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 #975 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 Tuesday, April 15 2003 Volume 05 : Number 975 In this issue: Re: Action Firearms registry now officially under Easter's watch Letter: Tell us again how gun registry will stop smuggling Editor (Sure hope so) WE WANT TO POISON PESTS Time to start shooting crows in city Large cache of illegal knives seized Court date set BB gun brings trouble Fw: Health pros support gun control ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 05:25:02 -0600 (CST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Re: Action Rick wrote: > Now how many people do you figure think that a "new, professional format" for > the CFJ is more important than an audit to find out how much that "format" is > costing them, why it's taken that long to get it in the first place (how long > has Cronhelm been paid to deliver that format anyways), and why they only got > the CFJ five times last year rather than the promised 12 monthly issues? "Format" don't mean squat when you don't have "content"... Yours in Liberty, Bruce Hamilton Ontario ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:40:17 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Firearms registry now officially under Easter's watch PUBLICATION: The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: National PAGE: B7 BYLINE: Tim Naumetz SOURCE: For CanWest News Service DATELINE: OTTAWA - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Firearms registry now officially under Easter's watch - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA -- The government transferred responsibility for the $1-billion firearms registry from the Justice Department to Solicitor General Wayne Easter on Monday as part a restructuring attempt to cut costs. The change was among several recommendations from an inquiry into the costly scheme following Auditor General Sheila Fraser last year blasted the Justice Department for hiding the true cost of the program from Parliament and taxpayers. Suzanne Thebarge, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, confirmed the transfer formally took effect Monday. Former senior government bureaucrat Raymond Hession, now a private consultant in Ottawa, led a review of the program last January after problems continued to mount in the Canadian Firearms Centre following Fraser's report. In an exhaustive report, Hession pointed out that the Justice Department, which took charge of the firearms program when it was launched by Allan Rock in 1995, was primarily a policy department and unsuited to manage the technological systems and bureaucracies involved in the firearms centre. Despite the transfer of responsibility to the Solicitor General's Department, which also has responsibility for the RCMP and Corrections Canada, the government faces more hurdles as it attempts to contain costs. A bill that would allow further streamlining measures must still be passed by the Commons. The legislation, Bill C10a, was created by the Senate when it divided earlier omnibus legislation that also included animal rights provisions and other Criminal Code amendments. The Canadian Alliance and Conservative parties have vowed to do all they can to stall C10a, in part because it came from the Senate and also because it involves the firearms program. Several backbench Liberals are also expected to oppose the legislation. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:40:59 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Tell us again how gun registry will stop smuggling PUBLICATION: The Province DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial PAGE: A19 BYLINE: Fred Stark SOURCE: The Province - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tell us again how gun registry will stop smuggling - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is clear that the thousands of illegal firearms being smuggled into Canada are intended for criminal purposes, including murder. I have only one question to those who lobbied for our firearms registration legislation that created a disastrous and costly bureaucracy: Do you think these firearms are being registered? Fred Stark, Halfmoon Bay ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:41:47 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Editor (Sure hope so) PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial/Opinion PAGE: 14 COLUMN: Letters to the Editor WE IN Alberta have watched with great interest Ontario's reaction to Jean Chretien and his trained Liberal monkeys. So after the billions of dollars squandered in useless programs (the gun registry for one) with no real end in sight, the shameful comments made by elected officials regarding our neighbours to the south, Chretien's flip-flopping on the war in Iraq, is it safe to say the people of Ontario and the East are as ready for a regime change in Canada as are those of us here in the West? Kelly Kostick Ardrossan, Alta. Editor (Sure hope so) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:43:13 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: WE WANT TO POISON PESTS PUBLICATION: The Edmonton Sun DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 18 ILLUSTRATION: photo of SHIRLEY MCCLELLAN Pleads with feds BYLINE: JERRY WARD, LEGISLATURE BUREAU - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WE WANT TO POISON PESTS - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Alberta government is pleading with Ottawa to grant a one-year reprieve from a blanket ban on strychnine that is used to control pesky gophers in rural areas. "There are problems in areas where there are too many," Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan said yesterday of the rodents, also known as Richardson's ground squirrels. "So, we're writing to them saying, 'Please, reconsider for one more year until we get this under control.' " As of June 30, Health Canada's existing permission for limited use of liquid strychnine in Alberta will end. Ottawa adopted a ban of the product in 1993 to minimize potential risks to pets, wildlife and public health. "We've had a limited registration for a lower level strychnine (2%) for about the last three years and they are going to end that this year," McClellan said. "The best way to reduce the population, obviously, is using poison. Strychnine is the most effective. Other poisons aren't as effective and your other option is shooting." But she noted some farmers may no longer have access to firearms as a result of the federal gun registry or may be located near urban areas such as those in Strathcona County, where firearms are prohibited. Joyce Sparks has six quarter sections on which she grows crops and raises cattle east of Bowden. "We've all taken our turn shooting them," she said. "They are the No. 1 pest." Sparks says she was able to get a potent strychnine product from the United States and doesn't agree with the ban. "We will try to do our best to narrow them down," she said. "They are very destructive." McClellan ruled out sending Ottawa an invoice for damage to crops and livestock caused by gophers. "It's pretty hard to say what the damage is," she said. John Bourne, a vertebrate pest specialist for Alberta Agriculture, says strychnine causes paralysis of the gophers' muscle system, causing the heart and lungs to fail. "The gopher dies within about 10 minutes," he said. Bourne says there are hundreds of thousands of gophers scurrying across Alberta prairies causing severe damage. Without another exemption in place, he says, farmers will be forced to use less effective poisons. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:43:52 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Time to start shooting crows in city PUBLICATION: The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: A2 COLUMN: Straight Talk BYLINE: Randy Burton SOURCE: The StarPhoenix ILLUSTRATION: Graphic/Diagram: (Crows.) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time to start shooting crows in city - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can always tell when spring arrives in Saskatchewan. That's the day the snow stops blowing and the dirt begins to fly. Your second clue that the seasons have changed is the return of the crows. The treetops come alive with their calls, a cacophony that would wake the dead. While the songbirds head for safer surroundings, the rest of us are roused from our slumbers at 5 a.m. The routine is as reliable as the swallows returning to Capistrano, if somewhat less romantic. After all, crows are simply pests. Think of them as flying gophers, nothing more than a pox on the prairies. For some unknown reason, though, Saskatoon is giving crows a bye in the pest control department. While other communities across the province are taking a pro-active approach to population control, crows in this city remain untouchable. A debate two years ago over whether to hire people to shoot them went nowhere, a decision city councillor Myles Heidt says is haunting the city now. There are large numbers of crows nesting in city's trees, and they represent a major irritant to many people, Heidt argues. "I'm sure we're going to have to revisit this. We've got people taking matters into their own hands. They're doing things like poisoning, they're doing things like putting blades into food, they've got air rifles. You know, we shouldn't have things like that in the city." You don't see such vigilante action in Melville. If you're up early enough, however, you might see volunteer Lin Orosz patrolling the parks with a .410 shotgun and a specially marked jacket, hunting crows. Before most people are even out of bed, Orosz has already put in a couple of hours work. Last Friday, he had bagged five birds before breakfast. After three years of morning hunts, Orosz says the Melville crow population has been brought under control. "This will be the fourth year we've done it, and there are diminishing returns. We got a lot the first year, fewer the second year and even fewer yet last year. They're getting smarter but the numbers of troublemakers have also decreased substantially." This is crow control Saskatchewan style. Kamsack, North Battleford and Melville all have people shooting crows and now Yorkton is preparing to join them. So far, reaction in the city of 18,000 has been positive says Darcy McLeod, Yorkton's director of leisure services. In Yorkton, songbirds have become something you read about in books. "They get chased away. And people when they're going out for walks, the crows are swooping at their heads. If you're just going out for a stroll, you're not looking out for nests, McLeod said." Yorkton has not tried to do any population survey of the crows, but McLeod says there is no doubt the numbers are increasing year by year. Accordingly, their battle plan calls for a two-pronged approach. City employees will knock down as many crows' nests as they can, using cherry pickers to get up to the nests identified by citizens throughout the city. If necessary, they might use firehoses to knock nests out of the trees. You can't win a war without some bloodshed, so there will also be one or two designated shooters on the streets of Yorkton looking for crows. The issue became a national news story last week when CBC's As It Happens interviewed McLeod. Of course, they tried to set it up as one of those outlandish prairie stories designed to draw a chuckle in central Canada. But it's not so funny if you're living with a dozen crows in the tree outside your bedroom window. Conservationists will shudder at the thought of sharpshooters out on city streets, but unless someone has a better idea it's probably worth a try. "We've been doing this for four years and we haven't had one complaint," says crow hunter Orosz, who in his day job works as the editor of the Melville Advance. "It's a function of knowing the limitations and capabilities of your ammunition and firearms are and using common sense. " As for opponents to the program, Orosz says the Advance had a couple of letters, "but for every complaint, we've had scores of supportive people writing to us or even stopping us in the post office or talking to city councillors. The overwhelming majority by a long shot is keep it up." Surely, Saskatoon is not so different from its country cousins. As it is elsewhere, the choice is clear. Do nothing and let the crows rule the streets and the parks, or take up arms to improve the city's quality of life. I'm with councillor Heidt on this one. This city ain't big enough for us and thousands of flying gophers too. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:45:23 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Large cache of illegal knives seized PUBLICATION WINNIPEG FREE PRESS DATE : TUE APR.15,2003 PAGE : B3 CLASS : City EDITION : - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Large cache of illegal knives seized Butterfly, spring-activated switchblades found in raid on gun show booth - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike McIntyre A Winnipeg man has been charged with keeping an extensive stash of illegal knives and selling them at a local gun show. RCMP say a "covert" operation led them to one of the largest, and most unusual, seizures of its kind. Although police have made several weapons seizures in recent months, most have involved guns and didn't involved the alleged trafficking of weapons. Trafficking charges are normally restricted to narcotics. Allan Doty was arrested in February and made his first court appearance yesterday. He is facing several dozen weapons-related offences. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Saunders said police have kept a low profile about the seizure because of how it came about, which he couldn't discuss. "I can't do that because of the covert work which was done," he said. Saunders said police raided a booth that was set up during a gun show in early February as part of an ongoing investigation. Police seized about 120 butterfly and spring-activated switchblades, which are prohibited weapons, he said. The knives varied in length and are popular in martial arts, said Saunders. Doty is charged with several counts of trafficking the weapons, which involve sales made to the public, he said. His case was remanded yesterday until May. "This is quite unique, particularly the volume of the seizure. Our belief is these trade shows were his primary method of marketing," said Saunders. Earlier this year, RCMP concluded a six-month investigation with the province's largest-ever seizure of firearms. Police seized 87 rifles, 32 shotguns, 78 handguns and 58 gun parts, plus thousands of rounds of ammunition, from homes in the city and Steinbach area. Three people have been charged with gun-related offences, and police believe some of the firearms were brought into Canada from the U.S. and sold illegally. In January, police raided a St. Boniface home and seized 26 firearms. Police had found 16 handguns, nine rifles, and one machine gun. In mid-November, Winnipeg police raided a Fort Garry home and seized 335 firearms, mostly military assault weapons, machine guns and semi-automatic pistols. Police linked the owner to a machine-gun held by a captive fugitive later that month and to an assault by a member of the local Hells Angels. mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:45:57 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Court date set PUBLICATION: The Moncton Times and Transcript DATE: 2003.04.15 SECTION: News PAGE: A4 COLUMN: Courts/Crime Court date set George Pavlovszky, the Moncton Community Services Department employee accused of trying to kill his bosses in an incident last Thursday, was ordered yesterday to return to Moncton provincial court Tuesday. April 22, for election and plea on a variety of charges stemming from the incident. Pavlovszky faces two counts of attempted murder, carrying a loaded .12-gauge shotgun for the purpose of committing a criminal offence; carrying a loaded ..38-caliber handgun for the same reason; carrying a concealed weapon (the handgun) for which he had no permit to carry; possession of a restricted weapon and ammunition for which he is not licenced to possess, and mischief for willfully damaging a window at the centre. The 44-year-old Moncton man and long-time employee with the department is alleged to have gone to the Moncton Public Works Operation Centre last Thursday afternoon armed with a loaded shotgun and handgun with the intent to kill his immediately supervisor, Jim Moore, and department operations director Rod Higgins. No one was hurt during the incident which ended quickly when Codiac Regional RCMP members managed to surprise and overpower the suspect inside the centre. No shots were fired. Police described the suspect from the onset as a disgruntled employee, but have not specified any reason for the suspect's actions. Moncton defence counsel Wendell Maxwell appeared on behalf of the accused at yesterday's proceedings. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:46:48 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: BB gun brings trouble PUBLICATION: Vancouver Sun DATE: 2003.04.15 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: B7 COLUMN: In Brief SOURCE: CanWest News Service DATELINE: VANCOUVER - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BB gun brings trouble - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- VANCOUVER -- Several youngsters in East Vancouver got more than they bargained for Friday when police showed up at one of their homes and confiscated a BB gun neighbours thought was something far more powerful. Constable Sarah Bloor said the incident occurred at 7:45 p.m. in the 1000-block East 51st when police received a complaint about teenagers with a gun and shots being fired. Police showed up and discovered the weapon was a BB gun that resembled a handgun. The teens were shooting it in the backyard of a house. Although owning a BB gun isn't illegal, officers confiscated the gun and told the boys to be more careful in the future. Meanwhile, police were called to the 700-block Homer early Sunday when shots were fired outside a local club. Bloor said no arrests were made. Bloor said two shots were also fired into a vehicle in the 600-block West Broadway at 4 a.m. Saturday. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 08:51:02 -0600 (CST) From: Jim Hill Subject: Fw: Health pros support gun control To the Hill Times this morning. Jim Hill Fletchers Lake, NS - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Hill" To: Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 9:57 AM Subject: Health pros support gun control To the editor, The letter by Dr. Robert Cushman, Ottawa is yet another example of a person who thinks that because he is a doctor he is qualified to speak on any topic with authority. He is quick to cosy up to Wendy Cukier, the PR doctor from Ryerson as if she was something more than a shill for the Liberal Government. Cushman's quote of over 1000 deaths by firearms in Canada yearly include over 80% suicides. I note that he fails to mention the fact that the overall suicide rate has remained the same so it would appear that the ones he states are no longer shooting themselves appear to be using some other method. There seems to be more of an aversion to the method of suicide than to the act itself. Perhaps if those in the health field would actually pay attention to some of those patients rather than rotating them back out onto the streets with a bottle of pills and on to the next patient, the suicide rate would really be affected. I am always amazed how a doctor can have 10 or more appointments all scheduled at the same time and think he is actually doing something other than shuffling paperwork to ensure he gets paid. Members of the Responsible Firearms Community (RFC) are not the ones to be concerned about. Doctors kill far more people in this country and others through medical misadventure, than firearms do. Several studies in the USA, Canada and Australia show how dangerous doctors can be. The scary part is few people have a gun but everyone has at least one doctor. I note that it did not take him long to equate the gun legislation with vehicle and road safety. In case he had not noticed the registration of vehicle has never prevented an accident. It simply provides a tax for the government to use for; well, I am not sure, but it sure is not on the roads or bridges across the country. As for the dropping rates of suicides, accidents, etc involving firearms he accuses opponents of seizing on any explanation aside from gun control to explain these declining rates while at the same time doing exactly the same thing to press his point. In actual fact the rates of suicide and firearms related deaths were dropping long before the doctor along with Wendy decided to use the figures to try to say something they do not. Try a simple test, go to your neighbours and friends and ask how many of them have ever been affected by a shooting, not what they read in the paper or hear on tv, but actual personal knowledge. You will find it will be extremely rare to meet someone so affected. Now ask these same people how many of them have had faulty diagnoses or had family members or friends that were injured or died as a result of medical misadventure. You will find the latter far outweighs the former. Ask also how many have had cancer affect their lives either through the loss of family or friends or personal experience. The good doctor, I would wager has never even treated a gunshot wound and if he has, it was rare. On the other hand, he has watched countless people die from various forms of cancers. Breast Cancer affects 19,000 people a year and 5,000 will die, yet the federal government allocates only a pittance for research by comparison to the billion it has admitted to spending in such a short time on the Firearms Registry and most likely has another half billion or more still hidden. Violent crime can be dealt with by dealing with the criminal and there are sections in the Firearms Act that were supposed to do just that, the increase from one year to four year mandatory sentence to be imposed for certain sections. The only problem is the new act is treated by the lawyers exactly the same as the old. these charges are the first to be dealt away in an effort to convince the criminal to plead guilty to some minor offence so he will not take up the courts time. The result is that the criminal is back on the street quicker than the doc can stitch an appendix. That is what they call having an effect on crime? Too many times criminals who should still be behind bars are ushered out only to kill again. While all this is going on under the government's nose, they wave around the Firearm's Act and say look what we have done! They have destroyed a six billion dollar a year industry in Canada involving legal firearms, they are on the way to destroying another multibillion dollar a year industry involving hunting and outfitting. They have accomplished nothing other than show us how they can waste money in short order trying to reduce the suicide rate by firearm. The rate of suicide will remain the same but at least they will not do it with a gun. Accidental injury or death as a result of a legal firearm is almost non existent. Safe storage laws and proper safety courses which were in effect prior to the billion dollar boondoggle have these rates way below one percent of the total. I am amazed that the Anti's like Wendy's group have a particular aversion to safety courses being taught at an early age to children so they will know exactly what to do in the event they should happen upon a firearm that got thrown away by some criminal as he ran from the police. These groups have a no problem teaching them about sex and fires and other hazards but do not even use the word gun. That only leaves criminal use of firearms and as this government has shown they are not interested in doing anything about that as they are targeting legal owners of firearms. they are not above registering firearms to you that you do not own and when you bring it to their attention as I did in my case well over a year ago, they still do nothing. They are checking , they say. I did a check with the manufacturer and supplied them with the same information contained on the registration card and was told they have never made such a firearm. Now that is what I call good value for your money! I retired from the RCMP after 26 years and during that time attended a few suicides some with a gun and others by other means.I did not feel any particular aversion to the method chosen only sadness that their lives had been reduced to this and no one seemed to care. Investigation after the fact revealed the signs were there and they were under a doctor's care... I do not see a hue and cry to put further controls on pills or rope. I always found it a little strange to see a doctor give a prescription to a person suffering from a depression and not put any type of control over how the medication would be taken other than what was written on the bottle. I wonder how many people filled the prescription and went home and took the whole bottle and died as a result. More than the good doctor would care to admit I expect. The members of the RFC are not against gun control, we agree that the licensing and background checks of owners would be a good idea, if only we could get the people at the Canadian Firearms Centre to actually do them instead of misleading the public and rubber stamping them. The references on my application were never checked, I asked them, nor was my spouse ever contacted. They accepted a signature on the application as hers without verification. Yep, Wendy and Doctor Cushman that is a fine example of what you can get for over a billion dollars. Jim Hill, RCMP ret. Fletchers Lake, NS ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V5 #975 ********************************** 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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