Opposition, Gun-Control Groups Suspect Involvement of Firearms Advocate in Arms-Trade Talks

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Gun-control advocates and opposition parties are questioning the decision of federal government to constantly include a prominent firearms advocate in Canadian delegations at international arms-control talks in recent years. It is being widely believed that the presence of Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA)’s president, Steve Torino, along with other viable Canadian diplomats is the reason behind the so-called Canadian efforts of weakening a new Arms Trade Treaty that is underway at the United Nations.

CSSA stands for almost 15,000 gun owners it represents all over the country, whereas Torino himself has once co-chaired a government-appointed advisory panel which suggested last year that obtaining and owning handguns and assault rifles shall be made easier Canada. That recommendation was, however, publicly discarded by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Routinely, the gun-control advocates who are struggling to implement a stricter international arms treaty, are participants of arms-trade talks as observers, however sometimes so do some firearms advocacy organizations. But unlike Torino, they have not been included in any official delegation since 2009.

A representative of an arms-control group Project Ploughshares, Kenneth Epps, stated that “when Canada goes to the negotiating table, it’s doing it exclusively from the perspective of Canadian firearms owners.” Epps suspects that this is why Canadian diplomats are being guided by the Harper government to “play a low-key, minimal role” at arms treaty talks, as exposed in documents obtained by Postmedia News, and why their main objective is to safeguard Canadian gun owners’ rights.