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04-09-2009, 10:36 AM
VANCOUVER SUN - APRIL 3, 2009
An industry under fire By LORI CULBERT
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/industry+under+fire/1461962/story.html
Mobster Jimmy Reardon is outside a Vancouver strip club when he is hit by a hail of bullets, unleashed during a retaliatory drive-by shooting.
Although the plot sounds like it was ripped from today's headlines, it is actually the last scene in the final episode of the CBC series Intelligence.
It was veteran prop master Gord Deyell's job to ensure Intelligence had replica or decommissioned guns on set to film scenes like this one, in which Reardon (played by actor Ian Tracey) collapsed to the ground.
Deyell's career has, so far, spanned 33 years and put him on the sets of such acting legends as Orson Welles, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando.
He was the lead prop master for Intelligence and DaVinci's Inquest, both Chris Haddock productions filmed in Vancouver. Deyell has organized countless firearms and other restricted weapons to be delivered to multiple scene locations in the city for the last 29 years.
He is proud of his career but, these days, also defensive.
The provincial government and the RCMP announced last in February it had concerns about 63 people and companies in B.C. holding "business firearms licences" to provide weapons to the film industry. Ontario, by comparison, has just 16 licencees, Solicitor-General John van Dongen said.
B.C.'s licences will be reviewed as part of new law-enforcement activities designed to crack down on illegal guns, following a recent spate of gang shootings in public places.
"We believe that we don't need 63 gun dealers licensed to import firearms for movie sets," van Dongen said in an interview. "We would want to see a significant tightening up of that number."
(The RCMP oversees the province's chief firearms officer, who approves these licences under federal jurisdiction. The Mounties' most up-to-date statistics indicate B.C. actually has 60 business firearms licences, nearly half the Canadian total of 122, said a spokeswoman based in Ottawa. She said van Dongen's list of 63 dated from last fall.)
In the past three years, 10 people associated with five Metro Vancouver companies with licences to import guns for the film industry have faced criminal charges over allegations they sold the guns illegally.
Police say those companies legally brought guns into the province by saying they were for the movie industry, and then sold them out the back door with no one becoming suspicious.
These cases, which have prompted the review, are alleged to be responsible for hundreds of weapons vanishing in B.C.
Those in the film industry argue the cases are anomalies, and that there is no evidence the business is rife with criminals; police say that may be true, but it is prudent to have another look at all licensees to make sure.
RCMP Supt. John Robin, head of the integrated homicide investigations team, said the evidence so far suggests there are concerns with only a "small percentage" of the licensees.
"You hope the majority of them are legit and they are servicing the movie industry," he said. "I'm just glad the Canadian Firearms Centre is reviewing [the list]."
Robin said it was too soon to know if any of the existing licencees will lose their licences and cautioned that police have also raised concerns about other ways firearms could be coming into B.C. - especially considering Canada's open border with the U.S., where there are very different gun regulations.
Those with business firearms licences to supply weapons to movie sets in B.C. are called prop masters and are members of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) local 891.
Local president Ken Anderson rejected concerns about the number of licencees in this province, arguing that B.C. has a much larger movie industry than Ontario and therefore needs more prop masters.
Movie sets use either non-firing replica guns, or real firearms altered so they will no longer fire ammunition.
Anderson said he had never heard of any legitimate prop masters linked to supplying weapons to criminals, and noted they have to undergo extensive background checks before being granted a licence.
The controversy has focused a real-life spotlight on the work of people like Deyell, who until now was toiling obscurely under nothing more than stage lights.
His father's footsteps
When Deyell began working in the film industry in Ontario in 1976, he was following in the footsteps of his father who had done the same kind of work.
He moved west to work in B.C.'s growing industry in 1980, and in 1992 became an official prop master.
An industry under fire By LORI CULBERT
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/industry+under+fire/1461962/story.html
Mobster Jimmy Reardon is outside a Vancouver strip club when he is hit by a hail of bullets, unleashed during a retaliatory drive-by shooting.
Although the plot sounds like it was ripped from today's headlines, it is actually the last scene in the final episode of the CBC series Intelligence.
It was veteran prop master Gord Deyell's job to ensure Intelligence had replica or decommissioned guns on set to film scenes like this one, in which Reardon (played by actor Ian Tracey) collapsed to the ground.
Deyell's career has, so far, spanned 33 years and put him on the sets of such acting legends as Orson Welles, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando.
He was the lead prop master for Intelligence and DaVinci's Inquest, both Chris Haddock productions filmed in Vancouver. Deyell has organized countless firearms and other restricted weapons to be delivered to multiple scene locations in the city for the last 29 years.
He is proud of his career but, these days, also defensive.
The provincial government and the RCMP announced last in February it had concerns about 63 people and companies in B.C. holding "business firearms licences" to provide weapons to the film industry. Ontario, by comparison, has just 16 licencees, Solicitor-General John van Dongen said.
B.C.'s licences will be reviewed as part of new law-enforcement activities designed to crack down on illegal guns, following a recent spate of gang shootings in public places.
"We believe that we don't need 63 gun dealers licensed to import firearms for movie sets," van Dongen said in an interview. "We would want to see a significant tightening up of that number."
(The RCMP oversees the province's chief firearms officer, who approves these licences under federal jurisdiction. The Mounties' most up-to-date statistics indicate B.C. actually has 60 business firearms licences, nearly half the Canadian total of 122, said a spokeswoman based in Ottawa. She said van Dongen's list of 63 dated from last fall.)
In the past three years, 10 people associated with five Metro Vancouver companies with licences to import guns for the film industry have faced criminal charges over allegations they sold the guns illegally.
Police say those companies legally brought guns into the province by saying they were for the movie industry, and then sold them out the back door with no one becoming suspicious.
These cases, which have prompted the review, are alleged to be responsible for hundreds of weapons vanishing in B.C.
Those in the film industry argue the cases are anomalies, and that there is no evidence the business is rife with criminals; police say that may be true, but it is prudent to have another look at all licensees to make sure.
RCMP Supt. John Robin, head of the integrated homicide investigations team, said the evidence so far suggests there are concerns with only a "small percentage" of the licensees.
"You hope the majority of them are legit and they are servicing the movie industry," he said. "I'm just glad the Canadian Firearms Centre is reviewing [the list]."
Robin said it was too soon to know if any of the existing licencees will lose their licences and cautioned that police have also raised concerns about other ways firearms could be coming into B.C. - especially considering Canada's open border with the U.S., where there are very different gun regulations.
Those with business firearms licences to supply weapons to movie sets in B.C. are called prop masters and are members of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) local 891.
Local president Ken Anderson rejected concerns about the number of licencees in this province, arguing that B.C. has a much larger movie industry than Ontario and therefore needs more prop masters.
Movie sets use either non-firing replica guns, or real firearms altered so they will no longer fire ammunition.
Anderson said he had never heard of any legitimate prop masters linked to supplying weapons to criminals, and noted they have to undergo extensive background checks before being granted a licence.
The controversy has focused a real-life spotlight on the work of people like Deyell, who until now was toiling obscurely under nothing more than stage lights.
His father's footsteps
When Deyell began working in the film industry in Ontario in 1976, he was following in the footsteps of his father who had done the same kind of work.
He moved west to work in B.C.'s growing industry in 1980, and in 1992 became an official prop master.