2005-05-22

VOL. 3 ISSUE 21

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 22-28, 2005

‘Strategic steps’

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OPINION PAGE 25 AND 11

SPORTS 36

Siobhan Coady gives Tories hard time, Crosbie says PM Third World despot

Colin Abbott swings for fence

TRAILER PARK TOYS

Abitibi considering transferring timber and power from Grand Falls to Stephenville, documents show JEFF DUCHARME

A

bitibi Consolidated is maintaining a nocomment stance regarding what will happen if the company proceeds with its plans to close down the No. 7 paper machine at its Grand Falls-Windsor mill.

But an internal company document reveals Abitibi may transfer timber rights and surplus electricity to its Stephenville operation.

Called “Strategic steps — Grand Falls”, the document reads: “Wood not required after shutdown of No. 7 would be directed to Stephenville.”

The Stephenville mill currently imports 70 per cent of its wood from the Maritimes and Labrador, while the Grand Falls-Windsor mill is self-sufficient.

Under provincial legislation, which calls for two machines to be operated at the Grand FallsWindsor mill until 2010, government could revoke the mill’s timber rights on Crown lands if one of those machines shuts down. Timber rights tied to No. 7 machine at Grand FallsWindsor represent 60 per cent of that operation’s current wood supply.

According to the document, Abitibi also intends to transfer some of the power it saves when it shuts down No. 7 to the Stephenville mill. An unsteady wood supply and high electricity bills have always been the Achilles’ heel of the Stephenville operation.

Natural Resources Minister Ed Byrne says he “wouldn’t link the wood from Crown lands to Stephenville.

“For the last 18 months, Abitibi have not indicated in any way, shape or form that wood supply was a problem for their operations in the province,” Byrne tells The Independent. “To quote their words to me, they’ve said the wood supply situation is very manageable.”

While the Grand Falls-Windsor mill generates 75 per cent of its own power requirements through a number of hydroelectric projects, the Stephenville operation has a $24 million yearly power bill.

Roger Pike, spokesman for the Abitibi mill in Grand Falls-Windsor, says sending the wood and power from Grand Falls-Windsor to Stephenville is only an option.

See “Always had a problem,” page 2

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “That’s what we’ve saved a little bit of money for, for those last days, there will be someone with her, holding her hand, 24 hours a day. We won’t leave her alone.”

— Rod Etheridge on his mother, Ceeley, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Page 20.

LIFE 17

Russian fisherman claims sanctuary in St. John’s church BUSINESS 25

Checking out groceries at a clerkless supermarket counter Life Story . . . . . . . 8 Paper Trail . . . . . . 8 Events . . . . . . . . . 23 Crossword . . . . . 31 Sports. . . . . . . . . . 36

The Tobin family settle in their 27- foot travel trailer in Pippy Park in St. John’s for the May 24th weekend. Parents Ron and Ann Marie, son Ryan on couch, daughter Melissa and friend Mitchell Lundrigan play a board game at the table.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

Police investigating police Sixty-two internal complaints were lodged against Constabulary officers last year; police association says bureau assigned to investigate isn’t independent enough ALISHA MORRISSEY

S

ixty-two internal complaints were logged within the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary between April 2004 and March of this year, The Independent has learned.

Alleged offences ranged from breech of firearm policy (4) and inadequate performance (6) to police vehicle accidents (5) and con-

duct unbecoming a police officer (20). The complaints were laid with the Constabulary’s professional standards bureau, with information obtained by The Independent through the province’s Freedom of Information Act. Justice Minister Tom Marshall says 18 officers were disciplined in 2004, compared to 24 in 2003, 25 in 2002 and 15 in 2001.

“It (discipline) depends upon the nature of the complaint. A lot of the complaints the Constabulary make against the officers and the chief

would be labour management matters,” Marshall says.

He says any criminal complaints would go to the deputy chief or chief.

“If the complaint is about wrongdoing on the part of an RNC officer there is this procedure in place and they would deal with their superior officers. They could complain to the chief. If their concern is with the chief they would then come to the Department of Justice,” Marshall says.

“Procedures are in place.”

Insp. Ab Singleton, head of the professional standards bureau, refused comment when contacted by The Independent, referring comment to Chief Richard Deering, who wasn’t available.

Const. Tim Buckle, president of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association, which represents police officers, says the professional standards bureau isn’t as independent as it should be. He would prefer to see the Royal Newfoundland See “If Mount Cashel” on page 2

‘So, what happened?’

In 1944, Iceland declared independence. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Canada.

Iceland’s economy is thriving; ours is struggling. A new film examines the differences STEPHANIE PORTER

F

ilmmaker Barbara Doran’s first look at Iceland took her by complete surprise. The award-winning producer, director and writer says she literally expected to visit a land of ice.

“When I got there, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she tells The Independent. “It’s so sophisticated and so advanced culturally and economically.”

The food and music were fabulous, she begins. There were art galleries everywhere, and everyone seemed to be reading or talking about books. The harbours were bustling with fishing and cargo boats. Even the Icelandair planes caught her eye.

“I thought, how did these people do this?” she says. “Because 60 years ago, they were in the same boat we (Newfoundlanders) were, relying on cod as their life source, and they were no better off than us.

“So what happened?”

That question started the journey that became Hard Rock and Water, a documentary look at the two islands.

Written and directed by Doran, viewers are led through the hourlong piece by author Lisa Moore.

Moore is an engaging guide, natural and interested in her own quest to answer — or at least discuss — questions of cultural identity, nationhood, and success.

“I have an intent interest in this place and most of the work I do springs from that,” says Doran, whose pictures include a biography See “I worry about,” page 4

Lisa Moore during filming of Hard Rock and Water in Iceland.

MAY 22, 2005

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘If Mount Cashel occurred today’

‘Always had a problem’

From page 1

From page 1 “That document that you have is a misleading document in that it only portrays one of about 15 scenarios that we had looked at,” says Pike.

“It’s unfortunate that somebody would share that document with the public without fully knowing the full context of how that was used.”

Pike, however, wouldn’t release the document in its entirety.

Liberal MHA Anna Thistle, representing the provincial district of Grand Falls-Buchans, says she understands the frustrations with the Stephenville operation, but says Grand FallsWindsor shouldn’t suffer because of it. “... ever since the mill in Stephenville went into operation in the ’80s, they’ve always had a problem with fibre and power and it has never been addressed.”

The province is currently trying to negotiate a power-purchase agreement with Abitibi that would help curtail company costs.

Ron Smith of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ Union that represents workers at the Grand Falls-Windsor mill, says two communities are now left to battle it out over the future of their mills.

“I think what they’ve done is they have intentionally pitted the two communities against one another for the purpose of squeezing government into the corner to see how much money and how much assistance they can get out of them,” says Smith.

The recent layoff of 56 workers at the Grand Falls-Windsor mill and the company’s plan to close one of its paper-making machines is just the first step in what will lead to further job cuts as Abitibi tries to restructure its operations in the province. The closure of the No. 7 paper machine could mean 250 high-paying jobs will be lost. The consolidation of front-office operations could mean dozens of more cuts.

According to Smith, the average job cut to date paid a yearly salary of $52,000 — almost a quarter of the more than $1 million a month the Grand Falls-Windsor mill is said to be losing.

Abitibi mill in Grand Falls-Windsor

Abitibi’s international operations recorded a $51 million loss in the first three months of 2005.

The total Abitibi payroll in the province is $72 million divided between the three operations — $35 million in Grand Falls-Windsor (490 employees), $16 million in woodlands operations (450 employees), and $21 million in Stephenville (290 employees).

The most recent restructuring isn’t the first such move at the Grand Falls-Windsor mill. In 1990, the No. 6 machine was shut down with the loss of 272 jobs. In 1991, the company announced a four-year restructuring plan that saw the loss of more than 30 positions.

The first mention of closing No. 7 came in 1994 and the union agreed to a further 86 job cuts in an effort to avoid the machine’s shutdown. In 2001, the union agreed to 72 more job cuts to save No. 7.

Smith believes there would be no shortage of interested buyers if the Grand Falls-Windsor mill was put on the market.

“This mill has enough power and wood assets that, regardless of the condition the mill is in, it’s a good purchase,” says Smith.

According to Smith, Abitibi wants to speed up its No. 3 machine — the other Grand FallsWindsor machine — by about 20 per cent.

“They’re saying that they won’t be able to do that if government takes that wood, which leaves us with the dilemma that Grand Falls can’t remain as it is,” says Smith. “Therefore, the company won’t be left with a whole lot of choices — one of them may have to be to sell the mill.”

Pike contends the speed-up will require much of the wood leftover from the proposed shutdown of No. 7.

“Our plans and our vision for moving forward in Newfoundland call for the speed-up of our No. 3 paper machine and that machine will take almost as much wood as we’re using now.”

Constabulary Public Complaints commission handle police officer grievances.

The commission is an independent authority established to hear public complaints against Constabulary members.

“I don’t see it as a conflict,” Buckle says.

He says when a grievance is made to the professional standards bureau about a high-ranking officer an even higher-ranking officer is assigned to investigate — but the ranks only get so high, stopping at the chief’s desk.

In November last year Buckle told The Independent 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,” he said at the time.

Buckle stands by his comments.

He says there may or may not be repercussions for officers who make complaints about others on the force.

“Claiming there were repercussions is almost like trying to prove there was a conspiracy and it’s very difficult to be able to answer to whether something was a blatant repercussion or a subsequent separate investigation or allegation,” Buckle says.

That’s why he says an independent outside complaints commission would work better.

For his part, Marshall says officers should follow the standard chain of command when filing complaints within the department.

“Go to the chief and if they are unhappy — if they don’t think the chief is dealing with it — then they would come to the department (of Justice) and it would ultimately end up in my lap,” he says.

“One of the things that initially jumps out at you is that you have the police investigating the

COMPLAINTS BY THE NUMBERS Breakdown of internal complaints lodged against members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for the years April 2004 to March 2005: Assault: 1 Audit of files: 2 AWOL: 4 Breech of firearms policy: 4 Breech of policy: 7 Conduct unbecoming: 20 Disrespect to subordinate: 1 Excessive force: 1 Excessive cellular phone usage: 1 Improper investigation: 4 Inadequate performance: 6 Loss of equipment: 1 Loss of property: 1 Police vehicle accident: 5 Release of information: 3 Secondary employment: 1 Source: Royal Newfoundland Constabulary

police and so I had some concerns with that … but the procedure that we follow here is the procedure that is followed in every other province in the country and I’m satisfied that there are independent mechanisms in place.”

The Ontario Provincial Police force has been called in to investigate two separate matters involving the Constabulary. One of the files deals with the Lamer inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Randy Druken and the Constabulary’s involvement in the case. The other deals with an undisclosed internal matter, possibly criminal in nature.

Lois Hoegg, head of the public complaints commission, says she would have no problem hearing internal complaints from Constabulary officers. She says the public may be more comfortable with the idea of an independent body investigating officer complaints.

Forty-one complaints were lodged by the public against members of the Constabulary between April 2004 and March 2005. Most were for alleged unprofessional conduct or improper investigations.

Hoegg isn’t a judge and doesn’t hear complaints in a court-type setting. Rather, she’s mainly an administrator with no powers to discipline.

Deering has been critical of the media for publicizing police concerns raised by unnamed sources. He has accused The Independent of encouraging officers to breech their oath of trust. Officers say they have nowhere else to turn.

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MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

Bones on the bottom South Dildo’s ‘Whale graveyard’ vivid reminder of bygone era

By Jamie Baker The Independent

D

riving by, you’d never even know it was there. Even if you did, chances are you wouldn’t be able to actually see it, unless, of course, you have a spare scuba tank in hand.

Just under the calmly rolling swell of Trinity Bay, on the ocean floor near the Carino sealing plant in South Dildo, lies one of the most vivid and important pieces of the area’s colourful whaling heritage.

The site, which locals often refer to as the “whale graveyard,” is home to a huge collection of whalebones — remnants of the many animals processed at what was once a very busy whaling plant.

They are also reminders of a bygone era.

The whaling plant, located where Carino currently operates, began operation in the late 1940s and was the area’s economic engine for a generation.

Whales and potheads were regularly shipped or towed into the plant where crews of workers harvested the oil and meat.

South Dildo resident Vaughan George is a former whaler who, besides working in the sealing industry, does a lot of work with the local whaling and sealing museum. He says the larger whales — especially finbacks — could not be hoisted onto the wharf, so the actual processing had to be done on the slipway.

Once the work was completed, he says the remnants of the animals were towed off the shore and sunk.

Thus, the graveyard was born.

“All the whales at that time, we never had the means to hoist them ashore and take the meat and everything off — everything on the whale was used as much as possible.

“When the big boats came in 1965 or 1966, a lot of the whales even then were hauled out and sunk too.”

The site, littered with the bones of various types and sizes of whale, rested silent and undisturbed for

years after the industry shut down for good in 1972. In time, however, whalebone became a valuable commodity for collectors, artists and even museums.

As a result, word soon got out about the South Dildo site and looting began in earnest.

George recalls all too well watching whalebones being pirated from their resting place.

“An awful lot of the bones got taken,” George says. “They even took some of them ashore and used cables and flatbeds. They loaded up and took them to the mainland.”

It didn’t take area residents long to realize they were losing more than just a valuable commodity, but also an invaluable piece of their history.

And people, like George, ensured

the practice was stopped by pushing to have government recognize and protect the site. Today, the whale graveyard is officially protected under the Historic Resources Act, which means you can look — but you can’t touch or disturb.

While many harbours are littered with artifacts and sunken ships, provincial archaeologist Martha Drake says the South Dildo site is the only one designated as an underwater archaeological resource.

“Underwater, aside from shipwrecks, that may be the only site I have in the inventory,” Drake says.

“It really is unique … I’m not saying there aren’t other areas where bones exist in the water, but from what I understand, there’s just a tremendous amount of bone in the harbour there.

“Anything that remains under the water, like the abandoned ships that went down at Conception Harbour, is an important resource because it represents an industry that’s no longer in existence.”

With the bones protected under law, Drake figures the site could eventually become a bit of a prolific tourist attraction.

“Eventually, people will be dying to dive just to see these bones. It’s not just the economics, it’s about representation — and that site is a perfect representation of the whaling industry.”

“If anyone did want to start promoting that particular site, we would certainly help them…”

Although he’s busy working at the seal plant, George likes the idea of making the site more of a tourist attraction as long as it remains undisturbed.

Through his experience and work with the museum, George often finds himself talking to tourists about the history of the local whaling industry itself. And diving clubs, he says, often come out to view and photograph the graveyard.

George doesn’t mind answering a few questions about whaling. It’s in his blood, after all.

George’s father, Clarence, was easily the most legendary whaler in the area, and likely the province.

Using a small, 39-foot whaling boat, Clarence George, with the help of his sons, regularly brought in whales twice the size of his vessel.

George Senior passed away in 1985, but stories of him steaming ashore with another massive, 75-foot animal still make their way around more than a few local dinner tables.

And if he ever missed with a harpoon gun, nobody ever saw it.

“The old man kept the plant going up there for about 25 years on his own,” says his son. “Arctic Fisheries had it and they weren’t even going to do the whales anymore, they were going to give it up. The old man said, ‘well, I’ll take it on my own’ … he was pretty successful.

“We’ve had some pretty good rides out whaling.”

‘Done and over with’

Hearn doesn’t expect another confidence vote anytime soon; prime minister expected to drop writ once Gomery complete

By Jamie Baker The Independent

I

MP Loyola Hearn

11.59.X4” INDEPENDENT

Paul Daly/The Independent

f there is a federal election anytime soon, Conservative MP Loyola Hearn says it will probably be called by the prime minister himself once the final Gomery report on the sponsorship scandal is released.

The Liberal government barely survived a confidence vote — which was decided by the speaker after the result showed 152 votes for each side — on Bill C-48 in the House of Commons on May 19.

Although Hearn says his party is anxious to oust the current government based on the explosive details coming out of the ongoing Gomery commission, there likely won’t be another confidence vote for a while.

“I don’t think we’ll be going through this again in a hurry,” Hearn tells The Independent. “We had the one shot, but the government went out and bought protection. Now it’s done and over with, we could do it again tomorrow but that would be completely irresponsible.

“We’ll buckle down now and get at it, including getting the Accord through.”

Prime Minister Paul Martin has said he will call an election 30 days after the release of the final Gomery report. The first report is expected in November, but Hearn says it could be late in spring before “Martin has to make that decision.

“We won’t be doing this, I don’t think, until probably in the new year. Mr. Martin will have some time because … the final report is not due until February and I’m hearing there might be extensions.”

Going into the vote, many MPs had been pressured

to vote in favour of the omnibus Bill C-43 — which included the Atlantic Accord provision.

Hearn says he never had any doubt the Accord would eventually be passed. But he says the second vote, Bill C-48, which gave the green light to $4.6 billion in spending incentives to keep the NDP on side, deserved to be defeated.

While Hearn admits there was a lot of pressure going into the confidence vote, he says it hasn’t taken a toll on him personally.

“I knew from day one what I was going to do and I knew how I had to do it. I don’t take pressure, it doesn’t matter who it comes from, whether it’s someone signing a form letter or the prime minister himself. I do what I think is right.”

Hearn also doesn’t expect any ill will in terms of his relationship with Premier Danny Williams. The premier had publicly called on Hearn and the province’s other Conservative MP, Norm Doyle, to vote with the Liberals in support of the Atlantic Accord.

That pressure was linked to Hearn’s questioning of the dismissal of Placentia-St. Mary’s MHA Fabian Manning over the ongoing crab dispute.

Hearn says it’s all water under the bridge.

“We disagreed on a couple of things, and had a couple of shots at each other which, probably, neither of us should have done. But I don’t think we have to mend any fences or anything.”

As for the Belinda Stronach bombshell, Hearn says her crossing the floor to join the Liberals to become a cabinet minister in the heat of the confidence battle is “unfortunate.

“I feel sad, because I feel if she had stayed and had some patience … but anyway, she made her bed.”

MAY 22, 2005

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Big Land by-election As federal government survives confidence vote, battle lines drawn for Tuesday Labrador showdown

By Jamie Baker The Independent

C

anadians may not be going to the polls, but Labradorians will be — as planned — on Tuesday.

Under normal circumstances, it would be just another normal by-election. But with a minority government clinging to power after surviving a very close confidence vote on May 19, times are anything but ordinary. And it’s expected the nation will watch the results unfold.

With the Liberals under constant fire as a result of the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, there could be a battle shaping up in a riding that has voted Liberal every time — except once — since Confederation.

Todd Russell will try to maintain the Liberal stranglehold on the riding, previously held by the late Lawrence O’Brien, who passed away in late December.

Challengers include Graham Letto for the Conservatives, Ern Condon of the Labrador Party, Frances Fry with the NDP, and the Green Party’s Jason Crummey.

Heading into Tuesday, Russell is confident the seat will stay Liberal as it has for 51 of the past 55 years.

“Deep down, I feel we’re going to win the vote,” Russell tells The Independent. “I’m expecting a strong battle on Tuesday — I never underestimate the political atmosphere.”

With the Liberal government embroiled in controversy, Condon, who finished third with 10 per cent of the overall vote won by the Labrador Party in the last election, sees an opportunity

Todd Russell

for voters to seriously consider an alternative.

And given the effect independent MPs had during the confidence vote, he figures there’s never been a better time to send a non-partisan candidate to Ottawa.

“The eyes of Canada will be on us, and it’s my view if we vote Liberal, Conservative or NDP, as soon as the partisan candidate wins, they’ll just be

gobbled up by their caucus and become voiceless members.

“People are disillusioned and fed up.

An independent voice can speak for Labrador and not be silenced, as we see on the provincial level.”

Russell says he’s relived with the results of the confidence vote on May 19, if for no other reason than it means he won’t have another five weeks of campaigning.

Had the government fallen, the May 24 by-election would have been called off, with the riding decided as part of a general election.

“It would’ve been an eight-week campaign. We were prepared to go the long haul, but we were aiming for May 24,” Russell says. “This is an extremely important time for Canada and for Labrador. What better opportunity than to sit in the House of Commons when

your vote is so strategically important?”

Not having a general election also means Labrador will get extended, undivided national attention, Condon says.

“At least the focus is on Labrador now, so I feel good about that,” Condon says. “The bottom line at this point is, once the election comes on Tuesday, we are in a position to be the first riding to pass judgement on the sorry state of partisan affairs in Ottawa.”

Russell disagrees with the idea being part of a political party doesn’t allow an MP to speak for a riding.

“When you’re an elected MP, pushing things is your job — I’m happy because what the Liberals are doing is great for Labrador, and that’s my chief concern,” Russell says.

“And the challenge has not always been with Ottawa, it’s often been in St. John’s. My job, if I can do it, is to try for Labrador-specific initiatives.”

Condon has gone as far as to publicly state his desire to see Labrador declared a province or territory onto itself.

After 51 years of Liberal representation, Condon says the development of Labrador has been “slow,” while the depletion of the region’s resources continues “at a rapid pace — it’s been a feeding frenzy.

“It’s an idea for which the time has come. We can’t let ourselves, as Labradorians, be taken for granted by any political party.

“The best way to get fairness and justice is to get provincial or territorial status. We can’t be content grovelling for crumbs.”

‘I worry about this place’ From page 1 of Joey Smallwood, a documentary on the work of Memorial University professor Elliott Leyton (The Man Who Studies Murder), and Bernice Morgan’s Random Passage.

“I worry about this place, like you would a close relative or lover.”

Both her love and concern shine through in the documentary.

In 1944, Iceland declared independence from Denmark. Five years later, Newfoundland and Labrador voted to join Canada. In the years since, there have been vast and varied changes on both islands.

During the Newfoundland segment of the film, Moore goes in search of locally made products with actor Mary Walsh (with little success, but with much hilarious banter). She discusses nationhood with radio documentarian Chris Brookes and fish politics with former premier Brian Tobin. Writer Des

Walsh talks about the “nauseating” side of cultural tourism — selling others on our spirit and history while our neighbours pack up and leave.

Touching down in Iceland, viewers follow Moore through a nerve-wracking book reading, meetings with past and future presidents of Iceland, heads of companies, fish plant workers, fisheries experts. She visits glaciers, hot springs, festivals, bars and a supermarket — with plenty of “made in Iceland” items.

Over the course of the 57 minutes, viewers are reminded of the beauty of Newfoundland, and introduced to that of Iceland — and in this way, in the meadows and the coasts, the rocks and the roads, the two islands share great similarities.

But the film highlights some stark differences: Iceland’s 99 per cent literacy rate versus Newfoundland’s 66 per cent. Their cod fishery is still the country’s major industry; unemployment is GENERAL MANAGER John Moores john.moores@theindependent.ca

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

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Lisa Moore during filming in St. John’s.

extremely low. And the first female head of state in the world was Vigdis Finnbogadottir, a popular and visionary president of Iceland from 1980-1996.

“It’s a magnificent place visually and geographically,” Moore tells The Independent.

“It’s Newfoundland if Newfoundland were rich. Very rich. So the people are all well dressed, the food is impeccable … There’s a palpable feeling of money in the air.”

Moore was fascinated by Icelanders’ appreciation for their own “living cul-

ture”: Icelanders read Icelandic writers.

“They’re creating arguments and discussing them,” she says. “They’re reading themselves. I think they’re talking to each other in an interesting way.”

Moore and Doran both loved Iceland, though they remain passionate, nationalistic Newfoundlanders.

Hard Rock and Water isn’t a film about pointing fingers or lamenting the vote for Confederation — at least not for long.

“I don’t think you can turn back the hands of time, and I don’t think you

should live in regret, because it eats away at your soul,” says Doran. “But the more you learn about Newfoundland history, the more it breaks your heart.”

She points to the bad deals, the destruction of the fishery, the surrendering of Newfoundland’s wealth of resources — a wealth which far surpasses that of Iceland.

Fundamentally, she says, it is in the attitude of Icelanders where the true difference lies.

“Their attitude is we will not take second best. We will not be beholden to anybody, we will get a fair deal, we’re proud people and we’re strong people.

We’ve already proven that by cutting loose and going on our own.”

They proved their strength and determination again by standing up to the British. When the English tried to fish their waters, Icelanders set out the gun boats, rammed vessels, and cut trawl lines until the British gave up.

“Whereas we … because of being knocked back and knocked back, two things have happened,” Doran continues. “One is a benign acceptance that, well, b’y, there’s nothing you can do about it.

“The other is a seething anger that consumes us. We spend a lot of time and energy talking, being passionate … but it hasn’t turned into any sort of organized approach to us defending ourselves.

“It’s all there, but there’s no unified voice. We couldn’t even have a unified voice over the flag debate.”

Moore is pleased with the finished Hard Rock and Water and the experiences it allowed her along the way.

“What was exciting about making the film was asking those questions (about nationalism and the power of political will),” she says. “What is the difference? There is no straightforward answer. But if the film made people think about that for even a while, that would be great.”

Doran is not urging separation. But she does have a few things she’d like Newfoundlanders to think about. First, that education is at the root of all successful populations — that’s how Iceland made a difference. And we as a people must “stop shooting at each other” and agree on what must be done.

“We live in a place that is very rich on many levels, culturally and in resources and in the shared beauty of this place,” she says. “We have to learn to see the power in that.

“There’s no reason we should be the poorest province in Canada. There’s no reason we should have the highest illiteracy rate, the highest rate of unemployment. We have to make ourselves painfully aware of that.

“We have to turn off the noise from Canadians who do not understand our history, our background … because it is demoralizing and we have to not allow ourselves to be demoralized.”

Hard Rock and Water will air June 13, 11:30 p.m. and June 19, 9:30 p.m. on CBC. There will be a public forum and discussion in St. John’s June 23 (tentative date).

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

NEWS IN BRIEF No word on new mental health act

A

Paul Daly/The Independent

Coming clean Fisheries officials won’t say how much fish being shipped out of province

By Jamie Baker The Independent

L

iberal Fisheries critic Gerry Reid says it’s time the provincial government came clean on how much fish is being landed in the province before being shipped elsewhere — including China — for processing.

Reid questioned Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor in the House of Assembly recently about the species and quantity of fish being taken out of province — particularly by Fishery Products International — and says he’s frustrated he’s not getting any clear information.

The province has yet to release data about the actual number of permits, the types of species or the quantity of fish being shipped outside the province.

Contacted by The Independent in early May, department officials — who say they’ve been preoccupied with the ongoing crab dispute — said they cannot provide specific details on exemptions granted to particular companies.

Officials did say they were able to release a summary, but that information was not made available prior to The Independent’s press deadline.

Reid, for one, doesn’t buy any of it.

“They won’t give it out. Trevor (Taylor) wouldn’t answer me. I asked him what species of fish FPI was exporting to China and what quantities and he wouldn’t answer me.

“And we’re supposed to trust him to open the books of these companies so fishermen can get a fair price?”

The Feb. 6 issue of The Independent reported the provincial government had allowed FPI to send some one million pounds of yellowtail flounder (individual fish under 400 grams) to China for

processing.

At the time, Taylor said FPI “came to us looking for an authorization to take some of it on a trial basis instead of putting it into fish meal where it’s worth nothing and put it into China where they can get something for it.”

In 2004, approximately nine million pounds of turbot were shipped out.

In the House of Assembly earlier this month, Taylor said “there are probably four or five species of fish in this province that go out in pretty much an unprocessed state — much of it from the late 1980s probably.”

Taylor also said he had signed off on shipping out small redfish in area 3O off the tail of the Grand Banks and for yellowtail flounder under 400 grams. “(On) both of those things, we have contacted the FFAW (Fish, Food and Allied Workers’), we have contacted the processors, we have contacted DFO and we have been trying for about two months now to arrange a meeting between all parties to decide on how we should manage those small fish exemptions going forward,” Taylor said.

FPI spokesperson Russ Carrigan says the shipping out of “limited volumes” of smaller, “non-commercial” yellowtail actually adds value for harvesters.

“In years past, this non-commercial material was simply sent off for use in the production of offal and pet food and harvesters were historically paid next to nothing for it,” Carrigan says. “Now we have higher value, better income for harvesters and new markets for materials with previously wasted value.”

While the original processing of yellowtail may not be done in the province, Carrigan also contends “some of the product is brought back to Newfoundland and Labrador adding

employment in FPI’s value-added processing facility in Burin.”

An official with provincial Fisheries says there are two scenarios under which permits are granted to ship round or dressed fish outside the province for processing.

The first is if the product being landed meets final market specifications and is not intended for further processing.

Permits are also granted if a “glut” situation exists wherein plants are unable to accommodate landings or if no processor is interested in buying or processing the species in question.

The exemptions usually identify the species, amount, market destination and the period during which shipments are permitted. Companies are then obliged to advise Fisheries Department to each shipment leaving the plant, and the product must be properly packaged and labelled.

Reid says government could easily force FPI to process product in Newfoundland and Labrador instead of having the work done in China.

“This bothers me, especially when Harbour Breton is down there with 350 people out of work,” Reid says. “We could actually bring in additional legislation to force FPI to process that fish here.

“Not only that but, under the FPI act, we could tell them what plants to process that in.”

Carrigan says it is “misleading” to suggest there’s anything “sinister or inappropriate about maximizing the value of material that used to be sent for pet food.

“The facts are very clear, but unfortunately, there are sometimes those who refuse to let facts get in the way of a good yarn.”

SHIPPING NEWS

TUESDAY, MAY 17 Vessels arrived: none.

Vessels departed: Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, to Grand Banks.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18 Vessels arrived: Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk

ed an overhaul of the province’s mental health act after the judicial inquiry into the police-shooting deaths of Norman Reid and Darryl Power in 2000. The act is 34-years old and the last amendments were made two decades ago.

Jeff Chaulk of the province’s chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association says the organization would like to see changes, but refused further comment as the organization is completing preliminary work on its expectations of the new act.

Chard says she’s hoping for approval in the “near future,” but can’t say when or if the new act will be approved by government.

— Alisha Morrissey

World Music Award Winners!

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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 16 Vessels arrived: ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Maersk Challenger, Canada, from Grand banks; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, from Marystown; Maersk Placentia, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels departed: Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; Maersk Challenger, Canada, to Whales Deep; Atlantic Eagle, Canada to Terra Nova.

new mental health act should become reality, but officials can’t say when.

Loretta Chard, assistant deputy minister with the Health Department, says work has been done on the new act and will have to be reviewed by government before it can be released.

She refuses to speculate on when that will be.

“We’ve given consideration to a new act as part of a mental health plan that we’ve spent the last year developing and have heard lots of good feedback around what we need to do to address some of the mental health issues that we’re confronting in our province,” Chard tells The Independent.

Judge Donald Luther recommend-

City of St. John’s

Paul Daly/The Independent

Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia.

Vessels departed: Ann Harvey, Canada, to Sea; USCGC Eagle, American, to Sea. THURSDAY, MAY 19 Vessels arrived: Shamook, Canada, from Sea; Jean Charcot, British, from Sea; Newfoundland Marten, Canada, from Marystown; Teleost, Canada, from Sea. Vessels departed: Maersk Chignecto, Canada, to Terra Nova; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to Terra Nova; Trans Gulf, Canada, to Clarenville; Shamook,

Canada, to Sea; North Atlantic Petrol, Canada, to Come By Chance; Newfoundland Marten, Canada, to Fishing; Burin Sea, Canada, to Terra Nova; Maersk Placentia, Canada, to White Rose.

FRIDAY, MAY 20 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova; Vega Desgagnes, Canada, from Corner Brook.

Vessels departed: Sir Robert Bond, Canada, to Lewisporte; Cicero, Canada, to Montreal; Teleost, Canada, from sea.

MAY 22, 2005

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OUR VOICE

Strange bedfellows and a horse’s head W

hen independent MP Chuck Cadman stood to support the Liberal budget amendment, the government side of the House of Commons erupted in a standing ovation. On the Tory Opposition side, an MP made an exaggerated gesture of wiping his brow — government had dodged a bullet.

Question is, has Danny Williams’ attempt to pressure MPs Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle into voting against their party put this province in the line of fire?

The Liberals narrowly escaped losing power in a vote of non-confidence — 152 to 152. The tie was broken in a historic moment by the Speaker of the House.

Prime Minister Paul Martin and his scandal-ridden Liberals were left intact. More importantly, the $2.6-billion Atlantic Accord was passed. (It remains to be seen exactly when the province will see the cheque. The Tories have warned parliamentary delays may mean the cash won’t be in the bank until the new year.)

The Accord was approved unani-

mously in the first of two votes, but it would have been lost in the midst of an election if government had fallen.

The second vote — which contained amendments to the budget based on the $4.6-billion deal with the NDP — was the squeaker. The Liberals gave away a large portion of the store to secure the support of the New Democrats and stave off a Grit collapse, a decay triggered by the sponsorship scandal and reinforced by the finding of the Gomery inquiry.

Williams’ acidic tone towards his federal Conservative cousins has sweetened since the Accord’s passage.

The gains, however, may be short lived for Williams and this province as Martin and his fellow Liberals only sidestepped inevitable defeat at the hands of the Bloc and Conservatives.

If Harper can somehow convince Canadians he’s the man to lead government out of the depths of corruption, then he may exact his pound of flesh on this province. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Just ask Scott Reid, the prime minister’s senior strategist who warned Newfoundland

and Labrador would pay for Williams’ flag flap.

Williams may have crossed a dangerous line when he questioned Hearn and Doyle’s loyalty to this province — suggesting they do the right thing and vote against their party to ensure the Accord’s survival.

Williams bleeds Tory blue, but it seems dollars will make him hemorrhage whatever political colour signs the cheque.

Until the budget bill was separated into two pieces of legislation — the Accord and other provisions in one bill; NDP touch ups in the other — Doyle and Hearn had to make a tough choice: people or party.

It wasn’t quite that simple and Williams knew it. That didn’t stop him from orchestrating another great piece of political theatre, although the plot was somewhat convoluted. Why did he give the MPs a hard time when, as the Conservatives assured him, he would have gotten his cheque regardless?

Maybe Danny just likes to stamp his feet and get his way.

What will happen in the federal elec-

tion that looms on the horizon is anybody’s guess — polls are still too close to call.

What will happen in the federal election that looms on the horizon is anybody’s guess — polls are still too close to call.

But if Stephen Harper and the Conservatives one day win power, then Williams’ flopping between political ideologies, regardless of the rationale, may have set back federal/provincial relations decades.

Run — don’t walk to the bank — when that $2.6 billion cheque arrives in the mail, Mr. Premier.

Beyond the sponsorship scandal, by buying the NDP’s support with billions of dollars in social promises, the

Liberals have only ballooned the public’s opinion that Martin and his government are prepared do anything, spend any amount of taxpayers’ money, to maintain power. No leader in the history of this country has been so blatant and spent so much of Canadians’ hard-earned money to remain in power. Martin’s own arrogance to even suggest such a deal with the NDP displays a level of egotism that surprises even the most cynical.

Williams would be well advised not to choose the prime minister as a role model.

Then again, Harper has chosen to align himself with the Bloc Quebecois — a party that couldn’t give a damn about this country, a party whose only aim is to rip Canada apart and make Quebec a sovereign nation.

Between Williams and Martin, Harper and the Bloc, the NDP and the Liberals, politics makes for strange bedfellows.

Let’s hope whatever party wins the next election, Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t find a horse’s head under the sheets.

YOUR VOICE ‘Our sky has turned dark’ Dear editor, our federal individual quotas to Cry, my beloved outport communi- processors to allow them to sell out. ties. Let us finally speak the truth. We Raw material sharing enriches these are undergoing an illegal and immoral shacks on the wharf by attaching the program on behalf of a corporate value-increasing magic of our quotas. agenda.

Processors will sell out and become The tyrant has told his minister of multi-millionaires. This sell-out will welfare to withhold bread to those of allow consolidation into a few plants, us who need it in which will be tradthis conflict. He ed, and then sold intends to divide, off to a multiYour labor will be conquer and break national.

Your our spirits. He is labor will be traded traded to China, willing to “starve to China, and you and you will be us out” and enforce will be returned to an economic ethnic being owned as a returned to being cleansing on our servant class of bays and commufishers. Their idea owned as a servant nities. He calls our of a free market is class of fishers. misery “externaliwhere they sell to, ties.” He intends to not where they buy sacrifice us for the from.

Distant long run of maximal profit, an indus- shareholders, not local stakeholders, try rationalized in the hands of FPI. will profit from your labor.

The province’s Fish Inspection Act Our sky has turned dark, but this is is not recognized by the Canadian our finest hour. To stand and defeat Constitution. Therefore, this adminis- these corporate monopolists. Not just tration has no jurisdiction and is acting for our own self-interest, but as a symillegally. If I am wrong, ask any of bol to all those places on this earth that them: do you have jurisdiction to do have suffered at the hands of these what you are doing? Given the corporate fascists. Help each other destructiveness of what they are pro- with solidarity. Know the truth, and posing, they should be able to say yes the truth will set us free. Jesus went to immediately and unequivocally. But the fishers and threw the merchants they will say: I cannot comment. from the temple.

Why? If they say yes, it may be later entered into evidence.

Craig Cramm, They are acting illegally to transfer Old Perlican

‘Interests of young people at heart’ Dear editor, As a young person I am absolutely ecstatic the provincial government has brought in new insurance reforms that reduce insurance rates in the province. What I am most excited about are the new rules prohibiting insurance companies from setting rates based on age, gender and marital status.

As a young male, I have been paying an exorbitant amount for car insurance coverage. Government’s reforms will now prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against me and gouging me on public liability for no other reason than that I have a Y chromosome and am under 25 years old. With these insurance reforms, the PC government has followed through on an election promise. Their commitment toward combating unfair insur-

ance rates is one of the biggest reasons I voted for them and I am pleased they lived up to their promise.

From my perspective, this government seems to genuinely have the best interests of young people at heart.

With these latest insurance reforms, major commitments toward school infrastructure and the continuation of the tuition freeze at MUN and the College of the North Atlantic, government is making great strides toward helping young people and, more specifically, students in Newfoundland and Labrador. People often say our youth are our future. If that’s true, then this government is certainly making major investments into this province’s future.

Tim Scott, St. John’s

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

‘In the playoffs, will beats skill’

T

o readers sick to their Stronach of politics, I offer a break. The few political points to be made here this week will be separated with quotes from the book, Shooting from the Lip, Hockey’s Best Quotes and Quips.

To begin, you might be surprised to learn that Deer Lake’s own Darren Langdon is mentioned twice — not once, but two times. The name Langdon appears next to the likes of Jeremy Roenick, who’s always saying something off the wall: “For the most part, with the possible exception of me, I don’t think anybody goes out to try to hurt somebody.”

Or Brett Hull, who’s usually good for a quote: “I’m the luckiest man alive. I don’t even like the game and I’m successful at it.”

Don Cherry is there, of course: “There’s no such thing as painless goaltending. If they could get enough padding to assure against every type of bruise, you’d have to be swung into position with a small derrick.”

Then there’s Langdon. “I’m on fire,” he said after getting an assist for his first point in 32 games.

••• Hockey is as good a break as any from As the Stronach Turns, the soap opera that is federal politics these days.

(Other popular shows include One Belinda to Give, Days of our Liberals, and All my (ex) Conservatives.)

To summarize: Belinda walked out on the “smitten” Peter MacKay for Paul Martin, who’s a lot older, and more desperate, and not quite so good looking as strong-jawed Peter.

To be fair, Martin does have a certain star quality that’s said to draw women like Belinda, women that Conservatives, her old party buddies, describe as “whores,” “prostitutes” and “dipsticks.”

(Such quotes were brilliant strategy for firing up women’s groups everywhere with renewed passion not seen in recent times — even if it is a passion to hunt Conservatives down and gut them like fish.)

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander Peter isn’t exactly Mr. Perfect when it comes to relationships. He’s the same guy who broke a promise never to hook up the Tories and Canadian Alliance and then went ahead and booked an arranged marriage, consummated in a bed of his making.

Peter took it hard when Belinda left him, leaving the nation’s capital to spend an afternoon in a pair of rubber boots tending a potato field in his home province of Nova Scotia.

The TV cameras caught up with him there, heartbroken, moping in mud. The only thing missing was the Kenny Rogers background music: “You picked a fine time to leave me Belinda/five million voters and crap for a field.”

••• If it wasn’t bad enough Belinda walked out on poor old Peter and the Conservatives, her old party also lost the confidence vote to the governing Liberals, although who knows what could happen in an election.

“In the playoffs, will beats skill,” former Sharks coach Kevin Constantine once said.

Determination is definitely important, so is ambition.

“We’re going to be the best in the league at something,” said Predators coach Barry Trotz. “We’re deep in anthem singers.”

Glen Sather had this little nugget to say when he was GM of the Oilers: “There is no escalator to success — only steps.”

Maple Leaf Tie Domi made this statement after Ranger Adam Graves (related to him by marriage) drove him to Toronto’s practice in Rye, New York: “I’ll still run him on the ice tomorrow.”

Here’s a classic: “At the time it happened, I wasn’t disappointed … but I

came in the dressing room and I was real upset with what happened. That’s blood man … Right away I came in and called my parents and apologized,” Whaler Keith Primeau said after fighting his brother Wayne of the Sabres.

••• Wonder if Danny did the same after he two-handed Loyola Hearn over the head with his stick just before the Commons game whistle? So much for working together for the greater good of Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s good to see federal/provincial harmony has been achieved at last.

Never mind that Danny stuck it to Loyola and Norm, he did it for the good of the Atlantic Accord, no doubt. We’ll finally get our money, which is all that matters. An election has been put off for another day, that’s good too. It’s also nice to see John Efford back on his feet.

He was down for a while, but managed, somehow, to find the Stronach to go on.

••• “You can’t play hockey if you’re nice,” Lightning coach Steve Ludzik once said.

Perhaps the same could be said of politics.

Jaromir Jagr had this to say when he was a Penguin: “I love to play for Pittsburgh. If they can’t afford me, then I’d love to play in L.A. or New York.”

Why shouldn’t Belinda have the same take on politics?

••• The second Langdon quote wasn’t from Darren, but his father, Wayne, speaking of his son: “He was mild-mannered and I don’t know how he ever got into the tough-role business. He was not a rough kid. The rough stuff must have come from his mother’s side of the family.”

Wonder if Frank Stronach — Belinda’s hard-nosed, billion-dollar Dad — would say the same?

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

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Something of the Brian in Belinda

N

ow that was fun. I got a call on Tuesday last week from someone who dropped a bomb on me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. So I logged onto a news website to see for myself. Like political addicts across Canada, I was gobstruck.

Belinda crossed the floor.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I know how to add, so I instantly knew the political implications in the House of Commons.

Amazing. Then I had fun telling other political junkies the news. It was a laugh to see the looks on their faces, their eyes glazing over as they did quick mental calculations.

What she did was great for Newfoundland and Labrador. This means the budget will pass and we will get our Atlantic Accord money. This means we will get our child care money. This means we will be spared a summer election. This is also great because someone has really stuck it to that nasty Mr. Harper. It’s all good.

Yet if all this is so great, why does

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason what Belinda Stronach did leave a sour taste in my mouth?

Of her decision she stated: “I cannot exaggerate how hard this was for me, but the political crisis affecting Canada is too risky and dangerous for blind partisanship.”

Try to exaggerate, Belinda, try. How hard was this for you to do? Tell me, because what I heard was … “For the good of my country I have betrayed my colleagues, my party and everyone who supported me and crossed the floor to take one of the nicest jobs going.”

Quick everybody, jump to your feet and start singing O Canada.

It is sickening. I cannot think of a sorrier time for federal politics in my lifetime. What will Canadians make of all this? Where’s the leadership? Our

politicians are supposed to be leaders.

Who should we look up to? Is it the prime minister who rose to power through sleazy backroom politics? Is it the Opposition leader with his unrelenting negativity, cynicism and simmering anger? Is it the deputy Opposition leader, who killed a political party with a cynical lie? Peter MacKay was dating Stronach. Somewhere out there David Orchard must be laughing his ass off.

Or what about the comely and vague Belinda herself, whose business acumen seems to have been based primarily on picking her parents well? What are we learning from her? The way to the top is to blindside your colleagues in their hour of triumph?

Ironically, one of the only leaders with real character and leadership qualities is honour bound to break up the Confederation. Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc must sit in their section of the House and watch in sad amazement thinking “and we were supposed to be the bad guys?”

Jack Layton looks positively presi-

dential. Belinda Stronach talks of principles. In the next election hundreds of decent principled New Democrats will campaign bravely in the face of certain defeat because they believe, however misguided, in what they are doing. I guess in Belinda Stronach’s world that makes them suckers.

SERIOUS CRACKS What Stronach did will benefit us all.

It is a good move for Newfoundland and Labrador. It saved Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn from a lot of aggravation. It has shown us the serious cracks in the Tory façade. It prevented the sickeningly cynical deal the Bloc was cooking up with the Tories. It has humbled Stephen Harper, in itself no mean feat.

Yet I suspect that all the good she has done is incidental to her career ambitions. I think she would have just as easily sold us all down the river. Some of us might be happy for our own reasons here in Newfoundland and Labrador, but I bet she isn’t very popu-

lar in Calgary at the moment.

For all her words about serious decisions and the good of the country, there is something of the Brian Tobin in Stronach. Her timing is a little too good. Her reasoning a little too well thought out and rehearsed. Her words a little too slick.

I make a game of championing Brian Tobin amongst my political buddies, mostly because it tries their patience. I defend him as the consummate political master, always a few moves ahead, always the strategist, always the smooth communicator — a risk taker.

Belinda strikes me as the same. She seems to understand how politics is played. She seems to have good political timing. She seems to have a sense of her image and how it sells — however superficial it really is. Like Tobin, I think she knows the game.

And that’s the problem. It isn’t a game.

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

POLITICAL DRAMA

YOUR VOICE Line points back to Nazis Dear editor, In a recent letter to The Independent Wallace Ryan wrote of the vicious racism of anti-seal hunt campaigner, Brigitte Bardot. He made an excellent, though often ignored point regarding the mentality of the animal rights phenomenon. It must always be remembered that there is an unbroken line from Bardot and her ilk, back to the Nazis in their shared notions of “blood and soil” and the “noble animal.”

While we well might laugh at the self-styled “Captain” Paul Watson strutting about in a fancy uniform of his own design, the meaning of his ruthless arrogance becomes clear once we understand his ideological antecedents.

Brigitte Bardot is a racist?

Naturally.

David Benson, Tors Cove

‘All’s fair in love and politics’ Dear editor, Is this the best Stephen Harper, the man who would be king, can do?

Make disparaging remarks about Belinda Stronach’s leadership aspirations and then reveal how devastated Peter MacKay, her beau of six months, is over Belinda’s move to the Liberals? Harper should aspire to be head of the boy scouts, not this great country of Canada, and MacKay should learn all is fair in love and politics.

As for other Tories such as Bob Ruciman of Ontario who called Belinda Stronach “a dipstick — an attractive one but still a dipstick,” and Alberta Tory Tony Abbott who said “she whored herself out for power,” what can you really expect from a bunch of neanderthals who smell blood in the Commons? Every

Canadian female should be outraged at such remarks.

But what is really important is for each decent Newfoundlander and Labradorian is to ask himself/herself how he/she could possibly support such a group federally. They are rank amateurs just off the farm with the cow dung clinging to their fancy cowboy boots and a large Stetson protecting God-knows-what from the sun.

They are so full of far-right venom that they are a mere stone’s throw from a Waco mentality.

Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle, who seem to be very decent fellows and, I assume, staunch churchmen, must be totally embarrassed to be associated with this bunch.

Aubrey Smith, Grand Falls-Windsor

‘That’s why my Dad was buried alive’ Dear editor, In boxing a count of 10 and it’s all over. Well ever since Confederation, the communities and people on the Northern Peninsula have been down for the count of nine, but have been able to get back on their feet and continue to fight.

This year has started out the same.

Never in my lifetime have I seen an area of the province so downtrodden and abused. It sometimes makes me wonder if we are all alone in this great province of ours, or even if we deserve the same treatment as the rest of the province. Sure we do! That’s why my dad was buried alive, while crawling through the trenches in France, Belgium and Germany, so that all of the children of his comrades would be treated equally.

Do you know what it’s like to be seasick, when you want to throw up but can’t? That’s what I feel like when I listen to Roger Grimes and his clique. Oh, I remember a couple of years ago when I went from door to door with him in St. Anthony in support of the Liberal candidate. When a lady ordered him off her premises, oh

I felt so sorry for him. Now I say to myself, “Francis you fool.”

Not only have we been pushed aside by politicians, but others as well. Take the media, for instance. No area in Newfoundland and Labrador gets less coverage than we do. A little while back I phoned the media and asked why they didn’t cover the rally we had in support of our health care, and they all gave me different answers.

One mentioned the great distance that divided us.

I told them it is the same distance they come to do our advertising. Oh yes, have you noticed our telephone book? What has a phone book got to do with how you are treated, one might ask? Well every community on the Northern Peninsula is in that book.

But what’s written across the cover?

“Western Newfoundland.”

At least they could have written northern and western Newfoundland.

The listings are in alphabetical order, but how come the book starts with “C” for Corner Brook. Ah, what the heck.

It’s only an old phone book.

Francis Patey, St. Anthony

This past week in Canadian politics has been a turbulent one, full of drama and back-room dealings. Central players included (clockwise from top) Premier Danny Williams, Prime Minister Paul Martin, Conservative leader Stephen Harper and MPs Peter MacKay, Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Liberal wolf wears new sheep’s clothing’ Dear editor, I was neither shocked nor surprised by Belinda Stronach’s defection. I chaired her leadership campaign in Norm Doyle’s constituency. Belinda is personable and the best puppet for others I have ever met.

When she came to St. John’s I enjoyed sharing a photo opportunity at a local restaurant, a picture that appeared on the front page of the local daily.

What wasn’t shown was the bevy of high-priced handlers who accompanied her and scripted every move and word.

She had more handlers than any political person I have ever worked with. I was uneasy with my decision to continue my

support, but I felt her puppet-like approach was due to her newness in politics.

Also, I value loyalty and commitment.

(Belinda clearly doesn’t).

I attended the Conservative convention in Montreal and observed Belinda’s personal ambition and disregard for her Conservative colleagues.

While Belinda is trying to portray herself as a moral, principled person, in my view this is manipulative bull.

How does a principled person attend a Conservative party training session on Saturday where key information is shared and become a cabinet minister on Monday for the Liberals? Ask Belinda

when the dealing started and watch how much Magna gains from this.

In my view, for Belinda it is all about me, money and power. She cares not for the hard working minions she has insulted.

The term honourable fits Norm Doyle, Loyal Hearn and most MPs from all parties. Belinda will always be greedy and dishonourable to me. To the people of Canada I say hold on to your wallets — the Liberal pickpockets are coming again.

The Liberal wolf wears new sheep’s clothing.

Rick Fifield, Paradise

If they could ‘magically lift’ our resources Dear editor, Thanks for printing the article Off federal radar (May 15-21 edition of The Independent). I am a Newfoundlander living on the mainland, and have witnessed first-hand a lot of what was mentioned by Andy Wells. I am not surprised. It’s sick really, and has to stop. I am certain if they could magically lift the resources to another Canadian province, they

wouldn’t think twice.

Unfortunately, most people on the mainland won’t get to see your article, but somehow they have to get the message. Those jobs should be based out of Newfoundland and Labrador. What do these other places have to do with Newfoundland? Nothing.

Chris Jenkins, Halifax

MAY 22, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Don’t tap the glass, LIFE STORY you’ll frighten the smokers I RICHARD HANRAHAN 1888-1935

By Maura Hanrahan For The Independent

T

he former managing editor of my college paper was a dear JEFF DUCHARME friend, a tree hugger, moonbeam at heart — one of those still livA savage ing in the ’60s, a decade they were journey barely born in.

She loved a good protest and the odd moment of civil unrest or even in effect, forcing them to be partners the occasional flirtation with frothing in their own demise.

Old news, but the point is people anarchy. She phoned me one day and went on a rant about the billion-dol- complain about changes in society lar profits the banks were making and but they aren’t willing to take action, the fact they were laying off tellers make the sacrifices needed to change left, right and centre. Those pleasant things. The government’s proposed people behind the wickets at your smoking ban is a case in point.

Bar owners are understandably local bank had become more endangered than a manatee at a powerboat upset. But if the legions of smokers festival or a cod on the Grand Banks. in this province want to convince Deb ranted and raved to me on the government they’ve gone too far, phone. She was not a happy, glowing then stop going to bars when the ban moonbeam. Living in Ottawa, she is put into effect. Drink in your was tripping over homeless people buddy’s basement or backyard. Once places like George each day, but the Street approach banks were making endangered-species billions and still layYou had to know the status and tax reving people off. writing was on the enue dries up, then Those big nasty maybe government bankers — you wall when rumblings might reconsider — know the type, just then again, maybe like the banker on of a smoking ban not. the Monopoly You had to know board: top hat, hanbegan to surface in the writing was on dlebar mustache and the wall when rummonocle — no Quebec — a place blings of a smoking social conscience whatsoever. Let the where they smoke like ban began to surface Quebec — a homeless freeze, the it’s a cure for cancer in place where they shareholders are smoke like it’s a revolting over sin— not a cause. cure for cancer — gle-digit profits. not a cause.

Not all bankers get their kicks searching for widows liv- Legislation there is expected to be in ing on farms with 12 kids to foreclose effect by Jan. 1, 2006.

If the smokers in Quebec aren’t on. Bankers are people too. They have about to rise up in protest over a feelings.

I listened to my friend’s rant, smoking ban, then you can hardly patiently, and then asked: do you use expect Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to get more than mildly automated banking machines? annoyed — write a few letters to the “Yes,” she sheepishly replied.

Well, I told her, if you want those editors, or make a few disgruntled, tellers hired back then quit using hacking-cough calls to open-line those infernal machines. Turn your radio shows. back on convenience and stand in line for hours, waiting for one of SMOKING BIRTHRIGHT those friendly tellers to cash your In Alberta, smoking is not only a cheque. cure for cancer, it’s seemingly a And make sure you have enough birthright. Even the large airports in money for the weekend, because Calgary and Edmonton have glassonly instant tellers are open 24 enclosed smoking rooms. Like fish in hours. If you’re out on a bender a fish bowl, smokers file into these come Saturday night and run out of ventilated rooms between flights and money, don’t you dare run to the puff away — feel free to stare, but banking machine so you can contin- don’t tap on the glass when you walk ue on with your drunken revelry. Just by, you’ll frighten the smokers, make go home, sober up, and be comforted them more stressed than they already by the fact you’ve taken a stand. are. You know you’ve gone to far Better yet, convince the rest of when they begin to float upsidedown, society to return to the days of spend- belly up. ing payday lunch hours standing in Even in Ottawa, one of the first line at the local bank waiting to cities in the country to introduce a deposit their cheques. Most people ban, sales only fell by 30 per cent in don’t even remember how to write a the bars and have since recovered. deposit or withdrawal slip these days.

If bar owners want to fight the ban, There’s no question banks steered then ignore it and don’t pay the fines. our sheep-like society towards the They could form a defense fund and technology. Not long after instant fight the government when they tellers were introduced, banks began revoke a bar owner’s liquor license. terminating tellers to make the Rise up. Fight the power. machines seem even more convenient.

Jeff Ducharme is The IndeThey even strongly encouraged pendent’s senior writer. their own tellers to use the machines, jeff.ducharme@theindependent.ca

never met him, but I have mourned him throughout my life. My paternal grandfather, Richard Hanrahan, was born on Christmas Day, 1888. In his veins was the blood of his English, Irish, Mi’Kmaw and possibly French ancestors — a not uncommon combination for Newfoundland’s south coast.

Richard loved the classroom and was desperate to become a proficient reader but, as was the practice, his father, Steve, pulled him out of school at age nine and put him in a dory. His childhood was over.

Richard spent the next few years in the shore fishery, where he suffered terribly from seasickness. The usual remedy of holding a piece of salt pork in his mouth didn’t work for Richard. The affliction cast a long shadow over his every waking day and his mother, Elizabeth, fretted ceaselessly over it.

It got worse when Steve took his son into the schooner fishery. Richard was 15 then, and for his first season he was paid a boy’s share — not a man’s, even though he was doing a man’s work.

In February, he and Steve walked to Marystown from Little Bay. They spent the following weeks overhauling the ship’s running gear, painting the vessel, and straightening out the anchor chains under cold, snowy skies. They did all this in daylight hours, “on the merchant’s time,” which meant they wouldn’t get paid for it. They spent their evenings inspecting every inch of line, bloodying their hands replacing gangers and hooks. The last task was to fill the water tanks, load the schooner with 250 hogsheads of salt, and make repairs to their dories.

They fished from these dories (yellow because of incessant fog), using herring for bait. They spread out from the schooner, on dangerous waters, for up to 20 hours a day. When they had a full load, they hurriedly rowed back to the schooner and washed their catch, throwing it into the hold to be salted.

The captain rendered oil from the cod livers and all waste, “gurry,” was put in a gurry pound; no one would think to pollute the seas they depended on.

Fishing with his father, young Richard found the atmosphere on St. Pierre Bank eerie. He was cold, wet, and seasick. When he was still hurling bile up on his fourth day out, Steve took him by his front collar and boxed his ears until he almost passed out.

The other dorymen were appalled, but amazed to find in the coming days that Richard’s seasickness had disappeared. It never returned.

Richard met his wife, Angela, at Lady Day in Oderin. The mid-August celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary drew visitors of all faiths from every nook and cranny in Placentia Bay. Fishing with Angela’s father, Captain Patrick Manning, in the Tancook was Richard’s most enjoyable time on the water. Even being shipwrecked at Trepassey one year was an adventure, once all the crew members safely washed up on the beach.

Angela, who spent four years in service in New York, provided a counterpoint to Richard’s seriousness, some-

Life of a doryman

Richard Hanrahan

thing that left him entirely when he played the harmonica and danced. They had four daughters followed by four sons.

Richard always wanted a shore job.

With his brother, Jack, he helped build the Glynmill Inn in Corner Brook. In his mid-40s, he tried to start a salting business that would keep him on dry land.

At the same time, he was in demand as a first mate and got offers to skipper various Grand Banks schooners, saying no to most of them. He was determined to make a go of his shore business but it was virtually impossible in the middle of the Great Depression.

When Captain Paddy Walsh asked Richard to train his son, James, in as skipper on the Mary Bernice, Richard looked at his skinny children and agreed to go.

It would be his final voyage.

He was 46 when he died. His youngest child was five. Angela took the children to her family home in Oderin and eventually to St. John’s where she supported them with a fisherman’s widow’s pension and her own hard work cleaning houses and doing laundry.

Before he left for the Mary Bernice, Richard turned to his wife, telling her to get the children educated in the capital city should anything happen to him. It took another generation but he got his wish. Meanwhile, we, his survivors and descendants, have lived our lives with a hole in our hearts carved there by his shocking early death.

Maura Hanrahan’s book based on her grandfather’s life, The Doryman (Flanker Press, 2003) was short-listed for the 2004 Newfoundland History and Heritage Award.

PAPER TRAIL

May 24th, the way it was

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

C

elebrating May 24 didn’t always include a two-four of beer and gravel pit.

In days of yore most people spent the day in church or playing sports, old newspapers reveal.

The May 23, 1892 edition of the Newfoundland Colonist included a story headlined “73 birthday of Her Majesty Queen Victoria” and went on to say the Queen would be celebrating 55 years on the throne.

Celebrations in St. John’s included a noon royal salute, fired from the guns onboard the HMS Buzzard, and the tolling of bells from Catholic churches in the city.

“This morning all the shipping in the harbour and mercantile premises were decorated with flags in honour of Her Majesty’s natal day and many of the houses of loyal citizens in the city hung out their flags,” the story read.

Celebrations were held on Saturday that year and a gala ball was held for the navy fleets and locals alike.

Seven years later, Queen Victoria celebrated her 80th birthday and completed her last “public function,” according to the Harbour Grace Standard’s May 26, 1899 edition.

Queen Victoria laid the cornerstone of the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington Park in England in front of thousands, the story read.

To celebrate her birthday, more than 200 members of the Harbour Grace British Society and their band attended a church service at St. Paul’s.

The same edition of the Standard ran an advertisement for menswear store James Cron in Harbour Grace, offering white hats, white scarves, white shirts, white bowties, white handkerchiefs and white kid gloves for gentlemen who wished to attend the Queen’s birthday celebrations.

For years, the day of celebration was called Empire Day — not Victoria Day. The May 21, 1938 edition of The Twillingate Sun published a letter from the Viscount Bledisloe (an English nobleman) sending “hearty greetings” from London to British colonies around the world.

The letter mentioned how, the year previous, the colonies celebrated the new King George VI and his “charming consort.”

In his letter, Bledisloe recommended how in the year 1938 the colonies should follow the example of the King and Queen and “make the service of God and our fellow men the ideal of our lives.”

The community of Twillingate had a football (soccer) match to mark Empire Day. One year later in the May 25, 1939 edition of the Sun, as the world was on the verge of war with Germany, King George wrote letters to newspapers asking that Empire Day be celebrated

and for the people of the colonies to be “courageous.

“Victoria’s birthday brought many in the empire thinking back to the days when the British Nation was struggling to hold their colonies intact. Today, a solidarity of the British Dominion beyond the seas stands as one unit for the safety of the realm,” read one of King George’s letters.

Empire Day was often a day off for newspapers and business, but community events brought people together.

The May 25, 1916 edition of the Mail and Advocate published a rundown of events that took place the day before.

In Topsail, 25 students from the “C&E school” went to school carrying Union Jacks. While it wasn’t a regular school day, the teacher said the students came anyway to decorate the schoolyard. They sang patriotic songs and the children played games throughout the rest of the day.

“Empire Day sports were a great success,” read another headline. The story described the events of a track and field day at St. George’s Field given by the boy scouts and Newfoundland Regiment.

The Nickle Theatre in St. John’s had a special showing. Back by popular demand was a film called The First Newfoundland Regiment at Ayr, Scotland.

With over 3,000 feet of film, the movie showed the “boys at work, drill and play.”

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

(Not) Made right here

NEWS IN BRIEF Searching for Rowe’s replacement

Replacement ships for Marine Atlantic won’t be built in Newfoundland and Labrador

The provincial government is still looking for someone to take on the role of Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in Ottawa, a job formerly held by radio host Bill Rowe.

It’s been nearly four months since Rowe, long-time host of VOCM’s Open Line, resigned his position, citing family responsibilities.

Elizabeth Matthews, spokesperson for the premier’s office, says there is, as yet, no indication who will assume the position or the time frame for filling it.

“Government is in the process of evaluating potential candidates for the Ottawa representative position,” Matthews tells The Independent. “When we are in a position to hire someone to fill the position, we will certainly be pleased to make an announcement.”

Rowe, the youngest provincial cabinet minister in the province’s history and former provincial Liberal leader, has since returned to his familiar media role, including hosting an afternoon call-in show on VOCM. Upon stepping down once the Atlantic Accord was resolved, Rowe urged government to continue the representative’s position.

“The presence of such an office in the capital city of our nation is absolutely vital for Newfoundland and Labrador if we are actually going to take full advantage of our opportunities within Confederation,” Rowe said after handing in his resignation in February.

— Jamie Baker

OPP still on the beat The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were back in St. John’s last week and expect to return in early June to do more work on two investigations into the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Detective Insp. Dave Truax, spokesman for the seven-member OPP team called in by Constabulary Chief Richard Deering, says the investigation is ongoing.

“We certainly are here to carry out all the witness interviews that need to be done and that does take time,” Truax tells The Independent.

At least one of the matters 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 are scrutinizing the inquiry as it relates to the Constabulary.

The other has to do with a “previously conducted investigation,” and possible criminal activity within the RNC carried out within the past six or eight months.

Truax says progress during future visits will determine how much time the investigation will need and if a fourth visit is likely.

“The investigation is ongoing and it’s progressing.”

— Alisha Morrissey

Workers at the Marystown shipyard work on the White Rose FPSO. Officials say the shipyard doesn’t have the capacity to build the new super ferries proposed for Marine Atlantic.

Paul Daly/The Independent

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

I

t’s possible Marine Atlantic may have three brand new vessels in less than six years, but they won’t be built in Newfoundland and Labrador.

There isn’t a dry dock in the province big enough to build them.

In its recent report, a Marine Atlantic advisory committee recommended the federal Crown corporation have three new and larger ships constructed to replace the aging MV Caribou, Joseph and Clara Smallwood, and Leif Ericson ferries — the youngest of which is the Ericson, built in 1991.

Built in 1986, the Caribou is the oldest passenger ship.

“We don’t have at the present time any sort of dry dock to build the hulls,” Marystown Shipyard manager Frank Smith tells The Independent.

MHAs tardy in meeting conflict guidelines

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

T

he Commissioner of Members’ Interests says MHAs are getting worse — not better — when it comes to responding to the province’s financial disclosure legislation. Wayne Green says the avoidance of the legislation is at an all-time high.

He plans to present the Speaker of the House, Harvey Hodder, with a letter asking him to reprimand MHAs who haven’t filed yet. The harshest penalty under the legislation calls for an MHA’s seat to be declared vacant.

Every MHA is required, under conflict of interest legislation, to file with Green’s office by April 1 of each year.

Thirty of the province’s 48 MHAs were late in filing this year.

Liberal MHAs Percy Barrett and Roger Grimes, Tory Kathy Goudie and the NDP’s Randy Collins have yet to submit disclosure statements. Only Goudie has bothered to contact Green and explain herself.

Green says he won’t recommend that Hodder take any specific action, but he would gladly recommend the speaker officially “reprimand” the MHAs if Hodder looks for guidance.

Hodder says he will wait Green’s letter and then “follow up in a very gentle

and personal manner” with each MHA. Last year, Green’s yearly report to the Speaker recommended amending the legislation to include a date to return the financial document after it has been reviewed by Green and returned to each MHA. Currently, the only deadline on the books is the April 1 filing deadline.

“I think 10 business days should be enough for them to sign it and get it back to me and right now there’s nothing I can do to force a timeframe on them,” says Green.

Hodder says the issue has to go before the Internal Economy Commission that governs the House of Assembly.

“Mr. Green has made the request ... we take that matter very seriously,” says Hodder.

Green, though, wants to see things move at a faster pace.

“I think the members and the Speaker need to focus on those recommendations at this time in view of what happened in this particular year ... every year they’ve been tardy, but none have been as late as this particular year,” he says.

“I just want the Speaker to act in accordance to what he can do under the existing legislation.”

“We could certainly outfit the hulls, but we can’t build the hulls at the present moment because they’re fairly large vessels.”

Kelvin Parsons, Liberal MHA for Burgeo-La Poile (a district that takes in the Port aux Basques ferry terminal) and a former employee of Marine Atlantic, says the federal government is likely to follow through on the recommendation to replace the vessels.

GOOD TIMELINE “They’re saying it should be done before 2011 and that would be a good timeline, in terms of, it takes about two years to build each one of these,” Parsons says, adding the committee may have recommended the 2011 deadline because they understand money isn’t available in one lump sum.

“I don’t know if Newfoundland has the facilities,” he says. “The biggest

dock we’ve got is St. John’s and I’m not sure about the Marystown facilities. I believe they’ve gone more to fabrication, rather than ship building.

“My understanding that the biggest (ship) building facility is in Quebec.”

Smith says the company would probably bid on work for the ships, but building them “isn’t an option at the present moment. If you remember White Rose the hull came in, we outfitted the hull,” he says. “It’s a technical problem more than anything else.”

Transport Canada refused comment on where — or if — the ships will be built. Officials are currently reviewing the report.

Once the review is complete, a department spokeswoman indicated officials will meet with provincial Tourism representatives and then make a decision on how to proceed.

As for the other recommendations, Parsons says he’s mostly pleased, but

not surprised to see many of the proposals mirroring those made in On Deck and Below, a 1999 provincial government assessment of Marine Atlantic.

“It should have been followed before, but obviously from a provincial perspective, the feds weren’t ready to buy into it, but now this is coming from a committee that they themselves struck so they will probably pay more attention to it now.”

Parsons says he likes the idea of having the headquarters for the service in Port aux Basques. It’s currently based in Moncton.

“I think you’re going to see quite a lot of them (recommendations implemented).”

The committee also recommended making the Gulf crossing an essential service, stabilizing the annual subsidy from the federal government and improving the quality, timeliness and cost-effectiveness of the trips.

MAY 22, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

N

ewfoundlanders and Labradorians consume around 10 million dozen locally brewed beer a year, according to Molson Brewery’s most recent industry statistics, and the May 24th long weekend is when sales really start to spike.

“Generally May 24th weekend is the official start of the summer,” says Dan Crummell, sales manager for Molson brewery in St. John’s.

“Beer sales definitely do start to spike as the weather warms and people get outside more and feel more happy about being alive.”

But as the rain fell heavily outside his window on Friday afternoon, the start of the long weekend, Crummell said there may not be quite such a peak this year.

“It depends on weather … if it’s a beautiful, sunny weekend over a three-day May 24th, we could sell as much as 100 per cent more beer than if it’s a weekend that it looks like it’s shaping up to be now.”

Going by last year’s figures, Crummell says the domestic beer industry — which makes up 97 per cent of beer sales in the province and covers Molson, Labatt and Quidi Vidi Brewing — can expect to sell close to 800,000 dozen beer this May. LONG WEEKEND If it’s a standard, mild May 24, around 40 per cent of that figure can be attributed to the long weekend.

Crummell says sales in February, a slow month, average at about 600,000 dozen beer, with the busiest two months of the year being July and December, when sales can reach 1.2 million dozen.

David Rees, owner of Quidi Vidi Brewing, says between January and May, his company could see a sales increase of 48 per cent.

“You’ll be coming along with a certain level of sales and then all of a sudden there’s an upswing, it’s sort of like a dog’s leg, you know?”

For Quidi Vidi Brewing, one particularly helpful booster in sales comes from tourists, fascinated to try some local sauce; particularly when there’s a Viking on the label and they’re visiting L’Anse aux Meadows.

“Out on the west coast of the province, in the Northern Peninsula area, we get a large increase in sales in May for our Eric’s Red,” says Rees.

Grin and beer it

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians expected to consume 320,000 dozen beer over 24th weekend

Mark Nuotio buys beer at Irving on the Trans Canada Highway Friday before heading out for the May24th weekend.

“It’s very popular with the Viking on it.”

At the end of the day, the weather holds the power when it comes to beer sales and overall enjoyment during the May 24 weekend.

Crummell says he and his family are going to wait and see what the forecast brings before heading out to pitch a tent. He’s got his fingers crossed on a personal and professional level.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

“The way that we look at it in this industry is, it’s a missed opportunity that you just don’t get back,” he says. “It’s gone, it’s lost and it will impact your volume for the rest of the summer.”

Offshore or inshore?

Scientist says society may have to decide between the two fisheries; recovery targets must be set

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

A

Dalhousie University biologist says what’s been missing in the effort to help northern cod stocks recover is a target-based strategy based on either hard numbers or social ideals.

Jeff Hutchings says the federal government and other stakeholders have been hoping to see positive changes in the cod, but haven’t set any goals.

The recent northern cod stock assessment report by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirms offshore stocks have shown no significant signs of recovery some 13 years after the moratorium was declared.

“There are some times where one can seriously question whether we have learned very much,” Hutchings tells The Independent of the recent

stock assessment and overall state of the world’s fishery.

“And one of the reasons for saying that is we still to this day do not have accepted recovery targets for our fishery,” Hutchings says. “... in the absence of a target for which there’s been broad consultations, I don’t see how one can have a meaningful, defendable recovery plan.”

Catch rates in the sentinel fishery, which Ottawa uses to help gauge the state of the stock, peaked in 1997 at 170 fish per 1,000 hooks, but the offshore has steadily declined to a point where, in 2004, 90 fish were taken per 1,000 hooks.

The report concludes that with the “lack of recovery” in the offshore stock “it is clear that the productivity of the stock as a whole is seriously impaired.”

Hutchings says the targets could also be set from a social and economic point

of view.

“They could be set with some broader reflection that society wants.”

Hutchings says some people contend the offshore stock is gone and people should just come to terms with that and move on.

“And if that’s the case, if it will never recover, then by withholding the inshore then you’re simply preventing people from obtaining a livelihood at some level.”

FURTHER DECLINE? With the stock assessment report suggesting an inshore fishery could send the offshore stocks into even further decline, perhaps beyond any recovery, Hutchings says society might be forced to make a choice between the two stocks.

“Historically cod that were spawned or produced in the offshore have, as far as we have assumed, migrated every

year in the springtime, a lot of those fish have migrated to the inshore area to feed and then have migrated back offshore again in the fall of the year.”

Inshore cod are not thought to migrate offshore.

Fishermen regularly contend inshore cod stocks are as healthy as they’ve ever been.

“It all comes down to one’s framework, the spatial scale, the sort of area of ocean that you are familiar with and it might well be that in local areas abundance seems to be, it might well be, particularly high, but in the broad scheme of things it’s incredibly low.”

Hutchings says if such a social choice is made, people are “rolling the dice” when it comes to the survival of the stocks.

“We’re rolling the dice anyway. I mean in the sense that the black-market trade for cod is, by a number of estimates, substantial,” says Hutchings.

In 2003, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) elevated northern cod to “endangered.” Hutchings is a member of that committee.

Over the last 30 years, cod stocks have declined by as much as 97 per cent. Other stocks, such as turbot, are also declining.

“The most extreme case would be a prohibition of fishing of all kinds,” says Hutchings. “I don’t see that as being likely to happen and it’s probably not something we would necessarily want to have happen ... the social ramifications would be enormous.”

Hutchings says recovery of the offshore, if it’s even possible, is still a long way away.

“I think it’s highly improbable that we will see cod coming back in the offshore waters to a level of abundance that we saw even in the 1980s in the next decade, decade and a half.”

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 22-29, 2005 — PAGE 11

Belinda Stronach in St. John’s in February, 2004 — when she was campaigning for leader of the Conservative Party.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Romance. Betrayal. Surprise endings Twists and turns abound in soap opera on the Hill — like Seinfeld, is the show about nothing?

OTTAWA

By Susan Delacourt Torstar wire service

I

n drama or even comedy — the TV sitcom Seinfeld comes to mind — this is what happens at the end.

Characters come crashing into fateful developments, evoking shadows and echoes of their pasts. Loose ends are tied up. Storylines merge, plots twist and then mesh in surprising, even hilarious, ways.

Symbolism runs rampant.

Then it’s all over.

How else to explain the extraordinary, sometimes farcical soap opera that has unfolded on Parliament Hill over the past days and weeks?

As fiction, it would likely be rejected by a publisher. As political science though, it may say something about what the last days of traditional politics look like in Canada. Recent events in federal politics have a sense of fictional finality and, okay, a not-so-poetic justice to them.

Belinda Stronach’s defection from the Conservatives to the Liberals this week is

obviously the richest tale.

But it was all for a grander cause.

At the beginning of the story, she is the Flash forward through the next scenes beautiful heiress who emerges from politi- — Stronach runs against Harper for the cal obscurity to help broker a peace leadership of the party, gets religion about between two rivals, Stephen Harper and politics, gets romantically linked with Peter MacKay, for the MacKay. In the lead cause of forming one up to this week’s united Conservative You can almost hear the finale, she is increasparty. ingly seen in league rising strains of the It’s precisely her lack with MacKay against of strong ties to any one Harper. soundtrack as Harper political cause that Then the twist — makes her so attractive to she abandons both of serve as a middle person. looks into the camera and them, joining Prime She’s the daughter of a Paul declares that MacKay is Minister rich, well-connected Martin’s cabinet.

Liberal, Magna Inc. Suddenly, Harper and “terribly, badly hurt.” founder Frank Stronach.

MacKay are united She is on good terms again, thanks to her. with former Ontario premiers and U.S. Stronach has brought the old rivals togethpresidents of all political stripes. er, this time in the solidarity of resentment.

She floats among her high-level friends You can almost hear the rising strains of and when the merger is done, she is credit- the soundtrack as Harper looks into the ed for doing a good job. Oh sure, there camera and declares that MacKay is “terriwere betrayals (MacKay had to tear up a bly, badly hurt.” deal he made with one of his old leadership But MacKay is in the midst of an epicrivals, David Orchard) and broken hearts. style reckoning of his own. Hurt yes, but is

it any more devastating than how Orchard must have felt when MacKay turned his back on him?

MacKay has also left people behind — remember the woman who appeared at his side for four years, up until shortly before he took up with Stronach?

Comeuppances are everywhere in this tale. Beyond a literary neatness, though, it may be worth scrutinizing for deeper political lessons. Like literary characters, those who were betrayed by Stronach were done in by exactly the same traits that drew her to them — her lack of strong political allegiance, her ability to cozy up to the powerful across the political spectrum. In other words, in politics, as in literature, be careful what you do to get ahead. It will come back upon you.

There have been other symbolically laden tales, all of which appear to have been written by a ham-handed scriptwriter.

Would any director bite if these stories were pitched as subplots for a book or movie?

See “There have to be” on page 14

Martin flouts the will of Parliament The PM’s desperation to cling to power at any cost looks like the antics of a Third World despot

T

hose who think the excesses of the Robert Mugabe government of Zimbabwe and the collapse of the democratic parliamentary government in that Third World country can’t happen here should take a closer look at political events in Canada since Paul Martin became our prime minister.

The Gomery inquiry has revealed a system of maladministration and corruption in the sponsorship program in Quebec, including the purloining of public monies to assist the national Liberal party in financing its election activities.

Martin now wants to delay an election for at least 10 months to allow time for the public’s memories of the corruption

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon revealed at the inquiry to fade, and give the government time to spend billions of dollars in public funds to attract support from client groups across the country.

The Mugabe tendencies of Martin were confirmed last Tuesday, when a majority of the House of Commons by a vote of 153 to 150 passed a motion recommending the government resign. If that is not an illustration of non-confidence from the majority of the members

of the House of Commons, what else could be?

Instead, Martin’s Liberal minority government says it will ignore this vote and carry on without the confidence of the majority of the House. Martin now flouts the most serious and fundamental conventions of the parliamentary system.

Since he went on television on April 21, his government has made spending announcements totaling $22.3 billion, which works out to $1.24 billion a day, including the $5.75 billion the Liberals gave to Ontario last weekend and the $8 billion produced last Monday to reduce airport rents across the country over the next 50 years.

In the past two weeks, Liberal MPs and ministers have announced 122 spending projects across the country, illustrating why Martin wants to wait 10 months before an election, which he cannot call without a majority.

The facts matter not to Martin who, in the true Mugabe tradition, plans to stay in office no matter what.

Martin also doesn’t explain that, according to the Inquiries Act, Justice John Gomery cannot outline any conclusion about the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization (the Liberal party or whoever). Gomery is not permitted to reveal who carried out any theft or fraud or corruption, or who wrongfully misdirected public funds and

passed taxpayers’ money on to the party or its workers or supporters.

The fact is, the final Gomery report will not provide the kind of answers the public is interested in. The public does not need to have this report, if there is one, to make up their minds about what happened and who was at fault and who were the villains. The facts are revealed in the evidence.

Canadians should not forget the Liberal party has governed Canada for 56 of the last 70 years. It is this lack of competition between political parties that has led to the deplorable corruption and plunder now revealed by Gomery.

See “Perversion” on page 12

MAY 22, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

VOICE FROM AWAY

‘The music draws me away’

Carbonear native Curtis Andrews finds inspiration — and some surprising reminders of home — in Zimbabwe HARARE, ZIMBABWE

By Curtis Andrews For the Independent

schools, and dirt roads are common. A certain generation of Newfoundlanders would feel at home in certain parts of Zimbabwe (or Ghana or Togo or many other countries).

Do not get the impression people are living in the dark over here (literally and figuratively).

Quite the contrary. The city of Harare (or Cape Town or Accra) has anything and anything you would want in St. John’s — and more.

I wouldn’t be lying if I said there are more mobile phones in Harare than in all of Newfoundland. Cable TV, selfflushing toilets, skyscrapers and all the other bizarre things people in the West use to measure the development of other nations are here.

G

reetings one and all. I write to you from the other side of the ocean in Africa — Zimbabwe to be precise. It is quite the distance, both geographically and culturally, from the town of Carbonear where I was born and raised.

I’ve been here nearly two months, mainly in the capital city of Harare.

I’m learning a traditional musical instrument called mbira, known erroneously to the rest of the world as the “thumb piano.”

It isn’t my first time on African soil, nor to Zimbabwe. I’ve spent time in Ghana, Togo, South Africa and Mozambique in addition to “Zim,” as it is affectionately known.

It is the music that draws me away from the shores of Newfoundland.

Sure, Newfoundland has lots of musical culture.

But as a percussionist, let me say the grass truly is greener on the other side in terms of rhythm.

There is something about African music (and I hate to use that term so broadly — there is more diversity in things African than anywhere else I know of) that instantly touches one’s core and resonates. I am lucky to have been able to delve deeper into that essence on many occasions.

INFECTIOUS MUSIC But there is something else about Zim (and places like it) that is a little harder to put one’s finger on. It is in the way people speak, both with words and their bodies, the charming way women carry most anything on their heads, the deep history and mystery of the culture, the infectious music and dance that is a part of existence even before birth, the chaotic but functional way people drive.

It is in the shape of the land and all its wondrous beauty, storybook creatures from the lion to the elephant to the chameleon, the bizarre boulders piled upon each other that dot the

Percussionist Curtis Andrews with a lion cub in Zimbabwe.

landscape, as if an unseen giant placed land redistribution program by the them there as part of some game. And government, which gives portions of of course, the rejuvenating and drain- land from the former white colonialists ing sun. But back to black most of all it is residents. perhaps the Controversial A certain generation of heart-warming indeed, and Newfoundlanders would feel best discussed hospitality of the people that another time. at home in certain parts of is so endearing.

As a result, a This country of flux Zimbabwe (or Ghana or Togo period has seen better is at hand and days — the people are or many other countries). economy is in struggling a shambles and little harder inflation continues. One US dollar is each day. now equal to $21,000 Zim dollars. Just But still, any guest that comes to a three years ago it was $600. You can household is given the best seat in the imagine the change that has occurred. house, fed and given a bed — even if Most people say it is because of the there are 10 other mouths to feed. In

that way the place is a little bit like home.

In fact, many of the places I have travelled in Africa remind me of Newfoundland. I think it is the rural aspect that brings this forth. Zimbabwe is very much an agricultural country with many people living off the land, the same way Newfoundlanders did, not too long ago.

With that lifestyle comes a certain mindset and value system. The importance of family, communication, discipline and simplicity go hand in hand.

Many of the villages I visit are basically what rural Newfoundland was only about 60 years ago.

Many of them have no electricity, they use wells and have no running water. Outhouses, one- or two-room

SURE, THERE ARE LIONS Ignorance and the media have most people in the world thinking of Africa as backward, crawling with wild animals and strange diseases, with poor infrastructure, uneducated populations, half-naked tribes dancing around a fire, and all that other Hollywood/storybook nonsense.

Sure there are lions (one took my video camera from my hand) but they are in well-controlled areas, not roaming around your backyard.

Yes, people do dance half-naked sometimes (it can be quite hot) and then later go to their jobs as lawyers, pilots or engineers.

If nothing else, I hope whoever is reading this will let a bit of light come from the “dark continent” into their lives. There is a vitality and sense of purpose here, which is truly inspiring.

The second I step off the airplane and breathe the air and touch the ground I know I’m in a different place.

In fact, in a deeper sense, when you touch African soil, you are in your ancestral home.

Curtis Andrews from Carbonear is a percussionist and composer.

Do you know a Newfoundlander or Labradorian living away?

Please e-mail The Independent at editorial@theindependent.ca

AIDS numbers ‘shattering’ AIDS linked to 44 per cent of all 2004 South African deaths

F

orty-four per cent of deaths in South Africa eral haven’t seen it yet,” Health Department last year were caused by HIV/AIDS, spokesperson Solly Mabotha says. “We thereaccording to projections from the coun- fore cannot comment.” try’s Medical Research Council.

Mark Heywood, spokesperson for the “South Africa is in the grip of an HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign, says: “These figepidemic of shattering proportions,” the council ures are just going to get worse and worse.” says in introducing recent research on causes of And the National Association of People death in the country.

Living with HIV and AIDS said the appalling Estimates of death from AIDS-related dis- death rates come as no surprise. eases have risen catastrophically in recent years.

“For a long time we have been seeing parents In a 2001 report, the council put the rate in the burying their children, not the other way around late 1990s at 25 per cent of — even as people were all deaths. not saying that it was More recent estimates put AIDS their children were the rate at 30 per cent — dying from,” spokesper“For a long time we have nearly one in three people son Thanduxolo Doro been seeing parents who died in South Africa in says.

2000 died of HIV/AIDS, The research council’s burying their children, not analysis of deaths up to the council says. It was the top killer in all provinces year 2000 broke causes the other way around.” save Western Cape, it adds. down by province.

And the situation is worsIn KwaZulu-Natal Thanduxolo Doro ening dramatically. province, 41.5 per cent of In the conclusion to its deaths are attributable to National Burden of Disease AIDS, followed by Study 2000, the council warns ominously: “The Mpumalanga with 40.7 per cent, the report says. ... model projects that in 2004, the total number In Gauteng, South Africa’s economic heartof deaths from all causes will be over 700,000 land, AIDS accounts for 32.5 per cent of deaths, and that 44 per cent of them will be due to it says. The national average was 30 per cent and HIV/AIDS.” only in Western Cape was the proportion of That’s nearly 310,000 deaths.

AIDS deaths less than 10 per cent of the total.

It goes on to recommend urgent adoption of Because South Africa is still updating causerecent government initiatives in treatment, of-death reporting standards, the researchers blocking the spread of the disease and support admit some gaps in data had to be filled in with for infected persons. estimates, but said they stand by the results The South African government refuses to because they used a series of criteria to ensure comment. accuracy.

“The report has not been released officially, — Medical Research Council of South Africa; which means the minister and the director-gen- Torstar wire services

Perversion of parliament From page 11 Two months ago, Martin forced his Finance minister, Ralph Goodale, to bring in a budget reversing the canons of fiscal soundness Martin himself practised under Jean Chretien.

Goodale’s original budget included a 10 per cent boost in federal spending, the largest increase since 1973-74, when Pierre Trudeau accepted a Liberal-NDP coalition. Martin’s deal with the NDP for $4.6 billion in new spending brought the increase to 12 per cent. The latest spending spree puts it over 15 per cent.

In another Mugabe-inspired parliamentary violation last week, Goodale tabled a special spending bill based on the Layton-Martin budget agree-

ment.

This legislation provides for a $4.5-billion slush fund that government can dip into at will without parliamentary approval. As former finance official Don Drummond said, “For years government has wanted an instrument that would allow it to allocate spending without having to say what it’s for. This act will do it.”

Are you going to allow this perversion of our democratic parliamentary system to continue?

Are we going to let Canada become the first country of the West to follow the deplorable, dictatorial decline of despoiled Zimbabwe?

John Crosbie’s next column will appear June 5.

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

MAY 22, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Battle still on, but leaders stall This is the start of the longest election campaign in Canadian history

O

ver the eight months between now and the Prime Minister’s self-imposed deadline to call a general election — 30 days after the Gomery report next December — every federal party will be on permanent campaign standing.

That was obvious after the vote last week, as both Paul Martin and Stephen Harper delivered their take on the tie vote in the House of Commons on national television.

But that does not mean the coming action need necessarily continue to rivet Canadians to the goings-on in Parliament.

From disrupted, the House may be about to become less relevant, as the political battle shifts to other fronts.

By next week, when the voters of the riding of Labrador go to the polls in a by-election, the Liberals hope to be able to count on an additional body to bolster their ranks.

One way or another, the tie vote has shown that unless all three opposition parties stand shoulder to shoulder against the Liberals, this minority government will be hard to bring down.

The parliamentary fight of the past six weeks has done little to enhance the image of the main

party leaders.

Both Martin and Harper emerge from the turmoil a little smaller than when they entered it.

Each is lucky not to have an obvious successor waiting in the wings.

Neither commands the respect and trust of a majority of Canadians. Martin lost ground by looking too eager to cling to office and Harper failed to thrive by coming across as too hungry for power.

At different times, each came perilously close to the credibility breaking point in their attempts to bend to the winds of political expediency.

Martin rewrote his budget at the stroke of an NDP pen.

He brokered billion-dollar deals with various provinces at the drop of a hat. (The others have already taken numbers and are now waiting their turn.)

He snatched a rookie MP from the Conservatives to turn her overnight into a senior cabinet minister.

Although he denies it, there is compelling evidence that patronage appointments were dangled in front of opposition MPs so as to lure them out of voting against the government.

Harper spent the spring blurring the lines between his Conservatives and the Liberals on just about every policy front, from child care to the

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

BACK!

Jack Layton: moral victor

Paul Daly/The Independent

environment. He shut down Parliament in petulant anger.

He allowed a fissure between him and a former leadership rival to grow into a divide, opening the way for the Liberal gambit that ultimately cost the Conservatives yesterday’s confidence vote.

If an election had taken place this spring, both

Martin and Harper would have had a hard time winning a viable government.

Contrast that with the third parties.

More than ever, the Bloc Québécois stands head and shoulders above the pack in Quebec.

In the rest of Canada, the NDP is on the rise, its leader Jack Layton the only moral victor of the whole episode.

What the Bloc and the NDP have had in common over the past stormy weeks is that, through all the manoeuvring, they never lost sight of who they were.

No one can presume the outcome of the next federal election.

If anything, the inconclusive events of this spectacularly feverish spring have shown that. But they have also shown an electorate deeply uneasy with the main choices at hand.

As of now, the Prime Minister has a bit more than six months left to show that he is more than a one-trick pony, adept at campaigning but inept at governing. Otherwise he will be lucky if he secures another minority government next winter.

Harper has his work cut out for him. Central Canada, in particular Ontario, still prefers the devil it knows to the devil it does not know.

That was the backdrop to Stronach’s defection.

Almost a year after the last election, Canada and its federal leaders are basically back to square one.

Is it any easier? You do the math

Curriculum changes aimed at Grade 9; halting dropouts goal of new approach TORONTO

By Louise Brown Torstar wire service

O

ntario has unveiled a kinder, gentler math curriculum it hopes will stem the rising tide of high school dropouts.

The government has made sweeping changes to Grade 9 math, in the more hands-on applied stream where staggering failure rates have been linked to a growing number of dropouts since the tough new four-year high school program began in 1999.

Starting this fall, Grade 9 students in applied math will be expected to master nearly one-third less material while getting more practical lessons. As well, teachers will get more tips on how to make math relevant to teens.

Gone are subjects teachers deemed too abstract for many Grade 9 applied students, such as analytical geometry, the study of the steepness of “slopes” and lessons on the algebra needed to plot a parabolic curve.

Appearing in Grade 9 is the occasional reference to feet and yards instead of metres, for students who may be headed for a job in construction, where many measurements are still done in imperial units.

“The big, big deal was to get less content crammed into the curriculum, and they’ve done that. It’s huge,” says Stewart Craven, math coordinator for the Toronto District School Board.

Rather than “dumb down” the cur-

Is high school math too hard?

Photo by Robert Dall

riculum, Craven predicts the changes actually enrich students’ learning by removing a clutter of abstract concepts.

Many have called Grade 9 applied math the biggest roadblock to graduation for Ontario teens, because it was too similar to the abstract academic course for those headed to university.

An alarming three-quarters of applied students failed to meet provincial standards on the latest Ontariowide Grade 9 math test, compared to just one-third of academic students.

As a result, the Ontario government

launched an early review of math from Grade 1 through 12, paying urgent attention to Grades 9 and 10.

With the new course outline, only 50 to 60 per cent of the material in applied and academic math overlaps.

And the new course weaves topics like cell phone bills and video rental charges into problems so teens can see math as useful to their day-to-day lives.

“Students who learn in a more tactile, concrete way have a better chance at understanding,” said Education Minister Gerard Kennedy.

‘There have to be some lessons here …’

From page 11 Pitch one: the “price of allegiance” subplot: We have this B.C. Conservative MP (Gurmant Grewal), married to another B.C. Conservative MP (Nina Grewal). He has been accused by Liberal enemies of selling entry to Canada to would-be immigrants in his constituency.

Then, in a bizarre twist, he reveals that Liberals have been trying to sell him entry to their caucus.

He even has a tape recording of the

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Prime Minister’s top aide, cryptically discussing abstract concepts such as truth and abstention. Liberals retort that it was actually the MP who was trying to win payoffs for himself and his wife.

Or maybe it was a trap. But it’s a web within a web of allegations — altogether too complicated.

Pitch two: the “broken heart” subplot. Jim Karygiannis, a Scarborough Liberal MP, famed as a tough guy, has to be removed from the Commons, suffering from chest pains. Fortunately, Liberal MP Keith Martin, also a doctor

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and yet another former Conservative leadership candidate/defector to the Liberals, is on hand.

Yes, on the very day that Parliament is transfixed by MacKay’s broken heart, a Liberal suffers a more literal form of heart trouble. A heart attack is feared; turns out it’s heartburn.

Okay, that subplot kind of flickers out without a real lesson.

Desperate now, we’re at pitch three: the “agony of exile” subplot: The lead character is Carolyn Parrish, the former Liberal MP, ejected from caucus over her anti-American, anti-Martin outbursts, but lately turned conciliatory to the Liberals.

But wait — early yesterday, she develops abdominal pains. Is it appendicitis or ovarian cysts? A breathless nation awaits.

Yet another doctor/MP (just like in the movies, there’s always a doctor in the House), Liberal MP Bernard Patry is dispatched and diagnoses an ovarian cyst.

Like a showbiz trouper, however, she promises to carry on, despite her pain.

“Come hell or high water, there’s no friggin’ way I’m going to let one ovary bring down the government,” she pronounces.

How bad did it feel? Well, she didn’t say it, but maybe the stab in the gut was a bit like that George W. Bush doll felt when she crushed it under her heel on a CBC-TV satire show.

Okay, a bit of a stretch. But what development on Parliament Hill this week hasn’t stretched credulity?

Fun as it is to imagine, compelling as it is to compare to fiction, there have to be some lessons here about why these last bizarre days in federal politics so closely resemble the literary and theatrical devices that more creative people use to signal to the audience that a story is about to wind to a close.

It begs the question: what exactly is ending here?

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 22-28, 2005 — PAGE 17

SANCTUARY Paul Daly/The Independent

Alexi Kolosovs

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

A

lexi Kolosovs hasn’t left the West End Baptist Church in St. John’s for three weeks. Stepping outside the door would mean a quick trip back to his native Latvia — which, for the middle-aged Russian, would mean leaving behind family, work, and a province he has grown to love.

Kolosovs, a fisherman, came to Newfoundland more than seven years ago.

When the boat he was on made a supply stop in Bay Roberts, he got off, and decided to stay. He had no idea about the long and tangled process that lay ahead — the fight to be accepted in this country.

Kolosovs’ son also came to the province.

The younger Russian met and began living with a Newfoundlander. The couple now has four children, including a boy named after his “papa,” Alexi.

Kolosovs says he worked for years as a net-maker for a local company, making trawl nets and crab pots, even training other Newfoundlanders with the skills he had. He had to give up the job two years ago, when his work permit ran out.

Russian man facing deportation finds safe haven in St. John’s church Though he’s eager to work again — and says the company would still hire him — he’s been living on social assistance while waiting for his claim to be processed.

“I cannot work, I cannot teach,” he says, casting his eyes down.

Kolosovs’ refugee claim was officially and finally turned down about a month ago.

Face-to-face with deportation, he knocked on the door of the Topsail Road church, and asked for sanctuary.

Reverend Gordon Sutherland invited him in.

The practice of providing a safe haven for individuals in a church — protecting them from violence, arrest, or deportation — is centuries old. While a church’s decision to offer asylum is generally respected by the Canadian government and police, it is not

protected by law.

Kolosovs’ new “apartment” is a former Sunday school meeting room separated from the main worship area by a door. It’s sparse and neat: a small bed, table, chairs, television and a few clothes and basic possessions, including a Russian Bible.

A shower has been installed for him and volunteers, either from the congregation or the Refugee Immigrant Advisory Council, bring him food.

He keeps busy, he says, “painting, cleaning, taking care of things.” Kolosovs also attends church services and whatever dinners and events happen within the walls of the building.

“He’s very accommodating and the congregation is accommodating on his behalf,” says Sutherland.

“He’s a very gentle man, a very quiet man, a very trusting man. That’s part of what’s gotten him into problems. He refuses to play the game or bend the rules. He just states it as it is and I appreciate that about him.”

Sutherland says the church is willing to offer Kolosovs space until a resolution is reached.

“It makes you appreciate the freedom that we have here, and wish that those who deserve it could appreciate it as well,” he says. “That’s how we feel about Alexi’s case.”

Donna Jeffrey, director of the advisory council, is partly responsible for bringing Kolosovs to the church.

“To me, it was inhumane to send that man back,” she says. “I just couldn’t do it, with him crying and the grandchildren crying.”

Jeffrey has been fighting for the rights of refugees and immigrants for years. She’s seen too many deportations, she says, of people who contribute to this province.

“I can’t go through another one of those times watching someone go up the steps to leave, someone I know should stay, that See “I have family,” page 22

LIVYERS

Newfoundland: ‘Like a salvation for me’

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

S

t. John’s resident Gary Palen has spent his life searching. The search has taken him from studying for a PhD in neuroscience in Montreal, to creating a Zen meditation centre at his home, overlooking The Narrows in St. John’s.

“My life has been characterized by kinds of ethical crises,” says Palen, who recently returned from a five-week stay at a Zen Buddhist monastery in the south of France.

It was his second trip to Plum Village, the home of renowned Vietnamese Zen monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, whose teachings have helped shape Palen’s outlook over

the last three years.

Originally from Ontario, Palen moved to Newfoundland 10 years ago after some life changes. He had just quit his secure, government job for ethical reasons and shortly after, his marriage fell apart.

“I consulted a physician about stress that I was having and she said, ‘Has anything like this ever happened before?’ I said, ‘Yeah, one time when I was finishing my PhD I went through a big crisis.’

And: ‘How did you handle that?’ I said ‘I went to the ocean.’ She said, ‘Well maybe that’s what you should do again.’”

Palen decided to go to Newfoundland, a place he had always loved to the point that when his

wife was pregnant with their first child, he insisted their daughter be born in the province.

“It was like a salvation for me … it touched me right away. I was 29 when I first saw the ocean and right from then on I only wanted to live by the ocean.”

Palen has one of the best views in town. He lives in a compact house, perched on the grassy rocks of the Battery. Every room has large windows, framing the moody landscape outside. Right now, the colourfully decorated house is full of the scent of freshmade bread and vegetable soup, which Palen is preparing for “Zen Tuesday,” a weekly gathering for anyone who wants to stop by for food, company and meditation.

His home, with its sign Gary’s B & B, is a familiar sight to regular hikers of the Outer Battery trail, but recently Palen has been thinking of a new name: Blue Sky Meditation Centre.

He explains “Blue Sky” is a metaphor for the mind, which can often become clouded. Zen Buddhism in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition focuses on “mindfulness,” the practice of “being awake all the time to the wonders of the moment. “… and in every moment practicing, practicing being happy,” says Palen. “I found that a very novel concept. Happiness is not just something that happens once See “Like drinking,” page 23

Gary Palen

Paul Daly/The Independent

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MAY 22, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

I

t was Betty Hall’s idea to arrange an art exhibition with her son, Justin — the first time the two artists have ever formally worked together.

Justin, based in St. John’s, has become well known for his professional photography and exhibitions over the past two decades or so.

Betty, a painter virtually her whole life, is equally prolific. She’s appeared frequently in group exhibitions in the province and has illustrated two books for the Newfoundland Horticultural Society.

“I just thought it would be a good idea,” says Betty. “I know Justin does some nature stuff, and I do a lot, so I thought it would be a good chance to get together.

“I was a bit afraid I wouldn’t be able to fill up the room on my own, actually,” she adds, laughing.

In some ways, the two sets of work stand in stark contrast. Justin’s large prints are richly coloured close-up photographs of flowers, ice-covered branches, and vegetables. The majority of Betty’s works are smaller, softer watercolours of flowers from her garden, or landscapes.

But the pieces fit neatly together in their acute, even tender, examination of the colours, textures and life found in nature. “I think the contrast is interesting,” Betty says. She points to her favourite of Justin’s photographs: bright yellow daffodil petals, curvy and glowing.

“With regular photography that would

JUSTIN AND BETTY HALL Photography & Painting almost be impossible,” says Justin, who now uses only digital equipment. “The way the technology is organized, you can get a little bit closer with a little bit more

depth of field.”

Justin turns to the opposite wall to make his pick among his mother’s work.

He likes some of the smaller pieces, and settles on the moodiest of the landscapes, obviously painted on a gloomy Newfoundland day.

Betty laughs and shakes her head — it seems she’s generally fond of painting lighter, prettier objects and times.

Betty says she never did encourage Justin to paint, but did “give him a dollar camera from Woolworth’s,” she says.

“Be very careful what you give your child.”

“She gave me a set of drums too,” Justin adds, smiling. “I’ve done some drawing, but not painting, I don’t have the attention span, it takes too long.”

Justin makes it clear his pictures appear as they appeared in their natural surroundings — he doesn’t computeralter the photos. “I want to see how close I can get it to the original, it’s kind of a quality-control exercise,” he says.

“That’s what I liked about regular photography, that it was real, and I try to carry that through to the digital stuff.”

Justin has four pieces in an upcoming show of photojournalism in Toronto.

This summer, Betty will take part in another group exhibition at the Botanical Gardens — and spend some quality time in her own flower garden.

Paintings and Pixels will be on display at Memorial University’s Botanical Gardens until May 29.

— Stephanie Porter

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

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Ferrell’s shtick not enough TIM CONWAY Film Score

Kicking and Screaming Starring Will Ferrell 1/2 (out of four)

M

ild-mannered Phil Weston is nothing like his father, Buck, and he’s been reminded of it almost every day of his life. Sadly, Phil has gone to great pains over the years to impress his old man, but his efforts have either fallen short of his expectations, or been overshadowed by the senior Weston himself.

Just when he seems to have accepted his lot in life, Phil unwittingly finds himself and Buck, for the first time, in adversarial roles that are clearly defined and governed by rules on a level playing field. They’re coaching different teams in a children’s soccer league.

Phil’s son, Sam, had been a member of The Gladiators, along with Bucky, Buck’s son of the same age from his second marriage. As coach of the team, Buck’s focus on winning games often left Sam sitting on the bench.

When Phil gets up the nerve to approach his father about the boy’s situation, he’s informed that the problem has already been solved, as Buck has sent Sam to play with The Tigers, the worst team in the league.

Sam’s first game as a Tiger is complicated by the absence of the team’s coach, who apparently has snapped under the pressure of trying to deal with the usual group of unusual misfits that could only be assembled in a

sports movie. For the sake of the kids, Phil steps in for the day, but all it takes is a bit of ribbing from Buck and suddenly he’s committed for the long haul.

Of course, in a film featuring Will Ferrell as Phil and Robert Duvall as Buck, things can’t move on from there. The stakes must escalate, and in jig time, there’s a serious bet in place regarding which team will win the league championship.

Despite his efforts to whip the team into shape, Phil quickly discovers that he’s way out of his element and needs help, preferably professional help. The solution to his problem is not as difficult to arrange as one might expect, however, thanks to his father’s penchant for rubbing some people the wrong way.

Buck’s next-door neighbour, none other than famous football coach Mike Ditka, is his sworn enemy. Presented with the opportunity of robbing Buck of his prized championship, Ditka jumps on board The Tigers’ coaching staff.

All of this serves as a fairly elaborate set-up to what could have been a fairly sophisticated comedy, especially considering Ferrell’s comic versatility and Duvall’s acting chops.

We’re presented with a number of father-son dynamics, long-standing relationship issues, different world views, the opportunity to explore the concepts of coaching with one of its icons, and vanloads of kids playing soccer.

Instead of drawing from this and forming an intelligent comedy to entertain viewers of all ages, however, the forces behind Kicking and Screaming opt for a more lazy approach.

Most of the film’s comic moments are added to the story, rather than orig-

Will Ferrell stars in Kicking and Screaming.

inating from it. Flashbacks of Phil’s vain efforts in sports, and a sub-plot focused on caffeine addiction offer numerous opportunities for gags, especially since Ferrell seems to be given free reign to improvise. Fans of his, in particular, are sure to enjoy laughs aplenty, in scenes that would play out as well in a Best of Will Ferrell show.

WHATEVER IT TAKES Although it’s to his credit that Ferrell has a reputation of doing whatever it takes to make a joke work, in this case, he’s often asked to work with gags that undermine his character.

Phil is unbelievably inept at times, to the point where he loses all connection to reality. Since we cannot buy his clumsiness, which has nothing to do with anything else in the story, it’s difficult for us to see him as the regular Joe he’s supposed to be in the film.

A good portion of Ferrell’s shtick should play well to younger viewers, as well — though they should have been treated to more participation by the young actors in the film who have little to do beyond demonstrating poor playing skills and inattentiveness.

Flawed as it is, Kicking and Screaming does accomplish its objective of putting Will Ferrell in a motion

picture to generate a few laughs, and in this respect, it succeeds.

Family friendly and goofy, it’s the kind of thing that goes over much better than it has a right to, but we seem to be a little less demanding of comedy lately, especially considering what Hollywood has been offering. There was a time when Kicking and Screaming would be considered subpar, but alongside its peers of the last couple of years, it comes out above average.

Tim Conway operates Capital Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His next column appears June 5.

NO MAN’S LAND

Students of Gonzaga High School in St. John’s perform No Man’s Land, a musical about the First World War, at Memorial University’s Reid Theatre. The script, written by students under the direction of Petrina Bromley and Jacinta Mackey-Graham, tells the true story of Newfoundland soldier Stephen Norris — one of many who did not make it home.

Photos by Paul Daly/The Independent

P U B L I C

U T I L I T I E S

B O A R D

Insurance Review Ho m e owner / Commer c ial / Mar ine

We want to hear from you!

The Public Utilities Board has been requested by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to review and report on issues related to homeowner, commercial and marine insurance. Having submitted its report to Government on the automobile insurance review, the Board is proceeding with its comprehensive review of other insurance products. The specific issues outlined by Government are: Homeowner Insurance Report on issues related to availability and accessibility of this insurance in light of the associated profit margins. Identify potential ways to address these issues, such as: rate regulation; alternative means of providing this insurance, including the introduction of risk-sharing pools; and underwriting guidelines.

Commercial Insurance Report on issues related to availability and accessibility of this insurance in light of the associated profit margins, particularly in reference to the hospitality/tourism industry, not-for-profit and volunteer organizations and individuals involved in volunteer activities. Identify potential ways to address these issues, such as: rate regulation; alternative means of providing this insurance, including the introduction of risk-sharing pools, caps or deductibles; and grouping or classification of commercial consumers in setting rates.

Marine Insurance Report on issues related to the accessibility and availability of marine insurance and possible reasons for high loss ratios and year to year variation.

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To ensure a participatory process and to collect as much information as possible, the Board is seeking to identify interested stakeholders and receive comments in order to compile an initial list of concerns on the above or other related issues.

The Board will conduct follow-up consultations with stakeholders. The consultation format will depend on the scope of the concerns identified and the level of interest expressed. It may include round-table discussions, focus groups, written submissions and public sessions. The results of these consultations will form a key part of the Board’s final report to Government.

The government-appointed Consumer Advocate will be participating in this review. Mr. Thomas Johnson may be contacted at: P.O. Box 5955, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 email: consumeradvocate@groupmail.ca or call toll-free 1-866-218-4559.

To ensure your views are heard please provide the Board with your name, contact information and issues or concerns you would like to raise.

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Box 21040, St. John's, NL A1A 5B2 • Tel: (709) 726-8600 • Toll free: 1-866-782-0006 • Fax: (709) 726-9604 • Email: insurancereview@pub.nl.ca • Web: www.pub.nl.ca

MAY 22, 2005

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

IN CAMERA

Sometimes she’ll lift an empty spoon to her mouth, or dip her utensil in her teacup

Things you can’t forget STEPHANIE PORTER

I

t was as Rod Etheridge had described, like Grand Central Station.

Just before noon, the hallway in the Alzheimer’s wing of Hoyles Home in St. John’s might be at its most crowded. To the untrained eye, it’s pure confusion.

Residents pace the hallway; some walking with urgency, on a mission.

Others wander slowly, unfocused.

Still more could be out for a morning stroll. Individuals stop from time to time, to latch on to someone or something, give a look, or ask a question: “Where am I going? When will you fix it?”

They throw out statements that seem to come out of the blue.

“I love you.”

“Show me your teeth.”

“I see you’ve got yours.”

Etheridge remembers his first visits to the wing, overwhelmed by the activity — the grabbing, the searching, the vacant looks. He didn’t know how to answer when a resident asked for help or direction.

His mother Cecilia — Ceeley, as she’s known to everyone — has been living in Hoyles for two years.

Etheridge says his mother walks from 7 a.m. until she goes to bed at night, up and down the hallway, up and down, veering into a side room from time to time.

“Alzheimer’s people, I’m told, have to be constantly walking. They’ll walk off the agitation they feel,” Etheridge says. And they’re often looking for a way out. That’s why the door is locked, and camouflaged with paint to look like a garden.

“When mom first came in, she walks so fast, she was leaning for-

In March 2004, The Independent ran a photo essay on Ceeley Etheridge’s Alzheimer’s disease, providing a rare inside view of the Alzheimer’s wing of a St. John’s nursing home, and insight into a son’s devotion to, and love for, his mother.

Written by senior editor Stephanie Porter, with photographs by picture editor Paul Daly, the article was selected as the gold medal winner in the feature writing (print) category at this year’s Atlantic Journalism Awards. Due to popular demand, The Independent is publishing the feature a second time. ward and strained her back,” Etheridge continues.

“All she does is walk, and sometimes sit on a bed or a chair. To the nurses, this is normal because they deal with it everyday. To me, it’s still chaos.”

He smiles at his mother, just a shade over 80 pounds. She’s linked her arm through his, tightly. “I’m tired already, she’s dragging me.

“The irony is, she’s the most physically fit she’s been in years. Her mind, though …”

“She knows you today,” says Jo O’Brien, looking at Etheridge.

O’Brien, a friend of Ceeley’s, comes

in a few times a week to spend time with her. “I know,” he responds with a smile. He turns his head to explain, “every now and then you see a flash for a second and then it’s gone.”

It was only four years ago when Etheridge and his siblings — he’s got nine brothers and sisters — knew something wasn’t right with their mother.

One night, on assignment for CBC in Fogo, Etheridge called his mother back in Grand Falls. She wanted him to come home right away, speaking as if he was down the street. “I thought, she doesn’t realize there’s a ferry ride between here and Grand Falls.”

MAY 22, 2005

Ceeley went to her doctor, then a psychologist, who diagnosed her with Alzheimer’s/dementia (they can’t say for certain she has Alzheimer’s until an autopsy). She began taking Arasat, an Alzheimer’s “miracle drug” that is known to slow the progression of the disease, at least for a while. It’s not covered by the province, and costs Etheridge and his family $150 a month.

“It worked for a while,” he says.

“And now the doctor says we’re wasting our money. But we can’t pull her off it — how do you make that decision? What if it is making a difference?”

Eventually, it was apparent Ceeley could no longer stay at home. With the support of his brothers and sisters, Etheridge took custody of his mother.

He went to Grand Falls and, within 48 hours, sold her house, packed it up, and drove back to St. John’s. She was to stay there until there was space for her at a supervised home. There was a six-month waiting list.

He set Ceeley’s furniture up in his basement, hoping it would offer her some peace — and the safety of being watched.

Then began the week form hell.

“We got in from Grand Falls about 5 p.m. By midnight I was totally stressed. She was just wandering, asking me to take her home.

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

“I called my sister. I said, ‘mom wants to go home — have I done the right thing?’ My sister said, ‘Look, you take her home, and she still says take me home.’”

The situation didn’t get any better.

Ceeley would walk around the house, turn on the stove and leave it. She’d put her cigarette in her shoe.

Etheridge, who has two young children of his own, was spending all his time monitoring, trying to calm his mother.

“Honest to God, I was so stressed out I couldn’t breathe,” he says.

And then, one week later, the phone rang. It was a social worker with good news: a bed had come open at Hoyles home. It was a locked-down unit, safe and exactly the place for Ceeley.

When she moved into Hoyles in February 2002, Ceeley weighed just 70 pounds.

“The first few weeks were a whole different world for us. I used to come in here every day, my sister and I would be calling every day, and the staff would say, ‘Don’t you worry, she’s fine.’

“I was so paranoid and guilty … It took me about six months to realize they were right. She’s safe and comfortable. I stared to visit twice a week, now it’s once.”

Etheridge has gotten used to the activity at Hoyles, he trusts the staff.

He knows to respond to residents by reassuring them. He says he’s even gotten used to his mother being here, almost.

Even so, “for me, 20 minutes is about all I can take before I get overwhelmed, between the smell, the people, the lack of response.

“I used to constantly talk to mom.

Before, she could respond. You could ask a question, she would give an answer. Not any more. I don’t know how to make the small talk.

“Sometimes I just come in, and just sit there.”

He remembers several pivotal points, moments during his mother’s stay that remain tangible and horrifying alerts to the progression of her disease.

The first: when he was told his mother “should wear diapers.”

The next came when he was asked if it was OK to give his mother a doll — many residents carry a baby doll or teddy bear around, it seems to comfort them. “These things that seem so wrong, but eventually you do see why,” he says.

And third: “Sometimes you come in and see people kind of slumped over a chair. Mom would always be walking, never like that. Then one time I saw her in a chair exactly like the others, and I was really thrown off.

“I called my sister and said, ‘It’s not long now …’”

There have been other difficult times too. Ceeley has taken two seizures (after the first one, Etheridge says she came out of her Alzheimer’s state for a few days, then slowly regressed). He’s had to decide what to do when she stops eating, decide what lengths the nursing and medical staff are allowed to go through to keep her alive.

Some Alzheimer’s patients will live in this wing at Hoyles for a decade, some not even a year. On average, they’re there for about two years — exactly as long as Ceeley has been there so far.

On this day, she seems in good spirits, laughs or smiles often, eats all the food on her plate — though sometimes she’ll lift an empty spoon to her mouth, or dip a utensil in her teacup.

Etheridge looks around the room, at the staff he’s so grateful to, at the other residents at various stages of a terrible degenerative disease.

“I never want to live here,” he says.

At the end of the day, after a last cup of tea, Ceeley goes to her regular bed.

Standing over his beloved mother, who is lying in the fetal position, curled around her toy doll, Etheridge’s eyes fill with tears.

Blinking rapidly, turning away, he

talks about the inevitable.

“They say this is how it’ll end.

She’ll slow down, she’ll lie in the bed and won’t get up. That’s what I find is going to be gross. They say she’ll just have a couple of weeks then.

“That’s what we’ve saved a little bit of money for, for those last days, there will be someone with her, holding her hand, 24 hours a day.

“We won’t leave her alone.”

Things have changed for Ceeley in the year since this article was first published. About six months ago, Ceeley fell while walking, and landed on her hip. The surgery, Etheridge says, was “very stressful … to watch her in pain whenever she tried to move, but not able to tell you, except for the intense expression of fear on her face.”

Ceeley has been laying in bed or sitting in a chair since then. She can no longer feed herself or chew food.

Because she is no longer able to wander, she’s been transferred out of the Alzheimer’s unit to a non-locked area.

With the exception of bedsores, Etheridge says Ceeley is still physically strong.

“And she does smile a lot,” he says.

“It’s just that she looks right through you and there is never any hint of recognition, like there used to be before.”

MAY 22, 2005

22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

‘I have family’ From page 17

According to Donna Christopher, a spokesperson for the Atlantic region would benefit this province. of the Canadian Border Services “And they don’t know what Agency, cases of individuals seeking they’re going back to.” sanctuary in church happens “very Because of the strained relation- infrequently,” although there have ship between Latvia and Russia, been several high-profile cases in Russians in Latvia are generally Canada over the past few years. Most treated as second-class citizens, recently, a family of Colombians was indeed, indications are Kolosovs permitted to stay in Canada after 19 would be treated as an alien in months of refuge in a Montreal Latvia. church.

Because Kolosovs doesn’t speak “The federal government does not Latvian (he speaks Russian fluently), condone individuals entering churchJeffrey says he es to avoid would “never” be removal from able to find work Canada,” says “We have other safe in the country — Christopher. “We and there is no have other safe guards in place to social assistance. guards in place to Jeffrey points to a people in ensure people in need ensure recent, similar, need of protection case. This man was are not removed of protection are not deported: he in Canada.” returned to Latvia, “Canadian removed in Canada.” only to live homeBorder Security less for months. … have a very Donna Christopher “Alexi would be tough job,” says on his own, and he Sutherland. “They would be have indicated to doomed,” she says. me that as long as Alexi is in our Kolosovs has also taken on the premises, they will not force their role of father figure, and emotional way in to remove him. and financial supporter, for his “I really appreciate they have daughter-in-law and grandchildren, demonstrated that kind of compaswho live in Placentia. “He is the one sion and understanding.” the children absolutely love,” Jeffrey Jeffrey and the other advisory says. board volunteers are working tireAlexi, a stocky man, bald-headed lessly to find a resolution, to get and mustached, has gentle eyes and Kolosovs out, back to work, and an overriding shyness around visi- back with his family. tors. His English is rough, and he “I’m not sure what’s going to work struggles to put the weight of his yet,” says Jeffrey. She says Kolosovs story into a few words. has already been the victim of bad Obviously frustrated, he walks luck and bureaucratic mistakes. across the room and retrieves a plas“We need Newfoundlanders to tic bag. He pulls out pictures of his speak up for these people.” grandchildren and lays them on the Kolosovs indicates he’ll stay put table, allowing the smiling young- as long as necessary, though he misssters to tell the tale. es his grandchildren terribly. He’ll do “In seven years, I don’t leave whatever chores he can to keep busy, Newfoundland,” he says, tearing up. and wait.

“I have family.”

“It’s only God now,” he says.

Making good use of the Internet MARK CALLANAN On the shelf ned after snowslides

By Don Austin http://nedaftersnowslides.com

R

ecently, I read an article linked from the literary web log bookninja.com detailing the latest bombshell in academic predictions — that the written word will be obsolete by 2050.

I’m inclined to place this theory in the same category as Armageddon due dates or past predictions the advent of the personal computer would eliminate paper usage. Despite the preposterousness of the 2050 prophecy, there lies some truth in its reasoning: current technology has affected the way we read and write language.

Don Austin’s latest publication, an online photograph and narrative website entitled ned after snowslides, is a fine example of the sort of innovations made possible by the computer medium.

Since we’re not dealing with a book here (in the traditional, cover and pages glued together sense of the word), I’ll begin at the beginning.

Entering the http address will carry readers to a title page; once clicked, the enter link carries on to an epigraph from W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz. From there, the next link feeds into the story proper. The opening line, “Ned, there’s your name, you said, holding up a scrap of newspaper torn from a sheet a cup had been wrapped in,” is featured beside the image of a scrap of newspaper with the truncated headline “ned after snowslides.”

So far, so good … except that once you’ve reached the page after that, what was once a straight line becomes Frost’s “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” — rather than a simple next link, the reader must choose from two pathways, called “r being closed part of” and “snow slides brought,” each presenting the reader with a further two paths to choose from. This binary format continues until the final panel, “Mission” from which there is no choice left but to start again.

I’ve read online works before that randomly determine the appearance of subsequent pages, selected from a bank of possibilities, but chance is not what is occurring in Austin’s text. If, reading through a second time, you end up on a page you’d seen in your previous adventure, its link options — the choices you can potentially make — will be the same as before. So, conceivably one could read the piece a second time, and experience an identical narrative. The multiplicity of potential narrative

sequences comes not from the story itself but from the engagement of the reader. Readers create a new narrative each time they enter Austin’s text and make different decisions about which paths to follow.

Having spent some time working back and forth through the website, I decided I’d make it easier on myself and print all the panels so I could organize them and straighten things out in my mind. The result was an utter mess.

Despite the potential for structural variation through these “diverging” narratives, the essence of the story does not change too much. The narrator is in mourning, in the wake of a romantic break-up “like one of those old guys around the bay who, as soon as he finds out he’s dying, goes out to the shed and sets about making his own coffin.”

While feeling as if he’s adrift in his life, he nevertheless continues watching and observing, recording the world around him. At one point he notes that

“Newfoundland is like India: we absorb the invader and mold him to our own purposes. Next to the dutchies, partridgeberry muffins and raisin buns. We don’t use Tim Horton’s tea bags, the woman says, they’re no good. We uses Tetley’s.”

The narrator is not only conscious of his own predicament — lost in the world and unsure of where to turn next — but simultaneously, that of the reader: “The idea that I could find a book here that proposed another paradigm altogether than the one I have been sleepwalking through and leave this building by a different door.” Sound familiar?

All in all, this form of nonlinear literature can be disorienting, which is not only part of Austin’s point, but also essential to appreciating his prose.

Having spent some time working back and forth through the website, I decided I’d make it easier on myself and print all the panels so I could organize them and straighten things out in my mind. The result was an utter mess.

The only way to experience Austin’s labyrinthine text is to read it onscreen and keep following different routes.

Read through and go wherever you fancy going. After all, you can always try it again later. Whatever the resulting narrative order, the experience of Austin’s witty, piquant prose, sparked as it is with cinders of poetry, will be an enlightening experience.

Mark Callanan is a writer and reviewer living in Rocky Harbour. His next column will appear June 5.

Wind still fills Lightfoot’s sails Toronto performance first on the legend’s comeback trail TORONTO

By Vit Wagner Torstar wire service

A

visitor to this city might have guessed the long line forming south on Yonge from Shuter last week had something to do with the eager anticipation for the final installment of the Star Wars saga.

Well, the “star” part of that equation was right.

Gordon Lightfoot, the 66-year-old Canadian folksinging great who has returned to performance after a prolonged illness, was back where he belonged, playing the first of four soldout nights at Massey Hall.

“The centre of my universe as a musician really is here,” Lightfoot told a rapturous house that included Adrienne Clarkson.

The Governor General, who the previous day had welcomed the Queen to Saskatchewan, must have felt that she was once again in the presence of royalty. Canadian royalty.

Taking the stage to a standing ovation, Lightfoot apologized for being late, even though his arrival 10 minutes after the show’s scheduled start had to count as the most punctual concert appearance this side of Bob Dylan.

Lightfoot’s Massey Hall residencies — the first of which took place in 1967 — are the stuff of local legend. And the sense of occasion was palpable, if slightly tinged with nervous tension.

The singer, backed by four accompanists, rendered any lingering fears to rest with an unstinting two-hour performance, broken by a 20-minute inter-

Standing ovations at Toronto’s Massey Hall for Canadian music legend Gordon Lightfoot.

mission, that ran to nearly 30 songs.

True, the voice is not as strong as it was. Returning for the first of two encores, Lightfoot even joked about whether he had the wind to get through his poetic evocation of the national dream, Canadian Railroad Trilogy.

The audience was poised to help him along, but it wasn’t necessary.

Much of the preceding set was bathed in a warm, intimate glow. From opener Spanish Moss on, the approach was understated and low-key, the kind of performance you might give for friends and family in the kitchen — if, that is, your kitchen featured stainedglass windows and a very high ceiling.

Fans responded most enthusiastical-

ly to favourites such as Cotton Jenny, If You Could Read My Mind, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Beautiful and Sundown, but also welcomed the inclusion of selections from last year’s Harmony.

Couchiching, a song from that album filled with references to Lightfoot’s hometown of Orillia, was prefaced by an anecdote about his 19-month hospitalization after suffering an abdominal aneurysm in 2002.

“I got to play it just once,” he says, recalling when he last performed the song live. “And the next day I wasn’t going anywhere.”

And now, miraculously, he has returned triumphant.

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 23

EVENTS MAY 22 • Avalon Kennel Club Dog Show, St. John’s Curling Club • Newfoundland stock car racing resumes. The flags drop at 2 p.m. at Exploits Valley Speedway in Bishop Falls and Avondale Speedway (40 km West of St. John’s on the TCH at the Avondale Access Road). More information on the Exploits Valley Speedway and AvondaleSpeedway.com websites.

• International day for biological diversity, a day to reflect on the state and value of biodiversity. MUN Botanical Gardens, Mount Scio road, St. John’s, 1 p.m., 737-8590.

MAY 25 • Blast Off, a festival of new works and the season finale of RCA Theatre Company, until May 29. Visit www.rca.nf.ca for schedule.

• Madrigaia choir sings French, Spanish, Hungarian, Yugoslavian, Croatian, Hebrew and Yiddish songs. 8 p.m., Gower St. Church, 738-6013.

• Lobster fest 2005 Lung Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. A fundraising dinner and silent auction.

Reid Community Centre, Mount Pearl, 726-4664.

• Star Wars: the radio play. Originally

LIFE IN BRIEF created in association with Lucasfilm, first broadcast in 1981. Performed live 7:30 p.m., Rabbittown Theatre, Merrymeeting Road, St. John’s.

Different episodes each night May 25-27, 739-8220.

MAY 26 • Newfoundland and Labrador tourism show at the Mount Pearl Glacier, May 26-29.

Visit www.explorenl.ca for more.

• Let’s Spice It Up, join the Fairmont Wine Club and taste wines from around the world, interactive and informative classes, 5:45-7 p.m., $25.00 per person • An Evening with Donna Morrissey, author of Kits Law and Downhill Chance, will read from her new novel Sylvanus Now, 7–9 p.m. at The Studio, 272 Water Street, St. John’s, 576-6600 • Never Swim Alone by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor. Directed by Charlie Tomlinson, featuring Brad Hodder, Jordan Flynn and Baptiste Neis. 8p.m., Masonic Hall, Cathedral Street, St. John’s.

• Macdonald Drive junior high musical, Reel to Reel, highlighting villains and heroes of movies from the past two decades. Until May 28. 7:30 p.m. Call 753-8240

MAY 27 • Made right here in Newfoundland… trade Show, St. John’s Curling Club. Continues May 28.

• The Mount Pearl Sub-Chapter of the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada meeting at Kim’s Family Restaurant, 21 Sagona Avenue, Mount Pearl. Please come and bring a friend, 747-1508.

MAY 28 • Spring flower show at MUN Botanical Gardens field centre, sponsored by the Newfoundland Horticultural Society, Mount Scio Road, St. John’s, 12-5 p.m. Continues May 29, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

• Spring flea market, Topsail United Church, Conception Bay South, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

MAY 29 • c2c theatre’s Never Swim Alone paywhat-you-can matinee, 2 p.m., Masonic Temple, Cathedral Street, St. John’s.

EXTRAS NEEDED Background extras are needed for the local independent rowing film True Glory, reaching its final stages of shooting. Extras are needed for a

‘Like drinking fresh, clear and clean water’ in a while.”

Three years ago, Palen says he was actively looking for a spiritual practice. He had been running his own business as a training consultant and says he began to get sick of listening to himself talk.

“I picked up one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books at Chapters for like $3.99 … I looked at it and thought, hmm, three or four bucks, I’ll take a chance. And what I found, it was like drinking fresh, clear and clean water that was so nourishing.

“The big thing that I found about reading his book was that he taught meditation as a daily practice, as a way of nourishing the peace and happiness in your life and the lives of those around you, so that seemed like a very worthwhile thing to learn.”

Now, Palen is concentrating on studying Zen, instructing others and developing his “mindfulness meditation house,” which is already drawing some interest.

“Whatever you end up doing you end up talking about to other people and other people actually began to see changes in me before I saw them … and so then other people were interested and started to come by. So it just started like that.”

Now Palen says he’s finally found what he wants to do: study and teach the practice of Zen Buddhism, which he says is not so much a religion, but a state of mind.

As a child of one Catholic and one Protestant parent, Palen credits much of his outlook on the basic common sense of a good upbringing.

“My early teachings, if you like, where really from my Dad, who was not school educated, because they quit school at Grade 7 to go to work. It was, ‘Don’t go by any religion, just judge people by how they treat each other.’ I remember him teaching me that as a young child. So my Dad really gave me my first deep spiritual teaching.”

Pre mie rS oc

From page 17

wrestling scene that will be shot at the CLB Armoury in St. John’s. Those interested, please call 726-2328 or 7263773.

IN THE GALLERIES: • The Hand You’re Dealt, prints by Caroline Clarke, and Journey on the North Atlantic, prints and textiles by Sylvia Bendsza and Cecil Day, Craft Council Gallery, 59 Duckworth St., St. John’s. Until June 17.

• With this Freedom, Elayne Greeley, Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, St. John’s, 722-7177.

• 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, RCA Gallery, LSPU Hall, 753-4531.

• Art in the Garden 2005: Paintings and Pixels by painter Betty Hall and photographer Justin Hall, at MUN Botanical Garden from until May 29, 737-8590.

• TexStyle: 17th annual textile studies graduate exhibition, Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street, St. John’s.

Until • All Things Bright and Wonderful, paintings by Bernice Blake, Balance Restaurant, LeMarchant Road.

Kudos for Cronenberg Toronto’s David Cronenberg is faring better in the unofficial punditry and polls than did his fellow Canuck contender Atom Egoyan in Cannes.

The Hollywood Reporter had a frontpage report that Cronenberg’s A History of Violence and Austrian filmmaker Michael Hanekeos Caché (Hidden) “have emerged as the consensus frontrunners for the Palme d’Or among critics and attendees at the halfway point of the 2005 Festival de Cannes.”

Screen International’s daily panel of a dozen critics backed up that assertion, showing Cronenberg’s film running second to Haneke’s, with an average score of 2.8 (out of four) to Haneke’s 3.3, with one critic still to weigh in on Cronenberg. The score for Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies is an average 2.1, ranking the film behind most of the other challengers.

But reviews of A History of Violence, have been as mixed as the notices given to Where the Truth Lies.

But Variety’s Todd McCarthy says Cronenberg’s playing it safe, with “relatively routine entry” that lack depth, complexity and the director’s trademark strangeness.

— Peter Howell, Torstar wire service

mp a C r ce

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24 • INDEPENDENTADVERTORIAL

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 22-28, 2005 — PAGE 25

Shirley Grouchy scans her groceries on the “U-scan” at the new Dominion store on Blackmarsh Road in St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

U-scan, we all scan New technology excites some shoppers, worries union

By Allison Furlong For the Independent

W

hen Lynettte Byrne picked up her groceries at the new Dominion Store on Blackmarsh Road in St. John’s recently, she didn’t give the check-out person a second glance.

That’s because there wasn’t one.

The 106,000 square-foot store — the largest in Newfoundland and Labrador — is experimenting with “U-scans,” where grocery shoppers check themselves out. Using a laser scanner that reads the bar code on a product or determines the cost of produce after it’s placed on a scale, shoppers can do what cashiers used to. The bank of U-scans, however, is supervised by a cashier.

While the store boasts such innovations as a drive-thru pharmacy and a fitness centre,

U-scan checkouts seem to be sparking the future … I do like it better.” most interest.

Shea says while the technology seems to “People are actually lining up to use the U- be a hit with Newfoundlanders, that hasn’t scans,” store manager Kevin Shea tells The really been the case in the rest of the country.

Independent.

“I was in Halifax recently and I saw most“For a two-day openly younger generaing, this store had the tions, the 18 to 22 aged most U-scan transactechnology wizards or “I’m sure the same was tions within the the elderly with a few said about automated Loblaws chain. It’s items, using the Upretty impressive.” scans, but here, I’ve bank machines and Byrne, out for an seen all age groups early morning shop using it,” says Shea. pumping your own gas.” with her two-year-old Shea thinks people daughter Mackenzie, here are just more Bill King says she enjoys using open to new technolothe new technology and gy and willing to give has no qualms about using it, as long as her it a go. He doesn’t subscribe to the belief that grocery list isn’t too long. self-scanners will become so popular that the “It would be great if this is the way of the technology will lead to employee layoffs.

“… most people want the interaction with employees and cashiers,” says Shea. “I don’t think that one of these days it is going to go all U-scan … I think it is just another option for the customer … another amenity.”

Shea says the new store is hiring again.

Bill King, president of Local 597 retail workers sector of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, has yet to receive any complaints from the store employees he represents. But, he says, it may be too early to tell what the impact of self-scanners may be on employees and the retail industry.

“I would like to think that Newfoundlanders will look at (U-scans) as a novelty and it will fade away, but then again, I’m sure the same was said about automated bank machines and pumping your own See “Who is going,” page 27

Thank you, Mr. Cadman I

am simply astounded that MPs Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn voted against the overall budget in an attempt to defeat the federal government and the Atlantic Accord with it.

The Conservatives and their allies, the Bloc Quebecois, voted for one part of the budget and against another, causing a tie on the final vote. The budget, which contains the Atlantic Accord, had to be saved by the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Hearn made the following statement on March 26: “You cannot ever turn your back on your province on an important issue like this, even if it meant your party says ‘tough stuff,’ you have to sit in the last seat, last row.” Yet, Hearn stood to defeat a budget that

SIOBHAN COADY

The bottom line would give Newfoundland and Labrador — not only its Atlantic Accord — but needed monies for affordable housing, post-secondary education, environment and the protection of workers’ earnings.

Community and business leaders, Premier Danny Williams and municipal council asked to have the budget passed.

Websites like Fair Deal for Newfoundland organized to send over 14,000 letters pleading with the MPs to

do the right thing and vote for the budget and the province.

No one was fooled by the simple politics of it all. The Conservatives made great wind of the fact they were voting in favour of the Accord, yet didn’t say that by defeating the second bill they could cause the budget to fall. They must think Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are not smart enough to recognize the slight of hand.

Thankfully, one of the independent MPs determined what was in the best interest of this province and this country and voted to cause the tie. It wasn’t Doyle or Hearn, it was someone from British Columbia. Thank you Mr. Cadman.

There is a tremendous amount of

investment in this budget. Focus is on investment in social programs that matter to people and will improve our way of life. Investments in municipal infrastructure, social housing, education, childcare and health care are critical to the success of the country. Some needed tax cuts will benefit small- and mediumsize businesses and will help grow the economy.

So now we are closer to having the budget and Newfoundland and Labrador will finally have a solid deal for our offshore resources. Let’s get on with the business of the country; an election will come soon enough.

It has been a soap opera over the last few weeks caused by a lust for power.

Everyone is tired of the antics, wishing

the country could focus on what’s really important: building a better society, caring for our families and doing what’s right. Let’s settle into summer knowing the drama will be on hiatus.

MPs Hearn and Doyle have a lot of reflecting to do. They tried to defeat the overall budget and almost caused us to lose the Atlantic Accord, along with other initiatives that will benefit this province.

Hearn had this to say on July 4, 2004: “I’m there to look after Newfoundland, and the six other MPs also, and if we’re not we shouldn’t be there.”

The bottom line is Hearn is right. He and Doyle didn’t look after Newfoundland and Labrador when it really counted.

MAY 22, 2005

26 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

Real estate reality New Brunswick company trying to sell homes privately on the web meets with resistance in Newfoundland and Labrador

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

A

new trend is beginning to shake the foundations of the onceupon-a-time unshakable realestate industry.

Online marketing companies — specializing in helping people sell their homes privately without paying commission — are gaining in popularity, finally prompting an Internet-induced revamp of realty.

One such Canadian marketing firm, Propertyguys.com, is currently leading the trend across the country, but a spokesman for the Moncton-based firm tells The Independent his company has met with some opposition in Newfoundland and Labrador.

As advertisers, Propertyguys.com is not licensed to trade in real estate. They charge a one-time fee of between $400 and $800 to post homes for private sale on their website and listings stay until a property is sold. Regional consultants help with any questions clients might have throughout the buying and selling process.

One aspect of the company’s service is the Buyer’s Club. Clients sign up for a free membership and receive automatic e-mails, informing them of properties that fit their buying criteria, as they become available.

Although the province’s Government Services and Lands Department, which controls real estate licensing, doesn’t have a problem with Propertyguys.com operating in the province — they won’t allow the Buyer’s Club.

“Oddly enough, Newfoundland is the only province in Canada that won’t permit us to do this,” says Walter Melanson, director of strategic alliances and support with Propertyguys.com.

“Really what they (government) are saying is that this activity trades in real estate and therefore because it trades in real estate it becomes a realtor function only. But it’s not a trading-in-real-estate function, because we don’t trade, we advertise.”

Melanson blames the restriction on pressure from local realtors, who view the increasing popularity of private selling as a threat to their business.

He says it’s not unusual for companies such as his to meet with opposition within the competitive real estate industry. He cites a recent lawsuit in California as an example. The state tried to ban online property marketers, but lost in what was a landmark case.

“It was found that the government was simply bending to popular opinion,” Melanson says. “Popular opinion was coming from the money; the money was coming from realtors. So realtors very much still have a grip across the world and across the land.”

He adds the winning argument in the

Greg Penney in front of his house in Paradise.

California case was if online property companies were trading in real estate, then every other advertising medium — such as newspapers — had been trading in real estate for years.

Douglas Connolly, superintendent of

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

real estate in Newfoundland and Labrador, says the Buyer’s Club is breaching the boundaries of the real estate act.

“It has been the opinion of the superintendent that the Buyers Club compo-

nent goes beyond advertising and acts directly in the furtherance of a disposition of property,” says Connolly, “and as such, that then brings it into the realm of regulation under the real estate trading act.”

Meaning, to offer the service, Propertyguys.com would have to become licensed realtors, a suggestion that infuriates Melanson.

“You’re not going to force a marketing firm that specializes in helping people sell without commission, to become a real estate agent,” he says.

In Canada, an estimated 25 per cent of homes are sold independently by owners unwilling to shell out substantial commission for a real estate agent.

Those numbers are on the rise and, at a recent convention, Melanson says his company’s president predicted the number would rise to 50 per cent by 2010.

The real estate industry can also expect more challenges in the near future. A group of law firms in Cape Breton, N.S. recently joined ranks to offer full real estate services to the public.

Their proposal included a combination of both the legal, marketing and negotiating aspects of the process — in one realtor-free package.

Melanson says it’s just another example of how the industry is finally changing.

Greg Penney and his family just sold their home in Paradise privately through Propertyguys.com. He says they saved $9,000 in realtor commission.

“We said, you know, $9,000 is better in my pocket than in someone else’s,” says Penney, “so … I looked at the money aspect of it, the savings and commissions, and what I liked about it was I got to show my home the way I wanted to show it.”

Because they put their house on the market in February, Penney says interest was slow at first and exposure was difficult, but as soon as the weather improved, they had no trouble finding a buyer.

“It was a good experience and we’re happy that we went that way, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.”

Melanson says Propertyguys.com has given up pursuing the issue of the Buyer’s Club in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Connolly says his department’s resistance to the service is a means of protecting the consumers and the realtors, as well as upholding the real estate trading act.

“I think what the industry players would like to see is a level playing field … they want to be able to compete on an even basis. To have somebody doing the same activities that they’re doing, or something very similar to the activity they’re doing and they can do it totally unregulated, then there’s a question of, ‘Are we being fair here?’ Fair to the players in the industry. Fair to the consumers in providing the same level of protection.”

Restorer demands Conrad Black pay for idling Rolls

By Tony Wong Torstar Wire Service

P

aul Wood has a message for embattled newspaper tycoon Conrad Black: he wants his money. For the last two years, Wood has been restoring a 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith that was part of Lord Black’s empire, and says he’s now owed £50,000 ($116,000 Cdn) on the car.

“We have done the work for Lord Black and I’m certainly not pleased the way this has turned out,” Wood says in an interview from Essex, Eng. “This has been causing us quite a bit of inconvenience.”

The Rolls, owned by Ravelston Corp., the pri-

vate holding company partly owned by Lord Black and now in bankruptcy protection, is sitting in the garage of P&A Wood, in the village of Great Easton, just north of London. This is the same chauffeur-driven Rolls that took Black and wife Barbara Amiel to high society parties in London.

Now it may be available for sale along with other prized toys from Black’s one-time empire, according to RSM Richter Inc., the receiver appointed last month when Ravelston was put under court protection. Through Ravelston, Black controlled Hollinger Inc. and its newspaper arm, Hollinger International Inc. Also available for sale is a 50-foot mahogany boat christened Ravelston, and a small jewellery

collection. But the Rolls remains the most poignant symbol of power. Now it’s in mothballs, thanks to a $116,000 lien from Wood.

The black Silver Wraith is also the subject of a dispute between Black and Hollinger International. Hollinger is suing Black and colleagues for $542 million (US), alleging they plundered corporate coffers for everything from the refurbishment of the Rolls to extravagant dinners.

Black and his colleagues have denied all wrongdoing.

Wood said £50,000 has been paid toward the restoration but another $116,000 is owing. The amount, which totals $232,000, is only for the bodywork done on the car. Wood estimates that

another $232,000 is needed to fix the engine and the mechanical systems.

“It started as a small job, but turned into a much bigger job,” he says. “They came to us initially with corrosion in the wheel-well arches and soon they instructed us to do everything.”

Wood, whose company is considered one of the oldest and most prestigious Rolls restorers in the world, was first summoned to the Daily Telegraph office at the Canary Wharf office complex in London about two years ago.

“I thought he was a charming and absolutely honest person,” Wood says of Black, adding he See “Tank” page 30

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 27

In-province travel Domestic tourists ‘backbone’ of province’s tourism industry

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

C

anadians like to play in their own backyards. Domestic tourism sees millions of Canadians stay in their home provinces for vacations and it’s no different in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians themselves make up 64 per cent of all tourists in the province, accounting for about $500 million of the $850 million generated by tourism last year.

The province with the highest level of domestic tourism is Ontario with 75 per cent (the figure is from 2003 as last year’s numbers aren’t available).

The lowest percentage of domestic tourism in the country recorded last year was in Prince Edward Island.

Though figures weren’t available, the province is consistently lower because of a small population base.

Carmela Murphy, Newfoundland and Labrador’s director of tourism, says her department has been marketing heavily within the province and domestic travellers are the “backbone” of the tourism industry.

“There’s no question that when you talk about resident traffic they’re a very important part of our industry.

We work to try to get them to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador,” Murphy tells The Independent.

She says the province isn’t doing anything different than other provinces in the way of marketing.

“You have to give them a compelling reason to stay home,” she says.

“You know, we try to encourage people to explore their own home, their own province, you know, best kept secrets, best things to do here.”

At some point, however, Murphy says people are still going to go away for a vacation.

“There’s certain things that you can’t compete against and that is to go visit friends and relatives, it might be every year or every third, they need to

go and do that,” she says.

“What we try to concentrate on is … telling people that we do have as many and as varied and as exciting things to do here as they might think why somewhere else is a better option.”

Murphy says the marketing plan inside the province focuses on extending the tourism season.

“Pick a season. It’s not just always about summer. Maybe you can do a weekend getaway with the family or something that you wouldn’t normally do, at a time of year that you wouldn’t normally do it.”

She says there are issues with offseason travel in this province — the biggest being weather.

“Trying to encourage travel off season, especially as you’re looking out your window, you’ve got issues.

You’ve got weather — it’s like any destination and you have weather issues and other things like that.”

As the province’s tourism infrastructure develops — offering comefrom-aways more things to see and experience — locals can also take advantage of the sites.

Murphy says brochures were dropped in mailboxes a few weeks back reminding people they don’t have to wait until July and August to travel.

“We all recognize that it is a more difficult sell in those shoulder seasons,” she says.

“It seems to me that September seems more summer like in Newfoundland and Labrador … and the weather always seems more pleasant and it’s really an easier sell to get people to go out for weekend getaways.”

Murphy says when it comes to domestic tourists versus incoming tourists it’s a toss up as to who’s more valuable to the industry.

“Receipts aside, as I said, resident traffic is your backbone … on a nonresident basis it’s new money, it’s new growth, money for the economy. I think they have to work hand in hand to be equally important.”

Holding pattern for Harbour Breton

By Jeff Ducharme The Independent

the best suited to administer the program, but you have to find the money for them to administer,” Matthews t was expected to get the green light says. “That’s the challenge right now.” this week, but federal funding for Now that the Liberal government has an economic recovery plan for narrowly survived a vote of non-confiHarbour Breton plant workers remains dence, Matthews hopes they can move in a holding pattern. things forward. But he realizes his party The south coast town was devastated is still not out of the woods just yet. last year when Fishery Products “If we go into an election in late June International (FPI) announced the clo- or some time in July, I mean it’ll be fall sure of its plant. The recovery plan calls before things get back on the rails for $1.8 million each year for here,” he says. two years to assist the former “That’s my worst fear in all of FPI workers. Recovery projthis and what in the name of ects would include tourism God are we going to do to keep ventures and infrastructure body and soul together in those improvements.

Fortune, communities?” which saw processing at its Matthews says as Employplant halted not long after ment Insurance runs out, Harbour Breton, may also be Bill Matthews Harbour Breton’s population included in the plan. begins to dwindle, tearing famiArea MP Bill Matthews (Burin-St. lies and the town apart.

George’s) has been leading the push to “This piece is so vital to keeping peosecure the funding. He says 700 people ple together and keeping the communiin 16 communities have been affected ty together, keeping people in the comby the plant closures. munities as we deal with the longer “From my own perspective, I’ve term issue for Harbour Breton and done everything I can as a Member of Fortune, that’s the struggle.”

Parliament, from meeting with minisMatthews admits any sort of plan ters that would be involved with this to would only be a stopgap measure. even as of Sunday (May 15) night “I’ll feel good about it if we can get engaging the prime minister ... we’re this done, but having said that, of still at it,” Matthews tells The course, getting this done will not be the Independent. end of dealing with this situation The plan would likely be adminis- because we need a longer term solutered by the Atlantic Canada Oppor- tion. How many years can you go back tunities Agency (ACOA). doing this sort of thing, I guess is the “Everyone sort of agrees they’d be question.”

I

‘Who is going to buy their products?’

From page 25 gas.”

King represents 1,600 Dominion employees at 14 stores across the province. He says the construction of this new store came at the expense of two other Dominion stores in the city — Ropewalk Lane and Topsail Road.

No jobs were lost as the employees were all transferred to the new store and 100 new employees were hired.

NCR, a company that manufactures a version of the U-scan technology, recently surveyed 6,000 people and a number of stores across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. They found that up to 50 per cent of all transactions were com-

pleted through self-scanning.

“It’s probably a better place (for employees) to work because it is so ergonomically designed, plus it is a lot easier for staff to get around,” King says.

He is more worried about the impact that U-scans will have in the months and years to come.

“Six months from now, I could be saying ‘what a nightmare this has turned into,’ says King.

“If the employers of the world had their way, there would be nobody working for them. But my question for these employers is that if there is nobody working, who is going to buy their products?”

DOMESTIC TOURISM FIGURES Newfoundland and Labrador: In 2004, 63 per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating nearly $500 million.

Ontario: In 2003, 75 per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $13 billion.

Saskatchewan: Seventy-three per cent of all tourism in 2004 was domestic (no dollar value available).

British Columbia: Forty-nine per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $4.6 billion in 2004.

Alberta: An estimated 48 per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $2.09 billion in 2004.

Nova Scotia: Just over 28 per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $142 million in 2003.

Manitoba: In 2004, 60 per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $840 million.

New Brunswick: Fifty per cent of all tourism was domestic, generating $550 million in 2004.

Numbers for Quebec and P.E.I. were unavailable.

Paul Daly/The Independent

28 • INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION

MAY 22, 2005

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPECIAL SECTION • 29

MAY 22, 2005

30 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

Air Canada VP logs on to Web chat with frequent flyers

By Rick Westhead Torstar Wire Service

W

hen Air Canada vice-president of planning Ben Smith wanted feedback in January on a plan to place a billion-dollar order for new aircraft, he turned to an unlikely source.

While other company officials spent time with Wall Street consultants and bankers weighing whether to outfit their fleet with new jets from Boeing Co. or rival Airbus SA — Air Canada wound up placing an order with Boeing worth as much as $15.9 billion — Smith turned to a small but increasingly influential group — the carrier’s frequent flyers.

Over coffee and muffins, and later a luncheon of salmon, beef and chicken — the same as would be served on an Air Canada overseas flight — Smith met at Pearson International Airport with about 30 of Air Canada’s super elite and elite members, at least one of whom paid $1,000 to fly from Japan to attend the meeting.

“They just wanted to gauge our reaction and ask us which planes we preferred,” says Terry Quinn, a 60-year-old mergers and acquisitions consultant who attended the Toronto meeting with Smith.

Across the airline industry, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of feting their highest-spending customers.

For Air Canada, which spent much of the past two years in bankruptcy protection, sharing tips about prospective routes and onboard perks has become a novel way for the airline to cement ties with its jet-setting Aeroplan members.

Besides meeting with elite and super elite Aeroplan members in Toronto, Smith and other Air Canada executives

Air Canada’s newest addition to the fleet, soon to be built, Boeing 787.

have held similar meetings in Montreal and Vancouver and have planned another meeting in coming weeks in Calgary.

The story of how the meetings were set up is interesting in itself.

About a year ago, Smith began monitoring comments posted by customers at http://www.flyertalk.com, an Internet site established by the airline’s frequent flyers. Within six months, he began

posting comments on the website and since has added several hundred postings.

“It’s a convenient and efficient way to talk with a number of savvy customers,” says Smith, 33. “I’d like to talk to our customers all day, but you just don’t get that chance.”

In addition to a no-holds-barred question-and-answer period, the Aeroplan members who have attended

Courtesy of Air Canada

the meetings have also been given the chance to tour airplane hangars and to take a spin in an Air Canada flight simulator — something that typically would cost 79,000 Aeroplan points.

Air Canada announced last week that it sold 15 per cent of Aeroplan.

“The past few years Air Canada customer service has really not been good,” Quinn says.

“But with meetings like this, they’ve

really tried to make it different. This is a situation where they seem to really want to hear your (gripes) and commit to doing something about them.”

One suggestion raised by customers included allowing passengers to use the onboard entertainment system to listen to communication between the plane and air traffic control. Pilots would object to that, executives say.

Housing market on solid ground: TD Theresa Boyle Torstar Wire Service

C

oncerns about a housing bubble in Canada are exaggerated, argues a report from TD Economics.

There is little evidence of a housing bubble in Canada, states the recently released report, entitled Bursting Aspects of the Housing Bubble Myth.

“Canada’s red-hot housing market is on a solid foundation because there is very little evidence of speculative activity,” says Carl Gomez, economist with TD Bank Financial Group.

“But while a modest cooling is in the cards this year and next, there are a number of misconceptions about the state of this housing market and where it’s going,” he adds.

The report says another overblown fear is that homeowners are overly leveraged.

Most homeowners will not be hurt when interest rates rise, it contends, noting that most have longer term fixed rate mortgages.

Even when the Bank of Canada resumes tightening monetary policy, fixed mortgage rates are unlikely to rise as much as short-term rates, says the report.

But it goes on to note that no substantial increase in rates is anticipated.

“Inflation is not the monster that it was in the late 1980s and that means that rates should only rise at a measured pace once the Bank of Canada begins its tightening cycle,” Gomez says.

The report says another oft-cited myth is that home prices will collapse as retiring baby boomers unload their

family homes to a smaller pool of young buyers.

Gomez counters this by noting that not all boomers will retire at the same age.

“This demographic group currently spans in age from 60 all the way down to 39,” he says.

“So while older boomers may be pondering retirement, their younger counterparts with growing families will still be looking to trade-up to larger homes. This should help keep the housing market broadly in balance,” he adds.

Even when boomers retire, they’re not about to give up homeownership, says the report.

“The fastest growing segment for homeownership are those above 65 and the boomers will certainly not reverse this trend given their high levels of wealth,” Gomez says.

“Consequently, aging boomers are likely to reshape the types of housing that will be in demand over the next two decades but they are unlikely to cause a deep correction in prices,” he adds.

But the report goes on to state that the aging population could be responsible for mild price declines in tiny condo units.

“Smaller shoebox condos recently sprouting up in parts of Canada as a result of the current housing boom could face some difficulty when they come back to up for sale on the existing home market,” Gomez warns.

“That’s because these condos are designed mostly for young, first-time buyers whose numbers will make up a smaller percentage of potential buyers in the future,” he explains.

‘Expensive old tank’ From page 26 had no idea the restoration would end up this way. He says he was given instructions from someone at the offices of the Telegraph, once part of the Hollinger group, to go ahead with the restoration. Last year, the payments ceased.

“I worked on the car for two years.

The entire floor pan in the car was completely rotten, so we had to do quite a bit of work,” says Wood.

“Now it’s in absolute concourse quality.”

Despite the amount spent on restoring the car, it would perhaps fetch only $232,000 in its current condition, and “only to the right buyer,” says Wood.

David Grainger, Black’s automotive restorer in Toronto, called the Silver

Wraith an “expensive old tank.

“It must have been a wreck for them to charge that kind of money.”

Grainger says he could not see Black paying that kind of money for the restoration.

“He’s not a stupid man. But he likes old cars, and he simply wants them to be presentable and usable,” says Grainger. “I can’t see Conrad asking for that kind of restoration.”

When Grainger was restoring Black’s 1956 Silver Cloud in Toronto, Black “balked” at the $40,000 cost, says Grainger. Black’s nicest Toronto car would be a ‘57 Packard Caribbean convertible that would probably be worth about $80,000 (US), he says.

Hollinger International, meanwhile, says the restoration was paid for from corporate funds.

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 31

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Singer Sainte-Marie 6 Ear-related 10 Salty expanse 13 ___ Tormentine, N.B. 17 Flecked stones 18 Swimmer, first across L. Ontario 19 Ad ___ committee 20 Play the accessory 21 Swift-Tuttle or Hailey’s 22 Mikmaq reserve in Cape Breton 24 “We’ll rant and we’ll ___ ...”

25 Patella site 26 Functional start?

27 Knock 28 Craving 30 Almost perfect match (2 wds.)

33 Cave-dweller of Norwegian myth 34 Like Harry and William 36 Operated 37 Alberta’s Ralph 39 Dads and other dudes 40 Doe or tigress 42 Use it or ___ it.

43 Intermediate: prefix 46 Waltzing girl of song 48 Stringent 50 B.C. painter, writer

Emily 51 Slur over 52 Soil turner 54 Gross!

55 Word of apology 56 Beaucoup’s opposite 57 Behave 58 Green lights, for short 59 Start for centre or cure 60 Mass table 62 Tire trapper 63 B.C. time 64 Collide 67 “What kind of ___ am I” 68 Codco’s Greg 70 Otalgia 72 Bow or ascot 73 ___ vu 74 Pass by 76 Make ___ while the sun shines 77 Deck wood 78 Einstein’s birthplace 79 Sedate 81 Worldwide religion from Iran 83 Hardest to climb 85 Square dance move 86 N.B.’s tree: balsam ___ 87 Flying mammal 88 Trebek from Sudbury 92 Mace, to nutmeg

93 Hallway 96 Daisy 97 Tropical wood 98 Wish undone 99 Night in Normetal 100 Older and ___ 101 Florence’s river 102 Before, of yore 103 ___ and ends 104 Steer snagger DOWN 1 Strong dark German beer 2 Atop 3 Celebrity condition 4 Like sheep 5 Yukon winter hrs.

6 Follows orders 7 Small piece of mosaic 8 Class 9 Woodwind instrument 10 Store in Surrey 11 Vast time frame 12 Severe assessment (2 wds.)

13 Poet Anne (Glass and God) 14 All stirred up 15 Bead from the sea 16 To be (Fr.) 23 Had a chair 26 Meted 29 A Great Lake 31 Guy of hockey 32 Unnaturally high

voice 34 Not hallucinatory 35 Quiet way to go (2 wds.)

37 Kilometres per hour 38 Rigidly inflexible 39 Mrs. in Montreal 41 Indian prince 43 Mexican folk band 44 Bungle 45 Arid 47 Perfect 49 Renowned Quebec painter (1923-2002) 50 Dried coconut meat 53 Of the eyes 55 State ___ 60 Toward the stern 61 French law 65 Great Lakes fish 66 ___ Nostradamus (Coupland) 68 Just so-so 69 Sudbury ___ Observatory 71 Possession of value 73 Like the dodo 75 Of a one-celled creature 77 Highest major lake in Canada 80 Loss of coordination 81 Tree insect 82 From the East 83 Title of a knight 84 Components

85 Facts and figures 86 Gratis 89 Not so much

90 Spud’s buds 91 Prefix meaning “dry” 94 “___ home and

TAURUS: APR. 21/MAY 21 You must be determined if you are to get anything done this week, Taurus. Those around you will commend your diligence, should you succeed. Push through minor setbacks.

GEMINI: MAY 22/JUNE 21 Be patient this week while you wait for a close friend to answer an important question. Don't force the issue or you may end up with an answer you don't want.

CANCER: JUNE 22/JULY 22 Someone gets you tangled up in a mess, Cancer. Use your smarts to pull yourself out of this trouble ... and fast. You'll learn from your

mistake with this situation.

LEO: JULY 23/AUG. 23 Don't back down from a challenge come the end of the week.

Take charge of the situation, Leo, as you know best how to do.

Expect interference from close friends.

VIRGO: AUG. 24/SEPT. 22 A lot of people are depending on you, Virgo, as usual, but this time you just can't possibly deliver.

It's OK to put yourself first for once. The others will have to understand.

LIBRA: SEPT. 23/OCT. 23 While you don't relish the idea of taking sides, an argument between associates is putting you in an awkward position. Listen to both parties before rendering any judgment.

SCORPIO: OCT. 24/NOV. 22 You receive a lucrative business offer this week, Scorpio, but

great horned ___ Solutions on page 33

POET’S CORNER

WEEKLY STARS ARIES: MARCH 21/APR. 20 Don't let an altercation with an acquaintance ruin your good mood early this week, Aries.

This person is just having a bad day and is taking his or her frustrations out on you.

native ...”

95 Lemon 96 Alberta’s bird:

you're not sure if it's a step in the right direction. Think over all of your priorities. You just might decide to pass.

SAGITTARIUS: NOV. 23/DEC. 21 Just because you've been hurt in the past doesn't mean you should avoid new relationships, Sagittarius. Now's the time to put out the feelers for a new mate.

CAPRICORN: DEC. 22/JAN. 20 Stand your ground when your boss approaches you about a business decision you made. You know that it was the right choice.

He or she will come around sooner rather than later.

AQUARIUS: JAN. 21/FEB. 18 Don't be too hasty when it comes to a career-change possibility. It may actually be too good to be true. Do your research before you sign on the dotted line.

PISCES: FEB. 19/MARCH 20 A friend needs your help with a personal matter. Offer your assistance, but don't do all of the work. Your efforts will be appreciated.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS MAY 22 Naomi Campbell, model MAY 23 Bob Dylan, singer/songwriter MAY 24 Patti LaBelle, singer MAY 25 Sheryl Crow, singer MAY 26 Lenny Kravitz, singer MAY 27 Joseph Fiennes, actor MAY 28 Kylie Minogue, singer

The big man

by E. J. Pratt A huge six-footer, Eyes bay blue, And as deep; Lower jaw like a cliff, Tongue silent, As hard and strong as a husky.

A little man, In a pressed suit, Standing before him, Had dug a name out of the past, And flung it at him Under cover of law.

The big fellow Leaned over him, Like a steel girder,

Just for a moment, Then swung around on his heel Without striking.

And I thought of the big Newfoundland I saw, asleep by a rock The day before, That was galvanized by a challenge, But eyeing a cur, He turned, Yawned, Closed one eye, Then the other, And slept.

A poem by E. J. Pratt taken from the 1962 book Here the Tides Flow.

MAY 22, 2005

32 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

Stern too smart to fall into NHL trap TORONTO

By Dave Perkins Torstar wire service

D

avid Stern is either a bit dumber or a bit smarter than his reputation. The lean here is to the lat-

ter.

At first glance, it seems incomprehensible, given the Titanicizing of the NHL, that the commissioner of the NBA would stamp his feet, take his negotiating ball and go home.

The commish, otherwise partly occupied these days confronting the mindnumbing steroid hysteria in Washington, has ended talks with the players’ union and threatens a lockout commencing July 1.

The suspicion here is that Stern, who is certainly no Paul (Teflon) Tagliabue but comes miles closer to him than either Bud Selig or Gary Bettman, knows what he is doing. He will use a lockout, or threat of one, as a tool to achieve his goals in the coming collective bargaining agreement with the ectomorphs.

GREEDY AGENTS Given that the NBA already possesses a salary cap and reasonable financial health, it seems a matter of massaging the numbers, sawing off on contract length and getting the PA to stop listening to those damned greedy agents.

The NHL, on the other hand, saw a lockout as less a means to negotiate than to bludgeon in a plan to flatten the players’ union forever. Bettman clearly had an agenda, of which a lockout was merely a step — the biggest step, but a step nonetheless — toward the end result. Bettman played every card as seemed predictable — until now.

Because with the NHL in completely

unexplored territory, absolutely no one is sure of the next move or how this all plays out.

The NHL, after repeatedly warning there would be no draft without a new CBA, got itself into a jackpot. It realized that Sidney Crosby is too great a prize to be allowed to sign a personal services contract with Larry Tanenbaum and hire on at the Ricoh Coliseum, while lawyers arm themselves for future clients who could see an auction to AHL bidders as a viable alternative to another year of junior hockey.

CLIMATE-CONTROLLED CLUE Now the NHL is trying to figure out a way to hold a draft and make sure that it is “fair” to everyone. Best if they just get him right to New York — or Toronto, the other premier marketing alternative — and pretend the pingpong balls behaved correctly. Maybe they can use the dry ice left over from the Patrick Ewing draft, when the Knicks’ lucky envelope — so the widely spread legend has it — was itself a climate-controlled clue.

Anyway, would it surprise anyone to know that any NBA lockout would begin three days after the NBA draft?

There’s no LeBron James slam-dunk pick, but just in case there was one in that category, the NBA wouldn’t be wringing its hands about him. As it stands now, all a lockout might bother is the summer league. So, yeah, they’re messing with our man Rafael Araujo again.

As long as the threat of an NBA lockout exists, though, it could mean queasiness for some. Those who work the abacus for, say, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, or Madison Square Garden, or any of the other dual-sport

Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash drives past Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard during game five of the Western Conference semifinals in Arizona last week. Nash — declared the league’s MVP earlier this month — scored 34 points in the Suns 114-108 victory.

Tom Hood/EPA

proprietors, might feel a tad nervous.

A year of lost hockey for these bigticket companies was a huge loss of revenue (and, therefore, corporate value). Now someone’s threatening to shut down the building another 45 nights a year just to teach a few union

types who’s boss? Yowsah. That would be ugly news to corporations already thinned down from the hockey plant closings.

MLSE, for one, already has widened its marketing arm from T-shirts to condominiums and just might have a golf

course in the plans, too. (Why not use the logo to sell $100,000 memberships?) But MLSE, for now, also has basketball (such as it is) and the Raptors do make money. It’s up to Stern to be smart enough to keep that tap on.

Hockey night in London This year’s Memorial Cup is getting big-league treatment; Sidney Crosby and the CHL are coming — in high definition LONDON, Ont.

By Chris Zelkovich Torstar wire service

T

his year’s Memorial Cup, which runs May 21-29, is brewing into a potential perfect storm for both the Canadian Hockey League and Rogers Sportsnet.

First and foremost, the NHL playoffs that always push Canada’s junior hockey championship tournament to the back pages are but a distant memory.

There were even two games played on

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

Saturday nights, which I’m told is considered a good night for hockey.

Second, the league and Sportsnet couldn’t have come up with a better set of combatants if it had fixed the playoffs. There’s the record-setting London Knights, the defending champion Kelowna Rockets, the Ottawa 67’s featuring legendary coach Brian Kilrea and the Rimouski Oceanic, who happen to have in Sidney Crosby the most talked-about junior in a decade.

Third, Sportsnet is imposing bigleague status on the tournament by

broadcasting all games in high definition.

“We really couldn’t have asked for anything better,” says CHL president Dave Branch.

It’s been a pretty good year for junior hockey, thanks in part to Messrs.

Bettman and Goodenow. With no NHL distractions, CHL television ratings are up 48 per cent on Sportsnet.

While the average isn’t quite in Hockey Night In Canada’s league — 106,000 — percentage growth like that would make any league green with

envy.

But you do have to wonder if the tournament is ready to make a major breakthrough.

Last year’s event averaged only 111,000 viewers with 238,000 tuning in for the final. Odds are those numbers will be surpassed this year.

But the CHL was absent from national TV during the playoffs, which won’t do much to build momentum. Branch and Sportsnet production head Rick Briggs-Jude isn’t concerned.

“The eyes of the hockey world will

be on the Memorial Cup,” says BriggsJude. “Right now, this is the only show in town.”

To boost interest, Sportsnet has been promoting the tournament all week on its news shows and will send its NHL panel to London to cover the event.

While Sportsnet’s baseball and basketball commitments dictated against playoff coverage, it wouldn’t have minded a few hockey games, especially after 287,000 watched the Knights’ December victory that broke a CHL record 29-game unbeaten streak.

Though he wouldn’t have minded the national attention, Branch says that was never part of the CHL’s plan.

The league preferred to stick with local broadcasts on Rogers and Shaw cable. It paid off when Rogers replaced their NHL Centre Ice package with OHL games, a move that also paid off for Rogers with increased sales and ratings.

Even if Memorial Cup ratings go through the roof, don’t expect the league’s national package to increase next season.

“It’s important never to lose sight of who you are and where you are,” says Branch. “The NHL is the show. We have to continue to find our niche on a national network and build through local broadcasts.”

For one glorious week, though, the CHL is the show.

INBRIEF NBA ratings up The NBA continues to benefit from the NHL lockout. Through the first two rounds of playoffs, ratings are up 75 per cent on Sportsnet (98,000), 73 per cent on TSN (104,000) and 13 per cent on The Score (53,000.) The numbers are small, but an increase beats the alternative …

The hockey series Making the Cut is still in limbo for next season. CBC programming head Slawko Klymkiw says he has told the show’s producers it was too long and needed to be more of a reality series. “We’ve left them with those thoughts, so it’s nowhere at this point,” he says …

Sportsnet’s Chris Simpson will host Showtime, a series of reports on the growing convergence of sports and entertainment. It airs on Sportsnetnews Sportsnet and Speed will carry 12 CASCAR races on tape-delay this season, starting June 11 on Sportsnet.

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 33

‘It’s on my mind a lot’ Province’s top junior hockey prospects talk about the upcoming draft and what it would be like to play with the Fog Devils

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

W

ith just a couple of weeks to go before the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League midget draft on June 4 in Chicoutimi, several local hockey players are starting to feel the heat.

“It’s always on my mind,” says Colin Escott, a 16-year-old St. John’s resident.

“I just want to see where I go.”

Escott is not alone. Nearly every prospect in the province counts the days until the draft. Defenceman Matt Boland of the St. John’s Midget AAA Leafs has spent countless hours pondering his future, hoping to catch on with a major junior club next fall.

“Every night before I go to bed I’m thinking about it,” Boland tells The Independent. “I’m anxious and nervous, but I’m confident too. It’s on my mind a lot.”

Despite being just 15, Boland stands 6’4 and tips the scales at 235 pounds. He has the size scouts love and a drive for the game that can’t be taught. He has put a lot of effort into making himself an attractive prospect and hopes Quebec league teams have noticed.

“I worked really hard this year and came a long way,” says Boland, a Paradise resident who has also lived in Gander. “I think I can play there next year.”

Confidence is not something any of the province’s top prospects are lacking.

After having successful seasons on their respective teams, players believe in their abilities and feel if given a chance, they will succeed.

“I’m very confident I can take the next step,” says Ryan Smith of Mount Pearl, who was also a member of the Leafs. “I’m hoping to get drafted and I’m training hard so I’ll be prepared for training camp if I do.”

Escott is the highest ranked player from this province heading into the draft (20th overall), and together with Chad Locke (featured in last week’s issue of The Independent) has generated the most buzz amongst hockey scouts.

After spending the year south of the border with the Atlantic Junior B Hockey League’s Northern Mass Cyclones, Escott caught some scouts by surprise at the recent Prospects Showcase in Montreal.

If he has his way, his performance will have impressed the expansion St. John’s Fog Devils the most.

“That would be great. It would be very convenient. I could live at home and play for them.”

From left, Ryan Smith, Matt Boland, Colin Escott, Mark Yetman, Andrew White and Patrick O'Keefe.

Getting drafted by the Fog Devils is the goal of all the province’s top prospects. Playing in front of packed houses at Mile One Stadium while being able to live close to home would be ideal, especially since most of them have yet to even finish high school.

It will not be easy to get drafted by the Fog Devils, since there are 17 other teams who will also be taking part in the Midget draft.

“It would be unbelievable to play with the Fog Devils,” says Andrew White of St. John’s, a 16-year-old winger who spent this past season in Ontario with the Pembroke Junior A Lumber Kings. “But there aren’t any guarantees in the draft so I can’t bank on that.”

White chose to play Junior A last year because he felt it would better aid his development as a hockey player. He says going up against bigger and older opponents helped him mature on the ice and gave him an indication of what life would be like in the QMJHL. “Being away from home was the toughest part,” he says. “The play was quicker and there was more hitting. But I think I adjusted pretty well.”

Making adjustments is something a

lot of this province’s top young hockey players could have to do next season if they are drafted by one of the league’s many French community based teams.

Having to live in a town where everybody speaks a different language can be frustrating, but according to most young players, it’s a factor they are willing to live with. Teams are required to have an English school for players to attend.

“The percentage of guys who make it to the NHL is not very good. So as long as I get something out of hockey, I’ll be happy.”

Andrew White “It all depends on the schooling up there,” says Mount Pearl’s Patrick O’Keefe, a 16-year-old member of the AAA Leafs. “I have to keep my marks up in case hockey doesn’t work out.”

Although every major junior player

dreams of making it to the NHL, the grim reality is that only a select few get to the show. But every season a player toils in major junior, he gets a year of post-secondary education paid for, so there are incentives to playing in the “Q” even if a player doesn’t go any further.

“The percentage of guys who make it to the NHL is not very good. So as long as I get something out of hockey, I’ll be happy,” White says.

Some other incentives of playing in the Quebec league include its reputation as a goalscorer’s league. Coaches have long been known to let their players utilize their skills instead of having them trap the opposition into submission.

You wouldn’t think that wide-open philosophy bodes well for goaltenders, but the league is also famous for producing the sport’s top netminders.

For a young goaltender such as Mark Yetman of Mount Pearl, facing a high number of shots may be just the thing to help him develop his game and someday get him to the pros. He hopes to find out first hand just how good the league’s shooters are next year — and he plans on showing other province’s can produce quality goalies as well.

NHL still planning to harvest talent

N

obody knows when the next NHL draft will take place, but that hasn’t stopped the league from holding its annual scouting combine in early June.

The league will bring in prospects for the 2005 draft for four days of fitness testing and interviews with NHL teams — junior phenom Sidney Crosby, who will be the first overall pick whenever the draft takes place, is scheduled to be in attendance.

Interviews with players are scheduled to begin June 1 at the Park Plaza Hotel near the airport, with the bulk of

the fitness testing and interviews taking place June 3 and 4.

The event is an annual one, staged by the league’s Central Scouting Bureau and it has taken on even more importance this year given the circumstances surrounding the lockout.

“It’s more important than ever this year,” says one NHL scout. “A lot of teams have really cut back on their travel this year, so they haven’t seen the players as much and this gives them a chance to interview them.”

Scouts will need all the tools at their disposal this year because, unlike every

other year, teams currently have no idea where they’ll be picking in the draft.

That means they’ll have to cast a much wider net in their search for prospects.

“About two months before the end of the season, I usually know where we’re going to be picking,” says another scout. “This year we might get Sidney Crosby or we might be picking 30th.

We have no idea.”

“Most years you can really hone in on six or seven guys and you can be pretty sure you’re going to have a shot at one of them,” another scout said.

“This time it’s a complete crapshoot.”

Because the draft is collectively bargained with the players and there is no CBA in place, there will not be a draft until the two sides come to an agreement.

Although the draft format has not been finalized yet, the framework is in place for a lottery that would be skewed in favour of teams that have not made the playoffs nor had the first overall pick in the draft in the past four years.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and 12 other teams would have a 1.7 per cent chance of winning the lottery.

— Torstar wire service

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

“A lot of good goalies come out of Quebec, but there are also a lot of good goalies coming out of the Maritimes and Newfoundland,” says Yetman, who also suits up for the Leafs.

“Guys like Michael Ryder (Montreal Canadiens), Daniel Ryder (Peterborough Petes of the OHL) and Ryan Clowe (Cleveland Barons of the AHL) give Newfoundlanders a good name,” Boland says. “Scouts are starting to recognize how much talent is in Newfoundland.”

Robert Slaney, the captain of the Tri Pen Frost Midget AAA team, agrees with Boland’s assessment.

Along with White, Locke, Yetman, Smith, Escott and O’Keefe, Slaney attended the prospect showcase in Montreal and saw first-hand how players from this province compared to their counterparts from the Maritimes and Quebec.

“I think this year, maybe more than other years, there is a lot of potential in Newfoundland,” Slaney says. “I’m sure the guys I went to the prospects camp with have a great chance of getting drafted.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

Solution for crossword puzzle on page 31

MAY 22, 2005

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

‘Good training ground’ From page 36 weekend throughout the season.

The majority of ISC pitchers throw between 80-85 miles per hour from just 46 feet away. Just making contact with a ball is difficult enough, but you also have to factor in the outstanding movement ISC pitchers have on the ball.

“It’s the movement on pitches and the placement of the ball. You just get used to the speed. The top pitchers don’t beat you with their speed; they beat you with their location.”

Since entering the ISC in 1992, Abbott has developed lasting memories of big wins, tough losses and unforgettable hits. But as much as those moments mean to him, he says his days growing up playing the sport are also ones he won’t forget.

He remembers playing as a kid in Portugal Cove before moving on to play junior and senior fastpitch in St. John’s as a teenager. Abbott says his days in the senior league in particular helped him.

“A lot of the guys there had played top calibre ball, it was a good training ground for me. I picked up some of the habits from the best hitters and tried to incorporate them into my game.”

Abbott’s abilities at the plate helped him earn positions on the Newfoundland and Labrador Canada Games team and the National Junior team in 1989 as well as the National Senior team that competed in the World Championships in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

With the next World Championships not scheduled until 2009, Abbott doubts he will participate since he plans on retiring from competitive fastpitch after a couple of more seasons.

Still, Abbott doesn’t expect he will leave the sport all together. He hopes to coach his sons Joel and Steven one day and give something back to the game.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s a great sport.”

Darcy_8888@hotmail.com

Sweat drips from alpine team member Brad Spence after taking an endurance test to measure his lactic acid buildup. Athletes underwent a fitness assessment at the Olympic Oval in Calgary last week.

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

The precipice of perfection Canadian athletes’ countdown to Turin Olympics is well under way CALGARY Randy Starkman Torstar wire service

T

he oddest sight greets a visitor to the University of Calgary playing fields — athletes hunched over, hands behind their backs, swaying from side to side on the lush green grass under a hot sun.

At one point, they change direction and stealthily take long steps forward, positioned so low to the ground it appears they’re hunting for worms.

What they are really doing, though, is taking strides towards the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

These are members of Canada’s long track speed skating team and they’re already well into their preparations for the main event next February.

The exercise of the moment is called “imitations” — a simulation of the speed skating motion without the ice.

Judging by the sweat pouring off their bodies and their pained expressions, it’s no less strenuous than the real thing.

Not far away, in the bowels of the

Olympic Oval, that look of exertion is mirrored by the Canadian men’s alpine team as they are put through their paces in a series of fitness tests designed to measure explosive strength and anaerobic power.

Members of Canada’s defending Olympic champion women’s hockey team, meanwhile, are being poked and prodded with pinpricks and fat calipers at the university’s Human Performance Laboratory.

While the Turin Games might seem a long way off, the countdown has already begun for most of Canada’s winter Olympians. Many of them recently attended a series of intensive seminars in Lake Louise, an event organized by the Canadian Olympic Committee, featuring motivational talks from past Olympic champions like speed-skater Gaetan Boucher and rower Marnie McBean.

“Hearing Marnie McBean say it’s 271 days (until the Turin Olympics), tomorrow it’s 270 and the day after it’s 269, it kind of really hit home at that point,” says Regan Lauscher, who broke through last season with a silver

medal in a World Cup luge event in Lake Placid, the country’s best result ever.

“I mean April’s gone and we’re getting close to the end of May — it’s less than a year and it’s really closing on the big event. During workouts, it makes you think `Okay, I don’t want to quit one rep short, I want to do whatever I can,’ one weekend of missing sleep is a big deal.

“All of a sudden things mean more than they did before.”

Despite the striding involved, the speed skater’s simulation exercises are no walk in the park.

World champion Cindy Klassen crouches into position and pushes off with great force, first with her right leg and then with her left, her hamstrings quivering with each effort.

Her blue T-shirt is sweat-soaked by the end of the session supervised by coach Neal Marshall.

“It’s important to get into that position and to get the feel of it, so that when you get on the ice it’s not a surprise,” says Klassen, who has a shot to be one of Canada’s stars at the Turin

Games based on her double gold performance at the 2005 world single distance championships.

A former Olympian, Marshall said there’s little margin of error for those athletes striving for the podium in Turin.

“You want to make sure every day is the best it can be,” he says. “That doesn’t mean pull your guts out every day.

Even if it’s a rest day, make sure it’s the best quality rest day you can have so you’re ready for training after the rest day. You have to make everything count.”

That competitive drive is always evident, such as when young downhill racing hope Erik Guay clutched the paper with his impressive score in the power squats and flashed it in front of his team-mates in the Olympic Oval weight room.

“It’s an Olympic year so you want to do everything possible to get that peak performance,” says Guay, who made a good comeback last year from knee surgery. “Any little advantage, every 100th of a second — that’s what I’m looking for.”

Starting from scratch From page 36 There was an attempt to get a team fielded for last season, but it didn’t come together in time. With a stronger commitment from the players, the team is getting ready to hit the field. The organizing committee has its work cut out for them to raise the necessary funds to cover the team’s budget, but there is a solid group behind the team. They’ll get the job done.

For the league in general, it must be great to see another team in the fold. Playing in Harbour Grace is only an hour’s drive for the teams in St. John’s, and it’s a shorter run for the teams from the Burin Peninsula.

The west coast won’t have a team in the first round of the regular season, but they will compete in the second round.

That scenario should prove to be successful — and I’m thinking strictly of dollars and cents. Without the added burden of financing those trips to the east coast, and in turn the east coast teams don’t have to travel west, all teams can save some dough.

That’s always a good thing, and will especially be important to the Shannons, who are starting from scratch.

••• If all goes well with the Shannons men’s team, Coombs hopes, in a few years, CBN might be able to field a women’s team to compete in the Jubilee Cup. And there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen. There are lots of talented young girls coming up through the minor system.

With two top-notch fields in Harbour Grace and Carbonear, a legacy of the 1992 provincial summer games, it’s great to see the facilities being utilized.

Bobby White writes from Carbonear. bobbywhite@hotmail.com

MAY 22, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, MAY 22-28, 2005 — PAGE 36

Power export Paul Daly/The Independent

Colin Abbott is ready for another season playing in the best fastpitch league in the world

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

I

t’s that time of year — again — for Colin Abbott. Since 1992, he has been taking his homerun swing south of the border to play in International Softball Congress (ISC) tournaments throughout the spring and summer.

The world’s top fastpitch players flock to the league each year, giving it a bit of a “big league” feeling.

“It’s the top calibre of fastpitch in the world, so every weekend we’re playing against the best competition out there,” Abbott tells The Independent. “That’s why we play.”

Since 1998, Abbott has played right field

for Farm Tavern, a club out of Madison, Wisconsin. The Portugal Cove native’s teammates come from across Canada and the United States, as well as from Europe.

Abbott says the mix of nationalities and backgrounds makes for interesting conversations and helps form friendships that span the globe.

“I have friends from here to New Zealand.

I’ve met a lot of different people and personalities. I’ve gotten to know a lot of good people.”

Abbott, 34, played his first tournament of the season in mid-May when he joined his Farm Tavern teammates for a pre-season event in Arizona. Abbott compares the tournament to a baseball player’s spring training, and notes the team’s 1-2 record at the event is not an accurate reflection on how they expect to fare once the real games begin.

“We’ve got a good team, we’re solid all around — pitching, hitting, our defence should be pretty good. But there are a lot of good teams out there so it will be a matter of playing well throughout the summer.”

The ISC’s pre-season rankings have Farm Tavern listed in the number two spot of a 32team league.

Although Abbott is happy his team is

ranked so high this early in the year, he hopes was just nice to get out there and swing the the club doesn’t experience a similar downfall bat, run, and throw. as last season. In 2004 they were also ranked “I felt as good as I could coming from second in the pre-season, only to finish fifth Newfoundland in the middle of May.” by season’s end.

An advantage that allows Abbott to quickly “We lost some games we probably should adjust to the game again is the fact he used to have won and in short tournaments there isn’t pitch. Although he hasn’t done so since 1991, any room for error.”

Abbott was a formidable pitcher in local and While he keeps himself in provincial fastpitch cirshape in the off-season, the cles in his teenage years. tournament in Arizona was His credits his knowledge “I felt as good as I Abbott’s first opportunity to of pitching for helping face live pitching this year. him become one of the could coming from games most feared hitA CONSTANT ters.

Newfoundland in the CHALLENGE “I think that’s been a Throughout the winter, he benefit because I’m not middle of May.” is left without the weather or only familiar with the Colin Abbott comparable training equipmovement on pitches but ment many of his teammates I also have a better idea of and opponents use to keep what a pitcher is thinking their swings sharp. While this presents a con- in different situations.” stant challenge, Abbott played well enough at Even with his experience in pitching, the recent pre-season tournament to convince Abbott admits some hurlers still baffle him himself that he isn’t far away from being at his today. Given the high degree of talent in the best.

ISC, it is no surprise to hear Abbott talk about “I’m not 100 percent comfortable now, but the outstanding pitchers he tries to solve each I didn’t feel too bad — it usually takes a few See “Good training,” page 34 weekends to get completely comfortable. It

Kick-start New CBN soccer team may not win Challenge Cup, but entering league victory in itself

T

hey are going to take their lumps.

They will probably get blown out.

They might even be lucky enough to give a few teams a scare. And they will most likely finish the season without a win.

But the Conception Bay North Shannons won’t have to post any upsets or finish above last-place in league standings to be deemed a success.

Just the fact they are the newest entry into the provincial Challenge Cup senior soccer league is victory enough. While I might be a little biased (the team is, of course, based in my hometown), I think it’s a great move by the local soccer

BOB WHITE

Bob the bayman association to step into the ring with the heavyweights.

Based on the healthy minor system that has been running for the past decade in these parts, it’s not inconceivable to think one day soon the Shannons will be able to hang with the big boys. Mind you, it’s not going to happen this season, and realistically it will probably take

about five years for the squad to become serious contenders.

A number of young athletes from the area have made provincial all-star teams the past few years, so there is a nice pool of young talent. All they need to compete with the senior teams is games at that level. In losing there will be lots to learn, and no doubt they will be schooled.

“The calibre of players has steadily grown from the minor system to the point where they can compete at this level,” says Don Coombs, the Harbour Grace mayor who serves as CBN minor association president, and is also a member of the senior Shannons’ management

committee.

“When the players reach 16, there’s no game for them after years of soccer.

Having a Challenge Cup team will be great for the minor system.”

Not only does it give local senior-aged players a game, but having a Challenge Cup team will have an impact on the minor players. For one, they will be able to see the game played at a different level, the highest offered in the province.

Watching from the sidelines, they will learn new things and gain an understanding of what it takes to play at this level.

They will also be motivated to maybe one day play with the senior Shannons.

Yes, the young ones might have to endure watching their senior brethren leave the field with loss after loss, but again, in losing there is much to learn.

However, I wouldn’t expect them to just lie down and let their opponents walk away with any easy victory, without putting up a fight. There’s no pressure for them to win, and in that situation, hard work and being tagged as the underdog can speed up the learning process.

And in soccer, you only need to score one goal to win a game.

See “Starting from,” page 34