Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 13, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg fret press. Monday. April 13, 1981 7 to ideas s reversals will help Ottawa thanks to two abrupt reversals by prime minister Trudeau in the last two weeks the government s actions on the Constitution appear to have become much less objectionable. The big gain resulting from the conservative procedural filibuster is a commitment by the prime minister not to Send the Resolution to the British parliament until the Canadian supreme court has ruled on its legality. It shameful reflection on Trudeau that he Ever intended to do otherwise. But from oct. When the Constitution Resolution was introduced in the House of commons until two weeks ago Trudeau s stated intention was to ask the British parliament to take action which was possibly illegal in Canada. Once the Resolution had been acted on in Britain it w Ould have been impossible to set matters right in Canada because the Canadian supreme court has no jurisdiction Over British acts of parliament. Now assuming that arty Ultra Vires sections of the Constitution Resolution will be struck out before the Resolution is forwarded to Britain the British can be assured that what they Are doing is Legal in the View of the highest court in Canada. The real reason there Are suspicions that Trudeau s agreement to let the supreme court judge the matter arose not so much from the filibuster which was rapidly losing Public support As from a Mes Sage from the British that they would not Deal with an Issue that was before the supreme court. There remains the possibility that the British will be asked to approve constitutional amendments which although judged Intra Vires by the supreme court do not have the agreement of a Large majority of the Canadian prov inces. It seems Clear at this Point that the provinces will not agree to the charter of rights. Trudeau fully intends to have it included in the amended Constitution that is returned to Canada. There remains possibility that the British parliament will still stall on Trudeau s Resolution because of a perceived responsibility on the part of Britain to stand As trustee of provincial rights. To London again Premier Peter Lougheed for one has suggested that the Canadian supreme court is not the end of the line in the premiers Battle. Thus of premiers might yet go to Britain to make a last ditch stand. Their chances of Success however have grown rather Remote in View of the decision to let the Canadian supreme court Rule on legality of the Resolution. Trudeau s second important conces Sion was his agreement to meet with the premiers to examine their Amend ing formula which with a few finishing touches is supposed to be one with which eight premiers agree. The prime minister has stated repeatedly that he does not believe they have an agreement that the premiers Are merely stalling for time. In agreeing to meet with them tru Deau has effectively called the pre Miers Bluff if they Are bluffing. Peter Thomson Ottawa editor Trudeau has indicated that if the eight premiers do have an agreement and if Premier William Davis of Ontario finds it acceptable and less important Premier Richard Hatfield of new Brunswick As then Trudeau might substitute that formula for the one now contained in his Resolution. Trudeau cannot lose on that Deal. If there is no agreement it adds Potency to Trudeau s argument that the pre Miers will never agree on an amending formula. If there is provincial agree ment then it might be substituted for the one in the Resolution and a pack age presented to Britain with which the provinces agree at least in part. The amending formula presently contained in the Resolution has serious shortcomings. The worst aspect is that once it is put into Canada s Constitution by the British parliament the Amend ing formula will be almost impossible to change. Once the Constitution act is pro claimed in Britain it can be changed in the first two years Only by unanimous consent of the Federal government and All the provinces or if seven or More provinces representing 80 per cent of the population do agree then the amending formula can be put by referendum to the people of Canada within four years of the Date of Procla mation of the Constitution act. Federal proposal the Federal government could also submit an amendment proposal of its own Choice in the form of a referendum. The chances of either of the above occurring is so Remote that they can be totally discounted. That Means that without an agreed upon amending formula being found in the first two years after proclamation then Section 41 of the Constitution Reso Lution would come into play. Section 41 is with slight changes the Victoria charter of 1971 on which All premiers agreed but which came unstuck before it could be put in place. Section 41 contains Many inequities. They arise because the formula tries to provide Protection to different regions of the country Protection which in other Federal states is usually provided through the Senate but not in Canada. Section 41 provides that any province with 25 per cent of Canada s population at the time of proclamation of the Constitution act will for All time have a veto Over constitutional change. That gives Ontario and Quebec a veto forever. It provides that any two of the four Atlantic provinces could veto a pro posed constitutional amendment. Two of the four Western provinces could also veto constitutional change but in the Case of the Western prov inces it would be required that the two represent More than 50 per cent of the population of the Region. Pierre Trudeau s constitutional proposals contain an amending formula that would create inequalities Between the provinces the effect of All this is to give Ontario and Quebec each first class Power Over constitutional change. British Columbia attains second class Power because . And any one other Western province can veto constitutional change. Each of the Atlantic provinces attains third class Power because with any other Atlantic province they can Block constitutional change. Manitoba Saskatchewan and Alberta Are at the Bottom of the totem pole. To Block constitutional change any one of the three Prairie provinces must have . On Side. The extent of the inequity becomes obvious when one considers that . And Newfoundland with less than one third of the population of the Atlantic Region could Block constitutional change while Alberta and Manitoba with More than 45 per cent of the population of the Western provinces could not. The approach apparently favored by the provinces would remove such inequities by arranging provincial Protection derive from opting in pro visions in the Constitution. Trudeau and Justice minister Jean Chretien have recently been Ada mently opposed to opting in because they claim it would produce a Checkerboard Canad with parts of the Constitution applying in some provinces but not in others. Trudeau did not always express such concern. In a publication the Constitution and the people of Canada published by the government of Canada on the occasion of the second meeting of the constitutional conference held in Ottawa in february 1969, the Federal Posi Tion was stated thus it should be provided that nothing in the charter shall be deemed to Confer any legislative authority on the Parlia ment of Canada or on the legislature of a province which parliament or the legislature did not respectively enjoy before the adoption of the the paper went on to say that in some areas for example in the prohibition of discrimination in employment or the provision of counsel or interpreters in judicial proceedings some positive government action would be required to make the rights effective. In such cases parliament or the Legislatures would have the Power to give effect to these rights depending on whether the matter involved pertained to Federal or provincial areas of Juris that was but it is apparently taboo now and do not look for Trudeau to make any More concessions real or perceived. Loans under review by David b. Wilson Boston Globe president decided to de rail the free loan Gravy train on which some of the most privileged people in the country have been Riding since sputnik. The administration proposes to Cut billion from student loan Guaran tees presently available regardless of need. Instead it is looking favourably upon an even less defensible device tuition tax credits to bail out higher education. Despite the paranoiac style of Academia academics and their clients Are privileged people. None is More privileged than those legions of the Young their sat scores evidence of their superiority who Are about to spend four years in the landscaped luxury of America s colleges and universities. And a lot of people Are hurting. The default rate is a National scandal. Brutalized by heat and Utility Bills and harassed by government meddling colleges find their endowments Deci Canada s last line o mated by inflation their enrolments dropping and their survival dependent upon student borrowing. This is outrageous. Student Loans Are bad Loans. They Are the fiscal equivalent of animal the borrowers ordinarily Are minors without Collater Al credit ratings or employment. They have been encouraged to borrow thou Sands upon thousands of dollars on their Mere signatures. Nobody else in the Economy can get away with that. It seems naive to suggest that institutions of higher learning will instill qualities of character that imply repayment. Is it any wonder that students infer that the government does not really expect them to pay Back the Money can an education that encourages de fault and bankruptcy be regarded As in the Public interest and for a Young graduate to embark upon his or her working life wounded by huge interest bearing debt raises Seri Ous questions about the value of col lege. Despite controversies Over the sexual integration of toilets higher learning seems indispensable to whatever pre tence of civilization persists in the United states. On the other hand interest free four year Loans to students eligible for admission to elite colleges seem Down right unjustifiable in a time of 15 per cent mortgage rates while food Stamps and rent subsidy Are being withdrawn from the less desperate among the poor and disadvantaged. The free loan program is Flim Sily disguised privilege for the privileged welfare for the Rich and should be recognized As such. Public expenditures to exacerbate inequality seem difficult to defend. What to do the Only fair answer is to require the beneficiaries of higher Edu cation students and their families to pay for it themselves. Let parents who Are going to be forced into private borrowing deduct not Only the interest on those Loans but also the tuition and room and Board payments. Then calculate the tax loss expenditure to the government arising from the deductibility of interest and charges. This Cost to society would accumulate during the time the student spends in school. The outstanding amount should be indexed for inflation and should pay compounded Market interest rates. After graduation the government should collect this debt via the with holding tax ending the present default scandal. Surely students helped to obtain the advantages of College and permitted to postpone paying for them ought to be willing to repay the sys tem s Cost Iff the government. There remains an element of subsidy to the privileged in this proposal. How Ever families sacrificing to borrow to Send their children to College Are in fact relieving the Public sector of the Cost of educating the student. There is a cer Tain rough Justice in this. Under such a system Public and private scholarship assistance could be Given strictly on grounds of need and Promise. Parents and students would find themselves mutually dependent. And the Long term Cost to the govern ment would be negligible. During the first world War Allied troops knew the War was almost Over when the battalions they came up against consisted mostly of old men and Young boys. The experience was repeated at the end of the second world War when the germans used troops earlier thought to be capable of Only the most routine Home police duties. These were pressed regardless of age into Battle. In neither War however did this take place until the conflict was almost Over. However if Canada is Ever drawn into another War its enemies May be a bit confused. The first troops they Are Likely to meet will be the very old and the very Young. This will happen most Likely tie cause the country will simply not have enough people in the armed forces within the age brackets most readily associated with combat. This May be Why the Gates of the military have been opened to the More mature in society. Anyone who doubts what is happen ing should read the letter that has been sent by lieutenant general a a. Cars Well the assistant Deputy minister department of National defence to those on what the forces used to Call its supplementary before february of this year the supplementary list was just what its name indicated a list of people who hence is also its first 8 Fred Cleverley had once been part of the Canadian forces either regular or Reserve and who had severed connections with the military. It was a general Rule that people on this list received a card once a year from Ottawa asking them if they were still living at the same address. If the recipient took time to mail the return card he usually stayed on the list until he reached age 55. If he did not return the card his name was usually dropped after five years. Those on the supplementary list were not available for military service unless parliament took the rather unusual step of declaring a National emergency. At the end of february according to general Carswell everything changed. Rather than getting the usual postal return card everyone on the supplementary list received a personalized letter. It was personalized by a defence department Label stuck on to an attached questionnaire. One Label was put on the English language questionnaire another on the French language questionnaire and a third on the envelope. It would seem that the Canadian forces unlike the income tax department did not have a list of the language in which its members prefer to receive communications. The first tiling the letter does is to inform the recipient that he is no longer on the supplementary list. He is a member of the supplementary re serve. That is a Subtle difference one that becomes More apparent in the rest of the letter. The regular the letter explains cannot meet All of Canada s possible obligations during an emergency without support from the this statement should sur prise no one. What would be surprising would be to learn that Canada s regular Force is Large enough to meet one tenth of its possible obligations. The Reader will note that the letter mentions support from the reserves and might remember that he is now no longer just on a list but part of those reserves. However he is Givan the Assurance that your obligation to serve As a member of the supplementary Reserve will continue to be Only in the event of a government declared then comes the crunch. To improve the effectiveness of the supplementary the letter Stales the army is studying How to use the members. To assist in the study the army wanted members of the supplementary Reserve who now will remain in until age 65 to fill out a questionnaire. After the preliminaries about present employment and any change in medi Cal status since leaving the forces the supplementary reservist gets the key question in the event of an emergency would you respond positively to a request for voluntary service before government legislation is passed to enact a Call out of the Reserve this is followed by an equally key question considering that Canada de pends on the co operation of employers to get even its primary Reserve out for doonesbury training would your present employ ment Likely prevent you from respond ing to a fallout in a government declared supplementary reservists Are asked if they Are interested in some form of annual training or perhaps an annual briefing. The questionnaire stops Short of asking if any Are interested in drop Ping Down to the mess for a drink. It will be interesting to see what kind of figures the questionnaires produce. The entire exercise has an air of desperation about it. Members of the supplementary Reserve Are for the most part people who have put As much Effort into armed forces service either regular or Reserve As they care to. The forces have More than on the list. Nearly of these Are Over the age of 40, hardly the time of life when it is possible to drum up much enthusiasm about leading a platoon charge up a Hill. Perhaps the planners have in mind that if there is another War we might gain an advantage. Potential enemies could be either russian or chinese and since both cultures respect age our senior citizen soldiers might get More respect than they Are used to at Home. Remember these old men Are not our last line of defence they Are our first. T so a Sis ahm react especially in u6htof that the apart Hsu or. 5ickenin6 implication that the was us som Shtil responsible of. Their of scam perhaps you in explain a their bbn6wjp raped a shot in the Someon Roumay remember. My sin Gjek Force theory from uater6ate. ;