2005-04-03

VOL. 3 ISSUE 14

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 3-9, 2005

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COLUMN 15

LIFE 13

Noreen Golfman on putting bums in seats

Harbour Main native played in Lingerie Bowl

Hibernia’s hitch

PAPAL PRAYERS

Project likely paid off and oil prices through the roof, but province not expected to see maximum royalties STEPHANIE PORTER

A

lthough the oil pumped to date from the Hibernia field has an estimated value of $13.4 billion, and world oil prices continue to soar, the project may never pay maximum royalties to the province.

Hibernia has a two-tier royalty regime. The basic royalty (one per cent) began at production start, and is capped at five per cent of gross revenues — where the province is now.

The second, more lucrative level of royalties, remains out of reach.

Net royalties, which could give the province up to 30 per cent of net revenues, would kick in after Hibernia recovers its capital costs, plus a percentage of expenses and return on investment.

With original capital costs likely recovered, oil prices soaring, and production slated to continue for at See “Hibernia,” page 2; related story page 3

Bettie Duff went to the Basilica in St. John’s on Friday, April 1, to pray for Pope John Paul II. The church welcomed people all day to offer prayers for the ailing pontiff.

See photo essay on pages 16 and 17.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The way he (the pope) approached his position, it meant a whole lot to all Catholics ... all of a sudden he wasn’t some fictitious character, he was a real person.”

— Jack Parsons, Flatrock resident; see page 17

BUSINESS 19 Crab fisherman Doug Williams of Bay Bulls stores his crab pots after union members voted to tie up their boats.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Crab is all we got’

Seal industry could be worth $100 million WORLD 9

Ontario bids for Labrador hydro power

Experts, fishermen fear rural disaster if fishery shuts down JAMIE BAKER

M

ost industry experts don’t know how else to put it: if the crab industry goes, they say, rural Newfoundland goes with it.

Since the collapse of cod stocks in the early 1990s, crab has emerged as the cornerstone species of the province’s fishing industry. The landed value of crab in 2004 was over $301 million — or just about half of the worth of the province’s entire fishing industry.

A total of 38 plants, mostly in rural communities, processed 36,000 tonnes of crab last year — representing about 20 per cent of the province’s overall seafood production. It’s estimated more than 5,000 plant workers and as many or more fishermen gain direct employment from crab.

The new raw material sharing system introduced by provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor has government locked in a standoff with fishermen and their union, while the economy of the province hangs in the balance.

Fishermen say the new system gives total control to processors, while government says the plan will create stability. Fishermen have voted to keep their boats tied up and are vowing there won’t be a fishery unless Taylor backs down.

Taylor, to date, has given no indication government is considering changing its mind on the plan, which caps the amount of crab each plant can process and guarantees a certain amount of resource for each processor in relation to the proportion of available crab in each region.

But that’s all numbers and politics.

See “Crab,” page 2

SPORTS 25

Delaney Brothers fight together for CeeBees Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Michener nomination for Independent T

he Independent has been nominated for the 2004 Michener Award, a prestigious prize recognizing meritorious public service in journalism. A comparable award in the United States is the Pulitzer gold medal for public service by a newspaper.

The Independent was nominated for its six-part cost-benefit analysis of Confederation, a project carried out over six weeks last fall. The project examined the province’s contribution to Canada since 1949, and Canada’s contribution in return. The series examined six distinct topics — oil and gas, transportation, fisheries, fiscal transfers, natural resources and Terms of Union.

The final numbers showed that while the province has benefited by $8.9 billion from the federation, Canada has reaped six times that, or $53.5 billion.

“I’m very proud of The Independent and the work they do,” says Brian Dobbin, publisher. “I am also delighted that a Newfoundland and Labrador publication is nominated amongst the leading Canadian media for such a prestigious award.”

Four major media outlets across the country were nominated for the award.

The Globe and Mail received two nominations: one for coverage of the federal sponsorship scandal; the other for a Report on Business investigation of questionable practices in the mutual fund and insurance industries.

FINDING THE

BALANCE

Cost benefit analysis of Confederation A six-part series, October 17 - November 21, 2004

The Calgary Herald was nominated for an investigation into deceptive marking practices by a U.K.-based company that was poised to become the leading energy supplier in Alberta.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation received a nomination for a project that evaluated the federal government’s adverse drug reaction reporting system. Finally, the Canadian Medical Association Journal and Découverte (Radio-Canada science program) were selected jointly for their reports on the outbreak of a hospital-acquired infection.

“The nomination is for the entire Independent team,” says Ryan Cleary, managing editor. “There was no way a newspaper our size could tackle such a massive undertaking without drawing on every resource available, which is what we did. Thanks again to researcher Sue Dyer, who has a fabulous mind for all things Newfoundland.”

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson will host the Michener Awards ceremony on April 14 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

APRIL 3, 2005

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘Hibernia will never reach payout’ From page 1 least the next 15 years, Hibernia revenues are only going up.

Still, the province doesn’t anticipate achieving maximum payout.

“Well, never say never I guess,” says a spokesperson for the Natural Resources Department, reacting to reports predicting a spike in the price of oil to $100 a barrel.

“But prices would have to stay quite high for a sustained period of time, and further down the road, there could be (maximum) payout, at some point … but not tomorrow, not next year, or two years down the road.”

Ron Penney, solicitor with the City

of St. John’s and a member of the Hibernia fiscal negotiating team in the 1980s, says “even with the high oil prices, it is said … that (Hibernia) will never reach payout, because the formula is so generous.

“The oil industry is very important and I do have a concern … that we’re not getting the benefits that we should be getting.”

The Natural Resources spokesperson gives three major reasons Hibernia won’t reach maximum payout: “the long time (nine years) between the start of construction and the production phase of the project … the high capital costs — $6 billion — incurred during that time … and the

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effect of compounding these costs monthly at an annual rate of 15 per cent.”

When the Hibernia agreement was negotiated, oil was well under $20 a barrel; reports during the early-’90s suggested the project would break even at $13.65 a barrel. Prices like those registered today were never predicted.

“Oil prices were very low and they weren’t expected to go up,” says Penney.

Even so, the pain of the Upper Churchill deal was clear in the minds of the Hibernia negotiating team, and the project’s royalties were designed to increase with profit levels.

But tying royalties to capital costs and profits was not always applauded, particularly by the at-times nasty mainland press.

Brian O’Neill, a former oil reporter with The Globe and Mail, wrote in July 1998 that Hibernia was a “risky” venture.

“The Peckford government well knows the oil industry is notorious for gold-plating — inflating its costs and expenses to avoid paying royalties and taxes,” he wrote. “There could be very little left over for the provincial treasury after the large oil companies finish crunching their numbers over Hibernia.”

Paul Barnes, manager of the Atlantic office of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, says he’s heard those kind of criticisms leveled at the industry for years.

“But from the industry’s perspective, it’s a bit of an urban myth, if we could call it that,” he says.

“The way our industry is regulated and audited, particularly with the companies that are publicly traded … there’s no way we could inflate costs to reduce royalties without being caught.

“And, in the case of Hibernia or some East Coast examples, for every dollar you make, you pay something like one per cent in royalties. It’s almost like you’d be inflating it all just to pay one cent. The logic doesn’t add up.”

That said, cost and time overruns have affected the province’s cut of Hibernia’s profits.

Before construction, industry estimated capital costs would run $5.2 billion. First oil was anticipated in 1995.

By the middle of 1994, Gulf oil had pulled out of the Hibernia consortium, the whole project was rumoured to be going down the tubes, the federal gov-

From page 1

“The oil industry is very important and I do have a concern … that we’re not getting the benefits that we should be getting.”

Ron Penney ernment stepped in as a shareholder, a cost overrun of $1 billion was announced — and first oil was scheduled, this time correctly, for late 1997.

The overruns were chalked up to the scramble for new partners and “design complexities (that had) given us a lot of problems in the engineering area, ” according to Ken Hull, thenpresident of the Hibernia Management and Development Company.

Though the province may never see the proceeds from the second level of Hibernia’s royalty regime, there are tangible benefits from higher oil prices — somewhere in the ballpark of $150-$200 million a year.

“Because the gross royalty is a percentage of sales value, less transportation costs … as the price of oil increases, so too does the revenue to the province,” says the Natural Resources spokesperson.

“Recently, the reserve estimates for Hibernia were increased and increased reserves will mean increased gross royalties to the province.”

In the meantime, the Terra Nova project — subject to a similar two-tier royalty regime, but lower in production and operating costs — is “expected to reach payout, maybe this year,” the spokesperson says.

“On White Rose, construction phase is continuing and it has not started production yet. If things go as planned, then the expectation is that it will reach payout.”

stories from here

The Spotlight on Education program at the St. John’s Boys and Girls Club offers a supportive after-school environment, where trained educators help children with reading, computer awareness and homework. It’s made possible with support from Petro-Canada.

Part of your community.

Crab pays the bills

www.petro-canada.ca

The realities are far more basic.

In Bay Bulls, fisherman Doug Williams is, in his words, “killing time” doing some renovation work on his 34foot boat, the Stephen K. Crab, he says, is more than just a species sold as a commodity — it’s the life of rural Newfoundland.

“Crab is all we got. If we don’t have that, we’re finished,” he tells The Independent. “This will hurt fishermen, it will hurt plant workers … it’ll hurt everybody. Rural Newfoundland is gone if we don’t have crab.”

Leslie Harris, chair for the Fisheries Institute for North Atlantic Islands (FIN), a panel of fishery experts focused on restoring fish stocks, agrees if the crab industry falls, there’s no other species to rely on. He says there’s simply nothing in the water that could fill the gaping hole created by the loss of crab.

“If the crab fishery goes, essentially, the fishery is gone unless there is a rebuilding of stock at some future date,” he says. “Turbot, cod, haddock, plaice, and even the new species like skate, they are very small quantities and they’ve been fished as hard as they can stand.

“There is no stock now that can sustain a fishery by the numbers of people involved with the crab fishery.”

Earl McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union, says the spin-off created by crab production is immense and will affect everything from restaurants and truckers to marine suppliers and gas stations.

“Crab and shrimp is the key to an awful lot of the economic activity in the outports,” McCurdy says. “Crab is what pays the bills now, and it has been for the last number of years. This is very, very serious stuff.”

McCurdy acknowledges fishermen’s plans to stay off the water in protest of the new crab plan could have a serious economic impact, but says the focus is the long-term viability of the industry.

The problem with the industry as a whole, in Harris’ mind, is a simple one — too many people, not enough crab.

The end result, he says, is many plant workers and small-boat fishermen find themselves living near the poverty line in terms of “real dollars.

“We’re trying to satisfy everyone involved in the fishery, which means almost the whole of rural Newfoundland, and there just isn’t enough product to satisfy them all — we have too much processing and we have too much harvesting capacity. What’s going to sort that all out? I’m darned if I know.”

Harris is also worried if the crab fishery closes, even in the short term, there may be serious market ramifications.

Once you lose a foothold in a given market, he says, getting “back in the loop” is dicey business.

“You’re toying with a very difficult proposition when you’re toying with a market — having a place in the market and a reputation for quality is critically important. That’s certainly a grave concern, and I think fishermen themselves are very much aware of it.”

Back aboard the Stephen K, Williams says he’d love to drop the renovation work and get fishing, but he doesn’t know when or if that will happen.

“We have to stick together … we can’t let government dictate to fishermen like this. Only for this is so serious, it would be laughable. We had 26,000 pounds to catch last year — that’s our livelihood, and that’s going to be cut again this year.”

Williams wonders if there is going to be any future, either for the fishery or the rural communities that rely almost exclusively on the industry.

And he wonders how in touch government is with the plight faced by those communities in relation to the crab industry.

“Thank God we got smart people like Trevor Taylor doing things for our benefit — where would we be without them?” he quips sarcastically. “They can’t stop the foreigners, they’re afraid of Greenpeace and the IFAW when it comes to sealing — the only ones left they can control is the little fell’r in the boat, and they’re socking it to us.”

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

Paying a price Doyle fears province suffering fallout of Accord battle; Matthews says non-confidence vote could set deal ‘back to square one

By Jamie Baker The Independent

N

o matter what the outcome of the vote on Bill C-43, St. John’s North Conservative MP Norm Doyle figures Newfoundland and Labrador will pay a political price for the war it waged over the Atlantic Accord.

He says the warning issued by the prime minister’s chief of staff, Scott Reid, during the Accord battle is starting to look like more than just a threat uttered in the heat of the moment.

Reid did not return The Independent’s phone calls, but Doyle says a number of issues, including cuts to DFO science, the lack of interest in reinstating the Gander weather station, the proposed shut down of the agricultural research facility in Mount Pearl, and the lack of federal civil service jobs in the province, all show how the federal government feels about the province in the wake of the Accord.

“During the negotiations, Scott Reid made the comment Newfoundland and Labrador would pay for what it was doing to the prime minister, and you can see we’re paying,” Doyle tells The Independent. “We have to be fighting continually and be vigilant all the time in trying to figure out what the federal government is going to be cutting next.”

The new deal on offshore resources between the province and Ottawa was signed in St. John’s on Feb. 14 after months of political wrangling, which included Premier Danny Williams removing Canadian flags from provincial government buildings in protest.

BILL THREATENED Last week, that new Accord agreement was put in jeopardy when the deal was lumped in with Kyoto Accord provisions as part of Bill C-43 — government’s omnibus bill to implement the federal budget. The NDP and Conservatives have threatened to defeat the bill, thus toppling the minority government, based on issues they have with the Kyoto section of the bill.

Tim Power, a St. John’s native who writes for the Hill Times in Ottawa, doesn’t see any direct antiNewfoundland and Labrador sentiment, but figures federal government

officials probably aren’t going too many extra miles on the province’s behalf.

“I think it’s less anti-Newfoundland and more what it’s always been,” Power says. “There’s a systemic ignorance, I would call it, of Newfoundland and Labrador. It may be more heightened at the moment because of the offshore oil deal and people may not be — I have no proof mind you — going out of their way to correct the systemic challenges that exist.

“There is a good advocacy group of Newfoundlanders here trying to adjust the stereotypes, but in certain decisionmaking bodies, it’s hard to fight against.”

If Bill C-43 gets voted down by the opposition, Random-Burin-St. George’s MP Bill Matthews says not

only will the government fall by way of the non-confidence vote — the Accord deal could potentially go with it.

“I really think that’s what will happen — it’s hard to prejudge the future, but my sense of it is, if this deal doesn’t become law, I think we’re back to square one,” Matthews tells The Independent. “It’s a good deal that took a while to get to with some tense moments … where we are now, it’s bothersome. I’m deeply worried about it.”

Getting the Atlantic Accord separated from the rest of the bill, Matthews says, could be the crucial point. He’s hoping to see something worked out within the next few days to allow that to happen.

“We may find some means of stickhandling through this … it doesn’t

look like it will go together. There has to be some way found to split parts of this off or I think we’re in real danger.”

The situation has again raised questions about the leadership and innercircle influence of Natural Resources Minister John Efford.

Matthews doesn’t share the negative views being aired about Efford, and says if the deal fails, Conservatives like Doyle and St. John’s South MP Loyola Hearn, will only have one place to lay blame.

“It’s one thing to point their fingers at John Efford or the prime minister’s office, but they should take those fingers and point them right back at their own chests.

“If Mr. Hearn or Mr. Doyle wanted to get serious about this, they could get together with their colleagues from Nova Scotia and, if they got a few peo-

ple to vote with them, there would be no danger of any of this going down.”

Doyle says his party “remains committed” to the Accord and won’t object to the Bill passing into the second stage.

“In the House of Commons on Monday, we’ll look at ways and means of getting the budget through … I don’t think the Accord is in any jeopardy at all now.”

Despite threats to the contrary, Power figures the Conservatives will allow the bill to go through when all is said and done.

“They’re going to work pretty damn hard to make sure this thing passes, as it should. It’s more bluster and blarney than it is fact. I’ll be very surprised if this whole broad crisis is not averted.”

It is expected a vote on Bill C-43 could take place as early as April 12.

Billion-dollar question Hibernia partners had a great year in 2004, but amount reaped from project unknown JEFF DUCHARME

I

n 2004, Hibernia pumped 74.6 million barrels of oil from the Grand Banks. Based on an average 2004 price of $42 (US) a barrel, the Hibernia project took in gross revenues of $3.1 billion (US) last year.

According to the Canada Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board, operating costs for Hibernia came in at $400 million in 2003. Then there are royalties. The province won’t release royalties per project, but over all royalties collected in 2004 for all natural resource projects amounted to $137 million.

Keeping in mind the federal government takes a cut of the $3.1 billion in corporate income tax — a figure the federal and provincial governments refuse to release — that still leaves a sizeable profit.

Along with the federal government, Hibernia is owned by five partners — Exxon Mobil (33 per cent), Chevron Canada (27 per cent), Petro-Canada (20 per cent), Murphy Oil (6.5 per cent) and Norsk Hydro (5 per cent).

In 1993, Hibernia was said to be

profitable at $13.65 (US) per barrel.

The price of oil now sits $57 (US) and investment giant Goldman Sachs has set the average price of oil at $46 (US) per barrel until 2011.

Former Liberal MHA Walter Noel, who, in 2003 was responsible for the energy portfolio, tells The Independent the oil companies are making “enormous” profits. But, he says, before the project went ahead oil prices were so low there “was a question whether there was going to be a development” at all.

“The companies wouldn’t have gone into it if the prospect was only to break even,” says Noel. “At the time there was no reason to believe that oil would reach $40 a barrel any time soon.”

All of Hibernia’s partners recorded staggering profits in 2004, but none of the companies would release profits from that particular project. At best, profits are broken down by regions or countries.

Exxon Mobil recorded the largest oil and gas net revenue profit of $25 billion (US); Petro-Canada $1.9 billion (Cdn); Chevron Texaco $13 billion (US); Murphy Oil $701 (US) million; Norsk Hydro $3.3 billion.

Oil industry consultant Gerrit Maureau, president of St. John’s-based MaurOil International, says profits

have to be balanced against the cost of developing the oil. In a report he prepared for Memorial University, he compared a number of offshore fields around the world and the cost of production per barrel. He maintains the average cost of production per barrel in this province’s offshore is $13.90 (US) per barrel, making it more costly than the North Sea ($10.50 (US) per barrel), which faces similar challenges such as deep water and a hostile environment.

“They’re looking for very large volumes of oil and the only large volumes of oil that one can hope to find are left in what we call frontier basins,” says Maureau, pointing to such things as deep-water drilling and harsh weather affecting the bottom line.

“So the cost for them to find the kind of reserves that they need to make up for what they’re depleting is very, very high.”

Sam Van Vactor, president of the U.S.-based oil and gas market analytical firm Economic Insight Inc., says pegging what Hibernia partners make — the difference between the breakeven price and the cost of oil — isn’t simple math.

“You can’t possibly make that connection,” Van Vactor tells The Independent.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls the majority of the world’s oil reserves

On board the HIbernia drilling platform.

and sets market prices by controlling production levels.

“OPEC also has reserves that can be developed for much, much less than the cost of developing Hibernia.”

Van Vactor says OPEC member countries can develop oil reserves for as little as $3 (US) per barrel. “... for an oil field to be considered for development, the cost of developing the reserves has to be about one-third of

the expected price.”

But Van Vactor admits that these numbers don’t mean a thing until you see them on a company’s financial spreadsheet.

“It would be incredibly stupid for anybody to say that the oil companies aren’t making lots of money now — they are, but they’re in the business for the long term and the years they have not (made any money).”

APRIL 3, 2005

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Enrollment numbers expected to pick up at $5.4 million French school in St. John’s; may be a Grade 12 class next year

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

E

nrollment numbers at the province’s newest French-as-afirst-language school in St. John’s may be low, but officials with the board running the French school system expect a turnaround.

To date, 12 kindergarten students are set to begin school at the Centre Scholaire et Communautaire des Grands-Vents (the School and Community Center Large-Winds) this September.

The K to 12 school, which cost $5.4 million to build and opened in the fall of 2004, currently has 35 students and six teachers. No Grade 12 students are enrolled this year.

Maurice Saulinier, director of education for the province’s French school board, tells The Independent there’s more interest in the French-as-a-firstlanguage school program.

“We’re very encouraged by the numbers in our pre-school program,” Saulinier says. “So we’re going to build our school from the bottom up.”

He says the small class sizes in all five of the boards’ schools (approximately 200 students throughout the province) are an incentive for parents to enroll their children, plus the added benefit of knowing a second language.

“That I think is a plus … we have a good teacher pupil ratio and very individualized attention.”

Saulinier says the school board has been in talks with the Fog Devils — the new Quebec Major Junior Hockey League franchise in St. John’s — and is expecting at least a handful of children to start at the school come next hockey season.

“We’re trying to create momentum, but really … we’re starting at the prekindergarten level and we plan to build the school slowly, but surely.”

Other schools in the board’s district have low, but consistent Enrollment numbers.

Two west-coast schools have 130 students between them. There are 30 students at the school in Labrador City and, while only 10 students are currently attending the school in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Saulnier says student numbers in military towns fluctuate.

Education Minister Tom Hedderson says he leaves it up to the school board to promote French-as-a-first-language schools to parents.

“They have targets that they set and they do strategic planning … and certainly we’re not saying if we don’t reach that well everything’s off the books,” he says.

“Certainly when you put a price tag

Susan Forward in the Francophone school and community centre, Ridge Road, St. John’s.

on the French language and culture we know that’s priceless. It’s not numbers that we look at — it’s their right to be

educated in their own language.”

The province provides the French school board $1.4 million to operate the

Paul Daly/The Independent

five schools.

There are no additional fees for French-as-a-first-language schools.

Only hope remains Royal Air Force pulls out of 5 Wing after 38 years; ‘hotel concept’ where air forces pay for specific services may work in future HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY

By Bert Pomeroy For The Independent

A

s a bright orange sun dipped beneath the horizon March 31, another chapter in Labrador’s history came to an end.

The Royal Air Force, which has had a permanent presence at 5 Wing Goose Bay for the past 38 years, symbolically closed its detachment when Squadron Leader Paddy Currie boarded a civilian flight, as a small crowd gathered to bid farewell.

“It’s a sad day, but I think it is also a new beginning,” Currie told The Independent prior to his departure. “I think the RAF pulling out will be the catalyst that will see the base make changes — changes that will see it revitalized.”

For the past 20 years, 5 Wing has been the home of Allied Tactical Flight Training in Canada, hosting the British, German, Italian and Dutch air forces. The Dutch pulled the plug on its operations two years ago, and the Germans and Italians will close their detachments next year.

The RAF’s departure is the latest in a series of setbacks the base has had to face in recent years, says union leader Peter Chayter.

“We only have hope left — hope that our politicians will make some right decisions,” Chayter says. “We have to come up with a new plan that

will be supported by our politicians. The political will just isn’t there right now to make things work.”

The closing of the RAF detachment will have a profound impact on the local economy for years to come, Chayter adds.

GENERAL MANAGER John Moores john.moores@theindependent.ca AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4 Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499 Website: www.theindependent.ca

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MANAGER, SALES & MARKETING Andrew Best andrew.best@theindependent.ca

PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews john.andrews@theindependent.ca

sales@theindependent.ca • production@theindependent.ca • circulation@theindependent.ca

“The three unions on the base, some sub-contractors — the entire community — will suffer,” he says. “Some of the people who worked for the RAF directly are now without jobs, and those that provided services to the RAF will also be affected.

“It’s not a good day.”

Chayter blames the Department of National Defence for the RAF departure. And, he says, unless there’s a major shift in direction on the part of the federal government, the future will remain bleak.

“We have nobody marketing this base and the potential it has,” he says.

Perry Trimper, chair of the Goose Bay Citizens Coalition, a community-based stakeholder group, is a little more optimistic, although he admits “a lot more” has to be done if 5 Wing is to have a promising future.

“We need to see some immediate long-term investments on the part of the federal government,” he says, adding that a recent $10-million commitment by Ottawa to resurface the 11,000foot runway at the base “is a good start.”

Trimper says 5 Wing should be on par with 4 Wing Cold Lake in Alberta when it comes to being able to offer training opportunities to Allied countries.

“I’m anxious to see what future commitments the federal government will make,” he says.

Incidentally, the RAF plans to fly out of Cold Lake this year, under a “hotel-type” model of training, says Currie.

“The hotel concept is what the British have asked to have for Goose Bay, where you pay for what you use and the services you receive,” Currie says. “We’re trying it at Cold Lake, and we’re leaving our options open for Goose Bay in the future.”

Those options will not include re-establishing the detachment, Currie adds.

“The unit is gone. It lived and it died.”

The RAF, however, will continue to play a role at 5 Wing — just as it has since 1942 when it first touched down on Labrador soil. Some 129 RAF transport flights landed at the base in 2004, bringing with them some 3,500 personnel.

“That will continue throughout 2005 and beyond,” Currie says.

The RAF will also continue to conduct coldweather training during what it calls “Frozen Star.”

Currie says the week-long exercise, which takes place in January, could be expanded.

“We’re not really saying ‘good-bye’ as much as we’re saying ‘See you later’,” he says. “Our motto for Goose Bay, which is in Inuktitut, is ‘Tingjub Akkaruinga.’ Translated, it means, ‘Where the Big Bird Flies’. One can hope it will be our motto again in the future.”

NEWS IN BRIEF Province expects to lose $3 million in VLT revenues The proposed 15 per cent reduction in video lottery terminals (VLTs) is expected to cost the province an estimated $2.9 million in revenue next fiscal year.

There are currently 2,687 machines in approximately 500 of the 1,600 licensed liquor establishments throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

The number of VLTs is currently frozen, as government moves into a five-year plan to reduce the number of machines as announced in this year’s provincial budget.

The plan is not expected to impact this year’s budget.

In 2004, government collected just over $108 million in rev-

enue from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, of which $76 million — a whopping 70 per cent of total lottery revenues — came from VLT gambling. That number represents an increase of $44 million from what was received from VLTs in 1995.

The most recent Auditor General’s report indicates the province is the only one in Canada not to have conducted a prevalence study to investigate the full extent of gambling problems.

As part of its VLT plan, the provincial government announced $740,000 would be provided for gambling addiction services and awareness.

— Jamie Baker

No announcement on Ottawa job The provincial government is still reviewing applications for Bill Rowe’s former job as Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in Ottawa.

The position was advertised several weeks ago, but Elizabeth Matthews, spokeswoman for the premier’s office, says a choice has yet to be made.

“We are now in the process of reviewing and assessing the applicants who responded,” Matthews tells The Independent.

“We are not in a position to give further details at this point.

When a decision is made we will obviously be pleased to make an announcement.”

Rowe resigned his position as the province’s representative in Ottawa in early February, citing family reasons and a desire to return to the media.

The provincial representative’s job officially became vacant on March 15.

— Jamie Baker

APRIL 3, 2005

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OUR VOICE

Fear shouldn’t stop us W

hy do economists have a sense of humour? … because they use decimal places. Last week I found out something reading The Independent I did not know — our government has committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to look at an energy plan along the lines of acquiring possible petroleum interests.

Wow. That is a big piece of news.

Really…

From my viewpoint, having fought through a fruitless couple of years trying to convince the Tobin government and the bureaucrats of the day (most of whom are still manning the controls) to do the same thing, I see it as an extremely positive development.

Accompanying the story were quotes from Sam Van Vactor, an economist and president of Economic Insight. OK, before I go any further, my first reaction to seeing that name is that if Stan had any “economic insight” he would be a successful do-er as opposed to being a commentator on other do-ers.

In that theme, I received a very uplifting e-mail after my last column from a Corner Brook resident encouraging me

BRIAN DOBBIN

Publish or perish to say it like I see it (not that it was a problem before).

The reader paraphrased a Chinese proverb — “Those who cannot see the way to accomplish something should not get in the way of those who are accomplishing it.”

For Sam to say because there is a lack of success stories about governments trying to participate in their own oil industry we should not attempt it, is akin to saying because most new businesses fail we should do away with entrepreneurship.

I also think he missed one rather large example — Alberta.

You might remember that western province, the same one that has no sales tax and will retire its debt this year.

They started their own oil company many years ago called Alberta Energy Corporation, which is now a public cor-

poration called Encana.

One of the bigger players in the Canadian oil industry, Encana employs thousands of people. Alberta also started a gas pipeline company that is now a large public corporation called Nova, an international player in the gas industry. I know this as I sent Nova’s annual reports to the premier’s office over five years ago.

So kudos to Danny for having the balls to say why not — a question that needs to be asked many more times in Newfoundland and Labrador. I noticed from the story that a portion of the money is also going to the CNOPB — why, I have no idea. Created to protect the provincial benefits from our burgeoning oil industry, I have no knowledge of any contracts that were awarded since then that have been cancelled for lack of local benefit by this enforcement body. We’ll be examining this group more in the future to see what role they really do play.

Having said all this, and being genuinely encouraged to see movement in this direction, I would suggest the chances of success or any thing real

happening from this effort are pretty slim. Over five years ago I sat in the premier’s boardroom, when the premier was Beaton Tulk, and argued passionately that the province should sign a memorandum of understanding with Formosa, the Taiwanese petroleum processing giant, to examine the possibility of bringing stranded natural gas ashore in Argentia to be processed into gas products.

Formosa was willing to spend a couple of million dollars of its own money and the provincial commitment was to stand back and wait for the results.

Should have been a no-brainer.

The deal never made it out of the room as it was shot down by the deputy ministers of Industry and Mines and Energy (the latter I understand is still in the position). Their main opposition was centred around the question how would the oil companies and Ottawa react? Effectively, they were afraid to take the chance of even talking about doing something ourselves.

I can imagine the eye rolling that occurred amongst the senior hard-core bureaucrats when Danny told them we

are going to look at getting involved in our own industry. Of course we should get involved. We have the oil and gas.

We all know how valuable that is. The other ingredients to success are money to develop and expertise. Both of these things are commodities that flow freely around the world. The one thing you cannot get if you don’t have it is the resource — and, once again, we have that.

But Danny can’t do everything himself. Sooner or later this effort will fall into the black hole of provincial government initiatives that make sense, but will be ground to dust on the mortar wheel of fear and ignorance and resistance to change that permeates our civil service.

Fear of failure is a pretty stupid reason not to try something, but in my experience of floating new ideas, it is the first question asked when a new direction is presented to government — what happens when we fail?

I have some pretty strong ideas about how to fix this first, but you would have to look up my last column two weeks ago to see them.

YOUR VOICE

Immigrants aren’t here for ‘free lunch’ Dear editor, There is no dearth of governmentsponsored seminars, workshops, studies, and projects on issues relating to immigrants and refugees — integration and belonging, health issues, bridging the gaps, multiculturalism, to name but a few.

When such issues are discussed there is a tendency to club the two categories — “skilled professional” immigrants, and refugees — together.

It is not justified, though, to mix apples and oranges, branding them as one category. There is a need to realize these are two distinct categories with different issues and problems that require different approaches to find solutions to their specific problems.

Refugees enter into Canada due to compelling circumstances — as victims of political and social upheaval, repression, torture, tribal conflicts, or social strife, usually in non-democratic nations.

Immigrants — especially skilled professionals — enter the country with prior scrutiny and acceptance of their credentials, including educational qualifications, experience, financial status, etc. Immigrants also pay visa processing and landing fees (approximately $1,500 per adult) prior to entering the country.

If Canada is genuinely interested in the timely integration of skilled professionals, there should be a mechanism to provide short-term training so they can assimilate themselves in the work force in the shortest time period.

At the end of the training, the professionals could be provided an

employment opportunity for a fixed period of at least two to three years.

Once completed, they could be left to find their way and search for a job that reflects their educational background, professional skills, and experience.

The immigration policy pertaining to skilled professionals is often seen as a hidden government agenda to attract professionals from developing countries and then force them to work in unprofessional/unskilled jobs — for which they have neither the mindset nor experience.

If slogans such as “integration” and “assimilation of immigrants” in the Canadian society are not merely rhetoric, government will take decisive steps instead of leaving the issue for non-governmental organizations, and seminars and workshops — which are utterly inept and ill equipped to resolve problems encountered by skilled professionals. A campaign should be launched to make Canadians aware that skilled professionals are not in the country for a “free lunch.”

Ironically, a section of society in this country has a hostile attitude towards skilled professionals arriving from developing countries. Immigrants, they say, are taking over their jobs. That mindset extends to all segments of society, including the educated elite and academia. Government, therefore, should also devise policies to educate and enlighten bigoted elites so they will leave their cocoon and broaden their mental horizons.

Fasihur Rahman, St.John’s

‘Junk journalism’ Editor’s note: the following letter was forwarded to The National Post in response to a March 28 column by Matthew Scully. A copy of the letter was forwarded to The Independent.

Dear editor, The attack by Scully upon Newfoundland sealers is not unexpected given his previous diatribe in your newspaper. However, his journalistic credentials are now all the more suspect after his misnaming of the dean of Newfoundland journalism —

Albert B. Perlin (Scully named him Berlin).

Mr. Perlin would have known what to do with such a sloppy piece of work. More’s the pity that The Post published it.

Scully seems desperate to achieve the level of provincial infamy reached by Margaret Wente. However, his shame is more in the realm of junk journalism as exemplified by his glaring error.

Barry Stagg, Toronto

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4 Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499 www.theindependent.ca • editorial@theindependent.ca The 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.

PUBLISHER Brian Dobbin MANAGING EDITOR Ryan Cleary SENIOR EDITOR Stephanie Porter PICTURE EDITOR Paul Daly

All material in The Independent is copyrighted and the property of The Independent or the writers and photographers who produced the material. Any use or reproduction of this material without permission is prohibited under the Canadian Copyright Act. • © 2005 The Independent • Canada Post Agreement # 40871083

The 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 Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 or e-mail us at editorial@theindependent.ca

Just the facts T

he irony was not lost on The Independent’s newsroom. Last fall, the newspaper undertook a six-part cost-benefit analysis of Confederation. We added up everything coming into Newfoundland and Labrador from Canada, and everything going out.

We were after a simple answer to a simple question: who gives more to this relationship — us, or the mainland?

Enough bitching, no more whining about being hard done by, The Independent set out to look at the facts, just the facts.

Is this place A) have-not, or B) cannot (as in cannot rise to its feet because Canada’s boot is scuffing our neck).

Critics panned the paper for playing into the conspiracy-theory mentality — dark, shadowy forces keeping Newfoundland and Labrador down.

Everyone (the federal government, Quebec, Ontario …) is out to get us, to take from us — for themselves.

From the start, The Independent was accused of having an agenda, of setting out to prove Newfoundland and Labrador is getting the short end of the Confederation stick, of cherry-picking numbers to prove our theory right.

“The newspaper is about separation,” was another common refrain.

“Sure the pink, white and green gives it away: what’s that flag about if it’s not about going it alone, splitting up, becoming a nation once again?”

Some wrote off the project without reading a word.

“It’s blasphemous to even question the relationship,” they said. “Canada is the greatest country in the world.”

Others called us ungrateful, unappreciative of all Canada has done for this province since its 1949 rebirth.

“If baby bonus hadn’t of come along when it did, the outports would have died of starvation and disease,” they said. “God bless Canada for being so good to us.”

Despite the criticism and doubt, the project managed to get off the ground.

The facts are what The Independent was after, just the facts.

Truth be told, the results surprised even us.

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander Here’s what we found …

Oil and gas: by 2010, the federal government would have raked in 84 per cent of benefits from the oil industry on the Grand Banks, compared to 16 per cent collected by Newfoundland and Labrador. (The calculations were based on the old Atlantic Accord deal.)

The fishery: between 1992 and 2010, the collapse of the groundfish fishery will have an overall $76 billion negative economic impact on the global fishing industry.

Transportation: since Confederation, the federal government has spent more than $5 billion on roads, rails, ferries airports and lighthouses in the province.

Canada got the message then — there’s life yet in Newfoundland and Labrador, and intelligence, and fight, and pride.

But that won’t last. Beginning in the 1980s, Ottawa handed off its responsibility for various modes of transportation (coastal boat service, the railway, airports, etc.) to the province. That means transportation will become less of a liability for the feds — and a heavier weight for the province to bear.

Fiscal transfers: since 1949, this province has paid $3.4 billion more to Ottawa in taxes than the federal government has sent to this province in transfer payments and personal benefits.

Natural resources: while the rest of Canada has benefited by an estimated $36.5 billion from the province’s natu-

ral resources, Newfoundland and Labrador has gained by about $7.9 billion.

End result: Canada — $53.5 billion from Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland and Labrador — $8.9 billion from Canada.

The final numbers didn’t attract much attention when they came out, not until Danny Williams pulled down the Canadian flag, drawing the focus of the national media. Margaret Wente also did us a wonderful favour and insulted us at the best possible time — when our backs were up over the Atlantic Accord.

Canada got the message then — there’s life yet in Newfoundland and Labrador, and intelligence, and fight, and pride.

Like any flag, the pink, white and green is many things to many people.

To some, it’s a pre-Confederation flag.

To others, it’s a townie flag, reflective of anti-Confederation sentiments that linger to this day.

To others, more and more every day, it’s a symbol of the new Newfoundland and Labrador, a place dripping with culture and intelligence and history and strength. The flag is a rebranding of a people who’ve been branded for too many years as ignorant and backward, too stunned to manage their own affairs.

And that brings us to the irony that wasn’t lost on The Independent’s newsroom. The paper has been nominated for a Michener, the award presented every year by the governor general for the country’s best public-service journalism.

The newsroom spent weeks and weeks picking apart Newfoundland and Labrador’s relationship with Canada, and what does Canada do — recognize us for our efforts. Now that’s irony; it’s also another example of why this country is so damn great, a fact that was never in dispute.

What’s different now is the facts have been exposed. And the truth, as they say, will set us free.

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

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

What the ‘con’ means in Confederation I t is so hard these days. It’s hard keeping Newfoundland nationalists at bay, given the federal Liberals have seen fit to play fast and loose with our Atlantic Accord. Perhaps I am reading this wrong, but placing our Accord deal in a big stew of a bill with other tidbits that the Opposition — who technically hold the majority of seats in the House — are not going to swallow, shows us all what the federal Liberals really think of us.

Maybe I’m the one with the problem, but I can almost see them smirking as they put our precious, essential and hard-won deal in a clunker of a bill designed solely to play chicken with the Opposition.

“Hold us hostage with a flag-lowering stunt, will he? Wanna play rough, does he? Friggin’ uppity Newf.”

It’s hard to make even the slightest sense of our federal Members of Parliament. We have our cabinet minister, John Efford, once again coming down and telling us of dire consequences if things don’t go his bosses’

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason

way. In the name of God, man! What the hell is the matter with you?

Minister Efford’s political science 101 lecture was that it would be the Opposition’s fault if the bill was defeated.

You think! What about the weasly little gnomes in your employ who wrote the bill? Or your buddies in cabinet who decided — once again — to stick it to your constituents and send you back down here as their enforcer.

And you went!

Again!

Riddle me this, Mr. Efford: why is Norm Doyle, one of the Opposition members for this place — the guy you want to blame, their whip, for the love of almighty Christ — on the record as stating he was prepared to vote against

YOUR VOICE Plant production quotas and mistakes of Newfoundland’s past — listing the parallels Dear editor, My father was born in 1910. He commenced fishing with his father at a very early age and in his late teens began an annual fall trek to the lumber woods, where his first task was to cut suitable boughs to make his winter’s bed.

I recall his stories of the nightly ritual of picking lice from each other’s shirts and underwear.

In 1959, Landon Ladd of the International Woodworkers of America came to town to try and organize the woodworkers for better working conditions.

In a parallel to what is happening in the fishery today, the government under Joey Smallwood began a vicious anti-IWA campaign. Violence broke out on the picket lines and a young constable lost his life.

Loggers went to their graves hating Smallwood with a vengeance for siding with the company. Danny Williams will share a similar legacy from fishers of this province.

BATTERED AND BRUISED I was too young then to have any say in what was happening, but today I feel a duty to speak out on the potentially horrendous ramifications of plant production quotas. Not that it will impact me personally, but my heart and my duty is for outport Newfoundland — so badly battered and bruised by bad decisions made in the past.

Just suppose someone had been able to convince Joey in the late 1950s rural communities were really viable and his burn-your-boats, turn-yourback-on-the-sea attitude was a mistake!

Just imagine if some persistent nag,

like myself, had been able to help forge a 20-year Churchill Falls deal instead of a 66-year deal. What heartaches would have been prevented?

How then, do plant production quotas fall in the same boat as these horrendous errors of the past?

No. 1: transferable plant quotas are a recipe for a consolidation of the processing sector into a few mega plants, interested only in tractor trailer quantities of product at a time.

No. 2: transferability of quotas resulting in large efficient operations will allow processors to dictate when fishermen fish and when and where they land so as to minimize production costs.

Remember, under this system processors have fewer pounds of crab, so to make the same profit cost has to be reduced.

No. 3: under this system fishermen will have lost the freedom of choice, so essential to their safety at sea. No fisher wants to lose his freedom to choose to whom he will sell his product, at what price, and when and under what conditions he goes to sea.

No. 4: it is unbelievable the Williams government could legislate away the forces of a free-market economy, when two years ago he was speaking about inviting in the federal Competition Bureau to investigate possible collusion among the processors.

How would you feel if you went out for a pizza tonight and was told the store’s daily quota was sold and the nearest store with quota left was in Leningrad Square?

David Boyd, Twillingate

Paul Daly/The Independent

Not exactly a garbage budget Dear editor, Another year, another budget, and another setback for the environment.

For the second year in a row, the Conservative government has failed to mention the province’s waste management strategy in its spending plan for the coming year.

The 2002 waste management strategy was designed to bring Newfoundland and Labrador out of the dismally outdated way it handles garbage. It is a blueprint for creating a modern, environmentally friendly system to reduce waste going to landfills by 50 per cent, eliminate incinerators and mass-burn facilities, and get us recycling and composting the way most of the industrialized world has been doing for years.

It sets out the guidelines to achieve all this and more by 2010.

The province has 240 landfills, none of which currently employ modern technology to prevent liquid and gaseous contaminants from escaping. New Brunswick is now down to five — all of which are modernized; Nova Scotia has 18. By organizing their waste systems

into a few large facilities, the other provinces have made possible healthy, sanitary practices that remain a distant dream in Newfoundland and Labrador.

We also have over 40 incinerators that do not meet national air-quality standards, and constantly pump airborne toxins into our air and lungs. That is why communities near incinerators report disturbingly high rates of cancer, impaired motor development and lowered IQ — amidst a host of other health catastrophes.

On the economic front, it’s estimated around 1,500 jobs would be created if this province were to smarten up garbage wise.

The year 2010 is getting closer. For another year, no provincial money will be invested in this crucial plan to protect our environment’s future. Why was the strategy left out of the budget — again?

If government officials really believe our province’s environment is a priority, it’s time they put their money where their mouth is.

Jason Noble, St. John’s

his own party on this bill, and you aren’t?

It seems to me the Liberal’s only federal hope is this new guy Scott Simms.

He seems to have enough political smarts to know when to stand up for his constituents and when to play ball with his party. Here’s a hint, Mr. Simms — you want to learn how to be the next Liberal cabinet minister? Watch John Efford and don’t do what he does.

Here’s another no-brainer, Scott, my friend — vote for us on this one. Martin might not keep his job, but you’ll keep yours and we both know which is more important. I’d never fault you for that choice.

And what about the rest of our stellar federal Liberals: Messrs. Matthews and Byrne? Hopeless. Come on loyal Liberals, get to those computers — send us the harshly worded e-mails in their defence. I won’t hold my breath.

It’s hard not to wonder about the Tories. Will Stephen Harper crucify his provincial counterpart and bring on a spring election? Is Danny a federal

Tory? If not, then what the hell are the provincial Tories? And does it matter, outside of the fact they aren’t those nasty federal types. Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle have hitched their wagons to these homophobes — and they are the only ones making sense. Nasty, nasty Conservatives. Ivan no like.

CYNICAL LITTLE GAME It’s hard not to worry about the 1,000plus bureaucrats whose jobs will have to go, the leaky schools that won’t be fixed, the unploughed roads, the sick and ailing people who will wait longer in hospital corridors, all of which could be the result of this crappy, cynical little game the federal Liberals are foisting on the House of Commons.

It’s hard to worry about Kyoto. It’s hard to worry about global warming when you are more concerned with staying warm. Environmentalism is the concern of people with money. Money is the concern of people with no money.

Are you an environmentalist if you push a shopping cart up Water Street collect-

ing bottles and cans from the garbage cans? This little game the Liberals are playing with our very future shows us who they think is pushing the shopping cart in this federation. Here you go, Danny — here’s a slogan for you: Paul Martin has shown us what the “con” means in Confederation.

It’s hard to comprehend. Do we side with the federal Liberals — hopeless, rudderless and corrupt to the point of no return? Do we side with the nasty, nasty homophobes that have hijacked the grand old Progressive Conservatives?

Do we side with the utterly pointless New Democrats?

It’s hard not to get angry at the principle of the thing. No doubt a deal will be brokered to save the Accord. But, in the mean time, it’s hard on the nerves.

And most of all, it’s hard to keep a lid on the Newfoundland nationalists, who more and more are starting to make sense.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

HOSPITALIZED

Now recovering in a St. John's hospital, Health Minister John Ottenheimer, 52, received a pacemaker after blacking out on an airplane destined for Gander March 29. Justice Minister Tom Marshall has been appointed to fill in for Ottenheimer as he recovers.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Harper’s outrage not surprising Dear editor, Stephen Harper’s reaction to the selection of two Progressive Conservative women for the Senate is, in one sense, expected, but in another, surprising.

As an anti-federalist who supports the idea that Senators should be elected by provincial governments, Harper’s outrage is not surprising. It is not surprising he would find the selection of women — especially women with concerns about the environment, human rights, the poor, and women’s rights — “insulting.” These are not issues that are of central concern to the new Conservatives.

What is surprising is that Harper has finally acknowledged the virtual elimi-

nation of Progressive Conservative values from the new Conservative party.

Harper’s response to the women’s decision to sit as Progressive Conservatives was to characterize that party name as “usually a euphemism now for people who support the Liberal Party federally.”

Progressive Conservatives, if there are still some in the party, are obviously such as fringe element they are invisible to the professional wing of the party.

Many non-right wing, moderate Conservatives saw the merger as a strategy meant to destroy their influence in Canadian politics. Harper’s assumption that this group is now firmly entrenched in the Liberal party federally may be wishful thinking.

With over 800,000 fewer votes for the new Conservative party in the last election, it is clear many former Progressive Conservative voters temporarily parked their votes with the Liberals and other parties.

The temporary nature of that decision is illustrated by the gradual movement of Progressive Conservatives to the Progressive Canadian Party, a registered federal party ready to promote traditional Conservative values of a strong federal government, a wariness of American intentions (apparently not shared by Liberals or Conservatives), fiscal conservatism, social order, and devotion to the common good of all Canadians.

Phyllis Wagg, West Bay, N.S.

Trevor Taylor’s ‘magic trick’ Dear editor, The crab dispute comes down to the provincial government’s attempt to transfer someone’s property to another without consent. Harvesters have entitlement to a federal resource. The provincial government and the processors under its jurisdiction do not.

What provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor is proposing is an attempt to get around this system, to make the appropriation of someone else’s property appear legitimate, when it is not. The minister is trying to make it appear processors can own the resource.

Taylor’s magic trick has a problem, the harvester, who still owns the federal quota. That fact is countered by another move under the minister’s proposed plan. The harvester may still own the quota, but the processor will own the harvester. The processor claims ownership of the resource, not by owning the quota directly, but by having absolute control over harvesters, who own the quota. By intending to impose closed regional monopolies, the harvester’s right to the value of the quota is supposedly overridden because he has no one else to sell to.

The transfer of property rights from harvesters to processors is illegitimate

Trevor Taylor

under current federal law. Our government’s attempt to get around this fact and thereby transfer someone else’s property to another by enforcing a feudal monopoly, appears to violate the limits of English common law — as founded by the 17th century philosopher John Locke.

If a government attempts to seize the property of its citizens, that government is illegitimate. “Tyranny,” says John

Paul Daly/The Independent

Locke, “is the exercise of power beyond right.” If citizens are under attack by their own government, citizens have the natural right to resist.

Is the provincial Fisheries minister over the line of what a government can legitimately impose on its citizens, the independent harvesters?

Craig Cramm, Old Perlican

APRIL 3, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘This isn’t California and I’m no surfer chick’

LIFE STORY

F

or some, getting their driver’s license is a matter of convenJEFF DUCHARME ience, or freedom — the luxury of getting as far away from the A Savage parental units as possible. But for me, Journey it far transcended that. I’d been dreaming of driving since my playpen days when I would harass family was a lovely girl, but she wasn’t worth members by zooming dinky toys from a trip to the emergency room where a one end of the playpen to the other for nurse would spend hours picking buckshot out of my backside. And if hours at a time. the nurse was the mother of a teenage It was all about the driving.

My infatuation was so ingrained daughter, there’d be every chance that a three-month wait for a driver’s she’d forget the anesthetic or use the test in Ottawa was simply unaccept- biggest forceps she could find.

As time wore on, it became apparable — I drove almost two hours out ent the van needed to be spruced up. of town to take my test.

It was the late 1970s and, for what- Dad had a friend of a friend of a friend ever reason, my first vehicle was a that did bodywork and paint (I think matter of convenience more than con- he may have been the local bookie, scious choice. The old man noticed too).

Off the van went to the paint shop. that a friend of his had a customized “The van is back and boy does it van for sale and made his buddy an offer — he got it for a song (it was a look spiffy,” my Dad told me on the bad song). The 1973 Ford 350 phone.

I raced home.

Econoline van just appeared in the As I came over the hill I saw this laneway one day (Dad was eventually reimbursed). A muscle car would have aberration sitting in my laneway. The been cooler, but this was the ’70s and bright sun pounded off this thing and sliced through my eyes, searing into customized vans were in. the back of my brain.

On the outside, the I ran faster as if I van was ugly. On the If you listened closely, could outrun the inside, it was tacky nightmare.

— diamond tuck real you could hear the Shock was beginimitation leather male hormones ning to set in and I covered the walls, felt nauseous. My dash and ceiling. Fun draining from my mouth went dry and fur covered everymy legs turned to thing else that didn’t body as I stared at move. But all that the four-wheeled pink rubber.

The inhumanity of could be overlooked it all. The van had since, much to abomination parked been painted pink.

Mom’s chagrin, before me.

Not just any shade of there was a table that pink, but bright pink, could be collapsed into a bed. This opened a whole new metallic pink! The van was pinker than the Pink Panther after a skin realm of dating possibilities.

After meeting a date’s father, he graft.

My father met me outside. insisted on inspecting the van (for “It’s pink,” I screamed, my head in safety, I thought). As I opened the side door for him, my dating life flashed my hands. “It couldn’t possibly be before my eyes (it was more of a flick- more pink.”

“I think it looks sharp,” said Dad. er than a flash). My whole body tightened as his eyes swung toward the “Pink is an in-colour in California.”

Dad knew very little about “inback of the van and his vision lockedin on the bed. You could hear the colours” considering that for the duraparental alarm bells going off inside tion of the conversation he was wearthis guy’s head: threat to daughter’s ing a tangerine sports coat. It was virtue! Threat to daughter’s virtue! clashing horribly with the van’s new pink outer skin.

Kill threat! Kill threat!

“But this isn’t California and I’m no “You must be crazy if you think I’m letting my daughter go anywhere in surfer chick,” I shot back.

If you listened closely, you could that,” he fumed.

Muttering something about owning hear the male hormones draining from guns, he turned and walked towards my body as I stared at the fourwheeled pink abomination parked his front door.

As soon as he entered the house, I before me.

After two horrible weeks of driving wasted little time in getting the hell out of there. It was well known in the the pink van, it was repainted and all neighbourhood this overprotective was right with the world once again. father had quite the impressive gun Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about that tangerine sports coat. collection.

I was dammed if I was going to be Jeff Durcharme is The used as an example of why young males should keep their raging hor- Independent’s senior writer. jeff.ducharme@theindependent.ca mones away from his daughter. She

Capt. Morrissey Johnson

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

‘He gave everything’ Capt. Morrissey Johnson 1932-2003

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A

well-read sealer, a ship’s captain, a businessman, a Member of Parliament, an advocate for everyone but himself, Capt. Morrissey Johnson is described as the romanticized Newfoundlander — a big man with calloused hands, but thoughtful and gentle in manner.

Johnson died in a moose vehicle collision on July 14, 2003 — a painful memory for Dr. Ron Whalen, one of Johnson’s closest friends.

“I don’t want to paint a picture of somebody who was idyllic, you know of somebody that was larger than life, because he certainly wasn’t that, but he was much beloved. He was a huge loss to me,” Whalen tells The Independent.

Whalen became friends with Johnson in 1981 when the captain asked Whalen to serve as the fleet’s doctor.

“I honestly believe that in our history this was a man that didn’t receive the fame that he should have for the things that he did and the way that he cared for

people,” Whalen says.

Johnson will be remembered for his public battles in favour of the seal cull, his one term in the Commons, his boat tour business operated in St. John’s, and the donation of his ship’s bells to the George Street United Church.

But what only a few friends will remember are the small things: how he loaned his cell phone to a couple who’d just arrived from England (and had no problem with the $200 bill); or how he’d walk down Water Street handing out change to anyone who asked. When Morrissey ran out of change, he’d start on the five-dollar bills.

“But that was the kind of person he was,” Whalen says. “He gave everything.”

He says it was “heartbreaking” to hear Johnson died in a car accident just as he was laying out plans to realize his dream of sailing to the Canadian north.

Johnson had been looking at the boat chartered for the trip while in Botwood.

He died on the way home.

Derrick Frampton, another of Johnson’s close friends, says despite the harsh light shed on the sometimes brutal seal hunt, Johnson was an animal lover.

“He always had a cat in the house and the cat was usually in his lap and if you know anything about cats if they have a problem with you they’re not going to be around you,” Frampton says.

“Morrissey looked at seals and sealing as an industry.”

As for Morrissey’s Boat Tours, a company that died with Johnson, Frampton says it was the captain who made the boat tours worthwhile.

“A lot of people travelled with him because they felt secure and safe with such a knowledgeable man at the helm,” he says. “He loved people; he was a real people person.”

Two weeks before his death, Johnson donated the bells from his boat to the George Street United Church, which held an annual spring service to wish sealers luck and to commemorate those who had died the previous year on the ice.

The bells rang for the first time at Johnson’s own funeral where Whalen gave the eulogy.

“I think people tend to build up a person after they’re gone, but in this instance Morrissey was … anyone that knew him and called him friend loved him dearly and I miss him very much.”

PAPER TRAIL

‘A fresh breath’

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

S

pring weather in Newfoundland and Labrador can be unpredictable, but no matter how much people complain, nothing can be done about it.

The Evening Chronicle’s March 19, 1909 edition reported a constant snowfall for five days on the Avalon Peninsula, delaying trains for up to a week.

Several rotary snow plows, working in 24-hour shifts, were unable to keep up with the weather. The total snowfall as of the 19th was between 10 and 15 feet, depending on the area. By the next day’s paper there was a total accumulated snowfall of 15 to 20 feet. The March 20th edition went on to say about a foot of snow fell per hour on some days.

The Free Press was a liberal-leaning paper published in St. John’s for only a year between 1971 and ’72.

On March 9, 1972 the Press published a 10-year-old photograph of a dozen men pulling a massive schooner through the frozen ice of St. John’s harbour.

“Human icebreakers,” read the headline above the story that accompanied

the photo. The story told the tale of the St. John’s harbour being “caught over” with ice during the “frosty, frosty winter” of 1972.

The story mentioned how a decade before “some lively times were had in cutting channels,” as the harbour would freeze over for months at a time during the winter and spring seasons, making shipping difficult.

The March 18, 1955 edition of The Daily News offered a treat to readers.

Weather conditions were described as “miserable,” so a photo spread titled “Just to remind you — Summer can be beautiful” showed just that. The pictures showed women in clingy swimsuits and bathing caps playing in the waters off Beachy Cove and fishermen with their sleeves rolled up relaxing in the back of their boat in the “sun-filled waters of Trinity Bay.” The feature was in stark contrast to photos of people digging out of snowdrifts and slushy weather printed through the rest of the newspaper.

In the early 1900s, advertisements for “cottaphane” were common. One such ad, running in the weeks of March and April in the Bay Roberts Guardian of 1915, described the uses of Sheffield “cottaphane” in household waterproofing. Shoes, raincoats, straw

The Daily News, 1975

and felt hats, leather, car tops and flags could all be waterproofed with the substance.

“All campers should take a gallon of cottaphane with them,” the ad read.

The Fisherman’s Advocate, the official newspaper of the Fisherman’s Protective Union during the 1920s and ’30s, was famous for its weather reports and stories.

One such article published in the March 28, 1930 edition was simply titled “Spring” and explained the phenomenon of spring fever, which would be “quite common during the next month.

“Some writers tell us that it is nothing but a lethargic drowsiness caused by the poisons accumulated during the physical inaction of winter,” the article read.

The writer made the point spring fever may carry back to cavemen days when, at the first sign of spring, the caveman would bask in the sunlight after a long time stuck in his den. “… we must not surrender to it too readily, for there is more work to be done in spring than perhaps any other season.

“Spring is the time to take a new lease on life, to get a fresh start. Fill your lungs with fresh air and go to it.”

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 3-9, 2005 — PAGE 9

Ontario bids for Labrador power Labrador project estimated to cost up to $6 billion; Danny Williams ‘pleased’ with participation Near the Churchill Falls power station

Toronto, Ont. Richard Brennan The Toronto Star

O

ntario has joined Hydro-Québec and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. to bid on a multibillion-dollar hydro-electric mega-project in Labrador to produce cheap power for the province.

“Will we be successful at the end of the day? I don’t know. But we would be fools to ignore the opportunity,” Ontario’s Energy Minister Dwight Duncan says, adding it will take about a year to find out if the joint proposal is successful.

Duncan says the plan to build the two hydro-electric dams in Labrador could cost between $3 billion and $6 billion, but they would produce 2,824 megawatts — enough electricity for two million homes.

“To put this into perspective, this is the equivalent to all the coal-fired electricity generation from Lambton, Atikokan, Thunder Bay and one unit at Nanticoke. It is a significant amount of power,” the energy minister says.

“The bottom line is it (would) provide us over a period of at least 50 years with a source of relatively inexpensive power,” he says, guessing electricity from the Labrador project could sell for as little as five cents a kilowatt.

Critics call the bid an act of desperation given the Liberal government has promised to close all coal-fired generation

plants by 2007, representing 7,500 which produce more than 220,000 megawatts in capacity. megawatts.

“There isn’t going to be 7,500 The joint-venture company would lease megawatts out of this deal … and it won’t the two sites — a 2,000-megawatt hydroprovide any power until 2011,” provincial electric project at Gull Island and an 824NDP Leader Howard Hampton says, megawatt complex at Muskrat Falls — adding the money would be better spent on from Newfoundland and Labrador for 50 an energy efficiency strategy. years.

The joint proposal presented to the govUnder the second option, Ontario and ernment of NewfoundHydro-Québec land and Labrador would negotiate a includes two options. power purchase The deadline for the so- … Newfoundland is pleased agreement, with called expressions of Ontario getting 945 interest, first issued in megawatts from to see Ontario involved, January, is today. hydro-electric operThe first option would ations built and given relations between see the Ontario paid for by Electricity Financial Newfoundland and Quebec N e w f o u n d l a n d Corp. and HydroLabrador Hydro. have not been smooth Québec form a joint“We are pleased venture company to fund that Ontario and when it comes to sharing Quebec are particithe development of the project, with Ontario pating in our hydro-electricity. owning one-third and expressions of Hydro-Québec the rest. interest process,” Ontario in turn would Newfoundland and have the rights to one-third of electricity Labrador Premier Danny Williams said in produced, or 945 megawatts — enough to a statement. power more than 550,000 homes.

Williams, who was unavailable to SNC-Lavalin would be the lead contrac- answer any questions, said the process is tor. The engineering and construction firm intended to attract a range of proposals has offices across Canada and abroad, and from all parties, including private compahas extensive experience with building nies, consortiums and other governments. thermal, hydro and nuclear power plants, “Our goal is to identify and evaluate all

Photos by Paul Daly/The Independent

potential viable options for the development of this clean, renewable energy resource,” he said.

Duncan notes Newfoundland is pleased to see Ontario was involved, given relations between Newfoundland and Quebec have not been smooth when it comes to sharing hydro-electricity.

Provincial Conservative member John O’Toole (Durham) says Duncan’s announcement is “a clear admission that they are in trouble on the coal commitment for ’07.”

As part of the partnership, HydroQuébec would also advance construction of a 1,250-megawatt interconnection with Ontario, allowing electricity to move easily between the two provinces, to be in service by 2009.

“In addition, Hydro-Québec has indicated a willingness to provide Ontario with 670 megawatts of power by 2011, which is representative of Ontario’s share of Gull Island’s expected power flows,” Duncan says.

He says the proposal, if successful, would be a “major step” in reducing Ontario’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Duncan notes Ontario is still in negotiations with Manitoba to buy hydro-electric power from the western province, as part of what the energy minister would like to see become a national power grid.

Reprinted with permission.

New post-cold-war ‘battleground’ Russia, China and U.S. watching developments in Eurasia that could threaten their own rising military and economic interests NEW YORK

I

n August, 1991 Askar Akayev, the little-known leader of Kyrgyzstan, a tiny republic in the distant mountains of Central Asia, made history when he stood up to the counter-revolutionaries who tried to crush democracy in the former Soviet Union.

Akayev, then a 46-year-old exphysics professor, refused to accept the legitimacy of the band of plotters who had kidnapped Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. His courage, in the face of threats of military reprisals from Moscow, scotched the would-be coup leaders’ hopes of starting a Communist counter-revolution in Moscow’s distant Eurasian republics, and instantly made him a hero in the West.

Heroism, however, has a short halflife.

Fifteen years later Akayev is an angry, reviled exile in Moscow, the victim of a democratic upheaval (or, as some call it, an “accidental coup”) in the picture-postcard country that he had once proudly branded as an “oasis of democracy.” And there’s hardly anyone left who doesn’t think he deserved his fate.

The events that jolted Kyrgyzstan last month are more evidence that the

STEPHEN HANDELMAN

Global context landmark revolutions that transformed the Soviet Union and Central Europe in the 1990s have not ended — and may in fact be swinging into a new stage of activity. Like the populist upheavals this year in Georgia and Ukraine, the Kyrgyz “tulip revolution” exposed the widespread discontent among postSoviet peoples over betrayed promises of democracy and mounting economic hardship.

KEY FLASHPOINT And it puts a new spotlight on Central Asia, one of the world’s key flashpoints for geopolitical manoevering.

The revolution began in early March when thousands of demonstrators in the southern Kyrgyz cities of Osh and Jalalabad took over government buildings to protest what they called fraudulent parliamentary elections. The protests soon spread to the capital, Bishkek, and forced Akayev to flee

(though he has refused to officially resign his presidency).

According to the latest reports, Kyrgyzstan is now run by a caretaker government, comprising some of the leading opponents of the regime – although the previously elected parliament continues to sit.

POTENTIAL INSTABILITY Kyrgyzstan is the sharpest example yet of the region’s potential instability.

The nearby governments of Tajikistan, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are dominated by authoritarian regimes, who have reason to fear that unrest could spread beyond Kyrgyz borders. Meanwhile Russia, China and the U.S. are all nervously watching developments that could imperil their own rising military and economic interests in the area.

The jockeying for influence could turn Eurasia into a new post-cold-war “battleground,” warns Konstantin Simonov, director of the Centre for Current Politics in Russia.

What brought down Akayev was corruption — and sheer hubris. “Long power brings with it a sense of unreality,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group concluded last year in an analysis of Kyrgyzstan’s worsening sit-

uation.

The process that turned a supposedly staunch democrat like Akayev into the remote, authoritarian leader of a corrupt regime is unfortunately typical of the post-Soviet era. Akayev found himself relying more and more on his close family circle and loyalists who bartered government favours for money, in much the same way Russia’s Boris Yeltsin did.

Last year, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was hired by a Calgary oil firm to travel to Turkmenistan to lobby for a Caspian oil and gas concession.

For Kyrgyzstan, whose alpine meadows, glacial lakes and white-capped mountains helped its self-promotion as a Eurasian Switzerland, this was a double tragedy. The smallest of the five Central Asian nations, with less than five million people, Kyrgyzstan has actually become poorer since it

declared independence in 1991.

“The country that has been the most eager to adopt Western models … has seen the most severe increase in poverty and social stratification,” the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs was told in 2000 during an investigation into Canada’s relations with Central Asia and the Caucasus.

CANADA STAKEHOLDER Canada, ironically, has been one of the biggest stakeholders in the Kyrgyz democratic experiment. A Canadian company, Centerra, is a lead partner in a gold mine in the mountainous region east of Bishkek that provides the single largest source of Kyrgyzstan’s foreign earnings. Backed by the Export Development Corporation, it represents the largest Canadian investment in the post-Soviet world.

In the years following the Soviet collapse, Canadian foreign policy-makers concentrated on Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan as the two post-Soviet nations where Ottawa’s influence, capabilities and interests best intersected.

Not only have leading Canadian businessmen and lobbyists forged Continued on page 10

APRIL 3, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

VOICE FROM AWAY

‘You will get further by smiling’

Newfoundlander Lynn Hartery is getting accustomed to Thailand — the crowds, the spicy food, the importance of being friendly BANGKOK Thailand

By Lynn Hartery For The Independent

G

need green space.

You can find cheap, good food at every corner, so you never need to worry you’ll be hungry.

etting accustomed to the busyness and crowded streets of MAI PHET! Bangkok takes some time.

When people heard I was coming to Buses, cars and taxis whiz by, the side- Thailand, they said, “Oh, you’ll love walks are like obstacle courses with so the food,” and I do. The food is one of many people and street vendors at the best things about Thailand. every turn. It is not unusual for a motor- Traditional Thai meals will incorporate cycle driver to beep his horn behind the basic flavors of salty, sweet, spicy you on the sidewalk, either. and sour — sometimes all in one dish.

Noise hails from One thing I the crowds, venlearned very quickdors, traffic and ly is the Thai conToday, the rebuilding storefronts. The cept of spicy is not Thai script is uninmy concept of continues and the Thai telligible to anyone spicy. Chilies and who has not studchili sauces are on people are hoping to ied it, so reading every table as a reconstruct their signs, bus routes condiment like we and menus is also use salt back home. paradise, which brings impossible, makWhenever I ing it all the more order, I have to ask so many people challenging to do for “mai phet” even simple things, which means “not to their country. like order food and spicy.” When I was catch a bus. in Chiang Mai, a Little by little, northern Thai town, things have become easier and more I learned to make a few of my favorite enjoyable. My co-workers have helped Thai dishes — pad Thai and chicken a lot by teaching me some Thai and with green curry, which I can make as explaining some organization hidden spicy (or not) as I want. beneath the chaos. I learned which buses have air-conditioning (orange) IF BANGKOK IS TOO MUCH The ability to travel both within and and which ones do not have even a fan outside of Thailand is a great part of the (red).

I learned some Thai foods and how to experience here. Living in Bangkok ask for them in Thai. Very importantly, almost necessitates planning retreats to I learned how to say “hello” and “thank enjoy the many beautiful islands and you” which will endear you to the Thai beaches Thailand is famous for.

The beaches are idyllic — golden people. Armed with even a few of these skills, Bangkok can be an exciting sand, palm trees, beautiful blue sky and place. It is fast-paced and there is ocean. You can relax on the beach, do always activity. Just today as I ate lunch day hikes to waterfalls or caves, and on the street, a group of people came by treat yourself to a Thai massage in the with drums and horns to celebrate the evening.

Thai massage is based on principles Chinese New Year.

There are hundreds of intricately of acupressure and depending on your decorated Buddhist temples (wats), masseuse, can be invigorating or somewith amazing architecture and histo- times even painful. They start at your ries. There are museums, shopping feet and work out all kinds of kinks and plazas, outdoor markets, theatres, and tensions right up to your neck and head. cultural centers to visit. You can travel One friend described it as feeling like on the river to get away from traffic and she was a getting squeezed like a tube spend time in Lumphini Park when you of toothpaste.

Dining in a restaurant overlooking Bangkok.

CULTURAL ADAPTATIONS In a general sense, Thai people are laid-back and easy-going. This is reflected in the informal national motto “mai pen rai” which means “no worries” or “don’t worry about it.”

This will be brought into use in many different contexts, but often with respect to time or deadlines — meetings don’t start on time, bus is late, “mai pen rai.” Once you learn that, you will get along much better here, and start adjusting your plans accordingly.

Communication styles also differ.

Thai people will go out of their way to avoid conflict or confrontation of any kind. Getting visibly angry or upset is frowned upon.

Thai people are famous for smiling — getting angry reflects badly on the person in question. Even when you are in a disagreement or haggling over

Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images

prices you will always get further ahead by smiling and being friendly, as this is highly valued in interactions with Thai people.

In seven months here, I’ve learned a lot about this country and its people. I was here through the tsunami disaster in December. It was horrible to see the extent of the loss for Thai people in affected areas, as well as the devastation to the beautiful places, some of which I had visited just a month earlier.

Today, the rebuilding continues and the Thai people are hoping to reconstruct their paradise, which brings so many people to their country.

I have four more months in Thailand, which means I will be here through the hottest season of March and April when the temperature can soar above 40 degrees Celsius. I’m looking forward to Songkran Festival — a three-day cele-

bration of the Thai New Year in midApril.

One of the traditions is to throw water on people, especially foreigners.

My boss told me that you might as well soak yourself before you go out, as sometimes even hoses are pointed at open windows on buses.

Well, I missed the winter in St. John’s so a little soaking is a small price to pay!

Lynn Hartery, from Portugal Cove, is a participant in Young Professionals International, sponsored by Foreign Affairs, administered by Memorial University. She works at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.

Do you know a Newfoundlander or Labradorian living away? Please email editorial@theindependent.ca

WORLD IN BRIEF Solar powered community TORONTO (Reuters) — Canada, better known for snow than sun, plans to build a 52-home solar powered community in Alberta that will harvest the sun’s rays in summer and use them to heat homes in winter, the government says.

The Drake Landing development, already under construction in the western province, will be the first of its kind in North America. Officials say it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 260 tonnes a year and supply the homes with more than 90 per cent of the heat they need.

Did you witness this giant step for mankind?

Fonda regrets Vietnam visit NEW YORK (Reuters) — Jane Fonda regrets her visit to a North Vietnamese gun site in 1972, the actress and fitness guru says.

The actress defends her trip to Vietnam in 1972, which won her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” But she says her visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site used to shoot down U.S. pilots was a “betrayal” of the U.S. military.

“The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter … sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal,” she says, calling the act “the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine.”

But she says she did not regret visiting Hanoi, or being photographed with American prisoners of war there.

“There are hundreds of American delegations that had met with the POWs,” she says. “Both sides were using the POWs for propaganda … It’s not something that I will apologize for.”

Radio station rapped for anti-Sikh insults OTTAWA (Reuters) — A Quebec radio station was formally reprimanded last week after one of its presenters insulted immigrants to Canada and said the Sikhs of northern India were “a gang of bozos.”

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said the item on Montreal’s CKAC-FM was “abusive and unduly discriminatory” and ordered the station to make a public apology.

In a show broadcast in December 2003, CKACFM presenter Pierre Mailloux told listeners that immigrants who came to Canada should abandon their habits and traditions.

“You cultural communities come from a wacko country,” he said.

You live a wacko culture. Don’t bring it with you. That’s the message to convey.”

A Canadian connection Continued from page 9 lucrative ties with Central Asia: so have ex-politicians. Former solicitor general Robert Kaplan served as an honourary consul for Kazakstan in Canada; John Laschinger, a onetime senior Tory strategist in Ontario, was an election adviser to Akayev in 1995; and last year, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was hired by a Calgary oil firm to travel to Turkmenistan to lobby for a Caspian oil and gas concession.

Critics wonder whether Canadians’ association with these increasingly risky regimes will backfire. But the bigger question is whether Canada can leverage the influence it has already earned to play a healthy role in the further transformation of

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Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia — and in the other revolutions sure to continue across the former Soviet empire.

“Canada’s multilateral and bilateral economic assistance towards Central Asia should clearly and firmly link levels of official support to demonstrable progress on economic and political reform,” the parliamentary committee recommended in 2001.

The time to start making good on that promise is now.

Stephen Handelman is a columnist for TIME Canada based in New York. He can be reached at shandel@ix.netcom.com. His next column for The Independent will appear April 17.

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 11

APRIL 3, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

WORLD BRIEFS NYC’s first on-time budget in 21 years NEW YORK (Reuters) — It’s no April Fool’s joke: New York State had an ontime budget for the first time in 21

years when it started its fiscal year Friday, April 1.

The state’s Senate and Assembly came to a “conceptual agreement” with Gov. George Pataki on a budget that is projected to be $106.9 billion.

“The budget is done and that is a very

positive step, but this is not as good a budget as it should be,” Pataki says.

Discussions are ongoing in several areas, including Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor. The debate centers on how much cost-cutting will be agreed to in exchange for capping

the amount of money cash-strapped county governments must pay for their portion of Medicaid spending.

The governor had wanted to cut about $1.1 billion from Medicaid, but Legislators restored about $693 million of his cuts.

Funding for basic education increased by $840 million, more than the $526 million the governor had proposed. But the figure does little to address the $5.6 billion that a state judge ruled is needed over the next four years for New York City schools.

Average Manhattan apartment goes for $1.2 million NEW YORK (Reuters) — The average sale price for a Manhattan apartment topped $1.2 million in the first quarter, a new record, as the supply of properties for sale shrunk, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview.

The average sale price rose to $1.21 million — up 23 per cent from the final quarter of 2004 and up 26 per cent from a year ago.

In the condominium sector, the average sale price jumped to $1.55 million — exceeding $1.5 million for the first time — and surging 34 per cent from 2004’s fourth quarter, the report says. The average condo sale price went up 22 per cent from the year-ago first quarter.

For Manhattan’s John Andrews entire apartment mar- New York City ket, the average price per square foot climbed to $910 — topping $900 a square foot for the first time. That’s a gain of 28 per cent from a year earlier.

“Improving economic conditions, a tight housing supply, rising incomes and the widely held expectation of rising mortgage rates in the near future, caused housing prices to surge this quarter,” the report says.

The volume of apartment sales fell to 2,028 units — down 5.8 per cent from a year ago, according to the report.

The average sale price of a cooperative apartment, where an owner holds shares in the building and does not own the individual unit, rose to $988,746, up 25 per cent from the first quarter of 2004.

April Fools Day jokes …?

(Reuters) — Taiwan’s presidential office denied rumours on April 1 that President Chen Shui-bian had been injured in a bomb attack, saying it was a nasty April Fools Day joke by a college student.

“There is no such thing. The president is fine. It was a nasty joke, a highly inappropriate one by a college student who made up a story and posted it on the Internet,” a spokesman for the presidential office said.

“People passed it around and the rumour started.”

Meanwhile, a continent away, London-based BBC sent an e-mail requesting an interview with reggae star Bob Marley, 24 years after his death.

The publicly funded broadcaster confessed April 1 it was “very embarrassed” by the mix-up, which appeared in an email to the Bob Marley Foundation.

The Bob Marley Foundation was not immediately available for comment, but the BBC said it had laughed off the mistake.

“The Marley Foundation have been extremely good humoured about this and we have apologized for the error.”

It said the mistake occurred in a standard letter the BBC sent out to hundreds of “icons and musicians” it wanted to take part in a series on digital channel BBC-3.

A BBC spokeswoman said the statement was not an April Fool hoax.

“It’s a genuine mistake ... today of all days,” she said.

French education rules upheld OTTAWA (Reuters) — French-language families in Quebec have no right to send their children to English state schools, the Supreme Court says, in a ruling that upholds key portions of French-speaking Quebec’s controversial language laws.

But the court also eased restrictions on English-speaking families in the province, saying children who had received a significant part of their education in English, for example in Ontario, had the right to study in English in Quebec.

Eight mainly francophone families — one has an American mother — had argued that forcing their children into schools that taught in French was a violation of their rights. But the court ruled unanimously that they did not have the constitutional right to English education.

But the judgments give little flexibility to native Frenchspeakers or to immigrants, even if they were educated in English as in the case of most Americans and Britons.

Their children must go to French schools or they must pay for their children’s education themselves.

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 3-9, 2005 — PAGE 13

Jerilee Woodford

Brad Oberholtzer

By Jamie Baker The Independent

‘A big

tomboy’ From playing in the Lingerie Bowl during the Superbowl halftime show to a promising modelling and singing career, Harbour Main bombshell making a name in LA

T

here are probably a few young men in Harbour Main who wish they paid a little more attention to self-proclaimed tomboy Jerilee Woodford.

The 26-year-old former provincial track star is currently making waves in the greater Los Angeles area as a model, with her sights firmly set on a singing and acting career. She recently played in — and was the MVP of — the Lingerie Bowl, which takes place during the Superbowl’s halftime show.

She’s also co-hosting an extreme sports television show called Adventure Highway and has done modelling work for everyone from Hawaiian Tropic to Surf Illustrated.

Woodford, a star provincial track athlete in the mid-1990s, tells The Independent it probably would surprise more than a few people if they found out what she’s doing today.

“It’s funny because I was always a bit of a dork and I always did my own thing — I was a big tomboy,” Woodford says.

“Modelling was something I never even dreamed of, but now I’m always on the run, I’m in a different city everyday, I travel so much

— it’s good though, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m not complaining.”

Woodford’s rise to fame began quietly in the late 1990s when she was working at Aldo in the Avalon Mall as assistant manager, while, at the same time, working on a double major in biology and chemistry at Memorial University. With her face constantly buried in a book or work, the then-18-year-old longed for a change in lifestyle.

The opportunity came in 1999 when Aldo offered her a chance to work in one of their other franchise stores in New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles.

Because it was wintertime when the opportunity arose, Woodford says she chose Los Angeles because “there were palm trees and no snow.

“It was a bit of a culture shock because there’s a good, bad and ugly in L.A., right from the homeless people to the rich celebrities. I dove into my work for six or seven days a week … I was all by myself, but I adjusted.”

Then, one day while at work, a man came up to her and asked her if she’d be interested in becoming the spokes model for a jeans ad campaign. From there, she did a show for Surf Illustrated and things started taking off almost immediately — to the point where she became one of only 16 women chosen to take part in the Lingerie Bowl from more than 6,000 applicants.

The screening process, she says, was intense and detailed. After taking photographs and conducting interviews, organizers narrowed the field of 6,000 down to 2,000 and again to about 500.

After the agility test, there was little doubt Woodford — the provincial record holder in the 100-metre (12.86) and 200-metre sprints (26.35), and two-time Newfoundland and Labrador representative at the Canada Games in Brandon, Man. (1993) and Kamloops, B.C. (1993) — would be one of the successful applicants.

“I was the fastest girl that tried out, so they were like, ‘OK, she’s in.’ Because of my tomboy ways, I knew sports and I knew I could play, catch and run. They also had written tests on terminology, football, an overview of the game and things like that. They had three different tests and a fourth final — anybody who failed a test got dropped.”

In the game itself, which was televised in front of millions, she scored two touchdowns on her way to being named MVP, an honour for which she received a custom motorcycle from Beverly Hills Customs. The four-player team also received a $10,000 See “Going for blood,”page 15

LIVYERS

‘Heck of a woodworker’

Mount Pearl craftsman spends retirement making music (instruments anyway)

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

B

Donald Jacobs

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

efore a musician can create a sound, another type of artist must first create the instrument.

In Donald Jacobs’ case, the hand carving that goes into constructing stringed instruments — violins in particular — is his preferred art form.

Jacobs has been building instruments off and on since 1985.

Now a resident of Mount Pearl, he grew up in Westport, White Bay, where there were few instruments besides the accordion.

“When I was growing up … there was no guitar, violins, nothing,” he tells The

Independent.

In the small community, he says there wasn’t much work.

“My father was a cripple man. He walked with a walking stick all of his life, but he was a teacher — a lower grade teacher — years ago when you didn’t need university in order to do these things,” he says.

“He was pretty strict on us, more so than he was on the rest of ’em,” Jacobs says. “I suppose he didn’t want it to look like you were getting away with things.”

Jacobs says his brother and a few cousins still live around the bay, but “there’s hardly anything left down there now.”

After attending Grade 11 on Bell

Island and going on to trade school in St. John’s during the early 1960s, Jacobs became a power engineer and later worked for the province’s Labour Department.

He did inspections on water boilers and equipment at paper mills, Come by Chance oil refinery, hospitals and private businesses for 30 years.

Jacobs says he’s seen the whole province, though he has no favourite part.

“Of course, years ago, there was no roads so you had to get the boat. So that took a while to get from place to place.”

Jacobs says he took one lesson away from his provincial government job.

See “Trial and error,”page 18

APRIL 3, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Against the grain Native Newfoundlander fights seal hunt; traditional way of life

Paul Daly/The Independent

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

A

day after the beginning of this year’s seal hunt, animal rights activist Rebecca Aldworth should be out on the ice floes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, documenting the world’s largest harvest of marine mammals.

Instead, she’s sitting in an office in Charlottetown, PEI, on the telephone with The Independent.

Weather has forced all but the

resilient, ocean-riding sealers away from the ice. The campaigners, journalists, photographers and parliamentarians from around the world who have come to witness the hunt, rely on helicopters. Gale force winds and freezing rain have halted flying for the rest of the day.

Softly spoken and articulate, Aldworth expresses frustration over the delay.

Just this year, the 35-year-old who grew up in a small west-coast sealing village in Newfoundland, moved from

her job of seven years with the Canadian branch of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, to work as the director of Canadian wildlife issues with the Humane Society of the United States.

This is her seventh year spent witnessing the seal hunt and she says she switched organizations to be in a better position to actively end the annual destruction of what she calls “the greatest wildlife spectacle on this planet.”

As a native Newfoundlander, Aldworth admits she finds it hard to watch men who represent the sealers and fishermen she grew up with, destroy the animals she loves.

Aldworth blames the Canadian government for encouraging the practice and not investing money into developing economic alternatives for the coastal communities involved.

“You see these guys working in the rain, you know, howling gales, their boats getting crushed in the ice, just bludgeoning baby seals to death,” she says. “It’s hard to believe that anyone could think that this is a job we should

wish on anyone.”

Aldworth has her fair share of critics, although she says most people from her home province are open to listen to her point of view.

“It’s hard to believe that anyone could think that this is a job we should wish on anyone.”

Rebecca Aldworth “In Newfoundland, people believe that you should at least be able to make up your mind based on the facts. So I’ve at least always been able to speak my mind there and that’s one thing that I really appreciate about Newfoundland and one thing that I’ve always loved about it.”

Still, Aldworth is cautious about nam-

ing her family and the town they live in — and which she still visits regularly.

Although she says her family shares her views and are quite outspoken, she doesn’t feel it’s fair to force her career and life choices onto them.

Her career also poses a possible security risk.

“It’s not that I’m worried about the people in the town that I’m from — who are fantastic people I’ve known my whole life — it’s more the unknown element of somebody who might, you know, set my house on fire.”

Although Aldworth dismisses her comment with a laugh and says it seems extreme, she does add that being out on the ice floes in the heat of the hunt can be “stressful.” She says her team has been chased by angry sealers brandishing knives, hakapiks (large icepicks) and guns.

“I don’t know a Newfoundlander out there that would resort to those kinds of tactics. I think you tend to become more paranoid when you’re up here on the ice flows.”

‘I want to see people succeed’ Dan Rubin’s arts management business is picking up speed — and that’s not all he’s got up his sleeve

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

D

an Rubin wears many hats these days: teacher, promoter, producer, publicist, musician, writer, studio owner …

“I’ve created a monster,” Rubin, who moved to Pouch Cove from British Columbia two years ago, says with a laugh. “I’m off in a lot of directions, yes, but finding a lot of partners to help.”

And, like anyone in a fledgling business, he’s looking for clients — in this case, artists of all genres — to work and partner with.

Top on Rubin’s list this week is promoting Archie Fisher, a Scottish singer/songwriter renowned in folk music circles. Rubin has arranged to bring Fisher to St. John’s before an upcoming Canadian tour — the artist’s first trip to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Fisher’s concert, at Gower Street United Church Hall, is the third in Rubin’s Second Stage Productions’ evening concert series. He started the

events “for the acoustic music scene,” he says. “Because of the aching need for more places to present music in which people can really listen” away from smoke, booze and chatter.

While Fisher (once dubbed Scotland’s answer to Gordon Lightfoot) may be an icon to some folk aficionados, he’s well aware selling 200 tickets to the general public can be a tough task.

“The challenge is one of promotion … a bit more energy has to go into a flashier approach to publicizing events.”

Rubin’s past jobs have varied widely, from being a school principal to working on a project to restore native languages in B.C., from writing a biography to recording five albums. He says the bits and pieces he’s picked up along the way have set him up for the current job he’s developing for himself.

“All the time I thought I was having fun and doing jobs and stuff,” he says, “I was actually in training to gather the skills and experience I have now so I could put them to use here.”

Rubin says he’s still blown away by

Dan Rubin

the music scene he encountered in Newfoundland, and maintains it’s one of the best in North America.

So he was surprised to discover there was no independent arts publicist working in and around St. John’s — and decided to fill the gap. In spite of the challenges of opening new eyes and ears, particularly off the island, it’s work he feels he’s ready for.

“For Newfoundland, it’s the perfect time to get out there,” he says. “The whole image the province is presenting to the world is changing.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

“Publicity is always hard to do from here because of the isolation, but it’s getting better, partly because we’re better known through books, movies, and music, and partly because of the Internet.

“I’m really interested in outreach, in helping people get out.”

He adds there’s a variety of ways artists can make a living from what they do, whether it’s getting a song on a soundtrack, selling publishing rights, or touring — information they aren’t always aware of.

“Some artists I see doing great work,” he says, laughing again. “I’m waiting for them to see the value of having a publicist on board.

“I haven’t lived or worked anywhere else where there’s this quality or enthusiasm … I love the scene here and I’ve seen how much it deserves better than it’s getting. I want to see people succeed.”

Archie Fisher appears at the Gower Street Church Concert Hall, St. John’s, 8 p.m., April 9.

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 15

Bums in seats NOREEN GOLFMAN Standing Room Only

A

lmost everyone in the arts and culture community except the residents of not-so-Happy Valley-Goose Bay was thrilled with the provincial budget. The last time there were increases for key agencies and performing arts programs Chuck Furey was shaking someone’s outstretched hand. It is now safe to say that scores of pleased citizens have been walking around for a couple of weeks muttering, “they get it … they finally get it.”

That a needy Minister of Tourism and Culture could finally persuade a stingy Minister of Finance to shake loose some precious dollars from his already denuded treasury suggests a welcome turning point on the long slow crawl towards social health. It’s enough to make you believe in human progress, or even the Conservatives — provincially speaking, of course.

Like run-off after a rainstorm, other effects of the admirably large culture section of the budget have been trickling down into the mainstream all week.

Arguably the most significant of these is a $300,000 cut to the province’s arts and culture centres’ national tour program.

Minister Shelley candidly confirmed the details in a story printed in last week’s issue of this very culture-conscious newspaper.

In the grand scheme of things, $300,000 is not a lot of money, but it is apparently enough to prevent classical musicians with unpronounceable surnames and an acclaimed Winnipeg ballet company from showing up in any one of the six arts and culture centers dotting the provincial map.

Although the budget cut, like all cuts, should make us wince, it is hard to find fault with the Minister’s rationale. First, he said, the touring program never “put the bums in the seats,” one of those irrefutable clichés now common to politicians, owners of NHL teams, and university presidents alike. He then

Tourism, Minister Paul Shelley questions the validity of funding performances that attract small audiences.

added somewhat reassuringly that the money saved would be likely redirected towards local shows, which almost always draw larger audiences.

It is not surprising that whether in Labrador-West or Gander, Stephenville or St. John’s, audiences would prefer to hand over 25 HST-loaded dollars to see Rising Tide Theatre’s annual Revue than pay for a night with an obscure violinist who’s won a couple of international competitions. That’s entertainment.

When those monstrous grey-brown brick edifices of the late ’60s perpetually struggle to pay their electricity bills and unionized maintenance staff, the bums-in-seats argument puts the bottom in every bottom line.

Indeed, we should look no further for evidence that like attracts like than the CBC-TV supper hour news. When about five years ago the hour-long

local-content heavy Here and Now was compelled to substitute “Here” for “Canada,” ratings dropped faster than John Efford’s political capital.

It is not a question of whether guffawing like a hyena at Revue ‘04 is better or worse an experience than straining to understand dialogue performed by an Edmonton theatre company. It just shows you the customers want to see themselves first. We have our own stories to tell each other and require a good measure of moral and financial security in order to do so.

But the political distinction between local and national-international programming should at least keep us alert, if not a little anxious. There is always a price to pay, even at a trifling $300,000.

The real danger is that our arts and culture centres, behemoths though they might be, will continue to serve strictly

Paul Daly/The Independent

local interest, so that every church choir, Red Cross benefit, and cause-of-themoment concert passes for culture, while national and international musicians, playwrights, and dancers do a trans-Canada tour that keeps stopping at Halifax, as if following one of those offensive maps, the ones that both include Labrador as a part of Quebec and erase the island altogether.

We all need to have access to arts and culture — high and low — beyond our own street signs.

No matter how earnestly CBC programs, the numbing life-denying apparatus that is television could never substitute for the live performance of a ballet, an opera, a new play out of Vancouver, a violinist, and so on.

And if there is an irony here it is that while we are proud of our outstanding theatrical and musical achievements,

dedicating resources to training young classical musicians and singers, playwrights and performers, we are prohibiting the possibility of building a deeper audience appreciation of their skills. The principle of cultural diversity, upheld by any respectable public funding program, could become as hollow as a tin drum.

Minster Shelley’s argument is strong, persuasive, and timely. Shows that attract “less than 30 people” or “nobody” to some of the rural centers need to be questioned, as he wisely has.

But when art is only performing for itself, looking at itself, and talking to itself, then we are in danger of indulging in the worst forms of provincialism, reproducing a narrow selfreflecting gaze.

We should want to import touring performers as much as we want to export an Andy Jones to other parts of Canada. You can’t build audiences if you don’t show them what’s out there.

The same applies to us as it does for the residents of all those lucky Canadian communities who will benefit from Andy’s fall tour.

To be sure, it is a bit of a dilemma.

How to balance the bottomless seats with the bottom line? How to let artists across the world know we are open for business if we keep fencing ourselves in? This question applies to many areas of our experience, but for the moment the budget cut to the arts and culture tour program forces consideration of the issue, if not for now, then for the long term.

Of course a larger question, one raised periodically by governments whenever the books start to collapse under the weight of debt, is how can we afford to keep all those expensive and under-utilized arts and culture centres running in the first place?

But that question, fraught with the mistakes of history, bad architecture, and ill-founded good intentions requires another column.

Noreen Golfman is a professor of literature and women’s studies at Memorial. Her next column appears April 17.

Wireless computers are handy … for throwing across the room

I

’m lousy at math, OK? The extent to which I suck at math is virtually incalculable, with even the most complex of equations. Science is not exactly my forte, either. I don’t remember much beyond the chemical formula for table salt (NaCl, in case you were wondering, and I had to look it up to make sure).

Sports? Sports I can handle. I’m a decent shot from the foul line and I don’t choke in the final seconds of the game.

But I don’t think I could build a life around that either because eventually I’m going to get old and creaky. Then what will I be left with — memories of a three-pointer at the buzzer, of a time when I didn’t have a gut, on which to conveniently rest my plate of deep-fried chicken.

Too bad. Sounds like I’m missing a real party. That’s OK, though, because all I’ve ever wanted is to write. But, from where I sit, that’s not an easy thing

ADAM WARREN From the hip to do.

Right now, where I sit is on my bed.

Actually, I’m lying on my bed. My computer keyboard is on my lap (I recently decided to invest in wireless), and there’s a pillow behind my head. Writing — not an easy thing to do.

Let me tell you why I’m on my bed.

I’m on my bed because sometimes, when the words don’t come out right, I want to hide under my covers. Then I end up falling asleep next to my deadlines, dozing on a writer’s block the size of … what? See, I can’t find the word.

Whatever it is, it’s really big. And why did I invest in a wireless keyboard?

Because it’s easier to throw across the

room.

Even when things fit together on the page, how do I know that whatever it is I have to say is worth reading — is worth money?

I used to be uncomfortable calling myself a writer. No, I’m still a little uncomfortable with that idea. If I were to call myself a mechanic, wouldn’t I have to have some sort of proof that I’d been taught to fix cars? If I were a medical doctor, wouldn’t I have spent years earning a degree that says I’m certifiably able to heal? Most importantly (at least for some people), wouldn’t the money I earn in either of those positions be enough for me to go ahead and make a living from?

Yes, I suppose. And someday, I hope to be able to write myself into a reasonable standard of life. Maybe even with a few words to spare, for pocket money.

But today is not that day. Neither do I have a little piece of paper that says I’ve

‘Going for blood’ From page 13 bonus for winning the event, along with their pay for taking part.

“I was going for blood — it was definitely a time when you’re not worried about a wardrobe malfunction,” she laughs, referring to the infamous Janet Jackson slip during the previous year’s Superbowl halftime show.

“It was very exciting — I have battle wounds to prove it. I have a permanent scar on my stomach, I got scratched, I had my hair pulled … it was tough.”

Despite being in a business chock full of silicone and plastic surgery, Woodford is proud of her all-natural look. She says there’s a lot of pressure in the industry to have science pick up where creation left off, but she says she’s not interested in surgical enhancements.

She says sticking to a healthy diet, not smoking or drinking, and exercising daily is all she really needs.

“Everybody from 16-year-old girls to 45-year-old women have implants and stuff, but I’m 100 per cent natural. To be honest, I thought it would be my biggest downfall, but once I got into this I realized it might just be my best asset.

There’s a lot of pressure … it’s prevalent in society here, but it’s even more prevalent in my line of work.”

Aside from her modelling and television work, Woodford, currently represented by the Tuesday’s Girls agency (vader.techienetworks.com/~tuesdaysgirls), is hoping to move into singing and acting. As recently as March 26,

Woodford, who played in bands while living at home, did an audition for radio executives at a show in Hollywood.

Singing and acting, she says, are necessities for a lasting showbiz career.

“Modelling is great, but I’m 26 now — I only got into this when I was 25 so I was a late bloomer in the modelling world. I want to parlay the modelling into the acting and singing because actors and singers have a lot more longevity.

“I know if it doesn’t all work out I can always go back to school, but I’m pretty confident in my future. I don’t want a lot — just to pay the bills and be comfortable.”

Woodford also spends a lot of time educating people about her home

province. She says people who didn’t even know Newfoundland existed now want to visit and see it for themselves.

“I’m so proud to be a Newfoundlander — nobody will ever take that out of me. I’m like a public service announcement for Newfoundland everywhere I go.”

For now, she’s just hoping to finally get home for a visit, probably in June.

Waiting to finalize her green card, Woodford hasn’t been able to come home since 2002.

“I’m so homesick, it’s ridiculous.

When you’re in transition, you can’t leave the country, but I’m planning the trip for June because I’ll have my green card and everything taken care of.”

been taught to put words together (a bachelor of arts does not a writer make).

So what qualifications do I have exactly? Bear with me, because I’m figuring this out as I go.

The only one I can think of is time. I know musicians who wait tables to make ends meet. They still call themselves musicians, because when they’re not waiting tables, they make music.

I know actors who sell shoes to pay the bills. They’re still actors, because after they’re finished making enough money to eat, they put however many hours might be left in the day towards making something good enough to be on stage.

And me? For a while, I was too busy being a student to be anything else. But now, I’ve made a conscious decision to apply myself because, in my humble opinion, what earns a writer the right to be called a writer is a spoonful of talent and a lot of time. Maybe a well-used

backspace button, too.

There’s something else, though. I talked about degrees, about some tangible representation of ability. Sure, there are BAs and BFAs, but what it comes down to is an audience. Sometimes, we can’t even be sure the audience is out there. We just go ahead and produce something that we believe has value — monetary or otherwise. Then we send it into the void and hope someone will pay attention long enough to say “good job,” or “better luck next time.”

Whether you’re a writer, a musician, an actor, or anything else that might not necessarily leave you with letters after your name, that kind of a move takes courage. And that kind of courage deserves a title.

I’m a writer. What are you?

Adam Warren’s column appears every second week. adam_g_warren@hotmail.com

16 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

APRIL 3, 2005

IN CAMERA

‘God is with

Pope is assisted prior to mass in St. Peter’s square.

Crowds gather for Sunday mass with the pope.

Left to right: Nuns wait for entrance to the Vatican; parishioners wait to be seated for mass with Pope John Paul II; an Arab lady begs with her child on the steps of the Vatican.

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 17

him’ The eyes of the world turned to the Vatican late last week as the health of John Paul II rapidly deteriorated. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, Catholics reflected on the leader of their church, the man who visited St. John’s 21 years ago. Picture editor Paul Daly travelled to the Holy City in the early 1990s.

These are his shots, as well as one taken by Greg Locke in St. John’s in 1984.

Reporters Jamie Baker and Alisha Morrissey spoke with local Catholics who remember his visit. This is their report:

A

s the life of Pope John Paul II faded on Friday, April 1, memories of his September 1984 visit to Newfoundland remained stronger than ever.

In Flatrock, the first stop of the pontiff’s visit to Newfoundland, visitors can still see the pope’s path marked — 21 years after he made his way up the hill to the grotto to bless the fishing fleet.

Resident Jack Parsons was among the crowd gathered to greet the pope during that visit. It’s a day he’s not likely to forget, especially the moment the pope shared with his then-infant daughter, Jennifer, now 22.

“I was holding in her my hands and I had her up, and he reached out, he took her in his hands and gave her a little peck on the cheek … it was pretty special,” Parsons tells The Independent. “That will be my best memory, where he actually took Jennifer in his hands and kissed her.

“That will always stay in my mind.”

The 1984 trip was the first ever papal visit to Canada.

Parsons says the visit did a lot to bring a sense of reality to the pope’s position.

Seeing the pope, he says, was believing.

“The way he approached his position, it meant a whole lot to all Catholics, because all of a sudden he wasn’t some fictitious character, he was a real person. That’s what he bought to the job, a sense of realness.”

The pope, 84, had been ill for some months. He made 10 trips to the Gemelli Hospital since a 1981 assassination attempt. After suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years and having a tracheotomy last month for breathing problems, the pope contracted an infection and high fever.

On April 1, the world’s cardinals were summoned to the Vatican.

Maxine Davis was part of the committee that organized the papal visit in Newfoundland 21 years ago. She remembers the pontiff’s keen interest in youth and the sense of spirituality that followed him.

“That day at the airport I was there with my family,”

she recalls. “My son was five years old at the time and … you could really see that he (the pope) couldn’t wait to get to him.

“The minute that he shook your hand and the minute you were in his presence, the spirituality came through.

He took the time — he looked you in the eye — and he took the time to actually shake your hand and … let’s say it was a feeling like he came to see you and no one else.”

Archbishop Brendan O’Brien, speaking from the conference of bishops in Ottawa, urged Catholics in the diocese to join the pope in his suffering by praying for him, privately or otherwise.

Identifying the pope as one of the world’s best-known figures, O’Brien, who meets with the pontiff every year, says people the world over have been touched through his 26-year reign.

“People have just identified the papacy with him, so I think he’s had a great effect over that long period of time especially in his travels all over the world where he fought to strengthen people in their faith.

“I admire him for his courage and the fact he moves ahead despite criticism … he saw what had to be done and moved without worrying because he has a deep spirituality and he thinks God is with him in what he does.”

As thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and millions around the world held vigil on April 1 (The Independent’s press deadline), Reverend Monsignor John F. Wallis, the province’s vicar general, asked his parishioners to remember the Holy Father in their prayers “We pray that God will prevail in this situation.”

Parsons says the pope has put up a tough fight in the face of extreme illness, and hopes his legacy will live on in whomever is named the next head of the Catholic Church.

“He was an inspiration to a lot of people. You would think and hope his replacement will be someone who is going to continue in his legacy.”

Pope John Paul II greets worshippers.

Lord Jesus, good Shepherd, look kindly on John Paul II your vicar on earth and grant him relief from his sufferings.

To this herald who has bravely proclaimed your gospel, give the consolation of your word.

To this faithful guardian of your universal church grant courage and protection.

To this priest who comforted and anointed the sick, bring peace in his own time of trial. Hear the prayers of those who trusted you.

Oh, risen Lord and Saviour who are seated at the right hand of the Father, in the entity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen — A prayer written by Brendan O’Brien, archbishop of St. John’s, for Pope John Paul II Cardinals await the pope’s arrival at Vatican City.

Pope John Paul II at Memorial University campus in 1984.

Greg Locke/Stray Light Pictures

APRIL 3, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Hockey’s Beliveau 5 Manitoba river 8 Solid from soybeans 12 “Ne me quitte ___” (Brel) 15 River of Pakistan 17 Eggs 18 ___ of the dog ...

19 Lemon ___ (herb) 20 Swiss girl of fiction 21 Tied up 23 Verdi opera 24 Simple life form 26 New: prefix 27 Moneylender of a kind 29 Functional start?

30 Start of cure?

32 N.S. town with annual Scallop Days 36 Bring to bear 37 Curry go-with 39 Bewail 40 Helps 41 Persian Gulf sheikdom 44 Judy Loman, e.g.

46 One of Henry VIII’s Annes 47 Dreaded age, often 49 Sister’s girls 53 Supporter 54 He may wear a turban 55 Bloom-to-be

56 Flap 57 Originally 58 Togo’s neighbour 60 Elizabethan who explored west coast of N. America 62 Zip 63 Scorch 64 Cleaning cloth 65 Type of frost 66 ___ de foie gras 67 Life form preserved in rock 69 ___ Sablon, Que. 71 Remarks to the audience 73 Eccentric 75 Highbrow 77 Never Cry ___ (Mowat) 79 Class 80 Truth or ___ 81 Asian capital 82 Faint light 85 ___ of roses 86 You ___ here 89 Under the weather 91 Tibetan gazelle 93 Parisian tower 95 End to diseases?

96 Hockey forerunner 101 Excuse 102 Camp shelter 103 Montreal fair of 1967 104 Poet’s time of day

105 Insert mark 106 Anger 107 Socially challenged teen 108 Parisian purse 109 Far: prefix DOWN 1 Holy war 2 Foe 3 Jose’s farewell 4 Art class model 5 Decay 6 Make square 7 Outmoded 8 Cafe alternative 9 Canoeing need 10 Word of disgust 11 Pakistan’s official language 12 In twos 13 Catkin bearers 14 Sting 16 Singer Jane (“The Valley”) 19 Aluminum ore 22 ___ polloi 25 Pertaining to bees 28 Coast 31 Here in Hyeres 33 Petit-de-___, N.S. 34 Cover with earth 35 Yeah 38 At last (Fr.) 41 Ravel’s greatest hit 42 Bowling lanes 43 ___ Nostradamus!

(Douglas Coupland) 44 Prince Charles, e.g.

45 Singular of Inuit 46 Our first national park 48 Quebec cheese 50 Country with longest coastline 51 Honed a manuscript 52 Shoe parts 54 Sink downward 55 Kind of code 58 Canadian poetry prize 59 ___-baked 60 Actor McKellar (“The Red Violin”) 61 Ran 65 I’ll eat my ___ (if I’m wrong) 66 Flipper ___ (Nfld. dish) 68 Star singer 69 Swimmer Marilyn ___ 70 Good Hope ___, B.C. 71 Go along 72 N.B. site of annual lobster festival 74 Too ___ for one’s britches 76 Chatter 77 One taking orders 78 Surfing the Web 81 Port-au-Prince is its capital

83 Long follower 84 Native playwright 86 Blazing

87 Revolt 88 Privileged few 90 Fairy ___, Sask.

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MARCH 21/APRIL 20 Catch up on your shopping bills and you will feel relieved when they’re all paid off, Aries. There could be an additional workrelated expense that comes up in the next few weeks.

TAURUS - APRIL 21/MAY 21 You may be trying to complete things on time, Taurus, but the stars indicate that you’ve just taken on too much. Prioritize your work and see if a subordinate can help out with the load.

GEMINI - MAY 22/JUNE 21 Your multitasking skills may be put to the test by Wednesday, Gemini. You’re in “cleanup” mode and are trashing old papers and junk that has gathered on your desk.

CANCER - JUNE 22/JULY 22 You are very in sync with the universe, Cancer, and that spells out safety and security in your life at the moment. Make the most of the cosmic peace that ensues.

LEO - JULY 23/AUG. 23 You must treat yourself to some much-need-

92 On the main 94 Way to fall 97 Cut brutally

98 Revival tech.

99 Retina receptor 100 Business letter abbr.

Trial and error ed rest, Leo. Make plans for a getaway, if possible. A change of scenery and landscape can only do you good.

VIRGO - AUG. 24/SEPT. 22 Going about your normal routine this week, Virgo, could reveal a welcome surprise.

Expect an old acquaintance to surface in your life again — with positive results.

LIBRA - SEPT. 23/OCT. 23 You’re thinking about getting a pet, Libra, but don’t know if it’s the right move at this stage in your life. Your best time to act is in early May. Research your options until then.

SCORPIO - OCT. 24/NOV. 22 Things will go your way this week, Scorpio.

Although not normally comfortable in the spotlight, you don’t shy away from the opportunity to show your knowledge and experience.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV. 23/DEC. 21 If you have something special on your agenda at work, it’s best if you keep the presentation under wraps until Friday, when the stars will be in your favor.

CAPRICORN - DEC. 22/JAN. 20 Long hours spent at work leave your partner feeling neglected. Treat him or her to some special alone time to rekindle the relationship. Otherwise, a fight may ensue later.

AQUARIUS - JAN. 21/FEB. 18 The time is right to kick a bad habit or to make a significant life change, Aquarius. It won’t be easy, but you have the guts to press ahead. Others will provide support.

PISCES - FEB. 19/MARCH 20 Your creativity is boundless this week, Pisces. Naturally artistic, you can take your skills as far as your imagination will let you.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS APRIL 3 • Alec Baldwin, actor APRIL 4 • David Blaine, magician APRIL 5 • Pharrell Williams, singer APRIL 6 • Candace Cameron, actress APRIL 7 • Jack Black, actor APRIL 8 • Tea Leoni, actress APRIL 9 • John Long, writer/producer

From page 13 “If you’re going to do a job, no matter what it is, you do it to the best of your ability, which is what I tried to do over the years with the inspections,” he says.

“The inspections were done to try to keep people safe, you know, from death and injury.”

Now in his retirement, Jacobs’ pride and joy, is a wall of instruments that he built with his own hands.

At first, he says there was a steep learning curve.

“Trial and error, with a lot of error along the way. It’s a bit unorthodox looking,” he says of his first violin, “but it’s OK. It sounds good.

“The first ones I made I just picked it (the wood) up around the lumber yard, but it’s not the right thing to do you got to get the good material, the right material.”

He now buys aged wood, shipped in from the mainland.

What he can’t build he buys at O’Brien’s Music Store in St. John’s — which also sells his instruments.

Roy O’Brien Jr., one of the owners of O’Brien’s Music Store, says Jacobs is a “bit of a sleeper.

“He just dabbles in music, but he’s a heck of a woodworker.”

Jacobs also does repairs on instruments for other customers. O’Brien says Jacobs’ work is high calibre.

“They can stand up to any high-quality, $1,000 instrument that I can get anywhere else in the world.”

Jacobs says building an instrument isn’t all that hard — once the rules are understood.

“If you get some half decent wood and take your time and do it right, more than likely the instrument is going to be very good.

“It won’t be a Stradivarius, but it’ll be very good.”

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 3-9, 2005 — PAGE 19

Is it a fashion statement or a political statement when Premier Danny Williams wears his sealskin coat?

SEAL DEAL Sealing industry could top $100 million over next few years; health benefits of seal oil well documented

CLARE-MARIE GOSSE

C

ontroversy aside, seal processing is currently part of the business landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador and it seems to be expanding.

Since the collapse of the commercial cod fishery in the early 1990s, the province’s sealing industry has grown dramatically, much to the dismay of animal rights activists. Today, government studies suggest the market value of the industry will reach $100 million over the next three to five years.

The days of sealers harvesting their catch and exporting raw pelts to Norway — which at one time dominated the market — are gone.

Today, seal products are processed and sold straight from the province and seal oil, which was once considered to be of secondary importance, is now the most valued component.

Martin Duchesne, market development manger for Atlantic Marine Products, a seafood processing

Paul Daly/The Independent

company with a seal operation in Catalina, says the health benefits of seal oil are still relatively unappreciated here.

He tells The Independent when he heard Health Minister John Ottenheimer had collapsed last week due to a heart condition, his first thought was, “I wonder if he was taking seal oil capsules?”

Atlantic Marine Products processes over half the seals harvested off the province, which, this year, will amount to roughly 350,000 animals. As well as tanning the pelts and marketing the meat, the company’s defining product is seal oil capsules.

HEALTH BENEFITS Seal oil is rich in Omega-3, a fatty acid widely renowned for its health benefits.

Common sources of Omega-3 are oily fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines and herring, as well as flaxseed, walnut and hemp oils.

Over 10 years ago, Cosmas Ho, a Newfoundland and Labrador-based doctor from China, developed the first edible seal oil in the world.

Through research in conjunction with Memorial University, Ho says he discovered Omega-3 from the

oil of warm-blooded seals is more easily absorbed by humans — who are also warm blooded.

Both Omega-3 and Omega-6 are found in human fatty tissue.

Because of modern-day eating habits, studies have shown that instead of having a balance of the two, like our ancestors, humans now have far too much Omega-6 (derived primarily from vegetable oils) and not enough Omega-3.

“That is the problem,” says Ho. “So today you’re going to see many people have a heart condition, cholesterol problem, arthritis, cancer, disease. This is because these fat acids are not balancing. Fish oil, what is it good for? Everything.”

Ho started to develop his theory after the collapse of the fishery. He approached the head of the Barry Group — owner of Atlantic Marine Products — with his ideas and today the company produces 900 tonnes of oil a year.

Although capsules can be purchased in local supermarkets such as Sobeys and Dominion, Duchesne says there is still little interest shown by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

See “Truly,” page 22

Tim wins

One GMC Envoy winner in the province so far

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

I

t’s that time of year again. Line-ups at the 56 Tim Horton stores across the province are growing steadily with every new day of the Roll Up the Rim To Win promotion.

With good reason it seems. One person has already claimed a GMC Envoy vehicle after purchasing a lucky rim from the Churchill Square store in St. John’s.

To date, two Panasonic Plasma Theatres, two prizes of $1,000 and 34 Coleman Camping Packages have also been won in Newfoundland and Labrador — not to mention hundreds of thousands of food prizes.

“Normally we have a 90 per cent

redemption rate,” Meagen Lewandowski, a spokeswoman for Tim Hortons, tells The Independent. “It’s very high, which means people in Newfoundland are rolling up their rims because they know about that contest.”

Lewandowski says last year as many as 24 of the 30 car prizes offered across Canada were redeemed. Chances are the other six rims were thrown away.

The first Tim Hortons store in the province opened in 1977 on Kenmount Road in St. John’s. Today the popular coffee and doughnut makers dominate the market in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Canada as a whole.

Over 2,470 stores are located nationwide, 41 years after the first Tim Hortons opened in Hamilton, Ont. in 1964.

Because the company works on a franchise basis, Lewandowski says she doesn’t want to reveal which location in the province is pulling in the most money.

She says sales are often up during Roll Up The Rim, however, although that’s no longer the motivator behind the promotion.

“We run it almost as a thank you to our loyal customers. Back when the contest started, 19 years ago it was originally run in the summer months to increase coffee sales during that time and now it’s just basically run for our loyal customers.

Everybody likes it.”

Roll Up The Rim kicked off on Feb. 28 and continues until the cups run out.

Prizes can be claimed up until May 29, 2005.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Lewandowski says an official presentation will be made to the winner of the GMC Envoy at the Churchill Square store.

“That’s all going to come together in the next couple of weeks … it’s quite exciting for the winner and for the storeowners.”

20 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION

APRIL 3, 2005

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 21

APRIL 3, 2005

22 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

Aquaculture threat looms over Alaskans Fishermen worried about wall-to-wall fish farms; more changes in fishing industry ahead Juneau, Alaska

By Elizabeth Blumink Juneau Empire

M

illions of fish raised in underwater cages in federal waters off Alaska’s stormy

coast?

It may not be viable here, some experts say.

But offshore aquaculture elsewhere in the world’s oceans — and potentially in open water three to 200 miles out from the U.S. coastline — is getting closer to reality.

Many Alaskans fear the practice of cultivating fish in enormous, suspended cages in federal waters could lead to the next major thrashing in the marketplace of Alaska’s wild fisheries.

“We need to respond to the growth of this industry,” says Sue Aspelund, a special assistant at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “We are definitely concerned about the biological implications (for wild stocks).”

Many Alaskans are looking at farmed salmon as a portent of what’s to come with offshore cultivation of other species.

Alaska banned salmon net pen aquaculture in state waters 15 years ago due to its threat to wild stocks and fishermen’s livelihoods. Despite the ban, Alaska’s salmon industry has taken a serious beating in the global marketplace due to the price squeeze from farmed salmon.

Offshore aquaculture could extend to many other Alaska species, such as halibut, true cod, rockfish, black cod and pollock, state and federal officials say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to propose a National Offshore Aquaculture Act to Congress this year.

The legislation sets rules for fish farms in the federally managed Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which in most areas extends three to 200 miles out from the U.S. coastline.

“People are worried about wall-towall fish farms,” says Linda Chavez, a NOAA senior advisor on the seafood industry.

Chavez says Alaska’s primary tool, if it chooses to resist offshore aquaculture, is the Coastal Zone Management Act, which allows states to “chime in” on coastal and marine development.

Gov. Frank Murkowski has asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans to grant a five-year moratorium on offshore aquaculture along Alaska’s coast.

Murkowski also asked federal regulators to study the socioeconomic and

Could this become a common sight in Alaska? Above, salmon at the Midsummer Island Salmon Farm, in the Broughton Archipelago of Vancouver Island, B.C., spent three years like a marine couch potato, swimming in circles in pens and fattening up on pellets of salmon chow. This farm is typical of farms in B.C., putting salmon in pens of netting submerged below the surface of the Pacific ocean.

Al Seib

environmental effects of offshore aquaculture during the five-year period.

Many Alaskans and conservation groups have stated their fears about offshore farms polluting the sea floor and squeezing them out of their traditional fishing grounds.

But Chavez and other industry watchers says offshore farms may not develop — at least not in the near term — for a variety of reasons.

The economic prospects for the industry in Alaska have some major weak points, says Gunnar Knapp, a fisheries economist with the

University of Alaska Anchorage.

The Gulf of Alaska’s stormy weather and ice aren’t favorable conditions for offshore farms. The lack of major roads, high labor costs and distance from markets also could deflect interest from the aquaculture industry, Knapp says.

“We’d be just as remote as we’ve always been,” says Juneau-based seafood consultant Chris McDowell.

He says another significant impediment for offshore aquaculture in Alaska is the depth of its sea floor. In Alaska’s EEZ, fish cages would have to be somehow suspended several hun-

dred fathoms deep.

“Between the depth and the Gulf of Alaska’s violent weather, (the industry) would have a hard time developing around here,” he says.

But just because the farms are unlikely to pop up here doesn’t mean Alaskans shouldn’t be worried about their effects on their livelihood, commercial fishing groups warned this week.

“The biggest thing to do is remain attentive and engaged with what is happening,” says Joe Childers, executive director of the Western Gulf of Alaska Fishermen.

The effects are still a matter of guesswork.

“At first blush, it sounds incredible that the pollock industry could be impacted,” due to its vast production scale, says Knapp, the economics professor.

But in reality, farmed, freshwater tilapia can be made into surimi (artificial crab) and other traditional pollock industry products, and has the potential to pose serious competition to Alaska’s shore-based and at-sea processor operations.

Reprinted with permission

‘Truly a Newfoundland product’ From page 19

Marine Atlantic Products main customer base is in Asia.

“The Chinese are 5,000 years ahead of us in their tradition for medicine,” says Duchesne. “They already knew that seals were good … when we introduced seal oil, a highly refined seal oil from a source that was here in Canada, well, then it took off.”

He says the oil from one seal would

probably produce enough capsules to keep a human being healthy for a life time. “… so then you have to figure out a way to enter into other markets.”

Duchesne says Atlantic Marine Products also exports 250ml bottles of the oil (like cod liver oil) and the company is currently researching the benefits of using Omega-3 as a beauty product. He says seal oil is already used in a number of products as filler because it doesn’t have the strong

smell of fish oil and it preserves well.

Despite the province’s fishing culture, Duchesne says seal meat is relatively low in demand here.

Korea, as well as parts of Europe, buy most of the seal meat from the province for both human consumption and to add to animal feed to increase levels of Omega-3 in subsequent meat or dairy by-products.

‘HAIR SEAL’ Seal fur, or “hair seal” as it is officially named, is used in Canada for jackets and coats, but it’s more common in accessories such as footwear and mitts. Duchesne says Russia is the company’s biggest market, with China next and then Scandinavia.

“In Russia it’s primarily for hats … you can put different colours on a seal skin but you can’t on other furs — and it can be relatively affordable.”

One country that won’t be importing any meat, fur or oil, however, is the United States. All seal products are strictly banned under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. “I have a list of (US) customers asking for capsules to be delivered to them but we’re not able to,” says Duchesne, “and tourists that come to Newfoundland, it’s one of the first things they’ll buy.

“This is truly a Newfoundland product, seal oil, and for the odd person that actually accepts it, not as a joke but actually takes it, you’d be amazed at the phone calls I get.”

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 23

Foreign fishing vessels cited for illegal fishing outside 200-mile limit have muddy ownership

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

Canada gives farmers $1B OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada will give $1 billion in immediate federal assistance to farmers hurt by a mad cow crisis, closed U.S. borders, a high Canadian dollar, low prices and drought.

“Farmers across Canada have been devastated by some of the most difficult years ever faced by the industry,” says Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell.

“We need to immediately provide some stability to producers across all sectors and to ... (overcome) this frustrating cycle of crisis.”

Grain and oilseed producers will receive $480 million while the cattle industry will get $300 million, a government spokeswoman says.

Ottawa will start paying out the money next month.

D

ima Litvinov of Greenpeace sits in his rather plain hotel room in Riga, Latvia, planning his next move.

He says the fishing industry in countries such as Estonia is murky. Many of the vessels registered to Baltic States do not land fish in their home countries and the addresses for the companies that own them are storefronts that serve only as a mailing address.

During a recent visit to Estonia, Litvinov tried to visit the company that owns the Lootus II. Since 2000, the trawler has been charged seven times for fishing infractions on the Grand Banks — including fishing species under moratoria and exceeding the bycatch on American plaice and witch flounder He found the offices contained nothing more than a shoe store and a law office. The tenants denied any involvement with the company, saying the registered owner had moved on.

“This is not a real Estonian company,” says Litvinov. “It’s obviously a fake.”

He’s trying to sell the idea of a bottom-trawling moratorium to countries such as Latvia and Estonia — two countries that are regularly cited for fishing infractions on the Grand Bank outside the 200-mile limit.

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

E-file or else

A fishing boat heads out to sea at Eyemouth harbour, in the Scottish Borders.

from human activities today, because of the level of destruction ... as far as the number of species under threat.”

SNOWPLOWS OF THE DEEP He says breakaway Baltic States Greenpeace and a number of other such as Estonia and Latvia — which environmental organizations have been regularly grant flags of convenience to pushing the United Nations to enact a foreign-owned fishing vessels — have moratorium on bottom trawlers — to realize that joining the EU brings certain responsibilities with it. often called snowplows of the deep. “ ... you are no longer just a small After almost two decades with Greenpeace, Litvinov says he’s noticed country — Latvia or Estonia — you’re a change in the attitude of politicians now a member of the European when it comes to foreign overfishing Union,” says Litvinov. “You’re actually a superpower and you need to start and destructive technology.

“One thing that I’m also finding dur- acting like one. You need to start looking a little bit ing this trip here is beyond just your litthat actually the tle economic self politicians have not “This is not a real interests. You need been aware of the to look at the issue at all,” LitvinEstonian company. responsibility that ov tells The Indeyou have for the pendent in a teleIt’s obviously a fake.” global environphone interview ment.” from Riga. “I should Dima Litvinov The European say it’s been hidden Union is a member from them. It’s been of the Northwest really going on in a Atlantic Fisheries Organization, which bit of darkness.”

Litvinov says not long ago his meet- governs stocks outside the 200-mile ings were only with bureaucrats, but limit.

Litvinov expects the European now cabinet ministers are opening their office doors to him. He contends Union to announce its position on a bureaucrats often hid fishing issues bottom-trawling moratorium in May. “I think I’ll actually be successful,” from their political masters.

“In reality we’re talking about prob- he says. “At least in getting support ably the greatest threat against biodi- from a large part of the political and versity of the planet that we’re facing public life in these countries.”

Litvinov says that’s the key to making governments around the world listen is to sway public opinion to the side of responsible resource management.

He says the fishing industry lobby has managed to hijack public opinion and wield considerable power when it comes to creating government policy.

“Now, with the kind of reporting you’re doing and other stories that are coming out, all of a sudden this image will start to change and then of course the fishing lobby will be concerned and

EPA/David Cheskin

rightly so, they should be.”

The federal government is hosting an international conference on the governance of high seas fishing in St. John’s from May 1-5. The conference — entitled The Governance of High Seas Fisheries and the UN Fish Agreement — Moving Words into Action — will discuss existing international fisheries governance, areas where there may be gaps and impediments for implementation.

OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada’s top tax collector had the citizens of Ottawa up in arms Friday when he announced a plan to force them to file their taxes electronically if they wanted a refund before Christmas.

Revenue Minister John McCallum said on a CBC radio show he was launching a pilot project in Ottawa called “E-file or Else,” with long delays and even a five per cent surcharge for paper filers.

This prompted calls voicing outrage because some people do not have computers and in any case some had already filed their tax returns.

Before the program went off the air, McCallum’s voice came on once more: “To all the taxpayers of Ottawa, April Fools’ Day.”

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24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

EVENTS APRIL 3 • All Fool’s Day written by and starring Beni Malone, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, 753-4531. Show continues April 6-10.

Tickets $15. Continues April 6-10.

• Chamber music concert, 1 p.m., Memorial University School of Music Petro-Canada Hall, 743-1879.

APRIL 4 • Writers’ Alliance Monthly Reading Series with Annamarie Beckel and Paul Bowdring, LSPU Hall Gallery, St. John’s, 8 p.m.

• Atlantic Ballet performs Amadeus at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre.

Tickets starting at $10. Call 729-3900.

• Write On workshop, a 10-day workshop for writers and playwrights, at the LSPU Hall, 753-4531.

APRIL 5 • Great Balls of Fire: A Jerry Lee Lewis

Tribute Show, 7:30 p.m. Lions Club, Bay Roberts. Tickets $15, 786-2531.

• Nova Central High School Drama Festival at the Gander Arts and Culture Centre. Until April 6.

APRIL 6 • Lecture by Dr. Dale Corbett about stem cell research and Parkinson’s.

Memorial University faculty of medicine, 7 p.m., free.

• Folk Night at the Ship Pub with Terry Rielly and Ian Goudie with an open mike. Non-smoking event, 9:30 p.m., $5, 753-3870.

• No Man’s Land by Kevin Major at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre.

Tickets from $12. School matinees available, continues until April 8.

• Digital camera workshop at the Studio, Water Street, 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. with instructor Shane Kelly.

Registration Fee: $75.00.

• Regional High School Drama Festival at the Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture Centre. Continues April 7.

• MUN Jazz Ensemble Spring Concert, 8 p.m., D.F. Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University School of Music.

Call 368-0202.

• All Fool’s Day written by and starring Beni Malone, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, 753-4531. Pay what you can night.

APRIL 7 • Duane Andrews performs at the D.F. Cook Recital Hall with an opening set by the Hot Five. Starts at 8 p.m. Tickets $10.

• Great Balls of Fire: A Jerry Lee Lewis Tribute Show is at the Gander Arts and Culture Centre. Tickets $25.

APRIL 8 • NSO performs Mendelssohn’s Elijah – Masterworks #4 at the Basilica of St.

John the Baptist, St. John’s. Tickets starting at $15, 722-4441.

• Great Balls of Fire: A Jerry Lee Lewis Tribute Show is at the Grand FallsWindsor Arts and Culture Centre.

Tickets $25.

• Festival of Gospel Song, hosted by Wendy Woodland, at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre. Tickets $15.

• Duane Andrews and friends perform at the Princess Sheila Nageira Theatre in Carbonear. Starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets $10.

• The Cobblestones and Bobby Evans at the Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre. Tickets $22.

• Charles and Camilla: Together at last at the Majestic Theatre in St. John’s.

Ridiculous headwear is welcome, 5793023.

APRIL 9 • A Sumptuous Breakfast at St. John’s

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campus of College of the North Atlantic in honour of Parkinson’s awareness month, 754-4428.

• NewFound Jazz with Dana Parsons at the Masonic Temple, 8 p.m. Tickets $10, 726-6722.

• Sarah Slean at the Delta Ballroom in St. John’s, $25, 576-7657.

• Second Stage Productions presents Archie Fisher at the Gower Street United Church Hall in St. John’s.

Tickets $16 in advance, 335-7007.

• Great Balls of Fire a Jerry Lee Lewis Tribute Show at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, $25.

• Bless the Child at the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre. Continuing April 10.

IN THE GALLERIES: • Then and Now, six female artists explore the women’s movement, curated

by Bonnie Leyton. Craft Council Gallery Devon House, Duckworth Street, until April 8.

• Tangible – The Sculpture Exhibit at the RCA Visual Gallery, LSPU Hall, St. John’s until April 18.

• Outspoken, Margaret Dragu presents Rising: Make Bread+Make Community+Make Art, Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s, April 9, noon to 8p.m.

• In Full Bloom, Gallery artists celebrate spring, Red Ochre Gallery, St. John’s, until April 18.

NOTES: • Tai Chi classes at The Lantern. An eight week course will start April 13. A “come and see” class will be held April 6 and 7.

• Read for the environment month, at participating primary and elementary schools in St. John’s, free. Call Kelly Heisz at 570-0350

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INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 3-9, 2005 — PAGE 25

Ryan and Keith Delaney

By Darcy MacRae For The Independent

I

t’s already been a special hockey season for Keith and Ryan Delaney.

The brothers from North River became full-fledged teammates for the first time this year, helping guide the Conception Bay North CeeBee Stars to the Avalon East Senior Hockey championship.

As kids, they spent endless hours playing ball hockey in the back yard and driveway. Big goals were scored, and sweet passes were made. More than a few meaningful games were played during these outdoor adventures.

Memories of those days are still fresh in the brothers’ minds as they join their CBN teammates in taking on the Deer Lake Red Wings for the provincial senior hockey title and the Herder Memorial Trophy.

“The Herder is the most prestigious hockey award in Newfoundland,” Keith Delaney, the 25-year-old elder sibling, tells The Independent.

“To win it with your brother — who you spent hours and hours in the yard with playing ball hockey growing up — would be something special. Just making a run at it with him has been great.”

Upon meeting the Delaney boys, it’s not hard to tell they’re brothers.

Although Ryan, 22, is a couple of inches shorter than his older brother, they’re similar in physical stature. Both possess an easygoing personality, bordering on shyness. They each love to talk hockey and are quick to point out the talents of the players they suit up with — and against.

The similarities continue once they hit the ice. Both have hands as soft as butter and as smooth as silk, and are often able to stick handle around opponents with ease. They see the ice well, as is evident by their ability to hit team-

Paul Daly/The Independent

Family affair The brothers Delaney from North River fight together with CeeBees for senior hockey supremacy mates with tape-to-tape passes.

“They’re both offensively gifted players,” says Derrick Kent, a teammate with the Cee Bee Stars and childhood friend of both Ryan and Keith. “Both of them are very talented, they do everything well.”

The only noticeable difference between the two — besides the fact that Ryan sports a beard — is their skating.

It’s not that one is significantly better than the other so much as the way they go about it.

“Keith is a smoother skater, he’s got those long, clean strides,” says CBN head coach Ed Oates. “Ryan’s stride is not as smooth, but he probably gets down the ice just as quick as Keith.”

It’s been a while since the Delaney brothers last played together, let alone lived in the same town. Keith left home in 1996 to play with the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts, before finishing up his major junior career with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. He then played four years for St. Mary’s University in Halifax before finally returning home for good this fall.

Ryan also travelled to Ontario at a young age, and actually joined his older brother for a short stint with the Majors in 1999. He also played Junior A in Ontario before returning home in 2001

Chasing the Herder W

hen the CeeBees Stars hit the ice at Mile One Stadium in St. John’s this weekend for games three, four and, if necessary, five, it will be the first time in nearly 40 years fans in Conception Bay North get to see their team chase the Herder Memorial Trophy.

The fact they have to travel to St. John’s and cheer them from Mile One is just a tad bit odd.

It’s one of those situations where I can see both sides of the fence, but I wonder what it would mean to S.W. Moores Memorial Stadium and the businesses in

BOB WHITE

Bob the bayman and around Harbour Grace to have those games played in the old barn.

Firstly, though, let’s look at this objectively. It makes sense to have these games played in St. John’s, if only for the reason that no fan will be denied a seat to watch the games.

Last weekend in Harbour Grace,

and suiting up for CBN in the St. John’s Junior Hockey League, where he would eventually win a scoring title in 2004 with 73 points in 25 games. With his junior hockey days behind him, Ryan was excited to begin senior play with the CeeBee Stars. Once he found out his brother was also going to play on the team, the season took on a whole new meaning.

“I grew up watching my brother play hockey so I was excited to find out he was coming home to play with the senior team. This was my opportunity to play with him,” the younger Delaney says.

“I grew up watching my brother play hockey so I was excited to find out he was coming home to play with the senior team.

This was my opportunity to play with him.”

Ryan Delaney

there were fans turned away when the tickets sold out for game six of the Avalon East final against defending Herder champs Southern Shore Breakers.

But think about that for a second — when was the last time there was a soldout hockey game in Harbour Grace. I know the stadium manager took some heat over how the tickets were sold, but man, the interest and anticipation in the communities of Conception Bay North was so strong you could taste it.

Lineups started before 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, and hundreds

The brothers Delaney have played a big role in the CeeBee Stars’ success this season, each finishing with 34 points. While this type of production was expected of Keith, some senior hockey followers weren’t sure what to expect of Ryan at the beginning of the 2004-05 campaign since it was just his first year out of junior. But after Keith took one look at his brother early in the season, he was confident his younger sibling would do just fine.

“His game has impressed me,” says the older brother. “His puck handling ability is great and he sees the ice really well. But his work in the corners has really caught my attention. He’s strong, hard to knock off the puck. He doesn’t have a really big frame, but he plays with a big heart.”

Despite his success this season, Ryan says the jump from junior to senior did present a number of challenges.

“It’s a different game altogether,” he says. “The guys are bigger and stronger; it’s a lot harder to carry the puck. But I’ve played with great players this year, so that helped me get some points.”

Making their first full season together even more special has been the on-ice success of the CeeBee Stars. Just one year after they suffered through a tough campaign during which they picked up

showed up to wait for a ticket.

On game night, standing room only was only good for those really tall individuals, or those who were smart enough to bring along milk crates or stepladders. It was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in the arena, and from speaking to some older gentleman who were around during the CeeBees of the 1960s, it was larger than the crowds attracted during the team’s heyday.

Again, watching the game was tough on some fans, many of whom were squat in like sardines. Having an unobstructed view of the ice was difficult,

only one win, CBN won the Avalon East title on March 26 when they defeated Southern Shore 4-3 to win the best-of-seven league final 4-2.

“That series was something,” Keith says. “It was great hockey. I’ve been away for a while and saw a lot of players do some amazing things. Then I come home and see guys doing the exact same things.”

With the victory, Conception Bay North earned the right to battle the West Coast Senior Hockey League champion Deer Lake Red Wings for the Herder Memorial Trophy. Deer Lake will be led by the scoring of Mark Robinson and Anton Mikhailov, the goaltending of Graham Cook and the leadership of locked out NHL winger Darren Langdon.

While Langdon is sure to draw plenty of attention in the series, the Delaneys feel it is important not to let the pro hockey veteran become a distraction.

“Hopefully, playing against an NHL player will bring the best out of all of us,” Keith says. “It’s a privilege to play against him, but at the same time we have to play him hard. He’s just another guy going for the Herder, just like the rest of us.”

The battle for the Herder kicked off at the Pepsi Centre in Corner Brook on April 2, with the second game of the series going the next day. Games three, four, and possibly five take place at Mile One Stadium April 8-10.

Just how the two clubs will respond to an opponent they have not faced all year remains to be seen. One thing is for certain, the Delaney brothers will be ready.

“If you’re competitive at all,” Keith says with a smile, “you love playing in these games.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

and even if you did, it was only when the puck was in certain areas of the ice, or when the guy in front of you was tying his laces or picking up his French fries.

On the other hand, though, some would consider this atmosphere, as cramped as it was, cozy and a perfect setting for a playoff game. When you have limited seating and loads of fans wanting to catch the action, it’s going to get thick and tangly.

But that’s the reality of watching a See “CeeBees,” page 26

APRIL 3, 2005

26 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

CeeBees should avoid Langdon

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

From page 25

He mentioned Flatrock on at least two occasions, which raised a few eyemust-see game in Harbour Grace, brows. Maynard, who is from where the banners hang proudly from Flatrock, alluded to the fact the past CeeBees Herder winners at the CeeBees had several former Flatrock stadium. players on its roster. To me, it seemed Mile One offers comfortable, easy- like strange timing to bring that up. viewing seating, many washrooms ••• and more concessions. Sometimes the I’m not going to predict who will atmosphere in the capital city stadium win the Herder, because other than is electric, but that some second-hand often has more to do accounts, I’m not If someone were with the flashing really sure what kind images on the scoreof team Deer Lake to fight Langdon board and the music has and how they will and score a draw being pumped out measure up against than the action on the the CeeBees.

— never mind ice.

One thing’s for cerAlso, there are no tain, the CeeBees come out on top banners hanging from would be wise not to — the Cee Bees the rafters. The Deer send anybody on the Lake Red Wings, the ice to dance with would receive CeeBees’ opponent in Darren Langdon, a huge boost. the Herder final, have who’s playing with the same issues I his hometown team guess. The West Coast League as the NHL lockout continues. champs play games at Corner Brook’s For one thing, with all due respect, Pepsi Centre in, again, a bigger, more the CeeBees don’t have anyone to comfortable arena. match Langdon’s punching prowess.

In what seems a little similar to the Secondly, especially in Deer Lake, logic of why some consider shopping fighting with Langdon will only give at Stavanger Drive better than shop- Red Wings fans reason to cheer and ping downtown St. John’s, conven- send a charge through to the players. ience wins over charm and tradition.

If someone were to fight Langdon Or maybe, just maybe, it all has to and score a draw — never mind come do with money. Or did the league out on top — the CeeBees would leaders from east and west make the receive a huge boost. decision so fans could watch great Either way, it’s a big gamble to tanhockey in comfort? gle with Langdon. Your health, and ••• your opponent’s momentum, hang in During the formal presentation of the balance. the Avalon East trophy, league presiBobby White writes from dent Joe Maynard might have forgot- Carbonear. ten for a few seconds where he was. whitebobby@yahoo.com

Kelita Zupancic and Amanda Klassen wrestle at the 2005 Cadet/Juvenile Nationals held at the Memorial University Field House in St. John’s over the weekend. There were over 900 participants from across Canada involved in the four day event.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

SPORTS IN BRIEF Woods under pressure to end barren major run LONDON (Reuters) — He has won the U.S. Masters three times, became its youngest champion in 1997 and holds the tournament record for 72 holes with an 18-under-par aggregate of 270.

Yet Tiger Woods, the former world No. 1, is under mounting pressure to perform at Augusta National next week when he will be bidding to end a barren run of 10 majors without victory.

Golfing great Jack Nicklaus, an 18time major champion, endured a similar winless stretch — 12 starts — between his successes in the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol and the 1970 British Open at St Andrews.

However Nicklaus, unlike fellow American Woods, came desperately close to winning on several occasions during his run and did not have to cope with the same level of media focus and speculation.

Woods’s last major success came at the 2002 U.S. Open, shortly before he split with swing coach Butch Harmon.

His form was then exposed to increasing scrutiny over the following two years.

While undergoing the second revamp of his swing as a professional, he struggled for accuracy off the tee and also with his approach play.

Between late 1999 and mid-2002, Woods won seven majors in 11 starts.

After parting company with Harmon and having knee surgery in December 2002, the aura of domination he once enjoyed over his rivals unquestionably dimmed.

That began to change, though, towards the end of last year.

Newly married, Woods began to see

positive results after spending much of that year working with swing coach Hank Haney.

He won his last two strokeplay events of 2004 before triumphing twice in his first five PGA Tour outings this season.

Most impressive of those four victories was his performance at the Doral Open in Miami last month, when the eight-time major winner out-duelled Masters champion Phil Mickelson by a shot in an epic last-day battle.

Trailing Mickelson by two strokes going into the final round, Woods closed with a brilliant six-under-par 66 to clinch his 42nd PGA Tour title with a tournament record aggregate of 24under 264.

“I reaped some rewards at the end of last year for my hard work and that was very satisfying,” says Woods, who will be bidding for his third green jacket in five years at Augusta National.

“Now I feel very happy with my swing, there’s no doubt about it. At the Doral, I was able to fly the ball, to hit the shots at the trajectory I wanted each and every time.”

For those watching at the Doral, Woods appeared to have regained complete control of his swing as well as the ability to produce the magical shot as if on demand.

Whether he can translate that form to this year’s majors remains to be seen.

Augusta will provide the first evidence.

A slight favorite at Final Four ST. LOUIS (Reuters) — At first glance, Illinois should be considered the favorite to win the national college basketball championship Monday night at the Final Four in St. Louis. After all, Illinois (36-1) enter Saturday night’s

semi-final having lost just once this season and coach Bruce Weber’s team have been ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for the last 15 weeks.

Barry Bonds creates Giants marketing puzzle SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Creaky knees and a steroid scandal threaten to throw a curve ball into the San Francisco Giants’ plans to market Barry Bonds as he nears the most hallowed record in baseball, marketing experts say. Bonds, within striking distance of the all-time home-run crown, is already the centerpiece of a $150,000 radio marketing campaign that has a play-by-play announcer telling of remarkable but imaginary moments during games.

Approval of NYC stadium boosts city’s Olympic bid NEW YORK (Reuters) — New York’s hopes of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics were boosted last week when a controversial $720-million bid to build a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side was approved after a bitter political battle won by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority — which runs the city’s public transit systems — awarded the National Football League Jets the rights to build a stadium over its dilapidated West Side rail yards that would also serve as a centerpiece for the 2012 Games if they are won by New York.

APRIL 3, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 27

Final faceoff St. John’s Maple Leafs prepare for grand goodbye

By Darcy MacRae For The Independent

T

he St. John’s Maple Leafs intend to go out in style. After 14 seasons in the province, the Leafs have just one regular season homestand remaining, beginning on April 11 when they battle the Rochester Americans, and ending on April 16 when the curtain falls after their contest with the Edmonton Roadrunners.

Although there will be disappointment and perhaps a bit of heartache for some of the team’s long-time supporters, the Leafs are trying to make the final weekend one fans will recall with fond memories for years to come.

While some of the plans are still in progress, the Leafs have several activities already planned for the final home weekend — an event they have labelled “the last faceoff.” Before the Friday night game versus Edmonton on April 15, the baby buds will hand out their team awards for the 2004-05 season.

Prior to the finale an evening later, the club will honour several employees and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Leafs since 1991.

When the puck drops later that night, fans in attendance will be pleasantly surprised to see the team wearing throwback jerseys, identical matches to the blue body, white sleeve sweaters the Leafs wore during their inaugural season.

“That’s how we started. That’s how people saw us back in 1991,” says Glenn Stanford, the Leafs’ vice-president of hockey operations. “We thought since it’s going to be the last regular season home game here, it was a fitting way to end a 14-year run.”

them, the Leafs’ approached the season with as much optimism as they could muster.

“We wanted to make the best of a bad situation,” says Schwartz.

One marketing strategy that worked early in the season was bringing back former players for one last goodbye. Throughout the first half of

“Tickets for those games are going fast.

People want to be a part of the last games.”

Chris Schwartz the schedule, past baby buds such as Yanic Perreault, Felix Potvin, Terry Ryan, Todd Gillingham, Andrew McKim, Greg Smyth, Ryan VandenBussche and Nathan Dempsey received warm welcomes and rousing applause from large crowds at Mile One. The players’ highlights during their time in the blue and white were often played on the video screen over the scoreboard while they watched from center ice, reminding those in attendance of better times in Leafs’

history.

While some of these players now live in the St. John’s area, others had to travel a great distance to attend the ceremonies. Despite the time spent getting here, all the players reportedly jumped at the chance to say farewell to the city they once called home.

“They couldn’t wait to get here,” says Schwartz. “That was a nice thing.”

Bringing back the stars of the past was a good way of keeping the mood at Mile One positive this season, as was the fact the Leafs iced one of the strongest teams in the club’s 14-year history. The combination of a smart marketing plan and solid play on the ice seems to have resulted in a happier fan base, which is a big improvement from the beginning of the season.

If everything goes according to plan during the Leafs’ final homestand, that feeling will be what fans remember most about the club’s final season in St. John’s.

“Tickets for those games are going fast. People want to be a part of the last games,” Schwartz says. “We’re hoping people walk away happy. We want fans saying it was a good run for 14 years.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

The St. John’s Maple Leafs play their last game at Mile One April 16. Paul Daly/The Independent

SHIRTS-OFF-OUR-BACKS TRADITION When the final buzzer sounds, the Leafs will continue their shirts-offour-backs tradition of removing their jerseys and giving them to 25 fans whose names are to be drawn from a ballot fox. By the time the last fan leaves Mile One, the Leafs hope they have will have provided people with a night they won’t soon forget.

“There have been a lot of good memories and we wanted to make sure people remember them,” says Chris Schwartz, the Leafs’ senior manager of hockey operations.

“Hopefully the night will capture our history since 1991.”

Helping fans remember the good times has been a challenge all season for the Leafs’ marketing department.

When the parent club in Toronto announced in August they were removing their farm team from St. John’s, backlash was almost immediate. Season ticket sales dropped and overall attendance dipped dramatically early in the year. The official slogan may have been Leafs Hockey, Celebrate, but few fans felt like doing so.

Knowing the challenge that faced

SUMM ER

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28 • INDEPENDENTARTS

GALLERYPROFILE

DAVID MARSHAK Visual artist

D

avid Marshak’s continuing a productive year. He’s about to open his fourth show of paintings since last April — then it’s back to Ontario to record an album, and then onwards, to the Arctic, to continue photographing and painting.

Today, though, he’s in a studio/home in Pouch Cove, mere metres from a stormy ocean, polishing off his latest suite of work. He’s been in Pouch Cove almost 12 months now, where he says he’s “really been able to focus.”

It’s a welcome change.

A couple of years ago, Marshak was in a serious car accident, suffering amnesia and several broken bones.

He wasn’t physically able to paint for months. When he got back to his easel, Marshak says he found it difficult — the process and results felt cold. He was also trying to keep his band, County Works Department, going.

“It just wasn’t working,” he says.

“It happens every once in a while, you just have to get past that block.”

Marshak first came to Newfound land in April 2004, to open a show at James Baird Gallery in St. John’s. He returned two months later to settle in and work for a while. The spaces he’s lived in Pouch Cove, he says, helped him “sit back … and live with the work.”

He’s been painting ever since, completing work for four shows, two in St. John’s and two in Ontario. Living right by the sea has been an inspiration — though he hasn’t been painting the water itself.

With just a month-and-a-half to prepare for the latest show, he “wanted to do something organic, loose and flowing.” The result is a series of landscapes, all from his immediate area — whether the view from his current studio window, or the house up the street. The predominant features are big, moody skies, illuminated and textured.

“I’m really into subtleties of light,” he says. “I’m trying to record a moment that feels familiar to everybody, a common moment that maybe seems extraordinary by the act of recording.

“My last couple bodies of work were all about artificial light, or disappearing light.”

After the launch of this latest show,

simply called Newfoundland work, Marshak will head back to Ontario, to record with his band.

“I’m hoping now that I’m painting again, and got myself figured out again after the accident, I see no reason I can’t keep the band going …

I’m always engaged in both (painting and music) at the same time, both are

creative processes.

“This year out here has gotten me a little more reconnected with painting.

Now it’s flowing, I’m excited, can’t wait to do more.”

Marshak is a member of Drawnonward, a group of Ontario-based painters and friends who have travelled and worked together for a

decade.

This summer, they hope to do some work in the Arctic — Marshak says he is very much looking forward to working under the midnight sun.

And he already can’t wait to come back east.

“I’m looking for the perfect little $20,000 dream house just outside St.

John’s … I know Newfoundland weighs heavily in my future somewhere. I can’t imagine not coming back.”

Newfoundland work by David Marshak and new work by Vlad Grospic runs April 8-April 27, James Baird Gallery, St. John’s.

— Stephanie Porter

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