Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

[Translation]

(Pursuant to the order adopted by the Senate on December 7, 2021, to receive a Minister of the Crown, the Honourable Pascale St-Onge, P.C., M.P., Minister of Canadian Heritage, appeared before honourable senators during Question Period.)

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Hon. Marie-Françoise Mégie: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table a petition from the residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador expressing their support of Bill S-280, An Act respecting a national framework on sickle cell disease.

Hon. Hassan Yussuff moved third reading of Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms).

He said: Honourable senators, 34 years ago today, Canada was traumatized by one of the largest mass shootings and worst femicides in our history at Polytechnique Montréal engineering school. On December 6, 1989, a mass murderer entered Polytechnique and murdered 14 women, wounding another 10 women and 4 men, using an assault-style weapon. Why did he do it? He said simply that he was fighting feminism.

I would ask, colleagues, that we take a moment to remember these women who were needlessly murdered in cold blood and think about how passing this bill might bring some peace to their families and the survivors of that horrendous day.

The women who died that day, include Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.

Senators, these weren’t just women. They were members of families and loved ones. They died needlessly because an individual did not see their place in society where they belonged. They were studying to become engineers. He could not accept that. Since that day, every December 6, we observe their deaths and try to do better.

As a man, I have to say that if this is ever to end, men have to take responsibility for the violence that continues to occur to women not only in this country but throughout the world. This is men’s responsibility. Some of us wear these ribbons to remember and honour those women, but I know we have to do far more than that. Bill C-21, the aspect of which I will speak to, addresses some of that.

Senators, gun violence in this country takes many forms, from suicide to homicide, accidental deaths and femicide that far too often manifests through domestic violence. All Canadians — I think every senator in this place also — want safer communities without fear of violence from guns. The problem has always been how to best achieve that goal.

The legislation before us is not the sole way the government proposes to achieve this goal, but it is one part of the puzzle in doing so.

Broadly speaking, Bill C-21 will cement restrictions on handguns, create new harm reduction measures, increase penalties for those who break the law and prevent new assault-style firearms from entering the Canadian market.

I want to thank my colleagues on the Standing Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs, who have worked hard during the past two months on the study of this bill. I also want to thank the many witnesses who appeared during our study on both sides of the debate, including representatives from Indigenous communities and organizations, gun-control advocates, gun rights advocates, academics, researchers, law enforcement and women’s and victims’ groups.

Today, I want to go over the main measures in the bill and then talk about some of the issues that were raised in the committee’s study of it.

As I said in my second reading speech, the debate around gun control is never easy. It is often emotionally charged and often leads to strong opinions on both sides because it is about life and death, safe communities and people’s rights and privileges.

I have tried to understand the debate on this bill through the lens of balancing a right with a privilege. I ask you, colleagues, to try to view this debate through that lens as well because, fundamentally, that is what this bill is about — striking a fair balance between the right of Canadians to safe communities and the privilege of Canadians to own certain types or models of guns for hunting, sports shooting or collecting.

Honourable senators, I now want to take a few minutes to go over the key measures in the bill. However, I want to start by clearly stating what this bill will not do, because there has been a lot of confusion, both on the part of the opposition in the other place and on the part of some witnesses who appeared during our committee study, about the effect it will have on existing hunting guns and handguns.

Bill C-21 will not impact the classification of existing firearms, whether they are long guns or handguns, in the Canadian market. To be crystal clear, not one of the estimated 1.2 million handguns owned by approximately 300,000 legal licence holders will be prohibited or confiscated. Not one of the estimated 12 million long guns owned by millions of legal licence holders will be prohibited or confiscated because of this legislation.

Colleagues, you don’t have to take my word for it. My colleague Senator Plett, the Leader of the Opposition and critic for Bill C-21, has said the same. In our study of the bill on November 22, Senator Plett said:

This bill does not actually reduce legal firearms in circulation in Canada. The bill will certainly ban the purchase and sale of legal handguns, but it doesn’t actually take any handguns out of circulation, at least not until someone dies when the estate loses that handgun. Nothing prevents handgun owners or anyone else from owning or buying another firearm. The bill also confirms a ban on so-called assault rifles, but it doesn’t reduce any other guns in circulation, including semi-automatic firearms. In fact, the government will actually pay gun owners to hand in the firearms that have been prohibited, and then permits those firearms owners to use that money to go out and simply buy other firearms if they choose to do so.

Honourable senators, if you are looking for one area of agreement between the sponsor, myself, and the critic of the bill, it is this.

I hope I have cleared up one of the major sources of confusion and contention about what is not in the bill. I will now speak to what is in it, beginning with handguns.

As we know, handguns represent a serious and growing threat to our communities. Handguns are the most commonly used firearm in homicides. The bill will enshrine in legislation the national freeze on handguns which took effect via regulation in October 2022. While current owners will be able to possess and use their handguns, the vast majority of individuals will no longer be able to buy, sell or import handguns. The bill is careful, however, to create a path for individuals to develop in Olympic and Paralympic sports shooting disciplines.

When the minister appeared at committee, he spoke about this exemption, and yesterday he submitted a letter to our committee to address several concerns that were raised in our study, including the issue of this exemption.

Minister LeBlanc said in his letter:

I want to assure the committee that consultations will take place to clearly establish the process for the elite sport shooter exemption. In my view, this exemption must apply to those who are currently representing Canada, and those who are training, and getting ready, to one day, hopefully represent Canada at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. There must be a pathway for the next generation.

Colleagues, the bill also includes new measures to combat firearms smuggling by increasing the maximum penalties for gun traffickers from 10 to 14 years and setting up new authorities to combat firearms smuggling. The amendments also include measures to address the growing threat of illegally manufactured firearms — the so-called ghost guns.

Bill C-21 will create new offences aimed at the use of 3-D printing for the purposes of manufacturing and trafficking of firearms, classifying “ghost guns” and other illegally made firearms as prohibited. And it will require permits to purchase and import certain firearm parts to help prevent the illegal manufacture and assembly of “ghost guns.”

Honourable senators, Bill C-21 also includes new measures to address the harms associated with firearms in general. As I have noted in this place, suicide by firearm accounted for nearly three quarters of all firearms-related deaths in Canada between 2000 and 2020. Furthermore, victims of intimate partner violence are almost five times more likely to be killed if a firearm is present in the home.

Bill C-21 will include amendments to strengthen measures to address the risks associated with firearms in gender-based violence. Under Bill C-21, individuals with a protection order against them or who have been convicted of certain offences relating to family violence will not be eligible for a firearms licence. New “red flag” laws in the bill will allow courts to order the temporary and immediate removal of firearms from individuals who may be a danger to themselves or anyone else.

Measures to protect victims’ and applicants’ identities are included in Bill C-21 to allow judges to conduct hearings and consider the evidence, while also taking steps to protect personal safety. When a weapons prohibition order or a protection order is issued, this will be reported to authorities within 24 hours.

“Yellow flag” laws will allow chief firearms officers to suspend an individual’s firearms licence if the officers receive information calling into question that individual’s licence eligibility. Furthermore, the bill will help protect victims of violence and those at risk of self-harm by a firearm.

Firearms licences would be automatically revoked if a protection order is issued. If a chief firearms officer suspects that an individual has engaged in domestic or intimate partner violence or stalking, they must revoke their licence within 24 hours. Also, if a person is undergoing a mental health crisis, they would be able to transport their firearm to another person or business for temporary safekeeping, helping to keep themselves or their loved ones safe.

Bill C-21 also addresses the clear danger that some firearms pose, specifically those firearms that are better suited for the battlefield than our communities.

Colleagues, we need to stand together and agree that there is absolutely no place in our communities for assault-style weapons. Firearms that fire deadly projectiles as fast as the operator can pull the trigger pose a particular risk for mass shootings. Canadians have been clear about this point.

Now, honourable senators, the responsibility of putting it into law rests on our shoulders. Senators, this bill will accomplish this by codifying a prospective technical definition of “prohibited firearms” in statutes.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, the question is as follows: It was moved by the Honourable Senator Cormier, seconded by the Honourable Senator Miville-Dechêne:

That Bill C-35 be not now read a third time, but that it be amended in clause 8, on page 6, by replacing lines 13 to 20 with the following: —

Shall I dispense, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

Motion in amendment of the Honourable Senator Cormier agreed to on the following division: