2004-05-16 by The Independent

May 16, 2004

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The Sunday Independent

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‘It’s a hard life’

Woodman’s fish plant in New Harbour, Trinity Bay, is full of ups and downs Photos by Paul Daly / Story by Stephanie Porter

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‘A lost art’ From page 1 where that manage to produce a “perfect product” at a lower cost. At his plant these days, Woodman says he imports some cod to process, but more often the employees are working with perch, halibut, monkfish, skate or other groundfish. He’s managed to successfully diversify. Woodman’s Sea Products also now owns a nearby crab processing operation. That business is doing well, he says, but he prefers the challenge and people he’s grown up with. This is one of the few groundfish plants that has managed to stay alive through some tough times. The pictureperfect coast of Trinity Bay, once dotted with plants in full operation, is far quieter now. Schools have closed, stores have closed, with faded for-sale signs on more than a few lots. Woodman remembers when there were three groundfish plants just down the road in Dildo — now there are none. New Harbour had two — now Woodman’s is the only one. And the list could go on. “This is one of the few places in Newfoundland you’ll go and find third generation fresh-fish people in terms of cutters and trimmers and things like that,” he says. “It’s becoming a lost art. It’s trouble to find someone who can fillet fish anymore.” Just another example of that part of local culture that’s slipping away. Woodman remembers a time when he or his family gave practically every teenager in the area their first job. He says he’d drive the streets on a weekend night to find young folks to come in and help the plant get through a load of fish. Now no one would dare suggest his or her children would work for a living in the fish plant. Woodman shakes off the doom and gloom. Sure, there are huge ups and downs and uncertainty in his business, but Woodman’s an easy-going guy to talk to, eager to arrange a tour of his facility, delighted to talk about the basketball tournament he’s playing in this weekend or the seals he got that morning before work. And the plant is hardly a dreary place on this particular day. It may not be going at the speed it could, but there are about 100 people working away, as tubs full of perch (also known as redfish) are being trucked around, de-scaled, sorted, cut (by hand and machine), trimmed, sorted again, arranged, packaged and frozen. Just as Woodman said, the work is moving along efficiently — the foremen keep careful tallies of every worker’s production levels — and the staff are chatty and seem to be in good spirits. There’s an eagerness to show visitors the various steps of the food processing operation, and an obvious care and knowledge of their work. “You capitalize on your advantages,” Woodman says. “I’ve got the best workforce, as far as I’m concerned, my workforce is the best on the island. “The people here, they’re not going to starve for me, but they’re loyal. They’ll do their best and I’ll do my best. In 1992 we talked about it: Are we going to stay at this? A lot of us did. “It wasn’t all zippity-do-dah, but we’ve kept at it.” And the employees speak highly of their boss. “If there’s a truck with fish on

it, a boat with fish coming in, Fred’s going to get it for us,” says one woman. Woodman laughs out loud at memories of being a 13-year-old night foreman, the exhausting, around-the-clock work when a large load of cod came in, the inventiveness when machines broke, and the water fights. Those don’t happen any more. Safety regulations prevent it and, besides, the average age of the plant employees hovers around 45 — not the demographic for water games or all-nighters at the trimming table. Woodman sums it up simply: “When you’ve got a lot of fish and markets are OK this place just hums and it’s a lot of fun. But when you haven’t got it and you’re trying to get it and it’s not there, then they’ve got no work, no money, it’s stressful all around and no fun.” As life at the plant goes on through its highs and lows, Fred Woodman Sr. is in Florida with his wife. The former chair of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, a federal panel that advises Ottawa on fish quotas, still receives press clippings every day about fishery news in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and the world. He stays on top of the issues, and keeps his opinions up-to-date and ready to share. As for the plant he started back in 1973, Woodman Sr. stays out of it. “It’s a different world than it was 13 years ago when I stepped away,” he says. “So much has changed.” He’s only been there a handful of times in the past decade. No point, he says. “It’s not the fishery it once was,” Woodman Sr. says. “It’s becoming more and more difficult just to maintain the operations they have now.” Technology has changed considerably too, as have the politics. Woodman Sr. knows he got out of the plant business at the right time. He remembers the late 1980s and early’90s as being very good years. The moratorium seemed to come out of nowhere. “We were processing a lot of groundfish at the time … it was a shock,” the elder Woodman says. “I handed it over to Fred, no doubt he was shocked right out of his boots. They’ve managed to survive so far.” Woodman Sr. says it’s always been important to both himself and his son to take care of the workforce. “You see a 45- or 50-year-old there, where else are they going to go? What else are they qualified for?” Back in New Harbour, the younger Woodman says he has no regrets about sticking with the fish plant. When it’s time to close up the shop for good — he has no doubt that day is within sight — he figures it’ll be a group decision, just like the decision to keep going in 1992. “I’ll turn off the lights and lock the door in seven years, 10 years. We’ll all decide. The bank may decide to close us before then, but they’re leaving me alone for now. “And you never know with this business. Cod disappeared in a hurry, maybe they’ll come back in a hurry.” Woodman straightens up. “The reality is that I have two kids and I’m not encouraging them to get into this business. My mother would look at you today and say the biggest mistake she ever made in her life was letting me come into the fish plant. “It’s a hard life.”

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

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May 16, 2004

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The Sunday Independent

BUSINESS & COMMERCE

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Michael McBride of the Storm micro brewery in St. John’s.

Stubby returns

Storm Brewing is bringing back the beloved little brown beer bottle By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

t’s brown, squat and part of the Canadian identity. The brown beer bottle known as the stubby will be storming back onto local store shelves later this month. “I can remember them way back when,” says Michael McBride of Storm Brewing in St. John’s. “I think they’re basically a Canadian icon like the maple leaf or the beaver. When you think of Canada, you think of the stubby. I don’t know why we ever got rid of them.” Storm Brewing, a micro brewery, will revive the brown stubby beer bottle in time for the upcoming May 24th weekend. “This is sort of a launching pad to take us to the next level. We’ve been in the 650 millilitre bottles now for five years and we want to grow and we think the six packs and the stubbys will get us some attention and increase our sales.” But McBride’s goals are mod-

est considering his company only has one-tenth of one per cent of the Newfoundland market. “We’re obviously the tiniest brewery in Newfoundland, we might even be the smallest brewery in Canada,” McBride told The Sunday Independent. Tucked away in a St. John’s industrial park, the brewery is set up in a run-down blue and white building that McBride describes as resembling anything but a brewery. Inside, the building is dominated by four large vats that look as if they were built by a shipwright because of the large wrought-iron bands that bind the strips of oak in place. McBride hopes the rebirth of stubbys in the province will whet

the appetites of beer drinkers and give the company a little more exposure. “A lot of people don’t even know we exist,” says McBride. “This is our fifth anniversary this month.” The brown stubby disappeared from Canadian shelves 20 years ago. The adoption by Canada’s major brewers of the American longneck bottle relegated the little bottle to the pages of history. In 2002, Brick Brewing of Ontario decided to swim against the tide and bring back the little brown bottle. But the company went a step further and bought the rights to Red Cap Ale — one of the country’s favourite brands in the 1950s and ’60s. The relaunch

of the stubby in Ontario has been a marketing coup for Brick Brewing and sent Molson and Labatt’s scrambling to redesign their brands. Molson’s flagship brand, Canadian, is undergoing a major redesign in response to the ground the stubby has gained for Brick. Jim Brickman, founder and chairman of the Brick Brewing Company in Waterloo, Ont., says after they acquired the Red Cap trademark they knew there was only one bottle that could hold it. “There’s a trademark that just couldn’t fit the stubby any better,” Brickman told The Independent in a telephone interview. “We were able to find the mold and revitalize it.”

But even the venerable stubby — invented by a Canadian packaging engineer — had to relent to modern times and was redesigned with a twist-off cap. Red Stripe beer in Jamaica — one of few brewers outside of Canada that uses the design — adopted the little brown stubby and imported it to the Caribbean island where it’s still in use today. “It’s a love or hate shape, but I think a lot of people just have a recollection to it when they think back when.” And, says Brickman, the stubby is also more environmentally friendly than long-neck bottles because it only uses one label and the cases require less cardboard because of the stubby’s diminutive size. “The guys who used to steal Red Cap out of their father’s fridge when they were 13 years old, they all remember the stubby in some form.” Imports and micro breweries in Canada have seen their market Continued on page 15

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BUSINESS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Fast money Targa Newfoundland to heat up the roads By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

total of 120 people. In the second year of the event, there were 60 cars with an average of seven arga Newfoundland has people per team. Already this become a $20 million-a- year there are 66 cars registered year industry since the before marketing in the United first event in 2001. States has even begun. All other festivals in the The different teams have difprovince pale by comparison. ferent budgets. Subaru Canada According to officials with Targa spent $68,000 for the 2003 and the Tourism Department, the event. Renowned rally driver rally is expected to pump $21 Gerry Churchill’s budget for last million into the year’s race was province’s economy. $45,000. The money spent “Competitors and by drivers and their “It’s the competi- crews spend subcrews, out-of-provstantial amounts of tors and their ince spectators, intermoney ion the national media and friends who would event,” Giannou rally officials leave says. not normally six-figure revenues The television and have visited in the dust. media coverage of “It’s the competi- Newfoundland.” Newfoundland, as tors and their friends — Bob Giannou well as the extension who would not norof the tourism seamally have visited son into the fall and Newfoundland,” the awareness of says Bob Giannou, president of Newfoundland as a tourism desInternational Motorsports, the tination, are just a few of the company that organizes Targa intangible but priceless contriNewfoundland butions brought by the event. In the first year of the event 40 The media coverage — which cars competed with an average often includes rave reviews of three people per team for a about overwhelming hospitality

and breathtaking scenery — in over 45 newspapers and 40 magazines, along with a potential 325 million worldwide television viewers, is invaluable to the province, says Giannou. This year’s rally will be remembered as a tribute to auto manufacturer BMW and its pioneering contributions in the world of motorsports.

Transcontinental reorganizes printing business MONTREAL The Canadian Press

ewspaper and magazine publisher Transcontinental Inc. has restructured its New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island operations, cutting 11 jobs at plants in the two provinces. The Montreal-based commercial printer and publisher says it is shifting printing work to its Moncton plant and will scale back production at a plant in Borden, PEI, while also expanding work at a plant in Charlottetown. About 32 jobs will be cut at the company’s operations in Moncton, Fredericton, Borden and Charlottetown, which employ a total of 137 people. However, 21 jobs new jobs will be added in Moncton and Charlottetown, making the total impact of the moves

a net loss of 11 positions. Workers affected by the restructuring can apply for the new positions, find other jobs within the company, take early retirement or buyouts, Transcontinental says. The reorganization follows Transcontinental’s acquisition in January of Optipress Inc., a printing and publishing company with operations across Atlantic Canada. Transcontinental, which already has restructured its Nova Scotia and Newfoundland printing operations, says the company’s weekly daily and weekly newspaper operations are not affected by Wednesday’s reorganization. “Today’s move increases our investment in the Atlantic region to some $14 million over the past year, and we are constantly looking at new opportunities and investments,’’ says Serge Brag-

don, president of Transcontinental Printing and Information Products. Transcontinental is one of Canada’s biggest commercial printers and a publisher of consumer magazines and local and regional newspapers. The company has more than 12,000 employees in Canada, the United States and Mexico and generated revenues of $1.9 billion last year. Transcontinental ranks behind Quebecor World among commercial printers in Canada, but is the biggest publisher of consumer magazines with such titles as Elle and Canadian Living. It’s also Canada’s largest printer of flyers and books and has a growing stable of dailies, including the St. John’s Telegram, Halifax Daily News, Cape Breton Post, Charlottetown Guardian and the Moose Jaw Times-Herald.

Changing tastes From page 15 share increase fourfold to approximately 14 per cent of the market while Labatt and Molson hold onto the remainder. “For the most part, people were looking for something more along the lines of imports,” McBride says of Canadian beer drinkers’ changing tastes. “Major breweries produce mainstream (beers) and it all virtually tastes the same. People who initially started these little micro breweries were looking for British-style beers or Belgian-style beers or beers that weren’t commercially available and they took it upon themselves to make it available. “We look at ourselves as crafts-

people as opposed to plant workers.” Storm Brewing currently brews five brands: Killick, Kyle, Raspberry Wheat and Hemp. They also brew a winter-only brew called Storm.

have travelled a lot of and visited a lot of different breweries and we’ve picked up things we’ve liked in various places, and that’s basically how these brands started.” The Killick and the Kyle brews are holdovers from Freshwater Brewing of Carbonear. After “I think they’re basically a the couple moved here from Canadian icon like the maple Ottawa, they purchased an in Freshwater and leaf or the beaver. When you interest eventually bought out the comthink of Canada, you think of pany and renamed it Storm Brewing. the stubby.” “We’ve done it all ourselves. — Michael McBride, We have no debt. We’re profStorm Brewing itable and we make a living at it so we’re not always chasing the next sale. We work at our “Kristi (McBride’s wife and own pace which, I think, is pretco-owner of the brewery) and I ty unique in the industry.”

Fast numbers • Targa Newfoundland will run through 65 municipalities and attract more than 150,000 spectators • An estimated 400 roads and 4,000 driveways will be closed for the rally • The Targa documentary will be shown on more than a dozen TV stations. The SPEED Channel alone expects to attract 65 million viewers. • There are 66 entries to date in this year’s Targa. Projections indicate that entries will more than triple by 2007

Federal election would delay sale of Petro-Canada OTTAWA The Canadian Press

through in order to handle a transaction of this size; it could well be the largest transaction of its kind federal election expected ever in Canadian history,” he said. in June would delay the “I would want to make sure long-awaited sale of that every step in that process is Ottawa’s final stake in Petro- very properly a very surefooted Canada, Finance Minister Ralph step, and that would take my full Goodale indicated last week. time and attention.” It’s unlikely the government All this was news to the comwould want to oversee such a pany. major transaction during the “All we can say is that the timupheaval of an election cam- ing of the sale is entirely up to the paign, Goodale says government,” outside the House “There’s a very P e t r o - C a n a d a of Commons. spokeswoman “I would doubt complex commercial Michelle Harries that it would be posprocess that one says from Calgary. sible to do so if one must go through in Finance Departwere distracted by ment officials have order to handle a been weighing proan election.” transaction of this posals over the past It’s widely expected that in less size; it could well be few months on than two weeks how to sell the forPrime Minister Paul the largest transac- mer Crown corpotion of its kind in ration. Martin will call a Investment housfederal election to Canadian history.” be held on June 28. es within Canada — Ralph Goodale and around the Goodale had announced in late world have been March as he brought in his first interested in having a cut of such budget that Ottawa planned to a major deal. sell its final 19 per cent holding in Petro-Canada officials have the Calgary-based energy com- refused to comment in any way on the sale to avoid the imprespany. With share values rising in oil sion they might be trying to companies thanks to the soaring groom the market. price of crude oil, the prospective Created in 1975 under the Libsale of Ottawa’s stake, currently eral government of Pierre worth about $3 billion, is being Trudeau, Petro-Canada was closely followed by financial designed as a vehicle to protect markets. domestic supplies and provide a Because of that kind of scruti- window for politicians into the ny, as well as complications asso- crucial energy sector. ciated with so large a transaction, Some suggest one of the most Goodale says he wouldn’t want to interested bidders for Ottawa’s be distracted by politics from shares could be the company oversight of the sale. itself, which may want to buy “There’s a very complex com- back its stock using cash on its mercial process that one must go healthy balance sheet.

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

BUSINESS

Page 17

Husky says transfer ships to be Canadian crewed But Newfoundlanders get no guarantees By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

anadian crews, eh? But not necessarily Newfoundlanders first, says a spokesperson for Husky Oil. “I don’t know that decisions have been made in that area,” says Donald Campbell, manager of investor relations and corporate communications for Husky Oil. Husky currently has two Suezsize shuttle tankers being built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. The massive oil tankers will shuttle between Whiffen Head and the Floating Production and Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel. The FPSO will be anchored at the White Rose oilfield on the Jeanne d’Arc Basin located about 350 kilometres east of Newfoundland and Labrador. “Certainly we’re going to be looking for the best qualified people and we are committing to Canadian crews,” Campbell told The Sunday Independent in a telephone interview from his Calgary office. But Campbell couldn’t offer any guarantees that Newfoundlanders or Labradorians would be given any special preference. “The work being done to bring this project toward first oil is very

important to Husky and we know it’s very important to the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador.” The Suez class vessels — so named because they can fit through Panama’s Suez Canal – will each have a one million barrel capacity. Husky expects to

take delivery of the tankers in mid 2005. Norwegian shipping company Knutsen OAS will operate the vessels. While both ships will carry Canadian crews, only one ship will actually fly the maple leaf. The other will fly a foreign flag.

“I don’t have additional information about that at this time,” says Campbell, who was unable to explain why one of the ships would be flagged as a foreign vessel. “This is a very exciting project overall for Newfoundland and

Labrador. The activity at the Marystown shipyard is very exciting with the arrival of the Sea Rose (FPSO) vessel and the beginning of the final phase of construction there.” So far, the project is on time and on budget. The FPSO is currently being finished at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard in Marystown. The FPSO will begin its journey to the White Rose field in late 2005. “We appreciate the hard work that the people of your province are putting forward to keep this project on time and on budget because this is an important next step for Canada’s offshore energy industry.” And with traditional oilfields in Western Canada not producing the “super size oilfields” energy companies had hoped for, says Campbell, many are taking a second and third look towards the east coast. “You are competing against some significant investment in the oilsands in northern Alberta right now and a lot of companies are focused on oilsands work. But there are substantial resources still to be developed in the East Coast offshore and Husky is a major player and we will continue to be moving forward.”

Business Briefs ONTARIO LIBERALS TO GIVE GAS TAX FUNDS The Ontario government will use money from the gas tax to pay for public transit and reduce gridlock, CFTO News reports. The measure will be announced in the Liberal government’s budget Tuesday. The Liberals plan to start giving $300 million from the gas tax to municipalities, beginning in October. Municipalities will begin by getting one cent a litre from the gas tax beginning in October. A half-cent will be added each year for the next two years to bring the total to $300 million annually. How the gas tax money will be divided up will be decided this summer in meetings between the government and the cities, CFTO said. — Canadian Press NEW BRUNSWICK OKS SUNDAY SHOPPING Edmundston and Plaster Rock are the latest communities to be granted exemptions to the Days of Rest Act by the New Brunswick

government. Both have been declared tourist areas by the Municipal Capital Borrowing Board. The exemptions, which clear the way for year-round Sunday openings, go into effect May 30. So far 28 areas in New Brunswick have been given the tourist are designation — 21 on a year-round basis. The province is soon expected to enact changes to the act, which will leave the decision on allowing Sunday shopping up to individual municipalities. — Canadian Press HERITAGE OIL’S ANNUAL PROFIT US $2.6M Heritage Oil Corp. is reporting a full-year profit of $2.6 million US, down sharply from a year ago when there was a big one-time gain from the sale of oil and gas interests. Earnings for the year ended Dec. 31 amounted to 13 cents a share and compared with $31.7 million US or $1.67 per share a year earlier, the Calgary-based

company reported. The extraordinary gain in 2002 came from the sale of overseas petroleum and natural gas interests. In 2003, there was a gain of $1.9 million from the sale of an investment. Heritage’s principal properties are in the Republic of Congo, Oman and Uganda. “We were pleased with the results for 2003,” chairman-CEO Micael Gulbenkian said in a release, noting that net earnings were up from 2002 if the extraordinary gain is excluded. “We believe there are tremendous opportunities in world-class hydrocarbon basins in Africa, the Middle East, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. With our company’s treasury and our expertise in both operations and exploration, Heritage will continue to evaluate opportunities to increase shareholder value through 2004 as well.” Production levels were 10 per cent lower than the previous year, primarily as a result of operator delays at the Kouakouala field in Congo. — Canadian Press ENERGY MINISTER

REJECTS OFFSHORE MORATORIUM B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld has dismissed a study that recommended the ban on offshore oil and gas development be maintained. The study by researchers at Simon Fraser University was commissioned by coastal First Nations whose land surrounds the Queen Charlotte Basin, an area rich in offshore oil and gas. The report said none of the criteria for lifting the ban have been met and that British Columbia can expect less than 200 direct jobs from offshore development. “I don’t know who daydreamed 200 jobs,’’ said Neufeld, who was in Fort Nelson. He noted one of the report’s authors was Tom Gunton, an official of the former New Democrat government, which Neufeld said drove jobs to Alberta and Ontario. The minister said he wouldn’t put any stock what such a person

had to say about job creation. He predicted offshore petrodevelopment in the area would create about $110-billion in gross revenue. It’s believed some 9.8billion barrels of oil and 25-trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be lying beneath the ocean in the Queen Charlotte Basin. The study, released late last week, said the industry will consider moving in only if jurisdictional conflicts between First Nations and other governments are resolved. Some key stakeholders are opposed to lifting the moratorium, it said. The authors recommended a review process on lifting the moratorium be restructured to include shared decision-making between First Nations and the two levels of government. There should also be a research program to provide adequate information on costs and benefits. — Canadian Press

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BUSINESS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Russia dithering over Kyoto accord Fate of climate deal hangs in balance MOSCOW By Fred Weir The Canadian Press

he Siberian permafrost is beginning to melt after three decades of steadily warmer winters, threatening to swallow up roads, buildings and pipelines, Russian experts say. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, who holds the power to make or break the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming, has refused for years to make any decision about bringing Russia into the accord. “We are facing critical changes in the ecological system, particularly in the Arctic, but the leadership is unable to make up its mind what to do,” says Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, a former Russian environment minister and now head of the official Institute of Water Resources. “This is primarily because there is a big campaign by big business, especially the oil industry, against ratifying the Kyoto Protocol,” he says. The accord, already endorsed by almost 100 countries, would require developed countries to reduce their output of the “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide — mostly produced by the burning of fossil fuels in industries, thermal power stations and automobiles — by 5.2 per cent from the 1990 levels by 2012. But implementation is on hold because developed countries representing 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions must ratify the accord before its tough regime of pollution reduction can become international law. Countries accounting for about 40 per cent of emissions have signed on, including the European Union. Canada ratified the accord in 2002 and aims to achieve a six per cent cut in greenhouse emissions from 1990 levels by 2012. But the United States, which belches out 30 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide, has rejected the treaty as a drag on economic growth. That leaves Russia, which is listed as accounting for about 20 per cent, holding an effective veto over the entire plan. At times, Putin has suggested that Russia might ratify Kyoto in return for trade concessions and other benefits from the EU. Last October, then-prime minister Jean Chrétien said Putin had stated that Russia intended to ratify the accord, although no time frame was mentioned. But mixed signals continued

Independent thinking

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

The Hermtage, St. Petersburg.

to come from the Kremlin. At a Moscow climate-change conference last November, Putin joked that sharp climate change might be a boon for Russia. “If there is warming in Russia, then we will need to spend less money on fur coats and our grain harvests will increase,” Putin said. Experts say the Kremlin’s dithering is rooted in a raging elite debate over the future of Russia’s economy. “Opponents of ratifying Kyoto tend to be big businesses who want our economy to remain oriented on fossil fuels and the export of raw materials,” says Danilov-Danilyan. “Those who favour ratification want Russia to free itself from dependence on

oil exports and get on with postindustrial development.” Russia’s most outspoken opponent of joining Kyoto is the Kremlin’s official economic adviser, Andrei Illaryonov, who criticized the accord last month as “a death pact — however strange it may sound — because its main aim is to strangle economic growth in countries that accept its requirements.” The Kyoto accord treats Russia as if it were still the Soviet Union in 1990, a highly industrialized state responsible for around 20 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Illaryonov argues that postSoviet Russia is actually a developing economy, like China; developing countries are exempt

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from Kyoto restrictions. Due to severe de-industrialization over the past decade, Russia’s carbon dioxide emissions have plummeted by at least 30 per cent. But Putin has set a national goal of doubling the gross domestic

product by 2010. “The Kyoto Protocol discriminates against Russia,” Illaryonov said. “Russia, which now actually accounts for just six per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, will have to implement reductions while China, which accounts for 13 per cent, has no obligations and the U.S., which accounts for almost a third, has rejected them altogether.” Environmentalists say Kyoto could be an opportunity for Russia to avoid Soviet-style energyintensive economic growth and leapfrog into the future. They argue that other countries, such as Britain, have achieved high rates of economic growth while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. “If we switch to cleaner energy sources and available high technologies, we can modernize our economy and stay well within the Kyoto quotas,” says Natalya Oleferenko, a project manager with Greenpeace-Russia. Since Russia’s current emissions are far below its permitted level, under Kyoto rules it could sell that shortfall to bigger polluters. Experts say this would yield profits for Moscow of up to $10 billion US annually. “If we handle the excess quotas skillfully, the resulting golden shower could jump-start modernization of our whole economy,” says Oleferenko. But Russian skeptics insist that such “quota” sales are piein-the-sky, and nobody is offering any guarantees. “Who can we sell these polluting rights to if the main potential customer, the U.S., is not in the deal?” says Konstantin Simonov, director of the independent Centre for Current Politics in Moscow. “The EU and Canada have already pledged to reduce emissions unilaterally, so they won’t be buying,” he says. “It is very doubtful that Russia will join Kyoto as long as our economy is controlled by a few huge, raw materials corporations.”

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May 16, 2004

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The Sunday Independent

LIFE & TIMES

Pete Soucy, at ease and out of character a few days before opening night.

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Behind the mask

Pete Soucy talks about that other guy Snook and his life out of character By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent

ne of the province’s bestknown actors — and creator of one of Newfoundland’s most-recognizable characters — says the provincial government has yet to give local culture and art the attention it deserves. “I don’t think anybody has really sat back and sized it up from all different angles in terms of what it does for the place, for its profile throughout the years,” says Pete Soucy, a.k.a. Snook, the greasyhaired townie. “It’s the one thing we have that nobody else has. It’s non-polluting, infinitely renewable, we have the raw materials, we’re exporting it like crazy … “ He recounts a joke he heard the other day: Question: “What’s the Rooms?” Answer: “The box the Basilica came in.” Soucy laughs a bit and shakes his head. As someone who’s been involved in the arts community practically his whole life, he’s had his share of frustrations. He says he’s survived by being versatile: He’s a writer, producer, designer, actor and stand-up comedian. He’s served as artistic director of a theatre company in Carbonear and currently stars in the Lorne Elliottpenned play Tourist Trap.

Soucy made a single run at “There seems to be a constant sup- Madly off in all directions). provincial politics too, in 1999, as ply of stuff,” he says. Elliott approached Soucy to the Liberal candidate for Signal There was a time, Soucy says, take on the lead role of Bruno — Hill-Quidi Vidi. He lost to NDP when he thought about retiring the the only character who appears on leader Jack Harris. character. stage — about this time last year. At the time, Soucy says he “I was doing that and nothing Another actor had rehearsed the thought if he got the seat he’d else,” he says. “It can make you a part, and performed in P.E.I., but have a shot at landing the tourism little lazy, I guess. But then, I was hadn’t been able to make a schedportfolio. doing an awful lot of it. Not so uled week of performances in “It was a learning experience,” much now. I still have fun doing Kingston, Ont. he says. “Although I think I may him, I wouldn’t get to go to the Elliott directed the show, and have learned too much … Soucy reports a (politics) has got an awful great time and even smudge to it, the whole better audience thing, you know, which I response. They “There are all kinds of places like think is unfortunate.” decided on a series Carbonear, where I spent some time, trying of remounts — this Soucy started performas hard as they can to look like somewhere run at the LSPU ing in high school, but “took a detour” shortly Hall in St. John’s, a else, with the mall, and McDonald’s … afterwards and attended Once it starts, it’s started. It’s a real shame.” week in Cape Brethe Nova Scotia College ton in August, a — Pete Soucy of Art and Design in Haliweek in Nova Sotia fax. He was a visual arts and New Brunswick teacher for five years, and and, they hope, a did set design for theatre produc- Halifax comedy festival any other provincial Arts and Culture Centre tions. Since 1987, though, he’s way.” tour in the 2004-05 season. been back into theatre and enterSnook’s first CD, a Christmas Soucy’s relationship with Elliott tainment, one way or another. album, is due out this fall, with goes back to the 1970s — and About 15 years ago, Snook was such parodies as Wrote off the red involves another Newfoundland born — a wise-cracking, plastic Ford Ranger and Hark the Herald and Labrador favourite entertainer, grocery-bag carrying corner boy magazine. Kevin Blackmore of Buddy with a perennial cigarette and Soucy carries little resemblance Wasisname and the Other Fellers. stunned expression. to his alter-ego today, at ease in an Soucy, at the time, was dating The character has proven to be armchair in the afternoon sun, Blackmore’s sister (from Gander), Soucy’s bread and butter — articulate and anything but greasy and Elliott was in the province always in demand for everything or whiny. He’s less than a week studying at Memorial University, from corporate luncheons, Christ- away from the opening night of and doing a bit of performing on mas parties (he did 17 last year), Tourist Trap, a comedy written by the side. private parties and gala events. Lorne Elliott (also of CBC-radio’s “We all were at the Hotel Gan-

der the last night (Elliott) was there playing, it was the first time Kevin ever got up on stage, he was a really shy guy growing up,” says Soucy. “So I met him then, and we’ve been in touch ever since.” Soucy worked with Elliott in Montreal a few years ago on a script of his called Culture Shock. The current run is a co-production between Soucy’s Day Job Theatre and Elliott’s own company. The alliance works, Soucy says, “because Lorne’s looking to do more stage production/theatre, and I don’t get the chance to do much outside my own stuff.” He says it’s been fun to work with someone else’s words “It’s a break to do someone else’s material. It’s a healthy thing to do, you get kind of rusty after a while of doing only the same thing. I do find it a challenge to wrap my tongue around someone else’s words and rhythm.” The play, “a comedy in seven phone calls,” is about a man who wants to take charge of his own life and his Aunt Tillie, who doesn’t think that’s a very good idea. “It’s funny, very clever, very sharp,” says Soucy. “Lorne has a way with words which makes them very hard to memorize …” Continued on page 22

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LIFE & TIMES

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Standing Room Only

by Noreen Golfman

Business of culture T

he Williams government is to Get Rich, Elf, Kill Bill, Can’t you understand the business of now advertising for new Remember, and Joe Cocker I’d culture. blood —expertise to help sternly point to the door and When I then handed over the run the newly configured Depart- holler “Next.” new hire’s required reading — a ment of Business, headed up by On the other hand, if the freshly minted contract, terms of Himself, Mr. Danny I-did-it-my- answers went along the lines of employment, and copies of curway Williams. The Atom Station, The Long Run, rent public service collective Let’s talk about taking care of Tilting, Breadmaker, Rare Birds, agreements — I’d add a copy of business, for a moment. We can Eastern Edge, and Ron Hynes, a recent book, Blockbusters and safely wager that the candidates I’d vigorously shake a hand, point Trade Wars: Popular Culture in a for positions in the new Globalized World, by department will be asked Peter S. Grant and Chris searching questions about Wood (Douglas & McIntheir ability to be innovaUntil bureaucrats stop asking why tyre). tive, to attract new busiMuch-circulated in the it is in their interest to fund down- corridors of culture and ness to the province, stimtown art spaces or support artists academe these days, this ulate the economy from within, develop long-term whose plays they never see … we important work does sustainable employment something absolutely are doomed to slide towards a opportunities and, sigh, vital: it gives us a lanreliance on someone else’s idea of guage for thinking about balance the books. But whose books are these? culture — New York’s, or, shudder why and how cultural Who is writing them? goods are radically differto think of it, Toronto’s. If I were on the hiring ent from traditional econocommittee I’d add a few my consumer goods, difmore questions to the list: ferent from widgets and • What was the last play barrels of pork. you saw? According to Grant and Wood, in the direction of his/her new • Novel you’ve read? office space, and say “welcome.” a major difference lies in the way • Non-fiction you fell asleep to? In fact, I’d be grateful if even cultural products — books, plays, • Movie you’ve seen in a the- half of the candidate’s answers canvases of paint, etc — generate atre? were grounded in local cultural a different measure of profit: that • DVD you rented? offerings. That would tell me we is identity, social coherence, • Art exhibition you’ve visited? had an engaged, thinking person diversity, understanding, plural• Live concert you attended? on board, someone with an ism, tolerance, value. If the answer to these questions awareness of what artists living in To be sure, such an argument went, in order, something like the province were actually pro- frustrates traditional economists, Mama Mia, The Last Juror, How ducing. You’re hired, I’d smile, but until bureaucrats stop asking

why it is in their interest to fund downtown art spaces or support artists whose plays they never see or have even heard of we are doomed to slide towards a reliance on someone else’s idea of culture — New York’s, or, shudder to think of it, Toronto’s. This is no parochial argument for the local and against the national or global. I watched the last episode of Friends, am a slave to Tony Soprano’s psychotic rages, and can answer a skilltesting question about who the American Idol finalists are. But I also want choice, and the right to see and read and experience what we can make here, work that sets us apart from the junky mainstream, from the blather of mass culture and continental drift, work that enhances our understanding of who we are and where we might be going. That strikes me as the business of culture, and any self-respecting new manager of the business of Newfoundland and Labrador ought to be able to see that. I’m not being unrealistic: let’s put “a measure of artistic vision” on the criteria of eligible Department of Business managers, and ask those questions above, OK? Local artists, writers, filmmakers, and playwrights already fully appreciate the arguments in Grant

and Wood’s book, but apparently policy makers do not. Paul Martin doesn’t appear to have an inkling. He has virtually ignored the entire culture portfolio of his/our government in the last budget. For that matter, Danny Williams’ ignorance of the value of The Rooms in our own budget does not inspire a lot of confidence. But there is a small part of me that still thinks the premier is interested in this conversation, that he might be new enough to the job, the challenge, and the promise of a healthy and creative future for this province that he would get it. I can’t help wondering, though, what was the last play he attended? Noreen Golfman is a literature and film studies professor at Memorial University. Her next column appears May 30.

‘It’s going to be a different place’ Continued from page 21 The show is 90 minutes long, a substantial amount of time to be on stage, more or less alone. “You know, I had done a oneman show that ran more than 90 minutes. Once you’ve gone over that hurdle it’s not the same frightening thing it was. I don’t know if your faculties fail you or you just think they do and you second guess yourself.” Soucy’s recently taken up another new gig: Keynote addresses for cultural heritage committees. He says it’s different, “regular speaking on real topics” and a bit

intimidating. “When you public speak in character, you just put on the mask and go. Any other time, you have to be really conscious of what you say.” But he does have things to say. He’s worried about the culture in this province, about losing our distinctiveness. “We’re losing the outport culture. We’re becoming more like everywhere else,” he begins. “There are very few places like Brigus and Trinity that are determined to maintain their architectural heritage. “There are all kinds of places like Carbonear, where I spent a few years, trying

as hard as they can to look like somewhere else, with the mall, and McDonalds … Once it starts, it’s started. It’s a real shame. You don’t just lose those little communities, you lose all that history. It’s going to be a different place.” Hearing Soucy talk, one has to wonder: Is another run at politics in the cards? “A couple of years ago, I would have said no, I’ve had my run at it.” he says, carefully. “It’s a tough racket and I don’t know if it’s a racket I’m cut out for. “But someone has to do it, and someone will do it, and there may be another time when my son is older, I may be tempted.

It tends to go month by month, issue by issue.” In spite of his crack about the Rooms, Soucy says he hasn’t written off the Williams government yet. “He’s talked about it a lot, especially music, and theatre … he tends to go towards the more tourism-related disciplines. “I’ve talked to him a few times — about trying, giving the arts the status they deserve … As of yet, it’s never been taken seriously. Some day.” Tourist Trap opens May 19 at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s, 753-4531. It continues until May 30.

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

LIFE & TIMES

On The Shelf

Page 23

by Mark Callanan

Wicked way with words Mean, Ken Babstock. House of Anansi Press, 1999. 84 pp. ISBN 0-88784-634-0, $19.95 Days into Flatspin, Ken Babstock. House of Anansi Press, 2001. 91pp. ISBN 0-88784-658-0, $16.95

n a column that purports to cover local books, why write about Ken Babstock, a poet who, though born in Newfoundland, grew up in the Ottawa valley and currently resides in Toronto? In the Republic of Ireland — I am told — you become an Irish citizen the moment your head appears in this world (or feet, depending on the method of entry), regardless of the citizenship of your parents. In other words, if you’re born on a stopover at Shannon on your way to Bombay then, lucky you, you’ve picked up Irish citizenship along the way. What I’m getting at in a roundabout way is this: I have no trouble claiming Babstock as one of our own. No apologies. Now. His poems. Two years after his Milton Acorn and Atlantic Poetry Prizewinning debut Mean, Babstock published a second collection of poems, Days into Flatspin. Mean had set up great expectations for readers of his work: Here was a rough-hewn, often discomforting voice that seemed to project itself from here, there and everywhere, a voice utterly unlike the mainstream tenor of modern Canadian poetry. In “Notes for His Big Novel” for example, an aspiring author sketches out his main character: My protagonist, Jim, he’ll be thin, reedy, and potent as the pinner he smoked on my very first page.

He’ll be a sinner. Squandered his days in bush parties, cowpunching, backseat lays in chassis less half-tons. He’ll own a gun. Like many of Babstock’s poems, this one is darkly comic. “A main character’s fate, / up here,” it ends, is to saw off his days in one of two ways: last match, unstruck, dead-frozen, and whey-faced or racing to outrun the tidal bore of himself and always, always only slightly outpaced. Days into Flatspin picks up where Mean left off, with the same barbed rhythms and rhymes that catch at the clothes of a reader as they try to slip on by. In “Anorak” a simple jacket sounds like affliction, crisis, a medical condition; something congenital between angina and heart attack – definitely pulmonary / cardiac, and having to do with clogs, unwanted buildup, congestion. This is, to me, an amazing passage. In providing his own imaginary definition, Babstock transforms a relatively innocuous (if a little odd-sounding) word into something awful, a potentially fatal condition. Not only that, the heft and encumbrance of his diction, the internal and end rhymes employed all add up to a blockage of words that mirrors the blockage of the heart and veins— clogged rhythms, an irregular heartbeat put back on pace by Babstock’s keen sense of timing, his deep appreciation for the texture and weight of

Babstock knows just when and how long to hold a note, how to employ such techniques to maximum effect.

words. Reading Babstock, one gets the sense that he has learned more from the school of contemporary British poetry than from any existing Canadian canon. The West Yorkshire-born poet Simon Armitage constantly sprang to mind as I ploughed through Babstock’s work. My suspicions on this account were confirmed when I read Ken Babstock’s foreword to House of Anansi’s recent anthology, New British Poetry. “I can’t recall now if it was Armitage, Motion, Paterson, O’Brien or Maxwell I first came across,” he states most directly in the foreword, “but nearly all were subsequently sought out and devoured at a furious rate.” Though it is the playful, violent, urban hymns of Armitage that I see most clearly in Babstock’s own poetry, the others may well

hold their place as influences on his work, major or minor. Like his British counterparts, Babstock is not one to shy away from the employment of traditional poetic techniques such as rhyme. In “Clothespins,” a simple study that turns its object over and over, viewing it at various angles, Babstock sees the clothespins as …ties on a rail line skirting the sky that’s a bay on a map. Alone, a squid in profile by Picasso or Braque. Disassembled, shrapnel from Juno and a whittled Madonna in halves. The repetition of the “a” vowel sound throughout these first three stanzas (in “map,” “Braque” and

“halves”) has a curious doubling effect — the vowel sound echoes in our inner ear long after it has passed our eyes’ scan and generates in us an expectation of repetition, the fulfillment of a pattern. Taken too far, this can make for monotonous verse. But Babstock knows just when and how long to hold a note, how to employ such techniques to maximum effect. In “Public Space,” a variation on the sonnet form, Babstock declares that We can wreck a day on the shoals of ourselves. Cramped, you broke last night and wept at the war, At the ionized, cobalt glow that fish-tanked the air. We’re here to be emptied under the emptying sky, eyes cast outward, trolling for the extraordinary. There is nothing more I can add to the subtlety, the gentle strength and tension evinced by those five lines. For anyone who has ever aspired to write or read poetry written out in blood, bright and pumping life, Days into Flatspin and Mean are requisite. Mark Callanan’s next review will appear May 30. He can be reached at callanan_ _@hotmail.com, his past reviews are available at http://www.markcallanan.com/Reviews_Art_Expor t.html.

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LIFE & TIMES

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Events MAY 16 • Vancouver-based percussion group Scrap Arts Music, Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 292-4520. • Artists’ talk: Bonnie Leyton and Kathleen Knowling speak regarding the issues and development of their current joint exhibition at the RCA Gallery, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, 2-5 p.m. • AIDS Committee Newfoundland and Labrador, candlelight memorial service, Bannerman Park gazebo, Military Rd., St. John’s, 6:30 p.m., (709) 579-8656. • Meet and greet: Trade unionists and social justice activists. Three trade unionists from Columbia are visiting St. John’s, the Lantern, Barnes Rd., St. John’s, 7-8:30 p.m. (709) 753-8760. MAY 17 • Vancouver-based percussion group Scrap Arts Music, Gander Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 256-1082. • Women in Song: Jackie Sullivan, Christa Borden, Jacinda Beals, at the Labrador West Arts and Culture centre, 8 p.m., (709) 944-5412 • Barbara Ashley School of Dance, St. John’s Arts and Culture centre, (709) 729-3900. • Public forum, Our social and economic realities: is a different Newfoundland and Labrador possible? The Lantern, Barnes Road, St. John’s, (709) 753-8760. MAY 18 • Barbara Ashley School of Dance, St. John’s Arts and Culture centre, (709) 729-3900. • Jazz Gathering featuring Patrick Boyle, Brian Way, Bill Brennan, more, D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music, 8 p.m. • The Coaker Foundation opens

MAY 21 • Sons of Erin play Erin’s pub, Water Street, St. John’s, (709) 7221916. MAY 22 • Dance Studio West, Corner Brook Arts and Culture centre, (709) 637-2580. • Hotel California: Eagles tribute band, with the Eight-Track Favourites, Club One, St. John’s, (709) 753-7822. • Sons of Erin at Erin’s pub, Water Street, St. John’s, (709) 722-1916.

Photo by Greg Locke/The Sunday Independent

Artist Bonnie Leyton stands in front of part of her joint exhibition with Kathleen Knowling. The show, up at the RCA Gallery in the LSPU Hall until May 31, features Knowling’s Journey to Jerusalem The Search and Leyton’s Religion: The Last Taboo.

the factory for tours today — admission is free today only. Port Union (709) 469-2207. • Parkinson Society Newfoundland and Labrador information day, Salvation Army Citadel, Carbonear, (709) 754-4428. • St. John’s Status of Women Council/Women’s Centre annual general meeting, 7:30 p.m., RCA Gallery, LSPU Hall, St. John’s (709) 753-0220. MAY 19 • Vancouver-based percussion group Scrap Arts Music, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 729-3900.

A Call to Arms An original musical production by Gonzaga High School Reid Theatre, Memorial University, St. John’s May 14-15, 2004

Photos by Paul Daly

• Tourist Trap, written by Lorne Elliott, featuring Pete Soucy and Frankie O’Neill, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, (709) 753-4531. Runs May 19-23; 25-30. • Trudy Morgan-Cole will read from her current novel, Esther, and her upcoming novel, A Violent Friendship, 7:30 p.m., A.C. Hunter Library. Refreshments served, free. • Book Launch, A life lived for others: Stories about Brother Jim McSheffrey, MacMorran Community Centre, Brophy Place, St. John’s, 7 p.m. (709) 722-1168. MAY 20 • Women in Song: Jackie Sulli-

van, Christa Borden, Jacinda Beals, at the St. John’s Arts and Culture centre, 8 p.m., (709) 7293900 • Opening: A Study of Work, drawings, paintings and photographs by Cathia Finkel. Craft Council Annex Gallery, Devon House Craft Centre, 5:30-7 p.m. Exhibit runs until June 11. • Readings by authors short-listed for the Atlantic Writing Awards: Sue Sinclair, Heidi Priesnitz, Kevin Major and Beth Ryan, 8 p.m., the Studio, Water Street, St. John’s.

IN THE GALLERIES: • Kathleen Knowling’s Journey to Jerusalem The Search and Bonnie Leyton’s Religion: The Last Taboo, RCA Gallery, LSPU Hall, until May 31. • Gatherings, an exhibit by Stephanie Barry, Libby Moore, Susan Furneaux, Catherine McCausland opens at the Craft Council Gallery, Devon House, (709) 753-2749. • Newfoundland … journey into a lost nation, photos by Greg Locke at the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, Baird’s Cove, St. John’s. Until June 1. • Ten Girls and a Guy, 16th annual textile studies exhibition, Anna Templeton Centre, St. John’s (709) 739-7623. Until may 26. OTHER • Call for entries for the15th annual St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. The deadline is May 31. The entry form can be downloaded at http://www.womensfilmfestival.co m/english_entry_form.pdf Please submit your events to editorial@theindependent.ca

May 16, 2004

Page 25

The Sunday Independent

SPORTS

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Colin Abbott is considered one of the best softball hitters in the world.

Hit parade Softballer Colin Abbott swings a big bat around the world By David Manning For the Sunday Independent

or almost his entire life, Colin Abbott has been playing either softball or hockey. Although ball keeps him on the road all summer, he relies on ice time to keep him in shape in the off-season. It’s necessary, he says, because some of the biggest tournaments happen mid-winter. Abbott says a silver medal in this past winter’s world softball championships in New Zealand was a mild disappointment. “Obviously, it’s disappointing to lose. The tournament is only once every four years and it’s a long time to wait for another,” he says. He says the fact that the championship is in February — the offseason for Canadian softball — was a factor in the loss. “I had a decent tournament,” he says. “It’s tough to go down there in the middle of our winter and play like you want to, you always think you should do better.” A member of Canada’s national team on two previous occasions (In 1996, when the team

also won silver and in 2000, they came in fourth), Abbott’s national aspirations direct his life. During the summer months, the heart of the fastpitch season in North America, Abbott is a travelling man. While playing for Farm Tavern, a team based out of Madison, Wis., in International Softball Congress (ISC) tournaments, Abbott travels approximately six to eight weekends during the summer months around the continent to play the game at its highest level. Why would someone subject himself to this jet-set lifestyle when Canada is considered a world powerhouse in fastpitch? Quite simply, competition. ISC draws the best players and teams in North America to their tournaments, culminating in the world club championships in August. Abbott realizes that in order to keep chasing that world championship he must challenge himself to play at the highest level. “Because of the national team program you try and play as good ball as you can,” Abbott says. “Unfortunately, I can’t get the same competition here. I’d love to

go down to Lion’s Park and play, then I wouldn’t have to travel.” Without the great support from both his family (wife Michelle, sons, Joel and Steven) and his employer (Investors Group), Abbott doesn’t think it would be possible. “I have flexible hours here with Investors Group, and my wife is really supportive, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to travel,” says Abbott. “I’ve been doing this for quite a while now, but I’ve got a pretty good system worked out, family wise and work wise.” Travel is a major issue in softball today. While it is not a professional sport, the lengths the players and teams go through to play the top competition is of professional quality. Abbott’s Farm Tavern team draws players from all over the U.S. and Canada to play tournaments, and that turns the team sport of softball into a quasi-individual game where players have to prepare on their own. That’s just a fact in the world of fastpitch these days. Having players from everywhere is “not really an issue,” Abbott says. “We’re used to it, it’s

not the ideal situation, but that’s how the game is played at our level. “When we have top calibre guys playing top calibre tournaments every weekend, it becomes sort of an individual game. If you can take care of your job, then you’re usually fine.” Regarded as one of the top hitters in the world, Abbott is forced to take care of his team game on his own all year. With indoor batting facilities virtually non-existent in the St. John’s area, he is forced to workout on his own three to four times a week and wait until the snow melts to start swinging the bat again. He also turns to his second love, hockey for some physical work during the winter. A former junior and senior player in the St. John’s and Avalon East Leagues, Abbott turned to refereeing in 1995 after four knee surgeries put a premature end to his hockey career. “I wanted to stay involved, it’s a good skate, and you get to stay around the boys,” Abbott says of his refereeing. “It’s different than playing, it will never replace that.”

Using refereeing as part of his off-season softball training, Abbott has become one of the most respected and skilled officials in the province. Proof of this can be found in the fact he was named to ref game two of the Herder finals this spring. “The fact that it was the Herder, it’s the best hockey around … plus with the fans, it was much different than a regular season game,” he says. Besides playing for club softball supremacy in North America this summer with his Farm Tavern team, Abbott has his eye squarely set on representing Team Canada again in 2007 at the Pan-American games in Rio de Janeiro, a tournament where he has previously won two gold medals. Hoping to hit the road for a couple of more seasons, Abbott is finding it difficult to imagine life without softball. “I find it hard to envision myself not playing ball, this is what I’ve done for a number of years, it will be different for sure,” Abbott says. “But, I’ve got to work on my golf game.”

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Page 26

SPORTS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Wildlife Column

by Paul Smith

Gone troutin’ It’s the 24th of May and we likes to get away … with the family

ext weekend is the May 24th long weekend, a long tradition of celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria. In Newfoundland it has evolved into a celebration of the outdoors. By May, the snow is finally gone and the weather is warming up enough for camping. Well, we think it is anyway, at least by Newfoundland standards. We’re a hardy bunch; a little wet snow or rain shower isn’t going to spoil our first long weekend of the summer. It’s been a long winter and we’re getting out of the house. Families will spend quality camping time together, buddies will get off for a day fishing, kids will go shopping for their first fishing rod. There’s excitement in the air. At the age of 44, I still get excited about the 24th weekend. I have been doing outdoor stuff (snowshoeing, sea-trout fishing etc.) all winter and spring, but this is special. Rain or shine, I’m setting up my Labrador tent by the in-laws cabin and we’re camping out. I even have a new wood-burning tent stove to offset the elements and fry up a feed of Caribou. My daughters and I are going to get in a little troutin’ and canoeing. You can’t leave out the troutin’. To many Newfoundlanders, troutin’ is what May 24th is all about.

Only Newfoundlanders go troutin’. Other people go trout fishing, but troutin’ is reserved for us. Is there a difference? I think so. I do both and I will attempt to explain. The key difference is in the seriousness of the endeavour. In the past decade I have become a serious flyfisherman. I fish seriously for searun brown trout and salmon. I fuss over equipment, flies and tippet sizes and plan trips long in advance. The logistics involved, especially with Labrador salmon excursions, are considerable. This is all great stuff but I still like to get off for a simple day troutin’ and I always reserve May 24th weekend for family troutin’. Troutin’ is much less structured. It’s different for everyone, but troutin’ to me is just getting away from the stresses of everyday life, and relaxing for a few hours by the side of a pond. A feed of fresh mud trout is a bonus and a treat I will always savour. It doesn’t matter what tackle you use, bait or fly-fishing is a matter of taste. I have gone 100 per cent fly-fishing, but that’s my choice. The key is to get out there and enjoy the fruits of our land, and it’s still free. Recently, there have been rumors of being charged $2 for a trouting license this season circulating in recent months, but as far as I can tell there is no truth to this. I checked all the budget documents available on the government website and talked to government offi-

cials. As far as I can gather, there’s no intention to introduce a trouting license. Thanks premier Danny and I hope it stays that way. I feel very strongly that the right to grab a pole and catch a few trout is a Newfoundlander’s birthright and the government has no right to charge us for it. Troutin’ is a great way to build and maintain family bonds. My father was 45 years old when I was born. He grew up in rural Newfoundland during the Great Depression and I was nurtured on the rock music and wild clothes of the ’70s. You might say we had a generation gap. In spite of this, I had a wonderful relationship with my father. We talked and communicated, all through my teenage years, which I now understand, is the exception as opposed to the rule. My father started me out troutin’ at a tender age. I have an old black and white photo of dad and me pinned up over my fly-tying desk. I guess I was about four or five and we are out in the water with thigh rubbers on troutin’ with old bamboo poles. My father loved troutin’ and he always dragged me around with him. I have fond memories. I moved from the bamboo to a spinning rod and on to fly-fishing. Dad and I actually took up fly-fishing together in pursuit of salmon. We built an unbreakable bond that sustained us through my teenage years and beyond. Now I have my own kids, two daughters, 14 and 19. Megan, the

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Mail your cheque and completed form to: The Sunday Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s NL, A1C 5X4 Questions? Call us at (709) 726-4639

Allison Smith at age 12, troutin’.

oldest, loves fishing. We’re hoping to get some time troutin’ over the next couple of weeks, even though she is busy with her summer fastfood job. Allison is not quite as enthusiastic about fishing, but still follows along occasionally. Communication isn’t easy, and doesn’t just happen genetically. Fishing together can help foster communi-

Photo by Paul Smith/For the Sunday Independent

cation. So, spend time next weekend with your kids. Take them troutin’, have a boil-up, and enjoy your time together. They grow up fast. Paul Smith is a freelance outdoor writer, living, hunting and fishing in Spaniard’s Bay. paul.fish@superweb.ca

The Sunday Independent, April 11, 2004

SPORTS

Page 27

Sharks take a byte from technology By GREG BEACHAM The Associated Press

on Wilson’s first gadget was a typewriter. He pecked away for hours in his grandfather’s office at Canadian Pacific Railway. His interests in electronics grew every year — particularly when he made enough money as a hockey player to afford the coolest stuff. Just check out Wilson’s home theatre system in South Carolina, which is so complicated that only he can use it. “I’m the type of guy who’s always got to have the new thing,” he says. And Wilson’s technological savvy is all over the best season in franchise history for the San Jose Sharks, who have reached the Western Conference final in Wilson’s first full season as their coach. Wilson and his assistants, Tim Hunter and Rob Zettler, constantly invent new ways to make the Sharks better and smarter. They compile obscure databases, dissect game tapes and preach strategy with rinkside computers, personalized scouting reports and a wealth of digital, wireless gadgetry. “It’s just good to take advantage of any edge that information or technology can give you,” Wilson says. “I don’t make decisions based on what my computer spits out, but you’d be foolish if you don’t use everything at your fingertips for a competitive advantage.” Wilson honed his coaching innovations during previous stops in Vancouver, Anaheim and Washington, but he has pulled all of his knowledge together in a multidi-

Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Mike Ricci, No. 18, and Scott Hannan, No. 22, of the San Jose Sharks skate onto the ice before Game 2 of the 2004 NHL Western Conference finals against the Calgary Flames on May 11 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

mensional teaching approach for Silicon Valley’s favourite hockey team. The Sharks have a computer monitor on their bench for replays and strategy questions, and they keep a tablet PC handy for instant statistical checks. Their lockerroom features a SMART Board — essentially the world’s most sophisticated chalkboard, which

includes video streaming and telestrator capabilities. The Sharks also take their technology on the road. In addition to the staff’s laptops, they travel with a black trunk that contains a video screen, DVD burners, VCRs, computer equipment and thousands of hours of game footage. “We get a lot of cool stuff from the coaching staff,” says centre

It’s all about our future

Alyn McCauley. “Ron’s always coming up with something, and sometimes it’s pretty amazing what they can show you or what they know.” In addition to these teaching advantages, the coaches compile statistics with a zeal that nearly matches baseball’s sabermetricians. Want to cross-reference shift lengths against goal-scoring in every month of the season? Wilson can look it up on FileMaker Pro — a database software program usually used by accountants. Hunter was one of the NHL’s toughest forwards during 10 seasons with the Calgary Flames, but he does his best work these days in front of a keyboard and a monitor. Though Hunter’s oft-broken nose marks him as a tough guy, he’s just as savvy as his boss, expounding on digital-analog conversions for game tapes with the expertise of the nerdiest Radio Shack clerk.

“We’ve had to replace the keyboard like 15 or 20 times,” Wilson says when Hunter was within earshot. “He’s not delicate.” The NHL is steeped in reverence for the traditions of old-time hockey, and Wilson knows the game’s heritage as well as anyone. His father and uncle won Stanley Cups playing for the Detroit Red Wings, and Wilson played parts of six seasons in the league, along with extensive international experience. Wilson acknowledges a debt in navigating that divide to Hall of Fame coach Roger Neilson, known as Captain Video for helping introduce tape study into the sport. Neilson’s approach caught on while Wilson was a player. Neilson “got me interested in it — his approach to breaking a game down,” Wilson says. “Scoring chances, shift statistics, stuff that nobody had ever heard of, or even thought about.”