Some additional provincial restrictions on firearms, and a program to ensure that folks report suspicious activity, whatever that might be, to the gestapo authorities:
The law bans the possession of firearms in schools and daycare centres and on public and school transportation.
Fines for contravening the law forbidding firearm possession on those premises range from $500 to $5,000.
That’s great. I’m sure that’ll deter people who are planning a mass killing spree.
Under the new rules, teachers, gun-club owners, and public-transit and health-care workers are also required to report suspicious behaviour relating to firearms, even if it contradicts doctor-patient or any other confidentiality.
Further, there will be mandatory supervision of target practice where restricted and banned firearms are in use.
Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control says the new provincial law is a step in the right direction.
It’s just a step in the right direction. It won’t be enough until Canadians can’t own anything more dangerous than a BB gun. Of course, they’ll be coming for that eventually too.
This story is specific to the Canadian province of Quebec. That province is chock full of anti-gunners, especially in the city of Montreal.
I have spent considerable amounts of time living and working in both Montreal and Toronto.
Canada is similar to the United States in that the anti-gunners tend to live in the East and West, and in cities, but not much in-between.
In eastern Canadian cities such as Quebec, Ottawa, and Ontario, you’ll find anti-gun politicians like Mike Bloomberg in New York City, and Michael Nutter in Philadelphia. In the Canadian Midwest and West, you will see plenty of pro-gun folks, with the notable exception of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, just like the highly anti-gun West Coast American cities of Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington.
It should also be interesting to note that just like all the American cities with strict gun laws, even local ones that are stricter than the surrounding areas, Canadian cities seem to have comparatively higher rates of violent crime.
Quebec is also home to Pierre Lemieux, who is a libertarian philosopher and staunchly pro-RKBA…though I suspect in Quebec his is a lone voice, crying in the wilderness.
his website is
http://www.pierrelemieux.org
He also blogs at:
http://www.libertyincanada.ca/
I recently sent a renewal to the National Firearms Assn. of Canada; Their latest _Canadian Firearms Journal_ was full of articles blasting the mayor of Toronto for his extreme anti-gun views. NFA is starting to become more activist, a good sign.
There is also a pending court case, sort of Canada’s own Dick Heller, in the person of Mr. Bruce Montague, whose trials and tribulations can be read about here: http://www.brucemontague.ca
His daughter has also done some Oleg Volk-inspired PSA’s on YouTube that are pretty good.
Correction: Above when I referred to eastern Canadian cities above, I meant to actually write Montreal, Quebec, then Ottawa, Ontario, and then Toronto, Ontario respectively.
To get a better idea of how ridiculously anti-gun the city of Toronto and its current mayor is, see http://www.torontothebad.com/
As JJR mentions above, Canada does have its own version of Dick Heller in Bruce Montague, with the big difference between him and Dick Heller being that Bruce Montague is facing legal charges in Ontario over firearms that he owned PRIOR to some rather arbitrary changes in the firearm laws of Canada. Montague’s teenage daughter, Katey, has her own channel on youtube, which has many hard-hitting and concise pro-gun PSA videos on it, all of which are presented by Katey herself. I found each and every one of these videos quite impressive myself.