Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 15, 1998, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free May Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights after the spat Justice minister Vic Toews and chief provincial court judge Judith Webster have found a polite Way of resolving differences concerning who said what to whom about the selection of two Provin Cial court they have resolved the underlying problems with the judicial selection if the controversy Only under scores the need for changes in the Way the Provin Cial court judges Are last weeks tempest erupted when members of the judicial nominating committee accused the minister of tampering with the selection process by insisting that a list of judicial nominees be expanded to include at least one Bilin Gual Loews denied the say ing he merely raised the matter with judge web who agreed to see if the list could be by Toews and judge web Ster apparently patched up their last weeks political scandal had become this weeks failure to Manitoban will Likely never know what really took place Between Toews and the chief what they do is that their Conversa Tion led to an attempt to circumvent the letter of the selection process perhaps not a hanging by any unnecessary sloppiness that neither has apologized in any the ministers Job now is to restore Confidence in the he could Start by acknowledging they should have known better than to attempt to sidestep the he could then appoint two judges from the list of seven provided by the commit tee and ask the committee to conduct another search for the bilingual judge that the minister says he Over the longer Toews should look at ways to work out the kinks in the judicial selection the system was designed to ensure judicial appointments were made on not political connections and that should remain the guiding Prin Ciple in any review of the current but the system must also take into account the needs of what should a Justice minister do if there is a need for a judge who is a woman or aboriginal and the nominating committee pro Vides him with candidates who Are male and White under current Law he cant do anything lest he be accused of tampering with the this unacceptable state of affairs is easily the government for require through legislation that the nominating com Mittee take into account the needs and diversity of the province when drawing up lists of in it could require that nominees for the Bench appear before a committee of the legislature to answer questions concerning their qualifications and their political and Legal these changes wont solve All the but they will make the system better than it is today and it will help the min ister avoid similar judicial contretemps in the hard line on India India this week raised the Prospect of nuclear War to a level not seen since the height of the cold War by setting of a series of three underground test explosions that prove its nuclear weapons As the worldwide outrage and dismay Over this dangerous development was still the new hindu fundamentalist government of prime minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee thumbed its nose at the International Community by conducting another two nuclear it went further than that by insisting it cared nothing for world that it did not fear sanctions and that All that mattered was that India had increased its stature by becoming a nuclear Power to be this is a Challenge that cannot go unanswered by the United nations and the g8 industrialized nations if there is to be any Hope at All of retaining curbs on nuclear proliferation and the International ban on nuclear weapons the United states and Japan reacted quickly by reducing Aid and announcing that sanctions would be imposed against other nations Are following although the european Union As fussing and fudging about what should be a hard a harsh and unified response is the whose Aid and Trade with India Are vital to that nations economic meet this weekend in the problem of India has forced itself onto their the required response to India malevolent recklessness from the g8 this weekend and in Security Council when it meets on the Issue is Clear in its logic and Neces India must and pay dearly for its boastful and dangerous decision to go nuclear or there will be scant reason for other nations Pakistan chief among them not to follow its that is the argument prime minister Chretien must make to the and the example Canada must set for just As the entire Wiestow w3rud via5 ready to sit to Miatch the last Seinfeld Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Redekop publisher 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 1998 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 126 no 160 Quick chan6e the secrets to be passed on Back in the old everyone had to walk three Miles to i have never found out Why no one in those Days was smart enough to build a school closer to where the people but the net result was that everyone of my parents generation had to suffer for the privilege of attending they were not spoiled and cos seed like these Young people today who Are carried every Day on the school bus or driven by their parents until they Are old enough to drive their own cars to in the much older of there were few houses and hardly any my parents heard from their parents about the terrible privations they suffered in Frontier Days and in the Early years of this my grandparents generation resolved not to let their children suffer those privations and not to let them suffer another Cata Strophe like the first world their Hopes were not fulfilled the great depression and the second world War blighted their childrens the children of depression and in resolved that their later known As the would enjoy better their dream came my Terence Moore As a has never fled from drought stricken farms nor Ridden freight trains up and Down the country looking for Korea was Canadas biggest War since we rely on our parents and their contemporaries to Tell us what Depres Sion what War How they How they shape Toronto writer Robert interviewed hundreds of his contemporaries and concluded that they know something pre Cious that children of the Post War generation do not he wrote fou had to be there Mcclelland Stewart to describe what the old know and the Young do Why Are we so careful even with Money Why did we March so willingly into War Why did we lavish so much on our Boomers you had to be he it is not enough to you must also pass on what you have the Peoples of Central and Eastern Europe Learned in the time of the hapsburg Emper ors and the czars How to survive they passed it on their who were Able to survive the nazi and communist oppressors who picked up where the hapsburgs and the czars left in no corresponding oppressor is stopping us from passing the National Folk memo by on to the next the oldsters can talk All they want about walking three Miles to school and Robert Collins can write All his books about How things used to be in the Young soon tire of hearing How everything used to be better when everything was on a recent vacation visit in i heard the violinist Joseph Suk Lead a piano quartet playing the music of his the composer Joseph who was the Stu Dent and the Soninlaw of Antonin the playing was intense and a performance like nothing i had Ever heard in England or where the czech National music is generally performed with detachment and the Young members of the quartet were joining with the grandson of Antonin Dvorak Soninlaw to give musical life to the czech if the nazis or the czars come Back some that nation will still be there and those Young musicians will be Able to pass it on to their heirs As Joseph Suk passed it to in the Clever folks have decided that we have to get the frills out of education and use school time to make students into efficient aggressive entrepreneurs and insatiable Consumers so that Canada can compete better with the Japan Ese and the since those folks Are smarter than the rest of they must be but Robert Collins has a we have to have a Way for the older generation to pass on to the next generation the things that must not be the czechs do it with but music is not in Winnipeg what it is in we have decided not to do it with if we Are parents Are still telling their children bedtime stories and those stories contain the understanding that makes Canada what it the Public secrets we dare not i am not sure i can say what those secrets but having heard Joseph i believe i should find Terence Moore is a free press editorial his column appears on Cloud hangs Over the courts to that hearsay for the Goose is not hearsay v for the the governments critics cant use Seconder third hand Testi but the government the presidents of the Manitoba Law society and the Manitoba bar association have alleged Justice minister Vic Toews interfered in the selection of new provincial the govern ments defence is neither was present when the alleged inter Ference Rumour and Kinnuen was How Premier Gary Fil Mon categorized Toews insisted neither individual was party to his conversation with provincial chief judge Judith judge along with the mass Colleen Suche and the Mas Guy Are the chair woman and statutory members respectively of the committee charged with getting applicants for provincial in that Toews was alleged to have refused to choose from the seven nominees provided by the he wanted the list expanded and demanded a bilingual this pointed to Only one individual known to have close political ties to the most people automatically assume is Suche and Jou Bert be speaking except on the basis of information Given them directly by the chief but the Premier and Toews had a Legal no court accepts Given the governments Dis Missal of How could it then use it to make its own defence yet Toews made a ministerial statement in which he purported to speak for himself and for the chief judge even though the chief judge was the sole direct witness in the charges Gamst he regretted his Lack of Clar Ity and took responsibility for any misunderstanding i might have caused have shared with her these comments to ensure that there is no further misunderstanding or disagree i am advised that the chief judge has reviewed the Tran script from question period on May and shares my recollection of the substance of the matters discussed Between us May Toews said his statement had been negotiated indirectly with the chief judge through two which Means Toews account of the chief judges views is not just second but third or the Justice minister defended his decision to speak for judge Webster by claiming judges do not speak out on Public Justice Jeffrey the associate chief jus Tice of the court of Queens wrote a letter dated to former Justice minis Ter Rosemary Vodrey to inform her he had been taken out of con text in a Media it is not unusual for a particularly a judge with administrative to speak out on issues which affect the Justice Oliphant Justice minister Vic Toews says his word is when the apparent contradiction was pointed Toews noted a free press Story about the controversy quoted an Anonymous so obviously there must be a difference of opinion As to the propriety of their con asked if his ministerial state ment want also Toews indicated his word was i was a member of that con i took place in that i had a recollection of that conversation and i under stand the chief judge has the same if judge Webster didst wish to speak she and the jus Tice minister could have signed a joint statement to be tabled in the using Legal procedure As a a plea bargain can Only be accepted if both the Crown and defence come before the in their Effort to keep intact Hilmons boast he Hast had a whiff of not one res the tories Are making things worse for themselves and for Toews and any minister in ministers often resign voluntarily to defend and Clear their Jean Charest ministerial reputations Are enhanced if they Are vindicated by an open Toews has Testi fied on behalf of a potential wit Ness against the Public knows that although judges Are Independent from they still rely on it for their working the Cloud Over the Over the minister and Over the Judi Cial process Frances Russell comments on politics for the free her column appears wednesdays and ;