From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V9 #662 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 Friday, July 21 2006 Volume 09 : Number 662 In this issue: Re: Straw men - (Was Re: cPC just like the Liberals and maybe Re: Straw men - (Was Re: cPC just like the Liberals and maybe Letter: Registry a deadly waste of money Letter #2: Registry a deadly waste of money Column: What crime stats don't tell us Tory hits Liberals on crime; Fall in crime 'due to police tactics' Homicide rate hits highest level since 1996 RE: Re-Politics 101 was: Re: cPC just like the Liberals and Re: Re-Politics 101 was: Re: cPC just like the Liberals and Re: CGN poll ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:43:44 -0600 (CST) From: "B&C Beaudoin" Subject: Re: Straw men - (Was Re: cPC just like the Liberals and maybe >What do they need us for when they have a majority? >ed/ontario To get the majority needed to finish the work on the firearms act, Ed. Regards, Brad ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:51:31 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Re: Straw men - (Was Re: cPC just like the Liberals and maybe B&C Beaudoin wrote: >>What do they need us for when they have a majority? >>ed/ontario > > > To get the majority needed to finish the work on the firearms act, Ed. > Regards, > Brad That's if you believe that they will keep their promises - what evidence do you have that they intend to? Yours in Liberty, Bruce Hamilton Ontario ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:06:59 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Letter: Registry a deadly waste of money PUBLICATION: National Post DATE: 2006.07.21 EDITION: Toronto SECTION: Letters PAGE: A15 BYLINE: Tom McAuley SOURCE: National Post WORD COUNT: 111 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Registry a deadly waste of money - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Suspect In Mounties' Deaths Turns Himself In, July 19. Curtis Dagenais, charged with the recent murder of two RCMP officers and attempted murder of a third, has a long history of violence and hatred toward police. Yet Mr. Dagenais was not in prison and clearly not rehabilitated. The police were well aware of him and his hatred toward them. There were no surprises here. Once again, the gun registry has proved to be of no use. And it is quite evident that the justice system failed here. It is time the system began to deal seriously with criminals the first time they offend, before murder is added to their criminal history. Tom McAuley, Winnipeg. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:07:51 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Letter #2: Registry a deadly waste of money PUBLICATION: National Post DATE: 2006.07.21 EDITION: Toronto SECTION: Letters PAGE: A15 BYLINE: Michael R. Thomlinson SOURCE: National Post WORD COUNT: 136 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Registry a deadly waste of money - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Get On With Dropping The Gun Registry, editorial, July 20. After the 1989 l'Ecole Polytechnique, shootings, Wendy Cukier and her Coalition for Gun Control used public outrage over the tragedy to enact the current Canadian firearms legislation, including the long-gun registry. Unfortunately, the registry only keeps track of law-abiding citizens who actually register their firearms. Since 1989, Ms. Cukier has used every shooting as justification for this expensive and useless program. Now with the recent deaths of two Mounties in Saskatchewan, there is more proof that the registry is dangerously ineffective, not the reverse. The billions of dollars spent on this program could have done some real good, had they been given to underfunded front-line officers who are risking their lives every day. Michael R. Thomlinson, Calgary. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:35:44 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Column: What crime stats don't tell us PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen DATE: 2006.07.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PNAME: Arguments PAGE: A15 COLUMN: Dan Gardner BYLINE: Dan Gardner SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen WORD COUNT: 820 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What crime stats don't tell us - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crime statistics released yesterday by Statistics Canada confirm that crime is soaring and Canadian criminal justice policies have failed, in contrast to tough American policies. But no, wait. It seems the statistics released yesterday actually confirm that crime is falling and Canada's criminal justice policies are working far better than the bloody-minded American approach. I'm writing this Thursday, so I can only guess how the latest crime stats will be spun, but I'm confident the preceding two conclusions will pop up here and there. I'm also pretty sure who will be spouting which line: The first will come from right-wing types, the second from the left. One interpretation that likely won't appear anywhere but these pages is that the numbers released yesterday confirm the crime situation is a mixed bag and that criminal justice policies -- any justice policies, anywhere -- actually have very little effect on crime trends. Of course, no one can score political points with this interpretation, which is why the only people who support it are some criminologists no one pays any attention to and me. StatsCan found that, overall, crime reported to police fell five per cent in 2005. Good news, one might think. But that drop was mainly the result of declines in counterfeiting, break-ins and car theft. On the most serious crimes, there is bad news: Homicide was up four per cent in 2005, following a 13-per-cent rise the year before. Aggravated assault was up 10 per cent and assaults with weapons were up five per cent. For those who want to indict the justice system, there's the indictment. Everyone knows the U.S. got tough on crime in the 1990s and crime plummeted to record lows, but here in soft-touch Canada violent crime is soaring. Clearly the system doesn't work and it's time to get tough. Case closed. Ah, but wait: First, note that most of the rise in homicides was a result of increases in Ontario, which means Toronto and, more specifically, certain neighbourhoods in Toronto. It's a serious problem but it hardly condemns the national justice system. Besides, even with the recent increases, the homicide rate is two per 100,000 people: That's one-third lower than it was 30 years ago and it's low compared to the 5.6 rate in the U.S. StatsCan's numbers also showed that overall violent crime was flat in 2005. Compare that to the U.S., where murder increased 4.8 per cent and overall violent crime grew by 2.5 per cent in 2005. And don't forget property crime: It fell six per cent in 2005 and is now the lowest it has been in more than three decades. So not only does Canada's model cost a small fraction of the American approach, it produces superior results. Case closed, indeed. Chances are, if the reader is like most human beings, she will look at these contradictory arguments, get annoyed, and come to a conclusion of her own. One possible conclusion is that you can prove anything with statistics. This is the view of cynics everywhere, including the renowned epistemologist Homer J. Simpson -- which says something about its accuracy. Or one could ignore the evidence supporting the conclusion contrary to what one is ideologically predisposed to believe and focus intently on the powerful and persuasive evidence supporting one's bias. Not very satisfactory. Fortunately, there is a third way out: Get more information that may provide a new way of looking at the statistics. Consider, for example, a StatsCan study done several years ago comparing crime in Canada and the U.S. between 1980 and 2000. The timeframe was important: Those were the years in which the U.S. radically toughened its justice systems and sent its prison population soaring, while Canada, particularly in the 1990s, did something close to the opposite. Quite by accident, the two countries created a continent-wide experiment in justice policies. The result? Crime trends were found to be remarkably similar in both countries throughout all 20 years. In a forthcoming book, Franklyn Zimring, a renowned criminologist at the University of California, shows that the parallels run deeper still. Homicide rates, for example, have always been much higher in the United States than Canada, but the trend in homicides -- up, down, or flat -- has been remarkably similar in the two countries for more than four decades. A chart of homicide rates from 1960 to 2002 shows two lines rising and falling almost in tandem, like snakes intertwined. So there is a long history of crime trends in Canada and the U.S. parallelling each other. And those parallels continue to this day. In both Canada and the U.S., the big crime drops of the 1990s stopped around the turn of the millennium. Over the early years of this century, crime wobbled up or down a little, showing no big trend in either direction. Then, last month, the FBI reported that while property crime in the U.S. fell in 2005, serious violent crime grew significantly for the first time in many years. Yesterday, StatsCan reported almost precisely the same in Canada. The parallel is impossible to miss. So is the conclusion: Crime trends are not driven by criminal justice policies. Just don't expect to hear this from those partisans of the left and right who would prefer to use crime stats to score political points. Dan Gardner's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:37:26 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Tory hits Liberals on crime; PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star DATE: 2006.07.21 EDITION: MET SECTION: News PAGE: B7 BYLINE: Peter Small SOURCE: Toronto Star WORD COUNT: 229 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tory hits Liberals on crime; Accused in gang case seeks release PC leader wants tougher bail stance - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As another young man charged in Toronto's largest anti-gang offensive was seeking bail yesterday, Opposition Leader John Tory was outside the courthouse railing against the Premier's stance on crime. He called on the McGuinty government to ensure that any person charged with a violent, gang or drug-related offence - and any person charged with a crime involving a gun - should have their bail automatically contested by the Crown. Meanwhile, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy was being asked by a lawyer representing Leighton Bonnick to release him on bail. Bonnick, 27, faces one firearms charge and several drug possession counts. He has already been denied bail by a justice of the peace. Molloy's decision last Friday to grant bail to Steven Lucas, another 27-year-old man arrested in the same anti-gang offensive, dubbed Project XXX, was criticized this week by police. He had also previously been denied bail by a justice of the peace. Defence lawyer Reid Rusonik read out portions of a Toronto Star article, published Wednesday, in which Police Chief Bill Blair called Molloy's decision a disappointing setback. Molloy smiled briefly as she heard the article. In arguing for his client's bail, Rusonik quoted other judges as saying courts must not pander to public opinion and hysteria. Much of the evidence against Bonnick is based on 40 intercepted phone calls he had with alleged gang members that in the opinion of police were either gun- or drug-related, Rusonik said. "It's not alleged that Mr. Bonnick is a member of a gang," he said. Bonnick has previous convictions for firearms, drugs and failing to comply with court orders, said federal Crown prosecutor Xenia Proestos. Molloy reserved her decision until today. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:40:13 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Fall in crime 'due to police tactics' PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax) DATE: 2006.07.21 SECTION: Local News PAGE: 5 BYLINE: Richard Dooley WORD COUNT: 377 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fall in crime 'due to police tactics' - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Halifax's top cop says putting officers in closer contact with the people they serve is one key reason for a sharp fall in metro's crime rate last year. Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley said he's pleased by the latest Statistics Canada report, compiled from police data taken across the country. The stats show Halifax's crime rate fell 6.5 per cent overall last year, compared to 2004. The figures show the success of the force's strategy of using community officers to spot problems early and to work with neighbourhoods to solve them, said Beazley. "We've taken a bit of a different approach with some very hard targeting," said Beazley. "When we see something developing, we are aggressively going in to stop it." Beazley said that approach is being used for serious crimes, and also incidents that could be classified as irritants. A major auto- theft operation in 2005 contributed greatly to the overall reduction in crime stats, dropping the number of motor-vehicle thefts in metro by close to 21 per cent against 2004. A similar tactic is being used to tackle drunken incidents in downtown Halifax. Police are taking a zero-tolerance approach to alcohol-fueled assaults. Since May, police have made 300 arrests for public drunkenness, more than double last year's total. Beazley said the force took action after several violent incidents in the area. Downward trend The downward trend in the crime rate was driven by decreases in the rate of robberies, break-and-enters, and motor-vehicle thefts. "We're very pleased by the numbers," said Beazley. The one dark spot is a slight increase in murders, and a big rise in the number of attempted murders. Assaults, including aggravated sexual assaults, common assaults and assaults causing bodily harm fell last year in metro. But youth crime was up slightly, likely driven by a rise in charges against young people for violating court orders, probation or parole conditions. Police launched a major campaign last year to ensure that people complied with courtordered release conditions. "But what we are starting to find is that a lot of them are now where they should be," said Beazley. "If we can get them to a point where there is compliance with their conditions, it has to reduce crime." There was a substantial decrease in the number of frauds in 2005, dropping 15.5 per cent over 2004. But Halifax recorded increases in the number of charges related to carrying offensive weapons, including firearms. Drug offences fell slightly from 2003, except in the category covering drugs such as ecstasy, which more than doubled in 2005. The picture the statistics paint contrasts with a survey last year, Criminal Victimization in Canada, which showed Halifax to be Canada's most violent city. But Beazley said Halifax is not a dangerous city. "Most people here are safe," he said. rdooley@hfxnews.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:40:33 -0600 (CST) From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User) Subject: Homicide rate hits highest level since 1996 PUBLICATION: GLOBE AND MAIL DATE: 2006.07.21 PAGE: A4 (ILLUS) BYLINE: TIMOTHY APPLEBY SECTION: National News EDITION: Metro WORD COUNT: 1015 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Homicide rate hits highest level since 1996 Overall crime down in every province as burglaries, car thefts see decline - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TIMOTHY APPLEBY There were more homicides -- notably in Edmonton -- more robberies and more armed assaults, but overall crime was down 5 per cent in 2005. That's the distinctly mixed picture visible in the newest annual snapshot of Canadian lawbreaking. The homicide rate rose by 4 per cent in 2005, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. The number of homicides reached its highest level in almost a decade: 658, up from 624 in 2004. But the rate of violent crime in general remained stable, after a 2-per-cent dip the year before. Total crime fell in every province and territory, led by a sizable decline in burglaries and car thefts, which were both down by 7 per cent, pushing property crime to its lowest level in more than 30 years. Drug offences also declined in 2005, for the second consecutive year, headed by 12 per cent fewer criminal charges laid for cannabis possession. Impaired driving dropped by 7 per cent -- 76,000 instances were recorded by police last year -- continuing a downward trajectory since the peak in 1981. Experts who track these statistics are always reluctant to read too much into the yearly numbers, noting that short-term patterns are often misleading. "We can only really react to five- and 10-year trends," Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd said. The rise in homicide rates was led by large increases in Ontario and Alberta -- 31 per cent and 23 per cent respectively -- and marked the highest total since 1996. However, the rate of two homicides per 100,000 Canadians remains 25 per cent lower than it was 20 years ago and about one-third the U.S. national rate. And while Statscan offers no breakdown of how many of 2005's 658 homicides were gun-related, evidence suggests the percentage is steadily growing, with handguns accounting for about 20 per cent of homicides annually, compared with 10 per cent a few years ago. In Toronto, 52 of last year's 79 homicides involved guns, a record, which helped drive up violent crime by 6.4 per cent, the largest increase in any city. (Edmonton recorded the largest surge in overall homicides; they rose from 34 in 2004 to 44 in 2005.) Nationally, incidents of attempted murder increased still more, rising by 14 per cent to a total of 772. Those numbers, however, may reflect a greater willingness by police to lay attempted-murder charges rather than, say, aggravated assault. Robberies were also up, by 3 per cent over 2004, totalling almost 29,000. But that figure is still down 25 per cent from 1991, when Canadian crime figures peaked. And bucking the trend of gun-related homicides, firearms and other weapons were used 6 per cent less in robberies than a year earlier. The reverse, however, is true with the statistics for assault. While the total of almost 235,000 shows a 1-per-cent drop from 2004, assaults with a weapon increased by 5 per cent and instances of aggravated assault jumped by 10 per cent. Where charges were laid, those numbers may also stem from shrinking police tolerance for violent crimes. There were 23,000 sexual assaults reported last year, no significant change from 2004 and part of a slow general decline since the early 1990s. Of those 23,000 incidents, all but 2 per cent were classified as causing relatively little physical injury to victims. In other highlights: * The largest declines in overall crime rates were seen in Manitoba and New Brunswick (both 8 per cent) and Saskatchewan (6 per cent). * Both Ontario and Quebec recorded lower crime rates in 2005 than did each of the Atlantic provinces, and consistent with previous years, the highest measurable rates were in the western provinces. On a per capita basis, there was actually more crime in Canada's three northern territories, but researchers caution that the territories' small, fluctuating populations make meaningful comparison difficult. * Criminal charges involving juveniles were down 6 per cent from 2004, marking a five-year low and signalling authorities' growing preference to channel non-violent young offenders into diversion programs. Since the Youth Criminal Justice Act took effect in 2003, the percentage of young people charged criminally after arrest has dropped from 56 per cent to 43 per cent. In all, about 73,000 youths were charged under the Criminal Code last year. * Of all offences, the largest single drop was in the counterfeiting of currency, down by 20 per cent after increasing steadily for five years. That decline likely reflects newly enhanced features on bank notes, particularly the $20 bill. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:46:22 -0600 (CST) From: Bill Subject: RE: Re-Politics 101 was: Re: cPC just like the Liberals and Clive Edwards wrote" If you by law need to show it to an enforcement officer when you are innocently paddling your canoe it is a license. Just as a firearms "certificate" would be a license if you by law need to show it to an enforcement officer if you are hunting shooting or travelling with your firearm. If you need a piece of paper to be in peaceable possession of your property then the ownership and use of that property is illegal without the license." - ---------------- Your absolutely right Clive..but.... I can still *OWN* my 'power' boat without having a Card/Certificate/licence.. I think it boils down to *can* the government mass cancel personal 'certificates' of qualification? or do they have to do it on a individual bases? besides, Is there anything other than firearms that would be commonly owned by families, even for generations, that would also require a Licence/Card/Certificate to simply possess? NOPE.. But then again, there is no need to emphasize that to Bruce, god bless him... Bill ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:57:37 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Re: Re-Politics 101 was: Re: cPC just like the Liberals and Bill wrote: > Your absolutely right Clive..but.... I can still *OWN* my 'power' boat > without having a Card/Certificate/licence.. However, the same does not hold true with firearms, because of CCC s 91 and 92, which makes it a CRIME to possess any firearm without benefit of a licence. But you can always wait a while, they may get around to changing the boating laws, too. If it saves only one life, after all... > I think it boils down to > *can* the government mass cancel personal 'certificates' of > qualification? or do they have to do it on a individual bases? From the Firearms Act: 117. The Governor in Council may make regulations (a) regulating the issuance of licences, registration certificates and authorizations, including regulations respecting the purposes for which they may be issued under any provision of this Act and prescribing the circumstances in which persons are or are not eligible to hold licences; and (b) regulating the revocation of licences, registration certificates and authorizations; and (j) regulating the possession and use of restricted weapons; and (o) creating offences consisting of contraventions of the regulations made under paragraph (d), (e), (f), (g), (i), (j), (k.1), (k.2), (l), (m) or (n); and (w) prescribing anything that by any provision of this Act is to be prescribed by regulation. any one of which could be used to make "your" private property illegal for you to possess or use. This is really, really basic stuff. > Is there anything other than firearms that would be commonly owned by > families, even for generations, that would also require a > Licence/Card/Certificate to simply possess? NOPE.. And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? > But then again, there > is no need to emphasize that to Bruce, god bless him... What's yer point? Yours in Liberty, Bruce Hamilton Ontario ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:22:21 -0600 (CST) From: Christopher di Armani Subject: Re: CGN poll At 09:28 AM 7/21/2006, you wrote: >Subject: CGN poll > >http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3D89877 > > Yes, if we don't go back to the FAC system, then turf the CPC for >failing us. 16 4.51% > > No, it's a minority government and one step at a time is the best >they can do. 339 95.49% > >Another opinion... There is a third option Brad, that CGN doesn't appear to take note of, and that is NOT supporting Bill C-21. From the 2006 Conservative Party's election platform: "Canadians demand more than simple cosmetic reforms to failed programs. The wasteful long gun registry must end and the money must be redirected to genuine law enforcement priorities. Canadians want to see effective gun control that stops crime in our streets, not phony reforms." Yet what Canadians have before them today (Bill C-21) is EXACTLY what the CPC said it was against: a cosmetic reform to a failed program. Yours in Liberty, Christopher di Armani christopher@diArmani.com Licensing law-abiding gun owners CANNOT stop criminal gangs from killing people. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V9 #662 ********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:akimoya@cogeco.ca 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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