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Shame, Mr. Harper: Conservative Party Bullying of Irwin Cotler

(As seen in The Montreal Gazette Dec. 8th and 9th, 2011)

Dear Editor



They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is my picture of your Dec. 8th editorial page, “The Conservative Party’s dirty tricks against Irwin Cotler” just above almost a half-page of letters on “What to do about bullying in schools.” The lies and intimidation shown toward the people of Mount Royal riding is surely an adult example of bullying run amok. Aren’t there already laws against that? Shame, Mr. Prime Minister: when will you speak out against such dishonest and unstatesmanlike behaviours practiced in your name? You have allowed party zealots to dishonour our political process. Again.



Sincerely,



Beverly Akerman MSc

ENFORCING THE LONG-GUN REGISTRY DOES PREVENT CRIME

Enforcing long-gun registry does prevent crime

Why do critics of the long gun registry persistently ignore this simple truth? 
By BEVERLY AKERMAN

 Originally published in The Hill Times, March 29, 2010 

MONTREAL—Does it make sense to assume all shotgun and rifle owners are law-abiding citizens, but that everyone behind the wheel of a car is a drunk? 

Isn't that the message behind the federal Justice Department's recent proposal to institute random roadside breathalyzer tests?  On one hand, the government, hiding behind the skirts of its latest sock puppet, sends Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner to pontificate: "Irrational government policy had to be challenged....The long-gun registry is a massive Liberal policy failure and it needs to end. It makes no sense to force law-abiding individuals with firearms licences to register their long-guns. It makes no sense to believe the registry will prevent a gun crime from taking place."  

On the other hand, it apparently makes perfect sense to assume that all drivers are drunk. 

Memo to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: if a policy has The Western Standard saying "Harper government wants full-blown police state," you have a problem on your hands—a "Houston-we-have-a-problem"-sized problem.  

Nicholson apparently approves of the random breathalyzer idea, as does Mothers Against Drunk Drivers executive director Andrew Murie. 

Purchasing a gun must magically confer "law-abiding" status through some noble alchemy of lethal weapon possession. Meantime, the latest example of gun mayhem unfolds on our front pages: the sad murder of Ontario Provincial Police Constable Vu Pham, 37, allegedly by 70-year-old Fred Preston, former reeve of the Township of Joly, and lifelong resident of Sundridge, Ont. Const. Pham was a Vietnamese War child survivor and father of three who spent part of his youth in Sundridge. 

Each year, roughly 100,000 Canadian women and children take refuge in domestic violence shelters. How many of them live in homes with rifles or shotguns, remembering some 11 million such guns are in Canadian hands (and that 90 per cent of those hands are male)? How many Canadian women have been threatened with guns? How many of these guns are owned by "law-abiding" gun owners?  

How long does it take to pull a trigger, anyway? 

That's the amount of time it takes for a "law-abiding" gun owner to become a law-breaking one.  Here's how the gun registry helps prevent crimes, including murder (I'm typing slowly so even the dullards among us will understand): knowing who has which guns allows the police to remove them as a preventative measure, should it become necessary.  Why do critics of the long gun registry persistently ignore this simple truth? Enforcing the registry does prevent crime. 

Since its creation, close to 23,000 firearms licenses have been refused or revoked because of just this sort of safety concern.  

For years now, this "tough-on-crime" government has encouraged the flouting of the Firearms Act—still law in our land, despite their efforts to ignore it. They instituted an "amnesty" for those who failed to renew their gun licences and waived or refunded licensing fees, more than $120-million-worth. 

That's far from being tough on crime.  

The Supreme Court has ruled, "The registration provisions cannot be severed from the rest of the act. The licensing provisions require everyone who possesses a gun to be licensed; the registration provisions require all guns to be registered. These portions of the Firearms Act are both tightly linked to Parliament's goal of promoting safety by reducing the misuse of any and all firearms. Both portions are integral and necessary to the operation of the scheme."  

Const. Pham's shooting is a tragedy—for his family, his community, for all of us. Just imagine how much more danger our cops will be in when they pull us over to sample our breath after our gun laws are even further eroded.

***

Grabbin' a piece a "Pie": new doings & feeling the love

This morning, cellstories.net, a nifty cellphone/electronic device only publisher, sent my award-winning and Pushcart nominated story "Pie" out to subscribers (it's free, look for them on Twitter!). Daniel Sinker, the man behind this brave new medium, who describes himself as "the founding editor of Punk Planet magazine in another life," thought it was "great."

And on Valentine's Day (who can keep these goyische holidays straight anyway?), my story, "NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: THE HARDBOILED STRESS OF BEING SANTA (WHEREIN YOUR INTREPID REPORTER UNCOVERS THE TENUOUS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BABY BOOMERS, RANDY GOATS, THE HARPER CONSERVATIVES, THE GUESS WHO REUNION TOUR, BRIAN MULRONEY’S GRANDKIDS, AND SANTA CLAUS’S UNFORTUNATE 2007 NERVOUS BREAKDOWN…)" went live on Joyland.ca. Montreal-Atlantic Editor David McGimpsey called it "hilarious," adding he "love[d] it."

Joyland.ca made CBC's Top 100 of 2008 and has been called "the go-to spot for readers seeking the best voices in short fiction."

Quill and Quire proclaimed Joyland.ca, “A savvy, sleek publication, devoted entirely to new short fiction...[that] has published marquee names such as Jonathan Lethem and Lydia Millet...The future of literary magazines is already here.”

According to Montreal's Hour, "Joyland.ca is an innovative, online publication devoted to new fiction," while Time Out Chicago has called Joyland "a lovely literary site that has a preoccupation with location...And so far, the work speaks for itself." So I'm proud to be part of Joyland (and of all the literary journals and reviews that'll have me. Not for me that Groucho Marx disdain for clubs that'd have me as a member!)

Karl Jirgens over at Rampike just accepted (in record time--1.5 hours!) my short creative non-fiction piece, "Aversion Conditioning, or Why I am Somewhat Conflicted about Poetry," telling me "Well, it's about time you got published in a gen-u-wine arty-farty rag like Rampike!...I think the piece is solid and very funny. Great stuff!" Rampike has been in business for over 30 years, Jirgens says, publishing the likes of Kathy Acker, Paul Auster, William Burroughs, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, and Julia Kristeva.

And on or about March 9th, please drop by On The Premises where my short story "Father's Day," written from a prompt provided by Nancy Zafris at The Kenyon Review's 2008 writers' workshop, is due to appear, an honourable mention for their "Delicate" contest ("One or more characters have to handle an object, person, or situation that they consider 'delicate' (whether it really is or not). How well these characters handle things is up to you."). "I loved this story," co-publisher Tarl Roger Kudrick told me.

So it's been a busy couple of weeks around here, basking in the glow of all this love. And there's lots more to come, with new stories due out this year in The Binnacle, EarLit Shorts 5 (mp3 stories) The Nashwaak Review, The New Quarterly and Windsor Review. Not to mention my short fiction collection, The Meaning of Children...which I'm hoping to have good news about very, very soon...