Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 18, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg free june 1997 Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights sound Money the Low interest rate policy of the Bank of Canada and the budget balancing efforts of the Chretien government have Given canadians Price stability that earlier generations could Only dream it is a Benefit too easily taken for yesterdays May consumer Price Index report from statistics Canada showed that retail prices Are Only per cent higher than a year ago and Many including women shelter and Domestic air Are lower than a year this Price stability was achieved at some Cost Public sector pay has been Frozen or Public payrolls have been manufacturing wages have been pushed downward by foreign regions such As Quebec and the maritime have suffered More than their share of the pain from this Strin gent All canadians Are now harvesting the senior citizens on fixed incomes Are confident that inflation is not Rob Bing them month by unions and employers bargaining wages Are sure that next years Dollar is As Good As this for canadians who remember the wild inflation of the 1970s and the Trudeau governments efforts to impose wage and Price the Price stability of the mid1990s is a Benefit Worth some the Royal Bank forecast of three per cent growth for Canada in 1997 shows one of the benefits that is Likely to flow from sound Money and stable when Manitoba Gary Filmon and three other Western premiers gathered at Campbell for their annual they spoke of the Feder Al government Only to Filmon went out of his Way to Recycle an imaginary old grievance against the Federal governments failure to launch a Trade War with the United states in the Hope of pre serving Manitoba sugar beet processing he has never said what damage he wanted Canada to inflict on other commodity groups in order to main Tain sugar beet when the Manitoba conservatives Are scraping this hard to come up with complaints against Feder Al they Are inadvertently paying tribute to the merits of the Chretien governments economic it May be too much to ask Filmon to admit that federally sponsored Price stability and a federally managed Trade and investment strategy have Given Manitoba its platform for economic he has his own Back to Ira in isolation with the murder of two policemen in Northern Ireland on the Irish Republican army seeks to raise the level of violence in its most recent spasm of the killings Are the first by the Ira to take place in Northern Ireland since it abruptly ended the 1994 ceasefire last they occur at a time of rising tension in when the British province is Brac ing for the season of marches that is Only Days this is the time of year when protestants Parade in memory of Long ago victories Over a time when the present Day hatreds that Are history legacy to Northern Ireland Are at a fever pitch and Street Battles and deaths Are often the the murders bring to a halt the peace process that had been Given a new impetus by the election of a labour government in the new government has already twice met with sinn the political Arm of the in Hope of effecting a this would allow sinn fein to take part in the negotiations for a settlement that Are taking in the Wake of the Blair has ruled out More talks with sinn a position that should be confirmed by sinn fein Leader Gerry Adams revealing Contention that the murders offer a huge incentive to invite his party to the the timing and nature of the murders indicate that in fact the Ira has no interest in participating in the peace their intent appears to be to inspire widespread sectarian violence on a level so intolerable that it will break Britain determination to find a just solution to Ulster problems and aban Don the the Ira has used this tactic before with the inevitable result that it further Iso lates reaction to the latest murders indicates the same result this As leaders in Ulster and the United states where president Bill Clinton has in the past indicated a vague sympathy with the Republican cause express repugnance for the cruel cowardice of the that isolation must continue to be ruthlessly enforced until sinn fein and the Ira accept the reality that Northern Ireland future will be determined by not Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy email . Ca Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Ian Cummins technology Laurie Verne Kalichuk human resources Glenn Williams finance and administration 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 vol 125 no 164 voices from the darkness the winning entry in a recent fiction contest i helped was a Story about the self loathing and Tor ments of a Young Man obsessed by a Story about How racism makes a Beautiful woman ugly took second followed in third by a Story about a Nightmare world in which peo ple live forever and the Only ways out of the misery and mad Ness of a vastly overpopulated world Are murder and honourable mentions went to a Story about abortion from a fetal Point of a Story about a truly horrible and abusive Home environment that produces a serial and a Story about the utter humiliation of an illiterate you were stories from High school Stu the Winner in the Junior High Competition was a Story about a single mom and the chilling ambivalence she feels when her baby Dies during one night of unintended the Winner in the adult com petition was a Story about a woman whose son is Leav ing her heartbroken and alone with a philandering if this seems a Bleak it which is not to say there were not heartwarming or funny Sto Ries written for the there lots of its As it turned the Best writing was what we Are to make of i dont but let me begin by saying we Are fortunate to have the Canadian writers Manitoba which has been holding competitions for adult writers for 50 and for Young writers for we Are fortunate that it is peo pled by open minded volunteers who encourage writing and have no interest in for this the Competition achieved what it set out to do Reward writers on the basis of their writ not the subjects they tack no matter How Bleak or offensive some might find them to i read Only the entries from High school age so i can Only speak about their i found that for All the talk about Semi literate Young there Are Many Fine Young writers out teenagers with skills Many of their critics no doubt i did not come across any writ ing that was clearly headed for the bestseller but among the 40 or so entries i there was a lot of there was a lot of very Good Story clean prose and All the even some of the less Well realized contained flashes of or a or a or turn of phrase that was Brilliant and made me feel Good for the Young writer who produced there was also a lot of first the courage to risk but More the courage to express there was a lot of most of it suffered by women and caused by now it might be argued this is just a reflection of the that feminists have created a stereo Type of hateful men that is pervasive and repeated by Young writers who dont know there just they might but i dont think there was a Power in the stories about sexism and racism that rang True and made me feel shame for All the ways men Hurt especially when they Are i made a Little speech at the awards which included the following to the writers of those i say Well How can we know of these things if no one writes about and How can we understand them if the stories Are not written Well after the i collected my car from a parking As i was driving i noticed a taxi in which four or five teenage girls were i thought i recognized the girl in the front seat and stared this created a great Deal of excitement among the and one jumped out and ran to my she opened the and asked what i was looking i told her i thought i recognized someone in the to which she replied that she was More than willing to be my Date for the i say i was but i was surprised and a bit she was perhaps 15 and still had the fresh face look of a you dont i i thought the girl in the front seat was a girl who had been a Friend of my the girl at my door realized her her smile Digap she cast her eyes Down in humiliation just like a kid mumbled an apology and then turned and i didst know what to make of except a Gerald flood is a free press editorial his column appears on pc plan to sell off Hydro feared the late senator Eugene Forsey once called privatization just a fancy name for the biggest International Romp Ever mounted by the Rich for skinning the Manitoban know the within 48 hours of Manitoba Telephone system shares going on the million of them were earning their owners an million so much for the idea that its More democratic for individual Manitoban to own shares in their Telephone company rather than for All Manitoban to own it six months after the privatize the majority ownership of the renamed Manitoba telecoms services has migrated out Side Manitoba boundaries and switched from individual to institutional the Cost of local rates is going its is asking for a a month rate increase 1998 in addition to the a month already in and All to meet Competition on local phone ser so much for the idea that com petition Lowers University of Manitoba economist George Chuchman is warn ing government assurances a Bill before the legislature is preparing Manitoba Hydro for the auction Block with out even Public badly burned from the its the Filmon govern ment is trying the soothing Energy minister David Newman briefed the new democrats beforehand and included clauses in the Legisla Tion which prohibit privatization and Competition at the retail but clauses put in by govern ment can be taken out by gov Chuchman the destination Privati Frances Russell nation in a study commissioned jointly by the Canadian Union of pub Lic employees local representing 800 Hydro and cupe local represent ing Winnipeg Hydro Chuchman says the Legisla Tive changes go Well beyond what is necessary to allow Manitoba Hydro to continue to sell into the deregulated electrical mar the Manitoba government is Rushing through dramatic changes to Manitoba cupe local 998 president Bob Maes said in releasing the we Are not opposed to but we feel Manitoban deserve to have input into Bill 55 is being rammed through the Manitoban Are being told the legislation is needed to facilitate further Energy sales to the Maes the fact is that Many of the changes in this Bill have nothing to do with Energy if the government were to limit the Bill to those changes which would facilitate further we would not be Here Newman dismissed the unions he pointed out the nip had no substantive objections to the so there was no need for Public he described privatization As a the Chuchman study states that the legislation fundamental Newman claims privatization of Hydro is a r r by changes Manitoba Hydro Hydro sole according to the statute creating has been to provide Power to Manitoban at the lowest Newman has said the legislation is about empowering Manitoba Chuchman says its about making the Crown Utility Over in the image of a Pri profit making it permits the Utility to develop Hydro Sites dedicated to Export to enter into joint Ven Tures with other utilities and to become involved in foreign Ven this Means that Manitoba Hydro will be empowered to take risks in business ventures that Are unrelated to its traditional primary mandate of providing Power for the needs of Manito the Chuchman study con the original mandate obliging Manitoba Hydro to confine its activities to meeting the electric Power needs of Manitoba is now diluted to the Point that Manitoba Hydro and the Manitoba govern ment Are now permitted a much Freer hand to Trade off virtually any other objectives against the prime objective of providing Power to meet the needs of Man Chuchman warns Over this will weaken the perception of Manitoban that Manitoba Hydro is owned collectively first and Foremost to meet their Manitoban will perceive themselves less As stakeholders in Manitoba Hydro and become More indifferent on the Issue of he remains an open and another Romp of the Rich to skin the finances Russell covers politics for the free her column appears wednesdays and ;