Headed to Alberta next week for a bear hunt. I know Canada has some obscure knife laws. What do I need to know to keep from getting a typical hunting knife confiscated?
Google is your friend. I think switchblades, butterflies??, and other "weaponized" knives are no-no.
I don't know, but I've had no trouble with folders or up to to 4 1/2 inch fixed blades when driving thru. Actually, I've never even given it thought. If it is longer than a foot, you may have a problem....
PS - the kitchen knives in the camper are up to 10", but as said- we have never been questioned...
A whooooole mess of rules but no body, including cops get to worried about it. Check out Runkle of the Bailly. He's a Canadian criminal & firearms defence Lawyer out of Alberta. He covers all knife, & fire arms rules & regs, even the new chit there trying to ram down our throats. Also covers some past cases of court. Google is your friend........ GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦
SDHNTR; Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day's behaving down in your section of the world and all within your sphere of caring are well.
Strangely enough, other than no butterfly knives, switchblades or gravity feeds, so far - knocking on wood as I type - our knife laws are not absurd for the most part.
If you're going into a courthouse then there'll be signage to leave all sharp tools in the rig, same with bars for the most part or that was the case 40 years back when I frequented bars.
That's a wee bit of a tip on how blades are viewed here - they are always only tools. We don't carry them for defense, it's for work - pretty much any work will suffice in my experience.
From September to almost Christmas here in semi-rural BC, it's not uncommon to see a whole bunch of guys and ladies in the 711 fueling up and grabbing coffee during hunting season and they are all packing various sizes of fixed blade knives. Nobody raises an eyebrow in my experience.
Unless I'm going into a courthouse, I've often worn a small fixed blade - sort of personal scalpel/splinter/cactus spine remover - and a lock back in my front right hand pocket - as well as a Leatherman Wave. Not once has anyone questioned it ever during multiple interactions with various LEO.
I do make it a practice of having the knife clip showing so nobody can suggest it's concealed.
If we're cruising the bars at 1:00AM, then a constable can suggest they don't need that particular tool at this time since they are in fact not at work. During the day or heading up hunting, camping, fishing, mushroom picking, tree planting, farming, ranching, logging etc - the LEO don't give it a second look. Again this has been my experience.
By all means Ian Runkle covers knife laws up here in these.
Hope that helped a wee bit and good luck on your hunt.
