Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 9, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Ranii March 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Quality of civil rights health care diagnosed Manitoba was Given two critical pieces of information about the state of its citizens health this too Many of its children those who Are poor and live in Remote or inner City areas die do not get the basics of medical and have higher hospitalization a study by the world health Organiza Tion indicated that Canadas medicare system is not giving Good enough care to people each on its own indicates a need for the prescription for the National malady involves a discussion about the country publicly administered sys tem closer to change should and can be made quickly within the current the study issued by the Centre for health policy and evaluation this week showed that children born to poor families have infant mortality fifty per cent Are hospitalized More but make less use of publicly funded vaccination pro part of this problem is wrapped in the dilemma of How to make doctors and adequate emergency care available to every Small commune a Good chunk of the lies in More vigorous promotion of Basic pre Natal care for women certainly within win regular medical checkups for while any of that can be done through the coun try current Universal medicare it can also be done under delivery models found to be More effective by the world health on the Page opposite earlier this the who world health report 2000 ranked Canada 30th among member it also revealed the debate that has raged in this country about moving towards a blended system for providing med ical services has been much of the Public private arguments Drew comparisons with the United which does a bad Job of caring for people of lower incomes and ranked 37th on the the who study said 29 other countries Are doing better jobs than some having dedicated less the most glaring example is that of which ranked France makes health care universally accessible like but allows its citizens the Choice of getting care in Public or private it spends a bigger percentage of its Gross Domestic product but much less on a per capita neither of the reports prescribes but both define some of the failings of the healthcare delivery such evidence can help steer the efforts by both Federal and provincial governments to measure the Impact of health and it should Spur discussion on How some of the Money of Ever increasing budgets can Best be spy is spy in one of Robert Moses a soviet Kab officer who had been spying for the americans is executed by being slowly feet into a crematorium that scene caused some Specula Tion at the time was it simply a product of Moses imagination or was it based on facts the Well known journalist and author had gleaned through his alleged connections with the Cia espionage is sometimes looked at As a glamorous business think of James Bond or As a rather silly and it can mad Magazine used to run a regular cartoon featuring a Good spy and a bad one dressed All in one All in two spooks who every month played tricks on each other to no apparent real life sometimes does not seem much differ the americans today Are outraged to learn that one of their top Fri James was for at least is years allegedly a spy for the soviets and betraying his nations secrets for Cash while regularly attending the in turn Are outraged that the Cia and the Fri built a Tunnel under their embassy in Washington so that they could eavesdrop on their americans outrage is More legitimately Hanssen apparently functioned for a Long time As a double russian umbrage is to be taken less Hanssen allegedly informed Moscow of the Tunnel Long and they took pre cautions against they Only became outraged when he was arrested and the Beans were the in any Are no strangers to this it was Only a few years ago the Ameri can embassy in Moscow had to be largely rebuilt when it was discovered the construction workers on the original project included Kab agents who implanted listening devices in All the while this might seem to be Little More than another episode of Good spy bad it is in truth far More serious than among Hanssens alleged crime is the betrayal of russian double two of whom Are known to have been executed by what Means is not the Case reminds us that although the cold War May be the business of espionage continues when there Are there will be people paid or bribed to ferret them out and reveal every nation including Canada through it May a shabby and sordid but a necessary As the Hanssen Case it is deadly Latch key kid used to mean it Means now the Asper Row Asper indicts his own papers when Jean Chretien telephones the business development Bank about a loan to a con he is not calling As a simple member of parliament he Calls As the prime when David Asper sends a column to the newspapers owned by his family can West global com he writes not As a simple member of the As it states at the end of his piece As published by the National As chair Man of the publications committee of can West global communications any editor who gets a letter from his owner pays More attention to it than to a letter from Joe when the letter attacks not Only the opinions expressed in the newspaper but also its reporting and its the readers of that newspaper might ask what on Earth is going Aspers column appeared on tuesday in the Southam newspapers his company bought from Conrad they include the Ottawa citizen arid the Vancouver the National which is 50 per cent owned by companies controlled by Conrad Black and 50 per cent owned can West and where Black sits As waited a Day before publishing and then did so in the company of an editorial in loudly attacked what Asper had to in the National Post columnist Mark who is known for his hyperbolic by to compare David Asper the Globe and mail wrote a a piece appeared in the Toronto the gloves Are at first the affair has All the Hall Marks of grandstanding by the National Why Asper express his opinion in a newspaper that his family controls no Rea except that the one of Winnipeg leading entrepreneurial do not own just one they own most of the regional newspapers across the country the Winnipeg free Toronto the Sun Chain and the Hamilton Spectator Are exceptions and they control one of the two private television networks in the if Aspers which we reprint Are to be taken at face can West does not think much of the reporting and Opin ions of the newspapers it has the National Post look at this the medias coverage of the accusations against the prime minister has crossed a line that delineates solid investigative reporting from adjective driven Kinnuen this newspaper the National Post or any other newspaper the piece appeared in that Aspers owned and others across Canada have had a remarkably unfair go at the prime minister Over alleged financial they according to Asper been parroting the single tune of a desperate Wratten Tion Joe say what everyone in the Media knows that the National Post has been the Leader with this Story that the National Post is a righting newspaper that dislikes Chretien and the liberals and broadly espouses the opinions of its similarly righting founder Conrad but few who have followed the Story believe that Chretien does not have questions he should answer and actions he should apologize the problem that Asper has caused for himself and his newspapers is in one fell he has raised the ugly question of who is going to control not just the editorial Opin but the news direction of the papers his family it is a question that parliament ducked when the Aspers bought control of in part because they looked More in the style of the Thomson ownership than that of Conrad it appeared they wanted newspapers for Finan Cial rather than propaganda now that is not so Asper has every right to his opinions and owners have every right to impose their Opin ions and their views of news on the papers they no doubt Asper is frustrated that the paper his family writes both opinion and news that he feels is but his influence spreads much wider than that news what is a Reader of the Ottawa to when he or she reads that the owner thinks that its political reporting is unfair that the owner cannot control his subordinates or that he is trying to control them by casting a pall Over their work no one benefits from if the Aspers wish to control the editorial direction of the news papers they nothing can Stop them except for parliament and that might create More problems than it would what i read from Aspers piece is that he himself finds it infuriating that the newspapers he owns dont say what he wants them in they write the David Aspers May own too much of the Media in this country to Force the direction he if the Aspers put out edicts to the newspapers they they risk both howls of protest and a sterile that not to say they influence editorial policies at some what they need to do is to spell out what they believe about an owners role in to pms accusers put up or shut up the following commentary appeared on tuesday in Southam of which can West global communications is and on wednesday in the National of which can West global is by David Asper this newspaper Southam papers and the National Post and others across including other forms of have had a remarkably unfair go at the prime minister Over alleged financial mis dealings in Shamini parroting the single tune of a desperate for attention Joe Clark and repeating other factual information Over and Over As though such repetition will yield some new the attacks on the pm seriously violate any notion of civil rights regarding the role and Burden of an the ethics commissioner and the ramp have reviewed All of the accusations against the prime while matters of serious National importance should Domi Nate the daily Public we have apparently been overcome by the Clamour of people like Clark who literally have nothing else to Chretien accusers holler that Howard the ethics reports directly to the prime minister As though that fact alone proves some has anyone offered any evidence whatsoever that Wilson in fact acted improperly did he cheat some Rule did he behave unethically himself is he under a demonstrable undue influence of the prime minister it is not enough for accusers to simply dismiss the find Ings of Wilson Only because of the systemic environment in which he to reject and claim As unfair those presumes wrongdoing that Wilson acted in a Way designed Only to achieve a result favourable to the prime of there is no evidence of we in the Media have allowed the accusers to Ham Mer away without being put to the test of equally offensive is the manner in which the decision by the ramp to not proceed with any further investigation has been almost totally almost As though the pms accusers did not like that result and hit the delete but the Law of Canada requires that no one be convicted of a criminal offence unless there is proof beyond a reasonable in civil the Burden of proof is less stringent but still Calls for a quantum of meaningful evidence in support of a proponents these evidentiary thresholds exist to protect individuals from criminal or civil consequences unless the behaviour complained of More Likely than not actually they who accuse virtually always carry the primary duty of prov ing the Validity of their what we have seen Over the past several months has unquestionably been a blizzard of accusations levelled at the prime it must be admitted that in Public people Are properly subject to the Glare of Public this is quite different from becoming the object of ill found or pure fishing expedition accusations made by political opponents and then broadly reported on and Analysed by scandal hungry Media All too fiction can become truth in this what has happened is similar to allegations made against teachers or others in a position of once the allegation is everyone tends to look Back and ascribe new and wrong Ful meaning to prior to the Alle were considered to be quite no matter what happens after the charge is including Complete there is no path Back to the medias coverage of the accusations against the prime minister has crossed a line that delineates solid investigative reporting from adjective driven the time is now Long overdue for Chretien accusers to put up or shut up with facts and hard on the basis of which Are now clearly on the Public it May be that the better approach would be to begin to question the accusers in Cana Dian there is a crime known As Public mis which exists to deter and punish people from making false accusations of criminal con and skirt this bit of detail by relying on a parliamentary privilege of immunity for remarks made in the House of surely this does not also shield the accusers from appropriate Public scrutiny As to their motivation and factual basis underlying the in some the Hope for sensationalistic Story is one of prime ministerial in these quarters How the Story is about fairness and the application of elementary principles of natural a free press is essential to democracy provided that it acts and in this the repetitive and largely unsubstantiated attacks on the prime minister Are Irre Spon with numerous divergent views from the prime minister on Many matters of National and therefore taking political sympathies out of it would still be a pleasure to dust off the old barrister Robes and apply a few Basic Points of Cross examination to Chretien the prime minister is As deserving of fairness As anyone else in and its a sad comment that our National Polit ical affairs have been hijacked by unfair Scanda mongering As opposed to things that really David Asper is chairman of the publications committee of can West global communications and a former criminal defence Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 1 vol 129 no 93 2001 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 of the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor ;