Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 25, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba The Winnipeg free press welcomes tellers irom readers. Writers must give their name address. The author s name will be used letters Are subject to editing Winnipeg free press saturday april 25, 1981 7 readers forum ism fiscal shenanigans essences were a jewish sect As a follow up to a letter on saturday april 18, 1981, entitled errors in a the following Points should be brought to Light. While the to movie Masada was historically inaccurate it did not purport to be an historical account of the events at Masada in the year 73 . The producers clearly indicated that the movie was based on Ernest k. Gann s novel the antagonists. Viewed in this Light it was an interesting study of two great leaders. As a documentation of an historical event it was less than adequate. The letter is also historically inaccurate. In the letter the author claims that the essences were not jews every member of the essene brother Hood had to be a pure blooded descendant of the aryan that no member of the essene brotherhood would Ever have set foot inside ish Temple or read from the jewish scriptures because they did not believe in the Law of Moses. The essene had their own manuscripts which antedated the jewish scriptures by i would ask the free press to justify explain the preceding two incorrect claims since it chose to publish them. The essences were an offshoot of the mainstream of Judaism around the time of the destruction of the second Temple. To find out about the jewish origins of the essences who happened to be an Ultra orthodox jewish sect one has Only to read the ancient historians Flavius Josephus Philo Pliny the elder. Or one could read the works of modern historians archaeologists religious scholars. If one were to do this one would find that both claims Are not Only far from the truth but also inflammatory since they carry a Dis Tinct undercurrent of racism. In the to movie the parts played by Peter Otoole Peter Strauss those of the roman general Flavius Silva the zealot Leader Eleazer Benya in were not treated events Anderly. Eleazer was portrayed As the weaker of the two men. We were not really Given the same insight into his mind or his drive As we were into Silva s. We were shown the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 by the army of Titus but were not Given to understand the importance of the razing of the second Temple the holiest Sanctuary of Judaism the burning Down of the City of Jerusalem the death of jews the carrying in to Captivity of More reference Flavius Josephus the jewish we were not told of the roman sport of putting jews to the sword for an evening s entertain ment or How Titus honoured his brother s birthday after the fall of Jerusalem by tying together groups of jewish prisoners setting them alight As human torches. It was the occurrence of events such As these which prompted the defenders of Masada to take their own lives not some magical Devotion to a half crazed Leader As we might be led to believe after listening to Peter o Toole s final speech. Masada was not Jonestown As some might have us believe. Masada was the few against the Many jewish men women children against armed roman troops. Masada was the ancient counterpart of the Warsaw ghetto where a meager number of desperate polish jews fought the might of the third Reich proved that the heroism of a few Brave people fighting against insurmountable Odds will never be omitted from the annals of history. The out come of the Battles at Masada the Warsaw ghetto were totally different in Light of what the romans did during their Conquest of Judea who can say that the defenders of Masada were wrong in their final deed Marshall n. Garland Winnipeg appalled i was most appalled to read the letter referring to the errors in Masada. I would like to Point out that there were Many More than two errors in the script but the two items that or. Mueller mentioned were not mistakes in the least. The Only factual part of the show was that it was the jews who were on Masada it was the romans that wanted to get rid of them h. Goldberg Winnipeg nonsense h. Mueller was wrong when he accused the Masada movie writers of erroneously presenting the essene As jewish religious organization. One can hardly imagine a More nonsensical distortion of historical fact. Stan Zurawsky Winnipeg the Manitoba tories Are Well known for their manipulation of provincial financial affairs. Upon assuming of fice in 1977 they immediately began a Campaign to smear the previous government by gleefully predicting a rec Ord deficit of million for the fiscal year Epding March when the facts began to materialize the deficit was to be Only million they began in Earnest to build it Back up. On april 5, 1978, a letter was received from Ottawa dated March indicating that we had been overpaid by for equalization in 1976-1977. On april 11, 1978, another letter was received from Ottawa indicating that for the same year 1967-1977 Manitoba had been Over paid by for personal in come taxes for corporate income taxes. The Federal government offered to recover this Money by deducting the from our receipts in Cash of these items during 1978-1979 As was the practice. Then finance minister Don Craik agreed. Or. Craik or. Lyon then decided that they would declare that the Money owing was paid Back during 1977-1978 that the million was received As Cash in 1978-1979. To acco Iodate this Craik had the accounting rules changed accrual account ing was introduced for the first time. Furthermore on March 31, 1978, was deducted from reve Nues deposited in a Trust account to cover carry Over expenditures for the Manitoba health services commission. Almost two months later Well after the year end a fur ther was again deducted from 1977-1978 revenues deposited to. The same Trust account. The accounting rules were altered again to accommodate or. Craik s accounting. Thus by introducing accrual accounting or. Craik artificially drove up the deficit by million from to Mil lion at the same time reduced his first tory deficit by a similar million. With this background of tory fiscal shenanigans finance minister Brian Ransom s recent budget requires close scrutiny. The first thing which strikes the trained Eye is the phony Revenue item for almost million called Transfer from the special municipal loan general Emer gency this is not a Cash Transfer from some savings account but is rather just a Book entry transferring a non Cash asset into Rev Enue. In a business sense it is As valid As converting Goodwill or depreciation into a Revenue item. Thus at first glance or. Ransom s deficit becomes million not million. Now i d like to focus on equalization. Equalization is a Federal welfare payment to the have not provinces so that provinces can offer an equal level of services across the country. Between 1973 1979, equalization payments to Manitoba increased from million to million an aver age of about million or 14 per cent per year. In 1979-1980 equalization increased in Manitoba by million or 66 per cent Over the previous year. In other provinces equalization increased by much smaller degrees fld. 7.7 per cent . 7.2 per cent 10.3 per cent . 20.1 per cent Quebec per cent. The Impact of acute protracted restraint was beginning to show up in our reduced capacity to Brian Ransom s budget figures come under question yield Home grown revenues. Our own source revenues still represent less than 60 per cent of total revenues. With the Transfer of additional taxing Powers to the provinces under the fiscal arrangements act of 1978 we should be producing a minimum of 65 per cent of total revenues ourselves. Instead Federal equalization payments soared upwards to represent 20 per cent of Manitoba total revenues up from the traditional level of 10-14 per cent. Just As or. Craik s Hydro interference cows Are coming Home now his economic policy cows were already coming Home in 1980. Or. Ransom s budget merely repeats those disprove policies. In 1980-1981 equalization receipts by Manitoba Are expected to top Mil lion. Prior years adjustments Contri buted significantly to our receipts Dur ing 1979-1980 million re 1977-1978 million re 1978-1979 also during 1980-1981 million re 1978 1979 million re Given these Large adjustments the Large increases in entitlements during 1979-1980 1980-1981 it is unlikely that massive adjustments will occur again in the new year 1981-1982. Or. Ransom s budget projects equalization revenues of million. However i have Learned that our entitlement is Only expected to be in the Vicinity of million million less than or. Ransom s forecast. To me this represents one of two things either Manitoba s Economy is per forming even worse than we expected or or. Ransom is deliberately Over estimating his revenues to reduce his deficit. If the latter is True we can expect a deficit closer to million in 1981 1982. If the former is True Manitoban still lose As it will be further proof of the failure of tory economic policy. Don Scott former budget analyst with the provincial department of finance Winnipeg strange what Are or. H. Mueller s sources for his strange allegation that the ancient essene sect was not jewish was made up Only of pure blooded descendants of the so called aryan race the Standard reference books refer to the essences As an ascetic jewish sect that followed the old testament scriptures very strictly they May also have influenced a More successful jewish sect the one founded by Jesus of Nazareth but that hardly disqualifies them from being jewish Sheldon Goldfarb Winnipeg croatian nation has Long history from the articles who s celebrating what free press april 9 Norrie blasted for his part in Croatia fete april one does get the impression that croatian nation did not exist before 1941. It is Likely that first settlement took place in second Century . Croatian historians have traced croatian roots years Back to ancient Persia. Croatia is among the oldest of Europe an nations has a history of parliamentary government dating Back to the seventh Century As stated in the Book Tjie croatian by . Bonifacic . Mihanovich. In the year 626 . Croatians appeared settled on the East coast of Adriatic sea. The Independent state of Croatia was established in 879 . Under the Viceroy Branimir recognized by Pope John Viii. In the year 925 under King Tomislav the boundaries of Croatia were established. Since that time Croatia has been under different Powers influences yet it has maintained its National identity parliamentary government. In 1102, Croatia joined the croatian hungarian King Dom two nations with two separate parliaments but one King. At the end of the Austro hungarian Empire 1915, the yugoslavian committee was formed with the idea to unite Croatia Slovenia Serbia. On oct. 29, 1918, Croatia broke its former ties with the Austro hungarian Empire on dec. The states Union of serbians croats slovenes was proclaimed in Belgrade without the co operation of croatian in 1928 Stjepan Radic Leader of the croatian nation two other representatives were shot in the Parlia ment of Belgrade after which Yugoslavia was proclaimed under the dictator ship of serbian King Alexander. In 1929, or. Ante Pavelic the croatian representative who was in exile organized movements of Eustase All Over Europe Eustase meaning nothing More than croatian Freedom fighters while working with people within Croatia. The pact Between Germany Yugoslavia Japan was signed but not carried out. This brought about the fall of yugoslavian parliament. Immediately croatians took the Opportunity to fight for eagerly awaited Independence. As it was said by Les Shaw in trial by on the eve of the German invasion of Yugoslavia Nei ther Germany nor Italy had any intention of allowing a separately organized croatian state. That state was in fact the spontaneous creation of the croatian people themselves a. Fait a comply which took both Germany Italy by thus on april Colo Nel Slavko Kvaternik As chief of staff of the croatian armed forces pro claimed the Independence of the croatian free state. Croatian people celebrate april 10 because it was the last proclamation Independence Date of Croatia. The croatian Flag is a Symbol of Freedom it is an expression of National dignity Pride. The croatian Flag does not represent any ideology it is not associated with fascism or nazism it simply is a croatian Flag approved by croatian Sabor Long before any of above mentioned systems. It is sad to know that this outrageous subjective Story about croatians is a result of irresponsible journalism desire to spread hate among people. Is or. Zuren aware that our mayor responded to our personal invitation to celebrate our anniversary to Honor our achievements in this coun try he is not an expert in croatian history nor is there a need for him to become one. It seems that or. Zuken is the one who needs that trip to the Library to find out the other Side of the croatian Story. People of croatian Community Are deeply Hurt by this accusation for none of us sees any truth in it your implications do not represent the Char Acter of this Community. Or. Sullivan s or. Zuken s sources of information Are one sided biased. The encyclopedia Britan Ica which is influenced by Yugoslavia therefore the information about Croatia supplied is questionable is quoted. No croatian or other authors Are quoted in order to at least see another version of the Story. Hundreds of valid documents written by authorized researchers have been ignored or purpose Lessly bypassed by or. Sulli Van or. Zuken. The question arises is it fair to blame the croatian people for something that they Don t have anything to do with without at least finding out from them what they think on the subject Mirko Curkovic nine other signatures Winnipeg parliament permits the prime minister Laid before parliament the draft of partially written Constitution. He is reported to have accused the progressive conservatives of fascism in their attempt to Force him to listen to the people of this country on this matter. However no one has denied that the conservatives were correctly using every stratagem permitted under the rules of debate which govern the House of commons. If this is so then even to the most disinterested observer the logical con sequence of the prime minister s argument is that the rules of debate in parliament permit fascism. The prime minister ought to think about that. Tony Wilden Simon Fraser University Burnaby . Pm v. Moi every stratagem permitted under the Tony Duaei hungarian Empire on dec. Independence Date of Croatia. The rules of debate which govern the House Simon Fraser University Peter Strauss Peter o Toole in the film Masada the states Union of serbians croats croatian Flag is a Symbol of Freedom it of commons. Burnaby premiers position on opting out a departure the constitutional Accord signed by Falluco co operative but it a Serva Tive Leader John Diefenbaker fighting the same Battle today except opting out in Canada there has Tea j2? Al i Russell slslkess1 is self Bencher from mount that it has now escalated to the Funda an opting out mechanism at the admin constitutional opting out. Is it a Ca Nadian tradition or sovereignty association by degrees the constitutional Accord signed by eight premiers in Ottawa last week permits provinces to opt out of constitutional amendments by a simple majority vote of their Legislatures. Prov inces could subsequently opt in but once in they could not opt out again. Various premiers defended the controversial provision by claiming it was part of the history of Canada. However Federal Justice minister Jean Chretien dismissed it As sovereignty association by degrees prime minister Pierre Trudeau called it separation by the clause plus the pre Miers failure to mention the charter of rights caused the Federal government to reject the Accord out of hand. History indicates that the provinces Are confusing apples oranges by trying to put history on their Side. Provinces entered confederation with certain differences enshrined in the British North America act or in their particular acts of Union with can Ada. Examples include the recognition of French English As official languages in Quebec Manitoba but not in other provinces the Protection of Newfoundland s separate school sys tem the calculation of population to qualify for Federal Grants different in Manitoba Prince Edward Island from other provinces. At the same time however once a province was in Canada it has never been Able to remove itself from constitutional changes made after its entry. This fact plus the historic pattern of constitutional change which has been to Lessen rather than increase differences among provinces Means the Accord signed by the eight premiers is a significant constitutional departure for Canada. The instances used by some premiers to defend opting out As a Canadian tradition illustrated a Basic confusion Between what is constitutional what is simple administrative flexibility. Newfoundland Premier Brian Peck Ford cited the fact that eight provinces use the ramp As provincial police forces while Ontario Quebec have their own As an example of past opting out. Police forces Are not a constitutional Law. Opting out As an administrative mechanism was inaugurated by the Lester Pearson government in the mid 1960s. It became the basis for so called co operative but it applied to programs not the Constitution. Strongly attacked by the Federal conservatives at the time it was devised to overcome the objections of Quebec to Federal legislation in social Fields. Under the established programs interim financial agreement of 1965, prov inces were allowed to opt out of certain National social initiatives receive tax Points in return for administering their own programs in accordance with National standards. One example of this is the Quebec pension plan. Quebec chose not to participate in the Canada pension plan but set up its own agreeing to a portability feature with the rest of the country. Another instance of opting out was Quebec s decision not to participate in Federal provincial tax collection agreements. Quebec collects its own taxes while other provinces have Ottawa collect theirs. University of Manitoba political scientist Paul Thomas says the distinction must be made Between provinces being Able to opt out of individual programs being Able to opt out of portions of the Canadian Constitution. At the time the established programs interim financial agreement was signed in 1965, Royal Pierre Trudeau. Diefenbaker described the ability of provinces to opt out of National pro Grams As leading to the eventual destruction of Canada. When Trudeau became Liberal Leader prime minister he ran his first election Campaign in 1968 against the special status for Quebec being favored by the tories under Robert Stan Field. To both Diefenbaker Trudeau special status for any province was the first step towards political separation. According to Thomas Trudeau is still fighting the same Battle today except that it has now escalated to the Funda mental Issue of the Constitution itself not simply programs. By supporting constitutional opting out the tories under Joe Clark Are obviously less committed to a role for the National Thomas continues. The ghost of John Diefenbaker must be haunting the Halls of parliament these Thomas says the constitutional Accord s Basic idea elevating program opting out to a constitutional Verity will simply not Diane. There never has been constitutional opting out in Canada. There has been an opting out mechanism at the administrative political level to provide for program flexibility but never the actual delegation of constitutional a Thomas says. I believe the country would insist that there be constitutional uniformity for Canada in the future particularly on so fundamental a matter As human rights. Surely if we Are a Community at All there must be National application of something As Basic As human doonesbury Sav Mack w you Al ttys carry thatthih6a Pound with you of Duks i i have to imc4ssyou hat to us be n win6ina chief. So pack of thank6cpkkth5 Foreskin Tofte right. You never know uhen you might have ;