{"id":952077,"date":"2026-10-30T16:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T16:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952077\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T16:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T16:12:11","slug":"guns-flow-north-toronto-lawyer-seeks-to-hold-u-s-gun-corporations-accountable-for-canadian-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952077\/","title":{"rendered":"Guns flow north. Toronto lawyer seeks to hold U.S. gun corporations accountable for Canadian deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 11, Const. Marc Pinizzotto entered a North York apartment with a search warrant<\/a>. He was there as part of an investigation into a wave of high-profile shootings in Toronto linked to a gun-for-hire network<\/a>, including an incident months earlier at the U.S. consulate and several shootings targeting synagogues and Jewish schools.<\/p>\n

Upon entering the apartment, Pinizzotto, a 25-year veteran of Toronto\u2019s police force, was met with gunfire, sustaining a fatal wound. The 43-year-old would not return home from work that day.<\/p>\n

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw later confirmed that neither of the firearms recovered during the operation originated in Canada, rather they had, in fact, originated from the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a story that\u2019s all too familiar to law enforcement at Canada\u2019s border. According to figures Toronto Police provided to Ricochet Media, 364 crime guns have been seized so far this year. Between 2020 and 2024, at least 73 per cent \u2013 and in some years as many as 88 per cent \u2013 of the crime guns the service has seized and traced to a source came from the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, in an attempt to hold the U.S. accountable, a Canadian lawyer is turning to the courts.<\/p>\n

The case that sparked change<\/p>\n

For Paul Miller<\/a>, the Toronto trial lawyer leading the case, the news of Pinizzotto\u2019s death became a call to action once he understood the scale of the problem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Initially,] I didn\u2019t pay a lot of attention to the fact it was potentially a trafficked gun,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just incredibly sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a phone call with Jonathan Lowy \u2014 a veteran American gun-violence lawyer<\/a> who founded Global Action on Gun Violence<\/a> (GAGV) \u2014 Miller decided it was time to join the movement calling for accountability for gun violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have this belief that lawyers who work in my area of law have an obligation and a duty to try and make changes for the better,\u201d Miller added.<\/p>\n

Now before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Miller and GAGV have launched a lawsuit that they believe could do what a nearly identical case brought by the government of Mexico<\/a> could not \u2014 hold American gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers legally responsible for deaths caused by their illegally smuggled products in Canada.<\/p>\n

The issues of community safety and well-being played a key role in elections across the country<\/a>, particularly in Toronto\u2019s municipal election. Polling on Torontonians\u2019 concerns ahead of a tightly contested mayoral race showed that \u201cpublic safety\u201d is front of mind.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nationally, gun crime fell in 2024, according to the latest Statistics Canada data<\/a>, with the rate of firearm violent crime dropping 4.2 per cent. During the same time period, Toronto area rates moved the other way: police recorded 2,843 firearm-related violent crimes, rising 12 per cent from the year before to its highest level in 15 years.<\/p>\n

According to the latest data from the Toronto Police Service<\/a>, total shooting and firearm discharge events are down to nearly half the number in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lowy hopes that Canada is just the start of a wave of global action. It offers the best chance of success \u2013 \u201cthe most likely\u2026 because of the scope of this problem and the commercial relationship between countries.\u201d Miller\u2019s involvement, he added, is itself significant \u2014 \u201ca really powerful pairing that I think negligent actors in the gun industry should be concerned about.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unidentified victim \u2014 holding the key?<\/p>\n

The lawsuit that Miller hopes will spark change is not about Pinizzotto. Instead, it is built around a different victim, who has not been publicly identified: an innocent bystander who was shot and killed at a party in Ontario, with a gun GAGV and Miller believe was trafficked from the United States.<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada data<\/a> shows how often shootings reach beyond a single target: in 2024, more than one in five firearm-related violent crimes involved more than one victim \u2014 more than double the share for violent crimes without a gun. And in about half of cases where police identified a suspect, the victim did not know the person accused<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Canadians \u2014 and I include myself in this, until very recently \u2014 realized the scope of the issue\u201d<\/p>\n

A claim has been filed in the case, although it is yet to be served. Miller said the claim was filed quickly to stay within the statute of limitations \u2013 the legal deadline for bringing a lawsuit, generally two years in Ontario. \u201cA statement of claim was filed to ensure that we protected the limitation period, because they came to us very close to when they could no longer sue,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

According to Miller, the person who allegedly supplied the gun had purchased a large number of firearms around the same time. \u201cWhy does anyone need to buy\u2026 15, 17, 20 guns at one time?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a question likely considered by lawyers in a similar case in 2025, in which the Mexican government brought a lawsuit against American gun manufacturers<\/a>. The case was ultimately unsuccessful \u2014 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against it<\/a>, citing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act<\/a> (PLCAA), a 2005 U.S. law that shields gun companies from most civil liability.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s team isn\u2019t worried that they will be using a similar approach as the Mexican government. Speaking at a GAGV media briefing on the report in September, Lowy said the law \u201cdoes not apply outside of the U.S. So, if you bring a lawsuit in Canada, for example, there is no defence that allows us to get out of liability even if we\u2019re negligent or reckless, and so there is this great opportunity for accountability, fair accountability in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"infographicResearch from Global Action against Gun Violence shows that most crime guns in Canada and Mexico come from the U.S.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the team will have to convince a Canadian court to accept jurisdiction over an American manufacturer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will fight us, no doubt, on jurisdiction,\u201d Miller said. But there is precedent for jurisdiction being granted in Canada. In 2025, the Ontario Court of Appeal certified a class action<\/a> brought by victims of the 2018 Danforth Avenue mass shooting. Among the 15 shot that night was 18-year-old Samantha Price.<\/p>\n

Following the tragedy, Samantha\u2019s father, Ken Price, was one of a group of family members who founded Danforth Families For Safe Communities<\/a>. The group\u2019s lawsuit \u2014 filed against Smith & Wesson, seeking at least $150 million in damages \u2014 alleges the company failed to install \u201csmart gun\u201d technology that would have prevented the weapon\u2019s unauthorized use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the handgun used on the Danforth was not trafficked from the U.S. \u2013 it had been stolen in Canada. Miller\u2019s case goes after something different: the cross-border pipeline itself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The numbers behind the pipeline<\/p>\n

Figures provided by the Canada Border Services Agency paint a concerning picture. The agency said it has a policy to trace 100 per cent of firearms seized at the border, and that more than 90 per cent of firearms seized at the border originated in the U.S. in the first half of 2026. The CBSA\u2019s Ontario Firearms Smuggling Enforcement Team led 48 complex firearms investigations between April 2023 and March 2026.<\/p>\n

When asked where in the U.S. the guns traced in Ontario were originating from, the RCMP declined to answer, saying that doing so \u201ccould reveal patterns in tracing activity, investigative priorities, capabilities and gaps, and facilitate the commission of an offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a new report issued by GAGV in September \u2014 titled \u201cU.S. Gun Policy, Global Harm: Cross-Border Gun Trafficking from the Great Lakes Region<\/a>\u201d \u2014 identifies Ohio as the single leading U.S. source state for crime guns recovered in Canada, accounting for 15 per cent of all traced weapons recovered in Canada between 2017 and 2021, according to ATF data. The report attributes this to a combination of factors: Ohio requires no background check for private or gun-show sales and no permit to purchase a firearm.<\/p>\n

The report highlights specific cases illustrating the pipeline. In United States v. Kone and Griffin<\/a>, a gun purchased at Lev\u2019s Pawn Shop in Columbus on June 4, 2023, was recovered at a Toronto crime scene just 19 days later \u2014 what the report calls a typical sign of illicit purchases by traffickers.<\/p>\n

In response to the figures, Price said: \u201cWe are grateful when we hear that the CBSA and TPS are successful in intercepting illegal guns, and we generally agree that published facts and studies indicate that many crime guns are illegally smuggled into Canada from the US and often recovered in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrime guns that cause harm in Canada also come, however, from domestic diversion and theft of firearms in Canada, as happened in our tragedy,\u201d he said, in reference to the Danforth shooting.<\/p>\n

\u2018You have the ability to make something good out of a horrific tragedy\u2019<\/p>\n

There is a long and uncertain road ahead for Miller and his team. \u201cThe issue in this case is going to be: did this company owe a duty of care? Did the distributor and the seller owe a duty of care? And did they breach that duty and cause the death of a person?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yet, for Miller, it is less about a single payout than about using litigation as a strategy \u2014 the same tool he\u2019s used for decades against drug and medical device manufacturers \u2014 to force a change in how guns are made and sold. A fingerprint-based system that could prevent a stolen firearm from being fired by anyone but its owner is a basic safety feature the U.S. gun industry has resisted for decades, even as pressure mounted in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook<\/a> and Marjory Stoneman Douglas<\/a> tragedies. \u201cThe chance to change it from abroad is a great opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Canadians \u2014 and I include myself in this, until very recently \u2014 realized the scope of the issue,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair hope that Canadian families affected by gun violence are made aware that litigation options exist. \u201cMaybe we get a stream of people who come in and decide they want to commence actions, and suddenly there\u2019s three or four or five cases, and now the gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers are starting to pay attention,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the ability to make something good out of a horrific tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 11, Const. Marc Pinizzotto entered a North York apartment with a search warrant. He was there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,232873,24965,905,123103,3302,3277],"class_list":["post-952077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-u-s","tag-gun-violence","tag-ontario","tag-policing","tag-toronto","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}