By Mario deSantis, February 19, 2000

Happy to see a Saskatchewan growing economy, Minister of Economic Development Janice MacKinnon is taking a trip to Mongolia to further expand our horizons of economic growth. MacKinnon cannot see beyond her growing Pinocchio's nose and doesn't realize that Saskatchewan is in a dire economic predicament. She lives in the Ivory Tower of the University of Saskatchewan and her surroundings have no signs of what Saskatchewan people are enduring(1).

Our voice is not strong enough to show her that the GNP index is not evidence of our social and economic growth, and that business cannot be conducted as usual. John McCullum, Royal Bank chief economist, has recently stated that in the last ten years Canadian incomes have fallen about 19% of those of the United States, that business cannot be conducted as usual, and that the threat to Canada is not from Quebec but from our failure to have better educated people and create wealth(2).

If this is a bad news for Canada, then you can think about its implication for Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is moving backward on all economic fronts, but worse of all is the continuation of a political and social direction on behalf of the few and privileged, a direction marred by mismanagement, corruption and now social unrest.

In the article I wrote on February 15, I ask the question "When will the Police and Justice System come to the rescue of our democracy?(3)" I got the answer the next day February 16, when I came to know of the racist behaviour of policemen who are being investigated for the deaths of two Native people(4). The Police and the Justice systems are not ready yet to help us.

We are in a changing world where our social systems must change if we want to grow and have better human relations; instead, we are still left with the calcified mind set of Premier Romanow's "Rule of Law(5)" where unconstitutional laws are legislated, where more policemen are needed to have our streets safe from our troubled children(6), and where our Justice system--including the legal community--must be protected at any cost for the benefit of the few and privileged.

The statement of Justice Ron Barclay that "racism is a grim reality in Canada and in Saskatchewan(7)" has not been heard yet and we still live in the world of former Saskatchewan prosecutor and MLA Serge Kujawa when he said "It doesn't matter if Milgaard is innocent... The whole judicial system is at issue, it is worth more than one person(8)" In Saskatchewan, business must not be as usual.

Endnotes

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantis.html

1. Honourable Janice MacKinnon is the wife of Peter MacKinnon, President of the University of Saskatchewan. Refer to the article: University of Saskatchewan: A Vision Built on Privileged Education and on the Synchrotron, by Mario deSantis, October 25, 1999

2. Canada is sliding to ruin: Incomes may be half U.S. level in a decade, economist warns, by Alan Toulin, National Post, February 18, 2000 http://www.nationalpost.com

3. Thoughts on our Governments and Justice System in Canada, by Mario deSantis, February 15, 2000

4. City cops suspended, by Dan Zabreski, The StarPhoenix, February 16, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

5. Premier Romanow: Reinventing The Rule Of Law And Becoming Above The Law, by Mario deSantis, September 2, 1999 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-ReinvenLaw-Sept02-99.htm

6. Saskatchewan Troubled Children: 40% of our school children, by Mario deSantis, January 14, 2000

7. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Fight Against Racism and a New Worldview, by Mario deSantis, October 7, 1998

8. A Mother's Story: The Fight To Free My Son David, by Joyce Milgaard with Peter Edwards, Doubleday Canada Limited, 1999, page 251-- David Milgaard spent 23 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit