Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 14, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba As Winnipeg free october Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom Offrane Liberty Affef Effion Etta fit of civil Riff fits breaking the habit new Brunswick pref fief of Ank Mckei Ina last week shone a pitiless Light on Atlantic Canadas heavy Reliance on Federal govern ment canadians should heed the warning he offered to the regions political leaders on the eve of his departure from Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobii and other regional leaders Are now anxiously trying to win Extension of the Federal program of payments to fishermen and fish Plant though the Audi Tor general found the program had failed to ease workers out of the the ruling Liberal party suffered severe electoral losses in Atlantic Canada in the june general elec Tion because of unemployment insurance cuts and other spending cuts that Hurt or threatened people in the the liberals must now decide How to respond to pressure for a new Wel fare program for fishery i can Tell you that fed eral dependency is the opiate of this Mckenna said in his valedictory at the Atlantic vision eco nomic strategy ence in its a narcotic to which we have become it shapes everything we what the Region he is More though Premier Mckenna regularly offered Loans and Grants to companies that would build plants in his exp remier Mckenna warned against the stable taxes would support eco nomic growth better than incentive he the Atlantic ground ish strategy illustrates Mckennas because there Are no longer enough fish in the nearby Waters to support the workers who used to catch and pack Ottawa offered a program of welfare payments to those who would Many have taken the courses in data processing or fashion found no work and returned to Par time jobs in fish prime minister Chretien office has hinted tags will not be extended or replaced after it expires in i bin is agitating for its continuance and fisheries minister David Anderson said Ottawa would do something for Atlantic coast Prince Edward Island Premier Pat Binns says Atlantic Canadas share of the Canadian population shrank to eight per cent in 1996 from 12 per cent in he saw loss of population As a though the regions continuing High taxes and High unemployment suggest the exodus is Likely to if Atlantic Canada is addicted to Federal As Mckenna then Ottawa can keep the Region quiet by supplying the As Tobin if Atlantic canadians one Day decide that addiction is a problem they want to then there will be some Hope of breaking the land mine prize the norwegian committee thar wards the Nobel peace prize this year gave the honour to the inter National committee to ban land mines and to Jody the american woman who was instrumental in launching the huge Progress has been made towards Banning the use of land the deadly leftovers of wars that kill and maim tens of thousands of innocent civilians each in Oslo last More than 80 nations agreed on a treaty Banning the deployment and Sale of land the treaty is to be signed in Ottawa in Canadas foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy was perhaps the most instrumental person in achieving agreement on that he was reported to be a candidate for the Nobel prize Axworthy May feel a slight tinge of regret at having not even been acknowledged by the canadians will certainly feel a Strong sense of injustice that he was the award is still Good on its the fight against land mines is not the Nobel peace prize committee As often uses its info ence to further causes As it does to acknowledge this it appears to have chosen to do when the treaty was agreed in the three main holdouts were the Russia and american president Bill Clinton is under pressure to change Clinton has said the awarding of the peace prize will not change his Posi but the Choice of an american based Organiza Tion and an american activist As winners seems clearly designed to add to the pressure on on the Day the award was russian presi Dent Boris Yeltsin announced that Moscow would sip the Clinton May be that would not Only be the ultimate vindication of the Nobel committees but also of Lloyd Axworthy astonishing accomplishment in bringing the Effort to ban land mines this Winnipeg free press Wynn Lei Fnu my Tribune Tif Rudy publisher Nicholas Hirst Brian Cole editorial Page editor Harry Brown circulation sates and marketing advertising Verne Kalichuk human Perry technology a Jinn finance and Aswini Slaton in Rhu Terf Hill of propped on a Petter while ejected Ponder the to carve from the fail or begin at the Paw Bouchard darkly fiddling with his Rusty nine premiers at the table All agreeing the Beaver require More equally they Haw and hum seems vol be leftover for Many Mere years to no Carrot on apis stick those ads sounded too Good to be just fasten your get checked by the police and get a free it on a draw for a bran new it was Auto acs first lot Tery of its it represented a Carrota Nestick approach to using As things turned aut Opac ran out of carrots depending on where you were there have been no truck tickets available since but i get ahead of like Many other Manitoba motorists i listened All summer to the ads in which in the interests of of offered a Chance to win a Brand new half ton donated by a Winnipeg dealer whose name i cannot All we were told that we should buckle up not Only for our own but in the nope should we be checked by police while we would be entered in the lottery for the new i happen to believe in if not in the governments approach to make their use As i buckle i whisper to bless you Roland remembering the nip attorney general whose legislation required us All to Wear Seatbelt under penalty of a fairly substantial Fine for not doing wearing Seatbelt generally makes there will be those who argue that some people would have been better off in a particular Accident without their and they will be there Are people who argue against air pointing to the accidents in which the deploy ment of bags has caused injury or on both Seatbelt and airbags save a lot More lives and prevent a lot More injuries than they i had Seatbelt installed in my car Long before they came with the vehicle and Long before Penner came along with his Law that threat ened me with a Fine if i did not fasten the Belt snugly across my the first time i heard about the Seatbelt lottery my ears perked since i regularly travel the Highway Between Winnipeg and Falcon and nearly always Wear my i imagined that i might win the As i drove along in my own Vintage i often imagined what it would be like to have a Brand new one Courtesy of i even reasoned that the new truck really Cost any body real since the dealer whose name i cannot remember must been talked into donating the vehicle by those persuasive people Over at you know the pitch get behind our Road Wise pro think of All the free publicity you will get simply by donating one truck out of the hundreds you must i even Felt a twinge of conscience for not remembering the dealers or what Brand he i was sure that should i be if my name was entered and if i won the truck i would have plenty of Opportunity to identify my second apart from and to thank the dealer my Hopes started to fade As i Learned after the new hard push by police on seat belts known As operation Impact was so would be the just my i told not to get the Chance to then my whole world i had just picked lip a Supply of drinking water at West Hawk together with my saturday i climbed in my Buck led up and headed Back to my cottage when i saw a police i told it has to be a Seatbelt i will get a ticket for Auto acs lottery after i was right about getting the Seatbelt the smiling policeman came announced operation and asked for my Drivers he checked the licence and my plate to determine that both were to my great Digap just handed the licence Back to me and said thank you just a i called what about an entry for that free truck we ran out of those cards last he we Only got a couple of they were gone in a just my i i wont even get a Chance at the the policeman was sym a it was pretty slim any like the he i forgot to ask him if he still had any of the other tickets the ones he handed out to Drivers who were not wearing their in sure he i should have known there would be More Sticks than carrots where aut Opac was Fred Cleverley is a Winnipeg his column usually appears on Bouchard lays a minefield 4 torn Salutt vol 125 hip theople in Quebec Are to be tired of the Al whole most canadians outside that province regard it with deep none the like it or the National Unity Industry is geared up and running at full on the political Frank Mckenna has tossed the Torch of National Unity Leader to Premier Roy Romanow of All the other premiers Are preparing to jog along behind except for Glenn Clark of British Columbia who Hast yet left the starting in Alberta and tiny cabals Are plotting to separate their own provinces from their poorer on the academic constitutional scholars Are beginning to plot the shape of a future Canada without on the Legal the supreme court of Canada is preparing to offer its advice on whether que Bec has a Legal right to make a unilateral declaration of Independence and is about to be asked whether people would have to pay taxes in a Sovereign and Only last the supreme court struck Down the portion of Quebec referendum Law which sought to if not spending to spread the word of anyone who was not a member of one of two officially sanctioned groups the yes or the no one might think that with All John Dafoe will create an unholy for an example of the clogs breakfast that lies just consider the reaction to the supreme courts decision that parts of the Quebec referendum Law offended against the constitutional right of canadians to Freedom of speech and Freedom of the court did not Rule that the Quebec government did not have the right to restrict those freedoms to ensure that both sides in the referendum debate had roughly equal in the court was a Good Deal More tolerant of those restrictions than a lot of canadians might have it suggested some relatively minor amendments to the Quebec Law which would permit groups out Side the two main yes and no committees to spend modest amounts of Money to make their the Quebec government could have settled the matter quite easily with some relatively minor amendments to Premier Lucien Bouchard and his ministers went into their full humiliation the supreme court was Praia Power being concentrated on the Canada should Well prepared to take Deci Sive and effective action what Ever the outcome of a future Quebec referendum far what a Tius intellectual activity confirms is thai the Quebec res rend if it to of votes in favour of always stacked against to any aspect of the referendum Law was to tarnish the sacred memory of Rene or even the less sacred memory of Robert the very foundation of Quebec Sci the very Patrimony of the rests on the unassailable belief that All Quebe cers must be divided into two parts those who will vote yes in a sovereignty referendum and those who will vote no dissident voices Are to be not Only does that offend the it flies in the face of common considerations of constitutionality or common May not be enough to dissuade mrs Orchards government from invoking the notwithstanding clause to override the courts the Bouchard government is Likely to display the same con tempt for the Law when the supreme court gives its opinion on the legality of a unilateral la ration of if it it will create a Legal minefield that will explode on the if it Ever when a majority of Quebe cers vote yes in a referendum on sovereignty according to a Quebec government would spend a year negotiating with Ottawa about relations Between a eign Quebec and but Bow could a Canadian ment accept the result of a referendum that was conducted in a Way that violated fundamental human rights indeed How could a government negotiate with a Quebec government that scorned toe Rule of Law we should Pray that we never have to answer those John Valoe is a forme editor his Soluma appears of tues ;