Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 31, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Wiff Tieg free a Tess August spy Agency needs effective control i by Peter Thomson press Ottawa de Ltd Ottawa there is a fundamental contradiction Between effective opera Tion of Security and and the role of parliament in a democratic that conflict will be the source of much debate in the months the Mcdonald commission of by into activities of the of temp clearly leans toward As much government re and guarantee of civil Lias is the through solicitor general Robert appears to be leaning the other the or have not been taken with regard to the degree of control that will be exercised Over the new Security and intelligence Agency which Kaplan has announced will be the terms of reference must await the study of a task Force which will be looking into the a parliamentary and undoubtedly a Good Many representations from clan Dian the Mcdonald commission noted that in the past parliaments effective Ness in Security matters has been extremely in its three volume report it recommends much greater involvement in the the Security and intelligence Agency should be set up in an act of Parlia although the process of enacting a statutory mandate May be a har rowing experience for those responsible for the effective operation of such an the commission proposes that the act include provision for the definition of threats to the Security of Canada certain organizational aspects of the Security intelligence Agency the Gen eral duties of the organization to Analyse and report Security intelligence including specific authorization of activities outside Canada and what form its Liaison with foreign agencies and provincial and municipal authorities will take and its role in Security screening authorization of certain investigative Powers and the conditions and controls applying to those Powers and mechanisms of external the commission also proposes establishment of Small joint committee of both houses of parliament to provide effective parliamentary scrutiny of Security intelligence it proposes also that an advisory Council on Security and intelligence be appointed which would have full Access to All information and files of the Security intelligence the Council would be informed of All Public complaints alleging improper or illegal activity and would be Able to investigate such would report to the joint parliamentary committee on the extent and prevalence of improper and illegal activities any direction Given by the government to the Agency which is regarded As improper and any serious problems in administering the examine reports the parliamentary committee would be concerned with both the effective Ness and the propriety of Canadas Security and intelligence arrange and it would consider the annual examine annual re consider reports directed to it by the advisory and investigate any matter relating to Security and intelligence referred to it by the Senate or House of these the commission would protect canadians from the police excesses which its report unit remarked on the Low level of Public knowledge about Security Public discussion of Canadas inter Nal Security arrangements tends to be dominated by two groups who Advance positions at two extreme poled those who contend that the threats to Security Are so serious that the Wisest course is to disclose As Little information As pos sible about the measures taken to counter these threats and those who contend just the Canada is so fortunately immune from threats to its Security that there Are no secrets Worth the commis Sion we think that both these groups Are there Are serious threats to the Security of Canada but they Are not so serious As to prevent a reasonable amount of informed discussion about the nature of these threats and the Mea sures necessary to protect Canada against Security measures can be Cor to preserve democracy we should minimize the secrecy aspect wherever this can reasonably be the report Many will argue that the system of parliamentary approval and control proposed by the commission takes too much secrecy out of Security and Intel it will be difficult to find the Correct a second area of control that requires a great Deal of consideration is that exercised by senior officials of the Security and intelligence Agency Over officers operating in the the Mcdonald commission report re Veals a serious not Only in the reporting to ministers by senior ramp and other but also in the control exercised Over Field opera meld operatives have to be Given a certain latitude for actions which cannot be Given prior but there is no reason they be expected to operate within certain whether these guidelines can be established by or by senior officer is a question with which the task Force will have to common sense suggests there is no Way guidelines can be developed to cover every situation that will but the Mcdonald commission offered Good argument As to Why the Effort should be Kaplan left and commission disagree on need for Security control it should be Clear that operatives report to superiors on any activities that Are outside the parame ters of Standard and the senior officers should be expected to report such exceptional cases to a minister of the otherwise the whole concept of parliamentary democracy becomes laugh the task Force in its recommendations and the government in its is not going to satisfy there Are those who will claim top much secrecy has been removed from Security and and those who believe there is too much murkiness about activities of the new Agen the Are that both the task Force and the government will err on the Side of too the present and certainly the senior bureaucrats in Cana have been extremely reluctant to provide information on anything it National Security oriented or not to suddenly become too it will be a test for opposition Politi Cal parties and for Freedom of information in the next six to fight for As much information and control As possible Over the new Security and intelligence Agency and its oper clash seen As pattern for future by David Edwards the Washington Post Washington the Downing of two libyan warplanes f14 tomcats recently should have come As no Surprise to close observers of the Reagan administrations foreign poli such confrontations in third areas where the United states has Clear superiority will probably become the Rule rather than the the Reagan administrations emerging pol icy toward the soviet Union in a time of growing economic difficulties makes this almost the actual timing the libyan Inci Dent May have been but it was also the military Suc Cess came in the week when the administration first directly confronted the impossibility of simultaneously pursuing its two key goals economic recovery at Home and the rebuilding of deterrent credibility the most compelling evidence of this problem has been the delay in deciding on a new manned bomber and a Basing plan for the my missile in the face of growing pressure from the office of management and budget for cuts in projected defence the reasons for these delays Are to be found not simply in debates Over the merits of new weapons but in three grave economic realizations d second Quarter statistics just re leased reveal that the economic Situa Tion is of greater Lon term Gravity than administration economists have Gnu declined at an adjusted annual rate of per corporate after tax profits were off inflation and interest rates Are not declining fast enough to Spur recovery not available d the present Industrial base could not absorb All the military spend ing contemplated in the time Frame in the years since the Viet Nam for thousands of subcontractors and hundreds of forging foundries have ceased to be available for defence attempting to Over come these weaknesses with rash pro Gram incentives will Only further Over heat the Economy risk More poo Quality products and Cost Over o the ultimate economic Impact of the Reagan budget and tax package will be delayed As a result of congressional it will also be subject to further damaging because military spending is highly bombers and battleships do not have babies in the Way that investments in machine tools and information technology military spending exacts an enormous toll in lost opportunities for rebuilding and modernizing our aging Industrial and informational these three economic reservations now being recognized by More and More elements in the Reagan administration make events such As the libyan encounter virtually Why according to the Reagan administrations View of foreign deterrent credibility must be re built it sees Only three possible ways of achieving one of which was discredited by experience in the Carter years and another of which is now seen As subject to Domestic eco nomic the Carter approach consisted essentially of Reliance on a moderate military buildup plus frequent exhortation to the soviets on the Virtues of restraint and the vices of aggression and this policy of declaratory Reagan officials was shown to be Bank the Early Reagan policy of massive arms buildup for what could be called procurement deterrence was in Large measure a reaction against now the Reagan administration is shifting from procurement toward what might be called deployment and demonstration deterrence a policy was developed by Henry the Bete Noire of so Many during both the Nixon and Ford saw that after the country would and perhaps could sustain High Levels of modernizing military so he sought Safe occasions to use american military might As a Demon stration of our resolve or deterrent soviet proxies these demonstrations had As their target soviet proxies or third but they were aimed chiefly at impress ing the bombing of Cambodia was one the excessive Mili tary response however ineffectual to the seizure of the Mayaguez by what passed for the cambodian Navy was these instances of Demon stration deterrence were efforts to achieve Quick fixes to get credibility on the there is in All this grave danger for american too slow an abandonment of procurement deterrence could cause irreparable economic harm at Home abroad among too rapid and extensive adoption of demonstration deter rence partly As a cover for the abandonment of massive procurement could result in Bushfire conflicts in tinder boxes such As the Middle East and Northern or Southern this would be a recipe not Only for continued deterioration of superpower relations but also perhaps for another Vietnam like what this administration and nato and the soviet Union As Well need most is a new formula for deter rence built not Only on the current realities but also on the emerging opportunities of world the policies and programs of the even in tomcat even in rapid deployment Force will not Long and if will condemn the Reagan foreign policy to the Fate of its the writer is professor of government at the University of Texas at Shamattawa does not need a parking lot the concise Oxford dictionary de votes half a Page to the word a the dictionary is an institution for educating children or giving it is the building for such an the word can be used As a meaning to be educated in a it can mean a medieval lecture or be used to describe a group of disciples or followers of a philosopher or it can mean or it can mean to Send someone to and it can also mean or to bring under does the concise Oxford dictionary say that a to be a needs a parking this particular definition is reserved for the bureaucracy in last the free press carried a report about the school at a Community in northeastern Manito on gods about 80 Miles from Hudson for the past Tea the 250 children in the Community have been taught in a collection of ten years is the time the Federal bureaucracy has been considering what form a new school for Shamattawa should the last word from Ottawa is that there will be another months delay because the final propos Al has to be translated into both official the residents of the Community have Fred Cleverley threatened to padlock the shacks As a Means of getting Ottawa they Are not Likely to shorten the delay caused by the necessity of because translation has a High priority these it is responsible for More jobs than Many projects that reason Able canadians would consider far More it is not Only the most recent delay that can be when the Federal minister for manpower and i Migra Lloyd is going about the country telling All who will listen about the need for More native Educa Tion in order to prepare Northern Resi dents for nontraditional and nonexistent what could possibly hold up the building of a school for ten Long years one of the reasons the school was delayed was that the original prepared by those closest to the com made no provision for a Park ing the instead of causing a years delay in the could have been answered in a it took four Days to using methods that Are available to every bureaucratic decision that Shamattawa school did not need a parking the first through the Mani Toba Telephone was not too Shamattawa listed on the provincial highways possibly because there is no connecting Many communities that Are not connected to the South have Auto Churchill is a Good Shamattawa is listed in the Provin Cial Telephone the to be found Between Seymo Urville and reads Shamattawa toll office Shamattawa Indian agent radio presuming that an Ottawa Bureau crat would not know the procedure for getting on to the Selkirk radio operator to Contact a Call was made to the regular Lon distance oper told of the directory she replied that in he assured that it was she said is that the name of a town How do you spell it she connect the Call to and asked for the radio informing her that she had someone on the line that wanted to talk to Shamatt Shamattawa or the radio operator knew what to she put out the Call a cd a cd Sel she repeated she tried and then said the signals must be would you like to try later this procedure was at Dif Ferent for three obviously no one Calls Shamattawa Calls the frustration of the Ottawa bureaucrat could be obviously a parking lot would be re stamp the plans and Send them look at them next year think of what might have happened if the bureaucrat had been what if he had not been snowed under with so Many other All with parking that could be approved he might have checked with the motor vehicle Branch of the Manitoba gov would have been Able to provide information about whether Shamattawa school needed a parking As Ottawa regulations apparently called or whether it could get by without As the people who Drew the plans seemed to As it turns the motor vehicle Branch could Supply exactly the information that would help the bureaucrat come to a reasonable and logical conclusion regarding the a parking lot to the future education of the 250 children in he might have been Able to reach the conclusion before the worst fears of the parents their children might come to physical harm in the shacks came to Driver education reported that never in history had there been a request for a testing team to visit either there were no or the people did not see the necessity of vehicle registration confirmed that parking lots in Shamattawa Are a Lux As of August the department had registered in Shamattawa two Pas Senger cars and one doonesbury mams w Emu ;