Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 1, 1992, Winnipeg, Manitoba John Dafoe focus Winnipeg free press a 7 Ria onto hem 199 october does a child have the right to a divorce by Bonnie Erbe and Betsy Hart Scripps Howard news service question Gregory the 12 year old Florida boy who sued his biological Mother for a has won his Prece Den setting Case and will now be adopted by his Foster should children be Al Lowed to go to court to legally disown their parents Bonnie Erbe Gregoios is at first Blush a Tough requiring solomonic the spectre of that boy sitting across the courtroom from his birth asking the court to free him from his unfortunate Bio logical was a clearly his was deter mined enough to try to keep him that she waged a full blown Legal too bad she want a better Parent when she had the during the past eight years she placed Gregory in institutions or Foster care for seven years and five while she to tame her own de Mons alcoholism and chronic a employ Gregory became so accustomed to bouncing from Foster Home to institution and Back again that when she entered the courtroom he said he didst recognize the Kings Leys Legal scenario lassos this question How much weight should a court give to Bio logical ties just because a woman gives does that mean she automatically wins parental rights i say parenting is a Complex a bundle of rights and it should not be sanctioned by Law on the Mere basis of too Many people in our society irresponsibly bring children into this world children they Are neither emotionally nor financially capable of poor Gregory was one such he was Able to free himself from a Mother who perhaps despite the Best of Intel his father deserted the social ser vice agencies designed to protect him failed him As and the divorce for was quite literally the court of last anyone who opposes Gregory right to go to court to legally sever his parental Bonds should consider the alternative for this Young Man it would have meant bouncing among his mothers Foster Homes and institutions until the age of in he found a stable Home with two Lov ing put in proper its not hard to decide which is Betsy Hart the typical 12yearold child in North America int responsible and mature enough to consistently do his chores and now were to believe Gre gory Kingsley had the wherewithal to de cide to sue his parents for find a convince her of the merits of his Case and see it through to Victory All on his not what is Likely is that this boy was used by a group of childrens rights advocates to Advance an Agenda of greater state involvement in family consider Gregory Foster father is a prominent attorney who found Gregory while on an official Field trip investigating the status and merits of childrens rights in he himself refused to sue for parental a common and sometimes successful procedure for Foster parents in most in favor of letting Gregory pursue the Gregory attorney just happened to be the same person who successfully argued in a 1989 Florida Case that a 15yearold girl could have an abortion Over her parents and is it just coincidence that the first Case of a child suing his parents for divorce is one where the parental neglect was so obvious no reasonable person would argue that the child should stay with the Nat ural parents this was carefully orchestrated As part of a larger Agenda to diminish parental rights and broaden the states read Liberal social engineers authority to intervene in family decisions and the upbringing of childrens advocates have said they expect to pursue other such but while Gregory was one of obvious future Battle Smay involve children suing Over religious Freedom the right to stay Home from Church on sunday or Freedom of expression the right to talk Back to in the United nations childrens Bill of rights guarantees just such once families will pay Bonnie Erbe is Host of the pcs program to the contrary and Legal affairs correspondent for the radio net Betsy Hart is former press Secretary to the House Republican policy committee and director of seminars at the heritage Gregory Kingsley legally divorced from his disaster at chernobyl was just one sign of soviet mismanagement in Ukraine pays the Price Washington the High Price paid by Ukraine for decades of incompetent Rule by its soviet communist Mas ters can be seen in Many ways one of them being the dismaying state of its Energy yesterdays revelation of the Emer gency shutdown of a nuclear reactor near in a country with plenty of Money and plenty of trained draws attention to a special concern in Ukraine its electricity generating nuclear because of the 1986 incident at Cher there is great Public worry about the safety of these plants and the Lack of Money to make them this has led the government to co finance with Japan and the european eco nomic Community new centres for scientists and engineers who worked on soviet nuclear weapons in which they would learn How to operate civilian nuclear plants and to make them the nuclear Power Industry is being asked to advise on making Ukraine nuclear plants to potential losses of electricity generating capacity because of Public opposition to nuclear must be added Ukraine worry that it will not be Able to rely on imports from Russia to make up its Oil and natural Gas shortfall because it lacks hard currency and because of Politi Cal Ukraine Energy problems have drawn the attention of the subcommittee on european affairs of the foreign relations committee of the currency support subcommittee chairman Joe a democratic senator for has taken an intense interest in issues relating to help for the former soviet he has conducted several hearings on Vari Ous proposals for giving tech Nical food currency support and Cash to these republics and to the bal tic and East european countries that were economic slaves of the former soviet pm appropriately for a newly Independent country trying to shake off the effects of a command Biden has been investigating Market driven solutions to the problems of democratic Washington editor David Macdonald his committee staff specialists and the general accounting office were directed to find out the current situation and to identify any impediments to invest ment in Ukraine Energy sector and Trade with that they have also been re viewing what the government has been doing to Ukraine Basic Energy situation is one of the major reasons is that bureaucrats spouting marxist Leninist Claptrap did a very poor Job on the practical examples Ukraine produces about 25 per cent of its natural Gas needs and has estimated reserves of trillion cubic feet in the Niep donets where Oil and Gas have been extracted since in the 20 years after Nat ural Gas daily production fell by 54 per from billion cubic feet to Bil lion cubic there was a further 13 per cent decline Between 1990 and Why because communist bureaucrats used the wrong kind of equipment and put dated technology to extract the did a third world level maintenance Job on Gas transmission pipelines and starved the Ukraine Fields of capital investment needed to do any Job not enough funds ukrainian officials have told officials that substantial amounts of natural Gas vanish on their Way to distribution and storage this loss occurs because pipelines were not maintained and be cause the former soviet regime would not authorize funds to pay for enough com As a the new state cannot even find out whether some or All of its Gas pipelines retain their structural while pouring rubles into improve ments in the circular error or of nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic the soviet Lead ers Cut costs in Ukraine has no equipment that would let it spot Dis clean and coat pipe interiors with material to prevent corrosion and put them Back together ukrainian officials reported that they Lack equipment that can let them spot Small pipe leaks from which Gas under pressure can is Ukraine Oil picture is Ukraine produces Only 10 per cent of its daily Oil needs and 19701990 production dropped by 62 per cent from million metric tons to million metric it fell by an other eight per cent to million metric tons Between 1990 and a major say ukrainian is that Moscow stuck them with an extrac Tion method that Western Oil producers would use Only in severely limited Circum it involves drilling several Wells and pumping water into some of them to Force Oil out of other it can lower ukrainian officials estimate that general use of this technique kept their re covery rate to 2540 per cent of what it could have Kremlin Oil and Gas investment Priori ties put Siberia Ukraine narrow seams ukrainian geologists estimate reserves of 40 billion metric tons of Coal but Low Quality extraction equipment and denial of funds for newer equipment has kept production a 19701990 production decline of 20 per from million metric tons to million metric was followed by another 17 per cent drop to 136 million metric tons Between 1990 and a contributing say Coal is the great depth of Ukraine mines and their narrow Coal deterrents to Western private sector in vestment in Ukraine that could ease these problems include Lack of a bilateral in vestment treaty and Lack of a bilateral tax Ukraine has passed a foreign in vestment Law but Only a treaty will do for some nervous there is a 1973 tax treaty currently recognized by Ukraine and the United but some investors insist on a Bilat eral three who missed the Point on important issues Dave Brown Doest seem to understand that conflict of interest is not simply a mat Ter of what the Law when he claims that he have known that his firm would end up As a sub contractor in a development on which he there is no reason not to believe but he is missing the Dave Browns company is apparently Able to Benefit from activity in the construction and development industries when there is lots of work for there More for Browns and the reality is that City Council can and does make Deci Sions that affect the Levels of activity in the construction and development such decisions Are ongoing and the subject of intense in the extent and costs of development Are amongst the most controversial issues now facing a senior councillor and would be mayor is in a position to influence the cites Overall policies on when that Council lors livelihood outside politics is even to development his motives must be suspect not merely his vote on a particular but his vote on a Range of development projects on the Issue of the cites development policy Gen it should not go unobserved that Brown is the candidate of Browns suggestion if elected he would place his shares of the com Pany in a Blind Trust also misses the Day today responsibility for the company is not the Issue the question is whether the mayor would be Able to pursue policies that would Benefit his company whoever was running clearly he William Neville its unfortunate that Brown is in a Busi Ness whose Well being can be affected by decisions of the Council Brown want to but that is his problem he needs to decide which business he wants to be Susan Thompson Doest seem to under stand that accountability begins at when a Public person makes a Public state ment on Public issues he or she is account Able for last much later than Thompson finally released her she then wanted to postpone discussion of most of it even Nice work if you can get it you can say you have got a platform without having to defend acid there is the great irony what Thompson did want to talk about was whatever interesting things Thompson might have had to say were overshadowed by a Clumsy attempt to manage the the emerging image of the Thompson Campaign is that of a Novice candidate managed by Back room figures whose advice seems to be say As Little As candidates in the control of their handlers can have successes just god help at George Bush but its an approach insulting to the intelligence of voters and to be successful it does require some plausibility on the part of the it Howe that the plausibility of Thompsons Campaign is coming to rest More on the Power of Money than on the Power of Lillian Thomas Doest seem to under stand Why she should name names if she is going to make accusations about sexual harassment otherwise she casts suspicion far beyond the alleged More import she Doest seem to under stand the difference Between sexual harass sexual sexist jokes and Sim ple none of these things Are very attractive and several of in jokes and certainly part of the City Hall sexual As most of us would understand involves attempts to take sex Ual advantage in situations marked by unequal Power employees by Stu dents by teachers and so this is hardly the situation in god or nature May have distributed judgment and integrity quite unequally but the voters through the a ointment of elec Tion have conferred Equality of status on All in the incident Thomas there is certainly sexual innuendo or what would pass among some councillors As risque wit and in and around sexist and racist comments occur far More often than they Are this is partly a function of the adversarial nature of Politi Cal bodies politicians frequently attack or unsettle their opponents with whatever comes to for the least intelligent and most vulgar councillors there Are such people on Council sexist and racist epithets come partly its a function of the club rules per Sonal behaviour whether telling dirty or drinking and driving Are rarely commented there is Mutual self Protection in this and not a Little reticence of the Stone it is neither attractive nor elevating and Lillian Thomas has exposed some Small part of it to but if she allows the Issue to become she will Render no service to those chiefly who suffer from the really exploitative and extortionate cases of sex Ual harassment in the doonesbury by Garry Trudeau sip you Hap fool a los his wont Pont Housez of course i Pip that myj00 ;