Canadian balisong lift

M

Maruj

Joined
Jan 26, 2012
Messages
7
Ok, so I was reading that back in 2001 there was a lift on the ban of balisong knives....meaning that there is thought of making these knives legal here in canada by someone important, so i was wondering if anyone would know the chance of this happening again or why there was a lift on the ban in the first place? everyone is saying how there was a lift but not one says why. They say it was only for a few months...seems to be a bit more of a way for canada to make a few bucks off knife collectors who will take advantage and buy a few $1000 balisongs while they can. some info here would be nice. thank you.
 
when were they outlawed anyways? i remember buying cheap $10-$20 brass handled ones made in Pakistan at flea markets years ago, but that was probably at least 25 years ago now.
 
Spinerazor said:
when were they outlawed anyways? i remember buying cheap $10-$20 brass handled ones made in Pakistan at flea markets years ago, but that was probably at least 25 years ago now.
Click to expand...

You can often buy illegal things.
You can find brass knuckles in certain shops in Toronto, and they've been illegal a loooong time.

Never assume that something is legal because you bought it in a store in good faith.
 
Back in 2001, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal determined that balisongs do not meet the definition of a prohibited weapon under tariff item No. 9898.00.00 of the schedule to the Customs Tariff:

http://canlii.ca/en/ca/citt/doc/2001/2001canlii26495/2001canlii26495.html

Unfortunately the Supreme Court of Canada ruled otherwise in R. v. Vaughan (Debra):

http://canlii.ca/en/ca/scc/doc/1991/1991canlii23/1991canlii23.html

So it seems we have a strange situation where CBSA will allow the importation of an illegal knife??? Also, balisongs aren't prohibited by name, they fall under the gravity/centrifugal force definition that affects all folders. I suspect if you sufficiently tightened the pivots, you'd avoid a conviction. Although you'd certainly be charged if police found you in possession.
 
Balisongs are not prohibited. Knives that open under "centrifugal force" are prohibited.
They say that balisongs are centrifugal.
So, unless they remove the centrifugal thing from the criminal code, balisongs will continue to be interpreted as prohibited.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top