After breaking into residents’ homes to seize them: “The guns will be returned to owners after residents are allowed back in town and they provide proof of ownership…”
You don’t say;
Will be tougher down the road to get people to evacuate in a disaster now that we know RCMP will root through our personal stuff #abflood
— Cory Morgan (@CoryBMorgan) June 28, 2013
Update: PMO to RCMP: Give back the High River guns
h/t Rick
(11:23am – bumped)
That’s really a good point. To the police, the situation is a disaster that needs to be controlled. They say they’re only taking guns left unsecured. If there’s looting going on it does make sense to collect those and prevent them from getting into the hands of criminals. Anyone who’s left guns out in the aftermath doesn’t have that much to complain about as they could have been taken by looters just as easily and they can recover them from the cops if they do had proof of ownership. On that note, I’ve changed my mind about it. I don’t know why you’d bust into locked homes really but having done so picking up loose guns is not a problem to me.
Given that the choice is between a Nanny State and a Police State is there really a choice?
There is no evidence that police busted into locked homes or gun storage areas in homes. If guns were unsecured in an open building then it’s reasonable that the guns be secured. People who don’t have valid firearms licenses may have difficulty getting their guns returned until they have a license.
Given that the choice is between a Nanny State and a Police State is there really a choice?
Posted by: Grandad
In Canada, some of us see more than those two extreme choices.
“They say they’re only taking guns left unsecured.”
Thanks to the vagueness of the regulations(which is a feature, not a bug), that could mean absolutely anything.
“People who don’t have valid firearms licenses may have difficulty getting their guns returned until they have a license.”
Yes. You must have permission to posses your property before you get it back.
I am phoning my MP today and will be asking them to advise how many firearms have been seized from the Cumberland House Indian Reserve as they have been evacuated as well. I suggest you do the same.
Why would you have looters when the town is sealed off and all entry blocked by RCMP ? How would looters get out with their booty ? No, …this is simply the kind of power tripping that strong egos need for a fix. Think of the joy in kicking in locked doors and snooping around, carting off whatever suits the criminal element mindset, guns in this case, knowing a warrant is not needed. A wet dream that can be thoroughly enjoyed for the duration of the emergency. Feel the power rush and it sure feels great.
See what happens when agenda21 supporting UN lawyers are allowed to infiltrate!
I think the person you are looking for is named Allison Redford. She ordered the terrorists to take the guns.
From what I’d heard, people moved their firearms from lower levels of the house and placed them upstairs where the police, while inspecting houses for stragglers, took them.
That being said, I’d worry about rushing waters and looters rather than law-abiding citizens who neglected to take their firearms with them or place them in the attic.
Just my thoughts.
See what happens when agenda21 supporting UN lawyers are allowed to infiltrate!Posted by: Reverend Ken
You’re now sure that it wasn’t the Illuminati?
I’m well aware of Mr. Breitkruiz and his efforts to get rid of the registry. I actually met him way back when at a Reform party function in Ottawa when he was discussing his efforts to us. Mr. Breitkruiz put forward a private member’s bill to repeal the long-gun registry during the CPC’s second time in power that was defeated. After the 2011 election, I believe Mr. Toews introduced a bill to repeal the long-gun that was successfully passed.
I was just pointing out that Mr. Toews is one of the good guys.
These folks should report all their firearms as STOLEN.
Put in a household insurance claim for them.
Tell them who the you believe the thieves were and see what happens.
Those guns HAVE BEEN STOLEN BY GOVERNMENT LOOTERS.
Arrest MUST be made. B & E and theft just for starters. Dereliction of duty,,,,,
This is the problem with having a National militarized police force.
How many of these “Members” were even born & raised in Alberta, much less from the community?
Was anyone in the High River community a part of Canada’s exclusive national police membership? If so were any member homes broken into with property seized?
Well they have to give the guns back now?
I think those canary legged buffoons should have to give up THEIR OWN guns as well. Morons.
I just want those RCMP a-holes to know this doesn’t change anything. I won’t lift my leg on you guys even if you’re on fire – the last guys that pulled crap like that wore swastikas on their arm bands and just because you wear rainbows doesn’t change what you did.
We need an Alberta Sherriff’s Dept, we need to tell those red-coated morons out east to shove their gun control and socialism…and we seriously need licensed concealed carry laws…seeing as the current law enforcement poseurs have no interest in their jobs…
I’m betting dollars to doughnuts that before the long gun registry got scrapped, each RCMP detachment ran a check on all gun owners within their area and kept the list for later use. Given the “selective” nature of the homes that were searched, I’m guessing that the list got used.
Good to see people here are finally wising up from their previous nauseatingly adulatory attitude towards the police forces in Canada.
So-called “law-and-order conservatives” always had this pusillanimous stance of “deference to authority” and “the police can do no wrong”. Hopefully they can now see that this only emboldens power-tripping scum like the RCMP and city police departments to steamroll over people’s property rights.
Richard >
Good senario, BUT this is High River Alberta after all, the question is what Socialist Liberal infiltrating homes did not have a gun?
Daniel hates Red Tories >
Your statement seems to have a disconnect between respect for “Law & Order” verses “Police Abuse of Power”
They are not the same thing.
In fact they are polar opposites.
Unregistered firearms, unsafe storage, there are lots of people in trouble if they push it. I wouldn’t want to be a cop in that area for some time to come.Obama state.
Classic police over reach. They say it was to protect citizens from looters. What looters? They had the town locked down. They did this to protect their own safety. That is fair I guess. But why are they so worried about the law abiding citizens of an Alberta town and not the proven gun nests that are our native reserves?
I have a big problem with arbitrary police power. I dont like it when I am sitting in a coffee shop and police walk in wearing flack vests and armed to the teeth. I find it intimidating. I get annoyed when I am subjected to constant road blocks and speed traps, while real criminals go free. In Ottawa recently, they even set up a sting operation with a cop dressed up as a construction worker going after people using cel phones in their cars. Please go back to catching real crooks instead of acting as highly armed (and paid) meter maids.
We need to bring policing in Canada back to what it was- an agency to protect the peace. If we are not careful policing in Canada will (and has in many jurisdictions) degenerate into the hapless law enforcement seen in Britain where people are put in prison for hitting burglars or a women was detained for making racist remarks about the chaps who carved up that army drummer .
What we witnessed in the aftermath of the Boston bombings where thousands of police trampled over the rights of citizens in as it turned out an ineffectual attempt to catch one person, should give all pause for thought.
Sorry for going off topic dear people of High River, but what has happened to you is part of a much larger problem where the police have been more concerned about enforcing a particular world view rather than doing their job. Which in your case was helping you to get through a natural disaster.
Sue them for theft and demand they return they guns to you at your house with an apology.
Take a page out of Hale’s book and head down to the cop shop and charge the police with theft over 5000 dollars.
Okay, now I’m beginning to understand Louis Riel a little better.
to steamroll over people’s property rights.Posted by: Daniel hates Red Tories
What “property rights” are those? Where in Canadian law does it give subjects of the crown any property rights?
The Firearms Act gives the police the power to enter and search any premises where they believe unsecured firearms may be located, and to seize any of them.
north_of_60
The RCMP admitted that they di forced entries and ‘seized’ firearms. There is no law against having a firearm ‘in plain site’ in your home. Only that it is disabled by a locking device or removal of the bolt or receiver. The plain site rule applies to when a firearm is in a vehicle. Please know what you are talking about before you spout off. Thanx
In order to protect them from looters?
I suppose they also stockpiled all the LCD tvs, laptops and smart phones too.
Just looking out for the public’s best interests I guess.
Question…..why was High River the only jurisdiction where the police broke into houses prior to allowing residents to return? That process was not followed anywhere else. So if it is such a big deal in High River, why wasn’t it done in areas like Bowness which were hit as hard? There is something very fishy about this. Very fishy indeed.
Toews is a useless turkey who knows and cares nothing about firearms issues. This is amply demonstrated by his refusal to rein in the CFOs, his zeal in enforcing all the old Liberal gun laws, his declining to intervene in outrageous RCMP reclassification decisions, and by everything he’s ever said or written on the subject. His role in the LGR repeal was government sock puppet. I hear he’s retiring. Good! Anything would be an improvement.
You’re right on that. My hose is one big safe. If the doors are locked(and even if they are not) anything in it is secure.
I wonder how many folks that had their guns seized in Slave Lake got them back? How many were told that in return for signing a confidentiality agreement and forfeiting them the whole thing would just go away without charges for improper storage? I get the feeling this isn’t the first time the RCMP have done this. They seemed well prepared and knew exactly where to go etc. They just didn’t expect to be caught in the act.
I’m seriously starting to believe that this is Alison Redfraud’s way of putting down political dissidents!
No different than Obamba criminally attacking Tea Party Members with the IRS.
Of all the evacuated Alberta flood communities – ONLY Danielle Smiths riding has taken the full force of jack-boot Police Harassment and Seizures.
What’s happening, is absolutely wrong,but calling the RCMP Nazis is just as wrong. The problem is that the members are being sought from a public pool of people who are immoral, or untaught in religious moral, (certainly Christian moral)and who have no sense of what is right, what is decent and what is the truth. Everything is now “relative” and anyone expressing dissent from the majority view of the majority elite, i.e. the golden rule, the Decalogue, the Beatitudes, or even the Upanishads, is not acceptable for the force.
The RCMP admitted that they di forced entries and ‘seized’ firearms. There is no law against having a firearm ‘in plain site’ in your home. Only that it is disabled by a locking device or removal of the bolt or receiver. The plain site rule applies to when a firearm is in a vehicle. Please know what you are talking about before you spout off. ThanxPosted by: WTF replied to comment from north_of_60
and I did not state anything that you allude to.
please provide the link to the RCMP admissions you cited
cut the crap, stop misquoting and trying to read your agenda into someones comments. I know more about the firearms act than you want to know. keep your personal comments about other members to yourself. just focus on expressing your opinions as clearly as you can.
My assessment exactly. Albertan’s Knowingly voted in a UN leftist shill. The Progressives are just that. They can drop the Conservative tag now. People who voted this UN anti-rights person are paying the price.From scandal to scandal. Redford is Just a female Obama. Taking advantage of a crisis to attack a political opponent.
As for the Police. What do you expect when Unions now run them.They take orders from Union bosses along with Political leaders today. Unions that are communist (Collectivist) to the bone.Who have for years become militias for hire by a Bureaucracy at war with its Citizens.
Along with the culture, Academic schools, with certain politicians who would see us all under a totalitarian ant hill.
From bananas to arsenic, lots more than guns will have been stolen.
That people can’t even canvass their own homes is the biggest outrage.The poison is the break-ins for all the reasons stated here I wonder what the Mayor of this town was offered by Redford to turn on his Community. What political gift will he receive?
I wonder if the left will be happy when the collectivists or Islamists boot their doors in. For public order in the coming Utopia of the usual thugocracy they create.?
Does anyone know if the High River mayor is a PC and fan of Alison the Fraud? Something about his actions and handing over power to the province seem suspicious. Spidey senses and all you know.
Happy; “Unregistered firearms, unsafe storage, there are lots of people in trouble if they push it. ” Not likely the RCMP will push it. According to SUN Media, after consulting Lawyers Ed Burlow and another whose name I missed, the Police entered the premises illegally. They can’t prosecute for that reason alone. I’m playing Lower Deck Lawyer here but if the guns were disabled or had locks attached there is no unsafe storage case. Restricted guns would be different.
As well SUN says the PMO is now involved.
They didn’t need old copies of long gun registry data for this. The long gun registry was the only data destroyed. The police still have access to a registry of restricted firearms (handguns and some long guns that look scary to the bureaucrats) and a registry of firearms license holders. They just look up the latter and assume they have firearms at their home address that need to be “taken into safekeeping” and at the restricted registry to see which homes to break into first because they have especially scary looking guns that really urgently need to be thrown in a wet pile of confiscated private property in a storeroom to rust while the owners try to dry out soggy old credit card account invoices to see if they can identify a transaction reference number to ask a gun shop if they have a copy of the sales invoice that was destroyed/lost in the flood. Then the police can decline to accept claims of ownership and send the guns to be destroyed to prevent them falling into the wrong hands (- those of the rightful owners.)
the Police entered the premises illegally
not if they entered under provisions of the firearms act
if the guns were disabled or had locks attached there is no unsafe storage case.
exactly
I’m no gun guy, but this incident is really disturbing. My wife is taking a gun licencing course, hopefully for helpful purposes that don’t involve me. The long-gun registry was pure, unadulterated nonsense, from any number of perspectives, and it needed to meet its predestined demise, which it justly has.
I’m disturbed for a few reasons, to wit:
– the RCMP (as do all police forces in this country at the moment — which has rightly been stated above) operates under institutional effectiveness and credibility problems, including alleged abuse problems, or so it’s claimed, along with the unresolved, so far as I know, matter of how four responding officers could be killed in the line of duty. In one morning. In one incident. In one province. Quite apart from any of that, I do not understand Caledonia, or Sarnia, or G20 Toronto, etc., at all, and I do not understand how the RCMP in High River could possibly pull a stunt, after the Mark Fuhrman incident (which basically put the OJ indictment out of reach for the prosecution), involving unwarranted (literally) and unreasonable search and seizure, which seriously offends section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, especially considering that those persons whose property was seized were given no warning, so far as I have seen reported, of the impending police action in time to correct any concern about the storage of their firearms.
– the RCMP acts as a provincial police force in 8 provinces, which puts, in a significant way, its day-to-day mandate, acting in that capacity, under the direct control of those 8 provinces’ attorneys-general. It is not reasonable to conclude, on that basis, that the RCMP was acting, in this case, other than on the specific terms of reference/engagement approved by the Attorney-General of the Province of Alberta. This incident demands immediate resignations from the highest levels on down.
– in complete contrast to any of that, the PMO has felt the need to intervene in the matter, which is both a stunning infringement of provincial jurisdiction (maybe unparalleled since the time of John Diefenbaker’s reservation of royal assent for a Saskatchewan legislature bill) and, at the same time, an assumption of responsibility for a problem that is, technically, none of its concern.
Aside from the immediately blindingly obvious (Redford needs to wear this), there is also a blindingly obvious need for a complete review of the role of the RCMP in this country, as well as a complete review of firearms policy. What’s the RCMP going to next? Burn barns in the west? The situation, frankly, reminds me of the early seventies, with respect to Quebec. And why not have a full and frank discussion of firearms policy? Are we to continue playing footsie under the table until somebody gets a toe shot off (bad metaphor I know, but it seemed apt at the time of writing)? And how do we make changes without the metastasizing of government agencies?
Mr. Harper, who is the only hope we have, needs to get in front of these issues — now, not later. Despite the long-gun registry (which Mr. Fantino supported in his role as Chief of Police in London ON), I never believed that the police in this country viewed law-abiding citizens as adversaries on firearms policy. Until today, I honestly thought many of the complaints were over-the-top. No more.
Wow. Just wow. Gotta buy more guns. “IF” I had a registered restricted weapon I wanted to go into a “shit hit the fan” stash I would bury it as soon as I got home and then call my local detachment and ask for it back. Let them sort it out and that’s one they can’t take 10 years from now.
…the water hasn’t subsided because like New Orleans, large parts are in a bowl and need to be pumped out.
Pretty smart to build in a slough…er…bowl, and expect the rest of us to pay the costs of flood damage. Probably best such smart people have their guns taken away.
“High River will be rebuilt according to Agenda 21 standards and will be a chocolate city.”
-Red Allie
David Southamimm >
Good post David.
Your comment “I’m no gun guy, but this incident is really disturbing” sets the tone of sanity.
More “non-gun” people need to “roll down their windows and check out their geography” to understand the importance of an armed citizenry in any society whether they care to personally own one or not.
History the world over is an invaluable case study of society’s clockworks, and it has never proved well for unarmed civilian populations.
The day we see all humans of all stripes stop searching for money and power over others, will be the day a society can lay down its guns – we are a long way from there, most probably not ever.
Seems Australia has it figured out. Just ask Gillard.
Yet it was the government itself that allowed and even ENCOURAGED construction in such areas. In other words, the government itself more or less warranted safety. Still supporting the government, stradivarious?
Very much doubt I would have bought or built in a slough, even if the gov’t did warrant the safety of doing so.
There’s always an excuse to raid the public treasury.
And after going through the closets and grabbing the guns did they have enough time on their hands to fire up your computer and check your online history and maybe after that check you underwear drawer for your porn collection. I cannot believe that this force that we Canadians were so proud of has become this.
How long would it take to attach a sticky label to each firearm with the address of the location from whence it was removed? Not that I think there is any justification for these seizures anyway. As for knowing which houses to loot, while the registry is dead, firearms owners still require a PAL so their address is readily available to these RCMP thugs.
In 2005 Conservative policy was to repeal and reform the Cdn. Firearms Act and Regulations. In 2006 Stephen Harper made a decision to change that to repealing only 2 percent, that of the long gun registry, and retain the rest.
Most people, including most Conservatives didn’t catch on.
Thus if you dislike the abuse of citizens and the progrom… err program of continued civilian disarmament via unreasonable gun laws blame Stephen Harper.
We’ll see what spin doctoring or honest discussion will happen at the upcoming federal Conservative Convention in Calgary… or maybe they should hold it in High River.
As for the Wildrose Party, it seems their leader is closer to a domesticated pansy.
The Auditor General’s review of both C-17(1991) and C-68(1995) found there was no evidence to support these laws increasing public safety nor reducing crime.
The police/government argument for public safety is blatantly false.