Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 17, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A j o Winnipeg free june 1997 editorials Freedom of Yade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights smoke in their eyes Quebec Premier Lucien the tobacco Industry Best Friend among provincial pre is urging the Federal government to go easy on tobacco advertising because it pays for entertainment in at the other end of the British Columbia Premier Glen Clark wants to take tobacco companies to court and Force them to pay health care both premiers showed the Power of tobacco companies and their great wealth to inspire weak Rea Bouchard said Quebec needs to have tobacco sponsored formula one car races and festivals of fireworks and com its part of our Cul he Quebec distinct society was sup posed to consist of some thing nobler than cigarette ads at a motor but Lucien Bouchard has convinced himself that is part of Quebec Beer ads or life insurance ads at a motor race could be equally and if a crowd is gather other sponsors May be willing to take the place of the cigarette an organizer of formula one racing threat ened to pull the spectacle out of Canada if the Tobac co sponsorship is that shows How deeply the sport has put itself under the control of one sponsoring in Premier Clark believes Canadian provinces might make a Buck out of suing tobacco As states Are trying to in the the tobacco companies Are bargaining for a settlement in which they will and state Legisla Tures will pass Laws protecting cigarette makers from punitive damage awards in in the states Are being asked to curtail the civil rights of citizens in Exchange for payments from tobacco if this is those states will become accomplices of the tobacco companies in fending off the claims of people harmed by this is a poor example for Clark and other Canadian premiers to he will be putting him self in the hands of the tobacco firms in the Way that the formula one organization and Premier Bouchard have he will become dependent on their continuing Prosperity to help finance the health system if an accurate Way could be found of measuring the health care Cost properly attributed to tobacco did not create formula one nor did it create both premiers Are exaggerating tobaccos Power for Good and for they should keep the noxious Weed in better euro plan coined the nations of the european Union gathered in Amsterdam announced yesterday a break through that resolves the deadlock on policy that had Arisen Between France and the two major players in the eur had been at Dag Gers drawn recently Over the path the organization should take towards a common european the euro is supposed to come into effect on to be eligible to join on that nations Are required to keep their budget deficits at no More than three per cent of Gross National product and reduce their total Public debt to 60 per cent of attempts to meet those goals have caused difficult dislocations and contributed to politically intolerable Levels of unemployment in Many particularly the jobless rate there is above 12 per and the new socialist government has flatly rejected More its the platform on which it was elected this is to preserve Frances extravagant social Security system regard less of other economic or political for this France wanted the qualifications for participation in the common currency watered Germany the Compromise leaves the requirements intact but provides for hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending to create negotiators claim that it meets Germany demands for a euro that will be As Strong and stable As the deutschmark while addressing Frances if that turns out to be True in it will indeed be a Miracle of both nations Are already having difficulty meeting the require ments for with France wanting to control the direction of the new Europe and Germany growing tired of paying the freight for sticking the course on the euro seems More and More the alternatives accepting a weaker currency arrangement or delaying its implementation Are not it will take much More than cheers in Amsterdam to convince sceptics that the Europe that exists today is ready for the Europe that is envisioned for Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Kii Idil Nib Ca Nicholas etl Itoi Brian Cole Edi Tunal Paye editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Ian Cummins technology Laurie Verne Kalichuk human Esou Ucb it Fol Jwj Williamsj finance and administration s 1997 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 vial Iii courts fail abuse victims Justice Kerr twaddle statement that a 12 year old girl was a willing participant in a relationship with a Man convicted of sexually assaulting her is a sign that Manitoba Zero tolerance for abuse can be All it takes is a sympathetic Justice twaddle of the Manitoba court of Appeal ruled that it was unnecessary for Dean James Bauder to go to giving him a conditional sentence Bauder was also accused of threatening the girls life and her Mother said he tried to run her but charges of uttering threats and dangerous driving were stayed when he pleaded guilty to the sexual assault he was sentenced to nine months in but his Amanda sans re argued that her client should do Community work and have a curfew instead of going to Justice twaddle and his disturbing statements attempt to recreate the sexual assault As a quasi consensual relieving much of the Bur Den of responsibility from Bauders the judge Felt it Worth mentioning that Bauders relationship with his wife was on the skids at the time he assaulted the suggesting that Bauder was not entirely Penni Mitchell responsible for the and the trial judge was wrong for sentencing Bauder to nine months in and the victim really meant in a bizarre twist of ageist and sexist jus Tice twaddle used the girls youth and her skills As a Babysitter to suggest that she was a willing the fact that the judge want asked to decide whether Bauder was guilty of sexual assault didst Stop him in consenting for her the of could not consent in the Legal but nonetheless was a willing partic he the she was apparently More sophisticated than Many her age and per formed Many household including babysitting the accused conditional sentencing was created to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison and this ruling sends an unjust message to women and children who Are victims of it also sends a tolerant message to other sex provincial Justice minister Vic Toews acted quickly to ask the supreme court of Canada to review the ruling and he pledged to follow up the application of the conditional sentence Bill with the new Justice minister Anne the immediate outrage provoked by the courts Rul ing is a sign that the Community Doest approve of going soft on sexual about 100 protesters gathered in front of the Manitoba Law courts build ing last week to protest the ruling and the Story made the National National women groups have their Eye on the Case and the horizons office fielded Calls from Vancouver and Calgary newspaper writers searching for More information on the if my Telephone line is any Indica Tion of Community men Are also sharing in the then came the Canadian psychology in which car Leton University professor Edward Renners research revealed that sex offenders in Canada get lenient with Only 13 per cent of men who sexually abuse children receiving prison terms longer than two while prison May not cure sex offenders or drug dealers or people who dont pay their fines imprisonment is an important part of deterrence for rehabilitation is hampered by the fact that an estimated 70 to 80 per cent of offenders refuse to take responsibility for their and with the Short sentences it is Little wonder they Arent getting the the fact that a Mere one per cent of the annual Federal corrections budget is allocated to sex offend or treatment programs is another sign that the Justice system does not place a High priority on these it is ironic that Justice twaddle comments regarding the nature of the sexual assault Are not a Legal basis on which to Appeal the decision because leniency for sex offenders at least quite the trick will be to argue to the supreme court of Canada that the court of Appeal erred in its approach because it didst con Sider the fact that deterrence should be considered when deter mining a the supreme court will have the final Penni Mitchell is coordinating editor of horizons her column appears on betting the farm on pure bunk those of us who Are still scratching our Heads and puzzling Over Why Jean Chretien called the general elec Tion when he did May find some enlightenment in the Back files of the g7obe and mail in it would pay to look Back at the Issue of the Globe dated april like most Canadian new spa the Globe and mail regularly provides its readers with the results of the Public opinion polls it commissions from reputable polling it did so last april 10 and april like most opinion polls being published at the the poll found the liberals with a comfortable Lead in Public support 47 per cent against 16 per cent for their near est the on this the paper did something quite remarkable it on the basis of the to predict How Many seats each party would win in the coming the paper took some care to hedge its bets although forecasting of seats based on popular vote Levels in opinion polls is an imperfect Sci the liberals appear Likely to be reelected with a the paper informed its the imperfection of the Sci ence did not prevent the paper from setting out some those numbers reflected a wide margin of error but not wide As it turned to pre serve the polls the the paper report could take a High of 222 seats to a Low of according to com Pute assisted compute assisted or the predictions were not even the liberals actually won 155 23 fewer than the lowest predictions for the other Par ties were just As the bloc quebecois was supposed to get Between 50 and 62 it Actu ally got the Reform party was predicted to get Between five and 50 even that immense mar Gin of error was not enough to preserve the predictions Credi the party actually won 61 the compute assisted poll analysts gave the new democratic party nine or 10 the voters gave them to their the journalists who prepared the predictions provided a fairly detailed description of How they came up Chretien did his advisers believe in polls predictions with their results and described the results As educated guess the of Demon Strate that forecasting the num Ber of seats a party will win in some future general election is not an imperfect science it is no science at it is it highly seductive who is going to resist predictions conjured up by two great oracles of the late 20th Cen Tury Public opinion polls and computers some innocent readers May actually have been taken in by the pseudoscience and its pre some May even have changed their minds and voted for an opposition party in order to mitigate the Liberal sweep the polls claimed was More what effect did polls like this one have on the sophisticated political operators who were devising the Chretien governments election strategy these smart political operators Are Well of that polls cannot predict the these same smart operators Are also slaves to the they can scarcely make up their minds what to have for lunch without checking it out with a poll or a focus is it possible that the Liberal brains Trust swallowed the Globe and mails predictions and con Vinced the prime minister that a snap election would be a noose proposition is it possible that the same brains Trust took polls of their ran them through the com Puter and got similar results of course it is it possible that those smart political operators have Learned nothing from that experience of course it John Dufoe is u former free press editorial Page his column on ;