Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 16, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january Page 7 focus the people will map the easts future by William Pratt special to the free press Paris the More than 000 people who marched in Leipzig and elsewhere in East Germany monday night were protesting the communist authorities grip on the tools of if not on Power they object to the governments attempt to reestablish a political and pro test the opposition groups Lack of material Means to contest the elections promised in the opposition has much the same problem in Stu dents and others in Romania object even with a revolutionary gov Power still is held by a few former communist some Western observers ask if the romanian revolution was not itself sponsored and controlled by the soviet the in is very in Romania the communist party has ceased to Petre the new prime min says that the communist party played no role whatever in this student catalyst this is the line taken by everyone in the new provisional government that the people and the people alone made the students Cata lazed the uprising in members of the hungarian ethnic minority were joined by other romanians in defending a lutheran pastor in the action which began the illegal worker groups were responsible for strikes this year and a Clandestine communist party fac Tion calling itself the National Sal vation front issued anti Ceausescu manifestos before the party con Gress that took place Days before the revolution broke out in Decem was the uprising prepared was it controlled in a French television interview Petre roman the extent and efficiency of the apparatus of re pression created by Ceausescu was few people had the courage to speak no opposition could develop in those Condi if there were contacts they were Ion Iliescu now pres ident and general Militaru now defence minister met once in a with the communist Symbol torn out of their romanians Hope for a future that includes even that conversation was recorded by the in another interview in be Monde he said of overthrowing the we didst know we hoped that somehow something would we expected nothing from the not even emergence of a reformist our Only other hypothesis was that the masses would take to the of course we were upset that nothing could be what finally happened was not an anarchic movement but an authentic revolution that was the Best of All Russia had no part in he at one Point the revolutionary leaders asked the soviets for help with specialized arms for Street they said they would study the roman the fact that we succeeded without help leaves us with free yet resistance did exist in the months before the and it had some outside both the soviet Union and the nato embassies were aware of and both collaborated with reformist ele ments in nine months ago an Eastern embassy officer gave this writer a dissident statement by Silviu now one of the Prin Cipal figures in the revolutionary and later made Possi ble my meeting respect for legality that document called for Reform within the romanian respect for legality the same kind of thing already undertaken in the soviet communist a few Days later an open letter challenging Nicolae cause Scuras published in the signed by Bruchan and five other senior that let Ter left Romania by diplomatic probably conceivably known to be a dissenting was said in Bucharest at that time to be under the Protection of the soviet despite retaliation against him and the other signers of the open and restrictions put on them by the Bruchan was Able to go to Moscow in november according to the account he has Given British he got halfhearted assurances of sup port if the Ceausescu could be in much was going on in the nato embassies knew at least a part of and were and the soviet embassy undoubtedly knew More and May have done yet this does not mean that anyone inside or out of Romania was in a position to sponsor the revolution or to control it when it what happened proved hugely it was a revolution in the full sense of that an event that no one fully comprehended As it product of forces that today continue to operate and to explosion of hatred it was a mass upheaval an explosion of hatred As much As of Hope and the poet Mircea present member of the provisional govern says that in the first few minutes after the occupation of the television Headquarters romanians were sick with now they Are sick with they must not begin their co Vales we need this illness of divine it is our Only Chance the threat today throughout the Region is not of communist counter revolutions but that democratic forces will authoritarian habits Are free Roma Nian televisions first postre Volu tonary impulse was to ask for the new democratic forces must produce credible Par credible address the real put the past behind currently they Are often very often romantic in their sometimes reopening old in addition to that they Lack Money and materials with which to enormous social and economic problems invite authoritarian Mircea Dinescu also the members of the governing front Are Only bypasses swept up by the Cyclone of history from the Side walks to the the Cyclone still it rages through out the the one sure thing is that it cannot take people Back into a past already but where they go now is up to courts give business a message honesty is the cheapest policy by Claire Bernstein special to the free press i f the 1980s was the decade of the 1990s will go Down in history As the decade of Morali and the Canadian courts will be leading the morality in the few canadians were aware that the courts were being turned upside Down by a revolution that married Law and morality with in the world of business and i with the actions of business affecting not Only the but the social fabric and the in morality is no longer reserved for the gentler worlds of and it is simply not the Case that business and accepted morality Are mutually exclusive wrote Justice Gerard Laforest in his ringing judgment in the seminal 1989 supreme court of Canada Lac Corona practically every Canadian has been affected by the revolution of morality business otherwise known As the Law of fiduciary people who Are vulnerable be cause they Are dependent on the Trust they have placed in their Busi Ness sparring or their real estate Bank or government Agency have the right to expect a fiduciary duty of full utmost Good Faith and no conflict of biblical punishments if a party breaches that fiduciary the court will rain Down upon the offenders head punishments of biblical the biblical nature of these punishments was experienced by Lac minerals of the com Pany was ordered by two Ontario upheld by Cana Das top return a mine to Corona of Lac had misused Coronas confidential information of a Goldrich piece of land for its own selfish advantage instead of for the Benefit of a joint venture in which both companies were to Benefit from a mine to be built on the land to extract the the return of the mine sent the fear of the judicial god rippling through the business in the bad old a court would have looked at what Lac had Shook its head and but would have permitted Lac to keep the mine on condition that it pay Corona the miserly sum of million in dam lacs Bottom line would have shown a hefty profit for immoral business behaviour the rationale for these biblical style punishments is that no one should be allowed to profit from even if the victim Doest suffer any for Justice to allow business to profit from immoral actions would destroy our social More Freedom fiduciary duty is the wild Deuce in the judicial poker it gives judges a Freedom to match the punishment to the a Freedom that they often dont have in apply ing the rules of contract or tort Law to reprehensible business As one judge i listen to the and if i figure one of the parties was taken advantage i look for a Means to redress the wrong and this fiduciary thing gives a lot of this fiduciary thing has acted like a wreaking havoc with hitherto unchallenged and unbridled entrepreneurial real estate for now have to grapple with the conflict of a duty of full disclosure and a duty of confidentiality to the clients who rely on their How does the real estate agent handle that duty when the courts say he owes a fiduciary duty not Only to the Vendor who hired but to the purchaser who is relying on her information As Well and How will a Bank resolve its conflict of interest to its customer when the stockbroking firm owned by the Bank recommends a Stock in a company which the Banks loan department has just Learned is heading for bankruptcy those lawyers who fear that fiduciary relationship can be pulled out of a hat like a Rabbit and that the Legal outcome of business relation ships is no longer predictable can no longer give is a commonly heard complaint should take the Gremlin of judiciary duty will not strike if a reasonable person will find the contemplated business be Havior to be stripped of its the Law of judiciary duty is the elemental truth kids have used As a yardstick since the immemorial to measure when behaviour is unacceptable it aint Back to the Wall with fair now the key Legal concept of the and with the courts no longer willing to allow business to figure out on the Back of an envelope How to make immorality the business Community has its Back to the the message of the Lac Corona Case is Clear putting morality into business dealings May be but the Cost of leaving morality out May be too prohibitive even to con Claire Bernstein is a Toronto hypocrisy color contempt charges Las made history last week As they passed a motion related to alleged contempt by government members the first time in Manitoba history such action has defining what constitutes contempt in the legislative process can be difficult but a ruling by the speaker of the British House of commons in 1877 provided a simple and understandable explanation any member wilfully and persistently obstruct ing Public without just and reason Able is guilty of contempt of this those words relate directly to what the opposition believed government members did when they walked out of a committee meeting last but because there were no provincial speaker Denis Rocan and his staff faced a major Challenge in determining whether the charge was the incident occurred in the Early morning of May after Many hours of Cross examination about the Sale of Manfor and the defeat of an adjournment finance minister Clayton who was responsible for the left the accompanied by other tory a Short time chairman Harold Gille Sharmer also left As the remaining Las decided to recess and reconvene later that liberals and new democrats showed the chairman did there was no having been prevented from continuing their the opposition viewed the government walkout As irresponsible and a denial of their parliamentary when the session Liber Al John Angus Rose on a matter of privilege and moved that All events related to the meeting be referred to the standing commit tee on privileges and under the dome Arlene Billinkoff nip House Leader Steve Ashton con noting the walkout was an unprecedented breach of but government House Leader Jim Mccrae insisted the Only thing that was unprecedented had been the governments willingness to provide any information about the he also believed the motion could not be presented unless it came As a formal recommendation in the committees after several weeks of the speaker supported that although he viewed the charge As he ruled the Issue should have been brought to the House in a report passed by the since that had not the motion was out of he this does not preclude the matter from being raised in another that manner was to make the Issue part of the committees next report to the House and when the government finally called another meeting of that group four months later the liberals and nip United to pass a Resolution calling for the May events to be referred to the privileges and elections com when it was subsequently presented in the the speaker took the matter under last after intensive he presented his manness Depar which had made it impossible for members to Complete their questioning and interfered with the committees ability to continue its work constituted a Prima Facie Case of contempt or so too was the departure of the because it had impeded committee the departure of other tories was the speaker said it was now up to the House to determine whether actions by Man Ness and Gilleshammer should be referred to the committee of privileges and if that the committee would examine events surrounding the May meeting to the extent they concerned the alleged contempt by the two and would report to the House whether or not contempt did the report could make recommendations As deemed such recommendations could include temporary expulsion from the chamber in extreme jail with that the oratorical flood Gates were opened and for two the politicians regretted and disagreed about what had occurred at the May meeting and offered several history liberals took the most moral accusing the government of arrogance and a Cavalier attitude to the legislative new democrats accompanied similar criticism with Calls for common sense and suggestions on How the process could be changed to ensure no government could take such arbitrary action tories regretted what had occurred but remained Adamant that the action taken that night in May had been appropriate under the there was some hypocrisy on All tories have been arrogant and forgetful about the need to play the game in a different Way when they Are in a minority new democrats have also forgotten about arbitrary action taken when they were in while who occasionally have demonstrated Little respect for the parliamentary sounded a trifle one wonders How the parties would perform if they were in different at this none of the elected officials should feel Overly the speaker took a Long time preparing the which May have Lon term implications for the consideration of the alleged contempt charges will provide All Las an Opportunity to reflect and remember what their jobs Are supposed to maybe they will Stop showing contempt for those who elected them and get Down to that would be truly doonesbury by Garry Trudeau proconsul to me important thing to is that in the new you 60tta go by 7he our Book upon Lukz than but 5ipz of a for some criminals rights what Kino but your Goux eps thin6 a Publ or listen Gnu to rap music for ;