Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 27, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights b3 from newest Winnipeg free press sunday August 27, 2006and beyond sailboats gather at the Royal Lake of the Woods yacht club unnatural Border alienated by a Distant capital Northwest Ontario looks to Union with Manitoba by Livio Dimatteo t he Northwestern portion of Ontario comprising the districts of Thunder Bay Kenora and Rainy River accounts for 60 per cent of Ontario a land and rep resents an area the size of France. It is a Region Rich in natural resources but sparse in population and yet it is vital to the Canadian federation As an East West transport corridor for Road ship and rail. While alienation from South Ern Ontario has affected All of North Ern Ontario sparking periodic Calls to separate the feeling has become particularly acute in the Region stretching from White River to Kenora. Given the personal ties Many Northwestern Ontario residents have with Manitoba it is not surprising that Union with Manitoba is also a pop ular option. In addition a recent Csc radio poll found that a majority of Manitoban ? 72 per cent ? would also Welcome the Union. Indeed one can Only imagine How the joint development of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario might have been different if the 1884 Boundary decision had been in Manitoba a favour and the Lakehead and its Grain ports had become Manitoba a second largest City. Northwestern Ontario a alienation has been Ern Ontario in joining Manitoba in a new province aggravated by the recent forestry sector crisis dubbed Manta Rio As they would have 11 of 68 which Many believe has been worsened by the seats in the legislature As opposed to three out of one size fits All policies of the Ontario govern 103 in Ontario. Ment in dealing with Energy costs and land As for the economics of the new arrangement Access. Despite the continual expression of Northwestern ontarian would have to Trade off regional dissatisfaction the provincial govern higher government spending and taxes As part of ment at Queens Park remains Sphinx like in its Manitoba against lower spending and lower taxes silence on Northwestern Ontario no doubt hoping in Ontario. That by maintaining a pose of splendid isolation provincial status is a feasible option provided the noise in its Northern attic will eventually go Northwestern ontarian Are prepared to reside in away. A province with a Small population that is depend dealing with economic change requires ins Titu Dent on Federal transfers and the rest of Canada tonal responses on the part of government and is willing to accommodate it. Regional govern the Small population of the Region ment is the easiest and probably Means that its issues have difficulty most realistic option provided that the first getting on the Queens Park radar Queens Park is willing to devolve screen which seems to regard the significant economic Powers onto a Choice of Many Northwest As merely a resource regional authority such As manage extraction Colony. A glance across Northwestern ment of Crown lands and a regional the Border at Manitoba finds elec Power authority. Trinity costs for the Energy intensive Ontario voters what is to be done if a free and pulp sector Are half what they Are in open referendum were held on the Ontario. Moreover along with Geo would be to above three options with inclusion of graphic proximity Northwestern the status quo As a fourth Choice the Ontario and Manitoba have Many join Manitoba first Choice of Many Northwestern similar demographic and economic characteristics including Large aboriginal popu lations and natural resource sectors As Well As complementary relationships Between Manitoba a Grain growing regions and shipping facilities at Thunder Bay. A recent study published in Canadian Public policy explores three options for institutional change in the alienated resource hinterland of Northwestern Ontario. These Are Union with Manitoba provincial status and regional government. The study found that there would be substantial political benefits for the residents of Northwest Ontario voters would be to join Manitoba. An informal web poll conducted by Thun Der Bay source found that 64 per cent of respondents would vote yes to Union with Manitoba. If anything this Issue is a reminder that Canada and its provinces Are not entities anchored on blocks of Granite and that Borders can be changed. However changing provincial Borders or creating a new province Means that All Borders Are changeable and the Canadian federation does not appear to have reached that level of sophistication and maturity. This is after All a nation that took 114 years to repatriate its own Constitution. Moreover this Type of change requires political action on the level of both individual members of the Public As Well As the provincial governments of Ontario and Manitoba. To Date both provincial governments have declined to publicly discuss the Issue. In the absence of any formal expression of interest by Manitoba the most practical option for now is for Queens Park to take Steps to devolve some of its Powers to a regional govern ment for Northwestern Ontario. Functions to be devolved to a Northwestern regional government could include economic development Environ ment Energy municipal affairs lands and Natur Al resources mines transportation and tourism. This regional government should also have the Power to negotiate its own arrangements with respect to resource development watershed resources Energy and transportation with Adja cent Manitoba. Expenditures could be funded by an income tax Point Transfer from Queens Park to the Northern regional government As Well As Points from sales taxes. A regional Council and chief executive elected by Northwestern voters would provide the necessary accountability mechanism. Regional government for Northwestern Ontario would help end Ontario a Northern problem by transferring the tools of economic development to the people most affected. Ontario can become an innovator in dealing with the issues of sparsely populated resource hinterlands by letting the people of Northwestern Ontario assume responsibility for their own future. Livio Dimatteo is professor of economics at Lake head University in Thunder Bay and one of the co authors of the recent paper in the june 2006 Issue of Canadian Public policy dealing with Manta Rio. Iran a caricature of a contest exposes evil intent by Thane Rosenbaum in Case you Haven to noticed the sea son for global holocaust contests is drawing to an end. In january Oprah Winfrey sponsored a National High school contest that attracted 50,000 student essays on the contemporary relevance of Elie Wiesel a Memoir night. I was a judge. In late May the 50 winners appeared on Oprah to receive a $10,000 College scholarship. Around the same time the iranian newspaper Ham Shahri announced its own holocaust contest ? one of Pic Tures the kind that Are Worth 1,000 unprintable words. The contest solicited cartoons from around the world that either mocked the holocaust or portrayed it As a myth. The president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said the holocaust is a myth and the contest was presumably in retaliation for cartoons appear ing nearly a year ago in the danish newspaper Jylland Posten that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. The iranian cartoon Competition Drew More than 1,200 submissions from 61 countries. Six came from the United states. The 204 finalists Are on display in Tehran where the winning cartoon will receive $12,000. I was not asked to judge this Competition. A strange parallel universe these two holocaust contests occupy. After All the contests Are based on the same historical event. Submissions flowed in simultaneously albeit in different parts of the world. Even a Cash prize for first place is comparable. And Oprah and Ahmadinejad Are prominent International news makers who became titular figureheads for each Competition. Yet the two contests one reveal vast differences cartoon in the intentions of their organizers and the depict expectations of the con jews going test ants. They also say much about the nature into a Gas of free speech Reli pipeline ious tolerance and artistic Freedom. The Oprah essays were written by american teenagers the vast majority of whom Are not jews and have no personal connection to extreme prejudice of any kind. They were reflective mature writings ? humbly written achingly observed ? seeking to compre Hend the darkest hours of inhumanity and reminding the world of the consequences of indifference and moral failure. An entirely different Agenda and set of ambitions energized the artists in the iranian Competition. One cartoon depicts jews going into a Gas pipeline. Another portrays the statute of Liberty holding a Book on the holocaust in one hand and performing a nazi Salute with the other. Many of the cartoons simply and crudely communicate the message that the holocaust is a lie ? a fictitious big bang that preceded the creation of Israel. The Oprah contest sought to educate High school students about history and what happens when history is forgotten. The iranian cartoon contest seeks to deny and erase history All in a misguided and feeble attempt to express a Cul Tural and religious grievance. Yet in the end Arent both contests valid does Art have to be literally or historically True to be deemed Art or can the Art be judged on its own Merit regardless of its Point of View because the winners of the iranian cartoon contest have yet to be announced we Don to know whether the judges will be persuaded by aesthetics or politics. Yet the contest which amounted to an All Points bulletin for holocaust deniers suggests that the Competition is More about venality than artistry. After All the Muhammad draw Ings that sparked this wave of cartoon contretemps were no great works of graphic Art. Whatever grievance existed against the danish newspaper that published the Muhammad cartoon it in to Clear How denying the holocaust punishes Danes for their blasphemy of islam. Aside from this misdirected Ricochet of revenge the contestants in the iranian Competition have much to learn about the relation ship Between caricature and truth which often supplies the wit and Wisdom of graphical Art. Caricature is defined As a ludicrous exaggeration of a subject. It takes the subject As a Given then Dis torts its characteristic features to offer another truth ? sometimes deeper sometimes debased. But caricature never obliterates the larger truth of its subject. Indeed the very existence of the subject offers the Best reason for mockery adding dimension Colour and nuance to its underlying truth. What the cartoonists in the iranian Competition either failed to comprehend ? or understood and gleefully exploited ? is that there is a world of differ ence Between mockery and denial Between caricature and falsehood Between expressing an idea through a graphical design and the altering a picture to holocaust promote a grotesque is not a lie. Derision is one thing denial is some religion thing else altogether. It is a Ham Shahri originally said its contest was historical intended to examine fact whether the Western world could tolerate the mockery of its own religions. But the holocaust is not a religion it is a histor ical fact. For the nazis the final Solu Tion had nothing to do with Judaism and everything to do with jews. A Jewless world could have Practised Judaism without any objection from the third Reich. But Here again is the Crux of this clash of civilizations. The cartoons in Iran could have mocked Abraham Isaac and Jacob ? the patriarchs of Judaism ? and jews would not have hurled stones or threatened to blow up the iranian embassy or burned All their persian rugs in protest. Moreover most devout christians although they May not like it realize that Jesus Christ does occasionally end up on a billboard in a music video or a cartoon. Respecting someone a religious beliefs and allowing them to have those beliefs and even to share them with others Are the Hallmarks of a secular society one founded on pluralism and Liberal values. That a what religious tolerance Means. It does to mean that religion is both freely Practised and free from criticism or caricature. Although the iranians have now conveniently availed themselves of free speech and artistic Freedom for the one limited purpose of denying the Holo Caust All those cartoons still Don to make them enlightened citizens of the modern world. The Oprah contestants would have a lot to say about that. Thane Rosenbaum a novelist essayist and Law professor is the author most recently of the myth of moral Justice. ? special to the los Angeles times ;