The Trudeau government tabled with great fanfare this week a bill to tackle gun violence in the country, named C-21. Although the text has been generally well received, some doubts remain as to the real effectiveness of the proposed measures, which range from a freeze on the number of handguns in the country to the request for the seizure of weapons from violent spouses by their victims, through the increase of certain prison sentences and the granting of additional tools to the police. For some, it is more than a doubt: the text filed is downright wrong target.
Will freezing the number of handguns in the country reduce crime?
“Absolutely not,” replies bluntly André Gélinas, retired detective sergeant from the Montreal City Police Service who has worked in intelligence on organized crime and street gangs.
The “freeze”, a ban on the purchase, sale and import of these weapons, does not aim at the right target, judges the man who has made a career in the police for 21 years.
Handguns are indeed the favorites of criminals, agrees Mr. Gélinas: smaller, they are light and discreet. But the firearms legally bought and owned by citizens are not the ones that end up in the hands of street gang members, he points out.
Those seized by the police during searches or arrests are “in the vast majority of cases” illegal firearms, either because they are prohibited (illegal at all times) or because they would otherwise be legal ( restricted or unrestricted), but are considered illegal because they were purchased from a prohibited source or the holder does not have a license, explained the retired detective sergeant. An observation shared by Lieutenant Benoît Richard, communications coordinator for the Sûreté du Québec.
Moreover, just Wednesday, the police officers of the Integrated Team to Fight Against Arms Trafficking (EILTA) carried out an operation aimed at neutralizing a network that would be linked to street gangs in Montreal: all the weapons seizures are considered illegal.
Can’t legally owned firearms be stolen by criminals? It can happen, but it’s pretty rare, says Mr. Gélinas. According to him, to reduce stray bullets and shootings in the streets, the best would be to tackle the importation of illegal weapons from the United States. The strategy Centaurdeployed last fall with its specialized units, such as EILTA, has been working on this front ever since, recalls Lieutenant Richard.
Would longer prison sentences help?
Bill C-21 proposes the imposition of harsher penalties for firearms offences, including arms trafficking and the importation of prohibited firearms.
For these crimes, the Criminal Code provides for maximum penalties of 10 years in prison. If C-21 becomes law, they would now be 14 years. An increase viewed favorably by Lieutenant Benoît Richard. “We expect that to help,” he says, since criminals behind bars aren’t importing more guns.
“We know that in general, criminals are rather discouraged by the fear of being caught, and not by the severity of the sentences”, specifies Francis Langlois, associate researcher at the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul Chair -Dandurand and specialist in the question of weapons.
In addition, Ottawa is creating a new criminal offence, punishable by five years in prison, for those who modify their magazine so that it exceeds its legal limit of five bullets, in the case of long guns. Oversize magazines are legal in Canada if a permanent device prevents the addition of additional ammunition, but do-it-yourself owners would be able to remove it.
However, it is already prohibited to possess a weapon comprising a “prohibited device”, such as a magazine modified in this way. “It’s a gray area right now,” says Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College in Kingston and Queen’s University. Individuals could, for example, tamper with someone else’s magazine and thus not hold the weapon with the prohibited device themselves. “Bill comes to make a clarification, if you will. »
What solution for violent spouses?
The federal government introduces a “red flag” law, which would allow people who fear for their safety to have their executioner’s firearms seized. Ordinary citizens will be able to make a request to this effect before a judge, a power previously only available to the police.
The identity of the victims would also be protected by closed hearings, if necessary. These measures are intended to combat domestic violence, but generally apply to anyone who poses a threat to others or to themselves.
“Guns can be used by an abusive spouse as a threat, without ever being drawn. It’s good that the government takes notice, but there were already ways to grab guns off the books [de loi] “recalls Francis Langlois.
A gun owner subject to a protection order or accused of domestic violence should also turn over their weapons during the proceedings. A “yellow flag” provision would also allow the government to suspend the license, and prevent the use of weapons, of a person whose eligibility is in doubt.
Will the new tools for the police be enough?
Bill C-21 proposes a whole range of new powers intended to facilitate the work of the authorities, but they are not necessarily those requested by the officers.
To “curb smuggling”, the government will now require a permit for the import of ammunition. Various sources in law enforcement indicate that this does not go far enough at all. “We would like a law that requires a permit for the possession or acquisition of anything related to firearms parts,” said the To have to an expert police source on this issue who is not authorized to speak to the media.
The police are concerned about the possibility that offenders will send parts of weapons by mail, which can then be assembled in the country, sometimes using parts made by a 3D printer.
Second, Bill C-21 would allow police to wiretap people suspected of two new crimes related to the possession of prohibited weapons. “It would make things easier for the police, because wiretapping was one of the most difficult warrants to obtain,” says Professor Christian Leuprecht.
Finally, the text would give customs officers the power to refuse entry into the country of foreign citizens suspected of arms trafficking. This was not among the demands of border services officers, whose union is instead campaigning for the right to patrol between points of entry into the country (a responsibility of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and to acquire better detection tools that would allow them, for example, to detect weapons in trains entering Canada.
The various new powers of the authorities “will perhaps discourage improvised arms smuggling networks, concludes Francis Langlois. But it will have little effect on ‘professional’ criminal networks”.