Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 21, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A saturday free june 1997 i h Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a boost for Bristol Bristol Winnipeg largest aircraft components this week found itself owners who Are based in Canada and who mean to expand the this should allow Winnipeg to share in the growth of the Canadian and worldwide aircraft production in buying the firm from Roll Royce Toronto based Magellan aerospace is increasing Canadian ownership in the Canadian aerospace foreign ownership was one of the Black Marks against Bristol in 1986 when it was competing against Canad air of Montreal for the contract to maintain cf18 fighter aircraft for the Canadian it has now corrected that the corresponding transaction happened in Toronto in 1992 when Bombardier of Montreal and the Ontario govern ment bought aircraft builder de Havilland from the Boeing company of the Pur Chase helped build Bombardier into the major league aerospace firm it is Bombardier did buy de Havil land until the Ontario new democratic government of Bob Rae had bought million Worth of equity in the loaned it another million and Given it a further million in Grants to support research and devel the conservative Federal government of Brian Mulroney also lubricated the transaction with the Promise of million in forgivable Loans Over three years to support research and after All those government Bombardier bought control of the firm for a Mere by is buying Bristol for its inherent value and not because of the taxpayer subsidies and the political Magellan has been assembling a network of aerospace manufacturing businesses in the and Rolls has been withdrawing from other aspects of the aircraft business to concentrate on in an Industry heavily dependent on government contracts and Bristol has survived on its own this Hardy Plant is a proven survivor and a Strong component for the Winnipeg when the Royal Bank sold control of its Winnipeg health records firm smart health to electronic data it was following the usual path of Canadian innovators who look for a foreign firm to buy them Canadas aerospace Industry has been shifting More and More into Canadian own the Strong Canadian aircraft Industry that might have grown out of the legendary Avro Arrow project 40 years ago is now taking Magellan is helping to ensure that Industry will not be con fined to Quebec and focus on facts the United nations convention on Trade in endangered species meeting in Zimbabwe this week made two major and controversial Deci it voted to ease the International ban on Trad ing in Ivory obtained from the tusks of elephants and to continue the International ban on both bans were imposed in the this Botswana and Namibia argued that their conservation efforts have been so successful in restoring the elephant population that they should be allowed to sell 135 tonnes of stockpiled cites approved a Compromise allowing the Sale of 39 tonnes under strict at the same Norway and Japan asked for the ban to be lifted on the Hunting of certain species of arguing that the stocks had revived to the Point that renewed whaling was cites decided to maintain the moratorium on the Hunting of All whales of All both of these decisions May be Wise and sensible and in the Best interests of Good wildlife manage it is difficult to be because decisions made by cites Are influenced As much by romantic notions and political considerations As they Are by that is not Only but it will ultimately work against the very purpose of the organization exists to protect endangered species and restore their population to a healthy not to create sacred nations with an economic inter est in a species will be reluctant to agree to its being placed on the list if they believe that Means it will be there forever no matter How successful a come Back it May eventually there was no doubt that the elephant and the whale needed to be protected in the that there is controversy and doubt about the Correct Ness of the decisions made concerning those two animals this week is an indication that cites May not be sufficiently focussed on Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press esl 1872 Winnipeg Tribune esl 1890 Rudy email Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Ian 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 vol1i5 Nolb British Way with secrets it Doest matter so much what the detail of the new Freedom of information proposed by the Filmon gov so much As the message that it suffice it to say that the information from government and government agencies will not be significantly More open after the passing of the act and maybe less open than it was i do not find this democracies that work on the British parliamentary Model Are not known for their they tend to favour secrecy and that secrecy both enforces and reflects a political and social culture which can be traced Back for British parliamentary democracy grew slowly out of a Feudal during much of the 19th most British people were considered too ignorant or too poor to the cultural prerogative was that Only the upper classes were fit to govern and the less the rest of the Public knew about How they were the the Best part of the British sys tem was the Way that reformers whittled away at the idea that the few should govern the ignorant but the general that rulers in a parliamentary democracy hold of the ruled con Nicholas Hirst the need for secrecy is enshrined in the Ideal of Cabinet in the United where democracy is based on a system of countervailing checks and bal ances Between the executive and the two houses of Congress with the supreme court making up the third leg of the system information tends to be free and the system of far from on the criticism and control of Ameri can politics is very the words that snared Richard Nixon you will what did the president know and when did he know it the separation of Powers almost requires a huge flow of there by Defini no Unity of purpose Between the differing branches on the it presupposes in Britain and Howe parliamentary democracy requires the Cabinet to act in a unified differences of opinion Are expressed through unofficial cabinets main Tain the fiction of speaking with one while letting their political friends know in they speak with this has produced a different kind of press in Britain than in the United in the newspapers have tended to be More analytical and interpretive than in North in the United the opposite tended to be criticism of for in his Early years of was often not on his philosophical but on whether he had his facts criticism of tends to be on his alleged misdemeanours Over Whitewater and other in for Many there was an amalgam of styles As Canadian journalists used an american fac based Model of reporting to assess a style based on the secrecy of Cabinet gov the result was an establishment that Felt the press was mean spirited because the facts it uncovered were often too minor to warrant serious Atten Tion and a press endlessly frustrated in providing an effective Mirror on the upshot was that the coun try failed to get the press it much of that has in part because the press has understood More and More that interpretive writing is its role in any and also because institutional in has come to believe More and More in the benefits of an informed All of which makes attempts at a More restrictive flow of information by the Manitoba govern ment disheartening and just in the press Are complaining about in my View Are enriched by the free flow of there can be Good reasons for but usually openness produces better the reason that much of the press in Canada got itself a bad name was because it made too much of Small but the reason it did so was because the North american journalistic tradition was based on the reporting of open facts and facts were far from freely the will get the press you deserve if you get the openness in government that you equally heres Nicholas Hirst is editor of the free his column appears on Maple Leaf speeds the race most of the faces i saw in and around the Mani Toba Marathon last week end were eager volunteers and competitors were expecting to enjoy their morning and they were not most of that while i was waiting for my relay team mate to arrive and pass the Arm band on to other relay run ners were arriving and failing to find their the stood up runners i saw had arrived Well ahead of the main body of making extremely Good and were not at All pleased to find that their achievement was being wasted by a team mates absence at the Ren my teammates had told me what should happen if we had this the arriving runner who fails to find a wait ing teammate was not to stand around looking but resume run having just thrown every ounce of strength into running five Miles in the fastest possible the arriving runner was to resume work and run the next five my the made All our handoffs efficiently and we i am in about astonished myself and my teammates by running the third leg through Assini Boine Park and along Portage Avenue to Palmerston and Ruby in just Over 45 Back in i had set the goal of running nine minute but i was coming nowhere near that in training runs and had pretty Well resigned myself to taking or 11 minutes for each that was before i knew about Ray Ris Ling and his Maple Leaf my teammate Leon handed off to me at and i headed off Down the Road with leons and my wife encouragements Echo Terence Moore ing behind As i was finding my i was passed by a distinguished looking gent in Maple Leaf shorts whose shirt announced that he was Ray Ris Ling from his cos tume announced he was an interesting character and his Pace told me he was going a wee bit faster than i was inclined i fell in step behind i was supposed to hand off to Beth at the Start of the fourth and i had told her i would need about 53 my wife drove ahead to bring her word of my starting time so that she could be exactly ready to Start when i did not know about Ray and his Maple Leaf nor did she know about All the volunteers and spectators along the Way who were applaud ing and shouting she knew As much As i did about the eagerness and excitement All around but she had no Way of knowing what effect All this would have on her husbands run Ning the effect was that the Miles in the race seemed a whole lot Shorter than the Miles i trained they clearly were because i ran each of them in nine and i cannot run a mile that fast or not five in a now it is All very Well to do your relay leg in a respectable but i was running a foolish having told Beth i would arrive in 53 i arrived eight minutes Early and could easily have Hung myself up like the disgruntled runners i saw vainly searching for their fortunately an experienced was ready for my Early arrival and we made a Quick and efficient hand if i had Hung myself i would have had to follow the established policy of the wind heavers i should have started out on the fourth hoping Beth would somehow get word and catch up with me before i slowed to a limping i would have blamed it on Ray Risling and his Maple Leaf As things turned i can thank Ray for speeding us on our i see by the results in the paper that he did the full Marathon and finished in Terence Moore is a free press editorial his column ordinarily appears on some marathoners turn out to be faster runners than they thought they ;