Cdn-Firearms Digest Monday, February 11 2008 Volume 11 : Number 204 In this issue: Gun-shaped Tequila Bottle Causes Stir- The Edmonton Sun Re: Mayerthorpe, the Movie Letter to Lynne Cohen Gas-and-dash law called for- The Edmonton Sun Off-duty officers seize gun in arrest- London Free Press Man subdued with Taser- London Free Press Re: Mayerthorpe Anglers eagerly await return of pinks- Times Colonist (Victoria) Editorial: Trial rights- The Windsor Star Slain Calgarian called 'hero'- The Calgary Sun ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:07:45 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Gun-shaped Tequila Bottle Causes Stir- The Edmonton Sun Gun-shaped bottle causes stir http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2008/02/11/4839692-sun.html Image & Caption Laurie MacLeod, a clerk at Sherbrooke Liquor Store, 11819 St. Albert Tr., holds an $85 bottle of Tommy Guns Reposado tequila yesterday. (David Bloom, Sun Media) "Point one at somebody, you'll be charged" By BROOKES MERRITT, SUN MEDIA The Edmonton Sun February 11, 2008 Talk about tequila shooters. Cops are pledging to hammer down hard on anyone else dumb enough to point at them with a new tequila bottle shaped like an old-school gangster gun. The warning comes after a man was arrested for doing so Friday night and as dozens of crates of Tommy Guns tequila bottles - shaped like Thompson submachine-guns - arrive at Edmonton liquor stores this week. Retailers expect the sought-after bottles will sell even faster because of the publicity generated by Friday's incident. Jessie Petrin, 24, was charged with possession of an imitation weapon after a similar bottle was aimed at a cop near 118 Avenue and 135A Street. "You don't want to pull one of these out late at night when it's dark, especially in front of a police officer. People need to use common sense when buying novelty items like this," said EPS Staff Sgt. Jeff Anderson. "We had to send in tactical officers ... it's a huge waste of resources and it's a dangerous game." Anderson's suggestion is clear: people who point gun-shaped things at police risk getting shot by police. "If people are going to point these things around and tie up valuable police resources we're going to take action. They'll face criminal charges and a criminal record." Jim Pettinger owns Sherbrooke Liquor, 11819 St. Albert Tr., not far from where Friday's bottle-gun incident took place. "It's been selling very well, but it's a shame to hear some people are so irresponsible with it," he said of the $85 bottles. Whyte Avenue Tops Liquor store owner Rick Aggarwal said customers began asking about Tommy Guns soon after news of the Petrin charge broke. "I'm expecting a shipment Friday. They'll sell," he said. Tommy Guns tequila is marketed by Chicago-based Alphonse Capone Enterprises, who specialize in 1920s-themed products. Vodka Kalashnikov is another spirit sold in a provocative bottle - shaped for its namesake AK-47 assault rifle and packaged in a gun crate. Alberta Gaming and Liquor officials don't regulate bottle styles, but expect drinkers to use common sense. "With products like these our advice would be not to point them at people. Especially police," said department spokesman Marilyn Carlyle-Helmse. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:47:37 -0700 From: Med Crotteau Subject: Re: Mayerthorpe, the Movie I'm disgusted with the Concept, of this one. PROPAGANDA at it's finest! It's OK, to portray the Situation, prior to the Shootings. But, no one is Held Accountable..?? INCREASE CRIME RATE VOTE LIEBERAL MED - ----- Original Message ----- From: "David R.G. Jordan" To: Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 1:12 PM Subject: Mayerthorpe, the Movie > So did anybody get a chance to watch the CTV movie "Mayerthorpe", last > night on the tube? > > Any thoughts or opinions? > > -DRGJ > > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:57:24 -0400 From: "M.J. Ackermann, MD" Subject: Letter to Lynne Cohen Re: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=28759dbc-6dd4-4d8d-a13d-b8582d627b3e Lynn Cohen said, "There is nothing more satisfying after a gruesome murder and fair trial than to see the killer get the death penalty." Actually Ms. Cohen, there IS something vastly more satisfying - and I happen to think that it is what makes the American Justice system the best in the world - That is preventing the murder rather than reacting to it after the fact. I am talking about the majority of States that recognize the lawful citizen's inalienable human right to effective self defense, which they have embodied in their "Shall Issue" laws which permit the concealed carry of defensive sidearms by ordinary citizens. I would prefer that any Canadian adult who passes the same criminal background checks and defensive handgun training as a police officer should be encouraged to carry a concealed defensive sidearm. Unlike martial arts, batons and sprays all of which require the defender to have physical prowess and to make close contact with the aggressor, a defensive sidearm is a better choice because it can stop an attack at a distance and thereby minimize the risk of injury to the defender. And no, criminals won't magically disarm the defender and use her gun against her her. If it was that easy it would happen to cops all the time. Cops come to your aid at 120 feet per second (80 mph). Your defensive pistol can deliver protection at 1200 feet per second. The cop may have to travel 10 km to get to you. This takes 285 seconds or 5 minutes. The defensive shot has to travel 10 feet. This takes 8 milliseconds. Which would you rather wait on when it is your life or your family's that hangs in the balance? A documented fact that has been carefully hidden by the Liberal dominated media is that in comparison to all other forms of defense, including passive compliance with the attacker's demands, the use of defensive firearms result in the least risk of injury to all concerned including the victim, bystanders, and the attacker as well. Another well kept secret is that in the vast majority of cases, the police arrive after the assault is over to gather evidence from the crime scene. The assailant gets to choose the time, place, and manner of assault, not the victim or the cops. The quickest response to a 911 call in Canada to date was 3 minutes. Pretty darned good, if you ask me. Unfortunately, the victim female was dead and her male attacker fled by the time the cops got there. The purpose of the concealed carry gun is twofold: Deterrence and last-ditch defense when escape is impossible. States that allow it see concealed carry rates of about 2% of the adult population. The deterrent effect benefits everyone because the violent criminals don't know who this 2% are. The defenders' guns usually are never brought out of the holster for the simple reason that Concealed Carry of Weapon (CCW) permit holders are scrupulous about avoiding trouble and, according to the Utah Department of Justice, they are even more law-abiding than the police in their jurisdictions. Of all defensive deployments (where the gun is actually brought out of the holster), the gun is fired only 2% of the time. In the other 98%, the criminal stops his attack upon seeing that his intended victim is prepared to effectively defend herself. When the gun is fired, serious injury occurs in only 1% of cases. On the very rare occasion when a CCW holder actually does shoot someone, innocent bystanders are hurt less than 2% of the time, compared to 11% when the shooter is a cop. This is because a cop entering a violent encounter usually doesn't immediately know who the bad guy is whereas a CCW holder invariably knows exactly who is attacking her. States that respect the citizens' right to effective self defense see sharp declines in violence of all kinds, without any "Wild West" behaviors the criminal-coddlers love to try to scare us with. Effective self defense is everyone's absolute right. Laws that only disarm and render totally helpless the already law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to get murderous thugs off our streets just make matters worse. Self defense, even organized proactive self defense, is not vigilantism. It is a basic human right. The police get training that is sufficient to ensure that a high school graduate who has undergone a criminal background check has the character and judgment to use a defensive sidearm safely and responsibly. It is not rocket science. Anyone of us can do it, too. So to sum up, yes, I want the absolute right every potential innocent victim to train and equip to defend herself to be recognized by the State. I want women's groups to start promoting this rather than telling their members that when under deadly attack they must wait in abject helplessness for an armed male to show up to protect them. They are fully capable of protecting themselves. If it were my wife or daughter or sister who's life hung in the balance, I would MUCH prefer that she be able to effectively defend herself than to watch her murderer rot on Death Row. - -- M.J. Ackermann, MD (Mike) Rural Family Physician, Sherbrooke, NS Box 13, 120 Cameron Rd. Sherbrooke, NS Canada B0J 3C0 902-522-2172 mikeack@ns.sympatico.ca "Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst". ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:52:46 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Gas-and-dash law called for- The Edmonton Sun Gas-and-dash law called for http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2008/02/11/4839695-sun.html By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA The Edmonton Sun February 11, 2008 A new B.C. law forcing drivers to prepay for their vehicle fuel to prevent "gas-and-dashes" should be considered in Alberta, say local service station attendants. "That's a good idea. We should all have to do that, that's for sure," said Asif Malak, manager of the Southview Shell, 99 Street and 51 Avenue. "It (the problem of gas-and-dashes, where drivers take off without paying) is growing now. There's almost two, three or four a week. They have no licence plates on the back and we can't do anything. Even the police can't do anything." Starting Feb. 1 in B.C., Grant's Law came into effect. Named for Grant DePatie, a gas station attendant in Maple Ridge, B.C., who in 2005 was dragged to his death when he tried to stop a customer from fleeing without paying for his gas, the law requires service stations to have customers prepay for their fuel before being allowed to fill up. It also put into place other rules designed to protect late-night retail workers, such as not allowing them to work alone between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. without safeguards like locked barriers. By Nov. 1, companies not in compliance face fines between $1,000 and $519,000. It's not mandatory in Alberta but some gas stations have already started putting in place prepay measures and don't see why it shouldn't be the law. Nancie Roberts, an attendant at the Petro-Canada station at 23 Avenue and 56 Street, says there can be five to eight gas-and-dashes every week, most of them late at night. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:10:36 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Off-duty officers seize gun in arrest- London Free Press Off-duty officers seize gun in arrest http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/02/11/4840070.html Staff at London bar see man carrying gun By JOE BELANGER, SUN MEDIA London Free Press Mon, February 11, 2008 Two off-duty police officers arrested a man with a handgun at a downtown London bar early Sunday. At about 2:30 a.m., staff at a Talbot Street nightclub spotted a customer with the gun. Staff told an off-duty London officer and another from the Oxford community police who disarmed the suspect outside the club as other officers raced to the scene. “It was good work,” London police Chief Murray Faulkner said. “And there’s another gun off the street.” A loaded nine-millimetre handgun was seized, and in a search of the suspect police found a small quantity of marijuana and cocaine, along with some stolen property. Younis Helowleh, 27, of London faces 12 charges, including: misleading police by giving a false name, possession of stolen property, possession of ammunition while prohibited, possession of a firearm while being prohibited, carrying a firearm carelessly, carrying ammunition carelessly, possessing a restricted weapon without a licence, possession of a firearm without authorization, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of marijuana and possession of cocaine. Faulkner said, unlike U.S. police, off-duty officers in Canada aren’t allowed to carry their service revolvers. “But our police officers, who have lives away from work, are also sworn in to uphold the law and you’re really on duty 24-7.” ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:20:30 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Man subdued with Taser- London Free Press Man subdued with Taser http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/02/11/4840159.html By JOE BELANGER, SUN MEDIA London Free Press Mon, February 11, 2008 London police used a Taser to disarm a man threatening to kill himself early this morning., Police were called to an apartment building on Wharncliffe Road North at Western Road around 6:30 a.m. to investigate a report of an assault. When they arrived, police found a suspect barricaded in the apartment, armed with a knife and “threatening to harm himself.” After several hours of negotiation, police used a Taser to subdue and arrest the 39-year-old suspect. No one was injured. Police said charges are pending. Joe Belanger is a Free Press reporter. jminer@lfpress.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:19:59 -0500 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Re: Mayerthorpe > Subject: Mayerthorpe, the Movie > > So did anybody get a chance to watch the CTV movie "Mayerthorpe", last > night on the tube? > > Any thoughts or opinions? > > - -DRGJ Hate it when they can only tell-a-story by jumping back and forth in time. I wonder if family members of the officers also found it to be distracting. Wish the film folk would tell their tale in a logical sequence. Otherwise, it was probably a decent replication of the actual event in showing how evil and bad, bad assed dudes can be. I thought there was an early request by the local RCMP for an ER Team to secure the property that was denied? Saw no mention of such. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:34:16 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Anglers eagerly await return of pinks- Times Colonist (Victoria) Anglers eagerly await return of pinks http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=9160081d-e2d0-4905-826d-a1eea1871dc8 Image & Caption Technician Frank Wilson checks out the net pen that will be used to release 250,000 pink salmon fry into Cowichan Bay. The hope is that enough of the fish return to the bay in two years to revive a once-thriving sport fishery. - -Darren Stone, Times Colonist Venture seeks to revive sport fishery by releasing hatchery-reared fry Sandra Mcculloch, Times Colonist Published: Monday, February 11, 2008 They're growing fast now, and the 250,000 pink salmon fry have lost the egg sacs from their bellies. It's starting to look like about 8,000 of them might survive a two-year journey to the open ocean and return to be caught on a fishing line in Cowichan Bay. Paul Rickard is optimistic that a venture to release pink salmon from a net pen in Cowichan Bay this spring will bring a thriving sport fishery back to the seaside community south of Duncan. "There's been an extremely positive reaction from the community -- they're looking forward to it," said Rickard recently at a Duncan coffee shop. He and partner Kim Zak have coaxed the project through to its final stages. It seems everyone loves the idea of introducing pink salmon back to Cowichan Bay. It's been a long time since families could catch fish from the beach. The salmon fishery of Cowichan Bay has plummeted over the last 20 years, a victim of over-fishing, loss of habitat and climate change. The pink salmon will soon be transferred from the hatchery to a net pen off the Blue Nose Marina where they'll double in size before their release. They'll return in a couple of years to be caught by the sports fishery. The fish won't spawn and reproduce because the waters of Cowichan Bay are too warm for their liking. It's called a "put and take" fishery, said Rickard. "Pinks come back to where they were raised in the net pen, so they imprint in the area you raise them in," he said. "Pink salmon, bless their little hearts, like to come back to shallow water. When these guys come back, you can wade out to waist-deep water and catch fish. "The other nice thing about pink salmon is they like to bite lures. They're easy to catch." And because the fish won't spawn in the bay's warm waters, more fry have to be raised at the hatchery and released each year. The community, local government and the province have backed the project financially, coming up with the $8,000 to $10,000 needed to get things up and running. The cost of raising fry in future years will be a fraction of that, said Rickard. Frank Wilson oversees the raising of the fry at the hatchery. The young fish are thriving, a good sign since it's the first time the facility has raised pink salmon. Normally chinook are raised at the hatchery and then released in channels in the Cowichan River estuary, said Wilson. Half the salmon that return to the river each year were raised at the hatchery. "When I was a kid there used to be lots of fish, but nature takes its course in different ways," said Wilson, a member of Cowichan Tribes. He's optimistic the pink salmon fishery will succeed: "They got to this stage with no problems, so it should be OK." If the pink salmon fishery does succeed, a fishing pier at Cowichan Bay would be a welcome addition. "That's a possibility but we need to work with landowners," Rickard said. The reward will see salmon fishing once again thriving in Cowichan Bay, said Rickard. "We'd like to get families involved again. You can take a walk to the beach during the nice weather, in August and September, you can wade out or fish from a canoe." Rickard is a lifelong fisherman who has retired from a career as elementary school principal at seven schools in the Cowichan Valley. "Now I have the time and I can give back to an activity I really enjoy," he said. smcculloch@tc.canwest.com © Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:30:26 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Editorial: Trial rights- The Windsor Star Trial rights http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/editorial/story.html?id=b04362c9-7b99-414d-a834-d489457a6148 Windsor Star Published: Monday, February 11, 2008 It isn't justice if it isn't swift Justice delayed is justice denied for everyone involved in the process, from the accused to alleged victims to the lawyers and judges and the taxpayers who pay for it all. A particularly egregious example recently spent itself after more than four years in a Toronto courtroom. A judge threw out corruption charges against six Toronto police officers, including Windsor native Ned Maodus, arguing "the glacial progress" of the prosecution was "unreasonable" and constituted a violation of their charter rights to be tried within a reasonable time. Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer pinned the blame squarely on Crown prosecutors and said "the public might fairly question why it has taken until 2008 to even approach the start of a trial on alleged misconduct" charges that occurred a decade ago. Now that those charges have been stayed, it is probable Toronto taxpayers, through the city's police services board, will have to cover the multimillion-dollar legal tab of the officers. That money, of course, is over and above the untold millions spent by other levels of government to conduct and attempt to prosecute what has been billed as the largest and longest police corruption investigation in Canadian history. This aborted trial has been unfair to the taxpayers who paid for it, the alleged victims at the centre of it and the accused officers themselves, who lost their careers and lived for a decade with a cloud over their heads while being denied an opportunity to refute the allegations against them in a court of law. Crown prosecutors, who have 30 days to appeal Nordheimer's ruling, should think long and hard before opting to waste another day or another dollar on this prosecution. Too much has been spent for too little already. Suzuki's bizarre call to arms It's hard to have a reasoned debate when your opponent muses about having you imprisoned for daring to dispute the science he believes supports his argument and his alone. Yet environmental crusader David Suzuki promoted such a tack in a recent speech in Montreal, where he exhorted an audience of some 600 people to hold political leaders legally accountable for failing to address global warming. "What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act," Suzuki said at a McGill University conference on sustainability. "It's an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years." Suzuki's comments, whether they were delivered in jest or not, seem aimed at ending the debate by shutting doors -- cell doors -- rather than opening minds. If Suzuki wants leaders to tackle climate change, he must convince them it is a prudent and necessary course of action and persuade voters to pressure them to take it. There are arguments being made on both sides of the climate change issue. That's why there is, and will likely continue to be, a robust debate. No one can claim with absolute certainty their position is the only one with right on its side because man is fallible and so are his opinions and the conclusions he reaches. And even, to paraphrase John Stuart Mill, if we knew for certain the entire world but one was right, the world would be no more justified in silencing the one anymore than the one would be justified in silencing all of mankind. Suzuki is correct that our leaders must be held accountable for the policy decisions they make or fail to make. But they should be thrown out of office, not thrown into jail. © The Windsor Star 2008 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:47:51 -0600 From: News@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Slain Calgarian called 'hero'- The Calgary Sun Slain Calgarian called 'hero' http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/02/11/4839477-sun.html Man's wife arrested in Thailand hit-for-hire shocker By KATIE SCHNEIDER, SUN MEDIA The Calgary Sun Mon, February 11, 2008 UPDATED: 2008-02-11 01:24:24 MST The sister of the second Calgarian to be killed in Thailand in a month says her brother was a hero who didn't deserve to die in cold blood. Dale Henry, 48, who lived and worked in Calgary for 30 years after moving from Victoria when he was seven, was shot and killed in his home in Ranong, Thailand, shortly after midnight last Sunday, while he was in bed, said his sister Mary-Jane Matheson who lives in Calgary. His wife Maneerat, a man believed to be her boyfriend, and another man have reportedly been arrested in connection with the murder. Matheson, 46, said she and her brother Richard, 44, of Victoria, learned the news on Tuesday from RCMP. She said she was in "total shock, I just could not believe it," she said emotionally from her home last night. "There wasn't anyone who hated him -- his life didn't deserve this, that's for sure." She said the bullets went through his hands and his head, leading her to believe he woke up just before he was going to be shot. She described her brother as ambitious and generous. "(He was) really kind and generous and always pushing us to try to do things," she said. "He even stood in line all night for me when I was getting my EMT Ambulance course." She also considered the former Cochrane Fire/EMS paramedic and firefighter a hero, who once built a makeshift landing pad for a STARS ambulance when it had nowhere to land to ensure the patients were taken care of, Matheson said. "He would go above and beyond his duties ... he was so diligent about going that extra mile," she said. "He would go to the hospital for children who were really hurt and he would reassure them everything would be OK and that was a really soft part of him. "I think he was a hero," she said. Henry, who worked for a U.S. company called Noble Drilling as a health and safety manager, had been living in Thailand for 10 years, she said. "He flew over there one of his months out and he fell in love with Thailand and ... he met this girl and fell in love with her," she said. "He loved her with all of his heart." And though her family has contacted officials in Canada about the murder, they are frustrated with what little information they have received. "We don't know anything except they are in jail or were in jail," she said. "Any Canadian who has died is supposed to be reported and it hasn't been." Matheson hopes to get a flight to Thailand today to help Richard plan the funeral, scheduled for Thursday, but she's scared for her life. "I'm really, really down and disappointed and confused about the whole system and scared. "We shouldn't have to be scared to go to his funeral," she said. Henry is the second Calgarian to be shot and killed in Thailand in a month. Leo Del Pinto, 25, was murdered in Pai, Thailand, allegedly by an off-duty Thai police officer on Jan. 6. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V11 #204 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:d.jordan@sasktel.net 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".) If you find this service valuable, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the freenet we use: Saskatoon Free-Net Assoc., P.O. Box 1342, Saskatoon SK S7K 3N9 Home page: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/ These e-mail digests are free to everyone, and are made possible by the efforts of countless volunteers. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this digest as long as it not altered in any way.