Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 29, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion and Orin led six Days a at 300 Cartton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company Telephone 9439331 few Phi the tribute Dana left John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray managing editor Rudy Redekop controller pm editorials the right Way to Patriate the supreme court of Canada told prime minister tru Deau two things yesterday about How he should proceed with Patria Tion of the by a vote of it told him what he ought to do by a vote of it told him what he could get away because there is no Law to Stop the court ruled that he can push ahead with his constitutional ram it though parliament after two Days of debate and Send it off to London with a demand that the British parliament turn it into to ruled As if he does he will be an established convention in a political system which relies heavily on convention for the Protection of political rights in he will be acting Union Stith the courts ruling on the convention was Clear and forthright the agreement of the provinces of Canada is constitutionally required for the passing of the proposed the court found that a convention does exist that the consent of the provinces is needed to bring about constitutional change which affects Federal provincial that need not necessarily imply the consent of All the provinces and the court was silent about How Many would have to the number would be More than two and less than a sensible guide to the number needed might be found in the various proposals for an amending formula put Forward Over the past few whatever the precise the judgment made it Clear that proceeding with the Federal Resolution in its present form was regarded by two thirds of the justices As a violation of established convention and a breach of the unwritten part of Canadas the penalty for action which is unconstitutional but not illegal is exacted in the political not in the political Price that will be paid if Ottawa rams ahead with its constitutional plan is already Clear significant new boost to Quebec an increase in regional Aliena a poisoning of the atmosphere in which Ottawa and the provinces ought to be working to solve severe economic problems in a serious new threat to National the Price May be paid abroad As British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has promised to act on a Canadian constitutional Resolution according to custom and but a Resolution which Canadas highest court has ruled offends custom and precedent will be hard for Many British maps to they in the do Trudeau hold their noses and pass the but the process is Likely to be slow and by the time everyone had had his say last there was room for some Hope that common sense will intervene in time to prevent that from unlike his Justice Jean Trudeau had the Good sense to leave himself a Way out of the constitutional confrontation which he hag to his press conference on South he proposed that Ottawa would act with due but also with he promised to listen not Only to his Cabinet and caucus but also to the provinces before taking irrevocable How serious the prime ministers Promise was remains to be since he had not read the judgment and had not consulted with his caucus or he took care to leave himself room for second Many of his statements were simply a continuation of his routine at times he seemed to be saying that he would be Happy to consult the premiers so Long As they agreed with All of his constitutional at other he gave hints that he will make an attempt at genuine for his Premier William Bennett of British Colum speaking for the left the door wide open to a new attempt at it will take More than Premier Bennetts Good will to achieve a he will have to convince his follow who have not been Able to come up with Saleable alternatives to the Federal package in a year of to move a Little closer to the Federal he will have to Cool off Premier Levesque of who seems determined to stir up a nationalistic frenzy in his he will have to work some magic on Premier Sterling Lyon and he will have to convince premiers Davis of Ontario and Hatfield of new Brunswick that they Are serving neither their provinces nor their country by being More centralist than the Central if new negotiations Are to Lead to a they will have to be Quick and Trudeau has made it Clear that he does not intend to wait Long before pushing his Resolution to its final parliamentary Long delay would serve no ones nothing would be More certain to drive canadians into a fury Over the whole constitutional Issue than to spend weeks and months haggling again Over the British North America act while people Are losing their Homes and their businesses because of inflation and High interest the supreme court decision has Given Ottawa and the provinces one last Chance to step Back from confrontation and try Aga into reach agreement on constitutional Patria it is a Chance they must there is More at stake than academic notions about Laws and what could be at stake is the future of the Canadian paying for inefficiency the most important question that must be answered concerning the dramatic increase in Canadian postal rates is whether it makes the users of the system unwilling sup porters of postmaster general Andre Ouellet May say that his first priority is to increase efficiency and his second to reduce the Post office but his actions have put his announced priorities in reverse by raising firs class mail to 30 cents a and by increasing the rates that must be paid to business users of the system rates that will be by their customers Ouellet has made the users responsible for 90 per cent of next years expected costs of running the the new rates will bring Post office revenues to just million Short of the expected the Federal government has been Quick to Point out that Canadian rates will not be out of line with some charged in european it is less enthusiastic about comparing the image of reliability the postal systems in those countries it does not mention at 30 it will Cost canadians 66 per cent More to mail their letters than it costs their american nor does it willingly discuss the ability of and to have their letters and publications delivered in Canada for less than it costs canadians to do the the Canada Post office is soon to become a Crown a logical step in the transformation is to put the new corporation on a sound financial in government this translates into the use pay the principle is being applied to More and More government air for paid through govern ment charges and about 38 per cent of the Cost of operating Canadian airports and control systems in one year later the user share of the costs had grown to 54 per helped somewhat by the spreading of the Cost of expensive Federal such As the construction of across the in rail passengers paid Only 26 per cent of the Cost of moving themselves around the this percentage is being not so much through higher passenger costs As by the removal of services which carried a greater degree of there have been suggestions that the rate schedule announced by Ouellet is a Kite being flown so that the figures can be reduced slightly before becoming in order to make them More acceptable to the at the same the advertisements announcing the new schedule contain promises of monitoring to improve the of expanded letter Carrier delivery for Many communities and of increased availability for and More costly ser unfortunately for the the promises Are vague when compared to the Rock hard news that after january it will Cost an extra 13 cents to mail a the increase would be More acceptable if some of the promised improvements in service had actually taken at the few customers believe that they Are getting their moneys Worth at 17 cents a they believe they Are subsidizing a inefficient organization which has not achieved the goal of an efficient National postal More efficiency and service should keep Pace with rate w you 30mpim6 of claim p behind the Kent proposals by Anthony Westell special to the free press Ottawa it May be Only a Cionci but in addition to being chair Man of the Royal commission on Tom Kent is also editor of a policy As com Kent has proposed legis lation to guarantee that newspaper Edi tors Are Independent of newspaper but accountable for their Deci Sions to Public As Kent has now published an David Secretary of state and communications minister in the Short lived conservative advocating much the same sort of approach to the democratization of effectively shielded Macdonald argues that Csc journalists Are already effectively shielded from interference by Politi and proposes that they should now be protected from meddling by corporate he goes on with a reference to private to if a publicly elected minister is prevented from imposing his or her biases on the and properly it becomes difficult to justify a lord Thomson retaining the potential for such control Over Broad cast or Cable information program Ming by virtue of economic but having guarantee div journalists against interference by owners or Macdonald does not propose to leave them alone to exercise their own news and program Ming they would be required to consult regularly with advisory panels from various sectors of society to discuss selection of issues of importance to having taken this the journalists would be responsible for the results appearing on the Macdon Ald proposes a code to provide a Standard against which to determine whether a Given Issue has been presented in a balanced under the auspices of the crts Canadian radio television and telecommunications journalists and others in the Industry should take the Lead in establishing such a Macdonald lost both his seat in the commons and his Cabinet position when the tories were Defeated in the 1980 he then became a Resi Dent scholar studying the future of television at the Institute for research on Public a publicly funded thin tank in he was joined at the Institute by Fred Rumsey who had been a senior policy advisor to him when he was a and Rumsey assisted in the preparation of his prime time the Institute publishes Kents Magazine and so is a natural vehicle for Macdonald conclusions about what ought to be done about left leaning Kent is usually identified As a left leaning Liberal and Macdon Ald As a red tory a More than normally progressive progressive conservative and so the coincidence of their views on the news Media lends a bipartisan touch to the debate arising from the Kent the government is listening closely to the debate As it prepares to decide in november what action it will take on the Royal com missions proposals for Reform of the ministers May now be impressed by the influence of the members of the editorial Board advising Kent on the contents of his include Gordon former cab inet Secretary and now president of the Cliff former National director of the new democratic and Stan formerly with the Canada West foundation in and now president of the Canadian chamber of Broad interest of the members of the Board do not necessarily endorse the ideas expressed in their but presumably they consider Macdon ads proposals worthy of serious con this May suggest that the whole subject of control of the news Media is of broader and deeper Politi Cal interest than had previously been to in the future of to is just about the most important Issue in he argues that democratizing the medium will Lead directly to democratizing the political sys he believes that Canada has an Opportunity to set an example of balanced broadcasting to countries with less developed systems of comm As he has now left the Institute to help set up the futures he will have the Opportunity to add his views on to to the North South Dia Farmers woes should one Small group of workers be in the position to blackmail the entire farm Community of Canada we have worked for a whole and invested thousands of with the crop we Are Only Able to sell approximately one tenth of three bushels per acre of five bushels per acre of unfortunately this does not even cover the interest pay ment at the i cannot help but wonder How the Grain handlers would have Felt on their pay a group of Farmers picketed their pay office we did not deny them their right to receive their yet they denied us we feel it is time that canadians Learned to take Pride in and to respect their if that motivation is not one Day the Job and the company will no longer be it has been said that 50 per cent of the people Are willing to work and the other so per cent Are willing to let lets get this figure to 100 per cent willing to work and then maybe we will All sleep at Jim Nicol Grain handlers walk off Job headline news at one an authors key to riches was to be banned in More films have gained prominence by being censored in now a Public servant receives invaluable publicity by offering to run for her majesty Loyal without being nominated David Sanders got More print than candidates who had been in the Field for Urban affairs minister Gerry Mer Cier says Sanders is subject if not a then a perceived conflict of interest in the performance of his duties As a senior advisor to free september on political scientist Paul Thomas says such a Public servant must be impartial and objective in carrying out his administrative and advisory putting these comments together suggests that Sanders could reassure his current political Bosses Only by being impair objective and does anyone seriously think Sanders would have hit the headlines if he sought a conservative nomination being political Means belonging to the wrong indeed it seems Only new democrats Are really Politi Cal tories and liberals Are merely Public Premier Sterling Lyon once said that Only new democrats have a philosophy tories use com Mon perhaps that is Why they can now carry out with a straight face policies they derided five years Sanders exercise of his right to run for Public office May possibly re sult in some discomfort for Mercier during the and May Well result in some risk for Sanders should Manitoban permit another period of tory social but his new found visibility reminds us that hundreds of provincial employees at All Levels of the civil indeed the commissioner were Transfer Frozen out and fired by the present their crime was being political instead of con 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 and their penalty was loss of status or what Mer Cier parades As political purity has too often been Petty it must now Shock Lyon and company to realize that a capable and experienced senior Public servant is actually one of those who will offer Manitoban a brighter and More humane future during the election and help provide it Murray Smith Winnipeg Home i had the pleasure of re turning Home to Winnipeg after an absence of a few it was shocking to find that the local problem had not been and had grown As All Levels of govern ment were ignoring it in the Hope that it would go austerity becomes meaningless when it fails to address the the problem is that there Are too Many untrained individuals out of work who Are endangering the Down town area at it was a pleasure seeing the Home town Winnipeg is still a Beautiful topped off by Assiniboine it was Good to hear red Alix in the As Well As the action line with Peter i miss this combi Donald Clarkson California birthday born september Protection needed attorney general Gerald Mercier is to be commended on his efforts and concern with regard to enhancing the safety of All who live in the criminal code is Only worthwhile if it is followed then it would give us More Protection than is often provided it is trite but True that victims of crime Are All too easily As incidents of crimes so do the number of including those who commit planned Mur sentenced to 25 years in prison Are often paroled in ten or less attacks upon even Are reaching epidemic proportions and Are so heinous they sicken the the defence is often based on the fact that the perpetrator was on drugs or Protection for children must be the concern of All being wherever we Are in is our social workers and parole boards should join the rest of us in the real the attorney general was appointed after being elected by the his responsibility is to the who expect due to die acceleration of incidents of rapes and other it is right now that people Are feeling unsafe and it is now that people need to know the stand the government has on this mat not later at the convenience of lawyers and defendants or some future moment when fall assizes Are conclude it is apparent Jay Prober has Little Faith in judges or Many people Are living in fear these Days because the rights of or those already judged guilty of a Are so zealously rehabilitation is of Primpie import but the punishment must fit the the granting of parole should fit the seriousness of pie if there Are any doubts As to the right time for then the Odds should be in favor of Public i would venture to suggest that there is an eve growing number of people who have lost All Faith in the Canadian criminal Justice Riddell Winnipeg Why not English in response to the letter from de free september through out the letter Ley Sac complains that the individual with the passport problems who believed in official bilingualism in this Able to find Only one person at the passport office who spoke As Ley Sac this person believed in could he not speak English himself Why is it that the people of the provinces that do not have a majority of French speaking persons must Bend Over backward to accommodate those who speak French on a recent visit to i was not surprised to find a Large number of people there who could not speak in along with other prov has spent Many tax dollars to convert to bilingualism at the prod Ding of the Federal English canadians have Bent Over Back wards to accommodate the French people of our and have met with nothing but i do not feel that any of the employees at the passport office were in the i have one question was the individual involved bilingual if Why did he not speak in English if he is not then i feel that i have made my Balaz Winnipeg not Manitoba i read with interest the column by Sam the working with regards to the family Law Reform i might advise you that the information set out in the column is in Manitoba we Deal with property under the marital property in a wife is entitled to a 50 percent share of the family such As a Home or a car and she is entitled to an equal sharing of the commercial such As a Hus bands business or the preamble of the act and whereas it is advisable to provide for a presumption in the event of the break Down of the of equal sharing of family and commercial assets of the parties to the marriage acquired by them during the commercial assets Means an asset that is not a family including rights under a life insurance that column May be satisfactory for the province of but not for the province of Norman Gould Winnipeg positive effect in answer to John Rahns letter of september Speed concern ing the Speed bumps in his Back Lane these bumps Are two to three times As High As any in a shopping Centre or drive through he is right in stating they have had a positive i am positive they Are wrecking my my husbands car and my dispose we never did have a problem with people speeding in our Lane and have a very negative Atti tude toward the Speed Lapointe Winnipeg ;