Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 28, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free press july 1995 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 silly games at City Hall keeping an nil franchise in Winnipeg has always been a marginal every every study commissioned by every conclusion reached by anyone who has looked at the viability of operating the jets Here amounts to the same thing it will Only work if private and Public investors squeeze the last drop from the collective but if the Deal is to at least it should fail because there we rent enough drops to squeeze and not because silly political gamesmanship dominates City councillors wednesday rejected a request to Confer charitable donation tax status on Money contributed to an endowment fund to be established by spirit of the fund was to be used to help cover operating costs of the new the Council said no to some thing that have Cost it a the result of this stupidity could be that taxpayers will be obliged to cover team losses next which will go through the roof if fans know the team is bound to Fly South after the season is there Are plenty of Good questions that councillors could have asked about this they were in no hurry to ask any questions at All on May 17 when they voted 13 to 3 to approve a Deal nobody knew anything at that in front of a High Strung mob of jets fanatics ready to pounce on any poor soul with the courage to express opposition to the councillor Mike Oshaughnessy said that if opponents were Given any More time to make their Case he would have a heart no extra time was granted Oshaughnessy appears right As two months everything has Terry the mayoral candidate who voted in favor of million of civic borrowing in is lined up against the he May have substantive reasons for doing but there Are compelling political ones too he is running against mayor Susan Thompson this fall and needs some distance Between her position and his other Council sensing that momentum for keeping the team Here has used this weeks vote to Back away from their previous however tentatively if these councillors have had second thoughts about the cites contribution to a new they should say hiding behind tax receipts is the cowards Way spirit of Manitoba must now find other ways of reach ing their financial if they it will be an honest at will be Able to walk around town with their Heads held councillors who Haven a clue what they think or Why they think it will be Busy blaming others for what went arming Bosnia it has been Clear for some time now that Only Way to Stop bosnian serb aggression in the former Yugoslavia is to meet Force with the Only questions were who would take on the Job and when would the next phase of the three year civil War no one in the West has been anxious to answer that question until by voting to lift the United nations ban on Selling arms to the the Senate is saying they believe the bosnian Are up to the whether they Are or not remains to be if approved by the House of the Mea sure adopted by the Senate will have enough steam to overcome a promised presidential it will also have the effect of turning the limited civil War in Bosnia into a full scale conflict with the potential to spread even further within the the military escalation will leave Canada and other nations with peacekeepers in the area with no option but to pull out or get caught up in an escalating a final showdown Between the bosnian and serbs was inevitable Given the wests reluctance to intervene in any substantial fighting broke out in Bosnia soon after it declared its Independence from the former Yugoslavia in since the United nations has tried in vain to mediate the dispute and imposed an arms embargo on the bosnian with a View to limiting the War As much As that strategy began wearing thin several weeks ago when the serbs started moving in on the so called unsafe havens in the despite pleas from the bosnian for the West responded with Little More than a series of meetings to discuss the situation and threaten the Clinton administration has been reluctant to do More than rattle a few sabres and threaten bombing raids for serb the White House has no appetite for getting caught up in a War in the Clinton steadfastly supported the arms fear like All other Western that to do otherwise would be Akin to throwing gasoline on a burning throughout the bosnian prime minister Haris Silajdzic has called on the West to do one of two things intervene in the Balkans against the or lift the arms embargo so the bosnian can defend it appears As though he May be about to get what he asked Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Calvin James circulation Verne human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Glenn Williams finance 1995 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 in k Eadie casts Surprise vote City Council on wednesday All but ended any Chance of building a new Arena in win and if most predictions Are Cor Treyve also killed any Chance of major league hockey remaining in our after More than a year of the proposal was put to sleep by City Council on a Mere tech after Many months of debate on issues ranging from the location of the new Arena to the extent of the cites financial the Deal is now on the verge of collapse because the City has refused to accept donations for the Arenas endowment make no someone had to accept the charitable donations the spirit of Manitoba was collecting for the million the City already has charitable Sta All City Council was asked to do was authorize the administration to direct gifts to the the propos Al would simply have allowed people to write City of Winnipeg on their but the simple concept was a technicality that councillors who opposed the new Arena in principle and those who were opposed to spirit of Mani Tobas Deal in particular saw As their Stevens wild no less than five councillors who voted in the 133 majority to Autho Rize City financing for the new Arena at Mays Council meeting voted against the Deal in wednesdays 88 tie councillors Terry Duguid North Al Golden eve Lyne Reese Boniface and Sandy Hyman River Heights had All expressed their misgivings with the state of the Arena Deal in recent Days even though they voted in favor in Golden said he was voting against the motion because he did not want to Issue tax receipts to a for profit he compared issuing tax receipts for spirit to issuing tax receipts for Eaton or the the three Winnipeg in the nineties councillors Glen Murray fort Lillian Thomas Elmwood and Rick Boychuk Transcona maintained their consistent opposition to the the Surprise vote was Jae Eadie As a member of the executive policy committee and chairman of the finance Eadie is usually viewed As one of mayor Susan Thompsons strongest supporters at City a councillor who had consistently voted for the during the three hour Eadie questioned Why the province was not granting charitable status to the endowment but spirit president Cam Osier told executive policy committee earlier in the Long Day that the province would not accept the donations because As gifts to the the contributors would receive a 100 per cent tax write while accepting the donations would Cost the City Noth taxpayers will be liable for Mil Lions of dollars in losses if the Deal is indeed under the terms of the 1991 interim operating the City and the province have to split the jets losses until and the nil schedule has already been set for the 199596 so the team will remain in the City for one More City Hall estimates place the jets total losses for the forthcoming season As High As that almost unimaginable sum could grow even larger if fans choose not to watch a Lam Duck and even after taxpayers foot the the team will still be sold and it will move that Why some such As Amaro Silva Daniel Mclntyre and Harry Lazarenko Mynarski voted in favor of yesterdays motion even though each has expressed mis Givings about the Arena Deal in the they both see a new Arena As the Only Way out of the 1991 agreement the Only Way to avoid paying the horrendous Lazarenko voted against the 1991 agreement and Silva was not a Mem Ber of Council at the on the other seven of the eight councillors who opposed wednesdays motion voted in favor of the 1991 Only Rick Boychuk Transcona has consistently opposed dealing with the some particularly Duguid and say theres still time to make a Deal to build an Arena and save the if there All could still be but if there the people of Winnipeg be left with nothing but a Large Bill and a lot of Straw wild is a free press Hall his column appears on alternate Chirac gave Clinton his courage by William Safire new York times Washington the pres ence of one or two Strong leaders can alter the course of we saw that happen when Britain Margaret Thatcher happened to be with George Bush at the critical moment of Saddam Hussein inva Sion of she admonished him not to go All after the wests failure of will in she privately told friends i should be in the Renta spine despite military Chicken Littles who predicted huge casualties and a the american president saved the world from a dictator we now know was creating terror had John major been Bush guest at the fateful go All wobbly would have been the advice and today we would be threatened by iraqi missiles tipped with nukes and until no Allied Leader bolstered Bill Clinton inclination to do something about the threat to collective Security posed by the Britain major and Frances Mitter Rand wanted the United states to let europeans manage the surrender of but then the French elected pres ident Jacques Chirac and suddenly the big three gained a like Ronald Reagan breaking the air con trollers the French president quickly established the credentials of Resolution by undertaking nuclear Chirac then reacted to the serbians bloody seizure of a in Sanctuary with a Public invitation to major and Clinton to reverse the Sre Renica that flushed Clinton out from under his Oval office he could no longer blame the allies for inac he was forced to make a counteroffer the threat to use air Power to Stop the serbs Slaughter mus his defense who six months ago declared with certitude that air strikes cannot determine the outcome of the ground overnight became a convert to bomb Ings ability to have a decisive a top Diplomat describes the new big three the French want to the americans want to and the British want to have another what changed Clinton mind about air Power was the presence on the scene of two Strong National one is the first Frenchman since de Gaulle to have a global he is right about wrong about strategy the result of his use of Force would be to hold off the serbs but keep the bosnian from fighting their own the other Leader stepping into the foreign policy position abandoned by Clinton is the Senate majority Bob he denounced the fuzzy London meeting result As giving up five Safe areas and defending a pro longing the peacekeeping and placing command of airmen in palsied in in contrast to Clinton Dole has been humanitarian and practical lift the Misbe gotten embargo denying arms to and strike from the air at serbian War making capacity while the outnumbering muslims learn to use tanks and Only a bal Ance of Power will Lead to peace and keep outsiders from entering the an historic moment took place in the for allowing himself to be jerked around too a president was rebuked for moral blindness and diplomatic incompetence by both political Congress decided to put a Stop to the demeaning spectacle of having the foreign policy of the United states decided in Downing Street by an apostle of appeasement on his Way to political the president whose inaction so weakened the presidency keeps mumbling his slogan about Ameri can izing the War when what desperately needs americanization is the leadership of the Western Clinton Job is not to punish Amer Ica by now committing ground troops and sulkily blaming casual ties on on the he could reoccupy his vacated presi Dency by persuading our longtime comrades including the spiny new element of Chirac to join in lifting the in feeling in Balanc ing Balkan Power and in Savins s Public opinion needs rallying with a primetime to if he can not do the nets should offer nation Al leadership time to with a Grumpy Clinton William Safire is a columnist with the new York Muslim refugees from Zepa await transportation now fevers arming the a photo ;