To Whom It May Concern;
Hi, My name is Mathew Jasman, I am a gun enthusiast who has lived on a farm all my life. After a long search for my own farm I purchased 80 acres in Strathcona county.
This was in August of 2014. In 2017 I was charged with 8 counts of breaking Strathcona County noise Bylaw 66-99 (section 3.1a cause a noise in the county). These charges stem from myself and others shooting on my property over the previous couple of years. Several of my neighbors in a subdivision .5 miles north of me kept complaining to the RCMP and BYLAW officers until finally BYLAW decided to lay these charges. I’m very concerned about the precedence a conviction on these charges would set, not only for myself (as a farmer, firearms enthusiast, sport shooter), but for other farmers, Land owners, firearms enthusiasts, sport shooters, both now and in the future.
The Lawyer that I have consulted stated that if I don’t fight this charge both myself and other farmers/Landowners will loose our right to shoot in this county and other counties. This deeply concerns me, because today they are attacking farmers, recreation-ally shooting, and next they could be attacking my rights to harvest and protect my animals.
I feel Strathcona County is abusing a by-law that should only apply to towns and hamlets, not to rural farmers. Also, if one chooses to recreation-ally shoot, they will have to pay thousands of dollars in order to fight a by-law that should not apply.
Complaining neighbors(acreage owners not farmers)have called RCMP several times over the past couple years, every time I’ve spoken with the RCMP they stated that I was shooting safely and perfectly within my rights to shoot. An agreement was made, by mediation, with complaining neighbors, but the neighbors reneged on our agreement the very next time I was shooting. As a result of the 8 (noise by-law) tickets I received, I obtained a disclosure and read a statement of one of the complaining neighbors, who is a EPS(Edmonton Police Service) officer, which says quote “ Folks fed up with there nonsense and disrespectful attitude may take matters into there own hands which we all know will not end well”
As a result of the disturbing threats made in the statement, I reported the statement to the CFO ( Canadian Firearms Officer) in Edmonton, AB and to this date, I have not heard from them regarding the statement.
Most recently, I received a call from the CFO to meet. I assumed it was in regards to the statement( threat that was made) from the EPS officer ( complaining neighbor). I agreed to meet, and to my dismay, discovered that the CFO was investigating my eligibility to hold a PAL.
*Of note* I discovered that the CFO was also an Ex-EPS officer. During my conversation, with the CFO, which I recorded, he stated that “ I’m allowed to shoot on my property however, if I continue to shoot, I will be charged under the firearms act even though he knows there’s no chance of conviction, I would then not be able to travel to the US because I would have a firearms charge on my record. He also unjustly added 3 conditions to my PAL
A couple of weeks after our meeting, I received another call from him, while out of town working, asking if I had been shooting, since I wasn’t the one shooting he concluded it must have been one of the neighboring Farmers. He then stated “since your not allowed to shoot, why should they be.” and that I should try to find out who the neighbors are that are shooting and let him know. I’m sure he would then threaten them in a similar manner.
In conclusion, I believe that my freedom to shoot is being severally threatened, and no local government should be allowed to take this away. This is prejudicial to myself, all farmers/landowners and recreational shooters, this is a part of our culture as Canadians. It seems unreasonable that a few acreage owners who live at least 1/2 mile away (with dense bush in between) can dictate weather I can shoot or not. The longest I have ever shot would be 2 hours shooting clays with Friends but this would be only once or twice a year. I also liked to target shoot with a 22 once a month.
However due to my current financial situation I am unable to fight this on my own.
Therefor I am asking for financial help in order to pay legal fees. We need to preserve our Canadian heritage and ancestral rights. The only rights we truly have are the ones we are willing to fight for, we owe this to our grandfathers, our children and to future generations. I will have a link to my go fund me below anything helps.
Concerned Responsible Firearms owner
Mathew Jasman
https://www.gofundme.com/caitlin-rag..._co_campmgmt_w