r/canadaguns • u/Mysterious_Sleep7443 • 27d ago
News / Politics / Activism I survived a firearms seizure, s. 111 prohib application, and PAL review
***This is a post from CGN***
My firearms were seized by the RCMP 3 years ago and I just recently had them returned, including my prohib AR. It was a very long, exhausting, mentally draining and expensive process. It is not possible to navigate without experienced counsel representing you. Approx 13k in legal fees just relating to the s. 111 prohibition application the RCMP filed. They will do anything and everything in their power to ensure you lose and intimidate you into just giving up. This includes violating the criminal code, violating the RCMP act, creating false narratives that they stupidly commit to, manipulating and falsifying evidence, violating lawyer/client privilege, and abusing their authority. During this 3 year process approximately 6 RCMP members were found to have been guilty of; neglect of duty, breach of trust, and discreditable conduct on multiple counts. If they wouldn't have been caught they would have succeeded. As soon as one got caught they all started throwing each other under the bus. The file had to be reassigned to 4 different members. The last guy it got assigned to was a traffic cop that had zero involvement with the file whatsoever. I actually felt terrible for him because they fed this guy to the wolves and made him responsible for everything when he had zero involvement.
Seizure occurs in 2023 under "exigent circumstances". No criminal record, no charges laid. Half the detachment shows up running around pointing their C8's at me just because I own firearms. I obviously fully cooperate and provide them with all information, keys, trigger lock codes etc. Everything was stored above the requirements of the Firearms Act which they stated in their report. I return to my house after they finish the seizure. They had completely trashed my house to the point where it looked like it had been robbed and then intentionally trashed. Unnecessary damage to my home and destroyed personal property, they also trashed the carpets with mud and grass stains. This was the first issue that led to the superintendent having to write a formal apology on behalf of the entire detachment for how they conducted the seizure and desecrated my home. The secure room where the firearms were stored also housed approx 50k of sensitive electronic equipment for my work that was thrown around. They seized my spent primer collection, but left my XL650, primers, powder, bullets, and a few thousand rounds of ammunition. Not wanting them to show up with the circus and trash my house again, I literally just gave everything to my my friends with PAL's for free. I believe I retained counsel immediately after the seizure. RCMP immediately contact the CFO regulatory support unit to ask for my PAL to be placed under review. This is something they actively tried to hide, we were not aware of this until over 2 years later and it only came out from FOI requests that had to be made because absolutely nothing made sense. The Crown intentionally excluded it from disclosure. This is what is known as Breach of Duty. "The Crown prosecution has a constitutional obligation to provide the defense with full and timely disclosure of all relevant information."
A few months later I come home and one of the cops from the seizure that is in charge of the file (for now) is parked at my house. As I get out of my vehicle he comes up and serves me with an affidavit for a s. 111 firearms prohibition application. While he's serving me he is basically talking trash to me and trying to intimidate me and says something along the lines of "we know everything". I thank him for the affidavit and kindly ask him to serve any future legal documents to my counsel, or serve me at their detachment. Instead of showing up to wait for me and harass me at my home. Until this point I still had no idea what was going on. When I went inside I read the affidavit and it read equivalent to a 12 year old girls diary or a fictional story written by a schizophrenic person. Zero evidence other than hearsay, double hearsay, and triple hearsay. My counsel and I now start to paint a picture but still are so in the dark.
A month or two later. They messed up the affidavit so they had to re-serve me. I get a call from a new officer who is now assigned (for now) and says the previous officer is no longer involved. He asks me to come to the detachment to serve me a new affidavit. I show up and they have 3 officers waiting for me and wouldn't even let me in the front door without fully searching me. I believe all 3 were present at the seizure. I confusingly ask what is going on and what the reasoning behind the need to search me and have 3 officers present to serve me an affidavit is. The officer assigned says "We've seen your trophies, we are scared of you." I realized he was referring to my IPSC and USPSA trophies they must have all seen when they were conducting the seizure. I retired from competitive shooting in 2019 and have trophies from matches all over Canada, the US and EU. The cat is starting to claw its way out of the bag and I'm starting to realize what is happening. I thank them, leave and go home to read the new affidavit and speak to counsel. The changes in the affidavit seem irrelevant and negligible, but we have yet to receive any disclosure packages from The Crown.
A few months later a disclosure package is finally sent. Cat is out of the bag, except the cat is dead. If you guessed that this had something to do with an ex-girlfriend up until this point, you deserve a beer. But it gets so much crazier from here on out. When they seized my firearms because they were seized under "exigent circumstances" and not with a warrant. That only allowed them to search and seize the firearms. Turns out they went through everything they could get their fingers on while they were in my house unsupervised. Not only did they go through all my lawyer/client protected court documents from an ongoing civil supreme court lawsuit. They found a handwritten note in one of my drawers that was written by my ex-girlfriend before our final breakup. The note read; "I'm sorry. I love you. I didn't want any of this. Still and always here for you, promise." That note was written well before any of this and the relationship continued for months after it was written. When the RCMP "accidentally" found this note during the seizure they determined it to be a suicide note written by me. They never questioned me about it, they just incorrectly assumed. I'm sure you guys can see the road this is heading down by now.
S. 111 hearing date is scheduled for 2 years later.
Counsel starts to get really active and gets to work. He gets the RCMP to amend their false police report regarding the note and we start going after the officers involved for the other issues. The officers try to double down and it fails. He eventually learns The Crown won't touch my ex with a 40' pole. The S. 111 full day hearing approaches and we are excited. As the hearing date approaches Crown becomes desperate. They have no evidence against me so they release a new disclosure package that includes PRIME-BC records. These are like journal/diary entries from officers that cannot be used in court except in extremely limited circumstances. It's pure hearsay. One of their arguments for why I shouldn't own firearms was a PRIME-BC record where someone reported me for "brake checking" them on the highway. However the night before the hearing The Crown notifies us they are withdrawing their application citing they have no argument as to why I shouldn't be allowed to possess firearms. Their disclosure also said that I had a valid PAL, but mentioned nothing about my PAL being under review even though they were the ones to initiate the review. So Counsel and I think they must return everything now.
IT'S OVER! WE WON RIGHT?...No you idiot, they are just getting started with you.
The Crown withdrew the application instead of asking for it to be dismissed. They did this because if it was dismissed the judge would have issued a dismissal order which would aid in forcing the RCMP to return my personal property. I do as my counsel instructs and attempt to arrange to pickup my property after the application was withdrawn. They only allow me to pickup my physical valid PAL. I continue to get the run around for weeks. After persisting the officer asks when I would like to pick them up. I tell him and then get a reply. "I have been instructed by the evidence clerk and my ssgt to not release your firearms under any circumstances as your PAL is under review." It is now almost 3 years later and we are just finding out my PAL is under review. FOI requests later reveal the RCMP initiated the review immediately after the seizure. It was at this point I became quite frustrated, upset, and felt completely defeated. I felt that if I had known that my PAL was under review I would have not put myself through all the trouble and just had everything non restricted transferred to a friend and have counsel argue to export all the restricted/banned firearms to the US via a broker.
