Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 21, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january 1985 Page nato role under review by John Best special to the free press Ottawa future of Cana Das army brigade in West Germany is being closely examined As defence planners prepare for the publication of a defence White paper towards the end of this options under review include bringing the under strength brigade Home and negotiating new nato commitments that could be Dis charged from Canadian some attention should be Given to bringing the troops out of said an official associated with the they could be stationed but ready for overseas deploy ment in an the practical likelihood of that happening was not very but its equally is something entirely different that the brigade will be brought up to moved out of its Reserve role in Southern and reintegrated with other nato forces on the North German these and a wide variety of other propositions Are being considered for inclusion in a defence which the Mulroney govern ment has promised to make Public by the end of next month As a prelude to the White unlike a White which sets out govern ment a Green paper is intended to put Forth ideas for Public other proposals being tossed around inside the defence depart ment include the establishment of a nato air training Centre at Goose and even the establishment of a new nato Northern command with Headquarters at Goose the former is much likelier to become reality than the which has a slightly farfetched Fla Vor to the United states and West Ger Man air forces already use the big Goose Bay base for operational Fly ing it might be a natural step to transform it into a full scale training site including Pilot train As nato is said to be looking one of the matters expected to be withdrawal of troops from addressed in the Green paper is How to reflect the shift of global economic Power from Europe to the Pacific and Southeast senior defence officials predict that the paper will outline a series of soft measures to recognize this stressing closer cooperation with Eastern countries in language and military for it will probably pro pose exchanges Between staff col Leges of Canada and the chinese Peoples the objective would be not Only increased cooperation and dialogue with China and other Pacific rim countries in military but also increased understanding of their role in the world strategic Green paper is expected to reflect Canadas intention to contrib Ute to an updating and overhaul of Europe is one option looked at the Distant Early warning radar line in the Canadian hitherto financed entirely by the Ameri bad news for a string of smaller communities stretching from to Labra is also expected to make Clear the governments intention to close Down the obsolete Cadin Pine tree up to civilian jobs at stations along the line stand to be what to do about the army brigade moved out of Northern Germany and con signed to the Black Forest Region of Southern Germany by prime minis Ter Pierre Trudeau 15 years will provide one of the main focuses of discussion in the Green there has Long been a school of thought that this Force should be repatriated to but kept in readiness to return to Possi by defence Bly with increased if the need fundamental problems exist with any such beginning with the fact that nato and West Germany in particular has strenuously objected to similar proposals in the past and there is no reason to doubt it would do so the Alliance would like Canada to continue to be represented on both air Side and the ground Side in even if at near Token As in defence minister Robert Coates has told nato defence ministers that he is going to try and restore the brigade to its pre1970 strength of to further undo Trudeau Handiwork he might move the brigade Back to Northern Ger Many from the where it is now collocated with Canadas three Squadron nato air free press suffers Many setbacks by Sam Washington Washington this past year has seen a continuing increase in the number of journalists jailed or there have been More cases of Maga Zines and broadcasting stations forcibly these sentences Are from the world press Freedom prepared annually by the International press a London based organization with journalists from 67 Richard editor of the Milwaukee is chairman of the 34year old which was founded with the help of the american society of newspaper the review reports that the Institute has collated a frightening array of actions against the painting a picture of growing government interference and intolerance to the in looking at its country country i would list 43 As showing worsening conditions for Freedom of the press an doctors it is not surprising that there Are a number of physicians and surgeons in this province having been told exactly what the government has in mind for want to take a second look at the proposal even though they May have voted for what is surprising is that it took a visit by the former presidents of the Canadian medical association and the Ontario medical association to open their perhaps they Are specialists in Eye in the Effort to get rid of annual negotiations with the the Only thing the doctors have been asked to give up is a Little bit More of their Independence from govern they Are being asked to take one Small step closer to becoming salaried rather than inde pendent what is really surprising is that the dont Trust this Lack of Trust extends to doctors who Are members of the Board of directors of the Manitoba medical the presi Derek said that negotiations which produced an agreement to give up the right to and to opt out of medi were kept secret from some Board members because these Mem Bers were known to be totally opposed to such an perhaps the doctors run things but any organization i belong to had better keep no secrets from any member of the Board of directors unless they want to lose me As a i can Only sympathize with those doctors who Are just now other eight with some Good things to report arid some and 10 where there were improvements Over the preceding working As a journalist in some of the nations in the first category is far from a cushy Job life and Liberty appear to be con stantly at the report tells of the Iris former Lateef held in prison in Lagos since despite the fact that he has been neither tried nor charged and has even been cleared of any crime by a special investigations panel set up by the govern the report notes that in Iran an estimated 100 journalists and writ ers remain in prison although none has been formally charged or in despite a varied and free two leading news men were killed during in a number of local journalists and photographers were beaten by police or the Volunteer Force while reporting news in the government Cen suspended or confiscated 28 of the country daily newspapers and and a radio and to eight publications were shut in Russia and the satellite a censorship continues to be the Standard this at the highly publicized opening of the Popieluszko murder pol ish authorities decided which representatives of Western publications to admit and left others to do the Best they could with secondhand editor Leonard said the annual report was its not getting any its getting in some people Are sent to jail by governments that dont want Freedom of some papers Are closed Ipi intervenes in Many with mixed we keep up a steady Stream of zeroing in on the most pressing Leonard recalling that a few years ago Ipi sent a delegation to Taiwan to protest the scheduled hanging of several journalists and achieved their an intervention in the Philippines with a Cable signed by 50 Well known journalists helped several newsmen leave Pris he in Turkey last two papers were closed by the gov and working with other managed to get them the 10 reports that indicated improvement in press Freedom were from Hong South Kuwait and new Zea editor Leonard said a new threat on the horizon is the perversion of associated press and United press International materials by so called National news agencies created by foreign they Purchase the news material of the ser edit and rewrite them to serve government and then de liver them to their Domestic such he have Arisen in african a latin America and the Arab focus Alberta tories Are True pragmatists Edmonton the Alberta tories might As Well write their 1985 propaganda line on a Bill the people to expect then give it to like their tory counterparts in and their More avid sacred friends in there hellbent to reduce demands on they want to crush the notion that politicians can solve problems with Public this Public relations drive might seem a bit since Alberta still has its heritage a giant Money bin that cushions the worst effects of but the fund int and its growth is threatened by declining revenues from Oil and Gas if world Oil prices fall through the trap Albertas Treasury could be in big treasurer Lou Hyndman int ruling out major tax increases in a budget to come in theres even talk that collapsing prices would prompt the tories to Call a very Early elec Tion sometime this before the effects Are fully obvious to the the last which gave the tories 75 of 79 was held in the government is preaching clearly implying that the voters cant expect to be bought next Leroy the agriculture put the Case clearly in a recent speech to uniform delegates in he said that after the recession hit in we still expected government to hand out dollars 1 rather than lend Money to create new rather than fix or improve existing ones to have an answer for All the economic difficulties was the general pub expected too much of then the a Prosper Chai smoking Farmer from fort did something quite he put part of the blame on we politicians we rent inno cent he we knew there were changes and i think we could have done a better Job of explaining that sounded very but it was hardly a full Fjordbotten didst for that the government knew about the changes Well be fore the 1982 election but chose to ignore in a Flat out Effort to buy the it raised expect introducing everything from widows pensions to Mort gag interest that Alberta them with Blar Ney during the then act sensibly after the legislature is safely packed with All the emphasis now is on Low Cost and Fjordbotten announced one that will help Farmers with a combination of counselling and loan if the Farmers can come up with a sensible plan to climb out of the government will guarantee Bank Loans of up to for a years in the chartered Banks have agreed to lend Money at the prime Don braid in Alberta the minister rejected the Saskatchewan solution a 13month moratorium on mortgage and in Terest payments because it merely postpones Farmers reckoning with the just end up owing More interest when the program is said an Albertas guarantee program is a since the government stands to lose about million if All the Farmers it supports go but its a far cry from big spending programs of the the same education min ister Dave King followed the restraint line by announcing a two percent increase in Basic funding for for a total of this int but the in crease is at least two per cent below the National inflation in real the tories Are actually cutting education Bud they finessed this move neatly by hinting that there might be no thus spooking the teach ers and to these people two per cent now looks like a but it Doest seem out Landish to the widely considered a candidate for the tory leadership when Premier Lougheed has also thrown out hints of conservative changes in education an advisory committee Calls for compulsory business Educa Tion classes in Junior High and suggested that a return of the lords prayer to Alberta classrooms would tone up flabby the latter idea quickly raised howls from civil these Alberta while trumpeting free have always been a pragmatic Bunch who do whats necessary to hold during the Boom this often meant lavish Public spend but the Good times Are Long and economic realities Are finally forcing them to fit their conservative Don braid is the Edmonton journals political Leroy Fjordbotten i i Cleverley beginning to realize the kind of Deal they were getting themselves what we seem to have Here in Manitoba is a Deal agreed to by some members of the executive of the Manitoba medical association by which the association would col Lect Union from every physician in the in return for this the Mma has agreed to give up the right of any doctor to extra or to opt out of and to have fees set by binding health minister Larry Desjardins says the arbitration idea came from the we Are left to wonder whether it came from All the or whether All the doctors knew enough about it to vote on it with the same degree of intelligence they use to prescribe treatment for their As potential what will the Deal Cost us one of the prices we May have to pay is a reduction in excellence in the medical care we have not All physicians Are just As not All lawyers Are nor All for that All even the hair lotion commercials remind us that while the particular product is a bit More the attractive Model making the sales pitch that in Worth not All doctors who want to extra Bill Are Worth the some when a patient really needs that and when that patient is willing to pay More than what the govern ment taxes away from his paycheck for the he should have the right to do so just As his doctor should have the right to one of the biggest dangers in the new agreement is that we May be left with a professional group made up of those who Are More interested in hassle free than with the daring and the it is one of the downsides of state it is one of the reasons that i would prefer a system of state Medicine where the individual is protected from the catastrophes of prolonged or serious but where that same individual never loses sight of the fact that health care costs preferably Money that passes initially from patient to our system of state Medicine is preferable to that exists in great where Only those who can afford it get the Best and it is preferable to the Money Orient de system that exists South of the if we insist on Chipping away at whatever Independence is left to our it will not remain preferable a Good example can be found in the Standard of ambulance service to be found in this ambulance service does not have much clout when it comes to getting scarce medical care As a result most service in Canada is about 20 years behind the with the exception of British on site first Aid administered by Amu Lance Driver paramedics is virtually about the Only thing the heart attack victim can Hope is that the Driver is skilful enough to get him to a Hospital before his attack becomes we Are not paying any less for this service than we would need to pay for first rate the difference is that it is there is Little incentive to branches of the medical profession want the dollars that Are As a patient whose years indicate the need for rather than less medical service in the i do not want to see Manitoba with a unionized medical one that has driven out the individual or the doctor who is Worth More than the and who knows if i were facing an i would not want it to be done by a surgeon half Way needed a Small Union meeting to make up his mind what to do Manitoba doctors May be sick and tired of the constant pressure of government on their As a i Only Hope there Are enough of them who Are not willing to give up the fight if the financial consequences of extra Billing is enforced by the doctors should fight to have that Law the standards of care Are at doonesbury Sirl Wakup Hill better what time 15 it ;