TheGunBlog.ca — Murray Smith is helping Canada’s federal police suppress gun owners as a consultant, after having retired as an employee running a key unit for firearm confiscations.
The former manager in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Canadian Firearms Program wrote an affidavit for Federal Court last week.
It supports the RCMP and governing Liberal Party’s May 1 attacks against the firearm owners and businesses licensed by his colleagues.
Following are highlights from the document.
Affidavit Details
- By: Murray Smith
- Filed By: Government of Canada
- Date: 09 October 2020
- Pages: 79
- Purpose: Support Liberals and RCMP in their May 1 mass criminalizations-confiscations in response to court challenges fighting the attacks.
- Federal Court Case: T-735-20 (Christine Generoux and Associates), and related cases: T-577-20, T-677-20.
- View the affidavit below, or download the PDF from TheGunBlog.ca (79 pages, 6 MB)
Expert Vs. Advocate
“I understand that it is my duty in providing expert evidence to assist the Court, and not to advocate for any particular party,” Smith said on p. 4. “My opinion is independent and based on my knowledge of the subject matter.”
Who Is Murray Smith
- Since June 2020: Gun-confiscation consultant for the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program’s Specialized Firearms Support Services (SFSS). Smith’s CV in the affidavit said he is “assisting the CFP with the rollout of the 2020 update to the Criminal Code firearms regulations.” (p. 31)
- July 2008 – May 2020: Managed SFSS, including the RCMP’s Firearms Reference Table (FRT).
- Previous: Policy, regulatory and technical work related to firearms.
Smith Quote on His Consulting Work
I retired from the RCMP in May 2020. After my retirement, I was engaged as a Forensic Scientist Firearms Consultant for the CFP. My responsibilities include transfer of knowledge and history to the incoming manager, training of SFSS staff, providing scientific support and advice regarding the implementation of the Regulation (as hereinafter defined) by the CFP, and drafting of protocols for firearms classification. I continue to hold this consultancy as of the date of this affidavit.
Murray Smith, Affidavit to Federal Court p. 3, 09 October 2020
What Is the FRT
- Firearms Reference Table, the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program’s list of known guns. It is used to criminalize private gun owners and confiscate their gear. It was unavailable to the public until this year and is still inaccessible to most people.
- Currently lists more than 190,000 firearm models, with about 8,000 added every year. A base design gets a separate entry for different calibre, barrel length, colour or other variation.
- Includes the RCMP’s opinion on how firearms should be classified in law (“Non-restricted,” “Restricted” or “Prohibited”). The classifications are mostly arbitrary, and the labels don’t mean what they say.
- Although the FRT has no basis in law, it has the weight of law. Government employees use it to approve or deny import and export permits, customs agents use it to seize shipments, police use it to arrest and confiscate, businesses decide what to sell based on the FRT.
Smith Quote on How FRT Is Used
The FRT is used extensively by police units specializing in firearms enforcement such as the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team, the Ontario Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit, the Toronto Gun and Gang Task Force, and numerous other gun and gang squads across Canada; and the firearms sections within the RCMP, Provincial and Municipal forensic laboratories. The FRT database is also used by the Canadian Firearms Registry and firearms businesses during their registration and transfer processes, by Canada Border Services Agency to determine admissibility of firearms into Canada, and by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Export-Import Permits office to issue permits for the import and export of firearms.
Murray Smith, Affidavit to Federal Court, p. 31, 09 October 2020
More Affidavit Highlights
- FRT now contains “over 190,000 unique firearm entries.”
- RCMP isn’t planning any more FRT changes from the May 1 confiscation Orders in Council. The last FRT update was June 15.
- The one-page coloured flyer “Announcement of a Firearms Prohibition” was sent by post to the 2.2 million Canadian adults with a federal firearm Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL), and an information sheet was sent to the 4,500 businesses with firearm licences.
- Smith gives his opinion of a firearm “variant” starting on p. 9.
- Smith gives his opinion on bore diameter starting on p. 12.
Murray Smith’s Affidavit to Federal Court
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