Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 07, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A12 EDITORIALS WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012 Freedom of Trade Liberty of Religion Equality of Civil Rights A 12 COMMENT EDITOR: Gerald Flood 697- 7269 gerald. flood@ freepress. mb. ca winnipegfreepress. com EDITORIAL R ESEARCH in Motion, the Ontario smartphone maker that had the mobile computing world by the tail four years ago, announced last week that it will show a loss for the current quarter and will lay off staff. RIM has hired two banks, JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Canada, to propose a new business strategy. Employers who gave RIM's BlackBerrys to their employees to keep in constant touch with them still like the device. Individual consumers, however, prefer Apple's charming, user- friendly iPhone and newer competitors. BlackBerry sales have dropped sharply. RIM stock, which traded as high as $ 148 in 2008, was trading at less than $ 11 Wednesday. For Canadians who remember the long death- agony of Northern Telecom, it felt like a familiar story. RIM's setback coincided with the negative stock market verdict on Facebook, the social networking service, which brought its shares to market in an initial public offering at $ 38 on May 17 and watched them drop quickly to $ 28. The service says it has 900 million users around the world but it has not yet shown it can produce advertising revenue to justify a $ 38 stock price. The company's huge overpricing of its stock left a bad taste in investors' mouths. The former wave of the future started to look like last year's fad. Both firms can, no doubt, be salvaged. RIM still has loyal users among corporate executives, government officials and generals who appreciate the encryption that helps protect their messages from interception. Apple is already miles ahead of RIM in appealing to the individual consumer of mobile computing. RIM is counting on a new operating system it will launch at the end of this year to put it back in the game against Apple. Facebook still has a presence in the thinking of 900 million people globally. It showed how technology and social networking can - sometimes - cause sudden crystallization of political movements before which tyrants tremble, not only because of Facebook, but because of the instant messaging through social networks of which Facebook is a pioneer. The scarce commodity both these firms consume is the attention of people. Each of us can tolerate only so many distractions, only so many demands for our attention. Books, newspapers, radio and television have to some extent been squeezed out of consumers' field of vision by newer and more individualized media. RIM and Facebook are experiencing some of the corresponding squeeze now. Apple's turn will come when innovators come up with still more appealing claims on our attention. For the individual consumer, the challenge is to pay attention to the things that are worth it and ignore the rest. W ITH no public discussion or even a debate, city council unanimously passed contradictory recommendations of the governance committee based on a report by the Winnipeg elections officers. On the one hand, Winnipeg's elections officers recommended changes to the civic elections laws ( all of which require provincial approval) in hopes of drawing more people into the voting experience. Voter turnout at civic elections has been discouraging for some time. This is due, in part, to apathy, lack of a proper voters' list, and difficulty attracting qualified election workers willing to work 14 hours in a single day for about minimum wage. Turnout in the last three civic elections has fallen below 50 per cent ( 2002, 47 per cent; 2006, 38 per cent; 2010, 48 per cent) in contrast to three elections in the 1990s that had turnouts of more than 50 per cent. The city recommended the province amend the Municipal Council and School Board Elections Act to allow students as young as 16 to act as election workers. It also recommended the province enter an agreement with Elections Canada to provide the same motor vehicle registrant data to update the national register of electors that all other provinces provide. Furthermore, it suggested Sec. 19 of the City of Winnipeg Charter be amended to allow elections on weekends instead of the fourth Wednesday of October. Residency requirements, the city also suggested, should be reduced from six months to 60 days ( currently, if you are a new citizen to Canada you have to wait six months before you can vote in any election). Finally, it was recommended rules concerning campaign advertising be investigated These all are positive suggestions that should be passed, as they would definitely assist in increasing voter turnout. So why, then, is city council also making recommendations that would undermine democracy forever and would eliminate civic candidates ( especially so- called " fringe" candidates), except those with money? For example, they have recommended legislation be amended to prevent expenditures of funds prior to candidates' registration by political parties for the purpose of political party endorsement. The reason is that an issue arose in a previous civic election, prior to the registration dates, where a potential candidate prepared advertising literature to promote nomination for endorsement by a political party. This was, in effect, expending funds before one registered, which is a violation of the Election Act. Furthermore, they recommend a deposit be required of all registered candidates in the amount of $ 1,000 for mayor and $ 250 for councillor, with the deposits being refundable after providing an audited statement within a certain time - never mind those running for mayor require 500 signatures while council candidates only require 35. So, what does this all mean? It means we will be " Americanizing" the civic political process in Canada, whereby only rich people can participate in the political system. It will eliminate the different levels of fringe candidates who have run in previous elections. They range from those who run on a specific ideology like me ( I ran for mayor five times, city council 13 times and twice for school board) to candidates who run on a one- issue platform. More disastrous is city council recommending Sec. 44.3 of the City of Winnipeg Charter be amended to not only disqualify those who fail to file an audited financial statement from running in subsequent general civic elections, but also to preclude them from running in any future civic election. City councillors themselves have suggested these two recommendations would reduce the " frivolous" ( fringe) candidates " who do not take the election process seriously enough to fulfill their obligations." And this is a democracy? No matter what kind of candidate, be it fringe or " frivolous," citizens have the right and the duty to participate in the political process. I've always argued every person ought to run for political office at least once in their life in order to understand how the political process in Canada works. Nick Ternette is a community and political activist, freelance writer and broadcaster. C RANBERRY PORTAGE - One thought crosses my mind as I revisit the campground where I spent much of my pre- teen summers: it's a lot smaller than I remember. Still, it's familiar enough. That ancient tree still towers near the fireplace. The glorified outhouse remains visible across the gravel road. And, off in the distance, I can almost hear the familiar play- by- play of Hockey Night in Canada . Suddenly, another thought arises. If I am to bring my own children here some day, those spring and summer nights under the stars just won't be the same given a recent announcement by CBC. The People's Network will soon become The Certain People's Network, pledging to shut down its analog television transmitters in all rural and smaller urban centres effective July 31. The move will impact the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who still pick up CBC with rabbit ears on the nearly obsolete analog system rather than the digital system available in cities. Such a decision by a publicly funded broadcaster raises obvious questions of equality. That's particularly true in northern Manitoba, which, according to the Conference Board of Canada, has three of Canada's five lowest median income regions. Since low- income earners are less likely than other Canadians to have cable or satellite, a vast swathe of northern Manitoba is about to be cut off from television meant to unite our country across geographical and cultural boundaries. CBC argues that the move is necessary given a relatively minor budget cut being imposed by the federal government and the fact that the vast majority of Canadians already have pay TV. For her part, Churchill NDP MP Niki Ashton has pledged to do what she can to reverse the decision. Regrettably, though, she has politicized the issue, blaming the belt- tightening Harper government rather than the arms- length CBC bureaucrats who decide precisely how to prune costs. CBC will, over the next three years, lose $ 115 million of its $ 1.1- billion federal subsidy. The corporation expects to save $ 10 million a year from shutting down its analog transmitters. Some perspective: Cutting off rural Canada will save CBC eight per cent of the annual amount it is losing. And it will equate to just one per cent of the broadcaster's post- cut budget. Surely there are better ways to trim the fat within an organization that reportedly pays Don Cherry about $ 800,000 a year. By shutting down the transmitters, CBC will leave most of northern Manitoba with no gratis television of any sort. Thompson, The Pas, Flin Flon and Snow Lake will continue to receive one over- theair channel, CTV. Of course there's the risk that CBC may set a precedent. Will CTV, accountable to shareholders, eventually see the public broadcaster's abandonment of rural residents as a chance to follow suit? Northern and rural areas won't be the only parts of Manitoba impacted by the decision. Indeed, all viewers outsideofWinnipeg, including those in Brandon, will stare at blank TV screens come midsummer. Up north, the effect will be felt beyond lowincome folks. Many northerners, content with tranquility, forego pay TV as part of their lifestyle. Others hook up portable TV sets at the abundant cottages and campgrounds that dot the regional map. All of them have a basic right to tune into a public service they are already funding without bearing the added cost of cable or satellite. At least that's how Karin Mosell McNichol feels. Born and raised here in Cranberry Portage, sandwiched between The Pas and Flin Flon, she and her family gave up cable some 15 years ago, content with one channel. " CBC is high- quality viewing and if that's not available, I would be disappointed," says the physiotherapist. Mosell McNichol has contacted both MP Ashton and Heritage Minister James Moore to voice her disapproval and is hopeful enough people will speak out to turn the tide. " If you don't say anything, how can you expect things to happen?" she says. Unfortunately, media coverage of CBC's plan has been limited here. Mosell McNichol happened to learn about it through a friend. Many others appear destined to find out only after seeing snow on their screens where Peter Mansbridge used to be. By then it will be too late. Northerners who care about parity from our public broadcaster must speak up. MPs like Ashton must push politics aside and acknowledge that CBC, at least on this issue, requires more oversight from its political bosses. It's not about me watching hockey under the stars. It's about fairness. Jonathon Naylor is editor of The Reminder newspaper in Flin Flon. jonathon_ naylor@ hotmail. com Spare ' fringe' candidates in civic elections NICK TERNETTE CBC abandoning remote northern viewers JONATHON NAYLOR Consumer attention priceless P UBLIC Safety Minister Vic Toews' announcement Wednesday of a dedicated enforcement team in Canada to fight human trafficking is the news out of his government's increased spending on this issue. Most of the rest of the new cash it is spending on the issue will boost established programs that take aim at modern- day slavery. The Harper government passed some meaningful laws to address the trade internationally and domestically of people destined to work as sex slaves. Almost all convictions to date have been in domestic cases, which is why Mr. Toews has turned up efforts at the border. The national unit will team up RCMP and the Canada Border Security Agency. But local police departments are invited to join in and the Winnipeg Police Service should jump aboard. Winnipeg's streets are magnets for traffickers and street gangs who use vulnerable women as their stock in trade, moving them in and out of the city and across provinces. The history of national and regional crime task forces in Canada is not replete with success. The RCMP- WPS missing women task force has yet to make an arrest. The fact is, though, this scourge profits from police working in the silos that borders create. Only good co- operation can fight the trade that spirits vulnerable people away from the familiar and into the country's dark and dangerous corners. Fighting slavery A_ 12_ Jun- 07- 12_ FP_ 01. indd A12 6/ 6/ 12 8: 35: 54 PM ;