The
mysterious Mr. Frohike
B.C. gun owners are threatened by a federal
official abusing confidential information
by Shafer Parker
Former firearms
instructor Lowe: His certification was snatched after
he criticized the RCMP.
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EXPERIENCE
has taught Cranbrook, B.C., resident Rick Lowe, 45, that hard
knocks should be expected for gun enthusiasts who openly oppose
the new Firearms Act. Mr. Lowe has been a certified firearms
instructor since March 1994. But his teaching career ended last
year after he wrote a couple of letters in late March 2000 to
the Cranbrook Daily Townsman calling for an investigation
of the local RCMP detachment. Mr. Lowe was inspired to write
after police admitted in court they had used false information
to obtain a warrant that allowed them to search the home and
seize the guns of James Buck from nearby Wardner, B.C.
Mr. Lowe's call for an
investigation was based on the decision rendered by Cranbrook
provincial court Judge Don Carlgren. After ordering police to
return Mr. Buck's guns, the judge stated in court that they had
shown a "complete and utter disregard for the niceties of
the law and the rights of the accused."
Stung by Judge Carlgren's
comments, Cranbrook police issued a report that insisted the
officers had "acted in good faith...based on the new
Firearms legislation." Then somebody decided Mr. Lowe
should be punished. On April 19, A.J. (Tony) Heemskerk, Chief
Firearms Officer (CFO) for British Columbia, wrote Mr. Lowe a
letter advising that his designations as a Canadian Firearms
Safety Course and Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course
Instructor in B.C. were being revoked. "You have
consistently demonstrated a lack of support for the Firearms Act
and have demonstrated an unprofessional attitude towards my
office and staff," Mr. Heemskerk wrote.
A former soldier who now serves
as an industrial first-aid attendant and builds computers in his
spare time, Mr. Lowe was surprised his teaching certificate was
revoked by the CFO. "It's upsetting to realize you can be
removed as a firearms instructor merely because you've been
critical of mistakes made by the local police," he says. He
admits that local firearms officer Dennis Johnson may have other
reasons to dislike him. Two years ago he led the fight to stop
local RCMP officers from illegally charging a fee to renew
gun-carry permits. And he successfully challenged Mr. Johnson's
initial refusal to register a Basque .380 automatic pistol he
had purchased in 1998. Mr. Lowe secured the registration only
after offering proof that at least 11 other Canadians had been
allowed to register the same weapon in other jurisdictions, and
he threatened to take Mr. Johnson to court. "But I can
assure you," he says, "that I never criticized the
Firearms Act when acting as an instructor."
His last assertion is backed by
Cranbrook lawyer Neil Robertson, who wrote a letter to Mr.
Heemskerk on Mr. Lowe's behalf shortly after he lost his
certification. Mr. Robertson's wife had attended a safety course
taught by Mr. Lowe, Mr. Robertson stated, and he had accompanied
her to most of the sessions. "I have never heard Mr. Lowe
demonstrate a lack of support for the Firearms Act," he
wrote, "nor have I heard him display any sort of an
unprofessional attitude toward your staff or office...During the
course...certain of the attendees expressed strong opposition to
many aspects of the Firearms Act." Mr. Lowe was entirely
professional in his responses, saying simply that while any
citizen is entitled to his views, the Firearms Act is the law of
the land and must be obeyed by anyone wanting to legally have
and use firearms in this country.
Ten days after Mr. Lowe lost
his safety instructor's certification, he received an e-mail
from an Albert Frohike that made reference to his teaching
certificate revocation, even though the information had not been
made public. Mr. Lowe does not know Mr. Frohike, although a
person using that name has developed a reputation for
frequenting firearms news groups on the Internet and submitting
individuals who express opposition to the new Firearms Act to
flaming (an all-out verbal attack via e-mail or in a chat room),
or mail bombing (submitting a person's name to hundreds of
Internet sites so that dozens of useless e-mails flood the
person's computer each time they go on line).
Whoever sent the e-mail flames
had to have insider knowledge, Mr. Lowe concludes. "The
only people who could have known that I lost my teaching
certification should have been the CFO, seconded police officers
working within the CFO's office in Victoria and, I suppose,
local Firearms Officers."
Nothing else happened for several
months. But this past October someone mail bombed Mr. Lowe. He
then filed a B.C. Privacy Act request to find out what the CFO
had in his file. He discovered that a particular RCMP constable,
who cannot be named while under investigation, is currently
working for the CFO in Victoria and has for years monitored
Internet postings by Firearms groups. He also found that
Cranbrook firearms officers had corresponded with this constable
about his behaviour in particular--even, at one point, sending
the Victoria office a copy of a letter to the editor of the Townsman
with a notation that it was written by Rick's father, Richard
James Lowe.
But most curious of all was the
discovery that in an e-mail sent by the RCMP constable to CFO
Heemskerk, statements Mr. Lowe had sent only to the mysterious
Mr. Frohike were being quoted verbatim. "In my view this
pretty much establishes that Albert [Frohike] is the one
responsible for these harassing e-mails and fraudulent
subscriptions," Mr. Lowe says.
Late last fall Mr. Lowe gave
the RCMP the information he had gathered, and the police, in
turn, have asked Mr. Heemskerk to investigate the possibility
that someone in his office is harassing the public. But until
the investigation is finished, says B.C. CFO spokesman Barry
Salmon, it would be inappropriate for anyone in the Victoria
office to comment. Mr. Salmon insists the CFO is committed to
maintaining client confidentiality within the gun-registration
system. But he is not sure what will happen if Mr. Heemskerk
finds that confidentiality has been breached. "I can only
say that it will call for some kind of response," he says.
It should, says Peter Kearns,
part owner of Kearns & McMurchy, an Edmonton gun shop that
recently went bankrupt. Mr. Kearns, who has also served as
vice-president of the National Firearms Association, has himself
been a victim of Mr. Frohike's flames and mailbombs. Not only
did the mystery e-mailer know Mr. Kearn's driver's licence
number and social insurance number, but he knew details about a
lawsuit Mr. Kearns has filed in Federal Court against Canada
Customs, alleging the illegal seizure of a shipment of guns. And
when Mr. Kearn's dealer licence had several clauses revoked last
year, Mr. Frohike knew about it days before any official
communication was received.
But it was the threats of
physical and sexual violence against Mr. Kearn's family that
scared him most. Not only did Mr. Frohike declare that his
victim would someday "kneel" before him, he boasted
that he had visited the gun shop and stood within two feet of
his wife. He also told him, Mr. Kearns says, that he "had
me in his sights" and that I should therefore "be
careful" when starting my "shiny red SUV."
Mr. Kearns believes that Mr.
Frohike has had dealings with Alberta CFO George Reid, not only
because of his evident knowledge of Mr. Kearn's personal
information, but because of the way government lawyers reacted
last month when records of any communications between the two
men were requested for the upcoming trial. "We had a court
date [for the customs lawsuit] for late December," he says.
"But when we asked for the correspondence records, the feds
cancelled. I don't know when we're going to court."
The treatment he and Mr. Lowe
have received should warn the public, Mr. Kearns says. "If
what we believe about Frohike is true," he says, "it
means that normal Canadians have their access to firearms
controlled by someone who can only be described as a low-life
psychotic. He is using his position to punish every single
offensive remark."
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