UP IN ARMS AND SMOKING MAD

Two groups of protesters get their gun registry and medical pot messages
out on Parliament Hill.

OTTAWA -- Try as they might, these gun-loving lawbreakers just can't get
busted. After a month-long coast-to-coast quest to get arrested, six
firearms owners who are defying the federal registry law arrived to protest
on Parliament Hill yesterday. The group was joined by a handful of local
sign-toting supporters.

"We want our day in court, and so far the government has been reluctant to
give us our day in court," said Bruce Montague of Dryden.

"We want, sincerely, to get in front of a judge and have the judge kill
this law."

The gunsmith/repair shop owner vowed he would endure a jail term before he
would comply with the "asinine" gun registry program.

Al Muir of Saskatoon accused the government of misleading the public about
compliance numbers and he predicted the police will never enforce the
flawed law.

"This law is a rotting corpse the federal government refuses to bury," he said.

The group, members of the 400-strong Canadian Unregistered Firearms Owners
Association, travelled to each provincial capital, from Victoria to St.
John's, Nfld., to challenge the gun registry's constitutionality.

Also protesting on the Hill yesterday was a group of patients who smoked
joints and burned their Health Canada exemptions to demonstrate dismay over
the government's handling of medical marijuana.

Don Appleby of Ottawa, an AIDS patient who lives on a disability pension,
said he won't be able to afford the proposed federal fees for pot.

"Where are people supposed to be coming up with this money? Five dollars a
gram for second-grade medicine is not worth it," he said, estimating that
his required supply will would cost him as much as $1,500 a month.

Rick Reimer, a retired lawyer who suffers from multiple sclerosis, slammed
the federal government for erecting barriers to those who need weed.

"It's an insult to every taxpayer, and it's an even bigger insult to sick
people who need marijuana, and they're forced to go through hoops," he said.

"It's shameful."