Cdn-Firearms Digest Tuesday, December 9 2008 Volume 12 : Number 764 In this issue: Re: Video killed Dion's star Gun range fires up controversy in Lost Dog Canyon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:23:05 -0500 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Re: Video killed Dion's star Beautiful prose from Gunter. > Lorne Gunter: Video killed Dion’s star > http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/tags/Lorne+Gunter/default.aspx > > Posted: December 07, 2008, 4:53 PM by Kelly McParland > Lorne Gunter > > "Films made in the Tora Bora studios of al-Qaeda Pictures have better > production values" > > "Don't you think it was unfair for everyone in your business to criticize > Stéphane Dion for the quality of his videotape performance?" a reader asked > me in a semi-critical e-mail last week. > > Short answer: No. It wasn't unfair. Methinks Dion was comatose long before this failed effort. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yea, I'm gonna miss that. Oh well. - -DRGJ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:42:35 -0500 From: Lee Jasper Subject: Gun range fires up controversy in Lost Dog Canyon [Controversial from downtown Toronto to the foothills]. Gun range fires up controversy in Lost Dog Canyon 'Silence of the wilderness' will be shattered, trail ride operator and residents say, taking their complaints to the Ombudsman SARA NEWHAM; December 9, 2008 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081209.wbcgun09/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview In the foothills of the Purcell Mountains, hikers and horseback riders can clamber along the ridge of the Lost Dog Canyon, touring the mountainous terrain of the East Kootenay backcountry with a view of the Rockies in the distance. For five years, this is where clients of the Spirit Trail Adventures lodge have come to get away from it all, to rest, ride horses and enjoy quiet contemplation in the wilderness. But this spot, located north of Kimberley, has become the centre of a land-use controversy after the Integrated Land Management Bureau decided to license the Kimberley Wildlife and Wilderness Club to set up a gun range above the lodge. The club, formerly the Kimberley Rod and Gun Club, says it has met the numerous government requirements to obtain the land tenure, but the operator of Spirit Trail Adventures believes this decision could spell the end of her business. "It defies literally the purpose of our business out here because we really base our whole experience on the serenity and the silence of the wilderness," said Martina Danzer, who owns the lodge with her husband, Charlie Sims. "The gun range is not just any kind of sound. ... So the worst scenario is we just have to shut down out here because I just cannot see it [working]." Lost Dog Canyon has also been home to several families for 30 years. They, too, oppose the gun range which is to be located above the residences on the canyon's ridge beside the horse trails licensed to the lodge by the ILMB. Pine beetle logging and hunting already take place in the area. The long-established club has searched for a gun range location for four years after its old range shut down. Since then, the club has shared a facility near Cranbrook with another club but its membership declined. After several years of jumping over regulatory hurdles, the group finally found this controversial home. "It's probably the only suitable site within a short driving distance of Kimberley," said Frank O'Grady, a director with the club. In a written statement, the club said the shots fired at the gun range would not be directed toward the residences. Two sound tests were conducted by the ILMB in May of 2007 before the land officer recommended not approving the gun range because the sound was deemed too loud at the nearest residence, 2.4 kilometres away. In 2008, a different ILMB employee used a rural Ontario standard of 50 decibels - the sound level of a quiet radio - as a general model and compared it with the results of a numerical model provided in a sound consultant's report to quantify sound level at various distances from a rifle range. Using that information, the ILMB reported that sound below 50 decibels would be audible at most residences and would exceed that level at the nearest residence under some conditions. The gun range was approved in early September with time restrictions, but the residents take issue with the process and have complained to the B.C. Ombudsman. "This is one of those instances where they just keep saying no, it shouldn't bother anyone, but it's in a damn canyon, it's too close and it does bother us," said Larry Haber, one of the local residents. Because the case is before the Ombudsman, no one from the ILMB would comment. Tourism Minister Bill Bennett said he supports the decision of the ILMB to give the wilderness club tenure. "I support the decision based on the information that's been provided to me by ILMB," Mr. Bennett said. "If the information provided to me turns out to be different, that opens the whole thing up again. It's not my ministry, but definitely it matters to me that there's a small tourism operator that thinks that their business is jeopardized." ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V12 #764 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:drg.jordan@sasktel.net List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)