THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING , REMEMBER THE DATE: THURSDAY OCTOBER   6TH, 7:30 PM, AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN   THE TOWNSHIP OF GEORGIAN BLUFFS (FORMERLY DERBY TOWNSHIP).

The speaker for our October General Meeting will be Mr. Bob Gray, retired Ecologist with the MNR. Bob was instrumental in the designation of the ANSI , Areas of Scientific Interest in the Grey and Bruce area. Bob has authored and/or co-authored several books and papers dealing   with the ecology of this area. Plan to attend and hear this very knowledgeable and informative speaker.

FOUND!!

A pair of clip on sunglasses at the Turkey Shoot. If you are missing a pair call Gord Fraser at 794 2303.

Non-Restricted P.A.L. Course

There will be a non-restricted P.A.L. course at the SSA Clubhouse on the 2 nd to 5 th of November, 2005. Instruction will be on Wednesday/Thursday/ Friday evenings, with the exam on Saturday A.M.

Due to a significant number of " No Shows " in previous courses, SSA must now have payment, in full, prior to the start of this course.

Contact Stew Wallace at 794 4423 to book your place and arrange payment.

THINGS TO REMEMBER!!

Turkey Shoot. Sunday September 18 th, 1:00 pm. 22’s, shotguns, novelties, cowboy action shooting and pie shoots.

2006 Memberships will be on sale at our October General Meeting.

THE PRESIDENT ' S CORNER

The last four weeks have been extremely busy for many of our members, they have worked long an hard to bring off our biggest and best Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular ever. They also put in long hours at the Fall Fair and the SSA turkey shoot to name just some of the events. Without our members and other volunteers help, none of these would have been possible.   On behalf of the executive group and myself a very sincere thank you to all those who helped in these projects over the past month. Remember that the funds derived from these events are necessary pay for our many conservation projects in the future.

Now for some news for those members who have a computer and/or access to the internet. Starting on the weekend of September 17 th the Sydenham Sportsmen ' s Association has it ' s own " forum " set up on the " Grey-Bruce Outdoors " web-site. If you are interested in viewing or participating in this forum or web-site all you have to do is first go to the internet and log onto the site at www.greybruceoutdoors.com , then click on the word " forums " under the " main menu " at the left side of the screen. The next thing you have to do is get a password in order to use this forum. To get a password just click on the Login at the upper right side of the screen. When the new screen appears fill in your name and e-mail address in the appropriate boxes and submit them. In a few minutes you will get an e-mail from the Grey Bruce site with your personal password. Go back to the home page of the web-site again and log on to forums again, when the screen appears click on login and submit your name and password. When the forum screen appears scroll down to the heading that says " Community " and then find the Sydenham Sportsmen ' s Association heading and click on it. You will notice that Grant Ferris has already posted the complete results of the Salmon Spectacular on the site. They are there for your viewing.

You are now a member of the site and can use it to post messages, items for sale, items wanted etc. in our own SSA section of the forum. You are also a member of the Grey-Bruce outdoors site and can use or view anything on this great site as well as posting messages etc. in any other section of the forum. Please remember you are bound to abide by the rules which are set out by this site and they can be viewed by clicking on " board rules " on the header bar. We are also setting up a Private SSA Forum and I will tell you about it in the next newsletter.

Bill Douglas, President

FORESTS & WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Gerry Powers and Lorne Smith had a banner year working on several non-game species. Their projects included bluebirds, swallows, wood ducks, kestrels, bumblebees and more. Between them, they put in 1,079 working hours. Their undertakings involved many, many miles driven at their own expense over vast areas of Grey and Bruce. Their reward has been an enriched wildlife community for all to enjoy.

Well done, Lorne and Gerry!

At our last OFAH directors' meeting, SSA member and OFAH Director Bill Blackwell gave a report to the Firearms Advisory Committee that will be of interest to all of our shooters. We have included it for your information.

Blake Smith, Chairman,

Forests & Wildlife

Advisory Committee .

Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters

FIREARMS ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT

SEPTEMBER 2005

Changes in Chief Firearms Office

There have been some recent changes within the Chief Firearms Office (C.F.O.) in Orillia that have the shooting community a little upset. Superintendent Chuck Johnson, who was the Chief Firearms Officer of Ontario, decided it was time to retire and has been replaced by Superintendent Peter Burns, and Inspector Tony Cooper is now the Deputy Chief Firearms Officer. Both Peter and Tony are avid hunters and shooters, which we hope will bode well for us. However, the move that has the shooting and hunting community upset was the removal of Detective Sergeant Wally Baumann, who was the Canadian Firearms Safety Program Coordinator in the C.F.O. for the past 10 years. Detective Sergeant Baumann is w~11 known throughout the shooting and hunting community, because he is. both an avid competition shooter and hunter, and has spent many hours engaged in building a working relationship with shooters and hunters. During his past 10 years in the C.F.O., Detective Sergeant Baumann was instrumental in taking the Federal Shooting Range guidelines that, if implemented in Ontario, would have shut down most of our ranges, and created a set that were Ontario-specific and coordinated their use in Ontario. He helped with the development of the Wilderness Handgun Course used to qualify trappers, bear baiters, geologists, etc., to carry restricted firearms while engaged in their profession. As an Ex-Officio member of the Hunter Education Provincial Advisory Committee (H.E.P.A.C.) and Firearm Safety Education Service of Ontario (F.S.E.S.O.), Detective Sergeant Baumann has been a great help to us, and a great source of   information. While on the F.S.E.S.O. Board, he was instrumental with the removal of duplicate firearms training in hunter education and Canadian Firearms Safety Course with the development of the adoption of a "One Stop" approach to training, and has been very cooperative in any dealings I have had with him, particularly in getting information for my reports and answering questions. Although they say his transfer out is temporary, my personal belief is that he is gone for good. I hope that the person who takes over his position can build the same rapport and trust that Wally had built with the shooting and hunting community.

U.N. Designation Stamp on Firearms

At the April Board meeting, we brought this issue to light. Our concern with this issue is that if Canada buys in to the program of restamping identifying information on all imported firearms and not just the short arms (military type firearms) the program is supposed to be targeting , we will see a significant rise in the cost of our sporting firearms. Recently, many different shooting organizations from Canada, the U.S.A., and other countries attended the annual meeting at the United Nations voicing their opposition to the initiative. In reading reports from the groups, it appears that some inroads may have been made in pointing out the flaws with the proposal, the least of which is the fact that the major countries that sell firearms to terrorists, as well as the terrorist countries, have the ability to opt out and have said they will do so. Canada' s delegation pushing for this legislation is led by Wendy Cukier whose "Coalition for Gun Control" organization has reportedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars from various departments within our federal government, including the Justice Department, to fund their "antifirearms" campaigns in Canada and abroad. Greg Farrant is actively seeking information on this from our friends within the federal government. If the "antis" can have their initiatives funded by the feds, surely the "profirearm" group should get some as well to give the arguments some balance and true perspective. We will continue to watch this issue.

Federal Explosives Branch Handloading Issue Update

You have been informed of the impending handloading legislation that the Federal Explosives Branch of   Natural Resources Canada were drafting and considering bringing into effect. When the news broke of this legislation, the shooting and loading community immediately took the branch and its officers to task over some of the ridiculous rules such as: no loading if you live within 15 meters of another dwelling; no loading in multi-unit dwellings; limitation of five pounds of powder; etc. At the time, we sent a letter to Mr. Juri Kasamets expressing our concern over the impending legislation. We were informed that this was just a draft, that a consultative period with stakeholders would take place, and that members of the Explosives Branch were going to attend a meeting in Hamburg, Germany on this topic. There has been very little new information on the topic, but I have been informed that the consultative period with stakeholders is taking place and that some of the ridiculous things, as mentioned above, will not be in the new proposal. We will continue to try to get an update on the situation, and will inform you as soon as we know what the new proposed regulations will be.

Other Issues

Temporary Possession -At our last meeting, Wally Motz handed out some information on what you may do if you are the Executor of a Will and there are firearms left in the estate. In short, they can be reregistered to anyone who has a P.A.L. of the same class of firearms, including the executor, or they may be temporarily retained by the executor even if they do not have a valid P.A.L. The key word is "temporarily." I have asked the C.F.O. for a definition of the word "temporarily" and found out that there is no definitive time period. It would depend on the C.F.O. and courts, but I was assured that it did not mean years, as in the case of holding firearms until a member of the family comes of age years from now. Their expectation in the case of firearms being left in a will for a family member, and the executor does not have a valid P.A.L., is that they (the recipient or someone else) will be obtaining one in the near future (five to eight months). If this is not the case, their expectation is that the firearms would be transferred in trust to a valid license holder until the person is of age and has obtained a P.A.L. Again, it all boils down to who is defining "temporary."

Orders In Council - When we revised our firearms bylaws, we clearly stated our opposition to the government being able to pass legislation and declare this thing or that firearm prohibited by Order in Council. Orders in Council have no place in a democratic society, especially one that supposedly prides itself as being fair to its citizenry. Orders in Council totally eliminate the consultative process with the affected groups and parties, and are solely based on an individual's biases or perceptions. It is tantamount to the lynching parties of days gone by where you were captured, tried, and hung within the hour. Once again, our antigun, federal government has shown its true colours in allowing the Canadian Firearms Centre (C.F.C.) to declare the Walther G22 rimfire rifle to be a prohibited firearm, even though their original classification was nonrestricted. They have declared it to be prohibited based on its stock, which they now say is a "bullpup stock." When questioned on their decision, the C.F.C. claimed that they incorrectly classified the Walther 022 back in 2003. In the near future, the C.F.C. will be sending out letters to the owners of these firearms giving them their options. If you current currently own a G22 and your P .O.L. or P .A.L. allows you to possess or acquire prohibited firearms, you will be able to retain your firearm. Unfortunately, if you do not have prohibited privileges, then you will likely end up giving up your G22 to the police or sell it to someone who can have it. With the elimination of Special Authorization Permits (S.A.P.S.) that allowed owners of prohibited firearms to transport them to registered ranges, there will not likely be a very lucrative market for any that do go on the selling block. Perhaps it is about time that the shooting community once again started to lobby the government to do away with "Orders in Council," a process that totally circumvents due process and the consultative aspects of a democratic society.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Blackwell

Chair O.F..A.H. Firearms Advisory Committee

NATIVE AFFAIRS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Recently, there was an OFAH meeting with the Saugeen Indian band regarding fisheries concerns. Chief Vern Root and his biologist Tanya Morais represented the Indian band. The OFAH was represented by John Ford; President, Mike Reader, Executive Director, Fred Geberdt, Co-Chair, Fisheries Advisory Committee and Blake Smith, Chairman, Native Affairs Advisory Committee.

The meeting did not exactly save the world, but it did show that we at least can have discussion about issue in a reasonable manner. Many items, such as law enforcement, ownership of the lake, salmon stocking and the needs of both user groups were brought up. Also we talked about areas of mutual interest and possible co-operation such as lake health, invasive species and fish habitat.

All in all, we came out of the meeting with a cautiously optimistic feeling about the discussion. One thing came through very strongly, and that was agreement by both parties on the great need for ongoing communication in order to start building some understanding and trust.

Blake Smith, Chairman,

Native Affairs Advisory Committee .