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Episode 17 - (PREVIEW) I Support the Second Amendment (and so does Marlaina Danielle Smith)
19 Plays2 days ago
Guns! In this episode, Tamarack hosts a topic about the Second Amendment (of the British North America Act) and its complete lack of relation to firearms in Canada. Far too many Canadians are uninformed of what actual legislation there is around gun ownership and it's time for us two queer leftists to discuss!
And boy did we ever pick a week to release this episode. We've had to make some edits after the fact to reflect them.
Also, what do we think of gun ownership? What was Heather's first time at a gun range like? What is the history of firearms legislation in this country?
This is a preview of our Patreon-exclusive episode which you can hear right now in return for offering your support!
https://www.patreon.com/c/ShawiniganMoments
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Transcript
Introduction & Patreon Pitch
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello! Please enjoy this preview of this Patreon-exclusive episode. If you're interested in hearing the episode now, please consider subscribing to us by visiting patreon dot.com-slash-a-winnegan-moments. We aim to have a bonus episode on Canadian-related topics each month, and will use the money we raise to help support the show and our work.
00:00:18
Speaker
Thanks.
Sun News' Content & Influence
00:00:20
Speaker
I knew this from years ago, but Sun News still has their YouTube channel active. But like all the videos like show this world of Sun News and I didn't realize how fucking cheesy it is.
00:00:31
Speaker
I mean, it's trashed. It's, it's a rag. Yeah. Well, I've read, like I, I use, I have read the sun in both, um, um, Toronto and Vancouver flavors. No, no, no, no, no. So the Vancouver sun is not this, it was not the original or rather the Vancouver sun is the only one of the sun papers that is not part of that sun chain. Mm-hmm.
00:00:57
Speaker
So I have read the Edmonton Sun when I lived in Edmonton and I've read the Toronto Sun a couple times when I was visiting Toronto or for work or whatever. And like, yeah, I have to play this old commercial. And I'm certain that you're going to recognize some
Ford Brothers' Political Impact
00:01:12
Speaker
bits of this. Let me play this for you.
00:01:28
Speaker
We've got him. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Sun News and Ford Nation. I'm Mayor Rob Ford. Ford Nation, Sun News, Monday, 8 Eastern. Who wants to play with the big boys?
00:01:45
Speaker
Who wants to play with the big boys? If you don't know, ah Doug and Rob Ford are very large boys.
00:01:57
Speaker
ah we don't Also, we're not fat shaming. We should keep that clear. It's not that they're fat, they're just, like, large. They're they're large in all dimensions. They're large in large in all sorts of ways, like their egos. Yes, their egos are large, the amount of damage that they've done to their city and province. Oh, they just approved. Also large. Doug Ford's government just put through finished passing legislation that permits them to build that god-awful, how many
00:02:30
Speaker
lanes wide highway that'll be underneath another highway. er It's just a fucking distraction because like basically like their their surplus that they posted is Like they're they're tooting their horns about that but in it they if you add up the cuts that they've done and The like tax revenue that they got ah their surplus is actually they managed to find a way to make like three billion dollars disappear and in the form of $200 checks to all Ontarians.
00:03:07
Speaker
ah yeah hey Listen, at least the rest of the country is getting a GST like break for the next few months. You can go buy your video games and not have to pay the extra 5%.
00:03:24
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Schwinnigan Moments, a podcast where I make actionable threats that Heather has to edit out. I am Tamarack, one of your host creatures. My pronouns are it, it's or they them.
New Format & Episode Theme
00:03:40
Speaker
And joining me is? Heather, and then you see your they, and thanks.
00:03:49
Speaker
i just So we're trying a new format today because we actually can see each other for once on this recording because we finally figured out how to do webcams.
Canadian Constitution Misconceptions
00:03:58
Speaker
Today's episode, the script I titled, I support the Second Amendment and so does Marlena Danielle Smith. Just as a quick note, we were not able to reach out to Marlena's parents for permission to use her preferred name. Here's a question for you. Is her parents still alive?
00:04:14
Speaker
I don't care because I also didn't try. but Let's find out. Let's find out. I want to know if Daniel Smith's parents are still alive. I apologize to everybody. This is a question I have here. Let's see. Here's Pearly Life. Father Doug Smith. Her parents have the most generic white names possible, so I don't fucking care. Yeah, we're never going to reach out to her parents.
00:04:38
Speaker
If you are a Doug Smith and your daughter is Premier of Alberta, we wouldnt like to we would like you we would like to first, in compliance with regulation, ah notify you if you weren't aware that she is using a preferred name and we would also like permission and approval to utilize that preferred name.
00:05:02
Speaker
So I'm a huge fan of the Hudson's Bay Company. That's what we're here to talk about, right? We have to cover some things. ah First off, some of you Canadians are on on Reddit are fucking illiterate or at the very least did not pay attention. This is where Tam is like two sippings.
00:05:23
Speaker
Okay, this this all I'm sorry, countries without a written constitution. Yeah, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, which is also wrong for the same reason. But they you can technically say this about the UK, specifically because it doesn't have a document called the Constitution. It it's kind of like us where it has a constitution of many documents, which spoilers, the Americans do too, because there's this kind of declaration independence, the Constitution, the document and also the Bill of Rights. But anyway, let me do i read these out loud for everybody, please. Yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker
Okay, i because i there's the two of them here are just great. So this is from r slash Ontario. We have a charter, not a constitution, and this is tagged as politics. May say nitpicky, but this is an excellent example of how Americanized and uninformed Canadians have become. I see this everywhere. Canada does not have a constitution. We are not America.
00:06:21
Speaker
We have a charter of rights. If we are uninformed about the most basic tenets of our government, how the hell will we ever properly advocate against the abuses threatening our rights? Stay informed, everyone. Check your sources. We will not win using misinformation. And the first replies to that is Google the Constitution Act. Inform yourself. Yep.
00:06:44
Speaker
And then the second one, which I says truck drivers, and I'm assuming this person was talking about what you call it the stupid convoy fuckers, the ones that really like Ram Ranch. ah We asked that all gun owners put this on their wall. The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right to the individual. If you believe in the second amendment and you are not afraid to show it, repost this.
00:07:08
Speaker
I hope to see this reposted a lot by my friends. Remember, if we outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. Copy and paste. So this is this is also Unconfidently Incorrect. ah This was posted several years before the the other posts that we linked by someone who titled their post Unconfidently Incorrect, the fucking irony of this. Canadian Constitution doesn't have a second and amendment or gun protection. Wrong and true.
00:07:39
Speaker
It does have a Second Amendment. So ah before we get into the actual episode, we're going to talk about that because this bothers me and it bothers me how often I hear this. This has even happened like when I've brought up the Second Amendment to the Constitution with people because I've shared that little fun fact. And people have said we don't have a constitution, we have a charter. And like some of the other links say that as well where someone will just say that We have a charter, not a constitution. and like I blame social studies because they talk about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is one of the charters, which is one of the sections of the Constitution Act, which was also delivered to the Constitution Act by way of amendment.
Evolution of Canada's Constitution
00:08:22
Speaker
so ah Our Constitution ah started its life as the British North America Act. It has been amended many times, usually for incorporating new lands or expanding or defining rights. The first two amendments were the Rupert's Land Act ah in 1868 to purchase basically all of everything outside of Upper and Lower Canada, except British Columbia, which was already an established colony with borders at that time. The Second Amendment, I was actually wrong on the video in Arcade Top 10, the Second Amendment was actually the creation of the Provisional Government
00:09:04
Speaker
in Rupert's Land in 1869, which expired in 1871, but was already effectively supplanted by an 1870 Order and Council that established the Northwestern Territory, adding it into the Union after some Mรฉtis folks got a little bit upset about that. Put a pin in that, it'll come up Put a pin in that, it'll also come up later in the episode.
00:09:29
Speaker
look cool The 1871 or the 1870 establishment of the Northwestern Territory, which encompassed this entire land, is actually still active in the Constitution. It's been amended a bunch of times to carve out Northern Ontario, Manitoba,
00:09:45
Speaker
illegally seizing the Red River colony, creating Saskatchewan, in Alberta, and much later ah was further subdivided to create none of it. But that's why the Northwest Territories is called the Northwest Territory. It's the only part of that 1870 Ordering Council that remains.
00:10:02
Speaker
and subdivided by any further act of Parliament. The British North American Act was renamed and reorganized in 1977 and then it finally was and was later renamed again to the Constitution Act in 1982 when it was repatriated. ah these These things happened at the same time.
00:10:22
Speaker
One thing to note about the Constitution Act is that it actually not only incorporated the BNA, but it incorporated a whole bunch of other ones, including I think the Statute of Westminster and a whole bunch of other shenanigans were all rolled into that one document. so The Constitution Act was the BNA. The 1977 reorganization of it is what what brought the statutes and everything into there. Right. Okay, fair enough.
00:10:43
Speaker
So, if you want to argue that Canada only had a constitution after we named it a constitution or after we repatriated it, it happened at the same time. Our first amendment was the Constitution Amendment Proclamation in 1983, which expanded for station rights, marginally. It's an important legislation, but didn't give them their land back. Our Second Amendment then, which I also support, but much much more weakly than the establishment of democratic control over Rupert's land, is a procedural modification of the way the number of seats are calculated by population.
00:11:24
Speaker
One thing um that is actually kind of interesting about the Constitution Act, and I guess we're also going to talk about the charter as well and all this stuff, is that um it is technically incomplete, technically, and that's because Quebec hasn't signed it. ah Yeah, but the junior-ness of provincial governments does come up every now and then.
Charter of Rights & Freedoms
00:11:44
Speaker
And while they do have separate rights, their rights are wholly unilaterally mediated by the federal government, so whatever. They do have their own constitution, incidentally.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's like I think in the kind and the constitution it spells out that provincial governments can't have militias. One of these days I am going to talk about the time that British Columbia basically created one when they weren't supposed to. We had a navy for like for a little bit. So ah the Charter, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that was like eight pages in social studies, that is one of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is usually what's referred to as what we have instead of a constitution. The thing is, that's part of the constitution. And also there's more than one charter, because obviously there is, there's the charter regarding our the relationship between the federal and provincial governments, a charter for like ah interactions with First Nations, ah which gets ignored both in popular conscience and by the federal government.
00:12:49
Speaker
Uh, so yeah, that's the thing that bothered me that I just shoved into this episode. Uh, and I won't apologize for it. Yeah. The, our constitution is like, it's actually pretty good. All things considered. Like today I was reading up on, um, section 15 of the charter today because I was looking to some future episode stuff and I was trying to understand a court case.
00:13:14
Speaker
And understanding what the Constitution Act is as well as what the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is incredibly important in knowing what the hell the two of them are.
00:13:26
Speaker
yeah Anyway, enough about enough about illiterate redditors. Oh wait, never mind, we're talking about guns.
Understanding Firearm Regulations
00:13:37
Speaker
ah Okay, for real, for real, for real. where we' This episode's about firearms. Tim just wanted to get on their soapbox. I wanted to get on my soapbox, which is what this episode is. It's just what this episode is. I'm sorry.
00:13:52
Speaker
You get, you you you pay us money, and every other bonus episode, you get Tam's hyper-fixation in return in the form of a two-hour podcast episode. That's the deal. Give or take, sometimes it's less than two hours. ah Scroll down. Ah, Christ. It's a good thing I had dinner already.
00:14:15
Speaker
Alright, so, let's start out. First we must ask, what is a fire arm? That's when your arm is on fire, right? Nah, anyway. ah Well, it is a device for causing a lot of screaming and agony.
00:14:29
Speaker
That's true, my arms would be up all over the place assuming they weren't shot off if I got shot. In Canada, anything with a muzzle velocity of more than 150 meters per second, which is, I believe, 1500 barleycorn. I don't know what that is in Imperial, go figure it out. And a muzzle energy of greater than 5.7 joules, which is actually not a lot.
00:14:51
Speaker
Technically, a paintball gun has the requisite muzzle energy. Just paintballs don't move that fast. They usually move at about 75 to 100 meters per second. They're they're a lot slower. I had to look this up, 150 millimeters per second to kilometers per hour is 540. So technically speaking, a high speed train that ran on the in France in 2009 which achieved 574 kilometers per hour would be faster than a bullet. Yes.
00:15:24
Speaker
Well, faster than a than a particularly slow bullet, because some bullets move substantially faster than 150 meters a second. It's technical. Oh, dear God. So the same applies for airsoft guns. A lot of them are capable of delivering further muzzle energy. But also, the projectiles in both are lighter, not very aerodynamic. ah So their muzzle energy dissipates really readily, which is why point-blank shot with paintball really fucking sucks.
00:15:53
Speaker
shot from ah across the ah the field. Not so bad.
Conclusion & Patreon Reminder
00:15:58
Speaker
Again, ditto Airsoft. A later amendment would include what include a stipulation that only firearms manufactured after 1889 counted as firearms. So older guns are legally not firearms, they're antiques, which are completely... ah The reason I bring this up now is they sit entirely outside of firear like modern firearms legislation.
00:16:24
Speaker
Thanks for listening! If you liked what you heard, please do consider subscribing to our Patreon by visiting patreon dot.com slash winniganmoments