(Ottawa) Disappointed, furious… Groups campaigning for a ban on assault weapons did not hide their anger on Monday. The federal government introduced its new amendments to Bill C-21 to ban assault weapons. However, these new criteria risk being easily circumvented by the industry, warns the PolySeSouvient group.
“I am extremely angry, extremely disappointed and I feel betrayed. Betrayed once again because this is not the first time that Mr. Trudeau and his team have been told that this is not what they promised, ”responded Nathalie Provost of PolySeSouvient, who was injured in the mass shooting at the École Polytechnique in 1989.
The decline is “significant, complete” for the one who has been campaigning to ban assault weapons for 33 years in order to avoid another mass killing like that of Polytechnique where 14 women had lost their lives.
She feels betrayed by both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, who clarified last week that he was in favor of an assault weapons ban.
“I don’t want to be a bird of misfortune, but it’s as if they were calling a big slaughter in Canada just to prove that their famous law didn’t work,” she added. Imagine a killing with an SKS in a month, in a year even. It’s unbelievable, but it’s possible. »
“I am disappointed, I am sad”, reacted in turn the co-founder of the Great Mosque of Quebec, Boufeldja Benabdallah, where six faithful were killed in 2017. He deplored the fact that the groups which campaign for the ban assault weapons found themselves “in the middle” of political negotiations.
The new amendments proposed Monday by the Liberals were the subject of long negotiations between the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois.
“This is the best way forward in this Parliament so that we can move Bill C-21 forward and introduce the most important gun control and gun violence reduction legislation in a generation.” , said the Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino.
He unveiled on Monday the new definition of prohibited weapons that he intends to include in the Criminal Code through Bill C-21 on gun control. It will encompass firearms “that are not handguns” that are both semi-automatic, “fire centerfire ammunition” and were “originally designed with a detachable magazine with a capacity of six rounds or more “.
However, it is this last sentence that poses a problem for PolySeSouvient. The group sees this as a loophole that gun makers could circumvent by marketing guns with a smaller capacity magazine, which could later be changed to a larger capacity magazine.
The definition remains prospective, meaning that it will apply to new weapons entering the Canadian market and not to those already in circulation. Around 2,000 assault weapons are already banned under a decree passed in 2020. PolySeSouvient wanted to add 482 models, which were included in previous amendments withdrawn by the government in February. A definition of prohibited weapons and a list would have made it possible to withdraw existing assault weapons and put them on the market.
“We can have a list of guns, but if it can be circumvented so easily […] it does not help to ensure that people are protected, ”reacted the NDP critic for public safety, Peter Julian.
The Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino, announced last Tuesday that he intended to table a new definition of assault weapons taking into account one of the recommendations of the Commission on the Portapique massacre, in Nova Scotia.
He also indicated that his government was abandoning the long list of prohibited assault weapons included in previous amendments which had raised an outcry. The Liberals caused a surprise in February by withdrawing them.
The SKS, a military-style weapon frequently used by hunters and Aboriginal people, would therefore remain legal. This firearm has been used several times in recent years to kill police officers.
The government intends to reinstate the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee to review the classification of firearms in an attempt to resolve this issue. Minister Mendicino has promised a new decree like that of 2020 to modify it.
The new amendments also include provisions to tackle phantom weapons, a clause to affirm that Bill C-21 recognizes the constitutional rights of Indigenous peoples, a parliamentary review of the definition of prohibited weapons five years after it came into into force, the prohibition by regulation of magazines holding more than five cartridges and the obligation for each weapon to have a reference number before it is marketed.