Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 9, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A18 Winn Pix 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights shame on Manitoba the death of Cory Moar cries out for a Coro ners the Public deserves to know How a mentally disabled Winnipeg Ger could be left in the hands of family members who beat him and maltreated him until he finally died at age 29 in the basement where he was the health and social service agencies of Manitoba Are supposed to ensure such things never mentally handicapped people have often been tar gets of because they Are unable to defend governments owe a special duty of care to ensure they Are not the Public needs to know Why that duty was not met and How Many other disabled people May right now be living in comparable torment while the authorities look the other Mars Elie has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his a juvenile in the household pleaded guilty to manslaughter last year and was sentenced to three years in prison on account of a final beating immediately before his death two years Moar was kept locked in the basement of Prudens North end Home where he was supplied with a Box of Kitty litter As a toilet and a closet door on top of two tires for a he was beaten with a car a a club and an electrical other members of the household also attacked though Moar received disability no authority Ever inquired How he was though he was taken to Hospital a number of times with injuries resulting from his hos Pital social workers did not discover the conditions to which he was unsatisfactory conditions in Large institutions led to the conclusion that mentally handicapped people should live in the Community so far As Community living in Good conditions allows disabled people to make the most of their abilities while institutional life usually confines their bodies and their minds within narrow but a policy of Community living must be accompanied by Abun Dant supports for disabled for their families and for the those supports were not provided to Moar and his because Manitoba relies on Community living to ensure decent lives for the mentally the provincial government has to seek out those who May need help and make sure they get a Coro ners inquest should find out what hospitals and government departments made Contact with Moar during his lifetime and then left him to his it should find out what reforms Are needed to help others in similar in sentencing Elie associate chief jus Tice Jeffrey Oliphant of the court of Queens Bench asked for an inquest into Mars Justice Oliphant was Cory Mars wretched life and horrifying death show that Manitoba needs to do Ash tons follies nip gaming minister Steve Ashton is dithering on dangerous following the collapse this week of Swan Lake bands proposed million Casino at Ashton said the govern ment will consider whether compensation should be paid to the band and the Community of both of which spent considerable amounts of Money Only to see the proposed Casino rejected in a second on the there is no reason to compensate either the band gambled the Casino would be the political leaders of the Community of heading Ley entertained the proposal Only to see the residents reject it As in the nor Mal course of is How the cookie it happens every Day that proponents of develop ments spend Money on their proposals and Munici pal governments spend Money weighing their when proposals no one expects to be compensated by the provincial for Ashton to suggest otherwise can mean Only one of two either Ashton is contemplating a foolish precedent that will put the trea sury on the Hook for All failed ambitions of developers and municipal or else Ashton knows something that he is not which would be that his government is responsible in some Way for the failed if Ashton is prepared to say that he is doing something or if he is prepared to say the nip government is at fault in the then compensation should be voters will not forget that Ashton acted if that is the nor will they forget that the government made mistakes for which compensation had to be the likelihood is that Ashton was simply dithering in Public to no useful he should immediately Clear the reject compensation and begin working with Swan Lake and heading Ley to find a use for the Casino site that serves the develop ment interests of both Swan Lake and conservative Leader Stuart who is trying to make political Hay from the Issue and is demand ing the province pay compensation in the absence of any need to do so or proof to the should think the question through More Mur Ray serves no one by insisting that Public Money be squandered just to make the government look he should not be competing with Ashton to show who can be More profligate Voth the Public the prize in the Cable Deal Shaw communications billion offer for 85 per cent of Winnipeg Moffat which owns the specially women Channel win and the local ctr affiliate is All about Cable and the Cable players like Rogers and Shaw Are getting More and More they Are becoming the pipes that carry the internet into smaller Fry like Moffat Are getting after protesting for the longest time that he Randy Moffat a Winnipeg company becomes absorbed by a larger Cal Gary cry no Winnipeg is Well represented in the Battle for internet and television users and the Moffat Deal adds an intriguing new devel in the the Federal Cable and Telephone the would have told Shaw to divest itself of the specially Cable and local television station that it acquired with Shaw would have shrugged and its primary interest is delivering not making although hold that thought for a but the crts this week allowed the Tele phone company Bce to Purchase ctr and form a new company with its internet service ctr and the Globe and the barriers Are coming the regulator announced it was going to examine whether Cable companies should be allowed to own the bigger specially channels like sport chances Are that Shaw wont have to sell if it the regulator would allow the other company controlled by the Shaw Corus which was set up last year As a pure broadcast play for to buy the Federal regulator has bought the idea that bigger is better and if Al and time Warner can Canada better be Able to have its own Mega Media but no one has yet shown that Media mergers produce the benefits that Are claimed for the merger of timeline and warn or still looks More like an old fashioned conglomerate than anything the Hopes for the benefits of convergence Are but they Are still More than Shaw and Are very focused Shaw in Corus in radio and childrens to Yov and Shaw has already indicated it May Well sell both sky and but Corus May not sky simply does not As for it Doest fit with the Corus focus yet it is a very attractive and successful Channel which has yet to exploit fully its growing Brand awareness with women across the it shares some facilities and management with it would be Good for Winnipeg if win were to keep its Headquarters it has a genuine National reach across the primary spenders in it is a growing franchise which could spawn magazines and with marketing through the which in turn could spawn yet other Allied National channels either on the web or through More traditional Cable it a and there could be Many potential suitors including can West global which has been slow getting into the specially a can West Purchase would keep the Headquarters in Winnipeg and add to the idea of the Media has its hands full digest ing its Purchase of most of the country news papers for billion in Cash and More than another billion in that acquisition has greatly increased can wests its shares have fallen sharply and its ability to make further acquisitions May be in any can West would have no interest in the new by Ecta company could make a Case for buying both sky and win would give it a female balance to the sports Channel that ctr acquired before the Bce has the muscle to take the win Brand and expand it on its internet mirroring similar developments in the United sky is already a ctr so As far As programming it would remain in the is unlikely to want to pay a fancy Price for a station in a Sta tic Market that is already an affiliate and it May not see a women Channel As suiting its the Downside for Winnipeg is that it would take a National Channel away from its base in the there Are other potential including owners of Histo life and other but takes win away from Media so what potential buyer might want to keep win in would see sky As a Good addition to their interests and sees great Poten tial in expanding the win Brand wheres the mercy in the killing if when their time would just die quickly and there would be no need to talk about but they and so there is a and it should be taken at the end of the dutch govern ment passed a Law that makes it Legal for Doc tors to kill their patients under certain Circum the new Law formalizes a practice that unofficially has been in effect in Holland since the Early in Canada and around the organizations supporting euthanasia and assisted suicide have hailed the dutch decision As a major in the United Jack who is now serv ing a sentence of 10 to 25 years for second degree murder for killing one of his was delighted by this latest develop also known As is an american pathologist before his conviction for administering a lethal injection to a patient on National helped about 130 people commit Many in the right to die movement regard him As both a Martyr and As a kind of Patron this week a study was released that examined the cases of 69 of the people Kevorkian helped to the done at the University of South Flori Das ethics found that 75 per cent of those patients were not terminally ill at the time that Kevorkian helped to dispatch them autopsies could find no physical illness at All in five of the people whose deaths he by passing legislation legalizing euthanasia and regulating its the dutch Hope to at least minimize the likelihood that people will be killed simply because they Are depressed and want to but the example of Kevorkian seems to indicate How profoundly dangerous it is to allow doctors the Power to make those life and death decisions at unbearable pain is a subjective thing Many studies have indicated that a loss of dignity can All contribute to a persons desire to All of these things Are painkillers available to modern Medicine can at least alleviate the worst pain doctors and nurses trained properly can recognize and treat depression hospice programs can Lessen loneliness and help to restore dignity to the All of opponents to euthanasia and assisted suicide Are not Only possible but preferable to killing people As a so called act of better than actively Tak ing the lives of people whose physical and emotional distress May leave them inca Pable of making ratio Nal decisions about life and the dutch decision will reinvigorate the debate Over the right to die in Canada and in other and As the debate goes there Are two things that we need to the first is that the phrase the right to die is a suicide is not illegal no one is forced to those who demand that their suicides be assisted Are in fact demanding that they be relieved of the responsibility for taking their own lives and that society assume that responsibility for it has been argued that Sui cide is always a cowardly act in that this is suicide in its most cowardly the second is that legalized euthanasia opens a door that is Best left it is no coincidence that those groups most opposed to euthanasia Are the elderly and the perhaps because it is the suffering of the old and the ill and the crippled that euthanasia Pur ports to before we Rush through this we need to question our is it the pain of those who Are dying that we actually want to or is it the agony Felt by the rest of us who Are still but who do not want to Bear the pain of watching the sometimes drawn out difficulty of death winning free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 8 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Winnipeg Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a Mamba of the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor ;