I went through something similar with my wife's grandfather. All he had was a Saskatchewan hunter's permit (long expired) and he hadn't been keeping up with the law for decades. He had a bunch of rifles and a pistol tucked in a closet. The pistol had a pre-1995 paper registration. When I found out about the situation, I offered to take possession of his firearms and get things sorted with the CFP so he could avoid any legal issues. He wasn't interested in getting a PAL and going through all the hoops, so he agreed.
I just called the CFP and explained the situation to the agent (wife's family member had guns; they are currently in my possession; please help me get things squared away). The agent was very helpful, and they told me their main concern is just making sure everyone's within the law, not so much about penalizing people. Importantly, we did this as a call on speakerphone so the agent could ask grandad identifying questions and confirm he was consenting to it all.
This happened before the handgun freeze, so we got his pistol transferred to me. The rest was NR so not a big deal. I was able to sell everything he didn't want to keep, and the rest got passed to my wife once she obtained her PAL.
Things might be different now, but that was my experience, circa 2018 ish.
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u/mr_cake37 Jul 27 '26
I went through something similar with my wife's grandfather. All he had was a Saskatchewan hunter's permit (long expired) and he hadn't been keeping up with the law for decades. He had a bunch of rifles and a pistol tucked in a closet. The pistol had a pre-1995 paper registration. When I found out about the situation, I offered to take possession of his firearms and get things sorted with the CFP so he could avoid any legal issues. He wasn't interested in getting a PAL and going through all the hoops, so he agreed.
I just called the CFP and explained the situation to the agent (wife's family member had guns; they are currently in my possession; please help me get things squared away). The agent was very helpful, and they told me their main concern is just making sure everyone's within the law, not so much about penalizing people. Importantly, we did this as a call on speakerphone so the agent could ask grandad identifying questions and confirm he was consenting to it all.
This happened before the handgun freeze, so we got his pistol transferred to me. The rest was NR so not a big deal. I was able to sell everything he didn't want to keep, and the rest got passed to my wife once she obtained her PAL.
Things might be different now, but that was my experience, circa 2018 ish.