Canada's top court weighs challenge to assault-rifle ban

Canada's Supreme Court began two days of hearings on Monday, 9 November, on whether to overturn the federal ban on assault-style firearms introduced in May 2020, Courthouse News Service reported. Four appeals were combined for the hearing. The ban was announced by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a month after a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in April 2020 left 23 people dead, including the gunman. It prohibits owning and importing weapons such as the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14. It was made by order in council, a cabinet regulation comparable to an executive order, under a Criminal Code power to restrict firearms that cannot reasonably be used for hunting or sport shooting. The appeal is led by Christine Generoux, an Ottawa resident representing herself, with support from hunters, Indigenous people and sport-shooting groups. They argue the order criminalised guns long used safely for hunting and sport. Counsel for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights argued that cabinet went beyond the mandate Parliament gave it. Both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the ban, finding the government had valid public-safety grounds. During the hearing, the justices asked whether the challengers had given enough weight to public safety in the balance the government tried to strike.