Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 23, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free press thursday april Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed Glt Wmk Al 300 Cartton Street 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company United Telephone 943-9331 second class mail registration number 0266 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor there was a better Way editorials of the three sets of amendments to the government s constitutional Resolution which were tabled in the commons on tuesday the one from the conservative party makes the most sense. It has however no Chance at All of being adopted. The political reality is that the liberals and new demo crate in the House of commons have cooked up an agreement under which the liberals will accept the nip amendment and the new democrats will support the Liberal Resolution. The new democrats being political realists Are proposing Only amendments they know in Advance the liberals will accept and the liberals Are proposing Only amendments they know the new democrats will support. The result of that is that the Resolution will be amended somewhat to recognize god but not property rights to offer another gesture to women and native people and to make the Western prov inces finally equal to Prince Edward Island in the amending process. The government which once announced that it would never bargain Over the rights of canadians will have been bargaining them to the very end. The amendments proposed by the conservatives offered some real improvements Over the government package. They would have provided a More sensible and acceptable amending formula they would have established a hopeful route towards Federal provincial consensus and they would have met the chief objection to the premiers proposed package fact that individual provinces would have been Able to opt out of the charter of rights. The tory package had its bizarre aspects. The clause confirming the right to legislate on capital punishment and abortion is an example of the grotesque things which can happen when one tries to Fine tune a Constitution. But on the whole it offered what under Normal circumstances would have been an acceptable Compromise. Since the Federal government in its current manic constitutional phase has shown Little inclination to Compromise on the constitutional process the Hopes embodied in the conservative amendments May always have been vain. But the biggest weakness of the tory proposals is that they simply came too late. Joe Clark and his colleagues in the commons did an expert Job of stopping the government s juggernaut until the courts had been Given time to Rule on its program and the provinces had had time to set Forth their alternatives. They were much less effective in devising a program of their own which could be presented to the Public As a reasonable alternative to the dangerous and divisive course being followed by prime minister Trudeau. By the time they did come up with an alternative the political deals had All been made. The alternative put together by eight provincial premiers last week suffered from the same Lack of political realism. It offered a better amending formula and a better approach to constitutional renewal but it lacked the political bait in the shape of even a minimal recognition of the work done by parliament on the charter of rights that might have turned the government away from its headlong course. Besides offering the Hope of Compromise provincial agreement to tackle the charter would have offered the Hope of improving the dangerously patched together document which is now before parliament. All that is Likely to Stop the government now is an Adverse decision by the supreme court of Canada. If the court does not Stop it the government can be expected to push on inexorably with its address to the British House of commons and the British House can be expected sooner or later to accede to the Canadian request. At that Point the Provin Cial proposals and the conservative amendments will be left to the history books As a pathetic reminder that there was a better Way. Compromise Over Mao after months of infighting China s leaders appear to have resolved the dispute about How Mao tse Tung s role will be treated in China s history and the question of his succession. Two recent events indicate that the Issue has been settled through a Compromise that enables party vice chairman Deng Xiaoping to continue As the new helmsman guiding China into the modern world but which also attempts to mollify the maoist factions still within the leadership and powerful elements in the military that opposed or. Deng s policy of pragmatic modernization and Demoi fiction. The first was the publication in All National chinese papers of an article on the mistakes and achievements of Mao written by general Huang Zecheng. The article said that Mao was partly to blame for the great disasters that befell China under his Rule the great leap Forward of 1958, which is estimated to have Cost China Many billions of dollars and the cultural revolution which Tore the country apart and almost developed into civil War. The article also emphasized however that the communist party itself was also responsible to a Large degree for the two catastrophes and made Clear that Mao s mistakes were the result of Good intentions and that his achievements far outweigh his errors. I the appearance of the with a Public display of Unity by China s leaders. For the first time in five months vice chairman Deng Xiaoping appeared in Public with his rival chairman Hua Guofeng the Man who was picked by Mao to be his successor but who now appears to have been Jimmie out of the Job by or. Deng. They were accompanied by the widow of Chou in Lai who has often been instrumental in helping feuding factions within the chinese leadership to reach a Compromise. The two events together Are an indication that or. Deng has recognized the need for Compromise if he Hopes to continue his policies. His anti Mao Campaign had been strongly resisted by or. Hua and other maoists As Well As the army. All of this indicates that or. Deng has chosen to abandon his dangerous policy of confrontation with the military. The widespread dissatisfaction with his policies in the armed forces posed the greatest single threat to his Power in China. There Are still Many causes of dissension within both the party and the military to be resolved but or. Deng has now taken the first and perhaps the major step towards ensuring that they will not interfere with his vital goal of changing China from an ideological cult into a modern nation. Burying the premiers plan sticking the consumer Consumers will not be sent a Bill for million to kill off hens so that egg prices will remain High but it is nonsense for the Canadian egg marketing Agency manager Jean Brassard to say that the decision to reduce flocks will not affect Consumers in any Way. The decision to kill off the hens prior to their Normal retirement from the egg laying Busi Ness will be easier for the consuming Public to accept than a repeat of the situation a few years ago when 28 million eggs went Rotten because they had been stored too Long. The net result of the decision will be to keep eggs at a Price higher than they would be if they were not controlled by a government Agency. Or. Brassard says that the expense of paying producers to kill off hens Early is not part of the marketing Agency s budget arid will have to be paid out of the earnings of egg producers in Canada. What he Means is that egg producers will get million less than the government thought they could. What he Means also is that the government thought Canadian Consumers would pay prices that would yield million More than Canadian Consumers Are prepared to pay for eggs even eggs promoted by those endless eat eggs instead television commercials that help drive prices up. If the decision represented the Only Way to remedy a one time mistake and if canadians were getting eggs at prices comparable to those paid by their Southern neighbors it could be understood. But it is the fifth time in ten years that the government has misjudged the Market the fifth time in ten years that Canada s laying flocks have been substantially reduced just to keep prices up. When these five mistakes Are added to the sixth that produced the 28 million Rotten eggs it is time to ask whether the government should be taken out of the egg business. Such a change would be soundly opposed by those who have their place in the orderly marketing of eggs but would be welcomed by Consumers. If the proponents of orderly marketing or government control Start talking about the Jungle effect of an open Market on producers someone should raise the counter argument about the efficiency Factor that would work and is. Working across the Border for Consumers. By . Wilson special to the free press Ottawa the prime minister s Quick recourse to National television to ridicule and condemn the provincial agreement on an amending formula and the premiers proposals for a sub sequent course of constitutional discus Sion and change was a Back handed tribute to their efforts. Their proposals Are in fact reason Able and the Speed of the Federal response suggests that there was uneasiness Here that this Quality would have a particular Appeal to Public opinion after months of increasingly bitter controversy. Attention diverted within a very Short time attention was diverted away from the province s specific proposals by the widely publicized Montreal Gazette Story that two of them Manitoba s Sterling Lyon and Quebec s Rene Levesque had blocked a much More extensive agreement which would have involved a Large degree of acceptance of the Trudeau proposals. The furious provincial Deni als received More air time than the report of the Story itself and this May be one of the rare cases where the rebuttals made a greater Impact than an erroneous Story. But the effect was the same attention was diverted from the positive achievement to the fresh dispute. The Gazette will Fiat rally protect the identity of its sources but the consequences of the phoney report leave the motives of its informants highly suspect the Story has More of the ear Marks of a deliberate Plant than of the sort of rumours that swirl around new developments during periods of Contro Versy. Although the provincial rebuttals probably were effective the episode is a setback for the provinces in the Strug Gle to capture Public opinion. So in deed was or. Trudeau s broadcast. He employed a Good Many distortions Dur ing that interview and some half truths but he did it with great skill and his two interviewers were not a very challenging pair in the face of his methods of argument. Before the combination of the Newfoundland court s opinion and the conservative filibuster in the commons forced the Federal Side to change course the conventional Wisdom among the press corps Here was firmly established that or. Trudeau was an irresistible Force whose will was bound to prevail disapproval that is the impression that or. Tru Deau and or. Chretien have worked hard to create because it helps Mould Public opinion which is in a somewhat Complex state. The polls show that the Public has understood the importance of the dispute Over the unilateral pro Cess the Federal government is follow ing. Disapproval of the Trudeau meth ods is marked even though about the same percentage in the polls is favor Able to the goal of a charter of rights. The standings of the parties has not 1 been greatly affected by the controversy. In this situation the provincial pre Miers should not leave the Field to the prime minister now that they have reached an important agreement among their Case has been greatly strengthened and they should take advantage of that step Forward in the Effort to influence Public reactions. At the same time they should not leave unchallenged some of the curious reasoning of Premier Davis of Ontario. Both he and or. Trudeau have argued that their opponents Are inconsistent in holding that if the supreme court of Canada finds the Federal approach unconstitutional the matter will be settled but that if the court rules that it is a Legal the effect to Stop the Federal proposals will go on. This is a very specious argument because it rests on the proposition that we should accept and support every political proposal that is Legal. That is absurd. Within the Law it is of great importance that every political action should have a sound Legal basis but it does not follow that policies Are Wise merely because they Are Legal. If that were so every govern ment would be Able to get its proposals accepted without debate or controversy since they normally operate within the Law. Or. Trudeau s argument which or. Davis supports that this is a political rather than a Legal dispute is As mis leading As the Gazette Story of a thwarted provincial agreement. The dispute is of course political but the Legal foundation for the Federal course is in enough doubt that the judges of three provinces disagree among them selves Over it. The dispute becomes wholly political Only after the Legal doubts have been resolved they Are. There is great concern that the supreme court May Divide almost equally on the Issue perhaps with a five to four opinion. That would be the worst result because it would simply emphasize How much legitimate doubt there is. No split in nip your april 16 editorial instant policy is another in a rather tiresome and regrettably unethical series attacking the nip for its labor policy. I say unethical because it continues to manufacture splits in the ranks of the nip where none exist clearly a Case of Wishful thinking. Sidney Green and the less than half dozen other who left the nip in my opinion because of per Sonal disappointment and overweening ambition constitute a splinter not a split without whom the nip is More United than Ever before. Your editorial refers to Howard Paw Ley s announcement of the party plat form on labor. This policy rejects anti Scab legislation opts for first contract arbitration and proposes other reme dial changes to the labor relations act Howard Pawley All support which As your editorial puts it represents a More realistic approach to the violence and confrontation that some times accompany Union efforts to obtain new however your editorial reports As if it were a fact that or. Pawley had to drag it this labor policy out of a weekend meeting restricted to the party executive and candidates for the next this one statement contains two blatant untruths and in my View demonstrates the kind of irresponsible journalism which makes the present enquiry into newspaper monopoly a matter of some urgency. In the first place the meeting which i attended was a meeting of members of the nip caucus in the legislature those nip candidates already Nomin ated members of the nip provincial executive and members of the nip election planning committee group clearly representative of the party As a whole. In the second place rather than this policy being dragged out of the group the policy was unanimously supported and that support was Given As much by Active Trade unionists As by others. Or. Pawley was perfectly right to take the time which he did to consider to consult and to elaborate a labor policy which is in keeping with the stated intent of the labor relations act to promote Industrial peace. No doubt some Trade unionists would prefer the kind of anti Scab legislation recently enacted by the conservative government in new Brunswick. However the fact that they Are prepared to support or. Pawley demonstrates three things about which the people of Manitoba need not be in doubt the nip is not dominated by labor the nip is not split on labor issues and Howard Paw Ley is giving the nip the kind of Strong Clear and unequivocal Leader ship which he will give Manitoba As its next Premier. Roland Penner nip candidate in fort Rouge Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from readers. Writers must give their name and address. The author s name will be used and letters Are subject to editing. Marijuana fact of life congratulations to Barbara Robson for the article on working mothers. I feel that it is Best if the mothers of Small children stay Home. But we Are stuck with the society we have and As it says in the article working mothers Are now a fact of life. Therefore we should try to improve life for the Chil Dren concerned instead of wasting our Energy criticizing these overworked women most of whom Are working for necessities not luxuries. What Good does it do a child to be raised in poverty to suffer from malnourishment in thinking of the children who Are reported to be going to the salvation army for meals i wonder if these Are the children of working mothers or of neglectful stay Home mothers if the latter i would rather see them gainfully employed and hiring a Good baby Sitter. If our concern is truly for the Chil Dren then we should be trying to raise the ceiling at which families have to pay income tax Institute a minimum income plan to help those mothers and single fathers who would really prefer to stay Home with their children and we would insist on having Good Quality Day care facilities easily accessible and with a fee based on income. I was fortunate enough to be Able to stay Home and raise my children my self. I do not know of course whether my children would have turned out different if i had not stayed Home. Of the families i have known i have not seen any correlation Between bad kids and working mothers. Children suffer if they have uncaring or abusive parents whether the parents stay Home or not. Let us not forget the influence of the father. Children who have an abusive or rejecting father will suffer even if their Mother is the Best in the world. I wish that certain people had not had children in the first place. But since the children Are Here and since we cannot legislate Good parenting we should As a society do our Best for the children who in their turn will become the parents of tomorrow. If we go around saying mothers should stay which is something we cannot and in a democracy should not control and at the same time we do nothing to help the children then we Are All guilty of negligence. Janet Osborne Winnipeg lethal weapons in regard to your interview with gun Vendor John Tankersley in which he stated that guns do not kill but people do to Deal in the semantics of the ques Tion is to evade the Point completely which is to say that although John Hinkley had been convicted of illegal Possession of three guns Only five Days later he was Able to obtain weapons with Little difficulty. When or. Tankersley Speaks of constitutional rights i think he ignores the Basic concepts of common sense. To equate Freedom with the abilities of the Hinkley Berkowit Zes and Chapmans to obtain lethal weapons is to me As ridiculous and dangerous As allowing a Blind person behind the wheel of an automobile. Richard Cade Brandon Manitoba i am writing in response to the letter of a. Asselstine of april 6. Firstly this person says that alcohol is the number one problem True alcohol May be the number one problem but it is not a drug if you Don t believe me consult your Handy marijuana is not toxic As stated unless it has been treated by chemicals As the . Did in Mexico and even if it was it would t attack the brain. Or. Asselstine seems to feel that legalizing marijuana would been Dorsing its he obviously believes this will Lead to an increased use of the drug. This is not necessarily True. Fig ures May indicate a false increase due to More people admitting to using it Many Young people use drugs As a rebellion against the Legal system. Legalizing it would remove this motivation. If marijuana were legalized it would make it possible for the govern ment to standardize it making it safer for those who do use it. Or. Asselstine is writing emotionally and has manifestly not researched carefully As to what the drug is or what its effects Are. If he wishes to pursue this Issue the University has Over two Hundred books in the Library on drug abuse. Thomas Holden arts director University of Winnipeg students association innovative i would like to commend the Lyon government for its innovative ideas. Who would have thought that raising the prices of liquor and cigarettes would bring million i was a Little discouraged with the pc government when it blew million on the Chi caper. However when they Bounce right Back with these new ideas i must congratulate them. Al Mckay Winnipeg pollution i worked As a welder at Alcan s Kitimat . Smelter for three years and would like to share my knowledge of the company s ethical standards and its environmental Impact. In 1968, the vegetation around the smelter and North along the Kitimat Valley where the smoke travels was All dead and dry. Alcan blamed a natural disease and not its fluoride emission even though vegetation on the other Side of the same Hills was healthy Alcan then built scrubber towers chimneys with water spraying into them to Wash the air. Now a four foot diameter pipe dumps the murky Brown effluent into the Douglas Channel where the tide regularly takes it out to the Pacific Ocean. Here in Manitoba what could we do with fluoride emissions or the smoke from a Quarter million pounds of pitch being daily burned in the process or would that be our provincial govern ment s problem after allowing the Plant to be built and signing various 50-year guarantees. Joe Matt la Winnipeg maybe now you la Stop heckling at feminist rally ;