Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 28, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May a vote for Equality Gay men and women can celebrate a ruling by the supreme court of Canada last week that says the charter of rights and freedoms protects them against after they can organize a Campaign to make sure politicians summon enough Cour age and Wisdom to give meaning to that a majority of supreme court justices was not prepared to decide that governments Are obliged to Grant spousal benefits to same sex by a narrow the court in not to legally change the definition of a married couple from heterosexual to include same sex by a vote of 9 to the justices agreed that discrimination based on sexual orientation is contrary to the Equality provisions of the the court has enunciated a right without Tell ing parliament what to do about the courts decision left it to the politicians to determine How changes to the traditional family should be recognized in Public pol the Road to Equality under the Law has been a Long and painful one for Canadas Gay Popula not Only because the Legal path pigs and tags Between Progress and but because the hatred and abuse that Gay men and women suffer at the hands of homophobes shows no signs of in Winnipeg last Gay rights activist Mark Zoldy was handed a pamphlet with the words death penalty for homosexuals is prescribed in the that piece of hate literature is apparently not covered by provisions in the criminal code that single out identifiable groups As objects of leaving homosexuals unprotected by its the pamphlet Given to Zoldy is a Call to Zoldy says he lies awake at night with a baseball Bat by his Given frequent attacks on Gay men in Down town Oldys fear is the Issue of spousal benefits for Gay couples addressed by the supreme court of Canada last week has nothing to do with violence against Gays or with provisions in the criminal code that do not adequately protect them against hate but it does have something to do with Gay men and women being treated the same Way As heterosexual couples Are treated under the if the charter protects Gays against then governments should protect them against Public pol icy that discriminates against them because they Are Gay rights activists should take heart from the supreme courts equal rights will inevitably Lead to equal editorials editor John 6977044 no peace dividend in this new world order that we Are supposed to been a new world that arose out of the ashes of the old after communism and the soviet Union collapsed and we lost one of our political there Are still Many problems and Many in there May be More problems and More difficulties than there were when two superpowers stood astride the world stage and directed its the Small the local get be cause they no longer have potential global no one has any particular interest in brokering a just As no one any longer has much concern for the Prosperity or the interests of Small it is the developing particularly in that Are most obviously adversely affected by having lost their patrons and their ability to play one Side against the but even the industrialized the giants of the Are having trouble coming to grips with their new this is particularly True when it comes to defence pol in All the nations of the a rethinking is being in people wonder Why we need a military when we no longer have an identifiable in the United people wonder Why they should have a Mil itary presence in Europe when the communist beast is in people wonder what they will do when the last Canadian and american soldiers have packed their bags and gone the problem is most pressing for the not Only because of a North american but be cause Europe itself is changing the european Union seeks a common defence but All of its Mem Ber nations have not always been and As it admits new members in the some of them will have been the people on the other end of the gun Only a few years when it comes to there is no peace dividend there is a peace we May not know whom we Are defending ourselves but we should understand that we still need to be Able to defend How Best to do that is an Issue that Calls for More Clear thinking than it has received so Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor John Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn 01995 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 we can All breathe easier the is a safer at Trudis you talk san Cristobal de Las Mexico the dinner table is the Best thing about a it is a vast Long table with a vacant chair at one end where Frans Blom once sat and a vacant chair at the other end where his wife Gertrude Duby Blom sat before her death in along the two sides sits an astonishing variety of people la Candon native people in town on scholars conducting rain Forest research pro social Agency volunteers who work the organic Back people taking Spanish you never know whom you Are going to meet at the a Bolom dinner but you can be sure they will be inter a Bolom has a curious effect on its guests it even makes the Boring peo Plena Bolom is a rambling old now a Reading room and study the name Means House of the Jaguar in the Tzotzis mayan Tongue and it is a play on the name of the former Tulane University cartographer and archaeologist Frans Blom and his wife the prot Estan jewish writer and photographer Trudi they lived in the House and con ducted from it their Campaign to rec Ord and make known the culture of the mayan especially of the Lacan Don rain Forest people who escaped the Spanish and to defend the rain Forest against the loggers and cattle ranchers who can turn a Quick peso by destroying the place is run now by a nonprofit corporation whose directors were appointed by Trudi Blom after she fell from a horse at age broke her and decided she had to find people who would carry on her the institution takes in paying guests such As my wife and you get a room opening on one of the ele Gant Interior courtyards and decorated with textile and Ceramic products of the each room bears the name of a mayan Village in the Chiapas High Terence Moore lands and its Walls display Trudis photographs of that you get a fireplace and a steady sup ply of for the evenings Are Chilly in the you get modern plumbing from Many of the a View of the organic Garden where most of the vegetables and herbs served at the dinner table Are Many compromises have been made since Trudis meat is now served at about half the Trudi forbade meat in her House after she concluded that the cattle Industry was destroying the rain a tree has been Cut Down to let More Light into the organic Trudi would not allow a tree to be Cut Down on any account because logging was destroying the rain the fireplace in the dining room is occasionally lit on Chilly Trudi would not allow a Wood fire be cause fire was destroying the rain for you dont have to share Trudis obsession to respect her achievements and make use of the institution that her obsession the Reading room has an astonishing collection of books in German and of history and of Mexico and the mayan while we were the la Candon radio operator from Latanja Chan was in town with his wife Carmelita for medical appointments and they kindly invited us to stay with them when we visited the Lacy the Bond Rater from a new York rating Agency was Happy to talk about the mexican Economy and Why nobody saw the collapse Tomas the Ger Terence free press the courtyard of a Bolom dedicated to the rain Man Light bulb manufacturer was unimpressed with mexican technology but impressed with the Genius for improvisation that allowed mexican workers and technicians to solve prob lems that would defeat a at Trudis dinner you cant just sit there and stare at your you have to be at least civil to the people next to you and across the table and explain who you Are and where you have recently you May explain your self in English or in Spanish or in French or in if you can explain yourself in one of the mayan Lan so much the pretty soon you Are drawn into reflection about Trudis Trudis tru Dis character Trudis Trudis idea was roughly this that left to would destroy the rain Forest and leave the planet that people who see the value of the Forest and the life it shelters must make others see that value and protect that Trudi would scream and bully and photograph and write and protest with every Fibre of her being and every breath of her body against the flames and the Short term economic calculations that were destroying the Forest she loved and the habitat of the la Candon people she the dismissive epithets lie ready to romantic idealization of Primi Tive the typical anthropological on dimensional View that leaves out too much data and makes too Light of the pressing needs of mexicans who fail to meet Trudis High standards of cultural purity and Harmony with Battleaxe who had to bully and intimidate because her ideas could not win acceptance on their but her Monument is there a an institution with an idea that keeps it going and with a Confidence that keeps it open even to people who do not share the there is no Point trying to argue with a determined old lady whose published works put yours to especially one who died two years especially when you Are sitting at her dinner the damned take different ships new York times on May the German passenger ship Louis left sailing for on Board were 930 jewish All carrying Landing certificates for when the ship the Profas Cist cuban government would not let them for nine the Louis circled off Havana and on june Cuba said the refugees could go if they posted a total of within a deliberately impossible 24 the refused to allow the Passen Gers onto american on june 6 the ship headed Back to since the has Given Refuge to millions from Many parts of the they gave America their mus Cle and and now the is seized with a fear of a surrender to the Politi Cal Campaign against if Tysik Springs after the the is not Only turning away Many refugees it would have welcomed not Long but is an essential co conspiring partner in forcing them Back to coun tries they fled most recently Vietnam and for these people including thousands who once fought on americas Side the has be come the ship Back to to make the Deal with Fidel Castro to Send Back All cubans picked up at the Clinton administration had to work in utter for fear the operation would be neither diplomats responsible for cuban rela Congress nor the press found out until the Clandestine deed was by four or five american Good men but about the vietnamese and lao americans will never be Able to say we did not know of them have been in detention Camps in Hong Thailand and other asian coun tries for they Are to be returned to the coun tries they fled by boat carried there in shackles if need be by the with americas Money and the propaganda of american Antrim migrant and the distaste of their hosts for extended visits by other those with much courage but no soon Congress will vote on a Mea sure by Republican Christopher Smith and others that would admit about refugees at High saving them from the prison planes awaiting after the Vietnam Many Viet namese and laotians were admitted to the left behind in the Camps were about laotians who once fought for the and vietnamese also once considered some had agreed to but in fear changed their minds thus no longer you head of the House human rights is a Friend of refugees and a fighter against religious he Calls for a onetime within existing funds would be withdrawn from forced re turn probably killing the state department has shown How callous it can be when it when a laotian in Colorado asked about countrymen in a thai Back came a letter from Edward counsellor in the embassy in he said they were confined in a special detention Cen they had violated decisions taken at an International technical meeting that forbids people in the Camps from actively working against voluntary under pain of appropriate so dissidents against their governments Are also punished for dissenting with the International bureaucracy about their some americans Friendly to Refu gees still languishing at americas Gates Are Cool to attention to the Viet namese and that is not help Ful to any but to those who want them in maybe the asian refugees will find help look at the Passen Gers on the turned away by Cuba and the u they found Refuge in Belgium and the Netherlands after the Louis they were murdered soon but of course the germans did not cubans or the journey of the Louis was sometimes called the voyage of the but that does not Tell does exactly who were the and at what moment damnation took ;