I did quite well in administrative law, actually, and I think the decision is a pile of bunk. The basic premise of administrative law is that government decision makers have to make their decisions within the parameters laid out in legislation, and any decision which falls outside those parameters is challengeable as outside the decision maker's delegated authority from parliament. The decision as to whether or not a firearm is a listed prohibited firearm, or a variant thereof falls squarely within the decision maker's delegated power. What does NOT fall within their delegated power is to decide what the word 'variant' means, since parliament did not delegate the power to enact regulations, and the term is found within the regulations. They essentially have decided that they have the power to define variant in the most restrictive way possible, which makes their decision challengable.
1. There is a big tendency within RCMP to prohibit anything that average Joe can get. For example, $3000 would likely get OK (before this post

), while rifle up to $1000 will be banned. Examples:
Banned or Restricted (arbitrary, in my opinion): Walter .22lr rifle, 522, S&W 22LR AR-15 looking one, T97, etc.
OK: Sig Special, HK, Tavor, Valmet, etc.
The reasons could be from: only few will be in Canada, easy to confiscate later, less people running around with them, only rich would have them, etc. (search net about why Valmet became non-restricted for example, and how that decision was "justified")
2. Every request should be done with reasons for expected ruling: e.g. we believe this rifle should be non-restricted for the following reasons.... Thus, any other ruling would have to overcome your reasoning, which is not easy. Any request "what's your opinion" leaves you only with arbitrary decision and an option of court appeal and only at "reasonableness" standard.