Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 26, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg 8ahmjfty8 september Winnipeg fee press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed Days a at 300 Carlton Winnipeg 636 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg arts 162 Winnipeg 1890 5onald Nicol publisher John editorial editor Murray Buff my naming editor Rudy Redekop controller Al i no problem for the Banks officials of Canadas major lending institutions have told finance minister Allan Maceachen that there is no problem with mortgage renewals at today High interest there no problem for the they Are earning handsome profits out of current interest rate there is no problem for the government except for the political the Sank of Canada took extraordinary Steps this week to ensure that interest rates would not slip and Maceachen has set the return on Canada savings Bonds at a level which will help ensure that interest rates will remain in the stratosphere for another year at least it is undoubtedly True that most faced with dramatic increases in their monthly mortgage will Cope one Way or there is something rather in the Bankers Assumption that All they have to do is liquidate other and there is something unreal in the comment by Robert president of the Canadian Bankers that lots of people have Only to sell two or three of the extra houses they Are speculating not the one they Are living perhaps his friends Are in that position most canadians Are the immense majority of people who buy houses buy them As shelter and As the speculators who get caught in a mortgage squeeze Are an infinitesimal proportion of House and to dismiss the problem in those terms is unrealistic As Welt As that attitude also rein forces the argument that the responsibility for helping those in dire Straits cannot be left to the Bankers Given the attitudes of the Bankers and the Little can be expected of the task Force which is supposed to study ways of dealing with the Maceachen and the Bankers were right when they argued that there is no Way of providing general Relief apart from reducing inflation Over permitting interest rates to before that the problem is Likely to get worse rather than but some Short term measures Are needed to help those hardest hit and the Relief cannot simply be left to the Good will of the the government which created the problem is also going to have to be part of the thoughtless rail cuts the Federal government May be doing More harm than Good by its drastic reduction of rail passenger because of the Hasty and secretive Way it went about deciding on the the extent of Lon term damage to the country transportation system could not be the Type of evidence that would have come out in Public hearings is now surfacing and it indicates that the cuts were not judiciously the cuts Are intended to reduce the annual operating subsidies for rail passenger trains so that the same amount of Money can be invested instead in buying new and better Canadian especially in the Are told to find other Means of travelling for a few years with the vague suggestion that they May eventually be offered More comfortable trains to ride but once the intercity bus routes and schedules have been adapted and the cars have been purchased and the communities accessible Only by rail have been there will be precious Little Market for the spanking new trains that Are a Federal government transportation who pre fers to remain contends that the process leading to the cuts was an uninformed and inconsistent exercise in transportation he agrees that commuter services tanking Toronto to its bedroom towns should be if at by the province of he agrees with eliminating Little used services to Prince Albert and but he would keep transcontinental service from Winnipeg to Van Couver through Saskatoon and which Pepin is scrapping in favor of Day liner service along parts of the Pepin expresses unshakeable Confidence that his Deci Sion is the right he justifies it on the ground that the Money saved will Lead to improved the Anonymous economist confirms that saving Money was the object of the but what remains unanswered and subject to Challenge is whether the cuts that have been announced Are the right whether million Over three years is the appropriate amount to save in operating costs and switch to Purchase of new those questions could Only be answered and those legitimate doubts resolved by submitting the governments plans to Public review in which the government and its railway experts could produce their Independent experts and members of the Public could produce theirs and a rational conclusion could be publicly that is exactly the kind of review the Canadian transport commission would have had the government Given it the that process might have Lead to a different set of service cuts or to a different level of annual operating which would be justified by its basis in the country transportation Pepins decision has no such it is based solely on a Dollar saving target figure which seems to have been plucked out of the gallery Phil Mallette the birth of Britain sol changes in the pubs Small concessions to the hotel Industry Are As predictable an indicator of a pending election As the increase in postelection prices is the concessions made by attorney general Gerry Mercier this week to the desire of the Industry to change liquor Laws have the Happy consequence of bringing some of the rather archaic restrictions left in Manitoba liquor regulations into line with present Day no one is Likely to be Hurt much by a change that will allow Beer to be served in rather than the old timeline few people will be bothered by others who choose to do their drinking standing the annoyance with this regulation was usually the other Way and people who wanted to pick up their Glass at the bar were often bothered by the earlier prohibition against this even the provision of self serve facilities in some bars will not raise too Many Manitoba the trial elimination of distribution regulations that seemed to be designed to maintain Market rather than satisfy customers is a sensible business the elimination of the necessity for the liquor control commission to approve food menus in beverage rooms would appear to put Good business practice above bureaucratic the changes Are of a housekeeping even those that allow larger beverage rooms and that remove government intervention in the hours that outlets can open on statutory Mercier stopped Short of giving the hotel operators the identification card system that has been and which is desired by the Industry As a Means of removing the Burden now placed on serving personnel for keeping out underage this recommendation needs intensive because the solution that is being suggested May create other problems that Are just As no one has yet come up with a foolproof identification system that cannot be even if one the imposition of an identity card requirement for those who happen to retain their Youthful appearance is distasteful in a free Mercier was also silent on another major Industry that the traditional wedding socials Are cutting into the Industry perception of what should be its it is a matter that can be Well left the Way it if the concessions to the Industry As Many another election it would be unusual indeed if Mercier were willing to Trade off the support of the Industry against the popularity of by Macrae special to the free press London the marriage has been consummated Between Britain new social democrats and old in an Alliance i hereafter Call sol Al though All its leaders hate the arrangement has been made with unparalleled for exam it has been privately agreed that Roy Jenkins would be the sols prime but that no electors should be told All the sols top Folk rightly agree that the Dps Shirley Williams and the liberals David steel Are the Best vote catchers but that Jenkins would be the Best Shirley and Roy made speeches to the liberals at an As Sembly last they loved her and respected if there was a general election the sol would be come Britain largest All the opinion polls continue to average sol 40 per labor 35 per cent conservatives 25 per More in the 67 contested local Council by elections across the country this the sol has won and Only five of these were seats that the liberals had held of this is happening at a time when the conservatives labor Are uniquely the conservatives Are unpopular because Margaret Thatcher continues to swing right at a time of still mounting she has just dried out her Cabinet of those she Calls bringing in As employment Secretary an Exa Irline Pilot who is Likely to annoy the Trade unions she has packed the Placa tory former employment Secretary off to try to manage Northern she has also refilled the economic committee of the Cabinet with people who have promptly agreed to Tell Public servants they can have Only four percent wage raises and to Tell homeowners that interest rates must Rise labor unpopular labor is unpopular because there is a serious possibility that its party Confer ence might be about to elect Tony Benn As its Deputy Benn whom Harold Wilson once described As a Good postmaster general who has in matured with is strongly sup ported by trotskyite and whose appallingly undemocratic actions within local labor parties and Trade unions he genuinely does not before the 1984 general both the conservatives and labor will contrive to look less unpopular than but it is quite Likely that sol support will stay at 25 per Cen plus enough to hold the balance of Power and this is the second instance in which it is Semi secretly being so the sol intends in these Circum stances to say we will support any coalition government that promises to bring in some form of proportional election system in Britain within a otherwise we will keep on voting against any and thus Force new election As thatche rites will be terrified of any Bennite and bennies of any Thatcher one of the major parties will probably agree to this sol demand for a proportional election sys As the sol May retain around 25 per cent of the vote in most we May be moving into an Era of almost permanent coalition governments in Britain after 1984 in which the As the Centre will always be a i am very unsure whether permanent centrist governments would be Good for which May require periods of government of Radical Perma nent centrist coalitions might drive thwarted left wingers in the Trade or thwarted right wingers among Britain Nasty intercity Rac into extra parliamentary there is Many a slip Between cup and but something quite extraordinary May have been born in British political history during the past four ramp snoopers reach into every City Block the state collects vast amounts of information on done so easily with computer this ability to look into every Nook and cranny of Peoples lives is reflected in the Oft heard they must have a file on says the Mcdonald Royal com Mission into the activities of the the phrase May be offered in jest but it turns out to be according to the Mcdonald the ramp Security service alone maintained 000 files on individuals As of that is out of a population of 24 it adds up to the picture of several people in every City Block in Canada being in the secret dossiers of the no threat Many of these should be says the Mcdonald because they represent no threat to Canadas a review of files has been instituted in recent but while were destroyed in the period from 1972 to 000 new files were this indiscriminate collection of files sometimes extended to entire such As this scrutiny was based on the premise that some homosexuals May be subject to Black mail should they come to occupy positions with Access to Security relevant by the late a Sevenman team was established to investigate homosexuals in sensitive government the report reveals in a Spe Cial squad of investigators was established to interview homosexuals in Ottawa not in the surveillance spread to other the Security service continued to collect information on the homosexual Community even since a 1969 amendment to the criminal a homosexual act in private Between two consenting adults no longer was an that such a program has not been Val Werier Mcdonald report unnecessary screening of All halted years ago is a striking illustration of an insensitivity about what the Security service ought to be secur the Field of screening Public service employees illustrates the great number of unnecessary in the ramp was instructed to screen All employees and candidates for employ ment in Security sensitive one problem is the tendency of government to be secretive about matters that should not be each govern ment department and Agency is responsible for classifying its own material into three Levels top and departments tend to set a higher classification than requiring More extensive in the years 1972 to the average number of screenings was partly because of the increase in the civil in there were requests for of which were top whole areas of employment have been deemed to require top secret says the Mcdonald regardless of whether each and every individual has direct Access to the while Over classification of All three Levels of clearance is a con Cern to it is the top secret level that is of greatest since it Calls for an automatic investigation into the Pri vate life of the such investigations should be prescribed Only when absolutely there also is a tendency to pass the Buck of Normal staffing responsibilities to the Security As an employees at the mint require a High level clearance even where there is not even an indirect link to classified info the Mcdonald report also says there is no need to screen All candidates for sensitive Only the successful candidate should be the government fetish for secrecy was As Well As being unfair to those who were a Cabinet directive in 1963 spelled out loyalty which mainly included membership or support of a communist or fascist and specific character defects such As illicit sexual drug and which might make one Vul but the process to Challenge the information gathered was unknown to the the Cabinet which had the Force of was kept secret until made Public by the Mcdonald commission 15 years in says the Mcdonald report pre persons whose careers and livelihoods were adversely usually had no idea of the opportunities available under the directive to resolve doubts As to their suitability for a position requiring Security As a first the government should publicize widely any future review and Appeal proce the ramp performs an important task in the Security of the if they have gathered too wide a the fault lies basically with which should not allow a secret service to operate without Clear guidelines and Strong civilian governments have been callous about the right of privacy of the i divid and his right to free a classic example is the extra parliamentary opposition a phrase coined by european writers to describe How traditional forms of democracy could be drastically if not by pressure from counter or parallel representative of the these were left Wing solicitor general Jeanpierre in Early asked the Security service for a report on the epo the Security service hoped the report would Alert government to epo prob lems and to the close links Between some Federal employees and certain Community organizations controlled by new left the report de scribed the activities of a Small group of new left supporters employed by the Federal the Mcdonald commission Calls the report an inadequate inflammatory in and oblivious to the right of legitimate it refers to the careless use of language to create sinister thus individuals joining or attempting to influence an organization were penetrating left leaning people meeting in a group Are a a person at a conference is Talent spotting when approached by like minded guilt by association says the Mcdonald report another Way in which the report failed to distinguish dissent from threats to National Security was the implicit Assumption of guilt by the Assumption throughout the report was that epo equals subversive the Funda mental question of what Type of epo if constituted threats to Security was never it was especially objectionable that the report was circulated outside the Security service with the names and record of Many of the thoughts of even though there was no evidence of subversive solicitor general Goyer also sent a letter about the along with a list of 21 names of Federal to five Cabinet the matter came to Light Only be cause it was picked up by the it was a shoddy affair the privacy of persons violated by the government when the matter was raised in the House five years in the Security service reviewed the about half of the list had received Security clearance in the Normal while die rest had left government or did not require a clearance to carry on their to top it the originally classified secret and Canadian eyes was distributed by the Security service to four foreign intelligence under no thunders the Mcdonald should the Secu Rity service provide the names of canadians involved Only in Domestic move ments where there is no evidence of actual or planned political espionage or foreign inter the Mcdonald commission deserves High Praise for its dedication to demo canadians must insist that the government carry out the Mcdonald recommendations to make certain this travesty does not happen we should pay heed to the Mcdonald report warning it would be a serious mistake indeed a tragic misjudgment Compromise our system of democratic and constitutional govern ment in order to gather information about threats to that this would be to for a cure worse than the ;