can scan an entire 18-wheeler truck in minutes. The other thing that C-21 will do is that it is going to raise maximum sentences against illegal gun smuggling. So it sends a very clear signal that by smuggling guns at the border, you face a higher risk of a stiffer sentence.

TPR:What’s the maximum sentence right now?

MM: 10 years and we’re proposing to raise it to 14 years, which is the highest that can go before you get a life sentence.

TPR: How often do people even get the maximum 10 years so far?

MM: Well, it depends on the circumstances of the offense. But the more serious the offense, the more likely you are to get a significant sentence that approaches the maximum. So, if you’re trafficking lots of guns, you’re at a higher risk of going to jail for a longer period of time. The other thing that we are doing in C-21 is we are proposing to give law enforcement new powers including wiretap powers, and wiretap powers help police stop gun crime from occurring in the first place.

TPR: In what situations would the police actually have the go signal to start wiretapping?

MM: When there’s organized crime involving guns at the border, and domestically, so that will give them more opportunity to investigate potential trafficking at the border illegally. The third thing that we’re doing to tackle organized crime at the border is we’re cooperating with the United States. I traveled to Washington DC where I agreed with Secretary Mayorkas, who is my counterpart there who works for the Department of Homeland Security and we said, look, we are going to use a cross-border crime forum to share more intelligence, more information, and even technology which will help us trace illegal guns, which will help to bring people to justice.

Do you have comments on the national handgun freeze? Let us know your thoughts at pitchmichelle@gmail.com