Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 28, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winnipeg free press Friday july 28, 2006 Freedom of Trade comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorials what about the Money t Here is no shortage of ideas to improve Winnipeg a crumbling status As a major City. Those ideas have been collecting dust in numerous reports about renewal and Many of them have not been rounded up in the latest of such Calls to action ? the report from mayor Sam Katz a Winnipeg City Summit. As a summary of what needs to be done it is succinct and mostly specific. As a plan for action it Falls far Short and ignores the most obvious question underscoring the renew Al that must take place ? How will All the Bright ideas be financed the most obvious workable answer to that question was published in 2003 by Glen Murray the former mayor who envisioned a new Deal to rewrite some funding and taxation relation ships Between the civic and higher Levels of government and with the taxpayers of Winnipeg. Or. Murray talked about cutting taxes and implementing new ones Many of them user fees with Money specifically targeted at projects ? roads garbage collection policing infrastructure projects and recreation ? related to areas in which those fees were raised. That was an idea backed by a plan. Or. Katz does to like to talk about or. Murray a new Deal. That was abundantly evident in the report written by the summits three co chairs. The Only mention of it is in a reference to past reports noting or. Murray a new Deal was not a joint initiative with the province. Sadly there is Little mention in the new report of mostly old ideas of How to pay for the things Winni Eggers can agree need doing. To his credit or. Katz has targeted some Defini Tive reforms with varying Levels of Success. He has made combating Petty and serious crime in the downtown and in the West end a priority and has seen that the police budget has increased some and has spurred police to concentrate on High crime areas. He has levered More Money out of the provincial government to put More cops on the Street. He has pushed for the police service to adopt a crime tracking computer Model that will enable police to tailor efforts where crime happens. As Well he has aimed his sights on cutting business taxes first in the downtown. He has not however found a Good sustainable Way to replace lost revenues which makes further tax cuts questionable. Many of the participants in or. Katz a Spring sum Mit were sceptical about whether yet another brain storming session would amount to anything More than another Dusty report. That is almost surely the Fate of this report this week. But or. Katz is right Winni Eggers Are not looking for a sexy bold idea to Chart the future of their City. They Are looking for All the Basic problems to be fixed. Most of the fixes Are pretty Basic. It will take some inspiration to Hammer out a workable idea to pay for it All. That is where the vision stuff comes in. The honest broker in an interview published in yesterdays free press Lloyd Axworthy who was minister of for eign affairs in the Liberal government of Jean Chr Tien attacked the conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harper for its support of Israel in the current Middle East warfare. Or. Axworthy once again chanted the old mantra of honest that he says is the role Canada should play in International affairs. Two weeks ago Hezbollah terrorists invaded Israel killed several soldiers and kidnapped two whom they Are holding for Ransom. Israel responded by attacking Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. The fighting continues As israeli ground forces try to Clear the terrorists from a Buffer zone in the South of Lebanon. Or. Harper has said the israeli response was measured and despite some strenuous criticism continues to defend that position. This has enraged interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham and or. Axworthy although according to the most recent poll 56 per cent of canadians agree with or. Harper that Israel has a right to defend itself. But this is not about politics. It is about principle. Or. Axworthy also defends Israel a right to defend itself. He just does not seem to think it should Actu ally do so. He Calls for an immediate ceasefire although that would Only give Hezbollah the Victory it wants leave the rocket launchers in Southern Lebanon in place and give the terrorists free rein to continue their attacks on israeli civilians. It would also or. Axworthy thinks give Canada the Opportunity to play honest like Many liberals he clings to this idea although it is largely a myth. In the honest broker role As liberals under stand it today one does not take sides Between right and wrong. Lester Pearson a brokerage of the 1956 Suez crisis is held up As the first example of this ? or. Axworthy cites it himself ? but Pearson did take sides. He condemned the British and French attempt to appropriate the Suez canal but because he was a Man of principle who could be respected he was Able to honestly broker the negotiations. A succession of Liberal governments since then have claimed the honest broker Label to avoid Tak ing a stand. A nation that will not take a stand on principle a moral stand on issues As or. Harper has done in the current Middle East crisis cannot be an honest broker. It can however be a simple broker a dealer in compromised principles. Or. Harper has rightly refused to do that. Canadians can once again feel the same kind of Pride in their country that they Felt in 1956. Have your say the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697-7412. Email in defence of column a commentary article of mine lets use common sense in cases of mercy killing May 7 argued that Manitoba a Justice depart ment shows a Lack of common sense and humanity in the Way it handles mercy killing cases. I focused on the prosecution of two sick old men Bert Doerksen and Tony Jaworski. Doerksen assisted his wife Susan to take her own life. Jaworski killed his wife Sophie by stabbing her with a knife. Both were cases in which the wife was suffering terribly and the husband acted from the motive of mercy or compassion. Melinda Murray was the Crown attorney responsible for the criminal prosecution of Tony Jaworski. She now seeks to justify her conduct of his Case Crown attorney responds july 24. Or. Jaworski was originally charged with murder. This crime carries a mandatory sen tence of life imprisonment. I argued that it made no sense to imprison a feeble old Man Blind and deaf who killed from mercy. Is. Murray tries to avoid personal responsibility by claiming that the police Are the ones who Lay charges but she neglects to mention that it is the Crown that decides whether to proceed with those charges. Her second line of defence is the claim that she agreed to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter thereby giving the court discretion to impose a lesser sentence if the circumstances warranted. But for a full year and a half is. Murray insisted that or. Jaworski should be charged with murder. She also refused to allow him his Freedom Pend ing trial. Only after or. Jaworski had spent two years in jail did she finally relent. The reason she offered As documented in the court transcript was that her Case had difficulties. In other words if is. Murray could have obtained a conviction for second degree murder with its mandatory minimum sen tence of 10 years in prison before parole eligibility it appears that she would have done so. Arthur Schafer Winnipeg crime stats misleading re City is Auto theft capital july 21. The reason the unknowing and naive believe that Canadas crime rate is dropping is because they understand neither crime victims nor How Law enforcement statistics Are compiled. A Winnipeg police officer told me several years ago that the City a crime rate would be dropping steadily Over the next few years because they had adapted a system to make it inconvenient to report crime. If an offence is not reported statistically it did to happen. It turns out his fore cast was accurate. While crime increases steadily crime drops statistically because people no longer report crimes for two obvious reasons. First they know the police Are unlikely to respond due to an extremely heavy workload. Second every informed Canadian realizes that there is no consequence for crime in Canada. Brian n. Cox Winnipeg too Tough on fringe plays it is so unfortunate that there is no recourse when a fringe reviewer writes a less than flattering review of a performance in the free press. The actors and perform ers in some cases have been developing their plays for six months or More rehearsing non Stop constructing props and researching appropriate music. Most of these people have put their hearts and souls into their performances and should be respected for this. A tired fringed out reviewer can seriously damage a career. I understand reviewers have criteria but do they All have a Standard understanding of what reaches these criteria is there training and discussion of what constitutes a performance achieving each of the Levels of stars is there a Standard Rubric Barb Shawcross Winnipeg Barker most decorated it May be that Roy Brown shot Down the red Baron and Billy Bishop destroyed 72 enemy aircraft but Billy Bishop was not the most decorated Allied airman of the first world War. That honour belongs to William g. Barker of Dauphin. He won the Victoria Cross do and bar the my and two bars Croix de Guerre two italian Silver medals for valour and More. Al Barker no relation Winnipeg offended by cartoon i found wednesdays editorial cartoon highly offensive and in extremely bad taste considering Kofi Annan a comments the pre Vious evening condemning the israeli air Force attack on a United nations Bunker that killed a Canadian Soldier. This attack was either deliberate in which Case or. Annan should rightfully protest in the loudest Possi ble voice the death of four in peacekeepers or an error in which Case Israel owes the in a detailed explanation. Regardless your inclusion of this derisive cartoon depicting or. Annan a protest As a weak and cowardly thing was wrong and insults the memory of a Canadian Soldier who was serving in a peacekeeping role with the in. Keith Gathercole Gimli take preventative measures Lindor Reynolds gives us her usual heart wrenching tale of yet another visitor to Winnipeg being mistreated and How they la never return. And we re All aghast like it was an isolated incident. And upon Reading is. Reynolds column readers jump up and Tell us they Are ashamed and embarrassed to live Here. Like this is the Only City where this kind of thing happens. Now before anyone says How would you feel if it happened to you ? please know that in a space of 10 years i be had my vehicle stolen once and almost stolen twice. So to repeat the obvious Don to leave stuff in your car no matter where you Are from. Rodney Paquin Winnipeg . Part of problem i find it ironic that the United states reserves the right to set Forth the conditions upon which it will agree to support a cease fire in the Lebanon crisis while historically speaking it has repeatedly contributed in no Small Way to the ongoing instability of the Region in its own Best interests. While the Fin Ger pointing is aimed at Iran and its role in the whole affair we ought to remember that the Rule of the Shah heavily supported by the . Government and later overthrown by Khomeini and supporters helped Lay the ground for the islamic extremism we Are facing today. Dan Donahue Winnipeg ? 2006 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian Andrew s. Ritchie / publisher newspapers limited partnership Bob Cox / editor published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Patrick Flynn / Deputy editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 ;