2004-05-23

A newspaper owned and operated in Newfoundland & Labrador

Vol. 2 Issue 21

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

Sunday, May 23-29, 2004

www.theindependent.ca

$1.00 (including HST)

FPI fishing for buyers Seafood company reported to be selling 40 per cent of U.S. marketing and value-added arm

Business Debbie Hanlon Page 15

By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

F International Voice From Away Page 19

In Camera Terra Nova Boot Company Page 11-13

Photo By Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Derrick Rowe, CEO of Fishery Products International, at the company’s office on O'Leary Avenue in St. John’s

The new Newfoundlanders Hundreds of immigrants land in the province each year and, increasingly, they’re deciding to stay Editor’s note: This week The Sunday Independent begins a six-week series, The New Newfoundlanders, snapshots of some of the new cultural communities establishing themselves in the province.

Sports Challenge Cup Page 25

Quote of the Week “How in hell’s name can foreign trawlers land fish in this province for processing and no one be officially aware of it?”

— Gus Etchegary Fishing industry activist

By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent

A

tak Gon moved to St. John’s with his wife and four sons 10 months ago. The move, he says, was for his children so they can have a good school and safe place to grow up in — opportunities they would never get, had they stayed in war-torn Sudan.

It’s been a tough transition for Gon, one he struggles to explain in English.

He’s currently enrolled at the English as a Second Language (ESL) school run by the Association of New Canadians on Elizabeth Avenue in St. John’s. The school, which currently has more than 100 students, is a former elementary school, renovated to suit adult students. It includes a computer lab – all donated equipment — and day care.

Walking around the building provides a glimpse of some of the many recent immigrants and refugees now living in the province. There’s an astounding variety of cultures represented in just one building, a representation of the many

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Ball, from Sudan, and Pablo, from Columbia, play together at the day care in the English as a Second Language School in St. John's.

new communities evolving and growing in St. John’s.

Gon says Canada is home now. He may never return to his home country.

“There is only war there now,” he says.

“Maybe if there is peace sometime … but I only see war.”

Gon lists a number of challenges he faces in his new home: Surviving on the modest income provided by the govern-

ment; living downtown with no yard for his children to play in; not being able to bring more of his extended family to the country; a lack of job opportunities He adds, “it’s a very good place, St. John’s … My children are in school and they are very happy in school.”

Gon is looking for work and is frustrated he hasn’t found something yet — even a part-time or evening job he could

do after school. “That is very difficult for me now, but I would like to stay in St. John’s.”

Bridget Foster, executive director of the Association for New Canadians, says about 160 government-sanctioned immigrants come to this province every year.

There are also a number of refugee claimants, the number of which varies widely from year to year.

Of all these new Newfoundlanders, more and more are choosing to settle here.

“For years we had major concerns about what we called secondary migration, people coming here and then moving on elsewhere in Canada,” says Foster.

“But those numbers are down right now to about 10 per cent. People are staying now. I don’t know why, I truly don’t … What’s even more amazing, we’ve got people coming back here. An immigrant, from Sudan, went from here to Calgary.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call and he said he was coming home. Home meaning St. John’s — now he’s back in school.”

Foster says the change may be attributed to the newcomers’ country of origin — eastern Europeans, she says, tended to be highly educated and drawn to central Canada.

Continued on page 21

ishery Products International may be jigging the waters in search of a buyer for much of its U.S. operations, The Sunday Independent has learned.

Sources say FPI, the province’s largest fish processing company, is looking to sell approximately 40 per cent of its American operations (representing 26 per cent of the company’s overall sales) in a bid to pay down its $75 million debt that was built up after the company modernized its processing plants in the province.

The sale of the American operation could raise as much as $100 million.

“We have no comment at this time,” FPI’s CEO Derrick Rowe told The Independent through a spokesman.

The Danvers, Mass., operation is FPI’s marketing and value-added arm. Much of the fish processed in Newfoundland and Labrador is shipped to the American-based operation where it produces a number of products. The U.S. marketing arm then markets the products across North America.

When contacted by The Independent Friday, Premier Danny Williams declined comment. A spokeswoman said the premier may have something to say later in the week.

FPI employs more than 2,600 workers, with most of them working in eight plants across the island. Without the American marketing arm, insiders worry that Newfoundland plants will suffer because much of their access to foreign markets could be cut off.

In 2001, Rowe, John Risley of Clearwater Fine Foods and Corner Brook’s Bill Barry, owner of Seafreeze, led a revolt that saw a group of dissident shareholders overthrow then-CEO Vic Young. In response, the provincial government threatened to evoke the FPI Act that prevents any shareholder from owning more than 15 per cent of the company. The act also prevents FPI from selling substantial portions of the its operation, including property or business interests that relate to harvesting, processing, and marketing of seafood.

In 2003, FPI’s marketing and valueadded arm recorded sales of $487 million, with approximately 85 per cent of those sales in foreign markets and a gross profit of $51 million. During the same period, the processing plants recorded total sales of $271 million and a gross profit of $31.5 million.

FPI was created in 1984 when several bankrupt private seafood companies in the province were merged. The original shareholders included the Government of Canada, the province and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Wounded officer broke it up before Steve Knight involved in 1995 incident in Corner Brook

By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

T

he Constabulary officer stabbed during an altercation on George Street May 15 was also involved in an incident outside a Corner Brook night club in 1995, The Sunday Independent has learned.

After a week-long investigation, The Independent has confirmed that the officer wounded recently in St. John’s was involved in a fight between another off-duty officer and “two members of the public” nine years ago.

The other off-duty officer, Alexander Mahoney, was convicted of common assault, although the court granted him an absolute discharge. Mahoney was laid off soon after the incident as a result of budget cuts.

“Cst. Knight’s involvement was that he was present and he broke up a fight between the officer and two other individuals,” says Staff-Sgt. June Layden.

Knight was never charged in the incident. Layden says Knight’s involvement was in playing the peace-

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

maker between Mahoney and the two men.

According to a spokesman for the Constabulary in Corner Brook, the force’s file on the incident was destroyed, as is routine when files reach a certain age.

Knight is also said to have played peacemaker in the May 15 incident on George Street.

Continued on page 2

Page 2

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Incident “overblown” Groups working together to give George Street a good name

By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent

M

ention last weekend’s high-profile stabbing incident on George Street to those who work on the street and watch their eyes roll.

“You know the real story behind that?” asks one bartender at a local club. “That was a vendetta that one guy decided he had to resolve. It had nothing to do with the street.”

“Totally blown out of proportion,” says another barman on the strip. “If Danny Williams’ son hadn’t got in a racket there a month ago, he never would have said anything about it.”

“I’ve never felt in danger down there,” adds a man calling himself a George Street regular.

Whatever the cause of the incident — which all agree was serious — the consensus on the street seems to be that it was an isolated incident that the media, and government, made a little too much hoopla over.

“Not to say nothing ever happens down here,” says the first bartender. “Yes, there’s a lot of drunk people by the end of the night and we might be seeing more drugs.

“But overall, there’s nothing for you and your friends to worry about on a night out. I’d even say there’s less fights down here than there once was.”

By late last week, Tom Loder, marketing and communications co-ordinator for the George Street Association representing clubs on the street, sounded tired of rehashing the incident.

“Right now, we want to leave this one behind us. If I can say anything right now, it’s that we’re looking forward,” he says, adding that a reputation for violence can only hurt business.

Loder says “all affected parties,” including representatives of police, George Street businesses and anti-violence groups had meetings after the stabbing incident.

Some misunderstandings were cleared up over the course of frank discussions, he says.

He senses a renewed commitment to working together to “address any issues and continuing to promote the street.”

“If there’s anything I’d say we need, it’s a bit more of a presence from the police,” says a bouncer Jim Eastman, manager of Bender’s on George, agrees.

“I remember a time when you’d walk out of a bar at the end of the night, and you’d see a police car, see the paddy wagon … That visibility made a big difference to people coming out of bars.

“Now, they just don’t seem to have the resources. There are nights you can’t find a police officer to save your life.

That was almost too true last weekend.”

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Despite all the hullabaloo, George Street in St. John's was quiet as the May24th long weekend began.

‘He could’ve walked on by’ Continued from page 1 The officer received a 4.5-inch knife wound to his back and his hand was cut during an early morning incident on the popular night-club strip. After witnessing an attack on a bouncer outside a bar, Knight is reported to have tried to diffuse the incident, which left the bouncer with internal injuries from stab wounds.

Knight, who plays in the Constabulary band Siochana, is said to have identified himself as a police officer before stepping in.

In both the St. John’s and Corner Brook incidents, Layden says Knight was trying to diffuse the situation.

“His involvement (in Corner Brook) was breaking up a fight, but he was in the company of the guy that was charged,” says Layden.

“Steve could have walked on by (the St. John’s bar). Instead he took it upon himself, as a police officer, to intervene and come to the rescue.

A request for an interview with Knight was declined.

“He (Knight) goes out last week with his life at risk and somebody is making an allegation arising out of something that is 10 years old that he was cleared by a judge, he

was cleared by an internal investigation,” says Layden.

Two men have been charged as a result of the St. John’s incident.

William Ryan, 22, of St. John’s has been charged with a number of offences, including aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and violating parole. Kevin Roberts, 22, was charged with assault with a

weapon, resisting arrest and a parole violation.

“You have to remember he (Knight) wasn’t in the altercation here (in St. John’s), he went to the rescue of the bouncer,” says Layden.

The incident on George Street led to Chief Richard Deering declaring that that the George Street strip is becoming a serious concern. His sentiments were

echoed by Premier Danny Williams, whose son was allegedly attacked while at a George Street bar in March, and St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells.

Lawyer Bob Buckingham has leveled accusations of police brutality at the RNC after he was retained by Ryan and Williams.

He has written Deering and Justice Minister Tom Marshall requesting an investigation.

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

NEWS

Page 3

Registration day Province plans to re-register entire population with new MCP cards

By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent

D

on’t get too attached to your MCP card. Officials charged with overseeing the province’s Medical Care Plan intend to try and re-register the entire population of Newfoundland and Labrador this year as a way to get a handle on the number of cards in circulation and cut down on possible abuse, The Sunday Independent has learned.

The province has set aside $900,000 to carry out the ambitious task — the first re-registration of cards since the MCP program was introduced in 1969.

MCP cards are used to pay for physician services.

A 2003 report by Auditor General John Noseworthy found there were 81,350 more cards in circulation than there were residents in the province. Eighteen months later, that number has only been reduced by an estimated 13,000.

Although some of the difference may be legitimate — including deceased cardholders whose deaths haven’t been reported to the Health Department, and residents who have moved out of province — government officials still don’t know for sure.

It’s possible that medical services are being bought and paid for by ineligible beneficiaries.

At the time of Noseworthy’s report, government officials couldn’t determine how much, if any, had been improperly paid out.

Officials still can’t.

“We’ll never know how much has been paid out inappropriately,” says Tony Maher, an official with the MCP office in St. John’s. “The best thing we can do to address it is to re-register the population.

That’s our best move.”

Maher says approximately 50,000 of the more than 600,000 cards in circulation haven’t been used to bill a service in the past 10

years.

For the fiscal year ending March 2004, payments under the MCP program totalled $263.1 million, $57 million more than the year ending March 2003. The difference has to do with a salary raise granted to doctors by an independent arbitrator in 2002.

Despite plans to re-register the population, Maher isn’t sure exactly how much money the move will save in the long run.

“That’s being worked on as we speak,” he says. “We’re doing a cost-benefit analysis and obvious-

ly if we can only save $100,000 a year by spending $900,000 we’re not going to do it but our expectation is that we will save more than that and therefore we’ll proceed.”

In 2003, $320,000 was paid for out-of-province medical care services relating to terminated or invalid beneficiary numbers because the Health Department is required under reciprocal billing arrangements to pay for these medical services.

Officials have yet to calculate the 2004 figure but Maher predicts it will probably come in at about the same mark.

“You can pretty well guess it’s going to be very close to the same number — $300,000-plus. (It’s) an ongoing problem.”

Maher says officials haven’t worked out the details on exactly how to conduct the re-registration.

“We’ll probably do some household mailings and some advertising,” he says, adding he doesn’t expect the process to be overly

difficult.

“Whatever the date we set for the registration, say it’s April 1, 2005, when you go to see your doctor after that he or she will ask for your card and if you don’t have a new one you’ll have to get registered,” he says.

“There will be a few bumps along the way but eventually everybody who needs service will have to be registered.”

In his report, Noseworthy also advised that security features — including a picture of the cardholder — be included on the cards to ensure that only eligible beneficiaries receive medical services.

Maher says the new cards may include expiry dates and pictures, although that particular feature will depend on the cost. “We’re looking at Ontario’s experience,” he says.

“They have picture IDs, however, they have not been successful in getting their entire population those type of cards.”

Fishy product Groundfish caught outside Canada’s 200-mile limit landed and processed locally, sources say

By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent

N

ewfoundland fish plants routinely buy and process fish caught by foreign trawlers outside Canada’s 200mile limit, industry sources tell The Sunday Independent.

Factory freezer trawlers regularly land at ports in the province to purchase fuel and supplies, as well as to unload frozen fish for shipment to markets around the world.

Sources say some of the fish — including groundfish species such as cod that are under moratoria — is purchased by local plants, even ending up on the shelves of local grocery stores. Other species of fish allegedly being sold include redfish and halibut. Sources say some of that fish is also ending up in Nova Scotia fish plants.

A spokesman for provincial fisheries told The Independent the department does not gather information on whether local processors buy fish caught by foreign ships in international waters.

“It’s not in our mandate to gather that information.”

The processing of foreign-

caught fish would appear to undermine efforts to end foreign overfishing on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks. Politicians and industry representatives alike have been calling on Ottawa for years to take custodial management of the entire continental shelf as a means to protect endangered fish stocks.

“How in hell’s name can foreign trawlers land fish in this province for processing and no one be officially aware of it?” says Gus Etchegary, a fishing industry activist.

“Anything that aids and abets foreign overfishing — whether the trawlers are landing in our ports and buying goods and services or whatever — anything that contributes to the viability of foreign overfishing is wrong.

Almost any fool would recognize that.”

Ports in Bay Roberts, Harbour Grace, Long Pond, Coley’s Point and Argentia are often visited by foreign trawlers. Thousands of tonnes of fish a year caught outside Canada’s territorial waters is landed there and stored in freezing facilities before being shipped to foreign destinations.

“Newfoundland is one of the most convenient centres for foreign overfishing in the North Atlantic,” says Etchegary.

Trevor Taylor, the province’s Fisheries minister, says he isn’t aware of foreign-caught fish from outside the 200-mile limit being sold in local markets. He says pollock caught off Alaska, and cod and redfish caught in the Barents Sea north of Russia is bought by processors here, but he isn’t aware of any fish caught in international waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.

“If somebody has information to the contrary we’d be happy to see it. We wouldn’t be happy to see it but we’d like to see it I suppose, put it that way,” says Taylor.

As for whether local plants would be allowed, by law, to process fish caught on the nose and tail, Taylor said probably yes.

“The question hasn’t been posed to me so I’d have to find an answer but the legality would have to do with the catching, not the processing,” he says. “If this is going on (the question arises) whether we as a nation should be upholding the perpetrator, that’s a valid question,” he says. “ I

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

The European Union fisheries patrol vessel Jean Charcot was docked recently in St. John’s harbour.

wouldn’t be able to tell you if we as a province or the feds as a government in their jurisdiction would be able to prosecute.”

The Canadian Coast Guard recently cited two Portuguese vessels for illegal fishing on the high seas.

One of the ships was found to be using a net with undersized mesh. The net of a third vessel was cut loose before being board-

ed by the coast guard. The net was later retrieved from the ocean floor and brought to port in St. John’s. The net was found filled with rotting cod, American plaice and redfish — all species under moratoria.

Over the past few months, Ottawa has announced about $50 million in funding for increased surveillance and fisheries enforcement on the East Coast.

Page 4

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 16, 2004

An independent voice for Newfoundland & Labrador

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C St. John’s, Newfoundland A1C 5X4 Tel: 709-726-4639 Fax: 709-726-8499 www.theindependent.ca The Sunday Independent is published

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NEWSROOM Managing Editor Ryan Cleary Senior Editor Stephanie Porter Picture Editor Paul Daly Senior Writer Jeff Ducharme Reporter Alisha Morrissey Layout John Andrews

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cat fight

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LETTERS POLIcy The Sunday Independent welcomes letters to the editor.

Letters must be 300 words in length or less and include full name, mailing address and daytime contact numbers.

Letters may be edited for length, content and legal considerations. Send your letters in care of The Sunday Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 or e-mail us at editorial@theindependent.ca

T

urns out Leo Puddister is a pussy cat. Twentyeight days on strike and the most action came when Danny waded into a line behind the Confederation Building waving a sheet of paper explaining to the picketers how good he was being to them.

No one smacked him the face. Not even a slash to the paws of his pet Jaguar; not a hair was stirred on his cameraready head. Not to worry, there’s probably always a hair dryer nearby. (Brian Tobin gave good lessons.)

The few people who were accidentally brushed against as they strolled by the snowsuits were offered an immediate apology, barbequed wiener and a seat in a reclining lawn chair so they could put their dress shoes up by the fire barrel.

On the couple of days the strikers were upset they were still nice enough to warn ahead so the busses could be warmed up and the Constabulary show horses groomed and saddled.

Thank heaven there are officers at least to feed the animals. Too bad there aren’t enough police in uniform to keep an eye out for flashing blades downtown.

The maddest Puddister probably got was fighting traffic

on Kenmount Road to get to the Avalon Mall food court for his reserved table. Puddister is a man of the people and if he’s not at one food court every day he’s at another. Must be Mary’s legs.

Danny showed his nerve by crashing the line; his employees were impressed, so much so that some of them marched over to tell the cameras. The audience at home generally agreed, and the opinion polls were lost.

Puddister didn’t turn out to be half as in-your-face as expected. The chicken probably made him drowsy.

Danny showed more teeth when his son’s lamps were blackened. Puddister, who got the blame, retaliated with a newspaper ad to the right, and a newspaper ad to the left. Neither punch dazed the average reader, who, more and more, reserve their actual reading for Sundays and The Independent.

The strike petered out as Danny slowly stuck the knife of back-to-work legislation into union hearts.

The House of Assembly is usually fairly tame but can be a violent place when the noise is adjourned, and Percy Barrett makes his way out of the chamber past Fabian Manning’s seat.

Too bad the cameras were off at that point, but then Manning was good enough to reenact what happened for CBC Television, demonstrating exactly how he swung the arm of his suit in a powerful way. It was TV at its finest; the only way to top it would have been for Barrett to show the bruise he mentioned.

Don’t mess with Fabian is the lesson learned, or bring his family’s rumoured rum runs to St. Pierre into it.

Until this past week, the last time a hand was raised in the House was when Joey’s son smacked a Tory in the face for (here’s the family reference again) calling Mother Smallwood a slum landlord.

What kind of example are we giving our poor children when they watch the news? By the by, did Fabian do the same re-enactment for NTV? (Note to administration: Our TV in the newsroom needs a new clicker.)

Then we wonder why they act the way they do on George Street.

At least Danny and Andy Wells are on the case now. By the time they’re done the street lights on the most famous strip in town will, no doubt, be turned off an hour or two earlier.

Andy better watch out that the price of gas doesn’t lead to a rise in taxi fares, which would leave the looped and tanked roaming about downtown for hours more with no way to get home.

All hell would be sure to break loose like at City Hall on any given Monday night, or at the legislature when the whistle blows at 5 o’clock and the day is done.

The lesson the downtown crowd should take from this is that no matter how often politicians screech and scratch, no matter how often they spit and sputter at each other like cats in a bag, they’re still smart enough to know not to have it out in front of guests.

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

Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: I was shocked to read in your May 16 paper (Missing Memorial,

by Alisha Morrissey) of the removal of the commemorative plaque for Shanawdithit, the last of the Beothuks, from its location on the site of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin on the Southside Hills.

It is as if we have to accept yet another desecration of this race of human beings that our ancestors extinguished for all time. This province seems to prefer to link Beothuk with car dealerships, provincial parks and digital data centres more than with a First Nations human race that sustained itself on this island.

To my knowledge there was no consultation on the destruction of yet another part of our Beothuck heritage, this time on the southside.

Isn’t it enough that they had to remove Shanawdithit’s head and send it England before burying the mortal remains of this lone soul?

I think removing this plaque, and being brass enough to display it in a municipal office is unconscionable. Surely these engineers have lost all contact with their own soul and humanity.

Sincerely, Ian Goudie St. John’s

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

NEWS

Page 5

West Words

by Frank Carroll

America’s spiritual jihad “P

residents do make mistakes,” said Franklin D. Roosevelt, “but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the coldblooded and the sins of the warmhearted in different scales.”

It has been said that Americans are both warm-hearted and coldblooded. Warm-hearted in their generosity; cold-blooded in the ruthless extremes to which they will go to further their interests.

How then will divine justice weigh their sins? In light of recent events in Iraq, which side of the American character will prevail?

Growing up near the Argentia naval base, I never saw much cold-bloodedness in our American neighbours. Sure, there were barroom fights with the locals, but the Newfoundlanders were just as much to blame as the “Yanks.”

Most of the Americans I met growing up were just plain decent people. They were polite when they spoke to you and would lend a hand when there was heavy lifting to be done. I’ve travelled throughout the United States in the past decade, and my opinion of them has not changed. They are, for the most part, a gracious and warm-hearted people.

I do remember one story of cruelty, recounted to me decades

after it occurred. It began with els to see the images of sexual torthe folly of a young Placentia man ture emerging from Abu Ghraib during the Second World War, prison. I felt pity for the prisoners who thought it would be amusing who were so degraded. And I felt to borrow an American uniform sad for the good Americans I and sneak into the base. He was know who are ashamed of what caught by some Americans, who some of their countrymen have decided to teach him a lesson. done.

My first instinct They forced him to was to blame it on a walk barefoot on a few bad apples, as hot metal floor in a was the case in that boiler room, burnThis is a moment boiler room in ing his feet in the of truth for the Argentia. But if process.

Americans. It is There was justice information uncovin the end. The men ered by respected at this moment who performed the New Yorker they must realize act of torture were reporter Seymour punished. And a they are in a battle Hersh is true, the with themselves high-ranking officer incidents in Iraq apologized to the were part of a sysas much as with young Newfoundtematic policy of terrorists and lander on behalf of sexual torture and dictators, for they extortion. the U.S. navy.

That’s the thing The strategy, must exemplify about Americans. allegedly approved what they claim For every one who by high-ranking to represent. commits an atrociPentagon officials, ty, there are many was meant to others who want to exploit Arab vulset it right. nerability to sexual I couldn’t help but think of the humiliation and shame. The phoboiler room incident in light of the tographs we’ve all seen were the recent Iraqi prisoner debacle that keys to this strategy. U.S. military has so humiliated the United and intelligence personnel used States. the photographs to blackmail It saddened me on several lev- inmates into becoming informers

and spies, threatening to show the pictures to their families and friends if they did not comply.

They also used the photos to scare other inmates into doing the same.

This tactic is indefensible, a violation of human rights and the Geneva Convention. It has enflamed Arab hatred of Americans even further and therefore represents a major setback in the war against terrorism. It has imperiled American civilians and put future American POWs at even greater risk.

But to their credit, there are Americans within the military and intelligence community who were appalled by the strategy and were instrumental in exposing the scandal.

I believe the Americans will eventually clean house on this one. We are, after all, talking about a country where it is possible to depose a crooked president without violent revolution, a country where presidents, as well as naval officers, will apologize for crimes committed by subordinates. How many Arab dictators have you heard apologize for the way their officials treat prisoners?

This is a moment of truth for the Americans. It is at this moment they must realize they are in a battle with themselves as much as

Rant and Reason

with terrorists and dictators, for they must exemplify what they claim to represent. And they can’t do that unless they win their own spiritual jihad. The warm-hearted and just America must defeat the cold-blooded America. Such a victory would tip the scales of divine justice — and world opinion — in its favour.

“Did you ever hear that to conquer your enemy you must repent first, fall down on your knees and beg for mercy?” Bob Dylan once asked. “Does West Point teach that?”

Perhaps it should.

Frank Carroll is a journalism instructor at the College of the North Atlantic’s Stephenville campus. He can be reached at frank_carroll_nf@yahoo.ca

by Ivan Morgan

That all depends …

G

eorge Saunders was not canned for political reasons? Sometimes people say stuff that is just plain insulting.

I have always had a certain compassion for politicians because they have to put their faces on the brochures, names on the ballot and walk out in front of the cameras. When politicians are successful, however, they tend to attract a class of people who enjoy the trappings of power, and who are willing to lend their skills to the exercise of power, but who do not have to put their faces on the ballot. These people I refer to as weasels.

I used to scribble for fun and profit somewhere else — and that readership was familiar with my long-standing problem with weasels. Of all the many types and breeds of weasels, the ones who truly drive me crazy are the communications weasels, like the ones I suspect convinced a rookie minister to look into a camera and say Saunders was not sacked

for political reasons.

From the time Danny Williams was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador until the writs were dropped in the last election, I managed to get a lot of mileage out of the fact that the Tories refused to release any policy on anything. Ever. It was apparent that some of the lesser Tories chafed a little at this control.

I recall one incident when Tom Osborne was on the radio being asked a question about the sneaky way the then-Roger Grimes government had suspended the environmental review of the hydromet plant in Argentia. Osborne was then the Environmental critic. I remember being startled to hear him say he wasn’t prepared to comment on the issue unless he had the “permission” of the Tory communications officer — and he could not find said officer.

I never forgot that. I can’t find a weasel to tell me what to say?

It was Tommy’s face on the

ballot. It was Tommy’s name on the pay cheque. Why was he worried about asking someone else what he was supposed to say? Did the good people of St. John’s South vote for some faceless weasel?

The Williams team is appearing more and more like the Williams choir — with everyone singing from the same hymn book, and very few of them getting the chance to sing solos. If and when a cabinet minister does get the chance, they seem to be singing from a page they were given. So who’s writing the songs?

I do understand it is important that an administration appears consistent. Look at Pierre Peddigrew in the Paul Martin cabinet.

He said something silly in an unguarded moment about health care (the truth slipped out?) and he was told to go back out to the microphones and fix it. Pronto.

And, being a team player, he did.

But Peddigrew is a competent fellow with his own opinions. He doesn’t usually look like he is

being told what to say.

That is not what we are seeing in the Williams administration.

We just finished the largest and longest public-service strike in the history of the province and I do not recall hearing a peep from the minister of Labour. Why not?

Wasn’t this a labour issue?

The same goes for a host of others. Where is Sheila Osborne these days? I haven’t heard a peep out of her. Terry French?

He used to be everywhere. A lot of people had high hopes for Kathy Dunderdale. Hardly a word. Even the high profile ones seem oddly reticent.

This kind of control might make the administration stay on message, but it tends also to eventually dissuade the better candidates from sticking around.

I recall a former senior member of the Clyde Wells administration telling me that he retired from politics because he got tired of “the hand on the shoulder” all the time. Are we looking at another Wells-style government?

Or have we past Wells and headed into Joey territory?

It is important for elected officials to remember who is working for whom. Weasels work for you.

You work for us. So don’t let them convince you to snow us. If I was a minister, and a communications person or other political functionary asked me if I would go out in front of the press and say what Minister Dianne Whelan said about George Saunders, I would quote the inimitable words of my hero, Bubbles, from the hit series The Trailer Park Boy. “That all depends …”

Ivan Morgan can be reached at

Page 6

Opinions Are Like...

NEWS

by Jeff Ducharme

Stupid tricks for stupid humans A

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

few years ago, I was other dolphins were caught off the hanging over the side of a coast of Florida. The trio ended up Zodiac in Trinity Bay zip- in a tank in the West Edmonton ping towards shore when a pod of Mall performing for weary shopdolphins came alongside and cre- pers and their excited children. ated a V-shape at the bow and Mavis, Howard’s mate, died a escorted us to shore. It was an couple of years ago, not long after amazing experience akin to first another one of her calves died contact with a yet undiscovered moments after birth. Mavis race. Damn, as far as religious pushed the dead calf to the top of experiences go, this is as close as the tank for weeks (while children I get. watched and asked their parents At that point I hadn’t even seen why) in a vain attempt to get her Howard, the last dolphin left at the baby to take its first breath. who should be spending its days West Edmonton Mall’s dolphin The other dolphin, Maria, died in the open ocean under endless tank. in 2000 after ingesting coins skies feels being kept in a heated, If I had, the Trinity Bay experi- thrown into the tank by shoppers. filtered and chemically-treated ence would have been one of Not an uncommon death for dol- fish bowl while performing stupid embarrassment for the treatment phins in captivity, say experts. tricks for stupid humans. of the mammals I saw in EdmonMall management has agreed to No one has any hard and fast ton. I would have been hanging move Howard as soon as he is numbers when it comes to the life over the side of the boat in Trini- feeling better. But Howard isn’t expectancy of bottlenose dolphins, ty Bay begging for forgiveness getting better and the stress from but they can live as long as 50 and assuring them I boycotted the move would likely kill him. So years and the average life expectHoward’s performance on princi- Howard is trapped performing for ancy in captivity is less than half ple and I do not eat tuna that does- crowds amidst the hustle and bus- that. The life expectancy of a doln’t have the dolphin-safe label on tle of shoppers while trainers wait phin born in captivity is even less. the side of the can. to declare him fit for travel.

If Albertan Premier Ralph Klein Upon entering the West can’t get a grip on why Edmonton Mall, one is left in Howard should be removed awe of the minds that could from that tank, regardless of Upon entering the West have come up with such a the expense, then I have a Edmonton Mall, one is left in monstrosity. This thing is an suggestion: Let’s build a tank ode to capitalism and it leaves awe of the minds that could have for Ralph at the bottom of the you absolutely gobsmacked. come up with such a monstrosity. ocean and give the dolphins While we’re on the subject, something to watch. We who in their right mind ever could make it a dry tank and came up with the idea of having As I stood at the railing over- pump oxygen in, just like they dolphins in a province that is so looking the dolphin tank, Howard pump treated water in for Howard. land-locked dehydrated waterfowl floated near the top of the tank. We could feed him three times a flock to large puddles that form on This dolphin didn’t jump or play day and give him treats for whatthe sidewalks? with a ball, he simply floated like ever tricks he learns. Since it’s at As you walk through the eight- an upright dead goldfish and let the bottom of the ocean, the tank block long mall, you’re left loose a mournful cry. would be dark with no light — speechless as you listen to the Maybe it was just the echo meaning Ralph’s eyes would have screams of people riding the full- through that cavernous mall that to adjust (they’d likely just size looping rollercoaster or watch made it sound mournful, but for become that much more beady people bungee jumping from the anyone who chose to listen, it and that much more bloodshot). towering crane in the full-size sounded like the cry of the Who am I kidding, sending Ralph indoor wave pool. damned. to the bottom of the ocean would This place isn’t about shopping.

We spend all day in offices only add insult to injury.

It’s about spectacle. And the spec- looking at computer screens under tacle is huge! Massive! Gargantu- the hum of fluorescent lights, and Jeff Ducharme is The Sunday an! You pick the adjective! we call that environment Independent’s senior writer.

In the 1980s, Howard and three unhealthy. Imagine how a being jeff.ducharme@theindependent.ca

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Health problems Antonio Lamer is in hospital in Ottawa with heart problems. The Lamer inquiry looking into the wrongful convictions of Gregory Parsons, Ronald Dalton and Randy Druken has been put on hold until the fall until Lamer’s health improves.

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

NEWS

Page 7

Guest Column

by David L.Benson

‘Nothing to compare’

N

Environmentally, socially and politically, Newfoundland has nothing in common with Iceland

ewfoundland is often compared to Iceland. The notion seems to be that Newfoundland has much in common with Iceland and the immediate question arises: Why can’t we prosper as that country has?

Suggestions are made as to why not. This invariably leads to a discussion about control over natural resources, which inevitably leads to debate over Newfoundland’s place within Canada. This leads to an argument over separation and the real issue is lost.

The argument flows from a debate, which follows a discussion of suggestions, which are all based on a fallacious notion.

There is no comparison between Newfoundland and Iceland.

Newfoundland’s underlying geology is very old and quite stable. Iceland is geologically young and the country still has active volcanoes. Much of Iceland is covered by uninhabitable glaciers.

Newfoundland has great natural resources under its soil. Iceland has virtually none. Newfoundland has immense expanses of forest.

Iceland has none. While both places have important fishing industries, we have a far greater variety of species.

Our weather is generally better. We can grow a much wider variety of crops and have a longer growing season. Iceland is located on the Arctic Circle and is in darkness for much of the winter. We are on the same latitude as France and situated directly on international shipping and air routes, far closer to world markets than Iceland.

The natural resources and advantages of Newfoundland over Iceland are many and varied.

The resources argument clearly fails in any comparison. We have all the advantages. They have none. It is argued that we need control over our resources, as Iceland has over its fishery. Newfoundland controls its own forest, water and mineral resources and controls, if not the catching of fish, then the processing of it.

What we have done with the resources we

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

M

oney makes everything better — even sick kids.

The Janeway Telethon, a Newfoundland tradition, has raised more than $20 million for sick kids in the province since its inception in 1984, but where does all that money go once the TV cameras are turned off?

Ken Corbett, managing director of the Janeway Children’s Hospital Foundation, says of the $1.8 million raised from last year’s event, more than $832,000 has been spent on medical equipment, pediatric research projects, and development of “child health funds.”

Each year $100,000 is handed out in funding for a number of research projects. “Usually used as seed money,” Corbett says each

PRNewsFoto

Last year's Amstel Light Iceland Open attendees enjoy a soothing dip in the world famous Blue Lagoon — a geothermal mineral hot springs wonder.

control is emblematic of what we would do with the fishery if we had control over that. If abundance of natural wealth were a measure of a country’s prosperity, then Guatemala, Zaire, Chile and Indonesia would be among the richest nations on Earth. Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Japan would be the poorest.

It is therefore more sensible to compare other factors, such as society, in discussing Newfoundland and Iceland.

Iceland is the oldest democratic nation on Earth. Newfoundlanders have no real tradition of politics or democracy, treat elections as a team sport, and allow the place to be run by a clique of rich families, some of whom periodically amuse themselves by running for the irrelevant electoral sweepstakes.

Icelanders are very knowledgeable about their history. We are notoriously ignorant of ours and don’t even teach it in schools. We are too busy training our children to be good little,

animal hugging, crybaby urban Americans.

Icelanders see themselves as Icelanders.

We appear to be ashamed of what we are and insist we’re really British (or more recently, Irish) colonists. This is interesting given the fact that Iceland has double our proportion of people of Irish descent.

Iceland gained its independence in 1944 after a long struggle. Ten years earlier, Newfoundland gave up any pretense to democracy and five years later, gave up its independence — without a whimper in either case.

Iceland has an excellent education system and the highest rate of literacy in the world.

Book sales by Icelandic authors are 10 times ours, with less than half our population. Newfoundland’s education system is a mess. Only recently have we crawled out from under the venomous control of the churches in our schools, something Icelanders would not tolerate.

Icelanders honour their great artists and

writers and proudly compare them to those of other countries. Newfoundlanders virtually ignore theirs, and dote over anyone getting off the boat.

Iceland has an excellent health-care system and one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world. Newfoundland’s health-care system is falling apart. Iceland has an unemployment rate of three per cent. Newfoundland’s unemployment rate is so high the government will not release the real figures.

Icelanders produce their own power and provide themselves with cheap electricity. We produce our own power and then sell it to a private company, which sells it back to us at exorbitant rates.

Icelanders defend their own interests against all comers. We never do. The image of a small Icelandic gunboat ramming a large British warship in defense of its fishery is perhaps the most enduring image of people who are renowned for standing up for themselves.

Newfoundlanders only fight for foreign masters, first the British and now the Americans.

And we think we should be proud of it!

And finally, Icelanders do not use the selfeffacing term “mainland” to describe the rest of Europe.

We should not compare Newfoundland and Iceland. We have nothing in common.

It would be better to compare Newfoundland with Guatemala, a resource rich country in which a poor, ill-educated, backward, peasant population is kept under control by religion and a rich local elite on behalf of North American corporations, where the only option for young people is to leave.

The only things separating our society from theirs right now are medicare and Employment Insurance, the social programs and public services that Newfoundlanders keep voting to whittle away by supporting the two big business parties.

And if working-class Newfoundlanders keep electing their enemies to lead them, we shall shortly find ourselves to be a cold Guatemala.

‘Bridging the gap’ Janeway Telethon raises millions for sick kids project receives no more than $15,000 and must be specifically directed towards pediatric care.

A four-year commitment made in 2000 will provide a total of $300,000 to a specific project researching gene therapy.

That aside, most of the money raised by the foundation is spent on replacing Janeway equipment — much of which is nearing 20 years old — and buying new equipment to keep up with the latest medical advances.

A picture archiving system, bought with the 2003 donations, saves time and money, allowing X-rays to be viewed on computer

monitors with improved clarity.

A $250,000 CAT scan machine was also bought out of the 2003 fundraising drive.

With a full-time staff of eight, the charity’s administration costs are relatively low.

While its 2003 budget has not yet been released, the foundation — which operates the Telethon and a number of other fundraising programs — paid out approximately $665,000 in 2002 and $762,000 in 2003 in administration fees.

Those costs cover salaries, fees, event promotion and the expense of running fundraisers.

The charity spends — depending on revenues — no more than 20 per cent of its total income on the cost of running the operation.

An event-focused charity, the biggest fundraiser is the annual telethon broadcast on CBC for two days in early summer. This year the telethon will take place on June 5 and 6.

The Miracle Network Telethon project and donations came in at a little more than $1.3 million in 2002 and $1.5 million in 2003.

Combined — projects like Jeans Day, the Christmas Appeal and interest on the money left over — help add up to the foun-

dation’s total revenues for fundraising, which were a little more than $2 million in 2002 and $2.2 million in 2003. The foundation also receives donations from its capital campaign, the Health Care Corporation of St. John’s, and more.

“The people of this province are so generous … we are very proud and grateful,” says Corbett.

And while Corbett says the charity no longer sets a specific dollar goal, officials with the foundation always hope to do better than the previous year.

Without the foundation, much of the equipment being used in the Janeway now would either not be available or would be outdated, he says.

“We’re bridging the gap between what the government is able to provide and what the hospital needs,” says Corbett.

Page 8

NEWS

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Battle lines drawn Tories and NDP say the federal election is going to be nasty

By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

T

he negative TV ads are supposedly already in the can and the political parties are ready to get down and dirty.

The federal election is expected to be called for June 28 and political insiders are preparing themselves for a feeding frenzy — with the main course being Conservative leader Stephen Harper and Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Martin’s handling of the $100million sponsorship scandal and Harper’s negative comments towards Atlantic Canadians and their “defeatist” culture have given their detractors plenty of ammo.

The only leader likely to remain relatively unscathed is NDP leader Jack Layton.

“Parties have the problem that a strictly negative campaign can sometimes backfire,” says Eric Mintz, a professor of political science at Grenfell College in Corner Brook.

During the 2000 federal election, Canadian Alliance advertising called then-prime minister Jean Chrétien two-faced. The former prime minister was only able to speak out of one side of his mouth after a stroke left part of his face paralyzed. The attack failed miserably and the ads were pulled off the air.

“There’s research that indicates that negative advertising doesn’t have much effect. American studies have found that what it does is that it tends to turn people off of politics and contribute to the lower turnout we’ve seen in recent elections,” Mintz told The Sunday Independent from his home in Corner Brook.

Voter turnout in federal elections has seen a steady decline. In the 2000 election only 61 per cent of eligible voters made it to the polls.

Since Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, the highest turnout at the polls was 81 per cent in 1958.

“This election, unfortunately, is going to be dirty because you’ve seen the way the Liberals have already been positioning it,” says Brian Henley, spokesperson for the province’s wing of the Conservative Party.

The campaign getting ugly is one thing the Tories and the NDP agree on. “ … if the Liberals are merely quoting Stephen Harper, the words that he used, it’s ugly but it might be true,” says Nancy Riche of the NDP. Harper’s negative comments about Atlantic Canadians have dogged the Conservative leader in this province since they left his mouth.

“The leader of the Conservative Party is not well known for his

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party leader and leader of the official Opposition, experiences the historical Royal St. John's Regatta during a visit to St. John's.

sympathetic view of Atlantic Canada,” says Mintz, who admits that the NDP keep sending him a membership card each year. He contends he’s not an active member of the party.

There are seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador and a total of 32 in Atlantic Canada.

“It’s absolutely infuriating. Why we haven’t started a separation movement just based on that is beyond me.”

— Nancy Riche A spokesperson for the Liberal Party here couldn’t be reached for comment.

A recent poll has the Liberals shy of a majority government by just seven seats, with a eight-point lead. The Tories have crept up to 31 per cent, while the NDP has slipped back to 17 per cent.

“You can’t take things for granted, voters do change their minds nowadays quite quickly. It (Newfoundland and Labrador) is traditional Liberal territory, but (John) Efford hasn’t delivered what a lot of Newfoundlanders have been expecting,” says Mintz of Efford’s failure to deliver changes to the

Atlantic Accord and federal transfer payments.

Efford, minister of Natural Resources, has found himself squarely in the sights of the Tories and NDP. The MP for the new riding of Avalon (formerly BonavistaTrinity-Conception) was hauled onto the carpet by the media and public alike for missing a private member’s motion calling on Ottawa to take custodial management of the Grand Banks.

The motion passed.

Efford contends he couldn’t vote against his own government because he would have been tossed out of cabinet, which would have been even more a disservice to the people of the province.

“Unfortunately, there was one glaring individual that didn’t have the guts to stand up and be a real Newfoundlander and Labradorian,” says Henley. “He had to kowtow to what his boss or the people in the PMO (prime minister’s office) said and John Efford, who says he stands up and defends everything, he was mysterious by his absence.”

The big-ticket issues in Newfoundland and Labrador this election are expected to be the fishery, health care, Employment Insurance reform and getting a better deal from Ottawa on oil revenues.

Currently, the feds only fund 13 per cent of health care across the country. The NDP say they’ll dou-

ble that number if elected.

“Quite frankly our government is in a surplus position,” says Riche. “So there’s no reason why, if Paul Martin is telling the truth that health care is the most important issue, that we can’t go up there.”

The Conservatives call for “reasonable access” to health care.

“That means that we cannot have a CAT scan or an MRI machine in every community in Canada,” says Henley, adding the NDP can throw around whatever numbers they want since they’ll “never, ever” form a government. “But if Brian Henley lives in Nain, Labrador, or Brian Henley lives in St. John’s Newfoundland … we should all have access to the same level of reasonable health care.”

Both Riche and Henley believe

that the Atlantic Accord, which was intended to give this province its fair share of oil and gas revenues, must be enforced so that it becomes the principle beneficiary.

“We will continue to be begging, crawling to the federal government when there’s absolutely no need of it if the Atlantic Accord was actually done properly,” says Riche.

“It’s absolutely infuriating. Why we haven’t started a separation movement just based on that is beyond me.”

Henley says the Conservatives will enforce the accord.

“The Conservative Party will make sure that not just the legal document of the Atlantic Accord, but the actual spirit and intent of the Atlantic Accord that was signed by a Conservative government will be honoured to the letter.”

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

NEWS

Page 9

Gone fishin’

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Avid fisherman John Morrissey celebrates a May 24 tradition and takes to the waters of Rattling Brook in Central Newfoundland.

First Nations policing program Justice minister confident deal will be reached Happy Valley-Goose Bay

By Bert Pomeroy The Sunday Independent

H

elp may be on the way to improve policing services in Labrador’s aboriginal communities.

Following meetings in Ottawa two weeks ago, provincial Justice Minister Tom Marshall says he’s confident agreements can be reached to see the establishment of the First Nations Policing Program in Labrador.

Under the program, the provincial government would only be responsible for 48 per cent of the cost of providing policing services to the aboriginal communities.

The province currently pays for 70 per cent of the cost.

“That would be a savings of 22 per cent for each officer we have in those communities,” says Marshall. “If we can get an agree-

ment, we would keep those savings and put them back into the aboriginal communities, either through additional officers, community constables or justice initiatives. Those decisions will be made in consultation with the aboriginal communities.”

While in Ottawa, Marshall met deputy prime minister and Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Anne McLellan, and requested that assistance be provided under the policing program.

“Minister McLellan, who is responsible for the RCMP, was very receptive of working to put an agreement in place,” Marshall says. “As a result of my meeting with her, officials in my department have made contact with the leaders of the aboriginal communities to see whether or not they are interested in signing on to this agreement.”

Marshall has been under pres-

sure to strengthen policing services in Labrador after community constable positions were eliminated in the communities of Rigolet and Makkovik in this year’s budget. Funding for the positions, two in each community, had to be slashed, says Marshall, because of fiscal restraint and a new RCMP directive.

“Because of health and safety reasons the RCMP now requires that there be at least two officers assigned to a detachment or community — that there could no longer be one-person detachments, as was the case in Rigolet and Makkovik,” he says.

One RCMP position was announced for each community in this year’s budget, notes Marshall.

As a result, the provincial government can no longer afford to pay for the community constables, he says.

Torngat Mountains MHA Wally

Andersen says he’s pleased the minister is willing to re-invest any savings into Labrador’s aboriginal communities, but questions why the community constable positions have to be eliminated before the new system is put in place.

“Until we have an agreement, the community constables should remain,” Andersen says, noting that the positions are slated to be eliminated at the end of June.

“The provincial government should extend the funding for those positions, about $70,000, for another six months.”

The federal election, Andersen says, will delay any progress on establishing the First Nations Policing Program, and it will also take time to settle the new RCMP officers into the communities.

“They are going to have to ensure there are adequate accommodations in Rigolet and Makkovik for these new officers,

and it will be a couple of months before everything settles from the federal election,” he says. “To make sure policing services don’t suffer, I am asking the government to approve the funds to extend these positions.”

The province will save about $50,000 in salaries by eliminating the positions. (The communities also provided $25,000 each in salaries for the constables.)

The federal government provides 100 per cent of the funding for constables in the Innu community of Natuashish, notes Marshall, a point he says he raised with federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler while in Ottawa.

“I have asked whether or not the federal government would fund 100 per cent in the other communities,” he says. “Everybody is working together on this and, hopefully, we will get a successful conclusion.”

Page 10

NEWS

Glass houses Editor’s note: The following are excerpts from hansard, the official transcript of the House of Assembly for the week of May 17-20.

While Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are familiar with comments from the daily, 30minute 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 twocents worth.

TOM RIDEOUT (Tory, Lewisporte): “I am not going to take orders from the honourable lip, the bionic mouth, Mr. Speaker. I am not going to take orders from him.”

Rideout was responding to heckling from an unidentified Opposition MHA. With so many “bionic mouths” on both sides of the House of Assembly, they should play the theme song from the Six Million Dollar Man before every session. We have the technology, we can rebuild it. Let us hope they can.

JACK HARRIS (NDP, Signal Hill – Quidi Vidi): “In general, Mr. Speaker, we are pleased to support the amendments to the Corporations Act. We would want to see some improvements, particularly in access to information from the public by access under computers. Perhaps the minister has plans that she has not yet revealed and can tell us about when she closes debate, and explain what protection is still there when we drop from a majority of 51 per cent directors, who not only must be directors of the corporation, but the act specifically says that a corporation cannot conduct business unless the quorum is represented by a majority of Canadian directors. That is now being done away with and what we are being left with is 25 per cent as the basic requirement of Canadian directors for a corporation.

Would the minister explain how we are still protected in this area?”

After my alarm clock went off and roused me from my slumber, I realized Harris has a point, but Canada and its provinces have always fallen back on protectionism in an effort to keep foreign ownership away and preserve the Canadian

identity. Then I fell back to sleep.

Seriously folks, it’s time for us to have confidence in this province and country and invite foreign investment rather than discouraging it. The bill was passed the next day.

TOM MARSHALL (Tory, Humber East): “I know just last year there was a young couple from Switzerland who wanted to invest in the windmill business up in Labrador. There was a husband and a wife and another relative, and they were wrestling with this requirement that a majority of the directors had to be resident Canadians. I think what they ended up doing was incorporating — not here in Newfoundland and Labrador — but incorporating in Nova Scotia.”

As far as protectionism goes this is a case in point. This young couple was left literally tilting at windmills (wasting their time) because of the stringent requirements found in the Corporations Act.

ANNA THISTLE (Liberal, Grand Falls-Buchans): “When I am looking at the new government several months in office, what have you accomplished?

What have you accomplished?

As we witnessed here today with the eviction of my colleague, the member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, I would say the biggest casualty of the new government has been the truth. The biggest casualty of the new government has been the truth. All we have seen in the past seven months is devastation. We have seen nothing positive at all. Absolutely nothing positive. All you have done in office in seven months — today is May 17th, and on May

21st you will have been in office seven months. What have you done that is positive for the people of this province?

Politics is war, and the first casualty of war is truth. But truth can’t be a casualty if you didn’t get your facts right to begin with. Yvonne Jones was thrown out of the legislature for accusing Transportation Minister Tom Rideout of misleading the House because he stated that Tourism Minister Paul Shelley wasn’t in the House that day due to health reasons. Jones came to the conclusion after hearing Shelley give an interview on CBC Radio earlier that day. It’s ironic that misleading the House is a major no-no in parliamentary procedure and receives an immediate game misconduct, but misleading the public — politicians making promises they don’t keep — seems to be an accepted part of the game.

ROGER GRIMES (Liberal, Exploits): “This has been ready for a year. There is a program that this government is cancelling. They are cancelling it, is what they are doing, Mr. chairman, and he will get up and try to make people in Newfoundland and Labrador believe that he is creating a program. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am telling you, it galls me right to the very taps of my shoes to have to stand here and sit here and listen to that kind of misrepresentation. You can point your finger all you like, I say to him, Mr. chairman, and make a fool of yourself all you like because you have done it consistently.”

Grimes was fuming over a tax credit of as much as 30 per cent (for 2003 only) for post-secondary students in the province. Grimes contends that it was a program his government put in place and the Tories were taking credit for it. If Grimes isn’t accusing the premier of pointing fingers, he’s accusing Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan of wagging errant fingers in his direction. Hmmmm, mental note, pointing fingers at Grimes could result in an adverse reaction on behalf of the pointee. Sullivan’s response was comical in its simplicity “Don’t go getting mad.”

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Time out

Contract talks between nurses’ union and government won’t start until fall

By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent

T

he province’s contract with its 5,000 nurses is set to expire June 30, but negotiations on a new collective agreement aren’t slated to get underway until fall.

Debbie Forward, president of the nurses’ union, says the delay has to do with scheduling conflicts, summer vacations and the fact that the province just went through an intensive round of talks — not to mention 28-day strike — with 20,000 direct government workers.

“We want to make sure when we’re at the table we have government’s full attention,” Forward told The Sunday Independent.

“When we go we want to make sure government is ready to negotiate.”

An exact date for contract talks has yet to be set.

The nurses’ union is taking a different tack towards the expiration of its contract than other unions. The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE) and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which bargained jointly across the table from government, set a strike deadline of April 1 — the very day their contracts expired.

Their approach was no contract, no work.

“We have never traditionally taken that position,” says Forward, adding the nurses union and the province haven’t even had preliminary talks. “Nothing,” she says.

The nurses’ union has carried out internal polling to determine issues of priority for its membership. Topping the list is opposition to concessions.

One of the major sticking points for NAPE and CUPE during the recent strike was a proposed change to the sick leave policy.

Government wanted the number of sick days for new employees reduced to 12 a year from 24 — a change the unions bitterly opposed. In the end, government

used back-to-work legislation to impose new contracts.

According to government figures, the average number of sick days a year taken by NAPE and CUPE members is 16 days. Nurses take an average of 15.6 days a year.

Fear has been expressed that government may go after the other unions (nurses, teachers and police officers) for the same concessions as NAPE and CUPE members. It’s also feared the province will offer the same across-the-board percentage wage increase — zero per cent in each of the first two years, followed by two per cent in the third year and three per cent in the fourth.

Forward says such a contract will make the province an unattractive place for nurses to work.

“With an aging workforce it becomes more and more critical that we have young people to replace us as we leave.”

At the same time, do nurses have an appetite for job action considering the recent strike and back-to-work legislation?

Forwards says it depends on the issue. “You have to understand that issues for nurses are quality workplaces, (and) having enough nurses for quality patient care,” she says.

“If government is going to make decisions that nurses feel will have a negative impact on them and the system, they will have to decide whether they’re willing to fight for it and possibly take a strike vote.”

Nurses last hit the picket lines in 1999 when then-premier Brian Tobin used the legislature to order them back to work after nine days on strike. Nurses in this province make about the same as their counterparts in Prince Edward Island. Nurses in New Brunswick, who are the lowest paid in the country, are currently at the bargaining table. Nova Scotia pays its nurses a starting salary of roughly $5,000 a year more than this province.

Forward predicts Newfoundland and Labrador could be short up to 700 nurses in the next 10 years.

may 23, 2004

Page 11

The Sunday Independent

In camera

Comfortable fit

Terra Nova Boot Company committed to life in Harbour Grace Photos by Paul Daly / Story by Stephanie Porter

Page 12

In Camera

‘I know how important this is’

T

he Terra Nova factory is buzzing with the sounds of machines cutting, sewing, gluing, finishing. From roll of leather to final fitting, every step of the boot-building process can be seen in the course of a 30-minute tour.

The brown building, built right at water’s edge in Harbour Grace, looks larger inside than out. The employees have their heads down, focused, moving away only slightly so visitors can see the task at hand. According to foreman Elmer Andrews, this is a smoothly running and carefully-timed operation.

These boots — most of which are heavy-duty safety construction footwear — find their way around the world, from mines in Chile to building sites in Bermuda to gyms in Scandinavia to the Canadian Department of National Defence.

As the employer of 150 area residents, Terra Boots is also at least partly responsible for the survival of Harbour Grace after the fish plant closed a decade ago.

According to general manager David Gill, Terra Nova Boot Company Ltd., now 32 years up and running, used to operate as an assembly line: One person did one job, over and over. Now the vast shop is organized into modules, meaning employees multi-task within their part of the process.

“It means people are working as a team instead of individually,” Gill says. “It gives people a variety of tasks — and reduces the effect an injury or illness has on the whole operation.”

Indeed, it is by necessity a team-driven organization: Everyone keeps the same hours, breaks at the same time, and has holidays at the same time of the year.

At the front of the main room is a wall of fame of sorts, a list of names under the number of years they’ve worked with the company. Many have been there 15, 20, even 30 years.

“We have a couple of employees that have been here since day one,” Gill says.

Terra was started in 1971 by Abe Aleven of Ontario. Aleven, from a line of German shoemakers, was interested in taking over an old shoe factory that existed on the site. With government support, he revitalized the operation, brought in more machinery, and began.

Back in the early 1970s, Terra made about 70 pairs of boots a day. That number has since grown to 1,400. The daily numeric goals — and the number attained — for each department are clearly visible, broadcast in red digital numbers from the wall.

Terra has another factory, in Markdale, Ont. While the Harbour Grace location has been known from the start for its steel-toed and other construction-style boots, the Markdale operation focuses on ladies and more casual shoes. “We complement each other,” Gill says.

The growth of the operation has been steady, and exports are increasing, says Gill. Terra makes product specifically for major chain stores like Wal-Mart and Mark’s Work Warehouse. They’ve got contracts from a “smattering of industrial customers.”

They’ve built their reputation, Gill says, on quality.

“We’re at the high end of the price scale and the high end of the quality scale,” Gill says.

“We’ve always concentrated on making the best boots we could knowing we couldn’t compete with Asian producers. They produce reams and reams of shoes, and they’re so cheap.”

He says Terra has introduced different leathers — not just traditional construction-boot beige — in recent years. Styles have also evolved, and now include hikers and athletic shoes. Many of the boots are lined with Gortex and are waterproof.

“In what we do, we are a leader in the world,” Gill maintains. He also points out that, given the size of the company, Terra can fill smaller orders.

“Try ordering 150 pairs of something from one of those massive factories in China. But we can do that.”

Considering the factory is the biggest employer in the area, it’s not surprising that Harbour Grace Mayor Don Coombs cannot say enough good about the factory.

“It’s unreal how much they mean to us,” he says. “It’s major. They employ people in the whole area, and promote the town internationally and nationally.”

Coombs maintains the company is a good corporate citizen as well, involved in community projects and local events.

Gill, a native of Botwood, has worked with Terra for 15 years. He says production has been steady or increasing annually. There have been no government subsidies for decades.

The company still has challenges to face, and overcome. Oil prices have hit them hard, considering the amount of trucking and transportation involved in the manufacturing process.

“Oil prices and what’s happening in the rest of the world is a challenge for us.

We’re competing on quality, service and added value.

“If there’s any big concern at all,” Gill says, “it’s what’s coming out of Asia and how cheap it is.”

Although he cautions “never say never,” Gill says there’s little worry of the factory closing, or relocating to Ontario. “ We’re sort of committed as a company to the two factories. Both factories are fairly secure.

“I know how important this is to the area.”

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

In Camera

Page 13

Page 14

The Sunday Independent, April 11, 2004

Gallery Hemá Guhá

H

emá Guha was sure she’d see penguins during her current visit to Newfoundland. That’s why the birds appear in one of the first prints she made during her month-long stay with the artist in residency program at St. Michael’s Print Shop in St. John’s.

The 40-something mother of two travelled from her home in India to learn more about the art of print making.

Growing up in Delhi, Guhá’s art degree was frowned upon by her parents who saw a career in the arts as unprofitable.

Guhá smiles and says she’s a freelance writer as well as an artist because her parents were right about the financial difficulties she would face.

Married to an artist, Guhá says she won’t force her children to take up any particular career. She does say her daughter has talent as an artist and has “a very good hand.”

The prints she’s working on now are mostly black and white. They are of people without faces, a change from her earlier style, which often included scenes of India.

Travel, she says, has changed her per-

spective but says her black and white prints are more about “convenience,” as opposed to making a statement.

Using only one colour of ink shortens the process of print making.

“They can be anybody … I no longer had typical Indian figures,” she says in broken English while leafing through her work. “I no longer think like that.”

Terrorism is now a global problem, she says, looking at one of her more vivid prints that shows a pyramid of guntoting warriors. She says violence is common near her home in India.

While her experience in Newfoundland is very different from her life at home, Guhá says she likes the silence of the city.

“No sound or noise like I hear in India,” she says.

She’s also delighted that at the print shop she can work anytime during the day or night, uninterrupted and without worry.

As the first Indian artist to work in the province, Guhá says she’s pleased with the laid-back capital city but says it cannot compare to her home.

She will be travelling back to India at the end of May. — Alisha Morrissey

The Gallery is a regular feature in The Sunday Independent. For further information, or to submit proposals, please call (709) 726-4639, or e-mail editorial@theindependent.ca

May 23, 2004

Page 15

The Sunday Independent

BUSINESS & COMMERCE

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Married to her work Try and guess the name of the successful businesswoman who, 12 years ago, found herself a single mother of three living on welfare … now guess again

By Claire-Marie Gosse For The Sunday Independent

C

urling up between the comfort of her parents on New Year’s Day 1992, a 26year-old single mother of three small children pondered life.

She had recently lost her fitness centre business, her house and her car and relied on a twice-a-month welfare cheque that didn’t come close to covering the bills. To top it off, she was pretty sure she was the youngest Newfoundlander her age to ever acquire such a high ratio of debt.

That woman is local entrepreneur Debbie Hanlon. What a difference 12 years can make. Today, the Chance Cove native is a motivational speaker, publisher, the founder of a literacy foundation, a businesswoman committed to two business boards and a charity, a silent partner in several companies, mother of three, and foster parent to one.

Sitting in her office in her own real estate company — Coldwell Banker Hanlon — Hanlon recalls that January day in 1992, which

she credits as “the turning point” in her life.

She laughs ruefully. “So I was saying, ‘Oh, I can’t believe I’m such a failure.’ And my mother said, ‘You’re not a failure. Look at what you’ve done. You’ve raised those three kids; they’re in want of nothing. You’ve educated yourself, you’ve dragged yourself off social assistance before.’ And she was right. My mother’s a very inspirational woman. So I started to look at other careers, and then I chose real estate.”

Hanlon immediately felt comfortable in her new line of work, despite the fact that in the beginning she had to hitchhike every day from Torbay to get to her office in St. John’s.

Within her two years she became not only the No. 1 sales agent for Coldwell Banker in the province but in all of Canada. Her determination to succeed resulted in the company offering her a franchise.

“I started the company (Coldwell Banker Hanlon) two years after I was in real estate, but then a year later I realized I was in over

my head again,” she says.

Using her knack for spotting talent, Hanlon enlisted some help from local banker Shane Bruce.

“People were saying, ‘Go with a retired real estate agent.’ Well I went with a younger man – Shane’s only 35 now – and this is our fifth year as partners. We fight like we’re married. Every time he gets a girlfriend they’re jealous because our relationship is like that. But without him, I wouldn’t be me.”

The sales at Hanlon’s real estate company are double that of the two other local Coldwell Banker offices combined. But Hanlon wasn’t satisfied with real estate and branched out into other lines of work. She has an agent in Tennessee who arranges large speaking engagements across the United States. She also teaches courses at Memorial University in St. John’s, and visits smaller companies to share business advice.

A love for the arts and literature prompted Hanlon’s decision to purchase Jesperson Publishing, alongside partner Rebecca Rose, in 2002, and she’s currently presi-

dent of the Newfoundland and Labrador Publishing Marketing Association.

“Anything I can do to enhance the arts I do. In fact I created the Hanlon Literacy Foundation.

We’re non-profit. We just recently gave $5,000 to the LSPU Hall to promote a “Write On” program, where a writer gets the chance to be paid and go write for two weeks.”

With so many commitments and traveling engagements, it’s hard to imagine Hanlon having any free time, but at such a suggestion she laughs out loud. “I camp, I dive, I rock climb, I have a motorcycle.

What else don’t I do? I’m a real true heart Newfoundland person. I love Newfoundland. Myself and my children have seen every inch of it.”

She readily admits that her children are her proudest achievement, saying she would have 20 kids if she could.

“I’m (also) really proud when single parents and people that have been down and out have heard me speak and tell me that I’ve changed their life. It happens

in the oddest of places. I might be, you know, downtown partying or something.”

It’s hardly surprising that people flock to hear her talk. No doubt Hanlon possesses the gift of gab, as well as abundant energy.

“You have to take care of yourself,” she insists. “If you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be good to anybody else, right? Life’s too short to be unhappy. Make changes. You don’t have to make drastic ones, sometimes just the decision makes you feel better.”

She laughs at her own advice and calls herself “the queen of unfinished projects,” explaining that, on top of everything else, she’s currently working on a psychology degree that she probably won’t finish before she’s 60. She also laments that a lack of free time has left her terminally “single and available.”

“It’s sad you know, not that we have to get into all that, but I’m lousy at relationships because work comes first. Well the children come first, but I love what I do. I’m definitely married to my work.”

Page 16

BuSINeSS

Business Briefs Fortis buys remaining stake in Belize Electric ST. JOHN’S, Nfld.

Power producer Fortis Inc. has acquired the remaining five per cent of a Central American electricity generator it didn’t own for $3.5 million US. The purchase of the rest of Belize Electric Co. Ltd. from the government of Belize makes the utility a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Fortis, one of Canada’s biggest private power companies.

In early 2001, Fortis bought Duke Energy Group Inc.’s 95 per cent interest in Belize Electric for $62 million US. Belize Electric owns and operates the only commercial hydroelectric plant in Belize and sells its entire production to Belize Electricity, the primary power distributor in Belize and a company 68 per cent owned by Fortis.

Fortis, based in St. John’s, has more than $2.2 billion in assets and annual revenues of $843 million.

Through subsidiaries, the company sells power in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Belize and Grand Cayman Island. Fortis also produces power in Newfoundland, New York State and Belize and has investments in real estate and hotels.

— The Canadian Press

New career information package ST. JOHN’S The Petroleum Industry Human Resources Committee (PIHRC) has developed a career information package for high school students, teachers, and others interested in learning more about careers in the oil and gas industry.

The committee anticipates that this career information package will benefit teachers

responsible for career education, and students considering a career in the oil and gas industry.

The career information package can be accessed through the committee’s webpage www.noianet.com/pihrc and will also be distributed to high schools across the province.

The Petroleum Industry Human Resources Committee was formed in December 1998 to review employment, training and other human resources issues related to the emerging provincial petroleum sector.

Cost cutting lifts British Airways profits LONDON British Airways says that better than expected savings from its cost reduction program helped lift full-year profits by 81 per cent. But it also warned that rising oil prices would drive up costs.

The carrier reported profits after tax and minority interests of 130 million pounds ($228.8 million US) in the year to March 31, up from 72 million pounds during the previous 12 months.

Revenues fell two per cent to 7.56 billion pounds ($13.3 billion). But the company achieved savings of 869 million pounds ($1.53 billion), compared with a target of 650 million pounds ($1.14 billion).

BA said its flights were 73 per cent full last year, up 1.1 per cent from the previous 12 months and the highest figure since 1997.

“We ended the year a stronger business despite the challenges faced by our industry,’’ Chief Executive Rod Eddington said.

But he warned that fuel costs would be 150 million pounds ($264 million) higher in the current financial year. BA announced last week that it would add a surcharge of $4 to the price of each single flight purchased outside of Britain because of high oil prices.

— The Associated Press

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

On the EDGE

Program designed to attract businesses part of program review

By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent

T

he EDGE program that gives tax breaks and other incentives to new businesses starting up in the province is under the microscope as part of the government’s program review.

“Right now we are looking at all of our programs and we want to have a look at all of their effectiveness and if they are doing the job we want them to do,” Industry Minister Kathy Dunderdale told The Sunday Independent in a telephone interview from Baie Verte.

“So EDGE falls into that with all of the programming, but there is certainly no thoughts at this point in time of discontinuing the EDGE program.”

The Economic Diversification and Growth Enterprises Program also helps new businesses that qualify a 100 per

cent tax rebate on provincial income tax and the same tax rebates on municipal taxes in communities that have signed on. The province will also give a 50 per cent rebate on federal tax and companies can buy undeveloped Crown land from the province for $1.

“It is extremely important that we have something that attracts business to this province.”

— Industry Minister Kathy Dunderdale

“It is extremely important that we have something that attracts business to this province,” says Dunderdale.

The competition is fierce.

Dunderdale says the province knows of 2,000

EDGE-like programs that strive to attract business to various towns and cities around the globe.

“So the competition is pretty tough out there in terms of attracting investment and business to this province.You need something, some kind of a tool, that makes you stand out from the crowd and EDGE has been very effective in doing that.”

No companies have been given EDGE status since the Tory government took power last October, but Dunderdale says there are a number pending approval.

Each company must be approved by a board before being given the coveted status. The tax-free window can stay open for up to 15 years depending on the region where the companies choose to locate.

“The return has to be greater than what you put out otherwise there’s no point doing it.”

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Business

Page 17

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Running on empty Cities, police, car dealerships, taxis and couriers say rising fuel prices hurting bottom lines

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

T

he province’s two largest cities will have a tough time sticking to their snowclearing budgets this year given the rising price of fuel.

“It’s going to be a really hard stretch,” says Wayne Ryan, Corner Brook’s director of operations.

The city has a $1.1 million snowclearing budget and Ryan says a “fair chunk” of that pays for fuel, which is nearing $1 a litre provincewide. The city’s budget was based on a fuel price of between 80 and 85 cents a litre.

“It doesn’t matter (what the cost) we still have to clear the snow, that’s something we have to do.”

St. John’s may have a bigger snow-clearing budget — $10.5 million — but the attitude is the same. Around $6 million has been spent between January and now.

Paul Mackey, the city’s director of public works, says the single biggest expense is fuel, which was

also based on last year’s gas prices.

Mackey isn’t alone in praying for a break at the pumps.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has a budget of $300,000 for gas. That budget, too, was based on the old prices.

“Our business is that we drive,” says Staff-Sgt. June Layden, adding anyone who operates a fleet of cars is going to have a hard time this summer.

Taxi brokers and drivers continue to burn gas but are unable to raise their fares.

In St. John’s, taxi rates are decided by a committee of 13 cab drivers, brokers and representatives of the city.

David Blackmore, the city’s director of buildings, says there have been talks of increases but there was no rationalization for it — until now.

The committee has yet to make recommendations to city hall to increase the fares, although Blackmore says the city likely won’t refuse such a request.

“The committee is not sure it (a rise in fares) is a good thing to be honest ... (they) are concerned the increase will have an effect on total ridership.”

City Wide Taxi broker Brian Moss says the price of gas is hurting his business. “It’s got me killed, got me neck broke right off.”

Spending $3,000 on gas a year, he says the only way he can recoup the rising cost is to work 10 to 15 more hours a week.

Cab fares in the capital city last went up when gas cost a mere 70 cents a litre.

Cab drivers in Corner Brook also aren’t sure whether a rise in fares is warranted.

Broker Paul Keough says such a move will “drive the people out of the cars.”

Couriers, too, depend on gasoline for their livelihoods and Ken Ploughman, owner of Go Getters, a small courier business that used to offer some of the lowest rates in St. John’s, says he has verbally contacted all his clients and will

soon be mailing out letters detailing higher prices.

Ploughman says his core customers expected the increase and he’s already lost a couple of clients.

Delivery costs will now be 27 per cent higher, which, he says, will definitely have an impact on his business.

Since the rates are already published, tour operators say gas prices cannot be factored into their prices.

“When you quote people you can’t go back and say gas prices have gone up so I have to charge you more,” says Merv Stacey, owner of Red Ochre Bus Tours in Buchans.

He says fuel will cost him $20 more a day and he says he’ll have to increase his rates in the fall as a result.

Brendan Quinlan, owner of St. John’s-based Legend Tours, has three 15-passenger busses that “guzzle” gas.

Filling two busses at a rate of $220 every second day will trans-

late into a loss of at least $2,500 this year on gas alone, he expects.

“Our prices are already in the market place,” says Quinlan. “We can’t pass (the cost) on at this point.”

There are thousands of brochures in his office and he says that’s another $1,000 wasted. The only solution, he says, is to reevaluate his business and look for ways to make up the money.

From driving cars to selling them, car dealerships say they’re being hit hard.

Global Imports, a Jaguar and Land Rover dealership in St. John’s, has seen a definite decrease in sales compared to last year.

Business manager Todd Seaward says the public-sector strike, the Aliant strike and now a hike in gas prices has made this year a bad one for the sale of “bigger rigs.”

People are delaying buying a car until the economy stabilizes.

“Most of the big rigs are known for guzzling gas.”

Page 18

Business

Two security guards, from an unnamed firm, watch Aliant strikers on the picket lines Friday.

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Anybody listening?

Accusations fly from the picket line as Aliant strike rolls on

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday independent

S

triking Aliant workers in St. John’s say they’re beginning to feel ignored, intimidated and fed up with picket line issues leading into week five of job action.

They’re not as upset about what is — or isn’t — going on at the bargaining table. Instead, what frustrates them is a lack of publicity and the security measures taken by the company to keep an eye on them.

On a recent weekday afternoon a handful of strikers stood outside the province’s head office handing out leaflets explaining to passers-by how to save on long distance calls in a way that doesn’t benefit the company.

None of them would give their names, saying they fear retribution once the strike is over. But they had plenty to say.

They accuse media outlets like The Telegram of purposely

avoiding coverage of the strike because the paper’s publisher, Miller Ayre, sits on the company’s board of directors.

One man on the picket line carries a placard accusing Aliant of holding some sort of control over the heads of media outlets in the province.

A woman lounging in a folding lawn chair next to a fire barrel says she was surprised there’s been hardly any mention of a strike spanning four provinces and impacting so many people.

“Maybe it’s because we’re private,” says another woman.

In an interview with The Sunday Independent, Ayre says there’s never been an issue with Aliant coverage. “I’m not prepared to comment on an issue like that,” he says. “Decisions of that kind are made by the editor.”

Russell Wangersky, the paper’s editor, says The Telegram has given the strike regular coverage.

“We’ve covered the strike, usually on our business page,

throughout. We covered it before.

We covered the (strike) vote. We haven’t covered a whole heck of a lot of changes that have happened in the last few weeks because frankly there haven’t been a whole heck of a lot of changes,” he says.

“If you want to come in and look at my assignment editor’s wall there’s the telephone numbers for the people with the CEP to contact 24 hours a day with issues about the Aliant strike right there for all of our reporters to use.”

Wangersky accuses the strikers of taking an “easy, cheap shot.”

On the other side of the Aliant building on Factory Lane there are whispers that Aliant may be threatening to pull expensive advertisements as a way to control the media.

More picketers denounce the conspiracy theory saying that perhaps the company and union don’t want to bargain openly in public.

Still more strikers say their issues are being ignored and that one of the more difficult challenges walking the lines is intimidation. A private security firm has been videotaping them around the clock and, strikers say, possibly taping their conversations.

“They just sit there looking at you,” says one man.

One woman laughs, saying “Inspector Gadgets, they’re not.”

Four women stand at a line handing out flyers to management who are leaving for the day.

The four say they feel violated by the constant watchful eye of the video cameras.

They say it’s strange to have security sitting across the road staring at them all day, especially when there are video cameras set up and pointing out of many

of the building’s windows.

Several picketers around the building point up at cameras on tripods wondering what all the fuss is about.

Brenda Reid, spokeswoman for Aliant, says the beefed up security isn’t unusual. “We increased security measures — we’ve had to take actions to make sure that our buildings and property are secure … I’m not prepared to really give details about that.”

The company had applied for an injunction to have the picketers removed but it was rejected. “… and then we reached an agreement with the union on lawful picketing practices,” Reid says, adding the company is just making sure that picketers follow guidelines and the public is allowed access to the buildings.

May 23, 2004

Page 19

The Sunday Independent

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

An unusual marketing scheme has attractive young women distributing free samples of cigarettes in the train station in Osaka.

Forging a connection Gordon Rice reminisces about teaching English in the Czech Republic, Korea and Japan.

Now in Qatar, he’s closer to home than he thought possible Voice from Away Gordon Rice

I

have always wanted to work for Newfoundland and Labrador — which I do now, but not in the way I first hoped.

Mind you, even getting here has been a long, hard road.

I am currently a teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) at the Qatar campus of the College of the North Atlantic. I was offered a position here in December 2002 when I was working on a tiny Japanese island. While I was living there, I often wondered if I would ever see or even connect with Newfoundland again.

I graduated from Bishops College, St. John’s in 1981, then attended Memorial University until 1986. Between then and 1993 I bounced between Newfoundland and the mainland; between employment and pogey. I left Canada all together in 1993.

Since then, I have taught EFL in several countries, namely, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Japan and now Qatar. With each job I have seen my salary grow and my life generally get better.

I started from a very low $5,000 a year salary in the Czech Republic. (I only got that much because I took on extra work). People there said I was well paid.

Mind you, the cost of living was also very low so I did not really feel poor during my three-year stint. The only time I felt poor was when I would pop over the border to Germany where, all of a sudden, the money needed to buy a threecourse meal and a beer in the Czech Republic would not buy me so much as a small ice cream cone.

Nevertheless, working in the

Czech Republic, especially in the I was expecting to see some- having to correct 300 composiearly days of post-communism, thing better when I moved to tions on a theme such as “Write was an exciting and challenging Japan. After all, people always told about your favourite hobby.” experience for me. me how good the Japanese educa“My favourite hobby is sleepI was assigned to teach in a very tion was. However, perhaps due to ing,” wrote one. “I like sleeping,” good school in the Czech Repub- my lengthy stay in Japan (five wrote another. What could I do lic. It was a gymnazium (academ- years in Japan, as opposed to only except give them all an A? I guess ic school) located in the city of eight months in Korea), I man- they were perfect after all.

A year after that I was mercifulMlada Boleslav (population: aged to get a closer glimpse of ly transferred to a remote island, 50,000), where Skoda automobiles how things work there. where I could enjoy the luxury are manufactured. of Christmas holidays (at least, In any given year, over 95 that’s what I called them), more per cent of the graduating stufree time to study for my masdents of that school would be ters degree, higher pay and freeeligible for admission to uniThe word limit I could dom from urban Japan. It was a versity. Students from other set in any given “essay” was fishing community similar in types of schools would be less eight words and I was forbid- some ways to a small Newlikely to be accepted to study at university, but the students den to give a mark lower than foundland outport. I was a curiwould be educated for specific C. Imagine having to correct ous addition to the community, but I felt very welcome. My types of employment: Bank 300 compositions on a theme intention to stay for only one academy, Commercial acadesuch as “Write about year ended up becoming a fourmy, Textile academy, Sports year adventure. Travel, fishing high school, Tennis high your favourite hobby.” and eating the most delicious school, Medical high school, oranges on the planet were parScience high school and Famiticular highlights. ly high school (for girls who On the other hand, I also witmostly aspire to be good housewives). The type of high school What I saw was not the fabled nessed what the Japanese call they enter is determined when they “perfect” system I used to read “classroom collapse” and bullying are 15 years old. about in the 1980s, but rather, in the schools I taught in. I had South Korea was a very differ- something strange and even dys- never seen anything like it, even in ent scene. I taught in a cram school functional. My first experience the Montreal inner city school there. Children as young as three was in a private high school. The where I did my practice teaching. would learn English. I had never personnel coordinator kept com- To witness things like a student seen such serious-minded kids. As plaining to me that my lessons vandalizing a radio in class and soon as I walked into the class- never went smoothly enough and I then whipping the teacher with the room, these tots would ask me was wasting time teaching unnec- antenna he had just torn off, just what page of the textbook we essary English (like speaking). made me feel sad.

Some children appear to feel would study that day.

Yes, this was the fabled Japanese completely alienated by the oneAs for the older children, I often education in action. wondered if they ever got time to “Students here are perfect”, my size-fits-all expectations of the sleep. I would see them returning boss told me over and over again. Japanese education systems and from their cram school lessons, “But nobody is perfect,” I protest- they become its losers. Its winners get better jobs but they pay a price, sometimes as late as midnight. ed. “Yes, they are!” she retorted.

Then they would start school early The result? The word limit I too. One example is a teacher I the next morning. Not much time could set in any given “essay” was knew. She once asked me to cover for fun and games for Korean high eight words and I was forbidden to about 15 minutes of an English school students. give a mark lower than C. Imagine class for her. “What’s wrong?” I

asked. “I’m allergic to octopus.” she replied. “Then why did you eat it?” I asked innocently. “Because it was the [school] lunch today. I had to eat it. I am a teacher. I must set a good example.” Then she hurried off.

In Japan everything is controlled, from the curriculum right down to the school lunches. The successful student is the one who learns to fit in. Academic success (the main component in our definition of success in education) is only part of the picture.

Near the end of my five year stay in Japan, I was offered two positions: a teaching post at a private language school in New Zealand and a teaching post at the College of the North Atlantic in Qatar. Admittedly, it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make.

In the end, it was a combination of money and patriotism that helped me finally choose CNAQatar. The salary offered by CNAQatar was definitely higher than what was offered by that private language school in New Zealand.

Then again, had there not been a Newfoundland-based college in Qatar, I never would have applied to work there in the first place.

You see, I never really wanted to leave Newfoundland, so, since I could not work there, I chose to do the next best thing and work for a Newfoundland institution. Even though I see camels rather than moose, I am happy I at least managed to forge a connection with Newfoundland.

Do you know a Newfoundlander or Labradorian living in another country? Please write us at editorial@theindependent.ca

Page 20

INTerNATIONAL

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Lessons in frontier medicine Canadian doctor, medics work in Afghan mountains

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Shanghai, China

A month without foreign films Movie theatres in China are only to show local flicks in July The Associated Press

Photo by Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images

An Afghan man tries to block a doorway as a group of women attempt to charge through it to see doctors at the Dashi-i-Barchi clinic in the southern outskirts of Kabul. The clinic is run by an Afghan NGO for the impoverished residents of the area and is free of charge. The clinic is open for men and women on alternating days.

QALA KHIL, Afghanistan The Canadian Press

I

n two days deep in the mountains of Afghanistan, Canadian army doctor Capt. Americo Rodrigues learned what frontier medicine is all about: reward, heartbreak, triumph and frustration.

Their rifles piled in a corner and pistols strapped to their legs, Rodrigues and a team of medics ran clinics recently in two isolated villages far from their base in Kabul.

They saw more than 120 patients — virtually all of them male.

It was a rare opportunity for a Canadian military physician to venture into the hinterlands of a Third World country. The army’s job, say commanders, is defence and security, not humanitarian assistance.

But in an area that is soon to be under NATO’s watchful eye, the battle for hearts and minds has already begun and Rodrigues, the Toronto-raised son of Portuguese immigrants, was assigned the task of fighting it.

His weapons were a stethoscope, a tongue depressor, a penlight and boxes and boxes of medicine — $5,000 Cdn worth, in fact.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Rodrigues, who worked 10 years as a general practitioner in Toronto before joining the military to “do something different.”

Accompanied by a convoy of about 25 vehicles, Rodrigues and his team headed three hours north and east of the Afghan capital.

They followed winding, dusty, bumpy tracks into the mountains to Mala Mahmad Khil, a nondescript village where the nearest medical clinic is a 10-hour walk and the closest doctors are in Kabul.

Here is where Rodrigues and four Canadian medics got their first lessons in frontier medicine.

Here they found reward and

even triumph: Many complaints were relatively simple fixes that will mean a world of difference to those who were suffering, even if the fixes are only temporary or superficial.

There were painkillers for sore backs and joints from overwork, pills for gastrointestinal problems from malnutrition and worms, ointments for skin irritations and eye infections blamed on poor hygiene.

There was frustration, too: No females were allowed to attend the clinics and patients were seen according to seniority in the community, beginning with the elders, then the working-age men, then children.

In a country where survival of the fittest is the credo, the sickest and youngest patients were often among the last to be seen.

But most of all, in the land where one in four die by age five, there was heartbreak: It came in the frail form of five-year-old Djamshid Djan.

Djan, carried to the clinic on his brother’s back, has a hole between two chambers of his heart — a not uncommon birth defect that can be surgically fixed in Canada and other developed countries.

But doctors in Kabul told Djan’s father they didn’t have the expertise to do the job. As a result, the hole has grown and the youngster has little time left.

The boy was laid on a makeshift gurney in a mud-walled room where the medical team conducted their assessments and meted out their treatments without electrical power or sophisticated diagnostic tools.

Djan had fear in his eyes. His enlarged, overworked heart could be seen beating arrhythmically beneath his skeletal chest. His breathing was quick and shallow because not enough blood was getting to his lungs.

Rodrigues studied an X-ray the boy’s father had brought with them before delivering his verdict.

“In Canada, we could correct

this tomorrow with heart surgery,” said Rodrigues.

“If nothing is done, he will probably die within the next one to three months. There is no one in Afghanistan who can help this child.’’

The case was a sobering reminder to Rodrigues and his medics of the realities of a harsh land where war has raged for 25 years and drought has ravaged for six.

They moved along a winding, vehicle-wide track deeper into the mountains to Qala Khil, where a group of about three dozen women stood 200 metres off in the hot sun waiting to be seen while men and boys of all ages lined up outside two classrooms at a village compound.

There, an old man was delivered to the clinic not by ambulance but by wheelbarrow. He wept from the pain and sorrow as Rodrigues told him there wasn’t anything he could do — the man had prostate cancer and it had spread into his back.

While the women waited, 50 more patients came to see the doctor and his medics, most of their ailments reflecting the hardships of their difficult lives – malnutrition, lifelong labour, drought and constantly blowing dust.

And still the women waited.

Finally, after five hours, someone sent them away.

Tremblay, the only female on the medical team, fears Afghanistan will be a long time changing on that score — if it ever does.

“There is nothing we can do,” she sighs, frustrated because women were the reason she was dispatched on the two-day mission. “It is their culture and we have to live with it.”

Rodrigues will file a report with his chain of command in Kabul.

He hopes medical personnel can return to the villages to follow up on some of the more serious cases and conduct some women-only clinics.

also be banned in October, saying the schedule for that month hinese moviegoers may had not yet been set. If true, that have to wait just a little would also shut foreign movies longer for the latest out of the weeklong holiday for installments of Spider-Man, the Oct. 1 National Day. Shrek and Harry Potter.

Major film distributor HuaxChina is suspending imports ia Film Distribution also said it of foreign movies in July, had been told to show only apparently as part of a cam- domestic-made movies during paign to protect the local film “certain periods of time,” the industry.

Hong Kong-based newspaper Despite the success of Chi- South China Morning Post nese director Zhang Yimou and reported this week. a handful of others, China’s An official at the State homegrown movie industry has Administration for Film, Radio been starved of and Television, box-office revwho refused to enues by the give his name, plethora of Despite the success of said distribupirated DVDs tors had been that sell for as Chinese director Zhang told to show little as $1 each. Yimou and a handful of only domestic Adding to the others, China’s home- films during industry’s woes, July to limit grown movie industry competition looser restricfor has been starved of tions that folthe debut of lowed China’s box-office revenues by Zhang Yimou’s 2001 entry into the plethora of pirated $ 2 0 - m i l l i o n the World Trade US kung fu DVDs that sell for as thriller House O rg a n i z a t i o n has meant forof Flying Daglittle as $1 each. eign movies are gers. being shown in Last weekever greater end, a downnumbers at town Shanghai local cinemas. And audiences cinema was showing at least seem to favour slick Hollywood three foreign films — Cheaper productions over the dramas, by the Dozen, Looney Tunes: slapstick comedies and com- Back in Action and Cold munist propaganda films Mountain — and one local churned out by China’s state- film. run studios.

The reported ban comes after Local studios also make few regulators recently began tightfilms aimed at young audi- ening ideological control over ences. television, ordering celebrities Zhou Tiedong, a manager at to tone down their clothing and the movie import and export language and telling broadcastdivision of China Film Group, ers to shun imported programconfirmed reports in state-run ming that doesn’t fit China’s newspapers that no foreign “social system and national films would be released in July conditions.”

— a peak movie viewing periThe controls are aimed, they od. But Zhou questioned say, at fostering a wholesome reports that foreign films would environment for children.

C

May 23, 2004

Page 21

The Sunday Independent

LIFE & TIMES

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Brothers Bol and Agout Gon attend the daycare at the English as a Second Language school in St. John’s while their father attends classes. Bol and Agout — as well as their two other brothers, mother and father — are from Sudan. They arrived in Newfoundland 10 months ago.

‘It’s a wonderful thing’ From page 1 “Or maybe it’s the economy here,” she muses. “There’s a sense of growth here. I don’t know about the outports but St. John’s seems to be booming.”

Whatever the reason, the collective face of Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly St. John’s, has changed drastically over the past quarter-century — and changes more every year.

The Association for New Canadians began as Friends of the Refugees in 1979, in response to a sudden growth in the number of immigrants to this province.

Then, says Foster, there were a large number of “boat people” coming into Canada from Vietnam.

“When that crisis ended, it was still felt there was some opportunity for the organization to continue … then we became the Association for New Canadians, in one room, with one part-time staff. We managed to survive.”

In 1984, Foster became executive director of the association, a position funded by the federal government.

“In the late ’80s, there was a huge change in Europe,” she says.

“The downfall of the communist regime really led to a steep rise in immigration. Between 1988 and 1992, we were incredibly busy, we had thousands coming in every

year, mostly from eastern Europe.”

The association moved to its current location, a large house on Military Road, in 1990. Foster says there were well over 50 employees, including those at an office in Gander — a popular landing place because of the international airport.

Then immigration legislation changed. Foster says the federal government brought in restrictions that made it very difficult for people to get in.

“Whilst all this was going on, Canada has always accepted so many government-sponsored newcomers every year,” she says, adding that the current annual numbers stand around 7,300 for the country. Of those, Newfoundland and Labrador is allotted about 160 immigrants. A number of refugee claimants — impossible to estimate — come to the province every year as well.

The core group of immigrants has “changed enormously” over the years.

“A few years back it was mainly people from the former Yugoslavia, and a number of people from Kosovo. Those problems got sorted out and the majority of newcomers are coming from Sudan, which is quite different, and quite a challenge, a different group with different needs.”

The association now has between

35 and 40 employees, including those who work at the ESL school on Elizabeth Avenue.

The staff provides a number of services and programs for newcomers. At the Military Road centre — a large house in the heritage district of town, with tall ceilings and walls decorated with art done by immigrants and new Canadians — employees and volunteers work to find people accommodation, arrange schooling, take newcomers to the supermarket or doctor’s appointments. There’s e-mail access, a pool table and activity room where a number of programs, both formal and informal, are run.

People are available to help with homework, and there is a regular women’s group.

There’s a kitchen in the back, too, where volunteers are currently running a learn-to-cook class for teenagers.

“We’ve got a group of guys, today, about 17, mostly from Sudan, all cooking up a turkey. It’s quite the sight,” Foster says with a laugh.

“Most of these are single guys from Sudan, still in high school.

They’re not used to living by themselves because they come from a camp environment.”

The cooking class gives them basic training in working with local ingredients, and building a familiarity with new tastes, like bologna,

baked beans, soup and salt beef.

The association also has a reception house on Elizabeth Avenue, where people go when they first arrive at the airport.

“Typically, we get notification of arrival, go pick them up at the airport, and they stay at the reception house where they spend between 10 and 15 days, until we can find accommodations, schools, meet their initial needs,” Foster says.

“Finding low-cost accommodation is becoming more and more of a challenge — much of it is being eaten up by condominiums and such … The newcomers will then go to school until they reach a certain point in their language.”

There is an employment division at the ESL school as well, where students, having attained the necessary communication skills, can participate in an intensive job search program, go out on placements, do job shadowing.

There are several classrooms, teaching different levels of English. People from more than 20 different countries and cultures around the world sit side-by-side, working towards their common goal.

When the bell rings for lunch, the group scatters — some outside, some sit in the hallway, individuals from different countries play chess or table tennis.

In the lunch room, members of one cultural community seem to

find each other and sit at a common table. Outdoors, a group of Sudanese youth play basketball.

“You get a real flavour of what’s happening in the city just by walking around here,” says Foster.

“Some you’ll see out and about more than others, but all of these people are now part of the fabric of the city.”

Though she sometimes takes issue with some of the decisions made by refugee and immigration boards, Foster says she leaves the advocacy actions to other groups and individuals in town.

“I’m paid by the federal government and I’ve got a job to do.

There’s only about two days a year I wake up and think ‘Oh, I’ve got to go to work today.’ This job is different every day, you never know who will cross your path. It’s incredibly rewarding.”

There are always hurdles to overcome.

“There are problems, because they’re people, all people have problems sometimes.” By and large, however, Foster says the new Canadians are being well accepted into a traditionally anglo-saxon province.

“It’s a wonderful thing. St. John’s can only benefit from broadening the community base. … People are starting businesses and getting involved in various activities. I think it’s great for the province.”

Page 22

LIFE & TIMES

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

Local Spins

by Rick Bailey

Playing it loud and proud Leather Tuskadero LT – self-titled (Independent, 2004)

T

his new album of raunchy rock accurately captures the reckless onslaught of Leather Tuskadero. This young band blasts a unique brand of blues-rock infused with raw punk power. Their name comes from a Happy Days character – a biker chick that went cruising with Fonzie. Sounds like a perfect fit for rock rebels, rowdy biker gangs and wasted truckers, and anyone else who wants to join the loud all-night party.

Every night could be like the Tuskadero’s debauched CDrelease show, if your fridge is well-stocked and your CD player has enough juice.

Inside the handmade sleeve is a set of 11 ripping indie tunes that barrel down the back streets and swerve into your memory.

From the first notes of the opening grind, Movin’ & A Groovin,’ it’s clear the band wants you to stomp a hole in the floor. Their unofficial anthem declares frenzied dancing for all and moves full throttle with Stephen Rossiter’s drums thumping and Derek Keeping’s fuzzy lead guitar wail. It’s like mud-covered locomotives with Richard Cluett on bass and guitarist Jason Winsor providing loose grooves.

Small Town Blues playfully trips along and wishes for a carefree city life, while the bass-driven Man With A Plan chops

deftly with only vague plans mentioned.

Turning from the angry and educated School Boy, to the unknown search in Mystery Man, the tunes share straightforward messages with purely messy guitar hooks and gravelly rock chants. Enjoy The Ride lays back with dual vocal parts and a pleasant tune, leading to a soulful rock ode with innocent charm, in Theresa.

More growling voices, rolling rock and surprising arrangements continue for Dee and heavy prowling for The Cougar, popular with fans. When I Get Big gets tough enough to dream of better, and ends with rock holding true on I Got My Own. There’s a sense of freshness and honest rock simplicity with the album that’s reminiscent of early

punk rockers — they love rock and roll, so they just play it loud and proud.

The final word is this: Unruly.

It describes the fast and loose rock jams, the no-nonsense riffs, basic vocals and ultimately the roadhouse party attitude of the disc. It’s about as polished as it gets for Leather Tuskadero, the sound of unbridled vigor to rock all night long. They mean it.

Lloyd Bartlett Incense and Patchouly (Independent, 2004) The third instrumental album for Corner Brook native Lloyd Bartlett takes a refreshing look back at the peace and love of yesteryear.

Incense and Patchouly takes a dozen recog-

nizable classic hits and soothingly arranges them for solo classical guitar.

Before listening, I wondered how this disc could be any different from Joe Blow playing cover tunes with a case of beer in his basement.

The difference is that Bartlett is a virtuoso career player who decided to give aging classic rock listeners a lighter, melancholic treatment of their favourite songs. It’s background music, not foreground.

He’s changed chords, voicings and tempos to make this collection an ethereal hint of former glories. Bartlett’s silky-smooth style puts a new spin on old classics like A Whiter Shade Of Pale, California Dreamin, Dust In The Wind, Paint It Black, and White Room. And let’s not forget

the immortalized Stairway To Heaven, which sounds quite angelic, and notably changed, when performed on classical guitar.

The great thing about this instrument is how it can retain the initial melodies you’re familiar with, yet include new flourishes to replace vocals and more.

I found myself searching for the key phrases to link it to the original recording, but you may get lost in Bartlett’s original arrangements. His own compositions will be featured on an upcoming CD, Full Moon, Wide Eyes, already in production.

If you like the hippie sounds of the ‘’’60s and ’70s, but you’d rather have your friends over for dinner and chit-chat, this album is for you.

Calm classical guitar instrumentals that can easily play as background for any occasion, and fondly revisiting the tunes you remember from youth. For classy classic rockers.

Rick Bailey is a musician and radio DJ. His next column appears June 6.

Can you make a difference to our team?

The Sunday Independent is growing and requires friendly, energetic, self-starting individuals to fill several new positions with our company. These people are strong team players who thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment. They rise to a challenge and are eager to take on new responsibilities.

If this sounds like an opportunity for you, then please forward your resume in confidence to: The Sunday Independent P.O. Box 5891, Stn C St. John’s, NL A1C 5X4 We would like to thank all applicants but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

No telephone calls please.

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

LIFE & TIMES

Page 23

I’se the Girl

A whale off Twillingate.

Cathia Finkel at the annex gallery, Devon House, St. John’s.

Photo by Alisha Morrissey/The Sunday Independent

Less is more Minimalist artist makes art simple

By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent

L

earning to be an artist is all about learning how to see.

Cathia Finkel is taking the learning curve in stride. After all, she’s been learning for 11 years.

After her son Ruben was born, Finkel began drawing and painting for pleasure and it has become part of her daily routine. In the mornings she works at the Georgetown Bakery and her afternoons are spent “learning how to see properly.”

Finkel says that’s the key to beautiful art.

Originally she did a lot of collage work but began drawing and painting and for the past two years that’s been her focus.

“There’s a real joy to it,” she says in a small voice, “I found the magic.”

A Study of Work is the latest effort by Finkel, work that’s showing at the Craft Council’s annex gallery in St. John’s from May 20

to June 11.

The collection is a study of the female form in pencil and paint.

Colour is used outside the drawings of the women, while their forms are clean and white except for line.

Also included in the show are photographs superimposed on coloured sheets of plastic. Finkel took the photographs — of an angel statue — at the Anglican cemetery in the city.

“It is in itself a study,” she says of the show.

The premier colour represented in Finkel’s work right now is yellow. She says it’s a “flexible” colour, “one of the colours I return to all the time.”

Finkel is not the type of artist who will throw away works she’s done and doesn’t like. Instead she says she will put pieces aside and look at them again later to see if her perspective has changed.

“For me it is about documenting things,” says the petite woman with a petite voice.

She eventually admits that if she really hates it she will throw it out.

The artist grew up in Montreal but has spent the last 16 years in Newfoundland. When she began her life as an artist Finkel entered competitions and held small shows at galleries in St. John’s.

“Once I had that experience built up then the art was ready to be made,” she says.

When she’s not working she plays guitar, cooks and does a lot of “thinking and walking.” “(You can) consolidate your thoughts enough to put them down,” says Finkel.

From an artist who believes less is more, the thought of working big with a lot of colour can seem daunting but Finkle says that’s her next challenge.

“I really want to learn about colour, that’s my focus now …

I’m going to buckle down,” she says.

“I think this is the path I was supposed to be on.”

by Deborah Bourden

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

My little island home I

remember skipping stones.

Getting a stone to skip more than 16 times was my personal best. I would watch the rings grow larger and larger until they would melt into the surrounding water. Could my life get any better? I sure didn’t think so. I had what many children could only dream of — a quiet peaceful existence in the most beautiful of surroundings. My little island home in the North Atlantic created for me the most pleasant of childhoods.

There were times when adventure tourism took on a whole new meaning. Copying from ice pan to ice pan required careful precision and a misstep not only meant a chilling bath in the bay, but you could also count on a darn right scolding in the porch when you got home. Warmth came quickly, though, as many nights ended with a song and a yarn around the kitchen table surrounded by family and friends.

Twillingate, or Toulinquet as it was known in the 1600s, was my playground, my home, and for much of the time I believed, even then, it was my personal paradise.

It was on that little island iced-in for so much of the winter that I learned to love our great province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Then again, what wasn’t there to love? As a kid I watched the slow train of icebergs, all shapes and sizes, pass by every summer from the end of June to mid-July. I followed the dance of the Northern Lights through the skies on crisp September nights — light shows occasionally interrupted by the flash of the beam from the lighthouse at Long Point.

One of my favourite memories is fishing for tomcods off the rocks beneath Mr. Bath’s flake — except, of course, for the time I jigged my cousin Randy. He had to have the hook cut out of his hand at the hospital and my mother suspended my fishing license for a spell.

I didn’t really know how much I loved this place until I had to leave. As with today, jobs were scarce in the mid-1970s and after finishing college I went off to the mainland in search of work. The streets of Toronto were a long ways away from the rocky shores of Twillingate but I quickly adjusted.

Like many other displaced Newfoundlanders, I found more of my kind to gather with, to share our songs, our stories and our common bond of missing home.

Newfoundland was always at the centre of my heart and going back never far from my mind.

It took me 11 years to find my way back. I can still remember the

excitement of crossing the Gulf and when the ferry docked in Port aux Basque I immediately announced “I’m home,” even though home was technically several hours away.

I knew then I was here to stay. My travels still take me around the world, but no matter where I go or for how long away I’m always the happiest when I’m where “the paths of whales and icebergs cross.” (I’m a marketing expert, don’t you know).

I no longer live in Twillingate but have made my home in St. John’s. Still, an occasional iceberg makes its way past The Narrows and only last September I watched the Northern Lights put on a marvelous show. I’m constantly reminded of how right I was to return home. More than that, I’m constantly reminded of how important it is for me to help in any way I can to create a place here for my children and my children’s children.

That might seem like a lot to hope for but I’m motivated. In recent years I’ve helped build businesses here and, three weeks ago, made the decision to become part of something I believe will be woven into the fabric of this place — The Sunday Independent.

Today, I feel a lot like I did so many years ago in Twillingate when I learned to skip beach stones. I feel a little like the kid who missed the edge of that ice pan for the first time — totally excited and terribly anxious. Can life in Newfoundland get any better for myself and my children? You’re damn right it can. That’s why after years of telling nothing but good news through advertising and marketing, I decided to take the plunge and become a part of telling all the news — the good, the bad and the ugly. Life has taught me that just because someone doesn’t want to hear something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be said.

The Sunday Independent is all about 100 per cent unfiltered news and I’m all about making sure we have the means to tell it. dbourden@theindependent.ca

Page 24

LIFE & TIMES

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

EVENTS May 23 • Dance Studio West, Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 637-2580.

• Author Michael Crummey speaks relating to the book Newfoundland: Journey into a Lost Nation by Greg Locke and Michael Crummey, 2 p.m., Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, Baird’s Cove (off Water Street), St. John’s, (709) 722-7177.

• Alzheimer Society of Newfoundland and Labrador Walk for Memories, Quidi Vidi lake, 2 p.m., 1-877-775-0608.

May 28 • Opening: Coastlines by Tara Bryan, Charlotte Jones and Tessa Middleton, Christina Parker Gallery, 5-8 p.m. Exhibition shows until June 19.

• Almost to China, the Origin of the Sound Band and the Black Flags playing live at CBTGs, George St., St. John’s.

May 29 • Annual spring flower show, MUN Botanical Garden, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Hosted by the Newfoundland Horticultural Society, (709) 737-8590.

• Connie Parsons School of Dance yearend performance, St. John’s Arts and Culture centre, (709) 729-3900.

May 24 • Where once they stood: Daily historical walk of the olde city of St. John’s with Mike Boyle, 10 a.m., Hotel Fairmont, reservations required (709) 364-6845. Tours offered daily.

May 25 • Women in Song: Jackie Sullivan, Jacinda Beals, Christa Borden, 8 p.m., Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 6372580.

• Tourist Trap, written by Lorne Elliott, featuring Pete Soucy and Frankie O’Neill, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, (709) 753-4531.

Runs nightly until May 30.

• Time of Reflection, review the history of Pentecost and examine the gifts of the Holy Spirit at the Lantern, Barnes Road, St. Johns, (709) 753-8760.

• Reading by author Alan Cumyn at the A.C. Hunter Library, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, from his children’s novel The Secret Life of Owen Skye, 3:30 p.m., (709) 737-3974.

May 26 • J.J. Curling, in performance, Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 6372580.

• Women in Song: Jackie Sullivan, Jacinda Beals, Christa Borden, 8 p.m., Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre (709) 643-4571 • Sean Panting hosts Folk night, Ship Pub, St. John’s.

• Reading by author Alan Cumyn at the A.C. Hunter Library, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, from his children’s novel The Secret Life of Owen Skye, 3:30 p.m., (709) 737-3974.

• 2004 World Broomball Committee volunteer management training, 9:30 am-4:30 p.m., second floor, Co-op building, Corner Brook, (709) 634-7600. Continues until May 28.

• Botanical mural launch, by artist Samantha Smith, at Memorial University Botanical Gardens, 7 p.m., (709) 737-8590.

May 27 • Book launch: Tonic for the Woman’s Soul, Downhomer’s third household almanac and

May 30 • Family day at MUN Botanical Gardens, St. John’s: Hikes, story time, puppet shows, arts and crafts, (709) 737-8590.

• Annual spring flower show, MUN Botanical Garden, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Hosted by the Newfoundland Horticultural Society, (709) 737-8590.

• 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. (originally scheduled for May 16).

Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Author Michael Crummey will speak about his new book, Newfoundland: Journey into a Lost Nation, which he co-wrote with Greg Locke, at 2 p.m. today at the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art in St. John’s. An exhibition of Locke’s photographs from the book is on display in the gallery until June 1.

cookbook, Downhomer, 202 Water Street, St. John’s, 7-9 p.m.

• Women in Song: Jackie Sullivan, Jacinda Beals, Christa Borden, 8 p.m., Gander Arts and Culture Centre, (709) 256-1082.

• Bel Canto Singers spring concert, Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture centre, (709) 292-4520 • Isabel Hennebury school of dance in performance, Labrador West Arts and Culture

Centre, 709) 944-5412.

• Provincial conference: The faces of elder abuse, presented by the Seniors Resource Centre, Holiday Inn, Portugal Cove Road, St. John’s, (709) 737-2333. Continues May 28.

• Aboriginal health research lecture, by Dr. Fred Wien, Lecture Theatre B, Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s, 12-1 p.m.

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. nOte: • Call for entries for the 15th Annual St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival.

The deadline is May 31, 2004. The entry form can be downloaded at http://www.womensfilmfestival.com/english_entry_form.pdf • Visit www.donotpadlocktherooms.com for information from The Coalition of Mad Artists (COMA). COMA asks the provincial government to reconsider its decision to defer the opening of The Rooms.

Please submit your events editorial@theindependent.ca

to

May 23, 2004

Page 25

The Sunday Independent

SPORTS

Mount Pearl Sportsbeat/Molson Riptide soccer team during a recent practice in Mount Pearl.

Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

Challenge Cup challenge Newfoundland’s premier soccer league struggles in capital city

By David Manning For the Sunday Independent

I

t’s like Sam Roberts said: “Where have all the good people gone?”

More accurately, when it comes to the Provincial Men’s Challenge Cup Soccer League in St. John’s, it’s more like: Where have all the people gone?

The league, Newfoundland’s only true provincial one — the players and teams come from the Avalon, Burin Peninsula, and the west coast of the province — has hit a speed bump that some think may be more of a road block.

This past week the Fieldians, an athletic association established before the turn of the last century, withdrew from the league due to lack of interest from players. With that, Holy Cross became the lone representative of soccer in the capital city.

They’re not the first team to throw in the towel.

Depending on who you speak to, you will hear different reasons for why a league, once vibrant with eight to 10 teams, has dwindled down to five.

The responses include outmigration, lack of commitment and financial constraints. While it’s quite true that all of these play some role in the decline in the Challenge Cup, it still begs the question: Why can’t a city like St. John’s, with thousands of soccer players, field more than one team in the province’s top league?

J.B. Del Rizzo, a veteran player for Holy Cross, sees one easy

answer. “Holy Cross has a storied groups ranging from under four to and ending on Labour Day weekhistory, yes, but we don’t have a under 18. end, the compressed season causfield, dressing rooms, we don’t Del Rizzo grew up in the club es the organizers to fit in as many even have soccer balls. It’s really system that still survives to some games as possible into the twoa tough proposition to get players extent in the senior leagues with and-a-half months of our summer. when you can’t offer them any- the likes of Fieldians, Holy Cross, Travel is a major commitment thing.” and Guards. and is causing some players to opt Walt Mavin, coach of the Both Mavin and Del Rizzo out and play in city’s intermediate Mount Pearl entry in the Chal- agree that the club system gives league, where games are played lenge Cup League, sees that as a the senior teams a natural feeder closer to home at fields such as moot point. “Over my time system, and gives the younger Bowring or Wishingwell Park. involved with the game the com- kids something to strive towards.

“Travelling is an issue for sure. mitment to the game It you had a Challenge has remained the Cup league with no travsame,” he says. el, you’d have a 10 team Mavin, a former league, no doubt,” says “We’re fortunate we have some good player from Fortune, Del Rizzo. says his club has Travel causes expenspeople who are involved with the some distinct advanes to rise for the players, organization of the team. The support tages over the clubs who are playing for the of them and of the Mount Pearl soccer in the capital city. love of the game and “We’re fortunate competition — not a pay association makes it easy for me and we have some good cheque.

Farmer (assistant coach Gerry Reddy) people who are “What’s different to just show up and just worry involved with the today is the cost of operorganization of the ating a team in this about soccer.” team. The support of league,” Mavin says.

— Walt Mavin them and of the “When it comes to Mount Pearl soccer finances to run a team, association makes it you’re looking at a budeasy for me and get of somewhere near Farmer (assistant coach Gerry “The minor system in St. $10,000.”

Reddy) to just show up and just John’s, for me, is a cattle call,” The bill, more often than not, is worry about soccer.” says Del Rizzo. passed squarely onto the players, Del Rizzo agrees, saying, “The Mount Pearl is a perfect exam- who must fundraise to play. “It’s biggest part for us is getting peo- ple of how the club system feeds too bad we can’t just show up and ple to commit to a team with no the top-level teams. Mavin esti- play and not worry about the other identity. The St. John’s system has mates that 75 to 80 per cent of his things,” Del Rizzo says. Some a lot to do with that, once kids are current Mount Pearl roster came players, not wanting to face the finished there are split alle- up through the Mount Pearl youth commitment of fundraising, giances.” system. He believes this continu- choose to play intermediate soccer The St. John’s system that Del ity keeps Mount Pearl going in the which has no travel, no fundraisRizzo refers to is St. John’s youth league. A second issue for the ing and no training — just games. soccer, a conglomerate that has league is the length of the season.

There is another issue. For over 3,000 young players in age Starting officially in early June years, there have been passionate

cries for an outdoor artificial grass facility in the metro area.

“Our season is so short, it usually means we don’t get on to a field until a week or two before the season starts,” says Mavin.

Extending the season would cut down on travel, increase interest, and improve the quality of the final product.

“I think the starting point is getting an artificial surface,” say Del Rizzo. “The quality of the fields here is generally poor, and an artificial surface would change that, no funny bounce, and true roll, it would increase interest for sure.”

Newfoundland consistently competes well with every province besides the big four of Canadian soccer (B.C., Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta), with the shortest season and possibly the poorest infrastructure. Winning the 2001 Canada Games men’s silver medal is proof — as is the St. Lawrence Laurentians’ silver medal in the 2002 National Challenge Cup. Both Mavin and Del Rizzo agree that some changes need to be made. What, and who makes them, are where the arguments begin.

“You need to start with the little things, and see how that works out,” says Del Rizzo, “If some changes work, make some more and go from there.”

“It’s very unfortunate that there’s only one team here in St. John’s,” says Mavin. “I hope this is just an odd occurrence and Fieldians will be back strong again next season.”

page 26

SPORTS

The sunday independent, may 23, 2004

This Sporting Life

by Shaun Drover

Fanning the Flames

Photo by Dave sandford/getty images

The Calgary Flames mascot Harvey the Hound celebrates with fans after the Flames defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in game six of the 2004 NHL Western Conference Finals on May 19 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alta.

i

tem: The Calgary Flames have made it to the stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1989.

Comment: my wish has come true as Canada will be represented in the finals. some may have thought Toronto or ottawa would have had a better chance of making it to this point, but not many would have thought Calgary. For those paying attention, it was predicted in this column that Jarome iginla would lead the Flames to a big upset in the Western Conference.

This is fantastic for the City of Calgary, which had a very rough stretch of hockey throughout the 1990s. The primary reason is igin-

la’s play — and leadership. He’s quickly showing that he’s the best pro hockey player in the world, overtaking the likes of peter Forsberg and mario Lemieux. after a recent trip down south, i was surprised to learn that iginla is, in fact, despised by many U.s. hockey fans. Between his play at the olympics and this playoff run, fans down south are scared of iginla. They know that the states has no chance in international competitions as long as we have iggy! miikka Kipprusoff must be given some credit for the Flames’ success. His play has been outstanding and if he keeps playing at this level, the team will be difficult to beat in the finals.

The Sports Shop Watch out for the

grand reopening of The sports shop at it’s new location at 166 Water st.

Coming soon Our belated 57 Annual 24th of May Fishing Contest.

The BiggesT in our history. th

••• Item: Wayne gretzky released team Canada’s roster for this summer’s World Cup of hockey.

Comment: surprised is a common phrase used to describe gretzky’s picks. While i was surprised, too, i agree with most of the picks on this year’s team. The only problem with the team he picked is if they don’t win, gretzky could face criticism for leaving many big names off the team. each player seems to fit a roll or a purpose, which is a key factor in professional sports that has been forgotten. Just ask the Yankees.

The “international grind line” has probably drawn the most attention. Kirk maltby, Kris draper, and

shane doan have made the team and have brought their world championship nickname with them. They will be relied on to play a defensive and gritty role and we all know they’ll do their duty.

With his selections, gretzky has shown that players may be rewarded for playing for Team Canada in any competition they are asked. some of the surprise players seem to have earned their spot by playing well in other competitions, especially the world championships. Look at Brendan morrow versus rick nash. nash is young and talented, but had a horrible plus minus. more importantly, he didn’t participate at the world

The Sunday Independent, May 23, 2004

SPORTS

Page 27

Calgary may score profit Unexpected playoff run means team could be in the black for first time in years CALGARY The Canadian Press

W

ith the benefit of hindsight and a Hollywood-style playoff run, the $7.5 million that the Calgary Flames doled out to captain Jarome Iginla this year appears to be a pretty shrewd investment.

But up until this spring, it seemed like good money being thrown after bad as the smallmarket NHL club had missed the playoffs for seven straight years and racked up $35 million worth of losses in the process.

Now, with hockey still being played in late May, the notion of about 20 per cent of the team’s annual payroll to pay its one superstar doesn’t seem so outlandish when you look at what Iginla has done.

He’s tied for first in the playoff scoring race and leading his team into the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 15 years with timely goals and rugged play.

And just as important as being a hands-down favourite among Flames fans, Iginla has helped his club back into the black financially this year.

“We will turn a profit this year,” says Flames president Ken King. But along with the celebra-

tion comes the muted reality of the tough economics of the game.

“It’s going to be material, but it’s not sufficient to begin to make much of a dent in the $35 million in prior accumulated losses,” says King.

Each home playoff game — and there will be at least 11 of them this year — brings in more than $1-million in revenues.

Still, the team’s expenses are high and King says even with the extra revenue that success brings, the returns would be “grossly unsatisfactory” on any conventional business model.

King says the 2004 playoff run is probably more valuable in terms of the fanbase it is building for future years, and the thousands of new season-tickets that have been sold.

Calgary is definitely a smallmarket club in terms of payroll spending, where the team was ranked 19th out of 30 teams this year with costs pegged at $36.6 million. That’s lower than all other Canadian teams except for Edmonton.

But payroll spending does not necessarily guarantee success either, given that the second-rich-

est team in the league, the Detroit Red Wings, fell to the Flames in the second round.

The Flames are owned by eight local businessmen, who together include some of the richest and most powerful people both in the city of Calgary and in the Canadian oilpatch.

The Flames, through its Fan Attic stores, have sold more than 23,000 jerseys this year, averaging more than $100 each. And Monaghan says team merchandise carries a 100 per cent mark-up.

But even oil barons in need of tax-losses don’t buy into the Flames as a sound business proposition.

“I don’t think that you can consider a venture like an ownership in the Flames an investment in the normal sense of the word,” says Clayton Riddell, chairman and senior executive of several energy companies and owner of a host of other business ventures throughout Calgary.

“Because it’s not expected to

generate a return, other than for the city ... and obviously you can see what it’s done for the city.”

Riddell is the newest member of the ownership group, buying in just last year before there was any whiff of playoff hockey in southern Alberta.

“I did not make the investment with the intent of receiving a return on it —just hopefully it doesn’t become a continuing negative return as it has in the past for the existing owners.”

This year is the first in recent memory that a cashcall hasn’t gone out to Flames owners at the end of the season.

Another benefit to the Flames’ out-of-nowhere success this year has been the sale of merchandise — everything from authentic jerseys to car flags and key chains.

Barry Monaghan, the NHL’s senior director for retail sales and marketing in North America says that at the start of the year, Calgary ranked sixth in Canada in overall sales. In other words, it was the worst among Canadian NHL teams.

“Obviously, based on the success of the Flames, we’re antici-

pating that to move,” says Monaghan.

Not only is nearly everyone at home games decked out in Flames-red, but wearing of the jerseys on game-day has become a regular feature of life in Calgary.

The Flames, through its Fan Attic stores, have sold more than 23,000 jerseys this year, averaging more than $100 each. And Monaghan says team merchandise carries a 100 per cent markup.

Flames merchandise has also fuelled sales at the Forzani Group, Canada’s largest sporting goods retailer.

Team clothing sales are up a full 40 per cent over last year, with Calgary gear leading the way.

“To be honest at this point, it’s Flames-replica and hats and stuff that’s really driving the overall business,” says Bret Mitchell, Forzani’s chief merchandising officer.

“In terms of the demand, the last two weeks have been incredible. Just trying to stay up with the jerseys and the t-shirts have been unbelievable ... we get orders through our facilities almost daily to restock the Calgary stores.”