This is our first newsletter. For those of you who joined soon after the formation of our organization, this probably seems a bit overdue and you have our apologies for that. Although within fifteen minutes of the announcement of our formation we had members from 9 provinces and 1 territory, it seemed a good idea to let the first newsletter wait until notices of our organization had appeared in several publications. We then got very involved in preparing a brief on Bill C-68 and then other political activities came along such as working on organizing shooters to help the Reform party in the recent by-election in Etobicoke North. We have had a home page on the Internet for over six months now so that information about our organization, a copy of our brief, and other material of political importance has been available. So, although you have not heard from us until now, and we do apologize for the delay in writing this newsletter, we have not been idle. Please consider this newsletter to be a celebration of our first birthday and accept our thanks for joining with us in forming the Association of Women Shooters of Canada.
A word about our formation: In August of 1995 a weekend conference was held in Toronto for representatives from the Canadian recreational firearms community from all across Canada. The purpose of the meeting was to plan our political action for the next several years. In the course of the conference, several of the women present got together almost spontaneously. Those of us who became the founding members of the Association of Women Shooters of Canada (Linda THOM, Olympic gold medalist; Dr. Judith ROSS, spokesperson for the Canadian Practical Shooting Association; GAIL DOBNEY, a crown attorney from Toronto; Kate MACQUARRIE, a hunter and biologist and president of the Prince Edward Island Wildlife Federation) did a bit of whispering among ourselves and decided to leave the room to continue our conversation in the corridor. Our departure stirred up some curiosity among the other delegates to the conference and when we returned a few minutes later to announce the formation of our association, we were greeted with enthusiastic applause; a standing ovation, in fact. As indicated above, in only a few minutes we had signed up members from almost all over Canada. We also had offers of assistance from several other organizations and publications; more about this in a moment.
We felt there was a need for an organization that would increase the profile of women as owners and users of firearms. As anyone who has been at a gun club or on a shooting range knows, women are definitely a presence there. We felt it was important for the general public to know this, too, so that "gun control" could not so readily be made by the media and politicians to appear to be a gender related issue. We also wanted more women to be encouraged to enjoy the shooting sports. It seemed to us to be unfortunate that the shooting sports which are almost unique in that they allow women to compete equally with men and in which women, particularly Canadian women, have excelled in international competition, should not involve even more women than they already do.
The whole-hearted support that we received from the men at the conference was very much appreciated, although it wasn't at all surprising. Most of us have felt welcomed by our male associates on shooting ranges and in shooting organizations. We decided to extend that welcome to men to join in our association.
We want to express our thanks to the people and organizations who so generously offered their support. The Ontario Handgun Association volunteered the services of their office in acting as our mailing address, in handling our membership and finances, in printing our newsletter, and in announcing the formation of our organization as a cover story with photographs in the December issue of their magazine, Canadian Handgun. Both Canadian Access to Firearms and The Gunrunner printed notices about our organization and included a membership form. Sitrep, the newsletter of the Canadian Practical Shooting Association, not only printed an article about us and a membership form, but their president, Bud Melless, also created a home page for us on the Internet which is now being maintained by Calvin Martin, Q.C. This can be accessed at http://fox.nstn.ca/~dvc14/awsc.html.
Our major activities thus far have been our efforts to defeat Bill C-68. Linda and Judith prepared a brief (which is included in this newsletter) and sent it to every member of the Senate. We also applied to be heard by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs when they conducted their hearings on C-68 but our application was not accepted. The four of us also were involved as individuals and as representatives of other organizations in efforts to speak out against this legislation but we had hoped to have an opportunity to make a formal presentation on behalf of the women in the Canadian recreational firearms community. However, the government denied us this opportunity and the women of Canada were "represented" by anti-firearm lobby groups. This is exactly the sort of situation that we hope to change.
While Judith and Linda were involved in their efforts to speak with members of the Senate, they did have a number of very positive meetings and exchanges of information with Senator Anne Cools. Unfortunately, Senator Cools was not given the opportunity to speak on Bill C-68 before the Senate but she did have the speech she wanted to give read into the Senate record. We have included it in this newsletter and on our home page as her remarks are quite relevant to women. We are grateful to her for her concern and her assistance. She has an appreciation for the shooting sports and an understanding and of what actually constitutes a "women's issue".
Since our formation we have been pleased to learn of the existence of other groups of women in the Canadian firearms community. One group is the Tofield Gun Grannys whose vice- president Margit Schowalter contacted us when she joined our association. We have since exchanged our briefs and information about the Senate hearings. The Gun Grannys are from rural Alberta, none of them are target shooters, they all own and/or use firearms. We have also heard about some other regional groups. These sorts of regional groups, whether they are loosely or formally organized, are excellent ways for women in the Canadian firearms community to maintain contact and communication with each other all across Canada. We would be pleased to hear of other groups if they exist. The Association of Women Shooters of Canada can certainly serve as a clearing house for information and as a means of communication for women in the Canadian recreational firearms community.
The most important thing for us to be working on right now is the very basic question of whether or not the Canadian recreational firearms community will continue to exist. As you know, we have lost the battle over Bill C-68. Despite all the efforts that the Canadian recreational firearms community made to communicate some common sense to our Members of Parliament and the Senate, the Liberal party with their majority rammed Bill C-68 through. Their hypocrisy in doing this, while not surprising, is repugnant.
Senator Sharon Carstairs who was given the responsibility by the Liberal party for steering this Bill through the Senate was caught with her guard down a few months ago when she made public statements to the effect that the Liberals knew that this legislation would have no effect in reducing violent crime and that the purpose of gun control was to "re-engineer society and change our culture". She later attempted to deny having said this but several people, including Larry Tardiff, president of the Council of Responsible Firearms Owners of Manitoba, came forward to say that they heard her make this statement. Senator Carstairs, who in her statements to the Senate on C-68 had done a lot of whining and hand-wringing about violence against women, revealed herself to be a hypocritical liar who would undermine the interests of Canadian women while pretending to defend them.
Of course, Senator Carstairs is not unique among the Liberals in their willingness to deceive the public as to the true intent of their gun control legislation. We have specifically mentioned her because of her role in pushing C-68 through the Senate and in preventing the AWSC from presenting our brief to the Senate committee at the same time that she pretended to speak for the women of Canada. There are, however, many other examples of the Liberal attempt to deceive. Reform MP Garry Breitkreuz recently attempted to obtain the results of government commissioned studies on the effectiveness of gun control legislation but the government withheld this information from him. As studies of the effectiveness of gun control legislation have shown it to be ineffective in reducing violent crime and to be prohibitively costly, it would seem that the government was not eager to release any further such information to the Canadian people.
The implications of Bill C-68 are staggering. If all of the provisions are fully enforced, which is surely the intended ultimate goal, it will definitely mean an end not only to the shooting sports but also to the private ownership of firearms in Canada.
But take heart. Just because we have lost the battle, serious as that is, it does not mean that we have lost the war. We have one important opportunity coming up. There will be a federal election within the year. The Reform Party has promised that they will repeal Bill C-68 and any "gun control" legislation that is designed to restrict the recreational firearms community rather than deal with criminal activity. At the Reform Party Assembly held in Vancouver this past June there was overwhelming support for a resolution to this effect.
Judith attended the Reform Assembly as a voting delegate for her home riding of Broadview-Greenwood in Toronto. She had expected that two Reform MPs, Garry Breitkreuz of Yorkton-Melville and Jack Ramsay of Crowfoot, who have been extremely helpful to the recreational firearms community and who have long spoken out in our defense, would be supportive of the resolution and they certainly were. What particularly pleased her was the tremendous support of the Reform delegates from all over Canada.
Many of us who feel very strongly about our firearms are determined to give the Reform party our fullest support. There may be other opinions. There were a few courageous Liberals who dared to vote for what their constituents wanted and what they knew was right and who opposed Bill C-68. They were punished by Prime Minister Chretien for doing this. He has also said that he will not sign their nomination papers so it is not clear what these MPs will do in the next election but if you live in their ridings you may choose to support them if they run independently.
Something else that we can do to make a political statement is that we can refrain from registering our rifles and shotguns. This is not illegal at present as there is a timetable for universal registration. It is important to show the Liberal government that we are not accepting Bill C-68. If it looks as though we are rushing to comply with registration and confiscation, they will surely take advantage of this and move their timetable forward.
We can also be alert and stay on top of the political situation in our provinces and territories. The Justice Ministers of Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories all opposed Bill C-68. We should be urging them to initiate legal challenges and to refuse to enforce the legislation.
We can also read the newspapers and keep informed about the misinformation put forth by the media and by anti-firearm lobbyists. We can write letters to editors.
We can join in the boycotts of businesses which give financial support to the Liberal party. These boycotts are being conducted primarily in the western provinces by various organizations within the recreational firearms community. More information is available on the Internet in the Canadian Firearms Digest. You can subscribe to this by emailing the following command(s) in the message body to majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
subscribe cdn-firearms
subscribe cdn-firearms-alert
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Leave the subject heading blank.
We can share information with each other through this association
and through other firearm organizations.
We can also keep active in our recreational use of firearms.
We can encourage others, women in particular, to become involved in the recreational use of firearms. Along these lines, it would be good for more women to get their qualifications as instructors for the Firearms Acquisition Certificate. If anyone would like information on how to become involved in the FAC training program in their province, contact Myrna Breckenridge (phone 416 443- 0177; Fax 416 443-0385).
Something VERY IMPORTANT that we can all become involved in RIGHT NOW has to do with the regulations that the government has proposed to implement in order to enact various sections of Bill C-68. The exact situation is a bit unclear but here is what we know. On May 2, 1996 Allan Rock, the Minister of Justice, put some draft regulations before Parliament. Less than a week later he withdrew the regulations saying that he would re-introduce them when he had more time to examine them. We understand that what had happened during that week was that the Liberals took a poll in Ontario and discovered that a goodly number of Liberal MPs would lose their seats because of one issue: the gun control legislation. It seemed that the Liberals then decided to lie low until after the next federal election and then, if they won, they would start to enact Bill C-68. In the past few weeks, there have been various rumours to the effect that the Liberals may have changed their minds and decided to table the regulations prior to the election, possibly even at the end of September. While this may only be a rumour, we should be taking this seriously. Sometimes rumours are floated in order to see what the response will be.
What this means is that when the regulations are tabled, the House of Commons and the Senate will have 30 sitting days in which they may inspect the regulations and make recommendations to Rock for amendments. Rock is under no obligation to make any changes or to adopt any of the amendments. The tabling is merely a formality as the MPs have no control over the writing or passing of these regulations as they are passed by Order in Council.
If you are having some questions as to whether this is any way to run a democracy, that is understandable. This is, however, the way in which the gun control legislation was written. So much for democratic procedure or the will of the people.
What is clear is that the only way to deter the Liberals from pushing through the provisions of C-68 is by political pressure. Their poll told them that there would be a political price to pay in Ontario which they felt was too great. What we can do now is let them know that we are keeping track of what they are doing to implement C-68 and that the price of doing it is even greater than they thought, particularly as far as the women of Canada are concerned. We can do this by writing to all MPs and by visiting and phoning our own MPs. The Ontario Handgun Association has mail and Fax merge software available at a very nominal price. This will give each MP a letter specifically addressed to that MP rather than a form letter. You can reach the OHA at 905 238- 3090.
We can tell you a bit about what was in the regulations that have been withdrawn but we don't know that those draft regulations will be the same as the ones that are introduced. It would certainly be appropriate to object to any enactment of C-68 but it would be more impressive if you look informed as to the content of the particular regulations that are at issue. The best advice we can give is to try and keep informed as to when regulations are introduced. We will put any information we get on our home page. If you are a computer person and can access the Internet and the Canadian Firearms Digest, keep up to date on what is happening with the regulations and pass the information along to other people who can contact their own MPs. There is also a special firearms information line in Ottawa and it is free: 1-800-731-4000. Bear in mind that this will be government propaganda but you may get the information you want.
As for the regulations that were introduced on May 2, many of them involved more useless bureaucracy, forms, and fees which would serve no purpose other than to harass and deter shooters from pursuing their lawful and harmless activities. Many of the regulations would have extremely serious and far reaching implications. There would be two types of firearms licenses: acquisition and possession. In order to keep the firearms you currently own, you would have to get a possession license. These possession licenses would not be available after January 1, 2001. After every five years, handgun owners would have to prove that they actively use their handguns for target shooting in order or renew their license. Both handguns and long guns would have to be secured with a locking device and this would be required at all times even if the firearms are stored in a safe. You would only be able to transport your handgun to one gun club, thereby ending all target shooting competition between clubs, within and between provinces, and nationally! You don't have to be a legal expert to see where all this is heading.
Whatever specific regulations are introduced, you can see the importance of letting the Liberals know that there will be a significant political price to pay. It would be a good idea to do this NOW even before any new regulations have been introduced as, who knows, we might head them off. It wouldn't hurt to mention the Association of Women Shooters in your letters in order to let the MPs know of our existence and our strength. So please, while you're still enthused or enraged or whatever, take some action on these regulations.
Thank you again for joining us.