2005-04-10

VOL. 3 ISSUE 7

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 10-16, 2005

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OPINION PAGE 9 AND 19

FILM SCORE 15

John Crosbie on Paul Martin’s nerve; Siobhan Coady fights an epidemic

Tim Conway spends some time in the alleys of Sin City

Power bill

CHASING THE HERDER

Experts debate whether province should go it alone on lower Churchill JAMIE BAKER

G

overnment has 25 proposals from parties interested in developing the lower Churchill, but some contend the province should develop the hydro-electric project itself. Experts say the province could reap maximum benefits going it alone, but others warn the potential windfall also carries financial risk.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would be the most likely choice to take the lead, but neither Premier Danny Williams nor Hydro officials will say if the Crown corporation has any interest in developing the project. The Ontario-Quebec-SNC Lavalin consortium has been the only group to go public with its interest.

Direct capital costs for developing the project and transmitting power from Muskrat Falls and Gull Island is estimated at $4.8 billion.

The Gull Island project is expected to take about six years to build, and will provide 2,000 megawatts of available power. Muskrat Falls, expected to take just under five years to construct, will generate 824 megawatts.

Because of the cost, and that it takes years to see a return on the initial investment, Alex Faseruk, a professor of business at Memorial University in St. John’s, says the province financing the lower Churchill project is not impossible, but it brings considerable risk.

“A bank has to protect the integrity of their depositors and investors so something like a hydro-electric project, which takes a great many years, has a certain amount of risk and payback,” Faseruk tells The Independent.

See “Taking into account,” page 2

Brad Crann of the Conception Bay North CeeBee Northstars and Mark Robinson of the Deer Lake Red Wings battle for the puck during second period Herder Memorial action at Mile One. The CeeBees won the game 6-4.

Paul Daly/The Independent

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “People who do not understand each other … are communicating through prayer and music and everything — it’s just fascinating.”

— Sarah Foley, a St. John’s native visiting Vatican City

BUSINESS 21 Brigitte Bardot

Benaroch/SIPA

‘My first battle’ At age 70, former screen starlet Brigitte Bardot still fighting the seal hunt CLARE-MARIE GOSSE

T

he media hype surrounding the death of Pope John-Paul II could well be deflecting some bad press for Canada overseas, particularly in Europe.

Brigitte Bardot, screen icon and animal rights activist, says until last week gory images of the 2005 seal hunt off the coast of Labrador had been dominating the news.

In a telephone interview from her home in the south of France, the reclusive, retired actress talks to The Independent about her passion for animal welfare, and reflects back on her first high-profile protest visit to the ice floes off the Strait of Belle Isle in 1977.

“My first battle, my first fight, the first was very important,” she says. “It

was the first international affair.”

Today, at 70 years old, Bardot conducts most of her business from France, through her foundation (Fondation Brigitte Bardot), which she began in 1986 to fight for the protection of animals across the world.

As part of an international coalition that includes organizations such as Greenpeace and IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), Bardot’s foundation has joined with its sister organizations to call for a boycott on all Canadian seafood products in protest against the hunt. She is leading the call in Europe.

“In Europe we find this to be very disgusting; really,” says Bardot.

“People are scandalized, horrified, ready to vomit. So, yes, I called for a boycott. It has to be about more than money, that this is an important issue in See “Princess,” page 13

The delicious story of the best legs in town WORLD 9

Gomery: the ban lifts, the plot thickens

IN CAMERA 16

Behind the scenes of the green routine Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

‘A big loss’ Plant workers fear impact of quota cuts and fishermen’s pledge to keep boats tied up

By Jamie Baker The Independent

sial raw materials sharing program led crab fishermen to vote overwhelmingly to keep boats tied to the lant worker Warrick Randell dock this season. has been busy doing mainte“It’s a no win situation for plant nance to ready the processing workers,” Randell tells The plant in La Scie for the crab season, Independent. “Crab is usually about but recent quota cuts could mean his six weeks work for us, but this year, work has been for naught. with the cut, I’d say we’ll be down to “If we lose the crab, we can’t make four or five weeks. A week or two it up … it’s scary for us,” says may not seem like a lot, but it’s a big Randell. loss for us. It will affect us a lot here On April 7, the Department of in La Scie.”

Fisheries and Oceans unveiled its This year, government granted 2005 crab management plan. Besides another crab processing licence to St. a shorter fishing season — two to Anthony Seafoods, whose staple four weeks shorter — the overall total product has always been shrimp. allowable catch General manag(TAC) is 49,943 er Carolyn Davis tonnes for this year, doesn’t know compared to 53,740 exactly the effect A week or two may tonnes in 2004. The the cuts will have hardest hit area on her operation, not seem like a lot, stretched along the but she says the but it’s a big loss for coast from St. quota cuts — Anthony to although necesus. It will affect us a Musgrave Harbour, sary given the which had its 2005 state of the stock lot here in La Scie.” quota cut to 12,680 — will have an tonnes from 15,593 impact on the 150 Warrick Randell tonnes. Labrador’s seasonal workers south coast was also employed at the reduced to 1,425 facility. tonnes from 1,780 “It is going to tonnes. be tough, but we were prepared for a The cuts were negligible in other quota reduction, so we’ve been lookareas. ing at other ways to help the workLa Scie is in an area that will see ers,” Davis says. “I wasn’t surprised one of the largest cuts. The recent with the (crab quota reduction) quota cuts are just the latest blow to because the stocks are said to be in hit the 1,240 plant workers at the nine See “A chance,” page 2 facilities in the region. The controver-

P

APRIL 10, 2005

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘There’s a lot to take into account’ From page 1 “It’s not just like walking into a bank to get a car or house.”

Although Ontario looks like a guaranteed customer for the power, and possibly the eastern seaboard of the United States, Faseruk says having a buyer is only part of the equation. He says the lower Churchill, in particular, still faces numerous hurdles, including environmental issues, fluctuating electricity prices, and even concerns surrounding aboriginal land claims.

“There’s a lot to take into account and these are things people in the financing business worry about.”

Faseruk says while Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro could potentially find ways to finance the project, having

a joint proposal — using clients and their reputation as leverage with financiers - would be more beneficial in terms of acquiring the necessary capital.

“It’s a lot easier if you have a Quebec and/or an Ontario on-stream because then you’d have three potential entities on the hook. That way, other corporations will be jointly liable,” says Faseruk.

“If we get the notion we have to go ahead and do it ourselves, then that could actually be to our detriment.”

Engineer Tom Kierans is an ardent supporter of building a fixed link between the island and Labrador, and one of the key parts of his project proposal is the transfer of power, by way of the fixed link, from Labrador to the

island.

When it comes to actually financing the project, he has a different idea — sell Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro’s assets (Holyrood, Bay D’Espoir, and the province’s share of the upper Churchill) to a provincially regulated private investor’s group and let that entity assume all the risk for developing the lower Churchill.

The province, he says, could become the regulatory body and take proceeds from the sale of assets — which he figures would amount to about $2 billion — and put it on the provincial debt.

“This is not the best way to do it, it’s the only way to do it,” Kierans says. “I have talked with senior people who would be involved in such an investor group and they’d love to do it – that’s the kind of risk they’re taking all over the country. When you buy Bay D’Espoir, Holyrood and the upper Churchill, you’re not buying pigs in a poke, you’re buying productive businesses.

“This investor group can go to the bank and borrow the money.”

Opposition Liberal leader Roger Grimes was on the front line the last time the province tried to get a lower Churchill project off the ground in 2002. He agrees funding is the biggest stumbling block affecting the province’s ability to develop such a huge project.

The only way the province could develop the project on its own, he says, is with a guaranteed, long-term contract from a power purchaser.

Grimes says many purchasers are reluctant to sign on for 30 or 40 year contracts.

“Any banking institution will lend you the money provided you have a long enough contract for the sale of the power to pay off the mortgage,” Grimes says. “Nobody wants to tie into a sales contract for any more than three years or five years, and that’s not enough to finance the project, so as a result, you have to get other finan-

Provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor.

Exclusively at

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘A chance at a longer term future in crab’ From page 1

Main Floor, Terrace on the Square, Churchill Square.

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ciers.”

During the 2002 negotiations, Grimes says the province had a longterm customer lined up to buy power, Quebec, and a financier, HydroQuebec. The reason Hydro-Quebec was lined up to bankroll the project, Grimes says, is because the company could give a better lending rate than any of the banks.

Dealing with Quebec has always been a contentious issue in the province because of the upper Churchill deal that has seen Hydro Quebec net $23.8 billion since 1972. The province has made $680 million.

“The basic principles we were trying to accomplish – and we almost did – was for the project to be owned 100 per cent by the province. Any and all profits from the proceeds of sales of power would accrue to Newfoundland and Labrador,” says Grimes.

“All you needed was a customer, which we had – it just happened to be Quebec.”

desperate condition and there’s some resource management that needs to

take place.”

Provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor says the pain of the cuts in certain regions will be shared

stories from here

Petro-Canada is proud to support the development of Petro-Canada Hall, a new rehearsal and

across the province’s overall catch as a result of the new raw materials sharing system.

“The RMS system has no negative impact on them relative to the quota reduction — it doesn’t exacerbate the situation,” Taylor says. “It doesn’t necessarily improve the situation, but it doesn’t make the situation any worse.”

Taylor acknowledged the shortterm negative impact the cuts will have on plant workers, especially those in Labrador.

“In the longer term, I think it’s their only hope to maintain a crab fishery up there ... if not, we can probably have a one-year fishery up in Labrador and nothing beyond that.

“By implementing the measures that have been announced, I think it gives Labrador a chance at a longer term future in crab.”

DFO’s management plan also calls for a shorter season to combat the soft-shell mortality issue.

Randell worries the changes make for a small window of opportunity to get good quality crab. While he says he understands the fishermen’s concerns about the plan, as a plant worker, his biggest concern is getting the material to process before time runs out.

“Once we pass May month, we start to get into soft shell — after that, nobody’s going at it and they’re going to close it down anyway,” he says. “If we’re behind starting the year — no doubt the fishermen got a reason to what they’re saying, I’m not disputing that — for us to lose May month, we’ll be in for trouble.”

performance facility at Memorial University’s School of Music. Combining arts and education — with files from Jeff Ducharme

is more than good business – it’s music to our ears.

Part of your community.

www.petro-canada.ca

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

‘Strike fear in the heart of every man’ The elusive giant squid is what nightmares and legend are made of — and it was first found here always echoed with tales of sea monsters. Fishermen tell stories of giant beasts wrapping squirming tentacles around their ships, attempting to drag them to a watery grave — or make harles Bungay saw some them a quick meal. garbage bags bobbing in the In the 1930s, a Norwegian tanker waters of Fortune Bay, and fig- was said to be regularly attacked by a ured it was the cargo of a smuggler run- sea creature because it resembled a ning from the authorities. He and a whale and a possible meal. friend raced their 19-foot boat towards In Bungay’s case, some suggest he the floating debris. and his friend saw a giant squid.

Everything changed when the “I knows it wasn’t a giant squid and I garbage reared out of the water and knows it wasn’t a shark and I knows it looked their way. wasn’t a seal,” says Bungay. “I’ve seen “I almost turned the boat bottom up all this before. I mean I’ve never seen a trying to get away giant squid, only from it,” Bungay pictures of it, but I tells The Indepenthat wasn’t “I knew how rare these knows dent about the 1997 no giant squid.” encounter.

But the giant animals are and the The beast with a squid could easily opportunity of seeing camel-like head be mistaken for a made no noise. sea monster. The one in my lifetime “We were going creatures reach away the second nightmarish proI knew, an actual time he looked, but portions — 60 ft. fresh specimen, was he dove the same long with eight way we were steamarms, two tentacles, unlikely at best.” ing. We thought he eyes the size of volwas coming after leyballs and masBob Richard us.” sive parrot-like Dr. Jon Lien is beaks. They can not surprised by weigh in at as much such reports. Head of the Whale as a tonne. Believed to dwell in depths Research Group, Lien says “usually, all of 700 to 3,000 feet, a giant squid has the calls for anything weird” come to never been seen alive in its habitat. his desk.

In 1997 and 1999, two underwater “Your imagination, and I think this is expeditions were launched to seek the true of all perception, we sort of fill in elusive giant squid in the deep waters the detail whether we’re looking at a off New Zealand (scientists believe the tree or a cloud or whatever,” says Lien. deep canyons there are the creatures’ The bays and coves that dot the breeding grounds), but the ocean island portion of the province have depths yielded only frustration.

JEFF DUCHARME

C

Earl Dawe of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John’s says the first real evidence of the existence of a giant squid was in 1873 when one attacked a minister and a young boy in a dory near Bell Island.

“The little boy hacked the arm off of the giant squid and this became proof of its existence,” says Dawe.

The piece of arm was sent to the British Museum of Natural History where, says Dawe, it probably still resides today. He says a scientific paper written on the find is “why it was then validated as a species.”

In December 2004, a male and female were found within weeks of each other.

Bob Richard brought the 20-foot long creature home from Colliers in the back of his Honda hatchback.

For the natural resources instructor at Academy Canada in St. John’s, it was a

bit of a coup. Richard was an hour late for class that Monday after travelling to Colliers. He walked into the principal’s office and asked him if he’d heard of the giant squid.

“It’s in the back of my car,” Richard nonchalantly told his boss.

Dawe says approximately 65 specimens have been found here — one-fifth of all the giant squid ever found.

“It’s an impressive concentration of known records,” says Dawe.

Dawe and his colleagues believe warmer water draws the giant squid up the Continental Shelf and to the island.

The Colliers squid, after it was dissected, eventually ended up in a freezer at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John’s. The second specimen, found near Triton, is also in DFO freezers.

“It was certainly a thrill because I knew how rare these animals are and

the opportunity of seeing one in my lifetime I knew, an actual fresh specimen, was unlikely at best,” says Richard.

Richard, who took biology courses at Memorial University in St. John’s from the late Fred Aldrich (a world expert in giant squid at the time), understands the intrigue of the species.

“Certainly the monster and the mythical aspect of it certainly has to do with its size, it’s pretty intimidating,” he says.

“And to have reports of it attacking boats, well again, it’s going to strike fear in the heart of every man.”

At the Memorial Sciencefare in 1990, Aldrich spoke about the uncertainty surrounding the giant squid: “It is of such that Homeric duels are made.

As Hamlet said, there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Setting their sights elsewhere

Nurses struggle to find full-time permanent nursing positions; graduates heading overseas for jobs

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

resources and corporate services at the Health Care Corporation of St. John’s, says although casual posts are hard to fill, the board isn’t currently in a position to offer fulltime permanent jobs. He says this is partly due to a low turnover rate, as well as financial constraints.

“Right now we are in a position that we are comfortable with the positions we have,” says Dodge.

“We can recruit the number of nurses we need.”

Health officials are predicting that the province will face a serious nursing shortage due to an aging population and retirements.

“With respect to any forecast,” he says, “it is a forecast and it is something that we certainly pay a lot of attention to, but our ability just to over-hire is not there.”

Although the numbers of new nursing students entering the province’s education system are still healthy, Forward expresses concern about those leaving.

T

he approximately 150 nursing students graduating across Newfoundland and Labrador this month have more reasons to set their sights on work outside the province than ever before.

Not only is a starting nurse’s salary here lower than anywhere else in Canada, the health boards — St. John’s in particular — are offering few, if any, full-time, permanent positions.

Out of the 75 to 80 current vacancies at the Health Care Corporation of St. John’s, only 10 are not casual (on-call) positions. Those 10 are either full-time temporary positions or part-time permanent.

“We’re certainly hearing this year that the numbers of permanent full-time positions are scarce,” Debbie Forward, president of Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses Union, tells The Independent.

Forward says without a permanent job, necessities such as benefits and even the ability to secure a bank loan become a challenge.

Faced with sizeable student loans and a need for the financial independence that comes with a regular salary, many nursing graduates are turning towards health care institutions in the U.S. for work.

‘LOVE TO STAY HOME’ Melissa, who asked to have her last name withheld to avoid reprisals, is a 23-year-old graduate from the Centre for Nursing Studies in St. John’s.

She says she plans to head to a position in California in September after she lands a temporary nursing job for the summer.

“I kind of knew for the last while that there wasn’t a whole lot here,” she says. “I would love to stay home and be able to work, but when you’ve got a student loan and those things, it’s not really feasi-

A few of this year’s graduates from the Centre for Nursing Studies, left-right: Leanne Gosse, Sara Evans, Amanda Barrett, Kelly Spurrell, Mary Anne Phillips, Kelly King, Rebecca Ryan, Jo-Anne Barker and Stephanie Bursey.

Paul Daly/The Independent

ble.”

Melissa says Canadian nursing graduates are “highly wanted” in the U.S., a fact reflected by the Americans’ aggressive recruitment efforts in the province, as well as large salaries and other perks.

Many U.S. health institutions provide relocation packages of as high as $15,000 and some offer to pay student loans and give additional specialized training, which is hard to get in Canada as a new graduate. In addition, salaries are double those in

Newfoundland and Labrador and hours are often flexible.

Melissa says despite the “amazing” differences in salary between the province and the U.S., the main attraction California holds for her and her friends is the chance to receive specialized ICU (intensive care unit) training on the job.

She figures as many as 50 per cent of this year’s graduates will leave to work outside the province.

Stephen Dodge, vice-president of human

‘DEPRESSING AND DISAPPOINTING’ “Many of our graduates are young and unattached,” the union leader says, “and when they travel, they meet partners and they quickly become part of communities elsewhere. So I don’t think we can invest a lot of our hopes that when they leave, they’ll come back.”

Melissa says for herself and many of her friends and colleagues, the local employment options are “upsetting.

“You think nursing is a profession where you never really have to worry about getting a job … it’s kind of depressing and disappointing,” says Melissa.

“I eventually want to come home and I’m wondering how soon it’s going to have to be before I’m able to get home and get that fulltime, you know, permanent job; stability, instead of sitting by the phone and waiting for a call.”

APRIL 10, 2005

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

MCP cards still being shuffled

ON THE LINE

Re-registration will go this year, but launch date remains sketchy

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A

fter months of hedging, officials at MCP offices in St. John’s have confirmed Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will be re-registering for a different MCP card this year.

Tony Maher, executive director of MCP (Medical Care Plan), says he’s waiting for the provincial Treasury Board to give the go-ahead. Once he gets the green light, residents can then begin to register for the new cards.

In his 2003 auditor general’s report, John Noseworthy recommended revamping the MCP program — hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital billings couldn’t be accounted for.

In 2004, the province earmarked $900,000 to revamp the cards and rein in the system.

Maher says those earmarked funds are burning a hole in his department’s pocket and he’d like to see the program implemented.

“The funding for the MCP re-registration is carried forward to this fiscal year. It’s there, we have the money to proceed with the project and we intend to do it,” he says.

When that process begins is another question.

“I simply don’t know,” Maher says.

“It’s approved to proceed.

“My problem with a date is I don’t have total control over the project. I am going to carry out the project, but they (Treasury Board) have to put the green light on it.”

SCATHING REVIEW A supplier for the new cards will be found through a tendering process.

Noseworthy wrote a scathing review of the MCP program in 2003.

He found that $4.6 million was paid in out-of-province medical bills — including $320,000 to terminated or invalid cards.

Under reciprocal billing arrangements, the Health Department in this province is required to pay for the medical services of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians requiring care elsewhere in Canada.

Noseworthy says the losses for 2004 were likely along the same lines, but he won’t review his findings again until 2005’s audit.

In February, Noseworthy told The Independent he has no influence over

MHAs or the policy that’s made once his report is released. In other words, he can’t force government’s hand.

In his 2003 report, he found there are more than 81,000 MCP cards than residents in the province.

Some of the MCP cards in question may be attributed to deceased cardholders whose deaths haven’t been reported to the Health Department, as well as residents who have left the province.

It’s also possible that medical services are being purchased by ineligible beneficiaries.

Approximately 50,000 of the more than 600,000 cards in circulation haven’t been used to bill a service in the past 10 years.

Recommendations in both the auditor general’s report and a cost-benefit analysis of re-registering, completed in December, suggested MCP cards should have expiry dates, and the full name and birth date of the card holder, as well as other unique identifiers.

NO PHOTO “The most important data field will be the expiry date — that’s the gist of it,” says Maher of the new cards. “The birth date won’t be there — the name, the MCP number, the effective date, the expiry date (will be).”

The MCP office has flirted with the idea of a photo ID, but Maher says the cost is too high.

MCP is currently working on a graphic for the card, but its final design hasn’t been decided yet.

“That is a process that I’m not too sure how long it will take,” he says.

“We’ve made some suggestions and Treasury Board has made some suggestions, but we have not finalized the graphics.

“We’ve got the fields figured out, but the design — the look of the card — will it be red, will it be blue? What type of picture will it be? That’s being worked on.”

In 2003, then-Health minister Elizabeth Marshall said Newfoundland and Labrador spent $3,018 per person in health care that year — compared to $1,713 in 1995, or about $336 more per person than the average Canadian.

“I can tell you that the project is a go. I can tell you that the money is there,” says Maher.

“I can tell you that we’re working on the new card design … that’s basically where we are right now.”

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Talks between the 52 striking Labatt’s workers in St. John’s (represented by NAPE), and the company broke off late Friday with the two sides unable to reach any tentative agreement. NAPE spokeswoman Judy Snow says the union and the employees would meet April 9 to discuss, “where we are going from here.”

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

Out in the cold

Labradorians say province still treating them like second-class citizens

By Jamie Baker The Independent

J

ust like some Newfoundlanders complain over how they’re treated

by Ottawa, many Labradorians say they’re treated just as badly by St. John’s.

Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor Leo Abbass, for one, says Labrador isn’t being given the same consideration as the rest of the province when it comes to funding commitments. He says people are getting tired of not getting their fair share of the provincial purse.

During a recent cabinet visit to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the province announced $56 million in funding for various Labrador initiatives, but many within Labrador dismissed much of that investment as being “old” announcements or federal dollars.

“Government has to listen to their own words,” says Abbass of how the province complains about the raw deal it has received from Ottawa in the past.

Labradorians, he says, feel the same way about how the province treats them.

“We see the wealth of our natural resources going elsewhere to provide the basic essentials we need to other parts of this province – we feel we’re being cheated.

“Until they actually open their eyes, they’re not going to understand what we’re saying up here.”

Abbass says his community is “extremely disappointed” with the way some issues have played out. The Mealy Mountain auditorium project, which was deferred in the 2004 budget, wasn’t mentioned in the 2005 budget — a fact Abbass finds disheartening given the throne speech was heavy on arts and culture.

“The budget ripped the heart out of the arts community here in central and coastal Labrador … to not have this issue addressed, it is demoralizing,” Abbass tells The Independent.

“An auditorium is for the youth — they need a facility to come together and share their ideas. These people are now made to perform in hangars … it’s just not acceptable.”

The minister responsible for Labrador, Paul Shelley, recently told The Independent he has met with min-

Inuksuk near Grand Lake, North West River.

isters in Ottawa to lobby federal dollars for the auditorium.

The idea of going to the feds doesn’t impress Abbass.

“That’s government saying ‘yes, there is a need for this, but we’ll get the money somewhere else.’ I don’t buy that.”

Another key project for the community is a long-term health care facility.

The Paddon Home was originally built to handle Level I occupants, but currently handles patients needing 24hour, Level III and IV care. The facility and the staff, Abbass says, are pushed way beyond acceptable limits.

He says the only other option families have is to send loved ones outside of Labrador to receive care.

The facility did get $200,000 in the recent budget to begin planning and developing conceptual drawings, but Abbass says that means little without a commitment to construct the facility.

“The Paddon Home was constructed for seniors in good health that simply needed a place to stay,” says Abbass.

“They’re in cramped quarters, and as far as I’m concerned, we’ve stripped them of any dignity they had.”

Abbass says he understands the province faces a tough financial situation, but says all Labradorians want is equality in terms of available services and infrastructure.

“We’re not looking for any conveniences here ... I guess they’ll keep calling us a bunch of whiners and criers, but we just want what we believe every other citizen in this province has at their disposal.”

Jamie Baker/The Independent

Graham Letto is mayor of Labrador City and the Conservative candidate for the upcoming federal by-election in Labrador. He says it really depends on what part of Labrador you’re in when it comes to the levels of discontentment with the provincial government.

“While some areas of Labrador are receiving some good news from this provincial government, others are not,” says Letto.

In Labrador West, he says many are pleased with some of government’s initiatives, but as you get into central and coastal Labrador – with issues like the lack of an auditorium, kidney dialysis and long-term health care facility in central Labrador, as well as snow clearing worries on the south coast — he says he’s been seeing more anger come to the surface.

“It is there, and I am aware of it as the Conservative candidate — but I’m fighting a federal campaign, I’m not fighting the provincial government.

You need the federal and provincial government onside to get things accomplished.”

One of the keys to improving the relationship, Letto says, is ensuring government is more aware of Labrador’s requirements.

“A lot of it is a lack of education and knowledge of the needs in this area,” he says. “We need to do a better job of selling that to government and looking at things from a total Labrador perspective.

“It won’t happen overnight, but hopefully it will happen over time.”

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

Greenpeace to challenge trawlers Environmental group taking to high seas after fishing conference; Taylor welcomes move, sort of

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

T

he Independent has learned Greenpeace will take to the high seas after the federal government’s international fishing conference here, in a bid to halt dragging and overfishing.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor says it might not be an entirely bad thing.

It’s high time environmental groups turn their sights away from the plight of the seals, Taylor says, and towards the destruction of the fish stocks on the Grand Banks.

“The bottom line is, it’s time they wake up to what the priorities are as it relates to ocean conservation,” Taylor tells The Independent.

Greenpeace has been invited to the conference, entitled The Governance of High Seas Fisheries and the UN Fish Agreement — Moving Words into Action, running May 1-5.

“The meeting is supposedly about moving from words to action,” says Karen Slack, who will represent the environmental organization at the conference.

“As (non-governmental organizations), we have a key role to play in making sure that governments stop talking and start acting.”

Slack would only say Greenpeace will be taking to the high seas to battle trawlers and overfishing not long after the conference wraps up.

She wouldn’t give an exact location and wouldn’t confirm or deny the Grand Banks would be targeted.

However, she did confirm Zodiacs will be involved in the protest. In the past, protesters have taken to the small boats in dramatic confrontations with ocean trawlers.

The Grand Banks should be a busy spot this spring. Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Society plans to drop trawler traps — train rails made into X-shapes — on the ocean bottom to shred nets.

Greenpeace is part of an environmental coalition pushing the United Nations for a moratorium on deepsea trawling.

Taylor would only support the ban in certain, sensitive areas.

“I’m not sure I’d particularly want to see any environmental group run-

ning around on the Grand Banks in Zodiacs, but Greenpeace is a powerful organization,” says Taylor.

“If they want a cause that’s worthwhile and just, then take up the cause of overfishing.”

After pressing the federal government, Greenpeace and five other environmental groups will attend the conference. They won’t be allowed to take part in the roundtable meeting of 22 government ministers from various fishing nations.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans wouldn’t release the list of countries attending.

DFO spokesman Phil Jenkins does say the conference is the first step in halting foreign overfishing outside the 200-mile limit.

“Our hope out of the St. John’s conference is that this is going to launch a protest that leads to stronger governance and updated high seas fisheries management,” says Jenkins.

But for groups such as Greenpeace, the voices protesting at such conferences aren’t loud enough.

“It’s not just a question of shouting from the rooftops about ocean bio-diversity,” says Slack.

Jenkins says the details are still being worked out, but next month’s conference will include workshops on ecosystem-based considerations and fisheries management; compliance and enforcement; decision making processes of regional fisheries management organizations; balancing fisheries capacity and fishing aspirations; and addressing new areas and gaps.

“I think governance encompasses all the sort of administration and sort of compliance issues that have to do with making sure that these stocks are not overfished,” says Jenkins.

“We just got $15 million of ongoing money (to battle overfishing) out of the federal budget, so it’s not just another conference,” says Jenkins.

The money will allow the Canadian Coast Guard to increase its at-sea days to 625 from 445, and hire an additional six fisheries inspectors.

“Obviously there are some gaps in certain areas and we’d like to close them up so that we can combat this overfishing.”

Mark Pike

‘The people who are left behind’ A simple legal document saves pain and grief when loved ones can’t make the final call ALISHA MORRISSEY

P

eople in this province can avoid the public battle that swirled around Terri Schiavo by drawing up a simple legal document.

Under the Advanced Heath Care Directives Act, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can communicate health care wishes if they are incapacitated.

Schiavo’s husband fought to have his wife’s feeding tube removed after a heart attack left her in a coma. He claimed that was her wish, though he had nothing in writing. Her parents fought a fierce battle to keep their daughter alive, but the courts upheld the position of Schiavo’s husband. The 41year-old died on April 1 after the feeding tube was removed.

The fight sent people across the world in search of a living will.

While lawyers here say they haven’t been overwhelmed with inquiries, they have been fielding questions from the public since the Schiavo case exploded in the world’s media.

Mark Pike, a lawyer with the St. John’s firm Benson Myles, says he prepares about a dozen such documents every year.

“I always recommend them, advance health care directives, to my clients anyway – ever since the legislation came into force a few years ago,” says Pike.

“Whenever I do one, I recommend them to my clients and they invariably take my advice.”

He says such a directive would have been helpful in the Schiavo case as the “husband was pulling one way” and the

SHIPPING NEWS Bull Arm. FRIDAY, APRIL 8 Vessels arrived: Cabot, Canada, from Montreal; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Bull Arm. Vessels departed: Maersk Norseman, Canada, to Hibernia; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Hibernia.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s harbour. Information provided by the coast guard traffic centre.

MONDAY, APRIL 4 No report TUESDAY, APRIL 5 Vessels arrived: Maersk Chignecto, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels departed: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Asl Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook; George R. Pearks, Canada, to Sea. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6 Vessels arrived: Jim Kilabuk, Canada, from Halifax; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia.

Vessels departed: Burin Sea; Canada, to Terra Nova.

THURSDAY, APRIL 7 Vessels arrived: Gesmer 1, Canada, from Halifax.

Vessels departed: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to

Paul Daly/The Independent

family “were pulling the other” way.

“I think that the Schiavo case raised this issue in the public’s eye and I suspect that people will be asking about it more often than before,” Pike says.

An advanced health-care directive gives people options based on four issues: how their remains will be used — including if they plan on donating organs or allowing their body to be used for scientific research; what sorts of treatment they will or won’t allow if they are incapable to make a decision; resuscitation if they were near death; and where or how the individual is cared for – be it in a personal care home, hospital or at home.

However, Pike says it’s often about who will be left behind to make the decision rather than how the client will be affected by any treatments.

THE BURDEN “They’re concerned about their husband or their wife, or their children who are going to have to make this decision,” Pike says. “What the advanced healthcare directive really does is relieves the relatives … of the burden of making the decision without the help of the person who is in this state.”

He says the most typical request is that clients not be kept alive by artificial means, but that definition can cover many aspects of health care from antibiotics to feeding tubes. He recommends clients be specific in their wishes.

“It gives some help to the decision maker, basically mom doesn’t want to be there on a machine when she’s brain dead with the machine breathing for her and feeding her,” he says.

A lawyer isn’t needed to draw up an advanced health-care directive and it

doesn’t need to be filed with courts or hospitals, making the numbers of people who have such a document in place impossible to gauge.

Ken Hollett, a lawyer at the St. John’s firm Duffy and Associates, says while a directive can help clients, they are often viewed as a burden to prepare because people would rather not deal with death.

“It’s hard enough getting people to do a will sometimes,” says Hollett. “I think in our society we tend to avoid issues of death when we can.”

He says it’s possible the Schiavo case has made people think about such issues.

“We had very little interest from the public until recently,” says Hollett. “And I think the media reports have taken it a little bit more to the forefront and I think people have taken a little bit more interest in it, but it’s still something people prefer not to think about.”

Hollett says his firm recommends a power of attorney, which allows the client to include specific instructions to a person who will be responsible for their affairs.

“People probably should get the form and run through it with their lawyer, just so they have a clear idea what they are agreeing to.”

The Schiavo case, Pike says, was blown out of proportion by American media – especially after politicians and the United States Supreme Court got involved.

“Terry Schiavo, to me, was remarkable only because the same thing is happening everyday in Newfoundland and Labrador,” says Pike. “Those issues aren’t new - it’s just that they were seized on for political reasons in the States.”

APRIL 10, 2005

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OUR VOICE

Toil and tradition W

e wanted to get out on the ice. Our plan was to send a photographer, maybe a reporter too, out on a sealing boat, to capture the real story of the hunt — away from other media, protesters and celebrities. We wanted to publish a photo essay to show sealing exactly as it is: a difficult, dangerous job. A job, deserving of respect.

Animals would be killed, but that wouldn’t have been the focus of the story. It would have been about the people, the characters, the toil, the tradition.

To show, as most Newfoundlanders and Labradorians know, that the seal hunt is not a sport, not a laugh, not about skinning animals alive or crushing young skulls.

It never was a likely proposition.

Sealers have been burned by the media for three decades now, ever since Paul Watson first took to the ice and Brigitte Bardot cuddled her first pup.

The hunters are less than eager to facilitate further criticism. The stark visuals — red blood, white ice, animals

with big brown eyes — don’t work in the sealers’ favour, no matter how hard a person would try to shoot pictures, and report, objectively. Animals being killed is never a pretty sight.

Our story idea wasn’t going to be an easy sell to the harvesters (think of the danger, the insurance concerns, the exploitation). And it became a whole lot less likely after the scene on the Gulf of St. Lawrence earlier this month.

According to reports, three helicopters full of media and protesters landed and unloaded on the ice near a sealing vessel. Shots were fired, there was shouting, shoving, and at least one sealer, brandishing a small gaff, came towards some of the protesters.

Caught on film, the sealers were nailed again in the world press.

Unable to control the media, or 30 years of sensationalism, those working on the ice let their guard down about the only thing they could control — their own actions.

So, though we asked very nicely, the Canadian Sealers’ Association said no

— no more media trips, no way. sage board, with people from around the The world’s media spotlight waxes world chiming in — and, wouldn’t you and wanes when it comes to the seal know it, 90 per cent are vehemently hunt. This year’s been a big one — per- against the “brutal,” “unnecessary,” haps brought on by “cruel” hunt. Some the perceived hefty threaten to never set seal quota handed foot, or spend a dolTo prove to the to harvesters lar, in Canada again.

(319,500 in 2005).

And sealers are, world sealing is Paul Watson’s naturally — once as noble a profession back and Hollyagain — hurt, fruswood’s fashionable and angry. as fishing, or farming, trated outrage has revved Defensive, fiery up. Globe and Mail Newfoundlanders and those working in the columnist Margaret Labradorians, always field have to prove it, Wente, Newfoundready to stick up for land and Labrador’s our rights, traditions, to act every bit the favourite sister, has quotas. chimed in with her Try to take those professional. annual attack: “Our away, try to say the black eye: most of once-honourable the seal hunt propaganda is true,” she work of hunting seals is “barbaric,” and titled a recent piece. incite the (photogenic) wrath of those This year, the U.S. Humane Society is who count on the seals for income. The calling for a ban on the import of all sealers’ reactions become the news, and Canadian seafood — they banned seal they become their own worst enemies, imports years ago. The BBC has a mes- playing right into the hands and needs

of protesters and certain animal rights groups.

Maybe it’s too late now, 30 years later, to talk about taking the high road and not giving protesters the visuals for their fundraising campaigns. There are already enough bloody images out there.

Can anything be done to ease the harsh scrutiny? Perhaps finding a market for more parts of the seal (the fur and blubber are commodities, the meat, not so much), more inspections or regulations, faster deaths of older seals — and absolutely no skinning alive?

And how about finally, once and for all, sealers taking control of their own actions. No running at protesters with gaffs, no firing intimidating shots in the air.

To prove to the world sealing is as noble a profession as fishing, or farming, those working in the field have to prove it, to act every bit the professional.

The media can only cover what stands in front of its lens.

YOUR VOICE Liberal government stands on guard — for itself Dear editor, I’m writing regarding the response of the prime minister and the Liberal Party of Canada to explosive testimony of Jean Brault before Justice Gomery’s inquiry, some of which is still under a publication ban.

On Monday, April 4, the Liberal Party of Canada, acting on its own behalf, not on behalf of Canadians as the federal governing party, applied to win standing before the inquiry in order to cross examine Brault, former head of Groupaction, on his testimony.

The Liberals have also filed a complaint with the RCMP claiming they are the victims of a fraud. If there was a complaint to be made, why was it not made last week, last month, or last year, if the Liberals indeed believe themselves — and not the Canadian people — to be the victims in this matter? Can Brault really have revealed information previously unknown to those involved with him in the sponsorship program’s activities?

On Monday, Paul Martin told the House of Commons that the majority of members of the Liberal Party of Canada “... should not have to bear ...

the burden of the activities of a very small few who have colluded against the party.” This sorely conflicts with the prime minister’s previous position on accountability. In 1995, Martin was a key member of the Liberal government when it succeeded in prematurely shutting down Justice Morin’s inquiry into the activities of Canadian soldiers on UN deployment in Somalia. This was done as high-level civilian witnesses were about to be called to give evidence widely believed to be damaging to the Liberal government and its activities.

By the Liberals’ own standard, this is the time to ensure, beyond all doubt, that justice is done. Make it swift.

Make it very public.

The prime minister himself has acknowledged in the Commons that his party now suffers the same fate of possessing a few “bad apples.” Why is he now changing the standard of accountability? What exactly does the Liberal government and the Liberal Party of Canada stand for — if not themselves?

Edward B. Ring, Halifax

‘All in this together’ Dear editor, Oh man (and woman), I’m boiling.

The nerve of DFO. I can’t even accompany a friend, who has kept up his professional sealing licence, to the hunt.

First Rick Bouzan, and now this.

Look, I’m a retired guy who just wants to do some of the activities that my grandparents did for a living. It’s even guaranteed in the Terms of Union.

We all have the right to pursue a consumptive food fishery. DFO’s bureaucratic rules and regulations are preventing me and many others from doing this.

Bouzan was charged for not having all of his codfish tagged when he was accosted. He had more tags than codfish yet they still snarled him up in useless regulations formulated by mainland bureaucrats. Bouzan will win his case in the Supreme Court because the Terms of Union protect a Newfoundlander and Labradorian’s right to a consumptive food fishery. I think the same applies to the seal fishery.

Unfortunately, until the citizens of this island stand together to protect our rights, we will continue to have our traditional lifestyle eroded. It’s the nature

of a bureaucracy to take as much power as it can until it’s reined in. The latest sealing regulations prevent any new licences or even observer permits.

Why? We, the citizens, have not had an input, nor have our politicians. Yet our hunt is hampered and misrepresented by protestors who make a better living than we do. Many of us are barred from the water (the reason our ancestors came in the first place) so that our resources can be plundered from afar.

Let’s not fight amongst ourselves.

Every citizen of this province has a right to propagate a traditional lifestyle. Retired persons and others who wish to go on the water a few times a year are not the competition for professional fishers. We are continuously divided and conquered. Let’s band together — recreational fishers, professional fishers, politicians, and others interested in preserving culture and resources — to protect our traditional way of life. We’re all in this together. Let’s take control of our destiny. Speak up.

Brian Taylor, Grand Falls-Windsor

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

The story we can’t tell T

o a newspaper editor, there’s nothing worse than holding a story, especially a good one. On second thought, there is: holding a story only to see it broken by another media.

Then, not only do you get beaten, but beaten with your writing hand ripped from your arm, red ink spurting around the newsroom, reporters (who can’t stomach the sight of an editor’s blood) diving for cover.

Not having the story isn’t even so bad. At least then you avoid the frustration of not being able to run it.

There’s always a story around anyway; this is Newfoundland and Labrador, with more colour and conflict in any given day than an Irish wake.

And there will most certainly be one of those soon — a political wake for the Liberal Party of Canada, to be held once all the news is out.

But we, the media, can’t tell you all the news just yet. We’re dying to, but we can’t, because a court order says we can’t.

Recent testimony before the Gomery inquiry was banned from publication.

On Thursday, that ban was partially lifted, and the public started to realize the testimony is explosive, simply that, explosive — news that could turn the Canadian political system on its head.

Justice John Gomery, head of the inquiry looking into the federal sponsorship program, had slapped a publication ban on the testimony of three witnesses: Jean Brault, president of the ad agency Groupaction; Charles Guité, an officer of the Public Works Department who worked on the sponsorship program; and Paul Coffin, head of the ad agency Coffin Communications.

Brault’s testimony is wicked. The Canadian media can tell you it’s wicked, but we can’t tell you all the details.

All the while, though, the media could report the name of a website in the United States that published supposed details of the banned testimony.

It’s just a matter of punching in the web address and filling your boots.

Publication bans these days are as

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander effective as laws governing foreign overfishing outside the 200-mile limit.

On paper, and in practice, they’re utterly useless — a sham. Given the computer age, publication bans don’t work — not when it comes to big-ticket news.

Testimony before the Gomery inquiry is considered so devastating that political parties are scrambling to prepare for the possible collapse of the Liberal minority government and an election call. But nobody wants to appear too eager for an election, for they will surely be blamed for dissolving the minority government.

If the testimony given before the sponsorship inquiry is on the mark, the federal Liberal Party of Canada is rotten to the core.

It will have to be defeated for the good of democracy, for the good of Canada.

Notice the use of the word appear — as in appear too eager. Behind the scenes is another, more sinister story.

There’s a theory making the rounds that Bill C-43 — the same one that includes the new Atlantic Accord deal, that’s our $2.6 billion over eight years — may have been purposely loaded with a Kyoto accord measure sure to be opposed by the Tories as a way for the federal Liberals to force their own defeat.

In other words, the Grits may have been orchestrating their own demise in Parliament so they can rush into an election campaign now, before addi-

tional revelations spring from the sponsorship inquiry.

So, not only was the Atlantic Accord included in a bill that would have trouble making it through the Commons, but the intention may have been for the bill to send us back to the polls and square one in terms of a deal on offshore oil revenues.

Remember that promise former premier Roger Grimes made just prior to the 2003 provincial election, that he would compensate west coast chicken farmers for the collapse of their industry if he was reelected?

Well, he wasn’t reelected and the promise died with his government.

The poor chicken farmers were out of luck. The same could happen to the new Accord deal. Scott Reid, Paul Martin’s right-hand man when it comes to communication, said this province would pay for the Accord hassle the prime minister had to put up with.

He wasn’t kidding.

The one thing in the Liberal’s favour heading into an election is their competition.

“Who am I going to vote for — Stephen Harper?” is a common enough question. While MPs such as Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle, competent men both, are popular enough on the home front, Canadians overall seem somewhat squeamish about the new Conservative party.

They may have no choice, but to hold their noses and get past that.

If the testimony given before the sponsorship inquiry is on the mark, the federal Liberal Party of Canada is rotten to the core. It will have to be defeated for the good of democracy, for the good of Canada.

That leaves just one question: what would be best for Newfoundland and Labrador? The simple fact of the matter is this place just can’t seem to get ahead in Confederation.

For a newspaper editor, the only thing worse than not telling a story, is not telling it like it is.

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

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

A STORM’S BREWIN’

YOUR VOICE

For the record Dear editor: I read with interest Siobhan Coady’s comments in The Independent (March 27) on Raw Material Sharing (RMS) proposed by government for the crab fishery.

Ms. Coady is right in her suggestion that there is opposition in various quarters of the fishing industry against the two-year pilot project. It is worth pointing out there is also support that doesn’t make the headlines.

But she is far from accurate in her position that the sharing system is unworkable. The RMS trial is controversial, but then all substantial changes to the management of our fishery in the past 20 years have met opposition.

I understand Ms. Coady is involved in the ownership of two fishing vessels, for crab and shrimp. Ms. Coady opposes sharing between plants and advocates a free market in

the fishery.

These may be worthwhile suggestions and I understand her point of view.

The irony is that while she promotes a free market, Ms. Coady does not advocate the removal of the federal government’s individual quota (IQ) system that shares crab and shrimp between harvesters.

She probably didn’t advance this notion because it allows people like her, who are involved in the ownership of fishing enterprises, to plan their business with the full knowledge of what their revenue will be from year-to-year.

As is so often the case, some individuals maintain two diametrically opposing views on the same issue in the fishery.

Trevor Taylor, MHA Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture

Michael McBride of Storm Brewing shows off the St. John’s brewery’s newest brand – Irish Red. The pink, white and green is front and centre on the brew’s label.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

There are all kinds of crazy R

orschach was a guy with a terrific grasp on the obvious. He was a psychiatrist who lived in the last century. He figured out that people see what they want to see, and if you ask them nice, they will tell you.

Rorschach is the famous inkblot guy. He developed a treatment where he would show his patients a series of random inkblots and ask them what they saw in them. From this exercise, he could get people to talk on and on, and would listen to them and try and pick up on any psychiatric issues.

As is true in psychiatric disorders, so is true in politics (a related field).

People see what they want to see.

Allow me to illustrate.

This week past I came across three news items on the same day. On the face of it they were just three more in an endless stream of articles.

Yet I thought I saw a theme. That made me think of patterns real and imagined, secret agendas and axes carefully ground.

The first news item related to the

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & reason explosive but secret details at the Gomery inquiry that threaten to bring the Liberal government down.

Nothing makes something more interesting than when it is a secret. To find out this secret you had to go to some blogger’s site in the States to read about it. It was fun. What I read was pretty bad. The Liberal Party is starting to look more and more like a biker gang. The Opposition, smelling blood, is howling.

Then I read Brian Tobin is being paid over $2 million in “retirement” payments for a seven-month job (plus, one would assume, also getting his stamps). Is this a big news story on its own? Or are folk in the media trying to get the electorate to interpret the inkblots a certain way? Interesting timing, the appearance of that story.

The third story I read claimed the Alberta Liberal Party is thinking about changing its name to distance itself from their federal counterparts. Made me think about Sid Vicious, the former Sex Pistol, on trial for murdering his girlfriend. His attorneys thought at the time that it might be a good idea to change his last name. You think?

Three inkblots. Depending on who you are, you might see different things in these inkblots. Let’s stare at them.

Stare long enough and you might see the Liberal Party as a cabal of money-grubbing, dishonest, greedy self-promoters who exist as an organization solely to hijack the political system with one thing in mind — the personal advancement and enrichment of themselves.

You might see a cesspool of corruption so widespread and endemic that the few who are left — the next wave at the trough, you might say — are seeing their own aspirations in trouble, and think a rose by some other name might not smell the same.

Someone else might see something

completely different. They might see the overwhelming irony in the fact the Liberals, under the guise of saving the country, have so ruined themselves that a mean-spirited, cynical and regressive force will now win political power and start imposing their intolerant beliefs on the rest of us.

Whenever I see Peter McKay on the television in high moral dudgeon, I instantly recall the video clip of him lying to David Orchard. In colour.

What do people need? He is not to be trusted. Ever. I have the proof in digital format. I can e-mail it to you.

Some might see this large blue bottle of strong medicine as a cure for the country. I fear it might very well turn out to be worse than the disease — although the disease is pretty awful. If Joe Clark was Leader of the Opposition right now, we would be going to the polls and he would be headed to 24 Sussex again.

That’s the thing about perspective. It really is all the way you see it. There will be some who stare at these blots — or stains, if you will — on our polit-

ical landscape and earnestly try and tell us this is the price of honest government. They will try and convince you (and I mean you — they ain’t selling me) that Paul Martin and his poisonous little band initiated the Gomery inquiry for our own good.

Rorschach would have smiled. He would have been the first to tell you there are all kinds of crazy.

And finally, there is one other little blot we should all consider. Not even a blot. More a splat — the splat made when our own Atlantic Accord falls through the legislative cracks onto the cold stone floor of a defeated government If you consider these stories as inkblots — not too great a philosophical stretch — then we have the beginning of an interesting exercise. Over the next few weeks, put yourself in the place of good Dr. Rorschach, and listen to what people see in these blots.

There is a lot more craziness to come.

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

APRIL 10, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Pushing the envelope

LIFE STORY

I

t’s hard to recall the last time a handwritten letter appeared in JEFF DUCHARME my mailbox, short of a few lines scrawled on a Christmas or birthday A savage card. journey E-mail has robbed us of tearstained letters from heartbroken lovers or the cat scratches of infuri- obviously not required.

Beyond learning how to speak in ated friends. It’s also taken away the thought that used to go into written complete sentences, learning how to correspondence — most letter writ- write is one of the most important ers would go through more than one skills any human can command.

Accuse me, if you will, of being a draft before stuffing a letter into an envelope and sealing it with a lick luddite. Luddites were a group of of the tongue. The thought behind British textile workers in the early the written word, the ramifications 1800s that rose up and destroyed the of it and the joy evoked by it, are no textile machinery that was taking their jobs. more — killed by technology.

Computers may well be the modNot having a hard copy makes a negative reaction that much less ern-day papyrus that replaced writrewarding. With a letter, you can ing on stone tablets, but it just seems crumple the paper into a ball and more insidious than that — somethrow it against the wall, reduce it to thing precious is being lost here.

Something is being lost amongst ashes with the flick of a match or spit on the paper. While you may get the keyboard clicks and flickering screens. away with spitting As I was walking on your computer, to work earlier this throwing it against Long after e-mails week, I found an the wall or setting it envelope. It wasn’t on fire will result in you needing a new have been reduced to a letter, but an of piccomputer; not to unreadable bits and envelope tures lying on the mention explaining sidewalk. At first, I to the landlord why bytes, handwritten stepped over it like there’s a computerso much other shaped hole in your letters live on garbage that litters apartment wall. to become part of the sidewalks of I miss letters. I downtown St. miss the people history. There is John’s, but a voice who wrote them. I my head made miss the compasnothing for the ages in me turn around and sion of the people pick up the envewho take the time to between the hard lope. It was a differput pen to paper.

The smell of the returns of an e-mail. ent voice (not the voice that causes paper, the sound of me to consider it as you run your things best not disfingers over certain phrases on the page, all these things cussed with members of the local seem to bring you closer to the per- Constabulary).

This voice wondered what memoson who wrote the letter. Touching words on a screen or sniffing a key- ries someone had left behind. It questioned whether the recollecboard pales in comparison.

There are people in this world tions were thrown on the sidewalk who have never, will never know because they were no longer good the joy of receiving and revelling in memories, or simply because they reading a handwritten letter. Hand- had fallen out of a pocket.

But the images in the yellow, red writing is a telling talent — the swoops of the letters and the pres- and black envelope looked harmless sure of the pen on the paper belay a enough: a picture of a young girl smiling; two women mugging for writer’s thoughts and emotions.

Long after e-mails have been the camera while enjoying a meal reduced to unreadable bits and on a balcony; pictures of a street bytes, handwritten letters live on to scene with signs in a foreign lanbecome part of history. There is guage; and a medieval jester posing nothing for the ages between the with one of the women for a snapshot. hard returns of an e-mail.

Each looked like a happy memoA gentleman in the United States just released a software program ry, moments in time one wouldn’t called the Instant Letter Writing Kit. want to forget anytime soon.

Just like the dozens of people who Using templates, it will supposedly help writers compose 99 per cent of had probably stepped over that the letters one could ever conceive envelope in their daily rush, never of. In other words, your-name-goes- giving a thought as to what beautiful memories were contained inside, here writing.

“This kit will help you write technology’s rush has also trampled every kind of letter you’ll ever need something beautiful — writing letto write,” reads the sales pitch on ters. the website.

Jeff Ducharme is The IndepenThrow your creativity and emotions out the window because in this dent’s senior writer. day and age of technology they’re jeff.ducharme@theindependent.ca

Lloyd George (right) at the official opening of the new post office in DiIdo.

Photo submitted by family.

‘An amazing man’ Lloyd George Nov. 1, 1917 – Sept. 14, 2002

By Jamie Baker The Independent

A

single parent who worked tirelessly for his church and the preservation of history, Lloyd George was widely acknowledged as the foremost authority on just about any historical event in the DiIdo area until his passing in 2002.

His collection of antiques, documents, photos and film was unmatched in the area. His knowledge and research of events and people was equally thorough.

Even his family home, now known as the Lloyd George House, is a provincially recognized heritage structure, built by George’s grandfather, at a cost of $1,200, in 1885.

“I can’t even list all the things he was into, there was just so much,” George’s son Albert tells The Independent.

“Whenever he got interested in anything, he just took it and ran with it.

There was always somebody coming to our house to talk to him or interview him about any number of things.”

George was born in DiIdo, Trinity Bay, in 1917. He went on to become a teacher, first in Battle Harbour, Labrador then later in Norris Point, on the west coast of the island. In 1952, he took a job with the Department of Highways, which he held until his retirement in 1977.

George returned to his family home

when he retired to raise his family.

Tragedy struck a short time later when his wife, Virginia, passed away, making him a widower and a single parent.

“Mom died when I was nine and he was 64. Looking back now, and having kids of my own, I can’t imagine having to raise them by myself … he didn’t have much money, but he kept everything going.”

George was an active Anglican churchgoer, doing everything from playing the organ and lay-reading to researching the church history.

Father Douglas Barrett worked beside George through his six years as the rector at All Saints Parish. Barrett was amazed at George’s energy and determination.

“He knew history was important, he knew his family was important and he knew his church was important and he worked hard at all those things,” Barrett says. “Here he was, an older man, having to keep a household going and raise a teenaged son by himself … I kind of admired him because he was doing what a young parent would be expected to do.

“I thought he was an amazing man.”

When Albert moved to St. John’s in 1991 to complete post secondary training, his father came to St. John’s with him.

He says George wasn’t a hard man to find in those days.

“He was at the archives every day. He actually used to walk there all the time — and he was in his mid-70s then.”

One of George’s favourite research

projects was the codfish hatchery on DiIdo Island in the 1800s, likely the first aquaculture project in the province.

George was also a foremost authority on the German Do-X passenger aircraft, which made a surprise landing in DiIdo and Holyrood en route to New York in 1929. He managed to get original reelto-reel documentary footage from Donier, the company that owned the 12engine aircraft.

An avid follower of politics and issues, George was called on to speak nationally when an attempt was made to change Dildo’s name. Having researched its origins, and being a strong traditionalist, he was adamant the name not be changed.

“If he knew something was right, he didn’t mind saying so — he had very strong opinions,” Albert says.

“He could speak very passionately on an issue, sometimes you’d almost think he was angry, but he was righteously angry,” Barrett says.

George suffered a stroke in 1994, but he didn’t let it slow his insatiable desire to learn about the history of the area.

The family continues to hang on to much of his collection of work and items, and some of George’s research lives on in the DiIdo and area interpretation centre. His home is currently a bed and breakfast.

“There wasn’t a historical topic concerning the area Lloyd George couldn’t speak on with authority,” Barrett says. “I would have to say every word said good about him is certainly true.”

PAPER TRAIL

To the ice

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

S

ealing in Newfoundland and Labrador has always been news in the province, but not for the same reasons.

In 1946 — before anyone had ever heard of Greenpeace or the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) — front-page news consisted of a ship docking in St. John’s, loaded down with seals.

The Fisherman’s Advocate, published by the Fisherman’s Protective Union in Port Union from 1910 to 1980, regularly ran stories about the seal cull in the spring months — including an insert wishing sealers good luck on March 7, 1930 (opening day), to a two-page spread on the history of the seal hunt on March 28 that same year.

On the front page of the Advocate on April 27, 1946, the headline raved about the return of the Swile from the ice.

Capt. Fred Tulk told the paper he’d never seen the ice so thick, in all his 45 trips to the sealing grounds. The crew of 26 men, who shipped out on March 6, all returned in good health and were paid between $141.54 and $220 each.

“The Swile, grimy, but with flags waving, steamed into Port Union, where Capt. and crew received an enthusiastic welcome,” the story read.

The ship docked in St. John’s and unloaded 2,966 seals to be processed and sold.

The Advocate announced the arrival of most sealing and fishing vessels, but the story of Capt. J.H. Blackmore returning on May 25, 1946, showed the determination of some sealers to get the best return for the huge investments made to go out on the ice.

After getting only 1,900 seals,

Paul Daly/The Independent

Blackmore’s boat had mechanical problems and returned home. His second run got him another 4,300. People told him he had a “stubborn courage” for going back, but the Advocate published congratulations “to a Newfoundlander whose faith and initiative has been rewarded with success.”

Cost of seals by the pelt in 1946 Young harps: $10 per quintal (112 lbs.)

Young hoods: $12 per quintal Bedlamers (one year old): $6 per quintal Old harps: $4.50 per quintal Old hoods: $4.50 per quintal In 2004 seal pelts were worth between $45 and $50 each and it’s now prohibited to take seals younger than 12 days old.

Almost 40 years later, the perception of the seal cull as a job that provided for families had greatly changed.

In 1983, celebrities and animal conservationists like Capt. Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were making headlines, rather than the dangerous and difficult work done by sealers from around the

province.

The March 10, 1983 edition of The Daily News reported the annual Gulf of St. Lawrence seal hunt had still not begun, despite sightings of more than 100,000 adult seals in the area.

In the same edition, Watson was described setting up shop outside the narrows in St. John’s harbour. He threatened to use a water cannon or ram the first sealing vessel to leave the harbour.

Eleven days later, the seal hunt officially began. The March 21, 1983 edition of The Daily News ran two pages of stories related to the cull. In one, sealers threatened to dump one ton of chicken manure on the Sea Shepherd II — Watson’s boat — if a helicopter pilot could be found to drop it.

Another story said the Fisheries Department offered $500,000 to processors who would hold pelts until a market could be found for them.

In yet another story, sealer John Melindy told the paper the successful IFAW campaign in Europe had put him close to bankruptcy.

“The bank is going to take my boat, that’s crazy,” he said.

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 10-16, 2005 — PAGE 9

Former Groupaction head Jean Brault at the Gomery inquiry. Justice John Gomery’s publication ban on Brault's testimony was partially lifted late last week.

Shaun Best/Reuters

Now, time to face the fallout Liberals scramble to blunt fallout before veil lifted MONTREAL

By Chantal Hébert The Toronto Star

F

rom day one, the Liberal Party of Canada had been the unspoken elephant in the room of the sponsorship scandal. In the wake of the testimony of the former president of Groupaction, Jean Brault, that is the case no more.

Over six gruelling days, Brault filled in many of the blanks that had puzzled the auditor general, painting in the process the ugly picture of a governing party plundering public funds to advance its partisan goals.

He alleged there was a “miracle recipe” at play in landing a winning ticket in the sponsorship lottery; it involved diverting money to the Liberal party.

By Brault’s accounting, the secret Liberal takings from Groupaction alone adds up to more than a million dollars.

In his mind, it was clear the orders that counted to be a player in the sponsorship program were those not of the government of Canada, but of Liberal operators.

Some of the people he named as beneficiaries of his sponsorship-motivated largesse still hold key positions within the government. A case in point is John Welch, who has now stepped aside as the chief of staff to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, and who was for a time nominally

on Groupaction’s payroll while he worked If that is true, they were operating under for the party. the very nose of the leadership of the day, Others — whom Brault described as as was for that matter Chuck Guité, the calling the shots in the trading of secret civil servant in charge of the sponsorship political donations in exchange for future program. government commissions — were key figAll week, a panic-stricken Liberal party ures in the Quebec organization over the scrambled to blunt the inevitable hit it was course of the Jean Chrétien era. bound to take once Brault’s revelations Benoît Corbeil was the director general were made public. of the Quebec wing of It asked the RCMP the federal Liberal to look into whether it party. had been abused by Rarely has a cart been Jacques Corriveau is its former officials. a confidant of the forIt tried to deflect put before a horse in mer prime minister. attention on to allegaTony Mignacca was a tions the Parti quite as stunning a close associate of Québécois had Alfonso Gagliano, received illegal donafashion as over the Chrétien’s chief Quebec tions from organizer.

Groupaction (in a past few days.

Joe Morselli is a wellmatter unrelated to known figure in Liberal the sponsorship procircles in Quebec. gram).

Former premier Robert Bourassa once It instructed its counsel to subject the rewarded him with a patronage appoint- inquiry’s star witness to an exhaustive ment. cross-examination (only to have him stand A published picture of Morselli and down quickly when Brault ended up scorMignacca features Jean Charest in the ing points at Liberal expense). front row and Gagliano in the second one.

In the end, the attempts at a pre-emptive These are the people that Paul Martin’s strike probably did the Liberals more Quebec lieutenant Jean Lapierre described harm than good. this week as a group of political plumbers, Their efforts did paint the picture of a acting behind the back of an unsuspecting government taken by surprise by the magparty. nitude of the revelations heard at the

inquiry. And that plays to the Liberal strategy of portraying Martin as one who was well out of the sponsorship loop.

But if some Canadians had doubts as to the explosive nature of Brault’s allegations, the frantic body language of the government probably dismissed them.

When Brault left the Montreal federal building where he had been testifying for the last time Wednesday, it was to the applause of a small crowd of die-hard inquiry watchers.

Given that his testimony had hardly cast him in the role of an innocent bystander — he will be undergoing a trial for fraud later this spring — this warm reception from the few members of the public who watched his performance on the stand was a jarring sight, but then no more so than some of the other events of this bizarre political week.

Rarely has a cart been put before a horse in quite as stunning a fashion as over the past few days, as pundits and party strategists set out to dissect the fallout of a story most Canadians were not even privy to.

Now that the veil has been lifted on the most damaging testimony heard by the Gomery inquiry to date, Martin can only hope the election fever that has seized Parliament Hill over the past week does not spread to the country at large.

Reprinted with permission.

View from a loophole It’s hard to blame companies for doing what Paul Martin did too

W

hy do the federal Liberals so often behave as though they no longer must accept responsibility or accountabili-

ty?

A case can be made that they think they can get away with anything because they witnessed Paul Martin — as federal Finance minister — get away with not only being in a conflict of interest, but using his position to his and his family’s benefit through his ownership and control of Canada Steamship Lines (CSL).

Consider: Martin is the master of the Barbados tax haven, but his conflict position has never been seriously investigated.

Politicians who become ministers in government normally solve their conflict-of-interest problems through the creation of a blind trust. A minister must sell all his private investments or convey them to a trustee empowered to sell them and invest the proceeds in stocks, bonds, investments and assets about which the beneficiary minister is to know nothing.

The minister then cannot be tempted to favour, through decisions in government, whatever assets are in his trust, since he does not know what they are. If he does, the trust is not “blind.”

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon Martin, however, did not enter into a genuine blind trust when he became minister of Finance.

Rather, it was a “blind management agreement,” which removed him from the normal management of day-to-day decision-making but did nothing to avoid the possibility of conflicts of interest.

This was permissible because Howard Wilson, the ethics counsellor under Jean Chrétien, agreed that in exceptional circumstances a public office-holder might need to be informed about a business situation under a blind management agreement.

Wilson permitted at least 12 meetings between Martin and CSL officers when they said they needed his advice!

Not only was Martin permitted to advise CSL but his formal agreement allowed him to revoke

Paul Martin

Paul Daly/The Independent

the appointments of trustees. Joe Clark at the time accurately described this as “a blind trust with a seeing-eye dog that has unusual capacity to smell, to hear and to hold meetings.” A venetian blind trust?

Canada had signed a double taxation treaty with Barbados in 1980 when the corporate taxes of both countries were roughly comparable. But in 1991, Barbados created a new class of offshore company, the “Barbados international business corporation,” whose tax rate would be 1–2.5 per cent. This created for Canadians, if they routed their business through a Barbados company, a 10-fold savings in taxes.

The auditor general of Canada, in her report of December, 2002, noted that $1.5 billion in taxes was being lost to the Canadian economy annually as a result of this agreement, and she called for a rewriting of the rules. She noted that all of these concerns had been present since 1992 — throughout the period when Martin was Finance minister, but he made no changes.

Martin’s hypocrisy again was shown by his announcing in his first budget of February 1994 that he would tighten the regulations allowing Canadian companies to bring dividends of foreign affiliates back to Canada, tax-free from a number of countries.

But Barbados remained exempt. This allowed See “Canadian cash stash,” page 12

APRIL 10, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

VOICE FROM AWAY

‘There are gatherings everywhere’ Two St. John’s natives altered their Italian vacation to pay respects to Pope John Paul II VATICAN CITY

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

T

wo St. John’s women were hoping for a Roman holiday — they didn’t expect to attend a wake for the world’s most powerful religious leader.

Jayne Andrews, now living in London, England, and Sarah Foley, a St. John’s resident, waited in line for six hours last week before being allowed into St. Peter’s Basilica, where a reported 300 people per minute viewed Pope John Paul II’s body.

On April 2, the two friends were in Florence on the last leg of their vacation together, when the pontiff’s death was announced.

They decided to visit Vatican City.

Andrews and Foley spoke to The Independent from Rome, a day before the pope’s funeral.

Andrews said the mood in the city was sombre, and despite the number of people that continuously arrived throughout the week, there was a quiet calm in the way the city was running.

“It’s getting busier by the second,” Andrews said. “With the traffic and the police it’s just getting more intense by the second.”

Foley agreed.

“The city is bustling. The amount of people pouring into Rome is expanding every day, but again, it’s very calm and really peaceful.”

The women were among the first in line for the public viewing.

“We were actually (two) of the first people to get in,” Andrews said. “Yesterday the line up to get in to see the pope was amazingly long, it was 11 hours so what they’ve had to do now, is they’ve had to cut the line … people who were lined up yesterday are still lined up today and they probably won’t get in to see until this evening.”

MINI-PILGRIMAGE Foley said she complained during the wait, but was surprised by the dedication of many of the people — including the elderly — who waited patiently for such a rare, spiritual experience.

“We were, at so many points, just thinking of getting out of the line up,” she said.

The pair met a man from Hungary — one of the few there who spoke English — who encouraged them to stay in the line. Foley said it was an amazing experience; she felt like she was on a mini-pilgrimage herself.

There were few services going on at smaller churches around the city, Foley added, since there was a continuous service going on in and around

A mourner cries as others applaud in respect during the funeral for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square, April 8.

the basilica.

“There are small gatherings everywhere. Even outside the basilica right now we’ve noticed there are a lot more people camping and living outside and different priests and nuns doing the rosary and that out in the square,” she said. “It’s just sort of an open-air service out there.”

Foley said most people were talking about the pope’s upcoming funeral.

“Just waiting to see what will happen — again the knowledge of what is actually going on is so limited to us because we don’t have access to TV like everyone else would at home.”

As many as four million people were expected for the funeral. Not surprisingly, the women saw security increase as more people arrived.

“It’s very calm, it’s a European way of security,

we were commenting on how it would have been if it were in the States and how it would have been a lot bigger,” Andrews said.

Roman airspace was shut down, and for Friday’s funeral, almost 1,500 Italian police officers protected motorcades for the world leaders attending. The Italian Air Force set up anti-missile defence systems and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons squads were on alert.

“We’re seeing a lot more security now,” Andrews said. “But when we got in to see the pope there was hardly any security at all, actually teenagers were on the doors to the St. Peter’s Basilica letting us in. Whereas now there’s police everywhere.”

The travellers had seen dignitary cars with police escorts.

Reuters/Katarina Stoltz

Andrews and Foley stayed in an over-crowded hostel during their visit and reported seeing many people sleeping in the streets.

The pair said they will travel by train to another province to catch a flight back to London for a few days before Foley heads home to Newfoundland.

“It’s just so interesting that so many people, different races and different ages and not Catholic are just wanting to see this man. That’s the main thing we keep saying,” Foley said.

“And people who do not understand each other from different languages are communicating through prayer and music and everything — it’s just fascinating.”

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

POPE BRIEFS Pope tomb closed to visitors VATICAN CITY (Reuters) — Italian authorities have asked the Vatican to keep Pope John Paul II’s burial site closed to visitors for a few days, fearing that crowds, which have paralyzed Rome will not leave.

The Vatican says the crypt where popes are buried below St. Peter’s Basilica would remain shut at least until April 11.

Rome is trying to recover from a week of paralysis caused by the millions of people who had come from all over the world first to see the

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Pope’s body and then to attend his funeral, which was held on April 8.

The crypt where a number of popes are buried is open to visitors to the basilica, which is usually open every day from from 9 a.m. to about sunset.

Africa’s streets stand still VICTORIA (Reuters) — Normally teeming streets in Africa emptied as Roman Catholics gathered around televisions to watch the burial in Rome of Pope John Paul II, a man many on the struggling continent considered a friend.

“This was a pope and a half, there has never been another like him,” Wanyiri Gitonga said in Seychelles’ capital Victoria as he watched the funeral on television.

“The whole world seems to have come to a standstill. This man was great.”

State television broadcast the funeral live in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, the Seychelles, Cameroon, South Africa, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.

Africa has the fastest growing Roman Catholic population in the world.

Since the Pope’s death on April 2, many on the continent have been in prayer and mourning for a religious leader whose own suffering through failing health was seen as an inspiration for those whose daily life is a struggle for survival.

As in other places in the well-travelled Pope’s path, many in Africa felt a personal connection with him.

“He helped very much. He fought for the rights of the weak. We will miss him,” said Omar Samad, a technician who had set up television screens outside the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi.

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 11

APRIL 10, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

WORLD BRIEFS U.S. coverage hurts Africa, ex-leaders say JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — American media coverage of Africa

concentrates on bad news to the exclusion of more positive developments, hurting investment and aid, African leaders say.

A survey of African coverage in five prominent U.S. publications between

1994 and 2004, found little mention of the fewer civil wars, South Africa’s economic growth or increased access to education.

“Negative perceptions lead to negative outcomes — lower levels of aid

and lower investments,” says former Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano, who led the country out of decades of civil war.

Disasters in Somalia, Rwanda and West Africa dominated, while transi-

tions to democracy in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and elsewhere were ignored, they say.

“Coverage of Africa ... is, at best, dismissive of the continent' progress and potential,” Chissano says.

Germans use helicopters to catch graffiti artists BERLIN (Reuters) — The German government says it has started deploying police helicopters equipped with infrared cameras to catch graffiti artists at night despite criticism they are grossly over-reacting.

Spokesman Rainer Lingenthal says the new operations to catch vandals in the act has been successful. Graffiti cost billions of euros in damage in Germany every year, he adds/ But a leader of the Greens Party, HansChristian Stroebele, says the James Bondstyle manhunts are totally over the top.

In a recent incident a motorcyclist was killed when he was hit by a police car chasing a graffiti artist.

“We’ve got to stop the graffiti hysteria,” Paul Daly/The Independent says Stroebele, a member of parliament for Berlin. “We need prudent measures against graffiti, which is annoying and illegal. But we don't need wild manhunts in central Berlin with scenes from a James Bond film.”

Fend off dementia with crosswords and a run CANBERRA (Reuters) — Sex, cryptic crosswords and a good run could help ward off dementia and other degenerative conditions by stimulating new brain cells, an Australian researcher says.

Perry Bartlett, a professor at the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute, said mental and physical exercise helped create and nurture new nerve cells in the brain, keeping it functional and warding off diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Alaska starts kill of grizzly bears to boost moose ANCHORAGE (Reuters) — For the first time since Alaska became a U.S. state, hunters will be allowed to use bait to lure and kill grizzly bears under a program intended to boost moose populations in parts of interior Alaska.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game began issuing permits last week for a predator-control program aimed at clearing out the majority of grizzlies in a 3,000-square-mile area of brushy terrain and tundra near the Canadian border.

Canadian cash stash From page 9 Canadian companies, including CSL, to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian taxes by moving their foreign affiliates to Barbados.

Martin’s action did close certain tax havens, such as Liberia: CSL subsequently moved seven Liberian-registered ships to Barbados, where the tax haven continued.

The fact that Martin has since transferred his controlling interest in CSL to his sons did nothing to prevent this conflict-of-interest situation continuing.

Canadian companies are now stashing more money into offshore tax havens than ever. Between 1990 and 2003, the amount soared from $11 billion to $88 billion, according to a Statistics Canada report last month.

Tax haven countries accounted for more than one-fifth of all Canadian direct investment abroad in 2003, double the proportion of 13 years earlier. Among the most popular is Barbados, which ranked No. 3 with $24,690 billion of direct Canadian investment assets, investors perhaps following the example of our leader.

Canadians had $4.5 billion invested in tax haven countries in 1988; by 2000, that had climbed to $44.1 billion, the Canada Revenue Agency estimates. Martin’s sons presumably still enjoy the Canadian tax savings from CSL’s using the Barbados tax haven, which exists in large part because of Martin’s decisions.

Where is the independent investigation? Where is the media attention? When will there be some accountability demanded?

John Crosbie’s column appears in The Independent every second week.

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 10-16, 2005 — PAGE 13

LIVYER

Michelle Baikie

‘I wasn’t received like a princess’ Bert Pomeroy/For The Independent

Following her heart Happy Valley-Goose Bay

By Bert Pomeroy For The Independent

A

love of photography has taken Michelle Baikie from the floors of one of Canada’s largest hospitals to Scotland’s Orkney Islands, but her love of Labrador keeps bringing her back home.

“My heart is here,” says the Happy Valley-Goose Bay native. “Whenever I board a plane and fly out of Labrador, I really don’t want to leave. Whenever I am away, I’m always thinking about home and doing whatever I can to promote the region and my cultural heritage.”

After high school, Baikie attended Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook to pursue an education degree. Partway through, she decided to apply to the College of Imaging Arts and Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York.

There she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biomedical Photographic Communications.

“My studies specifically focused on taking medical photographs — like the ones you see in medical books,” she says.

Baikie, who is hearing impaired, was able to secure a seat at the institution through the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID).

“I received all the support I needed, including being provided with an FM listening system so I could hear what the teacher was saying,” she says.

Baikie concentrated in ophthalmic photography, and upon graduation was qualified to work in a variety of settings, including medical schools, hospitals and laboratories. “This is similar to X-rays, but without radiation. You use special cameras and dyes to help diagnose patients with potential eye diseases.”

She also has experience in photomicrography, or taking pictures of images through a microscope.

While Baikie enjoyed developing her talents in the scientific world, her real passion is artistic imagery.

Baikie completed her studies in August 1994 and returned home. A year later, she established MRB Photo Communications, specializing in biomedical, scientific, traditional and digital photography.

In 1997, she accepted a position as an ophthalmic photographer with the Toronto Hospital. Her time there, however, was short-lived and she was soon on a plane to Labrador.

“It just didn’t work out there for me,” she says. “I decided to come back home and try and make a go of it here.”

Baikie accepted a part-time position with Health Labrador Corporation as a telemedicine co-ordinator, while continuing to operate her own business. In July 2000, she decided to share her work and passion with the people of the Orkney Islands.

She mounted an exhibition, entitled My Orcadian Roots: Going Home, a collection of images she had gathered on an earlier visit to the islands. She says the show complimented one she had done while in school.

“That one was called Footprints of my Ancestors, and focused on my Labrador Inuit roots, as well as trapping, hunting and so on,” she says.

In 2001, Baikie decided to finish where she had left off more than 10 years earlier, and went back to university to complete her education degree.

While she hasn’t been able to secure a full-time teaching position in Labrador, she has held substitute positions at a number of schools in the region, including a five-month stint at Jens Haven Memorial in Nain.

“In June 2002, the day I finished teaching there, I received a call from the Labrador Inuit Association and offered a position as a research assistant … to write a report on the reasons why teachers leave Labrador; why it’s hard to recruit teachers and why there is a high number of students dropping out of school.”

Looking back on the project, Baikie says she finds it ironic she’s considering leaving the region to pursue her teaching career.

In the meantime, Baikie will continue to promote her artistic talents through photography.

“It’ll always be a big part of my life,” she says.

Brigitte Bardot remembers her first trip to the ice well From page 1 Canada, for the Government of Canada.”

Bardot was the first major celebrity to publicly oppose the seal hunt, earning her legendary status among animal rights activists as they began to realize the power of using a famous face to promote their cause.

“I thought, since I have celebrity, I have money as well, since I didn’t have to continue to work for the last part of my life, that I’d use this money towards protecting the animals,” she says.

In 1977, Bardot flew with a small team to stay in Blanc Sablon on the border of Quebec and Labrador.

Originally her intention had been to conduct press conferences about the cause, but she met several members of Greenpeace who convinced her to fly with them to the ice.

Although Bardot refused to witness the hunt firsthand, she agreed to visit the seal mothers and their pups. During that trip, the now-famous photograph of Bardot cuddling a baby harp seal was taken.

“I got to see the beauty of all the baby seals with their moms. It was marvelously beautiful. I got to see that, understand that, it was extraordinary.”

Bardot’s visit to Blanc Sablon was fraught with difficulties and strong opposition from those in the sealing industry as well as politicians.

“Conditions were very, very difficult; obviously I wasn’t received like a princess. We … lived for two days on pieces of chocolate which we had on the private plane.”

At one press conference the outspoken Bardot called the sealers “Canadian assassins,” but she fled the room in tears after a sealer countered her comment and held up the body of a skinless pup in a plastic bag.

Despite the Canadian outrage her protest caused, the publicity Bardot attracted was powerful, particularly in Europe and the United States. The US already had a ban on importing seal products, the French government soon placed a ban on the import of seal pelts, and in 1983 the European Union set a ban on importing harp and hooded seal pelts. Soon after, Canada prohibited the slaughter of newborn (white-coat) seals.

Many high-profile celebrities have since followed in Bardot’s footsteps. This year, Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (and one of the Greenpeace members to visit the ice floes with Bardot) travelled to the Gulf with MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson.

Watson also took along a film crew, to document and research the hunt for an upcoming movie based on the Greenpeace co-founder’s life. The film is slated to star another celebrity seal hunt protester, Sean Penn.

Hundreds of famous faces from Martin Sheen to Mick Jagger have spoken to the cause. At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Paris Hilton was seen sporting a sweatshirt that read “club sandwiches, not seals.”

Two years after Bardot’s first visit, a group of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians supporting the sealing industry as an important means of income decided to fight back by stealing some media attention for themselves.

Named “Codpeace,” the group claimed to be fighting for the rights of “the voiceless codfish” who were being torn apart by the jaws of seals. Adopting a tongue-in-cheek approach to defend the sealing industry, Codpeace flew out to the ice floes to protest alongside the protesters.

They used elaborate costumes and spoof names such as “Miss Cod Lips Squid” — which was to counteract celebrity activist Loretta Swit of MASH fame — and chained themselves to helicopters.

Miller Ayre was the instigator of the group, which garnered extensive media coverage across Canada. He says Codpeace gave the media someone else to focus on.

“The government had a scientific kind of response that dealt with the facts,” says Ayre. “But of course a lot of what was happening was emotional and it was of a nature that was difficult to counter with facts.”

For Bardot, who says she now lives her life for her animals, husband and the people in her foundation, the facts these days appear bleak. Seal hunt quotas have doubled since the 1970s, and she says despite enlisting the help of major, top models to fight against the fur industry, “still, you see it more than ever.

“Listen, there is no good,” she says. “For all things that I have fought for, the results, there have been no results, because of the insanity of man to kill animals for profit, for money.”

— French translation of Brigitte Bardot’s comments by Gillian Fisher.

APRIL 10, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

The blues walked in Stormy Weather: Foursomes

By Stan Dragland Pedlar Press, 2005

W

Mike Fisher of The Reaction

Paul Daly/The Independent

Reviving the Reaction

Local punk band reunites 25 years later — and releases debut CD

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

They recorded over 50 more minutes of music, in Toronto and St. John’s, but it was never released — though the local radio stations would play the tape from time to time.

Although the band had some interest from April Wine’s label for about a year (they later signed Cory Hart), by 1981, with the departure of their regular drummer and “no investment and no direction,” the group disbanded.

Fast forward to summer 2004. Fisher, now an employee with Roger’s cable, is interviewing Canadian singer Kim Mitchell, backstage at the Klondyke Festival, when “all of a sudden, a voice comes out from nowhere, and asks: ‘When are The Reaction getting back together?’”

That question, from a former devoted fan, got the wheels turning. Fisher contacted his old bandmate and co-writer Rick Harbin. Over the next few months, the pieces — investment, musicians, production team — fell into place.

Fisher and Harbin went to Toronto in January, and reunited with drummer Dan Ralph — who Harbin hadn’t seen since a gig 22 years ago.

“The energy was fantastic, it’s like we never stopped,” says Fisher. They launched into an intensive five-day studio session (three days recording eight new tracks, two days mixing).

The studio was teeming with Canadian celebrities like Rush, the Barenaked Ladies, and Bubbles of Trailer Park Boys, in town to work on

B

ack in 1978, The Reaction got quite a reaction. At the time, the group was one of only two punk bands (the other being Da Slyme) playing the St. John’s music scene. When singer Mike Fisher, clad in spandex, and guitarist Rick Harbin, wearing a Dominion bag held together with gaffer tape as a shirt, took the stage they got “instant attraction.

“We were sort of a novelty at the time, people didn’t know how to react,” says Fisher. At the time, the Newfoundland-born singer and bassist had just returned from a “bad cover band experience” in Toronto.

“We did a lot of shows out of town, Trinity and Old Shop and that area …

We had this group of guys following us around called the Old Shop Army.

“We were at one show at Whitbourne, and accidentally broke a toilet so they would come to shows and smash porcelain, we’d do a show at the university and they’d go in and wreck all the washrooms …

“Out of town, I’m actually surprised we never got killed … playing songs no one’s ever heard, they’re used to country, or Trooper on the outside.”

The band’s sound evolved into new wave and progressive rock. They would sell out three nights straight in St. John’s bars, and released 500 copies of one single — which now go for $170 on eBay, reports Fisher.

CBC’s tsunami benefit concert. “But the star thing wears off quickly, we were so intense into our work,” says Fisher.

The band decided to release a double-CD package — one disc of remastered old tracks, and one of new songs.

The Reaction – Old and New is now on store shelves, and one track is in rotation on local radio.

Fisher has no plans to dig out the spandex, but says the band intends to do “periodic mini-tours” through the rest of the year.

Fisher says in 1980 he wouldn’t have believed he’d be releasing a double-CD in 2005. “I thought I’d be dead by then,” he says, laughing.

As the years went on, Fisher played in a number of blues and rock bands, moved around Canada, and started a family (his 16-year-old son is in a band of his own).

“But I always hoped (The Reaction’s) music would be released sometime,” he says. “I always felt it would go to waste and no one would hear it, and it was very good.

“A lot of people were appreciative of it; what you hear on the radio is sort of what we were doing 20 years ago, SUM 41 and all that.”

The new songs are more guitar-rock than punk, but the energy and overall sound are similar to those recorded in the early years.

“I’m really happy it’s out. If it doesn’t go any further, that’s fine, if it does, it’ll be real fun.”

Spreading the Word: Effective OH&S Communication in Your Workplace PREVENTION WORKSHOP SERIES Communication This practical workshop will provide OH&S professionals and other stakeholders with an overview of communication processes as it relates to the management of occupational health and safety programs. Participants will gain knowledge of: þ the legislative requirements for communicating health and safety issues in the workplace þ the role of communication in building an effective OH&S program þ a strategic, effective communications policy/procedure þ PRIME requirements for communicating to workplace parties þ the communication team – who should be involved and what are their roles þ what should be communicated and documented plus much more...

Location St. John’s ........................April 18 .......The Capital Hotel ........8:30 am - 12:30 pm St. John’s ........................April 19 .......The Capital Hotel ........8:30 am - 12:30 pm Corner Brook ..................April 22 .......Holiday Inn..................8:30 am - 12:30 pm Grand Falls-Windsor .......April 27 .......Mount Peyton Hotel .....8:30 am - 12:30 pm Labrador City .................April 29 .......The Carol Inn ..............8:30 am - 12:30 pm Registration is free!

To register please call Michelle MacDonald at (709)778-2926, toll-free 1-800-563-9000 or e-mail: mmacdonald@whscc.nf.ca.

PRIME

The new standard for determining your workers’ compensation assessments

www.whscc.nf.ca

oe betide the book whose review consists of an appraisal of its physical characteristics, but I feel I should make this the first thing I say, simply because it is so striking: it’s not too often in our paperback age that you come across a book as aesthetically perfect as Stan Dragland’s Stormy Weather: Foursomes.

From its attractive hardcover to its textured, woven endpaper, this is a book you just want to hold and be held by. Divided into four sections, each composed of an introductory epigraph and three short pieces (and each of these latter subdivided into four stanzas), Stormy Weather takes as its inspiration, the dissolution of a romantic relationship.

It falls somewhere between autobiography and cultural commentary … or maybe self-directed psychoanalysis and Catholic confession or protracted personal ad and … well, one thing is certain at least: it escapes easy definition.

This is especially true insofar as genre is concerned. Title information tells us Stormy Weather is a book of prose poetry. Prose poems are exactly what they sound like: part prose, part poem. To assist its definition of the prose poem, the Dictionary of Poetic Terms quotes Baudelaire: “Which one of us, in his moments of ambition, has not dreamed of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical, without rhythm and without rhyme, supple enough and rugged enough to adapt itself to the lyrical impulses of the soul, the undulations of reverie, the jibes of conscience?”

It’s the phrase “lyrical impulses of the soul” that particularly interests me here because it is an apt description of how Dragland’s loves, doubts and obsessions progress on paper. When he writes:

I’ll be a watcher in Newfoundland. A hesitation of my own is what keeps me outside.

I’ll be an observer in and of life. Too late to pretend otherwise. […] I suddenly remember whatsisname walking all around and through the epic battle in War and Peace, fascinated, appalled […] Is it the Battle of Borodino?

I read War and Peace in high school […]

Ursula Leguin mentions the Battle of Borodino in an essay on fiction as prevarication. The novelist, she says, is bonkers […] “Bonkers.” Ursula Leguin is American; what drew her to that British word? in Evil Days, Dragland is following

MARK CALLANAN On the shelf Baudelaire’s lyrical impulse to connect vagrant thoughts to more vagrant thoughts in an almost stream-of-consciousness fashion, the narrative unbroken by poetry’s most recognizable feature: the line break.

Reading this sort of thing is a little like watching an episode of Columbo: you’re rarely certain of where you are being led (nor, it would appear from their bumbling theatrics, does our TV detective or our author — “I follow my nose into form,” Dragland concedes in Best Ball) and the route seems circuitous, but you’ve gotta trust everything will come to a satisfactory conclusion; the solving of the mystery, or as is the case with Stormy Weather, the achievement of some kind of emotional and artistic closure.

It’s telling, then, that a book inspired by the breakdown of a relationship should end by challenging the need to have written about it in the first place: “Would I be better off gone to pieces, locked in my house, staring goggle-eyed at zip? Or wandering the streets unshaven, unkempt?”

This raises an interesting question: is there literary value in writing as antidote to pain, shoring Eliot’s fragments against one’s emotional ruin, or is it just a lot of self-pitying, selfabsorbed nonsense?

The answer is a little from column A, a little from column B. Dragland’s narrative persona can be funny (“I rose to answer a call of nature, carrying with me, by way of improving the shining moment, A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems”), maudlin or mournful (“when you moved out in stages […] I went fiercely at the furniture, shifting and shifting to cover gaps just as they appeared, because, pathetically, the house is my heart”).

Sometimes his wanderings are successful in plugging readers in as emotional equals, sometimes not. Occasionally he crosses the line into the selfindulgent, where few can follow him.

Generally though, Stormy Weather: Foursomes is an interesting journey through the emotional wasteland that attends the failure of relationships and a map of the landmarks — literary, musical and otherwise — that one mind follows in picking its way through such turmoil; “the pulse of […] love for this life” that makes healing conceivable.

Mark Callanan is a writer and reviewer living in Rocky Harbour. His next review appears April 24.

APRIL 10, 2005 Sin City Starring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke 1/2

I

have no idea what George Lucas has in store for his upcoming Star Wars installment, but with six weeks to go he’s already facing a serious contender for the title of this year’s most memorable motion picture.

Adapted from Frank Miller’s series of graphic novels, and produced on a budget fairly close to what Lucas will spend on advertising his film, Sin City is a landmark destined to remain on our collective radar for a long time, and it’s difficult to imagine anything else this year overshadowing it. If you don’t remember the fuss when Pulp Fiction debuted over a decade ago, get ready for a replay.

Sin City is the nickname of Basin City, more or less a fictionalized Los Angeles, created in the image of various movie incarnations of one of the most filmed metropolises on the planet.

In this case, however, any of the goodness that normally could be found there has been ripped out, leaving a gritty world of seedy characters wallowing in their respective vices.

Three stories are told during the film, one involving a dedicated police detective trying to stop a serial killer, another focused on a hard-bitten, almost indestructible ex-con out to avenge the death of a lover, and the third finds a determined do-gooder caught up in a potential war between the police and the inhabitants of a city section known as Old Town.

There are no messages here, nor subtle examinations of the human condition. Sin City is all plot and style, albeit seamy, brutal plot and style. As violent and raw as it is, it’s likely the film is less gory than its source, and that the characters slightly more clothed, if only to make things easier for ratings boards. Make no mistake, however, this is the kind of picture that justifies ratings boards. It’s entertainment for adults.

Shot on high definition video and presented in black and white, Sin City plays out like the offspring of Pulp Fiction and The Man who Wasn’t There (or substitute your favourite film noir).

The actors slip into their various roles with ease, although Mickey Rourke, under prosthetic make-up, creates the most memorable of the film’s characters and with any luck will enjoy a career revival equivalent to Mr.

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 15

Sin City a gritty, gory landmark

TIM CONWAY Film score Travolta’s following Pulp Fiction.

With fans of the graphic novel series singing the praises of Robert Rodriguez in his attention to detail and faithful recreation of the material, we can expect that many of the uninitiated among us are soon to be found in the book stores, looking for Miller’s publications.

The rest of us, meanwhile, can bide our time until the inevitable sequel, by going back to catch this one more time, more than likely with at least one soon to be delighted companion in tow.

The Upside of Anger Starring Joan Allen, Kevin Costner

The story goes that during an awards function, aspiring filmmaker Rod Lurie got to present an award to Joan Allen, and while doing so, promised to write a screenplay with her in mind.

That film, The Contender, provided Allen with a best actress Oscar nomination, and the opportunity to approach fellow actor, occasional filmmaker Mike Binder, with a request that he keep her in mind when casting one of his comedies. So it is we find Joan Allen in the feature role of Binder’s The Upside of Anger, and likely on her way to another nomination.

Distraught at her husband leaving her with no warning or explanation, Terry Wolfmeyer leans on the bottle and a simmering rage to help get through the day. With four daughters to care for and bills piling up, Terry’s having more than a little trouble coping.

Her next door neighbour, Denny Davies, enters the picture, availing of the convenience of a drinking buddy and the occasional free meal. A retired star baseball player, Denny is somewhat jaded about the sport that made him his money, and although he hosts a radio chat show that’s supposed to be about baseball, he refuses to discuss the game on the air.

While The Upside of Anger aspires to something more heady, along the lines of examining the facets of anger and its effects on our lives, it falls short of the mark, but lands in fairly fertile

Original comic panel of Dwight, in Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City.

territory.

We find ourselves amidst a bunch of hurtin’ humans who are brought to life in brilliant performances all around, playing their situation for laughs. The story is clunky at times, but the film manages to walk that fine line between comedy and drama where the circumstances of the characters are presented seriously, while many of the things the characters do and say are played out

comically.

Intelligent and witty, The Upside of Anger is a delightful surprise, that reaffirms Joan Allen’s place as one of today’s most talented leading ladies, while effectively reminding us why we came to like Kevin Costner in the first place. In addition, the young actresses playing the daughters hold their own against their more experienced cast members, and we hope to see great

things from them in the future.

While the film does have its problems, it is the combined work of the cast, under Allen’s leadership, that raises The Upside Of Anger out of the ranks of mediocrity where we would otherwise have found it.

because snowboarder chicks are really hot.

What really blows my mind are these four-year-old super kids on the hills.

First of all, they have skis and boards about the length of my forearm. And they are absolutely fearless. If you’re afraid, you hold back. If you aren’t afraid you head anywhere, at anytime, at any speed. They zoom down tricky slopes with no control and have a ball the whole time.

I saw one little guy, who towered at two and a half feet, flip over twice, loose all his gear, and smack into his friend. I panicked a little, wondered where his parents were, and got down to him as fast as I could.

Silly Victoria.

When I got within earshot I heard him laughing hysterically. He jumped up, assembled his gear, and repeated the

whole process — including the laughing part. Apparently, you can’t feel pain until you’re three feet tall. I guess sometimes it helps to forget all the bad stuff that can happen to you.

I ended up having a perfect weekend.

It was sunny and relatively warm both Saturday and Sunday and the conditions were great. I met some cool people on the bus my friends and I took out to Corner Brook and we had little hotel parties. It was a really nice surprise that my cell phone didn’t work out there, so I got to avoid my real life for an entire three days. I went to Jungle Jims and ordered those jumbo hurricane drinks … two nights in a row. The entire weekend, and especially the skiing, reminded me of how easy it is to have fun in Newfoundland. Aren’t we lucky?

Tim Conway operates Capital Video in St. John’s. His next column appears April 24.

All downhill from here

T

wo weekends ago, with the help of two badly needed poles, I stood on top of Marble Mountain. I realized very quickly I had no idea what I was doing, and that getting off the chair lift was nothing in comparison to how you get down a hill.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I used to be a good skier. I could manage/survive moguls when I was 10. I’ve seen pictures of myself as a four-year-old, purple snowsuit and all, flying down the bunny hill.

But that was a long time ago, and I hadn’t had a pair of skis on in years.

Katie, my best friend, promised me we would stick to Old Country Road, a beginner’s hill, with nothing too traumatic for my first run since childhood. I let gravity start me down the hill, and said a prayer.

“If all else fails,” I told myself, “I’m

VICTORIA WELLS-SMITH Hip not too proud to snow plow.”

By the end of Country Road, I was disappointed in myself, but not defeated. I have a certain amount of natural tenacity, which a lot of the time translates into senseless persistence. Even so, I hopped back on the lift, took a quick picture of the amazing view, and tried my best to make it down the hill without smacking into a tree or taking out any little kids.

Second time around — not so bad.

Slowly, my skies started to feel less alien and were finding ways of working together. I figured out how to turn and

stop without just hoping for the best.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a great skier. One thing I learned during my weekend is the ski-definition of a yard sale: when a skier wipes out and looses their gear, leaving it all “on display.”

To be honest 10-year-old-skier-me would have kicked my ass. Still, skiing came back to me fairly quickly, and I soon remembered why I was so obsessed as a kid. Skiers (and snowboarders) don’t have speed limits.

Towards the end of a run, I love to point my skies down the hill and see how fast I can go. I get a rush sort of like the one I get from roller-coasters. I don’t know what it is, but it feels good. I tried snowboarding once — it was hilarious. I couldn’t stay up for a minute and my instructor gave up on me almost immediately. I guess I’m just not balanced enough for boarding, which is too bad

cvwellssmith@hotmail.com

16 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

APRIL 10, 2005

IN CAMERA

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE Recycling and other environmental initiatives have been rolling out from the provincial government in 2005 — as the province chugs towards its goal of reducing waste sent to landfills by 50 per cent in the next five years. For a look behind the scenes of an established recycling operation, photographer Rhonda Hayward and senior editor Stephanie Porter visited Ever Green recycling to talk about the successes, and challenges, of their work.

This is their report.

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 17

L

ast year, Ever Green Recycling collected 19.7 million tins and bottles at their three depots in St. John’s — almost one-sixth of all beverage containers returned in the province.

The organization also took in tonnes of paper-fibre products, offered work experience for more than 100 clients of the mental health system — at least 10 of whom moved on to employment in the community.

Not bad for a program that started almost 14 years ago, with a handful of dedicated staff and clients of the Waterford hospital, a neighbourhood recycling group, and a trend only beginning to take off.

“We did it because we thought it would be a good thing environmentally,” says Susan Duff, an occupational therapist and one of the program’s founders.

“We wanted a connection with the community — and the other thing was, this is a great opportunity, from a business perspective, to be involved with something that’s really going to take off.”

And it has.

The provincial government’s Environment Department has announced several major recycling and conservation initiatives already this year — curbside recycling in Mount Pearl and Corner Brook, a paper and cardboard diversion plan for Lewisporte, a new plan for tire recycling, more collection events for household hazardous waste.

New regulations will require all offices and institutions in the St. John’s area to recycle paper products by March 2006.

“This is an exciting business … you’ll hear much more from us over the next year,” says John Scott, chair and CEO of the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board, a Crown agency created in 1996 and reporting directly to the Environment minister.

“Minister (Tom) Osborne is a champion of waste diversion and recycling, he’s taking a real leadership role and equipping us in doing the job.”

While there are more than 80 green depot or satellite stations accepting recyclables, and bottle deposits have spurred the public to make returns (there was a 68 per cent recovery rate last year), and stable markets have been found for most used paper and cardboard, some plastics and other products recyclable in other areas of Canada are not taken here.

With each Newfoundlander and Labradorian generating an estimated two kilograms of waste each day — and some 160,000 beverage containers still filling the trash cans daily — there’s still work ahead if this province is going to reach the government’s goal of diverting 50 per cent of waste headed for disposal sites by 2010.

“We’re looking at markets, establishing modern standards of waste management, creating a regional approach to waste management, establish infrastructure on the ground, public awareness …” lists Scott.

He says the much-touted recycling programs in Halifax are a model for the government and his organization when looking forward to 2010.

“We’ve launched a major effort to capture fibre products (in a number of municipalities) … and they will be well-positioned to capture additional recyclable products over time.”

••• On a weekday, the Ever Green depot on Water Street in St. John’s is relatively quiet — not like the hubbub of activity of a Saturday. But there’s a full complement of workers: a couple of people wash bottles in one room; lunch is prepared in the kitchen.

In the spacious warehouse room, bottles are sorted into bins, large containers of sorted paper are rolled in and emptied, recyclables are packed into huge square bags, ready for transportation to market.

The sound of clanking bottles fills the air; the mechanical screech of the industrial cardboard compacter cuts through from time to time.

The workers smile for the camera, chat cheerfully about the work, keep busy as they wait patiently for the next truck (office and institutional pickups create most of the activity through the week) or environmentally conscious member of the public, to arrive.

Ever Green Recycling started in 1991 as a small-scale partnership with the Victoria Park neighbourhood recycling group in the west end of St. John’s.

Then, there were 22 clients of the mental health system working, plus three or four staff, says Duff. That first week, they lost half the participants because they couldn’t bear to be away from their regular schedule and surroundings at the Waterford hospital.

“It’s really grown and developed since then,” Duff says. “I didn’t realize it would become so big.”

There are now 90 consumers in the Water Street west depot — taking care of recycling, the kitchen, and working in the wood and textile shops — and probably that many again, in the other two depots.

While Ever Green was designed to reduce stigma attached to mental illness, and build useful work and social skills for

those who work in the depots, chief operations officer Mike Wadden makes it clear the organization also “plays a major role in recycling and environmental initiatives … and we want to play an even bigger role.”

He points to their new, expanded paper program. “We take just about all the fibre you can produce,” he says.

Wadden goes on to detail expansion plans for the Cowan Avenue depot — dramatically increased space, with more programs of the Waterford Foundation, and the creation of an environment centre, all set to open in early 2007.

“We’re investing to make this as efficient and convenient as possible,” he says in regard to their recycling collection.

“We can play a larger role in terms of our vision and willingness to invest in this province.”

There have been, and continue to be, hurdles in the way of offering the services the public wants, and sometimes demands. Certain products, like plastic, and food cans, are not taken currently — though some used to be.

“We get 600-800 customers a week at this one depot and these aren’t the same people every week … can you imaging telling that many people that we no longer take No. 1 and No. 2 plastic?” says Duff.

“It causes so much confusion, and so much frustration with the public.”

Wadden agrees.

“If you’re going to take another product, you’d better be able to find a consistent market for it, for the long term.

People don’t want stops and starts … it makes it seem like people don’t know what they’re doing.”

From the MMSB’s perspective, finding those stable markets nationally and internationally is first and foremost in their minds while looking at new opportunities for recycling and waste diversion.

“At this point in time, on plastic front … even assuming we could capture all of it, markets are a challenge,” says Scott.

“And not just for Newfoundland, but throughout North America.”

••• Wadden, a longtime promoter of community health and development — and conservation — says the public has to remember recycling is just one part of waste management.

“As culture, we want convenience,” he says. “But it’s reduce, reuse, and then recycle. It’s everybody’s responsibility to reduce the amount of packaging we use, to make different choices. Sometimes recycling can take place at home, that’s what people have to understand.”

While every consumer has an individual duty to be more respectful of the environment, Scott says government is accountable too.

“Government’s role with municipalities is to ensure the infrastructure is in place to make it convenient and cost effective for consumers to take advantage of,” he says.

Waste management is the responsibility of municipalities, but Scott says the MMSB is offering “all kinds” of support, encouragement, and advice. It’s up to city councils to decide to invest the time and funds to the program. While Mount Pearl and Corner Brook have hopped on the bandwagon, St. John’s hasn’t yet made it a priority.

“Having curbside programs is critically important to moving forward and necessary for us to look at on a regional basis … so it’s not a financial burden on consumers; it becomes practice and part of our day-to-day routine.”

APRIL 10, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Affectedly refined 7 Inoculation 10 Angry growls 16 Polar cover 17 Legitimate 19 Computer fixer 20 Spots 21 Musical treasure 22 “The ___ leaves ...”

23 ___-life crisis 24 Seller 26 Homeless child 28 Business deg.

29 Each and ___ ...

31 Not hers 32 Totem painter 33 Drive the getaway car 34 Longtime caretaker of homeless cats on Parliament Hill: “the catman” ___ Chartrand 35 City of SW France 36 Corgi’s cousin 37 Alarm 38 Vessel (anat.)

40 N. Zealand native 42 ___- jong 43 Mohawk holy woman: ___ Tekakwitha 46 Pop’s Sexsmith 47 Painter/author of A Prairie Boy’s Winter 51 Italian love 52 Small nail

54 Ship deserters 55 Bard’s time 56 Two-wheeler 57 Oil or coal 58 Left 59 Biblical weed 60 ___ among many 61 Canadian-born actor (“Gilda”): Glenn ___ 62 The ___ of a Good Woman (Munro) 63 Understanding ___ (McLuhan) 64 ___ d’Occasion (Gabrielle Roy) 66 Carnival city 67 Swore 68 WWW address 69 Short time 71 Epoch 72 Maritime wildflower 75 A McGarrigle 76 Toogood ___, Nfld.

78 Skewer 82 Part of a whole 83 Flaky mineral 84 Elec. unit 85 Boreal forest area 86 That woman 87 Nfld. island once home to Great Auk 88 The ___ of My Amazing Luck (Toews) 90 Convent dweller 91 First publisher of The Canadian Encyclopedia

(1985) 93 Icon 95 Japanese inn 97 Making a mistake 98 Keen 99 Tincture for cuts 100 Stable 101 For each 102 Make beloved DOWN 1 Group of Seven artist 2 Getting exercise 3 Numb 4 ___ on parle francais 5 Word of approval 6 Cathedral part 7 Largest hydro-electric power development in Canada: ___ Bay 8 Wing-like 9 Took the bait 10 Step 11 Nine (Fr.) 12 Play a part 13 Cuban dance 14 Agile 15 Upper House 17 “Take a ___!” (relax!)

18 Hindu festival of lights 25 “Now I see!”

27 Bark 30 Venerate 32 ___ kernel 33 Throb 35 Greek letter

36 World Heritage Site: ___ Buffalo National Park (Alta.)

37 Epidemic of 2003 39 Have being 41 Inland sea of Asia 42 Mongrel dog 43 Meat on a skewer 44 Type of acid 45 Memento 47 Golfer from P.E.I. 48 Guides 49 Causing goose bumps 50 Work at dough 52 Actor Raymond (“Ironside”) 53 ___ as a beet 54 Gun it in neutral 57 Rotten 58 Canine comment 59 Stratas of opera 61 Fiddlehead, e.g.

62 Get a ___!

63 Coffee cup 65 Eight (Fr.) 66 A MacNeil 67 Machine part 69 Actress Burroughs 70 Grumble 72 ___ Bight, Nfld.

73 Not injured 74 Saint ___ et Miquelon 75 Cousins 77 LP speed 79 Little finger 80 Pet lizard

81 Leather maker 83 Humid 84 Montreal crime

reporter shot in the back (2000) 85 Check for fit (2 wds.)

TAURUS: APRIL 21/MAY 21 You may not be getting the support you need on the work front, but there is no point in making a scene about it, because that will only add fuel to the fire. Ride it out; it won’t last long.

GEMINI: MAY 22/JUNE 21 You may be a bit impulsive this week, Gemini, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Spontaneity is sometimes needed to break up the humdrum. Enjoy living.

CANCER: JUNE 22/JULY 22 It’s likely to be an emotional week for you and loved ones, Cancer. Rely on each other as a support group, and you’ll be able to rally through this tough

time together.

LEO: JULY 23/AUG. 23 You will find plenty to laugh and be happy about this week, but not everyone will share your positive view of the world, Leo. Don’t let them get you down.

VIRGO: AUG. 24/SEPT. 22 This is not a good time to take risks with money, Virgo. You may think that because you’ve been frugal you can let loose. Reconsider, and continue to watch your pennies.

LIBRA: SEPT. 23/OCT. 23 You may get irritated this week by people who can’t make up their minds about things, Libra.

Rather than getting flustered, why not help them solve their problems?

SCORPIO: OCT. 24/NOV. 22 Don’t let your disappointment over something that goes wrong

92 Spanish aunt 94 Guide to getting there 96 Eccentric

POET’S CORNER

WEEKLY STARS ARIES: MARCH 21/APRIL 20 You must look for compromises, Aries, otherwise you’ll be butting heads with everyone who crosses your path. Cool your temper to get through the week.

87 Discover 88 Dressing herb 89 A Great Lake

early in the week ruin the rest of your plans, Scorpio. Stop sulking, and get over it fast.

SAGITTARIUS: NOV. 23/DEC. 21 Not everyone agrees with the project you’ve chosen to focus on, Sagittarius. But that’s not for everyone to decide. Continue to do what you think is best.

CAPRICORN: DEC. 22/JAN. 20 Before you get involved with something you believe will have a beneficial effect on your career, do the research. It may not be all it’s cracked up to be, Capricorn.

AQUARIUS: JAN. 21/FEB. 18 Don’t take anything you hear at work too seriously, Aquarius.

What you’ll discover is it’s mostly gossip and deliberate. Tune out the negative and focus on your work.

PISCES: FEB. 19/MARCH 20 Someone close to you will make

life difficult for you this week, Pisces. Don’t be too concerned — it’s for no apparent reason.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS APRIL 10 Mandy Moore, Actress APRIL 11 David Letterman, T.V. Host APRIL 12 Andy Garcia, Actor APRIL 13 Linda Moulton, Writer APRIL 14 Loretta Lynn, Singer APRIL 15 Emma Thompson, Actress APRIL 16 Martin Lawrence, Actor

April the buds are fatter on the trees the shrubs hold up their heads and underground the wispiest sound of stirring in the beds as flower bulbs begin to swell and bugs their lives renew while above the ground the land’s still crowned with snow, thick frozen dew it stills the land and keeps our hopes for warmth and green at bay as round and round, mound after mound, we pick through every day but though we walk for now through snow we know the worst is past for the sun will hound into the ground the frozen banks at last Bobbie Brennan, Mount Pearl

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 10-16, 2005 — PAGE 19

Stylists busy in the colour room at The Head Room Salon and Spa in St. John's.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

Heads up St. John’s hair salon continues to pick up national awards thanks to a fearless owner, a well-trained “family” — and photogenic Newfoundland women

Hairstylist Kendra Loder and Trish Molloy, owner of The Head Room.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

N

ewfoundland and Labrador has a lot to boast about, but cutting-edge style isn’t usually high on the list.

Perhaps it should be.

Trish Molloy and her hair salon and spa, The Head Room, on LeMarchant Road in St. John’s, have been making waves in the beauty industry on a national level for years.

Aside from a loyal customer base, however, Molloy tells The Independent, media recognition has been minimal in this somewhat fashion-reserved province.

Last year, the salon appeared on the front pages of both the National Post and the Toronto Star in one week, after a sweep of Canadian style awards.

In a feat rarely achieved by any one salon, The Head Room won five prestigious Contessa Awards, including Canadian Salon of the Year and Canadian Hairstylist of the Year.

On April 9, the team headed to Toronto with 22-year-old stylist Kendra Loder for her nomination as Atlantic Hairstylist of the year at the Canadian Hairdresser Mirror Awards. In May, Loder will fly to Montreal to attend the L’Oreal Colour Trophy awards, a 50-year-old, internationally-recognized award show.

The Bishop’s Falls native is nominated as one of Canada’s top 10, for a young colourist award and a stylist award.

“It’s amazing for her age,” says Molloy.

“She’ll be competing against a lot of senior teams.”

Dressed head to toe in black, the owner of The Head Room relaxes on a leather couch tucked into a bay window at the front of the old Victorian house, home to 28 employees, a boutique, several separate rooms for styling hair, and a full spa.

“We’ve been in this building for 12-and-a-

half years and I’ve had my own salon for 17and-a-half years,” she says. “It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

Molloy has the confident air of a woman who isn’t afraid to try anything once — and the unusual layout of her salon reflects that.

Classic high ceilings, dark wood and intricate mouldings intermingle with contemporary décor, gothic fixtures and elaborate mirrors.

The house, with its winding stairs, three floors and maze of rooms, makes a surprisingly effective salon space.

“Rather than the open concept, you feel like you’re a little more private,” says Molloy. “You don’t feel as rushed, I think, if you’re in smaller areas, different floors — rather than 20 people cutting hair on the same level. That must be crazy.”

BUSY SEASONS Certain days at The Head Room are crazy nonetheless, particularly on weekends, during the summer and leading up to Christmas.

Molloy says up to 500 customers can pass through the doors during any one week and annual revenues are in the area of $1.5 million.

Molloy pitches in with the rest of her hairdressing “family,” styling and colouring hair six days a week.

She gives two main reasons for the salon’s success: training and recruitment.

Eight specialists from the salon regularly travel across North America to receive training in current trends and to teach classes and seminars themselves. They keep their colleagues back at The Head Room updated through classes, held every two weeks.

Molloy has the pick of the crop when it comes to young, newly trained stylists — and she makes them work for a job, through extended interviews and live demonstrations.

See “Newfoundland women,” page 20

Controlling the epidemic

T

here’s an epidemic sweeping St. John’s — one that causes economic loss, employee turmoil and concerns about safety. It’s an ugly epidemic that if not stopped will continue to spiral out of control and will have an even greater impact than the multimillion dollar loss it’s already caused.

The epidemic can be traced to the root causes of drug abuse, failure and lack of resources. Listen every day to the local news and you’ll hear of the many reports of the very serious problem.

SIOBHAN COADY

The bottom line I received the call at 11 p.m. from a senior manager. She was already at the office with the police. There had been an attempted break-in. It brought momentary relief to hear the word “attempted.”

Late one evening two people snuck by

my building and, as a busy street roared by, cut the telephone wires. Then they boldly stood in the lit parking lot and waited. People in nearby buildings actually watched them wait. Experienced thieves know to cut telephone lines and wait, as not all alarms are monitored.

Once they heard the police they ran on foot. It had snowed that evening and the police followed the tracks … to nowhere. The thieves were much too smart to get caught.

Our office is fortunate. We have a

dedicated line to the alarm company that, once cut, immediately alerted the police.

As there had been numerous break-ins in the area, police responded quickly, Eight officers responded, in hopes of catching the thieves.

In the meantime, my office did not have an alarm and I couldn’t take the chance that once everyone left the scene the thieves wouldn’t come back and finish the job. Make no mistake, there is nothing in my building of any real inter-

est to a thief — save for some computers — but any damage to them would put the company in serious jeopardy. My company has sensitive equipment that’s only of use to our researchers, and isn’t easily replaced.

Scrambling, I called several companies to provide overnight, on-site security. On very short notice, Spectrum provided security that monitored the building overnight and helped put our minds See “Protect your business,” page 20

APRIL 10, 2005

20 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

Terra Footwear under new ownership

In an attempt to put the boots to the world market, Kodiak Group announced the purchase of Terra Footwear last week. Terra, a leader in the manufacturing of safety shoes and boots, was started in 1972 in Harbour Grace by the Aleven family. There is now a second Terra plant in Markdale, Ont. In a statement, president of the Ontario-based Kodiak group, Kevin Huckle, assured the 300-plus employees of Terra that both plants would remain open, as operations in Asia would be reduced. “We’re looking at ways to maximize production capacity at the Harbour Grace and Markdale plants by taking back some of our offshore manufacturing,” Huckle said. The financial details of the agreement were not released.

Photos Paul Daly/The Independent

579-STOG 77 Harv Harvey ey Road

‘Newfoundland women’ From page 19

Stoggers’ Pizza The“best The “bestpizz zzain intown” town”is is

BACK!

Loder was one such hopeful two years ago. After graduating from the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Yorkville, Ont. she contacted Molloy on a weekly basis until landing an interview.

Loder says she knew she wanted to style hair when she took part in a hair show at age 14.

“I always did hair. I cut my friends’ hair a lot when I was 14, 15, I used to always want to do it. I used to do dreadlocks for, like, 50 bucks when I was 15,”

she says with a smile. “And then I used to take them out too when their parents would get upset.”

AWARD PREPARATIONS To prepare the award submissions, Loder and her colleagues work on models who are made up and photographed professionally by industry experts, which The Head Room often fly in from the mainland.

The nominations are given based on the photographs, but for the L’Oreal awards next month, Loder will take a model and make-up artist along with her

for the live segment of the competition.

Although they may look outside of the province for fashion photographers, The Head Room often uses local amateur models, which they find through their client base or simply by word of mouth.

Molloy says the industry photographers are always impressed.

“They’re astonished at the models here. How cooperative they are and photogenic and beautiful, they’re amazed.

Every photographer we’ve ever had over has said the same thing.

“Newfoundland women.”

Protect your business from robbery From page 19 at ease.

I had a lot of help from my alarm-system provider. They called the telephone company and ensured they would be there first thing in the morning to reinstate telephone, computer and alarm systems.

To give the telephone company credit, they were there bright and early telling me so many stories of the numerous times they’ve been called to do similar repairs. They advised it didn’t matter

where I had my wires, the thieves know all the tricks and can get to them. They gave me a few hints that I followed in hopes it would be more difficult next time. Moral of the story is, if you don’t have a dedicated line for your alarm — get one.

There have been numerous businesses affected by break-ins in the area of my office over the last few months, including some repeat break-ins. The impact was a loss of economic activity and productivity. Insurance rates go up. Security costs increase, as does anxiety.

The bottom line is, this type of crime is on the rise. It’s not getting better. In fact, it’s getting far worse and while no one was in jeopardy or in harm’s way this particular time, too often we hear of hold-ups in corner stores and gas stations where people are involved. There is too much personal, property and financial risk to just shake our collective heads to the matter.

Business needs to take the right precautions and government needs to take the right action to ensure our collective security.

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

Paul Daly/The Independent

Philip Morris takes the stand WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The chief executive officer of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA told a federal judge last week the company had changed in recent years and is now open with the public about the dangers of smoking.

Appearing as a defense witness in the government’s racketeering case against the tobacco industry, Philip Morris CEO Michael Szymanczyk said the company made a business decision during the late 1990s to ensure it was dealing with the public “responsibly, openly and honestly.”

Szymanczyk also testified that the

company spent generously on a program to prevent youth smoking.

But Szymanczyk faced tough questioning by a government lawyer who argued that the changes made by the company were really a “public relations stunt” designed to blunt public anger and help defend it against sick-smoker lawsuits.

The government charges that cigarette makers conspired to lie about the dangers of smoking for decades.

The tobacco companies deny any conspiracy and say they drastically changed their marketing practices as part of a

1998 settlement with state attorney generals.

At the center of Szymanczyk’s testimony were a series of moves made by Philip Morris’s parent company between 1997 and 1999 in response to mounting public pressure.

The company decided to drop a longheld stance questioning whether smoking is addictive and whether its links to disease had been fully proven. It has since deferred to public health authorities on the health effects of smoking.

“We hope people will view us as respectable,” Szymanczyk says.

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 21

‘As good as it was back then’ Mary Brown’s still got the best legs in town; 35 years later, rising costs, out-migration challenges for franchisees

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

A

s the longest-running franchisee for Mary Brown’s in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ed Whelan from Harbour Grace can accurately reel off the chronological history of the company.

He’s seen owners come and go, trends change, and new stores spread from Labrador City to St. John’s.

Today, 39 of the 70 Mary Brown’s in Canada are located in the province (Whelan owns three) — even though the company’s owners are now based in Ontario.

“I live in Harbour Grace,” Whelan tells The Independent. “We have the real old store we opened. It will be 34 years in May, so you know, we haven’t got the modern Mary Brown’s store, but I have in Bay Roberts and I have in Carbonear.”

PRIORITY PIT-STOP Many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have grown up with the famous fried chicken and taters at Mary Brown’s. For those living away, the yellow-and-orange restaurants are often a priority pit-stop when visiting home.

It all started in 1969 when businessmen Pat Tarrant from St. Lawrence, and Cyril Fleming from Allan’s Island, decided to team up and secure a franchise.

“They went looking and they went down to Richmond, Va. and they met with a Mr. Guthrie,” says Whelan. “He had developed this recipe; it was called ‘Golden Skillet.’ So they got the rights for Canada. They came into Newfoundland and right downstairs in the Avalon Mall, where Sobey’s is now, was the first Mary Brown’s store that opened.”

The team ran into a conflict over “Golden Skillet,” because Zellers had a restaurant chain with a similar name.

They ended up changing to “Mary Brown’s,” the maiden name of

Guthrie’s wife.

Mary Brown’s in Canada — although now independent and having switched owners a couple of times — still maintains ties with the Golden Skillet company in the US. Whelan’s restaurant in Harbour Grace (once known as Ruby’s DriveIn) was the fourth store in the province.

He says staying ahead in the large fastfood market of today is tougher than in the 1970s — although there was always a (“friendly”) rivalry with Kentucky Fried Chicken.

To give the Colonel a run for his money, Whelan says Mary Brown’s started purchasing fresh, local chicken years ago, although it didn’t take long for KFC to follow suit.

Jeff Sears, regional manager for Mary Brown’s in the province, says the company still uses local distributors and suppliers.

“It’s important for us, wherever we can, obviously we want to keep our money in Newfoundland; it’s as simple as that.”

Sears has been with the company for 16 years. He says whenever he travels to Alberta to open a new restaurant it’s like a “come home year,” with so many loyal Newfoundland and Labrador customers out west.

He names Alberta and Ontario as target growth markets, and the company also hopes to eventually expand on their current solo store in Nova Scotia.

There are no plans yet to add to the 39 stores in Newfoundland and Labrador. As Sears says, the province is almost at “saturation point,” although “there are always people interested in buying.”

Business is healthy — particularly at the highway restaurants during the summer — and Sears says at peak times of the year as many as 500 people might be employed with the company.

Although market competition is always an issue, he says increases in the price of products and fuel — as well as out-migration — pose the biggest busi-

Penny Rideout and Bonnie Kane at work at the newest Mary Brown’s restaurant, now open in Conception Bay South.

ness challenges.

Oil prices aren’t about to stop this Newfoundland and Labrador institution from flourishing, however, or from giving back to the community.

To date, Mary Brown’s has donated $140,000 to the Children’s Wish Foundation, thanks to customer donations.

“We’d like to say a big thank you to our customers … and as well, thank our employees,” says Sears. “We’ve had employees now that have been with us 25-plus years. It’s amazing how many people come up to us in restaurants and say, ‘Oh, I worked here back in ’71 and ’69,’ you know, ‘I started when this place first opened,’ sort of thing.

“My response is, ‘As long as the

Professional Development Seminars 2005 MARCH 17-18 21

22

BUSINESS IN BRIEF U.S. delays missile test CALGARY (Reuters) — The United States has postponed the launch of a missile that would have forced the shutdown of Hibernia.

Federal Defense Minister Bill Graham says the U.S. Department of Defense has agreed to delay the launch of the Titan IV rocket, which had been set to drop a 10-tonne booster in an area near the offshore project on April 11.

Oil companies were preparing to evacuate 250 workers aboard the massive concrete platform and turn off output of about 200,000 barrels a day as a precaution for when the unmanned rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A nearby drilling rig, contracted to Husky Energy Inc.’s White Rose development, was also to have been towed away, the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board.

Officials in Ottawa and Newfoundland reacted strongly to the missile test creating a “hazard area” around Hibernia, 315 km southeast of St. John’s, and quickly lobbied for an indefinite postponement.

“We just need written confirmation, and once we have that then the rigs are free to resume their normal operations,” board spokeswoman Simone Keough says.

Hibernia had not reduced production rates amid the uncertainty, said Alan Jeffers, spokesman for project partner Exxon Mobil Corp.

Canadian beer with Wisconsin accent MILWAUKEE (Reuters) — When Manjit and Ravinder Minhas embarked on their mission to shake up the Canadian brewing industry, they turned to Wisconsin.

Their fast-growing business is luring beer drinkers from some of Canada’s biggest companies, and creating jobs at two breweries Stateside.

The Minhases, a pair of 20-something siblings, own Mountain Crest Brewing Co., which in 2002 entered the beer business in their hometown of Calgary, Alberta.

Mountain Crest quickly won a following throughout Alberta by marketing its self-proclaimed “damn good beer” at prices well below Molson Canadian and Labatt Blue. The company is now entering Ontario.

All of Mountain Crest’s beer is made at Joseph Huber Brewing Co. in Monroe, Wis., and City Brewing Co. in La Crosse, Wis. By farming out production, Mountain Crest can limit its costs while selling a high-quality brew, said Manjit Minhas, Mountain Crest president. Her brother, Ravinder, is vice president.

$16M US terror drill NEW YORK (Reuters) — The largest-ever U.S. terrorism drill was staged last week in New Jersey and Connecticut with a cast of thousands and a cost of $16 million.

The five-day exercise replicated a bioterrorism attack in New Jersey and a chemical blast in Connecticut, setting in motion more than 200 government agencies and local organizations and businesses poised to respond.

First responders rushed to the scenes, dummy victims were taken to hospitals, medicines were rationed and more than 10,000 people acted out roles in the operation.

All that was missing was the element of surprise and the panic a real attack would trigger.

Robert McCrie, professor of security management at John Jay College, questions the focus of the exercises.

“The assumption has been there are atomic, biological, chemical and nuclear risks that put society on edge,” he says. “A future attack might be much different.

“People that hate government or hate America are likely to turn to something cheap and surprising … like an attack on our poorly protected technology infrastructure. That would be symbolic.”

Paul Daly/The Independent

29 30

Financial Interpretation & Analysis Judy Cumby

$390

Working With Different Personalities: Using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to Improve Workplace Relationships & Productivity Ada Shave

$220

Technical Report Writing Lynn Morrissey

$220

Hiring the Right Person Travor Brown

$195

Risk Assessment & The Financial Health of the Firm Paul Walsh

$195

APRIL 4-8

Supervisory Management Skills Program, Module I: Supervision and the Organization Various Facilitators

$895

13 - 15 The Professional Facilitator Certification Program, Module I: Facilitation Process,Tools, and Techniques $2500 Lynn Morrissey Program Cost 14

Conflict Management and Resolution Tom Wiseman

18 - 19 Developing an Effective Marketing Plan Donna Stapleton 19 21

$195 $390

Human Resource Planning Lynn Morrissey

$195

Planning and Goal-setting Sudhir Saha

$195

Problem Solving & Decision Making Sudhir Saha

$195

MAY 9-10 12-13

The Professional Facilitator Certification Program, Module 2: Simulated Facilitation $2500 Lynn Morrissey Program Cost

17

Effective Meeting Management Lynn Morrissey

$195

The Fundamentals of Project Management Eric Davidson

$450

Project Evaluation in a Project Management Environment Paul Walsh

$195

Priority Time Management Tom Wiseman

$195

18-19 25

25 26

Communicating for Results: Tools & Techniques for the Workplace Lynn Morrissey $195

27

Employment Law for Managers Denis Mahoney

27

$195

Understanding Workplace Dynamics: How Interpersonal Relationships Impact Leadership, Team and Personal Effectiveness Donna Phillips $350

30 Supervisory Management Skills Program, June 4 Module II: The Human Side of Supervision Various Facilitators

$895

Seminar descriptions available at www.mun.ca/cmd

Executive Development Program April 24 - May 6, 2005 The Centre offers client-specific seminars on these and many other business and management related topics. For registration or further information, please contact Jackie Collins (jcollins@mun.ca).

Faculty of Business Administration

Centre for Management Development St. John’s, NF A1B 3X5 Ph. (709) 737-7977 Fax: (709) 737-7999 http://www.mun.ca/cmd/

22 • INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION

APRIL 10, 2005

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION • 23

APRIL 10, 2005

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

NO MAN’S LAND

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Offer more to vaccine makers

Rising Tide Theatre’s Kevin Woolridge, Philip Goodridge, Doug Ballett, John Ryan and Mark White are embarking on a cross-island tour. The performance’s of Kevin Major's No Man's Land kicks off Rising Tide’s season .

Paul Daly/The Independent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Companies might be coaxed into making much-needed vaccines if governments and private donors teamed up to buy them in advance, officials with a Washington think tank says.

The plan would give the donors an option, obligating them to pay the manufacturer only if a vaccine was actually produced.

The Center for Global Development believes the plan could help draw companies back into making vaccines — a business many have fled because of difficult regulations, liability and because vaccines are not especially profitable.

The crisis in the vaccine industry was illustrated for the United States last year when one of only two major manufacturers, Chiron Corp., lost its license to make the annual influenza jab.

The loss cut the anticipated U.S. vaccine supply in half and forced health officials to scramble to find extra doses.

EVENTS APRIL 10 • The Resource Centre for the Arts Gallery hosts an open discussion on Complementary roles of public, private and artist-run galleries in our community, LSPU Hall, Victoria Street, 7534531, 3 p.m.

• Concert under the Dome with Shelley Neville and Peter Halley, 3 p.m., Cochrane Street Church, $10.

• Shambhala Newfoundland presents stories and slides from Travels in Buddhist Lands, starting 7:30 p.m., Brother T.I. Murphy Centre, St. John’s, free, 753-5156.

• Melville Music Festival in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, until April 13, 896-8542.

• All Fool’s Day with Beni Malone at the LSPU Hall, $15, 7534531. Mature themes.

• Bombardier Ski-doo tradeshow at the Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture Centre.

• The Quintessential Vocal Ensemble in concert at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, St. John’s, 7:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

• Bless the Child at the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre, 6434571.

APRIL 11 • No Man’s Land by Kevin Major, Directed by Donna Butt, the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, tickets $18, school matinees available. Until April 12, 637-2580.

APRIL 12 • Canadian Idol auditions, 8 a.m. at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s, eligible ages 16-26.

• College of the North Atlantic’s visual art class Art Exhibit opening at the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre.

• Youth 2000 Centre open house, 7-9 p.m., free. 34 Bond St., Grand Falls-Windsor. Call Lori 489-7648.

APRIL 13 • Pushed Through and Second Chances: Stories About the Right to Read at the Longside Centre, 41 Shaw Street, St. John’s. Free.

Continues April 14 and 15, 7:30 pm. Call Ed Kavanagh 722-6386.

• A.C. Hunter Children’s Library St. John’s offers a free storytime,11-11:30 a.m. for children between the ages of three and five.

Call to register, 737-3953.

• High school drama festival, LSPU Hall, St. John’s. Schools from the Avalon east region compete to represent their region at the provincial drama festival. Three schools a night. Until April 16.

754-4531.

• Tai Chi Chih classes at The Lantern, eight-week course taught

by Sheila Leonard, 747-1820.

• No Man’s Land by Kevin Major, Directed by Donna Butt at the

Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre, tickets $18, school matinees available, 643-4571.

APRIL 14 • Bound for Boston pledge day: support Snook’s marathon for Cerebral Palsy. Visit rightonsnook.com or call 753-9922. Snook runs the Boston marathon April 18.

• Fairmont Newfoundland wine club meeting with wines from around the world to be tasted, from 5:45-7 p.m. Admission $25, 758-8194.

• Jazz vocalist Kate Hammett-Vaughan performs at the bar above Peddlers on George Street, St. John’s. Call 739-9810.

• Gonzaga High School presents Wonderful Town at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, until April 16. Tickets $18, 729-3900 APRIL 15 • No Man’s Land by Kevin Major, Directed by Donna Butt at the Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture Centre, tickets $18, school matinees available, 292-4520.

• Atlantic String Quartet performs Quartet No. 8 in C minor by Shostakovich at the D.F. Cook Recital Hall in St. John’s, tickets $17.50, call 722-4441.

• Andrew and Barry LeDrew at Erin’s Pub, St. John’s.

APRIL 16 • Ballet Recital, Bishop’s Falls and Botwood ballet school at the Grand Falls-Windsor Arts and Culture Centre, 292-4520.

• 8th annual St. Matthews’ Spring Bazaar and Morning Coffee from 9:00 a.m. to noon. $3 for adults and $1 for children with breakfast included.

• Andrew and Barry LeDrew at Erin’s Pub, St. John’s.

IN THE GALLERIES • Tangible – the sculpture exhibit at the RCA Visual Gallery, LSPU Hall, St. John’s until April 18.

• In Full Bloom, gallery artists celebrate spring, Red Ochre Gallery, St. John’s, until April 18.

• Newfoundland work by David Marshak, new work by Vlad Grospic, James Baird Gallery, St. John’s.

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 10-16, 2005 — PAGE 25

Darren Langdon suits up for Friday night’s game at Mile One.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Not hard to get excited’ Darren Langdon enjoys playing for province’s top senior hockey prize

By Darcy MacRae For The Independent

D

arren Langdon’s 2004-05 hockey season was unlike any he had enjoyed in recent years. For starters, he wore a Deer Lake uniform for the first time since 1991, and secondly, he became the type of player he spent the past 12 years protecting.

Langdon is this province’s best-known hockey player, having spent 10 years as a leftwinger in the NHL. He has played more NHL games (507) than any other Newfoundland and Labrador-born player, and has called New York, Vancouver and Montreal home.

He’s long been one of the NHL’s top enforcers, using a thunderous right hand and an uncanny ability to take a punch that would topple many men who are superior in size.

Left without a place to play when NHL owners locked out their players in September, Langdon joined his hometown Deer Lake Red Wings in the fall as player/coach, helping guide the team to a West Coast Senior Hockey League championship. The change in scenery suited the 34-year-old just fine, as he and his family took in a Newfoundland winter.

“It was nice to be home for a change. The kids liked it, they had a lot of snowmobiling to do,” Langdon tells The Independent.

Langdon and his Deer Lake Red Wings took to the ice at Mile One Stadium for games three, four and five of the Herder Memorial Trophy Finals April 8-11. According to Red Wings’ general manager Andy Brake, Langdon’s presence has been noticed by players and fans alike.

In previous years, Brake says, his team was pushed around by the likes of Corner Brook forwards Todd Gillingham and Terry Ryan, a fact fans were quick to pick up on. But with Langdon and his 1,229 career NHL penalty minutes in the lineup, the problem was solved.

“In our league, we have been intimidated for the past three or four years and that made it tough for guys to stand tall,” Brake says.

“Darren has certainly taken that factor away from the other teams. That’s an important factor when it comes to becoming a champ.”

Despite his reputation, Langdon did find the odd opponent who was willing to drop the gloves with an NHL heavyweight. He twice battled Corner Brook’s Ryan (a Mount Pearl

native who has also seen action in the NHL) — but just because the two traded blows on the ice doesn’t mean Langdon dislikes Ryan away from the rink. In fact, he says it was just a case of two guys playing hard.

“He thought I hit somebody dirty and came to help out his teammate,” says Langdon.

“It’s just part of the game. He does his job and it’s just the way I do my job.”

But the Red Wings counted on Langdon more for his offensive production this season.

He may have only 16 career NHL goals, but during his days with the Summerside Capitals of the Maritime Junior ‘A’ League and during his brief stint in the ECHL, Langdon was known to light the lamp with regularity. This touch around the net had been ignored during his 10 years in the NHL, mainly because Langdon was too busy protecting some of the game’s biggest starts like Wayne Gretzky, Markus Naslund, and Saku Koivu.

“For the past 10 years, when I got the puck I dumped it in. I play differently now, and it took me a little time to get used to it. But it’s been fun doing what I used to do 12 to 15 years ago,” Langdon says.

Fans on the west coast appreciated

Keeping those hoop dreams alive A few of my friends and I had the pleasure of hosting the Newfoundland and Labrador Basketball Association’s Ed Browne masters provincial championships in Carbonear and Harbour Grace.

A total of 17 teams, with teams and players from all over the province, headed to Conception Bay North the first weekend of April for hoops, laughs and a meeting of old friends.

Essentially, it was a convergence of basketball’s past and, because so many of these players have contributed (and still are contributing) to the develop-

BOB WHITE

Bob the bayman ment of the sport in this province, its future. Many of these guys are coaches, or have been at some point. They are committed to the sport and to developing better players.

On the other hand, it was a time for a bunch of grown, hairy-arsed men to rekindle their youth and act like they

were back in high school or college.

But the legs are no longer leaping, the cross-over dribble is more of a cutunder, and the first step has slowed down so much it’s still waiting to be taken. For some it doesn’t matter how expensive or how good the sneakers look, they can’t even see their own kicks because of a protruding rectus abdominus (in simple terms: gut).

There are those who look a lot like they did 10 or 15 years ago, but most have added a few pounds. And either lots of grey hair or bigger foreheads.

What hasn’t changed for any of

Langdon’s efforts this season, as many who were not regulars at the rink made sure to come out on nights the former Ranger, Canuck, Hurricane and Canadien was playing.

“Our attendance was up 30 per cent and I credit it all to having Darren Langdon being in the lineup,” Brake says. “We’ve done well here in the past in regards to attendance, but to jump 30 per cent in one year is phenomenal. He’s not only helped us, he’s also helped the other teams in the league.”

Langdon insists the fans have also left a favourable impression on him. The passion and dedication of senior hockey followers in this province has him pushing just as hard for the Herder as he would, were he in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“It’s a little different, but when you see how the fans react, it makes it fun,” says Langdon.

“It’s not hard to get excited when the fans are so excited. Mile One was sold out, so it’s easy to get up for it.”

Langdon also had to get used to travelling to games via long bus trips this season, instead of the luxury airplanes used by NHL teams. While a seven-hour drive from Deer Lake to St. John’s is not everybody’s idea of fun, Langdon says it brought back memories from his junior and minor pro days.

“I had a bit of fun. I really never minded the bus anyway,” he says. “I started off riding the bus, and I’m going to end it riding a bus.”

With the NHL lockout continuing well past the cancellation of the 2004-05 season, there is a strong possibility the 2005-06 campaign could also be affected. While many NHLers took their games to other pro leagues in Europe and North America, and promise to do the same in the fall, Langdon has no such plans. In fact, he promises that should the lockout drag on, he will remain a Deer Lake Red Wing until it ends.

“I don’t feel like going anywhere like Sweden,” Langdon says. “They’re too fast for me over there anyway.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

them, however, is once the ball is tipped off to start the game, it’s all about playing the best you can, the way you’ve played for years.

For those rough and tumble guys who always knew how to give a foul, those extra few pounds allow them to really lower the boom on any unsuspecting fool who might think he can still sky to the rim.

Gravity works wonders for those who are firmly planted on the court.

It’s a necessary skill that all veterans add to their repertoire. It usually gets added to their game around the same

time they lose any gravity-defying tricks of the past.

The rims at St. Francis and Carbonear Collegiate gyms were never in danger on this weekend, but the twine was tickled with shooting touches still sweet after all these years.

It was my first time playing in the Ed Browne masters, a tournament for those 35 years and older. As a 36-yearold it was great to share the court with men who were 20 years and more older than me.

See “No real,” page 26

APRIL 10, 2005

26 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

In Boston, Fever Pitch smacks of ‘Soxploitation’

Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon star in Fever Pitch.

BOSTON Reuters fter waiting 86 years for the Boston Red Sox to win baseball’s World Series, some diehard fans resent Hollywood’s “Soxploitation” of their triumph in the new romantic comedy Fever Pitch.

The film, which opened Friday and stars Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, tells of a romance between a long-suffering Red Sox fan and his girlfriend during the team’s improbable run to the championship last season.

So far, so good. But the pivotal scene at the end of the movie in which the characters played by Fallon and Barrymore embrace and kiss on the field after the Red Sox’s World Series triumph has led to cries of foul.

Directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly, New Englanders and lifelong Red Sox

A

fans, shot the movie’s final scene - with permission from the Red Sox and Major League Baseball - on the field in St. Louis after Boston defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the final game of the World Series.

Bill Simmons, a Red Sox fan and columnist for ESPN.com, called Hollywood’s intrusion into Boston’s celebration offensive to all Red Sox fans who had waited their entire lives to see the team win its first championship since 1918.

“It was like cutting the umbilical cord of your first baby while Fallon and Barrymore were inexplicably making out 5 feet away,” Simmons wrote in an online column.

“I hope the movie bombs because of it,” he added.

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris says while the movie was heart-

felt about the life of a die-hard fan, it reeked of “Soxploitation.”

“The sight, last year, of Fallon and Barrymore hopping onto the field and making out ... after the team won the World Series smacked of Hollywood opportunism at its most nauseating,” Morris wrote in his review.

At the film’s red-carpet premiere at Boston’s Fenway Park, the Farrelly brothers said the team’s success forced them to re-shoot the movie’s original ending, which had the Red Sox disappointing their fans again.

“When the fans see the movie, they’ll understand why we had to (be on the field),” Peter Farrelly said.

More than 2,000 fans packed Fenway for the premiere, which was attended by Red Sox players Johnny Damon and David Ortiz, but some fans were hesitant to throw their full support behind

the movie.

“I took my girlfriend to see the movie, because I felt I owed it to her,” says Chris Ruettgers, a devoted Red Sox fan.

“But I’m not a fan of the behaviour of the movie’s makers.”

Some have also taken umbrage at casting Fallon as the Red Sox-obsessed leading man because Fallon supported the New York Yankees, Boston’s archrival, growing up.

Nick Hornby, whose memoir about his life as a supporter of Britain’s Arsenal soccer club was adapted for the movie, said the film would not change anything for true fans.

“The fans will still be here, this season and the season after that,” Hornby, who attended the premiere, says.

“Movies do have quite a short life compared to the life of a sports club.”

New York is up against London, Madrid, Moscow and Paris for the right to stage the sporting extravaganza.

Armstrong told French newspaper Le Parisien in March.

“They (Paris) had the best bid for 2008 and it eventually went to Beijing, probably for some other reasons. But the Paris bid is great, that’s for sure,” he says. “Paris is a legend city on this planet.”

Armstrong, who has always been a fan of France despite the fact the French public has never given him the support his performances in the Tour have deserved, did also tell the French daily

that New York would also deserve to win the Games.

a pardon.

“A pardon would be a strong and necessary symbol to the world of America’s continuing resolve to live up to the noble ideals of freedom, opportunity and equal justice for all,” says McCain.

“Mr. Johnson’s conviction was motivated by nothing more than the color of his skin, as such it injured not only Mr. Johnson, but also our nation as a whole,” McCain wrote in a letter to President George W. Bush last month.

Johnson died in an automobile accident in 1946.

No real advantage to “young” legs From page 25 Once you get to this stage of your basketball career, it doesn’t matter if all your team is 40ish and you’re playing against guys 50ish.

You’d think there would be an advantage with those “young” legs, but really there’s not. Especially for those crafty veterans who know how to play the game, or better still, keep you from playing the game you want to play.

The games were fairly clean, and I say that while admitting there were a few hard fouls throughout the tournament. Hard, in that there was no mistaking what the intent was — to stop a player from scoring.

Some guys, including me, hit the floor hard, but it was an old school kind of thing that put me there.

There was a certain payment for driving to the basket and that was usually paid in full. Most times, though, you were quickly picked up by the guy who knocked you down.

I’m not sure if that was done apologetically, or just to reinforce that it was nothing personal and will most likely happen again, so we might as well get used to it.

In the meantime, some of the best action took place far away from the gym, where players were still getting hammered on their way to the bar. Oops, I mean basket. No, I mean bar.

Getting the chance to have a brew or two with an old friend, or someone you played against for years, but never really had the chance to meet, was more important than whatever happened on the court.

There are many players who have been to every one of these masters tournaments since they began years ago.

I heard there was one guy who even flew home from down south to play in the tournament, only to fly back after it was all over.

Now, that’s a dedicated basketballer, and I would love to have that kind of dedication. Or, at least the money to have that level of allegiance to the game.

I’m proud to be an active basketball player in this province. My hope is to keep playing the game, and maybe, just maybe, one day make it to the NBA. Bobby White writes Carbonear. whitebobby@yahoo.com

from

SPORTS IN BRIEF Armstrong backs Big Apple bid LONDON, (Reuters) - Six-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has changed his mind and thrown his full support behind New York’s bid to stage the 2012 Olympics.

The Texan’s New York endorsement came just a month after he said rival city Paris deserved to stage the Games.

Armstrong appeared in New York’s Central Park with bid chief Dan Doctoroff to boost New York’s chances ahead of the July 6 vote.

U.S. Congress seeks pardon for Johnson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are seeking a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, convicted more than 90 years ago in a racially motivated morals case.

At the height of his career in 1913, the boxer was convicted and sent to federal prison for one year and one day for violating the Mann Act by transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

“No one should be punished for choosing to go their own way,” says Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the leader of the congressional effort for

Sanchez won’t appeal steroid suspension ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Sports Network) - Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder Alex Sanchez has decided not to appeal the 10-day suspension he

received after violating Major League Baseball’s new steroid policy.

“After consulting with the players’ association and my agent, I have decided not to pursue this matter any further,” Sanchez said in a statement released by the Devil Rays. “At this point, I will serve the remainder of my suspension and then return to the field where I will work as hard as I can to help the Devil Rays organization enjoy a successful season.”

He had initially decided to fight the suspension, saying he had never taken steroids.

“I recently failed a Major League Baseball drug screening because I used an over-the-counter supplement that I purchased before the laws banning certain substances changed on January 15th,” Sanchez’s statement continued.

“If I am guilty, I am guilty of not taking the initiative to learn more about the contents of what I was taking.”

APRIL 10, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 27

‘Made in Canada, enjoyed in Cedar Rapids’ St. John’s native Ted Purcell earns scholarship to Maine by excelling in United States Hockey League; has celebrity status in Iowa

By Darcy MacRae For The Independent

T

ed Purcell has chosen the road less travelled. While many young hockey players from this province enter the major junior ranks in hopes of making it big in hockey, the 19-year-old St. John’s native is instead focused on earning a degree while he progresses in the game he loves.

For this reason, Purcell found himself in the United States Hockey League (USHL) this year, an 11-team circuit serving as the country’s top junior league. Alumni from the USHL include NHLers Jason Blake of the New York Islanders, Erik Cole of the Carolina Hurricanes, Ty Conklin of the Edmonton Oilers and Brian Rafalski of the New Jersey Devils. The calibre of play is somewhere between Major Junior and Canadian Junior A, with more than 100 players earning scholarships to NCAA Division 1 schools each year.

Basically, if a player wants to earn a free ride playing hockey at a major American university, the USHL is the place to be.

“It’s just an awesome league,” Purcell tells The Independent. “The organizations are run really well. It’s run really professionally.”

Purcell made a name for himself in local hockey circles two seasons ago when he starred for the St. John’s Midget AAA Maple Leafs. He led the team to a third-place finish at the National Championships and was named Most Valuable Player. Offers from major junior teams followed, but Purcell declined, choosing instead to pursue a university scholarship.

“That was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” he says.

“I figured if I went to major junior, I could end up playing three years, not make it professionally, and have nothing going for me. But here, I can play a couple of years of junior and have four years of school paid for. That gives me six years to develop. If I don’t end up playing pro, I’ll have a great education to fall back on.”

Purcell’s first step was heading to Wilcox, Saskatchewan in the fall of 2003 where he played Junior A for the

Ted Purcell plays in Cedar Rapids.

Notre Dame Hounds. He entered the United States Hockey League entry draft over the summer and soon found himself suiting up for the Rough Riders of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

With his soft hands, hard, accurate shot, offensive instincts and speed, Purcell became one of the top snipers in the USHL. He finished the regular season with 20 goals and 47 assists in 58 games — first on his team and fourth overall in the league. Despite being a goal scorer almost from the first day he laced up a pair of skates, Purcell says his point total was somewhat of a surprise.

“This league is so highly regarded that I was nervous going down there,” he says. “I started off slowly but ended up with 67 points.”

Although the Saskatchewan Junior A Hockey League was strong, it didn’t

Brian Lavelle photo

offer the same challenges as Purcell’s new competitors south of the border.

“It’s a lot faster and a lot more competitive,” says Purcell. “It’s a lot like the college game — really quick. In the Saskatchewan League, the players are a little bigger and a lot slower. In this league, everybody is playing for a purpose — to play college hockey.”

While the majority of Purcell’s teammates are from the United States, he has two Canadian linemates in Rob Ricci (from Ontario) and Jordan Pietrus (Manitoba).

The trio have developed great chemistry on the ice and a cult following in the community.

“Throughout the town they have posters up saying ‘Made in Canada, enjoyed in Cedar Rapids,’” says Purcell. “Our teammates give us a hard time because we’re from Canada,

but it’s all in good fun.”

Scouts quickly took notice of the skills Purcell brought to the rink, and

by November, he was courted by the University of Maine Black Bears.

Recruiters flew him to Orono, Maine to tour the campus and take in a Black Bears’ hockey game.

“A couple of days later they offered me a full scholarship,” he says. “It was pretty hard to turn down.”

Although he surely would have received more offers had he held out longer, Purcell says Maine’s history of hockey excellence probably would have won out regardless of who came calling.

“The thing about Maine is the coaches want their players to go pro.

They feel I have the height (6’2) and the skill; it’s just a matter of getting stronger and bulking up a bit. One of

their goals is to have me playing pro when I’m done at Maine.”

Purcell will spend one more season in Cedar Rapids before joining the NCAA ranks in the fall of 2006. The Black Bears think another year in the USHL will further prepare him for Division 1 hockey.

There are certainly worse things to endure than another season in Cedar Rapids, an industrial town with a population of 120,000. Purcell and his teammates are the community’s biggest celebrities, a role that is proving to have many benefits.

“It’s pretty cool when you go out to eat breakfast and the waitress asks for your autograph,” he says. “It was kind of weird at first, but it’s nice to know they like you that much.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

APRIL 10, 2005

28 • INDEPENDENTARTS

GALLERYPROFILE WALTER PINSENT Visual Artist

W

alter Pinsent says he was always involved in art, even as a child. He started painting as a hobby about 40 years ago — and stuck with it, through a 25year career with the RCMP, through years living on the Prairies, in Ontario, and back home in Newfoundland.

“Always had that side to me, I never let go,” Pinsent says. And now, “the older I get, the less of a hobby it is.”

In 1991, Pinsent moved to Eastport, opening a bed and breakfast and art studio. He was a founding member of the Eastport Peninsula Heritage Society and the Eastpen Players (theatre troupe).

Although still involved with these groups — he was given an Ambassador of Tourism Award by Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador for his work — Pinsent is focusing more and more on his artwork and gallery.

His love of nature, culture and heritage continues to show through.

“You paint what’s around you, that’s all,” he says. “Most of us (painters) try and somehow, try and let other people see the world we appreciate.”

Pinsent’s works generally feature Newfoundland scenes: wildlife, homes, people and the water. The images are presented with much attention to detail and mood, to personality and the peace of nature.

These qualities, Pinsent says, are all gathered through experience.

In the spring and fall, Pinsent works in flyin camps in the wilderness. In the spring, he manages a trophy trout lodge in Labrador; in the fall, he cooks for hunters in a hunting camp in central Newfoundland.

“They get me outdoors, get me out in nature,” he says. “And I get a lot of inspiration, I’ll go out in the boat and go across the lake, and zero in on certain things like old trees, you know, the things I’m looking for. Caribou are roaming around a lot …

“A lot of nice things can happen when you’re put on a lake and watching the sun go down.”

Pinsent says he always tries to “leave a message” with his work, whether it be an insight

into Newfoundland’s history or culture, or a story from yesterday or today.

He picks one painting, of an Eastport-area beach, with sunbathers, seagulls, and a kite flying. On the beach, in the foreground, a young boy plays in a saltwater pool with a handmade boat, sand castle behind him, and a crow perched on a rock just a few metres away.

“This is a place for a kid’s imagination to go wild and nature is around him, there’s a little

bit of peace in the corner there,” Pinsent describes.

Pinsent’s philosophy of painting is simple: “It’s one of those things you can enjoy, no matter what kind of business you’re in, just to get out and study what’s around you. Painting is a form of escape.

“Your journey takes you places you don’t even know about.”

— 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