Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 15, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Printed and published Dally except sunday by me Winnipeg free 300 Carton a division of f p publications Western limited Richard c Malone publisher Peter Mclintock Shelford and Maurice Western Ottawa editor r s Malone chairman Winnipeg free press june 1978 4364 Manitoba reaction Manitoba reaction to prime minister Trudeau plan for a new Canadian Constitution As could be somewhat the reservations have been voiced by members of the Manitoba government Pri Marily because of the rather vague terms in which Ottawa proposals have been Manitoba favors provincial influence in future appointments to the Senate or the House of the As it May be but is concerned about the role to be assigned the reconstituted chamber of second Manitoba will not Likely be along in wanting to see that whoever is allowed to Mare nominations to the new House has some real Power but the province is conscious of the difficulties that will come from giving any appointed body too much Power to restrict or change the will of elected in the same Manitoba will support any move to give the provinces More say in the appointment of judges to the supreme since the court is a functioning body with Well defined there should not be the same difficulty in these appointments As May be present in appointments to the new in the matter of language Manitoba position May be More lenient than Many people there is no objection by Manitoba political leaders to a program designed to implement real bilingualism in Canada As Long As such a program is implemented along the lines advocated by former languages commissioner Keith Spicer before his this would be a Lon term program through the any move to introduce compulsory bilingualism too quickly is considered rash by since it would produce a backlash that would reduce Progress to a As a the province might consider making French available in provincial and court services whenever the need should significant changes May be under Way in the National politics of West Germany in the Wake of the disastrous showing of the free demo cratic party in regional elections and the resignation of the West German Interior a free it could mean Victory for the Christian democratic Union of Helmut Kohl in the 1980 Federal Chancellor Helmut Leader of the social democratic which is the senior member of the governing has Good reason to be worried about the political future of his Junior the free dem All Federal parties in the Federal Republic also have grounds for worry about their failure to absorb the new political Force that has damaged the free democrats the environmentalist fringe it was ecology minded voters who gave enough sup port to the fringe groups to prevent the free democratic party from gaining the required five per cent of the poll in elections to the Legislatures of two of West Ger Many ten Federal lower Saxony and Ham this meant that no Ftp members were elected to either in this slightly strengthened the antigovernment majority in the Federal or upper whose Mem Bers come from the state leg Schmidt has already acknowledged that this will increase his difficulties in getting through legis this blow to Ftp morale has been followed by the not unexpected resignation of Interior minister Werner Mai Maihofer has paid the political Price for a series of embarrassing incidents involving his Inci dents of which he most prob ably had no prior knowledge but for which he is honorable taking the most notable episode was the collapse of coordination Between political and police authorities that delayed action on a Tipoff last fall that might have saved the life of kidnapped industrialist Hann Martin the Interior ministry was also heavily criticized last year for a series of incidents of electronic sur one in the Home of a nuclear physicist suspected of having terrorist con there has been controversy Over Ger Man Border police searching travellers leaving the coun try and taking the names of those found carrying any one of 200 left Wing it is an anomaly that an Interior minister should be under attack for some police actions that Are aimed at fighting the ruthless fanatics responsible for the murder of Schleyer and however illogical that May the political results Are plainly to be the sep Ftp whose majority is faces All the perils of a Tightrope Walker in the months leading up to the 1980 Federal Nkomo the presbyterian in a recent an Drew ambassador to the United suggested that one Strong reason for trusting Joshua Leader of one of the two Black guerrilla groups in the patriotic was the fact that he is a Good pres this suggestion that religious scruples govern the conduct of the Leader of the Zambia based Zimbabwe african Peoples Union May seem incongruous to Mem Bers of the salvation the roman Catholic Church and the anglican in that area of Rhodesia in which Zap carries out terrorist raids from the safety of its zambian two Brit ish salvation army women have just been murdered by a Zap the White staff of the salvation army five women and one were taken lined up and fired of the one woman and the Man were a few Days 25 Miles a Zap opera Tive murdered two priests at a roman Catholic shortly an anglican Mission 25 Miles North of Bulawayo had to Send Home 300 pupils after receiving a Zap note threatening terrorist reprisals if the mis Sion did not whatever the private religious beliefs of they clearly do not get in the Way of a terror Campaign against missionaries that is being waged by he group of which he is he was burning his property tax Bill Manitoba leaders see the need to spell out the rights of Indian and inuit but also see the problems such an action would cause among other particularly the if Canada moves toward a More structured cons Titu Manitoba believes that it will become necessary to incorporate in such a Constitution a Bill of provincial government spokesmen Are sceptical about the possibility of achieving a new Constitution within the time set by the prime and believe that discussions will have to include other such As regional rights and As Well As the issues of Unity and including have certain rights that now exist under the British North America these will not be surrendered without full discus Sion and acceptable German Tightrope a great Deal of Cotton Wool toward Unity in complexity Ottawa it is not easy to assess the significance of the constitutional paper tabled on monday by the prime the Basic difficulty is in the absence of the governments draft expected later this a great Deal of it is nothing but Cotton what is new is the time and especially the governments pledge to effect changes within the Federal jurisdiction by july beyond this visibility is the Date set for completion of the second phase is july 1981 but this is necessarily Uncertain since Ottawa must share the Drivers seat with ten other govern while the phase one changes Are described by Trudeau As quite momentous and quite consider and May be the fact is that the with its parliamentary a would have been free to implement them a decade they were not deemed sufficiently urgent for priority As so often the govern ment went for a package that As carrots for provincial some of the proposals that Are now to be proceeded with ind Epen in one the lost years have been although the enthusiasm of the Public for constitutional Reform never approached that of the there was some interest after the ringing speeches of the confederation of tomorrow Confer this has since faded into what the government must now do is to recover but Citi Zens will take the venture seriously Only if they Are convinced that the govern ment is serious and that it has a Clear concept of what it is trying to All constitutions suffer from the paper finds nine in the present Constitution of while they May be very few Are of the shoe pinching How Many wage earners feel seriously deprived because the act of 1867 is obscure and anachronistic in its language or be cause it lacks an inspiring preamble or because it has not been amended to include a reference to the statute of which is nevertheless fully operative such deficiencies Are not necessarily spurs to action when so Many other matters loom larger in the Public the Central institutions today scripture and Moses said unto the remember this in which be came out from out of the House of bondage for by strength of hand the lord brought you out from this place there shall no leavened bread be exodus by Maurice Western that the government pro poses to Reform Are the supreme court and the Senate of How meaningful Are the proposed changes although the fathers of confederation foresaw a supreme it was established Only primarily the work of Edward Blake incidentally a Strong provincial it was created by an Ordinary act of parliament and its status is set out in the since judges Are appointed by the Federal the court has been especially in As an instrument of the Central the government has two ideas to define the courts status in the constitutional document and to alter the method of both Are probably if will they make much practical difference it would have been open to Blake and much easier then to proceed by Way of constitutional in that would the judgments of the court have been any different there is not the slightest reason to believe that they would have varied at the Federal government has always opposed vigorously Quebec suggestions that the court should consist partly of provincial appoint this would transform the institution into a court of arbitration making political the intention now is that appoint ments should continue to be made by Ottawa after consultation with the will this disarm Quebec nationalists who see what they wish to see it does not seem Senate Reform is now to mean the substitution of a House of the federation for the existing the name is pretentious and surely ill chosen unless we Are to suppose that a Nomin ated body will be More concerned with the health of the federation than the elected House of a More fruitful role for the institution is apparently to be insured by mathematical improvements and a change in the method of appointment involving provincial Partick what is this new role the is that the reformed upper House will concentrate on regional problems and the effect of National policies on it cannot do this now with in dependence and nor can the commons be cause party discipline de mands the adoption of a National this is not it overlooks the fact that the from the was based not on rep by pop like the body of the same on provincial it was based in Stead on Equality of regional each Region Quebec and the maritime had 24 with Western de this arrange ment was impaired but was restored in 1915 when the West also qualified for its full quota of 24 How Are we to explain the fact that an upper with such splendid mathematical so fell in Public esteem that it came to be referred sometimes As the unreformed Senate of Canada it is True that important population changes have now Given British Columbia a reasonable claim to be regarded As a fifth probably the Senate should be but would Reform of the 1915 Model necessarily mean a new role for the second chamber in Canadian affairs or is the Senate a political shrinking Violet because that is the will and is Likely to be the will in future of the government of Canada even with imperfect math it should be possible for a House which contains four former provincial pre Miers Robichaud and Ike and various former provincial to conduct serious studies of regional but it is surely fanciful to suppose that a remodelled House As the paper seems to suggest could bring about policy reducing the need for federa Provin Cial at least one Premier has already expressed his unwillingness to negotiate through senatorial nothing in the document suggests that the govern after All this has achieved a very Clear perception of the new role being accorded the upper Cham the House of the federation will continue to be a legislative Cham with its work largely determined by the govern its regional Zed thought will continue to receive the attention it does at the question is will we notice very much differ ence the a pragmatic lot concerned Only with is used a single phrase to import into the san act the established principles of responsible we have a Constitution similar in principle to that of the United it is As a that at present there Are a number of important principles and institutions of our system that Are touched on Only very or not at in our written to cite one interesting sex the prime ministers office is not mentioned Al though six articles refer to the speaker of the House of commons and three to the speaker of the whal a disturbing sense of values nor is much said about the great conventions of ministerial responsibility and Cabi net Solidarity or about the rules governing dissolution and so if All this is to be filled it May be easier to determine where we should Start than where we should after in our the Leader of the opposition is important should his office be mentioned what of the whips what of the political parties if not constitutionally Are they Fig ments of our imagination and if we Are to replace an or collection of with a constitutional is there not some danger that by the time the Community of political scientists has been it May run to inordinate length nothing of substance will be of by spelling out what is already of Cardinal importance to the prime minister is the addition of something not yet generally accepted a charter of fundamental rights and freedoms and a statement of linguistic this is to be a very important component of the phase one made possible by the opting in two Canad an realities will be formalized for some time to Trudeau on monday took the position that the Bill of rights must be accepted in its entirety or not at All which May Well be defensible but sounds curiously like a rejection of special status in the face of special we seem to be moving from Unity in diversity to Unity in which seems a doubtful Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil Fri Faithf under the dome by Bill Koft private members resolutions Are a Combina Tion of words designed to commit the government to consider the advisability of a certain course of usually constructed with a series of suppositions and concluding such motions have a tendency to change during the course of understandably a govern ment has a tendency to reject proposals that Point out some Inadequacy in the and even when it seems to agree with the Basic this reaction be came evident during study of Lloyd Axworthy Resolution which called for the govern ment to consider the establishment of a task Force to examine and make recommendations in respect to equal pay for work of equal legislation to Date has not dealt with the major disparity of income Between male and female he because the degree of in Equality had he hoped a task com posed of people from All Seg ments of would at least help them to move away from dead it would be an important first labor minister Norma Price disagreed and despite her party belief in the Prin Ciple of equal pay for work of equal she did not think a task Force would be of any she indicated that it was pos sible the government might give the suggestion further consideration sometime in the they should not just sit Back and said Saul there was a problem in assessing equal work of equal value and he believed More research was he wanted the members to consider the philosophy of such a Reso Lution before delving into an examination of the feasibility of a task the concept sounded like a said Don or who did not disagree with the never the according to his Statis the Gap Between female and male wages had Nar rowed Over the past 12 there would be a great number of problems for a task Force to Over come to reach a Concrete including the development of even More by despite his approval of the Basic Orchard did not believe a task Force would be the he preferred to place his Faith in the Market place to Lessen the differ instead of imposing value judgments on what people should be to that it was a Parent the government was not going to accept this Reso but the question remained How would they change it Len Domino provided the while he also agreed with the Princi ple that should be awarded to their a task Force was not he deleted that Section and substituted a recommendation that the government consider the advisability of continuing to Monitor and study the Situa Tion with respect to equal pay for work of equal value with a View to introducing Mea sures As it considers Neces sary to ensure that the wage Gap for work of equal value be that was one of the most ambiguous forms of said like pounding you to death with a the amendment supported the status he and was a form of apparently it was just one More example of reactionary it was meaningless and had been reduced to a Point of agreed Howard it did nol meet the full requirements of the original said Warner but de spite its this amendment was not As Ridic Ulous As those introduced by the nip if they were Busy Amend ing Cher Nick would do the same despite tory he believed they were opposed to the principle and Louic not Trust the government to carry out even this vague it was cynical therefore he provided a deleting certain phrases in an attempt to give the Resolution a More Forward it May and then it May the words were coming and where they would Only the government comic strip revolution by Frank butter mean dont him London unsuccessful in any recent democratic the communist party of Britain has launched a comic strip Revo a fou Page pullout in the communist daily new spa the morning is billed As revolution Brit ish style but More the British Road to socialism the labor government currently in Power does not the cartoon supplement paraphrases a Lon term strategy for a socialist Revo Lution and a summary of a 60page Mani festo produced he party at its last itself the fifth edition of a revolution Ary plan first outlined in the task will not be an easy it in fact it has already split the British communist with a Small group of hardliners complaining that the strategy is too there Are members of the communist party in but in the last Gener Al communist can with 29 lost got Only two tenths of one per cent of the the cartoon drawn by features Strong such As twit which is what a Reader of the Star thinks about a Reader of the racy which is rather More to the you cant have a revolution warns a girl carrying a copy of Dai Kepi its a process of Strug this is not civil War but the democratic transformation of where will the Cash to pay for it come from asks the the answer lies in Public ownership of the Means of chiefly through nationalization of All the profitable what went wrong with the righting labor party now in is that it Only nationalized the unprofitable there of More to it than socialism is the food of the British communists i cant says a car Toon character squatting on the Well dont just sit admonishes a i Geon toed and shapeless remembered words from the wish by Abraham Cowley Ere i descend to the May i a Small House and Large Garden have and a few and Many both both and both delightful Loo and since love Neer will from me a mistress moderately and Good As guardian anger Only beloved and Loving ;