Gun Control is Completely Useless.
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COMMENTARY: Despite a correction, Canada’s gun control debate is still tainted by bad information
By Matt Gurney Radio Host
Bad information, once loose, persists. A false report is remembered long after a correction. But the ongoing debate about gun control in Canada is tainted by bad information. Let’s see what we can do about that.
Last year was a violent one in Toronto. Shootings were sharply up. A new record for homicides was set, with 96. In July, a particularly horrific attack in the Danforth neighbourhood left two people dead and 13 more injured. Toronto mayor John Tory, a generally sensible fellow who once (rightly) dismissed handgun bans as a symbolic gesture, reversed himself and called for one. Tory claimed that his position had changed because the facts had changed — more handguns being used in Toronto crimes, he said, were being procured by licensed Canadian owners.
WATCH: Blair says Canada looking at all options on gun violence, including ban
And it seemed like the mayor was onto something. The Canadian Press, shortly after the Danforth shooting, published an article quoting a Toronto police detective at length. The article specifically claimed that guns that could be traced back to Canada were now the leading source for criminals in the city, eclipsing the traditional source: smugglers bringing guns in from the United States.
The number of “crime guns” — which in Toronto can mean not only guns used in crime, but also those illegally altered, or seized during criminal investigations — traced back to Canadian owners was “surging,” the article reads. “[Some Canadians] go get their licence for the purpose of becoming a firearms trafficker,” Det. Rob Di Danieli told the Canadian Press.
The Canadian Press provides news articles to most major news organizations across the country, Global News included. The piece was widely reprinted and was also cited in other reporting. It directly supported a renewed call for a handgun ban in Canada, a call that was taken up by city councils in Toronto and Montreal and is now being studied by the federal Liberals, who have campaigned on a handgun ban before — it was a key plank in Paul Martin’s failed 2006 campaign. It formed a central part of the debate that those calls provoked.
Its main claim — the surge in domestic guns used in crimes beginning around 2012 — was entirely based on the CP’s interview with Det. di Danieli. There appeared to be no independent verification. Dennis R. Young, a researcher and writer based in Alberta, filed a Freedom of Information request with the Toronto police, seeking precise figures dating back many years. The police obliged, and Young published the data verbatim online.
Below: Data shows the number of ‘crime guns’ seized by Toronto police based that can be traced back to Canada and the U.S.
The details are in my column from September, and the data — the Toronto police’s own stats — showed no “surge” in guns traced back to Canadians. None. There was some ebb-and-flow across different years, but nothing like an emerging pattern, let alone a surge. The overwhelming majority of Toronto crime guns are never traced back to any particular source. Of those that can be traced either to the United States and Canada, the U.S. leads in most years, Canada in two, with one tie. There is nothing like a surge to be seen among domestic guns.
BELOW: Data comparing the number of crime guns seized by Toronto police that can be traced back to the U.S. or to lawful Canadian gun owners.
In September, I had obviously requested comment from Det. di Danieli and the CP. The police acknowledged my request to speak to the detective, and then never got back to me and ignored all follow ups. An editor at the CP told me that they were aware of and looking into the matter, and then ignored my follow ups.
This pissed me off. Not in a sense of personal affront. I’ve been ignored before. But this incident is, to my mind, a black mark for both the Toronto police and the CP. Policing and reporting are both supposed to be about the truth. The police and the CP had combined to put out inaccurate information, and that inaccurate information was driving public debate. At minimum, a correction, or some comparable acknowledgement, was absolutely required.
None came. Until a few days ago.
On Dec. 27, in that quiet lull between Christmas and New Year’s, the Canadian Press published a new article. It wasn’t a retraction or a correction to their previous report. Indeed, the new article didn’t even refer directly to the CP’s earlier reporting. The new CP article, written by the excellent reporter Michelle McQuigge, detailed a year-end press conference by Toronto Police Service Chief Mark Saunders.
And this article, finally, sets the record straight. There indeed has been no surge in crime guns traced back to legally-licensed Canadian owners. “[Firearms] imported from the U.S. were implicated in … crimes more often than domestically sourced firearms in eight of the past 11 years,” writes McQuigge. “Domestically sourced crime guns only surpassed U.S. imports in 2010 and 2015, with the two figures tied in 2016.”
WATCH: ‘No magic pill’: Toronto’s police chief highlights gun violence in year-end review
As for the police, they have also, ahem, expanded upon their earlier statements. They told the CP that the majority of rifles and shotguns seized as crime guns by Toronto police are linked back to Canadians (which doesn’t surprise me). But they also finally admitted what should have been said months ago. Again, quoting a Toronto police spokesperson from McQuigge’s piece: “The majority of crime guns that are handguns seized by the Toronto Police Service are sourced via the U.S.”
Well then.
Canadians have spent four months having a debate, including public consultations, based in part on bad information. Information that was known to be bad months ago, but that went uncorrected until two days after Christmas, when news readership is typically way, way below usual levels.
I’m not suggesting for an instant that there is not a problem with domestically sourced guns in Canada. The police definition of a crime gun is problematic — it includes guns seized during investigations that may not ever have been used in a crime, and also includes objects such as air guns that aren’t firearms under the law. So you have to take some of the stats with a grain of salt. But still. We should always have an open mind about ways to make our gun control system more effective at reducing crime.
But there is simply no evidence that there is a worsening problem among lawful Canadian handgun owners, the people targeted by the proposed ban — in effect, held up as partially responsible for tragic deaths and senseless crimes. The Toronto police numbers don’t show it. Nationally, the Public Safety Ministry has conceded that it has no data to support claims by Minister Ralph Goodale that domestic owners now provide the majority of crime guns. That entire narrative, embraced wholeheartedly by the mayor and somewhat more cautiously by federal Liberals, is based on bad information that should not have been reported.
READ MORE: Quebec gun-control activists push for federal firearms bill
To call all this disappointing would be an understatement. In an era when news organizations all over the world are being accused of peddling fake news, and when every police force recognizes the challenge of retaining public trust, this is absolutely appalling.
I’m a reasonable guy. Stuff happens. Errors are made. The public is owed honesty, not perfection. Mistakes, when made, should be publicly corrected, as quickly as possible. Four months is too long.
Canadians got their honesty, eventually. Better late than never, I suppose. But damage has been done. My satisfaction in the truth finally being acknowledged — and there is some — is soured by that grim reality. Bad information lasts forever.
All we can do now, as properly informed citizens, is hold politicians accountable when they repeat that bad information, whether they’re doing so in ignorance or with malice. I’ll do my part. The rest is up to you.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4815321/...l-debate-is-still-tainted-by-bad-information/
THE GUY SAYS POLICING AND REPORTING ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE TRUTH???????????????????????????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently the guy does not follow LIE-beral political choices on any regular basis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cdn cops have been telling us for years- and LIE-berals are supporting them- that 30 percent of the illegal guns on our streets are from LEGITIMATE CDN SOURCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then our STUPID LIE-beral loving NEWS MEDIA WHORES got wind of a GUN MAKING SHOP operating ILLEGALLY IN Toronto- and could not resist telling us about it!!!!!!!!!!!
And in the process news whores EXPOSED the LIE-beral LIE about Cdn guns from LEGITIMATE SOURCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The guns on our streets DID NOT COME FROM LEGITIMATE CDN SOURCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Criminals illegally making guns for other criminals has NOTHING TO DO with legitimate Cdn gun owners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-beral HYPOCRITES want us to focus on gun control...............as if guns had a life of their own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-berals do NOT WANT US considering their FAILED and half assed attempts at CRIMINAL CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is a cautionary tale illustrating how corrupt our legal system is becoming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is an article illustrating the LIE-beral position on white collar crime- which is to ignore it till it bites them on the backside! With some comments of my own in brackets):
Justice of the Peace used position to help lover, guilty again of judicial misconduct.
From Michele Mandel. Published: February 1, 2018. Updated: February 2, 2018 8:18 AM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/ News/ Toronto & GTA
With this latest finding of judicial misconduct, it’s time for this JP to hang up his robes.
For the second time, College Park Justice of the Peace Tom Foulds has been found guilty of exploiting his position of power to help a friend — this time for assisting his now-wife to criminally prosecute her ex.
Instead of recusing himself and declaring a conflict of interest, Foulds’ fingerprints were all over the prosecution of his partner’s ex-boyfriend after she claimed he assaulted her in May 2014. The JP signed the information that formally laid charges against the man, known as BB, and repeatedly intervened with both prosecutors and police without disclosing his romantic relationship with the complainant, identified only as AA.
(And we KNOW that no LIE-beral would ever accept the idea that some women would be dishonest enough to use FAKE accusations of assault as a club to hammer at men they are angry with!)
“Justice of the Peace Foulds intentionally involved himself in various aspects of the prosecution of BB,” a panel of the Justice of the Peace Review Council ruled in a decision released Thursday.
That interference, they concluded, was to ensure BB was convicted.
‘Had a vested interest’
“Justice of the Peace Foulds intended to influence the prosecutor’s perception of the relative merits of the allegations of AA against BB or, alternatively, was endeavouring to inform the Crown Attorney that His Worship, a judicial officer before whom the Crown Attorneys at College Park regularly appear, had a vested interest in this particular prosecution.”
After BB had the assault charges against him stayed in 2015, he launched a complaint against Foulds before the JPRC. Foulds has been suspended with pay since February 2016.
(The charge against the man was STAYED? AS in dropped and forgotten? Would that be for lack of evidence because the ex-wife did the impossible and LIED about her hated ex spouse? A LIE-beral would NOT believe such a thing!)
“He definitely should lose his job,” BB said in an interview. “It was a full railroad job. I figured I was dead meat. He had every power at his disposal — he signs the documents, he talks to the police, he talks to the Crown attorneys.”
According to the decision, Foulds had separated from his first wife and was “good friends” with AA, who was in the midst of a break-up from BB.
On May 18, 2014, the JP went with her to 53 Division where she reported an alleged assault by BB. The next day, Foulds accompanied AA to the hospital emergency department and witnessed the police medical release form that she signed.
He was up to his ears in the case — including as a potential witness — but initially told no one about his involvement. Instead, on May 21, 2014, a police officer came before him at College Park courts to swear an information alleging BB assaulted AA and Foulds formalized the criminal charges against him.
“In hindsight,” Foulds later told the review council, “I acknowledge that the optics, if not the reality, of my having signed this Information were problematic and I ought properly have had a different justice of the peace sign it.”
Three weeks passed before he told Deputy Crown Attorney Michael Callaghan about his “potential” conflict. He also repeatedly contacted the Crown until Callaghan had to “bluntly” tell him it was inappropriate.
In the meantime, AA moved in with Foulds.
In 2015, Foulds signed the subpoena to have AA testify in the BB case and told police he wanted to be present when “his neighbour” was served. He was informed it was against protocol.
When all this interference was uncovered by defence lawyer Richard Shekter, the Crown stayed the charges. BB, in turn, launched his complaint.
“I felt it was my duty to see this through. If I didn’t get rid of him, who else is he going to do it to?”
BB was lucky enough to have the resources to expose Foulds’ unethical involvement.
“It probably cost me another $50,000 in legal fees to finally show what he was doing,” he said.
(LIE-beral justice is apparently FOR SALE HERE! If you have enough gravy then you CAN clear your name of a smear!)
Foulds, who declined comment, certainly didn’t learn his lesson from his last finding of judicial misconduct.
Just the year before BB’s ordeal began, Foulds was suspended for seven days without pay for “egregious interference” when he leaned on two Toronto Public Health inspectors who had shut down his friend’s restaurant.
Yet here he is again — but this time, a man’s very liberty and reputation were at stake. As BB told the panel, “I felt like I was up against a wall…There was a senior judicial official effectively running interference on my file.”
He almost lost his career. Now Foulds should lose his.
A decision on penalty – which could include a recommendation he be fired – is scheduled to be made next month.
mmandel at postmedia
(All this is to illustrate how thoroughly comfortable LIE-beral hug a thug judges have become in imposing THEIR values on any person who comes to their court! LIE-berals are now so entitled that they believe their personal desires must also be public desires!)
(The school and legal systems have been so thoroughly infiltrated by radical leftists- we ought to be aware of how hard it is becoming to proceed in ANY career governed by either LIE-berals or union Hogs- if one holds values different from LIE-beral orthodoxy! LIE-berals and their civil service union Hog allies have been running a closed shop for so long they think any dissenting voice is an insulting aberration that came from some place outside normal/decent society!)
(LIE-beral entitlements have grown so huge that they now expect to use govt power and economic preferment as a club to beat us into line- even when the issue is a very personal matter- as the judge has shown!)
(LIE-berals are not engaged in polite philosophical debate- rather- they are engaged in a creeping political coup that will change our country forever- and not in any good way!)
(There is ample evidence of the Trudope family love affair with dictators and their poisoned world view has trickled down to the rank and file of the LIE-beral party govt employees and the civil service unions!)
(LIE-beral arrogance is why they can send child killer Terri McClintok off to a native “healing lodge” in defiance of public mood! And it is why they could let former Oshawa area MP Ivan Grose chair a LIE-beral committee that decided that longer jail sentences would NOT deter crime- only to have it become public knowledge that Grose was himself a former armed bank robber!)
(For reasons that neither Grose nor other LIE-berals understood- the Grose explanation that he should be forgiven because he was having a lot of personal problems at the time of the robbery and that the gun was not loaded and he did not want to hurt anybody- though the terrified bank tellers did not know this as the screaming man waved that gun in their bank- was NOT accepted by the public!)
(And the public also scoffed at the excuses offered by the Grose committee for not increasing jail time for career criminals! And in spite of all this crap- LIE-berals find it bewildering that the public so often refers to LIE-beral “hug a thug” judges!)
Great cartoon Colpy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, yes.lol The bathtub sailor strikes again!!!!
Are you sure you don't just want better bun control Mr wiener?
Flex! flex! flex! three more FLEX, two more FLEX, one more FLEX!
Your lobotomy went badly.
Riffraff: We ask for nothing.
Dr. Frank N Furter: And you shall receive it. . . in abundance!
-- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
because expecting a white natty to know what genocide is would be asking far too much.
https://psmag.com/news/how-american-children-are-killed-by-guns
Mar 23, 2018 - Every day, 19 children are shot in America, according to a recent study. ... under the age of 18 are thought to be killed in firearm homicides each year. ... too many of the children most burdened by gun deaths in the country.
Seems to be reasonaby correct as the CDC reported 7000 in 2017. Which is preferable abortion at 3 months or a child one wanted and loved slaughtered by gun?
Mar 23, 2018 - Every day, 19 children are shot in America, according to a recent study. ... under the age of 18 are thought to be killed in firearm homicides each year. ... too many of the children most burdened by gun deaths in the country.
Seems to be reasonaby correct as the CDC reported 7000 in 2017. Which is preferable abortion at 3 months or a child one wanted and loved slaughtered by gun?
The NRA sezvit's because the children aren't armed! If every child had a gun, their death rates would plummet!