Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 18, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnith 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights nuclear future the government of Ukraine last week shut Down the last operating part of the chernobyl nuclear Power station the Plant where a reactor blew up on april Ukraine had been anxious to keep the Plant running because building replacement sources of Power would be but Western fearful of a new chernobyl came up with some Cash and ukrainian authorities at last switched off the ill fated at the Federal governments atomic Energy control Board started hearings on the proposed reopening of a reactor that has been shut for the last three Ontario shut Down Many of its nuclear stations because a scathing review showed the then known As Ontario was using unsafe methods and proce Neighbours of the Pickering station appeared at the hearings to oppose the chernobyl disaster 14 years ago intensified Public anxiety about nuclear Power throughout Europe and North America and weakened world wide demand for nuclear Power Ontario shut Down Many of its reactors in 1997 in an Atmos phere of doubt that the nuclear Industry could assure the safety of nuclear for want of nuclear Ontario resumed Burn ing fouling the air in Southern As con Cern about global warming and the greenhouse effect attention turned once again to nuclear Power so that now Ontario Power Genera successor to the former Ontario Hopes to fire up the Pickering Plant during that Hia atomic Energy of Canada limited closed its research facility at where scientists and engineers had been experimenting with methods of storing nuclear Ukraine suffered More than any other country from the 1986 chernobyl More than people who worked on the cleanup following the disaster have since died because of radiation and people in Ukraine Are yet the Power from the Plant was so important to Ukraine that the nation preferred to keep the remaining parts of the Plant it was closed at the Behest of West european governments that were Only slightly at risk from any future chernobyl Dis Ukraine reluctance to close chernobyl and Ontario wish to reopen the closed reactors at pick ering show that nuclear Power is still on the worlds Energy As crude Oil prices Rise and demand for clean air the pressure to turn once again to nuclear Power will probably the problem of disposing of waste fuel from reactors remains to be atomic Energy of Canada limited should continue its research on nuclear waste disposal methods because a Day is Likely to come eventually when eagerness for Energy will overcome fear of when that Day the world will resume building and then Canada should be ready with a Good system for Dis posing of the smut patrol the supreme court of Canada last week narrowed Power of Canada customs agents to Block the into Canada of books and magazines they find this May intensify competitive pressure on Canadian producers of pornography and it will help release customs agents from their role As moral it have no direct effect on the Cornucopia of porn that is Avail Able to users of the Little a Vancouver Bookstore catering to complained that customs kept seizing material they were trying to import though similar material intended for heterosexuals was not the supreme court scolded customs for using a double Standard that narrowed the freedoms of it also set a new test requiring Cus Toms to prove that material it seizes is until the importer had to prove the material was not obscenity is judged partly from Community sex which vary from time to time and from one Community to proving that a Book is or is not obscene is a Tough thing to in shifting the Burden of proof from the importer to the customs the court has Given the department a difficult three justices wanted to release the department from vetting pornography but the court majority would not go so they left customs on smut patrol but robbed it of the Power to Rule arbitrarily that a Book or Magazine is if the Job of vetting smut is to be done it should be done carefully and Well and with proper regard for the freedoms of but in the age of inter net there is room to wonder what Job should be print is a minor method for distributing dirty the internet is full of them and entirely escapes control by canadians have Learned to preserve their moral standards in a world awash with morality is not threat ened even if Little Sisters Bookstore is entirely free to import obscene material without supervision by the government should follow the supreme courts logic to the end and get customs out of smut yeah nip masters the blame game lets see last week health minister Dave Chomiak blamed the previous Filmon government for the shortage of doctors in Man earlier highways min ister Steve Ashton blamed the Federal government for the Condi Tion of Rural roads in the the Federal govern ment was also this time by agriculture minister Rosann wow for the fact that no compensation has been sent to merchants in Manitoba Southwest who have suffered flood or for business losses due to these statements certainly look like the out going conservative ministers left their incoming successors each three envelopes like those made famous some years right in the legislative Assembly by former nip minister Sid Green told the Story of a new Cabinet minister when he arrived in his found three envelopes on his desk that had been left by his each was the first one had the words open at the time of your first major the second was to be opened at the time of the new ministers Sec Ond major problem and the third when the min ister faced his third crucial sure the first major crisis arrived and the new nearly at his wits end to explain his governments remembered the he opened the first Enve Lope with it read blame the pre Vious he and the crisis Dis some time later the minister was again in serious the first envelope had worked so Well he turned to the it read blame the Federal he and his Trou ble it was More than a year before the minister faced his third this time it was not so much a single but a series of each of which left his government in worse shape than it had been in he sought the advice in the third he found Only three words prepare three every politician in that the Best advice upon being elected is to begin to pre pare for ones political the Early efforts of the members of Gary doers Cabinet to shift the blame for troubles on to the backs of the previous provincial gov or to May be a bit the truth is that the government has made Only two major blunders in its first and has already recanted the doer governments major Blunder so far was its changes to Manitoba labour Legisla the nature of which invited comment to the effect that the new democrats were pay ing an election Campaign debt owed to organized the changes were substantial in the new Powers of organization granted to unions and in the control available to Union leaders who need no longer face secret the second mistake was More and proposed the Transfer of substantial aut Opac profits to universities in this Trig gered a massive protest from motorists who were disturbed that they were being singled out to pay More education taxes than those who did not own automobiles or drive to the doer governments it recognized real trouble when it saw this and decided to return the aut Opac surplus in the form of Premium reductions and to find its education Money from More traditional the recent outpouring of blame is really using a Sledge Hammer to kill a Manitoba is facing a shortage of but not Only because the medical school Popula Tion was pared some years the fact that More than one in three Manitoba medical graduates leaves to practise Medicine elsewhere is certainly a considering that Manitoba taxpayers carry a significant part of the Cost of educating a it would not be unreason Able to require graduates to practice for a fixed period of time in the province As a condition of getting this while it is True that Ottawa does not use its gasoline tax to maintain Manitoba is in a position no different from other to Ottawa has refused to share Busi Ness costs of flooding in the southwestern part of the this should pro Hibit Manitoba from extending some Aid to those who have suffered through no fault of their the new government should remember How Long it took the previous administration to recover a reasonable Federal share of the costs of Northern Forest members of the doer Cabinet should know that shifting blame Doest always some times you have to act on your where Zero tolerance fails Penni Mitchell the Calgary the hot the common denominator is that wife abuse rises to Happy occasions As Well As to unhappy researchers have a heyday trying to figure it one study reports that an overproduction of adrenaline the fight flight hormone in stressful times May be a vestige of unresolved childhood according to sociologist Desmond a decline in wife abuse reported to statistics Canada is due to a boisterous Canadian econ executive director of the Lamarsh Centre for violence and conflict believes the first protective Factor is a healthier stress associated with unemployment and underemployment contributes to spousal Vio despite Winnipeg record Low unemployment police predict that they will respond to about 30 per cent More Domestic assault Calls than last out of Calls last arrests were theories is the number of assaults really up or Are women less reticent to Call police and look about 18 per cent of the Domestic charges Laid by Winnipeg police Between when the provinces Zero tolerance policy was and 1998 were against maybe there is a new Breed of violent As some have Sug a report released last week by the Canadian Centre for policy alternatives disabuse the idea of rampant female writ ten by researchers Elizabeth Vanessa Chopyk and Linda mean streets concludes that while the number of charges has steadily increased since 1993 when the provinces Zero tolerance policy was the policy int working As it was too very women who phone police for help Are being Ever since the provincial attorney general directed police to Lay charges any time complaints have been More and More perpetrators have used Zero tolerance to beat the its called when police we have to Lay charges when theres a a lot of perpetrators she hit me it does it matter if she was defending herself in a Vio Lent attack apparently reduced to automatons under Zero tolerance Are compelled to Lay ironically the directive it is not a Law was introduced because of reports that police often didst respond to reports of wife abuse very it was believed that the discretion that police officers have in deciding whether there Are reasonable and probable grounds to believe a crime has been committed was often applied with Zero tolerance removed that discretion and charges Are now Laid regardless of corroborating Evi in Many Zero tolerance appears to the Crown stays 80 per cent of the charges against these a rate is 50 per cent higher compared to the chief Benefit of charging More women is that it Bene fits male since when both parties Are the chances of a conviction Are practically its the i wont testify against you if you dont testify against me partly because of this the proportion of Winnipeg women charged with violent offences is 50 per cent higher than the nation Al prior to Zero charges related to partner violence made up 23 per cent of All charges against women in the City four years it was 58 per the report also Breaks Down categories of violence in police it suggests that men Are 10 times More Likely to slam their victims head or body into something and five times As Likely to strangle or choke their female part women charged Are five times As Likely to bite or scratch and More Likely to throw i contacted half a dozen shelters across Canada to ask them whether battered husbands were calling for of the tens of thousands of Calls logged by these organizations each one reported a request for counselling by a battered that women defend themselves when they Are assaulted is nothing what is new is that they now run the risk of being treated As criminals for doing the report concludes that its time to rethink a pol icy that removes All discretion from police in deciding whether or not criminal charges Are warranted in a particular it is not that returning discretionary Power to police will automatically result in a Wiser application of the the mandatory Domestic violence training for police officers announced by the City in octo Ber is a step in the right when that training is it makes sense to Revis it the Issue of discretionary Power in Domestic Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol1z9n016 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 member the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Patrick editor v ;