From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #715 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 Monday, February 3 2003 Volume 05 : Number 715 In this issue: Question STEREOTYPING Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #714 COLUMN: Mismanagement, greed caused game farm debacle EDITORIAL: Right of privacy being attacked EDITORIAL: Plan puts clamp on thefts Re: Mayor Mel gets tough LETTER: Control over firearms mark of a 'civilized' society ARTICLE: Police probe gang link in murder LETTER: Tools of power COLUMN: Just answer this little question . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 12:42:03 -0600 (CST) From: jeff_edwards@magna.on.ca Subject: Question If the new long-gun registry is finally repealed, what will be the state of the handgun registry ? Will the handguns continue to be registered in the same error-filled new system, will we revert to the old system, or will we simply not register handguns at all ? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 12:42:49 -0600 (CST) From: "BOB LICKACZ" Subject: STEREOTYPING Recently on the Digest were postings from Al Harper and Rick Lowe regarding stereotyping. It all started with a lawyer joke. Well I can tell you that lab guys suffer much more that lawyers or posties from stereotyping. Just look what they did to that poor Dr. Frankenstein.............. Bob Lickacz ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 12:51:12 -0600 (CST) From: Vulcun1isback@aol.com Subject: Re: Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #714 In a message dated 2/3/2003 12:39:40 PM Central Standard Time, owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca writes: > Have you been interviewed by any journalists or are you prohibited from > giving interviews too? The U.S. media would find this very interesting, > CNN, Larry King Live ..Someone should suggest this in Larry's personal E-mail - I bet he'd go for it...after all Gun Control is a huge Political Topic that willl be upcoming in their 2004 elections as well....and Free Speech...is certainly a Constitutional Right the Americans hold dear. ...Go for it...I bet Larry would be "very interested" ! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 12:51:40 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: COLUMN: Mismanagement, greed caused game farm debacle http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/columnists/story.asp?id={9742F155-80A9-4B64-97E7-3E326440DA82} Mismanagement, greed caused game farm debacle Lloyd Litwin The StarPhoenix Monday, February 03, 2003 Just when the hoopla caused by Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) had seemed to all but disappear, the headlines during the Christmas holidays were awash with wildlife-related issues: Native groups wanting to buy the Sand Hills, another CWD pocket, elk ranchers losing herds, outfitters wanting a monopoly. It was hard to keep up. Did you notice the difference in the reports of the recent southwestern CWD cases? I enjoyed those deliberately-worded responses by reps from the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture and Food. They made no mention of any game farms in the vicinity. It's as if this outbreak just came down from the sky. Before 1994, Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) was in charge of the fledgling elk ranch industry and kept close watch on all operations. Enter the fiasco of the diversification round table. The main issue was ranchers and outfitters wanting into the south for big-game outfitting operations. But the issues of expanding game farms and shoot farms also became part of the year-long consultation process. We were told about the potential that elk and deer farms had to revitalize the rural economy; that they would bring untold millions of tax dollars to the province. If restrictions were loosened, growth curves coul d be improved. If we quit giving away depredation doe tags, and instead allowed game ranchers to trap those deer, we could get a huge profit on whitetail deer. Shoot farms in Michigan alone would buy all the bucks we could produce. If we had our own shoot farms for elk, we could keep all the profits here instead of selling the big bulls to the American operators. Oh yes, it was all a rosy picture. When the issues of disease and possible effects on the native wildlife were raised, the experts were shot down as being pessimistic. There were no observed problems, we were told. Ranchers could be trusted to nip any glitches in the bud and be their own watchdog. I pulled out my old copy of the Review of Wildlife Disease Status in Game Animals, conducted by none other than Saskatchewan Game Farmers' Association. The paper was distributed at the diversification talks. On one page a question asked if there was a reliable way to avoid importing a disease into a herd. The stated answer was NO, because there are unscrupulous dealers. On another page, one of the recommendations stated "The carcass of any game animal which dies should be subjected to a thorough pathological examination . . . the potential hazard of disease spread and economic losses to both game farmers and conventional livestock producers is too great not to enforce this requirement stringently." Yet what was being sought at the talks was a loosening of the rules and freedom to self-regulate. Unfortunately, the control of game farms shifted to the Department of Agriculture from SERM. Growth of CWD was constant, and I believe, unchecked. Logic backs up this assumption. CWD is not a disease with rapid-spreading characteristics. It wouldn't go from one end of the province to the other in a short year or two. When it finally surfaced, and a check of the industry was carried out, the disease was everywhere. It took years for the problem to develop to this extent. Many animals must have died in the process. If the first animals to die had been checked, only a couple of investors would have had to take a loss. Obviously, some unscrupulous dealers were hiding dead animals and selling infected ones. The result? We have borne the brunt of more than $30 million to clean up the mess. Saskatchewan wildlife is being infected, and some evidence suggests the source was game farms. The province had to intervene and confiscate a neglected herd from the very person who was painting the rosy picture in 1994. And now the very people who were begging to open up the industry and let the money flow to rural Saskatchewan are suing the province because they were supposedly encouraged to get into the business. Why should the taxpayer bail out anybody probably responsible for their own downfall? The promise of huge profits blinded many. Nobody would pay more than $20,000 for breeding stock if there wasn't evidence of potential huge returns. The velvet market, breeding stock pyramid scheme and the lucrative shoot farms all sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, everybody forgot the old adage "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." © Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:09:07 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: EDITORIAL: Right of privacy being attacked http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/editorials/story.asp?id=4A0C908B-862D-44BF-808D-56AA9253A836 Right of privacy being attacked The Regina Leader-Post Editorial Friday, January 31, 2003 In Brief: Privacy concerns raised by George Radwanski, the federal privacy commissioner, are underlined by the theft of information from ISM. As the scale of personal information contained on a hard drive stolen from a Regina company becomes apparent, Canadians are rightly asking: "How much privacy do I really have?" Not much, according to federal privacy commissioner George Radwanski, who delivered a stark warning this week in his annual report to Parliament: "The fundamental human right of privacy is under attack as never before." Radwanski wasn't referring to the theft of the hard drive from ISM Canada's Regina office, but to massive amounts of personal information the federal government gathers on Canadians -- and plans to expand -- in the name of anti-terrorism. The theft of the ISM hard drive containing provincial government and private insurance company data on thousands of people lays bare concerns about the day-to-day security of personal information already routinely and legitimately held by government, health and financial agencies. Radwanski worries that Ottawa is unjustifiably snooping on Canadians. He cites Canada Customs and Revenue Agency's "Big Brother" database on air passengers that not only includes destinations, but also the dietary preferences of passengers. Ottawa is refusing to limit its use of the airline data base to anti-terrorism purposes, raising the spectre of government departments using it for other unspecified purposes. Proposals to allow some government agencies to monitor an individual's Internet activities and cellphone calls are also criticized by Radwanski, who says: "I do not see any reason why e-mails should be subject to a lower standard of privacy protection than letters or phone calls." While we believe police and security age ncies must have every tool available to combat the threat of terrorism, Radwanski raises some legitimate concerns. Neither police nor bureaucrats should be allowed to eavesdrop into our lives without first persuading a judge there is a legitimate reason. Even then, as the ISM crisis shows, there's no guarantee supposedly confidential information can't be stolen by identity thieves or even terrorists. The less government pries into our lives, the better. © Copyright 2003 The Leader-Post (Regina) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:09:42 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: EDITORIAL: Plan puts clamp on thefts Gee, targetting criminals actually reduces crime! Whoodathunkit? http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/editorials/story.asp?id=C9D14713-B489-47A8-80CA-1F792DB23163 Plan puts clamp on thefts The Regina Leader-Post Editorial Tuesday, January 28, 2003 In Brief: Thanks to a special program aimed at chronic offenders, vehicle thefts in Regina were cut by 28 per cent in 2002. - - - - Police and other agencies have put a brake on Regina's auto theft problem, driving the number of incidents down by 28 per cent in 2002. However, the city still recorded 2,761 vehicle thefts last year -- more than double Saskatoon's 1,263 and almost three times the national rate. Clearly, there's a long road ahead, but the city does seem to have turned the corner after recording an all-time high of almost 4,000 thefts in 2001. One reason for the improvement is that 35 chronic repeat offenders were given special attention, from incarceration to special counselling and strict enforcement of curfews and court orders. As of Jan. 3, 22 were locked up, six were on probation, four were missing, one had no active court orders and two had graduated. The city police stolen auto unit notes that 333 individuals were charged with auto theft and possession last year. Young offenders accounted for 60 per cent - -- 460 -- of the 761 charges laid. Many were young aboriginals from poor neighbourhoods. Drug and alcohol abuse was noted to be a "constant" among auto thieves and police say some auto thefts are used by gangs as "initiation" to membership. Stolen autos are also used in crimes like breaking and entering. Police and Corrections officers conducted 6,687 curfew checks, finding 700 potential breaches that resulted in more charges. Justice officials also turned up the heat on first-time auto thieves -- referring them to the Help Eliminate Auto Theft (HEAT) program for a risk assessment and treatment. As well as working closely with officials from the provincial Justice, Corrections and Social Services departments and SGI, city police formed partnerships with other agencies, including the RCMP, which has enforced judicial orders on offenders outside Regina. Police and other agencies deserve praise for their efforts, but their work merely treats a symptom and does not provide a lasting solution to the reality of young people stealing autos to momentarily escape hopeless -- even desperate - -- circumstances. And until society finds a way to address the underlying problems, there will be young people on our streets committing crimes. © Copyright 2003 The Leader-Post (Regina) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:20:54 -0600 (CST) From: "John E. Stevens" Subject: Re: Mayor Mel gets tough At 10:00 AM 2/3/2003 -0600, you wrote: >Lastman requested the chief file a report citing specific recommendations to >toughen gun laws before the March 27 meeting of the Toronto Police Services >Board. >[snip] >"I want people to be terrified of the consequences if they use a gun. If >it only >saves one life, it's worth it. > ********************** >Wendy will love Mayor Mel's last line. >Wasn't Mayor Mel at one time in favour of making Toronto a gun-free zone? He was one of them >Isn't he echoing what firearm owners have been saying for decades? Nope, he isn't. Note that he has simply requested a report on how to toughen gun laws. He still doesn't realize that it's the criminal he needs to attack. Perhaps Julian Fantino may yet appear as our white knight....well, maybe shades of grey.... Lots of letters guys. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:21:48 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Control over firearms mark of a 'civilized' society http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/letters/story.asp?id={85E03F17-FB90-4015-BA07-C0FF68CECDE1} Control over firearms mark of a 'civilized' society The Leader-Post Letter to the Editor Wednesday, January 29, 2003 The provincial NDP government has announced that it will offer no support what-so-ever to help the federal government implement the national Firearms Act. This is reprehensible, but not surprising. From the very beginning, the NDP government has strongly opposed the registration of firearms and has challenged its legality in court. In the 11 years that it has been in office, the NDP governments of Roy Romanow and Lorne Calvert have only tried to mobilize the population around one issue: opposition to gun control. Opponents of gun registration conveniently ignore the reasons for the legislation in the first place. The Coalition for Gun Control, formed originally by women's groups across Canada and now supported by a wide range of other organizations, was in response to the Montreal Massacre and the shooting and harassment of women and children by men with guns. This is a serious problem. It is a problem in Saskatchewan, which has more guns per capita than any other province. I know a woman who broke up with her male companion and he started stalking her. He threatened her over the telephone, reminding her that he had guns. She got a peace bond against him, and the police confiscated his guns at his house. But he called her and threatened her again, saying that he had guns on his farm that were hidden from the police. Very few men know what it is like to be terrorized like this. And it is not uncommon. I personally have known three young men who committed suicide by using a gun that was lying around the house. They did this in a period of depression, stemming from common problems that likely would have changed over time. One shot himself because he was afraid to tell his parents that he was failing at university. If the shotguns and rifles had not been present, these three young men would probably still be around. In a recent Leader-Post column, Doug Cuthand pointed out that guns and violence are a serious problem among the aboriginal population. Firearms are the second leading cause of death by suicide, after hanging. In accidental deaths, they are the second highest factor after automobile accidents. This is why women do not like to have guns in the house. The 1991 and 1995 Firearms Acts require the licensing of gun owners, the registration of firearms, and the safe storage of guns and ammunition. They ban certain weapons that are only used to kill people. In my personal opinion, they do not go far enough. Control over firearms is a common practice in civilized nations. The United States, which has no similar legislation, has a murder rate using guns which is seven times higher than that in Canada. Why would we want to go that way? European countries with gun controls have lower levels of gun-related murders, accidents, and suicides. When the Firearms Act was passed in Parliament all members of the NDP but one voted against it. Bill Blaikie opposed it. Lorne Nystrom has said he would have voted against the legislation if he had been in Parliament at the time. The Canadian Alliance stands behind the NDP on this issue. So does the Saskatchewan Party. But there is one party which supports the firearms legislation, the New Green Alliance. John W. Warnock Warnock was a candidate for the New Green Alliance in the last provincial election. Regina © Copyright 2003 The Leader-Post (Regina) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 13:31:55 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: ARTICLE: Police probe gang link in murder http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id={30EC7D58-1E66-4757-87CE-997C2A02A5CC} Police probe gang link in murder Man's death is city's first homicide of the year Florence Loyie The Edmonton Journal Monday, February 03, 2003 EDMONTON - Members of the Edmonton police gang unit are helping investigate the slaying of a man whose body was discovered early Sunday in the eastbound lane of 111th Avenue near 106th Street. A red Honda Prelude was hung up on a snowbank in the middle of road, its driver and passenger windows shot out. The man, whose name and age have not been released, was the city's first homicide victim of the year. The man's body was found a short time after gunfire awoke residents of a downtown apartment building. Patrick Finlay, who lives on the second floor of the Arlington Apartments near 105th Street an d 100th Avenue, said he was awakened about 5:15 a.m. by five popping sounds coming from the street in front of the building. He recognized the sounds as gun shots. "When I heard them, I was like 'Wow. I think there was just a drive-by,' '' said Finlay, a University of Alberta student and editor of the student newspaper Gateway. His girlfriend rushed to the window, but didn't see anything. Other residents were also awakened by the gunfire. One called police to say two vehicles had fled. Several minutes after gunfire was reported, police received a call from the Royal Alexander Hospital where staff were treating a man with gunshot wounds. Minutes after the hospital called, police received another call. This time it was from the city's emergency medical services. Paramedics had found the man dead from gunshot wounds. Police took two men standing by the body into custody for questioning. Police believe the three men had been in the Prelude. Police spokesman Wes Bellmore said homicide investigators and members of the gang unit are investigating whether all three reports are connected. "It seems related, but obviously we are going to look at the series of events and find out how it unfolded. We have more questions than answers,'' Bellmore said. The city had three gang-related slayings last year. - - On Sept. 19, Julian Donovan Wright, 20, known to have gang connections, was shot more than a dozen times while sitting in his white sports car in the parking lot of a north Edmonton townhouse. At the time of his death, Wright was facing a preliminary hearing on an assault charge. He and eight others were arrested in 2001 after one man was shot and another stabbed at a north-side hip-hop party. No suspects have been arrested. - - Norm Hoang, 19, a gang member, although his family denies it, was gunned down Aug. 10 in a drive-by shooting outside Barry T's Grand Central as he was getting into his car. He was hit five times and died in hospital hours later. No arrests have been made. - - On June 6, David Phan, 19, a drug dealer and gang enforcer, was shot to death in the parking lot outside The Drink. A loaded assault rifle, believed to belong to him, was found beside his sprawled body. On Aug. 20, police charged Preston Randal Foster, 22, with second-degree murder in connection with Phan's death. floyie@thejournal.southam.ca © Copyright 2003 Edmonton Journal ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 14:07:32 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Tools of power http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/letters/story.asp?id=1F939B37-CF13-4F5B-AB47-751FE685BFFF Tools of power Calgary Herald Letter to the Editor Sunday, February 02, 2003 Re: "Gag the CBC, too?" Letter, Jan. 30. I agree with Donald Rae. The CBC is a giant propaganda machine for the Liberals, paid for with our tax dollars. It dovetails nicely with their recruiting machine, the immigration policy. With these tools at their disposal and the demise of the NDP, the Liberals have a virtual monopoly on government. Taxpayers better prepare for big spending ahead. Ken MacDonald Calgary © Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 14:21:17 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: COLUMN: Just answer this little question . . . http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/columnists/story.asp?id=808B3E11-F3B7-4FC9-BA62-6EE8E1F52CE5 Just answer this little question . . . Nigel Hannaford For The Calgary Herald Saturday, February 01, 2003 George Radwanski is absolutely right to warn Canadians about the increasingly tight grip of government upon their lives. Too bad so many Canadians have a split-personality about it. They complain for instance, rightly, about government plans to create a massive identity database linking files from different departments. The science fiction novels of the '60s were prophetic: The technology to do it has been around for some time, actually. But in our daily lives, we are not privacy conscious. We stroll uncomplainingly through establishments which photograph our every move. Next time you're in a Plus 15 walkway, look up and you will almost certainly see surveillance cameras. It's the same in convenience stores and gas bars. Bank machines are similarly covered, along with elevators. A few years ago, a TV marketing company offered video outtakes from elevator cameras. Apparently, elevator sex is popular. They also have risque cellphone conversations which anyone with a scanner can eavesdrop on. But more consequentially, many of us cheerfully give our whole life story to anybody who asks for it over the phone, in a store or on the Internet. Not that this has to be sinister. Retailers have good marketing reasons to build a customer database and some customers want to be on it. Still, when you're paying cash and the transaction starts, "What's your phone number?" do you just give it to them? Or do you ask what business it is of theirs? The Internet is a particularly bad place to give out information. Even without giving away any significant numbers, Webmasters can set up sites to record a profile of a user's interests and habits without their knowledge. Then there's e-business. You get a User ID and a password. In 2001, Canadians spent about $2 billion online. While this activity is somewhat secure, it is hardly private. Databases record everything and are hawked around. As a result of all these activities, it's quite difficult not to leave an information trail, allowing somebody with a reason to build your personal profile. That reason could be to send you junk mail, which is irritating, but harmless. Or, it could be to steal your identity and in your name, apply for credit cards, a drivers licence or even a passport. It happens to about 1,000 Canadians a month, according to Staff Sgt. Barry Elliott of Ontario Provincial Police's anti-rackets branch, speaking to the Canadian Club of Calgary. It's big business. Elliot said Canadians had reported losses of $50 million to his branch since 1995. Of course, not all identity theft happens through scanning Internet sites. In November, U.S. authorities arrested a bank-software company employee, who sold passwords and codes belonging to 30,000 Americans over the previous year. Fraud artists then looted them to the tune of $2.7 million. It's as hard to defend against that as the kind of data theft which happened this week, when a hard drive was stolen from a data management company's secure facility in Regina. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are at risk if their vital statistics fall into the wrong hands. Yet, Canadians don't take even elementary precautions. They respond to intrusive surveys; they answer ads promising jobs, then supply complete strangers with social insurance numbers, even bank references. And they visit Web sites they wouldn't want others to know they visit, regardless of the known ability of Webmasters to plant spy software into their computers. As a Statistics Canada researcher noted when he released the story about the Canadian $2 billion Internet shopping spree, 75 per cent of online shoppers worry about security. But they still do it. And they still walk without protest in front of the surveillance cameras and use their mother's maiden name -- which isn't that hard to get -- as a password. Legislation will be effective in 2004 to limit the sale and use of databases; this will help somewhat. But it's hard to believe Canadians are serious about privacy. They're obsessing about Big Brother, which they can't do much about. But, where they could protect their privacy, they're quite casual. The fact is, there's a better chance of somebody racking up debts in your name than you running afoul of the security apparatus. Radwanski should be taken seriously. But he may as well face it: is fellow countrymen are not his strongest allies. Whatever they say, most prefer security and convenience. hannafordn@theherald.southam.ca © Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #715 ********************************** 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@sprint.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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