Inspector Ray Robitaille of the Calgary Police Service holds up handguns stolen from Wholesale Sports
Southeast Calgary MP Jason Kenney says the provincial chief firearms officer needs the resources to conduct more inspections of stores selling restricted weapons in Calgary and he intends to take up the matter with his cabinet colleague Peter Van Loan, the federal minister responsible for the RCMP.
Mr. Kenney, the federal minister for citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, was responding to an exclusive story by SE Calgary News about the lack of inspections of Calgary sporting goods stores after 54 handguns were stolen from Wholesale Sports’ store on Heritage Drive SE over seven months by a female employee and her male accomplice.
Several of the guns have surfaced in criminal activities, including a gang-related incident in Edmonton. Police fear the handguns will find their way into the hands of gang members, thereby contributing to the escalation of gang violence that has plagued Calgary over the past several years.
SECN interviewed Morris Sawchuk, Alberta chief firearms officer, about changes Wholesale Sports has made to its firearms inventory management as a result of the thefts coming to light. Mr. Sawchuk says he is satisfied the changes will prevent future thefts.
He added, however, that his office does not have the manpower or financial resources to inspect other Calgary firearms retailers. At present, a retailer is only inspected if it is a new store, if there is a complaint or if there is an incident, such as the theft at Wholesale Sports.
Mr. Sawchuk noted that the last province-wide inspection of all Alberta firearms retailers occured in 2002 or 2003. A similar inspection is not planned for the forseeable future, he said.
Mr. Kenney says it is important that the concern about firearms retailer inspections be handled in the correct manner.
Jason Kenney
“We have given additional resources, funds and personnel to the RCMP to do their job. Our job is to give them resources, it’s their job to manage those resources. It’s not for politicians to dictate to officers of the RCMP how they should function operationally. It would be inappropriate for us to get involved at that level,” Minister Kenney said.
“Speaking as an MP and layman, it seems to make sense that occasional spotchecks of firearms stores would be sensible. I can’t disagree with that. But neither I nor the minister of public safety are in a position to call in the Commissioner of the RCMP and tell him where to put his resources.”
Mr. Kenney says the proper procedure is for him to discuss the matter with the minister responsible for the RCMP, who would then take it up with the appropriate persons within the Mounties. The Alberta provincial firearms office is an agency of the RCMP and staff are employees of the RCMP.
“Having learned about this issue, I certainly intend to raise it with Peter Van Loan, minister for public safety and make him aware of the issue. How he raises the issue with the RCMP is for the minister to decide…at some level the minister cannot dictate operational details, but it certainly is legitimate to raise a concern about the security of firearms stores and I plan to do that in front of the minister,” he said.
Mr. Kenney quoted from an RCMP document outlining the chief firearms officer’s responsibilities, which noted that “the RCMP conducts a rigorous annual business planning exercise to ensure fiscal resources are allocated throughout the organization where they are most needed to ensure safer communities. ”
He added, “I think we’ve discharged our political responsibilities well by giving them (the RCMP) additional resources, but obviously firearms crime concerns us all and it’s something that needs to be treated very seriously.”
Mr. Kenney says he intends to speak with Mr. Van Loan about firearms retailer inspections in the near future.
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Didn’t this happen like a month ago? And Jason Kenney PLANS on bringing this to the attention of the minister of public safety…in the near future…wow, thanks for looking out for us! It’s also nice to know that the RCMP don’t have to anwser to the politicians the PEOPLE vote in to raise address these issues.
If they don’t anwser to politicians, and the people they are suppose to protect, some of them might just start doing illegal things(pension fund scandal 2004), excessive force(vancouver airport Robert Disanski 2007), use taxpayer money to sell a political agenda( October 2008 they were found to have bought a column in a vancouver newspapaper opposing safe injection sites)…or the numerous cover ups by the RCMP investigating it’s own incidents instead of outside sources(2005, a 22 year old university student was shot in the back of the head in an RCMP detachment), etc etc etc. I looked up a list, and this is just the stuff that was made public…