2005-11-06

VOL. 3 ISSUE 45

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6-12, 2005

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WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA —

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LIFE 25

SPORTS 36

Arthur and Barbara Barrett reflect on life, love and the Second World War

Swimmer Laura Murray makes Canada’s youth team

Prison breaks

REMEMBER

Aging penitentiary issued close to 100 occupational and safety orders CLARE-MARIE GOSSE

H

er Majesty’s Penitentiary has been issued close to 100 orders by occupational health and safety officials to improve conditions at the St. John’s prison, The Independent has learned.

Issues range from asbestos contamination and a full review of the prison’s safety plan, to less serious problems such as fire extinguishers in inappropriate locations and a stairwell railing system that failed to meet regulation standards.

“Two occupational health and safety inspectors have been down at the institution here in St. John’s for the past three weeks,” confirms Marvin McNutt, provincial director of adult corrections. “The orders range from having to actually firm up our safety plan to actual changes in the physical plant that have to be made.”

He says the directives from occupational health and safety — including three stop-work orders and four issues concerning asbestos exposure or danger of exposure — are all manageable and will not be “financially onerous.”

McNutt says a “crawl space” in a segregation area that’s no longer used was issued a stop-work order for asbestos exposure, prohibiting access. Three other areas were cited as being at risk of possible asbestos exposure.

See “All factors,” page 2

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “And then over in Newfoundland, (the new brides would) get to the railway station … and standing there waiting for them was this man in hip rubbers and cap … it was quite a shock.”

— War bride Barbara Barrett on the surprise some new brides would get upon arrival

A veteran places a poppy during a memorial service in St. John's last Nov. 11. This year has been declared the Year of the Veteran..

Paul Daly/The Independent

No hope for a miracle Some outports see little hope for rebuilding; McCurdy says ‘a couple thousand’ have left this fall STEPHANIE PORTER

H

elena Pittman can’t disguise the sadness in her voice. “There’s been a great deal of out-migration here, and that’s sad,” says Pittman, a member of the town council of Bird Cove on the Northern Peninsula. “Morale is very low. Even the old people are expressing their views about how sad it is, and these are people that don’t go around very much … but they think, you know, the community is not the same anymore.

“It’s depressing, very depressing.”

Pittman, a lifelong resident of Bird Cove, keeps on top of the numbers. It wasn’t long ago the community was 400 strong. This fall, from a population hovering around 200, 14 residents have headed to the mainland.

Pittman says six will likely return to work in the fishery in the spring; the rest are gone for good.

“When you’re missing 14 people, you really miss them,” says Pittman. “And it’s hard on the council too, because all of the taxpayers are going away.”

The population of Newfoundland and Labrador has been declining for years — between 1996 and 2001, it dropped seven per cent — with little indication of a turnaround. While St. John’s and area may be seeing growth, many outlying communities are practically dwindling away to nothing.

According to Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union, the province could be experiencing “another significant wave” of out-migration this fall.

McCurdy estimates “a couple thousand” workers have left for elsewhere in Canada in the last few weeks alone.

“That’s a bit of a wild guess,” he tells The Independent. “There is no area of the province that is exempt from the phenomenon.”

McCurdy says a poor fishing season — due to the strike by crab fishermen, shrimp tariffs, the high Canadian dollar and the price of fuel — left many

families with “dramatically” lower earnings this year, unable to meet their financial commitments.

“People have got to do what they can to pay their bills,” he says. “Some would be leaving for seasonable employment, to make up for lost income. But once people go, some are likely to find something and stay.”

It’s at the point already, he says, that boat owners are seeing their seasoned crew take off — leaving them to wonder if they’ll even be able to staff their vessels come spring.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about what the fishery is going to have to offer,” he says.

McCurdy is looking for new ideas to stabilize as many jobs as possible “to the extent we can in an erratic and unpredictable industry.

“We can do a better job of how we schedule our fisheries, how we organize them, our price-setting mechanism, the quality of product we put out — there is a whole host of things we can do.”

See “Business,” page 4

Bigotry on ice Paul Watson slams Newfoundlanders as ‘blight and curse’ for killing seals and other ‘sadistic tendencies’

OPINION 13

Michael Harris suggests lighter spin on Gomery Inquiry

ALISHA MORRISSEY

LIVYER 25

Ingeborg Marshall on searching for Red Ochre People Life Story . . . . . . .

Paper Trail . . . . . .

Movie review . . . .

In-camera . . . . . . .

Book review . . . . .

12 12 27 28 30

O

nline commentary about Anne Troake’s sealing documentary My Ancestors were Rogues and Murderers has incited racist remarks about Newfoundlanders by Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and his supporters.

Contacted by The Independent aboard his vessel Farley Mowat, Watson confirms he wrote an email describing Newfoundlanders as a “blight and a curse,” saying he has “no respect for Newfoundland or Newfoundlanders.

“They debased Canada when they joined the nation in 1949 and they continue to embarrass us in the eyes of the world as they inflict bloody carnage on innocent creatures (seals).”

The controversy began when Annie Ferncase, a retired teacher living in St. John’s, recommended on her weblog that people should see Troake’s film to learn the other side of the seal hunt.

My Ancestors were Rogues and Murderers is a story about Troake’s family from Twillingate and their long, proud connection to the seal hunt. It’s also the story of a fight against public perception and self-proclaimed conservation groups like the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

See “Watson,” page 2

Captain Paul Watson.

Keld Navntoft/Reuters

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

All factors will be taken into account From page 1 “The other three areas are the carpenters shop, the laundry and the maintenance shop,” says McNutt. “These are areas in which there is asbestos that has been used to wrap the pipes up in the ceiling. Now it is sealed, however there would be a concern if that asbestos was disturbed.”

He adds the Department of Transportation and Works is currently reviewing quotes from various contrac-

tors to solve the asbestos problems.

Meantime, those three areas are still used by staff and inmates.

The two other stop-work orders include scaffolding that failed to meet standard requirements and a desk in an office used for inmate assessment located too far away from an exit.

McNutt says none of the orders were of an emergency nature and fixing them wouldn’t require any undue disruption to the penitentiary.

“This is an issue that we take serious-

ly, we’re working closely with transportation and works and we’re looking at those requirements that we can deal with immediately and where we need to, we’ve sought extension of the timeframe so that we can comply.”

He says he hopes to have the orders addressed by May 2006.

“There’s a need to review, very intensely, our own safety plan that is required by the legislation, that’s going to require a lot of consultation,” says McNutt.

The occupational health and safety inspections were routine visits.

Carol Furlong, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association for Public and Private Employees, says the union (which represents correctional

staff) had already raised a number of prison maintenance issues with government. Some of those — including repairs to the roof — were already being worked on by contractors and are unrelated to the occupational health and safety inspection.

“We want to see, of course, these deficiencies repaired immediately,” says Furlong. “There’s some talk, obviously now, about a new prison but we think that’s a lot of money that they’re talking about and the current facility which is there, with a small amount of money, could be brought up to standards and would serve well.”

The number of recent orders issued could place increased pressure on government to replace the aging penitentiary.

McNutt says Justice Minister Tom Marshall has indicated he will be presenting a paper on the subject at a future cabinet meeting.

“All factors will be taken into account in making that decision,” he says. “We have to keep in mind, as well, that there are many other issues around this province that require considerable capital investment such as schools and hospitals, so we’ll be in the pot with the rest of the needs in the province.”

The medium-security prison — the oldest parts of which were built in the 1850s — is used to house provincial inmates sentenced to two years less a day. Inmates sentenced to longer terms are sent to federal prisons outside Newfoundland and Labrador.

Watson: Newfoundland is place where ‘priests rape orphans’ From page 1 Since Ferncase posted her comments several weeks ago, she’s been receiving harassing e-mails portraying her as a stereotypical, bloodthirsty Newfoundlander.

She says she doesn’t believe in killing animals.

“They’ve all assumed things about me that aren’t true,” says Ferncase, who’s originally from California. She says she just wanted to promote an intellectual discussion on her weblog between viewers of the film and seal activists.

“My thing was never to enrage … I think I stupidly enraged them in saying that Paul Watson was an opportunist … I didn’t want a blog for sealing or anti-sealing. I wanted a blog for understanding.”

Asked if he thinks his comments against Newfoundlanders are harsh, Watson responds: “I think it’s a pretty harsh thing, the fact that the sealers can assault my crew … it’s been an ongoing battle, you know, I’ve been involved in this issue for years and years and if you say I have absolutely no respect for Newfoundlanders, well I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”

Watson’s e-mail goes on to say that Newfoundland is a place where “priests rape orphans,” and where residents hurt seabirds for fun, and idolize animal killers like Captain Abraham Kean.

He claims Newfoundlanders have killed off species including the white bear, the Newfoundland wolf, the Labrador duck, the giant Auk, along with the Beothuk and north Atlantic cod.

“And now they wallow in self pity because they have rendered the land incapable of supporting themselves and turn their blame, their anger and their sadistic tendencies onto the seals, the whales, the birds, in fact, anything that moves and breathes that is not human,” Watson writes in his e-mail.

Watson tells The Independent the Troake family has nothing to be proud of and there’s nothing to be learned from Anne Troake’s film.

“I can’t imagine any justification and just because somebody’s great-grandfather was a sealer it doesn’t justify what they’re doing today. My ancestors were Vikings and fur-trappers, for sure, but that doesn’t mean I support it.”

He writes of Troake’s film: “I think the title of this film is appropriate and accurate and I’m sure it will be the darling documentary of the anthropocentric crowd who love to embrace primitivism and view the arrogant ignorance of those quaint seal slayers and cod butchers as something to be perversely admired.

“The great thing is that this film will not have much of an audience in the civilized world, where people view the crimes of their ignorant ancestors with regret and not admiration.”

Troake says she expected varied reactions to her film, but says it would be wasted on Watson, who says he’ll watch it when he returns from sea.

“If he’s really married to his response then I don’t even know why he’d want to watch it,” Troake says. “He obviously thinks that my ancestors were rogues and murderers so I really don’t see why he would bother.”

In a July interview with The Independent about the first screening of her film, Troake admitted she was a little nervous, remembering the threats and 3 a.m. phone calls her cousin Garry had received in response to his defense of the seal hunt.

As for the comments about Newfoundlanders in Watson’s email, Troake gasps. “Wow,” she says, before composing herself.

“I don’t really want to engage in-depth with that kind of bigotry.”

Watson justifies his e-mail, saying, “A lot of people in Newfoundland and Labrador make a lot of quotes about me which incite me so I think it goes back and forth.”

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

W

hen the chief of staff at Captain William Jackman Memorial Hospital in Labrador City talks about the everyday infrastructure issues faced in his workplace, he could be mistaken as talking about a health centre in the Third World.

Tom Costello speaks of closing the ER and canceling operations due to substandard equipment and a drastic lack of temperature control; leaking roofs; plaster crumbling off walls; running taps for half an hour to clear dirt from the water; plastic wrap over windows; and small heaters brought in to keep patients warm.

Costello, who’s also president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, says the hospital — which services Wabush, Churchill Falls, Fermont, Que., as well as Labrador City — desperately needs to be replaced.

“The building’s in a deplorable state,” he tells The Independent. “No longer cost effective; no longer serving the needs of the community.

“Government is listening, but government needs to stop putting out little fires, they need to get a long-term strategy.”

Unfortunately for the Labrador City hospital, infrastructure problems in government buildings are rife across the province. Health care facilities, schools, correctional facilities, cultural buildings, historic buildings and vacant buildings all seem to be demanding drastic attention.

“Right across the spectrum of government, infrastructure has deteriorated,” says Transportation and Works Minister Tom Rideout. “We have to contribute significant amounts of funds to rehabilitate buildings as well as transportation infrastructure and we’re certainly doing that.”

Rideout’s department is responsible for a portion of provincial buildings such as the Confederation Building, courthouses and cultural facilities. Health care and education facilities, as well as buildings run by Crown corporations, are overseen by their respective departments or boards — although Transportation and Works oversees all vacated buildings.

Since taking office in 2003, the Tory administration has almost doubled its infrastructure maintenance budget to $48.7 million. In his 2004 overview, Auditor General John Noseworthy stated the department needed $173 million within the next five years to deal with problems.

“We started, in this year’s budget, trying to prioritize the (buildings) that

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3 ought to come down,” says Rideout, adding parts of the old Grace General Hospital in St. John’s are being demolished this year. “So we’ve begun the process of identifying which buildings are surplus to our needs and which should come down and which need repair.”

The Department of Health received $21 million towards building repairs and construction in this year’s budget and the Education Department received $27 million — far less than the amount requested.

Keith Bowden, director for infrastructure support with Eastern Health, says Avalon health centres have their own problems — including the 30-year-old Health Sciences Centre.

“It’s an extensive issue, yes definitely,” he says. What’s in St. John’s seems to be mirrored in the other buildings across the (Avalon) system.

“The infrastructure issue has sort of been building for a long time and hospitals are no different, better or worse, than the roads, the schools and everything else.”

Bowden says leaking roofs often jump out as being immediate problems because they’re so obvious, but within health care buildings, over-used internal systems can cause the most concern.

“You see very heavy ventilation systems, electrical systems are very extensive, and really we’re seeing, across the board, those systems are well past their expected service life and the liability is considerable.”

He says even regular maintenance isn’t enough when infrastructure has simply passed its best-before date and ultimately needs to be replaced, such as the old visitors’ elevators in the Health Sciences Centre (which are being replaced) and parts of the air conditioning system (pending replacement).

“It’s always a balance and when it gets very bad you have to make some hard choices,” says Bowden. “We’ve made our case to government and certainly have put our numbers to them.”

He says it seems as though the province is starting to take notice — which is encouraging.

“It’s a very big item for us right now and it’s critical for delivery of the service. You want to put the money at the bedside because that’s why we’re here.

On the other hand the beds have got to be dry, the emergency power’s got to work; all this kind of stuff that’s not very glitzy.

“When does it become unacceptable?

That’s not something I really want to pull a crystal ball out and say, but I do think we have a very significant infrastructure issue.”

Building up Province faces increasing problems with aging infrastructure

‘Dreams for sale’ I

n the streets of Prague, they sell, as a tourist keepsake, a copy of a Royal Proclamation dated 1348.

This enlightened document, reflecting the conclusions of western factfinding expeditions, announces the establishment of Charles University.

Prague is thus propelled on an everupward path in learning and wealth to its position today as the beautiful, leading light in the Eastern European Revival.

A very special place that discussed the Russians away and, once free, decided to part the country in two, peacefully and as friends and neighbours.

Once Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic and Slovakia; separate and equal.

And now busy re-integrating economically and politically through their common membership in the European Union. Working out a better fit.

Done without a single RCMP barn burning, speeding Brinks truck or any other of the screamingly adolescence tactics favoured by Ottawa in its relations to Quebec; not to mention sleaze and theft.

Political re-construction to the very roots; can’t seem to avoid that theme.

Too heavy.

CABOT MARTIN Guest column Should switch to the Republic of Texas, 1838.

Now I know it is hardly fashionable these days to look for enlightenment in that particular quarter, but patience.

For in those post-Alamo days, preUnion with the States, the Republic of Texas stood alone, naked to history, with a lot on their mind.

Fortunately, it was not the empty bushland of today.

And so on Dec. 20, 1838, President Mirabeau B. Lamar addressed the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas, passionately and eloquently, urging, successfully, the grant of public lands to finance education, including a university.

That speech would lead directly to the present Texas A&M and University of Texas system with $13 billion in its Permanent University Fund last account I read; mostly from their land endowment which they have managed assiduously.

This brilliant initiative was to sur-

vive union with the United States in 1845 and the American Civil War, and was most endangered by the downhome greed of developers who at one stage successfully pressed that the university be stripped of its original good farmland in north central Texas in exchange for near desert land in West Texas.

Now West Texas is beautiful but the grass was, in the words of one irate university defender, only up to the bellies of rabbits not to the “bellies of horses,” as touted by promoters of the switch.

Good thing those sleaze artists didn’t know about the oil under the university’s new West Texas lands.

Of course, no one did, so enter a couple more real heroes.

First, geologist and university professor Johan Udden, who in 1916 derailed yet another sellout proposal by pointing out the un-recognized oil potential and more importantly providing a workable exploration model.

And then Frank Pickrell, a halfbroke wildcatter, who in 1923 took a farm out on some university lands near Midland and after many adventures, technical and commercial, drilled the Santa Rita No. 1 well, a gusher that started the whole West Texas/Permian

Basin oil play. Santa Rita, the patron saint of a group of far-sighted, keystone financing nuns in New York.

Santa Rita No. 1, fabled well, the wooden derrick and old draw works of which were moved in 1940 to the University of Texas (Austin) campus.

All of which brings me to that rumble of growing agitation in our very own west.

As a son of the southwest, if not the west, I say “louder please.”

And it is an agitation that may have some “traction,” if the recent comments of the premier are any guide to evolving public policy.

The motion is: we should, right now, build a major new university in Corner Brook on the foundations of Grenfell College.

The University of Western Newfoundland.

An independent, stand alone, University of Western Newfoundland to provide a bright new focus, not just for the west coast, but for our whole province.

An off-the-Avalon counter point.

And while we are in the revolutionary mood, why don’t we help fund the new University of Western Newfoundland by setting aside a few oil and gas exploration “Golden Blocks”

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The revenues from such lands might even be protected from the equalization clawback.

Just picture it a few years down the road.

The annual late January North American Prospect Expo (NAPE) is in full swing in Houston’s cavernous George Brown Convention Center.

The usual 20,000 (no typo) wouldbe deal makers and their technical advisors, who have gathered from around the world for their annual oil and gas exploration funding frenzy, are off the mark by 8 a.m., knowing that making a deal in two days at NAPE is a matter of making contacts and hard walking.

The buzz of deal making ascends like that of bees returning home; they are all there, from Exxon to Backyard Oil & Gas Inc.; booths festooned with geological and seismic sections; dreams for sale.

By 10 a.m. the first sold signs are going up.

And going great guns, in all of this hubbub, is the University of Western Newfoundland booth.

President Lamar smiles down in vindication; and he should.

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

An affinity for home

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

W

hat started out as a modest gathering of expatriates from Newfoundland and Labrador in Ottawa five years ago has grown into a grand affair, filling the ballroom of the famous Chateau Laurier and enticing guest speakers such as Premier Danny Williams.

On Nov. 7, Newfoundland and Labrador’s best and brightest in the country’s capital will gather for Ottawa Affinity Newfoundland and Labrador, an annual event celebrating the homeland, with a focus on Memorial University.

“It’s also a wonderful networking event,” says Heidi Bonnell, a member of the organizing committee. “I’m always so impressed by the caliber of people who are from Newfoundland and Labrador who play prominent roles in this community.

“Basically the whole audience is Ottawa’s key business, technology, industry and government community members.”

Ottawa Affinity Newfoundland and Labrador

was created by Tom Bursey, an MBA grad from Memorial. He says he wanted something to keep the spotlight shining on the homeland.

This year’s event, which should sees attendance spike to around 350, is expected to raise enough money to fulfill Bursey’s original hopes of setting up a scholarship fund at Memorial for sons and daughters of expatriates.

“We’ll be writing a cheque somewhere in the near future to the university for $20,000 to put a permanent scholarship in place,” he says.

Bonnell says the menu will include Newfoundland and Labrador-inspired dishes like “Exploits salmon” and “Change Island cheesecake.” Williams will be the guest speaker (his subject is Newfoundland and Labrador: our pride, our potential, our future), Canada AM’s Seamus O’Reagan is the MC, and guests include General Rick Hillier, chief of Canada’s Defence Staff and anchorman Max Keeping, amongst many others. Some visiting CFAs will also be attending, including Irish ambassador to Canada, Martin Burke and British High Commissioner David Reddaway.

Danny Williams

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Business as usual and hope for a miracle’ From page 1 He has other suggestions: the province could help offset some of the high cost of fuel; the industry could use some seed money to start a “self-rationalization” program.

“The one thing we can’t do is say it’s business as usual and hope for a miracle.”

Mayor Gerry Gros of Anchor Point on the Northern Peninsula says he’s seeing “a lot of trepidation” in his community.

“This year was a tough year,” he says.

“There was still a lot of shrimp left in the

water, especially up north … now most of them are sitting around wondering what’s going to happen next year.”

On a positive note, Gros says many of the fishermen got together late last spring to begin a fisheries co-op to “try and finally start getting a fair and equitable price for the shrimp.”

Given that most of the plants are owned by bigger companies — and any revenue generated leaves the area, if not the province — Gros says the co-op members also hope to reinvest some of the net profits locally.

GENERAL MANAGER John Moores john.moores@theindependent.ca

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

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

OPERATIONS CONSULTANT Wilson Hiscock wilson.hiscock@theindependent.ca

CIRCULATION MANAGER Derek Frampton derek.frampton@theindependent.ca

PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews john.andrews@theindependent.ca

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

“Many fishermen feel very positive about that, at least,” says Gros, maintaining that his community has a fairly stable workforce — so far.

“That much helps the community.”

Calvin Hackett, from Terrenceville on the Burin Peninsula, just returned home after six months in Medicine Hat, Alta. He figures he’ll go off again this spring — and next year, his wife, Diane, will probably come too.

“Work is virtually non-existent in this part of Newfoundland,” he says. “I’ve tried a few previous years in St. John’s … a little bit of shortage of work but more the wages were considerably lower in St. John’s.”

Hackett works in construction. He says his wages in Alberta were 50 per cent higher than in this end of the country.

At age 54, Hackett admits he is considering moving to the mainland permanently. “I don’t like to, but if I got to I got to, right? I own my own home here and that’s one of the things that kind of cushions the impact

of the lack of work but it can’t support me and my family.

“It’s a more relaxed way of life in Newfoundland, but it’s no comparison the way of living to have a decent job in Ontario or Alberta.”

Hackett says he’s gotten used to seeing young people pack up and move away, but now it’s happening more and more to people his age.

“This so-called oil boom is certainly not having an effect on rural Newfoundland … it’s hard for an average person in an outport to see it.”

If Hackett does move to Medicine Hat, he won’t be wanting for familiar faces. This past summer, he attended a wedding reception there — and there was at least 80 people from Terrenceville.

“That’s 10 per cent of the population right there, that was just at that wedding,” he says. “That doesn’t give me any hope for improvement.”

Helena Pittman of Bird Cove has similar

stories. She’s seen her family leave: she has two sisters in Brampton, Ont., with their families. A brother is in B.C. with his children and grandchildren.

“My daughter and her husband live in Okotoks outside Calgary,” she says. “I think there are 48 from Bird Cove who moved there within the last nine year.

“I’m trying to count up all those in Fort McMurray — there was 90 (from Bird Cove) — and I never counted the children who were born there. Our population would be doubled again or more if all those came back.”

Pittman, who works at a nearby motel, is approaching retirement. When the time comes, she says she’ll probably move as well, to be near her family away.

“It’s going to be hard getting all those people back,” she says. “I don’t see it happening in my lifetime, though I hate to say it.

“I’d like to say something optimistic for you, but I can’t.”

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

‘Grilling the minister’

Fisheries and Defence ministers to be called before standing committee to answer questions on Melina and Keith II tragedy

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

T

he investigation into the Sept. 12 sinking of the Melina and Keith II may take years, says a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, the agency looking into the accident.

Meantime, Conservative MP Loyola Hearn, federal Fisheries critic, plans to call federal Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans before month’s end to answer questions about the tragedy.

Hearn says the meeting will be a chance to “grill the minister” on three issues pertaining to vessel safety in the wake of the tragedy that claimed four lives.

The first issue, Hearn says, is the stability of so-called 64-11s — a class of fishing vessel created by federal regulations limiting the length of fishing boats and described by fishermen as dangerous. Hearn says fishermen should be allowed to build a longer, more stable vessel, as opposed to the regulationforced, snub-nosed vessels — built outwards and upwards, resulting in a topheavy, box-like boat.

The second issue involves the search and rescue response. It took the Cormorant helicopter operated by National Defence out of Gander one hour and 55 minutes to get off the ground once the capsized vessel was located.

Hearn says because of the “inconceivably” long time, National Defence Minister Bill Graham may also be called before the standing committee.

“He has to explain why we have a search and rescue unit that works eight hours a day,” Hearn says. “I’m not blaming the workers, they’re doing a great job, but there should be more of them there and we should have round-theclock service — especially this time of year.”

Bernard Dyke, one of the survivors of the Melina and Keith II.

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 two-hour standby — as was the case when the call

came in for the Melina and Keith II. The third and final issue involves the closure of the Gander weather station in 2003.

Hearn says accurate weather forecasting and timely weather warnings could potentially save fishermen’s lives.

Paul Daly/The Independent

“If we ever had a major storm at peak season and we didn’t get the proper forecasting to give them (fishermen) a chance to get in out of it, we’d have wholesale slaughter,” he says. “Mother Nature is cruel and things can happen very quickly.”

The fishing vessel Lady Charlotte Star was the first to arrive on the scene of the Melinda and Keith II tragedy, 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.

Hearn spoke up about the response times in the House of Commons last week, asking why it took nearly two hours to get the rescue helicopter off the ground.

Keith Martin, parliamentary secretary to the minister of National Defence, responded, saying the response was within limits allowed by the department.

“We regret profoundly the deaths and loss of life of those people who were far away from shore. I can assure the House, and you Mr. Speaker, that those members in our search and rescue, who respond admirably and with courage at every opportunity, responded well within the times that were humanly possible to save those people’s lives,” Martin said.

John Cottreau, spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, says the investigation into the sinking is still in the interviewing and information gathering phase.

The next step — which probably won’t begin until late-February — will be analysis of the facts and then, finally, a complete report will be filed.

Cottreau says the investigation will look into “everything, including stability” and emergency response by the coast guard and National Defence helicopter.

The ill-fated Melina and Keith II, an 18-metre boat, was 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.

Four survived the freezing waters by holding onto debris, including an overturned aluminum boat.

Hibernia shares may not be so easy to buy; stake isn’t for sale anyway

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

P

remier Danny Williams has said the province may try to buy the federal government’s 8.5 per cent stake in Hibernia, but it may not be as easy as that.

The Hibernia partners may first have to agree to a transfer of shares, according to an official with the federal Finance Department.

Meantime, Gerry Byrne, federal Liberal MP for Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, says he’s been researching some issues that may impact the transfer of the 8.5 per cent and he has asked federal Finance to analyze the agreement.

He says one possible problem with

the province negotiating with Ottawa over the purchase (or free transfer) of the share, which is said to be worth up to $800 million, is that the other companies involved in Hibernia might be entitled to right of first refusal.

ACTIVE FILE “It’s an active file,” says Byrne.

“This was information given to me by an insider in the oil and gas industry and I’ve decided to follow up on it because of the obvious consequences … it could be much ado about nothing.”

Premier Danny Williams told The Independent in mid-October that the province is no longer expecting to acquire the 8.5 per cent as a goodwill

transfer from the federal government (an aim outlined in his party’s 2003 election Blue Book), but rather to purchase the share at a reduced rate. The same article outlined the possibility of a future massive expansion of the Hibernia project in the wake of a recent field discovery of extra oil.

In 1992 the federal government saved the Hibernia development when it put down $451 million to secure an 8.5 per cent share, made available when Gulf Canada abruptly pulled out.

John Embury, a spokesman with federal Finance, says there is no apparent right of first refusal clause in the original partnership agreement, but there is a clause suggesting the other partners would have to approve any buyer in

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. 31 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova; Golf Spirit 1, Canada, from White Rose; Maersk Challenger, Canada, from White Rose; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels departed: Cicero, Canada, to Halifax; Ann Harvey, Canada, to Sea; Acadian, Canada, to Saint John; Sybil W, Canada, to Long Pond.

TUESDAY, NOV. 1 Vessels arrived: Ann Harvey, Canada, from Sea; ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels departed: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, to Terra

Nova; ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Halifax.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2 Vessels arrived: Wilfred Templeman, Canada, from Sea; Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Canada, from Sea; Ocean Concord, Canada, from Argentia; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova.

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 3 Vessels arrived: Ann Harvey, Canada, from Sea; Maersk Norseman, Canada, from Hibernia; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose; Cabot, Canada, from Montreal.

Vessels departed: Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Canada, to Sea. FRIDAY, NOV. 4 Vessels arrived: Cabot, Canada, from Montreal; Bear Cove Point, Canada, from fishing; Aromendez, Spain, from sea; Cicero, Canada, from Halifax.

Vessels departed: Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; Ann Harvey, Canada, to sea; Wilfred Templeman, Canada, to sea; Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Hibernia.

question.

He adds his department has not been approached by the province on the issue and they are not seeking to sell the share at this time — nor have they in the past.

“No one is doing anything on this file,” says Embury.

CLAIM REFUTED National media reports this year speculated Ottawa was planning to sell the share, a claim later refuted by Finance officials.

Carmel Turpin, a spokeswoman with the province’s Natural Resources Department, says although the province has looked into the issues surrounding the Hibernia share, it is not ready to dis-

cuss the legalities of any partnership agreements.

“Anything like that, in terms of legalities between partners, would certainly come to light if and when we go down the road of negotiating this.”

Byrne says the prospect of the province purchasing the share at a discounted price would be “intriguing” and should be considered. However, he says the original aim of a goodwill transfer would be within Newfoundland and Labrador’s best interests.

“Quite frankly the best deal for Newfoundland and Labrador would be to acquire it without cost, whether or not that’s in the realm of the possible, I don’t know.”

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

What’s with the can’t-do attitude?

I

’ve lived on The Rock for just over three interesting years. Let me confess a little first. I’m a passionate South African and a committed Ayn Randian. This means that I find myself in a state of considerable ambivalence over this hauntingly beautiful land in which I now live.

Let me explain.

As one who has the perspective of having lived in a considerably warmer land, but one that has a similar undercurrent harshness of environment and circumstance, I understand courage.

I am in awe of the early settlers of both our countries. Mine, for their survival in extraordinary conditions, from disease to wild animals, to ferocious tribesmen and ultimately, the worst of all, the fight against a cruel colonial master during the Boer war; yours for carving a living on a frozen rock, a situation forced upon many just to escape the cruelty of a press gang.

The memory of this bitter fight still lingers in the Afrikaner people, then a largely farming community, who with great resourcefulness, knowledge of the land and marksmanship,

WILLIAM THOMPSON Guest column held off and often defeated a vastly superior British force over a number of years. The horror of the concentration camp was invented by the British in that war to pen in the families of these intrepid fighters, thereby effectively cutting their supply lines, ultimately reducing them to starvation and eventual submission.

The Afrikaner, like the Newfoundlander, was and is a great survivor, and although, as one of British heritage I spent my youth angry that we (the English speaking populace) had no political say beyond that of powerless opposition, I understand the insular attitude of the Afrikaner government, in the light of their Boer War experience.

Similarly, I understand the Newfoundlanders, and the wary attitude to those from away, particularly mainland Canadians, especially in light of the fact that they are treated

with such undeserved ridicule by a population with no appreciation of their hardiness and humour in extreme circumstances.

Here, however, is the point of divergence for me. South Africans, born out of the necessity to make do no matter what, have generally become a nation of entrepreneurs, at home in any environment, able to succeed against the competition without need of any big-brother support, the ultimate “can-do” attitude.

In Newfoundland, apart from a few highly noteworthy exceptions, I see the opposite. As a nation also born out of the necessity to survive no matter what, I am constantly at a loss when confronted with an almost socialist, “can’t-do” attitude.

It is with great sadness that I see how often it is easier to knock an entrepreneur’s efforts than to support him.

From trade unions that leech off an often uninformed workforce (uninformed because their employers can’t legally present any counterargument), to an overriding acceptance of workman’s compensation as the right way to tackle one’s winter

When I see Newfoundland, I see a wonderful people, a beautiful environment, geographic proximity to major centres and an abundance of natural resources. responsibilities and to a government that doesn’t seem to understand the first principles of structured tax relief to growing businesses, the list is a litany of misguided attitude.

The attitude that the federal government should provide is probably partly the reason that the rest of Canada sees (incorrectly and prejudicially) Newfoundland as a have-not province!

And yet, and I say this under correction, the natural resources per capita here are as rich as anywhere in the world. An entrepreneur could

probably be defined as an individual who sees opportunity and through risk and initiative harnesses the skills and tools to build a business, creates a vision for his workforce and marshals them to realize it. When I see Newfoundland, I see a wonderful people, a beautiful environment, geographic proximity to major centres and an abundance of natural resources.

I’m really asking several questions. Where are these courageous and proud Newfoundlanders of whom, by dint of your forebears, so much is expected?

Where are the resourceful, can-do Newfoundlanders who are going to lead their people into an exciting and enlightened future? Where are the government leaders who are going to stop hiding behind coattails of Canadian federation and show the independence of spirit that embodies Newfoundland?

Will the real Newfoundlanders please stand up!

William Thompson is an international businessman living in Humber Valley.

YOUR VOICE NL First — ‘What unites us is a deep dissatisfaction’ Dear editor, I write this piece in response to Ryan Cleary’s column, Party invite, which appeared in The Independent’s October 16-22 edition. Mr. Cleary had a few disparaging words to say about the Newfoundland and Labrador First Party which I think warrant a reply in the party’s defense. Specifically, Mr. Cleary referred to the party as “wingnuts” — a characterization that, with all due respect, is unfair.

The NLFirst Party is composed of people from all walks of life and backgrounds — we are baymen and townies, fishermen and lawyers. We come from both ends of the political spectrum, left wing and right wing, and from all age groups and all corners of the province. What unites us is a deep dissatisfaction with the relationship between Newfoundland and Labrador and the federal Government of Canada. Anyone can see that the status quo is just not good enough.

For too long the issues of critical importance to the future prosperity of Newfoundland and Labrador have not been given the priority they deserve by mainstream parties at both the federal and provincial levels. Some examples will no doubt be familiar to the readers of The Independent. No progress has been made towards joint management of the fishery. Foreign fishing in our waters continues and enforcement measures are virtually toothless. Much of rural Newfoundland is in crisis. Public services and transportation, especially in Labrador, remain inadequate. Out-migration

continues at alarming levels. Rather than enhancing our opportunities, Canadian international trade policies frequently undermine our prosperity.

NLFirst was formed with the objective of doing something to bring about positive change. We want to see the federal system start working for us instead of against us. To that end we are committed to constitutional reforms that would vest us with more control over our resources and the power to affect federal government policy over matters of vital importance to our province. We believe that government works best when it is closest to those who are governed. All of this may sound rather optimistic, perhaps even idealistic, but if wanting a better future for our great province makes us “wing-nuts,” then frankly I don’t know what to call those who would sit on their hands while our future hangs in the balance.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are many within the mainstream political parties who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, even when it keeps Newfoundland and Labrador poor. That is why many people are now looking for a viable alternative. The NLFirst Party is committed to challenging the status quo in order to open up new possibilities for a more fair and prosperous future for all of us here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Anyone who shares these sentiments is welcome to come aboard.

Alex Schwartz, St. John’s

Why should Labrador have a flag and not Newfoundland?

Dear editor, I’d like to respond to Stephanie Porter’s article Flag Pole, carried in the Oct. 23-30 edition of The Independent.

I think the poll was a little unfair.

Now 46.7 per cent are opposed to changing the provincial flag to the Pink, White and Green. How many of these people who were polled know the flag’s history (at least some of it) or the meanings of the colours?

People I know who are opposed to the

idea don’t know the history. I would say a good proportion of these people aren’t sure what they are opposing.

I call upon Danny Williams to either make the Pink, White and Green official or at least give it the same status as the Labrador flag. Why should Labrador have a flag and Newfoundland not have one? I have nothing against Labrador for having its own flag, but fair is fair.

Ron Durnford, Stephenville Crossing

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4 Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499 www.theindependent.ca • editorial@theindependent.ca The Independent is published by The Sunday Independent, Inc. in St. John’s. It is an independent newspaper covering the news, issues and current affairs that affect the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.

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

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

The Independent welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words in length or less and include full name, mailing address and daytime contact numbers.

Letters may be edited for length, content and legal considerations. Send your letters in care of The Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 or e-mail us at editorial@theindependent.ca

A Canadian separatist I

t’s been three weeks since I wrote how radical change isn’t the answer in terms of our relationship with Canada, 21 days since I said separation is not the way to go — not now.

No, certainly not now — I trust enough time has passed for that message to sink in, so I can move on to my next point about splitting up.

Brace yourself for it: it wouldn’t be fair to seriously consider leaving Canada until Confederation is given one last chance, a deadline for the relationship to turn around — but more on that in a moment.

The topic of Confederation, the subject of Newfoundland and Labrador’s place in Canada, is a sensitive one.

Mention the “s” word and certain newspaper columnists will immediately classify you as a tipsy Townie writing from a stool in a seedy bar wedged in between downtown coffee shops.

(What else would you expect from a mainlander?)

Talk of separation — well, maybe not outright talk, whispers more like it — borders on blasphemous in certain quarters around this place.

Don’t dare disrespect the sanctity of holy matrimony. Only Confederation wasn’t blessed by the Big Guy, but by men — many of whom got around by slithering on their bellies. Some were from the United Kingdom; others were from Canada; more were Newfoundlanders. (No snakes in this place … what a fallacy that is.)

Newfoundland’s entry into Confederation was shady — no denying that. Many of the Terms of Union are also ridiculous (except for the part about margarine, of course, the local bread spread had to be protected come hell or high water).

Newfoundland did it all wrong; our forefathers shagged it all up. The colony should have reverted to a democracy first before making a decision on Confederation — to give us more elbow room at the negotiating table if nothing else.

But there was no negotiation, only give and take in the abnormal sense —

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander we gave what we had and took what we were given.

All that’s water under the Confederation bridge. (Notice how PEI got one — a Confederation Bridge — and the Strait of Belle Isle didn’t. But then Labrador should have a road sometime this century so it will all work out in the end.)

What’s that I hear? Oh right, that’s the federal crowd telling me to get over it — Confederation is a reality and it’s time to move on.

So let’s cut to the chase … here’s what I propose: let’s give Canada five years to turn things around or we take a vote to separate.

OK, let’s do that then. Let’s deal with the here and the now and let bygones be bygones. I’m all over that.

But ask yourself this: has Confederation been good for Newfoundland and Labrador? I can answer for myself.

What do you say?

Let’s review the news of the week.

Earle McCurdy of the fishermen’s union held a news conference to say the plug has been pulled on the outports and they’re draining of life. People have always moved away long enough to get their stamps but they’re crossing the Gulf these days in droves — and many aren’t coming back.

It’s been 13 years since the first cod fishery closure and the outports are finally feeling the pinch. Men like Gus

Etchegary would say that’s a direct result of bad policy and direction on the part of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans — i.e. the Government of Canada.

He condenses the problem to a simple equation: no fish equals no future.

And DFO has stood in the way of the fish coming back, according to Etchegary anyway.

In an ideal world, I could ask DFO if that’s indeed the case, but DFO isn’t speaking to me, not since I called their PR department the Evil Empire.

That wasn’t fair; I should have elaborated. Why do I consider DFO’s public relations department the bad guys?

Simple … because they prevent journalists like me from doing my job. I have tried my darndest to investigate foreign fishing on the Grand Banks.

Retrieving facts is like pulling teeth — DFO does not want to give them up, primarily for fear of damaging international relations, which are apparently more important that Newfoundland outport relations (they’re all moving away anyway, remember).

Our in-camera feature this week (pages 28-29) is an interesting piece on Provincial Aerospace and the job they do carrying out surveillance of the Grand Banks. There’s an unofficial term some of the guys have for foreign trawlers — LCBs — Lyin’ Cheatin’ Bastards.

And that’s about right, but DFO protects them — and not Newfoundland and Labrador.

So let’s cut to the chase … here’s what I propose: let’s give Canada five years to turn things around or we take a vote to separate.

I’ll outline the terms and conditions over the next few months (suggestions are more than appreciated) and we’ll see what happens from there. Wild isn’t it, how a Newfoundlander can be a Canadian and a separatist at the same time?

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

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Jack was every inch a … competent leader Ivan Morgan asks — what will happen to the NDP once Jack’s gone?

T

he weird thing about the provincial New Democratic Party is that it has always been, and still is, considerably less than the sum of its parts. I know the party well, and like most political parties it has its share of terrific people. Yet this net wealth has never translated into anything meaningful, and all those fine New Democrats have never seemed to matter politically.

Well, most of them haven’t. They had one who did — Jack Harris. In fact, paradoxically, he often seemed larger than the whole party in his role as leader. And with his resignation the NDP is faced with a real problem. Now they are going to have to be something besides Jack Harris’ party.

So what are they going to do? It would be easy to be cynical and predict they are going to do what they have been doing for the last two decades, which is make a lot of bold defiant public statements while trying desperately behind the scenes to find anyone who can fog a mirror to run things, issue a lot of communiqués that the press will ignore and then

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & reason completely tank in the polls, declare it a victory and have a big party. And learn nothing from the experience.

As a charter member of the left wing I get really angry at the performance of the provincial NDP. Passive aggression is not a viable political strategy. New Democrats — especially the executive — are famous for blaming others for their own inabilities. Watch me get a flurry of nasty letters from these clowns.

That’ll show me.

I care deeply about left-wing ideals, like Medicare and women’s rights and human rights and worker rights and I have watched while all these things have been eroded in our society, to the detriment of us all, while the New Democrats, the supposed champions of these things, flounder about ineffectual-

YOUR VOICE The Pink, White and Green: ‘refrain from going there again’ Dear editor, In his letter to the editor, Province’s flag ‘better suited to a gas station’ (Oct. 30 edition of The Independent), Peter Wakely did not give the reasons why he feels the Peckford government held a competition to design a new flag and then reneged on it.

Newfoundland and Labrador artist Christopher Pratt was then commissioned to fulfill the task.

Is it possible that none of the public submissions were worthy?

A look at the flags of the world on the Internet may just answer the question. Eighty of the 204 flags on display are tri-colour, like the ubiquitous Pink, White and Green. Some do have the odd, locally inspired logo, added to one of the three panels. Every country on earth has artists, yet many have drab, uninteresting flags. This either means there were no artists involved, or that flag design is way more difficult than it appears.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s current flag is up there with the best of them.

It is distinctive and reflects our heritage. Blue for the ocean, white for the ice and snow, two red triangles to represent the provinces two landmasses.

The golden arrow plunging optimistically into the future. The hint of the Union Jack; because whether we like it or not, this was a British colony.

The tri-colour Pink, White and Green is without doubt, based on the Irish flag. The explanation of which, is as follows: Green for the Catholics, orange for the Protestants and white placed between them, for peace and unity. I believe the Bishop Fleming story is likely the correct one. Ivory coast has the same flag, only in reverse, with orange to the pole.

It has been suggested that pink was used in the flag (presumably to replace the orange), to denigrate the British. The British were known to wear scarlet, which was actually to mask the blood if a soldier was wounded or run through with a sword.

We should be proud to have a unique, strikingly bold emblem for our province. The Pink, White and Green only serves to remind us of past feuds and interdenominational battles between the founding members of our province. It would be prudent for us to refrain from going there again.

Brigid Kellett, St. John’s

‘Our Dan, no denying he’s cute … ’ Dear editor, The Abitibi mill in Stephenville, being without an adequate power and fibre supply, is not an economically viable operation and must therefore depend on government subsidy. In other words, it is only a glorified make-work project resulting in a terrible waste of precious resources, time and talent that could be put to better use …

Politicians are often renewed, Each crop with the claim of more shrewd.

One thing is the same, no change in the bane, Newfoundlanders end up being screwed.

Our Dan, no denying he’s cute, Some even would swear he’s astute, But it all seems so strange, We get the small change, While outsiders run off with the loot.

Most recent the FPI scam, Harbour Breton was into the jam.

No give-aways here, We heard Danny swear,

But the scoundrels pull off a grand slam.

Abitibi has now come on stage, With amusement we watch them engage Our Dan in the game Where his claim is to fame, But the rules are all from the same page.

Make-work jobs is our raison d’etre, For us an immutable law, Stephenville can’t be lost, Must be saved at all cost, To start over would be the last straw.

Notwithstanding, as is plain to see, That what is most keeping back we Is the fear we’re not fit To let go of the teat, Nor deserving of real industry.

So, hail to the corporate boys, Who comes here and we ones employs, Our Dan will take care, That with them we play fair, Long as we keeps them jobs we enjoys.

Lloyd C. Rees,Conception Bay South

ly. Maybe it is not sporting to pick on people when they’re down, but this is a party that has been down so long I publicly wonder if they even know the way up.

And the question needs to be asked: without Jack Harris are they down and out? Who’s next? Is there a name on the tip of anyone’s tongue? The joke around town is that they are looking for a disabled French-Canadian aboriginal treehugging whale-loving lesbian environmentalist from Labrador to elect as their new leader. This joke is indicative of their problem. When a leader resigns it is usually with a host of ambitious types nipping at his or her heels. When Jack Harris resigns, party officials admit publicly that they are going to have to beat the bushes to find someone to agree to do the job. Hardly encouraging.

And as the joke and a generation of polls suggest, they are not taken seriously by the body politic.

Yet theoretically, if everyone in the province voted strictly for policy that benefited them directly, the New

Democrats would have been in power for decades. As well, Jack Harris’ personal popularity has always outshined the party’s popularity. Popular leader, progressive policies — it all looks good on paper.

But politics isn’t about paper — it is about people. And the people who are running the NDP show don’t seem to have learned anything from decades of loss after loss after humiliating loss.

They are so hopeless they drove their last leader, Brother Fenwick, into the arms of the right wing, poor fellow. He hasn’t been the same since.

Not Jack Harris. He’ll stick to his guns, but if the powers that be are reading, could someone please make a few calls? If anyone ever deserved a nice lofty political appointment for long suffering service above and beyond the cause, it is Jack Harris.

By not joining the Liberal party, or the Tories, Jack Harris denied himself (at the very least) cabinet positions and other offices where he could have directly influenced the future of the province. By

sticking with the New Democrats he turned his back on what would have been a stellar political career in either mainstream party, and has instead harvested 15 years of aggravation, struggle, electoral stagnancy and political marginalization. In return, the party has had the benefit of his intellect, his principles and, frankly, his astonishing patience and stamina. I suspect the NDP is going to soon learn another harsh lesson — that the district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi was never a solid NDP district. It was a solid Jack Harris district.

The NDP owes Jack Harris a debt they will never be able to begin to repay. I wonder if many of the other “movers and shakers” in the party even realize what he has done for them over the past 15 years. He has carried the ball a long time. To put it bluntly, for the past 15 years the party has had the benefits of Jack, and in return they have given him back … jack.

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

VIGILANCE?

NDP leader Jack Harris delivers his opinion on the province’s fiscal situation following Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan’s mid-year financial update for 2005-06. Despite now predicting an impressive surplus of $1.5 million (an improvement of some $500 million from March’s budget) Sullivan is still stressing the need for financial “vigilance,” in the face of an overall $12 billion provincial debt. $5.8 billion of that debt is made up of unfunded pension liabilities, which Sullivan says require urgent attention. Harris criticizes the province’s over-caution, suggesting although attention could be paid to the debt, a balanced approach should be taken to address more immediate social problems. Sullivan cited the volatile and unpredictable high price of oil, subsequent increases in corporate income tax revenues and income from the 2005 Atlantic Accord deal as contributing to clearing the deficit.

Paul Daly/The Independent

POETIC JUSTICE

A breed apart Dear editor, I read with a sinking feeling the article, In the blood, Mount Pearl native breeds horses with a homeland pedigree in Alberta, that appeared in the Oct. 16-22 edition of The Independent.

Once again the councillors of the Newfoundland Pony Society clearly wish to further confuse the issue of breed status for the Newfoundland Pony.

First, may I make clear that this society is not a national one but one based in Newfoundland and Labrador. The fact that they have federal charity status does not make them a national organization.

Second, may I point out that it is the breeder/owners of Newfoundland ponies who qualify to put in an application for the breed registry to be granted. The society, as a charity, may apply but would not qualify. They have had this explained to them many times. If they really wish to see the pony recognized as a breed, then they should allow the people most able — the breeders and owners across Canada — to do it.

Third, the council has set up

yet another breed committee, this time headed up by Dr. Dale Skanes. It does not appear Dr. Skanes understands the description of this historic pony by the Newfoundland Pony Society or as listed in the Heritage Animals Act of Newfoundland or he has been misquoted in the article.

No mention is made that breeders/owners have, as early as 1997, commenced having their pony’s DNA recorded and parent verification done to qualify to have the breed registry. This was completed before the pony society started dealing with DNA. That the society has, on numerous occasions over the years, objected to this application and attempted to do it themselves is not a credit to their organization.

They still block the very thing they claim to want for the pony.

Articles like this do more harm than good in the attempt to save this pony from extinction and be recognized as a breed.

Sally Nielsen, president, Newfoundland Pony Breed Association Lakefield, Ont.

Born a newfie Born a newfie, not Canuck, fortune, fate, or just good luck?

Canada wasn’t my first choice though at the time, I had no voice.

I’ve somewhat learned to live with her this domineering partner, e’en admire her worldly status, influence, station, this awesome, ungovernable, nation.

“Best in world,” except for native blot, we take for granted, everything we’ve got; vast, divisive, forever polite, polyglot.

Sin of Commission and omission, lost our self-determination; National Convention, untold tension, opted for Confederation; sold our souls and took the pension.

Sucking hind teat ever since; virtually voiceless; makes ’em wince, whenever we poor hangashores, go knocking, begging, at their doors.

Accords are certainly, awfully nice, but, at what penalty, what price?

“Perennial pariahs, parasites!” to Margaret Wentes of this nation just another denigration.

While out of shell we’ve come of late, emerging from submerged state; can we renew this Great Debate? re-contemplate our future, fate?

Bob LeMessurier, Goulds

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

‘Pussy-footers and hypocrites’ A review of the Newfoundland National Convention (1946-1948)

By Ryan Cleary The Independent

T

here was more than one attempt to form closer relations with the United States in the years immediately leading up to Confederation with Canada.

There was the direct approach: the 45 delegates to the Newfoundland National Convention voted in April 1947 against sending a delegation to the U.S. (the subject of a recent column).

The delegation was to explore the federal union of Newfoundland with the United States of America, but the resolution was soundly defeated — primarily because courting the States was seen as a sign of disrespect to Great Britain.

Then, a month later, the national convention considered another motion to send a delegation to America — this time to explore “general trade discussions” affecting the future economy of Newfoundland with the U.S. The motion generated some heated debate at the national convention, which was held to decide Newfoundland’s fate post commission government and to review the colony’s finances.

The six-man commission government (overseen by the Dominions office, a branch of the Government of Great Britain) took over Newfoundland in 1934 when the democratically elected responsible government relinquished power due to the sad state of the country’s finances.

By the early 1940s Newfoundland’s finances had turned around and the national convention began in 1946 to decide the colony’s future direction. The convention had earlier decided to send delegations to Great Britain and Ottawa on fact-finding missions.

Some delegates — including Albert Penney, a businessman from Carbonear — felt Newfoundland should forge a closer relationship with the U.S., considering it was Newfoundland’s biggest trading partner.

“The United States of America has everything that the people of Newfoundland need to live, holds immense markets for all our products, is the richest and most powerful nation on this side of the Atlantic, if not in the world, and is situated right on our door,” he told the convention.

Edmund Reddy, delegate for Burin East and a Roman Catholic businessman, argued Newfoundland’s economic and political relations with the U.S. should be discussed based on trade, as well as the fact thousands of “immi-

Road to CONFEDERATION AN ONGOING SERIES grant brothers and sisters” sent home millions of dollars a year to Newfoundland.

“Don’t you think that if we are sincere to those who sent us here, and if we are not to be known as a conglomeration of pussy-footers and hypocrites, don’t you think it is about time that something be done towards exploring every avenue of economic and political approach in this connection?”

Reddy attacked the decision to send a delegation to Canada, considering Newfoundland bought “five times as much from Canada as Canada buys from us.

“It is not a one-way financial traffic that we seek, as our relations with Canada happen to be, and it is about time that something is done about it. A lot of our economic uncertainty is because of the fact that we are a milch cow for Canadian business interests, and our economic prosperity would be advanced if we were to decrease, rather than increase, the one-way business traffic with Canada, and increase it with the U.S.A.” Reddy brought up the fact that in 1890 Canada blocked the so-called Bond-Blaine Convention between Newfoundland and the U.S. The convention traded free entry for some Newfoundland fish and mineral ores for American access to Newfoundland bait supplies.

Reddy said Newfoundlanders should adopt a similar attitude to the early English settlers in America in revolting against the British government.

“Did they say, ‘Hush, hush, don’t wake the baby?’ No, poor as they were, they had the spirit of independence … out of that came the war of independence and the U.S.A.” The motion to send a delegation to the U.S. did not go to a vote. Rather, it was ruled discussions about trade could only be discussed between governments and sending a delegation to the States was outside the jurisdiction of the Newfoundland National Convention.

The background for this column is taken from The Newfoundland National Convention, 19461948, by James Hiller and the late Michael Harrington, available through the Newfoundland Historical Society and various retail outlets.

YOUR VOICE ‘Hardly a recipe for rural renewal’ Dear editor, Unusual as it may be, I’d like to use the medium of your paper to throw a bouquet, as they say, to Summerville Fisheries, Don Conners, the owner, and buying agent Aubrey Rogers of Hillgrade, New World island, who this fall spent countless hours on the wharf in Purcell’s Harbour, Twillingate, waiting for the speedboat fishermen to come in with the few hundred pounds of mackerel or squid, which in many cases made the difference between staying home or leaving for Fort McMurray.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t expect you to publish such, but this small fish processing company should serve as a model, contributing to the survival of outport Newfoundland.

Small boat fishing families are the backbone, the core and the soul of the outports, but after the crab and caplin are gone, so are the big fish companies.

Or if they do still maintain a presence in the community, they have no interest in the relatively small

catches, so necessary to the ability of families to remain in the outports.

I say to all the “save rural Newfoundland” preachers and pundits that for many small Newfoundland communities, really, the fishery is the only viable option and that means small-boat fishing families bringing in catches, not measured in the tractor trailer loads, but in the hundreds or low thousands of pounds.

Minister Trevor Taylor’s vision for a future fishery, as expressed on TV a few nights ago, is for fewer plants and fewer fishermen. To me that means a few super vessels selling to mega plants in strategic locations.

Hardly a recipe for rural renewal!

David Boyd, Twillingate

Taylor: ‘I agree’ Editor’s note: the following letter was written by Trevor Taylor in response to Boyd’s letter.

Just read your e-mail … I know you will be surprised when I say that I agree. Unfortunately when anyone suggests that there are too many fishermen, plant workers, boats and plants, many people automatically jump to the erroneous conclusion that they want the small plant and the small boat done away with.

People like Don Connors should have a place in the fishery just as Carl Hedderson in a small boat in Noddy Bay deserves a place in the fishery. My only point is there is only enough resource to give a certain number of people a decent income, and that number is substantially less than what we have in the fishery today. If we had enough to provide for everyone who is trying to make a livelihood off the fishery, why are we required to find “make-work” money every year?

Why has the small-boat sector along the northeast coast demanded to be allowed to “buddy up?” Why has the FFAW’s inshore council recently called for government co-operation for an industry-funded rationalization program? Why do plant workers continually demand the commitment of $100-120 million for an early retirement program?

I have said nothing different from that stated by many others about the industry.

If we are to keep people in the boats and in the plants, whatever the size, they have to be able to earn an income that is attractive enough to warrant staying in the industry. While 2005 has been a difficult year and the value of the fishery is down, the fact remains it will still be one of the most valuable years in the fish-

Trevor Taylor

Paul Daly/The Independent

ery’s history.

If people are struggling to make ends meet this year, and they are, then what kind of situation would we have if the crab resource continues to decline, or if the market conditions do not improve, or the Canadian dollar continues its climb as it is projected to do? In closing let me say this, while the statements I have made over the past two years may have been unpopular, the future of this industry will be very much determined by factors outside of our control — i.e. the dollar, the market, the resource and foreign competition. We all have to ask ourselves one question: Will we be victims of that change or masters of it?

Trevor Taylor, Fisheries Minister

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

Trapped in town CLARE-MARIE GOSSE Brazen

I

Paul Daly/The Independent

erable than ours.

I think one of the main reasons I’m so dreading the winter this year is because I have a husky and she has to go for a sizeable walk every single day, rain or shine, or she just goes mental.

I love to get outside, but after last winter (her first) — which I spent being dragged dolefully through ridiculous snow banks, almost getting flattened by cars, because sidewalks had disappeared, and slipping and sliding and ending up flat on my face several times — I’m not looking forward to being my dog’s personal human sleigh again.

Perhaps my problem is less with the natural elements and more with the City of St. John’s.

Even worse to me than the harsh cold is not being able to easily step out of my house and walk around wherever I want to because of a lack of sidewalk space. Or if I do walk outside, I’m forced to do a teeth-gritting, under-the-breath-swearing kind of impression of a penguin.

To not be able to walk or run naturally around makes me feel like a trapped animal; wary, irritable and likely to take a bite out of someone.

I know it’s hardly an original gripe, but you’d think an old, snow-plagued city like St. John’s

would have figured out how to maintain the streets (and sidewalks are included) through winter to the point of turning snow-clearing (and removing, not just pushing it to the sides) into a finely honed art.

I wish we all had the sense to give daylight savings the boot too. Now the clocks have gone back everything starts to go dark when it’s still after-

Have you heard of the local boy called Rafael?

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am cold-blooded to the core. I am also thinblooded. Given the amount of warmth I require to stay in a comfortable state, the liquid in my veins must be virtually translucent, more pink than red.

A vampire would take one bite out of me and recoil in disgust, fly off to find a nice, juicy, native Newfoundlander who’s inherited the strong, pounding blood of ancestors impressive enough to have survived the harsh elements centuries ago.

I am the woman in that commercial on TV, who sees the first, dead leaf fall after summer and points and shrieks in terror. (I have no idea what the commercial is advertising, other than the end of all things good and the beginning of all things bad.)

Being English I have an enormous amount of respect for Newfoundlanders who survived settlement and procreation thereafter. I cannot even imagine existing in this province without central heating, cars and regular warm baths. How was it even remotely possible?

When I complain about the weather here, lots of people say, “What? England’s just as bad isn’t it?”

No. Don’t get me wrong, England’s hardly California, but on a comparison level it’s sort of like living in Vancouver, but with less rain.

When I’m on the phone to my mother in late February and she’s talking about the budding daffodils and bluebells back home and there’s a galeforce blizzard raging outside my window, I feel like beating the living crap out of the next Newfoundlander who cheerfully shrugs off the weather.

“Sure, this winter was a good one. You should have been here a few years back when we had a record snow fall, couldn’t see over the snow banks.”

Well I was here in 2001 for five months of that, as it happens, and for some inexplicable reason it failed to scare me off for good. Probably because when I came to live here permanently a few years later I was coming from Halifax — and Nova Scotia’s weather is even more shagged up and mis-

noon. I’d rather have bright evenings than mornings any day.

The U.S. recently announced changing its daylight savings to help conserve energy. Their clocks will now spring ahead four weeks earlier (so evenings become longer sooner) and fall back four weeks later. The clocks still get messed around with, but at least it’s a bit better. We should do the same.

As a mild sufferer of SAD (seasonal affective disorder), a condition experienced by some people during the dark, sun-starved months of winter, I could truly moan about the season right up until summer.

It’s no coincidence that depression and suicide rates around the world soar during bad weather months and are particularly high in areas predisposed to gloomy, harsh climates.

Ireland has been named one of the most depressed countries in Europe largely because of the weather. On the plus side, it’s also one of the most creatively talented per capita.

Sound familiar? There are roughly 520,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador and sometimes it seems as though at least 50 per cent of those are alarmingly talented writers and artists.

We might all soon be oversleeping, gaining weight, fielding anxiety attacks and suffering a lack of sex drive, but at least we’ll be talented. Nothing fuels creativity like a large bout of manic depression.

I may be gradually freezing to death, but oh man, the inspiration is about to start snowballing.

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Irish waves Type of immigrants to Newfoundland from Emerald Isle differed before and after Confederation, MUN study finds

By Jenny Higgins For The Independent

W

hen Russell Harpur first came to Lewisport from Ireland as a visiting doctor in 1969, he was working 16-hour shifts and treating more than 100 patients a day.

Thirty-six years later, Harpur is still living in Newfoundland. He retired last August.

“I saw a real need in central Newfoundland for physicians,” Harpur says. “I would see 120 patients each day, and would work from 8 a.m. until midnight. So I decided there and then to come to Newfoundland.”

Harpur moved to Lewisport in 1970 with his wife and two children. The only other two doctors at his clinic were also from Ireland.

He says an all-Irish staff in a Newfoundland medical clinic wasn’t such a rare thing back then.

“I think probably in the 1950s and ’60s the majority, probably more that 50 per cent of physicians in Newfoundland were either Newfoundlanders who had gone to medical school in Ireland or people from Ireland who had graduated from med school and moved here.”

Russell Harpur

Paul Daly/The Independent

Shelly Hobbs, a historian who recently finished a master’s thesis at MUN on Irish immigration to Newfoundland after Confederation, says Harpur’s right. She says a wave of physicians moved here from Ireland in the latter half of the 20th century, attracted by high salaries and a marketplace where doctors were sought-after commodities.

“They came over here when St. John’s didn’t have a med school,” explains Hobbs. “There were no doctors trained in the province until the Health

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Sciences Centre opened in St. John’s in 1967. Until then we had to seek doctors from other areas. It was hard to get them from other parts of Canada because they made more money everywhere else than here. Here they were the lowest paid doctors in Canada, but the salaries still paid here in Newfoundland were higher than a lot of them would make in Ireland, so for them it was an increase.”

Besides physicians, Hobbs says teachers and professors also moved here from Ireland — mostly in the 1950s. She says Confederation made it easier and more lucrative for immigrants to come here.

“After 1949, Newfoundland was governed by Canada’s immigration policies which were friendlier to newcomers than Newfoundland previously had been,” Hobbs says. “Also after Confederation, efforts were made to increase Newfoundland’s standard of living … the Newfoundland government poured money into improving educational and medical facilities across the province. With sudden increases in student enrollment and medical facilities there was a sudden demand for trained professionals, but an insufficient labour pool in the province to meet that demand.”

So the provincial government actively recruited teachers from other parts of the world — and Ireland’s economic climate in the 1950s made it particularly easy to attract professionals from there.

Hobbs says the Second World War left Ireland in an economic crisis. In contrast, Confederation had brought some initial riches to Newfoundland.

“Between 1949 and 1956 Ireland’s income increased at only one-fifth the rate for the rest of western Europe,” she says.

“This slow growth rate led to record levels of emigration. Roughly 400,000 emigrants left Ireland in the 1950s alone. Many of those emigrants were educated.”

And many of them came to Newfoundland and Labrador — to stay.

Hobbs says there’s a big difference between post-Confederation immigration of Irish into Newfoundland and what happened centuries before when the Irish first started coming here.

“After 1949, it wasn’t at all a mass migration,

which would have occurred before, back when most Irish came over when Newfoundland was originally settled, which is pretty much the perception of Irish immigration into Newfoundland — back in the 18th, 19th centuries,” says Hobbs.

“Everybody thinks that’s when it all started and that’s the only Irish who came here, but there are a lot of people who came recently.”

Hobbs doesn’t know the exact number of Irish who came here after 1949, but says they aren’t at all like the poor fishermen who came here more than 200 years ago to catch cod.

“A lot of them came as teachers, doctors, professors,” she says. “Definitely a middle-class range.

An educated group of people.”

Hobbs says one of the most surprising things she’s learned while interviewing Irish people who have moved here is the connection they feel to the land, the lifestyle and the people of this province.

“I think I was mostly surprised to see how strong they feel about Irish Newfoundland. Not just Ireland, but about Newfoundland and their connection with it,” she says. “Like the Irish Newfoundland association. It’s exactly that — it’s not an Irish association or a Newfoundland one — it’s an Irish Newfoundland one. So they very much promote that here, and they feel some kind of kinship with that.

“I expected to find a kind of superficial level to Irish in Newfoundland, you know like the green beer on St. Patrick’s Day and things like that, but that’s not what I found at all. It was quite the opposite — it was a very definite, almost emotional, connection they had.”

Similarities between this province and Ireland made the move easier for people coming here, says Hobbs.

“Accents they encountered would be familiar, street names even, things like that that helped them settle in,” she says.

“They left home, came all the way over to North America and here are relics of Ireland — genuine relics, not just green beer, but people speaking with an Irish brogue, things that really made them proud of where they were from and also made them proud of where they were.”

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

YOUR VOICE ‘Helmets should never be optional’ Dear editor, Today there are nearly 18 million cyclists in Canada, with 1.5 million bicycles sold annually across the country, yet only six provinces have bicycle helmet laws requiring residents to wear a helmet when biking and/or skateboarding.

Newfoundland and Labrador does not have such a law. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario enacted their laws in 1995. British Columbia followed in 1996, and Alberta and PEI in 2002.

What have these governments recognized that ours has not? Their health care systems certainly appreciate the 26 per cent drop in head injuries due to bike accidents after mandatory helmet use was introduced. Of the 60 cyclists Transport Canada statistics reported killed in accidents in 2001, 53 were not wearing helmets.

For optimum protection, a cyclist must have bike handling skills, appropriate equipment, and knowledge of the rules of the road. An important part of bicycling equipment is a CSA-approved helmet. In its publication, Towards a Comprehensive School Health Program, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador states “injuries are the leading cause of death and a major cause of hospitalization for Newfoundland and Labrador children …”

The report also says a priority injury area for children aged 5-14 are bicycle injuries. Emergency room data from the Janeway confirms only five per cent of children treated wear protective gear such as helmets and kneepads.

The loss of even one life is unacceptable. Bicycle helmets are reasonably priced and readily available around the province. This is one investment that will pay a big dividend in the reduction of injuries. Now all we need is a government willing to follow through and implement the legislation.

Please contact your MHA and demand that our province be made a safer place for all bicyclists and skateboarders. We need mandatory helmet use legislation.

Helmets should never be “optional.”

David d’Entremont, St. John’s

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

Dollar value

Old Newfoundland coins and banknotes worth small fortune

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

T

ake a second look at that old 20cent piece you find in your grandfather’s desk — it may be worth 100,000 times that.

Some old Newfoundland coins and bank notes are worth thousands of dollars, says Rod O’Driscoll, owner of East Coast Coins in St. John’s Newfoundland printed its own currency from 1865 to 1947, and he says some of the money is quite valuable today. In recent years, coins in what O’Driscoll calls “museum quality” have sold for close to $50,000.

“I didn’t realize there were so many Newfoundland coins until I was a teenager,” he says. “Then I realized there was a huge market — not just here but around the world.”

Newfoundland coins and bank notes are hot commodities with foreign collectors, says O’Driscoll, 43, who first started collecting coins when he was five.

The fact that the “nation” of Newfoundland ceased to exist after Confederation with Canada in 1949 has added to the money’s value. Since it’s been close to 60 years since the coins were last produced, they sell for a great deal today.

“Newfoundland struck its own currency and coins when it was a British colony. Of all the coins of all the British colonies, Newfoundland is the only colony that struck its own gold issue,” says O’Driscoll.

MOST VALUABLE Some of the most valuable Newfoundland coins are the 1885 50cent piece, which in recent years has sold for as much as $46,000 US, and the 1870 50-cent piece, which has sold for close to $34,000 US. A limited quantity of each coin was produced, and how rare a coin is plays a big role in dictating how much collectors will pay. O’Driscoll admits he would be willing to pay up to $20,000 for some coins, including a 10-cent piece from the 1870s considered the rarest of all Newfoundland coins.

“Newfoundland didn’t strike coins in 1871, but Canada did. What hap-

pened was the Queen’s side had a Newfoundland back, but the front was a traditional Canadian front. So what happened was we had a coin with one side stamped as a Canadian dime and the back was stamped as a Newfoundland dime. There’s only two of them known,” O’Driscoll says.

A Newfoundland coin even managed to shake up neighbouring Canada, says O’Driscoll. The 20-cent piece, popular in Newfoundland, became increasingly unpopular with Canadians due to the similarity with the Canadian quarter.

Under pressure from Canada, Newfoundland stopped production of the 20-cent piece before 1920.

Even when a collector has the money to purchase such rare coins, they sometimes have to wait long periods of time before they get what they want, says O’Driscoll. Some coins, he points out, are simply almost impossible to locate.

“With Newfoundland coins, there’s probably 100 pieces that are pretty easy to get. There are probably 100 pieces you can get for under $5 each,” says O’Driscoll. “Then it gets complicated. The five-cent and 10-cent pieces from before 1890 are all really scarce … If I went into a show with a million dollars I probably couldn’t complete a Newfoundland series, because you have to search for these pieces.

“It may take you a year or two to find some of them.”

O’Driscoll says Newfoundland currency shows up all over the world, although Portugal and the United States are two places collectors have had success finding coins and bank notes.

“A friend of mine got a lot of his coins in Portugal. A lot of the Portuguese sailors, when they were in the fishing trade, were bringing back Newfoundland coins to their home country,” O’Driscoll explains.

“Throughout Europe and the U.S, especially in Florida – a lot of Newfoundlanders retired there. And a lot of them seem to be showing up in Australia for some reason, but I’m not sure why. Stuff shows up everywhere because there are Newfoundlanders all over the world.”

Newfoundland bank notes are equal-

Paul Daly/The Independent

ly as rare. O’Driscoll has come across people who found bundles of old Newfoundland bills in their parents’ and grandparents’ houses, only to bring the money to a local bank and cash it in for the value printed on the paper.

Little did they know they could have gotten three times what the number on the bank note read if they went to a collector.

“Paper notes are everywhere — people don’t realize it,” O’Driscoll says.

“I’ve seen stuff cashed at banks that could have sold for big money.”

Some Newfoundland money is so rare, it was never even recorded.

“I uncovered a bank note some years ago in Goulds, and there was no recorded history of that bank ever made,” says O’Driscoll. “It was an 1867 $40 bill and there is no record of it.”

After starting his collection of Newfoundland coins and bank notes as a teenager, O’Driscoll eventually completed the 131-piece coin set. Many

dealers would be interested in purchasing the entire set from him, but O’Driscoll is not sure he wants to sell — at least not yet.

“For me, it’s an investment. It’s been my passion for a long time, but that said, my plan is to use this (his collection) as part of my retirement income,” says O’Driscoll. “But that all depends … Maybe I’ll just pass it on to my son (15-month-old Matthew) if he gets an interest.”

Like other provincial collectors, O’Driscoll feels a certain attachment to the Newfoundland currency. Using the old bank notes as an example, he says Newfoundland money paints a picture of the province’s history.

“Newfoundland is stamped right on there … you’ve got the Newfie Bullet, sailing ships, caribou, seals, logging and mining vignettes, the $10 bill has a Newfoundland dog on it. They are real pieces of history that tell a lot of stories. They tell the history of Newfoundland.”

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

LIFE STORY

‘A humble fisherman’s son’ FROM THE BAY “One of the most progressive places along the South West coast is Belleoram, famous for its banking fishery. Belleoram is a centre for a considerable section of Fortune Bay and there is a fine trade carried on there. Harvey and Co. employ many men and have recently installed a big fish drying plant … thousands of quintals of fish are dried here by artificial means during the fall and winter months and cargoes can be sent to market months quicker than would be sun-dried.”

— Family Fireside, November 1926 YEARS PAST “We have learned that one Avalon store is expecting about 150 of them (Care Bears) to arrive on Thursday or Friday. Needless to say, they are not expected to last long … perhaps it’s the most recent addition, the Cabbage Patch dolls, that Santa’s helpers should be searching for. Apparently they’re the rage this year in mainland stores and no one has seen them in St. John’s.”

— The Daily News, Dec. 3, 1983 EDITORIAL STAND “So many people get satisfaction from smoking that there isn’t much to be gained from debating the merits of the habit. But on one point smokers and nonsmokers alike can be in agreement, the man who smokes carelessly — especially in bed — is a menace to himself and others, as dangerous as a firebug.”

— The Foghorn, April 15, 1960 LETTER TO THE EDITOR “The council is looking for a town clerk (male or female) on a part-time basis, who must be at least 19 years of age and a resident of Seldom or Little Seldom. Applications can be forwarded immediately.”

Signed R.W. Dawe, acting town clerk, Seldom.

— The Fogo Islander, May 1972.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “If his Excellency the Governor only knew the pleasure and interesting excitement of seal hunting … perhaps he would be induced to have a suitable yacht or vessel built for the purpose of going on shooting excursions, to witness the romantic and genuine pleasure of the ice fields of Newfoundland and learn by observation the character of its people.”

Hon. J. McLaughlan in a sarcastic speech from the House of Assembly.

— The Indicator, May, 1888

THOMAS RICKETTS 1901-1967

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

T

he name Thomas Ricketts is synonymous with bravery and heroism, especially in Newfoundland and Labrador. Ricketts, born and raised in White Bay, was a World War One hero and recipient of the Victoria Cross — the highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy — in 1918 when he was just 17 years old.

He is the youngest army recipient to ever win the honour.

His legacy lives today in history books across the nation, while his medals are proudly on display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, right next to famed World War One general Sir Arthur Curry.

“That’s where they should be,” says Ricketts’ son, Dr. Thomas Ricketts Jr. “After all, the Canadian war museum has to recognize the effort Newfoundland made in the First World War.” Tommy Ricketts was just 15 when he enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, at the time claiming he was 18 so he could join the war effort.

According to former MUN history professor David Facey-Crowther, Ricketts “first saw action at the Steenbeek in August 1917 and was wounded in the right leg by a rifle bullet in November 1917.”

When his leg healed, Ricketts quickly returned to the battalion in April, 1918 “in time to take part in the heavy fighting around Bailleul, which helped stem the German advance,” says FaceyCrowther.

The incident for which Ricketts became a military hero occurred six months later when he almost single handedly saved the lives of the men in his platoon — several of whom were injured.

During an Oct. 14 battle near Ledeghem, Belgium, a Newfoundland machine gun crew was engaged in battle with German defences. The Newfoundlanders had a Lewis machine gun but had run out of ammunition, and faced a dire situation.

With many of his fellow soldiers already badly wounded, Ricketts volunteered to storm across 100 yards of fire-swept field to get more ammunition, as well as other supplies. Within seconds Ricketts was on his way, apparently running through a hail of bullets and screaming shell splin-

ters. His comrades provided what fire cover they could as he raced across the open Belgian countryside to B Company.

Although Ricketts made it to the ammunition in one piece, he still had to race back across the same ground again to load his platoon’s Lewis machine gun. Again facing overwhelming odds, the 17year-old “grabbed the nearest supply of ammunition and headed back across the exposed ground to his company,” says Facey-Crowther.

Out of breath and still facing enemy fire, Ricketts and Corporal Matthew Brazil — a Bell Islander, who was also unwounded — loaded the Lewis machine gun, which weighed 11 kilograms, and began firing on the German defenders.

“By accurate fire with rifle and Lewis gun, Brazil and Ricketts drove the German field-gun, the rescuing teams and the protecting machinegunners in confusion into the shelter of a nearby farm. The rest of the platoon advanced, without casualties, and rounded up the lot of them — four field guns, four machine-guns and the one officer and seven men of the German crew. They captured another field-gun shortly afterwards,” says Facey-Crowther.

Ricketts’ bravery played a huge role in the regiment’s success that day, as they advanced five kilometres, captured prisoners, 94 machine guns,

five field guns and a large supply of ammunition.

For all his heroics, it was an incident Ricketts’ son never heard his father speak of.

“He never talked about it,” he says. “They (war veterans) were quiet people. People who lived in the trenches never spoke of their experiences.”

Facey-Crowther says the war hero was honoured for his actions on Dec. 23, 1918 when, in front of his battalion, the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Private Thomas Ricketts was officially announced.

“The announcement was followed by a hearty three cheers from his companions. And so it was that the heroic action of a young Newfoundlander was recognized first by his regiment and then by his sovereign,” Facey-Crowther says.

Like his war memories, the Victoria Cross and other medals the White Bay native received were not often topics of conversation in the Ricketts household.

“It was always in his dresser drawer,” says Dr. Ricketts. “But he never spoke of it.”

Following the war, Ricketts moved to St. John’s and studied to become a pharmacist. He eventually opened his own pharmacy on Water Street, and operated it until his death in 1967.

Although he enjoyed the business, Ricketts’ son thinks his father may have had other aspirations when he first returned from the battle. However, the public receptions and fanfare he received may have changed his mind.

“He was a humble fishermen’s son from White Bay and he always wanted to go back to White Bay and fish,” says Ricketts Jr., who is now retired and living in Scarborough, Ont. “But having won the Victoria Cross, such an after-war life was denied to him because he was a hero and was in the public eye.”

Ricketts and his wife Edna — who still lives in St. John’s — had a son and a daughter, Volda. The topics of World War One and the Victoria Cross are not regularly spoken of amongst the family, but the accomplishment is a definite source of pride.

In fact, Ricketts Jr. says the magnitude of what his father did may be more appreciated today then it was during war time.

“The importance of him winning the Victoria Cross is probably more prominent today than it was 30, 40, 50 years ago,” he says. “He won the Victoria Cross at the age of 17, but now in these later days, it seems to be more important.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6-12, 2005 — PAGE 13

Justice John Gomery

Reuters

Prime Minister Paul Martin

Reuters

PM’s fate in hands of voters Prime Minister will be ousted as Liberal leader unless he wins majority in next election

By Chantal Hébert Torstar wire service

W

atching Paul Martin a few days after the Gomery report was tabled, one would be tempted to conclude that the Prime Minister is in pretty good shape. He seems, after all, to have managed to wade through the sponsorship minefield without losing a limb.

But impressions can be misleading.

In fact, from the moment he decided to accept all of Justice John Gomery’s findings, Martin has had his foot on a land mine that will blow him out of politics the second he removes it.

By endorsing the adverse conclusions of the Gomery report on the Liberal party and his predecessor Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister has basically put his fate in the hands of voters. Only they can now save him from an execution attempt at the hands

of his party. were opposition politicians.

But Canadians would have to do more That is, in part, because none of the MPs than re-elect Martin to give him a further who are about to seek re-election can lease on life in power. afford to look like If he is to avoid they are running becoming the top casuagainst Gomery alty of a bloody settling and his findings.

Starting with Chrétien, of accounts within the Given that all of Liberal party, he will them have elevated there seemed to be have to secure a majoriGomery to the staty in the upcoming electus of semi-god more Liberals on the tion. over the past year, Tellingly, anyone who every single one of warpath than there were flipped television chanhis words might as opposition politicians. nels last week would well be cast in have been struck by the stone. sight of many Liberals And so, rather taking pot-shots at than take issue with Gomery’s exoneration of the Prime the parts of his report that they don’t like, Minister.

MPs of all persuasions focus on the parts Starting with Chrétien, there seemed to that they do like. be more Liberals on the warpath than there Still, for now, the Liberal rumblings are

limited to a restricted circle of Chrétien loyalists largely made up of retired politicians or senators — people whose necks are no longer, or never were, on the line.

The evidence suggests Martin’s leadership is safe until Canadians go to the polls.

But that will change quickly if he fails to secure a majority.

At that point, the knives of those who want revenge for Martin’s decision to let a public inquiry loose on the party and on Chrétien will converge with those who will feel that nothing short of a clean sweep will restore the party’s fortunes.

For opposite reasons, all of them will agree that Martin’s departure is required to cleanse the Liberal brand name and move on.

If and when that happens, some of Martin’s key assets will turn into major See “A new and more,” page 17

Calling Rick Mercer

Michael Harris says Newfoundland’s funniest man best person to cover Gomery; inquiry has Canadians crying in the aisles

A

smarter man would leave it to Rick Mercer to report on the Gomery inquiry.

After all, this exercise was supposed to bring closure to the worst political scandal in modern Canadian history.

Instead, it’s got them laughing in the aisles — until they cry.

According to the Judge, Paul Martin has spent the last decade doing the Lord’s work in some mission far from the toxic corridors of Liberal politics.

As for the outed authors of this pig fest masquerading as public policy, they have not exactly been overcome with remorse.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is taking the Gomery report to federal

MICHAEL HARRIS The Outrider court for a judicial review of its facts — or rather one fact: that the former prime minister is ultimately responsible for the ad sponsorship debacle.

Mr. Chrétien too believes he was “responsible,” just not to blame — whatever that may mean. “This was not a program led by my office,” he thundered in a press conference that featured more ego liberation and bullying than facts.

Back in December 1996, his Clerk of the Privy Council warned him in writing that he had “taken on a very large responsibility” by assuming ministerial responsibility for funds dispersed from the unity reserve.

That memo went unanswered. Then Jocelyne Bourgon wrote a second one in September 1997 noting that the Privy Council Office “was aware that the PMO was determining those projects to which sponsorship monies were being directed.”

As a result of Chrétien’s lawsuit, there is no telling when this mess will finally give up the ghost — and a little of that public money that went missing in action when we were saving Canada

with maple leaf neckties and prime ministerial golf balls. The last time a politician asked for a judicial review of the findings of a public inquiry, it took the federal court 17 years to decide the matter.

Chrétien’s right-hand man from his days as emperor, former chief of staff Jean Pelletier, was fingered by the judge for failing “to take the most elementary precautions against mismanagement” in the ad sponsorship program which he ran, de facto, on behalf of the PM. When nearly 45 per cent of the $332 million from this secret fund ended up in the hands of ad agencies for little or no work, you would think that Pelletier might at least express a

tad of regret at not having been more vigilant.

Instead, he dismissed the judge as an ignoramus who didn’t understand the separate roles of the public service and political staff and reminded Canadians that the country is a better place because of his, Jean Pelletier’s, contributions to public life. No wonder Chrétien liked the guy so much.

Since Pelletier is so adamant about the absolute divide between political versus public service staff, perhaps he might explain why he met with Chuck Guité in the absence of Guité's then deputy-minister, Ranald Quail.

Please see “The heart,” page 14

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Flu vaccine effectiveness still in doubt

By Elaine Carey Torstar wire service

I

t’s November and the flu shot police are out, urging all of us to roll up our sleeves to prevent getting and spreading the dreaded bug.

But how effective is the flu vaccine in keeping you from getting sick — or even dying? Surprisingly, nobody really knows.

Two recent reviews of all the available studies have found few have actually analyzed whether the flu shot prevents getting the flu or dying from it. In fact, there is “substantial uncertainty” about what they found.

One study that reviewed 12 randomized control trials of the impact of the flu vaccine on healthy adults under 65 found it didn’t meet any of its specific goals — to reduce the spread of the disease, the number of days lost from work or hospitalization from it.

“Universal immunization of healthy adults is not supported by the results of this review,” concluded the study by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit organization that analyzes the effects of health care.

The review found 19 per cent of those who had a flu shot got sick with influenza, compared with 23 per cent of those who didn’t, and those vaccinated

lost an average of just 0.16 fewer days from work. In other words, about five per cent of those vaccinated avoided missing three days of work because of the flu. There was no benefit in the other 95 per cent vaccinated because most people don’t get the flu.

Despite 64 studies over the past 35 years, we don’t know how well flu shots work to prevent serious illness and death in the elderly, concluded a survey by the Veterans Administration Outcomes group in Vermont, which also analyzes medical interventions.

Most of the studies were observational, where scientists counted the number of flu-like illnesses among peo-

ple who did or did not get the flu vaccine, explains Dr. Steven Woloshin, a member of the group.

The link between the vaccine and the flu can’t be proven because people who get the flu shot are generally healthier to begin with, he says.

The chance of dying from the flu in seniors older than 65 in the U.S. is one in 1,000, slightly lower than the chance of dying from a fall, the study shows.

Despite a rapid increase in vaccination among the elderly between 1980 and 1998 — from 20 to 65 per cent — the death rate in that group in the U.S. has remained flat, Woloshin says.

In Canada, 500 to 1,500 people,

Come celebrate with us this holiday season!

mostly seniors, die from pneumonia related to the flu every year, according to Health Canada and “many others die from other serious complications.”

That compares to 75,000 who die each year from heart disease, the leading cause of death.

Alan Cassels, a University of Victoria drug researcher, has repeatedly called for a randomized control study to find out definitively if flu vaccine works.

“Let’s answer the $125 million question — that’s how much we’re spending on flu vaccine every year without any evidence it’s doing what people say it is,” he says. In Ontario, 5.25 million people — or 44 per cent of the population — got a flu shot last year. At a cost of about $10 a shot, that works out to $52.5 million.

The lack of evidence doesn’t mean people shouldn’t get the flu shot, Woloshin says. “We’re trying to present the basic data so people can make the decision on their own.

“Last year, the U.S. ran short of flu vaccine, people panicked and the government had to change the message and say ‘don’t worry, you won’t get sick anyway,’” Woloshin says.

“Our conclusion is that both the rate and the benefit of the shot are exaggerated … it probably reduces your chance of getting sick by a small amount.”

Ontario is the only place in the world where the flu shot is available free of charge to everyone, regardless of their age or health. All other provinces target specific groups such as the elderly and people with chronic health problems.

The heart of a kickback From page 13

Share the magic of the holiday season with friends and colleagues at our Eagles Perch Christmas group dinners. Our internationally acclaimed Chef Stefan is bringing together traditions of the season with his own expertly crafted flavor and flare.

We are presently taking holiday group bookings for the following dates:

November 24, 25, 26 December 1, 8, 9, 10, 15, & 17

For menus and group reservations call Stephen at 686.1233.

And ask about our stay-over-after chalet rates.

And then there’s Alfonso Gagliano, former minister of Public Works and until recently our diplomatic Danish Pastry in Copenhagen. Judge Gomery determined that Alfonso wasn’t exactly candid in his testimony before the commission and decided that he had chosen to “perpetuate the irregular manner of directing the sponsorship program.”

The brown paper bag, not treasury board guidelines, was the organizing principle.

What was Alfonso’s response? Far from feeling sorry for being “directly involved” in turning public money into partisan money, the man who is now banned for life from the Liberal Party is toying with the idea of running for parliament as an independent! That’s right.

Being denounced by Judge Gomery is just the qualification he needs to ask his former supporters in Quebec to send him back to Ottawa. I hope he runs.

Perhaps Chuck Guité will sign his nomination papers.

And let’s not forget Jacques Corriveau, a close personal friend and supporter of Chrétien and the man Judge Gomery found was at the heart of a “kickback scheme” that funneled taxpayers’ money into his own pocket and the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party.

You remember Corriveau? He was the one who couldn’t recall much of anything about his Liberal days, and even suggested that his wife’s Alzheimer’s had rubbed off on him.

Corriveau, who personally collected $8 million from the sponsorship program, was as unbowed as all the others cited for responsibility or misconduct in the Gomery report. He protested his innocence to reporters who came to his door trick-or-treating for news.

Although he did not elaborate, Corriveau too was probably involved in the heroic work of saving Canada by making sure that the Liberal Party and its friends got their share of the sponsorship program’s funny money.

ENTER JACK LAYTON OK, so the bad guys aren’t accepting any blame. But surely the opposition parties would fix things up, right?

Surely, despite their political differences, they would bring the bounders down?

Enter Jack Layton, energizer deal maker of the new NDP — No Darn Principles. Instead of joining with the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois to throw the Liberals out, Jack has huddled in the backrooms of the bad guys yet again, though something has changed. This time, we’re not talking allegations, we’re talking about 10 tonnes of rotten fish on Canada’s doormat stinking to high heaven. As a result of Jack’s ethical myopia, the Liberals just might get the time they need to regroup and actually get elected next spring. Remember, this is the Great White North and around playoff time, who cares about missing millions?

You see why we need Rick Mercer on this file.

Michael Harris’ column returns Nov. 20.

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

Drivers get break

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

VOICE FROM AWAY

Board pegs rates for 2006 at 11.3 per cent lower on average

By Shawn Berry Telegraph-Journal

N

ew Brunswick drivers are about to see a decrease in their automobile insurance.

Rates will fall an average of 11.3 per cent over the coming year, to an average premium of $851, the New Brunswick Insurance Board says.

The board released decisions for 37 companies, approving rate reductions ranging from 2.6 to 25.4 per cent. Three companies approved for no change had reduced their rates earlier in the year.

The Lord government is crediting insurance reforms it instituted in June 2003 for the rate reduction.

Critics aren’t so sure New Brunswickers are getting such a great deal, and neither of the opposition parties plans to back down from a call for a public automobile insurance system.

Paul D’Astous, vice-chairman of the insurance board, says the announcement means consumers can expect to see cheaper rates, increased competition for their business and a shrinking disparity between premiums in different regions of the province.

“You’re going to have downward premiums all next year,” he says.

“At the end of the day, ratepayers in New Brunswick are receiving the reduction they should be receiving.”

“New Brunswick drivers are still paying the third-highest automobile premiums in Canada.”

Shawn Graham, N.B. opposition leader Clients who have yet to see a reduction will notice them as they renew in 2006, he says. If not, they should shop around.

“The brokers are sharpening their pencils these days,” he says.

“If you buy a $30,000 car, you might go around town five times before buying. Well, you should do the same when you’re buying the insurance for that car.”

Attorney General Brad Green says drivers with a clean record should consult the province’s consumer advocate for insurance if they find themselves paying more than $1,000 a year for insurance.

“What we see now are rates that are roughly 25 per cent lower than they were when they peaked three years ago,” says Green.

Government reforms like a $2,500 cap on claims for bodily injuries made the reductions possible, he says.

“The number of claims being submitted to insurance companies in New Brunswick for bodily injuries has gone down significantly,” he says.

Despite the announcement opposition leader Shawn Graham isn’t backing down from his promise to offer public insurance.

“While we welcome any premium reduction ... New Brunswick drivers are still paying the third-highest automobile premiums in Canada.”

He points to a recent study that said drivers with the same vehicle, vital statistics and record would pay over $600 more to be insured in Fredericton than they would in Victoria, B.C., where public insurance exists.

Such a system for New Brunswick, he says, would provide quality coverage to New Brunswick drivers for a lower price.

“Simply put, a public system allows for profits to be returned to consumers versus the large multinational companies,” Graham says.

The boy

Butlerville native Carl Mercer writes about the children he met while walking down the road in Ethiopia

By Carl Mercer For The Independent

T

here had been a religious ceremony for the Oromo people in this small rural area of Ethiopia, and I had wanted to witness it, to participate if possible and experience the culture, appreciate the diversity.

When the ceremony ended, my friends and I had begun the trek back to the city along the dusty sun-drenched road, passing hills and valleys on both sides that were astounding in their beauty.

Beside us, a field of golden wheat stretched on for what seemed like miles before climbing into a steep perfectly green mountain crowned with a blue sky.

I was unaware we had stopped; lost in my daydreams I hadn’t noticed the car broken down on the side of the road. They had gotten a flat and without a jack were waiting for a kind passerby.

That is how I met the children. I had decided to snap some pictures and as I did so, several children noticed the camera and rushed over to have their photos taken. They clamoured to me, rushed madly towards me and tugged at my clothes, excited by this white boy and eager for their pictures to be taken.

They smiled and laughed and exclaimed, “picture picture, mister picture.”

I took their pictures, each of them

alone and then all together, pausing quickly after each one to show them the screen on the digital camera, allowing them to laugh and giggle at themselves, poking each other and mumbling in a foreign tongue.

They are so adorable, I thought, as I held my hand over the camera to block the sun from the screen, so delightfully innocent and happy, I liked taking their pictures, loved watching their reactions.

I glanced to the side and noticed another kid a little further up the road.

He was alone and was herding half a dozen bulls down the street, seemingly swept up in his own thoughts and daydreams. Like the other kids he was dressed in clothes that had seen better days. He was no more then 10.

The other kids called to him, chiding him to join them and have his picture taken. “Picture” they said to me as they pointed at the boy. The boy walked near but not close, his bulls proceeded to the grass and began eating but still he stood on the road, staring at the man with the camera. He would come no closer.

“May I take your picture?” I asked, gesturing with the camera, hoping the message would be clear. The boy said nothing. I bent down to get an eye level view, as I did so the boy smiled, not excitedly as the other kids had done, but just slightly.

I readied the camera, and as I glanced up the boy was no longer look-

The boy (left); the author in Gola (above).

ing at me but was staring off to his left, staring into the distance at something far away or nothing at all. Unlike the other kids, he wasn’t excited about the camera, wasn’t screaming for his picture to be taken, he was simply allowing it to be taken.

I paused momentarily, caught off guard. I snapped the picture with no reaction from the boy. As I prepared to take another photo, the boy looked at me and smiled again, a smile that seemed mature for its years, lacking exuberance and naivete, but hinting at innocence.

I raised the camera to take another picture while the boy raised his hand as if to shield his face.

Shyly his hand hid his face, while in contrast, one eye peeked out, promising maybe some remnants of childish innocence and curiosity still lurked below the surface. I stared at him: who was this boy leaning on the stick in the dusty road? Who was this boy with the sad but bemused eyes and the subtle smile?

I took the picture and readied the view for the boy to see his picture. The other children laughed, asking him to come and look at the photo. No, he replied with a shake of his head, as he abruptly turned and continued his walk, mumbling something to the bulls as he did so.

I stared after him, watching the little boy lead the massive bulls along the road, watching the little boy who was

Carl Mercer photos

not interested in cameras or pictures, engrossed in his own thoughts. Who is this boy that seems to scream with thought and experience? What has happened in his life? Is he happy? Is he sad?

I wanted to cry, to run after this boy and twirl him around, to hug him and tell him everything would be OK. Instead, I just looked on after him.

Suddenly the boy turned around and looked at me. He smiled and raised his hand into the air, waving enthusiastically and almost reassuringly.

Sometimes you meet people with such presence, whose lives are so deep they leave you craving more, that a mere taste leaves you starving for the full story.

These things I thought as I stood there in the middle of the dusty sun drenched road, looking upon this young boy who lazily led a group of bulls between two golden fields of wheat.

Carl Mercer is from Butlerville, Newfoundland and Labrador. He graduated in 2005 with a degree in political science and English. He is currently living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is working on a Food Security project with CARE International, a worldwide humanitarian organization.

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

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Theatre, sure – but very effective

GOODWILL GESTURE

Man holds up bank while Toronto cops stage protest TORONTO

By Rosie DiManno Torstar wire service

the forum of public opinion.

In terms of optics alone, this isn’t a good time for the city, through the board, to get tough with cops, not when gun crime has become rampant e was either the ballsiest or the dumbest of and citizens are feeling fearful. bank robbers in Toronto history. Just as When trouble knocks, when bullets fly, Toronto thousands of miffed police officers were residents don’t call the mayor; they call 911. And marching up Bay Street last week toward a mass cops answer, not oversight bureaucrats from the rally at City Hall, this mook was sticking up a police board.

CIBC branch a short block away, at the corner of Unlike a decade or so ago, when cops similarly Yonge and Queen. hoofed it in protest over police reforms — it was Didn’t even make it out the door before the a particularly hostile era between cops and the holdup squad arrived, proving not all T.O. cops board — this conflict is narrowly about money. were otherwise occupied showing their solidarity The police association accuses the board of tryin a contract dispute demo. ing to stiff them for an additional 42 hours of Indeed, the suspect was found patiently sitting unpaid service per year; the quasi-union is equalon a chair, waiting for bank staff to produce the ly aggrieved by attempts to claw back retention cash he’d demanded in his note — using a replica pay (or “experience’’ pay) which was secured in handgun to bolster his robbery bid — when offi- the last contract to discourage veteran officers cers with shotguns descended, responding to the from quitting the force. silent alarm triggered by a The extra hours, resulting teller. from compressed work-week “They didn’t even have time shifts, is damn near impossible to give him the dye-pack,” a 51 penetrate for an outsider, When trouble knocks, to Division detective who with duelling figures offered processed the suspect says, in up by both sides. Conversely, when bullets fly, reference to the squirting the retention pay is not as simdevice that is designed to ruin ple, or mean-spirited, as it Toronto residents scrip obtained in a bank heist. appears. don’t call the mayor; “I don’t know if he’s the stuThe bonuses were originally pidest robber we’ve ever had extended not to retain the servthey call 911. come through 51 but his name ice of officers fleeing the city will certainly make our list of for less onerous jurisdictions all-time dummies. Maybe he — which the union alleges will just didn’t know that he was reoccur should the claw-back trying to rob a bank a block away from a police attempt succeed — but in order to deal with a demonstration.’’ large block of cops who’d been hired in the ’70s, Or perhaps he figured they’d all be too busy try- under the direction of an arbiter who ordered the ing to hold up the city with their contract police department to deploy two-officer patrol demands. More precisely, holding a metaphorical cars. gun — in the view of some — to the Toronto The bonuses had been intended as a short-term Police Services Board, which is tasked with nego- correction, so the police department wouldn’t be tiating a new deal for 5,500 uniformed officers confronted with a sudden staff depletion. But it’s and 2,200 civilian employees. also unrealistic to think any union would give The board appears to be losing the public rela- back financial rewards once obtained. tions war. At least that was the sense of things It is, further, contradictory for this mayor — so down at street level, where the rank and file respectful of unions and labour, which champiunleashed an impressive sight, parading from oned his candidacy in the last civic election — to Queens Quay to Nathan Phillips Square. turn ideological tail where police are concerned.

It may have been, as one former board member If this stalemate isn’t resolved first, the disnoted wryly in an off-the-record conversation, lit- putants have a date with the arbitrator in January. tle more than “theatre’’ but it was also most effec- Clearly, the police association doesn’t want to end tive theatre, dramatically making the point that up there, stripped of public traction. cops are displeased, they are becoming increasBetter to put the pressure on down here, in the ingly defiant, and they’re smart enough to recog- streets, where all the world’s a stage. And hapless nize that police are preferred over politicians in crooks stick up banks at high noon.

H

Eleven-year-old Kacim Hamid (front left) and 23-year-old Wissam Faisel, both from the southern Iraqi city of Baquba, wait to be released from a jail at the Iraqi peacekeeping headquarters in Al-Kadmea, a suburb of Baghdad, last week. Hundreds of prisoners walked free from the jail, released in a goodwill gesture to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Faleh Kheiber/Reuters

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 17

A new and more attractive Conservative leader …

From page 13 liabilities.

Take Jean Lapierre and Scott Brison, the two ministers who flanked the Prime Minister for the best part of this difficult week.

It is hard to think of a better combination than that of a former Tory leadership aspirant and a founding member of the Bloc Québécois to send the message that the Liberal party had been overhauled under Martin.

But their short roots in the Liberal party will also render their support of Martin meaningless if his leadership is called into question in the post-election period.

By the same token, the

A poster of the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is stuck on a wall near his monument memorial in Tel Aviv last week.

Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters

Why Rabin’s dream didn’t die Daughter says peace hopes live; Israeli society has changed since ’95 TEV AVIV

By Mitch Potter Torstar wire service

Rabin’s comments come during a preview of Tel Aviv’s new Yitzhak Rabin Centre for Israel Studies, an educational facility designed to build bridges between Israel’s secular and religious camps in memory of the late Israeli leader. itzhak Rabin’s assassin succeeded also in killing the The $37 million centre, designed by architect Moshe Middle East peace process when he gunned down the Safdie, is to be dedicated Nov. 14, marking the Hebrew calIsraeli prime minister 10 years ago, Rabin’s daughter endar’s 10th anniversary of Rabin’s death. says.

Dalia Rabin, who dabbled in Israeli politics in the afterBut Dalia Rabin says recent events, notably this summer’s math of the assassination, has since dedicated herself to the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, show building of the Rabin Centre.

Israel is gradually moving toward an end to the conflict, as Acknowledging that the gaps in Israeli society remain envisioned by her late father under the ill-fated Oslo peace wide, Rabin describes unnerving comments she has received accords. from many among the 14,000 Israeli sol“Unfortunately the assassin was right ... diers and police officers who have attendfor a while. There was a freeze in the the facility for day-long workshops.

“The (Gaza) disengage- ed“When process,” Rabin says about her father’s (soldiers and police) come for Nov. 4, 1995, slaying by Jewish extremist workshops, they don’t understand why ment is proof that Yigal Amir. they were brought here. They say strange Despite opinion polls showing that one things, like ‘Why do I have to know about something has hapin three Israelis anticipate more political Rabin? It’s good he was killed. If he waspened within Israel assassinations by Jewish radicals ideologn’t killed, I would kill him myself.’ ically opposed to the creation of a “These kinds of people are our target. society. It wasn’t as Palestinian state, Rabin says she sees rea“We have to reach out and try to change son for hope. their prejudices. To convince them in a bad as expected.”

“The (Gaza) disengagement is proof positive way that Rabin meant well. that something has happened within Israeli “All he did for this country was for the Dalia Rabin society. It wasn’t as bad as expected. It better life of Israeli society,” she says. would not have gone like this 10 years Rabin declines comment on Yigal ago,” Rabin says.

Amir, other than to say she feels “awful” “Based on what happened in Gaza, we survived. In spite of about a new opinion poll indicating as many as one in five all the terrible prophesies about bloodshed and about the Israelis believe the assassin will eventually receive a pardon national Zionist camp losing their faith and leaving Israeli for the crime. society, we stayed together and we stayed united.”

Amir is serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

Rabin says the relative ease of the Gaza withdrawal was On the question of whether a peace process can be reconevidence of “some soul-searching within the extreme right.” structed in the aftermath of the Gaza withdrawal, she also That the project was driven by one of her father’s fiercest demures. political foes, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, only underscores “To be a prophet in the Middle East, you are either a liar the societal shift. or a fool. It can be five years, it can be 10 years. It depends “They drew some conclusions, without confessing. They first of all on the Palestinians,” she says. didn’t come forward and say, ‘Listen, we’ve done some soul“We withdrew from Gaza. We uprooted the settlements. searching and we agree. We’ve been bad boys and now we Now we have to see how the Palestinians can handle their will behave,’” says Rabin. own administration and control terror.

“But the way it was actually done showed there was a “The results of this experience will reflect on the next slight change.” steps. It’s very early to say right now,” she says.

Y

Immigration funds blocked

A

host of federal immigration programs — including efforts to reunite families and eliminate backlogs — are in jeopardy after opposition parties blocked $168 million in new funding for the immigration department.

The surprise decision by the Commons committee also undercuts a pending immigration deal with Ontario that would have meant extra cash to help settle new immigrants in the province.

Immigration Minister Joe Volpe came out swinging, suggesting the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois were antiimmigrant for voting against the new cash.

“The first chance they had to show support for an immigration plan that is comprehensive ... for settlement and integration programs and they said ‘no.’ They shut the door down,” Volpe says.

“The Conservative party’s attitude to immigration is keep those people out and send them back.”

The Commons immigration committee voted 6-5 against the federal department’s proposal to spend an extra $168 million this year to fund improvements.

According to the department, the fallout from the budget vote includes: • A backlog of citizenship applications that will grow to 150,000 by year’s end with waiting times of two years and more.

• Fewer parents and grandparents will be able to come to Canada and they will wait much longer to get here.

• Fewer resources to help settle newcomers.

• Gains made by the Immigration and Refugee Board to reduce its backlog of cases will be “reversed.”

Volpe says none of that can happen now.

Opposition MPs says Volpe himself is to blame for the vote after his “arrogant” and “evasive” appearance before the committee.

Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy (Calgary-Nose Hill) says Volpe was quizzed on how the department missed its target for skilled workers by 6,000 last year, at a time when there were 700,000 people in the backlog waiting to be processed.

— Torstar wire service

Conservative leadership failings that have been Martin’s biggest assets since he came to power would quickly turn into his biggest liability after an election that produced a second Liberal minority.

FRESH FACES The prospect of a brand new and possibly more attractive Conservative leader in Stephen Harper’s place would only accelerate the movement to push Martin out the Liberal door and replace him, too, with a fresher face.

The Gomery report has given Martin his best shot at rising out of the sponsorship ashes in the next election but only at the risk of his leadership.

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

18 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Mr. Floatie’s turd-world politics

Sun editor arrested

Sewage activist wiped off B.C. ballot but anti-pollution protest left its mark VICTORIA

By Daniel Girard Torstar wire service

W

hen you’re a two-metre tall human turd, who talks with a falsetto voice and wears a slightly tilted sailor’s cap, you’re used to turning heads, as well as stomachs.

So James Skwarok, better known by the name of his character, Mr. Floatie, was certainly expecting to draw attention when he threw that cap into the ring in a bid to be mayor of Victoria. In fact, as leader of the campaign to get sewage treatment here, he counts on it to tell all who will listen that the City of Gardens uses the Pacific Ocean as its toilet.

But when earlier this month a stink was raised about Mr. Floatie’s candidacy, it proved too much.

City officials, correctly noting he’s “a costume character,” not a real person, and thereby ineligible, took him to court to get him off the ballot for the Nov. 19 election.

It worked. Neither Skwarok, 35, a university student trying to become a teacher, nor Mr. Floatie, a character with no pockets, let alone deep ones, could afford the legal fees.

While he admits to being “really bummed out” over abandoning the bid to run City Hall, Mr. Floatie vows to continue to fight it, pushing for sewage treatment by 2010.

“What the city’s trying to do by keeping me off the ballot is avoid talking about the sewage problem,” says Mr. Floatie, who represents People Opposed to Outfall Pollution, or POOP. “But you know what? I’m not going away until they build us a plant. So, let’s get off the pot and do it.”

The battle over sewage in Victoria has been around for years. There have been tourism boycotts and editorial attacks from neighbours in Washington state and threats from Ottawa of charges for violating environmental and fishery standards. So, even though residents voted 57 per cent to continue dumping in a 1992 plebiscite, the debate lingers.

But Mr. Floatie’s emergence in recent months has injected more life, albeit in the form of potty humour, into an otherwise boring, scientific clash.

For those who recoil at the fact that the capital of Beautiful British Columbia dumps 120 million litres of liquid waste deep in the ocean every day through two offshore pipes, he’s a visceral representation of how wrong the practice is.

“If nothing else, he’s cut through the crap,” says Matt Price, co-ordinator of the Conservation Voters of B.C. “His in-your-face style has put this issue back on the map.

For those who recoil at the fact (Victoria) dumps 120 million litres of liquid waste deep in the ocean every day … he’s a visceral representation of how wrong the practice is.

“He reminds people that they are embarrassed at a gut level.”

Price’s group, which represents a host of environmental organizations, is trying to make sewage treatment “a votable issue.”

But on the other side of the debate are those who say Mr. Floatie is full of it. They argue science shows their method not only does no harm to human health or the environment, but also comes with a much smaller price tag than the $450 million for a treatment plant.

Still, the majority of the region’s sewage — from about 210,000 residents and businesses in other municipalities including Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich — ends up in the Pacific.

While the image may be a stomach-turner, the region has no trouble rationalizing it. About $1.1

million is spent annually on “source control” to keep pollutants such as photo lab chemicals and garage oil out of the sewage in the first place, with $900,000 more to regularly monitor both outfalls — one 1,800 metres offshore, the other 1,100 metres out.

Water turbulence at the spot where the sewage, which passes through six-millimetre screens to remove solids like condoms and bottle caps, flows from pipes 65 metres deep diffuses the effluent to “totally insignificant” levels well below the surface, Taylor says.

“I’m very confident it’s very sound science,” she says. “A lot of scientists are looking at this issue and I have yet to have one sit down, look at this and tell me there’s a problem.”

Others disagree. Despite the “misguided notion that the ocean cleans it,” Christianne Wilhelmson of the Georgia Strait Alliance says there are scientific reports showing high rates of fish toxicity around the outfalls, and concerns over contaminants and heavy metals. The sewage, she adds, is also not as diluted or displaced by tides as promised.

The Capital Region District is spending $605,000 on an independent review of sewage dumping, due in March.

Denise Blackwell, a City of Langford councillor and chair of the region’s environment committee, advocated for sewage treatment when she was first elected in 1992. But she says she’s a convert after learning more about the science of the current system and the cost of a treatment plant. For those same reasons, sewage is not a big issue for voters, she says.

Still, the scientific report could conclude treatment is needed, Blackwell says.

But the councillor rejects the notion that Mr. Floatie’s “trivializing” of the issue will have played any part.

“Any decision we make to do things differently will be based on science and not a knee-jerk reaction to somebody who’s out there dancing around in a turd suit.”

LONDON he editor of The Sun, who used the brash British tabloid to launch a campaign against domestic violence, was arrested for allegedly assaulting her soap-star husband.

Rebekah Wade, 37, was freed without charge hours after police paid a 4 a.m. call to the Battersea home in south London she shares with husband Ross Kemp, who plays “hard man” Grant Mitchell on the TV soap EastEnders.

Kemp, 41, had a cut lip but refused medical aid, reports say. Wade was arrested and held until noon in a cell at Wandsworth police station, where film crews and photographers gathered as news of her arrest spread.

Police said later they would take no further action in the case.

Ironically, Wade was said to have spent part of her evening consoling her friend David Blunkett, the cabinet minister who was forced to resign his work and pensions post.

Blunkett, who’d returned to cabinet after stepping down as home secretary in December 2004 for fast-tracking a visa application for his lover’s ex-nanny, quit over failing to consult a committee about a company directorship he held for two weeks between cabinet jobs.

Earlier, Wade and Kemp were at a cocktail party hosted by PR guru Matthew Freud and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Wade’s boss Rupert Murdoch.

The Sun proprietor is known to loathe anything that attracts unfavourable publicity to his papers, and was expected to take a dim view of an incident the couple’s friends were dismissing as a storm in a tea cup.

— Torstar wire service

T

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INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2005 — PAGE 19

Rattling Books publisher Janet Russell checks out her stock at Fred’s Records in St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

The spoken word

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

T

ors Cove audio book publisher Janet Russell has a fondness for recording the type of literature not commonly sought after on CD or MP3 — literary novels, short stories and poetry.

Yet the owner of Rattling Books has transformed the cliché of extensively edited, commercial, easy-listening books on tape into sleek, grown-up, fully complete packages (some are hours long) of culture, class and character.

But two years into the business — as the only audio book publisher of its type in Canada — Russell has to admit she should probably consider a slightly more “commercial market.”

Accolades and awards are one thing — business is another.

“I think the most sobering thing is learn-

Rattling Books plans to release four audio books before Christmas; publisher Janet Russell considers the more commercial market ing about business,” she tells The Independent over a cup of coffee in downtown St. John’s. “I know I have to pick some more (titles) that are more likely to sell, but I’m only going to do things I like.”

Luckily, Russell has great taste and a good ear. Her list of titles features a wide range of talent, both within its writers (many of whom are local) and within the recorded performers. Recent additions to her collection and future titles awaiting distribution show that although Russell

might keep an eye on market demand (going with more novels, non-fiction outdoors adventure and even a children’s book), nothing will stop her publishing the best of Newfoundland and Labrador’s talent.

Authors like Agnes Walsh (In the Old Country of My Heart) and Michael Crummey (Hard Light) were among some of her first, followed more recently by Lisa Moore (Open) and Joel Hynes (Down to the Dirt, still in production).

Rattling Books also just made a huge

business leap in the form of ipod-friendly downloads and a brand-new website.

Russell says going web friendly “took forever,” but it was always a part of her vision. Now, Rattling Books offers online shopping for audio CDs, MP3 CDs and downloads — in addition to distribution through national and local bookstores and retail outlets.

With the website up and running, Russell is concentrating on getting four new titles ready for pre-Christmas distribution. She’s hugely busy, but feeling magnanimous.

“In November I’m having a get-toknow-us sale on the website,” she says expansively. “Forty per cent off everything.”

As Russell talks, she still has the bright glint of someone pushing her schedule just See “Writing,” page 21

Derrick Rowe resigns as FPI’s CEO; remains on the board of directors

A

fter resigning last Vic Young was ousted from week as CEO of the position — says he Fishery Products stayed in the job longer than International (FPI), Derrick he intended.

Rowe says the company will “No company can continbe heading in a new direction. ue to operate without ecoRowe tells The Independent nomic viability so I think poor third-quarter results — it’s the perfect time for me amounting to a total loss of to (resign),” Rowe says, $7.4 million this year to Oct. 1 adding he will stay on until — as well as a full review of Dec. 31 and retain his seat the company’s operations Derrick Rowe on the board of directors. were the main factors in his As for the company’s Nov. 4 decision. review, which is already underway, Rowe — CEO since May, 2001 when Rowe says it’s a healthy approach for a

company in a troubled industry.

“The results are telling us we cannot continue to operate in the manner we have. I’ve been warning people for a long time — currency, fuel, China — I’ve been accused of being an alarmist … it is real,” he says. “It took more than $200 million out of the industry (and) it probably took more out of FPI than anyone else.”

Rowe won’t speculate as to who will fill his seat at FPI’s helm, but says there are “fantastic” people within the company with the talents needed to do the job.

“I do have a lot of confidence that we have a lot of excellent people here and my expertise really isn’t in need in some of the areas we’re heading into now,” he says.

“Your heart needs to be in it and I think someone else’s heart needs to be in it from now on.”

FPI also made changes to its executive line-up at Ocean Cuisine International. The American division — 40 per cent of which was to be sold off in an income trust this year, but has been stalled by the feds — introduced a new CEO Nov. 4. Kevin Kavanaugh

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A free vote in the House of Assembly last summer allowed FPI to sell off 40 per cent of its American marketing arm, from which the company hoped to make $100 million.

Leader of the provincial Liberals Gerry Reid says he doesn’t see an income trust in FPI’s future — though it may be hard to swallow for communities like Fortune and Harbour Breton, which were promised hefty sums and infrastructure based on the deal’s success.

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20 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

Atlantic Canada could get own forestry deal OTTAWA

By Richard Roik Telegraph-Journal

A

federal aid package for the forest industry will likely be divided into two parts to address concerns raised by the Maritimes’ softwood lumber producers, says Ottawa’s interim natural resources minister.

John McCallum says he’s studying a two-pronged approach amid fears the region’s producers could lose their exemption from American countervailing duties if they are full participants in any national forestry strategy.

“There would be two parts to it,” McCallum says. “One would be a number of measures not having anything to do with possible countervail, and Atlantic Canada would certainly not be left out of that.

“Nor would Atlantic Canada want to be left out of that.”

But McCallum says other potential measures on the table, such as loan guarantees to the industry, could “conceivably” spark a new round of American countervailing duties and cause problems for Maritime producers.

“That’s one of the situations we’re talking about to Atlantic Canada, so it’s possible, but no decision has been made,” adds McCallum.

Miramichi MP Charles Hubbard, one of two New Brunswick Liberal MPs on the federal government’s forestry task force, says a two-part strategy would be his preference.

“I would be very much concerned with any policy that would cause problems for our present trade with the Americans, which has existed from

1982 and which has enabled our forestry producers to avoid the big add-on of duties and countervail.”

McCallum is expected to take his proposed forestry aid package to a cabinet committee Nov. 14.

Details are being closely guarded, but it’s believed the federal government is enriching the package as its tough talk in Canada’s softwood lumber trade dispute with the Americans appears to be politically popular.

In addition to loan guarantees, Ottawa is looking at investment tax credits to help modernize mills, temporary relief for communities and workers hit hard by job losses, and a package of initiatives in silviculture.

The Maritime Lumber Bureau has privately complained, however, that the real issue is the low stumpage fees lumber producers are charged in other provinces targeted by American allegations of unfair subsidies.

In British Columbia, for example, stumpage fees are as low as 25 cents a cubic metre compared to the more than $18 a cubic metre charged in New Brunswick.

The result is that producers in British Columbia are expanding their market share south of the border — and posted record profits last year — while New Brunswick’s forestry sector continues to shed jobs.

Hubbard says he’s not convinced loan guarantees would be problematic for Atlantic Canada.

He notes Maritime producers — who export more than $1 billion in softwood lumber to the U.S. each year — could argue they are borrowing money against the $170 million in duties they have deposited with the Americans.

Canada's interim Natural Resources Minister John McCallum

Chris Wattie/Reuters

Ontario firm to disinfect NYC’s water

By Naomi Carniol Torstar wire service

A

company in London, Ont., has won a contract to supply equipment that will disinfect drinking water for more than nine million people in New York City and the surrounding area.

Trojan Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Washingtonbased Danaher Corp., announced last week it will provide 56 ultraviolet treatment systems for New York’s new Catskill/Delaware UV

disinfection facility. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

This is Trojan’s largest contract to date.

“At the request of New York City, we’re not disclosing the value of the contract,” Trojan president Marvin DeVries says.

“The New York City project will take us probably 14 to 16 months to build.”

Together, the UV systems will be able to treat up to 2.2 billion gallons of water a day.

Trojan expects to deliver the UV treatment systems in 2007 or 2008.

Each system will inject water with ultraviolet light. The light penetrates into bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms and alters their genetic structure so they can’t replicate.

“That’s a science that has been well studied and well documented by researchers around the world,” DeVries says.

This is the first time it’s being applied on such a mass scale, he added.

Trojan was awarded the contract after New York had picked two finalists.

“Both companies were asked to build one of the 56 units and submit it for full-scale testing,” DeVries says.

In March, testing began on Trojan’s unit. Tests were launched on its competitor’s system in June.

The New York City department of environmental protection also evaluated the total life-cycle costs of each system.

It was a long summer as Trojan waited for word.

But the company knew its product had performed well during the testing period.

“We were quietly confident we had put a very good proposal forward,” DeVries says.

Trojan is a private company with about 400 employees. Its parent, Danaher, has about 35,000 employees and trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Danaher bought Trojan in November 2004.

Its most recent quarterly report stated, “Trojan’s drinking and water waste disinfection market products are expected to generate approximately $100 million in incremental sales for the business in 2005.”

Internet users still rely on ‘old media’ Online, offline Canadians studied — webheads seem to be better read

By Tyler Hamilton Torstar wire service

Jeff Leiper, an analyst with technology research firm the Yankee Group in Ottawa, says the findings make sense, given that traditional media play ey, Google — you’re not so tough. The an editorial role largely absent on the Web. belief that the Internet is pushing aside tra“Google News does a great job of bringing you ditional media as a source of news and stuff from the traditional media, but without the information may be mistaken, according to a new editorial controls,” says Leiper, adding that the study profiling online Canadians. same goes when it comes to online Web logs, The study, one of the largest and most compre- known as blogs. hensive ever conducted on Internet users in “The main characteristic of a newspaper is not Canada, found that those who use Google, Yahoo! that it’s delivered on paper. It’s the role of the and other online sources to get their daily dose of reporter, how news is gathered, and the role of the news are more likely to pick up a newspaper, read editor. Until bloggers talk to the guys responsible a book or flip through a magazine than non-users for setting my water rates, and post that online, I’m of the Internet. still going to rely on traditional Newspapers were cited by 59 media and the function it has.” per cent of Internet users as an Concern about the quality of “Internet users, important source of information, information on the Internet did compared with 50 per cent for nonemerge in the study. While 62 it would seem, are users, while books were important per cent of Internet users cited for 55 per cent of Web surfers comthe Web itself as their most simply more pared with 38 per cent for nonimportant source of informausers. media-oriented than tion, only 37 per cent of those A similar trend could be found users perceived the information are non-users.” for magazines and radio, with teleas reliable and accurate. vision the only medium valued Among the study’s other key more by offline Canadians than findings: their online counterparts.

• Of non-users of the Internet, one in three have “While Internet use has a measurable displace- previously been online but decided later they didment effect — with some time that might have n’t want to use it. been spent watching television, listening to the • The vast majority of non-users cited a general radio or reading magazines and newspapers lack of interest in and usefulness of the technoloinstead devoted to the Internet — our data support gy. Privacy, spam and social concerns were also the general conclusion that, for most users, the cited. Only seven per cent of non-users said they Internet serves more as a supplement to tradition- were offline because it’s too expensive. al media than a replacement,” the study conclud• Internet users watch an average of 3.7 fewer ed. hours a week of television compared with non“Internet users, it would seem, are simply more users. media-oriented than are non-users.”

• Internet users spend nearly twice as much time The results are based on a survey of 3,014 online looking for information (6.1 hours a week) Canadians at least 18 years old who answered as they do looking for entertainment (3.3 hours). questions in a telephone interview in May and • Farmers, fishers and unskilled workers are less June of last year. The margin of error is 1.8 per likely to be online, while business owners, office cent, 19 times out of 20. workers and professionals are most likely to surf, The study is the first to come out of the and more often.

Canadian Internet Project, an ongoing research ini• Two-thirds of online Canadian households use tiative led by a consortium of universities and sup- a high-speed connection. ported with provincial, federal and private-sector • Canadians are the most experienced Internet funding. consumers in the world, with 60 per cent of users It’s Canada’s contribution to the World Internet saying they’ve been online for more than 5 years.

Project, a global research effort involving more The United States came second at 58 per cent, folthan 25 countries. lowed by Sweden at 55 per cent.

H

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 21

US Senate backs drilling in refuge Canada says Arctic oil fight isn’t over, argues wildlife, culture at risk WASHINGTON

By Tim Harper Torstar wire service

T

he U.S. Senate, ignoring opposition from Ottawa, Canadian natives and environmentalists on both sides of the border, has voted to open an Arctic refuge to oil drilling.

The move overrides an 18-year-old pledge by Canada and the US to protect migrating Porcupine caribou herds in northern Yukon and ignores Ottawa’s claims that drilling will disrupt a northern Gwitchin culture that is 12,000 years old.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has expressed Canadian opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to US President George W. Bush in person and by phone, and Environment Minister Stéphane Dion has had at least two meetings with White House environmental officials on the issue.

A bid by Democrats to strip the drilling provision from a budget bill failed by a 51-48 margin last week, dashing the best opportunity for opponents to block the provision, which Republicans have sought for more than a decade.

A glimmer of hope remains for opponents because the House of Representatives must pass a similar measure in its budget bill next week.

But historically the House has passed drilling measures only to have them die in the Senate, suggesting that is a faint hope.

Joe Linklater, chief of the Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow, Yukon, says the loss of the caribou herd would be akin to the loss of the buffalo from the Great Plains.

“When the caribou herd is threatened, our culture is threatened,” he says. “It is the only culture our people know.”

In Ottawa, Dion says Canada would continue pressing its case. Under a 1987 agreement, the two countries were supposed to refrain from activities that

A protester in a Polar Bear costume cuts a slice of ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's 900 pound Baked Alaska, made of 'Fossil Fuel' ice cream, to protest drilling in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, outside the US Capitol building in Washington.

Mannie Garcia/Reuters

could hurt the Porcupine caribou herd or its habitat.

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens led the push for drilling.

“I believe the tide of public opinion is changing,” he says. “The American people know that development in (the Arctic refuge) will help lower energy prices, reduce our dependence on unstable and unfriendly regimes, and grow our economy.”

He told fellow senators there was nothing pristine about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling it “a barren, frozen, wasteland” in the winter.

Displaying large pictures of the area, Stevens said the tundra “has no beauty at all.”

Last week’s vote was a major victory for Bush, who has been pushing to get the refuge opened to drilling since he came to Washington in 2001.

The tipping point for him came with soaring gas prices in the wake of hurricanes Katrina in August and Rita in September — even though opponents have maintained the amount of oil available from the Arctic wildlife refuge is not worth the potential ruin of an environmentally fragile area.

‘Writing it down is cheating’ From page 19

recordings.

Spence’s own previously unpublished first a little too hard and she admits, while she loves book, On the Beach in Spanish Room, first being busy, time management can be an issue appeared as one of Russell’s titles and went on — especially as she volunteers on the boards of to win an award from an American audio book numerous non-profit organizations. magazine.

Rattling Books was created to fit a certain Not one to avoid taking a chance, Russell is missing piece in Russell’s life. As a former full- also about to release her first children’s book, time biologist and now a part-time independent performed by her own daughter when she was biologist (“I used to hate saying I was a biolo- only five (she’s now nine). gist”), Russell decided her The True Meaning of career needed some culture.

Crumbfest, by PEI writer David She wanted something that Weale, is a Christmas story told she could run herself and still from the perspective of a “I would never buy stay in her home of Tors Cove mouse. an abridged audio (about 45 minutes outside St. “She couldn’t even read,” John’s). laughs Russell. “I’d read the book; I think it’s Having co-produced a lines and edit it all out after. She weekly, natural history radio wearing something that tainted audio books.” was show for a number of years, made noise, and she was antsy she gradually entertained the and sometimes grabbing the Janet Russell idea of audio book publishing, mic. It’s not a clean recording, particularly as there was no but it’s fantastic because kids industry here in Canada, yet it that age are different. Everywas a flourishing market in the States. one’s different when they’re that age.”

Her love for biology is still present in Rattling Russell is well on her way to accomplishing Books through the company’s logo of a razorbill her goal of changing the perception of audio — a native bird of Labrador and the islands books Canada. around Tors Cove. The bird’s call is a rattling She says many people tend to “look down sound. their noses” at the concept, possibly due to the Today, Russell says there “really is more cul- common practice of taking works of fiction and ture” in her life thanks to the business. extensively abridging them.

“I can say to myself, ‘Well I have to go to that “I would never buy an abridged audio book; I play because I want to check out that actor’ … I think it’s tainted audio books,” she says. can say, now, that I have to do that for work, “My husband came up with this line, you where before, I’m so busy, I’d only do what I know, people look down their noses at listening, had to do.”

‘Can’t you read?’

She’s also met and worked with some of the “And so I came up with this quote: ‘In the most talented members of the local arts and cul- beginning was the word and the word was spoture scene, including Janis Spence, a well- ken.’ I mean the origin of literature is an oral traknown veteran actress, who has read for dition. Writing it down is cheating. Can’t tell a Rattling Books and also directs some of the story or what?”

The Canadian figures are under dispute here, but even the most optimistic models indicate about 10.4 billion barrels of oil are in the refuge, enough to meet US demands for about 16 months.

No oil would flow for 10 years, and the area would not reach peak output until around 2025.

Dion says it’s important Americans understand this is an international issue.

“To us, it’s not an internal issue for the Americans,” Dion says. “It’s an issue for the continent and for the planet, because if we start to put at risk our

ecosystems because we want to put energy first, whatever the consequences, well, the biodiversity is a key aspect of the quality of life for human beings.

“This drilling would give oil only 10 years from now for a very short time …

It doesn’t make sense for six months of oil to destroy a so fragile ecosystem.”

US Democrats have estimated there is enough Alaskan oil available to bring down the cost of gas at the pumps by a penny, 20 years from now.

But part of the Republican pitch was based on national security. They argued the United States cannot be dependent on oil imports from often unstable Middle East regimes.

Even with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in full production, however, the US would still import 68 per cent of its oil, up from 64 per cent today, unless it changes its energy strategy.

Bush issued a statement praising the Senate for a decision he said would lower American gas prices and utility bills.

“Thanks to technology, we can reach this energy with little impact on the land or wildlife,” he said. “I applaud the Senate for passing legislation to improve our energy situation with this commonsense approach.”

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is considered an environmental jewel, a 7.9 million hectare sanctuary that is home to caribou, polar bears, wolves and more than 150 species of birds.

Those who believe the drilling can be done in an environmentally responsible way are spouting nonsense, says Pete Rafle of the Washington-based Wilderness Society.

He says the drilling would need 610,000 hectares, not the much smaller area proponents have promised.

“This is one of the few remaining unspoiled wilderness areas in North America,” he says.

“Oil drilling by its very nature is a messy, dirty business.”

22 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

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INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 23

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

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50 Strip 52 Major Canadian debate of 1956 54 Closing bit

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Crossword solutions on page 32

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12 Beetle 13 Interruption (of power) 14 Official flower of Quebec: Blue flag ___ 15 Not taped 16 Espy 24 Re-equip 26 Pot au feu ingredient 27 Where to find Rita MacNeil’s Tea Room: Big ___, Cape Breton 30 Chunk of ocean ice 32 Sneer 33 Doctor 35 A Great Lake

36 Toronto neighbourhood of CBC soap 37 Baseball stat.

38 Hither and ___ 39 Geisha’s sash 40 Yukon’s flower 41 Just ___ among many 42 Rose berry 46 Cover 47 Delves 48 Belonging to: suffix 50 Unit of hay 51 Monopolist’s share 52 Cushion 53 Prune 55 Carp 56 Kitten’s pop 58 Warning sound 60 Like King Cole 61 French coin, once 63 Rx writers 64 Cadge 65 She tasted Paradise 67 Dreyfus defender 68 Early plastic 70 First black woman mayor in Canada: Daurene ___ (Annapolis Royal, N.S., 1984) 71 Drink 72 Empty-looking 74 Greek god 75 Italian tenor 76 Diviner of Delphi 77 Bill

79 In the know 80 Ginseng genus 81 Winery residue

82 Indian nursemaid 84 Light, dry sherry 85 Pelvic bones

86 Exchange for money 87 Very (Fr.)

88 Tibetan gazelle 89 South of France 90 Bark

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 Listen to naysayers this week, Aries, they're actually right about their advice. Put your energy into a project focused around a loved one and you'll feel rewarded.

TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 A conflict at work only escalates this week, Taurus. It's hard to keep your cool, but doing so will help you come out looking like the better, wiser person.

GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 An impromptu trip is just what you need to recharge, Gemini.

Take Scorpio along for the ride and you'll have a grand adventure. Others will be jealous of the getaway.

CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 You're pouting and sulking has gotten you nowhere thus far, Cancer, so why continue with these antics? Others see right through the act. Change your

behavior this week.

LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 You're going to take a leap of faith this week, Leo. Don't worry, others won't let you down. The results will be a change in your outlook toward all things risky.

VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 Mouthing off to higher-ups is no way to get what you want, Virgo.

This approach never works, so why not try some finesse in areas concerning your work life?

LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 A big move is in store for you, Libra. You have the financial means to make a change, and now's the time to pack up and get going. Expect some family resistance.

SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 You're swimming in dangerous waters, Scorpio, particularly when you start flirting with

someone who could be trouble.

Keep your sights closer to home and on safer territory.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 A shock to your bank account leaves you dazed and confused, Sagittarius. Make up for the loss with some quick action, and you'll be surprised just how fast you get things in order.

CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 You want to make a move, but the finances just aren't there yet, Capricorn. Better settle in and stash more cash away for the time being. It's time to put pressure on your partner.

AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 A big responsibility at home leaves you feeling trapped.

However, it's not wise to take chances and sow your wild oats.

Speak to your partner about ways to liven things up.

PISCES - Feb 19/Mar 20 Others trust in your creativity for celebration ideas, this week, Pisces. Yet, you're just not up to the challenge this time. You'll rebound.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS NOVEMBER 6 Ethan Hawke, Actor (35) NOVEMBER 7 Laurie Churba, Actress (36) NOVEMBER 8 Tara Reid, Actress (30) NOVEMBER 9 Nick Lachey, Singer (32) NOVEMBER 10 Brittany Murphy, Actress (28) NOVEMBER 11 Demi Moore, Actress (43)

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 32

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6-12, 2005 — PAGE 25

Paul Daly/The Independent

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

I

t was just last year, after 60 years of marriage, that Arthur Barrett put on a wedding ring.

Arthur and Barbara Barrett met in England during the Second World War. She was working on a farm to help overcome the food shortage; he was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force stationed in nearby Tholthorpe.

Arthur spotted his future wife, “this gorgeous girl, back on, across a crowded room …” at a dance in the village hall. They were married the next year, in 1944.

Two years later, Barbara left Yorkshire and travelled to Newfoundland to join her husband in his hometown of Curling. They would go on to have two children, vibrant careers and plenty of travel and adventures — but Arthur never had that band around his finger.

“During the war time you couldn’t get rings,” says Barbara with a shrug. “You didn’t think about jewelry, you were more concerned about food.”

Last year, she took her husband to the mall for a Valentine’s coffee date. While he settled down with his beverage, she went off to run a quick errand.

“I picked up the ring and came back and said, ‘Now I need you to sit down here,’ and I got

War story Arthur Barrett of Curling met his wife Barbara in England during the Second World War. He was a handsome bomber pilot; she was a beautiful air raid warden. After the war they returned here to Newfoundland and lived happily ever after. down on my knee and proposed to him,” says Barbara. She smiles at her husband, seated across the living room in their St. John’s home, and he returns the warm look. The pair banter, tease, and finish each other’s sentences — engaging, delightful, and connected.

Arthur goes back to the night they met, when he first asked his wife to dance. He finishes the story with a glint in his eye and a sincere “… we’ve been dancing ever since.”

Barbara was one of hundreds of war brides to come to Newfoundland after the Second World War, bringing skills, personality and experience

to their new communities. While she says some 400 war brides have since returned home to the United Kingdom — some marriages broke up, some women came to Newfoundland only to find their husbands already had families — Barbara’s story is a happy one.

For three years during the war, Barbara was one of the first women to volunteer as an air raid warden. Dressed in uncomfortable rough, thick pants, jacket and tin hat, one of her main duties was to help people, particularly the blind and deaf, away from their homes and into shelters when an air raid warning went off.

LIVYER

Search for the Red Ochre People

Ingeborg Marshall has spent years researching the Beothuks, and she’s still uncovering secrets

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A

leading authority on the Beothuk, Ingeborg Marshall, hadn’t even heard of the Red Ochre People until her arrival in this province in the fall of 1968.

In fact, if her husband, William, hadn’t been recruited to Memorial University’s School of Medicine that year she’d probably never have known about the people.

“I went, on the first day in Newfoundland, I went to the museum … I was very intrigued by the exhibits, particularly the bone pendants that they carved,” says Marshall, a recent recipient of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Born in East Prussia (now Poland), Marshall met her British husband in Germany. The couple moved to London, England and then Australia, but it was the Avalon Peninsula where they and their three children made their home — first in Logy Bay, and for the last 20 years in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s.

After her visit to the Newfoundland museum, Marshall says she began using Beothuk arts as inspiration for her own artwork. She won an arts and letters award in 1973 based on a print depicting the pendants.

Then she was hooked on learning everything about the people — now extinct — who have become little more than a whisper in history and text books in the province.

“I was struck by the fact that there

was generally little known and … there were quite a number of articles that I thought sounded very unfair, blaming the settlers of enormous cruelties and to a degree that I just couldn’t imagine was true,” she tells The Independent.

In her 50s, Marshall decided to finish a master’s degree in archaeology and anthropology so that she could have a better understanding of field notes from past archaeological dig sites and other published material about the Beothuk.

She says many people told her there wasn’t enough documentation to fully research the history, but out of curiosity and spite, Marshall proved them wrong.

She founded the Beothuk Institute and has published six books and more than a See “I did a lot,” page 27

The wardens also had to be well trained in first aid, and completed routine checks on gas masks to make sure they were workable.

“I remember we had to go through a gas chamber filled with mustard gas with the mask on, just to show you were brave enough to do it, that you could handle it if you had to,” she says.

“Thank God we never had to.”

Barrett still has her air raid warden pin and the armband on which she painstakingly embroidered the group’s crest.

“You know at that age, I should have been having good times, as a teenager …” she trails off.

She remembers much about the wartime: the raids, her fear of being buried alive, the blackouts, the field labour and finally “the day the lights came on” — which, on top of everything else, meant she and her husband could finally be together.

Arthur was a pilot with 420 Snowy Owl Squadron, 6th group, Bomber Command.

“I knew it was time to join up and I didn’t know what to join,” he says of his decision to enroll in the forces. “Coming from Newfoundland I had an allegiance to the navy … it’s a silly reason but that’s the way it was.”

Barbara jumps in: “And you joined the Navy and your father had to go down there and tell See “Our neighbours,” page 30

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

26 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

ANGELA ANTLE & WILL GILL Visual artists

A

ngela Antle and Will Gill agree: though the end products look very different, their artwork has quite a bit in common, in process and theme.

Enough to support a two-person exhibition, opening this week at the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art. “We have similar sensibilities,” says Antle from Toronto, where she is finishing a six-week art residency. “It’s very subtle, in the use of our materials … and we’re both very concerned with the surface, the final surface effect.”

“We have a shared interest in form

and colour and texture,” says Gill. “I’ve always found we have similar ways of working.”

Antle works in encaustic, an ancient, colourfast technique of mixing oil paint and melted beeswax. The medium provides “instant texture … you can dig into it, you can almost do an etching,” she says.

“It’s the same sort of rigorous nature of working as I do,” says Gill. “I’m working with a lot of power tools and that sort of thing … she’s got a similar thought process.”

Known primarily as a sculptor, Gill’s work for the upcoming show is destined for the wall. But the mid-sized pieces on plywood panel are hardly

two-dimensional; they’re strong in depth, texture and layers.

“I’m working with a router and doing inlay work, cutting out areas and inlaying more wood into them, and messing around and painting over top … layering and collage,” he says.

Like much of Gill’s work, these latest pieces display natural, organic influences. “The environment, snow, rain and sky mixed in with more conceptual ideas,” he says. “I like to think of it as kind of poetic in a way, the way things relate to one another, colours and forms.”

The work has quiet landscape qualities, abstract, evocative and open.

“There’s always something about com-

ing home in the middle of a night in winter,” says Gill about one piece featuring a dark sky sprinkled with snowflakes. “It’s very quiet, peaceful, almost meditative.”

Antle’s pieces for the show are in line with her favoured themes. “There’s botanical shapes, natural shapes, colours more towards greens and browns,” she says. “It’s all about memory and scientific illustration and how we remember and how we classify nature.”

Three pieces Antle completed in Toronto will be included in the exhibition, botanical works developed outdoors.

“Not florals,” she says, “but abstract-

ing flowers and seed pods …”

Antle and Gill are considered rising stars in the local contemporary art scene — though hardly newcomers.

Gill’s work will be showcased at the Rooms in January; Antle returns from Toronto to her current position as host of CBC Radio’s Weekend Arts Magazine.

Their exhibition opens Nov. 12 at the Leyton Gallery, with a reception from 3-5 p.m.

— Stephanie Porter Above left and right: works by Angela Antle.

Four centre pieces works in progress by Will Gill.

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

EVENTS NOVEMBER 6 • The Avalon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship regular Sunday service at the Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street, 10:30-11:30 a.m.

• Virgin Territory, untouched, uninhabited areas inspire an exhibition by Clem Curtis, opening at the LSPU Hall from 3 – 6 p.m. with the artist in attendance. Running until Dec. 4.

• Traditional Irish Session, Bridie’s Parlor Party with Con O'Brien, at Bridie Molloy’s, no cover.

NOVEMBER 7 • Book launch Inco Comes to Labrador by Raymond Goldie, 4-7 p.m. at Bianca’s bar, 171 Water Street.

• Bedroom Bellydancing with The Neighbourhood Strays, Kittiwake Dance Theatre, $15, registration is

required, 738-0931.

NOVEMBER 8 • Official launch for Bags and Little Whistles, a 2006 nude calendar — featuring Sheilagh O’Leary’s photographs of a dozen of the province’s best whistle and pipe players — at Bianca’s bar, 5-7 p.m. The calendar is in support of the St. John’s Folk Arts Council.

NOVEMBER 9 • Book launch of Reels, Rock and Rosaries: Confessions of a Newfoundland Musician by Marjorie Doyle, 5-7 p.m., at the RCA gallery of the LSPU Hall.

• Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, at Rabbittown Theatre, until Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m., 739-8220.

• Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, tickets $18/$15, 8 p.m., running until Nov. 12, at the LSPU Hall.

• Salsa and Reggae Fiesta at the Martini Bar with Deneen Connolly at, from 8 p.m.-10 p.m., $5.

business building, cash sales only, 737-3069.

• Interior Light an exhibition of Newfoundland landscapes by Gerry Squires, opens at the Emma Butler Gallery, 111 George Street West at 5 p.m., until Nov. 24.

NOVEMBER 10 • Signs of Our Places, a lecture by Lucy R. Lippard, in The Rooms lecture theatre, 7:30 p.m. Lippard is the author of 20 books on contemporary art and cultural criticism.

• Hickory Dickory Dock at the St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre, 7:30 p.m. tickets $20/$17, running until Nov. 12.

• Memorial alumni art show and sale, from 7:30–9:30 p.m., at the Royal Trust Atrium at the faculty of

NOVEMBER 11 • Steve Amirault, Greg Ritchie and Jim Vivian will be appearing at the D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN School of Music at 8 p.m. Amirault will also provide a workshop at 3 p.m. with free admission for the workshop please contact Heather Adams at atlanticjazz@gmail.com NOVEMBER 12 • Will Gill and Angela Antle exhibition opening, 3-5 p.m. at the Leyton

Gallery of Fine Art. IN THE GALLERIES: • Virgin Territory, untouched, uninhabited areas inspire an exhibition by Clem Curtis, opening at the LSPU Hall from 3 – 6 p.m. with the artist in attendance. Running until Dec. 4.

• The Limestone Barrens Project at The Rooms, is a major international exhibition of visual art, music and writing based on limestone barrens of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Great Northern Peninsula, the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and The Burren in Co. Clare, Ireland. Running until Jan. 8, 2005.

• Petit Monde, an Exhibition of the Photography of transplanted New Yorker Nathan Gates featuring candid shots of infants and of children in Southeast Asia.

At Balance Restaurant, running until Dec. 3, 7222112.

• Interior Light, an exhibition of Newfoundland landscapes by Gerry Squires opens at the Emma Butler Gallery, 111 George Street West on Nov. 10, running until Nov. 24.

NOTES: Arts and crafts workshops for all ages at the Anna Templeton Centre, throughout the fall, 739-7623.

POET’S CORNER

All Saints We tread on wet leaves this cold November morning on our way to mass Priest talks about saints women who died for Jesus their wills stiff as brass Skirts like unbleached wool blouses like pink highlighter shoes without a spot Nuns hateful as hell Xeroxed students keep close watch virgins we are not.

— Janet Mary Reid, St. John’s

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 27

Lame sequels to decent movies Saw II Starring Donnie Wahlberg (out of four)

D

etective Eric Matthews has no problem keeping busy. With a full caseload at work and problems with his son and ex-wife while off the job, the last thing he needs is something else on his agenda.

When he is called to the scene of a grisly murder, a case supervised by his former partner, Matthews finds himself introduced to a situation that refuses to be ignored.

The murdered man appears to have been the most recent victim of Jigsaw, a sadistic killer who delights in forcing kidnapped individuals into extreme dilemmas, in which they are forced to choose between brutal death and life, but at some great expense.

While Matthews isn’t involved in the investigation, a message found at the scene suggests the killer is taunting him. Reluctant to get involved, Matthews refuses to be baited until he recalls a clue from the crime scene.

With the possibility of a quick resolution to the case, he accompanies the raid on a building that could possibly be Jigsaw’s hideout.

If things were this simple, Saw II would be 15 or 20 minutes long, but as fans of the previous film know all too well, the police will arrive to find that they’ve been tricked, or they’ll discover a trap of some sort. The latter proves to be true, in more ways than one, with the upshot of the whole exercise find-

TIM CONWAY Film score ing Matthews at the centre of another of Jigsaw’s games.

This time around, however, Jigsaw has devised a multi-layered puzzle that includes eight strangers trapped in a building. A nerve gas is slowly killing them and they have only a couple of hours to find a way out of their predicament. Along the way are numerous clues to aid their escape and just as many deadly traps designed to prevent it.

Although the plight of the eight prisoners conjures up memories of the Canadian film Cube from a few years back, we quickly advance a year or two and settle upon a less flattering comparison, that of Thirteen Ghosts.

In this case, however, creative set decoration is conspicuously absent, and director Darren Lynn Bousmann’s former career in music video is blatantly obvious. Mind games give way to blood letting, where shocking visuals are preferred to clever plot lines.

If the story behind the original Saw is correct, the film was intended as a straight-to-video project designed to kick-start co-writer Leigh Wannell’s acting career. Shot on a very low budget in a short period of time, it became one of last year’s surprise hits with horror fans. Word has it that a sequel was approved on the weekend that the film opened in theatres.

‘I did a lot of searching’ From page 25 dozen articles in educational journals on a wide range of topics about the Beothuk.

An avid researcher, Marshall has begun compiling and writing a book about merchant and explorer William Eppes Cormack — with help from a geography professor at Memorial — about his time spent with Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk.

“In my search for Beothuk material I was trying to find the Cormack papers because he of course had Shanawdithit stay with him and when she was brought to St. John’s.

“I did a lot of searching — which other people have done too — except I was successful.”

She found the Cormack Papers, but won’t say where.

Marshall and Memorial geneticists have also begun an extensive project in collecting and comparing the DNA from several aboriginal groups in the province — including the Beothuk — to try and connect them to a common ancestor.

“When were all these groups sort of all together … this is a scientific test, this is no longer guess work or speculation, which is what archaeologists do have to do,” Marshall says, her voice rising.

Moving around her house, Marshall

says the family spent a lot of time on the lake framed in her picture windows. The family windsurfed, swam, canoed.

Marshall’s two sons — one lives in the province; the other in Nova Scotia — are both engineers. She has three children and three grandchildren, although she lost a daughter suddenly last year.

She talks about the first fall the family lived in Newfoundland. Spending time camping, Marshall noticed her daughter was bleeding and rushed to see why.

“It was the black flies — they were really thick there and I saw all these people covered up and I said ‘Why are these people covered up? It’s so nice and warm,’” she says with a laugh.

And though Marshall has travelled the world picking up trinkets and art along the way, she says she’d never again move to a big city.

“We came saying the offer was very good for my husband … and he had originally said we’ll stay four or five years, but as you can see we’re still here,” she says smiling again.

“I guess I was forewarned,” she says of warnings St. John’s would be small compared to other places she’s lived. “I think what I loved was what I called the wilderness.

“We enjoyed the fresh air and it’s not dangerous in Newfoundland.”

Fiendish traps abound in Saw II.

Arriving on our doorsteps a year later, it’s safe to say that this film was rushed into production, and it’s also safe to assume that in doing so, the forces behind the sequel weren’t driven solely by gratitude. Striking while the iron was hot seems to have been the goal, as opposed to carefully crafting a motion picture that this newfound fan base deserves.

Drawing upon some of the first film’s elements, Saw II still stands out from the latest horror lineup, but not as distinctly.

In the wake of box office success, it seems more willing to pursue established horror film conventions than gamble on taking the genre in a whole new direction.

So it is that Saw II is a passable sequel, as sequels go, but very disappointing in not even making the effort to provide fans with a smarter, more thrilling film.

The Legend of Zorro Starring Antonio Bandaras (out of four) With almost a decade gone by since Antonio Banderas donned the mask of Zorro in the film of the same name, the “on again, off again” sequel that has been the occasional fodder of entertainment media has finally arrived, and as Saw II exhibits characteristics of a sequel rushed into production, The Legend of Zorro serves to illustrate what happens when the follow-up to a modestly popular film simmers for years on the back burner.

Returning with Banderas are co-star Catherine Zeta Jones, who catapulted into the limelight with the first Zorro picture, and director Martin Campbell.

The original film’s screenwriters, however, are left in the dust as a couple of new hands, out of TV land, are

given a crack at drumming up new adventure for our masked hero, and it shows.

The Legend of Zorro picks up a decade after the events of the last film, with Alenjandro and Elena’s domestic bliss occasionally interrupted by their son’s “chip off the old block” feistiness.

Things become a little more complicated, however, with Alejandro’s procrastination regarding his promise to retire Zorro. Finally, Elena files for divorce, and Alejandro’s life falls apart.

This is hardly the stuff of high energy adventure that one expects in a sequel to The Mask of Zorro, nor are the weak comic gags and pedestrian pacing. Added to this, we have a taste of Spy Kids with young Joaquin displaying traits of a future Son of Zorro.

At the core of the film is the notion that after 10 years, perhaps it is time for Alejandro to retire, and this would be fine if we’d been witness to the derring-do of his previous adventures.

The Legend of Zorro is the kind of film we should expect after a franchise has played out its possibilities, a third or fourth in a series, not the second. In seven or eight years, it seems all that has transpired is a desire to get this project done and over with, and it shows through most of the picture. In that length of time, a topnotch story could have been polished and perfected, but instead was left to grow stale.

Tim Conway operates Capital Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His next column will appear Nov. 20.

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS

Neil Butler, Steve O’Connell, Bryan Hennessey, Aiden Flynn and Brad Hodder are among the stars of Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet, playing at Rabbittown Theatre Nov. 16-20, 7:30 p.m. nightly. The production is directed by J.M. Sullivan.

Paul Daly/The Independent

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

28 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

IN CAMERA

Eyes and ears for the feds Newfoundland-based Provincial Aerospace flies surveillance missions off the east coast of Canada for Fisheries and Oceans, Transport Canada, the Department of National Defense and the oil industry, to name just a few.

Picture editor Paul Daly and senior editor Stephanie Porter had the opportunity to check out the company’s operations.

T

he main hallway in hangar two at the St. John’s airport is lined with aerial photos taken on the high seas: fishing boats, oil rigs, ice bergs, a herd of seals on pack ice, a pod of whales. Taken by day or by night, the shots are clear and detailed, showing fishing nets, on-board activity, sometimes even the expressions on fishermen’s faces.

That’s impressive, considering the photos are snapped from an airplane traveling 150 miles an hour, 200 feet — sometimes more, sometimes less — from the surface of the sea.

Hangar two is the home of Provincial Aerospace’s Airborne Maritime Surveillance Division. The photos on display were taken during flights contracted by a variety of clients, most often the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The company has been in a contract with DFO for nearly 20 years. This time of year, they generally fly two surveillance flights a day, six days a week, most out to the 200-mile limit and beyond. In the spring, when fishing activity hits its peak, there are even more missions.

Tracking foreign fishing vessels is one of the main goals of the flights, though operators keep their eyes out for oil spills, wreckage, debris, ice and other sights along the way. Using state-of-the-art radar, photographic, mapping and computer systems — much of it developed within the company’s software engineering division — targets can be identified miles away.

“Our long-range video cameras are capable of videotaping targets from … let’s say beyond five miles,” says Paul Furlong, senior sensor operator supervisor for Provincial Aerospace. He speaks carefully, so as not to divulge any company secrets. “We can record at quite the distances, I can tell you that.

“In infrared mode, I’ve actually locked onto targets to video record beyond 20 miles … you get a cool day out there and it’s clear and you’ll get a vessel at 20 miles, and I use that number conservatively.”

For DFO surveillance trips, the flight plans are confidential, developed by the department, and only given to the flight crew the day of — and schedules are never broadcast over the air.

“We don’t want the general fishing clientele to know what’s going on,” says Furlong. “The way the aircraft is designed, if you don’t know the airplane is there, if you’re not looking for it, it would be very hard to get any kind of heads up warning.

“All the sound is projected back … when you actually hear the plane, it’s already too late. If you’re doing something you shouldn’t have been, or anything questionable, we’ve probably already got it on video.”

The airplanes — Beech Super King Air 200s — hold six people, but generally travel with five on surveillance missions: two pilots, two sensor operators (one at the radar station, one at the computer), and one fisheries officer or other client.

There are lights on the side of the aircraft, which act as powerful flashes for night photography; a black globe on the belly is another video and still camera, with 360-degree capability.

With all the gear inside the plane, there’s not a whole lot of room for maneuvering. And with a lot of “crank and bank” involved in a flight, the surveillance jobs are not for everyone.

“You do have to have a pretty good constitution to go,” Furlong says.

“There’s always wind, there’s always cloud cover, there’s always fog, but with our radar systems, our infrared systems, we have the ability to get down through a lot. We do have minimums that we can fly and they’re well below commercial or recreation-

al limits.

“I tell you, when we come up on a normal stern trawler or dragger, we’re looking right at it, we’re not looking down at it. You get used to that.”

An average surveillance flight for DFO will involve a 200- to 230-mile flight out to a predetermined point. On the way out, the airplane travels at between 18,000 and 20,000 feet, while the radar operator scans the area and plots all the targets.

“Once we get to the task area we’ve got all our targets in the patrol area mapped, and we just start connecting the dots,” says Furlong, who spent years working on the flights before moving to management.

“And we fly to each and every one of them, ID them, take a close pass on them, see what they’re doing so the fisheries officer can actually see what they’re doing, confirm the ID, and continue on to the next target.

“It keeps going and going until we arrive back in St. John’s.”

Provincial Aerospace is a division of Provincial Airlines. Furlong says the Newfoundland and Labradorbased umbrella company has between 400 and 500 employees, and is growing. The aerospace division is making a name for itself in the international market, with clients in the United States and Asia — and more contracts in the works.

The challenge is, of course, to stay on the cutting edge, with ever-evolving technology and market needs.

Furlong, who has been with the company since 1999, says he’s seen significant changes in the past six or seven years — and there are new radar systems, airplanes, and photographic equipment on the way.

“I spoke to some of the older crews when I first started,” he says. “They would go flying, come home, and actually have to take out a map and a pencil and start drawing.

“Everything aboard the plane now, all the mapping, everything, is done by computer system. You’ve still got to take your notebook and do some notes, but not to any degree what it was.”

The identification numbers of known vessels are already in a database, accessible by those aboard the aircraft. At the end of the mission, all the data gathered during the flight — including photos and video — is transferred to the mainframe computer, and accessible via the Internet to clients. “It’s a pretty slick operation,” says Furlong.

The data gathered is admissible in a court of law — and has been used in foreign fishing cases many times.

Furlong, sitting in his office in the hangar, pulls up a map on his computer. He can see, in near-real time, the activities of Provincial Aerospace aircraft on missions out of Halifax and Comox, B.C. The company has contracts for surveillance for virtually the entire eastern and western coastlines of Canada.

“DFO is our main federal client. We also work for Transport Canada and do search and assist missions for the rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax,” Furlong lists. “We do some missions in support of (National Defence) research, we fly for the Canadian ice service, for the oil industry in support of ice reconnaissance, mapping ice bergs and ice edges in the spring and summer …

“We’re the eyes and ears for the feds, I guess you could say.”

Because of the company’s resources and trained personnel, Furlong says Provincial Aerospace pretty much has the Canadian coastal surveillance market cornered.

“We’re always evolving technology, always training, always watching,” he says. “Right not we’ve got the market and that’s the way we’d like to keep it.”

Foreign citations 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, 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.

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.

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 29

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

30 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

CSI Victorian London MARK CALLANAN On the shelf A Cold-Blooded Scoundrel

By J.S. Cook Brazen Books, 2005

T

he first in a new series of mysteries by novelist J. S. Cook, A Cold-Blooded Scoundrel is set amid the squalour and the splendour of post-Ripper London. The city is still reeling from the gruesome Whitechapel murders, its imagination conjuring shadows in dark alleys, bloodied corpses in cobblestone passageways. When killings begin afresh, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Phillip Devlin is called upon to find the perpetrator and thus prevent widespread panic.

In appearance, Devlin is “a slender man of middle age” with an air of “rather hungry-looking eagerness about him.” He is homosexual, highly introspective, “stringently moral” and revolutionary in his investigative methods.

“You’re a hundred years ahead of your time, Inspector,” the Yard’s laboratory scientist is fond of telling him. Devlin’s CSI style is described: Not many people understood how a single fleck of paint on a dead man’s fingernail could lead Devlin back to a metal manufacturer in Stepney, or the way a torn scrap of bloodied petticoat might reveal the profession of its owner.

Devlin noticed things that others overlooked; sometimes the things he noticed helped him solve a case and sometimes not.

“Wherever someone goes,” Devlin preaches to his young assistant and constant companion, Constable Freddie Collins, “he leaves tiny bits of himself behind […] threads from his handkerchief, the ash from his cigar, strands of hair.” Devlin’s focus on crime scene minutiae comes in quite handy as he and Collins investigate the series of linked murders.

Cook’s prose, though not remarkable, is smooth in its delivery. She particularly delights in conveying items of description. Devlin’s barber is “an elderly Dutchman with a surfeit of nose and ear hair, and the halitosis of a weekdead corpse”; his superior, Sir Neville Alcock, is “fat: not plump or merry or even well fleshed, but huge, enormous, a vast rolling bulk of a man with a belly the approximate size of some larger species of barrel.” Such instances go a long way toward lightening the tone of the

book, providing a little comedy amid the horrid circumstances of the murders.

Constable Collins is the obvious Watson to Devlin’s Holmes with the exception that a little romance is added to the equation. A significant subplot of the novel involves the development of a romantic relationship between the two, though it takes a frustratingly long time to get going — Devlin is mortally afraid of conviction under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. The younger man’s doe-eyed infatuation with the Inspector is touching, to a point, but after a while it does wear on the nerves.

Collins might well be “the sort of man in whom the intellectual dawn is very slow to break,” but Devlin isn’t exactly a genius either, though we’re meant to believe so: he keeps ejaculating obscure facts with the explanation he reads a lot; he is qualified as having “sharp eyes” that absorb “every pertinent detail”; his mind is twice described as ticking like overwound clockwork.

Part of the fun in reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (by Cook’s admission an influence in this field of fiction) is in seeing exactly how Holmes’ mind works as it makes acrobatic but perfectly logical leaps.

You come to believe in his strange intelligence as much as it might, by excess, lend itself to parody. The trouble with Devlin is that Cook doesn’t do enough footwork to convince us he’s possessed of anything more than average intellect. Conferring with the Yard’s coroner, Devlin observes: “You’d need something quite sharp to cut a person’s throat, isn’t that right?” Yes, a knifey sort of thing, no doubt, or at the very least a business card printed on heavy card stock.

The best mystery novels owe their success to strong lead characters, who, by whatever means they have at their disposal, are able to tease out the facts of the crime.

“What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order,” P.D. James has said on the matter. And order is precisely what is missing in A Cold-Blooded Scoundrel.

Having read through to the end, one gets the sense not so much that the truth has been brought to light, but that some manner of truth has been forcibly imposed by way of conclusion. It is a false sense of order, one that does not sufficiently explain the matter of motivation – the heart of any mystery novel. Without a satisfactory explanation to the question of motive, order cannot be restored.

Mark Callanan is a writer and reviewer living in Rocky Harbour. His next column appears Nov. 20.

Arthur and Barbara Barrett

‘Our neighbours call us Bonnie and Clyde’ From page 25 them you were only 16 …”

Arthur went on to leave the Merchant Navy for the air force, serving for three years in the war. Nov. 11 brings up all sorts of memories for them both — for Arthur, who lost a brother in the war, it can be a particularly sad day.

When the war ended, Arthur made his way back to Newfoundland. It wasn’t long after when Barbara set sail across the ocean, their 11-month-old daughter in arms. As the Drottingham made its early-morning entrance into St. John’s harbour, Barbara saw a lone figure standing, waiting at the “old American dock,” the current pier 17.

It was Arthur, patiently awaiting his wife and daughter.

“The I got on a train, and I’d never been on a train more than an hour, because there’s nowhere else to go in England,” says Barbara. “And we got on and were on all night and all day and I kept asking ‘Where are all the towns?’ and he just said ‘Oh, they’re back from the tracks.’”

Coming from a large town in England, Barbara was in for a big change. “I was used to going to symphony concerts, plays, and I missed that a lot,” she says, speaking in the soft English accent she’s never lost.

“The first thing I did in Curling was start a ballet school. Less than one year after arriving I hired the cinema and did a show … it’s amazing how much talent there was and still is, but nobody’s looking for it.”

Barbara’s transition to Newfoundland life was made easier by her mother-in-law, a war bride from the First World War, also from Great Britain (“I wasn’t about to be upstaged,” says Arthur).

“I was very fortunate because I had a loving family to come to,” she says. “And a woman who understood my feelings.”

In 1948, the couple moved to Gander, where Arthur managed a radio station. They founded a drama club; Barbara also wrote for The Western Star, including a war bride column, reported for Canadian Press, directed radio plays and taught theatre.

They moved on to Stephenville in 1957, where Arthur managed the new CBC station on the air force base. Barbara began another theatre group, continued newspaper, radio and education work, and was a tireless community volunteer.

Arthur took over management of the CBC television station in Corner Brook in 1964 and the couple moved again, continuing to be active in the theatrical community. Ten years later, they moved to St. John’s, where they have been ever since.

Barbara managed the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre’s basement theatre between 1975 and 1991, writing and directing many plays, and presenting a grand total of 1,014 theatre productions. She still

had her fingers in many pots — everything from directing cultural activities for the Canada Summer Game in 1977 to hosting a weekly radio arts program on VOWR. Arthur retired from CBC in 1983; Barbara stepped out of the arts centre in 1991.

Arthur laughs as he says he’s one of three people left drawing a pension from the Newfoundland Broadcasting Corporation (which evolved into the CBC after Confederation).

“I get $26 a month,” he says, eyes twinkling.

“They’ve been after me for years to make a direct deposit, but I won’t do it.”

In the mid-’90s, Barbara was the momentum behind the book We Came from Over the Sea: British War Brides in Newfoundland. It’s a collection of pieces, written by different women, about their experiences moving to a new country and a new life.

“I say this humbly, but a lot of contribution has been made by some of these women who brought with them skills,” she says. “They were nurses, some of them, and went to the outports, and became helpful in places that maybe didn’t have nurses.

Even helping in school, teachers and such …”

And while some women thrived in their communities, others had a more difficult transition.

“You saw these gorgeous looking airmen in these gorgeous uniforms … and it was war time, they had money, they had food — my father liked you, Arthur, when you brought food — they had chocolate bars and cheap cigarettes.

“And then over in Newfoundland, (the new brides would) get to the railway station, and get off at some little station and standing there waiting for them is this man in hip rubbers and cap … it was a shock.”

Barbara says her ability to go back home every couple of years also made her adjustment easier.

Indeed, the pair have never been ones to sit still.

Arthur laughs again as he talks about their “getaway car” outside.

“Our neighbours call us Bonnie and Clyde,” he says — adding the neighbours’ son put two stickers, which look like bullet holes, on the back of their PT Cruiser.

“I’ve been waiting to do something to his truck, but I haven’t decided what yet,” says Barbara.

These days, Barbara — an officer of the Order of Canada — is working on a new play for the Association for New Canadians’ school. Arthur, the Newfoundland representative for the Yorkshire air museum, is working up a speech he’s to give at the citizenship ceremony in St. John’s Nov. 9.

“Now, don’t tell too many jokes,” says Barbara, as Arthur laughs. “You were asked because it’s the Year of the Veteran.

“I’ll be there, in the back row, listening, so don’t embarrass me,” she raises her arms in the air. “And I’ll be the first on my feet when it’s over, yelling ‘Bravo!’”

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

Argos concerned over HIV player

By Rick Matsumoto Torstar wire service

Chad Folk often encounters at the snap of the ball is the middle linebacker. So he often battled with he Toronto Argonauts, having Smith. Folk says he was shocked to wrapped up first place in the hear the news and admitted he had CFL’s East Division, returned some concerns. to work last week to prepare for their “It obviously enters your mind,” final game of the regular season. he says. “I played against him many But the talk in their Mississauga times and right away you think, ‘Did locker room concerned the shocking he bleed on me? Did I have an open news that Saskatchewan Rough- wound?’ The odds are low, but riders middle linebacker Trevis there’s still a chance and that’s what Smith had been charged with aggra- it comes down to.” vated sexual assault for allegedly Guard Jude St. John says the having unprotected sex with a league should answer the concerns woman who did not know he is HIV of the players about the dangers of positive. making contact with an opponent Smith was with HIV. charged Oct. 28 and “It’ll do everyone appeared in court good to get all the last week for a bail “I’m just overwhelmed questions anhearing. swered,” he says.

Argo wide receiv- that he was out there “Make sure everyer Tony Miles says one knows what the playing while HIV that he’s probably situation is, the been tackled by positive and carrying chances are (of conSmith after catching tacting HIV) and a pass many times, on with his everyday how the league is but was not congoing to deal with life as if he was like it.” cerned about contacting (the AIDS Linebacker Mike everyone else.” virus).

Fletcher says he was “I know it’s not not concerned with Argo wide receiver easy to contact HIV contracting the HIV from another person, virus through conTony Miles outside of sex,” says tact with Smith in a Miles. game.

“But at the same “You walk by time, I don’t want to be the one who people (with HIV) every day,” he goes out and plays a sport that I love says. “You need to have had a blood and comes home HIV positive. transfusion or sexual (contact). I “I’m just overwhelmed that he didn’t have that kind of contact was out there playing while HIV (with Smith). I know people who are positive and carrying on with his HIV positive and have a close relaeveryday life as if he was like every- tionship with them and I’m not one else. afraid to touch them.

“He was walking around and talk“If you’re educated about the subing to the guys in the locker room ject it shouldn’t bother you.” and he was HIV positive. I don’t Defensive back Mike Crumb says want to judge anyone different, but players should know if another playif he was HIV he should let other er has the disease. people know and give them the “It shouldn’t be kept hush-hush,” choice of reacting with him anyway he says. they choose.

Crumb says the woman who made “He didn’t do that.” the allegations against Smith should Like Miles, many of the Argo not be forgotten. players felt the Roughriders, who “Everyone seems to be on Trevis knew Smith was HIV positive, Smith’s side, but there’s always two Clinton Jones of the Montreal Allouettes (83) and Saskatchewan Roughrider Trevis Smith (48) during CFL action in Regina, Sask. Smith was arrest- should have revealed that fact. As sides to a story so we have to see ed recently for allegedly having unprotected sex with a woman who did not know he was HIV-positive.

Geoff Howe/Reuters the Argos’ centre, the first player how it unfolds,” he says.

T

Old is new in baseball again Moneyball falling out of favour?

By Geoff Baker Torstar wire service

T

he hiring last week of Pat Gillick as general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies capped a week of dramatic front-office shuffling that has turned baseball on its collective ear.

Rarely have hirings and firings caused so much discussion about what it all means for the game’s future than has the dismissal of Los Angeles Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta, the resignation of his Boston Red Sox counterpart, Theo Epstein, and now the rebirth of former Blue Jays boss Gillick, 68, a newly-minted Canadian citizen and Cabbagetown resident whose ways were derided as out of touch just two years ago.

Philadelphia’s entrusting of Gillick to secure a championship is being hotly debated by fans burning up online chat sites with their opinions.

At a time when the role of statistics-based analysis in baseball is being questioned like never before, it’s impossible to ignore Gillick’s stature as one of the sports grandest “old guard” members, the same way Epstein and DePodesta were hailed as the vanguard of the new-wave “Moneyball” movement.

“I’m very honoured to be a part of the Phillies, an outstanding franchise,” Gillick says. “We need to get over the hump and I look forward to that exciting challenge.

“I still have the passion and the competitive edge for the game and I think this is a very good situation.”

Gillick, who received his Canadian citizenship just last week and maintains residences in Toronto and Prince Edward Island, inherits a $95 million (all figures U.S.) payroll and an 88win team that finished a game out of the wild card.

But $78 million is already committed to only 11 players, underscoring the club’s need for an experienced dealmaker.

“His record of success is outstanding and I believe that Pat is the right person to lead our baseball operations,” Phillies president David Montgomery says.

The widely respected Gillick, who led the Jays to consecutive World Series titles in 1992 and 1993 before running playoff teams in Baltimore and Seattle — serving as a Mariners special front office assistant the past two years — has been cast as the prototypical anti-Moneyball GM. It’s a somewhat unfair label, given his use of computer stats for research, as well as his ability to exploit lesser-tapped talent pools in Latin America and, more recently, in Asia.

But Gillick’s impassioned defence of baseball scouts at the height of the Moneyball craze, his willingness to pay a premium for defence and insistence on higher payrolls drew scorn from certain quarters.

His more traditional management skills, though, helped his job search as some owners seek a happy medium between the recently fashionable “computer geek” executive and the oldschool “tobacco chewing” set.

The firing of DePodesta after only two seasons has been blamed on his lack of one-on-one personal skills and his inexperience at running a baseball department. Critics say DePodesta relied too heavily on computer statistics and not enough on baseball savvy.

Epstein’s departure from the Red Sox is more mysterious.

He says he could no longer put his heart into his work, denying reports of a rift with team president Larry Lucchino.

But the fact that Lucchino was absent from a Fenway Park news conference attended by Epstein and Red Sox owner John Henry will do little to quell rumours of infighting.

It should also be noted that, when push came to shove, no one in Boston’s ownership appears to have offered Lucchino up as a sacrifice or begged Epstein to stay.

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32 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

Hockey Night in Canada homers show their true colours “That is disgusting,” he spat.

The CBC’s love of the Leafs is nothing new. In many ways, it’s understandable.

There’s no way the early game of the Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader would be averaging more than 1.6 million viewers this season if it weren’t for the Leafs. That’s why the Senators, Flames, Oilers and Canadiens get little national exposure in comparison. That might be acceptable with a private network. But the CBC is supposed to be all things to all Canadians, not just those waving blue-and-white flags.

You’d think Leafs were the only team

By Chris Zelkovich Torstar wire service

I

t was more than a little ironic that on the same day the CBC trumpeted its Canada-wide celebration of hockey it provided some hard evidence for those who insist the regular Saturday affair should be called Hockey Night In Toronto.

With the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 29, who at last check were still located in Canada, the CBC was presented with a perfect opportunity to highlight one of the best teams in hockey. That’s Ottawa, if you were wondering. Instead, what viewers got was the usual Saturday night broadcast that told us far more about the boys in blue than it did about the team that won 8-0.

The game started off fine with both teams being given equal notice. Bob Cole even took time to praise the Senators (“These guys are dynamite”) though it sounded more as if he was surprised by their power. The fact that he has seen much more of the Leafs may explain that.

If there was any doubt where the CBC stood, Don Cherry put it to rest in the first intermission.

After apologizing for calling Toronto “we,” the man who has worn Leaf ties on air noted that his favourite team was no longer intimidating the guys from Ottawa. “It’s sad to see,” he moaned.

I imagine that played well in the

CHANNEL SURFING, THE GOOD: Rogers Sportsnet went beyond the call of duty with an extensive report on the arrest of Saskatchewan linebacker Trevis Smith for sexual assault and the revelation that he’s HIV-positive. TSN’s Jock Climie added an interesting angle when he brought up the issue of human rights and how it affects the case. It would have been nice to hear some concern for the victim, though.

Ron MacLean

Ottawa Valley.

He then came to the crucial matter that was no doubt on the minds of Canadians from coast to coast: should Wade Belak be playing?

Instead of a focus on why the Senators were dominating the league and the Leafs, what we got was a discussion on why the Leafs were playing so

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poorly. In the Hockey Night In Canada world, that’s all that really matters.

Cherry did interrupt his Leaf infomercial for a celebration of Ottawa forward Jason Spezza’s amazing goal, but that appeared to be more fodder for one of his eyebrow-twitching rants against Europeans than anything else. Cole didn’t help matters in following Daniel

Alfredsson’s goal with, “that makes it 70 Toronto.” It was a slip of the tongue, no doubt enabled by calling so many Leaf games.

After the game, you might think the main topic would be Dany Heatley’s four goals. But Cherry had one overriding thought: that no Leaf started a fight after Tie Domi was knocked around.

CHANNEL SURFING, THE BAD: This annoyance is a common sin committed by sports analysts, but Fox’s Daryl Johnston broke all records during the Washington-New York NFL game on Oct. 30. If he started one sentence with, “The Giants, they’re rolling,” or, “Eli Manning, he’s throwing well,” he started a thousand that way.

CHANNEL SURFING, THE UGLY: Those Sportsnet ads that tout how “hockey matters” are cheesier than Kraft Dinner. If hockey does matter, how about spending a few dollars on your commercials?

Can Sam Mitchell really coach?

We’ll find out this year if he’s faking it

By Dave Feschuk Torstar wire service

O

n the eve of his second season opener as Toronto Raptors coach, Sam Mitchell was asked last week how he saw the NBA’s Eastern Conference shaping up.

“Haven’t really looked at it,” said Mitchell.

Uh, coach: your questioner asked for your take on the coming season in “the Eastern Conference.” The one in which your team plays. Surely you could offer the good reporter a quotation to the effect of, “The Heat and the Pacers and the Pistons are setting the bar high, and we’re just trying to measure up.”

Said Mitchell: “Just been focusing on our team.”

But certainly, coach, you’ve been analyzing the other teams?

“I don’t have the time to sit down and look at everybody else’s team and everybody’s roster and figure out what we think they might be,” said Mitchell.

“We’re worried about our guys.”

A year into his tenure in Raptorland, and Mitchell still doesn’t have a clue how to hit a softball question out of the park.

And if you’re one of those fans who doesn’t care how your players and coaches communicate with the media consider the two options Mitchell gave anyone who analyzed his response.

You could only think: he’s either the worst liar on the planet or the worstprepared coach in the history of pro basketball.

You can only surmise: he either thinks nothing of shovelling dung into

the fans’ receptacles — of looking into the cameras and spewing out baldfaced lies — or he is telling the honestto-golly truth and has done less preseason scouting than Pamela Anderson (who, incidentally, made some respectable choices in the NBA’s celebrity fantasy-league draft).

Either way, this is a huge season for Mitchell.

Last year — a season on which Mitchell basically refused comment last week, presumably just to be diffi-

cult — there were so many problems with the roster it was impossible to blame the coach for the 49 losses and the umpteen lost causes. But this season is going to be measured differently, not only by wins and losses, because there’ll be plenty of the latter, but by the individual progress of the club’s cadre of young players.

Charlie Villanueva, Joey Graham, Jose Calderon — Mitchell is going to have to coach these kids. Whether Mitchell can coach remains to be seen, but he’s getting two reputations.

Around here he’s the prickliest interview this side of a talking cactus. In less forgiving environs, he’s dismissed

as an overmatched incompetent.

Charley Rosen, the former minorleague coach who’s written a shelf of books on the game, called Mitchell “unsophisticated” the other day. Last week’s edition of Chris Young’s blog on thestar.com featured the recounting of a telling anecdote of a Raptors-Nets game last season. In one sequence the Nets, Dave D’Allesandro of the Newark Star-Ledger told Young, defended Toronto with a 2-3 matchup zone. “(Mitchell) had no zone offence in place. So he goes on the post-game and blames his players for lousy execution. Post-game was piped into the Nets’ coaches’ office, they hear him passing the buck and they laughed their asses off.”

Problem is Mitchell isn’t given to thoughtful analysis of his team or other teams, and certainly not of himself.

“It’s not about me,” Mitchell says.

And you wouldn’t have been the only one to ask the obvious follow-up: how can an NBA coach, plying a trade in which the best practioners are making $10 million (U.S.) a season, say something as inane as “It’s not about me?”

“When I get $10 million a year, then we’ll have that conversation,” says Mitchell.

Stop the presses, indeed: was Mitchell, who’s in the second season of a three-year deal worth $4.9 million, saying he’s underpaid?

No, he was joking. But if he can’t handle himself in a game of pressscrum checkers, is it any surprise there are those who are questioning his work in the NBA chess game?

Solution for crossword on page 24

Solution for sudoku on page 24

“When I get $10 million a year, then we’ll have that conversation.”

Toronto Raptors coach, Sam Mitchell on his salary

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 33

Luongo waiting patiently in the wings

By Allan Ryan Torstar wire service

R

oberto Luongo has certainly paid his dues on the international stage but is it his time to succeed Marty Brodeur as Canada’s No.1 goaltender?

Well, nobody’s going to say just now, of course, given there’s still more than seven weeks before 23-man rosters have to be named for February’s Turin Olympics. Obviously, though, Luongo was on the not-so-short list of 81 players — eight of them goalies — which Hockey Canada released some two weeks back.

Brodeur was there, as was Montreal’s Jose Theodore, the Leafs’ Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph, Dan Cloutier, Marty Turco and the 21-year-old rookie with the Caroline Hurricanes, Cam Ward.

Ward just might get handed the torch himself one day, just as Patrick Roy handed off to Brodeur and Brodeur passed it on to ...

Well, that hasn’t exactly happened yet, but the steadily closing gap between the 33-year-old New Jersey Devils’ veteran and the 26-year-old backbone for the Florida Panthers has become closer still.

“You know, I wouldn’t say this is totally out of my mind,” Luongo says, “but it’s really on the back burner. The most important thing for me right now is the success of this team ... trying to get into the playoffs.”

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn will again be the bench boss at the Olympics and already has a pretty good handle on Luongo, the backup to Sean Burke at the 2003 world championships and No.1 ahead of Jean-Sebastien Giguere at the same tourney in 2004.

“I haven’t seen him play (this year) but, from all reports, he’s been tremendous,” says Quinn. “We already know he’s a good player. He’ll be closely watched all the way to selection time.”

At the worlds in Austria this past May — with the Devils, for some reason, not in their customary hunt for the Stanley Cup — Luongo stepped aside, given Brodeur’s availability.

“When you’ve got the maple leaf on your chest,” Luongo had said back then, “you do what you can do to help the team.”

Surely, though, he must sense that it’s getting closer to being time, his time.

“It’s hard to say,” he says. “I mean, Marty’s there, too, and we all know what Marty’s done.

“All I can do is play the best I can and, if I make the team, that’ll be great.

The only thing I can control is the way I play and the way I get ready for games.”

With a little Brodeur thrown in.

“Yes, I think so, watching him has helped,” Luongo says. “Marty’s a very relaxed guy. He doesn’t stress himself out, even before the big games. Just watching the way he approaches games has helped.”

Jays woo free-agent pitcher

By Jim Byers Torstar wire service

H

e had an afternoon tour of the Rogers Centre, a fancy dinner at a downtown steakhouse with Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay and second-row seats for the Toronto Raptors first game of the new NBA season. The first day of the Blue Jays’ attempt to land free-agent pitcher A.J. Burnett of the Florida Marlins went just swimmingly last week, if Burnett’s comments were any indication.

Speaking at halftime of the Raptors game against Washington on Nov. 2, Burnett said he enjoyed the first day of what could be a long recruitment process by a host of big-league clubs.

“I’m so impressed with the front office here and J.P. and the people I’ve met,” he says. “It’s night and day from what I’m used to.”

Burnett had harsh words for Marlins manager Jack McKeon late this season after losing six in a row, for which he subsequently apologized, but says he wants to put all that behind him. He had nothing but nice things to say about his hosts. And particularly about Halladay, who is desperate to get another topnotch hurler on board to help the Jays rise closer to the top of the AL East. He also helped Burnett pick out a jacket at a local clothing store, Burnett being unprepared for the cool (by Florida standards) weather.

“They’re up there,” Burnett said when asked if the Jays might be his chosen team. “But we’re going to explore our options, and see what’s out there.”

Asked what sort of deal he’s looking for, Burnett, who was 12-12 this year with a 3.44 ERA in 209 innings, smiled and replied, “Four or five years of happiness.”

Paul Daly/The Independent

Like father, like son

The Ryans, Terry Sr. and Jr., hope to make Mount Pearl a senior hockey power

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

A

father and son combo is trying to lift the Mount Pearl Blades out of the senior hockey cellar this season. Terry Ryan Sr. and Terry Ryan Jr. are the forces behind a resurgence of senior hockey in the city, serving as head coach and team captain respectively.

In their previous two years in the Avalon East Senior Hockey League, the Blades have struggled both on the ice and at the gate. They are hoping to change things this year with an influx of several new players, including Ryan, former pros Todd Gillingham and Mark Chaplin, former junior Blades scoring ace Brad Sturge and goaltender Graham Cook, who backstopped the Deer Lake Red Wings to a Herder championship last season.

“It’s going to be exciting. I really do think you’re going to see a good brand of hockey this year,” Ryan Jr. tells The Independent. “There are a lot of reasons to come out.”

For the past two seasons, Ryan Jr. laced up his skates as a member of the Corner Brook Royals in the West Coast Senior Hockey League. He contemplated returning to Mount Pearl last year, but didn’t feel the team was headed in the right direction. But once the 200405 campaign wrapped up, he focused his energy on bringing talented players

to the Blades for this season.

“I remember being a kid and the junior Blades to me were the Montreal Canadiens (who Ryan would eventually play with). Then the senior blades came in and it (the Smallwood Arena in Mount Pearl) was packed,” says Ryan Jr. “That’s what we want to have again.

We want to have sell outs and have people cheer when we score.”

Ryan Jr. was hoping to see a packed Glacier when the Blades took to the ice with their revamped roster this season.

While half of the seats at the spacious arena were empty in the club’s first two home games, he is still pleased to report roughly 500 fans showed up for both games. While they weren’t sell outs, they were much better than the 50 fans a game the team played in front of last season.

“The guys who were here last year told us they had a 50/50 draw and the winner got $8,” Ryan Sr. says with a laugh.

Both the coach and captain feel the key to selling out the Glacier is simple — the team has to win.

“We have to play well. You can’t expect people to come out because we have a few players they want to see,” says Ryan Sr., who played professionally in the World Hockey Association and the International Hockey League in the 1970s. “The first game we had almost 600 (fans), while last year they averaged about 50. So things are improving

that way, but you have to win and show fans you’re worth coming to watch.”

With an improved lineup, the Blades should at least be fun to watch. Their home game versus the Torbay Steelers on Nov. 2 was a good example of what type of team they have, with Ryan Jr. opening the scoring just 24 seconds into the first period by steamrolling to the net and redirecting a Mike O’Neil pass.

Just under two minutes later, Ryan picked up an assist on a Mark Chaplin goal, setting the tone for what would be a wide-open game. By night’s end the Blades had an 8-6 win, with the former Montreal Canadiens’ first round pick, wracking up two goals and two assists.

“I think we’re going to score. We’ve got a lot of talented forwards,” says Ryan Sr. “We have to bring our defence along because some of them are really young and don’t have much experience in senior hockey. We’ll have no problems with Cookie, but you can’t give up 60 shots a night.”

Cook came close to facing 60 shots against the Steelers, as he made 51 saves in the win. His performance was outstanding, and according to Ryan Jr., was also to be expected.

“You’re seeing the best goalie in Newfoundland every game,” says the 28-year-old.

This is the second time the Ryans have worked together on the same hockey team. When Ryan Jr. was play-

ing Junior A in Quesnel, B.C. as a 14year-old, the team was in need of a new head coach in mid-season. Since Ryan Sr. and his wife Gail were living the community with their son, the elder Ryan applied for, and secured, the position. Ryan Jr. was that team’s best player, and as a result received plenty of ice time from his father. At no point did anyone question whether the coach was showing favouritism toward his son, a situation that is repeating itself with the senior Blades.

“You just go with the guys who are playing well. If it’s a tight game, you have to use your best players. The other guys realize this,” says Ryan Sr. “I don’t worry about it. He’s going to get 30 or 40 minutes a game because he’s one of the best players. Everyone who goes to a game will realize he deserves it.”

The Ryans work together thinking up game strategies and practice drills, combining their experiences from pro hockey and utilizing the senior Ryan’s coaching experience (Ryan Sr. also coached the Mount Pearl junior and senior teams in the ’80s). While it takes up a lot of their free time, Ryan Jr. insists it is also a lot of fun.

“It definitely is (exciting),” he says.

“I know we’re going down the right road, and come the end of the year I think we’ll be more successful.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

OF THE

DEVIL WEEK DEVIL STATS

Anthony Pototschnik, RW Age: 19

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

POS. C LW D RW RW LW C C D D RW LW D D RW RW C D D D RW

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

GP 14 12 18 17 18 18 18 18 16 17 14 16 18 10 18 16 18 6 10 15 17

G 7 3 3 6 2 3 4 3 2 1 4 3 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0

A 8 11 9 3 7 5 3 4 4 5 0 1 3 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 0

GOALTENDER Brandon Verge Ilya Ejov Devin O’Brien

W 3 2 0

L 7 4 1

GAA 4.08 5.85 5.06

S.PCT .893 .817 .855

PTS 15 14 12 9 9 8 7 7 6 6 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 0 0 0 0

All stats current as of press deadline Nov. 4

HOMEGROWN “Q”

Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario Favourite hockey team: Toronto Maple Leafs Favourite hockey players: Darcy Tucker, Gary Roberts Favourite movie: Lethal Weapon Favourite actress: Jessica Alba Favourite band: Nickelback Favourite magazine: Sports Illustrated Toughest aspect of playing major junior hockey: “The mental part – you have to be prepared all the time. You can’t take any days off.”

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 16 17 20 7 17 18 2

G 0 2 7 0 6 7 0

A 2 3 2 0 11 5 0

PTS 2 5 9 0 17 12 0

GOALTENDERS Ryan Mior Roger Kennedy Jason Churchill

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

TEAM P.E.I. Halifax Saint John

W 7 2 6

L 8 1 10

GAA 3.23 4.45 3.23

S.PCT .914 .823 .909

Gripes from figure skating

By Rosie Dimanno Torstar wire service

tumes imitating glitter-rock stars or trussed up in faux leather and fishnet stockings like whores in Amsterdam’s red-light district. What is it he immediate figure skating future for with figure skaters that they pine to look like Canada suddenly does not look so bleak boom-sic-a-boom vaudevillians when they let after all. Skate Canada International (held down their hair in championship pageants? It’s in St. John’s last week) solidified some shaky Minsky’s-on-ice. aspirations. But first, a few pet No male figure skater peeves from a skating correshould be sent over the boards spondent returning to the beat wearing pumpkin-orange This is skating, after a year MIA. spandex trousers. This is a tad Can we please dispense with much, even for European ice not ballet. Emanuel the I-never-miss-that-jump-indancers. Some of these felpractice declaration? Or, worse: are in need of a wardrobe Sandhu, your pants lows I-can-do-that-jump-in-my-sleep. makeover by Straight Eye For Honey, I can do that jump in the Queer Guy and sexual oriare too tight. my sleep. But that doesn’t make entation has nothing to do me Michelle Kwan. There are no with it. judges in the Land of Nod. And it only counts Who are all the sycophants who hang around under the glare of competition, not in the train- media work rooms with press credentials ing rink. around their neck? The ones who kiss skaters in No other sport I know of concludes with a the mixed zone? There’s nothing quite as fawnshow-spectacle Parade of Champions. ing as a figure skating posse.

Not even synchronized swimmers dive back Is there a rule that states all pairs and dance into the pool to perform a Billy Rose aquacade couples must hold hands every friggin’ once they’ve towelled off and removed their moment, even while taking warm-up, doing nose-plugs. lazy stroking or just loosening their knees?

This tradition might be pleasing to audiences Altogether too much togetherness. George and but it brings figure skating, as a serious athletic Laura Bush don’t hold hands as steadfastly as discipline, too close to its cheesy Ice Capades this. Read my lips: Let. Go. cousin.

This is skating, not ballet. Emanuel Sandhu, A sport that demands respect should not be your pants are too tight. sending its medallists out there in absurd cosWell, now that I’ve got that off my chest ...

T

A success story From page 36 mentary T-shirt for their trouble. Ryder is one of the few exceptions who took the opportunity and turned it into a success story — a tale that has surely not reached its climax yet.

Considering all he has gone through to reach the NHL — including two stints in the ECHL, a league few stars have laced their skates in — I wouldn’t blame Ryder for looking like a deer caught in headlights whenever he stepped onto the ice in an NHL building.

But given the coolness he’s shown under pressure this year, it’s little wonder Ryder now has the look of a player who not only knows he can win the game with one shot, but one who desperately wants the opportunity to do so when the game is on the line.

SCATTERED THOUGHTS FROM A SCATTERED MIND Bye bye Bure … all hockey fans should be saddened by the fact Pavel Bure officially announced his retirement last week. Any player with Bure’s skills will be greatly missed — as will his high-

light reel goals.

Not bad, eh? … Toronto Argonauts third-string running back Jeff Johnson was named CFL offensive player of the week after his first start of the season versus Hamilton. Johnson is showing that when given a chance, Canadians can play the skilled positions in the CFL. Now, if only CFL coaches would consider giving Canadian quarterbacks a shot.

Golden Jays … Blue Jays center fielder Vernon Wells and second baseman Orlando Hudson won gold gloves last week — and both were deserving. In the case of Hudson, it won’t be his last gold glove, and in fact it shouldn’t be his first either. He should have won a gold glove in 2004, but somehow the award went to Bret Boone.

Time for some round ball … The best thing about watching the Toronto Raptors this season will be witnessing the further development of Chris Bosh. I don’t expect much from the Raptors, but watching Bosh grow into an NBA star may keep my eyes glued to a few games this year. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6-12, 2005 — PAGE 36

Paul Daly/The Independent

Making a splash

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

A

fter taking a look at Laura Murray’s list of accomplishments, nobody could be blamed for assuming she’s much older than she is. After breaking close to 100 provincial swimming records and winning more than 120 medals and several provincial titles, it would certainly appear as though Murray is a veteran swimmer.

In fact, the St. John’s resident has only been swimming competitively for six years and is just 15 years old. Given her age, it appears Murray is both the top swimmer and top swimming prospect the province has to offer.

Considering her accomplishments, and the fact she was recently one of eight girls from across Canada to be named to the youth national team (16 and under), it’s not hard to envision Murray one day taking to the pool at the Olympics. The possibility has crossed the young swimmer’s mind, as she admits to fantasizing about competing on the grandest stage of all.

OLYMPIC GOALS “It’s always been one of my goals,” Murray tells The Independent. “Since I was five years old, watching the Olympics on TV, I’ve wanted it. I always thought 2008 would be the Olympics I’d be going to, but now it seems more like it could be 2012.”

National swimming officials definitely have their eye on Murray, having invited her to national training sessions in both Winnipeg and Montreal. But being named to the youth national team was an even clearer indication of what may lay ahead.

For her part, she says she wants to soak

As one of Canada’s top young swimmers, Laura Murray of St. John’s has her sights set on Olympics, obtaining U.S. scholarship up every bit of knowledge she can from national team coaches in hopes of maximizing her potential.

“It’s always good to get another opinion on your strokes,” says Murray.

National team coaches will get another good look at Murray in just a couple of weeks when she travels to Victoria, B.C. for the Commonwealth Games swim trials, where she will compete against swimmers several years older and much more experienced. She admits that claiming a spot on the Canadian Commonwealth Games team might be out of her reach at this point. But that doesn’t mean Murray hasn’t set goals for the event.

“I’d like to make the A finals, which is the top eight,” she says. “I’d like to have some personal bests and maybe break a provincial record.”

Breaking provincial swimming records is nothing new to Murray. She has already broken more than 80 since she started competitive swimming at the age of nine.

Although she demonstrated a lot of talent right away, Murray says she didn’t take the sport seriously at first. It took her a few years to realize she could be more than an average swimmer, but once she qualified for her first national meet at the age of 12, Murray knew it was time to focus much of

her energy on swimming.

“Then it clicked (after she qualified for a national competition) in that I could do something with this,” says Murray.

“I never used to work hard until I was about 11 or 12. I realized if I wanted good times, I had to work really hard in practice.”

These days, Murray is as dedicated an athlete as there is in the province. She trains in the pool 12 times a week, sometimes waking before 5 a.m. for morning swims before hitting the water again after school.

She also works out with weights five times a week, focusing on improving her core strength.

“In swimming, that’s the first thing to give out on you. If you don’t have a good core, you’re in trouble,” Murray says.

Murray specializes in the 50-, 100-, 200and 400-meter free style, as well as the 50and 100-meter butterfly. She will put those strokes into action at her first international competition in December when she travels with the youth national team for a meet in Australia.

Murray says teams from Great Britain and the United States are also expected to attend, providing her with the stiffest competition she has faced to date. Murray is looking forward to learning from swimmers with techniques different from her own.

“I am so excited about Australia,” she says. “I can’t wait to see what these other countries have to offer.”

Despite the accolades she has received as a result of her achievements in the sport, Murray admits to sometimes needing a break from swimming. With such a hectic schedule, she sometimes wonders if it’s worth dedicating so much of her time. But usually after about a week or so away from the pool, she is chomping at the bit to get back to practice with her swim team — the Mount Pearl Marlins.

“I always go through a phase around March or April. I’m like ‘Oh my God, I’ve got another four or five months left of swimming.’ I’ll be thinking ‘I want to quit, I need a break,’ but I can never really get myself away from it. I’ll take a week off and I won’t know what to do with myself.

I’ll spend hours in the bath tub; I need my water,” Murray says with a laugh.

SIGHTS ON SCHOLARSHIPS While the Olympics are Murray’s longterm goal, she also has her sights set on obtaining a swimming scholarship at a university in the United States.

The Grade 11 student wrote her pre-SATs recently and has had discussions with her school’s guidance councillor about the steps to take in order to obtain a free ride south of the border.

“I’m thinking about doing pharmacy,” she says. “We’ve tossed over ideas of possibly going to Ohio, they have one of the best pharmacy programs. But it’s only been in the past couple of weeks we’ve started looking at it.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Cool hand Mike

M

ichael Ryder is not the same player he was two years ago. Not even close, in all

honestly.

When he burst onto the NHL scene in 2003 with the Montreal Canadiens, he had the wide-eyed look of a rookie who couldn’t believe his good fortune.

He regularly wore an ah-shucks grin, the type sported by a humble boy from around the bay who was just happy to be playing hockey for a living.

I haven’t seen either of these looks from Ryder this season. In their place is a much more impressive gaze —

DARCY MACRAE

The game one that screams “I want the puck on my stick in the dying seconds of the game.”

It’s a look I rather enjoy.

Ryder has gone from a fresh-faced rookie to a pure, confident goal scorer.

He has the poise of a player who knows he belongs in the greatest hock-

ey league in the world. Best of all, he has perhaps become the Habs’ go-to player, the one guy fans want to see with the puck on his stick when the game is on the line.

Following Montreal’s win over the Florida Panthers last week — a game in which Ryder scored the overtime winner — Ryder led the league in game-winning goals with three.

Although he is not the Canadiens’ leading point getter, he is the player who always seems to play the role of saviour when they are in trouble.

With his quick release and heavy

shot, Ryder is simply deadly from the slot. Paired on a line with a fine playmaker in Mike Ribeiro, Ryder has shown on many an occasion this year that he has one of the best wrist shots in the league — maybe the best, especially since Brett Hull has hung up his skates.

Any young hockey player looking to make it big can use Ryder as a role model, especially when you consider Ryder was never even drafted by a major junior team. I know this has been mentioned before, but it’s worth bringing up again considering the

importance some people put on the draft.

Not a single major junior team thought enough of Ryder to call his name on draft day. His venture into the QMJHL came via a walk-on tryout with Hull (now Gatineau). On most occasions, walk-ons aren’t given much of a chance at a major junior camp.

They get a pat on the back and a thanks-for-coming-out from the coaching staff on their way out the door, with little more than a compleSee “A success story,” page 34