http://www.oscarlacombe.ca/index.html
ADDRESS OF OSCAR LACOMBE AT THE ALBERTA LEGISLATURE GROUNDS, JANUARY 1, 2003
Fellow Albertans:
My name is Oscar Lacombe. I’m 74 years old, I live in Mundare, and I’m the great-great-grandnephew of the famous missionary Albert Lacombe.
I am also a great-grandson of Laurence Garneau, a pioneer who gave his name to Edmonton’s Garneau district.
I wear this beret on behalf of the Métis Veterans’ Society of Alberta, and these medals as a veteran of the Korean war.
I also served in Cyprus, as well as Egypt and Palestine.
For 12 years I was the personal bodyguard of our Former Premier, Peter Lougheed.
And for 13 years I was the Sergeant-at-Arms in that building over yonder, the Alberta Legislature. It was my duty to protect the men and women we elect to make our laws.
I performed these duties conscientiously, and have numerous awards and citations of which I am very proud.
I have devoted my whole life to upholding law and order and defending freedom.
But today a new law takes effect which I cannot support. In conscience I can’t even obey it.
In fact I have come here to defy it, openly and in public, with advance notice to the media and the Edmonton City Police.
Here before me is a simple .22 rifle—unloaded and wrapped in plastic. It cannot at present be fired, because I didn’t bring it here to scare anyone.
I brought it here to make a point.
I grew up with a rifle like this one. I used it to shoot rabbits to help feed my family when I was a little kid. It was the depression and we were poor. I shot my first deer when I was nine years old. We had to eat.
Today we have a criminal law, passed by the federal liberal government. It’s a new law that says I have to register this old gun of mine. And because I haven’t attempted to do so, effective today I am a criminal. Under section 92 of the criminal code I can now be put in prison for up to five years.
Let me be clear. I believe in law and order. If registering this old gun of mine would make Canada a safer and better country, I would have registered immediately and without complaint.
But I know it won’t. It won’t make Canada one bit safer. And I know many, many police officers who think the same. I know senior officers who have refused to register their personal firearms. And I have to ask, why is this ???
Take note – on this January first, 2003, hundreds of thousands – maybe millions – of ordinary Canadians have been turned into criminals by their own government. Why? For refusing to submit to a bad law.
The government says it wants to make the country safer and more secure. But if it really wanted that, it would start punishing the guilty, not the innocent.
The government said the registry would be simple and cheap. But now they admit it has cost one billion dollars already.
It will need another billion before it’s finished – and even then there will be millions of firearms belonging to citizens who won’t register, regardless of the penalty.
Our own Alberta government has refused to enforce this law. That means the federal government will have to hire more prosecutors and special police to enforce it themselves.
And after wasting all this money and effort, and after squandering so much goodwill among Canadian citizens, how many crimes will have been stopped? None. Not one.
Ask yourself – how many hip replacements or cancer treatments would that billion dollars have paid for? Is this country so well off it can blow a billion dollars on nothing?
This law was not passed for reasons of security. It was passed for reasons of politics. The liberals wanted to be seen to be doing something about crime.
The waste of billions of dollars didn’t matter to the government. Only appearances mattered.
The fact that it would not actually prevent crime didn’t matter to the government.
The fact that it would needlessly intrude on the property rights of millions of Canadians didn’t matter to the government.
None of these things mattered to the government in Ottawa. They wanted to be seen as cracking down on crime, even though they were only cracking down on duck hunters.
It’s all politics. The truth is, the gun registry only makes sense if the ultimate aim is gradual confiscation of all firearms. All the arguments in favour of the registry point in this direction, and otherwise make no sense.
Fellow Albertans, I have always been a private person. I did my job, kept my peace, paid my taxes and respected the law. I do not belong to any gun group, I speak only for myself, Oscar Lacombe.
But we have reached the point where I hardly recognize my own country – the country so many have fought and bled for.
It’s as though our government is trying to take away all the rights we once valued, and giving us new rights we don’t want.
There was a time when police needed a warrant to search a person’s home. This gun law requires no warrant.
There was a time when the law did not force anyone to cooperate with the police. This law requires the person being searched to assist the police in his own prosecution.
There was a time when the government had to pay for legal property it chose to confiscate. Under this law it may confiscate property without compensation.
It’s as though the government in Ottawa doesn’t trust us any more, and wants to walk all over us with spiked boots.
It’s as though the government in Ottawa no longer understands the traditions, values and principles that made this country of ours strong and free.
It’s as though the government thinks our country belongs to them and not to us.
Well, I will not submit. I’ve had enough. So here I am, Ottawa – Alberta Sergeant-at-Arms Oscar Lacombe with his dangerous unregistered .22 rifle. I’m the “criminal†you spent a billion dollars to catch. So if you believe in your law, come and arrest me.
And if you won’t enforce your law, tell the people of Canada why not, and repeal it.
Freedom never comes cheap. There are graves and monuments all over the world, from Europe to Asia, honouring Canadians who stood up and fought against tyranny. Many came home maimed in mind and body. Many others never came home at all.
Now the time has come to fight for freedom in our own country. I won’t register this gun, and I won’t hide. I will not submit to this unjust and dangerous law. Free I was born, and even if you put me in jail, free I will remain.