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 #518 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 Thursday, October 20 2005 Volume 08 : Number 518 In this issue: Pheasant hunt on horizon Liberal lobbyists got satellite 'success fees' Clam up on Gomery, PM tells Liberals [COLUMN] Gomery report: Contracts could trip up PM B.C wants a "Con Air" system [COLUMN] That money does not belong to you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:14:52 -0600 (CST) From: Breitkreuz@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca, Garry - Assistant 1 Subject: Pheasant hunt on horizon PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star DATE: 2005.10.20 EDITION: Final SECTION: News PAGE: A5 BYLINE: Gary Rennie SOURCE: Windsor Star DATELINE: LAKESHORE ILLUSTRATION: Colour Photo: Gary Rennie, Star photo / THEY'RE OFF!: BelleRiver's Dave Diemer, left, and Kyle Morency of the Lakeshore Sportsman and Conservation Club released pheasants Wednesday into farm fields near Renaud Line and North Rear Road. The club released 400 pheasants at 40 Lakeshore locations in preparation for the opening of pheasant hunting season. WORD COUNT: 476 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pheasant hunt on horizon - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LAKESHORE - As the last of the ring-necked pheasants burst out of crates and into the air over a Maidstone farm Wednesday, those involved in the release said urban sprawl is as much of a threat to the annual pheasant hunt as foxes, coyotes and other predators. When built-up areas like Woodslee, Belle River, Essex and Harrow expand and homes line once-quiet gravel roads, good habitat for pheasants, rabbits, wild turkeys and their predators shrinks, said Dave Diemer of the Lakeshore Sportsman and Conservation Club. New residents, often from the city, are also less likely to want hunting on or near their lands, he added. Lakeshore Coun. Dan Diemer, a cousin of Dave and a farmer and hunter himself, said he's argued for keeping subdivisions from spreading beyond the urban areas where sewers, water and acceptable roads are already in place. But with Lakeshore growing at a faster clip than any other county municipality the past four years, that hasn't been easy, said the councillor. He's encouraged by signs that the province is making a bigger effort to preserve farmland and slow development in places where services aren't available. The fledgling, 50-member club is doing its part to stem the urban tide by persuading farmers to maintain or expand woodlots and treed fence lines that provide protection for pheasants and other game, and to welcome the hunters who chase them. RELEASE PROGRAM With $5,000 seed money from the Town of Lakeshore, the club's members launched a pheasant release program last year and are using revenue from the sale of hunting licences to continue the program this year. Judging by the numbers of pheasants that survived the past winter, Dave Diemer is convinced the release program is slowly rebuilding the population in the town. "We had a very good success rate (of survival)," he said. Four hundred pheasants were released, all purchased from the Gosfield North Sportsmen's Club, which has a similar program and raises the birds from eggs. Dave Diemer said the pheasants were released in 40 locations around Lakeshore -- typically where there is good cover for the birds and where property owners will welcome hunters when the four-day season opens Wednesday. Typically, a dozen or so club members will go out together for a day's hunting, using a Labrador dog or two to help flush the pheasants out. The town's licence limits them to a maximum of two cocks and four hens a day. Permission from property owners is sought before crossing private land. Dan Diemer said he hopes that as conservation efforts continue, the county's wild turkey population will rebound to the point where wider hunts will be possible. Right now, only a small area near Harrow has enough wild turkeys to permit a hunt, he said. Licences for Lakeshore's four-day pheasant hunt cost $10.70 for residents and $16.05 for non-residents. Licences are cheaper in Kingsville, $7.50 for residents and $12 for non-residents. Hunters also need a provincial small game licence -- $61.50 for three years or $18.50 a season. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:15:38 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Liberal lobbyists got satellite 'success fees' http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051020/LOB BY20/National/Idx Liberal lobbyists got satellite 'success fees' By CAMPBELL CLARK Thursday, October 20, 2005 Page A5 OTTAWA -- Two well-connected Liberal lobbyists were paid "success fees" that depended on saving Canadian Satellite Radio Inc.'s endangered broadcasting licence, according to registrations they filed with the federal government. Cabinet upheld the licence in September. John Duffy, a long-time supporter of Prime Minister Paul Martin and member of his inner circle of informal advisers called "the Board," and David MacNaughton who until June was the top aide to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, declared that payment for their lobbying work would depend on whether they succeeded. Such fees are legal in Canada and do not violate government guidelines unless companies pay them to help bid on government contracts or obtain government grants. But opposition politicians said yesterday such fees are inappropriate and some argued they should be outlawed in Canada as they are in many U.S. jurisdictions. "It's totally inappropriate," New Democrat MP Ed Broadbent said. "It should not be permitted under the law. There should be no percentage advantage, one way or another, whether you're successful getting a change in policy one way or another." In many American states the fees have been outlawed because of concerns that fees paid only for favourable decisions increase the risk of kickbacks, or encourage lobbyists to make campaign contributions in exchange for a favourable vote or decision. Bloc Québécois MP Maka Kotto said such fees become disturbing when they are charged by those with connections to people in government. "When the individuals are so close to power, that's where it becomes questionable," Mr. Kotto said. "That's where you have to ask if this government is free to make its own decisions." Mr. Duffy defended success fees as a type of "risk-sharing" arrangement where little is paid up front, but more is paid if lobbying succeeds. "There's nothing wrong with them. They're perfectly normal," he said. The federal cabinet upheld Canadian Satellite Radio's licence, even though the lead minister, Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, had written a memo to cabinet proposing the licence be returned to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for review. Quebec MPs called for the licence to be killed at a three-day Liberal caucus meeting in Regina in August because the lineup of channels proposed by Canadian Satellite Radio and another licensee, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., included relatively few Canadian and French-language stations. About the same time, Canadian Satellite Radio brought in a half-dozen former Liberal politicians, political staffers and organizers. Among them: Mr. Duffy and Mr. MacNaughton; lawyer Cyrus Reporter, secretary-treasurer of the Liberal Party and aide to Allan Rock when he was in the Chrétien cabinet; Serge Paquette, a former Liberal organizer; and Richard Mahoney, a lawyer who was executive assistant to Mr. Martin when the latter was finance minister. Mr. Mahoney's activities as a lobbyist for CSR were not registered until The Globe and Mail called to confirm his role on Oct. 4. He said that after delays caused by the need to obtain a new account with the registry, his assistant believed she had registered by Internet on Sept. 21, and discovered only when The Globe called that the registration had not been received. CSR representatives showed up at the Liberal caucus meeting in Regina to bend the ear of ministers and other MPs. Among the CSR representatives was David Peterson, the former Ontario premier and brother of International Trade Minister Jim Peterson. Mr. Peterson also did not register as a lobbyist for CSR. He said he is not a lobbyist, noting that the law defines them as people who are paid to deal with government officials, and that he has known the head of CSR, John Bitove Jr., for some time. MPs said CSR representatives also discussed issues around the licence with them during the Regina caucus meeting at a cocktail party for members of the Laurier Club. Members of the club donate more than $1,000 to the Liberal Party. Asked in the Commons yesterday whether such lobbying occurred at another Laurier Club party at the Prime Minister's 24 Sussex Dr. residence in early September, Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri would not say. Mr. Valeri later told reporters he did not know whether Liberal ministers were lobbied at Laurier Club parties, but he was not; Public Works Minister Scott Brison said he could not recall. Mr. Broadbent said allowing such lobbying to occur at a party for donors goes against the notion that all citizens are equal. "You shouldn't, in a democracy, have preferred access because you can put up money to an elected representative." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:16:01 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: Clam up on Gomery, PM tells Liberals http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051020/LIB ERALS20/National/Idx Clam up on Gomery, PM tells Liberals But attack Bloc, Martin instructs caucus after Quebec flyer links him to scandal By JANE TABER Thursday, October 20, 2005 Page A4 SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin instructed his MPs yesterday not to talk about the Gomery commission report until its release, but told them to go after Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe for his remarks about creating a Quebec army. Mr. Martin's advice in the closed-door caucus session was given after a new poll showed Liberal fortunes sinking in Quebec. It also happened after revelations of a Bloc flyer, linking Mr. Martin to the sponsorship scandal. The document has enraged Quebec Liberal MPs, an insider said, for its provocative commentary on the sponsorship scandal and because it was sent by the Bloc to Quebec residents using taxpayers' money. Sources say some Liberal MPs want to find out whether the document breaches parliamentary privilege, and the Prime Minister agreed to try to get an answer to this. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's attack on the separatist leader continued, and spilled onto the floor of the House of Commons during the daily Question Period. Speaking in French, he called Mr. Duceppe the "chief of defence staff for the Bloc Québécois." He was to referring to recent comments by the Bloc Leader, who said that an independent Quebec would have its own army and spy agency. Caucus insiders say Mr. Martin brought up the Duceppe comments in his wrap-up speech to caucus members. Mr. Martin, according to one MP, asked his MPs to "imagine supporting a move to have an army and spies when that money could be better spent on health care and their priorities." The Prime Minister also asked his MPs to keep quiet about the Gomery report, and offer no opinion on it until its release Nov. 1. Both he and national caucus chairman Andy Savoy, a New Brunswick Liberal MP, warned their colleagues not to "comment to anyone" about the report. One insider said that MPs were instructed not to "walk out of the [caucus] room" and talk to reporters about it. "Not a word," they said, according to one insider. MPs were told that Liberals will react once the report is made public. They will say that they are cleaning up the situation. A recently published newspaper article suggested that Mr. Justice John Gomery will assign much of the blame to a small group of Jean Chrétien loyalists. It will note that Mr. Martin was not involved, the newspaper report says. Yesterday, Mr. Martin denied that any leak has come from the government, sources said. A Globe and Mail/CTV poll released yesterday shows the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives nationally but lagging far behind the Bloc Québécois in Quebec. In fact, the Strategic Counsel poll found that the Liberals have dropped nine percentage points in Quebec, to 25 from 34, since the 2004 election. They won 21 of 75 seats in the election; the Bloc has the rest. The Bloc has the support of 57 per cent of Quebeckers. At yesterday's caucus meetings, two Liberal MPs, Don Boudria and Denis Coderre, brought to caucus the issue of the Bloc flyer or "10-per-center" that is being sent to some Quebec residents. MPs are allowed to send flyers to 10 per cent of their constituents at any time. The House of Commons pays to send these documents. However, the flyers are not to be partisan documents. The Bloc flyer has pictures of Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin with arrows drawn to former Quebec ministers under Mr. Chrétien who testified before the Gomery commission. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:16:18 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [COLUMN] Gomery report: Contracts could trip up PM http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Arti cle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1129758429424&call_pageid=968256290204&col=96835011 6795 Gomery report: Contracts could trip up PM JAMES TRAVERS Oct. 20, 2005. 01:00 AM How lucky is Paul Martin? Lucky enough to escape blame for the Quebec sponsorship scandal - but not lucky enough to safely distance himself from a Liberal brand reeking of polluted ethics. By focusing on Jean Chrétien's cronies in his first inquiry report, Justice John Gomery will pay the Prime Minister a backhanded compliment. Even as finance minister and best- known cabinet minister, Martin was so estranged from the influential Chrétien clique that he was happily out of an information loop that led only to trouble. Admittedly, a host of skeptics, including the opposition parties, harbour another conclusion. They hold that if Martin didn't know, he should have known. After The Star revealed the essence of Gomery's findings this week, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe rushed to stress that point. With an election no more than months away, they want the country to look past the symptoms to the disease. It's far from clear voters will take the longer view. After all, casting a ballot is a complex decision that usually weighs more than a single issue before tilting toward self-interest. Even so, opposition leaders have a point. Martin's Liberals, like Chrétien's Liberals, chronically suffer from EES: Excessive Entitlement Syndrome. Nasty and pervasive, it requires only time and opportunity to infect those who believe they are special and deserve everything they want. That narcissism soon makes the ridiculous seem reasonable. Examples are as numerous today as when Chrétien was finally forced to pull the plug on his own power. Allegations about David Dingwall's pack of gum, foreign travel for Pierre Pettigrew's chummy chauffeur - no driving required - and Joe Volpe's $138 pizza all argue that Liberals have been around too long to remember that they are elected to serve us, not to heap their own plates. Apart from annoying those with smaller salaries and less secure pensions, none of this would matter much if it didn't go beyond Doublemint, trips and tomato pie. But it does. Hard as it is to believe, the federal government spends some $6.5 billion annually on consultants hired to help ministers and mandarins do their jobs. That's a tough number to grasp for folks who struggle with Visa bills, so here's a little perspective: $6.5 billion is almost what it takes to operate the City of Toronto for a year, what Roy Romanow recommended should be spent annually to save public health care, and what Ottawa committed to increased security after 9/11. In other words, it's a lot of money. So much that following it from the public treasury to private pockets is now far beyond the capacity of the parliamentary committees that Martin's government keeps weak. In those moist conditions, ESS thrives. With effortless fluidity, tax dollars cross the divides that separate public, partisan and personal interests. Come November, Gomery will detail how Chrétien loyalists made that work to their own advantage. But there's nothing new or mysterious about the contracting machinery. Seared into memory is former civil servant Chuck Guite's recollection of first meeting Dingwall, then Chrétien's public works minister. Testifying to MPs last year, sponsorship's chief mechanic quoted Dingwall as saying; "You won't rat on them, you won't rat on us." That signalled the post-1993 election transfer of patronage-loaded advertising, polling and communications contracts from the losing Tories to the winning Liberals. And while Gomery is likely right that the Prime Minister knew nothing of the sponsorship scam, it would be wrong for voters to reach the same conclusion about Martin's knowledge of suspect contracting. As finance minister and prohibitive leadership favourite, Martin was infamous for hiring the same people for ministerial work who, coincidentally, were masterminding his determined effort to bring Chrétien down. Those contracts were different from the ones occupying the inquiry - real work was done competently - but they are indicative of cozy back-scratching that should make first taxpayers and then voters queasy. Despite a few new prescriptions, Liberal Ottawa still suffers from ESS and Martin is unlucky enough to have known for years. Playing doctor now is just not convincing. James Travers's national affairs column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. jtraver@thestar.ca. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:16:30 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: B.C wants a "Con Air" system http://www.canada.com/national/globalnational/story.html?id=aaa601b5-eb1b-4 8ff-90f5-7eb81682ff0f B.C wants a "Con Air" system Jeff Lee Global National with Vancouver Sun Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham says he wants the Federal Government to create a "Con Air" prisoner transport system to bring out-of-province criminals back to where warrants exist for their arrest. (CP/Chuck Stoody) Hundreds of people wanted for crimes elsewhere in Canada are walking the streets of Vancouver because there is no way to send them home. Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham wants the federal government to fix that by toughening warrant and bail laws and creating a "Con Air" prisoner transportation system to clear out criminal suspects who flee across provincial borders to escape prosecution. GLOBAL NATIONAL REPORTS » Suzette Meyers reports globalnational.com videos » Extended Interview: Chief Jamie Graham In an effort to get a handle on how serious the problem is, Graham had his officers document the number of people they stopped over a three-month period who had so-called "non-returnable warrants" issued against them by other jurisdictions. A non-returnable warrant is an arrest warrant limited to a specific province or jurisdiction. If a suspect is arrested elsewhere, the issuing jurisdiction will not pay to have him or her returned to face charges. The study, conducted in early 2005, showed police found 726 people here wanted elsewhere in Canada for a variety of offences ranging from drugs to property crime to violence. Many of them face multiple warrants; there were a total of 1,582 warrants covering those stopped, and many of them were for multiple charges. Graham said every jurisdiction across Canada faces the same problem of dealing with criminal suspects wanted elsewhere. Graham said Tuesday the study has spurred him to ask the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs to lobby for a new criminal offence that would make interprovincial flight from prosecution illegal. He also suggested that a Canada-wide scheduled prisoner transportation system using aircraft or trains would discourage people from fleeing prosecution. "One solution we've got is why don't we have a 'Con Air?'" he said. "Why don't we have some system, a train or a plane, where we return all these guys. It's a cost issue, but once a week you run a scheduled run back and forth, and you'd have it full." Graham said the study was "absolutely staggering" because it revealed a trend among small-time criminal suspects to flee prosecution because they know they won't be pursued over provincial borders. Even when arrested in Vancouver, the suspects are quickly out on the street again because the jurisdictions in which they are wanted refuse to foot the expense of repatriation. "Every kid we pick up in the downtown eastside, you find is wanted in Alberta, wanted in Manitoba. There is this magic border between provinces [over which they won't extradite.] It's a financial decision." The problem is not limited to other provinces being unwilling to foot the cost of repatriation, he said. "We're no angels in this, either," he said. "The province of B.C. is as bad as any province." Graham said the solution is for Ottawa to create a new criminal offence of interprovincial flight from prosecution. "If you are wanted, and you cross a provincial border, that's a separate offence and you don't get out," he said. "I'll tell you that if an offender knows that they are going to be returned and face a consequence for running, they don't run. They deal with their charges before they leave." The study tracked the number of times police stopped suspects wanted on non-returnable warrants. Over three months, police made 2,183 "contacts" with 726 people. Of those, 463 or 64 per cent had between two and 10 contacts with Vancouver police, Graham said. Many of those people, he said, are involved in illegal activities. - - Forty-six per cent were found in the Downtown Eastside. Another 28 per cent were found elsewhere in downtown Vancouver. - - Of the 1,582 non-returnable warrants covering the 726 people, 48 per cent were from Alberta, and 29 per cent from Ontario. - - All of the Albertan warrants were province-wide, while 99 per cent of the Ontario ones were restricted to a specific city or jurisdiction. - - Fifty-six per cent of the warrants involved between two and five criminal charges. Nearly half of the warrants involved property-related crimes, while 21 per cent involved violence or weapons. One in 10 involved drugs. - - Twenty-five per cent of the suspects had multiple outstanding charges. - - Eighty-four per cent had more than one conviction, with most having between four and five convictions. The average was 19 convictions per person. - - Six people each had more than 100 convictions and were wanted elsewhere, but could not be held for repatriation. Clayton Pecknold, deputy chief of the Saanich Police Department, said the study has drawn the interest of the law amendments committee of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. The group is looking at lobbying Ottawa for changes to the Criminal Code, and will meet early next year to draft a proposal. jefflee@png.canwest.com © Global National 2005 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:37:18 -0600 (CST) From: "Bruce Mills" Subject: [COLUMN] That money does not belong to you http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2005/10/20/1269856.htm l That money does not belong to you By GREG WESTON Thu, October 20, 2005 Canadian taxpayers no doubt will be truly relieved to hear David Dingwall finally making sense of his squandering our hard-earned money. Turns out, it's not our money. The former head of the Canadian mint was summoned before a Commons committee yesterday to justify blowing a bundle on government expense accounts for everything from fine dining and foreign travel to a $1.29 pack of chewing gum. Like so many other Liberal porkers caught living high on the hog at taxpayers' expense, Dingwall seemed utterly dumfounded by all the fuss, apparently convinced that his selfless service to the country for a paltry $280,000 a year surely rates the odd $500 dinner for two. As Dingwall put it, referring to his now getting severance pay for quitting his job: "I think I am ethically entitled to the entitlements owing to me." The good news is all this looting of the mint has nothing to do with us taxpayers. Dingwall told the committee yesterday: "All expenses came from the operating revenue of the corporation, not from taxpayers' dollars." Case closed. Okay, so taxpayers own the mint and every penny of the $15-million profit the Crown corporation made last year. And, sure, if Dingwall and his staff hadn't blown the wad on gum and good wine, there would have been more profit left to put back in the public purse. But, hey, it's the mint's money, don't you know. The Dingwall accounting principle for Crown corporation executives -- profits aren't, like, public funds or anything -- is actually not a new concept. Andre Ouellet, another former Liberal minister and renowned porker extraordinaire, was forced to resign as head of Canada Post in August of last year amid tales of expense-account living in a manner to which every taxpayer would dearly like to become accustomed. The man known affectionately around town as "Andy Wallet" was only making about $350,000 a year in salary, the fattest plum in all of Liberal hog heaven. But an internal audit found that Ouellet had also racked up more than $2 million in travel and hospitality expenses in his eight years at Canada Post -- all virtually with not a receipt to be found. Ouellet's subsequent appearance before a Commons committee to explain so much sucking sound at the trough, could easily have been scripted by the same spinner who concocted Dingwall's unlikely defence yesterday. Like Dingwall's glowing self-assessment at committee, Ouellet's lengthy opening statement was entirely devoted to his own greatness at Canada Post. He described in glowing detail how the nation's monopoly mail courier had posted billion-dollar profits under his steady hand -- at least when it wasn't slapping down the company Amex. And like Dingwall, Ouellet wanted there to be no mistake on one critical point: He wasn't spending taxpayers' money; it was Canada Post money. Yeah, yeah, so the government postal corp returns about $60 million a year in profits to the federal treasury, a figure that would have been higher had its CEO not been filing expense accounts at the rate of about $1,000 a day. But get a grip: It's not our money. Of course, it means nothing that Auditor General Sheila Fraser discovered Canada Post, VIA Rail and other Crown corporations were up to their chequebooks in the Adscam fiasco, laundering millions of dollars into all manner of dubious sponsorship deals. Who cares? It's not our money. Letters to the editor should be sent to feedback@ott.sunpub.com. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V8 #518 ********************************** 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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