Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 2, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free january Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3o 3c1 by newspapers division of Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 a member of the Manitoba press Council Arthur Wood publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 not quite ready for the 90s could we perhaps postpone the 1990s for a few years Canada is not quite ready for this country Federal politicians Are entering the final decade of the Century singularly ill equipped to Cope with the Challenge it they have mastered the rhetoric of the information revolution and the global but their actions and ideas remain rooted in the the Mulroney government appears too burdened with unfinished business to take any new economic initiatives if it could think of any to the first six months in the new year will be devoted to either Las minute attempts to Salvage the Meech Lake Accord More to watching in helpless despair As it runs Down the the last six months will then be spent coping with the political fallout created by the failure to make Quebec a willing and contented member of the constitutional there is still time and Opportunity to change the Accord in ways which will meet Quebec objectives without causing the damage to the National interest threatened by Meech there Little evidence that the political leaders in Ottawa and the provincial capitals have the strength and vision to grasp that on the economic the government will be bogged Down in its efforts to get its new goods and services tax passed by parliament in time to impose it on january putting a goods and services tax into place should not be terribly most countries in Canadas economic league have done it the Mulroney has managed to turn the tax into a Dagger aimed at its own while the government is struggling to fend off a Public revolt against the new it is also Likely to find itself trying to Cope with an economic if not a All this will leave it Little time to develop the Industrial policy and the programs for research and education and training which will be needed if Canada is to maintain its place in an increasingly competitive world canadians cannot expect much More help and guid Ance from their National opposition the new democrats have chosen a Leader for the next decade who has a number of admirable but whose political thought seems to be restricted to the recitation of old socialist the liberals appear ready to make the same sort of Jean the overwhelming favorite to become Leader in next junes offers no evidence that his ideas have evolved Over the past 20 his chief Paul generally gets the Futurist rhetoric right but that is not enough to disguise the banality of his candidates such As Lloyd Axworthy who have made themselves open to new thinking Are consigned to the fringes of the leadership the world will not be kind to slow starters in the race to the future but Canada seems doomed to be among stalinism last stand the dying Days of the in an obscure romanian town with the euphonious name of a dark and bloody deed took thousands of romanians according to most reports were massacred by the secret the Many of them were tortured before they were killed and buried in mass the Drivers of the garbage trucks that carried the bodies to the burial Sites were killed As Well to keep the atrocity it was the kind of thing that has not been seen in Europe since the Days of hitlers is killers and stains death one searing picture ranks with the worst from the a pregnant woman her belly ripped open and her baby near term killed As murder and torture can never be justified they can sometimes be explained As being meant pour encourager Les but there was nothing exemplary about this sadism it was never intended to be known and can Only have been done for the pleasure of the men who did it is a grim a bloody anachronism suddenly sprung to of what communism has meant to the rattle of machine guns in the screams of the victims in the torture May have been the death Knell of communism in the Eastern Romanias was the last communist government in the soviet bloc to and it fell the fastest and most a fitting epitaph for at the beginning of the 1980s at the beginning of that most remarkable of years no one would have predicted that As 1990 the face of Europe would be one by one they first it was the communist government of then in East Romania in All of these nations free elections have been promised for Early next year and in All of them the communists Are certain to be fort five years after Central and Eastern Europe were torn out by the soviet the continent has a Chance to be whole it is still Only a All five Eastern nations face immense challenges and uncertainties that they will not be Able to overcome without there Are challenges and uncertainties for the West As particularly for Western Europe As it moves towards 1992 and the goal of there is More of Europe to be taken into account now than the european Community dreamed would be possible when it started Down that events have happened so quickly that the West can hardly be blamed for not being prepared to Deal with it has the United the dec have All developed Aid programs to help keep the East on the Road to Reform but it seems Clear that an even More massive plan will be the nations of Eastern Europe have broken shattered at the end of the second world the Marshall plan helped rebuild Western something similar nothing less is needed today to undo the last brutal legacy of that the enslavement of Eastern this the initiative belongs to the nations of Western Europe who owe the greatest have the most to gain and can undertake the task with the least risk of upsetting the delicate balance that exists under soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev sofar benign poli Canada and the United should be generous in their if we have any doubts As to Why we we should recall the bloodstained images of a weak sense of nationhood outgrowing pornography before heritage and recreation minister Bonnie mitc Nielson sets up her proposed classification commission to Deal with videocassette she should take a look at the latest statistics on the decline of the Industry creating pornography in North they give a Clear indication that have outgrown pornography and Are getting tired of in 1986 new productions of video cassette pornography peaked at a Cost this figure dropped in a year by 10 per to and continues to displays promoting such material at the soft Wear dealers convention in Las vegas were Down by 40 per cent this the business at so called adult bookstores is the sales of magazines such As Playboy have dropped and even those Telephone sex lines Are not making nearly As much Money As they once the Only part of the Industry showing a growth is the number of anti pornography Jennifer writing in the Wall Street says that the stricken Market for sexual materials cannot justify the ballooning costs of prosecuting por Nogra while sales Are the budget for the National obscenity enforcement unit doubled Between 1987 and Steinhauer says that conservatives often com Plain about government programs that Are born Obs the present anti pornography push looks just like another such by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa the extraordinarily weak sense of nationhood which afflicts this country shows up with worrisome regularity in every Opin Ion poll that sets about a fresh exploration of the feelings English and French speaking canadians have towards each other and to wards the country they inhabit to canadians fortunate it is extraordinary in the first the people of most other countries consider canadians Fortu Nate to have this in the it runs counter to the emotions and collective reactions that have been common to virtually All nation states since that form of political organization the people of most nations do not simply when troubles and ten Sions beset their All lets break it up if that what the others yet that is the constant response of a near majority of English speak ing canadians when they Are asked if Quebec should be allowed to break the federation it has also been the position of All three Federal Polit ical parties since at least the mid unlike so Many people with a Normal sense of nationhood Are generally determined to pre serve their National territory at Al most any that one of the accepted Marks of a it is that at a time when so much of the world is moving towards larger forms of economic organization so Many French canadians Tell pollsters and Demon Strate by their voting patterns that they would be Happy to become a tiny country in a English speaking it has always been puzzling that Quebec nationalists believe they could preserve their language and to say nothing of their pros More effectively in this Way than by remaining within the Cana Dian federation where so much is done to protect the attributes that make them if the voting patterns in Quebec provincial elections did not tend to support the results of repeated polls it would be tempting to argue that the nature of polling is conducive in some ways to misleading this could apply to the extremes of opinion on both English and for polls that ask whether Quebec should be allowed to leave the federation if it wants to do not normally explain the practical con sequences of unlike the Atlan tic provinces or British Quebec does not lie at one of the geographic extremes of the Newfoundland could leave without disastrous consequences for the Cut in two lies in the heart of the canadians who say let it go Are also saying they do not care that this would leave Canada physically Cut in two with its parts separated by a newly created foreign the position of the Atlantic provinces would be disastrous and enormous practical prob lems would face the the Campaign that preceded the 1980 referendum Laid great emphasis on the economic consequences of current polls do preface their key questions to Quebe cers with a warning that free Trade with the United states which they have strongly supported disappear for a Quebec that had just become a separate an Independent Quebec Trade would face Normal american tar new Deal Uncertain the free Trade agreement is with not with the component whether Quebec could negotiate some new Trade agree ment with the United states is in especially if this were strongly opposed by a Canada in which bitter resentments had re placed the complacency shown to the even a damaged can Ada would be far More important to the americans than there remains an unrealistic As sumption that Canada could be torn apart in a smiling knowledge of human nature strongly suggests that As the painful costs were Felt a wave of sheer hatred would develop towards the people who had destroyed a country filled with so much the most curious of All aspects of this situation is How Little the Politi Cal parties and their leaders do to persuade canadians their country should be the Only Case being made at present revolves around the Meech Lake Accord and it is being put in the worst possible Way youd better accept it or blackmail will not preserve Cana run for cover since the Mulroney government has reformed our income tax system to make it More costly to All but the most reorganized our Trad ing patterns to throw thousands out of restructured unemployment insurance so those who lose jobs will also lose and now plans to update sales taxes so we shall All pay More for nearly every readers Are entitled to run for cover when a free press headline 30 proclaims tories to improve retirement unless Michael Wilson has experienced blinding insights since his last draft retreated under heavy improve is hardly the word that Springs to apart from those who have High incomes but no pension and so could put More into canadians will find the proposals highly Michael Wilson this Complex clutch of improve ments will limit employer contributions to our pension reduce flexibility in plan interfere in vital arrangements agreed Between employers and and take away precious rights that have been bargained and paid example Manitoba health care workers and teachers have Early retirement provisions which Wilson would Brand in the Case of these Are embodied in provincial legislation and Cost teachers million in hard too just As you make the last Ottawa will snatch away what you fought and paid some concerned including Many far More expert than fear the Agenda hidden by Ottawa under this cloak of improvement is to complicate and weaken existing defined Benefit the kind Cho sen by 95 per cent of As they will be replaced by less effective Money Purchase plans or this might Well fit a righting View that employees must not Coop Erate with each other or with pm but should individually face the risks of inflation and unstable such an Agenda reflects a poverty of ideas and assures for Many canadians poverty in Murray Smith Winnipeg Clear message we have to Send a Clear message to the members of parliament that if they vote for the proposed goods and services they will not be reelected it is time the people of Canada let the government know that we Are not willing to put up with any More of their stupidity and their arro Heidinger Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to progressive tax in rebuttal to the myriad of commentaries smearing the goods and services i would like to Point out perhaps a More encouraging if not a More plausible the get is not another level of it is a replacement for an archaic system of it is apparent that As the world be comes even More businesses must work closer with their Federal governments to maintain healthy As Japan and the european economic Community continue to therefore in order to sustain our own lofty Standard of we must do Given that the manufacturers sales tax places a disadvantage on domes tic producers of goods and hence while conversely helping for eign goods sell in it must be the get is a progressive tax system because those who can afford to buy the most goods and services such As extravagant restaurant weekly haircuts and other High priced luxury items will end up paying much More tax than someone who must buy reason ably priced goods less often and who May on top receive a tax credit for taxes paid on those the in will make those with More spending Power contribute More tax that is the anyone who wants a competent Economy to support our numerous social services and anyone who cares about having a prosperous future for our children should accept and endorse this while most politicians argue according to opinion Wilson by implementing this tax has demonstrated sincere concern for the future of Canada by opting for an a celebrated policy once fully will clearly serve As a viable Lon term i Salute Wilsons courage and his Damata Winnipeg marxist fog writing in the marxist fog which is Clearing from much of the but still hangs heavily Over much of Western Academia like so much toxic Donald Bailey of the University of Winnipeg states in the free press East Europe still gripped by history that in Russia 20th Century communism has displayed far More indebtedness to the arbitrary and unsympathetic governing approaches of the tsars than to any originally european socialist what formless bunk Bailey might As Well blame the failure of communism in the soviet Union on the childbearing practises of lenins grandmother or on the historical russian propensity for cabbage Rolls and the fact is marxism has proved to be intellectually and economically bankrupt wherever it has been be it in Albania or How pathetic and familiar it is to View the mental contortions to which Bailey and his fellow apologists subject themselves in their desperation not to end Upin what Marx called the dust bin of John Paskievich Winnipeg aggravation As a casual observer of the Politi Cal scene i was somewhat amused to read of the tories decision to Cut billion in spending by closing a dining room and not building statues of prime ministers it is amusing because for six years we have had to listen to Michael Wilson and friends bragging about their successes in reducing spending and yet it took All these years to get around to cutting obviously useless expenditures which should have been Cut six years amusement turns to at the thought of becoming a nation of tax collectors to pay for this governments David Miles Winnipeg rights of unborn among the Many resolutions at the recent nip Federal convention which could not be dealt with due to time constraints were two resolutions having to do with abortion on both were referred to the National Council of the party for As i have Little doubt that both will be endorsed by that i have a few the National brass of the As Well As Many who present resolutions to apparently be Lieve that new democrats generally subscribe to abortion on demand and there must be very few prolife people among the membership and i have decided it is my duty to make Clear that Here is one faithful new Democrat who does not hold that and i suspect there is a sizable body of new democrats who likewise oppose the party crusade for unlimited abortion at Public sex i believe that abortion is the end ing of a it is a form of i believe that violence begets Vio it will be difficult to build a peaceful world if we advocate Vio Lence against the one might ask the question As to whose category of life could be if one condones the eliminating of an unborn life it is not a big step to go one further and rationalize on scientific grounds at what stage an elderly no longer should be spared any further we new democrats Pride our and justly that we Over the been in the forefront on the question of human and one might pose the question to new democrats As to their stand on the rights of the one of the resolutions i refer to Calls for caucus Solidarity in prompting greater Access to i suspect there Are among the Federal caucus in Ottawa some maps who might be voting against his or her it just goes to say that we need More Independent thought and conviction among politicians and policy Magnus Eliason Winnipeg late so whats his excuse this time ;