Senate Committee — SECD — Brief — 2023-10-11_secd_c21_brief_ofah_e

SECD / Brief / 2023-10-11_secd_c21_brief_ofah_e

Senate Committees

OFAH FILE: 401 October 11, 2023 Ericka Dupont Clerk Standing Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs The Senate of Canada Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4 (secd@sen.parl.gc.ca) Dear Chairman Dean , and Members of the Standing Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs: Subject: OFAH BRIEF TO SECD ON BILL C-21 The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters ( OFAH) is the largest non- profit, conservation-based fish and wildlife organization in Ontario, with 100,000 members, supporters, and subscribers, and member clubs.

Additionally, we represent clubs which operate CFO -approved licensed ranges. We are writing to you today to express our concern about Bill C-21 and its impact on the hunting community. Hunting is an ancient tradition that has been passed down through generations and is still a way of life for many Canadians. For many Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, it remains an important way to put food on the table.

For others, it is also a recreational activity that helps keep them connected to nature, provides an opportunity to create and foster relationships with friends and family, relax in the outdoors, and contribute to the conservation movement. Some hunters liken why they hunt to explaining the benefits of religion or faith. Indeed, some take offence when hunting is referred to as a sport or hobby because it is so much more than that. Hunters come from all walks of life. They are judges, teachers, dentists, plumbers, doctors, mechanics, even politicians.

Hunting continues to make important social, cultural, and economic contributions to our country. Hunting provides information and funding for wildlife management, can help control wildlife populations, can help address human- wildlife conflict, and can foster a sense of obligation to give back to nature through conservation activities like invasive species management, and habitat protection and restoration. In 2018, hunting spending totaled $5.9 billion and the resulting contribution to Canada’s GDP was $4.1 billion. Hunting supported 33,000 jobs and generated almost $2 billion in labour income.

The importance of our hunting heritage is even recognized in federal legislation, by the National H unting, Trapping and Fishing Heritage Day Act that establishes the third Saturday in September as National Hunting, Trapping and Fishing Heritage Day. The bill has broad implications for the firearms community and specific implications for many, most notably handgun owners. Handgun owners are justifiably upset because the bill effectively phases out civilian ownership of handguns.

Our comments in this submission are scoped to the use of firearms for the purposes of hunting and the impact of amendments on Canada’s hunting community. It is difficult to completely separate firearms used for hunting from those that aren’t in Canada, particularly for our hunters who own and use both. While there are other provisions in Bill C -21 that we and our members have co ncerns about, generally those concerns do not directly impact our members as hunters and are not the focus of this submission. The concerns related to handguns are being expressed to the government by many groups and individuals.

Our comments focus on the hunting use of firearms because the OFAH has specific expertise in this area that is often underrepresented in the dialogue on firearms.

We want to make sure the hunting perspective is heard and emphasized in the discussion. …..2 ONTARIO FEDERATION OF ANGLERS AND HUNTERS -2- Bill C-21 in the House of Commons At a Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) meeting in November 2022, the government introduced amendments (specifically amendment G4) that would have greatly expanded the scope of the bill beyond its original intent by prohibiting certain semi-automatic long guns (indeed, this clause was so far outside of the original scope of Bill C-21 that the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons had to move that the bill’s scope be expanded).

During the subsequent debates, committee meetings, and media interviews, it became clear that the government had little knowledge of the reality of firearms ownership, the importance of hunting in Canada, or the unintended consequences of the amendment. The government failed to conduct prior consultation on key amendments; had they done so, they would have learned of their far-reaching impacts. Fierce backlash ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of the offending amendment.

After withdrawing amendment G4, SECU paused clause -by-clause analysis of Bill C -21 and initiated a study entitled “Effects of the withdrawn amendments (G-4 and G-46) to Bill C-21,

An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms).” The study essentially constituted the public consultation that should have been conducted prior to tabling the amendment and gave a broader suite of stakeholders an opportunity to comment on amendments that did not form part of the original bill. Upon completion of this study, the government introduced a slightly altered amendment that appears in Clause 1(2) the current version of the bill.

Impact on Long Guns Of particular concern to the OFAH is Clause 1(2), which would expand the definition of a prohibited firearm to capture certain semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and shotguns “originally designed with a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity of six cartridges or more.” While we acknowledge that the current wording means that there will be no immediate impact on current gun owners (compared to amendment G4) , we remain gravely concerned about the government’s intention to ban semi-automatic long guns under the guise of public safety.

There is a substantial body of evidence to suggest that targeting ‘assault -style firearms’ will not reduce mass shootings, homicides, or suicides . All of this research has been presented to SECU and to this committee. Specifically, we draw your attention to the letter from Dr. Noah Schwartz et al. and the extensive references contained therein. The amended wording makes the clause forward -looking, meaning that the updated definition of ‘prohibited firearm’ will not have an immediate impact on gun owners that possess firearms that meet the new criteria.

It will, however, capture some firearms, yet to be developed, that would be perfectly reasonable for the purposes of hunting if the magazine was pinned to a max capacity of cartridges , which is common practice in Canada today. We question the logic of prohibiting non-existent firearms, particularly those that would be classified as prohibited under an existing law. Law enforcement organizations across Canada, including the Canada Border Services Agency, are in the best position to educate Parliament about the source of guns used in crime.

These organizations have arrived at the same conclusion – the vast majority of firearms used in crime in Canada come from the United States. As the National Police Federation stated in their brief to SECU, “ Bill C-21 does not address criminal activity, illegal firearms proliferation, gang crime, illegal guns crossing the border or criminal use of firearms.

The NPF would caution that it diverts extremely important personnel, resources, and funding away from addressing the more immediate and growing threat of criminal use of illegal firearms.” The prohibition of semi-automatic long guns will do nothing to prevent crime, as it will not curtail the demand for illicit firearms by gangs and those involved in organized crime. It will simply prohibit a manufacturer from marketing and certain firearms in o ur country.

Tangible benefits to public safety will require non- legislative efforts, including increased funding for border services, improved firearm tracing, and initiatives to tackle gang activity and organized crime. …..3 ONTARIO FEDERATION OF ANGLERS AND HUNTERS -3- We support Clause of Bill C-21, which creates a Criminal Code offence for altering “a cartridge magazine that is not a prohibited device so that it becomes a prohibited device .” This will address instances of ‘unpin ning’ magazines by criminals and make it a standalone offence (rather than a lesser included offence).

Statutory Review Clause 14.2 establishes a requirement to review the amended definition of ‘prohibited firearm’ five years after implementation. Notwithstanding the fact that governments often ignore self -imposed legislative reviews such as this, we are concerned that the wording “or any further time that is authorized by the House of Commons” will allow the government to defer the review indeterminately. But more importantly, we question the utility of the review given the paucity of evidence to support the claim that semi- automatic firearm bans will improve public safety in Canada.

Furthermore, Clause 14.2 does not specify what the review will include. If the government is not currently in a position to begin collecting the data required to support a legislative review, then this clause will be viewed as nothing more than an attempt to pacify impacted gun owners with the promise of a meaningless review. If this clause remains, we ask SECD to consider including explicit requirements for the type of data that must be collected and how it will be evaluated, including impacts on gun owners, firearms businesses , and public safety.

Erosion of Trust The bill’s path through Parliament thus far has been plagued with missteps, including a lack of consultation with affected users, criticism from victims’ rights and law enforcement organizations, and the tabling of amendments that fell so far out of the scope of the original bill they were perceived by many to be an abuse of process. These decisions have resulted in a serious erosion of trust in government by the hunting community.

We implore the Senate to avoid repeating these mistakes by conducting genuine consultation with affected stakeholders and to ensure every element of Bill C-21 has a logical connection to an identifiable problem and is supported by evidence. Thank you for considering our comments. Yours in Conservation, Mark Ryckman Manager of Policy MR/jb cc: OFAH Board of Directors OFAH Firearms/Recreational Shooting/Hunter Education Advisory Committee Angelo Lombardo, OFAH Executive Director Matt DeMille, OFAH Director, Policy & Programs

Document details

Collection	Senate Committees
Citation	SECD / Brief / 2023-10-11_secd_c21_brief_ofah_e
Type	committee
Volume / chapter	441 / Brief / 2023-10-11_secd_c21_brief_ofah_e
Language	en
Format	pdf
Source	COMM_SEN
Identifier	7e3b0b3b66810dc1829ef0281105812db1f9ad3e

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