Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 13:50:55 -0600 (CST) From: "David A. Tomlinson" Subject: NFA "importation and exportation" comments With regard to Order in Council JUS-97-398-01, "IMPORTATION AND EXPORTATION OF FIREARMS REGULATIONS (INDIVIDUALS)," there would be little point in my commenting in detail on such a mess. The writers of this witless OIC are apparently either unaware that Canada has a Customs Act to deal with all matters concerning import and export, or are running a power grab. Anne McLellan, Liberal Minister of Justice, is apparently either unaware that legislating import and export rules is NOT within the jurisdiction of her Department of Justice, or she is running a power grab to take the power to make import and export rules away from the Minister of National Revenue. The Minister and her minions are apparently unaware of the requirements imposed on importation and exportation of firearms under the Customs Act. The procedures they have laid out in these 15 regulations are not in accordance with the requirements of Customs law. They overlap and infringe upon the authority of the Customs law. They force Customs officers to learn new and contradictory rules, and offer nothing whatever that would benefit society. There is nothing whatever in these regulations regarding the export and import permits required by the Department of External Affairs. These regulations amount, therefore, to a violation of Criminal Code section 22, counselling another person to commit an offence. This is a criminal OIC. If anything is to be done in this area, it should be done as a modification to the Customs law, not by piling bureaucrqacy on bureaucracy, paperwork on paperwork, and confusing everyone in the process by splitting the new rules between all existing Acts, plus the Firearms Act and the Criminal Code.. Regulation 14, for example, requires a Customs officer to remove a firearm from Customs bond (where it is not legally in Canada), import it into Canada without benefit of documentation, and deliver it to "the chief firearms officer of the province...or, if refused, to the Registrar for destruction." It is a criminal act for a Customs officer to import ANYTHING without proper documentation. It is another for him to deliver property held in Customs bond to anyone other than the rightful owner. Get it through your head, Department of Justice: You are trying to legislate in areas that are FAR outside your area of competence. Is the Minister not aware of the Kearns & McMurchy case? Is that case not a red warning to bureaucrats running amok -- and the Minister who is responsible for their activities? Wake up and smell the coffee, McLellan! Your employees are out of control and running amok! This OIC is another excellent example of how the Department of Justice continues to make inappropriate rules in areas where the authority rightfully belongs to other departments or even other [provincial, municipal] governments. By attempting to legislate in areas where the Department of Justice has minimal knowledge -- and does, apparently, no research before blundering forward -- the Department of Justice again confirms our position. It is not SAFE or reasonable to allow the Department of Justice to set up and run a large, complex administrative system. The necessary expertise is lacking, and the Minister is apparently either unwilling or unable to control her bureaucrats. Dave Tomlinson, NFA FOCUS: To clean up a mess this big, it is necessary to shovel the garbage out and away from the scene to be improved -- from the top downwards.