Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free press saturday july 29, 2006 Freedom of Trade comment editor Gerald flood 697-7269 Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorials Steve Juba he a not i n 1966, fabled Winnipeg mayor Steve Juba received a postcard from the editor of the Maga Zine swimming times of England. The editor a William Juba had written Steve Juba to congratulate him for Landing the pan am games to be held the following year. What caught mayor Juba Satten Tion however was the postcard itself it showed the american aquatic museum in fort Lauderdale Florida. At that moment one of those Little Eureka bulbs blinked on and or. Juba asked in effect Why Don to we have a Canadian aquatic museum and open it right Here in Winnipeg Why not indeed or. Juba approached Vaughn Baird a lawyer and for Mer Manitoba swimming Champion who was in charge of fundraising to build a swimming Pool for the games. Or. Juba asked him to also look into the museum idea. In Short order or. Baird not Only secured Money to build the pan am Pool he also secured funds to have it enclosed for year round use and he obtained rights to have an aquatic museum located in the same building. In the 40 years since that time or. Baird has dedicated an enormous amount of time and Money to building the museums collection which is now valued at several millions of dollars and includes Many Fine Art objects and rare artefacts including the Post card that launched the whole thing in the first place. In addition eight years ago he succeeded in lobbying the various Levels of government to build a $1.7 million addition to the pan am Pool to House portions of the collection. But within a few years of its opening the City started allowing other uses of the space and demanded an agreement be reached to ensure that it would no longer be liable for any thing to do with the museum and its collection which has decorated the Pool and Given it character All these Many years. Those negotiations dragged on for years with the result that the City last month drafted a my Way or the Highway ultimatum to the museum ? that it either accept the City a conditions which it could not afford to do or pack up and get out. Mayor Sam Katz like every mayor since or. Juba was an honorary member of the museum Board. He resigned from that position to vote in favour of the ultimatum which is being enforced now to the letter with the result that most of the museum artefacts have been removed to storage. Or. Katz says he is a great admirer of Steve Juba and tries to emulate him but obviously he does to try hard. Or. Juba after All saw a postcard and was inspired to create something unique and valuable in Winnipeg. Or. Katz who has never accepted an invitation to visit the museum and has not seen the historic postcard looked at a Mountain of paper produced by bureaucrats Over several years and decided to destroy something unique and valuable and have it carted away to another Canadian City. To rephrase sen. Lloyd Bentsen swords to sen Dan Quayle in a . Election debate Winnipeg knew Steve Juba. Mayor you Are no Steve dog attack outrage children Are attracted to dogs dogs less so to children. Kids Are furtive Clumsy and unpredictable and look a lot like lesser animals inter lop ing upon a dogs Domain. That is Why dogs and unfamiliar children must be kept separate or closely watched when sharing space. Untethered or unsupervised dogs Are a definable risk that no pet owner should impose on a Community but that message has not sunk in for some particularly on first nations reserves. In the last decade four children have died from dog mailings. This week two year old Derian Bird of hollow water first nation became the fifth. That is not just tragic it is an outrage. Despite ample publicity of the previous four deaths 1996, 1998, 2003 and last Mont dogs commonly wander freely about the communities. Hol Low water has a bylaw restricting the movement of some dogs other communities insist All dogs be tethered. But the problem of strays persists. A hol Low water councillor regretted that its bylaw is not enforced and that the Community had to lose the life of a child to recall the logic of prevention. Hol Low water is not alone in its lapse Cross Lake adopted a bylaw ordering the killing of strays in 1996 after the death of a three year old in 1998, an eight year old died from an attack by a pack and then More than 100 strays were killed. There is no magic to reducing the risk of dog mailings. The obvious first step is to impose and enforce a duty of care and personal responsibility on dog owners. Manitoba a Public health officer should Call together staff from the medical examiner a office and the Manitoba Assembly of chiefs to plot simple strategies to reduce the threat of dog attacks. Dog owners must be held to account through stiff fines for letting pets wander and for attacks that result in harm and death. The Winnipeg humane society for years has run spay and neuter clinics for first nations communities. Such clinics should be routine among the communities to reduce considerably the number of unwanted puppies. A relative said Derian Bird apparently slipped away from his House and into a Neighbours property where a dog was tethered and another ran Loose. I guess he Derian just overstepped his Borders he noted. Little children do not know boundaries they must explore their world. Many if not most children will feel the sting of a dogs bite. A child a death from a dog attack is inexcusable. 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 another Day another payout of for the love of god. Is someone going to Pony up every time some naive out of Towner gets ripped off did to this happen last year to a family from abroad or was it that military Guy two years ago i a losing track. Seems to me every year some entity related to the tourist Industry in this Case travel Manitoba chooses the victims of a High profile crime and then compensates them out the wazoo. The victim ? a police officer from Spring Field ill. ? when talking about crime in his native state was quoted As saying there Are about 200,000 people in Springfield. Its nothing like that not even when we have what wed Call a crime wave. We travel a lot to Chicago and its not like that a right Chicago does to have crime. Whatever. For the record a Quick Google search shows that crime in Springfield ill., has roughly the same amount of criminal activity per capita As Winnipeg. Chicago has More. And the policeman left his video camera and did player in his vehicle overnight with the tapes they had already shot come on. How naive for anyone let alone a Law enforcement officer. I agree with Lindor Reynolds ? Winnipeg does have problem that needs to be fixed. But this sudden Windfall ? rewarding stupidity ? does to really address it. Rick Loewen landmark sobering projections re Deal removes last obstacle in Way of Waverley West july 27. Perhaps this is the time to look Back with nostalgia at and Leas traffic study done for Waverley West in 2003. Gone Are smart growth features like rapid transit and easy pedestrian Access to a town Centre that May or not be built. With All the attention on the Kenaston underpass and the inevitable Waverley underpass there Are unnoticed sobering projections in the and Lea study. While 41 per cent of projected automobile trips out of Waverley West will be North on Waverley and Kenaston 50 per cent of local automobile trips will be East on Bishop Grandin 38 per cent and on Bison drive 12 per cent. Bishop Grandin will need six traffic lanes by year 10 of the build out and eight lanes by year 25. The existing Bridges Over the red River make this impossible. An already congested Pembina Highway will need eight lanes by year 20. Existing build Ings on the stretch Between Grant and confusion Corner make this impossible As Well. Waverley West a traffic problems Are a problem left for the next decade to Deal with. While Eugene Kostyra the architect of Waverley West is leaving the province in year 1 and mayor Sam Katz will be Long retired by year 10, the rest of us will be stuck on Pembina Highway in a traffic Jam that never ends. David Watson Winnipeg pre election talk i Felt uplifted about our City a future when the Winnipeg Summit findings were letter of the Day toddler seats for planes re turbulence broke Seatbelt july 26. In reference to the article concerning the injuries caused to five passengers aboard the perimeter aviation flight from St. Theresa Point i note that two of the five injured persons were toddlers who were not being restrained by Seatbelt. It makes no sense in this Day and age of car seats Bike helmets and airbags that we allow toddlers to Fly without the necessity of a secure restraining system in the event of turbulence or Accident. There must be some commercial element to this which makes the airlines reluctant to demand All infants be restrained by a safety seat secured by a Seatbelt. I believe the investigators need to probe Why toddlers Are not required to be properly restrained. Richard Fulham Winnipeg unveiled. However its Clear through City Halls decision regarding Waverley West that the Summit is Only pre election feel Good talk. How else can Winni Eggers feel now that Core development has been slashed to pay for suburban expansion in addition City Hall is notoriously lacking in Long term planning. In this latest Waverley West decision both major overpasses will be removed from the plans. It will Cost much More later to add them when the traffic along Kenaston Boulevard will grow even worse. Has tour civic leadership Learned anything through the 10-year Kenaston underpass debate even More surprising is the Lack of planning for the increased traffic flow along Kenaston through Tuxedo and Over the Assiniboine River. Decisions like these May Force our City into a rapid transit system whether we want it or can pay for it. Chris Mackie Winnipeg another soulless suburb the news that Waverley West will include no flyovers to allow pedestrians Access to the town Centre without crossing Kenaston Boulevard should come As no Surprise to observers of City politics. Proponents of this suburb the latest sacrifice to the gods of Urban sprawl claimed it would incorporate progressive elements to make it a Model development. Expect further capitulation to convention As planning proceeds. Those with an Eye for Urban planning have decried Waverley West since its inception. Does Winnipeg need yet another soulless suburb at the Edge of the City instead of focusing on development patterns that clearly Arent working planners plod on with eyes covered and ears plugged. Traffic congestion and obesity grow while the City discourages alternate forms of transportation by under funding transit and being actively hostile to cyclists. In a time when we deserve leadership from City Hall and the legislature politicians Are Content to continue with the dysfunctional status quo. Progressive Winni Eggers concerned with sustainable development must remember that mayor Sam Katz and the majority of councillors Are hopelessly Back Ward when election time comes in october. Ken Gerrard Winnipeg which diasporas we were rather taken Aback to have read the comments in thursdays free press which wrongly quoted Lloyd Axworthy Sug Gesting that the Asper family and their Media companies were responsible for deter mining current government policy on the Middle East. We Are even More astonished to have read the clarification of his remarks in fridays edition of the paper that or. Axworthy did to mean the Aspers but we wonder which diasporas he meant. After All a lot of us can fit into Diaspora groups. That being the Case or. Axworthy a com ments evoke memories of the bitter remarks of Jacques Parizeau. When commenting on Why the Sovereign lists lost he blamed Money and the ethnic As a former Federal minister and As president of the University of Winnipeg or. Axworthy would surely agree that in a free and democratic society groups of various interests have the right to express their views to our elected officials. That Basic principle of democracy surely applies even to Diaspora groups. Or. Axworthy a curious reference to groups Sug Gesting that they have dual loyalties is both offensive and odious. Edward Ted Lyons Bob Freedman jewish federation of Winnipeg Axworthy a views outdated re Axworthy says Canada threw away peace role july 27. Lloyd Axworthy is concerned about Canada taking a different role in the world Politi Cal scene because the Harper government is getting out of the peacekeeping game and agreeing with the in backing Israel in its War against terrorists. With All due respect to the honourable or. Axworthy his opinion would be worthwhile if we were Back in the Lester Pearson Era. Unfortunately the world has changed and i would ask or. Axworthy How he expects our military to maintain peace with terrorist groups who teach their children to become human bombs and kill As Many innocent people As possible. Stephen Harper has it right. Canada should get out of the peacekeeping business speak softly and carry a big stick. Jack Manson Clearwater Bay ont. Winnipeg free press. Today a question previous question after nearly 30 years the Winnipeg convention Centre has decided to drop oktoberfest. Are you should the City have done More to keep the aquatic Hall of going to miss the annual Beer Bash yes 15% / no 85% / total 489 Fame in Winnipeg vote online at poll ? 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 ;