Gun Control

• Author: International Law Group

In 1995, the Canadian Parliament amended existing gun control statutes by enacting the Firearms Act, S.C. 1995, c. 39. Its most notable addition to these laws relates to a requirement of the licensing and registration of a class of guns often called "ordinary firearms" or "long guns" or "[hitherto] unrestricted firearms."

Under the new law, the chief firearms officer may conduct a background check and deny the five-year revocable license to an applicant with a criminal record having to do with drug or violent offenses or with a history of mental illness. Before acquiring a firearm, the applicant has to pass a course dealing not only with the basic rules of gun safety but also with the legal duties that go with owning a firearm. An applicant may obtain judicial review of the refusal to grant a license or of its later revocation.

In addition, the Act criminalizes the possession of an unregistered firearm of any type. A federal official will maintain a Canadian Firearms Registry to record all licenses and registration certificates plus all imported, exported, lost and stolen guns.

The Province of Alberta plus the other provinces and a number of interested organizations challenged the power of the federal Parliament to pass such a law via a reference to the Alberta Court of Appeal. In a 3 to 2 vote, the Court dismissed the reference. Alberta then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. That Court upholds the validity of the Act as a proper exercise of Parliament's criminal law power.

"The determination of which head of power a particular law falls under is not an exact science. In a federal system, each level of government can expect to have its jurisdiction affected by the other to a certain degree. (Cit.) Laws mainly in relation to the jurisdiction of one level of government may overflow into, or have 'incidental effects' upon, the jurisdiction of the other level of government. It is a matter of balance and of federalism: no one level of government is isolated from the other, nor can it usurp the functions of the other." [para. 26]

In the Court's view, the Firearms Act in "pith and substance" aims to increase public safety by placing controls on access to firearms to deter their misuse by owners and users. Among the "mischiefs" the Act tries to address include the illegal trade in guns both inside Canada and across the border with the United Sates as well as the role of guns in violent crime, suicide and accidental shootings. The Act allows...