Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 6, 1998, Winnipeg, Manitoba A Winnipeg free press i Iii i i i i i a sunday. December 6 1 ppr Jil or Al sunday december 6, 1998 my Rel m. Al Al editor Brian Cole / 697-7044 the Public a recent news Story in the free press outlined two scandals involving the provincial government. One it suggested might Hurt it in the next provincial election the other would be less damaging if it were damaging at All. If that were True then Only one of these situations would actually be a scandal. A scandal outrages Public sensibilities it causes widespread indignation and those Are things that Cost politicians votes. Certainly the controversy Over Hospital food in Manitoba the one that it is expected might cause some election problems has evoked both outrage and indignation on a Broad scale. In itself a no one after All expects gourmet food in a Hospital a it seems to reflect a More general concern about health care. The huge majority of people who need medical attention in Manitoba receive it promptly and efficiently but much publicized cuts to the health care budget economies undertaken at hospitals shortages of doctors nurses and Hospital Beds and patients having to wait dangerous lengths of time for sophisticated tests or surgery a All of these things together make us All afraid. We done to fear that we wont get treatment for a cold or a broken toe we fear that in a life threatening situation we might become one of those people lying on a Stretcher in the hallway of the emergency Ward or sitting at Home worrying about dying while we wait for the Hospital to phone. When we hear that the government does no to seem to care much what it feeds people in hospitals that even the chronically ill Are pushing their plates away rather than eat what is offered them a and All of this in the name of saving a few dollars a it feeds the fears about health care that we already have. It creates a scandal. The other so called scandal is a different sort of thing. It involves allegations that in the last election the provincial conservatives secretly funded Independent aboriginal candidates in three Ridings in the Hope of cutting into traditional support for the nip and increasing their own chances of winning the Ridings. We still await the report of a commission of inquiry into the allegations but we have already Learned that one of Premier Gary Filmont a aides who has since resigned was involved and that others May be implicated. The Premier has testified that he himself was scandalized by the news that he found it unimaginable that his assistants might be involved in such an undertaking. This scandal however is not seen As threatening the governments Hopes of re election. This is despite the fact that unlike the health care situation where the most serious charge that could be Laid would be misjudgment or Lack of compassion it clearly involves questions of corruption immorality and dishonesty. Why then would it not affect the govern mentus chances of re election opinion leaders particularly academics but also journalists Tell us that it is because the Ordinary person has become so cynical about politics and politicians that he or she expects nothing better from them. Politician x is a Crook so what else is new opinion leaders particularly academics but also journalists transcend cynicism of course. They Are capable of making the Fine moral distinctions recognizing political perfidy when they see it and of judging it for what it is. We saw a classic example of this in the Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky scandal. Professional Pun dits were almost unanimous that or. Clinton a lies would Hurt the democrats in the november elections in the United states. When they did not it was seen As yet another proof that the Public the Ordinary people no longer cared about Public morality. In fact however it showed the opposite. It revealed a Public sophisticated enough to distinguish Between the presidents personal life and his Public one Between the actions a and the lies a that should concern them and the ones that should not. When they went to vote they made that judgment. In the voting scandal Here in Manitoba the jury is still out. The Public however is perfectly capable of deciding for itself How seriously it will Compromise the Filmon government and of acting on that judgment in the next election. What these things teach us is that it is not the Public that is cynical a although god knows it has reason to be. The True cynics Are the ones who underestimate the Public capacity for discretion. The gurus we consult Are often out of touch with the people they claim to speak for the Public they claim to be Able to read and interpret. There is a tendency to look Down on to underestimate the Ordinary person. As . Chesterton pointed out there is in fact no such thing As an Ordinary person. The a a Public is made up tiny piece by tiny piece of individuals. Politicians a the Best and most successful of them a sometimes remember that. The rest of us should keep it in mind too. If we did perhaps Ordinary people would not keep surprising us years for separatism London Canada Isnit out of the Woods yet but Quebec a provincial election suggested that it is getting close to the Edge. After three decades of continuous Low level crisis periodically surging to acute Levels As Quebec elects another separatist government or holds another referendum on Independence the whole Story is going stale. After the last referendum narrowly failed in 1995, Lucien Bouchard the newly chosen Leader of the parti quebecois was defiantly optimistic. A the objective of the pm remains sovereignty which Quebec has never been so close to achieving a he said. A once the rest of Canada has drained the last Dregs of its incapacity to recognize our reality As a people another referendum opening will occur under winning conditions for the pm has won the provincial election again and Premier Lucien Bouchard is still promising another referendum As soon As he has a winning but he has already backed away from his prediction that Quebec would enter the next millennium As a Sovereign nation and now will not even Promise that the referendum will happen during the next four years. The pm actually got a slightly smaller share of the vote in this election than the Liberal opposition whose anti separatist supporters Are heavily concentrated in the Metropolis of Montreal. But in a referendum every vote counts so the target of 50-per-cent plus one that separatists claim would give them a mandate for Independence continues to recede like a desert Mirage. It May recede forever. Quebec governments almost never win a third term so the pm has probably won Power for the last time before demographic changes make any future winning referendum impossible. Because slowly but inexorably the ethnic character of Quebec a French speaking population is diversifying. It began with the quiet revolution of the 1960s, which overthrew the Catholic Church As Quebec a dominant institution. The fall of the old elites led to rapid democratization a but also As usual in these cases to an upsurge of nationalism. But it is the nationalism of a specific generation a and demographic change is now happening quite fast. For the other consequence of the quiet revolution was one of the steepest Falls in the birth rate that the world has Ever seen. In one generation Quebec Gwynne Dyer once famous for its huge families dropped to an average family size of Only 1.3 children one of the lowest birth rates in the world. So if the French language was not to die out in North America it needed lots of new recruits. Almost overnight Quebec went from a policy that aimed at ethnic purity leaving the immigrants to join the English speaking minority to a policy of forcing almost All immigrants to Send their children to school in French. It was vital to preserve Franco phones share in the Canadian population around 24 per cent of 30 million people but it was also a political Trojan horse. For All these new generation French speakers of uruguayan or iranian or tamil or vietnamese origin though they will continue to defend the position of French in Canada do not share the historical myths and obsessions of the old Stock voters who Are tempted by the separatist project. The damage done to Quebec by 30 years of political uncertainty has been huge and its not Over yet. Montreal used to be the big City in Canada a status that once gained cities almost never lose. After 200 years of Westward expansion new York is still americans biggest City. And at that time just 30 years ago houses in Montreal Cost one third More than in Toronto. Now Toronto has a million More people and houses in Toronto Cost on average three times what they do in Montreal. And while currencies fluctuate for various reasons its striking that 30 years ago the Canadian Dollar was Worth More than the . Dollar. Now its Worth barely two thirds of it the whole country has taken the hit. It has been a Long grim decline for Quebec and to a lesser extent for the rest of the country too. There will be at least four or five More years of it for Lucien Bouchard will keep Quebec on the Edge of a referendum psychologically speaking even if he never dares to Call it. But Canada is probably a lot closer to the end of the ordeal than to the beginning. Gwynne Dyer is a London based Independent journalist. His column appears on sundays. What was said the following editorial appeared in the dec. 4 Montreal Gazette China a communist leadership can be faulted for Many things but inconsistency int one of them. Any time that anyone has attempted to Advance the cause of political pluralism the Effort has been quashed mercilessly by the authorities. And so it was again this week when several leading dissidents were rounded up evidently for having had the temerity to try to form a political party the China democracy party. The group had been careful to play within the rules it even made a Point of saying it respected the communist party a status As the ruling party. Its goals sound rather modest to create a Legal opposition party and to press the government to respect International human rights agreements including the United nations covenant on civil and political rights which Beijing signed in october amid much fanfare. The covenant does not explicitly recognize Multi party democracy As a human right that Odd War Era document was the product of a consensus that included soviet bloc states. But among other things it does recognize rights to Freedom of speech of Assembly and of association and to take part in the conduct of Public affairs. These rights would seem to add up to a right to create opposition but even As it effectively promises its citizens such freedoms to the satisfaction of its trading partners Beijing is making it Clear to the citizens of the Peoples Republic of China that there Are limits to How much Power the people Ami be allowed. While there has been a remarkable openness lately in China when it has come to discussions of political pluralism the authorities seem to be signalling that abstract talk is one thing but Concrete action organizing a political group is quite another. And it will not on monday five key figures associated with the China democracy party were arrested though two were quickly released. The three still being held include Xuy Wenli and Qin Yong min who have been democracy activists since the democracy Wall movement of the 1970s, and Wang Youcai who was a student Leader in the 1989 Tiana men Square movement. Both of those movements were crushed by the authorities. The bravery and commitment of the dissidents Are impressive and there is a growing Clamour both inside and outside China for their release. China a leaders should heed these Calls. The country cannot expect to play a larger Rote on the. World stage while continuing to deny Basic rights that most of the International comm love transcends two solitudes Montreal but soft what Light through yonder window Breaks it is the East and Juliet is the Sun in Montreal English Canadian boyfriends Are sought after by French girls because they Are inclined to bake banana bread. I know this because my Girlfriend is French Canadian and she has been waiting for this to happen for a few years now. Perhaps this belief persists because Many English boys Here Are attending Mcgill University and they Are unduly sensitive after Reading so Many books. One of the books they inevitably read is called Romeo and Juliet which is the Story of two lovers who lived before the Days of email and ended up killing themselves because they did no to get messages in time. It did no to help that the Star crossed lovers came from feuding families the caplets and montages. Essentially its a fable about bad connections. This is a similar situation to the one my Girlfriend Genevieve and i find ourselves in except without All the killing since we live in the modern age and have email. As election time approached again in Quebec we were forced to define our political terms. Unfortunately although Many labels such As Sovereign list Independent St separatist nationalist federalist and grocer list exist neither of us has any idea what they mean in any language. Of course before we get too involved in understanding politics we be still got a Way to go in understanding each other. For instance her accent is still much too heavy for me to comprehend when she requests that i clean the bathroom. And in an emergency All memory of Basic grammar is lost and replaced by sheer volume. There is however the constant Delight of discovering new words exclamations oaths and terms of endearment in another language which Are always mispronounced and taken the wrong Way. Genevieve insists that hearing me speak in both tongues gives her the impression that she has two boyfriends which leaves me slightly suspicious that i might cheat on myself. All these problems can be traced Back to William the conqueror who in 1066 went to England to get a proper suit and ended up forcing everybody to speak French. Since then an immense amount of the English vocabulary has been made up of badly pro Asp i Byron Rempel bounced French words. French vowels Are round and soft and come from places in the Throat English speakers Reserve for potatoes. This leaves me looking like a choking Pigeon when i order bouillabaisse but allows Genevieve to conjure up romantic moods when she asks if in be cleaned the bathroom yet. Yet recently French speakers have begun to reverse the trend and mispronounce a Large number of English words. Almost All technical jargon comes from English roots these Days which should not be seen As a corruption but simply As a rather tardy returning of borrowed words. It now allows us to romantically say a the English have a word for even if that word is a die weekend a and a a in de Semaine Quot Means exactly the same thing. This difference in language is often seen As a Barrier in Canada so much so that an invisible Berlin Wall seems to exist just East of Ottawa that prevents quebecois from visiting the Prairies. Of course that May be due to the unfortunate stereotype Winnipeg suffers under which involves freezing winds and the difficulty in finding a Good croissant. However quebecois now make up half of the population of Florida which also has Strong winds and whose culinary Triumph remains the doughnut. Unfortunately this kind of misunderstanding also happens in the microcosm of intimate relationships. Initially the difference in language also seemed a Barrier Between Genevieve and me. And then there were the Large questions to confront if Quebec separated did we have to As Well and if so who would bake the banana bread but falling in love with someone who Speaks another language Means you have to create your own language Between you that you have to take the time to reach the other person without prejudice. Because eventually All those stereotypes of French and English get turned upside Down in the surreal world that love creates. And what a in a name anyway a Rose in any other language would smell As Sweet. Byron Rempel is a Montreal writer ;