Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 8, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Free May 1985 Winni 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 of the Manitoba press Council editorials a just War remembered forty years have removed none of the Shine from the achievement of the grand Alliance that brought Adolf hitlers thousand year Reich to its Knees on this momentous As German generals signed the instruments of unconditional the horrific menace of German harnessed to the evil doctrine of National an explosion of Relief and Joy swept Allied it was a just War and a Good it had to be this is Why it continues to be remembered in a Way that neither the first world War nor the korean War Are the second world War provided a Clear Choice for free men and an Issue of rare simplicity in International on one Side was a barbarous committed to ruthless Conquest and murderous tyranny on a huge on the other Side were those who did not wish themselves or others to live in perpetual Canada made its Choice very voting in its parliament to become part of the Antinazi Alliance within a week of the British declaration of Canadas War against tyranny involved millions of canadians in Many the intensity of the the heavy the utter conviction of being explain Why Canadian veterans Are this week marching in the dutch villages that they Why they stood on the Normandy beaches during memorial ceremonies last Victory in Europe 40 years ago remains relevant because the circumstances that allowed that War to become possible and the fact of the War have deeply affected political attitudes Ever political debate about the postwar phenomenon of Competition continues to be couched in terms that recall the political errors of the 1930s and their cataclysmic result at the end of that Canadas membership in the North Atlantic treaty organization in 1949 came about because of a determination to make work the collective Security concept that failed Between the created to Deal wit the perceived threat of soviet it had instant Appeal because of the prevailing memory of How nazi Germany had swollen from irritation to major threat in the 1930s because of a Lack of effective collective opposition to a series of Small expansionist the grand Alliance of soviet and Western armies did not last Long once hostilities had ended in Joseph who entered the War Only after his 19391941 nazi ally had attacked had inspired his country to awesome efforts by calling on its patriotism rather than its he had a definite postwar political Agenda that involved subjugation for what had once been Central this shaped postwar world attitudes As much As the emergence of the United states As a global it flawed the Bright Promise of the United nations organi which was to have done All that the league of nations had failed to do Between the of All the tumultuous events and changes in the last 40 nothing that has happened has equalled the deep impression on the worlds consciousness made by the Challenge to civilization posed by nazi without glorifying War or indulging in the nonsense of ascribing collective racial it remains a cause for satisfaction that civilization and democracy met the Challenge and a permanent Drain the Pawley government has chosen perhaps the most expensive conceivable Means for creating jobs to ease it has created a perpetual Drain on the provincial Treasury for enrichment of teachers pensions in order to open up a few dozen teaching positions a few years earlier than they would otherwise have come As a Benefit to it is Monifi As a method of regulating turnover in the Provin Cial teaching it is As management of the Public it is the teachers pension fund has Money spilling out of its Bank accounts like it has earned far More from its investments in recent years than the actuaries assumed when the plan was the salaries of teachers have risen More slowly than was assumed so that the pensions have been lower and the Drain on the fund the fund can afford to for five a new Benefit by which a teacher retiring at age 55 can draw the full pension Benefit years of service times two per cent of his final average earnings without losing the usual per cent of pension for each year by which his retirement age Falls Short of the Normal retirement which for teachers is already age the Manitoba teachers society has been eager to sweeten the pensions for its most senior teachers and asked the government to allow for the a on shot Golden handshake will almost certainly Lead to Early retirements of teachers who have put in 30 years or More of service and Are staying on mainly to ensure Good retirement their retirements will create openings for the hiring of newly trained bringing new faces and fresh ideas into the classrooms of the they will also deprive the schools of some of their most experienced and valued but the greater problem of the following a decade of enrolment May for some school divisions be the need to increase All the government needed to do to accomplish its publicly alleged purpose was to accede to the teachers wish and allow the pension fund surplus of the moment to be used to ease the employment Jam up of the but it has agreed instead to make full pension at 55 available forever and to 30 per cent of the annual Cost of doing so after the first five it has acted As though Manitoba will always have too Many senior which is probably not the it has acted As though the government will have the revenues from 1990 to finance this exceptionally generous though it May not have it has Given away future income it cannot see to solve a future problem which is not Likely to neither the government nor the teachers society is saying what the annual Cost to the Treasury will explaining that it is extremely complicated and there fore cannot be it is irresponsible for a government to agree to an expenditure without calculating and declaring the amount the present value of the liabilities the government has assumed for the Early retirement Benefit and other improvements to the teachers pensions is estimated by the teachers society at which is a tidy sum for a government to be giving to any group either in annual instalments or in their equivalent Lump the glut of senior teachers and shortage of vacancies is an ephemeral effect from several years of sharply declining the stabilization of births ensures that enrolments and demand for teachers will also stabilize in a foreseeable when that time the usual pattern of retirements and vacancies will restore itself without need for Early retirement incan but Manitoba will be stuck with a teachers pension arrangement strongly encouraging retirements at age 55 which May no longer be desirable Public the arrangement will in effect penalize a teacher who fails to retire at 55 because he will fail to Cash in on a Benefit which his contributions have bought him and which his government is flinging at when a future government finds the schools Are Short of senior teach it will have to provide them generous salary bonuses to outbid the Pawley governments perpetual pension charter cited to save a Creek a hollow Resolution As Premier Howard Pawley himself the one thing his Resolution declaring Manitoba to be a Uncle a free zone will not do is make Manitoba a nuclear free there Are no nuclear weapons on the territory of Manitoba at the moment because the Federal govern ment will have none on the soil of if some future Federal government for Good reason or to station nuclear arms in this a Resolution of the provincial legislature cannot Stop but if the Resolution patently does not do what it purports to does it serve any purpose at All Premier Pawley sees it As a Symbol of the anger and fear that Manitoban feel about the nuclear arms the trouble with that is that there is no political action Likely to be More useless than an empty expression of anger and the provincial government might have used the occasion to encourage Manitoban to use their brains to consider the Best Road to peace and disarmament rather than simply to express their the Resolution could have offered an Opportunity for debate in which Manitoba politicians might provide reasoned and in formed opinions about the Best Way to Deal with the threat of nuclear was not Premier Hawleys he wanted a painless debate in which a speaker from each Side uttered a few soothing words about the blessings of peace and the madness of the arms followed by a Quick that approach adds nothing to Public understanding of the issues of War and peace and nuclear it does nothing to make the opinions of Manitoban heard by those who make the decisions on those Pawley has offered us a hollow gesture which makes none of us any one of the first tests under a new Section of the charter of rights is facing the provincial government and it concerns the it revolves around the Battle Over mands Creek and the charter is being invoked on the Issue of Equality under the the mar West con have won the first two rounds in the in the first the Winnipeg Rivers and streams authority gave approval to filling in the Creek for 698 feet to allow construction of an apartment no Appeal the Manitoba naturalists society and residents appealed to Sam minister of natural re to reverse the a Power vested in his Howe on advice of govern ment declared that the Rivers and streams act allows no such it is possible to read the statute in this if interpreted in conservative Al who was minister of natural re sources until the recent Cabinet took the View that the Appeal was permissible within the meaning of the the two ministers Dis agree on this now the third round of the Battle emerges because of Section 15 of the charter of rights which came into Force on april this Section now guarantees the right to the equal Protection and equal Benefit of the Law without under the Rivers and streams As interpreted by the a Developer can Appeal if Dis Satis but not an opponent to the once it has been it appears patently unjust that Only a Developer can Appeal if he is unhappy with the but not the Public concerned about the effect on the the Rivers and streams if it forbids an violates every aspect of the new Section of the charter of in states Arne counsel for the the no Val Werier Tion that Only one Side in a dispute has recourse to civil remedies is abhorrent to our Legal mar West studiously avoided this problem and takes Refuge in what is alleged to be the Clear wording of the in the Era of the such defences if the statute is unequal and discriminatory it must yield to the overriding effect of the the Brief prepared for the naturalists society notes that the minis Ter of natural resources has a Spe Cial duty of vigilance in ensuring that breaches of the Equality Princi ple do not occur under his adminis it refers to this statement in the speech from the throne made by lieutenant governor Pearl Mcgoni Gal on March 1985 my govern ment is dedicated to achieving Equality before and under the Law in our regulations and pro spirit of Law on that note the provincial govern ment cannot but invoke the charter to allow the there should be no necessity to go to the courts on the attorney general Roland Penner has already stated that the province would live up to the spirit of the i Hope and he has stat that in most instances advocacy groups will not have to take the government to in the the government is examining the Rivers and streams act to give it some Teeth to protect the the act is a useless bit of machinery in terms of safeguarding the it has been used As a vehicle to accommodate any construction along even to this latest and outrageous venture of covering up part of mands Creek and diverting it underground through Cul examine their decisions and one can conclude that the Rivers and streams committee regards such creeks As features that get in the Way of disgraceful the provincial if concerned about the Quality of As it claims to should Correct this disgraceful disregard of our natural features As soon As it should show some in Stead of being pushed into action by a growing alarmed at the mistreatment of our instead of allowing the exploitation of the creeks and the province should be reclaiming the Banks for the Benefit of the once there were at least 36 streams that emptied into the red and Assiniboine Rivers in an John of Manitoba recalls the de Light of these creeks when a mands Creek brings Back Many very pleasant he i lived on Ashburn Street near Ellice Avenue 70 years and the open space around mands Creek was our favorite we then moved to Erin the other Side of Ellice Avenue and we boys still played around mands that where i Learned to there would be a group of us nude boys enjoying one swimming and a Bunch of girls enjoying swim Ming in another Pool 300 metres they would be wearing Bath ing Many years later i had gone fishing in Sturgeon Creek and caught so i went under the Bridge at Portage Over mands Creek and with the Street cars rumbling past Over my i caught two Nice Jackfish about two feet Campbell says that the Creek should be set aside As a Park with More to increase its far i agree with than abusing the blinders Javan Jovanovich in his letter alarmist free april 2 makes a Good argument for in creased pressures to clean up our environment from the effects of non nuclear but i am ill at ease with his apparent Comfort with nuclear since he has suggested that certain antinuclear proponents Are prone to Wear blinders and May to some equated with creationists for ignoring on purpose All scientific evidence they do not like it is Only reasonable to ask where Jovanovich has obtained the evidence for some of his own three mile Island Plant in particular he claims that no body has yet been killed by nuclear Power or nuclear yet the soviet Zhores Medve scarcely a creationist published a Book several years ago entitled nuclear disaster in the in that Book it was asserted in 1956 or 1957 a major disaster took place at Chelyabinsk a major soviet nuclear military com plex in the a single aerosol event contaminated an area roughly the size of Rhode Island with great loss of the explosion emanated from a nuclear waste the published reports of the Oak Ridge nuclear research scientists in the United states have slowly come around to acknowledging the correctness of Medvedevs Conlu the event was the subject of a British to documentary in Graham Macdonald Winnipeg enlightening it is enlightening to read in the report pornography and prostitution in that the Federal government has faced the obvious reality that certain elements of society considered undesirable cannot be phased out by excessive Legisla the immoral element of prostitution is not the sex forsake act but the Pimp who blatantly violates a woman right to earn a living free from threats against limb and Anne Hansen Johnston letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to dont preach not partisan productive your editorial unsatisfied customers free april 24 states the position of the federation of Independent business on postal these deserve the federation of Independent business alleges that productivity gains should be made before Canada Post corporations rate increase is their comparison of Dol Lars spent for pieces of mail moved ignores information on productivity growth that was also provided them in ongoing consultation with Canada since productivity in mail processing has increased per cent and per cent for letter Carrier wage settlements comparable with the private sector Are also advocated by the federation of in dependent Canada Post corporation has recently concluded agreements with employees for a per cent wage Benefit this is in line with private sector 1 the selective use of last Falls Gallup poll to demonstrate Public opposition to a postal rate increase is the same poll also indicated Public opposition to rate increases for bus airline and opposition to Price increases is and this Public reaction is similar in both the private and Public postal rates have always been a Good buy in and the new postal rate of 34 cents will remain As economical relative to the average hourly Allan Skrumeda Canada Post corporation Winnipeg bouquet while irresponsible citizens Are ultimately to blame for irresponsible the present realities of our society Are such that most canadians Are fully consumed with eking out a living and have neither the time nor Energy to spend banging their Heads against the Walls of this has led to a Situa Tion where those in receipt of taxes can act with however self evident the matters dealt with in Fred Cleverley column lock up your the governments coming free april 29 May reckoning with obvious truths has become Una i applaud Cleverley for saying what Many of us want Anthony Bergen in his letter sikh extremists free March 17 who is Gupta to Tell us that adherence to violence is not a democratic Way to solve political problems we canadians Are fully aware of Gupta aligns the in doing so he is strengthening the dragon of hate and since the world knows full we do not wish to comment on How religious and fundamental human rights of the sikhs have been violated in nor do we wish to comment on Indian since it is an internal Gupta recalls what happened a couple of years but very conveniently forgets the efforts of the sikhs to integrate in the Community at for their humanitarian the sikhs in Ottawa have been commended by the Nepean chief of in response to an Appeal by medical sikh youth have donated blood in we do not understand Why Gupta reminds sikhs of the War measures act and military action of he should not preach to what social or religious group is free of negative attributes though highly provoked by events beyond Thel orders of by and Large sikh demonstrations have won Public Sut Antar Singh executive director federation of sikh societies of Canada Ottawa i commend the free press and Arlene Billinkoff for her column nip plans no action on drunk teens evidence free april Billinkoff is in my opinion one of your Best columnists and does not seem to display the Outlook of it is appalling that so Are treated so leniently by our judicial system it by both Media and govern i would urge you and your writers to enhance your efforts to wards a saner handling of these Arnold Winnipeg i set or expansion in the coming r ;