Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 1, 1982, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free Constitution is Back on our front Burner Ottawa not a few eyebrows were raised at Summers end when prime minister Trudeau let it be known he had found a new Challenge to hold his attention at the Summit of the nations affairs the care and feeding of the Canadian that subject never after never been a subject to hold the prime ministers interest very nor to All appearances in any serious he has seemed to be staying the at least until last month with the announcement of his Royal com Mission on the economic Union and development prospects for that As he has terms of reference that Are perhaps the most important and far reaching that have Ever been assigned to any commission in our even a careful Reading of the title would make it Clear that the prime ministers Long and favorite the Canadian has pushed its Way Back to a priority the first subject there is not the Economy As Donald the commissions chairman was Quick to remind English speaking Canada the other Day but the Canadian federa Tion and its the and Only the poses the question that is today on everyone lips with the world at once in the throes of recession and profound is can Ada to find tomorrows wealth and jobs a but Kitchen sink in a Brief meeting with the press the other Macdonald acknowledged that the prime ministers terms of reference invited him to study every thing except morality and the present status of Toronto sports yet in Macdonald comments con firmed a More important this is a schizophrenic commission we have been Given on the one hand if not to design a new Industrial Structure for the nation at least to suggest How we can put ourselves through the necessary pro Cess of structural and on the other to remedy the outstanding ills of the Canadian and it to bring Sepa rate expertise to Bear on both the two old time tory and the still Tobe recruited member of the Are there to provide the insights needed for institutional Donald Macdonald has always been a fast and careful he Laboured in the Cabinet at Trudeau Side for a he has the right by the time he met the press the other he was ready to scold or at least for talk ing about his commission As if it were there solely to Deal with the the French canadians with More per he had recognized it had an important Job to do in political in two of the three High priority items cited by Macdonald Lead straight Back to the old Trudeau Agenda for constitutional change the alienation of the to be relieved perhaps by such institutional changes As Senate Reform and possibly an elected sen a proposal which has recently captured the imagination of the prime minister and the economic barriers to the movement of goods and capital Between the Joan Cohen Ottawa editor from the moment Bill Bennett out in British Columbia moved to Block a Macmillan Bloedel takeover by up a Hal decade and Brian Peckford started making rules for employment on the concerns about a col lapsing Canadian common Market have been an obsessive concern of Trudeau Constitution Macdonald third stated concern re lated to Industrial adjustment in the so called postindustrial the question is not whether these two questions Are of in Many there is an Over but the More important concern relates to the linkage the prime minis ter has to a commission called on to feel its Way into the unknown on the question of Canadas economic Reform of our parliamentary and other the question of wealth sharing across the land and internal Trade barriers May be sub issues Wor thy of but the subjects diverge very for can any commission begin to sense the nature of the Canada of the 1990s without taking a careful look at the world Energy at the degree and form of or that will be necessary to respond to change at the Many ideas thrown up in the adjustment processes of the japanese and their suitability for Canada at the Likely requirement and availability capital at the barriers to adjust ment More than and looking Back at the history of our Royal one would suspect that the greatest usefulness Over the Long haul is to begin to create and produce a a consensus in the nation at when the ideas Are still Complex and As Many that lie in our future that can Only come when they Are reduced to their simplest with the unessential pared the prime minister seems to have under stood this a few Short weeks ago in his to miniseries when he figuratively walked the nation through a Superman to explain the dangers of loading excess costs on to Canadian yet with his commission on economic Union and development he has been Content to produce a Tower of where a thousand thoughts will Chal Lenge each other for Don Macdonald and his Little team will be hard pressed to clean up this but they would be Wise to maybe the most if scarcely result of All this is that assuming that Pierre Trudeau is indeed preparing to depart from the scene he is leaving us a those of us who still assume he is inviting us to discuss our economic future will one Day Wake up and find that we Are after All arguing about the future of the Canadian just As we have been doing for Over a will he nod his satisfied that the universe is still unfolding As it should i v f prime minister Trudeau Agenda for the Macdonald Royal commission includes an assessment of Canadas fete ration j Mcmurtry rage poorly g by Eric Dowd special to the free press Toronto is difficult to conceive of any higher duty imposed on a chief Law officer of the Crown than that of ensuring a defendant gets a fair attorney general Roy Mcmurtry has failed dismally to make his proper contribution to that goal in the Case of Neil a Toronto Stock promoter accused and now convicted of pos Sessing a weapon for purposes danger Ous to the Public the charge arose because Plain clothes police who went to proverbs apartment with a search warrant Over another matter which never came to trial found the Stock who presumably makes enemies in his Busi with a loaded proverbs said he was not aware they were police and would never have used the gun against but the policemen insisted they had identified in an attempt to shake the Policer mens and using the pretext he had information to offer them about a drug proverbs secretly video taped two police including one who had arrested talking to him and making All sorts of statements that police falsify lie in fabricate put weapons under people they have killed to make it appear torture to obtain fix trials with one judge in Advance and make life difficult for those who get in their Eric Dowd in Ontario proverbs had hoped police would drop the charge when they saw the but instead they continued the prosecution and explained the state ments by saying they were mostly aimed at winning proverbs Confidence and coaxing information out of him on the drug it is a Basic Rule that comment should not be made about a trial before it is because this May constitute grounds for a mistrial or even contempt of this is not technical the judge or jurors might hear it and be influenced by something that is not before the no one would know this better than the attorney Gen despite part Way through the Mcmurtry told reporters that proverbs who had no convictions at this state was a known the attorney general made his com ment after it was revealed one ser Geant said it would be easy to Frame even Mcmurtry on a drug charge by planting marijuana on him and the attorney general would have difficulty disproving it because he knows he uses the other sergeant told the Stock promoter an investigation into crime in the waste disposal Industry was shoved to one Side because it pointed toward someone the attorney general Mcmurtry called the statements his criticism of proverbs was car ried on several radio stations and in one Toronto newspaper More concerned than Mcmurtry it might prejudice the withheld proverbs naturally moved for a Mistri Al although the judge saying jurors Are fair minded and would ignore what they might have read or heard outside the he said the attorney generals comment was despite this judicial Mcmurtry remained totally Belliger when Liberal Leader David Peter son requested an explanation and apol the attorney general retorted the liberals were trying to inject party politics into the Issue and suddenly discovering the propriety of not Mak ing remarks on a Case before the courts refused further explanation until the hearing was after the trial Mcmurtry found he could not discuss it or his comments on it because he had not seen the transcripts and proverbs was considering an outside the he referred to much of the evidence As garbage in later told maps there is nothing i have said that i would not say the opposition understand have asked for Mcmurtry Resig nation on the grounds an attorney Gen eral should be the last person publicly making statements in the Middle of a trial or series of trials who Civ influence a they have no chanc6 Mcmurtry is Premier William closest personal Friend in Cabinet of Riff Davis has claimed he has Mil conf Ftp Dence in his old College football Mcmurtry has had his i Mcmurtry elude making court saw and immensely useful Law and the court process his Downs As the latter is his j control his a Why any Prospect he Davis As Premier while the court solved the question of the dog ergs the statements by cers about judicial and govern ment conduct obviously need to be further investigate to see if any Are the opposition parties would prefer Public headed by after first dismissing policemen statements As without has ordered by the Ontario provincial will report to this police investigating Perez attorney general also done much to that he supervise the lately and without d nip on Defi one of the Koy questions surrounding the legislature session opening Tomor Row will be whether the government will finally Start to act like a govern ment and the like an oppo throughout the Dps first the roles were often the govern ments behaviour was tentative and while the tories quickly con Vinced themselves that their loss was the electorates not despite their belief that former pre Mier Sterling Lyon is one of their biggest the nip frequently appears even of Lyons blistering attacks on the government have left it either Fum bling or last there was no one on the nip front Bench skilled enough at parliamentary oratory to match Lyons Rococo As a the government came out the loser in most even though Many of the Points at Issue had already been decided in the govern ments favor by the this is not the Only time the Provin Cial conservatives have decided to ignore the electorates in 1969 when the new democrats formed their first government in the Defeated Walter pro claimed publicly that the people had made a in the tories attempted to portrayed schreyers first majority As illegal and challenged the outcomes of five Ridings in the Frances Russell this the tories attribute their loss to a minuscule percentage of the electorate and make much of the fact Only three Points separate them from the nip in popular the tories Are fooling a More thorough analysis of what happened in the last election should give them cold the nip took an absolute majority of popular vote in the City with Over half the provinces population and More than half of the Legislatures the tories close popular vote score across the province was Only achieved by their massive margins in the seats they did particularly in southwestern for the tories obtained 63 per cent of the popular vote in the 13 Rural seats where they were in the nine City seats they their popular vote score was a hefty 55 per but in Winnipeg As a they took Only 39 per the tories waste their vote in Mani Toba much As the Federal liberals waste their vote in the nip vote is More dispersed and More Effi meaning the party theoretically can win government while losing the popular there Are some conservatives who realize that the party smug Content ment with itself is a dangerous Delu Ai he recent convention in Brandon they Are a decided minority and an intimidated one at the party Hierarchy is not pre pared to tolerate Public criticism and individuals who have indicated they see a need for such As Deputy Leader Bud have been Frozen the tories certitude is reinforced by the Dps Lack of just As tories View themselves As Manito Bas natural governing the nip appears to believe that its victories Are transitory flukes and that to push too far with them would be one government source puts it this Way there Arent that Many new democrats out not even among the people who voted for we have to govern for not just our party evidence that this attitude Perme ates government action is apparent last the govern ment capitulated on its plans to Reform the internal Workings of the Legisla providing individual Las with improved services and giving the speaker additional because of Lyons vociferous it also backed Down on its plans to restrict ownership of Farmland to Manitoba residents also due to sustained criticism from the the farmlands legislation is slated to come Forward again in the new but its final form is by no Means As despite the fact the govern ment is convinced the Public does not fault it for losing the three Meg projects in the midst of a world wide the nip remains highly sensitive to repeated tory jibes that All three would be in train had they been a Large part of the role reversal Between government and opposition stems from the Sharp contrasts in the personalities of the two pre Mier Howard Pawley and opposition Leader Lyon Are political Pawley remains awkward and unsure on a Public while the former Premier is one of the Best parliamentary speakers in Lyon delights in personality politics and Pawley is plodding and Lyons world is completely Black and Hawleys is shades of Pawley is slow and believing he has four years to deliver on his convinced of his absolute arrived on the scene like a torpedo and tried to accomplish everything in his first four months in one of of no to see Lyon go is their belief that his attack party needs to the ment and Start it final fall at the hands Leader however Tite strategy1 Mav if Manitoban Are basically s As Vinced they doing the government a favor by Keing it in the the Only people to be Ang Dps own party member As the government Are Only a tiny minority of doonesbury you have some you Sot merch Ahoise to the mow show mom ;