Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 14, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba C Ity & District Winnipeg repress. Com t thursday pril 14, 2005 Gordon Sinclair or. Family notices b9 City editor Steve Pona 697 7292 City. Desk free press. My. Ca b 1 Assiniboine makes it easy to do the things you be always wanted with our Zero interest and Zero payment personal Loans. Now you have Zero excuses for holding Back. Zero excuses. Only at Assiniboine. Call us today or visit us online. 1 877 958 8588 / try 957 1587 wow. Assiniboine. My. Ca the Zero excuses loan Kim & Troy Acu members since 2003 t Oday three stories about the jittery hypersensitive Post 9/ 11 world of travel. Please fasten your seat belts and make sure your carry on baggage is stored in the overhead bins. On sunday morning i showed up Early for an air Canada flight to los Angeles with my new Canadian passport More on that later one carry on bag and a suitcase. Boarding pass and customs card in hand i proceeded to the Security line where As the routine goes the shoes came off and the soles of my feet were scanned. Then the other shoe dropped. A Nice Young appropriately uniformed Man informed me that he was about to do a body Pat Down. On me do you have any sensitive areas he asked. Now i dont want to give the impression that ism Overly sensitive about being singled out for special scrutiny by our own Homeland Security apparatus but. Last week you May recall lawyer Ian Restall was surprised when he actually received a Call from passport Canada after i used him As my guarantor on a passport application. Restall who has a largely commercial practice situated on Leafy and Lovely Broadway said that was a one in 100 experience for him. Given that the Day i applied for the passport auditor general Sheila Fraser criticized passport Canada for not doing enough of those kinds of checks i wondered if the Call to Check on me was inspired by someone seeing journalist on my application and being afraid that i was testing the system. Maybe. But maybe not. Ingrid Nickel is a lawyer who practises in Garden City which in terms of ethnic demographics is a world away from re stalls Broadway practice. Last week after Reading the column on my passport adventures she dashed off an e mail. She said that its her perception that the number of follow up Telephone Calls to guarantors like her have increased particularly since 9/ 11. And she added the Calls have been selective. On one occasion she wrote i was questioned extremely thoroughly in relation to my personal knowledge of a Law abiding applicant a businessman resident in Canada for Many years. He was a devout Muslim with dark hair and complexion who wore religious headgear and was renewing his passport in order to make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. On another occasion i was questioned when a Canadian born applicant under 30 and male required a passport to be issued on an expedited basis As he had a sudden Opportunity to vacation with friends in a european destination where recreational drug use and prostitution Are tolerated. I recall having received other follow up Calls where applicants were either recent Canadian citizens not caucasian in appearance or both. Continued please see Sinclair b 2 by Nick Martin t he University of Winnipeg has created an arms length Agency to develop housing classrooms stores and inner City Green space in a sweeping program of Campus and downtown renewal u of w president Lloyd Axworthy said last night. Axworthy will officially announce the University of Winnipeg Community renewal corporation at a Winnipeg chamber of Commerce conference on the downtown this morning. We see opportunities emerging in the Field of recreation and housing As Early As this summer Axworthy said. U of w has created the corporation so that it can move beyond its purely education mandate he explained As a University were not set up to be developers we have a University to run. Axworthy said he has had extensive talks with All three Levels of government and Hopes to obtain major Grants to fund the new corporation. Weave put in some proposals to the different Levels of government. This is a major catalyst for downtown renewal. Government funding would allow u of w to begin implementing the ambitious ideas that Axworthy has touted since becoming the University yes president less than a year ago. Those include the closing of Spence Street within the Campus to develop Green and retail space finding 500 student housing units building a theatre and moving into an upper floor of the Bay to run a downtown learning Centre. We need to look at designs look at real estate Axworthy said. Axworthy will chair the corporations 14 member Board which will have seven University representatives and seven from the Community and business. Continued please see renewal b 2 by Patti Edgar putting exhibits like the Prairies first Post office a real flying Saucer and Early farming tools under one roof Isnit popular among Winnipeg Gas museum directors. City councillors have struck a committee to come up with a new policy for dealing with Winnipeg Gas varied museums but a proposal to amalgamate some of them into one museum focusing on Winnipeg Gas history wont Likely be part of the discussion. The idea was recommended in a thin report drawn up by City staff Over two years. Museum workers and volunteers at a City Hall meeting yesterday we rent thrilled with the Mega museum idea. Jim Sesak president of the Transcona historical museum said Many of the Cit yes Small museums Are in heritage buildings that have a link to their neighbourhoods. These Are Community museums there to preserve the history of the Community and to serve the Community he said. If we were to have one Large museum personally i dont think the interest from the Public would be there. Philippe Mailhot director of the St. Boniface museum said it makes More sense to create a virtual Winnipeg museum by linking All the existing Small ones. Continued please see Mega museum b 2 by Bruce Owen a retired Winnipeg police officer yesterday accused senior officers including chief Jack Swatski of interfering in the investigation of prime suspect Terry Arnold in the 1981 murder of Barbara Stoppel. The claim by former det. Sgt. Bob Legge comes after earlier claims that Swatski and other officers intervention in the Case May have stymied any Chance police had to charge Arnold with Stoppels murder. Arnold 42, killed himself three and a half weeks ago in Victoria ending any possibility of charges in Stoppels death. Thomas soph now was wrongfully convicted in Stoppels death but his conviction was overturned in 1985. Legge speaking for the first time on the matter said he came Forward to support the Stoppel family and his former partner sgt. Andrew Mikolajewski. Swatski assigned both men to investigate Arnold in 1999. There were certainly decisions made by the police executive that we rent in mind with what we As investigators thought was in keeping with a murder investigation Legge said yesterday. A decision seemed to be made not to Progress on this investigation. Leggens comments came a Day before Rick Stoppel Barbaraus brother meets mayor Sam Katz on the police handling of his Sisters death. Continued please see Stoppel b 2 Arnold was the prime suspect in the notorious slaying of doughnut shop waitress but killed himself before being charged. U of w tackles renewal Axworthy unveils Agency to develop housing classrooms and stores Overly sensitive who me chief hindered Stoppel probe sex officer police handout proposed super museum attacked staff say they re part of communities Boris Minkevich / Winnipeg free press Sesak says Small museums Are there to preserve the history of the Community and to serve the Community ;