Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 19, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Editor John 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press a 7 May losing North y an injustice a great injustice is about to take place in the North end of this the North y is faced with having to close its doors be cause of a Lack of the Media is hyped up with the question of whether the Winnipeg jets will be getting a new All Levels of government have pledged millions of the taxpayers dollars to support that the jets Are millionaires and could afford to buy their own Arena More easily than we could afford to buy a bigger House or take our children to a More expensive recreational the Arena project May have some economic but what about the Impact which will result from the closing of the North y the loss of the North y would have a greater Impact on our and families like than the loss of the jets would and if we lose the North what will we lose next this discrepancy is a Clear Indica Tion of government there is More at stake Here than Young adults having to attend a Dif Ferent Many of the is members Are senior citizens who have attended the North y for 20 years and May Lack the mobility to go somewhere the North end is already plagued with youth violence because kids Are on the it is wrong to take away a facility that helps Point kids in the right direction and it is poor a swim Ming Pool costs less than a what can be done to Correct this situation threatening to leave seems to work for Quebec and the but i doubt if it would work for struggling Middle class working concerned citizens recently held a town Hal Type meeting to discuss the they Are preparing a business plan to try and save the valuable lets Hope they will Edgreen Burgh Winnipeg dont ignore crying baby i was appalled to see the scream ing headline turn deaf ear to howl ing As the Mother of an 11 Mont hold i was horrified at Reading the accompanying which quotes a the thought of a paediatrician promoting the use of earphones to Block the sound of a distressed baby is while some acceptable methods were clarification of oth ers is babies cry to communicate their they Are not capable of manipulation or trap Ping or charming us into curtain they Are cold or wet or lonely or hungry even if they just when parents bring a baby into their their lives a solid nights sleep is the first to accept it and Deal with sleep when the baby be in tune with the needs of your and please read anything by a True expert and father of William Winnipeg protest boosts Gay Pride the face of a new Jer synagogue displays the Mes Sage of the jewish people never a month the Community sent a similar message to hate groups who feel comfortable about publicly devaluing their Bob Larson was brought into the City last month to entertain Christian fundamentalists with a message sufficiently hateful to at tract Kkt advocate Bill Harcus and others of his hundreds from the together with others of organized to announce that such programs Are no longer people who have prob lems sharing the Globe with Bian people Are though Larson supporters have complained that he was denied free i a preacher who has a daily two hour North Ameri can radio broadcast cannot com Plain that Hes not weve heard too much from we have heard that homosexuals Are sick and need treatment and need to be recruited into heterosexual sup port such views demean they give implicit Permis Sion to the weaker members of Lar sons following to or kill people who do not con form to his when we entered the Duckworth Centre at the University of Winni we were not a violent mob which threatened larsons safety or All of us had better things to but our right to exist had been Chal we had to our objective was to Send a Tot Heitor the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a dearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone Clear message that neither Larson nor his message of hate would be Al Lowed to define As we did a strange feeling came Over for the first time in 55 i Felt in control of what people could or could not say about the value of my it seemed like a holy spirit had filled the room and was using the protest to end Church sponsored april will be remembered As a Day when the Community recovered a lot of Power and the Only loss was larsons control Over the crowd and his Stan Richards Winnipeg voting against gun control further to the item about gun control and Justice minister Allan rocks getting the message from id like to commend Fred Cleverley for his articulate presentation of a viewpoint that was remarkably similar to when a Volunteer for the Liberal candidate in my Riding called my Home prior to the recent election asking for my i could barely restrain my sanity prevailed and i merely stated that i would be supporting an other in sure the Volun Teer have appreciated the diatribe that was sure to follow if i had gotten i voiced my pro test by voting for a candidate who stated his position on needless additional gun control legislation As just that and it was a piddling personal a number of other firearm own ing Manitoban shared my senti As apparently does Clev the Federal voted into office by the Urban masses of Ontario and will be allowed to enact legislation that will undoubtedly create a new class of criminal and forever change the lifestyle of Many canadians who live beyond the Ivory towers at King and Rock got the message from the great unwashed of the Prai but not strongly enough to make a change to his Powers Winnipeg a great place for school shows High schools have gone High tech when it comes to school productions so much so that there is a pressing need for a venue and coordination and sharing of the metropolitan theatre still sitting Idle would have looked great with Grant Park High schools amazing production of All about cats much better than it did in the Dingy All High schools in and around the City Are doing polished performances of musicals and stage plays and usually in a gymnasium where All seats Are on one stages have no wings to speak there is no ceiling height to take up sound systems Are lost and the Walls Are covered with scoreboards and other things that belong in a theatre productions do if the City gave the metropolitan to a newly formed High school visual and performing arts group made up of representatives from All schools wanting to use it this group would Pool resources and co ordinate performance Twenty six weeks would be accounted including a jul August summer school for the performing arts and four weeks in june where the theatre would be used for graduation needless to Winnipeg is a major producer of Here is an Opportunity for the City to do a Good if there is lets hear from Arnold Ross sealer High school Winnipeg Erasmus left and Dussault held hearings across Canada on aboriginal including aboriginal commission urges wider Powers self government key to satisfactory future by Rene Dussault and Georges Erasmus special to the free press the Royal commission on aboriginal Peoples recent report on choosing has resulted in widespread discussion of a very difficult some commentators have offered modernization or integration As solutions for overcoming the social and economic problems of which suicide is a symptom in aboriginal High rates of suicide and other forms of self destructive such As alcohol Are evidence that a multilayered climate of hopelessness hangs Over some aboriginal for those most and Young climate of frustration and despair has become not As they have struggled to find a place in the modern most have been prevented from doing so by their systematic exclusion from the Means of Opportunity available to other such As Good health and made it Clear aboriginal people who insist on their need and right to modernize or integrate in ways they determine for themselves Are dismissed As people without genuine vibrant and innovative cultures on which to the terms integration and modernization must not become synonyms for approach that aboriginal people in Canada and around the world have resisted Over 500 they have surely made it Clear that they will continue to resist for the next 500 if that How Long it takes to win recognition of their right to survive As distinct assimilation of aboriginal Peoples As Public policy is unjust in human As the member countries of the United nations have it flies in the face of treaties and other solemn undertakings of British and Canadian in any it does not Canadian governments have tried it in a dozen different enforced attendance of several generations of aboriginal children at residential the insistence of band councils As replacement for Independent aboriginal governments and the imposition of Cross cultural a Lon term Agenda of self determination for the purpose of social and economic transformation not simple non of these Steps is simple let alone simplistic and none will work without the the crisis will give local care givers the immediate skills they need to help suicidal children and youth find reasons for waking up the Community a climate of hopelessness hangs Over some aboriginal communities adoption practices instead of i culture child to list just a few policies that impose modernization or integration on aboriginal people without their input or without reference to who they Are or to their cultures have done nothing to prevent the Rise of suicide and other forms of self injury among aboriginal on the As we show in our such policies have done much to provoke the commission spent More than a year doing research and consulting aboriginal and no aboriginal experts on after carefully weighing All they told we proposed a three strand strategy to reduce aboriginal suicide development of in every Community for trained crisis intervention when suicide support for Community generated plans to build self esteem and psychosocial stability in vulnerable youth and will allow local leaders to work with Community members to generate their own solutions to social problems Long unresolved by the strategies of integration and the will give aboriginal people the responsibility forge a satisfactory future for youth and we should not assume that when aboriginal people acquire the Power to Chart their own course they will reject modernization or integration in the Best sense of those aboriginal people Are ready and willing to embrace the challenges of the next but they Are convinced that they will meet these challenges better and More quickly if their identities Are if the self determination that Canada has promised aboriginal people is to mean anything at it must permit the and of their it must also permit aboriginal people to reject aspects of modern culture that for their traditions of extended family support and responsibility to the Many aboriginal people have signalled their wish to see some of these traditions reflected in Public nor is it accurate to As some commentators have that aboriginal people Are wilfully prolonging their own misery by hanging on to the old if modernization or integration were free for the asking and always the Best aboriginal people Are moving wherever they to change the conditions of their using old ways and new ways in unique but the conditions that have led to so much suicide and self destruction cannot be changed solely by acts of will on the part of aboriginal canadians and their governments share responsibility for those it is essential that they share responsibility for relieving the commission has proposed a 10year strategy for stemming the tide of aboriginal suicides by Means of joint action by aboriginal their All Canadian governments and canadians at analysis we invite thoughtful discussion and analysis of our proposed there is Clear evidence that or integration in the absence of self government has not As we consider the let us not reject self government As an old since it has never been an option for aboriginal people in the two and a half centuries that British and Canadian governments have been making policy on their Rene Dussault and Georges Erasmus Are the co chairmen of the Royal commission on aboriginal doonesbury by Garry Trudeau if you an 6zta Tattoo mi5ter i want 7hat 5mau mom it tour or yes Uzi mom Namz z i you want was ;