>From: Pierre_Lemieux@UQAH.UQuebec.CA
>Date: Wed, 3 May 95 22:45:22 -0400
>Subject: Amis de la Liberte on C-68
>To: libprofs

Dear Sir or Madam:

This is a translation of the cover page and table of contents of the 
brief submitted by "Les Amis de la Liberte" (Friends of Liberty) to the 
Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Bill C-68 (new 
firearm controls). The association has been refused the right to appear, 
but has tabled its brief as it was invited to.

"Les Amis de la Liberte" are an association created at the initiative of 
a few young people in Quebec. The contact person is their president, 
Michel Kelly-Gagnon (address and fax after the text).

Very Sincerely,

Pierre Lemieux

-----------------------------------------------------------

OUTLINE OF BRIEF TABLED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF 
COMMONS STANDING COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE IN THE 
MATTER OF BILL C-68

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
-- Juvenal

"The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all, the 
elimination of the so-called subversive elements ... They were elements 
of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict I gave the 
categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons 
of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which continues with the 
utmost energy, has given satisfactory results."
-- Benito Mussolini, Speech given by the Prime Minister before the 
Italian Senate, June 8, 1923. Reprinted in Mussolini as Revealed in His 
Political Speeches (London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1923, 
pp. 308-309.)


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BRIEF
(All these points are documented in the brief.)

- Forbidding self-defense is simply criminal. If the Government of 
Canada succeeds in disarming the citizens of this country, what will 
happen next time the police goes on strike?

- Another question that MPs should dwell upon is, to which extent does 
Bill C-68 aim at disarming Quebecers in order to forestall any 
secession move?

- Domestic tyranny is not more acceptable than foreign invasion, and 
the free man has a right to resist both. Arms are the last, but 
irreplaceable, means.

- The right to keep and bear arms is a natural extension of the right to 
self-defense and the right to resist tyranny. These rights are deeply 
imbedded in the Western tradition of individual responsibility and 
sovereignty.

- The government of this country, i.e., the British invader, had already 
disarmed the French Canadian colonists during a period following 
Conquest. Obviously, the conquered people were not 
recognized the traditional right of the English subject to own and bear 
arms. Today, the Government of Canada is intent to disarming all its 
subjects, English and French alike.

- The increased police powers in by C-68 are utterly inconsistent with 
a free society.

- While the Rambos of Fisheries and Ocean Canada bully foreigners with 
automatic weapons on the high seas, the ordinary Canadian citizen is 
liable to two years in jail if he has a can of Mace to protect himself 
against the criminals whom the state does not control.

- Like its forerunners of 1977 and 1991, Bill 68 represents a frontal 
attack on fundamental individual rights, and glorifies the state's armed 
agents. It will turn honest citizens into criminals, and destroy the 
foundations of a free society and whatever was still worth fighting for 
in this country.

- The contempt shown by the Government of Canada towards the 
citizens of this country is unspeakable.

- The actual firearm controls in Canada are based on no serious 
analytical or statistical bases, as noted by the Auditor General of 
Canada in his 1993 report.

- What, then, is the government's secret agenda, if not to finish its 
task of disarming the citizens of this country and make them even more 
dependent on a state that is financially and morally bankrupt?

- The citizens who will resist these anti-liberty laws are the real 
Canadians. If one is optimistic about the future, one can hope that a day 
will come when the federal government will issue a stamp to honor 
their resistance -- just like it did for Louis Riel, one hundred years 
after hanging him.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction    1

1. Individual Responsibility and Sovereignty    2

        1.1. Theory   2

        1.2. Experience       5

2. The Right to Resist Tyranny  6

        2.1. Theory   6

        2.2. Experience       9

2.3. Is Tyranny Unthinkable in Canada?  12

3. Bill C-68 and the Laws Actually on the Books 14

        3.1. Towards Prohibition      14

        3.2. Police Powers    16

        3.3. Laws Against Liberty     17

Conclusion      19

---------------------------------------------
Concerning this Brief of the Friends of Liberty 21
Les Amis de la Liberte
1, Place Ville-Marie, bureau 2821, Montreal, Quebec H3B 4R4
Tel.: (514) 491-6106 - Fax: (514) 491-1188