Location:
Bracebridge Fairgrounds, 330 Fraserburg Road

Two Dates:
Saturday May 19th, 2012
Sunday October 21st, 2012

Times: 8 am to 2 pm

Admission: Adults $6; Children Under 12 Accompanied by an adult, free

All firearm laws are to be obeyed. Trigger locks are required. Security will check at entrance.

Show Organizers:
Ron Pickering and John Harlo
www.BracebridgeGunShow.com
info@BracebridgeGunShow.com
705 – 454 – 8177

The narrow loss is unfortunate, but as I prepare my firearm for an upcoming grouse hunt, I realize life will still continue as usual.

Criminals will still acquire, and use, illegal long-guns un-touched or harassed by the expensive database.

Many Liberal and NDP MP’s will live under a facade that a registered firearm creates a magic shield around gun owners to protect them from harm.

The safety measures that pro-registry factions so proudly toted during the time period before the vote, existed well before the gun registry was implemented. The paperwork and reference checks have remained virtually unchanged – save the extra column for a registration number.

This meant that the RCMP could check and deny any application for a Canadian to own a long-gun under the old system. Safe firearm storage and long-gun transport requirements were already significant portions of the gun safety courses. Any mature gun owner would know this. To bad the ‘experts’ from the Liberal, NDP and various other activist groups neglected to understand or mention this.

After this vote, money will continue to be spent on securing, implementing and tracking the various aspects of our long-gun registry. Money that could be spent on new police officers, firearm detection methods (in public areas like our porous border), medical science, the deficit, poverty and education.

As Saturday approaches, I will find myself wandering south of Dad’s cabin in search of grouse. Life will have returned to as it should be.

However, I suspect this after-vote reprieve will be short lived.

I predict that many of the same people who want to usher in a ‘gun-free’ country will soon want to vote in a measure that dictates, to me, that I can not use the woods to make my own meal anymore.

Life after that – will be difficult to take.

Game numbers in Ontario are varied. Black bears and moose numbers are on the rise. Deer populations are stable to declining depending on your WMU. Grouse populations are still low when compared to other years. Turkey populations are exploding with great success since their re-introduction in some areas of the province. Read the whole article here.

I also noticed that Ontario Out-Of-Doors has their Ontario hunting forecast published in their excellent magazine. They have a breakdown of game population trends in all Ontario’s WMUs. The details of the article were not listed on the web at this time.

To contact the Ontario MNR about hunting concerns or illegal hunting practices contact the MNR’s tip line: 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667)

A Muskoka Black Bear - Photo by Daniel

According to the Ontario MNR website, the changes are as follows:

• Prohibits the use of natural attractants that contain parts or bodily fluids of a member of the deer family for the purposes of hunting in Ontario (e.g., natural deer urine/by-products)
• Restricts the possession of certain higher risk carcass parts (e.g., brain, spinal column, antlers, etc.) of moose and caribou that were killed outside the province. This regulation is the same as the existing regulation that applies to the carcasses of all other members of the deer family which came into effect in 2005.
• Restricts the transportation of live white-tailed deer, American elk, moose and woodland caribou into Ontario unless accompanied by a provincial permit  (Source: Ontario MNR website)

I am somewhat skeptical over the need to ban deer urine attractants especially since no apparent CWD case has been linked to any these products. Perhaps when more is known about the actual transmission vectors of CWD – this could be re-evaluated. The synthetic products are cheaper anyway.

At least, they were.

UPDATE: The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) has since posted a media release about the changes. To summarize their media release,

“Unfortunately, these half measures fall far short of what actions should have been taken, and not only fail to address the problem, they leave outdoors retailers on the cusp of hunting season with inventories of natural deer attractants that can be sold, but no longer be used by hunters, at least in Ontario.” Entire OFAH Press Release Here

Chronic Wasting Disease Fact Sheet

2010 Ontario Hunting Regulations Download

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.

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.