Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 3, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press phone 6977000 company or Roef a6 Winnipeg free press editorials Bruce Kenneth John Dafoe editorial Page editor editor witness free piss est Man fam Pitu Council Equality of a lilt rights let us not Spray the first time in six decades of battling mosquitoes that the City of Winnipeg has made a concerted attempt to understand Public concerns about its chemical warfare has resulted in a remarkably sane and honest the report is the product of a three member task Force charged with reviewing the use of chemical pesticides by the Parks and recreation its 26 recommendations May require some Fine but they would give politicians every reason to wean Winnipeg from harmful chemical use a step Many other North american cities have taken and a sound basis to stick to the report goes Well beyond the use of chemicals for Mosquito the attack on canker Worms and Elm bark beetles is also but it is the fogging of neighbourhoods by trucks spewing Chemi cals that requires the greatest attention and change in Public perception to give politicians the courage to end a practice that can not be supported by evidence to be effective or the strength in the task Force report is its Clear presentation of what is known of the result of chemical spraying and what clearly remains to be it is for that the chemical malathion which the City has used has been shown to cause chromosome aberrations in humans and fetal retardation and malformations in test animals exposed to it is known that a form of malathion currently used by the was on the list of Industrial chemicals whose health and safety data was blatantly falsified by Indus trial Bio test labs in its work for Monsanto chemical the manufacturer of myth the labs entire Board of directors was jailed in that it is known that malathion Breaks Down in the environment and results in the metabolite maalox an which is estimated to be times As toxic As the Parent it is not As the report states Sev eral times what the effect will be of years of Bug spraying on water and other no one actually knows the extent of pesticide damage to the popu lation of no one knows because no one has made a solid Effort to civic assessments of pesticide costs have never included the medical expenses involved in treating citizens with or other respiratory whose conditions Are dangerously aggravated by exposure to Pesti nor have they even begun to consider the medical or Price in human suffer to parents whose children May have suffered birth defects As a result of mater Nal exposure to it is not known whether water in Winnipeg is tainted with pesticides or their me remarkably Winnipeg is not considered a test site for that sort of Monitor although 20 other locations in the prov Ince Are it is not known whether chemical spraying causes extensive harm to a Large number of species in Winnipeg other than it is known that in other jurisdictions malathion was found to reduce the number of chipmunks and of is also known despite department officials Assurance that no harm to other Spe cies More than compensation was paid to Manitoba beekeepers for loss of Honey bees to civic spraying pro it is known that the Buffer zone solution to fogging pits neighbor against neighbor and is not effective because droplets of Spray Drift very far from their it is that despite the Many millions of dollars spent on insect Winnipeg still faces the same major pest problems it did in although the cumulative expense to the taxpayer is the in sect problem has not been solved or even re it is known that Public clamor for Protection by spraying increases at the hint of a threat of Western Equine no one has died of the Mosquito borne Dis ease since Given that weight of evidence and so much the task Force not surprisingly recommends that the City immediately end applications of chemical pesticides for Mosquito control in residential a it suggests the Money saved be used to begin a five year transition to the pest control strategies used by More enlightened cities elsewhere in Canada and the pub Lic education is also As Well As a tally of All of the costs of applying chem ical pesticides the Cost to human health and the environment in addition to the Cost of chemicals and the honest disclosure and assessment by the task Force is a breath of fresh air in a City too hooked on fighting discomfort with it should give civic politicians the courage to end the addictive behaviour before the next crop of mosquitoes emerge parliaments shame the Campaign for decorum in the House of commons seems to be run Ning rapidly new demo cratic my Ian Waddell took the process one step lower last week when he tackled the Mace in the House of commons in an apparent attempt to prevent the Deputy speaker from adjourning the if this sort of thing keeps behaviour in the House of commons May soon become As childish As that in the the supposed House of sober second Waddell did his penance the next standing sheepishly at the bar of the House to be formally rebuked by the John the speaker was quite right to take a serious View of the it is a sad commentary on the Quality of parliament these Days that a number of opposition members did they treated Waddells caper As a Mere assault on a stick of Wood and or at worst on a not to be compared with the behaviour of tories like William who called Liberal Sheila Copps a slut or Jack Shields who called Black new Democrat Howard Mccurdy in assaulted More than the Symbol of parliaments he launched an attack on the ability of Parlia ment to function by its own it was a piece of but silliness with serious parliament is in bad enough repute in the country these Days without starting to emulate those legislative bodies in other countries which resort to fist fights and wrestling to Settle the great political is the cases of Kempling and Shields Are quite they used words in parliament which were clearly in parliamentary and the proper step for the speaker to take was to ensure that they withdrew that is the limit if the speakers Power in that in the real world outside the parliamentary the Issue is quite the words used by Kempling and Shields reveal something about their Char prime minister Brian Mulroney should have examined his conscience and asked himself whether he wanted among his parliamentary secretaries two men who were evident bigots and who were prepared to demonstrate their bigotry in the House of the prime minister should have had no trouble in deciding that the two were an embarrassment to his and that keeping them in their positions was an in sult not Only to the members of parliament they abused but to the he should have wasted no time in banishing them to the farthest reaches of the Back the fact that he did not helps explain Why canadians have such a Low opinion of government and of politicians in general these the government and opposition Are going fallout to earn their bad Waddell recognized his Misbehaviour and accepted his the prime minis Ter should recognize the unworthiness of his parliamentary secretaries for Public office and make it Clear that they will hold no Posi Tion in which they Are seen to speak for the voting on death no political jurisdiction in the West Ern world has legalized mercy kill but next week voters in Washington state May set Legal and social Prece Dent when they cast ballots on whether to legalize if they decide to allow dying people to ask their doctors to kill the decision will not have any Legal application elsewhere but it will provide the Impe Tus to lobby groups in other jurisdictions to press their Washington voters have been the subject of such a Campaign All fall they have been shown the Nightmare image of people suf Fering a lingering death filled with excruciating proponents of mercy kill ing collected signatures to get the inia Tive on the they Call it death with dignity and say it is a grassroots rebel lion against a system that traps patients in technological care that Only prolongs suf opponents raise the spectre of a 1984 society in which death becomes a medical treatment and the decision to use it Falls into the wrong the initiative raises profound medi Cal and moral but emotion has driven the debate in As it will anywhere such a Law is Washington to viewers have been inundated with pictures of cancer patients pleading that they deserve a release from the pain of their incurable they just want the ability to choose death under the other images Are of patients who lived for months or years with disease and cherished every additional moment with family and friends despite the pain and Ttye argue that just having terminal cancer can diminish a patients sense of self Worth and skew the de Casio making the Washington initiative spells out the procedure that would have to be followed a patient would have to put the request for help in dying in writing and have it witnessed by two then the attending physician and another doctor must examine the patient and certify in writing that he or she has six months or less to the patient must be Alert and judged mentally competent family consultation and consent is not doctors and institutions that dont believe in Aidi dying would not be required to provide but they would have to make goo Faith efforts to Transfer the patient to a place that the death would Likely be administered by lethal in in Jack Kevorkian has made headlines with his machines enabling terminally ill people to commit his activities have prompted the Michigan legislature to consider Bills both for and against the Issue also is before the new Hampshire and right Todie initiative drives Are underway in Cali fornia and the european Community plans to take up the right Todie debate next the country that has the most experience with euthanasia is the nether which tolerates it even though there is no Law on the Washington state voters have the Chance to take the Issue out of the debating forum and give people the Chance to choose for themselves whether to suffer through the last months of a debilitating disease or die with what Little dignity they have damned Canadian postal dispute just How Many cats Are too Many by Christopher Dafoe special to the free press is it possible to obtain a sufficient Quantity of cats opinions but to the True cat fan i there can never be too on any Given morning i can look out my win Dow in the yuppies enclave of Wolseley and see cats in impressive there Are cats climbing cats sitting quietly on front cats balancing on fences and cats returning Home from an Early morning i dont believe that i have looked out my window at any time of Day for the past five years without seeing at least one they come in All sizes and were there always this Many cats around when i was a boy there seemed to be dogs eve but not that Many perhaps the cats kept out of sight or remained indoors in order to avoid the Many of whom were As a delivery boy for Weldon grocery on Academy Road i was chased on my Bike by Many but never by a everybody seems to have a cat or two these Days and i read in the paper recently that the cat is now the most popular household pet and far ahead of the the tur the goldfish and the although i saw Tarantula spiders for Sale in a pet shop the other Day which May Well indicate a new cats Are tidier Many people would sooner live with a cat than with another human being of the same or opposite cats tend to be tidier and they do not insist on talking All the they do not care which to program you want to they have no views on the Constitution or the distinct they do not speak milk misinformation on Judy Shane pad wrote a let Ter chastising Alice Krueger for writing an article about milk that was grossly mislead ing to the Public through omission of info although i have not read the original i can say that Shanes letter is not Only it is full of outright false hoods and the letter states that milk is very High in steroids and antibiotics and that cows Are Given Large doses of to increase both statements Are plenty in while it is at to treat cattle diseases with the Veteri pharmaceutical and regulatory bodies have gone to great lengths to work with the producer to ensure that milk is free of Antibiotic this is done through client Edu milk testing and when Resi dues Are they Are measured in parts per million a drop in 100 litres or parts per these Are Levels that fifteen years ago were not even i would hardly Call these very High i have Ever heard of any cattle that Are routinely Given oestrogen or any other let alone Large for production or any other milk production is increased through nutrition and genetic not Shane also states that there is a bacteria called listeria found in cows the implication i read in this is that All cow milk carries this is grossly mis Lister Osis is not a common disease amongst cattle and even of those approximately 16 per cent shed the bacteria in while it is True that on occasion it can survive the Low incidence of this makes the prevalence of listeria in com Mercial milk exceedingly rare indeed too rare to negate milks nutritional i have no idea in what discipline Shane holds her hut she obviously knows Noth ing about the Dairy i had thought that the average consumer was now educated enough not to believe i the uld myth about the unscrupulous who will do anything to squeeze an extra drop of milk or Gram of meat from an As for the remainder of Shanes letter regarding nutritional i have enough Confidence in my area of expertise that i will not comment on areas in which i am Gladstone either official language and they have no in Terest in if they like some body they do not care if he or she happens to belong to an ethnic they never pay the get and they never vote Liberal or they have never heard of the Reform they do not leave wet Tow Els on the bathroom floor and they never use up the last of the although a cat i know once gnawed a leg off an uncooked tur key that was to have been served at a Christ Mas dinner and a Friend once came Back from answering the Telephone to discover that a Steak had been stolen from her plate by a particularly bold claw furniture they do have a tendency to want to claw the furniture and they occasionally want to have a party when All you want to do is go to but they do make a House seem warmer and their antics can make you laugh out loud ten times a people speak of keeping a but you Are better off with More than for years i kept a single cat while she was a lovable companion and a Stout she tended to be a bit solemn and censorious of my Imma Ture she used to give me a Small slap if she Felt i was being a bit too she was perfectly Happy to sit on my Lap while i read an improving but Many attempts to get her to Chase a spool or a length of Wool Usu ally caused her to leave the room with a pained expression on her i suppose she used to wonder if i would Ever grow we were cat less for a couple of years after our old cats but this fall two striped Kittens Kate and William came to stay and the House has not been the same since letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Aro subject to Recycle More paper when i saw a new Era for a Sec Tion of the free press of describing in detail the massive restructuring of the free press operation i immediately asked what have they done about paper Recy cling i had to scan through to Page e15 in the new Era Section and there found but a tiny paper Steps up recycling free press publisher Bruce Rudd is quoted a saying were anxious to get involved in greater use of recycled consid ering according to the figures in the Arti the free press consumes As any As Trees annually in the form of Over tonnes of and the current threat to Manitoba i congratulate Rudd on his Noble but in in the great Effort made to bring the paper up to this particular goal has been seriously according to the Arti the free press now uses newsprint con sisting of five per cent recycled collects 30 per cent of unsold copies and returns 100 tonnes of waste paper for Recy cling every month while it uses approximately tonnes per i hate to Point out the fact to but Kate and known As the Katzen hammers have turned a formerly fairly sedate House into the big top of the Barnum and Bailey this brother and sister act have kept us laughing since the Day they arrived and there seems to be no Chance in the world that they will suddenly mature into solemn and disapproving having two Kittens from the same litter does not simply double the fun the Merri ment and tomfoolery at the very qua two Kittens tend to egg each other there is very Little mischief or Devil ment and Only a few accidents such As the Over turning of a but they play race madly from the cellar to the attic and Gener ally Cut up in the most agreeable and enchanting at times it is like having your own private after an hour of Madcap activity they will suddenly fall in a Heap on a chair and crash into purring i wish i had such Energy and such a Knack for falling into slumber and such Joy in being lonely life looking i can see that life must have been a bit lonely for our old without a cat companion and Only ungainly human beings to be cats can be very fond of human be but they must find us generally slow of cumbersome and stodgy they forgive us for our faults and shortcomings and they can be exceedingly after what can you do with a creature that is totally incapable of jumping from the floor to the top shelf of the Bookcase in a single bound and what is to be made of a Large Ani Mal that sits Reading a newspaper when it could be playing tigers among the chairs and tables the Era of the environmental awareness and sustainable development is hardly a new one even the government has recognized it in its own if the free press has enough influx As the article suggests it to induce the paper producer to spend million on new equipment surely it can demand a much higher percentage of recycled Many subscribers Recycle 100 per cent of the news print that comes to their doors Why can the paper with trucks travelling daily to All sales Only collect 30 per cent of cop ies unsold i Challenge Rudd to live up to his words and to provide an example Worth following by increasing insignificantly the amount of recycled paper used by the free Scott Erickson Winnipeg just go away milk fears Are unwarranted the recent rumours linking prime minister Brian Mulroney with the position of chief of the United nations were greeted by Many canadians with mixed on the one hand we would have liked him to go away very soon and on the we wondered Why he should be honoured by the world while having such a dismal record at for prime minister Mulroney was never a Champion of the aboriginal peo ple in on the he was deter mined to exclude the entrenchment of rights for Canadas native population in his cherished Meech Lake in addition to the Brian Mulroney policies split the peaceful coexistence be tween French and English speaking canadians unlike any other prime minister before we Are the verge of breaking up Canada into hostile his economic based largely on the free Trade agreement with the Are a proven we just have to look at the million plus the bankruptcies of thousands of Small the suicide Telephone lines for Farmers who Are losing their the collapse of numerous industries or their permanent departures to the and it is very unlikely that the prime minister and the conservative party will recover quickly from the political which grips the country under his misguided canadians want Brian Mulroney to go away but not necessarily to a position of prominence at the United Odo Ostrowski Winnipeg ;