HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-07-26, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1989.
Editorials
Delicate time
for USSR
Those in the West who have been
cheered by recent reforms in the Soviet
Union can only hope that the country can
steer its way through the minefield of
potential problems the current miners
strike presents.
Having embarked on an ambitious
reform progress, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev now faces the classic
dilema of all reformers of despotic
systems: how fast is to<? fast?
It’s an intoxicating experience to lift
the lid of a closed society but the forces
set in motion aren’t always easy to keep
in control. The miners, and many
others, are saying the reforms aren’t
coming fast enough. Mr. Gorbachev
must face the problem that reforms cost
money and the economy must be put
back on track before he can give all the
reforms the people want. The switch
over from tightly controlled economy to
more decentralised, slightly free enter
prise system can be a rough one. And, if
there is turmoil, there are always those
of the old guard who, as in China, are
ready to say the new ways don’t work
and seize control and reimpose tough
old regulations.
It’s a delicate time for the Soviet
Union. Those in the West who want to
see more freedom there can only hope
the country can walk the tightrope to a
better, freer land.
Now more than ever, Canada needs leadership
A recent poll showed more English speaking
Canadians than ever willing to let Quebec separate if it
wants to. Less than a decade after Quebec voters rejected
separation, there is worry that Canada may not make it to
its 125th anniversary in 1992.
There are many reasons for the malaise that has
Canada with less apparent will to live than ever: there’s a
weariness after 30 years of trying to build harmony
between Quebec and the rest of the country, coupled with
the apparent unwillingness of Quebec nationalists to
compromise in the simple concession of allowing
English-speaking Quebecers to use English, in addition
to French on their store signs. There’s the continued
argument over Meech Lake and the special status for
Quebec and there’s the feeling that no matter how much
the rest of the country tries to be fair to Quebec, Quebec is
not prepared tobudge to meet it even a quarter of the way.
But the sickness that grips this country also has to do
with a lack of leadership on the part of our federal political
leaders. None of Prime Minister Mulroney, Liberal
Leader John Turner, or Ed Broadbent of the NDP has
been able to instill in Canadians the will to fight to keep
the country united. The three have, through their
unanimous support of the Meech Lake deal and
elsewhere, shown an unwillingness to ruffle feathers in
Quebec ifit might mean losing votes. None has the kind of
strength Pierre Trudeau had in the province when he
could tell Quebecers they deserved a fair deal in
confederation, but not a deal better than other provinces;
that French and English should be equal across the
country, not each free to discriminate against the other
wherever one dominated the other.
Prime Minister Mulroney has been particularly
uninspiring for Canadians. Faced with the mounting
deficit problem he has had to turn his attention to the
practical matters of dollars but in doing so, he has
weakened the beliefs many people had in their country.
Canada, he said over and over again, wasn’t strong
enough to stand on its own and must have an economic
union with the U.S. How subtlely has this effected the
psychology of Canadians. How much have Canadians
begun to think that sooner or later we are going to be
joined with the U.S. so why go through all the fuss of the
continuing compromise with Quebec.
Free Trade and balanced budget have been used as
excuses to cut many of the ties that bind: to say that this is
now a country where it’s every man for himself and the
weak must fend for themselves. Economic development
for poor provinces is slashed in the name of free trade.
Railways, mdre essential for some of the parts of the
country where it will never make money than it is in the
Toronto-Montreal corridor where it can be profitable, are
cut. Deregulation and dropping trade barriers seem to
play right into the hands of the most hated people in
Canada: the businessmen of affluent southern Ontario.
In a dog-eat-dog world where the individual is
supposed to fend for himself, who can have the time for
the prosaic things like patriotism?
Somebody has got to start inspiring Canadians and has
got to do it quick. Somebody has got to make both French
and English Canadians realize we have something special
here that shouldn’t be wasted. If we don’t get some real
leadership soon, there may soon not be a country to lead.
Letter from the editor
No simple solution
to abortion issue
BY KEITH ROULSTON
There’s something a little unsett
ling, about watching the private
lives of two couples being played
out in the headlines the last couple
of weeks. It’s like being a voyeur.
In both cases a woman had
become pregnant, she and the man
she had been involved with argues,
and the man tried to get the courts
to say that the child the woman was
carrying should be protected
against abortion, brought to full
term and turned over to the father.
The whole situation has brought
the never-ending abortion issue to
a head again.
Although for proponents of both
the Pro-Choice and the Pro-Life
sides the issue may be black and
white, for the courts and legisla
tors, and for many in the general
public, it is one of the most difficult
and muddy issues in many years.
It’s the kind of moral dilemma that
will only increase as medical tech
nology gives mankind the power of
life and death in more and more
areas in years to come.
It is an issue not so much of right
versus wrong, but of right versus
rights. It is on one hand, the right
of the woman to control her own
body versus the right of the fetus to
live; the right of the woman not to
have a baby she doesn’t want,
versus the right of a father to have
his child.
For the non-combatant, it’s so
easy to see right and wrong on both
sides. How can a woman be
expected to carry a child to full
term for a man she probably hates
by this point? Doesn’t it make a
woman into a baby-making ma
chine. And yet .... under today’s
law a woman has far more power
than a man in the future of
children. If a woman becomes
pregnant and wants to keep the
child, even if the man doesn’t, she
can have the child and force the
man to pay child support until the
child is grown. If the woman
doesn’t want the child but the man
does, he can’t stop her from
terminating the life of the fetus.
Whichever side of the argument
you come down on, someone is
going to be treated unfairly.
On abortion itself, the solutions
are no more clear. But surely,
Pro-choice supporters say, this is a
matter to be left up to a woman and
her conscience. It sounds so sim
ple. Yet if the same thinking was
applied in all areas, we could get
along without any laws and any
police. If everybody took speed
limits seriously, we’d not need
traffic courts.
Individual choice presupposes,
that there is a sense of morality on
the part of all people. It presuppos
es that women are going to think
long and hard before deciding an
abortion is necessary. If every
woman considered abortion a seri
ous act, we’d need no abortion law.
But the lack of an abortion law
gives women the greatest power in
the world: the power over life and
death. Only by denying that the
fetus is life can anyone live easily
with that power. Isn’t it strange
that at a time when society is
becoming more concerned with the
life of baby seals, chickens in cages
and the treatment of veal calves,
Continued on page 7
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