*This story and its headline have been updated to clarify that the Senate National Security and Defence Committee only deferred an appearance by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale scheduled for Feb. 20 and did not pause its study on Bill C-71.

Fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair and the resignation of Vancouver Granville Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould as veterans affairs minister on Feb. 12 has thrown a wrench into government plans for quick passage of its contentious new firearm legislation through the Senate.

The Senate National Security and Defence Committee on Wednesday deferred an appearance by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on the bill to discuss plans for a separate study into changes at the veterans affairs ministerial post.

The move came after a marathon session that ended just before midnight Monday drew out perhaps the most dramatic testimony over gun violence since the legislation began its journey through Parliament nearly a year ago.

[READ MORE: Marathon of 21 Senate witnesses in one day for Liberal gun bill]

The testimony featured a range of supporters behind Bill C-71, including a trauma surgeon who treated victims at the Danforth St. shooting in Toronto last summer and an Ontario woman, Alison Irons, who has never recovered from the trauma of her daughter’s shooting death six years ago.

Among those opposing the bill were leaders of three of Canada’s major gun lobbies and other witnesses who oppose the legislation on arguments it will do nothing to reduce gang and gun violence, including a witness from the Assembly of First Nations and a prominent criminal lawyer, Solomon Friedman, who specializes in firearm law defence cases.

Discussion among the senators as the session began revealed the committee was delaying Goodale’s appearance so they could instead use the time to plan an unscheduled appearance by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who is also serving as interim veterans affairs minister.

Wilson-Raybould quit her post at veterans affairs less than a month into the assignment, after the Globe and Mail reported that she had been demoted from her job as justice minister and attorney general after resisting pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to interfere in a bribery prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

[READ MORE: Jody Wilson-Raybould resigns from cabinet]

The Senate National Security and Defence committee decided its subcommittee on veterans affairs should look into the rapid succession of veterans affairs ministers over the past several years.

The change in committee plans spurred by the SNC-Lavalin affair could mean Bill C-71 will not make it through the committee until April, given that Parliament sits for only one week in March. The changes also raise questions about whether the bill will be passed before Parliament adjourns for the summer in June. The federal election is scheduled for Oct. 21.

However, 19 witnesses are slated to testify before the committee on the gun bill on Feb. 25.

[READ MORE: Feds’ gun-control bill might not become law before 2019 election]

Monday’s testimony at the Senate National Security and Defence Committee centred on a split between experts and interest groups who believe any increase in regulations and laws governing guns is a positive step — even though Bill C-71 is primarily focused on reinstating control and scrutiny over sales of unrestricted rifles and shotguns — and gun lobbies who claim it is a political tactic by the Liberals.

“Something has changed, something is changing and we are always chasing the bullets these days, and that is not what we want to see,” Louis March, founder of the Toronto-based Zero Gun Violence Movement, told the committee. “The young kids have spoken to us, saying it is easier to get a gun than a job. Imagine that, a fourteen-year-old telling you that it is easier to get a gun than a job.

“This is a small step forward and I believe that it will tighten up some of the gaps.”

Marcel Wilson, founder of the One by One Movement in Toronto and a self-described former gang leader who now works to reduce gun violence, said he had intended to argue against new restrictions for legal owners.

“I originally came here to argue that as an ex-gang leader and person who had lived the experience that I do not support more restrictions for legal gun owners,” Wilson said.

Instead, Wilson told the committee he subsequently changed his mind after learning of the high number of illegal handgun acquisitions through “straw purchases,” where unscrupulous licence holders buy restricted firearms and sell them on the black market.

[READ MORE: Contentious gun bill could lead to another fight for the Liberals]

“Even if one of those guns makes it into my communities it affects us all,” said Wilson.

Conservative Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, whose daughter was murdered by a repeat offender, suggested to witnesses that Bill C-71 would not address the “root of the problem” in Toronto.

“We don’t even talk about the root of the problem anymore,” March replied. “We talk about the seeds; where does it begin. We don’t have a silver bullet to solve this problem. It’s a complex problem with different pieces.”

Two opposing views emerged from Ghislain Picard, a regional chief with the Assembly of First Nations for Quebec and Labrador, and Michele Audette, Commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“We will continue to uphold First Nations’ rights and continue our longstanding traditions of hunting, trapping and gathering on the lands we have tended to for countless centuries,” said Picard.

“We stand with the many other Canadians who are not willing to forfeit their fundamental rights and freedoms, who are asking that this government engage in more careful crafting of this important piece of legislation,” Picard said, arguing as well for increased federal funding for First Nation police services to adequately enforce new restrictions under the law.

“Guns in aboriginal communities are accessible, they’re everywhere,” responded Audette.

She explained how she had intended to commit suicide with a firearm six years ago, but fell into a coma due to a drug overdose. “I am speaking personally here, guns are so available in our communities, every month we hear about deaths, of a mother and their kids or a woman — often that is related to guns.

“Some individuals, my colleagues on the Assembly of First Nations, Quebec and Labrador, they want to have access to firearms for hunting and territorial rights, I understand that position, but I come back to my position, C-71 is something I see differently; I will support this bill for reasons related to security.”

Najma Ahmed, A prominent trauma surgeon at St. Michael’s hospital who is also a professor at the University of Toronto and was among those aiding the Danforth St. victims, responded to criticism from Tracey Wilson, a sport gun shooter and head of communications for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights who had attacked Ahmed on Twitter for stepping into the firearm debate.

“Every day or every week, there is someone who comes into our emergency departments who is injured by these wounds,” said Ahmed in response to a question about the tweet. “We are compelled to speak.”

“It would be immoral if I was not here today to share with you what I know and what we feel and this is not just something that’s here in Canada,” Ahmed told the Senators. “This is also happening in the United States. Physicians are tired of being hijacked by people who are motivated by their self-interest.”

Sheldon Clare, a Prince George, B.C., college teacher who heads the National Firearm Association, called Bill C-71 a “bad bill, hated by firearm owners.”

“It’s hated by these law-abiding Canadians because it treats them like they were not (law-abiding),” he said. “Most importantly, for your deliberations, is that the intended purpose of the bill is to improve public safety, yet this bill does not improve public safety.”

Among other things, Bill C-71 would compel retailers to maintain records of all rifle and shotgun sales and store them for up to 20 years with the make, model and serial number of each long gun sold, accessible to the government or police only with judicial authorization in an investigation. The records would also include the buyer’s gun licence number and a copy of RCMP confirmation the licence is valid.

The head of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, Rod Giltaca, an accredited firearm licence instructor for the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program, also claimed the bill would not reduce gun violence.

“I don’t think there’s a single provision in this bill that would have stopped the Danforth shooter, not one,” he told the committee.

“It’s our position that this bill benefits no one and exclusively serves a political purpose,” Giltaca said.

Wendy Cukier, president of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control, in response to a question from Independent Senator Marilou McPhedran, said domestic homicide is only one aspect of firearm violence facing women.

“Femicide is the tip of the iceberg,” Cukier told the committee. “Women are being threatened, children threatened, the family pet being threatened or even killed. “There are no gun owner rights in this country. The Supreme Court has said that repeatedly, in spite of what you may hear later this evening.”

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