Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 28, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM VOL 150 NO 321 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2021 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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INSIDE Arts and Life C1 Business B4 Classifieds B7 Comics C5 Diversions C7 Horoscope C4 Jumble C6 Miss Lonelyhearts C4 Obituaries B6-7 Opinion A6-7 Sports D1 Television C4 Weather D8 COLUMNISTS: Dan Lett A4 Martin Cash B4 Mike McIntyre D1 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada CIRCULATION INQUIRIES MISSING OR INCOMPLETE PAPER? Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 BIDEN ● FROM A1 COMMISH ● FROM A1 SURGERY ● FROM A1 Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian jus- tice minister, said he does not believe the resolution of the case will embold- en China’s much-maligned practice of what has come to be known as “hostage diplomacy.” Cotler said the international support that Canada was able to build through its 60-plus country declaration against arbitrary detention has put China on notice that it can’t get away with the practice. “I think this is a very important de- velopment. And I do hope that shadow of hostage diplomacy has been lifted. And now, the culture of impunity that accompanied it can be combated.” Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Cana- dian ambassador to China, said the new arbitrary detention declaration needs to be strengthened with punitive measures such as sanctions. “The trust is gone with China,” he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokes- woman Hua Chunying blasted Can- ada for aiding the U.S. in a “political frame-up and persecution against a Chinese citizen, an act designed to hobble Chinese high-tech companies as represented by Huawei.” Hua told her ministry’s daily press briefing on Monday that Meng was “ar- bitrarily detained” by Canada — which is how Canada and its allies viewed the imprisonment of Kovrig and Spavor — and that her government, and its leader worked tirelessly to win her freedom. “President Xi Jinping gave personal guidance,” Hua said. Hua also reiterated that Kovrig and Spavor endangered China’s national security and she said their freedom came because they “applied for release on bail for medical reasons.” Both men were convicted of espio- nage in closed, secretive and widely criticized trials earlier this year, with Spavor getting an 11-year sentence, while Kovrig was awaiting his fate. A Chinese newspaper controlled by the Communist party, the Global Times, reported on Sunday that Kovrig and Spavor signed handwritten confes- sions before they were released. Global Affairs Canada did not directly respond to questions on this point, saying in a written statement that “these two men are innocent.” But Cotler said even if Kovrig and Spavor did sign confessions, they wouldn’t have been worth the paper they were written on. “I don’t believe it took place. And I do know that when people are under not only detention as they were, but torture, in detention, sometimes under that torture, those things occur,” said Cotler, the founder of Montreal’s Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and a lawyer who has represented numerous political prisoners. “But I’d say that if it did occur, the fingerprints are on China.” — The Canadian Press Manitoba’s Commissioner of Elections has the authority to launch an investiga- tion and recommend prosecution if there are grounds to believe that laws may have been broken, said University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus Paul Thomas. The commissioner hires an outside inves- tigator, often a lawyer, to conduct a probe, give the accused an opportunity to rebut any negative information brought against them and prepare a report, Thomas said. “You don’t want to prematurely disclose that someone is accused of having done something wrong without having done a full investigation,” he said. “Once it’s headed to court, I would’ve thought you should be prepared to explain and defend what you’ve done. If you get to the stage where you’ve charged people, it’s serious. We should know the names of these individuals. I would think that information is fair to both sides.” The charges against Rajpal and Rajbir Grewal have not been proven in court. Election finance laws are fundamental to a democratic society and have to be taken seriously and handled transparently, Schafer said. “The integrity of the rules and the en- forcement of the rules is a promise to the citizens of Manitoba that no individuals, or parties or groups will be allowed to take un- fair advantage of the rules — that there is a level playing field, everyone is held account- able and those who violate them will be held responsible,” the ethicist said. “If someone cheats on election financing, they gain an unfair advantage. In a demo- cratic society that’s considered a deeply serious crime. It’s not a trivial matter like a parking ticket. Following election financing laws goes to the integrity of our democ- racy— if the rules aren’t enforced and the guilty aren’t convicted, blamed, shamed and held accountable, the public becomes cynical. Schafer said the erosion of public trust in democracy is clear to see just over the border, where many Republicans are claim- ing losses suffered by the party are because of “rigged elections.” “I think American democracy is under real threat at the moment,” he said, add- ing that one constituency association facing charges of violating election finan- cing laws here isn’t necessarily a threat, but whenever election officials aren’t forthcom- ing, it becomes a concern. “The process whereby the rules are enforced has to be seen to be scrupulously honest and transparent, and people involved have to be held accountable,” Schafer said. “Any hint of secrecy, coverup and con- cealment — or the suspicion of a coverup — feeds cynicism and mistrust. The elections commissioner has a stringent obligation to apply and enforce the rules with integrity.” The harshest penalty for an individual charged under the act is a $5,000 fine. — with files from Dean Pritchard carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Bohm said tackling and clearing the backlog will not be a quick undertak- ing; he expects the province, Shared Health and others will have to sit down again, as they did in 2018, to figure out how many surgeries will have to be done annually to catch up in a post- pandemic world. “It is a lot longer than you think it is going to be because you can’t double your surgical volume,” he said. “You’re probably looking at a 30 per cent increase for three years to clear that backlog.” At least one of Bohm’s patients — former travel agency owner Max John- son — told the Free Press recently he was not willing to wait a long time for his knee-replacement surgery. Johnson opted to fly to a surgical centre in Lithuania, where he will pay about $16,000 Canadian for the procedure and two weeks of rehabilitation. And Johnson is not alone. At least two other Manitobans told the Free Press they went to a surgical centre in Calgary to pay to have their hips replaced at a cost of about $50,000 in total. “I understand why people go to the States,” said Bohm. “I understand why people go to Lithuania to have their procedures done. They don’t want to wait.” But that doesn’t mean he wants to see a private system set up to re- duce the size of the wait list. “I’m a very strong supporter of a universal publicly funded health-care system,” he said. “You look at the data and it is the most cost-effective and high-quality way of providing health care. If you have a private parallel system, you will start siphoning off resources, human resources, from the public system. “You’ll simply spend more money doing what you are doing in the public system.” For now, Bohm said Manitobans should make sure they are vaccinated so they are ready for elective surger- ies. “I’ve had one patient who has refused to be vaccinated and is quite upset he can’t have his hip surgery,” said Bohm. “There are some people (who are) very anti-vaccine and it is hard to understand the reason. “They will trust me to cut them open and to permanently alter them for the rest of their life, but they won’t trust me when I tell them having the vaccine is the single most important thing they can do. “It puzzles me.” kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca A RURAL Manitoba billboard claiming a dewormer drug treats COVID-19 was investigated by Health Canada and ordered taken down, but the federal agency ultimately can’t stop people from improperly in- gesting the substance. This summer, as part of its efforts to crack down on illegal marketing about the novel coronavirus, Health Canada looked into complaints about signs in the Winkler area saying ivermectin treats COVID-19. The federal agency sent a letter to the person who sponsored the ad and made sure it was removed, a Health Canada spokesperson told the Free Press in a statement. “Upon Health Canada’s request, the company displaying these ads removed them immediately, confirmed that these ads were no longer being displayed and committed to refraining from engaging in this non-compliant act in the future.” However, agricultural doses of iver- mectin are still readily available on feed-supply store shelves, and as long as the anti-parasitic medication is not being marketed or sold as a COVID-19 treatment, Health Canada has no juris- diction over how customers use it. At two Winkler-area agriculture sup- ply stores, ivermectin paste for horses was offered for sale with no questions asked and no warnings it shouldn’t be used in humans, the Free Press ob- served on a recent visit. There’s no evidence the anti-parasitic developed in the 1970s works to treat COVID-19 and there are serious risks of overdose. Alberta requires purchasers to pro- vide proof they own livestock, under a provincial Premises Identification pro- gram, before suppliers can sell ivermec- tin or any other agricultural medication. No such rule applies in Manitoba. Some local feed supply stores have posted warnings, pulled the product off the shelves or stopped selling it online after becoming aware some customers intended to ingest it themselves. Misinformation about its possible connection to COVID-19 has led to worldwide supply shortages of ivermec- tin, causing limited access to prescrip- tion anti-parasitic medication as well as livestock treatments. Ivermectin is prescribed as a topical cream or in pill form to treat intestinal worms in humans. The global short- age of the drug, linked to people try- ing to use it as a COVID-19 treatment, has raised some concern among phar- macists who’ve had the issue on their radar for months, said Tim Smith, vice- president of Pharmacists Manitoba. Manitoba pharmacists haven’t been fielding a lot of requests for ivermectin, but they’re aware of the problem, Smith said. “Not in an overwhelming sense. The conditions that ivermectin treats are fairly rare, so seeing prescriptions for oral ivermectin is relatively uncom- mon. I have heard some reports of pre- scriptions coming in, but it’s something that’s on our radar more so than it’s something that we’re seeing a lot of.” No clinical trials of ivermectin have sought Health Canada’s approval to begin in Canada, but researchers else- where are still looking into the drug. The only research that showed prom- ising results linked to COVID-19 in humans, and spawned much of the misinformation about it, was later re- tracted. There were some reports iver- mectin slowed the growth of the virus in test tubes, but only in concentrations that would be toxic for human consumption. There haven’t been any reports of Manitobans overdosing on the drug, but it can cause a range of side-effects from gastrointestinal problems to res- piratory failure, coma or even death. “Ivermectin is being explored fur- ther, but at this time, there’s no reason to think that it is, or will be, an effect- ive treatment against COVID-19 in hu- mans,” Smith said. In the Rural Municipality of Stanley, which surrounds the city of Winkler and has the lowest vaccination rates in Manitoba, a highway billboard dis- plays a web address (and no other text or mention of ivermectin) that appears to be linked to a COVID-19 misinforma- tion group. A Health Canada spokesperson said the agency is urging Canadians to report incidents of illegal adver- tising or illegal sales of ivermec- tin via its online complaint form at healthycanadians.gc.ca. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay Health agency fights dewormer drug claims KATIE MAY Former constituency execs face charges RAJPAL Grewal, 32, is facing three Election Financing Act charges and is set to appear in provincial court on Oct. 7. He is charged with obstructing an investigation, withholding information or materi- als relevant to an investigation and failing to provide information sought by the commissioner or a representative for the purposes of an investigation. The offences are alleged to have been committed between Sept. 25, 2020, and Dec. 1, 2020. Rajpal Grewal was the Manitoba Progressive Conservative party’s Waverley constituency association president from June of 2017 until November 2019, during which time he helped Economic Development and Jobs Minister Jon Reyes get elected, ac- cording to Grewal’s LinkedIn profile. Reyes’ press secretary deferred to the PC caucus for comment. Rajbir Grewal, 30 — the Waverley constituency association’s former treasurer, is facing eight charges and has an Oct. 6 court date. The charges include: omitting to state material facts when providing information in a report or record under the Election Financing Act; knowingly giving false information in a record or report filed with the chief electoral officer; failing to comply with the required duties of a financial officer by failing to keep proper records of all income, including contributions, transfers and loans; failing to comply with duties of a financial officer by failing to file statements and other information of the constituency association with the chief electoral officer as required; and failing to ensure that every disbursement, including transfers made for the constituency association’s account, were substantiated by an invoice or voucher. The offences are alleged to have occurred between June 20, 2017 and Oct. 29, 2019. Between Sept. 25, 2020 and Dec. 1, 2020, Rajbir Grewal is accused of obstruction of a person carrying out an investigation under the Elec- tion Financing Act, withholding information or materials relevant to an investigation under the act, and failing to provide the commissioner of elections or his representative with the information sought for the purposes of an investigation. When asked about the charges Monday, Manitoba PC party spokesman Keith Stewart said in an email to the Free Press that the party was alerted by the Waverley PC Association in the fall of 2019 about financial irregularities in constituency bank records. The financial situation as reported by the outgoing president and the treasurer were not in accordance with the bank statements issued by the constituency’s bank. As a result, incorrect information was sup- plied to Elections Manitoba for the years 2017 and 2018, the party said. As soon as it discovered the irregularity, it alerted Elections Manitoba, Stewart said. Neither the party nor any constituency members were found responsible, he said, declining to comment further on the charges against Rajpal and Rajbir Grewal. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Some Manitoba businesses have had to make it clear on store shelves that ivermectin, a dewormer drug, is not for human consumption. A_02_Sep-28-21_FP_01.indd A2 2021-09-27 10:29 PM ;