Canada Firearms Center - Is it true that the Canada Firearms Centre (CAFC) oversees the administration of the Firearms Act and the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP)? Est-il vrai que le Centre des armes à feu Canada (CAFC) supervise la mise en oeuvre de la Loi sur les armes à feu et du Programme canadien des armes à feu (PCAF)?
(Updated October 14, 2009)
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See also my articles on the right to keep and bear arms. |
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If you read French, see my 2001 book, Confessions d'un coureur des bois hors-la-loi: With a foreword by Jacques Plamondon et an afterword by Claire Joly, this combat book was published at Varia (Montréal), in early 2001. I tell the stories around my resistance against the liberticidal Canadian gun controls up to late 2001, when this little book was published. In 2007, it was reproduced in an electronic format in the Classiques des sciences sociales ("Classics of the Social Sciences"), one of the main electronic publishers of French social science books; the link above is to this electronic version. David Kopel and some of his friends in the Volokh Conspiracy discuss the book at http://volokh.com/posts/1175196592.shtml.
Several articles on related topics: I have published many articles dealing directly or indirectly with our traditional liberty to keep and bear arms. Clicking on the title above will lead you to a list of them. I also published another book on the right to keep and bear arms, Le droit de porter des armes (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1993), now out-of-print.
Against the criminals who govern us, the battle is never won. Criminals? Well, tell me, who besides a criminal or a tyrant has any interest in my not having guns? Every five years, a Canadian who has legally registered firearms must renew the license that allows him to legally keep his registered guns. Otherwise he is guilty of a crime liable to up to 10 years in jail if he keeps his guns (which I intend to do).. You need a permission to do something that, if not done, is a crime that may land you in jail. The renewal process involves filling form 979, which is somewhat less contemptible than the form required for first-time gun owners, but is still unacceptable for a free man. So, I am waging a dignity battle similar to the one I waged in 2001 (and, in fact, in 1996), but with some new twists. I again refused to answer one of the obscene questions on my love life, telling them that my love affairs are none of their business. On May 30, I sent a registered package to the Prime Minister of Canada with the application form, a cover letter, and three pages of my Confessions... which I cite in my numerous comments on the form. If you click on the title above, you will have the whole, uncensored package (except for the prisoner's photograph that the humble subject must also submit). If you prefer to get the package in parts, here they are: (1) the covering letter in French or English, (2) filled-in Form 979, and (3)the three-page excerpt from my book. Please note that, as I tell the Prime Minister, I am ashamed not to be part of the group of Canadian heroes who resist by simply refusing to obtain or renew licences. Will this change soon?
All
these documents are in English, except
for the French version of my letter to the Prime Minister. And yes, I filled
the English form 979
especially for my English-speaking readers. (If you want to see what form 979 looks in French, a copy is available here.)On April 11, I received the
French renewal form from the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the praetorians
who now manage the Canada Firearms Centre. An artistic rendition of the RCMP's
logo and moto appears on the right, with the old logo of the Canada Firearms
Centre (the green maple leaf in a sort of multiple form check mark). In
Québec
the RCMP is assisted by an auxiliary praetorian guard, the Québec
Provincial Police ("Sûreté du Québec"); the
Sûreté du Québec gun control
department is under the "Directon de la protection de l'État", which translates
into "Directorate
for the Protection of the State" or "Directorate for State Security".
No joke: see their organization chart on their website (bottom
right) or here.
The day after I received the French form, I sent them a registered letter
asking the English form instead.
My
letter was
received
on April
17, as
the Delivery
Confirmation Certificate shows. They never replied to this request, nor
acknowledge receipt. Obviously too challenging for a bureaucrat. I have
some other challenges for them.
I got the English form from the website of the despicable Canada Firearms
Centre. Yes,
please,
ask
Google
for "Canada
Firearms
Centre" (spelling "Centre" correctly).
This piece (p. A22) is well worth reading, like everything George writes. It should be available soon on his website (link above) after the link to the Post is not valid anymore. Just a short quote, among many highly quotable statements:
"The problem is that gun control in any form practical in a free society -- certainly in any form currently proposed or practiced in Canada or the U.S., such as demanding details about Professor Lemieux's love life -- doesn't keep guns away from criminals. It only keeps guns away from the law-abiding. ... Is there a kind of gun law that could reduce violent crime? Yes, a complete ban on the possession of all firearms, coupled with draconian penalties. Such laws exsited in most totalitarian countries, and they worked. There was almost no gunplay in the streets. In those societies, no one had to worry about his safety -- until he saw a policeman."
June
2, 2007: The usual soft threatening reminder from your friendly policeI just retreived from my P.O. box at the village post office a personalized form letter sent June 1 by the Canada Firearms Centre in a RCMP envelope. (Another artistic rendition of the RCMP logo and motto is reproduced on the right.) You can see this letter (form CAFC 1062) by clicking the link in the above title. It is in French and ignores my April 12 request for a form in English. It states that I must send my renewal form (Form 979) before what amounts to about a week. Otherwise, lots of unpleasant things will happen to me: I will be in possession of illegal firearms and, if I have "prohibited firearms", I may "permanently lose" my "privilege to keep these firearms" (underline in original).
Indeed,
confess it before the large masses, I own a registered "prohibited" firearms:
a short-barrelled revolver. I legally purchased it
in 1981. Since it was
a legal
purchase,
it was registered,
as all legal handguns have been in Canada since 1934. What a sucker I was!
Their 1995 gun control "law" made this revolver a "prohibited" firearm, graciously
grandfathering
actual
owners -- provided they behave. Interestingly, this happened about the same
time as most police forces, including the RCMP and the Sûreté du Québec (an
artistic rendition of the latter's logo appears on the left), were substituting
the sort
of revolver I have for
semi-auto pistols (with high-capacity magazines forbidden to ordinary citizens).
The poor things
argued that they
were outgunned
by
the criminals. The guns that they were prohibiting for ordinary citizens
as too dangerous were not dangerous enough for them.
See Canada Post's Delivery
Confirmation Certificate. Incidentally, it took three working days for
a registered letter to travel slightly more than 200 kilometers to Ottawa,
the "City of Command" as Bertrand de Jouvenel called the capitals of "the
Minotaur" -- see his Du Pouvoir / On Power. You can
find the exact reference to this book as well as some Jouvenel quotes in my Quote
Page on
this site.
As somebody said before me, "fortunately we
don't have the government we pay for"; otherwise, many of us would already
be in jail for some paper "crime" or other.
What they call "my" gun licence (see the thing on the right, or click on it to have a larger image) expired yesterday, July 5, 2007, on the day of my 60th birthday. No praetorian has phoned me and I have received nothing in the mail; so, as far as I know, the licence has not been renewed. I am sure that the Prime Minister, who can certainly recognize one of his masters, will at least reply to my letter (see above). Being in the possession of guns, many purchased before the actually liberticidal system was imposed on us, I am thus technically a criminal for refusing to answer the state's question about my love affairs. I am proud of defending our traditional liberties and resisting the infantilization of "citizens".
CUFOA hero Ed Hudson is fighting the seizure of his hunting firearm while he was hunting without a gun licence in 2003. The state has not yet dared to prosecute Dr. Hudson for owning firearms without the licence required since the late 1990s. Dr. Hudson has asked for affidavits (see the judicial file and the affidavits here) to support his claim that the gun-control legislation of 1995 is unconstitutional. My affidavit was sworn today, and states, among other things, that I have been without a gun licence since July 6, 2007, presumably for refusing to answer a question obut my love affairs. It is thus related to my own resistance. See a fac simile of my affidavit here.
This letter (pdf fac simile), dated July 19 but postmarked July 27, acknowledges receipt of my letter of May 30. Just an interesting piece of Bureaucratese? Future will tell.
On September 11, after two months as a criminal and without having received from the praetorians any reply to, nor acknowledgement of, my renewal application for a firearms licence, I launched a number of access to information requests (the Canadian equivalent to the American FOIA requests) addressed to both federal and provincial bureaucracies. The purpose was to obtain any information they have on this application. I will say more about these ATI requests in the months to come, as my complaints to the federal and provincial information commissioners about the replies I received or did not receive follow their course, but two interesting facts are worth reporting at this stage.
First, the Sûreté du Québec (the Québec provincial police, which administers the federal controls on behalf of their Big Brother in Ottawa) denied my request, except for a partial copy of my application form. At least, this time, they answered! You can find their complete reply here, albeit in French. They invoke two sections of the Québec access to information act: "the divulgation of these informations," their letter says, "could impede an investigation ... or reveal a method of investigation, a program or a plan designed to prevent, detect or repress crime..."; and an information does not need to be revealed "when it is contained in an advice or a recommendation ... when the organization has not made its final decision".
Second, in reply to an ATI request, the RCMP provided documents which, they said, were all the documents in their possession. Their complete reply is here (minus a couple of irrelevant pages I have deleted). The last six pages are interesting. A faceless and nameless bureaucrat from the RCMP/Canada Firearms Centre sent to a certain Annie Bureau at the Sûreté du Québec ("CFO" means "Chief Firearms Officer") the pages of my Confessions d'un coureur des bois hors-la-loi (Montréal: Varia, 2001) where I am not especially nice towards praetorians and the politicians they serve. The fax cover comment says, "here is the text received from Mr. Pierre Lemieux, licence # 11590568, "Confessions d'un coureur des bois"." It's refreshing to see that the bureaucrats are reading something. But note that this document, sent from the RCMP to the Sûreté du Québec, is one of those the latter refused to provide, obviously for false reasons.
Read it at http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=4f6152f2-c3ea-46bb-8b3f-8a7cb3fb2db9&p=1. A slightly longer version is also available on this website.
I couldn't help faxing a nice letter to the faceless bureaucrat of the Canada Firearms Centre/Royal Canadian Mounted Police who forwarded to a CFC/Sûreté du Québec bureaucrat the book excerpts that accompanied my May 30th application form. I copied my letter to the Québec faceless but not nameless bureaucrat.
Gun registration is not confiscation, eh? Look at what happens in Canada when one is sucker enough to register guns, but later refuses to reply Police Canada's question 6(d) about his love life. This question asks, “During the past two (2) years, have you experienced a divorce, a separation, a breakdown of a significant relationship, job loss or bankruptcy?” I wrote, “My love affairs are none of your business.” See the registered letter I received today from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Canada Firearms Centre. Reminder: you can also check my complete licence application form, with the no answer to 6(d).
This letter from the Canada Firearms Center / Royal Canadian Mounted Police is dated November 22, 2007. Will I be the first Canadian to be jailed for refusing to tell the state about his love life? Not the last one, I fear.
December 1, 2007: I receive a registered letter from the
provincial police (Sûreté du Québec), the Provincial Little Brother of the
Federal Big
BrotherIt is a "Notice of refusal to issue a firearms licence", dated November 22, 2007. The reason is clearly stated in the letter:
"Did not supply all the information required by the Firearms Act, The [sic] Regulations for firearms permits, or any other applicable regulation, the application for renewal of a firearms licence in order to obtain the Licence (art. 54(1)a Firearms Act. [sic]. Question 6d) section C Personal History: 'My love affairs are none of your business / Ça ne vous regarde pas.' "
Read a pdf scan of the letter. (All this is in English for my readers' convenience.)
By the way, by clicking on the logo on the right, you can verify (alas! only in French) that the the Sûreté du Québec's Firearms Control Service is under the Direction de la protection de l'État, which translates into "Directorate of the Protection of the State" or "Directorate for State Security." ("KGB" meant "Committee for State Security.) Look at the bottom right corner of the Sureté du Québec's organization chart.
On December 27, I appealed the state's decision to not renew "my" gun licence (as we say, "my cancer") and to revoke the registration certificates of my guns. The appeal motion (available in a pdf file) is only in French as it was presented in a Québec court, although it challenges the federal gun controls. I hope to find the time to translate it. A court date has been fixed to March 28.
The case was transferred to Mont-Laurier, and a new court date should be determined soon.
Mr. Richard Fritze, the well-known Alberta firearms lawyer, will represent me pro bono. We are waiting for a court date, which will be in early 2009. (By the way, have you ever heard of a pro bono government lawyer?)
Through an Access to Information request, I received from the RCMP an interesting 50-page document on my case. You can find it here in a pdf format. This is fascinating: look at what the Surveillance State knows about a "citizen" who own guns and what they do (for a start) when he challenges them. Look at some of the information such a "citizen" has had to provide them since 1996. Two million Canadians are so registered like cattle.
The court date has been set for May 26-27, 2009, in room 207 of the Mont-Laurier Courthouse (645, rue de la Madome, Mont-Laurier, Québec, J9L 1T1), starting at 9:30 each morning. We are challenging the constitutionality of the "law". Many well-known expert witnesses will testify for us -- including Joyce Malcolm, Colin Greenwood, Gary Mauser, and Jacques Plamondon. We need money to pay for what will be a long and difficult battle. Fighting the state to restore our traditional liberties is not easy. To donate, please contact Paul Rogan, publisher of Canadian Access to Firearms, who is acting as a pro bono fund-raiser.
The little post office of my village (Lac-Saguay) was suspicious of the letter (in French) I sent to my fellow villagers, but they finally delivered it on April 15.
George Jonas did one of his extraordinary National Post columns under the title: "Stay out of Pierre Lemieux's bedroon".
The hearing was held in Mont-Laurier. On this, see my Western Standard column of June 2nd, "A Kafkaesque process". We obtained (it cost an arm) an official transcript of the proceedings -- it's in English, with the French parts translated.
The judge rendered her decision, which is as expected (see my Western Standard column describing the proceedings). The Court supports the bureaucrats denying the renewal of "my" licence because I have refused to answer a question about my love life (reminder: see my application form of May 30, 2007). You can read the decision in French and in an English translation, the Court accepted to hear the constitutional challenge.
My lawyer, Richard Fritze, immediately filed an appeal (available in English as most of the documents on this case) on my behalf (on the practical licence issue) before the Superior Court.
We (I, a local lawyer acting as an agent for Richard Fritze, and the three government lawyers) were again in court to discuss the continuation of the proceedings with the constitutional challenge. The judge said that she would not be available in May 2010 as we hoped for our witnesses will be in Québec at that time. She ruled that all lawyers will have to be present in court on December 1 to fix a later date for the proceedings and to discuss related matters.
