Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 31, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free May 2000 editorials Freedom of Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Walkerton warning the Walkerton tragedy offers lessons not just for the Public officials of that town and for the Ontario provincial there is a message in it for All canadians administrators and citizens in six people have died and As Many As a thousand have fallen ill after becoming infected with a virulent Strain of Coli which polluted the towns drinking Ontario Premier Mike Harris blamed the out break on human error and a breakdown in proce and not on his governments staff and budget cutbacks to the environment local health officials blame the water Utility for not warning residents earlier about the Contarina the Ontario govern ment has announced new rules to protect the provinces drinking water municipalities must now use accredited laboratories to test their the government also says it will clarify the Obliga Tion of labs to report problems they these measures miss the Point the authorities knew of the problem but no one told the Public and no one fixed it in outbreaks of Coli ought to be the bacteria can be killed by should it turn up in a municipal water or prevented through the proper handling of livestock manure and Harris has promised a legislative review of the but an inquiry May be needed to deter mine when Utility and town officials Learned of the contamination and Why the Public was not it is also necessary to learn the source of the deadly Coli How it happened to enter the water sup ply and Why the Public Utility was incapable of Dis infecting and As questions Are Manitoban Public health and utilities and agricultural experts should pay careful Atten in a torrential downpour is thought to have washed contaminated cow waste into the Community water Given Manitoba burgeoning hog warning Bells ought to be ringing to ensure that potential caused by the Runoff of manure into the water do not occur this the City of Winnipeg said it would not Issue Public notices on the presence of the Para Sites and Guardia in drinking water after Spring for fear of alarming residents who might confuse those parasites which might harm people with severe immune system illnesses with the Walkerton Manitoba authorities should be drawing a different lesson from the Walkerton which was caused by inattentive not by Public youth crime Justice minister Gord Mackintosh was shocked by a statistics Canada study showing that juvenile crime in Manitoba is More than double the National the statistics and they Are intriguing have inspired Mackintosh to Call for a review of Manitoba youth court confronted with figures he called Mackintosh promises to do things we he significant re jigging of the Justice system to Deal with the nip government is moving full steam ahead to Deal with the statistics seemed Manitoba courts in the year dealt with 871 cases for every the highest rate in the the statistics be interpreted differ alarmists will see them As an indication that Manitoba May have the most Active juvenile Crimi nals or it May have the country most efficient a third Reading of the figures might argue that Manitoba sends kids to court for offences which in for might be handled the statistics do not show which of these possible explanations is his eagerness to address the problem is but before he gets on his High horse and rides off in All he should be sure he has identified the big sister when it became known this month that the Feder Al governments human resources development department had been so assiduous in collecting information about canadians in recent years that the privacy of both the Quick and the dead was being the nation was outraged big brother had finally been incarnated in rdc minister Jane Stewart initially defended her departments snooping As both necessary and this big sister reversed admitted that the vast collection of information was dangerous and promised that it would be discontinued the data already on file would be is Stewart has been harshly first for defending the and now for abandoning she should be complimented for the her bureaucrats in the department clearly wanted to continue the practice canadians made Clear to the minister they would not tolerate in the she listened to it was a Small Victory for Montreal Renaissance am when i was a Montreal was simply a name that came before the word my fathers As a Young adult at the time of expo and then later during the Montreal Mon Treal was my kind of the Pride of a International City that put us on the map with great let the Ameri cans keep new we had i did not get to until after those great events had the quiet revolution was not so quiet any More Fly bombs made sure of the Only time the quiet revolution seemed in was when you spoke English in the wrong in which Case it was sometimes coldly i remember being thrilled at the sight of the my lingering images Are of seeing Buck Minster fullers geodesic dome ablaze at and of seeing a woman in a fur coat walking an afghan hound what i saw confirmed in my mind that Montre Al was All i wanted Montreal to but even As i finally embraced the the bombs and cold silences indicated that it was not my or our Montreal at it i had not been Back in 25 from the out i As did the rest of the rest of Canada became defined As the rest of Canada the Rise of i watched with great trepidation the first referendum Campaign and Felt Short elation when it failed and then endured the unending constitutional which i nevertheless concede has made canadians better informed More self conscious better we otherwise would i watched the Rise of Lucien was even somewhat swayed by his logic and but could never like it is difficult to warm to someone who seems hateful of after 25 years of watching from the out i finally returned to Montreal recently and spent several Days interviewing various officials about what has happened since Montreal ceased to be my Ideal what i or what i think i is that separatism has not All been bad for and by from the the language Laws Are an affront to individual just As they were when we imposed and then fought to keep in but they make sense in especially today when the Laws have More or less accomplished what they set out to French is now the Public language of spoken 87 per cent of the time in Public there is an irony in the criteria for Mea Suring Public fluency were developed by the pm to show How abused French is in but now they simply show that the language Battle is it is no longer something to get exercised which is one reason Why talk of another referendum is met with a it must have been difficult for English Montre Alers to have French shoved Down their As it was characterized in the rest of but result is a Good one official told me anecdotally that when two anglos meet for the first time in they test one another first in and then continue in French or English depending on what Best suits the that seems wonderfully sophisticated to but More it shows a respect for the majority that was not there and now that the respect is the affront is gone and with it the from the the pure Laine nationalism of some Quebe cers is revolting and but from the inside it rarely reared its the division Between English and French is not a racial but simply a language you Are French if you speak the language and English if you do to join the ranks of French Quebe one must simply learn the from the inside it seems thick headed and insulting to reject learning French simply because it is your right to be from the talk of even language Laws makes greater Harmony has resulted from the backsliding now would Only weaken the use of reopen old wounds and Force everyone to go through the same process All Over if you dont speak As i do no one seems to separatism set Montreal Back on its economic the City lost its a colleague put it As the Boss that title went to which is not Likely to lose but because Montre Al slipped to second place did not mean that it ceased being a great the setback spared Montreal from some of the indignities that have afflicted other it lacked the Money and growth to fuel and so now that the City is coming Back two office towers Are under Ste Catherine Street is alive House prices Are Bil Lions Are being poured into infrastructure renew unemployment is in the eight per cent and billions in subsidies Are being thrown at High tech industries the City Centre is intact and thriving in All its architectural Montreal still has difficulty attracting top executives fearful of language but that has made it More reliant on its own devices and Tal it does not suffer a brain Drain for the same reason that it is not creating one talented Montre Alers simply have few options from which to choose if they wish to live in asked How that expressed i was told that Cirque de Soleil is probably the Best example of new Quebec something that is hugely successful because it combines both culture and Commerce in a distinct All Quebe cers for that continue to pay heavy and because of the Lan Guage they Are not much swayed by the Siren song of tax cuts heard in the rest of the coun in they have More comprehensive social programs so when i went to one of the poorest parts of i was told i did not need to fear for my safety and when i got i found no signs of at least not in terms that i am familiar the poor Are much better housed in Montreal than in i fell in love with Montreal All Over it is not the Montreal of it is go see for Gerald flood is a free press editorial his column appears on to throttle diesel pollution the following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune it has been coming Down the Pike for and the owners of diesel powered trucks and buses will have to reduce the noxious gases their vehicles just like manufacturers and other producers of air poll this breath of fresh air comes Courtesy of the environmental Protection which earlier this month proposed requiring a 90 per cent reduction in diesel truck and bus emissions within a and a 97 per cent reduction in Fulfur Content for diesel fuel Over the next 10 that fuel change will also allow diesel engine manufacturers to use pollution reduction similar to a cars catalytic to Cut the proposed new regulations Are to be followed by Public hearings and a Public comment period before final regulations Are the regulations have inspired gnash ing of Teeth among some advocacy organizations for truckers and Oil refiners say the rules could require billion to billion in new equipment and processes Over Thephasdin and May increase diesel prices by 10 cents a truckers also complain of higher costs for fuel and equipment they say May put some of them out of business and increase charges for their such results Are not but the trucking Industry has had fair warning that this Day was coming and the goals in the regulations Are not truck maker Avistar and Oil refiner a Amoco say they Are on the Way toward meeting the Epa in the relatively modest efforts such As having trucks submit to annual emissions testing or enforcing Laws that ban vehicles that puff out oily Clouds of soot have been stopped cold As the Indus try used political might to avoid dealing with its one legitimate Gripe is that construction equipment is still excluded from the with Lowers fur fuel and cleaner burning engines those vehicles should also be working cleaner for 25 years automobiles have been subject to engine emission for All that americans have had the experience of watching the 18wheelers dust the atmosphere with with air pollution Levels going up because of increased driving and the Rise of the further action must be its time for diesel powered vehicles and the refiners of diesel fuel to toe the Winnipeg Winnipeg 6 presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 my now 2qoo Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven week at 1355 Mountain Maji Taba r2x pm 6977000 a motor Naimi fim a Wuhu 9mauwytotoitop9fr Nicholas Hirst Patrick Flynn Deputy wit or ;