Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 29, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Free writers fiust dive tatar the author s Frame papers need Feig brother score the honors of government regu lations in the newspaper Industry imagine big brother whom you mentioned in your editorial of August 19 looking Over the shoulder of every publisher in the country to determine whether Windfall profits Are being milked from the consumer at the expense of proper news imag Ine an elected voice speaking out on behalf of the millions of Canadas Citi Zens who Are now served by Only one daily and who Are subject to its monopoly of opinion and its discretion As to what events constitute Tom Kent gets support where has the need Arisen that government should show an interest in regulating the newspaper Industry Southern Only acted in the Best inter Estt of us All when it closed the Tribune and sold All its assets to the fr6e thereby virtually luckily not comple Tely closing the door on a second a competitor for the free certainly the end to free want ads and the Rise in advertising rates which followed soon after were a Neces sary evil for Canadas most profitable newspaper i am afraid t feel no sympathy for the chorus of criticism which greeted Era of the editorial Page of his or her newspaper following the unveiling of the Kent commission the Cal Lous closing of the Tribune by Southam was just one example of the newspaper Industry overstepping its with some sort of regulations in Southam might have at least sold the tribunes assets to someone willing to carry Ona second newspaper for Tom Denton of the the editorial pages of most of can Adas daily newspapers to speak in one voice following the Dis closure of the commissions recommend this is certainly not Surpris taking into consideration the state of Competition in Canadas newspaper Peter Burch Winnipeg no Birds sing today there is an eerie quietness in my my Birdbath is there Are no Robins fighting Over Ber Ries in my honeysuckle nor is there any evidence of the two Wrens that occupied my i do not know if the Spray Bay on has killed i Only know they Are one government official stated that he would rather see 100 dead Birds than risk one human this May be but i wonder Why that human life is More important when it Brit tags a profit to someone else Are there not hundreds of lives being threatened by Industrial wastes dumped into our water and air numerous cancer aus ing agents Are still on the Market and thriving in slum conditions go while thousands suffer malnutrition because they cannot buy opposition to the use of Bay on was quickly repressed and it makes me wonder if it will be the same when it comes to the use of the Neutron which is now gaining acceptance in United human lives will be sacrificed if our status quo is Thomasson Winnipeg recently the Manitoba Branch of Renaissance International Canadas version of the moral majority decided to Issue score cards on Manitoba reverend Terry a Renaissance says these score cards would show How moral the politicians the Renaissance definition of morality has nothing to do with and Little to do with to be moral by their standards you must be against against against sex education and against women rights to appears that the Only things you can be for Are capital punishment and racial Dis criminal Lewis does not believe in the division of Church and state he believes All political leaders Are religious but when he has to justify the Renaissance stand on Capi Tal he thou Shalt not kill is Only a personal Applina which allows these so called religious readers to sidestep the com what Lewis is really saying is that it is alright to disobey the so Long As you agree with him and his group of the Renaissance definition of morality is a frightening example of a Small but vocal group trying to take away the rights we prize most highly Freedom of organization and Assem Freedom of Freedom of information and they have shown themselves to be neither moral nor i Hope a were i a politician i would rather publish my attendance record than receive a High Renaissance such a rating would indicate a willingness to disregard All rules to my own Benefit and to twist religious and political doctrine to bolster my political Only by being As vocal in supporting our rights As Renaissance is in trying to take them away can we avoid the frightening example of the United where educators and artists must Bow to the whims of a Power hungry immoral Margaret Watts Winnipeg Terry Lewis plans to rate politicians absolute Freedom i find curious that Norman Lear and people for the american who Are leading the Battle against moral majority attempt to clean up should have created the kind of television spots which the free press reports them to have an August 19 objections Over Lear says that Lears group developed 30second Tele vision spots which show people discus sing their preferences in cooked in music and in the Point the spots want to make is that people have differences in those and should be Able to express those differences likewise in every other i have not seen the spots and so cannot comment on but i suspect if i saw them i would agree that people should have absolute Freedom to Cook their eggs exactly As they want but i cannot see How one can make an argument out of that to allow people absolute Freedom to practice any kind of sexual activity and show any kind of sexual activity on television or within other Lear and company do Little for discussion of the issues involved in Freedom in the Media by using these sorts of All they accomplish is to trivialize the the moral majority does not represent my concerns about television and the but it does reflect a deep seated concern in american society that we have gone too far in allowing unrestrained sexual Vio racism and other socially destructive behaviour to be presented within the that message should at least be heard for what it intends to Harold Jantz editor mennonite Brethren Herald Winnipeg mediaeval the items proposed by Renaissance West As a checklist for hopeful Politi Cal candidates is disappointingly i thought it could at least in clude favouring a return to slavery and resumption of if it were to be consistent with its basically mediaeval to Call itself Christian is to use that term the Jesus of the gospels tests his followers by whether they feed the visit those in clothe the care for the support the rights of the powerless minorities and press for Justice in the labor these tests Are strangely absent from Renaissance wests in there is a garbled version of a Little understood suppl Side econom which in the hands of its heroes is concentrating gods resources in Neu tron bombs and my systems at the expense of adequate shelter and food for the Renaissance should read the gos Pels again to see Jesus stance on whether capital represents evangelical Christian Vern Ratzlaff Winnipeg readers criticize foreign policy Birds found dead after Mosquito spraying on August the Globe and mail reported that the United states was contemplating sending its troops into Al Salvador to help prop up the repress Ive regime such an armed inva Sion of Al Salvador is almost and for the following reasons almost from its birth As an Independent the United states has regarded latin America As its Back Yard and Canada As its the United states has propped up dictatorships in latin not Only were these More Likely to put interests ahead of those of their citizenry lacking popular they were easier to get rid of when they had lost their useful the traditional response to the emergence of Independence move ments and Independent governments in latin America has been to Send in its troops to crush Between 1850 and 69 such armed invasions were most of them took place in this Century in the Central american Caribbean the knows that it will get away with its expansionism and armed ask both of which far surpass that of the soviet for the hysterical rhetoric that is reserved to describe such behaviour on the part of the was entirely absent from the above mentioned the Only protest Over aggression against Al Salvador will come from the who will take to the streets to Demon and they will be labelled As radicals and marxists so that no body will take them in the last few years the Back Yard has been in a state of first the cubans threw off their backed the nicaraguans threw off their backed Al Salvador is in revolt against its dictatorship and the natives Are increasingly restive in Guatemala where a variety of dictatorships have been murdering a invasion of the area would kill several Birds with one Stone crush the revolts in Al Salvador and Guatemala and drag Nicaragua and maybe even Cuba Back into the Taylor Winnipeg Israel justified i wish Tor continent on your editorial Israel gets its the survival of Israel As a state is its justification for its use of american purchased the Reagan administration knows the free press by its editorial of August seems to have missed this your Choice of the by launching further acts of War in de scribing israeli actions in Lebanon and Iraq seems to display either Bias or a Lack of historical knowledge of the reasons for israels living in a country such As with secure Borders and where our right to exist is not called into is something we take for if the survival of this nation were threatened and subjected to the conflicts that that tiny nation has had to we would do what would be necessary to defend regardless of world regardless of the opinion of the free David Greenberg Portage la warmongers two lydian air planes challenged the american intruding into what libyans consider to be their territorial and got shot this happened Miles away from american what would happen if the soviet Fleet sailed into the Strait Between Cuba and Florida you know what would happen in their relentless drive to eradicate communism in the world the american Bosses Are ready to destroy hundreds of millions of people in an atomic Mike Taczynski social democracy president Ronald reagans decision to proceed with the development of the Neutron bomb to make the world Safe for democracy to annihilate the entire population of is a striking example of the Complete bankruptcy of american foreign poli what Secretary of state Alexander Haig and Secretary of de Fence Caspar Weinberger failed to real ize is that the dominant eco nomic and ideological current in Western Europe today is social democracy and social democracy does not want a military confrontation with the soviet social democracy wants first of a Complete withdrawal of All foreign troops from their soil both East and West and closer cooperation and increased volume of Trade Between the Eastern and Western countries of if the Reagan administration cannot understand let those understand it who John Goray Winnipeg Canadian tax system benefits the Rich most Money and As Canadas High Lyco plex and regressive tax system and ridiculously inadequate combines Law it is heard loudest by govern nearly two decades have passed since the Carter Royal commission on taxation came up with the astonishingly but highly axiom that a Buck is a Buck and should be taxed since the Carter Canadas tax system has not Only not become More there is compelling Statis tical evidence to show if it now More regressive than the billions of dollars spent on Transfer payments to poorer canadians in an Effort to create greater income Equality have been offset and even surpassed by the billions of dollars governments forgo in taxes from wealthy corporations and in one of the most significant reforms introduced by the Clark the Federal government now quantifies these tax or tax holi Days for favored in they were estimated to total representing about 60 per cent of All Federal government direct expenditures and about 78 per cent of anticipated Federal revenues from All the fact Book on income written by economist Frances Russell David Ross for the Canadian Council on social shows that despite massive spending on social pro Grams by both Levels of income disparity in Canada has worsened since in that the Bottom 20 per cent of income earners had per cent of the economic while the top 20 per cent had per by the share of the Bottom 20 per cent had dropped to Only per while the top 20 per cent had declined by Only per cent to per As Ross notes in his preface it is but erroneously believed that income distribution in Canada has become More equitable due to massive government spending on social pro there is no question that government spending has improved the welfare and incomes of the poor but what is not so Well known is that this same system also invariably benefits the so that in terms of relative nothing changes very at the time of last fails Federal the Federal government issued a White paper reviewing the taxation of capital gains in arguing that Canada imposes the least heavy Burden of tax on wealth of All member countries of the organization for eco nomic cooperation and development the White paper proposes to tax capital gains at 100 per cent instead of the current 50 per cent and tax As when the gain is late last the Canadian tax which is published monthly by Coopers and the International chartered accounting devoted a special Issue to challenging the White written by editor Donald hug the Glossy pamphlet was Distri buted to subscribers and to All provincial finance ministers and press galleries across a spokesman for the firm admitted the Cost of these extra issues can be written off As a business Huggett claims that Canadas wealth far from being the lowest among Recd Are among the High surpassed Only by the and both of he Are committed to lowering taxes he recommends that capital gains be taxed in but Only after they have been adjusted for inflation and Only after they have been withdrawn from investment for personal Huggett defends Bis Case by saying y that the tax system must continue to Reward investment and work if the Economy is to his editorial is peppered with derogatory comments about income redistribution and the Dogma of ability to attacking the White papers assertion that cur rent capital gains taxes restrict the governments ability to promote a fair and equitable distribution of Huggett says Hogwash hone cannot promote a redistribution of income and wealth conceding for the moment that some degree thereof is desirable with income tax rates approaching 70 per cent and a capital gains tax without inflation can often exceed 100 per there will be precious Little wealth left to tax Huggett talks about and it is a big that the finance minister will opt for real simplicity in the tax system some reduction in the lengthy list of tax holidays and deductions benefiting High income earners which could retire the cur rent billion Federal deficit several times Huggette proposal to delay taxing capital gain if they Are reinvested is really an argument to Stop capital gains taxation the term re investment would be a veritable Gold mine for tax lawyers seeking Loop in the highest income one per cent of tax filers received 99 per cent of All net gains from the Sale of that two thirds of All capital gains were reported by people earning More than a capital gains taxes now net the government about billion a the poorest canadians pay 60 per cent of their income in while the highest earners pay 30 per cent or i lobby group uses a tax deduction to Tell government that its proposed tax policies Are a disincentive work and doonesbury its a living jail must which by the gosh so to Uig sings just come a Wita off at w bus ;