Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 20, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba U u u 20 Winnipeg free january the City to face rising problems with natives for Many years Winnipeg has acted As a kind of Cru Cible in which major National issues and concerns have been confronted and history seems to have placed Winnipeg on a kind of fault line where differing ideologies and interests have found themselves competing or Cox and where reconciliation has often had to be another such Issue faces Winnipeg in the next few years Deal ing with the social and economic implications of a grow ing native Community in Many respects different from and at Odds with the larger Community of which it is a its the interaction of poverty and growth that makes the aboriginal presence in the City so one can read the Indica tors of poverty readily High Levels of unemployment and Low Levels of education and Job skills High incidences of single Parent families High rates of injury and especially among children High Levels of alcohol ism and drug abuse disproportionately High Levels of Contact with the police and the but this impoverished Community is also a growing Canadas registered Indian popu lation grew by 27 per cent be tween 1971 and when the population of Canada was grow ing by Only 13 per the and More recent figures Are even More striking the so Cial planning Council of Winnipeg reports that Winnipeg native population increased by 70 per cent Between 1981 and 1986 Dur ing those years the population of Winnipeg As a whole increased by five per these if suggest several that any real growth in Winnipeg population is now largely accounted for by growth in the native Community in relative the nonnative population is stable or second that if these data Are project by the turn of the a significant proportion of Winni Eggers will be As will a very Large proportion of new entrants to the labor social health Given this growth and the existing dependence of much of the native Community on government establishing a new level of economic and social health for the native Community ought to be a Public As a recent report of the Urban Indian association Points the welfare and criminal Justice costs to the society of an impoverished native Community Are while it is True that the function ing and self sufficient part of the native Community is making its contribution to bearing that Bur it is a Burden and if the conditions of the native Community do not it will be a Burden increasingly borne by a shrinking nonnative Majori William Neville at City Hall to in support of a growing native last june the cites planning committee held an information meeting with its senior their purpose was to identify issues that would require particular attention on the anticipated win Down of the Core area initiative when the second agree ment expires in the most striking and hopeful thing to emerge from the discussion was the virtual unanimity of the politicians that aboriginal issues were Likely to top the municipal Agenda in the competing voices neither the the bureaucrats nor the commentators Are Clear or unanimous As to the exact nature or dimension of the issues and less so on there Are probably few outside the native Community who can comprehend the issues As they Are seen from within and within the native Community there have been competing there has been no consistent and coherent native presence in the processes of gov the articulation of native interests and perspectives has been weakened by the Nega Tive self image of Many native by the absence of a positive sense of group identity and by the fact of racial discrimination in the the responses of the planning committee Mem and developments within the native suggest that some profound shift in awareness is taking More the private sector Leader ship of people like Jack Fraser and Kerry Hawkins through the Canadian Council for native business opens the Prospect of Public private collaboration in economic development strategies aimed at creating sustained native entrepreneurial activity and ongoing carrying this and particularly in ways that Are non is going to re quire the skills of a new Genera Tion of native what that leadership has yet to Artic the rest of the Community May have to struggle to compre Hend and the Persis tence of poverty on the one and of prejudice on the suggests profound attitudinal problems in both communities changing them will not be it is not a matter of though that must be present it is not a matter of though that must be it is ultimately a matter of num where one part of the Community stands to become so Large and so poor that the health of the whole cannot remain a affect this will be a testing Winni Peg cannot afford to tories Are gunning for Alberta tycoon Edmonton despite his business Peter Pocklington seems to be doing very thank the Man is hardly running around in sack cloth just because the Alberta government has filed three lawsuits against claiming a total of More than nor is the Edmonton tycoon the Type to worry about trivial matters like the loss of gainers to the same maybe that Why the local tories Are so mad at him he always seems to for last summer pock Lington enjoyed his modest 000 mansion on the Lake in Kelow he had bought it the year before during the juror Over the Trade of Wayne Gretzky to the los Angeles he took his Leisure while the gainers crisis was build when Pocklington was put it they left off the worry he bought the on acres of for it had been listed at Over million this Guy always get a nicely placed on 200 feet of it has five 4 a guest a Tennis court and a swimming not Don braid in Alberta exactly a realtor said at the since the House has been extensively say our ferrets in of it was getting a bit run Down and the ashtrays needed cleaning the Man can buy whatever he wants with Legal of and he he once had a collection of group of seven paintings to make the National gallery its his Lusty enjoyment of such the Complete absence of guilt or that so annoys tory checking the books and they Are after no doubt about they Are poring Over the gainers books like just looking for ways to sue him to if the politicians win these the results might be they could end up own ing other Pocklington assets outfits like Palm whose products Are treated like arsenic by Many anti puck Bateman a Chain of 12iga has just stopped buying Palm because sales were so albertan who recently ranked gainers the most unpopular com Pany in the province would be doubly thrilled by a provincially owned leading the a were will be All the Farmers who sell their milk through private if that notion seems imagine the Prospect of a Provin Cial takeover of the Edmonton we can see it now pre Mier Don Gettys hockey team beats the Calgary flames in the playoffs the ensuing revolt in Southern Alberta makes Romania look like a Grad school the with his usual fore does not Rule out the option of going after the this is the Road to political i but the tories dont seem to there mad and they mean to get All this leads inevitably from their great initial mistake getting involved with Pocklington in the first is Pocklington worried not Hes probably having a Fine Don braid is a Calgary Herald Cajas Riario Al Comerio Quito Equator of Shatoni u rep Bella Rome Italy Aislin Montreal Gazette Montreal Canada David Macdonald Washington editor defence jobs Are in peril Washington of the four million employees of the Federal about half work for the department of All of them Are trembling in their boots about what is going to happen now that peace is breaking out All Over Eastern most of the discussion is about How Best to spend that instant the peace Divi this is the multimillion Dol Lar sum that is supposed to be saved when the defence establishment reduces in size to take account of the fact that the russians no longer seem to congressional liberals Are already spending every Nickel of the in their image congressional conservatives Are calling for Sharp tax president George after a Long period of having nothing much to say either is expressing vague con Cerns that too much too soon might be a bad Way to thin Gruel As that might it is being welcomed like a Texas sized Steak by defence department they Are very concerned about their they Are fac ing the first real threat of massive layoffs since the Sec Ond world after the Allied defeat of Germany and the United like began the customary postwar Mili tary fortunately for the soviet dicta Tor Joseph Stalin began a Campaign of territorial expansion and political subversion outside soviet Borders that made it vital to create a Credi ble military the United states and Western european coun tries formed the North Atlan tic treaty now that conflict with the soviet Union in Europe seems less the Pentagon is scrambling to find ways to react in Normal bureaucratic the pentagons primal instinct is to sacrifice first those not of its the wolves trotting behind the sled bearing the swollen Pentagon bureaucracy Are Al ready slavering for their first it will come not from the five sided building but from the peaceful precincts of the Library of this Library Job is to serve the 535 elected members of Congress but its skills have been bought regularly by the Pentagon and other Federal to save the Pentagon has suddenly cancelled a million contract for a study on the soviet the result is that 31 employees of the Library Federal research division Are about to become subject to a so called reduction enforce skilled russian linguists and with professional qualifications in such Fields As economics or electrical Engi earning Between 000 and no longer Are should not be shed for but for lower ranked employees with lower thanks to civil service Union Job bumping downwards will the 31 Job losses will affect typists and the people who tour the Library with carts of books to be put Back in the the russian specialists will continue to draw up to a year but some soon will be exercising their Index fingers typing the Semi liter ate memos that flow through Washington bureaucratic offices like sluggish others will have to get used to using the freight elevators and the dirtier underground passageways As they trudge to and from congressional offices with books ordered up and often unread by Junior staff although they will still be Able to keep up the payments on their bows and suburban Virginia it will be hard on the for some of it is a psycho logical problem that is going to of experienced by More and More Washington government employees As Pentagon spend ing ;