2005-05-08

VOL. 3 ISSUE 19

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 8-14, 2005

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WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA —

$1.00 (INCLUDING HST)

OPINION 3

BUSINESS 23; WORLD 11

Ray Guy on his trip out west and coming home

Coady on Liberal minority; Crosbie on Paul Martin’s maker

Close ties Williams’ advisor linked to fish processors’ association; premier says suggestion of collusion ‘fabricated’ JAMIE BAKER

O

ne of Danny Williams’ closest advisors has a longstanding working relationship with the executive director of the association representing fish processors in the province, The Independent has learned.

The premier denies any sort of collusion between his office and the Association of Seafood Producers. The province, the association and crab fishermen are currently embroiled in a bitter dispute over a new raw material sharing plan.

Ross Reid worked for a number of years with Derek Butler, executive director of the processors’ association.

Both were involved with the federal Tory party — Reid as an MP and Butler as a legislative aide — in the early 1990s. More recently, the two worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, based in Washington, D.C. Reid was appointed deputy minister to the premier in November 2003. Butler landed his position two months later in January 2004 when the association was formed from the ashes of the Fisheries Association of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Butler admits he has known Reid for some time, and even says he used Reid as a reference when he applied for the National Democratic Institute job. Reid had already been working with the organization at the time.

Butler flatly denies Reid had anything to do with him See “I have nothing to hide,” page 5

Ross Reid, deputy minister to the premier, in his Confederation Building office.

‘How to kill a newspaper’ An Express editor warns Senate committee media concentration ‘bad for journalism and bad for democracy’ Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of an April 18 presentation by Craig Westcott, current affairs editor with The Express newspaper in St. John’s, before the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications. The committee held a series of meetings across the country on media concentration, including one in the capital city.

A sampling of newspapers owned by Transcontinental across Newfoundland and Labrador.

Paul Daly/The Independent

M

y name is Craig Westcott and this is my 18th year in the news business in Newfoundland. I have worked with The Telegram, The Sunday Express, CBC Radio and a number of magazines and weekly newspapers. For three years, I published my own independent weekly newspaper on the Southern Shore.

Today, I am the current affairs editor at The Express, which is a weekly newspaper here in St. John’s. I am also the editor or two trade magazines, one covering the province’s mining industry, the other covering the oil and gas industry. All three publications are owned by Transcontinental Media.

Transcontinental bought those publications, as well as some 25 or 30 others in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, in February 2004. At the time, the federal Competition Bureau placed some very loose restrictions on the deal, including a vague order that the company preserve two weekly papers that were, until then, competing against a couple of Transcontinental dailies, namely The Telegram here in St. John’s, and The Western Star in Corner Brook. I will speak of my experience at one of those weeklies, namely The Express.

Since the deal was approved, a number of things have happened which leads me to believe that Transcontinental is trying to quietly kill off The Express, not preserve it. First, there was the removal from our office of all the paper’s advertising sales staff.

They were transferred to The Telegram building, the home of their See “Revenues falling,” page 2 Also see Ryan Cleary’s column, page 6

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “It is the flesh and blood of exiled Newfoundland, the bodies and souls who still face the sad exodus, which must command the thoughts and efforts of any Newfoundland administration.

It’s the people, stupid. The Rock never cries.

— Ray Guy, page 3

Paul Daly/The Independent

U.S. against custodial management Extension of jurisdiction to edge of continental shelf may impact military and trade JEFF DUCHARME

T

VOICE FROM AWAY 12

Jim King from Grand FallsWindsor retires in Las Vegas Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

he United States does not support Canada or any other nation taking custodial management of fish stocks on the high seas.

David Balton, America’s deputy assistant secretary ambassador for Oceans and Fisheries, says it’s a move the world’s largest democracy simply can’t support.

“Trade and military, those vessels need to go wherever they want to go, that’s what the Law of the Sea provides,” Balton tells The Independent.

Balton headed the American delegation at last week’s conference in St. John’s on high seas fisheries governance.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor tried to sell the idea of custodial management to delegates during a luncheon speech earlier in the week.

“Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, many of us believe that the time has come for new action,” he told the conference. “Let me be clear. This (custodial management) is not an extension of jurisdiction, nor it is a grab for resources or territory. This is a resource stewardship concept that would seek international support. It would respect historical shares, promote conservation, and would enhance the role of the coastal state.”

Taylor’s comments were met with a

chilly reception.

“For countries to act in violation of the Law of the Sea — even in response to a severe problem like overfishing — threatens the regime of the Law of the Sea generally and that is something that (makes us) very nervous,” Balton says.

The United Nations’ Law of the Sea guarantees free passage of vessels on the high seas for those properly flagged.

“We very much sympathize with Canada and want to help create effective management for the northwest Atlantic,” he says. “We have been good allies with Canada in NAFO and have been frustrated along with Canada in the inability of NAFO to protect the stocks properly, but we have not supported some calls from within Canada to extend custodial management over the area.”

NAFO, or the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, oversees fishing outside the 200-mile limit on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks, as well as the Flemish Cap, a fishing zone further out on the continental shelf.

Taylor says most countries don’t understand what custodial management means and his speech at the conference was an attempt to put “a little bit of flesh around that skeleton.” He isn’t surprised by the American government’s stance.

“I don’t see how that follows,” says See “Same issues,” page 4

MAY 8, 2005

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Two awards for The Independent T

he Independent was the winner of two Atlantic Journalism Awards during an April 28 gala event in Fredericton, N.B. The awards are open to all daily and weekly newspapers in Atlantic Canada.

Carried out last fall, the newspaper’s six-part, cost/benefit analysis of Confederation won the enterprise-reporting category. It took almost two months to plan the project and six weeks to carry out. Over those six weeks, The Independent examined the province’s contribution to Canada since 1949, and Canada’s contribution in return.

The judges credited The Independent for “clarifying an important political issue for readers.

“Enterprise journalism which took a massive effort to complete by a new and tiny band of dedicated journalists. Outstanding.”

Senior editor Stephanie Porter also won the feature-writing category for an article published in April 2004 headlined The things you can’t forget. Porter told the story of Ceeley Etheridge’s Alzheimer’s disease, a rare inside view of the Alzheimer’s wing of a St. John’s nursing home, and, most of all, the picture of a son’s devotion to, and

love for, his mother.

The judges described Porter’s story as being “written from the heart,” one that took the reader deeply into the story with ease, “a compassionate and moving read.”

Porter had also been nominated in the arts and entertainment category. Senior writer Jeff Ducharme was nominated in the feature photography category. Writer Jamie Baker was nominated for a series of stories he wrote while editor of The Labradorian.

The Independent was nominated earlier this year for the Michener Award, Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer gold medal for public service by a newspaper. The award was won by The Globe and Mail for its coverage of the sponsorship scandal.

Editorial staff of The Independent who took part in last fall’s six-part cost- benefit analysis of Confederation included (left to right) Jeff Ducharme, Paul Daly, Clare-Marie Gosse, Stephanie Porter, John Andrews, Alisha Morrissey and Ryan Cleary, centre. CBC Radio also won two awards; VOCM took away one.

Fred Lum / The Globe and Mail

Revenues falling, staff ‘demoralized’ From page 1

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long-time competitors. They were shuffled away into a tiny cubbyhole, which is so small I would be surprised if it passed an inspection by Occupational Health and Safety officials. When two salespeople are in the room, they literally have to stand up so that a third can enter to take her seat.

Secondly, Transcontinental completely changed the pay structure for sales staff, taking away their base salaries and putting them on straight commission. Thirdly, after the long-time sales manager quit, the company waited months before replacing him.

The sales staff, needless to say, are demoralized. Our revenues have fallen significantly. Staff are on the verge of quitting. Morale is also abysmal in the newsroom. In the black humour atmosphere that now pervades, one colleague is half-jokingly making notes to some day write a story entitled, “How to kill a newspaper.”

Like the sales staff, the newsroom staff have also been relocated. We have not been dispatched to The Telegram building, but we have been poked away in a small room where we sit almost literally cheek by jowl. We have been unable to unpack some of our boxes, including files and personal effects, because there is simply no room to place any of it.

If The Express is extinguished, there will be one less voice to speak for Newfoundlanders. But my concern about the Transcontinental acquisition extends beyond The Express. The deal has also been bad for the province.

Shortly after buying up the press, Transcontinental closed a web plant in Grand Falls that had been operating for nearly a century. Indeed, jobs have been eliminated throughout the Newfoundland operations, but I have seen no evidence that any of the savings have been reinvested into the journalism product.

Transcontinental now owns 17 of the 21 newspapers in Newfoundland and Labrador. For print journalists, there is really no other place to work. The four independent papers are struggling.

Copy from the Transcontinental dailies now appear in the former Optipress weeklies and vice versa. Independent newspaper voices are getting harder and harder to find. Transcontinental has a virtual monopoly on newspaper publishing and printing in Newfoundland. I believe that the concentration of media ownership to this degree is bad for journalism and bad for democracy. Big media companies like Transcontinental are enjoying the savings of merged operations, but are not reinvesting that money into communities from which they derive their profit.

I urge members of this committee to recommend strong and effective restrictions on the monopolization of Canada’s media. Canada is too diverse a country to have its news coverage apportioned among just a handful of medial conglomerates. Thank you for your time today and good luck with your deliberations.

The Telegram carried a small story on Westcott’s comments two days after the Senate committee hearings. In that article, Marc Ouellette, senior vicepresident for Transcontinental Media, said The Express will not be closed.

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

Former lieutenant governor James McGrath with his coat of arms.

CLAIRE-MARIE GOSSE

F

orget the provincial flag, conceived in 1980, and for that matter, forget the 18th century’s pink, white and green, Newfoundland and Labrador has had an official flag for almost 400 years.

“From the moment of that grant on the 1st of January 1638, Newfoundland had an official flag under the rules of heraldry,” Robert Watt, chief herald of Canada, tells The Independent.

The “grant” was the bestowing of Newfoundland’s own coat of arms to the first governor, Sir David Kirke of Ferryland, by the English Crown. It is essentially the oldest coat of arms outside the United Kingdom and can be flown as a flag.

The coat of arms is a recognizable, if somewhat underused symbol in the province today. It shows a red shield bearing a white or silver cross, with lions and unicorns in the quarters. The shield is flanked by two, war-clad Beothuk natives and is topped with a caribou crest.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 7:23) is written in Latin at the bottom.

“This is partly speculative,” says Watt, “but the feeling is, that the red shield with the white cross refers to the tradition that John Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497 on the feast day of St. John, and that the coat of arms’

Paul Daly/The Independent

Identity crisis Newfoundland and Labrador has an official provincial flag, but there are two others to choose from — coat of arms and the pink, white and green red shield with a white cross is traditionally associated with St. John’s.

“The lions and unicorns are easier — they clearly and incontrovertibly revert to the supporters and the royal coat of arms of Great Britain.”

He adds that unlike most other representations of aboriginal people in European heraldry at the time, the two Beothuk natives are “ethnographically” correct and a “pioneering depiction of aboriginal peoples.”

As Canada’s chief herald, Watt is responsible for the creation of all new coats of arms, flags and badges in the country. Aside from a personal interest in his field, Watt also has an especial fascination with Newfoundland and Labrador’s heraldic history. Just over 20 years ago, he decided to allow the colour pink (from the province’s tricolour flag) to be used as an official heraldic colour.

Watt made the decision when Newfoundland and Labrador’s thenlieutenant governor, James McGrath,

consulted him about a design for his own coat of arms, saying he wanted to incorporate the pink, white and green.

“When I incorporated the pink, white and green into my coat of arms, it was the first time pink had been used since the 17th century,” says McGrath.

McGrath’s coat of arms bears a resemblance, in layout, to Newfoundland and Labrador’s. Pink, white and green appears on the shield, a mace represents his parliamentary career, six crosses represent his children, a knight’s helmet sits above the shield (an image taken from McGrath’s grandfather’s coat of arms) and a lion holds a shamrock (to represent his Irish roots) above a crown.

The images rest upon sculpted rocks.

“Second place to the stylized shamrock is the crown,” says McGrath, standing next to the framed coat of arms in the hallway of his home. “You know the crown should have been on top. An Irishman pointed that out to me in fact.”

He laughs at the oversight, which makes an already impressive piece of

artistry all the more interesting.

As well as being indirectly responsible for making pink a heraldic colour, McGrath also influenced the reintroduction of the Newfoundland coat of arms to Government House during his time as lieutenant governor between 1986 and 1991.

When McGrath arrived, the Union Jack was still being flown, alongside what is known as “The Great Seal of Newfoundland,” granted in 1827.

The seal (or badge as it is often known) shows Mercury, the god of commerce and merchandise, presenting Britannia with a fisherman on his knees, offering his catch. Above are the words “Terra Nova” and below in Latin, “These gifts I bring thee.”

McGrath was unimpressed and says he found the badge “offensive.

“I had the British High Commissioner in one day for lunch … and he said to me, ‘I’m astonished that you’re still flying our flag.’ I looked out and there it was and I said, ‘To be honest,

so am I.’” On July 1, 1987 McGrath took down the old standards and raised a new one, incorporating Newfoundland’s coat of arms.

He says he was particularly keen to promote the arms because it had been suppressed for several hundred years, shortly after it was first commissioned.

This may have been part of a campaign

by West Country merchants to keep the island as a temporary base for the fishery, as opposed to a permanent settlement.

In the 1920s the coat of arms was accidentally rediscovered by a student doing research at the College of Arms in London. At the time, the province was in the process of being honoured for contributions to the war effort and the coat of arms was immediately incorporated into Newfoundland memorials around the commonwealth.

With three potentially official flags to its name, Newfoundland and Labrador seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. Watt says the provincial government of the day has the authority to keep or change whichever one they want in response to overall public sentiment.

“When I talked to the chief herald about my coat of arms,” says McGrath, “he said to me, ‘I’ve always been fascinated as to why you came up with that artist-designed flag, because you already have two very old flags in Newfoundland. One is the coat of arms — that can be flown as a flag — and the other is the pink, white and green.’”

The Rock never cries I

t was the middle of April in the middle of a blizzard on a raw morning when I tore off across the country.

Their middle of April in southwestern British Columbia is our last of June and they had already done their first mow of hay.

What a weird little splodge on the North American map it is. Evergreen plus Medicare. Small wonder the seniors of Canada roll to it like marbles on a tilted floor to clog that mild coast and drive the price of a renovated garage to $500,000.

The richer retired and the downand-out alike scramble and shamble toward Vancouver. The oldies to amble year-round in baggy shorts and the bums to lie in gutters that seldom, if ever, freeze. Try that in Winnipeg.

RAY GUY

A poke in the eye Before I left I heard David Suzuki talk about his new book, Tree. Why are there such monstrous trees in the west coast rain forest? Simple, he said ... the bears eat salmon from the rivers and go into the woods to do what bears do in the woods.

DARK AND VAST Makes sense to me but that temperate rainforest gives me some sort of primeval creeps. It’s dark and vast and dripping rain.

11.59.X4” INDEPENDENT

And if their trees are that big how big must their bloody bears be?

What did look handsome were the Garry oak meadows running gently down to a placid sea where, I guess, you might set up house in a refrigerator carton for a little less than a quarter of a million dollars.

I suppose if you want to make lemonade out of the lemons you’re given you could boast that Newfoundland is a great place because not many want to jam into it.

Why so many would want to stampede toward the vast human stockyard that is Winnipeg is another matter.

Every class, colour and creed of humanity appears to be represented, including a large percentage of aboriginal people. The latest mass of immigrants were from, of all places,

Somalia.

For the short time I stopped off there, a freakishly early few days of spring had blessed “Winterpeg.” All very well. But it would weaken your knees thinking of long winters where the temperature dives to 50-degrees C. NIPPY NIGHTS Despite being spread out over the howling tundra, there are flags of all nations, including a heavy presence of the Salvation Army — which must do many works of mercy on nippy nights.

Come to think of it, most cities in Canada have multi-everything populations ... except St. John’s.

I do believe I have heard it said that the CBC in St. John’s recently got a snippy note from Canadian headquarters. Another warning that “visible

minorities” must be included in any street interviews from here. The idiots got a reminder back that the latest Canadian census shows that Newfoundlanders are 99.8 per cent pink.

Or, as the old joke has it: what do you call a black person in St. John’s?

Answer: you call him doctor. Indeed, our few “visible minorities” could rent themselves out at a brisk rate during Brotherhood Week.

I wondered why the dickens this should be so when I saw Winnipeg and the most recent wave of arrivals from sunny Africa.

Is this the federal government’s fine hand we see here? At the rate Newfoundland’s population is diving we could use a few boatloads of someSee “The flesh and blood,” page 5

MAY 8, 2005

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘Win-win situation’ New immigration strategy to be announced; province attracts one per cent of all immigrants to Canada

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

P

lans to launch an immigration strategy in Newfoundland and Labrador will be announced by the Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment over the next two weeks, Minister Joan Burke tells The Independent.

“Our rates of immigration certainly haven’t matched other provinces and the last figures we have were for 2003 and at that time we had 359 immigrants and 856 foreign students,” says Burke, adding the amount indicates the province attracts roughly one per cent of all immigrants to Canada.

Although she says Newfoundland and Labrador is unlikely to ever match larger centres such as Vancouver and Toronto, Burke hopes the new initiative will better highlight what the province can offer newcomers.

“We also have to look at the skills and economic development that immigrants can bring to this province,” she says.

“So I think if we can get the message out about this province and people can come in here and set up shop and do their business and contribute to the economic development then we can have a win-win situation.”

Burke says the department will be researching the province’s labour needs, skill shortages and what people coming to Canada are looking for.

Last year Nova Scotia launched its

Brothers Bol and Agout Gon attend the daycare at the English as a Second Language school in St. John’s while their father attends classes.

Bol and Agout — as well as their two other brothers, mother and father — are from Sudan.

Paul Daly/The Sunday Independent

own immigration strategy. Besides emphasizing a need to attract and keep more newcomers, the strategy outlined plans to focus on creating welcoming environments and helping with society integration.

GENERAL MANAGER John Moores

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

moved quickly” on an immigration strategy, the department did hire an individual last year to deal solely with immigration issues.

The Association for New Canadians, based on Military Road in

OPERATIONS CONSULTANT Wilson Hiscock

Same issues, different oceans

MANAGER, SALES & MARKETING Andrew Best

From page 1

PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews

Taylor of the American government’s concern over the free movement of shipping.

Politicians and fisheries activists in this province have long argued Ottawa should take custodial management beyond the 200-mile limit. Continued fishing by foreign trawlers on the high seas is blamed for the decline of commercial fish stocks, such as cod, in domestic waters — a decline that has taken place despite the closure of local fisheries.

In March 1992, then-Finance minister Paul Martin voted in favour of a House of Commons motion to extend Canada’s jurisdiction over the nose and tail of the Grand banks. Since then, the federal Liberal government has consistently chosen continued diplomacy over custodial management.

Balton says other nations could follow Canada’s lead when it comes to custodial management, hindering commercial and military shipping and impacting U.S. interests.

“It’s more a matter of maintaining what is a very precarious balance with respect to the rights and duties of different states in the oceans generally and if you destabilize it in one area — we’re worried about instability generally.”

Balton says his country has the same issues on the seas that surround its coastline.

“We struggle to balance our desire to

john.moores@theindependent.ca AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

Burke would not expand on details of the province’s aims and objectives for the immigration initiative, but says information will be outlined in an upcoming, formal release.

Although she says “we have not

St. John’s, welcomed the appointment.

“They never really had a representative before,” says Janet MacKey, the association’s settlement social worker.

“Usually the different representatives would represent the interests of the people in their riding, but right now they’ve actually appointed an immigration representative. A person dedicated to immigration issues.”

In its 20th year of operation, the Association for New Canadians is a non-profit organization dedicated to settlement, education and integration for immigrants — particularly with an emphasis on refugees.

“We would receive approximately 155 government-assisted refugees per year and we get about 60 refugee claimants per year (people who come to Canada and ask for asylum),” says Mackey. “There are a lot of refugees out there that need assistance.”

The association maintains close contact with the provincial government through its work, and the province, in turn, will have to work with the federal government in establishing aims for the upcoming immigration strategy.

“I just think we’re the coolest province in Canada,” says Burke. “I think we’re the youngest province in Canada, I think we’re the province with the most spunk, with the most personality, with our cultural roots and our heritage and our arts and culture, and I think we’ve got so much to offer people that this is the best place in Canada for anyone to live.”

wilson.hiscock@theindependent.ca andrew.best@theindependent.ca

john.andrews@theindependent.ca

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

protect our coasts from illegal migrants, pollution, from entry of weapons of mass destruction against what are also legitimate interests all countries have in preserving the seas as a mode of transport,” he says.

“We struggle to balance our desire to protect our coasts from illegal migrants, pollution, from entry of weapons of mass destruction against what are also legitimate interests all countries have in preserving the seas as a mode of transport.”

David Balton In the early 1990s, the American government faced similar calls to take custodial management of its fishery.

Pollock stocks off the Alaskan coast were in serious jeopardy from countries such as Japan, South Korea, China and Poland. In conjunction with the then-Soviet Union, which also shared the same waters, talks began on how to better control the foreign nations that fished those waters.

“We had a serious overfishing prob-

lem comparable to what Canada faces on the Grand Banks,” says Balton.

“We were able to solve that problem in a way Canada has not been able to solve it because we had, at the time, the Soviet Union and the United States together insisting that nations whose vessels fished in that high seas area ... bring that fishery under control.”

Before the United States and the Soviet Union could react, the stock collapsed.

“We wound up fighting over the regime that will govern once the stock rebounds,” Balton says. “In that one sense we did not succeed, but we at least have a management regime that, if a fishery were to resume, I’m confident that it would control fishing there adequately.”

The United States did reach an agreement that allowed fisheries enforcement vessels to patrol the area.

“We were hoping to get the agreement in place before the stocks collapsed, but we ran out of time,” says Balton. “ The stocks collapsed faster than anybody thought it would.”

Balton points out that foreign overfishing can’t be used as a scapegoat when it comes to collapsing stocks.

“It’s not just foreign overfishing, there is lots of blame to go around,” he says. “There’s been mismanagement of fisheries within 200 miles on the high seas and we need to address all aspects of the problem. Simply pointing to foreign overfishing as the sole problem doesn’t strike me as intellectually honest.”

‘Investigations are what we do’

A

n Ontario Provincial Police investigation into two internal matters at the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary will probably be expensive, but officials won’t put a price tag on it.

Staff Sgt. June Layden, spokeswoman for the RNC, says she’s unsure how much the investigation will cost or how much prior investigations have racked up.

“Investigations are what we do and they aren’t broken down,” Layden tells The Independent.

Kelvin Parsons, former Justice minister and Liberal MHA, called in the Ontario police force in 2000 to investigate the shootings of two Newfoundlanders.

“Whenever there’s a complaint by anyone about the RNC ... you obviously can’t have one police (officer) investigating another,” he says. Parsons says he can’t remember details about the costs affiliated with investigations.

“I don’t think they actually charge you for the police time,” he tells The Independent. “I think under the protocol it’s done more as a courtesy from one police force to another, but obviously you pay their transportation cost and their hotel costs and their food costs.”

Ontario police are investigating RNC involvement in the Lamer inquiry looking into the wrongful conviction of three men. Police officials won’t say what the other probe is about.

— Alisha Morrissey

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

‘Ended up with nothing’ Brain-injured man wins harassment case against government, but falls on hard times

By Jamie Baker The Independent

M

ike Kavanagh says he wouldn’t wish any of his last 24 years on his worst enemy.

The Flatrock native, disabled as a result of head injuries, won a precedentsetting case against the provincial government for wrongful dismissal.

Working for the Department of Education between 1991 and 1992, Kavanagh endured such extreme levels of harassment that it left him with posttraumatic stress disorder, rendering him permanently unemployable — a first in Canada.

Kavanagh won his case and was awarded compensation after two rounds of arbitration. Compensation was awarded in three areas — solicitorclient costs, future health care and punitive damages.

The original award was $3.3 million, but government appealed, which, Kavanagh says, resulted in the award

being reduced to about $1.3 million.

Still, after winning his case and a significant award, you would expect Kavanagh to be living comfortably.

Instead, he now finds himself in British Columbia where he’s “ended up with nothing.”

SETTLEMENT GOBBLED UP Living on a salary of around $1,000 per month, which comes from an annuity, plus some Canada Pension, he claims his final settlement was mostly gobbled up by legal counsel.

“I’m trying to get by … I won the case, so I shouldn’t have to pay any court costs or anything like that,” Kavanagh says. “It’s so unreal this could happen to a head-injured person.”

Kavanagh’s lawyer, Ken Templeton, denies the claim being made by his former client. He says the legal costs associated with Kavanagh’s case came from government through the awarding of client-solicitor costs.

“Mike Kavanagh never received an

invoice from us, he was never charged anything — government was required to pay his costs,” Templeton tells The Independent. “Government didn’t end up paying all of his costs, because government appealed that to the trial division. When that issue was resolved, Mike did not pay any of that money and he was never asked to.”

Templeton contends that most of Kavanagh’s settlement was actually chewed up by creditors who had held off until the case was decided.

“There were banks in this community that funded his life through that whole period of time,” Templeton says. “His credit got extended … on the commitment that if he ever received an award, those banks would be paid off. When we got to the end of it, we had a number of orders that Mike had agreed to … he had a huge amount of debt to be paid off.”

Kavanagh’s entire story is tragic. He owned his own garage and led a fairly normal life until the 1981 traffic acci-

dent that left him brain-injured. He was in hospital for 18 months, and unconscious for nearly eight of those months. He was told he may never walk again.

After two years, Kavanagh did walk, but with an obvious limp. He also has trouble with his speech and difficulty remembering things. Despite his disabilities, he managed to land a job in the public service in 1986, before earning a full-time job in the Department of Education in 1991.

CO-WORKER HARASSMENT Just a year later, Kavanagh left his job as a result of the harassment he was subjected to by co-workers. He brought his case to the province’s human rights commission arguing discrimination, but says he was told he could not proceed because a six-month time limit had passed. He subsequently launched his civil suit in 1995.

Retired Dalhousie law professor Peter Darby was the arbitrator for the

case. He says Kavanagh’s harassment case was one of the “worst” he’s seen.

“It was nasty, not only by some fellow employees, but also by a supervisor … I mean, it really was gross stuff,” Darby says. “What makes this one particularly bad is his condition, which they knew. You might feel a little more sympathetic to them if they had not been aware of his problem, but they knew.”

Despite Kavanagh’s current animosity towards his lawyers, Tempelton agrees with Darby’s assessment of the case.

“The things he endured were incredible.” Templeton says. “You’d be rendered to tears if you heard it all.”

Meantime, Kavanagh says he is also embroiled in a family law dispute. And after what he’s been through, he says he has no intention of returning to the province now or in the future.

“Indeed I won’t be back. It’s awesome what I’ve been through,” Kavanagh says. “I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on my worst enemy.”

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

MONDAY, MAY 2 Vessels arrived: Maersk Challencor, Canada, from Bull Arm; Cabot, Canada, from Montreal; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Bull Arm; Zuito Maru 88, Japan, from Long Pond; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia.

Vessels departed: Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Terra Nova; Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; Atlantic Eagle,

Canada, to Terra Nova

foundland Alert, Canada, to Catalina.

TUESDAY, MAY 3 Vessels arrived: Polar Prince, Canada, from Clarenville.

Vessels departed: ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook.

THURSDAY, MAY 5 Vessels arrived: Cicero, Canada, from Montreal; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels departed: Maersk Chignecto, Canada, to Terra Nova.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4 Vessels arrived: Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Canada, from Sea; George R. Pearkes, Canada, from Sea; Maersk Chignecto, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels departed: Maersk Norseman, Canada, to Hibernia; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, to White Rose; New-

FRIDAY, MAY 6 Vessels arrived: Brites, Portugal, from Avero; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels departed: Cicero, Canada to Montreal; George R. Pearkes, Canada, to sea; Saint Oran, Canada, to Arnold’s Cove.

‘I have nothing to hide’: Derek Butler From page 1 taking on his current position or that there is any kind of collusion between government and the association relating to the crab file.

“I’ve known him for a long time, but Ross didn’t hire me for this job, that’s for sure,” Butler tells The Independent.

“If that’s the level of the attack, I’m bemused. It’s just funny someone would say Ross got me this job — whoever says that has no credence.

“I’ve known Ross for a long time, I have nothing to hide.”

Premier Danny Williams was quick to shoot down the idea his office or his deputy minister might have influence over the association.

While Williams says he doesn’t know anything about Reid’s past working connection with Butler, the premier says his office — himself and Reid included — “have never discussed Derek Butler “He’s never been discussed, there’s never been any strategy in the premier’s

office, there’s never been any direction (from) Ross Reid,” Williams tells The Independent. “That’s absolutely, completely fabricated. It’s absolutely untrue.

“If you want this straight from the horse’s mouth, you can get it right from me — I’m telling you right now, I can deny that categorically. It’s completely fabricated.”

RAISED WORRIES Critics of government’s proposed raw materials sharing system for the crab fishery have also raised worries about the chair of the producers’ association, Herb Clarke, who has a strong Tory background.

Clarke, who served for more than a decade as a deputy minister in several provincial government departments during the Peckford administration, was also clerk of the executive council and secretary to cabinet — the province’s top civil service job. He was named executive vice-president for harvesting and engineering with FPI in 1988, and

was the first chair of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (FRCC), a federal advisory board, formed in 1993.

Despite Clarke’s past Tory ties, Williams says he hasn’t had any discussions with Clarke about how the current crab dispute will play out.

“I have not sat down in my office, or anywhere else, with Herb Clarke and said, ‘OK, now here’s how we’re going to try and orchestrate this and here’s what we’re going to do.’ It’s just not true,” Williams says. “If anyone is trying to impugn any political affiliation here, nothing could be further from the truth … it’s completely and totally erroneous, misleading and it’s just dead wrong.”

When the job of executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers came up, Butler says he was working in Brazil. He learned of the opportunity when the association conducted an executive search, and applied.

Despite not having a fisheries background, Butler can converse in a number

The flesh and blood of exiled Newfoundland From page 3 body, anybody. Even mainlanders.

At Toronto airport on the way back I was taking a much-needed leak when someone bawled out from four pissoirs down the row: “I knows you ... you used to be on the television.”

I knew he was neither an immigrant nor a mainlander and indeed he wasn’t. He was a chap from Notre Dame Bay who’d been working for some years in a chipboard factory in northern British Columbia. En route back to see his aged mother as a surprise for the dear old soul’s birthday.

He was doing a good thing. I overheard some ticket people wonder if they were going to let him back on the plane because “he appears drunk.” He damned well wasn’t either, that’s just the way Newfoundlanders often are when coming home. Oh, I felt like giving those snotty ticket people a bloody good kicking.

Fresh entries for the Air Canada joke book. Instead of heading east from Vancouver they made us double back to Victoria and wait overnight. In Toronto we were loaded on one plane, unpacked again and, after a few hours wait, loaded onto another ... something about a “defective smoke detector,” and have you noticed that it always is. Got to St. John’s and the luggage was still in Victoria, B.C. All the Air Canada rank and file did the best they could but, at times, you wish you could get someone higher by the throat.

The last I saw of our countryman from our northern bay he had water in his eyes (probably from the bad air-

plane air) at Torbay Airport. He said to me: “I hates it, hates it back there ... but what can you do?”

What a terrible resounding curse that is — multiplied a thousand, tens of thousands of times — and which must roar around the head and ears of whoever happens to be premier of Newfoundland. Must pound and batter his conscience — unless, to him, Newfoundland is no more than rocks and hills, no more than hydro and minerals, no more than figures in a business ledger.

SAD EXODUS It is the flesh and blood of exiled Newfoundland, the bodies and souls who still face that sad exodus, which must command the thoughts and efforts of any Newfoundland administration. It’s the people, stupid. The Rock never cries.

Although it might snivel, these days, at the scandalous state of the Trans-Canada Highway laid across its back.

My journeys weren’t quite over. I had to drive the TCH for 100 miles out and back to retrieve my Cape Shore water dog, Mugsy, who had been out to what I call Bible Camp with my sister. Only a few times a year do I venture out.

So perhaps the horrendous state of the highway hit me more than it does more frequent drivers. It is nothing but a squalid shambles. Potholes, cracks, wobbling tracks pressed into the surface, chuck holes, crumbling layers.

Nothing says more of $11-billion of provincial debt than that stretch, at least, of TCH. Are we the poorest province in Canada? Go to the TCH and see for yourself. Does the jubilation kicked up by Down-Flags Danny at the beginning of the year mean there’s enough money between here and hell to fix it? The TCH replies in the negative.

Am I glad to be back? With my carcass replanted and with watering eyes I reply in the affirmative.

of languages, and has significant political, national and international experience in a variety of fields.

Reiterating the idea there is “absolutely no collusion” between government and the processors’ association, Butler expresses disappointment with how personal the current battle over the crab fishery is becoming.

“In the absence of real analysis, someone will connect the dots no matter where they have to draw the line,” Butler says. “Why not turn it around and say I put Ross in the premier’s office … it’s just silly.”

Placentia-St. Mary’s MHA Fabian Manning was booted from the Tory caucus last week for breaking ranks and speaking out about the crab sharing plan. Williams has said the decision was a matter of broken trust amongst members of caucus.

Williams also reinforced government’s commitment to the raw materials sharing system, saying he’s prepared to let the crab fishing season pass by if nec-

essary. He maintains the plan is crucial to keep rural communities going in the face of a diminishing resource.

“Rather than have all the product end up in two or three plants and having two or three communities benefit from it, we’re trying to allocate it around … to have as many people employed as possible — that’s what this is all about,” Williams says. “This is not about being in bed with anybody, being tied with anybody, any vested interest or any conflict of interest.”

Williams also says he won’t be deterred by any of the “conspiracy theories.

“They can try (conspiracy theories) all they want, they can float it out there for what they’re worth, whether it’s in the fishery, Fabian Manning or anyone else, but it’s just simply untrue,” Williams says. “What the people are getting from our government is the straight facts and the straight goods — unfortunately there are some people that just don’t like it.”

MAY 8, 2005

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OUR VOICE

Chief concern R

ichard Deering, chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, apparently isn’t a fan of The Independent, although the paper is said to be a part of his Sunday morning routine.

The Indy’s relationship with the chief was said to have taken a turn for the worse last October with a frontpage story on a Constabulary investigation into prostitution.

Police sources leaked details of a 2002 Constabulary investigation that explored links between organized crime and prostitution — primarily escort services — in the St. John’s area, as well as the possible involvement of several “high-profile” people.

The sources — whose information was confirmed by Constabulary brass — raised concerns about why the investigation was terminated in early 2003 before it was completed.

Officers were also said to be concerned, resulting in two separate internal probes.

The first was an “investigative

review” in which other investigators reviewed the evidence that had been gathered as a result of the initial investigation. That review found there was an “unreasonable expectation of conviction.”

The second probe was a review of the “professional standards.”

The third review — lasting four months and ending in June 2003 — was carried out by the RCMP at the request of the province’s Justice Department. The RCMP apparently didn’t find anything either, and did not recommend the laying of charges.

When The Independent published the story last fall, Tim Buckle, head of the association that represents Constabulary officers, expressed concern police officers have nowhere to turn when they have a complaint against the force.

“If Mount Cashel occurred today and we were ordered by the chief of police to quash the investigation and discontinue, we have no avenue that we can complain about that action,”

Buckle told The Independent.

“We believe that the Police Complaints Commission should be expanded to allow complaints from police officers.”

Those were strong words, a message that wasn’t lost on The Independent.

Then, this past April, police sources contacted the newspaper again to say the Ontario Provincial Police had been called in to investigate two separate matters within the Constabulary.

At least one of the files centres around evidence and testimony presented at the Lamer inquiry into the wrongful convictions of Gregory Parsons, Ronald Dalton and Randy Druken. Officers with the OPP were said to be scrutinizing the inquiry as it relates to the Constabulary.

Sources told The Independent the second investigation centres around the 2002 Constabulary investigation into prostitution. The Independent contacted the spokesman for the Ontario police, but he wouldn’t con-

firm or deny the report.

The paper also contacted the Constabulary, laying out exactly what the sources had told the newspaper.

The force also refused comment.

The Independent published another front-page story April 24th headlined, Ontario police called in, actions of Royal Newfoundland Constabulary under microscope involving Lamer inquiry and escort probe.

The next week chief Deering called the reporter to his office.

“I can’t tell you what the OPP are here investigating, but I can comment on what they’re not investigating, and they are not investigating anything to do with prostitution,” said Deering, who appeared to grow agitated as the interview went on. He drilled the young female reporter for information on who her sources were and why she was protecting them.

“Why can’t you (reveal the sources)?” Deering asked. “So you’re condoning their conduct — is that what you’re saying? You’re condon-

ing police officers who live outside of their oath of office and oath of confidentiality — is that what you’re telling me?”

Deering said he was forced to open an internal file to find out who’s “corrupt” within the department in terms of leaking information.

UNPROFESSIONAL The chief’s behaviour was nothing short of unprofessional. If he had a real problem with the story he should have had the force’s lawyer contact The Independent or touch base with the newspaper’s management himself.

Not bully a reporter doing her job.

Deering doesn’t like The Independent’s use of internal police sources.

Fair enough chief, but where do officers go when they have a problem with the force, when they have a problem with you? Again, it was Tim Buckle who asked that question.

Do you have an answer, chief? If so, let us know, we’ll pass on the information to our sources.

YOUR VOICE FPI ‘licking its chops’ over production quotas Editor’s note: The Independent’s policy is not to run unsigned letters to the editor. In this case, the writer works, indirectly, for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and asked his name be withheld. The writer’s identity was checked, and the request granted.

Today, FPI’s main groundfish operation is in Marystown, the only plant of any significance left on the island.

It has three shifts, with somewhere around 500 to 600 employees. These employees are watching millions of pounds of flatfish being caught off our coast by FPI factory freezers and, once landed, promptly shipped off to Dear editor, Third World countries for processing We Newfoundlanders seem to have at criminally low wages. Meanwhile, a very short memory. Not so long ago employees of FPI who live in the there was a “crisis” in the fishing province are struggling each year to industry — mainly groundfish. gain enough weeks of employment to Several companies were in financial qualify for EI. trouble and the industry seemed While FPI finds new and innovadoomed. The govtive ways to inernment of the day, crease profit marunder the leadergins every year, the While FPI finds ship of Brian people FPI was crenew and innovative Peckford, saw the ated to benefit, sufneed to step in and fer. ways to increase “save” the industry.

So when the last I imagine there lucrative, independprofit margins every were lots of consulent fishery of our year, the people tations with unions province is being and independent “saved” once again FPI was created to fishers, as well as by our government, processors involved you have to ask benefit suffer. in the fishery at the yourself this questime. Government tion: who will be the decided the best solution to the whole beneficiaries of this raw material sharmess was to create the corporate giant ing plan? we now know as Fishery Products Will it be the fishers? Certainly not.

International.

Will it be the thousands of NewAs a large publicly traded corpora- foundlanders who need the crab fishtion, FPI has thousands of sharehold- ery for badly needed weeks of emers — some minor, others major, most ployment? Hardly, when most of of whom we know nothing about. them will see their plants process less They could be your neighbour, your crab than previous years. siblings, your boss, and, yes, maybe Certainly, government must have even your premier or another politi- the best interests of its people at heart. cian.

My concern is simply that once this That’s the nature of the free-enter- plan is put in place it will be much prise world in which we live; anyone easier for a small, privately owned has the right to buy shares and try and plant to be bought out. With a producinvest money to make money. To say tion quota attached, it becomes a valua corporation is profit-driven is a real- able asset for a big corporation like istic and fair statement.

FPI to purchase.

The thousands of employees and Within five to 10 years, the only their families, along with the commu- major crab processor in this province nities in which they work, have no will certainly be FPI. I bet the direcplace in a corporate boardroom. It’s a tors are already licking their chops at sad but true statement. the potential gold mine.

The workers of FPI plants in We are, after all, seeing it before Fortune, Harbour Breton, Ramea, our eyes with FPI’s groundfish operaGaultois, Trepassey and elsewhere tions. I say to everyone, not just peocan testify to that. FPI has fish quotas ple directly involved with the crab that were historically attached and uti- fishery, but every citizen, to take a lized for years in these communities stand and say no more sell-outs of our by other companies that were con- natural resources to large corporasumed when FPI was created. tions.

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

Read all about it L

et’s get this point out of the way: The Independent has a perceived bias against our competition: The Telegram, The Western Star, and most every other newspaper in Newfoundland and Labrador today — simply because they’re the competition.

Most newspapers for sale in this province are owned by Montreal-based Transcontinental Inc. That’s a simple fact of life. Owned locally, The Indy is working hard, week in, week out, to break into the market.

Every word The Indy prints about the competition must be read in that context.

Just so you know.

••• Believe it or not, the decision to put a story on this week’s front page critical of Transcontinental wasn’t easy — even though it’s not The Indy that’s being critical, but an editor within the Transcontinental chain.

The story goes like this: Craig Westcott, an 18-year news veteran, one of the top reporters in the province, journalistic spawn of legendary Sunday Express stock, spoke out publicly against his employer — Transcontinental.

Westcott, current affairs editor with The Express, took it upon himself to give a presentation before a Senate committee on Transport and Communications when it held a hearing on media concentration in St. John’s on April 18.

First a little background.

Transcontinental purchased The Telegram and Western Star — the province’s only two daily newspapers — from CanWest Global in July 2002.

Then, in November 2003, Transcontinental announced a successful takeover bid of Optipress Inc., which owned most every weekly paper in the province (in Atlantic Canada, for that matter) — from the Gulf News in Port aux Basques to The Aurora in Labrador City. The deal went through in February 2004.

To summarize: when it comes to the print media in this province, Transcontinental is king. It owns newspapers as far as the eye can see. (Long

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander live The Independent.)

At the time of the Optipress takeover, the federal Competition Bureau ordered Transcontinental to keep the two weekly papers — The Express and Humber Log — that were, until then, competing with The Express and Telegram.

That brings us to present day.

Westcott appeared before the Senate committee to express his concern that the Competition Bureau’s restrictions were “too loose.” He believes there’s a plan afoot to quietly “kill off” The Express. (See front-page story.) He also says the concentration of newspaper publishing to the degree it’s taken place in this province is “bad for journalism, and bad for democracy.”

Of course, Westcott took a chance speaking out against his employer — he could be called out on the carpet; he could be fired.

At one point, a Senator asked Westcott whether any of his colleagues knew he was appearing before the committee.

Answered Westcott: “One of them is here today, I believe, watching me. He says there is a phenomenon that the police have, death by suicide, where you taunt the policeman into shooting you, and he said that is what I am doing here today.”

The chair of the Senate committee, Senator Joan Fraser, asked Westcott to write a letter every month for the next six months updating the committee on his employment status.

“It can be a two-liner, if you wish. I just want to know what is happening to you.”

Contacted by The Independent, Westcott says he felt uncomfortable responding to questions on his presentation to the Senate committee.

“But given that I make my living asking others to respond to my questions, I cannot, in good conscience, fail

to answer yours.”

He says he still has a job, but he’s worried about his future. “Not a word has been said to me (by management).”

Westcott says he felt he had no choice to appear before the Senate committee.

“A newspaper is not like any other business,” he says. “A newspaper is a vehicle for writers and thinkers and the public to express ideas and practice democracy. The loss of any newspaper, whatever its editorial bias, is a loss to the overall pool of public discourse.”

Since his public statement, Westcott says Express sales staff have been told their office conditions will improve and changes to their pay structure will be phased in more gradually, in a way that will not hurt them financially.

As for concentration of newspaper ownership, he says the best example of how that would be bad for democracy came from The Telegram’s former owner, CanWest. “That company had a policy of imposing editorials upon all the newspapers in its chain. CanWest also had a policy of referring to all Middle Eastern or Muslim insurgents and guerrillas — no matter their political persuasion or circumstance — as terrorists.

“To it’s credit, Transcontinental has not done anything like that.”

••• So why was it hard to go with Westcott’s presentation on the front page. First, because the added publicity may hurt Westcott himself. Second, because the story may be interpreted as The Indy taking a shot at the competition. It is not.

There’s a new Newfoundland and Labrador, don’t you know, one that has pride and determination, intelligence and hope. A strong media helps spread that message. A weak media kills it.

But there’s another reason why The Indy decided to go with Westcott’s story on the front page: you won’t read it anywhere else.

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

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

The day Ken Dryden came to town L

ast month I passed on the opportunity to meet Ken Dryden. Once upon a time, when I was very young, I cared about hockey. I cared deeply. In 1971, when I was 12, I was glued to NHL hockey.

I was a serious Montreal fan. I remember during the early playoffs in 1971 they introduced a rookie goalie for Montreal. A rookie! Now? I was not pleased. Yet it was soon obvious that no one — not Phil Esposito — not anyone, could get the puck past him.

And he was cool. He would stand watching the game when it was in the other end, with his hands resting on his goalie stick, chin resting on his hands.

And he was a lawyer. Ken Dryden was a god.

And last month he was here to talk about national daycare, and it was made quite clear by his communications people that he would not talk hockey. I knew I would not be able to hold my tongue around a deity. So what was the point? I didn’t go.

Like most little boys anywhere in Canada, I revered hockey players.

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason Now I couldn’t care less about pro hockey. I am only dimly aware there is a hockey strike. I still don’t understand why the people of St. John’s chose to finance pro hockey over snow clearing. But they did. I remember worshipping these people when I was a boy. That’s why I worry about violence in the game.

I’ve played hockey. I know about rough and tumble. I know it is a game of passion. I know tempers flare. But I also remember several years ago, being down at the old stadium with 20 Cubs, when one young player dropped his gloves and skated over to another player and the two of them started to beat the crap out of each other. I remember the roar of the crowd. I remember the look in my little Cubs’ eyes.

Bloodlust. Maybe watered down, maybe channelled, but bloodlust nonetheless. Hockey is great, but bloodlust we don’t need. There is a difference between the love of a rough, fast game and the love of violence for its own sake. A big difference. We adults might know the difference, but I worry it is a subtlety lost on children.

What is the message to a generation of kids when a Todd Bertuzzi blindsides and cripples fellow player Steve Moore? Hell, what is the message when there is serious debate on whether this Bertuzzi character should be allowed to play again.

Hello? It’s a no brainer. When he ended another guy’s career he ended his own.

We have a Coalition Against Violence in this province. I’m a member (even though I detest red-flag ’70s socialist terms like “coalition” — another rant for another day). They are all about ending violence in our society. I am all about ending violence in our society. On their website, they state their philosophy: “Violence is a

crime and a complex social problem, deeply rooted in society’s traditional acceptance of inequality, particularly for women, children, and elderly and marginalized adults.”

WHICH MESSAGE? The coalition people, who do good work, go to schools and tell little boys and little girls this. And then a significant percentage of those kids go to hockey games and hear the crowd roar on Friday night when some guy begins to kick the stuffing out of some other guy on the ice.

Which message is lighting up the child’s glandular system — the one delivered in a stuffy classroom or the one delivered as part of an electrified crowd?

To paraphrase the coalition, violence is deeply rooted in our hockey tradition, and that needs to be changed. I am not trying to ruin the game, but we all know the difference between the passionate playing and sheer, idiotic goonery. I can remember playing hockey once and being slashed by a

guy, and the next thing I remember, three of my teammates were laughing and trying to pull me off him as I sank punch after punch into his face. When I realized what I was doing, I was really ashamed. There were no hard feelings. It was over, as they say, before it began. We were both lucky.

But I have seen a crowd — men, women and children — cheering on hockey players as they brawled. It was sickening. That’s not hockey. That’s aggravated assault. That is how it should be treated.

Ken Dryden was my hero. Lucky me. How many kids have that thug Bertuzzi as a hero? What’s message do kids get from the roar of approval a crowd gives to a brawl on the ice?

What message does the Bertuzzi case send to young boys and girls?

I will tell you: violence can solve problems. How far a leap is that, I ask hockey fans, from the rink to the family kitchen?

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

ACTION AND REACTION

YOUR VOICE Grimes’ Liberals staging ‘political theatrics’ Dear editor, I have been pleased with the performance of the Danny Williams administration so far. Having said that, I am a strong believer in the importance of the function of the official Opposition.

In any true, fair and effective democracy there needs to be an opposition free to challenge government when it thinks government is doing wrong and to offer suggestions where they think things could be done better.

The Liberal Opposition under Roger Grimes does neither of these things.

To illustrate my point, on April 27 and April 29 the opposition refused to participate in the House of Assembly in protest of the Speaker’s decision to indefinitely close the legislature’s public galleries. April 27th was also the day Abitibi Consolidated announced its intention to close the No. 7 paper machine at its Grand Falls-Windsor mill.

The districts represented by Roger

Grimes and Anna Thistle, and indeed the entire central region, will be drastically affected by Abitibi’s decision and they decided to skip question period and not ask a single question pertaining to the mill.

Similarly, the crab industry is in a deadlock and Kelvin Parsons stated he couldn’t think of any government business “more important than deciding whether the public gallery should be open in the House of Assembly.”

I’m sure all the people affected by the crab dispute and by the impending closure of No. 7 machine in Grand Falls-Windsor would beg to differ.

The opposition has a critical role to play in seeking answers from government on important issues and it is extremely unfortunate that Roger Grimes and his team are more interested in political theatrics than in addressing the serious issues facing the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Andrew Butler, Bay Roberts Fabian Manning gets support from crab fishermen at the Fairmont Hotel in St. John’s after being dismissed from caucus. Paul Daly/The Independent

Ontario and Quebec may take biggest slice of Voisey’s pie Dear editor, I must admit I’m a bit perplexed by this latest kerfuffle about the lower Churchill. Premier Danny Williams has stated he’s had dozens of bids from consortiums all over the world and the province could actually go it alone, if need be. In the end, no matter who develops the lower Churchill the power will have to be transmitted through Quebec.

History has shown Quebec will not allow this without extortionary terms and the Government of Canada will not impose a federal transmission line; something they have every right to do and something they actually did do when it came to oil and gas from Alberta to Quebec.

This brings us to the broader question of who actually owns Labrador?

In 1926 the Privy Council formally awarded Labrador and its interior to Newfoundland — something the Government of Canada disputed and never accepted.

In 1949, Canada not only got Newfoundland’s offshore resources (i.e. the fishery and, ultimately, oil and gas) they also effectively got Labrador back. Quebec’s plundering of the upper Churchill and its control of the iron-ore industry in western Labrador must surely prove this.

So much for Western Labrador, but what about the rest of Labrador? In

the past when Ottawa felt its sovereignty threatened in the Arctic by the Americans its response was to gather up whole communities of Inuit and relocate them to strategic but practically uninhabitable locations ( i.e.

Banks Island). One gets the sneaky impression they are doing a similar thing at Davis Inlet. For many years we heard the argument Newfoundland and Labrador was too isolated and remote and the cost of transportation would be prohibitive etc. for any kind of industrial development. This, however, miraculously changed when Inco of Toronto acquired Voisey’s Bay. Now, for some reason, it makes good economic sense to ship nickel from northern Labrador all the way to Sudbury in southern Ontario.

In the long run Williams can talk all he likes about the lower Churchill, but without the direct intervention of the Americans or some other unforeseen and highly unlikely factor, the lower Churchill, if it is developed, will be developed by an Ontario/Quebec consortium.

While Newfoundland and Labrador will probably get a better deal (it’s practically inconceivable they couldn’t) the lion’s share of the benefit will probably end up in southern Ontario and Quebec.

Joe Butt, Toronto

Preserve the pink, white and green Dear editor, I read the fine write-up of the history of the pink, white and green flag. I feel your paper has and is doing all that can be done to preserve our native flag.

I grew up in Burgeo. I went to school there. I did not know Newfoundland had the tri-coloured flag. I studied history in Grade 5, only to learn Newfoundland never had an official flag.

However, I remember someone saying the Newfoundland flag was pink, white and green. Then, as a young boy, I saw the Union Jack and Maple Leaf flown at the post office and

L.O.L. Lodge and couldn’t understand why the tri-coloured flag wasn’t there.

The song The Flag of Newfoundland, published in a Gerald S. Doyle songbook, tells what the colours represent.

Could someone out there please tell me why our fair flag doesn’t get the same recognition as the Labrador flag.

The proper name of the flag is the native flag — not the republican flag.

However, should Newfoundland become a republic, as I think it should, it would become the republic flag.

Ron Durnford, Stephenville Crossing

Premier Danny Williams answers questions from the media regarding Manning on May 6 at Confederation Building. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

FPI was not to blame: Etchegary Dear editor, Derek Rowe, CEO of Fishery Products International, commented recently at the fisheries conference on high seas governance in St. John’s that FPI was partly responsible for the cod collapse.

Those comments were not only self-serving, but reflective of an ignorance of the fishery prior to 2001 when the present management of FPI gained control.

The truth is that in 1987, when foreigners were forced outside the new 200-mile line, then-federal Fisheries minister Romeo Leblanc and his DFO senior bureaucrats — including three from Newfoundland — made the biggest error ever made in Canadian fisheries management.

Fishermen are still paying the price today.

Leblanc and his bureaucrats acceded to the powerful Nova Scotia fish lobby and provided a financial subsidy to encourage the Canadian offshore trawler fleet to go north and

fish the spawning cod on Hamilton Inlet Bank. I have copies of DFO documents outlining the terms and conditions. Fishery Products and the Lake Group were opposed to this DFO initiative on the basis of information from a German trawler company: (A) that fish were small and would likely be processed into lowvalue cod blocks; and (B) none of our trawlers were ice-strengthened and structural damage would result.

We were ignored, as usual, and an open quota (another major error) of 58,000 tonnes was allocated to over 110 Canadian trawlers. It was all caught within six weeks — 80 per cent went into a cod-block pack market that was already oversupplied and the price plummeted to the lowest in history. In the process, it cost us $5 million to repair ice damages to ship hulls.

The impact of that DFO mistake was far-reaching. It ruined the frozen-cod market in the U.S. and Europe, seriously interfered with the

recovery of the northern cod stocks, and many experienced fishery believe it started the whole offshore industry on the road to collapse that finally led to the long-lasting effects of the infamous Kirby Commission.

Ingratiating himself with the fish pirates of the EU, Scandinavia and Russia by pinning blame on local companies will endear Rowe to some of the federal bureaucrats of the day and the present minister of Fisheries. I suggest, if he wants to take the heat off, put the blame where it belongs. DFO is still mismanaging the fisheries, it’s still permitting the landing of huge quantities of tiny fish by foreigners for trans-shipment, and even allowing local trawler companies to land tiny yellowtail flounder for shipment to China for processing before entering the U.S. market. It’s time to call a spade a spade.

Gus Etchegary, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s

MAY 8, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Riot police be damned Y

ou meet a lot of bizarre characters in this business — and JEFF DUCHARME some of them aren’t even the A savage people you work with.

Journalists, good journalists, are journey voyeurs. They are students of the human condition, always looking for what makes someone tick, what lurks and destroying public property.

His teeth were bared. One fist beneath the smile, or reason for the rocked the barricades that blocked scowl.

People are rarely what they appear him from his goal and the other to be. Sometimes they fight for a shook above his head in defiance. He cause, and sometimes they fight just was downright treasonous and loving it. for the sake of fighting.

I couldn’t help but think this pudgy During the Public Service Alliance Strike in 1991, I was working as a little pimple-faced bespectacled fella photographer in Ottawa. Canada’s was going to get seriously hurt. It was capital city is fuelled by civil ser- about to go all bad for this chair vants’ — they own the city. It exists warmer.

After a few obligatory eggs were in its present form (Ottawa began like Grand Falls and Corner Brook as a thrown, splattering on the riot shields hard-working mill town) because of of the stone-faced Mounties, the crowd surged, the barricades came them (federal workers), for them.

As much as they keep that city down in a wave-like crash. The open, they can shut it down and that’s crowd roared and it appeared they exactly what they did in 1991. The were once again going to rush centre block — at least it government of the seemed that way to day thought civil our Dilbert-turnedservants had grown He looked to his Abby Hoffman immovably fat and friend.

Riot blissfully stupid left, and then to his be dammed!police He after so many years took off with only of being hooked up right — the cops one thought in his to the federal-feedmind, “I’m leading ing tube, but — as closed the circle the charge!” the feds so often are around him. He saw As he got some — they were horri75-feet from the bly wrong. The daylight and bolted doors of centre sheep may have fatblock, he turned to tened behind the — riot cops and see the mass of rows of pastelhumanity he expectcoloured cubicles barking dogs in ed to be following and rows upon rows the path he was of desks within the hot pursuit. blazing. federal office towUnfortunately, he ers, even to the point of being pleasingly plump, but they had put his expectations in the hands of 100,000 civil servants and, true to weren’t quite ready for slaughter.

Ottawa never knew what hit it form, the bureaucracy let him down. when the 100,000 strikers took to the He was alone, deserted by his fellow paper-pushers. streets.

Surrounded by snarling German As the crowd of 100,000 approached the centre block of shepherds, mounted police, and riotParliament Hill, they found them- gear clad cops, he stopped like a deer selves behind barricades. A few days caught in the headlights. You could earlier police were horribly unpre- see the horrible realization wash over pared and the strikers had walked his face — he was screwed and he right up to the doors of Parliament knew it.

He looked to his left, and then to Hill and tried to beat them in. his right — the cops closed the circle Unfortunately, they failed.

But this was a different day and the around him. He saw daylight and cops were prepared — complete with bolted — riot cops and barking dogs in hot pursuit. storm troopers, dogs and cavalry.

Following, I found myself almost As the crowd approached the barricade, they began to rock it back and cheering, rooting for this soon-to-be forth as if they intended to break it pummeled, handcuffed, arrested, down and run through the gauntlet of strip-searched and incarcerated police and beasts until they reached underdog. Reaching a dead end and facing billy clubs and snarling police Parliament’s main doors.

The crowd was reaching a fever dogs, our clerk fell to his knees and pitch. Independent thought was giv- cocooned against a two-foot stone wall. It wasn’t long before he was ing way to mob rules.

One young man, a government subdued by police. The Mounties clerk if ever I saw one, was getting used incredible restraint, as if they far too worked up for his own good realized exactly what they were deal— this was his first rock-and-roll ing with — a young man who had concert and sexual experience rolled become something he never was for into one. Meek and mild up until a one brief moment in time. just few minutes earlier (the kind of Jeff Ducharme is The Indepenguy who obeys stop signs even at 3 a.m. on a deserted road), he was now dent’s senior writer. jeff.ducharme@theindependent.ca screaming obscenities at riot police

LIFE STORY

‘All that is good in Newfoundland’ William Kirby 1901-1979

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

I

n the words of his son-in-law, Walter Andrews, William Kirby (or Bill, as he was commonly known) was one of a “dead breed” of true Newfoundlanders.

He may also have been the last known cooper (barrelmaker) in the province.

“Now we’ve got nothing to confirm this,” Andrews tells The Independent, “but as far as we know, he was the last practicing cooper in St. John’s, if not Newfoundland.”

Born in 1901, Kirby grew up, married and raised his children in the Mundy Pond area of St. John’s. He worked as a cooper for 51 years, beginning his apprenticeship at McGrath’s Cooperage at the corner of Pleasant and Springdale Street when he was 13 years old.

“He worked in the shop, which was a wide-open place with no heat and the only fire there was in the middle of the shop,” says Andrews. “It wasn’t really put there for the convenience of the workers; it was put there so they could fire the barrels. There was no toilet there and they’d all have to go down to Bowring’s Cove to an open toilet over the wharf.”

‘A MAGNIFICENT PERSON’ Andrews describes Kirby as “a magnificent person.” He was humourous, wise, formally uneducated, but ultimately “resourceful.

“He was a standard Newfoundlander. He was a carpenter, he was a painter, he was a plumber, he was an electrician, he was a mechanic and if he couldn’t master something he always knew someone that could and he was willing to do that too.

“He was a cobbler … and he was a farmer, he grew potatoes and turnips and cabbage, carrots and beets and he raised chickens and pigs and he sold meat and eggs.”

Kirby also gave of his free time to help build St. Teresa’s Catholic Church in Mundy Pond, even managing to enlist the help of the local Salvation Army, in an age when denominational rivalry was strong.

The church wasn’t his only building project.

In his mid-20s Kirby met and fell in love with Sarah Coady, a young girl from Spanish Room who had arrived in St. John’s to be a nanny. Just after Coady announced she would be moving to Boston with her employers — he proposed.

Coady still moved to Boston and the couple decided to wed after she returned.

Meantime, Kirby got down to the business of building their marital home on Pearce Avenue where he had grown up.

Andrews says his father-in-law’s building project became a famous family story.

“Being the resourceful man that he was, he went to the local people who were bringing in cars from mainland Canada — and in those days when the cars came in here … they were completely encased in pine boxes.

“He went to the people importing these vehicles and convinced them that he would do them a favour by getting rid of these pine cartons that the cars came in, and of course what he did was took the pine cartons, brought them home and built his house out of them.”

Excelling in the entrepreneurial department, Kirby was

William Kirby

lacking, somewhat on the domestic side and during the three years his fiancée was away, he used the house to store barrels he made and sold in his own free time.

Just before she returned, Andrews says there was a mad scramble to clear out the house.

Coady arrived back from Boston safe and sound — but just barely. A few hours after her boat docked, the infamous 1929 tsunami struck the Burin Peninsula, killing 28 people.

The couple married soon after and over the years they had seven surviving children (they lost twin girls in infancy).

Walter describes them as a “deeply religious people,” who “were very dedicated to the precepts of the church and living a good Christian life.”

Walter also discovered first-hand (as a suitor to one of her daughters) that Mrs. Kirby was a force to be reckoned with.

“One of the little quirks of Mrs. Kirby, Sarah, was that whenever one of us-types would come in to seek the hand of the daughter, her first question was always, ‘Well, where have you got your house built and furnished that I had when I married Mr. Kirby?’”

Bill Kirby, one of the last coopers of Newfoundland, died in 1979, aged 78. He had a fatal heart attack while backing his car out of the driveway, preparing to drive the local parish priest home after a card game at the couples’ home.

Walter thinks for a while, before summing his father-inlaw up in one sentence.

“He was a quiet man who represented all that is good in Newfoundland and in family life.”

PAPER TRAIL

You are what you eat

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

C

onsumers today may complain about the price of milk compared to the price of soft drinks, but in the Jan. 30, 1975 edition of The Daily News, dairy farmers complained about how a quart of milk cost far less than a bottle of pop.

Milk cost a mere 59 cents a quart in 1975.

“The price of a quart of milk must jump to between 75 and 80 cents before dairies will be able to pay their employees ‘a decent living wage,’” the paper read.

“A 40-ounce bottle of soft drink costs about 80 cents and most of it comes from Windsor Lake,” one dairy owner said in the story. “You just try and get the company to deliver it.”

A story in the next day’s edition of The Daily News — headlined Chips and gravy syndrome — described a study carried out on the way Canadians eat and, in particular, the nutrition of Newfoundlanders (Labrador wasn’t included in the study).

While “most Canadians are eating themselves sick,” the story read, “people in Newfoundland consume more calories than other Canadians, but gain the least nutritional value.”

It turned out people in the province ate more starch and fewer vegetables than the national average. The study also pointed out Newfoundland had a higher birth rate, and how women

The Evening Mercury, 1885

failed to lose baby-weight gained during several pregnancies.

Advertisements in the Jan. 20, 1885 Evening Mercury are a reminder the province’s grocery stores weren’t always open at 2 a.m. Rather, in 1885 there were no grocery stores, and luxuries like fruit butter and cheese were sold right off boats during auctions held at the St. John’s waterfront.

The Mercury had daily ads running for 100 pounds of oranges, 40 tubs of butter, blocks of cheese and barrels of molasses arriving off ships and for sale by auction.

Geo E. Barnes sold “pine apples” and bananas for a six-pence. On July 11, 1885, 200 crooks of English marmalade and plum jam arrived in the store to be sold.

Family favourites from today appeared in ads throughout the 1900s.

Foods like Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Jell-o and Five Roses Flour were common in many newspapers.

Baby foods once only came in tin cans. Carnation and powdered milk — touted as “treats for baby” — appeared in ads for years in most newspapers.

Ayres and Sons in St. John’s ran ads every day in the Evening Mercury telling people about the 50 boxes of cheese just in, or the 100 bags of potatoes just arrived.

In the January 14, 1975 edition of The Daily News, an advertisement for Dominion supermarkets showed turkey at 56 cents a pound, lamb roast at 58 cents a pound and 10 pounds of potatoes for 62 cents.

The Jan. 6, 1909 edition of The Evening Chronicle was filled with ads for Purity Milk and Camp Coffee.

In 1951, when the island’s potatowart problem was first publicized, a ban on potatoes and potato container exports was introduced.

“Wart disease retards Newfoundland potato yield,” read the headline in The Daily News on June 9, 1951. The two accompanying articles explained growers should avoid contaminated soil and use only certified seed for potato crops.

It was expected the fungus would last only 20 years and then pass.

The same wart disease prevents potato products and soil from being exported from the province today.

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

Keeping tabs

MAN IN MOTION

Province’s MPs among country’s big spenders in office and travel expenses

By Jamie Baker The Independent

O

ffice, staff and travel expenses for federal Members of Parliament in Newfoundland and Labrador are among the highest in Canada.

The report of individual member’s expenditures, tabled by the Board of Internal Economy for the year April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004, shows most of the province’s MPs spend up to and beyond $500,000 annually to run their offices.

Expenses are presented in two categories — expenditures charged to each member’s office budget, and support provided by the House. Expenses include staff and office expenses (including employee service contracts and constituency

office operating expenses); travel for the member, employees and “designated travellers”; constituency office leasing; telephone and long distance expenses; printed materials sent out by members; office supplies; and “other,” covering furniture, computer equipment, software and renovations for the member’s Ottawa office.

The report shows the late Lawrence O’Brien, former MP for Labrador, and current Burin-Random-St. George’s MP Bill Matthews — both Liberals — spent the most of any of the province’s federal representatives in office and staff/travel expenses.

The most frugal of the province’s MPs was a bit of a surprise — Natural Resources Minister and Avalon MP John Efford.

LAWRENCE O’BRIEN (Labrador, deceased) Staff and other expenses: $228,377 Travel: $318,104 Office lease: $12,705 Telephone: $3,779 Printing: $4,685 Office supplies: $3,611 Other: $52 TOTAL: $571,313 BILL MATTHEWS (Random-Burin-St. George’s) Staff and other expenses: $196,212 Travel: $263,640 Office lease:$13,800 Telephone: $2,549 Printing: $8,875 Office supplies: $1,396 Other (furniture, computer equip, software and renovations): $21 TOTAL: $486,493 NORM DOYLE (St. John’s North) Staff and other expenses: $200,086 Travel: $172,904 Office lease: $15,000 Telephone: $1,365 Printing: $22,856 Office supplies: $5,646 Other: $89 TOTAL: $417,946 LOYOLA HEARN (St. John’s South) Staff and other expenses: $198,446 Travel: $164,159 Office lease: $15,543 Telephone: $1,109 Printing: $16,379 Office supplies: $4,293 Other (furniture, computer equip, software and renovations): $6,501 TOTAL: $406,430 GERRY BYRNE (Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte) Staff and other expenses: $231,156 Travel: $131,469 Office lease: $14,200 Telephone: $4,562 Printing: $8,555 Office supplies: $12,527 Other: $1,193 TOTAL: $403,662 REX BARNES (Bonavista-Exploits, defeated 2004) Staff and other expenses: $213,807 Travel: $150,112 Office lease: $9,444 Telephone: $7,540 Printing: $7,544 Office supplies: $4,066 Other: $1 TOTAL: $392,514 JOHN EFFORD (Avalon) Staff and other expenses: $181,130 Travel: $154,235 Office lease: $13,200 Telephone: $2,393 Printing: $18,794 Office Supplies: $5,055 Other: $696 TOTAL: $375,503 PRIME MINISTER PAUL MARTIN (LaSalle-Emard) Staff and other expenses: $197,154 Travel: $25,754 Office lease: $16,852 Telephone: $2,550 Printing: $983 Office supplies: $5,912 Other: $4,201 TOTAL: $253,406 GOVERNMENT TOTAL Staff and other expenses: $62 million Travel: $27 million Office Lease: $5.5 million Telephone: $515,000 Printing: $6 million Office Supplies: $1.2 million Other (furniture, computer equip, software and renovations): $364,550 COMBINED TOTAL: $102.6 million

Rick Hansen was in St. John’s May 6 to announce this year’s third annual Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion fundraiser to be held June 12. The event will see thousands across Canada walk, run or wheel to raise money to help people with spinal cord injuries. Several events will be held throughout the province.

Paul Daly/The Independent

MAY 8, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

The pain in Spain European country feels heat for high seas fishing offences

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

F

ernando Curcio Ruigomez walks the grounds of hostile territory. As director general of Fisheries Resources for Spain, media, politicians, activists and diplomats regularly point the finger at him for illegal fishing activities on the world’s oceans.

“The Spanish fleet, all the fleets, but perhaps the Spanish one is one of the largest, they are the symbol of the Canadian fight against high seas fisheries and they are viewed very badly and disgracefully treated and this is the impression of a large majority of the Spanish sector,” Curcio Ruigomez tells The Independent.

At the Delta Hotel in St. John’s, where the Conference on the Governance of the High Seas and the United Nations Fish Agreement: Moving from Words to Actions was held last week, he walks the halls with a bull’s-eye painted on his back, but he talks in a hushed, level voice that only hints at his frustration with the way his country is viewed by Canada and other nations.

“They have this impression that we are, so to speak, the problem of Canada.”

While Curico Ruigomez may feel the heat, the majority of citations issued this year by Canadian fisheries inspectors have been to Spanishflagged vessels. The latest citation was issued to the Maria Eugenia G. on April 21 for misreporting and misrecording its catch, failing to keep proper stowage plans, and failing to facilitate the work of Canadian inspectors.

The most recent incident raises to 15 the total number of citations issued to date this year — equal to the total citations issued in 2004. Nine of the citations issued in 2005 have been laid against three Spanish vessels.

Curcio Ruigomez says since the

Spanish fleet is so active in the waters governed by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) outside Canada’s 200-mile limit, offences are more likely to surface.

“We think that we are an important fleet there, but we are not the only one,” says Curico Ruigomez.

“The Spanish fleet there is controlled as much as we can, as much as we can.”

Spain isn’t the only country trying to change its image when it comes to behaviour on the high seas. A delegation from the Faroe Islands blitzed the media and even travelled to Bay Roberts — where they traditionally landed their shrimp catch — to try and build public support to reopen ports to their vessels. Canadian ports were closed in December 2004 after the Faroe Islands used the NAFO objection procedure to catch 10 times their 144-tonne quota. The objection procedure allows countries to disregard NAFO quotas and unilaterally set their own.

Television Espanola journalist Alvaro de Rojas says attitudes are changing in Spain towards illegal fishing, but the issue of enforcement comes down to financial resources.

“They say that the ports are perfectly controlled, but they say they could do more,” de Rojas says of the Spanish government.

Curico Ruigomez says he is trying to deal with the problem.

“I acknowledge that there is a big concern about the stocks on the high seas and as director general of Fisheries of Spain, my determination is to stop all illegal fishing on the high seas as far as my fleet is concerned,” he says. “It is completely guaranteed, assured on legal terms that if there has been illegal fishing, the sanctions we are imposing are those that would deter that vessel from ... fishing again.”

In the case of the Maria Eugenia G., he says it could face a fine of $97,000

Dr. Art May and Dr. Transform Aqorau, co-chairs of the conference on the Governance of High Seas Fisheries and the United Nations Fish Agreement, at the closing address at the Delta Hotel in St. John's.

Paul Daly/The Independent

if the allegations are proven in a court of law — a process that could take years.

“We have done so in the past. We have prevented Spanish vessels from going to the high seas in NAFO for illegal fishing, that has been the case several times,” says Curico Ruigomez, although he could offer no specific examples. “It is not reflected in the Canadian media and it has to be assured that we have the determination of avoiding any illegal fishing in the NAFO area.”

Fines issued by Spain and other countries for fishing violations are almost never reported in the media.

Under NAFO rules, it’s up to the home country of a trawler that’s been cited to follow through with court action.

Spain has now made an open invitation to Canadian fisheries inspectors to travel to its main port of Vigo to attend any European Union led inspections of a cited vessel when it returns to port. In 2006, Spain will become the home for the European Union’s Fishery Control Agency, located in Vigo with a yearly budget of $10 million. That budget will pay for port and onboard inspectors, fishery patrol vessels and aerial surveillance.

Luis Pinero, a journalist with the newspaper Faro de Vigo, says fishermen in Vigo are wary of the new agency being located there.

“In Vigo, they are afraid that they are having their own enemy in their own house,” he says. “It is supposed to be created to avoid overfishing — the soul of it is this.”

Pirates of the high seas Foreign trawlers that consistently break fishing rules should be declared stateless, says international lawyer

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

F

oreign trawlers that break fishing rules outside Canada’s 200-mile limit should be declared stateless, rendering them pirates of the high seas with no nation’s flag to hide behind and no market for their catch.

Rosemary Rayfuse, a professor of international law at the University of South Wales who’s written extensively on the Law of the Sea, attended the international conference on high seas governance in St. John’s last week. The event brought more than 40 countries together to address overfishing and the fate of fish stocks.

“In some respects, gun boats on the high seas might be the answer, but high seas are a very big place,” Rayfuse tells The Independent. “What’s really needed is also import enforcement and a shaming, where states that do not comply with their obligations and they are found repeatedly not to have complied with their obligations, then other states should take the approach that those states have lost their right to fish,” Rayfuse says. “They then can declare those vessels to be stateless vessels and they can arrest them.”

Rayfuse’s comments appeared to make delegates from the European Union squirm. The European Union represented member countries Spain and Portugal at the St. John’s conference. The two countries are seen as the biggest fishing offenders.

Rayfuse says regional fisheries management organizations would have to adopt such high seas blacklisting techniques, which, she says, would be an uphill battle with many governments.

“There are actually no legal prohibitions on them doing that as far as international law is concerned,” Rayfuse

The areas for the east end of St. John's include: Elizabeth Ave west Lemarchant Rd./Lime St. Gower/Bond St. Signal Hill Rd. Churchill Sq. area Fox Ave. area Airport Heights area

says. “There may be a vast number of political reasons for not doing that, but as a matter of basic law, they could do that.”

The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement and the Compliance Agreement requires a nation’s vessels not to engage in activities that undermine the effectiveness of international conservation and management measures, including those adopted by regional fisheries organizations.”

The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) monitors fishing outside Canada’s 200-mile limit.

Under the UN agreement, countries are obligated to refuse the use of their flag to vessels that have been involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.

“Stateless vessels are fair game for anyone to take measures against,” Rayfuse says, adding if the organizations that regulate the world’s fisheries don’t “take seriously their mandates and if the parties do not start working out these enforcement issues” then countries frustrated by the inability of groups such as NAFO to act will lead countries to take custodial management of their fisheries. Canada has often toyed with such an idea to the chagrin of the EU and many other NAFO member countries.

Rayfuse says the implementation of custodial management would impact the Law of the Sea. “That may not be a bad thing, but I’m sure there are not many people who really want that to happen, it’s a very fine exact balance that we should try to work within,” Rayfuse says.

“I know it’s very difficult for Newfoundlanders and Nova Scotians to appreciate, but this is not the only area in the world where this happened and it’s not the only type of fishery.”

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 8-14, 2005 — PAGE 11

A Royal Navy Merlin helicopter hovers over the stricken Canadian submarine Chicoutimi, 30 miles northwest of Stag Rock off the west coast of Ireland, on Oct. 8, 2004. Lieutenant Chris Saunders was airlifted from the submarine and taken to an Irish hospital following a malfunction aboard the vessel, which had been enroute from the United Kingdom to Canada. Saunders succumbed to his injuries shortly after the incident.

EPA photo

Death of a submariner Death aboard HMCS Chicoutimi began with a loose nut; Navy report lays no blame for fire that killed sailor HALIFAX

By Kelly Toughill

T

he tragedy of Lieut. Chris Saunders started with a brass nut loose on a thick hatch far above the waves. It ended 33 hours later when the respected naval officer and beloved father of two, his lungs seared by toxic gas, collapsed as he was buckled into a harness, about to finally be rescued from a crippled submarine drifting helpless in the Irish Sea. Navy officials offered a chilling glimpse last week into the heart of a crisis, a taste of what the crew of HMCS Chicoutimi heard, saw and smelled last Oct. 5.

Tied at a dock in Halifax, the boat looks fine from the outside, the only sign of trouble a small red and white flag fluttering from the conning tower, a signal the sub is not in service.

Inside, Chicoutimi stinks, its narrow, crowded corridors still heavy with the acrid stench of burning plastic.

The boat has been scrubbed inside and out, but the scars of the tragedy are still clear: the bubbled paint on a bulkhead near the conning tower, the bundle of wires melted into a river of black goo, the two saucer-sized holes blown through an inch of hardened steel in the captain’s cabin

floor. glitches with a few systems.

Vice-Admiral Bruce MacLean delivered At 10:50 the next morning, a technician the navy’s final verdict on the accident on discovered a loose nut on a hatch at the top May 5, a board of of the conning tower. The inquiry report that nut had to be fixed for the determined the tragedy The helicopter whisked sub to sail beneath the was a “unique, unforewaves. The scheduled dive seen event that could was a crucial, long-awaited him to a hospital in not possibly have been test for the new-to-Canada Sligo, Ireland. There anticipated” and for ship. The weather was getwhich no one is to ting worse, and they were the doctors confirmed fast approaching the dive blame.

Chicoutimi was the location, so Pelletier directlast of four British sub- what seemed inevitable ed repairs to be conducted marines delivered to the sub “wide open” to on the conning tower with Canada, part of a speed things along. much-criticized That meant that both before he left: defence deal that saw hatches in the tower were this country buy diesel Lieut. Chris Saunders open, making it easier to submarines that had pass tools through for was dead. been mothballed by repairs. The worst that the British fleet. The could happen, Pelletier program cost more than expected, and was probably figured, was a bit of a slosh down years behind schedule when HMCS below. After all, subs regularly take in Chicoutimi set sail for Canada on Oct. 4, water through the tower. HMCS Windsor, 2004.

Chicoutimi’s sister ship, once took 3,000 The boat was not in perfect shape, but litres of water through its conning tower submarines never are. Both the command- and was none the worse for wear. ing officer, Cmdr. Luc Pelletier, and his When a rogue wave flooded the tower at crew told the board of inquiry the boat was 11:15 a.m., it sent 2,000 litres of seawater safe to sail across the ocean, despite minor into the boat, enough to cover the toes of

the officers’ shiny black boots in the control room. Crews got out buckets and the wet-vac, but this was no emergency; there was no particular sense of alarm. Sensors indicated an electrical problem, so a damage control team assembled in Headquarters No. 1, a beige cubicle on the lower deck better known as the senior rates’ mess — a lunchroom.

No one knew the water from the tower was sloshing over the power supply running under the captain’s bunk near the control room, periodically dunking eight 400volt cables that carry more than 2,000 amps of juice between the engines and the batteries. The captain’s cabin is almost directly above the mess hall where officers were discussing the source of the mysterious electrical ground.

Saunders, 32, was what the navy calls a “rider.” He was a fully qualified submariner, but was still learning his job, not a full part of the crew. He probably didn’t even have a bunk on board, sleeping in one of the empty torpedo bays that are often padded up as beds for extra guests. If he had been near his gear, near that bay in the forward weapons compartment, he would have survived, safe behind the heavy See “I sincerely apologize’” page 14

Martin meet your maker

The Liberal Party has been in power too long and has lost its way, Crosbie reasons

I

n his recent TV address, Prime Minister Paul Martin used his greatest asset — his appearance of sincerity — to attempt again to con the Canadian electorate.

It was a self-serving defence of his record, cobbled together with a selfserving appeal to stave off the election he fears so much.

Martin and his advisers still think it is all a matter of finding the right

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon strategy to “get their message out.”

The notion of simply laying before the public everything they know about what the Liberal party has done

in relation to the sponsorship scandal — not evading simple questions of fact, not smearing those who ask questions, but just levelling with Canadians — will never occur to them.

Martin did not explain why he apparently ignored the letter of Feb. 7, 2002, sent to him by the Liberal party’s national policy chairman, Akash Maharaj, from Toronto,

regarding “the issue of Groupaction and the federal sponsorship program.” The letter raised “persistent and growing rumours that funds from the sponsorship program are being diverted to partisan purposes.”

Martin now apologizes for not being more vigilant in overseeing taxpayers’ money when he should apologize and resign for refusing to see or hear of any evil in the spending of

public monies by Liberals in or out of government.

He is vigilant now to forestall an election, not wanting to meet his maker, the Canadian people, any time soon.

The main reason for his TV address was to pretend he can make a valid commitment to call an election 30 See “Liberals have lost,” page 13

MAY 8, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

At home in the desert Grand Falls native Jim King retired to the most glamorous city in the world

The glitz and glamour of Las Vegas — the new home of Grand Falls native Jim King — is clearly illustrated by magician Nathan Burton as he poses with seven showgirls on the Las Vegas Strip's Aladdin's Desert Passage.

PRNewsFoto

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

J

im King says Las Vegas, his hometown since 1999, is an enigma. Built in the desert, minutes from snowy mountains, an afternoon’s drive away from the beach, the most glamorous city in the world is, King maintains, extremely

conservative.

A Grand Falls native, King went to school and lived in St. John’s until 1969, when he left to attend university in Indiana. After graduating with a business degree, he was hired by the Ford Motor Company. He worked with Ford for 25 years, until he retired in late 1996.

King lived in the lower mainland of British

Columbia for three years, before moving to Vegas.

The move from the temperate Pacific coast to the American desert was “indeed an environmental adjustment.

“We do miss the sea,” King says. “However, the California beaches are only four hours driving away. We do a pilgrimage to the beaches about four times a year and breathe in the negative ions.”

For King’s wife, who was born in California and grew up by the beaches, it’s a quarterly trip home.

“In the winter if one has a hankering for snow,” he continues, “the mountains around Las Vegas are usually covered in snow and you can be on Mount Charleston in 45 minutes, making a snowman or skiing.”

But there are delights in the “fascinating” desert as well. “One tends to think of it as barren, dusty, dry, hot, snakes, scorpions, cactus, scorched mountains, tumbleweed and immense,” Kings says.

“It’s all that. Yet on the other hand, it is beautiful, especially this year. We usually get about fourand-a-half inches of rain a year … we had that in January. Record rains do wonders in the desert.

This year the desert is green. It has yellow and purple flowers and what is usually an expanse of brown now looks as if it is covered in a green carpet.”

King says Las Vegas really does have something for everybody — glitz, glamour, scenery, history, nature trails, shopping, excellent restaurants and “you are likely to see anything.”

Vegas even has a Canadian club for ex-pats, which celebrates Boxing Day, Canada Day and Canadian Thanksgiving. And, if you’re a motor sport enthusiast, says King, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is not to be missed.

“Not only are there all types of racing, from drag racing to NASCAR, there are driving schools and fabricators. The world headquarters of Shelby Automobiles — builders of the original Cobra — is at Speedway Park.”

Far from idle in retirement, King is on the board of the Dream Centre of Las Vegas, an organization devoted to providing refuge and hope to the homeless in the inner city.

In his six years in the Nevada city, King has also become very involved in the business community, through the local chamber of commerce — the third largest in the United States.

“A longtime businessman in Vegas told me ‘once you get off the strip, the underbelly of this city is ultra conservative,” he says. “It’s so very true.”

King says business in the area is primarily done by networking. He became involved as an ambassador of service excellence and vice-president of the Chamber’s Toastmasters Club.

He is also a navigator with the chamber. “As a navigator, you are a mentor to new members and that really gives you a large circle of business people that you know,” he says.

King admits he misses living in Newfoundland from time to time, particularly in July and August when it’s an intense 110F (43C) in the city that never sleeps.

“I do miss partridgeberry jam, wild blueberries, Purity sweet bread, salt fish and bakeapple jam,” he says. “I do miss Newfoundlanders, their charm, their wit, their stories and their very generous hospitality …

“Yet it is neat living in Las Vegas.”

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

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MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

Dr. Abraham Iyambo, minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources for Namibia.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Canada could learn lesson from African country of Namibia

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

I

f the Newfoundland and Labrador government is looking for a plan to revitalize the fish-processing sector, officials may want to call on the tiny African country of Namibia for advice.

After declaring independence from South Africa in 1990, the country of 1.9 million took control of the fishery, bringing in laws that took back the industry from foreign fleets, forcing them to land fish in the country, employing thousands of workers on shore.

The industry was viewed as so important to the country’s economy — second after mining — that it was the third act passed after the new nation was created. The industry was worth approximately $590 million in 2003 — more than six times what it was before declaring independence from South Africa.

Dr. Abraham Iyambo, minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, led his country’s delegation at the federal government’s international fisheries conference in St. John’s last week.

Using a naval ship borrowed from South Africa and the constant threat of force, Namibia, which has 1,500 km of coastline, took control of its fishery inside its 200-mile limit and rewrote the rulebook.

In 2002, Iyambo called for a moratorium on the fish stock called pilchard. But instead of a closure, the total allowable catch was drastically reduced to allow the stock to recover.

“It was not easy, but you have to take bold decisions knowing very well that the jobs, revenue will be affected,” Iyambo tells The Independent. “But you want to have jobs for the future, but not just in the short term.”

More than a decade later, the country’s stocks are “healthy” and 14,000 people are employed full-time in the fishery as crews and plant workers. The average plant worker makes $416 Cdn per month.

Europe and America are Namibia’s biggest markets.

In this province, there are approximately 9,000 people employed as seasonal workers in more than 120 plants.

“Before (independence) Namibia was a colony at the time of South Africa,” says Iyambo. “During that time our stocks were mercilessly plundered. Our stocks were destroyed mainly by distant foreign fleets.”

The country leases out fishing licences on 12 fish stocks — hake being the main stock. For a country to be allowed to fish in Namibian waters, they must guarantee a certain level of employment, depending on the length of the lease —10, 15 or 20 years.

The largest fish processor in the country is the Spanish firm Pescanova. It currently holds a 15-year fishing rights lease and Namibian law requires it to employ at least 3,000 people in the country. The shifts run 24 hours with 600 to 800 people per shift — women make up 80 per cent of the workforce. No company has ever received a 20-year lease because employment guarantees couldn’t be reached.

All processing there must be value-added, unlike in this province where much of the work done is primary processing, with product then shipped to countries such as the U.S. for more lucrative secondary processing.

“We don’t believe (in) access agreements in the first place,” says Iyambo. “We believe in our fish being caught and landed in Namibia, processed there.”

The country has only two ports, making it easier to control fleets and carry out inspections.

“Surely, for you to land the fish you have caught illegally, you have to land it somewhere.

You don’t land it in the desert,” he says, adding it also allows them to control vessels that land illegal catches from other waters.

But all is not rosy for the Namibian fishing industry. The fall of the U.S dollar has hit the country hard. Of the 20 plants in the country —

Liberals have lost their way From page 11

On April 21, Martin told the Canadian people he would call an days after Justice John Gomery election 30 days following the commakes his report on AdScam. First, pletion of the report of Justice there is no absolute assurance there Gomery. This was a desperate appeal will be a Gomery report, since Jean for more time so that his government Chretien is still attempting to have a can use more of your money to try to court, at a June hearing, order that buy more of your votes.

Gomery be removed!

Our present corruption crisis is Is there any thinking Canadian who caused by the fact that one party, the really believes the Gomery inquiry Liberal party, has been in power for would be operating today if Martin far too long, and has lost its way. had won a majority government — or This crisis is as important for that such a government would prose- Canada as was the crisis that faced the cute all Liberals inU.K. in deciding volved in the corrupt whether Neville Our present activities?

C h a m b e r l a i n ’s Under the British government corruption crisis and Canadian parliashould stay in mentary systems, office following is caused by the the decision as to the loss of whether there is to be Norway in 1940. fact that one party, an election has to be It was Leo Amery, made by the goverthe British Conthe Liberal party, has nor general, who has servative MP, who been in power for no choice but to folsaid to PM Chamlow the advice of the berlain on May 7, far too long, and prime minister of the 1940, what conday — if he has a cerned Canadians has lost its way. majority of MPs supshould now say to porting him.

Martin. Amery, in The governor general, however, turn, was quoting “what Cromwell does not have to accept the advice of said to the Long Parliament when he a PM who is not in control of a major- thought it was no longer fit to conduct ity of the votes of the members of the the affairs of the nation: “You have sat House of Commons. too long here for any good you have When such a leader requests a dis- been doing. Depart, I say, and let us solution, the governor general decides have done with you. In the name of whether she will grant that request or God, go.” call upon some other leader of a party Every concerned Canadian should in the House of Commons to attempt give exactly the same advice to to form a government.

Martin in this present Canadian crisis.

most of the fish was processed outside Namibia when it was ruled by South Africa — three plants have closed this year and two others companies are in receivership. The government is also owed millions in outstanding quota fees.

Government has set a deadline of 2006 for fees to be paid, but industry wants outstanding fees wiped off the books.

Iyambo has urged the fleet to modernize and has even offered a five per cent reduction in fish quota levies for 2005.

Pandu Elago, a policy analyst and assistant to the minister, says the recent downturn is something they can’t control.

“It’s a worldwide effect and this is all because of the U.S. dollar,” says Elago.

Iyambo says they are trying to empower their people after years of colonial rule.

“Anyone who wants to hear our story, we would be pleased to share,” says Iyambo.

Namibia has had trouble with rouge vessels entering its territorial waters. A Spanish vessel was towed into port and charged in 2004. The captain pled guilty and will pay a fine based on legal costs and the value of the catch. “(The Spanish) condemned these people that were fishing illegally because they were doing it individually,” says Iyambo.

He says those vessels that break the rules are not “ghosts.

“I do believe that overfishing, wherever it is coming from, the states, government should be held responsible first.”

“We have had a long history of arresting foreigners, confiscating their fish, confiscating their vessels and sending them along back home wherever they come from.”

Iyambo says governments must determine what causes overfishing in the first place.

“Is it because there is no proper control? Is it because you set the amount too high? Is it because the scientists were wrong to make sure that you overfish or the overfishing is because of theft — people literally stealing.”

MAY 8, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

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By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

T

he nation that normally takes most of the heat for overfishing on the high seas was the only country to put forward an action proposal during the international fisheries conference held in St. John’s last week.

Spain intends to cease bottom trawling in sensitive marine areas around the world. That doesn’t include waters on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks, although Spain will also begin deep-water surveys using their own vessels to identify sensitive areas within the NAFO zone. The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization monitors fishing outside the 200-mile limit.

Fernando Curcio Ruigomez, director general of Fisheries Resources for Spain, says it’s not a general moratorium, but a first step.

“It has also meant a big sacrifice for the fishing fleet to limit ourselves on a unilateral basis without consulting the rest of the international community,” says Curcio Ruigomez. “I think there is a need to move quickly on this deci-

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He says Spain will collect scientific data about sensitive marine areas.

Once the data is collected, he says Spain will present data supporting closures to groups such as NAFO. They will then wait for the rest of the international community to make a determination before ceasing trawling in

“I think there is a need to move quickly on this decision.”

Fernando Curcio Ruigomez areas governed by regional fisheries management organizations.

The move Spain is taking in reference to bottom trawling apparently isn’t a move Ottawa is willing to take.

“No gear is inherently dangerous depending on where it’s used and under what circumstances,” says David Bevan, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Fisheries

and Oceans in Ottawa.

“I’d have to look at the whole fine print there, it’s not like they’re going to stop dragging on the high seas tomorrow,” says Bevan.

Former federal Fisheries minister John Crosbie sees merit in the move by the Spanish.

“If we could persuade Spain and Portugal that NAFO has to acquire teeth and it’s in their own interests, as well as ours, to see the rules are obeyed, it would be a great step forward.”

Spain also announced it will reduce its turbot fleet by eight vessels due to a reduced quota under NAFO’s current stock rebuilding plan.

Environmental groups at the conference applauded Spain’s move.

Jeff Ardon of the Living Oceans Society says it’s a move in the right direction.

“What I found encouraging was the acknowledgement that trawling is damaging to deep sea corals and sponges,” says Ardon.

“We don’t have to do it with a fancy legislation. We can do it with a simple fisheries closure ... until we do that, we are doing nothing.”

‘I sincerely apologize’ From page 11

Project Evaluation in a Project Management Environment Paul Walsh

26

27

Spain tries to turn overfishing image around

round steel door and fire screen that was quickly swung shut to separate that section of the ship from the fire.

Instead, at 1:15 p.m., Saunders was in the doorway of the senior rates’ mess, watching the officer he was due to replace on board, when three of the wrist-thick copper cables in the captain’s cabin, weakened by two hours of low-level arcing, popped loose and hit the metal floor.

They estimate the heat of the arc was between 8,000 and 10,000 degrees.

It turned the inch-thick floor of hardened steel into liquid, and blew a fireball, thick black smoke, sparks and toxic gas into the deck below, just a metre from where Saunders stood.

Saunders was only one arm’s length away from a cupboard filled with emergency breathing masks, but he didn’t stick around to search for one.

He ran from the fire, toward his designated station in an emergency: the control room.

The corridor filled with smoke.

Crew who were also down below said they got only two clear breaths after the explosion before they were blinded and choking in the nasty black air.

Saunders made it down the narrow, smoke-filled, confusing corridor filled with crew searching for breathing stations. He made it up the nine black metal rungs of the ladder to the main

deck, to a spot right beside the captain’s chair.

The commanding officer shared his own mask with Saunders until another was passed back, the two men taking turns gulping air in the chaos of smoke and fire.

When a crew member handed Pelletier a second mask, the captain cleared it for Saunders and turned his full attention back to the fire.

Saunders never got the mask over his head. He crumpled to the deck, unnoticed, right beside the captain’s seat of command.

Crew found him there 10 minutes after the explosion, wrestled a mask on his face and dragged him away. The fire was out within minutes, but the ship was left with no power, drifting in the Irish Sea, with no light and almost no communication, and no way to blow away the toxic smoke.

One crew member went up the tower to issue a May-Day on an oldfashioned VHF radio; it was an emergency call no one heard. Another call was sent out on a battery-powered satellite phone.

That call was picked up in Halifax, but it was wasn’t clear, and navy personnel thought everyone was okay.

The lone apology issued by MacLean was to Saunders’ wife, Gwen, for giving her wrong information about her husband.

“That Mrs. Saunders had a sense of hope regarding her husband’s survival,

which was ultimately dashed through what had to be shocking news, is a consequence that I deeply regret and for which I sincerely apologize,” MacLean said.

It was 24 hours before a doctor made it aboard the drifting ship. A physician from a British naval ship, HMS Montrose, made a daring leap aboard Chicoutimi in rough seas to tend to Saunders and two other injured men. It was clear the lieutenant needed hospital care immediately.

The doctor unhooked the men’s oxygen tubes, disconnected their intravenous fluid when a helicopter got near, and helped them don survival suits in case they were washed into the sea. Saunders didn’t complain during the long walk down the corridor, nor during the long climb up the three metal ladders of the conning tower.

He talked with the men who helped him along, but the exertion was too much.

He made it to the top of the tower, even got on the harness from the hovering helicopter, when he failed a final time.

The helicopter whisked him to a hospital in Sligo, Ireland. There the doctors confirmed what seemed inevitable on the conning tower before he left: Lieut. Chris Saunders was dead.

Reprinted with permission from the Toronto Star

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

MAY 8, 2005

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Kazakhstan shuts down opposition paper ALMATY Reuters

K

azakhstan has ordered the closure of one of the central Asian state’s few newspapers that criticize the president, in the latest sign of a crackdown ahead of a possible election in December.

The sprawling oil-producer’s economy has steamed ahead of its impoverished neighbours, but President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since

Soviet days, maintains a firm grip on politics and has never held a vote judged free and fair by the West.

Respublika, a weekly that supports the opposition, showed reporters a copy of an order from the Culture, Information and Sports Ministry saying the paper had been “liquidated” without giving a reason.

“We consider the ministry’s actions illegal and will lodge an appeal,” says Galina Dyrdina, deputy editor of Respublika.

The paper has been shut down several times in the past, prompting it to reopen under another name. Its editor, Irina Petrushova, fled to Russia in 2002 after intimidation and an arson attack on the paper’s offices.

She was detained for two days last month by Russian police, acting on a request from Kazakh prosecutors investigating tax evasion. Police released her, saying the charges were too old.

Respublika is one of the few papers

to report on a long-stalled U.S. court case in which prosecutors have alleged that Nazarbayev received more than $60 million in bribes from a businessman acting as a go-between for Western oil companies.

Nazarbayev has said the corruption accusations are “insinuation and a setup.”

The closure of Respublika comes shortly after legislation outlawing public protests at election time — widely seen as an attempt to prevent any repeat

of uprisings in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia that unseated long-serving rulers.

Parliament is also considering changes to national security laws that increase government scrutiny over media organizations, non-governmental organizations and religious groups.

Nazarbayev’s term ends in January 2006, prompting confusion over the date of the next election which the constitution says must be held in December — but does not say which year.

Pre mie rS oc

WORLD INBRIEF

mp a C r e c

Turkmen president buys himself a Boeing ASHGABAT (Reuters) — Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has bought himself his own personal Boeing 767-300, named “the flying headquarters,” for $130 million (US).

Turkmenistan’s state news agency says the passenger jet had been custom-built for Niyazov, who headed the Communist Party in the former Soviet republic and has been president since independence in 1990.

“The aircraft has been equipped with the latest communication systems to keep the head of state abreast of all developments and allow him to lead the country when he is abroad,” the news agency says.

The wide-body aircraft was financed with the hard currency reserves of the largely desert Central Asian republic, a top producer of natural gas.

Niyazov has renamed the month of January after himself and ordered school children to study his own homespun philosophy book. Thousands of statues of Niyazov dot the country, the most garish of which is a 12-metre high gold Turkmenbashi statue perched on a 75-metre pillar that rotates to face the sun.

Sinatra biography cites new claim of mafia ties LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Frank Sinatra once served as a mafia courier and narrowly escaped arrest with a briefcase containing $3.5 million (US) in cash, entertainer Jerry Lewis told authors of a new book excerpted in Vanity Fair magazine. The anecdote attributed to Lewis is one of several accounts linking the legendary singer to organized crime in the unauthorized biography Sinatra: The Life, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan and due for release May 16 by Alfred A. Knopf.

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No libel damages for ‘kidnap plotter’ LONDON (Reuters) — A Romanian accused of being part of a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham — ex-Spice Girl and wife of soccer superstar David Beckham — has failed in a libel claim against a British tabloid. Alin Turcu was accused of being part of a five-man gang of eastern Europeans who were arrested in November 2002 over an alleged plot to kidnap the singer.

Darwin on trial: evolution hearings open in Kansas TOPEKA (Reuters) — A six-day, courtroom-style debate opened last week in Kansas over what children should be taught in schools about the origin of life — was it natural evolution or did God create the world?

The hearings, complete with opposing attorneys and a long list of witnesses, were arranged amid efforts by some Christian groups in Kansas and nationally to reverse the domination of evolutionary theory in the nation’s schools.

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 8-14, 2005 — PAGE 17

Vera Stone in her home on Bell Island.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘It’s some nice when they remember’ Vera Stone of Bell Island helped raise almost 200 foster kids; now retired, she watches the school bus at the end of the lane half expecting her children to run home

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

O

ne Bell Island woman is sure to be on the minds of close to 200 grown-up children this Mother’s Day. From 1965 to 1990, Vera and Kevin Stone welcomed a steady stream of foster children into their home, giving love, stability and oldfashioned common sense to kids from difficult family backgrounds.

The Stones adopted two children, others were fostered until they grew up, and some came and went depending on need.

“It was fun, though,” Vera Stone, 78, tells The Independent. “The whole works of it was fun.

“I took infants at first. I used to line them up and give them their bowls of cereal all together and give them bottles.”

Vera sits at her kitchen table in the house she has been in all her life. Both her family and her husband Kevin’s, have lived in the lanes just up the road from the Bell Island lighthouse for

generations.

“This is where I walked and this is me, right here, the same house, all these years.”

Vera’s mother had an unwitting influence on her daughter’s future vocation. She died at the age of 43 when Vera was in her late teens, leaving her to look after the family, including her four-year-old sister.

Vera often thought about a day-dream her mother sometimes mentioned.

“Mum used to always say — she loved children — she said, ‘I’d love to have a big house up there on top of the hill, full of children,’ she said. And that kind of stuck with me.”

Unfortunately, complications resulting from an appendix operation at the age of 13 left Vera unable to bear children; so the Stones adopted two babies, first Bob and then Beverly. A few years later they started fostering.

Looking out the window to the green and blue landscape of a sunny, May morning, it’s easy to imagine children running around the farmland Kevin started cultivating after losing his job when the local ore mine closed.

On the table, alongside several Mother’s

Day cards, Vera is surrounded by photographs of the children in her life, now grown-up.

Some are wedding pictures, others are of grandchildren, one is a great-great granddaughter.

Vera says although many of the children would wet the bed and it often took time to gain their trust, they rarely threw tantrums and were generally good.

Letting go was the difficult part.

“When I was taking in infants; that was hard.

I’d take them straight from the hospital and when they’d be going, I’d be sniffing all that night.”

Vera and Kevin looked after two siblings, Mary-Anne and Dennis Mulroney from when they were just months old, until they left to be adopted at age five.

A picture of Mary-Anne on her wedding day, sits in Vera’s front room.

“We keep in touch with a lot, you know. I was in town the other day, St. John’s, a girl said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to stop her, I’ve got to catch her,’ and this was one of the girls I had.

“It’s some nice when they remember you.”

Gladys Young never forgot. When she was eight and her sisters Jackie and Diane were 10 and 12, they went to live with the Stones. They stayed until they grew up and moved to mainland Canada, eventually having families of their own.

Last year Gladys nominated Vera for a Today’s Parent For Kids’ Sake Award, put off

by Today’s Parent magazine.

Vera doesn’t take accolades easily.

“This lady rang me from Toronto, told me I had to go up and all this and I rang Gladys and I said, ‘Gladys, I’m going to kill you.’ But I went and it was nice.”

Vera was awarded $3,000, to give to a charity of her choice. She picked Bell Island’s Wabana Boys and Girls Club.

Today, Vera and Kevin say they’re enjoying retirement, but it was hard to get used to living the quiet life.

Vera looks out the window and points to the end of the lane. “Every time I’d see that school bus I’d be waiting for that door to bust open, but no one came in. That was hard to get used to.”

LIVYERS

Winning hand for cancer

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

W

Elaine Underhay

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

hen most people receive information through the mail promoting a good cause, they likely give it a glance, think it sounds like a nice idea, and forget about it.

But St. John’s resident Elaine Underhay chose to jump on board when an initiative from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s KitchenAid Cook for the Cure Program arrived in her mail.

“I had a sister-in-law who had breast cancer and my Grandmother,” Underhay tells The Independent, “and I know of other people and other family members that have had other kinds of cancer as well — so anything that we can con-

tribute to the cause.” for 31 years and saw the tradition as an The Canadian Breast Cancer Found- ideal way to help raise money. ation recently partnered with Kitchen“We usually have cards and then we Aid, an appliance have lunch after, and company, on a we usually put in national level to money for prizes for “We’ll probably wear help raise funds by the cards. So what we encouraging peosomething pink and we decided to do was ple to host gettake that money, the have little pink ribbons money that we would togethers and parties for family and use to prepare lunch they sent us to wear friends. Visitors are and for the cards.” asked to make a Instead of the reguand stuff like that.” donation of cash lar spread of sandinstead of spending wiches, cookies and Elaine Underhay money on customdesserts, the group ary gifts for the will just have tea and host, such as flowers, wine or food. toast at their next gathering.

Underhay and five of her close Underhay is a retired high school friends have been meeting to play cards and have lunch together twice a month See “Experiences,” page 22

MAY 8, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

ELAYNE GREELEY Visual Artist

I

t was the bog’s silence that startled Elayne Greeley. But the silence allowed her to hear the pitcher plants singing and the stillness allowed her to see them move.

“I know it’s a little bit crazy when artists start talking about pitcher plants moving and singing,” Greeley tells The Independent.

“It’s a little pitcher plant,” she says of a particular painting that will be difficult to part with, “and I was drawing the pitcher plant singing, because when your in the bog and you’re sitting there for a couple of hours in the bog — they actually … move.”

Greeley laughs at herself and admits it’s not often she wants to keep her paintings around.

“You’ve gotten to know it, you’ve had a relationship, you talked for a long time and … I’m like, ‘Go on, you’re reared.’”

It’s been nearly a year since Greeley began her artist’s residency in Terra Nova National Park, the product of which is With This Freedom: Maybe

you can find some peace, a solo show at reflection on the pieces I was working the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art in St. with,” she says. “These pieces — I was John’s. in there.”

“The first week She says the and a half was a focus of the show real challenge “I know it’s a little bit crazy — which inbecause I hadn’t cludes her tradeworked on my art mark female when artists start talking 24 hours a day imagery — is a about pitcher plants since art school, contrast between which was over 10 the rough trails moving and singing.” years ago. So I of the park verwas shocked by sus the almostElayne Greeley the silence and I landscaped was living by camping trails myself and I worked like a fiend and and the colours of a late-Newfoundland made almost an entire show in a month spring fading into summer. … but there was an awful lot of time for “What I found was that I had much

more of a connection with the interior bogs of the park,” she says. “I’m trying to ask the viewer how much of an animal is plant-like and how much of a plant is animal-like.”

Many of the pieces were started in the park and finished throughout the year.

“It’s probably a little bit more of a narrative.”

Greeley paints as much as she can, but says she’s not interested in the isolation of a studio. She teaches painting and is busy raising her five-year-old son.

“You can only be so productive and you still have to pay the mortgage.”

— Alisha Morrissey

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

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Hitchhiker’s Guide a long ride The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Starring Martin Freeman 1/2 (out of four)

T

he opening narration of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, reminiscent of the beginning of The Gods Must Be Crazy, leads into a catchy theme song and performing dolphins that help conjure up visions of Busby Berkeley’s aquatic choreography featuring Esther Williams. This unusual combination hooks us right away, and we experience difficulty in suppressing our glee. After all the rumour and speculation that has spanned nearly two decades, the motion picture incarnation of Douglas Adams’ radio play, series of novels, TV miniseries, stage play, record album, computer game, comic book, and beach towel, is finally here, and if the opening is any indication, the movie doesn’t suck.

Unfortunately, while the picture opens with a bang, any momentum it could have developed peters out by the halfway mark, when less than an hour begins to feel like four, with no end in sight. There are moments of amusement along the way, however, that along with exuberant and capable performances keep this in the air, but it’s pretty shaky at times.

Arthur Dent just has his morning tea poured when his whole world turns upside down. Rushing to his front yard he finds a demolition crew preparing to flatten his house, facilitating a proposed bypass that is set to run straight through his property. Little does he know, but his predicament is like a scaled down version of what is to happen soon there-

TIM CONWAY Film score after.

While Arthur tries to have the work stopped, his best friend, Ford Prefect, shows up and tears him away from the action. At a nearby pub, Ford confesses that he’s really from another planet, and that the Earth is going to be destroyed in less than 15 minutes to make way for an intergalactic freeway. All’s not lost, however, for Ford manages to hitch a ride for both of them on a spaceship.

So it is that regular guy Arthur Dent gets an up close and personal look at the workings of the universe, learning that we’ve never come close to understanding any of it.

Although Douglas Adams passed away a few years before production began on the film, he had set out most of the plot and characters in a screenplay that he had been developing for years. A more experienced screenwriter, Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run), was hired to continue his predecessor’s work, while Garth Jennings was chosen to direct his first feature film. If we recall that Chicken Run, as entertaining as it was, lacked the same punch as the Wallace and Grommit shorts that preceded it, we can assume that there’s a possibility that Kirkpatrick’s screenplay could have offered challenges to even the most seasoned director. In the hands of novice Jennings, who was more than likely frequently reminded of the need to appeal to American audiences, the energy we experience at the beginning of the pic-

Beacon back in time

Lighthouse book and exhibition teaches history to Newfoundland children

Artist Les Noseworthy

Samples from Noseworthy’s 70-piece exhibit.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Martin Freeman stars as Arthur Dent.

Cinesite

ture has all but dissipated by the first half hour, with the occasional spurt of gusto in zero gravity propelling us slowly along.

Martin Freeman (The Office) makes for a fitting Arthur Dent, and Mos Def is a lively, yet sage Ford Prefect. The bright spot among the actors is Zooey Deschanel’s Trillian, who manages to inject high-spirited energy into the action, but unfortunately, spends too much time on the sidelines. Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the twoheaded President of the Universe, does his best, and while his best is better than most, his Beeblebrox is just hard to

take, especially the manner in which his two heads manifest themselves.

The audience favourite, apparently consistent with the previous incarnations of the story, is Marvin the paranoid android. Whether it’s a departure from before or not, this Marvin seems to be more chronically depressed than paranoid, and whenever he becomes involved in the action, or is called upon to deliver a line, the viewer immediately snaps out of the haze for a chuckle or two.

The international popularity of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy suggests that before now, there was something unique there, something insightful

and witty. Without the benefit of experience, one would have to guess that the motion picture version has fallen prey to the same convention of recent years regarding British material. Setting sights on the American audience, and feeling the need to temper the wit, humour and language to appeal to a perceived lower common denominator, pictures from the U.K. have lost their edge.

As a result, while often amusing, and occasionally inspired, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes across as the kind of film that the reserved Arthur Dent would make, when what we need is Trillian’s fearless daring.

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A book of the paintings was commissioned and more than 4,000 copies have been sold — not in bookstores, but strictly through the alumni. The alumni eventually created a not-forprofit educational tour throughout the province for Grade 5 students, where Noseworthy travels to a school and teaches the students how to draw their own lighthouses. A $500 scholarship fund has been set up and will be distributed soon.

vas. Each child participates in the painting of the lighthouse landscape, then paints a flower in the foreground.

The teacher fills in the centre of each flower and the painting is hung inside the school. The class then takes a trip to see the exhibit at Cape Spear. Each student receives an art kit from the alumni.

When Noseworthy agreed to hang the paintings in conjunction with the alumni he had a few conditions.

“My deal with the Canadian Coast Guard Alumni is that they (the paintings) have to be on public display and they all have to be together — where everyone has a chance to see them,” he says.

Noseworthy has been painting since he can remember (“I was painting out of the cradle.”) and though he has a successful commercial career, he says he prefers doing work for himself.

(And the coast guard alumni, of course.)

“What I am doing is documenting fairly realistically what I see,” he says. “I have a gift and that’s why I’m going out to schools, to help give back the gift. That’s my purpose.”

Noseworthy’s current project is painting what he’s been seeing from Cape St. Francis to the Battery in St. John’s. With 28 paintings already completed, Noseworthy says he’s painting the view because it’s disappearing.

“I don’t want to save lighthouses,” he says. “I consider myself an artist who has been given a gift. I am just a painter — I have been all my life — and I’ve been very fortunate that the Atlantic coast guard has decided to retain these for the public.”

O

nce upon a time a beautiful art exhibit — one that was never to be separated or sold — was locked away in a tower atop a Cape Spear hill.

While anyone was free to visit the art, only the children of Newfoundland and Labrador and tourists knew where to find it.

But a book in its fifth printing may be the key to unlocking the secret art exhibit, allowing all people of the province to discover and enjoy its beauty.

Artist Les Noseworthy created the more than 70-piece exhibit — depicting historic lighthouses of Newfoundland and Labrador, buildings that still exist and others that have been toppled by time — almost by accident.

The two-year lighthouse project began 10 years ago when Noseworthy and his wife took a trip to a favourite family camping spot in Point Riche on the Northern Peninsula. While there he began some sketches and took photographs of the community lighthouse.

“A year later I went back up there … absolute shock. What was there was there no longer,” he tells The Independent. “Burnt.”

While the lighthouse itself was still in tact, all the outer buildings — including the lighthouse keeper’s house — had been torched by vandals.

It was then Noseworthy realized the value of the historic buildings and the fact they were disappearing.

While working on the project, Noseworthy met a few people who provided background for the work, but it was a chance meeting with a member of the Canadian Coast Guard that set the stage for a permanent exhibit.

Ten years later, Noseworthy stands in the former lighthouse keeper’s house atop Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America, explaining the evolution of the paintings.

Coast guard alumni representatives Jerry Duggan and Kevin Dormandy talk enthusiastically about the evolution of the permanent exhibit/philanthropy/art education program.

“I consider myself an artist who has been given a gift.

I am just a painter — I have been all my life — and I’ve been very fortunate that the Atlantic coast guard has decided to retain these for the public.”

Les Noseworthy While the exhibit at Cape Spear is open to anyone from May to September, it is the children of Newfoundland and Labrador who know the most about it because of classes spent with Noseworthy.

“Grade 5s are like sponges and they’re uninhibited too — they don’t care,” says Noseworthy.

Coast guard alumni teach students about the history of lighthouses and then Noseworthy arrives with a can-

MAY 8, 2005

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

IN CAMERA

Tales from

Frank Maher talking to tourist Anke Wiechel and St. John’s resident Paula Flynn.

Known as the “outport” on the hill, the Battery in St. John’s has a breathtaking view of St. John’s harbour on one side, and The Narrows (what locals call the slit that is the harbour entrance) on the other. It’s been described as “one of the special places in the world,” where avalanches have been known to happen and tourists are always walking by.

Photo editor Paul Daly and writer Clare-Marie Gosse spent a morning in the Battery recently. This is their report:

T

he Battery in St. John’s is a “poster child” (in the words of resident, award-winning producer Chris Brookes) for Newfoundland and Labrador tourism, but the clustered “outport” on the hill is about more than looks alone.

Behind the bright, chaotic landscape lies a deep history, a modernday dilemma and neighbours so multifaceted that a morning spent knocking on doors could become a case study on character.

The people of the Battery have encountered fatal avalanches, collapsed livelihoods, over-zealous tourists, rocketing taxes, stunning views and enduring camaraderie over the years.

Frank Maher, a traditional musician and local resident, is one person who knows all the tales.

Maher, 71, grew up in the neigh-

bourhood, but moved out in the late 1950s when he got married and realized his two-bedroom, cliff-side home was too small to manage an impending family. He never misses a chance to return.

Maher’s passion for the area is blatant, and he still knows all the locals.

“Did you know the Battery out here has the first zip code in Canada?” he tells The Independent. “A1A 1A1.”

Walking up Battery Road to Fort Waldegrave Lane, Maher points out various houses along the way, recalling owners, past and present.

“It’s still as cluttered … Mrs. Welsh lived here, I think. She had 22 children.” He gestures to an impossibly tiny cottage.

Maher stops at a green house called Gary’s B & B, and knocks.

Gary’s out of town, but his housemate Judy Tobin opens the door and welcomes him in. She gives an

A view of the old stages

impromptu tour, explaining the home isn’t technically a bed and breakfast anymore.

“It used to be … we’re just going to not really advertise and if someone comes that’s great.”

On the ground floor is a “meditation room,” containing mats and pillows and a two-wall, window view of The Narrows. Tobin says sessions are held every Tuesday.

Downstairs in the kitchen, she points to a corner of the wall. Jutting out from the smooth plaster is a piece of the rocky cliff the house is built against. Water trickles down into a small basin-shaped hollow.

“It’s good for posterity,” Tobin says of the water. “It (the cliff) was covered and then Gary did some renovating.

He used to have his kitchen sink here and then they just exposed the rock.

And just finished the pond in January actually.”

Back at the front door, mailman Max Butler drops off the morning post. Flushed and slightly out of breath, he says working the Battery can be a tough route — especially when it’s snowing.

“Even at the best of times, as you’re going through gardens and behind houses you don’t really know what’s in front of you, unless you’re familiar with the area … we just forge through it, do it for the customer.”

He stops and drops off mail to one of the more outlandish homes on the strip. A multi-layered, bright yellow, box-shaped house adorned with cartoon characters. There’s no visible

street number.

Maher says the elderly owner, eccentric musician Bert Sparkes, is in the hospital after suffering a stroke.

Many of the Battery’s long-term residents feel the stress of age.

Stopping off at No. 70 (Jack Well’s Twine Store), Maher’s childhood friend, now a retired fisherman, welcomes him in with a whisper.

Wells is 72, healthy and hale, but recovering from a throat operation to remove a tumour. Within the workshop/bar where regular Thursdaynight darts matches are held, Maher reminisces about hanging out with neighbourhood boys and drinking home-brew.

The friends also remember a not-

Mailman Max Butler

so-happy time: the avalanche that pounded the vulnerable community on February 16, 1959, after a storm with winds reported to be as high as 220 kilometres per hour, struck St. John’s.

It was the third and most recent major avalanche recorded in the Battery’s history. Two houses were destroyed, several people were buried and injured and five people were killed — including Wells’ young nephew, Teddy.

Wells’ own mother had a narrow escape.

“I came home at 11 o’clock,” he says. “She used to sit in front of the stove knitting until two or three in the morning and I said, ‘You go to bed,’

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

the Battery

Old and new.

Judy Tobin looking out at the view from Gary’s B&B.

Barbara Garland outside her house at the beginning of the Outer Battery trail.

and she went to bed. If she didn’t, she’d have been killed. The chair, the stove, everything went through the wall.”

Perched precariously overlooking the ocean, the people of the Battery share a love-hate relationship with the environment. Their livelihoods once depended on the fishery and the ocean outside never lets them forget what they’ve lost.

Along from Wells’ store, leading up to the beginning of the Outer Battery trail, various sets of rotting, wooden steps lead down to fishing wharfs.

Dilapidated outhouses and old fishing nets and traps flank wooden boards once used for splitting and drying cod.

The area — which has a breathtaking

Hikers walk the Outer Battery trail.

view of the St. John’s harbour on one side, and The Narrows on the other — is literally crumbling into the sea.

“This was blocked with, Jesus, 50 or 60 motor boats around here,” says Maher, walking over the splintered wharf. “There was always something on the go back then, fishing alone. It was enormous, tremendous.”

Back up on the road, at the end of the line, stands No. 45, Outer Battery Road.

Barbara Garland lives in the white house with the wooden deck that unofficially marks the start of the popular Outer Battery trail. Every year, particularly in the summer, thousands of hikers and tourists trek over her front porch.

“It don’t bother me none,” she says, poking her head out the window.

Garland has to put up with a few difficulties for the pleasure of living in the home her father built on the hillside.

Last summer, visitors went down onto her wharf to smoke and accidentally set fire to it. Because people often assume No. 45 is a tourist outlet, Garland had to rope off the precarious steps to the waterfront and put up a Private sign on her front door.

“I had to put a sign there because people used to come in, open the door and walk in because they thought I was part of Parks Canada. We’d be sat down at the table and, ‘Oh, sorry, this is a private home.’”

Tourists have put dog-poop bags in her garbage and popped in to use the bathroom, but Garland says she would never move despite generous buy-out offers.

“I’m always getting phone calls to sell. I’m not selling … no, I wouldn’t care. I love it out here. They took Dad out of here on a stretcher and they’re going to have to do the same with me.

I am not moving.”

The Battery has become a soughtafter neighbourhood in recent years.

Chris Brookes and his wife live a short way back up the road from Garland, perched a little higher on the hillside at No. 29. They bought the house directly in front of them a few years ago when it went up for sale,

fearing someone else would build it up — potentially obstructing their view.

Today, the city has much stricter guidelines to monitor construction in the Battery. Houses can be no higher than two or three storeys and must be in keeping with the general environment.

Brookes, who’s lived on the Battery since 1989, says rising house prices have hiked up local taxes.

“That place sold for $200,000 bucks,” he says, pointing out his window to a house further down the street. “I know it sold in the early ’90s for $40,000 so … the problem is, it’s OK for the guy from Virginia, but what about the long-term residents who have been here for — I don’t mean myself — but any of the longterm residents who have been here all their lives, whose parents, whose families have been here?”

Brookes is hoping to encourage the city or a local heritage foundation to take on the task of preserving the Battery’s historical wharfs and has offered to take city planners out for a boat tour along the waterfront.

Brookes is fiercely loyal to the people and place he’s come to call home.

“I really think it’s one of the special places in the world … the neighbours are just lovely, lovely people and I wonder if part of it is because it’s such a small community, maybe that’s what it is, I don’t know… a big snow storm comes, the city doesn’t plow the road and here you all are, stuck out here together.”

MAY 8, 2005

22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Life at the Howard Johnson There, there,

By Patrick Warner Signal Editions, 2005.

Johnson,” is perhaps most indicative of Warner’s sly but ultimately serious bent. Here, “where the icemaker/dumps only jackpots in the plastic pail” every sign of human existence is

MARK CALLANAN On the shelf

P

atrick Warner is the latest Newfoundland poet to have been attracted by the wiles of Montreal’s Véhicule Press. Under their Signal Editions imprint, the house has already published John Steffler’s Helix: New and Selected Poems in 2002 and Mary Dalton’s Merrybegot in 2003; the launch of Warner’s There, there just over two weeks ago marks their third Newfoundland offering.

At a mere 49 pages, Warner’s second poetry collection is both slim and tightly focused.

Ranging from playful experiment with common expressions such as the Paul Muldoonesque “The Pig Lyric” (“He had thought himself in pig,/about to drive his pigs to market,/from which he’d return on the pig’s back,/nibbling pig in a blanket”) and “Maximum Life,” an insurance brokerage sestina, to poems in a more contemplative mode such as the meditative “Tortoise at Toronto Zoo”, There, there showcases a poet in full flight of fancy.

Warner is happy to let his poems take him where they will, carried along by a barely contained verbal ecstasy, a confluence of rhythm and rhyme that pulls the reader away from too solemn a consideration of life — which is not to say that Warner cannot be serious, but his style is such that humour is never far removed from delivery. Like mischievous children at a church service, these poems crack jokes aloud and tug their sister’s hair, pull faces and loudly masticate the host, even as they participate in the divine.

His tone is often rueful as in the self-effacing

“The Lapse” where the introduction — “I was doing voices from the Exorcist:/Can ya spare a quarter for an old altar boy, Father? /La plume de ma tante,/when I drifted off the road and hit a hydrant” — catapults the reader into a nearreligious examination of the struck fire hydrant. Warner’s ability to conduct a robust and electric energy through his lines, first evidenced in 2001’s All manner of misunderstanding, is in full form again in There, there, achieved by the alternate use of the kind of concussive and slippery diction found in “Gumshoe” and often unabashed rhyme: Packed in pick-up trucks they arrive at dawn, these small, overalled, dark-skinned men, from countries south of the Rio Grande, who tend to the trees and bushes and lawns[.]

The back-cover promotional text describes these poems as occasionally “surreal in mood,” and it is easy to see why with such dreamscape narrative progressions as “Water Street West: gauntlet of drunks/sinking fangs into Lysol cans./Hooray for all the young people!/Pigeons tending to opalescent plumage” from “Hike”, or “think igneous and metamorphic/and rockslab as library/and library as ossuary/and ossuary as primrose bouquet” from “Ossicle.”

In such cases, language bounds from association to association, building narrative progression from a fast and agile logic.

The collection’s final piece, “The Howard

wiped away, the toy shampoos refilled, the suckered, rubber bathmat rolled, the nine denominations of facecloths and towels folded and hanging on a rail[.]

It is a place “where the weight of evidence leans/toward one’s never having been.” This is a poem much more serious than its puckish delivery might suggest; a meditation on impermanence, the ease with which all record of a single human life can be erased and how, cosmically speaking (and in keeping with Warner’s metaphor), humanity is no more than a pinch of dying ember tipped into a hotel room ashtray. As consolation for such devastating revelations, the poet offers only the worldweary, pat assurance of a mother to her child in “The Pig Narrative”: “There, there, my pet.”

Warner’s poems can be comical (“She worked in claims for Maximum Life./Her specialty was accidental death”), tender (“you laid your hand on the top of my head./It was August; you wore a summer dress”), brutal (“What is it that stops the baker from crawling/into his own oven to incinerate himself?”) or any combination of the above. But whatever their individual methods they are always enlightening in their implied connections, sublime in their musical inventiveness and, ultimately, evidence of a fine craftsman at work.

There, there is essential reading.

Mark Callahan is a writer and reviewer living in Rocky Harbour. His next column appears May 22.

Experiences left strong impressions From page 17 secretary, originally from Heart’s Content. She lives with her husband Boyd, in St. John’s and the couple have three daughters, Gina, Lisa and Nicole.

Five years ago the family went through a particularly difficult time when 28-year-old Gina was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a type of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system. “… and one of my brothers had cancer and my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law,” says Underhay.

All family members have since made full recoveries, but the experience has obviously left a strong impression on Underhay, who says she hopes other people in the community might decide to hold Cook for the Cure parties.

She says her friends are “all for it.

“We’ll probably wear something pink and we have little pink ribbons they sent us to wear and stuff like that.”

HIGH STATISTICS Statistics show one in nine Canadian women will be directly affected by breast cancer in their lifetimes. An average of 98 Canadian women die of the condition every week and last year 45 men, in total, died.

KitchenAid has offered to donate $50 to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for every Cook for a Cure party held and will donate a further $50 for every additional party hosted by a guest.

Information on KitchenAid Cook for the Cure can be found at www.kitchenaid-cookforthecure.ca or by calling 1-800-618-CURE

EVENTS MAY 8 2005 Motorsport Festival, presented

by Extreme Monster Trucks, Mile One Stadium, 7 p.m., 576-7657.

Understanding the Accident/Incident Investigation Process Accident/Incident Investigation This practical workshop will provide OH&S professionals and other stakeholders with an overview of accident/incident investigation process as it relates to the management of occupational health and safety programs. Participants will gain knowledge of: þ the benefits of reporting and investigating accidents and incidents þ the role of A/I investigations in building an effective OH&S program þ the legislative requirement to conduct investigations þ a strategic, effective investigation procedure þ the A/I investigation team; who should be involved and what are their roles þ what accidents or incidents should be investigated plus much more...

Locations St. John’s ........................May 17 ........Guv’nor Inn .................8:30 am - 4:30 pm St. John’s ........................May 18 ........Guv’nor Inn .................8:30 am - 4:30 pm Corner Brook ..................May 25 ........Holiday Inn..................8:30 am - 4:30 pm Labrador City .................May 27 ........The Carol Inn ..............8:30 am - 4:40 pm Grand Falls-Windsor .......May 31 ........Mount Peyton Hotel .....8:30 am - 4:30 pm Registration is free and lunch will also be provided.

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

PRIME

MAY 10 Red Sky, an Aboriginal performance, Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre, 643-4553.

Open Mic at O’Reilly’s Irish Newfoundland Pub: 8:00 p.m., with host Larry Foley, 722-3735.

PREVENTION WORKSHOP SERIES

The new standard for determining your workers’ compensation assessments

MAY 9 The Le Leche League breastfeeding support group of St. John’s will be holding their monthly information session at 8p.m. at 73 Jordan in Shea Heights, call Fiona 754 5957 or Helen 437 5097.

www.whscc.nf.ca

MAY 11 Dr. Wilf Nicholls will lead a relaxed stroll through the flower garden at MUN Botanical Garden, pre-registration required, 737-8590.

Real-life CSI: Forensic Medicine, 7:30 p.m., lecture theatre B of the School of Medicine, in the Health Sciences Centre, call Diana Deacon 777-7077.

Elayne Greeley will talk about her solo exhibition; With This Freedom: maybe you can find some peace, Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, 8 p.m., 722-7177.

MAY12 Mr. Invisible at the LSPU Hall, St. John’s, 7:30 p.m., tickets $8 each, family rates available, 753-4531.

St. John’s Storytelling Circle: A Night of Tales 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. at the Crow’s Nest Officer’s Club, 6853444.

Fairmont Newfoundland Wine Club, interactive & informative classes starting at 8 p.m., $25.00 per person, 758-8194.

Dr. John Rollins, a former award-winning U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

official will be in St. John’s to discuss a breakthrough wellness technology.

To reserve a seat please call 747-4411.

5th annual Provincial Teacher Recruitment Fair, G.A. Hickman Building, Room 5005, St. John’s Campus of MUN, 726-3223 ext 228 or 726-3000.

MAY13 Gonzaga High School Presents A Call to Arms, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m., 729-3200.

Blue Rodeo in concert at Mile One Stadium with special guests, Matt Mays and El Torpedo. Call 576-7657.

The Navigators at O’Reilly’s Irish Newfoundland Pub, 11:30 p.m., 7223735.

MAY14 Sound Symposium Presents … jazz pianist Jeff Johnston at 8 p.m., D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music as a fundraising event for Sound Symposium, tickets $20 general admission.

Big Night Out - Dinner And a Show hosted by Krysta Rudofsky. 7 p.m., Majestic Theatre, $37.50 + tax for dinner and a show or $15.00 for show only, 728-3182 or 579-3023.

IN THE GALLERIES With this Freedom, Elayne Greeley, Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, 722-7177.

La Raza at the James Baird Gallery, until May 18, free, 726-4502.

Cultural Barometer: A statement on the state of the arts in Newfoundland and Labrador. Featuring the work of Michelle Baikie, Cathy Driedzic, Elayne Greeley, Nikki Hart and more, until June 12, 2005 at The Resource Centre for the Arts, 753-4531.

Art in the Garden 2005, paintings and pixels will be on display at MUN Botanical Garden from May 6 to May 29, with painter Betty Hall and photographer Justin Hall,737-8590.

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 8-14, 2005 — PAGE 23

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

Fishermen raised the Nova Scotia flag prior to leaving St. John’s harbour for the crab grounds May 6.

Fare thee well, off to Nova Scotia Crab prices traditionally higher in Maritimes; fishermen say going there a ‘last resort’

By Jamie Baker The Independent

A

lthough the price for crab in the Maritimes is often 30 cents to 60 cents per pound higher than in Newfoundland, fishermen say the decision to take their catch elsewhere has nothing to do with economics.

Embroiled in a bitter dispute with government over the proposed raw materials sharing system, many local fishermen are expected to catch crab this week and land it in Nova Scotia. Although they could conceivably make more money by going to another province, fishermen say cash has never factored into deciding whether to land their catch here at home.

They say they do it to support their province’s industry and workforce.

“I don’t know if we’d do much better

landing it here, I don’t know if we’d do as good,” says fisherman Tom Fennelly. “The only time somebody will go to Nova Scotia is if what you’re bringing in can’t be handled here or if you’re getting a low price.

“Nobody from this neck of the woods goes to Nova Scotia unless there’s no alternative.”

The price paid for crab on wharves in Newfoundland and Labrador last year averaged $2.47 per pound. In Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the price ranged between $2.75 and $3 per pound.

Although the price for crab in this province has yet to be determined, as of late last week fishermen were getting $2 per pound in PEI — a 30 per cent decline from 2004’s price.

Officials with the province’s Fisheries Department say there’s much more to the

picture than just straight-up price. They maintain the extra expenses associated with bringing a catch to Nova Scotia, along with the lower quality of product, would actually reduce profits for fishermen.

Besides market conditions, quality issues and the cost of sailing to Nova Scotia, provincial government officials say fishermen will also face extra expenses with acquiring bait and ice because Nova Scotia processors don’t supply those items like they do in this province.

Officials also say such a move would be limited to larger boats with salt water systems (which keep the crab alive longer) because, otherwise, the mortality rate of the catch would be too high by the time fishermen got there.

Fennelly doesn’t agree with those estimations.

Some fishermen on the province’s south coast, he says, have sailed consistently to Nova Scotia without the salt water systems.

“Don’t think it can’t be done, because it can. Look at the crowd in 3PS (south coast of the island) that regularly go to Nova Scotia with their crab — they’re probably in 45- or 50-foot boats. The size of the boat won’t prevent a guy from going there.”

The raw materials system is set up as a two-year pilot project — although government recently offered to cut it back to one year — and caps the amount of crab each plant can process. The caps for each individual plant will be decided by an arbitrator in relation to the proportion of available crab in each region. In essence, each plant will receive a guaranteed amount of crab to process.

Fishermen, who claim the plan puts total control in the hands of processors, have protested against the plan at the House of Assembly, staging blockades of the harbours in St. John’s and Placentia Bay. Going to Nova Scotia with crab is considered by most fishermen to be the last available means of protest.

“I don’t think there’s one fisherman that wants to bring their crab up there … they’re struggling with it because they don’t want to do it,” says Fennelly. “But inaction is not going to solve this.

“Going to Nova Scotia is the last resort but that resort is going to happen this weekend … they’re going to be gone Monday.”

The politics of it all I

n our collective wisdom we chose to have a minority government. Such governments work well in many jurisdictions — Ireland, for example, has had a coalition government for 20 years. With minority governments comes compromise that often results in someone not being happy.

This time it was the business community that felt wronged. Long awaited and required business tax cuts were announced in the 2005 budget. The planned cuts were to come later rather than sooner, but at least business felt the problem was recognized.

We all now know politics preempt-

SIOBHAN COADY

The bottom line ed economics and the budget is being amended to include more spending and less tax reform.

Canadian business competes in a global environment. Ignore this at our peril. Over the life of the Bush administration major tax cuts have been announced in order to stimulate the economy.

The total tax burden is less in the

United States, at about 30 per cent, compared to over 40 per cent in Canada and aggressive competitive tax policies are necessary. The reality of it all is that Canadian business competes extensively with the United States and having a tax environment that is burdensome puts us all at a disadvantage.

I’ll go further to say that a serious look at our entire tax structure is required. Consider for many lowand modest-income families, the effective marginal tax rate (after factoring in income-tested benefits) is higher than 60 per cent and higher than the rate facing Canada’s top income earners.

I believe strongly that we must focus on economic realities and ensuring business can compete is essential. Having said that, I do support investments in Canada’s health care, education, communities, military and social programs. Everything in balance.

While I am relieved to hear tax changes will come under separate legislation, it has to come sooner rather then later.

Speaking of separate legislation …

The Atlantic Accord is important to business for reasons of economic growth and stimulation. We all have a vested interest in ensuring changes to the Accord will be realized. It has

taken far too long to get to this point.

There is much discussion these days, in light of the impending vote on the federal budget, that the Accord provisions should be in separate legislation.

At the risk of sounding partisan, changes to the Atlantic Accord are part of the omnibus bill for the budget so that it would be expedited. If it were a stand-alone bill it would take approximately a year to wind its way through Parliament, which is simply too long. The only other way to have it fast-tracked, outside the budget, would be to have the unanimous See “Have-not,” page 24

MAY 8, 2005

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

Dictating that half of all trades apprentices should be women unrealistic, critics say

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

U

nion and industry representatives describe as “unrealistic” a recent recommendation that half of all apprentice jobs in trades, technology and natural resource sectors be filled by women.

“That’s not going to happen,” says Gus Doyle, regional representative of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. He works with students from the Carpenters and Millwrights College in Paradise, where each class of 25 to 30 students has only one woman.

The Women’s Resource Development Committee, a women’s group focused on advancing participation by women in non-traditional roles, recently released a study that suggests women aren’t given the same opportunities as men in certain sectors.

The report — At a Snail’s Pace: The presence of Women in Trades, Technology and Operation in Newfoundland and Labrador — made 15 recommendations on ways to break down barriers associated with women entering trades and technology sectors.

The majority of recommendations were obvious: women should expect to work in a harassment-free workplace; women should have separate bathrooms; women shouldn’t lose seniority because they’re pregnant.

The most controversial recommendations had to do with forcing industry to hire a certain number of female apprentices.

Patricia Cantwell, director of human resources for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, participated in the study.

She says when she was asked to take part she told the committee she’d done the same survey years before.

“We want through this whole exercise 10 years ago … when affirmative action and employment equity were hot in 1989. (In) 1990 these were the same questions and I’m still answering them.”

Cantwell says Hydro would be “delighted” to hire females as half of their apprentices, but after a decade of recruiting she’s come to believe that women aren’t interested.

“I think it’s unrealistic, it’s not practi-

cal because if the candidates are not there then it’s an awful burden to the employers,” she tells The Independent.

“Plus, bringing in individuals under a quota system doesn’t add any credibility in that process.

“Those are just doomed to failure.

You’re setting people up for failure.”

Lorraine Michael, executive director for the Women’s Resource Development Committee, says women are available and interested in working in the trades.

“We said 50 per cent because we know the women are out there. There are women in every field with apprenticeships,” she says. “We know the women are out there and when the company is forced to find them, they find them.”

Statistics provided by the College of the North Atlantic’s trades and technology programs for 2002/2003 show that out of nearly 5,000 students about 800 were women.

Back at the union, Doyle says the school and union have been encouraging women to join the trades industry since they opened their doors — and not just to keep up appearances.

“I would prefer if we could encourage more women to take the trades because right now the federal government is looking at bringing in foreign workers and I think that’s a shame,” Doyle says. “We have a lot of unemployed people and we have a lot of jobs where women could fit in them quite easily — not only in my trade (carpentry), but in other trades as well.

“We do advertising, we go to the (high) schools, we do everything we can to encourage all students, but particularly women, to take an interest in the carpentry trade … the women in this province just haven’t got the interest.”

Speaking for Hydro, Cantwell says the company is gender neutral in almost every aspect.

“Speaking as an employer’s representative, we don’t care. We have a job that needs to be done and there’s a salary attached to it that Hydro believes is worth it. So as long as somebody has the experience or the credentials to do that sexual orientation, sexual preferences, background, religion, ethnicity, ability versus disability, none of that really matters.”

CHANGING COURSE

Transport Canada has released a study into Marine Atlantic with more than 40 recommendations, including phasing in three larger vessels, a 15 per cent drop in fares and relocating the Crown corporation’s head office to Port aux Basques from New Brunswick. Transport Canada and the province’s Transportation Department are reviewing the report.

Paul Daly/The Independent

BUSINESS IN BRIEF U.S. billionaire Allen to invest $1.6 billion in Bangladesh DHAKA (Reuters) — The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft plans to spend $1.6 billion building Bangladesh power and fertilizer plants, marking the second-biggest investment into the poor, but fast-growing nation.

Paul Allen, the world’s seventh-richest person according to Forbes magazine, will make the investment through Global Vulcan Energy International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of his personal investment vehicle, Vulcan Capital.

“We signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with the U.S energy firm, which will invest $1.6 billion in the next three years,” says Mahmudur Rahman, executive chairman of Bangladesh’s Board of Investment (BOI).

Vulcan will spend $900 million of

Allen’s $21 billion fortune building a number of gas-run power plants with a total 1,800 megawatts of capacity — equivalent to almost half of existing national capacity.

The new plants will help meet new demand, which is set to double to 7,000 megawatts by 2007, and make up a power shortfall that already stands between 500 megawatts and 700 megawatts.

Vulcan will also build two plants with the capacity to produce 140,000 tonnes of carbon-based organic fertilizer at a cost of $200 million, and set up a $500 million project to capture methane gas for power production from coal mines, Mahmudur says.

Allen’s injection of funds will be the second biggest in Bangladesh behind a $2.5 billion project by India’s Tata

group. Together, the two investments dwarf total foreign direct investment of $3 billion since Bangladesh became a nation in the early 1970s.

Half of Bangladesh’s population lives below the poverty line, and the nation is home to the third highest number of poor people in the world behind India and China, according to the World Bank. However, gross domestic product grew by six percent last year and is set to grow a further five percent in the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

Mahmudur says Vulcan’s president, Ford F. Graham, and other senior company executives, visited proposed plant sites last week and held meetings with Bangladeshi officials.

The firm will start a feasibility study this month, which will be completed within the next six months.

‘Have-not will be no more’ From page 23 consent of the Parliament — and it is well known that the Bloc would not agree to that.

It took 20 years and a number of prime ministers to reach a deal that would allow Newfoundland and Labrador to keep 100 per cent of its revenues from the offshore oil and gas.

It is important to this province, and to its people, that we bring this to fruition. All of our

Members of Parliament should vote in favour of passing the Atlantic Accord. To do otherwise is not in this province’s best interest.

Let’s not waste this opportunity to finally realize “have-not will be no more.” Racing to the polls can wait, at least until we have the cheque in hand. We have worked too hard, come too far, cried too often.

The bottom line is the needs of Newfoundland and Labrador, its people, and its economy should far out-weigh partisan politics.

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 25

‘Not that they don’t want to come’

BUSINESS IN BRIEF US lawmakers question whether Merck misled doctors

Cost of flights discourage Europeans from visiting province; fares tied to supply and demand

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Internal Merck & Co. Inc. documents show company salespeople may have misled doctors about heart problems linked to its oncepopular painkiller Vioxx, U.S. lawmakers say.

The documents raised questions about tactics the drugmaker used in training its 3,000 sales representatives charged with promoting Vioxx, including misleading handouts and instructions not to discuss negative findings.

“The goal was sales, not education,” says Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and ranking minority member of the House Government Reform Committee.

More than 100 million U.S. prescriptions were written for Vioxx by the time Merck pulled it from

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

T

Coming and going...St. John's International Airport.

While the Internet can be a resource for finding the cheap seats, Chard says buyer beware.

“And then you’ve got the Internet which is a completely different thing and sometimes they (airlines) will dump seats on the Internet,” Chard says, adding customers have to watch closely and accept that sometimes deals are too good to be true.

“There are times when you can go on the Internet and get weird and wonderful deals.”

He says two men in England booked a trip to Sydney, Australia online recently for a steal, and were slightly disappointed when their plane landed in Sydney, N.S. When it comes to travelling inside the country, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can expect to pay more for a flight than in other provinces because of higher taxes.

“If you as an individual, buy a ticket from St. John’s to Fort McMurray and it cost $1,000 — on that $1,000, because you’re in Newfoundland, you pay HST which is 15 per cent. Now if you’re in Fort McMurray and you buy a ticket to St. John’s, you’re only paying GST, which is 7 per cent,” Chard says.

Paul Daly/The Independent

“On $1,000, that adds up a bit.”

As for booking an international flight, he says competition is another reason airlines rise or drop their prices.

“If you’re sitting in Great Britain and you want to go to Toronto you’ve got a few choices. They’re (airlines) not here for the good of their customer they’re here for their bottom line.”

Air Canada isn’t forced to compete with airlines coming from other destinations to St. John’s so they don’t have to offer cheap rates to travellers, he says.

Tourism statistics for last year show air passenger traffic was up 13 per cent over 2003, with the number of passengers topping out at more than 305,000.

Those tourists spent more than $260 million in the province.

“To some extent it (expensive flights) is a deterrent but we’ve got other things … we as a smaller area have all sorts of advantages too,” Chard says.

For example, a hotel room in Toronto is, on average, much more expensive than in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We’re still a good destination,” says Chard, “but I guess from the point of view of the airlines there’s not a great deal in St. John’s.”

CRUISING

he high cost of airfare to Newfoundland and Labrador may deter international tourists from travelling here for a holiday.

A one-way flight from St. John’s to London, England in May on Air Canada costs $708 (plus taxes and surcharges), but the same flight from London to St. John’s costs $1,056.

A spokeswoman with the province’s Tourism Department tells The Independent officials have questioned Air Canada about fares and were told different rates of taxes and exchange rates have quite a bit to do with the cost of flights. The bigger issue, officials were told, is supply and demand.

While Canadians want to travel on European vacations, Europeans aren’t so interested in travelling to Canada — and even less to Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It’s not that they don’t want to come, they just don’t know the area so they (airlines) would market Toronto,” says Ches Chard, regional representative of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies.

“If somebody in Great Britain travels to Canada, unless they were related to Newfoundlanders or something, they wouldn’t think of Newfoundland.”

He says it’s a matter of marketing — especially for airlines like Air Canada.

“Air Canada knows that if the fare is low enough then there will be people who are tempted to get on a plane from Newfoundland and go to England,” Chard says.

“They look at it and say anyone who’s going to St. John’s from Great Briton has got a reason and we got them anyway so why should we give them a break.”

Isabelle Arthur, spokeswoman for Air Canada, says the number of flights and their demand are what dictate Air Canada’s rates inside and outside the country.

Airfare is also cheaper, depending on when and where the trip is booked.

the market last September after a study showed cardiovascular risk doubled with the drug, Waxman says.

Most were written after the concerns first arose nearly four years earlier, he added.

The documents were part of an ongoing, bipartisan committee investigation that began in November.

They included a card given to physicians that excluded negative data from the company’s VIGOR study completed in 2000, which also found some heart risk.

Memos to Merck’s sales force directed staff to avoid discussing VIGOR’s results — called an “obstacle” — and added that salespeople should focus on efficacy when talking to doctors.

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26 • INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION

MAY 8, 2005

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION • 27

MAY 8, 2005

28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Author Carrier (The Hockey Sweater) 5 Thick slice 9 Greek letter 12 Hurricane that flooded Toronto (1954) 17 Cultural intro?

18 Hard rain?

19 Drum or wig preceder 20 Moulding type 21 Prophesy 24 Unit of gem weight 25 Resounds 26 ___ a Long Journey (Mistry) 27 Charged particles 28 Hook shape 29 To be in TroisRiviËres 30 B.C. falls, highest in Canada 33 Black wood 36 Native language 37 Ashen 38 ___ Lanka 41 Site of Rita MacNeil’s Tea Room: Big ___, Cape Breton 42 Locks 43 Nfld. birthplace of Joey Smallwood 44 Eastern way 45 Debt letters 46 Whose ___ are you on?

47 Poet Crozier 48 Advanced 49 African fly 51 Middle East marketplace 52 Its capital is Damascus 53 Making gestures 57 Reflected light 60 Sudden attack 61 Loss of muscle coordination 64 Group of cows 65 Lying flat 67 Intense criticism 68 Life in Quebec 70 Classified ___ 71 Misery ___, Nfld.

72 All ___ and a yard wide 73 Created 74 Make lace 75 Anguillidae 76 Fiddlehead, e.g.

77 N.B. island: Grand ___ 78 Longtime labour leader Bob 80 Abacus unit 81 Actor/director McKellar 82 New York neighbourhood 84 Mountain top 85 Aglukark or Twain 88 Like sheep 90 Out of the ordinary

93 Hills and ___ 94 Lout 95 Healthy (Fr.) 96 Dairy dozen 97 Warn 98 Functional start?

99 Sort 100 Laundry unit DOWN 1 Knock 2 Fairy tale meanie 3 Gator’s cousin 4 Expensive (2 wds.)

5 Loafers 6 Highland girl 7 Small island 8 Kind of packaging for small objects 9 War and ___ (Tolstoy) 10 Biblical “has” 11 Anger 12 Ad ___ committee 13 Benefit 14 Ancient Persian prophet 15 Verve 16 A great deal 22 Prying 23 Make well 29 Shallowest Great Lake 30 Curse 31 Portoferraio’s island 32 Sun sign 33 Start for centre or glottis 34 Winter footwear

35 Responsibility 36 Youth in military training 37 Winter wear 39 Indian royal 40 Scintilla 42 Snake’s warning 43 Pianist Glenn 46 Stalk 47 Canadian composer Alexina ___ 48 N. American cat 50 Victorian oath 51 Meagre 52 Saturate 54 U.K. actor Jeremy 55 Heel (Fr.) 56 Type type: abbr.

57 Steps down to the Ganges 58 She was loved by a swan 59 Former 62 Terrible tsar 63 Verdi opera 65 Sonnet maker 66 Provoke 67 Car maker 69 Even in verse 71 Shar ___ dog 72 Most feeble 73 Anthologist Alberto 76 Noteworthy achievement 77 ___ Tremblant, Que. 79 Sharpener 80 Complaints 81 Author

Schoemperlen 82 ___ biscuit 83 Race track

84 Appeal to a deity 85 Make short cuts 86 Thus

TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 A new relationship has taken a downward turn. Rest assured that it's not your fault, Taurus, but rather a mutual acceptance that it won't work out. Seek greener pastures.

LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 It is time to give up on a project you've been tackling. Accept that it is beyond your grasp and that it should be left to a professional.

Swallowing your pride is difficult.

VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 A new member of the family causes you to reevaluate your own life, Virgo. It is time to take a hard look at the traits that bother you. Don't worry, you'll have support.

GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 You love to offer your opinion, Gemini, but sometimes you come across as callous. It may be better to hold your tongue if you have nothing nice to say.

LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 You have finally found your career groove. Enjoy the rush that success brings in the weeks to come.

Friends and family are jealous of your happiness, but it doesn't faze you.

CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 You've been spending a lot of time alone lately. Now you have the chance to get back out and enjoy what civilization has to offer. It will boost your spirits tremendously.

SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 It will be a roller coaster of emotions this week, Scorpio. Try to pull yourself together and stay grounded. Focus on your intellect to negate the irrational

91 Narrow beam of light 92 Hallucinogen Soloutions on page 30

POET’S CORNER

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 You may want to put pleasure before business this week, Aries, but that is not a wise decision.

Higher-ups are keeping their eyes on you, and it's imperative you make a good impression.

87 Indian music form 89 East in l’Estrie 90 Pea container

feelings you have.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 Activity, activity. Keeping busy is the only way you'll make it through the week, Sagittarius. Otherwise, you'll find yourself with too much time on your hands.

CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 Need some time away from it all?

Now is not the time for frivolous adventures, Capricorn. People are relying on you to take charge, not to avoid the issues.

AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 It's time to pitch in more, Aquarius, although you already do so much.

A relative needs your help desperately, so hop to it, and fast. You'll enjoy the rewarding feeling afterward.

PISCES - FEB 19/MAR20 If you're feeling like a failure, it's probably all in your head, Pisces.

Those around you know how capa-

ble you are. Cheer up.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS MAY 8 Enrique Iglesias, singer MAY 9 Candice Bergen, actress MAY 10 Bono, Singer MAY 11 Jonathan Jackson, actor MAY 12 Jason Biggs, actor MAY 13 Stevie Wonder, singer/songwriter MAY 14 Cate Blanchett, actress

The Old Salt’s Request

By A.C. Wornell Let me be Where the sea Ceaselessly Washes o’er Pebbly shore.

There I find Buoyant mind When the wind Doth combine With the brine Making sound All around Like a song For the strong.

Company For the free There I see …

Let me be By the sea!

A 1950 poem first published in the Poems of Newfoundland, a book edited by the late Michael Harrington.

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 29

MAY 8, 2005

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SPORTS IN BRIEF Bonds has third surgery on knee, delaying return RALEIGH (Reuters) — San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has undergone a third surgery on his right knee, further delaying his return.

On his website, Bonds confirms he had arthroscopic surgery on his knee for a bacterial infection on May 2.

Cheerleaders told not to ‘shake it’ anymore AUSTIN (Reuters) — Texas lawmakers have sent a message to the state’s high school cheerleaders: no more booty-shaking at the game.

The state’s House of Representatives voted 8555 to approve a bill forbidding sexy cheers and giving the Texas Education Agency authority to punish schools that allow “overtly sexually suggestive” routines at football games and other events.

The proposal must go to the Texas Senate for consideration.

“People are calling and telling me how disgusting it is to see sexually suggestive routines on the part of marching units or cheerleaders,” says state representative Al Edwards, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the bill.

He complains of cheerleaders “shaking their behinds, breaking it down,” but the proposal does not define what constitutes suggestive cheering.

Democratic state representative Senfronia Thompson, also of Houston, says the bill is a waste of valuable time.

“I think the Texas Education Agency has enough to do making sure our kids are better educated, and we are wasting our time with ‘one two three four, we can’t shake it any more?’” Thompson tells legislators.

Bidding battle intensifies LONDON (Reuters) — In exactly two months, the elegant Raffles Hotel in Singapore will be a simmering cauldron of intrigue when it stages the most bitterly fought vote in the history of the Olympic Games.

The hotel’s colonial-style salons and parlours will be overrun by bid officials, consultants, public relations people and spin-doctors desperately touting the rival claims of London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and the front-runner, Paris, to stage the 2012 Games.

Capriati set to miss Wimbledon OAKLAND (Reuters) — Former world number one tennis player Jennifer Capriati may not return to action until August.

“She’s still entered in Wimbledon, but she might not be back until sometime in August,” says Capriati’s agent Gavin Forbes.

A testament to level of talent From page 32 He was also all smiles with the autograph seekers.

English was on the Extreme Pita team with his two brothers, Kevin and Mike, along with Devereaux, Saxby, Sutton, and former MUN players Blair Kennedy and George English and senior veterans Gord Wall, Roger Ryan and Ron Whitten. By Newfoundland standards, that’s a lot of talent on one team. I, like many others, picked them to win the tournament. Many thought they would win it easily.

But — and this is testament to the level of talent in Gander — things didn’t turn out that way.

Pita lost the title game to Nova Physio by a bucket. It was an upset, but I wouldn’t classify it as a “huge” upset. Physio did have Benoite, Woods, Chapman and Pennie, along with rugged big men Bob Cooke and Kent Budden, so the talent was there.

Benoite, the tournament MVP who also played professionally in Germany this past season, is in awesome shape (but then again, he always has been and, seemingly, always will be) and I knew he’d present a good match-up for English. Sadly, I didn’t get to watch the championship game, but from accounts it was a classic.

•••

Kudos to Charles Dyke, who had the gumption and foresight to get the division one tournament on the go when it appeared it wouldn’t be played this year. After a strike cancelled last year’s event, it would have been in danger of slipping through the cracks. After a few years of not having the competition, it could lead to its demise.

Of course, Dyke was assisted by the fine folks in Gander’s basketball community, who did a super job once again in hosting the tournament.

I’ve played in many tournaments in Gander over the years, and they have always been memorable.

••• Speaking of memorable, I did get to play with the host Gander team in the tournament, and for that I’m grateful. Veteran point guard and Gander team leader Jimmie Mullet was looking for players and thought it wise to pick me up. After some haggling over how much I was to be paid, I agreed to suit up and put on a show. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same kind of show English and the rest put on.

But I had fun, committed a few fouls (when I could catch the guy I was guarding) and sank a few shots. But that was in warm-ups, the games were another story.

Bobby White writes from Carbonear. bobbywhite@hotmail.com

Buddy will miss ‘making people laugh’ From page 32 Puffin and saying ‘Hi Chris’.

“Nikolas has told everyone,” says Abbott with a laugh. “He’s told every one of his friends, all the kids in his class and people on the street. I think he’s pretty proud. To him it’s a big deal.

Not every kid can say their dad is Buddy the Puffin.”

As popular as Buddy is with the kids, a lot of adults who attend the Baby Leafs’ games are equally as fond of the giant puffin. Buddy frequently jostles with fans wearing an opposing team’s jersey, or with a season ticket holder he has got to know well over the years.

“When I walk up to somebody and give them a little shot on the arm, I can tell right away if they’re game,” he says. “Then I know I can have a good Solutions to puzzle on page 28

time with them. There are a lot of people down there I used to give a hard time to, and they know who they are.”

Abbott, 35, says over the years he portrayed Buddy, a lot of people in the Leafs’ organization helped him out. He already knew a lot of them since he also works in maintenance at Mile One Stadium, but adds that special thanks has to go to Glenn Stanford, Chris Schwartz, Heather Stead, Michelle Collins, Kim Berry, Troy Croft, and Colleen Reid.

“They went out of their way for me for as long as I can remember. They were really good to me and Nikolas,” he says. “I have nothing but good things to say about them.”

With the Leafs’ tenure in St. John’s now officially over, many in the city are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Quebec League’s Fog Devils. Although he has not had any contact with this organization, Abbott says he would like the opportunity to be the new club’s mascot, but adds that he understands it’s not his decision to make.

If he never pulls on his Buddy the Puffin outfit again, he says there are aspects of the job he will forever long for.

“The biggest thing I’m going to miss is making people laugh,” he says.

“Looking at the little kids faces when they see Buddy coming, that was amazing.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

MAY 8, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

‘I owe the game a great deal’ Don Johnson has a million hockey stories, but none are as dear to him as those involving his family often added stress. But with a sheepish grin and a reminiscent look in his eye, he also recalls the job providing plenty of bonuses.

“There were a lot of nice perks. I travelled all obody could ever accuse Don Johnson of leading a boring life. After just one look at over Europe and met kings and queens. It got pretthe St. John’s resident’s basement — an ty attractive, it gets to spoil you after a while,” he area his children refer to as “the museum” — a vis- says.

While serving as president, Johnson represented itor quickly discovers Johnson has lived a truly Canada at all International Ice Hockey Federation extraordinary life.

The walls are covered with hockey photos and meetings from 1975-1977 and at the World memorabilia from Johnson’s days as a player, Championships in 1976 and 1977. He was also coach, and hockey administrator. There are por- special assistant to Alan Eagleson for the inaugural traits from the five Canada Cups he helped organ- Canada Cup in 1976, a job he would retain in folize with Alan Eagleson, as well as signed photo- lowing Canada Cup tournaments in 1981, 1984, graphs from hockey greats, including Wayne 1987 and 1991. Despite the prestige and honour that accompanied such positions, Johnson insists Gretzky, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr. Newspaper clippings, team banners, and certifi- his greatest achievement had little to do with his cates of achievement litter the hallway and sur- international success. Instead, he says serving as round the television room, reminding anyone who CAHA president during the period when it became enters Johnson’s basement that this is the home of mandatory for all amateur hockey players in a man who will forever be connected to the sport Canada to wear helmets is what he is most proud of. he loves.

“That was serious business. There was an “I just enjoy the game,” Johnson tells The Independent. “Hockey has given me so many fond Alberta branch who stood up and said they were memories that I feel I owe the game a great deal.” withdrawing from the CAHA. They said they were Johnson, 75, was not born and raised in this never going to wear helmets,” Johnson says. province, but is as true a Newfoundlander as you “Sitting in the stands now, if I want to flatter will ever meet. He came here from his home in myself, I take a look at all the helmets and say ‘I Nova Scotia in 1959 when he was transferred to St. had a part in that’.”

Admitting he helped bring helmets to all amaJohn’s by his employer — Scotia Bank. He quickly fell in love with the way citizens treated one teur players is as close as Johnson ever gets to another and decided shortly after arriving he never bragging. The word modest does not even begin to describe the man who refuses to give himself too wanted to leave.

“All the good things people say about much credit, despite the fact he’s a member of both Newfoundland, I discovered in 1959,” he says. “I the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador and thought it was a great place to live and raise a fam- Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fames. ily.”

Given his contributions to the game, it is only Sitting comfortably in a La-Z-Boy chair in the centre of his homemade hockey shrine, Johnson fitting a major Atlantic hockey tournament bares smiles and has a short laugh when he discusses his name. The Don Johnson Cup, presented annuhow he became a member of the St. Pat’s senior ally to the Atlantic junior B hockey champions, has been presented since 1982. Johnson is usually on hockey team after moving to St. John’s.

A local sports reporter heard Johnson was a hand, as he was this spring in Port Hawkesbury, decent defenceman so he quickly asked him what N.S., to present the winning team with the cup, an religion he followed. Johnson thought that an odd honour he admits to enjoying.

“I’m human, so I enjoy seeing ‘Don Johnson question since religion played little part in his past hockey experiences, but soon found out that in Cup’ plastered all over a town,” he says with a big 1959 your choice of religion determined what smile.

Quickly leaning forward in his chair, an excited hockey team you played on in St. John’s.

“In those days they had the club system, which Johnson says although he’s honoured to have his legacy immortalized through the was all based on religion. To tournament, the way his name me, it’s too bad it’s gone, came to be attached to the event because it was a beautiful sysisn’t actually that special a story. tem with a lot of beautiful vol“You’ve got to have “I wish I had a fancy story unteers making it work,” says an interest in order about that, but the absolute truth Johnson. of the matter is that a pig farmer Although he only played to stay in the game in PEI deserves the credit for two years of senior hockey, naming the tournament,” says Johnson certainly went out and I’ll tell you right Johnson. “Robert Cousins wantwith a bang as he and his St. ed to organize an Atlantic chamPat’s teammates won the now for me it’s pionship and when he started Boyle Trophy (awarded to the going through the rule book, the city senior hockey champion at my grandsons.” only address he could find was the time, the award is currently mine. So he called me up and the top prize in provincial boys Don Johnson asked if I’d mind if he named a high school hockey) in 1960. trophy after me. I said ‘No boy, St. Pat’s topped St. Bon’s in you’d make my day’. We’ve the finals, after St. Bon’s had won the previous 16 Boyle Trophies. Johnson says become friends since and we still laugh about the the win was a perfect way to wrap up his playing story today.”

Although he has seen many spirited battles for days and is still a source of enjoyment all these the trophy, Johnson says his fondest memory came years later.

“I’m glad we beat them, but I’ve since realized I in the very first year the event was held in feel pretty sorry for St. Bon’s. In their history, they Kensington, PEI in the spring of 1982. After probably won more than 1,000 hockey games. watching his son Michael’s team, the Brother Rice They lost one important game, and that’s all Celtics, win the title, Johnson made his way to centhey’ve heard about for nearly 50 years,” Johnson tre ice to present the cup to Celtics’ captain David Goodland. Unknown to Johnson, Goodland had a says with a laugh.

Upon retiring as a player, Johnson became a plan of his own that would provide the trophy precoach in the senior hockey ranks. His greatest suc- senter with a life-long memory.

“That young fella stepped back, skated behind cess came as an assistant to Bob Babcock with the St. John’s Caps, helping guide the team to three the row of players and told Michael to go forward consecutive Herder Memorial Trophies from and accept the trophy from his father,” Johnson says with a great deal of emotion, wiping a tear 1972-1975.

Despite his achievements as a coach and a play- from his eye. “What a classy thing for a kid to do. er, Johnson’s best-known contributions to the When I looked up and saw Michael skating game came during his days on the administrative towards me, what a moment.”

As big a part as hockey as been in Johnson’s life, side. He became president of the Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association in 1965 and eventu- his family has always meant much more. Johnson ally moved on to the Canadian Amateur Hockey and his wife of 51 years, Florence, have successAssociation, of which he served as president from fully raised three children — Michael, Peter and Catherine. He says his children and his wife have 1975-1977.

Sitting atop the nation’s governing body for played huge roles in helping him achieve success hockey provided Johnson with a lot of work and in hockey and have always supported him.

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

N

Don Johnson

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

It is with great pride that Johnson now goes to the rink to watch the youngest members of his family play hockey — grandsons Steven, 11, and David, 10, Michael’s sons.

“You’ve got to have an interest in order to stay in the game and I’ll tell you right now for me it’s my grandsons,” he says.

Johnson watches every game his grandsons play, saying he plans to continue doing so until the young duo tells him not to.

“It’s fun to watch them. I suppose Grampy still thinks he’s a coach, so I’m always telling them things. I don’t know how they put up with me,”

Johnson says with a chuckle.

Considering all he has seen and accomplished in hockey, it would appear there isn’t much more for Johnson to achieve in the game. However, while once again whipping a tear from his friendly face, the loving grandparent admits he still has one goal he hopes to accomplish.

“If God said I’ll give you one favour, it would probably be to live long enough to present the Don Johnson Cup to one of my grandsons,” Johnson says. “That would be special.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

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SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 8-14, 2005 — PAGE 32

Paul Daly/The Independent

Buddy the Puffin, Chris Abbott.

Puffin stuffin’ Chris Abbott made people laugh for 11 years as Buddy the Puffin, although he wouldn’t mind continuing the job with the Fog Devils

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

C

hris Abbott is one of the best-known sports figures in St. John’s, even if most people don’t recognize him.

For 11 years, he played Buddy the Puffin at St. John’s Maple Leafs’ home games, exciting the crowd with his antics.

“For the 445 games I was Buddy, I’m proud of the work I did,” Abbott tells The Independent.

Although he wasn’t the original Buddy the Puffin, Abbott is the person most fans witnessed in the mascot’s outfit.

He frequently danced on hand rails between rows of seats, played air guitar at centre ice during intermissions, and teased fans, stadium employees and occasionally opposing players. Through it all, he almost always had a good time.

“I’m just grateful that I was able to do it as long as I did and that I was able to laugh as long as I did,” he says.

When he first began his tenure as Buddy, Abbott admits to being quite nervous.

Although the 10 years of dance lessons he took as a child helped him perfect his moves, performing in front of thousands of people was nerve wracking at the best of

times. It was even more difficult on nights the stands were only half full and the crowd less than enthusiastic.

“When the crowd is not into the game, then that’s where I earn my money,” he says.

“When a crowd is into it, that’s when it’s easy, especially when it’s a sell out crowd.”

Buddy the Puffin’s biggest fans are undoubtedly the many children who attended the Leafs’ home games. He was often seen giving high fives to his supporters, and was always more than happy to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

However, when you’re dressed in a giant puffin suit with a massive beak and giant

feet, the odd small child is bound to be afraid of you. The last thing Abbott wanted to do was put a damper on a kid’s night at the hockey game, so he was careful not to alarm any youngsters taken back by his appearance.

“Having a seven-year-old son (Nikolas), I know what kids are like,” he says. “When I walk into a section and see a kid with an ounce of fear, I just keep going. I don’t want to scare them.”

While Nikolas has always known his dad played Buddy the Puffin, the mascot’s identity was always a secret to much of the public … or at least it was supposed to be.

Nikolas simply couldn’t resist telling fellow kids that his dad was the one making everyone laugh during Leafs’ games, leading to more than a few fans passing Buddy the See “Buddy will miss,” page 30

Newfoundland’s basketball best touch down in Gander

L

ast weekend, Gander was witness to some of the finest hoops this province has seen in quite a

while.

The central town hosted the Newfoundland and Labrador Basketball Association division one men’s provincial championships, with five teams competing in a tournament that featured some of the best basketballers this province has ever produced.

On hand were many ex-Memorial Sea-Hawks, including the finest to suit up for MUN in the last decade or so.

Mike Woods, John Devereaux, Peter

BOB WHITE

Bob the bayman Benoite, Jeff Saxby, Matthew Chapman and Nigel Pennie joined many other former and current Sea-Hawks in a tournament that featured tight games, dunks, three pointers galore, and superb skills. Besides the ex-MUN gunners, the tournament also saw Richard Brenton, who hooped at Acadia and

played some professional ball overseas.

There were also a few elder statesmen, including Clarence Sutton, the Trepassey native who, in my humble opinion, ranks as one of the best basketball players and minds — even though he never got to show it at the Atlantic university level.

When Sutton played for MUN, the Sea-Hawks were not part of that conference. He also has the respect of all the above-mentioned players.

But, hands down, the reason there was so much excitement about the tournament was Carl English. I know I’ve

already used quite a few superlatives in describing the other players, but there’s no question Carl is the best basketball player this province has ever seen.

And it was nice to see him in this competition. He just finished his second season in the National Basketball Developmental League with the Florida Flame, where he was the top threepoint shooter in the league and finished in the top 10 in scoring.

In a world where thousands of talented ballers fight for roughly 400 NBA jobs, English is on the verge. To get over that hump, he’s got to find the

right situation to break in, but he has the skills. His Florida coach, ex-Boston Celtic great Dennis Johnson, drove him to the airport when he left Florida and essentially told English he didn’t expect him back in the D-League next season.

Johnson hopes English will be in the NBA soon. So do I. But I also liked the fact he showed up to play. Others in English’s position may have turned up their noses at the supposed inferior competition, but he was genuinely happy to be on the court.

See “A testament,” page 30