Gavrilo Princip under arrest in Sarajevo in 1914. But a speedy arrest wasn’t enough to avert a long war. Below, Quebec Premier Designate Pauline Marois.
If you think about it – and you can bet on it that the Canadian gun lobby will refuse to do so – the murderous man with the assault rifle handed the Parti Quebecois government the perfect opportunity last night to get its relationship with the Harper Conservatives off to a rocky start if it so wishes.
Whether or not Richard Henry Bain intended to murder PQ Leader Pauline Marois with his assault rifle, and whether or not it was an AK-47 (and since it jammed, it seems unlikely it was a Kalashnikov), it was unquestionably a “long gun” of some description.
And you’d need to have been asleep not to know that the determination of the Harper Government to raise funds and practice wedge politics by destroying the national rifle and shotgun registry has been a profoundly unpopular issue in Quebec.
So a man in a bathrobe and a balaclava killing while shouting lunacies about waking up the English at a PQ victory rally is a forceful reminder to Quebec voters about what’s wrong with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s approach to governing, his Alberta-dominated government’s policies and, by extension, Quebec’s suddenly fraught relationship with the rest of Canada.
Indeed, the departing Liberal Quebec government of rejected Premier Jean Charest, which was in tune with Mr. Harper on economic issues, was already in court to try to prevent the Harperistas’ legislative act of vandalism against the long gun registry.
The response of Mr. Harper and his spear carriers in cabinet to that suit has been to push as hard as possible to destroy the registry’s data as quickly as possible – notwithstanding the protests of a majority of Quebec taxpayers who, it must be conceded, paid their share of the registry’s creation and upkeep.
From the distant vantage of Alberta, Quebec voters as a group seem highly ambivalent about the PQ’s separatist project, so it’s hard to believe that anger about the destruction of the long gun registry and the resulting anger at Ottawa didn’t sway at least a few crucial votes to the PQ.
Arguably, again without knowing much about Quebec politics, it seems possible from this Western perspective that more voters might have swung to the social democratic PQ had it not also been a separatist party.
Regardless, the use of a military-style rifle by someone who until last night may have been a “law abiding gun owner” has handed the PQ an ideal weapon to sway voters to its independence project. If the gun was fully automatic, as some reports suggest, then it wasn’t legal, but this seems unlikely. Regardless, it hardly matters if it was legal or not, long or short, because the use of any kind of firearm in these circumstances will naturally be highly symbolic.
So in its dealings with the PQ government, the first test of the Harper government’s true priority – is it the country or the Conservative government’s short-term political advantage? – is likely now to be how it responds to the crisis created by Mr. Bain’s itchy trigger finger.
Not surprisingly, Ms. Marois indicated today at her first media conference that right at the top of her agenda will be an attempt to get a unanimous resolution of the National Assembly opposing the Harper Conservatives’ destruction of the registry.
Memories are long in Quebec – just check out the plates, “Je me souviens” – and it will not go unobserved in that province that this is not the first time someone with a military weapon has apparently set out to assassinate a PQ leader for muddled and vaguely federalist motives.
Not much good will is required from the Harper Government to respond effectively. They need only to go slow on their rush to destroy the registry, to let the issue cool a little while it boils over, naturally enough, in Quebec where there seems to be a general consensus on the issue.
We shall see, but it is said here that even this simple gesture for the good of Canada is beyond the capacity of this cynical and divisive government.
Cool heads and moderation are what Canada needs from its leaders in Ottawa – on the long gun registry and the other issues likely to arise in the weeks ahead. “Insouciance,” the word chosen by the Globe and Mail, divisiveness and haughty contempt are what we are likely to get as the Harper Conservatives turn to the Karl Rove Republican electoral handbook for guidance.
From the U.S. funded and inspired gun lobby, of course, expect a renewal of black-helicopter hysteria and defiance.
The gun nuts will dismiss Mr. Bain as a lone nut with a gun – and in this they are likely right.
Indeed, perhaps the unknown shooter (or shooters) who shot two people in Edmonton last night or the still-unknown assailant who shot to death a restaurant patron in front of the windows of my downtown office three weeks ago were just isolated nuts as well.
But if you doubt the ability of a lunatic acting alone with a firearm at a delicate political moment to change history in very bad ways, I give you … Gavrilo Princip!
This post also appears on Rabble.ca.
On the long-gun registry, the Harper government committed one of the most egregious sins in modern Canadian politics: they kept a campaign promise. When, oh when will Canadian voters learn to vote for the party whose policies they actually support, and not for the party whose policies they hope they can influence, and maybe even change, once in power? I voted for a party other than the Tories because I support the policies of the party I supported, and opposed the polices (including abolition of the registry) of the Harperites.
Far too many Canadians are critical of the Harper government for doing exactly what it said it would do; how many of them had voted for them anyway? I suspect a lot (present company excepted, of course). All we can hope for now is for the voters to come to their senses and throw the rascals out at the next opportunity.
Some news reports this morning said that Bain was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital for assessment. Since he did not appear to be physically wounded, he may actually have been taken to the Vic-affiliated Allan Memorial Institute next door, which is a psychiatric facility.
Some witnesses on the news last night said that they heard two shots. One of the firearms was said to be an AK-47. I don’t know whether it’s possible to fire single shots with Kalashnikov, but, as Mr. Climenhaga has noted, the AK-47 seems to be really reliable in even the most horrible of conditions (desert warfare, for instance), so it may not even have been used at all. The other weapon seems to have been a Glock 9mm, a semi-automatic handgun (forgive my ignorance on this if I’ve got it wrong). I don’t know whether they’re prone to jamming or not. A quick search seems to have them available by mail order (but not here – yet).
What we still don’t have an answer to is “Why?”.
I grew up in Montreal all through the bombs-in-mailboxes period, the War Measures Act, the soldiers standing guard in front of embassies and riding by the truckful up Mount Royal. I was there when Cross was kidnapped and Laporte was kidnapped and murdered. Being an Anglo in Quebec left me conflicted. Being of Irish descent left me even more conflicted when I lived and worked in England during IRA bombings and murders in the 70′s. Mass evacuations of stores in London were almost routine. I missed being blown to smithereens by a bomb in Bristol by about five minutes. I even looked like one of the IRA suspects and was questioned more than once by immigration officials until they realized the Canuck passport and accent were genuine.
My sister was thinking of taking classes at the U of Montreal during the semester when so many women were murdered by a deranged gunman. My son had just started university at McGill when another nutcase killed one student and injured so many others at a downtown CEGEP.
To dismiss the concerns of Quebec about scrapping the gun registry as the Cons have done shows how out of touch they are with, as it turns out, most of the country. Everybody is a law-abiding gun owner – until they’re not. Most Canadians don’t own guns. Those who do tend to own multiples. The guns-per-capita ratio doesn’t really give a very good picture. I hate the damn things, anyway, whatever they’re used for. I’ve seen what they can do.
You can order firearms online in Canada through one of several retailers, if you have the appropriate licenses. Glock pistols among those.
Richard Henry Bain. Where did I hear that name before? Oh yes, I remember! Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s old slash and burn outfit.
Speaking of Bain Capital, that AK-47 was probably a cheap Chinese knock-off, which would explain why it jammed.
If the NDP forms the next gov’t I’m secretly hoping they will re-equip the Cdn Forces with Russian-made AK-47′s. No knock-offs! I want them smelling of vodka! I’ll take stuff made by drunken Russians any day. look at the Russian Soyuz space rockets. Still flying 50 years later!
I’m also hoping we make it to 2014, in time to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I. I could think of a any number of things that could get in the way -like WORLD WAR III!
And speaking of Gavrilo Princip. I’m surprised they haven’t named a pizza chain after him. Gavrilo’s Pizza!
Gavrilo’s Pizza … the Prince o’ Pizza… By the way, the Globe and Mail is now reporting that both firearms used by Mr. Bain were legally registered, which rules out one of them being a true, fully automatic assault rifle.
@David Climenhaga, You do realize don’t you that because of an injunction filed by the government of Quebec that the Quebec portion of the long gun registry is still intact. All Quebecers who own and purchase firearms must continue to register them. And, even though I live in BC, if I buy a firearm from a retailer in Quebec my information including licence number, DOB, name and address, firearm make, model and serial number are all recorded.
As horrific as this violent incident was, if anything it should show how absolutely useless firearms registries of any sort really are. Quebec has a registry for the time being and it didn’t help in this case or the Dawson College case. Pauline’s whining to the PM to save the whole thing is absurd.
You obviously don’t know that the registry is still “active” in Quebec don’t you? And that all his firearms but one were legally registered ? So what does it say about the usefulness of that two billion dollars boondoggle?
Not giving a nutcase a license would’ve been the smart thing to do!
“Counting” his firearms is just plain stupid!
You might want To rewrite the above anti gun babble, so maybe it may look better documented and smarter. But it sounds like an impossible task.
The registration of rifles and shotguns is still a legal requirement in Quebec. As such, it would appear that a Quebec only registry proved impotent in the situation at hand within Quebec’s borders. So, what would a Canada wide registry have accomplished here?
Also, it has been reported that police have stated the rifle in question was either restricted or prohibited. As either, it would have been registered anyway. The now defunct LGR would have had no bearing on the situation; not that it would have proven to be effective anyway. Witness the failure of the national restricted/prohibited firearm registry.
In any event, you can’t legislate sanity into the insane. Although gun control proponents certainly try; over and over again.
Ah, the magic long-gun registry. It will solve everything. I love magical thinking, it is so magical.
Only to be followed by “I see assault weapons everywhere”.
Come on, come out and say it. You know you want to. Man up David.
Let them have the registry data. it’s a useless placebo. It does nothing, It solves nothing. It is a tool for political posturing and nothing else.
Je comprends pas votre logique, car le régistre des armes a feu au Québec existe encore. Vous en Alberta non, mais ici rien n’a changé. Donc, que peut en venir de conserver quelquechose qui de toute manière n’a pas arrêté Mr Bain de commettre son geste???????
Two Words
Gun Swap
Research ^ that. The “gun nuts” know the data base is still live but they are legally ensuring their rights will be protected. Clever and smart.
Must have been the fumes from the bitumen drifting eastward that drove Bain nuts. So yep, it’s Harper’s fault and blame Alberta rednecks. Like Alberta claims it Rat Free, I guess the rest of Canada is red neck free.
Gotta love you haters on the left. Your doing good work yourself trying to destroy this land.
Further to this:
http://m.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1254233–quebec-superior-court-orders-feds-to-hand-over-long-gun-registry
Now it appears the gun registry in Quebec was still in effect. That being the case, this proves the gun registry would not have prevented this 62 year old from loosing it. He record wasn’t something that would have been red-flagged in a Province of 8 million people. So this man’s crazy behavior is not Harper’s fault. Although the Federal Gov’t did ask for an environmental study of the land this man was requesting in order to expand his outfitting business. This notice came the day before the shooting and apparently ticked Bain off because he would have to pay for the study.
A gun registry does not work. As law enforcement, you assume the worst case scenario always and dumb it down from there. James Roscoe was clearly a dangerous man and yet, look at the results of Mayorthorpe. Had the justice system been just that, James would have been in jail long before that tragic day. However in fairness, that’s hindsight, easy for critics to point out.
The long gun registry is not what separates us from the USA. A friend of mine teaches fire arms courses. In order to purchase a rifle, you require an FAC course and RCMP background check. Now I don’t own a firearm and never have. Besides firearms don’t interest me even though every second friend I have owns a hunting rifle. I just got my WIN card for fishing this year. I will use myself as an example though.
Even if I applied for an FAC today, I wouldn’t be approved. Because of a domestic occurrence at my residence (which resulted in my 5 years now off the bottle), I would show up on the RCMP as questionable. Unfortunately for myself, that’s just how the system works and I am good with that.
It doesn’t work like that in the USA. They allow you to purchase a fire arm like it’s candy. It’s written in their constitution and rightly so during the early years of American independence, when the call for arms to form militia groups was warranted. The Americans failed to strengthen their gun laws (lack of actually).
Even a background check might not be good enough. Some people cannot control their anger or frustration and we usually here about these people tragically after they have taken the lives of others and themselves. The only prevention would be outlawing firearms. Last year in Canada 157 people were killed by a fire arm. More people were killed by drunk drivers. We have a vehicle registry so how did the vehicle registry prevent the loss of 7 people on HWY 63 last Spring. Would the vehicle registry prevented the deaths of the young high school football players near Grand Prairie. Should we have an alcohol registry in which each adult has to list all the brands they consume? Is any Prime Minister to blame for all the highway deaths?
The common deniminator in my opinion defaults to personal responsibility. Stephen Harper, therefore is not to blame. The cancellation of the gun registry is not to blame, considering it still existed in Quebec. The long-gun registry is not Superman’s cape. It’s not a vaccination. The long-gun registry is not the cure for common sense. If that were the case, the vehicle registry would be responsible for zero lives lost.
Did Rob Rheaume even read Climenhaga’s post? He seems to be responding to points Climenhaga didn’t make, or agreed with. It seemed to be that the point of the story was that PM Harpoon didn’t have a clue how to deal with Quebec and this shooting provided a huge opportunity for him to mess up bigtime. Now it looks like a court has saved him, for a little while any way. Lucky him, if hes smart enough to notice. Count of Vic Toes to eff it up by flapping his lips.
Hal
It’s Prime Minister Harper and there lies the problem. I was in the Canadian Airborne Regiment when it was disbanded. Now imagine how ticked off us soldiers were with PM Cretien at the time. I won’t go into the details how it affected my life but as a result, I was posted to Edmonton (live in St Albert) where I still remain. In 2003, I spent my summer fighting forest fires in Barriere and Kelowna. PM Cretien dropped by for a visit to thank us. The platoon I was in had just come off the mountain residential area from a long hot day of saving some homes. We were in our tent (30 of us) half naked changing out of our clothes when the PM walked in.
We all had a 5 minute discussion with him. After he left, I was asked by some of the younger soldiers why I didn’t use the opportunity to say something about the Airborne Disbandment. It was an opportunity insuppose. However I told the rest of the soldiers, regardless of my personal feelings, he is still our Prime Minister and that has my respect. Besides he came to see the damage and took the time, coming into hostile territory for him, just to say thanks.
So judging by your reply, the obvious difference between you and me is respect and professionalism. Mr Cretien is still a Canadian and so too is Mr Harper.
The firearm used in the Metropolis attack was almost certainly a long-barrelled variant of the Vz.58, which is made in the Czech Republic. It is not a AK-47 variant, and shares no common parts, but superficially looks like one. They are pretty widely available in Canada, and the long-barrelled variants are considered to be “non-restricted.”
Judging by the accounts of witnesses, I’m unsure if the gun jammed so much as ran out of ammunition – as all legally-purchased semi-automatic rifles are limited to a five-round magazine capacity
All AK-47s and their derivatives have been prohibited in Canada since 1995, under the Prohibited Weapons Order, No. 13.