Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 10, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba 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 1672 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 my m m m hmm my rating going Down the million a year which finance minister Vic Schroeder says the province will have to pay in extra interest charges As a result of a drop in its credit rating is not Chicken it amounts to about for every Manitoba of much More is the question of what further reductions in the rating might do to the provinces ability to at reason Able for the massive building program it claims to be planning for Manitoba Hydro Over the next Moody investors like Standard and poor two years has reduced the provinces credit rating be cause it is consistently running budget deficits of almost half a billion Schroeder can claim that the deficits Are really Only half that size because a lot of the borrowed Money is going to capital the people who advise the lenders have clearly passed their judg ment on that one or two followed by one or two drops in the credit Are not going to bankrupt the five or six deficits of the size that Schroeder has been could result in serious reassessment by lending agencies of this provinces ability to repay its the provincial government is talking about investing some billion Over the next decade in new Hydro electric plants and transmission much of that investment is based on the Assumption that Power produced by those plants can be sold at a hand some profit to Power utilities in the United states and the Price Manitoba Hydro will get for that Power will be negotiated before construction starts on the new the profit Manitoba expects will be based on that Price and on estimates of including the Cost of construction and the Cost of borrowing the Money to finance the if continued drops in Manitoba credit rating Over the next few years reduce Hydro ability to borrow Money at reasonable then the hoped for profits could Schroeder reacted to the latest news of a drop in the credit rating by adopting a pose of snooty i differ he did the same thing in May of the last time the rating was three months he was Busy cutting government spending and funding for schools and now that he has got us All even deeper into will he dance for the Bankers once again Logan Parks future mayor discouraged about the prospects of drawing Industry to the Logan Industrial suggests the land West of the Slaw Bridge should be made available for other Core area initiative administrators advise patience it takes time to Market an Industrial site and to find the right manufacturer who wants to put a Plant the cites first reason for wanting to include a Logan Industrial Park in the pm package was to get rid of the tangle of deteriorated houses and commercial buildings in the space Between Logan and the Canadian Pacific at the insistence of the Pawley the housing was concentrated on the Eastern half of the area in a rehabilitated residential leaving the West half available for in keeping with the purposes of the that redevelopment should be a manufacturing Plant providing steady jobs for disadvantaged people who live in the Core area and it should also be a decent Buffer separating the railway Yard from the playgrounds and houses to the if mayor Norrie has a use for the land which would accomplish those he should spell it out so that the City Council and the Federal and provincial governments can compare his Merit for with the original if the Core area partners want to get some Revenue from the land while awaiting a they can do like others in the same circumstance and pave it for if they want to put it to temporary nonprofit uses they can Sod it for in the absence of a specific proposal for development of the the City and its partners have nothing better to do with it than leave it advertise it and Hope a suitable manufacturer will find it to his no permanent choices have to be made until prospective users snubbing Churchill again there has never been any shortage of excuses As to Why the Canadian wheat Board cannot make enough use of the Manitoba port of Churchill to allow the port to break this years that Grain stocks Are has been used in the Board argued that it could not possibly establish a target figure on shipments for Churchill lest it damage its bargaining position by in the port through which less than three per cent of a years crop would be at the same the Federal government argued that it had no Money to improve the while announcing expenditures of million to improve the Quebec ports of sept lies and excuses have been heard regularly since a Manitoba conservative member of Jack chaired a committee in 1979 which came to the conclusion that Churchill had become a costly luxury we cant Murta is currently minister for multiculturalism in the Federal a sudden flip Flop in december 1983 saw the Federal government Promise dredging of the a new the development of More ship berths and an agreement by the Federal government to share the costs of building a High voltage electricity transmission line which could Cut the ports operating costs by a now that the line is under and the other improvements have been the ports Only the Canadian wheat Board is acting As if it had dug out the old Murta report and was using it As a guideline to resume its studied neglect of Churchill under the minister responsible for the wheat Board in the Federal Charles said he certainly expected Churchill to have Grain movement this less than an hour a Board John repeated the boards earlier position that there would be Little or no Export activity at Churchill this Board chairman Esmond Jarvis said some Grain could be shipped through Churchill this using Churchill to move Grain grown in its catchment area could save Farmers in that area Between and per metric tonne in shipping if most of the Grain produced within that area were moved through Chur the volume would be sufficient to allow the port to break Federal governments generally think it makes More sense to spend Federal dollars on Eastern and Western where the votes Are than on Churchill will not flourish or even break even if it must continually fight those in control of the Grain transportation Churchill needs someone in its just As the average Farmer has needed someone in his Corner if he got into a fight with the nations major rail what is happening this year would indicate that the new Mulroney government is no More in Chur chills Corner than were the liberals for most of their term in at the time the Churchill improvements were Manitoba had Only one representative in the Federal now that the port appears to be in the process of being the province has they match the pressure from Church ills Competition in other parts of but for the Grace of go Summit meet had Little Merit by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa inability of the worlds leading Industrial countries to agree on new Trade negotiations at a time when protectionism is on the Rise demonstrates How Little value the big seven Summit meetings really there was Merit in the original idea behind these meetings that Heads of the important Industrial countries should meet periodically and Exchange former French president Valerie Giscard the can hardly have dreamed that his modest idea would develop into an overblown Mon intangible problems were built in near the Start when politicians proved unable to accept the Basic idea that an Exchange of views was an adequate reason for the summits were not intended to be decision Tak ing occasions but the valuable the was too intangible to satisfy the imperatives of communiques to record accomplishments were deemed Neces two unhappy developments Fol the worlds newspapers and broadcasting systems responded enthusiastically to the invitation to attend a Media event politicians have Long since caught on to the fact that even the most cynical Media people can readily be suckered by staging a Public relations the outcome is that there Are about people involved in staging these events and around Media types busily recording it All despite the Lack of real even More unhappy was the in crease in International terrorism which forced the Summit organizers to stage not Only Media events but also Security ones seven world Lead ers Are too tempting a target to ignore the dreadful possibilities which the twisted minds behind terrorism could turn into realities were it not for the hordes of Security men and if the seven world leaders really wanted to get these encounters Back onto a sensible basis they would charter a cruise leave the press and Security men ashore and put out to sea for 48 they will not do that because it has no Public relations Short memory there would not be much or Appeal for politicians in a hard headed analysis of the inadequacies of these but there the worlds leaders Are protected by the Public Short memory very few people realize that the summits have demonstrated As often As not that the worlds leaders did not really understand what economic develop ments were taking place until Well after they had on this occasion they were at least discus sing the right problem the need to protect the world trading system which is indeed faced with serious there has been an inclination to View this Summit As a failure for president Ronald which in a sense it but the rest of the world should take no satisfaction in although some of it certainly it is the american president and the group around him More than any other leadership Complex in the is determined to protect and improve the trading sys a Rebuff for the president in this connection is a blow to the future Prosperity of All the rest of French opposition the reasons for determined French opposition to new Trade talks should concern the rest of the world As much As the actual failure to establish any France does not like the Prospect of a new round under the Gatt because the com Mon agricultural policy of the euro Pean economic a great source of trouble in the would inevitably come under the Cornmon agricultural policy is harmful to the Community itself and destructive to the Community trading it Howe enormously profitable for thet Farmers of the dec countries and in some of especially France and the agricultural sector still has great political the prospects Are that the Cap will eventually collapse under the weight of the distortions it creates within the Community itself it is far from impossible that it will actually bankrupt the european commission and everyone outside the Community might Well say fervently the sooner the the damage will go on and the forces of protectionism will be in the european Farmers will suffer far More than they would from common sense moral vacuity the article debating War crimes free May 5 by professor of califor was but however the article is beset by confusions of a Type which mock both the lives which Canada sacrificed in the second world War and the moral maturity upon which any civilized nation depends to sustain professor Hughes writes on the question of War criminals and whether it is Wise and just to repeatedly open old wounds of re ported misdeeds from so Long by bringing prosecutions to Bear on individuals suspected to be directly responsible for various War his logic brings him to the conclusion that it is neither Wise nor just to so professor Hughes How is grounded upon three errors the first is his curious confusion War crime trials Between what might be called blaming of the innocent and blaming the he Points to children playing in modern Berlin Parks As a lesson to forget old Ani the fallacy implicit in this is that no one is blaming Berlin five Jearolds for there is no such thing As a collective racial guilt for crimes in the second world those who see that War criminals must be prosecuted for capital crimes Are not blaming the inno but do hold that those men and women who took other five Jearolds from other Parks and murdered them carefully extracting their fillings for ingots and shaving their hair for mattress stuffing must be brought to account for their this brings us to professor Hughes second that be tween the categories of Justice and he finds it vindictive and vengeful to pursue War criminals after 40 but perhaps both of the above confusions should perhaps Best be seen As the symptoms of a More pernicious the significance of which goes beyond the immediate Issue of the prosecution of War Crim this belief is professor Hughes seeming equation on the moral plane the resistance to aggression with aggression he rightly observes that the very nature of War is but seems to ignore the fact that it was not the allies who caused the second world the hard fact of the matter was that the allies had to defend themselves against a barbarous and inhuman professor Hughes asks us if we have judged our own conduct by the same standards that we applied to the we our conduct and cause were infinitely to suggest otherwise is historical and moral Laurence Mardon 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 coverage the friends of Nicaragua com Mittee of Winnipeg recently car ried out an extensive Campaign to solicit Public support for understanding and self determination for Nicaragua and Central America we wrote letters and sent Tele Grams to Ottawa and More let ters to the local we have arranged for delegations to All Winnipeg maps and the Senate and to three Federal Cabinet ministers in we sponsored a weekend film festival on Central in addition to we invited three speakers Doug a Farmers Union member from who recently returned from a term in Nicaragua helping Campesino re pair their farm machinery father Eric Heiberg from Saskatchewan who on his recent firsthand experience in Nicaragua and pastor Valle the nicaraguan Consul general based in the information shared by these events should have been made Avail Able to a much wider there was not one representative of any Winnipeg paper or broadcasting station present to cover and report this important even though they were All Well informed of it in we also called a news conference to offer another Opportunity to the Media to hear the we were disappointed again when Only two reporters turned up and not one word was actually published or broadcast about the such an extensive local Effort for a serious International concern should have received better Media Atten it seems to us that our news editors need to better recognize local efforts to inform the Public on such vexing International we feel they rely too much on reports that Are provided from often very biased sources in the while editorials represent the Point of View of the medium in news reporting is purported to be in unfortunately this is not what is actually experiences like this cause one to wonder How Well a democracy can function and How intelligent Deci Sions can be made by its citizens if our most read or listened to Media refuse to properly inform must we conclude that sometimes they exist to manipulate rather than inform is their monopolistic Posi Tion being used to misinform and mislead where the searching questions of the Justice of our most sacred institutions Are being raised Menno Klassen friends of Nicaragua Winnipeg confusing this Daylight saving time is just another first i was much colder than i needed to be All Winter because the temperatures sound so much worse in right in the Middle of someone decides its necessary to change the name of the now just As Ive adjusted to writing 1985 instead of in told i have to move the to make things Ive forgot ten whether in supposed to move them Forward or for i have three so i can move one one and leave the third where it but surely there must be an easier Way Lake Manitoba end killing As we approach another mothers let us remember that it was originally proposed by Julia Ward Howe As a Day for the promotion of peace shortly before his the great american Franklin wrote today we Are faced with the preeminent fact if civilization is to we must cultivate the science of human relationships the ability of All of All to live together in the same peace voice of women joins with physic educators and other peace organizations in calling on our govern ment to oppose further escalation of the arms race into outer or into Canadas Northern the Hopes and prayers of past and would the words penned by another Mother for peace during the Vietnam War for mothers i do not want Candy or i want an end to Myrtle Wells Winnipeg buried Industry i sometimes think that health minister Larry Desjardins should have stayed in his former occupation of As he is doing every thing he can to Bury pharmaceutical research he does not realize that some Day or one of his just might need a life saving drug for which will never develop out of generic firms As their research is strictly a study of the to determine what to copy the research firms that his policies Are trying so hard to put out of business Are the Only Hope we have of devel Oping better treatments and cures than we already the generic firms that Des Jardins champions so strongly Are Only in the business of copying what someone else has spent years to promote and is and then Are not Able to sell because of his they do nothing to deserve what they Are awarded by ant free Enterprise Laws in the drug Industry has absolutely no Patent Protection and is slowly being driven out of business by socialist heaven forbid that Desjardins or one of his colleagues should re quire a drug that might have been developed but was not because the firms that were capable of coming up with new drug discoveries were driven out of business by the Gener these copy houses Are getting extremely Rich at the expense of firms that do research and pump profits Back into medical scholar donations of scientific equip ment and contributions towards continuing education in Medicine and generic houses do none of these the Cost to our Economy in lost lost professional people and few drug discoveries is too immense to something must be done to allow the innovator of a new drug to be Able to Market his product properly and make sufficient profits to enable him to continue doing research and Scrapneck Winnipeg sure youre but lots of people Are still i ;