Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 6, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnith Jum 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights protesting too much the meeting of organization of american states foreign ministers Drew a crowd of demonstrators who complained that free Trade is hard on poor it was a Large crowd for but Small com pared to the who tried to shut Down washing ton meetings of the International monetary fund in april and tiny after the who rioted at Seattle in december during meetings of the world Trade these demonstrations were All aimed against intergovernmental organizations that had attracted Little attention until this few people aside from bureaucrats and Trade negotiators had heard of the the if or the Oas until one Day when peo ple were blocking streets and police offi cers were dousing them with Pepper journalists who Gath ered to hear ministers Mouth obscure jargon suddenly found they had a much easier Story to cover with vandals defacing buildings and police clubbing the demonstrations attracted people with a wide Range of some worried about genetically modified others wishing to save some promoting cancellation of debt for third world the clearest continuing theme was opposition to free in free Trade is now supported by the Rul ing who opposed it until they won the who negotiated free Trade with the and then with the Canadian Alliance and the bloc Only the a splinter group in the House of in con Junction with organized opposes free the sustained economic growth Canada has enjoyed under free Trade shows Why most parties support the policy it has been Good for the country and Good for most of the people in the lacking support in the opponents of free Trade make their Case in the lacking local victims of free they claim to speak for the poor of third world countries they con will suffer if free Trade is imposed upon Low paid manufacturing workers in South America seem to think a Small wage is better than none at their defenders in the streets of Washington and would Send them Back to their Barrios to starve so that manufacturing jobs will stay in Canada and the the bureaucrats and ministers who attend inter National meetings Are sometimes offended that demonstrators fail to appreciate their Good and conscientious work and that the news Media publicize the Pepper Spray More than the conference they should ignore the demonstrators and get on with their the demonstrations show the weakness of the Canadian the Canadian Public can see with its own eyes that free Trade brought the nip and the labour movement have no alternative to free Trade and no strategy but to team up with pure food advocates and defenders of the poor in an Effort to turn Back the clock and restore the puppet show the Putin puppet was Back on russian television on a sign that the weekend Summit Between president Bill Clinton and russian president Vladimir Putin had if Only in Small but significant the puppet had been pulled from a satirical pro Gram on the nov network after the Kremlin com but on Putin the puppet was this time attempting to blackmail a Clinton puppet to the plot fails when the Clinton puppet notes the blackmailers dossier of his secret vices contains nothing that the world does not already zing score one for press it was More than a sly part of Clinton Agenda had been to Send a Domestic to encourage russian democratic Reform movement to remain intolerant of state Manipula such As the puppet Clampdown and a police raid on another Independent Clin ton appeared on National radio suggesting such activities should be illegal in a the focus of world attention had not been on the Putin but rather on whether Putin would agree to open the anti ballistic missile treaty to allow the to build an anti ballistic system As a defence against rogue nuclear pow Russia publicly fears this will spark a new arms race and destabilize foreign Pri and France and fear such a system could free America from the threat of nuclear retaliation and encourage american Advent Putin did not but he usefully agreeing rogue states pose a threat and that some Means other than Abms should be found to Neutral ize he and Clinton also agreed to further reductions in plutonium stockpiles and to jointly operate an Early warning system in a All of this seems on the International the abm Issue is not resolved but it is not unresolvable on the Domestic Putin showed that Clinton cannot expect to play puppet master in Clinton showed that Putin cannot expect to play puppet master in where roots grew Halifax Ruth Goldbloom is one of the keep ers of stories in our nation of Goldbloom is the past chair of the pier 21 the organization that turned a rat infest de old warehouse into Canadas newest National historic in the this diminutive grand now captured the voices and memories of a pier 21 is the last existing immigration shed in it sits on the Waters Edge in this pretty with surroundings As perfect As any of the other postcard vistas in Nova the warehouse is a cavernous place that became in a Fine example of Canadian self As Canadas Ellis it might seem an unlikely tourist Destina Tion but in the Best definition of who we Are As 9 the immigration shed opened in 1928 and became Canadas front door for War brides and returning in More than million people were processed Many of them fleeing lives of mis its estimated that one in five canadians has a personal connection to pier for this is where our Canadian roots the Structure closed in it was a disaster of a unsafe and in Goldbloom became president of the pier 21 society and a Marathon fundraising Campaign nine million half of that government was required to transform the warehouse into a Superb when pier 21 reopened in it was an interactive Miracle that recreates the journeys and the Hopes of the people who landed if you want to understand the human Cost of War or the Heartbreak that comes when Refuge must be sought in a foreign this where you even before the doors people began Goldbloom recalls a dutch Man who arrived with several elderly Church the stairs were rickety then and the passage Dif they persevered and gathered in the empty said the is where i first saw Cana the group asked permission to say an ecumenical prayer and offered a dutch Folk says they Rose and Sang 0 Canada together in As a song of Praise and she remembers an elderly italian woman who arrived with her two looking for information on the ship that carried her to the Bell Canada ship database allows visitors to Call up their ships and see everything from immigration records to ship facts and she found her ship and she said it made it All real for her even those canadians who define their nationality by the Content of a Beer and will find it impossible to leave pier 21 with dry Large cutouts of immigrant War brides and evacuee children line one equipped with but tons when have the immigrants retelling their a series of wooden benches sits in the Middle of the facing the Immi Gration officers when a visitor sits a woman laughs and a Man Speaks in a child cries and a comforting voice shushed her in a Babel fills the it Speaks of sorrow and Goldbloom has received the order of Canada for a lifetime of Volunteer her work today has shifted but not she is dedicated to making All of us understand the sacrifice and the courage required to come to Canada and claim it As a new if there were a Kiosk outside pier 21 Selling Canadian flags it would be continually sold Lindor Reynolds is a free press her column appears on Chretien sniffs the wind Jean Chretien plans for his own future and that of his party assuming there Are any remain securely locked away in the prime minis ters whatever they they Are Likely to be increasingly influenced by what is going on in the new Canadian Alliance for Many the strategies and policies of the Federal Liberal party have been profoundly influenced by what the polls reveal about the cur rent state of Public All of Are driven by the polls but none with quite the sin Gle minded Faith that the liberals what the polls have been telling the Chretien govern ment is that it is in solid with the with a degree of Public support that is unshaken by charges of waste and inefficiency or of prime ministerial whatever the failings of Chretien adm Nistra it the available alternatives were too dim to that left the prime minister with pretty much of a free some hints about the prime ministers strategy began to filter out last week at the International conference on progressive governance for the new the prime minister was ready to face his new opposition party he would pick up the Alliance Challenge and offer Canadian voters a Choice Between his version of enlightened capitalism globalism with a human face and the alliances mean spirited righting Agen he would seize the Opportunity to Call an election next much earlier in his mandate than the Early election could be followed by vague promises of Early buying the spirits of Paul Martin and others who Hope to sue John Dafoe need and then came the in the space of a couple of support for the liberals was seen to be slipping to below 50 per support for the Alliance bounced up to 19 per cent and Joe Clarks lame Duck tories appeared to be heading off the in themselves those results Are hardly Earth with 49 per cent of the popular the liberals would still win a comfortable major Ity of seats in the House of with 19 per the Alliance would be fighting it out with the bloc quebecois for the role of official what the polls do is that Noth ing can be taken for granted any Public opinion is in a state of flux and More shifts can be expected As the Alliance moves towards the Choice of its new the Alliance is still in no position to inspire fear in the breasts of liberals but it is already on the Way to achieving its first interim objective the destruction of the progressive conservative party of whether the Alliance will continue to forge ahead will depend very much on the Man who is chosen the prospects Here Are not entirely Preston Manning is regarded As old hat and too much of a hayseed to Appeal to sophisticated Vot ers in he has been the invisible Man in this Campaign but he entered the race with a sub Stantial Lead in committed members which May be enough to carry him Tom Long is turning out to be a and an Ontario lightweight at Stockwell Day is in Many ways the most interesting of the Candi dates but people worry about some of his friends and whoever gets the we can bet that Jean Chretien will be following him closely and consulting the oracles before he decides on his next John Dafoe is a former editorial Page editor of the free his column appears on North Korea peeks Over the Wall the following editorial appeared in the los Angeles times the secrecy was but the Occa Sion was for three Days last week North Korea reclusive Leader Kim Jong ii visited his first for eign trip in 17 years and a further sign that North Korea is interested in ending its International Isola the visit want announced until it was and care was taken to keep Kim put of pub Kim Jong ii lie but afterwards the chinese briefed South Korea ambassador to Beijing about kims talks with president Jiang including the Confidence that previously known to have a fondness for the now drinks Only a Little Kim the Playboy is now presented As having evolved into Kim the mature and responsible whether there Are indeed a new Kim and a changing North Korea should become clearer later this when Kim is scheduled to Host South Korea president Kim Dae Jung in leaders of the two countries have never the outward signs indicate the talks will be heavy on atmospherics and Light on results no Agenda could be agreed so the issues Seoul has been keenly interested in arranging meetings Between families separated by the Kore an War so years ago and starting postal service across the demilitarized zone Are unlikely to be Kim Dae Jung instead seems Content just to break the ice in what has been a perpetually Frozen that Doest mean there will be Only Pyongyang excels at the poli tics of it has extracted billions in food and Energy Aid from the United states by implicitly threatening to build nuclear weapons and Long Range mis it certainly Hopes to wring More Aid put of South Seoul int unwell while its first concern is that North Korea could reopen the korean its second is that the impoverished and famine stricken country might suddenly leaving South Korea with the staggering Burden of Suc coring an additional 22 million Seoul instead Hopes that the North can be eased toward what it Calls a soft by encouraging its economic liberalization and in his Beijing visit Kim Jong ii was shown some of the impressive economic gains made by China since its shift toward a Market the message want Pyongyang May finally be waking up to the fact that the world has passed it if it wants to play catch its going to have to put aside its Ster Ile ideology and adopt some unprecedented and wrenching Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 128 n0174 f 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a Mimir of i Manitoba Council Rudy email rudyr9clekop@freepress.mb.ca Nicholas Patrick Deputy editor ;