Goodale rescinds Cons. directive on gun 'misclassification'

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Goodale rescinds Conservative directive that opened door to gun 'misclassification'

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Former public safety minister Steven Blaney issued order to RCMP 3 days before election call

By Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News Posted: Sep 09, 2016 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 09, 2016 3:55 PM ET

Former public safety minister Steven Blaney issued a secret directive in the dying days of the Conservative government that opened the door for firearms to be classified according to a gun manufacturer's suggestion, CBC News has learned.

Responding to complaints from firearms advocates and the industry, Blaney's directive gave the RCMP 180 days to evaluate a gun, decide its classification and issue the Firearms Reference Table (FRT) number needed to import that model into Canada.

If that deadline wasn't met, the firearm would automatically be classified according to the manufacturer's suggestion and the FRT number would be issued.

The directive sent to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, personally signed by Blaney, is dated July 30, 2015 — three days before former prime minister Stephen Harper plunged Canada into a general election campaign. It was also just a couple of days after Blaney met with members of the government's Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee, which under the Conservatives was dominated by firearms advocates.

Former public safety minister Steven Blaney with members of the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee on July 28, 2015, only a couple of days before he issued the classification directive to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson (Twitter)

The next day, Blaney issued a news release to announce he had overturned the RCMP's decision to classify the Ceska Zbrojovka CZ-858 rifle and certain Swiss Arms firearms as prohibited firearms — but there was no public announcement of his directive to Paulson.

In fact, Ralph Goodale, the current Liberal minister of public safety, said he only learned of Blaney's directive during one of the briefings he received from officials months after he became minister. He rescinded the directive on June 6, less than a week after he learned of its existence.

In an interview with CBC News, Goodale said one of the problems with Blaney's directive was its timing.

"That's the one thing that immediately sent up a red flag — that it came just two or three days before an election was called. That is not the right way to make public policy — at the last minute, on the back of an envelope."

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale rescinded Steven Blaney's directive within a week of learning of it. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Goodale said ministerial directives are supposed to dictate changes to policy, not administration, and Blaney's directive imposed an "arbitrary timeline."

"For those three reasons, the very lateness of the directive, the fact that it was misusing, in my judgment, a policy instrument to deal with an administrative issue, and, thirdly, that it was entirely arbitrary and could lead to the misclassification of certain weapons and therefore present a danger to public safety — for all of those reasons we rescinded the directive."

Goodale said he was advised no firearms were classified, or were about to be classified, under the directive. "We were able to rescind it quickly enough that it did not have any negative effect."

"If we had left it in place the negative effect might have developed over time."

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