Originally Posted by
welsh
You can drive yourself nuts wondering why any given provision became law, or you can just accept that it's law. I think pepper spray was caught up in a general wave of prohibitions on easily concealable weapons including stun guns and the like. It doesn't matter anyway, because if a woman carried Mace in her purse she'd be carrying a concealed weapon regardless.
Also, possession of a weapon for the purpose of self-defence in the absence of a specific and unavoidable threat is arguably illegal, based on Supreme Court rulings on self-defence.
Essentially, Canadian law allows you to own a weapon but not with the intent to use it on a person.
The status of pepper spray in the law is weird. The only reason bear sprays and dog sprays are not considered prohibited weapons is that they are not expressly designed to be used on people.