Canada

Saturday September 9, 2000

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Saturday September 9 2000 The race against cheaters The International Olympic Committee has devoted more resources in its war against performance-enhancing drugs. Two Canadian athletes tested positive this week, and Olympic officials don't believe Olympians will begin taking the high moral ground and turn away from drug use.Some of the world's doping cops may point to the glut of recent positive drug tests -- two involving Canadians bound for the Olympics -- to claim the war on performance-enhancing drugs is working. People on the inside know better. This is a rearguard action at best. "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally devoted a lot of resources and tools to detection through the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), " says Hamilton-born Richard McLaren, but "it will never catch up" with all those trying to escape detection. McLaren is the only Canadian on the IOC's Court of Arbitration, a body that rules on disputes involving the Olympics. He is a London, Ont., law professor connected with the University of Western Ontario's International Centre for Olympic Studies. He says the caseload involving doping that the Court of Arbitration has heard this year indicates more drug use and more detection -- but no evidence that global athletes are seeking high moral ground by turning away from steroids, stimulants, blood doping and human growth hormone. "We have heard as many cases in eight months as we heard all last year.Ó McLaren, who grew up in Westdale, says policing is only a Band-Aid. "The root of the problem is in cheating, and in the long-term it will take a widespread program of education about ethics in sport.Ó He says there is just too much information available for anyone who has decided to cheat. "In a half day on the Internet, you can get a good start on a regimen of drugs to improve performance.Ó The bigger war to be fought, reasons McLaren, is the one for minds and souls

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 9 2000

The race against cheaters

The International Olympic Committee has devoted more resources in its war against performance-enhancing drugs. Two Canadian athletes tested positive this week, and Olympic officials don’t believe Olympians will begin taking the high moral ground and turn away from drug use.Some of the world’s doping cops may point to the glut of recent positive drug tests — two involving Canadians bound for the Olympics — to claim the war on performance-enhancing drugs is working.

People on the inside know better. This is a rearguard action at best.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally devoted a lot of resources and tools to detection through the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), ” says Hamilton-born Richard McLaren, but “it will never catch up” with all those trying to escape detection.

McLaren is the only Canadian on the IOC’s Court of Arbitration, a body that rules on disputes involving the Olympics. He is a London, Ont., law professor connected with the University of Western Ontario’s International Centre for Olympic Studies.

He says the caseload involving doping that the Court of Arbitration has heard this year indicates more drug use and more detection — but no evidence that global athletes are seeking high moral ground by turning away from steroids, stimulants, blood doping and human growth hormone.

“We have heard as many cases in eight months as we heard all last year.”

McLaren, who grew up in Westdale, says policing is only a Band-Aid.

“The root of the problem is in cheating, and in the long-term it will take a widespread program of education about ethics in sport.”

He says there is just too much information available for anyone who has decided to cheat.

“In a half day on the Internet, you can get a good start on a regimen of drugs to improve performance.”

The bigger war to be fought, reasons McLaren, is the one for minds and souls, the one that stops aspiring athletes from doing that Internet search.

Others, like the chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, say millions more must be spent on testing to stamp out drug-cheating.

Frank Shorter, a one-time gold-medal marathoner, believes every endurance athlet e competing in Sydney will be suspect because IOC testing is not extensive enough.

“Things have to change or we’re going under, ” he said. “The Olympics will be a freak show.”

Even more blunt is Penn State professor Charles Yesalis who has studied drug use by athletes.

“If this was a football game, the cheaters would be leading 84 to 3.”

Even Denis Coderre, Canada’s secretary of state for sport and the WADA delegate for the Americas, sends out a warning.

“If WADA doesn’t work, I believe the Olympics are finished. This is our last hope.”

The current Games will likely have a strain of cynicism that runs deeper than any other, given recent events such as the positive tests this week of Canadian hammer-thrower Robin Lyons for steroids and equestrian Eric Lamaze for cocaine. Both athletes are appealing. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Saturday May 5, 2000

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 5, 2000

Known only to God, a soldier comes home

Who was he? Was he a child of 16, big for his age who had “borrowed” someone else’s birth certificate? Was he a battle-hardened veteran of 25, scarred in mind if not in body? Was he a farm boy? A bank clerk? Was he white or native? Was he an only child or a beloved brother? Was he married? Did he leave children to mourn him? Did he die in an obliterating shellburst? Did he lie bleeding and alone in a muddy crater in No Man’s Land as his life ebbed away?

The Unknown Soldier: Anyone and everyone

We know but this: Once upon a time, someone loved this Canadian. And he died while serving his country.

He is our Unknown Soldier and while it is true he could be any of these things, it is more important to realize that he is all of them. Canada’s soldat inconnu will be laid to his final rest tomorrow beneath the triumphal arch of the National War Memorial in Ottawa. As he has come home, so have all his comrades; as he is recognized, so are they all. He is honoured not for the mystery of who he is, but for the infinite possibility of who he was.

The concept of the Unknown Soldier is rapidly becoming obsolete, at least in this part of the world. Advances in DNA matching means that even the most brutally damaged remains can be identified today. In fact, Canada had to promise the Commonwealth War Graves Commission it would not try to identify these Canadian remains; an American Unknown Soldier was recently identified through testing.

Our Unknown Soldier died somewhere near Vimy Ridge, the crest of land where Canadian soldiers first fought as a national force on Easter Monday 1917. He is one of more than 116,000 Canadians who died in battle in the past century’s wars; one of almost 28,000 of them whose remains were never found or identified. He is one of them; he is all of them.

In the past few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in, and honouring of, the sacrifices of the Canadian men and women who served in the our armed forces. Remembrance Day was marked in this country last November in a more solemn and meaningful way than this country has seen in decades.

There is a remarkable synchronicity in the coming home this week of our Unknown Soldier and the full-honours burial in France a day earlier of David John Carlson, a soldier from Mannville, Alta., who died in the Battle of the Somme. Listed for 80 years as missing in action, his remains recently surfaced in a French farmer’s field. There is no one left alive who knew Private Carlson. Two grand-nieces attended his funeral but could only say they thought he was one of two men in a faded photo. They don’t know which one.

But just as a family tried to remember David Carlson, so Canada can try to remember all those who sacrificed everything — their hopes, their dreams, their futures — for their country.

And tomorrow, as the bones of a young man are interred in a granite sarcophagus in Ottawa, his maple coffin atop soil from each of the provinces and territories and from France where he gave his life, we can honour all those who are known only to God. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, D6, 5/27/2000)

 

Friday November 26, 1999

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 26, 1999

Chretien’s gunslinger act is getting old; UNITY: Questions of style and timing

It is a sad critique of Jean Chretien’s leadership that his announcement on the rules of disengagement for Quebec has been greeted with suspicion of his motives, mystification over his timing and general dismay that the dozing baby of Quebec separatism is about to howl again.

When Chretien said this week Quebec would have to (a) have a clear question and (b) have significantly more than 50 per cent plus one to declare independence, it was widely seen as fanning the dimmed embers of Quebec nationalism. Why now? Why give such a gift to the opportunistic but increasingly lame-duck Lucien Bouchard?

It’s hard to argue with the substance of Chretien’s comments. Indeed, his suggestion that any future Quebec referendum should be on a question as simple as “Do you want Quebec to be a country” is the kind of clear declaration most Canadians want. Too, there’s little wrong with his suggestion that a negotiated split would require 60 per cent or more support in Quebec. It’s disingenuous for Bouchard to thump the tabletop and insist that 50+1 is the sole requirement of a democracy. To argue a country could be shattered on the strength of a single vote is absurdly arrogant.

But Chretien muddies his own waters. There is his own arrogance: “Quebec is my business, sir, ” he pontificated, “and this is the future of Canada.” The Prime Minister would be well-advised to remember that Quebec has been every Canadian’s business for too long. Canadians are suffering from separatism fatigue and Chretien setting himself apart will not rally us to his side. Then there is his unnecessary combativeness. Much of Quebec is accepting, if not embracing, the concept of a united Canada. He must have known his announcement would spark new anger.

Is this a case of building a patriotic legacy before his time as Prime Minister ends? Is this guilt over his “sleepwalking” performance in the last referendum?

Yes, when one spouse is talking divorce, the other spouse has to deal with it. There is never a good time to open an uncomfortable discussion. But we wish our Prime Minister had shown that this is not just another of his odd impulses, like wrestling with protesters and handing out peacekeepers. It’s hard to attribute this sudden burst of patriotic fervour to Chretien’s vision of 21st-century Canada when he has so far shown little sign of having any such vision. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, A14, 11/26/1999)

 

Saturday October 2, 1999

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 2, 1999

China’s Future Tied to Human Rights Progress

China has much to be proud of as it prepares for the new millennium with aspirations of world leadership. The emerging Asian giant is making remarkable progress in overcoming economic hardship, social turmoil and political isolation despite five decades in the grip of a totalitarian regime. It would be wrong to dismiss the significance of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Communist rule, even if they are orchestrated by the state.

China is well on the way to wielding tremendous economic and political influence around the globe — a prospect that inspires both hope and fear in the international community. Will China’s leaders use their power to make the world a better place, or will they embark on a dangerous course of sabre-ratting abroad and continued repression at home?

While the Chinese government is kick-starting the once-moribund country by moving to a market economy, it’s not close to accepting all of the responsibilities of becoming a respected member of the family of nations. The paranoid, often ruthless regime maintains a shameful record on human rights, runs roughshod over freedom of the press and religion, and won’t implement democratic reform. Equally disturbing, China is taking an aggressive international posture. That’s evident in China’s bellicose and threatening rhetoric about Taiwan, its harsh criticism of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s recent bid to make the UN the chief arbiter of international disputes, and the giant, Soviet-style parade of military hardware in Beijing this week.

The Western democracies, led by the United States with Canada a prominent member of the cast, must make healthy relations with China a cornerstone of foreign policy. A two-track approach, balanced between the carrot and the stick, is best. We can’t afford to shut the door on closer economic ties with the Chinese — for their sake and ours. But that’s no excuse to softpeddle our concerns about rampant human rights abuses.

The Chretien government, especially, consistently appeases China. Last month Can ada rejected the idea of broadening the scope of the trade-oriented Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to include human rights. Canadian offic ials suggested China might leave APEC if it were criticized. Canada’s experience with Cuba demonstrates that hardline regimes don’t take our professed concerns about human rights seriously.

We shouldn’t hesitate to express our views candidly and publicly, and reinforce them with bold diplomatic steps. There are risks, but strong leadership brings rewards. Democracy and human rights are every bit as important as prosperity for China. Ottawa, and Washington, must send that unequivocal message to Beijing. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, D12, 10/2/1999)

 

Saturday August 28, 1999

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 28, 1999

The NDP Should Stand its Ground For All Our Sakes

If character can be judged on how well, how strongly, an institution holds to its fundamental beliefs in times of crisis, we fear for the future of the federal New Democratic Party.

So should its members, gathering in Ottawa today and tomorrow for the NDP’s national convention. There, they will argue calls from party leader Alexa McDonough and other party moderates for federal tax cuts and a more “business-friendly” approach by the party. It promises to be a raucous debate: Canadian Auto Workers’ head Buzz Hargrove has already proclaimed that McDonough’s call for tax cuts will “destroy” the party, while the Canadian Labour Congress’s Ken Georgetti says it is necessary to party renewal. We tend — and this might be a first — to agree with Hargrove.

A so-called strategic move to the right would move the NDP into the fuzzy, blurry space occupied by the ever-less-distinguishable Liberals and Tories. Not only would that be a shame, but it might sound the death knell of the party that, to many Canadians, has often seemed the real opposition to the government of the day.

We have never supported the New Democrats as a viable choice for government — old news to the Hamilton area’s labour community that has long been a friend of the NDP — but we have never underestimated the party’s value to Canadians.

The NDP has been far more than a gadfly party espousing contrarian positions. At its best, it has been a national social conscience, reminding Parliament, provincial legislatures and Canadians as a whole of what really matters, especially when times are tough.

Much of what Canadians value about our society and how we define ourselves — including large parts of the social safety net that protects society’s most vulnerable members (and there, but for the grace of God, go all of us) — came out of the windmill-tilting resolve and fervour of NDP leaders Tommy Douglas, David Lewis and Ed Broadbent.

It was most often when the NDP held the balance of power over minority governments that working-class Canadians best saw their needs recognized and met.

Having said that, we cannot blame McDonough and her advisers for looking for new ideas, new proposals, with which to reach out to Canadians. Much of the socialism of the past — nationalization, tax increases for the so-called wealthy that actually penalized middle-class families — simply won’t wash today. Canadians not only know they are over-taxed, but are increasingly demanding relief. They want less government, by and large, not more.

And that is precisely why the NDP — even while modernizing itself — must hold its philosophical ground. It is when Canadians risk becoming selfish — individually and as a society — that we most need the prod to wakefulness, the call to altruism, that the NDP has traditionally provided. Even a starving man needs an angel on his shoulder to remind him to leave something for the next hungry soul.

To cater to the populist, although justified, demand for tax cuts shows a disappointing lack of moral courage.

Yes, it is tough being a socialist these days. Yes, it is lonely always being the third, or fourth, party. No, being a national conscience is not as rewarding as being a prime minister or leader of the opposition.

But seeking party popularity by blurring distinctions can be fatal. The NDP is looking down a road that may well lead to its demise. And Canada would be much the poorer for it. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, D12, 8/28/1999)