Public Safety Committee on Oct. 9th, 2025

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

The determination about the SKS is with an expert committee, an expert panel—that is, with law enforcement—and it is up to law enforcement to make their recommendation. At this point, there is no recommendation about this.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, QC]

Excuse me, Minister, but my question was pretty simple.

Will you ban the purchase and sale of SKS semi-automatic rifles? People are calling for it, including a member of your party who is also a secretary of state.

I just want an answer to this question, and I think it’s you who should answer it, not the RCMP commissioner.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

It will be informed by recommendations from the expert panel.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would now like to talk about the battle against foreign interference.

Bill C‑70 was adopted a year ago. However, the office of the national counter-foreign interference coordinator has still not been established. No commissioner has been appointed, and there is still no foreign agent registry.

How can you explain this bureaucratic or administrative delay?

As you know, just because a law has been passed does not mean that foreign interference has stopped. When will a commissioner be appointed, when will the office be established and when will there be a registry?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you for the question. It's a very important question. Let me say yes to all three of those questions that you posed. Yes, there will be a commissioner. Yes, there will be resources. The office will be up and running—

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, QC]

Minister, the law requires you to. I’m asking when it will happen.

When?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Well, your first question was “if”, so I will get to “when”.

With respect to the commissioner, I was expecting to have names available to the official parties—

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Unfortunately, I will have to stop this conversation and turn to MP Kirkland for five minutes.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I will be respectful, but I will ask, Minister, that you be as succinct as possible, because I have a lot that I have to get through and a lot that I want Canadians to hear from you about.

I just want to pick up on the last question, because there seems to be a bit of a contradiction. You mentioned to my colleague that you would not ban the SKS. However, it's still under review whether you would ban the purchase and sale of the SKS. Can you please clarify?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Sure. At this point, there is no plan to ban the SKS. However, there is an expert panel, as you're aware, as part of Bill C-21. If they do recommend movement on it, then we will make—

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

So this isn't a permanent promise. This is just a “for now” promise, that we're not banning the SKS for now.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

The commitment I've made is that.... There are 2,500 prohibited firearms, as part of the three sets of orders in council, that are the subject of the buyback program. Those will continue to be implemented—

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Okay. I'm going to move on. I just wanted to clarify that, and now I'm going to move on because I want to touch on a few things that have already been said.

Six hundred foreign nationals have committed violent crimes in Canada, and they're missing. You could not say where they are. Do you know where one of them is?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Yes. I can tell you there are 61 of them who are currently serving time.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I'm talking about the 600. We don't know where they are. They're lost. Of the 600 who are lost—we don't know where they are—do we have a clue on one, two, three or 10? What's the number, out of those 600? Do we know where they are now?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Madame Kirkland, 61 of them are in detention, serving time right now; 41 of them, their warrants have been closed; 48% of the 600 have not committed a violent offence, so their offences were mischief, failing to comply and so on.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

We're still looking for them. Okay.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

We're still trying to locate them, yes.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Safety is of utmost priority. You are the public safety minister. It is your job to keep the public safe. Would that be correct?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

I've indicated from the outset that it is my responsibility, yes.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Yes, that's correct. Perfect.

You've mentioned several times that Canadians are lining up to sell their guns back to the government in the gun confiscation plan. Police associations, experts and even you have admitted that this program won't work.

You said in your testimony that 12,000 firearms have been removed from the streets, and we're talking about guns that kill people. Of those 12,000—you said they are law-abiding citizens because they've given them back—how many criminals have come forward to sell their guns back? Just give us a number.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

Let me just clarify that. The 12,000 that have been returned are part of the business buyback program, so these are business owners, which is part of phase one of the program.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Okay, thank you. That answer the question.

Are there any criminals who have lined up to hand you their guns back?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON]

We don't typically do criminal background checks on the returns.

[Rhonda Kirkland, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I see. Do you really believe that any criminal will hand over an illegally obtained gun that was used in a crime or that is being planned to be used to hurt people?