CANADIAN FIREARMS LEGISLATION PAGES

Page started 28 April 2003

This page will grow as I find material and data worth listing.  For now, it is simply a text based number of issues and links to the related material.

If you have any material you would like to make me aware of or you think should be mentioned on this page, please feel free to contact me.

Firearms Act And Regulations
To actually read the Firearms Act and Regulations, go here.

James Buck Court Decision
To read about how the Firearms Act and that which it creates has already resulted in abuse of other firearms owners in my area, I have provided a copy of the Buck decision.  James Buck was a fellow I.W.A. Local 1-405 member.  The Area Firearms Officer was local RCMP Cst. Dennis Johnson, seconded to BC's CFO.  Cst. Johnson felt he was more intelligent and more suited to determine how Mr. Buck should have been dealt with than the judge, Crown Counsel, and police who dealt with Mr. Buck several years later.  The events, search, trial, and legal costs that resulted were a result of Cst. Johnson's inappropriate and unethical efforts to deprive Mr. Buck of both his firearms license and his firearms.  After you read Judge Carlgren's opinion in his verdict, feel free to ask yourself why Dennis Johnson was not only not disciplined, but is STILL the area firearms officer local hunters and firearms owners suffer under.  You can read the Buck decision here.

What if You Complain To Police And The Media About This Kind Of Abuse?
First of all, you can expect Firearms Officers to start behaving like Soviet Union state security agents - they will keep secret files on you that even include keeping track of what members of your family write in letters to the local newspaper.  Sounds too hard to believe?  Well check out Dennis Johnson's efforts (yes, the same guy that the Judge criticized in the Buck court decision) here.  Dennis Johnson was never disciplined for either his behavior in the James Buck incident, or for the guilt-by-association files he was keeping on individuals who criticized his conduct.  And after that... well, read about it here.

Canadian Labour Congress Support For Firearms Act
Approximately 30% of Canadian workers are unionized.  Accordingly, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of Canadian firearms owners are also members of a trade union.  At this time (March 2003) it is more evident than ever before that Canadian firearms owners are opposed to measures within the Firearms Act such as universal registration and the home "inspection" legislation.  Despite this, the Canadian Labour Congress - of which practically all Canadian unions are members - has been and continues to be a strong supporter of both the Coalition For Gun Control and the Firearms Act.  This should be a grave concern for all unionized firearms owners.
     To read the CLC's presentation to Parliament advocating the Firearms Act, click here.
     To read the CLC's appearance before Parliament to defend their position, click here.

Do Canadian Firearms Owners Actually Have Civil Rights And Freedoms?
Apparently not... read on:

The legal history of Canadian rights does not start with the Constitution Act which was passed in 1982.  As our Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly says, it includes our historical and pre-existing rights, going back to at least the English Bill of Rights, articulated by the writings of constitutional scholars like Locke and Blackstone, and the inclusion of the principles they identified in the BNA Act, the Canadian Bill of Rights, and of course now the Charter.  Those rights have been recognized and expanded upon by the Supreme Court of Canada.

However, the Firearms Act clearly exhibits a belief that Canadians lose many of their civil rights and freedoms the instant they become the owner of a firearm.  Professor Ted Morton has written an excellent paper outlining some of the ways in which the Firearms Act deprives Canadians of their most basic civil rights and freedoms.  You can read the paper here.

"Reasonable" Firearms Legislation; The Slippery Slope For Civil Rights
The Firearms Act goes far beyond the issue of firearms.  It goes to the heart of how insecure ALL our civil rights are, and where the slippery slope of "reasonableness" can lead us to.  The abuse and elimination of civil rights is not limited to firearms issues, and in the name of "security" many civil rights and freedoms are being infringed upon or outright disappearing.  The past history of how this is happening in Britain - a country we share a common civil rights and legal heritage with - should be a wakeup call to those who believe the Firearms Act infringements are reasonable.  Or that it will not extend beyond the subject of firearms...  The legal paper on the page this links to was prepared for the Hamlin Law Review; it discusses the slippery slope that leads to bureaucratic abuse and the outright loss of civil rights.  Read it here.

Political Attitudes Towards Firearms Owners
The attitude that political elitists have towards firearms owners - and their willingness to violate firearms owners' rights with Draconian firearms legislation in support of their prejudices - is becoming a global issue.  Why is it that politicians are so prepared to abuse the rights and freedoms of law-abiding firearms owners because they MIGHT do something while at the same time they do everything they can to ensure they don't violate the rights of convicted violent criminals?  Dr. Lech Beltowski has written an excellent commentary of this issue in New Zealand, but it applies equally well in Canada and you can read it here.

Why Has Canada Spent Over A Billion Dollars To Register Firearms?
Think you know the answer?
Public safety? Deter crime? Prevent suicide? Aid police investigations?

Answer: None of the above; a government insider tells why the Chretien government brought in our billion dollar registry here!

Its Cost Two Billion Dollars?  But Allan Rock & The Liberals Said It Would Only Cost Two Million!
The Auditor General found that we have already spent over a billion dollars - and that was just the expenditures she could track down.  She gave up on a complete audit after finding out she was not being provided with all the cost information to enable a complete audit.  But, you can read her 2002 report to Parliament about the wasted billion dollars she WAS able to track down here.

Bowling For Columbine: Fact Or Lucrative Myth Created By Michael Moore?
I am constantly amazed at the number of coworkers and other Canadians who have seen this movie and think it is a factual documentary of the events and circumstances relating to the criminal acts at Columbine.  If nothing else, I suppose that is a testament to the power of the media.  There is an excellent article that was sent to me that dispels any illusion of Moore's film being a documentary, and you can read it here.

Canadian Pediatricians Are Telling You You Shouldn't Have Guns And Children?
Recently, the Canadian Paediatric Society released a "study", Youth And Firearms In Canada. On the one hand, it is disturbing as it depends from beginning to end on references to fraudulent research which has not only failed peer review, but the author has since admitted it was deliberately biased.  A parent that would hope their pediatrician understands scientific methodology and the importance of peer review when evaluating research in deciding how to treat a child.  Apparently, these doctors missed that part of medical school.  With that aside, however, it is curious that the good doctors focus on the handful of deaths of children every year in this country that are caused by firearms - but seem determined to turn a blind eye to the number of children wrongfully killed every year by their own doctor.  The wrongful deaths of children by firearms should never be ignored.  But for the Canadian Paediatric Society to focus on this small number of deaths and firearms owned by parents instead of the far greater numbers of children who die at the hands of their own members is simply shameful and an indictment of the ethics of this Society.

The Canadian Medical Association has recently published a study in their own journal that indicates the magnitude of the number of wrongful deaths each year in Canada, where errors and negligence by doctors leads to disability or death.  To quote from their study:

Our study showed that an estimated 7.5% of patients admitted to acute care hospitals in Canada in the fiscal year 2000 experienced 1 or more AEs. We found that 36.9% of these patients were judged to have highly preventable AEs. Most of the patients who experienced an AE recovered without permanent disability; their AEs contributed to longer stays in hospital or temporary disability. However, a small but significant proportion of patients died or experienced a permanent disability as a result of their AEs. By extrapolation, our results suggest that, in 2000, between 141,250 and 232,250 of 2.5 million similar admissions to acute care hospitals in Canada were associated with an AE and that 9,250 to 23,750 deaths from AEs could have been prevented.

Think of that for a moment.  As many as 23,750 Canadians each year are killed by their doctor - if only 10% of those who die are children, doctors kill 2,375 Canadian children each year.  That number totally eclipses the number of children killed each year as a result of firearms in the home - but the Canadian Paediatric Society wants its' members to go after parents who have firearms, rather than concerning themselves with the deaths that they themselves are a cause of.  Think of that - having a doctor is more dangerous to your health than owning a firearm.  Just something to think about the next time you hear some politically correct doctor parroting how dangerous it is to have firearms in the home.

The CBC coverage of the CMA study can be found here, and the actual study itself can be found here.  If you want to actually read the Canadian Paediatric Society's drivel... well, it can be found here.