Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 30, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free april Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Carton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by newspapers division of Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 a Merber of the Manitoba press Council Arthuri Wood publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor David Lee managing editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 other possible explanations it is not at All surprising that officials of the Manitoba Public insurance corporation have chosen to interpret the Small turnouts at their legislature ordered Public accountability hearings As proof that there Are few complaints against anyone responsible for running an organization that has such wide Contact with the Public could be expected to adopt such a like so Many seek out comfortable there May be other reasons Why people stay away from Public accountability the name itself is enough to discourage it is possible also that individuals feel so frustrated and helpless when they Brush up against the aut Opac bureaucracy that they have Little stomach to Cross swords with the corporation in the constant Stream of complaints which is so visible in letters to the editor and which arrives without interruption on the desks of members of the legislature gives no indication of a Lack of dissatisfaction with the operation of the compulsory automobile insurance Agen Many Manitoba when asked what they hear most about from their reply with a single word the idea for Public accountability meetings did not originate in aut Opac it is not As though aut Opac was straining at its Leash to provide account ability to its the procedure resulted after massive Public protests which took place against rate increases two years ago and from government efforts to pour whatever Oil was available on the troubled Waters of Public Public accountability had a responsible ring to Public accountability meetings Are structured to Deal with the kind of complaints which were found to be so numerous when judge Robert Kopstein conducted his investigation into Public meetings can Deal Well with matters of policy but Are not the Best forum in which to air individual most of whatever dissatisfaction exists with aut Opac is based on individual when individuals who attended the Public accountability meetings with personal complaints this the response they received was limited to the general policies of the Only the bold asked Public accountability meetings Are intimidating affairs for individuals not accustomed to the Bright lights of Public in Auto acs the meetings held this year were temperate and orderly when compared to the outcry which culminated in a rally on the grounds of the legislature two years people May not be entirely satisfied with their insurance but they Are much less dissatisfied than they were two years aut Opac is working at its own Pace to implement the improvements recommended by judge the corporation says it should be ready to phase out its single renewal Date by other such As a better approach to appraising the value of written off and making replacement insurance available at higher Are also in the judge Kopstein advice is being although less quickly than he the corporation attempts to put the Best Light on its Pic president Walter Bardua told the Winnipeg meeting that investment income permitted aut Opac to pay out for every in Premium he could have explained Why motorists were required to pay premiums higher than required in the past in order for aut Opac to have the Money to using anger to survive Robert the american educator who was held hostage for Days by pro iranian shiite Muslim has credited his anger for keeping him the professor of business studies at Beirut University nursed his Wrath during his imprisonment and he also amply demonstrated that anger has its place and a very useful among people held he is a rare Polhill was angry at being taken away from his wife and from his friends and from his he worked to maintain that he because he suspected that if he began to lose it he would just sort of become a in that he was very most people held captive by terrorists take another they succumb to what has come to be known As the Stockholm named after the dramatic realignment of affections in the sverige Kredi Bank for their survival they give their emotional life Over to their newspaper heiress Patty who was convicted of Bank robbery in 1974 after she was abducted by the sym ionese liberation is the bes known example of someone who did Polhill is among the estimated one per cent of hostages who maintain their identity through anger and other according to Peter a University of Manitoba professor who has examined 900 airline some of which involved the taking of hos his Book based on that research will be released in the United states later this James the British Trade commissioner who was kidnapped by the front de liberation do Quebec in the 1970 is another Man who used anger to stay so too is sir Geoffrey the British ambassador to who was held captive in a Small cell for 11 months in the when told by his terrorist captors that he was an imperialist he retorted that he was a member of her majesty foreign a devout he marked mass with the bread and water placed in his a Man with a killing sense of he Drew caricatures of his hooded the piercing sketches so interested them that they began to pay him to do More flattering the recollections of the British ambassadors and the recently released american professor Sheds Light on what lies in the human spirit of Faith and humor Are powerful those Are the tools the hostages used to remind themselves who they were and to maintain dignity in the face of like Many released has suffered irreparable among the survivors it has been found that marriages often child abuse can and some can no longer carry on in in living his anger and telling the world of Polhill has reaffirmed a valuable now it is to be hoped that he can survive the lesser indignities of life in a cheap political shot if Maureen the new democratic la for is opposed to the distribution and consumption of alcoholic she should come right out and say then she should lobby her party to include prohibit Ion As a Plank in its Campaign if she does not believe then it is difficult to understand her criticism of attorney general Jim Mccrae for attending the launching of a new Low alcohol drink by a local the benighted Hemphill will be confused by the fact that Mccrae is opposed to Drunken but is not necessarily opposed to when she served in nip governments that liberalized almost civilized Manitoba drinking Hemphill did not appear to find anything confusing in the governments dual role As enforcer of liquor Laws and seller of it is possible that in the loneliness of exile on the opposition she has suffered a change of heart and does indeed now believe that because some people drink and drive fewer and fewer if police statistics can be believed no one should drink at More Likely is that she saw an Opportunity to score cheap political Points at the expense of the attorney Gen whose opposition to Drunken driving can hardly be in giving in to this natural weakness of she has helped to obfuscate and trivialize a serious social shedding a tear for Lithuania by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa like americas other Canada will tag along unquestioning behind president Bush conclusion that the politics of appease ment Are the appropriate Way of dealing with the soviet Union and the problem of Lithuania efforts to recover its lost preferred option since every news report from Washington dealing with the Ameri can administrations deliberations posed the problem As a Choice be tween doing nothing and imposing sanctions of some sort it is just As Well that the president opted for that is Only the preferred when the choices Are put in such simplistic Between appeasement and sanctions a wide Range of diplomatic Effort is available to the leaders of any great Power and especially to the top Man in a the belief that sanctions represent the Only alternative to inaction reveals a Barren foreign this sterility in Washington was exposed even More vividly Only a few months ago when it took unyielding West German insistence to Force president Bush to think his Way through to a sensible approach to the problem of Short Range nuclear weapons stationed on German soil if Ever could Only have destroyed other when the British Empire was being dismantled after the second world the United states government and the Congress were openly and strongly in favor of Deco the years As a super have changed american attitudes towards Imperi the soviet Union of an Empire which was largely Assem bled by the czars during the 19th the Baltic republics Are a different in keeping with the history of that entire their Story has been turbulent but they lost their Independence most recently through an unsavoury Deal Between Stalin and Between communist and nazi greed for Terri the great weakness in Mikhail Gorbachev position now is that he is very a Rem Nant of stains most brutal policies while he is attempting to drag his country out from other stalinist be he May feel that this is essential to slow Down the drive for Independence in other republics which Are part of the Empire through czarist conquests but he none the defending it would not be amiss for Western countries to pull themselves far enough Back from appeasement to deplore publicly any defence of stalinism by the now extraordinarily powerful Boss of the soviet Union a political Boss with As much per Sonal Power As his that would be a useful expression of support and sympathy for Lithia nefarious Deal there of a hard reason Why president Bush and the others will do nothing of the no matter How Heartfelt president Landsbergis comparisons with Munich May that is because the with prime minister Attlee tagging along at that allowed Joseph Stalin to draw the Western Borders of Poland after gobbling the Eastern half of the country for under that same nefarious Deal with disapproval of the continuing role of stalinism in Lithuania Fate As a captive Republic might be construed As willingness to approve changes in Poland Western the Western will simply be let Lithuania Stew shed a tear if the audience is right under no circumstances annoy Gorba valiant Effort that decision is almost certainly unalterable but the fallout from Lithuania valiant Effort to escape the dirty 1939 deals need not be entirely in the quiet of the worlds where honesty need not necessarily be Embarrass some useful reassessments should be the first Factor to be noted is Gorbachev extraordinary per Sonal Power with no adequate countervailing he has shown How ruthlessly he is prepared to employ neither in the soviet Union nor the West is it Ever Safe to concen trate so much uncured Power in the hands of one next to be noted he has accomplished some political reforms in the soviet Union but no economic elsewhere in Eastern True Reform has invariably meant the Transfer of Power away from the communist Gorbachev remains a Loyal Al though reducing party Power while increasing his the biggest question of All remains can a communist Reform Russia and its Empire the Only rational on the is probably medical crisis in View of the and Federal government fund ing we Are gravely concerned about the impending loss of the Canadian medicare the present crisis should not be that of doctors and fees the provincial we must focus on How the health care system can be costs can be reduced significantly instead of fees for the system becomes one that focuses on keeping people and one that makes use of other health care pro instead of mainly Doc in order to do understandably this is threatening to especially in View of the fact that in most Urban centres there Are now so Many doctors that patient and thus for general practitioners Are on the health care needs is that Why we Are now having to visit the doctor a second time in order to get test results that used to be available Over the Telephone a fee for service liability we thank you for your previous free press coverage of this and urge that you continue to bring it to the attention of your and Duncan Winnipeg hockey racism recently on a to news we saw a native woman from Winni Peg present a petition aimed against racism at hockey this brought Back my concern that i have harboured since i read a Story in the free press about a Northern team being too Good March my husband and i had the Privi ledge of seeing this Fine team play in the Brandon tournament of Cham we were impressed with the fast skating game we saw Between this Northern Manitoba team and the Regina there were very few penalties and Only after two periods of overtime did the Cranberry Portage Winter Hawks gain that evening they played against a Winnipeg team in our this was hockey at its worst Many penalties sad dest of were the racist remarks which came from some parents of the Winnipeg when we read the article in the free press by Catherine Road to Rural playoffs blocked by court we just could not be Lieve that Justice had been How could anyone deny this team a playoff privilege in March and place them in a bigger league it looked like racism to we Are caucasian seniors from who would have enjoyed to watch this team play in Hiebert letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to sick excuse Federal environment minister Lucien Bouchard comment that he did not attend a conference on the environment in order to pick sides is a pretty sick excuse for not daring to criticize american com ing As it does from a member of our government which within hours of its approve of an an attack by the United states on another Sovereign nation Pana we in Canada Are the major recipients of american if our government dares not voice a legitimate complaint on our behalf for fear of offending the who else will speak for us Gauthier tenant action the coverage the free press gave in the committee to Tieck housing on april 3 is to be com i am not sure of your reasons for such High visibility but what you did was to illustrate the conflict Between management and tenants wit i the desire of two concerned City councillors to Check things out for from your manager Keith Moffat appears to question what some tenants Are complaining he then goes on to describe some of the conditions heavy Long Waits for re he appears to be answering his own residents of these Large housing projects and social service workers who work in the neighbourhoods which House Flora Gilbert Park and lord Selkirk know very Well the problems that Are it is obvious that since damage is very crime and violence is fear for ones safety is a frequent that what the Winnipeg housing authority is presently doing is not tenant associations May be Able to do what managers when people feel some when they can contribute in decision Mak when they can be successful in having a voice and some Recagni tenants can become allies with management and not when tenants associations Are successful in their manage ment will gain More than it Winnipeg housing what do you have to lose Sandy Hyman coordinator inter Agency group huge waste the nuclear Industry should be banned immediately and Complete what a farce of a it is a huge waste of Money and very it is not a viable solution to it gives off a deadly poisonous byproduct waste which the people in the Industry Are always hiding it is the people employed in this Industry who do All the yapping and brainwashing to keep their Money coming we must Wake up to what is going on with this perverted nuclear Indus let us clean this planet up and Stop the things that Are the nuclear Industry is one of those things that is harmful and we should insist that it be Bill Smith Lac do fun downtown in regard to the article by Nick published in the april 15 free hotting of the i wish to express another the article brought Forth ideas from various experts As to what should be added to the area Down town to replenish and How much More of our tax Money should be spent by All three Levels of govern now the North Portage development corporation has a new study in the works trying to figure out what is needed downtown and How to use the available Harry the new executive director of the downtown business improvement has some re freshing ideas As to How to make downtown a fun place to including having a storefront police station to alleviate shoppers the consulting Agency has told that this implies the Down town is time to Wake the downtown is danger Ous and will continue to be so until the City gets aggressive with How it changes things the problem is that there Start ing with Good but not going All the Way with for Treyve done a wonderful Job at old Market making it perfect for weekend festivals and but they failed to get rid of a Hole like the Leland hotel which is right there in the heart of it How can anyone expect Normal citizens to head Down there to watch a music festival with their kids Only to have some drunk come out of the hotel asking them for then theres Portage i let my wife go shopping there without a can of Mace to Ward off the Street Cadillac fair View owns a Beautiful building with excellent but it has been overrun by those who have nothing to contribute to they sit around the eateries All Day doing their scaring away paying and stealing More than they things wont change there until someone of authority says enough is if youre not get out on the South Side of across from Portage Are an other couple of hangouts for these same types of patrons stand out front of these places All getting in the Way of How can any businesses adjacent to these places do Well Many custom ers Are afraid to go near businesses such As these need licenses to operate if the City would deny them a the Habi Tat for these creatures would Digap we can spend All we want on the downtown area giving it a but until we change the real Atmos phere on the Street its just a big waste of Glenn Rand Winnipeg ;