HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-10-26, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1988.
Opinion
A heart-warming
story, but...
Sometimes one of those heartwarming stories comes along
that just seems to catch people's imaginations.
Almost exactly a year ago there was the story of the young girl
trapped in the Texas well and the successful fight to save her.
Now the world seems to be wrapped up in the ongoing battle to
free two trapped whales off Alaska.
It’s one of those stories that bring people together. Millions
of dollars are being spent by government agencies to bring in
the latest technology to break the ice and let the whales escape
but it seems that the work of Inuits with chain saws is making
more progress.
Such stories even cross political lines as the Soviet Union has
dispatched an icebreaker to try to help.
Sadly, contrast that story with the story of human suffering
brought on by Hurrican Joan in central America, particularly in
Nicaragua where at least 50 people are dead and 300,000
homeless. But the United States, has said it would be hesitant to
provide relief aid to Nicaragua because the government might
divert the money to battle U.S.-backed Contra guerillas.
Lucky are the whales. They don’t wear political colours.
Madly in all directions
If Free Trade comes to Canada, many observers say, the first
place it should be implemented is between provinces.
With so many areas of trade and manufacturing under
provincial jurisdiction, Canada often has more barriers to trade
between one province and another than it does with its foreign
trading partners. Each province wants to promote jobs at home
so enacts legislation to ensure that products most under
government control are manufactured in their own province.
There are small breweries, for instance, spread across the
country as each province tries to make sure the manufacturing
of the beer is done at home, not shipped in from somewhere else
in Canada. Our provinces compete to try to attract large
industries, playing their own “Let’s make a deal’’ with
taxpayer money.
Yet one of the cornerstones of the first four years in power by
the Brian Mulroney government has been the further
fragmentation of the country by decentralizing power through
the Meech Lake Agreement. In order to make Quebec happy
Mr. Mulroney offered what prime ministers from John
Diefenbaker through Mike Pearson to Pierre Trudeau had
fough* against: the “distinctsociety” clause. In order to make
the other premiers buy this, he offered more provincial powers
to them as well. He gave each province a veto on constitutional
change.
As a result the hope of ever getting more rationalization of
standards across the country would seem to be lost. Instead of
provinces being pulled closer together, they have been allowed
even more to create their own little empires.
But at the same time the other cornerstone of the Mulroney
administration has been the Free Trade Agreement with the
United Stares. Steeped in market-place ideology, Mr.
Mulroney has determined to whip this nation into competitive
shape even if it kills us. Bigger is better we’re told and the
bigger common marketplace this deal will give us will benefit us
all.
Yet we go into this wonderful new world with many of our
manufacturers fragmented and unprepared to take advantage
of free trade because of the necessity to meet provincial
regulations that wanted production spread across the country.
Did Mr. Mulroney really think this is all through or did he,
just like Lord Ronald in Stephen Leacock’s story, fling himself
on his horse and ride off “madly in all directions’’.
Even if you accept that this deal is a good thing the question
should be asked if the government really laid the groundw ork
for it. Even boxers go through months of training to prepare for
a big fight. When you’re preparing for a fight that might decide
the life of your country, surely the country should have been
gotten intoshapefirst. Instead, through the opportunism of the
Meech Lake deal, Mr. Mulroney put the country in a weaker
position for the struggle ahead.
Bon Voyage
Letter from the editor
Disturbing
reminders
BY KEITH ROULSTON
For those ofus present in Walton
last June when the Ontario Provin
cial tactics and rescue unit (TRU)
was called in to get a man out of a
house where he was holed up with a
collection of weapons, that inquest
taking place in Windsor has special
interest.
The same TRU team that was in
Walton was involved in the death of
an innocent man near Windsor
when they mistook him for a
suicidal teenager and shot him
several times. The man, thinking
the camouflaged police were intru
ders in the dark of his back yard,
apparently challenged the-police
squad.
It probably brought home to
many of Us who witnessed the'
happenings in Walton just how
potentially dangerous the local
situation was. There were many at
the scene who were critical of the
police. Those who knew the man
inside the house felt it was like
using a sledge hammer to crack a
peanuttousethetwoTRU teams to
end the standoff. They felt that the
situation could be kept on a lower
key and the man could be talked
out.
The police though, didn’t know
the man in question. They also
have the sad reality of knowing
other police officers whose lives
have quickly ended because nor
mally peaceable individuals did
things with a gu n they would never
think of doing in their normal state
of mind.
There was something eerie
about that scene in Walton even
before the TRU team arrived. The
street was empty. All was quiet.
Local OPP watched the house from
a safe distance and always from
under cover. Probably nothing
would happen but the danger was
always there. As the afternoon
wore on, it would be easy for a
bored policeman to let down his
guard and step out where one shot
from a high-powered rifle could
end his life. In this case it probably
wouldn’t, but stranger things have
happened to police. Even report
ers, standing at a distance were, as
one said, in a position where they
could fill a telescopic sight of a rifle.
Ordinary police who are used to
giving speeding tickets and calm
ing drunken brawls are not exactly
trained to handle such situations
where there is potential for sudden
death if they make a wrong move.
It’s understandable then that they
call in specialists like the TRU
team.
Still the sight of men with
painted faces in camouflaged
uniforms carrying submachine
guns as they jog down the main
street of Walton is a chilling one.
You have to remind yourself that
this is real, not a scene from a
movie Ijeing shot in a small town.
Those guns are real and shoot real
bullets. These people regularly
deal with life and death situations.
And yet you wonder what the
minds of these people must be like.
Imaginegoingto work day after
day knowing that you ’ re likely to be
thrown into a situation like this.
How long can you live with the
stress of almost daily putting your
life on the line in situations that
Continued on page 5
The
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