Parliamentary Committee Notes: Mass Casualty Commission – Firearms

Date: August 2023
Classification: Unclassified
Branch / Agency: CPB

Proposed Response:      

• The tragedy that took place in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, 2020, devastated families, friends, communities, and the country.
• The Mass Casualty Commission, which was created by the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia to examine how this tragedy happened, and provide meaningful recommendations to help make communities safer, presented its final report on March 30, 2023.
• The report addresses key issues affecting the safety of Canadians including community safety and well-being, gender-based and intimate partner violence, policing reforms, public alerting, and reducing gun violence.
• The final report, Turning the Tide Together, provides 130 recommendations, and six are related to firearms:
  •  Reducing gun lethality (C.21);
• Revocation of firearms licences for conviction of gender-based, intimate partner, or family violence (C.22);
• Prevention of unlawful transfers of firearms from estates (C.23);
• Interoperability of law enforcement agencies engaged in firearms control at the Canada–united states border (C.24); 
• Effective, consistent, and accountable enforcement of firearms regulations (C.25); and
• Public Health Approach to Gun Safety (C.26).
• Bill C-21, the Government’s historic gun control legislation, already contains measures that if passed would have a direct and lasting impact on gun violence, removing assault-style firearms from communities, strengthening mechanisms to reduce firearm-related intimate partner violence, and tackling illegal gun trafficking.
• On April 28, 2023, the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia announced an $18-million joint investment to make more mental health and grief supports available to affected communities. 
• Additionally, on May 31, 2023, the two governments announced the appointment of Retired Justice Linda Lee Oland as Founding Chair of the Progress Monitoring Committee, which will monitor the progress of both governments as we advance the important findings in the report.
• The Government of Canada remains steadfast in our commitment in working to address gun violence, and to ensure safer communities for all.

Background:

Following the devastating mass casualty incident in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020, on October 21, 2020 the Government of Canada (GoC) and the Government of Nova Scotia (NS) each issued an Order in Council (OIC) establishing the Mass Casualty Commission (the Commission). The Commission was an independent public inquiry created to examine the mass casualty event and to provide meaningful recommendations to help keep communities safe.

On April 28, 2022, the Commission submitted its interim report, which outlined the Commission’s approach, phases of work, and a summary of the foundational and commissioned reports. From April to September 2022, the Commission hosted a series of public hearings and roundtable discussions consisting of experts, academics, and law enforcement professionals to provide knowledge and insight on the core themes under the Commissions mandate. In October 2022, the Commission was granted an extension until March 31, 2023 to submit its final report.

The Commission hosted an event on March 30, 2023 in Truro, NS where the report was released to the public. The Prime Minister attended the release and was joined by the Minister of Public Safety, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, , and the Premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston. The delivery of the report marks the passing of this important work from the hands of the independent Commission to the Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia.

The final report, Turning the Tide Together, provides 130 recommendations and is organized thematically in seven volumes: Context and Purpose; What Happened; Violence (17 recommendations); Community (32 recommendations); Policing (75 recommendations);  Implementation – A Shared Responsibility to Act (1 recommendation); and Process (5 recommendations). Many of the recommendations focus on cross cutting issues that implicate Public Safety Canada (PS), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and to a lesser extent the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Of the 130 recommendations, six are related to firearms:

• Reducing gun lethality (C.21);
• Revocation of firearms licences for conviction of gender-based, intimate partner, or family violence (C.22);
• Prevention of unlawful transfers of firearms from estates (C.23);
• Interoperability of law enforcement agencies engaged in firearms control at the Canada–united states border (C.24);
• Effective, consistent, and accountable enforcement of firearms regulations (C.25); and
• Public Health Approach to Gun Safety (C.26).

Many of the recommendations align with the Government’s firearms control agenda. For example, Bill C-21 aims to seeks to prevent firearm-related crime, violence and deaths in our communities and in cases of family violence and self-harm, increase criminal penalties to target those that smuggle and traffic firearms; make it an offence to alter a gun magazine; enable sharing of certain firearms licencing and registration information with law enforcement across Canada to support the investigation and prosecution of firearms trafficking offences to address the growing threat of illegally manufactured private firearms or “ghost guns”; and, prevent illegal ammunition and firearms parts from entering our country.

Contacts:

Prepared by: [REDACTED], Policy Advisor, Firearms Policy Division, [REDACTED]
Approved by: Talal Dakalbab, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Crime Prevention Branch, 613-852-1167

Date modified:

2024-01-24