Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 27, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 free november 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights the Hague and hot air three years after Canada and other nations agreed at a conference in Kyoto to reduce their emissions of greenhouse the International Effort to combat global warming appears to have a followup conference in the Hague that was to put the final touches to an Accord on climate change dissolved saturday in bitter confrontation after negotiations were dramatically extended for 24 hours in an attempt to Bridge the Divide Between the european on one and the United Japan and Australia on the at the no Compro Mise could be negotiators from All parties were angry and environmentalists were in tears and the general Public slightly the conference presi Jan attempted to put the Best face he could on the failure by suspending the conference rather than formally closing it there will be another meeting next rather than admitting Pronk suggest i think its better to say perhaps we did not yet and that May not be such a bad because no one is entirely certain yet what needs to be successfully greenhouse gases produced by human particularly Carbon Are blamed by some scientists for causing global other scientists but at Kyoto it was decided that nations would seek to reduce their emissions of those gases at considerable economic no one has yet repudiated that but no one has actually met it the conference at the Hague fell apart not Over this but Over the Issue of pollution a system where governments can Trade or Transfer emission for argues that by exporting nuclear Power plants to other it should earn credits that would count As emission in it was the credit claim for so called Carbon sinks by the United states and Canada that prevented Carbon sinks refer to Large areas of Forest and Farmland that absorb Carbon Ottawa and Washington argue that their vast Carbon sinks should earn additional pollution credits the europeans counter that this gives North America a licence to pollute at in an attempt to keep the talks on the americans drastically reduced their demand for Carbon sink but not enough to satisfy which pretty Well cleared itself of forests centuries environment minister David Anderson blamed european intransigence for the failure of the Confer Lloyd Leader of the Canadian Dele was More arguing that what we have Here is not so much failure As a continuing Axworthy is almost certainly the Issue of global warming will not go it is of too much global concern for that to but if delay averts a Rush to helps to avoid an emotionally driven embrace of economically harmful poli cies on the basis of what is still disputed then it will be of More Benefit than global warming is an important Issue that needs but the consequences of premature action could be As hurtful As the consequences of no action at the delay deriving from the Hague conference will Dis appoint but gives All a better Chance to learn More about the causes of a warmer world and How it can be who in charge the idea in a government should be of the by the people and for the people is a notion to be it seems to be a notion cherished much More by the people than by the governments they we get an indication of this when a government finds itself confronted with a budgetary a government that understands the concept Abra Ham Lincoln expressed almost 140 years ago would understand that this Money does not belong to it but to the people who paid we saw an example of a failure to understand this when Premier Gary doers government attempted to take the surplus paid to the governments car insurance program by motorists to subsidize its support of there Are other perhaps More that governments can fail to exercise this Princi an example can be seen in the City of win Nipges response to this newspapers request for some information under the Freedom of information and Protection of privacy the question was simple enough How much has the City spent on private investigators Over the last five years the City did not refuse to answer it simply said that it would Cost the free press to get the this May speak volumes about the efficiency of the cites but it Speaks even More strongly about governments misunderstanding of its the Money governments spend is our not governments have no business that is not Public the information they collect belongs to not to them it should not have to be purchased at prices that few individuals could Ever governments and bureaucracies that fail to understand these things fail to under stand where they Spring from and for what purpose they voters must remind minuscule effectonth6 affairs x can Eli Sarwe i tub election lets be just Plain Canadian last thursdays statement from officials at Standard to the effect that employees there will not put their jobs at risk if they refuse to renounce their dual citizenship and become Only indicates that the com Pany has stirred up the Waters of Canadian Polit ical correctness and has decided not to take a swim after the assurances May turn out to be meaning because of employees with dual Cit the company cannot get the contracts it is the question of whether jobs continue to exist May be answered in another to the politically Correct among us seem to be missing an important Are we really saying that Canadian if not exactly is somehow Worth less than dual citizenship Are we saying that a dual citizenship sets its owner above native born canadians Why is it wrong for a company to ask its employees with dual citizenship to renounce a second citizenship in order to enjoy the Bene fits of being Only a Canadian As far As Loyal ties Are concerned a wider question is Why Canada while in the process of welcoming new does not require these new citizens to renounce prior loyalties they May have any one anxious to become a to have the full rights of citizenship in what our politicians constantly remind us is the Best country in the world in which to should have no qualms about renouncing other loyalties or allegiances to foreign potentates or Many which value citizenship More than we seem to require such renunciation before new citizenship is to renounce prior loyalties does not require a new citizen to renounce his As has been argued in the Standard Aero Case by lawyer Mario although i was born in my parents were born in another if i want to Trace my roots i will have to search not swearing allegiance to and Only to As i have done As part of my military in no Way renounces my Canadian Law is so Loose that i could obtain a passport issued by the country of my parents and use it with no complaint from Cana Dian it is with some i that my passport is and that it is the Only one i As human rights commission chairman Ken Filkow has companies do not have the right to ask employees about their citizen then our system is far too politically Cor if Toronto lawyer Stacey Ball is right when he says the company probably violated Canadas Federal and provincial human rights codes by initially asking employees to renounce dual then the codes need the real bogeyman in the Standard Aero situation is the fact that the company is trying to get defence some among us believe that canadians must be suspicious of anything the what the is doing in this instance is taking Steps to protect its National defence secrets through the enforce ment of its International traffic in arms Reg Canada was once exempt from these but our political leaders have demonstrated such a Loose enforcement of our own Immi Gration Laws that the now considers and our porous As a potential source of not that renouncing a dual citizenship would bother a dedicated spy or our Laws did not bother the individual who drove a car Load of explosives out of Canada on his Way to what the problems at Standard Aero boil Down to is the or rather the Lack of we put on what should be a privilege extended to individuals born else where and who want to become Canadian in my such individuals should be welcomed provided they meet our requirements for they should not be extended privileges that canadians who were born in this country do not such As a right to pick and choose when they will behave As canadians and when they will act As citizens of another should it suit Standard Aero is facing a problem that it should not be surely it is not too much for the government of Canada to insist that its new citizens be Canadian and Only Canadian if they want the other advantages of living in this Carbon sinks sap Canadas credibility Penni Mitchell one molecule of two of an overabundance of a simple Gas is unleash ing changes that Are irrevocably threatening the habitat of the human devastating floods in Asia and Africa this year Are the latest signs that the planet is heating while the origins of life on Earth fuelled Brief controversy Dur ing the Federal it was a debate Over the future of life on Earth that took Centre stage at global climate talks in the Hague that ended the meeting was a followup to the 1997 Kyoto climate where industrialized nations agreed in principle to reduce emissions to per cent below 1990 including Dif Fering Levels for each delegates from More than 180 countries met in the Hague to draft a global Rule Book for reducing Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse Gas the sticking Point was Carbon a backed by Japan and aus that would allow countries to satisfy emissions targets by gaining credits for the amount of Carbon dioxide that forests and Farmland take out of the since the emits 25 per cent of the worlds greenhouse no global plan is expected to work without a most european Union countries fiercely opposed sinks because polluters with Large land masses in do Little to reduce their Actu Al output of greenhouse Gas at one Point during the the claimed that existing forests had soaked up enough Carbon from the atmosphere since 1990 to cancel out half of its emissions from Fossil the remark prompted Dominique Frances environment minister to accuse the of unravelling the Kyoto Kjell the swedish environment min ister said his number crunchers calculated that the plan would see emissions increase Between eight and nine per the european backed by Environ mentalists arguing that the talks were headed in the wrong with scientists predicting that worldwide reductions of 60 per cent May now be needed to Avert a global environmental the Canadian Dele a headed by former foreign affairs minister Lloyd earned a award after telling the world that Canada plans to Export More nuclear reactors to developing countries and give itself greenhouse Gas emis Sion credits for doing and that was after it got a award for backing the sinks there Are 7 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted every according to British environment minister Michael Meach Canada is responsible for tens of millions of the David Suzuki v v foundation estimated that Canadas position heading into the talks would increase our greenhouse Gas emissions by As much As 15 per the debate Over sinks is More than Philo British scientists computer models predict that the Rise in global average land temperatures May go As High As six degrees cel Sius in the next using forests to soak up the greenhouse Gas Carbon dioxide they make the problem since accelerated global warming could turn rain forests into forcing the release of the tons of Carbon dioxide gases trapped within a recent article in the journal nature says that forests planted As sinks in Canada and Siberia could also exacerbate scientists speculate that forests might be Able to mop up Carbon dioxide until about when soil bacteria would Start releasing Carbon dioxide faster than it could be sucked speeding up global it has also been predicted that Arctic ice could disappear by 2080 if emissions Are not radically reduced at their since Snow and ice reflect sunlight Back into this global meltdown could cause the dark Ocean and forests to absorb More stepping up the rate of there Are no but the balance of scientific Wisdom tells us that we must reduce greenhouse Gas emissions at their the Only breath of fresh air is by the end of the the was backing Down say ing that rather than counting All of the Carbon dioxide captured by it would agree to count Only 20 per cent plus on third of whatever could be scientifically lets that its not too too Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 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 the Manitoba prut Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor ;