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 #494 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, October 15 2005 Volume 08 : Number 494 In this issue: Federal surplus at $6.8 billion Police launch in-house probe of internal affairs officers Gun safety suffers as registry dispute drags on How to get gun safety training in Nunavut How can government resolve problems when government is the Crime under a microscope ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:38:17 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Federal surplus at $6.8 billion http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/08/05/1161073-cp.html Federal surplus at $6.8 billion OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government recorded a surplus of $6.8 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year. That's up $2.2 billion from the same period (April to August) last year. Revenues were up $7.5 billion, reflecting higher personal and corporate income tax receipts, the Finance Department reported Friday. Overall spending rose by $5.8 billion, largely due to higher transfer payments to the provinces for health care and equalization, the department said. Public debt charges were down $500 million. It's unclear how big the surplus will be at year's end, but experts say it should be big. Currently, the government uses the surplus to pay down the public debt. New legislation proposes that all future surpluses over $3-billion go equally toward tax relief, new spending and debt repayment. For August, the government reported a $300-million deficit, compared with a surplus of $300 million in 2004. Total revenues were actually up $400 million over August 2004, but spending was $1.1 billion higher. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 15:48:37 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Police launch in-house probe of internal affairs officers http://toronto.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=to_police20051014 Police launch in-house probe of internal affairs officers Last updated Oct 14 2005 08:59 AM EDT CBC News Toronto police say accusations of wrongdoing against two internal affairs detectives will be handled in-house and not by an outside police force. The detectives worked on the investigation into a high-profile case involving allegations that some Toronto drug squad officers had beaten and robbed suspected drug dealers. However, an Ontario Provincial Police officer has now accused the two detectives who investigated the drug squad of attempting to illegally search a suspect officer's home. As a result, drug charges laid against Const. Ned Maodus have been put on hold while an internal investigation is conducted. * FROM OCT. 13, 2005: Drug cop's trial suddenly halted The police decision to run that investigation internally is drawing fire. "You can't clean your own house when you are under a question mark," said defence lawyer Clayton Ruby. "You really have to deal with that by not doing an in-house investigation," he said. "Clearly, you're going to need manpower, and that's going to be some external police force, but it shouldn't be under the direction of the Toronto chief." Even the head of the police officers' union wants an outside force called in, but the head of internal affairs says a Toronto homicide detective will conduct the probe. "If by chance the investigation that's being conducted here reveals something that might go . indicate a more severe problem, then quite possibly we might hand that investigation to an outside organization," said Staff Supt. Tony Corrie. "But, at the moment, we are very, very early days looking into this matter." Pam Connell, outgoing chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, says the decision ultimately lies with Chief Bill Blair. "He might consider bringing another force to do [run the investigation], or even consider very much doing it himself," McConnell said. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:26:02 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Gun safety suffers as registry dispute drags on http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/51014_05.html October 14, 2005 Gun safety suffers as registry dispute drags on "Personally, I think we're quite far behind" SARA MINOGUE October 14, 2005 http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/images/51014/firearms_safety_paul.jpg A Nasittuq employee checks to make sure a rifle is unloaded in a firearms safety course taught by Wes Smith in Iqaluit last week. (PHOTOS BY SARA MINOGUE) On September 3, 23-year-old Noo Tukiqi died when he tripped carrying a loaded rifle while running towards a group of caribou about 30 miles outside of Cape Dorset. He had just enough time to tell his wife he loved her, before he passed away, leaving her to find help from a group of people camped about a mile away. Firearms accidents like these can happen, but preventable deaths can also occur. This past July, seven-year-old Jobie Kadlak of Rankin Inlet died of a single gunshot wound when he and another boy were playing with a gun inside a cabin on the edge of town. The death was ruled accidental, but a man was charged with unsafe storage of a firearm. Since April 1, 1999, there have been four accidental deaths in Nunavut involving firearms, three of which were in Cape Dorset. There have also been two homicides involving guns. The biggest cause of death related to firearms in Canada is suicide. In Nunavut, 34 out of 170 suicides since April 1999 have been with a gun. That 's about 20 per cent of all suicides. It's enough to concern Nunavut's chief coroner, Tim Nealy. "[Gun safety] is something I've been looking at," Nealy said. "We do have some encouraging news now that we have a firearms officer back in Nunavut. For quite a while we didn't really have anything." The Canada Firearms Centre, which administers the gun registry in Canada, had nobody in Iqaluit for about a year. Inquiries to a 1-800 number were forwarded to Winnipeg, to someone who visited the territory about every three months. New firearms officer in Nunavut This March, Kevin Robertson took up the job of firearms officer for Nunavut - moving into his Iqaluit office next to the Baffin Hair & Tanning Studio in July after attending several training courses in the South. The CFC declares itself responsible for public gun safety in Canada. "The entire Canadian Firearms Program is about public safety," a spokesperson for the CFC wrote in a 2004 letter to the editor in the National Post. "The Chief Firearms Officers for each province are responsible for the implementation and delivery of the Canadian Firearms Safety Program in accordance with the Canada Firearms Centre's safety standards and policies," the letter reads. But in Nunavut, the CFC has yet to fill the void that has been left as gun safety issues are volleyed back and forth from the Government of Nunavut to hamlet councils to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. That's putting Nunavummiut in a dangerous position. When it comes to gun safety in Nunavut, "personally, I think we're quite far behind," Robertson said. Robertson's describes his two main responsibilities as, "licencing and safety training." "I'm here so the public can come in and say, I have problem, I want to do this, how do I get from here to there, be it in training or in registration of a firearms." In fact, he says his main concern is safety, but "there's just no money." When asked what the CFC's budget for Nunavut is for the year, he confesses he has no idea. In Nunavut, the CFC has no official plans to implement any training, although Robertson has helped several individual trainers to hold courses and is working on producing kits - composed of decommissioned guns and ammunition - to send to the trainers in the communities. "It's our organization that provides the materials but they don't supply the manpower," Robertson said. He's also working on organizing a master training session in order to train more firearms safety instructors. But as the lone man in Nunavut, Robertson also has a backlog of cases to investigate, where he must decide whether to prohibit criminals from holding a firearms licence. When it comes to gun registration, Robertson doesn't know exactly what the compliance rate is. "I would suspect that you could walk into just about any house in any settlement in Nunavut and you would find at least one firearm that's not been registered," he said, adding that it's not his job to enforce the law. How safe are we? Are there enough safety courses in Nunavut? Nobody knows the answer to this question, but Robertson speculates. "I know that down South, when I was in Winnipeg for close to two months, that there were an awful lot of firearms courses put on. A lot. Every weekend you'd find a firearms course somewhere." In Robertson's opinion, more needs to be done. He'd like to see elders going into schools to talk about gun safety. "One of our great assets here is our Rangers," he said. For many hunters, gun safety is a fact of life. Michael Qappik, former head of the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association in Iqaluit, can list gun safety rules on command, and is teaching his son to do the same. His guns are locked up, and are transported in a gun case, "even in the boat on the way hunting." "I think it's better to take the course, myself," said Qappiq, who has been hunting most of his life. In his experience, courses aren't too hard to come by in Iqaluit, but he and his wife Maggie both had the advantage of cadets, where they first learned firearm safety. But not everyone has been so lucky. At an Iqaluit city council meeting last October, Glen Williams raised the issue of gun safety in response to several late night incidents involving guns. "I know people over 30 who don't know any aspects of firearm safety whatsoever," Councillor Simanuk Kilabuk said during the debate. "We do need to provide some education and awareness." The city has yet to produce any formal plan for gun safety awareness or education. Right now, Nunavut is "in a fog," said the CFC's Robertson. "It's hard to say which way it's going, and which direction. And I think it will be (confused) until the government of Nunavut can sit down with the federal individuals involved and come to some kind of agreement... because the people are the ones that are suffering right now. They're the ones that don't have the training." editor@nunatsiaq.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:29:16 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: How to get gun safety training in Nunavut http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/51014_15.html How to get gun safety training in Nunavut SARA MINOGUE saram@nunatsiaq.com October 14, 2005 Nunavut's 26 communities have a total of just 12 trainers and three master trainers, says Kevin Robertson of the Canada Firearms Centre's Nunavut office. "Right now I know that we have a good half dozen people in town that have expressed an interest in becoming a trainer or instructor, but I've not been able to put anything together," Robertson said. The Canadian Firearms Safety Course is not mandatory, but it is a good way for people to learn the material they will find on the test that you must write in order to get licenced. If you live in a community where there are no trainers, and have owned a gun since 1979 you can opt for "alternative certification." Robertson describes this as "more of a general knowledge of safety issues." People who want to get licenced can call him and answer 25 questions in a short test over the phone - in Inuktitut if they can provide an interpreter. Robertson estimates he's done 15 to 20 tests like this since taking up his post in July. "I've had guys, 60 years old, call me up and do the test in Inuktitut. You hear them, you got 96 per cent and they're so proud. I think that's great." For more information on how and where to get safety training, call the Nunavut office of the Canada Firearms Centre at 979-6870. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:29:46 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: How can government resolve problems when government is the problem? Sender: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Precedence: normal Reply-To: cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/higgins101405.htm How can government resolve problems when government is the problem? By Myles Higgins Friday, October 14, 2005 What is the primary function of the federal government? Simply put, the job of government is to manage the day to day operations of the Country and resolve any national problems that might arise. Next question, how can a government resolve a nation's problems when that government is the problem? Every day we go about the daily business of working, raising families, paying bills, buying groceries and so on. Every day we see our dollar buying less, our children's schools deteriorating and our take home pay shrinking. Gas prices are up, food prices are up, taxes are up, and because of it all, most of us are fed up. Do we ever stop to think about the root cause of it all? Do we ever really think about the role government plays in our daily life? Probably not, most of the general public sees the government as a far off entity collecting taxes or delivering services. An entity with members who knock at the front door once every four years begging for a job. The reality of the situation is that government is much more than that. Government impacts every aspect of our lives every day, 365 days a year and since most of our lives are not all that great to begin with, government deserves much of the credit for the situation in which we find ourselves. Taxes are a great example of the impact government has. How many people truly realize just how much they pay in taxes every year? Sure we all see the little box on our T4 slip when we fill out those forms from Revenue Canada, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Not only are we are saddled with income tax, CPP or QPP and EI contributions, but also with HST (or GST & Provincial Taxes), ultra-massive Sin taxes on tobacco / alcohol and let's not forget the dreaded gasoline taxes. These are just the ones that immediately spring to mind. What about hidden taxes? I'm referring to things like the various fees we pay for things like the federal gun registry, passport and visa applications or anything else requiring a government employee to pick up a number 2 pencil. I can't even begin to comprehend just how much money is being stripped from our pockets every day by the problem makers in Ottawa. We have a government that spends like a drunken sailor, misappropriates funds (read adscam) and is running its operations more inefficiently than at any time in our history, yet they are nearing a full decade of what they refer to as "surplus budgets". My God, how much money are they sucking out of us anyway? How in the name of all that's powerful can a government have a surplus budget? In reality there should never be such a thing. If more money is coming in than is needed, then one of two things should happen. Either taxes need to be lowered or government services need to be improved. There are no other options and that includes the latest Liberal entry into the bull patty hall of fame, rebating 33% of all surpluses over $3 billion. What a vote buying joke that is. While the brain trust in Ottawa struts around boasting of their great fiscal management, a hospital wait takes longer than a Paul Martin decision. Our nation's highways require the use of all terrain vehicles and generous doses of Gravol. Our schools are decaying in both structure and educational value. Our military capacity is a world wide joke and our Coast Guard can't even staff up to a rescue effort after 4 p.m. No, there is no such thing as a surplus. The price of everything we use has gone up, up and away. Sure, some of this is a natural increase due to supply and demand, but a lot of it is simply because of taxation itself. When fuel costs rise (and a large part of fuel cost is tax) it drives up the cost of transporting goods from the delivery of raw materials through manufacture and on to delivery in your local store. When income taxes, CPP / EI premiums and all other taxes are high th ere is less for the average Joe to live on. As a result Joe Sixpack and Sally Lunchpail eventually need a raise. This in turn drives up the cost of labor and ultimately the cost of goods sold. Of course since a raise also means even more federal taxes, CPP and EI premiums the cycle continues unabated. There are some nations in the world with higher taxation than ours, or so they claim. I'm not so sure. Even though income tax may be as high as 70% in some countries, the services provided for by those taxes help ensure that everyone is happy. Everything from free daycare to free prescriptions to fully paid spa trips for arthritis suffers. Not so in Canada. Besides, I haven't done the math, but I am almost willing to bet that when you add all of the taxes we pay into the equation, including the hidden ones if you can figure them out, our true taxation level would put 70% to shame. What do we have to show for the privilege of filling Ottawa's coffers? Let me answer that question with a question. How proud are you to work all day for a smaller and smaller pay check, a higher and higher cost of living and fewer and fewer government services while our elected officials waste our hard earned money, pad their expense accounts and vote themselves raise after raise after raise? Well, if you're like me, you're about as happy as a twenty-five pound turkey on Thanksgiving. Come on into the House Paul and Ralph, its dinner time!! Do you want white meat or dark meat? Myles is freelance columnist originally from the central region of Newfoundland. He now resides with his wife and a terminally lazy Terrier named "Molson" in the beautiful town of Portugal Cove - St. Philips, "Where the sun meets the sea". Myles' interest in Newfoundland and Labrador political and social issues is obvious in his writing for several publications and on his own web site, Web Talk - Newfoundland and Labrador. A site where Myles dedicates his time to providing an open commentary and discussion forum on newsworthy items of the day. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 09:17:10 -0600 (CST) From: Breitkreuz@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca, Garry - Assistant 1 Subject: Crime under a microscope PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star DATE: 2005.10.15 EDITION: MET SECTION: News PAGE: E4 BYLINE: Tracy Huffman SOURCE: Toronto Star WORD COUNT: 1040 - ------------------------------------------------------------------ Crime under a microscope - ------------------------------------------------------------------ Clues are found in evidence from shooting scenesAs the images of two fired cartridge cases line up under the microscope, the scientist can see every groove and scratch. Once focused, the head stamps on both Winchester .40-calibre cases - likely fired from a semi-automatic handgun - make one identical image. Looking through the eyepiece of the $80,000 comparison microscope, scientist Tony Tessarolo knows both were fired from the same gun. "This is a perfect match," says Tessarolo, head of the firearms section at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto. The microscope is used daily by scientists comparing bullets and cartridge cases from crime scenes. Often under one lens is a bullet from a shooting. Under the second lens is one retrieved from a different crime or test-fired from a seized gun. The two images are combined, helping scientists determine if both were fired from the same gun. Set up on a desk in a brightly lit office on the sixth floor of the Grosvenor St. building, the microscope is one of the final steps to linking bullets to guns. Unlike television shows that have sparked widespread interest in their work, no one in the lab is wearing a white coat, the walls are not made of glass and scientists aren't sharing theories about how a crime was committed. In fact, bullets and firearms are given simple case numbers while scientists in the firearms section perform tests and examinations with few details about a police investigation. "On any bullet fired, there's a series of striations. No two guns produce the same markings," Tessarolo says. Two guns of the same make, manufactured the same day at the same factory will produce different impressions on a fired bullet and its cartridge case, he says. Those unique markings - not visible to the naked eye - can link a gun to a fired bullet. The grooves and ridges transferred on to the bullet as it is forced through the gun's barrel can be the clues that help solve a shooting investigation. A growing national database of crime-scene bullets and cases, a new computer program and the keen eyes of trained technicians are providing links between shootings, giving Toronto police information to build cases. Tessarolo estimates that his office, with fewer than a dozen scientists and technicians, will conduct 550 examinations of bullets, cartridge cases and firearms this year. The examination of firearms and ammunition starts at a crime scene, says Det. Sgt. Gary Keys of the Toronto police gun and gang task force. Bullets and cases can be found on the ground and lodged in such places as walls and car doors. In some investigations, bullets are retrieved from a victim's body. Members of the gun and gang task force test fire all seized guns to determine if the gun is real and that it works, both requirements for evidence in court. If a serial number can be found, officers check with the national gun registry to see if the firearm is registered in Canada. If it isn't, or if a number cannot be found, information is gathered about the gun so efforts can be made to trace its origin. Forensic identification officers dust for fingerprints, then scientists at the Centre of Forensic Sciences conduct DNA tests on fluids or fibres left on the gun. Bullets and cartridge cases are also analyzed, Keys says. At the centre, images of bullets and cartridge cases can be entered into a nationwide database and compared to those recovered from other shootings in Canada. A newly purchased system, the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, allows for a quick database search. The system "is a very important screening tool. It can assess if shooting events are linked," Tessarolo says. "But it isn't a replacement for a person. When we get results back, we have to sort through to determine if we should do a detailed analysis. It is not a panacea." The six systems purchased by the RCMP and set up in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Halifax, Regina and Vancouver are connected to a network in Ottawa, allowing for comparison searches across the country. The $2.25 million investment enables quicker analysis in gun crimes, says Const. Pat Flood, a spokesperson for the RCMP. "It takes about 10 minutes to enter a bullet into IBIS and five minutes for a cartridge case," she says. Results are returned in less than five minutes. "To attempt to do the same search by manually inspecting all the exhibits would take hundreds of hours and would be cost prohibitive," Flood says, noting a few thousand images are in the system. So far, the system has returned about 200 hits, or matches, she says, with dozens from the Toronto area. The RCMP will not disclose details because most cases are still under investigation or before the courts. Although the Centre of Forensic Sciences is responsible for the scientific evaluation of guns and ammunition in crime cases across the province, the majority come from Toronto. Tessarolo meets regularly with Toronto police to prioritize cases. When he took over the department in February 2004, Tessarolo was faced with a huge backlog of 1,500 cases. A 50 per cent increase in staff and more money for equipment helped bring it down to 175, he says. The forensic centre scientists, who have a large collection of guns on site, also conduct test fires in an effort to determine what kind of gun was used in a shooting. The collection also serves as a source of temporary parts for non-working guns. "It is our job to answer the question Did this bullet come from this gun? If there's no gun, then we generate test fires using the same type of ammunition," says Tessarolo. In one homicide case this year, the centre was asked to determine the age of the ammunition. With a large stock of bullets dating back decades, the centre was able to conclude the bullet used in the shooting hadn't been manufactured since 1942. At the centre's firing range, staff test fire guns in a steel trap to ensure the firearm works. In some cases, they shoot at paper targets to determine how far the shooting victim was from the gun and to study the patterns made by the bullets at different distances, the residue and gun powder. Behind a locked door on the sixth floor, rows and rows of guns are carefully stored in individual compartments. Each firearm is labelled and catalogued. Many in the collection were once used in a crime. They come in different shapes and sizes, even colours. Holding the "Pink Lady," a .25-calibre handgun, Tessarolo says the American-manufactured gun is easy to conceal and is marketed to women. Many in the centre's gun collection, like the "Pink Lady," are illegal in Canada, he says. "People think the bigger the gun, the more lethal," Tessarolo says, holding the gun in the palm of his hand. "Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the smallest guns are equally dangerous." ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V8 #494 ********************************** 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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