Intimate partner violence: Ottawa urged to implement all C-21 measures

Advocates for greater gun control are sounding the alarm and urging Ottawa to implement provisions of its Bill C-21 aimed at protecting victims of intimate partner violence

Although almost a year has passed since Bill C-21 received royal assent, measures to prevent individuals considered dangerous from having a firearms license have still not become reality.

“It is absolutely urgent that these measures come into force because […] it is a question of the lives and safety of women and children. We think that the government should prioritize these measures and not let them float,” said Suzanne Zaccour, director of legal affairs for the National Association of Women and Rights, at a press briefing on Monday.

Relatives of victims of domestic violence came for the occasion. Tara Graham, who said she lost her mother at the hands of an abusive partner, expressed sadness at the fact that murders of this kind were far from being isolated cases.

The director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, Myrna Dawson, said that since 2018, at least 219 women and girls have been murdered by firearms. This method of killing is used in about a third of the murders of women each year, she said.

Nathalie Provost, who survived the Polytechnique massacre, stressed that there is no timetable for the implementation of the C-21 measures which are still not in force.

The Government of Canada’s website limits itself to indicating that these must be implemented “later.”

The webpage reads, “Some measures are already in force, while others will come into force later to allow the development of new systems or the development of new regulations, or to mobilize provinces and territories, Indigenous partners and stakeholders.”

The press secretary for the Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, assured that Ottawa “completely understands the urgency of action.”

“Minister LeBlanc also instructed his officials to bring into force the yellow flag law, which concerns the suspension of a firearm license in cases of domestic or gender-based violence, as soon as possible,” spokesperson Gabriel Brunet said by email.

Groups defending abused women also asked the leaders of all opposition parties to commit to implementing the provisions of Bill C-21.

Provost wanted to send a specific message to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

“He thinks we’re talking about guns because we’re against gun owners. We are not. We are for the safety of Canadians, women and children,” she said.

The Conservatives opposed C-21 throughout its parliamentary study. The Bloc and New Democrats supported the bill.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews