Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 7, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free press thursday May 7, 1981 Winnipeg free press Trade equally of rights Liberty of religion publishes and printed six Days a week at 300 Carillon Street. Winnipeg r3c 3cl by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 943-9331 second class mail registration number 0286 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page Elitc Euri Ciliate. Troubles in medicare editorials Manitoba does not have enough anaesthetists to assist its surgeons. Half of the province s radiologists have opted out of medicare and Are charging their patients More than the medicare covered fee. The fee schedule now under Neotia lion Between the government and the medical association cannot by itself get at the roots of either problem dramatically higher fees for anaesthetists might draw a few More into practice in the province. A Sharp increase for radiologists might give them the Assurance that for the next year their technical costs would be fully covered by the medicare fee schedule. But psychiatrists and ophthalmologists Are also in Short Supply. If the present fee setting system deals with those scarcities the same problem will be Apt to arise in some other specially. Neither the doctors nor the Public can be confident that the system which has produced the present difficulties will work better next year or the year after radiologists cannot assume that the fees agreed by the government will respond any More quickly to the next increase in their costs. Anaesthetists cannot be confident that the system will respond any More quickly the next time a severe manpower shortage develops. All other specialities must wonder about the system s ability to notice their problems and Deal with them. The government therefore must not just come up with More Money for the doctors. It must come up with a More reliable system for ensuring doctors those now practising in Manitoba and those who May consider practising Here in the future they will receive and will continue to receive adequate compensation. It must at the same time ensure the Manitoba Public that All medical services including radiology will be available and fully covered by medicare for All Manitoban. Medicare is not gravely damaged if a few isolated physicians scattered across the province opt out of medicare so that their patients must pay the full Bill and recover part of it from he government. But opting out is open to All physicians and most of the radiologists in Winnipeg have now taken that route. The same door remains open for any other specially or for the doctors in any part of the province to exit in Masc. The result is that a financial Barrier which did not exist last week now confronts Winni Eggers who need an a Ray interpreted by a radiologist. For upper income patients a few dollars per service will not be noticed. For the other half of me population the Cost will dissuade or prevent them from seeking the medical service they May need. The Quality of medical care will once again depend upon the patient s income a situation that was supposed to have been eliminated when medicare was set up in 1966. Radiologists opted out of medicare because they came to the conclusion that the revised fee schedule would still not provide them a fee that would compensate them for their technical costs. Physicians generally cannot place full Confidence in a system that ties their fees to the will of the government and to the government s View of what they should be Content with. The Public cannot place full Confidence in a system that allows any doctor to pull out of the system any time he feels the medicare fee is not adequate judge Emmett Hall has suggested a better system require All doctors whose services Are covered by medicare to charge no More than the agreed fee but let that fee be set by binding arbitration whenever the government and the profession cannot agree. Under such a system the last word on fees would rest not with the government which sees one Side of the argument nor with the profession which sees the other but rather with a third body which can hear both sides equally before deciding. The immediate superficial problem in medicare is a problem of Money but the deeper and More lasting problem is one of Confidence physicians Confidence in the system that provides their incomes and Public Confidence in the system that provides medical care. The government needs to Deal with both. Or. Broadbent s Mission constitutional Frankenstein it a Nril tha non nit anything that the socialist International can do to bring to an Early end the violence in Al Salvador will be Welcome. So far the organization of american states has been unable to arrange political negotiations Between the civilian military Junta and the democratic revolutionary front. There is no sign that the United nations is going to be Able to do so either. Therefore it can Only be helpful for an attempt to be made by the socialist International a group of 43 social democratic parties from various countries. In some coun tries such As West Germany the party is the government. The selected representative of the group is its vice presi dented Broadbent who says he will visit Central America and the United states and will try to secure acceptance for proposals to end the conflict. The Content of these proposals has not been made Public. Or. Broadbent says that they May change after he has talked with Central american govern ments including that of Al Salvador. He has already talked to the Leader of the democratic revolutionary front who attended a meeting of the socialist International in Amsterdam. That is a proper procedure and it is reasonable that the peace proposals should remain confidential until they have been discussed with the govern ments that the group seeks to convince. There is however reason to wonder whether the socialist International has chosen the most appropriate emissary for its delicate task. Or. Broadbent is a social Democrat but there is some doubt about whether his political impartiality in the matter of Al Salvador will be accepted in san Salvador and Washington . He has publicly criticized the Canad an government for refusing to condemn . Policy towards Al Salvador and has questioned the right of the Junta to govern that country. He is entitled to hold such views and to make such statements but they May make it difficult for him to present himself to these two countries As an honest broker in any proposed settlement. The socialist International would have been Wiser to have chosen its president Willy Brandt As the bearer of the proposals. Or. Brandt is a distinguished senior statesman with a considerable International reputation something that cannot be said of or. Broadbent. The Brandt report on North South relations produced by a commission of which he was a member has been described by the United nations general Assembly As a Basic document for the 1980s his world prestige is at an All time High and could have been a powerful Factor in backing any peace proposals. Weasel word newspapers including this one make mistakes when they do they have an obligation to Correct them fully and frankly. No newspaper could Ever claim to have lived up to its obligations without Haw but few slip so far below Standard As has the Montreal Gazette in the past few weeks. On april 18, the Gazette reported in a dramatically writ ten and lavishly displayed Story that the meeting of eight provincial premiers on the Constitution had been the scene of a clash Between six premiers who wanted to accept the Federal government s proposed charter of rights on one Side and premiers Lyon of Manitoba and Levesque of Quebec on the other. The report gave vivid details of the fury in the meeting against or. Lyon and or. Levesque. The Gazette stuck to its Story in the face of protests from All the premiers that no such clash took place. Now some weeks later it has produced what it Calls a clarification. There was a disagreement but the Gazelle concedes now that it did not concern the Bill of rights but an amending formula. The managing editor of the newspaper Mel Morris now concedes that we had some things wrong such As the timing of the Row on the charter of rights and that the Basic fight was Over the amending but he refuses to describe his amended version As a retraction. The fact is that it was not As or. Morris tries to suggest a few details of the Gazette Story that were wrong. It was its entire thrust and substance. Clarification is a weasel word which is used by some politicians when they have been caught lying. It is a device which should not be used by a self respecting newspaper. Nip splits Roland Penner. New found Champion of the nip vehemently claims in his letter free press april 23 that there is no split in the party Over the new demand of our leadership for first con tract legislation forcing workers and employers to sign Union contracts at dictated wage rates. But readers will recall Lawrie Cher Nick in his letter free press february 14 just As vehemently claimed there was no split Over the previous demand of our leadership for anti Scab legislation which would allow a single picket to close Down a business and which this new nostrum is designed to replace. If we believe or. Cherniack thai there was no split Over the old policy Why the need for a new one and since the new policy is As irrelevant As the old one should we believe or. Penner Roland Penner who is wrong or. Cherniack or or. Penner or both or. Penner justifies the new policy on the grounds that new Brunswick has it. But delegates to the last nip convention will recall that Eugene Kostyra nip candidate seven Oaks defended the old lunacy which is now being quietly buried. On his Central Point or. Penner is As wrong As or. Cherniack was in february. The departure of a number of top new democrats including three for Mer Cabinet ministers Over our Lunatic labor policy and the sudden foisting upon us of the new policy by the people who claimed there was no split Over the old one has not left the party unified. Nip members will see this new policy for exactly what is is a red herring designed to divert attention from our embarrassed leadership. My figures show that of the approximately 210 work stoppages in Manitoba during the past seven years Only eight were Over first contracts. Typically the new policy is being defended by a new recruit. Obviously those who really know what is occur ring inside the party Are remaining silent. Now that our nip leadership has summarily replaced the old policy Over which they claimed there was no split what will they devise to replace this new nostrum after they have convinced us there is no split Over it and now that we have a new policy Over which there is no split will our Leader again try to sweep it under the carpet As with the old one Over which he insisted there was no split but which he was extremely reluctant to discuss publicly or even at the recent nip convention Herb Schultz Winnipeg not this writer for the record i wish to state that 1 did not write the letter entitled Engle which appeared in your correspondence columns on monday april 27. K. Ford my Winnipeg clinic Winnipeg letters by . Wilson special to the free press Ottawa Law courts Are theatres As Well As tribunals and the supreme court s Best moment of drama came last week when Federal representatives presented their Frankenstein theory of confederation. Back door this is Michel Robert s proposition that by using the British Back door to constitutional change the Federal government can do All of the things it cannot by the front door up to and including the abolition of the provinces. This is not quite the idea the fathers of confederation had in mind when they took the Steps that led to Union of the original provinces into one country but the events of the last 10 months have been hard on their reputations since foresight seems to have been a Quality sorely lacking among the lot of them. The first paragraph of the British North America act lays out what they did have in mind in these words whereas the provinces of Canada Nova Scotia and new Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally United into one Dominion under the Crown of the United kingdom of great Britain and Ireland with a Constitution similar in principle to that of the United and so on. The ban act a statute of the British parliament was based on the London resolutions a series of propositions drawn up by delegates from the Origi Nal provinces Quebec and Ontario were then the provinces of Canada after a series of meetings in Canada. L the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from readers writers must give their name and address. The authors name will be used and letters Are subject to edit a. The statute is Canadian in Content although British in Legal reality. The provincial delegates wanted a Federal Union and they were careful to Reserve to the provinces a consider Able list of Powers outside the Federal jurisdiction. The British went along with this. One of the possible results of the supreme court s deliberations which constitutional experts have fore seen is that we do not actually have the sort of country we have always thought existed because the London delegates neglected to provide any constitutional Protection for its Federal aspect. This leads to the Frankenstein theory that the original provinces fully intended to keep certain Powers in their own hands but through an oversight actually gave the Federal government unrestricted Power Over themselves. This was argued last week. Gallic logic with impeccable gallic logic or. Robert As Well known As a devoted Federal Liberal As a lawyer took the argument to its ultimate conclusion. This is that the provinces by securing a Central government for their Federal Union May have inadvertently Given it the Power to abolish them. Even sir John a. Macdonald who was a Centra list must be whirling in his grave at the thought along with the Law lords of the Imperial privy Council whose Early judgments on constitutional matters strongly favored the Side of provincial rights. The preamble to the ban act of course starts off with a contradiction in terms. It records the desire of the original provinces for a Federal Union but also their wish that its Constitution should be similar in principle to that of the United their idea is Clear enough but the wording does not reflect Good thinking. They wanted a Federal system but the British have a unitary state with All Power concentrated at the Centre in London. Not unitary in reality a Constitution similar in principle was not at All what they were after. Wanted one that was essentially different from the Model they chose Federal rather than unitary. One possibility depending upon the views of a majority of the supreme court justices is that they compromised their objective by failing to pro vide the Means of amending the Constitution simply leaving that to the British parliament. In fairness to the current Central government s propositions it must be said that while their imposition by the British against the wishes of eight provinces would certainly override the country s assumed Federal nature for the moment they would also firmly establish it for the future. The proposed amending formula would clearly establish the provincial role in future changes and even the proposition for change by referendum would create a requirement for popu Lar regional approval. There is considerable irony in a government seeking to establish for the future principles that it is not pre pared to follow for the present. But it has at least led to the Black humor of the Frankenstein theory of confederation. Humanism of late there has been a great Deal of controversy concerning the inclusion of god in the preamble of our Constitution. Many have argued that the reference to god is Mere superstition and has no place in a document representing a country with Freedom of religion. Proponents of this View Are usually quite Adamant that religion is a private mat ter and should be divorced entirely from politics or education. What they perhaps do not realize is that it is impossible for Man to exist without some sort of system of beliefs. All philosophies of life advocate beliefs which affect our Way of living. The latest and most wide spread philosophy of our Day is humanism which proposes that Man is an Ever evolving animal and that our world and life itself is constantly changing and devel Oping into a More Complex and highly advanced system. In such a system of course morals Are expected to change As does everything else and therefore they become relative to the individual or situation. Yet even this philosophy is clearly recognized in the human Mani Festos i and ii As a human ism is now being taught in All of our Public schools through curricula educational materials health and social studies courses and values educational programs. Humanism has crept into the think ing of Many of our politicians and the press is its most effective tool in promulgating its doctrines. Now in endeavouring to exclude All mention of god in the Constitution another attempt was made to ignore the Jude Christian morals and beliefs of the majority of canadians. It is not a matter of religion versus no religion it is a matter of one religion or ethical system against an other. Humanism elevates Man As autonomous and supreme. The Jude Chris Tian religions believe Only god May hold that position. To have excluded god from our Constitution would have been an ominous sign of a concerted Effort to remove All vestiges of traditional morality from our Canadian culture. The fact that there was such a Public outcry proves that the majority of canadians Are agreed that this should never happen Lorraine Frandsen Winnipeg ironic an article on april 29 quotes Mark Macguigan minister of external affairs As stating that Canada will not ship uranium to Switzerland until it agrees to stringent safeguards using Canadian uranium for military despite Switzer land s having signed the nuclear non proliferation treaty. The irony if not moral vacuity and cynicism is apparent when we consider that Canada is eagerly petitioning the military government of South Korea in an attempt to sell it Candy reactors charging Low interest rates of Only eight per cent. Two million pounds of uranium oxide Are to be shipped from Ontario to France a country which unlike Swit Zerland had explicitly rejected the nuclear non proliferation treaty. Atomic Energy Canada is attempting to sell Candy reactors to Argentina another country that has explicitly rejected the nuclear non proliferation treaty. It appears that political expediency and economic Short term gains control actions taken by or. Macguigan rather than consistent moral positions. Vern Ratzlaff mennonite Central committee Winnipeg at the Bottom am i satisfied with the Lyon govern ment certainly not. After Over 50 years of voting i have always consid ered myself to be an Independent voter i have voted Liberal nip social cred it and yes conservative. But i put Premier Sterling Lyon at the Bottom of the Heap. He is an arrogant dictator who loves to hear himself talk As Long As it is against prime minister Trudeau or those blankets Blank socialists As he Calls the opposition nip. Premier Lyon was elected on a restraint program. What does he do soon after the election he proceeds to waste about million in useless enquiries into aut Opac Mckenzie seeds and Manitoba Hydro. The hospitals could have used this Money to add to their huge allotted two per cent in crease. The Way he has sidled up to Premier Peter Lougheed of Alberta is the last Straw. It was a big mistake to let the provinces have All the resources they should be divided by 50 per cent to the provinces and 50 per cent to the Federal government. How else can the feds Ever Hope to reduce their present huge Defi Cit John Hiscock Baldur Man. Cool judgment i would like to congratulate the Pilot Robert Lubinski aged 25, of Thompson who showed a great Deal of Cool judg ment in Landing a single engined four seater Cessna 172, after encountering electrical problems and bad weather. He set the plane Down undamaged in heavy Snow and fortunately near a trapper s Cabin where he and his Senger Craig Brown spent the night. Len Brown manager of Len s flying school who owns the plane had it Well equipped with 17 Days rations and sleeping bags. Pilot Lubinski stamped an sos sign in the Snow and blackened it with Burnt Wood and Craig Brown fired a flare pistol. 1 Hope some recognition will be awarded this Young Pilot. Kitty Masson Winnipeg birthdays we. Leith Campbell. Winnipeg born Argyle Man., May 2, 1894. Julius Anderson St. George Man born sundsvall Sweden May 6, 1897. Human stupidity our world is having its share of monumental events. But wait until the next sitting of the supreme court of Canada. A horrendous cataclysmic event will occur. The court will adjudicate the crucial dispute Between a Union and Safeway stores As to whether a Man can Wear a Beard at work. There Are thousands dying in Al Salvador and Chile but the Union is concerned with this world shaking event of whether a Man May Wear a Beard or not. Human stupidity knows no Bounds. Mike Taczynski Gypsum Vilie Man. Speaking ols Moung too much to you have a cigarette on ;