Published by Robert Pogson March 31st, 2012
in Uncategorized.
Summer started here a few weeks ago. There was a small relapse last week but summer is back with a vengeance today. I went out to the bush to hike around a bit and found a garter snake, a wood-tick and a ladybird beetle. These things are not supposed to be active until about May at the earliest. Summer is weeks early. The high temperature was 18C, in March… We should be seeing snow melting but there was just a bit left of some drifts under spruce trees. Everywhere the buds are filling on the trees.
I guess the longer summer will be helpful. I have lots of planting to do and I have to finish setting up my workshop. I expect instead of the usual 110 growing days, we will have about 150, more than enough for my vegetables and a good start for new trees and lawn.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 31st, 2012
in Uncategorized.
C-19 is on the order paper for the Senate for Monday, 2012-04-2.
The Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee rapidly reviewed the bill and it now goes to the whole Senate for third and final reading, debate, votes. It could be just a matter of days before the bill goes to the Governor General to make it law. Then,
“29. (1) The Commissioner of Firearms shall ensure the destruction as soon as feasible of all records in the Canadian Firearms Registry related to the registration of firearms that are neither prohibited firearms nor restricted firearms and all copies of those records under the Commissioner’s control.
(2) Each chief firearms officer shall ensure the destruction as soon as feasible of all records under their control related to the registration of firearms that are neither prohibited firearms nor restricted firearms and all copies of those records under their control.”
All this shall come into force, “31. The provisions of this Act come into force on a day or days to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.”
Amen! Victory is in sight in the long battle to restore a bit of sanity to firearms laws in Canada. I think I shall throw a party when that happens, complete with turkey, maple-walnut ice-cream and pumpkin pie. Nothing less would do.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 29th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
There are some really good things in the budget:
- getting rid of 19K employees,
- improve schools and infrastructure on Indian reserves,
- various tax changes,
- innovation in science/technology by using grants and matching funds,
- budgetary surplus within a few years, and
- purchasing from small businesses.
Shocking items:
- doing away with the one cent coin (What will welders use to space the steel?)
- no mention of avoiding use of that other OS to save hundreds of $millions annually …
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 29th, 2012
in hunting and Uncategorized.
Today is the day the gloves will come off. This morning the agenda consists of statements and Q&A from two witnesses but this afternoon, clause by clause examination of the bill will happen. This is the last faint hope of the gun-grabbers to gut the bill.
During Q&A previously we have seen senators on one side support and help witnesses who pointed out the ill effects of the long firearm registry which has risked lives, harrassed law-abiding citizens, cost $billions and done nothing to improve safety for Canadians for 17 years. At the same times the gun-grabbers on the committee repeated the same old lies and refused to recognize reality when presented to them. They made it a “women’s issue” when many firearms owners are women. They made it a divisive issue between urban and rural when most of us have rural roots. They made is a divisive issue between police and the citizens by repeating the chants of managers of police forces and associations wanting to pump up policing budgets instead of increasing police presence. They repeatedly supported whimsey over rational arguments based on facts.
The last hope of the gun-grabbers is to throw out clauses providing for the elimination of the firearms registry for unrestricted firearms and the destruction of the useless data. There will be many clauses recommended for removal or change and many votes. The end is not in doubt but it is sad to see senators supposedly giving “sober second thought” acting like parrots.
see the notice of the meeting.
At the beginning of the second round of Q&A, a senator quoted Statistics Canada reports that homicide by firearms decreased more rapidly before the registry came into being than after. Heidi Rathjen, the witness, could only repeat that homicides had decreased after the registry came to be. Lack of rational thought is the hallmark of the gun-grabbers.
Priscilla DeVilliers, another witness, went on about what the harm would be if the registry were kept… Undermining the whole argument that the registry is about safety. Governments should not have legislation that is minimally harmful but provably desirable. Where is the desirability of an expensive, intrusive, erroneous system?
The meeting ended with a vote to report the bill unmodified back to the full Senate. Hurray!
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 27th, 2012
in hunting and Uncategorized.
Tomorrow, Wednesday March 28, 2012 will be the third of four days of meetings about C-19, a bill to abolish the foolish unrestricted firearms registry in Canada. For 17 years we have born this burden. It has long ago worn out its welcome.
The list of witnesses is long:
“Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act
Other witnesses may follow
Rick Hanson, Chief (Calgary Police Service)
Murray Grismer (As an individual)
Mario Harel, Vice-President, Chief, Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau (Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police)
Wally Butts (As an individual)
Hélène Larente (As an individual)
Bernard Pelletier, Spokesperson, Firearms portfolio (Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et pêcheurs)
Morgan Crockett, Member, Dawson College student (Dawson Student Union)
Francine Anna Dulong (As an individual)
Bruno Marchand, Director General (Association québécoise de prévention du suicide)
Luc Massicotte, Mobilization Coordinator (Association québécoise de prévention du suicide)
Mathieu Murphy-Perron, Executive Director (Dawson Student Union)
A. Lee Foote, Associate Professor, University of Alberta (As an individual)
Martha Jackman, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa (As an individual)
Gary Mauser, Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University (As an individual)
Linda Silas, President (Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions)
Claude Bégin, Planning Officer, programs and research (Directeurs de la Santé publique du Québec (Lanaudière))
Dr. Caillin Langmann, Resident Physician, McMaster University (As an individual)
Dr. Jean-Pierre Trépanier, Regional Director (Directeurs de la Santé publique du Québec (Lanaudière))”
You can follow the meeting in more detail here. Time of the start is 2:30 pm, EDT. It’s a rainy day here. I should be able to follow closely and take notes.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 15th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
It looks like a repeat of the same old stories by the same old people. Today’s meeting has scheduled
- Sue O’Sullivan, Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. She claims the firearms registry is a tool to protect people, preventing them from becoming victims. No logical explanation for this connection is given except that police chiefs who like to see their budgets grow like it. We have heard from several police officers that the registry is unreliable, useless in court and they do not use it routinely because it is unreliable. Yesterday, one officer testified that he found registrations for the same firearm to two different people and that in a decade one found 350 faulty registrations that got people in trouble with the law. When the firearm was transferred the owner became a suspect in crime, owning an improperly registered firearm, through no fault of their own, perhaps just a typographical error.
Repeatedly she testified that the registry saves lives in spite of being reminded that Statistics Canada shows homicides with firearms were declining before the long firearm registry came to be. Repeatedly she stated that sellers of firearms would no longer be required to verify or record that buyers were licenced or track firearms. Bill C-19 says this:“23. A person may transfer a firearm that is neither a prohibited firearm nor a restricted firearm if, at the time of the transfer,
(a) the transferee holds a licence authorizing the transferee to acquire and possess that kind of firearm; and
(b) the transferor has no reason to believe that the transferee is not authorized to acquire and possess that kind of firearm.”
- Solomon Friedman, Lawyer, and authour of Firearms laws deny law-abiding citizens their rights. His theme is that under the current Firearms Act owners of firearms have fewer rights than criminals.
Friedman was asked to describe his practice. He described firearms owners who are dragged into court and required to prove they are good citizens on the basis of any complaint by anyone whereupon firearms are seized and an order for destruction is sought. A complaint that may be acted upon may be just someone overhearing a conversation about firearms and the listener was nervous. Such people have a reverse onus unlike most other defendants who are presumed innocent. The registry is the basis of seizing firearms in dozens of such cases.
He described one case where an erroneous firearms registry record was used to get a warrant to seize firearms and a SWAT team executed a “no-knock” warrant and the person had to pay to repair his home and to defend himself in court. The erroneous record was five years out of date.
Cukier had the nerve to imply that Friedman was raising hypothetical cases in spite of the fact that he said at least twice that these were common occurrences in his practice in real cases.
- Wendy Cukier, President of the Coalition for Gun Control, who has campaigned against easy ownership of firearms for 20 years: “When I found out there were like six million guns in Canada, and no one knew who had them, that, to me, made no sense.” There are far more firearms in Canada than that and for the most part they are owned by good people. Making their lives difficult has been Cukier’s dream for decades and makes no sense to me. Why doesn’t the government register hammers, knives, axes and baseball bats? That would make just as much sense.
Cukier had the nerve to raise the issue of the murders of 4 police officers in Mayerthorpe, AB. The registry did nothing to prevent the murders and only served to track one firearm.
Cukier was reminded that the Auditor General of Canada as finding that 90% of records in the registry are in error. That’s because the people making entries are not experts in identifying firearms and some firearms are very difficult to identify. She said many of the police have said it’s better to have any data. The fact that criminal charges may result with no basis in fact is of no concern to her. The registry is certainly not useful in court because 90% is beyond a reasonable doubt. Solomon mentioned that police officers who trusted the data have died because they trusted it.
I personally was interested to see that Cukier was testifying by video conferencing and appeared to be in a classroom complete with chalkboard and P.A. system announcing activity in the school.
Footnote: www.parl.gc.ca runs on FreeBSD but uses IIS…
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
Vic Toews was the first witness. He spoke eloquently and raised several good points:
- the registration of unrestricted firearms does nothing to prevent crime,
- the registry was an expensive failure,
- it drove a wedge between citizens and police, and
- police officers do not rely on information from the registry.
In the discussion, several times it was mentioned that police depend on the registry. The next two witnesses denied that:
- Randal Kuntz of the Edmonton police was adamant that the whole Firearms Act, not just the registry, should be scrapped. He pointed out that the legislation goes after law-abiding citizens and the criminals ignore it. He gave the example that he could hunt with a .45 Colt rifle but not a .45 Colt handgun just because of the Firearms Act and not anything to do with safety or crime.
- Roger Granger, a retired police officer from Quebec recounted how the registry was an attempt to punish someone for several high-profile crimes in Quebec and instead of punishing criminals, ordinary citizens were attacked. He pointed out that even though one murderer was a licenced firearms owner, the police discovered his identity by tracing the ammunition that the criminal had bought. The licence and the registry would not have prevented the murders. He mentioned that only once did he investigate a firearms crime involving a long-firearm. It’s usually a sawed-off/prohibited firearm or restricted firearm.
One good bit of news: Vic Toewvs suggested the bill would be enacted in the coming few months. It cannot come soon enough.
see parliamentary coverage
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 13th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
The Senate has scheduled four days of meetings this month on Bill C-19, to destroy the registry of long/unrestricted firearms. The first is tomorrow and involves Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety.
“Wednesday, March 14, 2012
4:15 PM
Televised live on PTN
Webcast Subject to Change
Location: Room 257, East Block
Clerk : Shaila Anwar (613) 991-0719
Agenda
Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act
Appearing
(4:15 PM-5:15 PM)
- The Honourable Vic Toews, P.C., M.P., Minister of Public Safety
AS A PANEL
(5:30 PM-6:30 PM)
As Individuals
- Randall Kuntz
- Roger Granger”
see the News Release
I like this pace. At this rate, hunting season may be a much happier occasion this year.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 2nd, 2012
in Uncategorized.
Beast is my old 64bit quad-core ATX box. It’s not really that old but I have called my box “Beast” for 8 years now, so the tradition is old.
Beast has a 90W CPU which is way too hot for almost anything I do. Mostly it idles and spits out some warm air. Today, I found a use for that heat. The “little woman” came back from shopping with a beautiful fresh pineapple. Using Google, I found a good article on the vegetative propagation of pineapples and had everything I needed, a knife, a vessel and some water, but no heat. Pineapples love a warm place and, being Canadian and miserly with the heat, I am not about to crank up the thermostat to make a plant happy.
Beast came to the rescue. The top of the ATX case above the PSU is a flat spot ideal for the container with water and pineapple. Even with a disaster like tipping the container, most of the water will miss Beast, so it’s not that risky and Beast is off by himself in a corner, so it should be safe for a few days…
Stay tuned for a celebration if this works. I have tried several times before, but this method looks superior and makes sense to me. The previous attempts resulted in a rotten mess. 
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 29th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
Yesterday, in Canada’s Senate Daniel Lang began the debate for second reading. I could not say it any better. There were several fine speeches following. He and others spoke from wisdom on the problems the present bill will cure but nothing will undo the harm done so far by misguided attempts to fix illusionary problems and pitch one group of Canadians against another. Debate was adjourned and may resume today.
ORDERS OF THE DAY
Criminal Code
Firearms Act
Bill to Amend—Second Reading—Debate Adjourned
Hon. Daniel Lang moved second reading of Bill C-19, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act.
He said: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-19, entitled, Ending the Long-gun Registry Act.
I would like to begin with a quote from the poet George Santayana. He said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Allow me to explain.
Ninety-three years ago, the Canadian Parliament enacted gun control legislation requiring gun owners to obtain a permit for all firearms, including small arms, rifles and shotguns. A year later, this requirement was repealed. I refer to the debates of May 6, 1921, when then Minister of Justice Charles Doherty stated:
There has been very general representation that the existing law operated too rigorously, lent itself to abuses and subjected citizens to unnecessary annoyance. Continue reading ‘Canadian Senator Daniel Lang Starts Debate on Ridding Us of the Long Firearm Registry’
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 27th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
The BBC has an article considering Israel’s military options against Iran designed to stop Iran’s nuclear programme. The article concentrates on bombing and missile attacks but misses one important option that Israel has, nuclear weapons. Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons and the logical weapon to use against an adversary believed intent on going nuclear would be a nuclear weapon. A nuclear weapon would do a lot more damage than any “bunker-busting” high explosive bomb and would deal with the problem of the limited carrying capacity of Israel’s planes. A further option would be to use such a weapon against the government of Iran.
We could be about to see the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945, and Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) advancing past deterrence. It all depends on how serious Israel and Iran are in this game of “chicken”. I think either or both governments are crazy enough to do such things. Both have domestic and global problems and both have leaders not shy to use violence to achieve their ends. When these two eventually attack militarily nuclear is an option.
What Russia and China, both nuclear powers, would do in response to a nuclear attack against their Iranian ally, is anyone’s guess. I would expect equipping Iran with the latest weaponry at least. That would give Iran more options for their response. I expect Iran would consider an assault across Iraq and Jordan sooner or later bringing an end to any prospects for peace in the Middle-east.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson February 24th, 2012
in Uncategorized.
There was a lot of political, human and monetary capital expended during the Arab Spring. Now Syria has boiled over. There are few options:
- ignore Syria,
- increase sanctions gradually,
- increase sanctions rapidly,
- arm the rebels, and
- support the rebels.
None of the options are easy or sure of any good result. All of them will cost the lives of thousands more human beings in Syria. Are they collateral damage or something important we should protect?
I think part of being human is looking out for humans and watching thousands being slaughtered in a host of ugly ways is unacceptable to me. I think the option that minimizes human casualties is the right one and that involves supporting the rebels. Taking out Assad’s artillery and airforce as necessary is the highest priority. Consider it a sanction with extreme prejudice but the multiplier effect of artillery is too great to ignore. The ugly business of taking back the streets requires equipment and trained people on the ground. Make sure to send in sniper rifles and trainers in how to use them. Then send in food and water and medical help.
The time for more talk is over.
Libya is the closest example of how this can work. The slow process there doubled the number of casualties. Do the same thing but quicker. The cost in capital is trivial compared to the cost in lives. The political fallout is for the Syrians to decide on their own. We should not let fear of political change in Syria prevent action today. Get the violence over quickly so reasonable people can take charge. The longer the violence lasts, the fewer reasonable people will be left.
see BBC – Syria unrest: Opposition seeks arms pledge
- Robert Pogson
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