Canadian Authorities Charge Former MP with Improper Transfer and Storage of Firearms

Screenshot from ourcommons.ca 

Former Member of Parliament, 78-year-old Inky Mark has been a long time and vocal opponent of the increasingly restrictive Canadian firearms laws.  Mark's father and grandfather had immigrated to Canada from China in 1923. Mark and his mother came to Canada when he was five years old, fleeing Chinese communist oppression in 1953. Mark could not immigrate earlier due to the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923.

Inky Mark served as a member of Parliament for 13 years, 3 months and 15 days. He was fiercely independent with a strong conservative bent. He criticized highly restrictive Canadian firearms laws and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

On March 21, 2026, at a gun show in Newfolden in the north west corner of Minnesota, about 50 miles south of the Canadian border, Wilfred Kachurowski, 73, was looking at the items in the show. Wilfred is a Canadian citizen who has a residence is in Dauphin, Manitoba. Inky Mark also has a residence in Dauphin.

It appears Kachurowsiki did not have a hunting license in the USA nor was he a member of a United States gun club. If he were, he could have been legally eligible to purchase firearms. Merely looking at firearms or purchasing a firearm may not have been his intention. He is reported by inews.tv as taking a .38 caliber firearm from one of the gun show tables and placing it in a bag attached to his walker. The owner of the firearm followed him and took him to the floor. The police were called. Later reporting by cbc.com stated the revolver was a Taurus Judge chambered for .45 Colt/.410 shotgun rounds. Kachurowski was arrested and taken to jail in Newfolden.  He was later released on bail. He returned to Canada on March 28.

 

Variations of Taurus Judge Revolvers. Image by Weingarten

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol notified the Manitoba RCMP that Kachurowski had been charged with the theft of a handgun on March 23. Kachurowski was still in custody at that point. The owner of the handgun stated Kachurowski matched the description of a suspect in a previous theft from a Grand Rapids, North Dakota gun show in 2025.

The RCMP used the information to obtain a search warrant for Kachurowski's home in Dauphin, Manitoba. The search was conducted on April 15. During the search, the police found seven firearms, two of which had been reported as stolen in the United States.  On one, the serial number had been altered. The firearms were not stored as required by Canadian law. Some of them were loaded.

 

Firearms found in the home of Wilfred Kachurowski in Dauphin, Canada. Image from RCMP.  

The firearms appear to be a Hi-Point carbine, a revolving shotgun, and five revolvers. Revolvers with a barrel less than 105 mm are highly restricted in Canada. The short-barreled shotgun may not be legal in Canada, as short barreled shotguns are legal in Canada only if they come from the factory with a short barrel. The shotgun in the image appears to have had its barrel shortened by simply cutting the barrel off at a convenient point. The short barreled shotgun would make an excellent bush gun. The RCMP is reported as saying the firearms were not stored in compliance with Canadian law.

One or more of the guns found at Kachurowski's residence were linked to former Member of Parliament Inky Mark.

The firearms had not been legally transferred to Kachurowski. This made them "crime guns" under Canadian law. The RCMP obtained a warrant to search former MP and gun collector Inky Mark's residence. On July 7, 2026 the RCMP executed the search warrant.

At Inky Mark's residence, they found and seized 429 guns. Some are alleged to not have been stored properly by Canadian standards. Some were antiques. Three of the firearms linked to Inky Mark were found to have been stolen in the USA.  Canadian and U.S. media have made much of the fact that Inky Mark's collection contained a muzzle loading antique cannon. Because it is an antique, such a firearm is not required to be registered in Canada, and can be transferred without government permission. The RCMP seized $300,000 Canadian in cash. It is not illegal to possess cash in Canada. Canada has an asset forfeiture law. It is possible the RCMP are claiming the money was the result of illegal firearms transfers. Asset forfeiture can be challenged more easily in Canada than in the USA. The value of the firearms seized could easily exceed half a million Canadian dollars. From the pictures in the media, many of the firearms are valuable antiques and high dollar modern firearms.

The RCMP charged Inky Mark with 12 firearms related offenses. The offenses included: Unsafe storage of firearms, careless use of a firearm, possession of a property obtained by crime, and possession of a firearm with a tampered serial number.

78-year-old, former Member of Parliament (MP), firearms collector, and refugee from the People's Republic of China has been released under conditions. In Canada, this is essentially the same as being released on bail in the USA. Former MP Inky Mark has admitted to the illegal transfer of three firearms. In a cbc.ca article, Mark states the $300,000 came from property sales in Dauphine. He says the illegal transfers were not sales. From Inky Mark: 

 "I didn't sell anything. I transferred — according to them illegally, which it was," he said. "I did it three times, stupid me."

Analysis: Inky Mark's legal problems likely stem from the highly restrictive firearms laws in Canada. So far, it appears three firearms have been found to have been stolen at some point during their existence. Most of the charges have to do with requirements for storing the firearms. Those requirements are nearly non-existent in the USA. Over the course of a long and successful life, this correspondent does not find it unusual for a man who fled Communist China to have $300,000 Canadian (213,000 U.S. dollars) in cash at his residence. It is hard to discount the political symbolism of the case. A man who fought the highly restrictive laws, in the name of liberty, is caught in their tentacles. While three firearms are said to have been sold illegally, it is not clear if two or all of them may be from the case of William Kachurowski. The charges mostly appear to be malum prohibitum, (bad by definition of law). With the restoration of Second Amendment rights ongoing in the American courts, such cases are becoming less likely south of the Canadian border.

©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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