Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 28, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg pm a emf August i 7 by Penny Leroux the los Angeles times Colombia troubled Central America is no stranger to Side the United states is deeply involved in the and the democratic South american govern ments of Venezuela and Colombia also have been drawn into Al Salvador civil the Reagan administration would Tike to see the number of latin Ameri can nations involved in the area in and during her recent tour South Jeane ambassador to the United a reportedly discussed the possibility of intervention in Central America with the military regimes of Uruguay and Ernesto Chiles undersecretary of for eign said that talks with Kirkpatrick centred on the soviet threat to important food and Energy sources in Central according to reports from postal Kirkpatrick said that the military governments of the continents so called Southern Cone could provide valuable assistance in preventing the spread of guerrilla warfare in Central America based on their own Success in putting Down the extreme idea of regional zing responsibility for War torn Al Salvador is not Jose Napoleon nominal head of the salvadoran Junta and a Christian made a similar suggestion last year when he met with the Heads of state of Ecuador and All five played a key role in backing the sandinista revolution in but those nations have since had second thoughts about supporting Cen trial american either be cause More centrist Christian democrats have replaced social democrats in their governments As in Venezuela and or because of pressure from upper which worry about having another political Hurricane the change in the administration also has influenced these govern particularly since the Pentagon and the state department have promised to give request for arms favor Able consideration in Exchange for sup port in Central while none of five countries at the meeting responded to Duarte propos Al that they consider military intervention in Al Chile and Argen Tina May prove More receptive especially if the suggestion comes from the United in contrast to the Carter adm Nistra which blackballed the two regimes because of what it called human rights reagans government has sent a Stream of High level delegates to Buenos Aires and vice presi Dent George Bush is expected in Chile next Reagan administration also has lifted economic sanctions against the two countries and x Cuba set nation on the Road into anarchy by lower special to the free press Kingston in recent years there have either been strikes or threats of strikes in the Post office practically every since 1971 there have been some six strikes by Post office employ the longest strike so that of lasted some 42 the business of the country was seriously affected and the actual loss to individuals was for in that strike the government apparently had made no preparations to meet a someone with Canada savings and such people must be tens of thou Sands in had to wait until the strike ended before receiving the inter est on his this involved a delay of 42 forty two Days is about per cent of the interest then that is a fair Way of putting it because it is to be assumed that a Bondholder will reinvest his interest Money when he receives and at the current which was then ten per cent or there doubtful solution it is to be doubted whether making the Post office a Crown corporation will basically alter the for there will be just As Many occasions for grievance whether it is run by Crown corporation or department of govern this would be More Likely As it is to be Many of the Post office strikes represent not so much grievance As the difficult personalities it is evident How vast Are the costs of one of these postal today the apparently assuming postal strikes to be the order of the takes precautions against them by instituting certain deliveries by Couri Large concerns presumably do the the private individual has no such however critical his family or he has to get by As Best he a postal in other puts the country into a state of it is As if the enemy were at the Gates and stopping any communication with the outside All All the Means of in practice things Are not quite that for today we have other modes of communication and the is always there of one breakdown precipitating and so of a vital Situa Tion very few would wish to deny to the postal employees fair conditions of pay and and it is to be conjectured that the strikes of the past have had the incidental Benefit to the Public of widening its conceptions of decent work ing but the immediate effect in each Case has been close to easy to yield the question therefore arises As to what can or should be it would be easy for government to surren Der on the part of the is too much like surrender to a hostile army to be much to the general if government cannot exercise authority Over its own employ it can exert very Little authority in a government that cannot exert authority is a government that cannot Way anarchy it will be said that the right to strike has been conferred on certain classes of Public servants by the Laws passed by the people of Canada themselves in their that is no doubt the but unfortunately Canada has never been distinguished by Overwise and Over courageous the extreme measure of democracy that prevails makes it All too easy to Drift and that is what All too often has our politicians Are not marked by their valor and most of them find it easy to trim their sails to what seems to them the prevailing the modern state is an extremely Complex and delicate communications Are its life it can easily be seriously whether by the the radio or by vital sections of the ser can do this so far no one has suggested that soldiers should be unionized and allowed to the Day when the army increase our pay or we will not fight is to be awaited with something More than Ordinary it is becoming More and More evident that it was a mistake to Confer the right to strike on certain classes of Public the labor forces of this country Are composed of Good they Are citizens and share the common rights of us few of them would wish to wreck the society in which they on the other hand the right to strike has Long been recognized As one of labors major it is a situation that Calls loudly for in most there is no need of calling for an abandonment of this lethal Wear but there Are certain areas in which everyone would agree that grave dam age May be done to the and in these areas it is right to demand that the right to strike should be it is always possible for a relatively few determined men to get control of a great organization and use that is what happens in a people in general just go it is the not the who control arbitration needed the dangers to which we Are being subjected by postal strikes must some other be it begins to look As if they can Only be averted by curtailment of the right to some form of required arbitration will have to be found and sooner or later govern ment will have to find the necessary courage to this right to cripple National services should never have granted in the first the americans have not made this mis the suggestion will no doubt be interpreted As hostility to it is nothing of the in the Post office or rather their Are themselves doing a grave disservice to for almost certainly these repeated strikes will lose for them More than they can possibly extreme Public hostility May be expected to among other let us for the Sake of Canada and of All now that the strike is something will be done prevent calamitous such strikes Are bringing us visibly closer to envoy promises a renewal of the argentine1 and Uruguay an regimes have succeeded in eliminating but the accomplish ment needs careful analysis to avoid drawing a simplistic analogy Between those nations and the countries of Cen trial the difference Between Central and South America lies primarily in the size and makeup of the whereas real guerrilla warfare has been difficult to put Down in Small Central american nations with peasant Popula it has been a failure in the larger South american in Uruguay and Mili tary wiped out Urban guerrilla net employing techniques used by the French in Algeria during the the methods succeeded primarily be cause the majority of the uruguayans and argentines were reasonably Well literate and had some Hope of expressing their will through honest unlike Al Salvador and Guatemala where All recent elections have been according to con Gressional the Gerril did not have a mass following and were relatively easy to pick off in the cities through the use of torture and but what served one military regime in South America May not necessarily work for another in Central and the methods used May not be ones americans wish to according to amnesty some people have been murdered or have disappeared in Argentina since the military seized Power in Only a minority of those who died could be described As guerrilla amnesty International and Chiles Catholic Church report that the Situa Tion is also grim in More than people died or disappeared in the four years following the military coup labor dissidents and human rights activists continue to suffer arrest and torture and some have been such methods have succeeded in terrorizing the population into but they have not destroyed deep Root de democratic in for the eighty Earold military regime abandoned its plan to stay in Power until 1991 and began laying the groundwork for a return to civilian Rule after the 1980 nationwide plebiscite made it Clear that a majority of uruguayans wish the generals would go Brazil also is undergoing a Politi Cal liberalization after 17 years of Mili tary Kirkpatrick insists that the guerrillas successes in Central America Are entirely Cubas but evidence produced to Date does not substantiate Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama Ecuador Colombia Honduras Pacific Ocean Suriname Guiana Brazil Bolivia Paraguay Uruguay that the National organization of Catholic Bishops in suggested another reason the repressive salvadoran and guatemalan regimes and centuries of poverty for their peo a hungry peasant youth whose family has been massacred by the military has Little to lose in joining the Gerril the marxist jargon of the guerrillas is of no interest to him All he knows is that any government has to be better than the regime that murdered his quite apart from the moral question of the government encouraging Al Salvador Leader Duarte South american military regimes to help their Fellows in Central there is the pragmatic question of whether such intervention would be effective or merely cause More hatred of the United Penny author of cry of the w a latin american correspondent for the time to create a truly Canadian superspy Britain counterintelligence Agen had been around for Many years before Ian Fleming created its popular James it was Long before the american Cia came under so much criticism that Hollywood cast Dean Martin in the role of Matt and that television created the lovable but bungling Max Well smart and his agent Here in Canada we should not wait so just As soon As the Csc technicians strike is we should get Down to the serious business of creating our own Canadian spy number 000 000 since All canadians have six digit sins the first agent in our own new Security our agent will need a name that will be perfectly acceptable in All re Gions of our linguistically divided coun Montgomery or some thing like would be a suitable name for Canadas first bilingual us Gordon Pinsent could be hired to play the television but Only if he grew a moustache for the Frenchman Guage the plot would be As if not As As Pinsent own a gift to what is More Canadian than a spy network fathered by a fou year to g Royal commission what is More Canadian than waiting More than a decade before allowing our own spies to Fred Cleversey join an outfit that does not Issue Scarlet dress and in which they have to As a Basic tool of the spy How to Wield a Lance expertly from the Back of a horse Montgomery Levesque could set an example in the spy when the Csc series was offered to the the other countries would discover How it was possible to be a spy and obey the Law of the land at the same time the Only Canadian Way to these other television audiences would be impressed by Montgomery Levesques Basic Given the state of the National it would be understandable if the government could not afford an Aston Martin con with revolving licence plates and machine guns behind the head even if the Csc there must be quite a few Bricklin still and at the Cost of these vehicles to the Canadian Montgomery Levesque would be Riding in the equivalent of an even if the Nara plates were half the series is already in the first for Cana Das superspy could open a letter from someone named Margaret to someone named of Rock and Roll the consequences to the top politician of the land would be Montgomery could steal a list of Mem Bers of the Western Canada first and top off the same episode by burning the Bam where the next meeting of the party was to be two or three episodes could be devoted to the meetings Between Montgom Ery am his perhaps one of which could show the difficulties Cana Das spy had in getting through the layers of typical Canadian bureaucracy not a miss Moneypenny in sight that separate him from his former Bureau crat months a nickname allowed Only on the English to network problems could be such As his Only Supply being the closest army surplus after with usual Canadian priorities in most of the Agency Money would to be spent on not left Over from Royal commis wons filing cabinets and rented since every agent has an exciting and romantic personal it could fees to abolished Early that Montgomery Vesque wears Only parkas fixed with the Down of three Earold eiderdown ducks from Ellesmere Light weight mukluks designed by John and when in the com Pany Only of bilingual Gimli not to keep things All romantic scenes will be shot Only in the French with English and the uncut versions will be shown Only during the lat night slots of the French language to it will be necessary to show things like list stealing and barn burning during the Early weeks of the series Monty will not be allowed to participate in violent particularly those involving during the Early weeks of the this will take care of the technical since Canadas new la abiding spies cannot be expected to bypass our gun control even the real spies will have to wait the 90 Days or so to get their fact firearm acquisition certificates which not Only allow them to shop for their weapons but provide the Only documentation in the country that certifies the holders when our superspy gets permission to carry a we can be As that it will not be a hand that is not it will have to be a since he will be equipped at the army perhaps he can get his hands on one of the obsolete in rifles the army is dropping now that it can no longer get spare parts for it does not have to Montgomery will have to work for an preferably an Agency that has an easily recognizable can Ada could do worse than Canad Anize South Africa which is called the Bureau of state Canadas new spies could work for the Bureau of state Security or Boscan for at least the name would let everyone know who is in doonesbury i ;