With gun crimes on the rise in Canada, a federal ban on the import of handguns is set to take effect on Friday. The ban is a temporary measure until gun control legislation tabled by the Trudeau government can be passed in parliament.

Critics of the ban point out that most gun crime involves illegal weapons smuggled in from the United States.

Public safety minister Marco Mendicino and local MPs Chris Bittle and Vance Badeway were at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls Wednesday to see how border officers detect handguns being smuggled into Canada.

Enforcement officer Adam Whyte says handguns are found regularly, “easily every week, whether they’re just undeclared by American citizens or being smuggled in.”

Toronto’s deputy police chief has told parliamentarians that of the guns involved in crimes that could be traced, 86 per cent are smuggled in from the United States.

Mendicino says supporting the agency with funding is one of the ways the Trudeau government is trying to curb gun violence.

Mendicino complemented Niagara Falls officers specifically, “they seized about thirty per cent of the total number of illegal guns in 2021.”

The proposed Bill C-21 would institute a handgun freeze, prohibiting the sale, purchase, or transfer across Canada but will allow current owners to keep their weapons. Until the bill is passed, the government is temporarily banning the importation of handguns effective Friday.

Conservative public safety critic, Raquel Dancho has been critical of Bill C-21 since it was tabled in May, “if they wanted to stop gun violence they’d put more resources to border agents to stop gun smuggling.”

Some victims of gun crime support the ban and the freeze. Gun control advocate Karen Vanscoy’s 14-year-old daughter Jasmine was shot and killed in 1996 with a handgun stolen from an Oshawa gun shop, not one smuggled in from the United States.

Vanscoy says the freeze could change Canadian culture, “it’s a statement that we are making around how we view guns and gun ownership.”

Statistics Canada says firearm-related violent crime has been on the rise since 2014, increasing in most jurisdictions across the country. They also say handguns were the most serious weapon present in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.