Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 10, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A11 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade thursday August 10, 2006 Liberty of religion comment editor Equality of civil rights Gerald flood 697-7269 editorials stepping up the patrol m mayor Sam Katz is putting a lot of Stock in a project to turn ten downtown watch Pat rollers into special constables with authority to pick up and detain intoxicated persons lying about or weaving Down the Street. It will make downtown a safer better place to live work and visit or. Katz believes. As a social service to peo ple with addictions the program could be useful. As a Means of policing on the cheap it is risky. The special constables will be appointed under the City a charter to enforce the provincial intoxicated persons detention act which allows a peace officer to pick up and transport those under the influence of sub stances to the local drunk tank. The Down town Winnipeg business improvement zone whose red shirted Pat rollers now walk the area As ambassadors for the merchants cannot now transport Street people but they May on occasion walk them to the main Street project where they can dry out under supervision in a Safe place. As of octo Ber some of the ambassadors will be trained by the Winnipeg police service to defuse minor conflicts to help ? and if necessary hold ? those deemed too drunk to take care of themselves and find them a Safe place. Downtown Biz says it will not move someone who is not conscious nor hold those who Are aggressive. They will Call emergency responders or the police As they do now. But they also will remove intoxicated people from Public places even if those people do not want to to be removed. Or. Katz has declared War on panhandlers most of whom Are benign but frequently intoxicated and now he is saying drunks Are not just a blight but an abiding threat to others. Winnipeg South my Rod Bruinooge the Harper governments emissary said the project a sign Ottawa making Good on a pledge to keep people Safe in their Homes and in their police officers Are Best suited to protect the Public equipped with the training and authority everyone can recognize and understand. But that would Cost More than the $250,000 a year governments have budgeted for the project out of the Winnipeg partnership agreement. None of the politicians explained tuesday How it will protect the interests of both the special consta Bles and the Street people detained. The Winnipeg fire and paramedic service found in a similar Pilot project that agreeable drunks can quickly turn Vio Lent and non compliant on the Way to the drunk tank. Injury May result before the constables can get assistance from police. And an ornery drunk has a right to complain to an Independent review body about unnecessary intervention or excessive Force. Downtown merchants and their Pat rollers should have the resources to Deal with the areas problems and to help those in need of some care. Keeping the peace and protecting the general Public is a Job Best left to police officers. Afghan message the casualties suffered by Canadian troops in Afghanistan since they were first deployed there in 2002 have been body blows to the country a conviction in the rightness of the War to its commitment to the wider War on terror. On tuesday British . David Richards the commander of the nato forces in the hot zone of Southern Afghanistan implored Canada and canadians to stay the course in Afghanistan despite the mounting casualties experienced As Taliban terrorists step up the War there. Referring to Canadian casualties . Richards said i bitterly regret the loss of life. But i believe that. If Ever there a just War this is because the Federal government is strongly committed to Afghanistan and the Canadian military has not faltered and our soldiers refuse to flinch those comments would appear to be aimed directly at the Canadian Public. And the Public has some serious concerns. As if to prove the legitimacy of those concerns just hours after the nato Comman Der made his comments a Canadian Soldier killed in a shooting Accident and six others were injured in a separate traffic Accident. That brought the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 25 soldiers and one Diplomat and the number of casualties is rising on if not a daily basis certainly a weekly one. But also just hours after . Richards spoke the afghan government announced that Taliban forces had hanged a woman and her son from a tree because they suspected them of spying for the government. That the Afghanistan that before the International intervention overthrew the Tal iban government it is the Afghanistan that will be again if the International coalition withdraws. As the toll mounts Public support in Canada for the War weakens and the Call to bring the troops Home gets louder. Canadians however need to reflect on what is at stake Here. They should at least hear what . Richards their own chief of staff Gen. Rick Hillier their government and their allies have to say. And that is that Afghanistan is a just War and the soldiers who have died there in the nato Comman Der swords died for As Good a cause As i can think Gen. Hillier has estimated that the afghan commitment May take 10 years. It. Gen. Richards thinks the Job can be done in five ? needs to be done in five ? but that however Long it takes we just need to stay the course now and hang in that a message aimed straight at canadians. 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 joint crops for peace could an israeli act of Faith bring peace the average israeli and palestinian want peace. Of an israeli population of approximately seven million one fifth Are arabs who Are democratically represented in the israeli parliament. Israel made the desert Bloom with crops and technical advances that have Given the country the same Standard of living As West Ern Europe. Jobs provide a livelihood and solve social problems. Israel and Palestine working together could accomplish the same Standard of living to the advantage of both. Eighty per cent of the israeli Gross nation Al product is derived from advanced technology. Much of the remaining 20 per cent is manufacturing and crops that could be removed or expanded into the israeli Settle ments and nearby palestinian land on the West Bank. These enterprises could be jointly owned and worked with a labour Force equally of israelis and palestinians. Protection of these areas could be enforced by a joint Force equally of israelis and palestinians. After gradual beginnings palestinians would want to protect improve and expand these enclaves for the improvement of their Standard of living. What would have been the result if instead of withdrawing from Gaza crops therein had been shared and policed with joint israelis and palestinians w. Archie Speers Winnipeg a sea of documents re universities have their priorities All wrong free press aug. 6 i am writing to extend their Point about the reported inflation of administrative officer staff salaries at Manitoba universities. What concerns me most is not the actual salaries but the apparent need for every administrative officer from vice presidents to Deans to hire More assistant staff to Cope with the requirements of bureaucracy. This Protection of backside Model appears to have swept Over Many govern ments and service industries. A daily Stream of memos demands under tight deadlines that files Are created to demonstrate every thing from our careful use of Money for teaching and research admittedly important right Down to our preparedness for a future pandemic disease emergency a chem ical spill emergency or a leak of private documents emergency. All of this documentation is additional to each of the faculty members recording Evi Dence of his or her productivity and justify ing All purchases and All travel done in the name of the University. While no one Dis agrees with the importance of prudent use of Public funds it is a Point of concern when the documentation functionaries outweigh in number of Well paid personnel the actual creators of the products any University should deliver ? that is the creation of new knowledge by researchers and the communication of evidence based knowledge by teachers. Thank you to authors Garry sran Meghan Gallant and Dorothy Wigmore for speaking out on behalf of the workers who Are trying to deliver the our whole social fabric will be weakened if letter of the Day water safety for All kids As a lifeguard and teacher i am deeply saddened by the death of Keyanna Marie Snowdon drowning in hot tub leads to changes free press aug. 2. However there Are some things that i find extremely irritating regarding this Story. This Issue seems to be More focused on the fact that this child in Foster care rather than the fact that her guardians May not have updated their hot tub to meet the newest legis lation or More importantly they May not have been properly educated about water safety. Children everywhere Are drowning in lakes and beaches in family pools and even in bathtubs but no change in legislation has been suggested to help protect the children in the care of their biological parents. Why is it that Only Foster children should have educated caregivers what about All the other children who have less than water aware parents had this child been the biological child of this family would this Story not be looked at simply As another preventable tragedy like those we have nearly become accustomed to Reading about in the last few Summers granted legislation regarding hot tubs has been evaluated and changed accordingly. However if the Foster children Are privileged enough to have caregivers aware of water safety should not All children have that right Alyssa harder Winnipeg its creative members As Well As its front line workers Are suffocated by enforcers of our pessimistic obsession with risk management with fears of litigation and with Good spin. This problem of identifying priorities reaches much farther than the Halls of Academe. Jean Paterson . Winnipeg tie a yellow ribbon a Story appeared in the Winnipeg free press aug. 5 soldiers wife leads Campaign to festoon City with ribbons. We showed our military respect during the flood of the Cen Tury so Why can we not do it now. It takes no Effort to tie yellow ribbons around Trees so lets do it. Maybe the news Media will get into this and promote the cause giving a Heads up to the Date the troops arrive. A phrase comes to my mind take Pride Winnipeg ? so Why Don to we. Tie a yellow ribbon around your old Oak or any other tree you have in your Yard. Dan Newell Winnipeg recipe for deadlock i read Lloyd Axworthy a column the con sequences of War free press aug. 2 with As much close attention As i Able to Muster. I did so because i respect his viewpoint and life accomplishments. However i think his idea of encompassing the views of the diasporas into a Broad government strategy is a recipe for foreign policy deadlock. As . Gilbert said in one of his operas when everyone is somebody then no ones the present policy of the Harper govern ment i think is eminently reasonable. A Sov Ereign state has been attacked on their own territory by a terrorist organization that locates its members among the civilian popu lation and when civilians Are inevitably killed blames the Sovereign state. To negotiate in such a situation is Akin to trying to cure with chemotherapy something that first requires Radical surgery. Whether we Are comfortable admitting it or not we Are facing an enemy who has no regard for either greek and roman civilizations transformed and transmitted through Christian traditions or or. Axworthy a con Cern for the viewpoints of we Are facing an enemy who manifests All the zealotry of a past age and or. Axworthy a touching Faith in the Power of reason Able dialogue is no match for a fanatic bundled up in High explosives. If Hezbollah does to want to see civilians killed then they should not in effect hold those civilians hostage. John Beckham Winnipeg Scales out of balance re Deal gives paedophile a break free press aug. 5 citizens can to make deals but these Days criminals can. Who is the Law there to protect the Scales of Justice Are out of balance when citizens and most particularly Chil Dren Are no longer Safe in their own communities. The Justice system appears to provide benefits for criminals financed by taxpayers. This seems to me to be the wrong Way around. We have created a monster of a system. Its time our politicians and Justice officials Are made accountable to look after the interests of canadians. The Only authority to make such a Deal should reside in the attorney general of the province. No authority less than that should be allowed to make a Deal that binds the Crown. Beverley Goodwin Winnipeg Winnipeg free press. Today a question previous question should the provincial government initiate should downtown watch patrol be allowed to arrest drunks a Tornado emergency warning system yes 22% / no 10% / Ottawa should do it 68% / total 1,248 poll vote online at ? 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 ;