Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Aug 26/05) - The Crown dropped an unregistered firearm charge against Inuvik resident Willard Hagen, Monday. However, it will proceed with a second charge of unsafe storage of a firearm.

Willard Hagen leaves the Inuvik Court House Monday afternoon with Dennis Hansen after the Crown dropped one of two gun charges.

Hagen was charged in May. In January, RCMP searching for a missing man were given permission to enter his wilderness cabin, located 65 km northeast of Inuvik. The police found several guns that they determined were improperly stored. Further investigation revealed that the guns were also unregistered.

One of the weapons was an antique buffalo gun Hagen had mounted on the wall of his cabin.

Speaking before his Aug. 22 court appearance, Hagen said he hoped the charges wouldn't be thrown out.

"I want to fight this all the way," he said.

Hagen said he was disappointed by the Crown's decision to drop the unregistered weapons charge.

"Don't you think they should have enough guts to go out and defend their billion dollar gun registry?" he said, adding that he wrote a letter to the federal justice minister asking that the charges not be dropped, "but I never got a response from them.

"Technically, I don't have any guns if they aren't registered, so how can I be charged (with unsafe storage)?"

Hagen also noted the guns were in a locked cabin and the ammunition in another locked building. He is also adamantly against registering his guns.

Petition started

At the Annual Gwich'in General Assembly earlier in the day, a petition was circulated in support of Hagen's cause.

"We fully support our Gwich'in Tribal Council to provide full support for Willard Hagen's court challenge of the gun registry program," the petition read.

"Our position is that the legislation has to change," said Tom Williams, chief operating officer for the council. "It's more for a southern Canada model and doesn't really work up here."

As for providing financial support for Hagen if the case goes to the supreme court, Williams said "it would be up to the board."

Hagen is the chair of the Gwich'in Land and Water Board and a former three-term president of the council.

Hagen's trial for unsafe storage of a firearm (Section 86 of the criminal code) will go Sept. 20 at the Inuvik Court House.

According to Crown Attorney Loretta Colton, while many people in the territories have been charged with possession of an unregistered firearm under section 91 of the Criminal Code, Hagen was the first person in the NWT to be charged under section 92.

Colton says this charge is somewhat different as the Crown has to prove not only that the gun was unregistered (section 91) but that the owner of the gun was aware of the fact.