Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 18, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free May Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights u published seven Days a week at 300 Gaffon 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 r6dekop controller a member of the Manitoba press Council Mem Mimi Chi my More bile Over human rights in Ottawa last week two american co chairmen of the congressional human rights commit said that soviet violations of the Helsinki accords human rights provisions Are so flagrant that the Reagan administration is considering whether there is any mint in the United states continuing to be party to the accords at this the american ambassador to the Confer ence in Ottawa that this month and next will examine the human rights performance of the 35 signatory nations made a speech in which he said that soviet actions in this area Are a major obstacle to agreements in other including arms with another Helsinki review conference was off to the usual acrimonious since the accords were signed in meetings have been held in Belgrade and Madrid to examine How they have been both of these were Long and argumentative As the Western nations detailed soviet abuses and the soviet bloc nations the Ottawa meeting is different in that it is the first to Deal solely with the performance of the member nations in human but in tone it is Likely to be at least As the Helsinki accords have two major which is important to is recognition of the inviolability of the postwar boundaries of which legitimizes soviet Hegemony Over Eastern the which is of value to the is the Basket of human rights provisions by which the signatories pledged by International agreement to respect the human rights of their it is a measure of the importance of the accords to the soviets that Moscow continues to show up at these meetings knowing that its systematic oppression of human rights will be held up for All the world to it is a measure of their importance to the West that none of the Western nations has withdrawn despite the blatant and consistent violation by the soviets of every single one of the accords human rights the two Points raised by the Are there Are Many who question what value there is if remaining party to an agreement that the soviets appear to have and intention of Ever there value to the when the Canadian government takes the soviet Union to task for refusing to allow the reunification of families divided Between the the two it can cite the Helsinki provisions by which Moscow agreed to facilitate when soviet dissidents Are jailed or sent to psychiatric when soviet jews Are denied the right to the West has the right through the accords to plead their Moscow customary response that these Are internal affairs and no one else business is Given the lie by the soviet signature on the this is As experience has a highly effective but it one of the few that West has and should not be thrown the soviet refusal to Honor the Helsinki accords also serves As ammunition for opponents of Amis control negotiations within the Reagan who argue that there is Little Point in attempting to make new agreements with the soviet Union when Moscow consistently violates previous ones it has made with Western it is unlikely that the arms negotiations in Geneva will fail because Moscow Renews its persecution of Andrei Sakharov and his or refuses to release Anatoly or sends a dozen More christians to labor Camps for studying the there is no that the continued soviet oppression in Viola Tion of the accords contributes to the distrust Felt towards the and that if Moscow made even a gesture As allowing the Sakharov and Shch Aransky to come to the West would help to improve the atmosphere in which those negotiations take there is no indication that the Kremlin under Mikhail Gorbachev will be any More humane in its human rights policies than it was under his a reduces if that is the the tattered Helsinki accords still serve a useful purpose As a reminder to Western negotiators of the character and nature of the men on the other Side and a caution to Deal very the purring premiers the first meeting of provincial premiers to take place since the last Federal election has made it Clear that a favorite former called has Given Way to what can Only be called gentle constructive Ottawa is no longer the but a Friend to be consulted with and the premiers Agenda included the topic Federal pro Vinci Al at most previous meetings the same subject was called Federal provincial the on Page communique on the subject issued this year at Grande Alberta contained none of the harsh wording to be found in the the Western premiers agreed that a High degree of prior Consulta Tion among the Federal and provincial governments is necessary in order to ensure that discussions at the annual first ministers conference in november Are any shifting of Federal responsibilities got Short shrift in the this year the wording used was recognizing that Federal and provincial governments serve the same the Western premiers stressed that the Federal government must not shift its deficit to the provinces through reductions in Federal Transfer on the subject of Federal the premiers wording had the texture of refined the premiers the communique the need for Federal and provincial governments to work cooperatively to ensure the predictability and adequacy of Federal contributions to health and pos secondary education the review of established programs including any discussions on Post secondary education and health should be coordinated by Federal and provincial treasurers and ministers of the closest the four premiers could bring themselves to real criticism was their comment on the report prepared by former Csc president Al Johnson which called for a restructuring of Federal University Grants in order to Force provinces to pick up a greater share of the the Western premiers rejected any at tempt to focus on artificially defined Federal contributions to pos secondary nowhere in the communique could be found any evidence of Premier Howard Hawleys be fore the conference that relationships with Ottawa had deteriorated to the Point where his Western colleagues would feel compelled to put the interests of their own people ahead of their political Friendship with the new Federal an Eye on Nursery schools at a Charleswood Nursery school last some of the parents disagreed with the Way their infants were treated by the staff of the logically they took their children out of the other parents were not dissatisfied and continued sending their children after a judge heard the evidence about what was done in the he was not Able to find that the place should be the nub of the disagreement appeared to be what sort of discipline is appropriate and what is there was no question of children being maltreated in ways that most people would condemn As nor is there any difficulty about suppressing severe maltreatment that is known to be happening i anyone knows of children being the police and the child welfare authorities have the Power to enter the premises and Rescue the Community services minister Muriel has drawn a different conclusion from the Charleswood the she has is that her officials did not have sufficient Power to stage raids on Nursery schools when a Parent says her child was treated in a Way she disapproves nor had they the Power to seek a court to close an establishment where children Are in she seeks legislature action to give her department those in the Charleswood the parents dissatisfied with the treatment of their children dealt with the difficulty in the Best possible Way by sending their children else where and making known their understanding of the Way the Centre treated other parents were then free to make up their own on their basis of their own information and their own views about the treatment of a raid by Smiths inspectors would not Likely have turned up useful additional the parents who sought to close the establishment would have been spared Legal expense if the department had acted in their place to seek the but the facts would have been the same and the courts conclusion no the province probably should have the Powers Smith the Way a Nursery school treats children is Public any such establishment should be proud and Happy to let adults of any especially Provin Cial government Day care come in and see How the place where an establishment is found to Lack imagination or intelligence in its handling of the people in charge can be encouraged or ordered to take some training and try other if they the official criticisms can be made known to parents and the with an Opportunity for the establishment to the drastic action of closing a place Down can Only be considered where authentic child abuse is on the facts that were shown to the it would not apply to the Charleswood gallery Phi the great trek to the opera by Christopher Dafoe special to the free press 1 realize for reasons that May be perfectly Queen Victorias birthday is being celebrated a week Early this Queen who has been dead for most of this Cen wont but a few die myself among plan to Honor her late majesty on May for Queen Victorias birthday always brings thoughts of opera orgy Back in the the May 24 Victoria Day Long weekend was a period of opera there was hardly any opera in Canada in those far off times Jon Vickers was still driving a truck and most opera fans got their main taste of Wagner and from the saturday afternoon metropolitan opera broadcasts on the every year on the May 24 Long the metropolitan opera company visited the twin cities of Paul for a series of performances and crowds of Winnipeg opera enthusiasts trekked Down to see the operatic idols of the travel arrangements Seldom Var we used to squeeze into a car after work on Friday and drive for most of the stopping at a Motel about two hours out of Minne Apolis to sleep for a couple of hours followed by a cold Shower and a groggy arrival at the hotel in Minne Apolis for lunch and carried along on a tide of we took in four or five operas in three attending performances staged during afternoons and eve we must have been the head spins to think about it now at the it was sheer Bliss and a Victoria Day without an opera and a bit of a hangover was the met did not restrain itself in those All the top singers went on tour and full productions were mounted at every during Sev eral seasons we heard singers As Zinka Leonard Lily Jan Kirt Renata Lisa Dela Casa and Roberta Peters in a full Range of operatic productions and it May Well be because we did not get any live opera in we relished that Minneapolis weekend As the years musical interminable the thought of nearly half a dozen operas in three Days seems a trifle excessive at this late but when you Are 20 you can take it in your for three Days we had opera coming out of our ears and if the met had announced that the visit would be extended for a further three Days we would gladly have sat through All the extra and those performances were they were staged in a Large theatre on the University Campus and for some reason the scene changes be tween acts were not easily some of the intermissions lasted an hour and you could often do a com plete tour of the Campus on foot Between some people brought others sat under the Trees destroying themselves with Strong you could go behind the the atre and watch the scenery being loaded and unloaded or Chat with one of the singers who had come outside for a we heard a lot of great singing during those Minneapolis perform but there was also a fair amount of incidental comedy to divert the during the Early 1950s we witnessed the last Days of the Fleshy opera one of the final flowering of the Tenton most opera stars train their bodies As Well As their some of them even take acting Les even in the 50s acting was beginning to but a few of the stars Clung to the View that if the voice is nothing else rotund lovers a performance of the Tomb scene in Aida was particularly amusing the Tomb scene is supposed to be intensely but on this Occa in spite of splendid it brought the House Kurt and the two rotund faced each other at opposite sides of the singing As they they staggered toward each the stage shaking visibly under their heavy at Centre stage they met with a re sounding thump elephants colliding linked faced the and fell to their the Hall on another occasion another immensely Fleshy diva introduced a note of comedy into the final tragic moments of Umberto Giordans Andrea fans of that opera will recall that in the final scene the hero assists the swooning diva up a Long flight of Steps to the Guillotine where both will be decapitated As the curtain on this occasion the Limp diva weighed in at about 300 the Tenor who attempted to carry her up the stairs resembled the celebrated 90pound his task was Al most singing his heart he staggered up the stairs with a dead weight pulling his tiny arms out of their every step or two the swooning diva would revive and attempt to heave herself the the Guillotine the Muse of tragedy Happy in our cheap seats in the Back we opened our Martini Shaker and drank a Toast to Queen opera has Seldom been so much fun since Manitoban must resist the nuclear arms race the Resolution introduced by pre Mier Howard Pawley declaring the province a nuclear free Al though symbolic in will prove to be of Merit if it increases Public debate on the Issue and mob minuteman control Lizes opinion against the mad course of the particularly Winni will be extremely Vulner Able in a nuclear and we should impress on Ottawa that we oppose any action that might feed the Esca lation of the arms such As support of the research for Star Manitoban have every reason to support the peace it is no exaggeration to say that Winnipeg will be a prime target area in the event of nuclear this is be cause of the concentration of nuclear missiles in North a few Miles from the Manitoba these missile Sites would be a prior Ity should a dreaded nuclear War no other state has so Many nuclear weapons deployed on its says a report by the City grand this fact gives Rise to the Standard joke that were we to secede from the we would be the worlds third largest nuclear the Ether Side of the joke is that we have the largest number of targets for a nuclear Captain James retired from the has stated in an Worter interview that nuclear War could be a greater calamity to Winnipeg than to it has been stated that there would be no strike at Moscow or Washington to make cer Tain some nucleus of government remains to effect a surrender or a but Winnipeg would be More of a target because it is close to the minuteman missiles in North in any says a first strike target would he the missile Lush is an associate director for the Centre for defence inform a highly respected Agency in Washington he has worked extensively with nuclear weapons from their in the period from to he was commander of a Polaris and of the Robert d the second missile fir ing he maintains that the Public has been omitted from much of decision making in the nuclear arms from the very Start the Public was not consulted about the atomic Congress did not even know it was approving Money to develop the the in a report this expressed dismay at the emphasis on military solutions in an analysis of americas secret the buildup of special operation forces these Are military commando units trained for guerrilla Covert operations and they Are under going an unprecedented peacetime unlike the Cias Covert notes the the Pentagon is not required to report details of Sof activities to con what is alarming to Canada is that the deployment of this Force reflects the Reagan administrations re Liance on military instead of Diplo Matic according to the it is used As a Way to con front the soviet Union in the third renewed emphasis on Sof says the reveals the administrations tendency to View All global issues As part of the East West its penchant for relying on military initiatives to Deal with foreign policy problems and its support of Covert the Centre sharply criticizes its backing of no democratic coun tries by providing support for authoritarian regimes through Mili tary training and Sof contributes to the undermining of americas Basic principles of democracy and Sof activities can be important in sustaining dictatorial regimes which have deplorable records in human rights and economic it cites the special operations forces As one Mere Clear application of the Keigwin administrations policy of seeking military solutions to third world problems it should concentrate on diplomatic and economic initiatives which address the Root causes of the con the Centre for per once information that special operations forces Are needed for their original purpose of supporting conventional forces during Large scale War and disruption in the enemy not for a new flood of peacetime Covert actions which Cre ate the obvious risk of dragging the United states into the Pentagon acknowledges that special operations forces Are the most heavily used military forces if Manitoba is to play a role in furthering peace in the it should impress on the Mulroney administration the need to pursue a positive stance and not be tied to an ally whose policies May not coincide with our we help the cause of world peace by being an Independent and by speaking up against Bellicose laying wreaths on memorial pay is a futile gesture unless we reinforce it with opposition to any buildup of the nuclear the legislative representing the people of does have a role to play in presenting these Winnipeg is m the War zone the concentration of nuclear weapons is beyond across the at grand Forks air the weapons Are equal to times the destructive Power of the Hiroshima ;