The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 8

A8 The Ottawa Citizen, Monday, March 1, 1993 The Editorial IWc THE OTTAWA Russell Mills, Publislier James Travers, Editor Sharon Burnside, Managing Editor Peter Calamai, Editor, Editorial Page Gordon Fisher, General Manager Published by the proprietor, Southam at 1 101 Baxter Road, Box 5020, Ottawa, Ont. K2C 3M4 HIGH-RISK OFFENDERS Poll is poor guide to policy utizen gest that the individual singled out by police leave town, perhaps emphasizing their point by tossing a brick through a window. This response, however understandable, would violate both the letter and the spirit of the laws that helped create the kind of society we cherish. The idea that society can be protected by branding criminals is not new. It actually flourished centuries ago in an era now pejoratively branded as medieval.

It's being revived today not by people with expertise in corrections or anti-social behavior, but by police and politicians misguided by genuine sympathy for crime victims. Public-relations ploys such as fingering some repeat offenders simply divert attention from the need for identification and treatment programs that offer some potential for really reducing crimes of violence. Legislators shouldn't have been surprised by the Angus Reid-Southam News poll that found 69 per cent of Canadians think police should publicize the names of high-risk offenders when they are released from prison. Public concern about violent crime is no secret, nor is it a sound basis for policy-making. The notion that this information would help citizens protect themselves better just doesn't bear Thus the potential for human rights violations and vigilante action is not justified.

Learning that a specific high-risk offender is in the neighborhood would, of course, allow parents to warn their children to avoid this individual. Chances are, though, this would create an undue interest that could override a child's normal caution in dealings with strangers. Parents could also strongly sug i 1 LETTERS Police tempted by high-risk solution OTHER VIEWS How to survive Florida I'm disturbed by news of police forces who wish to alert their communities when high-risk offenders are released. And I'm heartened that the Citizen has decided not to support these plans by printing the names and photos of branded citizens. This debate has been cast as a struggle between the rights of an individual and the needs of a community.

But what a community needs is to maintain its security by reasonable measures police enforcing the law and citizens protecting their children and each other. No one is served when sensible public precaution shades into focused police-state preemption. Better to Letter of the Day strive for a perfectly good community than a perfectly secure one. Are people who commit maniacal acts irreversibly maniacs? Hope, modern justice, many citizens and the Citizen answer no. Fear, police forces, many other citizens and the Sun answer yes.

Attention now needs to be focused on the system which allots punishment, which is responsible for the risk evaluation and resocialization of criminals. Randy Boswell Ottawa A parent's plea As a concerned parent of a child at Blackburn Public School, I was shocked to learn the Blackburn Parents School Association endorsed a proposal to close the very school they represent and work for (letter, Feb. 17). Arguments to keep the school open have been described as "emotion versus fact" by the association but parents have gathered many pertinent facts and figures since the end of 1992. And the human factor must count for something.

There are many stories about children who blossomed at Blackburn after having had difficulty in other schools. I chose Blackburn to give my multi-disabled son a better chance for integration. The school's principal and staff create a unique environment with strong educational foundations, and a caring atmosphere where children don't just get by, but flourish. Carol Sinclair-Hitchins Gloucester Blurred visions So what, exactly did the Virgin Mary say to Steve when he saw her of Mary," Feb. 13)? He says some of her messages "emphasized the need to end abortion, war and racial divisions." Did She say to march on clinics and humiliate and ter underworld there that awaits them.

Tourists are always a little lost. Even if they understand the language, they can easily be disoriented. They are ideal victims because there's a strong chance they won't know how to react in time. Florida is not a particularly dangerous state. A population boom and ethnic diversity have created social tensions.

Tourists should remember that just a few kilometres from the beach lies a society that does not live in a peaceful and touristic paradise, but a community with problems that are not so different from those of New York Prudent tourists in Florida must take the same elementary precautions that they would in New York or in any other large North American city. They are not in the Gaspe or a village in Maine. Frederic Wagniere (Excerpted from Feb. 25 La Presse) Florida has recently acquired a reputation as a dangerous state. There have been a number of upsetting incidents in which foreigners notably Quebeckers have been victims of violent crime.

Secretary of State for External Affairs Barbara McDougall asked Canadians who go to Florida to take precautions. And the governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles, stressed that few of the 40 million tourists who visit his state every year are attacked. But he has created a task force to help ensure the safety of visitors and to battle the reputation of Florida as the "state of terror." But tourists would do well to take certain precautions. Those who travel to countries such as Italy and Greece, where there are many tourists, have known for a long time that there is an Ontariophobia My heart bleeds for Mr. Paquette MAIL-POSTE home for Quebecois," Feb.

15 letter). As soon as Quebec makes it as easy for anglophones to live and work on the Quebec side of the river as he would like Ontarians to make it for Quebecois on the Ontario side, then he should resubmit his letter. Perhaps then he would deserve a little more sympathy from me than he has now. M. J.

Burrows Orleans In praise of Nepean Once again after a major snowstorm, I awoke to find that our street (and other streets in Nepean) had been neat rorize pregnant women and pregnant teenage girls? Did She say to force a woman or teenage girl to carry a child for nine months, give birth and then hand her newborn child over to someone else? 1 it u. As a former commanding officer of a helicopter-carrying destroyer, I know it is not "a questionable megaproject (or) other vote-buying scheme." The Canadian Navy's fleet entering the next decade will be about one-third the size it was in the 1960s, despite the' addition of a 200-mile economic zone in the intervening period. The mainstay of that fleet, the Canadian patrol frigate, was designed to carry a modern helicopter. Extensive Department of National Defence studies show the EH-101 is the most effective aircraft for this. Any other system that would even approach the required capability would cost at least as much.

Claims that the job can be done by refitting a 30-year-old bird that is already worn out through thousands of destroyer-deck landings are poorly thought out at best and dishonest at worst. The result of continuing to operate the Sea King, with or without extensive rebuilding, will be a frustrating inability to carry out assigned tasks, and the death of aircrew. The funds for the contract are to be spent over a lengthy period, and represent only a relatively small proportion of the defence budget. Our defence budget is one of the lowest, proportionate to GNP, of the Group of Seven. Even eliminating defence expenditures entirely, will do little if anything to solve Canada's deficit problem.

Robin Corneil Nepean ly ploughed overnight. A family member who commutes from Kingston to work in Nepean finds a startling difference in snow-clearing efficiency between the two cities. There are many good things about living in Nepean: its fine schools and li- i 1 Canada Post Corporation -Socit ti canadienne tit postal Curing Canadians of mail mania Feb. 25, J993 To: Senior executives, national headquarters and regions From: Don Lander, president Our efforts to break Canadians of the letters habit go from success to success. Let's review the status: Regular annual adjustments in the price of first-class postage have successfully confused hundreds of thousands of Canadians, particularly the elderly.

In addition, a one-cent stamp unsurpassed for blandness discourages people from using their stock of old 42-cent stamps, a direct boost to our bottom line. Harsh winter weather across the country ensures that using the outdoor lock boxes is a daily hazard in new and rural neighborhoods. As a result, people there are begging friends and families not to send letters. This frees space for direct marketed mail, far more profitable to us. Our unknown rule about minimum envelope size continues to catch Canadians unawares, feeding short-term profits and further discouraging system usage.

A commendation has been sent to Hudson, Quebec, where alert staff spotted a widow trying to send thank-you cards after her husband's funeral in envelopes less than the regulation 140 mm wide. The 45 cards were returned to the widow in her home town of Morrisburg with a demand for double postage. Of course, it cost more to intercept and redirect the cards than to deliver them, but an important principle was at issue. Press coverage confirmed that almost no one was aware of the undersize rule, even after three years another success for our promotions department Successes such as these have paved the way for our most recent marketing innovation. I refer to Canada Post edict No.

58291, stating that we will no longer redirect first-class mail without charge when households move. Ordering the new householder to re-envelope the mail and pay another 43 cents was a stroke of genius. New revenue potential is substantial nearly 400,000 Canadians move to another province in any year and far more move within their province. Yet some innovative thinking could spread alienation even to Parliament, which has, so far, ignored our anti-letters campaign. We need to engineer a movement to have householders redirect such mail to any Member of Parliament, a mailing requiring no postage.

Your ideas, please. 1 Did She say to destroy a mother's soul to save a child's? Or did She point toward a world where "abortion, war and racial divisions" no longer exist? A world where men never rape or perceive some women as bodies to be used and then discarded; where fathers of all races rejoice at the birth of a daughter as joyfully as at that of a son; where "abortion and war and racial divisions" no longer exist? Marilyn Westland Ottawa Pro-lifers won't be duped Susan Riley's Feb. 15 column on McClinics is a thinly disguised plea for more abortuaries. Her main argument for a general women's health clinic is that it is a more ambiguous target for pro-life campaigns than clinics specializing in abortions. Pro-lifers, then, are expected to believe that abortionists, whose incomes are dependent on the numbers of unborn they terminate, would counsel patients in alternatives to abortion.

The medical profession will start treating women as whole human beings when it stops invading their bodies to rip out the precious lives they bear. Robert Du Broy Ottawa Elizabeth Manley lent police ser Put the city on map' vice, plentiful recreation facilities and thriving arts community, to name a few. On a Christmas visit to Vancouver, I struck up a conversation with some young people on a skytrain. Discovering where I live, they remarked, "That's where Elizabeth Manley comes from, isn't it?" It seems she, and astronaut Steve MacLean, have put Nepean on the map. I hope that Nepean residents appreci- ate and support this well-run city Connie Strickland Nepean Don't chop helicopter plan The Citizen's Feb.

17 editorial on the debt crisis makes some reasonable suggestions, but misrepresents the EH-101 helicopter purchase. REMINDER: We welcome letters. To be considered for publication, letters must be signed (full first name or two initials) and include an address and phone number, for verification. Form letters and copies are not published. We condense and edit for style.

Preference is given to writers not published within the previous 30 days. Please cite page and date for articles mentioned and mail to: Letters to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, 1101 Baxter Road, Ottawa, K2C 3M4. Or fax to 596-8458 Innu relocations: Hell froze over the day government played God KEN MacQUEEN Citizen staff f1 THE NATION Iqaluk used to dream, as she eked out an existence, of eating Arctic char once again. "I have also lost six children, stillborn children, because there was so much work to do I am sorry." Last week the royal commission released an assessment of existing government studies on the move. It was conducted by Mary Simon, past president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Roger Tasse, a former deputy justice minister.

They dont outright accuse the government of cov-ering up. They say there are "divergent views" about whether the Inuit were forced to relocate, about the motivation for the move and the degree of negligence in government handling of the affair. Even today, the government seems determined to repeat past mistakes. It spent much time searching its bureaucratic records for a series of reports intended to justify the move. "This is to be contrasted," Tasse and Simon note, "with the precious little time and effort expended to provide the Inuit relocatees with a meaningful opportunity to tell their full story." It will take a royal commission to listen, 40 years too late.

(Ken MacQueen column alternates in this space with Jim Coyte's column on political affairs) rebuffs your requests to go back, and instead ships more relatives north. Although conditions improve, this is home for the next 20 or 30 years. You must think this a gross exaggeration. It isnt The Inuit of Inukjuak, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, were moved some 2,000 kilometers north to Resolute along the Northwest Passage and to Grise Fiord, on Ellesmere, the northernmost island in Canada. Ottawa is closer to their former home of Inukjuak than Grise Fiord is to Inukjuak "We were shocked by the bareness of the land and the coldness of the air and the presence of icebergs, and as far as we could see, there was nothing but gravel, ice and snow," Markoosie Patsauq said, describing the group's arrival in September 1953 in his testimony before the royal commission last year.

The sun does not rise from November to February. Caribou and fish were scarce. The families existed by raiding food from a dump used by a white outpost Of the first winter, Anna Nungak told the commission: "There were no nurses, no teachers. There was nothing and we spent the whole winter in a tent We used to miss our relatives and I remember our parents used to cry." Mary Palsauq Governments do a devil of a poor job of playing God. The Innu of Davis Inlet have paid an awful price for the Newfoundland government's decision 25 years ago to move them to their dismal island prison, allegedly for their own good.

And in about a month you will hear details of another appalling assault on the human rights of a group of aboriginal people. On April 5, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples will start hearings on the relocation by the federal government of 17 Inuit families from their homes in Inukjuak, Que. to settlements in the High Arctic. The government has resisted calls for a full hearing, compensation and an apology, and for good reason. Although this relocation occurred between 1953 and 1955, its callous disregard of humanity harkens back to another century, or a time of war.

The government insists it was for the good of the families. But there is much evidence the Inuit were used to establish Canada's sovereignty as the Cold War heightened the Arctic's significance. If it is hard to relate to the problems of 87 Inuit in the remote North, think of it in southern terms. Say your extended family was having tough times in a depressed region of the Ottawa Valley. The government declares that it is moving you to a new area with plenty of space and opportunity.

If you don't like it, you are told, you can always return. You may not want to move, or you may be willing to give it a try. Either way, you believe the government has your best interests at heart You board an airplane in Ottawa. It is a fine September day, but there are many tears because some of your family stays behind. You travel 2.000 kilometers north to the very top of Hudson Bay.

There you are left in the snow, with some tents and a few basic supplies. Initially, there is no drinking water, unless you melt ice. You dont know where to find food and there are no teachers or nurses for your children. The government.