U.S. ignores risks posed by readily available explosive

Under clause 38, it is forbidden to possess any restricted component in addition to the current prohibition on the possession of explosives, unless authorized by the Act or any exemption. The Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing a component of an explosive and providing that only a stipulated person or body, or a class of persons or bodies, has the right to acquire, possess or sell such a component (clause 37(1)). However, clause 37(2), and the new section 6(2) proposed in clause 38(5), authorize the Minister to exempt any body or person, or any class of persons or bodies, from the ban on possessing explosives or restricted components of explosives, as provided in clause 38(3).

If the bill goes through unamended it could actually do the exact opposite to the government's stated objective. I will elaborate. The federal government is using the September 11 terrorist attack as an excuse to continue its anti-gun, anti-hunting, anti-farmer, anti-sport shooter, anti-firearms collector, anti-historical re-enactor, anti-licensed firearm and ammunition dealer, anti-guide, anti-outfitters and anti-aboriginal hunting rights agenda. Those are the honest, law-abiding, taxpaying Canadians the Liberals have targeted with these 10 pages of proposed explosive act amendments in the bill.

A spokesman with the explosive regulatory division, minerals and metals sector of Natural Resources Canada indicated that at this point it had only one component in mind. The component to be restricted by this act is ammonium nitrate, one of the substances used in the Oklahoma City bombing a few years also. Presently a person can buy this product without having to show any link to the agricultural industry. The goal is that the regulations will impose tighter control on the retail sale of this product. The actual controls would be set out in proposed regulations and would need to go through the regulatory consultation process. It is clear that in the future other components may be added to the restricted list as needed.

This proposed legislation enables the government to go well beyond the parts of this bill and that causes us concern. This is enabling legislation. We do not know what regulations in future the government will bring in. These could be very harmful to farmers and dealers who deal with this particular type of fertilizer.

The accused has a lengthy history of mental illness and of dangerous handling of explosives. He also has a long history of treatment, and received out-patient psychiatric treatment as a requirement of a probation order in force against him between 1993 and 1996 because of an incident where he had taken a firearm to work with the intent of shooting a co-worker, for which he received a conditional discharge, three years' probation, and a 10-year firearms prohibition. In 1998 the accused pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of an explosive substance and to possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace, contrary to ss. 100(12) and 87 of the Criminal Code. The police had found in the accused's vehicle and in his apartment an arsenal capable of causing mass destruction to property, death and serious injury to persons in the area.

In the <appellant>'s vehicle was a suicide bomb. The only requirement for the device to deploy was the movement of the switch by the operator or victim. In the car were explosive substances, including two 500 ml bottles containing nitro-methane and picric acid, chemicals, which are extremely unstable in nature. Also located in the vehicle was a duffle bag with a container of 37% formaldehyde; 500 ml of sodium nitrate; 500 grams of sulphuric acid; 500 ml of lead nitrate; and 500 ml of picric acid; and 150 ml of glycerine and various other chemicals. The chemicals found in the vehicle have capability on their own, or in combination, to form highly explosive substances and could have been used to create an arsenal of devices.

Similar chemicals were located inside the residence, including two 80 lb bags of ammonia nitrate and two pipe bombs. Three detonators were seized including one that had been exploded.

The bomb inside the vehicle, if detonated, would have destroyed the vehicle and killed the person activating the device. The debris would have caused damage to cars, buildings and injured anyone within a 75 metre radius. The two 80 lb bags of ammonia nitrate, if mixed with fuel oil and detonated in the <appellant>'s suite, would have damaged the suites two to three floors above and two to three on either side, as well as cars parked along the street and houses across the street. Anyone in the area would be killed or seriously injured.

The only part of the bill that is any good at all is the increased penalties for the criminal use of explosives.

On 6 December 1917, during the First World War, the French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided with a Belgian ship, the Imo, in Halifax harbour. The Mont Blanc was carrying a deadly cargo of explosives: 35 tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, 10 tons of gun cotton, 2300 tons of an acid used in explosives and 400 000 pounds of TNT.

The resulting explosion held the record for the world's largest human-generated explosion until the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945. Almost all the north end of Halifax was destroyed, 131 hectares of it. Two thousand people died and 9000 were injured. Windows 80 kilometres away were shattered. The barrel of one of the Mont Blanc's cannons was found over five kilometres away from the harbour.

One can imagine the front as an extended but quite narrow subterranean shanty-built town, from the English channel to Switzerland, shelled and inhabited by some million men for four years, shovelled over, with all its dirt, waste, junk, dead bodies and duds in the years after the war. The fact that the clearance workers were often prisoners of war, or civilians paid per square meter (Belgium), and that French contractors had been awarded work on the basis of submitting the lowest bids, indicates that the clearance workers were likely to be quite careless in their work. Environmental considerations were, of course, not taken into consideration at the time being. But duds, as well as all kind of battlefield debris, which as mentioned were buried quite carelessly in the trenches after the armistice, sooner or later reach the surface of the fields again. "Der Materialkrieg", the material war, as the German writer Ernst Jünger called it, is still to be seen.

With the annual ploughing up of old war junk goes the epithet "the iron harvest": Special army patrols still drive around the countryside picking up old grenades which the farmers put in piles beside the road. Even 80 years after the war, every year there are still accidental deaths caused by live ammunition exploding. Farm workers are at greatest risks, because their machines do not discriminate between buried grenades and sugar beets, potatoes or other root-crops, and, of course, because they work on the former battlefield each day. For example, in 1991 a total of 36 farm workers had died when their machines hit duds (today 39).

As a tribute to Canada, the people of Holland presented Ottawa with a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs in 1945 in appreciation for the safe haven given the royal family and for Canada's role in the liberation of the Netherlands. Juliana sent a personal gift of 20,000 tulip bulbs, the start of a lifetime annual bequest.

What started as a heartfelt gesture of thanks has blossomed into over five million tulips. This amount has been verified by the Netherlands Flower Bulb Growing Center. More tulips grow in Ottawa than any other city, making Ottawa the tulip capital of the world. It is expected that this year’s festival will draw over a million-and-a-half visitors from around the world.

Under clause 38, it is forbidden to possess any restricted component in addition to the current prohibition on the possession of explosives, unless authorized by the Act or any exemption.

The Governor in Council <federal executive branch> may make regulations prescribing a component of an explosive and providing that only a stipulated person or body, or a class of persons or bodies, has the right to acquire, possess or sell such a component (clause 37(1)). However, clause 37(2), and the new section 6(2) proposed in clause 38(5), authorize the Minister to exempt any body or person, or any class of persons or bodies, from the ban on possessing explosives or restricted components of explosives, as provided in clause 38(3).

Under clause 38, it is forbidden to possess any restricted component in addition to the current prohibition on the possession of explosives, unless authorized by the Act or any exemption.

The Governor in Council <the federal executive branch> may make regulations prescribing a component of an explosive and providing that only a stipulated person or body, or a class of persons or bodies, has the right to acquire, possess or sell such a component (clause 37(1)). However, clause 37(2), and the new section 6(2) proposed in clause 38(5), authorize the Minister to exempt any body or person, or any class of persons or bodies, from the ban on possessing explosives or restricted components of explosives, as provided in clause 38(3).

4. These Regulations do not apply to

(a) storage facilities which at no time will contain more than 3,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate or ammonium nitrate mixed fertilizers;

(b) nitro carbo nitrates or other ammonium nitrate blasting agents; the preparation, storage or use of such blasting agents or similar mixtures in or contiguous to an ammonium nitrate or ammonium nitrate mixed fertilizer storage facility is prohibited; and

(c) ammonium nitrate mixed fertilizers containing less than 60 per cent ammonium nitrate by weight if they do not contain iron oxide, chromic oxide, inorganic salts of chromium, copper or manganese, powdered metals, sulphur, potassium chloride or any other ingredient in quantities which will appreciably sensitize or otherwise increase the hazard of ammonium nitrate.

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