Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 27, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press a 4 june 1997 m i o prison chaplain defended the article Stony officials faulted free june 19 is very there Are major errors in fact and the suicide of Jeffrey Barkhouse was tragic and a great at 34 years of bark House had the potential for consid Erable achievement despite his correctional service employees Are committed to do whatever they can to prevent they can not be expected to read minds and succeed in every correctional service employees Are not made aware that a has contracted his unless the Pris Oner chooses to so advise the medical diagnosis is confidential and treated As the same confidentiality would extend to any other life threatening illness contracted by a a prisoner has the right to keep information respect ing his medical diagnosis and Prog Nosis confidential if he so placing a prisoner on suicide watch is not a simple matter and cannot be taken suicide watch involves a major loss of prisoner the Pris Oner is removed from the prison population and placed in a cell equipped for he is not allowed shoe a equipment with Power or speaker cords or any other article or thing that could be used in a Sui cide his movements Are limited and exercise time restrict cell lights Are kept on continuously for it is not a pleas ant situation for the prisoner and not acceptable for More than an interim few suicide watch is intended to pro vide a Safe environment to allow for psychiatric assessment and recommendation for treatment if deemed suicide watch is not suicide prevention or a solution in pressures on a prison chaplaincy Are As Many prisoners see the chaplains As a Means to gaining privileges they could not obtain through any other other prisoners see support from the chaplains As important to an Early still others see the chaplains As surrogate parents and seek Comfort for a myriad of minor real and perceived injuries and judge Ron Meyers does not take into account that members of sister Carol Peloquinn congregation have needs and unfulfilled desires far beyond those of any other i have worked with sister Carol for some years and find judge Mey ers description of her As an insensitive and disdainful person a serious error in judgment and in instances where i have Felt that her intervention would be Benefi she has never failed to respond to my requests for assistance quickly and sister Carol enjoys a High degree of respect and regard from both prisoners and staff that she has earned Over the judge Meyers Contention that chaplains and psychologists should maintain notes on All dealings with prisoners to be shared with others is a serious confidentiality is imperative to successful interaction Between professional practitioners and prison in Many therapy is not possible without confidentiality respecting prisoner professional reports prepared to address specific issues there Are real dangers of misinterpretation and misuse of notes by professionals outside of their judge Meyers is quoted As saying that Stony Mountain is an institution at the very had a moral responsibility to do every thing possible to prevent his suicide while he was sequestered at Stony Barkhouse was not sequestered he was imprisoned for the commission of society has no moral obligation to go beyond norms to protect Barkhouse from committing suicide while in the prison Environ ment allows for observation of suicidal tendencies that would not be noted if the prisoner were in the i submit that the onus on the correctional service to prevent suicide is equal to but no stronger than that of society in general to protect its citizens from i further sub Mit this onus to prevent suicide would apply equally to manage correctional staff and prison our society has chosen to use imprisonment As punishment for committing crimes and to ensure the safety of the we can imprison the Man but cannot shackle his his determination or his i have seen some men use imprisonment As the catalyst for changing their they through Perse restarted their lives on a new footing never to return to crime or to they Are beacons of Hope for a group of social outcasts behind the determination and imagination that can carry a prisoner from a barred cell to la abiding Freedom can be turned to Darker including no matter How hard we strive to prevent some determined men will there Are no easy or foolproof Solu Joh feldsted Gimli letters to the editor russian children should be together tote were shocked and distressed when we read the Arti Cle russian boy lets sister be adopted on her free june How could a Canadian couple even think of separating a school age brother and sister from Siberia How could they deprive these children of the Only familial thing they have left in the world each other How could they not see the potential damage and pain they Are inflicting on these poor kids through the selfish conditionality of their desire to love and to Parent and More How could the Canadian press reporter fail to Cut through the self serving Shmaltz of the family Praise of the selfless and Brave Young to critique Cross Cross cultural adoption prac which in this clearly serve to commodity children and human relationships the Only positive outcome i can envision for this Story is the eventual adoption of Sasha by some compassionate or seeing themselves in the adoptive parents will see their adoption adventure for the shopping trip that it Sheila Rudy Braun Winnipeg add drinking to list of evils if governments Are going to try and outlaw smoking and get the citizens of this country to How about they go after another evil which also has a High Cost it also puts citizens in the Hospital with alcohol related it also causes people to miss work because of How about the Drunken who causes accidents and sometimes death How about the police depart ments that Deal with vast numbers of incidents that Are alcohol related How about the children born with fetal Alco hol syndrome and will need special treatments for the rest of their lives How about the Cost of the courts and lawyers who Deal with assaults committed by persons under the influence of alcohol How about the broken Homes that Are caused by alcohol the list is so is the perhaps the politicians leave alcohol alone because if they attack they will All have to Stop having that High Ball before that Martini at the wine with their and a Nightcap before going to lets get on with governing the coun let adults decide what they want to do with their we Arent Chil and the government surely int our Jan Saxhaug Kenora smokers Cost less in Long run it is reported that British Columbia is planning to sue tobacco companies for the recovery of smoking related healthcare costs free june 17 there no justification for this latest example of governmental greed smoking is not a not Cost to government in provides a Large financial a study reported in the free press two or three years ago concluded that smoking related illnesses did not impose a financial Burden on this report was hidden on an inside 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 the internet at letters letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone Page for some strange was completely ignored by governments and antismoking think about it for a moment nonsmokers live longer require govern ment support in the form of income health for a longer period than the arithmetic is quite simple since the free press june 18 provided data for Manitoba health costs and tax revenues associated with ill use this As an assume one million 30 per cent of whom with a life expectancy of 70 years for smokers and 75 years for if no Manitoban a conservative estimate of the additional financial Burden on the provincial and Federal governments is if you have Ever wondered Why no government has Ever banned Tobac you have your answer they make too much Money out of in compari id suggest that tobacco Compa Nies Are amateurs at the business of profiteering and Jones Winnipeg remain proud of differences in first came to Canada As a refugee from the first Book i read was a history of Canada by Stephen it began Canada is a land when we my family and i travelled across that land from Hali fax to our single thought was Canada is a big a very big we also thought that it was a land which has a great variety of physical and ethnic its outstanding was that it is a hospitable and tolerant country devoid of divisive which we equated with the divisiveness and chauvinism we thought we had left behind in when i was a member of the Cana Dian armed forces Between 1941 and continued to have a warm and secure feeling As a proud be Ocanada an proud of my new country and of my fellow countrymen despite their regional and ethnic differences and loved their country but were not chauvinistic with the postwar changes away from the largely agrarian and Small Industry and Small business Orienta Canada prospered toward a largely service and govern men Industry driven with and with the increasingly inter National Meg industries and the now huge financial the coun a Reader contends that adoptive parents should not have separated Galya left from her brother try gradually lost its hospitable and humanistic attitudes towards the land and its while such a materialistic movement had occurred Canada lost its soft nationalism and turned into a regionally and ethnically divided nation state where regional self interests and economic selfishness became the major characteristics of a land dividing but translating these abominable symptoms into defensible Virtues of economic self the results of the june 2 election blurted this out statistically and fac there no longer seems to be one Only a Jumble of some six combating political regions More political Power i cannot help but think of my european past and the destruction of the Central european and Mediterranean states into Power seeking and Overly nationalistic minor my reason for writing this is not to criticize but to in these critical the need for love of our Canada is much maligned not Only by political and regional dissent but by conflict and intrigue Loving political commentators and by so much of the sensational news Media let us face the politically and regionally differing feelings arts views can Only be expressed As strongly As they Are because we Are so free and tolerant a country As we still but we Are now in danger of losing these qualities because of political and regional greediness and opportunism on one and because of negative and cynical reporting and analysing of the disconcerting facts on the yet we need the very we can and must be proud of our liberties and our differences above we again must begin to affirm the Validity and the real values of our country and our love for it despite the difficulties we have experienced since we Ever thought of becoming one to do otherwise is politically insensitive and historically George Swinton Winnipeg dont want Fine dont run Light i would like to respond to a previous letter to the editor from Martin Weirich published on june Weirich seems to feel red Light Cam eras Are strictly a Cash if you dont run red they wont be Able to grab any of your i feel that financial penalties would be a great incentive to some you question the comparison Between these cameras and safer which baffles my and my childrens safety is continually jeopardized by Drivers who feel the three different colours of traffic lights have no i am fed up with having to sit waiting at a Green Light or Brake harshly after proceeding on one because of some impatiently thoughtless persons inability to wait one minute for their there is something really wrong when i get a Green but in the interest of my family i can not proceed without looking both ways to make sure some Bozo that Doest care int running a red if the police can come up with any thing at All to cure this serious prob i support them 100 per in not worried about them getting any of my since i never have and never will run red Are you worried about something Joan Lipinsky Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau Aiso claim tet run of it thus ;