Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 26, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press q june i o health fascists unlikely to Stop at tobacco let people choose their poisons the recent Victory of anti tobacco totalitarians Over the tobacco Industry is another successful assault on North Ameri can civil the us settlement is More than a financial Shakedown and a political thrill for health it is also a Shakedown of fundamental rights that goes beyond the traditional ant tobacco targets of Freedom of speech Adver association pick a this latest attack on Commerce and Choice will have a profound Impact on the nature of what the Deal Means for and soon British columbian and other Cana is this no one is responsible for anything and somebody else is always to one of the surest ways to eradicate John Collison rights in a free society is to erode when governments give self afflicted victims like smok ers special rights to extort Money from whole Pandora Box is wide not Only will this purely vindictive arrangement not Stop it May actually increase illicit drugs Are in Large part popular because they Are off limits most users become such in Pursuit of most kids Start smoking because it is an effective Means of rebelling against schools and not because they were exposed to then there is whats known As the Law of compensating people who might otherwise have exercised a Little self restraint and smoked fewer will now indulge their weakness and Tell them of if i get cancer or there is this huge medical fund available to take care of studies have found this phenomenon with automobile safety seat air bags and braking systems designed to protect motorists have actually replaced cautious driving armed with a false sense of motorists drive More irresponsibly and More accidents knowing that a special medical safety net exists for irresponsible people will go ahead and smoke More and More will the health fascists Stop Here probably it is not at All far fetched to predict it wont be Long before every known health affliction is matched up with an Industry to lets Start with heart disease the hog and beef fast food out diabetes sugar soft drink and Candy liver problems bars and brew those Are the easy the list quite literally is then theres the cutting Edge health concerns Caf Feine has been linked to Glan Dular and nervous disorders water additives like chlorine and fluoride have been implicated in coronary problems and cancers Power lines and electromagnetic Fields have been connected to a variety of afflictions microwaves and cellphones Are suspected of deleterious health All that is needed Are groups of Vic scientists to testify that this commodity caused that Sev eral Public relations some like minded lawyers and and Presto buyers need never beware despite the Best efforts of people will always pick their poisons the human condition seems to require it whether it be or the new kenyan health authoritarians can never change human nature or cure what ails even if they had the right which they do but what they can do is continue destroying social and economic rights and responsibility if we let John Collison is Manitoba correspondent for Western letters to the editor killer Highway murder in Winter i wanted to comment on your Arti Cle a winding free june 21 on the stretch of Highway Between Vermilion Bay and most of what you said is but a very serious Point that most people Are missing is that everyone commenting on this strip is Basing it on summer Dri i would like to give my Point of View As someone who drives this strip seven Days a 365 Days a year unless they close it due to bad weather or because there has been a very bad if anyone thinks its bad in try driving it in the Upkeep is they have Cut Back so much on blowing and Sand ing that every Day i make it Back i thank the Day the five transports piled i was also on that Road and narrowly escaped totalling myself and my truck on a Rock i then waited for a Sand ing but when none came i Felt i had to get Home and literally crawled a drive which normally took me 20 minutes took Over an hour and still no Sand truck in if anyone wants to have their wits scared out of they should give this Highway a shot during or after a Snow or ice believe it will be a memorable i have been out there when the Road has become so icy that you cannot stand on i guess my Point is that one trip Down this Road is not a very Good Indi 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 letters maybe submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone cation of the danger we face every you need to experience it in every kind of i would like to see the transportation minister and his family out Here Dri ving this Road for at least a month Dur ing the worst part of the and then Tell me it can maybe they should Start asking people who drive these roads every Day for their its sad that it took the publicity in nationwide publications to draw More attention to this lives dont seem to hold much Helen Grymaloski Vermilion old tricks still fuel Art controversy As the 20th Century starts its fade into it is astonishing to see How Well old tricks still its from the letters recently published in the free that Myrna Howard and her supporters dont like the Type of work exhibited in one publicly funded namely plug they Are whats is their sweeping deprecation of the to presume that Art is bespeaks a cruel ignorance of what visual Art has provided to an important spinoff is the written word the alphabet which we take for granted today originated in the images made by without the activity of artists we would at subsistence in More recent Art has been described As the precursor of among other artists continue to shape our perception of the problem for plug ins opponents is mostly where the gallery Money comes but if government were to fund Only feelgood would they be less concerned about cutbacks to it Cetera i doubt they have Disney and can see tired pop classics from the United states revised each summer at Rainbow proponents of Public funding for the arts insist that Public intervention is absolutely necessary so that culture makers can contribute to Sci funding agencies admonish that they Are constructing a culture that reflects the True nature of the True North Strong and arts funding is closely monitored by arts officers and handpicked plug in is Suc year after in securing funding because it shares the ideology of influential members in the people like the mayors recent cultural policy review panel that has recommended establishing a civic funding body patterned after the Manitoba arts Council and the Canada which fund plug As any student of history for All the Good it has has often been made to serve the Aims and ambitions of the Power brokers in a Given some have argued that giving Money to arts councils to Dole out to a proscribed Art Community is a convenient and Coste Fec Tive method of ensuring that so called Radical energies Are Well contained and convincingly its called Art can distract Atten As has happened Here a controversial piece provides an easy target for otherwise concerned citizens to vent their its an old As valid As what plug in maybe the gallery con Stant posturing and overblown claims of significance contribute to a malaise among both artists and Public regarding Art in that malaise serves to confirm most Peoples Low esteem for Art and it ensures marginalization in keeps artists dependent on government advocating the abolition of arts funding is not the answer to this 30 year old but neither is perpetuation of the current a majority of artists would like to see things done would Many members of the general a discussion of expectations from both sides of the Art Fence Art makers and Art users would be a healthy place to Robert Mears Winnipeg High profile marathoners and half marathoners get All the Reader Marathon coverage incomplete again in writing to express my displeasure at As incomplete coverage afforded some participants of the recent Manitoba Marathon by both the free press and the coverage of the High profile full and half marathons was com plete with the usual interviews with the winners and runners Praise for the who Are critical to the Success of such an was also Well deserved and my problem is every sports writers forget there were five events in the one of which was the 10kilometre walk even though race walking is an olympic it Doest seem to rate any thing More than a passing mention on Man and nothing in the free by ignoring the winners of these lesser you do an unacceptable injustice to those athletes who train year round with the same Dedi cation As the real the Winner of the 10kilometre walk race for the third consecutive year was Cathy Crook of Cathy Bruce Ferguson Winnipeg Wiecek roles blur at edges Mike wards retirement was a and frankly his longevity As a form of free press ombudsman surprised this Man had guts and integrity As a although he Likely caused some anxious moments for both the advertising and Legal Mike Ward was never coldly Clini but instead was not Only angered by injustice but also motivated to do what he could to rectify the he wisely adhered to the idea that intimidation Only works one on and fails when brought into the he simply did More than one year passed before Paul Wiecek was appointed to the watchdog this is in addition to his investigative the problem is the lines seem to have his very objective recent column fit to fight web but too weak to work free june while Likely garnered from his watchdog was a Dandy piece for his investigative in a Little sceptical of people who Call me to complain that workers compensation ruined their life set the and then this magnanimous i have Little doubt that probably occurred some time Over the while there was no request for your personal without a this really has occurred Many times Over the we Are Only Given the complainants first whether she is emotionally dependent on web May or May not be Able to the argument that because she sends letters Means that she can work is just Plain Wayne Hancock Winnipeg Gerrard claim sour grapes regarding the report Gerrard appeals ruling during judicial recount free june having been involved in the past election As an enu poll clerk and scrutineer at the judicial i can say that i truly Admire the elections Canada certainly has gone to lengths to ensure an honest and democratic for Jon Ger Rard and the Liberal party to say they want integrity is a slap in the face to the judicial perhaps they just do not understand the meaning of or or he should have been satisfied with sour Baldur Nelson Gimli circumcision pain is real i would like to express my appreciation to Ruth Teichroeb for her informative article regarding childhood circumcision begins childhood free june the med ical professions collective and individual ability to deny and dismiss an infants ability to experience and remember pain is quite remarkable Given the fact that routine medical procedures such As circumcision and childhood vaccinations Are also accompanied by infants screaming in an attempt to communicate their the denial of this pain is possible not Only because our culture has dehumanized and romanticized its youngest citizens but also because it worships those who perpetuate the myth that childhood pain is our culture worships those who inflict the Leona Rew Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau Imit Hugev Profita ble 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