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Politically Incorrect

Death in alberta — where was the Gun Registry?

by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

On March 3, four young RCMP officers, the eldest being only 32 years of age, were ambushed, shot and killed by James Roszko on his property in Mayerthorpe alberta, a small town 130 kilometers northwest of Edmonton. after being shot and wounded by return fire, Roszko killed himself.

The police went to Roszko’s after receiving information there was a marijuana grow op on his property as well as automobile parts that were believed to have been stolen. around the same time and half a country away, the Liberal Party of Canada was beginning its four-day convention in the nation’s capital. after the shootings, the Liberals wasted no time going into spin mode. The Minister of Public Security, anne McLellan and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler immediately called for tougher penalties for those who grow marijuana.

In the hours and days following what was the greatest loss of life of police officers since the days of the Wild West back in the 1880s, a lot of information began to surface about the 46-year-old Roszko who was well known in the area in which he lived. He was referred to as a "freak". Roszko was an unstable man who was feared not only by the general population but by the police as well. He had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for weapons offences and had recently done time for sexually assaulting a young boy. He was known not only to have been in possession of firearms, but to have occasionally fired them at people who ventured too close to his property. He was also well known for having expressed a deep seated hatred for police in general and the RCMP in particular and felt that the police were out to get him. although the people in Mayerthorpe and surrounding area were just as shocked as anyone else that four police officers lost their lives in a single incident, after having accepted that fact no one seemed surprised that James Roszko had been the shooter.

Grow ops have become a major problem in Canada in the last few years. The theft of hydro and the necessary rewiring constitutes not only a danger for the inhabitants of the grow houses, many of which include small children, but for neighbours and police, fire and emergency personnel who might be called to the house where the operation is located. Many grow ops are operated by organized crime and these houses bring the added dangers of drug rip offs, fights over turf and shootouts. But the death of the four young police officers did not result from the fact that Roszko had decided to grow marijuana.

To imply, as some Liberal ministers are doing, that this tragedy might somehow have been avoided had there been more severe penalties on the books for cultivating marijuana is absurd. To link this brutal act directly to the fact that this unstable violent criminal was growing the drug gives the situation a rationality that is simply not there. It also gives those who argue for the legalization (not simply decriminalization) of marijuana a stronger argument--if the drug had been fully legal, Roszko would probably not have been growing it and even if he had, the police would have had no reason to go to his property. Therefore, all four officers would still be alive.

The Liberals are simply trying to protect themselves from their contradictory policy that marijuana possession should be decriminalized because it is harmless while at the same time penalties for growing the drug should be harsher. It’s okay to smoke it, but a serious criminal offence to grow it. and more importantly, it takes the discussion away from what really should be being discussed in light of the tragedy in alberta; the government’s $1 billion boondoggle, otherwise known as the gun registry.

Introduced in 1995 at an estimated cost of $119 million, the cost of the registry has now exceeded $1 billion. all this money has been spent by the government to force law abiding citizens to register their firearms. Meanwhile James Roszko, who was described by his own father as a "wicked devil"; who had a lengthy criminal record; who had served time for sexual assault and who had shot at people on prior occasions, was allowed to walk around possessing weapons to the knowledge of everyone in the community, including the police. Were the weapons that Roszko used to take the lives of the young police officers who were just beginning their careers in law enforcement registered in compliance with the law? It doesn’t really matter; whether they were or they weren’t, those men are still dead.

Instead of letting the Liberals focus the debate on marijuana, they should be forced to account for their gun registry and how their wonderful legislation allowed a violent and unstable convicted child molester to possess firearms while everyone around them knew that he had them.

If only that money had been put into providing more resources for the country’s police officers, those four men might at least have had a chance. But unfortunately, the government will continue to beat their collective chests and brag about the fact that they want to increase the maximum penalty for cultivating marijuana from 7 to 14 years. They should all be ashamed of themselves.