Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 8, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg free september Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom Liberty of Reiffton oct vol it fits picking a judge to tier pm e minister Jean Chretien has to put a new judge on the supreme court of Canada to take the place of judge Gerard la who will retire on september of he makes the appoint ment the appointee will be part of the court that will hear in december the Federal reference on the legality of Quebec this could put the court and the government in an awkward the secession reference draws the supreme court into the midst of the political com Bat Between Quebec Sovereign list movement and the federalists in Ottawa and across the unilateral appointment of supreme court judges by the Federal Cabinet could expose the court to the accusation of partiality when that same Federal government is appearing before them in the Judi Cial phase of a political Quebec Sovereign list government has already declined to take part in the reference on the legality of the court has appointed Andre a que Bec lawyer known for his separatist to take part in the debate before this will add authority to the courts the government should go out of its Way to appoint the new judge in a Way that shows the court is Independent and the court has shown its Independence in for the court majority found that the government of Pierre Trudeau was violating constitutional convention by seeking Patria Tion and amendment of the Constitution without provincial this gave Rise to the further round of fed Era provincial meetings that produced the 1982 Constitution under which we now to build on that Chretien should fill the la Forest vacancy with a judge known for Independence of mind and not known for party the new judge should be drawn from the Atlantic provinces to maintain the customary regional balance on the an appointee without past Liberal connections would enjoy More credibility than a notorious party loyalist claiming a nothing can Stop Quebec ruling separatists from scoffing at the supreme court of Canada and the Law of la abiding need to see that the Federal government is being scrupulously careful to the courts Independence and the authority of its then the mud the separatists throw will soon drop City Hall farce the status of the cites pathetic War on illegal Rooming houses has improved from utter failure to total this minuscule improvement came As might be by Accident last City fighting Over How they could override an order to shut Down a Rooming House became deadlocked and were forced on a technicality to for Feit Powers to rescind the As a the Rooming House will by default become the first ordered closed in Winnipeg despite certain knowl Edge there Are hundreds of illegal Rooming Many As loathsome As the people who operate but its More laughable than the to which police were called 31 times in two is one of 140 that wrongly have been licensed to oper ate by the it Only came to the cites attention when the Winnipeg police officer and his to the City to have the improper licence changed to allow them to operate legally a seven unit Rooming House in Wolseley where not More than three units Are James Pelland and his wife who had owned the property for nine years before launching their request for an unencumbered now have up to 60 Days to convert the prop erty or evict their Given the circumstances under which the closing was one might predict an Appeal will be one might also predict tenants will get the rentals Raan involved to defend their tenancy after have done nothing to warrant at least under the and Winter is not far City Council has for years promised to do thing about the sad state of inner City Rooming and rental houses where fires and violence continue to claim lives while making life intolerable for neigh Bours who deserve but Council never gets past words to is not sufficient Money committed to hire the necessary in staff cuts have been there is current a plan to spend a year to hire sufficient inspectors to get the problem under control Council should act on the plan and put an end to this Winnipeg free press won Lgth fan Gnu we Winnipeg Triton Rudy email Nichaus Hirst Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie Verne Kauchuk resources Perry slew Williams finance and administration by Froli the search for scandal Ottawa in our relent less search for the elusive Canadian identity what makes us different from the Over ipod our obsession with the spending habits of no other country comes close to us in this in other it May be a con canadians eat More pre prepared Macaroni and cheese than any other people on but not by a huge and per spend More time on the Telephone than any other but again its not a runaway no other nation is even close when it comes to keeping scrutinizing eyes on political if our prime minister buys a hot dog at a coun try we have to know not Only How much it but who Actu ally paid for if it turns out to be the watch out a great new scandal is upon should the governor in a careless decide to visit his subjects British it s important to know not Only the Type of air plane that brings him but the exact Cost to and god for bid that he fill an empty seat with a personal for some uniquely Canadian we must know How much that individual would have had to pay for a regular Economy air Stewart Macleod were big on air its not easy to pin Down the exact period when we developed this obsession with political but theres no doubt that former prime minister Brian Mulroney deserves great credit for focusing our attention on the because his tastes tended toward the smoked Salmon level the country was Busy battling recession Condi Mulroney was clearly a beaming Beacon for the anti frugality and by the time he reached the end of his nine years in neither he nor any members of his entourage could Check into a hotel without the entire country knowing the exact room rates not to mention the Cost of room service just who paid for that govern ment Jet that took Mulroney to Maine for a weekend with his George Bush and did they talk or was it All when it comes to div vying up the Bill among the the tory party or the Mulroney that makes a big and whats this about three ramp bodyguards he used to travel with just who pays for the third for reasons we canadians president Bill Clinton can consume three wide bodied jets for one skiing trip and theres nary a question about who the British might quibble a bit about the latest Batch of millions that went into the Upkeep of the Royal yacht but theres never a word about Day today government travel the average Brit Doest or How the prime minister but just Days prime minister Chretien flew into Nova Scotia for a Golf ing Day with three Liberal pre Miers right on we became obsessed with the Cost of his Jet travel and whether it was a legitimate government Over the weve reduced the Cost of government jetting to such an exact science that Cost estimates for Chretien Day on the links ranged from to it seems to depend on whether we Factor in the Cost of aircraft Crew salaries and probably Landing the daily Cost of an unused fuel consumption in All the overhead involved in putting ice in the inasmuch As we dont know what that aircraft and its Crew would be doing if the prime min ister stayed in the True costs will never be air Crew must get their monthly hours in who perhaps the prime minister and those preceding been saving us Money with the occasional Golf or fish ing trouble these on Day flights gets him Back to Ottawa before he can run up hotel Bills for our scrutinizing if we could just Nail him with a As we used to do with dont know where it will All but i bet our obsession with political spending habits would have been greatly diminished had former prime minister Lester Back in agreed that the Canadian head of government sharing with the governor general deserved a dedicated vip he far too extra More than 30 years a vip delivered during the Mulroney sits largely unused for that purpose because the present prime minister critical of the Purchase at the time is too Gushy to climb and to think that were accused of not having unique Canadian Stewart Macleod is an editor with the issues admirals covet old subs my tit Ana i w 16 no 240 considering the Price being asked and the terms of payment being it is no wonder our Navy wants to buy four British upholder class our three Oberon class close to turning Are and the upholders have hardly been used at there is just one thing wrong with the navys plan to buy the British powered by diesel electric the upholders Are just As obsolete in today submarine world As Are our aging the reason the British have them for Sale is that Britain decided nearly a decade ago that it needed an All nuclear powered submarine Fleet if it wanted to keep up with the it was this decision that persuaded the British to Moth Ball the four upholders even though they had been delivered Only months if we buy the we will make a lot of admirals Happy because we will have provided them with expensive new toys but we wont have contributed in a meaningful Way to Canadas defence minister Art Eggleton will be deluged with paper from the Navy arguing Bow necessary the new sub marines Fie should pay no attention to these arguments until be decides whether Canada should or can afford to in the submarine business after the year there is a powerful argument that Canada should Nave its own and that Loose sub marines should be capable of upholders will not be Able to do for this Canada would sub former min ister Perrin Beaity tried fully to Aeq ure Tew Riey nuclear but ran into Strong opposition Here at Home sur from our particularly the United some of the opposition at Home came from those who that Canada could not acquire and operate a Fleet of nuclear submarines without draining the entire defence Bud then there was the popular and unreasonable opposition from canadians who could not distinguish Between nuclear powered and nuclear armed sub marines and were terribly opposed to anything the was reluctant to approve the Transfer of nuclear technology to although it had transferred technology to Britain so that Trafalgar class boats could be built it was not that the didst Trust it did not think our government had the Money or the will to spend what was necessary to operate the Fleet the opposition from the was based on its determination not to have an Accident with its technology and the suspicion that Canada would try to operate its submarines on the cheap the Way it operated the rest of its military Eggleton will have to decide if it is important for Canada to have its own information on what is going on under the Arctic everyone knows there int As much soviet activity As there used to but there is a lot of traffic there and we have no idea what it the sensible Way for Canada to get into today submarine business would be to negotiate an underwater agreement with the similar to our Norad air defence agreement in which canadians participate up to and including the highest level of command at a Cost we can under a Canadian Gen eral commands the Structure so per cent of the time and we pay less than 10 per cent of the total since we cant afford to run our own nuclear powered we could work out something along these lines so that canadians could be part of the Crews and command of the Northern underwater we have been offered almost new diesel electric submarines at less than half their original to be paid for by letting British forces train Here free and by Mot Balling some of our current on the surface the Deal looks Good except when we remember that the upholders will be Able to do no More than the Oberon in the the Deal surfaced of a request for Navy briefing i wonder who in the Navy told the press that the briefing which make a Strong argument for the were i get even More Ems when toe notes include a bit of pointing out that Britain is negotiating with Sev eral other that sounds a bit like a used ear the upholders have been for Sale for almost 10 feed Steve Frey is a Miter his column appears m a ;