A women’s advocacy organization and several other groups that support gun control are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to fully implement a key facet of firearms legislation passed 30 months ago.
The measure makes a person subject to a protection order — a legal order often issued in intimate partner violence cases — ineligible to hold a firearms licence while the order is in effect.
The provision is intended to quickly remove firearms from the hands of abusers at the time when they are often the most dangerous.
The government says the term “protection order” has to be defined in regulation and record-keeping and reporting requirements must be brought into force to fully implement the changes.
In a media statement, groups that support firearm control urge the Liberals to move the measure forward “without further delay” and to adopt regulations that define “protection order” broadly.
The statement was issued by multiple organizations, including the National Association of Women and the Law, PolySeSouvient, Danforth Families for Safe Communities, Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability and the Quebec Mosque.
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In an analysis endorsed by the other groups, the National Association of Women and the Law says the firearms bill passed in December 2023 sought to protect women and children from intimate partner gun violence by ensuring that individuals who are subject to protection orders cannot hold firearms licences, and that their licences are revoked.
It says Parliament deliberately adopted a broad definition of “protection order” in the bill to ensure any binding civil or criminal order made to protect the safety or security of a person would trigger licence revocation.
It says that, despite this clear legislative direction, the government is proposing a more narrow approach that excludes certain criminal protection orders like bail release orders and probation orders.
“Excluding these orders creates an arbitrary and dangerous distinction,” the analysis says. “A survivor who has obtained a peace bond where no charges were laid will be protected by the automatic licence revocation, while a survivor whose abuser has been charged and released on bail with similar no-contact conditions may not.”
Suzanne Zaccour, the National Association of Women and the Law’s director of legal affairs, says in the media statement that it “makes no sense that some survivors would receive protections while others would not, based not on the level of danger they face, but on procedural technicalities.”
“Violence does not become less lethal because it is dealt with in a different stage of the legal system,” she added.
Public Safety Canada wrapped up a public consultation on the planned regulations in early March.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in a recent interview the government had to put “quite a bit of work” into the process and it hopes to have the regulations in place by late September.
More evidence below that the greater majority of legal firearm owners have rational thought processes and a realistic grasp on the situation than those who have bought into the anti gun propaganda produced by tunnel visioned activists that ignore real life statistics surrounding guns and crime.
‘0.3% of gun violence is caused by legally owned firearms.’ – The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Mike, agreed. We have the laws already and police should be able to move in the same hour to act when intimate partner violence is reported.
I looked up the statistics last published for 2019 for reports in intimate partner violence. There were 58,913 cases with physical force, 3589 cases involving knifes, 1343 involving a blunt weapon, but only 660 cases involving a firearm. 17.8 million people were in relationships that year. To me, targeting gun owners doesn’t make any sense when these real statistics are on the table.
@ anonymous 10:34
You are completely wrong on your assertion that legal gun owners are liable for the crimes against others. Police statistics have shown that the VAST majority of firearms used in criminal activity in Canada is from ILLEGAL SMUGGLED guns from the USA. Lies are all you have but they are easily refuted by actual facts.
@ kdt please provide the link for the statistics that you provided. The facts seem to dispute much of what you wrote.
Herb, so let’s invoke the exact same laws we already have that will speed things up
These gun control groups are useless clowns.
KDT stop lieing.
The fact is, less than 1% of IPV cases in Canada involve a firearm.
Stop using american stats to tilt the narrative.
We know you have to lie to make your point, therefore your point is invalid.
Oh great. The 14th layer of the same law that already does the same thing.
Just like the quebec ppolice are cold calling spouses of gun owners trying to convince them that they are at risk.
Canadian firearm owners are vetted EVERY SINGLE DAY by the CFC. These groups are the problem, not guns.
Oh look
The pathetic loser is back
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they cant read
After all they dont even know how to spell their name
Mike how long does that process take days weeks months? The women and girls requiring gun removal and loss of license sometimes many only have hours, from the time of release to death! But again whine whine whine there is too much control and demand you stop enacting new laws because we already have enough! If those laws were sufficient we wouldnt need new ones. The killing of women and girls keep happening and is getting worse and the men keep saying there is nothing to fear. Maybe to you there isn’t.
I wouldn’t be completely against this (it makes sense to block a lone person who is involved in relationship violence) except we already have a functional and effective system that does exactly that. The fact nobody wants to address that fact shows the level of academic cowardice among so-called scholars.
And for the record, taking guns away from legal owners is not going to make a dent in the crimes, break-and-enters, and gangs on our streets.
We already have red flag laws that will remove the firearms and revoke the gun license. Anyone can report someone at anytime already. Any concerning issue can be reported and any cases of domestic violence the firearms license is revoked
Dave did you just state the people standing up for murder victims and I quote
“THEY WOULD BE EASY TO SHUT UP AS WELL”
Is that some kind of threat to their lives! Are you someone they should be afraid of as you are are such a loud legal respectfull gun owner?
I see all the men whining about those womwn standing up for other women and the danger guns present to women of partners owning guns!
How about some facts shall we!
The potential of women to be killed by their partner with a gun is 88% and done by legal gun owners!
On average a woman or girl is killed every 2.5 days by an intimate partner with a gun!
1/3 of all female homicide victims are shot buy their partners with a gun that the partner owns!
Maybe stop thinking about poor you and think about the women and girls who will die because of guns their partners own and have threatened them with, with they tried to leave. did leave, and cried for help from the courts and law inforcement.
This could be someone you love, what if this was your mother, sister, daughter, friend, co-worker, or neighbour? Would you just stand around and say he was so quiet, how did this happen, why didnt she leave ask for help but then remem
ber you all cried but but but his right to own a gun supersedes her right to live.
Polytechnique is just a group.of low lifes who have been exploiting the murder of women for decades to push their own agenda.
They are easy to shut up as well.
Just ask them the REAL name of the man repsonsible
Mathew, you’re so ignorant and you are the problem… you obviously have no clue about the laws that legal gun owners have to follow.
Anonymous remains vacuous and uneducated.
Just a reminder that good intentions aside, women and specifically feminists were the main thrust behind prohibition in the US for which the legacy remaines entrenched organized crime, that now attract cildren as young as 12 to a life of crime.
Why feminists want to lack their only real defense remains a mystery.
Gun owners are the reason crime is at the level that it is. You guys are arming the criminals and making your family and close one vulnerable to self inflicted violence. Go to the US if you love your guns over safety and your family. Leave!
Liberal gun idiocy: the only guns Canadians can purchase are designed for hunting at long range and devestating at short range.
We literally ban civilians from purchasing bullets designed to minimize how many targets can be hit with a single shot.
Less deadly handguns, however, are banned because they are slightly more difficult to conceal during summer months.
Gun control groups are anti-democratic and just sleezey liars.
They promote “studies” that are merely statistics taken out of context.
Liberals keep trotting out victims in the Ecole Polytechnique tragedy yet their laws don’t even restrict the type of firearms used.
so anytime someone gets a protection order, out of over abundance of caution, they have to surrender their weapons. I see, guilty until proven innocent is what these people want.
Why is it always phrased as women and children? More men die from violence? Seems like the bias is showing.
Yep, the analysis is right If there is a protection order, if one removes guns from one side, it is only fair to remove them from both sides.
Dave is right. This whining should not be presented as the will of the people, but what it actually is… continued and non-ending whining.
Whining activists is not news
Its lazy journalism