Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 1, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free october 1981 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed six Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press 1872 the Winnipeg Tribune 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller editorials helping the separatists As Rene Levesque is Busy the Best thing that could happen to Quebec separatists right now would be for the Federal government to ignore the message from the supreme court of Canada and press ahead unilaterally to ask the British parliament to Amend the Canadian As Levesque is also Busy the worst thing that could happen to Quebec separatism would be for Ottawa and the provinces to get together within the next couple of weeks and negotiate a Levesque is Busy behaving in Quebec As if Ottawa were unquestionably going to act he has called the National Assembly into emergency session to protest an unprecedented menace to Quebec his government has launched a million Dollar advertising Campaign to generate fear and apprehension among the tactics May be excessive and but they Are potent enough that most of the provinces Liberal members of the legislature will feel compelled to go along with at the same time As he is orchestrating a Levesque is doing his Best to ensure that it will not be he has already served notice that he will not attend the conference which his fellow premiers Are attempting to organize unless the Federal government agrees in Advance to abandon most of its Levesques tactics provide a Clear guide to those who Are interested in preserving the Canadian not destroying their aim should be to defuse the crisis which the parti quebecois is doing its utmost to it should be to launch the negotiations which Levesque is trying to scuttle in it should be to seek an agreed Way of bringing the Constitution Home which respects the constitutional conventions set out by the supreme court and preserves the essential nature of Canadian it was the decision of Quebe cers in their referendum to reject Independence and opt for a renewed federalism which inspired the most recent attempt at constitutional change it was in a supposed Effort to strengthen confederation that prime minister Trudeau embarked on his Headstrong course of it should now be Clear even to Trudeau that it has had the opposite result to the one he intended it to the urgent need now is to abandon a course which plays into the hands of the separatists and to seek a solution which will strengthen the position of federalists in Quebec and across shopping list for French the society on behalf of roughly French speaking residents of the has Given Premier Lyon its shopping list of provincial government services that should be available in its proposal advances the debate Over the place of the French language in Manitoba beyond the stage of grand principles and historic the government and the French speaking population can get Down to the Sam last year got wildly out of touch with the wishes and interests of the people for whom it Speaks when it endorsed sovereignty association for Quebec in that pro Vinces referendum Wiser from that the association has taken great care to canvass French speaking opinion throughout the province and to relate its proposals to the daily experience of Ordinary French speak ing citizens in dealings with provincial departments and the list it has produced suggests that most of the needs of the French speaking population can be met with very Little expense or the association asks the government to concentrate on the parts of the province where substantial numbers of French speakers live the vital and Norbert sections of the territories of the Seine red Mountain and White horse Plain school divisions and a few More isolated communities such As Lazare and Rose do it advises against a Large scale such As fhe Federal government to teach French to English speaking civil it that French speaking professionals and technicians for the relatively few civil service posts where they Are needed can be found among the French speaking population if they Are Given a Chance to Complete their University or Community College education in the individual items the Sam proposal names Are Small in themselves Many of them so Small and so obvious that they should go without Home care workers sent into French speaking Homes should be Able to speak nurses and dentists sent into French schools should be Able to speak agricultural representatives dealing with Large numbers of French speaking Farmers should be Able to speak none of this requires rigid staffing policies or civil service just a modicum of sensitivity in putting the right person in the right the bilingual Road government literature and forms the society like the bilingual Drivers birth certificates and aut Opac will take a Little longer and will entail a Small expense for but the expense can be controlled by translating Only those brochures and documents most widely used by the French speaking it will be justified by the result of allowing those who use one of the official languages of Canada and of Manitoba to use it in most of their dealings with their the Sims list establishes limits to the linguistic claims of the French speaking it is not asking for French language services in parts of the province where few French speakers it is not asking for French to become a working language within the civil those who fear that there will be no end to the French Community demands for French in government can rest the Community has listed its demands and they lie within feasible it rests now with the government to digest the Sims consider its implications and decide where to the government has already organized a legislative translation operation and a French language court to begin satisfy ing the most obvious requirements of the it should have no difficulty picking a couple of the most feasible items from the Sims proposal for immediate implement such As help for Manitoba Law students to study at French language Law if the government defers All action until it comes up with a Complete policy on French language the French speaking Community May be kept waiting a very Long time and the Goodwill the govern ment frequently professes will become increasingly sus office Stamps Loans for Stamps a time for statesmanship not Justice a few years the Manitoba government hit upon a marvellously simple scheme to improve its collection of parking ticket anyone who left tickets outstanding received a letter from the registrar of motor vehicles informing him that he must pay or lose his driving the result has been that the Revenue received for parking infractions has increased not to let a Good thing go the Deputy attorney general for has announced that amendments will be introduced to provide a similar Arm twisting lever in the matter of minor traffic motorists will be convicted because they do not show up in the government already has a procedure by which people can be convicted if do not show up in court but it requires the production of a costly step in obtaining a the changes will allow a conviction without witnesses if the accused is not a significant change will be that the automatic conviction will carry with it not Only the usual but a provision that driving privileges will be revoked almost what the government is proposing is to take advantage of its computerized Driver licence system in order to collect fines for offences that would not normally Cost a Motorist his the result will be a neat designed to fill govern ment coffers with Money that would be difficult to obtain the threat of revoking a Drivers licence is a big its use to collect minor fines will convince Many Manitoban that the primary interest of the authorities is rather than by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa conciliatory words broadcast from Korea by the prime minister were a Little grudging in tone and Content but even so they were immeasurably better than his Justice ministers fast plunge into Bellico sity earlier in the the prime minister at least waited until he could be properly briefed on the lengthy judgments rendered by the supreme court of Canada on the constitutional Issue while Jean Chretien hurried into a press conference so quickly that time alone made it Clear that he could not possibly have read the full judgment nor been adequately briefed on its Cabinet pressures the contrast suggests the pressures that will operate in the Federal the Wiser Heads will be determined to proceed with caution because those judgments amount to a Large Amber Light of warning flashing in front of the Federal the wild men will be All for pushing on in weakened imitation of last autumns juggernaut the first words from the eight premiers opposed to the Way in which the government is trying to change the Constitution were More Gen Premier William Bennett of British Columbia did himself and his seven colleagues he was right when he said that people Are preoccupied with the country eco nomic not its Constitution but that it is possible for men of government to come to grips with both at the same provided they do not exhaust their energies in squabbling there is no real difficulty in that Given the size of modern governments it would be a Black joke on the taxpayer if they could not consider two problems at the same it is unfortunate that Trudeau has developed such an hostile suspicion of the laying All the blame for past constitutional failures on the provinces and failing to recognize that Federal governments have played their part in letting the prize slip any More efforts to conduct negotiations by scoring debating Points will immeasurably increase the difficult what is needed now is a search for common ground conducted with some generosity towards the other actors in the the supreme court itself has per formed a great service for the first in its definition of the Canadian Constitution and in showing How its nature applies to the present the starting Point in understanding the judgments is that which we have never had before with such contradictory without the judgments appear confusing and with it As the they fall into flowing smoothly and with out the essential is that the Constitution is in part written and a matter of in part derived from English common Law and in part beware of dog i wish to express my Shock and indignation at the mauling of two year old Jamie reported in the free press september i am even More indignant to read the dog owners state ment the German Shep must have been provoked by the the keeping of any Large dog in the City should be considered by Law equiv Alent to keeping a dangerous and the owner should be made fully responsible for any damage caused by in stiff punitive damages should be awarded when it can be shown that the person attacked by the dog was unaware of the danger by reason of physical defect or Lack of knowl made up of conventions that have developed Over time in both England and there is no contradiction Between the findings that there is no Legal Rier in the Way of the governments proposed course and the conclusion that it does real violence to very inv portent conventions and that the Cess offends cannot pick and choose Bennett was again Correct when he insisted that the 11 governments should not seek to pick and choose Between the courts findings but to proceed in ways that conform to it will not be Good enough for the Federal government to seize on the conclusion that there is no Legal bar Rier ahead of it nor for the provinces to ignore the fact that the court did not sustain the Rule of unanimity in the application of the convention that provincial consent is the attitude required now is respect for the Constitution As a not just for convenient parts of one approach is the course of the other of prime minister Margaret Thatcher could do Canada a considerable service by being candid when she sees Trudeau at the Commonwealth she should say even in the absence of a specific Legal Barrier to proceeding with the the British parliament cannot properly Nore the courts words we have reached the conclusion that the agree ment of the provinces of Canada is constitutionally required for the Pas Sage of the proposed Resolution Jamie Wright the fact that the dog is chained in his backyard should not be a defence since a dog is an allurement to most children who will want to play with it or pet the posting of a beware of dog sign is also of Little value since Many Small children cannot and Many others do not read a Teny Earold child whose Ball bounces in a neigh Bors Yard will run after it to retrieve must he be disfigured or killed by the dog just to serve him right what about people with poor eyesight or people who Call after dark and it is dark after 6 in must they be mauled to learn their lesson it could be a new newspaper boy collect a lady taking the census or a courier delivering a must one learn the hard Way about the dog and its owners we need a City ordinance requiring people who insist on keeping Large dogs in the City to erect a six foot High Fence around their property with a locked Gate and an electric Bell for segues Winnipeg wild headlines with regard to the Lead article on the front Page of the free press september entitled child terrified of dogs after mauling i thought it smacked of it was a sad human interest but it did not rate a frontage it appears to me that the free press has stooped to the level of the Winni Peg Sun in an attempt to grasp a Market caught by wild and exploitive i am not denouncing the article but i am questioning the judg ment of the person responsible for its Brownlee Winnipeg birthday Lucy born october letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters trom writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to Public safety dubious benefits scapegoats once again representatives of Busi Ness Are on the bandwagon to have the right to strike taken away from Public the president of the Cana Dian chamber of Stan to in his letter to the editor of september seems to be castigating Public employees for using the Only weapon they have to stand up to management in the struggle for human if we look at last Falls clerk which was brought on by the governments position of a five per cent increase in we realize that when both sides will not Budge from their and the employers is totally there has to be some thing labor can use to bolster its Posi the Public service staff relations act already has a Long list of caveats that severely limit or delay the right to one being the right to designate employees As being essential to the safety and Security of the Public prohibited by Law from strik it is and politically to use the Public employee As the scape Goat for government we must remember that government and with their sometimes archaic and unreasonable Force us to withdraw How Many times has capital gone on strike they do it every their equivalent is the withholding of they threaten the government that unless they get the handouts they will Lay off close or not there have been comparatively few strikes in the Public maybe the chamber of Commerce should be put Ting pressure on government and Busi Ness to be Good employers and look after the safety of their there Are 130 injured workers every 15 minutes workers Are killed each year two million canadians will die Young because of Industrial Acci dents or be seriously injured Over 20 years Days lost through disease or is six times greater than Days lost through strikes and the chamber of Commerce should get off the bandwagon and put things in maybe it will see that government and business Are not the Saviours they but really part of the problem in their quest for the almighty Greg Maruca regional representative Manitoba Public service Alliance of Canada Winnipeg self styled experts Why is the work of Winnipeg artist Betty Dimock being singled out for first by Robert who should know and now by Peter Legris Are these critics afraid that once the Winnipeg Art gallery begins to exhibit local artists their major criticism of the gallery will cease to exist Dimock is a sincere a dedicated worker and the possessor of an individual approach to she has not latched on to one trendy aspect of representation but has continued to accept new challenges and to search for new Praise from Clement Greenberg when he was in Winnipeg is possibly of More than the pretend negative criticism this artist has recently suffered from the local self styled Davis University of Winnipeg Winnipeg i read with interest the article in the free press september concerning the attempted escape of a prisoner from a courtroom in the Public safety the incident clearly indicated the need for adequate courtroom Security As noted by provincial judge Sam judge Minuk stated that the escape attempt could have involved the taking of hostages and further noted that we the court get the Dregs of society before judge minus concern for his per Sonal safety and the Security of his courtroom is Well it is rather ironic that these Dregs of so which without adequate Security threaten our seem to receive such lenient sentencing from our judges and end up Back on the streets where we have to contend with it would be reassuring to know that the concern for the Security of our courts More accurately reflected the concern for the safety of the Public and its int this what the Law is All about Yoana Razma Winnipeg not on behalf of the Manitoba association of women and the i would like to thank the free press and Sheila bean for her excellent coverage of the first panel discussion in our series for you the working held at Winnipeg inn september for the i would like to Point out that our Grant from the Secretary of state to cover As Well As a Rural speaking was Only not As the report Indi Joy Cooper conference coordinator Manitoba association of women and the Law Winnipeg the recently published tons of the Kent commission on far from ensuring a free press in Canada would ultimately reduce our newspapers to Mere tools of govern the editor chief of every newspaper would report directly to an advisory committee empowered to oversee editorial a press rights comprised of a chairman and two members appointed by the govern would oversee the advisory Mittee of each newspaper the Federal human rights commission would administer this new bureaucracy and report to parliament through the min ister of quite apart from the obvious implications such government involvement holds for a continued free the designation of the Federal human rights commission As the controlling government Agency is if anyone believes that the above measures will guarantee Freedom of the press in Canada let them examine the performance of the press in the soviet communist China and the captive nations of Eastern Harry Barrett Canadian for free expression and dont shout at in not one of your opposition Back ;