Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 9, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba I free january Winnipeg free press of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights it 11 published seven Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3d 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 nothing wrong with a hotel the Johnson terminal building near the Forks Market is derelict warehouse which begs to be renovated and brought Back to the Forks renewal Corpora Tion has found a pair of users a Steinbach group with plans for a hotel and the German Canadian Congress which Means to use part of the building As a cultural the the province and the Forks renewal corporation should encourage these projects and try to ensure their the other leading options Are to demolish the solid old warehouse or to leave it neither course is a responsible Way to manage the Public assets entrusted to the Trievel renewal the renewal corporations sharpest critics in the greening of the Forks association reacted with immedi ate horror to the news that the derelict warehouse would come Back to life As a hotel and a Germa Canadian cultural if other potential users had come Forward with appealing and financially feasible plans for the there could be grounds for objecting to the hotel and cultural Centre none has Green Forks advocates Are emphatic that they do not wish to see an a tinker town or a West Edmonton mall built on the Forks any such project would be highly the greens should make a loud noise if they learn of plans to put vacant Forks land into any of those revival of an existing does not use up vacant a hotel and a cultural Centre will tend to keep the site populated and Active at hours when the existing Market is closed or Little it will encourage More people to use and enjoy the National historic Park and the Market it will help bring the whole site to archaeological finds at the site show that for thousands of years people have been meeting there to to live and to buy and sell there is nothing wrong with allowing those same uses on the site now that it has been rescued from its use As a the main perils to be avoided at the Forks Are haste and loss of land to new excessive Speed of development is a danger because a High powered development corporation has been established with nothing much to do except produce tangible results at the the Quick and easy Way to do that is to build things which politicians can inaugurate during their election erection of new buildings on vacant Forks land needs to be discussed at length because it will tend to close off possibilities for the a succession of owners have had trouble making a commercial Success of the nearby fort Garry the per co group from Steinbach will need Good Luck and astute management to make a Success of their hotel in the Johnson terminal Green Forks advocates need not use the hotel if they disapprove of but they should judge it by its not by their own needed environmental cops any Law which has very few enforcement officers to uphold it is at Best a Good intention and at worst a much of Canadas environmental Protection Law fits that As Liberal environment critic Charles Caccia first then the governments record of charges Laid under a number of Federal pollution Laws is it would be soothing but naive to imagine that few polluters were caught because there were very few to the truth of the matter is that there were too few patrolmen and too few investigators to do the Job the government knows it added five More enforcement officers nationwide this a further increase in enforcement staff in Environ ment Canada should be among the first priorities for environment minister Lucien Bouchard and his col leagues As they determine spending for the next fiscal what a half dozen government Environ ment Canada chief among told Caccia in response to his written question was that few charges were Laid in 1987 and fewer in environment Canada Laid a Mere 66 charges in the whole country throughout both at environment Canada interpreted its efforts in the most generous of it included 20 or so charges under the Federal fisheries act Laid by the province of Ontario which strengthened its enforcement staff after the Liberal government took charges under the fisheries act accounted for 52 of the 66 charges Laid and resulted in the highest penalty imposed among All successful a Mere when former environment minister Tom Mcmillan spoke grandly four years ago of bringing in a new Canadian environmental Protection act he talked of million Dollar fines and jail terms for the most pernicious of the country he dubbed Deli berate pollution the most serious of White Collar what Caccia was told by the department is that two charges have been Only one of which resulted in a successful prosecution and a tap on the there is a huge Gap Between the rhetoric and the in the Western for what concerned environment Canada enforcement staff most in the first months of Cepa were scores of inspections to ensure that an interim order on storage of poly chlorinated biphenyl on Federal property met Federal Only one resulted in what the department called an enforcement which amounted to a warning and an inspectors directions to clean up a potentially hazardous Bouchard has asked his Cabinet colleagues for a very Large increase in his departments budget and an increase in staff in the order of 30 per it is unlikely that he will receive All that he has As Cabinet pares Down wis lists to it should give environment Canada the staff it needs to enforce existing no one was Ever protected by Good intentions democracy in the Csc the executives of the Canadian labor Congress Are reportedly at loggerheads Over the future of their Shirley they in perfect Solidarity on one thing Carrs future in the Csc will be decided not by the dues paying members of Canadian unions but by the labor a number of Canadian Union leaders have decided that Carr is not proving to be the Leader Canadian labor needs for the truth to she does often seem to belong in another the powerful and ambitious Robert White of the Canadian Auto workers Union has made it Clear that he wants her out and there is speculation that he wants her Job for that is a perfectly Normal situation in any healthy in the one might have expected White to announce that he intended to run against Carr for the presidency at the Clos next is not the Way things happen in the White has made it Clear that he will not Challenge for the leadership at the he will not run unless Carr first Steps White wants everything settled before the convention so that he can be elected by As Csc presidents customarily Carr got the Job that Way As did her predecessor Dennis contested elections for president Are somehow seen As bad taste in Canadas parliament of the Issue of the presidency is not to be settled on the floor of the convention but at closed door meetings of the Csc that is a curious attitude for Canadas Union move ment to it has traditionally been devoted to democratic though the principle of Solidarity can occasionally conflict with the principles of Democrat surely the Csc is not so fragile and threatened that it cannot allow delegates to its convention to choose their own if the Canadian labor movement wants to win itself More clout and it could begin by making the process of choosing its Leader at least As open and democratic As of the progressive conservative party of Canada or the social credit party of British no one is speaking for Equality by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa in his though pro voting article in policy options the author of be deft Quebec civil servant Christian analyses two distinct trends within its society which French Canada has difficulty reconciling and which affect its relationship with the rest of internally there is a need to organize a principally French society there is a need to participate in the whole of Canada and North he serious omission Dufour traces the first priority to preservation of the French character of from the intendant through the quiet revolution of Jean Lesage to the parti the need to be part of North America is represented by the Early co Reurs de Bois of new along with the car Laurier and the difficulty in reconciling these two trends affects All canadians and responses from both sides Are required for a it seems to me that there is a serious omission in Dufous discussion his article does not men Tion the enormous influence exerted Over the development of Quebec by the Ultra Montaine Catholic Bishops from Bourget and Lafleche in the later 19th Century to Cardinal Villeneuve in the 1930s and they were nationalistic and foes of All Liberal aggressive in their determination to preserve Quebec Catholic and French character by keeping its people out of the main Stream of North american economic and social they pre vented the introduction of compulsory education in Quebec until Many decades after the rest of the their Power was so great that without Cardinal Villeneuve reluctant consent in 1940 Premier Adelard Godbout would have refused to risk the educational reforms essential to dismantling the Barrier Between Quebec and the North american it was the introduction of compulsory education in 1940 and the flow of people from the Countryside to the cities to get the new jobs available in the War factories that ended the Power of these powerful they played a crucial role in Cana Das development and All French and English Are Lega tees of their influence even we Are struggling today to make adjustments which should have come with earlier Quebec entry into North american should indeed have been faced squarely at the time of the quiet revolution was in Large part a rebellion against the narrow constraints imposed by a Catholic Church whose dominant clergy for a Century had been closer in spirit and action to those of Ireland and Spain than to the Church in fairer sharing the question facing canadians today of what can be done to create a Canada that will bring greater satisfaction to its various Many of us thought this was being achieved by Pierre Trudeau drive to produce greater Equality and a fairer sharing of Power be tween the two main it is that this has not satisfied Quebec it is not the trend of Laurier and tru Deau that is dominant there today but of the nationalists who seek special status for the province and the constitutional Power to impose discriminatory language Legisla one possible of would be to concede special status but by itself that would not ensure Harmony in the Dufour Points out that the Canada of Sicul institutional bilingualism and the charter of rights is not efficient in confronting either the problem of Quebec nationalism or Western Senate Reform the broader regional problem has been addressed by another of the leading figures of the Institute for research on Public Gordon he believes that far reaching Senate Reform is the Essen tial counterpart to the Compromise for Quebec embodied in the Meech Lake Robertsons Long experience at the heart of Canadian government As Secretary to the Cabinet con Vinced him that existing institutions do not achieve adequate concern for the interests of the outlying this has led him to support an elected Senate with equal representation from each province the Structure that has succeeded so Well in the United Meech Lake would gravely impede genuine Senate Reform by Transfer ring the patronage of the present system to the provinces through the Rule of giving every province the Power to Block it in the concept of a nation based on Equality seems to be que Bec does not accept it there is nowhere an important or influential spokesman for the nations preservation May lie in far More extensive Reform than the Meech Lake Accord famine Aid five years ago Canadian entertainers mobilized massive amounts of funding to assist starving people in steelworkers negotiated a Penny an hour wage deduction to Aid the governments and citizens alike dug deep into their pockets and came to the Rescue of this drought Ridden now a famine of unprecedented proportions has put four million at risk of starving to death by this Ethiopia is affected by both fam Ine and it is More difficult than in to get Relief to the people in this country via govern ment protected the territory most affected by the famine is in rebel ethiopian famine Canada should reject the ethiopian governments resistance to food Aid being brought into the rebel our government should act now to support the existing Back door route from neighbouring it is time for the Canadian government to insist that and the liberation put their people first and agree to the Safe passage of with Canadas recent cuts to for eign Aid billion Over five years there is a risk that Ethiopia May be or that desperately needed Relief will be taken from other important abandoning Ethiopia now would Only serve to undo Canadas seven years of support the worlds third largest donor in 1987 and would be morally to delay now will condemn our past efforts and mean certain death for the children who once thanked Bruce Allen Gerard Doc Quier Toronto double disaster this has not been a Good time for the forbearing wildlife of Manito Many were killed in the Forest fires that ravaged the this natural disaster was Fol Lowed closely by a manmade discs on the Manitoba government announced that they were about to provide a million Grant to the trappers to replace and upgrade their trap lines so As to ensure that anything escaping the fire did not escape the by now it is obvious to everyone but the members of our provincial Cabinet that trapping is an Una vory and obsolete Enterprise which should not be propped up by an enlightened Charles Bennett Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to flying in cold two implied accusations were levied against North winds in the free press article death arouses criticism one was that the air plane was very tardy in getting to the gods River and the other that the cold air plane had some effect on the outcome of the it should be clearly under stood that the first Contact that was made to North winds for the medevac was at As one of the pilots on the flight i was phoned a minute or so later and i gave an estimate of arrival at gods Narrows of Between 12 and we were to pick up the doctor at gods Narrows and then take him to gods River to pick up the in the Winter it is Normal to expect about 45 minutes to an hour Between the phone Call and the air plane being this is due to the fact that the air plane has to be pulled from a hangar and warmed up to operating temperatures before it can take we did land at gods Narrows at 12 to pick up the doctor and we landed at gods River at so the response time was predictable and was quite acceptable for the As even the Federal health department zone director commented at the end of the As far As the air plane being one must not forget that it was at least that night and be it a or will get cold after 45 minutes of being shut the doctor left to assess the patient and said he would be Back As soon As we had no Way of knowing what time to warm up the air plane and it is unreasonable to expect us to leave the air plane running for an indefinite period of there would be More Hazard involved with leaving the engines and propellers turning when people Are than any Benefit of keeping the air plane warm All the if we Are forewarned of the departure we can warm up the air plane just before we but even if we Arent it is not a real problem be cause the aircraft Heaters recover the heat in the Cabin very when the inquest is Over in sure youll see that North winds did act with promptness and responsibility and be faulted for any of the unfortunate events that happened on Christmas James Caine chief North winds same stand this past week we saw George Bush go in to Panama to protect the lives of citizens endangered by panamanian and avenge the death of a single citizen killed there earlier this i approve of this action and urge Canada to take the same next time a Canadian is killed on a the prime minister should direct that Canadian armed forces attack towns and cities just across the perhaps we could even use our cf18s to launch retaliatory strikes against mis Sile Sites in order to voice our Digap John Clearwater Winnipeg curious award it was the mad hatters Tea party in Alices mixed up wonder and not the fur table in Thomp son animal weather Cut trappers free de Cember 26 that a trapper received a trophy among other showing a High regard for the if showing a High regard for the environment Means the deliberate trapping and killing of then i agree with curious and Bill Zaretski Winnipeg pension Bias Leonard Shifrina recent column pension tory 22 incisively shows the Bias in fed eral finance Minster Michael Wil sons proposals on retirement Sav Ings those with High incomes get the first class expanded resp Shel ter and the rest of us Are left out in the but there is worse to Many of us belong to defined Bene fit pension plans and what was once again tabled december 11 is highly threatening to the health and life expectancy of these Wilsons Complex clutch of improvements will limit employer contributions to our pension limit flexibility in plan interfere in vital arrangements agreed Between employers and employees 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 these were designed to provide valuable options to members of these stress Laden in the Case of they Are embodied in provincial legislation and Cost teachers million in hard too friends just As you make the last Ottawa will snatch away what you fought and paid some concerned Manitoban fear the Agenda hidden by Ottawa under this cloak of improvement is to complicate and weaken existing de fined Benefit so they will be replaced by less effective Money Purchase plans or this might Well fit a right Wing View that employees 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 past president Manitoba teachers society for the last in Reading and dont want a Pillow ;