Former Manitoba MP charged with firearms offences

A former member of Parliament from Manitoba has been charged after a stockpile of ammunition and firearms — including an antique cannon — and $300,000 in cash were seized from a Dauphin home last week.

Manitoba RCMP charged Inky Mark, 78, with a dozen firearms-related charges, including firearms trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, unsafe storage and careless use of a firearm.

In total, RCMP seized 439 firearms from Mark’s property, Mounties said at a news conference Monday morning.

It is expected to take investigators weeks to sort through the arsenal and determine how many of the weapons were legally possessed, but police have already identified three guns that are believed to have been illegally trafficked, and one that had a tampered serial number, RCMP Cpl. Barry Kirby said.

“At this point in time, we are still investigating. We still have a lot more exhibits to process, a lot more things to look at,” Kirby said.

Police said the charges are the result of a months-long investigation dating to late March, when RCMP were notified firearms charges had been laid in the United States against another Dauphin man: 73-year-old Wilfred Kachurowski.

Mounties conducted their own investigation and searched Kachurowski’s Dauphin-area home, resulting in more charges against him.

Information was uncovered during that search which revealed some weapons were purchased by a second suspect and never lawfully transferred. Officers secured warrants to search Mark’s home on July 7, at which point they discovered the cache of weapons, Kirby said.

The relationship between the two men is unclear, he said.

RCMP did not comment on a possible motive.

Mark does not have a previous criminal history.

“We know he’s a firearms collector, but that’s really all we know at this time,” Kirby said.

“You can possess as many firearms legally as you want to possess. Where it goes into the criminal realm is when you get into the trafficking of the firearms, the unsafe storage, the unauthorized possession of certain firearms.”

Weapons seized from the home are now in the possession of the RCMP and will remain in storage until Mark’s case proceeds through court, Kirby said, adding a judge will decide what happens to the weapons.

He confirmed Mark’s property was surrounded by signs displaying political messages.

Google Maps images captured of Mark’s home in 2024 show an array of various signs and flags arranged outside the property.

One sign included a reference to Bill C-21, warning “Trudeau confiscating all your guns.”

The gun control legislation was initially designed to ban handguns, but was later expanded to create a definition of “assault-style” guns and a list of long guns — sparking controversy and accusation of government overreach among some Canadians.

Other signs on the property at the time included messages of, “Make Canada great again,” and “Trudeau cult must be defeated.”

Mark was born in Toysun, China, and made his career as a businessman and teacher, according to the Library of Parliament.

He was mayor of the City of Dauphin from 1994 to 1997, and previously represented the riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette (now known as Riding Mountain) as an MP between 1997 to 2010.

“I’m surprised and concerned that we had someone with that many firearms in their possession. Whether that’s a former mayor and MP or just a citizen. It’s troubling for someone in my position, who is an elected representative, to not know that someone would have that type of arsenal in their home,” Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said Monday.

The City of Dauphin has received several complaints about the signs in recent years, and previously asked Mark to change some in accordance with municipal bylaws, Bosiak said.

“There were a couple of circumstances where we requested that he either remove some signs or move them, but, obviously, we aren’t the free speech police,” he said.

“Our concerns were all relative to a few minor bylaw infractions that — I will admit — after Inky was made aware of them he did make some adjustments to fit or to meet the requirements of the bylaw.”

Mark was first elected as a member of the Reform Party of Canada, which then became the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance around the 2000 election and later the Conservative Party of Canada.

Former senator Don Plett, who was the founding president of the Conservative Party of Canada from 2003 to 2009, said Mark was not a team player.

“I think he lost a lot of support over the years with some of the actions that he had,” said Plett.

A 1997 brochure outlining the platform of the Reform Party included numerous references to the party’s opposition to gun control and Canada’s universal firearms registry.

Information on the Parliament of Canada website shows Mark asked several questions about gun control during his time in office.

In 2003, he asked the government to reveal how much revenue it had collected under the long-gun registry program, how many people had been charged for possession of an unregistered firearm, and how many unregistered long guns had been confiscated by police.

Mark won the riding again as a Conservative in 2004 and held the seat for that party during the 2008 election. He resigned in 2010 and ran again for mayor of Dauphin, but was unsuccessful.

He then returned to federal politics during the 2015 election, running as an independent and losing in a landslide to Conservative Robert Sopuck.

In 2016, Mark told the Free Press the Conservative Party of Canada had revoked his party membership. He alleged it was an act of retaliation for running against Sopuck in the previous year’s election.

Mark’s relationship to the Conservatives had been strained for some time. He was critical of former prime minister Stephen Harper, who he described as a “dictator” and accused of moving the party away from small-c conservative values.

At the time his party membership was revoked, Mark said he would move on from politics and spend his retirement enjoying hobbies like flying and shooting, the Free Press reported previously.

— with files from Morgan Modjeski

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca