McKeachie, and through him the Attorney General's office as a whole, was being forced to answer for his actions to the public. He doesn't like that at all. Why should the Ontario Attorney General's office or McKeachie personally be upset about public scrutiny of this case?
Openness and transparency should be the hallmark of government.
After all, the Attorney General and McKeachie himself claim to be operating in the best interests of the citizens of Ontario. They should, one would expect, be happy to have the bright light of public interest shining on them.
That does not appear to be the case.
Donna Montague wrote a compelling email to supporters of their legal challenge on October 1st, 2010. In that letter she expressed her outrage at the Attorney General's office.
"Proceeds of crime?! Our home was paid for with my family inheritance. Our home was hand-built from the ground up with the blood, sweat and tears of my entire family. We worked together as a family for over 6 years to build it to the point it is at now."
"Personally I see the Ontario Government’s action as vindictive! We have not profited in any way from our peaceful protest to federal firearms laws, and nobody has been threatened or hurt. I do not see any justice in taking my home and put me on the street. At our age taking our property and our home, utterly destroys our lives. This is more than excessive."
Tony Bernardo of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association agrees.
"What they're doing is heinous," Bernardo said in a telephone interview. "That's why I wrote my letter to the Attorney General on behalf of the Montague family and our 15,000 members here in Ontario."
Bernardo's letter of support can be found on diarmani.com.
In his letter, McKeachie also wrote:
"A great number of cases under the Civil Remedies Act are resolved through negotiations, if your clients wish to make an offer in order to avoid further legal expenses I will of course take that offer to my client."
Donna Montague was not impressed.
"At every stage of this process, whenever we've 'negotiated' with them, we've been railroaded," she said.
"The search warrants were illegal. They said that for our Constitutional challenge to go forward we had to drop our challenge of them. After they arrested Bruce, did the first search and were holding Bruce in jail, they threatened to bulldoze our home to the ground if he didn't tell them where the guns were. What's to negotiate with these people? They want what they want and they don't care what they have to do to get it!"
Part 3 will be posted here tomorrow.
If you can spare it, the Montague family can really use your financial support! The government is attempting to steal everything they own. Please help them to save their family home from the Ontario government's confiscation attempt!
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