Muskoka Outdoors

The Globe and Mail and CBC news sites have reported that RCMP Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak will leave his gun registry position for some french language training. Both articles suggest that this is a muzzling attempt by Harper’s Federal Government before a serious debate about scrapping the gun registry moves forward in debate.

Once you get past the fact that the CBC is against anything Harper does, and reports as such, this is a hype over matter issue.

Marty Cheliak will still get a sweet pay check at the end of each day. Some french language training might be seen as break from the the long-gun registry and dealing with the names on that list. I mean, I could name 10 Canadian citizens (plus myself) who are on that list and who work to contribute positively to Canadian society. It must be tough finding all of us who have registered their guns and have our addresses listed on this ‘crime-reducing’ registry.  At the click of his fingers, Marty Cheliak could send officers to ‘visit’ farmers, hunters and other law-abiding, rural citizens to ensure our guns are locked up and not being used in any crimes.

Meanwhile, back in the real world (strangely overlooked by urban Liberals, NDP and the CBC), the criminal element could care less if the long-gun registry gets scrapped or not.

Why? Because their names are not on the list.

Over halfway through 2010 and one could argue that bears are trying to destroy their teddy bear image through various bear attacks and snarling close encounters.

For or against, these occurrences have many people talking about the cancellation of Ontario’s spring bear hunt. A lost hunting opportunity that many hunters felt was politically motivated. It was a management tool that developed a healthy fear of man in bears and helped to minimize encounters like those shared in this post. It did NOT mean the end of Ontario’s bears. Nobody wanted that!

Black Bear Photo: HBarrison from Wikipedia

Those against a bear hunt are being ‘treated’ with more bear sightings, bear attacks, property damage  and other close encounters.

Anecdotally, through sources close to Muskoka Outdoors, some Huntsville residents have been having some close encounters.

One man was working outside his house when he came face to face with a bear. After repeated attempts to scare the  bear off, the man went back inside his house, with the bear following, to get his firearm. When the man exited his house with gun in hand – the bear bolted away.

In a second, different encounter, one woman returned back into her kitchen to find a bear in her kitchen. It had come in through a screen door.

Then, there was this past spring.  In less than one month, three separate aggressive bear encounters have been reported in the area of Orillia, ON. One of the attacks was nearly fatal, while the other two were ‘charges’ and acts of aggression.

Listed below are accounts of the encounters from various sources:

1. Mauling victim gives chilling account of bear attack

2. ATV rider charged by black bear

3. Woman on bike chased by black bear near Orillia, ON

Recently, there have been other bear attacks in Canada and internationally:

1. Canadian woman recounts bear attack (Montana)

2. Bear killed after biting man’s arm (Colorado)

3. Port Alberni bear attack sends two to hospital (BC)

4. Yellowstone Bear Attack KILLS Camper, Injures Two

It’s getting more difficult to buy into the ‘rarity’ of hostile bear encounters and attacks. Clean BBQ grills, bear ‘proof’ garbage containers and call lines might fool humans into a sense of safety, but ‘Smokey’ the bear’s identity is lost in the reality of the Canadian rural setting.

Live trapping bears might make sense – until they end up in your back yard or mine. If we are going continue with this tool – I hope those involved are getting DNA samples of the bears that are re-released to make sure they are not repeat offenders. It will also give human victims a means to trace who released a potential risk to back to the wild.

At some point, increasing hunting opportunities, in conjunction with a science-based management plan, will need to be considered to start minimizing risks to humans. It could be a tough pill to swallow for anti-hunting groups.

It is more heart breaking for me to see a human become a causality of the ‘business-end’ of a bear.

In a strange case that smacks of a legal fee windfall with a dangerous precedent setting outcome, skeptical hunters from Minnesota have won their ‘case’ against the makers of Scent-Lok, ALS Enterprises Inc.

The Chattanoogan reports this about the the lawsuit,

“Last week, in the United States District Court in Minnesota, Judge Richard Kyle ruled that ALS had falsely claimed that its products were based on ‘odor-eliminating technology’ or were ‘odor-eliminating clothing’.” Entire Article Here

I don’t use the clothing. I can’t afford it. Besides, my hunter orange clothing tends to take on the smell and savor of the most recent meal in our hunt camp. Sometimes, it is fresh ‘bacon and eggs‘ scent or ‘mom’s NEW hot and spicy chili‘ scent. I doubt the carbon clothing could hide those realities of a hunt camp.

I am NOT saying carbon clothing does not work. I don’t know either way.

What troubles me is how could your prove, either way, that the clothing worked or it didn’t work in actual hunting conditions. The experiment would have so many variables like wind direction, wind speed, were any body parts uncovered (ie. neck, wrists, ankles), hunter noise, what the deer saw, deer nose sensitivity, the weather, exterior odors on the clothing, the height of the the treestand, timing of the hunt, the smells on other pieces of equipment, and many more.

A lab won’t take these factors into consideration.

In entering the scent-lok lawsuit into a popular search engine, it was easy to find more details about this case. It seems that the plaintiff’s major ‘issue’ was was not so much that ‘carbon scent filtering systems’ did not work. Test cases found that the odour removing function of the systems DID ACTUALLY work. It was just that, Scent-Lok’s advertising use of the words ‘human scent eliminating…’ and ‘gets hunters close to big game undetected…’ were misleading.

Saying scent removing is ‘good’ but saying ‘scent-eliminating’ is taboo.

It was also claimed that rulings on some of Scent-Lok’s patents were such that Scent-Lok could not claim ‘odour-elimination’ on their ads. Put your ‘brainiac-cap’ on and follow this link to an individual’s site that may have started the advertising fury for Scent-Lok. If credible, it appears to spotlight the issues surrounding the patents.

So now what?

I think most hunters can still sleep well tonight. Lab tests DID show that Scent-Lok’s clothing did remove human odour. Scent-Lok still has my vote as being potentially effective hunting clothing.

Some hunting equipment companies may want to take another look at the wording in their slogans. For those hunters who aren’t sleeping well because you actually believed that because you wear Scent-Lok clothing, when you hunt, you should be able to walk up to wild game undetected. I have some advice:

• If the label says, Realtree, you won’t actually look like a tree, grow roots and develop a thick skin known as bark.
• Despite their website blurb, Winchester ammunition will not actually help you ‘win the west’ or any part of a country
• When Browning clothing says they will protect you from the elements and keep you comfortable, your leg may still fall asleep on a treestand and your are not immune to fire
• When Gorilla Treestands label their safety harness as ‘shock absorbing’ your fall is still going to be uncomfortable and you might be shocked that you actually fell

Just F.Y.I. and common sense of course…

For Scent-Lok’s response to the lawsuit, follow this link to their blog.

For another Canadian’s view of this topic, visit Othmar Vohringer’s blog.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) has reported that PETA is petitioning Merriam-Webster (a familiar dictionary publisher) to add the term ‘Sea Kitten’ as a synonym for fish new dictionary editions. In a brief online release the USSA reports that,

“PETA has petitioned Merriam-Webster, one of the largest producers of dictionaries in the nation to include “sea kitten” as a synonym for “fish” in upcoming editions.  PETA claims that the term is becoming increasingly popular since it started a marketing campaign in 2008 using the phrase.  It further claims that “sea kittens” are just as intelligent as dogs and cats.” Entire Article Here

PETA’s is responsible for the ”kid-friendly’ comic series, Your Daddy Kills Animals. I have included the cover (photo right) of one their comic series to demonstrate how ‘intense’ this group is.

I suggest we start a second petition for the Merriam-Webster to make room for a new synonym for “useless”. It starts with “P” and ends with “A”.

Any seconders?

Press Release: The announcement earlier this week by federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff of a ‘new’ approach on firearms demonstrated the ongoing inability of the Liberal Party of Canada to either understand or acknowledge the profound failure of the long gun registry, and the public support for its demise.

“Repeated public opinion polls have clearly shown that the public do not support the system. Mr. Ignatieff’s woeful attempt to tinker with the long gun registry and sell his proposed changes as a panacea that will fix all of the problems that plague the badly flawed long gun registry is an affront to Canadians, and in particular to trained, licensed, law abiding farmers, hunters and recreational shooters. It’s a case of way too little, way too late,” said Greg Farrant, O.F.A.H. Manager of Government Relations and Communications. “By insisting that his caucus vote against Bill C-391 on Third Reading, he is highlighting the division that exists within caucus. By denying Liberal members a free vote on a private members’ bill, he is forcing MPs who supported the bill on Second Reading to betray their conscience and abandon their constituents.”

The suggestion that streamlining the registration system, waiving fees and treating a first time failure to register as a non-criminal ‘ticketing’ offence will solve the problem is not only insincere, but naïve. The proposal to make first time persons charged with possession of an unregistered firearm simply a summary non-criminal offence is neither new nor earth shattering. Section 112 of the Firearms Act already makes it a summary offence to possess an unregistered firearm. The offender is issued an appearance notice for a ‘regulatory’ offence, much the same as failing to wear/have a lifejacket when in a boat.

Equally misleading is the assertion that in 2009 the long gun registry was consulted by police 11,000 times per day. Based on the RCMP’s own figures, in 2003 the registry specific inquiries represented 8.2 percent of the total queries to the Canadian Firearms Registry Online (CFRO). By 2008, the number of inquiries specific to registered firearms represented only 2.4 percent of the approximately 3.5 million inquiries into the database. Using ‘hits’ as the defining statistic is misleading since the registry is consulted each time an officer does a background check for non-firearms occurrences.

“Persistent support for the badly flawed long gun registry is the hallmark of the Liberal party, which ignores the findings of the Auditor General of Canada, who noted in her 2002 report to Parliament that the government at the time could not demonstrate that the system they created helped to prevent crime and save lives,” said Farrant. “The registry has been subject to horrific cost overruns, personal privacy has been threatened by repeated breaches of the CPIC system, and cost/benefit analyses have been hidden from the public. Instead of denying the obvious, Mr. Ignatieff continues to defend the indefensible and force members of his caucus to fall in line.”

With over 100,000 members, subscribers and supporters, and 660 member clubs, the O.F.A.H. is the largest nonprofit, charitable, fishing, hunting and conservation-based organization in Ontario, and the voice of anglers and hunters. Visit www.ofah.org for more information.

*Press Release is copied with permission from OFAH.

Canada’s Public Safety Minister has given Canadians another extension on registering our “long-guns”.

According to the CTV News website, Toews says,

“The extension covers licenses and registration certificates for long arms, such as shotguns and hunting rifles. We’re giving people an opportunity to bring themselves into compliance with the law. We feel that the RCMP and other police forces have better things to do than to harass hunters and trappers and farmers for not registering their long guns.” Entire Article Here

Fees to renew firearms licenses will also be waived for a year.

It would be nice if we could stop getting extensions and put an end to the costly program. It’s costly because the program, that cost over $1 billion dollars, allows the police to access a list that has MY name on it and not the handgun-slinging gangster. A 2007 stat from Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics says that,

There are nearly 7 million registered long-guns in Canada. Yet of 2,441 homicides recorded in Canada since mandatory long-gun registration was introduced in 2003, fewer than 2 percent (47) were committed with rifles and shotguns known to have been registered. (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics).

Divide $1,000,000,000 by the average salary of a Canadian Police Officer (at least according to this site) at $51,000.

This equals approximately 19,607 MORE police officers.

As part of the course to become a legal long-gun owner (yes there was one already in place before the new costly legislation), we were to taught restrict access to infants and guests. This was obvious. The current legislation requires trigger locks. Although they are a pain and easily circumvented by criminals, they do add an extra level of nuisance to the curious eye. I would argue that someone intent on committing suicide, could just as easily find the key or use bolt cutters. Suicide was a key argument to the registry.

A law is a law. Until it gets changed, you have some time to become compliant to the legislation. Although, I doubt gang members are even worried about it…