Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 20, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press published scorn rays i wok it Duj f by f p newspapers division d win ipod free press december 1991 editorials Bruce publisher Kenneth s Jones Joi in Dafoe editorial Page editor David editor wet Ossian 1872 Winnipeg to bime s5m890 a Mem Boron who Man Ofca press death of an Empire this new years some Western veterans of the cold War May want to hoist a Glass and Toast the demise of their old the soviet on that december the soviet Empire will be officially declared from its ashes will arise a so called Commonwealth of former soviet the nucleus of this Commonwealth will be Ukraine and the three slavic republics that formed the economic and political heart of the soviet they will be joined by no slavic re pub still others May choose to go their own As the Baltic states have done but the Dawn of january although it Ushers in a new will be no cause to it is perhaps the ultimate historical irony of the last half of the 20th Century that the death of the burial of the soviet the end of the cold War All so passionately desired for decades by so Many in West bring us no closer to peace or to the better world we had hoped there is of for the various Peoples and republics that once constituted the soviet a Hope which is being realized in Eastern Europe in such nations As to Hungary and but it is an Uncertain what is certain is that these new this face a much More difficult transition than did their former satellites and that they pose much greater problems to the West in at tempting to help or even in knowing How to the most obvious of these problems is the question of soviet nuclear these Are scattered Over four republics byelorussian and the new arrangement in four new nuclear although they take pains to assuage Western have already begun to squabble about How and by whom they will be for the the worlds largest nuclear Arsenal remains under the control of the soviet Cen trial government and the soviet but neither of these will exist much a second concern is that the leaders of these new nations Are unknown almost All Are former communists Only recently converted to the cause of Freedom and the depth of their commit ment is still be the most pow Erful of russian Boris has demonstrated both courage and a remark Able ability to attract Public support he has also shown a Strong Streak of russian chauvinism and left no doubt who he thinks should occupy the Catbird seat in the new a position which has left the presidents of the other three major republics visibly and vocally this the president of declared that his Republic would not Relin Quish control of its nuclear weapons until the russians dismantle ukrainians seem to be much of the same although they Are less Blunt about several republics have expressed concerns about russian a centuries old fact of life for All of the greatest the greatest cause for is that the soviet Union has col lapsed before something could be created to take its the Commonwealth May exist on but it does not exist in to communism has but democracy has not yet quite replaced ancient ethnic and nationalist rivalries Are tearing today at the same republics that were tearing at soviet Unity the centralized Economy has yet to be replaced by a working Market what is left of the Economy is in Sham food and consumer goods Are in Short the Ruble is pretty Well worthless and the people Are hungry and Ripe for exploitation by extremists of either the left or the whoever May offer the most convincing alternative to the desperation and dispirited Ness of their condition if conditions continue to deteriorate As seems inevitable their idea of a new world order May be quite different from the one that the West Hopes if that is to be prevented if there is Ever to be a real reason to hoist a Glass to Cele brate the emancipation of the subjects of the soviet Empire it will require greater statesmanship than has so far been shown in Washington and the capital cities of the european in it will re quire the kind of visionary and courageous leadership that Mikhail Gorbachev whose career now appears to have ended showed to the world in the last six Canadas peace role the people of former Yugoslavia need and deserve physical safety and a Chance to rebuild their shattered lives and Canada has Little basis for choosing sides or picking winners in the Balkan but it can direct its efforts toward the Distant goals of stability and political and economic Reform in the re the ser dominated Federal army and serbian irregulars have achieved most of the military successes in the win Ning control of most of the parts of Croatia where serb and croat populations they have made no Effort to regain control of the Section of former Yugoslavia most Remote from Belgrade and the ser Bian the War has been fought mainly in on the diplomatic and political How the local authorities of Slovenia and Croatia have out manoeuvred serbian presi Dent Slobodan Milosevic and his colleagues in what remains of the yugoslavian Federal the German government of Chan cellar Helmut Kohl decided to recognize the two fragments As Independent Chancellor Kohls 11 colleagues in the european Community this week agreed to recognize the Independence of any exr Public of the yugoslav federation in so Long As they respect minority ethnic Cleave to democratic principles and accept existing since those conditions cannot be strictly followed in the midst of a civil the european govern ments have left room for doubt about what they will actually do in they have that they Are willing to let Germany Call the tune and to ratify the Independence of Small new Balkan those Are spectacular successes for slovenian and croatian the Bush administration in the United states and United nations Secretary Gen eral Javier Perez de have been seeking a Chance to Send a peace keeping Force into the War zone once the shooting stops in order to restore this is difficult to since the local armed forces regularly disregard cease fire promises by their nominal civil Ian there is no Way of knowing when the shooting has really a in Force arriving now would be consolidating and ratifying the serbian military successes on the ground or would seem to do so even if even if the in formally took no position on an eventual political and Territo rial since France and the United As members of the european Community tag Ging along after Are cheering on croatian they Are unlikely to turn around and As permanent Mem Bers of the Security to endorse ser Bian occupation of disputed ground claimed by some basis for a political Settle ment should be visible something beyond a lip service cease fire before in troops Are asked to Canada has Little to contribute toward improvement of conditions in former yugoslav if plebiscites Are eventually held to de Termine which districts will be included in which Canadian observers might help supervise the As states emerge Slovenia is already a Strong candidate that seem Likely to survive within stable Borders and to serve their people can Ada should lend what Little moral and Politi Cal support it has to volume discount Revenue which directs and on what items the governments new goods and services tax will be has decided to hit at least one group of Small spenders while letting the bigger fish swim right through the in doing it will arouse the curiosity of some canadians who will wonder How Small purchases can be taxable while larger Pur chases of the same goods Are tax Revenue Canada has decided that ship Ping charges on goods sent out of Canada should not be subject to the the Deci Sion covers postage but Only if used in amounts of or More at one a Ca Nadian who buys one or two Stamps to mail letters to the or overseas will pay the prolific letter provided he mails or More Worth of Stamps at one escapes the get on the Stamps the regulations will make sense Only to a Ordinary canadians would suspect that something is either taxable or it is and if it is the sensible approach would be to collect at All exemptions Only make sense if they Are applied at the Low end of the where collections Cost More than they Are Revenue Canada has directed Canada Post to do the As a Canada posts regulation on the matter reads if a customer mails an item to a foreign Destina Tion and the total shipping charges Are be Low the transaction by itself is if the same customer mails other International shipments at the same time and immediately transfers custody of those ship ments to Canada total shipping charge if they collectively amount to or Are tax in other no buying of 46cent Stamps in quantities costing More than in order to avoid the to get an exemption a customer must lick the put them on the letters and hand them Over at time of Why anyone would spend Money in this manner is not a 40cent with three cents get added would be cheaper than a 46cent stamp and would take the letter anywhere in an individual would have to have an incredibly Complex combination of other mail to use 46cent Stamps for anything except mailing letters to the As no Canadian should think that he can escape the get on Stamps used to take mail out of the country by paying a bit the regulation continues shipping charges cannot be artificially inflated to boost the figure to an amount which would qualify for a get for if total shipping charges amount to the transaction is a request from the customer to add extra postage in order to avoid get is not be to in other no spending an extra Nickel to save 35 cents what does the government do with the 35 cents it collects it spends it by requiring paperwork on All get exempt is exempt postal 41 012340 must be completed for International shipping charges and when a customer bulk International ship one receipt will shipping destination will be entered As at least most canadians can Stop wonder ing Why it costs so much to collect the t Quebe cers need to heed Blunt truth by special to the free press Ottawa a Leader with the sort of popu Larity George Bush enjoyed just after the Gulf War would no doubt be an advantage for this country during troubled times but nonetheless it has one who is doing most things prime minister Mulroney for telling his Quebec audiences Blunt truths which it is his duty to put before it is less important that an increasingly extreme Quebec academic like Leon nominally a accuses him of economic terror ism than it would be if Mulroney were shirking his duty and playing to the he does not seem to get much credit for driving the truth but what should a National Leader be telling Quebe cers these Days except the things he is saying he should be applauded for warning so unmistakably that separatism Means leaving the federation All the not moving into some comfortable Halfway House that offers All the advantages and none of the disadvantages of belonging to full Canadian any National Leader should be telling que Bec these Days that you Are either a full Cana Dian or something not half a citizen of an Independent that is what Mulroney is Dion is angry because he does not like the truth about today having in killer smoke How can Vicki Whyte blame Stanich pen insula Hospital for the death of her 80year old father she sees the world through a Nar Row her father lived at an extended care unit for six years How Many residents does she feel he has harmed through second hand smoke suppose he started smoking at 20 for 60 years he harmed himself and did she Ever try to talk her father out of smoking the antismoking bylaw must be strictly in the smoke coming out of an 80 year old is just As dangerous As any 1 Send her my Kofi Amoah Winnipeg gun difference in response to Robert pages letter guns disturbing november i must Point out that this is the typical nonsense coming from the Antigua Page demonstrates his ignorance by stating misinformation in first of so called assault rifles do not need to be converted to they Are already semiautomatic machine guns Are also known As Semi autos Are also known simply As the difference is machine guns will so Root continuously by holding the trigger while Semi autos fire one shot with one pull of the machine guns have been Ille Gal to Purchase since no legally registered machine gun has Ever been used in a crime in a weapon is not a weapon until it is used As this is loaded terminology no Pun intended that evokes a pejorative the purpose of the design is Vari Ous implements from baseball bats for beat ing and screw Drivers for stabbing have been used As intended design is Orrele if the estimated five million guns or even the 50 thousand assault rifles in Canada were used As weapons then the streets would be awash in this is obviously not the it is also interesting that Switzer land has a very Low crime rate and yet almost every household is required to keep a Mili tary assault Rifle and ammunition in the obviously the availability of Auto Matic rifles has no direct relationship on the crime Canadas legislation attacks the not the the term assault Rifle is und Efin there Are hundreds of thousands of ixe Enfield rifles in Canada which were de signed for Battlefield use in first and second world wars and would Page con Sider these assault rifles this is just a pop ular buzzword ladled out by the Media As is ak47 and when i was a kid it was Tommy perhaps this Bill should be subtitled the sinister shapes rifles Are not weapons of mass listed earlier that other canadians would Only negotiate with Quebec if they had a knife at their throats he now denounces them As not having negotiated at in the professor has received More than his Rheto Ric entitled him to expect a set of proposals open for his underlying com plaint really is that the Federal proposals would preserve Canada while those put for Ward earlier for the Quebec Liberal party by the Allaire committee would effectively Dis Mantle Home truth it is imperative that Dion and All other Quebec extremists be made to understand that the rest of Canada will not accept a Loose association As a substitute for a Mulroney is doing a rather Good Job of get Ting that Home truth across in French Cana in the economic the recession is More stubborn than most economists there is a determined Effort to find Canadian scapegoats for the country the is just As disagreeable Tena Cious in the United states and where there Are no Canadian influences at As it is in this the prime minister is doing a better than average Job by refusing to be stampeded into taking the costly sort of actions that his critics want and which would do no the especially those with left Wing would like to see Fis Cal commonsense deficit control letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and address names we de used and letters Are subject to editing that term is usually reserved for Poison Gas or nuclear hence this is simply another pejorative automatic rifles and pistols which the do gooder set would like to eliminate have been in the hands of private citizens of can Ada for nearly 100 the fact is contrary to pages As automatic rifles had sporting Pur poses a full Hal Century before they were used by the the need for firearms of a Given Type is people have no needs for a car or motorcycle that can easily exceed the Speed limit by two yet they Are entirely no one needs a car More Power Ful than a Chevy who Are the gun bearers of Canada to dictate what the legitimate categories of fun use Are Allan Peterson Kleef Ekl right foot i think it is almost time someone pointed out to Brian Mulroney that he has a right foot and a left we watched the remembrance Day Parade on to from Ottawa and once again he turned left after having placed a Wreath on the surely after seven similar someone could Point out to our prime minister there is a proper Way to do he does not make All the rules and he looks very foolish turning the wrong Way and defying military rules which were established Long before he was the country is in a mess and this is Only one More Small thing he does that is contrary to established ritual in this if he is still in government next november could shoved aside and a new Federal spending splurge the signs still Are that they Are banging their Heads against a Brick if a Federal deficit will not Speed economic recovery there is precious Little reason to believe that it would be useful to borrow four or five billion More and run the deficit up to around the Money of have to be borrowed and Canada has been living on a let the kiddies pay when they grow up basis far too Long Al it is always possible to postulate some big ifs in this if Jean Chretien had not been an exceptionally bad finance minis Ter in the late if Allan Maceachen had not been still More disastrous in the Early if their mistakes had not Hamstrung Marc Lalonde when he took things would be better so they would much that gets us nowhere except to an interesting fact about political reactions in the country today the prime minister is never called on to answer the greatest criticism that can be made of his hard slump he should have moved faster and harder to Correct the i he should have ignored All Liberal new democratic Battles against deficit con he should have introduced the get much better policy choices would be available now but even this slump would be someone get it into his head to do this exer Cise correctly at least Dorothy Winnipeg sell off farm Mulroney left right foot a in his letter Farmers locked in free Ike Krahn states that Farmers have been battered and neglected in the past 10 when the times were the farm ers bought to avoid paying income All they needed was something to write off the As Long As they had Money to spend All was he says that Canadian people Are subsidized by Low cup and social Secu All Farmers also receive old age pension at 65 and a number work off the farm and also collect the taxpayers have paid Bil lion in the last 10 years to haul Farmers the Farmers have the grip along with quite a few other programs at taxpayer the premiums the Farmers pay in no Way cover the Farmers get All their get the crop insurance premiums Are a tax they get cheaper plates and insurance so that they can drive to town to drink Coffee and to curl All on f Krahn also states that with All the Money invested in who is going to buy the farm sell the farm at the going Market rate just like everything else and not at the Price you Farmers have just got too big and too greedy and now must pay the Farmers work three to four months Grain Farmers a keep some and dont drive 1020 Miles into town to buy milk and if you cant make it on the sell it at the going pay off your get an eight Hou Raday Job 260 Days a year and quit crying for Glenn nesb1tt Dauphin education right As a Canadian living in Rural i would like to know Why pos secondary Edu cation is not one of my childrens rights although my children Are Only in Elemen tary in order for them to pursue an education we have to Start budgeting years before they will enter and Hope that we can meet the financial require As a University of Manitoba graduate it took me six years of monthly payments after i graduated to pay off my student where was my right to a free pos secondary education Penny os1s Dubonnet ;