Canada: Gun centre attracts 'hate mail'

Gun centre attracts 'hate mail'
Date: May 17, 2006 7:46 AM
PUBLICATION: The Windsor Star
DATE: 2006.05.17
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A8
BYLINE: Chris Morris
SOURCE: The Canadian Press
WORD COUNT: 317

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Gun centre attracts 'hate mail'

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Having been told that he and the people of Miramichi, N.B., would be
better off shovelling cow manure than registering long guns, John McKay
has a clear idea of just how contentious the gun registry issue is in
Canada.

The main processing office for the Canadian Firearms Centre is located
in Miramichi and McKay, the city's mayor, is more worried than ever
about the centre's future following the latest revelations of
mismanagement by Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

McKay said Tuesday he has received dozens of letters in recent weeks
from Western Canadians who feel he has no business defending the roughly
200 jobs created by the gun registry in the economically depressed
region.

"It's hate mail," McKay said bitterly.

"These letters are directed at me, the registry employees, the Miramichi
community and the Maritimes. The employees have been compared to
concentration camp guards.

One writer suggested that tabulating polar bear excrement in the North
would be a more useful job. Another suggested we could spend our time
homogenizing cow manure."

McKay said he always believed there was a disconnect between Western
Canada and the East, but the letters he is receiving indicate a depth of
hatred and disgust he never would have suspected.

'LESS THAN HUMAN'

"Because the gun registry is here, they're saying we're less than
human."

In a report released Tuesday, Fraser said the former Liberal government
cooked the books on the much-maligned gun registry program, ignored
legal advice and hid the true cost of it from Parliament.

The auditor's findings give Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the
Conservative government more ammunition to dismantle the long-gun
registry.

However, the Conservatives are promising to maintain jobs in Miramichi,
possibly through an expanded handgun registry.

Larry Whitmore, executive director of the Canadian Shooting Sports
Association, which opposes the long-gun registry, said urban Canada
never understood -- and probably never tried to understand -- why the
gun registry struck such a sour note in rural Canada. "Take New
Brunswick for example -- it's a way of life there," Whitmore said of gun
ownership.