Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 21, 1980, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free March Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published six Days a a 300 Cartton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by newspapers limited Telephone 9439331 second class Mah registration number o286 Donald no Cal up water Malone chairman John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Peter Mclintock editor emeritus Western separatists forum when Dick Collver announced last week that he was leaving the Saskatchewan progressive conservative party to Lead a Campaign to have Western Canada absorbed into the United states it was easy enough to dismiss the move As just another manifestation of the general air of Loop Ness which has characterized his behaviour in his years of political now that he has been joined by another Saskatchewan Dennis we May be Wise to take the whole phenomenon More that seriousness can be tempered by some other consider Ham has confessed that he has Long cherished a secret desire to be an american and in simply coming out of the closet at this but the fact that he chose this moment to make Public his convictions indicates that he thinks Public opinion in Saskatchewan is Ripe to hear two politicians scarcely constitute a but they Are the beginnings of a movement and the concern that Premier Blakeney has shown Over their actions is fully it goes without saying that the reasons they put Forward for their actions Are to imagine that Western Canada would have a greater voice As a tiny pan of the relatively centralized american Union than it would have As a substantial pan of the decentralized Canadian confederation is to betray an almost Complete Lack of political but rationality is not the main mover in these in Many Collver and Ham display the same attributes of fear and ignorance that were displayed bythe original pioneers of Quebec those pioneers were arid eventually by others who were vastly More sophisticated and substantially More the task facing Canadian govern ments at All Levels is to ensure that the same historical process is not now taking place in the forget the pos olympics the pos olympic games project promoted by the govern ments of the United states and Australia does not strengthen the no communist worlds opposition to the invasion of it does not support the cause of International it May even do some harm by making International fools of its Canada should encourage its allies to press the search for More impressive and persuasive ways of organizing opposition to soviet Daggres the International sport federations Are not asking anyone to organize a counter olympics As an alternative to the Moscow the project has been launched by govern ments for purely political the official olympics May have been perverted for political purposes by govern but they were at least created and Are still controlled by the sport the proposed counter olympics have no Prospect of turning into a recurring event around which athletes and sport organizations can plan their training and any athletic achievements at the counter olympics will have no status whatever in the eyes of the sporting the purpose of boycotting the olympics is a valid one the soviet Union should not be Given the Opportunity to say that the presence of National delegations from around the world at the Moscow games shows world approval of soviet the soviet Union is already claiming in party literature and pravda editorials that the selection of Moscow As the site of the 1980 games is an International stamp of approval for soviet foreign in asking their athletes not to attend the Moscow boycotting countries Are asking them to renounce an Opportunity for which they have been training for Many years a painful and difficult but offering them the alternative of taking pan in a ragtag series of competitions with no official standing among sport federations will not make the Boycott Pill any easier to the Price of Boycott is there is no painless Way around the olympic Boycott has wrongly become the main element in Western world debate Over How to respond to the soviet invasion of that is shortsighted be after the Moscow games Are the soviet troops will almost certainly still be in the noncom Monist world needs a strategy that looks beyond this a strategy aimed not at the athletes of wealthy countries the Peoples and governments of the third the invasion of Afghanistan belies the claims of the soviet Union and its apologists that Moscow is the Friend of the poor and it creates an Opportunity for Western diplomacy to discredit the soviet to redouble its foreign Aid efforts and slowly win new friends in the Middle East and elsewhere in the supposedly nonaligned the United states and its allies May be Rich and often insensitive but the soviet Union is manifestly the warmonger even if it the pos olympic series of competitions will at a Good belly laugh in the commercial and diplomatic isolation of the soviet bloc countries has a better Chance of persuading soviet leaders that the invasion of Afghanistan was a grave error which they cannot afford to Western strategy should aim in that regans fund the first thing to be said about the1 revelation that Gerald the former Premier of Nova Scotia and now Federal minister of labor and got financial help from a private is that there is nothing either unusual or improper in opposition leaders in Many and from Many parties conservative and new demo crat have received financial help at one time or a private party properly represents a sensible Way to help people who give up their employment to serve the party in the often badly paying Job of Leader of the regans problem is that news of his fund got mixed up in reports of a very much Leas Savory form of political finances toll gating which was reputed to play such a Large role in filling the coffers of Politi Cal parties in Nova papers made Public in Halifax reveal that the ramp had evidence which it believed proved that liquor companies and others seeking to do business with the province were assessed a regular contribution to the ruling the amount of the contribution was often added to the Price paid the with the result that the eventual contributor to the political party turned out to be the helpless no one should imagine that the Lou Gate was invented in Nova Scotia or that its use was confined to that it is Safe to say at one time or that method of financing has been used by most political parties in most All of including those in Nova now say that Hose methods belonged to the bad old Days and that nothing of the sort happens it is True that most jurisdictions have passed new rules in the past few years controlling party outlawing conflict of interest and taking other Steps to sanitize the fundraising we have reason to Hope that the situation is better than it once had but investigations by the ramp in a number of provinces besides Nova Scotia offer some evidence that the bad old ways Are not every where As Long dead As we would like to and in areas somewhat less unsavoury than the no one denies that patronage still supplies the essential lubricant of political anyone who doubts that need Only take note of the wholesale shuffling of Federal government advertising agencies and special prosecutors which took place after last Mays conservative Victory and is taking place again in the Wake of the Liberal Small in those Are moved on and off the Federal payroll depending on which party finds itself in that kind of Petty patronage no somewhat less offensive than the crude and expensive operation of the but As Long As the practice exists in any of its Public respect for politicians and for politics will remain less than it ought to school fairness by setting rather than the Winnipeg school boards decision to adopt a program designed to open More administrative positions to women appears to be a reason Able attempt to solve a longstanding there is a danger in attempting to employ supervisors in direct proportion to the number of particularly if the proportion is based on on on or on anything other than the teaching profession does attract More women than the fact that the men achieve More rapid promotion is evidence that something other than Merit has been used in the past to select successful candidates for administrative the practice has become so widespread that in recent years fewer women applied for supervisory Possi Bly because they Felt they would not be in attempting to balance this the Winnipeg school Board has taken some reasonable first it plans to Institute professional development and to have interview panels for promotion made up of equal numbers of men and these Steps should help encourage women who May now be reluctant to apply for promotion to do they should not detract from the general position that the most important consideration in any promotion must be letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the author s name will be used and letters Are subject to More for libraries your editorial of March entitled establishing priorities stated there is cause for grave con Cern about the decision to slash from Money allotted to Provin Cial Public Library while this is Correct on the basis of the printed estimates of the govern ment for the year ending March should like to Point out that these estimates do not include an amount of which was recently approved by through special to be paid now As part of the libraries 1980 and in order to immediately begin implementation of the new funding formula which i announced last this amount is in addition to the million provided in the bringing government fund ing to an increase of Over not in the is an allotment from lottery Revenue of payable in 1980 for capital Grants to Public libraries in Rural Man 1 am pleased to report As a result of the above coupled with last years special grains of to the Winnipeg and to Rural libraries for capital my far from slashing its support to libraries is increasing it substantial Norma Price minister of cultural affairs and historical resources Winnipeg empty bottles recently 1 had the experience of having a store refuse to take two 30 cent bottles and was told that the bottling company was not taking them any what gives a bottling company the right to refuse to take its own can celled bottles from the which in turn forces the stores not to take them from the customers this causes the people who have purchased the full bottles to lose dont they realize that when people lose Money on a useless object they get angry and throw it either on the Street or in the garbage we always complain about pollution and How we have to clean up our City and now we Are allowing a bottle company to refuse to accept Elizabeth Rankin Winnipeg honest people during my recent visit to Winnipeg i had a terrifying experience of leaving my purse behind after having lunch at the Eaton Garden court i want to publicly thank the cashier and waitress who kept it Safe for me until 1 realized what 1 had ill always be grateful and proud to know there Are honest people Irene Schellenberg Snow Why were they not told by David Mac Oriald superimposed on the anxieties of the people of this Small town about last weeks near by Vinyl Chloride spill is a persistent question Why did they have wait ten Days to be told whether they were in real danger no satisfactory answer was supplied by the government representatives and corporate experts who attended the Public meeting with the aim of reassuring the townsfolk that there was not and never had anything for them to worry under control the general theme was thai every thing had at All times been under that Complete information had at All times been available and that no one could understand Why this information had not reached those most closely and most entitled to the people of if things had gone it was the Likely culprits were the the levelheaded Howe were not buying this their own experience had proved the suggestion to be wrong because almost All the information they did manage to glean came from the the information that was withheld from them for Days was also withheld from the having rejected the press As scape the townsfolk then found it impossible to establish who was the guilty environment minister Warner Jor Genson and representatives of Dow chemical and environment Canada vied with each other to explain that they had done All they should in their own spheres of no one seemed to accept Overall responsibility for the handling of the incident and the impression was left that each group Felt that the others could have done a Little the Best question of the Day went straight to the heart of the problem with the accuracy of a Well aimed it came from Nelson owner of the farm where the derail ment occurred during the Early hours of monday March he said he was notified at on that morning that there had been a spill of unidentified material after a derailment he was asked for which he for people to Cross his land to get to the he asked the experts since that he had been told nothing further about the nature of the spill by the Rural by the Cana Dian National by Dow Chemi by the Federal government or by the provincial his notify the evening of the Public meeting and of a standby plan to evacuate the town was the first time anyone had got in touch with him since March the prolonged applause from the townspeople indicated that he had articulated an experience common to them no Clear answer to his question Dow which makes the Vinyl Chloride and was shipping it in the car tank according to its been making its information available from the but to whom the car spokesman explained in detail How his company keeps track of All dangerous commodities being he had been making information available but it had not been treated with the respect it was More attention had been paid to a foreign by whom he meant professor Jeanne Stellman of Columbia the Man from environment Canada talked about the matters to be covered by the Federal inquiry into the recent derailment but said nothing about what his department had contributed to keeping Macgregor peo ple other than to observe that he could not understand a Lack of communication when so Many Mem Bers of the press were attending the Public forget the past responding to a woman who said she could get no information when she called the provincial information office set up in said that he could see that information had not been very Well handled but he advised the townspeople that there was no use dwelling on the this irrelevant advice came after he had explained that he was responsible neither for his constantly changing figures on Vinyl Chloride emissions nor for the events at the spill site he was the sole responsibility of the senior car Man and the Federal government because the car is a Crown his concern was for the welfare of the people of Mac Gregor and the local environment not what is going on at the derailment the wife of a Bulldozer operator asked Why Only Dow chemical staff wore respirators at the Start of repair work and whether her husband might have been the car spokesman told her that the bulldozers had worked upwind of the Accident and had received no dangerous he told another woman questioner that no car workers without respirators had been allowed into areas of High concentration of Vinyl the Dow he had been work ing directly on the punctured tank cars or monitoring Vinyl Chloride emissions very close to not unsafe a woman who asked if Young Chil Dren should be taken out of town temporarily was told by a Dow expert that this should not be necessary because monitoring had shown no unsafe emis Sions outside the immediate area of the ruptured tank a Farmer who asked Why the spilled chemical could not be burned to get rid of it was told that any such fire would be so fierce that it might jump to the derailed undamaged tank cars of Vinyl Chloride and detonate a the chemical would mutate into a mixture of Carbon dioxide and hydrochloric which would kill anyone close who had not been burned to several questions dealt with whether repair workers were ordered in before monitoring had established that expo sure dosages would be the doctor of one worker said his patient was exposed before monitoring showed he should be the car spokes Man said no one was sent in before monitoring had established several people pointed out that derailments close to the town had become a regular the car Man admitted eight car derailments in the past five years in an area covering 25 Miles on either Side of when the meeting was several people said they were going to accept the assurances of the experts that there was nothing to worry said they were not sure whether they should believe the Assur ances and expressed disappointment that they still did not know Why they had been kept in the dark for so a lesson from Zimbabwe by Macrae London a few hard and meals of after Robert Mugabe election Triumph in there were three reasons Why nearly All visiting politicians and commentators after a Brief trip to see Bishop Muzorewa two years me were fooled by the alleged 60 per cent turnout at the previous 1979 election which elected Bishop there Are at least 30 per cent More Black rhodesian than official Dom had counted maybe there Are in most african the alleged 60 per cent turnout in 1979 was really about a 45 per cent and the impossible 94 per cent turnout recorded at last weeks election was really about 70 per Many africans who voted in 1979 were merely voting for the most left Wing candidate who happened in 1979 to be Bishop my africans expect Mira cles from their so there was a post1979 swing away from Bishop Muzorewa when miracles didst there will be a similar swing away from Mugabe this but he wont allow an election in which it can be Robert Mugabe is a Clever school teacher who has Learned that the Way to get to the top in african nationalist politics is to sound like the most left Wing character now that he is at the he May show that he has no abiding interest in being left he merely has an abiding interest in not having a coup de Tat mounted against with so Many guns Loose around the he needs a Strong army that is not run by a Strong african chief of staff who could mount a coup that is Why he is interested in having the White rhodesian help reorganize the the White rhodesian will not dare to try to mount a coup even a South Africa financed one unless Mugabe turns very and his present intention is not to be extremist at he will put All his political colleagues and a opponents like Joshua Nkomo into posts where they can have a comfortable Mugabe will be no worse a head of government than most in and May even be a More self confident his accession gives greater Sel Confidence to Heads of neighbouring countries that have sup ported him to and this is basically for the a confident dictators Are at pres ent worse tyrants in Africa than relaxed there is also some advantage that Britain has come out of this operation in rather better odor than Black Afri can countries expected of the British soldiers plus smaller numbers of new fijians and kenyans sent out to super Vise the ceasefire were in scattered Camps with much larger numbers of full armed and deeply suspicious these soldiers could easily Nave become hostages of those Gerril they were soon playing cards and football with them in the while outside each polling Sta Tion a single British Bobby saw that the voting was secret and away from the polling stations sup porters of ail parties tried to intimidate supporters of other Mugabe had three times As Many sup porters As anybody complaints against him were three times More numerous than against anybody but the voting clearly mirrored what the Black people of Zimbabwe temporarily Macrae is editor of the economist ;