Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 1, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press. Friday. Mud 7 modernizing Canadian Airpower by John Best special 10 the free press Ottawa Canadian forces flee of fixed Wing aircraft contains venerable old warhorse and planes As new and sophisticated As an advanced computer. This fall will see the retirement of one of the most venerable of All Canada s military air planes the Argus Long Range patrol aircraft which has borne the Brunt of our anti submarine reconnaissance work and Arctic sovereignty patrols for 23 years. The new Workhorse of the Arctic nights and Atlantic and Pacific Dawn patrols will be the Aurora a special Canadian version of the Lockheed Orion surveillance plane. A billion Dol Lar program to replace the 26 Argus s with 18 auroras is Well under Way and the first Squadron missions will be flown in May. Most of the electronically advanced planes have already been delivered. The whole program is on schedule and on says a defence depart ment spokesman. Heavy infighting the apparent smoothness of the production and delivery program contrasts sharply with the Aurora s convulsive birth pangs five years ago. Infighting Between the defence department and the Supply and services department plus disagreements Between the government and Lockheed Over which was going to put up the Money to get production started provoked repeated questions in parliament and soured Public opinion. Once on track however the Aurora project quickly became a Success Story. About one year after Aurora takes Over from Argus a second big aircraft replacement begins when the first of 137 Cf-18a fighter planes enters ser vice. This program will Cost billion. Over a period of six years the Mcdonnell Douglas plane will be substituted for the Cf-101 voodoo now used for Home defence and the Cf-104 Star fighter stationed with the Canadian air group in Germany. There Are three squadrons of voodoo and three of Star fighters. The voodoo will be taken out of service first then the Star fighters. Both planes have been in operation since 1962, which Means that the last Star fighter will have been in service for 25 or More years when it is retired in the mid to late 1980s. A Multi million Dollar program to re furbish the Cf-104s to ensure their continued operability and to upgrade their weapons and navigation systems is now under Way at Northwest Indus tries Ltd. In Edmonton and in Ger Many. It is to be completed next year. Canada has five 707s, whose Normal function is to ferry armed services personnel and Forth across the Atlantic and to some extent across Canada. They have been in service for 11 years. On the cargo Side the Backbone of the Long Range Fleet is the Lockheed Hercules which has been in service since 1960 and in Sutherland s words just goes on and on and there Are 27 of them and they have seen service in virtually every part of the world wherever Canadian troops have been engaged in peacekeeping or disaster Relief work. It is the Dak of the year said Sutherland referring to the legendary Dakota medium transport now used primarily by the Reserve forces which has been in Canada s military aviation Fleet for 32 years and is expected to last another eight. The defence department is examining plans to extend the Hercules air worthiness into the late 1980s and the 1990s, perhaps beyond. The Hercules Little brother is the Buffalo a tactical or medium haul transport and another legendary work horse of the skies. It has been in service 14 years and in addition to cargo hauling has a search and Rescue role. Electronics systems on the Buffalo Are currently being upgraded. When Canada had an aircraft car Rier before the untimely demise of the Star crossed Bonaventure in 1970, its decks were lines with medium Range reconnaissance planes called trackers. Fisheries patrols now the tracker is land based. It flies out of Shearwater , a few Miles from where the Bonnie used to berth at Halifax and Comox b.c., on coastal surveillance and fisheries patrols. The bulk of its work is done for the department of fisheries and oceans. The tracker is another old timer having entered service in Canada in i960. A mid life modification has extended its usefulness to 1985, and National research Council scientists Are conducting assessments which could Clear it for flight operations to the mid-1990s. Training role j Canada s other main combat plane the Cf-5 fighter bomber is due to be converted to an exclusively training role some time after the Cf-18a enters service. As a Trainer it will provide a link Between Basic training and advanced fighter flying in the Cf-18a. There Are two operational squadrons of Cf-5s. The plane is assigned to Home defence bul can also be called on to perform a role on nato s Northern flunk Norway and Denmark in an East West emergency. Col. Fred Sutherland director of air operations and training at defence Headquarters says he assumes the Northern flank role will continue with he Cf-1sa but this is not cast in the plane would require the same in flight refuelling As the Cf-5 to get across the Atlantic non Stop. That Job is done by Boeing 707 Long Range trans ports equipped with special fuelling hoses. The tracker inventory consists of 30 planes of which 18 Are flying regularly and 12 Are in storage. Still another venerable combat plane the All Canadian Cf-100 which 30 years ago was regarded As one of the Best fighter planes in the sky will be taken out of service this year. In its Twilight years it has been used for electronic warfare training in new Brunswick. An assortment of other planes rounds out the fixed Wing Fleet including fal con and cosmopolitans Small Passen Ger models used for flying vips the Otter transport now assigned to the air Reserve the t-33, once the forces primary Trainer now used partly for training and partly for some specialized Light transport the Tudor of snowbirds acrobatic Fame the Muske Teer medium transport and two dash-7 Light transports based in Europe. Canada s helicopter Fleet includes the Kiowa and Huey which Are grouped together in three Canadian based Tacti Cal squadrons of 16 planes each six Huey and 10 Kiowa. Two Reserve squadrons also Are being equipped with the Kiowa and 13 Kiowa Are stationed at the Canadian air base in Lahr West Germany. The Canada based helicopter Fleet also includes four squadrons of chinooks. On the naval Side two squadrons of sea King helicopters Are at Shear water. John Best i k a freelance journalist based in Ottawa. Canada s new fighter aircraft the Cf-18a and the Aurora Long Range Patro aircraft Are joining the venerable Hercules right and Cf-100 in this court precision is the goal by Richard Gwyn Toronto Star Syndicate Ottawa supreme court does not work the Way courts work on to. Lawyers do not interrupt each other with mock indignant cries of witnesses do not crumple on the stand. The judges do not Wear wigs. Still it does its work with a sense of ceremony. The nine judges half hidden by the Day s end behind a mounting pile of Law books and briefs Sil behind a Long Semi circular Walnut and red leather desk. They Wear Black silk Robes. They refer to each other As the lawyers also in Black address the judges As my More to the Point the supreme court works with a pervading sense of precis Ion. The generalities of each Case have been argued out already by lower courts in the present constitutional instance the supreme courts of Mani Toba Quebec and Newfoundland. The nine supreme court judges function As a kind of collective referee measuring the decisions of the lower courts against the exactitude of the Law. The process does not make for drama. Only occasionally is the Gravity of the occasion punctured by a Shaft of humor. When Kerr twaddle the Prin Cipal lawyer for the provinces quoted a Harvard University professor in sup port of his Case or. Justice Willard Estey interrupted to remark a lot of things Are said at Harvard that Aren t instead the prevailing tone is the quest for precision. For instance when twaddle argued for a modified com pact theory of confederation by which the provinces agreed to unite on the condition the terms of Union would not be altered without their Estey again broke in to ask in the Case of Saskatchewan who Estey s Point Here was that since Saskatchewan also Alberta was not a province or Colony when it joined in 1905, it lacked a government capable of agreeing or disagreeing to anything. Twaddle explained that Saskatchewan s agreement came after it had joined and implicitly. The losers in this Pursuit of precision Are the provinces. In effect the supreme court judges Are narrowing the Point of attack by the provinces on Pierre Trudeau s constitutional pack age to the strict and the exact letter of the Law. The provincial argument As expressed by twaddle is that even if the Law As written does not compel Ottawa to secure provincial consent to constitutional change nevertheless a con or Well established practice has developed which requires Provin Cial consent to All substantive constitutional amendments. Further twaddle argued this convention has hardened into Law. The questions of the judges though. Blunted his Point. Who would decide which Constitution Al amendments were substantive and so required provincial consent. Asked or. Justice Roland Ritchie. The supreme court would replied twaddle. We d All be kept pretty commented Ritchie. The most significant questions were those of chief Justice Bora Luskin. "1 Arn he said because the very definition of a convention is that it is not enforceable in the he had heard that Point made before said twaddle. What then is the answer asked Laskin. This convention is so fundamental to the nature of this country that your lordships should confirm its exis replied twaddle. The essence of the Case is encompassed in that Exchange. The course deny that a convention requiring provincial consent has been established. But even if the convention does exist that does not make it Law. As Laskin said it would be incompatible with the judicial function for the courts to decide cases on the basis of political practice. The provinces can blame i heir plight upon the fathers of confederation who forgot to Slick an amending clause in the British North America act and thereby left us a legacy of 11-i years of bickering about whether provincial consent or Federal action was required to change uni Constitution. Sterling Lyon finds one socialist he does like the Only genuine complaints about having the tenth conference of Western Canadian premiers in the Northern Community of Thompson came from citizens who found for two and a half Days that they could not buy dog licences bicycle licences or talk Wel fare problems because they were kept but of their own City Hall. I Here were no complaints from wanting 10 pay their water Bill because there Are no water Bills in Thompson. A truly massive Security Force kept any one without a badge away from the building and managed to separate any one with badges so that the reporters were kept in the basement the bureaucrats were Given the run of the main floor and Only the really important were allowed up the spiral staircase to the meeting room. Genuine complaints were few they were balanced by those in Council who were delighted at the Prospect of Host ing the four important men and their dozens of less important staff. I the most delighted of course were those members of the Thompson upper crust thin though it May the Community of who received Gold monogrammed invitations from pre Mier Sterling Lyon to a dinner. Those selected knew it was important when they got their first glance at the Fred Cleverley menu and discovered that their pre Mier did not deserve All the criticism he has been getting for dragging his feet on bilingualism. The menu was entirely in French demonstrating that the Premier particularly where culture is concerned does not place a narrow court interpretation on what should be provided in second language services. Those at the dinner were treated to something Seldom seen during the formalities of the meetings and the press conferences. They saw the human Side of Sterling Lyon Allan Blakeney Peter Lougheed and Bill Bennett. Few people for example have Ever heard Bill Bennett say that Sterling Lyon usually went along with the wishes of others mainly because he is the shortest of the group. Who has Ever heard of Allan Blakeney joking about the number of people who leave Saskatchewan at Thompson the Saskatchewan pre Mier said he was always polite to people he met outside his own province because he never knew whether some Day they might move Home and become supporters. Peter Lougheed admitted to being a Stone face but Only at sporting events when the Calgary flames played the Edmonton oilers or when the Eskimo s tangle with the Slang Peders. Never before at least in my memory. Has Sterling Lyon Ever admitted to liking a socialist As he did when he professed his admiration for and Friendship with Allan Blakeney. However the tone that creeps into Lyon s voice when he says the word makes it difficult to believe the rest of his statement. He called Blakeney reasonable but then he was not talking about tin Western Power Grid. The premiers often meet in smaller communities because it is 10 their advantage to do so. They always say they arc bothered by the press hut then they go to extreme measures to ensure that the irritation is kept Ai the level acceptable to them. Their meetings Are closed but the premiers Are besieged As they enter in the morning when they leave for lunch. And when they return for the afternoon session. While it looks like confusion it is the kind of confusion that politicians enjoy. They Are masters at dropping hints that say nothing and at producing communiques that have to be dissected to locate the differences from nearly identical ones issued the previous year. It is to the politicians advantage to have this happen in a smaller Community. In the provincial capitals a closed meeting of premiers would be covered by the regular reporting staff and the communities would have to say some thing to be used. Out of town the reports that Are coming in represent dollars spent by the news agencies to doonesbury Send people and it is a time honoured tradition in the news business that when a Story costs it is used. So the choosing of a smaller Community for the annual premiers conference is Likely to produce More news rather than less. When this Factor is added to the hospitality and the Lack of local criticism prevalent in the larger suburbs. And when at the same time the Host Premier can pay off some social debts it makes Good sense to move away i rum the capital. About those confusing population Fig ures in Thompson Premier . Questioned on his arrival said there were about 19.1100 people. Labor minister Ken Macmaster who represents Thompson in the legislature con firmed the figure. The real population is about less. It Only goes to prove that is a newcomer to politics. He said he had not heard the pre Mier s full answer. He missed the and caught the teen. He though 1 Ann had said 13, not if he had been a Veteran he a quid have used Steve Juba s trick of turning a hearing disability into an advantage. If he had been Here still longer he would have blamed the decline on the opposition. 0erme ;