Case information

Courts — Jurisdiction — Jurisdiction of provincial courts to hear references pursuant to Firearms Act —Registrar of Firearms notifying those whose firearms impacted that previously restricted firearms now classified as prohibited under amended regulations — Some recipients claiming letter is a decision of registrar revoking their registration certificates so that reference to provincial court is available — Courts below concluding that provincial court has no jurisdiction to conduct a s. 74 reference — When is registrar considered to have made a decision? — What constitutes a revocation? — Do registrar’s letters constitute a revocation? — Was the letter purporting to be a nullification in fact a revocation? — What is the jurisdiction of provincial courts under s. 74 of the Firearms Act? — Did the registrar make a decision with regard to the named and unnamed variants? — Can provincial court hear these matters? — Firearms Act, S.C. 1995, c. 39, s. 74 — Regulations Amending the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited, Restricted or Non-Restricted, SOR/2020-96.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The applicants are among a group of gun owners who, in July 2020, received a standard form letter from the Registrar of Firearms (“registrar”) notifying them that their firearms had been impacted by regulatory amendments. They were informed that their previously restricted firearms were now classified as prohibited under the amended regulations and that the registration certificates previously issued to them had been automatically nullified. The applicants considered the July 2020 letter to be a decision of the registrar revoking their registration certificates and sought to refer the decision to a provincial court judge for review under s. 74(1) of the Firearms Act. That provision allows provincial courts to review certain decisions by way of reference, including decisions by the registrar to revoke a registration certificate. The respondent Attorney General of Canada, representing the registrar, challenged the jurisdiction of the provincial court to conduct the reference. The summary trial judge concluded that the July 2020 letter did not convey any notice of revocation by the registrar reviewable under s. 74. The applicants applied to the Court of King’s Bench for a judicial review of the decision. That court applied a binding precedent of the Alberta Court of Appeal — Canada (Attorney General) v. Smykot, 2023 ABCA 131 — which concluded that the registrar’s letter was not a revocation. The Court of King’s Bench concluded that Smykot could not be distinguished. The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed an application to reconsider its Smykot decision and dismissed the applicants’ appeals.

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