From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #69 Reply-To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Sender: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Errors-To: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Precedence: normal Cdn-Firearms Digest Tuesday, April 13 2004 Volume 07 : Number 069 In this issue: Med Crouteau Fw: "Liberals hit decade-low level of support" NOT a legitimate use???????????????? Liberal Candidate: Firearms legislation wasteful, needs new focus Suspect arrested in double shooting Letter: 'Cache'-22; Arms raid TEEN HELD IN SHOOTINGS Doctors hotly debate reporting of gun wounds Wound disclosure a bad idea, journal says Man cleaning rifle shoots himself in the shoulder Both men killed in murder-suicide died of gunshots Crown seeks seven years in prison for man convicted in domestic fight ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 01:32:12 -0600 (CST) From: "gordon" Subject: Med Crouteau Anyone know if he is in jail - I hear nothing from hin and read no postings. I do know he habitually underates those highly respected federal Liberals! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 03:42:13 -0600 (CST) From: "J.M. Bell Subject: NOT a legitimate use???????????????? >In response to recent demands by Immigration officials that they be >allowed to carry firearms for personal protection while performing their >duties, may I quote erstwhile Justice Minister Allan Rock, "Protection >of life is NOT a legitimate use for a firearm in this country sir! Not! >That is expressly ruled out!". - ---- So, I guess that means that Allan Rock has instructed his personal armed bodyguards to not use their firearms to protect Allan Rock's or Allan Rock's family members' lives. Right??? Alan Harper alan__harper@cogeco.ca SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM ************************* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:58:18 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Liberal Candidate: Firearms legislation wasteful, needs new focus PUBLICATION: Red Deer Advocate DATE: 2004.04.08 SECTION: Comment PAGE: A4 COLUMN: Letters - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Firearms legislation wasteful, needs new focus - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Independent from either my employment or my political aspirations as a candidate in the forthcoming election, it has been my position that so called gun control has failed to focus upon specific criminal activities and is most unfair to law abiding citizens. Problem- focused legislation would provide law enforcement agencies and private citizens with better tools to protect the public. 1. Review of the existing legislation The complete body of legislation within the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act requires a parliamentary review to consider its effectiveness. In my opinion, the current legislative scheme commits financial resources to the excessive regulation of lawful ownership, and lacks an enforcement strategy for unlawful activities, particularly smuggling, black market selling and possession associated with other criminal activities, for example drug trafficking. 2. Identification of problems and alignment of legislation Recognition of specific problems involving firearms must surely be the first step in this process. Of equal importance, from a cost-of-enforcement perspective, is the identification of non-productive enforcement strategies that take valuable resources and funding. As a society, we are deeply concerned about spousal homicides, and so-called gang violence, but of equal concern is the safety of police officers and any person who is at risk by reason of occupation. The current Firearms Act does not address episodic cause, for example mental illness, and cannot therefore connect the risk to a solution. There is likewise a major failure to identify spousal homicide or gang-related violence and align specific legislation to these specific identifiable problems. 3. The Firearms Registry Consideration must be given to the effectiveness of an individual firearm registry in crime prevention. Substantial evidence suggests that the registration of individual firearms by lawful owners does not impact on the reduction of criminal offences involving firearms. The registry likewise does not impact on suicides. Resources expended on the registry might well be diverted to problem-focused enforcement and prevention strategies. Responsible gun owners, be they sportsmen or collectors, can be trusted to act in good faith in dealing with firearms and are a valuable resource that we fail to recognize in prevention strategies. 4. Specifications of lawful and prohibited weapons A problem arising primarily with collectors, specifications of what sort of gun may or may not be owned, or resold, are unduly technical and fail to connect with the risks presented by ownership of such weapons. By placing undue consideration upon the specification of a weapon, insufficient attention is given to more fundamental issues including storage, unauthorized access, and the impact of these rules on an open and lawful firearms marketplace. This message should be taken to Ottawa. Win-win legislation is both desirable and attainable and is preferable to a body of law that creates as many problems as it solves. Lucien Kurata Red Deer Editor's note: Kurata will represent the Liberals in the Red Deer riding in the next federal election. * Also a Crown Prosecutor in Red Deer. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:59:00 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Suspect arrested in double shooting PUBLICATION: Toronto Star DATE: 2004.04.13 SECTION: News PAGE: B04 BYLINE: Steve Kravitz - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suspect arrested in double shooting - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A man has been arrested in connection with a double shooting in a Scarborough high-rise last month. Police said they picked up a Malvern-area man in the area of Ellesmere Rd. and Markham Rd., near the apartment building where two men were shot on the night of March 10. Detective Martin Woodhouse said police identified a suspect through a series of tips and finally located him on Sunday. "Officers were assigned to flood the area on foot," Woodhouse said. At the time of his arrest, Woodhouse said the man was allegedly carrying a loaded .32-calibre revolver in his waistband. Woodhouse said police are trying to match the gun to shells found at the shooting scene, just outside the elevators on the building's 10th floor. One man was shot in the head, the other in the back, but both managed to get to the building's lobby, where they collapsed. Both men survived, though one still has a bullet lodged in his back, police said. Woodhouse said police are still looking for a second suspect. The gunfire took place just blocks away from a high school where police Chief Julian Fantino was scheduled to meet with Scarborough residents the next day for a town hall forum. The week before the forum, three men were killed and another was seriously hurt in an eight-hour flurry of violence in the east end. At the meeting, Fantino promised residents he would work to restore the community's sense of peace and order, and rid the area of gangs, drugs and guns. Raza Ali Khan, 19, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder while using a firearm and numerous firearms offences. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:59:53 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: 'Cache'-22; Arms raid PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator DATE: 2004.04.13 SECTION: Opinion PAGE: A17 SOURCE: The Hamilton Spectator BYLINE: Bruce N. Mills, Dundas - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Cache'-22; Arms raid - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: 'Arms cache seized in house raid' (April 7) First of all, this most clearly was not an "arms cache," it was a "gun collection." The use of the term "cache" is biased and is only used to sensationalize such stories. Secondly, if the owner bought these guns 12 years ago, in 1992, the .32-calibre handgun would have to be registered at that time. The only thing he possibly didn't do was "re-register" the gun when the Firearms Act came into effect, which was required because the old system had an error rate of at least 50 per cent. This is, in effect, a "paper crime" only, forced on law-abiding gun owners because the government couldn't (and still can't) make the system work. Thirdly, the story says that: "Many of the weapons had been modified and could no longer be fired. They included several rifles from the First and Second World Wars, including a Bren light machine gun." And yet Sergeant Paul Johnston makes the statement, "The most intimidating weapon was the Bren gun." Well, if it was "modified" so it couldn't be fired, how on earth could it be "intimidating?" And tell me, please, how could the owner be charged with "careless storage" if his guns were in a "closet vault?" Here we have yet another example of a guy who does his best to keep on the good side of the law, and still gets put through the wringer for nothing. Is it any wonder that the Firearms Act is so hated and reviled? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:00:33 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: TEEN HELD IN SHOOTINGS PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun DATE: 2004.04.13 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 5 COLUMN: SUN Briefs - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TEEN HELD IN SHOOTINGS - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A TEEN was allegedly found with a loaded handgun when he was arrested outside a Tuxedo Ct. home on Sunday night in connection with a double shooting on March 10 in a Scarborough highrise. Raza Ali Khan, 19, of Burkwood Cres., is charged with two counts of attempted murder and 22 firearms offences. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:01:44 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Doctors hotly debate reporting of gun wounds PUBLICATION: Toronto Star DATE: 2004.04.13 SECTION: News PAGE: A02 BYLINE: Betsy Powell ILLUSTRATION: Richard Lautens toronto star Dr. Howard Ovens wrote theOntario Medical Association's position endorsing mandatory reporting of gunshot victims to police. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctors hotly debate reporting of gun wounds - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Requiring physicians to report gunshot wounds is an "ill-conceived" idea that would do little to reduce gun-related violence while betraying the patient's trust, two doctors argue in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Debate in the medical community has been heating up since Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino called on the government to introduce legislation forcing hospitals to alert police when people arrive at the emergency room with gun wounds. The government seemed to be listening. Last December, Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter told reporters the province is preparing legislation that would compel hospitals to report gun wounds to police. No proposal has been made public. The Ontario Medical Association had already endorsed mandatory reporting of names and addresses of gunshot victims, in a position drafted by Dr. Howard Ovens, Toronto-based executive of the OMA's section on emergency medicine. It was based in part on results of a survey of emergency specialists. Former solicitor-general Bob Runciman, now in opposition, tabled a resolution at Queen's Park in December that went further, calling for a law requiring hospitals to report gun and knife injuries to police. "Recently, this has become a major irritant in terms of police relations with hospitals and physicians," he said then. "Some Toronto police officers have described a number of Toronto hospitals as virtual safe havens for injured gunmen on the lam." But in a Canadian Medical Association Journal article published today, two physicians take an opposing view. In "Shooting ourselves in the foot: Why mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds is a bad idea," Merril Pauls and Jocelyn Downie, physicians at Dalhousie University in Halifax, question what they call one of the most "disturbing" aspects of mandatory reporting: "Should physicians and hospitals be acting as an extension of the police in such an obvious and sweeping manner? "Patients disclose information to their physicians that they rarely reveal to anyone - about their drug and alcohol use, their sexual practices, the violence they suffer and many other personal and private matters." "They share this information with the understanding that it will be used to help them, not to initiate a police investigation." The Public Hospitals Act forbids Ontario hospitals to release information, such as the existence of gun wounds, to police because of patient confidentiality rules. Instead, police must obtain a search warrant - a situation that has given rise to some emergency-room showdowns. Fantino suggested last year that the city's crime rate is underreported, since people show up "at hospitals with bullet holes in them ... (and) we don't hear about that." Weakening that protection poses the danger that patients may avoid revealing their drug use or how an injury occurred, Pauls and Downie write. "This will make it harder for physicians to treat some of our most vulnerable patients and represents a significant breach of trust between physician and patient." Dr. Ovens' response, also in the Journal, says there are exceptions of "sufficient public concern," such as the discharge of a firearm, that should override a patient's right to confidentiality. He also notes that the United States, even with a powerful gun lobby, "had laws for mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds in 48 states as of 1995, whereas Canada, a country that regulates guns much more closely, has no such provision." But Pauls, an ethics education co-ordinator at Dalhousie, and Downie, director of the university's health and law institute, question whether a police investigation is the most "effective and efficient" way to prevent further violence and protect the public, since most firearm deaths and injuries are caused by suicides and accidents. "Patients who attempt suicide with a firearm require psychiatric care, not a police investigation," they write. Pauls and Downie acknowledge that reporting is already mandatory in areas such as suspected child abuse, impaired driving and certain infectious diseases. But in these situations patient information is given to agencies that involve police only if they deem it necessary. Emergency doctors become aware of many criminal actions on the job, they say. "Following the logic that all serious crime should be reported to police, one could argue for the mandatory reporting of domestic violence, stabbings, assaults and illicit drug use." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:02:10 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Wound disclosure a bad idea, journal says PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL DATE: TUE APR.13,2004 PAGE: A13 BYLINE: JONATHAN FOWLIE CLASS: Toronto News EDITION: Metro DATELINE: WORDS: 176 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wound disclosure a bad idea, journal says - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JONATHAN FOWLIE Requiring hospitals to report all gunshot and knife wounds to police could cause patients to endanger themselves by not giving doctors enough information, an article in today's Canadian Medical Association Journal says. The authors say that if hospitals are forced to report such incidents, many people, "who see that physicians have become an extension of the police force, will choose not to reveal their drug use, will refuse to say how they received an injury or will not disclose their sexual practices for fear that this information will be used against them." The article was done by Merril Pauls of the departments of emergency medicine and bioethics at Dalhousie University and Jocelyn Downie of its Health Law Institute. In response to a request by the Ontario Medical Association's section on emergency medicine, the Ontario government recently passed a motion to introduce legislation to require hospitals and physicians to report gunshot and knife-related wounds to their local police departments. Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino has repeatedly criticized hospital officials for not reporting gunshot wounds. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:03:45 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Man cleaning rifle shoots himself in the shoulder PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald DATE: 2004.04.13 EDITION: Final SECTION: City & Region PAGE: B8 SOURCE: Calgary Herald DATELINE: Calgary Herald - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man cleaning rifle shoots himself in the shoulder - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A man in his 20s accidentally shot himself at home while cleaning a small-calibre rifle in the city's southeast Sunday night. "He stated to our call evaluator that he was cleaning out his gun and it went off," EMS Supt. Paul Morck said of the incident involving a .22 caliber gun at McKerrell Way S.E. The man sustained a gunshot wound to his shoulder. Paramedics took him to Foothills Hospital, where he was in stable condition. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:05:45 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Both men killed in murder-suicide died of gunshots PUBLICATION: The Moncton Times and Transcript DATE: 2004.04.13 SECTION: News PAGE: A2 COLUMN: Provincial News DATELINE: SAINT-FRANCOIS-DE-MADAWASKA (CP) - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Both men killed in murder-suicide died of gunshots - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police say both men killed in a murder-suicide in northwestern New Brunswick on Sunday were shot. Dale Gendreau, 38, of Madawaska, Maine, was shot in the abdomen. Yvon Cayouette, 47, of Eel River Crossing died of wounds consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot. The men were shot early Sunday morning in a Saint-Francois-de-Madawaska home being rented by 27-year old Karen Pelletier. Gendreau was Pelletier's current boyfriend. Cayouette was a former boyfriend with whom she had a seven-month-old child. "With evidence from the autopsy, the investigation indicates (Cayouette) used the weapon on himself after using it on Gendreau," RCMP Const. Bruce Hadley said yesterday. While preliminary examinations of Gendreau's wounds led some to conclude he had been stabbed, Hadley said an X-ray of his abdomen revealed pellets fired from a gun. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:06:07 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Crown seeks seven years in prison for man convicted in domestic fight PUBLICATION: Vancouver Sun DATE: 2004.04.13 EDITION: Final SECTION: WestCoast News PAGE: B3 COLUMN: Law and Order SOURCE: Vancouver Sun DATELINE: DELTA - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crown seeks seven years in prison for man convicted in domestic fight - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DELTA - The Crown is seeking a seven-year jail term for a man found not guilty of attempted murder but convicted on other charges for an attack on his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Adam Purdie, 23, was recently found not guilty of trying to kill the new boyfriend last April. During the trial, Crown lawyer Winston Sayson said Purdie burst into a Ladner home where the new boyfriend was watching TV and yelled "I'm going to kill you." Purdie then reportedly pointed a .22-calibre rifle at the new boyfriend and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun jammed. The new boyfriend, his family members and a Delta police officer who had arrived at the scene then violently struggled to hold back Purdie, said Sayson. Purdie pleaded guilty to pointing a firearm and break-and-enter, but disputed the attempted murder charge. In finding him not guilty of attempted murder, Judge Dennis Devitt ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to conclude whether there was even a bullet magazine in the rifle. Instead, Purdie was found guilty of assaulting a police officer and illegally possessing a firearm. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #69 ********************************* Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:moderator@hitchen.org List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca FAQ list: http://www.magma.ca/~asd/cfd-faq1.html and http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/homepage.html FTP Site: ftp://teapot.usask.ca/pub/cdn-firearms/ CFDigest Archives: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/ or put the next command in an e-mail message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca get cdn-firearms-digest v04.n192 end (192 is the digest issue number and 04 is the volume) To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next five lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-alert unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".) 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