2006-01-15

VOL. 4 ISSUE 3

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 15-21, 2006

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OPINION 4

LIFE 18

Ray Guy spots dandelion in January, recalls days on the farm around the bay

Visual artist Nicolas Kokis featured in this week’s gallery

No laughing matter

KNOCKOUT

Penn Jillette takes it on the chin for mocking Newfoundlanders; claims to have roots in province DARCY MACRAE

A

well-known American comedian caught the ire of some Newfoundlanders last week during his radio show in New York.

Penn Jillette, better known as the big guy from the comedy duo Penn and Teller, ended a recent show discussing racial and ethnic jokes.

He angered Newfoundlanders by saying, “Of all the racial slurs, Newfoundlanders are the only ones that are accurate. Big, stupid, people.

I’m one of them.”

Jillette, a native of Greenfield, Massachusetts, received a number of e-mails from upset Newfoundlanders who either heard the show online or later received word of his comments.

Jillette, who couldn’t be reached for comment prior to The Independent’s press deadline, even had some of the unflattering e-mails he received read on air during a subsequent broadcast.

One such message read: “You big stupid asshole. Come to Newfoundland and make those comments.” Another e-mail stated: “I am from Newfoundland and am neither big or stupid.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has produced more Rhodes Scholars per capita than any province in Canada … we have an award-winning university and one of the best med schools in Canada.”

Following the reading of the e-mails, Jillette defended his joke on air.

“This is breaking all the rules of comedy, but all the stuff they talk about on the radio — when they talk about Jews and Blacks — everybody’s act on the radio is fraudulent, it’s complete lies because it’s all individuals,” Jillette said.

The well-known comedian said his grandparents were Newfoundlanders and that his wife’s grandmother also hailed from the island. Jillette and his wife even spent their honeymoon in Newfoundland.

“Most people go to tropical areas — I went to the frozen north … I could have gone anywhere, I chose Newfoundland.

“Newfoundland was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been … you’d go to a store and everybody was really good natured.

“It’s got this real small-town, groovy atmosphere … they were great, great people, and of course they’re not stupid. There’s no place on earth where people are stupid.”

See “I’m proud,” page 2

After 81 amateur fights, Joey Smart of Mount Pearl has decided to join the professional boxing ranks. Smart makes his pro debut March 11 at the Glacier in Mount Pearl against Nova Scotia’s Ted Reno. See story, page 32.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Close-knit industry

In its 86th year, NONIA continues to produce quality woolen products; some knitters at it over 60 years STEPHANIE PORTER WINTER BROOK, Bonavista Bay

I

t’s a cold, frosty day in Winter Brook, a quiet community half an hour’s drive from Clarenville.

The roads are slippery, the two or three children in town have gone on to school, and the bitter breeze carries the warm scent of wood stoves.

In other words, it’s a perfect day to stay inside and knit.

Emma Elliott’s cozy living room looks over the water, just starting to freeze over. Her well-worn armchair sits next to the TV, knitting bag at

her feet. It’s filled with blue wool and a half-completed jumper for a baby, her latest project for NONIA. Elliott has been knitting for NONIA — Newfoundland and Labrador Outport Nursing and Industrial Association — for 62 years, and has no intentions of stopping.

While many are familiar with NONIA’s storefront, the craft store in downtown St. John’s, the organization stretches to almost every corner of the island. Currently, close to 250 knitters around the province receive regular packages with patterns, wool, and instructions. They knit the orders when they have time, and send the completed products back to St. John’s.

At the headquarters on Water Street, three quality control workers examine the work for any flaws, and affix buttons and the standard NONIA tag. The knitters are paid for

Paul Daly/The Independent

their work, which is sold at the store, by special order, and at craft fairs across the country.

See “Socks,” page 8

Change in course

Sir Wilfred Templeman will remain in service — for now ALISHA MORRISSEY

T

he federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has apparently reversed its decision to retire the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir Wilfred Templeman, The Independent has learned.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout says while a final decision hasn’t been made, federal officials

tell him the 25-year-old research vessel won’t be taken out of service this year as planned.

“We would be totally opposed to any reduction in research capacity in this province or in fact in Atlantic Canada, but the present situation is the Templeman is not going to retire as planned and the (Alfred) Needler (a 24-year-old research vessel stationed in Dartmouth, N.S.) is going to be refitted so that its life capacity could be extended and that’s the situation as we understand it today,”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK Penn Jillette (left) and his partner Teller, of the comedy duo Penn & Teller.

Ethan Miller/Reuters

Emma Elliott of Winter Brook.

“She died a few years ago and she was buried with her knitting needles and the NONIA knitting she was working on.”

— Judy Anderson on the late Jesse Chaffey.

Rideout tells The Independent.

Rideout couldn’t say why DFO officials changed their minds.

Contacted by The Independent, officials with DFO in St. John’s reserved comment, saying a final decision has yet to be made.

Last spring, DFO documents revealed the Templeman would be retired in 2006 after an assessment found the Needler to be the better of the two ships.

A new coast guard vessel was to be built to replace the Templeman

IN CAMERA 20-21

Checking in with the candidates in St. John’s South-Mount Pearl

and stationed in Nova Scotia, leaving the province with only one other offshore research vessel — the Teleost.

Loyola Hearn, Conservative MP for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl and federal Fisheries critic, says there have been whispers in Ottawa about squeezing at least another year of service out of the Templeman.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Hearn says. “If you haven’t got enough of it in the beginning and you’re going to

Scrunchins. . . . . . . . . . 3 Life Story . . . . . . . . . 10 Paper Trail . . . . . . . . 10 Movie review . . . . . . . 19 Crossword . . . . . . . . 28

See “More vessels,” page 5

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 15, 2006

‘I’m proud of my family and who I am’ From page 1 Jillette explained that although he never met his grandparents, his father often spoke about them and Newfoundland. He said his father had “wonderful stories” about the province and spoke of how people didn’t mind poking fun at themselves.

“I’m proud of my family and who I am,” Jillette said, before claiming he was wearing a Newfoundland T-shirt he purchased in Dildo. “This is part of what Newfoundlanders are like. They

know that (Dildo) is a silly name for a town, so all they have in that town is a post office and a gift shop that just has everything with Dildo written on it.”

Jillette said because he has Newfoundland roots, he felt it was all right to make jokes about the place.

“I go to a restaurant and buy a cup of coffee. I give the woman $20 American because that’s what I had. She’s going to break it, and she looks me in the eye and says ‘This is going to take a while, because I’m not very smart,’” Jillette

says. “Now that doesn’t mean she’s calling all the Newfie people stupid, she’s just having a good time, making a joke.

“And all the people up there were making jokes about Newfoundland and had fun with it, so I was joining in. So when I said I was big and stupid — I mean I’m 6’6, 285 pounds, and I’m dumb as a doorknob and I happen to be Newfie. Well, I’m an American, but my family is from there.”

After explaining why he felt he was entitled to make the odd Newfoundland

joke, Jillette went on to poke a little more fun at the province.

“Everything is a small town up there.

It’s the size, geographically, of like the United States and a few thousand people live there,” Jillette says. “I believe there are more moose in Newfoundland than there are people.

But I just made that up, so it’s probably not true. But there are certainly more puffins.”

Before his show ended for the day, Jillette made one final joke regarding both the puffin and himself.

“There are a lot of puffins (in Newfoundland). They’re lousy with puffins, puffin crazy,” Jillette said.

“If you’re queer for puffins, get your ass to Newfoundland … where there’s a whole race of tiny, smart people. Einsteins that are like four feet tall.

“All Newfies, all ethnic races, are human beings that are honest and genius, and the only big, dumb guy is me.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Paul Daly/The Independent

More vessels needed From page 1 retire one or two (vessels) then — even to hold the status quo — you need immediate replacement and even to do the job properly you need an addition to that.

“The thing with that is if you lose a vessel from a fleet like that then you lose the crew … so it means a fair amount of jobs also.”

Siobhan Coady, who’s running against Hearn for the Liberals, says she’d like to see an enhancement of coast guard services in Newfoundland and Labrador — including ice-breaking services.

“We’ve got the greatest shore line.

We should have a very strong coast guard in this province.”

She points out the formerly mothballed 24-year old Cygnus — brought to the province in 2004 as a part of a $17.5 million DFO strategy to combat foreign overfishing — as an example of the Liberal government heading in the right direction.

“My big point in the federal election campaign is that you have to have an enhanced level of service,” Coady says.

“It’s one thing to have it equal, I want it enhanced and especially, as I said, with a large coastline. So we have to have more.”

Wayne Fagan of the Union of

Terrace on the Square, Churchill Square Store Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00am to 5:30pm Phone: 754-9497 diamonddesign.com

Canadian Transportation Employees, representing coast guard crews, says aging vessels like the Templeman and Cygnus are regularly tied to wharfs for maintenance and need to be replaced.

He says there’s no back-up in place when a vessel breaks down.

And while vessels in the fleet often get a retrofit at their mid-life point, Fagan says more often than not vessels are skipped over for several years due to budget constraints.

“It’s like a car when it becomes a certain age, you got to look at the cost of maintenance compared to the cost of having a new one. It’s really the same principal.”

Only a handful of ships in the coast guard fleet are less than a decade old — most were built in the 1970s and ’80s.

The fleet currently has 104 ships, though that number is expected to drop.

The 31-year-old Shamook, an inshore-research vessel stationed in St. John’s, was slated to retire in 2005 yet still patrols. The icebreakers Henry Larson, Ann Harvey, J. E. Bernier and cutters Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Leonard J. Cowley and Cape Roger also call St. John’s home. The 39-year old J. E. Bernier was slated to be taken out of service in 2004 and the 29-year old Cape Roger is supposed to be retired in 2007. alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

Quack — cough, cough — quack

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

U

nless you’re petting pigeons, cuddling with ducks or kissing other wild or sick birds, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians shouldn’t be overly concerned about bird flu, experts say.

There is “zero risk” for avian flu in the province, say Hugh Whitney, the province’s veterinarian. And while the world is due for another major flu pandemic, he says Newfoundland and Labrador is prepared for the next attack.

Whitney says there’s confusion in the media around bird flu — and it’s easy to get confused about the virus.

With more than 15 strains of avian flu, people should only be worried about H5N1 virus.

“And just to make this very complicated there is H5N1 in North America, but not that H5N1 (in Asia). When you get into the technical side of the influenza virus there’s A, B and C (types) and we only worry about A, and through A there’s an H type and N type,” Whitney tells the Independent.

Three of 76 ducks tested in the Quidi Vidi Lake area of east end St. John’s recently tested positive for H5 virus, a mild avian flu virus (although there’s no danger to residents).

Whitney expects the confusion over the virus to continue, though health care professionals are tracking the flu in hopes of spotting the point in time when the virus mutates and can be passed from human to human.

“Avian influenza exists wherever there are wild birds,” Whitney says.

“Everyone’s focusing on the link to human influenza ... and you have to try to keep them separate because the risks are different.”

The strain — one passed from person to person — does not yet exist.

The major concern is the point when the virus mutates. Since birds, humans and pigs can be infected with avian flu, and because the virus is “fragile,” it can mutate rapidly, allowing it to be transmitted from person to person.

“Regular” bird flu led to the cull of thousands of birds in Asia, British

Columbia and most recently, Turkey, causing panic in Canada where people are stock-piling anti-viral medication.

Since 2003, when the virus first appeared, 74 people have died — all of whom were infected through close con-

tact with chickens or ducks that had the virus.

Whitney says the fact that wild birds carry disease is the very reason why birds raised for consumption, like chickens and turkeys, are housed inside

— though in some countries, like Turkey and China, live birds are sold in open-air markets where there is no hygiene barrier.

Dr. Faith Stratton, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says it’s

formance the howling success that it was.”

• “The Deputy Minister of Justice has received word that a man has been accidently killed at York Harbour by getting entangled with the shaft of the copper mine.”

• “I do not know the nature of the sickness that P.Q. and his wife died of, but it was something very serious.”

fire-sale price — less than $7,000 — and was built between 1897-1900.

John Guy’s colony at Cupid’s. Wrote Perlin: “Hayman prayed the King to build a city at Hr. Grace, and to send millions of his subjects to colonize Newfoundland. He also proposed that the island should be renamed Brittaniola.” Considering how much difficulty some have pronouncing Newfoundland, it’s a good thing Hayman’s wish wasn’t granted.

high time for another pandemic — the last being swine flu in the 1960s and ’70s — and the province is currently preparing for such an outbreak.

Surveillance is one of the biggest factors because tracking the virus can provide ways to stop or slow it down, Stratton says.

It could take between four and six months to create a vaccine after the flu has become transmittable between humans.

Though don’t count on Newfoundland being an island as protection from a pandemic. Stratton says the world has become a global community.

In fact, isolated areas are often hardest hit by communicable diseases.

During the 1918-1919 Spanish flu outbreak, the community of Okak, Labrador was wiped out by the disease.

Often communities isolated from outsiders tend to have low immunity to disease.

The Spanish flu killed more than 40 million people worldwide — 50,000 in Canada — and affected people between the ages of 20 and 40 the most, despite the fact in most cases flu kills the very old and very young.

Fred Hollett, acting director of the province’s Emergency Measures Organization, says the province has a plan in place should a pandemic hit.

The plan would see necessary services kick into play — including food production, emergency services and transportation.

Hollett recently attended emergency preparedness conferences in Quebec City and says meetings within the province are ongoing.

“We have some more work to do on (the plan),” he says.

Stratton says people can’t just hide from the flu — though there will be consequences of a pandemic in the economy and general services — life does go on.

“There’s more to life than not getting the flu. There’s the whole economics … if we shut down our economics, our ability to earn, and to do our work, and to function then we’ve not helped ourselves.” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca

SCRUNCHINS Editor’s note: Scrunchins is a new feature in The Independent by managing editor Ryan Cleary.

NEWSPAPER FLUBS Given this is the first column in an ongoing series, I might as well fess up from the get-go: there’s bound to be a mistake or two in this space over the weeks and years to follow. Newfoundlanders are as human as the next guy, meaning we’re prone to fumble the ball now and then.

Apparently it’s always been that way.

Headlined Unconscious Press Humour in Newfoundland, Charles Conroy wrote an article in the 1930s on the newspaper clippings he had collected over the years.

“That useful work of reference, Who’s Who in Newfoundland, gives in its historical section an account of the loss of a steamer with all hands: The body of Mrs. X, a passenger, was found floating in the water. It is surmised that her boilers blew up.”

CONROY’S TOP 5 CLIPPINGS INCLUDE • “The performance was a remarkable success, inasmuch as one of the leading ladies — Miss A.B. — was taken seriously ill on the afternoon of the show, and was unable to attend.”

• “Head Constable X. is now active in the collection of dog licences, and after this month persons who have dogs in their possession, not licenced, will be shot.”

• “The singing of six young ladies from the church choir made the per-

MAINLAND MISCELLANEOUS The Independent was mentioned in the Jan. 4 edition of The Globe and Mail. In her regular column, Election notebook (widely known for its Hot/Not list), writer Jane Taber described former federal cabinet minister John Efford as Hot for landing the quote of the year in The Independent.

Quote: “I disagree with that (the Gomery inquiry), I think public inquiry causes too much discussion in public.”

Wrote Taber: “He (Efford) may not always be grammatically correct but he was always quotable. Sadly, Mr. Efford is not running for reelection.”

DID YOU KNOW? The first paper printed in Newfoundland was in 1807 at St. John’s and was known as the Royal Gazette.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE? According to the late Albert B. Perlin, Robert Hayman served as governor of

ODDITIES FROM OUR HISTORY “Here (Baie D’Espoir), and at other winter houses, I saw a rude calendar; it was a piece of board, on which was carved an initial letter for each day of the week, thus S. M. T. W. T. F. S. Under these letters the date of the month was chalked afresh at the beginning of each week.

The monotony of a Newfoundland planter’s life is remarkable. I met my journey with pious persons who had occasionally, from want of such a calendar as I have described above, so miscalculated the lapse of time, that they have scrupulously abstained from work on Saturday or Monday, supposing it to be Sunday.”

— Six months of a Newfoundland Missionary Journal, by Archdeacon Wix (1835).

BUILDING COSTS The Colonial Building was built between 1847-50 for the low, low price of about $100,000 with limestone imported from Cork, Ireland.

Cabot Tower went up for a

Kenmount Road 579.1999 / 800.667.9900 www.cityhonda.com

FOLKLORE FACTS The 1937 book, The Book of Newfoundland, included an

article on Newfoundland folklore.

“Weather-lore” was particularly rich: “A fine Christmas, a fat churchyard”; “Winter thunder means summer hunger”; “A year of snow, a year of plenty”; “When October trees hold summer leaves provide double thick clothes for the winter”.

WORD OF THE WEEK The Dictionary of Newfoundland English gives several definitions (and spellings) of scrunchins: the remains of a feast or refuse of any kind; bits of animal fat or fish liver; and fatback port tied into cubes.

QUOTABLE Doug House was back in the news earlier this month when Premier Danny Williams appointed him to take stock of government’s economic growth initiatives. House wrote the book, Against the Tide, about his days as head of the Economic Recovery Commission from 1989-1996.

Considering we’re in the middle of a federal election, I’ll end this week’s offering with a quote from House’s book: “With the exception of the politically weak New Democratic Party, party labels in Newfoundland and Labrador mean very little. There is no ideological or philosophical difference between the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party. Rather, politics is very much a pragmatic affair, a contest of which ‘crowd’ is going to control the party and which party is going to win the next election.” ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 15, 2006

The rare Newfoundland chrysanthemum I

RNC Chief Richard Deering

Paul Daly/The Independent

OPP probe complete — no charges laid

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A

n Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation into criminal misconduct

by Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers who testified at the Lamer inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Randy Druken has been completed with officers cleared of wrongdoing, The Independent has learned. “We’re finished ‌ we did an investigation and based on the findings of our investigation no criminal charges will be laid,â€? Detective Inspector Paul Beesley of the OPP tells The Independent. “You let the evidence go where the evidence takes you and if at the end of the day, the evidence doesn’t support the charge then you don’t lay the charge.â€?

A seven-member OPP task force was called in last spring by RNC Chief Richard Deering to conduct investigations into two internal matters.

The first investigation, cleared up in late September, was a criminal probe into three unidentified high-ranking members of the RNC and possible criminal activity committed by them in the past year.

No charges were laid in connection with allegations that the three RNC officers were

involved with “corruption or criminality.�

The second probe delved into an allegation of a false affidavit, or sworn statement, by a Constabulary officer in testimony given to the Lamer inquiry regarding Druken’s wrongful conviction for the 1993 murder of Brenda Marie Young.

That investigation was to be completed by October’s end, but was also granted an extension due to several delays, as the OPP task force needed more time to review evidence, interviews and statements.

The investigation was thorough, says Beesley with dozens of interviews and a “substantial amount of investigative work.�

The task force travelled to St. John’s several times since the beginning of the investigation in the spring and summer of 2005, and have now sent conclusions from both probes to Deering. In both cases, investigators say the chief had no further questions for them.

Beesley wouldn’t disclose the name of the officer investigated or elaborate on details of the investigation.

A long-standing memorandum of understanding between the OPP and Constabulary allows for the Ontario force to be called in to carry out independent investigations. alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca

GENERAL MANAGER John Moores AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

john.moores@theindependent.ca

SALES MANAGER Gillian Fisher P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, gillian.fisher@theindependent.ca Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4 Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499 PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews Website: www.theindependent.ca john.andrews@theindependent.ca sales@theindependent.ca • production@theindependent.ca • circulation@theindependent.ca

“Atlantic Canada’s culture of

DEFEAT

will be hard to overcome.� — Stephen Harper

t was up in my front garden near that big rock RAY GUY upon which a Beothuck maiden once sat with her baby brother. Oh, yeah? Prove it.

A poke But this was Old Christmas Day, 2006, or as the in the eye better church calendars would have it, The Feast of the Circumcision. Sorry, pork’s off but Karl Wells speaks highly of the squid rings.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter any more. The lights A fine day, a mild day, a sunny day. And there it was, looking straight at me with the brazen right- are blinking off all around the coast and the paneousness of a foot-in-the-door Jehovah’s Witness. icked refugees flock to asphalt-shingled jungles A sort of spiritual awe caused a quiver along my around St. John’s like the one called, cruelly, “Paradise.� Sluburbia. I make wonder that the tar keel.

No arousal of long-perished dogmatic God-both- pits of Trinidad are not sucked dry to link and cover ering, of course. (Two 10-year-old boys: do you them all.

Long before this, of course, the hay fences fell believe in the devil? Naww. It’s like Sandy Clause.

It’s only your father.) But rather a pantheistic, down in Bung Hole Tickle. The ponies went off in Wordsworthian, Wangerskian sort of holy tremor trailer trucks to be transmuted into horsy hamburgotherwise achieved only when the garage phones ers in Quebec. There are only a few old farts left who remember. early to say your car’s ready.

I still remember how it was all done. I wouldn’t There it was, as I say, on Jan. 5, 2006, on a hillside in St. Philip’s. In Newfoundland. A low- like to have to do it all again. But I wouldn’t mind doing some of it again ... and it might be useful to crouching but blooming, bloody dandelion!

They used to say, when I was a lad, that on Old know what’s possible if the pinch or the desire ever Christmas at midnight the animals surely spoke. came.

Nearly everyone had a pony, a dozen sheep, But there was a catch. If you ever heard them you’d some hens. Many had goats, a wind up a gibbering idiot. cow, ducks. A few had rabbits, Can it be the same with bloomgeese, a pig. And gooseberries, ing dandelions? Well, obviously, rhubarb, turnips, what have I got to loose?

The lights are blinking strawberries, cabbage, shallots, chives, Besides, I’m already under strong medication ‌ my Old off all around the coast parsnips, potatoes, oats ... but let’s cut the catalogue here.

Christmas kryptonite, as it were. and the panicked For a few years we had more I saw an immediate benefit to hens than most, about 900 of this marvel. Comes later, in June, refugees flock to them. Once a week, the eggs a visiting Torontonian. I have, were put on the westbound shamefully, spent enough on the asphalt-shingled express, sold for a few cents a yard to buy a Caribbean cruise, dozen to the Anglosome of it perished, some of it jungles around St. Newfoundland Development thriving. But nothing, not even John’s like the one Company’s lumber camps. the swath of naturalized lupins There were four enormous on the other side of the fence, can called, cruelly, White Leghorn roosters to keep stand against the dandelions. all those hens perky and make Monstrous specimens, great “Paradise.� them think there might be some flaunting hussies, thick as cavalmeaning to life. ry, blazing savages.

I remember, I bear the trauDon’t tell me I haven’t tried.

Down on jagged kneecaps, breathing blackflies, ma, of being lowered down among those huge, uttering coarse language, trying to pry them out, fierce roosters, legs like broomsticks and an alligaone by one ... send a fool further. So it’s no good tor’s eye, lowered down in short pants with my litfor the Tidy Towns crowd, the Neatified Lawns tle can of scratch to scatter, stood in the middle of brigade to look at me askance. It’s not my fault, this Jurassic Park to have my snap taken. Cute ... those brassy bastards are flying in from as far away or child abuse?

And our black cow, June, who kicked and fracas Trepassey.

Anyway, I’ve got my visiting Torontonian and tured two of my ribs when I was learning on the job he’s glowering at my championship dandelions. I and must have squeezed one of her wassanames the take him by the elbow, I lead him along, I proudly wrong way. Touchy as Pearl in Grade 8, she was.

And Nick, our dappled grey pony, sly as his namepoint them out. “Here I have a rather choice stand of the sake, Old Nick, who always broke into a gallop extremely rare Newfoundland chrysanthemum,� I when you snitched a bareback ride and then deliberately ground your leg into the nearest fence. explain, not without a touch of insular pride.

See, I know all this. The worst lacing I ever got “What?� says he, in that nasty nasalized way Torontonians have of speaking. “Do you take me was for leaving our cellar door partly open one for a fool? Those are nothing but dandelions. night in February and remembered, thereby, that I could have starved the whole family. And all I do Weeds. We have them all over the place in TO!� “Oh?� I shall respond in a mild and dignified now is spend scandalous amounts on growing fashion. “And do yours — in TO — also flower lilies and frou frou exotics.

And so do you, granddaddy, now resettled to around or about Old Christmas Day, otherwise Mount Pearl. And so, I’ll bet, do you. What, as Mr. known as The Feast of the Circumcision?�

I see his face now. Thank you, Jesus! Another Lenin once asked, is to be done?

My dandelion told me to tell the Townies they one neatly denatured.

All that to one side, perhaps it really was a sign. mustn’t call it “clay.� To tell the youngsters it isn’t It used to be that in Newfoundland what came out “dirt.� To tell everyone who’s still able that what of the soil was every bit as important as what came they stand on here is their own ... Earth. Not a bad out of the ocean. Why do fools keep saying we observation for your very early-rising Newfoundland piss-a-bed! were fishermen and forget we were also farmers?

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SHIPPING NEWS

K

eeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre.

MONDAY, JAN. 9 No Report TUESDAY, JAN. 10 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Hawk, Canada, from White Rose; Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels departed: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to Terra Nova.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11 No Report

Vote

Paul ANTLE

1SFTFOUFE CZ

St. John’s East

www.paulantle.com

%JSFDUFE CZ 5FSSJ "OESFXT $IPSFPHSBQIZ CZ .BSJF $SBHH .VTJDBM %JSFDUJPO CZ #SJBO 8BZ 'FCSVBSZ SE o UI BOE UI o UI 4U +PIOhT "SUT $VMUVSF $FOUSF 5JDLFUT DBMM

Authorized by the official agent for Paul Antle.

.VTJD CZ "OESFX -MPZE 8FCCFS 1SPEVDFE XJUI QFSNJTTJPO GSPN 3PEHFST )BNNFSTUFJO 5IFBUSJDBMT

THURSDAY, JAN. 12 Vessels arrived: Acadian, Canada, from St. John; Sho Toku Maru #78, Japan, from fishing; Wilfred Templeman, Canada, from sea.

Vessels departed: Atlantic Hawk, Canada, to White Rose; Burin Sea, Canada, to Hibernia; Acadian, Canada, to Saint John; Fujisei Maru # 27, Japan, to St. Pierre.

FRIDAY, JAN. 13 No report

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

Candid candidates

What political hopefuls have to say about fishery, immigration and price of fuel

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

A

voiding rhetoric, party stances and slogans, The Independent has asked candidates from the three main political parties to weigh in on gas prices, the fishery and immigration issues in the second of a three-pert series leading up to polling day.

The responses are those of the candidates, in their own words.

This week, interviews were carried out with Aaron Hynes, Conservative candidate for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor, Paul Antle, Liberal candidate for St. John’s East and Holly Pike, NDP candidate for Humber-St. BarbeBaie Verte.

Do you support a reduction in the federal gas tax?

From left: Holly Pike, NDP; Paul Antle, Liberal; Aaron Hynes, Conservative.

Paul Antle, Liberal: “Yes. The Liberal government pledged $5 billion over five years from gas tax revenues to help cities and communities … and then after that it would be about $2 billion a year there after … we’re using the proceeds from the gas tax to invest back into communities.”

Aaron Haynes, Conservative: “What we support is stopping the tax that is charged on top of the federal excise tax, charging the GST on top of the federal excise portion of the price of fuel. We would also cap the GST charged on fuel at a certain price per litre.”

Holly Pike, NDP: “I have to confess, I’m not really sure how the federal gas tax works, but the New Democratic Party’s platform is stating that we will immediately give the full five cents back to the municipalities.”

Is the Newfoundland cod fishery dead?

Paul Antle, Liberal: “I don’t think the cod fishery is dead. The inshore cod fishery seems to be showing great signs of growing. There has been some discussion about a small commercial fishery for the inshore as well as a food fishery both of which I would support as long as it’s sustainable … I think there has to be more input from fishermen to evaluate these things a little bit further.

“I think it’s excellent that the cod was not put on the endangered species list.”

Aaron Hynes, Conservative: “No I don’t think it’s dead but I think it’s in trouble. The difference is I don’t think anybody knows the status of it.

Most of the anecdotal evidence in my riding around the bays I’ve been hearing a lot of people saying there are plenty of cod inshore … it is

Conservative policy to assume custodial management of the Grand Banks.”

Holly Pike, NDP: “I don’t think it is, I mean , not dead, I don’t think it will ever be the economic force that it was, but I think that recovery is still possible, at least that’s what I’ve heard anecdotally from talking to people on the Northern Peninsula because they have the sense that recovery is possible.”

Quebec is responsible for its own immigration system. Should Newfoundland and Labrador also be responsible for its immigration system?

Paul Antle, Liberal: “Our own immigration system, sure why not? We should be able to make decisions here. We should have the federal deci-

sion making power in this province to decide if someone can stay or leave. To have someone here for nine years before a decision is made on their future is completely unjust.”

Aaron Hynes, Conservative: “My own take on it is immigration should be predominantly controlled by the federal government. To tell you the truth I’m not familiar enough with the immigration system to tell you where Quebec’s powers stop and the federal powers start.”

Holly Pike, NDP: “That’s something I’ve never really thought about. I really don’t have an answer because it’s never something I’ve ever given any thought to and I’d have to think about it a lot more because it’s not something I can answer quickly.” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca

YOUR VOICE

‘I say put on your hard hat and clear the area’ They appoint themselves to as many boards, briefs and committees as they can physically attend and, thus, receive more money. They receive star treatment from everyone lucky enough to be in their majestic presence.

First class all the way, including food, lodging, transportation and, of course, perks and benefits seldom found in the real world. A pension that to the rest of society is abhorrent and indecent.

But to them six years is sufficient or better than the 40 years needed by the ordinary Jane and Joe out in the lower echelon of our society.

MOST POLITICIANS PUPPETS Politicians are more important and, obviously, better than the rest of society and we had better get damn well used to it or else. I see most politicians as puppets and their leaders as puppeteers. People see politicians as the

cornerstone of democracy. I say put on your hard hat and clear the area. An implosion from within due to the sheer arrogance of these people would not be unimaginable.

We have millionaires telling the destitute of society to tighten their belts and sacrifice for the betterment of our grandchildren. What the public doesn’t know is that those grandchildren will be told to likewise tighten their belts for their grandchildren by these same

thinking politicians with different faces.

Each political party is in similar vein as the WWE of wrestling. They’re all into it together and they follow their promoter’s wishes. Unfortunately, they continue to bow to big businesses and are likewise forever in one another’s pockets.

God help us all!

Paul Morrissey, St. John’s

Have you noticed the benefits our oil and gas industry is bringing to Newfoundland and Labrador?

Busy restaurants and hotels.

The Keg, St. John’s, NL

Dear editor, It’s rather shameful to watch the fast eroding pillars of democracy fall into utter decay due to the callousness of politicians everywhere with corruption, greed, power, glory and stupidity, all mixed into a recipe for disaster.

They, the leaders, have become the emperors and their henchmen carry out their commands for one and all in serfdom. They pay themselves enormous salaries.

Spin-off benefits from the oil and gas industry accounted for more than $370 million in retail sales in the province last year. The industry has invested more than $15 billion in the province since 1991. To learn more please visit www.capp.ca.

A message from:

403, 235 Water Street, St. John’s, NL Canada A1C 1B6 Tel (709) 724-4200

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 15, 2006

Profit at what price?

I

n politics, as in life these days, it seems that everybody is looking for the big fix.

The big financial fix for the healthcare system. The big Kyoto fix for the environment. The big Atlantic Accord fix for our ailing provincial economy.

Given that sort of blinkered thinking, it should come as no surprise that the only mention of the fishery during the current federal election campaign has been focused on custodial management of the Canadian continental shelf.

It’s the sort of issue politicians love.

There’s a simple argument — namely that foreign trawlers are raping the remaining fish stocks just outside Canada’s 200-mile zone. A simple solution — namely stepping in and throwing them out of the area. And best of all from the political perspective, the villains in the piece are all foreigners, none of whom can vote. In fact, it’s such an attractive proposition to politicians on the hustings that the national party leaders have fallen over themselves in their haste to endorse the idea.

Too bad none of them bothered to look at the situation here at home before they cast their eyes abroad to search for a cure for all that ails the Canadian fishery.

TED WARREN

Guest Column Truth is, the greatest threat to the future of the fishery is a homegrown cancer that is eating away at the very heart of the industry — the independent status of fish harvesters as the masters of their own fishing enterprises.

That independence was traditionally guaranteed by what is known as the Fleet Separation Policy, which in effect says that fishing licences issued by the federal government can only be held by individual harvesters. For decades the policy was sufficient to keep big fish companies from stepping in and swallowing up individual harvesting operations. But everything changed in the late 1980s when the federal government got out of the business of helping harvesters to finance the cost of new vessels and left them to fend for themselves.

When the processors stepped in to fill the financial gap, official Ottawa conveniently looked the other way. And ever since then fish processors and a

growing number of entrepreneurs from other sectors of the economy have been quietly buying up controlling interests in many of the province’s larger inshore fishing enterprises.

It’s an insidious process, cloaked in complex legal documents designed to hide the real nature of the transaction, but the effect is the same as an outright sale. Control of the enterprise, and the flow of profit it generates, is stripped away from the individual fish harvester and handed to the new “owner.”

And in the process, the economic lifeblood is slowly being drained out of rural communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

Because of all the secrecy, it’s hard to get a handle on exactly how many fishing enterprises are involved but the numbers — especially among larger 65-foot vessels — are said to run into the hundreds. The former owners and their crewmembers are usually kept on to run the boats, but there is a growing fear among many industry observers that the rules may soon be changed allowing licences to be combined and fished by larger, more efficient vessels.

We’ve already tasted the bitter fruit of the drive for lower costs and higher profits in the processing sector, as plant

workers in one town after another have watched their jobs sail away to lowercost facilities on the other side of the world. A parallel move on the harvesting side of the industry could be expected to yield equally painful results.

There are those who would argue such a downsizing of the industry is a necessary, even overdue step that we need to take to build a viable foundation for the fishery of the future. And yes, it is true that it would be more profitable to catch the quotas we have remaining in a few large offshore vessels, processing the catch on board and trans-shipping the products to freighters that could carry it directly to market. But, we must ask ourselves, profit at what price?

In the end, the answer to that question comes down to the death of rural Newfoundland society. As fishing jobs and the economic activity they generate are gradually stripped away, there are fewer and fewer taxpayers left in those rural towns to support local municipal governments. And that’s a trend that has some dire consequences for all of us, even the city dwellers who feel somehow insulated from the fishery, who will ultimately have to pay the

ever-increasing costs of maintaining services in rural areas.

There’s no question there is a pressing need for some sort of rationalization of the province’s fishing fleet. But that consolidation should be taking place on the lower rungs of the ladder, not the top.

Let’s look at allowing all of those thousands of small-boat fishermen to combine licences and quotas to build viable, medium-sized harvesting operations. Let’s look at using the expertise of institutions like the Marine Institute to help develop new types of products to maximize the returns we reap from the resources we still have. And let’s set aside the conventional wisdom that bigger is better — in both the harvesting and processing sectors — and search for small-scale solutions that bigger, high-volume operations can’t provide.

Small can be beautiful too, if only we can develop the vision to see the hope in what could be.

Ted Warren is a retired journalist living in St. John’s. He was the founding editor of the fisheries magazine, The Navigator, and has worked as a reporter and editor in various local media over the past 25 years.

YOUR VOICE Worst of upper Churchill contract yet to come Dear editor, Regarding my paper, written with Melvin Baker, on Churchill Falls contract renewal, our intent was simply to produce an academic paper that laid out the facts of the matter. In doing the research, we uncovered facts that apparently were not known and that might be of substantive importance. Anyone interested in reading the paper can obtain it on the Internet by going to www.ucs.mun.ca/~feehan/CF.pdf.

When the contract’s term expires in 2016 it must be automatically renewed for 25 more years at an even lower price. Also, Hydro-Quebec will retain access to as much power as now. The foregone revenues to the province could be in the billions of dollars per year.

Thus, as things now stand, the worst of the upper Churchill contract is yet to come.

Jim Feehan, St. John’s

‘Evil, despicable, and vile savage’ Dear editor, The reason for my letter is not a pleasant one. I don’t know if your paper covered this story, but the Victoria Times-Colonist did on Jan 7.

It was regarding the sentencing of Tony Norris, 25, of Trinity, Newfoundland, who on a snowmobile ran down and killed a moose. This particular story is so utterly horrifying to me, I just had to write.

Tony Norris you are an evil, despicable, and vile savage ... you’re not

even human. Your sentence of two months for your contemptible, hideous crime in no way reflects the punishment you should receive. Since it is so inadequate you are wished the most infinitely unhappy, brutally cruel and hard life that fate and karma can muster. May the only light at the end of your tunnel be a blazing inferno when you are finally put out of your deeply, deserved misery.

Rhonda LePoidevin, British Columbia

CBC making a bad move Dear editor, Once again we can hear via Toronto more jargon regarding the place of the CBC in our communities. This time, plastic words such as “consolidation,” “integration,” and “synergy” are being dredged out to sell the corporation’s latest brainwave. I am speaking of the CBC real estate department’s decision to move CBC Radio from its present location in downtown St. John’s to the glory of Prince Philip Drive and the TV building.

Brilliant plan: trade an art-deco-ish, street-level building in the heart of one of the most creative neighbourhoods in the country for a strip-mallesque bunker on the highway.

Didn’t we just retrofit those harbour-viewing studios to better accommodate radio? Didn’t I notice that cities like Ottawa actually moved their broadcast centre downtown, to places where people and cultures flourish?

Isn’t it the case that while most of us are underwhelmed by the offering of CBC TV, radio listeners remain

loyal and strong (Don’t believe me?

Google last-year’s comments by Patrick Watson).

I am thankful that the Wal-Marts of the world, in so embracing car-culture, stick their big boxes away from the people-friendly downtown core. I once thought that the CBC was more enlightened. Sadly, this decision follows the current CBC regime’s handling of the recent lockout, showing many of us the level of vision that they offer.

This is probably some central Canadian plan destined to sweep the country, ignoring inconvenient regional and local needs. Remember the last one: cutting the dinner hour news to a half hour (despite having one of the highest ratings in the country). Recent rethinking on that one should show the CBC brass that the communities they serve are each unique, and deserve more than trendy tropes used to hide silly moves.

Bruce Johnson, St. John’s

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

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

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

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

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

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

Flick the switch T

he way I see it, there’s only one possible way to reopen the upper Churchill contract: flick the switch. Shut the turbines down and fade to black … we’ll have the world’s attention then, when half the eastern seaboard can’t boil the kettle, vacuum a carpet or watch Oprah.

Otherwise no one gives a rat’s ass.

Think about it: how many New Yorkers know the electricity that powers so much of the city around them comes from Labrador’s mighty Churchill? How many Quebecers or Ontarians know the origin of the hydro that powers their hair dryers and hot water boilers?

I can answer the second question — not bloody many. I can tell you that with certainty because The Independent commissioned a poll last fall and asked them.

The polling company had to go through a hell of a lot of telephone numbers to get the right amount of respondents in Quebec and Ontario who were familiar enough with Newfoundland and Labrador to answer a survey about power and perception — a hell of a lot of phone numbers.

Question: unless enough people are made to care, unless public pressure is brought to bear on the powers that be in Ottawa and Quebec, how many readers think for a second Hydro-Quebec will voluntarily, out of the goodness of its heart, agree to reopen the Churchill contract and forgo a piece of its guaranteed billions of dollars a year in profit for the next 35 years?

There’s probably as much chance of the Churchill River suddenly reversing direction and heading back the way it came.

No chance.

Do you know that Quebec-Hydro makes up to $2 billion a year in profit and will continue to make more and more until 2041 when the upper Churchill contract expires? Do you know the province of Newfoundland and Labrador made an estimated $32 million last year in profit — 1.6 per

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander

The people in the rest of Canada have their own problems to deal with. So poor old Newfoundland is getting screwed — tell them something they don’t know. cent of Quebec’s total — from the sale of Churchill power?

Do you know our cut will actually decrease starting in 2016, when the contract’s automatic renewal clause kicks in?

So we’ve tried the courts as a means to overturn the contract. That didn’t work. Truth be told, hardly a thing has happened since the early 1980s — discounting the few speeches Brian Tobin made across Canada in the late 1990s before dropping the subject like a hot potato.

No doubt we’ve got to educate the rest of Canada and the U.S. about the inequities in the upper Churchill deal.

It may be legal and binding but enough questions have been raised about the goings on at the time of the signing to say with certainty a shady deal went down.

At the very least there’s a moral case to be made. At the very least we could shame Quebec into reopening the deal.

First things first, however, we’ve got to get everybody’s attention — which

brings me back to my point about flicking the switch.

Do you think Danny Williams would have landed the extra $2 billion or so in Atlantic Accord money if he hadn’t pulled down the Maple Leaf? It was only after the premier got Canada’s attention and educated them about our case that Paul Martin caved in and gave us what we had coming.

The same question can be asked about Tobin’s Turbot War with Spain.

Would Captain Canada have gotten as far as he did without machine-gunning a Spanish trawler? (Although, to be fair, that’s not a good comparison considering nothing came out of the high seas soap opera besides a magical love scene between Tobin and himself.)

The people in the rest of Canada have their own problems to deal with.

So poor old Newfoundland is getting screwed — tell them something they don’t know.

They couldn’t care less about an upper Churchill contract signed when the Beatles were all the rage.

Can’t blame them for that. Quick, name one single issue that’s front and centre today in Toronto or Calgary or Vancouver. (Actually, I can name one issue in Alberta — labour shortage.

Apparently there aren’t enough Newfoundlanders, believe it or not, to fill all the job vacancies.)

The big story in 2006 will likely be the lower Churchill. Do we do the project on our own? Do we do a deal with Ontario and Quebec or somebody else?

The story is sure to unfold in the coming months.

Redress of the upper Churchill contract should be just as high a priority as a deal on the lower Churchill. The dollars are enormous, the stakes are gargantuan, but the payoff will be so sweet for the next generation of Newfoundlanders.

Flick the switch. Let’s get it on.

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

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

That’s entertainment

Ivan Morgan says leaders’ debates make for good TV, but he has a suggestion on how to improve the format

I

would like to make the following proposition: in the future, televised political leadership “debates” should incorporate the position of “joker” into the process.

I was trained as a debater in school and therefore know these events aren’t debates. But they are useful and instructive, and they have mercifully evolved from the shouting matches they used to be. I remember Brian Mulroney’s “moment” over John Turner that the media insists was his “knockout punch.”

Sure it was a telling moment, but it shouldn’t have been held up as the goal for the next generation of politicians.

We have all suffered because of that.

Now we have evolved to the stage where televised election events are a little more (for want of a better word) watchable. And last week’s English language event was no exception. I thought it showcased the leaders well. It gave them each chances to shine and to joust in a mannerly fashion.

And without a doubt the star of the show was Gilles Duceppe.

I have heard all the criticism about

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & reason Duceppe: he shouldn’t be allowed in a national debate; and he was only good because he had nothing to lose. All valid points — it’s easy to criticize when you don’t have to offer solutions. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that he was far and away the most entertaining of the four participants.

And entertainment is what it’s all about. We might think we are tuning in to hear what leaders have to say, but how they say it is just as important. We want to feel warm and fuzzy. We want to have an emotional response. Most of us don’t want just cold policy. Policy is the reason for deputy ministers — they can get bogged down in that. Of course we want the basics, but we want it wrapped in a nice friendly package.

So political leaders try to approximate that package. I watched the debate and I

could almost hear the voices of the faceless little communication weasels coaching their bosses. It was evident in Layton’s wooden mannerisms, Martin’s repeated platitudes, and Harper’s carefully crafted barbs that they had been painfully over-coached. Whether it was Harper’s ghastly cold smile, or Martin’s mantra of “values,” or Layton’s attempts at being homespun, the level of manipulation was palpable. And in the middle, with his trademark incredulity, stood Duceppe, natural as the morning sun.

The best line of the debate for me was when he noted, with his delicious Gallic disdain, that Martin campaigned like an NDPer but ruled like a Tory. I howled — absolutely true. If it wasn’t for Harper’s backbench full of neoChristian loonies scaring everyone half to death, no one would take Martin seriously for a second. Health care crisis?

Martin engineered it with his cuts to transfer payments. National child care?

As I write this, it was exactly 14 years ago tonight that my youngest daughter was born. We were a struggling two-

income family welcoming our fourth child. The Liberals were in Opposition and promising child care. I was listening. Lucky for me I didn’t hold my breath.

Duceppe is far and away the most natural leader of the bunch. He is himself. I can imagine the scene backstage just before the broadcast. Harper’s handlers furiously fluffing him — “Be friendly!

Smile!” Martin’s people begging him “No dithering! Values, values, values!”

Layton’s people chanting into the poor man’s brain “third option — Better choice.” And Duceppe’s bored handlers in a nearby bar watching the hockey game.

Not that his feet aren’t also clay. Is Duceppe full of it? Absolutely. He was asked directly by the other star of the evening, the amiable and competent Steve Paikin, whether, if Quebec feels it can leave Canada, it is then divisible?

“No,” Duceppe snapped. Ha! Wanna bet? Go ask Matthew Coon Come and the Crees of northern Quebec, another “nation” with ideas of their own.

Duceppe cites the EU as an example of

co-operative nations. Perhaps the Cree can point out the tiny independent states of Andorra, Luxembourg and The Vatican in Europe.

Duceppe’s separatist arguments are shaky at best. And he was all business the next night in the French language debates. But let’s not let the facts detract us from the power and value of Duceppe’s performance in the English debates. His role as Greek chorus, joker or what you will was a strong and telling one.

I think I like the idea of appointing someone to point out the ridiculousness of the rest of the participants in — as they say — real time. Duceppe has convinced me of the need for this role in civilized debate. Can you imagine this in our own future provincial leadership debates? Not that I for a nanosecond consider myself anywhere near Duceppe’s calibre, but I hereby cheerfully offer my own humble talents to any takers. What a gig!

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

YOUR VOICE Liberals need ‘kick in the pants’ Dear editor, I would like to respond to the letter from Al Stacey (Liberals don’t want pity, Jan 8-14 edition of The Independent).

You are right sir, Liberals don’t want pity. But what is it they do want?

These candidates surely don’t need a job? They are business people, lawyers and some are already stargazers who enjoy the luxuries of their position. It might also be noted that they are treated like celebrities wherever they go. So the feeling of power is of great importance and places them in the celebrity category wherever they go in Newfoundland and Labrador. They all speak of going to Ottawa to speak up for Newfoundland, even though they know they will be told to sit down and shut up as happened to John Efford.

The great Gerry Byrne on the west coast, and the king of the south coast, Bill Matthews. What the Liberals really need is a good kick in the pants — not pity. It never ceases to amaze me how these candidates could support this regime when their leader flags his own ships with another

country’s flag just to rob from the Canadian people their fare share of tax, both personal and business, and also this regime that destroyed our fisheries, helped Quebec swindle upper Churchill power, removed our weather station, continues to remove the federal jobs. It is time these candidates tell us what it is they really want and stop speaking with a forked tongue.

The demons within this Liberal party are far scarier then Stephen Harper could ever be. It’s time, Mr. Stacey, for you to begin to see the forest, so cut down those trees and join the land of reality. Look into the past and see just what Liberals have done to us as a Canadian province, and what they will continue to do in the future. It has already begun, as the Liberals are now going after our seal fisherman for taxes back three years that they did not know about. I wonder if there is a tax on hides from the cattle industry when the are sold to tanning companies?

Derek Young, Conception Bay South

John McGrath, Donna Gruchy, Martha Nino and Jaime Sellars picket outside Daybreak Parent Child Centre in St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Striking for equal pay Dear editor, I’m writing this letter to ensure that the public understands the depth and breadth of the services Daybreak Parent Child Centre provides for families.

The board and management of Daybreak support the staff’s request to have our pay raised by 7.7 per cent to bring our salaries up to the level of other government employees. They know how important and far reaching our work with children and families is and are as distressed as we are that CUPE Local 3017 is on strike.

In the late 1970s the director began to invite parents to take part in the programs offered to their children at the nursery school.

The philosophy that early childhood educators and parents working together offers the best opportunity for positive outcomes for children and their families set the stage for the transformation of Daybreak into the province’s first family resource centre.

Space was secured for parents to come together to take part in the parent-

ing education and capacity building groups that staff facilitated. New positions were created to expand the range of services offered to the children and their families. In addition to the early childhood educators, the kitchen staff, the utility worker, the secretary and the bus driver, resource unit teachers, a social worker and a co-ordinator for parent activities joined the Daybreak team.

Public health nurses, child, youth and family services social workers, family doctors, developmental pediatricians, physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists, and other referral sources for families became aware of the individual development plans put in place for every child attending Daybreak and of the family supports offered.

Naturally, when these community professionals met parents who were isolated or dealing with challenges, they recommended Daybreak as a resource. Our excellent reputation for successful interventions with children

who had special needs grew. That has led to the common belief that we only accept certain children but, in fact, we will consider applications from any parent looking for support raising their young children.

Our admissions policy has always been to accept the children and families whose needs can be best met by our services. The family’s desire to be involved in the planning and programming for their children is the key consideration. We want to work in partnership with parents or guardians. They bring their knowledge of their children; we offer our knowledge of child development and a strengths-based approach to supporting families. We will assist with any issue that is impacting the family.

We are not asking to be paid more than any other government worker doing these jobs, but we do want our pay scale to equal theirs.

Susan Shiner, On behalf of CUPE Local 3017

RCMP need section to fight Liberal crime

Prime Minister Paul Martin

Paul Daly/The Independent

Legislating ‘honesty and integrity’ Dear editor, I find it interesting that all four of our leaders are promising that their future governments will be based on honesty and integrity. Alongside much of the population, people are growing tired of being strung along or in some cases entirely misled about national projects funded out of our pockets. If you want evidence of how a tightly knit group of bureaucrats can effectively mishandle the public coffers, poke your head outside and catch wind of just about everyone discussing the Liberal-driven scheming behind the sponsorship scandal and now Option Canada comes to light in a new investigation.

The upcoming government needs to address this situation; what needs to happen is the construction of a barrier between those in office, those in support staff, and those who lobby for leg-

islation. The Federal Accountability Act, proposed by the Conservative Party of Canada as their first legislative act, looks like the right kind of barrier.

The hard new lobbying rules contained within this proposed legislation will prevent recently departed government workers — acting as lobbyists — from possibly taking advantage of their many years and contacts from within their former offices. This is actually similar to what our own provincial Conservative government has put in place.

The act also proposes to strengthen independent watchdogs such as the auditor general and ethics commissioner and offer increased protection for whistle blowers. This is the kind of legislation we need to insure honesty and integrity in government.

Jonathan Richler, St. John’s

Dear editor, We now have a real chance at a new government that has outlined some decent policies on matters ranging from respecting this province on fisheries matters, to new accountability laws, to a child care supplement that will help not only urban bureaucrats, but parents in rural Newfoundland and Labrador too.

It’s not perfect, but the Conservatives have laid out a moderate and specific plan to take us through to the next decade.

It remains to be seen whether people will vote Conservative. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, it remains to be seen whether talented Conservative candidates like Cyril Pelley, Joe Goudie and Cynthia Downey will find themselves in races as close as those we see shaping up for Aaron Hynes and Fabian Manning.

Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn will likely have some company in the House this time. Sadly, this doesn’t stop the slime. Just as most people were predicting, instead of offering a positive policy-focused campaign, the Martin Liberals offer slimy attack ads. Some involve improperly quoted speeches.

Some are just recycled sludge from the 2004 campaign, others just stick guns in our faces.

It’s very desperate.

In less than 24 months, the Liberals have seen waves of investigation regarding inappropriate contracts or inappropriate activity wherever they were in charge.

Desperate Liberals need to change the subject. Even they must know that it would be utterly absurd and embarrassing if voters rewarded these Liberals for landing themselves in the middle of 33 RCMP investigations. Think about it.

What must the world think of Canada?

In less than 24 months, the Liberals have seen waves of investigation regarding inappropriate contracts or inappropriate activity wherever they were in charge.

They ended up with RCMP investigations into Liberal government’s dealings with DND (irregularities re $76million contract); Industry Canada (overpayment of grants, TCP, government credit-card fraud and lobbyist wrongdoings); Citizenship and Im-

migration (6 investigations, mostly to do with bribery and improper use of influence); the privacy commissioner (lavish overspending); the Health minister (peddling cabinet seats); HRDC (grants and contributions irregularities); Transport (possible security breaches); Aboriginal Affairs (fraud and financial irregularities); and last but not least (with 11 RCMP investigations, including but not limited to Adscam matters), Public Works.

Just this past week we can add Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and the Income Trust matter to the list of RCMP investigations.

At this rate the RCMP will need to add another task force to their roster besides the usual drugs, terrorism and weapons categories – they’ll need an entire “RCMP Investigations into Liberals” section!

The most positive action any voter can take in getting focused more on controlling violent crime instead of watching the Liberal election war room pull damage control spin, is to eliminate the cause of wave after wave of embarrassing scandal. They can vote for their Conservative candidate. If that’s out of the question, they still have a left-wing option in the NDP. Liam O’Brien, St. John’s

JANUARY 15, 2006

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Pleasing the ladies P icture a rich, Arabian sheik with a harem of wives and concuCLARE-MARIE bines.

GOSSE If you’re a man, perhaps you’re already imagining yourself as the Brazen sheik, relishing the idea of having multiple, beautiful women at your disposal.

But take a second to think about it.

It’s a delicate dance. A woman’s Imagine having to deal with an army thought process usually stems from a of complicated, emotional women, place of emotion and feeling, whereas sending you mixed signals; erupting in a man’s thought process tends to be tantrums of jealousy; making demands spurred from logic and reason. on your time; bugging you to clean up This might make women sound after yourself; and conspiring and snip- somewhat flakey, but what it actually ing about you behind your back. (I’m a means is women have a superior woman so I can say these things and to amount of intuitively innate common be fair, if these ladies have to put up sense. with being in a harem, they should at Newfoundland and Labrador has least be allowed some bad behaviour.) been steadily building on hers. They I suppose every self-respecting do say men need to be beaten over the harem has its own hierarchy: the most head a few times before they catch on important wife, the and so pulling the favourite concubine, sheik’s stuff (a.k.a. the young newcomthe Maple Leaf) A woman’s thought er. It’s the sheik’s job down from the closet to keep the balance process usually stems and threatening to of harmony — to toss it out into the keep the ladies yard unless he made from a place of happy. After all, he good on the Atlantic emotion and feeling, Accord was an wouldn’t want to wake up one morninspired move. Of whereas a man’s ing to find his balls course, she doesn’t stapled to the bedto go too far. thought process tends want post.

Bra burning (or flag It must be quite a burning) can be a bit to be spurred from challenge, making frightening and getthe top wife feel ting downright logic and reason. important, while bitchy just diminishpandering to a temes a person’s credipestuous, but alluring, concubine — bility. especially if the other wives, particuA polite and inquiring letter, outlinlarly the youngest, are getting a bit ing Newfoundland and Labrador’s demanding. requests for attention, was a good Canada should know. place to start off this time around. One Different provinces rise and fall in would-be sheik recently answered the and out of favour, but there will always note and his response proved somebe the staple, top wife, Ontario, the what sensitive to her needs. Appalled demanding concubine, Quebec (if she by the brownie points scored, perhaps doesn’t flounce off and declare celiba- the other two, in typical male competcy), and the youngest addition, New- itiveness, will offer even more. They foundland and Labrador. should probably get a move on, Inexperienced NL has had some though, women don’t like it when men catching up to do over the years, losing say they’ll call and don’t follow out on more than one occasion to the through. high-flying demands of Mistress And while I’m on the subject of polQuebec, dangling the threat of her itics and the sexes … is anyone really departure over the sheik. surprised by the lack of women runBut why shouldn’t Quebec make ning in the federal election? The demands? It’s tough being one of 13, would-be sheiks (and their minions) especially lately, when it seems the are so uninspiring, so full of rhetoric youngest wife is looking better every and testosterone-soaked, school-yard day; her new assets steadily blooming bickering, no self-respecting woman and with them, a growing sense of con- (the real flesh and blood kind this time) fidence. wants any part of it.

Whatever might she ask for next?

No woman wants to deal with an Just over a year ago the sheik really army of men, with their uncomplicatdid wake up with his balls stapled to ed, yet unfathomable logic, continuthe bedpost, and all because he made ously failing to communicate, erupting some casually flirtatious remark about in tantrums of jealousy, making oil royalties early one summer morn- demands on their time, bugging them ing. How was he supposed to know to clean up after them, hogging the Newfoundland and Labrador would remote control, being tight-fisted and take it so literally? The youngster will calling them the “old ball and chain” be demanding retribution for the upper behind their back.

Churchill contract next and then where If women are going to get heavily will he be? Stuck in the middle of two involved in Canadian politics the women, in danger of getting his eyes whole set-up has to change. scratched out.

It would be nice to see. A few good The sheik certainly has his hands women could really put the sheik in his full, particularly now, as he’s threat- place. ened with being usurped by other would-be sheiks. They’re all trying to Clare-Marie Gosse is The Indepenfigure out how to best please the dent’s senior writer. ladies. clare-marie-gosse@theindependent.ca

From page 1 Elliott says she’s paid about $18 for each little baby suit she knits, and generally completes six at a time. A sweater could bring in $45 or more.

“Here, in Winter Brook, there’s two of us (knitters) now,” she says. “There used to be quite a few more than that, but there’s only two of us left.

“It’s a great pastime. You sit down for an hour or so, probably watching TV, pick up your knitting and do some … there’s a nice bit of work goes into it all the same. You’ve got to be careful with it, no mistakes and what have you.

I never had one sent back, thank goodness.”

Elliott proudly shows off the NONIA plaque on her wall for 25 years of service, the engraved watch she received at 50 years, and the silver locket she was given just last year, at Government House, celebrating 60 years.

“Believe it or not, I didn’t think it would go on this long. If I get another 62 out of it, I’ll be OK,” she says, laughing.

“It’s just something to do. I can’t sit here with nothing to do.”

NONIA began in 1920 as a fundraiser for health care services. It was incorporated in 1924.

“All the little outports all around the island really didn’t have a lot of medical care then,” says manager Judy Anderson. “The governor general, his wife started NONIA to get knitting done by the ladies in the outports, and it came into St. John’s and was sold.”

The money raised went towards bringing nurses from England to care for people in Newfoundland. In 1934, the government took over the funding of medical care — but the knitters kept on going, keeping the organization’s name and history alive.

Still a not-for-profit organization, all money brought in today goes towards paying the knitters, the six NONIA staff, and maintaining their building on Water Street (owned and occupied by the organization since the 1950s, the building is in need of a few upgrades).

If there’s any extra at the end of the year, it’s divvied up among the craftspeople as bonuses.

“The past couple of years, we haven’t had anything to give as bonuses,” says Anderson. “We’re just trying to keep on the black side of the line, which is a challenge.”

The first floor of the three-storey building is devoted to retail space for NONIA knitwear and other selected Newfoundland crafts. Anderson’s office is on the second floor, as is storage space for finished work. The top floor is quality control, where orders are placed and inspected, and hundreds of balls of wool line the walls.

“I just think it’s a good cause,” Anderson says of the organization.

“The knitters are very dedicated, like Mrs. Elliott out there in Winter Brook, it’s a big part of her life.

“It’s like any craft, you don’t make money at it as such but it gives you that bit of pocket money and a bit of pride in the work. And we have some absolutely fabulous knitters out there.”

Anderson pulls out an intricate, twoply lace christening blanket, knit by Annie Lane of Salvage. Lane, after 72 years of knitting, has just decided to give it up — which is why Anderson decided to hold on to the blanket, her

Socks, hats and mitts still going strong

Emma Elliott

last work for NONIA. “Back when (Annie) was 13, her mother was sick, she wanted to do her bit to help provide medical care for her mother, so she started and she’s been at it ever since,” says Anderson. “Most of our knitters, they get into it for something to do, it’s a craft they enjoy doing, something they can get a few cents for.”

In spite of their aging workforce, Anderson says NONIA has just about as much knitwear coming in as the employees can handle — though they’re always looking for more good knitters.

Anderson points to a black and white photograph of a pair of elderly hands, knitting. The picture, which has become a logo for the organization, was taken a few years ago of Jesse Chaffey, a long time NONIA knitter, and a joy to work with.

“She died a few years ago,” says Anderson, “and she was buried with her knitting needles and the NONIA knitting she was working on.”

Although Anderson loves the photograph, she has reservations about potentially presenting the organization as seniors-only.

“I don’t want people to think we’ve got a whole bunch of little old ladies knitting for us, and we’re not paying them a whole lot, or we’re exploiting them … we’re really not.

“We do have older and younger knitters,” she continues. “Knitting has had a bit of a resurgence in the last couple

YOUR VOICE Bush’s second victory tainted Dear editor, I enjoyed Ivan Morgan’s column (‘Bread and circuses’) in the Jan. 1-7 edition of The Independent. Thought you might like to know that George W. Bush’s second victory was tainted by Republican “dirty tricks” in Ohio. A good source is Harper’s Magazine for August 2005.

JANUARY 15, 2006

Questions of democratic process have also occupied a joint committee of academics from CalTech and MIT, set up following the 2000 U.S. presidential election — they have been looking at the different voting methods used, which vary from state to state.

Frank R. Smith, St. John’s

Paul Daly/The Independent

of years, people are taking it up again.

A lot of our knitters are mothers and daughters.”

They’ve even had a couple of men knitting over the years, but they never lasted long (“usually, they weren’t as good as they thought they were,” laughs Anderson). There is currently one man in Clarenville who contributes beautiful woven pieces.

“We go to four out-of-province craft fairs,” says Anderson. “And we take a lot of stock to them … a lot of other provinces, there’s a faster pace of life and they just don’t have time to do hand knitting, but they appreciate it.”

It’s up to the quality control team to keep track of what’s selling and what’s not, to keep an eye to trends and styles.

Sweaters don’t sell as well as they once did — the popularity of fleece has taken a bite out of the market — but socks, hats and mitts are still going strong.

It’s also up to the third-floor team to determine if knitters are skilled enough — or still skilled enough — to do work up to NONIA’s standards. Anderson pulls out a tiny blue sweater and sighs.

“This lady’s hands are rough so it rubs off the wool, the quality of the knitting is uneven … some things we do sell as seconds but some things can’t even be sold as bargains.”

Then she faces the delicate task of breaking it to the knitter — someone who may have been a NONIA regular for decades.

“There are a lot of challenges to

working with the ladies, too,” admits Anderson. “Their knitting has always been good enough for themselves and their families so if we’re critical we may get something like ‘Well, I’ve been knitting longer than you’ve been born’ … some are only too happy for pointers, but others …”

There was a time NONIA was the only craft store on Water Street. And though the building leaks and the market is competitive, Anderson sees the 85-year-old organization continuing well into the future.

Just down the road from Emma Elliott’s home in Winter Brook, Violet Curtis is finishing up a hat in her own hometown of Portland. She, too, is a 60-year knitter with NONIA. “I don’t get outside much this time of year,” she says. “It’s too quiet, there’s only a few houses here, that’s the worst part of it … but I enjoy sitting down and knitting, and a bit of extra money always comes in handy.”

Curtis serves as the secretary for her area, organizing the three other knitters around her town.

“There’s a few in the area that have given up knitting; they can’t knit, they’re too old to knit, their hands are bad,” she says. “I don’t knit much for myself, not now. One time, I used to knit a lot, sweaters for the kids … but they’re all grown up now, they don’t need my sweaters.”

Having started knitting at age 15, Curtis says it’s no surprise to her she’s still at it.

“I guess I always thought … if I was still around I figured I’d still knit. I’ve got no reason to stop.” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

J

ust before Christmas at 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 21, Margaret Higgins, 45, from Norris Arm lost her five and a half year battle with cancer.

Her husband, Gerald, who has been advocating for a local study into the effects of overexposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) for almost as long as his wife had been sick, tells The Independent her death was sudden, although not entirely unexpected.

“I figured the next time the cancer moved it was going to take her,” he says over the phone from central Newfoundland. “The doctor, the specialist, he said the cancer had gone right through her brain, right through her two lungs, through her liver and in an awful lot of locations in her bones.”

Higgins has been fighting for recognition of the dangers of EMF overexposure from electrical transformers and cables in Newfoundland and Labrador since Margaret was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000.

They lived in a small bungalow, overshadowed by heavy power lines, which Higgins believes was responsible for his wife’s condition.

He discovered that out of the 62 transformers in his town, there were incidents of cancer located close to 60.

He has since spoken to thousands of cancer victims, and to support Higgins, Norris Arm mayor Fred Budgell mailed 150 letters to towns in the province, asking for stories of cancer that could be related to transformers — 90 towns responded.

Higgins has had a wealth of support from scientists around the

‘The fight goes on’ Norris Arm man continues campaign for study into electromagnetic fields, despite death of his wife world, politicians and even the Sierra Club of Canada. His ultimate aim is to secure an independent local study of the issue.

Scientists have been conducting research into the health effects of EMFs for decades.

Reports have shown exposure can increase the risk of childhood leukemia, as well as exacerbate other cancers and chronic illnesses.

Some countries such as Sweden

Renee O’Brien Market Manager

Crash that killed upper Churchill negotiators result of pilot error

By Nelson Sherren For The Independent

S

igned in 1969, the upper Churchill contract has been a sore point with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians ever since, given the incredibly lopsided nature of the 65year deal that sees Quebec rake in untold billions more in profit than this province.

While criticism has been abundant, actual facts have been somewhat scarce, primarily because the deal’s chief negotiators died in a plane crash soon after the contract was inked. Details of the contract seemed to die with them.

On Nov. 11, 1969, a de Havilland executive jet struck the rock face of an open pit mine at Labrador City, killing all eight aboard — including Donald McParland, 40, president and chief executive officer of British Newfoundland Corporation Ltd. (Brinco), and Eric Lambert, 46, vice-president of Brinco and the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation (CFLCo).

Brinco was the parent company of CFLCo, the company that developed and negotiated the upper Churchill contract with Hydro-Quebec.

Nelson Sherren was chief of the Wabush Volunteer Fire Brigade when the plane went down and says his memories of the crash are still vivid.

“Our Brigade provided emergency services to the Wabush airport because of the proximity of our facility and equipment to the airport,” Sherren says, adding the crash was the result of

pilot error.

In May, 1970 Canadian Press reported that a combination of a procedural error in the Moncton, N.B., air traffic control centre and pilot failure to properly identify a radio beacon were responsible for the crash.

The investigation carried out by the federal Transportation Department at the time noted there were two radio beacons for use in instrument approaches to Wabush.

One north of the landing area and another to the south.

The northern beacon approach procedure “had been cancelled six months earlier but as a result of a system procedural error, on occasion clearances to use this procedure continued to be issued” by the Moncton centre, read the Transportation Department report.

“Steps have been taken to ensure that procedural errors will not occur.”

On the night of the crash, the co-pilot received and accepted clearance for the cancelled approach procedure, the report said.

“This resulted in a six-mile northward displacement of the approach pattern.

Having crossed over a beacon that the pilot apparently incorrectly assumed to be south of the field, he was now flying at his minimum approach altitude, expecting to see the runway ahead.

“Routine radio transmissions were heard moments before the crash occurred against the side of the mine pit.”

Weather conditions at the time were deteriorating but still above minimum limits for an approach to the Wabush field, the report said.

and Switzerland have since tightened their guidelines for recommended magnetic field exposure. Others recommend a precautionary approach.

Canada has no current guidelines in place.

In September, 2005, a letter from Health Canada to the province in response to EMF health concerns outlined by deputy Health minister John Abbott stated the federal government is waiting for the results of a

World Health Organization project into the issue before funding any studies of its own or setting safety guidelines. The results are expected some time this year.

Higgins says renal (kidney) failure was recorded as Margaret’s cause of death, even though, ultimately, cancer was the culprit.

“She finally came to her death by cancer, for them to say renal failure and leave it at that, it don’t sound right … five and a half years of needles being shoved in, ultrasounds, CAT scans and bone scans, to bring it down to kidney failure, renal failure.”

Higgins says Margaret was a private person and she would often get cross with him for pushing the EMF issue so strongly.

“She was a very nice person, but she was very private. She wanted me to quit what I was doing but I couldn’t do that. I know in years to come it’s going to make a big difference. I know that from the people I talk to.”

He describes Margaret as a strong and active person — even when she was sick, she would exercise and rise early in the mornings.

She was still on her feet and preparing for Christmas just a few days before she died.

As well as her husband, Margaret is survived by two daughters and one son in their early 20s.

Higgins says he is determined to keep campaigning for the recognition of the dangers of EMFs, along with so many other supporters across the country.

“I’m ready to keep on doing what I’m doing. I consider myself a very strong person and I won’t back down.

“The fight goes on … I found my reason for being on earth, to fight for this.”

Helping you is what we do.

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JANUARY 15, 2006

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

LIFE STORY

A tainted captain

Abraham Kean was a successful sealing skipper, but rumours of dirty deeds plague his memory ABRAHAM KEAN 1855-1945

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

T

he legend of Abraham Kean can be looked at two ways. He has been called one of Newfoundland’s greatest sealing ship captains, but he’s also been described as a brash, ruthless and even compassionless man willing to put business ahead of the well being of sealers.

“I think he was probably fairly mean,” says historian John FitzGerald.

“Let’s face it, a skipper of a sealing vessel … that would be pretty powerful.

These fellas brooked no opposition. If he sent them out in the middle of a snow storm to go across the ice to another ship, whether the ship was there or not they just went.”

Kean was accused, but never convicted, of actions that led to the death of sealers on more than one occasion. He is even a character in Cassie Brown’s 1972 novel Death on the Ice, which tells the story of how 78 sealers from the S.S. Newfoundland died after being left on the ice off the northeast coast for more than 50 hours in March, 1914.

But even before that horrendous tragedy, Kean was accused of turning a blind eye to men in need of help. After the Greenland Disaster of 1898, rumours spread that Kean could have possibly helped in the rescue of sailors trapped on an ice pan during a blinding snow storm, but chose not to.

With seemingly little or no hope of survival, the trapped sealers tried to make it through the night by huddling around a fire, which consisted of their ropes and gaffs, and roasting a seal carcass. More than 50 men died, while close to 40 survived.

When the sealers finally returned home, there were claims Kean robbed the dead men’s seals that had been colleted before the storm hit.

Kean denied all charges, and on April 8, 1898 told The Daily News, “To think that Newfoundland or any other country should have in its midst men so lost to all sense of shame before their fellow men as to circulate a story so utterly void of truth and without foundation is enough to make any man, worthy of the name of man, blush with shame.”

Kean later added that although the trapped sealers were obviously in need of assistance, he suspected they never gave the proper distress signals.

“If they wanted assistance and, in their ignorance did not know the signs to give, they or their ignorance ought to bear the blame, and the innocent ought not to suffer,” Kean told the newspaper.

Despite Kean’s insistence he did nothing wrong, FitzGerald says stories of the sealing ship captain’s ruthlessness followed him for the rest of his life.

“He forever had a bit of taint about him and over him,” FitzGerald says. “A lot of people felt he should have been charged with or was responsible for the

“He was probably the last of the great Newfoundland pre-Confederation sealing captains. He represented the last of the merchants.”

John FitzGerald death of those men. They feel he never really paid the price.”

As far as Kean’s accomplishments go, one statistic says it all — during his career he brought in one million seal pelts.

“He was, as far as I know, the only person to have brought in a million pelts,” says FitzGerald. Despite the accomplishment, FitzGerald wonders if Kean received the accolades he deserved.

“It was more a matter of admiration for the achievement,” he says. “But respect? That’s a good question.”

Kean also had a political career, elected as representative of the district of Bonavista in the House of Assembly in 1885. He was also elected for the district of Bay de Verde in 1897, and held the portfolio of minister of Marine and Fisheries.

UGLY REPUTATION Despite his sometimes ugly reputation, FitzGerald says Kean probably had little trouble finding support in an election.

“He certainly would have been able to use his power and his influence to get people out to the polls,” says FitzGerald.

In the end, just how Kean should be remembered is still up for debate.

FitzGerald says while there will always be a number of opinions when it comes to judging Kean’s character, the man’s accomplishments on the oceans will never be forgotten.

“He was probably the last of the great Newfoundland pre-Confederation sealing captains,” says FitzGerald. “He represented the last of the merchants.”

Kean married Caroline Yetman in 1872, and they went on to have five sons and two daughters. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

The Post, Feb. 10, 1972

AROUND THE BAY “On the fifth, news was received in town announcing the loss of the schooner Lantana, at Shag Rock, Placentia Bay. Fears then entertained, that all on board had perished, have since been confirmed.”

— The Colonist, Jan. 12, 1891 YEARS PAST “The Herald Tribune in an editorial cited the newly discovered iron ore deposits along the Quebec/Labrador border as a possible source of supply for the United States steel industry should its own resources in the Mesabi Range become exhausted.

‘Here alone is cause for reassurance,’ the paper commented after pointing out that the ‘lavish expenditure’ of natural resources in two World Wars has caused concern among experts considering the question of strategic materials in the event of a third war.”

— The Twillingate Sun, Jan. 24, 1948 AROUND THE WORLD “The Limerick post office was raided about midnight last night by 20 masked and armed men who looted several hundred pounds in cash and money orders. The post office staff, number in 12 persons, was held up until the pillage was completed. The employees were then warned not to attempt to follow the bandits who escaped unmolested. Military forces are occupying the post office.”

— The St. John’s Daily Star, Jan. 3, 1920 EDITORIAL STAND “(MHA James) MacDonnell admits and admits with pride that he had

good Irish blood in his veins. If there is one thing more than another for which he thanks God it is for this same Irish blood. There is nothing in the history of the Irish race, at home or abroad, to make him ashamed of that glorious heritage. It is because of that blood that he is an undying opponent of tyranny and despotism.

And when aristocrats like Coaker seek to set up a tyranny in Newfoundland they may find accomplices and ready tools in a Squires, a Brownrigg or a Mosdell, but they will find a fearless opponent in MacDonnell.”

— The Evening Herald, Jan. 10, 1920 LETTER TO THE EDITOR “The time is approaching when members true to the country and to their constituencies should come forward vigorously and unanimously and unite in a cry of indignant reprobation at the past acts of the administration of a ministry who have arrogated to themselves the title of Liberal.”

— The Conception Bay Man, Jan. 7, 1920 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We are not going to give up until we are promised the same wages as people working in other plants and why should we?” — A striking worker at the Marystown fishplant.

— The Post, Jan. 7, 1972

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INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 15-21, 2006 — PAGE 11

Paul Martin

Chris Wattie/Reuters

PM can’t trip up Harper Martin well on way to becoming more frightening than his opponent, says Hébert

By Chantal Hébert Torstar wire service

W

hat’s wrong with this picture?

Last week in Scarborough, Liberal leader Paul Martin launched his fiercest attack of the campaign on Stephen Harper, describing his Conservative opponent as a huge threat to minority rights.

Martin’s strong words were delivered against the backdrop of a lineup of staunch social conservatives, all of whom are proudly running for his party in this election.

For the past two years, some of the incumbents standing behind Martin at the rally have been the single biggest impediment to the recognition by Parliament of the rights of gay couples.

They voted against same-sex marriage at every step of the legislative way, turning a deaf ear to their leader’s pleas to line up the definition of marriage with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Indeed, if the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party had not supported same-sex marriage, Martin’s social conservative Liberals would have tipped the

balance in Parliament against it. have systematically opposed for the better Many of the Liberal MPs who fought part of a decade. same-sex marriage tooth and nail have an If the absurdity of the proposition did unbroken track record of opposing gay not stop Martin in his tracks this week, it rights, including the notion of protecting is because the Liberal campaign has now homosexuals from hate crimes. Some of crossed the line between fighting back and them also came into polfighting low.

Liberal strategists itics on an anti-abortion insist Martin’s crusade ticket.

Some of the incumto prevent future ParUnder two consecubents standing behind liaments from using the tive Liberal leaders, they notwithstanding clause were allowed to vote as Martin have been the of the Constitution to they saw fit on matters the courts of minority rights. biggest impediment to override on Charter issues is Martin would not tolgrounded in convicerate MPs who did not the recognition by tion. support the concept of If it is, it has taken a gender or racial equality. Parliament of the rights But when it comes to long time to surface.

And Martin’s conthe equality of gay of gay couples. tention that his new Canadians, he, like Jean sense of urgency is Chrétien before him, has been content to leave the matter to the based on the strongly held suspicion that Harper plans to roll back the clock on individual conscience of his members.

Now, in the dying days of an election abortion rights is based on a shakily concampaign, he is going a step further by structed fabrication.

When it comes to holding the line on basically asking voters to re-elect his social conservative MPs to protect some abortion rights, Harper happens to have of the very minorities whose rights they more of a track record than Martin.

When he campaigned for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, he warned his party that, if selected, he would not be taking the abortion battle to Parliament.

And at the founding convention of the Conservative party last spring, Tory delegates endorsed the notion of a woman’s right to choose to interrupt a pregnancy by a comfortable margin.

In his attempts to scare voters into supporting his party on Jan. 23, Martin is well on the way to becoming more frightening than the opponent he is so desperately trying to catch up to.

If the prime minister is willing to sacrifice intellectual honesty to his partisan interest in the heat of a losing election campaign, if he is willing to turn his campaign into a full-fledged witch hunt, how far would he be willing to go if the fate of the country was hanging in the balance in a referendum?

Chances are that will remain a theoretical question.

This is the week when columnists have to decide where they want to be on election night to be on hand for the post-victory news conference of the winner. Until further notice, I am headed for Calgary.

Harper’s priorities are clear

I

nto the final stretch of the campaign, most commentators now believe the federal election will depend on which of the two main leaders — Conservative Stephen Harper or Liberal Paul Martin — the electorate finds more trustworthy.

Based on the campaign to date, the Conservatives appear to have an excellent chance to form a government.

Harper is inspiring more trust than Martin according to last week’s polls, suggesting it will be difficult for the Liberals to scare voters into voting

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon Liberal as they did in 2004.

The attempt to demonize Harper by suggesting he has a “hidden agenda” is not likely to succeed this time because Harper has led an issues-oriented campaign featuring policies that are well thought out and well researched.

One such policy is to bring in an immediate cut in the GST to six per cent and then to five per cent within five years to bring tax relief to ordinary Canadians.

The Liberal reaction illustrates Martin’s tendency to be a hypocrite: in 1993, the Liberals campaigned to “axe the tax,” with Martin calling it a “regressive and unfair tax on living.” In 1990, he called the GST “an incredibly stupid, inept tax” and vowed “I will send it back to the drawing board.”

So far, rather than keeping his prom-

ises, Martin has kept this tax in place for 12 years and now opposes even reducing the rate!

Should Conservatives lead the next Parliament, Harper commits to pursue five priorities, involving (1) ethics (passing a federal accountability act); (2) tax cuts (cutting the GST); (3) crime (tougher mandatory sentences for gun and drug crimes, more police officers, better border security and no more house arrest or mandatory prison release); (4) child care ($1,200 a year for parents for each child under age 6);

See “Where is,” page 12

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(5) health care (establishing with the provinces a wait times guarantee).

These are Harper’s priorities. No one knows Martin’s priorities, since he labels every issue he confronts as a priority.

While Martin pleaded for civility in this campaign, he charged that Harper and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe Government would “together dismantle this country” in a Conservative minority government. His

Name: ________________________________________ Street Address: _________________________________ City/Town: _____________________________________ Area Code: _____________ Phone: ________________

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JANUARY 15, 2006

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Messy campaign reflects Martin as PM

By James Travers Torstar wire service

W

hat’s wrong with a Liberal campaign now free-falling toward a jolting landing is what’s wrong with Paul Martin as prime minister.

Contradictory, inconsistent and still searching for a focus, this Liberal tour and Martin’s leadership reflect the dangers of power exercised without discipline.

Even the most desperate attack advertising — and new Liberal television spots shout panic — can’t hide that this election isn’t about Stephen Harper. It’s about expectations Martin couldn’t meet, a pinball government that ricochets bumper-to-bumper and a ruling party so accustomed to privilege that skimming public money to pay friends is just taking care of business.

Democracy may be a slow-witted beast but it’s smart enough to know when the risk of change is less frightening than the risk of doing nothing.

So Liberals who foolishly believed they could fight and win this election the way they fought and won the last must now stop the erosion of core sup-

Stephen Harper

port and find the energy to soldier through 11 difficult days.

How else to explain the sudden preoccupation with Toronto and what should be safe Liberal seats? By spending time where they are strongest, Liberals are repeating the Conservatives’ damaging 2004 retreat to rock solid Alberta.

Truth is, the Prime Minister and Canada’s natural governing party are now in the most tortured of political positions. Momentum belongs to

Conservatives, Martin has trouble get- politics differently long enough to ting attention even when he makes appoint the discredited Art Eggleton to more policy sense than Harper, and it the Senate, further concentrate power won’t be long before fingers point at in an unelected elite and let focus unloved Liberal strategists, cabinet groups guide his pragmatic, zigzag ministers start hoping to lose and bare- course. ly hibernating leadership campaigns Liberals will dismiss all that as salt decide spring is here. rubbed in a seeping wound. But that’s How so much went so wrong will not the purpose or point. Odds against eventually bulge the Martin now sandcovers of quickly bagging the rising remaindered books. tides of change are Punishing Liberals But no waiting is directly proportional is one thing, a required to grasp to his past performwhat’s happening to ance. Had he done Conservative majority what he said he the Prime Minister.

Credibility comes would do, if he had quite another. with consistency grown into the prime and in this election minister he promised as well as in office Martin has been the to be, Liberals would be winning, not antithesis of both. A prime minister losing and those high-risk ads would be who came to power promising mature superfluous. relations with Washington recklessly For Liberals, the problem now is attacked the U.S. president for cam- starkly simple. Why would voters trust paign advantage and is wrapping him- Martin to tell them the truth about self in the federalist flag after weaken- Harper or to provide sound, steady and ing the central government with one- predictable leadership? off, backroom deals with premiers.

Confidence in the speaker is a preThose are examples, not aberrations. requisite for a compelling proposition.

To conclude otherwise is to forget that In 2004, voters still held enough residMartin put aside his commitment to do ual faith in Martin to listen intently and

act accordingly when told Harper would drip acid on Canadian values.

But Harper is now threatened less by what Martin says than by Conservative success. Only a sudden shift in the perception that the next government will be a minority stands between Conservatives and an election upset that in November stretched the imagination.

Voters are now appreciatively kicking the tires of a Conservative government but still could be scared away if the price is too high, the commitment too great. Punishing Liberals is one thing, a Conservative majority quite another.

Still, without a rebirth of the demons that hounded Harper to defeat less than two years ago, Martin will be lucky to keep this election close enough to persuade disaffected Liberals that he deserves a third chance.

That won’t happen if on election day voters conclude that what’s wrong with this campaign is exactly what’s wrong with Liberals and this prime minister.

Unfocused and undisciplined, together they are carrying Liberals away from the power that defines the party.

VLT protester holds one-day fast

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ideo lottery terminal protester Tim Smith was back in front of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly last week to mark the first anniversary of the end of his hunger strike against what he calls a cancer on society.

Standing next to a life-sized cardboard cutout of a VLT surrounded by candles, Smith says someone has to be the voice of people who have committed suicide because of their gambling addiction.

“Even one death because of a government-run exploitation program ... is wrong,” he says. “I am here for the day.

I am fasting for the day.”

Smith held a hunger strike in front of the legislature in 2004 and only stopped when the government promised to strike a committee to look at the issue of the damage done

by VLTs in the community.

The provincial government collects tens of millions of dollars in revenue every year from VLT gambling.

But despite all the government assurances, by May 2005, Smith says he realized nothing was happening.

“They made promises. The promises were broken,” he says. “It was all a snow job or a smoke screen.”

Smith gave the government some suggestions about tackling the VLT problem such as turning off the machines on Sundays, reducing operating hours, more addiction services and turning the machines off in December so money budgeted for Christmas is not wasted.

“They had no meeting, no agenda, no strategies,” he says.

“I came back now to mark one year and do a memorial in front of the legislature.

“This way we can keep the issue alive and keep the awareness out there and educate the public.”

While the New Brunswick government has taken no action in the past 12 months, in the same period Nova Scotia has toughened its VLT regulations and reduced the number of machines in the community, Smith says.

— Telegraph-Journal

Where is the civility?

From page 11 minister of Industry, David Emerson, personally insulted NDP leader Jack Layton by suggesting he had a “boiled dog’s head smile,” while Mike Klander, a senior Liberal in the Ontario Party (since resigned), compared Layton’s wife Olivia Chow, an NDP candidate, to a dog. Where is the Liberals’ civility?

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MAKING NO OFFERS We should not forget such Liberal tactics as illustrated by Tim Murphy, chief of staff in Martin’s PMO, who said (when Health minister Dosanjh and he were negotiating with Tory Germant Grewal last spring over the possibility of Grewal’s defecting to the Liberals): “I’m not offering and I’m making no offers and I think that is a narrative we have to stick to.” The suggestion was that there had to be an alternative “narrative” to the truth.

This election was brought about by the three opposition parties concluding they had to defeat the Martin government in a vote of non-confidence because it no longer had the moral authority to govern. Its deceptions and deceits amply support that conclusion and indicate a new alternative government is needed now as never before.

PM Martin and his Liberals amply justify the jaundiced view of Englishman John Gay, expressed in 1738 when he wrote: “That politician tops his part, Who readily can lie with art; The man’s proficient in his trade, His pow’r is strong, his fortunes made.”

You’d almost think he had Martin in mind!

John Crosbie is the Conservatives’ Atlantic campaign chairman

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JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

VOICE FROM AWAY

‘A law against everything’ Brad Jeffrey arrives in Barcelona to find a city about to undergo changes that could make it unrecognizable to devotees like him

By Brad Jeffrey For The Independent

I

t’s just gotten dark. Being in Barcelona means it’s really dark.

Like a lot of Mediterranean cities the streets are poorly lit, as if somebody forgot to pay the bills.

I pick my way through the streets from the bus station, barely able to read my map until I find my hotel. I ditch my bags, grab my well-travelled address book and hit the streets, enthusiastic about seeing the city with some real Catalans.

(Catalans are the original people of what is now the northeast of Spain and a little bit of France that runs along that border. They have their own language and customs, which were violently repressed under Franco, Spanish head of state from 1939-1975.)

I ring my buddy up on his mobile from a phone booth and I get “yeah man, I’m in a protest … Hey do you want to join us?”

I get the name of the square I am supposed to meet him at and some vague warnings about police. Finding places in Barcelona is no easy task, and when I finally get to the square I find it sealed off by police.

Police keep watch as tourists and passers-by walk in front of Barcelona's cathedral. Reuters

statements will make their mark. His back straightens and his eyes glint for just a second before he returns to his regular gregarious and friendly demeanour.

I first met Ricard and some other Catalans when I was living at a squat in London. They made a lasting impression on me. Tall, slim and broad-shoul-

dered, they seemed like aristocrats turned bohemian. Their attitude was proud, fun loving and they held authority in disdain. At that time, in ’98, two of them were avoiding their mandatory national service like thousands of others from their country.

I came to understand their attitudes a little more clearly when I went to

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VISUAL DEGRADATION I go to the phone booth to call my friend but as I am doing so, I hear a roar and see him coming towards me.

Within 20 seconds we are in step with the procession and Ricard is cracking a large bottle of San Miguel to toast my arrival. We pass it back and forth and I ask what we are protesting.

“The city is making a law against everything,” Ricard says. Everything, meaning anything it considers visual degradation in the streets: public protest, drinking in the streets, prostitution, skateboarding, unlicensed posters, rollerblading, juggling, spitting, being homeless, begging, street theatre and graffiti.

“They can’t do that,” I say. “It won’t be Barcelona anymore.”

Knowing my friend is an anarchistic and fiercely proud Catalan I know the

Barcelona to visit. I was up on a hill with a group of scruffy protesters being overlooking the city with a number of eyed by the clientele. In North America old gun installations kind of like we I would not expect to be looked after by have at the entrance to St. John’s har- restaurant owners in a similar situation. bour.

The sympathy of these Catalan propriThe guns were pointing in at the city, etors, wherever it lay, was not with the put there by Franco to discourage revolt police. in Barcelona. There were thousands of I was let out shortly and Ricard and political prisoners, including some who his friends invited me out for a Turkish were tortured to death. I suppose it Kebab, their tradition after a protest. shocked me because Spain and the Later we had a drink in an unlicensed Spanish/Catalans/Basques that reside bar run out of some kind of squat on a there have always been easy to identify street long known to residents as the with. “hall of shame.”

They, like me, belong to a modern Civic workers dug up much of the Western nation and live in a place that street and half-destroyed some of the gives precedence to its regional identi- buildings and then decided to take a ty. I knew vaguely about Franco and the break that’s lasted several years. Much Spanish Revolution but I didn’t realize of the place still looks like a work site that it still resonates so but the residents, deeply today; the citialready vexed by zens of Barcelona government, remember what it was decided to take I was in Barcelona like to be stripped of things into their their freedom. own hands. seven years after my So it was that I was in Now you can Barcelona seven years find all manner of first visit, participating abstract after my first visit, parpark ticipating in a protest I benches and in a protest I joined joined blindly but planters rendered became increasingly out of the bits of blindly but became sympathetic towards. concrete, coil and I started to joke with wire fence left increasingly people that I had come behind. This is sympathetic towards. from Canada just for what the Catalans the protest. It was a have been doing festive atmosphere for years. In the with singing transvesabsence of central tites, DJs with portable equipment, authority, they have developed their street musicians, skateboarders and own community with its highly individuniversity students. ual flair.

Police with riot shields blocked off As I looked over the ragged holes in the road just before we could get to the ground from one of the sofas resiPlaca Sant Jaume where the administra- dents had set up along the street, I tion buildings for two levels of govern- mused over a special Catalan brew: forment are located. tunately city hall is always there to sort Quite suddenly the festivities ended. out visual degradation.

The police surged forward, causing Brad Jeffrey is currently living and everyone to run in the opposite direc- teaching in France. He stopped in tion. The likelihood of being trampled Barcelona on his way to St. John’s for was high. When the crowd surged Christmas. again, storeowners hovering nervously near their doors began to pull people in Do you know a Newfoundlander or and pull down shutters.

Labradorian living away? Please eI found myself in a fancy restaurant mail editorial@theindependent.ca.

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JANUARY 15, 2006

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Israeli politicians return to campaign JERUSALEM fter a week’s grace awaiting the fate of ailing Ariel Sharon, Israeli politicians resumed the scramble for succession, trading truceending accusations to better their standing in upcoming elections.

The centre-left Labour party delivered the sharpest attack, accusing U.S. President George W. Bush of meddling in Israeli democracy by signalling his support for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is widely expected to lead the ailing Sharon’s centrist Kadima party in the March 28 vote.

In a widely publicized telephone exchange, Bush told Olmert he “appreciates the responsibility and courage” the former Jerusalem mayor is demonstrating in taking on the premiership.

The two also discussed upcoming Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for Jan. 25, which will be contested for the first time by candidates from Hamas. Bush told Olmert the militant Islamic movement, which is predicted to win as much as 40 per cent of the vote, must change its policy toward

A

Israel and recognize its right to exist.

Prominent Labour party member Yizhak Herzog, citing reports Olmert may visit the White House before the election, warned Washington to keep its distance from Israeli political discourse. “Aside from saying ‘Go vote Sharon,’ they did everything else,” Herzog said. “It is not proper and not appropriate, it is a crossing of red lines.”

In a separate development, Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to complete his party’s withdrawal from cabinet with the resignation of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

The move comes as Netanyahu’s advisers seek to position the former prime minister as a viable alternative by serving as opposition in the final months of the campaign.

A ferocious adversary of Sharon during the run-up to Israel’s recent pullout from the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu suggested this week to The New York Times that he should be seen as Sharon’s heir apparent.

— Torstar wire service

Quake destroys 1,000 hospitals MANSEHRA, Pakistan t’s not just buildings that crumbled when the massive earthquake struck here Jan.7: the entire health-care system virtually collapsed. More than 1,000 hospitals were wiped out across Pakistan’s mountain regions by the force of the 7.6-magnitude quake that injured more than 60,000 people and claimed as many as 30,000 lives. The loss of these desperately needed medical facilities is a double disaster for Pakistan, compounding the misery of the wounded and complicating the rebuilding efforts of this impoverished nation.

The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for field hospitals, antibiotics, medicines and surgical equipment because so many hospitals were “completely destroyed.” The World Health Organization, which is rushing medical kits to the region, warned “the devastation has created major obstacles in urgently helping the thousands of injured people to get the medical care they need.”

“The hospitals have collapsed, there are no facilities available there,” says Dr. Muhammed Mujeeb Khan, director of the emergency department at Rawalpindi General Hospital near the nation’s capital, where many of the patients are being airlifted.

“It’s a big mess, it’s a complete disaster, we never thought it would happen,” he adds. “We need medicines, implants, sutures, everything.”

I

The doctors are scrambling, but it is the sick and infirm who bear the burden here in the mountainous hinterland 100 kilometres north of Islamabad.

The Mansehra General Hospital, once a bustling modern facility, now resembles one of the ancient ruins of Pakistan’s archaeological sites. Its walls are split and cracked — the structure must either be reinforced or razed.

In the aftermath of the quake, the wounded dared not shelter under its roof for fear it would come tumbling down in the daily aftershocks.

With the walls teetering and the lights out, the hospital seemed more like a mortuary than a place to mend broken bones.

But the sick cannot wait forever.

They cannot bear to huddle in the winter chill that sets in at nightfall.

Slowly, Mansehra General is coming back to life — at least until the day building inspectors condemn it.

Volunteers bearing stretchers have been bringing the wounded back within its walls for basic treatment. Brutally basic.

But it will be an arduous journey to full recovery for these patients. Like Pakistan’s medical system, they have sustained deep wounds.

“We have to rehabilitate their psychological trauma,” says Dr. Khan.

“It’s terrible, people will be stunted, they don’t know whether they are dead or alive.”

— Torstar wire service

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

It’s ugly. And endangered, too?

Scientists say deep-sea fish in the Atlantic facing same fate as cod. But, as with cod, government is ignoring warnings

By Peter Calamai Torstar wire service

research trawls produce yearly counts of onion-eyed grenadiers, Fisheries and Oceans Canada was unable to come up with a photograph of one from its own resources.

For many of the deep-sea species now turning up in trawling hauls, marine biologists can do little more than guess about lifespan, age of maturity, reproduction rates, growth rates and so on. This ignorance means it is mostly a matter of opinion about how vulnerable they are to overfishing.

Daniel Pauly, however, is categorical. “Deep-sea fisheries cannot be sustainable,” he says.

A

re the onion-eye grenadier and its cousin the roundnose grenadier about to go the way of the Atlantic cod, overfished nearly to extinction?

Not to mention the spiny eel, spinytail skate and blue hake?

And not intentionally wiped out, but mostly by accident when deep-sea trawlers are really after something else?

Probably, say researchers at Memorial University in Newfoundland.

Probably not, say federal fisheries officials.

This difference of opinion over the fate of five obscure fish might seem arcane. But it highlights how little scientists and fisheries officials know about the thousands of species of fish that live mostly beyond Canada’s continental shelf.

In spite of this lack of knowledge, commercial fishing efforts shifted to these deeper waters after the collapse of the northwest Atlantic shelf fishery in the 1970s and ‘80s from intense overfishing.

The disagreement also draws attention to two striking ironies in the scientific study of what swims in the world’s oceans.

A global nose-counting effort, called the Census of Marine Life, is discovering scores of previously unknown creatures, adding one new fish species a week on average to the worldwide tally.

But some species are going extinct before the census can get around to identifying them.

Canadian researchers lead the world in tracking the impact of overfishing, but federal and provincial governments ignored the weight of scientific evidence that quotas for Atlantic cod were unsustainable.

The revealing fish feud arose this past week with the publication of a simple one-page report in Nature, the highly regarded British research journal.

The report from three Memorial University marine biologists concluded that the abundance of all five species had plunged by between 87 and 98 per cent from 1978 to 1994.

As well, the average size of all except the spiny eel had also shrunk in the same span by anywhere between a quarter and a half.

The researchers blamed commercial overfishing for the decline both in numbers and size, as recorded during hundreds of surveys carried out yearly by federal fisheries research ships.

Only the roundnose grenadier has ever been the target of a large-scale commercial fishery; the other species are accidentally scooped up in the monster trawling nets used to catch marketable deep-sea fish like Greenland halibut.

This “by-catch” is usually fatally

Greenie’s shtick falls flat

G

reen Party candidate Erik Millett had stolen the show at a candidate’s debate last week in New Brunswick.

The crowd bought his nuke protester get-up complete with white jump suit and gas mask and even Conservative candidate Greg Thompson said his sense of humour was worth the admission — free.

He had them until the very last second of his closing comments.

When Millett criticized Stephen Harper’s support for the war in Iraq by handing Thompson a list of potential jobs his kids could get in Iraq and a box of garbage bags, he said, for their body parts, the crowd turned.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” one person shouted over a loud chorus of boos.

“Sit down,” someone else shouted.

Until his last-second fumble, Millett had put in a polished and charismatic performance and earned applause when he said marijuana should be legalized and taxed.

“Get it out of the hands of organized crime,” he said.

He opened the debate in his mock hazardous material suit, plastered with radioactive warnings and told the crowd he was against the Point Lepreau, N.B., nuclear reactor refurbishment.

“What the hell are we doing with a nuclear power plant in our backyard?” he asked.

A question about election promises and where all the money to fund them is coming from offered the candidates some cannon fodder.

“I suspect it’s in an ATM machine; a really big one,” Millett said.

— Telegraph-Journal

A trawler heading out of Howth Harbour, Ireland.

injured.

“If nothing changes, we would expect the rate of decline over three generations to be in excess of 99 per cent,” says author Jennifer Devine, whose PhD research produced the Nature paper.

But the federal scientist in charge of the marine species-at-risk effort says the conclusions of the Nature paper are “misleading and alarmist.”

David Kulka says the Memorial University researchers place far too much faith in the yearly research-trawl surveys, operated out of the federal fisheries centre in St. John’s where he is based.

Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

“Our annual surveys only cover the inner fringe of where these species occur,” he says. “So a large portion of the population for those deep-sea species is never surveyed.”

Kulka also says the government’s sampling simply isn’t reliable in this case because the research ships trawl only to 1,400 metres; the five species are known to live in deeper waters.

“Those areas are like natural refuges because they’re never fished,” he says.

In reality, the clash between the two views says a lot more about what science does not know about deep-sea species than what it does.

For example, even though the

GARBAGE FISH Head of the fisheries centre at the University of British Columbia, Pauly is recognized internationally for his insightful analysis of fishing statistics gathered by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Over the past decade he has demonstrated how commercial fleets around the world have turned to “garbage” fish they once ignored after depleting higher-value species.

He calls this “fishing down marine food webs.”

Now, in a new study based on FAO statistics, Pauly and colleagues say commercial fleets have been casting their nets deeper and deeper into the sea — by as much as 30 metres a decade in the North Atlantic.

“We are already seeing the well-documented declines observed for shallow-water fish stocks repeated in deepwater stocks,” says the study, which is about to be published in the journal

Fish and Fisheries.

In general, deep-water species like the grenadiers live long lives but grow more slowly and mature sexually much later than fish on the continental shelf.

This makes them more vulnerable to overfishing, Pauly and others contend, because they are caught before hitting their reproductive prime.

It also means the collapse of deep-sea fisheries is liable to be sudden and have far less likelihood of recovery than for something like cod.

“Deep-sea fisheries cannot be seen as a replacement for declining shallowwater resources,” the new study concludes.

But the shallow-water fish are already being used as replacements.

Fisheries scientist Kulka says anything described as turbot in Canada is probably really Greenland halibut.

Unlike many marine biologists, Kulka has actually seen roundnose grenadier hauled out of the ocean; it happened decades ago when he was an observer on Soviet and East German trawlers.

“They cut off the heads and tails, likely to be made into fish meal. I think the body was sold as a whole fish.”

At Memorial University, Jennifer Devine hasn’t actually seen a roundnose grenadier, but she thinks its white, flaky flesh means “it’s a fish-and-chips kind of fish.”

So, since the roundhead was briefly fished commercially by Canadians off the Labrador coast, you might actually have munched a deep-sea fish that’s now endangered. Or perhaps not endangered.

JANUARY 15, 2006

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 15-21, 2006 — PAGE 17

Into the spotlight After years as a sideman, Adrian Doyle takes a turn at centre stage

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

R

ight off the top, Adrian Doyle characterizes himself as a drifter, a lifelong traveller, a panderer to his “peripatetic propensities.” This self-description fits the first impression — and the music Doyle has just made public for the first time.

The soft-spoken Doyle seems contemplative and comfortable, both in his own skin and in his home, surrounded by a wide variety of books and instruments. He admits his transient life has led to certain compromises — he has no kids and relationships can be difficult — but it has been a conscious choice.

Being “a wanderer” and musician has given Doyle the freedom to follow his impulses, the opportunity to experience new cultures, and the time to become an avid and acute observer of human interaction.

“That’s one of the reasons travelling has always been really important to me,” he says.

“Just to see how people in different places deal with the same kinds of things I have to.

Everybody’s happy, everybody’s sad, everybody cries, everybody loves presents … travelling gives you an education.”

As he moved from place to place around North America and Europe, Doyle picked up instruments (and lost a few along the way) and played with a variety of people in different genres of music. Since returning to St. John’s five years ago, he has built a reputation for himself as a respected side man and accompanist, showing up on a dozen recordings and any number of bar and club gigs.

Last summer, a new and immediate desire hit. Still at ease — for the moment — in the capital city, Doyle suddenly felt the time was right to get his own words and music together.

Following his instincts as always, Doyle threw himself into his first solo CD project, releasing Manipulation just a couple of week ago.

A solo work in the true sense of the word, Doyle wrote the lyrics and music for the eight tracks. He sings and plays the only instruments on the album: guitar and a splash or two of saxophone.

“Why now? Maybe the planets were aligned or something,” he says. “I’ve been writing since I was a kid, writing down words or phrases or lines or verses for songs. I kept gathering them up, kept them in a box and brought it around with me for years. For some reason I was compelled this summer to organize it all into a CD project.”

Born in Gander, Doyle started playing guitar in bands when he was a teenager. “And I have been ever since, in and out,” he says. “Music hasn’t always been a constant thing, but it’s See “it’s the human condition,” page 22

Adrian Doyle

Paul Daly/The Independent

LIVYER

‘A huge change’ Wendy Scammell’s decision to work from home was a risk worth taking

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

F Wendy Scammell

Paul Daly/The Independent

or Wendy Scammell, the choice to work from home was about priorities.

She had a successful career as director of fund raising for the Canadian Mental Health Association, a job she held for 13 years, but wanted to spend more time with her husband Brian and children Adam, 12, Andrew, 9, and Claire, 4.

So when her sister Jackie Osmond returned from Ontario and suggested the two start their own business, Scammell used the

opportunity to combine career and family. In 2003, the sisters, who grew up in St. John’s and reside there today, opened Creature Care — a stay-at-home pet care alternative for travelling pet owners in St. John’s and Mount Pearl.

Creature Care will send a pet sitter to a home up to four times a day or overnight to take care of a dog, cat, guinea pig or hamster.

Scammell’s new job allows her to work from the comfort of her home, meaning she can spend time with her kids.

“It’s a huge change for me,” Scammell

tells The Independent. “It’s amazing what a difference it’s made for my family life — with my kids. It’s wonderful, I would recommend starting your own business to anybody. It gives me lots of flexibility and gives me all the time I want with my kids.

“We do all of our payments with credit cards, so there’s very little follow up in terms of receivables. I do it all from my family room.”

Scammell says Creature Care is “doing well” these days, but admits there were See “I was ready for it,” page 2

JANUARY 15, 2006

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

your guide to what's happening at The Rooms

NICOLAS KOKIS Visual Artist

B

one destination, a million reasons to visit 9 Bonaventure Ave. St. John's NL 709 757 8000 www.therooms.ca

etween 1990, when Nicolas Kokis first stepped into art school, and 2001, his main focus was always printmaking, generally in black and white.

Along the way, he finished a fine arts degree, held odd jobs, and dabbled in drawing, painting, ceramics and sculpture — but it was the process of printing that captivated him.

“But at some point I just thought I was done,” he says. “I had spent months working on a huge wood cut, six feet by four feet — it took forever to do, took forever to print … and I just wanted to pick up a paintbrush and go.”

And so he did, diving headfirst into the world of oil paints and bright colours — and has been delighted by the opportunities he’s found. “You could go very thick, you could go very thin, you could make it about texture, you could make it about colour … there’s so many options,” he says.

The work is varied in subject and approach. Hanging and leaning around his studio (and home) are dozens of paintings — a couple of landscapes and many portraits of his pets, of people, of horses, alligators, flying elephants and chimpanzees.

Some are inspired by mythical creatures, people or Biblical stories, others (like They’d still hang you in Texas) are political.

“It’s the content that gets it started and then whatever happens, whatever colours are necessary …” he explains. “I generally prefer if there’s animals or people in there.”

Originally from Montreal, Kokis moved to St. John’s in 1999. He has taught workshops in printing and drawing, and shown his work at galleries around town.

After years of “the kind of jobs artists get … answering phones, landscaping …,” he now has a full-time job at the taxation centre. The hours and the money are right, and he makes use of any down time at the office to sketch out paintings.

“It’s not always easy to find time to paint, with the 40 hours a week and I like writing as well,” he says. “But I try to paint 15-20 hours a week.”

At 31, Kokis feels the freedom of having plenty of years of painting ahead of him — and of receiving a regular pay cheque.

His studio is open for visits by appointment, and he usually takes part in a group show once or twice a year. Otherwise, he’s not worried about making time to market and sell himself right now — he’s happy to keep his day job, experiment with styles and subjects, and build up an impressive inventory of work.

“One will sell here and there but … I think eventually the time will come when I’ll get to a kind of dead time. Every now and then a week will go by and I won’t pick up a paintbrush — though that hasn’t happened for about a year and a half — maybe then I’ll focus on (the business).”

As conscious as he is about making time for painting — and not getting caught up in a “scene” that would take him away from studio time — it doesn’t seem to require much effort.

“I don’t care so much about the product but about the doing,” he says. “I do this because it’s fun.”

Kokis can be reached at nkokis@nl.rogers.com.

— Stephanie Porter

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Munich important, but far too long TIM CONWAY Film score Munich Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig 1/2 (out of four)

I

t began with the best of intentions, in an atmosphere meant to celebrate the best of us in almost every respect. Slightly more than 25 years had passed since the end of WWII, and representatives from most of the world’s nations gathered in Munich, West Germany, for what was probably the most symbolic Olympic games since its revival late in the previous century. The participation of visiting countries heralded a new era, while the host endeavoured to display a society quite different from the one that hosted the 1936 event in Berlin.

So it was in the spirit of international camaraderie, on the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, a group of American athletes on the way back from a night of revelry helped boost a number of seemingly like-minded young men over a chainlink fence, and into what they assumed was their assigned residential quarters.

As they continued on, they had no idea that their gesture of good will was probably the last light-hearted moment of the games.

In less than 24 hours, the world was in mourning, following almost a full day of anguish that played out on television sets around the globe. Before dawn the following day, 11 members of Israel’s Olympic team were dead, along with a number of terrorists and a West German police officer.

The games were suspended for a day, reluctantly resuming following a memo-

Avner (Eric Bana), wife Daphna (Ayelet Zurer) and new baby in Munich.

rial ceremony, but the cohesive atmosphere that marked the start of the event had melted into the tide of emotions that swept through Munich and into the homes of viewers.

Celebration had given way to everything from outrage to fear, and reactions and behaviours from all quarters served only to intensify these emotions. What began as symbolizing the best of us, suddenly became a glaring example of the worst of us.

In retaliation for what has become known as the Munich massacre, Israel conducted air raids on Palestinian refugee camps, and as far as most of the world was aware, left it at that. Over time, however, rumours began to circulate of a covert operation to avenge the

11 Jewish victims by assassinating 11 people responsible for organizing their kidnapping.

In his book Vengeance, Canadian journalist George Jonas laid out the details of this operation, supposedly as related to him by the young man who led the initial team. Jonas’ book was made into the Genie Award-winning Sword of Gideon, in the mid-1980s, featuring our own Robert Joy as a member of that secret team.

Now, 20 years later, the story has come to life on the big screen under the guidance of one of the industry’s biggest players, Stephen Spielberg.

Eric Bana (Troy, The Hulk) stars as Avner, the young Mossad officer who is called to Prime Minister Golda Meir’s

JANUARY 16 • Journaling Club discusses and practices various techniques for your writing, call Edith Lynch for location, 7384932.

JANUARY 17 • Beothuck Street Players is holding auditions for Noises Off, 7:30 p.m., in Room B of the Arts & Culture Centre.

Scripts will be provided. Men and women needed, ages 20-60.

• Open studio at the Anna Templeton Centre dye studio, 7-10 p.m. With Susan Furneaux, dye technician, 7397623 to book space.

• Artist talk by Ontario artist Daryl Vocat at Eastern Edge Gallery, 7 p.m.

JANUARY 18 • Beothuck Street Players is holding

Tim Conway operates Capital Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His column returns Jan. 29.

YOUNG FOLK

EVENTS JANUARY 15 • Rising Tide Theatre’s Revue 05, directed by Donna Butt, featuring Rick Boland, Petrina Bromley, Glenn Downey, Sean Panting and Jim Payne.

St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m.

• The Avalon Unitarian Fellowship’s regular Sunday service starts 10:30 a.m. at the Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street.

• Public information session for the newly revived local of the musicians’ union, from 2-4 p.m., choral room, Memorial school of music. All welcome, 335-7007.

• Memorial president Axel Meisen leads first of four public discussions on health research at the university, 2:30-4 p.m., Fluvarium on Nagle’s Hill Road.

Presentations will focus on new approaches to treating stroke and relationship of kidney and cardiovascular diseases.

residence to receive an invitation to lead a special team in a very important secret mission for Israel.

He is to operate at arm’s length from his country, with no official or apparent ties to the government as he performs his duty, which is locating and killing 11 individuals responsible for the Munich affair.

As evidenced by his previous performances, Bana is a perfect choice for the role. As he takes Avner from the dutiful intelligence officer through an evolution to experienced assassin, we witness a visible transformation in the character. When the stress of his mission begins to show, Bana is able to make it real for us.

This aspect of the story, rather than

the blow-by-blow details, or simply laying out the plot, seems to be the object of Spielberg’s focus. In comparison to The Sword of Gideon, Munich is even more coloured by the benefit of time and perspective.

While “an eye for an eye” seems to have been a justifiable reaction more than 30 years ago, time has served to teach us this is not an effective solution when dealing with terrorism. Moreover, dealing with terrorists by playing their own game is hardly a step in the right direction.

While Munich effectively explores motives and values in this exercise in counter-terrorism, offering moments of chilling suspense, riveting action, and human insight, the film is its own worst enemy with a running length of nearly three hours. While any five-minute segment of the picture is as well crafted as any we’ve seen, the whole experience leaves us commiserating with the principal characters and we begin to feel as though we’ve been cut loose to fend for ourselves.

Munich is a thoughtful, insightful, and certainly relevant motion picture that some can argue is as important as a commercial film can be. Much work has gone into it, from all directions, and much can be derived from it. Moreover, it’s the kind of movie that arouses our desire to further explore the events surrounding the Munich massacre once we’re out the door and on the way home.

Unfortunately, it’s also a lengthy enterprise that seems long from the start, and it doesn’t pick up the pace very often. While it’s satisfying on many levels, and visually worth catching on the big screen, one would be well advised to load up on coffee before the show, rather than later.

auditions for Noises Off, 7:30 p.m., in Room B of the Arts & Culture Centre.

Scripts will be provided. Men and women needed, ages 20-60.

• Reading by Patrick O’Flaherty, 7:30 p.m., A.C. Hunter Adult Library, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, open to all.

• Folk night at the Ship Pub with Allan Ricketts, 9:30 p.m.

JANUARY 19 • MUN Cinema series: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer. 7 p.m., Studio 12, Avalon Mall.

• Newfoundland Karaoke Idol 4 auditions begin at the Bella Vista, 753-2352 ext. 5.

• Audition for folklore ensemble Sveti Ivan, a new Balkan women’s folksong and dance ensemble. Open for women of all ages, music provided, 6-8 p.m., room 1001, MUN school of music, katiwiens@gmx.net.

JANUARY 20 • Rock Can Roll Independent Music and Video Festival and Conference 2006 kicks off. Video screenings (Lizband, Bung, Wintersleep, more) begin 8 p.m., Ship Inn. Rock shows at the Ship, Rose & Thistle, CBTGs, Roxxy’s Junctions start at 10 p.m.; all ages show at the Masonic Temple 6:30 p.m. Visit www.independentartistscooperative.com for full list of bands.

• Public reception for exhibitions Cities of Canada: the Seagram Collection, as well as Beauty Queens, featuring work by island-based artists of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island, Trinidad, Ireland, and Hawaii, The Rooms, 7:30 p.m.

• A Tribute to Motown and Soul (The Supremes and Aretha Franklin), featur-

ing Kelly-Ann Evans, Petrina Bromley, Janet Cull, the NSO and the Ed Goff Big Band, Arts and Culture Centre, 722-4441.

• Boyd Chubbs, Rose and Thistle, 6-9 p.m.

• Are We There Yet? musical comedy, dinner and show, at the Majestic Theatre, 390 Duckworth St., 7 p.m.

Also playing Jan. 27 and 28, 579-3023 for reservations.

• Deadline for submissions for the annual Arts and Letters Awards www.gov.nl.ca/artsandletters or call 576-5253.

JANUARY 21 • Rock Can Roll Independent Music and Video Festival and Conference 2006: Conference begins 1 p.m. at the Masonic Temple; video screening (The King Hunt, My Ancestors were Rogues and Murderers, more) begin 9:30 p.m., Roxxy’s. Rock shows at the Ship, Rose & Thistle, CBTGs, Roxxy’s Junctions start at 10 p.m.; all ages show at the Masonic Temple 6:30 p.m. Visit www.independentartistscooperative.co m for full list of conference sessions and bands.

• St. John’s Fog Devils vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, 7 p.m., Mile One Stadium.

COMING UP • Register now for winter photography courses at The Studio — for detailed info, including course outlines, visit www.shanekellyphotography.com or call 739-0346.

• The Craft Council Clay Studio is accepting registration for pottery and sculpture courses beginning.

Programming includes classes for children, teens and adults classes. Call 7532534 or visit www.craftcouncil.nf.ca

Sisters Kristina (left) and Keana Bernardo will be among 30 young traditional musicians performing during the annual Young Folk at the Hall concert, Jan. 22, 2 p.m. at the LSPU Hall. The event will be hosted by Dave Penny, president of the St. John’s Folk Arts Council, and folk musician Fergus O’Byrne. This will be the second Young Folk event for singer Kristina, 9, and the third for singer and accordionist Keana, 13.

Paul Daly/The Independent

JANUARY 15, 2006

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

IN CAMERA

Close call

With just a week to go, the candidates actively running in what could be the province’s closest three-way race are scrambling to meet the post-Christmas campaign demands of an unpredictable election. Photo editor Paul Daly and senior writer Clare-Marie Gosse intercepted Loyola Hearn, Siobhan Coady and Peg Norman in the middle of their quest to win over the voters in the riding of St. John’s South-Mount Pearl.

I

n order to pin down one of the actively campaigning candidates in St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, the best strategy is to memorize their schedules and make a run at them the minute they’re not talking to someone else — which, unfortunately, isn’t often.

With little more than a week left before election day, bang slap in the middle of what’s more like a threeweek than an eight-week campaign (pre-Christmas doesn’t seem to count), the pace is hectic.

It probably doesn’t help that Conservative incumbent (and Fisheries and Oceans critic) Loyola Hearn, New Democratic Party candidate Peg Norman, and Liberal contender Siobhan Coady are all well aware of each other’s popularity.

A meet-the-candidates luncheon, hosted by the Mount Pearl Chamber of Commerce last week, was an ideal opportunity to corner Hearn, Norman and Coady, as they mingled and gave speeches about their party platforms.

In his speech, Hearn describes himself as a “thorn between two roses.” He finds himself up against two women in a federal election featuring startlingly few female candidates.

“It’s interesting…” he says diplomatically in an interview with The Independent later that day.

Despite the expected tight race, their campaigns have been clean and free from personal smears — unlike the approach taken by their leaders.

Hearn explains he’d feel uncomfortable engaging in mudslinging with Coady and Norman — and not

just because he’s trying to be a gentlemen — but by now he’s come to view them as “friends.”

The party heads might want to take note …

“I don’t think it sells anymore,” he says. “I think we should bring in a piece of legislation that in elections, all you can do is put forth your own policies and plans and you’re forbidden to say anything about the other party,” Hearn says, adding people are too smart to believe Stephen Harper is going to “take away (their) first born.

“I don’t think too many people think we’re very scary.”

On his fourth federal election campaign, Hearn admits he’s feeling confident — more so than in 2004 when the Conservative party was a newly merged creation and Stephen Harper was unknown and Liberally “vilified.

“Our polls are excellent, our phone polling, our door polling, the national polling and the feeling … when you’ve been around, you get a feel pretty quickly.”

He says the bad weather hasn’t been too taxing, particularly as he’s been meeting and greeting his constituents through multiple group events and visits (as many as two or three functions a day so far), rather than lots of knocking on doors.

Hearn just got back from campaigning in Petty Harbour.

“I met with the council, fishermen groups, tourism groups there, so I probably met today with a representative of almost every family in the area,” he says. “That gets you in to meet a lot of people.”

••• Door knocking is something

The candidates on some of their priority issues: “If somebody said to me, if you could only do one thing, I would like to be able to say that we are a resource rich province. I would like to be able to set in motion procedures that would ensure that we would be able to benefit from the development of these resources and get every ounce, every inch, every cent that we can out of that resource for the people of this province.”

— Loyola Hearn “There is enough money in this country. We’re a very rich country and it’s about where you put your priorities and I think that’s where the problem has been, that the priorities have been on big business and corporate agendas … More support for small businesses; more support on a federal level because we’re in a Confederation called Canada and it’s supposed to be about spreading the wealth and that’s not been happening.”

— Peg Norman “The issue I’ve raised in this campaign is about federal presence … it’s about dignity and we want to have the decision-making authority and we want to have the positions here in Newfoundland and Labrador … I think that Canadian Ice Service (in Ottawa) makes sense and I think the federal (management) office of Hibernia (in Calgary) makes sense here.”

— Siobhan Coady Green Party candidate Barry Crozier, from Nova Scotia, is also listed as running in the riding, but was unavailable for an interview. According to Atlantic spokeswoman Sharon Labchuk he’s not running an “active campaign.”

Norman, now campaigning for the second time around, has started to enjoy (although she does admit the weather’s been tough). Over at the NDP campaign office on LeMerchant Road, following the Mount Pearl luncheon, Norman perches on a well-worn sofa and laughs about her first neighbourhood

campaign visit back in 2004.

She was driven out to Mount Pearl by provincial NDP leader Jack Harris and got an attack of car sickness (something she often suffers from).

She had to give up the door knocking after just a few houses and says her campaign manager at the time, Rick Boland, was convinced “he had a

candidate that couldn’t knock doors.

“He thought I was sick because I had nerves.”

Although Norman admits she was anxious about pounding the pavement, she says she’s had few negative experiences (apart from once being mistaken for a Mormon when she introduced herself as Peg

JANUARY 15, 2006

Norman).

With a respectable 24 per cent of the votes in the last election (when she was relatively unknown), Norman says she is running to win the riding.

“I’m not just here because I have nothing better to do. I’m serious about this.”

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

She says she doubts the percentage of voters will be up much from 2004’s paltry 52 per cent, however.

When asked how much of a voice she might have in Ottawa if elected, Norman talks about the different approach the NDP takes to decisionmaking. She recalls being invited to a caucus meeting to discuss a question

period subject. taking a moment in between the pushing for federal involvement in “Every single person had an meet-the-candidates luncheon and the future development of the lower opportunity to speak about what they door knocking along Empire Avenue.

Churchill. wanted to bring to the floor and they “We want to get to see as many peoAlthough Prime Minister Paul actually came to a consensus,” she ple as possible because I’ve got a lot Martin has yet to respond to Premier says, “as opposed to a back bencher to say.”

Danny Williams letter outlining who gets told what to do and has Coady admits it can be difficult provincial issues during the election very little influence.” running as the representative of a (the lower Churchill being one of In a relatively prosperous riding party that’s been in power for so them), Coady has already given her like St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, many years. People wonder if it opinion, calling for an agreement there are few specific local issues cirmight be time for a change and she’s over a north/south, east/west energy cling the electoral camcorridor for Churchill paigns (aside from a call power.

2004 federal election results for the riding for increased federal “I think we’re on the cusp of St. John’s South-Mount Pearl: services) and Norman of something phenomenal says the NDP’s national and fantastic and I think it’s Loyola Hearn, CON: 13,330 votes 39.6 per cent platform, which focuses about what kind of Canada Siobhan Coady, LIB: 11,879 votes 35.3 per cent on social needs such as and what kind of province Peg Norman, NDP: 7,989 votes 23.7 per cent health, child care and within Canada we want.”

Stephen Willcott, GRN: 493 votes 1.5 per cent education, are important ••• for the people in the ridDespite his confidence ing. automatically held up for criticism over re-election, Hearn is ready to “It’s about decentralization of gov(“it’s easy to be in opposition”). offer advice, just in case a new canernment, it’s about giving people a On a local level, she says she didate wins the vote on Jan. 23. say … it is all about what’s happenoffers the chance of a new perspec“Set your sights high,” he says. ing here.” tive.

“Don’t think you can’t make a differ••• “I would bring some renewal to ence; anybody can make a difference Perhaps one of the most recognizthat party so it’s beneficial all the … if you can be effective by using able faces in the St. John’s Southway around. You’re getting a renewcommittees and using the House and Mount Pearl campaign is Coady, al and you’re getting the policies you using debate opportunities then another second-time runner. She’s would actually like in this country.” nobody’s going to be in a worse posicampaigning with the same drive that As president and chairman of the tion than that. Don’t let people say propelled her through a successful Board of Bonaventure Fisheries and we’re ineffective, we only have business career to date, with multiple CEO of Newfound Genomics, with seven members, you’re only one. advertising, meet-and-greets and lots several business awards to her name, One person has made an awful lot of of chilly pavement pounding.

Coady is passionate about the local difference in many cases throughout “I’m pulling out all the stops to business economy, including drawhistory.” make sure that people have the ing more federal jobs, expanding the opportunity to meet me,” she says, province’s natural resources and clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

JANUARY 15, 2006

22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Stripped down and bare S

ince I have started the New Year with hopes and promises to eat a better quality of food, I was thinking this week that more people are talking about food and how important it is in our lives.

I tossed the idea around the house over the holidays of the need for chefs and consumers to get back to basics. I come to the conclusion it’s now time to strip away all the pretensions of cookery and bring it back home.

There are many celebrity chefs who are into “stripping down food to the bare essentials,” and the one who comes to mind is Jamie Oliver, whom we all know as the Naked Chef.

The real key to the resurgence in the simple things, I believe, is that people are scared of food. Food is bad for you — apparently. There are so many negative associations with food that most people assume all food is bad.

Well, I’m afraid they’re wrong.

Food is a fuel source; we need it to get around, to heal ourselves, to keep going about our daily lives.

My wife, at one time, was scared when it came to food. She would have been a lot happier if food came in a pill so she could have one whenever she was hungry (she still says it sometimes to get me going).

I love food and I’m guilty of having some bad food habits — like eating all the time. Unfortunately, I like to eat too much, and the only thing I need to strip down is a few pounds.

I also see the need for something different. Instead of stripping down I think we need to concentrate on building skills.

We need a national directive to teach young people how to cook.

In other parts of Canada, a course in

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the eating path culinary arts is offered in the school system. It teaches kids the skills of a kitchen, but it subversively gets them interested in food and therefore broadens their appreciation for food. Not only does it bring an appreciation for food, it teaches a life skill that is dying in a world of fast food take-out and online delivery services.

A recent survey in the United Kingdom revealed 33 per cent of Britons can’t or won’t cook. As Canadians, we’re bombarded with reasons why we can’t or are unable to cook, but it still comes down to the fact that cooking is as simple as applying heat to food.

Perhaps this column should be here to strip away all the preconceived notions about food.

Just as a seasoned chef balances sweet, salty, sour, and spicy, we need to balance the routines of our food habits and teach ourselves that food is good for us.

Good food does not have to be boring nor bland. Here are some essentials needed to make anyone feel good about what they eat or make.

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (left) talks with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair promised more money for British school lunches after Oliver presented him with a plea signed by 271,000 people to stop feeding children junk.

Russell Boyce/Reuters

COOK BY COLOUR If it is colourful it is good for you.

The more colour on the plate means a better balance of healthy foods. Greens are leafy, reds are high in vitamins, yellows look pretty on the plate. Moderate the amount of beige food (a.k.a. deep fried) and substitute more of the red, green and yellow.

COOK THE FOODS YOU LIKE I cook a lot of ethnic foods – Asian stir-frys, Indian curries – foods with a lot of flavour. Remember when I wrote about my cheats and the invention of pre-packaged curry pastes?

I can go from zero to dinner in under 30 minutes with a gem of a product like that. And I am not afraid to say that

POET’S CORNER Confederation Ye brave Newfoundlanders who plough the salt sea, With hearts like the Eagle so bold and so free, The time is at hand when we’ll have to say If Confederation will carry the day.

Men, hurrah for our native Isle, Newfoundland— Not a stranger shall hold one inch of her strand; Her face turns to Britain, her back to the Gulf, Come near at your peril, Canadian wolf!

Cheap tea and molasses they say they will give, All taxes taken off that the poor man may live— Cheap nails and cheap lumber, our coffins to make, And homespun to mend our clothes when they break.

If they take off all taxes, how then will they meet The heavy expenses on Army and fleet?

Just give them the chance to get into the scrape, They’ll show you the trick with pen, ink and red tape.

Would you barter the right that your fathers have won?

No! let them descend from father to son.

For a few thousand dollars Canadian gold Don’t let it be said that our birthright was sold.

This anonymous song was written in 1869.

I like using them — a lot. Just following the directions will make enough for one meal, but I add a lot more vegetables and it stretches for lunch the next day.

spicing up life, so live a little. Try that recipe you said you would get around to trying … you might just open up a whole other world of food possibilities and feel good about doing it too.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF MAKING A MISTAKE Food is one of the easiest ways of

Nicholas is an erstwhile chef and current food writer now eating in St. John’s nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

‘I was ready for it’

‘It’s the human condition’

From page 17

From page 17

times she wondered if she had made the right choice.

“Oh yeah, but who doesn’t?

Walking away from something that I’d been at for so long wasn’t easy,” says Scammell. “And I had a lot of respect in the charitable community, but I guess I was ready for it.”

While she enjoys spending more time with her family, Scammell also faced some major challenges in the early days. When asked which was toughest, she doesn’t hesitate with her answer.

“Giving up my income,” Scammell says with a laugh. “I was making a very good salary, so it was a huge decision for us. But we made adjustments to our life style and it’s worked out really well.”

And it’s not as if Scammell’s 13 years with the Canadian Mental Health Association were a waste.

Scammell says her experience with budgets, dealing with people and multi-tasking are of great benefit.

“I haven’t had to go back to school to learn what I needed to do to run my own business because running a charity is very similar to running a business,” she says.

“That’s where I learned everything I needed to know.”

Looking back at her childhood in St. John’s, Scammell says it is little wonder she and her sister now own a company that specializes in pet care. After all, as children they loved animals, and according to Scammell, still do today.

“We were the two in the family who always had the pets,” Scammell says. “We always had cats, and several dogs as well.

“I still have a cat and three gold fish.”

Scammell is happy to report she sees a lot of the compassion she and her sister shared for animals in Adam, Andrew and Claire.

“They love pets, they always have,” Scammell says. “They’d love to have more, but it’s a busy house.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

been a constant in my mind.”

He admits his early days of music were a little different, he cared about “getting babes and looking cool,” but later on, “the music became the thing. The idea was to make magical music, what I consider magical anyway.

“I’m not trying to be evangelical about it, you like what you like — it’s like beer. If you like Budweiser, it’s good. If you don’t, it’s not.”

After years of constant movement, Doyle landed “I’m influenced by back in St. John’s just after the turn of the millennium. basically every At the time, he decided to focus on playing steel guitar sound I’ve heard “for some reason,” and has stuck to that instrument — since I left the in public at least — almost exclusively. womb.”

His apartment tells another side of the story, with Adrian Doyle piano and guitars, percussion, brass and woodwind instruments around. But in specializing, Doyle has become known, and frequently called upon, for his skill on the pedal steel.

He is perhaps most often seen as a sideman to Ron Hynes, accompanying Hynes’ songs and guitar with his own work.

He has also played or recorded with the top names in town: Dave Panting, Janet Cull, Mark Bragg, Pamela Morgan, Jill Porter, Sara and Kamila, Neil Conway, Andrea Munro, Cara Coleman and Ray Lake.

Working with ECMA-nominated rockers the Novaks on their debut CD was a particular treat. “Pedal steel is not usually associated with rock, people associate it with country, which is annoying,” he says. “Not that I have anything against country, but I’m not a country pedal steel player.”

Just as he’s affected by every place he lays his hat, Doyle says he’s influenced by virtually every musician he plays with. And while Doyle admits Ron Hynes might be a loose cannon at times, the opportunity to play music beside him for the past four years is a gift.

“As an accompanist I tend to play to the lyric; Hynes’ lyrics are rich in images for me to react to … he’s a fabulous guitar player, his tuning, his tone, his intonation, just his general approach to music … he leaves space which I love because it gives me a chance to get in and weave around the music.”

Asked to pin down his own musical influences, Doyle pauses, perhaps listening to the sounds of downtown St. John’s carrying on outside his window.

“I’m influenced by basically every sound I’ve heard since I left the womb,” he says. “Any sound really, a motorcycle going down the road or the sound of Mozart. I just hear things musically.”

Even with all his experience as a session musician, when it came time to record his own CD, Doyle shied away from the idea of bringing in any guest players.

“It just felt right,” he says. “If a song can’t stand up with a solo guitar or piano, it won’t stand up with a band. I just wanted to get the songs the way I wanted them.”

The result is a quiet, laid back, sometimes melancholy disc (“It’s just nice to come home sometimes and put on something that will relax you”), with accomplished guitar work taking as much of the spotlight as Doyle’s deep and brooding voice. He’s left plenty of space among the notes, creating a thoughtful and calming mood. It’s hardly sparse, though, as the guitar work provides plenty of texture.

“Because there’s only a single instrument there I had to make it as big as possible and it took quite a bit of work,” he says. “It sounds like there’s more than one instrument there … guitar is a great instrument that way, it has melody and harmony and rhythm.”

For all the world observation and word play on the CD, when asked about recurring themes, Doyle pauses again and smiles. “I like girls,” he says with a laugh. “Relationships I guess, the interaction between men and women, I don’t think it gets any better than that … a lot of it comes from just observing people, how a person stands or walks or leans … those types of things, it’s the human condition.” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 15-21, 2006 — PAGE 23

Cautious optimism Paul Daly/The Independent

By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

Unemployment rates soar in some places, drop in others

A

fter a decade with an unofficial unemployment rate nearing 75 per cent in the Argentia area, things may finally be looking up.

In fact, optimism in the labour market generally appears to be growing in the province, despite consistently high unemployment rates.

Placentia Mayor Bill Hogan says the town was a “financial basket case” for the last decade, but the future is looking brighter.

“There was nothing left but the old and the (very) young and we were really destined to become an old-age community — a community of senior citizens,” Hogan tells The Independent.

Not any more. The employment situation has improved to the point Hogan has even stopped keeping track of the area’s unemployment rate.

“It’s not something that’s been on my radar screen for the past couple of months cause I know it’s going to be better.”

In the 1990s, all of Placentia’s main employers fell away. The fishery, American naval station and the phosphorous plant in nearby Long Harbour all closed, leaving the region a virtual waste-

land, Hogan says.

More recently, a turn around began when INCO began construction on its demonstration plant for ore from Voisey’s Bay, creating more than 200 jobs, with hundreds more jobs to come as construction begins on the company’s nickel processing plant.

Add to that a call-centre that will, at maximum capacity, employ 300 people, and a remediation project for waste left

behind at the Argentia naval station and the spin-off effects alone could keep the community going, Hogan says, adding 10 years from now “we’re going to be busting at the seams.”

Labour Minister Paul Shelley concedes the unemployment rate will continue to be high in some parts of the province given the nature of seasonal industries like tourism and the fishery, but with several natural-resource based industries —

Unemployment breakdown by region

1997 2000 2003 2005

St. John’s

Avalon

Burin Pen./ south coast

13.5% 9.4 % 9.8% 7.6%

16.7 % 12.9% 13.3% 11.4%

23.6% 28.8% 22.2% 23.2%

West coast/ Northern Pen.

Central / north east coast

18.5 % 18.1% 17% 16.1%

20.6% 20.1% 21.7% 19.4%

including rapid growth in the mining sector, lower Churchill development, and petrochemical development — the province’s new challenge will be finding enough skilled trades workers.

“There’s no easy solutions to this and of course the big problem we have in this province is an aging population and young people who decide to go for the higher wages in places like Fort McMurray,” Shelley says. “Will it continue? I hope not, but the reality is that there are some big challenges ahead, but I’m optimistic about the future too.”

Simple demographics will lead to a boom in jobs for younger workers, he says.

“We’re going to have a lot of people retire in the next number of years, the people of this province are going to have opportunities,” Shelley says.

Labour statistics in the province show the Burin Peninsula and south coast area have consistently had the highest unemployment rate, ranging between 28.8 per cent in 2000 and 23.2 per cent at the end of 2005. The Avalon Peninsula and west coast/ Northern Peninsula areas improved the most since 1997. At the end of last year, unemployment on the Avalon was

Source: Province of Newfoundland and Labrador

See “Difficult to replace,” page 24

‘Treasure hunt’

Headed by Newfoundlander Mark O’Dea, B.C. company hopes to hit uranium jackpot in Labrador

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

W

hen Mark O’Dea stepped up to head a fledgling business in Vancouver called Fronteer Development Group in 2001, he used his passion for the thrill of the hunt to help create what is now a $200-million mineral exploration company.

Fronteer focuses on discovery-stage projects, including gold deposits in Turkey and Mexico and for the last three years, a uranium project in Labrador, thought to be one of the best untapped uranium deposits in North America.

Two recent discoveries, announced earlier this month, reaffirmed Fronteer’s investment in its Labrador exploration and the company anticipates the areas (Jacques Lake and Otter Lake, clustered off the north coast) could potentially

“I think we’re really at least 12 months away from determining whether or not we’ve got a real project here … it comes down to size.”

Mark O’Dea become part of a major mining project.

“It’s kind of a moving target,” O’Dea tells The Independent. “I think we’re really at least 12 months away from determining whether or not we’ve got a real project here … it comes down to size.”

He says the company is a few weeks away from releasing an independent

resource estimate, which will be the first time the market potential of the area will have been officially updated as a result of Fronteer’s work.

O’Dea, who grew up in St. John’s, calls the overall site “historic” because one part of the area known as the Michelin uranium deposit (located just 25 kilometres west of Jacques Lake and Otter Lake) was first discovered in the 1970s. The resource was left untapped at the time because the price of uranium plummeted, but the market has since reversed and Fronteer recently demonstrated Michelin holds even more potential than once thought.

“We made that realization this summer, the summer of 2005,” he says. “We drilled the Michelin at depth for the first time and we tested these other two targets See “2006,” page 24

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

JANUARY 15, 2006

By Phil Earle For The Independent

G

aming can be classified in two categories.

The first is 100 per cent dependent on chance in which the outcome of events is never influenced by human decisions. Games belonging in this group include slots, bingo, lottos, video lottery terminals (VLTs), and scratch tickets.

The second category is also dependent on chance but not 100 per cent. Games in this group include blackjack, sports betting and poker in which results are variably influenced by human skill.

Blackjack “counters” may have a 1 per cent advantage depending on the number of decks used, game rules and variability of bets allowed. A 1 per cent advantage means the player wins 50.5 hands and loses 49.5 hands out of 100. This one win more than losing in 100 can amount to huge wins. The Vegas casinos make billions a year from a house advantage of 1.5 per cent in blackjack, 3.5 per cent in dice, 4 per cent in roulette and about a 4.5 per cent advantage on slot machines.

In the case of sports betting (horses or pro and college games), a skilled bettor’s advantage can vary from 0-15 per cent, or higher, if the bettor has better knowledge of the game and its conditions than the odds maker. This advantage is possessed by a select few and they become rich.

The skilled poker player may have a 6-7 per cent advantage in a game, depending on the abilities of the other players in a game. The other 93-94 per cent involves the “chance” of the cards that, in the long run, balances evenly between the other players. This 6-7 per cent skill factor makes poker — not a game of pure chance — but a profession where income is directly tied to learned ability.

There’s a tremendous difference in the outcome of a game involving pure chance and a game involving skill.

In comparing this difference between games of pure chance and games of skill it will be seen that it makes a tremendous difference to a player’s end result. Games of pure chance may be fun but only a few can ever become winners. For example, the odds of hitting the lotto are 15.5 million to one.

This means if you bought 10 $1 tickets twice a week for a year it would cost about $1,000. If you did this for a lifetime of 30 years, about $30,000 — and your chance in this lifetime of hitting the jackpot would be about 500 to 1. One way to understand what this means is that you would have to buy 30,000 tickets for 250 lifetimes to have a 50-50 chance to hit the winning ticket.

Another game that gives very little chance of winning is scratch tickets. Consider the following publicly and humanly deceptive strategy used by the ticket organizations. If 10,000 people bought one $1 scratch ticket the way it is now there would be maybe 2,000 $1 or $2 winners. (I am guessing at the winning per cent of tickets). What would 95 per cent of those 2,000 winners do with this dollar?

They would buy back another ticket. In the great majority of these situations all of the initial $10,000 would go to the tickets.

Now what would happen if instead they would allow just two winners of $1,000 each in 10,000

Sun/Steve Marcus

Winning odds

Be it scratch tickets, VLTs or poker, your chances of walking away a winner vary greatly

buyers. What would most people do with the $1,000? They would put it in their pocket. In this case the ticket makers would lose this 20 per cent.

Paying out the numerous winning tickets in $1 and $2 lots lends itself to buying more tickets. Subtly your human nature is played upon in a way that maximizes their return and minimizes your own.

Nice, hunh?

Skilled Internet games have exploded in popularity and in amount of money wagered. There are 50 million online poker players in America who are more aware and who want to play in skilled events, ones that give them the best chance for a return on their money. They want a venue of action in which they know they have an influence on the end result.

This is the new wave and players on it will never go back to the old wave of “pure chance” … one in which they would be automatons.

A potential problem exists for gamblers, one that has to do with their inability to control the urge of excitement — also known as “the fix.” Gambling has many faces and the most important one to understand by far is not the game, but your emotional involvement with it. No one can ever be successful in gambling if they don’t understand and master this aspect of themselves. If they don’t their life will be a roller-coaster.

A person who loses money in gambling has a problem only if he loses more than he can afford.

All gaming organizations are guilty in providing a venue to that person. Government operations are the biggest contributor to this gambling problem in society and in creating the problem gambler because they make the fix permissible and available almost 24 hours a day in every shop and store in our country. Games that involve skill are not a

2006 will be ‘an interesting year’ From page 23 for the first time as well and they were all successful, so we hit three for three.

“I think what it means is it’s demonstrating that Labrador has potential to be a uranium player on the Canadian scene.”

O’Dea says that discovery last summer was one of at least two major highlights in Fronteer’s short corporate history. The other highlight was discovering the company’s two exploration projects in western Turkey really did have gold-mining potential. To date, over one million ounces of gold have been uncovered and he says the Turkish sites are still growing.

In addition to a head office in Vancouver, Fronteer has satellite offices in Toronto, Mexico and Turkey, and 17 full-time geologists on staff.

O’Dea, whose family originates from the Southern Shore, lived in St John’s between the ages of 10 and 20, attending Memorial University and working on his grandfather’s fishing boats. He

says his two grandfathers helped “plant the seed” that set him on his chosen career path “My Newfoundland grandfather always talked about finding copper in the Butter Pots, which were the group of mountains behind where he lived,” says O’Dea. “And my other grandfather, who ran a hotel in northern Ontario, a mining district, had all kinds of samples of gold that some prospectors would pay him with … and he would give me those pieces.”

After starting an undergraduate degree at Memorial, O’Dea went on to graduate from Carlton University in Ottawa and then travelled to Australia to complete his PhD in structural geology. From there he returned to Canada and made Vancouver his home.

After several years of work experience, he was offered the position with Fronteer.

O’Dea says 2006 will be “an interesting year” for Fronteer, a company competing in a sector so driven by the unpredictability of discovery.

part of the government gambling business and they are negatively compared to their games that are deceptively represented to the public. Pro-line sports betting is excluded from the games of skill because the skill factor is negated by allowing only parlay bets, combinations of teams, in which the winning payoff odds are so small that any knowledgeable sports handicapper would say he was being cheated.

Gambling is a rich man’s sport, which can be a problem for those who can’t afford it. Games involving skill may also cause the same problem but they are at the same time the only ones in which gambling can be definitively rewarding as a paid profession.

Dr. Phil Earle is retired medical doctor and a former world-champion poker player. He lives in Carbonear.

‘Difficult to replace a fish plant’ “Our evaluations are driven off of our discoveries and discoveries are the engine that drives our sector and generates all the excitement and enthusiasm.”

When asked how Fronteer decides where to invest in exploration around the world, O’Dea calls it their “inhouse secret,” and of course, not all projects are successful.

He says it can be tough making the decision to pull out of a chosen area.

“But one of the lessons you learn in this business is you can’t be married to these projects. If they don’t work, they don’t work,” says O’Dea. “You need to move on and cut your losses. It’s just like a relationship. A mistake that a lot of companies make is they stay too long when they actually know that it’s not going to fly.”

He calls the people he works with “colourful optimists.

“It’s not so much about mining and digging big holes in the ground, it’s all about the treasure hunt.” clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

From page 23 pegged at 7.6 per cent, down from 13.5 per cent in 1997. The western region made more modest improvements with unemployment dropping to 16.1 per cent at the end of 2005 from 18.5 per cent in 1997.

Federation of Labour president Reg Anstey also expresses a cautious optimism for the jobs market.

“It’s no great secret that it’s still not very good,” Anstey says, “(The unemployment rate) is still the highest of any province in the country and we’ve still got a long way to go. It’s been pretty busy inside the overpass, but you go to the rural areas though it’s still a real challenge, the fishery is struggling.”

While past efforts to rejuvenate rural Newfoundland and Labrador by government and industry have generally failed, Anstey says if you try enough ideas one eventually has to stick.

“I think that’s a challenge that’s

eluded everybody. No one’s been able to find success with it so I think outside the overpass it’s going to continue to be really difficult,” he says. “I think there’s an obvious trend to better times in the city and generally speaking better times in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“In some of those places it’s difficult to replace a fish plant.”

In Placentia, the struggle continues, but Hogan says the town has no advice for other areas of the province suffering high unemployment.

“It’s not anything that we really did, we just kept our nose to the grindstone and the developing agencies in the area … they just kept plugging away at it,” he says.

“I must say, in this last six to eight months there’s more optimism and a little bit more hype getting around as opposed to the previous six or seven or eight years which was really demoralizing and not much hope. And Jesus, a mass exodus from this area.” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 25

Income trusts an issue years ago Report raised alarm in mid-’90s

T

he news of an RCMP investigation into possible leaks of an announcement about income trusts has dogged the federal Liberals in their bid for re-election.

But this is just the latest in a series of missteps made by the Liberal government, dating back to the days when Prime Minister Paul Martin was finance minister.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane with Jack Mintz, a University of Toronto economist and respected business-tax expert, who now heads the C.D. Howe Institute.

ELLEN ROSEMAN

SEPTEMBER 2005 The Finance department releases a paper on the impact of income trusts. They’ve grown tenfold since the tech bust, from a market value of $18 billion in 2000 to $188.7 billion by the end of 2004.

Ottawa says it won’t do anything until consultations with the public are finished on Dec. 31.

Slightly more than a week later, however, Goodale surprises everyone. No more advance tax rulings on income trust conversions, he announces.

Stock markets react instantly. Income trusts lose billions in market value.

“The government panicked,” Mintz concludes.

Why? A flood of income trust conversions was planned for the fall. The Liberals wanted to head that off.

The optics were terrible. Even the chief executive of Canada’s largest bank, Gordon Nixon of the Royal Bank of Canada, was talking about moving some operations to an income trust.

APRIL 1997 Mintz chairs a technical committee on business taxation, reporting to Paul Martin as Finance minister.

In a 300-page report with many recommendations, the committee urges Ottawa to pay attention to the increasing use of income trusts.

“A whole spate of business trusts came out in 1995 and 1996,” Mintz says. “Our committee knew about this stuff, but the finance department wasn’t that aware of it.”

The concern, then and now, is that active businesses will convert to the trust structure simply to pay less tax.

Businesses run through a corporation pay tax on profits before handing them to shareholders, who also pay tax (offset a bit by the dividend tax credit).

Meanwhile, trusts can make tax-free distribu- NOVEMBER 2005 tions of income to investors.

The Liberals, losing their hold on power and This inequality was no big deal in the technol- facing an election, scuttle the consultations. ogy boom of the late 1990s.

On Nov. 23, Goodale Investors went crazy for announces he won’t tax income stocks that had no profits, theretrusts and will cut the tax rate “This hasn’t been on dividend income, starting in fore no tax to pay.

2006. He waits until trading But after tech stocks collapsed the best-handled closes, but some suspect some in 2000, income trusts took off leak of the plan occurred. in a big way. policy issue, never The income trust index goes “Looking back, 1999 would up 4.6 per cent that day and divhave been a good time to deal mind the RCMP idend-paying stocks rise an with the issue,” Mintz says. investigation.” average 3.6 per cent.

“That was during Martin’s time Goodale has denied there was as Finance minister.” any leak and attributed the tradJack Mintz SEPTEMBER 2003 ing to an educated guess.

Mintz publishes a study for “It was clear, once the govthe University of Toronto’s Capital Markets ernment would fall, that it had to deal with the Institute. He warns federal and provincial gov- issue,” Mintz says. “Otherwise, it would hang ernments are losing out on about $600 million a over their heads.” year in tax revenue because of income trusts.

The decision resulted in cancellation of two Canada’s capital markets don’t work well conferences to be held by the Canadian Tax when money is diverted to companies with slow Foundation in Toronto and Calgary at the end of growth and stable earnings, he argues.

November.

And companies paying out all their income In Mintz’ view, Goodale’s new tax policy on each year for tax reasons — and repaying capital income trusts was premature and half-baked. It as well to boost investors’ cash flow — may not ignored tax-exempt pension funds and registered be applying sound business principles. retirement savings plans, which make up 40 per The decision to distribute income and repay cent of the Canadian market. Nor did the policy capital should depend on the best use of these deal with foreign investors, who make up anothfunds, which could be to reinvest them in the er 20 per cent. business.

Martin is no longer Finance minister at the JANUARY 2006 time Mintz’s report comes out — to widespread The new tax policy goes into effect this year. media coverage. Martin is sworn in as prime But businesses trying to implement the policy minister in December 2003. have no details.

“Nobody knows where the legislation is,” MARCH 2004 Mintz says.

Ralph Goodale, named as Finance minister in He says he can’t get any answers from the Martin’s new government, presents a first budg- Finance department. et.

There’s only a ways and means motion preGoodale announces new limits on the amount sented to Parliament, which refers to a two-page that tax-exempt pension funds can invest in busi- backgrounder. ness trusts.

If Goodale hadn’t cancelled advance rulings Two months later, Goodale backs down. He last fall, depressing the market value of income suspends the cap on ownership after pension trusts, he wouldn’t have had to soothe investors funds lobby against it. when the election was called.

They say pension plans are already underfundThe three-month consultations should have led ed and can’t meet their promises to retirees with- to a white paper this spring, followed by talks out investing in trusts. with business and investors.

Goodale later backs down on another budget “There are tons of income trust conversions proposal to limit the foreign ownership of going on now anyway,” Mintz says. income trusts, despite concerns that non-resident “This hasn’t been the best-handled policy investors aren’t paying their fair share of taxes on issue, never mind the RCMP investigation.”

Canadian business activity.

Torstar wire service

Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty

Reuters

Nuclear reactors not worth fixing Ontario struggling to find new sources of power

By John Spears Torstar wire service

T

wo mothballed nuclear reactors at the Pickering A nuclear generating station aren’t worth fixing, Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) has decided.

That means the province, which is already short of power, can scratch more than 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity off its list of potential future power sources.

On a day of high demand, Ontario needs 25,000 megawatts of power, of which 3,000 megawatts are likely to be imported. Several times this summer, supplies have been so tight power system operators have imposed brownouts to avert the need for rolling blackouts.

PLAN RECONSIDERED The news prompted calls for the Ontario government to reconsider its plans to close all coalburning generating stations in the province, but Energy Minister Dwight Duncan says that’s not in the cards.

Demand has set new records this summer despite the Liberals’ election promise to cut consumption by five per cent, and the province is scrambling to find new sources of power.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) says it won’t spend an estimated $2 billion to bring back Units Two and Three at the Pickering A generating station, both of which were mothballed in the 1990s.

Duncan insists the province had never counted on the two units returning to service, but acknowledges the province’s power situation is delicate.

“We will continue to be in tight supply for at least the next two summers,” he says.

The two idle units are in much worse shape

than the other two at the site, which have been worked on, chief executive Jim Hankinson says.

Hankinson says at OPG has no plans to build new nuclear units.

Premier Dalton McGuinty praises OPG for making “a responsible decision.”

“We are not ruling out new nuclear, but we are ruling out uneconomical old nuclear wherever we find it,” says McGuinty.

“It obviously was not economical to proceed with the refurbishment of those two reactors. In other cases it did make financial sense,” he says.

“We have better options. We’ve brought 2,200 megawatts on-line since we formed the government. There are another 9,000 megawatts in the pipeline.”

While the province struggles with its existing nuclear reactors, it has promised to shut down all the coal-fired generators in the province. But one business group yesterday called for the Liberals to reconsider.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce said the Liberals should look at “clean coal” technology or consider building brand new nuclear reactors.

The Liberals say they’ll close all coal plants by 2009.

Conservative Leader John Tory says clean coal should be examined, adding that, when Ontario runs short of home-grown power it imports power produced by coal-burning plants in the U.S. that don’t use the cleanest-burning technology. “This government is very busy announcing things they won’t do, or things they will close or things they will keep closed, and there’s not enough time being spent on what’s going to have to be opened if we’re going to be able to function economically,” Tory says.

The Ontario Power Authority is due to release an over-all plan for electricity generation later this year.

JANUARY 15, 2006

26 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION

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JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 27

28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

JANUARY 15, 2006

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Malay dagger 5 Capri, e.g.

9 She wrote Sisters in the Wilderness 13 Toboggan 17 Unsubstantial 18 Eastern European 19 Frost 20 Refer to 21 Render in another language 23 Biosphere 25 Dusk to Donne 26 Cover with asphalt 27 Bulletin board fixer 28 Landlord 29 Golfer Lorie 30 Jamaican patty 31 Ribonucleic acid 32 She wrote Almost Japanese (1985) 35 Home province of 29A 36 Oyster breeding ground 37 Pet’s plaint 40 Rome has seven 41 Journalist June 44 Type of market 45 Up to the task 46 Sir John A., e.g.

47 At least a little 48 Drenches 49 Female rabbit 50 Borneo native 51 Alta. summer setting 52 “___ home and native land” 53 Straighten out 55 Prov. twice as big as

Texas 56 Best bib and ___ 59 Much ___ About Nothing (Shakespeare) 60 Lemon 61 Certain hour 62 Whose maiden name was 64 View: comb. form 67 Handwoven Scandinavian rug 68 Be in accord 69 Water in Oaxaca 70 ___ and sound 71 Pericarp 73 Legendary Winnipeg rockers: The ___ Who 74 Saguenay summer setting 75 Nanette’s nose 76 Pull a fast ___ 77 Easy-to-digest grain 78 English repast 79 ___ and fortune 81 Prod 82 Author Sakamoto (The Electrical Field) 85 Start of Hamlet’s soliloquy 86 First name of five PMs 87 Organization that defends persecuted writers 90 At hand 92 A mere ___ 94 Mediterranean resort town 95 Irish parliament 96 Declare openly 97 Wing (Fr.)

98 Pub rounds 99 Arbutus or cedar 100 Confer 101 Thin as a ___ DOWN 1 Actress Nelligan 2 To laugh (Fr.) 3 Persia, today 4 With: prefix 5 Manitoulin ___, Ontario 6 Great ___ Lake, N.W.T. 7 Overdue 8 Special night 9 No ___ Mischief (Alistair MacLeod) 10 Author Nino ___ (In a Glass House) 11 Run ___ (out of control) 12 Positive answer 13 Unstressed vowel 14 Legal attachment 15 Perhaps in French: peut-___ 16 Sask.’s animal emblem: white-tailed ___ 22 Trains to box 24 Ocean ___, Nfld.

27 “Double, double ___ and trouble...”

29 Cabbage cousin 30 Lean (on) 31 Sask.’s official flower: western ___ lily 32 Great Lakes fish 33 Owl (Fr.) 34 Our first woman cabinet minister (1957): ___ Fairclough

35 Prince Albert or Kejimkujik 36 Funny ___ (Shyam Selvadurai) 37 Provincial rep.

38 Startled shriek 39 Is no longer 41 Fossil fuel 42 Use hip boots, perhaps 43 Only prov. that touches four Great Lakes 44 Choice spot in the road?

46 Novice 48 There’s no ___ thing!

50 City guy 51 Sticky, wet earth 52 English river 54 ___ Breton 55 Skating challenge 56 London subway, to locals 57 Author Marion (193385) 58 Reduce, ___ recycle 60 Tint 61 Prepare for the anthem 63 Maritimes 64 Wind dir.

65 Bounder 66 Back on board 67 The ___ Sisters (Tomson Highway) 68 Author Urquhart 69 ___ Lang Syne 71 The bounding main 72 ____-by-Chance, Nfld.

73 Like IMAX films 75 Young, not youthful

77 People of Kahnawake 78 Attempts 79 Flaubert’s folly 80 White poplar 81 Russian author (Dead

Souls) 82 Japanese syllabic script 83 “Hear no ___” 84 Track contest

85 Skier’s pick-me-up?

86 Computer language invented by a Canadian 87 Ballet movement 88 Her to Hervé

89 Exigency 91 Summerside summer time 92 Flying mammal 93 It can be lent or bent

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 You're not to be taken seriously this week, Aries, because you're not thinking properly. Don't make any major decisions or financial moves without consulting others first.

TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 A piece of interesting information finds its way into your lap, Taurus. You know what to do with the new-found knowledge. Use it to your advantage, but be careful.

GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 A kink in your well-oiled plans leaves you frazzled, Gemini. Take some time out to recoup and rethink your strategy to cope with the roadblock. You'll overcome the problem.

CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 Help from a stranger is in your immediate future, Cancer. Put your pride aside and accept what is offered - it's no scam. Expect

others to act reserved.

LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 Advice from a family member should be heeded, Leo. Put aside your bravado and adopt a submissive posture on this point. This person actually knows what's best.

VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 A misunderstanding with someone close leads to a screaming match. The unpleasantries shared hurt your ego and you go on the attack. It will take a few days to rectify.

LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 You know what's best for you, Libra. So when a friend tries to give you advice on a romantic matter, say thank you and then do your thing. Expect big changes in the days ahead.

SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 You crave structure and control,

Scorpio, but this week your entire schedule will be out of whack.

Don't let it put a chink in your armor. You'll rebound and get things done.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 Stop trying to rekindle a romance that has no future, Sagittarius.

Direct your energy toward finding a new mate. If you're already attached, devote some alone time to your spouse.

CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 An argument at work will put you in foul mood for most of the week, Capricorn. A day off may help you resolve your feelings faster. Aim for a break on Friday.

AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 A fitness plan still hasn't materialized, Aquarius. Devote some energy to drawing up a way you can get in shape. All it takes is a little effort for big results.

PISCES - FEB 19/MAR 20 Matters of business are what will consume your attention this week, Pisces. They will allow little time for fun or relaxation.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS JANUARY 15 Mario Van Peebles, actor (49) JANUARY 16 Kate Moss, model (32) JANUARY 17 Jim Carrey, actor (44) JANUARY 18 Samantha Mumba, singer (23) JANUARY 19 Michael Crawford, actor (64) JANUARY 20 Paul Stanley, singer (54) JANUARY 21 Geena Davis, actress (50)

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 29

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 29

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

JANUARY 15, 2006

‘There’s no reason why we couldn’t host an event of that calibre’ From page 32 the country the passion East Coast hockey fans have for the game. It also demonstrated the atmosphere for the world juniors is the same when played in front of 10,000 screaming fans as it is in front of 19,000 spectators (as was the case in Vancouver).

Because Halifax hosted in 2003, I doubt they would be awarded the world juniors again if they bid, leaving St. John’s as a prime candidate to host. There have long been rumours of Montreal looking to host, but as is the case in Toronto, Montreal is a one-team town. In fact, Montreal lost its major junior team (the Rocket, now playing out of Charlottetown) a few years ago because of poor attendance.

Eliminating Toronto, Halifax and Montreal leaves only a handful of cities capable of hosting the world juniors. The advantage St. John’s has over these cities is a strong history of supporting world-class events.

Whether it’s the Scott Tournament of Hearts, World Under-17 Hockey Championships or a

freaking Pearl Jam concert, big-ticket shows in St. John’s sell out. The world juniors would be no exception.

I spoke to Lisa Neville, general manager of Mile One Stadium, and she says the possibility of St. John’s Sports and Entertainment bidding on the world juniors exists. She says the city has the facilities (a first-class rink, plenty of quality hotels in the area) to host a major event like this, saying “There’s no reason why we couldn’t host an event of that calibre.”

I really don’t see any stumbling blocks in regards to bringing the tournament to St. John’s.

The event could even be made a true Newfoundland tournament by having the Pepsi Centre in Corner Brook serve as the host site for some preliminary round games not featuring Canada, just as Centre 200 in Sydney hosted games during the 2003 event in Halifax.

With a solid pitch from the right people, I think we could see the world come to St. John’s in 2009. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

OF THE

DEVIL WEEK Ryan Graham Left wing

Former Major League Baseball reliever Bruce Sutter poses during his Baseball Hall of Fame election news conference in New York last week. Sutter became just the fourth relief pitcher to be given baseball's highest honour.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Age: 18 Hometown: Mount Pearl

Pioneer Sutter original closer

How acquired: picked up from the Gatineau Olympiques on Dec. 23, 2005 in exchange for Maxime Langelier-Parent.

Favourite hockey team: Montreal Canadiens Favourite hockey player: Gino Odjick Favourite movies: Wedding Crashers and The Notebook

Split-finger pitch his bread, butter

Favourite television show: The. O.C. Best aspect of being traded to the Fog Devils: “Skating around in the warm up at Mile One and seeing people I know in the seats. It’s just great playing in front of friends and family.”

DEVIL STATS NAME Scott Brophy Luke Gallant Oscar Sundh Nicolas Bachand Zack Firlotte Wesley Welcher Marty Doyle Ryan Graham Sebastien Bernier Olivier Guilbault Matt Fillier Pat O’Keefe Pier-Alexandre Poulin Anthony Pototschnik Jean-Simon Allard Rodi Short Ivo Mocek Josh McKinnon Paul Roebothan Matt Boland Steve Tilley Kyle Stanley

POS. C D LW RW D C RW LW D RW LW D C RW C D LW D RW D RW D

# 12 6 10 23 5 14 43 16 44 21 27 11 18 24 4 15 N/A 8 19 26 25 3

GP 37 40 26 40 41 41 41 30 40 41 34 32 41 35 36 8 18 23 4 19 34 38

G 15 10 9 18 6 13 7 8 4 9 5 2 4 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

A 21 24 25 14 20 8 12 9 13 6 8 10 7 2 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0

GOALTENDER Ilia Ejov Brandon Verge Matthew Spezza

W 10 4 2

L 12 9 3

GAA 3.64 3.93 4.06

S.PCT .894 .893 .887

PTS 36 34 34 32 26 21 19 17 17 15 13 12 11 8 8 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

By Richard Griffin Torstar wire service

O

f all the pitchers enshrined at Cooperstown, reliever Bruce Sutter, voted last week as this year’s only baseball hall of fame inductee, probably threw fewer pitches for called strikes than any other. He didn’t have to.

Sutter’s claim to fame in a 12-year career (1976-86, ‘88) was the split-fingered fastball that started out looking like a strike then took a late tumble, an unhittable dive into the dirt, usually accompanied by a weak swing and muttered curses. It was Sutter, the trick pitch’s first truly successful practitioner, who made the “splitter” the popular weapon it is today. The pitch has been picked up on by Roger Clemens and added to his repertoire, helping him to still be effective into his 40s.

“It was something that I had to throw,” Sutter says. “I was short (of being a major-leaguer) with the fastball and short with the breaking ball.

I needed another pitch, or I would never have pitched in the big leagues. A lot of days, 100 per cent of my pitches were splits.”

Some may look at Sutter’s raw career numbers and wonder why he is in the hall, while relievers with longer careers, better save numbers or higher strikeout ratios are still on the outside looking in. The right-hander had 300 career saves to rank 19th all-time and fanned just 861 batters in 1,041 innings. But he was a pioneer and that counts for a lot.

The Cardinals, with whom he won a World Series, and the Cubs, for whom he won a Cy Young Award, used him as their late-inning secret weapon, closing out games in which the starter, in an earlier era, would have been allowed to finish. It could be argued that he was the first of the modern-day closers, although he was often asked to pitch multiple innings for a save.

Sutter’s vote count of 76.9 per cent barely made it into the hall, but in the years to come, nobody will hold it against him that in his 13th

attempt, with only two more years of eligibility, he garnered 400 of the 520 votes cast by eligible BBWAA members, making the grade by just 10 votes. The fact is he is now one of 261 immortals at Cooperstown, on an equal footing with Cy Young, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and all the other greats.

“When the caller ID said New York, I thought maybe this is it,” Sutter says. “I gave the thumbs up to my boys and my wife and my daughtersin-law. They started screaming and, actually, I started crying.”

FLIP SIDE On the flip side to Sutter’s day of joy, there were tears of frustration flowing in other cities, other households across America, for similar calls not received from New York. Among the depressed, locked out of the hall again this year and maybe forever, were Jim Rice, Rich Gossage, Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith and Jack Morris, who finished second to seventh behind Sutter, respectively, all, teasingly, with higher percentages than they earned the year before.

With a bumper crop of stars appearing for the first time on the ballot next year, this may have been their best shot.

Only Willie Mays and Barry Bonds have a higher combination of career hits, home runs and stolen bases than does Dawson, who played the first 11 years of his career out of the spotlight, with the Expos in Montreal.

Dawson’s vote total increased by 47 between last year and this, but he still missed out by 73 votes.

Former Jays making their debut as hall of fame candidates next year will include Derek Bell, Jose Canseco, Tony Fernandez, Glenallen Hill and Devon White. Among first-timers this year, only Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser and Indians outfielder Albert Belle drew the minimum 5 per cent to be carried over.

Baseball’s is still the most difficult sports hall of fame to gain entry into.

Would-be Leaf Carter thriving in Vancouver

Stats current as of press deadline Jan. 13

HOMEGROWN “Q” PLAYER Robert Slaney Colin Escott Chad Locke Justin Pender Brent Lynch Brandon Roach Mark Tobin

HOMETOWN Carbonear St. John’s St. John’s St. John’s Upper Island Cove Terra Nova St. John’s

TEAM Cape Breton Gatineau P.E.I. Halifax Halifax Lewiston Rimouski

GP 41 28 7 15 19 43 42

G 3 4 3 0 3 14 18

A 4 9 3 1 1 25 13

PTS 7 13 6 1 4 39 31

GOALTENDERS Ryan Mior Roger Kennedy Jason Churchill

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

TEAM P.E.I. Halifax Saint John

W 12 7 12

L 25 2 24

GAA 4.09 3.86 3.79

S.PCT .892 .871 .900

By Mark Zwolinski Torstar wire service

H

ad the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Anson Carter this past summer, they would have acquired more than a solid, two-way veteran.

Carter, the Scarborough native who had cursory discussions with the Leafs during the free agent period, recently became the NHL’s only successful player-movie maker.

“The movie’s called Bald,” Carter says. “We didn’t get it into the Sundance Film Festival, but we’re 99 per cent sure it will be in a Florida film festival (in Sarasota), and if not, we’ll try for a Canada-wide release, or it will go directly to video.”

Carter’s movie-making passion was exercised during the NHL lockout. He co-produced a comedy-drama about Austin, a college dude whose friends come to his rescue when he suffers early baldness.

With the end of the NHL lockout in mid-summer, Carter turned away in part from his auteur focus and entertained options for his NHL career.

Talks with the Leafs opened, but never progressed beyond preliminary interest. Carter

signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Canucks, while the Leafs went in a different direction, fitting Jason Allison and Eric Lindros under their salary cap for more money.

“It was close with Toronto, and I really wanted to go to the Leafs,” says Carter, who has found a home on a line with the Sedin twins — Daniel and Henrik.

Carter has ended the club’s nearly two-year search for a suitable linemate for the twins.

“I just tell them don’t even look for me, if you find me, then great,” Carter says. “They have tremendous chemistry, for obvious reasons. I’m there to help out, but it’s worked out very well for me so far.”

Carter’s family and friends were pulling for him to join the Leafs. For Carter, the Leafs weren’t exactly icons during his youth, largely because the teams were a sad sack bunch at the time. But Carter remembers one Leaf connection that still brings back fond memories.

“Mike Palmateer lived down the street from my family, and it was a thrill as a kid to play street hockey against him,” Carter says. “He’d come out a few times. He’d let us little kids score, but I’d go home and say to myself, ‘Mike Palmateer isn’t very good.’”

JANUARY 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

Gold-medal curler living on welfare

By Jim Byers Torstar wire service

F

our years ago, Rhona Martin was just a Scottish woman who happened also to be a pretty good curler. She was on the British Olympic team that was getting ready for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, but nobody gave her much thought.

Instead, it was glamorous Kelley Law of Canada who was drawing most of the attention. There was talk of movie scripts waiting for the perky blonde from British Columbia. When the women’s curling event was all over, Britons had found themselves staying up to 2 a.m. to watch Martin’s group win a very unexpected gold medal. She flew home to a heroine’s welcome. She met with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. She was lauded by Prime Minister Tony Blair and was referred to as “The Girl Who Threw the Stone of Destiny.”

Martin will be heading off next month to Turin to defend her gold medal. She should be riding a huge upward wave, but her life of late has been nothing like a Hollywood script.

She’s got plenty of fame. But no fortune.

Her husband Keith’s computer business has gone bad. She was hounded by debt collectors and had to leave the family home in Dunlop, Ayrshire, to move into government housing in Ayr. Instead of cashing endorsement cheques, she and her two children are living on government assistance.

Martin told the Scottish Daily Record that the last 12 months have “”been the worst year of my life.” Martin says she and her husband of 15 years are no longer together.

“Our marriage has irretrievably broken down because of financial problems.”

Martin, 39, says she’s struggling to hold things together for her son Andrew, 10, and daughter Jennifer, 13.

“I owe nothing, but I’ve no money either — and my kids need a future and a roof over their heads,” she told the Daily Record. “I want to go to another Olympics and win another curling competition. But when I come back from Turin it’s going to be harder.

Lottery support (from the government) stops when I step off the plane from Turin. For any mortgage, you need to have a steady income. I can’t rely on appearance fees because that’s not steady income.

“Salt Lake, definitely feels like a long time ago.”

Solutions for crossword on page 28

Solutions for sudoku on page 28

Terry Ryan says of the CEHL: “We’re being very modest if we think we could just compete. I think we could win it.”

Paul Daly/The Independent

Upstart hockey league targets Newfoundland CEHL hopes to have team, or teams, in place for next season

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

P

rofessional hockey may be coming back to Newfoundland. The Canadian Elite Hockey League (CEHL), a four-team loop operating out of the Maritimes, has had discussions with interested parties about placing one or more teams on the island for the 2006-07 hockey seasons, The Independent has learned.

“I’m not in a position to tell you the cities, but we’re definitely interested in moving into Newfoundland next year,” says Kirk Tomlinson, CEHL commissioner.

FIRST YEAR The CEHL is in its first year of operation, with teams in Dartmouth, N.S.; Sydney, N.S.; Summerside, PEI; and Saint John, N.B. Tomlinson says the majority of the league’s players have experience playing pro, major junior, NCAA or Canadian university hockey.

“It’s definitely not senior (hockey).

We call it professional hockey,” says Tomlinson. “We have guys from all over the pro ranks.”

Tomlinson says the quality of play in the CEHL is similar to that in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a minor pro league in Quebec that started out as a high-level senior hockey circuit in 1996.

The CEHL commissioner says his league currently attracts many of the

top players in the Maritimes capable of playing minor pro hockey. He adds that should the CEHL come to Newfoundland, many of the province’s top young players would be given the same chance.

“It’s an opportunity for the professional hockey player to stay home and play instead of having to go to places like Baton Rouge (Louisiana), Wichita (Kansas), Flint (Michigan) or Oklahoma City,” says Tomlinson.

“It’s offering guys the opportunity to play professional hockey in their own back yard.”

Tomlinson says there is a magnitude of reasons for the league to expand to Newfoundland. He likes the fact the province has a long and storied history of supporting senior hockey and isn’t worried that the two existing senior leagues (Avalon east and west coast) would hinder a minor pro circuit’s chances of survival on the island.

“That’s 100 per cent help,” says Tomlinson. “The markets have been established for a long time so it’s a matter of co-ordinating, getting the talent together, and getting our brand out there.”

The CEHL is playing a 36-game schedule this season, but Tomlinson says with more teams, the number of games would increase.

While Tomlinson does not reveal which cities the league has interest in, the most likely destinations are St. John’s and Corner Brook. At the same time, a CEHL team operating

out of the provincial capital likely would not be able to play out of Mile One Stadium.

Lisa Neville, general manager of Mile One, says a clause in the St. John’s Fog Devils’ lease agreement with St. John’s Sports and Entertainment states no other major hockey tenant can play out of the stadium while the junior club calls the downtown arena home.

The Canadian Elite Hockey League (CEHL) is a semi-professional hockey league currently with 4 teams: • Cape Breton Crush • Dartmouth Destroyers • Saint John Scorpions • Summerside IceFox

“It would be in contravention of our agreement with the Fog Devils,” she says. “At this point in time they couldn’t play here (Mile One), unless we were able to get permission from the Fog Devils.”

Neville says she has not been contacted by anybody concerning having a CEHL team play out of Mile One. Terry Ryan Jr., who Tomlinson once coached in the pro ranks, has

spoken to the CEHL commissioner about the new league. Although Ryan is not interested in owning a franchise, he says he would consider playing in the minor-pro circuit. He says if a team comprised of the top players already suiting up in provincial senior hockey joined the CEHL — players such as Ryan, Todd Gillingham, Darren Colbourne, David Manning, Derrick Kent, Don Gosse, Greg Smyth, Chris Bartlett, Scott Sullivan, Mark Robinson, and Ray Daulton — success would surely follow.

“We’re being very modest if we think we could just compete,” says Ryan. “I think we could win it.

“You’d have over half the team made up of guys who played pro, major junior or university.”

Tomlinson says the CEHL is looking to eventually become a 10- to 12team league. Besides looking to Newfoundland, Tomlinson also hopes to add more teams throughout the Maritimes.

“We’re in the midst of talking to three other cities,” Tomlinson says.

“We’re looking to expand, but we’re not going to pop up teams all over.

We’re going to be very careful where we put teams and make sure the markets are sound.”

Tomlinson also states that should the CEHL expand to Newfoundland, the cost of travel to the island would not be a concern to the league. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 15-21, 2006 — PAGE 32

Paul Daly/The Independent

Turning pro

By Darcy MacRae The Independent

U

p until a couple of weeks ago, Joey Smart’s career path was well defined. The boxer from Mount Pearl wanted to win a gold medal at the 2006 Canadian amateur nationals — a victory that could also send him to the Commonwealth Games in Australia in March — and eventually represent Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.

From there, Smart wanted to turn pro.

But along the way, Smart’s desire to be a professional fighter grew. When it came time to confirm his appearance at the nationals, Smart knew the professional boxing ranks were where he wanted to be.

“I feel I did what I could in the amateurs,” Smart tells The Independent. “I feel I was successful in amateurs and wanted to move up a stage and turn pro.”

The first to hear of Smart’s decision was his trainer, John Stanley, who works with Smart up to five times a week at the HartTack Boxing Club in St. John’s. The move was not a total surprise to Stanley, although it was unexpected.

“I reminded him it was a Commonwealth Games year and it might be worth his time to go to nationals (Smart won a bronze medal in the middleweight division of the 2005 nationals),” Stanley says. “But he’s been talking about it (turning pro) for a long time. We had a talk about it and I asked him if it was what he really wanted to do … at the end of the day what’s most important to me is that it’s a decision he wants.”

Smart, who turned 20 recently, plans to fight professionally at 160 pounds, leaving his 6’4 frame lean and wiry. While he doesn’t plan to add weight, he has begun an extensive weight-lifting program with a personal trainer to best prepare for the challenges that await him in pro boxing.

“It’s a more physical style of boxing,” says Stanley. “In amateurs, it’s strictly points, in the professional ranks it’s judged more on ring generalship — who’s throwing the more effective punches, who’s the aggressor, who’s carrying the action.

“There’s more in-fighting and holding in pro, so we want to make sure he’s able to physically handle these guys.”

The Olympics were once boxer Joey Smart’s dream, but his sights are now set on a professional career

JOEY SMART Hometown: Mount Pearl Age: 20 Height: 6’4 Weight: 165 lbs Amateur record: 62 wins, 19 losses Pro debut: March 11 at the Glacier in Mount Pearl

“I just can’t wait to step in the ring, with no head gear, no shirt, gloves that aren’t as padded. I’m just really looking forward to it.”

— Joey Smart Smart, who had a 62-19 record as an amateur, makes his pro debut March 11 during a boxing card at the Glacier in Mount Pearl. He says he’s looking forward to finally getting in the ring as a true pro, testing his skills in a sport that is now his full-time job.

“I just can’t wait to step in the ring, with no head gear, no shirt, gloves that aren’t as padded. I’m just really looking forward to it,” Smart says.

Often boxers new to the pro game start off slow, taking on a few opponents whose skills are noticeably inferior to their own in the early going. This enables the new pro to get his feet wet without much risk of losing and allows a young boxer to pad his professional record, an important factor later when trying to secure big-money fights.

But in Smart’s case, Stanley said it’s best to avoid such a strategy and take on tough competition right from the start.

“With Joey, if he has too easy an opponent, he tends to fight to the calibre of his opponent,” says Stanley. “So in his pro debut, we’ve actually got a pretty tough guy from Nova Scotia called Ted Reno.

Joey’s quite capable of winning that fight and should win that fight, but this guy (Reno) is rugged and tough and the fight could go the distance.”

Reno is 30 years old and a veteran of professional boxing, providing many challenges for Smart. But as a pro boxer, challenges are something to which Smart must grow accustomed.

Among the less glamorous tests Smart will face are the tactics some boxers will use to win. It’s not exactly professional wrestling, but low blows, head butts and the odd elbow are incorporated into the repertoire of more than one boxer — especially if they’re losing.

“There are a lot of dirty fighters,” Smart acknowledges. “But if there’s a dirty fighter, what I do is fight my own fight. I try to let it go. If he fights dirty, he’ll get called for it. He’ll get penalized, not me.”

Among the other changes Smart faces as a professional are longer rounds (three minutes instead of two) and an increased number of rounds.

At first Smart will fight a few fourround bouts before taking to the ring for some six- to eight-round encounters.

Eventually he will fight 10-12 round marathons that will require all the stamina he can muster.

But while his training will have to be adjusted for the added length of a fight, Smart’s in-ring style will stay the same.

After all, as his trainer points out, it’s gotten him this far.

“Joey’s big thing is he’s always in condition and he’s awkward. His style is very off-key for most boxers, and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” says Stanley. “It’s very difficult to deal with and he throws a lot of guys off because of it. He throws punches from strange angles … he’s got a style that works.”

If everything goes according to plan, Stanley hopes to have Smart competing for a Canadian title by his 10th pro fight. “We think we can get Joey there,” says Stanley. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Bring the world to St. John’s

I

’m still on a high following the world junior hockey championships in Vancouver.

The tournament ended more than a week ago, but the images of Canada’s gold medal march are still fresh in my mind, especially the championship game.

The opening 20 minutes of the Canada-Russia contest was the best period of hockey I’ve watched in 10 years. Every time I looked at the television a Russian was either getting plastered into the glass or firing a shot at Canadian goalie Justin Pogge. And with every big play, the packed house in Vancouver erupted as if a Stanley

DARCY MACRAE

The game Cup winning goal had just been scored, creating an atmosphere I’d guess those in attendance will never forget.

Watching the game at home, I could only imagine exactly what it must have been like to be in the stadium and watch such hockey as a fan, or as a reporter. With any luck, I’ll know first hand what it’s like in a few years.

The world junior championships come to Canada again in 2009, and I think the City of St. John’s should make a bid to host the event. I’m giddy just at the thought of watching a Canada-United States matchup at a packed Mile One and can’t help but feel the possibility of hosting the tournament would be very real if the city pursues it.

For starters, Hockey Canada traditionally awards the world juniors to small- to medium-sized cities that already have a major junior team. I know Vancouver and Winnipeg (the host city in 1999) contradict this, but considering Halifax, N.S., hosted in

2003, Red Deer, Alta., hosted in 1995 and Saskatoon, Sask., hosted in 1991, I don’t think it’s a stretch for Hockey Canada to consider St. John’s.

Also, of the past four world junior tournaments Canada has hosted, three have been in western Canada. It only makes sense the eastern half of the country get another crack at hosting the event.

Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment has expressed interest in bidding to bring the world juniors to Toronto for 2009, but I doubt they will be successful. The main reason they won’t be awarded the tournament is Toronto is simply not a hockey town.

It is a Maple Leafs town, end of story. Every other level of hockey in Toronto — the AHL, major junior, junior A, university — can barely draw flies. I doubt Hockey Canada wants to risk the embarrassment of having a tournament of this magnitude played out in front of empty sets and little to no interest from media and fans who are only interested in what the boys wearing blue and white are up to.

The fact Halifax was an excellent host in 2003, should only help St. John’s in its bid to host the event. The Halifax tournament showed the rest of See “There’s no reason,” page 30