Legal
Although firearms laws are all officially controlled by the federal government which should create an identical situation across the country, the role of provincial governments in implementing those laws complicates this matter. As is prescribed in the constitution, provinces are free to opt-out and administer the program provincially; currently half administer the program federally and half provincially (see CFP for more information).
Only the provincial Attorneys General can prosecute criminal offences under the Criminal Code. The federal Attorney General cannot prosecute offences under the Criminal Code, except in the three federal territories, and except for certain national security offences. However, the federal Attorney General can prosecute offences under other federal statutes, such as the Firearms Act. Since both the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act contain offences relating to firearms, the nature of the charge will determine which Attorney General is responsible for prosecuting the offence. For reasons of cost or public opinion, all provinces, except Quebec, have refused to prosecute people for these charges. Also, since CFOs are responsible for issuing Authorization to Transport and Authorization to Carry, the use of firearms can differ between provinces.
Some provinces, via their bylaws, also allow municipalities within their boundaries to regulate the use of firearms. For example, in British Columbia, under section 8(5) of the Community Charter, municipal councils can "regulate and prohibit in relation to the discharge of firearms." Similar laws are also in effect in Alberta/Nova Scotia (Municipal Government Act), Ontario/Manitoba (Municipal Act), New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island (Municipalities Act) and Quebec (Municipal Code of Québec) but not in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Read more about this topic: Gun Politics In Canada
Famous quotes containing the word legal:
“The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“It has come to this, that the friends of liberty, the friends of the slave, have shuddered when they have understood that his fate was left to the legal tribunals of the country to be decided. Free men have no faith that justice will be awarded in such a case.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)