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'Expert panel' told Liberals to ban certain models of the SKS rifle in nearly year-old report
OTTAWA — A new report from an expert panel struck to help guide the Liberals’ efforts to ban firearms shows the government appears to have ignored parts of its advice when it comes to certain makes of the SKS semi-automatic rifle.
That make of firearm has proven to be among the most controversial for the Liberals when it comes to the government’s list of more than 2,500 makes and models of guns it has banned since 2020.
The Liberals have hesitated for more than a year about whether they would prohibit the purchase or sale of the SKS, illustrating how thorny the issue is for the party viewed by gun lobby groups as “anti-gun.”
In October, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree repeatedly told the Commons Security committee that he was awaiting advice from an “expert panel” before deciding if the government would ban the purchase or sale of SKS semi-automatic rifles.
“The determination about the SKS is with an expert committee, an expert panel — that is, with law enforcement — and it is up to law enforcement to make their recommendation. At this point, there is no recommendation about this,” he told MPs on Oct. 9.
It turns out that the panel issued its recommendations nearly one year earlier: prohibit, or at least restrict, “more recent” models with detachable magazines of the now popular hunting weapon. The panel cited one specific make: the Kodiak Defence Scorpio SKS-15.
But the panel said it was “reluctant” to recommend a writ large banning of the Soviet-era firearm. It recommended further study of a potential prohibition on Indigenous communities, for whom it is a popular hunting weapon.
“Simonov SKS 1945 in its original form did not use a detachable magazine. More recent designs with detachable magazines should be either restricted or prohibited,” the panel wrote.
The report was sent to the Liberals on Jan. 31, 2025. A redacted copy was quietly posted online by Public Safety Canada on Thursday.
It was released on the same day that Anandasangaree reiterated that the Liberals would be launching a review of the firearms classification system, which the expert panel had recommended and that the government had committed to do back in March.
The minister also pledged to create a new, expanded advisory group to consult directly with Indigenous-rights holders on the future of the SKS.
His announcements came two days before the 36th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique shooting in Montreal, where a gunman killed 14 women and injured others. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to attend a vigil on Saturday.
According to the report, the panel, which met several times beginning in December 2024, was provided with a “gap list” of firearms that officials said shared characteristics of those which the Liberals banned through cabinet orders in May 2020 and last December.
Less than two months after receiving the Jan. 31 report, the Liberals announced a new batch of firearms being added to the list of prohibited weapons that did not include any SKS models.
At the time, the Liberals said they would launch a review of Canada’s overly complex firearms classification system that would include looking at the SKS specifically.
Anandasangaree said in his most recent announcement that the review would be launched “shortly.”
Heidi Rathjen, a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and coordinator of gun-control group PolySeSouvient, says while she welcomes the fact that the government is acting on the panel’s call to review the firearm classification system, it does not appear to be following suit when it comes to its findings around the SKS.
“It’s really regrettable that the government decided to do more consultation instead of just implementing this recommendation, which we consider to be a fair compromise,” she told National Post in an interview.
Nathalie Provost, Carney’s secretary of state for nature and a former prominent gun-control advocate for PolySeSouvient, said earlier this fall that the government must find a way to ensure it was banned.
Provost did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
PolySeSouvient maintains that the Carney government could take immediate action when it comes to banning new sales of more modern styles of the SKS, while providing exemptions to Indigenous hunters who primarily use them for hunting, and grandfathering in older models.
With the Liberals committing to launch the “buyback” program for individual gun owners with banned weapons before the end of the year, Rathjen believes that, should more modern SKS models remain available for gun owners to purchase by using “taxpayer money,” it would undermine the purpose of the program.
“I think that would mean that the money would be wasted and the public safety objectives of the buyback will not be met.”
The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, which bills itself as “Canada’s gun lobby,” lambasted the panel’s report, saying it calls for the banning of weapons used for hunting.
Its CEO and executive director also referred to the panel, whose names and positions were not publicized in the report, as a “secret committee,” saying their organization continues to be shut out from consultations, despite repeated requests to meet with different government officials, in favour of the Liberals meeting with “only those that agree with their agenda.”
“In this latest announcement, the government continues to grossly mislead Canadians about the types of firearms that are being banned and the reasons for their prohibition,” Rod Giltaca wrote in an email to National Post.
Simon Lafortune, a spokesman for Anandasangaree, reiterated in a statement that the SKS will, in fact, be studied by a new, expanded advisory committee that will be established in the near future as part of the larger review of the firearms classification system.
Lafortune also emphasized that the report underscored the need for further review when it came to prohibiting SKS models.
The statement did not address why Anandasangaree has said that the SKS was already under review when the first panel had already completed its work months earlier, and why the expanded panel has not yet been formed
“The outcomes of that (January) report were not informed by dedicated Indigenous consultations on the SKS, which is why our Government will shortly undertake those consultations, including with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, to fully understand the best way forward on this firearm,” Lafortune wrote.
National Post
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