2005-10-16 by The Independent

VOL. 3 ISSUE 42

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16-22, 2005

In the running

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OPINION 6

LIFE 22

Danny Williams reflects on two years of PC power

Food columnist Nicholas Gardner looks for fresh pickings

SIMPLY THE BREAST

Weather report Can Environment Canada forecast province’s weather and get it right?

Former cabinet minister and union leader set sights on Efford’s riding CLARE-MARIE GOSSE

JENNY HIGGINS

s former provincial Liberal cabinet minister Art Reid himself says, he has enough experience to be a credible candidate to run in John Efford’s riding — should the current regional minister and MP for Avalon decide to retire. “I miss it, I tell you this much, I really miss it,” Reid tells The Independent. “There’s always people who will come out of the woodwork and say, ‘Why don’t you try it?’ This sort of thing, and I haven’t been encouraging or discouraging anyone really. I’ve been saying when the job opens, I’ll certainly be looking at it.” Leo Puddister, former president of NAPE, is another contender waiting to see what happens in Avalon. “I haven’t heard if anyone’s running or not running,” he says. “I haven’t heard a word on it. I don’t even know what Minister Efford is doing. If he was to step down I certainly would consider it.” Reid — a former mayor of Carbonear who got involved in provincial politics in 1989 and remained until 2002 — says he too has no idea if Efford will decide to withdraw from the federal electoral race, slated for spring, 2006. Efford, whose long-term struggle with diabetes has worsened in the past year, has been less active in his federal roles as of late. Last month he temporarily stepped down as Natural Resources minister, although he still remains regional minister for Newfoundland and Labrador. Speculation about his political future and possible replacements has been rife, but Efford himself has made no solid commitment as to whether he plans to run in the next election. Prime Minister Paul Martin seems reluctant to make any drastic changes to his cabinet so close to a pending See “The party,” page 2

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’ve seen cases where people were in court fighting over the plastic flower pots in the back yard.”

Newfoundland and Labrador, along with the rest of the world, celebrated Breastfeeding Week at the beginning of October. The numbers of mothers who are choosing to nurse their babies has been steadily increasing in the province over recent years. Health care workers have been advocating breastfeeding, which is considered to promote better health and immunity in infants. Paul Daly/The Independent

Prep time Search and rescue helicopter had to be gassed up before responding to downed fishing boat; emergency beacon not seen as mayday

— Lawyer Bob Buckingham

on the money couples can blow on divorce proceedings.

WORLD 11

John Crosbie on the best way to make Liberals pay for AdScam IN CAMERA 20

Travelling the rounds of a rural doctor

nvironment Canada is taking steps to improve the way it forecasts storms in Newfoundland and Labrador, says Bill Appleby, regional director for Atlantic Canada. The move comes after Environment Canada inaccurately forecast two storms to hit the province last March. “This week we’ve had a workshop in Dartmouth with all the forecasters that work in the storm prediction centre,” Appleby tells The Independent. “Over the past few months our research people in Montreal have studied these storms — the two in March in particular — and we’ve looked at the details to see if we can see deficiencies in the models to help the forecaster identify when the model may not be working as well as it usually does.” One of those deficiencies, says Appleby, is that Environment Canada doesn’t have enough information on storms developing to the south or southwest of the Avalon. “We have a series of ocean buoys that we have out there, but we may have to look at how they’re positioned and that sort of thing,” he says. “We’re also rearranging the way our work’s done in the storm prediction centre. When we see a storm coming that we think is going to be a problem for Newfoundland, we’re bringing in extra analysts to help out with getting that particular type of analysis done for getting the forecast.” Since Environment Canada moved its weather office from Gander to Dartmouth in 2004, Appleby says he’s received complaints from the public about the accuracy of the weather reports. Gerry Phelan, news director at VOCM, says his listeners have also been calling in with complaints about the weather forecast. See “Most storms,” page 4

ALISHA MORRISSEY

hen personnel left Gander’s 103 search and rescue squadron for the day on Sept. 12 — the day the Melina and Keith II capsized off Cape Bonavista, taking the lives of four crewmembers — the Cormorant helicopter wasn’t fuelled or prepped for an emergency take-off, MP Loyola Hearn says. Meantime, as a result of the number of false alarms from emergency beacons, Canadian Coast Guard and Joint Search and Rescue Centre in

Halifax had to confirm there was beacon went off, until they discovactually an incident before tasking ered the location, you would think all search and rescue of that preparatory work resources to the Melina would be done. The and Keith II emergency. minute they yelled out Hearn says he was the position in the “tipped off” by a highAtlantic you would think placed official that search that chopper would be and rescue helicopters are off the ground. not gassed up at the end “To me that is respondof the workday. ing to an emergency.” “Once the people leave Ocean tragedies are a part of life in Newfoundat four o’clock and are on Loyola Hearn land and Labrador, Hearn two-hour standby or whatever … (the squadron) have to says, but he’s angry emergency servbe called in and I am told then the ices weren’t immediately available to chopper has to be prepared — includ- the crew on board the Melina and ing fuelling,” Hearn tells The Independent. “From the time that the See “Investigation,” page 2

LIFE 17

A snapshot of local talent at the St. John’s Women’s Film Festival Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

‘The party is still alive in the district’ From page 1 election and the ball is still in Efford’s court. As a friend and former colleague, Reid says he and Efford “go back a long way.” The two politicians served as ministers together under several Liberal leaders, including Clyde Wells and Brian Tobin. “I haven’t spoken to John personally about it,” he says. “Until John decides that he’s leaving, I’m not going to get involved in any political campaign. I support John and I have a lot of respect for John and especially, right now, knowing what he’s going through with his dia-

betes.” Reid adds criticism that Efford has received for his recent lack of political presence is unfair. “I think that people have been harsh on him because I know that he is legitimately sick … people don’t just walk away and give up their portfolios, everybody bears with them as long as they can bear with them and hopes that they get better and come back.” Reid admits there are probably many interested potential candidates vying for the chance to fill Efford’s shoes. He says it shows “Liberalism and the party is still alive in the district.”

Investigation continues From page 1 Keith II. It took the National Defence Cormorant helicopter operating out of Gander’s 103 Search and Rescue Squadron approximately 3 hours and 8 minutes after the capsized vessel was confirmed capsized and position located to arrive on scene. The first coast guard vessel to arrive where the fishing boat sank roughly 160 kilometres east of Cape Bonavista was the Leonard J. Cowley — 9 hours and 45 minutes after the vessel’s location had been pinpointed. The fishing vessel Lady Charlotte Star was the first to arrive, by which time four of the eight crewmen — Ivan Dyke, Justin Ralph, Anthony Molloy and Joshua Williams — were lost. One survivor says a faster response by the Cormorant helicopter would have saved at least one of the four men who died. According to departmental policy, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., National Defence’s maritime search and rescue helicopter must be airborne within 30 minutes of receiving orders. After 4 p.m., the crew is on a twohour standby “I don’t know if anyone is aware that our emergency response people are not there when they are being called,” Hearn says.

“A fire alarm could be a false alarm, but when it goes off, if the fire department didn’t know where it was, undoubtedly they do whatever checking they do to identify location. By that time wouldn’t the fire truck be ready? Wouldn’t the firemen have their boots on? Wouldn’t it be gassed up? Wouldn’t they just be waiting to go?” UNFAIR COMPARISON Major John Van Oosten, officer in charge of Maritime Search and Rescue’s joint rescue co-ordination centre, says comparing the incident with a fire alarm is unfair. “We’re not talking about a person picking up the phone and calling 911,” Van Oosten says. “In the case of an emergency beacon we’re talking about satellite communications … but because of the false alarm rate experience has shown that the communications (a radio and phone search) search is necessary first.” He says it’s common for an alert to sound and for staff to stay on 30minute standby throughout the evening, but without a location there’s no way to determine which squadron is closest. “There was no point of putting any of the resources on any other search and rescue standby posture without knowing where it (the vessel) was,” Van Oosten says. “Now if we’re unable to

establish contact, as happened in this case then we do as part of our procedure … we do task resources to respond.” The Independent spoke to Hearn regarding the fuelling of the helicopter after speaking to Van Oosten, who wasn’t available afterwards. Brian Stone, regional superintendent, maritime search and rescue, says the beacon that signalled the sinking of the Melina and Keith II isn’t technically a mayday and therefore, can’t be responded to in the same way. “We run through about 90-odd (beacons) a year and most of them are false alarms,” Stone says. “We knew the vessel was registered in Eastport, but where it was operating it could have been in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it could have been down off Halifax, it could have been anywhere and what do you do? Do you tell an aircrew to get up in the air and in a half an hour we’ll tell you where to go?” The Melina and Keith II was an 18metre fishing boat. It had been fishing shrimp in relatively calm seas when it rolled over. The eight crew stayed on top of the overturned boat for two hours before it sank, surviving in the freezing water for almost two more hours while holding onto debris, including an overturned aluminum boat. The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the sinking.

Portuguese vessel cited with illegal fishing four days before MOU signing By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

ust four days before the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Canada and Portugal on fisheries co-operation, the Brites, a Portuguese vessel, was cited for illegal fishing outside the 200-mile limit, The Independent has learned. The trawler was cited on Oct. 8 while fishing redfish on the tail of the Grand Banks. The citation was issued by Canadian inspectors for use of ropes attached to the trawl that were suspected of making the net smaller, able to catch undersized fish. A spokesman for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John’s says the citation is not considered serious. European Union inspectors were informed of the citation. Twenty-five citations have been laid

against Portuguese vessels since 2002. To date this year, 14 foreign vessels have received 26 citations for fishing violations — surpassing the total for all of last year, which stood at 15. Of the 14 vessels cited, three were Portuguese, issued a single citation each. Under NAFO rules, Canada cannot arrest ships for breaking the rules. Rather, it’s up to the home country of a vessel charged with illegal fishing to follow through with court action. The most recent citation comes just days before a memorandum of understanding was signed between Canadian Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan and his Portuguese counterpart, Jamie Silva. The memorandum outlines a loose relationship between Canada and Portugal on the development of technical, scientific, economic and enforcement. Interviewed by The Independent, Silva

says severe punishments are handed out to Portuguese fishermen who break NAFO rules on the Grand Banks. Over the past decade, more than 300 citations have been issued against foreign vessels. Most of the citations were issued without publicity, often against boats that have been cited frequently but face no penalty in their home country. Fishing advocates in this province have repeatedly called for Canada to take custodial management of the Grand Banks, a move Ottawa has been reluctant to make. Silva says the Portuguese government is “quite attached” to the current laws governing Canada’s territorial waters. Foreign fishing outside the 200-mile limit impacts fishing in Canadian waters in that groundfish stocks, which are migratory, don’t recognize the imaginary dotted line. See related story page 23

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

Politics and plunder Piracy is a political reality in Newfoundland history PAUL BUTLER

ecause they seem to dwell in a world of folklore rather than history, we sometimes forget that pirates were a Newfoundland and Labrador reality during the first centuries of European settlement. Piracy is as old as sea travel, but the golden age of piracy coincides with the colonial expansion of the 16th to 19th centuries. New lands were opening up to exploitation, and large merchant ships from every European power carried valuable cargoes either back to Europe or from one part of a country’s colony to another. Although pirate lore holds that treasure chests were the natural spoils of these rogues of the sea, the relatively unglamourous codfish, if already salted or dried, could also make a valuable cargo. So, of course, could supplies — flour, tea, tobacco, and molasses — bound for fishing plantations, as well as the guns and cannons that guarded them. All of these things were to be found in Newfoundland shipping. The scourge of piracy was only too real to merchants and government agents. Piracy, after all, cost money. For this reason losses to pirate raids are extremely well documented. A memorandum written by the Treasurer

of the Newfoundland Company in 1621 (quoted from the book Crosses & Comforts by Richard Whidbourne) gives us an insight into the pirates’ operations. The document tells us that in 1612 Peter Easton took “100 pieces of ordnance (guns), all manner of victuals and munitions ... and carried away 500 English fishermen, of which many were volunteers, but most were taken by force.” Two years later Henry Mainwaring seized from Newfoundland harbours “one in six of all carpenters and mariners, and a sixth part of all victuals and munitions.” Clearly these were serious business enterprises that thought long term and valued the acquisition of a skilled workforce. Pirate fleets were even likened to floating mini-states. On the ships of notorious pirate Howel Davis in the 1700s, seamen of long standing were referred to as “lords” and addressed each other with the title “fellow noble.” Junior crewmembers were called “commoners.” That life on board a pirate vessel would so mock “legitimate” society is not so surprising. As former loyal captains, both Easton and Mainwaring were “gentlemen pirates” and likely saw themselves as independent monarchs temporarily at odds with the English Crown. The fundamental difference between privateer and pirate boils down to a legal distinction. A privateer raised his own crew, paid for his own ship, but sailed in the Crown’s name with a letter of commission. A privateer could make war on the Crown’s enemies and requisition supplies and men, and usually owed a measure of

the voyage’s spoils back to the Crown. Easton, like many captains of his era, had crossed the dividing line between privateer to pirate by ignoring a change in foreign policy. When James I succeeded Elizabeth I in 1604, he made peace with Spain and cancelled many privateers’ letters of commission. Gainfully employed upon the high seas and making a pretty good living, this turn of events must have seemed something of a technicality to Easton and others like him who preyed off Spanish shipping. The fragility of the line between privateer and pirate is even acknowledged in some documents of the time. Contemporary euphemisms like “errant captain” or “erring captains” seem to concede the commonplace nature of piracy. And the doors were often wide open when it came to rehabilitation. Successful pirates were rich, a fact not lost on the cash-strapped royals of Europe. Not surprisingly, Easton was issued a royal pardon at least twice by James I during the course of 1612. But the King had competition. The Duke of Savoy, Carlos Emmanual I, needed money too. It was he, not James, who prevailed, selling Easton a title, marquis, and a palace to go with it. Henry Mainwaring, likewise, had a highly comfortable homecoming, gaining not only a pardon from James but a knighthood and the rank of vice admiral. Somewhat hypocritically, Mainwaring used his influence at court to try and dissuade the King from his policy of pardoning former See “Muddy water,” page 5

‘I don’t want to be another Quebec’ T

here is the myth of the small town or small place that never accepts newcomers no matter how long they stay, they came from somewhere else — come from aways (CFAs). I have never felt like that here. I stumbled upon this place and steadfastly refuse to leave, although in the background this week I felt a posse forming, ready to toss me aboard the Joseph and Clara and back to Canada (See last week’s cartoon to right). So this is my business. You don’t get to write me off as just another mainlander because I am one of you — like it or not. I’ve lived in a lot of other places and I choose to live here. Only a fool would think he lives in the best place when he has been nowhere else. This is a great place, the freest place with more open, straightforward people per capita than any other place I’ve been. It’s also an infuriating place. People who should know better sell square rolling pins and cups with the handle on the inside. They say newfie not knowing it’s a synonym for stupid on the mainland. They actually perpetuate newfie jokes with cheesy little joke books. I know this is diminishing and I’m sure the readership of The Independent does not have a newfie ashtray among them but these things are still prevalent. These trinkets are flogged to our

DOUG BIRD

Guest column tourists who must get great insight on the province while playing with their new newfie calculators. Even without shooting ourselves in the foot with this ignorant junk, we are doomed for being ourselves. Truthfully, people who laugh easily and enjoy good company are going to look alien standing next to a bunch of anal Torontonians who can’t laugh through the Botox and wouldn’t know a party if it ran them over. The media is no help (present company excluded). The national media always finds some clod to comment, looking for some dope in a slicker or an outspoken sound bite, often taking advantage of the openness of Newfoundlanders. Local media is always on about stamps and how many jobs and I know those are important stories to the people involved but it makes us all sound so needy, and as a person who has left loved ones to work, who has left an uneconomically viable location for work, I sympathize with people in dying communities — but must say get on with it.

Things are getting better. God strike me dead I even like Danny. He is the most credible leader in Newfoundland history. He can go head to head with anyone in Canada and is doing a great job in representing the province. Having the oil is nice luck. If it’s managed effectively it may be the first time in Newfoundland history that we are not rolled over in a business deal. As I said before, newfie stuff is on the wane and St. John’s is a city where I can get world-class food, wine, entertainment and still feel like I am in my living room. So why slag the Green, White and Pink? Because people are taking it seriously. I hate the idea of independence. I don’t want to be another Quebec with the constitutional wrangling and the money and energy thrown away on an unsolvable emotional issue. A friend commented that that kind of status would be a promotion. It’s better to be the traitorous brother than the idiot cousin of Confederation. Another friend suggested it is just a symbol of the emerging Newfoundland pride. Pride was never the problem. Newfoundlanders have always had plenty of pride. It just didn’t stop them from getting

Doug Bird is The Independent’s cartoonist. He writes from Portugal CoveSt. Philip’s.

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screwed all the time. We don’t need more pride. We need good government, business acumen, and confidence that we are capable of competing on a world stage. We are. Problem solved. Waving the Green, White and Pink is just another chance to be ridiculed by the national media who will always be deaf to the history of Newfoundland and the truths about Confederation that have been well documented by this newspaper. We will be seen as leeches that now have a shot at hogging all the oil money and will abandon Canada and all the lovely things they do for us. We will be seen as yet another region that is

the most special. Every region in Canada is special, every person works harder than the next guy, everyone gets a raw deal. These are human truths. We are not better, we are the same and waving the flag makes others feel snubbed. I’m sorry that I care about this. Maybe I am too Canadian. I prefer to keep the Green, White and Pink a private matter, among Newfoundlanders — perhaps to wear as a lapel pin so when some mainlander asks what it means I can say it means we can stand next to anyone. We can compete. We are not the toothless clods you thought we were. Pass the Visa card please and will that be all today … I love this place but let’s not let emotions get out of hand. The way to redress the inequities of the past is to forget them and move confidently into the future. There is no need to wave a flag and yell, “Look at me, look at me!”

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

Fewer children hurt in ATV accidents since tougher age limits introduced: Janeway doctor By Darcy MacRae The Independent

he number of children suffering injuries from ATV accidents appears to have dropped since age limits regarding the use of the machines were introduced earlier this year, says a doctor at the Janeway hospital in St. John’s. Dr. Rick Cooper says doctors are seeing fewer young patients come in with injuries suffered in ATV accidents. Although statistics won’t be available until early next year, he says other doctors agree the numbers are down. “I keep in touch with emergency, and everyone feels the numbers appear to be down,” Cooper tells The Independent. The provincial government introduced legislation in the spring that made it illegal for anyone under the age of 14 to operate an ATV. Fourteen and 15 year olds are permitted to drive ATVs, but only those with an engine size no more than 90 cc. In order to drive an adultsized ATV, a person has to be at least 16. The legislation became law in June, and the benefits have been obvious, says Cooper. “We’re not seeing kids come in where there was a 10-year-old driver and someone was injured as a result of that,” he says. In fact, the only accident Cooper is aware of involving an ATV and a child occurred because of the actions of an adult driver. “I know of one where an adult was driving a bike too fast and hit an adolescent who was stopped on the trail,” says Cooper. “He (the adolescent) had a lot of damage done to his leg.”

Cooper’s claims are supported by Government Services Minister Diane Whalen. “I’ve been told by the doctors that they’ve seen a decrease in the injuries in the kids coming into the Janeway in regards to ATVs,” Whalen says. “I’ve also been told by a municipal leader that they’ve seen the usage of ATVs cut down on the streets because the kids were driving the ATVs illegally on the road before the legislation.” Cooper says the Canadian Paediatrics Society was one of several groups that lobbied for such legislation. He says before the age limits were introduced, children under 10 years old were being badly injured and killed as a result of ATV accidents. “Not every month, but I’ve seen people who were killed,” Cooper says. “Children out driving these as young as nine who died. It was a long time ago, but you don’t forget that stuff. “Fractures and head injures … some of them were not insignificant, they were significant injuries.” At the time the legislation was introduced, Whalen says 87 per cent of people polled in the province were in favour. Of those opposed, some wanted to allow children as young as five to drive ATVs, she says. Along with the age restrictions, the fines for illegal ATV use were also increased. Under the new legislation, the maximum fine for careless driving is $1,000; the fine for not wearing a helmet is $400; and the fine for driving an ATV while impaired stands at $1,500 for a first offence. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Most storms change drastically when they hit Newfoundland waters’

Juggling contract talks

n the midst of contract talks with the province’s physicians, government has hammered out a “tentative” timeframe for unofficial preliminary discussions with the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association, although meetings over a contract for nurses are still to be decided. Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan says all negotiations will take place “at the table” and wouldn’t comment on what bargaining stance the province is planning to take with teachers and nurses, who have been without contracts for over a year.

“Our province does have a significant debt, $20,000-$22,000 per capita,” he tells The Independent. “We’ll deal with that responsibly. We’ll come to the table with our positions there and we have to have a degree of fairness into our dealings and those things will, I guess, come to light in due course as the negotiation process starts.” Although the province and the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, representing the province’s doctors, remain quiet about current negotiations, recent media reports have indicated government has GENERAL MANAGER John Moores john.moores@theindependent.ca

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requested concessions in the form of salary and benefit reductions. In recent years, provincial governments have practiced pattern bargaining and there has been speculation as to whether doctors, nurses and teachers can expect any more than the five per cent raise given to NAPE and CUPE members in spring 2004. Union leaders have expressed disapproval of pattern bargaining, however. In July 2005, Kevin Foley of the teachers’ association told The Independent: “We have needs that are obviously different than the wishes or needs of the other unions.” He added workloads would be high on the teachers’ bargaining agenda. Debbie Forward, head of the nurses’ union, said a big issue for her group would be trying to keep nurses in the province, with contracts comparable to the rest of Canada. — Clare-Marie Gosse

From page 1 “There were times when you would forecast a storm and it did not come and there were times when the weather forecast called for sunshine and the storm came,” says Phelan. “My favourite line was we were the province where you had to shovel flurries.” Another radio station in the province, Coast 101.1 FM, was so displeased with Environment Canada that it switched to a private weather company. Station manager Andy Newman says Environment Canada’s forecasts weren’t just inaccurate – they were late. “The forecast is generally generated at 5:30 in the morning,” he says. “There was at least one occasion when it was 7 a.m. before we got the new forecast and there was more than one occasion where the forecast was

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well after six in the morning. Our broadcast day starts at six. We like to have a current forecast, not one from the afternoon before.” Claude Elliot, mayor of Gander, says forecasters working out of Nova Scotia cannot predict weather for Newfoundland and Labrador as accurately as the forecasters in Gander were able to before the move. “Before, when it was here in Gander, we could track a storm that was coming across from Halifax, across the Gulf,” says Elliot. “Most storms change drastically when they hit Newfoundland waters. The people here could pick it up and they could tell you. Now they don’t have the same thing. People over there, they don’t track it the same.” He says he’s received a lot of complaints about the weather reports from people living in rural communities. “You hear it all the time from people living in rural Newfoundland who have to come into the bigger centres like Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor, Corner Brook or St. John’s. Especially people coming in for tests like MRIs. The forecasters have given 40 centimetres of snow for tomorrow, people have cancelled their appointments only to wake up the next morning and the sun has been shining.” Phelan says he’s concerned — as both a citizen and news director — with the quality of weather reports coming out of Environment Canada. “We are both in the same business,” he says. “We are providers of information that we consider a vital use to the public and therefore we should do everything in our power to provide them with the best information. “I’ve been in this business over 25 years and the most important piece of information I give any human being on a given day is the weather forecast.” A group determined to reinstate the Gander weather office has collected 100,000 names on a petition.

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

Sorry, wrong number Group lobbies for provincewide 911 coverage; province has only stretch of Trans-Canada in country without it By Jenny Higgins For The Independent

he first thing Dave Pretty did after driving his car into a ditch to avoid a moose was call 911 on his cellphone. The last thing he expected to hear was “Sorry, wrong number.” But that’s what happened. Pretty was on the Northern Peninsula where there’s no 911 coverage. “The dispatcher at that time asked me where I was, so I told him,” remembers Pretty. “He said ‘Well we can’t do anything out there because of our local dispatch area. Can you call the local police department?’ I asked him if he knew the number and he didn’t.” Fortunately, Pretty had only suffered minor injuries, although his car was a write-off. “I got out of my car and walked up over the embankment and flagged down

a department of highway truck that was going by. They took me over to the hotel in Plum Point.” Pretty says he was shocked to learn that Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t have provincewide 911 coverage. “I was amazed and dismayed that 911 wasn’t coming to my aid because being in St. John’s you’re trained, and we train our children, that in the case of emergencies the first thing you do is call 911. It was very frustrating to know that you are trained to call this number, but you call it and can’t be assisted.” That was five years ago. There’s still no 911 coverage on the Northern Peninsula — or in many other places around the province. Robert Simmons says he’d like to do something about that. Simmons is founder of the 911 Education Group — a privately funded company that works to educate the public of Newfoundland and Labrador

about 911. “Yes it bothers me that we don’t have provincewide 911, but that’s a fact of life,” says Simmons. “What really upsets me is that people are not aware of it and have a completely false sense of security in a number that doesn’t even work. “Over 90 per cent of the public, I would assume about 93 per cent of adults in 911 zones, are under the false impression that 911 is either a province or even a worldwide service. And they’re quite shocked when they find out it isn’t. “Virtually we’re the only province like this. Put it this way — we have the only stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway in Canada without 911 service.” The 911 zones in this province, says Simmons, are the Corner Brook area and the northeast Avalon. Simmons has created a web site at www.911educa-

tion.com that provides a map showing where 911 is available in the province. Visitors to the site can also sign a petition to support a provincewide 911 service. Simmons estimates he’s collected over 30,000 signatures. He plans to one day bring them to the premier. Fred Hollett, the province’s fire commissioner and director of emergency services with the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs, says installing a provincewide 911 service would be difficult and costly. “It’s not cheap, you’re looking at thousands to start it up,” he says. “The major obstacle right now is civic addressing. In rural Newfoundland, civic addressing is virtually nonexistent in a number of areas. You don’t have street names appropriately and then you don’t have numbering.” Hollett also says he hasn’t heard much demand from the public for provincewide coverage.

“The citizens in communities like Conception Bay, Fortune Bay, White Bay, or anywhere in Labrador, they presently know how to reach their emergency services. They know their fire department number, they know the ambulance or clinic or hospital number, they know the police number. It’s a given in those communities today.” Simmons says even if that is the case, what about drivers on the highway, or tourists, or people who haven’t taken the time to memorize three separate emergency numbers? “What I would like to see happen immediately is that the government would put more money into the education efforts to ensure people are not under the false impression that a safety service like 911 is there when it’s not,” he says. “There needs to be more signage on the highways, and at the airports and the ferries … saying you are now in a non-911 area.”

SHIPPING NEWS Keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre. MONDAY, OCT. 10 Vessels arrived: none Vessels departed: Oceanex Avalon, Canada, to Montreal; Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia. TUESDAY, OCT. 11 Vessels arrived: ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Western Patrio, Panama, from Orphan Basin; Anticosti, Canada, from Orphan Basin; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose Oil Filed; Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Canada, from Sea. Vessels departed: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to Terra Nova Oil Field; ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Halifax. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12 Vessels arrived: Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Hibernia; Jim Kilabuk, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk Nascopie, Canada, from Hibernia; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova Oil Field; Maersk Chancellor, Canada, from Terra Nova. Vessels departed: none THURSDAY, OCT. 13 Vessels arrived: Jean Charcot, Great Britain, from Sea; Cabot, Canada, from Montreal; Wilfred Templeman, Canada, from Sea. Vessels departed: Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia; Sir W. Grenfell, Canada, to Sea; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova. FRIDAY, OCT. 14 Vessels arrived: Maroanjoca, Russia, from Greenland; Cabot, Canada from Montreal; Cicero, Canada, from Halifax. Vessels departed: Maersk Chancellor, Canada, to White Rose; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Jim Kilabuis, Canada, to Sea.

‘Muddy water’ From page 3 pirates. There were other routes to piracy than the voluntary ones taken by Easton and Mainwaring. Bartholomew Roberts, later to be known as Black Bart, was a relatively humble ship’s master of a slave ship when his vessel was captured by Howel Davis off Anamaboe on the west coast of Africa in 1718. When he was given the choice to either use his skills to aid the pirates or perish, he naturally chose the former option. He impressed the rest of the crew so much with his seafaring abilities that when Davis himself was killed Roberts found himself elected as captain. Having already steeped his hands “in muddy (bloody) water” he saw no reason to refuse the promotion. Black Bart’s connection to Newfoundland comes in the summer of 1720 when he sailed into Trepassey Harbour with drums beating and trumpets blasting before sinking 26 ships and razing the settlement to the ground. He sailed southwards again with a cargo of dried, salted fish to add to the booty of gold, sugar, and tobacco he had already extracted from Portuguese vessels. The lifestyle, it seems, was highly contagious. Paul Butler is the co-author of Rogues and Heroes (2005, Flanker Press) and author of Easton’s Gold (2005, Brazen Books). He lives in St. John’s.

Liberal MP Scott Brison

Paul Daly/The Independent

Crossing the floor? Local MP says ‘not me’

umours surfaced this week that Loyola Hearn, Conservative MP for St. John’s SouthMount Pearl, may cross the floor to the Liberal party in anticipation of an election call. Hearn denies the rumours as wildly inaccurate. “I have never been approached, I have never been asked, it has never been suggested because people know full well I would never even think of

doing something like that,” he tells The Independent. “Nor will I ever join the party that’s done so much destruction to this country and this province.” Hearn says jumping parties would injure his credibility with his constituents. “People respect you and if you start moving around from party to party and flip flopping then the people don’t have that respect for you and you can’t respect yourself,” he says. “Conseq-

uently, no matter what you do, nobody will pay any attention to you — nor should they.” Liberal MP Scott Brison, a former Conservative who crossed the floor to join the Grits in late 2003, was in town this past week. When asked by The Independent if he knew of any Conservatives planning to cross the floor he said all he could do was speculate. “It’s difficult to say. I know a lot of

Conservative members from the Progressive Conservative Party feel very uncomfortable now,” says Brison, minister of Public Works and Government Services. “They don’t feel comfortable in the new Conservative Party. I know across Canada there’s a lot of former Progressive Conservatives who have in fact joined the Liberal Party. It’s very difficult to predict these things.” — Jenny Higgins

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

‘We must provide hope’ Premier Danny Williams on his first two years in office

s the proud premier of this bountiful province, I am delighted to have an opportunity to share directly with you my thoughts on our first two years in government. While preparing for this column, I reviewed the key commitments section in our 2003 blueprint. And I am very pleased with our progress. We have not always made politically popular decisions and our labour unrest in both springs has been witness to that. But make no mistake, every decision we have taken has been to improve the fiscal, social, economic and psychological well-being of this province. Our government inherited a treasury that was down and out, headed towards bankruptcy. Priority No. 1 was to reverse this situation. We are not there yet; however, we have reduced our accrual deficit from more than $913 million to significantly less than $500 million in just two short years. This was done through a combination of prudent budgets, fiscal management, increased oil revenues, and tough negotiations with the federal government on healthcare funding, equalization and the Atlantic Accord.

DANNY WILLIAMS

Guest column In year one, despite a desperate fiscal situation, we cut income tax for lowincome earners and last year substantially increased the home heating fuel rebate. We have taken a strategic approach to business and developed programs and policies to foster growth for business, including seed funding and venture capital programs. We annually increase tourism funding, in addition to investments for winter tourism marketing. We are investing in and making a commitment to our cultural industries — the heart and soul of Newfoundland and Labrador. We have finally taken control over our natural resources as well, starting with the Atlantic Accord. We are developing an energy plan to guide us into the future — this is especially important given the focus globally on energy supply and demand. We are investing in aquaculture and agriculture, the environment and our

justice system. And we continue to invest in infrastructure that is the foundation of economic success — including roads, capital works and broadband. Our rural secretariat is working with our regional partners in overseeing the revitalization of rural communities. And despite criticism to the contrary, we have focused tremendous attention on the fishery. In an industry facing challenges, we have developed new and innovative strategies to manage our way through these challenges. Our decisions are not always popular, but popularity will not help the fishery. We continue to push for custodial management, while also advocating for change within current systems. We have made significant investments in inland fisheries enforcement to protect salmon stocks from being decimated by poachers. And we are working very hard to attract unprecedented attention to the issue of the prohibitive EU tariff on shrimp. This year we increased health funding to $1.75 billion — a seven per cent increase over last year, including new monies to address wait times and improve diagnostic and treatment procedures. In the area of education, we have

reduced class sizes, created cultural programs and addressed bus safety issues. We have committed $90 million into the post secondary system — including a tuition freeze. These are just some of the things we have accomplished, but we have much left to do. Our strategic goals are longterm but in the short-term we are faced with the challenges of communities in crisis — Stephenville, Fortune, Harbour Breton, Englee and others. Our dedicated, experienced and hard-working team is committed to doing whatever we can to bridge these communities through difficult times and laying the groundwork for a prosperous future. We cannot perform miracles, but we must provide hope. One of the more difficult tasks, I have discovered, is seeing beyond the criticism, the negativity and the various agendas. Precious time that could be used to advance our province is consumed and wasted on dealing with insignificant and unsubstantiated tripe that is meaningless in the big picture. My most fervent desire is to see the day when personal and partisan politics are put aside. When opposition parties and

arm chair critics move beyond the rhetoric, and work to help us accomplish something instead of working to tear down and diminish what we are trying to do. Don’t get me wrong — I believe strongly in the need for healthy opposition, lively debate, and yes, criticism. However, I will never accept the concept of criticism for the sake of criticism. How much more could we achieve if we worked towards common goals in a constructive and positive way, as is the practice in Ireland with proven success. I think the unity and solidarity demonstrated during the Atlantic Accord negotiations is a testament to what we can achieve. I fundamentally believe that the greatest accomplishments are realized when divisions fall and unity stands. Our government will not be deterred from making the tough but smart decisions. In order to achieve great things, great vision is required. In order to affect positive change, firm leadership is essential. Not the kind of leadership that bends to critics, but the kind of leadership that stands up for what we believe in, fights for the greater good and demands respect and hope for the province we all love.

YOUR VOICE Making Pink, White and Green provincial flag would destroy ‘whole concept’ Dear editor, There seems to be a great deal of misinformation concerning the origin of the term “Republic of Newfoundland” in connection with an illconceived campaign to have the Pink, White and Green “native flag” adopted as the official provincial flag. In 1982, I had an idea for a Newfoundland nationalist T-shirt. I designed a logo with the Pink, White and Green surrounded by the words “Republic of Newfoundland.” I chose those words deliberately. My friend David “Snuffy” Jackson owned Harbour City General Store near the War Memorial on Duckworth Street in St. John’s and I took the design to him. He was from Texas but was sensitive to our culture — even spelling “harbour” in his shop’s name with a “u.” Knowledgable of our history, he suggested the words “Dominion of Newfoundland.” I said that dominion would evoke the wrong idea. I knew that Newfoundland was never a republic, although the creator of the flag, R.J. Parsons, said in the early 1850s that Newfoundland might secede from the British Empire if we were not granted

responsible government. I was not trying to suggest a past, but to imagine a future. Anyway, Snuffy agreed to print and sell the design, which we did, quite successfuly. Others copied the logo and later, others took the name “Republic of Newfoundland” and used it with other designs, which usually included the Pink, White and Green. It’s my fault! I invented the term. I tied it to the Pink, White and Green and I designed the original republic T-shirt. I did two lectures to the MUN Folklore Society on the flag around that time and was listed on the promotional poster as the creator of the T-shirt. In fairness to “Snuffy” and the historical record, I want to set down the facts. As for making the Pink, White and Green the flag of Newfoundland as a Canadian province, that would destroy the whole concept. As a symbol, it would be co-opted and 162 years of history rendered meaningless. Newfoundlanders would have to create for themselves another flag. David L. Benson, Tors Cove

Questioning MUN’s suitors Dear editor, Ivan Morgan’s most recent column (Cozy with corporations, Oct. 9-15 edition of The Independent) is refreshing in its topic and gnawing questions about MUN’s relationship with Inco and other corporations it woos. Oh yes, we’ve heard the argument, that MUN and other universities need corporate monies to develop facilities and become competitive. Apart from sounding like a corporate brochure, that argument avoids one detail. OK, maybe two — critical thinking and objectivity. And Morgan outlines this clearly in his column. “Have we spent all these decades building a university only to have it develop a reputation for being easily bought?” he asks.

In Axel Meisen’s regime it is becoming increasingly difficult for faculty to openly express opinions and for students to be heard. It also points to a related issue at our universities. The problem with increasingly market-based education is that by following short-term trends in the economy/workforce, room for pure research and exploration (that need not end in a technological application) is squeezed and even eliminated. Despite a call for generalists with strong analysis and problem-solving skills (abilities borne from pure science and humanity programs), we continue to favour specialized training in areas that are precise and possibly fleeting. Ralph Murphy, 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.

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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

Party invite I

’ve been asked by the Newfoundland and Labrador First Party to speak at a dinner in St. John’s this week, an invitation I’m squeamish about accepting. My spider sense is tingling like crazy — I’m of two minds. As a journalist, I don’t want to be tied (or perceived to be tied) to any political party, especially one with (worse-case scenario) wing nuts perceived to be wing nuts. The Newfoundland and Labrador First Party appeared on the scene a year ago during Danny’s fight with Ottawa. Perfect timing, you would think, for a nationalist party to come into this world — during the height of a patriotic stand against the big bad Canadian wolf (or so the nationalist story goes, and you’ve heard a version or two at this campfire). If such a party couldn’t make a go of it then, it never will, you would think. Leader Tom Hickey is a retired Conservative cabinet minister whose career peaked when cucumbers were all the rage in Mount Pearl. He is the caretaker of an unofficial ragtag party limping its way towards the next federal election. With luck, the party may actually run a few candidates, although their chances of winning one of the province’s seven federal seats, at this point, are about as remote as Ray O’Neill’s chances earlier this month of defeating Andy Wells. And for pretty much the same reasons: wacko quotient and scare factor (there’s that nasty perception again). New parties are known to attract the fringe element of established parties — their castoffs, in other words. The Newfoundland and Labrador First Party hasn’t managed to draw any credible candidates to speak of, and its antiConfederation tone scares people off. No hiding it: there are some who are wary of The Independent for the same reason. Our brand of journalism has been criticized as being unbalanced and biased (our sin is having a Newfoundland and Labrador focus) and agenda driven — the agenda being separation. That’s not true, in case it wasn’t clear before. To use the tried and tested cliché: we

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander don’t want out of Confederation, we want in. Our marriage has serious problems, but — as with any relationship — there are two sides to every fight. For as much as we bitch and complain about how the Government of Canada treats us, we’re just as bad. Our trail of ill-conceived, irresponsible, idiotic ideas — not to mention, in more recent times, incredible apathy — goes back at least a hundred or so years longer than the 56 years Canada has stuck it to us. Confederation hasn’t been all bad. Canada isn’t to blame for all that ails us. (A sizable portion, mind you, but certainly not all.) My favourite example is the sea. The cod fisheries died in the early 1990s and Ottawa has barely lifted a finger to revive them. But then we’ve barely raised our voices to demand more be done. When was the last time you saw a demonstration in the streets against foreign overfishing on the Grand Banks? Back when John Efford was a b’y, most likely. When was the last time you saw any protest whatsoever outside a picket line? Every now and then an outport like Harbour Breton screams to save its life but the cries fade with a fresh hit of make-work or EI top-up. Outports like Burgeo always find a way to make do. This fall alone former mayor Allister Hann (he stepped down in September to let the “younger ones” have a turn) expects 300 of the south coast town’s 1,700 residents to travel to northern Alberta for work on the oil fields. He estimates another 50 or so older married couples worked in fish plants across the Maritimes this past summer to gather enough stamps for winter. The few fishermen left in the Burgeo area can’t make a go of it with a 10,000pound cod quota when fish sells for 40

cents a pound at the wharf. The Burgeo fish plant closed in 1992 and outside a failed attempt years ago to reopen it under a new operator, nothing has been done. Outside occasional calls for more quota, more science, better management — little pressure has been applied to the open wound that is the fishery. The biggest public gatherings in Burgeo these days take place when the Alberta recruiter comes to town. Joey Smallwood is known (although the quote has never been produced) for telling fishermen to burn their boats. Danny Williams may just as well be saying “let your boats rot” for all he has done to turn the fishery around. Two years into his mandate, the fishery is in worse shape than when the Williams’ administration found it. As the fishery goes, so go the outports. Newfoundland and Labrador cannot get by on jobs in St. John’s alone — a message that’s apparently hard to get through a Townie’s head. No question, Danny is as good a leader as we’ve ever had, but until he embraces the fishery as the ultimate salvation of this place — and takes steps to ensure it some day rebounds — he will never truly succeed in securing our future. Two suggestions for Danny: A) demand Ottawa recall all quotas held by fish companies for species such as cod that are under moratoria, and hand them over to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador; B) implement your own cod recovery plan (13 years after the collapse) and see that Ottawa follows it through. Don’t wait for the feds, do it yourself. As for the invitation by the Newfoundland and Labrador First Party to speak at their dinner, I don’t see any difference between that party and mainstream ones in terms of objective. But radical change isn’t the answer, not now — that will be my message. It’s one thing to believe in a new Newfoundland and Labrador, and to raise a flag that says that, quite another to write Confederation off. Ryan Cleary is managing editor of The Independeent. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

A job for John Efford I

t has become something of a sport amongst Newfoundland columnists to take the piss out of John Efford. Why? Because he lost the leadership of the provincial Liberals by a hair and then failed to heal the rift in his party caused by that struggle. Because even though his subsequent triumphant coronation as federal MP set him up as the obvious political minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, as it turned out he really dropped the ball. It was a new opportunity for him on the national stage, and it looked like he was going to show his detractors what they had missed by denying him the premiership. But it didn’t turn out that way. Now it is the autumn of Efford’s political career. I hope he doesn’t retire from public life. In fact, I even have a retirement suggestion for him. I am well aware of how presumptuous this is — but that’s what I do. Here’s what I would like to see Mr. Efford do next. John Efford has diabetes. He has never been a poster boy for the condition, but he has from time to time commented publicly on his health challenges. It occurred to me that Mr. Efford will soon be in the perfect position to take up a challenge that would require all the skills he has developed over his political life. Mr. Efford should use his stature and reputation to join the fight

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & reason to make diabetic supplies free for all diabetics. A person with diabetes looks at spending thousands of dollars a year on supplies to keep themselves alive. Parents of diabetic children face spending the same amount to keep their own children alive. I could drown you in statistics and costs, but suffice it to say that the costs are prohibitive, punitive and place a wildly unfair burden on the person who has it, or who’s children have it. This is especially true for what is euphemistically called “the working poor” — which, gentle reader, is you and me. The control of diabetes (insulin is a control, not a cure) has been around for decades. There have been many “improvements” along the way — each a little more expensive, adding to the cost of controlling the disease. These costs have forced many people with diabetes to “cut corners” to “save money” at the expense of their health. This is ridiculous. People receiving social assistance get their supplies free, forcing some people living with diabetes into the situation where it is

cheaper not to work. That is also ridiculous. In New Brunswick, the government (a Conservative administration, I might add) has recognized the problem, and officials have announced they will be making supplies for the control of diabetes free for everyone there who needs them. Good for them. It never ceases to amaze me how adaptive people are. Diabetics, and the parents of children with diabetes, are forced to adapt to a lifetime of unrelenting carbohydrate counting, testing, injecting insulin and watching the clock. These people walk a health tightrope not many of the rest of us can understand — or would care to. John Efford knows exactly what I am talking about. To add a crushing financial burden to this is wrong. This problem needs fixing now. I honestly think John Efford can do it. Surely this must be a cause close to his heart. He might just be the right person to influence public opinion, pressure politicians and generate that critical mass of energy necessary to

finally erase the financial burden that persons with diabetes are forced, through no choice of their own, to carry. What about it, Mr. Efford? I want to see you dare health ministers and financial ministers to publicly declare we “can’t afford” to offer free treatment and insulin pumps to children

facing four needles a day for the rest of their lives. I want you to use your stature as a former federal cabinet minister to show Canadians how some diabetics risk their health because they can’t afford blood sugar test strips. You sure as hell have been on the receiving end of withering public criticism. Come over to our side and use it to achieve results — it’s a lot more fun, and it works! You spoke of the troubles your diabetes has caused you professionally — and you didn’t have to consider the cost. No one should. I am sure that Canadians are ready to absorb the costs. In fact, they aren’t even costs so much as investments Canadians should have been making for decades, and I feel confident they can be convinced to begin making now. I have been watching your career for years, and you have always struck me as a man looking for a legacy. Maybe this is it. Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

YOUR VOICE ‘Sold down the drain again’ Dear editor, The Portuguese-Canada MOU signed in Halifax recently must not be implemented unless and until the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and the fishermen and the fishing interests in this province are fully informed of all the details contained in it. As it stands, it’s nothing more or less than a lot of gobbledygook put together by the prime minister’s office to enable the present Liberal government to get past the date of another federal election without having to confront the real economic and social problems facing our rural communities. Anyone who doesn’t see and understand that is naive to the nth degree. Portugal, like all nations fishing outside 200 miles, is faced with a serious problem. Catch rates are down to low levels because of the overfishing tactics of NAFO members since 1977 when the 200-mile zone was declared. Now they are faced with ever increas-

ing costs of operating their fleets 3,000 to 5,000 miles from home and financial subsidies by home states are insufficient — therefore owners are losing money. Portugal has turned to Canada to find a way to overcome this problem and as a result any hope of rebuilding the overfished resources of the Grand Banks will be scuttled by Prime Minister Paul Martin and his officials. By trans-shipping and being supplied with goods and services from Newfoundland ports they will reduce their costs and will continue to fish all those species that need rebuilding. In other words, the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is being sold down the drain again by Ottawa, but this time with the assistance of Premier Danny Williams and Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor and any other members of cabinet who are aware of this atrocity. When will we ever learn? Gus Etchegary, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s

A new bread containing Omega-3 fatty acids derived from seal oils was launched last week at Auntie Crae’s on Water Street in downtown St. John’s. The multi-grain bread was developed by the store’s bakers, who used Omega-3 products developed by Dr. Cosmas Oh. Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor was on hand to tout the benefits of Omega-3 and tasted a slice. Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Stop the flag debate now’

Taylor evaluates himself

Dear editor, Enough already! I am tiring of flag debates. I was born in 1942 (which should qualify me as a bit of an ancient) in St. John’s and I’ve spent about 15 years of my life there at different times — as a child and as an adult. For most of the rest of my life (except for an unfortunate year in Ontario) I have lived beyond the overpass. Until recently I knew nothing of the Pink, White and Green flag. Why do we now want to resurrect some mythology from the misty past? The proponents of this flag can’t even agree on how it should be flown, for God’s sake! I have lived through the Commonwealth loyalists arguing that the Union Jack — or at least the ensign — should be Newfoundland’s flag. I have lived through Pearson’s flag debate and heard ex-PM Diefenbaker referring to our now-revered Canadian flag as a “blood-stained snotrag.” I have lived through a recent premier (can’t remember who) commission a Newfoundlander (one of Canada’s most respected artists) to design a flag that contains important symbols of Newfoundland’s past.

Dear editor, I am writing in response to an article in last week’s issue (Only just started, by Clare-Marie Gosse) into the status of this government’s progress in meeting its Blue Book commitments. I was disappointed in the conclusions drawn by the paper with regards to our commitments on the fishery. Unfortunately, none of the information provided to your paper in regards to the fishery actually made it into the article, so I appreciate the opportunity to provide this information directly to your readers. During the 2003 election campaign, we promised to aggressively pursue the establishment of a joint management regime with the federal government. With the implementation of the Dunne report, which focuses on improvements to the processing sector, we are demonstrating to the federal government that we are ready to take on joint management. We continue to aggressively press the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on issues of concern in relation to fisheries management and we are pushing for a greater say in how our fisheries are managed. As a result of our improved relations with Ottawa since taking office, we

What is wrong with this flag? It is now nationally (and perhaps internationally) recognized as the flag of Newfoundland. Why do we want to replace it with the Pink, White and Green? Or is it the green, white and pink? What does it symbolize that is so much better than our formally recognized flag? My understanding is that some Catholic bishop in our distant past tried to stave off religious animosity (God bless him!) by erecting a white snowbank between the Irish green and the British red. But why pink? Is this some acknowledgement that we have gay bars on George Street? What the hell does pink symbolize? And I don’t even want to get into Labrador’s green, white and blue, with its fir twig in the corner. Aren’t we splintered enough already? Let’s just keep the keep the flag we’ve already anguished over. My God, it even recognizes our aboriginals — something that none of the others do. Why do we have to irrationally emote over a piece of cloth? Enough already! Stop the flag debate now! Roy Babstock, Eastport

have seen an increase in the aircraft and vessel surveillance outside the 200mile limit and a subsequent marked reduction in overfishing.

While it is our job to advocate for joint management inside the 200-mile limit and improved fisheries management outside the 200-mile limit, it is the federal government’s job to deliver. Trevor Taylor Early on in our mandate, we recommended to the federal government that a new framework be developed to allow Canada to implement custodial management of straddling stocks in the northwest Atlantic.

Prior to the latest meeting of NAFO countries in September, I wrote federal Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan saying that unless significant movement is made, an alternative custodial management model must be formed. As a result of a subsequent joint proposal from Canada and the European Union at that meeting, a special working group has been established to bring forward amendments to the NAFO convention to achieve reform. At the same time, the recent report of the Advisory Panel on the Sustainable Management of Straddling Fish Stocks in the Northwest Atlantic concluded that custodial management to straddling stocks is not possible without advances in international law, but that a new Regional Fisheries Management Organization would be more easily attainable and could achieve the same goals and objectives. While it is our job to advocate for joint management inside the 200-mile limit and improved fisheries management outside the 200-mile limit, it is the federal government’s job to deliver. Trevor Taylor, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture

OCTOBER 16, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘It is inhumane’

Province may have tough time implementing immigration strategy; few numbers available

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

he provincial government is likely to have a tough time on its hands developing its new immigration strategy. Not only is it impossible to pin down accurate immigration and refugee statistics by province (due to the fact the federal government doesn’t record the movements of landed immigrants once their visas are approved), but the lack of federal immigration representation in Newfoundland and Labrador is causing skilled, established refugees to be sent packing. Last week the department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment wrapped up its provincial immigration consultations in St. John’s. The meetings were a means to gather information from immigration stakeholders before the development of a strategy over the next three years, which would be designed to help attract foreign newcomers. Donna Jeffrey, executive director of the Refugee Immigrant Advisory Council in St. John’s, was one of the people invited to attend. She says the province needs to solve the problem of a lack of work facing skilled immigrants to Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the issue of keeping the many valuable, employed refugees the province already has. “Here I was at a meeting, this morning, to bring in skilled immigrants,” she tells The Independent. “Well we already

have them here and we’re sending them back. “We’ve had people here for seven years and sent back … it is inhumane, absolutely.” In recent editions, The Independent has outlined cases of refugees and their families who have recently been deported or face deportation back to hostile situations in their own countries. Aside from the issues many of these people face upon their return, equally as traumatic is the forced removal from an established life in the province. Although refugees throughout Canada face the same regulations (unable to legally work until they have been accepted, which can take up to seven years and means, in many cases, living on welfare in the interim), Jeffrey says Newfoundland and Labrador refugees face a particularly tough time. “We’ve been short changed here in Newfoundland for federal civil servants,” she says. “They’re just not here. Halifax is crawling with them … they have the monopoly. This is not right.” Jeffrey says Citizenship and Immigration Canada has a small office in St. John’s with a bulk of staff dedicated to border control, a manager who specializes in human resources as opposed to immigration, and absolutely “no clout. “The people that make the decisions, that return our people that are skilled, are in Halifax. Now, Halifax couldn’t care less — and I speak as a former Haligonian — about our jobs, why

Brothers Bol and Agout Gon attend daycare at the English-as-a-second language school in St. John’s while their father attends classes. Bol and Agout — as well as their two other brothers, mother and father — are from Sudan. Paul Daly/The Independent

should they? So then it’s our province that should stand up and say, just a minute.” In developing a new immigration strategy, the province may have to take note of the local situation facing refugees. Jacquelyn Howard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment, says the province currently has zero control over who stays and who gets deported, but it’s an issue they are trying to tackle. “The minister (Joan Burke) has writ-

ten her federal colleagues to let them know that we are working on developing an immigration strategy right now and that there are particular cases here in the province that we have no control over; just to bring it to his (Immigration Minister Joe Volpe’s) attention … it’s an issue that may need to be addressed at some point, but that’s really all we can do at this stage of the game.” Later this month the federal government is expected to reveal an immigration strategy of its own, which will potentially allow up to 320,000 immigrants into Canada each year, an increase

of 100,000 over current levels. Experts have voiced concerns, however, saying the plan will fail if the government doesn’t also offer a support strategy by allocating more money and flexibility to agencies helping to establish foreign newcomers. As it is, statistics suggest only four of 10 immigrants have found work to match their skill levels. A recent article published in the Toronto Star stated Toronto has the best educated taxi drivers in the country. Ontario also has the highest immigration numbers in Canada. According to federal immigration statistics, Ontario had 125,110 accepted permanent residence applications in 2004 out of 235,824 across the country. Newfoundland and Labrador had 579. Pinning down provincial numbers for refugees within Canada is less easy. The Immigration and Refugee Board doesn’t release localized refugee claimant statistics, but out of the 32,686 refugees accepted to Canada in 2004, roughly 150 were in the Maritime Provinces (an acceptance rate of 55 per cent of all applications processed there). With limited regional statistics, it’s impossible to record how many stay in their chosen province and how many move, although a spokeswoman with the Association for New Canadians in St. John’s says recently more newcomers seem to be remaining in Newfoundland and Labrador than have stayed in past years.

YOUR VOICE Do Tories reward or punish independent thinking?

Fabian Manning

Dear editor, Your paper promotes, encourages and celebrates independent thinking. Such thinking shapes societies and changes our world. It is most often highly regarded and well respected. It is often against the grain and requires courage. As the Progressive Conservatives wrap up their mid-term convention in St. John’s, I hope the party reconsiders how they let

their caucus leaders treat an independent-thinking MHA. Fabian Manning had the guts to stand up for his constituents and ask his government to reconsider its fisheries plan approach. He paid a heavy price for his independent thinking, and in my opinion, that was wrong. Real leadership and a real team approach should be secure enough to encourage independent think-

ing. Real leadership would see that the fisheries plan crippled the sector this year and proceeding without the promised consultations was not the wisest strategy. Real leadership would lead the charge to have the caucus welcome back a long-time member of the Tory team. Independent thinking has its place in your paper and our society. Your paper nurtures and sup-

ports it. Just look at your regular and guest columnists and their variety of ideas. For me, what’s left to consider is the question of how independent thinking is supported, nurtured and encouraged in the governing party of this province. Is it rewarded or is it punished? Ralph Critch Mall Bay, St. Mary’s Bay

The Pink, White and Green: ‘who we are and where we’re going’ Dear editor, In his guest column, Selling ourselves as Newfoundlanders (Oct. 2-8 edition of The Independent) David Watts, an editor with The Times of London, writes concerning evidence of a renewed confidence: “… a good place to start would be a decision on a

new flag: it’s only symbolic but symbols are important talismans.” No truer words were ever spoken! Our legislated Newfoundland flag — however appropriate or inappropriate in design — is a provincial flag and, as such, a reminder of the failed hopes and dreams of Confederation. It

would be foolish to argue that this misbegotten union brought no material benefits. Sadly, however, for nigh on 60 years we’ve watched the tide go out, sucking with it not only the resources of this land, human and otherwise, but also the spirit of the people, demoralized by an enforced state of

dependency, and left to stand helplessly impotent while watching “their future disappear over the horizon instead of coming towards them.” Symbolic of this reality is not the golden arrow of Pratt’s idealistic imagination, but the endless streak of UHauls heading west towards the gulf ferry. Foremost in this progression of misfortunes has been the emptying, through selfish indifference and mindless incompetence, of the once abundant sea that washed our shores, nurturing it and insuring the survival of almost every species of its creeping, walking or flying inhabitants. This is a tragedy of such enormity that it staggers the imagination, but not the stubbornness of the guilty, the federal mandarins, who, even today, while refusing to acknowledge their complicity, continue to rationalize their unwillingness or inability to act to halt

Road to CONFEDERATION AN ONGOING SERIES

Will return next week

the plundering of what little remains of this priceless gift we brought to them in 1949. “But times they are a changing.” The tide is on the turn. A new spirit of reawakening is brooding over this land, a recognition at last that enough is enough. This does not necessarily have to mean a repudiation of Confederation, but rather an affirmation of who we are, of our history, our culture and of our right to self-determination and to respect. It’s a matter of life or death, a matter of survival, for at the moment, we are on the road to cultural, social and economic obliteration. If we didn’t have the old Pink, White and Green there would be a need to invent something new, for, certainly, what we are flying now does not evoke any of the emotions of this resurrection. With due respect to Christopher Pratt and Brian Peckford, their flag is no longer relevant except to a past that we would be better off leaving behind. The unfurling of the Pink, White and Green is not so much about who we were and where we came from, as about who we are and where we are going. Lloyd C. Rees, Conception Bay South

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

Ocean Industries Week OCTOBER 16-22, 2005

vast expanse of ocean has shaped the way we live and play, the way we think and the way we do business. It has encouraged us to develop ideas and innovations and establish St. John’s as a Centre of Ocean Excellence. Join us as we celebrate the 3rd Annual Ocean Industries Week. Newfoundland and Labrador’s tremendous range of expertise in all areas concerning the ocean will be highlighted in a series of special networking events and seminars. Attend the Ocean Technology Speaker Series and learn about Canada’s future in ocean renewable energy. Visit the NRC Institute for Ocean Technology as it celebrates its 20th Anniversary. The Institute is home to the world’s longest Ice Tank, a unique indoor model ocean, and a 200-metre Towing Tank. These and other facilities have been used to perfect the design of ships, drilling platforms, and even America’s Cup yachts over the last 20 years. Mayor Andy Wells will officially proclaim Ocean Industries Week in Council Chambers on Monday, October 16th. The City of St. John’s wishes to thank Oceans Advance, the NRC Institute for Ocean Technology and the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Monday

Official Proclamation of Ocean Industries Week (During regular weekly meeting of council) Council Chambers, St. John’s City Hall, 4:30 pm Viewing gallery is open to the public

Tuesday

Ocean Technology Speaker Series with feature presentation “An emerging focus on Ocean Renewable Energy for Canada” Speaker: Dr. Chris Campbell, Ocean Renewable Energy Group City of St. John’s in association with Oceans Advance and Memorial University of Newfoundland Atlantic Room, NRC Institute for Ocean Technology, 8:30 am Registration required. Tel: 709-576-8394 or email: business@stjohns.ca

Wednesday

Mapping The Way Forward For Development of the Canadian Ocean Energy Sector Ocean Renewable Energy Group Symposium 2005 Hosted at the NRC Institute for Ocean Technology For registration and other information: www.oreg.ca

Thursday

Friday

Open House: NRC Institute for Ocean Technology Arctic Avenue, MUN Campus, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Public tours available at the top of each hour Interesting displays from companies and researchers School groups and other large groups should call ahead to Tel: 709-772-6001

Economic Development St. John’s Economic Development, Tourism and Culture City of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Tel: 709-576-8394 Fax: 709-576-8300 Email: business@stjohns.ca Web: www.stjohns.ca

OCTOBER 16, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

LIFE STORY

Passionate Newfoundlander MICHAEL HARRINGTON 1916-1999 FROM THE BAY “One young island hunter discovered, to his surprise, that his prey (one very small innocent snowbird) had flown all the way to Fogo Island from Denmark before he met his doom. A sad welcome for any foreigner.” — Fogo Islander, May, 1972 YEARS PAST “The population of the colony of Newfoundland by an accurate census taken in 1837 amounts to 75,094 — of these 37,376 are Roman Catholics, 26,748 of the Established Church and 10,636 Dissenters. The population is spread over a line of coast extending from Cape St. John southward to Cape Ray.” — The Carbonear Sentinel, March 3, 1840 AROUND THE WORLD “Twenty three deaths from cholera have occurred in western France during the last fortnight, out of 40 cases.” — The Daily Tribune, June 2, 1893 EDITORIAL STAND “Much that occurs in the city (St. John’s) is of no interest in the outports, and few men have either the time or inclination to wade through the columns of six, or maybe twelve dailies at one sitting. What they require is the news in a digested and spicy form.” — The first editorial for the Weekly News, Feb. 15, 1894 LETTER TO THE EDITOR “Many times I have felt like giving a piece of my mind but never have until now. What do you take the people of Arnold’s Cove as — complete fools? Do you expect us to go to council office, pay $20 Municipal Service Fee and not even question the $10 per annum fee? Where are the added benefits that usually occur when an increase of this amount arises? I still only see garbage collection once a week; no added street lights; no extra upgrading of this town.” Signed Concerned Taxpayers. — The Cove, from Arnold’s Cove, May 29, 1974. QUOTE OF THE WEEK “‘Can the seal shed tears?’ Sir Richard Webster — speaking before the Behring Sea Court of Arbitration (in London, England) last week of cruelty practiced by the United States sealers — declared that they ‘can and do.’” — The Daily Tribune, June 2, 1893.

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

ichael Harrington was one of the few who examined Newfoundland’s place in Canada before it was popular to do so. An historian, journalist, and anticonfederate, during his life Harrington was a fan of the opera, a devoted husband and father and — more than anything — a passionate Newfoundlander. Michael Harrington Jr., a lawyer in St. John’s, says his father found a happy balance between father and journalist. And despite his passionate anti-confederate stance, Harrington was never angry that four of his five children moved to mainland Canada to work in journalism. “My father was very passionate about Newfoundland, but other than that he was a pretty calm, reserved man. He was very passionate about Newfoundland’s place, but he was also very passionate about the need to preserve Newfoundland’s history,” Harrington Jr. tells The Independent. Harrington died of Alzheimer’s in 1999 at the age of 82. “I think it was a particularly poignant one (disease) for my father who had such a treasure trove of knowledge of Newfoundland history in his head, but he had a good life,” Harrington Jr. says. Married to Katherine, a mezzo soprano, for more than 50 years, the couple were outgoing, travellers and an inseparable pair in a large circle of friends. The two, both huge opera fans, travelled the world together and visited every major opera house, Harrington Jr. says, adding he would have thought his father’s favourite place was Austria. Every Saturday afternoon the family would sit around and listen to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio, Harrington’s son explains. “As young children we didn’t have much choice … especially in the winter,” he says. “We had lots of music in the house growing up and that was all because of our parents.”

Harrington ended up working a variety of jobs to support his family, his son says, including teaching English at Memorial, freelance journalism and writing articles for yearbooks. “He had really an active career as a broadcaster and probably is well known for his work as a broadcaster as (Joey Smallwood’s successor) The Barrelman, but also the as the writer for many scripts for the Newfoundland schools’ broadcast.”

But it was his history columns like The Sea Stories of Newfoundland and Offbeat History as managing editor of The Evening Telegram that Harrington Jr. knows are still in people’s homes across the province. “They considered that a history book of Newfoundland maritime history and that’s not just one or two people that’s many and so there were so many faithful readers of that column … but also they preserved it,” he says. Harrington always had an interest in law, but could never afford the education, his son says.

“He didn’t have the resources to go to law school and before he got married and raised a family he was preoccupied with supporting his mother and the rest of his family because his father died at a very early age.” It was Harrington’s work on the Newfoundland National Convention — both as a delegate to the convention that helped decide Newfoundland’s fate after commission government, and later compiling a book of transcripts — that monopolized years of his life. But Harrington’s anti-confederate stance may not have been what it appeared to be, Harrington Jr. says of his father’s politics. “They really forget … those that believed in the transition from commission of government to self government that it would — my father always said — that Newfoundland would be in a stronger position to negotiate terms of union or any other opportunity,” Harrington says, adding his father recognized there were many benefits to joining Canada but there needed to be strong negotiations for the future of fisheries and resources. While working on two volumes called the Newfoundland National Convention 1946 to 1948, Harrington rehashed what he’d lived as a young member of the convention. James Hiller, co-author of the book, says there were many times when he was ready to throw in the towel on the whole project, but Harrington kept editing debates and reports generated by the convention. “He was very persistent about that and put a lot of his time into it. It was a very important time of his life,” Hiller says. As editor of The Evening Telegram, Hiller says Harrington gave space to writers who were critical of Smallwood, as well as others in favour of immediate Confederation. “I think he cared deeply for Newfoundland which he considered to be his sort of country and he obviously felt that something had gone wrong,” Hiller says. “I can remember the day after the moratorium was imposed he stuck his head round my office door and said we couldn’t have done any worse if we were on our own.”

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16-22, 2005 — PAGE 11

Stephen Harper at Cape Spear.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Dear Mr. Harper: You need to get out more By Chantal Hebert Torstar wire service Conservative leader Stephen Harper visits St. John’s this weekend as a guest speaker at the 55th annual convention of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador at the Delta hotel Oct. 14-16. An open letter to Stephen Harper: The House of Commons has been back a fortnight and there has not been a day when I have not wondered why a man of your intelligence would insist on taking on an unbeatable force. I am not referring here to your upcoming battle against the Liberals. Like most Parliament Hill watchers, I am convinced they are beatable. After four consecutive mandates, what governing party would not be? But you must feel otherwise. How else to explain that you waste time on a quixotic battle against the windmills of the national media when you could put the energy to

good use blowing the Liberals out of the policy waters? Mike Harris, Jean Charest, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien all came from behind to win elections. But none of them sulked their way to a victorious campaign. Even at this late stage, there are pages out of each of their books that you could borrow. Harris and Charest both bridged a serious credibility gap by unveiling their platforms months before a general election. The alternative, frankly, is to have the Liberals beat you to the campaign punch in their pre-election budget. Chances are, that is precisely what they will do to your tax-cut plan. In 1984, Mulroney could not have won Ontario without the open support of premier Bill Davis. You, too, need to make inroads on the Tory side of the Conservative family. The Ontario Conservatives have in John Tory a credible leader who just happens to have the roots you lack. Why is it that we don’t see the two of you together more often? If you think you are getting poor media coverage, you should pull out Chrétien’s

post-Meech Quebec clippings. Six months into the 1993 election, he was widely considered a Liberal albatross. In the midst of Kim Campbell-mania, Chrétien took the bull by the horns, taking the media on buses for a pre-campaign tour of francophone Quebec. His performance that weekend did not move the Liberal poll numbers but it changed the media optics for the better. Much as you dislike spending time in close quarters with the national media, a preelection tour of Ontario might just be the ticket to overcome your aversion before boarding that dreaded campaign plane for a full month. As a bilingual commentator, I visit my share of studios in Quebec and I can no longer keep score of the number of field producers who have complained about how hard it is to get you on the air. Quebecers may not have a natural penchant for Conservative policies but they have always respected those who fight for their ideas. It is time to stop shopping for a

Quebec proxy and to get into the fray — and I don’t mean scooping ice cream in a Montreal suburb. It is also time to get out of the Commons. The House may generally be the best stage for the opposition but it is ultimately ill-suited to showcasing your strengths as a future prime minister. The adversarial nature of the exchanges is not just conducive to a positive image. If you have to be in the House, leave the muck-raking to your rat pack. Given the events of the past year, Canadians don’t need to be convinced that the Liberals are fallible on ethics. But they do need to be shown that you are ready for prime time. Get on the road and take the parliamentary press with you. If you only hang around people who are convinced you will become prime minister, you will soon have no social life. And, finally, forget the death wish of a Christmas election. You need a resurrection and, even for one equipped with supernatural powers, it is a miracle that has been shown to take time to accomplish.

Call for accountability An election is the best way to make Grits answer for AdScam

ustice John Gomery’s final report on the sponsorship scandal is expected to be finished and presented to government on Feb. 1 next year. Thus an election call is not likely, if Prime Minister Paul Martin keeps his commitment, until March 2006. An election is certainly imperative to ensure the Martin administration takes the report seriously. The most important mandate of Gomery is to make recommendations that will prevent mismanagement of government sponsorship and advertising activities — and to give his views on whether proper standards of respon-

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon sibility, answerability, accountability and transparency are in place. The question is, has the PM now acquired such power in our system that those who should be accountable and answerable will no longer risk advising against or reporting improper actions they come across if they believe these actions were taken or carried out at the will of the prime minister?

At their summer caucus meeting in Regina, the Liberals made it clear they believe they can handle the consequences of Gomery’s report and win again. They argue Canadians are fed up with the instability of minority government and will hand them a majority to end it. Martin’s Quebec lieutenant, Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, in fact said he was “not afraid” of Gomery’s report. His view is that the inquiry is “not daily conversation anymore and in Quebec it is like the end of a TV season ... we’re just waiting for the fall now.” He said he had detected a change in mood among Quebecers

towards the Liberals and joked that he could now visit Quebec without being booed and hadn’t heard the word “Gomery” all summer. There seems increasing evidence that neither ministers nor deputy ministers nor most anyone else in the present government can be held accountable, and the government, through the prime minister’s office, has fought tooth and nail against becoming more open or transparent. (Witness their battle against Information Commissioner John Reid.) Senior Liberal ministers argue the minority parliament has produced partisan bickering and day-to-day threats to

See “system has lost,” page 13

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topple the government and that Canadians should vote Liberal to end this. They seem to feel it is unpatriotic for opposition members to question or to try to topple the government — which, of course, is the very reason why we permit opposition parties and members to be elected in our system. Liberal comments like these clearly show they have learned nothing from AdScam. If left in office, how can they be trusted to implement Gomery’s recommendations? The Machiavellian Martinites of the PMO realize they can run Canada as a

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OCTOBER 16, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

‘Beyond the headlines’

Homicides, jobless rate linked; keeping youths active key to cutting violent crime

By Gabe Gonda Torstar wire service

t was the question this summer: why are so many young men being gunned down on Toronto’s streets? The answer is simple, if you look at an annual report on the city’s socioeconomic health released recently. Gun violence has risen on a dark cloud of youth unemployment and inactivity, say the authors of Vital Signs 2005. “Look beyond the headlines,” says Anne Swarbrick, president of the Toronto Community Foundation, a

charitable organization that produces the annual survey of the city’s economic, environmental, educational, social and cultural health. “If we really want to reduce crime, we need to look at some of those causal factors.” The report — based on a wide range of previously published data — shows that while the city’s overall crime rate continued to fall in 2004, people between the ages of 18 and 24 were increasingly the victims and perpetrators of violent crime. At the same time, the youth unemployment rate also ballooned, rising last year to a 10-year high — 17 per

cent — more than double the citywide average. Overall, Toronto’s jobless rate fell in 2004, to 8.4 per cent from 8.7 per cent a year earlier. The report also notes that in 2004, only 9 per cent of participants in city recreation programs were older than 12. “In fact,” it goes on, “studies show a dramatic drop in all forms of recreational activity by youth after the age of 12.” That story — fewer jobs, less recreational activity, more violence — is familiar to officials in Mayor David Miller’s office, who’ve been working for two years on the Community

Safety Plan. It’s a strategy that seeks to help crime-riddled, low-income neighbourhoods through a combination of tougher law enforcement and increased investment in social infrastructure. “We’re getting the same message from every quarter,” says Miller spokesman Patchen Barss. “We know what to do on the prevention side: provide jobs, job training and education for young people.” Miller has urged companies to hire young people from hard-hit neighbourhoods like Jane-Finch and Lawrence Heights, and continues to

It’s about time.

advocate for investment in community programming. The Vital Signs report offers a mixed bag of successes and failures. Troubling news on the environment is offset somewhat by a rise in transit use. While smog alerts keep rising 35,000 more people took public transit in 2004 than in 2003. While the gap between rich and poor widens, the number of new businesses investing in the city shot way up last year, from $4.9 million in 2003 — the year of the SARS outbreak — to a robust $43 million in 2004. All of that cash flowed into Toronto as the needs of some of the city’s most vulnerable children continued to go unmet. In the last year, an estimated 6,000 elementary students went on waiting lists for special education. And while 84 per cent of public schools had students whose first language is not English, only 57 per cent offered English-language classes. The Toronto Community Foundation also works on solutions to the policy problems highlighted in the report, helping families set up endowment funds and linking philanthropists with local charities. The point of releasing a survey as sweeping as Vital Signs, Swarbrick says, is to show people that the problems it points out are linked. “Is it worth saving dollars by cutting recreation programs, as governments have been doing, to end up having to later spend more on policing and the justice system?”

We’re not as nice as we think By Bill Taylor Torstar wire service

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ow do you get 50 Canadians out of a swimming pool? “Everybody out of the pool, please .....” Don’t you believe it. And don’t believe, either, that the only time Canadians get really obstreperous is when someone dares suggest we’re just like Americans. It turns out we are just like Americans! While the typical Canadian believes that the typical Canadian is submissive and the typical American believes the typical American is assertive, a new study — done by Americans so it surely must be right, mustn’t it? — shows there’s very little difference in our personalities. The National Institute on Aging, based in Bethesda, Md., asked 4,000 people in 49 countries to describe a typical member of their own culture. Researchers then compared the answers with independent scientific assessments. According to the Profiles of Culture project, published in the prestigious journal Science, they were almost always wrong. Perception rarely lived up to reality. “People should understand that we are all prone to these kinds of preconceptions and likely to believe that they are justified in our experience,” says project leader Robert McCrae. “In fact, they are often unfounded stereotypes.” Unfounded or not, they can quickly take on a life of their own; “cultural phenomena, transmitted through media, hearsay, education, history and jokes,” the study says. “However, national character also has a much darker side. When stereotypes of national or ethnic groups are unfavourable, they can lead to prejudice, discrimination or persecution.” Social scientists have long been skeptical about the accuracy of national stereotypes but this may be the first comprehensive study to show that they were right. Still, the report says, self-perception may not tell us much about the people themselves but it does say something about their culture. In another example of national selfunawareness, people in India see themselves as unconventional “and open to a wide range of new experiences.” The reality: “More conventional than people elsewhere in the world.” Swiss of German origin describe themselves as “high in conscientiousness.” Indonesians do not. In fact, says the study, Indonesians are every bit as conscientious. Australia is one of the few nations that seems to have a handle on itself — extrovert. Canadians can describe themselves as “pleasant” until they’re a pleasant shade of blue in the face. But the study reveals that North Americans as a whole — us and them — are, in fact, a little above the world average in assertiveness. So, yes, people in other countries probably do complain about pushy Canadian tourists. Now might be a good time to take the Maple Leaf off your backpack. And get back in the swimming pool.

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

Chrétien undaunted by Gomery: sources

VOICE FROMAWAY

OTTAWA By Les Whittington Torstar wire service

Newfoundland pony.

Paul Daly/The Independent

In the blood

Mount Pearl native breeds horses with a homeland pedigree in Alberta By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

fter his father’s funeral four years ago, Dale Skanes made a decision to start breeding Newfoundland ponies. His father had always loved horses, but never owned one and Skanes had grown up surrounded by books and images of the animals. “He always had a horse calendar,” he says over the phone from Cold Lake, Alta., “or he always watched the rodeo on TV, he went to the horse races occasionally. He wasn’t a gambler but he liked to look at the horses and whenever we went on holiday, if there was a barn to go to we’d be looking in a barn, you know?” Skanes, who left Mount Pearl in 1990, works as a military physician at 4 Wing Cold Lake. He has a wife from St. John’s and three daughters and up until a few years ago, knew little about horses himself. “At my father’s funeral, a friend of mine started talking about the extinct Galloway pony, which is a Scottish breed and from the north of England,” he says. “It was a revered pony. It was a pony that the Romans spoke about and Shakespeare wrote about. It was likely the pony that was the progenitor of the thoroughbred racehorse and curiously enough, that blood, through our connection with the British Isles made its way to Newfoundland and is still present in our ponies today.” Skanes decided to search out the qualities of the now extinct Galloway pony amongst pure bred Newfoundland ponies with the intention of somewhat reviving the historical blood line. He says the pedigree of the Galloway died out through cross breeding because it was such a popular animal, but common characteristics include good looks, a wide, deep chest and a tendency to pace rather than trot. Skanes says he found a Newfoundland pony mare with similar traits and went on to breed from

‘System has lost its way’

there. He now has two mares, two stallions and some offspring at his Alberta home. Skanes comes from a line of horse lovers. His own great grandfather was a renowned blacksmith in the family’s original home on Bell Island. Today, Skanes is a councillor with the national Newfoundland Pony Society, based in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is heading up a committee to have the Newfoundland Pony declared an official pedigree. “I’m hoping to have an application to the federal government within about 12 months,” he says. “I think it’s a bit of an administrative slog, but I don’t think there’s anything in our way that we can’t resolve … there’s a lot of good will there to make this happen because we only have one other (completely) Canadian breed and that’s the Canadian horse.” Newfoundland Ponies are identified as a critically endangered species by Rare Breeds Canada and according to Newfoundland Pony Society statistics there are less than 400 animals in the country. A few years ago, the society was successful in lobbying the provin-

cial government to have the breed recognized as a Heritage Animal. Skanes describes the Newfoundland as being a “pretty good breed for the world. “It’s a good all-round pony, but it’s relatively unknown. There’s only a dozen breeders of the pony and despite what we think is a good product we haven’t promoted it enough.” Newfoundland ponies grow up to roughly 14.5 hands and weigh no more than 1,000 pounds. They are known to be sturdy, reliable and have good common sense. “They’re a very willing animal put to any task,” says Skanes. “They show lots of work spirit, but on the other side, when they’re not working they’re a quiet animal and they’re honest horses in terms of their temperament.” Out in Alberta, he says there’s no shortage of professionals to give horse advice and Skanes thinks his ponies — which are suitable for children and adults — will be popular. He adds there are probably more horses in Cold Lake alone than in all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Breathe through a straw for 60 seconds. That’s what breathing is like with cystic fibrosis. No wonder so many people with CF stop breathing in their early 30s.

From page 11 dictatorship while they pretend and spin about more openness and democratic reform. They will not change their spots or techniques. If Canadians want to change how their federal government operates and want the Gomery recommendations to have any chance of implementation, they have to change the party that is now in control — the same party that was in control for most of the last 70 years as the Canadian political system gradually became a presidential system without checks and balances. The Toronto Sun’s veteran political columnist Douglas Fisher wrote recently that cabinet ministers and senior mandarins are no longer considered responsible or accountable for corruption or inefficiencies in their departments. All of which has been shamefully confirmed by the Gomery commission. Truly, as Fisher has indicated, our “system has lost its way.”

Please help us.

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Owning livestock in Alberta is vastly different to Eastern Canada because animals are left to roam freely in open pasture all year round with little continuous upkeep required, past feeding and providing simple shelter. Skanes says his friends back home find it hard to believe his horses stay out through the winter. “But that’s the way it’s done and if you give them lots of feed and give them some shelter — not necessarily in a barn — they’re quite happy.” As for bringing that ranch culture and the ponies back to Newfoundland, Skanes says he hasn’t ruled out returning home one day, maybe working as a rural GP, or living here part time. Although he returns for a visit almost every year, he says he still misses the province. “I think Newfoundlanders are always in a twilight; a twilight of ‘Are we going to leave Newfoundland?’ And once we’ve left Newfoundland we’re in the twilight of ‘Are we going to come back to Newfoundland?’” dskanes@cablerocket.com www.thenewfoundlandponysociety.com

ean Chrétien, who claims to have been outraged by revelations of Liberal corruption at the sponsorship hearings, is preparing to go on the offensive when Justice John Gomery releases his fact-finding report on the scandal on Nov. 1. Undaunted and unrepentant, the fiery former prime minister is expected to insist that he was blameless in the spending fiasco that took place during his years in power, sources say. And he is likely to point out that, despite an extensive government audit and a three-year police investigation, only four people have been charged in connection with the scandal, sources indicate.

LAYING BLAME In his initial findings, Gomery will lay out his conclusions as to who was to blame for the scandal, which led to the waste or misappropriation of tens of millions in taxpayers’ dollars between the mid1990s and 2003. The judge appears likely to say that federal officials allowed the sponsorship program to run amok and become a cash conduit for the Liberal Party and its allies in the advertising field. But, damning as that may be, the commission never produced evidence that personally implicated Chrétien in the mishandling of sponsorship money. Nor was there any significant evidence linking his successor, Paul Martin, to the foul-ups in the $250 million project. Chrétien’s confidantes say he is buoyant, combative and as convinced as ever that the sponsorship program was a necessary tool in the fight against Quebec separatism in the 1990s. Few expect Gomery to pass up a chance to rebuke Chrétien, who created the sponsorship program and whose right-hand man in the PMO at the time, Jean Pelletier, played an important role guiding the project. Over the months, the judge repeatedly expressed shock at witnesses’ tales of patronage and wasteful spending during the Chrétien years in power.

OCTOBER 16, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Politics and noble laureates Harold Pinter, the son of a Jewish dressmaker, is on top of the literary world By Philip Marchaud Torstar wire service

he award of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature to British playwright Harold Pinter — unlike Nobel Prizes in some previous years to fairly obscure or marginal writers — is not going to cause people to scratch their heads in puzzlement. Pinter is an acknowledged giant of contemporary literature. Perhaps the only question connected to this year’s Nobel is whether Pinter’s brutally outspoken condemnation of the war in Iraq and political figures such as George W. Bush and Tony Blair helped or hurt his chances of winning the Nobel. A slight delay in the announcement aroused speculation that some members of the Swedish Academy that grants the Nobel were unhappy over the choice of Pinter — perhaps because of the political factor. Speculation and the Nobel Prize go hand in hand. There is a mystery about the granting of the Nobel that rivals the secrecy of a Vatican conclave electing a new pope. No shortlist of nominees is produced beforehand, as is the case with the Booker Prize or the Giller Prize. What complicates the issue is that the Nobel Prize for Literature has never been given strictly on the basis of literary merit. Canadians who are anxious that one of our own wins the award — most likely Margaret Atwood, possibly Alice Munro — can only hope that some day, political or philosophical trends will turn in our favour. In the meantime, few will dispute Pinter’s right to the Nobel. The London-

born playwright, the son of a Jewish dressmaker, made his mark with his first play, The Room, in 1957, displaying, one critic said, a “phenomenally sensitive ear for the real speech of real people.” His famous pauses in dialogue are almost explosive in intensity, revealing the minds of his characters furiously at work. As a playwright, Pinter, 75, has always been hard to pin down. He has used poetic imagery, for example, in combination with naturalist dialogue. “I regard myself as an old-fashioned writer,” he told an interviewer in 1967. “I like to create character and follow a situation to its end.” In light of his later reputation, his early plays were notable for their absence of politics. By contrast, Pinter’s latest work, a radio play entitled Voices, is a meditation on a characteristic Pinter theme of recent years — the torture and oppression of victims by totalitarian forces. He has included Bush of the United States and Britain’s Blair among these oppressors. While no one knows for sure, it is unlikely that members of the Swedish Academy were troubled by such views. If anything, they might have worked to his favour. “He (Pinter) is such a great writer, fully deserving of the award on that ground alone. But I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if his ferocious criticisms of the Bush regime and the Iraq war helped bring him back to prominence in the public consciousness,” comments Constance Rooke, president of Canadian PEN. “I’m not saying that his political stance helped him, but I am saying that if it did play a role in granting of the award, the role it would have played would have

British playwright Harold Pinter, whose plays include The Birthday Party and The Caretaker, has won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. The injury on Pinter's face is the result of a recent fall. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

been a positive one.” On rare occasions, academy members do make their political sentiments known. In 1989, for example, two members resigned in protest over the failure to honour Salman Rushdie and thereby make a statement to the Ayatollah Khomeini and his fatwa. This month, a member of the academy, Knut Ahnlund, resigned over the 2004 award to Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. Ahnlund said granting the award to Jelinek had “done irreparable damage to all progressive forces.” Was this because Jelinek was a right winger? Hardly. In fact, according to professor Alexandra Heberger of the University of Manitoba, who has written extensively about Jelinek, the Austrian writer has been sharply critical of her country, and a fierce antagonist to the hard-line rightist politician Joerg Haider. So what got Ahnlund’s shirt in a knot? The reason, Heberger points out, is that Jelinek is a “language writer,” deconstructing the meaning of words and texts, and abandoning traditional storytelling. “It’s brilliant writing, it’s a brilliant style, but it’s not easy to read,” Heberger says. If the Swedish Academy takes Ahnlund’s criticism to heart, then Canadian writers such as Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, who are strong storytellers, will have a fighting chance for a Nobel. But what other factors might influence future Nobel literature prizes? A look at the history of the prize provides an uncertain guide to that future. In the early years, members of the academy took to heart the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who bequeathed his estate to the prizes. Nobel’s will urged academy members to opt for literature “of an idealistic tendency.” That’s why, in the first decade of the prize, which began in 1901, the academy bypassed such grubby realists as Emile Zola and pessimistic old sourpusses like Ibsen and Tolstoy in favour of more high-minded and little-known authors such as Rudolph Eucken and Sully Prudhomme. During the Cold War, the Swedish Academy, anxious to avoid writers of polarizing political convictions, leaned to authors who possessed, in the words of one member, “political integrity.” (That is to say, they wouldn’t rock the boat. Hence the academy bypassed Ezra Pound, a fascist sympathizer, as well as the Marxist playwright Bertolt Brecht.) During the 1970s and ‘80s, the academy decided, in the words of a member, to look for “authors who are less wellknown, who are not already the objects of heavy promotion and advertising.” This is why Graham Greene, one of Britain’s greatest authors, died before ever receiving a Nobel Prize for Literature. He was too “commercial.”

Man sentenced for betraying blind trust By Bruce Bartlett Telegraph-Journal

he boyfriend of a legally blind student at the University of New Brunswick Saint John who stole more than $6,000 from her was given a suspended sentence and three years probation last week. Donovan L. Bentley, 19, of Gondola Point Road in Quispamsis was also ordered to repay the nearly $6,500 he took from her bank account and more than $1,200 from a credit card. He was also ordered to do 150 hours of community service. Mr. Bentley, who is also legally blind in one eye, met his ex-girlfriend at a blind camp when they were younger, says prosecutor Catherine McNally. Through an operation Mr. Donovan regained some vision in one eye. When they reconnected at university they got engaged and moved in with one another. The victim, who is from Nova Scotia, had a joint bank account with her father so that he could deposit money for her university expenses. Last May she became aware there was a problem with her bank balance and went to the Saint John City Police. They found that Mr. Donovan started withdrawing small amounts of cash in November 2004 and that it escalated through to May 2005. The young woman, who also is on dialysis three times a week, chose to attend UNBSJ because it is close to a hospital. Because of her health problems and the trust she had in Mr. Donovan she gave him the personal identification number for her banking card. A lot of the money went to pay for dinners out and showing her a good time but it came from her account without her knowledge or consent, says the prosecutor.

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

No room for quake’s wounded Quake wipes out 1,000 hospitals; Pakistan desperate for medical aid MANSEHRA, Pakistan By Martin Regg Cohn Torstar wire service It’s not just buildings that crumbled when Oct. 8’s massive earthquake struck here: the entire health-care system virtually collapsed. More than 1,000 hospitals were wiped out across Pakistan’s mountain regions by the force of the 7.6-magnitude quake that injured more than 60,000 people and claimed as many as 30,000 lives. The loss of these desperately needed medical facilities is a double disaster for Pakistan, compounding the misery of the wounded and complicating the rebuilding efforts of this impoverished nation. The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for field hospitals, antibiotics, medicines and surgical equipment because so many hospitals were “completely destroyed.” The World Health Organization, which is rushing medical kits to the region, warned that “the devastation has created major obstacles in urgently helping the thousands of injured people to get the medical care they need.” Bad enough that primitive mud-wall homes dissolved when the earth shook; or that scandalously sub-standard luxury high-rises buckled under the stress. But how could so many government-built hospitals simply wilt in the face of utterly predictable earthquakes? Now, in the nation’s hour of need, it is a question that preoccupies Pakistanis: how can a hospital heal the sick when the facility is itself mortally wounded? The answer is that it cannot, and it is a painful lesson that must be learned if the real healing is to begin. “The hospitals have collapsed, there are no facilities available there,” says Dr. Muhammed Mujeeb Khan, director of the emergency department at Rawalpindi General Hospital near the

nation’s capital, where many of the patients are being airlifted. “It’s a big mess, it’s a complete disaster, we never thought it would happen,” he adds. “We need medicines, implants, sutures, everything.” The doctors are scrambling, but it is the sick and the infirm who bear the burden here in the mountainous hinterland about 100 kilometres north of Islamabad. The Mansehra General Hospital, once a bustling modern facility, now resembles one of the ancient ruins of Pakistan’s archaeological sites. Its walls are split and cracked — the structure must either be reinforced or razed. In the aftermath of the quake, the wounded dared not shelter under its roof for fear it would come tumbling down in the daily aftershocks — a major one struck late last week. With the walls teetering and the lights out, the hospital seemed more like a mortuary than a place to mend broken bones. Slowly, Mansehra General is coming back to life — at least until the day building inspectors condemn it. Volunteers have been bringing the wounded back for basic treatment. MUCH SUFFERING People are lying on every square centimetre of the bare cement floors, which are splattered with dried blood and caked in fresh mud. The stench of festering wounds mixes with the sounds of moaning patients. When a team of 30 doctors flew in from the port city of Karachi, 1,200 km to the south, they found people being treated in primitive conditions. Doctors had to rely on basic diagnostic skills to mend broken bones until a mobile X-ray van turned up midweek. “There was no X-ray department because it had been destroyed,” says Dr. Khurrum Arif, a pediatric surgeon from the National Institute of Child

Health. Doctors like him have been working around the clock. But the backlog only gets bigger, with more than 3,000 patients arriving daily — many of them from the devastated village of Balakot, 30 km to the north. With the hospital overwhelmed, many of the wounded have been shunted further down the all-weather Karakoram Highway to the old British garrison town of Abbottabad. But here too, the hospital has been deemed unsafe. The wounded hunker down in a tent city waiting to be treated, with more than 4,000 new arrivals on some days. It is the same story in Muzaffarabad, capital of the hard-hit Kashmir region bordering on India, where hospitals were reduced to rubble by the quake. The more seriously wounded must make their way by road or air to the capital and its twin city, Rawalpindi. Mohammed Ishaq was airlifted from Muzaffarabad recently with his 5-year-old boy Masid Ali, whose condition had deteriorated since his classroom collapsed on him over a week ago. Still wearing his blood-soaked school uniform, the boy appears to be in a state of shock as Dr. Syed Hammad examines him in a crowded corridor at the main entrance to Rawalpindi General Hospital. “I’ll put a pin in the bone and after that he’ll be able to walk, he’ll have a good life,” the doctor explains. But it is hard for the boy to imagine a recovery. Squealing from the pain, he picks reflexively on his lip scabs as the doctor removes his blood-soaked bandages. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s over now,” his father whispers soothingly. But the real anguish lies ahead, when Masid learns that his twin brother died in the rubble of the collapsed school. “He’s so scared,” the father confides. “He doesn’t know what hap-

Are we ready for more immigrants? Not if you talk to the people who help settle them OTTAWA By Bruce Campion-Smith Torstar wire service Jane Cullingworth is quick to commend the federal government for its proposed plan to throw open Canada’s doors to new immigrants. And she’s equally quick to add a caution. “With that there needs to be a commitment to provide appropriate supports to people when they get here,” says the executive director of Skills for Change, a Toronto agency that works with newcomers. Later this month, Ottawa is expected to take the wraps off its immigration vision. At its centre will be a strategy to allow up to 320,000 immigrants into the country each year, up 100,000 over current levels. But experts say the government’s immigration strategy is bound to fail unless Ottawa is also prepared to give more money and flexibility to agencies that help new immigrants find their feet in this country. Cullingworth expects she will, through Skills for Change, face the big task of helping some of these new immigrants find work. Accountants, social workers, health-care professionals, experts in information technology and engineers — some 9,000 a year — all come to her St. Clair Avenue West office looking for a new start in their adopted land. Their average age is 33, they’ve been in the country less than a year — and they’re keen to find work, Cullingworth says.

Canadian made products

The agency offers help ranging from three-day job search workshops to intensive six-month courses to upgrade skills. Specialized language training in medical terminology, bookkeeping and the workplace is available, and there are basic language lessons for everyday tasks such as shopping and using the phone. “AGGRESSIVE” PLAN Cullingworth applauds Ottawa’s “aggressive” plan to boost immigration, but says there has to be an “aggressive” strategy to support the newcomers. “We want to make sure that accountants are in the accounting field, engineers are in the engineering field. That does take resources,” she says. “They need help getting connected to their profession.” Immigration Minister Joe Volpe’s boastful talk about a bold new immigration policy runs hard up against the realities facing immigrants who are here, but can’t find work. “One of them … said it was like false advertising. The Canadian government lied to us. They said ‘we like your skills, your background,’ but when we came here we weren’t allowed to use them,” says NDP Leader Jack Layton. When immigrants are allowed into Canada in large part because of impressive education or job skills, “they naturally believe that they’ll be able to get a job in that area,” he says. Cullingworth says it’s “very true” that Toronto has the best-educated taxi drivers, skilled immigrants who can’t get a job in their profession in Canada’s largest city.

Kashmiris sit on a road after an earthquake in Baramulla, 60km from Srinagar on Oct. 8. A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent, including the Pakistan capital Islamabad where scores of people were feared killed or trapped when two buildings collapsed. Officials says heavy casualties were expected in the north of Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

pened and I’m trying to explain it to him.” In another recovery ward, Khatoon Nisa sits cross-legged in her bed wailing inconsolably about the death of her husband and five children. “Oh God, what will I do, I’ve lost everything” she repeats like an incantation. In the next bed sits her sole surviving daughter, Akhtar Nisa, 25, who also lost three of her own children. She is more stoic, trying to help her

mother cope and pondering her return to Balakot. “We will try to go back,” she says softly. But it will be an arduous journey to full recovery for these patients. Like Pakistan’s medical system, they have sustained deep wounds. “We have to rehabilitate their psychological trauma,” says Dr. Khan, head of Emergency at Rawalpindi General Hospital. “It’s terrible, people will be stunted, they don’t know

whether they are dead or alive.”

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16-22, 2005 — PAGE 17

Breaking ground First-time filmmaker’s documentary to debut at St. John’s women’s film festival; seven films by Newfoundlanders to be screened

The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival will feature films from these six Newfoundland filmmakers. Clockwise from top centre: Lisa Hoffe, Jordan Canning, Lynne Wilson, Jennice Ripley, Marian Frances White, Anna Petras Paul Daly/The Independent

By Jenny Higgins For The Independent

hen Lisa Hoffe left Newfoundland for Nepal two years ago, it was to film her first documentary. She had the camera; she had the ambition; she had the talent. She even had the government grant. But something was missing. “I landed in Nepal without a story idea,” she says. “I had to actually find the story idea.” Hoffe, who has a background in broadcast journalism, travelled to Nepal to meet a group of women in the media there. “They had formed a volunteer organization to deal with gender equality through the media,” she says. “They really wanted to support non-stereotypical portrayals of women. “The idea was I would go there and work with this organization and find a topic of mutual benefit.” That topic surfaced when Hoffe overheard someone talking about a women’s trekking company that guides female tourists through the Himalayas. “Trekking companies are widely available if you’re a tourist in Nepal, but you never hear of any women who are actually guiding tourists. When I heard this it stood out,” she tells The Independent. “It wasn’t about what was wrong, it was about what women are doing to change their circumstances. “Because of the conservative culture in Nepal, women are discouraged from even working, let alone going into a traditionally male-dominated industry.” Hoffe’s 24-minute documentary centres on three Nepalese sisters who founded the trekking company and the women they train to become guides. “I called the film Trailblazing because these women really are breaking ground for other women, in addition to their job guiding people through trails in the Himalayas.” But it’s not just the women in front of the camera who were breaking ground. Hoffe was too — as a first-time filmmaker and one-woman crew. “It was my first experience behind the camera,” she says. “I’d sit there shooting with my eye on the viewfinder and the earphones in my ears and sort of paying attention to everything and coming up with intelligent questions at the same time. I felt like a juggler in a circus act.” Now, back in Newfoundland, Hoffe is trying to promote her film — with success. Trailblazing will make its world premiere at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival on Oct. 22. “I’m hoping I’ll be able to make a lot

of connections, learn a lot,” she says. “At my stage it’s all about learning, and trying to get a sense of where to go from here. Hopefully the festival might provide that direction for me.” The festival has been promoting women filmmakers since 1989. It’s one of only three women’s film festivals in Canada — the other two are in Calgary and Toronto. This year, the festival received a record-breaking 346 submissions from filmmakers all over the world, says festival executive director Kelly Davis. It accepted 49, including seven from Newfoundland filmmakers. “Newfoundland is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to women working in the film industry,” Davis says. “Per capita we have more women filmmakers here than across the country. “I think the festival probably did have something to do with that in the sense it gave women filmmakers a reason to produce work and an opportunity to have it screened.” It’s an opportunity that attracts not only first-time filmmakers like Hoffe, but veteran filmmakers too. Marian Frances White is an awardwinning filmmaker and writer from Newfoundland. She’s worked with CBC, Vision TV and a number of film festivals. Her new documentary, Stealing Mary, will be the third one she’s screened at the St. John’s festival. “It’s actually a docudrama,” says White. “It’s a forensic investigation into the vanished people who are the Beothuk. We focus on the capture of Desmasduit (a Beothuk woman), who they (her white captors) immediately called Mary March. “It’s a very emotional film. You can’t take someone by force and whitewash that. We really show the trauma of what that must have been like — a young married women to be taken in with white people that she had never met before.” White says having a local film festival is vital to the filmmaking community. “You can take your film to other parts of the country and the world to festivals, but to have it in your own hometown, something as supportive and dynamic as this film festival, it really gives a sense of the current flow of women’s work. It’s just growing in leaps and bounds.” Hoffe says she’s thrilled to be a part of it all. She’s looking forward to the debut of her film, but notes she won’t be watching the screen. “I think I’ll be watching other people watching my film, just to see if the really good bits that inspired me will inspire other people. “And I kind of hope people are inspired to travel to Nepal and hire a female guide,” she adds with a laugh.

LIVYERS

Serious side of hockey Chris Schwartz has his hands full as director of marketing with St. John’s Fog Devils By Darcy MacRae The Independent

ike almost every other kid who grew up playing hockey, Chris Schwartz says he wanted to one day play the game as a pro. But by his early teens, Schwartz realized he was not “blessed with the skills” necessary to play at the elite level, and focused his energy on entering a profession that would keep him close to the game. After graduating from Prince of Wales Collegiate and attending both MUN and Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., Schwartz joined the St. John’s Maple Leafs as an intern in the

summer of 1994. One year later, he was hired full time as marketing co-ordinator. Since then, he has enjoyed a career — albeit a business one — that he long looked forward to. “I don’t remember who the first game was against (in 1995), but I remember how excited I was,” Schwartz tells The Independent. “There was the excitement and adrenaline of knowing this was what I wanted to do since I was a young kid.” Schwartz worked for the St. John’s Maple Leafs for 10 years, right up until the team packed up and left for Ontario last spring, becoming the Toronto

Marlies. But that didn’t mean Schwartz had to leave the city where he grew up and currently raises daughters Abby, 3, and Emma, 1, with his wife Andrea. Schwartz quickly accepted a job as director of marketing with the Fog Devils. “It’s very similar to what I was doing before,” he says. “Day to day it’s dealing with the media, dealing with our marketing — which is anything from ticketing to advertising to the different community programs we have, and game operations.” Joining the Fog Devils capped off an See “Building better,” page 14

Chris Schwartz

Paul Daly/The Independent

OCTOBER 16, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

renda McClellan says she once created art about lost culture in Newfoundland, but her most recent show, Coastlines, shows off what the province will always have. In the coastlines, jagged cliffs and waterscapes of the island, McClelland found the inspiration for about a dozen paintings. “I think the Newfoundland landscape is so powerful and it’s just inspiring. Just because of its power and the drama and especially the cliffs and it just kind of lends itself to this kind of approach,” McClelland tells The Independent. She points to a few of her more muted landscapes leaning against the walls of the Red Ochre Gallery in St. John’s. “There’s been a lot more colour over the past couple of years,” she says, referencing artists who are up and coming, who may have made more established artists rethink their approach. “In April we were in Mexico and I saw some work by a girl who used some very strong colour in her pieces — coastlines — and I think that was a trigger.” All the coastlines are based on real places, but McClellan says she knows others will probably see their part of the island in the paint, adding many of the scenes are familiar and fairly generic. Many of the canvases are still wet. While pointing out the telephone poles in the backdrop of one painting — a reminder that people still live in Horse Chops, Trinity Bay — McClellan says she sees a spot that will need touch ups before the exhibition. She says using oil paint is a much more structured art form for her. “I find that the medium often dictates the approach,” she says.

BRENDA MCCLELLAN Painter McClellan says she finds painting with watercolours more relaxing. “This,” she says, waving her hand at the exclusively oil-based exhibit, “you become totally involved personally, emotionally and energetically. You sort of stand up at the canvas and you mix your paint and then you sort of go at it as opposed to the watercolours which you can sort of dabble in more.” McClellan is also the owner of the Red Ochre Gallery, which consumes her time when away from painting. In order to spend enough time in the studio, McClellan says she paints for four days —two during which the gallery is closed, and two other days when someone else runs the storefront. The gallery, located in the former location of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Duckworth Street in downtown St. John’s, is filled with work from up and coming artists, as well as well-known names. One corner is devoted to carvings done by native artists in Labrador. McClellan says she likes to display fine Newfoundland art but without the clichés. “I have a slogan that we like to put on all the advertising and it’s ‘Making fine art accessible.’ I like people to come in and browse around without feeling intimidated.” — Alisha Morrissey Coastlines runs from Oct. 15 to Nov. 8 at the Red Ochre Gallery in St. John’s.

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

POET’S CORNER Pictures outside my eye Woolen socks square dance, Puppets on a line of sky light. Trees are moulting on the hill, Putting on their reality of nakedness. Birds line the wire in charter flight, No refunds, no substitutions, no cancellations. Seas are hooded with hangman clouds, Grey as sulky beach rocks.

Night crawls across garden leaf corpses, Summer memories are filed away like ice cubes. The spotlight moon splits mists of dew, The trumpet wind sounds victory. A poem from the 1985 book Beginnings by Robert Burt.

EVENTS SUN. OCT. 16 • Howl-O-Ween Doggy Costume Party at the Reid Community Centre, loot bags for the kids, 738-7297. • Opening Reception for Cards and Games as well as Cozy View from 2-4 p.m. at the Devon House Craft Centre. • 16th Annual Trinity Conception Placentia Health Foundation Telethon on Persona and other community stations throughout the region, 945-5289. MON. OCT. 17 • Collective Soul live at Mile One Stadium at 8 p.m. 576-7657. • Bereavement Seminar with Dr. Rick Singleton 7-9 p.m. at the Health Sciences Centre in room 2J 619, 777-6959. • AGM of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild, 7:30 p.m., Longside Club, Shaw St. TUES. OCT. 18 • Women’s Film Festival presents We Shoot! We Score workshop at the LSPU Hall, 1 - 4 p.m. • Lunch with traditional music at Auntie Crae’s featuring Frank Maher, Rick West, Stan Picket, and Andrew Lang, 12:30 p.m. 272 Water Street. • Dermot O’Reilly & Fergus O’Byrne per-

form live at O’Reilly’s. WED. OCT. 19 • Harbour Haunt 4: The Nightmare Returns. Nightly from 7 p.m., 351 Water Street, 754-1399. • Royal Astronomical Society monthly meeting 8 p.m. at MUN’s Chemistry-Physics Bldg, room C-2045. THURS. OCT. 20 • Harry Martin at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre, 896-2320. • Wintersleep and Starred Opposite at D’Attic in Corner Brook, 10:30 p.m. • Women’s Film Festival presents Late Night Love Fest: Bonne Fête (Happy Birthday) and Women In Love at the LSPU Hall 11:30 p.m. FRI. OCT. 21 • Conception Bay Area Chamber of Commerce will host 6th Annual Business Recognition Awards at 12 noon, Pinewood Place, Paradise. Guest speaker Stan Marshall, President and CEO of Fortis Inc., 834-5670. • All ages show at O’Hehir Arena featuring Resurectum, The Sleazoids, campus enforcement and more. 6:00 p.m., $5. • Wintersleep Live at the New Junctions IN THE GALLERIES • David Hoffos seeks to reveal and examine the sources of illusion found within genre movies, theme park attractions, 19th century parlours and museum displays through his series of small installations viewed down a long hallway. Call Michelle 739-1882. • An exhibit featuring stories, photos and first-hand accounts of the sinking and rescue attempts at the Railway Coastal Museum, 7245952.

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

California dreamin’

NO NONSENSE

(L-R) Shelley Neville, Cherilyn Carroll, Petrina Bromley, Sheila Williams, Kelly-Ann Evans of Spirit of Newfoundland in front of the Basilica in St. John’s, Newfoundland The troupe, which travelled to Ireland in mid-September to present their Broadway musical, Nunsense, at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera, is negotiating a return to Ireland. Paul Daly/The Independent

Building better hockey From page 17 emotional year for Schwartz. Like all St. John’s Maple Leafs employees, he knew well in advance of the team’s departure that the baby buds were on the way out of town. Although it made for some difficult times, he says the team’s staff did their best to send the squad off in style. “We knew in August that the team was leaving, but as a staff we took the attitude of ‘We can’t control it, so lets do the best job we can,’” Schwartz says. The final St. John’s Maple Leafs regular season game was “bitter sweet,” says Schwartz. It is a game he will always remember, as is the night the first hockey game was held at Mile One, an exhibition tilt between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. The 2002 AHL all-star game was also special to Schwartz, but the one he remembers best is the night Memorial Stadium closed.

“Not that I was very old at that point, but it was very emotional, very nostalgic. I’m a big guy on tradition so it was nice to see a lot of the people who were involved with that building,” says Schwartz. As was the case with the baby buds, Schwartz can be seen high above the ice surface at Mile One in the Bob Cole Media Centre each night the Fog Devils play. While he has a good view of the ice and enjoys the action, there is much work to be done. Media, scouts, coaches and general managers fill every available space in the press box, and each has specific wants and needs that Schwartz must tend to. It’s a good thing he’s comfortable multitasking and dealing with a variety of personalities, otherwise the job could be a lot more stressful. What happens on game night only represents a fraction of Schwartz’s responsibilities as marketing director. He deals with players and coaches on a daily basis, meets with advertisers and

co-ordinates community involvement between players and fans. Quite often, when Schwartz tells people what he does for a living, they automatically assume he’s in a pretty cushy job. He says they joke that all he does is sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch hockey from some of the best seats in the house. “They do think that,” Schwartz says with a chuckle. “A lot of people may not realize what happens on the back end. I don’t think people realize what anybody in this industry puts in to try and make things succeed.” Schwartz says another misconception is that since hockey ends in the spring he doesn’t have to work in the summer. “The summers are busy in the sense that you’re planning for next year,” Schwartz says. “It’s 40 hours a week in the summer, and when the season starts you’re pushing 80 hours a week.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

ucky for me I had to go to Los Angeles, California last week. It’s a long way to go from here but someone’s got to do it. Whether walking in the gloriously dry sunny air or gawking shamelessly at the expensive cars and earthquake-prone mansions perched high atop the Hollywood Hills, I kept thinking about that famous poem by W.H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts. In the poem, Auden meditates on a painting by Breughel, the “Old Master,” a large canvas depicting a coastal landscape. As Auden interprets it for us, the subject of the painting is actually hard to notice at first, which is the whole point. It is “the fall of Icarus,” that ambitious Greek boy whose wings of wax melted when he dared to fly too close to the sun. What Auden notices is that just while this astonishing mythological event is taking place a farmer is going about his business below and a ship “sails calmly on.” By and large humanity is unmindful of the suffering going on nearby. Indeed, humanity generally has a hard time seeing beyond its own view frame, its own little world. It is hard to see everything at once, to be sure, but travelling almost always gives perspective. That is what the Old Masters had in spades, of course, and what in turn the poet offered more contemporary readers. And so it is that you are walking along a beach by the edge of the Pacific and every now and then, perhaps more often than you care to, you wonder what is happening back home. You have a hunch that it being October the winds are howling and the rain is pelting your house in some punishing way. You glance at your watch, contemplate the time difference, and then imagine your office mates at their desks, oblivious of your walking a little too close to the sun. They could not possibly imagine you or your location at that moment, but you carry home around in your head like a photo album. Invariably, you make comparisons, absurd an exercise that it is. For, after all, you are in some mythical whitewashed kingdom, a region where built history stretches back only about a hundred years, where the world seems to divide between the excessively white and affluent rich and the conspicuously non-white poor, where the sun always shines and the weathermen sound alerts when the winds reach 20 miles an hour. Southern California is not at all like Newfoundland, but the mind will have its way with you. The state is governed by an outspoken, exceedingly wealthy personality. Ditto here. In Los Angeles you start expecting to bump into celebrities, seeing as how they are as common as palm trees. At home you always expect to bump into someone you know. As a result, you consider that every-

NOREEN GOLFMAN Standing Room Only one in Newfoundland is a bit of a celebrity. Los Angeles boasts magnificent art galleries and museums, as well as the trashiest evidence of pop culture. Both the hi and lo cultural spheres co-exist in a marvelous spectacle of human possibility. You consider the same holds true at home, where the monolithic grandness of The Rooms hovers near the tacky appeal of George Street, to take one obvious example. But churches, strip clubs, and WalMarts are everywhere. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra plays Beethoven symphonies for a pretty well-heeled and largely middle-aged crowd. You reflect that the same holds true for the audiences who listen to the NSO at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. In Southern California tourists can purchase mass produced tokens of their visit, like smog in a can, or, alternatively, they can seek out hand-fashioned native crafts, like pottery and sweaters. The same, more or less, for tourists here. The Los Angeles Times is full of stories about the community battles for heritage preservation, the menace of shopping mall developments, and the many ways the state is different from the rest of the nation. Think St. Philip’s on a larger scale. One could go on arguing how the world is a global village but after a while such comparisons are specious. The differences are significant and help explain why Californians would get into a van and trek across the continent to rest in this province for a while. Our sea might be unsuitable for surfing or skinny dipping, our trees spend a century vainly trying to straighten up, and we can’t get a decent tomato in February, but we don’t have to spend roughly a third of our day — everyday — in traffic. You keep meeting people in California who don’t get out much. Getting together with friends or family is a major excursion, not a casual or random occurrence. It’s not that you prefer Newfoundland fog or our lousy and overpriced lettuce to the persistent California sun or their delicious mangoes, but you just cannot imagine spending a third of a lifetime in a car, no matter how luxuriously appointed it might be. And no matter how Botoxed, buffed, and beautiful everyone is you know they’re all going to die anyway, especially if they don’t see friends or family much. Travelling is wonderful and nourishing. It gives you Breughel’s bigpicture perspective and humbles the soul (a friend tells you “we never hear anything about Canada.”). But there’s no place like a five-car traffic jam.

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20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

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Dr. Paul Bonisteel came to Newfoundland from Toronto 22 years ago — and stayed. Today he operates a clinic in New Harbour, about an hour’s drive west of St. John’s. He had an estimated 7,300 patient visits last year, although there’s always time for the occasional home visit. Picture editor Paul Daly and senior editor Stephanie Porter dropped by the clinic recently for a visit with the doctor.

“I came down here and the folk fesr. Paul Bonisteel was tival was happening, there was music standing at the end of everywhere, theatre … it’s all so the produce section in accessible. I thought ‘this is incredihis local grocery store ble.’ Still now as a family we still go the other day when he away on holidays to Trinity and heard the shout. “Hey doctor, I want Eastport and Terra Nova. It suits my to ask you about me hemorrhoids,” lifestyle to be here.” came the voice from halfway across It also suits him, professionally. He the shop. often “wonders out loud” to his city “This wasn’t even a whisper, it was colleagues what they do all day — yelling about the hemorrhoids,” because it seems to him so much of Bonisteel says with a laugh. “The their practice seems to be referring whole store heard. patients to specialists or elsewhere. “But this sort of thing happens all “Here, most people, if they can get the time.” it done locally, then they say, let’s get Originally from Toronto, Bonisteel it done locally … If you need lumps came to Newfoundland for two years and bumps taken off, come in and I of post-doc medical training. That can do that myself. If you need your was 22 years ago. Over that time perijoints injected, different procedural od, he has developed a strong attachstuff, it gets done here.” ment to this province — and an equalHe has 125 patients with diabetes, ly healthy rural practice. He started and perhaps 20 of them have been work in Burin in 1983. referred to a specialThat was his first ist — whereas in St. encounter with life, John’s the ratio is and doctoring, in a “I felt like I was in a much higher. small town. “When you’re “I felt like I was in goldfish bowl, I couldn’t trained as a generala goldfish bowl, I do anything. I talked ist, you’re trained in a couldn’t do anybroad range of skills thing,” he says. “I talked about it to a about it to a nursing and and knowledge, you nursing and physician physician colleague who get out and you expect to be able to colleague who had both been through had both been through use that … not to be narrow or confined or that, though they were both Newthat, though they were forced to refer to somebody else.” foundlanders and both Newfoundlanders Bonisteel says basically told me to there have been get over it … which I and basically told me major changes within did.” his profession, in In 1986, Bonisteel to get over it … terms of services and moved to New expectations, since Harbour and began which I did.” he began. For one, work in the clinic in ambulance attendants Whitbourne, 15 minDr. Paul Bonisteel are now no longer utes’ drive away. A “snatch and go,” few years later, he they’re paramedics, and able to insert switched to a practice in Carbonear. IVs or begin treatment. Then, in 1997, the clinic in New Patients expect more than they Harbour became available. He once did, and often turn to the Internet jumped at the opportunity. “It’s too for self-diagnosis or research before good a clinic to leave and it’s right coming to the doctor. Depending on here in my community,” he says. the website, that may be a good or bad The clinic is under the town’s pharthing. macy, and consists of a waiting area, “The other thing, those of us who office, two exam rooms, one minor are long enough in the tooth, we grew treatment room, and a bathroom. into our profession on the notion we There’s a map of the Avalon were going to work, work, work and Peninsula on the bulletin board in the then work some more. front room — green thumbtacks rep“That’s ingrained in the persona of resent where Bonisteel’s patients live: being a physician. Not so anymore, from St. John’s to the isthmus; people are coming out of school and Whitbourne to Winterton. saying, ‘I’m willing to work hard but There’s also a list of statistics: I want a life too’ … that rankles some Bonisteel currently has over 2,600 of us who come from a different active files. He had 7,300 patient viscamp, but at the same time, some of its last year, only 5.6 per cent of us are saying, you know, they’re which ended in referrals elsewhere — right.” he took care of everyone else himself. Then of course, there are demoHe’s busy, working morning and graphics. Over the past two decades, afternoon every day (except things have changed greatly for outlyWednesday, when he helps out as a ing areas of Newfoundland, given the surgical assistant in the hospital in cod moratorium and other resource Carbonear) and has a walk-in clinic and economy ups and downs. Thursday nights, and a Saturday clin“I’m always astounded, the few ic once a month. times I’m in St. John’s, you see all the The morning patients often cut well young people,” says Bonisteel. “You into his lunch time, afternoons can know, they’re everywhere. They drag on well past 5 p.m. For now, work, and they’ve got money. Bonisteel and his medical secretary “Here, except for a few who stay, if Gaylia Reid manage the entire pracyou hit 20 you’re gone. It’s the graytice. ing of rural Newfoundland.” “We’re building a new clinic,” he Bonisteel picks up his medical bag says. “The foundation is poured and and zips on his jacket. It’s lunch time we’re in the midst of ordering furniand time for a home visit on the way ture and expanding … I’m trying to to the coffee shop. He waves easily to recruit a second, maybe third doctor.” everyone he passes, he can point to So far, he’s had “polite interest and virtually every house and say who one nibble,” but nothing firm yet. As lives there, how many children they he says, it can be difficult to entice have, who does what. doctors to work outside the bigger He knows more, but there are cercentres — it’s not so much the doctors tain things the doctor, of course, must that are uneasy, but spouses who may keep to himself — especially in a also want to work. small town. Bonisteel says rural practice has always appealed to him. When he fin“I do enjoy this now, that practically ished medical school, he intended to anybody can go by and wave … and I head to northern Ontario to work. can go into the local store and I’m not “And then I got here and I realized, I anonymous, I’m the doctor. And in didn’t have to go to northern Ontario, this community, that’s a plus, because everything’s right here. this is a really nice place.”

OCTOBER 16, 2005

Rural

OCTOBER 16, 2005

check up

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

OCTOBER 16, 2005

22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the eating path

ince it’s harvest time and I feel connected to the bounty it produces, I felt it necessary to talk about the best open markets around St. John’s. Having recently returned from Ontario, I must admit my views on food are slightly skewed. Driving down the Vine route between Hamilton and Niagara-on-the-Lake is a foodmarket dream. Fresh corn, root vegetables, tomatoes, apples, cherries and so much more are only as far away as a stop of the car and a handful of cash. Having cooked in professional kitchens for a living, one thing is for sure — I only want the best, which is why it has taken me three days to get all my produce for the house. Call it my personal quest or vendetta against the modern grocery store. Sure, they’re convenient, but who honestly needs to get everything (including the kitchen sink) in one place? What happened to local high street shopping? What happened to the personal contact with your baker, your butcher, your fishmonger? These relations are required, in my opinion, to maintain the quality of food you eat. Coming home to find that a city landmark, Memorial Stadium, had been sold to the Loblaws group made me sad. I think the building is better off serving as a covered market for farmers and artisans from all over the province than yet another grocery store. St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto is a good example of one that works well. One thing is for sure, a market is needed to revitalize the downtown, not another grocery store to revitalize the bottom line of a faceless food conglomerate, but I digress. While we don’t have a modern covered market or high street we do have several local markets, all found within a half-hour drive of the downtown core. Churchill Square Farmer’s Market is one of the closest places for me and it’s open every day (with times changing for the fall and winter seasons). Here, I found some of the best produce in the city at a reasonable price. The produce comes from no further than central Newfoundland and the quality is excellent. I found fresh onions so tender and sweet that I roasted some for a dinner and was amazed at the candy-like sug-

Farmers market, Churchill Square, St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Tomatoes ‘taxied-in’ from Gambo A review of open-air markets around St. John’s ars they produced. Jarred beets, which are becoming one of the staples in the house at present, are sweet and have a slight bite. These jarred beets simply capture good fall foods: simple to prepare and even better to eat. One stall sells tomatoes so ripe and perfect that my wife has even remarked, “It’s nice to eat a tomato that tastes like a tomato.” I have since found out that one such purveyor has her tomatoes “taxied-in” from Gambo. They are extraordinarily sweet. Peas in the pod, while not too cheap at $6 for two pounds, will make any Sunday dinner complete when shucked,

steamed for 4-5 minutes, and then served with a pat of butter and fresh ground pepper and salt. VARIETY AT LESTER FARMS At Lester Family Farms on Brookfield road in Mount Pearl I was surprised at all the varieties of foods they had in store. While they are more like a general market that sells their own farm product, they do have some imported fruits and vegetables. Then for something completely different, head towards Portugal Cove and go to Stoney Ridge Farms for very fresh pork. I was excited to see whole

racks of freshly butchered baby-back ribs for sale. As well, the selection of sausage and other pork cuts were firstrate. I was fortunate enough to eat several of their sausages — honey garlic and hot Italian were my favourites. Grilled on the BBQ and accompanied by fresh baked beans made for a Sunday-morning delight. While many readers have probably already found these market gems, I’m still looking for other fresh food for the winter months. Perhaps someone knows where I could get some fresh lamb on the island or other treats to sustain me through the long winter months?

I’ll leave you with this, my cure for all things that ail you: PROSCIUTTO ON CRUSTY BREAD WITH GOAT’S CHEESE Take a slice of fresh crusty bread from a bakery and add a light coat of butter. Place on top 1-2 slices of good prosciutto and a good teaspoon of goat’s cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Enjoy with a fresh, light white wine, I prefer Italian. Cheers. Nicholas is an erstwhile chef and current food writer now eating in St. John’s. nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

Colonial costs By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

The Colonial Building.

Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

he recently released management plan for the Colonial Building has been a long time coming and now the general public will have a chance to voice their opinions on government’s proposed use for the historic site. Although a time period has yet to be announced for revamping the building into a cultural centre and provincial historic site, one thing is obvious — the proposal will take significant funding — potentially over $6 million, according to the province’s plan. Contacted by The Independent, Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan was unable to comment on where the money might come from, suggesting it would have to be considered in future budgets. Some fundraising ideas outlined in the management plan include forming a Colonial Building charity or foundation, which would

prepare a strategy involving federal and provincial financial support, as well as oversee donations and event fundraising. As the Colonial Building is to be open to the public, the department is also considering charging an admission fee to help with maintenance costs, as well as charging rental fees for any public functions held there. CONSERVATION COST The biggest cost will be updating and conserving the 150-year-old neoclassical building and grounds, which have some pricey structural, esthetic and functional demands. Before any work begins to turn the site into a heritage headquarters (for local heritage organizations) and public interpretation centre (outlining the province’s political history), government plans to address security issues. Even before the provincial archives made its final move to The Rooms earlier this year, the Colonial Building — which has been called “one of the most significant heritage buildings”

in the province — was fast becoming a hang out for skateboarders and a canvas for graffiti artists. An immediate investment of $20,000 will be made to install enhanced security at the site, including improved exterior lighting and closed-circuit cameras. The Colonial Building was completed in 1850 and until 1959 — when local government relocated to the Confederation Building — was the political centre for the province as the former seat of the colonial government, the meeting place of the National Convention (19461948) and the original House of Assembly. The general public can offer feedback on the current management proposal, which was developed through consultations with the heritage community, up until Nov. 10. An open house to allow the public to discuss ideas with staff of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation will be held at the Colonial Building at a date and time to be announced.

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16-22, 2005 — PAGE 23

‘Talk on paper’ Critics slam Canada’s MOU with Portugal as ‘sham’ By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

decline of fish stocks, despite a fishing moratoria in domestic waters. While the actual number of citations issued to he federal and provincial govern- Portuguese vessels last year was down ments may be applauding the from years pervious, he suspects much MOU signed last week between more overfishing is going on than the Canadian and Portuguese Fisheries what’s caught. ministers, but critics charge the deal will “A lot of these people are the ones to allow for continued high seas piracy. blame … these stocks can rebound, but MP Loyola Hearn, Fisheries critic for we have to manage them,” Hearn says. the federal Conservatives, calls the Gus Etchegary, an outspoken fisheries memorandum of understanding a “fish- advocate, says he’s concerned ery sham.” Signed by federal Fisheries Portuguese vessels will see the MOU as and Oceans Minister Geoff Regan and an easy way to save money. He says the Portugal’s Fisheries high cost of fishing — Minister Jamie Silva including fuel and “It is just one of on Oct. 12, Hearn other costs — have says it isn’t worth the made it more expenthose fuzzy little cozy sive for Portuguese paper it’s written on. “All of these issues ships to fish on the are perturbing govern- agreements where the Grand Banks. He ment where they have the MOU is an minister can say ‘Oh, charges to do something, they opportunity for the have to act, and of we’ve signed an agree- Portuguese fleet to course now they can trans-ship their fish say (they did) … and ment and the question cargoes from Canadian all it is, is talk on ports. is, to do what?” paper there’s “The fact of the matabsolutely no action, ter is Spain and there’s no back up,” Portugal are the leaders MP Loyola Hearn Hearn tells The who have broken every Independent. rule in the book,” The memorandum outlines a loose Etchegary says. “They will be coming relationship between Canada and into St. John’s instead of (going to) Portugal on the development of techni- Portugal and then they will increase cal, scientific, economic and enforce- their presence on the fishing grounds by ment issues. Representatives will meet as much as 50 per cent, thereby increasonce a year to share information. ing the volume of catch in the time they However, decisions are not legally bind- are spending on the fishing grounds that ing and can’t force obligations on either they won’t be spending journeying back side. The memorandum can be discard- to Portugal.” ed with three weeks’ notice. Jaime Silva, Portugal’s Fisheries minHearn says none of the major con- ister, says he didn’t have a good feeling cerns over Portuguese fishing on the about fishery relations with Canada Grand Banks — including the use of when he was appointed several months illegal gear, disregard for conservation back, but believes the memorandum is a and management, as well as Portugal’s step in the right direction. fight against custodial management — In broken English, he tells The can be pursued through the MOU. Independent how a particular citation “Another year or two of heavy fishing gave him the idea for the memorandum effort and we won’t have anything to with Canada. share information about — there’ll be “Back home we have penalties (for nothing to share,” Hearn says. “It is just citations), but the situation is improving one of those fuzzy little cozy agree- you know … we are also quite strict in ments where the minister can say ‘Oh, the implementation of those rules so I we’ve signed an agreement and the think that past problems are beginning question is, to do what?” to be solved because we are so strict as Twenty-five citations have been laid Canadian government,” Silva says. against Portuguese vessels since 2002. He says fewer citations in recent years The most recent was levelled against the are due to a strong emphasis on conserrepeat offender, The Brites, just four vation and heavy penalties on vessels days before the signing of the memoran- that break the rules. Critics say fewer dum. citations are a reflection of declining The Independent had requested the fish stocks. total number of citations levelled against “So we are not the worst inside Portuguese ships since 1992 — the year (European) union so we cannot be the the northern cod moratorium was first worst outside of the economic zone. … handed down in Canadian waters — (it’s) a question between governments but DFO was unable to provide the sta- we need to talk to the Canadian governtistics. ment about our rules the way how our Hearn blames the Portuguese, among See “A step,”page 25 other countries, for the continued

Portugal’s Fisheries minister Jaime Silva.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Bringing back the COD Newfoundland bartering system has more than 200 members By Jenny Higgins For The Independent

hen Bernard Hughes took a cab to the Ship Pub in downtown St. John’s a couple of years ago, he didn’t pay with dollars, he paid with COD. That’s because both Hughes, a computer specialist in the gaming industry, and the taxi driver were members of a bartering network called LETS (Local Employment and Trading System). Members buy goods and services from one another with a form of currency called COD — invisible credits that a computer tracks in the St. John’s LETS office. “I was actually taking a cab to the

Ship for a barter network benefit when the cabbie said ‘Oh, I’m in the barter network, I was going to go to that tonight.’ So I paid with COD,” laughs Hughes. There are approximately 1,500 LETS systems operating independently in 39 countries. Lori Heath, who works in public relations for non-profit organizations, founded the St. John’s network in 1998. “I started it because I had been taking a class in community economic development in Toronto and it really resonated with me,” explains Heath. “It just made perfect sense.” Anyone can join LETS, including businesses and non-profit organizations. Heath says there’s a one-time member-

ship fee of between $10 and $30 for individuals, and between $30 and $100 for businesses. All fees are paid in Canadian dollars, which Heath says pay for things like phone bills and computer accounts at the LETS office. Next, members get an account, much like a bank account, that keeps track of trade in the local currency. “In some cases some people would call their local currency green dollars, or barter bucks,” says Heath. “Sometimes they come up with a creative name that has something to do with their local culture. In our case we’ve called our currency COD for obvious reasons — cash on delivery, and it also sort of indirectly refers to a time when codfish were considered Newfoundland currency.”

Heath is referring to the 19th and early 20th centuries when Newfoundland fishermen often paid merchants with dried cod. “In our case there is no actual physical money, although we may choose to do that in the future,” Heath says. New members receive a directory similar to the yellow pages that lists other LETS members and what they’re selling. “We have a huge range of goods and services available on the network,” says Heath. “Everything from computer advice and troubleshooting to babysitting, to apartments for rent.” When a member buys something from another member, they call the LETS office to report the transaction.

Someone there updates each person’s account accordingly — transferring COD from the buyer to the seller. “For example,” says Heath, “if you made pottery for $10 and I wanted to buy that from you, I would pay you 10 COD. So now you would issue a receipt and then we would call the transaction in right there to the barter network office. Your account would be credited 10 COD and mine would be debited 10.” Heath says the biggest challenge is introducing people to a new idea and making them feel comfortable enough to join in. “People often feel reluctant to make See “Amazing system,” page 24

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

Metal-market clout Prospects bright for Inco; cost savings will result from deal with Falconbridge By Sharda Prashad Torstar wire service

Growth will also be fuelled by new investments in New Caledonia by both companies. Inco’s Goro project and Falconbridge’s merger of Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Koniambo project will help the company’s comLtd. would be good news for sharehold- bined operations grab 30 per cent of the global ers, analysts agree. nickel market by 2012, an increase of about 5 per Combining the two operacent compared with today, says tions would result in cost savGoldie. ings, and the new company The synergies between the “three of the top would have access to some of companies are expected to save the largest nickel deposits in the $350 million (U.S.) annually, four positions in world. The sheer size of the new according to projections by mining goliath will give it more Inco’s chief executive Scott the ‘new Inco’ will influence over metal prices. Hand when the deal was be filled by The $12.5 billion friendly announced last week. takeover must still be approved The savings are estimated to Falconbridge.” by two-thirds of Falconbridge add about $7.75 (Canadian) per shareholders and by regulatory share, but some analysts say authorities in Canada, the National Bank Financial that could be high, says Goldie, United States and the European who will be releasing a book, analyst Ian Howat Union. But Daniel Rolling, a Inco Comes to Labrador, next research analyst at Merrill month. Lynch, calls it the “most awaitBut Barry Allan, analyst at ed merger in the mining industry” and says it Research Capital Corp., says the $350 million will be “a major positive for shareholders.” savings estimate is low. He expects greater savIn a research report, Rolling says he antici- ings will come, particularly with the expansion pates both cash flow and profits to grow, partly of the Sudbury operations. The savings will be because of the combination of nickel and copper “significantly” higher than $350 million, but will reserves. be less than $1 billion, he says. The combined operations would make Inco The Canadian market pays a premium price the largest nickel producer in the world. for liquid, easy-to-trade stock, adds Goldie, and Future growth in operations will be driven the larger size of the company and the strong mainly by Inco’s Voisey’s Bay expansion project combined balance sheet could add a stock price in Labrador, which will reach full capacity in premium. 2012, says Raymond Goldie, analyst at Salman The combined operations of Inco are expected Partners. to add 30 cents per share because of tax savings,

Former premier Roger Grimes, flanked by then-Mines and Energy Minister Lloyd Matthews, left, and Inco CEO Scott Hand signed the deal to develop Voisey’s Bay in 2002. Paul Daly/The Independent

he says. But the Canadian market prefers “pure play” stocks, and that could hinder the stock price, Goldie says. Inco currently has more than 80 per cent of its operations in nickel, but that will fall to about 50 per cent after the takeover. MERGING CULTURES Other complications the company could face include merging the cultures of two companies that have been rivals for nearly 80 years, says Goldie. In the new structure, Hand will be CEO while Derek Pannell, current CEO of Falconbridge, will be president. National Bank Financial analyst Ian Howat said in a research note recently

the “deal is positive in creating a strong company,” and noted “three of the top four positions in the ‘new Inco’ will be filled by Falconbridge.” Derek Burleton, senior economist at the TD Bank Financial Group, says demand for copper and nickel is expected to fall next year, particularly in the second half of the year. Copper demand could drop 20 per cent and nickel 4 per cent in 2006. In a September price index report, Burleton said the base metal index lost 1.1 per cent in September. Shares of Inco closed at $52.07, up 46 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Falconbridge shares fell 29 cents to $34.30.

A N N O U N C E M E N T Browne Fitzgerald Morgan & Avis is pleased to announce that Nick Avis, Q.C. — Senior Counsel to the Lamer Inquiry — has resumed his practice as of October 1, 2005. Nick has 25 years experience as a trial and appellate counsel. Practice areas include accident and injury, corporate and commercial, estates, family, employment, and criminal. Call 724-3800 for an appointment.

BROWNE F ITZGER ALD MORGAN & AVIS Level 2, Terrace on the Square Tel: 724-3800

Derek Rowe

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Total devastation’

Fortune mayor concerned about future in light of FPI’s stalled income trust

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

ortune Mayor Alex Noseworthy describes the impact of Fishery Products International’s stalled $100-million income trust as “total devastation” for his town. “That’s what we were depending on. That’s where our hopes have been this past year,” Noseworthy tells The Independent. FPI announced Oct. 13 its plans to defer the proposed income trust transaction for its Ocean Cuisine International operating division, the company’s U.S. value-added and marketing arm, as a result of Ottawa’s decision to suspend advance rulings on tax treatment for new income trust transactions. FPI had hoped to raise $100 million through the income trust — at least $30 million of which it planned to use to pay down debt. The delay raises questions about FPI’s proposed plans in this province. A number of the company’s promises were contingent on the income trust going through, including: an $8 million secondary processing facility in Fortune; a $4 million IT investment; a $1.5 million investment in Harbour Breton, channeled through the provincial government; a $1 million in renovations to the Harbour Breton plant; a seven-year marketing agreement; a five-year service agree-

ment; a $2 million earmarked for research and development; redfish quota for Harbour Breton; and continued marketing for other processing companies in the province. Justice Minister Tom Marshall tells The Independent government is hopeful the income trust will proceed in December. A number of promises made by FPI will go ahead regardless of the status of the income trust, including: transfer of the Harbour Breton plant to the community, as well as environmental commitments made to the town; $1.5 million injection to the town (also through the province); construction of a new plant in Bonavista, with a five-year conditional operating grant; a $3.75 wage subsidy to workers in Fortune; a commitment to land and process all groundfish quotas in Newfoundland and Labrador; and a promise not to sell any enterprise without permission from the Fisheries minister. Liberal leader Gerry Reid has called on FPI to honour all of its commitments to the people of Harbour Breton, Bonavista and Fortune. Russ Carrigan, spokesman for FPI, tells The Independent the company plans to honour all commitments, but those that hinge on the income trust will have to wait until Ottawa grants the approval. “There is no element of walking away at all,” Carrigan says.

‘Amazing system’ From page 23 that first call to ask someone if they’re willing to do a transaction through the barter network,” she says. “It’s sort of a mental block that once you get over it and you’re familiar with the idea it works.” She adds that purchases in the barter network are subject to taxes. The network has more than 200 members, including writers, butchers, carpenters, taxi drivers and one registered psychologist. There are also businesses like Hempware and the Eastern Edge Gallery. Gallery director Michelle Bush says anyone in the barter network can pay for gallery membership with COD. “I think it’s an amazing system,” says Bush. “It’s an amazing way of making people rethink how they value what they’re capable of offering and what the value for their skills are.”

Lori-Ann Martino is another member of LETS. She’s a new mother on maternity leave. “Just recently I was looking to get a breastfeeding sling so I contacted a member. She’s making it for me as we speak,” says Martino. “My own services I’ve traded include piano lessons and my husband (a schoolteacher) has traded some Italian lessons.” Heath says in the coming months she plans to hold a membership drive and incorporate the network as a nonprofit organization. Since starting in 1998, Heath says the barter network has traded an equivalent of more than $30,000. “To me what’s inspiring about that is it represents a potentially infinite amount of investment in our communities based only on our needs and the skills we have to offer,” says Heath. “That $30,000 was money that we did grow on trees, that we did pull out of thin air.”

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 25

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

orraine Coffey, a 46-year old divorcee from St. John’s, walked onto a lawyer’s office in 2001 to begin the process of what she thought would be a straightforward application to fairly split her and her then-husband’s assets. Four years and two court appearances later she’s legally divorced, but facing over $26,000 in legal bills she can’t afford to pay — with no resolution or assets forthcoming — and she doesn’t know why. Coffey, who works in purchasing for the City of St. John’s, says both she and her ex-husband want to resolve their situation, but his lawyer has been uncooperative and failed to respond to requests from her lawyer, which has delayed proceedings. “She (Coffey’s lawyer) is telling me now because he (opposing counsel) is not responding to her requests that the only thing left to do now is for me to go to trial,” she tells The Independent. “I’m saying why should I go to trial? I’m agreeing with what’s being solved here, kind of thing. Why should we go to trial and I pay for it basically?” Bob Buckingham, a lawyer in St. John’s who deals with family cases, says legal fees can become a concern for people going through contested divorce proceedings involving divisions of property, custody access or support payments. “People can spend tens of thousands of dollars easily on divorces if they don’t keep things in perspective,” he says. “I’ve seen divorces go on for years.” With emotions running high, Buckingham says it can be easy for people to get carried away. He often advises his clients to consider independent counseling to help them “move ahead. “I’ve seen cases when people were in court fighting over the plastic flower pots in the back yard. “Here you have legal counsel on either side (and the combined rate is $300 an hour or more), judge of the trial division, staff, and folks are fighting over innocuous little things that

Lorraine Coffey

Paul Daly/The Independent

Divorcing debt Splitting up difficult enough; crippling legal fees often even more painful meant something to them, but you’ve got to step back from it. Then they look at the bill and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ That’s a reality.” Coffey, whose own lawyer charges $175 an hour, pulls out reams of papers showing itemized bills for thousands of dollars: lists of phone conversations, e-mails read and written, court applications. “I don’t know if she charged me $10

for that e-mail or if she charged me $1,000 for it,” she says, pointing in frustration. Coffey got her total bill from the firm she’s been dealing with in September. Because she’s terrified of accumulating more costs, she hasn’t contacted her lawyer since April and for the same reason is hesitant to request a more detailed bill, recording the exact hours spent on her file.

Bright, young minds needed; big breakthroughs coming: Bill Gates WATERLOO By Tyler Hamilton Torstar wire service

icrosoft Corp. founder Bill Gates walks to the front of a packed theatre of wide-eyed computer science and math students at the University of Waterloo. After loud applause, cheers and whistles, the richest person in the world gets to the point: “Microsoft has been in business for longer than most of you are old.” The comment speaks volumes about Gates’ visit to Waterloo, his only Canadian stop on a six-campus North American tour. Microsoft Corp. is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and Gates himself will hit the big 5-0 at the end of this month. If the software behemoth’s future success rests on its ability to constantly drive innovation, staying ahead of more youthful rivals such as Google Inc., it will need to get into the minds and capture the creativity of a new generation of young software developers and programmers. There’s much work to do, says Gates. Describing today as the “golden age” of software, he tells the crowd there will be more technological breakthroughs over the next 10 years than in the past 30. “The PC that (Microsoft co-founder)

Paul Allen and I dreamed about 30 years ago still does not exist,” says Gates. They always envisioned more power, greater simplicity and higher intelligence in computing devices. They also wanted to eliminate the need to print paper, to type and click, to rely on phone numbers or limit TV viewing to “channels.” For Gates, the next 10 years of computing will mean greater use of voice recognition, object identification, the death of physical media as we know it and the seamless interconnection of PCs, mobile phones, organizers, digital cameras, music players, game boxes and the Internet. “Software is where that action is,” he says, adding that finding the necessary talent will be a challenge. “We know for the next decade there will be a shortage of great software engineers.” Enrolment in computer science and software engineering programs in Canada has fallen by 11 per cent over the past three years and the trend continues. The purpose of Gates’ tour is to create some excitement around the computer sciences, and he makes it clear the University of Waterloo is a strategic partner for Microsoft, which employs several hundred university alumni and routinely hires co-op students. “There are many years where Waterloo is the university we’ve had the most people from of any university in the world, and Waterloo has always been

in the top five every year,” Gates says at a media roundtable following his meeting with students. He offers assurances that those pursuing an education in computer sciences and engineering will be well rewarded. “People who come out of Waterloo and out of software training will have lots of job opportunities. We just want to make sure we’re getting the best and the brightest.” Still, in a market facing a skills shortage over the next 10 years, it’s the graduates — those iPod-toting, Linux-worshipping pack of young Googlers — who will ultimately choose their employers. Gates knows he has to bridge the generation gap. He has to be cooler, or at least make an attempt. Back in the theatre, he plays a recruitment video that shows him falling asleep at his desktop and waking up in a trailer home with Napoleon Dynamite, the character in the same-named deadpan comedy that’s become an instant classic with teens. “Who the heck are you?” Gates asks Napoleon. “What are you, retarded?” Napoleon responds in the character’s trademark offensive manner. “I’m your flippin’ roommate.” The video has the audience in stitches. Unclear is whether the people walking out of the auditorium later will want to be Gates’ workmates.

‘A step in the right direction’ From page 23 inspectors are working and also the way how we apply penalties to those not respecting the rules.” David Bevan, assistant deputy minister of DFO in Ottawa, says increasing diplomatic efforts between fishing nations will see changes to the way stocks outside Canada’s 200-mile limit are managed. He points to the European Union’s voluntary shut down of the turbot fishery in August and the Portuguese cutting fishing efforts last year. “We want to formalize co-operation

with inspectors so that we make sure everybody understands how the others are applying the rules and build trust that way and we want to formalize scientific co-operation to better understand what’s going on in the NAFO regulated area,” Bevan says. Despite Portugal’s reputation over the years, Bevan says last year ships from the country were only issued three citations — only one of which was “serious.” He says fishing days dropped to 1,700 this year, compared to 2,600 in 2004. “When the effort matches the quotas the masters aren’t motivated to cheat

because the masters don’t have more sea days than they can use legally.” Bevan says the Portuguese are confident enough in their fishing practices to visit Canadian ports, where their cargoes are thoroughly inspected. “These people are worried about their international reputation … and they are taking steps to control it,” Bevan says. “This is good news in terms of what’s happening on the water … it would have been better if we’d done it in 1985 instead of 2005, but it’s a step in the right direction and we’re going to have to see how it pans out on the water.”

Her lawyer’s last words — outlined in an e-mail — were, “Your only recourse is to proceed to trial.” Coffey says she expected to come out of her divorce with roughly $20,000, which wouldn’t even cover her legal costs now. She admits her husband was hesitant to reveal all his financial assets, but she says she thinks he honestly wants to resolve the situation now as much as

she does. The problem is if they settle out of court Coffey will have no chance to claim back any of her legal fees. At the end of an application the lawyers for the two sides will argue who should cover costs and any decision for compensation then rests with the court. The legal system can be confusing at the best of times and people looking for advice can call the Public Legal Information Association of Newfoundland. Over 50 per cent of calls to the association concern family law matters. If a client feels they have been unfairly charged by their lawyer in any way, they can file a complaint with what is called a master and taxing officer for a flat rate, ranging between $15 and $50. The taxing officer will sit down with the client and lawyer to hear both sides and can immediately issue a legally binding judgment to have the client’s bill reduced if necessary. Buckingham says he strongly advises clients to use mediation before proceeding to court, as a means to keep fees down. Mediation involves both sides meeting with a legally impartial third party, who attempts to help them resolve their conflict. The couple can then draft and sign an agreed document and present that in court. “I’m not going to waste my client’s money and my time getting into battles over minutiae,” he says. “Let’s get down to the big picture, deal with it and really try as quickly as possible to get the clients into mediation and for them to resolve it.” Coffey, who has just one grown-up daughter and isn’t seeking support payments, says she wishes she could have got better feedback from her lawyer. She adds she feels particularly aggrieved when she sees other people who have managed to get through divorces with relatively minimal expense. “The only one’s that are winning here are the lawyers,” says Coffey. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people and they have paid nothing like $26,000. I mean, we’re not talking Donald Trump and Ivana here, you know?”

OCTOBER 16, 2005

26 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION

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OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 27

28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Sunscreen ingredient 5 Uncle ___ 8 Summer acquisitions 12 Flecked Australian stones 17 Thick slice 18 Roguish 19 Coloratura piece 20 Rain in Rimouski 21 Offenses 22 Keep back 24 Metric weight 25 Tawdry 27 Pierre’s chair 28 Coined 29 ___ du QuÈbec (Quebec Police) 31 Belonging to: suffix 32 Wharf 33 Got into a stew? 34 Start of a day? 35 N. Zealand parrot 36 Je ne sais ___ 39 Annulled 43 Slapstick ammo 44 Proficient 46 Boxing match 47 Like some ears 49 Of Viking culture 50 Country lodging 51 Water tank 52 Pet birds 54 Highest Alp: Mont ___ 56 Gain a lap

57 Fencing pieces 58 West Indian music 60 Endangered fish 62 ___ Nostradamus (Coupland) 65 What makes il mondo go round 66 Jury’s decision 67 ___ LÈvesque 68 More neighbourly 69 Hide-hair link 70 ___ tar sands 72 “___! A mouse!” 73 Piglet’s mom 74 Crack pilot 75 Colour of embarrassment 76 First Canadian woman to top Everest 78 Big bang producer 79 Major Winnipeg event of 1919 82 Type of fund 85 Sock pattern 87 Bouquet ___ 89 Not concealed 90 Over one-quarter of Canada is north of this 92 Frog’s cousin 93 Canine control 94 Tight closure 95 Rx writers 96 ___ in a blue moon 97 Some bridge seats 98 Cushions 99 Vancouver time

Solutions on page 31

100 Rodents DOWN 1 Sibilant signal 2 ___ Grace (Atwood) 3 African language group 4 Not concrete 5 Wind dir. 6 Wonderland girl 7 Legendary story 8 Hummus ingredient 9 Emerged 10 World’s longest river 11 Tearful 12 Pertaining to the eye 13 Cheap booze 14 Uncle’s wife 15 “Drop me a ___!” 16 Plant starter 23 Salon worker 26 Asian Bigfoot 28 Giant N. Zealand bird, once 30 Form of bowling 32 River to the Irish Sea 34 Walkers 35 Tease 36 Dies 37 Cathedral recess 38 Some Fr. martyrs 39 Baseball stat. 40 Ages and ages

41 Summer protection 42 Seventies dance music 43 Having five fingers per hand 44 S. American range 45 Venetian ruler, once 48 Newsman of yore 51 Escapade 52 Sand beside the sea 53 One suddenly prominent, and arrogant 55 Harp-like instrument 58 Walking stick 59 French friend 61 Sink one’s teeth into 63 Business letter abbr. 64 Nay’s opposite 66 Pledge 67 Heat emitter 69 Show drowsiness 71 Chunk of ice 73 The sun (myth.) 74 Winged beings 76 Sausage 77 Curses 78 Walk 79 Ships 80 Swedish coin 81 Make into law

82 Sleeper spy 83 Part of eye 84 Brewing choices

85 Side by side? 86 Like overcooked spaghetti

88 When Brutus was brutal 90 Tbsp’s smaller

cousin 91 Winter time in Timmins

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 You want more control in your life, and you will be ready to take steps in that direction this week, Aries. However, you may have to temporarily put your plans on hold. TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 As you go about your daily routine this week, Taurus, your mind will wander toward hopes of a vacation. Make the dream a reality, and plan a getaway. GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 Being sensitive to others is key this week, Gemini. You will be tuned into others' behavior, and if you pay attention, you can help someone who needs it. CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 It's important to discuss your finances with your spouse or other loved ones, Cancer. They can provide a fresh perspective on your budget and spending arrangements.

LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 A conversation between you and a supervisor could put you in an advantageous situation, Leo. You can certainly build a rapport with VIPs in your company. VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 Even though you've been focusing a lot of energy on work lately, Virgo, your heart is pushing you toward matters of the family. Now's the time to seek out a special someone. LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 You will be inspired to follow new creative paths, Libra, even though this usually isn't your cup of tea. However, it'll have to wait until after work, because things are certainly busy there. SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 You will be on the mark when you're needed to give a speech this week, Scorpio. People will be ready to listen to your point of view. But, a loved one misunder-

stands your remarks. SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 Get practical and discuss matters of mutual interest with your partner, Sagittarius. This individual shouldn't be in the dark, especially about matters of a financial nature. CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 This will be a businesslike week for you, Capricorn. There's not much time for fun and frolic. You will be highly motivated to get all your work done by the week's end. AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 This week presents plenty of opportunities for learning, Aquarius. Keep your ears and eyes open and your lips shut to reap many awards from these lessons. PISCES - FEB 19/MAR 20 You'll be in a position to challenge the status quo, Pisces. Relish every second of your chance for

creativity and individuality, especially on Thursday. FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS OCTOBER 16 John Mayer, singer (30) OCTOBER 17 Ziggy Marley, singer (37) OCTOBER 18 Jean-Claude Van Damme, actor (45) OCTOBER 19 Chris Kattan, comic (35) OCTOBER 20 Snoop Dogg, rapper/actor (33) OCTOBER 21 Carrie Fisher, actress/author (49) OCTOBER 22 Zac Hanson, singer

Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each column of nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order. There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tips and computer program available at www.sudoko.com SOLUTION ON PAGE 31

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 29

No more gimmes at soccer World Cup By Cathal Kelly Torstar wire service

ermany 2006 will feature nearly a dozen nations capable of winning soccer’s greatest prize. The rest of the 32team field are powerful competitors well able to derail a top side. On paper, we’ve got the makings for the best World Cup ever. Brazil, Argentina, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, the U.S. and France may all reasonably call themselves favourites. For the pie-eyed optimist, let’s also include Mexico, Ukraine, Japan, Croatia and Sweden. It might not be reasonable for Ivory Coast, Serbia, Poland or Paraguay to do likewise, but it wouldn’t be totally ridiculous. That leaves Tunisian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Iranian, Ghanaian and Saudi fans crying, “What about us?” Well, you won’t win it, but no opponent will be happy to see your name on the fixture list. We’ve said nothing about the Czechs, the Turks, the Spaniards, the Swiss, the Slovaks and the Norwegians, who may still qualify through the European playoff round. Where are the weaklings, you may ask? In previous World Cups, the Brazils and Englands were free to concentrate on one, possibly two tough first-round matches. Those days are over. Which “also-ran” would England rather play this year — the combustible Ivory Coast or unpredictable Costa Rica? None of the above likely. Huge strides in soccer backwaters have closed the gap considerably. Today, five of FIFA’s top 20 ranked sides come from Asia and North America (Mexico, U.S., Japan, Iran and Costa Rica). The field is so solid that Germany 2006 could put up two or three “groups of death” in the first round. Overly cautious sides (yes, we’re talking to you Italy) will surely be punished. Whoever strings together seven flawless matches against this field will surely be among the most deserving World Cup winners ever.

British Columbia Lions quarterback Casey Printers is a backup one year after being named the CFL’s most outstanding player.

REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Maas not bitter; Printers not happy By Rick Matsumoto Torstar wire service

t’s a tale of two backup quarterbacks, both quite capable of being starters. One is being cast as a villain, the other a hero. The bad guy is the B.C. Lions’ Casey Printers, pouting over having lost the No. 1 job to veteran Dave Dickenson. The good guy is Jason Maas, the Edmonton Eskimos’ No. 2 pivot behind Ricky Ray. Maas was numero uno with the Eskimos last season when Ray was taking what turned out to be a one-year sabbatical as the third-string pivot with the NFL’s New York Jets. When Ray returned to Edmonton this spring after being released by the Jets, Maas, who

Two former starters now backups was recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, became the backup. The 29-year-old Maas admits it’s tough to be confined to the sidelines. “I’m like everyone else, I want to play,” says Maas. “But I understand the role that I’m in. I’m not going to cause a distraction. I’ve chosen to do what I’m doing and it’s pretty much because I feel that’s the way it should be done. “I don’t think I’m doing anything extraordinary. I’ve been given the backup role. You have to be ready to

play and you don’t cause any disturbances.” That’s a philosophy that hasn’t been in evidence in B.C., where Printers lost his starting role in largely the same fashion. He was the Lions’ No. 1 pivot for most of last year after Dickenson’s wonky knee flared up in the third game. He went on to win the CFL’s most outstanding player award. But a shoulder injury also hampered Printers and Dickenson, his knee healed, was restored as the No. 1 pivot. Printers still hasn’t fully recovered from the shoulder problem, and some reports in B.C. have suggested his recovery has been hampered by a wounded ego. For the Eskimos, though, Mass and Ray have become the best of friends

and that has made the situation easier to handle. “Oh it definitely does,” says Ray. “We’re not out there trying to do things behind each other’s back. We both have a lot of respect for each other and we’re open and honest about things.” Maas has been rumoured to be headed for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as the unspecified “future considerations” for last week’s trade that brought running back Troy Davis and offensive guard Dan Comiskey to the Eskimos. But Maas says he’s not looking beyond this season. “I’ve said all year long that I want to stay in Edmonton for this year and at the end of the year I’ll look at my options and see what the team wants to do with me,” says Maas.

Raptors risk Bosh exit By Dave Feschuk Torstar wire service

Vince Carter signed on and mentally dropped out. So cue the speculation, not to mention the we’re-not-worthy self ilt Chamberlain, the late loathing that always seems to surface at great dominator of NBA these moments of truth. paint, had a knack for dra“(The contract) is in the back of my matic numbers. The 7-foot-1 centre mind. ... But I’m just concentrating on famously scored 100 points in a game, the season,” says Bosh, using pat averaged 50 points a night for a season answer No.14 from the cue cards his and slept with, by his rough count, agent surely prepared for him. 20,000 women (an average of more A lot can happen between now and than one per day from age 15 to his August 2006, when Bosh will be eligideath at age 63). ble to ink a six-year extension in He could also bench-press 500 Toronto, a year longer than he’ll be perpounds, a number that came to mind mitted to sign in any other city. The last week when Chris Bosh, the 21- Raptors, who will likely have two firstyear-old Toronto Raptors stalwart, was round picks in next year’s draft, will describing how much truly be able to call stronger he’d become themselves a youngduring an off-season and-developing club. “If we’re winning, of weight-room toil. And Bosh will know a I’ll be here.” Bosh says he can lot more about rookie bench-press a maxiteammates Charlie Toronto Raptors’ mum of about 260 Villanueva and Joey pounds these days, 30 Graham. Chris Bosh more than he could But Bosh will likely push as a rail-thin be coming off his third rookie. losing season. He’ll have watched the But Bosh, who is entering his third usual suspects try and, if form holds, season, needs every morsel of muscle. fail, to hold down a regular job in the There will never be another middle. Betting on Rafael Araujo to Chamberlain, obviously, but there take the pressure off Bosh seems a remains a league filled with hulking fool’s choice. Calling Aaron Williams a galoots waiting to push smaller men centre is a stretch. And relying on Loren around. And Bosh, ideally a power for- Woods is historically risky. ward who excels with quickness and Woods was asked last week why he skill, will again be asked to double as an was unable to find consistency last seaundersized centre. son, and he shrugged. “In order for this team to win I might “If I knew the answer to that,” he have to play centre,” says Bosh. “It’s said, “I’d probably $50- or $60-million still going to be hard but it’s not as hard richer right now.” as it used to be. ... It’s that cliché: brain He’s right; marginally competent over brawn.” seven-footers don’t have to approxiBosh is the ever-positive keener, the mate Wilt the Stilt to get huge paydays. kid who’ll never complain and always Bosh, who’s 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds performs. But now that the Raptors if you’re being generous, is sure to get a have gone another off-season without maximum deal. And if he doesn’t sign addressing their lack of a reliable start- an extension, if he plays his fourth seaing centre, their continuing reliance on son under contract but with no longthe youngster’s no-questions-asked term commitment to the Raptors, it’ll be gameness is poised to backfire. the clearest signal possible that his Bosh, after all, is arriving at a future is elsewhere, his patience moment in his career with which expired. Raptors hoop fans are all too familiar. Said Bosh last week, addressing the The promising Texan can sign a con- question of his future: “Don’t worry. If tract extension this coming summer that we’re winning, I’ll be here.” will keep him here into his prime, the Put another way, on the eve of a seacareer turning point at which Tracy son in which the wins won’t come easy: McGrady acted coy and bolted and worry.

Stop a heart attack before it starts. Your support is vital. Research into the root causes of heart disease and stroke will help millions live longer, healthier lives. As a leading funder of heart and stroke research in Canada, we need your help. Call 1-888-HSF-INFO or visit www.heartandstroke.ca

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

OCTOBER 16, 2005

Langdon: Hockey should be played ‘the way it was meant to be’ From page 32 a teammate, and lets the coaches decide who plays. “It’s stuff that’s out of my control,” Langdon says. “I don’t think of it as competing. The two of us have jobs to do. It’s not something I worry about — it’s not on my mind all the time.” Langdon is anxious to return to the ice, and expects to make his season debut within a week. When he does, he expects to see more skating and less hooking and holding, but also a lot less five-on-five hockey than he is used to. With officials keeping a close eye on obstruction, power plays are abundant in the NHL. Langdon is all for cleaning up the game, but says officials have taken it too far. He says teams can’t implement any systems — defensive or offensive — because one team is always short handed. “I don’t know if anybody is playing the trap or anything else — there’s almost too many penalties. Nobody gets a chance to do anything,” Langdon says. “Hopefully the refs will calm

down a little bit and people will get back to playing hockey the way it was meant to be.” New Jersey has long been known as a team that practiced the neutral zone trap to perfection. But in the new NHL, such a system is harder to operate, leaving some to wonder if teams like the Devils can adjust. Langdon, however, is confident any team with players such as Scott Gomez, Alexander Mogilny and Brian Rafalski can adapt to the new rules. “We’ve got some very skilled guys — a lot of speed. Guys like Mogilny can use these new rules to their advantage,” says Langdon. “New Jersey is always up around the top, so I think it will be disappointing if we don’t finish in the top three or four in the league.” New rules are not the only thing causing discussion in the NHL these days. The recent eye injury suffered by Toronto’s Mats Sundin has kick-started an argument that visors should be mandatory for all players. “I don’t think they should be mandatory,” says Langdon, who has never

worn a visor in his pro career (although nothing more to it than that.” due to Hockey Canada rules, he had to After spending last winter in Deer wear one while playing with the Deer Lake — where he won the Herder with Lake Red Wings in provincial senior the Red Wings — Langdon and his hockey last year). “A guy should have family moved to Wayne, New Jersey at his own preference. the beginning of Obviously it won’t September. He actuhurt to use them, but ally signed with the that (Sundin’s injury) in the summer “A guy should have Devils was a freak accident of 2004, but the lockand that happens. his own preference. out wiped out what Eventually they’ll be would have been his mandatory, but not for first year with the Obviously it won’t a couple more years.” Devils. He spent the hurt to use them ...” previous season in Fans and media speculate some players Montreal, where he are reluctant to wear a reaffirmed his status Darren Langdon on visor in fear of being as an NHL heavymandatory visors labelled a coward or weight and became chicken. But Langdon close friends with says that’s not the a n o t h e r case, and even states N e w f o u n d l a n d e r, that an enforcer like himself could take Bonavista’s Michael Ryder. to the ice with a visor and not face Although the two are on separate ridicule from his peers. teams these days, Langdon says he still “I don’t think it would matter,” keeps in touch with Ryder. Langdon says. “People realize it’s your “I talk to Ryder every second day to eyes and it’s for your safety. There’s bug him, if he makes a bad pass or

something. If he makes a giveaway I give him a call,” Langdon says with a laugh. “I don’t call him when he scores.” All jokes aside, Langdon says he is proud of the way Ryder has played so far this season. He predicts bigger and better things in the future for the young winger. “Obviously he’s a really good player,” Langdon says. “He’s got a great shot. It’s nice to see him get off to a good start and for sure he’ll keep it going. He’s going to be good for years to come.” Leaving Montreal and Ryder behind was not an easy decision for Langdon. But the two-year deal the Devils offered him in 2004 was superior to the one-year contract Montreal made available. Plus, his family was already familiar with the New Jersey-New York area from his days with the Rangers. “My wife likes it here — so that’s pretty well what made the decision,” Langdon says with a chuckle. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

OF THE

DEVIL WEEK DEVIL STATS

Marty Doyle, right wing Age: 20 Hometown: King City, Ontario Favourite hockey team: Toronto Maple Leafs Favourite hockey player: Todd Bertuzzi Favourite band: Foo Fighters Favourite type of movie: horror Favourite actor: Mike Myers Favourite actress: Cameron Diaz What’s it like to part of an expansion team? “I feel like I have a chance to be a leader. It’s a good bunch of guys here, so I’m pretty happy to be here.” Best thing about St. John’s: “The people are so friendly; I’ve really been accepted here.”

NAME

POS.

PTS

Scott Brophy Luke Gallant Oscar Sundh Marty Doyle Matt Fillier Nicolas Bachand Brett Beauchamp Pier-Alexandre Poulin Wesley Welcher Maxime Langlier-Parent Sebastien Bernier Olivier Guilbault Philippe Cote Zack Firlotte Pat O’Keefe Jean-Simon Allard Anthony Pototschnik Matt Boland Josh MacKinnon Kyle Stanley Steve Tilley

C D LW RW LW RW D C C LW D RW RW D D C RW D D D RW

12 6 10 43 27 23 2 18 14 16 44 21 22 5 11 4 24 26 8 3 25

8 12 7 12 12 11 11 12 12 10 11 12 12 12 6 12 9 5 8 9 12

5 2 2 2 1 4 2 2 2 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

5 8 7 4 5 1 3 3 3 1 3 1 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0

10 10 9 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 0

GOALTENDER Brandon Verge Ilya Ejov

W 3 0

L 7 2

GAA 4.08 7.45

S.PCT .893 .800

HOMEGROWN “Q” PLAYER Robert Slaney Colin Escott Ryan Graham Justin Pender Brandon Roach Mark Tobin Sam Hounsell

HOMETOWN Carbonear St. John’s St. John’s St. John’s Terra Nova St. John’s Pound Cove

TEAM Cape Breton Gatineau Gatineau Halifax Lewiston Rimouski Victoriaville

GP 8 9 10 5 9 10 2

G 0 0 4 0 4 3 0

A 1 0 1 0 7 2 0

PTS 1 0 5 0 11 5 0

GOALTENDERS Roger Kennedy Ryan Mior Jason Churchill

HOMETOWN Mount Pearl St. John’s Hodge’s Cove

TEAM Halifax P.E.I. Saint John

W 1 3 3

L 1 5 6

GAA 3.54 3.39 4.17

S.PCT .851 .909 .888

OCTOBER 16, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

Tellqvist stars in Belfour’s absence; Flyers’ Niittymaki may replace Esche

stepped onto the pitch. “I didn’t know if I was even going to start,” O’Grady says. While she didn’t know what to expect, her coach — Misty Aird — certainly did. Aird recruited O’Grady to the school and anticipated great things from her. After some early season practices, Aird knew she had a special player in O’Grady. “I really like her ability to score on the run,” says Aird. “She’s very athletic — really fast and a natural finisher.” O’Grady began her sophomore season with the Wildcats this fall, and has picked

up where she left off as a rookie. Through the team’s first 14 games, O’Grady has scored 17 goals. She is also tied for the team lead in assists (6) and game-winning goals (2). She has gone from impressive rookie to team leader in just one season. “She’s our go-to player,” Aird says. When she was preparing to graduate from O’Donel High School in Mount Pearl, O’Grady received scholarship offers from several American schools. Although some were closer to home than Bethel College, the school’s reputation for attracting players from around the globe convinced O’Grady to go to Tennessee. “This school has a lot of international players — girls from Jamaica and Nigeria, and they’re all national team players,” she says. “You learn a lot from them, even in practice. The way they play is totally different than Canadians and Americans.” O’Grady is one of six Canadians on the Wildcats roster, but is the school’s lone Newfoundlander. She says despite the fact her teammates come from several different countries, they have quickly come together as a team. “It’s as if we’ve been playing together forever,” O’Grady says. On a team with players coming from a number of different backgrounds, it is important the club have good chemistry. In the case of the Wildcats, athletes with O’Grady’s positive attitude and personable demeanour play a large role in creating a good atmosphere in the locker room, says Aird. “Everybody loves her,” says the Wildcats coach. “She’s got a great personality.” Although she is an extremely talented player, O’Grady also has a reputation as one of the Wildcats hardest workers. Aird says such commitment makes O’Grady a natural leader. “She’s very dedicated. She’ll stay after practice to get extra work in,” Aird says. Last season O’Grady helped lead the Wildcats to a berth at the NAIA nationals, before they were eliminated in the quarter-finals. She says the team has hopes of advancing further this season, and is eagerly awaiting the start of conference playoffs later this month. Should Bethel win their conference again, they will have to advance through the regional playoffs to get another shot at nationals. The road to the top will be a tough one, but O’Grady looks forward to it. If everything goes according to plan and Bethel gets back to the nationals, O’Grady’s soccer season will end in late November. Then it will be time to concentrate all her efforts on earning a physical education degree. Although her commitment to soccer and dedication to academics leave her little spare time, O’Grady assures she is enjoying life at Bethel. “I love it, it’s really nice,” she says. “I’m in a really good atmosphere. Everyone wants you to do well and do your best. It’s a really positive atmosphere.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Solution for crossword on page 28

Solution for sudoku on page 28

By Paul Hunter Torstar wire service

s Swedish backup netminder Mikael Tellqvist increases his prominence with the Maple Leafs, the door may also open for a Finnish puckstopper to get more of a role with the Philadelphia Flyers. In a situation similar to the one in Toronto, the veteran goaltender Philadelphia has been counting on to help carry the team has been struggling. To be sure, the Flyers have several niggling issues. Philly’s special teams have been atrocious and both rank near the bottom of the league. The Flyers’ power play is only ahead of the woeful Hurricanes for the league’s worst success rate. The Flyers’ scoring is limited to the top line centred by Peter Forsberg and defensive miscues are prominent. The team that many have anointed to win the Stanley Cup, won just one of its first three games. Struggling along with the rest of the cast is Robert Esche, who fans in Toronto remember as the goaltender who outplayed Ed Belfour to help eliminate the Leafs two springs ago. In his first two starts, Esche gave up nine goals on 49 shots. Interestingly too, like the Leafs, the Flyers’ first win came with their backup goalie in net, Finnish rookie Antero Niittymaki. Like Belfour, Esche did not play during the lockout. While Belfour dabbled in ownership with the ill-fated WHA, Esche took a vocal role with the idle players, criticizing Gary Bettman — at one time calling the NHL commissioner a “madman” — and joining a cadre of players who tried to work around the NHLPA to find their own solution to the labour stalemate. Niittymaki and Tellqvist, meanwhile, both had solid AHL seasons - Tellqvist with St. John’s and Niittymaki with the Philadelphia Phantoms. The latter was in fact named playoff MVP as the Phantoms won the Calder Cup. It sounds as if Esche should be looking over his shoulder but he’s not suffering from any crisis in confidence in the early stages of this season. “I felt I’ve played good. I don’t feel the least bit nervous about anything,” says the 27-year-old.

Leah O’Grady (right) of Mount Pearl leads the Bethel College Wildcats of McKenzie, Tennessee in goals, game winning goals and assists.

Go-to player Mount Pearl’s Leah O’Grady just missed all-American status as rookie soccer player in Tennessee, although there’s always this year By Darcy MacRae The Independent

eah O’Grady is living her dream. Since the Mount Pearl native was 15, she wanted to play soccer at an American university — on a full scholarship no less. Having played on numerous provincial teams and even on the Canadian under-19 team, O’Grady knew she had a good shot at landing on a team south of the border, but that didn’t make securing an offer from Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee any less special.

“It was a dream. I didn’t really expect it, I didn’t know if I could (get a scholarship). And then it happened,” O’Grady tells The Independent. O’Grady joined the Bethel College Wildcats in the fall of 2004 and promptly went on to score 22 goals in 22 games. She was named a conference first-team all star, and received an honourable mention as an NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes) All-American. It was quite a season for a player who admits she wasn’t sure what her role would be with the Wildcats when she first

Bring AUS hockey to Newfoundland From page 32 Miramichi last year. Mount Pearl’s Josh Manning spent three years playing major junior in Ontario before helping Yarmouth become a Maritime league power last winter. We also can’t forget Derrick Kent, who before leading CBN to an Avalon East Senior Hockey League title last year spent four seasons in the Q. Add Harbour Main’s Justin Hawco and Grand Falls-Windsor’s Billy Browne, both of whom played with Dalhousie last year, and you have the beginnings of strong university hockey team. In coming seasons players such as Scott Brophy, Jason Churchill and Roger Kennedy could be looking to play hockey while going to school, and what better place than in their home province? Heck, we could even have a local coach in Brad Peddle, a St. John’s native currently serving as bench boss of the St. F.X. X-Men. With solid recruiting, players from the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec could be added, and quite easily given so many junior players are now gaining exposure to the capital city during their trips here to play with or against the Fog Devils. Maybe I’m making putting such a team together sound a lot easier than it is. Not every major junior or junior A player from the province would come back to play university hockey — a few are bound to receive better offers somewhere else while a couple might just want to experience another part of the country. But from what I’ve seen of people from this province in the three years I’ve lived here, I’m willing to bet most would jump at the opportunity to play in St. John’s were it an option. And it’s not as if the city couldn’t handle having another elite hockey team. University clubs only play 28game regular seasons, so MUN’s home games could be scheduled for weekends the Fog Devils are away. Besides that, if MUN had a team,

more than half the crowd would be made up of young screaming students looking for an excuse to wear that cool school sweater their student loan paid for. The atmosphere would be amazing to say the least. I’m sure running a university hockey team is expensive, but so is operating basketball, soccer and volleyball teams, and MUN has those. And considering

that small Maritime schools like St. F.X., Acadia and St. Thomas ice nationally ranked teams (St. F.X. actually won the national title in 03-04), I’m confident MUN — the biggest university in the Atlantic provinces — could manage to find the funds necessary to bring AUS hockey to Newfoundland. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16-22, 2005 — PAGE 32

Darren Langdon during the Herder Memorial Trophy finals at Mile One last spring. After helping Deer Lake win the Herder last year, Langdon is back in the NHL for the 04-05 season with the New Jersey Devils. Paul Daly /The Independent

Fighting to stay on top Darren Langdon says rule changes could hurt his game, but after 10 years in NHL, he knows nothing comes easy By Darcy MacRae The Independent

arren Langdon has been overcoming the odds since he started playing pro hockey in 1992. Having never played major junior and having just one year of junior A under his belt, he was a long shot to have a pro hockey career at all when he began playing with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL 13 years ago. But just two years later, he made his NHL debut with the New York Rangers at the Montreal Forum, scoring a goal against future hall-of-famer Patrick Roy. The very next season he was a regular in the NHL,

and has since gone on to play more NHL games (507) than any other player from the province. Since he joined the NHL there have been those who speculated Langdon wouldn’t last in the big time. He was said to be too slow to keep pace, and not big enough to be a legitimate heavyweight fighter. But after 10 seasons in the NHL, and numerous victories against fighters both taller and heavier, it would appear Langdon has quieted his critics. However, with the NHL now focusing on free-wheeling hockey and calling more penalties than ever in hopes of removing obstruction, some say players of Langdon’s

fraternity — the hockey enforcer — are an endangered species. Simply put, there may not be room for tough guys in the new NHL. That’s not the way Langdon sees it. “I wouldn’t say they (the new rules regarding obstruction) are going to help me too much,” Langdon tells The Independent. “But I’ve been adjusting up here for 10 years now — everyone always said it was too fast, or too this or too that. You just have to play it a little different — play it smart.” Langdon never met a barrier he couldn’t overcome, just as he never met an opponent he wasn’t willing to do battle with. But just because he’s been in the NHL for 10 years

doesn’t mean he takes his spot for granted. Already this season he faces competition from fellow tough guy Krzysztof Oliwa for ice time with the New Jersey Devils, and the groin injury Langdon suffered three weeks ago isn’t helping matters. The injury has kept the native of Deer Lake out of the lineup thus far, possibly opening the door for Oliwa to claim the team’s top enforcer job. But just because Langdon and Oliwa are battling for ice time with the Devils doesn’t mean they are competing with one another, says Langdon. He looks at Oliwa simply as See “Langdon,” page 30

Time to put Sea-Hawks on ice

t. John’s could use another hockey team. Not another junior club — we finally have our own Q franchise, remember — and not another senior one either. What the city could benefit from is a university hockey team at MUN. And I’m not talking about a club team that would enter the local senior or junior league wearing MUN colours. I mean a full-fledged Atlantic University Sport hockey team playing in the Atlantic hockey conference

DARCY MACRAE

The game against teams from across the Maritimes. I’d love to see the Sea-Hawks take to the ice at Mile One with thousands of MUN students screaming in the stands, showing the kind of emotion only uni-

versity students can generate. I picture flags bearing the Sea-Hawks crest waving through the air, the sound of a screaming hawk blaring over the speakers every time the home team scores, and I see players from the province getting the chance to represent their school with pride. Every bit of this scenario is possible, especially the part about local players. University hockey teams in Canada are comprised mostly of ex-major junior and junior A players. Guys who could

quite possibly turn pro now or down the road and play somewhere in the minors or Europe but are looking to complete their education first. Plenty such players leave Newfoundland and Labrador every year to play junior hockey on the mainland, and many eventually end up playing university hockey. Just looking at last year’s junior stats alone indicates a strong nucleus of players for a MUN hockey team could be comprised of young men from the

province. Sam Roberts of St. John’s was Gatineau’s top defenceman (he is playing with St. F.X. this year), while Botwood’s Andre Gill led the Maritime Junior A Hockey League in scoring last year while playing for Miramichi, N.B. Joining Gill in Miramichi was Greg Hoffe of Grand Falls-Windsor, a veteran of three QMJHL seasons before being named the top defenceman in See “Bring AUS hockey,” page 31