From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   And it takes a New Democrat government to propose it . . . .   
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   The Canadian Press - Monday, Nov. 30, 2015   
      
      
   Manitoba looks to intensify protection orders after tragedies   
      
   WINNIPEG —     
   Manitoba’s attorney general says the province will be the first in Canada to   
   confiscate someone’s gun if they are named in a protection order.   
      
   Gord Mackintosh said the change is included in proposed legislation introduced   
   on Monday.  The bill will make it easier for the courts to grant protection   
   orders, look at expanding the use of GPS monitoring for offenders and will   
   require a firearms    
   possession ban.   
      
   “This is the first of its kind in Canada.  We are stepping out from the   
   crowd in Canada,” Mackintosh said.  “When you have the second-highest rate   
   of spousal homicides, we’re required to step out.”   
      
   The NDP is hoping for all party co-operation to pass the legislation quickly   
   so it can take effect in the spring, Mackintosh said.   
      
   The move comes after the killing of two women earlier this year.   
      
   Selena Keeper was denied a protection order against her former boyfriend five   
   months before he was charged in her death.  Although Keeper alleged she was   
   beaten while pregnant with the couple’s child, her application was denied   
   because a justice of the    
   peace found she was in no imminent danger.   
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   Camille Runke was killed in October despite a protection order against her   
   estranged husband who she told the court owned a gun.  She contacted police 22   
   times to report violations of the protection order but was shot in broad   
   daylight on a Winnipeg    
   street.  Her estranged husband later committed suicide.   
      
   The province has a duty to learn from those tragedies, Mackintosh said.   
      
   “I hear those lessons and we are demonstrating that we are listening.”   
      
   More than half the protection order applications made in the past two years   
   were denied because the legal threshold of “immediate and imminent danger”   
   is too high, Mackintosh said.   
      
   Under the proposed legislation, a justice of the peace can grant an   
   application if there is “serious or urgent circumstances” that take into   
   account the respondent’s criminal history.  Applicants will also be   
   supported in court by an advocate who    
   can speak on their behalf.   
      
   Those who work with domestic violence victims say the bill will save lives.    
   Too often, they say, protection orders are denied because the alleged assault   
   occurred a few weeks ago or the woman is staying in a shelter, seen as a place   
   of safety.   
      
   Trudy Lavallee, executive director of the women’s shelter Ikwe Widdjiitiwin,   
   said the proposed legislation will help protect women and children from   
   falling through the cracks just because they can’t articulate well in a   
   court of law.   
      
   “I believe these changes will really assist women and children who are   
   escaping violence.”   
      
   Jane Ursel, sociology professor at the University of Manitoba and director of   
   a family violence research network, said the legislation also addresses a key   
   component of domestic violence by diverting more offenders into intensive   
   intervention programs.   
      
   “Women and victims are not the problem,” she said.  “It is the accused   
   and the perpetrators that are the problem.”   
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   No kidding?     ﴾͡๏̯͡๏﴿   
      
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