Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 16, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free press october 1995 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 flying Blind health minister Jhn Mccrae and his Deputy minis Ter John Wade have it they have closed emergency rooms at Community hospitals during the night pending the results of a study what they should be doing is keeping them open until the study shows they can be closed without undue hardship for the route the government has chosen exposes patients to More risk and creates More anxiety than any other option before the strike of 42 emergency physicians who staff Winnipeg five Community Hospi this City had seven emergency rooms open 24 hours a now it has two rooms open 24 hours a Day and seven rooms open Between 8 and 10 there has been no persuasive rationale for this decision offered by the govern As part of the agreement with the emergency room Mccrae agreed to conduct a if the study is unnecessary then Why was it ordered if it is Why has the most disruptive option been chosen before the results of the study Are in these Are questions that Mccrae and Wade Are being forced to answer by Hospital doctors and their patients who Are worried that extra travel time Between Home and Hospital will have catastrophic if there is data to prove that there is nothing to worry about then it should be presented to the choosing the most dramatic option while a study is in Progress invites critics to accuse the government of using the doctors strike As an excuse to do what it has wanted to do for months but lacked the political will to what the Public needs is acquired through previous studies and throughout the that makes the Case for closing five emergency wards at the government had a much better alternative Avail Able to an alternative that exists it should return to the situation before the encourage those engaged in the new study which includes the participation of emergency room physicians to Factor in lessons Learned during the strike and report Back to the government by the end of the then the minister and his Deputy can make their arguments with facts at the ready and with the Public less distracted by the doomsday scenario now being painted by the opposition in the legislature and the medical professionals in the Mccrae can Calm things Down quickly enough by putting any major reforms to Winnipeg emergency room system on hold until the data he needs is before the he has a duty to allow Good policy to prevail Over Germany Steps out Napoleon referred to China As a sleeping giant once would shake the but for the last 50 has had its own sleeping giant Germany has for years been a dominant economic Force in it has been the driving Force of the european it has been a major partner in nato and a key member of almost All Western economic and political in spite of its nato membership and its Large and Well equipped armed it has not been a military Power in any real sense of that term since the second world the reason for that of the second world German aggression and the horrors of the holocaust left a grim legacy for the Germany a nation divided Between West and East that emerged from the rubble of East under soviet did involve itself in International East German advisers were frequently encountered in african conflicts where the soviet Empire had an West Germany never engaged in any military action or posted its troops the United Germany of seems set to finally assert itself and assume the role that it should naturally have in International in recent Germany has played a Small part in United nations operations around the world it has contributed financially As last the German government made a major departure from its policy of the last 50 years in commit Ting up to troops to a Natoley contingent that is being set up to police a truce in the former that commitment Marks a turning Point in the course of International and it has caused some concern in Europe and even concern in Germany that concern is Germany past is Germany today is firmly no belligerent almost pacifist but it is a major player on the world stage economically and its involvement now in the nastier and More difficult parts of keeping order in the world should be rather than 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 Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn 1995 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 123 to 310 Canada Post sales agh Eemani no 3395 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights i Regina Leader 1995 Axworthy numerical goal when is a quota not a quota when the honorable Lloyd Axworthy Calls it a numer ical Axworthy insists that numerical goals aimed at getting a specified number of a orig minorities or disabled into cer Tain industries Are not quotas even though the dictionary defines a quota As a proportional part or share required from each person or group for making up a certain number or Why then does Axworthy not speak clearly and Call a quota a quota he does not like the word mainly because the imposition of Hir ing quotas for disadvantaged groups in the United states has created an undesirable backlash among those Axworthy obviously believes that As Long As he Sticks to his and Calls quotas numerical he has a spoonful of sugar that makes this particularly distasteful Medicine go Down More that Why Axworthy wants parliament to endorse his legislation that backs up the currently Volun tary employment quotas for disadvantaged groups with the full Force of Federal audits and the real possibility of fines for govern ment Crown corporations and businesses which do not toe Axworthy the Law Axworthy and the one he most Likely will will Fred Cleverley Force All federally regulated Cana Dian companies such As rail ways and radio and to broadcasters who have More than 100 employees to prove to the satisfaction of the Canadian human rights commis Sion that they have on their payrolls the assigned quotas of disadvantaged group if these employ ers fail the test they will be in con tempt of the Federal court of Canada and subject to fines As High As the Law is Axworthy because White Canadian males have been part of a privileged group for a Wor who has a very comfortable Posi Tion in society with a pension guarantee that most of us can Only dream is perfectly willing to help pay for the sins of his the problem is that he wants All other Canadian White including those who Are struggling to pay off their feed and Edu Cate their families while paying some of the highest taxes to be found to do the Axworthy wants to erect artificial barriers against the opportunities for employment and promotion for White males Only because of what their grandparents and great grand parents did in the if Axworthy gets his it will not be enough for a company to hire and promote on a disability Blind the company will be forced to Cor rect history by hiring people because of their their or their disability even if these people do not fit the company to defend this illogical Axworthy Waves a familiar ban he says that to act properly and not try to Correct the mis takes of the smacks of the Newt Gingrich approach to be found in the perhaps Axworthy should look a bit More closely at what his the same one that has existed for some time in the has perhaps then he will begin to understand the backlash that can be found South of the for a form circulated by a Small California College to companies wanting to do business with the letter that accompanied the forms urged that they be filled out As quickly As pos sible to allow us to continue to do business with since the minor Veteran information is now being requested of All Community such colleges receive government the supplier is required to list the percentage ownership of his Busi Ness involving native asian americans and asian to get first in line to do business with the any supplier must be 51 per cent owned by one of these or have a business whose management and daily operations Are controlled by one or More of the the same priority goes to businesses owned 51 per cent by women or whose management and daily operations Are controlled by one or More women who own the a sep Arate the office of Small and minority certifies disabled veterans the penalties Are the form states any material misrepresentation will be grounds for terminating any which May be awarded and for initiating action under Federal state Law concerning false that the kind of practice Axworthy wants to bring to he Doest even see the Way he is insulting those he wants to help by telling them they cannot make it on their own in a business climate that hires and promotes on a gender Blind Fred Cleverley is a Winnipeg his column appears Mon there is no English Canada before the october 30 ref the people of que Bec need to ask Lucien Bouchard one simple with whom will he negotiate should his yes prove victorious Canada but since Quebec is a major part of Canada wont with English Canada there is no English there is merely an amalgam of nine divergent whose premiers can hardly agree on that is the gaping Hole in the Sov Ereign St a Hole which the Chretien government is loathe to Point since it acknowledges that a yes vote vitiate its moral and per haps constitutional authority to gov a yes vote open the door for Reform party Leader Preston even if there were an English Manning has no mandate to speak for the prob Lem is Stark the parliament elected on october 1993 was chosen by voters in 295 of which 75 Are in a portion of the nation that has just voted to the Federal liberals have Contin gency one is a asking the real question do you want Quebec to separate from Canada and become an Independent state the other is a Federal if Quebec has marginally voted no or marginally voted the Federal liberals will seek a renewed Man Date they will subsume the fuzzy question posed in the ref that about All any Federal government can it certainly cannot sit Down to negotiate with one part of itself on behalf of the other if the yes Side has a huge Hole in the Centre of its the no Side is suffering from the hubris of Early with the entry of former prime minister Brian Mulroney from his Perch at a Colorado Springs business club and current finance minister Paul mar tin from his Perch at the world Bank f Frances Russell meetings in it is burdened with More than a touch of it is humiliating for politicians to profess to love this country and then Parade its existential agonies on for eign Martin believes that the very thought of losing membership in the North american free Trade agree ment Naftal or at of having to wait in line and petition for re is a huge quiver in the federalist he Hast read the latest press release from the Dairy Farmers of the vast majority of Dairy Farmers live in Quebec and they Are up in arms Over the recently struck Naftal inspired by the government and its farm to crush Canadas Supply management system in Dairy the forced Canada to give up its Tariff Protection under Naftal and then leveraged the world Trade organization to abolish with Canadas entire ice Cream and Yogurt Market the americans Are moving in for the saying marketing boards Are a breach of dec president Claude Rivard has released a recent article published in the journal of Commerce in which Central intelligence Agency director John Deutch says the Cia will henceforth direct its with whom will Lucien Bouchard negotiate if the yes Side wins Covert spy operations at its major Trade competitors in order to destabilize any Trade advantage they May have Over the says Rivard the idea of fair trading is nothing Short of calculated and he called the Trade interests dirty play ers and said canadians wont be bullied into sacrificing valued Agri cultural institutions like the Cana Dian wheat Board and marketing it was fitting that Mulroney went South of the Border to utter his pleas for Canadian to the extent Mulroney Ever recognized there was a Border Between Canada and the he always believed that the most important Side was to the a new Book on entitled Yankee Doodle Dandy and writ ten by Mac leans magazines former Washington correspondent Marci uses exhaustive inter views with the major Washington players in the free Trade talks to prove that the former prime minister in her born in the wrong he desired to impose the Ameri can dream on his nation for reasons hardly More consequential than photo opportunities in the White House Rose Garden while he called the president an obsequious the result is Best summed up in the words of Stephen director of the americas society Cana Dian affairs program and consultant to multinationals the eco nomic integration of North America has eroded the capacity of governments to manage National we see the a bundling of the sovereignty of the there is Little left of what Little remains cannot negotiate with Frances Russell covers politics for the free her column appears on wednesdays and Fri ;