2004-05-16

A Newspaper owned and operated in Newfoundland & Labrador

Vol. 2 Issue 20

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Sunday, May 16th, 2004

www.theindependent.ca

$1.00 (including HST)

Collision course Labrador Métis planning court action to quash possible Inuit land-claims agreement

Business Stubbys are back Page 15

Happy Valley-Goose Bay

By Bert Pomeroy The Sunday Independent

A

International Voice From Away Page 19

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Last dance The 2004 graduating class of Bishop’s College in St. John’s celebrated their last days of high school at the Delta ballroom Friday night.

Life & Times Pete Soucey Page 21

Labrador Inuit land-claims agreement could extinguish the rights of other people of aboriginal descent in Canada, according to a professor of law at the University of Ottawa.

“The Labrador Inuit settlement is framed as being the last Inuit claim in the country and, therefore, it ... terminates all other potential Inuit claims in Canada,” says Brad Morse, who specializes in constitutional and aboriginal law.

“It shuts the door for other groups of Inuit descent because it precludes the federal and provincial governments from accepting other Inuit claims.”

Morse says a final agreement could have far-reaching negative impacts on the Labrador Métis Nation (LMN), an organization of about 6,000 members of Labrador Inuit descent living primarily in central and southern Labrador.

“I would say it would jeopardize a Métis land claim in Labrador,” he says.

“The difficulty, it seems to me, is for the federal and provincial governments to

negotiate with the LMN on a claim that is grounded on Inuit ancestry.”

The Labrador Métis Nation is threatening to take legal action to stop the Labrador Inuit land claims and self-government agreement from being ratified by the federal and provincial governments. The Labrador Inuit will vote to decide the fate of a negotiated agreement on May 26.

“We’ve had internal and external legal opinions and they are both consistent,” says Todd Russell, president of the Labrador Métis Nation. “The Labrador Inuit agreement will have serious implications on the rights of LMN members and the communities in which they live.”

Russell says he’s not buying reassurances from both federal and provincial politicians that the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) claim will not have any negative impacts on Métis rights in Labrador or any future land-claims negotiations with the Metis Nation.

“They say there is nothing in the LIA claim that would preclude them from entering into negotiations with us, but that is not consistent with our legal advice,” he says. “We would hope the Continued on page 2

Missing memorial What happened to the monument to Shanawdithit, last of the Beothuks?

“This monument marks the site of the parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin during the period 1859 to 1963. Fishermen and sailors from many ports found a spiritual haven in these hollowed walls.

Near this spot is the burying place of Nancy Shanawdithit, very probably the last of the Beothuks, who died on June 6, 1829.”

Sports Colin Abbott Page 25

Cutting lines

Quote of the Week “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.”

— Michael McBride of Storm Brewing on the return of stubby bottles

Twelve years after the cod fishery closed, New Harbour fish plant chugs along

By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent

F

red Woodman Jr. laughs when he says the expansion of his groundfish plant — the renovations carried out to make it exactly the way he always wanted — were completed the very summer the cod moratorium was announced.

The plant in New Harbour, Trinity Bay, was started up in the early 1970s

by Fred Woodman Sr., and run for decades as a vibrant family operation.

In 1992, Woodman Jr. had just made the last payment to buy the operation

from his father, just got everything set up and ready to process a quarter million pounds of cod a day and …

“It’s never been tested,” Woodman says, still letting out a sigh after all these years. The plant is still operational — and has always been — but it hasn’t been tried to capacity.

“It’s one of those things. If it was smaller, you could bring it home and put it on your mantle, paint it and put it on your lawn but …”

But since those weren’t options, Woodman put his business sense, contacts, and knowledge of the industry (he’s worked in the plant since he was

12 years old) to work. And the operation kept going.

“Back in 1985, the whole philosophy of the fish business was to get it through as fast as possible. You sat here all winter and when summer came on, there was a big onslaught of codfish that was more than anybody could handle.

“Then you went into the ’90s and had to do more with less. It was more about maximizing your return than getting the volume through.”

The competition now, he says, is with the large-scale plants in China and else Continued on page 11

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

I

t took four days of investigation, but The Sunday Independent has located the memorial to the last known Beothuk, Shanawdithit, in the office of an engineer with the City of St. John’s.

After dozens of calls to the provincial government, City Hall, archeologists, historians and former residents of the Southside Hills, where the memorial was located since the early 1960s, the monument — more precisely, the plaque that was once on the monument — was found leaning against the desk of engineer John Barry.

It has been there since December 2003, when the monument was torn down to make way for a $100-million sewage treatment plant on the south side of St. John’s harbour. The plaque was in memory of Shanawdithit, who died in 1829 of tuberculosis. The plaque also marked the site of a stone church, the Church of St.

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

The southside of St. John’s harbour is being excavated for a new sewage treatment plant.

Mary the Virgin.

“The monument was basically just some stone work on the old foundation of the church,” says Barry. Another “tasteful and respectful” memorial will eventually be built near the old site, he says, although Barry isn’t sure whether the plaque in his office will be reused.

Helen Fogwill Porter, an author who spent most of her “growing up years” on the south side, was saddened by the news of the monument’s destruction and the plaque’s “misplacement.”

“I’ve always been appalled that the church was torn down. That was a horrible thing. There was no need of it but (the

monument) was at least some consolation.”

Fogwill Porter remembers stories from her childhood about Shanawdithit and says she’ll be disappointed if the plaque isn’t replaced when construction is complete.

“The whole thing looked beautiful, I can just picture it,” she says.

“Something definitely has to go back there … something dignified and suitable where it will be prominently displayed. I would be very upset (if it didn’t).”

Martha Drake, provincial archeologist Continued on page 2

Page 2

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Not where they want to be From page 1

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Gas Pains

Dennis O’Keefe, chair of the Consumers Group for Fair Gas Prices, predicts the price of gas will continue to rise well above the $1 a litre it stands at now in some areas of the province. “The worst has yet to come,” he says.

Buried under Southside Road From page 1 with the Tourism Department, says Shanawdithit’s remains were buried about 500 metres west of the excavation in the middle of Southside Road.

Ingeborg Marshall, author of A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk, says “People have generally thought that she was buried right there (under where the monument was once situated) close to that plot and this is not the case.”

Shanawdithit’s skull was removed from the body and sent to Britain for historical purposes at the time of her death, but was supposedly destroyed by a German bomb during the Second World War. Marshall believes the monument was ineffective when it came to representing the now extinct race.

“It’s a pity because it’s old and it’s been there all this time … I’m sorry they took it apart,” she says.

“The plaque on the south side, I think is a very inadequate minor thing because it really is a plaque to commemorate St. Mary’s Church and the cemetery and Shanawdithit is really only mentioned in passing.”

The Beothuks were killed off by early Newfoundland settlers and disease. While attempts were

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

City engineer John Barry with the plaque he now keeps in his office.

made to create good relations between the Europeans and the Beothuk, there were so many incidents of violence against the natives that they went into hiding whenever they encountered white presence.

In an interview with Bishop John Inglis in 1827, Shanawdithit made it clear the Beothuk were hunted like animals.

“English and French, and MicMacs and mountaineers, and Labradors and Esquimaux shot at

the Beothuk as they shoot at the deer,” Inglis wrote in a letter around the time of the race’s extinction.

Shanawdithit lived with the John Payton Jr. family until his business on the island failed in 1829.

She then went to live with then attorney general James Simms.

Before Shanawdithit died, she provided insight on her tribe’s cultural traditions and a list of Beothuk words and phrases.

communities.

“I also have to question just courts will strike down the LIA how much people know about deal until a final decision is the deal,” he adds. “We have made on our claim.” concerns as to whether or not The Labrador Métis Nation it’s a good deal.” submitted a land claim to the Labrador MP Lawrence federal government on two O’Brien says he supports the occasions — the first being Métis Nation in its quest to setrejected in 1992. It was resub- tle a land claim. He says he mitted in 1996, but the Depart- also supports the LIA agreement of Justice ruled the docu- ment. ment did not meet “I have been Canada’s legal criteassured verbally by ria for acceptance as “…if you are the minister of India comprehensive an and Northern trying to entice Affairs land claim.

(Andy the provincial Mitchell) that the Morse says the Métis Nation carried LIA claim does not and federal out “more research nor will governments to potentially to strengthen their impede the progress claim, but it is my enter into negoti- of the LMN claim,” understanding that it ations, it is not O’Brien says. “I has been rejected as have asked to have wise to take well. that in writing.”

“It would seem a them to court.”

O’Brien says he LIA settlement has yet to get a writwould do injury to ten response from any LMN claim.”

Mitchell.

Unless, however, the LMN “I will continue to press the claim is not “grounded on Inuit minister and will also sit down descent,” Morse says. with people in the prime minis“The LMN would have to ter’s office to make sure that prove a way of culture and a this is clear that ratifying one way of life that is distinctively claim will not hurt another.”

Métis.”

Russell says all of the legal Morse went on to say that work has been completed and taking legal action would not that it is just a matter of time only be difficult, but “very before the Métis Nation chalexpensive and time consum- lenges the agreement in court. ing,” and would place the Métis “It’s just a political decision Nation “on a collision course” as to when we decide to launch with the LIA. it.”

“I assume that’s not where More than 20 years in the they want to be,” he says. making, the Labrador Inuit “Also, if you are trying to entice land claims and self-governthe provincial and federal gov- ment agreement was initialed ernments to enter into negotia- by chief negotiators from the tions, it is not wise to take them government of Newfoundland to court.” and Labrador, the government Russell, meantime, says the of Canada and the LIA LIA shouldn’t see the Métis last August, setting the stage Nation as a threat. for ratification by Labrador “We are not picking a fight. Inuit.

We are all family members Of the 4,300 Métis eligible to related by blood and culture and vote on May 26, a total of 50 we should be treated the same,” per cent plus one, or 2,151, he says. “We just want a fair have to vote in favour of the shake ... to sit at the table and agreement in order for it to be negotiate our own interests.” ratified by the Labrador Inuit.

Russell is calling on those eli- The agreement will still have to gible to vote on May 26 to be ratified by both the federal reject the deal “because of the and provincial governments, a impacts it will have on the process that could take several Labrador Inuit family” and their months.

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

NEWS

Page 3

Long Harbour waste may be sold to Third World as fertilizer Downside is the town loses royalties on the slag heap Rick Seaward For The Sunday Independent

T

he community of Long Harbour, Placentia Bay, lives up to its name … it’s

long.

But it also has a long manmade feature that the people of the Placentia Bay community want to get rid of — a radioactive pile of waste from the long-abandoned phosphorus plant that used to inhabit its shores.

The pile is innocuous looking enough — a long, flat pile about 40 metres high that runs from the site of the former plant a full kilometre along much of the shoreline of the harbour. The radioactive waste was dumped there over the 20-year-life of the plant, de-commissioned 15 years ago.

The waste pile contains uranium and thorium, two radioactive elements that have the pile classified as “low-level radioactivity.” Norm Cato, an expert in the field of low-level radioactivity at Memorial University, says it was a mistake to dump the waste into the harbour.

“It simply wouldn’t have been done today. You’d have to dispose of it in a different way,” he says.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty because radiation will eventually cause genetic mutations, will alter DNA and cause problems.”

Cato says genetic mutations have been found in radioactive sites around nuclear plants, but it’s unclear what the safety level is for radiation and its effects on people.

One thing about low-level radioactivity is clear: The uranium in the waste breaks down into a radioactive gas called radon.

Radon is the gas that killed miners in the St. Lawrence fluorspar mines.

“Radon gas is a problem if it’s contained in a relatively small area. The problem comes where you have it concentrated in a basement or something of this sort. It builds up concentrations much higher than you would normally have in the atmosphere.”

Prior to 1978, the owners of the phosphorus plant had been selling the waste to the people of Long Harbour and vicinity for use as flooring in their basements. Following the confirmation of the risk in a provincial government-sponsored report, the company was forced to remove the waste from all basements.

People like Jim Kelly, a lifelong resident of Long Harbour,

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Ed Bruce, long time environmentalist, overlooks the slag heap in Long Harbour.

are uneasy about living alongside the waste. On this particular day he’s found chopping wood across the harbour from the site of the old plant. Kelly, 45, pauses to reflect on how he feels about the radioactive pile.

“I guess I grew up here, it comes as a second nature thing. I was kind of used to it all the time. People were working over there and they were making good money or whatever and I don’t think it was really an issue then.

People went and got their paycheques every week and they were making good money. I don’t know if it was swept under the mat or whatever, but there wasn’t a whole lot said about it.”

Ed Bruce, who earned a reputation as a vocal critic of the waste left by the phosphorus plant, is today a town councillor.

When asked to reflect on the mess left behind, he isn’t stuck for words.

“I don’t like it,” he says, “I’d like to see it taken out of here … the biggest thing I see when I look over there is an eyesore …

I don’t know if there is any effects for the residents of the community.”

Gary Keating, the town’s mayor, used to work at the plant and scoffs openly at the notion

the waste might present a danger to anyone.

“Based on what we were told by experts if a person stood on the slag pile for 75 years, 24 hours a day, their chances of getting negative health effects were .01 or something like that. I mean it’s practically insignificant.”

“People went and got their paycheques every week and they were making good money. I don’t know if it was swept under the mat or whatever, but there wasn’t a whole lot said about it.”

— Jim Kelly, Long Harbour resident Still the issue confronts him.

“At the last town meeting I mentioned there was no environmental issue. And one person got up and said ‘Explain that to me.

It’s not an environmental issue and it’s got radiation.’

“Though I didn’t have the facts

in front of me, I just reiterated what I told you based on the research that was done throughout the life of the facility and afterwards the radioactivity is so low that it’s practically negligible in terms of a health risk.”

As for its opinions on the safety of the slag pile, officials with the province’s Environment Department point to studies carried out by consultants for Albright and Wilson, the company that once ran the plant.

The studies concluded the risks are “insignificant.” The consultants found the slag contained up to 200 parts per million of uranium as well as lesser amounts of other radioactive elements.

In fact, Albright and Wilson considered the slag so safe officials have been investigating selling it to tropical countries for use as fertilizer on sugar cane and rice. Experiments have shown the slag improves yields by up to 50 per cent thanks to calcium silicate also found in it.

Now that may not sound like such a good idea to a layman — putting anything radioactive on sugar cane and rice — but consultants who advised Albright and Wilson insist the effect on the general public is “insignificant.” There could be more risk

posed to workers handling the slag.

The formal risk level for them is tagged as “adequate.”

SENES Consultants Ltd. concluded the recovery and crushing operation will expose workers to low levels of radiation, radon emissions, and trace chemical elements.

The company that inherited the slag pile from Albright and Wilson, Rhodia Canada, has promised a decision on the fertilizer idea “in a few weeks.”

Mayor Keating says if they green light the project, removal of the slag could begin as early as this September, and stretch for about 12 years offering employment hope for local people.

But the mayor sees the work as a mixed blessing. The town collects royalties of $70,000 a year from Rhodia — about a third of it’s municipal budget — on the slag heap. Once the company begins removing it, Long Harbour is cut off and will have to make up the shortfall some other way. For a small town the mayor admits that’s a crisis.

“The next couple of years will be critical in terms of how we proceed, and right now that slag pile is the lifeline of the community.”

Page 4

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

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T

here’s time yet for John Efford to save his political soul. His sins upalong in Ottawa aren’t so mortal in nature that he can’t still stroll into the haven of most homes in Newfoundland and Labrador. (Although Tory kitchens are most definitely a stint in purgatory.)

He’s a good head yet, but the black marks are adding up just the same.

Efford himself may not have done anything particularly wrong in his two years this month as a Member of Parliament. His guilt may be more in associating with the particular crowd he’s fallen in with at the cabinet table. It’s not even that they’re so bad, but that Efford has chosen them over us, his people, on more than one occasion.

Efford chose to abstain from a private member’s motion calling on Canada to take custodial management of the Grand Banks and save what fish are left.

Efford, the son of a Port de Grave fisherman, knows foreign trawlers will never retreat from the scraps of fish that are left as long as they have starving plants back home to feed.

As Efford once said of seals, “They don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

He knows foreign trawlers are slowly choking the outports to death by pinching off the fish supply. Efford even supported custodial management on two occasions before accepting a seat in cabinet.

Efford still skipped the Commons vote.

What message would Efford have sent had he stood by his convictions and taken a stand

for all the cabinet and country to see?

Martin may have thrown him out of Natural Resources, that’s a valid point, but surely the firing would have done more for Efford’s reputation

For a politician branded a maverick for so much of his political youth, the wind seems to have faded from Efford’s sails so that he drifts with the current in central Canada.

than hoisting a foreign net from a St. John’s dock on the eve of an election.

The Portuguese trawler would have been a much more impressive delivery.

Had Efford been dumped he would have been hailed a Newfoundland hero of Smallwood proportions, only without the pain and regret to taint the memory.

Brian Tobin rode the turbot train to the premiership.

Efford, who’s never given up on the dream himself, could have rode his cabinet departure to the eighth-floor of Confederation Building in another few years.

But then it’s likely Williams and Efford will see each other in Ottawa long before then. A single Tory has yet to step forward to take on Efford, meaning the polls are warning he’s practically unbeatable.

Efford is as sure to make it

back to Ottawa as the price of gas is to drive up taxi fares; as Williams is to not reappoint retired teacher George Saunders to another term as petroleum pricing commissioner; as Norm Doyle is to win another election on the strength of donating his provincial government pension to charity.

Efford has a solid base of support that’s not about to be threatened by a scattered column inch. His grassroots are much stronger than that, rooted in the core of who we baymen are.

Efford is also sure to make it back to cabinet if the Liberals keep their grip on power. He’s proven himself in terms of towing the line. For a politician branded a maverick for so much of his political youth, the wind seems to have faded from Efford’s sails so that he drifts with the current in central Canada.

But soon a storm will be heading Ottawa’s way. Notice the calm between the Williams’ administration and Ottawa during their first seven months of acquaintance.

Danny hasn’t given anyone a hard time other than Leo Puddister, and look how he ended up.

How much longer before the premier turns his attention to the feds and the Gulf that separates us turns choppy? Will it be a year, maybe two before Williams announces that diplomacy has failed and a more aggressive approach is needed?

All eyes will be on John and Danny to see how they get along. In case you missed the line about messing with his family and the cows coming

home, Danny has a nasty, nasty temper. When he and St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells went at it a few years ago, Danny would drive past Wells’ house a couple of times a day to slow down and glare. Wells backed off after awhile; as did Puddister (a.k.a.

Leroy Brown).

That leaves a showdown between Williams and the feds as the next title match. It will be interesting to see in which corner Efford stands once the fight begins.

Will he have a foreign net brought in to St. John’s harbour every now and then when he needs a boost, or will he defect back to the home side with the good guys? Efford is a politician of immense talent and persuasion, a point he’s proven time and again.

He has nothing left to prove in politics, although he should be careful in that the final headline on his career has yet to be written. He’s either for us or agin’ us. Politically, it would be a mortal sin if he chooses wrong.

Ryan Cleary is managing editor of The Sunday Independent. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

West Words

NEWS

Page 5

by Frank Carroll

Extreme makeover in reverse “O

h, how cute,” my mainland friend cooed as she cuddled a stuffed seal pup in a Quebec City gift shop.

Instinctively, I bashed it across the head with a rolled up magazine.

“Can’t help it,” I said. “It’s in my blood.”

In reality, it was the closest I’ll ever come to clubbing a seal. If the living version were looking up at me with those big brown eyes, there’s no way I’d be able to beat vested for meat as well as their its skull in. Having said that, I pelts. Never mind that seal oil is have no objection to someone else being used to develop safer intraknocking the stuffing out of him. venous fluids for patients with I guess I’m one of those people gastrointestinal disorders. And who prefer that others do the dirty never mind that seals are no longer work of slaughtering, skinning and skinned alive. Killing a seal is gutting. I can chomp the flesh and wrong, and that’s that. suck the marrow with the best of Why don’t we ever see these them. But if I had to kill to sur- people protesting outside a farm? vive, I’d starve.

We all know the answer. Seals are Not that I’ve always lacked the cuter than pigs and cows. In an age killer instinct. I was particularly when physical beauty is so venercruel to the conners and sculpins I ated, they are the Kate Hudsons of caught off my grandmother’s the animal kingdom, far too cute wharf in Jerseyside, to kill. Who cares Placentia Bay. But about the Rodney it wasn’t long Dangerfields on the To prevent the killing farm? before Disney nature films and of seals for their oil, Perhaps if they cartoon animals gave a pig an perhaps the Red repressed my naturextreme makeover Cross could set up a on that show The al blood lust.

I’m not the donor’s clinic on the Swan, more people stereotypical baywould care about man, jigging cod in ice flows. I can see it them. Then again, the summer and now: the seals lying perhaps we wouldhunting moose in n’t. the fall before head- upon rows and rows And where do ing out to the ice of little cots while humans fit into all flows in winter. The this? What about nurses administer the people with closest I get to ice flows is the frozen liposuction and give Crohn’s disease food section at who might benefit gentle reassurance. from seal oil?

Dominion.

There are many Don’t they matter? out there like me, Of course they do, isolated from the real process that but there must be a better way of goes into making our food. Indeed, extracting the seal oil than clubwe’re indoctrinated to separate our bing poor adorable Kate. food from its animal origins. It’s To prevent the killing of seals why we call it pork instead of pig, for their oil, perhaps the Red Cross beef instead of cow, potted meat could set up a donor’s clinic on the instead of road kill. ice flows. I can see it now: the But in Newfoundland and seals lying upon rows and rows of Labrador at least we’re close little cots while nurses administer enough to the land and sea to liposuction and give gentle reasappreciate those who produce our surance. Afterwards, they could food. While some of us might be give them apple juice and Purity squeamish about killing, at least biscuits, or at least some cod. Nah, we understand the necessity. they’ve had enough cod. Better The other day I saw a piece on stick with the juice and cookies.

CBC Sunday in which an antiWhile we’re on the topic of sealing protester was challenging liposuction, perhaps we could give Jim Harris, leader of Canada’s the seals a complete makeover, Green Party, about the issue. To only in reverse. We could make my surprise, Harris said he was in them ugly instead of beautiful. favour of the seal hunt as long as Then we’d see how many movie the entire animal was used, not just stars would be flocking to have the pelt. their pictures taken with them.

Fair enough, but not in the proThen again, taking a knife to a tester’s mind. For her, the seal live seal and disfiguring it would hunt is just plain cruel and should be cruel. We only do that to be banned. For her, seal hunting humans. practices haven’t changed in the past 30 years and no amount of Frank Carroll is a journalism evidence to the contrary is likely instructor at the College of the to change her opinion.

North Atlantic in Stephenville.

Never mind that seals are harfrank_carroll_nf@yahoo.ca

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Guilty until proven innocent Cathy Knox, a former Crown prosecutor, recently appeared before the Lamer inquiry looking into the wrongful conviction of Gregory Parsons, who was convicted of killing his mother, Catherine Carroll, in 1990. The conviction was later overturned and Parsons’ childhood friend was sentenced for the crime. A tearful Knox apologized to Parsons, although he didn’t accept it. Knox is now a lawyer in Saskatchewan.

Rant and Reason

by Ivan Morgan

Hey Liberals: Sweet talk us first

O

lder readers will remember a blockbuster movie from years back starring Diane Keaton and Woody Allen called Annie Hall. The movie was the story of a passionate love affair between Keaton and Allen (way back when before Woody became deeply, deeply weird).

There is a scene early in the movie where Allen and Keaton are in the kitchen of a beach house laughing and drinking while boiling lobster. It is a scene that captures that fleeting moment early in a romance when infatuation rules the senses. That scene sets up a poignant moment near the end of the movie that I have never forgotten. By now Keaton is gone, and Allen is back at the same beach house, in the same kitchen, boiling lobster with another woman. Try as he may, it is a joyless and pathetic event.

I remember how sad it made me.

I felt that way again last week watching John Efford on the St. John’s waterfront with his illegal Portuguese net.

Remember when Brian Tobin did roughly the same thing to garner fanfare? Wow, did it work for him! Everyone was so excited. That’s because he was Brian Tobin, although let’s face it — he’s gone. Sure he came out of nowhere, told us what we wanted to hear and made us feel great about ourselves, but here we still are, and he’s off racing horses and smoking big cigars somewhere out there on the mainland. Cruelest of all, he probably doesn’t

give us a moment’s thought.

Very few people saw through Tobin. I did. I have always been very conflicted about the guy. I have watched in awe (horror?) from the sidelines as he bamboozled thousands of people time and again. What I saw as a showman others, apparently, saw as a saviour.

But what a showman. You had to hand it to the guy.

Now everyone’s wise to the guy. Not then. Back then a lot of you were wild for the guy.

Back then I thought a lot of you were nuts.

Now we see Efford trying the same political tricks. Why? Because just like poor Woody with the new woman, it worked the last time. He wanted a little of the old magic for himself, but it didn’t work this time. Efford is no Brain Tobin — and I mean that as a compliment.

Without Tobin’s razz-a-matazz this whole exercise was transparent and, I thought, a little sad. It struck me as the kind of lame thing the former Roger Grimes administration would think up. Take a closer look at what happened under their guidance.

Actually, I don’t even fault Efford. I think he’s a straight shooter who saw an opportunity and took it — regardless of why that opportunity suddenly presented itself. And it’s not as if it hurt his chances at getting re-elected. I hear they can’t convince anyone to even run against him. I blame the host of Liberal weasels who are hard at work gearing up for the federal election. Here’s a hint boys and

girls: You’re going to have to do a lot better.

You have an image problem.I know you’re going to bribe us with our own money, but halfbaked EI reform and pretending to pick on the Portuguese is a poor start. Efford aside, your slate here in Newfoundland can be charitably described as lackluster. None of them are even members of the same political species as Tobin. They are in desperate need of tarting up. For the Love of God, do something with them.

You Liberals are a crowd that always sweet talks the electorate before an election.

That’s because it’s always worked for you in the past.

Tobin told us what we wanted to hear. Get your people to tell us what we want to hear. Sweet talk us. We all know what you will do if and when you get back into power. I am old enough to remember health care before Paul Martin came along.

He’s got a lot of gall telling me about his passion for health care. So you are going to have to do a lot better.

Why? Because like most of us, I like a little sweet talk first.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at imorgan@elvis.com

Page 6

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Opinions Are Like...

by Jeff Ducharme

A couple of musings

G

rowing up, I always admired the kids with the freaky little talents. You know the ones, crossing their eyes, wiggling their nose or being double-jointed.

These born-lucky buggers always left me feeling quite jealous. They could amaze their friends and draw crowds at parties by simply squirting milk out their nose or being able to wax poetically while belching.

Sadly, such talents weren’t part of my birthright. Trust me, I tried to find a body part that was double jointed and gave myself permanent migraines trying to cross my eyes. Alas, nothing.

The only born talent I could find was one that simply didn’t attract the crowds or impress the girls in high school. It would seem that I could send the blood rushing to my head at will and turn my face red — bright red. Most people have to get pretty damned pissed before they can achieve such a shade of red, but not me.

On demand, the face could be turned crimson red, but it was a pretty useless and unimpressive talent. One would have hoped that the Creator would have blessed me with a more useful party talent.

Being a good Catholic, one would think he might have been a little more gracious in his gifting of goofy goodies.

It wasn’t until a recent production of Dracula in Alberta that I

finally got to put my childhood talent to use. Playing Renfield — Dracula’s tortured sidekick — allowed me to turn myself red every night before a crowd of hundreds. As I coughed up bird bones and various rat parts, the talent of turning myself red came into its own — I had finally arrived. But the talent really came into its own during the death scene. As the Prince of Darkness strangled me, I turned myself bright red to the gasps of the audience, then dropped like a stone to the stage.

Some people are born to greatness, others have to hold their breath, turn themselves red and hope for the best.

••• Having been an editor at dailies and weeklies over the years has provided me an interesting glimpse into how editors see writers and vice versa.

It’s often a love-hate relationship. Love ’em when they make your copy better or give you a juicy assignment and hate ’em when they screw up your story or send you to cover the 4-H convention.

The Ottawa Sun is known as an editor’s paper, meaning that stories went through so many levels of editing that they were rewritten and trimmed to the point that they hardly resembled the original story. As one reporter once said to me in disgust, “The only way I know it’s my story when I wake up in the morning is because it’s got my byline on it.” The byline is the name at the top of the story.

Spiderman had an editor named J. Jona Jamieson, a gruff old character who had a perennial stogie planted in his yap and enough bad attitude for three newsrooms. Poor Spidey.

There is nothing normal about editors.

One editor of mine had a quote

by Mark Twain hanging over her desk. It was a prayer that ended with Twain musing something to the effect of “Please God, don’t make me an editor.”

Every time the urge to rip an editor a new one moves me, Twain’s plea rings in my ears and compassion and empathy moves in. Been there. Done that. Don’t want to do that again.

So one has to wonder just how popular a Colfax, Calif., editor was when a janitor saw the 60year-old man sleeping at his desk and made no effort to rouse him.

The janitor did shout at him and he thought he heard the editor make an audible grunt back at him. Editors often talk in grunts.

No one’s sure whether this is an age-old editor’s technique for

keeping their hind quarters well covered and to maintain a noncommittal stance or if this grunting is a language that only other editors can understand — a secret society of sorts.

Editors were once reporters. But just like parents who seem to conveniently forget what it was like to have been children, something happens to editors and they morph into something which can be at one time admirable and at other times deeply disconcerting. Then again, maybe it’s something as simple as just not having very good interpersonal skills.

Editors are a breed unto themselves. Reporters often become editors, but that doesn’t mean they have the “grunt” to do it.

As the editor lay slumped over his desk, the janitor actually picked up a plaque that had fallen off the wall and lay on the floor just a metre away. It wasn’t until Monday, the next day, that a visitor to the office thought it might be a good idea to wake the snoozing editor.

Unfortunately, not even a fivealarm fire or wildly dangling participle could have roused this editor. Our editor in Colfax had edited his last story. He was, in fact, as dead as yesterday’s news.

An autopsy showed that the editor had died of heart failure.

Most reporters have given their editors a heart attack with their actions or inactions — things they did write and things they didn’t.

Surely, the talk around the newsroom the next day was whose story he was reading at the time his heart gave out.

Jeff Ducharme is The Sunday Independent’s senior writer. jeff.ducharme@theindepnendent.ca

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

NEWS

Page 7

Dripping dollars Home heating oil leaks can be hazardous to your pocket

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

D

rip, drip, drip … That’s the sound of money leaking from some oil tanks in the province.

And while the number of leaks and spills so far this year has decreased to 44 from 165 in 2003, even more stringent regulations can’t plug all the leaks.

Rick Conway, regional director of the Government Services Department, says there’s little chance oil tanks can be made spill-proof.

“There’s still going to be an instance where there may be some breaks in lines and things like that.

But negligent things, I think, that’s going to be reduced greatly.”

For the most part, he says oil delivery truck drivers check tanks regularly and inform homeowners if their tanks are weak or have broken lines.

The year 2001 was the worst year for residential oil tank spills in recent memory, when more than 600 were recorded across the province, leading to 340 insurance claims between January and May

of that year. The total cost of the claims was approximately $9 million.

Only 610 insurance claims were made between 1996 and 1999. No sources contacted by The Independent would confirm that regulations passed on April 1, 2002 — requiring homeowners to meet certain oil tank guidelines — would cut down on the number of leaks or lower insurance rates because of fewer claims. However, government and industry representatives generally agree the new guidelines — which call for modern tanks and better placement — are having an impact.

Environment Minister Tom Osborne says homeowners should check their insurance policies to ensure they’re fully covered in case of an accidental oil spill on their property.

“My hope is insurance companies will respond to the fact that they know that oil tanks are up to code,” he says. “If homeowners have the proper tanks I believe that insurance companies should give them a break.”

Doug Connolly, the province’s director of insurance, says home-

owners need to look out for possible exclusions in their policies. A spill that seeps into a neighbour’s yard is the responsibility of the owner of the tank and without that coverage he says the cost could be huge. Conway says cleanups really get costly and damage can be extensive when oil flows beneath the foundation of a house.

Most homeowners are dragging their feet on changing over their oil tanks, says Osborne, adding they have until 2007 to adhere to the new regulations. Osborne says there will be no oil deliveries to homes that do not upgrade oil tanks.

“The reality is that a lot of the good tanks that are currently being used perhaps meet today’s standards and it’s just that they’re not inspected.”

An estimated 66,000 homes in the province use home heating oil as their main heating source. The clean up of residential spills can range from a few hundred dollars to $250,000.

“In some cases, the cost of remediating the spill is more than the value of somebody’s property,” Osborne says.

Photo by Greg Locke/For the Sunday Independent

Homeowners have until 2007 to meet new oil tank regulations.

Milking an opportunity Dairy farmers say former prison property should stick with cows full time

By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent

L

and developers may have an eye on a minimum-security prison off the Salmonier Line just west of St. John’s, but a group representing dairy farmers is pushing to have the property turned into a fullfledged farm.

“Our industry is worth $100 million a year right now but we have the potential to double to $200 million over the next 10 or 15 years,” says Martin Hammond, executive director of the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We need to bring young people, young farmers into this industry and an ideal farm would be the Salmonier property.”

The province announced in its March budget a plan to shut down the Salmonier prison, saving an

estimated $1.5 million a year.

Government, however, has yet to decide what to do with the 2,231 acres of prime real estate located smack dab in the middle of cabin country about 45 minutes drive west of the capital city.

An interest has been expressed in converting the property into building lots. For its part, the dairy farmers’ association would like to see “the farm,” as the prison is known for its history of growing vegetables and raising livestock, taken over as a dairy operation.

The prison currently has a dairy herd of 46 cows that produce an estimated 520 litres of milk a day worth an estimated $160,000 a year, money that’s used to offset the cost of operating the prison.

The 520-litre-a-day milk quota is the minimum set by the dairy farmers’ association, paling in comparison to the largest dairy operation in the province, which

Photo by Greg Locke/For the Sunday Independent

produces upwards of 13,000 litres of milk a day.

The province’s dairy farmers have a “fluid” or drinking milk quota of 33 million litres a year, which they’ve met in each of the last four years. In fact, the province is self-sufficient in terms of supplying its own drinking

milk.

On top of the fluid milk quota, the farmers have a 31 million litre quota for industrial milk, used to make products such as cheese, yogurt, butter and ice cream. The farmers have 13 years to reach that quota or they’ll lose it.

To reach the mark, Hammond

says the province needs new farming blood.

“We’ve established a new entrant policy that we’re looking to have up and running by September,” says Hammond. “The industrial milk quota is how we can double the size of our industry.”

He says a new yogurt plant is set to open in Stephenville in July.

The Justice Department, which operated the Salmonier prison, has as of yet to contact the dairy farmers’ association as to its plans for the milk quota or the prison property. “Our position is that we would like to see it stay within the agriculture industry,” says Hammond.

The dairy industry is the fourth largest sector of the Canadian agri-food economy after grains, red meats and horticulture. In 2002, dairy farming generated $4.1 billion in total farm cash receipts.

During the same period, sales from Canadian dairy processors amounted to $9.9 billion, representing 13.6 per cent of all processing sales in the Canadian food and beverage sector. Newfoundland’s share of that market is the lowest in the country.

Page 8

NEWS

Open and closed Biologist says opening fisheries will kill Canada’s claim to Law of the Sea

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

B

iologist Ransom Myers, an outspoken defender of groundfish stocks, says reopening limited cod fisheries could kill any claim Canada has to enacting the Law of the Sea. “Neither the Newfoundland politicians or the federal politicians have acted with any foresight or thought at all as far as I can see,” says Myers, chair of the biology department at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Canada, says Myers, has to show it’s capable of managing the fishery responsibly, but he says the recent opening of limited cod fisheries in the northern and southern Gulf of St. Lawrence proves the total opposite.

“And then you have these completely stupid decisions to open fisheries based purely on political decisions,” Myers told The Sunday Independent from his home in Nova Scotia.

The politicians involved in the decision to open the fishery, says Myers, should be “thrown out of office.” He calls it a shortsighted attempt to “buy votes.”

“This is peanuts,” he says in reference to the 6,500 tonne cod quota approved this year for the Gulf by federal Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan. His predecessor, Robert Thibault, decided against reopening the fisheries last year.

“This (the quota) is ludicrously small,” says Myers. “Why do it when you are wrecking your longterm claim for a region?”

The Law of the Sea would give Canada control over living things and habitat on ocean floor inside and outside the 200-mile limit.

Such control would also allow the federal government to curtail the

“It’s totally irresponsible that the government not fund such work.”

— Ransom Myers impact activities that trawling has on the ocean floor.

“In order to have the word (custodial) management there, Canada has to show that they are managing and that involves making decisions and setting up rules for opening up the fishery. That doesn’t mean opening a fishery simply when the election is coming.”

Time, says Myers, is running short as there are only 10 years left to meet all requirements of the Law of the Sea. He says Canada has yet to complete all the required biological, hydrological and geological surveys.

“Canada, in order to claim beyond the 200-mile limit, they have yet to do detailed surveys using these specialized acoustic

methods. Canada doesn’t have a boat on this coast capable of doing these surveys.”

To meet the requirements of the Law of the Sea, Canada has to go as far as measuring things such as sediment depth and proving that the Flemish Cap, a fishing zone just outside the 200-mile limit is, in fact, part of the continental shelf.

“This is like, dumb is the most generous thing I can say,” says Myers, who contends that government has been dragging its feet.

“The more data, the more responsible management, the stronger the case.”

“It’s totally irresponsible that the government not fund such work.”

Myers is a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The committee has declared Gulf cod a threatened species and northern cod, which is found off the island’s northeast coast and Labrador, an endangered species.

He says the recent boarding of foreign trawlers outside the 200mile limit shows some sort of political will to deal with the crisis on the Grand Banks.

“I think there’s certainly something to that, particularly on detecting catching small fish and the use of the illegal nets.

“There is some political theatre in there, but there’s real stuff as well.”

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

Lobbyist legislation this year: Byrne

By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent

T

he Danny Williams administration plans to introduce legislation to govern lobbyists this year, either during the current session of the House of Assembly or in the fall.

“It’s certainly our plan to have the legislation done this year,” says Natural Resources Minster Ed Byrne, who’s been stressing for years the need for such a law. “We’re working on the file right now. It’s just part and parcel of what it means as a government to be accountable.”

The legislation would force lobbyists to register with the province and reveal who exactly they’re looking for.

The Tories promised such legislation in their so-called blue book of pre-election promises.

In fact, the party pledged to commission “public consultations” before drawing up the bill, although those consultations have yet to be held.

According to the blue book, the objectives of the legislation would require lobbyists to file their general objectives and/or specific lobbying activities; differentiate between those paid to lobby government and those representing volunteer or non-profit agencies; hand down “significant” penalties on lobbyists who

violate the law; and require politicians to disclose circumstances in which they’ve been lobbied.

“During the former administration there were a number of consultants who were operating in the province who had a degree of influence, it was very clear, over economic matters and projects specifically that the (then) premier (Roger Grimes) was involved in,” says Byrne, adding he doesn’t have “specific knowledge” of lobbyists currently working here.

In a September 2003 news release, Byrne charged that “influence peddling” was out of control in the then-Grimes administration, specifically as it related to Chancellor Park Inc., a private old-age home in the city.

“Essentially what this case says is that if you have money and you want something, pay friends of the Grimes government and you will get whatever you want. People have to pay to influence government policy and decisions,” Byrne said at the time.

“Government should not be a pay-for-service, make-profit organization. Rather, government should be the embodiment of honesty, integrity, equality and fair representation, and this certainly does not include influence peddling.”

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

NEWS

Page 9

Glass houses

The Shipping News

The following are excerpts from hansard, the official transcript of the House of Assembly for the week of May 10-13. While Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are familiar with comments from the daily, 30-minute question period, Glass houses takes a look at the less glamourous debates that occur in the House each day. Jeff Ducharme, The Independent’s senior writer, also adds his two-cents worth.

Photo by Alisha Morrissey/The Sunday Independent

Ted Parsons paints the stern of the Sybil on Saturday morning at St. John’s harbour.

K

eeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre.

Monday, May 10 Vessels arrived: Emma, Norway, from Sea. Vessels departed: Maersk Chancellor, Canada, to Bull Arm; Teleost, Canada, to sea; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Hibernia; ASL Snaderling, Canada, to Corner Brook; Maersk Bonavista, Canada, to Hibernia.

Tuesday, May 11 Vessels arrived: Maersk Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia; Henry Larson, Canada, from sea; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels departed: Emma, Norway, to Grand Banks; Atlantic Elm, Canada, to Grand Banks.

Wednesday, May 12 Vessels arrived: Covanant 2, Canada, from fishing; Baffin Run, Canada, from fishing; Atlantic Elm, Canada, sea; Maersk Chignecto, Canada, from Terra Nova; Cicero, Canada, from Montreal; Wilfred Templeman, Canada, form sea.

Vessels departed: Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Hibernia; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, Terra Nova; Cicero, Canada, to Montreal.

Thursday, May 13 Vessels arrived: Telost, Canada, from sea; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels departed: Maersk Norseman, Canada, to Terra Nova; Maersk Chgnecto, Canada, to White Rose; Tuvaq, Canada, to Quebec City.

Friday, May 14 No report

SPEAKER (Harvey Hodder, Tory MHA Waterford Valley): “I ask the Leader of the Opposition if he could refrain himself from using language that is intended to insult members and to take away from the integrity of members and the integrity of the House.

We are enjoying his speech. If he could co-operate in that regard, we would all appreciate it.”

The Speaker was cautioning Liberal leader Roger Grimes after he referred to Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan as “Mini Me.” For you folks who didn’t see the Austin Powers movie, Mini Me was a dwarf who acted as Dr. Evil’s henchman. Grimes has received more cautions lately than a Portuguese trawler.

ROGER GRIMES (Liberal MHA, Exploits): “The phrases that I use are common phrases in the public domain with about 250,000 hits out in cyberspace, and everybody knows who (Mini Me) I am talking about. The member opposite does not take any offence to it because he knows it is true. As a matter of fact, when I talked to him about it over the fence the other day he was getting quite a kick out of it; the fact that he now has a well-known new moniker in Newfoundland and Labrador that will stick with him for the rest of his life.

While Loyola Sullivan may act like a clone of the premier and do as he’s told just like Mini Me, he’s hardly of the same physical stature as Mini Me.

JACK BYRNE (Tory MHA,

Cape St. Francis): “Another thing, he was over there — and he cannot get on his feet, Mr. Speaker. I saw one other member in this House of Assembly — I will not name him, he is not here now — who could not get on his feet without insulting someone. He is a pro at name calling, Mr. Speaker, and we saw it here again today when he was on his feet. We cannot have members in the House twisting facts and figures all the time to their own benefit.”

Name calling is the unofficial sport of the House of Assembly and if there was a professional league, most of the MHAs would be on the all-star team. When sitting in the gallery of the House you often have to look around and make sure you’re not back in the schoolyard.

KELVIN PARSONS (Liberal MHA, Burgeo-Lapoile): “There is also an old saying that I learned quite early on in this House: Keep your words very soft and very sweet because you never know when you may have to eat them. I learned that lesson over and over, so I will try to keep my words soft and sweet because I am prone to eating mine from time to time as well, as most of us are here ...”

Parson’s comments may likely go down in history as the truest words ever spoken within the walls of the House of Assembly. Would you like butter with that crow?

ED BYRNE (Tory MHA, Kilbride): “Mr. chairman, if that is the attitude of the Leader of the Opposition, the sooner he leaves the better off we will all be.”

Grimes and the Liberals walked out of the House because they refused to listen to Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan presenting Bill 14, an act to amend The Loan And Guarantee Act, which allows government to guarantee new and existing loans to municipalities throughout the province. The Liberals did leave their Finance critic, Anna Thistle, in the House.

“We’re are down now finally to one last, lonely unattractive little Liberal, clinging on by its fingertips to the walls of the House of Assembly and crying out ‘Someone reach out and save me in this 11th hour.’”

ANNA THISTLE (Liberal MHA, Grand Falls-Buchans): “The minister of Human Resources and Employment casually talks about the number of people who have lost their jobs, 28. Then the minister of Government Services gets up and talks about that casual number. Then another minister gets up and talks about another casual number.

The minister of Finance and president of Treasury Board talks about 4,000 people as if it were so casual, losing their jobs. Do they have any interest in the people of this province?

Regardless of the financial havoc this province now finds itself in, Thistle is right — the politicians, the media and even the public often forget that these numbers are attached to people.

GEORGE SWEENY (Liberal MHA, Carbonear-Harbour Grace): “You know, as we look at the Blue Book — and most people call it now the boo book — there is nothing in there at all that you can take one bit of consolation in as being true. Every single promise that has been in the Blue Book has been broken by this budget. Every single thing that has come forward has been a contradiction to the great Tory plan of a more prosperous Newfoundland and Labrador. Speech after speech by candidate after candidate across this province for the PC party promised a brighter and better future.

That brighter and better future, I am sad to say, contains a lot of remorse, a lot of sadness, a lot of uncertainty, for not only the people who are laid off today but for their children, and the words used last week — the children and their children’s children — when everybody stood over on the other side and supported Bill 18, a bill to send people back to work, who were already working.

So if the Blue Book is now the boo book, does that make the premier Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Finance minister The Count from Sesame Street?

Wait a second, how many monikers can one minister have? Then again, considering the antics of MHAs and the fact that Sesame Street was produced by the Children’s Television Workshop …

Page 10

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

May 16, 2004

Page 11

The Sunday Independent

IN CAMERA

‘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

Page 12

IN CAMERA

‘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

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

IN CAMERA

Page 13

May 16, 2004

Page 15

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

I

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

Page 16

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

T

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

N

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.

A

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

C

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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Page 18

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

T

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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Page 21

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

O

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

Page 22

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

I

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.

Page 24

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

F

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

N

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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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

R

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.”