The Ford government has joined a Supreme Court challenge against Ottawa’s ban on so-called “assault-style” firearms, just as the federal government begins collecting thousands of forbidden weapons through its long-delayed buyback program.
Ontario filed a notice of intervention before the Supreme Court of Canada on May 19, according to the office of Attorney General Doug Downey, which confirmed the move but declined further comment.
The intervention places Ontario alongside Alberta and Saskatchewan in backing a legal challenge launched by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), a firearms advocacy organization seeking to overturn the federal government’s 2020 prohibition on more than 1,500 firearm models — a list that has since expanded to roughly 2,500.