From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V6 #847 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 Wednesday, January 21 2004 Volume 06 : Number 847 In this issue: officers drew their guns 77 times in 2002. Letter: Police must not be given special rights THUGS BOTCH DRUG RAID Cookville man to face drug-related charges Re: "Questions and Opinions" Firearm registry option won't work, prof says DURHAM POLICE SEIZE 14 GUNS Court hears love letters from woman later accused of shooting spouse Letter: Police officer invites public airing of tragedy Mounties get their men in frigid odyssey GUN BLAST ENDS CHASE ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:17:37 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: officers drew their guns 77 times in 2002. PUBLICATION: The Record (Waterloo Region) DATE: 2004.01.21 SECTION: Local PAGE: B1 SOURCE: RECORD STAFF BYLINE: DIANNE WOOD DATELINE: KITCHENER - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cops sprayed defiant driver - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police used pepper spray and a handgun to subdue a Waterloo woman who grew enraged when they pulled her over in a routine traffic stop two years ago. At a trial last year, Carol Daugherty, 40, of Waterloo was convicted of assaulting two officers. Yesterday, in Kitchener's Ontario Court, she was sentenced to nine months' house arrest. Justice Norman Douglas was appalled at the woman's actions on Dec. 22, 2001. Described as a very religious woman who is affiliated with the Church of Spiritual Humanism, she didn't exhibit loving qualities that day, the judge said. "She decided, stubbornly, that police had no right to pull her over," Douglas said. Two officers stopped Daugherty on Weber Street East in Kitchener because of an invalidated sticker on her licence plate. Her 14-year-old daughter was a passenger in the van. Daugherty, however, refused to produce documents when police requested them. "She got defiant and haughty and stubbornly refused to do anything police asked her to do," Douglas said. "She doesn't even realize it but she could have been shot and killed, and her daughter hurt." POINTS GUN During the height of the incident, Const. Christopher Clement pulled out his gun after seeing Daugherty reach for a tool box in the van. He thought she might be trying to grab something to use as a weapon. At the trial, Daugherty testified that she was trying to get away from the officer, who had a handgun trained on her. The whole thing started because of a dispute over the documents, then escalated when police ordered Daugherty out of the van. At one point, the door opened and she was kicking at police, who were trying to force her out. One officer hurt his arm. The door closed and police used a blast of pepper spray through her window. It either had no effect or they missed. After they finally dragged her from the van, Const. Greg Hill saw Daugherty grab for his holstered revolver. During the trial, Daugherty said she didn't provide her identification because police didn't ask for it. She said she couldn't find the ownership and insurance because the van wasn't her vehicle. Her lawyer, Joseph Diluca, said the behaviour was an aberration for the single mother of two. She was recently ordained as a clergy member in her church. She has never been in trouble with the law, he noted. Putting her in jail would hurt her children, said Diluca, who argued for a suspended sentence, probation and community service. He said she had already been "stigmatized" by her conviction and "shamed publically" by going through a trial. That's enough punishment, he said. But the judge disagreed. "Mr. Diluca has done a fine job," Douglas said. "He's desperately trying to keep his client out of jail and she sits there, not getting it." He said Daugherty still believes police were at fault and she was the victim. Courts must protect the police, he said. If they don't, officers will take the law into their own hands or it will be "open season on police." He said a jail sentence was needed but he let her serve it in the community. However, she'll have a curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. for the nine months. She'll have to perform 75 hours of community service and take anger-management counselling. "I'm going to hope this was out of character for her and she'll never display the arrogance she displayed that day," the judge concluded. According to local police statistics, officers drew their guns 77 times in 2002. In 2001, the number was the same and in 2000, officers drew their firearms 50 times. dwood@therecord.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:19:05 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Police must not be given special rights PUBLICATION: The Kingston Whig-Standard DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial PAGE: 4 BYLINE: Bruce N. Mills SOURCE: The Kingston Whig-Standard - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police must not be given special rights - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was disturbed by the closing comments of Professor Willem de Lint in the story "Police chief faces questions over officers' access to guns" (Jan. 14). He said that if a police officer is never off duty, then "I think the police can make a strong argument that they also have to have the technology available that distinguishes them from the regular population." That comment goes directly against Canada's supposedly "classless" society and the basic fundamentals of policing as set down by Sir Robert Peel in his Nine Principles of Policing. Sir Robert recognized that police officers were just regular citizens who were specially hired to conduct policing operations on a full-time basis - something the average citizen is largely unable to do. While the citizen cedes some of his authority to the state and its agents, he does not cede all of it - which is why the power of the police should never exceed that of the individual. If police officers are going to be given the authority to have in their homes, or on their person, such "technology" as firearms for their own defence, then the same right must be accorded to the general population. To not do so runs the risk of a society becoming a police state in which only those in authority have any power, and the population is subjugated to their will. We are the police, and the police are us, and that is the way it must remain. Bruce N. Mills Dundas ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:20:12 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: THUGS BOTCH DRUG RAID PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 18 ILLUSTRATION: photo by Dave Thomas A POLICEMAN takes a woman into custody early yesterday after her apartment was invaded by men with guns. Police said they were looking for drugs. BYLINE: JACK BOLAND, TORONTO SUN - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THUGS BOTCH DRUG RAID - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Both the invaders and the invaded were arrested in a botched early morning home invasion in North York yesterday. Around 7:14 a.m. yesterday, Toronto Police received a phone call from a resident of a sixth-floor apartment on Hawksbury Dr., east of Bayview Village shopping mall, saying they heard a group of men arguing or fighting. Moments later a woman was seen screaming for help from her sixth-floor balcony, Const. Mike Hayles said. Emergency Task Force officers stormed into the building and defused the situation. Police then made several arrests, including one man found hiding in the building's laundry room. Two men stormed into the apartment searching for cocaine, Hayles said. A 30-year-old resident had his hands bound with duct tape by the intruders. His girlfriend and her two-year-old daughter were unharmed. The couple living in the apartment were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of an unregistered, loaded firearm. The intruders face forcible confinement, robbery and weapons charges. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:20:53 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Cookville man to face drug-related charges PUBLICATION: The Chronicle-Herald DATE: 2004.01.21 SECTION: NovaScotia PAGE: A5 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cookville man to face drug-related charges - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRIDGEWATER - A 24-year-old Cookville man charged with weapons and drug-related offences will appear today in Bridgewater provincial court. RCMP seized a sawed-off shotgun, a quantity of marijuana and drug-related paraphernalia from a house in Cookville during a raid Monday. Daniel Rafuse and two other men in their early 20s were arrested at the scene. One man was released later that night. Mr. Rafuse was remanded in custody Tuesday until today's hearing. He is charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, tampering with a serial number on a firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm and breach of an undertaking. Charges are also pending against the other man. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:33:40 -0600 (CST) From: Edward Hudson Subject: Re: "Questions and Opinions" "Robert S. Sciuk" wrote: > The RFC has never been able to AGREE amoungst ourselves > upon a simple message which can be understood by the > average Canadian and can be used to influence public > opinion. > > Something to speak with one voice for all 6 Million of us! We needed it > 10 years ago. We need it now. We will need it tomorrow. I am not sure if "one voice for all 6 Million of us" is a practical goal. It may be desirable, but obtainable ?? We are after all, human. And with our humanity comes individuality. The Nazis killed over six million Jews in Europe. Even while these people were being brutally exterminated they had a very hard time agreeing upon a "unified" voice. But that example may actually serve to emphasize your point, rather than mine. As to our "simple message which can be understood by the average Canadian," I suggest, "We have a Right to self-preservation. The Firearms Act violates that Right. Therefore the Firearms Act should be repealed. I will never submit to an unjust law." What would you suggest ? Sincerely, Eduardo http://www.cufoa.ca "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:35:29 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Firearm registry option won't work, prof says PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: CityPlus PAGE: B6 COLUMN: Alberta Digest SOURCE: CanWest News Service DATELINE: EDMONTON - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Firearm registry option won't work, prof says - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDMONTON - A proposal to circumvent the federal firearms registry by having the Alberta government recognize the role guns have played in the province's heritage won't work, a University of Alberta constitutional law expert says. Gerald Gall said the Supreme Court has already ruled the federal government has jurisdiction over gun control. "A provincial declaration of some kind that it is part of provincial heritage? First, I don't think that is historically accurate," he said Tuesday, "and I don't think the legislation would affect federal legislation one iota." The proposal, from an organization calling itself Responsible Firearms Owners of Alberta, was discussed Tuesday with a three-member committee of government MLAs. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:36:30 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: DURHAM POLICE SEIZE 14 GUNS PUBLICATION: The Toronto Sun DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 19 COLUMN: Sunflashes - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DURHAM POLICE SEIZE 14 GUNS - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A campaign targeting street gangs in Oshawa has taken 14 guns off the streets. Project Gun Shy officers have arrested 25 people and slapped them with more than 300 charges since the campaign was launched in October. Durham Regional Police said combatting street gangs is a priority but wouldn't say if the 25 arrested are gang members. Police said the violence is tied to the drug trade, particularly crack cocaine, hashish and marijuana. About $8,000 worth of crack cocaine and dope has been seized. Also seized was $4,000 in cash and body armour. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:46:57 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Court hears love letters from woman later accused of shooting spouse DATE: 2004.01.21 CATEGORY: Western regional general news PUBLICATION: cpw - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Court hears love letters from woman later accused of shooting spouse - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KELOWNA, B.C. (CP) _ A Summerland woman gave her estranged husband several love letters that begged him to come home before she allegedly shot him with his handgun, a B.C. Supreme Court jury heard Tuesday. Two of the letters written by Dixie Lee Rogers, charged with the attempted murder of her husband on April 29, 2002, were read aloud in court by Crown counsel Vern Frolick. ``I love you so much. You're the most important person in my life,'' one letter read. ``I'm really scared and vulnerable. I want to grow old with you and have a really solid marriage. Please come home.'' The writer of the letters wiped her nose and eyes several times as her former husband, Ian Rogers, told the court how he was shot. The 56-year-old man testified that his wife of 29 years pulled the trigger of his handgun four times and struck him with two bullets. He told court that he fled, hid behind a tree as she looked for him, and then, after she drove away, knocked on his neighbour's door for help. Rogers told court he lost consciousness later that night and woke up two months later in the intensive care unit of Vancouver General Hospital. He underwent at least seven surgeries and was unable to eat solid food for 10 months. Rogers said he'd left his wife a month before the shooting, telling her that he was moving from the hobby farm they shared in Faulder to live at the Summerland home of his elderly parents. A month later, he said he arrived at his parents' home to find his wife sitting in her parked Honda in the carport. He invited her in when she told him she wanted to talk. ``Dixie had a very stern look on her face,'' he said. ``She was saying things like, `Ian, I really need you to come home.''' He told court that they spoke inside and at one point he briefly left the room. Rogers said he walked back in den and ``saw the gun come out of her purse.'' ``I looked at Dixie and said, `What the hell are you doing with a gun?''' Rogers told the court that, as he ``felt the first slug hit'' as he was running through the carport. ``I yelled, `Christ, Dixie, quit shooting. You're going to kill me.''' Rogers admitted under cross examination that he'd been an alcoholic early in his marriage and that his wife ``stuck with him'' during a rough time. But he said he was unhappy with their relationship and wanted to leave her so he could have time ``to get things straightened in my mind.'' (Kelowna Daily Courier) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:47:29 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Letter: Police officer invites public airing of tragedy PUBLICATION: The Province DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial PAGE: A17 BYLINE: Clive Milligan SOURCE: The Province ILLUSTRATION: Colour Photo: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province / This is thescene at 400 East Pender where police shot Thomas Stevenson when he refused to exit a stolen vehicle and reached for a replica handgun. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police officer invites public airing of tragedy - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sunday Province story on the coroner's jury's recommendations concerning the police shooting of Thomas Stevenson triggered a response from one the two officers involved. Here's his response: Const. Darren Foster and I are saddened by the loss of life and the impact it must still have on the family and friends of Thomas Stevenson. During the inquest, it was made clear that Stevenson (later determined to be wanted for numerous bank robberies across Canada) refused to comply with demands that he exit the stolen car. He was nervously moving about in the driver's side of the car while frantically trying to light a crack cocaine pipe. As Foster tried to gain entry by breaking the window to unlock the door, I noticed a butt of what appeared to be a semi-auto pistol suddenly emerge from his jacket. After relaying this information to Foster and yelling at Stevenson to get his hands in the air, he reached down and grabbed the butt of the gun. As demonstrated explicitly at the inquest, it was impossible and completely unrealistic to stop the perceived threat by any other means than with deadly force. I also gave four reasonable explanations to the jury about why Stevenson would have made the critical error which led to him being shot. The jury was also given a reasonable explanation as to how Stevenson's wounds were conducive to the dynamic position he was in as opposed to lawyer Cameron Ward's suggestions of a static body position. (A ballistic wounds expert would be the appropriate person to interview on this, rather than a lawyer.) It's sad that Stevenson's father was misinformed by Ward that there was "never an investigation done into the shooting." Ward and I constantly referred to the more than 500-page detailed Vancouver police report of Stevenson's death. I wonder if Ward conveyed our condolences to Stevenson's family as I had requested. This will have to be done without his help. I fully welcome a police complaint commissioner's public hearing to present all of the facts regarding this tragic incident. Sgt. Clive Milligan, Vancouver Police Department ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:48:06 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: Mounties get their men in frigid odyssey PUBLICATION GLOBE AND MAIL DATE: WED JAN.21,2004 PAGE: A1 BYLINE: GRAEME SMITH CLASS: National News EDITION: Metro DATELINE: Winnipeg, MB WORDS: 521 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mounties get their men in frigid odyssey - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On a frigid night with only a sliver of moon in the sky, a small group of dogged Mounties chased a pair of suspected thieves through bushes, over fences, through waist-deep snow, and among bulrushes taller than their heads. They slogged across a remote stretch of Manitoba prairie for seven hours, and caught their quarry just before dawn yesterday. The epic pursuit began on Monday night, when a resident of the sparsely populated area near Plumas, north of Portage la Prairie, called neighbours to warn that somebody had broken into his home and stolen a snowmobile. "As they often do in communities like this, people started driving around the back roads to see if they could locate the suspects," RCMP Sergeant Steve Saunders said. Shortly after 10 p.m., a 40-year-old man was driving his pickup truck when he noticed two men at the side of the road with what looked like his neighbour's snowmobile. He pulled over to take a closer look, Sgt. Saunders said, and one of the men fired a rifle at him. The bullet punched through the man's windshield and injured him, but he was able to drive away and get help, Constable Dan Toppings said. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a nearby hospital and later transferred to Brandon for surgery. His life was not considered in danger. A neighbour called police, and more than a dozen officers from three RCMP detachments began searching for the suspects. They quickly found the snowmobile and other stolen goods dumped near a back road, with footprints leading away to the northeast. The officers tried to follow the trail on snowmobiles but soon got bogged down in powdery drifts that were often 1 1/2 metres deep. Abandoning their machines, the officers continued the chase on foot. "It was literally cross-country," Sgt. Saunders said. The deep snow became even more difficult at fence lines, bushes, and frozen swamps covered with dense bulrushes. "They just kept following those tracks," Constable Toppings said. Most of the time the officers could follow the suspects' footprints in the fresh snow, Constable Toppings said, but they also relied on a female German shepherd named Axa, a four-year veteran of the force. "That dog has a good nose on her," he said. "They found them hiding in a swampy area because the dog followed their scent. Next thing you know, they heard a commotion in the bushes." Subdued by the dog, the men were arrested around 5:30 a.m. They were carrying a loaded .22-calibre rifle, Constable Toppings said. Charges have not been laid. Temperatures have regularly reached -30 overnight in Manitoba this month, and the wind chill makes it seem even colder. The officers were dressed for the weather with their RCMP fur caps, scarves, boots, parkas, mittens and snow pants, Sgt. Saunders said. The suspects weren't as well prepared for the cold, Sgt. Saunders said, but they seemed to have been defeated by sheer exhaustion more than anything else. "Our guys were very, very tired when they got back," Constable Toppings said. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:48:40 -0600 (CST) From: "Breitkreuz, Garry - Assistant 1" Subject: GUN BLAST ENDS CHASE PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun DATE: 2004.01.21 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: 4 BYLINE: KATIE CHALMERS, STAFF REPORTER - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUN BLAST ENDS CHASE SNOMO THIEVES SHOOT PURSUER - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A rural Manitoba man took a shotgun blast to his upper body while trying to help a friend catch two thieves on a stolen snowmobile Monday night. Terry Sollner, 40, was behind the wheel of his truck, racing along a road north of Gladstone, when he came upon the two men on the speeding snowmobile. The man behind the snowmobile driver was armed with a shotgun. "He cut them off. He had his window down and they shot at him as he was going by," said Sollner's neighbour, Ron Watson, who joined a seven-hour search for the two men. "(Medical staff) are picking pellets out of his shoulder and the side of his face." Sollner was undergoing treatment at Brandon General Hospital yesterday afternoon to remove the pellets that struck his chest, shoulder, face and eye but didn't cost him his vision, Watson said. Sollner's injuries are not life-threatening, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Saunders. Mounties believe one shot was fired. The chase began when a friend of Sollner's arrived at his Gladstone home from a curling match Monday night to discover thieves had broken in and taken his snowmobile, Watson said. Gladstone is about 65 kilometres northeast of Brandon. The homeowner followed the tracks and phoned his buddies to help capture the thieves. RCMP covered up to 14 kilometres of snowy terrain before tracking down the suspects northeast of the shooting scene. "The perseverance of the RCMP in searching for these individuals was critical. Our police service dog and the handler were on foot and had to track between seven and nine miles, sometimes through waist-deep snow. It was a challenge physically," Saunders said. Two men, age 20 and 27 are facing charges and remain in custody. Both are residents of Sandy Bay First Nation, about 110 kilometres northeast of Brandon. Police recovered the abandoned snowmobile and seized a shotgun. Staff at the municipality office in Gladstone, where Sollner works as a machine operator, were concerned for their co-worker yesterday. "He's just an all-around good guy," said shop foreman Richard Foxon. "He would help anybody. I guess he was helping a friend and got in the wrong spot at the wrong time. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V6 #847 ********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:moderator@hitchen.org 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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