Evidence of meeting #53 for Public Safety and National Security in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was firearm.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Let's talk about the automatic actions for just a moment. Why are they prohibited?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Again, that was a choice made by Parliament—in this case, back in 1978—to prohibit fully automatic firearms. I was in the business then and my understanding was that the government of the day viewed fully automatic firearms being possessed by individuals as being contrary to the good of public safety.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
What would be ordinary use for an automatic weapon?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Automatic firearms are designed primarily for military use.
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Yes—to kill people and cause damage.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
What does amendment G-4 set out to do in terms of actions? Does it prohibit all semi-automatic firearms?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
No. As written, G-4 would prohibit certain automatics—they must meet other conditions than being semi-automatic—but not all semi-automatics.
Liberal
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Amendment G-4 would require the firearm to be either a rifle or a shotgun. That excludes handguns, for example. It would have to have a semi-automatic action. It would have to be chambered for a centre-fire calibre, so rimfires would be excluded. It would have to be designed to accept a detachable magazine, which would exclude firearms with fixed magazines, for example. The magazine that it is designed to accept would have to have a capacity of more than five cartridges. Again, that would exclude those firearms that have a detachable magazine that contains five shots or less.
The last criterion is that, when assessing the kind of magazine, it must be a magazine of a type that the firearm was originally designed to accept.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Just for clarity's sake, how many of those criteria does it need to meet to be prohibited?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
It's all the criteria I just mentioned.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
I'm asking you this question because inevitably someone somewhere is going to clip the answer you gave when you said that it has to be a shotgun or a rifle. I just want it to be abundantly clear. In order for anything that has been set out to be banned, it must meet those four or five criteria that you identified. Is that correct?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
For the evergreening provision, yes.
December 8th, 2022 / 12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Okay. I just wanted to make sure so that the fulsome nature of the answer you gave is not misinterpreted by others, as we have seen to be the case. Thank you.
We've talked about calibre and high level. What does the calibre of a bullet refer to?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Calibre has two meanings that are commonly used. The historical meaning refers simply to the diameter of the interior of the barrel of the firearm. In other words, it's how wide a bullet the firearm would accept.
In modern parlance, with the advent of cartridge-firing guns, the term “calibre” has been broadened to mean the name of the cartridge that a firearm is designed to use. That could be in a standard calibre for a rifle or it could be an engage for a shotgun.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
What are the different calibres that are available in Canada right now?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
There are hundreds of calibres available. Some are more common than others.
Liberal
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Calibres that are commonly used are .308 Winchester and .223 Remington for rifles. For shotguns it's 12 gauge and 20 gauge.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
How many of these would be affected by Bill C-21?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Calibre does not factor as one of the criteria directly for either the schedules or the evergreening provision. It does have an indirect effect.
I will deal with the schedules first. The firearms named in the schedules are all firearms. Therefore, they must have a calibre. That means that those particular calibres are affected to the extent that the firearms that use them are listed in the schedule.
In the case of the evergreening provision, it's limited to centre-fire calibres. Any firearm that's chambered for a rimfire calibre would not be affected by the evergreening provision.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
For those of us who are not hunters—my friend Mr. Shipley has left the room, but I think he also mentioned that he was not a regular hunter—what calibre would most hunters commonly use for hunting deer, let's say?
Technical Specialist, Canadian Firearms Program, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The choice of calibre is highly dependent on the game animal being pursued and is influenced by a variety of factors, which would include, without being exhaustive, the nature of the federal and provincial hunting regulations because they put limits on the calibres that can be used. It would also depend on the personal choices and preferences of the individual who is out hunting. The hunter will generally select a calibre, and a firearm that uses that calibre, that the hunter believes will be humane and effective for the particular kind of game they are pursuing.
To circle back to your question and what calibres are appropriate or which calibres are commonly used, that will vary highly depending on the kind of game animal. If a hunter is hunting ducks and geese, for example, they're obliged by regulation to use a shotgun with a certain range of gauges. In the case of hunting big game animals, the hunting regulations, which are under provincial control and do vary a little bit from one province to the next, will generally put limits on the kind of cartridge that can be used for hunting certain game animals. To give an example, wildlife regulations would not permit the use of a rimfire cartridge for hunting big game.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
What are the consequences of using a larger cartridge in terms of when the animal is ultimately killed?