Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 27, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Editor. Brian Cole 1697-7044 Rex Cuci pm e focus sunday free press b q Winnipeg july 27, 1997 do multiculturalism is truly Canadian its summer now and time for the flowering of multicultural festivals the ukrainian festival in Dauphin the icelandic festival in Gimli culminating in that great orgy of ethnic Celebration Folk Rama. Its easy to make fun of these festivals to see people in funny costumes doing strange dances and eating Peculiar food As mildly ridiculous at Best pathetic at worst. And there is a More serious criticism that argues that the perpetuation of difference serves to maintain racism and to prevent Canada from gaining that elusive identity for which we All presumably yearn. And yet i like those festivals even though they never convince me. The scandinavian Pavilion is nothing like Scandinavia the German Pavilion is nothing like Germany and though i have never been to the Philippines i imagine that the philippine Pavilion if there is one will be nothing like the Philippines. What i encounter Are canadians pretending to be foreigners and though that used to make me uncomfortable i am now pleased by it. Tvo events changed my mind about multiculturalism. The first was a conference in grief Swald Germany about Canada and its International relations particularly the Viking connection. As often happens in such conferences the topics veered toward defining Canadian identity. Speaker after speaker identified economic or social structures that might be essentially Canadian but none of them defined a Canada i know. Finally the keynote speaker a danish historian announced that Canada had no identity that was anything but superficially different from that of the United states and that the Best thing that we could do was to join them in a single North american country. There were about a dozen canadians at the conference and we All found ourselves Seething and yet inarticulate. None of us had a definition for what was Canadian and yet we knew he was wrong. At the end of his talk i got up and argued that what was Canadian was precisely that Lack of identity. We Are a country that celebrates difference i said. When we finally have a single coherent identity we will cease to be Canadian. It was a reasonably Good debating Point but when i sat Down i Wasny to sure i believed it. But something else has happened since which convinces me i was right. A couple of years ago Yuichi Mizu Noe a professor of Canadian literature at the University of Chiba in Japan invited me and another writer Robert Kroetsch to do a Reading tour of japanese universities. They were he explained particularly interested in Manitoba literature. We were both fascinated. There was apparently such a thing As a japanese professor of Canadian literature. But was there such a thing As Manitoba literature and if there was what could it mean to japanese students wheat Fields Snow and floods did no to seem to have much to do with the overcrowded polluted Industrial landscape we met when we arrived. The japanese produced remarkably Large audiences for writers accustomed to Reading in sparse Canadian venues. And after each Reading there was a smaller gathering of professors and students for intense discussion where the topic with David Amason was invariably multiculturalism. At the end of our tour or. Mizunoue explained his interest in Manitoba literature. There were Only a few countries left in the world he said where the old idea of a nation state one people one language one culture still survived. Japan was such a country but it could not escape history. The communication revolution meant that All countries must ultimately be multicultural. Tho often he said a mix of cultures meant racism disharmony division. But multiculturalism seemed to work in Manitoba and they wanted to turn to the literature to find out How and Why it worked. They wanted to prepare their students for a Japan that would not always be japanese in the old sense. And since then the japanese have been Back. Last Winter a delegation of six women professors from Korit us women a University in Tokyo led by Ikuko Midzuno visited Manitoba and i helped organize their tour. Ikuko is Yuichi Idzu Noel a wife an important academic in her own right and an expert on Margaret Laurence. The group wanted to see multiculturalism in action and so i arranged for them to visit St. Boniface Winnipeg a North end Steinbach and any other place i thought they might find to the editor anti abortion charge naive canadians must Wake up and realize How much damage is being done to the environment Reader says. It was not surprising to find the pro aborts trying to discredit the work of or. Joel Brind researchers give advice to Cut breast cancer risk free press july 15. However to charge the researchers behind the findings with a having anti abortion ties is naive dishonest and insulting. It would be equal to saying that nonsmokers have no say in the debate regarding smoking in relation to an increased risk of lung cancer because of their anti smoking Bias. Such charges Only fuel the controversy surrounding an Issue in this Case politicizing it while doing nothing for women. Conclusive studies on any subject resulting in demonstrable findings depend not on opinion or Bias but rather on fact. Every research project is a fact finding Mission. I recently attended the annual conference of Alliance for life in Charlottetown ret., where or. Brind was one of the speakers. He is the leading researcher involved in studies from around the Globe dating Back to 1957 on the subject of the link Between abortion and breast cancer. These studies confirm a definite link Between abortion and higher rates of breast cancer. Why dismiss the results of research in which to out of la studies on american women have shown increased risk especially when eight of them were statistically significant on their own these findings were followed up to include 22 out of 30 studies world wide confirming these results. Pro aborts Are doing women a disservice by attempting to withhold information which demonstrates this health Hazard. As Well there appears to be a resistance on the part of the Media wit How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from readers. Letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed name address and Telephone number. Names will be published but not addresses. All letters May be edited for style and length. Short letters Are less Likely to be condensed. Please address letters to letters to the editor Winnipeg free press 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Letters can be sent to our fax number 697-7412. Letters May be submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be signed but must include Home address and Telephone number. Respect to any reporting on the subject. One would think that conclusive evidence pointing to a 50 percent increased risk Factor for breast cancer following a first pregnancy abortion should make front Page news. After All we Are dealing with the single most avoidable risk Factor for breast cancer induced Slykerman president Campaign life coalition Manitoba god sword final authority in response to Colin Murray a letter in the free press july 5 written to reject and denounce or. E. Dias and his views about homosexuals adopting children i Challenge the Validity of or. Murray a statement that the Bible is in no position to condemn the modern idea of a homosexual relationship. The Bible which is gods word is in a position to do whatever it wants to do. Because it is gods word it is the final authority on All things relating to the human race and its activities. A. J. Thiesen Alton Flat tax fairer system a Calgary woman who feels stay at Home parents Are financially discriminated against is taking her complaint to the United nations. A Flat tax would simplify our system and make it fair for All. Presently single people Are also taxed unfairly. Individual lifestyle choices should not be impeded or interfered by government unless its illegal. Prior to the last election the Reform party listened to the grassroots and made this Issue part of their party platform. Child care deductions were to be extended to All parents regardless of who took care of the children parents or Day care. The spousal deduction was to be increased As Well. The Reform party would also work towards a fairer and simpler tax system. Karen Lalonde Oakman Canada fails to clean up act i implore All Winni Eggers and canadians to act in a More environmentally responsible Way. I love nature and All the natural Beauty around me. It distresses me greatly when i see and learn of the environmental destruction of our Earth. A june 21 article dealing with environmental issues in the Globe and mail states a Canada has failed to live up to the principle goal it set at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Our industries buildings and automobiles Are producing greater a not smaller a quantities of Carbon emissions called greenhouse gasses. Canadians Are the Industrial worlds biggest per capita guzzlers of both water and Energy. Canadas output of greenhouse gasses is not even close to the goal established in the destruction of our Earth a environments is very depressing and distressing. When Are we going to awake and realize the terribly negative environmental effects we Are creating a. Calman Winnipeg Job Security is the Issue recent comments made by Dan Kelly of the Canadian federation of Independent businesses is no less misguided and fear mongering. His claims that in the event of a postal strike the Canadian Union of postal workers would be a holding Small business to Ransom and that the general Public would suffer demonstrate a Complete Lack of understanding of the situation at hand. Job Security is the Issue or. Kelly the mandate of Canada Post of the past two decades has been not Only to downsize but to reduce All present and future workers to part time and casual status. Last year 10,000 postal workers lost their jobs while thousands More Are slated for the near future. Do these workers not have the right to save their jobs inadequate training poorly skilled supervisors and a confrontational management will continue to plague an already demoralized postal workforce. Suggestions to improve efficiency and productivity Are routinely disregarded by management. In fact Canada Post has shown More interest in paving the Way for privatization rather than the concerns of its own workers and of the service to the general Public. Allan Bruce Winnipeg Seal of approval not All that great How amazing to live in a world which still believes in a Well designed tests As a measures of Quality of performance and a test tracking students and a real performance As two recent letters fantasize. Forty years ago i remember those claims being made by those who were taking Over the education business a and people Are still unhappy with the results. Indeed education like the Economy has been shaped and directed by people who have been measured and Given the Seal of Quality performance by universities. It has not done a Heap of Good for a lot of people. Both correspondents really want some Anonymous expert to decide what is to be measured and How and they will be quite prepared to acquiesce in the result. Thus they will be absolved from responsibility for making any judgment about Quality or learning or performance. Which is exactly what the minister of education is doing. And we complain that Young people Are irresponsible Der Wyn Davies Winnipeg Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 a Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Redekop / publisher email . Ca Nicholas Hirst editor Brian Cole / editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown / circulation sales and marketing Laurie Finley advertising Verne Kalichuk / human resources Glenn Williams / finance and administration a 1997 Winnipeg free press a division of . Newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 125 no 200 we Are a country that celebrates differences writer contends. We found it in St. Adolphe when we stopped at a French cafe for an Impromptu meal of mennonite sausage and ukrainian style Purohi. The professors loved the food and after a lengthy discussion in japanese they informed me that they thought they could replicate the meal in Japan. They were going to take some multiculturalism Home with them. The relationship Between Japan and multicultural Manitoba continues. Yuichi Midzuno is now planning a conference in Japan on Manitoba literature and with any Luck the ban Quet will include mennonite sausage and Purohi. And ill go to a few ethnic festivals this summer and watch the dancing and eat the food. But i will no longer be troubled by their i authenticity. They will be authentically Canadian. Slice of life is a weekly column featuring Manitoba writers. David Amason is professor of English at the University of Manitoba and author of a number of books including the dragon and the dry goods Princess for which he won the Manitoba booksellers Choice award ;