Former Canadian MP charged with gun offences, 439 firearms seized

A former long-serving Manitoba member of Parliament faces multiple gun charges after police raided his home and seized 439 firearms – and a cannon.

Inky Mark faces a dozen Criminal Code charges, including firearms trafficking, after the raid last week at his Dauphin home that also saw police seize ammunition and more than $300,000 in cash.

Mounties say it will take time to catalogue all the weapons seized but that three of the firearms are believed to be illegally trafficked and one had its serial number altered.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Scott McMurchy said trafficking is not just about the weapons themselves.

“Generally speaking, these weapons are unregistered and can be difficult to trace,” McMurchy told a news conference Monday.

“In the wrong hands, they can fuel violence in the communities that we serve and support the activities of organized crime groups.”

Mark, 78, could not be immediately reached for comment. He has been released from custody.

Former Canadian Alliance MP Inky Mark pauses as he responds to a questions as he talks with the media at the Progressive Conservative convention in Edmonton, Thursday Aug. 22, 2002. (CP PHOTO/Adrian Wyld)

The July 7 raid at his home grew out of an arrest in March in the United States of a 73-year-old man on firearms offences.

The charges against Mark are spread over eight categories, from firearms trafficking to unsafe storage of firearms.

He won a seat in Parliament in 1997 for Dauphin-Swan River and won four more times before deciding not to run in 2010.

His time in office came during a time of division, discord and ultimately reunification for Canada’s conservative movement. Mark was first elected under the Reform Party banner but later sat in the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative caucuses, and ultimately as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

His time in office was marked by advocacy for immigration, multiculturalism, recognition of historical injustices and gun rights.

While in office, Mark opposed the creation of a national gun registry in 1998, which was being phased in over the next five years. At one point, Mark urged gun owners to wait to the last minute to register their firearms as a form of protest.

Mark also tabled a number of petitions opposing the gun registry, and called on the government of former prime minister Jean Chrétien to put the money towards things like crime prevention and policing instead.

He made headlines in 2000 when a fellow Reform MP was charged with assaulting Mark during a caucus meeting. The charge was later stayed due to insufficient evidence.

He tried twice to put forward legislation that would declare that all Canadians have the right to hunt and fish, subject to reasonable limits, but both private member’s bills didn’t go further than first reading.

Before being elected to Parliament, Mark served as the mayor of Dauphin and president of the local handgun club.

He has been released from custody.