Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 3, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free May 1985 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller a member Oline Manitoba press Council editorials the Issue is Good and evil president Ronald reagans sudden Trade Embar go on Nicaragua is a blatant attempt to divert attention from his disastrous decision to pay his respects this weekend in a West German cemetery that includes the Graves of is War this is obvious because of the timing of his signature on the executive order that imposes the he did it not in Vwashington but in where prime minister Brian Mulroney and the leaders of West Germany and great Britain Are with him for their regular economic Summit if he thinks that this gesture will make anyone forget his incredible decision to go ahead with his unsuitable Pitburg he is by his he will Honor a criminal the that carried out the infamous massacre of French civilians at Bradour that slaughtered prisoners in a snowy Field at that murdered defenceless Canadian some of them that exulted in its task of organized killing of civilians on the russian front and that was proud to run Adolf hitlers death his similarly incredible belief that is murderers deserve equivalent sympathy to their because both Are supposed to have been victims of the nazis suggests either a Lack of moral judgment or a Cata strophic ignorance of what the is actually revisionists have been trying for years to suggest that is regiments were composed of Good sol in they constituted a legion from whose bestial ferocity was unleashed against old men and helpless fighting against armed opposition was not their preferred no one could put it More eloquently than death amp survivor Elie who had the moral courage to face Reagan in his White House fastness and say to him of Pitburg that is not your your place is with the victims of the Wiesel came under tremendous pressure before the White House ceremony at which he was awarded the congressional Gold medal for his compelling writings on the Surun concentration he was implored to keep his Mouth to say something not to insult the president in his own not to upset the Public relations component of the Wiesel ignored this pressure and spoke a truth that is for the offence in reagans words and action is to All who fought or suffered the War against hitlers Wiesel personally witnessed the Depths of is his life has been dedicated to making sure that the world does not forget the murdered millions of jews who cannot speak for no More Credi ble witness to the crimes of the nazi Era can be this increases the Shock that Reagan ignored his was More concerned about his Macho political image than the facts of this cared More about the sensibilities and potential Domestic political problems of West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl than about the pain his cemetery visit would bring to to those who fought in that Noble to those whose countries suffered the terrors of nazi Reagan seems to regard the Pitburg episode As a Public relations problem that can be solved by pulling another Rabbit from the hat a nicaraguan he is it is a fundamental error of judgment that he could have avoided by taking Elie diesels by listening when Wiesel said we know there Are political and strategic but this As All issues related to that awesome transcends politics and the Issue Here is not politics but Good and and we must never confuse for i have seen the is at work and i have seen their designing City government As mayor Bill Norrie rightly said this the system of Winnipeg civic government should not be designed around the habits or methods of one person or one it should be designed to work and to last through Many different Many different councils and Many changes in political intellectual fashion and leadership Norrie has warned against tinkering with the the Lawrie Cherniack committee to which he addressed his remarks has been asked by the govern ment to review the City charter and recommend any changes that should be made to which May involve if changes Are going to be Norrie would like the legislature to give to the mayor of Winnipeg the Power to by his own the chairmen of standing committees of the City Council and perhaps the other members who sit with those chairmen on the councils executive he would also like the legislature to give the mayor the Job of chairing the executive councillor Bill Neville has pro posed approximately the same Norrie explained that he would use the appointive Power to choose an executive committee representing All the major groups on but with enough coherence of thinking that they would be Able to act he would also pull together a group representing All parts of the but a system cannot be designed for one mayors it must be designed with an Eye to human nature and the Way other mayors and other councillors will use that system in the the committee chairmanships Are the greatest appointive rewards available to the players of Winnipeg municipal political the granting of those rewards is now in the Power of the coalitions of councillors that Are Able to form themselves for the the Art of being a councillor now consists of guessing correctly which coalition will be the majority and ingratiating oneself with that group solidly enough to get to the head of the Norrie and Neville would Transfer that appointive Power to the mayor they would not give the Council a role even in confirming the mayors the route to Power and prestige in the would lie exclusively through the mayors Good Norrie believes he would appoint people from the major groups on the but How would a mayor refuse appointment to a councillor who had been loyally serving that mayor for years and had by any reckoning earned the mayors gratitude How would he prevent the Power of appointment from turning into an obligation to appoint his own most Humble and obedient servants the Only Check on unwise appointments by a mayor would be the need for cooperation with the if the mayor chose so foolishly that the majority of councillors he and his handpicked executive would be powerless to guide the councils but rebellion would be As it is in a parliaments majority by each Loyal councillors Hope of Elevation next time Norrie stoutly opposes the formation of parties in civic the system he proposes would form a personal political machine in the hands of a the councillors who Are now responsible to shifting coalitions and to their electors would become responsible to one political that is not consistent with the kind of municipal democracy to which Winni Eggers Are accuse the mayors authority could be enhanced if the charter gave him the first Opportunity to present to the Council a slate of candidates for the major appointive failure of that slate opening the Way for other a system of that sort would ensure that the executive had some show of majority support in the it would protect the mayor against claims to appointive office from people who have served him loyally but have not earned Public it would not Lead As directly As Nomes system to the building of a personal political following Manitoba Lead divorced and separated women in Manitoba will be the first beneficiaries of Federal government help in Hunting Down a husbands who Are failing to pay court ordered this province has the machinery and the expertise for finding the defaulting husbands and making them pay other for the most have the major obstacle to improved enforcement of maintenance orders on behalf of Manitoba is the Handoff attitude of most other provincial unlike other prov inces do not automatically recognize maintenance orders granted in the courts of other they do not Supply Crown counsel to represent abandoned wives seeking enforcement of an order and they do not make the administrative records of the provincial depart ments available to help locate the defaulting Justice minister John Crosbie has presented to Parlia along with his divorce a Bill to open Federal government files and records to assist the search for the Manitoba attorney generals department should therefore be Able to improve its batting average in locating other provincial govern ments will have no use for the information Ottawa is making available until they follow the Manitoba Lead and put some muscle into the enforcement of maintenance this province will not be Able to get All orders enforced for Manitoba women until the other provinces join the in the Manitoba remains the safest part of Canada for a separated woman awaiting maintenance payments and the most danger Ous for a departed husband who is not paying reconciliation a reality by Joseph Kraft special to the free press Washington German american relations provide the set Ting for president Ronald reagans current european so How do they fare on the not political and economic affinities Are and the one peril Point nationalism in an unsettled eur Apt to be soothed by the presidents democracy in Germany has flourished for 40 years now longest by in the course of German two postwar German leaders Konrad Aden Auer and Willy attained International recognition As figures of outstanding moral author every other Chancellor including Helmut Kohl been a genuine challengers Power has changed hands three times in 1969 and in 1982 the major parties Are All and Competition among them is Kohl faces challengers within his own Christian democratic despite the pres Tige of the the cd will almost certainly lose the crucial election on May 12 in the state of North Rhine Johannes the social democratic Leader in the state who is the Likely will probably go on to play a major role in National the free or have just changed no extremist despite the absorption of millions of refugees from the East and the Rise of a terrorist has Ever won a significant share of the vote in a National the or Radical who did Clear the five per cent Mark in Are now in a state of traditional freedoms of individual conscience and expression All hippie communes Are More emblematic of the Federal Republic than police so the Page has been turned on Halfa millennium of the German the opportunities missed by the protestant Reforma the revolution of 1848 and the Weimar Republic have finally been made West Germany stands committed to democratic that commitment binds the Federal Republic and the in sympathetic in economic the West germans have also realized great Success in the smokestack industries notably machine electrical goods and chemicals needs no though slow off the the germans Are beginning to catch up in High tech economic gains trans there As Pursuit of happiness for Ordinary German welfare Laws if More generous than those in the United the country went through a Long and bitter strike of its Metal workers without notable social though unemployment is Over 10 per inflation is below three per an american Hope is that the germans will now Cut taxes to stimulate their own Economy and share some of the Burden of sustain ing growth around the disquieting the disquieting element on the scene is the persistence of German nationalism in an unstable repeatedly in the past in in 1887 and in 1812 germans have tried to play off East against West in a bid for that in now reinforced by the division of remains a romantic exaltation of the Ger Man spirit characterizes both the left Wing of social democratic poli tics and the right Wing of the while the left supposes it can team up with the russians to extract the right imagines it can promote German interests by blackmailing the in that the Christian demo cratic Leader of the Alfred told the american Congress that hitlers War against the russians was part of a holy crusade against communism that ought now to be indignation Pitburg enters German affairs against that the visit is not morally As Ronald Rea Gan proclaimed in yet another example of the inane presidential com ments that have done so much to whip up indignation Over the on the Reagan is More than Ever obliged now to make it Plain that the is proud its forces entered Germany at the end of the second world War As conquerors of the Barbaric spirit which led so Many germans to embrace nazism and to inflict its monstrous doctrines of annihilation on the rest of eur but the visit to the cemetery does have a political for the Ger mans Are once again indulging themselves in fantasies about the National they Are tempted anew to balance East against they Are Likely again to react to frustration with another burst of the rage that yields destruction and in these it makes sense to stress the realities of the past 40 for the realities Are what Reagan and Kohl have but been unable to Artic the realities feature not Schopenhauer disembodied world of will and idea Concrete Progress toward practical the realities exhibit not re pression and absolutism but democratic the realities de note not the worship of violence but reconciliation in an Alliance that has kept for the longest time since Napoleons at heavenly status i do not hold the free press responsible for printing the letter free april 24 As the purpose of this forum is for All to be Able to voice their this letter by is one i believe merits As it holds ideas which would seem to be quite different than those of the average president Ronald Reagan in his letter Hannman states that Phil Mallette idea of communism is a person whose everyday life includes politics should not have their understanding of a political system Hannman then tells us of the terrors of the soviets and How Horri ble the world would be with communism and no big brother Ronald Reagan around to save it sounds As if the americans have heavenly More Wisdom from Hannman includes the thought that the Only Way to keep peace is to prepare for that is strange but understandable from an opinionated Reagan the conclusion of the letter tells us not Only is Freedom but it is better than living under communist one can Only have ones own opinion As to what Hannman is really afraid Tom Langer Winnipeg bleating grits whether or not one agreed with the position Bud Sherman took in the language it is astonishing to hear the bleating from Liberal maps Over Sherman appointment to the Canadian radio television and telecommunications where were All these protesters when Pierre Trudeau appointed Jack first to the and then to the presidency of the car they Are exhibiting what i believe is called selective William Neville Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to no Wiser memorable City 1 thank Winnipeg for the Memora ble four years that we have had it has been an exciting with up and Down but More ups than we moved Here from Toronto in the summer of to a City where we knew no two months after our Winter descended in we had a that first Winter was hard bitter and cold compared to the East because of some Long months were spent Spring came and with it our first sight of your Lovely i could not go for walks without some one stopping to talk about the the or the people invited us in to their Homes carte Blanche and truly made us feel at they showed us the the City Centre and All the other places that Winnipeg is known i found residential programs for Chil Community Community spirit like nothing i had Ever seen or would see in the people have All been caring and kind to we now have another son and it is hard leaving a place where my Chil Dren were their roots Are and Winnipeg is a City i Hope they will return a place where cultures and languages re Spect each other and where snob Bery is Only expressed in terms of Green Worms and cold thank you to All our we will miss it is with great sad Ness that we leave to return to the Trish Cox Winnipeg rather curious 1 find the editorial no policy for Winnipeg free april 30 rather curious in its there the free press criticizes the Paw Ley government for not presenting a policy statement on the City of Winnipeg it is abundantly Clear that government policy will be the result of the City of Winnipeg act review committees major questions arising out of re vision of the act need Public it is Only reasonable that a forum for citizen input be having made my own presentation to the Cherniack i feel i have democracy has been participation in the Urban policy process encourages sense of responsibility in the minds of the con the result can Only be a More wonderful after we Are a part of Roger Toews Winnipeg As the news reports of the pc spill in Northwestern Ontario Deve i became increasingly Dis Turbed by the Media reporting of the Accident and its potential Conse inflammatory words such As can highly toxic and dangerous were routinely linked with the creating a Public climate in which it is extremely difficult to make Logi Cal there was Little at tempt to quantify the especially in the print on one radio i was treated to the Wisdom of a geneticist from whose medical advice to those exposed was to get a blood test and see a i know the Media would not use the same words if a truckload of tobacco products spilled near yet i have Little doubt that the smoking of a truckload of cigarettes would have a much larger total health effect than the pc that the Media has a responsibility to go beyond the sensational Angle of a Story and to dig out and present the real without the Media making such an Effort and presenting the risks in terms that we can All our society is in danger of spending our limited re sources in a Way that does not result in the maximum health after All that was said and i still am no Wiser about the real risk of pcs than i was ego Frech insensitivity does the free press plan to keep its readers in suspense by not revealing what the other jurors in the Stony prison guard murder trial were wearing at the time of their selection i can Only assume such information is relevant to the jury As the hairstyle and clothing of the last juror chosen were de scribed in the article murder trial begins free april one might think that the reporter was assuring the Public that the sole native juror was not Only a proud hence the single but was also a tidy and successful Indian in a your insensitivity is Tara Maxon Winnipeg Harold its me fifi ;