http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/archives/story.html?id=062295bf-0d7a-4f22-9c8f-fbd1a54b3404

" 'Harshly worded' e-mail sent to McGuinty leads to weapons, drug charges for Cambridge man

A "disturbing, harshly worded" e-mail sent to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has resulted in 11 weapons and drug charges against a Cambridge man. Jack Carleton, 37, appeared briefly in a Kitchener courtroom yesterday and was remanded in custody.

The e-mail, sent May 21 to Mr. McGuinty's Ottawa office, contained vulgar and harsh language expressing displeasure with the recent provincial budget and its tax increases, said Staff-Sergeant Bryan Larkin of Waterloo Regional Police.

No charges have been laid regarding the e-mail as it didn't contain any death threats or threats to cause bodily harm, he said. < !--color-->

On Thursday, police executed a search warrant at Mr. Carleton's house and seized 82 firearms, 79 of which were registered handguns. Police also seized a crossbow and two marijuana plants. Mr. Carleton's common-law wife, Sherry Halfyard, said he is a gun collector."

OK, here are my comments:

If the e-mail didn't contain any threats of death, or bodily harm, how in HELL did the police get a search warrant for his house??

To get a warrant, they have to present evidence before a judge or a justice of the peace that they have reasonable and probable grounds to believe that he has committed an offence. How could they form reasonable and probable grounds on the basis of an e-mail that didn't break any laws?

What possible information could the police have had on this guy, and how long have they been sitting on it? What triggered this investigation? An e-mail sent by a guy exercizing his (until now) right to free speech?

Is that what we can expect from the police now? That they collect information about us, and don't use it unless we have the temerity to exercise our right to free speech and sound off at a politician?

They got a search warrant becasue he legally owns guns.

The current thought process of the Liberal inspired justice system that has so eroded common sense that we have this to deal with...

Gun owner-speaking his mind= Potential threat...

On a side note I didn't know you could even own a handgun in Canada. I had heard that a very special and limited permit that you could hunt in Canada with a pistol but I don't know if there was any truth to it.
So can you own/hunt with a handgun? Are the laws the same in all of Canada?
Thanx
Dave

Well, you can certainly own a handgun (or as many as you want), you can even own full autos, if you had them before the laws changed. There is a lot of paperwork involved, tho'. While I know of some instances where hunting was done with a handgun, it cerainly wasn't with the blessings of the government. I do remember a storey from a decade or so back where a hunting zone was declared a temporary "range" so that permits for ATT (authorisation to transport) could be issued and handgun hunting was tried. I heard it was in BC, but I'm not sure how much truth there was to the whole storey. You used to be able to get what was called a "trappers permit" to carry a handgun while in the bush, and up until about 25 years ago it wasn't very tough to get. They also had one for guys mining or guiding in remote areas. I haven't heard of any recent permits being ussued tho'. Our gov't freaks out over handguns and what they see as "bad guns", which means anything that looks like an assault rifle, handguns, full autos, etc. They have invented a permit system whereby if you owned one of the "prohibited" firearms before the laws changed you are "grandfathered" into that class. They figured that as they weren't issuing any new permits for the prohibited firearms, thier ownership would die out within a generation. Originally you couldn't even pass the prohibited firearms on to your heirs. There have been some changes on that front, but it's tough sledding as our supreme court is made up of appointed liberals with their own agenda for social engineering of the country, protection of property rights is not one of their priorities. Hell, property rights aren't even mentioned in our constitution (written by the same liberals). In this country, you can own handguns for target shooting, collecting, and work. There is even a blurb in the laws about self defense, but there isn't a police force in Canada that will issue self defense permits to any average citizens, as it would mean they had lost control of the masses. They do however issue them to certain judges and lawyers, and a couple of very well connected citizens. Some of us are more equal then others. - Dan

Dan, You are mostly right about the "Remote Carry Permits". I used to have them for prospecting but remote is in the eye of the beholder. If there was no CO nor a cop to protect you,you were justified in carrying your sidearm. I was also told that E-Division preferred that I keep it out of sight under my jacket so as not to upset anyone who saw it. (tough to comply in high summer,and the officer was right,it did ). I asked about the concealed angle and was told at that time "Canada has no concealment laws".
I know of 2 persons for certain that have been issued bush carry permits this year alone. derf

Thanks for the updated info Derf. I know here in Alberta all the guys I used to know who had them (bush permits) don't anymore, and K division here in Edmonton has a different definition of "remote", I think. I do know that the provision for the permits is still on the books, but getting local law enforcement to buy into the idea seems to vary. - Dan