Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 26, 1968, Winnipeg, Manitoba Printed published daily except sunday by the Winnipeg free press company limited 300 Carlton Street. Winnipeg Manitoba. John Sifton president r. S. Malone publisher and editor in chief Peter Mclintock executive editor Maurice Western Ottawa editor Winnipeg free press Winnipeg Friday july 26, 1968 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a Canadian Quebec after a Long Detour in the wilderness the provincial Liberal party of Quebec evidently is returning to its senses if not yet to office. Jean Lesage s latest manoeuvre hardly less than a shift of 180 degrees recognizes the lesson of the recent Federal election. It proved among other things that prime minister Trudeau not or. Lesage dominates Quebec liberalism and that the Union National though still in control of the government is too weak to deliver More than a handful of parliamentary seats to the conservative party. Premier Johnson and the Liberal opposition Leader obviously miscalculated everything when both in varying terms demanded some kind of special status for Quebec. Unfortunately Lor them they had not foreseen the Rise of a French Canadian Leader in the tradition of Laurier la Pointe and St. Laurent a prime minister who dismisses special status As a completely illogical concept or. Lesage is now attempting to film s party Back into the constitutional and political facts. This is the meaning of his remarkable fact finding tour through Quebec and of his latest statement that the Public seems More interested in improving the provincial Economy than in tampering with the Constitution. Of course he cannot reverse his course too abruptly. He must appear if possible to be following a line of logic and apparently is not quite ready yet to antagonize the advocates status within his own entourage especially that Young nationalist Gerin Lajoie. But or. Lesage has read the june election returns and is following the leadership of or. Trudeau. So he had better. For if he persisted in divorcing provincial from Federal liberalism and continued to attack the prime minister he would soon find his party disrupted by the revolt of or. Trudeau s supporters. Indeed the first tremors of a revolt have been Felt already and or. Lesage must Stop them if he can. Hence his sudden discovery that among the Ordinary citizens of Quebec the Complex problems of the Constitution Are dwarfed in importance by the Plain bread and butter problems of life. The discovery comes very late. Or. Tru Deau made it Long ago before he even entered politics. As he writes in his Book federalism and the French Cana the people of Quebec Are terribly lacking in tenacity. Rather than devote All our efforts to the real improvement of our intellectual social and economic Condi Tion we let ourselves be carried away by Legal superstructures without even inquiring whether they would the diversion of the people s Energy and Superb talents from practical tasks Well within their provincial jurisdiction to constitutional panaceas that will not work accounts in or. Trudeau s judgment for Quebec s earlier Lack of pro Gress. Our he. Writes with some bitterness has been riddled with these elaborate constructions each one designed to make a great nation of and the consequence was that we had to wait 20 years for the Only Reform that really counts education. Net result of All Canada s ethnic groups French canadians have the second lowest Standard in education barely above that of immigrants just arrived from this it should be remembered is a French Canadian prime minister addressing his own people in word s that no politician outside Quebec would dare to use or. Trudeau goes on to Analyse the doctrine of special status and concludes that a Wooller concept would be hard to imagine and it is unanimously supported simply because anyone can give it whatever meaning he wishes. In a fact there Are As Many interpretations of special status As there Are persons discussing within the provincial Liberal these interpretations have varied from Rene Levesque s total separatism until he formed his new separatist to or. Lesage s tortured theory that All the provinces of a single United Canada must be equal but Quebec More equal than the others. From a constitutional wonderland of mad hatters and March hares the Liberal party of Quebec is now escaping to distinguish itself irom or. Johnson s Union National the relentless status seeker. But if Quebec politics Are getting Back to something like Normal alter a dizzy spell the real and stubborn constitutional problems of Canada have yet to be solved. There has been a pause and a pause Only while or. Trudeau the lifelong enemy of special status Consoli dated his hold on both the cultural communities. Soon the great debate will be resumed this time fortunately by a Federal government operating irom a position of unquestioned strength and Clear purpose. Assuring a Liberal supreme court no refund no return municipal organizations in four provinces Ontario Saskatchewan Alberta and Manitoba have passed resolutions urging a ban on non returnable bottles. The reason is that too Many of the bottles Are to be found decorating streets highways beaches and Parks. Since the bottles carry no refund there Are no longer Small armies of youngsters out scavenging for them As there used to be after the old two cents per variety. The result is both unsightly and dangerous and the Muni Cipal organizations Are hoping to persuade their governments to action. It May be Worth a try and one wishes the organizations Luck. But the likelihood of their Success for the present at least seems More hopeful than realistic. Even though the bottles Are expensive to produce and some bottling companies frankly admit they Don t much like them a Large segment of the Public does. It s hard to see the pop. Manufacturers who spend millions on advertising deliberately alienating customers they would lobby hard against any ban. There is a further Point. A representative of one which makes the disposable bottles said recently that we cause six per cent of the litter but get 90 per cent of the his complaint May be justified for what about Beer and soft drink cans these May not be As dangerous As the easily shattered bottles but As litter they Are even More unsightly. Only an epidemic of Courtesy and responsibility among the Consumers of summer refreshments will solve the litter problem entirely. But a part of the solution at least we surely have to hand. If it became generally known that to get caught disposing of a bottle or can in an inappropriate place Cost an automatic there would be a considerable Abate ment in the litter problem. Not nearly All offenders could be caught of course but the merely thoughtless might get the message that littering is a highly undesirable practice. Today s scripture Strophe la and by sir spliff up leave me reaches but and thou my mind aspire higher things grow Rich in that which never Tabeth rust whatever fades but fading pleasure draw in thy beams arid Bumble All thy might to that Sweet Trike where lasting freedoms be which Breaks the Clouds and opens Forth the Light that doth Botier Shine and give us sight to see. Of Washington for out w Breaks of political Petti Ness few can match the artificial storm that has been blown lip Over the supreme court of the United states. The fuss started when word went around that chief jus Tice Earl Warren had sent a letter of retirement to presi Dent Johnson. Although the letter later made Public stated that his retirement was solely because of age he is the reason for the timing of his decision was instantly understood by even the least politically sophisticated Here. The reason was underlined by the j. Open retirement Date of his effective at your As he told the president Johnson s and answer by i or. Will accept your decision to retire effective at such time As a successor is timing arid wording of this manoeuvre were calculated for one purpose to assure that the next chief Justice of the United states would be chosen by president Johnson and not by his successor in the White House. Wiy because that might be Richard Nixon might very Well appoint a new chief Justice who we wild swing the court away from the trend it has developed. In the 15 years under chief Justice Warren s leadership. Republicans from or. Nixon of Down realized what was happening arid began issuing statements even before or. Warren s bounced. Retirement was an senator Robert Griffin of Michigan opened by Richard Purser fire first claiming that any new justices should be named by the next president after the people have expressed themselves in the november or. Nixon who has had enough experience to know better protested what he called a lame Duck appointment by or. Johnson. In american politics a lame Duck is an elected official who is serving the remnant statutory term of office after having been Defeated by an opponent. Or. Nixon was on Wajc ground to extend the definition to or. Johnson who has rot been Defeated and will be very much the president of the United states until next Janu Ary. In the distorted sense used by or. Any president is a the moment he is elected the Constitution to two full terms and therefore the last possible Date of his departure from office known from the Start it is the business of the president to act like a presi Dent until lie leaves office and one of his duties is to fill vacancies in High government positions. The High statements of principle by or. Nixon and co. Provided Only the most transparent cover for the protestors real intention to prevent or. Johnson from assuring in the years to come the continuation of a supreme court oriented toward social Justice and what might be called judicial morally weak As they did 30 years ago on the eve of Munich people Are writing letters to the British newspapers about Czechoslovakia. As it did at the time of Munich a feeling of impotence has gripped the Western Public with every body hoping that it will be Russia s Good sense of which Little has been seen thus far that will ultimately save Czechoslovakia s refund Freedom. Reticence is the order of the Day one must keep quiet so As not to exacerbate the situation. Gone Are the moralistic postures of the Dulles an Era. But also gone Are the Days of Churchill Cooper who Felt that -a1 government had the moral duty to protect a Small nation however far away from an International bully. In 1938 every honest Man Felt that something very sacred had been sacrificed on the altar of expedience and that humanity s innermost decency is had been grossly betrayed. Today expedience has become generally accept Able. The West has lost its Wujs to stand for beliefs that it claims form the basis of its existence. Whether or not the czechs and slovaks should be left alone to work. Out. Then own formula of co existence with Moscow. Whether or not its is better riot to interfere so As aggravate their peril the Point. What involved is o u r indifference w h i c h stems from the moral weakness of the weakness May have several causes among them War in Vietnam general de Gaulle s divisive and chauvinistic policies and a simple weariness of t h e now intent Only on their bread and i circuses. No Issue in International affairs is morally incontrovertible. And we smugly find our excuses in the Many discrepancies blindly anxious to cultivate our own Little Garden As if International hurricanes were respecter of secluded areas. The United states is fight ing in Vietnam to prevent an upset in the balance of Power in Southeast Asia. It is now looking the other Way in Central Europe because it understands the soviet desire to prevent an upset in the balance of Power there. These Are Power politics naked and unashamed. They have their place in the present order but they should not be embellished by High sounding moral maxims. It is doubtful that the West with a system based upon its grecian heritage can survive without moral standards any More than could Athens at the time of the peloponnesian War. We need a moral regeneration or else in our weariness or sloth we shall continue to give in and give in until we shall have nothing left to give. If the Young Are appalled by the consumer society it is not because they do not desire its automobiles washing machines or comfortable houses. It is because since time out of mind Man has required some thing More to live by than Mere material Comfort. Let ters to the times Are a poor substitute. Or. Johnson assured just that when he elevated associate Justice Abe Fortas 58, to chief Justice and appointed judge Homer Tho Berry 59, of Texas to fill the vacancy on the nine Man court left by the Elevation of or. Justice Fortas. Both men Are social liberals. Or. Fortas has Long been known As a crusader for civil liberties and for the rights of the poor while or. Thorn Berry used to vote for civil rights legislation in the Days when that just was t done by a Texas congressman which he once was. More recently As a Federal judge in the South he has been taking the axe to anti negro practices in that part of the country. If anything Fortas court Rivay be even More Liberal than the Warren court. The recent wave of five to Lour decisions May be replaced by six to three decisions. Social conservatives across the land who have Long made the supreme court their whipping boy Are of course gnashing their Teeth Over the fast one or. Warren and or. Johnson pulled on them. The anti supreme court forces have one major Hope. Congress Hopes to adjourn by August 2, and use of delaying tactics will probably leave the nominations unapproved by that time. That would leave the appointments to the next president arid confirmation to the next Senate. But the Johnson Warren strategy was designed to stalemate such a move by opponents or. Warren has not yet retired and the democratic leadership has let the Senate know that he May not retire at All if or. Fortas is not confirmed As his successor and or. Nixon becomes president. Or. Warren shows no signs of failing health. Until or. Warren took office in 1953, Large parts of the Constitution which it is the court s business to uphold had become a dead letter. The Warren court in particular resurrected the Bill of rights which contains the Funda mental guarantees of Freedom for americans and the vital 14th amendment which pro Hibits states from abridging the privileges of citizens or denying equal Protection under the Law. Today s scripture every Good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh Down from the father of lights with whom is no variable Ness neither Shadow of turning. James 1 17. We All get that urae to get away from it All but he s doing something about the Warren court came into Early Fame in 1954 with its landmark decision ordering desegregation of Southern schools. It later issued a series of decisions protecting citizens from the abuse of police Power and from denial of their right to Legal counsel arid their right against self incrimination. In these and other decisions the court went beyond stodgy Reliance on the precedents of other Ages instead of re evaluating the Constitution in the Light of modern conditions. In Widen ing the areas of Liberty it frequently went ahead of a nervous Congress prompting from the right the hatred that led to campaigns for the impeachment and even the hanging of or. Warren. The climate of hatred being what it is in this should not be too bar ring a successful conservative filibuster a billboard appears somewhere with the slogan impeach Abe changes needed the prolonged hassle Between the Winnipeg school Board and the Winnipeg teachers association the most recent and most contentious in a Long series of wrangles raises the question of whether it is not time to consider ways of resolving disputes by putting teacher Board con tract negotiations on another basis. An obvious Reform would be to put a time limit on the negotiation conciliation arbitration process say a month for each stage of the procedure. This would assure that negotiations started in september would be completed by conciliation or arbitration if necessary before the end of the year. Liis would have several advantages not least of which would be newly elected Board would not find Itsell in the Middle of a contract dispute. The most important advantage would be that it would Iree both Board and teachers Lor More constructive co operative work. British Columbia already has this provision in its schools legis lation and a variant of it has been adopted in Saskatchewan it could be adopted with profit in Manitoba. A second step would be to have such negotiations on a regional rather than an individual Board basis. This would prevent direct confrontation Between individual Board rep and teachers in their own division. It would remove the absurd spectacle of boards competing with one another Over salaries and other contract issues. Certainly there is much to be said for such an arrangement in the greater Winnipeg area and there seems Little reason to doubt that it would work advantageously in other parts of province. It would also be helpful to have a clearer definition of negotiable and non negotiable items. Uncertainty in this area was at of this year s dispute in Winnipeg and it promises to be a continuing source of irritation unless Steps Are taken to clarify the situation. As a Reading of the interim report of the arbitration Board makes Clear even this body found it difficult to reach a decision on the items referred to it. School boards teachers associations and boards of arbitration should not be placed in this position. Specific legislation would eliminate this uncertainty. Consideration should be Given to making blacklisting illegal. The evils attendant on this action Are twofold it is usually invoked As was the Case in Winnipeg this year before the negotiation conciliation arbitration process has been completed and its victims in it works Are not the parties who Are at Odds but the school children they Are supposed to serve. Legislative amendments lines would have made this year s dispute Between Board and teachers less acrimonious and less harmful both in its effects on teacher Board relations and on students. It would moreover have ensured a settlement at least seven months ago. Recently the Manitoba association of school trustees made recommendations to the minister of education endorsing these suggestions. The trustees also recommended that school principals be excluded irom the bargaining process and that Steps be taken to introduce Merit rating Lor teachers. This is More controversial ground. Though both recommendations have much to commend them they Are unlikely to elicit legislative action at this time. But the other Points made in the trustees Brief suggest action that could be taken at the next session of the legislature to the advantage of All concerned. New development corporations atthe Best evidence that the a West Man and Pembina Valley development corporations Are at least a qualified Success is not Only the support they continue to elicit from their member municipalities but the fact that three More such corporations have recently been formed and Are now in process of getting established. The three new corporations Are Eastman for Eastern Central Plains with Headquarters in Portage la Prairie Parkland with h e and quarters in the Canu unities supporting these new corporations Are hopeful that rather than local planning and develop men t j will bring greater Prosperity to their areas. But in each Case they face problems. Both Eastman and Central Plains Are confronted with the fact that Only part of then regions is Ada area development Agency designated. This not Only places them at a disadvantage with other areas where Ada support is a genuine inducement to new and expanding Industry it creates problems within the corporations themselves. In Eastman Lac Dubonnet Beausejour and Pine Falls Are Ada designated but St. Anne St. Pierre and Steinbach Are not in Central Plains glad Stone is designated but not Portage. It is hard to justify this designation or Lack of it and unless something is done to rectify the situation it could be the Rock which both corporations could founder. How can a corporation be made viable under such circumstances All communities in each Region paying their share of the corporations costs but in each Case the Ada designated area reap most the Way. Of Industrial rewards. Will Stein Bach the largest contributor to Eastman be willing to continue its contributions if it sees new Industry locating elsewhere will Portage con Sider the game Worth the Candle if it is not in a competitive position ? in theory Ada is designed to help slow growth there seems to be something wrong in its application. How can Brandon be considered a slow growth Community and not Portage How can a by torn Saunders three development corporations now in the pro Cess of getting established in Manitoba have circumstances and problems different from those Al ready established. Progressive town like Altona be Ada designated and not Steinbach the fact is that judged by National standards practically All of Manitoba including Winnipeg is a slow growth area. The Best solution to the problem As provincial liberals have been advocating might be to recognize this fact and give Ada designation to the entire province with the possible exception of a com Pany mining town like Thompson. The people behind the Cen trial Plains and Eastman corporations Are hopeful of some such development. They Are encouraged by the response of the supporting municipalities to Date. Despite local rivalries and Ada imbalance a remarkable spirit of co operation has been evident. No one has objected to the proposed Loca Tion of the Central Plains office in Portage and while Steinbach is the largest contributor to Eastman it is generally accepted that Beausejour because of its More Central location should be the site of the office for the Eastman corporation. The problems confronting the Parkland corporation Are of a different order. Here the entire Region is Ada designated but it suffers from the disadvantage of location. Stretching from Swan River Benito and Bowsman in the North and Russell and Roblin in the West to Mccreary in the Southeast it is near no Large Centre of population its chances of attracting Industry May be hampered because of this. Its sponsors however Hope that other aspects of its economic life such As tourism and recreation May be proved through., the Tion and that As Dauphin and Swan River might be developed to a greater extent than they now Are As processing servicing and new North. At the moment 24 of a potential 36 communities have accepted in principle the for mation of the corporation and if All come in it will be the largest in the province in area if not in population. Size however no less than location could work to its disadvantage. It has been a difficult Region to organize and it May prove equally difficult to administer. Even its staunchest supporters admit to some doubt As to whether a viable corporation is possible Over so Large a Region. Over against this however is the record of inter Community co operation that has. Been evident in the Rural areas of the province especially in the past year. Contributing to this has been the High measure of accept Ance of the new school Divis ions which along with the regional corporations have helped break Down parochial ism and Are the Promise of a new Day for the Manitoba Countryside. The disadvantage of location and the question of viability thus May not be insuperable problems. In any event the formation of the corporation is now virtually assured. Its first commissioner manager will probably be appointed this year with his first project a study in depth of the economic possibilities of the Region some of which have already been explored in a preliminary Way. But on the surface at least the three new corporations would seem to be faced with problems with which the established corporations have not had to contend. Both West Man and the Pembina Valley Are viable entities and both have the advantage of being relatively near or connected with Large centres of Popula Tion. Except for two municipalities near Winnipeg both have the advantage of being Ada designated. Eastman and Central Plains Are in part at least denied the latter advantage and Park lands is denied the former. Whether the new corporations can survive in the face of these difficulties Only time will Tell. But the Eastman and Central Plains problem could be the easiest to resolve it requires Only that government taker action to broaden the Ada base. Late in for Ltd ;