M16 restricted?

Nope. If that was the case, then an AR with a 20" barrel would be non-restricted.

No, it wouldn't, because there is a clear and explicit statement that says all AR's are, at a minimum, restricted.

My point is that the prohibited/restricted weapons orders in SOR/98-462 appear to prevail over the 84(1) criteria

Perhaps this is the source of your confusion. These separate clauses don't supplant one another, they supplement one another. You have to go through all the applicable legislation (Criminal Code, Firearms Act, Firearms Regulations), and find all of the classifications that cover a firearm, and follow the rules associated with most restrictive class.

Think of it this way: a 20" barreled, selective fire AR-15 is non-restriced (due to the long barrel) AND restricted (because it's an AR) AND Prohibited (because it is capable of full auto). You must therefore follow the ownership rules of the prohibited class, because those are the most restrictive.

It says commonly known as - I'm pretty sure that the M16 is commonly known as being full-auto.
"Commonly known" refers to the nomenclature "M16", not to what features the average Joe thinks are commonly installed in said rifle. Factories can and do set up common models with unusual features by custom order. The way the law is worded it applies to guns commonly known as the M16, regardless of whether or not they exhibit unusual features.

Also I don't think it is right to say that "many, many AR15's have been made with full auto capability". I had to do some research, but the only AR15s that were full-auto from the factory were the Colt models 601 and 602 (in the image in your post) made right after Colt acquired the AR15 patent. So there were a few but not that many. They were practically prototypes.

Even is this was true, there were something like 40,000 model 601 and 602 rifles made, pretty hefty numbers for "prototypes". But then, there's this:

Select fire AR-15 with serial number over 150,000:


Again, SN over 900,000



And again, SN over 4 million:


And perhaps most importantly, a dual marked AR-15 / M16, demonstrating the true situation with these guns, which is that no matter what inventory code some government decides to stamp on their rifles/carbines, as far as Colt is concerned, they are all AR-15s:

 
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as far as Colt is concerned, they are all AR-15s:

Yes, because Colt owns the AR-15 trademark. Colt actually made firearms with the name AR-15, for example the Colt AR-15 A2 Sporter II as named by the regulations in SOR/98-462.

IMG_1443.jpg


But the firearms in the pictures in your post are an XM 16 E1, XM177E2, Model 639, and M16, respectively. Look at the first three receivers - they all have the third hole. In the US those are machine guns, and here they are affected by the issue we are discussing. What is your point?
 
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Think of it this way: a 20" barreled, selective fire AR-15 is non-restriced (due to the long barrel) AND restricted (because it's an AR) AND Prohibited (because it is capable of full auto). You must therefore follow the ownership rules of the prohibited class, because those are the most restrictive.

Exactly - it has been prescribed by the regulations as a restricted. When something is prescribed by regulations, it is a special case where the government wants to ensure that something is classified a certain way. They want to nail it down. In all other cases, they have prescribed otherwise non-restricted or restricted firearms as prohibited - i.e. more restricted than what they would normally be.

Yet, for the M16 - they do not distinguish between semi-only or select fire and have included all variants - they have done the opposite.
 
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