Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 16, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba 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 r3c 3c1 by newspapers division of Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 a member of the Manitoba press Council Arthur e Wood pub Sher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 a serious candidate Sheila Copps was described yesterday As the first serious candidate for the National leadership of the Liberal that Marks a distinct step Forward from to time when it was assumed that there were Only two serious candidates for the Liberal Jean Chretien and Paul there is a growing perception in the Liberal party that those two Well heeled candidates Are after the Only chokes that perception is surely Chretien and Martin Are amiable and intelligent Fellows but neither has established an exclusive claim to Lead the country after the next Copps has a Strong claim to serious consideration As a she is a political animal of the old totally dedicated to the political she has a passionate interest in political issues and she can claim a nine year record of Success in provincial and Federal to win the serious consideration she she will have to live Down the reputation she gained in her Days As a founding member of the so called rat pack which harassed Brian Mulroney and his ministers after their 1984 election that reputation needs living Down not because the rat pack was aggressive but because its unconstrained partisanship tended to trivialize Copps still is too easily tempted by opportunities to be superficial and she the capacity to be a serious As Well As an effective she demonstrated those qualities yester Day when she declared her the announce ment which she launched her Campaign was a Clear and eloquent statement of goals for it will be interesting to hear her develop those themes in the coming it is important that candidates such As Copps should present themselves because it is by no Means certain that the search for a Liberal Leader will end with either Chretien or Chretien rides High in the polls at the moment and is clearly the party As a Quebec politician who knows How to smile and who appears genuinely to love he has endeared himself to canadians across the even Many of those who regard him with As the Campaign grow to doubt that he is a Leader for the Martin has tried to sound like today sort of Leader but so far he has come across As More Bland and Businesslike than liberals will learn a lot about their leadership Candi dates As the Campaign unfolds Over the next six by the time of the Chretien or Martin May have demonstrated a commanding grasp of the issues which will Challenge Canada in the if they other potential Savior May be tempted away from provincial politics or private at the the Liberal who is saying the most sensible and eloquent things about Canada is Sheila the first step to Reform education minister Len Derkacht advisory commit tee on the Manitoba High school which is refining proposals for should take care to describe the system it believes it is because the last such the 198688 High school failed to do at least one author of that review was misinformed about the significance of its the High school established by the former new democratic government and chaired by de assistant Deputy minister of proposed shifting Grade 9 classes out of elementary and Junior High giving Grade 9 the new name of senior 1 and making it a Grade of senior High the Buller entitled challenges and gave no reason for putting schools through this by the usual pattern in where More than half of Manitoba pupils attend High school consists of three grades starting at Grade Vaughn former president of the Manitoba teachers was one of the society representatives on the High school review panel and a coauthor of its Wadelius in a letter to this newspaper published january that he endorsed the Grade 9 shift in the mistaken belief that it was already the prevailing practice in most schools in the he already have Grade 9 As part of their most High schools in the province Are Small Rural and Northern secondary where it is difficult to pull together enough pupils to provide a reasonable sized High school for every in numbers of ins Titu about 75 per cent of Manitoba 174 High schools include Grade 9 they Are the smallest generally with fewer than 200 educating in aggregate less than half of the Grade 9 pupils and probably much less than half the Grade 12 for that Large and important minority of the High school the Grade 9 shift would confirm existing for the larger High school population in the Grade 9 shift would be a dramatic change in the nature of senior High school High schools which Are now made up of pupils aged about 16 and 17 years would have to adapt their their programs and their mentalities to the presence of 14yearolds which can be done but which is not necessarily an improvement from the Point of View of the oldest pupils or the when Wadelius endorsed the Grade 9 he was evidently unaware of Winnipeg of the numbers of pupils involved and of the practical implications of the the muddle might have been avoided if the Buller committee had started from a description of the system it thought it was Wadelius clearly did not think he was endorsing a change in unit he had the Buller committee begun with a factual account of the Way High schools Are now organized in Manitoba and the numbers of pupils involved in the different forms of its members might have thought More carefully about the proposals before endorsing the review committee established by Derkach has been at work since its requested for the end of is still if it follows the Chal Lenges and changes report in offering policy advice without saying How the system now its members and its report will run the risk of repeating the Buller groups misinterpretation of the people in Glass houses the new principals in newfoundlands Saga of cucumbers and a greenhouse with a voracious appetite for tax have made a surprising it is not surprising that Cabot a consortium of foreign and Domestic owners of the infamous sprung has decided to close the greenhouse it acquired in july for a song and a the surprising part is the stunning disclosure of Why a Large greenhouse is not economic in new too much not enough a Basic necessity for healthy Cucumber life is natural or Johns is deficient in the natural kind and the artificial kind costs too this bit of natural science and economics eluded the Newfoundland the government first sprung for million in the joint venture with a Calgary businessman and saw the sprung greenhouse go into then it bought it up at auction for million and sold it off for with the interests of the 65 workers at of the workers were Happy to keep their but Wayne a spokesman for the United food and Commer Cial workers now admits that he was suspicious from the he was worried about the As it turns Johns receives less Bright Sunshine than any major City in on average it gets a Mere Winnipeg gets about 55 per cent or the owners of Cabot produce Are now looking for a More suitable Manitoban can let them know that they Are Welcome to use our sunlight free of charge so Long As they do not ask us to subsidize cucumbers with tax dollars or cheap for who have lost the events Are not quite so there a Little moral to their Story people who build Glass houses should remove their Rose coloured looking at Meech Lake Row by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa Premier Clyde Wells of Newfoundland has a valid Point when he says of the open letter on the Meech Lake Accord addressed to him by Robert Stanfield and Jack Pickersgill if the Accord is so they should argue for its few supporters he has almost As Good a Point when he says that the Only thing that causes Quebec separatism on this Issue is irresponsible statements such As those being made by Pickersgill and that goes too far but the constant Flat statements by Meech Lake supporters that rejection will encourage separatist feelings in the country must have some effect in leading Quebe cers to react that prime minister Mulroney state ments during a new years Broad cast alleging that Quebec had been abandoned or rejected in the 198182 constitutional reforms were so Infra Matory that they provoked a furious counterattack in the Montreal a bitter dispute the present constitutional Row ironically has caught English speak ing Canada in the Middle of what has essentially been a bitter dispute be tween two opposing groups of French each represent ing historic trends in their during much of this continuing Row the role of English speaking Canada has been a look Back to see just How it started gives the present objections by three englishman Guage provinces a great Deal of the 1980 referendum gave Victory to the French canadians who believe that Quebec Best future lies with the Strong minority holding the opposing that Quebec would be better off even As a Small Independent country in the North american English sea than As part of was Defeated by a 60to40 Canadas frenc Canadian prime Pierre and the Quebe cers in his faction were left that their Vic tory should be reinforced by constitutional first objective their first objective was to bring to Canada the Power to Amend the Constitution that had deliberately been left with Britain because of the problems of securing agreement in this country on How changes should be that meant breaking the opposition of both the separatist Quebec government and the in Glis speaking their second thrust was to fortify the Canada of Equality at which Trudeau policies had aimed from the very Tough negotiating tactics adopted by Trudeau and his fellow French Jean were eventually modified into a More cooperative fed Era provincial at the critical moment in Neotia Chretien deliberately met the other provinces without notifying Quebec Premier Rene Levesque of the lat night it produced the final agreement but Leves que was predictably outraged when he Learned of his the entire Quebec Assembly joined in the there is no question that in Early 1982 leaders of one frenc Canadian faction had at the critical moment excluded the other and for a time it appeared that they had got away with the immediate political out rage expressed through the unanimous Assembly vote died a new materialism and the economic opportunities of the 1980s replaced nationalism As a driving Force in the constitutional Issue was still dead in Quebec when Brian Mulron an Irish que Becer who is far from a typical representative of English speaking decided to reopen that led to Meech Lake and the present it is not the fault of the English speaking opponents of Meech Lake that the problem has reached its present the process of constitutional amendment followed by and Chretien left much to be desired because it was so confrontational and because of que becs Las minute but it was open the provinces were either in confrontation or from the it All went on in full Public special interest organizations had ample Opportunity to take part and they did to some Meech Lake was not an entirely behind Hestenes but it was never open in the full sense that Trudeau process had Public organizations were never Given an Opportunity to influence the political Row in Quebec a worse process for amending any Constitution would be very hard to the Accord appears certain to lapse without implementation and there will be a Row in whether Many French canadians will appreciate that it All began As a deep conflict within their commune not Between it and English Cana is Ideal for Portage an editorial pointed out that a recent report on Canadas develop ment bureaucracy failed to mention the promised International Centre for sustainable development free december the Winter 1989 constituency re port from Dorothy my for Winnipeg reported that on october 26 environment minister Lucien Bouchard bad this to say in response to a question put to him regarding a sustainable develop ment Centre for Winnipeg we Are actively working with Manitoba and Cida on the negotiation of an agree ment to set up this magnificent you will have More news in a few although More than a few weeks have i would like to make a Bouchard suggestion to in View of the major loss of employment resulting from the closure of cab Portage la the direct and indirect employment from the Centre would but Portage la Prairie would provide an Ideal location to test the concepts of sustainable projects on organic soil silviculture and agricultural waste re cycling could build on the existing knowledge in food process implement and electric testing equipment and satellite reconnaissance interpretation Are other types of employment which would draw on the skills of the former employees of the forces the Centre could develop the ideas of social capitalism such Asmi Cro Enterprise local limited purpose worker cooperatives and Community re Genera some of these techniques have been used successfully to turn around stagnating communities in British Nova the Basque Region of Spain and else in this Way Portage la Prairie May develop a thriving Community As an example for the world of developing Derek Wilson Winnipeg apologize this is in response to the intercity Gas corporation executive who was quoted As saying Consumers have been trained to accept five or six increases a i have had enough i make yourself Public and or resign John Belasco Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to traffic farce i am not the least surprised that a tragic Accident has finally on James Street Between Matthews and that is the most ridiculously marked Street in our few peo ple understand the arrows to get into the Centre turning Lane or really what they but the real Haz Ard is in trying to get on to James Street from any of the shopping or eating establishments and specifically if one is endeavouring to turn to the Canadian tire is a perfect exam ple probably As Many motorists attend their parking area As any other it is almost impossible to leave their lot and turn North in any of their several outlets without playing Chicken with the James traffic and that is definitely a poor thing to it is obvious that the courteous Driver has become nobody can wait a minute or slow Down to let someone out without that someone placing their life on the it would appear that our traffic engineers sat up Long hours figuring out a Way to confuse our Winnipeg Drivers if that what you Call unless something is done very soon to Correct this absolutely Ridic Ulous traffic situation it wont take a Fortune Teller to predict More Acci i sincerely Hope there wont be any More lives i honestly Hope i dont hear the ridiculous explanation that its the seniors fault they be driving its Only the seniors who seem to have some consideration for some poor sucker waiting to get off a parking Mclean Winnipeg too Christian Fred Cleverley comments free 28 about Christmas being too Christian for Canadian press were Well he states that Canada still has a majority of people who claim to be his Point would have been even stronger if he had checked the Sta the Canadian census of 1981 the most recent available shows Over 90 per cent of the population claim to be about one per cent Are and a Little More than one per cent Are and confucian about seven per cent claim no Reli the Winnipeg area study 1989 found per cent claiming one of the Christian denominations per cent with no preferred denomination per cent jewish per cent moslem per cent atheist or agnostic and per cent Canadian press has got it All wrong if it thinks Christmas stories offend canadians because they focus too narrowly on a single and i concur with Cleverley conclusion that Canad even those of other faiths who seek True tolerance and understand also disagree with Canadian David Lawless Winnipeg school program the Are students in the International baccalaureate this is a High school pro Gram specifically designed to meet the needs of academically oriented students by providing accelerated course work and i depth study of Many areas of the pro Gram is recognized by universities around the world As possessing extremely High and a diploma from the program provides credits or advanced placement at Many although we live in Charleswood or we travel to James for the program because it int Avail Able in the school division in which we our families pay a nonresidents fee of almost a year for each of us so we can participate in this challenging at a recent meeting of the Board of trustees of the Assiniboine South school division the trustees referred to us As our students and indicated their desire that we re main integrated with other students in the we hereby wish to publicly dissociate ourselves from the division in which we which has refused to accept the responsibility of providing a suitable pro Gram for the trustees have never even asked us Why we Are willing to Rise so Early to travel so far to work so hard in a program for which our families must pay so we also wish to publicly acknowledge the foresight and commitment to educational excellence exhibited by the administrators and teachers of the Jame Assiniboia school division who have worked to provide the program in their High and who Wel come us into these schools without the school we Sil ver Heights is a Fine example of one of the great schools for growing and learning in Laura Maclean and 11 other names Winnipeg thank you i wish to thank the staff members of air Ontario and air Canada for their kindness and service to i am badly crippled with arthritis and they made it possible for me to Fly without a a staff member met me at the door of every plane or Airport from to my feet never touched the floor or the when i had to return Home due to an unforeseen they took Over everything even putting on my mitts and zipping my coat for Bonnie Aspen wheres the other one ;