Handguns seized as part of a cross-border investigation between Toronto police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Toronto Police photo

A Conservative MP representing a riding in the Greater Toronto Area will use his high-ranking spot in the queue for non-cabinet ministers to push through legislation in the House to introduce a bill that would increase the length of prison sentences for possessing a gun that was smuggled into Canada.

At the moment in Canada, if someone is found guilty of possessing any prohibited firearms – whether it be one that was illegally obtained or is restricted – they are subject to a minimum punishment of one year in prison.

Markham-Unionville MP Bob Saroya is introducing legislation that would amend the criminal code to increase the mandatory sentence to three years for someone found in possession of a gun illegally brought into Canada. If an offender were found guilty of owning a smuggled gun a second time, their prison sentence would be a minimum of five years. The proposed new penalties are equal to the mandatory sentences for illegally importing or exporting firearms.

“I live in the GTA (and) the biggest issue today is smuggled firearms,” Saroya told iPolitics in an interview on Monday.

Saroya’s proposed law changes would also see the maximum amount of prison time that could be awarded to somebody who owns a smuggled gun increased to 14 years, both the first time they break the law and in every offence that follows. Canada’s laws currently prevent anyone from being sentenced to longer than a decade in prison for possessing prohibited firearms, or for smuggling them.

Along with targeting an issue that he says is prominent within his constituency, Saroya’s bill also follows a key election campaign point of the Conservatives – cracking down on owners of illegal firearms. The first pillar of a multi-faceted plan to take a tougher approach on illegal guns was to “ensure that anyone who is knowingly in possession of a smuggled gun is sent to federal prison,” as a party policy document lays out.

Saroya doesn’t expect his bill to wipe Canada’s streets of smuggled firearms; he does, however, say it would be part of the larger effort of combatting organized criminal activity in the country.

“Drugs, shootings, gangs, they go all side-by-side. This is one part of the solution, I think,” Saroya said.

Saroya’s bill appeared on the House Order Paper, which details the business of the Lower Chamber, on Friday. A staff member of Saroya’s said they expect to table the bill and have it read for the first time on Tuesday. Saroya won second place in a random draw held at the beginning of each session of Parliament, which determines the order of which MPs who aren’t a part of cabinet can try and have legislation passed through the House. The Order of Precedence puts this process into action and has to be set no later than the 20th sitting day, which – barring any unexpected interruptions – will be this Thursday. MPs in the Order of Precedence are allowed to swap spots, but Saroya said he “hopes” to keep his second-place slot.

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Saroya said on Monday that just before the weekend he reached out to other parties including the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois to gauge whether they would support his bill.

In one study commissioned by Public Safety Canada in 2018, 78 per cent of more than 130,000 respondents said they wanted the government to focus its efforts on the illegal handgun market, compared to focussing on only legally owned handguns, or a mixture of illegal and legally owned guns. In a similar question, 74 per cent of respondents said they supported a focus on illegal assault-style guns, versus similar alternatives. In a questionnaire as part of the same study, 86 per cent of respondents said they thought smuggling was an area of concern in the illicit firearms market. It was by far the most selected area of concern, followed by theft (48 per cent) and straw purchasing (35 per cent).

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders in December said that intelligence indicates 82 per cent of the handguns in Toronto have arrived from the United States. And at a gun violence forum earlier this year, Toronto police said that an estimated 73 per cent of guns seized in 2019 that could be traced had come across the border, though he cautioned that a significant number of guns the force seizes every year cannot be traced.

Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said at the time that provincial numbers show that 84 per cent are illegal guns coming from the U.S., as reported by the Canadian Press.

During the election, the Liberals campaigned on strengthening penalties for people smuggling firearms into Canada. Their platform contained a series of other measures related to cracking down on gun crime. The Liberals proposed a buyback program for all military-style assault rifles legally purchased in Canada, giving municipalities the ability to ban handguns, allocating $50 million of federal funding over five years to fight gun crime, requiring anyone importing ammunition to prove they have a valid firearms license, strengthening safe-storage laws, and introducing a system for flagging the buying of firearms in bulk. The government has yet to introduce any new gun-related legislation in the young 43rd Parliament.

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The Liberals are also still waiting to implement a backlog of Firearms Act amendments that they passed in the previous Parliament. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told iPolitics last week that some “budget issues” need to be worked out before the regulations can be put in place.

With files from Tim Naumetz

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