A newspaper owned and operated in Newfoundland & Labrador
Vol. 2 Issue 23
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
Sunday, June 6-12, 2004
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Fish union, members sued Suit names eight defendants, including union, in incident that saw fuel poured over $30,000 catch By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent
Poke in the Eye Ray Guy Page 3
T
In Camera Fishing for crab Page 11
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Grasping the past Life & Times Sailor White Page 22
Taylor French, 81, of Mount Pearl is a second generation war hero who landed on the beaches of Normandy. “You don't see much when you’re looking over the sights of a 75-pound gun in a tank” he says. “The amount of equipment, the ships and planes and such a racket going on, that impressed me," says French, recalling the day, 60 years ago June 6, that the D-Day invasion was launched. French holds a picture of himself when he was 20. The photo was taken in Scotland before the invasion.
‘Holding pattern’
That’s how much the province saved during the public-sector strike: Sullivan
Joanne Fennelly finally found her dream home … then Myles-Leger went to court
“We might have some expenditures reduced somewhat but they’re offset on the revenue side. I really don’t think in ome 20,000 of its employees the final analysis we’re going to be a may have been off the job for 28 penny better off.” days but the Newfoundland and Essential workers who remained on Labrador government didn’t save a the job during the strike weren’t issued dime. pay cheques. Rather, salaries were Not a red cent. forked over directly to their respective “In the final analysis I wouldn’t be unions — the Newfoundland and able to say we saved a penny,” Labrador Association of Finance Minister Loyola SulPublic and Private Employlivan told The Sunday Indeees (NAPE), and Canadian pendent. “To be honest with Union of Public Employees you my gut is that there are no (CUPE). savings from the strike.” Sullivan says figures According to government’s aren’t available on exactly own projections released durhow much the unions were ing the job action, the province paid. He did say that up to was to save $2.5 million in 45 per cent of members of salary and benefits for each Loyola Sullivan some bargaining units (repday workers were on the resenting health-care workstreet. It was thought that if public ser- ers, for example) were declared essential vants remained on strike long enough, and remained on the job during the government would eventually be able to strike. afford to give them a raise. “There were a very high number of The projected savings, however, did essential workers required,” says Sullinot factor in money the province paid van. “All that had to be deducted from out to essential workers who remained the $2.5 million.” on the job, a drop in retail sales, and So does overtime worked by manageother revenue lost to the province over ment staff over the course of the strike. the course of the strike. Sullivan says his officials are still workFinal figures won’t be tabulated for ing on a final figure for overtime costs, another month or two, but Sullivan expects the worst. Continued on page 2
S Quote of the Week “I don’t think prime ministers answer to ultimatums. As premier I don’t answer to ultimatums.” — Premier Danny Williams commenting on Paul Martin’s decision to rejig offshore royalties
Continued on page 2
‘Not a penny’ By Ryan Cleary The Sunday independent
Sports Bill Hogan’s Olympics Page 25
he operator of a fishing boat whose catch of shrimp was ruined in early May when an angry crowd of fishermen doused it with fuel has launched a lawsuit against seven men alleged to have been involved and the province’s largest fishermen’s union, The Sunday Independent has learned. According to a statement of claim filed with Supreme Court in St. John’s, John Cabot, owner of Baffin Run Ltd., the company that leases the 93-foot fishing vessel Lucy Rose, is suing the eight defendants for an undisclosed amount of money. Cabot is suing for market value of the 50,000 pounds of lost shrimp, the cost of dumping the catch and cleaning the ship, lost sea time and general damages. In a recent interview with The Independent, Cabot said the ruined shrimp was worth an estimated $30,000. In the end, he pegged his losses at $100,000. According to the court documents, at about 8 a.m. on May 1 the Lucy Rose was docked on the south side of St. John’s harbour after returning earlier in the morning from a trip to the Grand Banks. When the crew attempted to offload the shrimp, as many as 60 people boarded the vessel without permission and proceeded to empty several, two-litre soft
drink bottles containing diesel fuel, along with cans of brake fluid, over the shrimp in the hold. The documents name eight defendants, including George Chafe, Vince Hearn, and Jack Kennedy of Petty Harbour; John Boland and Frank “Butch” Hutchings of St. John’s; and Brian Lewis and Kevin Lewis of Paradise/Topsail. The eighth defendant is the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ (FFAW) union. The men, all of whom are thought to be FFAW members, are alleged to have been among the crowd that boarded the Lucy Rose. The statement of claim also alleges that Chafe and Boland are employees of the FFAW. Further, the documents allege that the defendants conspired “willfully, deliberately and maliciously” to destroy the shrimp catch. Statements of defence have yet to be filed. Officials of the FFAW could not be reached for comment. At the time of the incident (which was apparently video taped), the FFAW was in a dispute with processors over prices. Cabot has alleged that the FFAW didn’t want his vessel to be fishing for shrimp until the union negotiated a higher price. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is still investigating the incident. No charges have been laid to date.
By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent
J
oanne Fennelly, a 26-year-old young professional, just bought her first house. Or so she hopes. Fennelly, who works for ACOA, says she made the big decision to look for a house more than a year ago. It took her that long to find the perfect spot — but she did: A new property on the grounds of the former Belvedere orphanage in central St. John’s. Just a 15-minute walk from work, the home was the right size, the neighbourhood peaceful. She picked the paint colours, the flooring, invested hundreds of dollars in fixtures and ordered $3,000 worth of appliances. She gave another $5,000 to the builders as a deposit. Another $15,000 in cashed-in RRSPs are waiting in the bank to use as a down payment. The problem? Her first home is a Myles-Leger construction project. Myles-Leger Ltd., one of the province’s biggest developers, put its business on hold when it filed for protection from its creditors in late May. The St. John’sbased company reportedly owes more than $14 million to 128 creditors. Adding to the problem, a Mount Pearl law firm associated with the developer has been taken over by the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador and two
Hopeful homeowner Joanne Fennelly in front of the house that may — or may not — be hers.
lawyers — William Parsons and Glenn Bursey — are being investigated for their handling of trust funds related to real estate transactions. The news came as a surprise to many, including Fennelly. All had been going smoothly. Her
home was even completed earlier than anticipated, and she booked May 20 off work to move. The day came, and suddenly she found out the deal couldn’t close. “My uncle (and lawyer) called me that day and told me the lawyer Myles-Leger
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
was using for the closing, his practice had been taken over by the law society … I just thought it was a delay at that point,” she says. “I didn’t know until the next Sunday, I Continued on page 16
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NEWS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Williams takes PM’s word Martin makes last minute pledge to province to honour proposal on Atlantic Accord By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent
“I believe that Newfoundland and Labrador ought to be the primary beneficiary of the offrime Minster Paul Martin shore resource,” Martin said. “I made an early morning believe the proposal that he phone call June 5 to Pre- (Williams) has put forth certainmier Danny Williams promising ly provides the basis for an that Newfoundland agreement between and Labrador will the two us.” “I have his word be the primary benNatural Reeficiary of offshore and that’s a good sources Minister oil revenues. John Efford raised The prime minis- enough guarantee ire in the province for me … He’s ter confirmed “his recently when he party and his govsaid the Atlantic made a public ernment were prewouldn’t commitment. It’s a Accord pared to implement be part of any camhuge issue to our wishes, our paign promises. request on the Newfoundlanders Martin has since Atlantic Accord,” and Labradorians given Efford Williams told marching orders to reporters gathered and I don’t think sit down with the in the foyer of premier and hamfor one minute Confederation mer out a deal. he’d break that Building. While the NDP commitment.” “In the first year and the Conservait would be about — Premier Danny tives have made $100 million then it their commitments Williams goes to about $150 on honouring the million, round figAtlantic Accord in ures for the next two years, and writing, the Liberals had sidethen doubles up to about $300 stepped the issue. million in the fourth year.” It was Williams who turned up While not 100 per cent, the the heat. pledge shows the Liberals’ will“Newfoundlanders and ingness to improve a situation Labradorians should not support that the province has been decry- any candidate or any party in ing for years. The provincial the upcoming federal election government received only $124 that does not clearly or unequivmillion last year from offshore ocally provide us with a commitroyalties compared to Ottawa’s ment to keep 100 per cent of our windfall of $4.9 billion. provincial revenues under the Martin made the announce- Atlantic Accord,” he said. ment in a last-minute media With Martin’s commitment, scrum before leaving St. John’s. Williams says the playing field
P
Strike had direct economic impact From page 1
Premier Danny Williams listens to Prime Minister Paul Martin's comments concerning offshore oil revenues. VOCM reporter Scott Chafe was at the last-minute press conference Martin held and played the tape for Williams during the premier’s own press conference at Confederattion Building.
is now a level one for voters. “That has now been eliminated and all parties have given us a good position.” Williams wouldn’t bite when asked if his earlier statement was taken as an ultimatum, forcing Martin’s hand. “I don’t think prime ministers answer to ultimatums,” says Williams. “As premier, I don’t answer to ultimatums.”
The timeframe to ink an agreement is still undetermined, the premier said. He doesn’t expect anything until after the election. NDP leader Jack Layton and Conservative leader Stephen Harper have signed letters spelling out their commitments on offshore oil revenues. Williams says he doesn’t expect anything in writing from Martin.
“I have his word and that’s a good enough guarantee for me,” he says. “He’s made a public commitment. It’s a huge issue to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and I don’t think for one minute he’d break that commitment.” Still, Williams says anything is possible. “This is done as far as I’m concerned.”
‘A bit of a shocker’ From page 1 Cabot says that two of his five crew have since stopped fishing with his vessel. “They quit the same morning on account of the confrontation. “It was a bit of a shocker to me,” he says. “I could see them protesting once the fish was
offloaded to one of the processing companies, which is what I thought they were targeting. I didn’t think they were targeting other fishermen.” Cabot says he went fishing once an independent arbitrator had set the price for shrimp. “It was an arbitrated price and it was up to anybody to go fishing. Even if there wasn’t a price
in place I have a licence that says I can fish whenever we want to. Nobody says you have to sell your fish as long as you go by the conditions of the licence. You can give it all away to charity once it goes across the scales.” Shrimp fishermen later returned fishing for the arbitrated price.
20% TO 30%
MAKE THIS A SPECIAL FATHER’S DAY
…IN STORE SPECIALS
but even that number may not be accurate because some management have chosen to take time off in lieu of pay. The 28-day strike also had a direct impact on the economy, which, in turn, had an impact on the amount of taxes collected by the province in taxes. Sullivan says those numbers will also have to be subtracted from the $2.5 million a day in savings, as will the loss in revenue experienced by both the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation and the Atlantic Lottery Commission. “It will be months before we know (the final number),” says Sullivan. A spokesman for the liquor corporation told The Independent in late April that liquor sales may have dropped by as much as 50 per cent during the strike. The corporation, which raised liquor prices earlier that month, hasn’t ruled out another hike this fall to make up for lost revenue. Public-sector workers, including liquor store employees, returned to work April 28th after the Danny Williams administration announced its intention to introduce back-to-work legislation. The legislation was passed days later, giving workers a zero per cent raise in each of the first two years, followed by two per cent in the third year and three per cent in the fourth. Sick leave was also reduced for new employees.
According to a report on the state of the province’s finances by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a one per cent across-the-board raise in pay costs the provincial government $22 million a year. The 15 per cent raise granted to public servants by former premier Roger Grimes increased government’s salary bill by $350 million a year.
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
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The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
NEWS
Page 3
A Poke In The Eye
by Ray Guy
The case of the missing ‘perfessor’
“K
eep clear. Saucy Perfessor,” said the handlettered sign on the high chainlink pen behind the Bung Hole Tickle town council office. Since my last visit I noticed little else different here in the historic and picturesque community on the northeastern shore of G.D. Bay. What could it mean? “We cotch one of them perfessors the other week,” explained Mayor Valvoline Parsons as we sat in council offices. “Got him in a baby barn and a pen on three squares a day.” Frankly, I was gobstruck. “But my dear man,” I ejaculated. “The constables will be down upon you! You can’t keep a professor locked up like a stray dog. What in the world are you up to?” “Up to?” said Mayor Parsons. “Getting a few cents return on the dollar is what we are up to. Isn’t that right boys?” There was a chorus of affirmation from several other councillors present. “That university in there,” continued His Worship. “Millions
upon millions goes into it and so far forth as was what we fellows is concerned out here … what comes out of it? Nudding.”
What value-for-dollar has Newfoundland ever got from its university? Good question. But what in the name of God do you hope to get out of that poor specimen you’ve got trapped out there in a baby barn? “Millions in; nudding out,” he continued. “High time, we said, we got a little something back. Luck should have it this perfessor was out around on the 24th, got a hole in his radiator, we seen our chance and nabbed the bugger.” “Nothing!” I exclaimed. “Nothing! Our university, over the years, has turned out hundreds, no thousands, no tens of thousands of educated young ladies and gentlemen.
That’s what a university is for.” “Ha!” said the chief magistrate of Bung Hole Tickle. ”Back in the 80s we had a young fellow go in there. He was there for years and years. Come back and there was no difference into ’en … except he kept his forefinger clear of his norstrils and he could read both sides of a cornflakes box.” “Went away to Hali-bloody-fax. Like I say, millions in; nudding out.” Mayor Parsons said not to take his word for it. He said here was a lady who should know what she was talking about. An aged creature was helped into council chambers. “Aunt Mercy Coveyduck,” said the Mayor. “Oldest resident of Bung Hole Tickle. Nudging 104 so far as anyone knows. Can still point to her Bible without the aid of eyeglasses.” “Aunt Mercy,” he roared. “In all the years what you been on this earth have that university ever done a lick of good for Newfoundland?” “Mmaaarrr,” said the dear old soul. “Mmaaarrr.” “There you go,” said Mayor
Valvoline. “If you can’t trust a decent Christian lady like that, then who in the world IS you going to trust.” “But all she said was ‘Mmaarr,” I pointed out. “You can see it on her toil-worn features,” persisted the Mayor. “‘Nudding’ plain as day. Now is she going to tell lies about it and she only an arms-length away from her Saviour’s bosom? For shame’s sake, sir.” “OK, OK,” I capitulated. “Millions in; nud ... I mean, nothing out. What value-for-dollar has Newfoundland ever got from its university? Good question. But what in the name of God do you hope to get out of that poor specimen you’ve got trapped out there in a baby barn?” “Keep the flamer there until he does Bung Hole Tickle some good,” explained His Worship. “We figure if he has five notions that’s the equal to one thought; and five thoughts equals one idea. One single idea any good at all to we fellows out here and off he can go, free as the dicky bird.” “But dear lord,” I said. “Sup-
pose he’s a professor of philosophy or divinity or sociology? He’d never in a hundred years have a thought of any use to anyone.” “Luck of the draw,” said Mayor Valvoline Parsons. “We intends on letting him go on Labour Day in any case. But you got to keep that from him or the bastard will never have a notion, much less a useful idea. We must live in hope less we die in despair.” A good municipal motto for Bung Hole Tickle itself, I thought as I got into my conveyance and motored quickly away. Ray Guy’s next column will appear July 4.
The ‘A’ word Some towns willing to amalgamate; others may share fire services By Ryan Cleary The Sunday Independent
meld services. Before going ahead with that study and others like it, the unicipal Affairs Minis- towns would also have to agree ter Jack Byrne says his to go along with the recommendepartment is prepared dations. to pay for studies to determine “We’re going to be doing whether certain towns should be more of this (with fire fighting amalgamated and fire fighting services) in any future,” says services shared, but there’s a Byrne. hitch: The towns must first agree Money for studies on amalgato abide by the recommendation mating towns and services will of any particular study. come from the provincial gov“If we’re going to be spending ernment’s special assistance money on studies I want the fund. The fund, which provides towns to come onside and say assistance to municipalities to they’ll accept the recommenda- deal with emergencies or finantions of the study before I cial difficulties, has been set at approve the $2.6 million this money,” Byrne fiscal year — $1.6 told The Sunday “There seems to be a million less than trend now more so Independent. the 2003-04 fiscal “They’ll have to than ever before that year. sign something up A report last towns are willing to front.” year by the Audistart sharing services Byrne says he’s tor General John and coming together.” Noseworthy was been approached by three munici- — Municipal Affairs critical of the spepalities on the Minister Jack Byrne cial assistance Avalon Peninsula fund, saying most that are interested of the money wasin amalgamating. He wouldn’t n’t going to municipalities as reveal the names of the towns. A intended. The Opposition of the study would cost upwards of day charged the fund was actual$15,000. ly a slush fund used for the whim “I’m getting more and more of government MHAs. inquiries all the time about amalNoseworthy also concluded gamation. There seems to be a that proper paperwork wasn’t trend now more so than ever being filled out and guidelines before that towns are willing to followed in awarding the grants. start sharing services and coming Since taking over the portfolio together,” he says. last fall, Byrne says he’s tight“They know that to survive ened up the application process they’re going to have to start and any grants are to be coming together.” approved directly by his departByrne says he’s also been ment. approached by fire departments The bulk of the funds will be in different municipalities asking specifically earmarked towards to share services. In one case, a drinking water-related problems, study has been approved involv- town roads, fire departments and ing five towns with three fire municipal government support, departments that are looking to Byrne says.
M
Paul Martin at Memorial University.
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
They came, they saw, they left Martin sidestepped the issues; Layton rallied the troops By Alisha Morrissey and Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent
I
t’s a Friday evening and NDP leader Jack Layton, surrounded by handlers and security, waits in the back of St. Theresa’s parish hall in St. John’s and gathers his thoughts as local party organizer Nancy Riche pumps up the crowd. But considering he’s the leader of a party that could swing the balance of power if voters elect a minority government in the June 28th federal election, the turnout is less than inspiring. The hall is only half full with about 200 vocal supporters, including the who’swho of Newfoundland and Labrador’s labour movement. Layton doesn’t flinch. He speaks to the small group like he was addressing a packed rally at Toronto’s Sky Dome. Complete with two teleprompters, a slick backdrop and a band playing traditional local music, Layton preaches to the converted. “The Liberals make promises you know they won’t keep,” says Layton. “The Conservatives make promises you hope they won’t keep.” Between scandals and gaffs by the other leaders, the Tories and Grits have given Layton and his speechwriters more than enough
ammo. “If at some point a Liberal cabinet minister shows up and starts heckling, buy the guy a drink or something … they’ve had a tough week,” says Layton, referring to the Liberal cabinet ministers who confronted Conservative leader Stephen Harper recently at a number of campaign stops. The Liberals have had a rough go. Premier Danny Williams sent another torpedo towards the faltering Liberal juggernaught. “Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should not support any candidate or any party in the upcoming federal election that does not clearly and unequivocally provide us with a commitment to keep 100 per cent of our provincial revenues under the Atlantic Accord,” Williams said during a recent oil conference in St. John’s. The Grits were the only holdout of the three main parties not to promise the province the lionshare of oil and gas revenues. Before leaving St. John’s, however, Martin pleged he would honour Williams’ proposal for a better deal. “I have made it very clear that the proposal that he has put forth is a proposal that we accept,” Martin told reporters. While Layton made a number
of campaign stops while in St. John’s, Martin was whisked away after a breif visit to a local Tim Hortons to his hotel and out of public sight. The two leaders were in town for a CBC TV event at Memorial University where students interviewed the two leaders for the job of prime minister. Televised live, the room was full of the country’s most disenchanted voters — youth. It’s a sweet plum that all parties are trying to pick, considering approximately 80 per cent don’t vote. Martin was casual in his dress and demeanour while Layton wore a suit and sat with his hands between his knees, almost hunched over. The questions put to the candidates were like clouds — fluffy and nice. Questions about student debt and same-sex marriage received only a glancing blow. The evening was, at best, a draw. As Martin, surrounded by security, left the university for his campaign bus, Layton stayed to talk to the crowd outside and answer questions from local media. A young man stood beside Layton and held his camera out in front of the pair, snapping a picture. “Just like that, huh?” says Layton.
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NEWS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 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 by The Sunday Independent, Inc. in St. John’s. It is an independent newspaper covering the news, issues and current affairs that affect the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.
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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-shirt philosophy R
oger Grimes was on the right track in early March when he told The Sunday Independent the province’s seven MPs should band together to form a “bloc Newfoundland and Labrador.” He said what he professed to believe and was a better leader for it. He announced for all to read in this pink, white and green newspaper that the province should be represented in Ottawa by leaders who aren’t connected with any federal party, MPs who will speak for us. Quote: It’s time to make a stand and stand up for Newfoundland and Labrador. Now that the time has finally come to stand, Grimes has collapsed like the net of a foreign trawler being lowered from a crane onto the St. John’s waterfront. He has wimped out. He is not a leader for the times. The party is never more important than the people. This column is not so much about Grimes as the crop of potential leaders who stand before us now. John Efford has made it clear he won’t be making any promises about offshore oil revenues to help him get reelected. He’s above that, such lowly tactics. At the same time, it was Efford who, as a minister in Brian Tobin’s administration, spent a fortune of taxpayers’ money on wharfs and breakwaters during byelection campaigns to help win seats for the home team. Efford didn’t have any problem
then with the perception of vote buying. Is he a better man now that he’s in Ottawa at Paul Martin’s side? Or is it that he can’t deliver what this place needs? Is that why Efford refuses to make any commitments to deliver a better deal in Confederation, all the way around? Quote: The issue of offshore oil resources matters too much to the future of this province, to Newfoundland and Labrador, to be caught up in an election. That is an excuse and a cop out, Mr. Efford. If a Liberal government had any intention of improving this province’s place in Canada it would be printed, bold and beautiful, in the party’s election bible, the Red Book. Efford would be spreading the word from every corner of the province. Outports would be his church; slipways his alter. At least John Crosbie had the nerve to take Efford on. Crosbie may have been the one who closed the fishery, but he didn’t take the Goddamn fish from the sea. Crosbie speaks his mind, and is a better man for it. If only he were 65 again. Efford is another leader whose time may be past. He’s not saying what needs to be said to all of Canada: The party is never more important than the people. With such rumoured unrest in the land, what does it say when the Conservatives fail to attract a worthy candidate to give Efford a fight for his campaign dollar? Would it take a backhoe to uproot his grass-
roots support in the riding? Which is it — the quaint accent or quiver of accomplishments — that make him so popular? There’s no guarantee Stephen Harper’s party will follow through with a pledge to let the province keep all of its offshore oil royalties; at least he’s going through the motions of saying what we want to hear. This column is not about the Conservatives and how wonderful they are. Fear is whispered around water coolers of what Harper may do to the country if he takes the helm. Will a woman’s right to choose go the way of bilingualism and ACOA if the Conservatives have their way? What will be the difference between Canada and the States once a Harper overhaul is complete? Simply put, will the country survive? Here in the province, the New Democrats have a credible priest on their side but does Des McGrath have a prayer of breaking through the establishment? The Green Party may have a full slate of 308 candidates but what does it say when the real strength is in Sailor White’s forearm? The issues here during election 2004 are close to home. Which party will finally stop foreign trawlers from killing the fish that feed the outports? Which party will be most likely to acknowledge that our place in Confederation is no longer on the floor being fed pity scraps, but with the rest of the family at the dining room table?
The answer, most likely, is no party. The only way for Newfoundland and Labrador to get ahead may be for all hands to come together as one. Seven MPs are but a drop in the bucket compared to the 301 against them, but if there’s a minority government of such lean proportions then seven may mean the difference in power. Finally, after 55 years, the tail would wag the dog. If a minority government wasn’t in the wind, would Martin and Jack Layton have wasted their time with a job interview at Memorial? Grimes had it right when he said there’s tremendous pressure on Efford to deliver. Quote: What we need in Newfoundland and Labrador is people that are going to absolutely put their whole political careers on the line for getting something for us and I don’t think there’s been enough said of that. Remember that statement Mr. Grimes? As a political epitaph, the party is never more important than the people, is becoming increasingly common. Free Newfoundland; the T-shirts have it right. Ryan Cleary is managing editor of The Sunday Independent. rcleary@theindependent.ca
Letters to the Editor
Politics: ‘Art of the possible’ Dear editor, I would like to script a few lines on Premier Danny Williams and his handling of the recent publicsector strike. During the strike I observed the transformation of Williams from an officer of the court to a professional gun-for-hire, the flip side of a lawyer, a stratagem that does not work around the bargaining table.
In a pubic-sector strike behavioural modification 101 would and should suffice. Unquestionably, the professional skills of lawyers suit them in the political arena. One would expect that with experience and over time lawyers would develop talents for mediation and conciliation. Their special training and their position in society should equip them with
the wherewithal to negotiate a settlement with union presidents when confronted with a publicsector strike. It’s a known fact that politics is the art of the possible, meaning that politics in its entirety is based on compromise. It’s imperative that Williams immediately cultivate the special skill necessary in avoiding being pinned down to concrete pro-
posals. Any blunt, straight fromthe-hip lawyer turned politician like Williams could have a difficult and maybe a very slim chance of being reelected. And, in his capacity as premier, such behaviour could translate into a one-term government and a political party destined for oblivion. Harold Hayward, Musgrave Harbour
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
West Words
NEWS
Page 5
by Frank Carroll
Canadian Idle moments D
on’t you find the term Canadian Idol a bit of an oxymoron? After all, it’s not in our nature to idolize our own — at least not until they make it in the United States. If, unlike me, you have a life, you might be unfamiliar with the worldwide Idol phenomenon — a franchise of televised talent shows that originated in England but was really tailor-made for America, where it has reached its loftiest think you …” Hell, you probably height — or cheesiest depths, are that kind. Canadian Whiner: In this depending on how you look at it. Idol is a natural fit south of the show, the top prize would go to the border. Americans have a long tra- Canadian who most passionately dition of elevating entertainers to complains that the government, the demigod status. They coined the unions, corporations, eastern bums, word star and use it in their every- western rednecks, Quebeckers, day language. In Canada, nobody Torontonians, the media elite, really speaks about someone with- globalization and his parents are to in our borders as being a star — a blame for all his problems. Canadian Cheese: To go with word we have to strain to bring the whine. ourselves to say. Canadian Hoser: This show While Americans celebrate success, Canadians are suspicious of would seek out the most gullible it. We’re a little more down to earth person in Canada. Given the level and believe that other Canadians of cynicism in the country, gullible should be the same way. We want Canadians are much harder to find our celebrities to be less like royal- these days, but there are still a few ty and more like friends we wel- out there. They hang out at prowrestling matches and political ralcome into our living rooms. Yet, somehow Canadian Idol is a lies. Newfoundland Idol: Hey, the hit in this country. Personally, I think it’s some kind of sick joke rest of the country envies us anyway. We might as Canadians are playwell be their idols. ing on the contesAnd, finally, this tants. Why else While Americans last suggestion is no would they make celebrate success, joke. Ryan Malcolm their Canadian Veteridol and then not Canadians are an: Today our buy the poor guy’s suspicious of it. nation honours the album? We’re a little more Canadian soldiers So, I think it’s time to either down to earth and who fought, died were victorious rename Canadian believe that other and on Juno Beach durIdol or replace it with another show Canadians should be ing D-Day. Their altogether. Here are the same way. We heroism and selfsome of my sugges- want our celebrities sacrifice made them the real deal, though tions. to be less like they would scoff at Canadian Lobbeing idolized. ster: So-named not royalty and more I like to poke fun so much for the perlike friends. at Canadians, son who wins the including myself, contest but rather for sometimes failfor the typical Canadian couch lobster who watches it. ing to see what’s good about this Like their underwater counter- country. Compared to the rest of parts, couch lobsters hate to see the world, we are well-fed, wellany of their own kind crawl out of sheltered and free. We enjoy the the tank. So they’ll haul them back benefits of a fundamentally decent to the bottom, usually with ridicule government — no matter which party is in power. instead of claws. Yet, we seem to spend a lot of Hmmm, maybe the couch lobsters got Ryan Malcolm. time complaining. We live in an Canadian Idle: Top prize goes age of self-aggrandizement and to the couch lobster with the personal entitlement. We’ve gotten biggest tail after sitting down and away from a sense that pursuing watching this stuff for four or five the collective prosperity makes for months. a meaningful life. Our nation has Canadian Pariah: This contest become fragmented by narrow would only be open to politicians, interests. No one in their right mind would lawyers and journalists. Instead of voting for the contestant they most envy the hell that our veterans went liked, Canadians would vote for through on June 6, 1944. But we should envy their common sense of the person they most loathed. This show would be the reverse purpose and their willingness to of the current federal election, in pull together for the greater good. If they will not be idolized, we which people appear to be voting against whatever they don’t like can at least admire them and folrather than in favour of something low their example in some small way. they believe in. Canadian Wuss: Dedicated to Frank Carroll is a journalism finding the most over-the-top purveyors of nauseating politeness. instructor at the College of the You know the kind — people who North Atlantic’s Stephenville camapologize when a waiter short- pus. He can be reached at changes them. “I’m sorry but I frank_carroll_nf@yahoo.ca
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Job interviews Paul Martin and Jack Layton are interviewed for the job of prime minister of Canada at Memorial University June 5. Students from across the country were flown in to question the leaders. CBC-Television aired a live broadcast of the event.
Rant and Reason
by Ivan Morgan
Unholy alliances
I
knew a woman who wanted to be “in the media” more than anything else. She dumped her boyfriend of long standing, shacked up with a TV producer and, low and behold, was on TV in a week — looking every inch the professional. I know a guy who chased and wed a woman he didn’t find attractive solely because her parents were worth millions. He kept women he liked on the side, and put up with a wife he couldn’t stand, waiting for the big payday. So goes the world. But just when you thought you had seen it all, along comes The Globe and Mail and its vision of the worst, sleaziest marriage of convenience in the history of Canadian politics. I thought I had seen the lowest of human behaviour, then The Globe presented me with the premise of a Conservative/Bloc Quebecois marriage, a minority Harper government that rules with assistance from the Bloc. With the federal Liberals tanking under the dithering leadership of Paul Martin, the scent of blood is in the air and The Globe and its columnists and editorialists are salivating at the prospect of the arrogant Liberals getting their comeuppance. But at what price? A few political observers are trotting out the grisly premise of a Conservative party-Bloc Quebecois agreement. I use the term “agreement” instead of “alliance” because in my heart of hearts I believe that the old Tory party — the Progressive Conservatives — were swallowed whole by the Canadian Alliance. And I am not going to spend the rest of this column referring to the Alliance-Bloc alliance. But that is what we might face — the cynical spectacle of two regional parties uniting, and then using each other to get what they want. Both the Bloc and the
Canadian Alliance have come out and ridiculed the idea. They say it will never happen. The Bloc insists they will go to Ottawa to look after the best interests of Quebec. But who better to understand them than another regional party? Every party has its share of delusions. The Liberals kid themselves that they are a party dedicated to something other than staying in power and serving the ambitions of their membership. No one joins the New Democrats to get ahead (well, no one who is sane anyway) but they kid themselves that they have strong union support and that they are “growing” and building “momentum.” This version of the Reform party seems to be kidding itself that the old PCs are going to have any influence whatsoever in a Harper government. I believe that the PCs were sold out. I believe that the Alliance used them to get what they wanted. And I believe they will use the Bloc, too — knowing that the Bloc will use them. Can’t you see the deals? Trade off bilingualism in the rest of the country for something big the Bloc wants for Quebec. What does the Bloc care about bilingualism in Canada? They want out of Canada. They don’t want bilingualism in Quebec. The Alliance doesn’t want it in Alberta. That’s the basis for some serious wheeling and dealing. In every incidence one can see where dismantling Liberal policies in Canada would really only require granting the Bloc more power for Quebec. What does the Conservative party care about Quebec anyway? It’s not like they will win a seat there. People bemoaned the unholy alliance (there’s that word again. And I am not using the word coalition … too ’70s) of Bouchard and Mulroney. Seems
pretty tame in comparison to the revolting prospect of Gilles Duceppe and Stephen Harper ruling in tandem. God forbid. I guess there are a few who will tell me that I have taken leave of my senses. Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn pop to mind. “Dude’s out to lunch,” I can hear them say. Never happen. Uh huh. Too cynical to even comprehend. Cynical like that nasty, nasty man Peter McKay’s boldfaced outright lie to David Orchard’s face on live national television? Cynical like the spectacle of Harper running around Canada stomping out the fires caused by his candidates, who keep, rather inconveniently, saying what they think on issues like abortion and bilingualism? Cynical like our very own Danny Williams telling us all not to worry; he’d be nice when he got to power. I was dubious about Danny from the get-go, and I have the dated, published columns to prove it. I was told I was out to lunch then, too. Here’s what I hope. I hope that I am just having a bad night in front of the computer and the morning will come and I will laugh this all off. I hope to live to see this column rubbed in my face. I hope I won’t see the country I love carved up by separatist zealots, nasty neo-con yuppies and a bunch of clowns from Alberta whose first choice (let us all please remember) was Stockwell bloody Day. Ivan Morgan can be reached at imorgan@evis.com.
Page 6
NEWS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Opinions Are Like...
P
by Jeff Ducharme
Fixing what he broke
rime Minister Paul Martin must think that Canadians have the memory of gnats. We’ll know for sure just how big or small the recollection of Canadians is come June 28 with the results of the federal election. Martin has been running around the country throwing billions of dollars around like a drunken, comefrom-away sailor waving $5 bills at a bartender on George Street. You could call the politicking shameless, but politicians are Mr. Spock’s brethren when it comes to shame — it’s an emotion they aren’t capable of. While Martin was minister of the federal piggy bank for former PM Jean Chrétien, he hacked and slashed like an impoverished South American farmer turning rain forest into pastureland for beef cattle. In the 1990s, the Liberals, with Martin gleefully holding the machete, cut approximately $25 billion from health-care transfers to the provinces. The cuts decimated health care in this country and people searched in vain for help from a health-care system that had become anemic and was on life support itself. The exact cost of these cuts to a health-care system that was the envy of the Western Hemisphere will likely never be completely understood. Nurses flocked to better paying jobs south of the border leaving us staring a nursing shortage right smack dab in the face. Right across this country, outside the larger centres, doctors are as scarce as hen’s teeth. Whether it be oil and gas rich rural Alberta or struggling rural Newfoundland, many residents
don’t have a family doctor and have to rely on local clinics or hospitals that may be an hour away to provide care. Hospitals are making antiquated machinery last far too long and risking misdiagnoses because they can’t afford the latest technology. Now with an election called, Martin has pledged something like $11 billion to health care. There’s $3 billion over two years for general improvements, $4 billion to reduce hospital wait times across the country, $2 billion for a nation-
al home-care program and $2 billion over five years for specific priorities such as intensive care and mental illness. And there’s likely more to come as the realization sinks in that the next government will likely be a minority one and the Grits may not be at the head of it. Conservative leader Stephen Harper has no intention of getting out the needle and thread to mend the social-safety net either, but that’s a column for another day. As kid, I remember finding five packs of smokes in the glove com-
partment of the old man’s car and taking three packs of smokes to impress my buddies. In a bid to be intelligent and cover my tracks (which failed miserably I might add) I mentioned to dad that having three packs of smokes in his glove compartment showed he had a serious smoking problem. Without even turning to look at me he said, “Funny, there were five packs of smokes there 10 minutes ago.” I wasted little time in putting back those two packs of smokes I had taken.
Letters to the Editor
I have to reiterate that we are really happy here in St. John’s, as I use to say when some one asks me about this city; “It is a paradise … on ice … but a paradise.” I was away in Montreal at a conference and had a great time in another Canadian welcoming
city, full of colours and lovely places to see and people to enjoy. But again, my foster city is a great place, full of peace and quietness. Again thanks for your time and warm work. Jose Rivera and Pilar Muñoz
Wild Atlantic salmon headed for oblivion? Wild Atlantic salmon populations in Eastern Canada and the United States have dropped to historic lows, according to an Atlantic Salmon Federation report. Bill Taylor, president of the New Brunswick-based federation, says that in the absence of strong domestic and international government action, the wild Atlantic salmon will eventually vanish from its North American ranges.
“Since 1974, we have gone from more than 1.5 million salmon to fewer than 500,000 today,” Taylor says. “This year, scientists project an especially disturbing decline in returns of large salmon to their native spawning rivers.” Suggested causes of the decline include changing ocean conditions, acid rain, industrial pollutants, poaching and illegal by-
catch, habitat degradation and poorly regulated salmon aquaculture practices. Taylor says even though there have been good rates of return in the past to New Brunswick rivers like the Miramichi and the Restigouche, as well as in some Newfoundland and Labrador rivers and Cape Breton’s Margaree, the outlook for this year is not good. — Canadian Press
Jeff Ducharme is The Sunday Independent’s senior writer. jeffducharme@theindependent.ca
Remains still unidentified
‘It is a paradise on ice’ Dear Editor: We really appreciate your effort in portraying our country in the nicest way in your interview with my wife (“God sent me here,” The Sunday Independent, May 30). I’m so sorry being away for that important moment but as you saw she is doing great.
Canadians have been told just how much Martin has stolen from the health-care glove compartment to cut the deficit and impress his Bay Street buddies in Toronto. You can almost hear the Canadian population saying, “Funny, there was $25 billion in heatlh care the last time we checked.” Martin, like me and those packs of smokes, is now trying to put that money back into the system and hopes that the electorate forgives him for taking it in the first place. The truly bitter irony in all this is that Martin was the man who orchestrated these cuts in the first place and now is holding himself up as the saviour of health care. It’s something like the fireman who sets fires so he can put them out and be called a hero. You’re relieved that the fire is out and that the threat to life and property has passed, but you also know that the hero is no hero. It’s no great feat to fix something that you broke in the first place, but it is the right thing to do.
T
he Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is looking to new technology and assistance from other agencies to help the force identify remains discovered in Conception Bay South in 2001. As it stands, the Constabulary has no new information on the skull of a 20- to 40-year-old man discovered off Minerals Road on May 17 three years ago. “We are currently exploring, with some other agencies, alternative measures to identify the remains,” says Staff Sgt. June Layden, adding those measures include discussions with other experts in the field of facial reconstruction. “The reconstruction that we
Where else
have is an artist’s image, and while in some cases reconstructions can be very close some may be dissuaded because of the picture,” says Layden. Dr. Simon Avis, the province’s chief medical officer, the Bureau of Legal Dentistry and the RCMP crime lab in Ottawa have played a roll in creating a DNA profile, a reconstruction of the face and dental imprints from the deceased. The skull shows signs of foul play and it’s thought the remains were placed in the Conception Bay South area less than 10 years ago. Layden requests the public call the Constabulary with any information that may be related to the case. — Alisha Morrissey
light show in the middle of nowhere? can you catch a
WHERE ELSE BUT HERE.
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
NEWS
Page 7
Road block Province hoping feds will help fund Phase III of Trans Labrador Highway Happy Valley-Goose Bay By Bert Pomeroy The Sunday Independent
P
rovincial Transportation Minister Tom Rideout says he’s been given reassurances from the province’s representative in the federal cabinet that Ottawa will help fund Phase III of the Trans-Labrador Highway from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to southern Labrador. But the money is still far from being in the bank. “I had a meeting with John Efford on April 6 ... and we agreed on federal strategic infrastructure funding of $18 million, with the province kicking in $18 million, for the Trans-Labrador Highway,” Rideout says. “On April 13, I sent a letter to Federal Transport Minister Tony Valeri, outlining the understanding I had with Minister Efford ... but I haven’t heard a thing — not a word.” During his meeting with Efford, and in his letter to Valeri, Rideout
says he also requested federal funding under another component of the infrastructure program. He says he had hoped to receive a written commitment on funding “from both pots of money” before the federal election was called. “Minister Efford and I were talking about getting this out of the system before the election, but there’s no hope of that now,” he says. And that puts everything up in the air. Public opinion polls indicate the election is up for grabs, and there’s a distinct possibility the new government will hold a minority in the Commons. Labrador MP Lawrence O’Brien says he’s aware of the discussions Rideout had with Efford, and that it is his understanding Ottawa will provide $18 million this year under the infrastructure program. O’Brien says he’s not aware of any requests for additional funding. “The $18 million is the only request that I am aware of,” he says. “That money resulted from a
The Shipping News
personal discussion Minister Rideout had with Minister Efford, but a request for other money is news to me.”
“Nothing is going to change during the election campaign,” he says. “I have nothing to offer, nor does the minister or anybody else …” — Labrador MP Lawrence O’Brien While he’s aware of the $18 million commitment, O’Brien admits he has yet to see anything in writing. With a federal election under way, he adds, it’s highly unlikely any such letter will be written. “Nothing is going to change during the election campaign,” he says. “I have nothing to offer, nor does the minister or anybody else …”
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
begin on Phase III this year. “We are very hopeful that we will have the environmental clearance to start the work,” he says. “If we can award tenders by the last of June or early July I would expect the work to start in the middle of summer.” Those tenders will include the construction of 17 kilometres of road from Cartwright Junction to Happy Valley-Goose Bay and vice versa, as well as a start on the construction of a bridge across the Churchill River, Rideout says. The province will also push forward with plans to apply chip seal on two sections of the TransLabrador Highway between Wabush and Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The tender was awarded to carry out the pilot project last fall, but cold weather delayed it from getting underway until this summer, Rideout says. He says other improvements will be carried out in the road as well. “There is some work that is left over from last year that will have to be done.”
Keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre.
MONDAY, MAY 31 Vessels arrived: ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, From White Rose; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, From Terra Nova. Vessels departed: Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; Hudson, Canada, to sea.
Cruiseship season begins.
O’Brien notes that the provincial government has not made a solid case to Ottawa to help finance the construction of the Trans-Labrador Highway since 1997 when Brian Tobin was premier. That’s when Ottawa turned over $340 million to the province, along with two marine vessels worth about $25 million, under the Labrador Transportation Initiative. The agreement relieved the federal government of providing marine services to Labrador’s coastal communities. Phase III of the highway is expected to cost around $100 million. “The province has not put one cent into the Trans-Labrador Highway since that agreement was signed,” says O’Brien. “It’s been all federal money going into that road ever since. If Minister Rideout wants to do a new agreement, then I would be more than happy to champion it.” While the province awaits confirmation of federal funding, Rideout says he expects work will
TUESDAY, JUNE 1 Vessels arrived: Shamook, Canada, from sea; Eamma, Norway, from sea. Vessels departed: Atlantic Eagle,
Canada, to Terra Nova; ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook; ANJ Harvey, Canada, to sea. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 Vessels arrived: Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Hibernia; Atlantic King Fisher, Canada, from Terra Nova. Vessels departed: None THURSDAY, JUNE 3 Vessels arrived: Cicero, Canada, from Montreal. Vessels departed: Emma, Nor-
way, to Flemish Cap; Cicero, Canada, to Montreal. FRIDAY, JUNE 4 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from Dartmouth; Irving Eskimo, Canada, from Charlottetown, LeBasse, Antigua, from Argentina; Maersk Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia. Vessels departed: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to Terra Nova; Maersk Chignecto, Canada, to GSF Grand Banks; Wilfred Templeman, Canada, to science surveys.
Voters not paying attention: Martin Paul Martin brushed aside another drop in the polls, saying Canadians aren’t paying attention yet to the federal election and will vote for his party when they finally tune in. The Liberals have continued their downward trend and are now in a virtual dead heat with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, according to the latest poll. The Ipsos-Reid survey puts support for the Liberals at 32 per cent of decided voters, with the Tories at 31 per cent. But Martin predicts a shift in fortunes by the June 28 vote. “People are slowly coming to grips with the fact there is an election and I think that’s what we’re going through,” he says. “Canadians are going to have a real choice … I think that when Canadians are faced with that choice and understand the differences between the parties, they’re in fact clearly going to vote Liberal.” The clock is ticking while Martin struggles to reverse the current of public opinion — and he’s out of the country for the next few days. He left for France June 5 to attend the 60th anniversary of DDay. — Canadian Press
Page 8
NEWS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Harper not the heavy Hearn says Conservatives won’t kill ACOA; Liberals and NDP not buying it By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent
H
arper ain’t heavy, he’s just misunderstood, says Loyola Hearn, Conservative incumbent for the federal riding of St. John’s South. “That’s not what he said,” says Hearn, reading from the text of the speech that sent supporters of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency reeling. In the speech Harper said “regional support must support infrastructure.” “The regional development agencies will get out of the grants and subsidies game,” Harper pledged while speaking to a pinstripe crowd at a board of trade luncheon in Toronto recently. The media immediately latched onto Harper’s comments and painted him as the would-be killer of an agency that pumped approximately $440 million into Atlantic Canada last year. In 2003, ACOA made loans to 136 groups and companies totalling some $27 million. “Nobody is talking about closing down ACOA at all. In fact, we need a stronger agency, an agency that’s not political, an agency that can get in there and be more aggressive because we have more potential in this province than any part of Canada,” Hearn told The Sunday Independent. NDP candidate Peg Norman, who’s running against Hearn, doesn’t believe ACOA would change for the better under Harper and a Conservative government. “Harper has been talking about the whole political patronage thing, but we don’t believe it would be any different under him,” says Norman. She agrees that ACOA has gone astray
Photo by Alisha Morrissey/The Sunday Independent
Stephen Harper in St. John’s.
because of political “patronage and cronyism.” But she’s quick to add that the NDP wouldn’t cut the financial lifeline that the agency has become to regional development and small business in the province. “Seventy per cent of the money is going into regional economic development boards and I mean my God, what a shock it would be for that to not be there anymore in rural Newfoundland.” Harper, contends Hearn, wants to change the way ACOA does business and not do away with the agency all together. “Let’s stop using ACOA to funnel money
… politicians making decisions based upon favouritism, based upon friends and based upon their location. That’s the kind of stuff that has to be cleared up,” says Hearn. Harper has said that ending “corporate welfare” would save $4 billion and allow the Conservatives to offer tax cuts to business that would fill the void left in ACOA’s wake. ACOA has changed, says Liberal candidate Siobhan Coady. “ACOA, over the last decade or more, it has been evolving and changing,” says Coady, who’s expected to give Hearn a run
‘Constant pressure’ working Illegal fishing by foreign trawlers falls since crack down on election eve By RYAN CLEARY The Sunday Independent
L
evels of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers operating on the Grand Banks just outside Canada’s 200-mile limit have dropped “dramatically” since Ottawa began a crack down last month, a Fisheries official says. Enforcement officers with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans have carried out 35 inspections of foreign factory freezer trawlers since three Portuguese fishing vessels were boarded in early May, a highly publicized event on the eve of the federal election call. The latest citation was issued May 22 to the Latvian-registered vessel Atlas for illegally fishing with undersized mesh. The end of the net, the cod end, was split into two separate sections or bags, each with mesh three and four millimetres smaller than the 130-millimetre limit. “It would be our opinion that the amount of illegal activity has dropped dramatically since we started our operations,” says Randy Jenkins, DFO’s director of conservation and protection in St John’s. In particular, he says targeted fishing for groundfish species such as cod that are under moratoria has declined since the federal government increased surveillance and inspection activity in international waters. Jenkins says foreign trawlers have since moved out of shallow waters where “moratorium species” are usually found. “We had numerous incidents based on our intelligence and aerial surveillance of vessels fishing on
the shoal of the tail (of the Grand Banks),” he says, “and since we started this operation and applied constant pressure and increased aerial surveillance to the area we’ve seen no vessels fishing in the shallow waters. “So right off the bat their opportunity to obtain moratorium species is greatly limited if they’re forced to fish in deep waters.” As many as three Canadian ships — including two Canadian Coast Guard ships and a navy frigate — have been patrolling the waters just outside the 200-mile limit in recent weeks at any one time. A military Aurora aircraft has also joined in the regular aerial surveillance of the Grand Banks. In recent months, Ottawa has announced about $50 million in funding for increased surveillance
and fisheries enforcement on the East Coast. Critics of federal Fisheries policy say the move is a way to attract Liberal support for the June 28 election. Ottawa does not have the power to arrest foreign trawlers or issue fines. Discipline is left to the home country of the foreign trawler in question, but it’s never been shown that a foreign ship has been taken to task for illegal fishing on the Grand Banks. In the weeks leading up to the recent federal election call two Portuguese trawlers were cited for illegal fishing. An illegal net from a third Portuguese trawler was retrieved from the ocean floor and sailed to St. John’s for display on the waterfront. The net had undersized mesh and was full of small cod and flounder, species under moratoria.
for his money. “The Liberal government is committed to the development agency.” Coady’s own company, Newfound Genomics, has received $1.5 million from the Atlantic Innovations Fund. The fund, while not the same as the general ACOA pot, is administered by the federal agency. “It’s driving innovation in Atlantic Canada,” says Coady, who says her company had to come up with approximately three times the amount ACOA put on the table as part of the conditions to access federal funds. The firm also has to meet certain benchmarks. The company is using the money to fund research into inflammatory bowel disease. Such cutting-edge research is a struggle in a province where “angel investors” are almost impossible to find. “That’s one of the blessings of ACOA, it does help us attract investment capital,” says Coady. “It does focus on business potential in our province.” Hearn and Norman agree that ACOA really comes in to its own when it funds community-based programs such as the Colony of Avalon, which was created to preserve, interpret and develop the 17th century community that lies beneath what is now Ferrryland. “The Colony of Avalon is drawing thousands of people each year,” says Hearn. Development, says Norman, must come from the bottom up. A bureaucrat “sitting at a desk in Ottawa” just doesn’t get it. “There’s people out in rural communities in this province and even here in this riding that have brilliant ideas about how to develop their local economies. I firmly believe that they’re the best ones to make decisions about how money should be spent to develop those economies.”
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The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
NEWS
Page 9
‘Will of the people’ MP for Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte confident with his re-election chances, rival candidates say the riding is ready for a new voice By Clare-Marie Gosse For The Sunday Independent
W
hat might a 37-year-old biologist, 57-year-old grandmother and educational writer, and a 21-year-old student have in common? They’re all competing for election in the federal riding of Humber–St. Barbe–Baie Verte on the island’s west coast. Incumbent Gerry Byrne, the biologist, is defending his seat against Conservative runner Wynanne Downer, the grandmother, and Green Party contender Steve Durant, the student. Byrne has held the seat since 1996 when, at the tender age of 29, he won a byelection to replace Brian Tobin, then-federal Fisheries minister. Tobin returned to Newfoundland to take a successful shot at the premier’s chair
and Byrne, Tobin’s right-handman, replaced his mentor in Ottawa. In a telephone interview with The Sunday Independent, Byrne says he feels continued support from his constituents. “People are saying to me, ‘Gerry, you made a commitment to us, and you have done exactly what you said you would do.’ And now I’m asking them for the opportunity to do more.” Byrne says he’s still devoted to the rural issues he first encountered working as a biologist on the Northern Peninsula, but these days he chooses to tackle them under the hat of parliamentarian. “That’s where I got a really strong, rounded understanding for rural Newfoundland and Labrador, not only the challenges faced, but what positive things can be accomplished by investing
in the right areas.” Byrne cites investments in community infrastructure and community-employment projects as being at the top of his agenda. But then his commitment to landing funds for his own riding — including a $30-million jobcreation program approved in response to the closure of the Gulf and northern cod fisheries in April 2003 — attracted criticism from rival politicians. They charged Byrne with approving more projects for his own riding than other areas around the province. Byrne says the criticism has only served to heighten his popularity with constituents. “I am stubborn, and I take my job very, very seriously. My friends say I take myself a little too seriously, and I accept that, it’s who I am. I like to think of
myself as being very pragmatic. Before I come to any compromise, I come to my stubbornness.” Byrne admits his work keeps him busy, so any spare time he has is spent with his family. “Many MPs have chosen to relocate their families to Ottawa, but I’ve chosen the reverse. I spend all of my free time in my riding, it’s the place that I want to raise my two-year-old son.” Conservative contender Wynanne Downer is also a local. She feels that the riding is ready for a new voice, and calls herself a “community activist. “(Gerry Byrne) has been in for a very long time,” she says, “but I think we need more effective leadership, consensus building and also collaboration. Women’s style of leadership is different to the male style, we’re interested in
be there (for even less)
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working at the grass roots level, the community level.” Downer mentions her success in lobbying the provincial government to supply the Western Memorial Hospital in Corner Brook with a much-needed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) unit. “People put their trust in me to lead a campaign and they know I’ll stay with it until the job is done,” she says. Downer is currently an educational consultant with a provincial publishing company for curriculum materials. She explains how her career in education — as well as time spent as an advisor for the local health board — has served to shape her political priorities. “Newfoundland and Labrador has been ignored by the federal government, and I’m very upset with our education and health returns. My concern is that 10 years ago the federal government was looking after 50 per cent of the health care and education, and of course social programs in this province, but that amount has been reduced to less than 16 per cent right now.” Downer says Byrne has failed to adequately address lifestyle issues such as unemployment, poor education, health, and child poverty. As a self proclaimed “hard worker interested in people and in identifying the issues,” Downer says she’s ready to step up. She says she would like to see more young people given the choice to remain in the province. Her own three children have moved away, and she has to travel to Nevada to visit her grandson, Haydn. As one of those “young people,” Green Party candidate Steve Durant can relate. He’s currently living at home in Kingston, Ontario with his partner, Jennifer, writing his honours thesis for a Memorial University degree in political science. “My top campaign issues first off are opportunities for youth,” he says. “That mainly means creating educational and employment based opportunities within Newfoundland and Labrador. Secondly the environment is a big issue (in this province) and throughout Canada. By taking the environment into account in all of our decision-making, I think that (the Green Party) has a lot to offer.” Durant’s family live in Ontario, but his mother is originally from Trinity Bay. He also ran in the federal byelection for St. John’s East in October 2003, and although he has never lived in the western end of the island, he calls it one of his “favourite places to visit.” Byrnes’s opposing candidates offer the riding a diversity of choice, but whether they can present any challenge remains to be seen. The Member of Parliament remains pragmatic. “Whatever happens on the evening of June 28, I will accept as being the will of the people of Humber–St. Barbe–Baie Verte, but I have never, ever felt as confident and as supported as I do in the election of June 2004.”
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NEWS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Glass Houses
by Jeff Ducharme
Keep your house in order and play nice Editor’s note: The following are excerpts from hansard, the official transcript of the House of Assembly, for the week of May 31 to June 3. 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. FABIAN MANNING (PC, Placentia-St. Mary’s): “Just to clarify it, I was sitting down having a chat with the minister of Government Services. I do not know where the member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair came up with the idea that she was laughing at something that she was saying; because, to be honest with you, we were not listening that intently to what you were saying after the first five minutes.” Yvonne Jones, member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, does tend to drone on about things, but that’s her job and her right. Let’s hope that Manning doesn’t get too riled up because he may try to give Jones a smack in the gob. That being said, we’re all putting our money on the lady from Labrador. Jones was speaking about a number of issues including 5 Wing Goose, health care and roads. ANNA THISTLE (Liberal, Grand Falls-Buchans): “I am
delighted that you are setting the decorum here as it should be, because this is an honourable House and we must do our best, being elected by the people of this province, to respect the rules of this House and represent our people well. Some of the behaviour that has been going on here of late calls into question the decorum of this House for certain.” I don’t think there’s any question that the House of Assembly has lost what few shreds of decorum may have remained. While there are always going to be catcalls and personal barbs hurled from side-to-side, these boys and girls really don’t play and work well with others.
DIANE WHALEN (PC, Conception Bay East-Bell Island): “We also want to ensure the financial stability of companies starting up. This is why we are increasing the minimum amount of capital required to start a company to $3 million from the current $1 million. We think this is a more practical
figure in this day and age. The capital requirement has not changed in about 20 years. Mr. Speaker, increasing the requirement ensures companies starting up have significant investment behind them, and that they are serious about undertaking the business venture. Companies must also give six months notice before withdrawing from the auto insurance market in the province. If not, the penalty is a minimum fine of $100,000, up to a maximum of $1 million.” You go minister. While the recent insurance legislation is not perfect and Liberals feel it fell short in some areas, it’s a first step in the right direction and plays hardball with the insurance companies. CHARLENE JOHNSON (PC, Trinity-Bay de Verde): “Personally, we need to get much stiffer on drinking and driving. I am sure Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Students Against Drunk Drivers, and the general public as a whole, would be very happy with where we are going to take this down the road because it is certainly an issue. It is something that I am sure everybody in this House has been hit home in one way or another, by somebody being killed by a drunk driver. There is a lot more to be done.” Amen. Johnson was speaking in support of the new insurance
legislation. JACK HARRIS (NDP, Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi): “I wonder how this minister has a year-old report, it is prepared under his direction, for events that took place six months before they were elected?” Harris was wondering how Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan could present the annual Finance report for 2002-2003 under his name when he wasn’t the minister at the time — shifts in time-space continuum notwithstanding. ED BYRNE (PC, Kilbride): “The member for Signal HillQuidi Vidi raises an interesting point. In politics sometimes, I say to him, there are cruel ironies, and one of them is the fact that we, as a new government, have to present reports by the old government. The fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, they failed to present them. We have to. We do not take much solace in all of that, but we do take our obligations very seriously …” Something tells me that the people of this province and Byrne would differ when it came to the definition of “cruel ironies,” considering how the Tories have stepped away from many of the promises in the Blue Book. TREVOR TAYLOR (PC, The Straits-White Bay): “Mr. chairman, I do not appreciate it when anybody impedes motives on
me and I would not profess to do it or would not try to do it to any other member in this House. If the member is doing what he thinks is in the best interest of the people of the fishery and I take his comments as being legitimate and bonafide. I said that we all need to, in the industry, take our jobs seriously, and we do. There are serious issues here that need to be clarified. So, Mr. chairman, if the member is feeling a little bit sensitive today, than I apologize.” Liberal Fisheries critic Gerry Reid and Taylor had a sparring match on June 3 over the proposed shrimp auction. Reid had earlier accused Taylor of misleading the House and then wondered why Taylor was getting so “testy” when the Fisheries minister got offended. The pair’s antics were witnessed by students from St. Mark’s school in King’s Cove. Considering the childish behaviour in the House, the students learned one thing: Chronological age and maturity are not necessarily the same thing.
French connection Independent candidate says province can’t blame Quebec
By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent
Q
uebec is not the bad guy in the infamous Churchill Falls contract and with the possibility of a minority government looming, Newfoundland MPs may want to form an alliance, says John Lannon. “You can’t blame Quebec,” says Lannon, who’s running as an independent candidate in the federal riding of BonavistaExploits. “You can’t blame the people of this country. You can blame the bureaucrats, the political structure of Ottawa that lets it continue to be a country that supports those two main provinces (Ontario and Quebec).” The deal that was signed with Quebec for power from the lower Churchill River nets Hydro Quebec an estimated $1 billion a year compared to Newfoundland’s pittance. Signed in 1969, the contract doesn’t expire until 2041. “We have to realize the accountability stops in the mirror. Ultimately we have to be the change we wish to see,” says Lannon, an entrepreneur. In a March interview with The Sunday Independent, provincial Liberal leader Roger Grimes urged Newfoundland and Labrador’s seven MPs to form a bloc-type party along the lines of the Bloc Quebecois. “What we need in Newfound-
land and Labrador is people that are going to absolutely put their whole political careers on the line for getting something for us and I don’t think there’s been enough of that,” Grimes told The Independent in a story that drew national attention. Grimes declined a request for an interview recently, saying, ironically enough, he’s had his say on the issue and further comments would unduly influence tion. If a minority government is the order of the day come June 28, then opposition parties will be scrambling to form coalitions. Lannon says that MPs from this province could make alliances work with Bloc MPs, but he says the Churchill Falls contract would have to be addressed first. “They are a country within a country, but they don’t have the
resources,” says Lannon. “The only way they could walk out with us, the only way that we could walk out with them is that they address inequities, the billions of dollars … “We are not looking for litigation. We’re not looking for blame. We want accountability.” Lannon has had a contract drawn up for any independent candidates that come forward (they have until June 7 to file their nomination papers) that will make them accountable when, and if, they get to Ottawa. “We have sent some of our best and brightest to Ottawa, or so we thought, and saw what it did to them. We cannot exist within that system,” says Lannon. “The essence of democracy is dissent and this is about honour. If they are not willing to honour this place, then they are not fit for it.” Independent candidate John Lannon
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June 6, 2004
Page 11
The Sunday Independent
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Crab fishing off Bay Bulls on the Southern Shore
A
t three o’clock in the morning Bay Bulls harbour is alive as fishing boats sputter out to sea. Two hours and five miles later, the view is confusing and bewildering to a landlubber — all around there’s ocean and sky. The salty
stench of the sea mixes with mackerel that’s been chopped up for bait, and the 35-foot boat seems the size of a shoebox, the way it rocks violently with the waves. The four crew of the Stephen K. dress in oil skins as the vessel stops at the first string of crab pots and
the monotonous work begins. Kenny Williams hooks a rope from the ocean’s surface. He attaches the rope to a pulley system and hauls the first crab pot aboard. Inside are a half dozen pink squirming and pinching crab. Kenny’s wife, Carm, along with
crewmember Terry Joyce, stand at either end of the sorting table, a square wooden tray with a hole and chute that leads into the hold below where the crab are stored. Doug Williams, Kenny’s brother,
PHOTOS BY PAUL DALY / STORY BY ALISHA MORRISSEY
Continued on page 12
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From page 11 pulls free a knot at the side of the crab pot and shakes the crustaceans free. The few crab that hold on are poked and prodded by Joyce until their claws finally give up their hold on the net, dropping into the sorting chute. The crab sneer at the fishermen with mouths that open and close vertically, a surreal sight from another world. Once the first pot is emptied all hands begin work; they’re diligent but silent. Wordlessly, they move around the boat, focused at the task at hand. They know what they have to do and, aside from a few grunts, little is said for hours. The only sound besides the waves against the boat, and there’s always that, is the static hiss of VOCM playing in the background. The experience is almost religious. Joyce and Carm measure crab bodies with plastic gauges secured to their wrists with rubber bands. Crab smaller than 3 5/8 inches are casually thrown over their shoulders back into the ocean. Some of the crustaceans grip the blue rubber gloves of the fishermen with their claws before being shoved down the chute. “If that (the guage) goes down over his back,” demonstrates Doug on a smaller crab, “then he goes back and we’ll get him next year.” Doug baits the emptied pot by filling an old tobacco can with fish parts and skewers another full mackerel with wire and attaches both the can and fish to the inside of the net. The pot is placed at the back of the boat, ready to be returned to the sea, as another is pulled aboard. The smell is overpowering; lips taste like brine and salt. Seagulls surround the boat waiting for any morsel of wasted bait. Soon the squawking and squealing are the only noises heard besides the breathing of the crew and the country music rising from a radio station so far away on shore. This process continues until all 50 pots on the string have been emptied and replaced by newly baited pots that will be picked up the next morning. The brothers, Kenny and Doug, climb down into the hold and shovel ice over the crab. Once that’s done, they climb back up and Doug takes the helm to move on to the next string. The engine grinds to life as Doug softly mentions how the Stephen K., a brand-new boat owned by the brothers, was named after Kenny’s son who was killed a few years ago in a car crash. Inside the wheelhouse most of the surfaces are plywood. Carm shouts over the motor that her husband and his brother thought it was more important to fish their crab before finishing the boat. “When it’s done there will be bunks below,” she says, pointing to a hole under the helm where lifejackets and survival suits are kept. Shadows of the waves outside can be seen in silhouette pounding against the red fibreglass hull. There’s no bathroom. At one point, Carm orders the men into the wheelhouse so she can have privacy to relieve herself in a bucket on the boat’s deck. “They’re not used to having women on board,” she says, grinning after she allows the men to return to their work.
IN CAMERA
Doug takes his place at the wheel. His wedding ring, a simple gold band, gleams against the tanned skin of his hand. The wheel itself is lacquered and shiny. It looks to be the only part of the wheelhouse that’s completed. Doug waves towards the Global Positioning System (GPS) and admits it makes his job easier. He taps on a white box containing the large compass. “But she’ll never go out,” he says. Doug and Kenny have fished together as partners for more than 20 years. Carm began fishing only a week before and, peeking out from under her toque, says she’s just figuring out how to avoid seasickness — Gravol, and lots of it. Joyce, an unemployed firefighter, says whenever he feels the urge to run to the side of the boat, he takes a deep breath and looks straight out at the horizon. Fog begins to move in as the crew pulls up to their third line of pots. The gulls follow and the boat sways. The crew agrees it’s a beautiful day for fishing. They say there are never really calm seas and blue skies so far from shore. Lunch is taken in shifts — sandwiches, mainly, eaten whenever each fisherman can get away for a bite or two. The brothers seem to have a sweet tooth, offering up brownies, cookies, chips and chocolate bars. “Eating on the run,” says Carm, chewing a mouthful of sandwich and measuring a crab. Over and over the pots are hauled in, emptied, re-baited, stacked and dumped out to sea. Finally the last pot is hauled aboard. The four stand over the wooden tray as a pot with dozens of crab is dumped in front of them. They toss some overboard; still more go down the chute. Finally all the crab is sorted and iced and all 50 pots are slowly dumped over the stern. “I’ve had enough of this. Let’s go in,” Doug says. Kenny appears with a hose and begins rinsing the deck. Seashells, kelp, barnacles from the backs of the crab — anything that has come up in the nets that isn’t profitable — is pushed over the side with the pressure of the water. The gulls go wild fighting and biting each other for scraps. The four fishermen peel off their oil skins and the steam rises from their clothing. Beads of sweat roll down their foreheads, oblivious to the chill of a cold damp day. Doug takes the wheel again, tufts of grey hair poke from beneath a beige baseball cap. Soon the solid ground of Bay Bulls harbour can be seen through the dense fog. Doug stood at the wheel for most of the day. Heading towards shore, he finally takes a seat and revisits the days of fishing cod and salmon. He shakes his head, saying those fish were taken from him. Doug says he’ll fish crab for as long as he can. At five o’clock in the evening the four begin unloading the day’s catch, 5,000 pounds of crab, from the hold. The port’s inspector keeps a watchful eye. When the fishermen are done they head home to a hot dinner and bed. The routine begins again at 3:30 a.m. the next morning, and the next, and the next … Such is a fisherman’s life.
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
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The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Gallery Lori Doody Printmaker
S
ince January, Lori Doody has been working in St. Michael’s printshop in St. John’s, printing work designed by 11 other local artists. Last week, she completed the portfolio of work. With that, she finished a three-year apprenticeship under printmaker and artist Jerry Evans — all the while working as a technical assistant at the printshop. It’s not official yet, but she’s completed all the requirements to be a master printer. “It’s weird. It’s like finishing a degree,” the 27-year-old says. “I would have celebrated if I didn’t have that cold everyone has … now I’m going to work on my own artwork, and try to make that work.” Doody, born and raised in St. John’s, received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook in 1998. Now that her latest educational foray is over, she plans to continue to explore the themes she’s fast becoming recognized for — clothing, boats, birds. Her exhibit Papier Couture, a series of prints of little black dresses, accessories and other items of clothing, has proven to have a long life. A version showed at the Annex Gallery at the Craft Council Gallery in 2001, followed by a second installment in the Rogue Gallery and an expanded show at the RCA Gallery in the LSPU Hall. Papier Couture recently visited Moncton, and will soon be on display in a gallery in Trois-Rivieres, Québec. “The dresses are travelling now,” she says with a laugh.
Next February, she’s got an exhibit titled Playing Dress-up opening at the Annex Gallery. That one will feature pottery and toys along her same themes. Doody says the drawings and prints seem to touch a chord with people right across the country. “They’re based on childhood drawings I did, exactly this size, when I was little. I had my whole wall covered with little sketchbook tear-outs,” she says. “I get people e-mailing me all the time to say things like ‘I did those drawings too.’” And she’s still fascinated with fashion — though not all the styles she admires find their way into her wardrobe. As she writes in her bio, “I like clothes, but I am not a clotheshorse. I have a small, manageable shopping problem, which I believe is a natural expression of any woman’s hunting gathering instincts.” In terms of printmaking, Doody alternates between lithography stones and etching on copper plates. Doody also works in collage — she loves Japanese paper, which she orders from a company in Montreal — and is starting to get back into painting and photography. For more on Doody’s work, visit www.papiercouture.com. — Stephanie Porter
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
June 6, 2004
Page 15
The Sunday Independent
BUSINESS & COMMERCE
A glass of Twillingate’s finest Notre Dame Winery offers distinct flavours including dogberry and partridgeberry-apple … pop the cork and taste Newfoundland TWILLINGATE By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent
F
or years, the basement of Winston Jennings’ home looked like a brewery. A devoted wine fan, he says there was always a batch or two of home brew in the works. Not anymore. He’s moved on to bigger things, trading in the five-gallon buckets for 2,400-gallon tanks. “It was a life-long dream to start a fruit winery,” says Jennings, chief executive officer of Notre Dame Winery in Twillingate. Notre Dame is one of two major wine operations in the province, the other being Rodrigues winery in Whitbourne. “I put it off for a number of years because I was working with other jobs and stuff like that,” Jennings continues. “One day I got laid off from my other job and decided it was a good time to do this.” That was seven years ago, and although Jennings is nonchalant and relaxed now when he talks, it’s obvious the transition from basement to big market took a lot of work. “I’m not a chemist by trade,” he says, “but when I started here I did a couple of the courses I needed to. I wouldn’t consider myself a brewmaster, I consider myself a wine-maker.” Jennings and his business partners found an ideal location for a winery in an old elementary school in Twillingate. The large white and green building still serves its original function: Now called the Islands Training Centre, the winery rents several of the classrooms to training institutions like the College of the North Atlantic and Marine Institute. But the gymnasium is all for Jennings and his craft. Large silver tanks line one wall — where the biggest batches are made. There are filters, chill tanks, refrigeration tanks, a fruit crusher and a wine press (“That replaces the foot-stomping,” Jennings says with a laugh). “We buy fruit and berries in season, keep them in the freezer up there in the corner, and we make wine all year long,” he says, gesturing around the room. “We get our bakeapples from Labrador, pretty much every-
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Winston Jennings, CEO of Notre Dame Wines, in his Twillingate winery.
thing else from the island. Everything we use is grown in the province.” Since opening its doors in 1998, Notre Dame Winery has continued to add equipment and
varieties of wine. The company now have the capacity to produce 30,000 cases of wine a year, and currently offers 14 varieties, including blueberry, dogberry, cherry, plum and par-
OSMOND’S FURNITURE
tridgeberry-apple. The bottling equipment is semi-automatic, meaning an employee has to physically put each bottle through the system — but the equipment is fully
sanitized and no one touches the mouth of the bottle, the taps, or the corks. A 2,400-gallon tank of brew will fill 14,500 750-millilitre bottles. Notre Dame currently employs 12 people, most on a part-time basis. On this day, the operation is quiet, with only Jennings and front office staff around to monitor the goings-on. Although wine is brewed all year long, the building itself becomes far busier in the summer when a couple thousand tourists stop by for a look. “I’m jack-of-all-trades here,” says Jennings, a Moreton’s Harbour native. “Today I might be the janitor and tomorrow I might be the general manager … I’m the wine maker and I also try to manage the business as well.” Jennings walks through the gym and down into an office. Bottles and equipment are everywhere; a periodic table hangs on the wall. This is Jennings’ lab, where he tests out new brews. “One of the big differences between fruit wines and grape wines, in fruit wines we have to add some purified water and some sugar,” he says. “The lab’s a little messy because I’ve been doing some work … the process is similar for each wine, although fruit and berries do work differently during the fermentation process. “The bottom line is that the taste test is the most important test. You can do all the lab tests you like but if it doesn’t taste good, there’s no point.” Jennings continues the tour up into the gift shop, at the front of the building. There, customers can buy all varieties of Notre Dame’s wine, souvenirs, and home brewing kits. He offers a taste of some of the wine. His personal favourite is raspberry. He says most customers prefer the sweeter varieties, such as partridgeberry-apple or rhubarb. Notre Dame sells wine across the province and country. the company is currently investigating possible international export markets. Looking forward, Jennings sees more, careful, expansion. “This is the older part of the building but it’s in good shape,” he says. “We have a lot of plans we want to do with it, but we’ve got to make some more money first.”
504 Water St. West, St. John’s 753-8110
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BUSINESS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Start spreadin’ the news Newfoundlanders in New York have a direct flight home
By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent
T
ourism and the oil and energy industries may seem like strange traveling companions but they’re just the ticket for Continental Airlines and the St. John’s International Airport. Rahsaan Johnson, a representative for Continental Airlines, says Newfoundland and Labrador as a tourism destination, coupled with the province’s booming oil market, gave Continental the perfect excuse to introduce daily return flights from New York City to St. John’s.
“Those two components … sort of made it make sense to start the service now and run through the summer,” Johnson told The Sunday Independent in a telephone interview from Houston, Texas. “(We have) a steady business traffic composed largely of travelers in the oil or energy industries wanting to get to St. John’s and some of the offshore areas to do their business,” he says. Bill Mahoney, chairman of the St. John’s International Airport Authority, which runs the airport, couldn’t agree more, calling the non-stop service to New York an “opportunity.”
“There’s a demand for that,” he says, “it’ll make it more convenient.” The tourism opportunities are unlimited, says Mahoney. American travellers want to visit destinations “off the beaten path,” says Johnson, adding tourists want to avoid larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver. Canadian travellers, Johnson says, want to go through the United States to reach cruising destinations and hot vacation spots like Florida. Mahoney says there are over 240 destinations out of Newark Airport — the landing strip for Continental.
‘Upheaval of my life’ Uncertainty the worst part of situation: Is the home Fennelly’s or isn’t it? From page 1 was out, it was the long weekend, and someone told me MylesLeger was having financial trouble. I was like, get me another drink! “I called my lawyer and he said yes, they were seeking bankruptcy protection and we wouldn’t know what was going to happen for a while … we’re in a holding pattern. I guess they know nothing more than I do.” On June 2, Justice Robert Hall appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers interim receiver for MylesLeger. The receiver now runs the company’s day-to-day financial dealings, controls future cash flow, has some borrowing power to keep the developer in business, and controls all property sales. Fennelly has been following the stories in the news, stories that have raised more questions than answers. She says she goes through every emotion in the book in any given day: She wakes up, hopeful, and her anxiety grows as the hours wear on. She walks by her would-be home every day, frustrated. “The house is completely done. I’ve seen it, I’ve walked through it, I think it needs some touch-up on the paint outside but I go by, and I think: Is that my
“I have 80 co-workers who ask me every day, what’s the news? I need to get on the intercom and say ‘I have no idea what’s going on with the house.’” — Joanne Fennelly
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
house or is that not my house?” Having already given notice on her apartment, Fennelly had to move her possessions into storage, and move back into her parents’ home. “I haven’t lived home in seven years so it’s strange,” she says. “And I don’t know where anything is. I wake up every morning and there’s stuff everywhere. “It’s an odd situation, an upheaval of my life. I have 80 coworkers who ask me every day, what’s the news? I need to get on the intercom and say ‘I have no idea what’s going on with the
house. We’re in a holding pattern.’” Jim Kirby, vice-president of PricewaterhouseCoopers, says people in Fennelly’s position should contact his company directly for information on their specific properties. He says it’s just a matter of time before titles can be cleared. “The company can still complete and sell properties, with our approval,” he says. “Certainly there’s been a delay of a few weeks … it’s still possible the company will declare bankruptcy, but it could also operate somewhat normally soon.” It’s that uncertainty that bothers Fennelly more than anything. “I have no timeframe on this,” she says. “I think it’s possible I won’t get my house and I think it’s possible I won’t get my money back, but I don’t know.”
Instead of having to travel to Toronto or Montreal, Newfoundlanders fly straight to New York and then on to other destinations. “It will provide another alternative, or a more convenient one,” says Mahoney. The rate for a round trip to New York with 14-day advance notice is $584 (plus tax), says Johnson. “That’s the cheapest price in the market.” The airport authority had expected to have a capacity of one million passengers a year by 2010 but in 2003 they serviced more than 950,000. Mahoney says the authority is already
tracking 20 per cent more passengers over last year and because of flights like the one to New York it should reach its goal much sooner than first thought. “In terms of tourism travel we’re way beyond what we had expected,” says Mahoney. The flights will continue throughout the summer and early fall, although they may be discontinued in the slower winter months, says Johnson. “We don’t see at this point that there’s enough traffic … in the low season to support the service but combined with the leisure traffic during the high season makes the service make sense.”
Fish fry
FPI still not commenting on sale as politicians put issue on simmer
T
wo weeks after The Sunday Independent broke the news that Fishery Products International is trying to sell almost half of its American operation, the issue seems to have lost its sizzle. When contacted by The Independent, a spokesman for FPI refused to comment, saying only that talks remain in preliminary stages. Premier Danny Williams has seen the plan and maintains that the province will guard the interests of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and “legislate” if the sale threatens the industry here. But, as of yet, the premier has no plans to pass legislation to protect the company that employs approximately 2,600 people, mostly in eight plants across the province. Critics are concerned the sale of the U.S. operation would kill the
Newfoundland plants because the production here is sent to the U.S. facility for further processing. The product produced here is also marketed by the American arm of FPI. Sources have told The Independent that FPI intends to sell 40 per cent of its U.S.-based marketing and value-added operation. Called FPI’s “jewel in the crown,” Icelandic Freezing Plants Corporation is said to be the buyer waiting in the wings. The company already owns 15 per cent of FPI and, until recently, sat on the board of directors. The sale is said to be a bid to pay down the $75 million debt incurred by FPI when its plants in the province were modernized. The sale of the U.S. operation could net the company an estimated $100 million. In 2003, FPI’s marketing and value-added arm recorded sales of $487 million.
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Teachers’ union ad campaign has nothing to do with collective bargaining: president By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent
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dvertisements on local television and radio stations aren’t a statement about expectations in upcoming teachers’ union contract talks, says Fred Douglas, but a warning about the condition of schools. “This speaks clearly to the state of the schools and what will be able to be offered in the schools and programming, class size and those kinds of things,” says Douglas, head of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association (NLTA). The campaign, produced by First Contact Communications, is expected to cost $50,000. The ads are running for four weeks in local television, radio and newspaper outlets around the province. The NLTA and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of School Councils are concerned about how job cuts, teacher workloads and class sizes will impact the education system next school year. Douglas says the ads have nothing to do with contract negotiations and that the Federation of School Councils, a
group representing the parents of students, wouldn’t be involved if it were labour related. “What that campaign has to do with is the learning condition of the child and that, of course, is why the Federation of School Councils is partnered with us … obviously they would not have any part of our collective bargaining or any aspect of it,” says Douglas. “Ideally, what we would have would be an infusion of teachers into the system so that we could concentrate on a more personal level with students who need more personalized instruction and attention.” An estimated 250 teaching units will be eliminated from the province’s school system next year. School boards will also be reduced and amalgamated. “It’s now to the point where it’s in a stage of crises,” says Douglas. The NLTA’s current contract expires Aug. 1, but Douglas says it will be quite some time before negotiations begin. “I would suspect that it would be sometime after Christmas before we can even get to the table.”
BUSINESS
Start the presses Striking Aliant workers still concerned about lack of media coverage By Alisha Morrissey The Sunday Independent
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liant and the union representing its striking employees bicker like a married couple … but not about labour issues. An apparent lack of publicity in the seven-week strike has been a sore spot for Ervan Cronk, lead negotiator for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ Union of Canada, which represents the majority of 4,300 striking Aliant workers across the Atlantic provinces. Cronk says there have been complaints from his members about the negative coverage of the picketers and the general lack of publicity surrounding strike issues. “The main vehicle to making it (the issues) public is the media. Quite frankly the media has, for at least a good part of the strike, tended to ignore the real issues … they would have preferred to talk about vandalism,” says Cronk Brenda Reid, spokeswoman for Aliant, says the company’s strategy all along was to avoid media scrutiny of the collective bargaining process. “We have simply chosen not to discuss publicly or in the media any details around our offer or the issues around this labour dispute,” she says. “Those discussions are more productive and
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Page 17
better suited for the bargaining table.” Cronk says frustration is mounting. “Every time the media wanted to talk to me they wanted to talk about what they wanted to talk about and you can only say so much about those events that you don’t have any knowledge of,” he says of media reports involving vandalism of Aliant property.
“People can accuse me of being cynical about it but you don’t bite the hand that feeds you” Ervan Cronk Cronk says the lack of publicity is directly related to advertising and the fact that many media outlets go hand in hand with telecommunications companies. “It’s no big secret that the media are largely controlled by big business and in this particular strike you don’t have to look far to see that some pretty key media outlets are owned by the same companies,” he says. Reid adamantly denies allegations media outlets are being silenced. “I don’t know, I can’t comment on it. I don’t know where it’s coming from,” says Reid. Cronk also alleges that advertising spending may be influenc-
ing media coverage. “People can accuse me of being cynical about it but you don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and it’s as simple as that.” Aliant has been running an advertising campaign making customers aware the company is “Here, for you.” Reid defends the campaign, saying customers need to be aware the telephone company’s services are still available. “We advertise as a normal part of our business at Aliant. We do a lot of advertising anyway.” “What we started doing early days in the labour dispute is we wanted to inform our customers about our commitment to serving them to the best of our ability. To let them know that we know there is a labour dispute and it certainly would not mean business as usual.” The reason there is little public attention, says Reid, is that dayto-day services aren’t impacted. “We are a private company,” she says, “but not really because every one has telephone service in one form or another but it’s simply that they are not affected by it.” Cronk says another reason for the lack of coverage could be that this isn’t the first time people are fighting for pensions, job security and health benefits. “That’s not news anymore.” No talks are scheduled between the two sides.
June 6, 2004
Page 18
The Sunday Independent
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Dominique Faget/AFP photo
They come for the sand and the sea. Crowds gather at one of the beaches near Montpellier in the south of France.
Vive la France
Two-hour lunch breaks, wine with every meal, suntanning in class, swimming in the Mediterranean — what’s not to love about the south of France? Voice from Away Montpellier, France By Brad Jeffrey For the Sunday Independent
I
think it all started from a conversation I had one night in bar off Water Street. A friend of mine was going to the University of Paul Valery in the south of France and introduced me to someone from St. John’s who had already been there. At that point I had already done a couple of stints working in the U.K. and I was itching to try living somewhere in continental Europe, preferably somewhere with better food and weather. I asked a lot of questions and everything they described sounded great to me. The entire exchange probably lasted 10 minutes and was half shouted over music with breath that smelled of Black Horse or India beer, but my mind was made up. They probably thought I was full of lager and empty promises, especially after it took almost two years and another prolonged period working in London before I finally got here. Now I have been here for a little over a year and I am in love with the place. Montpellier is the city I live in. A lot of people come here for the great weather and access to the
beaches that are just 20 minutes not think of myself as a serious stu- England as nannies and for girls away. It is a quite liberal and dent when I can reach out the win- who are coming here from other vibrant place, owing to its large stu- dow and touch a palm leaf or posi- countries to be nannies in Montdent population and cosmopolitan tion myself so that I can get a sun- pellier. We do the same thing for mixture. tan in the classroom. Also, there is people from here wanting to work There are three big universities the proliferation of graffiti and the as counsellors at kids’ camps in the and several smaller post-secondary toilets are literally holes in the U.S. institutions in a city with a popula- ground. There are only five of us worktion of approximately 250,000. The students are generally more ing together in the association and This translates into great and varied radical and politically active than we have to turn down applicants nightlife with a backdrop of tradi- those at most other universities. every day, so I am thankful to have tional French buildings a job that I like and that and streets in the city gives me lots of time to centre. pursue my interests Daily life centres around meal times, The original universisuch as eating croisnot just the food but the conversation. ty here is the medical sants and reading. Overall, the French spend more time school. It was the first in Eating is very France when it was important in France. conversing with people and enjoying the established in the 1100s. Two-hour lunch breaks daily rituals of food and drink, and less Nostradamus and the are the norm and it’s time commuting and working overtime. poet Rabelais were once not unusual for the students in Montpellier midday television and rumoured to have news to spend a week gone on frequent absinth benders in The food in the student cafeteria is doing 20-minute specials on bread the city streets. actually really good here, and fast- making. I have acquired all sorts of When I first arrived in Montpel- food outlets are not allowed on the new tastes since coming to France, lier I enrolled as a student in French campus. like Muscat and Foie Gras. I buy food almost every day language, and I am going to conI was very lucky to find work tinue my studies this fall. But I here because there is a lot of com- from the open-air farmers’ markets also work part-time teaching Eng- petition. There are lots of students and the little shops. Quite often I lish. The campus of the University and anglophones who live here and go to one place for wine, another of Paul Valery is one of the newer want to work here too. I worked for cheese, and the butcher for ones in the city. Though many of nights at an Australian bar for a meat. The wine is, of course, the buildings were constructed at while until I found my English exceptional, cheap and obligatory with just about every meal. People around the same time, it could teaching job with an association. hardly be more different from We don’t only teach, we also who pass by when I am eating selMemorial University. organize trips and events for our dom fail to say “bon appetit.” For one thing, there are a lot of members. We act as a liaison for Daily life centres around meal palm trees. For some reason I can- girls from here going to the U.S. or times, not just the food but the
conversation. Overall, the French spend more time conversing with people and enjoying the daily rituals of food and drink, and less time commuting and working overtime. I think it’s indicative of what I consider a socialist cultural tendency here, people work to live instead of the other way around, which seems to be what we are doing in most other western countries. For the moment I am very happy here, but there are signs that many of the things I like about the south of France may not last. On the perimeter of the city there are shopping malls and commercial areas going up that are every bit as hellish as Stavanger Drive in St. John’s. More people are buying cars and moving to these areas. Another danger is the cheap flights here from London, which cause me to fear an invasion of English on stag and hen parties. I have seen their effect in other parts of Europe and I can assure you that it does nothing to increase the cool factor in a city or town. I have a lot of hope for the French way of life because, like in Newfoundland, the people here have a lot of character. So I am hoping that they are able to preserve so many of the good things that they have working for them.
Page 19
INTERNATIONAL
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Memories of chaotic D-Day Sixtieth anniversary of invasion stir up buried feelings for Canadian vets
BERNIERES-SUR-MER, France The Canadian Press
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aj. Jack Gallagher remembers bringing reinforcements to Juno Beach on D-Day and arriving to a scene of chaos, but it wasn’t until the next day that he faced his moment of truth. After landing on Juno Beach amid mortar fire, about 90 minutes after the invasion began on June 6, 1944, Gallagher and other members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment began to make their way inland. “It was almost organized chaos,” he says. “There was tremendous chaos on the beach but they were being fed through the gap and so the organization was quite tremendous.” But for Gallagher, the first big test of the Second World War came on the night of June 7, when he was given orders to help hold the line after members of the Winnipeg Rifles were overrun by one of German Gen. Kurt Meyer’s most feared Nazi SS units in an orchard about seven kilometres from the beachfront. It turned out the orchard had strategic importance because if the Nazis had managed to punch their way through it in their counter-attack, they would have had a clear route back to the beach. Until then, Gallagher wasn’t sure how he would react in combat. “You don’t know how you are going to behave when somebody shoots at you, and
Photo by Giles Penfound/British Army via Getty Images
British D-Day veterans Jack Tilley, 79, and Albert Lewis, 83, take a stroll as rehearsals for D-Day get under way on the beach at Arromache in Normandy, France. Almost 900 United Kingdom servicemen and women joined thousands of D-Day veterans in Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of what remains the biggest military operation ever undertaken.
this counter-attack was almost like watching a movie to see what my reaction was,” says Gallagher, 83, of Vancouver. “I was kind of relieved to find I was frightened, but I wasn’t terrified.” Grant Suche, 82, was among the Winnipeg
Rifles who managed to escape from the orchard, but not before he suffered a shrapnel injury that kept him out of the war for a couple of months until his wounds were treated and healed. “You could see the Germans at the other
Newfoundland exhibit opens in Waterford
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n exhibition on Newfoundland is now open at the Waterford Museum of Treasures in Waterford, Ireland. The exhibition celebrates links forged from the 18th century to the first two decades of the 19th century, when large numbers of people emigrated from the southeast of Ireland, the majority from within a 30-mile radius of Waterford. In Newfoundland today over half the population is of Irish origin. Generations of seasonal migrants went out from Waterford in the spring for one fishing season, or more often, two fishing seasons/summers and the intervening winter. Over time people began to make Newfoundland their permanent home. Those who migrated came from confined areas in Ireland and settled in isolated coves and harbours in Newfoundland, and continued to have contact with their homeport and parishes. This ensured that their accent, language and culture remained intact. Indeed some elements of southeast culture persisted in Newfoundland long after they had gone out of fashion in Ireland.
WANTED
The Newfoundland fishery provided great opportunities, not open to them in Ireland, for landless labourers and younger sons and daughters of farmers to earn money. This was an element in protecting southeast Ireland from the worst excesses of the Great Famine. A man of the time stated: “A fisherman could return in autumn with a load of money, and keep the old couple snug and comfortable, and give his sister a pretty little fortune when her turn came to be married.” By the beginning of the 19th century Newfoundland was referred to as “merely Waterford parted from the sea” while in another comment Newfoundland was called “Transatlantic Waterford.” The exhibition itself consists of an interactive display along the themes of migration and settlement, fishery and trade, politics and religion, women and cultureand a display of 19th century photographs of Waterford and Newfoundland. The show, sponsored by the Irish Newfoundland Partnership and Waterford City Council, emphasizes the bravery and endurance of those who journeyed to Newfoundland and finally settled there.
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end (of the orchard) coming in and the tanks coming in,” says Suche, a rifleman who lives in Winnipeg. Along with his sergeant major, Suche managed to take cover in a field, but not for long. “We started to crawl in the field and they were mowing down the grain, they were just cutting the tops off it,” he said. After scrambling behind a tree, the two men thought they’d found better cover. “I guess the Germans thought that’s a good place, they’ll probably be hiding there, and they shelled it,” said Suche, who suffered his injuries from the shelling. When the Canadian Scottish came to their rescue, it led to a few more tense moments for the injured pair. “These guys came along and scared the hell out of us,” he says, motioning to Gallagher as the two men sipped champagne at a commemoration event for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. “Everybody’s trigger happy as can be.” The return to Normandy is the first one since the war for Gallagher, who hasn’t been able to find the time to make a journey that has brought back deeply buried memories. “I found I was choked up, which I didn’t expect,” he added. “I don’t talk about this a lot, but surrounded by a whole bunch of guys who also had a similar experience, I find that it does stir up all sorts of memories.”
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.
Circulation Representative Duties to include, but not limited to: • Recruit youth & adult carriers for the North East Avalon region; • Assist in setting up home carrier routes; • Develop new single carrier opportunities for the newspaper, including some news dealer collections; • Monitor unsold copies on a weekly basis; • Help develop new circulation promotion strategies. Requirements: Proven experience in circulation sales would be an asset but not a requirement, as training will be provided; Ability to work well with young people and possess good time management and communication skills; Working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite
Advertising Sales Representative(s)
If one of these opportunities seems suited to 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 however only those selected for an interview will be contacted. No telephone calls please.
Duties to include, but not limited to: • Identify and pursue new advertising sales opportunities; • Maintain and grow client relationships; • Provide a superior level of customer service to all clients; • Ensure that all documentation is up to date, accurate and submitted in a timely fashion Requirements: University degree in business or marketing would be an asset; Proven experience in print advertising sales; Ability to work well in a dynamic environment; Working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite
June 6, 2004
Page 20
The Sunday Independent
LIFE & TIMES
Newfoundland was their destiny War at home in former Yugoslavia was like St. John’s and Mount Pearl suddenly declaring themselves enemies; couple finds new home, education, in St. John’s Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a six-part series called The New Newfoundlanders, snapshots of some of the new faces and communities in the province. By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent oran Spaic says he has a hard time answering when people ask him where he comes from. It’s a difficult question, he says, when the country he grew up in no longer exists. Goran and his wife Tamara were born and raised in the former Yugoslavia. War broke out there in 1992, and the young couple — then unmarried — weren’t long to leave. The area Goran used to live in is the current Bosnia-Herzegovina. “I have difficulty saying I am from Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Goran says, “because I do not share anything with that country, the country where I am born is Yugoslavia and these values that Yugoslavia had, they are destroyed. “I say always I am from the former Yugoslavia. That Yugoslavia was destroyed in 1992.” The pair has been living in St. John’s for six years now. Both graduated from Memorial in late May: Goran has a bachelor of commerce; Tamara is an MD. Goran looks at his wife, sitting close beside him on the couch in their cozy apartment on Freshwater Road in St. John’s. She reaches over, lightly touching his leg. “He basically left because he disagreed with the war politics,” she says. “He didn’t want to fight his neighbours. He didn’t want to be part of the war, didn’t want to kill anyone … it’s an ethnic war and you have to expect things like that.” Tamara points out that they’re both from mixed families, of different nationalities, different religions. “We were both raised in very tolerant families and we looked at the people as equal in spite of everything. Then the war started and we couldn’t find our place. It totally didn’t make sense,” she says. “We were being asked to pick sides … Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian … I couldn’t believe it was happening.” Goran makes an analogy: The war at home was like St. John’s and Mount Pearl suddenly declaring themselves enemies. You might have to fight against one side, even though you may have friends and family in the rival city. So they left. In 1992, Goran walked out of law school and moved to Germany to work as a nurse. Tamara, who had been in medical school in Sarajevo, went to
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study in Belgrade. They saw each other only during the summers. Even that wasn’t easy; Tamara says she was frequently denied a visitor’s visa because the authorities were concerned she wouldn’t leave once it expired. Six years later, they still hadn’t found a way to live together in Europe and applied to immigrate to Canada. “She went to Belgrade and got all her paperwork; I went to the embassy in Germany. We met at the Frankfurt airport and flew off together,” Goran says. “If we didn’t get landed immigrant status, I don’t know when we would have actually been able to get together.” Goran says Canada was their first choice for a new home. He sees similarities between the Canadian culture and the former Yugoslavian: Many nationalities, different languages, a diverse country at peace. “We wanted a country that accepts immigrants as equal people,” adds Tamara. Goran interjects. “In Germany, no matter how long you are there, you will never be German. Here in Newfoundland, everyone almost considers themselves immigrants, if it’s six months ago or 200 years ago. I like that. I’ve never felt different here.” It helped that the couple both had a good handle on the English language. They didn’t indicate a preference for a destination within Canada, but are convinced Newfoundland was their destiny. Continued on page 21
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Page 21
LIFE & TIMES
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Local Spins
by Rick Bailey
Girls rock and guys grind Fireign, Valley of Unrest (Independent, 2002)
The Firewires / Jill Porter Band / Rhiannon Thomas @ CBTGs, Saturday, May 22
I
was chatting to a friend of mine the other day, remembering old metal bands we’d had exposure to. You know, Priest, Sabbath, Maiden and countless others from the almighty and unholy band lexicon. So it was with a nostalgic heart for heaviness that I listened to Valley of Unrest from local grinders Fireign. Be warned – this is not an album for those with neck problems or sensitive hearing. The shredding found on this disc is for able and willing headbangers and metal veterans. From the furious speed of the creepy opening track, Killer in the Night, you figure out that walking home alone isn’t in the cards. More tales of the evil that men do are told in The Legend Of Crusher, galloping at breakneck pace with full intent to devour. Death From the Forest recalls ancient metal with a moody intro, harmonized guitar licks and classic attack. Bassist and lyricist Harry Clarke’s low, ill-omened vocal growl prevails on thrashers Deadtime and Soldiers Of War, surging ever forward with manic buzzsaw guitar from Brian King and melodic frenzy from lead player Trevor Leonard. An islander’s count starts the crunching and squealing of Iron Stake, piercing with an angry wasp solo. Drummer Dale Parsons gives no
sign of letting up his thunderous assault on the doom-filled epic title cut, made complete with a busy riff and tempo arrangement and Clarke quoting Edgar Allen Poe. This one is a darkly satisfying tune with an admirable fade at the end. The album ends with a short and clean composition, What Lies Within Us, a calming reflection after the previous carnage. Rick Hollett and Andrew Pike helped engineer and produce Fireign’s deadly disc, one that’s destined to smolder in local CD players for years to come.
Fireign distributed a four-song, enhanced CD demo this year, again aided by Rick Hollett, for a limited run and free of charge. The goal is to expand their already loyal Newfoundland fan base across international waters, which shouldn’t be a difficult task for the determined and well-versed metal marauders. For anyone who thirsts for the heaviest and blackest, you’ll get a fearful mix of old and new sound with Valley of Unrest. These guys know how to conquer island metal with an armoured fist.
A Night Of … Girls Rock, Part 2 was the official show billing, only in part because of the major female stage presence involved. I wondered if missing Part 1 would spoil the Part 2 experience, and then stopped those silly thoughts, knowing that music follows its own script. Rhiannon Thomas was on stage when I got there, playing clean electric guitar in a solo set, which she’s been doing much more of lately. She belted out some of her fresh indie pop, including my fave from The Coast Guard, Brownsville, and tossed in a Betty Severt cover for good measure. Her voice was charmingly timid, yet forceful when she wanted it to be, allowing her to step away from the mic and carry it throughout the bar. Thomas confidently opened the night for the exceptional performances that followed. Next, Jill Porter and company went for an acoustic set, sans drums. Lynn Panting played solid bass and backed Porter’s powerful vocal tone and guitar, while Brad Power filled it out with choice guitar licks. Porter’s brand of countryside rock hits are captivating when performed with the full electric band, and it was no different to hear her upbeat songs of love, misfortune and staying power stripped
down to bare essentials. That’s what lasting songs should be all about. Porter’s voice is like a partridgeberry-flavoured, soft-serve cone from a highway service station – smooth and delectable but with a wild natural kick. I’m sure there’s no cooling them down this summer. Finally, headlining trio The Firewires smacked a heavy set of acoustic alt-rock to keep the able crowd moving on their feet. Fronted by a feisty L.B., with her laidback rocker chick style, the band plowed through original tunes that swung, strummed and shifted with strong bass and drum work. The bobble-headed crowd nodded their approval. They played tight for their second time as a group, so we were told. They were energy-packed and made for an edgy finish to the evening. Although everyone was away for the long weekend and the night seemed tamer because of it, “girls night out” was surely a rocker for the relaxed guys and gals listening. The show also proved that you don’t require ear-splitting, fuzzedout volumes to truly take over. Maybe Part 3 will be louder … either way, there’s no denying girls rock. Rick Bailey is a musician and radio DJ. His next column appears June 20.
‘Great place to reach your dreams and goals’ From page 20 They commend the Association for New Canadians for meeting them the night in February 1998 when they landed in St. John’s for the first time. The couple were taken to a reception house, given help finding a permanent place to live, and answers to their many questions. “It was really nice because we could immediately see what were our prospects here,” says Goran. Goran took some courses to brush up his English; Tamara met with the dean of the medical school to see if any of her European university credits would be honoured on this side of the Atlantic (half of her undergrad courses counted, but none of her medical work). By the following September, she was a full-time student at Memorial, working to finish a degree in biochemistry. Two years later she applied for the highly competitive medical school program. She was accepted. “I was quite happy to go through the university and schooling system,” Tamara says. “It gave me a good look from the inside, to meet people, and see how society in general works. “I probably could have taken a year off my studies if I had done things differently, but I wouldn’t change anything. There were things that I’d done before, but medicine is so dynamic, there are so many new things every day, there is always something to learn. I didn’t feel for one moment I was
losing my time.” same things, we went to the same of support from us and we are Goran says the law system is university.” lucky we can support them from completely different in Canada, Goran’s mother and sister — time to time,” says Tamara, whose and he felt he didn’t have the com- and her husband and daughters — own parents moved to Denmark in mand of English law school would still live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1993. demand. He began Tamara and Goran working towards a will be moving to Lon“We always had to fight for absolutely business degree in don, Ontario at the end everything but I think because we never January 1999, just of June so Tamara can one year after landcomplete her residenhad anything easy we never really were in ing on Canadian soil. cy. Goran will look for despair, we believed we would succeed if He, too, is glad he a job, probably as an we really wanted to succeed … Canada is a went through the accountant. He still school system. great place to reach your dreams and goals.” hopes, someday, to fin“This way, you ish his law degree. — Tamara Spaic share more values “That’s the great with others,” he thing about Canada, explains. “Basically I think I feel They thought about trying to bring it’s never too late,” says Goran more accepted because I went them to Canada, but say the effort with a smile. through all the same steps as some- might not be worthwhile. “We always had to fight for one from Placentia. We share the “They require a certain amount absolutely everything but I think
because we never had anything easy we never really were in despair, we believed we would succeed if we really wanted to succeed,” says Tamara. “Canada is a great place to reach your dreams and goals.” Tamara, 32 and Goran, 37 have been together through thick and thin for 16 years. “We are so happy to have each other. These things we do are with the support of the other. When I am down, he’s up and the other way,” Tamara says. “Even though there have been hard times and there were a lot of tears, now we can look back and say, ‘Oh, this was such a unique experience, not many have this kind of story to tell.’”
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
LIFE & TIMES
Page 22
Political slam
Green Party candidate Sailor White will fight to the death By Jeff Ducharme The Sunday Independent
tion and the Green Party is one of them,” he says. Unlike the Green Party’s new leader, Jim Harris, who’s bid to be involved in the national leaders’ debate was vetoed by the major parties, White has been invited to a verbal match with his political adversaries on June 23 in Gander. Considering White’s stature as a member of the Canadian Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, the other candidates might want to avoid getting the champ all riled up. Not to mention the fact that White once claimed that he killed seals by punching them, that is, until “Fisheries” told him he had to use a baseball bat. “I’m in the mood for a good argument and then I tell the Liberals and Conservatives and the NDP what I think of them.” As long as the other candidates behave, White says he won’t put anyone in a headlock. “If I have to body slam any of the issues home, I’ll do it.” The wrestling analogies don’t bother the former world champion. His three decades of wrestling brought him to the top of the wrestling mountain, but the money and the fame is also what sent him crashing to the bottom. “It was part of my life for 30 years,” says White when asked if he minds the flurry of wrestling analogies that get thrown his way each time he pops up on the radar screen.
A
fter a 30-year wrestling career, the only thing Ed “Sailor” White has to show for it are the scars on his forehead from the razor blades he used to draw blood and battered memories of glory past. After a wrestling career that took him around the world and made him International and World Wrestling Federation TagTeam Champion in the early 1980s as Moondog King, drugs and booze sent his life spiraling out of control. With a stint in jail for assault, drug possession and uttering death threats, the boy from a poor section of St. John’s found God and tried to pick up the pieces of a life shattered by success. SHARE OF BATTLES During his 55 years, White has fought his share of memorable battles. His latest struggle promises to be just as memorable. “The Liberals are nothing but a bunch of cheats,” White told The Sunday Independent from Gander. “The Conservatives have too many hidden agendas … and the NDP, he (leader Jack Layton) don’t know his left from his right and he’s putting the blame on everybody else,” says White in a gravelly voice that’s enough to make the most fearless politician hide behind the nearest campaign sign. This is White’s second attempt to pin a seat in the House of Commons. He wrestled some 600 votes and finished fifth in a 2000 federal byelection that saw Loyola Hearn become the MP for the federal riding of St. John’s West (now St. John’s South). White was “tickled to death” with his fifth-place, dead-last finish. White, who’s no stranger to being on the fringe, will run as Green Party candidate in the federal riding of Bonavista-Exploits against Conservative incumbent Rex Barnes. “Hopefully, I’m going to be wrestling with the youth,” says White. “I would like to get something for the youth. I would like to get some sort of centre where they can go in the evenings and have something to do. Right now they have nothing to do and they got nowhere to go.” The media, though, might be wise to give White a wide berth. “That’s all you talk about is the Liberals, the Conservatives, NDP — you never, never, never mention the Green Party,” says White, his tone changing and volume
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Green Party candidate Ed “Sailor” White.
increasing. “We got 308 candidates across Canada. The NDP don’t have that many. We are a force to be reckoned with.” The Green Party has come a long way since the last federal election when they
fielded only one candidate in Newfoundland and Labrador. They now have candidates in all 308 ridings across the country and sit at six per cent in the polls. “There is four parties in the federal elec-
‘MOUTH OF THE SOUTH’ Barely taking a breath when asked to compare the Grit and Tory leaders to wrestlers from his past days in the ring, White says Paul Martin is Jimmy “the mouth of the south” Hart and Conservative leader Stephen Harper is “Abdullah the Butcher.” “Such as the Liberals just done, they just pulled a tag-team match, Chrétien and Martin. Jean Chrétien tags Martin, Martin comes in, now the people are down. To get the people excited, now the Conservatives are coming in. A lot of people are starting to come up again and the Liberals are now trying to fight back but the NDP are pulling them by the hair. And the Green Party is just walking all over them all.” Eeking out a living on social assistance, White behaves like a man who has it all and never lost a thing. Having come close to being counted-out more than once, the former bad boy of wrestling has no intention of being kept on the mat. “There’s not going to be no stop, no let up. I fight until I die.”
Page 23
LIFE & TIMES
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
Shanneygannock set themselves free Chris Andrews and crew say good-bye George Street, hello Canada — for now By Stephanie Porter The Sunday Independent
C
hris Andrews says he’s tired of being in “that band everyone thinks they have to be half in the bag to go see.” At age 32, and with the release of Shanneygannock’s fourth CD, Set You Free, front man Andrews says he’s ready to see just how far the group can go. He, along with Mark Hiscock, formed the band nearly a decade ago and after going through 27 different backup musicians, they’ve settled into a solid quartet with Bob Pike on bass, and Don Smith on drums. Andrews says it’s a line-up committed to taking Shanneygannock away from its comfortable situation. “We became too reliable, too ‘Aw, the b’ys will be down at O’Reilly’s having a laugh,’ everyone just took us for granted, ‘aw the b’ys …,” Andrews tries to explain. “We were not getting the recognition we wanted. We were working hard, and we were playing to all sorts of different people and we were selling a lot of albums, but still … I guess we got caught up in the fun of it all.” Andrews knows the band deserves its reputation as a raucous, good-time bar band, with drinks flowing and music playing on into the night. But he points out they’re also one of the few groups that play “at least 90 per cent” Newfoundland songs. Hiscock may be the only member of a popular local band who plays the true Newfoundland accordion, and sings at the same time. “We’re an authentic, unique, proud, Newfoundland band,” he says, noting the pink, white and green on the new CD cover is a testament to that. Still flush with the glow of a
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Chris Andrews
week in the sun at the cabin, and fresh from a morning show at a high school in Mount Pearl, Andrews is relaxed — and focused. He seems more certain about the future than he did two years ago, when the third Shanneygannock album hit the shelves. Since then, both he and Hiscock put out solo CDs, the band played monthly at O’Reilly’s Pub, and their “drinking group,” The Government Rams, were a weekly fixture on the George Street scene. But now, Andrews says, they’ve shut down the Rams, and are tak-
ing a break from St. John’s. They may play the George Street festival later this summer, but that will be their last show in town, probably until Christmas. The band members no longer drink on stage; they wouldn’t show up for a recording session hung over either. Set You Free does sound a step up. It’s tighter and cleaner, with a careful mixture of upbeat and (slightly) mellower Newfoundland songs. Produced again by Patrick Moran, the band members comfort with each other resonates
still enjoy it, we will do it again, through the speakers. Andrews may talk seriously but our main objective is to travabout the road ahead, sipping a el and get in front of more peolight beer on an afternoon in ple.” He laughs when his latest press Erin’s Pub, but don’t for a minute release is put in front of him, think this is his last shot. “It’s not like it’s go big or go where the band is described as home, or ‘This is it for the b’ys,’ “big, burly men” who don’t worry but everyone’s got a goal in life … about image. The release says We’ve never doubted we’re good Andrews is an “imposing frontenough to do it. I just don’t want man.” “If you looked at us, there’s hair to be sitting down, 10 years from now, and think, well, what if I’d going everywhere. We’re big feltaken that a little more seriously.” las, rowdy and fun, and when we get up there we’re He looks around doing it better the pub, empty than everybody save for a few “If you looked at else,” he says. hands at the bar, “We’ve already c o m f o r t a b l e us, there’s hair going proved it can behind their pints. everywhere. We’re This, he says, is big fellas, rowdy and work here, why can’t it work where it all began and — one of the fun, and when we get nationally band’s first goals up there we’re doing internationally?” Andrews thinks was to get 50 peoit better than about having ple to show up at everybody else.” another beer, then Erin’s for a Shandecides against it. neygannock show. His girlfriend is Then the aim was to land a gig at O’Reilly’s on graduating as a paramedic this George, and pull in an audience of evening, and he’s going to the ceremony. 100. “Not that I’ll look much like the “And then it came to a point we did it so much we didn’t think other boyfriends,” he says with a about it,” he says. “We’d meet hearty laugh, pushing his sundowntown on a Friday afternoon glasses up over his disheveled and we’d be drinking, then get up, hair. “Yes, we’ve got girlfriends, and but now people are paying good money to see a good show, and we’re getting houses, starting to we’re going to make sure they get settle a bit,” he says. “And the thing is — we’re liking it.” that show every time. As the press release states, it “It’s different. We’re enjoying it a lot more, we’re getting along appears Andrews and Shanneygannock are aiming for greater better.” This summer and fall, it’s the things. Really, they mean it this time. road for Shanneygannock, playing theatres and cabaret-style clubs. “We’re together as a band, maturAndrews says they’ll make it to ing,” Andrews begins again. Then, all too aware of what he’s B.C. and back before Christmas. “This band never really wanted doing, he leans forward and pulls to play for 25 years in a bar,” out the cliché he’s been waiting to Andrews reiterates. “We had a lot use. of fun with it in the past seven or “It’s as if Set You Free really did eight years, it was excellent, we set us free,” he says with a smile.
Created for The Sunday Independent by John Andrews
THIS WEEK’S THEME:
Cooper’s CrissCross is typical search-a-word puzzle except you must first decipher the word list based on the clues provided before searching. All of the clues will have a Newfoundland and Labrador flavour. Good luck! The word list and Answer grid can be found on page 26.
WRITERS
___________ Horwood
Earl B. ____________
___________ Crummy
________ Soper-Cook
Ray ______________
_____________ O’Neill
Joseph R. _________
Cassie _____________
____________ Leyton
___________ Clouston
_____________ Major
__________ FitzGerald
____________ Pinsent
Wilfred T. ___________
E.R. ______________
Kenneth J. __________
_________ C. Parsons
______________ Janes
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The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
LIFE & TIMES
Page 24
I’se The Girl
E
by Deborah Bourden
Fish out of water
very once in a while a memory flashes into your mind out of nowhere, bringing you face to face with an embarrassing moment in your life that you’d rather forget. I had one of those just the other day, a moment that in hindsight was somewhere between completely hilarious and totally mortifying. Hilarious because 25 years have passed; mortifying because I can still feel the confusion and the embarrassment of being trapped in the Toronto Transit Commission. “What goes around comes around,” my grandmother would have rightly stated. As is often the case, it took me awhile before I got the message. Growing up on an island like Twillingate brings with it some special skills: I could moor a boat, cut out cod tongues and was nearly an expert at taking a sea cat off a hook. So, when the come-from-away teenagers came visiting as they did
almost every summer, I took a little too much pleasure in watching them struggle with the things that I thought were a part of everyday life. If only I had known. When the time came for me to head off to the big city in search of work I had no idea I was about to live out the city- and countrymouse story of my childhood. Arriving in Toronto was exciting and terrifying. Everything was new and much bigger. After spending my first night in my new apartment I was ready to explore Toronto. My roommate called to invite me for coffee not far from where she worked. I can still remember the specific instructions and directions she gave me: Make sure to put the chain lock on the door and at the Kipling Subway Station take the westbound train, then transfer to the No. 10 bus that I was assured stopped right in front of the Second Cup Coffee shop.
I remember repeating her instructions over and over so that when I was ready to leave the apartment and start my first real adventure into the streets of Toronto I’d get it right. My first task was to put the chain lock in place. Sounded simple enough, but after carefully inspecting the lock up and down I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how it worked. I stood outside the door for the longest time struggling to squirm my hand inside to put the latch in place. It was a total mystery to me. I finally did it, but darn near broke my wrist. The thought that I would have to do that every time I went out left me thinking that I’d be spending a lot of time apartment bound. The next stop was the subway station. I carefully approached the ticket window and passed over my money in exchange for a funny looking coin. I was clever enough to know the coin was the key to get
me aboard the train but before I could completely figure it out the person behind me impatiently told me what to do. I obediently dropped the coin in the slot and moved through the turnstall, which is when the fun began. Finding the westbound train platform wasn’t so difficult and almost immediately there was a train. I felt total relief as I boarded and sat down. I watched carefully for my stop, and there indeed was Kipling Station. I immediately got off and went looking for the buses. I found them soon enough but couldn’t figure out where to buy a ticket. I looked and looked and watched people come from the subway and board the busses but I couldn’t see where they purchased their tickets. There was no wicket, no automatic coin dispenser, and no machine of any sort. I was trapped. I eventually stopped someone and asked the brave question:
“How do I get on the bus?” “Don’t you have your transfer?” the person replied. No I didn’t. I didn’t even know what a transfer was, an important piece of information that my citymouse roommate failed to mention. Back I went to the eastbound platform, back to where I started my journey, got my transfer and started all over again. The moral of the story is that every once in a while when life gets downright confusing and the turns in the road leave you bewildered and frustrated, take comfort in the fact there’s always a bus waiting. Trick is to backtrack and start again. That’s the ticket.
Events JUNE 6 • An evening candlelight concert with the Quintessential Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Susan Quinn, featuring selections from Rachmaninoff Vespers and other works of sacred choral music. Basilica of St. John the Baptist, 8 p.m. • The Muscular Dystrophy Canada (MDC) rally and fundraiser, 1-4 p.m., the Carbonear boardwalk, call (709) 3681649. Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MDC affiliation with firefighters, and the 16th year of affiliation with Harley Davidson. • The YMCA-YWCA TD Y 2004 Sprint Triathlon, starts 8 a.m. at the Aquarena, Westland Road, St. John’s, (709) 739-9933. • Andrea Northcott Piano Recital, Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre. • Gridlock: Abbey Road, by Bill Rose, show opening 2-5 p.m. at the RCA Gallery, LSPU Hall. Show continues to July 5. • The Janeway Children’s Miracle Network Telethon continues on CBC television. For more
information call Kenneth Corbett 777-4362 • The Community Mental Health Initiative’s third annual walk, bike, run event, Corner Brook starting at 2 p.m. Contact Jennifer Howlett 634-4171 • The Show Against the Odds, short scripts by students from O’Donel high school, LSPU Hall, (709) 753-4531. JUNE 8 • Gander Arts and Culture Centre presents Heather Harris School of Dance. Continues to June 9. • The St. John’s Parenting Skills Project launches phase two of that program, for more information call Lynn Smyth 726-4866. • The Human Resources Professionals of Newfoundland and Labrador annual general meeting and BBQ at the Elks Club on Carpasian road in St. John’s. Contact Elaine at 576-3746. JUNE 9 • St, John’s Folk Arts Council folk night at the Ship Pub, featuring Scott Goudie.
• The YM-YWCA Enterprise Centre is holding a workshop at the Battery Hotel from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help small business owners identify their customers. Contact Andrew Goldsworthy at 739-9036 • The Lung Association lobster boil and silent auction at 7 p.m. at the Reid Centre in Mount Pearl. For tickets call Aletha at 7264664. JUNE 10 • The Independent Living Resource Centre annual general meeting, 7:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, Portugal Cove Road, St. John’s. Call Jane Halliday 722-4031. • The 10th annual Great Labrador Active Living Challenge is starting up again. Call Trevor Paine 896-7251. JUNE 11 • Ron Hynes and band with special guests, the STEP fiddlers, a Suzuki Talent Education Program (STEP) music camp fundraiser, 8 p.m. Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University. Tickets at Fred’s
Records, O’Briens Music or Bennington Gate books, (709) 4376780. • The St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre presents the Sorenson School of Dance. Continues June 12. • Gander’s Arts and Culture Centre will be the location for the College of The North Atlantic spring graduation. • The RCA Gallery in the LSPU Hall will present the Fine Art Print Symposium from St. Michael’s Print Shop. The show continue June 12, for more information call 754-2931.
O’Boyle’s historic walking tours, daily 10 a.m. at the Fairmont Newfoundland Hotel, St. John’s. Reservations required, (709) 3646845. • Memorial University’s division of Lifelong Learning is offering three, week-long, half-day French camps for six to eight year olds and nine to 11 year olds this summer, (709) 737-7979.
JUNE 12 • The Leyton Gallery of Fine Art’s first anniversary show, Looks Good on Paper, opening reception, 3-5 p.m. Artists will be present. • Beth Ryan will sign copies of her book What is Invisible at Costco in St. John’s, Stavanger Drive, 12-2 p.m. • The Gander Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society will hold an Ice Cream and Sunscreen at the Dominion Market in Gander. Ice cream — $1 sunscreen — free. Call Jackie Watkins at 256-3699.
IN THE GALLERIES: • Gatherings, an exhibit by Stephanie Barry, Libby Moore, Susan Furneaux, Catherine McCausland at the Craft Council Gallery, Devon House, (709) 7532749. Until June 18. • Gridlock: Abbey Road, by Bill Rose, at the Resource Centre for the Arts Visual Gallery until July 5. • Coastlines, by Charlotte Jones, Tessa Middleton and Tara Bryan, until June 19 at Christina Parker Gallery, Plank Road, St. John’s. • Looks good on paper, one-year anniversary members show, Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, opens June 12. • 120 volts and a Can of Propane, by Toronto-based artists.
OTHER • Where once they stood,
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Page 25
The Sunday Independent
SPORTS
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Swimming official Bill Hogan at the Aquarena in St. John’s.
It’s official Of 10,000 swim officials in Canada, Bill Hogan was selected to represent the country poolside at the Athens Olympics By David Manning For the Sunday Independent
B
ill Hogan has been to Greece once before, 20 years ago. He’s going back this summer — but this time it’s no vacation. In August, Hogan will be representing Canada, and Newfoundland and Labrador, as a swim official at the summer Olympic Games in Athens. “To me it is certainly an honour … you never think that something like this would be a possibility, it’s quite a rush,” the St. John’s native says of his appointment by FINA, the world’s governing body for swimming. Each of the world’s 100 to 120 swimming nations nominates one official as a representative for the Olympics. This time around, Bill Hogan is Canada’s choice. From the 100-plus nominations this year, the Olympic organizing committee selected 21 officials to referee and officiate the swimming events at the 28th Olympiad,
running from Aug. 13 to 29. Making the final cut is quite an accomplishment. Hogan first got involved in competitive swimming in 1985, when his four children joined the Legends Swim Club in St. John’s. “I got involved, like most parents, in what their children do, whether it’s hockey, soccer whatever, I did my little bit to help out the club,” he says. That little bit has turned into quite a chunk. Hogan, a former president of Newfoundland Swimming, began attending national meets as an official in 1992. His first international meet was the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, B.C. — and from there Hogan’s international experience ballooned. Head of swim officials in Canada for six years, and now Swim Canada vice-president, Hogan has been to all major swimming events in the past 10 years as an official, including two Pan-Am games (Winnipeg and Santo Domingo) and last year’s world
championships in Barcelona, Spain. The Olympic games are the top of the heap when it comes to the world of swimming. The big show is taking place in Athens, a city that has been marred by delays in constructing venues and the ever-present issue of security and safety. But Hogan heads to Greece excited about the challenge ahead. “This summer is going to be awesome. You don’t anticipate things like this; if you plan for things like this, it doesn’t happen.” With the organizing committee reportedly spending somewhere in the range of $3.2 billion on security for this year’s events, you would think that Hogan would be a little more concerned. “I have thought about that, but mostly only because I’ve been given no choice. It really struck me as comical in some ways. The moment they ask you, who’s your next of kin, you’re like ‘What’s going on here?’ But it’s a necessary precaution,” Hogan says.
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“It doesn’t faze me, it’s not the way I live, I just go about my business, I think you have to.” The officiating business is a multi-headed beast. Referees deal with registrations, start times and various other logistics of getting races off and running. They also present and handle things like disqualifications and stroke penalties. “It’s a lot like track and field in that way,” Hogan explains. To date, the World Championships in Barcelona last year were the highlight of his officiating career. “It was overwhelming, there were 12,000 people there just going crazy, the sound was everywhere, it just hits you from all sides, it’s a rush,” he says. The Olympics tend to bring out the best qualities of sport. Hogan can’t wait to experience all of this first hand in between his busy days on the pool deck. “Usually at competitions like this you don’t get a whole lot of time, but seeing how this is the
In an effort to support and promote the province’s art community, The Sunday Independent invites visual artists from across the province to submit work for publication in the paper. Our newspaper gallery will appear regularly, profiling one artist or collective each time.
Olympics, I’ll make the time,” he says. “I always get to some events, especially those where Canadians will do well.” As for the swimming, Hogan expects some excitement. “It will be 40 degrees, we’ll be outdoors, it probably won’t be the most comfortable conditions, but the action will make up for it,” he says. Hogan sees his appointment as moment of recognition for Newfoundland and Labrador. “There are probably 10,000 swim officials in Canada, 4,000 in Ontario alone, so to be selected is an honour for the province,” he says. “The way I look at it, it’s the fact we didn’t get overlooked. It proves to me we can do it, we do it just as good as anyone else. “This is as good as it’s ever going to get in this sport, that’s what excites me most. Just being there during the final session with 10,000 people there screaming, it’s an intangible, an experience. It’s going to be something.”
Interested artists or groups are invited to submit a selection of work for consideration. High-resolution digital images are preferred; slides and negatives of work are also accepted. If chosen, the works will be published in a special section dedicated to the artists of Newfoundland and Labrador.
For further information, or to submit proposals, call (709) 726-4639 or e-mail editorial@theindependent.ca.
Page 26
SPORTS
The Sunday Independent, June 6, 2004
This Sporting Life
by Shaun Drover
Photo by Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent
Rowers take to Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s.
Rocket firing on all cylinders I
tem: At the ripe age of 41, Roger Clemens has started the season with an 8-0 record. Comment: Clemens is once again making noise in major league baseball. After signing a surprising one-year, $5 million contract with the Houston Astros in the off season, Clemens is no longer worried about retirement — but about his next start. His most recent win brings his grand total to 318 for his career, tying Phil Niekro for 14th on the alltime list. Along with his league-leading eight wins, his earned-run average is second in the majors at 2.27. Those are very impressive numbers and although it’s early in the season, he’s certainly the frontrunner for the Cy Young. This is the third time Clemens has started a season with at least seven straight wins, both previous seasons ending with a Cy Young award. Why would Clemens put retirement on hold for the Astros? In a way he didn’t. Clemens doesn’t have to abide by the same set of rules the other Houston players follow. He wanted to spend time with his family so in order to sign Clemens the Astros had to give
O
him special treatment. Clemens is the only player who doesn’t travel with the team on road trips he isn’t scheduled to pitch. He can arrive late for home games, and in one case had a private jet fly him home early so he could spend an extra day with his family. Other superstars on the team, including Craig Biggio, have said they don’t mind the special treatment one bit as long as Clemens gives them hope of a shot at the World Series. Item: Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s is filled with boats and crews hoping to find the right mix of talent and work ethic to put it all together. Comment: Now that the ice is melted and weather is heating up, the rowing season is back underway. Crew after crew is booking their practice times at Quidi Vidi as the boathouse gets a feel for its first crowds. Rowing has always been a big sport in the capital city. It brings out one of the most competitive atmospheres in sport. A full season of training day in and day out leads up to one shot at the big race. This province has a highly competitive rowing culture that produces talented rowers. Regattas
Tour de France in Quebec?
fficials are still hopeful the first stage of the 2008 Tour de France will be held in Quebec City as part of its 400th birthday celebration. Montreal’s La Presse reports a senior tour official saying it would be too difficult to bring the competition to the provincial capital. The race would have to immediately resume in France after the first stage in Quebec City, five time zones away. Jacques Jobin, on Quebec City’s executive committee, says no final decision has been made. “It’s one opinion of one of the directors, but it’s not the position of the director of the tour,” Jobin says. Jobin says tour director JeanMarie Leblanc has assured him and Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier
that no decision will be made before the end of September. But the tour’s competition director Jean-Francois Pescheux says holding the first stage in Quebec City would be difficult to do because it would mean two seven-hour flights in 72 hours for competitors, officials and others associated with the race. “It would be like asking the Formula 1 people to hold their time trials in Canada and then having the Grand Prix race run in Europe,” Pescheux says “The idea has been studied, the potential is there, everything is there, but we can’t allow it.” The Tour de France occasionally starts outside France but a stage has never been held outside Europe. The race has started in Luxembourg and Dublin. — The Canadian Press
provincewide host galleries of friends, family, and fans looking on as they witness months of training bottled up in a climactic race to the finish.
Rowing has always been a big sport in the capital city. It brings out one of the best competitive atmospheres in sport. A full season of training day in and day out for one shot at the big race. In February, six rowers were awarded grants to help with training and competition costs. Two of the six were Jason Rose and Ben Stokes, who both have had great success in recent years and are looking to make a splash outside the province during this rowing season. Item: Ashley McElhiney was named the first head coach of the expansion Nashville Rhythm of
the American Basketball Association (ABA). Comment: The ABA is a professional league that showcases players just below NBA caliber. It has many talented players and a high level of competition. With Ashley McElhiney named head coach of the Rhythm, she becomes the first female head coach of a professional men’s basketball team. This is a great breakthrough for women in sports, but in this situation there are many potential problems. McElhiney said she’s thrilled to be part of building a team from the ground up and is thankful for the opportunity. I wonder how thankful she’ll be when her team is down 20 points and she has a group of grown men complaining and bargaining for change. I think women can coach basketball just as well as men, but McElhiney is just 22 years old and straight out of college. She was a great guard at Vanderbilt, but failed to make a WNBA squad this past season. After a failed attempt at playing herself, she decided to take this coaching position in the ABA. Successful
coaching comes from years of experience and knowing how to control your players. McElihney has neither. A female coach is a great way to get attention for your team, especially when the team’s owner, Sally Anthony, is also a female whose No. 1 goal was not only to have a competitive team, but to give females opportunities they’re not normally afforded. It’s a great idea, but to do it in a male league is silly. That isn’t as much an opportunity as it is putting McElhiney in an impossible situation. A female can do the job, but this female is under qualified and has been given the job for the wrong reasons.
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Page 27