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Dianne Sakisheway apparently believes that when Mr. Breitkreuz — well-known for his advocacy on behalf of Canada’s firearms owners — argued that firearms can be useful in self-defence, he was actually promoting gun violence. “Mr. Breitbreuz made charged statements to the youth that were emotionally provoking and intellectually confusing,” she wrote to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. “Mr. Breitkreuz’s promotion of gun violence was incongruous and unsolicited in the execution of their Grade 10 careers assignment.”

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall of that classroom.

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Although not calling it justified, the Nunavut Court of Appeal accepted that self-defence was a plausible defence that was tainted by the trial judge’s rulings on what evidence the jury was allowed to hear.

The appeal court ordered a new trial.

The dramatic shooting in January 2007 rattled Cambridge Bay, a hamlet of 1,500 best known as a way station along the Northwest Passage.

A feud between young men culminated in a confrontation at the small house of Chris Bishop, 27. At 3 a.m. Mr. Bishop called the RCMP saying men were trying to break in.

Long before help arrived, his front door started to give way to the kicking, and he retreated to his bedroom. He readied a gun.

He held what is called an SKS-D, which he legally owned. The semi-automatic rifle is supposed to hold only five bullets but Mr. Bishop fitted it with a 25-bullet “banana clip,” an illegal add-on that gives it a similar appearance to an AK-47.