Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 29, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free november 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights betrayal of Trust in the parents who handed their babies and toddlers to paediatric heart surgeon Jonah Odim were told he was one of the Best and the health sciences centres program was As capable As any in neither statement was the assurances betrayed a sacred and fragile Trust according to judge Murray played a role in the preventable deaths of at least nine of the 12 Chil judge in his inquest report into the recommends the Manitoba government help patients or parents to better inform themselves prior to surgery with a handbook outlining their those rights would include meaning Ful information about the risks a Frank discussion about the surgeons experience and the ability to go else where if the sooner such a guide is available the health minister David Chomiak will no doubt be warned of the Pitfalls to acting on such though risky Hospital administrators and lobbyists will impress upon him the frustrations of reducing Complex therapies and procedures and a particular doctors batting average to language patients could judge Sinclair heard As much during his inquest into the childrens Chomiak should consider those warnings for what they Are it is hard to imagine a better Case being made against putting Faith in health institutions and their staff than the one detailed in Murray Sinclair released this it is a condemnation of the which established a Pedi Atric heart program without adequate team training or and of the immediate managing physicians who did not look into dims experience and but gave him Freedom to operate on cases beyond his the alarming rate of failure in the heart surgeries was defended by those who explained it As a function of the learning curve All new surgical pro Grams judge Sinclair handily rejects this there should be no allowance for a learning curve where patient safety is concerned or when analysing results of the nurses who repeatedly warned the program had gone terribly wrong were their concerns rejected As stemming from the inability to Deal emotionally with the deaths of some of the an inexperienced surgeon was not Veteran nurses were families were misled to believe the expertise of the med ical staff and the reputation of one of the Best hospitals in Manitoba assured them that their Chil Drens interests were All of this in fact worked against these 12 babies and particularly the nine who could have lived had they been transferred to hospitals outside the Jonah Odim is this particular surgery pro Gram is unlikely to reopen in Manitoba a regional program was established in and the health sciences Centre has set up a system for the speedy hearing of staff concerns about this is not much help to a patient is asking a surgeon what Are my chances there can be no informed consent without the full disclosure of a physicians Sharon Chance the announcement tuesday by israeli prime min ister Ehud Barak that he welcomes Early elections for the israeli parliament and the prime minister ship adds another complicating Factor to the already byzantine process of Middle East peace Only hours before he made his announcement to the Barak was still seeking to form a government of National Unity with the liked led by righting Hawk and hardliner Ariel in the the most truthful explanation is that Barak does not Welcome the Opportunity of an election so much As he accepts its inevitability and has decided to make the Best of Barak changed his position As it became Clear Sharon terms for a Unity government were too and that liked and its parliamentary allies had More than enough votes to Force an the israeli prime minister is doing More than just putting a Brave face on a difficult he is also forcing the peace the Palestine under the leadership of Yasser has encouraged the present Intifada in the West Bank and but Arafat knows that he Ter off dealing with who is committed to an than with who is deeply suspicious of the election will be held in the probably in that May not be a deadline for but it is certainly a Barak needs a peace Deal before the election comes around Arafat knows that the terms of any eventual agreement will be a lot tougher if he has to Deal with a liked it is More than in the inter ests of both leaders to do some serious Day is alliances fatal flaw the unite the right Experiment embodied in the Canadian Alliance has been a spectacular failure and requires a fundamental reassess one that respects and takes account of Canada As it not Canada As some would like it to Canadas political right emerges from the 27 election More rancorous by disunited than Ever the portion that has the least growth potential forms the official oppo albeit very Dis the task of forging a party with the realistic Prospect of gaining National Power from this base will be if not it was Canadas Centennial when former Alberta Premier Ernest Manning and his son Preston penned a slim volume entitled political it sketched out their dream of a political party that would be both socially and economically conservative to con front what they saw As the socialism and statism of the governing Preston Manning brought that dream to life in the Reform but it penetrate so called old Canada Quebec and the so Manning spearheaded the think big Campaign of last the Canadian a coalition of Bay Street social conservatives and West Ern was Manning was pushed aside in favour of a some what bilingual and supposedly charismatic Stockwell the former treasurer of Alber the rest was expected to be and it certainly Day devoted nearly every Day of the 36 Day Campaign to his Reward was two just one More than Manning Cap tured in Rod his chief strategist and Alberta Premier Ralph kleins former Grey is taking Refuge in his were going to have to look at Ontario and see How Many liberals were elected with a minor Ity due to he said monday others Are taking Solace in the assertion the prime ministers Surprise election Call caught the party and Leader the including the Leader Are blaming the Media and their opponents for smearing them with accusations of a hidden but it was the Alliance and not the Media and the other who floated and tried to shoot Down the idea of a Flat it was the Alliance and not the Media and the other who floated and then tried to ground the idea of re Ferenda on Divi Sive and contentious social issues like Abor capital immigration and aboriginal rights re Ferenda that could be Trig gered by just three per cent of the or about people re Ferenda that first would and then binding on the it was the Alliance and not the Media and the other who trained a spot Light on religiosity who raised the spectre of an inability to separate ones personal beliefs from ones Public it turns out Day was the fatal flaw in the Canadian Alliance the re branded party needed to move it veered to the right of while the party popular vote did Rise six Points and it captured six More seats than in there Are More storm Clouds on its Hori Zon than its notable failure in Ontario and Points even in its Western Canadian the Alliance is a predominantly Rural the liberals Hung on to their seats in Vancouver and Victoria and tory Leader Joe Clark established an important beachhead for his party in Cal across the liberals lowest popular vote score was in Alberta at 21 per the Alliance plumbed the single digits in Quebec and each of the four Atlantic the liberals elected members in All 10 provinces and three the Alliance was blanked out in five half the plus the three at last july leadership Alliance delegates made a fateful to reunite the they had to choose a they picked someone less urbane and polished and a Good Deal More extreme than Man far from being the catapult of the unite the right Day is now its Cement Canada is a Liberal while it will elect economic it will never choose the path of social now that the bloc quebecois is in its even More apparent that the Only real threat to lib eral Hegemony can come from the progressive is the Alliance prepared to think that big Alliance stronger than really the Alliance wave did not crash on the Man Ito Ontario Border As the election result Mon Day might it swept right through to the Atlantic Ocean and caused tremendous political turbulence in in had the unite the right movement succeeded in eliminating vote the Alliance could have won at least 25 Ontario seats where the combined tory Alliance vote exceeded the Liberal in Many cases by huge on Mon the United vote was almost even with the Liberal vote in six other Ontario in other had Joe Clark decided to join the the liberals could have lost at least 25 seats in Ontario alone and could have been reduced to a minority of not More than 150 with a fractured right and Canadas the liberals won 173 seats Canad wide that 57 per cent of seats in parliament with Only 41 per cent of the in the Alliance and tories won 38 per cent of the but received Only 26 per cent of the seats 66 plus or 78 it goes without saying that this analysis is assuming As it does that tory voters would choose the Alliance Over the liberals or any of the other parties if they were forced which would not be the but the purpose Here is not to conjecture what might have it is to state what Canadian Alliance is not washed up As of it clearly is winning the Battle to unite the anyone who wades through the details of the result will find what almost always is True of Canadian elections there is a huge differ ence Between the result and the in the the liberals have a Comfort Able in the they attracted minor Ity support from million compared to million who voted against the govern at the voter turnout was Only 63 per cent Down four Points largely because Quebe cers be bothered this time which Means the liberals got Only 63 per cent of 41 per cent 26 per cent of those voting against the million backed the and million backed the a total of million conservative Canadian who will be watch ing the liberals with a if not in the the liberals won 100 seats in the Alliance in the the liberals won support for 53 the Alliance 24 seats and the tories 15 that a lot of apparently disenfranchised the Aliance vote increased six percentage Points and six it improved its support in every province except Nova the Northwest territories and where is had no had the right been it would have eclipsed Liberal support not Only in Alberta and British but also in Nova new Brunswick and it would have been a close contender in Newfoundland and but largely irrelevant in where it nevertheless picked up votes on what does All this add up to in the the liberals can Rule with but the fact they campaigned without a platform to speak and so Lack a mandate to do much More than Cut taxes and keep Jean of can do As he has done in the forget what he campaigned on once in there is no Law saying the liberals must Cut personal Only a Promise that can be broken As blithely As lib eral promises have been broken in the liberals Are not Likely to break that should then the movement to unite the right will gain Speed faster than a Turbo if the liberals keep their the unite the right movement will be but it will be As the Campaign has for All the Pluck he showed in the Joe Clark and the tories lost shedding eight seats Over the 1997 losing seven percentage almost All of which went to the if at the top of his cannot make then it is a Safe Assumption that he will continue to make that the consolidation of conservative votes that was apparent in the election will it May happen that in Stockwell Day will continue to perform but that does not Bode Well for it simply bodes badly for who could be dumped before another election in favour of someone who can do what Clark appears unable to the the Liberal majority this will go Down As a transition one in which the makeup of parliament again fails to reflect the aspirations of the majority of Cana by the next the liberals May have found a Way to produce a better or the Alliance May find the the fact is that the result frustrates a major Ity of voters and makes them at the very to Alliance Calls for electoral including an examination of fixed term elec free votes and proportional represent let the games begin Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vql1j9n9339 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division i Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 email Nicholas Hirst ;