Cdn-Firearms Digest Saturday, September 18 2010 Volume 14 : Number 075 In this issue: Column: Tories bear equal share in gun-registry fiasco TorStar Propaganda - Why gun control is really a gender issue Re: Long-gun registry in hands of political gunslingers Re: letter to Globe and Mail (just sent) UWO former President-PC Cab Min-Ian Brodie boss honoured [Excerpt] Re: Priscilla de Villiers' daughter, Self Defence & Empowerment CBC - 2,000 guns seized in Toronto safety program Toronto's men in black pursue the black bloc [Excerpt] My Dad is Back in Jail - Katey Montague Winnipeg Sun - Web chatter: Sept. 18 Carney's census issues take precedence ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, September 18, 2010 3:03 pm From: "Dennis & Hazel Young" Subject: Column: Tories bear equal share in gun-registry fiasco The North Bay Nugget - Saturday, September 18 2010 Tories bear equal share in gun-registry fiasco By MICHAEL DEN TANDT http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2763306 So, the gun registry. Are we sick of talking about this yet? We are. But that's our tough luck. Because all of a sudden this wasteful and unnecessary program doesn't appear to be going anywhere. So we'll have to hear about it a while longer. All the recent fuss, the urban pundits on both sides (few of whom could tell a rifle from a shotgun) blasting away at one another, may not amount to a hill of beans. And if the registry does survive next week's vote in the House of Commons -- as now seems likely -- the federal Conservatives will have no one to blame but themselves. Their combative, negative and pushy tactics have succeeded in doing what no one had believed possible: Pushing a handful of northern, rural NDP MPs, all of whom were previously committed to scrapping the registry, into changing their minds. One by one, they've closed ranks with leader Jack Layton. If the bulk of the NDP caucus lines up against the government and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff whips his members, Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to kill the registry can't pass. Who's at fault? Ignatieff, for one. The Liberals should be allowing their members to vote their conscience, as is customary on a private member's bill. Ignatieff's so-called compromise proposal -- decriminalizing non-compliance and eliminating fees -- merely puts lipstick on a pig. The registry is intrusive, expensive and doesn't make Canadians safer. A majority of Canadians don't like it and this is still a democracy. So it should be scrapped. Period. But the Conservatives bear an equal share of responsibility here. They came to office in 2006 promising to kill the registry. Instead they've fiddled. The core of their law-and-order platform, building new prisons we don't need and eliminating prison farms that work, is a costly sideshow. What have they done to reduce the smuggling of illegal handguns across the Canada-U. S. border? And now, most recently, we see the Harper government's divisive, attack-ad tactics again at work, supposedly in an effort to bring wavering rural MPs onside. Predictably, they had exactly the opposite effect. Polls show Canadians overwhelmingly would like to see our parliamentarians behave with courtesy, listen to the people and work together constructively to solve common problems. In this emerging gun-registry fiasco, they all get a failing grade. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:18:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: TorStar Propaganda - Why gun control is really a gender issue http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/gunregistry/article/863178--why-gun-control-is-really-a-gender-issue Why gun control is really a gender issue Mavis Moore was 4 years old the first time she faced the barrel of a long gun. A neighbour pointed his .22 at the girl and her mother when they stopped by to pick up a newspaper in their small Saskatchewan town. Sixty-eight years later, Moore remembers dropping one blue angora mitten in the snow as the man stood above them on his steps. You can't imagine what it's like, this adult man having a gun on you and threatening to kill you and your mother, she says. Moore's mother picked up her child and the mitten and left. She never said anything to anyone, fearing the violence would escalate. It was the first time Moore was at risk from a man pointing a gun, but not the last. Decades later, a fellow hunter aimed his cocked rifle at her in the northern Saskatchewan bush. He told her he mistook her 5-foot-4 frame, draped in red, for a moose. Guns are a constant in the lives of rural Canadian women one reason many of them as are as committed to gun control and the gun registry as their urban sisters. As the third-reading vote on a Tory backbencher's private bill that would kill the registry draws near, members of a coalition of rural and urban women, shelter advocates and victims of violent crime are telling their stories. They want to counter the misinformation and political manoeuvring they contend obscure the real issue: safety. Moore, who grew up in Crown Butte, Sask., says she is incensed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's characterization of the debate. On Tuesday, Harper played the rural/urban card again, citing the Liberals' claim that those opposing the gun registry are supported by U.S. gun lobbyists. Now this, friends, is typical of the arrogant, intellectual contempt in which the Liberal party holds so many people, especially in rural Canada, Harper told supporters in Edwards, Ont.. As a rural gun owner, Moore didn't like the sounds of that. That makes me so mad, she said in an interview from Saskatoon, where she still owns three licensed and registered long guns. It's not a matter of rural versus urban. It's a public safety issue. How many women and children in rural Canada are threatened in their own homes with a gun? More than we want to know, I think. In fact, the urban/rural chasm, according to a Harris/Decima research poll released on Sept. 8, has narrowed to a small crack. The same percentage of urban and rural men (48 per cent) believe it's a bad idea to abolish the registry, and there is only a five-percentage-point difference between urban and rural respondents who support abolishing the registry (37 per cent to 42 per cent). The percentages were also close between those who thought it was a good idea to abolish the registry: 45 per cent of rural men versus 43 per cent of urban men. According to the poll, 49 per cent of urban women believe it is a bad idea to abolish the registry, compared to 47 per cent of rural women. Just 30 per cent of urban women believe it's a good idea to abolish the registry, compared to 40 per cent of rural women. Overall, 48 per cent of those surveyed believe it's a bad idea to abolish the registry, with 38 per cent supporting its abolition. (Harris/Decima interviewed just over 1000 Canadians. A sample of this size has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.) The Conservatives are likely casting the issue as urban versus rural because they are playing to easily identifiable rural ridings that carry their base support, says Henry Jacek, a political science professor at Hamilton's McMaster University. Driving a wedge between urban and rural is easier than exploiting the gender split on the issue, he says. It's harder to say, This is a female constituency versus a male constituency.' Psychologist Peter Jaffe, who travelled the country listening to testimony as part of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women and Children from 1991 to 1993, agrees that the issue is not an urban/rural divide. It's spin, says Jaffe, academic director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at the University of Western Ontario. Certainly, in rural and isolated parts of Canada, you're more likely to find long guns. But you still find the same level of concern (there) around domestic violence, suicide and gun safety. The government has really approached this in a very divisive way to split Canadians rural versus urban, but that's simply not the case, Jaffe says. Framing the debate divisively does not lead to meaningful discussion or problem-solving, he adds. The issue is not being for or against guns, Jaffe says: registering guns should be no different than registering cars. If the average Canadian read the evaluation of the Canadian Firearms Program, which runs the registry, the debate would end, he says. The evaluation of the registry reports that 81 per cent of police officers trained to use it believe it protects public safety. Officers can consult the registry before responding to a domestic violence call to ascertain whether there are guns on site. In addition, more than 1,500 Canadians were refused licences for their guns from 2006-2009, on the basis of background checks triggered when they went to register the weapons. The majority of the refused licences 39 per cent were denied because of a deemed risk to others. The program revoked another 6,093 licences in the same period as a result of continuous screening, court orders and complaints to its public safety line. I think we've probably prevented some major events, says Dr. Barbara Kane, a psychiatrist in Prince George, B.C. The RCMP has called Kane asking whether she is concerned about certain individuals applying to register a gun. She believes such a call prevented tragedy after a millworker was fired. He could easily have gone into one of the mills and done something bad, she says. But we were able to get his guns away from him. Unfortunately, it's hard to document prevention. It's invisible, she says. That's one of the problems the registry has. It's also difficult to quantify the involvement of long guns in the threats and intimidation woven through domestic abuse, says staff at shelters for battered women and children. But women report the guns as an ever-present risk. What is documented is that 69 per cent of suicides, homicides and accidental deaths in Canada involved long guns in 2004, a drop from 72 per cent of firearm deaths in 2001. Rural and farm women who experience violence in the home describe a cycle of intimidation with guns . . . which makes it really difficult for women even to report what's going on, says Jo-Ann Brooke, director of the Women's Sexual Assault Centre of Renfrew County in Pembroke, Ont. Clients have told Brooks they support the gun registry because it takes the responsibility for reporting the presence of weapons out of their hands, and alerts police to the guns if they are called to a domestic violence incident. The $4-million annual price tag for running the registry is worth it, Brooke believes. Yes, we recognize the financial cost of the registry but we feel addressing violence against women is a financial incentive that's worth taking, she says. Priscilla de Villiers, whose daughter Nina was murdered by a man using a rifle, also wants to remind Canadians what will be lost if the gun registry is abolished. The genesis of this whole thing came out of the multiple deaths of young girls, she says. What's at stake is not a piece of paper or a requirement that people have. What is at stake are lives. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:23:00 -0600 From: 10x@telus.net Subject: Re: Long-gun registry in hands of political gunslingers At 11:06 AM 9/18/2010 -0600, you wrote: > >http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Fate+long+registry+hands+political+gunslingers/3541669/story.html > >Fate of long-gun registry in hands of political gunslingers >By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News >September 17, 2010 > >OTTAWA - Jack Layton fired a gun at a beer can when he was a kid growing >up in Quebec. > >Michael Ignatieff popped a few shots in his former life as a journalist >and says he is "at home" with guns because he had training in high school. If firearms safety education was very important it would have been made mandatory so every Canadian youngster could have the opportunity Mr. Ignatieff had to try shooting and then make a choice to continue as a shooter and gun owner or carry on with other interests. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:29:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Re: letter to Globe and Mail (just sent) - --- On Sat, 9/18/10, Rob Sciuk wrote: > cabinet secret, > and thus hidden from the eyes of Canadians for 50 > years. Apparently, her I do believe it's *20* years, not 50 - but other than that, it's a good letter. Yours in TYRRANY! Bruce ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:32:38 -0400 From: Lee Jasper Subject: UWO former President-PC Cab Min-Ian Brodie boss honoured [Excerpt] [Talk about 'inner circles' and cliques]. Brescia grad, brain researcher to be honoured By JOE BELANGER The London Free Press > http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/09/17/15393296.html Long-serving University of Western Ontario University president Paul Davenport, a renowned expert in space exploration and education and a former federal cabinet minister will receive honorary degrees from the university next month. [He was a Minister under Mulroney and Campbell] Davenport, who served 15 years as UWO president before leaving in June 2009, described as a “strong public advocate of the central role of higher education and fundamental research in the knowledge economy” will be honored at the Oct. 28 convocation ceremony. [Was a very progressive leader at UWO]. [Tom] Hockin [MA, Ph.D. Harvard] served in the cabinets of former prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell, holding the posts of minister of state and minister of international trade as Canada and the United States introduced free trade and negotiated the side accords for the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. [From Wiki: On November 30 2009, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty nominated Hockin to become the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) representing Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. Mr. Hockin succeeded Michael Horgan who became the Deputy Minister of Finance]. - ------ Here's some dated info on Dr. Brodie: > http://publish.uwo.ca/~irbrodie/ Ian Brodie was born and raised in Toronto. He studied political science at McGill University (BA) and the University of Calgary (MA, PhD). A revised version of his PhD dissertation, completed under the supervision of Prof. Morton, was later published as Friends of the Court by the State University of New York Press. In 1997, Dr. Brodie was appointed assistant professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario and he was promoted to the rank of associate professor, with tenure, in 2002. In 2003, became Assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, first under Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper and then under the Conservative Party's Leader in the Commons, Dr. Grant Hill. When Stephen Harper won the Conservative Party leadership in the spring of 2004, he appointed Dr. Brodie Executive Director of the Party. In 2005, Dr. Brodie returned to Parliament Hill as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. On February 6, 2006, when Stephen Harper became Prime Minister of Canada, he appointed Dr. Brodie Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister. Dr. Brodie is currently on leave from Western and is unable to take on teaching or supervisory duties for undergraduate or graduate students. He is no longer in a position to provide former students with letters of reference. Dr. Brodie married his wife Vida in 2000 and they live in Ottawa with their daughter, Chloe. [Of course Brodie gave up life in the Ottawa madhouse and returned to his professorship at Western. Two points: Firstly, it's notable just how small the rarefied circle is at the top, and some wonder why they're so insular. Secondly, the CPC was just ranting about the Toronto and urban Elite being responsible for the morass in gun laws. Dr. Morton (MA, Ph.D., Tor), Dr. Brodie (MA. Ph.D., Calgary), Dr. Hill (MD), Harper (BA, MA, Calgary), Baird (BA, Queens) all rural country boys, eh? Morton taught both Brodie and Harper. And they insist the lefties are a bunch of fuzzy-nutted academics]. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:40:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Re: Priscilla de Villiers' daughter, Self Defence & Empowerment - --- On Sat, 9/18/10, Bruce Mills wrote: > Check out this website - it allows you to send out > individual emails to a bunch of newspapers and all MPs. > > Seriously think about using it - this is gold! Somehow, the URL didn't come through... http://www.democracy-machine.com/ NOTE: AsstMod-RAM - I might have accidentally cut the URL. Sorry Bruce. I've just returned after a long abscense from Moderating. I'm bound to make a few mistakes refamiliarizing myself with everything. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:44:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: CBC - 2,000 guns seized in Toronto safety program http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/09/18/to-guns-seized.html 2,000 guns seized in Toronto safety program Toronto police have seized more than 2,000 guns since they launched their Safe City Project in March 2009. The program targets gun owners who have let their licences expire, or who are not storing their guns safely. Police said Friday that what was once a temporary program is now a permanent approach to firearms safety. But not everyone is happy with that. "I don't like the whole way the thing was handled," said Peter Alexander Por, who owns a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22-calibre rifle. He said Toronto police recently phoned him to remind him his gun licence had expired. Fifteen minutes later, he said, they were at the door demanding that he hand over the guns. "I thought it was intimidating. Am I going to say no? I am a law abiding citizen," he said. Det. Const. Nadine Teeft of the Toronto Gun and Gang Task Force said most of the guns seized are from owners who have let their licences lapse. "The whole point of the program is not to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens. It's to make people more compliant or compliant with the laws as they are now. We are not charging anybody. We seize the firearms for safekeeping," Teeft said. That response doesn't satisfy Por. The artist last used his guns a dozen years ago to blast paint onto a canvas. He said he may never use them to hunt again, but he has reapplied for his licence so he can get his guns back. "I don't really need them anymore right now. It's the principle. I am going to turn both of them into a piece of artwork." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:48:32 -0400 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Toronto's men in black pursue the black bloc [Excerpt] Hunting the Men in Black By IAN ROBERTSON,Toronto Sun >www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/09/18/15397581.html#/news/torontoandgta/2010/09/18/pf-15397561.html As the Toronto Police G20 investigative team continues to examine more than 40,000 photos and 600 videos in their hunt to unmask summit marauders, people are beginning to stand out in the crowd. He started off as just another faceless Man in Black. But as the Toronto Police G20 investigative team continued to examine more than 40,000 photos and 600 videos in their hunt to unmask summit marauders, he eventually stood out in the crowd. Still unidentified, the young man with the intense stare is No. 15 on a recently updated wanted list showing unknown suspects sought for vandalism during the June 26-27 summit. “We have him in our sights, we’ll continue poring over more photos and follow him on his journey,” said Det. Jack Gurr of the suspect who is wanted for smashing a store window. And as members enter the 11th week of reviewing private and police photos plus videos — about 80% donated by civilians — plus footage from closed-circuit cameras specifically installed throughout the downtown area, No. 15 may be spotted causing more damage, Gurr said. [We protested the low level security and sniper rifles at Fed Up I and II but many cheered the 'kettling' of non violent protesters at G-20]. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:04:40 -0700 From: "Jim Pook" Subject: My Dad is Back in Jail - Katey Montague My Dad is Back in Jail Supreme Court of Canada Refuses to Hear Appeal My Dad, (Bruce Montague) is back in jail as of Wednesday Sept 15th 2010. He was required to surrender himself to jail before the Supreme Court of Canada would release their decision on whether or not to hear his appeal. On Thursday, September 16, almost six years to the day after he was arrested, the Supreme Court of Canada issued their one-line decision about whether they'd hear his case: DISMISSED WITHOUT COSTS It would be an understatement to say that we are disappointed with the Supreme Court decision. As a result, he will have to finish out his 18-month sentence for violating Canada's Firearms Act. If you're the praying type, please pray for my Dad while he is in jail and for his early parole as soon as he is eligible. Thanks. - - - - - - - - Forfeiture of our Family Home If you've been following my Dad's case, you'll remember that the Ontario Attorney General seized our family home using Ontario's Proceeds of Crime Act on September 14th, 2005. Ontario Senior Counsel James McKeachie did this without informing my parents about it, and after my parents DID find out about it, tried re-assuring them by saying, "we will wait until you have exhausted your appeals before re-opening this case." He has graciously allowed my parents to keep living in the home until the appeals process was complete, and said he would proceed regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial. So now my Dad is back in jail, and my Mom is dealing with the impending commencement of the house seizure. Now that the Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear my Dad's case, the appeals process is over. There is one possible exception though. The Supreme Court rules have what amounts to a faint hope clause that allows my Dad to apply for a "Reconsideration" of their decision. But whether my Dad applies for this reconsideration or not, one thing is practically certain: Ontario's attorney General will restart the process for stealing our family's home. If you have any information about how to fight the house seizure in court, please let me know so I can pass it on to my Mom. I ask for your prayers for her and our entire family as we deal with this latest assault on our freedom. Katey Montague Katey's Rights and Freedom Bulletin Sept 18, 2010 http://kateysfirearmsfacts.com/Bulletin/Katey's%20Rights%20and%20Freedom%20Bulletin%20No.%203.pdf http://kateysfirearmsfacts.com/Bulletin/ - -------------------- Jim Pook Vancouver Island-North ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:11:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Winnipeg Sun - Web chatter: Sept. 18 http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/letters/2010/09/17/15388966.html Web chatter: Sept. 18 By WINNIPEG SUN READERS Last Updated: September 17, 2010 10:59pm Bring on Gun-ban mob Re: Registry deserves to be killed, Sept. 17 editorial. In their fanatical quest to rid Canadians of guns, the internationally connected but tiny gun-ban crowd has sealed its own fate. Nothing before has ever galvanized and motivated the millions of legal gun owners into a potent political force. The gun-ban mob and their willing idiot menbers of Parliament will learn how effective one-issue voters can be. V4Fan Rural MPs will be risking their careers if they vote to keep the registry. Faulty calculator Re: Registry deserves to be killed, Sept. 17 editorial. If you had a calculator that was only correct 70% of the time you used it, would you keep using it? The firearm registry is not fixable. Not only do they estimate a huge amount of unregistered long guns, but there are a lot of errors on registered firearms also. Obviously, the street officers have already figured out their calculator is broken and do not trust it. As for the safety argument, you seriously think that $2 billion with no proof is a good thing? I bet $2 billion put into enforcement and rehabilitation programs would have had a much better outcome. M.E. The reasons for defending the registry don't add up. An expensive farce. Re: No ammo in gun fight, Brian Lilley, Sept. 17. The long-gun registry is an expensive farce that has done absolutely nothing to curb violent crime. Enforcing the laws we have is a better option. Criminals will always be able to get guns. The long guns used by hunters and recreational shooters are not the problem. Smuggled handguns are. In Winnipeg, knives are a big problem. What do we do about them? ODO The registry needs to be put out of its misery. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:10:28 -0400 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Carney's census issues take precedence [The CPC has so mangled this issue, how can they expect the thinking populace to believe anything they say about the long gun registry]? Carney's census issues take precedence Last Updated: September 18, 2010 2:00am > http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editorial/2010/09/17/15391976.html When Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney catches a cold, he can transform into the Grim Reaper -- putting our personal and institutional finances at risk of contracting the plague. He wields a power that cannot be argued. There's also no arguing that we are cash strapped, taxed to the hilt by all government, and saddled with highest level of personal debt ever recorded. Only those with their heads in the sand deny the recession. So each time Mark Carney decides on another rise in interest rates, the hike in our mortgage and institutional amortization costs can be a death knell to those who are barely surviving. At the first sign of a Carney cough, therefore, it is wise to pay attention. Earlier this week, Carney indicated his central bank may no longer be able to rely on data supplied by Statistics Canada for necessary indicators on productivity, labour and household dynamics if the Harper government follows through and nixes the mandatory long-form census. In other words, Carney is worried the lack of this census will harm the bank's ability to get the necessary skinny on how our economy is faring. We hate the long-form census, and have said so from the outset. The less the government knows about our personal lives, the better. But Mark Carney has now coughed. This comes after Industry Minister Tony Clement told us point-blank the ending of the mandatory long-form census in favour of a voluntary one was viewed by StatsCan as a reliable and viable option. No sooner was that said, however, than StatsCan's top statistician, Munir Sheikh, upped and quit over Clement's implication that he was on-side -- leading some 350 groups across Canada to raise the decibel level of their objections to the mandatory long-form census being killed. While all those voices tend to drown each other out, Mark Carney's voice is a different matter. Too much rides on his pronouncements. To allay Carney's concerns, the Harper government must take pause -- count to 10 to avoid over-reaction -- and find a compromise that will give Carney what he legitimately needs. The privacy of the average Canadian, however, must still come first. There must be no compromise there. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V14 #75 ********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's email: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)