In response to my Friday column Cops Screw Up: Drug Dealer Jermaine Barrows-Taylor Escapes Illegal Handgun Conviction, one reader shared his frustration with this case specifically, as well as these types of cases in general. I do not understand why police screwups result in criminals going free. If police illegally search a vehicle and find a body, does the driver get a … [Read more...]
Cops Screw Up: Drug Dealer Jermaine Barrows-Taylor Escapes Illegal Handgun Conviction
On February 20, 2020, Justice Timothy Lipson acquitted Jermaine Barrows-Taylor of all firearm-related charges, but accepted his guilty plea for drug trafficking. At the time of his arrest for a violation of the Highway Traffic Act on August 26, 2018, Jermaine Barrows-Taylor was under a Firearms Prohibition Order and his driver’s licence was revoked. When Toronto Police … [Read more...]
Reform Canada’s Broken Firearm Prohibition Order System
NOTE: This is an excerpt from my 45-page Special Report "Designed to Fail: Canada’s Broken Firearm Prohibition Order System and How to Fix It." In the pages ahead I will make the case for a new firearm prohibition order system – one modeled after the United Kingdom’s Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) Units. Unlike Canada, … [Read more...]
Jennifer Quesnel’s Murder: Another Firearm Prohibition Order Failure?
June 10, 2020 Update via CBC: B.C. RCMP say they received no reports of domestic violence before Jennifer Quesnel was murdered by her estranged husband on June 1st, contradicting claims from her family. On Monday, June 1, 2020, every woman’s worst nightmare came true for Jennifer Quesnel. Her estranged husband, John Quesnel, shot and killed her with a gun he … [Read more...]
Saheed Bacchus Ali: Drug Dealer Arrested with Illegal Guns while Prohibited released on Bail
When Saheed Bacchus Ali was arrested with large quantities of illegal drugs and two illegally-possessed handguns on September 10, 2019, he violated not one but four Firearm Prohibition Orders. None of these prohibition orders stopped Saheed Ali from illegally obtaining and possessing a loaded Smith and Wesson handgun and an unloaded Glock pistol with its serial number … [Read more...]
Luke Sanocki: Another Violent Repeat Offender Released on Bail
Luke Sanocki is another poster-boy for all that’s wrong with our criminal justice system. In 2011, Sanocki attempted to run down three police officers in a bid to escape a traffic stop with his Dodge Charger, which was loaded with illegal drugs. In December, 2019, Sanocki robbed a Winnipeg hotel at gunpoint. He was arrested for that crime as well as for violating an … [Read more...]
Nicolas Bain and Monique Boyer: Canada’s Revolving Door Injustice System
Today I examine the case of two New Brunswick drug dealers and the 53 guns seized from the home where they sold cocaine, crystal meth and, yes, illegal guns. This RCMP search warrant and subsequent seizure of drugs and guns happened because someone, upset with these career drug dealers, lit two of their vehicles on fire on May 19th, sparking an RCMP investigation. Is this … [Read more...]
Julie Lynn Gaudet: Domestic Violence, Powerlessness and Firearm Prohibition Orders
Julie Lynn Gaudet made the news in January when she was sentenced to 30 days in jail for possession of a handgun for a purpose dangerous to the public peace. It was the latest in a long line of convictions for the 40-year-old woman who suffers from mental health issues and addiction. On September 21, 2019, while using a bank machine at the Bank of Montreal in the … [Read more...]
UK Police Pro-Actively Search Registered Sex Offenders to Ensure Compliance
Common sense dictates our scarce police resources should be devoted to those individuals who pose the greatest risk to public safety, yet these are the people Canada’s police and legislators totally ignore. If Britain’s police can pro-actively check on and search registered sex offenders, why can’t Canada’s police pro-actively check on and search the most dangerous people in … [Read more...]
Dillon Ricky Whitehawk: Firearm Prohibition Order Didn’t Prevent Three Murders
Dillon Ricky Whitehawk, a violent young man already subject to a Firearm Prohibition Order, is charged with first degree murder in the killings of Jordan Denton in November 2019, Keenan Toto in December 2019 and Keesha Cree Alexandra Bitternose in January 2020. He enlisted the aid of fellow gang members Kurtis Clayton and Kelly Renee Stonechild to murder Bitternose. They … [Read more...]
Richard Francoeur: Violent Repeat Offender is Released On Bail?
NOTE: On September 6, 2020, Richard Francoeur wrote to take issue with my characterization of him in this commentary, claiming he's turned his life around. I've offered to interview him and tell his side of the story. Should he agree and the interview takes place, I'll publish that interview in its entirety. Richard Francoeur is the latest in a long … [Read more...]
Former Halifax Cop Gary Basso Appeals Assault Conviction
Gary Lawrence Basso, a former Halifax Regional Police constable, is appealing his conviction and sentence for punching a homeless man in the face on February 25, 2018. Basso was on duty at the time of the assault. On January 31, 2020, Judge Halfpenny-MacQuarrie sentenced Gary Basso to 90 days in jail to be served on weekends, one-year probation and a 10-year firearms … [Read more...]
Tyrell Davey’s Useless Firearm Prohibition Order
The refusal of our government to check on and track violent criminal offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders registered against them almost cost some Saskatoon bar patrons their lives on March 3, 2020. Tyrell Davey, 25, already has an existing Firearm Prohibition Order against him. This piece of paper didn’t stop him from stealing an SKS rifle, loading it, then walking … [Read more...]
Joseph Endelle Chan: Poster-Criminal for Firearm Prohibition Order Reform
If Public Safety Minister Bill Blair needs a face to put on the poster for Firearm Prohibition Order reform, look no further than repeat violent offender Joseph Endelle Chan. On April 8, 2010, Joseph Chan masked his face before walking inside a Halifax barber shop with a stolen Glock pistol. He fired at least two shots before fleeing the scene. He was arrested a week … [Read more...]
John LaFleche Bludgeons Wife and Two Young Children to Death With a Baseball Bat
This is part of my ongoing series on Canadian Mass Murders. On Sunday, March 5, 2006, John LaFleche got really, really drunk, fought with his estranged wife Wendy, then grabbed an aluminum baseball bat and bludgeoned her to death. Then, fearing his children would grow up in abusive foster care like he did, LaFleche beat 7-year-old Victoria and 3-year-old Jesse to death … [Read more...]
Remembering Mayerthorpe RCMP’s Fallen Four
This is part of my ongoing series on Canadian Mass Murders. On March 3, 2005, a violent man with a long criminal history and a lifetime firearms prohibition order against him used an illegal gun to murder four RCMP constables in Mayerthorpe, Alberta. Anthony Fitzgerald Orion Gordon Lionide Nicholas Johnston Brock Warren Myrol Peter Christopher … [Read more...]
Buck Evans: Repeat Offender Violating His Firearm Prohibition Order
Why does the government refuse to change the law to allow police to track violent repeat offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders? If they had, perhaps Buck Evans would still be alive today. On December 26, 2018, 34-year-old Buck Evans was shot dead by Edmonton police during what was called a high-risk arrest of an armed and dangerous suspect whose criminal record dates … [Read more...]
Red Flag Law? Let’s Track Violent Offenders with Firearm Prohibition Orders
[Updated 2020-02-18] Added info documenting Basil Borutski's history of domestic violence dating back to 1985. Canada doesn’t need a new “red flag law.” If Minister Bill Blair truly wants to improve public safety, he must rewrite legislation surrounding Firearm Prohibition Orders so violent offenders are tracked and routinely checked for compliance. If he … [Read more...]
Ali Showbeg – More Proof Firearm Prohibition Orders are Useless
Watching 38-year-old Ali Nassir Showbeg produce a handgun from inside his pants and drop it to the floor of a Toronto Police Services cruiser, all with his hands handcuffed behind his back, is both priceless and shocking, for the following reasons. First, it shines a spotlight on just how useless lifetime firearm prohibition orders really are. In 2006, Ali Showbeg was … [Read more...]
Silver Lake, Wisconsin, Police Chief Dan Kingsley has the right idea about firearms
Study after study shows that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens reduces crime. In his landmark study of this issue, More Guns, Less Crime, John Lott, Jr. discovered that the paradox was overwhelmingly true. The more firearms there are in the hands of ordinary decent citizens, the less crime there was. Naturally the anti-gun crowd went nuts trying to find some … [Read more...]
Proof Handgun Registration Works! Toronto Teen robs store with loaded handgun
Yes, the title is sarcastic. The handgun registry is every bit as useless as the long gun registry, something this teen armed robber proves for me. This is the second time Canada has dropped long gun registration. Most people choose to forget that we tried this stupidity once before and finally dropped it when law-abiding Canadians refused to register their rifles and … [Read more...]
Judge Gregory Lenehan: Wow, you sure showed that career criminal who is in charge. NOT!
WARNING: Heavy Sarcasm Ahead In what can only be described as in incredible display of judicial toughness in the face of a repeat offender, Judge Gregory Lenehan meted out the harsh sentence of “time served” and an even harsher warning to “not do it again” in his Bridgeport, Nova Scotia, provincial courtroom. I’m sure James Douglas Hiltz was quaking in his boots at the … [Read more...]
Sentencing Double-Standard rears its ugly head again. Kelowna RCMP Staff Sergeant gets a wrist-slap for assault and firearm charges
Imagine, if you will, that you have a very bad day. You go home, punch your wife in the face 6 or 8 times while your children watch in horror, then you put a gun to your wife's head and threaten to kill her. Your children watch the whole terrible scene go down. You are arrested and charged, and you plead guilty to assault and careless use of a firearm. What sentence do … [Read more...]
Canada’s Firearms Act can’t stop violent offenders from getting guns…
Canada's Firearms Act can't stop violent offenders from getting guns... Canada's Failed Firearms Act, which has required handguns to be registered in Canada since 1934, can't stop 12-year-old kids from getting their hands on them either. The law that will "keep us safe" is, at best, an abject failure on all levels. For example, this week in Toronto a 12-year-old boy was … [Read more...]