Still more otherwise law abiding firearms owners in their leisure hours

Calgary shooting range worker linked to weapons trafficking ring reports the Calgary Herald tonight.

Just fourteen months and 1.4 km away from Calgary's last gun shop employee led firearms trafficking ring.

G20 protesters

As seen by the Montreal Gazette's Aislin.

New Democrats on the long gun registry

This rural New Democrat gets it.

This one still doesn't.

And this New Democrat still won't do the right thing.

Stephen Harper's G8/G20 schedule

As seen by Bado, Le Droit's political cartoonist.

Jack Layton needs to stop Nathan Cullen before someone gets killed

NDP MP Nathan Cullen was first elected as MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley in the 2004 general election.

As a rookie candidate, Cullen signed on with a party whose membership had selected a new leader who supported fixing, not scrapping the long gun registry.

During the 2004 campaign, Canadian Press reported:

But with Winnipeg the last stop before the New Democrat campaign swings into Northern Ontario, journalists couldn't help but ask about gun control, a hot-button topic in the West.

Until Thursday, the NDP had been relatively silent on the issue.

Layton said his party does not support the scrapping of the billion-dollar federal gun registry, implemented under the Liberal government.

But he stressed that it needs to be fixed after being "botched terribly by the Liberals."

A senior party official said changes would include an overhaul of the registration system to make it more simple. There would also be cuts to the bureaucracy, the official said.

Getting the facts straight

In 2004, Cullen ran for a party with a leader who supported fixing the long gun registry and not scrapping it in an election where the party ran on fixing the long gun registry registry and not scrapping it.

And he won.

In 2005, Cullen voted to extend funding for the very long gun registry he now (again) opposes.

In 2006, winning again, he increased his share of the popular vote.

In 2008, despite running against a high profile Harper Tory candidate, Cullen increased his share of the vote yet again.

Nathan Cullen says that he has received “'clear and decisive direction"” from his constituents to vote to kill the long gun registry

Judging from the results of the last three elections, Cullen's constituents don't seem to be sending the message that Cullen says he's hearing.

So why then is Nathan Cullen prepared to endorse the Harper Tories' naked abuse of private members' business and put the lives of vulnerable women and children at further risk?

And why won't Jack Layton stop Nathan Cullen before someone gets killed.

All Layton has to do is whip the gun registry vote this fall.

It is the only responsible option.

Timeline: Another long gun user makes the news

September 2009

• plead guilty to a second impaired driving offence from December 2008.
• fined $1725 and banned from driving for three years.

November 2009

• convicted of carrying a firearm without lawful excuse (careless use) in December 2008.
• fined $172.50 and prohibited from owning firearms for one year.

April 5, 2010

• two charges of uttering threats, one charge of mischief and one charge of resisting a public officer following a domestic dispute. Those threats were to burn down the home that his wife lived in.
• released on conditions pending court appearance including no firearms, no weapons, no drugs and no alcohol.

May 2, 2010

• arrested by Cornerbrook RCMP
• was due in court on June 22
• also known to the Baie Verte RCMP

June 20, 2010

• RCMP take down near St. Georges following reports of an armed man planning to kill police officers
• And he knew which four police officers he wanted to kill.
  

So where did he get the gun that the RCMP found?

Why do the Harper Tories want to make it harder for the police to determine out who arms men like this one?

And why won't Jack Layton do the right thing on Bill C-391?

The United Nations is not our friend, Harper government advisor claims

Gary Mauser is a Simon Fraser University professor emeritus in the Faculty of Business Administration and the Institute for Urban Canadian Research Studies.

He has an academic background in marketing.

He is also a member of the Harper Tory government's radical, anti-gun control Minister's advisory group.

Over the past fifteen-plus years, this marketing professor has taken a special interest in gun control issues.

And what has this Harper government advisor concluded?

Speaking to the even more radical Second Amendment Foundation, Professor Mauser stated that "The UN is not our friend."

Isn't that just what every government running for a seat on the United Nations Security Council needs to hear from its hand picked advisors?

Of the colours blue and orange

Albertans will be familiar with the colours blue and orange.

Of course, on the long gun registry there really is no effective difference between the two parties.

And that really is a shame.

Vulnerable women and children deserve better.

From both of them.

Hey Nathan! What colour of tie goes with the blood of vulnerable women and children?

In the 2003 NDP leadership election, candidates in favour of making the gun registry work received 78.2% of the vote.

Lorne Nystrom, the only one of the top three to oppose the long gun registry, received 9.3% of the weighted vote.

To put Nystrom's results in numerical perspective, the Liberal candidate in Battle River-Wainwright in the 2008 Alberta provincial election won 12.4% of the vote.  Nystom, it seems, was really little more than a fringe candidate.

What is he thinking?

It remains puzzling that the leader of a party that overwhelmingly rejected the candidate who opposed the long gun registry and who is reported to personally support this life saving program still refuses to whip the vote on a bill and process so contrived that only the stupid or the naive could not recognize it for what it is - an abuse of private members' business.

And then it gets strange

Skeena NDP MP Nathan Cullen has had real success using private member's bills to advance important causes and has three bills currently before Parliament. 

And Cullen says that he's outraged, outraged, he says about the delayed vote on Bill C-391 and this summer's planned Tory political games.

But he still has every intention of giving the Tories exactly what they want, repeal of the long gun registry - a big fat club with which to beat his party in the next election in rural Canada. 

With his declared vote, Cullen has traded the greasy pole for a beanstalk.

In other words, he traded the lives of vulnerable women and children for an handful of magic beans.

By the way, he's Jack!

Of bank bombers, ammunition and the long gun registry

Early reports of the arrest of three individuals in the firebombing of an Ottawa branch of the Royal Bank of Canada suggested that 50 calibre sniper rifle ammunition had been seized.

In itself that would be troubling. 50 calibre rifles can do things like this (not for the squeamish). 

Later, Ottawa police retracted the story and explained that they had found hundreds of rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a calibre commonly associated with the AK-47, in boxes for 50 caliber ammunition.

The Globe and Mail reported that the police "clarification made the seizure somewhat less alarming".

Somehow, it is less reassuring than the Globe suggests. 

What really happened to the 50 calibre bullets that used to be in the ammunition boxes? 

And why do the Harper Tories think that the registration of 50 calibre sniper rifles should be repealed?

Stockwell Day cares about shit

Episode 1

Conservative TV seeks government protection from free market

To do that, the company is requesting that Sun TV’s license be converted to a specific kind of specialty channel – stipulating that the channel must be offered by distributors. Category 1 licenses such as this are very rarely issued. The application has been submitted to the federal broadcast regulator.

Some would call that irony.

Others would call it corporate welfare.

Tory gun control advisor says handgun murder statistically insignificant

In January 2008, an innocent bystander was gunned down on Toronto's Yonge Street.

His killer, an otherwise law abiding gun owner who had been thrown out of a landmark strip bar earlier that evening, returned with his legally acquired handgun intending, he said, to scare the bouncer.  The victim, John O'Keefe, was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the debate over the lawful possession of handguns that this shooting engendered, the media turned to "the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada" for their views.

Tony Bernardo, a member of the Harper Tory government's ironic and radical anti-gun control advisory committee on gun control issues and spokesman for the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, explained:

We're talking about something that statistically is so small, it isn't significant to even count it.

For his stunningly callous comments on the murder of an innocent man, one Toronto based publication named Tony Bernardo as their "Asshole of the Week".

Despite his stunningly callous comments, Bernardo maintains his privileged access to the highest levels of the Harper Tory government.  The bigger question is why?

Repealing gun registry will fix problems of urbanization and single parent families, Tory Senator claims

When he was appointed, new Harper Tory Senator Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu was seen as a breath of fresh air.

He wasn't an Ottawa insider, he wasn't a bag man, he had real world experience.

His experience was rooted in tragedy. His credibility was rooted in his response.

Arriving in Ottawa, Boisvenu became just another Ottawa caricature.

Asked about Bill C-391, the Harper Tory government's fake private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry, Boisvenu suggested that adopting this bill would help fix the dramatic decrease in the number of hunters due to urbanization and a growing number of families led by single mothers!

Selon lui, la diminution du nombre de chasseurs au Québec est «dramatique» et serait attribuable à l'urbanisation et au plus grand nombre de mères monoparentales.

Even more strange, perhaps, the new Senator argues that passing this bill would reduce the number of automobile accidents involving deer.  Even here, his assumptions are wrong.   Boisvenu estimates that there are 5000 to 8000 animal-vehicle collisions in Quebec annually.  The Quebec Ministry of Transport reports a grand total of 6000 collisions annually, including animal automobile altercations.

Most interestingly, the organization that Boisvenu helped found, l’Association des familles de personnes assassinées ou disparues (AFPAD), took part in yesterday's crime victims' press conference calling on Jack Layton to do the right thing and whip his caucus to defeat Bill C-391.

Maybe Boisvenu is taking communicatons advice from the Harper government's unregistered gun lobbyist and hand picked gun policy adviser.

If gun registry is defeated, crime victims will hold Jack Layton responsible

Yesterday, it was women.

Today, it's the gun violence victims and their survivors asking Jack Layton to do the right thing and whip his MPs to help defeat the Harper Tories' fake private members bill to repeal the long gun registry.

Ask may be a bit soft to describe what they did.  Their words speak more eloquently than any commentary could:

Si nous perdons le registre des armes d'épaule, nous vous en tiendrons responsable, M. Layton, a prévenu Jean-François Larivée, qui a perdu sa femme dans la tuerie de l'École polytechnique. 

And:

Hayder Kadhim, one of the students wounded at Dawson College in 2006, said Layton visited the school after the tragedy and personally promised to fight to keep the registry alive.

"It makes me feel like he's playing a political game," Kadhim said.

"In front of us he's a completely strong advocate of gun control," he added. "But to hear that he's the last one to impose that party line is very disappointing."

And:

«Je suis le mari de Maryse Laganière qui a perdu la vie le 6 décembre 1989 quelques mois après notre mariage, a dit Jeff Larivée. Maryse travaillait au service des finances de Poly et a donc perdu la vie sur son lieu de travail, lieu même où l'on s'est vu pour la première fois quelques années auparavant. La Loi sur le contrôle des armes a été obtenue après six ans de travail par les étudiants et les familles des victimes de la tuerie de Poly. (...) Mais le registre des armes n'est plus seulement un symbole. (...) Je ne suis pas un expert en matière de sécurité, mais quand toutes les associations nationales de police témoignent de l'efficacité du registre à protéger le public, je crois sincèrement que le débat est clos.»

And:

Michael Hogben was one of four of Fabrikant's colleagues who was killed that day.

His son said he finds it painful to talk about his father's death, but felt he had no choice.

"I'm worried about the politics going on right now, and I am hoping Mr. Layton will be the voice for us," Hogben said.

And:

"Mr. Layton, if we lose the long gun registry, it will be you that we will hold responsible," said Jean-Francois Larivee, whose wife Maryse Laganiere was killed in Canada's worst mass shooting, at Ecole polytechnique in 1989.

And:

Louise Hevey, mother of student Anastasia DeSousa who was killed at Dawson, said politicians have to make a crucial choice.

"Will you make a decision that will end up sacrificing votes or one that will end up sacrificing lives?" she said. "Unfortunetly this is what it comes down to."

She said she is saddened "that major public safety measures depend on ideology, partisan politics and the strength of the gun lobby while it should only depend on one thing: public safety."

If Jack Layton continues to be deaf to the calls for meaningful action to protect the gun registry, he'll stand arm in arm with a man who calls gun murder in Canada "something that statistically is so small, it isn’t significant to even count it."

We'll continue to stand on the other side.

637 women write to Jack Layton

We are writing to urge you in the strongest possible way to compel your caucus to save Canada's gun registry.

I liked the old Jack Layton better

As a candidate for leader of his party, Jack Layton was always clear about where he stood.

When the Western Producer asked the three leading candidates in the 2003 NDP leadership race about their views on the long gun registry, two of the three candidates said they supported it.  Layton was the most direct:

"I support the idea of gun registration," said the urban politician who grew up in rural Quebec and saw a childhood friend accidentally shot by an improperly stored gun. "But I don't think this approach by the Liberals is working. We have to sort it out, make it as easy and simple and non-threatening to gun owners as we can. We register all kinds of things. This need not be seen as the thin edge of the wedge to anything."

Perhaps the most interesting position was expressed by Bill Blaikie, one of the NDP MPs who had voted against the Firearms Act when it was first introduced.  The Producer reported:

"The NDP has been divided on the issue," he conceded Jan. 2 while campaigning in Saskatchewan for the leadership vote. He said he was reacting to opposition from New Democrats in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon.

"But now that it's the law and many people have registered, I think there is no turning back. We have to figure out what went wrong, how to fix it and how to make it a program that people will accept."

It's a shame that NDP MP Jim Maloway doesn't share his predecessor's maturity, judgement or sense of perspective:

"I haven't changed my mind on this issue for 15 years so I don't think 15 days is going to do much one way or the other," said Mr. Maloway, the only NDP opponent available for comment Friday.

2003 was the first NDP leadership selection that used the NDP's modified one member one vote process instead of a more traditional delegated convention.

Looking at the results, candidates in first and second place accepted the long gun registry.  Jack Layton and Bill Blaikie received 78.2% of the weighted vote.  Long time registry opponent Lorne Nystrom's result was disappointing, only 9.3%.

In fact, the proportion may be higher, but it is impossible to tell from Joe Comartin's leadership campaign website whether he supported long gun registry when he was running for leader.  He certainly supports it now.

Jack Layton has a choice.

He can stand with vulnerable women and kids.

He can sand with the members of his party who selected him.

He can stand with the Jack Layton he used to be.

Or he can stand with Stephen Harper, the cop hating gun lobby and Stormfront posters.

Running for leader, Jack Layton was honest about where he stood.

NDP members gave him a mandate to fix their broken party. 

NDP members gave Jack Layton a mandate to help fix the gun registry. 

It can't be fixed if Jack Layton's MPs help Stephen Harper kill it.

It's up to Jack Layton to do the right thing.

Saying he supports the registry but not saving it just isn't good enough.

The Jack Layton who ran for leader of his party would have been highly critical of that kind of dishonest duplicity.

Some might even call it being "Ottawashed".

Poll finds overwhelming support for long gun registry

Much has been written in recent days on the Harper Tories' fake private members bill to repeal the registration of firearms that like this 50 calibre sniper rifle seized from a white supremacist in downtown Toronto.

A Leger Marketing poll published today in Le Journal de Québec finds that 74% of respondents from la belle province support keeping the long gun registry.  Among Conservative voters, two thirds oppose this Harper government initiative.

Even in Eastern Quebec, a region with strong rural communities, almost two voters in three (65%) favour keeping it.

Support from young voters is very high. A stunning 85% of those between 18 and 24 back the controversial program.

A spokesman for Leger Marketing told the newspaper that these results send a clear message to MPs.

Ce sont des taux extrêmement importants, ce sont des messages très clairs qui, je crois, seront envoyés aux députés qui auront à se pencher sur cette question au cours des prochains jours et des prochaines semaines

Are you listening Jack Layton?

In which Jack Layton is dragged kicking and screaming into a silver DeLorean

On tonight's Cowboys for Social Responsibility trip back to the future we take a look at what Jack Layton has said about the long gun registry in the past.

Overhauling the gun registry is not mentioned in the NDP's 63-page election platform. But Mr. Layton was very clear on his intentions yesterday. "We've said it needs to be fixed," Mr. Layton said.

Globe and Mail, June 4, 2004

Jack, you can't fix it if your MPs help abolish it.

As a bonus, we got a sneak peak of what the Tory campaign against the NDP will look like whether or not Layton does the right thing on the long gun registry.

Cop hating gun lobby ups the ante

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

CSSA is the proud owner of the how crazy are we anonymous web poll on police - gun owner relations.

Frankly, any organization  that asks whether Canadians fear police more than criminals is well outside of the Canadian mainstream and and doesn't work on main street.

As if that's not enough

CSSA today announced the opening of an Ottawa office and the hiring of an Ottawa based Communications Director.

So who is the new staffer?

At the end of his last fifteen minutes of fame, the Montreal Gazette wrote:

A political staffer has resigned after the office of Tory backbencher Garry Breitkreuz issued a scathing news release denouncing Canadian police chiefs as a "cult" and suggesting that Liberals who oppose the gun registry should beat up their party leader for forcing them to vote against a bill to scrap the database.

They hired the guy who even Tories blame for calling police chiefs a cult.

It might not be all bad news

With Ottawa based staff, maybe CSSA will get around registering to lobby the federal government.

Then we'd know which Harper Tory Ministers they have access to.

His master's voice

If the NRA says so, it must be true.

That would save Jack Layton from having to do the right thing.

How perfect in every way.

Zis is NDP. Ve don't vip here!

Le Devoir is reporting that that Jack Layton has a new strategy for the Harper Tories' fake Private Member's Bill to repeal the registry of 50 calibre sniper rifles.

Good idea 99.

Would you believe that the strategy consists of publicly identifying electorally vulnerable MPs?

Good thinking, Jack.

Don't tell me that the strategy involves not whipping the vote.

Layton manoeuvre pour sauver le registre des armes à feu sans forcer ses élus qui s'y opposent

I asked you not to tell me that!

Sorry about that Chief!

I really hope I wasn't out of line with the white ribbon crack.

H/T: Impolitical

Pick a pop culture reference to help name this post

As we were so recently reminded, the Harper Tory government likes to control the message.

When the Harper Tories couldn't have their hand picked candidate appointed as patronage czar, they threw in the towel.  Unable to get their way, the Harper Tories effectively killed the very oversight mechanism that they themselves had promised.

When the Harper government found itself in a little trouble about a handgun raffle and a Private Member's Bill supported by the proponents of the raffle, PMO killed the Bill.

And now, when the astroturfed replacement bill runs into trouble in the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, the Tory message changes from needing to have a vote to the likelihood that no vote will happen on the Committee's recommendation until the fall.

Frankly, it's odd to see the Parliamentary Secretary to Public Safety Minister talking about the timing of this vote.  After all, it is the Speaker who sets the date and time for the vote in the Committee motion to kill the Bill. 

All that is left is to choose an appropriate Star Trek or Monty Python reference to describe the government's handling of this not-an-official-although-throne-speech-endorsed-government-bill (voting not enabled).

• No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'!
• He's dead, Jim!

Do not pay any attention to the man behind the curtain

Each correct answer is worth five points.
Spot the real Folly Lake. 

• A
• B
• C

Why yes, Jack Layton, it is about you

The NDP still doesn't want to whip the Harper government's fake private member's bill to repeal the registry of firearms like this.

Jack Layton has a simple choice.

He can chose to do the right thing.

He can stand with the friends and family of École Polytechnique and honour their work or he can be just another white guy with a white ribbon.

Just like Harper Tory Cabinet Minister Peter Kent.

Better late than never

It's not as if they could have named him Miss Congeniality.

A new comment policy for the new world order

Cowboys for Social Responsibility has never allowed completely anonymous comments.

As a practical troll identifier, requiring sign in of some form allowed readers to differentiate serial morons from occasional morons.  From time to time, a relatively interesting comment from parts unknown would appear too.

Having recently returned to blogging with an immediate focus on a topic that seems to open the big bag of idiots, a new commenting policy seems to be in order.

From two or three days ago, this blog will only post comments from other bloggers or writers.  Sock puppet names with no other identifiers or no indication that they do anything other than comment will no longer be posted.  Comment moderation has been enabled in order to implement this new approach.

Comments whining about the new policy have already been deleted without a second thought or a smile as have comments agreeing with positions presented here.

Of course, we reserve the right to post comments that generally would be outside the scope of this new policy.  It is our blog after all.

Those comments would fall into four possible categories:

• tremendously interesting or thought provoking
• so stupid that readers need to see them
• so ridiculous that they require mocking and/or shaming
• because we want to post it

So please, Mr. Troll, don't whine when we don't post your comment.

Take it as a complement.  It means that we don't think that you are a complete moron.

Layton shooting for number 1 with a bullet

The NDP still won't whip the Harper Tories' astroturfed private members bill to repeal the registry of firearms that look like this.

That should bring a smile to the members of Sniper Central.

Layton still not acting like a leader on gun registry bill

Yesterday, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security voted to recommend that the House of Commons kill the Harper government's astroturfed private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry.

It's as close as a Committee can come to actually killing a private member's bill.

All opposition MPs, even the NDP representative at the meeting, voted to kill it.  The Tories, of course, voted against the motion.

When the media went to see if Jack Layton - who should have known that his MP was voting to kill the bill - was prepared to act like a real leader and whip his caucus on this obvious abuse of the private members process, nothing.

Not even a statement from a spokesperson.  Even crickets were shocked by the overwhelming silence.

Vulnerable women and kids deserve better.


Who's side are you on Jack?

It would have been so much better had it been televised

Mark Holland scored a small win for vulnerable Canadians today.

His motion for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to report Bill C-391, the Harper government's astroturfed private member's bill to repeal the long gun registry, back to the House of Commons with a recommendation to kill the bill - the closest the Committee can come to actually killing it - passed with support from all three opposition parties.

It's not dead yet

The House of Commons must vote to sustain the committee report to put the silver spike into the heart of this terrible bill.

It's up to the NDP

That means that the lives of vulnerable women and children remain in the hands of Jack Layton and the NDP.

Leadership, Jack, is about making difficult decisions.

This one shouldn't be hard at all.

Tory friendly anti-gun-registry MP says Polytechnique advocates "ready to lie"

Radio shock jock, tour bus driver and independent MP André Arthur is upset.

Yesterday, Polytechnique survivors put out a press release highlighting Arthur's refusal to meet a constituent to discuss Bill C-391, the Harper Tory government's astroturfed bill to repeal the long gun registry.

Arthur thinks they're being unfair to him.

He says he met with his constituent as recently as well over a year ago, in March 2009.

Perhaps they were talking about Bill C-301, a private member's bill so bad that the Prime Minister's Office forced MP Garry Breitkreuz to kill it.

They certainly weren't talking about Bill C-391. It was introduced in May 2009.

It would have been hard to discuss a Bill that hadn't been tabled or even imagined at the time.

So who, Monsieur Arthur, really is "prêts à mentir"?

One man, one shotgun

Twelve dead.

UPDATE:

Mr. Bird, unlike previous mass murderers in Britain, did not seem to be a social outcast. He was known as a gregarious man, seen at the pub most nights, who enjoyed conversation. He was devoted to the hobbies of car racing and, tellingly, sport shooting.

MP refuses to meet constituent on gun registry bill. Gun lobby clams up.

Much has been made by members of the Harper Tory government's radical anti-gun-control advisory group of the alleged abuse of constituents and the democratic process involved in rejecting the astroturfed private members bill to repeal the long gun registry.

In fact, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters released just such a screed signed by a member of that advisory group today.

But when an MP supporting long gun registry repeal refuses to meet with constituents, nothing but the sound of crickets from the otherwise vocal and concerned.

Typical.

Anti gun registry morons get noticed

There really is no better way to get people to agree with your radicalized world view than to Freep their web poll.

That's what CanadianGunNutz.com did to a recent Canadian Crime Victim Foundation web poll.

CCVF wasn't about to take this assault lying down. On their home page and on their web poll page they wrote:

The CCVF was forced to remove the poll question concerning the Long Gun registry in Canada. This poll was flooded by www.CanadianGunNutz.com sponsored by the Canadian Shooting Sports Association and the National Firearms Association. The post on their web site reads "Hit it folks….we are getting killed on this one and it's on a crime victims site so ya know it'll be used against us if they win…"40% to keep, 60% to scrap. This post resulted in unprecedented votes over a short period of time and invalidated the poll. There will be depositions in Ottawa in the coming weeks. If you are concerned please email or write your Member of Parliament.

Turns out, all it really did was make the gun nuts who rushed over to answer the poll look like mean spirited, crime victim hating morons.

We already know they hate cops.

Well played.

Well played indeed.

Congratulations morons.