The Kingston Whig-Standard from Kingston, Ontario, Canada • 27

-Stanliari) iBudgetJ RENTACAR 875 Counter Street 546-3231 Go with Budget's Weekend Special WE FEATURE FORD AND OTHER FNE CARS FRIDAY AUGUST 30 199127 BRONSKILL MSURANCE BROKERS LIMITED 736 Arlnaton Park Platt 384-0267 HOME AUTO BUMNCSS UFg 'kJWFJ KINGSTON ONTARIO CITY Hip recognized as Academic gets close view of the failed Soviet coup By GREQ BURUUK WNgBtandard Staff Writer The city of Kingston give Its key to any John Paul George and Ringo But Mayor Helen Cooper did give one out yesterday afternoon on the steps of City Hall to John Paul Gord Rob and Gord better known as The Tragically Hip Along with the key and a certificate of appreciation Johnny Fay Paul Langlois Gord Downle Hob Baker and Gord Sinclair were also presented with city of Kingston T-shirtsand baseball caps They In turn gave Mayor Cooper one of their own T-shirts which she vowed not to surrender Not even to her daughter In her short speech Mayor Cooper said that everyone was proud of the rock band the honor and glory brought to Preceding her was town crier Chris Whyman who in his cry MICHAEL LEATha Whig-SImM Mayor Helen Cooper offers the Tragically Hip a certificate of appreciation and a key to the city morous In Its response Mr Baker said really Mows our The he added pucklshly think of a better way to kick off my bid for a mayoral This is so excellent They're putting on a really good show Enthusiastic crowd tunes in to a Hip night at the Fort mm I 'nil i 4 Staffer carries girl from crush Revolver Films of Toronto also used a helicopter for some of its aerial footage which will go into the hour-long color movie said producer Belinda Robbings The band members commis had a he could either compress them or stop and he stopped was a lot of revving of engines to attempt to Intimidate and little movements forward but they stopped and at that stage the people started climbing on the tanks I noticed that the soldiers on top of the tanks not only were they not trying to push these people off but they started helping peopleup at that and I said we have a morale problem guys foiled and they had to turn around and go back into the perimeter and they were carrying a huge number of people on their tanks and they helped them off congenially as they went into the secure A similar situation occurred with a column of armored personnel carriers that had been on a sidestreeL came out of the street on the corner of which I was standing and they did close the street off but then people got up with them were the paratroops you could tell from their supposedly the elite These were the people who in April of 89 killed 30 people In Tbilisi with sharpened entrenching shovels and chemical weapons in a peaceful demonstration in Georgia in front of the parliament But in Moscow on that night last week things were different were great moments such as when this little old lady goes up with her purple umbrella and Starts beating on the tank in wonderful and fascinating futility people started getting on these armored personnel carriers too and they were helped up byjthe paratroopers of the paratroopers helped this nice young lady up and they traded gave him a flower and he gave her his beret He was already divesting himself of his uniform and I said to myself These people happened at the Kremlin the entire period of three or four days" he said that they would deploy units and they would fraternize with the locals and the locals would basically corrupt them and then the authorities would pull the unit and replace them with another and the same -process would Prof MacFarlane said that on Monday night there were a maximum of 8000 people In the large square that he could see a far cry from the hundreds of thousands that have gathered in other eastern European countries during recent years of upheaval The next morning after a quiet night he found that the coup leaders had failed to attack the Supreme Soviet building of the Rus-' sian federation in Moscow called the This was a big mistake on their part Prof MacFarlane said because it suggested a misunderstanding of how power had shifted from the Soviet centre at the Kremlin to the Russian republic headed by Boris Yeltsin He spent the day there since his research project no longer interested him or anyone else and listened to the speeches including one by Mr Yeltsin Several days later when the coup was over and the troops were leaving the federation building was a very emotional and moving scene because these were the heroes of the people and they were embracing them in the streets and they all drove away too and were replaced by armed police The Moscow police never defected to the coup and stayed loyal to Yeltsin as far as I can telL" Prof MacFarlane said he learned Russian at 14 because coming from Montreal he needed to study a foreign language in an American school So tried Russian and ended up a Sovietologist By MURRAY HOGBEN mm TnwgsSmTOaQ ouui vVnUf When University politics professor Neil MacFarlane saw Soviet troops helping people onto their tanks in a Moscow square on the evening of Monday Aug 19 he began to have serious doubts that the three-day coup would succeed after all looked at that and I said we have a morale problem Then the feared and elite atroopers came around the corner But soon they too were helping people up on their armored personnel carriers and exchanging berets for flowers from pretty girls said to myself These people Prof MacFarlane until two months ago the director of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Virginia was in Moscow from Aug 14-23 and was a witness to the recent unsuccessful coup against Mikhail Gorbachev and his reform policies Inan interview yesterday Prof MacFarlane said been discussing academic exchanges in the office of a colleague that Monday when someone came in to say they might put their plans on hold because there had been a coup d'etat None of the academics he talked to seemed much interested in Mr fate They were more interested in the fate of economic and political reforms he said and they personally would have suffered severely and even been if the coup had succeeded To pass the afternoon they smoked compulsively anddrankteaand were quite cynical about how it might turn out They were also quite nervous so between Jokes there were long bouts of sh lence At that time there was no doubt in their minds that the coup would succeed In order to see for himself Prof MacFUrlane went to the Kremlin that evening I reached one of the three really big squares around the Kremlin I noticed behind the building right beneath the wall there was a column of about 300 tanks and by the bridges there were tanks which guarded the approaches from across the river stopped and looked at he said these guys the troops were talking to the people and people were getting up on the tanks which struck me as interesting went around the corner to the Manezh Square and there were a lot of people in a disorganized crowd There was a perimeter established half-way across the square and while I was there the troops were beginning to extend the perimeter to take the whole square was when I got my first doubts about whether this coup was going to succeed at he said you look at that amount of hardware the 300 tanks around the corner and the whole square basically full with armed personnel carriers trucks equipment for breaking barricades and you name and lots and lots of soldiers the first impression you get is one of overwhelming power 'Tanks are very big things and you figure are the people going to do about that? That's that' said started to push the perimeter outwards and they tried to use a small column of tanks to close off Karl Marx Street where It entered the square but about 300 or 400 people Immediately blocked the street and stood them down The driver of the tank i MacFAlUANE said the band members were Kingstonians" Ever modest the band was hu Mr Stafford and his classmate Mike Tait both said they really like Mr new haircut a cropped military special that departs radically from his former bohemian-of-the-universe look see when he does this with his head it used to hurt his Mr Tait said flinging his own head around it hurt The crowd seemed loyal but tame throughout most of the 90-minute show and opening act by Blue Rodeo Like the moon above Fort Henry was only about half-full which left plenty of room for people to mill around without getting on each other's nerves But a few people still managed to get winded or hurt near the stage as eager fans crowded in to get a closer look at the band Linda Sharratt of St Ambulance counted about five or six minor crushing incidents towards the end of the show but no major injuries Camera operators weaved through the crowd gathering footage for a concert film to air nationally later this year on CBC and another 11 directed cameras as they swung over the audience on cranes sometimes barely missing heads plan draws Canada prosper and succeed As we make laws that infringe on these basic policies and rights we Jeopardize the democratic system" Mr comments to the committee made up of New Democrat Conservative and Liberal were par for the course Although some speakers defended the legislation more attacked it in extremely bitter terms Representatives of The United Tenants of Ontario an umbrella group representing several million tenants also blasted the bill saying it do enough to protect tenants Both sides said the new guidelines are so complex that an army of lawyers and consultants would be required to interpret them Mr McKean whose association represents some 58 Kingston-area landlords owning a total of about 7000 rental units said the three per cent cap for extraordinary costs would make it impossible for landlords to make necessary repairs garage repair will have to be broken into a series of projects over many years at much higher costs and greater inconvenience to sioned the film themselves because been unhappy with the limits of rock video and want to try something else said their tour manager David Powell wanted to get these songs recorded live without having to go into a studio and have a producer try on some ridiculous he said know whether be a feature film or a docudrama or a snuff the manager added depends on the All of the proceeds from the concert will go toward new Almost Home project which provides temporary shelter for the families of sick children being treated in Kingston hospitals Kingston is a central location for child health care bringing in patients from as far away as Cornwall Perth and Belleville said Hotel Dieu Hospital spokeswoman Margaret Willott Funds from the concert will help buy a house on William Street where families can stay for a nominal fee while their children receive treatment she said fantastic that done this" Ms Willott said really pleased that they wanted to do something for Association In the past Mr Armitage has been bluntly critical of government intervention in the free market Yesterday he struck a somewhat more diplomatic tone probably heard from overzealous landlords and from overzealous tenants who think that every landlord drives a Cadillac and wears a Rolex he said we need to do in our society is try to work out some kind of Virtually every landlord who spoke yesterday argued that a large number of Ontario tenants are not poor and therefore might not object to certain rent increases in particularly those made as a result of extensive structural improvements or renovations Those who afford any such Increase the poor afford a 5 or 6 per cent increase either Therefore the arguments went the government should subsidize needy tenants rather than limit rent hikes across the board have an obligation to help the said Mr Armitage I believe that anyone thinks we should pay to subsidize those not in ByLEEANNEPARPART Whip-Standard Staff Writar Their Mis were ripped to perfection Every haircut on every fan ffom the balding Sinead O'Connor clones to the scraggy folksinger wannabees had a life and a personality of Its own In short most of the 5000 concert-goers who stormed Fort Henry last night to watch most celebrated band were Tragically Hip in their own way But the Innocent posing that goes along with any pop extravaganza seem to stop anyone from enjoying the show After all Gord Downie and Co are Kingston's proud favorites on the popular music scene and every other fan in the sell-out crowd seemed to know someone in the band is so excellent They're putting on a really good show We wish them well tonight" said Jamie Stafford a burly blond University student with a pink carnation under his baseball cap nice guys You know how people will think famous well nice They think they're Rent-control By MICHAEL DEN TANDT Whig-Standard Staff Writer The provincial proposed rent-control legislation took a verbal thrashing yesterday flrom Kingston landlords who say the new rules will bankrupt property owners and aggravate the plight of needy tenants meeting at the Rama da Inn was the last in a series this past month held by a multiparty commmittee across the province as landlords and tenants grapple with Bill 121 The legislation which has been drafted but may still be amended before becoming law would allow rent increases of 55 per cent this year and six per cent next year In cases where necessary repairs were made or taxes and utility costs increased substantially an extra three per cent yearly hike would be permitted NDP government seems to think that all landlords are rich and said Bob McKean president of the Kingston Rental Property Owners Association of us are Just ordinary people Faith in our economy and the free enterprise system has made attack from both sides THREE DOG NIGHT CREDENCE DR HOOK THREE DOG NIGHT he said will have to miraculously select the perfect time to do the work Too early and it will be disallowed as unnecessary capital too late and It will be ruled a result of He also criticized the bite of the new law which would penalize any landlord failing to Inake repairs Within 30 days of a problem being reported to the Housing Ministry the plumbers are on strike or railings be replaced in January and the Job simply takes more than 30 days to complete too he said government via this bill is treating landlords as criminals before proven guilty or convicted of any Mary Garrett and Ted Starr of the tenants group said that Bill 121 should be amended to require licensing of all landlords large or small And they said they wanted the proposed rent-increase guidelines lowered we want is a system of real rent control not a complex legislated escalation of said Mr Starr should realize that these are our homes not simply another Bridging the middle ground was John Armitage president of the Kingston Frontenac Homebuilders SUPERTRAMP STEELY DAN STEVE MILLER BILLY JOEL HALL A OATES STEVIE WONDER THE DOOBIE BROTHERS LIGHTHOUSE THE EAGLES BECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA STEWART ELTON JOHN APR WINE THE DOOBIE BROTHERS SUPERTRAMP STEELY DAN STEVE MILLER BjLLY JOEL HALL OATES STEVIE WONDER THE GUESS WHO.