The CCFR Week in Review

Legislation corner: gun bill hits the Senate

"Parliament returns next week, and the government’s gun control bill, C-21, could make its debut in the Senate.

C-21 is one of four government bills at second reading stage in the Red Chamber. It has yet to be debated.

You may recall the long-running saga of controversy around the bill. Gun control legislation is always a testy topic, but the government’s decision to amend its legislation after introducing it—on two separate occasions—to expand its ban of some semi-automatic long guns raised the fuss to another level.

Last we saw C-21, the government was ushering the bill through the House using time allocation, and the Conservatives were promising to fight it with all means at their disposal.

The government doesn’t have a Senate caucus, but the Conservatives do. The leader of that caucus, Senator DON PLETT, will lead the fight himself as the bill’s critic in the Red Chamber.

“This is an extremely complicated bill on which debate was cut off in the House,” Plett said to PTM in a statement about the forthcoming Senate debate on C-21.

“Many groups, including Indigenous Peoples, have strong concerns with this legislation. It is very important that the Senate committee studying this bill is able to hear from witnesses, particularly those who were not able to be heard in the House.”

Plett, apparently, is not alone in that assessment. The Independent Senators Group has its own lead for the bill, Senator MARY COYLE. Here’s the beginning of a statement she sent to PTM about C-21’s debut in the Senate:

“The Senate should apply its fulsome process of in-depth study of the bill. We should not be rushed as this is a critical piece of legislation.”

Coyle also wrote that she would be comparing the bill to recommendations from the Mass Casualty Commission, which was struck to examine the root causes of the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia, Coyle’s home province. That commission produced several recommendations related to federal legislation—you can find them here—though none about an expanded gun ban.

The Progressive Senate Group is waiting until next week’s technically-not-a-caucus meeting to talk through how its members feel about the bill, and so it has not yet decided whether to name a point-person for the bill, according to a spokesperson for the group’s leader, Senator JANE CORDY.

The Canadian Senators Group will not have a lead on the bill, according to a spokesperson for Leader SCOTT TANNAS.

The government may not have a Senate caucus, but it has found a Senator to sponsor its bill in the Chamber. That would be HASSAN YUSSUFF, a labour leader-turned-member of the Independent Senators Group.

Reached on the phone yesterday, Yussuff said he wanted to sponsor the bill because gun violence is a serious issue in Canada. He highlighted the connection between guns and domestic violence, and urban handgun violence in particular.

Read more at the Hill Times here (subscription required)

Charges laid in Abbotsford 3D-printed gun case

Charges have been laid in a nearly three-year-old case against a man who had allegedly been part of an illegal gun manufacturing operation in the Fraser Valley.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit – British Columbia (CFSEU-BC) says the investigation dates back to November 2020, when it initially heard about the 3D-printed guns being made.

On May 28, 2021, the CFSEU-BC says it arrested two men and a woman before executing search warrants at four separate home addresses in Abbotsford and Aldergrove.

At one home on Westridge Place in Abbotsford, police found items that confirmed a 3D-printed gun-making operation, along with multiple other “controlled substances.”

The CFSEU-BC says other items seized in those homes include 1.7 kg of methamphetamine and 300 g of fentanyl.

On May 23, 2023, federal prosecutors charged 33-year-old Tyson Saverio Santolla from Aldergrove with counts in firearms manufacturing, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of a restricted firearm without a license.

“Privately Made Firearms represent a growing trend in British Columbia and internationally by which criminals attempt to obtain firearms and to profit from firearms sales,” CFSEU-BC Inspector Joel Hussey explained.

Read more at CityNews Vancouver here

National Range Day is next Saturday June 3rd, 2023!

If your club is hosting an event for National Range Day in 2023, you can register the event on the National Range Day website to help those in your area find your event!

There has never been a more important time to introduce your friends, family, neighbours and co-workers to firearms ownership and use in Canada!

Please consider signing up to volunteer at your club, or bringing someone who has not been shooting before. The long-term success of this annual celebration of the shooting sports is in your hands.

Share one of these promotional videos with anyone you want to invite:

45 seconds: https://youtu.be/8x9XVMEtG_A

30 seconds: https://youtu.be/m0OQ9OdVGBc

15 seconds: https://youtu.be/3tx2DzxEOWo

Find an event near you using our event locator

Guns intercepted by Canadian border agents in southern Alberta; 3 charged

Three people are facing charges after a number of prohibited guns were intercepted and seized by police in southern Alberta.

A joint investigation by the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Calgary Police Service and RCMP started in September 2022, police said.

The CBSA intercepted a suspicious package heading to a house in Eckville, Alta., 35 kilometres west of Red Deer. The package contained 10 Glock handgun kits, according to RCMP.

Over the next eight months, police investigated and got search warrants for homes in Eckville, Rocky Mountain House and Calgary, police said, and on May 3, RCMP seized several prohibited handguns, long barrel guns and evidence that someone had been manufacturing guns.

RCMP said it seized four manufactured guns with no serial numbers, two handguns, four long-barrel firearms and one manufactured assault rifle.

Read more at Global News here

$13M in drugs, guns, cash seized following Vancouver organized crime investigation

Millions of dollars worth of drugs, guns and cash are off Vancouver streets as the result of a year-long investigation into an organized crime group.

Vancouver police investigators seized around $13 million in drugs, guns and cash in March after executing three search warrants in various locations around downtown.

Read more at Global News here

There will always be illegal firearms entering our country as long as there are illegal drugs entering our country.

Death rate among on-duty police officers fallen since 1960s, new data shows, with car crashes top cause

In the days after an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer was shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2022 in rural southern Ontario, police associations said the number of officers dying on the job was "unprecedented."

Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala, who had just started his policing career in Haldimand County, was one of five officers who died on the job in Canada last year.

Another five officers have died on duty already this year, including Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Eric Mueller on May 11, prompting more police associations and services to speak out.

New data from University of Ottawa researchers, shared exclusively with CBC News before its publication, shows the 10 deaths in eight months hasn't been seen since the early 1960s — but with more than twice as many officers working now compared to then, the overall death rate of on-duty officers is lower compared to past decades.

The data also shows that over the decades, car crashes have been the leading cause of death among officers on the job.

"It doesn't mean we shouldn't take it seriously … Nonetheless it doesn't mean [police] get to make any claims that they want," said Justin Piché, a University of Ottawa associate professor and supervisor of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project. Piché casts doubt on claims that policing is more dangerous now than in past years.

The research was led by Lyne "Léo" Ral and Elisabeth Touwaide, both of whom are completing double master's degrees in criminology University of Ottawa and the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium respectively.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) doesn't dispute the numbers but says they don't tell the whole story.

Read more at CBC News here

Four men charged with firearm and criminal offences at Mississauga park

Four men in their early twenties have been charged following a Liquor License Act investigation at a Mississauga park this past weekend, where police located and seized a loaded handgun.

On Saturday (May 20) officers were on bicycle patrol at a park in the area of Lakeshore Road and Tennyson Avenue in Mississauga, where they conducted a Liquor License Act investigation, which led to the seizure of a loaded Taurus G2C 9mm handgun.

As a result of the investigation, police say, four men have been charged with both firearm and criminal offences.

23-year-old Ahsan Khan and 20 year-old Mohsin Khan —both from Oshawa face the following charges:

• The knowledge of an unauthorized possession of a firearm
• Carrying a concealed weapon
• Possession of a loaded prohibited firearm
• Tampering with a serial number of a firearm
• Unauthorized possession of a firearm
• Failure to comply with a release order

Ahsan Khan and Mohsin Khan were held for a bail hearing which they attended at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton.

Read more at insauga.com here