Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 29, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights b3 from newest Winnipeg free press sunday october 29, 2006and beyond growing older working longer Freedom 55 becoming an elusive dream for Many but so is retiring at 65 a s the baby Boomers get closer to retirement its becoming Clear that Many will have to abandon their dreams of Freedom 55. Some of them will be Lucky if they reach their Freedom goal by the time they re 65. Many will have to go on working As they grow older. Its the new face of retirement ? and its not just that Many peo ple will have failed to save enough to finance a retirement. Governments around the world Are now trying to persuade people to postpone their retirement and go on working to ease pressure on pension plans. The rising Cost of pensions is not the Only worry. Workers who produce the goods and services the Economy needs Are essential to economic growth and Prosperity. Concern is growing that As the baby Boom generation retires fewer workers will be available to support the growth of the Economy and produce the goods and services needed by All canadians. A possible shortage of skilled work ers is being used As the rationale for persuading Boomers to go on work ing although its still not Clear just How real the potential shortage is. Canada is also being urged by International bodies such As the Recd to get rid of Early retirement incentives to abolish mandatory retirement to take other measures to persuade people to go on working and to raise the official age of retirement. The danger of course is that if they will not do it voluntarily older people May be forced to go on working against their will. This could be done by raising the age of eligibility for Public pension programs As the United states and other countries have already done. But raising the age of eligibility for Public pensions such As old age Security and the Canada pension plan would hit hardest at lower income elders who must rely on these programs As their major sources of retirement income. They would be forced to go on working until they qualified for benefits. Higher income earners who Are More Likely to belong to workplace pension plans or have resp savings get most of their retirement income from these sources so they will always have More options and More choices about when to retire. Ironically perhaps some policy makers Are now trying to depict the aging population As a Golden Opportunity rather than a crisis. Federal officials have said that the coming retirement of the baby Boom Genera Tion if accompanied by Good social policies May provide an Opportunity to make major social and economic gains. The View now is that Tomor rows generation of older people will be skilled and potential a possible by productive in an Economy based on shortage knowledge and ser of skilled vices. According to this workers is perspective the being used growth of healthy As the life expectancy raises the possibility of rationale increasing both time for spent in work and time spent in Leisure persuading with gains on both Boomers to economic and social go on fronts. Proponents of this View argue that working it could eventually Lead to a new Defini Tion of retirement and Radical new policies that will change the Way we look at the aging process. For instance a major Federal government research project has been looking at policies that might change the Way people Combine work Leisure caregiving and education Over a lifetime instead of emphasizing Only what policies Are needed once they reach age 65. This approach promoted As life course flexibility is presented As giving older people More Choice and greater flexibility in planning for their old age. But the Bottom line is Persuad ing people to go on working. It May be simply sugar coating the Pill to talk about increasing Choice and giving people a better Range of alternatives As they grow old. Reflecting the move to shift responsibility for retirement provi Sion away from collective actions and programs and onto individuals Many employers Are creating two tier pen Sion systems from which younger workers get much less generous benefits. Companies have closed their defined Benefit pension plans which guarantee a pension related to earn Ings and years of service often putting new hires into defined contribution plans and group rasps where retirement income depends on investment returns and no specific pension amount is promised. Coverage of workplace pension plans continues to decline. Less than 40 per cent of Canadian workers now belong to a pension plan through their work. It seems Only higher income people can afford to save for retirement through rasps. Most canadians Don to contribute to rasps so there is now a huge backlog of unused resp contribution room being carried Forward. Those who have been Able to save on their own May have seen the value of their retirement nest egg undermined by Stock Market gyrations. Its not surprising that so Many people Are no longer sure about just when they la be Able to Stop working or even if they la Ever be Able to Stop. And Many of those who retired Early Are now going Back to work ? some for financial reasons others because they prefer to keep Active. Retire ment is no longer a Point in time. It has become a process to go through As we grow older and for Many canadians it will be a painful transition. Monica Townson has served on the pension commission of Ontario and was a member of the Canada pension plan advisory Board. She has written numerous books and reports on pen Sion and retirement issues including her latest growing older working longer published by the Canadian Centre for policy alternatives. Militarization of sport a dark Omen for Canada o be Hundred years ago the British Empire did not sink slowly into a 20th Century Sun set without its colonial elites making an Effort to produce devoted stiff upper lips. Sir Frederick Borden Canadas minister of militia in 1909, convinced lord Strathcona also known As Canadian railway tycoon sir Donald Smith to invest $500,000 in the physical training of colonial youth through the school system. Britain was sure to need plenty of can non fodder As the 20th Cen Tury progressed and with its might seeming less and less assured what better place to Supply it than a windswept Chilly place called Canada. Thus the Strathcona Trust was introduced into Public schools which ? through the rigorous application of a series of exercises from prussian military manuals ? was to produce a disciplined and obedient student body in every sense of the word so the motherland could be properly served in Battle. Last week the department of National defence and Canadian inter University sport the National governing body for varsity sport announced they had Cut a three year $500,000 Deal. Cis gets the Cash and National defence receives Access to some of Canadas Best bodies accompanied by above average brains. Under the agreement National defences presence will become a highlight at All Cis competitions on its website and most importantly in hotel suites at National championships where recruits can gain More eyeball Access and More handshake Access according to Peter Metuzals Cis marketing director. There is a fit for military minds and competitive sport particularly team sport where one learns to sublimate the individual for the greater goals of the group. Certainly discipline is required As Are uniforms there Are endless rules and officials to enforce them. Injuries Are a Given. But go beyond the surface and the journey becomes Darker and much More Complex. Sport historian or. Greg Malszecki of York University analyses the language of sport and the military and argues that there is a connection Between the erotic and the they share words such As penetration attacked scored obliterated impotent ? and Many More that sex Alize violence in what Malszecki Calls Man this talk is essential so rookies and recruits will learn the unwritten rules disciplines and pecking order of the sub culture they Are about to enter. While researching my Book crossing the line violence and sexual assault in Canadas National sport i had the Opportunity to interview a Mem Ber of the airborne regiment before it was Dis banded in 1995 after videos of their own racist and sexually abusive initiations were revealed. You have to learn what torture feels like a Soldier who had just returned from Mogadishu told me. You have to know How to Hurt and not give. You never know what you la have to do so you have to learn what it feels like to be the at this Point he used a very coarse description of a woman. He continued in a matter of fact tone As if he was telling me something i already knew. Sure we beat each other up. Like what do you expect at the end of each Story the moral was always the same. Someone a got to be the the american military our stronger than Ever allies knew All the rules of the games and the female uniforms they forced on captive iraqis during the sexually violent tortures at Abu Gharib prison because they were subjected to them Dur ing their own initiations. And should we think Only americans do this we need look no further than last years Mcgill football team and the Windsor spitfires Ohl hockey team for disgusting sexual abuse during initiations. When crossing the line came out in 1998, there were four groups of people normally waiting for me at any Given speaking engagement hockey play ers who had been sexually abused mainly during initiations Young women who had been sexually abused by hockey players most of whom had been abused themselves in hockey men who survived sexual abuse in private boys schools and sex Mili tary men. It was Mcgill University a or. Ethel Mary Cartwright and Many other women who opposed the militarization of movement by the Strathcona Trust. They fought against the idea that bodies should be claimed by the military simply because they were capable of moving through time and space with endurance strength and skill. Cartwright believed in the autonomy of the body and the Beauty and Grace of sport and Competition. She referred to the Strathcona Trust exercises As physical How appropriate. The Strathcona Trust died a slow death. While military men May have put the system in place it was women elementary teachers who actually incorporated the program into most of Canadas schools. Physical jerks soon became smooth dance moves ? not exactly what the military had in mind. During the 1940s universities incorporated schools of physical education As opposed to physical train ing into their faculties and research into play games dance and kinesiology ? the study of move ment ? replaced straight jacketed exercise Rou tines. National defence makes its Cis debut at the Potash corp Vanier cup in november. Who knows perhaps Well soon have american style military marching bands at our sporting events Well bring Back the pledge of allegiance and if the athletes take the bait in the future we can even have memo rial services and prayers for the dead athlete sol Diers. Laura Robinson is author of crossing the line Vio Lence and sexual assault in Canadas National sport and Black tights women sport and sexual Ity. She coaches Cross country skiing and cycling ;