Brief To The Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs By Robert Kierstead, Ch.P.C. Head Coach, Canadian Olympic Shooting Team Honorable Chairman and Honorable Members of the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs: Thank you for the privilege of being given the opportunity of presenting this brief to you on Bill C-68. We are fortunate indeed to live in a country with a political system that includes in its law making process, a review by a senior group of statesmen and stateswomen who possess the wisdom and integrity to rise above petty partisan politics and review issues with the only concern being to ensure the overall well being of the rights of Canadians. In my role as coach of our countries Olympic team, I have travelled in many countries who do not have political systems which place value on ensuring the rights and freedoms of people. My dealings with people in those regimes has heightened my awareness of the vulnerability of political systems based on the egalitarian principles of our Canadian system. The role of senate in our Canadian political system is essential as the stewards of our system overseeing the integrity of our democratic process. In the drafting of Bill C-68 our government has not demonstrated concern for egalitarian philosophy. The government has demonstrated blatant intolerance towards a law abiding group of Canadian men, women, youth, elderly, able bodied and disabled from all socio, political, economic strata all across our country, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. The Justice Minister maintains that legitimate sport shooters, recreational and competitive users of firearms and law abiding hunters will not be harmed by his legislation. The Minister also maintains that extensive consultation with the Canadian firearm community occurred prior to the drafting of his legislation. I take this opportunity to report to senate that the Minister has misled Canadians with his claims. Not only did the Minister not consult with the firearm community prior to the drafting of Bill C-68, he refused to acknowledge repeated requests for consultation from the Shooting Federation of Canada (S.F.C.). The Shooting Federation of Canada (S.F.C.) is the sport governing body for all recreation and competitive shooting sports in Canada, recognized by Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Association and the world governing body for Olympic shooting sports. In the Spring of 1994, the S.F.C. faxed the Minister at his office requesting the opportunity to meet and offer expertise in the development of gun control policy. The fax was not acknowledged and so several telephone calls were made to the Minister's office by the S.F.C., none were acknowledged or returned by the Minister. The fax was mailed to the Minister's office again with no response from the Minister. The Justice Minister travelled across Canada during the summer of 1994, ostensibly to consult with Canadians on the issue of his bill. I attended his session in New Brunswick, which was by invitation only, individuals being invited by a local M.P. The meeting was highly structured with only the M.P. speaking and no direct communication between the Minister and the audience. Following the meeting, I approached the Minister and offered him my business card for his reference only if he seriously wanted to consult with us to develop sound, effective legislation for Canada. The Minister took my card and said he definitely was serious and would contact us, again, he did not. In August of 1994, the Canadian shooting team participated at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia. You are probably aware that several thousand competitors from 72 countries participated in these games. You may not be aware that the heroes of the games were your Canadian shooters. We won the first gold medal of the games, the last gold of the event and just about everything in between. The Canadian shooting team won more medals than any other Canadian team, we were the only Canadian team to beat the powerful first place Australians. We also set new Commonwealth Games records, and our female shooters performed particularly well. The flag bearer for the closing ceremonies was a Canadian shooter, chosen for his superior medal winning performance. You are probably unaware of this outstanding performance by your Canadian shooting team because of the deliberate absence of coverage by the CBC of the shooting team. I do not think it merely a coincidence that the CBC, a federally funded agency, failed to broadcast to Canadians Canada's hottest team at the Commonwealth Games. During this unprecedented medal tally, I prepared a letter to the Prime Minister, signed by the Canadian Commonwealth Games shooting team, reporting to the Prime Minister the total unreceptiveness of his Justice Minister to the requests for consultation from our national sport governing body, the S.F.C. I also distributed copies of the letter to the media, at the Commonwealth Games. We then finally received a response from Ottawa indicating that the Minister would be contacting us for a meeting. By the way, the meeting which was unproductive and at which the Minister was not present, did not take place until February, 1995. By the time the Minister responded to the firearms community, after direction from the Prime Minister, the legislative package was already drafted and distributed. The parliamentary Justice Committee heard from groups from all over Canada as to the terrible consequences on law abiding legitimate firearms owners and users, of Bill C-68. I will not repeat here all the voluminous criticisms of this convoluted, poorly drafted legislation. Nor will I go into the devastation Bill C-68 has caused and will continue to cause, to the $2 billion annual business generated directly and indirectly across Canada through firearm ownership and use. I will limit my focus in this brief to the devastation caused to the high performance international competitive shooting program in Canada by Bill C-68. First, while Alan Rock stated that his Bill would not harm legitimate shooting competitors, he prohibited all .32 caliber pistols and all pistols with a barrel length less than 105 mm. He prohibited these guns on the grounds that they are cheap, inaccurate and not used for competitive purposes. That the Justice Minister would make such a claim is proof that he did not consult with the firearm community. It is also proof that he has no expertise on the matter of firearms. The truth is that the .32 caliber pistol is the most widely used center fire competitive pistol in use in high performance shooting throughout the world. Also the barrel length of guns used by some members of our Olympic shooting team are only 75 mm in length, much less than the 105 mm minimum length proposed by Alan Rock's legislation. By his arrogant refusal to consult with those who possess the expertise, he has prohibited the very guns used by Canada's Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, World Championship, Continental Championship and National Championship teams. These guns, far from being cheap as Alan Rock maintains can cost up to $5,000.00 for pistols and up to $12,000.00 for shotguns. As for accuracy, I refer you to the impressive medal count won by our Canadian team using these guns Alan Rock calls inaccurate. By the way, you may find it interesting that the standard police service revolver the Smith & Wesson model 10, has a barrel length less than 105 mm. If the Justice Minister's claim is correct about accuracy and barrel length, then our police officers have been using inaccurate service revolvers. Alan Rock has stated that the Bill permits an exemption to those of us currently involved in high performance competitive shooting. There are two issues surrounding the exemption provisions that the minister refers to. First, I will use an analogy to make the point very clear as to why the exemption for current team members is unacceptable. The Bill permits only those who currently own these pistols to possess, transfer and use them. That results in the complete dismantling of the developmental feeder system of local clubs across Canada. It would be the same as outlawing hockey sticks for everyone not currently on the national hockey team. The feeder system of local hockey programs in community rinks across Canada would be eliminated and nobody would replace the players leaving the national hockey team, in a couple of years our team would no longer be competitive, then shortly thereafter there would not be adequate team members to field the team and our national hockey team would cease to exist. The same is true with our national shooting team. If only those current team members have access to competitive pistols, then the developmental feeder system of local clubs across Canada will be destroyed. There will be nobody to replace the retiring team members and in just a couple of years we will cease to exist, which I personally believe is Alan Rock's hidden agenda. This exemption provision exists in the current legislation relative to the capacity of magazines. The exemption to magazine capacity restriction provides the opportunity for legitimate competitors, participating in legitimate sanctioned competitions, on legitimate shooting ranges, to exceed the magazine capacity restriction. However, in spite of the exemption, provided by the legislation, the government in practice does not approve the competitive use of the magazines. Thereby eliminating many shooting events at the local level. If the government does not apply the current exemption to magazine size, why would anyone believe the government would apply the proposed exemption in Bill C-68. In addition to this unacceptable exemption provision is the "Orders in Council" provision in Bill C-68. The "Orders in Council" provision is particularly objectionable from a democratic government point of view as it gives the minister the power to prohibit any firearm or class of firearms, at any time, without the scrutiny of parliament. With that power at his disposal the Justice Minister will be very calculated in his steady prohibition of firearms and classes of firearms until there are no firearms in the hands of Canadians except the police, the military and the criminals. Competitive sport use of firearms in Canada will be eliminated by Alan Rock through the "Order in Council" provision. So as not to appear paranoid to the honorable members of this Senate Committee I include the following two references: "I came to Ottawa in November of last year with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers, that was my personal belief very strongly held." This quote, taken from the Globe and Mail in April, 1994, was made by Justice Minister Alan Rock. As further evidence of the intention of the Justice Minister I include this quote, "Hunting is a bloody and barbaric sport and must be eliminated." This quote, taken from the Toronto Star in April of this year was made by Alan Rock's personal spokesman, and exposes the Minister's true belief of firearm ownership and use in Canada. The track record of the government in dealing with legitimate owners and users of firearms in Canada has demonstrated where the government is heading with this legislation. It is obvious to those involved in the recreation, competitive and high performance shooting community in Canada that the legislation will provide the means for the Justice Minister to eliminate shooting sports in Canada. High performance shooting competitors from other countries will be prevented from participating in sporting events in Canada because of the prohibitions on barrel length and caliber. If this legislation had been in effect in 1994, Canada could not have hosted the Commonwealth Games because the shooting teams would not have been able to bring their guns into Canada. The impact of this legislation on the sporting world extends beyond Canada's borders. For the benefit of the Senate Committee, I will clarify the stereotype that the Justice Minister's supporters are trying to portray of the Canadian firearm owner and user. There is an effort to portray the Canadian firearm owner as exclusively male. This generalization is not correct as our Canadian shooting team profile demonstrates. Our Canadian shooting team is composed of women, men, wheelchair, amputee, young, senior, men, boys and girls. This profile is representative of shooting teams, clubs and associations across Canada. The shooting sports have provided the opportunity for women in Canada, able bodied and disabled, to strive for and achieve excellence, both within Canada and internationally. Bill C-68 in its present form will eliminate that opportunity. This bill is more than a gun bill, this bill is about the method in which Canadians want legislation developed and approved in our country. This bill is about gross intolerance towards a very large segment of Canadians, much larger than the numbers expressed by the Justice Minister. As the stewards of one of the few political systems on this planet that values democracy, individual rights, diversity, tolerance of values, lifestyles, cultural and regional mores, freedom of expression and much more that distinctly characterizes Canada, please use the influence and power of Senate to modify this very poorly drafted bill, and to require the Minister and government to strictly adhere to Canadian principles of a democratic and tolerant society with this and all legislation affecting the very nature of our country. There is much more at stake here than firearm ownership and use or the future of our countries Olympic shooting team. I look to you to apply non partisan leadership, and wisdom to this bill, that has the potential to pit urban Canada against rural Canada, regions of Canada against central Canada and millions of Canadians against the government and its process. Respectfully submitted. Robert Kierstead, Ch.P.C., B.A., M.Ed. Head Coach, Olympic Shooting Team !