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A view from Quebec
From: Pierre_Lemieux@UQAH.UQUEBEC.CA ()
Subject:"Friends of Liberty" and C-68
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 00:59:39 GMT
Message-ID:
Here is a translation of the cover page and table of contents of the
brief submitted by "Les Amis de la Libertˇ" (Friends of Liberty) to
the Standing Committee on C-68. The association has been refused
the right to appear, but has tabled its brief as it was invited to.
Copies of the brief (in French) are for sale at Les Amis de la Libertˇ.
The contact person is Michel Kelly-Gagnon, president (address and
fax below). Better yet, why not request an English copy from the
Standing Committee's Clerk?
I myself have a electronic version (in MS Word 5.1 for Mac,
compacted with CompactPro and binhexed with Binhex 4.0) which I
can e-mail on request.
"Les Amis de la liberte" are an association of mainly young people from
Quebec.
Pierre Lemieux
BRIEF SUBMITTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
STANDING COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE IN THE MATTER OF
BILL C-68
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
-- Juvenal
The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all, the
elimination of the so-called subversive elements ... They were
elements of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict
I gave the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number
of weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which
continues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results.
-- Benito Mussolini, Speech given by the Prime Minister before the
Italian Senate, June 8, 1923. Reprinted in Mussolini as Revealed in
His Political Speeches (London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.,
1923, pp. 308-309.)
HIGHLIGHTS
-"Forbidding self-defense is simply criminal. If the Government of
Canada succeeds in disarming the citizens of this country, what will
happen next time the police goes on strike?"
-"Another question that MPs should dwell upon is, to which extent
does Bill C-68 aim at disarming Quebecers in order to forestall any
secession move?"
-"Domestic tyranny is not more acceptable than foreign invasion, and
the free man has a right to resist both. Arms are the last, but
irreplaceable, means."
-"The right to keep and bear arms is a natural extension of the right to
self-defense and the right to resist tyranny. These rights are deeply
imbedded in the Western tradition of individual responsibility and
sovereignty."
-"The government of this country, i.e., the British invader, had
already disarmed the French Canadian colonists during a period
following Conquest. Obviously, the conquered people were not
recognized the traditional right of the English subject to own and bear
arms. Today, the Government of Canada is intent to disarming all its
subjects, English and French alike."
-"The increased police powers in by C-68 are utterly inconsistent
with a free society."
-"While the Rambos of Fisheries and Ocean Canada bully foreigners
with automatic weapons on the high seas, the ordinary Canadian
citizen is liable to ten years in jail if he has a can of Mace to protect
himself against the criminals that the state does not control."
-"Like its forerunners of 1977 and 1991, Bill 68 represents a frontal
attack on fundamental individual rights, and glorifies the state's
armed agents. It will turn honest citizens into criminals, and destroy
the foundations of a free society and whatever was still worth fighting
for in this country."
-"The contempt shown by the Government of Canada towards the
citizens of this country is unspeakable."
-"The actual firearm controls in Canada are based on no serious
analytical or statistical bases, as noted by the Auditor General of
Canada in his 1993 report."
-"What, then, is the government's secret agenda, if not to finish its
task of disarming the citizens of this country and make them even
more dependent on a state that is financially and morally bankrupt?"
-"The citizens who will resist these anti-liberty laws are the real
Canadians. If one is optimistic about the future, one can hope that a
day will come when the federal government will issue a stamp to
honor their resistance -- just like it did for Louis Riel, one hundred
years after hanging him."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. Individual Responsibility and Sovereignty 2
1.1. Theory 2
1.2. Experience 5
2. The Right to Resist Tyranny 6
2.1. Theory 6
2.2. Experience 9
2.3. Is Tyranny Unthinkable in Canada? 12
3. Bill C-68 and the Laws Actually on the Books 14
3.1. Towards Prohibition 14
3.2. Police Powers 16
3.3. Laws Against Liberty 17
Conclusion 19
Concerning this Brief of the Friends of Liberty 21
Les Amis de la Libertˇ
1, Place Ville-Marie, bureau 2821, Montrˇal, Quˇbec H3B 4R4
Tˇl.: (514) 491-6106 - Fax: (514) 491-1188
