Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 18, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free september 2000 editorials 2 j Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights his Best yet to come Lloyd Axworthy made it official yester after 2 years in 21 of them in most of them in he has ten dered his resignation and will step Down when next the Liberal Cabinet is shuffled or if an election is held before the coming at the end of an inter National conference on children affected by was appropriate in Many Axworthy leaves on a High having focused at least some world attention on the monstrous practice of Mili tary forces using Chil Dren to wage to mutilate and be mutilate to kill and be the which attracted external affairs ministers from 50 nations and delegates from 80 More to win concluded yester Day with news that 16 child soldiers were being released in it was a Small Victory Given the goal of releasing of held there by ugandan rebels and somali but it nevertheless was a Victory consistent with Axworthy soft Power Agenda of using Canadas limited clout to make Small improvements that can Lead to larger sixteen is not but Canada was but one nation when Axworthy began the Effort that led to an International treaty to ban the use of was All the organization and spending to conduct the conference worthwhile As with so Many of Axworthy diplomatic Only time will certainly it was More worthwhile than doing and certainly making tens of thousands in and More across Canada and around the More aware of the plight of children who have died by the millions in conflicts Over the past at least starts the Ball and for that people everywhere should be the people who should be most grateful for Axworthy Long and successful Public clearly Are Manitoban who have enjoyed Over the decades the fruits of Axworthy some times dream seeming ambitions coupled with his ability to play hardball in ensuring Manitoba got its share and More of Liberal from the Core area agreement to the recent million aboriginal Axworthy has delivered again and again and unfortunately for there is no obvious successor of Axworthy and for that Manitoban should be he now is set to begin a new career As head of a West coast no doubt he will continue to do what he always has done focus an impressive intellect on issues and produce creative and stimulating this he will be Able to do so without having to Compromise for reasons of political expediency As in in his Best years could be the years to reasons the who attended the War child Benefit concert at the Forks on saturday Likely were not aware of but their presence in record numbers at the heart of the City demonstrated As never before the fundamental Way in which Winnipeg has changed Over the past 20 and showed Promise that the transformation will for most of its Winnipeg downtown was All things to All people the entertain ment and retail Centre of with every thing concentrated in one it was easy for the downtown to be both vibrant and but As the City grew and As service delivery patterns As retail centres moved to the suburbs along with the downtown and it seemed the suffering would be Ter Minal As efforts such As the North Portage develop ment failed to restore the old the opening of the Forks a decade ago was not obviously the beginning of the end of the but on saturday it certainly looked like the simple fact of the matter is that without the there would be no realistic venue to stage a concert for the traditional the Arena and Are now trapped inside the real retail Centre of the new Winnipeg the big Box District that has sprung up around Polo had the concert been attempted at the there would have been but it worked downtown precisely because retail has moved on a downtown can easily accommodate Over the past starting with the pan am games festivities hundreds of thousands have made their Way downtown to attend outdoor concerts big and to take in cultural to attend baseball games and to simply hang out at the during workweek the cites service and financial sectors bring More than sufficient num Bers of Consumers into the downtown to support what retail the Challenge has been to bring them Back at night and on the saturdays concert again showed that the downtown is the Olace for fun and a new Arena Down town win Cement that fact while easing pressure at the new retail Centre at Polo on saturday we saw 80 000 reasons Why every Effort shoud now be made to ensure the speedy construction of a new a so that there will be reason for Large numbers to head to he heart of the City in the evening and it certainly appears that summer and weeks Are starting to take care of questioning menopause drugs Penni Mitchell the belief that menopause is a disease caused by a hormone deficiency is an affliction that continues to plague Western con Sider that As recently As the menopause consensus committee of the society of obstetricians and gynaecologists of Canada tried to pass a recommendation after three meet Ings partly sponsored by hormone manufacturers that All menopausal women should go on Hor Mone replacement ther apy for at least 10 it is undisputed that women Levels of progesterone and oestrogen do naturally decline in mid there a glaring Lack of proof that these reduced hormone Levels cause conditions like osteoporosis or heart nor is there Clear evidence that adding in the form of hormone replacement therapy hot reduces women chances of these even though Many physicians Tell their patients leading women health researcher Susan author of the hormone concludes heart disease is heart its More common in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women but that because postmenopausal women Are older than pre menopausal How did the belief that hot reduces heart risk come about several years it was widely reported that nurses taking hot reported so per cent fewer heart later it was it pointed out that those who took hot were healthier to begin less Likely to smoke and More Likely to visit their a 60 per cent reduced incidence of heart disease among women taking Vitamin e supplements was but this link was on the other oestrogen can raise blood pressure and increase the level of triglycerides in the blood it May also reduce bad Choles the Only study done to find out whether oestrogen reduced heart attacks was halted after 18 months because of the High number of heart attacks reported in the oestrogen a different recent study published in the journal of the american medical association found that there was no difference in the number of heart attacks and related deaths among women who took hot compared to those who so Why do we keep hearing that hot pre vents heart disease hot is a massive Indus Wyet ayerst Sells billion Worth of pre Marin a making it the number one prescribed medication in North last Pfizer entered the Market with a new combined hot despite efforts to medic Alize the vast majority women do not find their experience of menopause severely disrupts their according to a new Angus Reid Survey of mid life about 24 per cent of Canadian women aged 45 to 64 take the Angus Reid Survey also found that the vast majority of women who dont take hot do not plan to take it in the in other the Market for hot could dry up unless new uses for hot Are although All women naturally experience Bone density loss at Only a Frac Tion will later have hot can halt the loss of Bone but that not the same As preventing research out of the British Columbia office of health technology assessment suggests that variables such As extreme High intake of poor Overall or Lon term use of thyroid medication Are stronger re building Bone on the other can be done by simple weight bearing exercise like walking in order for the Boneless reductions from taking hot to women May have to take hot for the rest of their since Bone mass drops rapidly if women suddenly Stop taking this is a problem because Estro Gen therapy increases women risk of endometrial there is also a growing body of evidence linking Lon term hot use to breast researchers at the National cancer Institute in the reported that women taking oestrogen and progestin for four years had a 40 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who did not take while there Are Many physicians who do explain the relative risks of there Are Many who the Angus Reid poll found that a growing number of women Are turning to the internet and other sources of information on one reliable a newsletter about is published right Here in housed in the same building As the women health for subscription info Call a Friend indeed at 9898028 or e mail . Penni Mitchell is coordinating editor of horizons her column appears on dont Burn the Law enforce it if an election Call Doest banish All else from the Liberal the government May decide to keep a Promise made last june to introduce limited immunity to police from prosecution should they break the Law to be Able to enforce Law enforcement is a serious it is also often a dirty business a deadly the last thing Law enforcement needs is a level playing such As the one proposed by Justice min ister Anne Mclellan last june which would give the police More authority to break the Law in order to enforce we All tolerate some lawbreaking by police in order to catch la break police have to Speed to catch undercover policewomen pose As hookers to catch and undercover policemen pre tend to be Johns to catch we have even tolerated illegal violence on the part of the carried away with our police burned a barn to the ground to of All a meeting being held in ramp have admitted Vandal izing an Oil Well in an attempt to find who was vandalizing other we have never pretended that the Public condoned violent lawbreaking on the part of is Mclellant new discussion paper she suggests a Law that would give police immunity should they decide it is necessary to commit More serious crimes in order to catch the bad is Mclellan would not Only permit police to legally buy and sell or communicate for the purposes of but would Sanction physical assault and the destruction of prop erty so Long As such behaviour was limited to reasonable and proportional acts undertaken for legitimate Law enforcement she says that police May have to assault or damage their in order to infiltrate criminal gangs who demand prospective members commit illegal acts in order to prove that they Are not she also suggests immunity for police including those who Are criminals is Mclellan proposes that More serious such As inflict ing grievous bodily harm and committing sex Ual offences would still be even for this would not be the use of Force Likely to cause Bod ily harm would be allowed if there were a risk of death or harm to another which is is Mclellan suggests that it would also be allowed if used to prevent the compromising of the identity of an undercover officer or or the loss of important what happened to the idea of courts deciding what Evl Dence is important the principle of writ ing a Law specifically designed to allow police to break the Law is if gang membership now requires assault or Rob Bery or property dam what happens when parliament permits police to commit these crimes without Conse Quence will not the gangs then require manslaughter or rape As a Price of membership will not then is Mclellan or her successor come under pressure from police arguing in order to control they must commit these offences when necessary it is neither fair nor easy for police to catch criminals without breaking a few Laws them nobody Ever said that being a police Man was we expect them to accomplish what sometimes appears to be the these Days science is almost on a daily past police mistakes and society is routinely freeing those now proven inno cent who were jailed because of bad practices in the it hardly seems an appropriate time to talk about giving police permission to act More like the criminals they Are trying to it is certainly not the time to increase police immunity from the Laws they Are sworn to it is not the time to listen to the arguments that the proposed changes Are not about police Power but about organized police May be fighting crime with one hand tied behind their As unfair As this May there is much More Protection for the innocent under this system than there would be if police were Given the shortcut of authorized criminal when is Mclellan arranged for her proposed changes to be introduced in the Senate in she promised legislation in the an elec Tion would push this this could be a Good thing for canadians who dont want their policemen authorized to become Fred Clever Ley is a Winnipeg his column appears on Winnipeg free press Winnipeg few press 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1990 vol 128 to 271 2000 Winnipeg free 3 division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a Mentor prow Council Rudy email rudy.redekop@treepre8s.mb.ca Nicholas Hirst ;