According to Firearm Chronicles
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s sweeping gun ban on “military style” firearms has come under fire in recent days, with lawmakers and gun owner groups pointing out that the government’s flawed language has not only banned the most common modern sporting rifles, but most 12 and 10-gauge shotguns. Gun control activists, meanwhile, are complaining that the gun ban doesn’t go far enough, because handguns weren’t included in the massive list of firearms now deemed “prohibited” by the Trudeau administration.
While the Canadian constitution doesn’t contain any explicit protections for the right to keep and bear arms, and a 1993 Supreme Court decision ruled that Canadian citizens have no right to own firearms, which could make a constitutional challenge difficult. “Canadians, unlike Americans, do not have a constitutional right to bear arms,” the high court stated in 1993, in a decision over the possession of convertible semi-automatic weapons. “Indeed, most Canadians prefer the peace of mind and sense of security derived from the knowledge that the possession of automatic weapons is prohibited,” said the court.
The rights issue was tested again in the case of an Ontario firearms dealer and manufacturer.
Bruce Montague was charged with several weapons offences after police found more than 200 firearms and 20,000 rounds of ammunition at Montague’s home in northwestern Ontario.
Montague didn’t renew the registrations on his weapons, convinced that he had a constitutional right to bear arms without government interference or regulation, despite the passage of Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, in 1995.