Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 31, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Copy 1981 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty at religion published and printed a a Canton Street r3c 3c1 by Gina Ian newspapers company limited Telephone Donald Nicol publisher John re Tortal Page editor Muf tray eur managing editor Trudeau gets it wrong on questions of civil prime minister who once claimed a reputation As a civil is proving a terribly slow he told a press conference on Friday that he had been studying the Grey area which divides Legal and illegal police Security actions Ever since his Days As a Law the tortured arguments he presented to defend his governments failure to curb the illegal actions of the ramp Security service demonstrated that he still does not understand the issues to is not As if people have not been trying to help him he after just received the of the Mcdonald Royal commission which spent four years and millions of dollars to track Down cases in which the ramp Security service used disreputable tactics in Pursuit of reprehensible to expose the failure of responsible ministers to exert any control Over those tactics and to suggest new Laws which would help ensure that Security operations in the future show some elementary respect for civil after All that expenditure of time and one might have expected the prime minister to show some recognition that things really had gone wrong when the ramp stole burned a barn and embarked on campaigns of harassment and character assassination against individuals and legitimate political he commissioned a retired judge to argue that some of the actions which the Mcdonald commission found to be illegal were really within the Law and presented arguments in defence of his govern ments inaction which would have shamed a Junior High school Trudeau defence of his own inaction is scarcely worthy of with an apparently straight he argued that Public opinion ten years ago would not have permitted his government to exert any control Over the As he claimed that his party lost hundreds of in the 1972 election because it forced ramp officers to Wear bilingual flashes on their in the first the fuss in the Early 1970s was not particularly about bilingualism but rather about the fact that the traditional ramp Crest was but whatever the rights and wrongs of that the Public controversy was not Over the fact that the government exerted control Over the ramp but Over what it sought to do with that the essence of responsible government is that the government in Power is answerable to the electorate for its the Point of establishing that it should be answerable for the actions of the Security service is precisely to ensure that to As Trudeau that governments should refuse to take responsibility because they might be criticized for it is to undermine the very basis of our system of More important than that silly argument is the question of which police actions Are which Are illegal and which fail into a Grey there Are genuine grounds for debate Over whether actions which would normally be such As entering a building to Plant a Are Legal when the police commit them because they Are not done with criminal what should be Crystal Clear from the Mcdonald is that the interests of democracy Are Best served by narrowing that Grey area As much As so Long As All those judgments Are left to the discretion of individual or their immediate then the police Are Likely to go beyond relatively innocuous breaches of the such As and indulge themselves in such unquestionably improper tactics As burning steal ing medical records and slandering innocent the Best Way to avoid abuses is to spell out precisely the police May do in Pursuit of their duty and to establish firmly the ultimate responsibility of the government for the actions of the the eagerness of Trudeau to find however for the reprehensible actions of the past casts doubt on the willingness of his government to ensure that such abuses Are avoided in the action on the foam Issue the Federal government certainly has to do something for the owners and occupants of Over Canadian Homes into which urea formaldehyde foam insulation was blown on the recommendation and with the assistance of the the first thing it owes them is research reliable information and sound advice of a Type that was needed before the foam blowing started and that is needed even More badly the government should set about subsidizing removal of foam in the same Way it subsidized its install the government cannot be held accountable for every error by installers and every misjudgment by a Homeowner who allowed himself to be sold a Bill of goods by an incompetent the last oquestion asked subsidy program seeded a Jungle of Quick Buck firms that did their work badly or did it where it was not a similar program for foam removal would draw the same sort of operators into that Racket and Foster still More botched or unnecessary the most immediate and alarming feature of urea formaldehyde foam is its in some on the health of some people in the the government is now testing air in houses across the country to determine in foam in the Walls does increase fumes in the that is a useful first it will answer a question that should have been answered before the product was foisted on the the present occupants of foam insulated houses Are not the Only interested anyone might visit in such a House or move into the Public needs authoritative information on the health effects of formaldehyde fumes in the concentrations that Are actually found in foam insulated the foam behaves differently in different depend ing on the construction characteristics of the House and on the Way in which the foam was mixed and aside from producing it can also Foster the growth of corrode wiring and impregnate the Wood it can shrink so Thall no longer does the insulating Job it is supposed to these effects can increase with the passage of time As the chemicals break there Are probably some houses in which the Only reasonable solution is to tear open the Walls and remove All the some homeowners have already done in the Best solution May be to remove the foam from basements and attics and leave it in the exterior in others the most appropriate move is to Seal up openings through which fumes might pass from the Walls into the and there Are probably houses in which no action at All need be but the average Homeowner is in no position to judge for himself what is the Wisest some who had insulation jobs done probably do not even know today what material was the Public needs realistic from the most disinterested builders and scientists the government can on the Steps he should take to find out what is going on in his to detect problems and to Correct but after All the cases have been set aside where the health and structural problems Are nonexistent or easily remedied and the cases where the having been careless in the selection of a contractor and a Type of is the author of his own there May still remain some victims of the governments Good intentions to whom More substantial help is somewhere among those or More Homes there May be some whose owners carefully read and heeded All the government got proposals from several checked out the firm they dealt with and found it to be and nevertheless face prohibitively costly remedial they Are not the authors of their own the government and the government must be prepared to help bail them we can afford place because we both work and a cynics View of Security by Leonard Shifrin special to the free press it is things like the Mcdonald com Mission report that bring out the cynic in for the most i like the it starts from All the right premises about the essential values of a Liberal demo cratic and after documenting How the activities of the ramp Security service have been completely inconsistent with those it earnestly sets out to construct a system based on the difference members of the Security service have not understood the difference be tween legitimate political which is essential to our democratic and such political advocacy or action As would constitute a threat to says the what is the unlawful Mea sures which they took in response to this legitimate dissent involved secret attempts to manipulate political events and the news that is half the message right what the mounties were building had All the attributes of a righting police state Complete with files on Mem Bers of parliament who supported grass roots politics and Canadian tourists who visited communist coun if they had been a Little less incompetent about the lid might never have popped off the Security services dirty tricks Box and they would still be at it the commissions solution is sad to brings out the cynic in everything that happened need not have it and with a fresh Start All can be different the second time j the mountie version of a Security service should be replaced by a new Security intelligence Sensi Tive to Liberal democratic principles and with a competent analytical Ca in the commissioners do not quite contend that merely wanting it to be so will make it but the Safe guards they suggest do not leave me feeling particularly the mounties broke Laws when they opened Peoples secretly entered their listened in on their and so because the commission cannot conceive of a Secu Rity Agency being blocked from doing these it proposes that each such instance require an application by the solicitor general to a Federal court judge for a i paperwork perhaps it thinks that the paperwork complication of All that will Lead to fewer certainly one does not have to be much of a cynic to predict that cases of either a solicitor general refusing to sign the application of a judge refusing to Grant the warrant will be few and far it also proposes the creation of a parliamentary committee on Security and which would examine the activities of the Agency on an Oti going and a Blu ribbon advisory Council which would also watch Over the reporting its findings Tii the parliamentarians at least once a Down to people but in the As the commissioners it mainly comes Down to the new Agency will be very different from the old Only if its person Nel is very i there is reason expect it to certain kinds of work i attract certain kinds of Security and intelligence has a lot More Appeal for authoritarian personalities than for civil the commission Calls for the staff of the new Agency to have a wide variety of with police experience being a prerequisite for Only a Small number of specialized but the governments statement announcing the creation of the new Agency has already made that a the governments commitment to separation of the Security service is accompanied by a commitment to those now in the ramp that their future will not be says the the govern ment anticipates that Many of the Security services personnel will wish to be a part of the new so much for new Home of the muses your editorial keep the gallery free August 25 suggests that the Winnipeg Art gallery has More in common with the the Ballet and the visual artists than with the museum and the this seems to me the artists in the sym the Ballet and the visual arts Are performing and creative the the museum and the archives have As their chief purpose the collect preservation and display of Man made so As to preserve our cultural heritage in this hence the gallery collects and displays to the Public works of All kinds and of various past and so that present and future generations will enjoy As you the be sides fulfilling its custodial uses Many ways of presenting our cultural heritage to the certainly the gallery has an important custodial but to compare this function with a prison is to put a very narrow interpretation on the an Art gallery prets and augments this part of our cultural heritage so that it is not lost or and so that the general instead of a few owners of works of can View the the title of the editorial seems to indicate that museum and Heri Tage imply custody of objects of the past Only and therefore Deal with some thing that is dead and irrelevant to the Means Home of the of the Many Active and Lively Art such As the the metro Politan and the museum of modern Art in new York still Bear the title Muse the Winnipeg Art gallery in its Early years was sometimes called sometimes the the gallery is a museum and should be linked with the Manitoba museum of Man and and the i am rather More optimistic than you Are since i cannot imagine that any Heri Tage commission would be so far out of touch with the nature and function of a modern Art museum As to take such a restricted and old fashioned View of the Art Edmund Berry Winnipeg 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 Winnipeg Art Galry g place for things present taxes squandered the August 24 edition of the free press carried an article about the mennonite school almost having reached full it stated that it had rented four classrooms at Lansdowne school in the North being a tax payer i am Happy that the Winnipeg school in its supreme saw fit to rent the space school division 1s administration decided to Deposit two portable class rooms on the grounds of Ralph Brown also in the North this action has eliminated a min soccer Field operated by the Ralph Brown recreation the Centre has a joint use agreement with the school Board and should have been approached before the portables were carted before any action like this is the children should be sent to the closest school that has room for Lansdowne school is approximately Operand Ashaif Miles from Ralph there Art three other schools within walking distance that could also accommodate if not of the the principal reason for increased enrolment at Ralph Brown is the ukrainian immersion a Good percentage of the students Are bused in from other parts of the so Why Arent they bused to Lansdowne school or other half empty schools in the area what is an extra mile and a half if you Are already on the bus Green space is hard to pome so Why clutter it up with two edifices that Are ugly in appearance and inefficient in this climate this is another example of the Trust trying to appease a minority they Are attempting to keep All of the ukrainian immersion pupils and also operate a regular program for the children in the the trustees Are More than willing to hand themselves a giant pay but not willing to raise their Heads out of the Sand to see what is really going on in the it is time that we let these guardians of the Public puce know How we feel about How they squander our hard earned tax Pelletier Winnipeg poor or last my Uncle from California came to see we thought we would impress him by taking him to see lower fort my grandma and dad and i thought it would be a Nice idea to have a picnic at the lower fort Garry picnic we decided to take a ride on the lady Winnipeg up the red we got up Early in the morning to pack the Rode to the Dock and spent a lot of Money for when we were All sitting Down think ing about How Nice it was going to be Riding on the my dad was told that we could not bring food on my dad explained to the commo Dore Daniel that we were not going to eat it on Only when we got to lower fort but commo Dore Ritchie still would not let us take the food on when my dad asked Ritchie Why he had a Rule like he said that there was not enough room on the boat for to me it looked like there was a lot of room on the Ritchie then said that we had to we Felt very embarrassed being kicked off the boat in front of All those and it really spoiled our whole i dont think Ritchie was right in asking us to leave the boat because we did not know about not being allowed to bring if Only Ritchie had mentioned in his newspaper advertise ment that we bring then we would not have had to ruin our Jennifer Lund aged 11 Winnipeg birthday Robert born Kirkfield August thanks in i and two companions were the unfortunate victims of hit and run involving motorcycles and a we were seriously injured and required weeks of we Are still recovering from this which very nearly claimed All our although 1 will never be Able to thank All of those who were responsible for us living through this i would like to offer thanks to those who played a big part in helping us thanks to the ambulance Driver for turning me on my Side at the Accident this was done of pre vent me from choking to my own thanks to the Winnipeg police for staying up All night trying to locate my parents in thanks to doctor the orthopaedic surgeon in charge of putting All of our broken Bones Back a Well deserved thank you to my their compassion and was deeply Timothy Smith unsolicited advice on behalf of the executive and Mem Bers of the polish combatants association and the Royal Canadian legion 34 Mynarski i am writing to say that we Are upset with the closing View in the editorial to lands free August after initially sympathizing with the people of the author of the editorial offers unsolicited advice to warning that their Only Choice is to doff their Caps at the Kremlin holy or otherwise they can expect that their stiff Are going to be broken by the soviet if the people of Poland had that subservient attitude towards their oppressors there would be no Solidarity Trade Union in ant now after 36 years of soviet nation there would be no polish nation As it have lost its identity by becoming part of the Infa Mous soviet gulag despite the View of the free the people of Poland feel that As everyone have the inborn right to an Independent during the last War we were the soldiers who fought for a free we failed but our efforts were not in As the people of Poland now continue the which we support with All our Kmiec president polish combatants association 13 Royal Canadian legion 34 Mynarski pc downtown parking it is regrettable that the free press reported in its August 9 edition that the parking meter system is bringing in lots of it is a Case of a Short term gain which will mean a longtime both in Revenue anal in business for the Centre of our Why Are the new shopping malls on the outskirts of the City being patronized so strongly simply because the cites plan of parking meters is driving Busi Ness away from the downtown a i refuse to drive my car Down into the City to shop since i received a Park ing now when i want to shop i will avoid the Central area and take my Money out to Polo Park or one of the other suburban shopping a Large number of people do the authorities May Wake up to what they Are doing to downtown Hambley Winnipeg id like to open an preferably one with some May in ;