The Supreme Court ruled Thursday;
… that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.
The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.
The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by “the historical narrative” both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.
In embarrassing contrast, the Canadian Supremes opened for the human rights racket a whole new field of riches– the content of correspondence between a Member of Parliament and the constituent can now be assumed to fall under their jurisdiction.
Nine people complained that Pankiw made discriminatory comments about aboriginals in the pamphlet and the Canadian Human Rights Commission referred the matter to the tribunal.
The tribunal ruled it had the right to hear the case and the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal both dismissed Pankiw’s appeals.
The Speaker of the House of Commons sided with Pankiw’s argument that disagreements over political matters should be settled through the ballot box, not a rights tribunal.
And I can pretty much guarantee that three hundred plus of our elected members will decline comment on the grounds that their mouths are full of cud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvTHAP-nzXg
This might be a tad amusing for some, stirring for others.
And enraging to the weak…yes, I’m looking at the spineless Socialists when I say that.
This guy made the video about 5 minutes after he heard the decision.
They say the so-called “gun-problem” comes from the US. Maybe some of the common-sense that was handed down today in the US can find it’s way across the border too.
Meanwhile here in Canada? FIRE. THEM. ALL. NOW.
Jon;”Bullets would be taxed at the point of purchasing.” Only for duck hunters. An acquaintance is a heavy smoker. Buys most of her cigarettes on the black market. Sold by criminals and made in china. Many and likely most of the criminal use guns also come from china (Norinco) or can be made anywhere there is disregard for law; ie. Mexico.
A recent raid on a local drug lab found machinery capable of making 10,000 pills an hour. Another found credit card manufacturing equipment.
I get such a chuckle out of those who seriously propose legalizing MJ; “because it will put the criminal out of business”.
Sorry Jon, the genie is out of the bottle.
“Tax the price of bullets heavily.”
Chris Rock on Bullet control:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juLQBeZXmPU
You can all argue the fine points all you want while you still have time. The fact is folks your already living in a Dictatorship with a government calling itself Conservative. That the boots are not cracking your neck is only a matter of time. I mean how many peoples republics have to use a catch phrase for there putridity?
The real truth is Canada is NOT a free Country anymore. The Governments on both Federal & Provincial levels feel fine about this. Probably even relieved they will not get e-mails because of this ruling from the Supreme Court. Cuts down on having to reply with any sane answer why they now are not citizens, but chattel. They no doubt want less input or dissemination of information being produced or shared. Watch the CRTC up the Canadian content to 60-80% in the next few months. To further isolate us. We may hear American hate talk, most likely, will be the excuse. Think that’s nuts, ask the guy at the cigarette counter who was looking for smokes while there all hidden behind blacked out covers. Calling this the Soviet Unions Of Canukastan (got a good laugh) . Think about this for a second. Any government who thinks its populace is so weak willed or stupid it may start smoking just by looking at packaging . Must think we are all simpletons at best. Feeble children who need there bottoms cleaned at worst. Really that’s what this means. You’re a State owned child.
The only elections left are Mugabe ones. Controlled absolutely. It will just be about booty distributed by the 4 parties of convenience, if not near ideological identity. I await the inevitable violence than repression. Think I am alarmist. Just watch.
This is in no way shape or form a Democracy, its theater of the dark.
Gosh some of that debate between lawyers, hard to follow, I feel like I’m back in a stats course..3.2 or whatever…but the joy of having people understand and interpret the law is so that they can explain it so that lay persons can get the drift…
Someone had a great idea…publish on websites all the decisions of the kangaroos…OR have a greater impact by making some quick little senerios of each persons speech crime…and the wacko wallabies handing out the sentences…This has all sorts of potential to get the seriousness of the situation we are facing with the hrc out to people in canada and abroad.. Now who can I talk into doing this…ummm.
For canada day I’m letting a few tears fall for the country I once knew…
All I can say is, “Bienvenue vers la République populaire démocratique de Le Canada!” (The official name PET wanted us to adopt and it looks like we’re almost there.)
QE,
I see you have discovered ET, the clapped out academic who is under the delusion that she knows something about the law. (To be fair, it is a delusion shared by the other members of the remedial readings class that populates this and other right wing blogs). As you have discovered, she’s persistent, but thoroughly confused on the subject. I’ve seen her butcher Charter jurisprudence, human rights statute. I can hardly wait until she turns her mind to the Sale of Goods Act.
The funniest bit of her latest musings was her warning to you not to “appeal to authority” when discussing the law.
I’ll try to remember that when I’m next in court and a judge asks if I can refer him to judicial or textual authorities for the proposition I’m advancing. I’ll slowly shake my head and ask, “If Your Lordship have internet access from the bench, I’d like to take you to a website wherein you will find the analysis of a retired anthropology professor who has figured this whole Charter thing out. I need no further authority. The Supreme Court be damned – I’m relying on Taborsky.”
Then with a flip of my robes, I’ll turn on my heel, head out the door…. and head across the street to fill out a job applicagtion at Starbucks.
Cosmos,
The decisions of human rights tribunals ARE published on websites. Indeed, they put up more decisions than the ordinary courts, which only post significant final decisions.
Read away. And if you do so with an open mind you may come to understand that Ezra Levant’s summaries are far from accurate.
“(To be fair, it is a delusion shared by the other members of the remedial readings class that populates this and other right wing blogs)”
Ah yes, the pompous arse shows up to wag a finger.
As a lawyer you’re qualified to sling coffee, not much else though.
truewest! It’s you! (aka NS) The smug sophist from the west! May the saints be praised. You are here. Here. Here at last. Hallelujah indeed.
With your sneering misogyny, your self-assertion of your own elite wisdom, your condescending remarks about each and everyone who happens to be walking – and speaking – in the dust of your feet. Ahh, the delights that result in reading some of your claims of your own superiority –
Oh, but wait – you aren’t a lawyer, are you? You certainly self-describe yourself to us as one. You do that repeatedly. But, my beloved truewest; we all know better. You aren’t a lawyer. Just a supercilious ex-journalist.
Someone who flippantly derides others, blatantly and openly ignores the ethics of the blog (ever heard of the rule that you don’t reveal names?). Should I reveal yours?
And of course, endlessly asserts his own superiority…and yet has been ‘bested’ repeatedly in various blogs by people who know far more than him (eg, on The Shotgun).
Don’t fret, truewest. We all just so thrilled to have you here, with your ad hominem remarks, your lack of arguments, your lack of ethics, your contempt, and your constant self-praise.
Welcome, welcome and may we all give thanks to your having condescended to visit us here.
you’ve all demanded that “Moderate Muslims” should be partially responsible in principle for the actions of Islamists
I’ve done no such thing.
“The fact is folks your already living in a Dictatorship with a government calling itself Conservative. That the boots are not cracking your neck is only a matter of time.”
You’re right about Canadians disturbing loss of freedoms. It’s not a good direction to be travelling.
You should, however, recognize that the U.S. is even farther down the road of oppression. Don’t forget that in the U.S. you — anyone — can be picked up off the street, labeled an enemy combatant, shipped to a secret prison and tortured indefinately. You have no right to habeus corpus, no right to hear the charges against you and no right to brought before a court of law.
Your elections have been stolen and corrupt and you’ve become increasingly hated throughout the world.
I do understand your post, however, if you are warning us not to allow Canada to follow the U.S. lead on eliminating human rights. If that’s the case then, thank you.
Gerry Hawke:
Gee Gerry, I don’t see many comedians being charged with hate crimes in the USA. In fact I have no proof anyone is being dragged off the streets in the States except illegal immigrants & terrorists just like the ones who wanted to chop Harpers head off here. Besides your supreme court made it possible for these detainees, even war criminals, to have there day in court with real rules not made up HRC gobblygoop. Against there own citizens for thinking the wrong way. Do you have an validity for your pontifications on the evil empire? In fact if you use sign language there, its permissible even in a means stall for wonton reasons. I don’t see many folks being picked up down there in black limo’s except the ones who bring it on themselves by being there illegally.
By the way I am an Albertan. The faster where shuck of you centralist fools the better. You don’t know a free man from slave anymore being one.
You are right about one thing the same vermin who infest every nation , mainly anti-democratic nuts are taking over down there as well. trying to anyway. But there way behind us. Hell they haven’t had forced gay marriage on them yet. Nor media censors or an Inquisition like the HRC’s. At least they have an elected Senate with real constitution you can‘t read the Sunday paper into, not yet anyway. God Bless America!!!
I don’t think you are a moron. But hey, what’s MY opinion against thousands of others?
Happy Trials
gerry hawke – rubbish. You are fear-mongering.
The US is not ‘further down the road of oppression’. Quite the opposite. Remember, the US has checks and balances that we in Canada don’t have. And their supreme court is hardly an activist court as it is in Canada. Nor does it have our HRCs.
Furthermore, you, a law-abiding citizen, can’t be picked up off the street, denied habeas corpus and tortured. I suggest you read the Patriot Act rather than listening to people like Moore.
No, I think you’d have to prove that the US elections are ‘stolen and corrupt’. That may be your opinion; it’s not also fact.
Some people, like you, obviously hate the US. Other people admire it. Again, both are opinions. So?
Remember, Al Qaeda is disintegrating, Islamic fascism is being confronted by Muslims themselves in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. None of this is easy; facing fascism and utopianism is never easy. But, it’s due to the US that it’s being done. Not the UN – which can’t even deal with genuine corruption in Zimbabwe.
“Furthermore, you, a law-abiding citizen, can’t be picked up off the street, denied habeas corpus and tortured.”
Maher Arar (a Canadian citizen, by the way) was arrested in the U.S. without charge, council or the right to contact anyone. He was sent by the U.S. to Syria where he was repeatedly tortured and held for almost 2 years.
Arar has since been found to be, in your words “a law-abiding citizen.”
Detainees in Guantanamo Bay have been held for up to 6 years without being charged. Do we trust those labeling them as enemy combatants? Why aren’t they charged and convicted if they are so obviously guilty?
“Do you have an validity for your pontifications on the evil empire?”
“Some people, like you, obviously hate the US.”
I don’t hate the American people. I hate what Cheney, Rove, and the puppet Bush have done to make the world a much more dangerous place.
The War on Terror is a fallacy. The more terrorists and innocent people we kill the more terrorists we create. It’s a never ending cycle that can’t be won. There is no such thing as victory in this mess. Hate multiplies exponentially while Cheney and his oil buddies get obcenely rich.
The U.S. and Canada need the so-called war on terror as a justification to erode our basic civil rights.
If you don’t recognize how much the U.S. (and Canada recently) is intensely hated throughout the world, you’re not looking beyond our borders.
I don’t take pleasure in that. The tidal wave of hate towards the U.S. is exactly what makes us less safe.
Gerry Hawke;
Actually I am pro-American, as a tiny effort to understand my posts would have confirmed. Most of those held at Gitmo where shooting at Americans while pretending to be civilians. By rights in any Nation they would have been shot on the spot As spy’s without uniforms. They are not covered by the Geneva convention.
Frankly I don’t give a rats patootee what the World thinks. Europe is slowly becoming barbaric under Islamification. It couldn’t even fight a small war there over genocide the same curse as 40 years ago. It was paralyzed by inaction. China is a cesspool of Totalitarianism mixed with repression. Africa is a basket case much like Europe 500 years ago. India is a light of a sort these day’s, I hope it continues. Russia is rebuilding an authoritarian Empire. The EU continues to create the worlds first doctorial bureaucracy based on socialism, which can only exist by theft of real assets. Which is why the Russians are not making that mistake again. Pure State absolutism will be there rallying cry.
The UN & its enablers of anti-Semitism can go flub themselves .With there neo-Marxist buddies & Islamisrt supremacist. So frankly I don’t much give a crap for what the world thinks because they are even worse than we could ever be on a bad day . Except the US & a few others. Canada sadly has joined the fascist camp. That will not last though, nor long anyway. Not if Albertans & other Westerners have a say, trust me we will!
Belive what you will time is the gate of truth.
Gerry Hawke;
Actually I am pro-American, as a tiny effort to understand my posts would have confirmed. Most of those held at Gitmo where shooting at Americans while pretending to be civilians. By rights in any Nation they would have been shot on the spot As spy’s without uniforms. They are not covered by the Geneva convention.
Frankly I don’t give a rats patootee what the World thinks. Europe is slowly becoming barbaric under Islamification. It couldn’t even fight a small war there over genocide the same curse as 40 years ago. It was paralyzed by inaction. China is a cesspool of Totalitarianism mixed with repression. Africa is a basket case much like Europe 500 years ago. India is a light of a sort these day’s, I hope it continues. Russia is rebuilding an authoritarian Empire. The EU continues to create the worlds first doctorial bureaucracy based on socialism, which can only exist by theft of real assets. Which is why the Russians are not making that mistake again. Pure State absolutism will be there rallying cry.
The UN & its enablers of anti-Semitism can go flub themselves .With there neo-Marxist buddies & Islamisrt supremacist. So frankly I don’t much give a crap for what the world thinks because they are even worse than we could ever be on a bad day . Except the US & a few others. Canada sadly has joined the fascist camp. That will not last though, nor long anyway. Not if Albertans & other Westerners have a say, trust me we will!
Believe what you will time is the gate of truth.
One of the main reasons Americans still have a First Amendment is because…we also have a Second Amendment.
” I hate what Cheney, Rove, and the puppet Bush have done to make the world a much more dangerous place.”
Gerry espouses his mantra. HIs belief. Is it awful for you Gerry, to live in a country in constant danger from attacks of disapproval from Middle Eastern dictatorships, European and South American collectivists.
Do you have a mantra that helps you get through the “stolen” election in 2000. Let me guess.
Hmmmm. What mantra do you regurgitate to explain your countrymen not agreeing with you at the ballot box in 04? That one must still hurt.
Gerry, you are so boring.
“What mantra do you regurgitate to explain your countrymen not agreeing with you at the ballot box in 04? That one must still hurt”
Not my countrymen. I’m not american. I can only look at the mess you’ve made and shake my head.
The Keegstra decision was a disastrous one that needs to be rescinded in future. Brian Dickson’s written reasons are a steaming pile of manure; Beverley McLachlin’s dissent is far superior thinking.
Keegstra should absolutely have lost his teaching job. But that’s about it.
What Brad said.
also
I wonder if Canadians can muster the nads to have a Boston Tea Party moment.
“I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.”
Milton Friedman
Posted by: Jon at June 26, 2008 7:44 PM
Jon, if you plan on swiping bits from Chris Rock, at least give him a plug in your post.
“Then with a flip of my robes, I’ll turn on my heel, head out the door…. and head across the street to fill out a job applicagtion at Starbucks.”
Doubtless you’ll cut a most dashing figure as you head out (twice, yet) to Starbucks, TW. Better check the spelling on your “applicagtion” before you return it, however; notwithstanding your snide condescension and compelling arrogance, they just might not higher yu cuz you kant spell.
mhb23re
at gm@il d0t calm
mhb,
Chris Rock intended it as a joke. I see it as good conservative policy. Discuss.
[quote]We already have the system in place to keep people from using exploding tip, armour piercing and incendiary bullets, and flechettes. Furthermore, I don’t see why these bullets should be illegal, just taxed. [/quote]
JON,
Keep digging…the hole gets deeper!
Governments & their agents that declare war on their citizens are “despots”… come on.. lets see how smart you really are… Your, tax them out of existence, crowd have a day of reckoning coming sooner than you think!
[quote]Maher Arar (a Canadian citizen, by the way) was arrested in the U.S. without charge, council or the right to contact anyone. He was sent by the U.S. to Syria where he was repeatedly tortured and held for almost 2 years.[/quote]
Hawke,
You are ignorant! I am only bothering to answer because your statement may lead some poor Muslim or Canadian to think they have rights in a US Customs/Immigation bordor situation
Maher Arar was attempting to enter the US on a flight from the outside the USA.. When you are in a US customs/immigration control point “No Mans Land” you have absolutly no rights.. until you prove you are an American and/or they allow you to enter the USA. It applies to both me & Arar!
“I see it as good conservative policy. Discuss.”
Fascinating interpretation of conservatism, jon.
1. Introduction of punitive taxes: liberal ideology
2. Introduction of countermeasures that are completely worthless and will typically have unintended consequences, often the opposite of the original intent: liberal strategy
3. Failing to hold individuals accountable for their (criminal) actions by introducing ineffective legislation or countermeasures(see #2 above): usual failed liberal policies. For further illustration, pls see canuck bill c68, the british ban on handguns, and toronto socialist mayor miller’s ban on private shooting clubs hosted on city property. The tragic unintended consequences of welfare reform are also illustrative.
Those are some talking points to start, jon. On what side of the principles do you stand? Discuss.
Conservatively,
mhb