Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 6, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Free Prada january focus record gets new crack report on race relations fails to achieve its goals by Abraham Arnold special to the free press another crack has Deve loped inthe record of the mayors race relations recently headed by this is the record which those apparently ungrateful City councillors had already broken and thrown away last june in favor of their own version of a committee which they have yet to but it seems that the Anderson record is not yet played out because even though he could not get any Money from City Council to keep his committee Anderson did manage to get a Grant from the department of the Secretary of state to undertake a study another study to prove to Council that there Are racial problems in the results of that study have recently been disclosed in a rather disorderly manner reminiscent of a comedy of errors in which the latest act was played out in the Happy new year edition of the free reporter Maria Bohuslawsky made the startling disclosure that no Money could be found to make sufficient copies of the study report which has already been question How come no one thought of simply asking mayor Bill Norrie to make enough copies of the at least for the members of the group which was still called the mayors race relations commit tee surely our Friendly mayor would have agreed to this last re quest from his own appointed com what role question what is the role of the Secretary of state in All this apart from providing a Grant the re Bohdan Krucko who was hired by Neil who was asked by Anderson to arrange for the study claims that Bill acting director for the Secretary of states department in was trying to Tell him what to it is difficult to imagine that Balan would have said the things attributed to him by but Why was Balan having any conversation with the researcher about what should or should not be in the when Mcdonald was supposed to be his supervisor apparently Mcdonald had Confidence in Krucko because of the Good works which he had produced it is quite probable that Mcdonald failed to realize that the new assignment was More politically sensitive than anything Krucko had done before and therefore needed closer question what was Krucko asked to do he was asked to identify factors affecting race relations in Winnipeg to gather data and Analyse issues and problems of race relations among Community groups and institutions to recommend strategies to contribute to the Resolution of the unidentified prob and to gather including Case to meet the foregoing he was also to use qualitative Dat gathering meth ods to produce documented Evi Dence of the the Anderson committee also seemed to be convinced that he study would Lead to preventative measures in place of reactive strategies in race in this expectation the committee was being Krucko did not produce a report with the kind of data that the committee asked if his re port represents the sum total of his it May be concluded instead of doing the kind of re search that was he mis interpreted his role to be that of an inquiry commissioner asked to As race relations were concern of civic committee headed by Anderson sess All those who have been involved in efforts to establish a civic race relations committee that would play a constructive function Al As a his report consists largely of a series of report cards on the various players this is not what he was asked to nor was he asked to write a history of the mayors race relations committee to which actually takes up the first 42 pages of his 62page fails to understand on Page 51 Krucko tells an Derson that what his committee should have done was to prepare a substantial Brief articulating illustrations of cases of racial tension and racial Inci dents he continues in this telling the committee what he thinks they should have it seems incredible that Krucko does not understand that he was supposed to provide the committee with the material that might enable them to prepare just such a at the outset of his he acknowledges about 60 people whom he interviewed and from whom he obtained these names include at least 20 who come from Winnipeg visible minority the groups whose members without a the primary victims of racial discrimination in our Community it is virtually certain that any and probably of those people could have Given him in stances of discrimination which they have experienced or know he May not have wanted to in clude specifics of cases of discrimination about which he but his report should at least have indicated that he acquired such if he did not acquire data about actual then he had indeed failed badly in his As it is now up to Neil Mcdonald to set the matter if he cannot get any More information from Krucko because the latter allowed himself to be carried away in the wrong then All Mcdonald has to do is to ask the right questions in the right places himself and he will discover the hard sound of smashing Glass stirs painful memories by James Stewart special to the free press Montreal is a time for nervous flashbacks in the flare of Molotov the sound of plat Glass windows break ing the delivery of Fly communiques to radio stations it All stirs painful memories of the 1960s and Early 1970s when the separatist movement turned to the incidents at the end of 1986 have been minor in nature and few in number firebombs thrown through the windows of a Zellers department store and an Auto parts store bricks through the windows of a couple of shops a few phoney bomb these look More like Petty Vandal ism than incipient but because the attacks seem linked to the smouldering language question in they Are causing much police Are investigating the possibility that the vandalism May have been committed by one or two Fly Type modelled on the terrorist activity of the front de liberation do Quebec of in 1970 the self styled revolution Aries of the in the name of a socialist and separatist kid napped British Trade commissioner James Cross and Quebec labor min ister Pierre and murdered As yet there is very Little evidence of any be Ofle a local radio station received a communique in which something called the z cell of the Fly claimed responsibility for tossing a Molotov cocktail at the Zellers a few Days earlier the Omega cell had claimed responsibility for a similar attack on a Northend Auto parts these along with the window smashing at the Mckenna Flower shop and another shop in the same All seem to be linked to the burning Issue of whether pub Lic signs should be in French As required by Quebec French Lan Guage Bill against Bourassa the vandals seem to be striking a blow for unilingual French in some kind of protest against pre Mier Robert Bourassaw Promise to permit bilingual and against the pre Christmas ruling of the que Bec court of the court has just ruled that the French Only sign provision violates the Freedom or expression Guaran teed in both the Quebec and Canad an charter of it said the provincial government could require that French be compulsory on All signs thus outlawing unilingual English but could not prohibit the use of another language along with six months ago this ruling might have solved Bourassaw language making it easy for him to legislate to permit bilingual but while the government waited for the court of Appeal the Lan Guage Issue began running out of the parti quebecois oppose nationalist and even some moderates in Quebec society raised a Broad front of concern about concessions to anglophone and the possible weakening of the status of it will now be very difficult for Bourassa to take any positive action to permit bilingual especially if the vandalism continues to attract Public attention without getting to the Point of arousing Public condom a burglary at Premier Bourassaw Home on Christmas Day seemed to be the work of profession Al thieves rather than budding Ter remain in effect for the time being Bourassa will probably choose to do the French Only sign Law remains in effect and the government has 90 Days in which to Appeal the Quebec court ruling to the supreme court of if the government does a the Law would remain in effect until the supreme court makes a final if the government does not bilingual signs would become Legal and the government would probably have to Amend Bill 101 either to comply with the ruling or to set some conditions on the use of bilingual another problem Bourassa has is How to react to the current Vandal it is a problem for businesses Mckenna Flowers was one of the five businesses which went to court for bilingual and they were not seeking the right to Post signs in English As some stub born merchants Here Are they All posted in French and in but since the Zellers has removed its English leaving Only the that was an understandable pre caution to protect clients and pm a cannot afford to give in to intimidation by a few Bourassa will have to remain Cool and while the police try to round up the the que Bec of the is nothing like the turbulent Quebec of the nip must seek out Middle Road on spending As the Bells rang in a new the provincial government was in no mood to having received a double whammy of a Margerthe projected deficit and the word from Ottawa that have not provinces would Only receive 50 per cent of an anticipated increase in equalization pay the nip realized there would be rough times standing on the the tories have been lambasting the insisting its fiscal mismanagement had created at least one of the aforementioned but they should not be too if their election promises and current demands were added the province would probably be in no better position with them in regardless of who might be in Manitoba taxpayers would be facing the possibility of paying problems have been apparent for some but the latest financial statement for the first six months of the current fiscal has under lined the potential trouble was indicated in the first Quarter financial which showed a net operating deficit of Mil lion million More than had been projected in the like most finance Eugene Kostyra said the figures for the first three months did not provide sufficient basis for realistic yearned it was too Early to determine whether there would actually be a significant he because the difference in actual expenditures and revenues from the original figures could be attributed to timing in Cash flow of receipts and like any finance Clayton Man Ness believed that report did not Bode Well for the if the latest financial under the dome Arlene Billinkoff statement is any he was total yearned expenditures were anticipated to be billion or million above the original while Revenue was projected at million below the expected amount adding up to a projected deficit of million More than had been True to Kostyra insisted the year end projection was subject to he was also careful to Point out that about million of the increase was of a special such As the Sale of the Busman factoring flyer industries and Hydro rate stabilization costs related to financing a Swiss in he blamed Ottawa for giving the province about million less in equalization payments than the current formula is he and in the past few months the Mani Toba government had taken measures to contain spending and intended to further tighten the purse strings in the How certain costs could not be As health and social which account for about two thirds of the budget Are the while the govern ment has been willing to reduce expenditures in areas such As highways and natural it has less flexibility in maintain ing essential Manitoba is must recognize the situation and realize the solution is higher deficits or higher said his administration intended to examine All possible options to increase Revenue and constrain growth of some options were presented in a special report prepared by former Cabinet clerk Michael they included the province taxing lottery winnings or absorbing lottery profits into a consolidated general extending retail sales tax to aut Opac premiums and various service taxes on net income and the value of land transfers and increasing taxes on retail sales and while the government has not yet deter mined which path it will some action will be Kostyra assured those who fear massive tax increases that the govern ment did not want Manitoba taxes to be significantly out of line with those of other we will be very manness did not believe the government could achieve that the seed of fiscal disaster was planted Early in the Pawley he and the latest financial report confirmed that five consecutive years of deficits close to million had crippled the governments ability to Deal with financial it was Little wonder they were contemplating tax he such action would vindicate tory charges about the govern ment misrepresenting the economic Pic the nip has demonstrated continuing inability to handle said tory Leader Gary there was a Lack of fiscal control with no idea of How to encourage the private he the Economy was Overly dependent on Hydro because of the governments failure to spend he feared that the deficit might go even that sounded but had the Leader and critic been listening to some of their fellow tories in the past few weeks there have been Calls for increased expenditures on health facilities in Brandon and More Highway funding for local government those were merely a few of tory confirming that each Side has its own priorities and demands for increased funding can continue a Way must be found to slow Down the spending without hurting essential services or penalizing the taxpayers beyond a certain finding the Middle Road is a difficult Challenge for any but it is the nip which now has the responsibility and the doonesbury by Garry Trudeau you i the news of How when turf you better t Toyo Urhan poin6thaj Rasa ;