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Versions of this Canadian Press article also appeared in: Moncton Times and Transcript: Ottawa failed for a year to shut down website offering fake gun registrations Toronto Sun: FEDS KNEW OF FAKE GUN PERMITS Cape Breton Post: Ottawa failed for a year to shut down fake gun registration website Ottawa Citizen: Website kept producing fake gun registrations Calgary Herald: Fake firearms registration site hard to stop Edmonton Journal: Fake gun-registration website eluded Ottawa for more than a year Ottawa Sun: FAKE GUN PAPERS ON NET London Free Press: FAKE GUN REGISTRATION SITE FINALLY SHUTS DOWN Calgary Sun: WEBSITE POKED FUN AT FIREARMS REGISTRY Edmonton Sun: FAKE GUN-REGISTRY WEBSITE FINALLY SHUTS DOWN Globe and Mail: Website offering false gun registrations remained on-line despite warnings Winnipeg Free Press: Website issued fake firearm registrations California operator finally desists Montreal Gazette: Site finally muzzled Victoria Times Colonist: Fake gun registration site kept going for a year despite efforts to close it The Sunday Herald: Bogus gun registry lasted for a year; Agency thought U.S. website had stopped issuing certificates Kitchener Waterloo Record: Ottawa slow to shut down fake gun registry The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal: Ottawa failed for a year to shut down gun website PUBLICATION: CANADIAN
PRESS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ottawa failed for a year to shut down website offering fake gun registrations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA (CP) _ A website that generated fake Canadian gun registrations continued to operate for more than a year after federal officials tried to shut it down. A file from the website, registered in the United States, allowed visitors to fill in and print reproductions of Canadian firearms registration certificates. Documents obtained through the Access to Information Act show that the government agency responsible for gun control knew about the website early last year. Though real certificates are printed on a special watermark paper, the web versions “have the look of official documents,'' David Pimm of the Canadian Firearms Centre said in an internal e-mail. The centre learned of the Internet site April 15 last year, and immediately faxed a letter to the California-based company that hosts the web page. A lawyer for the centre warned that by hosting the site, Homestead Technologies Inc. was “counselling as well as aiding and abetting a criminal offence.'' “Given the severity of the conduct, we would appreciate the site being taken down immediately,'' the letter said. But Homestead's vice-president of marketing, Manvinder Saraon, said in an interview that the company has no record of that fax, and first learned of the problem when contacted recently by a reporter. The company has since shut the site down. “There was no follow-up from the firearms centre, as far as we know,'' Saraon said. A spokeswoman for the centre, Irene Arseneau, said the agency believed the site had been taken down before Saraon was alerted by the media to the problem. Details on the Homestead site suggested it was created partly to poke fun at the firearms centre. Under gun type, the drop-down menu included “nail gun,'' “hair dryer,'' and “pointy stick.'' The form also had a note that it was “Not a CFC (Canadian Firearms Centre) Document'' and “Education purpose only.'' The firearms centre regulates the possession, transport, use and storage of firearms. Since 2003, every gun in Canada requires a registration certificate, and about 5.5 million have been issued. In 2001, anticipating a mass registration before the 2003 deadline, the centre decided to switch from plastic registration cards to paper certificates, which are cheaper to print and easier to mail. There were concerns, however, that they would also be easier to counterfeit. The first lookalike _ found on a different website _ appeared in 2003. A link to it was posted on the Canadian Firearms Digest, an Internet discussion forum for gun enthusiasts. Just over a week later, the centre faxed a letter _ the same one that would be sent to Homestead six months later _ to Yahoo Inc., the company in California hosting the website. The page was taken down soon after. Despite evidence that counterfeit versions of their paper certificates were available on the Internet, the centre decided not to re-introduce plastic registration cards. “They (plastic cards) would be harder to forge but we will have to see if the increased cost is warranted by the risks,'' reads an internal e-mail sent in October 2003 by Bill Baker, who heads the firearms centre. Plastic cards are six times more expensive than paper certificates to process and mail, according to the centre's internal estimates. As much $5 million may have been saved by the switch to paper. The centre has long been under pressure to cut costs. Originally slated to cost only $2 million, the registry has spent over $1 billion according to Auditor General Sheila Fraser. Mark Horstead, a retired Canadian Forces pilot living in Newmarket, Ont., was one of the first to warn the centre about the Homestead website. An opponent of the gun registry, Horstead said he drew attention to the problem because not only was a blank certificate available to print, but the paper on which the real certificates appear was also available. “They were on a sort of ivory-coloured paper with two-toned lines. You can find almost exactly the same paper in any stationery store, except that the lines go in the opposite direction. Otherwise, it matches the firearms certificate perfectly.'' Greg Muller, a communications officer for the centre, disagreed. He said the paper stock for the certificates is unique and includes a Government of Canada logo. “The certificates themselves are produced on a special watermark paper that makes fraud difficult if not impossible,'' he said. “And anybody who is (forging certificates), obviously, would be subject to some kind of criminal charge for duplicating a federal government document.'' The website had been “fairly inactive,'' Saraon said before it was shut down. “It's not like there's a ton of people going on it or anything like that.'' Asked whether any bogus certificates had turned up, Arseneau said “not to my knowledge.'' “But that doesn't mean it could not have happened, just that the (police) officers wouldn't necessarily call us.'' |