Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the federal government will move ahead with a promised review of Canada’s firearms classification regime that will include consultations with Indigenous communities on the SKS rifle.
The classification review, first announced in March, will take a broad view of the legal framework for firearms, ammunition and magazines while emphasizing simplicity and consistency, Anandasangaree said in a news release.
The government has been heavily criticized by gun control advocates for not including the semi-automatic SKS in its list of banned firearms.
Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed approximately 2,500 types of guns on the basis they belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters.
The government says a federal buyback program will provide owners fair compensation for their outlawed firearms.
The SKS is commonly used in Indigenous communities to hunt for food and has also been used in police killings and other high-profile shootings in recent years.
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Gun control group PolySeSouvient has asked Ottawa to prohibit the firearm but include an exemption for Indigenous hunters who use the rifle primarily for sustenance.
PolySeSouvient said it was encouraged by the federal plan to proceed with the classification review and the specific mention of the SKS.
“However, we are concerned about the lack of a precise timetable since new SKS sales should be banned by the time the financial compensation of the buyback starts being rolled out,” the group said in a media release.
While the SKS might eventually be prohibited, “until such time as the government ends its future sales, Canada will not have a complete ban on assault weapons nor a successful buyback program,” the group added.
PolySeSouvient was formed after a gunman killed 14 women on Dec. 6, 1989, at Montreal’s École Polytechnique. Politicians will join family members of the victims Saturday to mark the 36th anniversary of the mass shooting.
The federal classification review would fulfil a recommendation made more than two years ago by the Mass Casualty Commission, which examined the shooting spree in rural Nova Scotia in April 2020 that saw a gunman kill 22 people over several hours.
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