Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 10, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg free october Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom Offrane Tfir Etty Freng Toffi Koft tatty of pm ref fits toothless watchdog in the past 10 year hot a single complaint to the Manitoba Law enforcement review Agency has resulted in criminal assault charges being Laid against police which is not to say All complaints to lera go most Are minor and Are settled with an serious complaints of assault Are sent to the for 10 has decided the evidence does not support a reasonable expectation of a conviction under the criminal at that lera can decide to prosecute under the Law enforcement review which empowers it to rep even fire found guilty before a judge of such noncriminal activities As use of excessive following this has proven not much More effective than the Deaden of criminal Only three of eight cases pursued under the act Between 1992 and 1996 have resulted in findings of in each of the officers pleaded guilty to being rude and discourteous to someone in front of the other five including use of excessive were dismissed by judges who have complained the test of guilt under the act is too the test is that the evidence must be Clear and which is a High Standard for administrative the usual test is balance of for a Man com Plains he was kicked in the face by one of four police All of whom deny any knowledge of an since the Man cannot identify which offi cer smashed his and since it is his word against the words of four upstanding officers of the he cannot mount a Clear and convincing on the balance of he might con Vince a judge he did not kick himself in the lera commissioner Norm Ralph believes the act should be amended to include the lower which is More appropriate to its spirit and the nature of complaints against he also believes civilians should be put Back into civilian instead of sending lera complaints to judges who singly make Black and White he believes lera should return to its former prac Tice of having panels hear cases and pass judgments that allow room for the Grey the most famous lera the finding that Robert Cross was guilty of using excessive Force in the shooting death of was reached by a panel that voted for while some might find that result the court of Queens court of Appeal and supreme court of did Ralph has two Good ideas to improve Confidence our police watchdog has the Filmon which both eliminated civilian pres ence at lera and set the High should admit its mistakes and implement the changes As quickly As the current act is weighted too heavily in favour of just ask a Larcelous ladies even As you read a timeless tale of larceny and old lace is being played out in in the upscale neighbourhood of behind the protective manicured lawns and elegant facades of stately society matrons gather secretly together amid the dainties and Tea cups in to conspire to Rob their according to the Globe and a group of affluent Toronto women picked up on one of the oldest con games in the a Pyramid Trade when we think of con we think of often men preying on As the say ing youve come a Long the Rosedale matrons have not Only picked up on the Treyve done it on a grand scale their Vic Tims invest on the Promise of getting a surprising number of or women have signed Pyramid schemes All work the same the organizers at the top get their Money first and get those who join later just the Only new twist to the Rosedale Racket is that Only women Are invited to play and must Promise not to Tell their this would in this age of to give a sexist spin to the As Well As exclude a substantial Pool of potential victims since men Are just As greedy and at least As Gullible As it perhaps add a element of insurance against anyone calling the As the Globe it is hard to imagine a Rosedale Matron wanting to admit that she lost in an illegal adventure that she hid from her that would probably be just As True if it were Rosedale men who were the after does seem to be an equal Opportunity Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press eat 1979 Winnipeg Tribune est 1990 Rudy email Ca Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie Verne Kalichuk human resources Perry Nixdorf technology Glenn Williams finance and administration of la a Whf Hess of prisons and placebos it has often been reported that the United states imprisons its citizens much statistically than most other i was sur prised by the number of penitentiaries my wife and i encountered exterior views a recent motoring trip to san Francisco and there was one in a desolate stretch of southwestern Washington Between Spokane and a great Many cars were leaving As we passed about four Oclock sunday but whether the people in the cars were departing visitors or employees we could not two other prisons stood close to the interstate Highway in Mon signs by the Highway Drew attention to the prisons and ordered us not to pick up hitch i believe we passed one in As with a Simi Lar warning about we visited relatives on the shores of san Francisco across the water from an Island prison famous in film and like other Cana Dian television i see plenty of prison dramas from the United like any con Sumer of i can see Why prisons Are great set Tings for Terence Moore what i noticed on this is that prisons Are not just a decor of the american they Are a great american the country that worships Freedom and preaches Freedom to the world also puts a lot of Effort and land and Money into Locking up a minority of its own those prisons Are staring me in the shouting a religious worship also loomed Large on the landscape during our the Promise keepers were organizing a great gather the big news in the Bay area was that Billy Graham was about to hold a series of califor Nia prayer his first in Many and the heavy traffic of people about to be born again was expected to tax the Urban Highway network to the the Power of religion has been certified once again by the Jour Nal of the american medical whose october Issue presents evidence showing that religious involvement can make people feel physically As Well As mentally doctors have Long known about the Placebo effect if you take patients with symptoms and give them injections of Saline solution or flour Many of them will report disappearance of the in a Queens univer sity study last the flour pills used As placebos in a study of a drug for enlarged prostates were so effective that some men wanted to keep taking them after the two year test was the patient How believe that the treat ment is a Witch acupuncturists and with the right props and can also Benefit from the Power of the Placebo Canadas fed eral government backed Down last week from an assault on alternative healers and their remedies rather than face the Wrath of the Here we have another of these tiny facts that seem to Point at a cosmic belief in cure can sometimes by the same people can be convinced of who can read a med ical textbook without starting to experience some of the symptoms described a dedicated health Junkie can contract a Usu ally fatal disease just after break fast and be fully recovered before lunch is on the is that Why they have so Many prisons in the United states do they think there is a sickness in the nation that prisons can and if a Little bit of imprisonment Doest do the maybe a Dou ble dose will succeed by the Placebo empty prisons would be nearly As effective As full As Long As people think punishment is being inflicted on crime will be discouraged at minimum the great expense of the corrections system Only starts when you bring inmates along and hire staff to keep an Eye on a far seeing Manitoba govern ment could build scar looking buildings in prominent close to Well travelled for instance and let it be known that they Are prisons where the rodents outnumber the rats and the cockroaches circulate in Broad no inmates need be kept there and no staff but the deter rent if there is would be no danger of false no problem with Terence Moore is a free press editorial his column appears on extinct species leaves its Mark a published seven Days week at 1355 Sun Jan r2x m m a member of the Manitoba press Gaurell voi125n0272 am not big on i feel about them As some feel about maggots and dont my father bears Are extinct Down that was More than a Quarter Century ago at our House in Cen trial i was considering a move to his a farm House at port Shoreham in Guys Borough or at least building a cottage on the proper Tys Ocean to or perhaps his Ray father sub scribed to an exquisitely named the Canso the last Bear Down he showed up near the House of an old i read about it in the Canso the 9ld Fel Low jumped into his drove to a gun bought a Shotgun and some and went the Bear was still so be killed not with a but with Buckshot that happened in the no ones seen a single Bear since with my wife and three Chil i moved to Halifax in and she and i eventually settled Down in this historic family Tome in the country of no hah a few years j heard that Down toward Hadley Ville and Francis maybe nine Kilometres from a Black bearly All my neighbors have seen bears around their one Bear squatted on a woman front Lawn for he just sat As though he were in a another Bear found an empty pickup truck on a dirt Tore the Headrest off the Drivers and clawed some Nasty scratches into the he prob ably thought the Headrest was some Guys bears Are extremely but they have a Superb sense of As an old first nations saying puts when a Pine Nee dle Falls in the the Eagle sees the Deer hears and the Bear smells if a Bear can smell a Pine it can sure As Heck smell a Black Bear May weigh up to 600 and standing upon his Hind be As much As six feet Black bears can sprint at speeds of 40 and with their killer clamber up Trees almost like they have Brownish Short thick Little Black and 42 lips Are free of the says land mammals of new allowing them to be manipulated with barn to get the garbage an elderly woman had stored there another Bear camped under someones front and no one knew How to drive him away i comforted myself with the thought that All the local Bear events were occurring Down that but this summer i bad port Bear stories earning put my ear people Tell them the Way they used to Tell Newfie shaggy Bear near if the Nova Scotia Bear u the bears dont know which assists the Bear in feeding on such foods As berries and i dont even like to think about Bear Black bears Are mostly vege they eat Honey and but they also gobble up mar Small Marine rot Ting and when the Opportunity is just Young Deer and As Well As Cit bred newspaper More than All other kinds of these Are the most Likely to hang around not everyone feels about bears As i on the i found a site called the Bear its pro one Don dedicates it to bears everywhere and for those humans who Are on their he have Power to open our eyes to the wonderment of the Black Bear experts insist the creatures Are but As an Anonymous Bear Sage once the Rule about bears is their the ones around Here act As though they own the maybe that Why a Nova Scotia lands and forests official advised a car Penter i know to quit letting his children walk by themselves to a nearby maybe that also Why it did not Delight me to find metres from my Back door three substantial they looked globs of sprinkled with undigested whatever Bear had unloaded out Side our Kitchen had not manipulated Bis blueberries Well with Bis dexterous or mashed them with his 42 this gift of Bear poop failed to open my eyes to the wonderment of our world Harry Bern is m editor with the issues ;