Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 12, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free november Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published six Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press 1872 Winnipeg Tribune 1890 threats but no action it is revealing for All the inflammatory words Quebec Premier Rene Levesque had to say this week about about the other nine provincial premiers and about the English speaking citizens of his own the Only Concrete action he proposed in response to the constitutional Accord was a prolonged the premiers inaugural address to the Quebec National Assembly was typical of his oratorical style when he has lost a Battle or knows he is about to lose there was the usual vicious and inflammatory language there was the usual attempt to portray Quebec As isolated and under siege by an English conspiracy there were the usual veiled threats and there was the ultimate decision to avoid having that apocalyptic View subjected to the judgment of the when Levesque wants to he talks about moderation and serenity and the growing strength of the Quebec French speaking when he knows he has he talks about crisis and betrayal and conspiracy and the weakness and vulnerability of French speaking in despite the new Hopes which Levesques ultimate isolation at the constitutional conference raised within the parti the Quebec Premier May not find it easy to sell his vision of betrayal to the he announced that the National Assembly was meeting in an atmosphere of crisis and unprecedented Gravity but Levesque regularly announces crises which somehow never the longer Levesque Waits to test his View of the constitutional Issue with the the longer Quebe cers will have to realize that the disaster he warns will result from the constitutional Accord will not come the fact is that most Quebe cers take a More civilized View of the rights of their linguistic minority than their govern ment does indeed than Many in English speaking Canada take of the rights of their French speaking Minori most Quebe cers see no reason Why English speaking canadians who move to Quebec should not have the right to have their children educated in their own most see no reason Why English speaking shoppers should not be Able to look at signs in their own so Long As the signs Are also there in most Are offended and embarrassed by Ultra strict language tests which drive nurses from hospitals where they have worked successfully for they May find it offensive to have the Constitution Tell them they must provide education in English to All their English speaking but most of them Are not Likely to have much quarrel the they Are not Likely either to see much practical danger in the fact that Quebec cannot claim fiscal compensation if it opts out of some future constitutional since no prospective change that would require such compensation is anywhere on the nor Are they Likely to feel much effect from a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Mobil Ity since the clause contains a loophole which will permit the Quebec government to continue discriminating in favor of Quebec workers while enshrining the right of Quebe cers against Job discrimination in most other prov while Levesque does his Best to generate an Atmo sphere of crisis and communal tension in the his Only overt act will be to Boycott further constitutional negotiations and any Federal provincial talks except those dealing with the the response of in Quebec and across should be to resist Leves ques invitation to a screaming match and to pursue the policies of accommodation and serenity which the Quebec in his better professes to the native rights Puzzle prime minister Ted eau says he did not want the native rights provisions dropped from the Constitution Premier Lyon says he did not want them Premier Blakeney says he did not want them those leaders speak for the jurisdictions the Manitoba and Saskatchewan with the largest native proportions of their yet the native rights Section was left until the politicians involved publish their memoirs years the Public May not learn who played the heavy in the secrecy of the Federal provincial bargaining to ensure that the affirmation of aboriginal and treaty rights would be the question is of historical interest the significant fact now is that no Constitution maker has yet come Forward publicly to endorse the dropping of native rights or to state reasons Why they should be until one of the participants in the decision does put his name to defend it and justify it is fair to conclude that it is indefensible and the silence of other premiers on the subject does not imply either that they support or that they oppose the native rights it does imply that they Are unable to find a politically respectable Public explanation of the decision that was provincial Leader who announced that he opposed re native rights would obviously take a lot of flak from native but indians Are a tiny proportion of the in the provinces whose premiers have not been heard they can raise a but they cannot threaten a if the decision could be justified in terms satisfactory to the majority of the we should be hearing the we Are not hearing Peter has become the Lead spokesman in talks with Trudeau Over a native rights Section that might be included in the Constitution significant he is an inuit and the elected representative of a territory where the inuit Are a majority and though sparsely might one Day become the first Canadian prov with an aboriginal of a province that could defend native culture and speak for the native interest is a legitimate ambition of native people and would be a significant and lasting improvement in their position in the revised Constitution throw up any new obstacle to the creation of such a last weeks Accord appears to create such an by requiring the consent of other through the amending to the creation of a new unless participants in the agreement can show Why that obstacle ought to be it should be the constitutional affirmation of treaty and aboriginal eliminated by an unknown hand for no presentable had about it the air of a Blank Cheque since the nature and Worth of those rights have not been in one they May include Metis ownership of most of the City of in they May amount to Little More than the right to trap any forbearing animals that survive among the Arctic Oil so Long As the numbers on the Cheque remain signing the Cheque into the Constitution involves making an open ended Promise which May turn out to be As worthless As the Metis lands rip of any native rights written into the Constitution should be rights of known and lasting the governments involved should be careful to Promise no More than the country is willing and Able to the Liberal failure the failure of the Liberal party in Manitoba to seize one of the Best opportunities it is Ever Likely to get can be seen in the number of constituencies that Lack a Liberal candidate in the current there Are 18 of them and they include such Ridings Rich in Liberal tradition As and throughout the Roblin the Liberal party never failed to Field a full slate of when Many liberals switched in 1969 to put their support behind de the party fortunes began to in the 1973 the party failed to find candidates for six constr the party share of the vote in 1977 but it managed to put candidates in All but three one year after the conservatives came to the Magnet that had drawn so Many liberals to the democratic de left provincial he was replaced by Howard and the main criticism levelled against Pawley has been his Lack of decisive it was a vacuum that begged to be the Liberal party sought suitable and the Choice they made in Doug who returned to his native Manitoba from Alberta to seek the appeared at first to be a Good the first judgment on Lauchland leadership must be based on the list of candidates he or rather failed to to contest the present if Manitoba is to remain polarized Between the right and the left in it will be because the party that has occupied the Centre ground has been unable to organize some will put the blame on the dissatisfaction with the Federal Liberal leadership to be found through out Western but such an assessment will be Only partly when Pawley was picked by the new the Way was Clear for the liberals in this province once More to claim their they needed Only to act As a provincial and not As a rather wounded Wing of the unpopular Federal this they failed to As a the liberals have Only themselves to blame if seeing so Many constituencies where the party was unable to find even a sacrificial Lamb As a retain the doubts that were expressed 1973 and 1977 about the ability of the party to offer leadership Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller editorials we in these distressing a touch of levity is not amiss the inevitable rejection by Frank Walker special to the free press Montreal what is inexplicable is Premier Rene Levesques Momen tary acceptance of any Federal constitutional looking this was the what has happened is the ordained by the very nature of the parti for that movement to agree to any formula which might demonstrate the viability of Quebec within a confederation would have been to weaken the very foundations upon which it is minority partner whether one talks in terms of sovereignty with or sovereignty and or outright the process is formulated on the honest or other that Quebec cannot survive As a minority partner in any genuine con meet one objection and another will arise in its in the new and a third will the parti quebecois is the party of inde it has been that from its very beginnings and it can Only accept something different by becoming Dif Ferent in these there is no solution in the context of but it is Essen tial to Bear in mind while the parti quebecois is the government of it is not it has won two elections with a substantial majority of seats but it has lost the Only muddied As the question might have in which the Issue of Independence was placed squarely be fore the the election it won in april of last year was a Clear Cut Victory in seats but not nearly so Clear Cut a Victory in terms of votes 49 per cent for the 43 per cent for the liberals and it was won by Delibera Tely downplaying the Issue of so is now Back where he always likes to even in the language he is using words like the duality of but if duality is a the phone Yness of it lies with the Premier and his even the objections which Levesque has raised to opting to the minority language education clause and the mobility of manpower Are not what he is trying to make of if opting out no longer has a direct fiscal compensation for the province so tradition has dictated compensation in reasonable the clause which guarantees minority education rights is something which Leves que and his colleagues have already offered to individual Levesque has offered to make English language schools in Quebec open to the citizens of any province which has offered similar rights to its Franco phone As for that is hedged in the Federal proposals by offering Protection to any province with higher than average Levesque can hardly under these three that serious erosion of Quebec rights is planned or it is even possible for the provinces to override the charter of rights in most of its key areas and renew that decision by repeating it at intervals of five Uncertain if Levesque and his colleagues were More certain of the province which they such an escape clause should be All they but course the referendum taught them that what they believed and what the electorate believed was not necessarily the they cannot even be certain that the province is opposed to the there is still time for further Nego but Levesque has shown what Many believed from the Start that he is not interested in Progress within but merely in proving his own what conces Sions he May if will be concessions designed to further the cause of not to prove the profitability of a continuing Assoc a we Are in for rough we will be hearing a great Deal about elections and about the sinister nature of English speaking Canada above about the duplicity of Federal prime As our Premier chose to Call the violent and threatening rhetoric will be Given full but such licence is not a measure of the strength of Leves ques but rather its if any serious action is it Means once again putting Independence on the in the open and it does not mean pushing it into the background and pretending the Issue is something else like Good or honest gov perhaps yes or no is not perhaps or and perhaps or maybe is a condition which has proved to be More profitable to the Premier and comfortable for the the serious fiscal prob lems confronting this province will not go for the Premier it May be another Chance to Bury As he managed to in the but this time the crisis which was ignored and even to win is even More the Bill for fiscal irresponsibility is falling due and the effects of it More directly and immediately time is not on the Side of Leves there is a real world confronting his administration made of prob lems which do not lend themselves to solution by rhetoric and which must be met by not the deficit swells As each Day passes cuts in social services bite at not theories compromises in education Hurt children declines in Hospital ser vices affect those who Are sick and All who Are involved with much of the party support came As a result of the social attitudes and policies of the other support was attracted by new attitudes to both must be jeopardized to achieve some semblance of fiscal which leaves unaffected Only the hard Core of Levesques position is not As Strong As he would have us the isolation of the province under these conditions May even make federalism More there after some safety in disadvantaged with regard to the article voters complain fort Rouge poll in Access free november Mem Bers of the Canadian paraplegic association who rely on wheelchairs for mobility have Long experienced prob lems in voting during provincial elec although the provincial statutes this area specify that polls should be what too often happens is a situation such As the one the article refers to in fort for this Section of the statute is overlooked with the mistaken idea that an Access Ible Advance poll will be it is encouraging to see that the returning officer has made some last minute accommodation by Way of a Mobile this is a second class particularly if it is a nursing Home poll and the i Dividu easier Access needed als Are treated like Why is it so difficult for the returning officers to locate accessible polls is it because they feel that handicapped voters should be Happy with the Opportunity for Mailin or accessible and Vance polls both of these solutions involve not Only but also place the handicapped voter at a disadvantage relative to they must make up their minds before the Campaign is surely the returning officer in this and in be instructed to find an accessible location for the regular poll on voting in the fort Rouge Why not choose the Marc building at 375 Assiniboine ave our members take their voting rights seriously and deserve to vote with dignity and As much knowledge As any other citizen gleaned from a full John Lane executive director Canadian paraplegic association Winnipeg Winnipeg ers each time i read of our citizens referred to As i notice the spelling of the Why is the letter g doubled a word ending in a consonant has the suffix or added to the unchanged Winni Eggers has a unnatural and if there is a reason for this i would be interested to know Duggan s Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to god give us Short memory Renaissance this is in response no Gordon sin Clairs column of october the moral majority Sinclair motive and purpose for the article is to discredit Renaissance in Gen eral and Terry Lewis in Partick the last office Lewis had with Renaissance was that of Western regional he resigned from that position last Lewis is not a member of Renaissance Mani his affiliation with Renaissance Manitoba is that of an the free press has a copy of the position of Renaissance on the three issues mentioned in the the article said that Renaissance is anti sex education in our antiabortion and our stand on these issues is As follows with regard to sex education re Naissance is concerned that the present education encourages sex in such a Way As to avoid it seems that the emphasis is on How to have sex without getting pregnant chastity is never with regard to antiabortion Renais Sance is concerned that in a Day of technical advancement regarding birth the Barbaric method of Abor Tion is on the if abortion were perhaps a More civilized method of birth control would be with regard to Renaissance being antiunion Renaissance is supportive of the concept of the right to closed shops deny that right to those who want to work in spite of Union if not government services represented by a Union Are closed they should be opened All essential services disputes should be by binding John Dyck chairman Renaissance Manitoba Winnipeg tory signs anyone travelling through downtown Winnipeg would at first glance be impressed by the number and size of the progressive conservative signs pres it does not take much thought to realize that most of the sign locations Are in front of Rooming or on vacant unfortunately for the landlords and developers Are not the ones who will be doing the they May Force their tenants to live behind a conservative but they cannot Force them to vote what we have Here is another Case of bluster and bravado trying to make up for popular John Annand Winnipeg none of the political parties offering candidates in the provincial election has put Forth practical policies to defeat inflation and As a former Campaign manager for the progressive conservative party in the 1977 i am disappointed that the parties Are spending million for political statistics Canada has provided statistics that show the average civil servant and politician makes a much larger income than the average Farmer or business when an individual is Able to earn More in government than in the private and also have greater Job that individual will seek government pm this is a bad situation which will erode our Standard of living and reduce productivity and efficiency in the my vote will go to the and not the who would make one commitment to the that individual would Promise to reduce his and that of the civil by the rate of inflation and unemployment for the previous this reverse indexing would provide an incentive for efficient management in govern it is unlikely that any provincial or municipal Politi Cian would have the courage to run on such a indexed salaries and pensions for politicians makes it impossible for them to accept the reverse indexing Jack Campbell Alsip Winnipeg nip Leader Howard Pawley has either a very Short memory or believes Manitoban have none at Hawleys repeated attacks on our pres ent progressive conservative govern ment show an utter Lack of credibility and anyone who lived in Manitoba during the de Schreyer nip 1969 to will easily remember Saunders aircraft at and the innumerable government takeovers of the chinese food Canning the nip cannot run let alone private during those the nip were buying up farms and farm land and renting it Back to nip whether they knew anything about farming or just so As they would vote no amount of Money was too much to give then there was the Brilliant idea the nip to build Lowental houses in better areas of the so that All the slums will not be in one Pawley was quoted As now Pawley is promising every body from our own Oil corporation to a better Deal for Chur if these things Are feasible Why did the nip not implement them when they had eight years to do so the nip is promising improved ing conditions for All this possibly is True if you Are one of the top echelons in the living off of everyone Beth Rennie ;