Canada's gun buyback program is mandatory, and those refusing to participate face criminal charges and potential home raids, despite claims to the contrary, according to Canadian lawyer Ian Runkle.
"If you don't give up your guns, you can go to jail," he said in a recent podcast. "They can prosecute you, and so they've been floating this voluntary language as if people can just say, well, I don't want to participate in this buyback. I'd rather keep my guns. And that's not at all how it works."
At a recent press conference, Liberal MP Nathalie Provost, a prominent gun control advocate, stated that individuals in possession of a banned weapon who do not participate in the buyback program "will have an illegal gun in their possession, and that's a criminal."
"When we talk about firearms, oftentimes when somebody passes away, there's maybe, maybe some kind of a return of the firearm or surrender to police. It may be found in a context of another law enforcement activity. May be in the context of a raid. It may be in a range of contexts," said Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree recently.
Canada's gun buyback program, initiated following the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting and subsequent bans on assault-style firearms, remains controversial due to its high costs (over a billion dollars), delays, and questionable impact on gun violence, which critics argue is more closely linked to smuggled handguns than legally owned firearms.
Gun rights advocates call it a costly infringement, while provinces and police highlight resource strains. Leaked audio of Anandasangaree questioning its value has fuelled outrage and calls for his resignation.
Runkle noted, "as Provost actually tells us," one challenge for police conducting raids is that they may not know where the firearms are located.
"Most lawyers would typically advise a client not to, you know, not to disclose information to the police as a sort of general category here, there isn't actually any obligation, legally, to participate in the buyback part of the program, to participate in the getting money," said Runkle.
"But there is an obligation, and that obligation will be enforced with violence, to dispose of the firearms. So when they say this is voluntary, I'm not really sure how they're defining it as voluntary, it appears maybe they're taking their notes on consent from Mr. Trudeau," he added.