Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 8, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 fair it 2001 comment editor Terence Moore 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights targeting repeaters the doer government appears doggedly determined to take impaired Drivers off the it has turned the screws a Little tighter on these particularly those previously found blowing Over Legal hardcore offenders those who repeatedly jump behind the wheel while impaired Are considered the Tough est nut to crack in the War against impaired changes introduced to legislation yesterday make it More difficult for these people to get Back on to the Road statistics and literature compiled by statistics Canada suggest but do not prove that drinkers Are less Likely to drive than across provinces have moved Over the years to toughen the reducing the limits allowed and introducing licence suspensions and vehicle these Laws build on criminal code imposed on people who drive with More than 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 litres of or per like other impounds vehicles and suspends Dri vers licences for those driving at or Over a limit of per evidence suggests that the increased combined with increased awareness of the dangers of driving while have helped reduce the number of people caught driving while a similar picture emerges in major except for Winnipeg where the number of charges has stats cans impaired driving in Canada report the report that most police officers say they Are unlikely to Crimi Nally charge people who blow below per cent because of the paperwork involved and the increased Chance that the breathalyzer Evi Dence will be challenged in police Are More Likely to impose an immediate provincial licence suspension and vehicle the same 1999 echoes a concern of transport which found that penalties and charges do Little to deter the Small group of hardcore impaired to that Manitoba has joined a number of other provinces increasing the length of licence suspensions for repeat offend anyone convicted of a third for exam would face a 10year licence rather than the current a fourth time offender could lose their licence As in the Legisla Tion proposed yesterday by attorney general Gord Mackintosh would double to 10 years the Tim Frame for calculating a repeat As any offender who has the length of their licence suspensions reduced under a special criminal code provi Sion would have to install a breathalyzer like device in their cars that locks the ignition if the Driver has been someone determined to drive despite licence sus pension will Likely find a Way to do in addition to increasing the penalties for doing Manitoba has committed to stepping up Roadside checks by which makes getting caught More increasing the sanctions for these offences High lights the priority Law enforcers attach to which can influence Public available Evi Dence indicates these combined measures should reduce drinking and the Best Protection against the dangers posed by repeat offenders May be to lock them and that is More Likely if they Are caught More the governments efforts should help to see that Mideast ceasefire Israel withheld retaliation for the massacre of its children by a palestinian suicide bomber last Fri the government of prime minister Ariel Sharon came under fierce criticism within Israel for what was seen As a failure to respond to the worst atrocity since the current Intifada began last but his restraint showed a sincere intention to reach a workable Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in May after the Mitchell report on the Middle East called for a that was dismissed by palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat and his supporters in the International Community As a hypocritical on the pales Tinian the violence culminating in the horror that saw 20 israeli teenagers killed and dozens injured in a suicide bombing in Tel the International outrage sparked by that single act of terrorism finally forced Arafat to officially join in the ceasefire last Arafat has always depended on the sympathy of the tolerance of the International Community towards his intransigence has encouraged him in his Campaign of violence against this latest has stretched that that Toler to the breaking Point and the palestinian however had to the result has been an increased momentum in the peace incidents of violence have decreased although they have not stopped and could escalate again at any this Israel began to lift some restrictions it had placed on the movement of palestinians across the Borders Israel shares with the West Bank and the palestinian authority appeared to be try ing to enforce the ceasefire within its own military and paramilitary despite All these gestures and peace was nowhere in even the ceasefire is unenthusiastic ally endorsed by the palestinians and rejected by the terrorists of As it buried 20 of its children without striking offered proof of its Arafat must now prove v in order to have a you need to have accomplished a therein lies the Public humiliation gets the nod there is now a web site that lets you listen in on Peoples cellphone some where in Ottawa there is a scanner intercept ing cellphone traffic and the scanner is connected to a computer and the computer is hosting a web when you connect your computer to that web you can listen to people calling Home from the grocery store to say there Are no Mani la would mex ican mangoes do instead this ingenious convergence of cell phone technology and computer technology was described in an Ottawa newspaper yes i am not sure what Good this does but this is where technology and human imagination have brought with any you might hear people making total fools of them selves in the privacy of their own restau rant concert Halls and the other places where people use their cellphones Are seen More and More i Learned last summer that a woman having her morning Shower in the bathroom of a University during a summer music was surprised to hear a cellphone ring she was still More surprised to hear the woman in the next Shower stall answer the at a recent communion service in a Winnipeg anglican a ringing sound was heard during the eucharistic prayer at about the Point where the priest elevated the it seemed that the Bell ringing practices of an earlier Era were being but then someone pulled out a ringing cellphone and the mystery was when you overhear cell phone you will hear people in All possible can i Call you Back in a few Honey were at the graveside it is not really necessary to violate anyone to find people making total fools of this canadians were Able to watch the entire parliament of Canada voting themselves pay increases rang ing from 20 per cent in the Case of common or Garden members to 42 per cent in the Case of the grotesquely overworked and underpaid prime it was wonderful to see they didst want to seem too eager or too greedy but they wanted to be absolutely sure they got the they sauntered casually into the Cham humming softly to looking vaguely into the Middle evidently thinking High minded thoughts about the coun try they love so dearly and As if by Over to the Corner where govern ment House Leader Don Boudria was handing out satchels of in a they were who knew they could move so fast you dont have to go snooping with scanners to see these people humiliating they do it right out there in Plain View of the same with the Texas alcoholic beverage that the outfit that has come Down like a ton of bricks it would be a tonne of bricks in but they did it in Texas on the Austin restaurant where Jenna daughter to Pennsylvania Avenue tenant George showed someone else identification papers so that they would serve her a she is Only 19 years old and you cant drink legally in a Texas or in any other until you reach the result ing kerfuffle embarrassed the first Loyal supporters of Bush were con Vinced that the restaurant had reported Jenna Bush behaviour for sinister political the Texas alcoholic beverage commission has launched an investigation into the conduct of the where other minors with Jenna Bush May have been the restaurant could lose its liquor licence on account of the the White House was hoping the incident would disappear and last week was appealing to the press to Stop writing about when there was nothing More to the stories pretty Well then the Texas alcoholic beverage commission got into the act and produced a fresh spate of publicity about the Bush family and its recurring encounters with the liquor the Bush family can handle their political enemies handily but someone should save them from their with comedies like this on Public who needs to intercept cellphone chatter 3 old warhorse drag tories Down As the train wreck known As the Canadian Alliance hurtles towards political fed eral conservative Leader Joe Clark has every reason to be he has snatched Canadas founding party from the Brink of canadians will demand an alter native to the the party they will choose will be both ideologically and regional the Alliance can never be that with or without the hapless Stockwell that leaves the tories As the Only option on the two new polls make that the Road Back for the tories wont be Quick and it wont be and the strange strategy of setting former prime minister Brian Mulroney at the front of the shop window is not making things any a Toronto research con ducted april 24 to May 22 among Cana places the liberals at per the at per cent and the Alliance at per the nip and bloc Quebe Cois Trail at per cent and per a Post taken May 27 to May 30 among 589 gives the liberals a near record 53 per the tories 15 per the bloc 12 per the Alliance 10 per cent and the nip eight per the tories have sup planted the Alliance in popular sup but Only noting that the latest Survey is almost identical to one taken a year Ekos says the stalemate leaves both parties in an unenviable unite the right is More Media spectacle than fundamental political Over the past two the tories and the Ca have successively swapped positions As the alternative and Best Hope for the even a perfect conversion to one or the other would produce Only a mild Chal Lenge to current Liberal for the a perfect conversion is highly in other while Clark is enjoying positive personal canadians remain decidedly less enthusiastic about his this is Why Mulroney ongoing efforts to rehabilitate himself by endorsing Clark and rallying the tory troops Are so three times in the past the former prime minister has appeared As the Star attraction at a major tory the most recent occasion was at Montreal Rit Carleton the very place where Mulroney pledged undying fealty to Clark As party Leader while plotting to unseat him in the Early Mulroney has also popped up As the author of lengthy self congratulatory pred pieces published in the Globe and mail and the National the former prime minis ter proved in the articles that he has spent too Long sequestered in corporate boardrooms and Learned nothing from the visceral Public hatred that drove him to resign in a1999 envy sonics poll found canadians rated him last among postwar former prime Over 66 per cent said he was a poor prime min including 38 per cent who judged him very Mulroney proclaimed the tightness of every decision he Ever enthusiastically trumpeting the benefits of the goods and ser vices free privatization package and displaying once again his unbounded admiration for the and All things american Over Canada and All things if you can make it you can make it he bubbled in the april 17 i know the second president As i knew the both Are principled and i know George Bush to be a Leader capable of seizing the Clark no doubt noticed another Power Ful Mulroney Ite lurking at the Back of the room at the Rit Carleton cocktail Peter the Conrad Black Whiz kid who Early on and noisily defected to the United alter native movement and is now co chair of the Canadian Alliance was enigmatic when asked if he was returning to the tory one Swallow does not make a he told a Mulroney May help the tories recover somewhat in White May lend a hand on Bay but if Clarks admirable party rebuilding project is truly to take these old warhorse must be Shuf fled to the Side As reminders of an Era most canadians want desperately to for the All Par need dynamic leadership from a whole new political one that has visions and plans for Canada beyond counting eco nomic indicators and ultimately drowning in some United states of North i Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press esl 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n0178 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 Flynn Deputy editor ;