Weekly Note to Supporters of the Citizens Centre
from Link Byfield
November 14, 2003
TITLE: Alberta talks tough but caves in to the feds
Seated with his customary composure in a crowded Edmonton courtroom last Friday was the criminally accused, Oscar Lacombe.
It's not often that a retired sergeant-at-arms of the Alberta Legislature goes on criminal trial, so I went down to watch.
The sad irony is that for 13 years Lacombe was chief of Legislature security and protected Alberta's politicians. But when their turn came to protect him, Alberta's politicians refused to do it, despite public assurances that they would.
It makes you question how reliable a commitment from the Klein government really is.
Lacombe is a genuine success story--war veteran of Korea and the Suez crisis, widely recognized for his legislature security work, a Metis, great grandnephew of the missionary Albert Lacombe. He has credibility to spare.
Last January 1, the date when Ottawa's idiotic billion-dollar rifle registry took legal effect, Lacombe held a press conference at a site overlooking the legislature building. He arrived carrying an ancient unregistered .22 rifle, heavily sealed in plastic, and without firing bolt or bullets.
He could not have shot anyone even if they had been shooting at him.
To allay unnecessary fears, Lacombe had met two days before with Edmonton's deputy police chief and explained exactly what he would do, when, where, why and how. (Police testified last Friday that they had "no concerns" about the event posing danger to anyone.)
Lacombe made a short speech denouncing the rifle registry and inviting Ottawa to charge him. Police later confiscated his useless firearm, and (after months of consultation with various prosecutors) charged him under the Criminal Code.
Here we get to the Alberta government's sneaky little treachery.
The new rifle registry is established by the federal Firearms Act, and many of its enforcement provisions blatantly violate fundamental legal rights. A few of its less questionable provisions (in particular the registration requirement itself) were also added to the Criminal Code.
Lacombe had hoped to be charged by the federal government under the Firearms Act, so he could test it against the Charter of Rights.
However, the feds never charge under it, knowing it to be a dead duck if Charter-challenged. Instead they charge under the Criminal Code. But this requires the co-operation of provincial governments, because the Constitution gives provinces control of prosecuting criminal law. And this was something the Alberta government (among others) has said all along it will not do.
In fact a memo went out to police and prosecutors across Alberta on December 9, 1998 from the assistant deputy minister of justice, Ken Tjosvold, stating, "Justice Canada [i.e., the feds] will be expected to prosecute all new regulatory offences under the Firearms Act whenever possible. In any case where a similar charge could be laid under either the Criminal Code or under the Firearms Act, it is expected that a charge under the Firearms Act will be laid."
In other words, let Ottawa do its own dirty work.
Big talk. Alberta's Tory politicians have been preening themselves with rhetoric like this for the past five years, claiming that they oppose gun registration and will leave prosecution to the feds.
Well, they ARE prosecuting it, even though they don't have to, even though they said they wouldn't, and even though their duplicity shelters Ottawa's Firearms Act from a Charter challenge.
In the process, they trash the brave gesture of a 75-year-old war veteran. For his protest to succeed, he needed the Alberta government to stick to its word.
But no, our spineless provincial government brings in a charge under the Criminal Code, borrowing a federal prosecutor (Michelle Doyle) to obscure the fact that they are cooperating with Ottawa to protect the Firearms Act from the Charter.
It is beneath contempt. It's an outrage.
Freedom-loving Canadians should tell Ralph Klein to drop the charges against Lacombe and force the feds to expose their precious registry to Charter justice. The premier's office number is 780-427-2251. His e-mail address is premier@gov.ab.ca
- Link Byfield
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Fax: 780-481-9983
Email: contact@citizenscentre.com
Website: www.citizenscentre.com
from Link Byfield
November 14, 2003
TITLE: Alberta talks tough but caves in to the feds
Seated with his customary composure in a crowded Edmonton courtroom last Friday was the criminally accused, Oscar Lacombe.
It's not often that a retired sergeant-at-arms of the Alberta Legislature goes on criminal trial, so I went down to watch.
The sad irony is that for 13 years Lacombe was chief of Legislature security and protected Alberta's politicians. But when their turn came to protect him, Alberta's politicians refused to do it, despite public assurances that they would.
It makes you question how reliable a commitment from the Klein government really is.
Lacombe is a genuine success story--war veteran of Korea and the Suez crisis, widely recognized for his legislature security work, a Metis, great grandnephew of the missionary Albert Lacombe. He has credibility to spare.
Last January 1, the date when Ottawa's idiotic billion-dollar rifle registry took legal effect, Lacombe held a press conference at a site overlooking the legislature building. He arrived carrying an ancient unregistered .22 rifle, heavily sealed in plastic, and without firing bolt or bullets.
He could not have shot anyone even if they had been shooting at him.
To allay unnecessary fears, Lacombe had met two days before with Edmonton's deputy police chief and explained exactly what he would do, when, where, why and how. (Police testified last Friday that they had "no concerns" about the event posing danger to anyone.)
Lacombe made a short speech denouncing the rifle registry and inviting Ottawa to charge him. Police later confiscated his useless firearm, and (after months of consultation with various prosecutors) charged him under the Criminal Code.
Here we get to the Alberta government's sneaky little treachery.
The new rifle registry is established by the federal Firearms Act, and many of its enforcement provisions blatantly violate fundamental legal rights. A few of its less questionable provisions (in particular the registration requirement itself) were also added to the Criminal Code.
Lacombe had hoped to be charged by the federal government under the Firearms Act, so he could test it against the Charter of Rights.
However, the feds never charge under it, knowing it to be a dead duck if Charter-challenged. Instead they charge under the Criminal Code. But this requires the co-operation of provincial governments, because the Constitution gives provinces control of prosecuting criminal law. And this was something the Alberta government (among others) has said all along it will not do.
In fact a memo went out to police and prosecutors across Alberta on December 9, 1998 from the assistant deputy minister of justice, Ken Tjosvold, stating, "Justice Canada [i.e., the feds] will be expected to prosecute all new regulatory offences under the Firearms Act whenever possible. In any case where a similar charge could be laid under either the Criminal Code or under the Firearms Act, it is expected that a charge under the Firearms Act will be laid."
In other words, let Ottawa do its own dirty work.
Big talk. Alberta's Tory politicians have been preening themselves with rhetoric like this for the past five years, claiming that they oppose gun registration and will leave prosecution to the feds.
Well, they ARE prosecuting it, even though they don't have to, even though they said they wouldn't, and even though their duplicity shelters Ottawa's Firearms Act from a Charter challenge.
In the process, they trash the brave gesture of a 75-year-old war veteran. For his protest to succeed, he needed the Alberta government to stick to its word.
But no, our spineless provincial government brings in a charge under the Criminal Code, borrowing a federal prosecutor (Michelle Doyle) to obscure the fact that they are cooperating with Ottawa to protect the Firearms Act from the Charter.
It is beneath contempt. It's an outrage.
Freedom-loving Canadians should tell Ralph Klein to drop the charges against Lacombe and force the feds to expose their precious registry to Charter justice. The premier's office number is 780-427-2251. His e-mail address is premier@gov.ab.ca
- Link Byfield
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Fax: 780-481-9983
Email: contact@citizenscentre.com
Website: www.citizenscentre.com
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