Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 20, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May editorials editor John 6977044 water torture the people of Winnipeg deserve something better than the tens of thousands who turned up at rallies and the kids who broke open their Piggy the Trade unions and and employees the Small businessmen All those in the had kicked in More than million to keep the jets in a straight answer at weeks end about where their efforts were they did not deserve yet another dose of muddle and a few facts Are visible through the Haze of claims and counter press press conferences and the Manitoba entertainment group that was supposed to buy the team from its present majority share holders Barry Shen Karow and his partners failed to produce an offer before the after noon deadline on thurs it did present a highly conditional offer after the deadline had passed and after Shenkarow was commit Ted in principle to mov ing ahead with a Sale to interests in Minne Apo the reasons for the failure to meet the deadline remain lost in the it May have been a bit of bad Faith bar gaining it May have been that they simply didst have the Money to make a serious it after Only a couple of weeks since More or less the same group announced that it could not come up with the Money to keep the jets in that group was augmented by the presence of Asper who breathed new life into the whole Asper has turned Over the stage to a group of col leagues who have not been Able to conclude a they we rent the Only the three Levels of govern which were supposed to share the Cost of a million ended up million Short when prime minister Jean Chretien took away the key to the vault from Lloyd Manitoba finance Eric who has promised to Fine himself 20 per cent of his salary if he does not balance the budget next announced that he was ready to go ahead with the construction and worry about the Money there is nothing wrong with tapping every possible source to finance a worthwhile there is nothing shameful in admitting you Haven raised there is something wrong about muddying the financial and there is something very wrong about spending Money you Haven All those hockey fans who spent the past week battling to keep their team have a right to expect some straight talk from their political and business for the past week they have been on an emotional same sort of swing from Joy to despair and Back again that you experience in a hockey they Are being subjected to a form of chinese water that is something that jets fans have experienced in the past As but they could do without it to time to pull out according to foreign relations minister an Dre is consulting with Britain and France about pulling out of the United nations peacekeeping Force in there Are about 800 canadians attached to the in in and another in a sizable contingent and a considerable contribution for a nation the size of is the biggest single contributor to the in forces in the former the French Are be coming increasingly annoyed with the ineffectiveness of the in presence there and with the number of casualties among soldiers wearing the Blue the casualties Are extraordinarily High for a in peacekeeping opera Tion since ten Canadian soldiers have been killed and More wounded soldiers from other nations have died As if France pulls other nations will Canada will have to give some hard thought As to whether it should continue to one consideration is the fact that Sarajevo is now under heavy the worst in the two years since the in called in nato warplanes to bomb the serbian forces that were shelling the the serbs immediately backed this in military commanders asked again for nato air they were overruled by civilian in officials who cling to the Hope of the Success of yet another in a Long string of failed peace initiatives in the the attack on Sarajevo continues the in remains impotent the peacekeepers remain vulnerable to As Britain and France they should Ponder whether there is any Point in keeping any soldiers in the former Yugoslavia after All this the in can still not understand that there is no peace to keep there Are Only two real choices to enforce a or to step Back and let the Slaughter take its natural Winnipeg free press est 1b72 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Redekop publisher Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Joi in Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Verne Kali Ciuk Luman resources s in i Ian Majorki operations Perry Nix Ore advertising Glenn Williams finance o1995 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 i just fed up with eating dirt because the Only hockey games i have Ever attended Are the games i played in As a boy Back in the ice i have found it difficult to participate enthusiastically in the group catharsis occasioned by the threatened departure to the of the Winnipeg jets hockey although i have never Felt the urge to attend a game and probably never i followed the emotional drama with a degree of in when the crisis flared up a few weeks ago i was actually present at an Early morning rally conducted on the Street at the Corner of Portage and a Crossroads from which the Citi zen pedestrians of this City have been barred for Many years thanks to an earlier Folly on the part of the mayor and i walk to my office in the Grain Exchange every my path Usu ally taking me through the tunnels under the famous i would prefer to Cross at Street level who but until those Concrete barriers fall and pedestrian lights Are crossing Portage and main above ground remains a risky Busi especially for the Middle aged and the on the morning in How a Man waiting with me at the red Light at the Corner of Maryland and Portage told me that there were jets fans rioting at the Corner of por Tage and As a former Newspaperman i have a tendency to follow the sirens and i decided to get Down to por Tage and main As quickly As possible to witness these scenes of civic unrest reminiscent of the 1919 general As i Drew near Portage and main i could hear crowd sounds and a few police cars were parked across the blocking the police looked there was no sign of cavalry drawn up on Portage Avenue and no swat team was lurking on a Side Street waiting for was this the Calm before the storm in there was no riot at Portage and just a few Hundred most of them Christopher Dafoe shouting and brandishing for the first time in years i crossed por Tage and main at Street it carried me Back to the old Days in the 50s when we used to rehearse at the old Dominion theatre and Cross Over to Childs restaurant for a late the size of that rally made me think that the jets didst have much if that was the Best crowd they could get at a moment of crisis the prospects were not the Battle seemed who could have predicted then that thousands would turn up at the Forks this week for an emotional demonstration of support to the nonfat the entire episode seems bizarre in the after if Winnipeg cant afford the jets it hardly Means the end of Why not join less expensive league the after has no team in either of the top baseball but people like the Gold eyes even though they May never play in the world the fact that the Gold eyes dont play against the new York Yankees in no Way diminishes the Winnipeg remains firmly on the Why All the fuss about the jets what do i know about it i heard grown men weeping on the radio this week and the hysterical coverage in the press made you wonder How they would treat something really import such As the second coming of Jesus the discovery of a cure for cancer or the revelation that there in life after what could you say about tots of five smashing their Piggy Banks in order to help Izzy Asper buy the jets i wont really miss the jets if they move to Memphis or to Natchez or Joe or even min after like thousands of other i hardly knew they were never attended a game and could not name three players on the roster if i was offered a prize for doing like thousands of i have a nagging feeling that people have been stampeded and blackmailed Over All this and that the Day of reckon ing will come All too just the i think i can under stand All that emotion and win nip Eggers Are simply fed up with being put Down and dismissed by starting in the 1950s with the moving of the Tea air Canada head office from Winnipeg to there has been a distressing exodus from this City and an attitude in the rest of the country that Winnipeg is washed a Back number and ready to be closed Winni Eggers have had enough of the patronizing attitude they encounter when they visit Montreal or Vancouver and they Are tired of hearing that this City is nothing but a windswept a Mosquito infested swamp or a place you Fly Over on the Way to that expensive hockey team has be come a Symbol of our refusal to eat any More Winni Eggers Are not going to take it any Joe tree press thousands of Winni Eggers show up at the this place is More than a windswept Don put up with obnoxious Din one sunday recently when Jane Markesteyn returned Home at 1 personal water Small fast four of them were zooming up and Down the red creating an obnoxious its like a Buzz she says of the they were still racing at 7 i dont know Why people should have to put up with having been exposed to these infer Nal sounds at my cottage by the i fully agree that this offensive noise should be Why should a few people violate the peace of others in such an atrocious manner unquestionably it contravenes the City noise which defines a noise nuisance As any unnecessary or unusual sound or any sound whatsoever which endangers or distracts from the com peace or safety of any but in its formulation through bureaucracy and red tape a noise is not a noise if it emanates from the River in sounds crazy and it lets Start from the beginning As Markesteyn writing a flurry of letters to the three Levels of govern Val Werier All involved in one Way or an other with our being navigable Are under the Juris diction of the Federal so the City bylaw Doest even though strident sound assaults the Citi Zens on but hear this once the water is fro the City will have authority Over the Why the City via the provincial government asked Ottawa for authority to regulate Frozen Waterways As a Means to control snowmobiles be cause the ice is considered so the Small vessels regulations under the Canada shipping act this is True no joke was amended to give the City authority to ban vehicles in Winter from Frozen begin Ning this coming asks Markesteyn 1 do wonder Why the noise bylaw does not apply since the noise pollution is experienced by persons on City that a reasonable but there is no logic in the whole Peter husband of and chief medical examiner of the province is concerned about the safety of operating these per Sonal water Craft on Winnipeg he Points to a recent fatality in on Tario where a 14yearold girl was killed operating one of the the coroners jury urged that Drivers pro vide proof of being Able to operate the boats before renting in my says of the Manitoba they Are operated in an unsafe Man in the the province of South Holland has banned these boats because the Waterways Are considered too vulnerable to these High powered last summer two swimmers were killed when teen age Drivers lost control of their Joe City Harbor who oversees Public safety on City Riv says a training program is being organized by the coast Marine dealers and the Indus try to teach proper safety and Eti most do behave he says of the personal Craft there is one sure Way the City Stop those who operate their machines with absolutely no thought of others in the neighbourhood of and they live across the River from vital Park where the City has boat launching facilities on which it can exert if that what it says i it will be As for Petracci says he has no problems As a there was no Speed limit until the going through the province and the Federal obtained such authority in the Speed limit set by Council is wild 70 Kilometres during the 50 at night on the red River 37 Kilometres by Day on the 10 at there is no age limit for operating boats and no licence is Al though boats must be in this wide open Boorish operators who inflict noise on people and shatter the peace of our Beautiful Riv ers can do so with weve got to Stop this even if it re quires another visitation to the Canada shipping the City bylaw says people have a right to be free from excessive it should take Steps to enforce that ;