Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 11, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg frs press May paoe7 the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters froth writers most give their re Fame and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to readers forum Grant still controversial the letter under the heading multicultural Grant Story mid to be incomplete free May 4 by Tom executive director of the citizenship Council of the inter National Centre deserves n the multicultural committee recommended the hiring of a coordinator whose primary task was supposed to be the organization of a National conference on racism to be held in the which was to have taken place in the Spring of has been postponed by the Powers that and the coordinator at the present deals with multicultural concerns d the Aims of the As Well As a budget were prepared by me and brought before the executive by the then Vic chair Man of the multicultural this followed a presentation by the initiators of the conference idea to the then executive Beth the representative of the Secretary of state and others in the d if the citizenship Council had applied for a Grant for the Confer ence no controversy would have an application was made in the name of the committee without its and names of committee members were used without their knowledge and approx d Secretary of state officers in Winnipeg have been strangely silent on the question of who actually filled out the Denton says he was assisted in the develop ment of the Grant who is to blame for the foul up the part detailing the pro posed multicultural program was not extracted from a proposal for the Grant by the but was extracted from the preliminary plan of activities for 1985 of the multicultural part of these activities started in while others had been carried out before the Grant application was received by the Secretary of d Denton is right in saying the committee has no financial author How come he signed the Grant application As the treasurer of that committee t cannot agree that the handling of the Grant was an administrative 1 Hope As an and Denton does not really believe this he apologized for the Way the Grant application was something must have been it is True that the Board of the Council voted eight to three that the Grant application was routinely handled in a manner consistent with Board policy and administrative practice meeting april that Denton explanations were rubber stamped by the Board does not make the procedure it is not True that the committee accepted Denton it accepted his i did suggest that the Money be returned to its source and reapplied for in the Cor rect i assure Denton that there is no hidden the people involved in this matter do not operate with hidden they just want to make sure that the Money of the Canadian taxpayer is allocated according to certain the Public has every right to know what happens to its tax Beate a Mizrachi Winnipeg enquiry wanted since my name has come up in the letter multicultural Grant Story said to be incomplete free May 4 concerning the controversy surrounding a Federal government Grant applied for by the executive director of the International Tom for a multicultural the time has come to com ment briefly on the the fact remains that it was Denton who applied for a Grant in the name of an elected committee without the committees knowledge that this Grant application contained the names of committee members As applicants without their knowledge that Denton signed the application As the treasurer of the commit tee even though he knows very Well that he is neither a member of the committee nor does the executive of the committee include the position of a the excuses Given now by Denton seem rather lame for a Man of the continuous hints by Den ton and the president of the Olga that there May have been something unethical in the Way i was hired does not hold the hiring practices of the Centre lean strongly on the patronage system and on who knows i was hired without a As was the executive this practice continues to this Day in most cases and therefore not always the Best person is hired for the i would suggest to All parties involved that an Independent enquiry look into the entire operation of the citizenship Council of the International Centre and set accepted guide lines for the important Public ser vices provided by the Centre with Public Yoram a Mizrachi Winnipeg a different Albania with regard to the article by Joel Kettner slandering Little Alba Nia free april for Many com have used Albania As their Model of the perfect it is a country that is not Well making it easy to distort the facts Kettner has Kettner states correctly that Albania is not the poorest country in Europe and then implies be cause of Central planning and collect it is better off than other european this is not Albania has had in the has now and will have in the future one of the lowest standards of living in it is a country where shortages of Basic goods such As food and cloth ing Are Kettner says that the profit motive has been eliminated and the Standard of living of All people is rising while the former May be True and the at the connection be tween the two is not the writer claims that Albania is the most democratic country in the that political Power is in the hands of the the reality is that the few people who Are at the top in the party decide the people have to accept these policies As they have Little no direct Power and no they cannot vote someone out of although i am sure that somewhere there is a Constitution or declaration that shows Albania is governed by the the truth is somewhat Kettner the rights of the people Are this is it is illegal in Albania to have a House of a better quote would be the rights of the party Are guaranteed or the rights of the people Are guaranteed so Long As they suit the needs of the Kettner asks Why not pres ent a True picture of Albania i ask him the same Johnson Winnipeg glorious Albania in his article slandering Little Albania Joel Kettner extolled the greatness of he took great pains to Point out How Marx ism and leninism had saved the country that the lowest paid worker earns half of what the highest paid government minister earns in that Why if marxism and leninism Are so great and Albania so does not Kettner move there and give up his High salary As a which i am sure is More than twice that of the lowest paid Canadian Why does if he is against Call himself surely he must know that in our capitalist society calling himself Kettner makes him sound More important than just if Albania is so great Why does it not allow people to leave the country who want to Why does it not allow foreign government officials to visit the country Why did the picture the free press ran of Albania show people dressed like russian peas carrying a heavy Load Down a deserted Street surely that cannot Bethe picture of the glorious Albania Kettner painted in his Friesen Winnipeg too Good i found Joel Kettner article interesting because it stated in a typical Way the attraction socialism has had in most parts of the world during the last with the coming of the Industrial people came to believe that industrialism offered them the Prospect of a secure Karl Marx enunciated this belief in political terms since intellectuals have been attracted by the possibilities of the socialist the history of the 20th Century is Replete with examples of socialist governments that have been at tempted and have socialism is discredited in Many parts of the where the human misery created by socialist experiments is it is Nice to be reminded that there Are places where socialism has not failed Albania being if we accept Kettner re port on that country at face his report is just too Good to be and the last word on albanian socialism will not be said until the shortcomings of modern albanian society Are also the influence of a powerful Leader is sometimes in the Case of Enver he gave Albania a workable the greek rightly called democracy the worst possible form of democracy is a dubious rallying cry against politic ally powerful the article rightly scorns the whose stereotyped ideas about Albania and about Hoxha were trotted out on the occasion of his the virtue of Kettner article is that he demystify some of the unreal ideas about Albania that have been widely held during my Ward Winnipeg threat from pcs leaked from this transformer was Reader facts about pcs for the last three weeks i have tried to find out How deadly pcs really aspirin is about 10 times As the ingredients of dristan and similar cold remedies 100 pcs Are a local fumes give you red eyes does household ammo Nia with a skin they Are rather poorly absorbed and if you inhale them even in High concentration for a Short your blood level will be imm Asur a study on Over workers who suffered heavy and prolonged exposure when working with pcs years ago did show significant tissue Levels apart from Eye and skin they were remarkably healthy and their rate of cancer was actually below the Only in Yushok were More Seri Ous poisonings those people consumed Oil contaminated not Only with but also furans and and that Over a prolonged period of even no deaths were directly attributed to the Only serious problem with pcs is their remarkable stability which enables them to enter the food Chain through cattle As a it is possible that they might end up in humans or cause problems in As we have seen with i have never suggested that the Highway near Kenora should not have been cleaned by the responsible party after the pcs but i find it irresponsible to frighten people the Way it was done in i feel particularly sorry for the pregnant woman who must have spent a few sleepless nights Only because some people could not be bothered to find out a few Well known facts before they started talking about something they really did not know anything Heinisch Winnipeg Bishops actions defended recent news stories regarding a statement of support for striking Eaton workers by the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops Episco pal commission for social affairs has obviously raised the ire of Busi Ness irate posturing or self serving criticism will not and should not detract from the Bishops Central charge that private Enterprise system is not an equitable it is improper to suggest that the Bishops know not of what they picketing Eaton they Are scholars in their own More disturbing Are the suggestions that a religious body is interfering unduly when it pleads the particular cause of no unionized the right to so interfere dates from the example of Jesus driving the Money changers from the tem for centuries the business encouraged by sympathetic govern ments of the denied working people the enjoyment of civil rights and decent social up until joining a Union subjected one to a charge of conspiracy in restraint of not until the 1940s were employers required to recognize and to bargain with a Trade who knows better than Winnipeg Gers the turmoil of the 1919 general caused by employer and government refusal to recognize organized Trade More legislation we know As unemployment safety and human cup and private pension plans came about despite consistent opposition from business it is not Good enough to say or infer that workers never had it so Only when the misery of mass unemployment is overcome and when the crime of hunger is no More can it be said that a system is functioning the Bishops Are to be commend Nels Thibault Winnipeg most religious to the members of the Winnipeg chamber of Commerce and the downtown Winnipeg association who denounced the roman Catholic Bishops for supporting striking Eaton workers on the basis that Church leaders should stick to religious matters and not meddle in business and economic affairs i would Point out that work is the most religious of lifes in the Christian work is a participation in the ongoing Crea Tion and building of the the scripture Illus trates this in its stories of creation in which god worked for six Days and rested on the seventh Day and gave the responsibility for the build ing and care of the Earth to woman and of includes business and economic revealing injustices and standing with the the exploited and the oppressed is the most religious of concerns and a duty that the Church would ignore at its Eleanor Ulasy Winnipeg guidelines needed to set role for political wives by Anthony Westell special to the free press Ottawa when external affairs minis Ter Joe Clark went on an official visit to the soviet Union Maureen Mcteer went not Only As his wife but also As a member of the delegation holding her own talks with soviet government last prime minister Brian Mulroney attended a conference of first ladies on drug abuse organized by Nancy Reagan in the United states she flew on a government plane it was she was representing these Are new roles for the wives of politicians in and they move our political customs closer to those of the United they Are important also because they Are part of the presidential style of the new conservative wives of prime ministers and senior ministers in the past have played a variety of More in private than in Public and never As Public officials in their own prime minister John Diefenbaker a second travelled with him on official occasions and political and obviously was a of strength and of sign fied and Ladylike in re member that the travelling press corps once presented her with a pair of As a Token of esteem she was thought at first to exercise a restraining influence on her per sensitive and unforgiving husband later we discovered that she shared and encouraged his suspicions and but she was a political wife who played no significant Public role beyond assisting her prime minister Lester pearsons also was in the tradition of political although her influence on her husband seems to have been very different from that of she dutifully appeared with him on political but rather than encouraging him to think he was a great she liked to remind him that he was mortal and fallible by taking him Down a Peg or two thereby contributing to his endear ing Quality of self deprecating when he was external affairs minister and Tele phoned with High drama to report that the government had been Defeated and that he was out of she told him to Stop at the store on his Way Home and pick up the and once when he was touring his constituency As prime taking Coffee and doughnuts at local he asked if anybody had any problems to bring and Maryon said to have piped three coffees and two to her goes the credit for the memorable phrase that Pear son loved to behind every successful Man stands a surprised you might a great party but probably the sort of wife that every powerful politician should Margaret of was quite sometimes she wanted to play the game of political appearing with Pierre on Liberal making speeches on his and talking him up to on other she wanted nothing to do with politics and was something less than charming to in the 1974 Cam she tried both travelling with her husband and at an end selection telling a spokesman for the journalists who sought compliment her to get in words of four and three maybe she would have liked a Nice pair of the Point about these three remarkable women was that their political activities were essentially partisan rather than gov they held no Public not even the honorary title of first lady because that belonged to the wife of the and now of course to the governor general Maureen Mcteer has always made Clear that in addition to being she intends to be her own person with her own career and More strength to but what right or qualifications does she have to represent Canada in discussions with the soviet government Mila Mulroney is the first wife of a prime minister to have her own staff in her husbands official and when she attended a conference of first she was although not actually a title and a representative status that is not the changing status of women makes inappropriate for most wives the role of Dutiful supporter of the great but we have not yet worked out what a new role might be in a parliamentary Toronto Star doonesbury by Harry Trudeau i have seen pictures of in have ;