Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 18, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winnipeg free May 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights then they were eight Justice minister Gord Mackintosh announced the hiring of additional probation officers and police officers to combat the growth of aboriginal this Effort comes not a moment too soon the governments attempt to put gangs out of business through a mass trial of accused gang members did not do the Crown prosecutors began a year and a half ago trying to prove that 35 aboriginals whom the police had arrested in raids were members of the Manitoba warriors gang under three Earold anti gang provisions of the criminal should be severely penalized for their alleged drug Deal ing Twenty of the 35 accused have pleaded guilty to lesser crimes and Are no longer part of the mass prose judge Ruth Krindle has concluded that she could not hold a fair trial of the 15 remaining accused and directed their separation into groups no larger than prosecutors must now size up what Chance they still have of proving that some Small group of the remaining accused will be convicted As gang while the mass prosecution gangs continued to according to people in Winnipeg and another 500 in other parts of Manitoba belong to the gangs he wants to stamp last police estimated that the Winnipeg gangs had the mass prosecution May have had an effect on some of the accused but it has not stopped growth of Mackintosh has believed for in opposition and in that the Crown prosecutions office was overworked and he has now decided to hire eight additional prosecutors to combat if he is right that a shortage of lawyers on government payroll is the cause of gang then he after a year or be Able to show the Public that gangs Are in in the the minister and his colleagues should prepare a backup plan just in native gangs May be growing because a lot of native youngsters get poor education and find few jobs open to while those conditions an increase in the number of government lawyers dedicated to prosecuting aboriginal lawbreakers May make Little the government has to show disaffected native youngsters that gang member ship Doest work and that education and work shrinking the Csc the abcs budget from the Federal government has been Cut from a High of More than billion to less than million but it has continued to be managed As if it had the resources of the As a its programs have its audience has Public support is not what it was and morale within the organization has shrunk to a Point were Many staff members Are no longer in response to All of this the new Robert intends to Cut local and Region Al newscasts such As the 24hpurs news program in Winnipeg and replace them with a centrally con trolled such a broadcast might include Cros Canada coverage which could either be a refreshing look at what is happening across the country or it could be a crushing Given the current Standard of most Csc news the second is More does not mean that the members of the Liberal party who Are now complaining about losing local newscasts should get their the Csc is not going to get More Money from the government whatever backbench ers it has to learn to live within its Means and return to the excellence of that will be done by spending More on the Csc needs to concentrate on a few Excel Lent programs and fill the Gap with if that Means cutting local so be Bigboy pox it was entirely predictable that a Developer would propose that a Bigboy retail Centre be constructed outside the City limits in East just As predictable was that elected officials would misunderstand its Bigboy retailing in Winnipeg has followed the pattern set in the United where Power Cen tres were the big boxes Are built in the suburbs to the disadvantage of downtown and smaller when the Urban Market is they move into the build at some Point Central to a number of and suck the commercial life out of Small town main Winnipeg City councillors were aware of these certainly mayor Glen Murray when they voted to allow Bigboy retailing in Winnipeg despite evidence that the trend was moving away from big boxes in the it was determined to learn by making the same mistakes As americans had made rather than simply learning from the american now that a big Box is proposed for East the Reeve there and City councillors Here see Only the positive and negative impacts it will have on their tax they seem to not see what the development will do to nearby retailers in Winnipeg and what Rural and Urban councillors do not the nip Urban affairs minister a close look at the benefits of Bigboy development outside Winnipeg is on a neighbourhood walk one Day three years who likes to go for walks As a change from his Job As a bus was moving briskly along Fleet Avenue when he bumped into a Good natured Black led on a Leash by her mistress i am regards bread As the greatest delicacy and would sooner try a slice of whole wheat than a t Bone with remnants of she was excited when she sniffed the bag Gregg Gregg withdrew a Bun and gave it to and they became friends Ever a deep Bond was forged at that since every second Gregg on a hides four pieces of bread in the neigh perhaps by a in the grass or by a so it becomes a treasure Hunt every time Cindy is out on her daily walks with her she finds every her keen sense of smell leading her to the Cache by the scent of Greggs i hear interesting stories walking through the even serious walkers Are ready to Converse if you give them an open stopping and saying it works both strangers pause to offer a greeting As we pass on a you learn a lot of Foremost that most people Are polite and especially in summer time when the weather is the air is redolent with the perfume of the Birds sing and we Are freed from layers of Winter i am walking along and a Man in his sixties whom i dont know is standing in his neat Back Yard of a modest i thought you were he until i read the thursday free press at the in a few minutes i Learned a Good Deal about he had just finished replacing a Slat on his the Type one sees in he is goes golfing twice a week with friends at the Tuxedo Golf that my he Points to a woman just driving off in a Shes going to the he says with affection and admiration she reads and reads and then he asks a strange question do you eat a lot maybe he had heard of people of slender Girth who consume a lot but never put on he told me he has Only one meal a Day May nibble at fruit and vegetables until we said goodbye and i thought As i walked on that i describe our conversation As it was a pleasant he was talk ing to me As if i were a one woman me she eats Only one real meal a Day at but her she con fides loves his food and Beer and consumes six bottles a and Why not she he enjoys when she goes to the pub with him for one ale he describes the event As going to Church for spiritual she tells me he used to have kidney but not any our neighbourhood has a mixture of Young and couples with others who Are and in my snatches of conversation they agree it is a healthy apparently find it a healthy for Ive observed several on my i Check with Bill provincial wildlife he tells me a number of Cottontail reside in berms along Bishop Grandin one comes to his Bird feeder at his Home in i notice too that the Post boxes and As Well the Metal ones used to distribute mail to have been moved from the North Side of Fleet Avenue to the South i am curious and phone the Post i get through to the administration that an interesting the woman on the line i ask if there is a Public relations no there int and she refers me to an before i can ask Why i need an analyst i am speaking to a pleasant woman in in this super any of the three Post office National Call centres will take the next now hear this the Fredericton operator says she will communicate with Winnipeg and i should have an answer in two or three we both agree we should go backwards in time for a common sense and instant comm so i am awaiting a dispatch from Fredericton to answer a question raised by my per Ambula tons in my Val Werier is a Winnipeg his column appears on big Brothers filing Cabinet there is no it from big Broth by we should Call him very Large and Nosy every in my Midsummer at Best when canadians fill out their income tax they provide a great Deal of information about their Finan Cial and personal lives to Revenue its reasonable to expect that this information or any personal details provided to any govern ment for that matter is confidential and not shared and pooled with every other department in the Federal and it that is not the Bruce Canadas privacy says the human resources development Canada possesses a database with As Many As Dif Ferent bits of information on million Cana living and Phillips Calls the revealed through an a de Facto Cit Izen he expressed concern earlier this week that information from this master database might be supplied to private companies and researchers outside government and that individual canadians might inadvertently be this super database contains details about our marital Dis income Immi Gration employment and social assistance and is collected from tax child tax immigration and welfare As Well As Empio foment Job records and the social insurance master it dates Back to like a pack rat hoarding scraps of this database is never if youve Ever filed a Canadian tax return or had some involve ment with a g6yernment consider yourself on the even after successive privacy commissioners have assured canadians that there was no single Federal government file or profile about Phillips wrote in his annual report to Par we were wrong or not right enough for opposition civil libertarians and representatives from the Canadian taxpayers federation have sounded alarm claim ing that a Central citizen profile is immoral and even if it is it has also been compiled and shared without the consent of if it int disconcerting enough that such a Mas Sive database exists about so Many it should bring no Comfort to learn that the information is overseen by Jane stewarts beleaguered and much criticized is who has been very Good at deflect ing and very bad at assuming says her department needs the data to test the Impact of the govern ments Public and that the information is Safe and secure when shared because it has been encrypted so that individuals cannot be identified by encrypted for whom there has been no shortage of stories of late about computer hackers and saboteurs and All manner of Clever but criminal people who might be interested in stealing the private bits of so Many lives for their own whatever it might and what happens under successive under new administrations from a Public relations Point of Faith in the departments ability to manage anything has already been eroded after allegations that millions of dollars in Job Grants were Lisman is stewarts Curt handling of the mat Ter didst although she said she would work with Phillips to address his privacy is Stewart did not seem willing to engage in debate about the citizen Only to say that it want much of an Issue because the information is needed by the protected by coding and perfectly but is Stewart does herself and her government a disservice by dismissing the sensitive subject of we Are concerned about the amount of information that is collected about us by insurance companies and credit card through the internet and even via grocery Cus Tomer if you sub scribe to a buy something online or belong to a membership you know from the amount of junk mail and telemarketing pitched at you what its like to have your own bit of demography sold and even if your life does it seem particularly remarkable to buying and travel health and family details Are important to government depart ments might be tempted to sell such valuable one Ontario provincial ministry already private firms Are required by Law to obtain your express consent before Selling personal information to a third we should expect no less from the same government which passed the information has so does Linda Rosborough is a free press editorial her column appears on Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune 1890 4 vol 128 n0166 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 Rudy email Nicholas editor ;