Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 18, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Al Winnipeg free press w May editorials editor John 6977044 the Good and the bad the miraculous Campaign to keep the jets in Winnipeg has brought out the Best and the worst in the people who live in Uris Community enthusiasm and tenacity intimidation and fortunately there was much More of the Good than of the the image of Young children scouring the House for rolling them up and taking them to the Bank to hand Over to the fundraisers is a perfect Symbol for How deep and How far reaching the Saveth jets Effort be it crossed All lines and economic it brought the people of Winnipeg and Manitoba to Gether in common cause in a Way that most can never re Call happening refusing to let the team go without a fight is another Winnipeg but saving the team became More than just preserving a few dozen nights out in the bitter cold of for it became a sym Bol of the cites very fun in the minds of Many Young Sav ing a hockey team was indistinguishable from saving the future of Winnipeg the ugly Side of human nature was Clear enough As no where was it More Evi Dent than at City Hall yes where Council lors voted to contribute million to build an Jim Silver appeared on behalf of thin the coalition against major Public investment in a new entertainment he gave a Mattero fact account of just How much he thought the project would when silvers allotted time was up he asked for an Extension to finish his a perfectly reasonable re quest since there was no business plan available for the Public to assess and hardly any time for the Community to debate a major Public the request was refused by a majority of Council Mem Bers with the loud approval of fans seated in the councillor Michael Oshaughnessy said he didst want Silver to have More time because if he heard any More he would suffer a heart councillor Oshaughnessy tolerance for dissent is shockingly Low his capacity to posture shamefully councillor Rick Boychuk has suffered a death threat his family has put up with abuse from the with that kind of its no wonder potential candidates look at Public life with apprehension when some out of control and out to can make life miserable for Public people who have committed no crime greater than speaking their on the saving the jets has been a positive experience for this a reputation for extraordinary achievement has been but there is a sober reality some Well meaning people can lose sight of the line that divides healthy enthusiasm from Nasty into lawsuits in limbo Dow Corning corporations decision to seek bankruptcy Protection in the face of thousands of Law suits related to their silicone breast implants is a Mano Eyre which has understandably angered women who believe they were while such a move int unusual in the corporate it leaves health care Consumers wondering what Protection the courts will provide when they believe a medical product has caused serious an estimated Canadian women have joined class action suits against the manufacturer which filed for Protection under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code this the filing Means that All lawsuits Are in and that claimants will have to line up with other creditors to negotiate Dow which was the largest of three producers of had previously agreed to contribute billion us Over 30 years to a global settlement fund to help set the worldwide claims against the but Only three per cent of that fund was available to women outside the United Canadian women seeking compensation had no Choice but to file separate lawsuits or Settle for less than their american Dow Corning officials now complain that greedy Law yers have pushed the number of additional claims beyond what they can although the company no longer makes silicone it insists theres no conclusive proof that their product caused autoimmune such As chronic fatigue and claimants lawyers have responded by threatening to up the Ante and go after the company Parent and Canadian by using the courts to and possibly a fair Dow Corning is doing nothing from a moral it is the fact that the implants Are no longer on the Market Speaks so does the suffering of the thousands of women who say their bodies have been damaged by the and who now face indefinite delays in receiving any Bompensa Dow Corning should quit playing games and pay Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1830 Rudy Redekop publisher Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor John Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Verne Kalichuk resources s1ephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn c1995 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson newspapers company limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council save the lose the City stay or the Winnipeg jets pressure cooker stands As an object lesson on How not to make Public Deci special interests grinding axes and politicians trying to shift blame have manipulated legitimate emotions into civic boosterism gone mad and created a potent Stew of irrationality and the special interests grinding axes Are the members of the Winnipeg me Dia who Are campaigning for Advertis ing Revenue and audiences under the Guise of civic save our jets is actually save our journalistic principles have gone out the the special interests Are other fac ets of the Winnipeg business Community who have helped fan the Public realizing each escalation makes it easier to hike the amount of taxpayer dollars going to save a hockey franchise they equate with their own profitable Bottom Premier Gary Filmon has emerged As a masterful political he has demonstrated How he earned his sobriquet the Teflon stung by the outpouring of animosity when his election Promise to save the jets crashed and burned within Days of the the Premier cast about for a Sav finding it in the person of Winnipeg millionaire Izzy this the Premier was first in with his Promise of deftly throwing the hot potatoes to Winnipeg City Council and that old tory Federal Liberal human resources minister Lloyd a Filmon is an outstanding political he knows How to do says thin ice spokesman Jim the mayor Winnipeg mayor Susan Thompson is incapable of playing poli tics in this league once Fil Mon has taken advantage of her As he does Over and she left City coun cil forced to commit on million without a business plan or Frances Russell Revenue no matter what Hilmons Public image As Nice Guy has been restored and secured from further at least from the jets Silver warns that if the jets Deal there will be More than enough political recriminations to Bury All the political thin ice has always opposed Public Money for the Arena and a team in a hockey league which is moving up upscale and Down South any it has also always said that once the doors to the Public trea sury will never the citizens group has been proven right every step of the until the april 25 the Public contribution from the three governments was pegged at no More than with the election safely out of the the amount suddenly escalated to then it became million a million Arena and another Mil lion for site servicing and improve Winnipeg free press photo the jets Are not Worth the Money it would Cost to keep would be just the begin Asper has said he intends to seek charitable status for his Mil lion Trust so that contributions Are then there Are the tax write offs for luxury boxes and corporate the people of Winnipeg would be building an Arena for some very Rich men on a site the Forks that most peo ple wanted to stay Silver and this would be Only a stripped Down it would be the smallest in the league and it is Likely within a few the jets would leave the new Arena would have just 500 seats More than the old one and Cost the architectural proposal to rebuild the existing Arena would have Cost million and would have added the hype has convinced Many Winni Eggers to believe the future of their City rides with the Silver says its the other Way pious Hopes about exotic Revenue sources to cover Winnipeg million share would be just pious a bet Ter bet would be fewer Community skating swimming pools and libraries with Shorter hours and higher user More potholes and flooded basements and a hike of at least two Points on the property there would be a speeding up of the erosion of Quality of life in he Community skating rinks where kids can learn to play hockey would close in order that wealthy people can watch participatory sport would suffer so All Money can go into Spectator if 400 teenagers showed up on the legislature Lawn to demand would politicians and businessmen Scurry to open the Public Treasury if a National hockey league fran Chise is so vital in creating a future for Young Why did a record Manitoban go Down the Road Between 1988 and 1995 while the jets played on America moves towards fascism if fascism comes to America it would be on a program of american to Huey it would be Pollyan Naish to Sug Gest that anything positive is Likely to come out of the bombing in okla homa City last month but it is at least remotely possible that Oklahoma and its aftermath will Alert some somnolent americans to the forces that now seem let Loose in their one first observes the Speed and following the with which Many americans and their Pun dits fingered Muslim fundamentalists As the Likely this instinctive Rush to judgment was reversed Al most not so much by the telling absence of evidence As by the emergence of other suspects who in the righteous anger Over the carnage in Public opinion in America seemed inclined to find the new suspects even faster than they can be found and whether or not the arrested Are the arrests have had the effect of drawing attention to an increasingly dark and ugly underside of american life and that attention has brought into focus the growing phenomenon of armed i formed or being largely on the premise that True William Neville concerned with the preservation of american values and traditions in of the right to Bear arms itself will be required to take up arms against a government in Wash so alien that it does not deserve to be called american and in May be in league with foreign Powers to effect a United nations occupation of the United states or some equally compelling it is surprising that so Many Ameri cans seem surprised at the existence of these groups and the views they this surprises partly because paranoia particularly fear and suspicion of foreigners and the conviction that ones government has been subverted by alien interests is part of the american political tradition Joe Mccarthy didst invent he just embodied More surprising is that mainstream if such exists any seems so Little to understand How conspiracy extreme and intemperate appeals to and expressions of contempt and hatred for political opponents have come to permeate american political Dis and with what such things could be found on the extremes of both left and but moderate conservatives seem so determined to have no ene Mies on the right that the extreme right is essentially free to say what it thus you have a Rush Limbaugh who begins his radio shows with a count Down marking the number of Days until the occupation of Washington is you have a Gordon a watergate burglar turned talk show who boasts of using pictures of the Clinton for target practice and who advises listeners where to aim if con fronted by a Federal you have a senator Jesse Helms who warns the president to keep out of Helms state without an armed guard and a Pat once and future Republican presidential talking of the superiority of the Christian religion and of waging cultural you have a Pat whose Christian coalition controls the Republican party in nearly 20 propagating the View that governments and policies Are controlled by a Long established conspiracy in which free jews and International Bank ers Are key you have a National Rifle association whose state ments have become so extreme As to George this to re his is it possible to listen to and observe this from people with some claims to american and seriously doubt that their speech and conduct fuels and legitimizes the Para the the violence of others far less constrained by the conventions of Public office or the real responsibilities of Power one might suppose those with religious pretensions had heard of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind apparently the result of All this is a political increasingly driven by the re publican itself increasingly driven by forces that resemble nothing so much As those which gripped much of Europe in the it is All there a political doctrine that rests on and encourages paranoia that attributes All the problems of the society to aliens without and enemies within that espouses notions of racial and cultural that condones violence and encourages taking the Law into ones own hands that is ruthless and rigid and views Compromise As the ultimate sign of All this is capped by a fervent super nationalism in which everything done is done in the name of and in defence of the old Apple traditional the american Way and a society if Only it can be re stored to has no equal on gods Green Huey Long gel it y ;