Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 24, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Within Peg August 24 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality do civil Liberty of religion at 366 car Toft Reg l John dap6e editor Murray Burf Mana Lihs editor our unloved leaders the latest Gallup poll measuring satisfaction with the leaders of three major National parties offers bad news for ail of the news is just is Tad for whatever their political who Are concerned with the health of the political process in this according to the satisfaction with the performance of All three leaders minister opposition Joe Clark and nip Leader de dropped sharply in the in Trudeau 38 cent approved of his 48 per cent disapproved and is per cent had no a year 50 per cent approved and Only 35 per cent approval of Clarks performance dropped front 38 per cent to 32 per tent in the year and disapproval Rose to 38 per Broadbent was the Only Leader to win More approval than but his results demonstrate the problems which beset the Leader of a third party thirty eight per cent approve of his Only 27 per cent disapprove but a full 35 per cent have no the poll offers some specific bits of bad news for individual it will make it even More difficult for Clark to convince rank and lie members of the conservative party that he is a Leader who can win for he was the Only Leader who could not claim More respondents for him than against him in any of the Canadian even in the he won Only 37percent compared to 42percent in which is crucial to his Only 33 per approved his performance while 48 per cent fuelled by those the opposition to the Leader within the which was quiet for most of the is Likely to revive with a the poll is Likely to increase disquiet within the Liberal party As Trudeau continued to enjoy the approval of the majority of Quebe cers in the Only 24 per cent approved his performance while a shocking 65 per cent in 50 per cent disapproved the prime ministers Only 30 per cent those results Are certain to increase the pressure within the National Liberal which has already sur faced for Quick government action on the beyond the poll presents a rather frighten ing picture of disillusionment by canadians with All of their political they May have lost the High Hopes they held in Trudeau a year ago but they have no apparent Confidence that any other National Leader could do any in that the poll reinforces the message from last weeks by elections in Ontario and both appeared to reflect a decisive vote against the rather than for either of the opposition in the liberals lost chiefly because their own voters refused to turn out to the in vast numbers of voters rejected the Liberal candidate for a popular local both results showed disillusionment with the neither indicated much Faith in either of the opposition the kind of political vacuum revealed by the poll presents some canadians Are faced with a government which they perceive to be inactive in the face of growing inflation and ruinous by High interest they see a government which achieve an agree ment on Energy policy and which is unable to bring together the country at the same they South of the a president whatever they might think of his appears to know what he is to be willing to make take arid Cope with the Conse that situation creates the conditions for a Canadian a politician who would Promise who would rally the majority against underprivileged minorities and who would respond to an apparent desire for the smack of firm government so Long As it was smacking someone no such Leader is on the horizon now no in can offer any real immediate solutions to economic problems which were Long the making and will be Long in but if canadians Are allowed to yearn for one much there is a danger that they would turn to the first person who would offer authoritarian solutions to the country prob More for the councillors when Winnipeg City councillors asked Justice Gordon Hall of the Manitoba court of Appeal to review their pay no one was in any doubt about the sort of conclusion they wished him to the Appeal to outside advice is the Normal Way for elected officials to prepare their pay increases these the Winnipeg school trustees let a previously hired for other offer them a 93percent raise before settling for 31 per cent in the face of Public members of parliament graciously declined the a year recommended on their behalf toy two former and took the same judge Hall to whom the City Council has now turned did a rather better Job two years ago for members of the Manitoba finding a pay level which was consistent with practice in other provinces and therefore fair to the Las and which involved a rate of increase acceptable to Public his recommendations were therefore elected like the rest of tend to compare themselves with those who Are better off and try to close the Winnipeg school trustees envy the a year paid to City councillors and Are dissatisfied with their own the councillors were not complaining about their annual seven percent raises As Long As the same rules applied to members of parliament but now that the maps have Given themselves a generous raise beyond that ceiling the Council lors want to do the service on Winnipeg City Council should not be paid As a full time some councillors make it a full time either because they have other sources of income or because they Are extraordinarily dedicated and prepared to live but that is their the taxpayers support a High Quality administrative staff and a Small group of elected officials Deputy mayor and committee chairmen to do the Long hours of work that Are found necessary to run the the Community is not asking Ordinary councillors to make it a full time Job and it should not pay them As though it were a glance at councillors pay in other Canadian cities vill help determine what value those councillors set on their but it snot an infallible guide to what should be done in elected officials sometimes treat them selves too having no Market constraint to curb no other Canadian municipality is strictly comparable to Winnipeg in wealth and any increase in councillors pay must take account of the cites financial Means and of the rate of increase in Winni Eggers incomes the City invariably Points out to its employees and other recipients of Public funds that there Are severe limits to the amount of Money that can be extracted from the same applies to councillors neither automatic indexing nor the appointment of an Independent advisor can release councillors from the final responsibility of setting their own they Are the ones who opened the question by referring it to judge they will have to pass any bylaw that results from his recommend apart from the wave of greed and envy touched off by members of there is no obvious reason Why the question should have been but judge on past can be expected to do a thorough and responsible if he errs on the Side of it will fall to Public opinion to keep the councillors in their crime on the increase the Federal governments tabulation of crimes committed across the country last year shows an Overall increase of almost 10 per cent Over the preceding year in the number of offences the Community generally relies Pri Marily on the police to Stop crime but there is Little that police can do against the types of crimes that account for most of the for increased by 27 per cent to incidents last the breaking is a notoriously difficult crime for police to As it practitioners the wave is Likely to recede Only when householders improve their automobile began to be curbed in the late 1970s when Auto makers began encouraging Drivers to take the keys with them when they leave the car and made vehicles More difficult to the burglar alarm systems that Are now being marketed in Winnipeg and other cities May begin to turn around the increase in breaking if they prove popular and thefts Over also showed a dramatic Rise of nearly 32 per cent last that increase in part reflects rising prices rather than a real change in criminal behaviour since it is increasingly difficult to find anything to steal Worth less than the striking new theft target Worth More than is car stereo the fashion for installing them has been matched by a fashion for stealing them and defensive methods have not yet caught Manitoba Public Auto insurance provide no incentive for the owner to protect his car stereo against insurance Protection for such equipment in thrown in for free with insurance on the vehicle a Small change to the insurance rules and increased vigilance by owners can probably accomplish More than any increased Effort by police to curb that contemporary form of the most disquieting news in the crime figures is the percent increase in it is Small Consolation to learn from statistics Canada apparently in response to increased penalties for the use of firearms in robbers Are increasingly turning to other the Community must rely on the police for the prevention of robbery and the apprehension of robbers through More patrolling of the especially in areas where such incidents Are most and prompt response to com the figures suggest that the prevention of robberies must be moved up in police department priority if the citizens Are largely on their own to keep their Homes and cars they can at least ask the police to keep the streets i think sending Trudeau a Little reminder note about inflation and interest rates is thoughtful of you do you know which is his office window world by Frank Walker special to the free press Montreal a person could learn much about Canadian newspapers from a Reading of the report of the Kent he would know a great Deal about their their owner the form of that ownership and the attitude of he would by the end of its 296 a sense of the purpose of of their place in a free society and of their Respo Sibili but he would not know what makes a newspaper Subtle institution there is a reason for a newspaper is a most Subtle the relationship Between its various parts commercial and business and depends As much on the character of those involved As on any set of rules governing the never from anything in the Kent the relationship Between editor and pub which is again very much a matter of above he would not have a clue As to the strange world of the of its checks and Hopes and banalities and Talent and All of which come together to produce a daily the Kent report talks a great Deal about Freedom and Respo Sibili but in one glaring at any it seeks to achieve these ideals by shrouding the or his in Protection of a As though such a document would turn the unprincipled Man into a Man of or cowardice into i know something about editor sin having been one for too Many and having worked under four and two sets of i had a very simple during my tenure in that if the owners or publishers did not like what i was they could get themselves a new editor in but As Long As i was editor in i was responsible for the editorial its achievements and its it on a Rocky for owners have Points of and there is no Rule i know of which prevents them from expressing them they sometimes the disagreements were they chose not to exer Cise their right of and that was perhaps i was but the fact remains contract or no relations Between owners and editors must be based on if the system is to and a piece of paper would not make the slightest differ when editorial departments they fail because of and not As a result of outside too often they fail because those involved do not care enough about their or because they see problems around them which Only too often do not it is people All the Way in an editorial their their their their i have never found yet any sinister Force which was Able to seriously influence editorial but i have seen Many examples where journalists were destroyed by their own not by Money though this May have happened but by a distorted sense of their own by the feeling that they were important rather than the institution which they inbuilt Bias the Kent report has a lot to say about owners and publishers and i must agree As they were reported by they do not come out but the commission itself had an inbuilt Bias against the system and owed its in to happenings which were very Contro but the whole report and its conclusions can be seen As a criticism of they have a they Are not helpless they can Battle for what is the trouble with the task which the Kent commission was Given was it was restricted to a study into the extent and causes of the decline in the number of newspapers serving major and a decline in the number of cities in which Competition it was not empowered to look at the whole but merely that part of the competitive picture represented by but newspapers Are Only a Small part of the free flow of information in mod Ern society and very nature of our Complex and fast has Given added importance to specialize As Well As to radio and Reading newspapers does a lot to keep the individual informed and but to be properly the newspaper must be backed up by amass of other material which outside the Purview of the daily reporting in depth can do something to cover the intricacies of modern foreign correspondents Here the commission struck some telling blows also but in both cases More is needed for the individual who is interested and a newspaper cannot be treated in Isola it is part of the not the it has but not the whole wont help much the recommendations of the Kent commission offer what the commissioners feel would enable newspapers to do a better they wont help As far As this Reader is con it would be pleasant to contemplate a world of Independent newspapers battling with each in Large and but that Battle would waste a lot of Energy and if it was would expose the press to even More serious operating a newspaper is a Public responsibility and it is the in the Long which must Bear at least a part of the responsibility for what goes newspapers should not be governed by Public that was one of the Odd statements made by two executives of newspapers when they said there was no great Public demand for More foreign it is the business of editors to provide such whether the Public wants it or if the Public wants More and More trivia in its and Shorter and Shorter then it will have an influence on newspapers which pay heed to such those papers would if improve ments were the Kent report is Worth not for its but As an educational it May also inspire those in the business to in for even the most Distant of owners must some embarrassment at the portrait of them which emerges from its they Are bet Ter than they Are made to sound or made themselves sound but they Are not As Good As they should there is nothing wrong in a commit ment to an Ideal it can even be profit god on August Mang in a letter to the free shows distress at the rioting and Vandal ism in great Britain and of the millions of dollars spent on the Royal wedding at such a he blames the monarchy for it and says that it is time to because of the Royal Money poured into great not Only for souvenir items but also for and All facets of the British taxpayer had to pay for which is but it was the Queen with her own private who paid for All the costs of the the arrangements were All made through Buckingham Palace and not through the one Little known fact is that a Large source of the Queens personal income is in the United to rough ties which were originally inherited from George these were not confiscated when the americans gained their the Queen is one of the largest taxpayers in the United the British civil which supple letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to an unforgettable wedding ments the Cost of the is subject to the most exacting scrutiny by the British House of Frank Mackinnon Points out in his Book the Crown in Canada a Gross Cost of approximately 12 cents per Canadian per a net Cost of less than three when ail factors Are no real Cost at but a substantial return to the taxpayer that yields them a the archbishop of Canterbury spoke through the Royal wedding to a Quarter of the worlds population and his speech was relevant off Well Worth the Cost the Queen helped the Commonwealth and the by Tak ing our minds off our local troubles for a Brief interval by staging one of the most splendid and elaborate weddings one will Ever we cannot go along with the Unin formed the cheap the various arguments against the or the Royal Freedom wears a Crown John Hendricks chairman Manitoba Branch the monarchist league of Canada needs Survey May i express my thanks to the very Large numbers of registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in Mani Toba who took time to Complete and return the needs Survey concerning the establishment of a baccalaureate de Gree in nursing at Brandon the response was most heartening and clearly demonstrated the timeliness of the in i would like to thank All who added Many valuable comments which Are being taken into serious due to the fact that the questionnaire did not seek the name of the respondent it is not possible to reply to individual Robin Giles Dean of science Brandon University disillusioned we feel obliged to comment on the article medical workers awarded pay boosts totalling 24 per free August every working person has the right to feel that his or her Job is the entire tone of the article inferred that the Manitoba paramedical association members do not perform an important function on the health care the article will help inflame the already strained relations Between Var ious health care and for this reason alone should never have been in these Days of increasing medical knowledge and sophisticated tech nolo Laboratory assistance in diagnosing disease is vital technologists provide diagnostic information which Many doctors find indispensable in providing proper patient assessment in a Correct treatment the paramedical association was demanding wage parity with which is already 9 reality in some one important Point of the article which was Well taken presented the fact salary increases for nurses constituted a marked brought about by an abnormal nurse several Para graphs dealt with comparison of Vari Ous Job stress factors in nursing and Laboratory which to our knowledge have never been measured with any degree of the Point most assuredly it can be said that the emotional Strain upon the registered nurses must be has nothing whatsoever to do with the Issue at it is difficult enough to acknowledge that we have been awarded an arbitration settlement which was below that of a management offer unheard of to accept blatant Dis Crimins Tion As a second class professional is More than one should have to is it not possible that the paramedical association settlement was chosen As an example of government Hartline policy the Union is Only 800members and in Good Faith and taking into account the patients Best gave up its Only bargaining position by going Back to to agree to arbitration and then to be awarded some 10 per cent less than management offered during the strike is indeed difficult to perhaps the members of the paramedical association will leave for Greener pastures and in the not too Distant future the government will face another Market anomaly brought about by a shortage of techno Valerie it it Debra it Cheryl it Bonnie it Michaele it Donna Winnipeg ;