Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 20, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Fri do cimber 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Cooling Economy economic gloom from Washington yesterday clouded the sunny Outlook for Prosperity that finance minister Paul Martin was counting on to maintain Canadian employment growth and continue filling the Federal the Strong economic growth he was expecting has slowed to such a Point that the Central Long fixated on forestalling now sees recession As the greater Martins Challenge since 1993 has been to keep abreast of steadily growing Federal revenues As Export driven growth routinely delivered higher tax yields than he forecast in each years As recently As his task was to distribute surplus Feder Al funds among debt tax cuts and new spending Martin in october echoed the views of eco nomic forecasters who believed Canada would continue to enjoy robust economic expansion arising from growth and Strong Domestic the finance minister wrote the main risk for the Canadian Economy remains the Poten tial increase in inflation pressure in the Aris ing either from growing excess demand and the overheating of the Economy or the increase of Core inflation due to higher Energy recent economic developments in the Sug Gest that growth is slowing to a More sustainable translating into More balanced risks for Cana that Rosy View became ancient history yesterday when the Federal open Market committee of the Federal Reserve announced its View of the state of the in keeping its interest rate the fed said the risks Are weighted mainly toward conditions that May generate eco nomic weakness in the foreseeable the main problem now is to maintain in View of declining corporate rising Energy declining consumer Confidence and declining Stock Market the fed had plenty of reasons to anticipate economic inflation was biting harder in Canada than in the this but a slowing of growth is bound to Hurt canadians who directly or by Selling raw materials and manufactured goods to the Canada tagged along with the when business was Good and can hardly Hope to keep the Canadian train moving at full Speed when the locomotive slows the plan Martin announced on 18 included a contingency Reserve to allow for unforeseen if it is not needed during the the Reserve would be used to reduce the Federal governments by this there would be no need to reduce spending or raise taxes if slow growth leaves Martin billion Short he would merely slow debt prime minister Jean Chretien is eager for the government to press ahead in the direction of social the government need not abandon the search for social but it should not count on rapidly rising tax revenues to finance the keep talking Winnipeg has seen a dramatic Rise in Street gang related thought to be connected to the arrival of the Hells Angels who Are staking their this has triggered a flow of resources to the police departments gang unit and renewed interest in City and provincial governments in How t6 Deal with the drive by drug prostitution and recruitment of intercity children who Are the easiest pickings for predators on the police Effort will probably curb the nastiness for a Winnipeg has seen it happen in the hard work of the federally funded Street gang prevention program and of the police depart ment gave gang recruiters a hard the essentially the work of one warned school children against the life of crime and the Appeal of a Roundup of gang leaders saw Many of them arrested and incarcerate holding dozens of suspected gang members and associates in the remand Centre was a questionable use of but the enforcement Effort on the streets had its there is a Man who could talk at length about All of this and How it happened How Young people in the inner City found jobs through volunteering with the Street gang prevention program More about How Winnipeg could entrench the program in the neighbourhoods that desperately need help battling the lure and culture of Street Munfor Glenn Cochrane is spending a lot of these Days trying to find next months his programs temporary funding ran out this summer and Cochrane is using a variety of sympathetic social service agencies to pay the his salary and that of an the province and the Federal government have All made noise about their desire to curb Street gang and biker All have found some Money to throw at the the Street gang prevention showed How to reach kids it would be foolish not to give Long term funding for such Community based when the violent peaks subside and the additional officers to the gang unit get someone has to continue talking to the kids on the t labour targets cube staff the idyllic world of the new Economy is show ing some organized labour is hoping to pry those cracks open and grab a byte of that High tech unions have been on the outside looking in when it comes to representing workers in High tech but labour now sees opportunities As new Economy companies expand with and even thou of some of whom Are Grum the grumbling comes at a time when new tech stocks have plummeted and internet companies have Laid off workers or just disappeared Back into the this is either the Best of times or the worst of times for labour they May find out which with the first major test Case the drive to unionize online retailer this the if still has had More worries on its hands than How to fill worldwide requests for videos and other employees Are getting a Tad testy about seeing Amazon executives surely driving luxury cars and complaining about where to Dock the the grumbling began at amazons head office in Seattle where 400 customer service representatives answer Calls from harried customers wondering where their anniversary edition of the Shaun Cassidy scrapbook has gotten some of the cars turned to a Union affiliate of the communications workers of was tech has set up a Campaign to recruit the 400 so far Amazon has mis stepped they Haven been very and the Union has taken advantage of the take the Massage Amazon gives massages to employees who get knotted necks after dealing with us testy folks on the other end of the the massages used to be Amazon started charging this once the organizing drive the com Pany decided they were rubbing employees the wrong massages Are free at the same More than distribution workers at eight warehouses in the Are the target of a drive by the United food and commercial workers it Doest end in an ironic Echo of the company own global the Union drive has gone backed by the Prewitt organizing an Independent Union recruiting group based in unions Are targeting Amazon centres in France and German workers in an Amazon Plant already Are Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos insists that unions Are not needed at everyone is an he has but workers complain that with Amazon shares trading at less than half of their highs they would prefer a workers complaints Are familiar to Union organizers Low Lack of a wish for More control and democratization of the what is new is that unions have a foot in the door of a major new Economy com Pany that was supposed to be different from the old Economy time when huge numbers of manufacturing jobs have unions have been struggling tomake inroads into the new econ for a unions have lost members who make an hour and signed up workers who make or less an a popular internet company is an attractive getting into companies like Amazon and into related industries like High tech Call centres would show that the labour move ment is looking to the future and not hanging onto 19th Century the Amazon drive is hardly that High the company May be an online store but nothing could be More old Economy than workers throwing boxes onto trucks in Amazon distribution the labour movement has yet to show in any significant Way that it can represent real new Economy information technology work appeals especially to individualists who spurn the Type of collective action that is the Backbone of a technology also allows people to work in virtual isolation at often at Low making it hard for unions to get to the disgruntled the Amazon Union drive int Over but disgruntled employees with an Eye to improving their lot also May have the other Eye on e business falling Stock prices and another round of internet the organizing drive at and a new Century approach to organized would appear to need a herculean Effort to raise a bottle to Loreena Mckennitt at about this time last i was Hunting for gifts in Osborne Village when i came upon a Handbill advertising Han drum i had played Drums badly in my teens and Early which nevertheless qualified me to join a band that played badly at socials and bars in South Ern Manitoba often in after i sold my i never played i didst play a kit about a decade also at i was in Unity mall and came across a display of elec tronic drum boxes about the size of cafeteria trays on top of which Are touch sensitive when the pads Are struck with a they reproduce the sounds of Drums and which can be amplified through a Home As neat As the machine it never suited it should have been smaller so that it could be played with hands or Over the i have invented in my mind numerous variations on the drum All of which can be played by fingers or which is Why it was that the Handbill last Christmas caught my and Why it was that i decided to take the hand drum the lessons Are hugely in Large measure because of the phenomenal growth in world which is Han drum the instructor suggested that rather than laying out hundreds of dollars for a we simply acquire an empty water the five gallon variety used in water Cool water suppliers sell them for about or give them away free if they Are i fell in love with my water which is played upside Down and held Between the it has wonderful and varied a Flat Bass in its a Sharp ring on its i took 10 lessons and no i had found my water that was i played it so much for a time that i developed Tennis the other while decorating the i fetched our Christmas cd from the basement and picked without hesitation a Winter Gar Den by Loreena the most Sublime Christmas record i have heard and which is Rich in before i had got out the water bottle and was trying to play it occurred to me that i had never before played to Christmas then it occurred to me that it want just Christmas it was exquisite Christmas music by an artist of International stature who was born and raised in Morden and whose Stel Lar musical career was just taking off from Morden at about the time that my pathetic musical career was coming to an end i that i know next to nothing about is so i started asking around the office and Learned while her name often appears in our she Seldom rates More than largely because she Doest seek assistant City Margo said its a mystery Why she has garnered so Little Margo should she competed against Loreena for years in Manitoba music compete besting her on i see her As Skinny legs and Knock seated at a we were All just nervous looked in the Rural phone Book under Morden and sure Mckennitt Are i called the first name and ended up speaking to Loreena aunt who said Loreena was there visiting just last she slides into the Winnipeg rents a car and drives aunt Alice she int a great one for in where Mckennitt have lived since she visits friends and relatives and stays with her who had the piano that Loreena started playing i reached Loreena just As he was pulling up to red River where he teaches the principles of management in the the by includes a Section about his Sisters phenomenal Success managing her own from Busker in Toronto to new music phenomenon with sales in the order of seven he said she is still recovering from the 1998 death of her Fiance Ronald who was killed along with his brother Richard and a Friend Gregory Cook in a boating she has not performed or recorded but instead dedicated time and some Mil lion from sales of her last live album to water safety if it can be called a Silver he she has been in and out of Morden at least three times this he once to attend her High school reunion with old Shes just trying to be a private Citi he she can come Home to Morden and walk Down the streets without someone making a big Deal of they remember her As the redheaded Loreena will spend Christmas at Home in Stratford with her All of which is to say funny How things come together at i wish you a win Ter and a big Winnipeg free press Winnipeg we presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n017 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published sewn Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council Rudy email tji Cholas Patrick editor ;