Help Me Stand Up For Our Rights
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Hi, My name is Caitlin Ragsdale, I am starting this go fund me on behalf of my fiance, Mathew Jasman, he is gun enthusiasts who has lived on a farm his whole life. After a long search for the perfect farm we purchased 80 acres in Strathcona county.
This was in August of 2014. In 2017, Mathew 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 our property over the previous couple of years. Several of my neighbors in a subdivision .5 miles north of
us 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 ourselves (as a farmers, firearms enthusiasts, sport shooters), but for other farmers, Land owners, firearms enthusiasts, sport shooters, both now and in the future.
The Lawyer that we have consulted stated that if we don’t fight this charge both ourselves and other farmers/Landowners will loose our right to shoot in this county and other counties. This deeply concerns us, because today they are attacking farmers, recreation-ally shooting, and next they could be attacking our rights to harvest and protect our animals.
We 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 we’ve spoken with the RCMP they stated that we were shooting safely and perfectly within our rights to shoot. An agreement was made, by mediation, with complaining neighbors, but the neighbors reneged on our agreement the very next time we were shooting. As a result of the 8 (noise by-law) tickets we have received, we 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, Mathew reported the statement to the CFO ( Canadian Firearms Officer) in Edmonton, AB and to this date, he has not heard from them regarding the statement.
Most recently, we received a call from the CFO to meet. We assumed it was in regards to the statement( threat that was made) from the EPS officer ( complaining neighbor). Mathew agreed to meet, and to our dismay, discovered that the CFO was investigating Mathew’s eligibility to hold a PAL.
*Of note* We discovered that the CFO was also an Ex-EPS officer. During his conversation, with the CFO, which Mathew recorded, he stated that “ we are allowed to shoot on our property however, if we continue to shoot, he will be charged under the firearms act even though the CFO knows there’s no chance of conviction, Mathew would then not be able to travel to the US because he would have a firearms charge on his record.” He also unjustly added 3 conditions to Mathew’s PAL.
A couple of weeks after our meeting, we received another call from him, while out of town working, asking if we have been shooting, since we were not the one’s 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 we should try to find out who the neighbors are that are shooting and let him know. We are sure he would then threaten them in a similar manner.
In conclusion, I believe that our freedom to shoot is being severally threatened, and no local government should be allowed to take this away. This is prejudicial to ourselves, 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 weither we can shoot or not. The longest we have ever shot would be 2 hours shooting clays with friends but this would be only once or twice a year. We also like to target shoot with a 22 once a month.
However due to our current financial situation we are unable to fight this on our own.
Therefore we are 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.
Concerned Firearms Enthusiast
Caitlin Ragsdale
This was in August of 2014. In 2017, Mathew 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 our property over the previous couple of years. Several of my neighbors in a subdivision .5 miles north of
us 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 ourselves (as a farmers, firearms enthusiasts, sport shooters), but for other farmers, Land owners, firearms enthusiasts, sport shooters, both now and in the future.
The Lawyer that we have consulted stated that if we don’t fight this charge both ourselves and other farmers/Landowners will loose our right to shoot in this county and other counties. This deeply concerns us, because today they are attacking farmers, recreation-ally shooting, and next they could be attacking our rights to harvest and protect our animals.
We 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 we’ve spoken with the RCMP they stated that we were shooting safely and perfectly within our rights to shoot. An agreement was made, by mediation, with complaining neighbors, but the neighbors reneged on our agreement the very next time we were shooting. As a result of the 8 (noise by-law) tickets we have received, we 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, Mathew reported the statement to the CFO ( Canadian Firearms Officer) in Edmonton, AB and to this date, he has not heard from them regarding the statement.
Most recently, we received a call from the CFO to meet. We assumed it was in regards to the statement( threat that was made) from the EPS officer ( complaining neighbor). Mathew agreed to meet, and to our dismay, discovered that the CFO was investigating Mathew’s eligibility to hold a PAL.
*Of note* We discovered that the CFO was also an Ex-EPS officer. During his conversation, with the CFO, which Mathew recorded, he stated that “ we are allowed to shoot on our property however, if we continue to shoot, he will be charged under the firearms act even though the CFO knows there’s no chance of conviction, Mathew would then not be able to travel to the US because he would have a firearms charge on his record.” He also unjustly added 3 conditions to Mathew’s PAL.
A couple of weeks after our meeting, we received another call from him, while out of town working, asking if we have been shooting, since we were not the one’s 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 we should try to find out who the neighbors are that are shooting and let him know. We are sure he would then threaten them in a similar manner.
In conclusion, I believe that our freedom to shoot is being severally threatened, and no local government should be allowed to take this away. This is prejudicial to ourselves, 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 weither we can shoot or not. The longest we have ever shot would be 2 hours shooting clays with friends but this would be only once or twice a year. We also like to target shoot with a 22 once a month.
However due to our current financial situation we are unable to fight this on our own.
Therefore we are 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.
Concerned Firearms Enthusiast
Caitlin Ragsdale
Organizer
Caitlin Ragsdale
Organizer
Edmonton, AB
