Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 12, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A sunday free press r Winnipeg october 12, 1997 sunday tit a by a z i n a forum editor Brian Cole / 697-7044 Freedom of Trade in Liberty of religion ii Equality of civil through cyberspace the year 2000, we have been warned May be More than the computers can handle. The United states government will have to spend $3.8 billion according to a recent estimate to rewrite its computer software to accept dates in the year 2000 and beyond. Canadas auditor general reported last week that this country a Federal departments too Are thinking about making plans to review the Steps that would Lead to a process for studying what to do about the possibility that their computers wont work 27 months from now. The auditor thought the departments should put on some Speed. The Odd thing is that the computing world was surprised by this problem. One thing that was known for certain in 1960 and still in 1970 was that the year 2000 would arrive at a measurable interval in the future. Yet the Clever and highly trained computer software writers of that time made no allowance for that perfectly predictable event. Not just a couple of nerds a a whole generation of them. Software developers followed the convention that any Calendar year could be represented by two digits so that 97 would mean 1997 and of would mean 1900. It seems obvious in retrospect that this left the year 2000 out of account but that was not considered important at the time. Now As the fatal Date approaches the software developers of a new generation Are ironing out the glitch left by their forerunners. Private sector demand for people who know How to Iron it out is so brisk that Federal departments cannot match the pay they Are offered. The Federal government will soon be hiring its own former employees Back As hourly consultants at greatly increased rates to work on the year 2000 problem. But even then even when All the Date references in All the software have been located and corrected no one will know for sure that the problem has been solved. In the . Internal Revenue service they thought at one stage that they could review their millions of lines of computer code at a Cost of $2.70 a line to find and Correct the Date references. After further study they found they actually have to write the software All Over again from scratch. When software developers write programs they use existing code. If that code contains buried assumptions about dates the Developer will not necessarily notice them or even be aware of them. The Developer will say with a straight face that the new software complies with Indus try standards for handling year 2000 data but there is no Way of knowing whether that is True until someone starts using it in the year 2000. Moreover the scope of the problem will not be fully known on january 1,2000. Most of the people now writing software know that february has 29 Days every fourth year. Most of them know that this does not apply to years divisible by too. Not All of them however know the further Rule that february does have 29 Days in years divisible by 400. The half asleep ones will have included a leap Day in the year 2000, the More Alert ones will have left it out and the most attentive will have included it. How does a user find out which kind of software Developer wrote the program now in use wait for March i 2000 and the answer May appear. Educators have Given much thought to the need to teach today a Young people to use computers so that we can keep up with the japanese. Schools have been crammed with computers and history has been dropped As a compulsory High school course so that the students will have time to become computer literate. Now it turns out that the people writing the computer programs were not skilled in using a Calendar and some of them were not fully familiar with the principles of the Western Calendar Laid Down by Pope Gregory Xiii in the year 1603. Companies and governments will spend billions of dollars Over the next few years correcting that oversight and even then there will be a certain amount of muddle when the time comes. Lawyers specializing in product liability cases May have some fun at the expense of software developers As year 2000 problems spread. In the meantime information produced by computers should be read with increasing scepticism As the fatal Date approaches. If the computers answer seems absurd it probably is. The computer May not even know what Century this is. Working harder earning no More Ottawa the Chretien government today faces a key problem in the Economy government and businesses Are doing Well but most canadians Are not. The facts of the matter Are these government and corporate incomes Are rising those of most canadians Are not. In fact Many canadians if you take taxes and inflation into account make less than they did a decade ago. Government and businesses Are paying off their debts individual canadians Are beginning to drown in red Ink. In Short in the race for the Good things in life most canadians Are coming last. So far some companies have shown no desire to share their profits with anyone other than their senior executives. But this May change. Unions in Canada and the United states Are showing signs they Are willing to fight for workers who Are Low paid and have to take part time or temporary jobs. And in this session of parliament the Liberal government is coming under fire from the Reform party and the nip to share some of its Revenue with Ordinary canadians in the form of tax cuts increased funding for social programs or both. An analysis of statistics Canadas recent releases shows just How badly Many canadians Are doing in what Are supposed to be Good economic times. In 1995, says the Agency �?o20.4 million taxpayers reported a median total income of $18,900, up $400 from 1994. However after adjusting for inflation there was virtually no change from a year the term median income Means half of canadians earned More than $18,900 and half earned less. The spending Power of Canadian families has been virtually stagnant for 20 years. What this Means is that a couple must work at least 80 hours outside the Home to have the spending Power of one wage earner in the 1970s. In 1995, both partners worked in 60.5 per cent of two partner families. If the wives did not work the number of families below statistics Canadas Low income level would jump to 748,000 from the 1995 figure of 202,000. The Economy of the �?T90s has hit two groups particularly hard youth and women. In 1995, More than 93 per cent of those 24 and younger earned less than $25,000. Its estimated that about 20 per cent of Canadian youth Are looking for work or have Given up the Job search. On top of this fees at Many universities Are going up and Young people Are getting deeper in Hock. The average full time student on graduation will face $25,000 in Canada student i ians in 1998, compared to $8,700 in 1990. Some of them will need 18 years to pay off their debts. Women in 1995 earned 65 cents for every Dollar earned by men. And they have been slammed by government cutbacks in social services. Nearly 80 per cent of health care workers Are women an area of substantial downsizing. More than that Many of these same women must Start looking after their parents and others at Home. Many single women have an especially hard time. Lone Parent families were twice As dependent on social programs As husband wife families in 1995. And 53 per cent of unattached older women exist below the poverty line because of inadequate pensions. Not surprisingly canadians Are spending Only because they Are going into debt at an amazing rate. The Bank of Canada says household debt As a ratio of disposable income was 94.3 per cent in May. In a year it May reach too per cent. Household savings Are below two per cent of incomes. Unpaid balances on visa and Mastercard have increased 64 per cent since 1992. Personal bankruptcies Are at record Levels More than 37,000 in May alone. But you can to argue canadians Are not working hard. Statistics Canada says an average of 1.9 million people worked overtime in 1997�?Ts first Quarter the majority of them without pay. By contrast to the financial mess Many canadians find themselves in government revenues Are soaring and statistics Canada says a corporate operating profits edged up 0.5 per cent to $26.5 billion in the second Quarter of 1997. This improvement comes on the heels of a 7.1 per cent jump in profits last Quarter and was the fourth profit Rise in five the imbalance among the old pillars of the Economy business labor and government is bound to be a major topic for this parliament. And what do you think Federal finance minister Paul Martin will say i bet he says what finance ministers have been saying since former prime minister Brian Mulroney a Era that Good times for canadians Are just around the Corner. Tom Ford is managing editor of the issues network. Gwynne dyers column will return soon. What was said the following is an excerpt from an editorial in the oct. 9 edition of the Montreal Gazette three Quebec City men who gang raped a teenage girl were sentenced this week to prison for two years less a Day. This Means that they could be free within months. The girl is horrified. Her attackers will be released before she is even out of therapy. The sentence which spares the men the experience of being in a Federal Penitentiary is an outrage. The province is right to have launched an Appeal. To understand the full horror of the sentence one has to be exposed to the reasoning behind it. The logic if it can be called that is so primitive that its frightening. This is the Case As it was presented to judge Louis Carrier in May 1996, a 17-year-Oldgirl was forcibly detained and repeatedly raped and sodomized by three men Over a period of 18 hours. A a you re going to pay for All the girls who turned us Down tonight a they told her. The girl tried to escape several times. At one Point one of the men held her Over the Edge of a Balcony and threatened to drop her into the distance below if she did no to Stop struggling. Afterwards she had to Cope with three types of venereal disease. She also was impregnated during the attack and subsequently had an abortion. And what was the basis on which the judge decided a sentence of two years less a Day was adequate to the crime these Are the elements he took into account there was no proof of premeditation although the accused had criminal records for theft they had none for sexual assault there was no risk of recidivism they Hadnot used weapons and they Hadnot drawn blood. The idea that a woman has to be physically injured for the court to take seriously a sexual attack is abhorrent. Yet in judge Carrier s court the defence lawyers were allowed to state without contradiction that because the three men had not used weapons in the attack they posed no danger to society. The fact that at least some form of Justice was done in this Case should not deflect from the harm that judge carriers sentencing has done to the Effort to get sexual assault victims to come Forward. Studies show that barely one in 10 victims turns to the Justice system. Small wonder. Boomers queue up for herbal remedies now that i have More years behind me than ahead of me my ears seem perpetually tuned for the gurgling of the Fountain of youth. Suburban malls thoughtfully provide easy Access to the Fountain a a health food store offering a vast array of potions powders and infusions All promising youth in a bottle. The sales clerk invariably a Young thing in platform shoes explains there is certainly something a whether shark cartilage Ginko Bilboa cats claw echinacea or evening Primrose Oil a to right a wrong hormone balance dissolve excess pounds or even increase sexual Vigour. The sales pitch is overblown and perhaps even nudges the limits of legality. Under existing Canadian Law the makers of herbal remedies or nutritional supplements Are not allowed to claim any specific health benefits on the Label. If they do so their products technically become drugs. According to Canadas food and drugs act whatever we ingest is reduced to either a food or a drug. By virtue of their familiarity foods Are essentially unregulated. Drugs go through a rigorous approval process designed to assess their safety and their claims of health benefits. Nutritional supplements or herbal remedies a the bottles of capsules and infusions you find in the health food store a fall into the Grey zone. The sales clerk May enthuse about them but the supplement makers cannot legally claim their goods have a particular Benefit. American regulators came up with a term a dietary supplement a that embraces this Grey zone. That is How products like dhea the most broadly used nutritional supplement of this decade Are listed and regulated. There is no indication dhea is harmful but in Canada it is regulated As a drug and is available Only through prescription. Potential Canadian purchasers who read or hear about dhea a apparent Energy boosting and weight loss attributes Are frustrated with its limited distribution in this country. They have been doubly frustrated by what they see As health Canadas Over zealous crackdown on the distribution of a a illegal health food supplements that Are readily available South of the Border. Last months four City joint forces undercover sting to shut Down the distribution network of banned herbal products Here Drew the predictable criticism. Hit squads on herbal remedies May seem excessive but health Canada does have justification for its actions. The examples of natural remedies gone wrong Are not uncommon. In the Ingeborg Boyens late 1980s, a tryptophan the essential ingredient in mothers milk was promoted As a sure fire cure for insomnia. Unfortunately one japanese manufacturer of a tryptophan changed his production procedures and More than 1,500 . Residents were permanently disabled. Another 37 were not so Lucky a they died. Only a dozen canadians contracted Eosinophilic Myalgia syndrome Ems from the supplement a largely because Here a tryptophan would be regulated As a drug and the manufacturers had not bothered with the paperwork required to win drug status. Over the past few years another 20 people in the . Died and hundreds of others suffered from dizziness tremors headaches heart attacks and strokes after taking Phedra also known Asma Huang. Those folks turned to the nutritional supplement because they wanted to lose weight boost their Energy and build Muscles. Federal authorities also Point to liver toxicity from acorns Calamus kidney damage from Magnolia off Cinalia acute hepatitis from Shou we Chih. This toll of damage would seem to be vindication for the Canadian systems spirited policing. However there Are Many More nutritional supplements like dhea that have been used Over the years and proven to be Safe. Poised at the Brink of a new millennium my baby Boom generation has an Ever increasing interest in herbal alternatives a not just in a quest for the Fountain of youth but often As a Way to Deal with chronic conditions that cannot be addressed by conventional Medicine. Health minister Allan rocks Call of a week ago for a Public review into How health food supplements should be regulated is a Good first step. It is about time health Canada advanced into the new age and acknowledged canadians appetite for alternative remedies. Those of us with failing joints or immune systems want to know that the potion we Purchase is relatively Safe. But we done to need a government guarantee that the elixir in a bottle is indeed the elusive Fountain of youth. Ingeborg Boyens is a producer at cd cd a country Canada. Her column appears sundays ;