You know even if I was willing to give the United Nations the benefit of the doubt, this organization does all it can to ensure that people of goodwill end up scratching their heads.
UN bureaucrats are currently in New York trying to negotiate a global arms trade treaty. This is the treaty that firearms expert and lawyer Solomon Friendman has told us could amount to a global gun registry and make it difficult for any non-state actor to acquire firearms.
What would that mean?
Well if this proposal is not changed, and Canada and enough other countries sign on to this, then it would become illegal under international law for anyone who isn’t the government of their respective country to get their hands on rifles or shotguns.
The plan they tell us is to crack down on the illegal arms trade for criminals and terrorists. But of course I’m not the government and you are not the government – at least we don’t act on behalf of the government of Canada, so under this plan it would become illegal for us to get our hands on rifles or shotguns?
That sounds harsh and far-fetched but there are groups in Canada like Project Ploughsares and plenty of other progressives who don’t think there is ever a legitimate need for anyone but the army or police to have guns.
Funny enough that’s also the position of many of the oppressive countries of the world, countries like Iran. Did you hear on the weekend that the Iranian delegation was elected one of the lead roles for the Arms Trade Treaty?
It’s true.
Iran is one of the Asian representatives along with Japan and Korea to assist the treaty president Ambassador Roberto García Moritán of Argentina.
Why would Iran like to make it more difficult to trade arms, for civilians to arm themselves? Maybe because they don’t want the marches in the streets to return and become violent enough that the regime is overthrown.
Look, is there a legitimate desire to stop terrorist groups and organized crime from getting their hands on weapons of any kind? I’m sure there is but I don’t feel confident that my rights and your rights will be protected in the meantime.
Is Iran concerned about liberty? Is Iran concerned that their citizens have the ability to defend themselves using force if necessary? I doubt that.
The Canadian delegation has put forward that any agreement must recognize the lawful use and ownership of firearms according to national laws. That’s a position blasted by the NDP, Project Ploughshares and countries that want only government ownership of guns.
A country like Iran should never be in a power position over Canada, a country like Iran should not be given any sort of recognition or authority by the UN. But this development over the weekend is not due to some sort of error, rather it is the way the United Nations operates.
Reports claim that Iran being named one of the Vice Presidents of the UN Arms Trade Treaty Diplomatic Conference was actually unanimous. That’s something we’ve asked the Foreign Affairs Department to clarify but they have been unable to. Probably because it is true.
Diplomats to the UN are interested in going along to get along and not interested enough in standing up to tyrannical regimes be it during an arms trade treaty or on any other matter.
So Iran is now a vice president of a global arms trade treaty conference even as they attempt to build nuclear weapons and continue to furnish arms to Syria – another place where the UN is failing spectacularly.
It is time to leave the UN
And that’s Byline.
Categories: Byline
The arms trade is far older than the UN. I doubt a congress of despots like the UN will stem the flow – particularly when the 3 primary sources of these military conflict arms sit on the UN security council (Russia,China,US). Canada has never been an agent of arms to military conflict so why are we even there?
So let’s stop wading in illusion and face reality – this treaty represses lawful civilan sporting firearms use in free nations and cannot be signed by any free nation, and the despots who wrote it will be overthrown one way or another as military small arms will always find their way to revolutions via the 3 permanent UN security council members.
Canada should show some self respect and back away from this farce and not even pay lip service to such deluded vacuity.
Just as the gun registry was suppose to stop violent crime in Canada but has not really made a dent. Legal gun owners aren’t the ones pulling crimes. And you can’t tell me that criminals are getting all their guns from stealing them from legal gun owners. If people knew on the storage requirements, etc. they would know how hard it would be to steal a gun. If the government would spend more money on finding the real source of these guns instead of wasting it on the registry they might get somewhere.
As for the UN how do they think a gun registry is going to stop wars, etc. when most of these guns are again not obtained legally. How is a registry going to stop gunrunners. It’s not.
The US State Dept. (Hillary) is going to sign this treaty. It will take effect immediately in the US pending ratification in the senate. An international treaty in US law can override even the constitution. This is Obamas back method of achieving gun control by overriding the 2nd amendment. He’s in fine company with other guntrol advocates such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Mussolini, Pol Pot among others.
Of course the media seems to be missing in action in explaining the ramifications of this slick move. It will be slated to come before the senate after the election in a lame duck session where anything can happen.
This should please the ndp/lib/bloc and the greens a great deal.
‘It is time to leave the UN’
Well Brian, not according to the opposition parties whenever canada experiences a problem or so said the NDP, they call on the UN to intefer in our governmental affairs and Canada.
Obama and his bandits as I call them did not support canada to get a seat at the Security Council instead Portugal and another were supported.
Well, the opposition parties blamed the CPC for the whole mess not their friend OBAMA.
BTW, does Gerry Caplan the NDP who constantly appears on our paid for CBC supports Iran and no one said a word not a peep no outrage of any kind?
What needs to be clearly understood is that, like too many of these international conventions, the proposed Arms Trade Treaty is a recitation of lofty and vaguely expressed liberal ideas. The devil is in the details of implementation. For example, member states are required to ensure that no guns are diverted from their intended recipients. Such a requirement appears quite inoffensive on its face, unless one stops to actually consider what is required to ensure such an obligation. How could this be achieved without a vastly expanded gun registry?
On the one hand we are trying to curtail an exploding bureaucracy and we just got rid of a long gun registry that was imposed for all the wrong reasons in the first place. On the other we contemplate bringing it back but vastly expanded, allegedly to ensure that small arms are not used by poor people against poor people mostly on the African continent and in the Middle East. No Canadian guns are running amuck in Africa or Iran. For a liberal the abysmal and guaranteed failure of the end result is far outweighed by the lofty good intention accompanied by some small gain of government control over private ownership.
Think drug control, the prohibition and all the examples of government control that never achieved their goals and never will. Why should we sign a treaty that nobody else will enforce other than to the detriment of their own populations? If so preoccupied with wiping Israel off the map, what is Iran’s new found leadership on this proposed treaty other than a self-serving means to control its own population along with a way to slowly bankrupt Western countries by ensuring the never ending growth of their bureaucracies?
No international bureaucracy will be able to police what the member states themselves are unable or worse – unwilling to enforce. This simple truth was the foundation of President’s Bush response to this feel good liberal UN proposal. Let’s hope that we don’t confuse showing leadership and resolve at the UN with mindless adherence to any liberal feel good agenda that aims at a vast expansion of our government and vastly expanded international obligations.
Brian, thanks for keeping up the attention on this all too important subject.