Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON

It's not often that, as members of Parliament, we have the opportunity to make an amendment like this amendment. I listened to the testimony we had from a number of witnesses, and I also had the opportunity to meet with Poly se souvient, and I spoke to the Coalition for Gun Control on the phone outside of the meeting as well. I proposed an amendment that reflects information we heard from them. I'll just briefly go over what the amendment includes, and I'm very hopeful that we will be able to pass this unanimously because it really deals with issues that are missing. While we extended the time for the background checks, we didn't change any of the criteria.

One of the things that would be added is if someone has a history of behaviour that includes violence or threatened or attempted violence and threatening conduct on the part of the person against any person—a very legal way of saying someone has displayed violent tendencies—has entered into a recognizance, which is a peace bond, under subsection 810(3) of the Criminal Code, and information that we also heard about posing a risk of harm to themselves or another person.

This amendment would also add that the background check would include threats or conduct communicated “by means of the Internet or other digital network.” That was something Poly se souvient and others talked about, the incidence of online hate and misogyny where people are posting on social media, and the ability for that to be included in the background check.

They indicated in testimony that they'd heard that from police and from people who work in the field of gender-based violence.

We also all received a brief from Dr. Sinyor at Sunnybrook Hospital in which he asked that we include an amendment that included “an offence in the commission of which violence against another person was used, threatened or attempted”.

We heard, from the same submission that we received, that online behaviour and threats to themselves or others should be included.

The Coalition for Gun Control also asked for an amendment about threats to themselves and others and that background checks should include mental health, addiction, and domestic violence records.

This is the final one, from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. I thought Dr. Drummond was outstanding when he asked us to come back to what the issues were in terms of gun deaths in Canada. He said the issue for them is:

...not of access to firearms and whether ownership is the issue, but rather keeping guns out of the hands of individuals who are at risk. ...there is a fabulous amount of direct, incontrovertible science, both in The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association that talks about the association between guns, intimate partner violence, homicide, and suicide. There is no reconciliation; the science is very strong.

This amendment speaks to that, so I'm hoping that all of my colleagues are able to support it. I believe—and the legislative clerk could maybe clarify this for us—that if this amendment passes, Ms. May's amendment would be ruled out of order.