Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 26, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A18 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade saturday August 26, 2006 Liberty of religion comment editor Equality of civil rights Gerald flood 697-7269 editorials hike rates for welfare t to reports this week confirmed the old adage that a rising tide raises All boats or at least All boats in the water. The first by Mercer human resources consult ing predicts that annual pay increases will Rise 3.7 per cent Over the next year. That a the steepest projected increase since 2001 and rivals pay increases not seen since the Early 1990s. The projected increase which should exceed the rate of inflation Means that working canadians will not Only see an increase in pay they will see real gains in wealth. The gains Are being attributed to the High demand for labour in an Economy that recently achieved what was Long thought All but impossible ? full employment. Demand for labour in other words is starting to exceed Supply and when that happens the Price goes up. It is no Surprise that the projected increases Are steepest in Alberta where the booming Oil Market is attracting workers from across Canada and where shortages of workers in Mcjoy industries is so severe that Many Are shutting their doors for Lack of hired help. Oil Patch wages Are expected to climb 5.6 per cent but across All industries 80 per cent of employers Are planning to pay three to four per cent More next year than this year. That a Good news for workers who will have More and its Likely a temptation for governments who will see that there is More to tax. So Canadas Strong Economy its rising tide is raising All boats As expected. All boats that is that Are in the water. A second study also released on thursday by the National Council on welfare finds that some two million canadians living on welfare increasingly Are worse off than they were a decade ago. It found that governments across Canada have not increased welfare in line with inflation with the result that the buying Power of welfare cheques has declined in some provinces by More than 50 per cent. Manitoba where some 61,000 people live on Wel fare was singled out As one of the five Sti Giest provinces in Canada. Adjusted for inflation welfare paid to single recipients has declined by 36 per cent since 1992, by 25 per cent for disabled persons by 15 per cent for single parents with a child and by 21 per cent for couples with two children. In a full employment Economy healthy single per sons on welfare should not expect significant help. But disabled persons cannot improve their situations by taking jobs and in Many cases neither can single parents nor should they. Two Parent families needing temporary help Are common in Manitoba As a result of immigration policies. What the right Levels should be is difficult to say. Simply Back filling to former Levels makes Little sense Given that past High water Marks Are nothing More than that ? they might have been too High or too Low. Some supports have improved Over time ? food Banks for example. But it seems Clear that these boats out of water deserve a raise too. Pluto in Doghouse the universe May be expanding As physicists Tell us but the solar system shrank this week As Pluto was stripped of its planetary status demoted to the ranking of Dwarf planet because it is judged to be too Small in size and too erratic in its orbit to be a True planet. But while the universe is believed to be physically expanding the solar system is Only shrinking semantically ? it All depends on what you mean by the solar system actually shrank by even More than just the loss of Pluto ? or at least its growth was further stunted. Members of the International astronomical Union gathered at a convention in Prague also rejected three other applications for planetary status Ceres another Dwarf planet Charon which is considered a Moon of Pluto and ub313, unofficially but affectionately known to astronomers As Xena after the Warrior Princess of television Fame. This not Only leaves us with a Mere eight planets but it comes As something of a Surprise. Some Small minded astronomers have Long objected to Pluto a planetary status ? not Long in astronomical terms of course it was Only discovered in 1930 ? because of its Small size and ill behaved ways. But the Previ Ous week a special committee of the Union had recommended that Pluto retain its status and that the other three celestial bodies be elevated. That com Mittee came up with a More generous definition of planet than had previously applied. The full membership however took a More limited View of the solar system. To be a planet a Celes tial body must now meet three criteria ? Large enough that its own Gravity keeps it round its own orbit around the Sun and a nicely neat Neighbour Hood free of cosmic not even Xena fits those criteria. Pluto a reprieve did not last Long ? just about a week ? but if the astronomers gathered in Prague actually proved anything it is that they can be As arbitrary and fickle in their thinking As the rest of us. Perhaps next year or the year after Pluto May be Back among the planets. In the meantime other peo ple will be disappointed. But Many will hold to their own opinions which appear to be As informed As the astronomers. A Mere eight planets does seem a bit Picayune for a respectable solar system and As one supporter of Pluto argued As a number eight lacks the symmetry of nine. That Sas Good a reason As any 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 rights commission responds the Manitoba human rights commission and the Garden Valley school division would like to address the article entitled schools get religious warning aug. 23. The article seems to portray an antagonistic relationship Between the two parties when in fact a very cordial relationship exists. Communication Between the human rights commission and the Garden Valley school division on this matter up to aug. 23 was by written correspondence Only. The correspondence from the commission did not refer to a poisoned environment nor did it give the school Board a Little lecture on the the school divisions Mission statement was first brought to the commissions Atten Tion in connection with a withdrawn com plaint. The commissions mandate includes enforcing the anti discrimination provisions of the Manitoba human rights code As Well As educating and promoting human rights. The commission therefore wrote to the school division to advise it of possible con Cerns with respect to its Mission statement. From the Onset we have engaged in a respectful and productive dialogue about possible human rights concerns. We value the remedial nature of the human rights process and wish to clarify that there has been no finding or ruling that the Garden Valley school division has violated the Mani Toba human rights code despite Media reports to the contrary. The correspondence Between us has been sent and received in the spirit of co operation. We will continue to work together in this manner to address the concerns raised. Janet Baldwin chairperson Manitoba human rights commission Domino Wilkins superintendent Garden Valley school division the role of suspicion Shahina Siddiqui a letter charged Lan Guage aug. 21in response to Harold Buch Wald a column the threat to Canada is real aug. 16misunderstands and confuses the presumption of innocence As a principle of Law. That presumption operates Only if and when a person is charged with an offence. It has no application whatsoever to investigative procedures relating to crime detection. Moreover while suspicion is most certainly not a basis upon which a court could prop Erly convict an individual charged with an offence it is one of the Only bases upon which investigations of crimes committed or about to be committed can be initiated. Where otherwise does one Start Buchwald a argument for the infiltration of suspect groups is not shameful. Siddiqui characterizes the monitoring and infiltration of suspect groups As totalitarian measures. I can to imagine a free and democratic society that would so tie the hands of its police Force As to restrict its ability to infiltrate observe and record the activities of suspect groups police have reason to believe Are engaged in the planning or the commis Sion of criminal acts. Without the ability to engage in such surveillance the Only function police could fulfil would be to react to crimes already committed. Prevention would letter of the Day Issue a Blanket Pardon Patrick h. Brennan a column in which he argues that most Canadian soldiers executed in the first world War deserve a Pardon shot at Dawn aug. 22 is illuminating but does to go far enough. He fails to mention that in contrast to the Canad an government of the Day the australian government refused to allow any death sentences to be carried out on its All Volunteer army despite intense pressure by Field marshal sir Douglas Haig the com Mander in chief of the British army for this to be done. In All 129 australians were sentenced to death by British Mili tary Justice of the Day 119 for desertion in contrast to the 25 canadians similarly condemned. The 1903 australian defence act stipulated that the governor general of Australia had to confirm the sentences passed by courts martial ? and he never endorsed the sentences. Despite this refusal the australian casualty rate in the first world War More than 61,000 died was relative to its population at the time the highest of All the Allied nations. So much for needing the death sentence to be carried out to inspire other soldiers to fight. As for the two canadians convicted of murder and sentenced to death who or. Brennan proposes to leave off the pardoned list How can he presume to judge the mental state of these men at the time that they committed these acts Given the carnage and horror that they had been subjected to at least one of these condemned murderers had had an exemplary record for nearly 10 years As a cavalry trooper before falling from his horse and be out of their scope. I doubt that society would be Content to so limit the Law enforce ment function. She characterizes As a racist diatribe Buchwald a statement that while not All muslims Are terrorists most terrorists to Date have been but the statement itself is True. What he said is in no Way a Dia tribe or racist. Indeed her words seems More a diatribe than his statement of fact. Bob Kopstein Winnipeg Asper confuses readers in his column the meaning of innocence aug. 23david Asper has confused truth with the outcome of a criminal trial. To begin with he makes an irrelevant assertion that his readers pay close heed to some very Basic and fundamental concepts of democracy in general and in particular How democracy treats its criminal Justice Why democracy Means Overall that a country a citizenry elects its leaders and to a lesser extent that its citizens live in an egalitarian society wherein the lord of the Manor will be treated the same Way As is his stable hand. A nation does not have to be democratic in order for its Justice system to be fair or to put it another Way its Justice system can be unfair even if its electoral system is Winnipeg free press. Today a question previous question Are Community police officers in schools an answer to curbing drug use and violence the new season of survivor will see tribes formed along racial line. Do you agree with this concept yes 30% / no 65% / undecided 5% / total 795 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 suffering a head injury after which his behaviour deteriorated. Following yet another fall his behaviour became even worse culminating in his eventual shoot ing of a fellow trooper. The disciplinary benefits of executing someone deranged by injury or mental stress must at the very least be highly suspect. The Canadian government should do the same As that proposed by the British government because of the passage of so much time during which details of the Evi Dence used to condemn these men and their individual circumstances of mental stress have become lost and can no longer be considered in mitigation it should Issue a Blanket Pardon to All 25 canadians executed by firing squad in the first world War. Let us have Complete closure on this matter once and for All. Les crosthwaite Pinawa democratic. Asper linked this idea to Magna Carta wherein about the Only concept of democracy was essentially the provision for the Church to elect whomever they want As their archbishop of Canterbury. Putting aside his red herring about democracy Asper further confuses his readers with his own confusion Between being legally innocent and factually innocent. They Are in fact and in Law innocent until having been proven that is nonsense. A per son is always either guilty or innocent it is Only in the criminal Justice system wherein he has to be found legally guilty or legally not guilty. What Asper apparently does not under stand is that the Oft quoted presumption of innocence is directed solely towards Mem Bers of the jury actually hearing the Case. Anyone who is not a juror is not so bound. I am perfectly free to make up my own mind although thinking of defamation or libel i might Well choose to keep my sentiments to myself. A Case in Point . Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal trial. Would or. Asper assert that therefore factually he did not kill his wife if so what would he have said when a civil court later found Simpson responsible for Ronald Goldman a death what would the facts be then Don Dillistone Winnipeg ;