Leave Farmer Bob out of this...

Let's put taxpayer billions into law enforcement... instead of the "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry." It's simple... more cops can ding more scummers.

A company with a licence to import otherwise illegal weapons for use in the movie industry has been busted for distributing hundreds of guns to Lower Mainland criminal gangs.

Charged in the investigation so far are: Marc Gougeon, a Montreal native who was living in the west end, Aleksandar Radjenovic, of New Westminster, Vancouver resident Taras Tereshcak, Sasa Nikolic, of Burnaby, and Evgueni Ivanov.

Imagine if we had put 2 billion dollars of taxpayer money into chasing bad guys, instead of harassing farmers and hunters? Stephane Dion apparently can't do the math.

C'mon Steffi, let's get real.

Technorati Tags: Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, Liberal Party, Stephane Dion

Liberals balk on gun crime

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UPDATE: Libs stall Accountability Act

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government has begun picking out planks for its re-election campaign as it faces the overhaul or outright stalling of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cornerstone ethics legislation by the Liberal-dominated Senate.

Treasury Board president John Baird attacked the "unelected" Liberal-dominated Senate for revamping the government's accountability bill.

**********

Jason Kenney, Parliamentary Secretary to Stephen Harper is making a plea for Parliament to cooperate in passing the Conservative's 'get-tough-on-crime' legislation.

“We would be delighted to pass all of those bills in this place forthwith and in the liberal-controlled Senate tonight,” Mr. Kenney said. “But we don't think the Liberals are serious about this... We want to act. We'll co-operate with any party to do it right here, right now.”

Apparently the Liberals just can't support the 'getting tough' part. Let's face it, if you're not prepared to crack down on thugs who use guns and violent, repeat sex offenders... who are you actually willing to go after?

Other parts of the Tory's justice reforms need more consideration, the Liberals said, including mandatory minimum sentencing for gun-related offences and the so-called three-strikes-you're-out legislation for violent and sexual offenders.

The Liberals spent over a billion dollars on the Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, knowing that it was an empty gesture that would provide opportunities for endless soundbites about 'fighting crime'. It also put hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the hands of corporations and consultants.

Does that sound at all familiar?

Now that the Conservatives are actually proposing to crack down on the most brazen, violent offenders in society... the Liberals are running for cover.

So, the next time you read about a rape, or a murder, or someone killed with an illegal gun, remember that it's Bill Graham and the Libs who are losing sleep over the shooter's rights.

Just one more thing to keep in mind, come the next election.

LAST WORD: Why not use the Gun Registry?

There are always media quotes about police using the 'gun registry' 5,000 times a day. If that's true why is it useless here?

"Now the focus of the investigation is to determine the origin of the weapons seized and that will take some time," Palmer said.

"We need to know their background and whether they are registered or unregistered."

Palmer said it will take some time to trace the guns and police officials won't be commenting until they have more details.

Well, mostly because it's useless... period. As the Auditor General of Canada has stated previously, the Farmer Bob Rifle Registry is full of errors, dubious data and outright falsehoods.

In short, a waste of over a billion taxpayer dollars.

Technorati Tags: law-and-order, Liberal Party, Conservative Party

Out here in the country...

The farmers refer to it as the three S's... that's short for shoot, shovel and shutup.

The shooting deaths of an Uxbridge family's two dogs by a farmer exemplify the harsh facts of rural life, an animal welfare official says.

Under provincial law, a farmer has the right to kill a dog that's attacking his livestock or even just straying on property where his animals are kept, the chief inspector with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said yesterday.

And there's a perfectly good rationale for doing exactly that.

"I sympathize with the owner," Hugh Coghill said. "I'd be devastated if it happened to my dogs. But I've seen what two dogs will do to a flock of sheep overnight. It's horrifically graphic."

The intention of the decades-old Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act is to protect livestock from harm by stray dogs, Coghill said.

"They don't even have to be in the act of attacking. A dog can actually worry cattle, sheep or poultry to death."

And that's just part of the reason people out here are less than impressed with the fiberal's 2-billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry."

Let's register criminals... instead of chasing down inanimate and useful tools.

Technorati Tags: Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act, shoot, shovel and shutup, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

This idiotic fascination with celebrity...

It's a shame that Belinda Stronach has breast cancer... it's not something I would wish upon my worst enemy... but I know 324,486 people, in this particular instance, who aren't going to be all that impressed.

Let's see what Statistics Canada has to say...

There were 324,486 cancer deaths over the five-year period. Of this total, 171,655 were males and 152,831 were females. Female deaths from cancer increased at a slightly faster rate, 8.5%, than did male deaths, which rose 5.4%.

In 2004, 66,947 people died from cancer, up 6.8% from 2000.

My guess is the statistics for 2007 are gonna come in somewhere near 70,000 people... not one of them any less special than Belinda.

Now maybe... just maybe... if the Fiberals had taken the 2 billion dollars, that's 2,000 bags of 1 million dollars apiece... and used it to fund cancer research... instead of the asinine Farmer Bob Rifle Registry... Belinda and some of the non-glitterati citizens in Canada would have been way better off in the here and now.

Do you know personally somebody who died of cancer?

Of course you do.

Do you know somebody who was murdered with a deer rifle?

Where should this money have been spent?

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RELATED: I've said it before.

Technorati Tags: cancer, Belinda Stronach, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

Let's not get too excited

Maybe Siva Yogi Shanmugadhasan belongs to the local machinegun club...

Several of the guns were inoperable but the majority were machine-guns such as AK-47s, Uzis, MP-5s, Stens, semi-automatic handguns and several high-powered long guns with bipods.

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UPDATE: Apparently Mr. Shanmugadhasan has issues

Police located the firearms after Gatineau police launched an investigation into accusations of a domestic-related incident between Mr. Shanmugadhasan, 48, and a woman with whom he had been in a relationship.

I mean, we're talkin' bitter, alcoholic doper...

Mr. Shanmugadhasan, who filed a $2-million lawsuit against his former employer and two insurance companies in May following a dispute over disability benefits, claimed in court documents supporting the lawsuit that he suffers from "psychological conditions" and "longstanding substance dependence" to alcohol and, in the years leading up to 2004, cocaine.

He also isn't anyone's idea of a model citizen.

Prior to his arrest this week, Mr. Shanmugadhasan was not known to police.

However, the Citizen has learned he once served about three years in a California prison in the early 1980s, following a drug conviction.

Funny... the 2 billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry seems to have missed all that.

Thank goodness he tripped himself up.

Technorati Tags: Siva Yogi Shanmugadhasan, machinegun, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

Gun control...

Is being able to hit the right target...

-- I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun.

I am not here to represent or defend the NRA -- because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death.

Something to think about... the next time you hear the Fiberals trying to justify the two billion taxpayer dollars they flushed down the public relations toilet on their infamous Farmer Bob Rifle Registry.

This happened in the U.S.A., but is equally applicable here in Canada. How targeting farmers, hunters and gun collectors was supposed to reduce street-crime was a mystery to anyone with half a minute to spare and half a brain.

You wanna reduce crime... target criminals.

Technorati Tags: public relations, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, billion dollar boondoggle

There are more people who believe...

In UFO's... than say the Farmer Bob Rifle Registry is reducing gun crime in Canada.

Don't take my word for it... ask Angus Reid.

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RELATED: Unlucky number 50 identified

Toronto police have identified the man shot to death in the stairwell of a Regent Park apartment building this weekend.

Kevon Hall, 19, of Toronto, was found unconscious and suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest in a third-floor stairwell of the building on Gerrard St. E., just west of River St., at around 1 p.m. Saturday.

He was, as they say, known to police.

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LAST WORD: There always seems to be...

A very different picture, after the bullets stop flying.

The woman said she knew Hall well, and that he was a "big brother" to the smaller kids in Regent Park. He had gone there to visit his nephews on Saturday before he was chased and gunned down in the stairwell.

"He used to take kids to the park and watch them play basketball," she said of Hall, whose home address wasn't known.

She said he wasn't into drugs or the gang culture. "He didn't like to socialize. He just hung out with his family," she said.

Technorati Tags: Kevon Hall, Regent Park, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

It's about "scary"... why not do bazookas?

Gun Control forces target statistically insignificant issue of "deer rifle" criminality...I've gotta say, right up front... these guys must be way smarter than yours truly... because, even after racking my dumb as dogshit rural brain... I can't figure out how going after Farmer Bob's varmint rifle was supposed to obliterate the deadly spectre of urban handgun crime.

And, wow... they're really bringing out the (forgive me) "big guns"...

"Jean-Guy Gagnon, a former deputy chief with the Montreal Police Service, and chair of the national firearms strategy council of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, says that unless certain particularly dangerous firearms are reclassified before the long-gun registry is abolished, it will be easy for organized crime groups to boost their arsenals with military-grade weapons without leaving a paper trail."

I've gotta confess, I learned a thing or two here.

For instance, who knew that "organized crime groups" have, to this point in time... been registering their "particularly dangerous military-grade weapons."

Of course, "registration"... it's so obvious. Maybe that's why these thugs have to use all those cheapshit, chrome-plated Saturday Night Specials they smuggle in over our porous border with the U.S.

Obviously, without a "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" there'll be sniper nests on every Toronto street corner.

I'm also wondering, given the somewhat awkward admission that "rifles are rarely used in Canadian crimes"... how authorities pick out "particularly dangerous" ones. Maybe it's just the models with the cool black plastic pistol grips... or whatever scared Wendy Cukier on tv on the weekend?

It's about saving lives, maybe we should be restricting or prohibiting cars based on statistics about vehicle-related fatalities...

"Surprisingly, though: no calls for a Lexus registry or the closing of the locks — not even a puny “memorial” on the grounds. Weird, huh?"

Oh, right... we're not allowed to talk about that.

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RELATED: Go find some actual criminals...

...instead of, you know... law-abiding Canadians...

"Police seized the collection and charged him with 14 firearms-related criminal offences. All charges were dropped 10 months after the raid."

"In August, Sedge launched a lawsuit against the Toronto Police Services Board and 19 police officers from 55 Division and the Guns and Gangs task force."

Hey, everybody knows... only cops deserve scary looking guns.

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THE COMPASSIONATE, INTELLECTUAL LEFT REPLIES:

"Harper has suddenly realized that liberals will shoot back once his vigilantes can own 1000 rifles with nobody knowing because they won't need to be registered."

"I look forward to being heavily armed and nobody will be the wiser."

Oh, Nonny... you do all the work for me.

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LAST WORD: Here's a pleasant surprise...

...a political party who keeps their promises...

"Farmers and hunters, she added, are the 'strongest environmentalists in the country'."

"They’re upstanding citizens who work hard. They take their kids and grandkids out hunting and shooting and those kids, by the way, probably aren’t involved in gangs in the streets."

The numbers game

Try to imagine what the tally would have been... if the Liberals had put 2 billion dollars into actual law enforcement... instead of the imbecilic "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry"...

In 2007, 126 homicides were committed with a handgun, 16 more than in 2006. The rate of homicides committed with a handgun has more than doubled over the past 20 years. At the same time, the use of rifles/shotguns to commit homicide continues to decline.

Translation: Illegal, unregistered handguns are the problem. Nobody's getting smoked with Farmer Bob's varmint rifle.

Homicides committed with handguns are primarily an urban phenomenon. Within the nation's metropolitan areas, 81% of all firearm-related homicides were committed with a handgun in 2007, compared with 29% in the rest of Canada.

Translation: Ganged-up urban thugs are the ones pulling the trigger. Farmer Bob's too busy working his ass off.

Gang-related homicides, which include the killing of gang members as well as innocent bystanders, have been increasing since this information was first collected in 1991. In 2007, just over two-thirds of gang-related homicides were committed with a firearm, compared with about 20% of homicides that did not involve gangs.

Guns don't kill people any more than cars drive... or hammers build houses.

Target the criminals.

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RELATED: Meanwhile... across the pond

Some police forces have been undercounting some of the most serious violent crimes in England and Wales, the Home Office has admitted.

Some crimes that should have been classed as "grievous bodily harm with intent" were recorded as lesser crimes.

As a result, overall crime and overall violent crime remain down on last year - but the official total of most serious violent crime is up by 22%.

Yeah, sure... hide the truth.

Look at how well that's working out for China.

*

Another CTV Moonbat Moment

Lloyd and company really outdid themselves tonight.

There was a piece that was supposed to be about the Conservatives extending the amnesty on rifles and shotguns... you know... the Liberals infamous and totally ineffectual 2 billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry."

In the midst of a slow montage of various pictures of rifles and shotguns sitting in racks... CTV suddenly cuts to a jarring clip of a man firing an MP5 submachinegun... a restricted weapon used primarily by SWAT Teams around the world.

The obvious implication was that Stephen Harper, who apparently has no respect for human life, was loosing a plague of automatic weapons upon the land.

CTV then followed up this little stunt by showing gun control spokes-bigot Wendy Cukier claiming that long guns were responsible for the majority of gun homicides in Canada... which, I assume, would be a bit of a surprise to family and friends of the majority of Toronto murder victims.

It seems though, that wasn't enough for our friends at CTV.

When I went to their website, the article there had a picture of an AK-47 assault rifle... the weapon of choice worldwide... not for farmers, hunters or target shooters... but third world terrorists.


I suppose I should just be happy they didn't try slip in a shot of a bazooka.

**********

UPDATE: We could try some actual facts

Both the rate of handguns and rifles/shotguns decreased in 2006, while the rate of sawed-off rifles and shotguns doubled from 2005.

It also meant that stabbing deaths outnumbered homicides involving firearms. Some 210 victims, just over one-third of the total, were killed by stabbings, 20 more than the number killed by shootings.

In 2006, handguns accounted for 108, or over half, of the 190 victims killed by a firearm. A further 36 victims were killed by a rifle/shotgun, 24 by a (totally illegal and thus not eligible for registration) sawed-off rifle/shotgun and 22 by another or unknown type of firearm.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Via reader James

Actually, the CBC's total cost figure of $2 billion for the entire gun registry "file" amounts to about $685,000 per day, which means they spent the entire initially estimated budget of $2 million, again according to the CBC, every three days, for eight years straight.

That's 20,000 man-years, to register 7 million guns. But what do I know, I'm just a software guy, I'll stick to the database system.

Corporations get sued for cost overruns on the order of tens of percent. Assuming my careful $10 million estimate is reasonable, the registry database is not 10 % over. It's not 100 % over. It's not 1,000 % over.

It's 7,500 % over.

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LAST WORD: Paging kooky Wendy Cukier

Of Canada's two million licensed gun owners, 111, or 0.00555%, used their firearm to murder someone.

On the other hand, in 2005, 64% of accused murderers had a prior criminal record, including 6% for homicide.

*

Dion and Fiberals calling for...

A National 'Meat Cleaver' Registry.

-- MONTREAL -- Montreal police are sorting through body parts after arresting a man found carrying them in bags. Police spokesman Constable Laurent Gingras says a 44-year-old man is being questioned.

There will, of course, be no 'Cleaver Registry'... but just as nonsensically, this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech has Steffi and the Wild Bunch renewing their cries for reinstating the two billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry.

Which overlooks a few small details...

A gun didn't drop out of the sky and start blasting away on its own. This was the act of a madman.

The killer used two perfectly legal handguns, not a rifle.

In Canada, handguns have been classified as 'restricted firearms' and have required registration since the 1930's.

People knew this guy had major issues and still didn't stop him.

The fact is, if this nutjob, like Gamil Gharbi and Kimveer Gill before him, hadn't been able to get a gun, he would have run these people down with a car, or beaten them to death with an ashtray... because he was mentally ill.

The salient fact here is that people knew (and I despise the prissy politically correct terminology) he 'had issues', yet no one at the university thought to wall him off from these innocent victims.

Amid the cries echoed in the recent Dawson College shootings in Montreal of, "who could have seen this coming?"... it turns out, the answer was, well... plenty of people.

Plenty of people had also seen Kimveer Gill's demented death wishes and even pictures of Gill with guns on the internet. No one said a word, or alerted the police.

Not so, in the case of the Virginia Tech shootings. There were plenty of warnings and it turns out, plenty of people were concerned enough about the shooter's mental stability to voice their concerns.

Lucinda Roy said that in October of 2005 she was contacted as head of the English Department by a professor who was disturbed by a piece of his writing.

Ms. Roy, rebuffed by Mr. Cho, contacted the campus police, counseling services, student affairs and officials in her department.

Who exactly... claims they didn't see this coming? It couldn't have been the cops, they took him to the "Mouse Factory" on at least one occasion.

-- BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The gunman blamed for the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history had previously been accused of stalking two female students at Virginia Tech and had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday.

But again, nothing was done to head off this tragedy.

And those responsible for ignoring those warnings should take a minute to examine the "liberal sensibilities" that stopped them from taking appropriate action.

I hope they're having some sleepless nights.

Because this very sad day should have been averted.

RELATED: More Liberal lies...

"We have requested of all political parties on Parliament Hill that they adopt tougher sentencing provisions for gun-related crimes, and that's something they can act on immediately."

Dalton McGuinty can't even deal with the aboriginal terrorists who have been holding Caledonia hostage for over a year.

And why is Mr. Law and Order taking mentally ill rapists "out to the ball game"?

I don't remember voting for that.

Police are searching for a mentally ill man who wandered away during a group outing to a Blue Jays game last night.

Mylvaganam Vaasuhan, 31, was found not criminally responsible in 2001 for sexual assaults on two girls.

Amazing.

And his Liberal cronies in the Senate have vowed to reject the Conservative's "Tough on Crime" legislation. These guys have more nerve than Madman Ahmadinejad.

Don't let yourself be fooled again.

Technorati Tags: Virginia Tech, Liberal Party, Gamil Gharbi

So, the Liberals spend 2 billion dollars...

...on the "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry"... turns out what we really need are more frontline peace officers...

-- TORONTO -- The finely-honed skills of a Canadian border guard in Vancouver have helped keep hundreds of potentially-lethal weapons from reaching the streets of Toronto.

Toronto Police on Wednesday unveiled over 200 illegal weapons that were seized from a Danforth Ave.-Dawes Rd. area apartment last Thursday.

A woman, Muna El Badri, 23, of Toronto, faces 185 weapons-related charges. Police are on the hunt for a second suspect — Keri Ellias McKnight, 30, who has past robbery, weapons and drug-related convictions.

Just something to think about... the next time you hear Bob Rae crapping on "tough on crime" legislation.

**********

THANK YOU COMMENT MODERATION:

Still getting bombarded by uber-troll nonny... his latest round of self-perceived wisdom concerns a mythical "machinegun registry".

I'll spare you the dreary details, save to say it's the same dunce who prattled...

"new harris decima poll puts support for registry at 48%, 35% against. do the math."

"ps. we don't need a coaltion(sic) to take down harpo."
Posted by Anonymous to halls of macadamia at 3:04 PM, September 07, 2010

That "take down" thing you were yippin' about, nonny... how's that workin' out for ya?

Who was Gamil Gharbi?

As news of another Montreal shooting incident breaks, there will be the inevitable comparisons to Gamil Gharbi...Who's that, you say? Gamil who? It's not surprising that name doesn't ring a bell... the politically correct mainstream media in Canada wouldn't touch this fact with somebody elses ten-foot pole.

Marc Lépine (October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was a Canadian mass murderer who killed 14 women in what is known as the École Polytechnique massacre.

Born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim immigrant Liess Gharbi and Québécoise Monique Lépine, he grew up in a poor and extremely dysfunctional household in Montreal.

Let's not forget the now cancelled "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" was a 2 billion dollar Liberal publicity stunt created solely to surf the tidal wave of outrage caused by this sociopath.

The program demonstrably failed to prevent a single death since it's inception, but effectively transferred hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to Liberal friendly corporations.

As Licia Corbella wrote in an excellent article in the Calgary Sun, Gharbi/Lepine was "Not one of us" He wasn't a hunter, farmer or gun collector, but the product of an abusive, misogynistic father.

This so obviously affected young Gamil that, at 18 years of age, he legally changed his name, trying to erase the bad juju his father had inflicted on his family. Gamil's sister Nadia was similarly affected by her violent upbringing... she ended up dying of a drug overdose.

Those inconvenient details apparently didn't matter to the mainstream media or the Liberals. It's a lot easier to screech & wail about guns than to examine the perpetrator himself.

If Gharbi had chosen to run these women down with a car that night, would the Liberal Party have spent over a billion taxpayer dollars to try ban, let's say... Volkswagen Jettas?

They're loony enough, maybe they would have.

UPDATE: Cop craps on gun registry

Retired Montreal Police Det.-Sgt. Roger Granger said Gill's pursuit of legally registered weapons followed a similar pattern used by Marc Lepine, who killed 14 women at the city's polytechnic school in 1989.

Granger, who investigated that slaughter, said the federal gun registry, created by the Liberals under former prime minister Jean Chretien, is "totally ineffective."

SIDENOTE: Mark Steyn reprises Gamil Gharbi

M. Lepine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At 18, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the 12 years since.

The Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

The saga continues. Remember how this boondoggle was only going to cost the taxpayer 2 million dollars?

That was what the Liberals told Canadians.

As the actual cost approaches 2 BILLION dollars, we are learning more about Lib perfidy and denial. And it's confirmed that Landslide Annie McLellan was hip deep in the muck.

McLellan censured over gun registry

MPs say ex-minister didn't disclose huge cost overruns to Parliament

A parliamentary committee blamed former Liberal public safety minister Anne McLellan for not informing Parliament about the true cost of the firearms centre and blasted the senior bureaucrats who came up with the accounting scheme to hide those costs.

"Evidence suggests that the minister knew, and she did nothing to ensure Parliament was fully informed and for that she must accept responsibility," concluded a majority report by the public accounts committee tabled this week.

This isn't the Harper Conservatives making political hay, this is the Auditor-General Of Canada.

In her report, Ms Fraser said it was difficult to piece together how the decision was made because of scant records and personal notes on key meetings.

She concluded the firearms centre "misinformed" Parliament about the costs racked up to develop a computer system for the registry -- $39 million in 2002-03 and $22 million in 2003-04. She took particular issue with the accounting treatment of the $22 million not recorded in the books as the rules required.

I remember the Liberals getting up on their high horse trying to defend this useless pile of manure. "If it only saves one life", they cried, "It will be worth every penny."

Note that there are about 600 homicides yearly in Canada and a good portion of those don't involve guns.

Now, if the Liberals were really concerned about saving lives, they could have put that 2 Billion dollars into something that would actually bear fruit.

By year's end, an estimated 20,000 Canadians will have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. About 8,500 will die of the disease in 2006, making it the second most deadly cancer after lung cancer.

Do you know anybody with cancer? I bet you do.

The Liberal Party of Canada... caught lying, cheating and stealing yet again.

UPDATE: 2 Billion Dollars - Dr. Roy has some thoughts

Send $100 million to 10 Canadian Universities for libraries and research. With the remaining money, buy 20 MRI's, 10 advanced CAT scanners and 10 PET Scanners for each province. These machines help find malignancies and would shorten wait times significantly.

Technorati Tags: gun registry, Anne McLellan, politics of fear

It must be eating him up inside...

...but Jack Layton is gonna let the chips fall where they may...

His refusal to whip his caucus, as Michael Ignatieff has done with the Liberals, virtually assures the motion will fail and Bill C-391, which was introduced by Tory MP Candice Hoeppner to end the long-gun registry, will succeed.

Gotta confess, I didn't think ol' Jacko had it in him.

Of course, the decision isn't entirely based on principle... the NDP stood to lose a whack of rural MPs.

**********

RELATED: Iggy gets out the whip

THE FARMER BOB RIFLE REGISTRY REVEALED:

Me: “Hello, I’m not a criminal so I have to report to you that I’ve moved.”

Constable on duty: “Huh?”

Me: “I legally own a rifle so I have to report to you that I’ve moved.”

Constable on duty: “Who said you have to do this?”

Me: “Your boss Chief Jack Ewatsky and Prime Minister Chretien.”

Constable on duty: “Well, I… uh are you sure?”

Can we have our 2 billion dollars back now?

(via ffof)

**********

LAST WORD: The Dipper Dilemma

Charlie Angus, a New Democrat from Northern Ontario, has voted in favour of Ms. Hoeppner’s bill – and he is no fan of the gun registry.

He tells the story of an 84-year-old widow who wanted to register her dead husband’s firearm and was told she would first have to get a licence, after taking a course in how to use it, even though she never planned to fire the weapon.

You know what'd be really scary, Chantal...

...putting the NDP in charge of absolutely anything important...

The planned ad, provided Sunday to The Globe and Mail, pictured the wrong version of that gun, one that is already restricted and will still have to be registered after Parliament votes to scrap the registry for most long guns.

Now the NDP hastily changing the billboards in time for them to be put up in three cities this week, picturing a different gun – a Steyr HS .50 – which is a non-restricted firearm. “We are updating it,” said NDP national director Chantal Vallerand.

Now maybe that explains everything... you know... like how a non-legally blind, non-special needs adult could mistake a legitimate medical therapy outlet... for a sleazy Chinatown rub'n-tug.

Of course... it's not like we haven't seen this sort of hastily manufactured propaganda before...

"So when Hanoi Jane Taber teams up with National Liberal Fund director Adam Smith... to rage against deconstruction of the 2 billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry"... why exactly do they lead off with a picture of a prohibited assault rifle with an illegal 30 round clip?"

Facts? We don' need no steenkin' facts!!!

**********

UPDATE: Airbrushing the Politburo

Ah, yes... the correction. This makes it all better.

What's the world coming to... when you can't even drive your armoured personnel carrier down to the local grocery store without getting sniped by your nasty Tea Party neighbours?

"The Steyr HS .50 can pierce an armoured target from a kilometre-and-a-half away."

The NDP... protecting you from, well... anything you can possibly imagine.

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THANK YOU COMMENT MODERATION:

From the same dumb anony-bunny who's always screeching about the "machine gun" registry...

"Thank you mein Fuehrer! Heil Harper!"

Yup, nonny... you do all the work for me.

Ask a "Non-Urban"...

..."Non-Two Spirited" Canadian...

The long-gun registry has been a bane in the North where hunting and sport shooting are part of the culture and popular pastimes for both residents and visitors.

The root objection to the gun registry is that it targets the wrong people. It's a rural solution to an urban problem.

Implemented as a crime-preventative measure, the long-gun registry has simply been an unwieldy and intrusive colossal waste of money that penalizes law-abiding hunters, farmers and recreational shooters and does nothing to enhance public safety.

Since its implementation in 2003, it has cost Canadians more than $2 billion but has never solved or prevented a single crime.

My feelings on the "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" are quite well-known... so I don't need to reiterate them here.

The point to remember is that handguns in Canada have required a special "restricted registration" since the 1930s.

That, of course, didn't stop the "natural governing party" from awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in software and hardware contracts to their corporate pals... while claiming they were battling crime.

And guess what... even with the really abysmal compliance rate, the damn thing still doesn't work.

Chew on that for a minute... and unless you're a complete idiot... you're gonna be clamouring for your two billion dollars back.

Because, the simple truth is, you've been suckered by the Liberals... yet again.

*

The Jungle drums continue beating

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UPDATE: 9 Nov 2006 - Liberals "Catch & Release" Program

LONDON -- A man charged with shooting four people in London on Thanksgiving weekend has disappeared in Toronto one day before his release on bail was up for review, outraging politicians and London's top cop.

Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed, 23, is "another headache on our hands," said London police Chief Murray Faulkner, repeating his recent demands for changes to the justice system.

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UPDATE: 8 Nov 2006 - What about a Ladder Registry?

The single greatest threat to the physical wellbeing of Ontarians this month has nothing to do with violent crimes or robberies, according to a new Canadian Institute for Health Information report. The true menace, oddly enough, is ladder falls.

On average, 30 people a day were sent to hospital in Ontario last November after falling from a ladder, as people prepared their homes for winter or clean up their gardens, according CIHI.

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While I recognise that there are certainly distasteful political moves made regularly by all parties, to enhance the status of their particular political entity, I'm thinkin', "This one's gonna leave a mark".

Are the Conservatives climbing down from their oft-stated principles on this Gun Registry issue?

In 2005, there were 658 homicides in Canada. About a third of that number, or 222 people, were killed with a firearm.

They don't break out the classification of firearms involved, but I'm willing to bet you have a better chance of being killed by a plane falling out of the sky, than with a registered "restricted rifle".

Additionally, among the 478 solved homicides,half were killed by an acquaintance, a third were killed by a family member. Only 20 percent were killed by a stranger.

The biggest threat to a homicide victim, by far, is not a specific type of firearm... it is their family & friends. If you run with a gang, your numbers go way up. Big surprise, huh?

Will "restricted rifles" now be banned altogether?

Apparently, this is being presently being discussed by the Conservative government. It is not based on any real threat, but is a reaction to spree killer Kimveer Gill, who, like fellow madman Gamil Gharbi (who you probably know better as Marc Lepine), also gunned down a bunch of people in the province of Quebec.

So what do the numbers tell us about homicide? Well, for a start, that unregistered guns are the real threat... that's guns smuggled into the country which could never, ever actually be legally registered.

The second thing is that a goodly (and rising) number of these killings were committed by Young Offenders.

The vast majority of guns used in murders that were recovered by police agencies were not registered (83 per cent since 1997).

The youth homicide rate reached a peak in 2005, rising to its highest point in more than 10 years. A total of 65 youths aged 12 to 17 were accused of homicide in 2005, 21 more than in 2004. That’s despite a general decline of six per cent in 2005 in youth crime.

Making an issue out of restricted rifles, which are statistically insignificant, is exactly the same thing the Liberals did after Gharbi/Lepine killed those fourteen women at Ecole Poly-technique in Montreal.

It's smoke and mirrors that changes nothing in the real world.

This politically motivated sleight-of-hand could spell serious trouble for Stephen Harper, outside of the major urban centres. For many decidedly un-metrosexual Conservative Party supporters, taking a solid stand against the 2 billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry... is seen as an issue of "principle". The solution here, as they found out in Toronto, is more cops and more importantly, more targeted enforcement.

The afore-mentioned principle being that, to combat gun crime, you go after criminals, not the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens, farmers, hunters, collectors and target shooters, who happen to own firearms.

"Restricted rifles", like handguns, are already heavily regulated. Legal owners of both these types of firearms have to take special training and jump through hoops to own them. That the process failed to weed out obvious lunatic Kimveer Gill, speaks to the failure of someone in the regulatory body, not the criminality of every person who owns a firearm.

Be that as it may, it now seems as though this contentious matter was not a rumour, or even a possible trial balloon, as postulated by some people earlier this week.

"Further to our telephone conversation, I can confirm that the government is currently in consultation regarding the possible reclassification of restricted firearms. This process is being conducted with Provincial, Territorial and Stakeholders across Canada. The intention is to improve Canada’s laws, enhancing public safety while keeping with our platform. Please note that this is only a consultation process.

I have requested more information from Hon. Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, and as soon as I am in receipt of same, I will be in touch with you.

Sincerely,

Elecia Elliott
PA to the Honourable David Emerson, PC, MP
Vancouver Kingsway

This ought to be interesting.

LAST WORD: Who cares about punishing criminals?

Obviously not the Opposition parties.

The Conservative government wants to bring in a series of escalating minimum jail terms of up to 10 years for gun crimes, targeted especially at offences committed with restricted weapons or by gang members.

But Toews faced a combined opposition of Liberal, Bloc Québécois and NDP MPs at the justice committee — who have already watered down the government's bid to restrict conditional sentences, including house arrest.

Technorati Tags: gun registry, Stephen Harper, politics of fear

Stephane Dion...

...should really start off all his pressers... "Once upon a time..."

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion wants to prohibit assault weapons if he becomes Prime Minister and says Stephen Harper is “soft on crime” because he refuses to do the same.

A couple of small points here, Stef... actual assault rifles, like those used by our troops in Afghanistan, are already prohibited in Canada. More to the point, this gun is no more an assault rifle than you are.

The firearm used by Kimveer Gill... (you know... the guy with a psychiatric history who waltzed past the Fiberals two-billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry")... was actually more of a glorified pistol with a shoulder stock.

Sure it looked dark and menacing in all those tv spots... but it fires 9mm pistol ammo... as opposed to the Nato standard .223 Remington rifle cartridge that can rip through walls, vehicles and kevlar vests... like Jason Kenney through... well... you, for instance.

And guess what Stef?

Even if this firearm had never existed, Krazy Ol' Kimveer was gonna find a way. He would have run people down with his car... or set their house on fire... or stove in their skull with mom's meat tenderiser.

And the sad truth of this situation is that you can't legislate sanity. What you could do though, is stop making up scary stories and exploiting a tragedy to win yourself some votes.

I know you're getting a little desperate these days... but maybe Stephen Harper shouldn't be your biggest concern right now. I'm thinkin' that horse has already left the barn.

Say... what are Bob and Iggy up to these days?

Steffi... Steffi...

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Yes, dead people are such a hoot. Typical far right "I was just joking" routine."

You mean like your compassionate, progressive, fellow-traveller Canadian Cynic...
A hoot indeed.

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POSTSCRIPT: Anybody else getting feedback...

...from the Imperial Romulan Empire?

No cutlery for you

I can't wait for Steffi and company to call for a ban -- (or at the very least, a Sharp Objects Registry) -- on knives and forks...

-- Toronto -— A new study shows that injuries from guns and knives account for more than 40,000 trauma visits to Ontario emergency rooms each year.

-- The study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Services found that knives or sharp objects account for the vast majority — 98 per cent — of trauma visits.

Think of the lives and suffering that could be saved, if we just had mandatory plastic cutlery...

Because, you know.... that 2 billion dollars the Liberals flushed on "The Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" has worked out so well.

UPDATE: What about going after criminals instead?

“The sad truth is that every shooting reported by the media proves the Liberal’s firearms program isn’t working. If the gun was unregistered – it failed! If the gun was registered – it failed!"

Technorati Tags: firearms registry, tax and spend, Liberal Party