Politics

Amendments to controversial gun bill may scare away Americans, outfitters say

Published

2 years ago

December 26, 2022

In Dale Clark’s estimation, the money brought into New Brunswick by non-resident hunters — Americans or others — has never been fully appreciated.

“It is a multi-million dollar industry in the province that is not being recognized by our government, federal or provincial,” said Clark, president of the New Brunswick Professional Outfitters and Guides Association.

“We have been put on — I don’t know how you say [it] — the backburner.”

Although the federal government has promised it’s not going after hunting rifles or shotguns, Clark and others say they fear that any further restrictions on semi-automatic weapons will have American hunters, or other tourists who typically bring their own firearms here, reconsidering their trips.

Dale Clarke, president of the New Brunswick Outfitters and Guides Association, says hunting is a multi-million dollar industry that is often overlooked. (Submitted by Dale Clark)

According to the province’s executive council office, 3,600 non-resident hunters came to New Brunswick in 2019.

Bear hunting licences alone brought in more than $300,000 in sales before taxes, with 1,870 of them purchased for $160 a pop.

Now, after the industry saw a “very drastic decline” during the pandemic, Clark said the federal government’s Bill C-21 and its controversial amendment that would ban many hunting rifles and shotguns has put it under fire once again.

“I would say … that probably 75 per cent of our membership relies on bringing in non-residents,” he said.

Customer base only now starting to rebound

Rob Argue — who runs two hunting and fishing lodges in western and northern Quebec, as well as turkey hunting operations in eastern Ontario — said he has two rules he abides by in business, especially with Americans.

“I don’t talk politics and I don’t talk religion,” he said.

But talk of politics has become “almost impossible” to avoid in recent years, he said — including the topic of gun control.

“I think the more hiccups or complications that we have in the process for someone to come up, at some point they’re just going to say it’s not worth the hassle,” said Argue, who is based in Ottawa.

Three dead birds and a hunting rifle arranged on the mossy ground. — Argue, whose catch and hunting gun are displayed here, said he worries American hunters will decide traveling to Canada isn’t worth the “hassle.” (Submitted by Rob Argue)

Originally, Bill C-21 was proposed as legislation to ban handguns in Canada, but an amendment introduced by the government this fall added language that would create an “evergreen definition” of “assault-style” firearms banned by Ottawa.

Supporters of the ban have repeatedly expressed concerns about manufacturers evading the regulations by introducing new models. Critics, meanwhile, call the amendment an overreach.

“The point of the evergreen is to … alleviate some of the pressure on officials and experts to revisit this every year, every two years, or sometimes arbitrarily even longer than that,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said recently.

In response to criticisms of the amendment’s language, the minister said the government would be looking at some gun models “very carefully.”

Argue said most of his clients bring up typical hunting rifles like the Weatherby MARK V, a bolt-action rifle he said is common for hunting deer and would be prohibited by C-21.

Seeing other hunting rifles on the list, like the Webley & Scott wildfowl gun, also causes him concern.

While he said he doesn’t believe most Americans are tuned into Canadian politics enough to know what’s in the amendments, he worries about what might happen when they find out.

“I’ve been doing this for 13 years. I’ve never had Americans coming up that have had an issue at the border, because the firearms they’re bringing are very legitimate, reasonable firearms to bring to hunt the species that they’re hunting,” he said.

He estimates that before the pandemic, his American clients brought approximately $100,000 US annually to his business, Eastern Canadian Outfitters.

That customer base has only just started to rebound, he said.

In Quebec, 5,893 hunting licences for everything from black bear to wild turkey were sold to non-residents in the 2021-2022 season, although the province doesn’t track precisely where those hunters lived.

In 2020-2021, 3,753 licences were sold in Quebec, while 2019-2020 saw sales of 8,308.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the government would be looking at some gun models “very carefully.” (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Federal Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, herself a gun owner, said last week that she and Mendicino met with the Canadian Federation of Outfitter Associations, which showed a willingness to work with the government on the legislation’s language.

She called the outfitting sector “a billion-dollar industry in Canada.”

She said that there’s a “99.99 per cent … chance” that “if you have a lever, a bolt, a break action, a pump action, it’s your grandfather’s gun that you’ve had for years … that is not going to be impacted [by] this,” she said. “We need to get the facts out.”

Americans supply nearly half of northern Ontario’s hunting revenue

The concerns of outfitters like Clark and Argue are shared by Laurie Marcil, executive director of Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario, also known as the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association.

Her organization represents the tourism interests of a huge swath of northern Ontario past North Bay — much of it a long drive from the American border.

Despite the government’s assurances, she said she believes hunters will be hit by the proposed law. She also warns that Americans will hesitate about coming to Canada if C-21 becomes law as it’s written now.

She pointed to a report from 2014 that said 12,000 American hunters contribute to northern Ontario’s economy annually. While that’s only 15 per cent of the total number of North American hunters spending time in the province’s north, the report says American hunters contribute $17.5 million to the region’s economy — almost half of the region’s entire hunting revenue.

Marcil said northern Ontario needs their business.

“They buy everything here,” she said. “So you’ve got grocery stores, gas stations, you’ve got the outfitters themselves and their businesses and their jobs that they’ve created.

“So it’s a pretty all-encompassing impact that they have on these northern communities.”

According to more recent numbers from Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, 6,871 non-residents had purchased at least one 2022 hunting licence as of Dec. 14.

In 2019 — before the pandemic — 11,284 non-residents purchased at least one hunting licence in Ontario.

The ministry told CBC News that non-resident hunters are mainly American, although anyone who buys a licence and doesn’t reside in Ontario would be included. It said it didn’t have an estimate of how much those hunters contributed to the province’s economy.

It also did not include in those figures individuals who purchased a three-year small game licence in 2020 or 2021.

The ministry said it is unable to confirm whether those hunters actually travelled to the province — only that they purchased a licence.

Clark said many of New Brunswick’s lodges have suffered as a result of the pandemic, and the outfitters and guides he works with are seasonal workers.

Clark said attracting people from out of province means more than just money in outfitters’ pockets. Over the last three years, he said, workers in the industry have struggled and the average outfitter unlikely to qualify for government support programs.

He said the amendment to C-21 isn’t needed and represents another blow to the industry.

“Once [Americans] become aware of what’s going to be implemented, then yes, it’s going to be a big impact,” he said.

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Virginia Democrats advance efforts to protect abortion, voting rights, marriage equality

Published

3 days ago

November 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.

The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.

“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”

The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.

“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”

The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.

“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.

Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.

Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.

It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.

“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”

A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.

If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.

The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.

As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.

Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.

“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.

The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.

___

Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

___

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

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Trump chooses anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary

Published

3 days ago

November 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.

He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.

The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.

A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.

With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”

It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.

Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.

He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.

HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

__ Seitz reported from Washington.

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In Cyprus, Ukrainians learn how to dispose of landmines that kill and maim hundreds

Published

3 days ago

November 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — In a Cypriot National Guard camp, Ukrainians are being trained on how to identify, locate and dispose of landmines and other unexploded munitions that litter huge swaths of their country, killing and maiming hundreds of people, including children.

Analysts say Ukraine is among the countries that are the most affected by landmines and discarded explosives, as a result of Russia’s ongoing war.

According to U.N. figures, some 399 people have been killed and 915 wounded from landmines and other munitions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, equal to the number of casualties reported from 2014-2021. More than 1 in 10 of those casualties have been children.

The economic impact is costing billions to the Ukrainian economy. Landmines and other munitions are preventing the sowing of 5 million hectares, or 10%, of the country’s agricultural land.

Cyprus stepped up to offer its facilities as part of the European Union’s Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine. So far, almost 100 Ukrainian armed forces personnel have taken part in three training cycles over the last two years, said Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis.

“We are committed to continuing this support for as long as it takes,” Gotsis told the Associated Press, adding that the Cyprus government has covered the 250,000 euro ($262,600) training cost.

Cyprus opted to offer such training owing to its own landmine issues dating back five decades when the island nation was ethnically divided when Turkey invaded following a coup that sought union with Greece. The United Nations has removed some 27,000 landmines from a buffer zone that cuts across the island, but minefields remain on either side. The Cypriot government says it has disposed of all anti-personnel mines in line with its obligations under an international treaty that bans the use of such munitions.

In Cyprus, Ukrainians undergo rigorous theoretical and practical training over a five-week Basic Demining and Clearance course that includes instruction on distinguishing and safely handling landmines and other explosive munitions, such as rockets, 155 mm artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.

Theoretical training uses inert munitions identical to the actual explosives.

Most of the course is comprised of hands-on training focusing on the on-site destruction of unexploded munitions using explosives, the chief training officer told the Associated Press. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to disclose his identity for security reasons.

“They’re trained on ordnance disposal using real explosives,” the officer said. “That will be the trainees’ primary task when they return.”

Cypriot officials said the Ukrainian trainees did not want to be either interviewed or photographed.

Defusing discarded munitions or landmines in areas where explosive charges can’t be used — for instance, near a hospital — is not part of this course because that’s the task of highly trained teams of disposal experts whose training can last as long as eight months, the officer said.

Trainees, divided into groups of eight, are taught how to operate metal detectors and other tools for detecting munitions like prodders — long, thin rods which are used to gently probe beneath the ground’s surface in search of landmines and other explosive ordnance.

Another tool is a feeler, a rod that’s used to detect booby-trapped munitions. There are many ways to booby-trap such munitions, unlike landmines which require direct pressure to detonate.

“Booby-trapped munitions are a widespread phenomenon in Ukraine,” the chief training officer explained.

Training, primarily conducted by experts from other European Union countries, takes place both in forested and urban areas at different army camps and follows strict safety protocols.

The short, intense training period keeps the Ukrainians focused.

“You see the interest they show during instruction: they ask questions, they want to know what mistakes they’ve made and the correct way of doing it,” the officer said.

Humanitarian data and analysis group ACAPS said in a Jan. 2024 report that 174,000 sq. kilometers (67,182 sq. miles) or nearly 29% of Ukraine’s territory needs to be surveyed for landmines and other explosive ordnance.

More than 10 million people are said to live in areas where demining action is needed.

Since 2022, Russian forces have used at least 13 types of anti-personnel mines, which target people. Russia never signed the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning the use of anti-personnel mines, but the use of such mines is nonetheless considered a violation of its obligations under international law.

Russia also uses 13 types of anti-tank mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its 2023 Landmine Monitor report that Ukrainian government forces may have also used antipersonnel landmines in contravention of the Mine Ban Treaty in and around the city of Izium during 2022, when the city was under Russian control.

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