Those rifle bans are dumb, but they're basically how they've always done things. When they were deciding on what was a 'restricted' vs 'prohibited' rifle in the 90s when the licensing scheme first got into play, it was clear that they looked up a gun digest and simply picked out a lot of stuff at random and it made no sense.

For example AK rifles were prohib, but ARs were not. AR rifles were restricted, but plenty of equally capable rifles were non-restricted. Some bans literally made no sense. The G41 assault rifle, an experimental German rifle that never went beyond the prototype phase, was added to the prohib list anyway. That gun was produced in such limited quantities and uses such unique and highly specialized ammunition (it was an experimental caseless round) that no criminal or criminal organization can get a hold of no matter what.

The whole point is their thinking is 'I hate guns and I want to destroy any and all shooting sports and hunting' This even apparently is extending to subsistence hunters who need a rifle to survive. This is why the SKS is not yet banned even though they have been trying to for a very, very long time. If they ban that it will cause a hell of a lot of problems for a lot of people... and they're still trying anyway!

You are forgetting that pocket pistols have been prohibited in Canada since the early 90s.

I was referencing this quote ...

Well, we'd better take all my legally owned guns away then.

They generalized guns when the article focused on handguns.

Semi autos are not banned. Fully automatic is banned and there are significant restrictions on barrel length and magazine capacity. Legal guns, such as the sks, are often semi auto.