Betrayal of Oscar
War Veteran's Brave Gesture Trashed by Spineless Province
(November 14, 2003 - Alberta Report) Seated with
his usual composure in a crowded Edmonton courtroom last Friday was the criminally
accused, Oscar Lacombe.
It's not often a retired sergeant-at-arms of the Alberta Legislature
goes on trial, so I went down to watch.
The sad irony is that for 13 years, Lacombe was chief of Legislature
security and protected Alberta's politicians.
But when their turn came to protect him, Alberta's politicians refused
to do it, despite public assurances they would.
It makes you question how reliable a commitment from the Klein
government really is.
Lacombe is a genuine success story -- war veteran of Korea and the Suez
crisis, widely recognized for his legislature security work, a Metis,
great grandnephew of the missionary Albert Lacombe. He has
credibility to spare.
Last Jan. 1, the date when Ottawa's idiotic $1-billion 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, minus firing bolt or bullets.
It could not have shot anyone. To ally unnecessary fears, Lacombe
had met two days before with Edmonton's deputy police chief and explained
exactly what he would do, when, where, why and how. (Police
testified last Friday that they had "no concerns" about the
event posing a danger to anyone.)
Lacombe made a short speech denouncing the rifle registry and inviting
Ottawa to charge him. Police later confiscated his useless firearm,
and (after months of consultation with various prosecutors) 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 provisions (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. Instead, they charge under the
Criminal Code.
But this requires co-operation of provincial governments because the
Constitution gives provides control of prosecuting criminal law. And
this was something the Alberta government (among others) has said all
along it will not do.
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 oppose gun
registration and will leave prosecution to the feds.
Well, they are prosecuting it, even though they don't have to,
even though they said the wouldn't, and even though their duplicity
shelters Ottawa's Firearms Act form a Charter challenge.
In the process, they will trash the brave gesture of a 75-year old war
veteran. For his protest to succeed, he needed the Alberta
government to stick to its word.
Instead, our spineless provincial government has brought in a charge
under the Criminal Code, and borrowed a federal prosecutor (Michelle
Doyle) to obscure the fact that they are in fact co-operating with Ottawa.
It is beneath contempt. It's an outrage.
The trail was adjourned until Dec. 15. It would be helpful
meanwhile, if Albertans told Ralph Klein to drop the charges against Oscar
Lacombe and force the feds to expose their precious registry to Charter justice.
Ralph's Calgary office number is 297-6464. His email address is premier@gov.ab.ca
~Link Byfield
Byfield is chairman of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy |
