Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 26, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free August ramp report is 12 years too late is a Price to pay Tor delaying yesterday solicitor general Robert Kaplan announced the government is adopting the main recommendation of the commission of inquiry into the ramp to separate the Security service from the ramp and to establish it As a civilian Security intelligence it was the right move but it was a dozen years in 1969 a Royal commission on Secu Rity made the same the government at that time did not follow and there has been a heavy the Royal commission which reported in 1969 was comprised of Maxwell Yves Pratte and the it stated although we have been unable to reach any firm conclusion about the effectiveness of Many of the operations currently being under taken by the we Are left with the Clear impression that there has been some reluctance on their part to take the initiative or even to co operate in certain forms of More aggressive penetration operations government policy has been especially inhibiting in this but we Are not sure that the ramp has made a sufficient or a sufficiently sophisticated Effort to acquaint the govern ment with the dangers of there is a Clear distinction Between the operational work of a Security service and that of a police a Security service will inevitably be involved in actions that May Contra Vene the spirit if not the letter of the and with Clandestine and other activities which sometimes seem to infringe on individuals rights these Are not appropriate police neither is it appropriate for a police Force to be concerned with events or Peter Thomson Ottawa editor actions that Are not crimes or suspected while a Security ser Nice is often involved with such mat in a period in which police forces Are subject to some Hostil it would appear unwise either to add to the police Burden by an association with Security or to make Security duties More difficult by an association with the police fun the 1969 report said it it is not surprising that the ramp became involved in so called dirty and illegalities like barn Burn ing and theft of that was inevitable from the Day the Trudeau government decided to establish a Security Branch of the ramp rather than a separate Security and Intelli gence As now being the new group will be headed by a former senior assistant Dep Uty minister of the authority to be granted the new group will arise from recommendations of a task Force which is expected to report by late next Gibson will have the status of a Deputy minister and will report to the solicitor general through the Deputy minister of the interesting Point is not that a new Security Agency is being but that it has taken so Long to create Early in the Mcdonald com Mission ministers were advised of illegal activities being undertaken by the ramp officer at an electronic Monitor years ago it was urged that Security services be turned Over to a civilian Agency Kaplan is Adamant in stating that no ministers party to illegal but then differentiated Between the Type of illegal act that has gone on for and is still being and other illegal acts where information was withheld from and never was Kaplan suggests it is not surprising that the prime minister and Cabinet ministers did not try to determine the parameters of illegal when they were mentioned in a general Way to that is difficult to certainly on one former Justice minister John Turner saw the danger of a damaged image for the police that would result from their engaging in illegal but solicitor general apparently adopted a trusting approach that the police misdemeanours were of a minor nature and thus All the commission report clearly Indi Cates that for a Long before the commission was the ramp was deliberately misleading the government As to the seriousness of its illegal the report quotes an assistant com missioner of the ramp on the subject of not informing the government question i think that to bring this thing to a level of at and not necessarily of agree do you not see the hiding of truth is a a form of lie West must bring Spain into Atlantic Alliance by Flora Lewis the new York times Palma de Spain despite he harrowing attempted Putsch last King Juan Carlos of Spain remains the Basi Cally confident Monarch he was be if he seems More deter mined than Ever to keep his country on a democratic course and to preserve his influence for the biggest issues of constitutional National Unity and he is spending the summer with his family in Mari vent Palace an a ostentatious but comfortable country House in a Large and he Hast changed his easygoing Many other spaniards Are convinced King Juan Carlos remains a confident Monarch that he single Anderly saved the coun try from a new military ordering troops Back to their Barracks and reassuring the panicked nation on especially wealthy say he must have known about the plot beforehand and blame him darkly without saying whether it is for not acting sooner or for aborting the the King is aware of the people most against him he is by which he Means the titled and privileged who Are becoming nostalgic for the rigid order of Francos but that Doest worry he retains and cultivates the loyalty of the armed forces As a which is Cru now that the trial of the conspirators is it is a problem of extreme the prosecutor has asked sentences of 30 years for the major including the former Dep Uty head of the Kings military for most of the any less punishment would signal encourage ment to those who would kill Spain Young for it is provocative vengence against com Manders who thought they were doing their the King Doest comment on prudently supporting the process of the greatest Shock for him was the involvement of Alfonso Comyn the Deputy chief of staff of the who was attached to him for 17 it was by a after he Learned of the coup on to and telephoned the Madrid army com Mander to inquire what was Hap that he realized armadas role was to make it appear the King secretly approved the attempt to overthrow the the King realizes that the plot was being prepared for maybe a year before it and no one let him a lot More peo ple were though perhaps in than have As yet been named because the government received no clues from Spanish intelligence ser with the King recalled that he received a vague warning from intelligence two months he is still irritated that the former govern ment brushed it aside As american nonsense when he asked for the tip to be the aftermath of coming so near to the Brink seems to have sobered the As a vaccination against excess drama and but the divisive remain polls show the opposition socialist party with a commanding Lead for the next people who tried to overthrow conservative democrats Arent Likely to View the Prospect of a swing to the left As coolly As the King so assured command of the army is still it is an army forged in civil War with the prime Mission of subduing the it needs new new new horizons to reshape it into a reliable defender of the new that thought is behind the govern ments decision to press for Early admission to the North Atlantic treaty Spain should be a Wel come ally though its existing defence pact with the United states already provides prime strategic and but the importance of involving Spanish forces with those of democratic Europe is reason enough nato to give Quick Spanish politics add to the socialist Leader Felipe Gonzalez has come out against joining As have the High ranking european leaders say Gonzalez feels obliged to take that stand but in fact would be glad to see the Issue settled and the armed forces engaged in their new purpose with allies before he wins As military coups in Greece and Turkey have shown that nato membership is not a firm guarantee for a sustained democracy in countries with weak political and Spain has not yet solved the problems of regional Powers within a National but belonging to the West by formal treaty would especially after Spain Long the United states and the rest of nato should try to smooth Spain it wont be As easy As saying please the legacy of relations with third world and now the Neutron bomb fuel the opposition in the United states can state its intentions to re move nuclear weapons from the Polar is submarine base at once longer Range Trident come into ser Secretary of state Alexander Haigs calling the february Putch an internal Issue raised doubts about americas interest in Spanish demo Here is an by show ing the United states can be a Graceful As Well As a reliable to prove that it prefers democratic friends even if it suffers righting answer i see a great differ ence Between lying to a solicitor Gener if he asks a and not volunteering the same officer later stated i would have thought that after All the time your commission has been it would have become rather obvious that the Security service kept certain operational things from the solicitor and he reaffirmed that it was the intention of the ramp never to let the solicitor general know of practices or operations that were not authorized or provided for by Kaplan commented that the govern ment is deeply concerned by the find Ings of the commission that the ramp has an institutionalized Frame of mind that places expediency above respect for the Rule of the he noted that the commission recommends that Many of the practices it condemns ought to be made available to the police through appropriate changes to the Kaplan indicated that special Laws covering police activity will be passed after seeking the views of attorneys general across because the implications of the commissions find Ings have import for Day to Day operations inlaw enforcement All police there Are clearly two types of illegal practice those which can be regarded As acceptable police such As speeding in hot Pursuit when Circum stances and those for which prior approval such As wire taps can be obtained and More serious Clandes Tine activities the blowing up of Bridges to pass the initiation into subversive generally in a Liberal de police should operate within legislated National Security a Dif Ferent there is no foretelling just what illegal activity Security forces will have to engage but solicitor general should certainly be fully informed of the otherwise the institutionalized Frame of mind can become a serious threat to a democratic that was the ultimate danger of leaving Security in the hands of a police the Royal commission in 1969 saw the danger quite it is too bad for the ramp that the government of the Day did War of polls Breaks out Over premiers claims the use of the same set of statistics to prove both sides of a debate is a familiar phenomenon in it the same Black is White and White is Black argument is to be conducted Over another set of Neutral Public opinion the eight premiers fighting Ottawa constitutional proposals spent to have the Gallup organization ask canadians seven questions on the pro Cess of constitutional most of the questions were loaded in the opinion of several leading professional they were deliberately worded in a Way to provoke the desired it is hardly there that Large majorities of those sampled agreed that the prime minis Ter and the premiers should meet to try to reach agreement on the Constitution that constitutional changes affecting provincial Powers and rights should have the consent of the provinces concerned that changes to the Canadian Constitution should be made in Canada and that Ottawa move to Patriate the Constitution without the agreement of All the provinces was working to Divide its like asking people if they sup port virtue and oppose one University of Montreal sociologist the provinces thought they had scored a Public relations vie Frances Russell tory with their poll and May be consid ering similar ventures in the a review of Public opinion polls taken Over the last year on the Constitution shows almost equal support for both the Federal and provincial Posi the provinces win on process Ottawa wins on for while the premiers poll found that w per cent of canadians Felt Ottawa action to be a Gallup poll conducted last May gave a narrow Victory 41 per cent to 37 per cent to the Federal action unifying the country in the Long before the eight premiers Crow too loudly about the 60 per cent saying Ottawa action is they should remember an other question in that May Gallup which had 62 per cent of canadians favouring an entrenched charter of one of the chief reasons for the premiers opposition to the Federal package is its inclusion of a charter of if the premiers think Ottawa should be persuaded to the Ger Point of View by a 60 per cent they also be persuaded into accepting something 62 per cent of canadians want University of Manitoba political scientist Paul Thomas says the most revealing thing about Public opinion polls is the apparent capacity of Large governments with big Public relations operations to create Public opinion and then discover it the premiers helped to create the division in Canada Over the Constitution and then they found Thomas he Points out that it be sur prising either that the highest support for the premiers comes in Western who could not be affected in a part of the country where the Provin Cial governments have engaged in con Stant criticism of the Federal action and have been supported by almost All the editorials in All the newspapers they Are tapping opinion that they themselves have Thomas believes the even with its loaded is not an unqualified Victory for the dissenting for one the premiers ducked questions on sub such As a Bill of mobility rights and entrenchment of equalize that they knew would have gone against for they failed to test their own scheme for constitutional change forged at a meeting in Ottawa last that scheme would permit provinces disagreeing with constitutional amendments to opt out of them by a simple majority vote in their no other federation has a Constitution with partial application and it is perhaps indicative of the premiers Confidence in the popularity of such a ridiculous idea that they didst choose to test it in the court of Public but most Only 21 per cent of canadians accept unanimous consent of All provinces As the proper method for constitutional unanimous consent remains the favored method of most of the dissident pre Thomas says canadians continue to doonesbury cling to the idea of Federal provincial Accord because people believe that is the Cost of the Federal system that both sides should get Down off their High horses and Thomas Points out a significant statistic in the poll among those who said they had followed the constitutional debate 20 per cent Felt further Federal provincial discussion to be there Are other significant findings in the English canadians Are More supportive of the premiers than either French or ethnic Thomas says this is because French and ethnic canadians feel they will gain from the Federal initiative because of language rights and minority English canadians feel they Benefit from the status Thomas says the Central tragedy in this War of polls is that the real Divisi Veness is still to come when the inces and Ottawa finally meet to argue Over who should have what in the Patriate if this much division could have been created Over the simple act of bringing the Constitution Home with a Bill of rights and an amending think of the conflict yet to come the manipulation of Public opinion by governments followed by their Sam pling of it to prove their disparate Points has just As the Toul a the Uhoch Means shot him away Unmil a ckm5 h5 How Sondock ;