TheGunBlog.ca — More than 120 Canadian hunters, sport shooters and firearm collectors are in provincial court fighting the May 1 attacks by the governing Liberal Party and RCMP, a government lawyer said today.
The federally licensed firearm owners are asking for court help to keep their guns and avoid jail after the Liberals and Royal Canadian Mounted Police nullified their firearm-registration certificates in the crackdown.
The owners applied individually to the courts under Section 74 of the Firearms Act.
Government Lawyer
“There are more than 40 of these applications in the Ontario Court of Justice across the province and more than 110 across the country, all relating to identical letters, save for the firearms that are impacted, and we are continuing to receive new ones weekly,” Kelly Keenan, a lawyer for the Department of Justice, told an Ontario court in Ottawa today.
A few minutes later, she told the judge reviewing two Section 74 cases that she had just learned of 11 more applicants.
Today’s court meeting took place by Zoom video.
‘Role Models’
“The Section 74 applicants are role models for sticking out their necks and their wallets for their principles,” said Nicolas Johnson, the editor of TheGunBlog.ca. He was on today’s court call as an observer.
A court clerk in Toronto blocked his Section 74 request.
Seeking Justice
The Section 74 applicants are seeking justice after the Liberals and RCMP criminalized about 68,000 owners of AR-15 target rifles and other so-called “Restricted” firearms, among more than 100,000 people targeted in the crackdown.
Even if the applicants win their cases, all affected owners still risk jail if they buy, sell, move or use any of their suddenly blacklisted rifles and shotguns.
The Liberal-RCMP attack also threatens all targeted owners with criminal charges or jail unless they allow police to confiscate their gear by 30 April 2022.
Context
- The RCMP sent the 68,000 owners of “Restricted” rifles a letter dated July 20 telling them their registration certificates were “automatically nullified” in the May 1 mass criminalizations.
- Although the number of Section 74 applicants has almost doubled from what the RCMP was aware of two months ago, fewer than 0.2% of targeted owners have applied.
- Last week, the firearm regulator declined to tell TheGunBlog.ca who voided the certificates, under which authority, as well as how and when they were nullified.
- In addition to the personal Section 74 applications, six major cases are in Federal Court and one is in Alberta court challenging the Liberal-RCMP attacks as unconstitutional and illegal.
New Court Date
The judge today scheduled a follow-up hearing in two weeks.
Keenan said she will argue that the provincial court lacks the authority to hear the Section 74 applications on the invalidated certificates. The applicants will argue the court does have the authority.
Case Management Refused
Keenan previously asked the Ontario court to batch requests into a single file under so-called “case management.”
The chief justice for the Ontario Court of Justice refused.
One of the applicants sent the response letter from the court to TheGunBlog.ca.
Ontario Chief Justice Letter to Kelly Keenan, 14 October 2020
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