Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 1, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press a 1 1 november 1995 u of m faculty Union actions raise pointed questions profs pose threat to themselves by Hymie Rubenstein special to the free press though his Dogma dog Market Model of the University is based on questionable moral Anthony Waterman cuts through much Union rhetoric about academic Freedom in the strike at the University of Manitoba remedy a dose of common Waterman argues that the strike is a Power struggle within the academic elite Over who shall control the downsizing of higher education in this his defence of his Union Ufa says that faculty should regard neither the Public interest nor the Good of but con Sider Only the value of their own students must be willing to wait out the strike for a few More or or because this is the Price they have to pay for the substantial lifetime benefits of capitalism and but do students not have a through their own to be players in this Power struggle i have visited Umsu offices and have been impressed by the amount of thoughtful literature they have compiled about the if there is still reason to doubt where the Best interests of students i offer the following considerations Ufa recently negotiated huge raises for its members at the expense of Money for other University including student graduate teaching and Library Acquini Between 1989 and my own salary which is Low by full professor standards went from to a whopping 28 per and it has continued to go up slightly since then despite rollbacks and Filmon because of the operation of the carefully hidden increment Struc students and the Public should also be aware that Ufa members can effect substantial tax savings by annually claim ing up to of their earnings As a research Grant in lieu of what All this Means is that while Stu Dent fees keep going up and the univer sity pie keeps getting the Ufa slice has kept getting but when offered a Clayback of eight per cent spread Over two Ufa Why not because of the injustice of the administrations request but because any such reduction would result in the loss of some of its most powerful constituencies Law and med among others whose members would like to be paid like their private sector counterparts and have said they will leave the University or move to de certify the Union if such rollbacks Are Small wonder in a confidential memo to members two weeks before the Union Boss Grant Woods wrote you will be asked to cease All classroom undergraduate and you will be asked to cease All University committee and administrative you will not be asked to cease doing your Small wonder the Campus is lit up every night like a Christmas tree As strik ing Ufa members continue to do their experiments and write their the message is Clear screw your Stu screw your but save your careers when the University tries to keep convicted child molesters or persons turned Down for tenure because of poor performance out of the Ufa rushes to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending like any Trade Union Worth its Ufa is devoted to protecting the jobs and enhancing the economic Well being of its regardless of their com does anyone think that Ufa would Ever go on strike to Stop cutbacks at the Library or to Challenge a doubling of Stu Dent fees what students should ask is How Umnas preoccupation with Job Security is affecting the Quality of the University and the value of their when people like me speak out against the we Are marginalized by its Bosses who Call us manic or when we Send critical letters to the Ufa these Are never print Small wonder that some of us see the Union As the single greatest threat to Aca Demic Freedom on if any part of this strike were actually about Freedom to act As a social id be marching on the picket line Day and since Ive managed to offend just about everyone in the University in recent but even with the most carefully writ ten contract language in the acad Emic Freedom is fundamentally a state of a part of the ideology of the modern that will survive Only As Long As we continue to practise it in our teach ing and this is Why i am not by the potential Wrath of an Arnold Naimark who has to be just As interested in academic Freedom As the rest of us since he will be returning to his Home department in the faculty of medi Cine next year but by the moral position of those colleagues who have told me they want to come Back to work but Are con strained to stay out by Union and peer we Are our own greatest threat to Aca Demic integrity Hymie Rubenstein is a professor in the department of anthropology at the University of letters to the editor for your support we Are Montre Alers who took part in the rally in Montreal on 27 in sup port of a no vote in the Quebec referendum and in support of Canadian we stood in a crowd of tens of thousands of people from All Over people who had come by bus and car to Demon Strate their belief in a United Cana we Shook hands with our fellow citizens and spoke to them about our desire to keep this country despite the everyone was polite and but then were we thank All of you who attended and those of you who but support the Sarah Dougherty Helen Leblanc Montreal yes no i find it rather absurd that you come with a panic statement that has Manitoban canadians agree ing to Grant the quebecois people distinct society status in Cana when you Well know that this status for them was rejected twice by the people of much More agreeable would have been the words that the prime minister used in the French ver Sion of the speech confirmed by Peter unique going further than canadians May be agreeable to a description of Canada As a unique society wherein the quebecois people Are a distinct in this Way All of the people of quebecois ancestry Are included in the not Only the quebecois living in in my opinion this phrase could be acceptable to French speaking peo ple in All of could not very Well be rejected by the quebecois and would not be offensive to any Canadian of any other ethnic it also could not be used to gain special favors outside of Cul Ture and Herbert Brock Winnipeg Circle the wagons there were so Many unsettling things about the Post referendum comments that i fear to even look at but look at them we being that we Are West of As an expo ice officer i almost fell off my chair watching Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Parizeau do the Good co bad cop routine the evening of the smooth and sooth ing but Parizeau ranting and raving about revenge and naming the Money and the ethnics who took it All away from the True i guess the Only think More transparent was Parizeau Hitler esque it was the Money and the ethnics that keep our country from the True quebecois taken from mein kampf were the words Money and ethnics were jews and gypsies and the True Quebe Cois were the aryan the nerve of the Eastern How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly 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 r2x letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at letters letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone press asking westerners if we were sorry now that we voted against Meech Lake and Charlottetown look out the big boys Down East Are revving up the Power grab hoping to ride in on the coattails of our out pouring of love for the people of Winnipeg lets Start talking again the Quebec referendum has divided canadians inside and out Side of this time the wounds Are the economic fear mongering of the federalists has caused no one likes being backed into a the ravings of the separatist fundamentalists inflame All of us who like to maintain whatever the canadians will not be now the pre Miers and Federal politicians must Deal with the mondays vote produce a fierce desire for its gotten out of and this will not help the inevitable we pay our politicians to look after our and this crisis is every bit As much about Basic economics As it is about the country cant wait for the constitutional conference scheduled for Canada is at and there Are a lot of practical advantages to keeping it its time for our politicians to protect the Well being of canadians by hammering out a practical solution that works for All of the not just although we tried unsuccessfully at that failure had much More to do with the personality of Brian Mulroney than the will of we believe that the emotional polarization caused by the Quebec referendum is dangerous to All we Hope that some we May reach politicians who can Start a practical process to relieve the and provide a framework whereby the provinces and the Federal govern ment can resolve their business people frequently face such realities and solve or they dont Janice Beaton Ron Sterne Calgary Daniel Johnson and wife Suzanne Marcil make their Way through crowd after who buys smuggled booze there was a Story regarding a police sting operation successfully carried out against a group of liquor yet no attempt was made to arrest or name any of the accomplices who buy this stolen police arrest both the prostitutes and and Are always saying that people who buy stolen goods off a Fence Are guilty of a so Why is there no Effort made to arrest and name the parties accept ing the liquor could it be that the fact that the restaurants and clubs indicated generically As destinations for some of the booze Are traditional conservative hangouts and backers governments everywhere never have Learned from lower taxes on booze and cigarettes and they wont have a smug gling problem and police resources would be available to combat Seri Ous organized crime in the Brian Haeberle Winnipeg Merasty role Broadens image Brad Oswalds article accurately identifies a variety of Manitoba actors who Are working in Canad an film and there is no doubt As they Are positive role models for aboriginal youth across i would like to Point out to Oswald that he has inadvertently excluded a Well known Manitoban who also has achieved a mainstream career in film and the Billy who was born in Brochet and lived in is another role there Are two Points i would like to make regarding this i think the Media has to avoid the tendency of portraying aboriginal people Only As Hetero Billy Merasty role on Liberty which is in its Sec Ond season on is a Gay Char Acter called Nathan who lives in downtown this character demonstrates that aboriginal peo ple Are As sexually diverse As any my second Point con Cerns the need for it is Well known that aids has devastated artistic communities throughout the world As Well As Gay commune aids educators know that self esteem is an important Factor in preventing his this is especially True for Gay youth who May have experienced Homo phobia or rejection from their fam Ilies or As an individual and has created a positive role Model for upcoming generations of Gay and lesbian aboriginal artists and Albert Mcleod Winnipeg shoe is a Heel i am writing to express my Dis pleasure at the publication of a comic strip on the comic i am referring to is where one of the recurring characters you when i was Little i was afraid that i was As i got i was afraid that i issues surrounding adoption Are numerous and a comic strip such As this does nothing to address those it rein forces the negative the free press has recently published informative and positive articles about adoption which con tribute to the Public understand ing about the whole i feel strongly that birth parents and adoptive parents have enough to Deal with on a per Sonal and emotional level without having to contend with insensitive portrayals of i request that in the you screen your comic strips and any editorial material with a View to presenting adoption in a More sensitive Man Laura Mikuska Winnipeg province blamed for Ufa strike i am a full time who returned to University this fall to pursue a i am sole support and am without an income while i attend i respect the right of the University of Manitoba faculty association to stage a Legal i am filled with frustration by the position of the Provin Cial the neutrality claims of Premier Filmon in the current labor dispute Between my professors and my University administration Are the provincial government both set the stage and defined the roles of the parties in this it repeatedly Cut the University More the Filmon government repealed Manitoba final offer selection if this tool was still in the strike could have been a truly Neutral third party would have been appointed to hear the final offers of the considered evidence and and then picked the most appropriate having robbed the parties of this the least this govern ment can do is support binding arbitration to bring this dispute to an end quickly for All Gregory Winnipeg if you cant get out of the Way Why is the provincial govern ment obstructing the Resolution of the strike at the University of Manitoba Why is it interfering with the mediation process its Call for striking professors to return to work before it will allow a mediator to participate is As any competent labor minister would we would betray the principles in which we believe and for which we Are fighting if we threw away the Only card we especially when there is absolutely no equivalent pressure on the University administration to bargain in Good from the very the governments handling of this Cri Sis has been either rigidly partisan or hopelessly often it is the government which has betrayed the Best interests of Man especially Young Manito if it cant do anything it should just stay out of the Chris Johnson Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau 5ayone thing whats Man for the pa5tfzw thinking twas sink any just How wmn61 Mas apolo6y ;