Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 17, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page a15 Winnipeg free press wednesday december 17, 2008 View from the West and beyond comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. Ca Winnipeg repress. Com a 15 l ast june in Saskatoon prime minister Stephen Harper issued this threat to supporters of the Canadian wheat boards Export monopoly. Well continue to fight in parliament. But the Bottom line is this. Mark my words. Western Canadian Farmers want this Freedom an open Market and they Are going to get it. And anybody who stands in their Way is going to get walked Over. Harpers boots just changed feet. Last tuesday the results of the cd bus second biennial director elections were announced. Four of the five victorious candidates and eight of the 10 Farmer elected directors Back the state trading enterprises single desk. The prime minister should be humbled by and listen to this resounding democratic verdict. He and his party have been making much lately of their Devotion to democracy to discredit the Liberal nip coalition supported by the bloc Qutb Cois and More recently to discredit Michael Ignati Effus accession to the Liberal leadership through a closed door vote by caucus and party officials. Harper has an out. He can abandon his dirty tricks Campaign against the Cwb and still walk Over democracy by turning to the world Trade organization. The a toys Doha round if it survives is More than prepared to dispatch the Pesky marketing Agency for him. The Day after the Cwb director elections Crawford Falconer new zealand is to ambassador and agricultural chair released a new text that would declare the Cwb illegal in 2013, the deadline for a new agreement. The Cwb is isolated at the to. The former australian government abolished the worlds Only other single desk wheat Board. And the to draft text contains a footnote exempting new zealand is Kiwi fruit exporting Agency from the cd bus Fate. Dustin Gosnell the cd bus director of strategic planning and corporate policy says the to is one step closer to cementing language that would cause us to lose the single desk and How its happening is really most discouraging. Its really the chair railroading it through. National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells says the to is a most undemocratic organization. Canada Isnit even in most of the meetings involving agriculture. They Are dominated by the u. S., european Union Argentina and Brazil. Driven by multinational agribusiness giants Archer Daniels Midland Bunge Cargill Colagra and Louis Dreyfus the u. Has Laid 14 unfair trading complaints before International Trade panels against the Cwb Over the past two decades and lost every one. Its last loss was 2004, when All u. Complaints were dismissed. So the u. Simply went to the to and got the rules changed continued Wells in an interview. By definition the Board is outlawed regardless of its trading practices. Wells says the abcs of world food production control virtually All food exports around the Globe everything that comes onto your plate even chocolate and they Wield the real Power at International Trade talks. The Cwb handles $ 7 billion annually. These companies know that if the wheat Board is gone they will handle that $ 7 billion and be Able to skim off a bit for themselves. He Calls the to the next Best Opportunity for the Harper government to destroy the wheat Board and weave got to make sure they dont do it. Historically Canadas position on the Cwb at International Trade talks has been that the future of the single desk is a decision for Canadian Farmers to make in Canada. Under Harper thatus now history. Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has said the government will fight to preserve Canadas Supply management system. But he has been silent about the Cwb. Jeff Nielsen the one Choice director elected last week told the red Deer advocate that its just a matter of time before Board Reform occurs. It May not be the government of Canada that does it it May be the to Trade talks that do it. Harper has had the Cwb in his crosshair since he was president of the far right National citizens coalition. As prime minister he has fired its ceo Adrian Measner imposed a gag order on the Board and its members from defending the single desk twice arbitrarily stripped Farmers names from the Cwb directors voting lists violated the prohibitions against third party advertising during director elections and tried to violate the Federal privacy act by allowing his minister to pressure the Board to hand Over Farmers confidential financial information. Three times in 11 months a Federal court has found that the government has broken Canadian Laws in its ongoing anti democratic and demagogic attacks on the Cwb. The Harper conservatives hate the Cwb because it violates their Neo conservative determination to reduce governments to insignificance in favour of globalized business the driving Force behind All so called free Trade agreements. These Trade deals Are the economic constitutions responsible for creating to Days global economic crisis. Why because they hollow out economies and abolish stable employment and lifestyles for people around the planet. Frances Russell is a Winnipeg based freelance journalist and author. Frances Russell Harper hoping to kills wheat Board for him r recently the Canadian mortgage and housing corp. Announced that the residential rental vacancy rate in Winnipeg had fallen half a percentage Point to just one per cent Over the past year. After 30 years of provincial rent control it should come As no Surprise that a slow growth City like Winnipeg would be facing a vacancy rate More than half As Low As comparative Boom towns like Calgary 2.1 and Edmonton 2.4. While even the Liberal economist Paul Krugman called rent control economic stupidity in a june 2000 column in the new York tim Sand the Case against rent control is disputed in the pages of Many first year economics textbooks restrain prices arbitrarily Supply and Quality decreases much of the local response to this situation is to ask for More of the same government subsidies to keep landlords afloat. Through periods of population stagnation and decline Manitoba ass rent control policies have worked Well. Or More accurately rent controls failings have been More easily ignored but with a modest population growth in Winnipeg in recent years mostly through International immigration and migration from first nations the inherent problems of rent control Are coming to the surface. Other factors have led to the exasperation of rental properties. A period of Low interest rates have created a resurgent real estate Market and the increased costs of houses have sent buyers either to Down Market neighbourhoods Wolseley instead of River Heights West Broadway instead of Wolseley or to buying condominiums instead of detached houses. This has led to the reduction of rental properties in some neighbourhoods. Dramatically increasing costs of building materials has largely cancelled out the construction of new rental units that Are not heavily subsidized by governments. With so few new units coming on Stream Only 319 citywide in the past year the net Supply is not Only shrinking but is becoming older and costlier to maintain. Central Winnipeg where most of the new arrivals to the City Are moving to is characterized by scores of walk up apartments from two eras of population growth the Brick three Storey plus basement Block built Between 1900 and 1930, and the More drab and boxy horizontally oriented three Storey Block from 1945 to 1965. As the first of these surpass the Century Mark with the rest following in the coming decades major improvements will be needed to allow these buildings to continue functioning As residences. Who will Bear the Cost of these improvements out of his own pocket the landlord could not nor could the tenant. The landlord can either convert the property to non rental units or run the property into the ground until finally it is closed Down. Both scenarios Are occurring in Winnipeg right now. In neighbourhoods South of Portage Avenue numerous Century old walk ups Are being converted into condominiums. North of Portage old apartment blocks Are simply being closed and boarded up. Although there Are also a number of Low priced condos that have replaced rental units North of Portage too. Notably on notre Dame Cumberland and Burnell Street in both cases the tenant of modest Means the one rent control is theoretically intended to help is not Only losing a residence but is faced with the daunting task of finding a new place in an increasingly scarce Market. As it goes it is often the most at risk citizens who feel this most acutely. As Krugman wrote less Supply creates greater Competition in the game of finding an apartment and it is to the apartment seeker with the longest list of Good references to whom the contested unit goes. In a de controlled rental Market there would indeed be properties with exorbitantly High rents. Newly built or significantly renovated apartments will naturally charge More in order to cover costs while the continued trend towards pre modern architectural design and Quality will increase the value of preserved character walk ups in Good neighbourhoods. But the pressure would be taken off the existing Supply of properties As a whole which would Cut vacancy rates and even lower prices in some cases. Vouchers could assist Low income people with rent costs. Winnipeg Gas rental Market must be free to respond to the increased demand for rental units by constructing new apartment buildings As it was free to do so in the immigration Boom of the Early 20th Century and the housing shortage that followed the second world War. Continuing to Wrangle for subsidies and encouraging landlords to do anything but make a profit will not serve any ones interest any better than it is now. Robert Galston is a writer who lives in the inner City neighbourhood of Point Douglas. Rent control failings exposed in this Market Robert Galston f rom the first Day of the inquest into the shooting death of Matthew Dumas by a Winnipeg police officer lawyer Robert Tapper took pains to emphasize that race had nothing to do with the death. In her recent report provincial court judge Mary Curtis agreed concluding that Matthew died As a result of his own actions and not because of racism on the part of police. Many might take Solace in judge Curtiss conclusion seeing it As affirming that the problem of aboriginal police relations in our City is really a problem of aboriginal people. But for too Many aboriginal people their experiences with some police officers Tell them that racism is alive in our City. For the past five months i have been engaged in a research project that involved interviewing aboriginal people about their experiences with the police. The plan was to conduct 30 interviews but More and More people came Forward wanting to Tell their experiences. We stopped at 79 interviews. What i Learned from these interviews is disturbing. Racist stereotypes and racial zed practices were starkly evident in Peoples accounts. Aboriginal men who live in the inner City Are regularly stopped by police and asked to account for themselves. Asked what did i do wrong the typical response from police is you fit the description. As one Young Man remarked look at me. I look pretty much like every other male who lives in the North end. Sometimes the men Are taken to the police station several Miles away and then left to find their own Way Home upon release. Aboriginal women reported that they cannot walk to the grocery store without being stopped by police who assume they Are prostitutes. In this respect the inner City is a racial zed space just being present and aboriginal in it makes you suspect. Other spaces in Winnipeg Are racial zed but in a different Way. One Young Man told of being stopped by police in the Tuxedo area and asked what he was doing there. He replied that he was just on his Way to visit a Friend. The police responded with How can you have a Friend who lives Here the phone Book treatment came up regularly. Apparently when hit with a phone Book no visible bruises Are left on the skin. Police we were told seem to use this strategy sometimes in the elevator of the Public safety building to extract information. Another disturbing practice we were told involves police driving aboriginal people to the outskirts of Winnipeg and leaving them there often in bitterly cold weather to find their Way Back Home. We know from Justice Wrights inquiry in Saskatchewan into the death of Neil Stonechild that such practices occurred in that province. One Man now in his forties recalled that Between the Ages of 10 and 13 he was picked up on at least 10 occasion by the same police officer and driven to the outskirts of Winnipeg. It became so routine that the officer would say you know the Drill. He was to take off his shoes which the officer would put into the trunk of the cruise and then he would be left to walk Back to the City. He told his father who did not believe him. But on one occasion when bending Over to remove his shoe he picked up a handful of pebbles threw them in the officers face and ran away. When he returned Home with the one shoe his dad finally believed him. Drugs gangs and violence Are pressing problems in the inner City. But strategies that police use to Deal with them can be problematic. Several people told of being picked up and coerced to Tell the names of people in the drug Trade. Several were offered Money. As one said to rat in this Way would put his own safety in danger if word got out. Part of the problem is the racial zed frames that police use to interpret situations. One Man told of visiting his Stepsons at Home and having a Celebration. At about 3 a. M., they headed to the nearby Gas station to buy cigarettes. One Stepson ended up being stabbed by a Man Riding a bicycle. They got the wounded Man Back Home and called for an ambulance. When police arrived they listen to the explanation but simply assumed that this was the proverbial aboriginal drinking party that had turned violent. Too Many people spoke of the Lack of respect shown by police. Words like Squaw and fing Indian seem to be used regularly by police officers. There is a definite silencing that goes on around police Misbehaviour. People do not speak out for fear of the consequences. If they do they fear they wont be believed or nothing will be done. Statistics collected by the inner City safety coalition show that 38 per cent of the cases investigated by the Law enforcement review Agency Between 1996 and 2005 took Over a year to be completed. Almost All complaints 89 per cent were either dismissed by lera or were abandoned or withdrawn by the complainant. Few complaints result in action. Between 1995 and 2006 Only five per cent of cases were resolved informally and five per cent went to a Public hearing or court. These experiences of aboriginal people provide us with a broader context for situating the death of Matthew Dumas a context that is certainly coloured by race. Like too Many Young aboriginal men Matthew had been subject to a police Stop because he fit the description. Knowing the fear distrust and resulting hostility of police among aboriginal people helps in understanding Why it might be that Matthew decided to run from an officer. Sadly the result was lethal. The Dumas inquest took place Over two weeks in june. In the months that followed two More aboriginal men Michael Langan and Craig Mcdougall died at the hands of police officers. How Many More aboriginal men will we lose before we All acknowledge that racism is alive in Winnipeg Elizabeth Comack is a professor of sociology at the University of Manitoba and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for policy alternatives Manitoba. Elizabeth Comack racial context of Dumas shooting must be acknowledged racial zed policing a 15_ dec 17 08. Ind a15 12/ 16/ 08 7 59 19 pm ;