From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V8 #352 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 Sunday, August 21 2005 Volume 08 : Number 352 In this issue: further on toronto The week in crime from Toronto Re: Scotland: Get used to officers with guns [COLUMN] Slipping away Another Gun Taken From Toronto Streets [COLUMN] The McGuinty Liberals took drastic action over pit bulls [ARTICLE] Taser found after bar fight Jewelry store thief recalled as a 'bad guy' [LETTERS] TORONTO SUN, AUGUST 21 [COLUMN] Liberals firing blanks on crime ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 22:03:49 -0600 (CST) From: "george w. s. adair" Subject: further on toronto I agree that Toronto has it bad right now, I wouldn't want to be in duck and cover mode all the time either. So yell, scream, get in the face of every politician you can and tell them we all want the scum locked up for as long as possible. The reason is if they are not on the street they are not hurting us. If there are not enough jails build more, in remote harsh locations, no frills. Why should they get treated better then us. And finally if there is not enough room in the prisons tough again, stack em up boy's cause overcrowding ain't my problem. I am a law abiding citizen, start treating me like one. George W. S . Adair No one ever said our freedoms would come cheap. Some we must be prepared to fight for, some we must be prepared to die for. Take freedom for granted once and it will be gone forever. 1776 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 22:04:01 -0600 (CST) From: "george w. s. adair" Subject: The week in crime from Toronto I will probably get blasted for this but is there any reason why we need to see the stats on crime in Toronto. Is there something special about Toronto that makes it's crime wave more heinous then ours in Winnipeg or someone else's in say Halifax. Shorten it down and I will look at it. You know how, so many shot, so many run over, so many robbed. I and I hope most of us on the digest do not really give a rat's ass who shot who and how. Especially if one low life waste of skin is taking out another low life waste of skin. The only times I am outraged is when an innocent is targeted or when the low life gets time served and house arrest George W. S . Adair No one ever said our freedoms would come cheap. Some we must be prepared to fight for, some we must be prepared to die for. Take freedom for granted once and it will be gone forever. 1776 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:34:10 -0600 (CST) From: "mred" Subject: Re: Scotland: Get used to officers with guns - ----- Original Message ----- > http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1812442005 > > Get used to officers with guns, police chief warns Scots > > August 20, 2005 > GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN - CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT >> Mr Tomkins also warned that it would be naive to think that Scotland was > immune from terrorist attack. If the Muslims use Scotland as a base to launch terrorist attacks ? they will not jeopardize that location while they are using it as a home base ? Why draw attention to them selves in s safe haven ? much like Kanada? ed/ontario ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:34:38 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [COLUMN] Slipping away http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Paul_Jackson/2005/08/16/11 74906.html Slipping away Supreme Court appointments must be taken out of PM's hands By Paul Jackson -- Calgary Sun Tue, August 16, 2005 A while back, speaking to a conference of Republicans Abroad, I told the audience that up north, a prime minister unilaterally decides who sits on 'our' Supreme Court of Canada. No bipartisan vetting or confirmation process by an independent Parliamentary committee. Well, they could hardly believe such absolute authoritarian power could exist in a supposedly democratic nation. Just what kind of a banana republic did we have in Canada? The alarm by the GOP audience, came back as I penned "Judge for yourself " (Aug. 2) about President George W. Bush's nomination of John Roberts to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court and how Bush, who has a majority in the Senate, still has to persuade the Democrats to accept his choice. Despite Roberts' superb qualifications -- an outstanding lawyer, according to the American Bar Association -- it will still be a huge battle that dominates headlines and TV newscasts. In Canada, no one gets to question our Supreme Court nominees -- because there are no nominees. The prime minister uses his dictatorial power to put whom he wants on the highest court, and it's a done deal. This is why, across the past decade, only twice as I can recall has our Supreme Court made decisions that do not fit into the Lib-Left thrust of the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin regime. Those were the decisions that our fabled health-care system is so inadequate we should be able to seek better care by buying our own insurance, and the ruling aboriginal people shouldn't be able to rip off our forests by logging commercially and indiscriminately for their own commercial purposes. All other rulings have sat well with the self-serving and self-satisfied Liberal hierarchy. Thus, in a frightening way, the Supreme Court has become irrelevant to most Canadians even as it rulings are extremely relevant. Go into any bar in the U.S. and 999 people out of 1,000 will be able to tell you the Chief Justice of their Supreme Court is William Rehnquist. Stop the next 1,000 people you meet today and ask who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. OK, go and look it up. In the U.S., most could name you several of the other eight justices -- say Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and the awful, arrogant Bill Clinton appointee, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Here, you might well bat zero. In "Judge for yourself " I noted while Clinton, egged on by the long-suffering Hillary, tried to politicize the court, Bush has declared justices will not take the place of the elected representatives of the people. "I do not believe in liberal, activist judges. We need people who will not legislate from the Bench," he said. Who said this man wasn't very bright? The process in the U.S. is so open and so democratic that even senators who have disgraced themselves get to puff out their chests and sound indignant. One senator who is already gnashing his teeth over Bush's choice is that old roue and failed lifeguard Teddy Kennedy. Kennedy, who has taken on the mantle of Washington's arbiter of truth and integrity, left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown while he fled the scene at Edgartown Bridge in 1969 and then tried to dredge up some alibi that he was not driving the car that night so as not to spoil his reputation. Another fellow with a besmirched reputation who is up in arms about the Roberts nomination is the Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin. Durbin achieved considerable notoriety when he charged the Guantanamo detention camp -- air conditioning, clean laundry every day and meal menus that would do justice to most family restaurants in Canada -- was akin to a Nazi death camp or Soviet Gulag. Faced with a backlash from the American people, Durbin murmured he had somehow been misunderstood, Yet, as hypocritical as these two senators may be, it shows something that they still have a say, and with Kennedy an influential say, in who will sit on the Supreme Court. In Canada, you could have a charge of 100 top-notch MPs arguing against one of the prime minister's choices and every single voice would be rebuffed as they fell on stone-deaf ears. Again, friends, we surely have to take Supreme Court appointments solely out of the hands of the prime minister of the day. For, if not, our country is increasingly going to slip out of our hands. Jackson, associate editor of the Sun, can be reached at paul.jackson@calgarysun.com. Letters to the editor should be sent to: callet@calgarysun.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:34:55 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Another Gun Taken From Toronto Streets http://www.640toronto.com/news/metro.cfm?cat=7428109912&rem=16277&red=80110 923aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=metro.cfm Another Gun Taken From Toronto Streets 640 Toronto 24Hour Newscentre Aug, 21 2005 - 6:00 AM TORONTO/640 TORONTO - Another loaded weapon has been taken off Toronto streets. Cops received a call about a man with a gun driving in the Dufferin and Dupont area early yesterday morning. They pulled the man over and found a loaded semi-automatic handgun. Police also came across a stash of cocaine in the vehicle. Denoy Bennett, 23, faces several gun and drug charges. He's set to appear in court today. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:35:10 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [COLUMN] The McGuinty Liberals took drastic action over pit bulls http://torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Blizzard_Christina/2005/08/21/1182042 .html The McGuinty Liberals took drastic action over pit bulls By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD I am so confused. Last year it seemed the entire provincial Liberal cabinet was so strung out on caffeine, all it took was a dog to bark and Premier Dalton McGuinty or Attorney General Michael Bryant would leap in front of a camera and tell us that pit bulls need to be banned, banned, banned. This year, it's happy time here at Queen's Park. I'm not sure what they're putting in the coffee. Prozac, perhaps? Forget about dog bites. As of Wednesday, when McGuinty spoke to reporters, there had been 31 people shot to death this year in Toronto alone. Every morning, it seems, there's another body or two on the streets. Yet McGuinty and his usually sensible Public Safety Minister Monte Kwinter felt compelled to remind us last week that crime is down, down, down. "Don't lose sight of Toronto the Good," McGuinty said on Wednesday. "I think it's important to get the whole story out. The overwhelming majority of residents in this community are peace-loving, hospitable, warm, engaging people who would love to have the world visit us here." Well, okay. But that's like asking newpapers to write stories about the 2,385,369 Torontonians who made it safely through the night and not the 31 or so who didn't. "To suggest this is the wild West is irresponsible," Kwinter said. "One death is too many, but I'm saying to you we've got to counter the image that people are being shot all the time all over the city. That isn't the fact." Gee, sorry. I could have sworn that was police tape blocking my way to work the other morning. Silly me. I hate to be alarmist, but when you have the police chief talking about gang "turf wars" and children being caught "in the crossfire" and "gunslingers" who show a "wanton disregard for life," it is fair to describe what's happening on the streets of T.O. as akin to the "wild West." The whole pit bull vs. gun violence irony has not escaped provincial Progressive Conservative leader John Tory. "I find it an interesting contrast between that activity last year and this year, with what we see going on here," he said in an interview last week. "I don't sense the same passion about that and it should be there. It certainly is for me." He's visited three of the city's most troubled areas recently, talking to residents. What he's hearing doesn't connect with McGuinty's rose-coloured world. "I found his comments troubling, because they are so out of touch with the feelings of the people who live in the neighbourhoods I have been in," Tory said. He's found "despair combined with the anger combined with the anxiety" among residents whose lives have been made miserable by gangsters. Tory wants tougher sentencing. He was in Belleville on Friday and says he likes the federal legislation put forward by the area's Conservative MP Darryl Cramp, who proposes a tiered approach to gun crime. A person in possession of a gun in the commission of a crime would get a mandatory five-year sentence. If the gun is actually used in the crime, the minimimum is hiked to 10 years. It's not just the deterrent factor of such legislation that appeals to Tory. It's the fact that it gets the shooters off the streets. As for the new cops McGuinty has promised, Tory says it's the fourth time the Liberals have re-announced them. And it's "too little, too late. "Even if they had said they were going to phase it in over four years, starting in the first year of their mandate, 500 of them would be on the street now," Tory said. Remember how Tory promised 400 cops when he ran for Toronto mayor -- and all those lefties called him a scaremonger? Well, that was then. This is now. Guess we did need them after all. Better pass the Prozac. Quickly. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:35:22 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [ARTICLE] Taser found after bar fight http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2005/08/21/1181723-sun.html Taser found after bar fight By Ottawa Sun Gatineau police recovered an illegal Taser gun and arrested five people after a fight outside a Gatineau bar early Friday. The fist fight broke out just after 3 a.m. on de l'Hopital Blvd. and sent one man to hospital. Three men are facing aggravated assault charges while two others are charged with disturbing the peace. The men were arrested on the scene while they sat in their vehicle. Police said some of the men are connected with area street gangs. The Taser was found inside the vehicle and possession of a prohibited weapon charges are pending. COD FISHERMEN GET HOOKS INTO PROTEST ST. JOHN'S -- Newfoundland fishermen demanding the right to fish cod for food took their protest back on the water yesterday in their second demonstration in three weeks. The federal Fisheries Department reported 100 boats off the northeast and west coasts of Newfoundland and said it was investigating as many as 50 suspected cases of illegal cod fishing. Fisheries officials have already charged 24 fishermen in connection with a similar protest on July 30. RIGHT-WING DINNER SERVES UP CHENEY CALGARY -- U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney will attend a fundraising dinner organized by a right-wing think tank when he visits Alberta next month. The Sept. 8 dinner, organized by the Fraser Institute, will be an opportunity for Canada's oilpatch and provincial leaders to meet with the vice-president. Premier Ralph Klein, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and former Ontario premier Mike Harris have all been invited, sitting at tables named for them, while other guests will be paying $10,000 a plate. Lesser tables are going for $5,000 a plate. FAMOUS GRIZZLY KILLED IN TRAIN HIT BANFF -- This town's best-known grizzly bear is dead after being struck by a CP Rail train in Banff National Park. Parks Canada officials said Bear 66, known for once strolling down Banff Ave. in the middle of town several years ago, was most likely feeding on berry bushes with her three cubs near the tracks on Friday morning when she was hit. Bear 66 had gained notoriety for her comfort around people. She made headlines in June by nibbling on a sleeping bag occupied by a young Quebec man camping in the woods. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:35:36 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Jewelry store thief recalled as a 'bad guy' http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/08/21/1181662-sun.h tml Jewelry store thief recalled as a 'bad guy' KATE DUBINSKI, Free Press Reporter 2005-08-21 01:50:40 A police officer held at gunpoint a decade ago by one of the men killed after Wednesday's brazen jewelry heist isn't surprised the man went back to crime after being released from prison. "They were first-class criminals. Bad guys, that's for sure," said Toronto Police Const. Dave Keefer of the gang that took $2 million in jewelry in Keefer was on paid duty at the exclusive Royal de Versailles jewelry store in west Toronto in 1997 when four men burst in, guns pointed. Sean Patrick McGrath, 37, of Montreal, was one of several men convicted in connection with that robbery. McGrath was killed Wednesday in a Highway 402 crash after a smash-and-grab robbery at Anstett Jewellers at White Oaks shopping mall. One man, Akili Roberts, 25, of Montreal, has been charged with robbery. The identities of two other men, one dead and one in hospital, haven't been released. The recent robbery had similarities to the heist in which McGrath was involved in 1997 -- and for which he spent seven years in jail. "It was a very explosive entry," Keefer said from Toronto yesterday. "They had two shotguns, came right up to me, screaming at me to get down, get down, get down. "I remember the barrel of the shotgun against my forehead. I thought I was going to die. They say things slow down when you think you're going to die and it's true. Everything was moving pretty slowly. "Two hours later, I still had the imprint of the gun on my forehead." The robbery lasted less than two minutes. Rolexes and diamonds were stolen. Almost $2 million in jewelry was taken during the Toronto heist, most never recovered, Keefer said. The four men had a getaway car waiting down the block and another a few blocks from that one. Both vehicles had Quebec licence plates. Wednesday's robbery at Anstett Jewellers, which sells Rolex watches, sent police chasing after a white minivan, which was found at Nichols Arena. The chase continued, with the suspects in a gold Mercedes SUV, through south London and Lambeth and onto Highway 402. "I'm not surprised McGrath was at another one," Keefer said. "I guess he got out and was right back at it." Keefer testified at a preliminary hearing for the men involved in the Toronto robbery. They ended up pleading guilty. Then and now the robbers had "no regard for the consequences and the people on the street," he said. Keefer said he's not surprised the four men connected to the Anstett robbery are from Quebec. "There seem to be a lot of gangs in Montreal, I don't know why," he said. London police are trying to determine if the four suspects involved in this week's heist are linked to a series of similar holdups in Ontario and Quebec. Copyright © The London Free Press ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:35:48 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [LETTERS] TORONTO SUN, AUGUST 21 http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/08/20/1181578.html Blame canada Linda Williamson's "Bordering on insanity" (Sunday Sun, Aug. 14) was very perceptive. Until Canada's liberal politicians move beyond their belief that the U.S. is the source of all evil, no progress will be made in solving Toronto's problems. Many guns are brought into Canada by the same people running the grow houses in Canada which liberals thought was funny for so long. What do you think they do with the money they get when they sell their dope in the U.S.? Among other things, they buy guns and sell them for a profit in Canada. Do liberals in Canada think these organized criminals will be deterred by Canada's "justice" system? I'm a Canadian who lived in Toronto for many years. I'm sickened by what has happened there. Lou Vuillemot Youngstown, NY (Another one brainwashed by the evil U.S.A.!) Jails aren't the answer Young males in Toronto are dying or being harmed at an alarming rate due to gun violence. While the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW) believes increased policing has a role to play in securing communities affected by gang warfare and criminal activity, the criminal justice system does not hold long-term solutions to this troubling social phenomenon. The roots of youth violence in family poverty are well documented. The answers lie in ensuring that parents have sufficient incomes, adequate housing and access to supports in order to foster a healthy environment for children. Attention must focus on strengthening social policies. At the top of our "action list" are: 1) increases to income support programs for families with children, 2) more expansive training and employment opportunities, and 3) changing the "zero tolerance" policy in schools. OASW does not view the criminal justice system as the best approach to dealing with youth who are experiencing problems. Beverley J. Antle President, OASW Toronto (We don't view the justice system as it currently exists as the best approach, either -- but for different reasons) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:36:01 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [COLUMN] Liberals firing blanks on crime http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Williamson_Linda/2005/08/21/11819 27.html Liberals firing blanks on crime By LINDA WILLIAMSON It's been a rough week for those of us who still like to believe justice can exist in this country. First there was the horrific Lynda Shaw case in London, Ont.: Her murderer from 10 years ago, determined through DNA evidence, turned out to be a man who had already killed a cop and a taxi driver, but was somehow let out of prison for "good behaviour." Then, while federal authorities were still mumbling platitudes about an investigation to make sure such a travesty never happens again, we were slapped with the news of the Taber killer: The now-20-year-old who shot dead a classmate in his small-town Alberta school turned out to be living in a Toronto halfway house, which he fled, forcing police to issue a nationwide media alert. But when he was apprehended the next day, the media were once again banned from publishing his name, as we have been since he committed the crime as a 14-year-old. Yes, the good old Young Offenders Act, with its paltry sentences and crazy publication bans that apparently protect teenage killers for the rest of their lives, haunts us still. Meantime, Toronto's gun-murder toll continued to mount. A torontosun.com online poll, while far from scientific, nicely captured the public mood: To the question "Should possession of an illegal firearm result in a mandatory prison sentence?" a whopping 87% of respondents said Yes. Only 13% said No. Police tell us their efforts against gangs and guns are constantly hampered by courts that release the gangsters back to the streets with just a slap on the wrist. If the laws already on the books, which call for "mandatory" time for firearms offences, aren't being enforced, the obvious question becomes, why not make them tougher and make them stick? Well, Sun reader James Osborne, of Innisfil, took the trouble to put that question to federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler himself. I'm indebted to Osborne for forwarding Cotler's response to me -- it offers a highly revealing glimpse into the mind of the Liberals' top legal man in Ottawa; so much so that I'm reprinting it here: "Dear Mr. Osborne: I appreciate your concerns regarding crimes committed with a weapon. Please be assured that the Criminal Code provides stiff penalties for the use of weapons, including knives and firearms, in the commission of an offence.... "The existing penalties to deal with gun crimes are among the harshest in the Criminal Code. Our criminal justice system has always been premised on the notion that the fundamental principe of sentencing is proportionality, with the Criminal Code clealry stating that 'A sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.' The objectives of sentencing include deterrence (both general and specific), denunciation, rehabilitation, reparation, accountability to victims and the community, and separation from society where necessary. "You suggest that sentences should be more severe. There has been a great deal of research done on the subject of deterrence, and the overwhelming finding is that harsh penalties do not generally deter individuals from committing crime. It is the likelihood of arrest and conviction that acts as a deterrent -- not the severity of the possible punishment. "Furthermore in comparative terms, Canada's incarceration rate is higher than most western democracies. Canada's regime for high-risk, violent offenders is particularly severe with options of 'long-term offender' and 'dangerous offender' status, the latter calling for indeterminate imprisonment. "Thank you again for writing and sharing your views. Yours sincerely, Irwin Cotler." Kind of says it all, doesn't it? Next time you wonder what the Liberal vision of justice is in this country, turn back to this letter for handy reference. Better yet, you might question the minister yourself about his, ahem, interesting interpretation of "harsh" penalties. His email is Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca. You can e-mail Linda Williamson at linda.williamson@tor.sunpub.com Have a letter for the editor? E-mail it to editor@tor.sunpub.com ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V8 #352 ********************************** 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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