Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 6, 1983, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free april 1983 7 the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to readers intensive care situation serious the tragic death of Alvin Nystrom in flin Ron during a fou Day closure of the hospitals intensive care unit has elevated Public concern about the insecurity of health care provision in the this does not appear to be shared by the provincial judging by their past rec Ord As Well As recent remarks by health minister Larry free March claiming that Nystrom death has been exaggerated out of he said lets not lose sight of the fact that theres a Good Chance this person would have died leaving aside the question of Desjardins prognostic Ting one might Well ask what was meant by his did he mean that because there was a Good Chance that even optimal care would not have changed the outcome there is no reason for concern that the intensive care unit was closed or did he mean since the patient had a Good Chance of it was not really Worth the Cost and trouble to ensure that full services were available to him perhaps Desjardins is not aware that the Pur pose of intensive care units is to care for exactly such critically ill rather than admit the fact that the shortage of intensive care Beds and nurses is actually a province wide phenomenon and that it is a direct result of government spending Desjardins has chosen to make goats and divert the blaming the hiring practices of the Hospital administrators and questioning the practice of the medical staff it is a serious situation indeed when the decision to admit a patient to an intensive care unit is often governed by the availability of Beds and staff rather than by medical indications this is Only one example of the worsening crisis in health care due to the economic crisis and the consequent shifting of funds away from health spending into other sectors of such As financing the growing Public debt and adding to the swelling profits of the new York and other big if the health of the people were the governments first measures would have been taken Long ago to expand and maintain intensive care services throughout the ensuring that units like flin flows would never have to close their Joel my president progressive medical Winnipeg la there is no doubt that the United states government is bankrolling the most recent invasion of Nicaragua one carried out by a Nicaragua National guardsmen Loyal to the late dictator Anastasio presi Dent Ronald reagans hostility to the sandinista led government predates his election and Newsweek and the Wishington Post have described the pentagons secret War in some on March a demonstration was held at the consulate to protest the six of the 250 people in attendance were nip of whom two Are Cabinet we should be proud that we have elected a government that includes these we should be encouraged that the Premier and the government caucus will not Back away from displays of support for the right of nicaraguans to it is tragic that Manitoba Progress Ive conservatives have chosen to ignore the suffering of the nicaraguan they have chosen to support the government and to score cheap political Points Over a relatively minor incident Burn ing of a the Issue is not burning it is burning and killing in As one of the organizers of the dem i can say that Flag burning was not on our it was the action of an acting independently and out of to Sug Gest that the organizers of the Demon stration or the nip Las present Bear some responsibility for this action is the same As saying that the tories Are somehow responsible for the drug dealing for which tory la Bob Wil son was no doubt the government will Issue some form of diplomatic state ment of dismay that Cabinet ministers would picket their no doubt provincial tories will continue to Dis tort the no doubt the government will continue to sponsor terror in Central the task of Manitoban is to choose either the moral bankruptcy that is so Well represented by tory or the Side of those struggling for social jus Tice in Central if we opt for social Justice we should congratulate the nip members for their Paul Graham Winnipeg ministers defended the people attending the recent demonstration at the american consulate were protesting the inva Sion of i would like to Correct some distortions of the occurrences of tourism minister Muriel Smith speaking to the demonstrators and the Flag burning were presented by the Media in such a manner As to appear to be contiguous and i attended the event from beginning to i can state with absolute certainty that the Flag burning incident did not take place during the nor did the organizers have anything to do with its planning or it should be obvious to any one with reasonable command of his mental faculties that the nip Mem Bers attending were not since the Flag burning happened after the demonstration had ended and most of the participants had it is unlikely that those government officials were even it is Clear that the free As have other has deliberately twisted the truth and sensationalized the i guess it would be naive to expect reporters to present facts in an unbiased objective but that is what a reporters Job is supposed to in the editorial of the same members of the government Are accused of taking actions which Are not condoned by the majority of Manito a majority of voters elected the present government to whose views do you presume to represent it appears that you Are serving As a mouthpiece for the multinational Cor As to the criticism of the government for insulting a Friendly i think the attitude towards what it sees As a satellite country can accurately be characterized As the attitude of a Boorish sergeant towards a dissenter who has been drafted into it May not be within the provincial governments jurisdiction to create for eign i cannot condemn its members for treating with contempt a government which com mits atrocities against the human Ann la touche Winnipeg your article ss20 missiles Are cause of free March 7 is typical of articles written by nuclear froma narrow Point of View they Are factually Cor but they Are derived from a false this false premise is All too prominent in the thinking of the Reagan administration in the United this administration is trying to produce an false illusion that a nuclear War can be even one or two bombs on any major City anywhere can wipe out that City and cause millions of the diagram in the photograph accompanying the article greatly Dis torts the actual situation by leaving out part of the nuclear the Centre for defence information in Washington tells us that the can deliver nuclear warheads while the can deliver nobody is the has warheads on which Are vulnerable to a first while the soviets put 75 per cent of their total strategic that is warheads on which Are equally vulnerable to nobody is we risk extinction and leaving our planet As a Republic of insects and we must give inspected disarmament top priority before it is too Kelly Winnipeg warmongers in Kaiser Wilhelm appealed to the people of Germany for military appropriations to save the father land from British and French Imperi the germans responded with great forty million peo ple were maimed and crippled in that War and hundreds of cities and towns in Adolph Hitler appealed to the people of Germany for military appropriations to save them from the treaty of Ger mans responded with equal enthuse sixty million people were maimed and crippled in that and thousands of cities and towns Des in the Reagan administration in Washington appealed to the people of Germany for military appropriations to save them from the rus during the next few president Ronald Reagan and his defence Casper Wein will receive their answer get out of As a consequence of this highly instructive element of a new War in Europe is absolutely Nevi but the soviet Union will not be involved in that it will be fought strictly Between the peace Loving peo Ples of Europe on the one and american warmongers and arms merchants on the John Goray Winnipeg arms superiority prime minister Pierre Trudeau announced Canadas need to cooperate with the United states and nato to test the cruise missile and its guid Ance system in Canada because Europe is asking for the missile and because we Are a member of this is the least we can do to answer the russian threat who Are building their Trudeau it seems to me the soviet missiles would be the answer to rather than the other Way it appears that Trudeau has accepted completely the Reagan administrations line which asks for More weapons in order to be in a better position to bargain i for one have no Faith in this kind of i cannot believe there is a willingness to disarm on our All i read into the whole disarmament Effort of the and Canada is that we want contrary to reagans latest to arms Superior Ity by a wide Menno Klassen Winnipeg armed standoff your editorial Salesman forthe cruise free March com menting on Vic president George Bush visit to missed some useful you remarked that anti cruise protests in Ottawa were Simi Lar to ones during Bush recent tour of last 70 per cent to 80 per cent of voters in municipal referendums in Canada endorsed Ren ewed disarmament a recent Gallup poll found that 52 per cent of canadians do not want the cruise tested in one would think that referendums and polls would make the message Clear to prime minister Pierre Trudeau and other nato if nato is not prepared to adopt a new strategy of fewer nuclear then Canada should leave perhaps this founded 34 years is out of step with modern times and needs to be Derek Wilson Winnipeg pro cruise the cruise missile and the pro posed my system Are the intended response of nato countries to the increasing soviet military Superior their numerous ss20 missiles stationed in Eastern Europe Are the most powerful in existence and their huge conventional army exceeds nato in size and the soviet Union spends a greater percentage of its Gnu on military needs than any Western it outlaws peace movements and for bids peace rallies with the soviet it vigorously support our peace movements by calling for unilateral disarmament help it to achieve military super in Winni Eggers protested against those who preach appeasement and unilateral disarmament Are Dis playing a sad Lack of common sense and a Complete ignorance of which teaches us that Strong nations Are Seldom one has Only to go Back As far As 1939 to realize that appeasement and military weak Ness resulted in the second world the attack on Poland would not have occurred if the Anglo Franco polish Alliance had possessed sufficient military i would suggest to our peace move ment that they Are Barking up the wrong they would spend their time in a much More useful manner by going to Moscow and doing their act Nikitin Winnipeg Yan bashing american bashing on the subject of nuclear weapons seems to be the cur rent everything the americans do militarily usually gets a great Deal of attention because they often announce their new weapons systems with pomp and on the other the Only Way to find out about a new soviet weapon is to collect intelligence this makes russian weapons less visible than american ones and hence there is less president Ronald reagans re cent announcement of a Spac Bome laser weapon is bound to generate near hysterical even though it May not be operational for another 20 when the soviets launched and tested their Hunter killer satellite a few years there seemed to be no great Public when a so Viet submarine armed with nuclear torpedoes went aground in Sweden there was Little reaction from West Ern peace in Europe a few Hundred protesters turned whereas previous protests against american proposals to base nuclear weapons in Europe Drew refuse the cruise is a motto that Many of us have become obsessed Why dont we add remove the ss20 from Eastern Europe to that motto Hasler Winnipeg Relief of suffering can have priority dawn6 map Flatmo m Nih j Dawne Mccance in her letter under the heading life death not the Dawson free april 2 says that my analysis of the ethical issues in the Dawson Case free press March 23 is her Sowri position is rather but she appears to reject any Quality of life assessment in such two British Columbia judges heard the Dawson the first after weighing the concluded by agreeing with the Dawson parents that the operation was not in the Best inter ests of their the decision was then and the second Appeal court judge concluded that the opera Tion should but on what grounds did the Appeal court judge base his decision on his assessment of Stephens prospects for a Happy or worthwhile life or was he moved primarily by the risk that Stephen might continue living without the operation but in a condition of worse suffering or did he conclude that whatever Stephens Quality of All life must be prolonged with Maxi Mal medical treatment this last Posi Tion seems to me to be fundamentally Mccance denies that medical High technology was an Issue in the she applies the Label routine medical care to the neurosurgical operations performed on As if this Label settles the moral pre when the implantation of artificial hearts As in the Barney Clark Case becomes widely it can be labelled routine rather than and moral evaluation will then be this trick of Labelling will answer for us the difficult question of whether such operations Are beneficial or Barney Clark was Able to make this sort of decision for him Stephen Dawson was the important question to keep in mind is what is in the Best interests of the child whether an operation is labelled routine or whether a child or incompetent per son is mentally retarded or life prolonging treatment should proceed and Only it is in the Best interests of the the decision will Seldom be an easy one for families and health often it will be agonizingly i cannot guess what Mccance Means when she invokes the ambiguous principle of Sanctity of life but 1 suggest that respect for life requires from us the Wisdom to know when to withhold life prolonging medical care As Well As when to administer it Relief of suffering May sometimes be a higher priority than prolonging life at All this one of the important Issue raised by the Dawson even if it is not the Only Arthur Schafer Winnipeg medicare when the Schreyer government fought the switch from cos sharing to Block funding for health care Back in the its objections centred on the harm the move could do to poorer the argument was that Block fund ing would give More to the haves and less to the but As the new Hospital deterrent fees in Alberta the real danger of Block funding lies not in its financial but in its provincial ligation of Basic social once canadians Are facets face with the conflict Between the constitutional division of Federal and provincial Powers and their needs and rights As citizens of one the former system of 5050 Cost sharing got around the constitutional stipulation that health care is a Provin Cial jurisdiction by tying the provision of Federal Money to a set of minimum National standards univer accessibility and Public admin with the switch to Block the Frances Russell Federal government lost if not of those As the rows Over provincial diversion of Federal health dollars into general spending revealed several years Ottawa has lost its Al important ability to demand performance Ottawa right to withhold funds is now unclear enough that it could end up being the subject of a court until concerns about the growth of provincial Power and the bal Kaniza Tion of the country have been very Remote for most Albertas frontal assault on Canadas health care system has finally brought the Issue Down to the Nitt Gritty of daily Manitoba health Larry thinks it is no Accident that the first province to erode a Basic part of medicare is not Only was along with and the chief protagonist in arguing for Block but Desjardins believes Alberta is operating As a stalking horse for other Alberta is the wealthiest if they do it and get away other poorer provinces will be Able to argue that they have the minister said in an province after province will follow Albertas there will be no no accessibility and no Desjardins warns that under these Manitoban too will end up being How will they travel to other parts of Canada what if a Manitoban has to go to the Hospital when he is visiting Alberta Desjardins claims other provincial health ministers Are basically in agreement with what Alberta is they Are fighting any suggestions from Ottawa about bans on extra Billing expected to be contained in the new i Canada health Desjardins wrote a letter to Federal health minister Monique begin last week urging her to reimpose Cost he didst bother contacting any of his provincial col leagues on the Issue he i know from past experience that they Are just not the Manitoba minister believes Ottawa is deluding itself if it thinks it can impose its new Canada health act or Stop Albertas draconian hos Pital deterrent fees so Long As Block funding is in the Federal government got poor advice when it acceded to the demands of the Rich provinces and permitted Block it was All a plan from the outset to gradually get rid of National standards for health i dont think she begin is in a Strong position at legally and the Federal government Hast much of a leg to stand Ottawa found it could do nothing about the diversion of Federal health the Basic premise of Block i funding is that there Are no strings attached to Desjardins says he believes Alber tas intention is to dismantle medicare entirely and turn it Over to the private insurance this is what Treyve wanted to do from the the switch to Block funding was the first tory health critic and former health minister Bud Sherman shares Desjar dins opposition to Albertas deterrent fees and pledges his party would never attempt such a move in Manito Sherman still says he agrees with Block we support the maintenance and reinforcement of Sherman said in an but health care is a provincial responsibility and Al Berta has a perfect if it feels specific ethics and values have to pre to impose deterrent fees and user Sherman also agrees with Desjardins that under Block Ottawa has no right to withhold the Constitution is not up for i dont advocate user fees but i have no right to criticize if i 1 fall into the same trap Ottawa does in thinking it can impose itself on another Sherman says Alber tas action is in worried about the future of 1 dont know How far Alberta intends to the Canadian health care system is one of the great creations of the world and it disturbs me to see it end an Sherman believes medicare can still be reformed and saved through Block which provides provinces with More autonomy and i be Lieve disputes can be resolved by Goodwill around a not by threats and declamatory statements from an Ivory Tower in Goodwill Only works when there is agreement on and in Canada it is apparent that the Basic provincial consensus Over medicare no longer it ;