As Trudeau government cracks down on legal gun owners, the 'vast majority' of crime guns are coming across the border

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As the Trudeau government deepens their crackdown on the legal ownership of handguns, evidence continues to emerge showing that Canadian handgun crimes are committed almost exclusively with smuggled U.S. weapons.

In a recent analysis, the National Post’s Bryan Passifiume found that 72 per cent of the crime guns seized by Toronto Police this year had likely origins in the United States.

Every time Toronto Police seize an illegal firearm, it gets posted to the official Twitter account @TPSGunsSeized. Of 116 guns posted to the account since January, Passifiume determined that 84 were classified as “prohibited,” meaning they are illegal to sell in Canada and likely came here via the black market.

#offthestreets this week pic.twitter.com/AeVw8z6Paz

It’s a trend in keeping with past Toronto Police statements in which the agency blamed U.S. arms trafficking for the vast majority of guns used in shootings and robberies.

“We believe the vast majority of (illegal guns) are coming hidden in vehicles across the border,” Toronto Police Chief James Ramer told Postmedia in December. “Organized crime and the gangs are complicit in this.”

Following the shooting murder of a 15-year-old boy in January, Toronto Police Staff Superintendent Lauren Pogue similarly said the city’s illegal guns had origins in the United States.  “It has been our experience that the majority of firearms we are seizing in the city have come from across the border,” said Pogue.

In February, Toronto Police Deputy Chief Myron Demkiw testified to a House of Commons committee that the guns on Toronto streets were not “domestically sourced.” “Our problem in Toronto is handguns from the United States,” he said.

Canada does not keep any reliable statistics on the provenance of crime guns, but it’s a similar story in other Canadian metro areas plagued by handgun crime.  

In 2004, Vancouver Police estimated that 94 per cent of the guns seized by their officers had origins in Washington state. “The majority of the firearms we seize are purchased legally in the U.S., then smuggled into Canada and sold to organized crime,” Vancouver Police Insp. Rob Rothwell said at the time.

A 2008 report commissioned by the Government of British Columbia on the movement of illegal firearms similarly declared “the sources of crime guns has remained consistent; a large portion of the crime guns recovered in Canada can be traced to dealers in the U.S.”

An April report on gun crime by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety was explicit in highlighting the role that cross-border smuggling plays in funneling firearms to criminal organizations.

One of the report’s 34 recommendations was for Ottawa “to recognize that serious crimes involving firearms and drug trafficking should bear serious penalties given the threat to public safety.”

Another recommendation stated that “smuggling is a significant contributor to gun and gang violence in Canada,” and argued for more resources to combat cross-border arms trafficking.

In July, a profile by Reuters cited 2021 data from Ontario’s Firearms Analysis and Tracing Enforcement program to show that 85 per cent of handguns used in crimes in the province had U.S. origins.

“We really think that restricting lawful handgun ownership doesn’t meaningfully address the real issue, which is illegal handguns obtained from the United States,” Evan Bray, chief of the Regina Police, told Reuters at the time.

⚡️ “In fighting gun crime, Canada has an American problem” by @Reuters https://t.co/Sr7oMkNA8T

Even the April, 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia – the spur for a sweeping Trudeau government firearm ban – was committed primarily using illegal guns smuggled in from Maine.

Despite all this, the Trudeau government’s most public moves against gun violence have mostly been in the realm of tightening restrictions on legal firearms owners. Most recently, this has included a push to “freeze” the legal sale of handguns.

Handguns in Canada are already subject to much tighter restrictions than rifles and shotguns. With rare exceptions, pistols can only legally exist in one of three places: Locked up at home, at a licensed range, or in a car moving between those two locations. 

But the Liberal plan would tighten restrictions still further by banning the sale or transfer of handguns outright. In August, this began with a temporary halt on legal handgun imports into Canada.

In his February testimony before the House of Commons Public Safety Committee, Toronto Police Deputy Chief Denkiw said that the freeze would do little to curb the city’s recent spike in gun crime. The legislation “is certainly not going to deal with the crime problem we’re facing in Toronto as it relates to criminal handguns and the use of criminal handguns,” Denkiw told MPs.

Simultaneous to the gun freeze, Ottawa is pursuing legislation that would actually reduce punishments for gun criminals.  

Bill C-5 – which passed the House of Commons in June and is currently before the Senate – would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for a series of violent gun crimes including “discharging firearm with intent” and “robbery with a firearm.”

According to the bill’s own legislative summary, relaxing prison sentences for gun criminals is meant as a move against “systemic racism,” since Canadians convicted of gun crimes are disproportionately Black and Indigenous.

Another report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer is here to ruin everyone’s fun. For years, it has been an article of faith among climate advocates that green policies would serve only to boost the economy and make everyone richer. “Climate action will be a cornerstone of our plan to support and create a million jobs across the country,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2020. But according to a report released last week by PBO Yves Giroux, the immediate effect of making fossil fuels more expensive via carbon taxes will be to reduce household incomes. “The moment you decide to decarbonize the economy in a relatively short period of time …  it’s clear that there is going to be a cost,” Giroux told the National Post.

Mere minutes after announcing his plan to curb bicycle theft, a Winnipeg mayoral candidate had his bike stolen. Rick Shone, posing alongside his orange Rossin bike, held a Wednesday morning news conference at which he promised to build 500 new bike racks and inaugurate an improved theft-deterrent system for the city. He then threw the Rossin in the bed of his truck, where it was stolen 80 minutes later while he made a stop at the outdoor store he owns.

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