Yet Another Bitcoin Exchange

Rights and Freedoms Bulletin (ISSN 1923-998X) is a public service of provided by RightsAndFreedoms.org and KM Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 21004, Chilliwack, BC V2P 8A9

I read the most bizarre statement concerning the latest Bitcoin exchange, Vircu-rex, to declare itself insolvent. Rather than filing for bankruptcy, as Mt. Gox has done, Vircurex is locking down its existing accounts and has a strategy aimed at paying back all affected customers and returning the exchange to positive financial health. In order for its plan to work, Vircu-rex is betting that new users will continue to sign up to use its service despite the fact that it has become insolvent, while it is also relying on not being hacked again. Those are two huge risk factors, and it remains to be seen how the plan will play out.

Seriously?Vircurex is “betting that new users will continue to sign up to use its service despite the fact that it has become insolvent” as a way to dig themselves out of their financial hole?This is the most perfect example of a Ponzi scheme I’ve read in recent weeks!From Wikipedia:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual

or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator.

If Vircurex is betting their future on an influx of gullible dreamers, well, I suspect they will be in for a very rude awakening quite soon.As I said before, if you own something but do not have access to it and you cannot sell it, then it isn’t yours.It certainly is no “investment.”Yours in Liberty,

Yet Another Bitcoin ExchangeFreezes Customer Accounts in Wake of Insolvency

Christopher

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In This Issue

Celtic Rocker Leah McHenry: The Homeschooling, Gun-Loving Heavy Metal Mama 2Defamation Law is strangling the Internet 6State of Georgia Passes Concealed Carry Reform Bill 7Florida District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro Differentiates IP Address from Humans 8Green Party of Canada or Gun Owners - CSSA ENews 9Alaska Bans Drone-Assisted Hunting 11Montreal Cop Unrepentant for Beating a “Mere Citizen” 12RCMP’s Arbitrary Firearm Reclassifications 13Police Can and Will Charge You Even When You Haven’t Broken Any Firearm Law 14

The Political Action Wizard Free Senate Edition 15

Rights and Freedom Bulletin Issue No. 171 Mar 22, 2014 http://Bulletin.RightsAndFreedoms.org

2 Rights and Freedom Bulletin Issue No. 171 Mar 22, 2014 http://Bulletin.RightsAndFreedoms.org

And Now for Something Completely Different: Music!Celtic Rocker Leah McHenry: The Homeschooling, Gun-Loving Heavy Metal Mama

I’ll let you in on a secret. I love celtic rock. Always have. For reasons I can’t explain that genre of music speaks to me, but when Celtic Rocker Leah McHenry sent me a friend request on Face-book I was both intrigued and puzzled. Intrigued because I had never heard of her; puzzled because I didn’t know why a musician would want to be “Facebook Friends” with a freedom-defending, gun-loving redneck writer like me.Before accepting her Facebook friend request I checked her personal page and quickly discovered this musician is every bit the freedom lover I am. Leah read an article of mine that a mutual friend posted on Facebook, which prompted her to contact me. The subject of that article was the RCMP abusing their privileges (not rights) and as I later learned, Leah “wholeheartedly agreed with the perspective of the article. When I realized it was coming from a fellow Canadian liberty-lover, I was interested in who this person was.”I did a Google search of her name and found a number of interviews she’s given over the years. That’s where I found out she called herself “The Homeschooling Metal Mama”. A woman branding herself like that was defi-nitely someone I wanted to know more about! One question and answer from her interview on Metal Divas both made me laugh and gave some insight into who Leah McHenry is.

Metal Divas: What is a rule — whether it’s a law, societal standard, or moral code that exists that you think should be broken?Leah: I think clichés are meant to be broken! For example, I educate my children at home, and am considered a “housewife”; however I don’t think I fit the traditional mold when people think of a house-wife. I’m not a socially isolated “prairie muffin” who does nothing but bake bread and churn butter. Yes, I homeschool, and I like heavy metal, and guns, and chainmaille. And the same goes for a metal singer… most people don’t think of a metal singer as a domestic goddess that enjoys raising children and teaching phonics. Whatever the cliché is, I will probably break it.

Leah McHenry calls BC’s beautiful Fraser Valley home but don’t mistake her rural home for anything but the House of Celtic Rock. Leah’s passion is music, specifically symphonic celtic rock in the spirit of Enya and Loreena McKennitt. I’ve long been a fan of Loreena McKennitt’s music so when I read that Leah McHenry’s music was along that line I wanted to hear it for myself. I loved almost everything I heard. I love the piano and her mastery of it on songs like “Between Two Worlds” intrigued me. The range of musical styles she’s mastered impressed me; everything from heavy metal to folk, celtic, pop, country and operatic styles show that she is both an accomplished musician and vocalist.The songs she posted on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/leahthemusic) cover a wide range of Celtic rock. She covers some traditional songs, delves into some piano-based songs which I love, and the symphonic rock… well that’s just good clean fun! You can also listen to Leah’s music on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/leahmusic After listening to Leah McHenry’s music and learning of her upcoming album I contacted her about writing this article. She quickly agreed to an email interview since both our schedules are a little insane right now.



Leah’s Love for Liberty

What I quickly learned is Leah Loves Liberty. I appreciate that! On Canadian Socialism:

I think the problem with Canadian socialism is that we have socialism. And the problem with Canadians is they love it so very much. I often tell people that socialised healthcare is our “sacred cow”. If you try to discuss private alternatives with someone, they usually look at you like you’re committing a crime. We have massive taxation and redistribution of wealth. We are a welfare state. We are forced to pay into a healthcare system that many of us do not want, do not get the benefit of and which is failing.On Those Evil Americans:

Some Canadians I talk to describe the US as a terrible place to live, as though all hell is breaking loose there, while Canada remains so innocent by comparison. Canada is exactly like the US in many respects (centralized banks, fiat currency, government monopoly of industries, etc.) only we are actually much further down the road in many respects. The alarming difference is that in Canada, we are “quiet”. So much goes on here politically and economically that the average citizen has no idea about. Most are so oblivious, living with the notion of “free” money, “free” programs and their beloved health care, that they have no idea the trap that awaits us because of it. We have a system of utter dependency. At least in the US, you have millions of people who are aware of what’s happening and are quite engaged and active in the fight for freedom. They are loud there. I appreciate that. On Canadian Apathy and Complacency:

It is alarming, disturbing, and maddening at times to think of the things going on in our country that most Canadians have no clue about, or if they have some measure of awareness, they just don’t care. It’s easy to feel alone here, but I know to go about my business and keep on making music is one way I can do something, though it seems unrelated on the surface. On Waking Up Canadians From Their Apathy:

I had a much smaller audience a few years ago, which has since grown immensely. Now that people follow what I do, I feel a greater sense of responsibility with what I produce. The messages in my songs need to matter. Most of the time I post things through social media which I feel people need to know about, or are concerning. People who know me know I care a lot about the world in which we live and will leave to future generations. I care about the direction we’re headed in, and I see so few people caring that I often feel like jumping up and down on a mountain top, just to wake people up. I have no idea if it’s working. :)On Marriage:

I think I’m still figuring that one out! I think the big challenge for many is how much spouses tend to change and grow at different paces. Perhaps when a couple met they felt they were compatible at the time. As life goes on you have kids and mortgages, and all kinds of responsibilities and ventures, and you might come to a place where you feel you don’t “connect” anymore, or don’t seem compatible. I think our generation has been told it’s at this point when you should move on. I personally experienced this as a child with my own parents’ divorce. I think if we talked more to people of our grandparents’ generation, they would say those seasons of life are normal, and something every marriage will need to work on, regardless of how compatible you are.



On Guns, Self-Defense and “Gun Control”:

I am among those who believe the right to defend your own life and the lives of your family is indisputable, and a right given by God. The state does not have any legitimate authority to take away this right. Any state that believes it does ultimately believes and acts as though it is God. One only needs to spend a few minutes studying history to see the pattern of gun control leading to dictatorship and ultimately the mass slaughter of those people from whom they took the guns. This point needs to come up again and again in media, as a reminder to people who would otherwise not care, or those who think we’d all be “safer” without guns. On Home-Schooling Her Children:

There are so many benefits to homeschooling; it’s hard to know where to start. If I had to mention just one, it would be that the government has no right to determine what my child learns. This is huge. If people only understood the significance of taking back the responsibility of education. This responsibility should never have been abdicated to government in the first place. I have four kids, ages 2, 4, 6 and 8. They are amazing examples of what children are capable of.Children are able to learn at their own pace in a homeschool setting, and in many cases, far exceed the academic outcomes of public school students. Just the simple environment of being in the home allows students the free-dom to think for themselves, instead of being forced into the assembly line of government indoctrination, which is actually a religious re-education.On Raising Children:

The best thing I can do is to homeschool my own children and make sure they grow up to be critical thinkers. I encourage people I know to do the same. I’m a bottom-up believer. If we want to change what’s going on at the top, we have to change what’s going on at the bottom. Change beginning with individuals and families are where the biggest and most significant shifts must occur.On Crowd-Funding Her Latest Album:

Crowdfunding is fan-based fundraising. If you have a pre-existing fan base (pretty much necessary for success), you fund your project, film, music album, or what-have-you through your friends, family, and fans. My goal is to fund a new full-length metal album. Last Fall I put out a 5-song EP, but I’d really love to do at least 10-12 songs for this new one. Recording an album is definitely not cheap. It’s the type of industry where you get what you pay for. Yes, there are cheap studios out there, but that’s exactly what the music will come out sounding like. Cheap. The funds will go to paying musicians (I always hire out), studio time, mixing, mastering, artwork, and printing merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, and the CD’s themselves.Leah McHenry’s Music

Leah is not signed to a record label which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because she maintains total creative control over her music. That’s important for any artist, musician or otherwise. The curse is it costs a lot of money to record a good album. With the backing of a record label you can afford to produce a quality album without digging into your own pockets. Without that financial backing you must resort to other means to get your music made.Leah McHenry is not shy. She is also not afraid of taking risks. Using the crowd-funding platform IndieGogo.com Leah made a brave, all-or-nothing gamble on her next album. Either she raises the entire $25,000 she needs through IndieGogo.com or she gets nothing. If she comes up even one dollar short she won’t see a single penny of the money people from around the world pledged to her.Support Independent Music

Leah McHenry is an independent musician. She is a gifted and talented singer. She is precisely the type of person I believe in supporting so she can achieve her goals.



In Leah’s case her current goal is to raise $25,000 to finance the production of her next album. If you listen to her music, as I did, I am sure you will agree she is worthy of your support.What I appreciate about Leah’s fundraising efforts is she believes, as I do, that when you give to a cause you get something in return. Leah has some amazingly creative rewards for anyone who supports her IndieGogo.com fundraising efforts.

� Donate $10 and receive a digital down-load of the new album before the release date.

� Donate $15 and receive a personally-autographed photo card in the mail, as well as a digital download of the new album before the release date.

� Donate $20 and download every song Leah has ever recorded. It’s a LONG list!

� Donate $50 and receive a singed copy of Leah’s new CD and a newly-designed Leah T-Shirt, along with a digital download of her new album.

� Donate $100 and receive signed copies of her two previous CDs, a singed copy of the NEW CD, a Leah T-Shirt, signed photo card and a digital download of all Leah’s music.

� Donate $300 and Leah will record a cover of any song you want. Then she’ll post it on YouTube and dedicate it to you!

� Donate $500 and Leah will write an original song just for you. Just name your subject matter and she will do the rest.

� Donate $1,000 and you get pretty much everything except the cover and origi-nal songs. Plus you’ll receive lifetime VIP passes to all future Leah shows in your area.

Leah has done an amazing job of fundraising so far, but she has only 2 weeks left to reach her goal of $25,000. As of today she is just $8,000 from her goal. Help Leah cross the finish line! Send her your financial support today through http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/full-length-leah-album

Check out Leah’s music, then financially support Leah’s new full-length album, even if you give only $10. � http://leahmchenry.com/

� https://www.facebook.com/leah.mchenry

� http://leahmusic.net/

� https://www.youtube.com/user/leahthemusic � https://soundcloud.com/leahmusic



Freedom of SpeechDefamation Law is strangling the Internet

As long time bloggers and forum hosts (13 years so far), we recently finished a long battle against Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) that resulted in the Canadian Parliament repealing the section.Defamation law is becoming every bit as dangerous for Canadian internet users as Section 13 was!Defamation law says that a statement is defamatory if it “tends to lower the esteem of the subject in the minds of the ordinary members of the public”.As you can see, that could apply to any remark viewed by the subject as negative.

Once an action is filed, you have to incur the legal costs of making a defence or accept whatever verdict and penalty the court may decide to impose.If you are a forum or blog owner and the comment was made by an anonymous poster, you have no defence of “fair comment” because you are not allowed to give “opinion” evidence of the state of mind of the poster or to state what facts the poster relied on. You are effectively taken to task for not censoring the commentary of a third person and not allowed to defend yourself. You are 100% responsible.If an anonymous poster makes comment on your blog and someone sues you for it, you can lose everything you have...even if you remove the allegedly offending words or post from your site.Operating a blog or forum and allowing readers to post their opinions should not lead to financial ruin or put a person’s entire future at risk. As the Ontario Civil Liberties Association recently stated, the Tort of Defamation needs to be abolished. We will fight on both of these fronts.We must appeal this decision, and we have two other hearings coming up before the end of March. We desper-ately need help with our legal expenses so we can keep up our fight for freedom of speech on the internet! Please donate to support freedom of speech: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/anonymous-troll-could-send-us-to-jail

Any contribution would be greatly appreciated and we promise to put it to good use!If you prefer to donate by mail, please send your cheque here:

Connie Fournier 2000 Unity Rd.,

Elginburg, ON K0H 1M0

“If it takes force to impose your ideas on your fellow man, there is something wrong with your ideas. If you are willing to use force to impose your ideas on your fellow man, there is something wrong with you.”

- Mark Fournier



Self DefenseState of Georgia Passes Historic Concealed Carry Reform Bill

by Gary DeMar - Godfather Politics

I shoot my Samick takedown recurve bow in my front yard and practice with my hand guns and other weapons in the woods behind me, and I live on a fairly busy street not far from a major high school and middle school. The police station is a half-mile from my house.Nobody pays any attention.My business partner owns Liberty Guns. On our semi-regular “Man Night,” a group of us smoke cigars, shoot our various weapons, watch a man-movie, and indulge in adult beverages.Nobody pays any attention.I’m convinced that the regular gun fire around where I live (it’s not just me) keeps the bad guys away. Liberals are upset with a sweeping new set of gun laws that was just been passed in Georgia. It doesn’t seem to upset them that criminals don’t pay attention to gun laws. They keep restricting law-abiding citizens thereby making them less free and at the mercy of criminals.Georgia HB60 passed 112-58.The compromise by the House and Senate brought the following changes:

� Removal of fingerprinting for renewal of Weapons Carry Licenses (WCL). � Prohibiting the state from creating and maintaining a database of WCL holders. � Creation of an absolute defense for the legal use of deadly force in the face of a violent attack. � Removal of the sweeping restrictions on legally carrying a firearm with a WCL in churches and bars,

leaving this decision to private property owners. � Lowering the age to obtain a concealed WCL for self-defense from 21 to 18 for active duty military,

with specific training. � Repealing the unnecessary and duplicative state-required license for a firearms dealer, instead requiring

only a Federal Firearms License (FFL). � Prohibiting a ban on firearms in public housing, ensuring that the right to self-defense should not be

infringed based on where one calls home. � Codifying the ability to legally carry, with a WCL, in sterile/non-secure areas of airports. � Stating that under a declared state of emergency, all law-abiding gun owners will not have their Second

Amendment rights restricted or infringed by executive authority through Emergency Powers protection.Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who plans to run for re-election in November, must sign the bill before it becomes law. Deal has supported loosening gun restrictions. This earned him an “A” rating from the NRA.Jerry Henry, executive director of Georgia Carry stated on MSNBC, the “bill means that if you are one who likes to protect yourself, that you have a whole lot more places to protect yourself. It means that if you’re a bad guy, you might want to think about going into some of those places.”I’m so glad I moved to Georgia in 1979.



Privacy RightsFlorida District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro Differentiates IP Address from Humans

In another stunning blow for copyright holders battling illegal downloading of movies and software, Florida District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro dismissed a lawsuit based solely on the IP address of the alleged copyright violator.Her rationale?An IP address cannot be definitively linked to the person who downloaded the copyrighted content. In other words an IP address is not a human being. It is merely an address where one or more human beings may be found.This is the latest nail in the coffin of the IP Address = Copyright Violator method of prosecuting copyright viola-tions in the United States.

In January a US federal court judge ruled that “the IP address evidence does not prove that an account holder is guilty of copyright infringement.”Washington District Judge Robert Lasnik wrote:“[The movie studio] has actually alleged no more than that the named defendants purchased Internet access and failed to ensure that others did not use that access to download copyrighted material.”“Simply identifying the account holder associated with an IP address tells us very little about who actually

downloaded ‘Elf-Man’ using that IP address.“While it is possible that the subscriber is the one who participated in the BitTor-rent swarm, it is also possible that a family member, guest, or freeloader engaged in the infringing conduct.”

While copyright holders are understandably upset by these latest rulings they should not be. If you accuse a specific individual of theft then you must prove that specific individual actually stole from you.Insisting someone stole from you simply because they hold an account linked to an IP address is like saying your brother stole your wallet because he was in town the week your wallet went missing.It’s absurd.



Firearm PoliticsGreen Party of Canada Speaks Out for Gun Owners - CSSA ENews

In the spirit of non-partisan support for all federal parties who stand up for gun owners, it is notable that the Green Party of Canada may be building a bold policy platform to win our allegiance.Will it translate to votes and seats in the upcoming federal election? Green Party leader Elizabeth May, M.P. (Saanich-Gulf Islands) and recent Green acquisition Bruce Hyer, M.P. (Thunder Bay Superior North) are declar-ing their own war on the RCMP for the recent Swiss Arms and CZ-858 rifle reclassification. For the first time in memory, the Parliament of Canada may have more than one political party competing for the firearms vote. After years in the political wilderness, are gun owners being presented with a choice?Should responsible firearms owners care that they are receiving new-found support from a party with only two M.P.s sitting in the House of Commons? Absolutely. May and Hyer are not your garden variety politicians. Both are capable of exposing the issues they endorse under the bright lights of public scrutiny. Perhaps the Green Party has been convinced to help us expose the unworkable Firearms Act.Elizabeth May was arguably the most effective speaker in past televised leadership debates, and is regarded as personable and open-minded by many House of Commons colleagues. She was named one of the world’s most influential women by Newsweek in 2010 and voted Parliamentarian of the Year in 2012. Against his party’s wishes, Bruce Hyer steadfastly opposed the long-gun registry on behalf of his constituents and eventually left the NDP to sit as an independent before he joined the Greens.Check out this excerpt from a recent Elizabeth May letter to a gun owner:

“Thank you for your message regarding the RCMP prohibition of SAN Swiss Arms PE90 Classic Green carbine and Czech CZ858 (2P, 2V, 4P variant) rifles. This unfortunate situation shows that our country’s current firearms regime lacks transparency and may be unnecessarily complicated.“The Green Party of Canada supports fair, balanced gun control legislation that protects the legal rights of hunters, sport shooters and collectors, while helping to keep our communities safe. Greens believe that responsible citizens pursuing legal activities with firearms ought to be free from the threat of criminaliza-tion, and that firearms regulations should be clear and straightforward. The re-classification of any legal firearm to prohibited status needs to backed up with justification, and the reasons for prohibition made clear and public.”

For his part, Bruce Hyer has penned a searing letter under his House of Commons letterhead to RCMP Commis-sion Bob Paulson. Hyer is demanding an explanation for the reclassification that the Mounties have so far side-stepped. He says he may need to meet with Paulson, Deputy Commissioner Henschel of Specialized Policing Services and the Director of the Canadian Firearms Program. This guy is playing some hardball for gun owners’ rights.At this stage, May and Hyer are seeking buy-back compensation for affected gun owners. It’s not the optimum goal of most gun owners, but it does show that the Greens are willing to dust off the firearms file. They know that gun rights may not find favour with many Canadians, yet they are willing to go there anyway. We continue to hope that the Conservatives will ramp up fairness in firearms laws, too, but the process has been unnecessarily agonizing to date.While the Green Party’s new policy direction reveals hope, Elizabeth May clearly requires counsel from a gun owners’ perspective. Speaking during the debate to end the gun registry, she advocated against transporting fire-arms in vehicles. She needs to better understand that while criminals ignore gun control laws, sport shooters are handcuffed by them. May has also indicated her party wants the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty approved and signed by Canada. As usual, the gun bloggers are already at work cutting May to ribbons for appearing two-faced. Let’s take a beat and simply ask her if she might reconsider those previous anti-gun notions. People change – and the CSSA will find out if the Greens are squarely on the side of gun owners long before the election.



Here’s what gun bloggers don’t know – Elizabeth May and Bruce Hyer are close to Garry Breitkreuz, M.P., who is the best friend of Canadian sport shooters in Parliament. Hyer and Breitkreuz share duties as co-chairs of the parliamentary Outdoors Caucus and May is a member, too. The record shows that May and Hyer have long been vocal boosters of wilderness conservation through responsible environmental stewardship.Should firearms owners consider getting cozy with the Green Party? Perhaps, given that we might finally have an answer to that burning question the Conservative government asks when it pushes us onto the back burner: “Who else are gun owners gonna vote for?” If the government thinks supporting sport shooters in mere half-measures is sufficient, maybe May and Hyer have provided the answer.Bottom line is, it’s still too early to tell. Ms. May’s statement show a gleam of light and truly, the firearms commu-nity will never be safe until all political parties support us. This simple fact makes her perceived direction worth heeding. Political leopards can change their spots, it has happened many times before and will again.The time may come when gun owners need to decide whether supporting the Greens would risk splitting the vote in Justin Trudeau’s favour. That would be a problem for everyone – and a risk that Prime Minister Harper should not be willing to take. That puts the (musket) ball in his court.

Green Party Policy 4.11.7 Gun control and ownership rights

Police associations across Canada assert that the gun registry helps them keep law and order and save lives. Many rural Cana-dians and First Nations people find the gun registry restrictions onerous and discriminatory. We need to better balance these interests without allowing guns to be prevalent in society.

The Green Party understands that it is time to get tough on gun smuggling across the U.S. border. Thousands of handguns are coming across the border and into our urban centres. We need to work with each of the US border states to press for action against gun smugglers and invest in tougher border measures to halt the movement of illegal firearms.

The risks created by having dangerous weapons in our urban centres are significant. We will introduce balanced and fair meas-ures to ban handguns and semi-automatic firearms. However, the use of guns in our urban centres is typically not the same as the use of guns in our rural communities. We will ensure that law-abiding citizens pursuing legal activities in hunting with long guns are free from unreasonable fees and the threat of criminalization.

The Green Party will keep the long gun registry, but reduce the paperwork and bureaucratic burden for rural use, and for hunt-ers and marksmen with no criminal history.

Green Party MPs will:

Provide increased support for Integrated Border Enforcement Teams made up of officers from the RCMP, Canada Border Services, U.S. Customs and the U.S. Coast Guard in their gathering of intelligence and arresting of gun smugglers.

Put strict measures in place for those who attempt to cross the Canada/U.S. border with illegal firearms. Ensure that gun smuggling is prosecuted as a gun crime of the highest order rather than as a customs violation.

Fulfill Canada’s obligation under international agreements (United Nations Firearms Protocol and the Organization of American States Firearms Convention) to mark all imported firearms, as recommended by the Canadian Association of Police Boards and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

Ensure that gun crime charges are not dropped to facilitate convictions on lesser charges.

Work hard to create a registration system that is fair, free, and easy to use. Streamline the gun registry in consultation with First Nations, and with gun sports and hunter organizations. We support the elimination of registration fees for hunting rifles and will ensure law-abiding citizens do not have their firearms confiscated.

Ban handguns and combat weapons including semi-automatic rifles and assault rifles. Eliminate their use through consulta-tion and a full buy-back program. Consult especially with holders of collections to ensure guns are rendered non-functional to eliminate usefulness to thieves, and with target shooters to establish safe and protected locations where target shooting can be practiced.



Hunting EthicsAlaska Bans Drone-Assisted Hunting

From the Anchorage Daily News

Hunting big game in Alaska with the help of remote-controlled, camera-equipped aircraft will be illegal later this year when new regulations take effect.

Hunting is a time-honored tradition allowing each of us to put food on our family’s dinner table. It’s also called “hunting” and not “finding” for a reason. The concept of fair chase.While technology continues to advance it is often to our detriment. Relying on cameras in the air means we no longer rely on actual hunting techniques like tracking and learning the habits of the game we seek. As Royce Tuckness said so well in his comments on the Anchorage Daily News article:

I have hunted and fished my entire life (59 yrs) without the assistance of drones, airplanes, blimps, helicopters, kites or any other flying device. I think the Alaska Board of Game has absolutely made the right decision here. Hunters should hunt track and harvest game on foot and only use other animals or mechanical devices to get to and remove harvested animals from the field. Anything else would be consid-ered wrong in my opinion. There are hunters and there are takers. The “Takers” are generally Unethical Guides and those who are basically lazy and look for any advantage to simplify the hunt.

I wholeheartedly agree.Fair Chase, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club, is the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.

In simpler terms, it means the animal must have a reasonable opportunity to escape unharmed.Boone and Crockett Hunter Ethics

Fundamental to all hunting is the concept of conservation of natural resources. Hunting in today’s world involves the regulated harvest of individual animals in a manner that conserves, protects, and perpetuates the hunted population. The hunter engages in a one-to-one relationship with the quarry and his or her hunting should be guided by a hierarchy of ethics related to hunting, which includes the following tenets:

1. Obey all applicable laws and regulations.2. Respect the customs of the locale where the hunting occurs.3. Exercise a personal code of behavior that reflects favorably on your abilities and sensibilities as a hunter.4. Attain and maintain the skills necessary to make the kill as certain and quick as possible.5. Behave in a way that will bring no dishonor to either the hunter, the hunted, or the environment.6. Recognize that these tenets are intended to enhance the hunter’s experience of the relationship between predator and prey, which is one of the most fundamental relationships of humans and their environment.

If all you want is to fill your freezer without the “headache” of all that “work” tracking your prey, then go to the butcher store. He will happily provide you with everything you could possibly want.If you want to be a real hunter, then by all means learn the skills you require to find your prey, then get out into the woods and hunt in an ethical manner.Like so many hunters, I am sure, I come home empty-handed more often than not. That does not, however, diminish my hunting pleasure. I love being out in the woods. I love searching for the animal that will fill my freezer, but I am thoroughly unwilling to act in a manner unbecoming simply to do so.Some days I simply do not take the shot because the joy of watching one of God’s amazing creatures wander in front of me is just too good to end with a bullet.



Police MisconductMontreal Cop Unrepentant for Beating a “Mere Citizen”

Montreal Police Constable Stephanie Trudeau is, as evidenced by her own actions, a thug. She makes the tradi-tion of RCMP Constable Geoff Mantler proud. As is the style of so many police constables today, she is known primarily through her badge number, 728. Constable 728’s primary goal in any interaction with we mere citizens is to ensure our immediate and complete surrender. Constable Trudeau’s current problems stem from a “overly aggressive arrest” of Serge Lavoie in 2012. The real issue for Constable Trudeau is not so much that she did something wrong, but that her atrocious actions were caught on video. Clearly she learned nothing from Geoff Mantler. Before assaulting a citizen, make sure nobody is recording you.Constable Stephanie Trudeau’s actions after the assault were so atrocious the Montreal Police held a press confer-ence specifically condemning her actions and subsequent vulgar description of the events.

“Some people are questioning the words that she’s using, the fact that she’s very rude,” said Commander Ian Lafreniere. “The fact is that as an officer no one can be proud of what she’s doing.”

That condemnation is as strongly worded as I’ve ever seen, and is well earned. The standard response to allegations of police brutality is placing the accused on a paid vacation. True to form, Constable Trudeau was suspended with pay on October 2, 2013. Yeah, that will teach her a lesson, won’t it?At least this time she was prohibited from possessing firearms during her paid vacation. That’s probably a first.Interestingly, she was also ordered to stay away from any member of the Montreal Police Force. She is also forbidden from visiting the police union office unless accompanied by her lawyer. One wonders why…At her court hearing Trudeau agreed to “keep the peace” and undergo a 15-day psychiatric evaluation. Her hand-cuffs were then removed and she was taken to Sherbrooke Hospital.News reports claim Constable Trudeau is “crying a lot” and it’s “very hard for her, what she sees and hears in the media.” Call me insensitive, but all I have to say about Constable Trudeau’s poor hurt feelings is this:

Cry me a river. You deserve no sympathy from we mere citizens of Canada.

Your own actions put you in this position. You have nobody to blame but the thug you see in the mirror each day. Had you acted like a human being instead of a common bully none of this would be happening.

This is not the first time Constable Stephanie Trudeau aka “Constable 728” made headlines. She rose to internet fame after pepper spraying innocent people at a protest earlier in 2012. Captured on video, not once but twice she attacks unarmed and defenseless people whose only “crime” is to be standing too close to this loose cannon. Even the cameraman capturing her atrocious actions on video was pepper sprayed repeatedly.The YouTube video, titled “Constable 728: A Star is Born” has over 747,000 views. It shows very clearly a police constable out of control. After the video came to the attention of her superiors Constable Stephanie Trudeau was placed on desk duty, and then suspended.Now all that remains is for this thug to be fired from the Montreal Police Force. Cops like this give thousands of honourable police men and women a very bad name. Police brutality is no joke and until police forces across this nation take this problem seriously good police men and women will continue to be painted with the same thuggish brush Constable Stephanie Trudeau earned herself.



Action AlertRCMP’s Arbitrary Firearm Reclassifications

The RCMP under the questionable leadership of Robert Paulson is reclassify-ing a variety of firearms from non-restricted and restricted to prohibited status. These actions are without the sanction of Parliament or Steven Blaney, the Minister of Public Safety.Minister Blaney spoke out publicly against these actions, stating:

“I want to assure you all options are on the table to fix this situation. I will also be taking steps to make sure this never happens again.”

Despite that clear indicator from Canada’s Minister of Public Safety the unac-countable bureaucrats within the RCMP continue manufacturing criminals out of honest, law-abiding Canadians.Ensure your letter is clear, firm and polite.The Government of Canada, not unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in the RCMP, determine firearm classifications. The RCMP is in the business of enforcing laws, not manufacturing criminals out of Canada’s most law-abiding citizens.

Contact to Minister Blaney using the following information:The Honourable Steven Blaney

Minister of Public Safety House of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

You can also contact him by phone or fax at:Phone: (613) 992-7434 Fax: (613) 995-6856

His email addresses are:[email protected], [email protected] and

[email protected]

A sample letter is available online if you need a little inspiration, but please make sure you edit this into your own words before you send it off. Multiple copies of the same letter have far less effect than multiple individual letters. Personalization Matters.



Firearm Legal DefensePolice Can and Will Charge You Even When You Haven’t Broken Any Firearm Law

Police are now laying charges in situations that most hunters believe is safe storage.Mr. Hunter took several guns with him hunting. He kept them in his pickup bed. The guns were cased, covered, but not trigger-locked and not in locked hard cases. Ammunition was carried in the bed and in an unlocked box. The pickup bed was covered with a locked cap, bolted down and an additional wire and lock held the cap door closed in addition to a lock. Mr. Hunter slept in a hotel. During the night thieves broke the cap door off at the hinges. The lock held fast and two guns were stolen.The police arrested the thieves, impounded Mr. Hunter’s truck without a warrant and seized his remaining guns and ammunition. Mr. Hunter faces criminal charges of unsafe storage of guns and ammunition and unsafe trans-portation for leaving his guns unattended. The police say he should have had trigger locks or locked hard cases and the ammunition should have been in a locked box. This may sound ridiculous to you. Mr. Hunter has a good defense and should be found not guilty. The police say “let the judge decide”. Mr. Hunter’s guns are seized until trial. He must hire a lawyer and travel from home to the court where the theft took place. The trial will be nine months after his truck was broken into. This is not fair but it is true. This happened in September 1998. Names are changed, the essential facts are true.Protect yourself from this type of police harassment. If you leave your gun in your vehicle, trigger lock it, action lock it or take the bolt out and lock the bolt up. Keep your ammunition in a locked box. This is beyond what the law requires but do this to avoid becoming a test case for the police to see how far they can push the law.Every year over 3,500 Ontario residents are convicted of unsafe storage. Many are innocent but they do not fight a wrongfully laid charge. Most charges can be fought. Do not plead guilty. Do not surrender your rights without a fight. Do not make statements to the police after arrest. Call a lawyer, get advice. Better yet, put an extra trigger lock on your gun and a lock on your ammo box. That is a lot cheaper than a lawyer.



Political ActionThe Political Action Wizard Free Senate Edition - Download and Use it Today

On June 23, 2013 I announced that the political action software program I had created for contacting every Senator in Canada was ready for you to download and use. While the reason I created the software is no longer relevant (The Senate repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act on June 28) the Canadian Senate still has a lot of power over the lives of ordinary Canadians. While they did a great thing by finally passing Bill C-304 to repeal Section 13, the very same day they absolutely gutted Bill C-377, a bill that would have forced Canadian labour unions to become more transparent. They did this and got away with it because nobody was watching them and they knew it. The Political Action Wizard Free Senate Edition is a tool for every Canadian to use to write to our Senators and express our views on the legislation before them. As their actions on Bill C-377 proved, we must let our Senators know we’re watching otherwise all kinds of silliness takes place.

http://download.politicalactionsoftware.org/senate-free-edition/

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