On September 22, 1998, a large group of what I will call "gun enthusiasts" marched on Parliament Hill. They billed it as Fed Up II, so I can only assume there must have been a Fed Up I.
During this, from what I understand, rather large rally; some of the people who were "fed up", noticed RCMP snipers on the roof of the Parliament Buildings. When reporters asked about the snipers, they were told by the RCMP boss that there were no snipers, only officers with binoculars.
This upset the people who were already "fed up" and with great will and determination, they set out to prove that the RCMP were lying. They filed an Access to Information Request to determine what weapons had been signed out that day, to RCMP officers on the Hill. I think they were big ones ... lots of letters and numbers. Very impressive.
Now I can't speak for everyone, but when there is a large group of angry gun owners marching on Parliament Hill, I for one do not want to see snipers on the roof. I want tanks. Lots of them. They are gun owners and they are "fed up" .. for the second time!
Leading the charge was Reform-Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, who has done little else during his time on Parliament Hill, but promote the idea that Canadians should have the right to bear arms.
I have written of this often, because while Stephen Harper will suggest that he is only worried about farmers having to register their guns, the fact is, that what he is actually promoting is a gun culture. One endorsed by the American NRA.
They stacked the Firearms Advisory Committee, with gun enthusiasts, including the man in the photo that I posted with this piece.
Cowboys for Social Responsibility have recently discovered an article written by another of those firearms enthusiasts: M.J. Ackermann, published in the Cdn-Firearms Digest, in which he says:
So all it takes now to have the Black Shirts bomb your house and take you down is an unsubstantiated call by a disgruntled whoever. Thank god this guy didn't have a comb in his hand when the Black Shirts got to him.
As I predicted a few years ago, the escalation of police response from a polite knock on the door and discussion to SS type raid is the direct result of gun licensing and registration coupled with the pogrom of cultural genocide that has been going on for the last decade and more. Sooner or later they are gonna start shooting us first and asking questions later.
Black Shirts and SS all because of the gun registry.
In a ruling made public late Thursday, the judge dismissed arguments by Breitman's lawyer that the case should be dismissed because of her young age. He ruled that she is old enough to be sued and the case can proceed. The decision also will allow for the lawsuit to proceed against the Kohn family for the incident.
"For infants above the age of 4, there is no bright-line rule," Wooten wrote, adding that the girl had been three months shy of turning 5. Wooten also disagreed with the lawyer's assertion that Juliet Breitman should not be held responsible because her mother was supervising the children at the time.
For infants above the age of 4? When Garry Breitkreuz, back in his Reform Party days, suggested that children as young as 10 should go to prison, we were shocked. When Stockwell Day as leader of the Alliance Party thought that children as young as 12 should be given the death penalty , we kicked him to the curb. Boy, I'll bet Stephen Harper is rewriting our crime laws (again), as we speak.
As we learned prior to the vote on the gun registry, the American NRA had a louder voice in our government, than the Canadian people.
But we drowned out their voices. Good for us.
However, it would appear that Stephen Harper is not done, and just as the NRA helped to get him elected in 2006, by having a representative work with their Canadian counterparts, we can expect more interference next election.
Harper is making this about rural and urban Canada. Hunters and farmers under attack.
Bull.
This has zip, zilch, nada to do with farmers or hunters or rural Canada, and everything to do with the crazy Republicans wanting to force "American values" on the Canadian people.
Loonies, Guns and a Polite Society
Many Canadians think themselves immune from the anti-politics of right-wing extremists. But consider how the National Firearms Association (FA) moved into the spotlight during the 1997 controversy over the Liberal's gun control legislation. The NFA's director, John Bauer, alleged that federal gun control was some kind of world disarmament conspiracy, led by the pacifist Canadian government and their girlymen army of peacekeepers. "A [Liberal] majority means the end of a culturally distinct Recreational Firearms Community [RFC] in Canada and maybe even [in] the world as we are being used to pave the way for Total Global Disarmament by 2003" said Bauer. "The RFC has been pushed ever closer to extinction every year. Why? Why? Why? What have we done to deserve this oppression?" (1)
Recreational Firearms Community? Not guns to shoot rascally varmints? And where does this notion of Total Global Disarmament come from? In large part through men like Wayne La Pierre (shown above), who wrote a book: The Global War on Your Guns
The Global War on Your Guns takes you inside the U.N. plan to destroy the Bill of Rights by attacking the one right that makes any right possible, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. LaPierre's well-researched chapters outline the threat itself, how the U.N. works, and the phalanx of international forces determined to eliminate the basic human right of self-preservation through elimination of all private firearm ownership.
He sounds a little nuts, right? But in 1997 he was one of a group that Stephen Harper referred to when he said "your country, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world." LaPierre is a member of the Council for National Policy, where Harper delivered his speech that showed contempt for the Canadian people. He is also the chief executive officer of the NRA.
Counting over 2.8 million members, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has been called “perhaps America’s most powerful political lobby,” and “serves as spiritual godfather to gun groups around the world.” The Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, Wayne La Pierre, is a member of the Council for National Policy. Under his direction, the NRA has been extremely active in pursuing its anti-gun control agenda abroad, especially in Canada. According to Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA), a gun lobby group, the NRA was “instrumental to the formation of the CILA” and provides “tremendous amounts of logistic support.” On July 4, 2001, La Pierre stated “the National Rifle Association of America supports and endorses the work done by the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action,” which works with the National Firearms Association to advocate for the “rights” of gun owners.
But I thought this was about farmers ... hunters? ... gatherers? ... and puppies?
The NRA has provided most of the talking points for Stephen Harper. And they are also involved with the National Firearms Association, another group that has helped tremendously with the success of Harper's party since their Reform days.
In 1994, even before the gun control showdown, Reform's Vancouver South riding association argued for the legal right of "law-abiding citizens to own and use" firearms because "disarming law-abiding citizens not only opens the road to dictatorship, but also grants criminals an open season on the rest of us." Their assumption is that social harmony is improved by an armed citizenry, especially by folks packing concealed weapons—an outlaw-gunslinger fantasy defined by the Far Right credo, "An armed society is a polite society."
Leading up to the 1997 federal election, the NFA pledged support to the Reform Party and its efforts to protect the "culturally distinct" status of gun owners. They organized a fundraising drive, "Giving a Loonie to Save a Gun," in which Canadian gun owners were encouraged to donate a dollar to Reform for every firearm they owned; Bauer estimated that $21 million would be raised if every gun owner responded to the call. The NFA'S president, David Tomlinson, assured his membership that gun owners were playing a central role in nominating Reform candidates so that no more "enemies" could be sent to Ottawa. "The firearms community, in this area, is not outside the [Reform] Party looking in and begging for handouts," said Tomlinson. "It is an active and aware segment of the party." (1)
"An armed society is a polite society"? I guess that's why Canadians are so darn nasty. If we were packin' heat, we'd learn some manners.
"I'm sorry. Did I just shoot you in the foot? It's these tight jeans. They make me a little trigger happy."
The NFA even launched a boycott against businesses who supported the Liberal party. Now that's commitment.
This entire thing is about the "right to bear arms". They want to turn us into Americans and are using the Americans to do it. We have to remove the notion of this being a battle between rural and urban Canada. This is a battle for Canadian sovereignty.
The willingness of neo-conservatism's fringe to champion unlimited firearm freedoms over public safety evokes the ultra-violent Western: minimal dialogue, unfettered freedoms and cartoon plots. Part child, part tyrant and part sociopath, the victim-warrior of the Far Right has become a political force in the 1980s and 1990s simply because nobody knows how to defuse this hysterical cowboy; after all, he's always threatening to explode or claiming himself the victim of a major conspiracy. For people with this Rambo mindset, politics is post-literate: all action, no talk. Which means you aren't going to win too many arguments—especially with people who read the Revelation of St. John as nonfiction: "Which of us can stand his ground, now that the great day, the day of their vengeance, has come?" The Reform Party is known for these extremist tendencies. (1)
"Extremist tendencies". So not Canadian.
Sources:
1. Slumming it at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada's Right-Wing Revolution, Gordon Laird, 1998, Douglas & McIntyre, ISBN: 1-55054 627-9, Pg. 159-160
The federal gun registry has survived a critical vote in the House of Commons by a very narrow margin.
The result was 153-151 in favour of keeping the registry. All MPs showed up and voted as expected.
All parties had been keeping close tabs on the voting intentions of their MPs and the result was widely expected to be 153-151 in favour of keeping the registry, with all Tories voting to scrap it.
The opening of Parliament put Stephen Harper on the hot seat for a number of bad decisions made this summer. He answered them all with the usual blah, blah, blah.
And to all those who still believe he's a brilliant strategist ... Hmmmm.
1. Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe asked why he is so intent on killing the registry, given the number of groups that support it.
Harper responded by saying the Conservative position is clear and the government wants "targeted gun control that targets criminals, not farmers and hunters."
"Not farmers and hunters"?
We've learned this week that the American NRA have been the ones making all the noise. I have no doubt that several of their members are farmers and hunters, but they are American.
And if you want to know what this is all about, besides Garry Breitkreuz's insanity, you just have to go back to the starting of the Reform Party. One of the right-wing groups that campaigned on their behalf was the National Firearms Association:
David Tomlinson, of the Alberta-based National Firearms Association, the principal anti-gun control lobby in Canada, has placed repeated ads in the organization's magazines urging its members to join the Reform Party and get anti-gun control resolutions passed at the constituency level. It has provided a draft resolution for its members to place on Reform Party local meetings. The resolution promotes the notion of gun control by an advisory committee of gun owners and firearms dealers. (1)
It is true that C-391 does not go far enough in resolving our issue with the flawed and ridiculously expensive Firearms Act – laws enacted by successive Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments. Its passage would be a good first step towards reclaiming some of the rights constrained in decades of offensive firearms control law. Let me write that again – a first step – most assuredly not the last or only one. Many issues remain that need to be dealt with in order to get us on an even keel. Being able to fully enjoy, use, buy, and sell all firearms regardless of status would be nice.
I'll let him write again: "a good first step". If we give them this, it will only be the start.
2. When Michael Ignatieff opposed the notion to build more prisons, Harper responded by saying he has no difficulty explaining to Canadians the government's priority when it comes to crime "is having criminals in prison, not out on the street."
The first problem with that is that he obviously does have trouble explaining it to Canadians, because he never even tried. He doesn't speak to us. Ever. He lets his minions take the fall. And what criminals is he putting in prison? Stockwell Day said they were for unreported crime. It's gonna' be kind of hard to get a conviction.
3. His answer to the huge corporate tax cuts in the works, was that the government wouldn't raise taxes on corporations in a recession. And yet he has no problem with raising taxes on ordinary Canadians. Besides, we're not suggesting that he "raise" corporate taxes, though I think it's a good idea. We're just asking that he doesn't give them another bloody tax break.
4. He then nattered about supporting the troops with these new jets that are only supporting the American Lockheed Martin.
Yep. He's definitely cracking up.
Sources:
1. Preston Manning and the Reform Party, By Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg.
Garry Breitkreuz has always had strong ties to the NRA, contributing regularly to their website. And as the NRA video confirms, they have been involved for at least thirteen years. THE CBC today confirms this.
The National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying group in the United States that advocates fewer gun controls, has been actively involved in trying to abolish Canada's long-gun registry for more than a decade, CBC News has learned. Documents and correspondence obtained by the CBC show the NRA has provided logistical and tactical support to organizations such as the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA), established in 1998 to lobby Ottawa to shut down the registry.
The NRA provides the Canadian gun lobby group with "tremendous amounts of logistical support," and while the NRA's constitution prevents them from providing money, "they freely give us anything else," Tony Bernardo, an Ontario gun advocate and CILA's executive director, said in Canadian Firearms Digest in July 2001.
In 2001 Garry Breitkreuz got into a bit of trouble when he posted on the NRA website that Canada harboured terrorists, while going after gun owners. (Did I mention that the man was nuts?)
A Canadian Alliance MP has defended his appearance on the U.S.-based National Rifle Association Web site and his assertion that Canada has harboured terrorists while persecuting gun owners. But in an interview Thursday, Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz said he has no evidence to support his claims that Canada is a terrorist haven and its negligence contributed to attacks in the United States. "We should not be targetting duck hunters and trying to put them in jail. (Alliance MP Defends Remarks, Leader-Post (Regina) / CP, October 5, 2001)
In 2009, former Chief of Staff to Maxime Bernier, Bob Valcov was named as executive director of the Canadian branch of the international gun lobby group,Safari Club International, a group with strong ties to the NRA. Another former Conservative staffer, Brant Scott, who was Executive Assistant to Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, became Director of Communications to the Canadian Sports Shooting Association which also has strong links to the NRA. Media reports earlier this year reported that the NRA is helping Canadian groups like the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, Canadian Firearms Institute and the Canadian Unlicensed Firearms Owners Association to fight the registry by raising money and coaching them on how to lobby politicians.
In 2006, Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz co-hosted with the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, a forum featuring then-NRA president Sandra Froman, as keynote speaker at the CSSA annual meeting in Toronto.
In 2006, then-Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day appointed the Minister's Firearms Advisory Committee which was composed exclusively of opponents of the gun registry, including many with direct ties to the National Rifle Association, including Professor Gary Mauser whose research had been directly funded by the NRA. Former Canadian Alliance MP Jim Pankiw appeared in an NRA video in 2001 claiming that the gun registry turned law-abiding Canadian citizens into “instant criminals.”
Former Conservative MP Art Hanger appeared in an NRA infomercial in 2000 claiming that the Canadian government “wants every firearm seized in this country.” Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Jerry Ouellette also appeared in the video claiming that the government was intent on confiscating guns saying, “It's coming. We've got the test waters here in Canada to prove it and you're next on the list.” He claimed his comments had been pre-vetted by then-Premier Mike Harris’ office.
In 1995, then-NRA executive director, Tanya Metaksa, wrote to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien threatening a tourism boycott of Canada if the long gun registry Bill passed: “An overwhelming negative reaction can be anticipated and it could seriously erode revenue into Canada generated by visiting U.S. sportsmen and women.”
The Conservative government is dismissing allegations by the Opposition Liberals that its intent to scrap the federal long-gun registry is linked to or influenced by the National Rifle Association. The comments come a day after CBC News reported that the NRA, a powerful U.S. lobbying group that advocates fewer gun controls, has been involved for more than a decade in efforts to get Canada's long-gun registry abolished. Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said the Liberal "conspiracy theory" attempts to "demonize" rural Canadians who have been already unfairly criminalized by the registry.
Give it up Pierre. The whole "Liberal conspiracy theory" is nonsense. I just heard Charlie Angus (NDP) on TV saying the same thing that the Liberals did. This is not a rural/urban issue. It's about the NRA and Canada's gun nuts.
There is a very good open letter from Thunder Bay Chief of Police Robert P. Herman that's well worth a read.
If this is the fare of Fox News North, we can only hope to stay awake long enough to change the channel. Talk about sucking the brain cells out of you.
Late summer manoeuvring over the long-gun registry could fire a double-barrel shot to the future electoral success of both the NDP's Jack Layton and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The posturing leading up to the Sept. 22 vote in Parliament on the registry's future is costing Layton his credibility and leading Harper down a road where he shouldn't want to go.
And as Newman suggests, this will also hurt Stephen Harper who has been pretending to be a modest politician, governing from the centre:
But if those are Layton's woes, why could this be a problem for the prime minister? Isn't he, after all, likely to succeed at his longtime goal of getting rid of the registry? And even if he doesn't, won't he get an "A" for effort?
Well, he will. But only from the people that already support him. Other voters are likely to wonder why this has become such a big issue, particularly when the police and the RCMP think the registry is a good idea. Having this come back on the public agenda now will rekindle still-fresh memories of killing the long-form census, even though all the experts said it was the wrong idea. Proof again, to some, that the Harper government approves of its own biases rather than the advice of experts.
But there is one other problem for the Conservatives. In the triangulation of politics outside of Quebec, Harper needs a strong NDP to take votes away from the Liberals and help the Conservatives win seats. An NDP weakened over the gun control issue is not in the Conservatives' interest. In terms of the future of the long-gun registry, the vote later this month is crucial. But no matter which way the vote goes, the political impact has already been delivered.
Yet Harper is still going through with those billboards. I don't think he can stop himself now. It's almost painful to watch. (I said almost)
When Stephen Harper was with the National Citizens Coalition, they were notorious for their billboards.
If there was ever anything stupid to say, you could count on them to slap it on a billboard and display it for the Neanderthals to honk and sane Canadians to shake their heads.
Well I guess you can take the right-wing nut job out of the National Citizens Coalition, but you'll never take the National Citizens Coalition out of the right-wing nut job.
Boy genius is now going to hoist billboards in the rural communities of opposition members, denouncing the police, women and anyone with half a brain, who knows that registering your gun is not the same as having it confiscated.
I said confiscated, not constipated, Garry Breitkreuz, you idiot!
Kind of funny, how they claim those voting to keep it are ignorning their constituents. When was the last time the Reformers voted with their constituents on anything? Every vote is whipped to death. Hell, their MPs aren't even allowed to talk.
And speaking of that, why are those Reformers not standing up for urban communities?
Janie Taber: "We are leaving our giant lizard story for this late breaking Fox News North exclusive.
"Garry Breitkreuz, Reform Party ... er Alliance Party .... What's that Biff? Oh Yeah, Conservative Party MP has uncovered a secret report from the RCMP revealing that the Mounties have a plan to confiscate all guns in the country.
Biff Buffoon: "Yes folks. Remember you heard it here first. "
"So Janie, what do you make of this? What are they going to do with all those guns?"
Janie Taber: I don't know Biff, but Dimitri Soudas has told Fox News that there is a "leftie" plot to melt the guns down to make beds for the homeless.
Biff Buffoon: "That's shocking Janie. That's going to take an awful lot of metal."
Janie Taber: "We will have Mr. Breitkreuz in the studio right after this important message from Hair Club for Men. Snicker. Nothing personal Garry. Snicker.
Garry Breitkreuz: "Yes Janie, I do. You might want to ask yourself:
Why are the police chiefs so strident in their quest to keep the registry in place? They won’t admit it, but it appears they don’t want Canadians to own guns. (audible gasp) To that end, they need a database that will help them locate and seize those firearms as soon as a licence or registration expires.
It’s about public control. The registry can’t reduce crime because the criminals don’t register their guns or buy licences. Responsible gun owners who have taken firearms safety, handling, and storage courses are the only ones adversely affected by it. But they are the good guys!"
Biff Buffoon: "I know. All of my friends own at least a dozen guns, and they are always responsible. They never leave loaded guns near an open flame, and when their children play with them, they make sure that they only point them at varmints or kids they don't like. It's never too early to learn."
Janie Taber: "Garry, you've had battles with the cops before haven't you?"
Garry Breitkreuz: "Yes Janie. In 1999, I led a large group of ... let's say, gun enthusiasts, on a march up Parliament Hill. I later found out that the RCMP officers had four .308 rifles and seventeen sub-machine guns on the Hill that day."
Janie Taber: "They did? Just because there was a large group of gun nuts running around the Parliament Buildings? Why that's against your civil rights."
Garry Breitkreuz: "My point exactly. My legislative assistant, Logan Day, took notes and when his pappy had the chance he limited the scope of the gun registry and tried to starve the beast. Why even his grand pappy was on our side. When he was with a Western separatist party, Neo-Nazi lawyer Doug Christie let him write a piece in his paper. (Breitkreuz wipes a tear from his eye)Such a wonderful family. Logan has kept the bullet that was removed from his pappy, the day he shot himself in the foot."
Biff Buffoon: "Canadian firearms dealer Bruce Montague, the man who was arrested for several firearms violations, including unregistered guns and unsafe storage practices, makes an excellent point."
The major slaughters of innocents in history could have been prevented if the populace were armed. I’m convinced that thoughtful Canadians will learn from history. Otherwise we’re doomed to repeat it.
Garry Breitkreuz: "He's right Biff. If all Canadians would simply carry a loaded gun, we could avoid senseless slaughters."
Bang!
Janie Taber: "Did you just shoot my cameraman?"
Garry Breitkreuz: "He was looking at me funny. I don't like that"
Janie Taber: "But that's the third time this week."
Biff Buffoon: "Well that's all for now folks. Stay tuned. We will talking to an 89 year woman who is carrying twins, and claims that the father is Jimmy Hoffa. Should the children be made to disappear? Take our poll."
Janie Taber: "Thank you for coming Garry. Always a pleasure. Now give me a hug."
"Whoa! Is that a gun in your pocket are you just happy to see me?"
By now the so-called “gun control” bill will have received Royal assent. Its alleged purpose is to reduce violent crime.
Mr. Rock, indeed the entire cabinet, knows full well that this is nonsense. The countries with the highest levels of armed citizenry, Norway and Switzerland, have the lowest rates of violent crime. The countries with the most stringent prohibition, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and the Soviet Union, have the highest.
The true purpose of this legislation is hidden.
It is not within the authority of Parliament to sanction search without warrant, to rule that the accused must testify or deprive a citizen of the right, indeed the responsibility, to defend home and family using whatever means are necessary.
These rights long preceded this government or even Confederation. The law is ultra vires. Those who obey it put themselves in peril. The Western Canada Concept sounds a lonely alarm.
BYLINE = Stockwell Day, Sr. Hinton, AB Western Separatist
That letter was written by Stockwell Day's father for the Western Separatist's July/August 1995 edition. This paper was run by Doug Christie, founder of Western Canada Concept, now the Western Block Party, a group formed with the intent of separating the Western provinces from Canada.
Stock Sr. was a member of that party and a good friend of Doug Christie.
This article isn't about separation though, but about the gun registry, which the Conservatives have been trying to scrap. They claim because it hurts hunters and people living in rural communities, but that's a crock.
I wrote a piece on the gun registry recently, putting out feelers. I approached it not as a women's issue but from Garry Breitkreuz and his pal's confrontation with the police over what they see as their 'right to bear arms'.
Stockwell Day Jr. (whose son Logan just happened to be Breitkreuz's administrative assistant) has already 'secretly offered amnesty and limited the scope of the registry, but these guys will not be happy until every Canadian is packing heat.
They lament that Canada does not have a 'gun culture'.
I love that 'little coalition' nonsense of Harper's though. Would that be anything like his coalition that included the full support of the Bloc? Of course not.
But he seems pretty clear that he will get rid of the registry.
In my article the other day, I mentioned the case of Bruce Montague, who seems to have been made the poster boy for gun rights in Canada. He teaches a course in self defense ... self defense with a gun that is. And his lawyer is Doug Christie, the man I mentioned above, who was a close friend of Stockwell Day's father.
So to recap. Stock Sr. wanted to be able to protect his home with a loaded gun. Stock Jr. has already worked behind the scenes here, here and here.
And his son Logan worked for Garry Breitkreuz, the man who when his wife asks "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" answers ... "it's a gun".
We need to fight like hell to keep this registry because it's just the first step to what these guys are promoting: 'An armed populace".
Following is my second posting for Religious Right Alert. I found reading some of these pro-gun sites to research this article, just as disturbing as the Christian extremist sites, and not terribly different. I'm now feeling very icky and need a shower.
My next blog posting will have to be something that won't keep me up at night. Maybe, I'll cover a flower show or something. A topic that won't be so emotionally draining.
Nah! I'll live to fight another day.
“A program can’t run without money and we’ll keep pressing the government until all the funding for this useless program is cut off completely.”
On September 22, 1998, a large group of what I will call "gun enthusiasts" marched on Parliament Hill. They billed it as Fed Up II, so I can only assume there must have been a Fed Up I.
During this, from what I understand, rather large rally; some of the people who were "fed up", noticed RCMP snipers on the roof of the Parliament Buildings. When reporters asked about the snipers, they were told by the RCMP boss that there were no snipers, only officers with binoculars.
This upset the people who were already "fed up" and with great will and determination, they set out to prove that the RCMP were lying. They filed an Access to Information Request to determine what weapons had been signed out that day, to RCMP officers on the Hill. I think they were big ones ... lots of letters and numbers. Very impressive.
Now I can't speak for everyone, but when there is a large group of angry gun owners marching on Parliament Hill, I for one do not want to see snipers on the roof. I want tanks. Lots of them.
They are gun owners and they are "fed up" .. for the second time!
And one of the organizers of this rally, and the person who set out to prove that the RCMP were lying, was Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz. (You can read his press release here) At the time he was a Reform MP; same party, new name. He has been the most vocal opponent of the Gun Registry, and the quote at the top belongs to him.
Of course I'm only kidding about the tanks, but this reveals a pattern of confrontation with law enforcement, and those who feel they should have the right to bear arms.
One of the speakers at that rally was Karen Selick, now the litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation. They take on high profile cases that challenge our constitution, including the right to call gay people names; but that's a topic for another time.
What's interesting though is her speech at the rally. She quotes Allan Rock, the former Justice Minister and architect of Bill C-68: "I came to Ottawa with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers."
"Sorry, Mr. Rock" Selick says, "but if ever there were a good start towards a police state, that has to be it. We are being asked to give up our means of defence in return for a promise of protection from the very people most likely to become our oppressors."
The police and military are their oppressors?
Things have changed, because it's now Breitkreuz's government that is giving the RCMP even bigger guns.
However, this challenging the police over the gun registry issue is not unusual. Opponents of the Registry will cite the costs or inconvenience, or bill it as an attack on rural populations who use guns to hunt and kill pesky varmints.
But the real issue for them is the belief that we should all be armed as self defense.
The major slaughters of innocents in history could have been prevented if the populace were armed. I’m convinced that thoughtful Canadians will learn from history. Otherwise we’re doomed to repeat it.
That quote can be found on the website of firearms dealer Bruce Montague, the man who was arrested for several firearms violations, including unregistered guns and unsafe storage practices.
He has become the new poster boy for these "freedom loving" folks who feel that an armed populace will reduce violence. At issue for me, even before dealing with the guns, is the fact that he has been using his daughter, since she was 12, to produce "pro-gun" videos, like this one. These are seen on a great many "pro-gun"websites and I find them disturbing on so many levels.
Montague has now become the champion for gun rights, and his lawyer is none other than the infamous Doug Christie. For those who don't know, Christie has represented some of the most notorious neo-Nazis in the country, including Ernst Zundel, Terry Long and James Keegstra. He was also a close personal friend of Stockwell Day's father. Bit I digress.
They obviously want to make a statement here, and much of their press around this has been bemoaning the rights of a law-abiding citizen. A law abiding citizen who just happens to have broken many laws.
But to prove my point, there is an interesting story from the Western Standard about our "victim":
Bruce Montague, a member of the Canadian Unregistered Firearms Owners Association, has been challenging police to arrest him under the controversial Firearms Act for more than a year ...
He's been challenging them for more than a year, and when they finally grant him his wish, he cries foul. And one of the most notorious trial lawyers in the country, just happens to show up to take his case. Interesting.
Now given that another press release was issued from Breitkreuz this week, where he refers to the organization of police chiefs as a "cult", should we really be surprised? They have a reputation for challenging authority. The police are the oppressors. They don't need them. They can defend themselves.
Breitkreuz did apologize for calling on Liberal MPs to beat Michael Ignatieff "black and blue", because he's taking a firm stand on saving the gun registry. Noble.
We need to hold onto this registry because it helps to define who we are as Canadians. We don't want to be an 'armed populace'. We don't want to see 12-year-old girls holding guns and smiling sweetly. We have already conceded so much to this government. We can't let them have this. We just can't.
On this night 20 years ago, a small group of heartsick Toronto women gathered at city hall to hold the first vigil for the 14 young women slaughtered that day at 'École Polytechnique in Montreal by a gunman screaming about "feminists." Every year since, women have marked Dec. 6 with memorials, vigils, reflections and vows never to let it happen again.
On the second anniversary, a vanguard of prominent men stood in solidarity with them, wearing white ribbons to show their determination to end violence against women. The chief organizer was Jack Layton, then a Toronto mayoral candidate.
And yet here we are today with the gun registry, created in part in honour of these women, on the brink of losing it altogether.
One of the survivors, Heidi Rathjen, is hoping that the handful of Liberal and NDP MPs who supported the private member's bill, will change their minds.
MONTREAL–Gun-control advocates pleaded with opposition parties to stand against a move to shelve the long-gun registry when Parliament reconvenes. The call came Friday from a coalition of police, politicians, women's groups and Heidi Rathjen, a survivor of Montreal's Polytechnique massacre. They said they hold no hope of persuading the governing Conservatives to back away from one of their MPs' private bill to end the registry, which was established as a result of the 1989 massacre ....
This is not who we are as Canadians. We don't do guns and super prisons. We're a peaceful country. Or at least we were.
But then with columnists like Margaret Wente, you just wonder if maybe we held this country up to too high a standard. Maybe we're the worst of what America has to offer after all.
For two decades, Dec. 6 has been an annual excuse for fevered breast-beating over the moral failings of society and the persistent inequality of women – as if the glass ceiling or the lack of universal daycare existed on the same moral continuum as homicidal misogyny. “I'm not very optimistic,” warned Nayyar Javed, who spoke at a vigil in Saskatchewan. “Women in Canada in all sectors are not equal to men.” Monique Frize, an engineer at Carleton University, allowed that there's been progress and regress” in women's rights, and suggested that young women are reluctant to call themselves feminists because they're being “gagged.” ... How much sophistry can you stuff in one small space? The truth is that women in Canada have never been safer than they are today ...
But Margaret Wente is wrong. Women in Canada are not better off. In fact in the four years since Harper has taken power, Canada has dropped from 7th to 25th place in terms of gender equality.
This is the party of Helena Guergis, the Minister in charge of the Status of Women, stated that date rape was the result of the hyper sexuality of young girls.
This is the party of David Sweet, founder of the Promise Keepers.
We are going backward instead of forward, and this gun registry is as much symbolic as it is a necessary tool to protect, not only women, but all Canadians; even if it's just from ourselves. So come on Mr. Layton. You were there 20 years ago, you need to be there now.
This issue is very personal to me because my aunt was killed by her husband, using a long gun. I need to keep fighting this for her.
Personally, I don't think the Conservatives should even have a vote, especially the women, because they do not reflect the spirit of women in Canada.
On Wednesday, at a Parliament Hill ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Dec. 6 massacre at Montreal's L'École Polytechnique, Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner co-starred in Status of Women minister Helena Guergis's show of sympathy. Bad enough that, last month, Guergis voted for Bill C-391, the legislation that aims to kill the long-gun registry and Hoeppner was the one to introduce it in the House. No wonder that Status of Women committee members Anita Neville (L-Winnipeg South Centre), Irene Mathyssen (NDP-London- Fanshawe) and the Bloc's warrior queen of women's rights, Nicole Demers (Laval), boycotted the ceremony. As Neville told me Wednesday, "The Conservatives' record on women has just been abominable.'' ...
In opposition, Steven Harper and the Conservatives relentlessly attacked RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli as a Liberal appointee doing the bidding of the then government.
In government, the Conservatives have muted their criticism and side-stepped demands for a public inquiry into problems with the force.
Pension fraud, internal repression, bungled operations in BC and Alberta, the Arar Affair, and the timing of the income trust "leak" investigation have shaken Canadians' confidence in the most sacred of Canadian symbols: the Mounties. (The Harper Index, June 24, 2007)
Well back in the day when Garry Breitkreuz was just another gun nut Reformer, he also found fault with the RCMP, suggesting they lied and misled the Canadian people.
RCMP NOW ADMIT THEY HAD FOUR SNIPERS ON THE HILL DURING GUN LAW PROTEST"
Documents prove officers had four .308 rifles and seventeen sub-machine guns on the Hill that day."Ottawa - Today, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, released RCMP documents listing the firearms that were signed out on the day of the Fed-UpII Rally on Parliament Hill last September 22nd. The documents verify that RCMP officers signed out the following firearms for security on Parliament Hill that day: Four (4) .308 rifles and seventeen (17) - MP5, H&Ksub-machine guns. In addition to these firearms, ten (10) Emergency Response Team (ERT) members had their special SIG 9 MM handguns and all regular RCMP officers had their standard issue side arms.
"During the rally everyone was talking about the snipers on the roof-tops of the Parliament buildings. While many were a little surprised at the display offirepower for a peaceful demonstration, I thought it was probably standard operating procedure for any rally with such a huge attendance,"said Breitkreuz.
This was a rally of gun enthusiasts. What did he think the RCMP was going to do? Hand out ammo.
Breitkreuz notified The Ottawa Citizen of their mistake on April 21st and had the documents hand delivered to the Managing Editor on Friday, April23rd. "Now that we have the documented proof, what we're left with is four unanswered questions: (1) Why did RCMP Inspector Nause make the statement she did to a reporter when the Operational Plan he signed included details of the ten Emergency Response Team members? (2) Why did The Ottawa Citizen reporter take the word of one RCMP Inspector over the word of many honest, peaceful people attending the rally? (3) Why did the RCMP not correct the story as soon as it appeared in The Ottawa Citizen? And finally, (4) Is it standard operating procedure for the RCMP to have sniper rifles and machine guns at peaceful rallies on Parliament Hill or is this type of welcome reserved only for law-abiding, responsible firearm owners?" asked Breitkreuz. "It's time for the RCMP and The Ottawa Citizen to tell Canadians the truth."
Yes Garry. It certainly is time for a little truth.
Garry Breitkreuz must be feeling pretty good about himself.
For more than a decade he has fought against the gun registry, and he finally got his wish.
If there is anyone more gun happy than our Garry, I sure hope I never meet them. This man is absolutely obsessed.
Garry Breitkreuz (pronounced Bright-Krites) is the Conservative MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan and a member of the Class of '93 (one of the original members of the Reform Party) and later after the merger of the right: the Canadian Alliance (2000-2003).
Now that he's finally able to bear arms, maybe he'll drop out of politics. Good riddance if he does. He's done absolutely nothing for the betterment of Canada since first hitting the Hill.
Against gay rights, women's rights, child protection. A true blue Reformer. A lousy Canadian.
I'm doing something a little different with my blog, trying to organize archives, etc. so I'm using this page to link my stories on Garry Breitkreuz.
Feel free to use anything.
We've got to start preparing ourselves for the next election, by reminding Canadians that Stephen Harper is not the only problem this party has. They are the wrong fit for Canada and really must be put out to pasture, before they completely destroy this country.
I can't believe how many people are suggesting that the gun registry is based solely on ideology. Is it ideological to have to obtain a driver's license, to register your car or your pet?
Now 20 years later, the victims of the Montreal Massacre have been violated again, in part because of the horrendous comments that are being posted at the end of accounts, that commemorate this horrible day in our history. But mainly because the 'old boys club' Reform Party has won.
William D. Gairdner, one of the early Reform Party mentors and co-founder of the Northern Foundation, along with Stephen Harper and several other, what were then referred to as 'right-wing extremists'; set the tone for the party's views on women.
In 2007, Donna L. Lillian, Assistant Professor of Discourse and Linguistics in the Department of English at East Carolina University, wrote a paper entitled: A thorn by any other name: sexist discourse as hate speech, which centered around Gairdner, "...analyzing Canadian neoconservative discourse as racist, sexist, and homophobic." According to author and journalist Murray Dobbin, Mr. Gairdner's The Trouble with Canada functioned as ‘the de facto manifesto for Preston Manning’s Reform Party’ (Dobbin, 1992: 134).
So I thought I'd be brave and see if he weighed in the topic. And of course he did.
On his blog he refers to it as gender bashing. "Feminists argue it was "patriarchy" that made him do it. But it was male-hating feminists that upset Mr. Lepine so much. So in his mind he was retaliating. Feminism made him do it." and "And "violence against women" is a myth because human violence - of which there is not a great deal in Canadian society - is a matter of wicked people of either gender who are strong, taking advantage of the weak."
I see not much has changed. And remember when this man refers to feminists, it can mean something as simple as women with jobs. And in the same way that Stephen Harper is hiding behind our soldiers to avoid being associated with war crimes, he is hiding behind two women, Candice Hoeppner and Helena Guergis, and they are too naive to realize that they are being used.
To the sisters and mothers and survivors marked by loss, it remains the single most tangible legacy of the bloodshed at the École Polytechnique. It's also the most tenuous. Twenty years after a gunman took the lives of 14 women - after the trauma, the mourning, the anger and the soul-searching - families seeking to create some good out of tragedy thought they had found it with gun control.
Yet as those families gather at a Montreal ceremony tomorrow to remember their lost daughters and siblings, they are girding for another fight - after the House of Commons voted last month to abolish the registry on long guns ....
The video above is a look back at the horrible day twenty years ago, when Marc Lépine went on a rampage in a Montreal university, killing 14 women and wounding another 13. It is still fresh in many minds, including my own.
My boss at the time had a daughter attending that school, and was having a great deal of difficulty trying to obtain information. Just before leaving Kingston for Montreal, she received a call that her child was OK, but it did not mean that she didn't grieve.
I came across an article that was written at the ten year anniversary of this horrific event. It also tracks the history of the gun registry and includes an interview with Wendy Cukier, then president of the Coalition for Gun Control.
At the time it was believed that Ms Cukier's work was done, but she still lived in fear of "...what a noisy minority can do to change things", so never gave up her diligence. Her fears have now been realized, because a "noisy minority", has done the unthinkable.
I wasn't surprised after reading this that Garry Breitkreuz led the charge by Reform to oppose new gun legislation, but the article also states "so does about half the New Democratic Party caucus." Why did I assume their views would be in favour of women? I guess that's why so many voted to scrap the registry. They never agreed with it in the first place.
The nightmares that haunted Heidi Rathjen for such a long time seem to have disappeared.
For years, she snapped awake at night, tormented by remembered sounds of screams, shouts and the popping of an assault rifle. Rathjen was reliving real life: on Dec. 6, 1989, she spent 45 minutes huddled in silent terror in a student lounge at the University of Montreal, while Marc Lépine, a 25-year-old semi-recluse with a hatred of women, roamed the halls, shooting at any female he saw. "Whenever we thought things had quieted down," Rathjen recalled later, "another round of bullets would shatter the silence, smashing our hopes."
By the time Lépine's rampage ended as he turned the gun on himself, he had killed 14 women and wounded another 13 people. Rathjen, then a 22-year-old engineering student at the university's Ecole polytechnique and now an anti-tobacco activist, considers herself "one of the lucky ones: the nightmares are a small thing next to keeping my life." ...
Despite the fact that the Reformers will tell you that their entire campaign against the gun registry is the cost to maintain and the needs of rural communities, it is only a very small part of the Reform agenda when it comes to gun ownership.
I have checked out many of the pro-gun sites and invariably it comes back to one thing. The right to arm yourself for self defense. Every single time. They will cite instances where if crime victims had guns they wouldn't have been victims. This is working so well in the U.S.
The above video was made by a group called the 'Daily Split', another Conservative think tank, PR firm, or whatever they are calling themselves these days. One of the contributors to the site is Joseph Ben-Ami. According to Wikipedia, "Ben-Ami has close ties to the current pro-Israel leadership of Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former policy aid to both Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper. He had also served as a "top operative" in the Canadian Alliance leadership campaign of Stockwell Day."
Everything on their website reflects the Reform Party views, so they have no integrity. And they obviously have no idea who Canadians are.
Canadians have mixed views on what to do about the long-gun registry, with slightly more preferring to abolish the program than keep it, but nearly a third having no opinion on the subject, a new EKOS poll suggests.
The EKOS poll suggests supporters of the gun registry are more likely to be university-educated, Liberal or BQ supporters, or living in Quebec. Respondents opposed to the registry include Conservatives, people living in the Prairies, and Canadians aged 65 and over.
The survey also asked about attitudes toward gun ownership in general. Fifty-four per cent of people surveyed agreed with the statement that “with the exception of law enforcement, gun ownership should be outlawed completely."
Forty-six per cent of those polled agreed with the statement that “all Canadian citizens should have a legal right to bear arms.”
Men, residents of Alberta, the Prairies and Atlantic Canada and Conservative Party supporters were more likely to oppose outlawing gun ownership, while women, Quebecers, Liberals and Bloc Québécois supporters were more likely to support banning it.
A clear majority of respondents — 64 per cent — believed there should be a strict ban on guns in urban areas, an opinion found across all regions and demographic groups, the poll found. About 27 per cent of those polled disagreed with such a ban, and about nine per cent were undecided or did not have a response.
There was a great letter to the editor, published in the Owens Sound Sun Times recently:
I got a speeding ticket the other day. It's a big one. Real stupid move on my part, and I should know better. I offer no excuses or justification. I've also been reflecting on it; my state of mind at the time, and what I've learned about myself and how I can make changes.
As I reflected on the incident, I noted something.
As the officer left his cruiser and walked toward me, I was already assembling the documentation he would need to see. My drivers licence, my insurance and my proof of ownership. It occurs to me, these documents serve a significant purpose.
My driver's licence verifies who I am, it demonstrates that, at some point, I was tested on my ability to drive, my understanding of the rules of the road and that the provincial government knows I drive.
My insurance is required by law. It's there to ensure others don't suffer for my mistakes that loss of property can be compensated for, etc.
The proof of ownership verifies the car is mine, I have the right to drive it, I didn't steal it (although I was driving it like I stole it, but I digress) and that it too is licensed, registered even, with the province.
Driving a car is a huge responsibility, it's not a right, it's a privilege in our community. A car, truck or any other type of vehicle is dangerous in the hands of an irresponsible person, present company included, someone who is suffering from specific illnesses and those over a certain age, they need to keep demonstrating they can operate the car safely.
So why is it when it comes to guns, it is such a hard concept to want to know who owns them, verify that the people who own them know how to operate them, and to protect the general public from misuse?
Opponents of the long gun registry harp on about the cost of setting up, as the most significant reason to dismantle it. Well the money is gone and spent, and there are many more wasteful and useless programs the government is attached to that could be and should be scrapped, so "waste" is not exactly a justifiable reason to scrap it. Now that it's up and running and being used the ongoing costs are not significant. To throw it away, wastes the entire effort.
And yes it is getting used. According to the most recent report on the registry, tabled, but not discussed in Parliament: in 2003, police officers accessed the online firearms registry an average of 1,811 times a day: by the end of September 2009, it was accessed by police an average of 10,818 times a day.
This debate is being framed as urban vs rural, but never have I seen rural needs triumph over urban: ever! So there's more to it than that. If rural had that much power, we'd have a regional transportation system, doctors and adequate education funding.
This registry is a step in the right direction of helping our police cope with domestic violence. One out of three women killed by their partners is killed with a long-gun. (Stats Canada) For a woman experiencing any form of domestic abuse, a gun in the home is an unspoken threat, a potential risk to her safety.
We need to keep this registry, we need to keep tools in the hands of our police so that more women are not killed. As we come upon the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, we reflect upon what that taught us, what preventative lessons we could learn. This registry was one of those lessons, one of the steps taken to protect women. Between 1991 and 2006, the use of shotguns and rifles in homicides declined by 65% because of stricter controls (Statistics Canada 2008).
This registry isn't about farmers and red tape, it's about women's safety and the safety of the officers who put their lives on the line, every time they respond to a domestic violence call. Francesca Dobbyn Owen Sound
I came across this old video which apparently was made as a warning to Americans that they could be next if they didn't join the NRA. What a load of crap. Some of them were practically in tears because 'heavy handed' government agents were going to swoop down in the night and take away their 'freedom'.
They even complained that our government at the time, believed the only ones who should be armed were the police and the military. Duh! Of course they're the only ones in Canada who should have the right to bear arms.
Something else I noticed; one of the men crying the blues was ex-Reform Party MP Art Hanger. He may not have been the 'kookiest in the caucus' but he was out there. As justice critic he took a little 'tour' of Toronto where he asked a store keeper "Do you notice that in Toronto there has been increased crime from certain groups, like Jamaicans?" Then while Reformer Myron Thompson suggested lowering the minimum criminal age to ten, Hanger was planning a trip to Singapore, to examine corporal punishment, including caning.
Ironically, Stephen Harper voted in favour of Bill C-68 at the second reading, because that's what his constituents wanted. But then he realized it might be a 'hot button' issue he could score a few points with, so said the heck with his constituents and voted against it.
It passed because that's what Canadians wanted. We are not a nation who feels the need to arm ourselves. It's not part of our culture. But from the beginning, the Reform Party made getting rid of this registry a priority.
What's interesting though, is that despite all the doom and gloom shown on the video, Canada's crime rate did not go up because of the gun registry. In fact, it has been consistently going down.
"At a rate of 7,518 reported incidents per 100,000 people, the crime rate in 2006, the latest year for which there is statistics, was the lowest crime rate in twenty-five years. The province with the lowest crime rate in 2006 was for the third straight year Ontario with 5,689 per 100,000, followed by Quebec with 5909 per 100,000. The province with the highest crime rate for the 9th straight year was Saskatchewan with 13,711 per 100,000.
All these so-called 'tough on crime' measures are just for show. The Reformers refuse to tell us how much their new crimes bills will cost, calling it a cabinet secret. However, they are now threatening opposition MPs, saying that if they don't vote to scrap the Canadian gun registry, they will run personal attack ads against them. At one time that would have been classed as blackmail, but under the Harper government, it's just business as usual.
Well the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police had something to say about these latest tactics.
Toronto Chief Bill Blair fired a shot across the bow of a federal government wanting to scrap the national gun registry by showing off a cache of 58 unregistered firearms seized as a result of the system yesterday.
"Public safety is not supposed to be a partisan issue," Blair said standing behind an array of firepower he said could start a street war. "Public safety is not a political issue. Public safety is every body's issue."
The firearms were discovered Tuesday by officers reviewing registry files under Project Safe City, said Supt. Greg Getty, of the organized crime unit.
The cache was found stored in a two-bedroom apartment in an undisclosed part of Toronto, which police described as an area that has seen firearm-related violence on the streets.
DIDN'T RENEW
Gun and Gang task force Const. Nadine Teeft said records showed an unnamed man had at one time legally owned 25 firearms under the now defunct Restricted Weapons Registration System.
The man didn't renew the registrations with the new long-gun registry when they came due in 2002.
When police arrived to check on the weapons, they instead found 58, including a machine gun, a sub-machine gun, 17 handguns, 35 rifles, four shotguns, 36 high-capacity magazines, more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition and 4.5 kilos of gunpowder, Teeft said.
The man surrendered the firearms to police.
How he got the firearms without proper documentation is being investigated but no charges have been filed.
Blair, who chairs the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said the government's drive to scrap the registry would be disastrous.
CHALLENGED MP
"It was the existence of a previous database that provided our investigators with information" where the guns would be, Blair said.
"They not only found the ones that had been previously registered in 1998 and not registered since," but even more police didn't know about, he said.
Blair challenged claims made by Manitoba Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, who said the CACP doesn't speak for all the chiefs of police.
She tabled a bill to scrap the registry that is now in second reading with an open vote to be held Nov. 4.
"The opposition's main argument in maintaining the long-gun registry has been that the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) and the Canadian Police Association (CPA) support it," said Hoeppner in a release.
"I have spoken with many chiefs of police and front-line officers who disagree with their associations and unequivocally support my bill to end the long-gun registry."
But Blair countered, "We believe the firearm registry is an important tool in helping us keep communities safe," he said.
I used the photograph on the right in another posting, but wanted to give you a visual for this one. The man with the gun is Gary Mauser, a friend of Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, and a member of the party's firearm advisory committee.
I have embarked on a journey of discovery, in an attempt to ask the question, how did a party rooted in bigotry, end up running our country? It's mind boggling.
However, I came across a letter from 13 years ago that I thought I'd share, because it helps to sum up just who this Reform Party is, now calling themselves the Conservative Party of Canada. It was written not long after it was discovered that the Reform party had been infiltrated by neo-Nazis and in response to a letter Mauser above wrote, trying to defend them.
They may not have been white supremacists themselves, but their ideology was a natural draw to people with similar views, but a different way of expressing them.
Reform apple basket rotting Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia by Bradley Hughes September 9, 1996
Gary Mauser writes in your last issue that he is surprised that "the Reform Party was made out to be an ogre." He suggests that all groups have some bad apples, and that the Reform Party is no exception and should not be judged by a few bad apples. I would agree. The party should be judged by the comments of its MPs and executives, people who are chosen by the party to represent the party. Let's start with the comments of Reform MP's Bob Ringma and Dave Chatters this spring on the subject of the Reform Party's belief "in the equality of all citizens."
MP Dave Chatters on CFOK radio in Alberta said, "And when you go into the issue of homosexuals and lesbians I think it's in the interest of society to have the right to discriminate against that group in areas of...schools is the one that comes to mind." He justified this as being similar to discriminating against young people by not issuing drivers licenses to those under sixteen years of age.
Around the same time Reform MP Bob Ringma remarked that gays and "ethnics" could be fired or "moved to the back of the shop," if the employer thought that would help business. His remarks were initially defended by himself and Reform Party leader Preston Manning. Later Manning and other MP's denounced these remarks, leading to the temporary suspension of these two from caucus.
Also suspended was MP Jan Brown for pointing out that there was a problem with these attitudes in the Reform Party. She quit the party. Dave Chatters response was, "I expected to be attacked by the media and special interest groups, but was quite shocked that my party took the stand it did."
As another example of their commitment to equality, the Reform Party at its convention in Vancouver in June voted 93% in favour of defining marriage as a heterosexual union and the family as people who are related by blood ties or adoption. This definition would deny gay and lesbian couples equal access to spousal and family benefits, including adoption.
Gary Mauser writes, referring to a family that immigrated to Canada from Uganda in the 1960's, that "Reformers are proud that such people chose to come to Canada." If that is so, then Reformers have changed their opinions in the last few years. In 1990, Rex Welbourne, vice-president of the party's interim executive in Peterborough, told the Toronto Star, "a larger number of blacks and asians are entering Canada; for the first generation, their birth rate is higher and you don't have to be an expert to understand what could happen. Canada as we know it could disappear."
Herb Grubel, Reform MP for Capilano-Howe Sound in The Immigration Dilemma published by the business-financed Fraser Institute in 1992 wrote that Canada is likely to "regret" taking in large numbers of third world immigrants because they prove "harder to integrate." "Policies which maintain the traditional [European] composition of immigrants, on the other hand, avoid the risk of having to face the longer run costs."
Mauser pointed out that "not all NDPers are communists."
It is also true that not all Reformers are Nazis. They have kicked out at least five of them all ready. When Wolfgang Droege, leader of the Heritage Front (a Neo-Nazi hate group whose members and leaders have been convicted on a variety of violent offenses) was kicked out of the Reform Party he had this to say, "It was quite obvious who I was and what I stood for because of the conversations that we had and that sort of thing. It was only when the newspaper articles came out that they booted us out."
In 1994 Max French ran for mayor in Scarborough on a combined Reform Party-Heritage Front platform. Only after the connection was identified in the media did the Reform party expel French. According to him, the Reform Party and the Heritage Front "share many philosophical positions and ideologies and a sizable number of people are members in both groups."
Let me repeat that I am not accusing the Reform Party of being Nazis, the point I want to make is that members of Neo- Nazi groups, who were open about their beliefs were able to join and participate, while their allegiances were known.
Reform MPs also have strong opinions on family values. Deborah Grey MP for Beaver River: "Women are just trying to lift themselves up to the detriment and expense of men." Herb Grubel, MP for Capilano-Howe Sound has said, "Having programs in support of single mothers causes mothers to be single and need support."
Given the wide variety of racist, homo-phobic, and sexist remarks that Reformers have made and continue to make, anyone who wishes to defend this party has to be able to come up with a defense of policies that attract such people. If MPs and executives are the "bad apples" of the party, why are all the good apples still supporting them?
The 
