Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 22, 1992, Winnipeg, Manitoba John Dafoe focus Winnipeg free press a 1099 september French voters say maybe to european Unity Bwilliam Safire new York times London by a margin As slim As a mannequins France apparently voted yes on sunday to a Union of european the country whose leaders invented the common Market showed How profoundly its people were split about surrendering National sovereignty to German fiscal the Only Way to Stop German Industry from taking Over its the French had Long been was to Nemesh that Gulliver in a web of lilliputian bureaucracy a form of unaccountable control in which France is pre but to the Surprise of european thinks first about and made Clear All too soon a willingness to Domi Nate its to finance its absorption of East the Bundesbank set out to attract capital without inflation by putting interest rates because its neighbors were forced by the new rules to keep unequal currencies Germany political priority effectively beg Gared its who could not lower their rates to stimulate Here in London last the British Dis covered the Folly of depending on the kindness of the German Bank sent a signal to in to lower the British Stan Dard of when the conservative govern ment of prime minister John major at first resisted by trying to support the Specula tors gleefully walked off with a third of the nations foreign currency Pound will float then followed the economic equivalent of Britain evacuated its currency from the exposed withdrawing from its obligation to March in lockstep with German poli the value of the Pound will float on the Roll ing sea of Supply and and not be moored to the Margaret Thatcher was right the utopian Promise of a single currency turned out to be a trap that surrendered Basic decisions within a democracy to a foreign both the tory and the labor leadership still dont know what hit As the free Market devalued the Pound and sent stocks up the ahead of the political is now certain that Mone tary Union is previously on the Back is now in the sad in nearly half the people have had second thoughts about being Able to con Tain the germans by trusting Germany to put Europe interest the entire French political from pseudo socialist Mitterrand to pseudo gaullist pleaded with the Public to vote offering interest rate bribes and warning naysayers of financial the non Side attracted political from the racist be pen to the socialist iraqi president Saddam Hussein Best Friend in even France showed itself to be almost evenly divided on an Issue that its leaders treated Only months ago to be a foregone con the emergence of Public opinion As a counter to the bureaucratic Power grab was demonstrated in Jacques Chirac classic fudge Frances interest is not so much to vote yes As not to vote Amber Light sundays result was not it would be foolish to interpret this reluctant out As the color of the voters Light is not Germany Helmut having shown German domination too will go to a sum Mit meeting in two weeks to listen to his neigh Bors complaints about having to pay for his reunification with their Siracu the Bundesbank will then discover that inflation will not be triggered by its lowering of interest too late people in other countries now see that the French plan to contain Germany by surrendering sovereignty is foolish appease the european economic Community with its benefits will but the forced March to monetary Union and then political Union has run into a Brick Wall called Public what of the interest americans nor Mally share Richard Nixon expletive de lated Lack of concern with the but we do have an interest not wholly selfish in the grassroots resistance to european Europe is made up of real real nations act in their Peoples economic which sometimes the conflicts Are Best resolved in the marketplace and the Vot ing rather than suppressed in Bureau cratic Backrooms until an imposed order cracks wide it was a terrible week for Europe Politi but a Good week for Europe and the William is a political columnist with the new York times Chirac voting yes just Means not saying a lot of future politicians didst choose to face the dangers of Vietnam bitter legacy of Vietnam washingt9n one aspect of the 1992 presidential election Campaign that May Puzzle some Manitoban is the tenacity with which vice president Dan Quayle and others have hounded democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton Over his Viet camera military service Quayle has urged Clinton to Tell the whole truth about most recently on abcs meet the press program it is easy to grasp on that whether or not Clinton has been economical with the truth about an episode in his past can be seen As a Way of measuring his it May be less easy to grasp Why the wider Issue of Clinton Lack of military service should be regarded As Canadas last experience with compulsory military service was in the second world in the korean Canada re lied on career military augmented by reservists still eligible for Call up in there was no conscription there been none some including some Winni served in Vietnam As volunteers in military Canadas military commitments to the North Atlantic treaty organization and to peacekeeping for the United nations organization have been carried out by making a career of service in the Canadian armed this Means that few canadians today have any experience or interest Mili tary judging a fellow canadians character on the basis of military or Lack of is an alien in the United things Are fight the germans by virtue of its immense deployment of Industrial and population re sources to fight and beat the germans and the japanese in the second world the United states became a military super pow millions conscripted for service in that War swiftly returned to civilian but the cold War with Joseph stains soviet Union ensured that the military would not re turn to its prewar Skeleton conscription remained a fact of life for Young americans As their country at tempted to contain when the late 1950s involvement in Vietnam Washington editor David Macdonald grew in the conscription was there to feed before the involvement ended in two million Young men and women had served in Vietnam because of their requirement to undergo compulsory military service in Vietnam was potentially dangerous for most who served the two million were selected by the Pentagon for one year of Vietnam duty from a Pool of 27 million people whose age made them eligible for what americans Call the limited Fields of that 27 is million got defer which meant that their Call to service was such As current defence Secretary Dick were deferred be cause of being married and then having Chil most got deferments to Complete a fou year undergraduate at an Early stage of the it was Possi ble to extend a deferment by going straight into graduate study of just about any sub that accounts for a number of divinity degrees to be found in the records of several current members of the in then president Lyndon Baines Johnson abolished graduate student except for those studying med optometry and veterinary those completing two years of graduate study by were eligible for deferment until that deferment was socially acceptable enough for 15 million to seek it because the War was political resistance to the War was policy was debated on the streets in mass Demontra one million eligible for the draft joined either the National guard or the which reduced the possibility of being sent to Canadian governments of the Day did not support the that made it possible for an unknown number of draft eligible people to evade military service by fleeing to some fled to Canada because they were opposed to War in general or the Vietnam War in others did so because they did not want to be killed or of the two million sent to about were others were physically or psychiatric ally Many units experienced reduced military effectiveness because of widespread drug absence without leave and the murder of this sometimes happened by hand grenades thrown into the sleeping quarters of career Junior for whom Vietnam service was by for whom staying alive until their duty year ended was the supreme con there was a general indicated in the following 1971 observation by the armed forces journal the discipline and Battle worthiness of the armed forces with a few salient except lower and worse than at any time in this Century and possible in the history of the United part of the reason was that draft evasion and deferment kept out of Vietnam a disproportionate number of educated and relatively affluent those Low on the socioeconomic and educational those from minority such As had a greater Chance of doing a Vietnam tour of dogged by the past seventeen years after the the bitterness it can be conjured up by campaigning for who manoeuvred to avoid Mil itary service because he opposed the Viet Nam those actions now dog his self appointed chief Tormen did serve but chose a certain Branch of the Indiana National guard that kept him out of it is an Odd Issue for Quayle to select to attack since Quayle no service in Vietnam is one of the reasons Why his reputation took a pounding in the 1988 for the How even in a year in which the Economy is the Central Issue for most Clinton failure to Don uniform is an effective the unwillingness of chiefs and councils to address the plight of women and children suf Fering abuse at the hands of husbands and fathers is quite we Are concerned enough about it to state that we believe the failure of aboriginal government leaders to Deal at All with the problem of Domestic abuse is we this is a heavy responsibility on aboriginal leaders to recognize the significance of the problem within their own comm they must begin to recognize As How much their silence and failure to contribute to the those statements could have been part of provincial court judge Brian Giesbrecht re port emanating from a controversial inquest into the death of 13yearold Lester who hanged himself in 1988 after years of sex Ual and physical but they were those statements were contained in the aboriginal Justice inquiry report which was re leased More than a year but relatively lit has been concerns expressed in yet another report have also been As the Aji report not a new Justice for Indian a 1 child advocacy project which was prepared in was shelved because Federal and Provin Cial governments apparently feared a Back lash from aboriginal the failure to act on that documents recommendations aggravated problems and underlined the realization that blame could not be placed on any one it stated the problem of child sexual assault had reached epidemic proportions in recent often aboriginal children on reserves were the victims of multiple assaults and were threatened if they took their complaints to a pc at the legislature Ariene Billinkoff Sally who had been involved in the child advocacy indicated that in Reserve the Lack of communication Between social agencies and Lack of connection Between the Community and the jus Tice system led to a number of disturbing con in order to resolve some of the that report recommended More training of police in child sexual a program to coordinate the handling of Reserve based abuse cases and a multidisciplinary approach on every it also called for new resources to develop a treatment capacity in each Reserve for offenders and More Safe place ment options for children and a culturally based prevention program in the Aji report supported those recommendations and urged Federal and Community governments to jointly develop and implement resources and programs to Deal with this most serious but Little was revelation of circumstances surrounding the Sandy Bay Reserve teenagers suicide underlined the seriousness of the Issue and the inquest made it Clear that the incident was not during the lengthy Gies Brecht was told about band councils covering up the abuse of children by relatives and re serve residents being fearful of providing in formation about suspicious deaths of children because of pressure from chiefs and band offi he also Learned that four years ago senior government officials decided against a Public review of the Dakota ojibway child and fam ily services which had been responsible for because they wanted to avoid open political confrontation with native leaders in an election they feared being labelled As As director of Winni pegs child Protection Centre told the hundreds of aboriginal children were being left in dangerous and abusive situations by native agencies which lacked the resources or the political will to intervene on their while he supported the concept of native he said the Lack of provincial sup port left workers trying to Cope alone with overwhelming after hearing the the judge produced a massive report which had Little Praise for in his every dimension of the child welfare system had failed the he saw aboriginal leaders who showed More concern for politics than problems within the officials who refused to recognize the exist ence of sexual abuse and governments which took a Handoff approach and allowed prob lems to be it Federal or provincial government or native All three actors in this sad equation have shown themselves quite pre pared to grind up a few generations of Indian rather than resolve this Giesbrecht this triple whammy of calculated neglect has helped to produce the parents of neglected and abused children discussed at this those tortured lives tear at the heart and shame us therefore he wanted the province to get More involved and be prepared to withdraw the Dakota ojibway Agency Legal mandate if it did not cooperate in resolving he also sought legislative changes to prohibit band official from sitting on local child Wel fare committees or Agency boards and to ensure mandatory reporting procedures of All types of he called for education to ensure people on the reserves face the truth and Stop covering up child a Childs advocate to Monitor and report the provinces actions and implementation of recommendations by the new Justice for Indian children the judges recommendations were not received with open arms by but All must recognize the need for after too Many years of it would be the first step in the right doonesbury by Garry Trudeau that Mas a Long is auh6ht a o Panny its a have you Picke the yet ;