Liberal gun-control bill passes in the Senate, set to become law

The Liberal government's gun-control bill passed a final vote in the Senate on Thursday, clearing the way for it to become law.

Bill C-21 was introduced in May 2022, but faced legislative hurdles after a Liberal MP introduced a number of controversial amendments that gun advocacy groups and opposition parties fervently opposed and forced the government to walk back.

The legislation will cement a freeze on handgun sales, increase penalties for firearm trafficking and try to curb homemade "ghost" guns.

The bill also seeks to ban assault-style firearms that fall under a new technical definition. The government had proposed a more stringent definition, but dropped a number of amendments to the bill in February after facing backlash.

Those amendments would have banned assault style weapons under the Criminal Code, rather than through regulation, and would have included any rifle or shotgun that could accept a magazine with more than five rounds — whether it actually has such a magazine or not.

Firearms advocates said including those rules in the bill would have effectively banned a number of popular hunting rifles.

While PolySeSouvient — a gun control advocacy group which includes survivors of the 1989 mass shooting at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique — criticized the government for dropping those amendments, it welcomed the passage of Bill C-21 on Thursday.

"Bill C-21 contains solid measures to better protect victims of domestic abuse from gun threats and violence thanks to a series of measures related to this oft-neglected aspect of gun control," PolySeSouvient spokesperson Nathalie Provost said in a media statement.

"These measures represent concrete and effective progress and will save many lives," she said.

But the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights said the legislation unfairly targets lawful gun owners.

"[The bill] focused solely on licensed sport shooters, the very people not committing the violent crime plaguing our cities," the group said in a statement.

The bill passed in the Senate without any amendments by a vote of 60 to 24. It now awaits Royal Assent to officially become law.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has said the government will re-establish the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee to independently review the classification of existing models that fall under the new definition of a prohibited firearm in the bill.

He told senators in October the exercise would identify guns legitimately used for hunting, which would be excluded from the ban.

LeBlanc said the government would also implement a long-planned buyback of 1,500 firearm models and variants banned through order-in-council in May 2020.

In addition, the government plans to enact regulations to ensure a comprehensive ban on large-capacity magazines.