Thursday, March 02, 2006

Betrayal of Man and Country – part 2

Today, I’m letting rip with the Canadian firearms issue.  I’ve talked at length about fear, rational and otherwise, so I won’t revisit this aspect as pertains to guns.  What I really want to talk about is hypocrisy running rampant in government.  They are wool-pullers of the worst kind, and here is why.

The new Harper government made an election promise to nuke the firearms registry.  I almost voted Tory/Reform on this basis alone.  But then I remembered that Kim Campbell, of a Tory government, was the first to level a systematic attack against legitimate gun owners.  My memory is not so short.

Now of course, he has the perfect excuse for backing out of this promise: “boo-hoo, I have a minority government so I can’t do it!”

Pussy.

And a fine example of a first hedge.  The question remains as to whether he really wanted to close down the registry in the first place, or was he playing lip-service to the Reformist among his party and the electorate.  Time will tell.

When Allan Rock was justice minister of the Liberals, he (they) passed a bit of absolutely brilliant legislation.  It was fiendishly and amazingly powerful.   See: Betrayal of Man and Country

The gist of this bill, C-17, was that the government voted itself a power of order-in-council.  This means that they can outlaw anything with a stroke of a pen, without going back to chambers to put it to vote, ever again. Ever.

This was how they outright banned Barrett Light-Fifty and Franchi SPAS-12 which are 21000$ and 5000$ (Can$) weapons respectively.  With no compensation, as I have mentioned in the previous blog.  

I won’t debate as to whether they should have or not.  But the point I bring up is that they also banned brass knuckles.   I realize that I am more knowledgeable of firearms than most people, but for the life of me, I just cannot understand how you can shoot with brass knuckles.  While I may agree to their being banned, I don’t see how legally they can be called firearms.

Does anyone begin to realize how insidious this law actually is?  If you can classify brass knuckles as a firearm they you can also classify a pipe wrench or tire iron as a firearm.  A reasonable government wouldn’t do this, of course, but my point is that they could, without ever putting it to a vote in chambers.

And then Harper spouts off that he cannot delete the firearms registry.  Such bullshit.  If these bastards can find a way of taking my stuff, they damned well better find a way to stop spending my money.

So I return to the dastardly firearms registry.  Its cost is now well over a BILLION dollars.  That’s a lot of simoleans that could have been spent, on, well, submarines that won’t sink for example.  A billion dollars would buy a few helicopters to replace that unholy and dangerous mess of Sea-Kings.  A billion dollars would have wiped out a serious chunk of the debt.  A billion dollars could have bought a largish island somewhere in the middle of the ocean where we could drop off our politicians… but I digress.

My question, was, is and will be: what’s the business case for a billion dollar investment in a registry that cannot possibly work against criminals?  What measure of safety have we gotten from this ill-spent money?  What crime syndicate has been stopped?  For a billion dollars I would expect massive, and I do mean massive, impact on organized crime, drug and even human trafficking!  No drug cartel, no street gangs, no crime kingpin, no Mafioso… have been brought down.  I expect more, much more, from a billion dollars of our money.

Other than making Wendy happy, we got nothing for our trouble.  NO-THING!

A billion dollars would have easily provided for armoured support for our four RCMP officers *may they rest in peace* that were killed in the line of duty last year, at this time.  An infinitesimal fraction of this money could have provided for more substantial weapons and protection for these officers.

What ifs…

Throwing good money after bad and raising taxes is the Canadian way, but I say it has to stop.

Dear Mr. Harper, the solution is so simple it’s not even funny.  Drop the registry budget line to zero and crank up the police and prosecution budget by the amount saved.  

Canadians want law and order, not some ineffectual and god-awful expensive registry.   This is why you were voted into office, Mr. Harper, now make it happen, and please knock it off with the bullshit.  




PS Party Names: For my American friends, there is a massive definition disparity with the names of our parties in Canada.  This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but then again, maybe not…

“Liberal” has a very clear, often derogatory, meaning in the U.S.  However, the Liberal party in Canada is, in reality, the equivalent of your Democrats.  The Conservative party is, in reality, the equivalent of your Democrats.  The NDP is, in reality, the equivalent of your Democrats.  Umm, the Reform, which is now merged with the Conservatives, is in reality the equivalent of your… Republicans.  Tadadaah!

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