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The Oscar
Lacombe Campaign
Click
here to email your letter
to
Premier Klein today!
(updated letter on
February 27, 2004)
(opens new browser window)
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
BACKGROUND
Oscar Lacombe is a
war veteran of Korea and the Suez crisis, a Metis, and has a
distinguished track record. He has guts, too.
Last January 1,
the date when Ottawa's idiotic billion-dollar rifle registry took
legal effect, Lacombe held a press conference at a site overlooking
the legislature. He arrived carrying an ancient unregistered .22
rifle, heavily sealed in plastic, and without firing bolt or bullets.
It could not have
shot anyone.
To allay
unnecessary fears, Lacombe had met two days earlier with Edmonton's
deputy police chief and explained exactly what he would do, when,
where, why and how. (Police testified in court that they had "no
concerns" about the event posing a danger to anyone.) |
Oscar Lacombe
speaking at the January 1, 2003 press conference, denouncing the
rifle registry. |
Lacombe made a
short speech denouncing the rifle registry and inviting Ottawa to
charge him. Police later confiscated his useless firearm, and, months
afterward, charged him under the Criminal Code.
Here we get to the
Alberta government's sneaky little treachery.
The new rifle
registry is established by the federal Firearms Act, and many of its
enforcement provisions blatantly violate fundamental legal rights. A
few of its less questionable parts (in particular the registration
requirement itself) were also added to the Criminal Code.
Lacombe had hoped
to be charged by the federal government under the Firearms Act, so he
could test it against the Charter of Rights.
However, the feds
never charge under the Firearms Act, assuming it to be a dead duck if
Charter-challenged. They enforce under it, but charge under the
Criminal Code. But this requires the cooperation of provincial
governments, because the Constitution gives provinces control of
prosecuting criminal law--something the Alberta government (among
others) has said all along it will not do.
|
Memo to police
and prosecutors |
A memo to this
effect went to police and prosecutors across Alberta on December 9,
1998 from assistant deputy minister of justice Ken Tjosvold, stating,
"Justice Canada [the feds] will be expected to prosecute all new
regulatory offences under the Firearms Act whenever possible. In any
case where a similar charge could be laid under either the Criminal
Code or under the Firearms Act, it is expected that a charge under
the Firearms Act will be laid." |
In other words,
let Ottawa do its own dirty work.
Big talk.
Alberta's Tory politicians have been preening themselves for five
years with rhetoric like this, claiming that they will leave
prosecution to the feds.
Well, they ARE
prosecuting it, even though they don't have to, even though they said
they wouldn't, and even though their duplicity shelters Ottawa's
Firearms Act from a Charter challenge.
In the process,
they will trash the brave gesture of a 75-year-old war veteran who
depended upon them to stick to their word.
Instead, our
spineless provincial government has brought in (or allowed in) a
charge under the Criminal Code, and borrowed a federal prosecutor
(Michelle Doyle) to obscure the fact that they are in fact
cooperating with Ottawa.
It is beneath
contempt. It's an outrage.
Lacombe is now
awaiting his verdict and sentence. Upon conviction he will appeal.
The government of Alberta can stay the charge prior to the verdict,
or abandon the case on appeal. Either way, Lacombe wins and Ottawa loses.
It's utterly
simple. Let Oscar go! |
Oscar Lacombe
as Sergeant-at-Arms of the Alberta Legislature |
If Hancock drops
the charge, he would give Ottawa's rifle registry a big, black,
embarrassing political shiner. The feds would then have to watch
Lacombe publicly thumb his nose at their registry, or give him a
chance to get it struck down under the Charter of Rights--something
they have never yet allowed to happen because they know it violates
fundamental civil rights.
If all you're
willing to do is belly-ache about the rifle registry and nothing
else, you're as bad as the provincial government. All talk.
Oscar Lacombe is
doing his duty. We should all do ours.
RESOURCES
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Report
Newsmagazine story on Oscar Lacombe
Text
format  Word
Document
Authorities
on Legal Prosecution
(Why the feds
couldn't prosecute Oscar without Ralph Klein's permission)
Word
Document
Legal
Fact Sheet on the Case of Oscar Lacombe
Word
Document
Firearms
Act is Unconstitutional
Word
Document
Link
Byfield's commentaries in the Calgary Sun
Nov.
17, 2003
Jan.
12, 2004
Jan.
23, 2004
Alberta
Justice Minister Dave Hancock responds to the Citizens Centre
Calgary
Sun, January 26, 2004
Excerpt
of transcript of Oscar's trial
(States that the
prosecutor is an agent of the Alberta government - see page 2)
Text
Format Word
Document
GIF Format
Page
1 Page
2 Page
3
Letter
from former federal Justice Minister Anne McLellan
(States that the
federal government cannot prosecute
under the criminal
code without consent of the province - see page 2)
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