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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:14 pm Post subject: Edmonton mayor calls for knife ban |
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http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Edmonton+mayor+calls+knife+wake+stabbings/1321322/story.html
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EDMONTON � A spate of recent stabbings that has left two people dead and sent another to hospital is prompting Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel to look at the feasibility of banning the sale of large knives.
Mandel has asked city administration to work with local police on ways to help curb the escalating violence, including the possibility of legislating a citywide ban, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Monday.
The weekend killing of 21-year-old Brendan Malcolm McNaughton, who was slain in a scuffle with four men outside a city pub, was "the last straw" for Mandel, she said.
McNaughton was the second man to be fatally stabbed since Thursday, when 24-year-old Landis Tyson Stick was found dead in front of an apartment building.
McNaughton was reportedly trying to defend two women he was walking home with when he was killed early Saturday morning.
McNaughton's mother says her son's devotion to his friends likely contributed to his death.
"He was a beautiful boy and loyalty was his trademark," Pauline McNaughton said Monday from her home. "It was the most important thing to him."
She said police told her that her son was trying to defend two women when the altercation occurred that ended with him being fatally stabbed.
"It started because these guys in a car wanted to hook up with these women and when they said 'no,' they figured Brendan was the problem. He was trying to protect these women and he was killed for it."
The mayor also wants to lobby the province for action by the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission to look at a ban on carrying knives into bars.
"This is becoming almost an epidemic in our city," he said.
"We have to be overly aggressive with this. When I have parents coming to me saying 'I'm afraid when my kids go to the bar' . . . that's a worry. We have to stop this."
While the mayor's office said the city's legal team would be involved in any discussion on a potential knife ban, a prominent criminal defence lawyer said such legislation would be "close to impossible to draft," considering the myriad of legal uses for large knives.
"It seems unworkable when you think about kitchen supply stores and the lot," said Brian Hurley, with the Edmonton firm Beresh Cunningham.
Within walking distance of a wholesale kitchen retailer in the city is a pawnshop offering an array of dangerous daggers and swords, he added.
"I don't know how in the world you'd draw the distinction between a top quality butcher knife and an imitation samurai sword," Hurley said.
According to the Edmonton Police Service, there were 13 stabbing deaths in the city in 2007, accounting for 40 per cent of homicides investigated that year.
A similar citywide ban on knives was proposed several years ago in Saskatoon after a rash of killings in late 2005, but the idea stalled.
Jayden Jeffery Zylinski, 19, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of McNaughton, as well as various weapons charges.
Nathan Gordon Gour, 21, and Christopher John George, 30, have also been charged with assault.
Police alleged George was the first to approach McNaughton in the parking lot.
Police say three other men joined in the fight and, when it was over, four men fled in a Mercedes. Police arrived soon after to find McNaughton dead. |
Banning knives from a bar is sensible. Banning the sale of knives in a city of one million is, well I don't know what it is. But it isn't sensible.
This gets to a beef I have with the political class in Canada. Any problem that is complicated, we take the most easy way out. Canadians go ga-ga for platitudes. Handguns are for all intents and purposes illegal, and David Miller (the mayor of TO) wants to "ban them", apparently he means ban them again. Now banning knife sales?
Edmonton feels considerably more dangerous of late. I don't know why this is (I suspect the hoards of young men with huge, manual labour earned incomes doesn't help). But maybe working on the punishment side is more reasonable? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| god Canadians are over-protective. I wonder how long it will be before helmets are mandatory for people walking down the street? |
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Faunaki
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| ^ That's funny but Edmonton is a sketchy place. Last time I was there staying with my sis we could hear gun shots and there were a number of axings that week. Creepy. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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^ I guess the city should look into an axe ban?
With held breath, I've been waiting for the official report about a knife ban:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2009/04/23/9221696.html
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| The city can't control the sale of knives but can get tough on watering holes and other establishments where violence continues to be a problem, say officials. |
I wonder how much the report cost. |
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RJjr
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp
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| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| This gets to a beef I have with the political class in Canada. |
Speaking of beef, how are people going to eat it now if it isn't sliced? If blenders are still legal, I guess a beef smoothie would be nice. Hopefully nobody will use a straw as a blowgun and ruin that option too.
| Faunaki wrote: |
| ^ That's funny but Edmonton is a sketchy place. Last time I was there staying with my sis we could hear gun shots and there were a number of axings that week. Creepy. |
Wasn't there some demented lunatic luring men to his house by pretending to be a woman in personal ads, and then using them as the victim in his snuff films? I remember reading about one guy escaping after being chased by a man with a "Jason" hockey mask and axe, but other guys didn't escape. |
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