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 #742 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 Saturday, February 8 2003 Volume 05 : Number 742 In this issue: NEWS: Police discover part of rocket launcher NEWS: Ontario student injured in machete attack ARTICLE: Dial M for murder with this phone LETTER: Identity issues LETTER: Identity issues LETTER: Identity issues LETTER: Identity issues TorStar: RCMP to investigate seven senior public servants ARTICLE: Bar-coded babies latest in high-tech security Brain Fingerprinting Re: ARTICLE: Budget surplus to hit $6B Re: ARTICLE: Truth's in ear of the beholder LETTER: National Post Minister fires gun control chief: Shuffle won't solve 'political' Re: date LUFA Press Release: R.C.M.P. Refuse to Enforce Firearms Act ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 08:30:44 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: NEWS: Police discover part of rocket launcher http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/UNATSM-3/Headlines/headdex/headdexNational_temp/27/27/31/ Police discover part of rocket launcher Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A10 Sudbury -- Officers searching a car parked at police headquarters turned up the tube component of a rocket launcher. The driver of the vehicle had earlier entered headquarters and had been arrested for outstanding warrants not related to the weapon. A passenger in the car was arrested for a bail violation. Military police from North Bay declared the device inoperable. CP Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 08:36:58 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: NEWS: Ontario student injured in machete attack http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/UNATSM-8/Headlines/headdex/headdexNational_temp/31/31/31/ Ontario student injured in machete attack Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A10 Port Perry, Ont. -- A high-school student, 18, is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries after he was attacked with a machete at lunch hour yesterday. The alleged attacker was a student from another school, police said. CP Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 08:37:26 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: ARTICLE: Dial M for murder with this phone http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/REPO2/Headlines/headdex/headdexInternational_temp/22/22/32/ Dial M for murder with this phone Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A16 Rouen, France -- French police said yesterday they had seized two lethal mobile phones capable of shooting four bullets, with the digital touchpads used as triggers. The black telephones, identical to normal mobile phones on the outside, were discovered in a raid on a suspected gangster's home. The fake phones come apart in the middle to reveal a four-chamber secret compartment for .22 calibre bullets, which can be shot out of a protruding fake aerial. Reuters Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:00:43 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Identity issues http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/SATLETS-1/Letters/commentLetters/commentLetters_temp/5/5/20/ Identity issues By JENNIFER ROBERTS Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A22 London, U.K. -- Re Coderre Pushes Ottawa To Adopt National ID Cards (Feb. 7): Does Immigration Minister Denis Coderre not understand the difference between a free society and a police state? Free societies are built on the presumption that their citizens are law-abiding and therefore entitled to go about their business without having to identify or explain themselves. But this government, with its national identification card scheme, wants to tear down this presumption. If I wanted to live in a police state, there are plenty around the world. But free societies, such as Canada has always been, are rare and precious. Why are we so eager to throw our freedoms away? Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:01:08 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Identity issues http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/SATLETS-2/Letters/commentLetters/commentLetters_temp/12/12/20/ Identity issues By DARREN CAMERON Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A22 Calgary -- A government that cannot successfully register a few firearms wants to "card" all the citizens in the country? There are not enough tax dollars available in this country for the Liberals to start up another one of their boondoggles. Where does this all stop? With the direction this central government is headed, the next thing it will require are travel permits and badges sewn on our jackets. Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:04:58 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Identity issues http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/SATLETS-4/Letters/commentLetters/commentLetters_temp/17/17/20/ Identity issues By ERIC SPARLING Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A22 Matsue, Japan -- So, rather than allowing those draconian American border guards to fingerprint us, our government should pre-emptively do it the "Canadian way." Mr. Coderre says he's a chess player. Is he always in the habit of checkmating himself? Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:05:26 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: Identity issues http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20030208/SATLETS-5/Letters/commentLetters/commentLetters_temp/20/20/20/ Identity issues By LOUIS DESJARDINS Saturday, February 8, 2003 – Print Edition, Page A22 Belleville, Ont. -- Whenever possible, Canadians should demonstrate our support for national identity cards by showing the minister which finger we're willing to have printed. Copyright © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:06:08 -0600 (CST) From: freefall7@shaw.ca Subject: TorStar: RCMP to investigate seven senior public servants RCMP to investigate seven senior public servants Feb. 8, 2003. 01:00 AM TIM HARPER OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF (Toronto Star) OTTAWA—The RCMP will probe another 45 files and the actions of seven senior bureaucrats involved in Ottawa's troubled sponsorship program, says Public Works Minister Ralph Goodale. The minister said yesterday that all seven identified in an independent forensic audit are public servants, but should the RCMP wish to broaden an investigation to include elected officials, that is their right. "No one is above the law," Goodale said. "The RCMP has the authority, when they see a law is broken, to lay whatever charges they think are appropriate." Anyone who is responsible for wrongdoing in the scandal will be held accountable, Goodale said. Opposition critics said yesterday they believe Goodale is trying to hang bureaucrats out to dry in a bid to deflect attention from any political wrongdoing. Auditor-General Sheila Fraser last year found bureaucrats "broke every rule in the book" in their zeal to provide government contract work — largely in Quebec — in a bid to promote federalism in the wake of the 1995 Quebec referendum. Opposition MPs say they believe the trail of political wrongdoing leads to former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano, now the Canadian ambassador to Denmark. The $40 million a year program was denounced by critics as a patronage ploy aimed at giving work to Liberal-friendly firms. The RCMP is already investigating several of the contracts. Goodale said the first portion of the administrative review, done by an outside consultant, names individuals and details a number of "apparent breaches of contract." "We will await the RCMP's green light to proceed with our own next administrative steps," Goodale told the Commons. The minister said he would not proceed with an internal government investigation until he is satisfied that it would not get in the way of the police probe. The review identifies breaches that include: - -- Approval of invoices outside the contract period; - -- Approval of fees not approved in the contract process; - -- Approval of payments where there is no evidence work has been done; - -- Double-billing; - -- Payment of travel claims which were not covered in the contract; - -- Circumventing the bidding process for contracts. The probe will involve 45 sponsorship transactions, the minister said. An internal audit probed 721 sponsorship contracts from 1997 to 2000, then examined 126 — of which 45 are problematic — in greater detail. Goodale said the public servants could be subject to significant, serious administrative penalties, quite outside a police investigation. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:32:08 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: ARTICLE: Bar-coded babies latest in high-tech security http://www.nationalpost.com/utilities/story.html?id={21ACCDFA-355C-4D06-9208-789892FE85A1} Bar-coded babies latest in high-tech security Anne Marie Owens National Post Saturday, February 08, 2003 Propelled by paranoia about security, identification measures are becoming more pervasive and more high tech - with babies being bar-coded in hospital nurseries, students using fingerprint scans in their dorms and business travellers relying on eye scans for speedier airport check-ins. State-of-the-art technology can now break down facial characteristics, hand features, fingerprints, the iris or the retina, and even the peculiarities of a walk to establish a person's identity. It's called biometrics and it is also behind the push this week by governments on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border to move ahead with sophisticated national identification cards. "It has very good optics in these times," says Peter Hope-Tindall, a Toronto-area privacy consultant currently working on a biometrics project for the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. "There is certainly a lot of the 'Gee Whiz' affect to all of this." Yet Mr. Hope-Tindall worries in the zeal to embrace the convenience and certainty of the technology, we may lose some of the boundaries of personal privacy: "We need to define reasonable limits.... We need to get a good handle on these thi ngs before we go into it full strength." In the past month alone, there have been a flurry of innovative ID developments that were once the domain of science fiction. A Madrid hospital has a system that uses fingerprints, together with electronic bar codes, to guard against any mix-ups about newborn babies and their mothers. The baby's bar code, which also includes information about the mother and the birth, can be scanned by a machine that matches the child with its mother if there is any doubt about identity. In England, a new elementary school plans to use retinal scanning to identify schoolchildren for the purposes of lunch lineups and library checkouts. Administrators of the Venerable Bede Church of England School, in Sunderland, say the technology is a safe, cost-effective alternative to traditional methods: "Costs are the same as a swipe card system," said Ed Yates, the school's head teacher. "Unlike a swipe system, where you have to buy new cards every year, there are no additional costs. The retinal scan is safe, secure, very efficient and quick." Eye scans use a low-level laser to take instant readings of the retina or the iris. The process matches more than 200 separate points of data it reads on the eye and can be done in about two seconds. Frequent travellers at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and Kennedy International Airport in New York pay a premium to have their eyes scanned and matched to the data on a smart card, allowing them to fast-track the system. In Canada, frequent travellers to the United States have their fingerprints registered in order to cross the border more quickly and iris scanning is underway at a number of airports. In Denver, Johnson & Wales University has a keyless system in its dorms and academic buildings that means students only need to use their hands to unlock doors. The system relies on a tiny overhead camera that measures 90 points on a hand in seconds. Hospitals, banks and even some apartment buildings use some form of this technology to allow for speedier, more secure access. Catherine Johnston, president and CEO of the Advanced Card Technology Association of Canada, says these innovations are long overdue. "Look in your wallet -- the magnetic strip is 30 years old," said Ms. Johnston, whose organization promotes increased awareness of such technologies as radio-frequency cards, optical-measure cards and biometric innovations. She said these applications are being pushed by an increase in crime targetting identity theft, such as the recent hard drive loss of Canadian insurance industry data. "These things are hard for all of us to accept at first because it means that we have to think about how much we need to be protected," she said. She believes Canadians will embrace these innovations much faster than Americans, because "our adoption of debit [cards] was 10 times faster and we crave convenience more than any other nation." aowens@nationalpost.com © Copyright 2003 National Post ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:32:57 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Brain Fingerprinting A very long article, but well worth the read. Another example of the possibility of the use of technology infringing upon our rights, if allowed. http://www.nationalpost.com/utilities/story.html?id={4811FAA4-D8D6-4A7E-9E76-333F9E7B8410} ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:04:26 -0600 (CST) From: "John E. Stevens" Subject: Re: ARTICLE: Budget surplus to hit $6B At 07:45 PM 2/7/2003 -0600, you wrote: >http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id={70DEF2C3-5C18-411D-9CB3-096A7309B7E9} > > >Budget surplus to hit $6B >Funds to be used to pay down debt, fund health care deal, reports say Or -- they could continue to be the responsible government leaders and dump the whole thing into the abyss.....oops, registry. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:05:07 -0600 (CST) From: "John E. Stevens" Subject: Re: ARTICLE: Truth's in ear of the beholder At 08:57 AM 2/7/2003 -0600, you wrote: >http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-02-07-0009.html > >[snip] > >And then he got in touch with Det.-Const. Bethune. > >"There are a couple of problems with his story," said Bethune. "First, we were >talking about something a little more fantastic than a sawed-off shotgun. >I told >him something restricted -- like a pistol, for example, would be great. I guess my mind is yielding to the ravages of age. I truly thought that a "sawed-off" was a prohibited weapon. I'd have thought, Det.-Const. Bethune, that this might have more serious ramafications than a legal (not necessarily registered) hand gun. Bet your chief would think so. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:53:22 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: LETTER: National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/utilities/story.html?id={05B802B8-BB2B-4EC9-9512-6F230BC2CC9B} National Post Letters to the Editor February 8, 2003 Immigration Minister Denis Coderre, is proposing a National ID card for Canadians and is having a hard time with his fellow members of the Liberal party. Apparently, the idea of a card with a person's identification, including some biometrics data, does not float well with them. They are concerned that a national database would erode rights and could be subject to abuse. Grit hyprocrisy I wonder where this concern was when they were attacking the most law abiding segment of our society, the responsible firearms community. They had no qualms in forcing us to fill out intrusive questionnaires and jump through numerous hoops all under threat of imprisonment, in order to achieve their aim. While I am not in favour of a National ID card, I do find it strange that the objections are so loud. The information contained in the proposed ID card should only be for identification, unlike the firearms licence application which delved into people's personal history. I am concerned that they seem to be selective in whose rights they should be concerned about. Jim Hill, Fletchers Lake, N.S. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 11:11:36 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Minister fires gun control chief: Shuffle won't solve 'political' PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal DATE: 2003.02.08 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: A15 BYLINE: Tim Naumetz SOURCE: Southam News DATELINE: OTTAWA ILLUSTRATION: Photo: Journal Stock / (Martin) Cauchon; Photo: JournalStock / (Gary) Webster !@IMAGES=Photo: Journal Stock / (Martin) Cauchon [280465-69796.jpg]; Photo: Journal Stock / (Gary) Webster [280465-69797.jpg]; - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Minister fires gun control chief: Shuffle won't solve 'political' problem: Alliance MP - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has shuffled aside the head of the Canadian Firearms Centre as the first step in a major overhaul aimed at getting the controversial licensing and registry program back on its feet. Cauchon said Friday the dismissal of Gary Webster of Edmonton, chief executive officer of the centre for the past two years, was the first of several measures he plans in response to a scathing report on the program from Auditor General Sheila Fraser and two separate inquiries conducted by private-sector firms. Cauchon named Bill Baker, a senior bureaucrat in the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, to replace Webster and take charge of key technology and program changes over the next several months. Webster, deputy head of the program before becoming its chief officer in 2001, was named a special adviser to the deputy minister of justice, Morris Rosenberg. "Over the coming days, I will have some tough decisions to make as I prepare for my action plan for the gun control program," Cauchon said through a statement from his press secretary, Mike Murphy. The justice minister said Baker, assistant commissioner in the revenue agency's compliance program branch, has a "proven track record and a reputation for getting the job done." Government insiders say Baker, who was in charge of developing and implementing the revenue agency's strategic plan for the next five to 10 years, was a key "trouble shooter" in the top echelon of the massive agency, which contains one of the most complex computer data systems in the federal government. The insiders said Webster is only the first of several top bureaucrats in the firearms centre who will be replaced over the next two weeks. The measures are in response to a key study by management systems consultant Ray Hession, a former federal bureaucrat who reported this week on the red-tape and bureaucratic nightmare that has beset the registry over the last three years. Hession predicted the government can limit the cost of the program to about $40 million a year over the next 10 years if it streamlines regulations and other licensing and registry requirements and begins collecting fees from owners to fund the scheme. Fraser said last December the program's accumulated cost was expected to balloon to an expected $1 billion by 2005, 10 years after it was launched. Canadian Alliance MP Garry Breitkreuz said he does not expect Baker's appointment to eliminate the many problems facing the program. "This is a political problem, not a bureaucratic one," Breitkreuz said. "The problems that they have created for the bureaucracy are insurmountable. It doesn't matter who they put in there; they're not going to sort out this mess." Breitkreuz noted five million of the six million weapons registered so far remain to be verified, to ensure they match the details contained in registration papers, while at least 500,000 owners who have received licences still have not registered their firearms. Another 500,000 owners have yet to apply for their ownership and acquisition licences. Breitkreuz also argues the federal government has under-estimated the number of firearms in the country by 10 million. The centre is in the midst of replacing its central computer system, which cost more than $160 million, with a new system whose design alone is costing $34 million. That work has been delayed, with suppliers now saying the system may not be ready for months, at an additional cost of $15 million. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 12:08:07 -0600 (CST) From: B Farion Subject: Re: date > > > Ottawa police were initially surprised when they ran the pellet gun's > serial > > > number and matched it to a gun that had been turned in to Toronto police > > > more than two years ago. > > > > > > But Toronto police still had the gun with the matching serial number in > > > their property room, leading Ottawa detectives to believe the pellet > guns > > > were mass-produced. > > > > Aside from the droids confusion about the meaning of "mass produced" this > > highlights the stupidity of the underlying concept of the Boondoggle > > Registry. > > > Let me guess, the serial number was either 22 or 177, right? Do I get a > prize? > > Brad > No! you forgot pat'd 1953 or whatever! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 12:08:37 -0600 (CST) From: fightc68@shaw.ca Subject: LUFA Press Release: R.C.M.P. Refuse to Enforce Firearms Act LUFA: Press Release - Friday, February 07, 2003 at 16:32 R.C.M.P. Refuse to Enforce Firearms Act Red Deer, AB: Bruce Hutton, Founder of the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association, turned himself in to the Red Deer City Detachment of the R.C.M.P. with an unregistered gun on Monday, February 3, 2003. Police refused to charge Hutton under the Firearms Act for being unlicensed and having an unregistered gun. A police spokesman said the receiver did not, in their opinion, constitute a firearm. "This should show the Canadian public how little the police know about the Firearms Act," lamented Hutton. "The corporal who said I would have been arrested and charged if I had brought a real gun is lying to Canadians. I brought a firearm as defined under the Firearms Act to the R.C.M.P. and I wasn't charged. I admitted I was unlicensed, that the gun was unregistered and that I hadn't sent in a request indicating I intended to comply. This makes me the third Albertan to turn themselves in without charges. The first was former Albert Legislative Sergeant-at Arms, Oscar Lacombe with the Edmonton City Police, the second was retired engineer Ken Palmer to thud Calgary City Police and now myself to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Red Deer." LUFA maintains that the federal Liberals and the Firearms Centre don't want to charge anyone for not having a licence or having unregistered firearms because that will initiate Charter challenges and put the fatally flawed Firearms Act back in the public eye. The implementation of the Firearms Act registry is about 30% completed, despite CFC figures to the contrary. "If the federal Liberals have to go door-to-door, Gestapo-like, finding the 3 million unlicensed gunowners and the 10 million unregistered firearms, the Canadian public had better be prepared to pay unknown billions taxpayers dollars to complete the implementation of this Firearms Act," fumed Hutton."I am not sure the Canadian public has the stomach to see police going door-to-door to all houses in Canada looking for the guns of hunters, farmers and recreational firearms users." Political Professor Ted Morton of the University of Calgary and his staff have identified no less than 16 violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is the intention of the firearms community to challenge each of these violations to the Supreme Court of Canada. "I don't believe we will have much success with the Liberally appointed Supreme Court," stated Hutton. "All you have to do is look at the majority of decisions this Court has made in the last ten years. I do, however, believe we can hold up enforcement of this legislation for a sufficient period of time that it will become a political hot potato because of costs. That will force the Liberals to rescind the registry. We know the handgun registry doesn't work. Now we have to inform the Canadian public about this poorly thought-out boon-doggle and have it replaced with legislation aimed at criminals," concluded Hutton. LUFA Box 31082 Edmonton, AB T5Z 3P3 1-877-944-5832 E-Mail: info@lufa.ca www.lufa.ca - -30- ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #742 ********************************** 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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