Police state is a term denoting a government that exercises power arbitrarily through the power of the police force. Originally the term designated a state regulated by a civil administration, but since the beginning of the 20th century, the term has “taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning” by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of the civil authorities. – Wikipedia)
In what’s become standard practice in Canada, the RCMP once again usurped legislative and judicial authority. On June 14, 2017, these unelected bureaucrats issued a legal interpretation expanding the definition of the term “firearm” to include unfinished receiver blanks.
The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 2, defines the term “firearm.”
- firearm means a barrelled weapon from which any shot, bullet or other projectile can be discharged and that is capable of causing serious bodily injury or death to a person, and includes any frame or receiver of such a barrelled weapon and anything that can be adapted for use as a firearm;
The bolded portion of that definition is where the RCMP hangs its decision to define unfinished receiver blanks as “firearms.”
By this logic, we must now classify the entire gas pipe and plumbing sections of Canadian Tire as restricted devices because they “can be adapted for use as a firearm.”
It’s ridiculous in the extreme.
Anyone with enough time, patience and skill can manufacture a crude firearm from gas or plumbing pipes.
The same is true of 80 per cent finished receiver blanks. It takes an enormous amount of time, patience and skill to turn one of these unfinished hunks of metal into a functional firearm.
The key word in both sentences is ‘skill’. Taking an unfinished receiver blank and creating a functional firearm from it is simply beyond the skill of 99.9 per cent of firearm enthusiasts.
One problematic result of this decision by the RCMP is it totally removes unfinished receiver blanks (80 per cent receiver blanks) for the AR-15 platform from the Canadian firearm landscape. The RCMP classifies AR-15 receiver blanks as ‘prohibited devices’ because these can be finished into functional receivers for either the AR-15 or the M-16, its fully automatic forefather.
That angers a lot of Canadian AR-15 fans.
But that isn’t the real issue.
The real issue is this: Who is running this country, RCMP bureaucrats or the duly elected representatives of the citizens of Canada?
The white-shirted RCMP minions high in their ivory tower have overstepped their authority. Again.
And again, the Minister of Public Safety does nothing to rein them in.
Canadians elect politicians to create laws, not RCMP bureaucrats.
Clearly, the white-shirted RCMP brass appears to believe it is they who run the nation and create its laws.
Equally as clear, these white-shirted power drones ignore the fact that the final authority on legal definitions is, in fact, the Supreme Court of Canada, not the RCMP.
The job of the RCMP, the job of any police force, is to enforce the law. Police do not manufacture the law, yet that is precisely what the RCMP has done yet again with this edict.
The question the CSSA asks is this: Who is in control at the federal department of Public Safety? Is it Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale or is it the unelected RCMP bureaucrats?
It is completely irresponsible of Ralph Goodale to continue allowing the RCMP to usurp both the powers of his office, the Government of Canada, and those of the Supreme Court of Canada.
It’s Ralph Goodale’s job to oversee the RCMP, to ensure they follow the law, not manufacture it. This point is seemingly lost on the Minister. By Minister Goodale’s continued abdication of oversight and his repeated deferral of responsibility to “the experts,” it appears the RCMP is in charge.
It’s a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.
Reversing this decision requires the complicity of the elected officials who oversee the RCMP, namely the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister of Canada.
We can convince them to reverse this decision by providing them with an overwhelming response from ordinary Canadians fed up with the RCMP’s heavy-handed tactics to manufacture law as they deem fit.
Write your local newspapers. Contact your local television stations. Explain the ridiculousness of this latest RCMP edict. Explain the RCMP’s job is to enforce law, not manufacture it. Remind them that it is the Minister of Public Safety’s job to oversee the RCMP’s actions, something Mr. Goodale appears loath to do.
Once you’ve done that, contact everyone you know and ask them to do the same.
Then contact Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and urge him to stop this RCMP nonsense. Given his past willingness to abdicate his authority to the bureaucrats of the RCMP, this is likely not a road to success.
Next, contact Goodale’s boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and urge him to order Goodale to put an end to this RCMP nonsense.
There is a third option, but nobody in their right mind will take this avenue willingly. That third and final option is to be arrested and charged with the illegal possession of an unregistered hunk of metal, defined by the RCMP as an 80 per cent receiver blank, and win that long and expensive court battle.
The odds of winning that battle are not so good.
Contact your elected representatives. That includes Minister Ralph Goodale, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and, most importantly, your local Member of Parliament.
The Hon. Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613-947-1153
Fax: 613-996-9790
Email: ralph.goodale@parl.gc.ca
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/Ralph-Goodale(1265)
The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613-995-0253
Fax: 613-947-0310
Email: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/Justin-Trudeau(58733)
Find your Member of Parliament here:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
Sources:
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-1.html#h-2
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/pol-leg/receiver-carcasse-eng.htm
http://s3.amazonaws.com/CSSA/PDF/RCMP-Notice-about-Receiver-Blanks.pdf
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