Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 14, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Toni car pm and Mitsa Days a week it by Danallan limited Symbol of inhumanity West Befu riels this week staged matches and held vigils to Mark the a tit 6f the build tog of the Berlin they also wreaths at the spots along the Wall where 6 people died attempting w fifths in Freedom that the people of West Berlin should remember this anniversary is not they must live every Day within the Ifim Dimetre Wall that surrounds their half of Berlin with tank watch towers and automatic machine in Many people throughout the Western world will reflect this week on this Symbol of what a Little is that in East Berlin and East Germany the government not Only comme Morales the building of the but celebrates it by decking the cities with flags and Bunting and patriotic and holding huge it is an indication of the ability of an efficient totalitarian state to completely distort the official East Gentian interpretation of the Wall is that it is an anti fascist Protection Wall and a Barrier against imperialism and the guns that guard the death strip on the East German All Point inward at the East German construction of the Wall was begun in in an attempt to Stem the flood of East germans pouring into West the allies did nothing and since that time the Wail has been continually improved and strengthened until it is now almost escape it has been extremely in 1960 people fled to West Berlin and refugees a Day were crossing Over in since the Wall was there have been Only a handful each the Wall can stand As a Symbol for several to first of As a West German Cabinet minister said this a Symbol of for it is a also a physical Symbol of the barriers that stand in the Way of the dream of German barriers As real and As insurmountable to the German nation As the Wall itself is to individual most it stands for the world As the truest Symbol of the nature of the soviet two Concrete Walls enclosing a death guarded by thousands of patrolled by covered with land mines and Metal spikes and automatic machine guns that Spray the strip with bullets when they Are set off by running into their Range All of this not to keep any enemy but to keep a subject people the Berin Wall is an object of but it is also a Refutable evidence that the soviet Empire is not just another political system it is the largest concentration Camp that the world has Ever unanimity is elusive the fact that no communiques were issued on any subjects or issues until the premiers conference ended its formal sessions shows clearly that there was no easy unanimity to be found among the premiers on the important issues of the the Price of Energy and the future of provincial resource ownership the fact that a meeting of the eight premiers opposed to Ottawa constitutional plans could be scheduled for after the annual conference ended showed that there has been no change from the positions that were cemented into place last year when the conference was held in about the Only thing the premiers could agree to was the fact that Ottawa is to blame for Canadian but even this agreement lacked the unanimity on the subject of that Ontario is still on the outs with the other provinces on constitutional matters was driven Home by the conference Premier who explained How easy it was to schedule a meeting of the eight dissenting the he Only eight people to say yes and not the group of ten found it impossible to Issue even the innocuous communiques that usually flow while the formal sessions Are taking additional working sessions were scheduled after the official Agenda was in unanimity among the ten premiers would have been Only window dressing to add to the spectacular scenery around their meeting Early in the Premier Bennett admitted As much when he agreed that even a unanimous statement on any subject car ried Little weight in Canada without the participation of the Federal Federal representatives Are not Welcome at provincial premiers when the More important issues of Canadian life have begun to push aside the social functions for which the conferences were started More than two decades Federal representation has been even less Welcome than it was at the solutions to Canadian problems can be suggested by provincial but can be acted upon Only at meetings Between them and the prime so the premiers Are not nor is the prime minister an it is a situation in which the real losers Are the strike now that the postal strike is everyone involved appears to agree that it should never have taken Marcel militant chairman of the Montreal local of the Canadian Union of postal who used to love strikes on almost any maintains that this one never should have so does Don the chairman of the Federal governments Treasury most of those canadians who suffered financial loss and inconvenience during the six week work stoppage already Felt it was unnecessary and Many postal workers must be wondering whether the gains they made were Worth the loss of wages which was the immediate result of the strike and the threat to permanent employment which May result As is the Post off has permanently lost some customers As a result of the while both sides agree that there should never have been a each accuses the other of being responsible for in the interests of further it is Well to look Back on what was happening the Day the postal workers walked the Treasury Board was proposing negotiations without including discussion of the controversial proposal for 17 weeks of paid maternity the Union was refusing to negotiate unless the government agreed in Advance to accept in full the recommendations of the chairman of the conciliation Board and to discuss further Union demands As it was the which put an end to efforts which might Well have brought the postal workers the contract they eventually got without the need of a costly and damaging Perrault May Well be right when he you cant Tell me that they have Given us this without a six week the problem is that the Union refused to accept what it finally got without that the Federal Treasury Board is not an effective or flexible conditions under which labor negotiations take place in the Post office make it immensely difficult to reach rational and workable those conditions should improve once the Post office becomes a Crown but it was the leadership of the postal Union which decided to take its members out on strike in Pursuit of objectives which never justified that before the next round of negotiations begin with the Crown the members of cup should take a close look at the leaders who led them so letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to the Neutron bomb Stro Garm tactics earlier this president Ronald Reagan said that he would negotiate As Long As necessary to reduce the numbers of nuclear Wear yet the recent decision by the Rea Gan administration to begin production of the Neutron warhead appears to contradict the presidents earlier pro As a pre negotiations Good will Reagan should not have Given the godhead for the production of the Neutron the decision to manufacture them is a further escalation of the nuclear arms the Canadian government must be urged to join Norway and Sweden in voicing opposition to reagans dangerous the Neu tron bomb does indeed lower the a and emboldens those who would like the rest of us to believe that a soiled limited nuclear War could be fought without it engulfing the rest of the Martin Zelut Winnipeg imagine the screams of communist tyranny and oppression that we would have heard and would Start hearing if the polish government had used the same Stro Garm tactics against Soli Darity that the government is using against its air traffic nobody can believe that the strikes in Poland were not illegal and that they have not caused a great Deal of social and economic disruption in that coun the reason Why Western govern ments get away with these Stro Garm tactics against strikes is because the Western which Are so sympathetic to the hardships faced by unions in communist countries and so silent about the unjust inv disappearances and continuous harassment and persecution that is the routine experience of unions in can be counted on to present every strike that takes Plage in a Western democracy in the most ant Hunion Way Taylor Winnipeg no listing do not try looking up Winnipeg Hydro in an it wont there is no listing in the White pages of the Telephone there a listing Hydro electric see Winnipeg then what somehow in our infinite Wisdom especially when live wires Are Down an4 we Are thinking Coply we should know that Winnipeg Hydro is listed in the Blue pages at the end of the White there is very Little indication and what there is in Small letters that the Blue pages bomb idols not one he charged Tor the information Call to get the Winnipeg Hydro Telephone Orysia Tracz Winnipeg higher rates the Success of the Winnipeg Sun seems guaranteed now and it makes one wonder about the business ethics of newspaper in their apparent greed for they killed a great which they claimed was losing million per now the people of Winnipeg Are shelling willingly it an extra 50 cents each two weeks for a five Day which is adequate but not in the class of the former a payment of extra each two weeks and the Tribune would have had its million for its the free press is Able to boost its advertising rates increased circulation dont you now the Sun is vying for the advertisers dollars so its costs have gone inflation is further and this ability to charge higher rates for advertising would seem to be the real reason two great newspapers were killed in such Coutts Winnipeg late papers if i walk into any one of several stores in the Early morning i am Able to Purchase a free ice a not stand Why that same paper does not arrive at my Home until late or Early this is i airy irritating during the summer when our Carrier is not in i can think of no reason Why my paper should not he delivered in the Early afternoon instead of or 6 i am certain not ail carriers Are guilty of such late and haps there is a plausible called the free press in order to hear such an explanation and the answer i received was there Are several while the lady i spoke to was sympathetic and agreed something should be it was not a very satisfactory i am not criticizing any Carrier who does his Job if my Carrier dons not change Bis i will cancel my mcna0 Winnipeg i the Battle Over cos sharing by Fred Cleverley Victoria in the Long Cana Dian taxpayers have to finance both the Federal and the provincial portions of any cos share programs designed to distribute benefits More equally across the since most taxpayers do not live Long enough to experience both Boom and bust they Are Likely to spend most of their taxpaying lives As either net contributors or net beneficiaries of the not around it is just As unlikely that taxpayers of the wealthy provinces of Alberta and were around when they qualified for Many net Federal benefits As it is unlikely that Ontario who May soon be much higher on the Benefit were paying taxes when it was fashionable to complain that Federal redistribution schemes were picking their just As taxpayers Are not Likely to live Long provincial govern which must tax for the balance of any cos sharing Are less Likely to stay in office Long enough to see both Good times and it has been traditional that taxpayers in wealthy provinces complained about the cos sharing schemes while those in the have not provinces praised the the agreement that was reached in Victoria this week among the ten provincial premiers there were no Federal representatives present is a break with the agreement concludes that Ottawa announced intention to reduce the Federal contributions in programs for health and secondary education not be carried it carries the support of the provinces that pay the Bills because of their economic buoyancy and those whose provincial budgets depend to a great degree on the Federal fund canadians who must fund both halves of the cos sharing programs will find the reasons the statement reads in part Allro Varices agree that unilateral Federal cutbacks would be unacceptable and unjustified especially in the Light of recent Cost pressures and projected trends for the coming any reduction would result in an increase in provincial tax burdens in the level and Quality of essential such words could be expected from Manitoba politicians who depend on Federal fund transfers to help their but scarcely from officials in Alberta and who regularly com Plain about the necessity collecting tax dollars to be sent to these provinces support the agree ment because they Are convinced that the meaning of the words fiscal management is unknown in transfers not to blame the provinces say that the major justification Given by the Federal government for cutting billion in trans fers is that the Federal forecast at billion for must be the provinces say that the transfers have not caused the deficit and that the transfers in recent years have grown More slowly than other areas of Federal the Provin Cial position is that the Federal budget projections themselves show that trans fers to the provinces Are Likely to grow More slowly than total Federal expend even if the cuts Are not the provinces say the deficit can be blamed on the indexation of massive tax and Federal or Lack of in the Fields of Energy and interest the provinces action to Deal with the Federal deficit should not shift the tax Burden More on to the shoulders of those through provincial and municipal would have to make up the the provinces also come close to saying that the Federal government is falsifying its a joint provincial analysis shows that the Federal contribution tothe even in the Early never exceeded 45 per cent of their More the Federal share has begun to a trend forecast to during the 19761982 the Federal according to the Analy started at per grew to a High of per cent in 1980 and has already slipped to per simply the provinces do not like the idea that the present agreement allows the Federal share to drop and they Are More concerned at the Prospect of future unilateral the final part of the provincial Posi Tion deals with the Federal govern ments concern that it is losing visibility in the primarily because the transfers Are made on a bloc fund ing the provinces Point out that the change to bloc funding was made at the Federal governments request because earlier the arrangement by which the Federal share was tied to specific programs had produced undesirable results in which buildings were built and services established Only be cause Federal Money was available for bloc funding was supposed to allow the provinces the flexibility needed achieve greater the Issue of the provinces can be a Bombshell what has really gotten provincial backs up is the Federal governments attitude toward proposed the Federal finance Allan Mac dropped a Bombshell in his 1980 budget speech in which he announced his intention to Cut the pro Grams by the provinces violated the fourth principle under which the programs were a principle that termination by the Federal government of any part of the scheme would not be undertaken and Only after three years what the Federal government has the provinces is to throw the relative permanence and stability of the programs out the this is something that not even the wealthy provinces can the real air control problem by Wilson special to the Ottawa the pretentious and Matingly illogical aspects of the air traffic controllers actions this week should not prevent a Wise government from looking thoughtfully at the real problem hidden away behind the ver air traffic with some suffer from the conviction that they Are an element in the aviation among air responsibility for human lives brings very High financial compensation As men develop experience and Whf i at stake when responsibility for human lives Falls on the Ron to the control it is rewarded Only by very Ruev Puthe Miu in one air traffic controller Gre not badly that if you think of theirs As there Are Many occupations that bring just As Good salaries without involving that extra Nummi Tyty Lor the safety great numbers of the missing ingredient is Jhaj element of special pay for special responsibility for human the result Tarjie wide spread conviction among the control lers that the work not properly 104 by Extension that they the controllers can be faulted All along the line for their actions this they insisted that american air space is in the first that is not really their responsibility nor a question that is theirs to at the most critical that judgment be Longs with the airline captains flying in the air they have a right to judge on safety questions that goes beyond that of any person on the whether airline government administrator or traffic con at this the controllers attempting to usurp the most important responsibility an airline Captain insisting that americas air space is some controllers then refused to Clear airliners from it Canadian space in other refusing to facilitate the flight of airliners from space they thought unsafe into spice they regarded As Sale they hardly have trapped themselves in a when Way in the their position had been destroyed far More by the disagreement anger of the airline pilots than by the threats of the Canadian no one was going to believe the controllers were justified once the pilots began to insist publicly that they were and As so often thousands of Vuk 3sbf of the pow in were grossly it would be easy to Stop right but that would be the wrong place to Stop because there is the very real problem of men feeling with Justice that they Are undervalued lying beneath the ing surface discouraging the discouraging Factor is the next time their contract comes up for it will be treated As just another in a Long line of labor negotiations which Treasury Board has to conduct what is needed is the appoint ment of some very levelheaded but perceptive Man to take a fresh look at the problem and come up with some recommendations that go to the heart of the matter years ago the Pearson government granted Seaway workers a highly crib Trover Sial crease was roundly denounced for haying set in inflationary the ministers who dealt with be always private As much As in Public that the Large increase was my justified because the workers involved had in fact been seriously underpaid and had to be brought up to just now the air traffic control service to Neyer be hippy one until Soj Neone with Power looks at the work and makes a dispassionate not sort of feeling bites at a property vatee4 for its element ;