Winnipeg Free Press

1. July 24, 2008

2. Tell us what happened

   Winnipeg police say the 17-year-old youth who died Tuesday after being stunned by an officer's Taser gun was suspected of having stolen property and refused police warnings to drop the knife he pulled out. These barest of details offer a slim explanation amid rising public distrust of the "non-lethal" Taser and shaken faith in the Winnipeg Police Service.

3. Rare initiative

   Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's major opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (July 24 2008, 6: 58 am CDT), has in his political career survived three assassination attempts, several stints in jail and watched helplessly in the last year as hundreds of his supporters and party members have been murdered in political violence. He has seen two elections stolen from under his nose by President-it-seems-forever Robert Mugabe.

4. Have Your Say

   Inquisition not so bad

   Tom Oleson's view on the Spanish Inquisition (July 24 2008, 7: 53 am CDT) is understandable, given centuries of historical misconception, misunderstanding and misinformation about it. Mark Williams says in his book, The Story of Spain, that, by the standards of the time, the Spanish Inquisition was not particularly unfair or brutal. Religious intolerance was rife in Europe, and witchcraft and other offences commonly punished by death. According to experts, the total number of persons executed for religious reasons was fewer in Spain than in contemporary England. English historian Hugh Trevor-Davies even states that the Inquisition was "the most fair legal system in Europe at the time." And, according to the British academic Henry Kamen, the Inquisition in the New World, in operation from the 1570s, "had little impact on the colonial world." It is key to note that its role was concerned only with heresy.

5. Letter of the day

   Imprudent spending

   Re: Nitrogen must go: province, July 23.

6. July 23, 2008

7. Fix the mistakes

   The current fight between the government and the province's retired teachers over cost-of-living increases to pension payments is a good illustration why it is dangerous to offer rich benefits to a huge public work force. Protecting pensions against inflation is a tricky thing to do, especially when its effect is compounded by a policy to encourage people to retire early.

8. Reason to dance

   After 13 long years supposedly on the run, the alleged architect of the worst war crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s was arrested by Serbian authorities on Monday. Radovan Karadzic, who was the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the troubles, was plucked by police from a bus in Belgrade and quickly indicted by a court that consigned him for extradition to trial at the United Nations Balkan war crimes tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands.

9. Have Your Say

   Statement ludicrous Re: Retired teachers slam NDP, union, July 22.

10. Letter of the day

    'I know nothing!' Re: Tired, not drunk: officer, July 22.

11. July 22, 2008

12. Let's do this job

    Cpl. James Hayward Arnal was more committed to the war in Afghanistan than are most Canadians. He was on his second tour of duty with 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and had applied to serve a third when he was killed by a roadside improvised explosive device last week, the 88th Canadian to die in combat there.

13. If it's Tuesday...

    On Sunday he was in Afghanistan, talking to President Hamid Karzai and American military officers and ostentatiously supping with U.S. soldiers. Monday it was Iraq, talking to Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander there and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Today it is a half-day in Israel briefly meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of the Jewish state's political leaders, followed by a half-day in the West Bank meeting with Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. And then on Wednesday it is off to Europe to do some fist-bumping -- no time for much else -- with the leaders of the European allies.

14. Have Your Say

    Coach Berry's Waterloo Blue Bombers coach Doug Berry's decision to start Ryan Dinwiddie over Kevin Glenn at quarterback this Thursday against Calgary is a foolish act that will prove to be his Waterloo. The Bombers' pregame meal might as well be beef Wellington served with a Prussian demi-glaze.

15. Letter of the day

    Eichmann a sociopath Re: Abu Ghraib photos don't tell whole story, July 20.

16. Winnipeg Free Press Poll

    TODAY'S QUESTION: Do your support Air Canada's flight attendants who are protesting their jobs being eliminated in Winnipeg and other cities?

17. July 21, 2008

18. Through a glass...

    Canadians should be careful what they complain about, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney suggested to the nation's premiers at their meeting of the Council of the Federation in Quebec City last week.

19. Court of no resort

    Two international courts have been prominent in the news last week. The United Nations' most important legal body, the International Court of Justice (July 21 2008, 8: 35 am CDT) -- or the World Court as it is more popularly known -- issued an order to the state of Texas to delay the execution of five convicted Mexican murderers because it believes their rights to consular access may have been violated.

20. Have Your Say

    Give from the heart Re: A corporate ripoff, July 16.

21. Letter of the day

    Server shows courage Re: Server lied about booze, inquiry hears, July 17.

22. Winnipeg Free Press Poll

    TODAY'S QUESTION: Would you approve of Manitoba Hydro using smart-meter technololgy to run your furnace, hot water heater and air conditioner remotely?

23. July 20, 2008
24. July 19, 2008

25. Co-opting little Gage

    THE preamble of the review undertaken by the Southern First Nations child welfare authority into the death last year of Gage Guimond reads like an apologia. Not to be confused with an apology -- for the word "sorry" is quite absent -- the preamble, rather, appears to excuse, if not defend, the abject failure of the Sagkeeng child welfare agency and its workers to keep the toddler and his sister safe.
    
    PDF report: Death of Gage Guimond (July 19 2008, 9: 02 am CDT)

26. Have Your Say

    LETTER OF THE DAY

    Ashamed of our police

    I think most Manitobans are astute enough to realize that officers and officials are downplaying the exact nature of a "shifter."

27. July 18, 2008

28. Letter of the day

    AirCan's sneaky history Having been close friends with several Winnipeg-based airline employees over the years, I was very saddened to learn of the coming closure of the Winnipeg flight attendant base in the city.

29. The roots of crime

    Manitoba's back on top -- sadly, it is again the murder capital of Canada. Winnipeg joined the province, leading larger cities with its murder rate of 3.6 per 100,000 population in 2007. The murder rate can swing wildly and can be an unreliable indicator of the level of violence or crime in the community. Manitoba's statistics, however, have consistently floated above the rest of the nation.

30. Undone by decency

    There were tears of sorrow, tears of anger in Israel this week after an exchange of bodies and prisoners between the Jewish state and Hezbollah. On Wednesday, Hezbollah returned to Israel two coffins containing the bodies of Israeli soldiers who had been captured during a terrorist raid on Israel in 2006. That abduction sparked the second Lebanon war.

31. Winnipeg Free Press Poll

    TODAY'S QUESTION: Do you think Chief Keith McCaskill's testimony at the Taman inquiry

32. Have Your Say

    Government shenanigans The hearings on Bill 45 are to begin Monday at 6 p.m. until midnight. Is that such a good time for senior citizens, ages from 65 to 105, to be on the streets of Winnipeg? Why not have it during the daytime when transportation and civilized living can take place? The answer is obvious. The government wants to discourage as many senior citizens as possible from attending. Their stories would make it embarrassing for the government. Make it as inconvenient as possible. Let the elderly sit for five hours if they can. They'll have 10 minutes to tell the story of how inflation has eaten away at their pension income over the past decades. Ten minutes should do it! Then, government MLAs on the hearing committee can grill them for five minutes to "check their facts!" The only relevant fact is that the government has been warned of the present crisis since 1986 and has done nothing about it.

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