Public Safety committee  The way a variant is interpreted is based on a plain-language interpretation of the meaning, which is then applied by technical experts as they examine a firearm to see if it comes from the same family as a firearm that is already prohibited pursuant to the regulations. There is no definition in the—

Public Safety committee  No.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  It was the common uses of the term.

Public Safety committee  This technical question is outside my lane. That's a question that's best directed to the Canadian firearms program. What I can tell you is that they do look at a range of factors when making their technical determination, including manufacturing information and marketing. Again, I would indicate that this question should be answered by the Canadian firearms program.

Public Safety committee  The list is exhaustive to the best of the knowledge of the Canadian firearms program. The term “variant” would capture any firearms produced by manufacturers in the future that would be essentially from the same family as the firearms currently prohibited. That is to prevent manufacturers from changing the name of a firearm that is essentially the same as a firearm that's prohibited.

Public Safety committee  I can answer legal questions.

Public Safety committee  You are correct. The magazine itself is a prohibited device. What the May 1 OIC sought to prohibit is the firearm that can receive the prohibited device.

Public Safety committee  No, I didn't. What I said was that the firearms were prohibited according to what they can do, which is the semi-automatic, sustained rapid fire, based on a military or tactical design and capable of accepting a large-capacity magazine.

Public Safety committee  What I'm describing is a semi-automatic version of a military or tactical design firearm.

Public Safety committee  One way in which public safety is taken into consideration with respect to firearms is that limitation on magazine capacity. The government has made a decision to further ban assault-style firearms to further protect public safety by also prohibiting the firearms that can accept oversized cartridge magazines.

Public Safety committee  That's the determination based on the ability of these firearms to perform sustained rapid fire based on the semi-automatic capability combined with—

Public Safety committee  Sure.

Public Safety committee  There is no definition of “assault-style firearm” in law.

Public Safety committee  What there has been, to date, is the ability of the Governor in Council to establish criteria on which the OIC of May 1, 2020, prohibited a list by make and model of firearms. This criteria, which was publicly stated after the introduction of the bill, made clear that the factors that were looked at were that the firearm was capable of sustained, semi-automatic rapid fire.