Wednesday, September 13, 2006
By Christine McHale

Today, the tragic story of the most recent shooting in Canada was played out on TV news.

The shooting took place at Dawson College, an English language college in downtown Montreal, Quebec.

Although reports are still coming in, the preliminary details are:

19 injured
8 critical
the gunman and a woman are dead.

There was either only one gunman, or 2 to 4 gunmen, depending on reports, and police shot and killed one gunman. There are reports that a second gunman is also dead, but probably a suicide.

Jack Layton, federal NDP leader already commented, saying that something definitely needs to be done about all those illegal guns coming into Canada from the United States.

We agree with Mr. Layton, but rather than pointing our collective finger at the US and blaming them for all those illegal guns coming into Canada, we need to look at just where and how these guns are in fact entering Canada.

It is far too convenient to blame our neighbors to the south, and although we do believe the US should tighten their gun laws, there will always be those who are all too willing to break the law and provide illegal guns to smuggler will to bring them into Canada. This is big business. We have spoken to both the RCMP and the OPP, and both law enforcement agencies will tell you that the single biggest source of gun smuggling from the US into Canada is by way of the Mohawk Warriors, who are listed as organized crime.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently made an announcement that Canadian border guards will now start being armed, and no sooner did this come out, but the native chief at Akwesasne, a native reserve just outside of Montreal, piped up and said the border guards in the reserve should be exempt. Why?

The Akwesasne reserve straddles the US-Canada border and is considered to be one of the most porous borders between the two countries. There are numerous RCMP reports showing the vast number of arrests in and around Akwesasne for cigarette smuggling, so is it such a wild stretch of the imagination to think guns are also being smuggled through this area, as well as other border areas where native reserves straddle the US-Canada border?

The Mackenzie Institute has reported that Mohawk Warriors do indeed play a key role in smuggling all sorts of contraband. To them, it's business as usual. You want something smuggled across the border, whether from the US into Canada or the other way around, they'll do it for a price. We're not saying the gunman or gunmen at Dawson College were native, not at all, but we are saying there is a major problem at certain border points and these need immediate attention.

So what to do? Well for starters, contact you local federal MP by going to the following Government of Canada web site http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html#mp ,find your local area MP either by name or by your postal code, and email them stating that all border crossing need to be carefully guarded and ALL Canadian border guards should be armed. Pressure needs to be put onto our politicians to stop burying their heads in the sand and ignoring what is such an obvious problem area.

No exceptions! Enough of Two Tier Justice!!