10 • The Langley Times • Wednesday, September 1, 2010

we say

The politics of guns

The political posturing over a private member’s bill on the infamous long gun registry is a

classic example of how the federal government is not working, at least partially because of perpetual minority governments.

A bill which would lead to the abolition of the registry is set to come to a vote later this next month. The Conservatives are rallying behind the bill, sponsored by one of their Manitoba MPs. The Liberals, even though eight of their MPs voted for the bill at an earlier stage, are being “whipped” into voting against it by their leader, Michael Ignatieff.

The NDP is leaving it up to individual MPs to vote as they choose. Several plan to support the bill — perhaps as many as 12, mostly from rural ridings, where the gun registry is seen as a heavy-handed bureaucracy that wastes money and does little to catch criminals.

All Bloc Quebecois MPs plan to vote against the bill — somewhat surprisingly, as many Bloc MPs represent rural ridings where the registry is as unpopular as it is in other rural parts of Canada.

The registry remains very unpopular with those who actually get caught up in its bureaucracy, and can’t see the point in filling out forms and spending money to register guns, which they use as tools in everyday life.

NDP leader Jack Layton, who plans to vote against the bill, is suggesting that there needs to be more compromise. He says the registry has some good points, but it is foolish to make failure to register guns a criminal offence. Layton, unlike many big-city politicians, actually appears to have listened to the genuine concerns that many people have with this unwieldy government program.

It is important to note a couple of crucial facts — facts which are often glossed over by the Liberals, who brought in the registry under then-Justice Minister Allan Rock.

First, no criminal will ever register a gun. Second, all legal handguns in Canada have been registered since the 1930s. Third, handguns are used in almost all crimes committed with guns. Fourth, almost all handguns used in those crimes are smuggled into Canada from the United States.

While police chiefs support the registry, knowing that it is a tool which gives them some additional information, its practical applications are very limited, and do nothing to stem the flow of guns into the hands of criminals.

they say

Don’t jump to conclusion

It has been a month since Wilbert Bartley was shot and killed by police in North Kamloops.The 50-year-old left a convenience

store on Tranquille Road, jumped into an SUV and was approached by two plainclothes Mounties.

Something happened that resulted in Bartley being shot and killed. It is now the subject of an investigation by the Calgary Police Service.

Until that investigation is completed, it is presumptuous and unfair to jump to any conclusion that infers or declares the two Mounties involved did anything wrong.

It is just as unfair to assume Bartley was doing something illegal that day that led to him being shot and killed.

The point is: We don’t know what happened on July 30 in the parking lot of So Espresso and Bistro and Robo Car Wash, aside from the fact something occurred that led to a police shooting and a death.

To label the officers “killer cops” and to claim there was “no reason” for the shooting — as was proclaimed on signs of friends and family members of Bartley during a march to the RCMP’s Battle Street detachment — is premature in the extreme.

The Mounties, in general, have had a rough public-relations ride in the past few years. The Kamloops Mounties, however, have bucked the trend.

Under the command of Staff-Sgt. Jim Begley and guidance of Insp. Yves Lacasse, the local RCMP serves as an example for police forces across Canada.

The local detachment is effective (witness plummeting crime rates), transparent (witness its proactive approach in dealing with two officers recently charged with assault) and accountable to residents.

Lacasse has asked for patience until the investigation is done.

Our criminal justice system is predicated on the belief an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.

Those who rush to condemn the Mounties in this incident would be wise to adopt that belief.

—Kamloops This Week

Mufford overpass a potent issueFarmland preservation has long been a hot topic

The Mufford overpass, which was the subject of a public meeting by the Agricultural

Land Commission on Monday night, has the potential to be the centre-piece of the 2011 Langley Town-ship election campaign.

It is most likely to be a major election issue if the commission approves the overpass and the alienation of some of the best farmland in the western half of Langley. That is not a given. The commission turned down a similar proposal about six years ago, and there is a good chance it will do so again.

Many of the speakers at Monday’s meeting made some very powerful arguments as to why the overpass should not proceed. These included the fact that it does nothing to ease traffic con-gestion where the rail line crosses major roads, such as Langley Bypass; its potential to increase traffic on rural roads; and perhaps most impor-tant from the ALC perspective, its effect on cur-rent farms and on the future of farming in much of the Milner valley.

Several Milner farmers had a private meet-ing with the ALC on Thursday. They expressed concerns on Monday that the overpass will go ahead, no matter what the ALC decides, because the province will ram it through.

I’m not sure that would take place. While I don’t know what was said at that meeting, the Liberals would be going strongly against a signif-icant portion of the public if they made such a brazen move. Given that their hold on power is tenuous, due to the HST fiasco, I’m not sure they want to go that route right now.

It was telling that only three members of Langley Township council attended the meet-

ing on Monday. Mayor Rick Green and Councillor Mel Kositsky have opposed the Mufford overpass, so their attendance at what turned out to be an anti-overpass rally was not surprising. Green even received a spontaneous standing ovation after

he was thanked by farmland preservation activ-ist Donna Passmore.

Councillor Steve Ferguson, who has supported the overpass, was also present and was obvi-ously willing to hear what the public has to say. None of the other five who back the project were there, to the best of my knowledge.

If the ALC does give the overpass its blessing, this issue will not only be front and centre in the next municipal election, but Langley will also become a farmland preservation battle-ground, as happened in Delta in the late 1980s with the Spetifore lands.

Green knows that very well — he sat on Delta council at the time. When council held public hearings on the proposal to rezone the Spetifore lands, it became the longest public hearing in Canadian history — a record that still stands.

Almost all the council was turfed out at the next election — and the Spetifore lands remain undeveloped, more than 20 years later.

The preservation of good agricultural land has been a potent political issue in B.C. since the late 1960s, and when the Agricultural Land Reserve was created by the NDP government of Dave Barrett in 1972, it became a front burner issue.

Barrett was urged to bring in the ALR by Rich-mond MLA Harold Steves (who was at the Lan-gley meeting Monday), and preserving farmland has stayed a potent political issue ever since.

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