2006-01-22 by The Independent

VOL. 4 ISSUE 4

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 22-28, 2006

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OPINION 11 AND 22

SPORTS 32

Michael Harris and Nicholas Gardner on election tastes

MUN swimmers break relay record, plan to do it again

The day after

ur hopes and fears go with Loyola Hearn when/if he sits down to his first cabinet prayer breakfast with Stephen Harper. How will our mild-mannered ex-school teacher, author of The Shamrock and the Pine, rigid Papalist and driver of a Japanese vehicle interface with Mr. Harper, whose rapturous wish is for a burning lake of brimstone into which he will chuck anti-Americans, gays, blasphemers, much of Toronto and the CBC? Mr. Harper: Gentlemen and women, welcome to our first prayer breakfast at which we must thank the Lord God Almighty for raising us up to rule with an iron rod and to smite down the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and the idolaters, et cetera, and congratulate Him for having excellent judgment. Mr. Hearn: Golly, I Iove a good prayer breakfast. Would you like me to lead the rosary? Mr. Harper: He’s from Newfoundland. (Loud guffaws of born-again Christian laughter from around the table.) Mr. Harper: Our buffet is what we call The Maker’s Menu. Every item on it is mentioned in Holy Word. It’s the basis of our new Christian health-care plan for Canada, the other half of which is driving out unclean spirits. Mr. Hearn (Reading menu to self): Milk and honey, Adam’s ale, unknowledgeable apples, hyssop, vinegar, more hyssop, lentils, pottage, corn of Moab, lizard tempura, hyssop, cold cuts of Balaam’s ass. Hmm. Crisp

RAYGUY A poke in the eye

A fictional conversation between Loyola Hearn and Conservative leader Stephen Harper after the election rashers of Gaderene swine — a Liberal favourite — now off the menu. Mr. Harper: Loyola, we’re sure you’re a good Christian or you wouldn’t be here. Mr. Hearn: I certainly am, sir, if the Baltimore catechism and the infallibility of the Holy See are anything to go by. Mr. Harper: Loyola, you come from a suburb of Nova Scotia, have you ever had an out-of-body Maritime experience, Loyola, as told to us in Revelations 13:1-2. And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and 10 See “What would George,” page 2

Sour crude only Expanded Come by Chance refinery not expected to process oil from Grand Banks process cheaper crude, which increases its sales value. CLARE-MARIE The owner of the refinery, Swiss-based GOSSE Vitol, announced its intention to sell all — or at least part — of the Come By Chance orth Atlantic’s refinery in Come By site in December. As an oil trading and marChance may be planning a signifi- keting company, Vitol officials say the comcant expansion, but it’s unlikely it pany doesn’t have the expertise to oversee a will process local crude from the Grand significant expansion project. Banks. Texas-based Valero Energy Corporation, John Henley, president the largest refiner in North of Newfoundland America, has already Transshipment Ltd., in expressed an interest in “I don’t think nearby Whiffen Head, purchasing North Atlantic. says it’s more financially Henley says the proyou’ll ever see it viable for North Atlantic posed sale and expansion to continue processing of the refinery is “the right (Grand Banks oil) cheap, sour crude from thing to do. refined here.” around the world, rather “They’re being smart by than the more expensive, saying to get into that kind sweet crude drilled off the John Henley, president of sophisticated refinery province’s shores. The we either need a partner or of Newfoundland difference in price is as to sell it to a company that much as $20 a barrel. specializes in refining in Transshipment Ltd. “Newfoundland crude this type of business, so is too high quality and what it shows you is the when you’ve got the refinery is very profitable amount of money invested in their refinery, and that there will be a lot of interest in it.” you can buy cheaper crude and make the The site at Come By Chance is the same products,” he tells The Independent. province’s single refinery. Since it only Henley calls North Atlantic Refining Ltd. processes sour crude, the hundreds of mila “jewel” and says it is probably one of the lions of barrels of sweet crude extracted most sophisticated refineries “outside the See “Newfoundland,” page 2 Gulf of Mexico,” making it easily able to

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Money, really, thrown at a community when their one industry is taken away, doesn’t work … our people were in denial and it took years and years and years to realize the Fishery Products wasn’t coming back.” From top: Stephen Harper, Paul Martin and Jack Layton.

Paul Daly photos/The Independent

— Rita Pennell, former mayor of Trepassey. See p. 5

Life Story . . . . . . . Paper Trail . . . . . . Gallery . . . . . . . . . . Crossword . . . . . .

OPINION 19

Noreen Golfman chooses political soundtrack

10 10 18 28

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 22, 2006

What would George Bush do? From page 1 horns and upon his horns 10 crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. Mr. Hearn: Can’t say as I have. But years and years ago we had an iceberg come past the Southern Shore with a very plain likeness of the Blessed Virgin unto it. There was a good many snaps taken and I believe they even sold postcards. If you got one of them queerlooking beasts in the budget it wouldn’t do our tourism one bit of harm. Mr. Harper: And he was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. Still no idea, Loyola? Mr. Hearn: I’ll take a wild guess. Gus Etchegary? Mr. Harper: Here’s my big question, Loyola. What’s the first thing to pop into your mind if you have to make a cabinet decision? Mr. Hearn (After a colleague whispers in his ear): What the Jesus would I do? No, no. I mean, what would Jesus do? Mr. Harper: Close, Loyola, but wrong. What would George Bush do? There’s not a Canadian, present company included, fit to ask what Jesus would do. George Bush does because he’s got Dick Cheney to tell him. Jesus tells Cheney, Cheney tells Bush, Bush tells Fox News. Mr. Hearn: Bless us and save us, Stephen. You mean to tell me there’s not a Canadian fit? Mr. Harper: Too long in the wilder-

ness, my culturally defeatist newfie friend. Too long steeped in Satan-led blasphemy, abomination, idolatry, sodomy ... and that is our Job One. By the way, what’s the report on, er, strange bedfellows in your district? Mr. Hearn: John Crosbie. Mr. Harper: What? Has he been seen coming out of Brazilian waxing salons? Are there any Oscar Wilde books on his library card? Did you check his Visa records for anything with a Calvin Klein label? Mr. Hearn: By God, Stephen, you seem to be wonderfully knowledgeable in these matters. What would I know? Only that the Holy Father is trying to shift that class of people out of the priesthood even ... and I suppose that’ll be a couple dozen more banging on my door looking for EI. Mr. Harper: Crosbie. Mr. Hearn: Look. All I know is, ever so many of my constituents came up to me in the campaign and asked me if I didn’t think John Crosbie and Stockwell Day made strange bedfellows. OK? Mr. Harper: How long, sweet Jesus, how long? Revelations 17.4: And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Mr. Hearn: Sounds a lot like another message from that Osama bin Laden fella. Mr. Harper: And upon her forehead was a name written Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother of Harlots and

Abominations of the Earth. Yes, the Scarlet Woman, Brother Hearn. The Whoredoms of Babylon. The lowliest cowboy in Alberta knows, Loyola. Do you? Mr. Hearn: My strong point was always mathematics. I could box the compass but geography defeated me. Mr. Harper: We have it on no lesser authority than that of the Reverend Pat Robertson, chief spiritual advisor to the White House, that the Whoredoms of Babylon clearly lie to the north of Naples and to the south of Milan. Mr. Hearn: Yes, I thought it sounded like one of them Middle Eastern places. Just for your background information, Stephen, I’m sure my campaign manager wouldn’t mind being Canada’s next ambassador to the Whoredoms of Babylon. He’s still young and willing to travel. Mr. Harper: All those jokes are true. Mr. Hearn: Stephen, I believe after this election you owe me one. I took a lot of flack about federal jobs leaving the province. So if you’ve got one of those burning lakes of brimstone in the budget, I think it’s only fair to locate it in St. John’s-Mount Pearl. Mr. Harper: Gentlemen and women. We’ve all heard Mr. Hearn. Jesus via George Bush says he’s not quite ready for the post office or Veteran’s Affairs. Can you suggest the perfect cabinet post for Loyola? All with one accord: Ecology! (Mr. Hearn smiles and modestly fingers his St. Christopher medal.) Jesus wept.

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Prime Minister Paul Martin swung through St. John’s late last week on the last leg of his campaign. Supporters met him at the Battery Hotel. Paul Daly/The Independent

Newfoundland and Labrador barely ‘exists’ on global scale From page 1 from Hibernia and Terra Nova are shipped to Whiffen Head Transshipment Terminal and sent on to market. Half the oil is refined on mainland Canada and half goes to the U.S. northeast and Mexico.

Although Premier Danny Williams has expressed interest in building a second refinery in the province to handle the local product, Henley doesn’t believe it will happen. “I don’t think you’ll ever see it refined here,” he says. “I think it’s difficult. Just by the way the world works

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on refining because it’s easier to expand an existing refinery than to build a new one.” He says although the local offshore oil industry is of vital importance to the provincial economy, Newfoundland and Labrador barely “exists” on a global scale, con-

tributing roughly 370,000 barrels of oil a day to the 84 million barrels consumed worldwide. But with the federal government collecting millions in corporate income tax from companies refining Grand Banks’ oil on the mainland, it’s not surprising Williams would want to push for anoth-

er refinery. North Atlantic’s refinery at Come By Chance is a major company presence in the province, with roughly 700 employees and an annual economic contribution of around $140 million. clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

n 1997 Catherine de Cent flew to Ontario from St. John’s on the day she was due to deliver her baby. She was determined to have her first child “caught” by a midwife and because she was the only practicing midwife in Newfoundland and Labrador, she had to leave. “I was really lucky,” she tells The Independent. “The midwives I had were the midwives who initially were my mentors and my role models in terms of introducing me to the idea of being a midwife.” Originally from England, de Cent moved with her family to Ontario at the age of 10 and then on to Newfoundland and Labrador when she was a teenager. She completed a midwifery degree at Ryerson University and practiced as a lay midwife in St. John’s for four years before moving away again. De Cent talks over the phone from Abbotsford, B.C., where she currently works with Valley Midwifery Group. She sounds tired and says she just attended two births that day, six altogether for the week. “Where I’m practicing right now, it’s an incredibly fertile place,” she says. “It’s one of the most fertile places I would say I’ve ever practiced and that’s due to the fact it’s quite a conservative Christian community in some ways. It’s also a sort of bedroom community to Vancouver … it’s ridiculous how many babies are being born here.” British Columbia is probably the most midwife-friendly province in Canada. It is one of only five provinces to have legislated midwifery covered by public healthcare; Quebec, Ontario, Northwest Territories, and Manitoba are the other four. Newfoundland and Labrador currently has no legislation and the services of a midwife have to be paid for privately. If a mother-to-be wants to deliver her baby at home, the midwife can direct the birth, but if the mother wants her baby in a hospital, the midwife can only participate as labour support. Because of the lack of legislation there is only one practicing midwife in the St. John’s area, Jayme Safine. Safine says there are a few practicing midwives in St. Anthony and in some areas of Labrador, but for the most part, midwives are thin on the ground here. “We’re lobbying for legislation but it’s been ongoing for many years,” she says, referring to two local advocacy groups based in St. John’s. The Midwifery Association of Newfoundland and Labrador is a professional local organization and Friends of Midwifery Newfoundland and Labrador is a consumer and advocacy group. The two organizations are cur-

Home delivery Province yet to introduce legislation governing midwifery rently working on a video to educate women about the benefits of midwifery, which is due for release this year. Pearl Herbert, a retired midwife who moved to Newfoundland from England 43 years ago to teach the midwifery course at Memorial University, is publicity chairperson for the association. She says her group has been campaigning for provincial legislation for years. “They keep telling us there’s too few midwives,” she says, “yet we keep hearing from people who are from this province, who have gone away, done midwifery, are working as midwives in other parts of Canada, in other countries, who’d love to come back.” Herbert says any woman in the province interested in being cared for by a midwife during pregnancy should contact their local MHA to help push for legislation. The first blow to midwifery in Newfoundland and Labrador came in 1958 when the Hospital Insurance Act

was passed. The act offered women a free birth if they had their baby in a hospital, attended by a physician. As midwives cost around $100 at the time, demand for the service began to decline and licences stopped being allocated. Memorial University discontinued its nurse midwifery program in 1986. In 1999 a task force was set up by then-health minister Joan Marie Aylward, towards implementing midwifery legislation, but Herbert says the initiative inexplicably fell by the way side. It was around that time de Cent decided to move to B.C. “I knew that legislation was going to take a really long time and sure enough it has,” she says. De Cent is passionate about her chosen career, which allows mothers-to-be the opportunity of close contact with a birthing professional during the prenatal and postpartum periods, as well as the actual labour. The midwives are on call

24/7 and because they have such close contact with their patients, she says breastfeeding success rates are high and any problems with the pregnancy are spotted sooner. “One of the greatest strengths of midwifery is that your care is intensely personalized to you and your family,” says de Cent. “There’s just not one way of being pregnant or giving birth, or having a baby in the post-partum period.” She says medical emergencies are rare because when a mother is closely monitored up until delivery and considered to be fully healthy, it’s unusual for the situation to suddenly change. In the event it does, today’s midwives are fully trained to handle emergencies and carry the necessary portable supplies found in most hospitals. De Cent says one of the most important aspects of her job is making the delivery as stress free as possible, whether that means attending in someone’s home, taking them to the hospital,

quite sure you received the signals, Signor?” Marconi eyed him, as immovable as a sphinx, and replied, ‘Yes.’ And then came the climax of the interview. “How did they come?” asked the persistent news gatherer. Without the semblance of a smile Marconi replied, “Without wires.”

granted a 50-year monopoly on cable landings, including wireless, which wasn’t even thought of when the company was given its cable rights. Marconi ended up building a plant in Glace Bay, N.S. for $150,000 — a fortune in those days.

Dave Whalen, pointed out that Business Dynamics is owned by Focused Publications, which has indirect connections to the Genesis Group, a private entity owned by the university to develop relationships between business and community. Coady happens to be on the board of directors of the Genesis Group. A spokesman for Business Dynamics denied any conflict of interest. Ironically, the front-page magazine headline read: “Creating balance, The Coady Story.”

preparing a darkened room, or delivering in a pool of water. “The sort of rule of thumb I have is women tend to give birth where they’re the most comfortable the best.” Coming from England, where midwifery has been an established practice for hundreds of years, de Cent says she grew up with the idea of home birthing and her mother was attended by a midwife. She says she always had an interest in women’s health and appreciates the sense of independence and control having a midwife on hand allows patients. When asked what usually surprises first-time mothers the most during their pregnancy experience, de Cent says it’s probably the actual birth. “When you realize how phenomenal you are; it’s just you never really know how deep your well is, in terms of how much strength you hold in yourself, and at the end of it when you’re holding your baby in your arms it’s just, wow, I have really gone the distance. “It’ s a pretty wonderful thing to be able to experience new life coming into the world and being supportive of a family while they’re going through this incredibly normal but intensely intimate and miraculous experience.” clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

SCRUNCHINS A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia DOUBTING THOMASES When Guglielmo Marconi received the first wireless signals across the Atlantic on Dec. 12, 1901, his fame wasn’t exactly immediate. In fact, not everyone believed he had actually done it. According to the 1937 Book of Newfoundland, scientists asked for proof: “Leading journalists were so incredulous as to regard it as a newspaper hoax; modern ‘doubting Thomases’ on both sides of the Atlantic wanted to ‘see, feel and taste’ before believing; and the masses laughed for an hour and proceeded to forget “Marconi’s dream,” as a prominent journal in New York called it.” The New York Herald had a correspondent in St. John’s, but his editors back in the U.S. wanted a statement by Marconi himself confirming he had indeed received a wireless message at Signal Hill. Reporters back in those days were apparently as aggressive as they are today — maybe even more so. “To a barrage of questions from a newspaper man noted for persistence on a news trail, Marconi answered ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ till the news sleuth in desperation put the point-blank question: ‘Are you

DRUM ROLL PLEASE Ready for a skill-testing question? What was that first signal? “S.S.S.” Didn’t know the answer? Another question then — what year was the first telephone in Newfoundland installed? Answer: 1878. Bonus question: what two points did the phone connect? Answer: The residence of John Delany, postmaster general, and John Higgins, meteorological recorder (a.k.a. weather man). WOULD YOU BELIEVE … Marconi applied to the Newfoundland government for permission to build the first wireless station this side of the Atlantic at St. John’s, but was met with an injunction by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, which had been

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HOW THOUGHTFUL The Globe and Mail’s Jane Taber wrote earlier this month about how Liberal MP Ken Dryden was a hit in St. John’s when he flew into town during the campaign. Taber wrote that one young goalie, Vincent Grace, got time off school so he could meet with the Hall of Fame netminder. Vincent asked Dryden for a note to his teacher, Chris Porter, and he obliged. Wrote Dryden: “Thanks to the teacher who made this happen.” IN THE MUSE Siobhan Coady made the front page of Memorial University’s student newspaper this past week, with a story headlined “Coady takes cover.” It seems Coady, Liberal candidate for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, was profiled recently in Business Dynamics, a local smallbusiness journal. The story focused on her life outside politics. The Muse article, by Alex Bill and

WORD OF THE WEEK The Dictionary of Newfoundland English defines lincoln (also linkum) as a fisherman’s oilskin hat with an elongated flap at the back. “Those three shipwrecked men clung to the rock from Saturday to Tuesday, without food and the only water they had to drink was drain water they caught in a lincoln.” QUOTABLE In his book, Never a dull moment, the late Walter Carter told a story about getting a crash course in Newfoundland politics just prior to the 1962 provincial election by then-premier Joey Smallwood. Smallwood told the young Carter to pay courtesy calls on the clergy as soon as he

arrived in a community. Carter later flew into Roddickton and met with Pastor Stanley Hancock, who insisted Carter attend the funeral mass of a prominent man who had passed away. Carter didn’t know the dead man, or anyone else in the community for that matter, but he followed Smallwood’s advice. Before ending his sermon, the pastor pointed to Carter. “We are honoured today to have in our midst, seated in the front row with the family of the deceased, our Liberal candidate, Mr. Carter. Stand up, Mr. Carter, and let your constituents see you.” Raising his voice to be heard over shots of “Amen” and “Hallelujah from the congregation, he reminded them of the many blessings bestowed on them by Premier Smallwood and the Liberal government: free drugs, free hospitalization and free medical care.” When the sermon ended, the pastor called the order of the procession to the graveyard. Wrote Carter in his book: “Would the wife and mother of the deceased, and our Liberal candidate, Mr. Carter, take their place in that order directly behind the casket? Would the other mourners please fall in behind Mr. Carter.” ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 22, 2006

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

ransportation Minister Trevor Taylor says the province needs a $25-million annual commitment from the feds simply to maintain the national highway system — the TransCanada Highway and certain other provincial roads — at an acceptable standard. That amount would be matched by the province in a cost-shared agreement, he adds. On top of that, the province has requested another $50 million in cost-shared funding to surface the Trans-Labrador Highway from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to Labrador City. Problem is, he’s not sure how much of that money is going to be available. Last fall, the province announced roadwork worth $50 million, almost half of which can be recovered from Ottawa. Taylor says that was “the last of the cost-shared money that’s out there now.” And the current election campaign has revealed little about what’s in store for the next few years. “Unfortunately, I’d have to say in this federal election, it has not been seized as a priority by the leaders of the major political parties,” says Taylor. “If you don’t have transportation infrastructure, how do you have economic prosperity?” Taylor remains optimistic, though, the province’s needs may be met when the new federal government settles into business. Last December, the Council of the Federation (an organization made up of provincial and territorial leaders) submitted their national transportation strategy to the federal government. One of their requests was for access to all money raised through the federal excise tax on gasoline. “(The money) comes from people paying a tax on transportation so our view is that it should go back to transportation infrastructure,” says Taylor. “And it should be up to the provinces how their share of the money should be spent.” Currently, Taylor says, the federal government collects $33 billion more in revenue from the tax

Roadwork Taylor says $25 million a year needed from feds; issue receives little attention this election

Trans-Labrador highway

Paul Daly/The Independent

than it spends on roads, airports and other transportation infrastructure. “If the Council of the Federation’s position on a national transportation strategy is accepted, we could easily (meet our maintenance needs),” he says. “But there’s been no response yet from the federal government on whether they are prepared to accept that proposal … there is some indications

from the Conservatives they would entertain that.” As for the $100-million, cost-shared TransLabrador Highway proposal, it was one of the questions put to the federal leaders by Premier Danny Williams leading up to election day. The province has committed $50 million; the Conservatives and NDP declared they would match that amount. Paul Martin’s Liberals were a

little more evasive. Nick McGrath, current president of Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador, operates a business in Labrador City and can personally attest to the need for the Trans-Labrador Highway. “There are places in the province that need a lot of work in infrastructure,” says McGrath. “And as everyone knows, we (in Labrador) don’t have a highway … the tourists won’t come unless there is a highway there. “This is something Labradorians deserve … the road system doesn’t need to be improved. It needs to be built. I think it will happen, but it’s been taking too long.” Taylor points out only about one-third of the 8,000 kilometres of highway in the province fall under the national highway system, eligible for some federal funding help. The rest must be taken care of by the province alone. To that end, Taylor says the province has earmarked $60 million for roadwork this year ($12 million carries over from last year’s construction season; $48 million from this year’s budget). “In 1996 or 1997, the provincial roads budget went as low as $6 or $7 million,” he says. “When we took over (in 2003), it was at $22 million. We bumped it immediately to $30 million … from our perspective in this department, ongoing, we need about $60 million per year, every year, to keep our roads up to standard. “I’m relatively optimistic we’ll be able to maintain that in the short- and medium-term anyway. Something in the order of $50-$60 million a year if the current fiscal situation holds.” In the last half of 2005, ruts in the TransCanada Highway were pinpointed as immediate danger to drivers, and were blamed for several accidents. Late in the fall, “levelling patches” were put down on the divided part of the highway , an admitted patch job until the spring, says Taylor, when the whole area can be resurfaced. “People look at our roads now and they say they’re in deplorable condition and we’ve got to do something about it and they’re absolutely right.”

Upper Churchill contract not factor in lower Churchill application: Williams By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

he inequities of the 65-year upper Churchill contract will not factor into Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro’s application to wheel lower Churchill power through Quebec, Premier Danny Williams tells The Independent. He does say “the lower Churchill and the upper Churchill may be dealt with together at some point” during future energy negotiations and the province will not lose sight of the need for “some form of redress on the upper Churchill.” Williams says the province is continuously examining the issue of the upper Churchill contract for any legal implications that might help secure a better rate of return for the province. “There are other questions that have been raised by your own paper in regard to the possibility of duress during the initial negotiations and a conflict of interest by boards of directors,” the premier says. As part of a three-week series examining Churchill power in December, The

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

Independent reported on an unpublished paper by two Memorial University professors. The paper revealed the company negotiating the upper Churchill in the 1960s, Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation (CFLCo), was forced to agree to do-or-die conditions. Either a contract was signed on Hydro-Quebec’s terms, or the company and the development of the project would have folded. The situation may have been a result of a possible conflict of interests instigated by Hydro-Quebec placing their own company representative on CFLCo’s board of directors. Williams says the information may not be enough to form a strong legal argument, but he was reluctant to comment further on the upper Churchill issue. “These are things I prefer not to discuss in public because it only weakens our position,” he says. Last week the province announced Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would be submitting a $17-million refundable application to Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie to request open access transmission of lower Churchill power

to markets on the mainland and the northeast United States. Such a “strategic” application has never been made by the province and Williams says if granted, it will help avoid pitfalls associated with the old upper Churchill negotiations. The arrangement would ideally follow similar terms Quebec already uses when supplying power customers in the U.S. “If Quebec goes into the States, then they have an open access arrangement with the transmitters in the States … it’s a reciprocal type of arrangement,” says Williams. As part of the potential development of the lower Churchill, the province, along with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, has been reviewing a shortlist of proposals, while also maintaining the right to carry the project independently. One of the proposals under consideration is from a consortium made up of Hydro-Quebec, Ontario Energy Financing and engineering firm SNC Lavalin.

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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

clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

Keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre. MONDAY, JAN. 16 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova Field; Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, from Terra Nova Field; Ryoan Maru #15, Japan, from fishing. Vessels departed: none

stories from here

TUESDAY, JAN. 17 Vessels arrived: Oceanex Avalon, Canada, from Montreal; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose; ASL Sanderling, Canada, from White Rose. Vessels departed: ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18 Vessels arrived: Ann Harvey, Canada, from sea. Vessels departed: BBC California, Antigua, to Seven Islands; Ryoan Maru 15, Japan, to Sea; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, to Terra Nova. THURSDAY, JAN. 19 Vessels arrived: none Vessels departed: Atlantic Hawk, Canada, to Little Rose Oil Field.

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FRIDAY, JAN. 20 Vessels arrived: Wilfred Templeman, Canada, from sea; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova. Vessels departed: Maersk Chancellor, Canada, to Bay Bulls; Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, to Hibernia; Burin Sea, Canada, to Terra Nova.

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

Province to re-register population with new MCP cards By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

ewfoundlanders and Labradorians will be required to register for new MCP cards this year — almost three years after the auditor general first recommended the re-registration, the first since 1969. Health Department officials expect to send out “householders,” packets of information and re-registration forms for each person in the province, by the end of spring, with new cards issued beginning in early summer. Tony Maher, executive director of MCP, says a lot of work has been done on the new program and this year it will finally happen. A 2003 report by Auditor General John Noseworthy found there were 81,350 more cards in circulation than there were residents in the province. That year, $320,000 was paid for outof-province medical care services relating to terminated or invalid beneficiary

Paul Daly/The Independent

numbers because the Health Department is required under joint billing arrangements to pay for such medical services. Some of the extra MCP cards in circu-

lation have been attributed to deceased cardholders whose deaths haven’t been reported to the Health Department, as well as residents who have moved out of province. It’s also possible medical serv-

Refusing to die By Alisha Morrissey The Independent

arbour Breton may be after a community development fund to help get past the loss of its fish plant, but such funds have met with mixed results in outport Newfoundland in the past. The $7 million handed to the Southern Shore community of Trepassey after its fish plant closed in 1990 apparently didn’t do too much for the town, but Argentia swears by the $5-million development fund it landed in 1994 after the closure of the American naval station there. More than 300 fish plant workers were laid off by Fishery Products International when the Harbour Breton plant closed in 2004. Similarly, when FPI closed its fish plant in Trepassey 14 years previous, more than 600 fish plant workers were laid off. A year later the town received the $7-million development fund from the federal government. Rita Pennell, then-mayor of Trepassey, says while the development fund helped the community by creating a handful of jobs, it also created more problems.

“Money, really, thrown at a community when their one industry is taken away doesn’t work,” Pennell tells The Independent. “Our people were in denial and it took years and years and years for them to realize that Fishery Products wasn’t coming back and you couldn’t tell them that.” After the announcement of a development fund for the community, Pennell says the phones rang off the hook with companies suddenly interested in working out of Trepassey. “The fly-by-nighters were all looking for a share of it. They had no interest in Trepassey or any other rural community,” she says. “We had oceans of them. When I was the mayor we had people calling all hours of the night, all night every night, every day people that didn’t even know how to put together a business plan.” Of the $7 million, over $2 million was given back to the federal government because it wasn’t spent before the pre-set deadline. Three of the businesses created out of the development fund survive to this day, says Pennell, including MariTeam Lighting, Shamrock Springs water bottling plant and Weather Shore Windows.

ices are being bought and paid for by ineligible beneficiaries. At the time of Noseworthy’s report, government officials couldn’t determine how much, if any, had been improperly paid out. Maher says there will be a cut-off date in 2007, after which doctors will be required to write the card’s new feature — an expiry date — on the billing papers. Otherwise, doctors won’t be paid by the province for their services. He says patients will then have to pay for their own medical services and apply to the province to be reimbursed. “We’ll get everybody … sure you know there’s going to be problems. We’ve got over 500,000 to re-register and you know there’s going to be problems,” Maher says. The new cards will cut down on improper use in other provinces. Savings are estimated at $4.6 million annually for the province. “(People using the cards outside the province) will either catch wind that

this is going on and give us a call or contact a family member and … we can explain whether or not they’re eligible,” says Maher. Some Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living outside the province will still be eligible to use their cards, he says, but they will also have to re-register. The original budget for the project was suggested to be about $900,000 and that’s still the targeted range, Maher says. New cards will look different than the traditional blue ones currently being circulated and will carry all given names, gender identification, and the expiry date. “The auditor general says our master file has more people on it than are in the province and that is true. So we are attempting to clean up our master file,” Maher says. “We’re going to do whatever we can to accommodate everybody … we’re not going to see anybody going without medical services.”

Development funds haven’t always been successful in attracting business to one-industry towns

“They only have, you’re talking about at peak time, probably 60 or 70 employees and we lost 640 jobs,” says Pennell. John Trainor, owner and president or Weather Shore Windows, says the development fund helped create his company, but didn’t make it last. He jokes the only way to make a new business work is to put in 20-hour days and when the company becomes successful, the only way to keep it going is to work 12 hours a day. “I guess (development funds) can work if it worked for us, but is it going to work for everyone? No, I don’t think,” Trainor says. “I think in a nutshell, keep our nose to the grinding board and don’t expect to get rich overnight because it’s not going to happen. “If somebody’s going to start up a business by getting free money or helpful money or low interest money it’s not going to make the business successful.” This year, Trainor says he’ll have a total of 24 employees between the St. John’s and Trepassey locations. John Crosbie, who was the MP for the Trepassey area when the fish plant shut down, says development funds can work, but there are a number of factors. “It all depends on what are the assets

“If somebody’s going to start up a business by getting free money or helpful money or low interest money it’s not going to make the business successful.” Weather Shore Windows owner John Trainor of the area and if they could be in demand for some particular reason. There’s no way of generalizing about (the funds),” he says. “It’s better than having no assistance offered, but how helpful it is, I guess it’s difficult to assess.” The Argentia Management Authority was set up in the wake of the closure of the U.S. base. The Atlantic Opportunities Agency (ACOA) gave $5 million to the area to

attract investors and businesses. Ken Browne, general manager of the Argentia Management Authority, says the money was used to attract Inco, owner of Labrador’s Voisey’s Bay nickel mine — and while “that’s a moot point now” since Inco announced last week it wouldn’t be processing its nickel at the site in favour of nearby Long Harbour — jobs and infrastructure have been created because of the fund. To date the development fund has generated $35 million in economic activity, with a projected $7 million paid to various levels of government in taxes. Browne says the level of success with such a fund depends on a community concentrating on only two or three industries. Back in Trepassey, Pennell laments the loss of more than half of the population and more importantly — the fish. “Personally, I don’t think rural Newfoundland is going to survive without the fishery. “You can bring in all those industries … but there’s nothing that can compare to the fishery and there’s nothing that can bring jobs back to rural Newfoundland like the fishery can do … we’re a town that refuses to die.”

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6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 22, 2006

A lifetime in a heartbeat H

e’s four now. Last week he was playing with Lego blocks on the floor. He built a stairway, lifted it up to show me. I said: — Oh, good job. Is that the stairway to Heaven? He took on that broody look he’s salvaged from my side of the bloodline and said: — No, it’s the stairway to Hell. And I said good, very good. I found it funny for a moment, and went back to my book. I looked at the clock to see if it was getting close to his bedtime. I stood in his doorway around 12 o’clock that night to listen to him breathing, and it echoed through my head, what he’d said. I felt sad and lost and almost hopeless, that in four small years his world has been corrupted to such a degree that he now understands the opposite of Heaven to be Hell, and that one place is much easier to access than the other. Trucks and action-heroes and all things “boy” that I choose to believe he came to on his own. Denial. Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up — he says he wants a punk rock band. Ask him his favourite band and he’ll tell you it’s the Stones, and then he’ll glance at me out of the corner of his eye to check if he’s gotten it

JOEL HYNES

Guest column right. It started as a joke really, a party trick of sorts, something fashionable he could pass on to those who were interested in what next he’d say. But it’s just his way of getting the nod from me. It’s already begun, this corruption I can’t help but contribute to, pushing him down the paths I wish I’d gone down. How the parent lives vicariously through the child. He said it to me just the other night again, lying in bed with his stories all read: — When I get bigger I’m going to have a band ... And me, a selfish attempt to reverse, repair, rearrange our dynamic, alleviate my guilt somehow: — That’s fine baby, so long as you’re happy. You can be a garbage man, or a cop, or a writer for all that ... — And what are you going to be Dad? — I have no clue, no idea. And I kissed his cheek and shut out the light, closed his door. One more day in

his life gone forever. Never coming back. At one and a half we took him to Shallow Bay in Gros Morne National Park. Miles and miles of fine, hot golden sand, the salt water warm and tropical from midday on. You can wade out for ages and never go over your head. And him, skipping and falling and splashing and squealing in the salt water for near on two hours. Peaceful and wild and happy and pure and absolutely fearless. Back to the blanket for a juice-box and cheesies. Myself and his mother were drinking O’Doul’s non-alcoholic beer. I finished my first one and filled the empty bottle with sand from a small mound he’d dumped from a plastic bucket. I put the cap back on the bottle and stuffed it into my gym bag. Something told me to do that, a little keepsake, because I knew, in some dark pocket of my heart, that it’d never get any better than that day. That bottle of non-alcoholic golden sand sits on my windowsill right now, in my new house where he lives with me part-time, where he sits with me in my office and draws vampires and plane crashes and constructs the stairway to Hell. Yeah. It’s the modern way, the new-fashioned

Globe and Mail parenting: go splitsville for the sake of the child, rather than sluggin’ it out for too many years and letting him grow up in a house of resentment and stifling anxiety and malcontent. And who would we all be today if our own parents had been a little less constricted by the opinions of outsiders, if they hadn’t been so concerned with keeping up the appearance of the functional family unit? Had they stopped and said: — You know what? We’d all be a whole lot better off in the long run if we went our separate ways. I look across the table at him now, his brow scrunched up just so, his little fingers peeling the paper wrapping from the tip of his crayon, and I try to remember him, the bundle of pure innocence that he was just four short years ago. A lifetime ago. His world passing in a heartbeat. The first time I looked into his eyes he was a minute old, and 10 times wiser than me. He looked like he’d come a long way and seen things I could barely comprehend. How suddenly aware I was of the shadows I’d cast on the people who tried to love me, how small I felt for having thought such things, the compulsions I’d acted upon over the years, the dank

and dirty suicidal roads I raced down before I was even 20 years old. Cut loose in the world. Then that shifting inside I hope every new parent gets to feel: how I would not hesitate to kill or die for this little human in my arms. How I’d take someone’s life in a heartbeat, for him. And for the first time, here is a reason to live on. A friend of mine once said to me that the best and worst thing about having children is that suicide is no longer an option. Because you have to live on. You can’t ever again let yourself fall down in those dark holes you’ve been drawn to. You have to look towards the light from here on in. Or fail your child. He shows me his new drawing, a snarbled multi-coloured scramble of scribbles. I study it for a moment and then tell him how it looks like a merrygo-round. He nods and says yes, maybe it’s Bowring Park. My gut tightens, time slipping away. It’s been a while since I’ve taken him for a good romp in Bowring Park. Life comes along and fucks up the best of what you got. I remember a day last year when we were breaking the crest of the hill that leads to the Bowring Park swimming See “Real Heaven,” page 9

YOUR VOICE Too many Newfoundland history books? Dear editor, Newfoundland and Labrador has always been a place with a rich and varied culture. The feature Page Turner in the Jan. 8-14 edition of The Independent shows us that we are people with stories to tell. The fact that so many of these books, both those shown in The Independent and those nominated on Paul Butler’s website, are bestsellers outside of our province is proof that Newfoundland writers have the respect and admiration of readers around the world. And what a variety! The 19 books pictured in the article cover poetry, history, biography, anthropology, and fiction. It seems that we are able to write about anything in Newfoundland and Labrador. But look closely: of the 19 books

pictured in The Independent, five are histories or biographies of some kind. Of the 11 works of fiction pictured, eight are what would be called historical fiction, fiction set in and dealing with the past. That means that 13 of 19 books deal with the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. That’s a lot. Is there so little happening in our province today that is worthy of being written about? Or is our culture one that focuses on our past so intensely that the present is often ignored? Newfoundland and Labrador has a history as rich and varied as our culture — but what does it mean for our present that our past is so dominant in our literature? Keith Collier, St. John’s

‘Standing up for my grandfather’ Dear editor My grandfather turns 79 this year. He’s been a teacher, mentor and a friend to me. I am what I am today because of his influence on my life. He’s given so much to ensure my future that providing a secure future for him is the least I can do. Pop is on a fixed income. His pension provides for him and my grandmother. It pays for his truck, his home and life’s little pleasures, among other things. His cost of living, however, is not fixed. Heat, light, gas, and medical expenses have all increased for him. A Conservative government would see more of his hard-earned money put back in his hands, more money that he can use to spend more time at his cabin with his grandkids. By increasing the pension deduction level to $2,500 from the current $1,000, seniors get to keep more of their money that they sacrificed so much for. Not only that, but a Conservative government will guarantee income security. This means there will be no reduction on present or future benefits. These measures would put well over $2 billion in the hands of our seniors over the next five years. For Pop, that means more trips to the cabin, more time spent with his

grandkids, and much more respect in his twilight years. The Conservatives have shown me that they respect people like my grandfather, seniors who worked and fought for their country. By announcing their intentions to enact a Veterans Bill of Rights, enforced by an independent ombudsman, they recognize the enormous contributions made by past generations of Newfoundlanders, Labradorians, aboriginals and Canadians alike. Years of neglect and ignorance by the government will be remedied. They will also do a complete review of health-care services for veterans to ensure they effectively meet the needs of the people who rely on these services. Our veterans have earned much respect; it’s time the government showed it to them. My Pop has given so much for me; he expects nothing in return. He wants only to live his life quietly and enjoy his remaining years with his family and friends, doing the things he loves. I think he’s earned that and more. On Jan. 23, I’ll be standing up for my grandfather. I’ll be voting for the Conservatives, I know he’ll be doing the same. Mark Morrissey, 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

Liberal time out J

ust so we’re crystal clear, I’ll be voting Conservative this time around. That doesn’t mean I support outfitting 65-footers with used cannons from Signal Hill and anchoring the fleet in Quidi Vidi. For the record, I’m also against retraining sealers to club Iraqis over the head. Voting Tory certainly doesn’t mean I’m prepared to stand in the way of two people of the same sex (Peg Norman and partner Gerry Rogers immediately come to mind) from getting hitched. George W. Bush had better not expect his Texas arse to be kissed either. Canada is not that kind of lady, and that’s not the Conservative party I’m voting for. My choice on the ballot doesn’t mean I’m behind the idea of having to pay a doctor to see to my kid’s cough or to treat my aunt’s breast cancer. Living and dying shouldn’t hinge on a bank balance or the space left on the Visa card. I’m not voting Conservative to realign the social safety net below our feet. Kyoto is another subject I’m sensitive to … I’m not voting for a party prepared to put off cleaning up our mess. The Green Party may only have a serious candidate or two across the country but it’s managing to get its message across: the Canadian outdoors must be treated like the precious gift it is. There’s no denying it: the Conservative party has a bad rep. No one is absolutely sure how much of the criticism may be dead on the mark — I’m betting/hoping/praying the Conservatives aren’t evil incarnate and candidates like Norm Doyle (the guy getting my X this time around) don’t have three 6s tattooed on the back of their necks. (I understand Norm has shaken the hands of a few constituents whose hands were wet with holy water, with no ill effects.) I expect the Conservative party I’m voting for to follow through with tax breaks, which are overdue. The way I see it, if there wasn’t so much fat in the Government of Canada the Liberals wouldn’t have been such pigs at the trough, and they have been that, with more police investigations

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander than departments. The Liberals need a time out — not in the form of a minority government, which tends not to last long enough to get the message across. The Grits need a full term out of office to drive the message home that power isn’t a birthright and corruption isn’t an entitlement. I find it hard to look in the eye of a Liberal candidate who promises to reestablish a federal presence in the province — their central election plank — when it was the government they’re out to join that killed off the jobs in the first place.

The New Democrats are losers — there, I said it — a mainstream party that wouldn’t win an election if Jackie Layton was given a 100-seat head start. When it comes to the Liberals I ask myself this question: is this place better off after having them in power for 12 years? Are you kidding, certainly not — not in terms of the fishery, not in terms of federal jobs, not in terms of health care or roads or respect from mainlanders like the PM’s right hand, Scott Reid, who may finally get his. The New Democrats are losers — there, I said it — a mainstream party that wouldn’t win an election if Jackie Layton was given a 100-seat head start. Minority governments have done good things in the past, that’s a point, but again, they don’t last jig time. I don’t know about you,

but I don’t want to be at this again in a year and a half. I’d have more respect for the NDP if they actually set out to win an election — instead of settling for spoiler. I’m eager to see if the Conservatives will clean house in terms of the federal civil service — specifically, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Maybe they can get to the bottom of the 14-year-old question — whatever happened to the fish DFO was responsible for? The bureaucrats won’t want change … they’ll resist it like the plague I’m sure, but if government were a business at the centre of a takeover, the board of directors and half the senior management would be out the door before you could whisper Vic Young. The Conservatives also have my support for promising to extend custodial management over the entire Grand Banks. There may be legal consequences to such a bold and willful move but there’s a moral case to be made based on the simplest of arguments — it’s the right thing to do. And can you imagine a Senate that would actually give some power to little old Newfoundland and Labrador, putting us on the same footing as Ontario and Quebec (which are sure to go off their heads when it comes down to it). If the Conservatives manage to walk away with a slim majority, they had better not be too radical in their thoughts and actions or they won’t last. That’s the simple truth of it. If the Tories don’t follow through on what they’ve promised us then the party will pay dearly next time around. If the Conservatives fail us like the Liberals before them then I predict you’ll see a change in the political landscape in the form of the rise of a Bloc-type party. Conservative for the moment … Newfoundlander forever. Ryan Cleary is managing editor of The Independent. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Times they are a changin’ Thanks to the NDP, Ivan Morgan jokes he’s now a Conservative

his paper comes out the day before the federal election. I fear a Harper majority is in the works. It is my fervent wish that I am totally wrong and my nose gets publicly rubbed in my own mess because of this statement. If I am wrong, please laugh at me in the street. I promise to wave back, smiling broadly. I think there is a very cold wind blowing through Canadian politics. Regardless of how well the Conservative party does, please accept this as one of the early election post mortems. I am a left-wing socialist. I believe Canada is not just a place, but a set of ideas we all share. Ideas proudly built by the left wing. A public social safety net for all Canadians is such an idea. I passionately believe that we should all benefit from public health care. Excuse the pun, but the idea that rich people may, in the months and years to come, get better medical care than the rest of us makes me sick. Medicare, unemployment insurance, Canada pension, multiculturalism, official bilingualism — all these ideas were instigated by left-wingers of a past gen-

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & reason eration. They made the country a better place. Now we are facing the ascendancy of the conservative right. They have a very different agenda and different ideas about what Canada is. They are now a force to be reckoned with. I place the blame for this squarely at the feet of the current “leaders” of the left. The left wing of Canada historically generates policies of compassion and inclusion. We have been the ones with all the good ideas. Yet slowly, over the last 20 years, the electorate has stopped listening. With self-righteousness, political correctness and a single-minded refusal to abandon their “principles,” the left has proven the old adage that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions. We are now so disconnected with the average voter as to be irrelevant. Want examples? Let’s take the Svend

anything to me. But will it turn out to be another money hemorrhaging disaster like (insert any federal funded agency here)? And the left’s answer? More taxes and more big government initiatives. The danger with socialist thought is it drifts from “let’s all help each other get along” to “we know better than you.” You can hear that tone in Jack Layton’s condescending mantra that the NDP is the party for “working families?” What family isn’t a working family? The New Democrats should be in power forever. Instead they are increasingly irrelevant, handicapped by fictions like the notion that unionized workers are “regular” Canadians. I wish! We all wish! The disconnect between unionized workers and the rest of us is now a yawning one. And any union, like any bank, is in the end only concerned about themselves. And the rank and file don’t vote New Democrat in any case — so why the fiction? Disconnected from reality. Even the tired old Liberals stopped stealing from the left decades ago. And

ience ships and his federal pawns in cabinet should be put on a Hercules aircraft, given a parachute and kicked out over Afghanistan and told to fend for themselves. It wouldn’t be “Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy go away,” it would be “Oh Mr. Atkins can you save me today?” These individuals do not know how lucky they are to have a fighting force like the Canadian military. It is amazing what a military can do with gun tape and string. For me the Liberals have sunk to an all-time low. They will never, ever get my vote. They can have whomever they want as a candidate — even if it was my brother, I wouldn’t vote for him. Their morals (lack of) certainly do not reflect what I want running this nation. Self-sacrifice, laying down one’s life for something that you truly believe in, is a foreign concept to these people. How many young Canadians have paid the ultimate sacrifice so that freedom will prevail? The Liberals have no right to use the military in such a way. I am sickened by this party. Paul Martin, if he was half the man, would apologize to the military and fire who ever made that despicable advertisement. John Carew, St. John’s

Ed Martin, president and CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, Premier Danny Williams and Natural Resources Minister Ed Byrne after a news conference at Confederation Building in St. John’s, Jan. 20. Williams announced Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would be submitting a $17 million, refundable application to Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie requesting open access to wheel lower Churchill power from the Labrador/Quebec border to mainland Canadian and northeast United States markets. The move is part of an ongoing process to facilitate the development of the lower Churchill hydro project in Labrador. Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Right person’ in Fabian Manning

Newfoundland’s death wish

Dear editor, I have been watching the federal election campaign with great interest, seeing as how we have not had representation in Ottawa for the past few years. Now, in the riding of Avalon, we now have an opportunity to elect a person with great abilities and who will give us the representation every riding expects. I’m referring to Fabian Manning. Mr. Manning was born and raised in St. Bride’s on the Cape Shore. Mr. Manning is extremely knowledgeable with the fishing industry, having been raised in a fishing community and coming from a family with a background in the industry. Mr. Manning also has a background in government, having served in the provincial government as the member for Placentia and St. Mary’s. He is known for his work ethics and his dedication to his constituents. His overall knowledge of the Avalon riding, the

Dear editor, It is a chilling thought that Monday, Jan. 23, will mark what may probably be the last good chance we Newfoundlanders will ever have of halting the dismantling of our homeland. The fool’s paradise existing on the Avalon, notwithstanding, this old nation of ours is in a death spiral, heading with terrifying haste towards total disconnect with our ancestral legacy. So many having been conditioned by foreign control into accepting that we are no longer in charge of our own destiny, it may already be too late to pull out of this freefall. Where once we stood a proud, self-reliant people, we now stand, for the most part, merely subjects, demoralized by too many years of imposed dependency. Premier Danny Williams understands this crisis, but, unfortunately, is beguiled by the same foolish Smallwoodian fantasies that led us into this morass in the

problems it’s facing and his dedication to all of Newfoundland and Labrador, leads me to believe we have the right person in Mr. Manning to represent us in Ottawa. He is a person who insists on keeping his finger on the pulse of what’s happening, not only in his own riding, but throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. For the first time in a long, long time, I feel good knowing I will have a federal member in my riding who will represent my concerns and not be dictated to by someone with interests other than those concerning Newfoundland and Labrador, as we have experienced in the past. I urge all voters in the Avalon riding to get out and vote for Mr. Manning on Jan. 23 if they really want a voice in Ottawa and not a puppet. Don Lester, Conception Bay South

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stealing from the right hasn’t saved them. In the end they just stole from all of us. There’ll be those in the NDP and the left who will read this and it will confirm their suspicions that I am not “one of them.” Damn straight. I make the joke that thanks to them I am a Conservative, as I want to “conserve” public health care, rights for gays, rights for women, and a host of other worthy socialist initiatives that have been betrayed by a tired, irrelevant and terminally self-righteous left-wing leadership most of whom are too blinded by their own outdated ideology to see that they are the problem. And the electorate has turned their back on us. Who could blame them? We often make no sense. We have dropped the ball. We don’t matter anymore. A new day is dawning (and if using these lyrics in this context makes you nauseous, then I have done my job) and “the order is rapidly fadin’. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a changin’.” Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

POWER PLAY

YOUR VOICE Liberals have drawn the line Dear editor, What were the Liberals thinking, using the Canadian military as a pawn in their vile and childlike election advertisement? Shame on them, and shame is the only word that I could be sure that I would be allowed to say. I would like to say something else, but I am sure it won’t get printed. The Liberals remind me of an English poem: “Well, it’s Tommy this and Tommy that, and Tommy go away, but it’s thank you Mr. Atkins when the band begins to play.” Basically, forget, humiliate and belittle the military, but come Remembrance Day say thank-you. The rest of the time just sweep you under the rug or call you out so the malls in Toronto can be opened after a storm. The Liberals have a history of neglect with the military, starting with the much-sainted Pierre Trudeau (under his leadership the military was decimated). The army doesn’t run the country, the civilian population and elected officials do. That is the way it should be, but when elected officials use the Canadian Armed Forces to scare the population into voting a certain way, the line has been crossed. Paul Martin with his flag-of-conven-

Robinson affair. A minor but textbook example of what I am saying. The man stole a $50,000 ring, got caught and tearfully “apologized,” claiming duress and other factors drove him to it. Other notable lefties rallied to his defence. We were all admonished to be supportive in Svend’s hour of need. A host of medical and quasi-medical excuses were trotted out to blithely explain his behaviour. The average Canadian is not stupid, and could see what happened. And, right or wrong, they know all too well what would happen to any of them if they stole a $50,000 anything. Nothing about that event squared with their reality. How about Scott Reid’s comment about parents spending the tax rebate Harper suggested on “beer and popcorn.” What if we did? Wasn’t it our money to begin with? The taxpayer agrees to pay taxes, and then sees it squandered on big government projects like the firearm registry or simply stolen like the infamous sponsorship money. Personally, I would have preferred my own beer and popcorn. I have always been in favour of improved daycare services — even if they no longer mean

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first instance. We are a people of the sea, it is what brought us here, gave us sustenance and defined who we are. The Atlantic Accord and the lower Churchill be damned — it is the fisheries that is our sine qua non, and unless the focus is directed at restoring and protecting this great resource, all the other stopgap measures and make-work jobs are mere folly — a pathetic postponement of the inevitable. At the end of the tunnel, that great vortex in which for the past 50 years we have been sucked towards oblivion, there is now a glimmer of hope, the hope that against all odds the current corrupt Liberal regime will be removed from power, providing some temporary reprieve. We need a time to think, for let there be no mistake, Newfoundland will probably not survive another four years of rule by Martin and his policy of indifference. The issue is not Harper, but rather that

of an effete, arrogant and corrupt regime that has defiled even the word “democracy” itself. We’ve had enough already of the Effords, the Matthews and the Byrnes, who put their own agenda before allegiance to the electorate. It’s time to clean house. For a Newfoundlander to vote Liberal in this election would be tantamount to a death wish, an endorsement of all the injustice now culminating in our present untenable situation. It is not that the Liberal party is bad per se, but because it has been shanghaied by a clique of selfserving opportunists who rule as if by “divine right,” and who believe with infuriating arrogance that they are entitled to this privileged position of power. They must go, they must be turfed out on their arses without formality, for let there be no mistake, unless they are, it is game over for Newfoundland. Lloyd C. Rees, Conception Bay South

JANUARY 22, 2006

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

JANUARY 22, 2006

Real Heaven

YOUR VOICE ‘I’ve had enough’

From page 6

same way. Stephen Harper and the Conservative party have made real promises for Canadian students, such as funding to help cover the cost of books and equipment — which every student knows is too high. Meanwhile, the Liberals recycle old promises and wrap them in 2006 wrapping paper. I’ve had enough. That’s why on Jan. 23 myself and other students will stand up for education, and support the Conservative party. Michael Aubie, St. John’s

Health minister invited to Placentia to discuss new mental health act Dear editor, Last month I sent a letter to the editor wherein I commented on Health and Community Services Minister John Ottenheimer and his department’s public and open consultations on the proposed policy directions for a new Mental Health Treatment and Care Act to replace the current and antiquated Mental Health Act in this province. To date, I have received no reply to my letter. Again, I would like to invite Mr. Ottenheimer and his bureaucrats to visit Placentia as part of the process of targeted consul- John Ottenheimer tations. I believe I have something to offer to the discussion, Mr. Minister. I am quite familiar with the old act and would welcome any and all improvements to your improved act. The topics in my presentation to the travelling bureaucrats from the department’s of Health and Justice will include, but are not limited to: (1) the inadvisability of a nurse, tasked with the care of a patient (John Careen at St. Clare’s Hospital, July 1998) held under the province’s Mental Health Act, from opening a window of a 7th floor hospital room

wherein had been placed a mentally ill and known-to-be suicidal patient, and the aforementioned nurse leaving the window gapingly open when she left the hospital room at the end of her shift; (2) the time frame in which such carelessness became acceptable in our society and whether that level of outrageousness will be tolerated in the new Mental Health Treatment and Care Act? Come and visit Placentia, Mr. Ottenheimer. I can assure you I have something positive to offer to the discussion on the new act. And here, in the public prints, I firmly promise that this time I will not refer to any provincial bureaucrats as bastards. The last time I used that legal term was because I did not believe that any of them had the wit to understand what a bastard was. There is to be a byelection in the district of Placentia-St. Mary’s in the very near future. Including a stop at Placentia in your travels might help your party’s near-Townie candidate win this rural seat. Tom Careen, Placentia

Sandra Cooze

Cynthia Downey

Gerry Reid

Questions for candidates Sprinting towards the voting day finish line, election contenders talk about fisheries management and rural Newfoundland and Labrador By Stephanie Porter The Independent

s the longest federal campaign in recent memory winds to a close, The Independent also wraps up its pre-election feature: each week this month, we have asked candidates from the three main parties three questions about topics important to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. This week, questions about fisheries management and the health of our rural areas were posed to candidates in districts affected by the issues. The Independent contacted Gerry Byrne, Liberal incumbent for HumberSt.Barbe-Baie Verte, Cynthia Downey, Conservative candidate in RandomBurin-St. George’s, and Sandra Cooze, NDP, running in Bonavista-GanderGrand Falls-Windsor. What is your stand on custodial management? Gerry Byrne, Liberal: “Custodial management, if required, will be insti-

tuted … we’ve been very realistic and honest with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. We will try to make international treaties and NAFO work, but we’ve also said if evidence has been presented that those treaties and that organization is not working, we will move towards custodial management. “The cut off comes when you do the full work required within the international community and the behaviour of the foreign fleets does not change … I think we’re very close to that … at the same time, the decision point also has to come when Canada has the full capability to enforce custodial management.”

riding. The fisheries here are all within 200 miles … but the foreign overfishing issue is of great concern to all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who value conservation, sustainability and the long-term economic viability of the fishery.” Cynthia Downey, Conservative: “My stand goes along with what the party is saying and we should have custodial management over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks as well as the Flemish Cap. We need to have that done now rather than wait because we’ve been waiting for the last number of years. “You’re going to have to work with a lot of different areas to do that, but it’s no good to just keep talking.”

Sandra Cooze, NDP: “Our party supports imposing custodial management of the continental shelf, outside Canada’s 200-mile limit, on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap. “However, if it could be implemented, it would not have any short-term impact on the northeast coast, in my

Would you fight for joint management of Newfoundland and Labrador’s natural resources, in particular the fisheries? Gerry Byrne, Liberal: “The fishermen that I’ve talked to in my riding are

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very scared of joint management. They’ve just experienced the Raw Material Shares program where the province instituted a very draconian measured that sucked $220 million from the economy … you put in a joint management role in the harvesting sector, and many fishermen get very, very nervous. “Fishermen want the federal and provincial governments to work more closely together. They want a consistent and transparent set of policies that meet the best interests of the industry. But they do not necessarily want a formal legal role for the province to control the harvesting operations.”

And I said: — Not for another long, long pool. It was a sticky summer day. time. He was running ahead of me in the But I’ll lift my head someday grass. There was a couple playing soon and he will be 20. And I’ll with a Frisbee, some picnickers, lit- look back through our days and tle people’s shouts and whoops remember always checking the from the playground, the roar and clock, waiting to bring him to dayscreams from the water slide. He care, waiting to put him to bed at stopped midway and looked back at night so I can get on with what I’m me, held his hand supposed to be out for me to catch doing with my up. Before I life. And how each ... I’ll look back reached his hand he day slips so usethrough our days and lessly into the was off running again, toddler-mad next, the time remember always toward the bottom. come and gone for And I was struck good, the clock checking the clock, with the notion that ticking. waiting to bring him this must be Real Heaven, Heaven. That if he right and now to daycare, waiting to in thehere were to pass out of palm of my this world some- put him to bed at night hand. how, and if there His Legos scatso I can get on with really is such a tered across his thing as Heaven, what I’m supposed to end of my desk. such a place to go Before I rest my be doing with my life. head tonight I’ll when we’re through with this build a wall. I’ll life, a place of build a stairway rewards and relaxation and peace that rises up and up beyond the edge and magic, then this is what his of the wall. I’ll stabilize it as best I would be — merry-go-rounds and can. He’ll come in the morning and swings and Frisbee and water have a look and play with it for a slides, the sun high in the sky, no while, try and rearrange it to suit his wind, fully secure and fearless in own tastes. And it’ll break, it’ll fall, the knowledge that he’s loved and collapse. Because everything does. watched over. Then I’ll help him build it back Then, in the blink of an eye he’s up again. constructing the stairway to Hell. And when I tuck him in tonight, this Joel Hynes is the author of Down day will be gone and said and done to the Dirt and is a principal cast for the rest of time. Four years. Like member and contributing writer of I blinked and it was gone, literally. the CBC’s Hatching Matching and He looked up at me today when I Dispatching. He is currently at picked him up from daycare and work on his second novel, Right asked me when he would be 20. Away Monday.

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Sandra Cooze, NDP: “The closure of the Gander Weather Centre and the problems in the fisheries are two very important issues in my riding … the closure of the Gander Weather Centre … is a safety issue that affects everyone in my riding. Jack Layton has committed to fully reinstate the Gander Weather Centre and to include the federal civil service jobs that go with it. “For the fishery workers, our party’s endorsement of an early retirement program is a wonderful thing. This plan would affect approximately 2,000 fishery workers, and it would also help to slow outmigration from our small, rural communities.”

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Gerry Byrne, Liberal: “Politicians in this province have to stop talking about rural Newfoundland and Labrador and glorifying its importance and start doing something about it … it’s a policy shift, that we actually look at rural Newfoundland and Labrador as the first preference for investment instead of the last. “We should have a rural-first policy … it would be great if we actually provided a tax incentive, similar to the former northern tax deduction (by federal and provincial governments), for people who live in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.”

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What one initiative would you implement to change rural Newfoundland and Labrador?

Joel Hynes and his son.

Sandra Cooze, NDP: “The NDP is committed to joint management of our resources … we believe Newfoundland and Labrador must have a greater say in managing our fisheries … we support federal/provincial joint management of our fish stocks, as well as the implementation of a cod-recovery strategy. “With regard to energy, the NDP believes that Newfoundland and Labrador should have ownership stake as an equity partner in resources like offshore oil and gas … We believe too the federal government has more than fully recouped its initial investment in the Hibernia project, and therefore the federal government should transfer its share in Hibernia to our province.” Cynthia Downey, Conservative: “I’ve always been a strong supporter of the provincial government and what they’ve been doing. I would certainly support working with the provincial government in setting up joint management so that the people most concerned, which is the people of this province, would have the opportunity to be part of what we’re doing in the fishery. It’s a major big time (change).”

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Dear editor, We’ve all heard the phony promises from the Liberals this election, and perhaps in the past the most fooled and most hurt have been Canadian students. For the past 12 years the Liberals have pillaged the federal funding to provinces for education. While Paul Martin gets teary-eyed and sets his arms in “windmill” mode about Canada, we see our country deteriorating one failed “promise” after another. As a student I say I’ve had enough — and I know other students feel the

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

Cynthia Downey, Conservative: “My first thing in rural Newfoundland and Labrador is letting the rest of Canada know where Random-Burin-St. George’s is. And the importance that it has in the whole part of Canada. “I have been meeting with town councils, who I feel are the people on the ground … and definitely should have a say in things, and they can do that through me as their MP. The main thing is I have to be available, I respond to calls and I respond in a timely fashion.” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

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JANUARY 22, 2006

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

LIFE STORY

First lady of the House LADY HELENA E. SQUIRES 1879-1959 By Stephanie Porter The Independent

AROUND THE BAY “One of the nine mobile homes, ordered by Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation for the Marystown subdivision, was extensively damaged last week when galeforce winds completely overturned the 60-foot long trailer … winds of up to 60 mph were reported in the area when the trailer overturned. No estimation of damage has yet been reported, however considerable damage was occasioned to the roof and sides and furniture in the trailer is believed to have damaged the ceiling. — The (Burin Peninsula) Post, Jan. 7, 1972 YEARS PAST “The laundries of the city have met and considered the mater of how to keep going as coal, gas, supplies, etc. are at such a high cost. They found it necessary to raise their present prices.” — Daily Star, Jan. 7, 1920 AROUND THE WORLD “Ranger, Texas — Geologists believe that continued oil operations in the Ranger field, should they attain a depth of one mile under the surface, will prove the existence of a live lava bed.” — The Evening Herald, Jan. 2, 1920 EDITORIAL STAND “During the past week there has been a great hullabaloo over the differences of opinion along the waterfront which tied up work and forced a ship to sail without taking a shipment of fresh frozen fillets destined for the old country. However, we wonder if those who have sudden-

ly become vocal realize that they themselves are just as much to blame for this condition as any of the men connected with the two unions involved.” — Editorial from the Jan. 19, 1940 edition of the Fisherman-Workers’ Tribune about striking dockside workers. LETTER TO THE EDITOR “What a gloomy prospect lies before us if things continue as they are present! While the world at large is progressing in science and literature we are retrograding, and cannot procure the means of teaching our children to read. In St. John’s there are various academies and seminaries for the instruction of youth, but here if we wish to give our children a fair education, we must send them to St. John’s at an expense few can afford, or leave them in ignorance.” — The Courier (Catalina), Jan. 6, 1858 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “It has been said that ‘He who would command must first learn to obey.’ Having learned to obey orders, which he has discovered were not just or well formulated, he is careful that his orders shall be intelligent and fair.” — An anecdote about politicians in an unsigned editorial. — The Newfoundland Trade Review, Jan. 26, 1946

he high-profile Lady Helena Squires and her husband were once seen as two of the biggest obstacles to the suffrage movement in Newfoundland. It came as a momentous surprise then in 1930, when she put her name forward and became the first female ever elected to the House of Assembly. One of a set of twins, Helena was born in Little Bay Islands in 1879 to James M. Strong, the owner of a widely known fish producing and exporting company. Helena’s mother died shortly after the birth and, according to reports, Helena did not get on well with her stepmother. She went to the Methodist College in St. John’s as a boarding student — where she would first meet her husband — and then trained to be a teacher at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. In 1905, Helena Strong married lawyer Richard Squires, who entered public life four years later. Although the couple had three sons and two daughters, Helena was always seen to be actively supporting her husband, a charming hostess, often travelling with him on business abroad. In an essay on The rise and triumph of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Newfoundland, author Margot Duley says Squires “was recognized as a presence and a charismatic personality by contemporaries even while espousing motherhood and housewifery as woman’s proper role.” Helena studied domestic science at the Farmer Cooking School and interior decorating in New York, completed a course in public speaking at Helena E. Squires the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, and took a course at Harvard University summer “She is as familiar with Europe and most of its school. capitals as she is with our neighbouring “She lectured on the importance of (these) to Dominion, and the great Republic to the South,” young women in St. John’s schools,” Duley the article reads. It characterizes her as charming, poised, writes. “Meanwhile, the suffragists regarded her as an important private obstacle to their success.” “unostentatious” and as a wise and kind soul: Although she was indeed initially against giv- “She is a studious reader and a keen observer of ing women the right to vote — particularly events, is interested in Child Welfare, public through her husband’s first term as prime minis- health in all its phases, education, and particuter (1919-1923) — Helena worked in other larly all that tends to benefit the people, and capacities to improve the situaraises the standard of living, tion for women in Newfoundthroughout the country. Literaland. She apparently trained ture and art are not to her ideal “The new Lady many of the women she hired as hobbies … Member took her seat “(She) finds time, amid her domestic help for positions outmultitudinous public and politiside the household, and played on the opening day cal duties to superintend their a role in founding both a teachcountry estate at ‘Midstream,’ ers’ college and maternity hosof the Legislature, Waterford Valley, about three pital. miles outside St. John’s, where Richard again became prime and enlivened the she has ample scope for the minister in 1928, and, encourpractical application of her aged by her husband, Helena proceedings with interests in kitchen gardening, ran for the Liberal party in a a flash of wit, which farming and horticulture.” byelection for the district of It was less than two years Lewisporte in 1930. She won won approval from later, in 1932, that the Liberal her seat handily, snagging some government fell into disfavour 81 per cent of the votes. both sides of the and, in the election that year, In June 1930, the NewfoundHelena and Richard land Quarterly published a House, and indicated both Squires lost their seats. glowing profile of the First With that, Helena stepped out Lady Elected to Parliament in keen and incisive of the political spotlight, though Newfoundland, including this account of her first day on the readiness in debate.” she was elected the first president of the Liberal Association job: of Newfoundland in 1949. “The new Lady Member took Newfoundland Today, Lady Helena Squires her seat on the opening day of lives on as the namesake of a the Legislature, and enlivened Quarterly, 1930 fund, established in 1989 by the the proceedings with a flash of provincial Women’s Liberal wit, which won approval from both sides of the House, and indicated keen and Commission. Money raised supports female Liberal candidates in their run for office. incisive readiness in debate.” “(Helena) must have been a very strong (Of course, not far away and at about the same time, the St. John Telegraph-Journal noted, “in women,” says Kay Young, current president of reality Lady Squires was elected as one of the the commission. “And it was very exciting in supporters of Sir Richard, her husband … There those times for a woman to be involved in poliis always the possibility that, by exercising the tics.” Noting that there are still few women in the ancient privilege of her sex, she may change her political arena, Young sighs: “I don’t know how mind and be in opposition to his government.”) But the Quarterly was all praise for Lady she did it … she must have been incredible.” Lady Helena Squires died in 1959 in Toronto. Squires — with special attention paid to her stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca many hobbies and trips around the world.

INDEPENDENTWORLD

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 22-28, 2006 — PAGE 11

Afghans gather around a destroyed car and a motorcycle after the Jan. 17 attack in Spin Boldak. At least 20 people were killed and another 20 wounded in the bomb attack in the southern Afghan town. Ismail Sameem/Reuters

Peacekeeping or war?

Too many adherents of all parties maintain quaint notion of blue-beret peacekeeping; that’s not the way it is By Rosie DiManno Torstar wire service

he 21st century war-by-terrorism came out of Afghanistan, arguably the most medieval nation on Earth. Now it appears to have gone back to its primal genesis, just as 2,000 Canadian troops are about to assemble there, assuming the burden of NATO leadership. It will mean dying and it will mean killing. More events like last week, when a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian convoy, causing the death of veteran diplomat Glyn Berry, wounding three Canadian soldiers, two critically, and killing at least three Afghan civilians. Or like when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a crowd watching a wrestling match in Spin Boldak, killing at least 20 people, injuring 30. Or when an ex-member of the Taliban was shot and killed in Kandahar — near where the Canadians have set up camp — purportedly for the offence of having renounced the former regime. In dribs and drabs, it is feared, the Taliban are reassembling and launching a

new resistance to both coalition forces and the wisdom of long-term entanglement in the shaky Kabul-centric government of Afghanistan — generally, the same isolaPresident Hamid Karzai, who’s warned tionist voices that decried the original airthat Afghanistan could again become a borne invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, staging post for terrorist strikes against the although that chorus subsided immediately West. upon the rapid demolishment of the In fact, there is nothing drib or drab Taliban and with the overwhelming majorabout 3,000 Afghan ity of Afghans so palpacivilians slain in the last bly welcoming the four years, 1,500 people invaders. killed in Taliban terror It is happening as attacks last year, 30 aid some coalition memThe world made prom- bers, suddenly workers murdered there struck in 2005, 20 suicide with the reality of ises to Afghanistan and attacks aimed at U.S.looming casualties, the led forces in the past these are promises that potential death of their four months alone. own soldiers, are losing must be kept … This is not a peacetheir nerve. Three keeping mission for phlegmatic NATO Canadian troops. It’s a members — France, war, the first groundGermany and Spain — fighting war this country has fought since want no part of risky counter-insurgency Korea more than half a century ago. operations and the Dutch parliament may It happened, for the right reasons, but yet rescind on a promise to contribute without any debate in Parliament about 1,400 troops and their urgently required Canada’s escalating involvement in Apache helicopters. Afghanistan. Even the Australians, staunch U.S. allies It is happening, now, as a few voices are with troops still in Iraq, are queasy about starting to be raised in this country about committing soldiers to the NATO cam-

paign unless there are sufficient aggregate troops on the ground to render operations feasible. Only Britain, apart from Canada, has stuck to its original commitment, although there had been rumours to the contrary. The Americans, over-stretched in Iraq, will be ratcheting down their numbers in Afghanistan after carrying nearly all the load for more than four years, but still maintain by far the largest delegation of troops, even scaled down to a targeted 16,500. The world made promises to Afghanistan and these are promises that must be kept, not just to give that endlessly besieged nation a decent shot at recovery, at something approaching justness, but to limit the terrorist threat that finds traction in failed states. This was the “good war,” remember, the one that even most peace-clinging factions — the non-interventionists, the anti-imperialists, the U.S.-loathing — deemed tolerable, justifiable and necessary. The calamity of 9/11 was fomented by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, once not merely See “The common,” page 12

Even the Bard couldn’t make up Buzz

hakespeare would have loved Election 2006. Like his plays, it has been filled with drama, plots, subplots and people slashing one another like characters in Macbeth. With just three days left, Canadians skid toward Monday night’s denouement on pools of blood. There are rats behind every arras. In keeping with his auto-industry roots, Buzz Hargrove has put political treachery on the assembly line. The lifetime “socialist” betrayed the NDP and Jack Layton the better to prop up the Liberals, corruption being an incon-

MICHAEL HARRIS The Outrider sequential shortcoming to Buzz compared to the beauties of being connected. In fact, the labour leader even scolded Layton for being too critical of the Grits during the campaign. Branch plant thinking, I suppose. Buzz also opined that Albertans aren’t quite as Canadian as Quebecers,

based largely on their preference for other than “progressive” political parties. But Hargrove’s Tory-bashing reached Benedict Arnold proportions this week. Standing beside the prime minister of Canada, the Buzzer advised Quebecers to vote for the separatists rather than for Stephen Harper and his federalist party. It was a drop-dead momentous act of ego liberation. But that didn’t stop the union representing the public service of Canada from following Buzz to the slaughterhouse of public opinion when it gave the same advice to its members.

Never has delusional self-interest been on better display, never has a political helper so damaged his imagined benefactor. And that is because while Hargrove gave the nod to the real separatists, Martin stood by as silent as the grave into which he will soon be lowered, wearing the smile that isn’t a smile. THE DAGGER Poor Jack Layton. No sooner had Buzz planted his dagger in Jack’s chest than an NDP premier, Lorne Calvert, endorsed Stephen Harper. It was large-

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ly because of Harper’s vow to fix the fiscal imbalance that sees the feds rolling in cash and the people who have to deliver programs begging for scraps. Fair enough, but what could the country’s most famous mustache do? In the end Jack said he can work with, egads, the Tories, and not his philosophical first cousins, the Grits. Good for him. In so declaring our new political reality, Jack took a razor to Paul Martin, calling him a failed leader with values of convenience — or what

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JANUARY 22, 2006

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Left’s missed opportunity By Chantal Hébert Torstar wire service

s the New Democratic Party a flag of convenience to be waved only when nothing stands in the way of a Liberal parade? In the dying days of the campaign, it certainly seems that way. If Jack Layton wins more seats on Monday, it will be in spite of the best efforts of a vocal section of the Canadian left. In the lead-up to the vote, many of his party’s natural allies are joining their voices with that of Paul Martin to beg NDP sympathizers to abandon Layton for the Liberals for the second election in a row. In contrast with the 2004 election, that is akin to asking progressive voters to leave a lifeboat to hop aboard the Titanic. The Liberal ship is leaking from so many holes at the close of this campaign that one can only wonder how long it would be before it sank if it ever beat long odds to sail to a narrow victory on Monday. Still, the rationale of the activists who are rushing to Martin’s rescue is

Jack Layton

that an intellectually bankrupt minority Liberal government is still better than a Conservative one. Is the Canadian left really so weak that it needs to hide in the tattered skirts of a beleaguered Liberal party at the first hint of a right-wing wind? Those of its members who so willingly take a hand in the Liberal salvage operation can’t be doing it in the expectation that

the beneficiaries of progressive favours will be grateful. Not unless they ignore recent history. The NDP would have emerged from the last election with the balance of power had not so many of its supporters answered the desperate calls for help of the Liberals. Yet, Martin’s initial budget last year was anything but a token of gratitude to the left-leaning supporters who rallied to his cause. On the day of its presentation, it secured the instant support of Stephen Harper; the Tory leader knows a Conservative budget when he sees one. It was only after Martin realized that the fate of his minority government might rest with the modest NDP caucus after all that he changed course. Win or lose, the post-election priority of the Liberals will be to recapture the small-c conservative votes they have lost to Stephen Harper. That is hardly a prescription for a left-leaning course. On Canada-U.S. issues for instance, the top potential contenders for Martin’s post are closer to Harper’s views than to the current Liberal cam-

paign rhetoric. To this day, the federal NDP and the Canadian left are haunted by memories of the 1988 free-trade election but for different reasons. The NDP remembers it as the campaign that resulted in its best showing ever. But many left-leaning activists remember it as the time when a split in the anti-free-trade vote between the NDP and Liberals allowed Brian Mulroney to sail on to a second consecutive majority. There are times though when looking in the rear-view mirror is the recipe for a crash. The advent of the Bloc Québécois has changed the dynamics of the House of Commons. It may be likely to hold the balance of power in any minority Parliament but its sovereignist calling makes it an unpalatable partner for either of the major parties. That is why the NDP, even though it did not have quite the numbers, did exert real influence in the last Parliament. In many parts of Western Canada, the NDP is more likely to stop the

Conservatives in their tracks than the Liberals, thus preventing the election of a majority government. In other parts of the country, New Democrats do pose an equal threat to both main parties. But after the election, the NDP is more likely to find common ground with the Liberals. The Conservatives for their part have no other party to turn to sustain a minority government. A record NDP showing could have opened the door to a coalition government with what would have been left of the Liberals. That would seem, at least to this casual observer, to be the only scheme that could have resulted in the advent of a truly progressive government. But such an NDP electoral breakthrough would likely have required the sustained efforts of a united left rather than a recurrent sabotage of the Layton campaign. When the Canadian left does its postelection soul-searching, it should ponder whether some of its leading voices allowed their fears to make them lose sight of an unprecedented opportunity to advance their values.

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lections Canada is concerned about an anti-same sex marriage meeting that took place in a building where advance polls were held. Last week, Vote Marriage Canada atlantic chair Elsie Wayne spoke to Baptist ministers and parishioners in a room in the Lions Senior Citizens Centre in Moncton. Elections Canada spokesman Dana Doiron said the agency found out about the meeting and attempted to contact the landlord and the organizers. Under the terms of lease between Elections Canada and the centre, no political activities can take place within 500 metres of voting. “We are concerned about and were concerned about it,” he said, adding the agency was going to set up a meeting with the landlord to discuss their lease. Despite not being able to talk to the landlord they were able to contact the organizers, a group of Baptist ministers, about the meeting. While the group didn’t agree to cancel or move the meeting, it did commit to have the meeting conclude before the advance polls opened at noon. “It’s my understanding that the meeting ended at 11:30, that everybody involved in the meeting had left the building before the polling station was open,” he says. The meeting may have also been a breach of federal election rules that specify returning officers are to ensure voters are not disturbed when they are in or near a polling station. Elections Canada would only investigate the issue if a formal complaint was filed with the Commissioner of Elections, says Doiron. — Telegraph-Journal

The common enemy From page 11 a refuge for Osama bin Laden — and he is reputed to still be there, somewhere along the wild frontier with Pakistan — but an agreeable sponsor for the exported violence that was inculcated in those training camps. In those early days, when the black-turbaned Taliban swept up from the south to seize Kabul with hardly a shot fired — the capital smouldering and in ruins, shattered after a decade of civil war — they were barbaric in their imposition of a rigid Islamic orthodoxy. But they weren’t suicidal. This isn’t that Taliban and Canadians must be made to understand the difference, an issue that has hardly been touched upon in an election campaign that has rarely strayed into the area of foreign policy.

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TRAGIC EVENTS It took the tragic events last week to remind both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper that Canada is very much in a war, with both asserting an abiding commitment to NATO operations in Afghanistan. NDP Leader Jack Layton — not so much. Too many adherents of all parties still maintain this quaint notion of blue-beret peacekeeping — which ostensibly renders us more noble than our war-mongering neighbours — as if Canadian soldiers were but a few rungs removed from Boy Scout troops or peace corps volunteers, deployed to dig wells and accompany children to school. Our soldiers, trained to fight, hate that image, although they’ve demonstrated a superior talent for ingratiating themselves with civilian populations where they serve, precisely because they do make those humanitarian efforts. The Taliban — or whatever the Taliban has now become, which seems to be a clotting of insurgents and jihadists, experienced fighters returning from Iraq and Islamists from other Arab countries, to say nothing of organized criminals and narco-czars in heroin-rich Afghanistan — are just as averse to humanitarian kindnesses, to anything that threatens their power ambitions, as they are to military intervention. And the thing is, it doesn’t take a great big rebellious force to create havoc or to undermine fortitude. A cadre of suicidal fanatics, small groups to make and plant improvised roadside explosives, can cause immense damage to life and limb; can, in fact, do precisely what is intended — inflict terror and scare NATO away. In retrospect, the old Taliban had their limits. They were not so willing to die as martyrs. They wanted their joyless kingdom in Afghanistan, not in heaven. That’s not the routed Taliban in Afghanistan today. That’s Al Qaeda & Friends, Jihadists Inc., Fanatics Unlimited. That’s the common enemy.

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

VOICE FROM AWAY

The good and evil in Cambodia

Leading tours at a land mine museum, Jennifer Pelley learned about history, humanity, and the need to make a difference By Jennifer Pelley For The Independent

at the museum with Aki Ra. They are living, breathing examples of the detrimental effects land mines can have on the innocent. Their presence at the museum provides faces to the issues Aki Ra wants to illustrate. The boys range from age six to 17, all victims of landmines. One had been playing in a field with his friend in a rural area of Cambodia when he stepped on a mine. It blew off his leg up to his knee. His friend ran to get help but the only person he could find was a farmer. There was no hospital or doctor for hours and infection was spreading, so the farmer sterilized a saw with hot water, gave the boy a piece of wood to bite down on, and began sawing off his leg above the knee. The boy survived the ordeal thanks to the farmer’s efforts.

umans do terrible things to one another. That statement slapped me in the face every day for a month-and-a-half as I provided English-speaking tours of the Land Mines Museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia Each morning, I woke up in my functional guesthouse room, grabbed a quick breakfast, and took a motorcycle taxi through the busy city streets. The motorcycle slowed as the driver navigated a dusty back road with numerous brothels before dropping me off outside of a rickety shack barely held together by a corrugated iron roof. This was the Land Mines Museum — a far cry from a conventional museum. It had no electricity and had hammocks for people to relax in and a wild piglet secured to a tree by a leash. (It was to become a meal for the museum curator’s family when it grew fat enough.) For five hours every day I stood on the dusty floor of the shack, surrounded by already-detonated land mines and tourists from any combination of English-speaking countries. I explained the tumultuous recent history of Cambodia, which has left the small southeast Asian country littered with land mines. JUNGLE WARFARE As the almost 15-year war between the genocidal Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese (later the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian National Army) progressed, both groups buried incredible numbers of land mines in the ground to help them in their jungle warfare. “It’s still the most heavily mined country in the world,” I explain. “There are still between four and six million mines buried in the ground here, with most of them located in the northwest, near the Thailand and Laos borders.” All of the mines and unexploded ordnance at the museum were dug up by Aki Ra, the curator of the museum. Aki Ra can attest to my earlier statement referring to the horrible things humans do to one another, having lived through the mass genocide and war that ravaged his country for almost two decades,

A de-miner from the Cambodian Mines Action Centre, a government-run organization, prepares to destroy a land mine in Kompong Speu province, 100 km west of Phnom Penh. Reuters

killing between three and four million Ra was employed by the United people, about one-quarter of the popu- Nations to help de-mine the country. To lation. this day, he still searches the jungles of As I took people through the northwestern Cambodia for landmines makeshift museon his own, with only a um, I told them filed-down tree Aki Ra’s story: the Twelve young boys, all branch. tale of a boy solThe museum dislimbless … are living, dier who, from the plays one of those speage of 12, fought cially-made tree breathing examples of branches to demonand killed with the Khmer Rouge for the process Aki the detrimental effects strate many years. He Ra employs to remove was later recruited land mines from the land mines can have. by the Vietnamese ground. army to do the “Aki Ra just digs same thing. He estimates he planted into the earth with the flattened end of several thousand landmines in the a stick like this one at a 45-degree angle ground. … When he hits a mine, he unearths it After the war was over in 1992, Aki using the stick.”

I picked up the dirt-encrusted mine and brought it over to another crude display consisting of a small sand-filled bucket with a wire handle, and a stick with a long wire attached to one end. That is all Aki Ra uses to deactivate the mines he finds. In less than 10 seconds, I would place the (already deactivated) land mine near a tree, hang the bucket on one end of the stick, balance it on the angle made by the tree trunk and branch joining, keep it balanced by holding onto the length of wire, and walk a “safe” distance away holding onto the wire. On releasing the wire, the bucket filled with sand would fall, land squarely on the button of the landmine, and explode the mine. Twelve young boys, all limbless, live

BURDENS TO SOCIETY Victims of landmines are seen as burdens in Cambodian society because they cannot make any money for their family but they still require food and shelter. Aki Ra understands this stigmatization and has become the guardian for the 12 boys. They live at the museum with him and help with the upkeep. They also attend Khmer school each day, an opportunity they probably would not have if they were not living with Aki Ra. Human beings do terrible things to one another. But there are those who want to remedy the mistakes others have made. Meeting Aki Ra and spending time with the boys at the Land Mines Museum presented me with both the good and the evil in Cambodia and the world. I felt distinctly uncomfortable while I was in Cambodia, but I believe we need to allow ourselves to feel discomfort in these types of circumstances. In recognizing discomfort, we acknowledge something wrong is happening. We may open our minds to why cruelty like this happens and be inspired to work towards diminishing it. One can hope. Jennifer Pelley, from Grand FallsWindsor, is currently studying journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax. Do you know a Newfoundlander or Labradorian living away? E-mail editorial@theindependent.ca

Outbreaks hard to contain Ontario still understaffed, ill equipped to fight superbug By Rob Ferguson Torstar wire service

major outbreak of infectious disease would be difficult to contain despite all the lessons learned from SARS, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health warns. Resources to battle a superbug are limited because one-third of public health units don’t have a full-time medical officer of health and understaffed provincial laboratories are relying on outdated equipment, Dr. Sheela Basrur says. “Ontario will be vulnerable… People are going to get simply too tired and burned out to cope on the day-to-day ... In times of crisis, they may not be there when we need them most.” Her concerns, released as Turkey fights a growing outbreak of deadly

H5N1 strain of avian flu, include: • The provincial public health lab system has just one full-time medical microbiologist, well below the minimum of six recommended in a recent report on a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak that killed 17 people at a Scarborough nursing home. • 12 of the province’s 36 regional public health units still don’t have a full-time medical officer of health, despite a provincial law requiring the positions to be filled. • Progress is “slow” on emergency planning and responses for First Nations communities such as Kashechewan — evacuated after water problems last fall — because of “gridlock” in a deal with the federal government, which has primary responsibility. • Provincial lab staff rely on stacks of paper-based reports on the four million

tests performed every year, instead of a million doses, is part of the province’s computer-based system to track and emergency plan. quickly find results in potentially danHealth Minister George Smitherman gerous cases. says officials are already working on “This would be a Herculean effort for building a better provincial lab system, any organization, including a new much less one that is public health on the front lines of agency and plans Twelve of Ontario’s 36 for a state-of-the-art outbreak detection and management,” $40 million laboraregional public health says Basrur. tory at the MaRS She notes the and units still don’t have a (Medical problems linger Related Sciences) full-time medical officer complex at college despite “significant progress” made on and university. of health the public health The site has been front since SARS chosen so the govkilled 44 people ernment lab can locally in 2003, including the stockpil- work more closely with labs at nearby ing of antiviral drugs in the event of an teaching hospitals, with the province influenza pandemic. “actively recruiting” more microbioloThe stockpile of Tamiflu, now at 12.4 gists — a field in high demand,

Smitherman adds. “We’ve sought to dramatically increase the amount of money that the government was prepared to pay. But these are tending to be in short supply and commanding an extraordinary high dollar.” Basrur says last spring’s rubella outbreak in Oxford County provides just a taste of what could happen in a widespread emergency if one health unit is a “weak link.” The rubella outbreak — in an area where many children weren’t vaccinated for religious reasons — quickly grew to 283 cases but was contained with a medical officer of health and other staff borrowed from another part of the province. “We cannot depend on this kind of contingency situation in the future,” says Basrur.

14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

More TV equals less sex Report may come from an android, TV critic believes By Vinay Menon Torstar wire service

race yourself: TV could be ruining your sex life. This scientific finding comes from a sociological expert who deciphers human behaviour at the global epicentre of carnal activity. And by that, I mean a sexologist based in Italy. According to Serenella Salomoni, couples with a TV in the bedroom have sex about half as often as those who do not. This, of course, means that some diabolical fiend has hidden several TV sets in my bedroom. Salomoni and her team of researchers interviewed 523 Italian couples. The study found that A) couples with no TV in the bedroom had sex an average of B) eight times a month and C) were often too busy having sex to complete the survey. This rate dropped to four times a month for those who drifted off to sleep while trying to make sense of the dubbed dialogue on, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “If there’s no television in the bedroom the frequency doubles,” Salomoni told Reuters, adding, “This is yet another reason why television critics deserve a substantial raise.” Or something like that. The study was discussed this week

on two MSNBC shows — The Situation with Tucker Carlson and Scarborough Country with Joe Scarborough. “Men, don’t reach for the remote control,” warned Scarborough. “You’re going to want to see this because if you’re watching this program in bed your love life could be in trouble.” In trouble? I’m no psychologist, but if you’re watching Joe Scarborough in bed, sex is the least of your concerns. His guest was therapist Judy Kuriansky. “For years, we have been advising no TV,” she tut-tutted. “The bed should trigger the thought of sensuality and seduction and not stimulation from a football game.” Sounds reasonable. But, fellas, if you’re still not buying her argument, strip down in front of a mirror and ask yourself this simple question: Should I really expect my partner to be aroused by the sight of this body after watching burly, chiseled men smash each other and chase a ball for three hours in spray-on uniforms? On The Situation, Carlson’s guest was HBO boxing host Max Kellerman, who wondered if the Italian study had any relevance in North America. “You don’t trust Italian social science?” asked Tucker, always trolling for controversy. “Is that what you are

A police officer stands in front of a photo of Stephen Harper painted on the side of Harper's campaign bus outside a brewery and pub in Toronto. Andy Clark/Reuters

It is Harper’s time From page 11 the more plain-spoken folks down at Tim Hortons would call a phony. As for the man whose best television interview in the campaign was with an eight-year-old, Paul Martin continues to attract political changelings and other oddballs like a magnet. Two former Conservative leadership candidates, Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison, are in the fights of their political lives. Both found their Liberalism and cabinet portfolios at about the same time, but have come to represent the over-flexible sense of entitlement for which the grits will be judged on EDay. Whether they are star candidates or simply death stars remains to be seen. If there is mercy for billionaires and upwardly mobile quislings, both will lose. After all, they didn’t cross the Rubicon to drive their own cars around Ottawa. Then there is Gilles Duceppe. After spending the entire campaign arranging decent burials for every Liberal in Quebec, he suddenly finds that his ally of convenience in the last Parliament has quietly gotten over the ramparts and is stealing the children. So Duceppe, sounding curiously like Paul Martin, has taken to fear-mongering about Stephen Harper. It can’t have reassured him that La Presse gave its editorial endorsement to the Conservatives, exactly as it once did to Brian Mulroney when he changed Canada’s political status quo in 1984. A campaign designed for the arch-enemy is now pulverizing the also-ran while the Bloc’s real enemy surges ahead. And don’t forget the subplots. When was the last time you saw a jewel thief, a guy who allegedly smuggled a Mercedes full of booze into the country, and others accused of bribing the opposition to drop out of the race running for Parliament? Add to that Tony

Valeri’s real estate flip, a deal that has more wrinkles than Greg Weston’s trenchcoat, and what do you have — high political drama softened with comic relief and not a little pathos leading to a new political era in Canada that will be ushered in just before we all turn into pumpkins on Monday night. Stephen Harper has paid his dues wandering in the political wilderness and it is now his time. Good on him for offering Canadians some badly needed nips and tucks in the national fabric. Politicians, not judges, should have the final say in any true democracy and their appointments should be a matter of public consultation. Our country’s leaders should carry a brief for the victims of crimes, not the perpetrators. The public service should not be the non-elected arm of the government but a truly independent force in our national life. And the people who pay the freight, the taxpayers, shouldn’t be blocked by their own government from knowing how their money is being stored and spent. Finally, when someone in elected or official office betrays their public trust, they ought to be provided a room with a view in prison, not a speaking tour. It is Stephen Harper’s time. But despite the awful ethical deficits of the Liberals, despite their richly deserved public banishment, the country needs them to use their defeat generously and intelligently. Theirs is a project of rebuilding rather than recrimination. No democracy functions without an opposition, and it is now up to the Ken Drydens, John Manleys, Frank McKennas and Brian Tobins to remake the party of Laurier into a force that will keep Stephen Harper honest and one day be worthy of once again having what they will lose on Jan. 23, the trust of the Canadian people. Michael Harris returns Feb. 5.

Is watching Larry David really better than sex?

saying?” Kellerman’s reply: “As Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, their rate of intercourse might be different, Tucker.” (Initially, I misheard that last word and dropped my martini glass in shock.) After a few more minutes of crass generalization, Kellerman made this curious observation: “You could argue there are shows that are better than sex

Danny Moloshok/Reuters

and therefore worth watching.” Carlson: “Name one.” Kellerman: “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Carlson: “You think that’s better than sex?” Kellerman: “It may be. A good episode. Did you see the last episode of last season?” Distressed that anybody could find Larry David better than sex, I won-

dered if the study had anything to say about sex and TV content. Violence, it seems, halted intimacy in half of the respondents, which may explain why so few babies are conceived immediately after a particularly gruesome episode of CSI. Still hoping to discredit the study, I desperately began researching the researcher. Some of Salomoni’s past studies have found: spoiled children grow up to be successful businesspeople; the key to seducing an Italian woman lies in a man’s accent; and women prefer partners who are more intellectual than macho. Alas, I was unable to find any evidence to prove my theory that “Serenella Salomoni” is actually a topsecret code name for a state-of-the-art android that was covertly planted inside Italian academe and co-financed by several shadowy feminist groups hellbent on destroying all that is sacred to men. Placing a television in the bedroom has already been blamed for everything from fattening preschoolers to reducing the scores of third-graders on standardized tests. That was once the bad news. The good news now, though, is that when these kids grow up, they’ll be too stupid and out-of-shape to worry about all the sex they’re not having.

JANUARY 22, 2006

16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD

Callwood speaks but few listen She once believed electing women would make the difference for children living in poverty By Carol Goar Torstar wire service

here was a time, in her long battle against child poverty, when June Callwood thought about launching a class action suit against the Government of Canada. Surely it constituted child abuse, she reasoned, to leave more than 1 million youngsters in preventable poverty. Her lawyer dismissed that idea as a “hilarious example of political theatre.” There was a time when she believed that electing more women to Parliament would make life better for the nation’s poorest families. But as the gender balance improved, the child poverty rate stayed the same. Female politicians, she concluded, were no better at helping the hungry and homeless than their male counterparts. Now, at 81, Callwood is down to her last and best weapon: her own passionate voice. “It’s a moral decision whether our children really matter,” she says. “I don’t know how much longer the country can hold its self-respect together.” But no one seems to be listening. Child poverty has barely surfaced in this election, despite the deadly violence welling up in Toronto’s poor neighbourhoods, the alarming youth suicide rate on native reserves and wasted talent on the nation’s streets. As voting day neared, Callwood and three other children’s activists held a news conference to appeal to Canadians to consult their consciences before casting their ballots. Four journalists showed up, two from religious publications, one from Omni television and one from the Star. The pile of press kits sat pathetically on a table. The child-care workers and church leaders who’d gathered for the event tried to hide their disappointment.

Rules for breastfeeding adopted by hospitals By Kathy Kaufield Telegraph-Journal

ew mothers in New Brunswick hospitals may have to say goodbye to soothers and free formula for their babies as part of a new plan by the province to boosts its dismal breastfeeding rates. Health Minister Elvy Robichaud announced recently New Brunswick will become only the second province in Canada to adopt the World Health Organization’s Baby-Friendly Initiative, an internationally recognized strategy to encourage breastfeeding that bans hospitals from giving formula to babies unless it is medically necessary and discourages breastfeeding mothers from giving pacifiers to their babies. Once the policy is in place, hospitals will also no longer be allowed to accept free or discounted formula from companies and won’t be allowed to send free formula samples home with new parents as is regularly done now. Under the wellness plan, new mothers will be strongly encouraged to breastfeed but will still be allowed to bottle-feed their babies if they choose. “In a Baby-Friendly hospital, there would be formula only for (cases where it’s) medically necessary,” says Gail Storr, a breastfeeding expert at the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Nursing. “Trying to prevent formula being given in those early months is really important in terms of the baby’s health.” Experts also say giving soothers to breastfeeding newborns makes it harder for them to learn how to suckle. RIGOROUS PROCESS Storr says it could take the province up to five years to achieve the designation of “Baby Friendly” from the World Health Organization because it involves a rigorous approval process by independent assessors. Only two other hospitals in Canada and three birth centres are designated “Baby Friendly.” To achieve the designation, hospitals must, among other things, ensure staff initiate breastfeeding within 30 minutes of a baby’s birth, show new mothers how to breastfeed, allow mothers and their babies to remain together 24 hours per day in the hospital, give newborns only breast milk unless formula is medically necessary and prohibit soothers for breastfeeding infants. Hospitals must also have about 75 per cent of new mothers breastfeeding exclusively upon discharge. New Brunswick has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country, with only 17 per cent of mothers breastfeeding their babies for at least six months. The Canadian average is 39 per cent.

June Callwood (left) with then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in 2001 after being promoted to the rank of Companion in the Order of Canada. The award is Canada's highest honor for lifetime achievement. Jim Young/Reuters

Callwood was magnificent. She delivered her message as if she’d been speaking to a crowd of hundreds. But the indomitable social activist is running out of time — and running out of tricks. The cancer that was diagnosed three years ago is in remission, but not beaten. She recently underwent oral surgery to have a tumour removed. And her reservoir of fresh tactics is empty. She’s tried eloquence, anger, logic, humour and shame to move the nation’s politicians. She’s asked them to explain how countries such as Hungary and Poland — with rank 26th and 28th on the global wealth scale — can afford to treat

their youngest citizens better than Canada. She’s marched, pleaded, lobbied and built coalitions. Unlike other social activists, Callwood is not telling anyone how to vote — or how not to vote. She is asking Canadians to consider whether the tax cuts being dangled in front of them by all four national parties are really worth the price the country will pay in blighted lives and lost potential. Having said that, she leaves no doubt about what has to be done to cut child poverty: • Workers need jobs that pay enough to support a family. At the moment, a third of the children living in poverty have at least one parent who is

employed full-time. • Although minimum wage rates are set by the provinces, Ottawa could take the lead by setting a federal floor. The current rates in all 10 provinces fall below the level required to reach Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off. • Families need affordable housing. At the moment, approximately 750,000 children are in core housing need, which means their parents spend more than 30 per cent of their income on shelter. That doesn’t leave enough for groceries and other necessities. • Low-income parents need access to reliable child care. At the moment, only 15 per cent of the children of working parents can be accommodated in the regulated child-care system. Obviously, single mothers who are struggling to make ends meet are in no position to compete. According to Campaign 2000, an umbrella group representing 90 children’s organizations, only the New Democrats come close to meeting these criteria. It gives the Liberals a passing grade on child care and finds nothing to approve in the Conservative platform. The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada goes further, warning that a government headed by Stephen Harper would reverse 30 years of progress on early childhood education. Callwood and Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld, who cofounded the Campaign against Child Poverty eight years ago, try to steer clear of partisan politics. Their goal is to sway public opinion. But these are lean times, Bielfeld admits. “I believe in the decency of Canadian society, but I’m becoming increasingly restive. We are not responding to the despair around us. We’re not the lovely people we think we are.” The fight against child poverty will go on, no matter what happens at the polls, he vows. But he longs for recruits of Callwood’s resilience and strength of purpose.

INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 22-28, 2006 — PAGE 17

Film still from Stealing Mary.

Archeologist and filmmaker Jeff Sturge’s Beothuk documentary to show on small and big screens By Stephanie Porter The Independent

When cultures collide

his one started with a trip to his father’s basement. There, Jeff Sturge found a book, written by J. P. Howley in 1915, called The Beothuk or Red Indians. His interest was piqued. “Every Newfoundland kid learns about the capture of Mary March in school but a lot of times your eyes just glaze over,” he says. “You don’t really appreciate the story until you sit down and read it.” Back then, Sturge was an archeologist with a keen fascination in his home province’s history. Howley’s telling of the story of Mary March captured his imagination as something that could, and should, be made into something for public consumption. Sturge moved away from St. John’s eight years ago. He worked as an archeologist in Ireland until 2000, when he moved to Ontario to continue his career. One summer, he landed an internship at the Discovery Channel and his professional path took a sharp turn. “And here I am, five years later,” he says. Sturge is currently an associate producer for Cineflix Productions in Toronto. “I think it’s equally as satisfying to make documentaries about archeology as being in the dirt, digging. I like the creative outlet of sitting down, writing and researching and making shows.” (Not that all his projects are about history and artifacts — he’s currently preparing to shoot a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson for the Discovery Channel. “We’re going on a big road trip,” he says. “It’s a whirlwind tour, from New York to California in 10 days and we’re going to interview all these people he knew along the way …”)

Sturge says he shopped Stealing Mary around for years before hooking up with Windup Filmworks in Ontario and, eventually, Newfoundland producer Marian Frances White’s Fire Crown Productions in St. John’s. “Little by little, it kind of developed,” Sturge says. “This idea that took shape in my head for so long, and here it was getting to be made.” Heading into the project, Sturge’s goal was to deconstruct the violent capture of Demasduit (renamed Mary March) in 1819. She was separated from her child and brought to St. John’s, where she learned some English. Her husband was killed trying to rescue her, her infant died days after the capture. In 1820, the British decided to return her home — but she died of tuberculosis during the journey. Sturge turned to forensic science to help him tell the story: a trained reconstruction artist was able to recreate, for the first time, a Beothuk skull. “I actually found out that both Demasduit’s and her husband’s skulls were sitting in a museum in Scotland, pretty much forgotten about,” he says. “The explorer, William Cormack … he found her body and her husband’s in a (burial) tent and, being a great Victorian scientist, he lops off their heads and pops them in his bag and brings them back and measures them or whatever they do …” Cormack came back to Newfoundland and spent time with Shawnadithit, believed to be the last of the Beothuks. As she didn’t speak much English, he encouraged her to teach him about the people’s history — and the capture of Demasduit — through drawing. Sturge looked back at those drawings when planning and writing the film. He See “Neither culture,” page 22

LIVYER

‘Born again newfie’

Jim Bennett returned to his home province for good in 2002; now he’s chasing leadership of provincial Liberal party By Darcy MacRae The Independent

im Bennett has left the province once before, but says he’ll never live anywhere else again. The Daniel’s Harbour resident lived on the mainland for 19 years before returning to Newfoundland in 2002, a decision he rates as one of the best he’s ever made. “I feel like a born-again newfie,” Bennett tells The Independent. “I’m glad I got to come back.”

Bennett and his family — wife Sandra Pupatello, and children Victoria and Steven — left for the mainland in 1983, and would spend time in both Ontario and Alberta. Originally Bennett had a set plan on how long he would live away from his home province, but as is often the case, life interrupted his schedule. By 2002, he says the call to return home was simply too strong to ignore. “It was time,” Bennett says. “I knew I would come back eventually. When I left I planned on going for 10 years, I

wanted to get my kids raised and come back home. But eight years after I went away I went to law school, so that delayed me for a little while longer.” Bennett opened a law firm in Daniel’s Harbour upon returning home and has been enjoying life in the west coast town ever since. “The best aspect is I know everybody,” Bennett says. “My family is here, my friends are here, and there’s no place else I want to live. So why would I wait until retirement?”

Bennett says Daniel’s Harbour has a population of close to 350 people, a small town by any province’s standards. Although the community doesn’t have the shopping malls, fancy coffee shops or other conveniences as other cities, Bennett says Daniel’s Harbour more than makes up for it. “I find I have a lot more personal freedom here,” says Bennett. “Obviously I don’t have some of the same services that I would like to have See “Invisible minority,” page 22

Jim Bennett

JANUARY 22, 2006

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

NICOLE PITCHER Visual artist

icole Pitcher named her first solo show in St. John’s A Humble Goddess because, quite simply, she says that’s the way she sees herself. And it sounds a little more modest than “superhero. “You do feel like, being a woman, there’s so much you have to do,” she says. “You have to take out the garbage and you have to take care of the kids and you have to go to work and you have to make your art and you have to be pretty when you don’t want to be pretty … “Sometimes you feel like women should be superheroes or something. And then I thought, well maybe that’s what I am.” At 31, Pitcher seems well grounded and settled in her life. She has three young children, teaches art at a high school in Mount Pearl and — as the pieces of sculpture, drawing and textile work on display at Devon House attest — is also an accomplished artist. It might be difficult to find time to fit all that into regular 24-hour days, but Pitcher says she doesn’t really have a choice. “(Art) is just something I have to do,” she says. “It just another form of communication, another way to express yourself. If I don’t, I feel I’m not doing myself justice.” Listening to Pitcher talk about each piece, it’s clear everything she does is immensely personal. The work deals with topics ranging from body image to inner strength, from being crushed under expectations to her love of nature (and her highly unsuccessful summer of gardening). There’s a whimsical side to the collection as well, between the bright colours and sculptures of things like a three-eyed spider or a snail hitting the road. Pitcher walks over to one of the largest and most striking pieces in the show. It’s a man and a woman, locked in an embrace, feet rooted in the ground and arms reaching like branches to the sky. “This one is about being so in love with someone that you feel like you’re part of them. I did it for my husband … and when I was finished, my children asked, ‘Well, where are we?’ “So I put them in as bugs,” she laughs, pointing out the beetle, grub and ladybug on the wall hanging. Pitcher, from Blaketown, Trinity Bay, says she’s always been interested in arts and crafts, using scraps of material from her mother to make dolls at a young age. There was no art in her high school, but she went on to study fine arts at Sir Wilfred Grenfell in Corner Brook, and then completed a teaching degree. “I like symbolism and hidden messages and secrets in the work that only I know,” she says, likening it to a private diary. “I was so nervous putting this show up.” A Humble Goddess is on display at the Craft Council Gallery, Devon House, until Feb. 17. — Stephanie Porter

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

JANUARY 22, 2006

NOREEN GOLFMAN

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

CRANE WIFE

Standing room only

On the eve of construction I

f you are young, live in English Canada, and listen to the rapper 50 Cent you are most likely to vote Liberal. If you listen to Toby Keith (who’s he?) you will vote Conservative, and if you listen to Green Day you will vote NDP. In Quebec things are predictably different. You vote Bloc regardless of what listen to, but if you really like Destiny’s Child you vote Liberal. To quote someone, I am not making this up. Another statistic shows if you are young and live in English Canada and prefer vintage clothing you are voting NDP. If you prefer the GAP you vote Liberal or Conservative. You can see a cluster of themes here. Young Liberal and Conservative voters are conventional. They don’t mind or don’t even think about buying from multinational sweatshop producing corporations. Liberals contribute to the bank account of one of the most commercially successful rap artists of the decade. 50 Cent shills for Reebok, can boast his own video game, and even starred in a semi-autobiographical feature film. The title of the movie and of his major label debut could be the theme song for both the Liberals and the Conservatives: Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. Conservatives listen to a massively successful country singer adored by George W. who croons titles like She ain’t hooked on me no more and Get drunk and be somebody. As I said, I am not allowed to make this up. Young NDP voters are progressive, resist multinational chain stores, recycle clothing, and listen to a Communist-sounding People’s Choice Award band. Green Day’s most successful albums to date could well be the theme songs for the NDP: Warning and American Idiot. A really interesting statistic shows 62 per cent of young adults who listen to Green Day across Canada — Quebec included — say they will definitely vote. That’s higher than the national voter turnout in 2004. When the politicians like to blather on about how we all share Canadian values, they never talk in these terms. You have to do some serious digging to find out what the two major parties think about arts and culture policy, let alone what defines their members’ tastes and interests. But if you believe that cultural policy is intimately connected to the health of democracy, then you should be worried. During election campaigns, issues such as foreign ownership limits, CBC funding, and Canadian content regulations get scant attention if any at all. It’s odd, because the media in whose best interests it is to showcase these issues either completely ignore or trivialize any such discussion. Some are even calling this state of avoidance a cultural blackout. Last week 15 — albeit very Toronto-centric — film and television artists called a news conference to decry the virtual absence of any discussion of cultural policy during the campaign. Coverage of the event was almost openly condescending, when attention was paid at all. And so in the interest of fully informed voting practices, let’s consider what the three parties have managed to say about cultural policy, however reluctantly. FOREIGN OWNERSHIP On foreign ownership limits, the Conservatives are cagey. They won’t change the current restrictions until there is “consultation.” The Liberals are stronger, promising not to alter the current allowable limit of 40 per cent foreign ownership of our media. The NDP agrees with the Liberals. On the CBC, the Conservatives offer only one superficially benign line, promising to ensure the “vital role” of the broadcaster. The Liberals, who have done nothing but eviscerate the corporation for the last 20 years, hypocritically boast about their funding record and also promise to “ensure” blah blah blah. Only the NDP clearly promise “increased and stabilized funding” of the CBC. On Canadian content regulations, the Conservatives are careful to say they will “review” the policy, work on “public and private objectives,” and “respect” Canadian presence. The Liberals commit to Canadian content and endorse the role of the CRTC but are otherwise vague about the future. The NDP acknowledges “a serious decline in Canadian English language television drama product” and calls for a review of the regulations, presumably in the direction of greater public interest and less American content. So it is that in the area of cultural policy the Conservatives hint at their agenda, the Liberals thump their chests about their record, and the NDP openly commit to a strong national program. If you are an artist or appreciate what it is artists do then you are probably inclining towards the third alternative Jack Layton has been trying to promote. It is now safe to say that after a long reign of power and a tired attitude of entitlement, the Liberals will be ushered to less comfortable seats on the other side of the House. The best we can hope for in this dramatic historical moment is a Conservative minority with the NDP holding the balance of power. When you think about it, that picture has a lot of appeal. Such a unique arrangement would produce what it is the Liberals have always promised to be: a moderately liberal government that heeded to the regional diversity of the country while maintaining rigorous standards of accountability. What happens when you cross Toby Keith with Green Day? You get country music with an edge. Country punk. Sounds like Canada. Choose your soundtrack. Vote wisely. Noreen Golfman is a professor of literature and women’s studies at Memorial. Her column returns Feb. 5.

Soup Theatre presents Crane Wife, a beautiful Japanese folktale about a simple but honest peasant who saves the life of a crane one evening in the forest. The story is told through mask, dance, puppetry and music. A collaboration between Jason Smith, Darka Erdelji, Susan Kent (above), Chris Driedzic and Nicole Rousseau, the show runs Jan. 27-29 at the LSPU Hall. Paul Daly/The Independent

POET’S CORNER

T H E

O Beothuck

Silver

Where! Oh Beothuck, who in princely right Didst reign a king beneath the speading bough, Or sprightly through the forest sped with might, Or skimmed the lake, triumphant — where art thou? The graceful athletes that roamed these woods In manly stature, stately and alert, Have ta’en departure — they, and all their goods; Nor one faint footprint showest where they wert —

B A L L

Save some relics from decaying time, Grasped by some hand that shames the coward blow — These, only these, of all that tribal prime; Alas! Alas! ’Tis all we have to show.

Sponsored by

Saturday February 4, 2006 The Fairmont Newfoundland – Cavendish Square

By William H. White, as printed in volume one of The Book of Newfoundland.

A 7pm Champagne Reception

sponsored by in the Garden Court with music by the NSO. 8pm – Dinner and dance with music by Billy & the Bruisers.

Helping the NSO support its Symphony Goes to School Programme Black Tie Optional Tickets $125 single (A receipt will be issued for the charitable portion of the ticket price) Peter Gardner General & Artistic Director Principal Conductor Marc David

presents

Sinfonia #2

Call 722-4441

Peter Gardner conductor

Mozart’s 250th Birthday Party! Friday January 27, 2006 Arts & Culture Centre – 8pm

Join us for a Gala evening celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the esteemed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756). Enjoy a sampling of some of his great music including concertos, sonatas, operatic arias, quartets and serenades performed by the NSO Sinfonia, the Atlantic String Quartet, pianists Maureen Volk and Kristina Szutor, Duo Concertante, vocalists Jane Leibel, Catherine Fitch, Caroline Schiller, Shelley Neville, and Robert Colbourne, the MUN Chamber Orchestra with conductor Vernon Regehr. Also Alison Black violin, Pemi Paull viola, Victoria McNeill horn, Michelle Cheramy flute, David Reid euphonium and members of the NSO oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn sections.

Mozart — the guest of honour — will be there to blow out the candles on his cake ... all 250 of them! Single Tickets: $20/$17

Call 729-3900

May be available at the door.

Peter Gardner General & Artistic Director Principal Conductor Marc David

JANUARY 22, 2006

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

IN CAMERA

Knock, knock

The final push is on. For three of four candidates in St. John’s East that means spending a lot of time pounding the pavement doing abbreviated front-door job interviews for the position of Member of Parliament. Photo editor Paul Daly and reporter Alisha Morrissey spent time this past week with the candidates and voters on the hustings.

ome would say an election is won or lost on a party pitch, others argue it’s about how much money is in the campaign pot. In the dying days of an exhaustive, eight-week federal election battle, most candidates are going grassroots, banging on doors and politely asking for your support. ••• The floors of the NDP headquarters on Freshwater Road in the federal riding of St. John’s East are well worn. The tables are covered in paper, with maps and polls written on bristol board and tacked to the walls. Only three people are in the office this early in the day. Nancy Riche, campaign manager, busies herself with the phones and making the best coffee on the campaign trail. Still in his coat, retired pollster Gerald Barnable holds a handful of pamphlets. The third person in the smallish

WHO IS IT? The federal riding of St. John’s East takes in the uptown section of St. John’s, parts of Conception Bay South, as well as Bauline, Flatrock, Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, Paradise, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, Pouch Cove, Torbay and Bell Island. There are an estimated 45,000 households in the riding. • Liberal candidate Paul Antle says he knocked on about 5,000 doors. • Conservative incumbent Norm Doyle says he knocked on about 4,500 doors. • NDP candidate Mike Kehoe says he’s knocked on “a whole heck of a lot” of doors but hasn’t kept count. • Green Party candidate Steve Harris says he’s knocked on zero doors.

room is candidate Mike Kehoe. He comments on the lovely weather, the unique way his last name is spelled (“It would take a couple hours and a few dozen beers to explain why.”), and how his arthritis has improved from all the exercise over the past two months. Kehoe works for a St. John’s call centre and drives a taxi part-time. He jumps right into the political speak, throwing out the party stand

on health care (the bill goes on his MCP card, not his credit card), the Stephen Harper “fear factor,” and the problem with short memories in Newfoundland and Labrador. “I mainly sat back and griped to my friends as to the political end of it, and perhaps three to four years ago said if you don’t participate you lose all griping rights, and became involved and found the New Democratic Party,”

Kehoe tells The Independent. After heading out into the blustery day, Kehoe says he’s happy the first few doors weren’t answered — people are working. “Our riding is very fortunate that economically we’re awash in the economic revenues of … the oil end of it.” Kehoe says he hasn’t been turned away from a single door and no one’s been rude. In fact, he says he’s been invited inside on many occasions … and he’s only been chased by a few dogs. Halfway down the street, Kehoe strikes pay dirt when a woman in a purple nightgown answers the door and says she and her husband were just discussing who to vote for. The woman says her husband will probably vote NDP and she’s undecided. She says she’ll consider Kehoe on voting day because he’s the only one who’s come to her house. Further up the street, Kehoe’s asked if he feels like he’s selling

candy bars. “No, I feel like I’m asking for one,” Kehoe jokes in response. ••• It seems colder walking down Watson Street in Virginia Park. Liberal candidate Paul Antle’s cheeks are pink and his nose runs as he tugs at his sealskin jacket. Antle says he had his coat long before former MP John Efford started the trend. Knocking on one door, Antle sniffles and smiles … he knows the woman who answers. Joan Owens, the babysitter, actually lives across the street. She says when Antle campaigned on her doorstep the day before he told her she looked like someone who would vote for him. Owens says Antle’s right — she’s been a lifelong Liberal just like her father. Antle, owner of Island Waste Management Inc., walks back to his truck, which carries a big picture of him on the side, and drives back to his posh campaign office. Once there, he admits the door-

JANUARY 22, 2006

to-door campaign is one of his favourite parts of the election. “I have a ball with the door-todoor,” he says. “I don’t think we could ever get to them all, but I’ve enjoyed them all.” In his first election, Antle says he chose to run for the Liberal party because of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms brought in by a Liberal administration, as well as an allegiance to Prime Minister Paul Martin. While early in the campaign many people wanted to know about the Liberal stance on “macro” issues, he says since the end of the Christmas holiday voters have been more focused on their own local issues like the Torbay bypass road. With 10 communities in the riding, Antle admits it’s hard to deal with each issue — but he’s been trying. “In the last few weeks or so there has been a focus on Canadian values … and I think people are very happy right now

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

VOTING RECORD FOR 2004 Candidate Norm Doyle Walter Noel Janine Piller Scott Vokey

Party Conservative Liberal NDP Green

with where we are as a nation. They don’t want to see any erosion in our values,” Antle says. “I guess my job as a candidate is to talk to as many people as I can — earn their respect and get them to focus locally and say ‘OK, who do you want to represent you locally?’ You’re not voting for Stephen Harper directly.” ••• Conservative incumbent Norm Doyle says he’s never confident of a win in an election campaign. Doyle says the door-to-door work he’s been doing this time around is going well and he has his

Number of votes 15,073 13,343 7,198 791

record of service to thank for that. “You’re a recognisable face at the door. If I go and knock on 10 doors at least eight will say ‘Hi Norm. How are you?’ They know me because I’ve been around for a while.” Doyle has spent the last nine years in the House of Commons, with a 14-year stint prior to that in provincial politics. Doyle says he’s knocked on about 4,500 doors during this campaign and people seem to bring up the same issues. Constituents mostly want to know about health care and Liberal corruption, Doyle says,

adding a few local issues are thrown in. Back at his sparse office (only three folding chairs, a desk, and a computer furnish the whitewashed room) the anxiety of an election campaign can be heard outside in the larger rooms. Doyle says the winter election has been a blessing in disguise because no one’s on vacation. More than 400 people work on his campaign, he says, compared to 100 volunteers in June 2004. Change is coming, he predicts, based on internal party polling of the riding. “People feel that there is change in the air and I feel there’s change in the air and I can feel it.” ••• Green Party candidate Stephen Harris says he hasn’t spent a cent on his campaign or worn out a pair of shoes. Harris is going the computer route, running a completely online campaign. “I’ve taken a much different

approach, mainly because I know that I’m not going to win,” says Harris, 27. “It’s more important for me to open up the possibilities for the future. I want people to know that we exist. I want to fix Canada and to fix Canada we need change.” Harris plans to campaign after the current election, right up to the next one. “I’m pretty much one man on a mission right now,” he says. Harris says his main goal for this election is to get more votes than the 790 landed by the Green Party candidate who ran the last time. He’s already had nearly 600 hits on his weblog. “I would never ask someone to vote for me, I just want to open their eyes,” he says, adding he doesn’t like handing out leaflets or hammering down lawn signs. “I’d rather have conversations with someone and if people don’t want to have those conversations then there’s no need to go to the doors. This is a lifelong thing.”

JANUARY 22, 2006

22 â&#x20AC;˘ INDEPENDENTLIFE

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Invisible minorityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; From page 17 here, but after you get over the idea that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no Tim Hortons here, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss the mainland that much.â&#x20AC;? Although he is a small-town lawyer now, Bennettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first career was in the investment and insurance business, an industry in which he spent 15 years. In 1991 he enrolled at the University of Windsor (Ontario) to attend law school, as he attempted to achieve a long-time dream. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wanted to do law since I was about nine years old,â&#x20AC;? Bennett says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get into law school, like a lot of people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, so I went off and had another career. I raised my family and when they got pretty close to independence I had another run at law school.â&#x20AC;? Practicing law in a small town differs from doing so in a city, says Bennett. While the laws and ideals are the same, the settings are much different. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A circuit court comes up here, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost like an oldfashioned court. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a story all by itself,â&#x20AC;? Bennett says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In Port au Choix, for example, court is held in a Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s institute building. In Rocky Harbour itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a seniorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; complex. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost like wild west frontier justice. We travel around almost like they did hundreds of years ago.â&#x20AC;? While practicing law in Ontario, Bennett often found himself representing people of minorities, a trend a good friend picked up on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I remarked to someone that in my law practice I relate very well to minorities and this person said â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because you are one,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? says Bennett. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably right.â&#x20AC;? Bennett says after spending 19 years on the mainland, he believes Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are â&#x20AC;&#x153;Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s invisible minority. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I consider us a minority. We look like the rest of them, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a lot different inside. We see things differently,â&#x20AC;? Bennett says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are probably more differences, in my view, between your average Canadian and one of us than there is your average Canadian and a Quebecois.â&#x20AC;? A life-long supporter of the Liberal party, Bennett recently announced plans to run for the leadership of the provincial party. The 52-year-old says he has been involved with the party, in one way or another, since 1966 and has worked closely with Clyde Wells, John Crosbie (â&#x20AC;&#x153;During the Crosbie-Joey Smallwood leadership fight my family supported Crosbie, but when Crosbie packed it in and vacated the party, we stayed with the party.â&#x20AC;?) and Ontarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Herb Gray. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I suppose those back-room people you hear about, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be one of those,â&#x20AC;? Bennett says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;By now Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m one of those because I know so many people â&#x20AC;Ś I have a fair bit of experience in the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Party, the Ontario Liberal party, the federal Liberal party and even the Alberta Liberal party. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think I have a reasonably good understanding of what has to be done.â&#x20AC;? darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

+FMMJDMF DBUT DPNF PVU UPOJHIU +FMMJDMF DBUT DPNF POF DPNF BMM 5IF +FMMJDMF NPPO JT TIJOJOH CSJHIU +FMMJDMFT DPNF UP UIF +FMMJDMF #BMM

Political menu

Food columnist Nicholas Gardner on his election tastes

ooking at the political menu for the federal election makes me a bit weary. It is no different choosing an entrĂŠe on a large menu than it is choosing a political party to vote for. For the most part youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see the same types of leaders in most places across Canada. The Conservatives are like choosing the mussel special on a Tuesday. Everyone who has read Anthony Bourdainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book Kitchen Confidential will tell you that this choice is akin to intestinal suicide. They have been sitting in their own liquid since the weekend, and they smell a little off. Beware â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some of the Conservative candidates could be dead inside those tough exteriors and there is no telling what could happen to you if you let them inside your stomach â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or the country for that matter. The New Democrats are the vegan special. Sure, their leader Jack Layton talks a good line. He is interested in social programs, health care, job creation and all manners of things to keep the country healthy. So is the vegan platter, which is full of nuts and salad and fresh fruit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but nothing substantial. Where is the meat to this party? Where is the main course? After voting NDP all you really want is a good hamburger. The Bloc Quebecois are a different story â&#x20AC;&#x201D; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not even on the menu. They are so consumed with their own self-importance of being a distinct society that they have forgotten what

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the eating path national politics is about. The Bloc is like going to one restaurant and ordering take-out from another for delivery to your table. They have nothing to offer outside their own borders and nothing to offer the country but plain embarrassment. No self-respecting Canadian should vote for a Bloc MP as it would be undemocratic, just as no one would be so rude as to think they could get away with ordering from another place. Then we have the Liberals. What are they on the menu? Chicken. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right, chicken. Not the animal, but the product. We all know what it tastes like â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it tastes like chicken. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why so many people like chicken â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it can be anything you want it to be. The Liberals have been touting their chicken platform for so long we have all bought into it. They have had a rich time of convincing us that they have been anything other than chicken. There is a dark side to chicken. They all contain parasites â&#x20AC;&#x201D; salmonella. In fact 98 per cent of all chicken consumed contains some level of salmonella. And you know what happens to someone exposed to high levels of salmonella â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they get sick. And the

country, as a whole, is sick of the same chicken we have been trying to choke down for the past 12 years and for some people that is enough for them to say no to chicken. So when you look at the whole political menu you see bad mussels, a vegan platter, a take-out order from another place and a sole piece of chicken. So what would you choose? What will I choose? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been thinking about that for a bit. The mussels I will stay away from even if I am attracted to their scent. I know they are hiding something â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I am not sure what, but they are surely hiding something. The vegan platter is out â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I want a meal, not a lunchtime snack. The Bloc doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even enter the picture. The chicken, on the other hand, is tempting. I know what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like, and I know I will probably have chicken again. I am a meat and potatoes kind of political junkie â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I like to know what to expect from them. My choice for a candidate is known to the country, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been in the public eye for 14 years and he hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t changed his tune. He throws money about only when it suits him and he abhors the little man â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Montgomery Burns as PM for me â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at least he tells it like it is. Any other choice gives me heartburn. Nicholas is an erstwhile chef and current food writer now eating in St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

EVENTS JANUARY 22 â&#x20AC;˘ Exhibit opening Humble Goddess by Nicole Pitcher, Craft Council Gallery, Devon House, 2 p.m. â&#x20AC;˘ Fifth annual Young Folk at the Hall, 2 p.m., LSPU Hall, 753-4513. â&#x20AC;˘ Vacation Superstore trade show at the Fairmont Newfoundland Hotel, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. â&#x20AC;˘ St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fog Devils vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, 2 p.m., Mile One stadium. â&#x20AC;˘ The Avalon Unitarian Fellowshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regular Sunday service starts 10:30 a.m. at the Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street. â&#x20AC;˘ Memorial Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vice-president (research) Dr. Christopher Loomis, leads second of four public discussions on health research, 2:30-4 p.m. at the Fluvarium. Speakers are Dr. Sandra LeFort, Nursing, on chronic pain management and Drs. Barbara Neis and Stephen Bornstein on occupational health and safety issues in marine and coastal work. â&#x20AC;˘ Rock Can Roll Independent Music and Video Festival and Conference 2006: Conference begins 1 p.m. at the Masonic Temple; rock show at the Ship Pub starts 10 p.m.; all ages show at the Majestic Theatre 6:30 p.m. Visit www.independentartistscooperative.com for full list of conference sessions and bands. JANUARY 23 â&#x20AC;˘ Journaling Club discusses and practices various techniques for your writing, call Edith Lynch for location, 738-4932.

JANUARY 24 â&#x20AC;˘ Open studio at the Anna Templeton Centre dye studio every Tuesday evening, 7-10 p.m. With Susan Furneaux, dye technician, 739-7623 to book space.

Music, free.

JANUARY 25 â&#x20AC;˘ Folk night at the Ship Pub hosted by Ray Walsh with Greg and Carla Walsh, 9:30 p.m. â&#x20AC;˘ Autobahn, a new play by Neil Labute (Nurse Betty, In the Company of Men). Directed by Brad Hodder with live music by Pat Boyle and featuring Neil Butler, Ruth Lawrence, Steve Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell and more, 8 p.m., Masonic Temple, 753-7900. Continues until Jan. 29 with a paywhat-you-can matinee 2 p.m. Jan 29. â&#x20AC;˘ Rising Tide Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Revue 05, directed by Donna Butt, featuring Rick Boland, Petrina Bromley, Glenn Downey, Sean Panting and Jim Payne. Gordon Pinsent Centre for the Arts, Grand Falls-Windsor, 8 p.m. Continues Jan. 26 and Jan. 27-29 at the Gander Arts and Culture Centre.

JANUARY 27 â&#x20AC;˘ Soup Theatre Presents Crane Wife, a Japanese folktale told through puppetry and dance, a collaboration between Darka Erdelji, Jason Smith, Susan Kent, Chris Driedzic and Nicole Rousseau, 8 p.m. nightly until Jan. 29, with a matinee 2 p.m. Jan. 29., LSPU Hall, 753-4531. â&#x20AC;˘ Hockey Hall of Famers return to St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for the Oldtimers Hockey Challenge Classic, Mile One Stadium, 7 p.m. â&#x20AC;˘ Boyd Chubbs, Rose and Thistle, 6-9 p.m. â&#x20AC;˘ Are We There Yet? musical comedy, dinner and show, at the Majestic Theatre, 390 Duckworth St., 7 p.m. Also playing Jan. 28, 579-3023 for reservations. â&#x20AC;˘ Sinfonia #2, Mozartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday party, Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m., 729-3900. â&#x20AC;˘ Jody Richardson and Dave Rowe, Glenn Nuotio and band, and the Nordic Beat, Ship Pub, 10:30 p.m.

JANUARY 26 â&#x20AC;˘ MUN Cinema series: Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney, 7 p.m., Studio 12, Avalon Mall. â&#x20AC;˘ Newfoundland is Calling: Twillingate Stirlingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Concerts 1895-1897, Soprano Jane Leibel and pianist Tom Gordon perform a lecture-recital recreating Georgina Stirlingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensational homecoming concerts, 810 p.m., D. F. Cook Recital Hall, School of

JANUARY 28 â&#x20AC;˘ Banff Mountain Film Festival, a collection of the most inspiring and thought-provoking active, environmental, and adventure mountain films at the Inco Innovation Centre, Memorial University, 7-11 p.m. For ticket info call 7456626 or visit www.banffmountainfestivals.ca. â&#x20AC;˘ Shirley Montague and Louis McDonald Quartet perform an evening of jazz, St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m. 729-3900.

Neither culture understood the other From page 17

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arranged for a plaster cast to be made of the chiefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skull, and a DNA sample was extracted from the teeth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What satisfied me as an archeologist was, people were asking if the Beothuks were related to the Vikings, were they this or were they that,â&#x20AC;? Sturge continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No. By analyzing this DNA, they were most likely from an Algonquin tribe. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re native Americans. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And there were all these rumours about the great massacres, between white people and the Beothuks. Maybe there were a few fights but I think the main impetus for this extinction was starvation and disease. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go out with a bang, it was more a slow withering away, which is a sad thing and a crime.â&#x20AC;? In Stealing Mary, actors bring the characters and the situation to life, attempting to humanize a story now as much a part of Newfoundland folklore as history.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I hope when people see this itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll help them identify with who the Beothuks were,â&#x20AC;? Sturge says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a woman who was taken from her people â&#x20AC;Ś and we tried to get in and look at it from both points of view,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The life of a Newfoundland fisherman wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that easy either, and if you had a bunch of people robbing your nails and fishing nets and traps and using them to make other stuff thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s certainly going to piss you off. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about two cultures colliding and neither one understanding the other.â&#x20AC;? Stealing Mary is scheduled to air on History Television this spring, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s currently making the film festival rounds (it first played the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Film Festival in St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, may show in Berlin, and already â&#x20AC;&#x153;was received well at a film festival in Chinaâ&#x20AC;?). Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to see it played in classrooms, certainly in Newfoundland. So is there room for a Stealing Mary sequel?

Given scientists are still analyzing the extracted DNA, Sturge says â&#x20AC;Ś possibly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It definitely warrants it, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to get back with this crowd again,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a long way away. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to get back to your money jobs and paying your rent for a while.â&#x20AC;? But he laughs as he adds that the archeologically based documentary â&#x20AC;&#x201D; his forte â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is â&#x20AC;&#x153;a bit of a flooded market right now. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always putting stuff forward, always got stuff in the works,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to do something with archeology in it, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always helpful, always good to have an edge thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of topical, like forensic science or DNA. And stories about Newfoundland, those always appeal to me.â&#x20AC;? Stealing Mary screens at Empire Theatres Avalon Mall, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 22-28, 2006 — PAGE 23

Rick Van Poelgeest

Paul Daly/The Independent

Franchising Boston Pizza latest restaurant chain to move to St. John’s; second location opening in August By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

oston Pizza, a 45-year-old Canadian company (despite the name), has found its first franchise “niche” in Newfoundland and Labrador. Last week the company opened a 260-seat restaurant on Stavanger Drive in east end St. John’s and a second location is expected to be up and running by the end of August on Kelsey Drive off Kenmount Road. Rick Van Poelgeest, one of three partners involved in the Stavanger restaurant, tells The Independent St. John’s is an ideal location for Boston Pizza, a family-style eatery and sports bar. “I just think it fits well into our demographic,” he says. “Boston Pizza’s always been kind of a meat-and-potatoes type. We do well in places like small town Alberta, places like that, it doesn’t tend to do as well in downtown Toronto or downtown Vancouver … I think that casual family dining is a little bit under serviced here and hopefully we’re going to do well.”

Van Poelgeest is sitting in a comfortable booth. It’s the morning after the official opening and the restaurant is empty for now, emanating a faint new-car smell. He says the first day of operation was probably one of the smoothest he’s experienced to date, and with five other Boston Pizzas in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (which he partowns with fellow Stavanger Drive partner, Jeff Keeler), Van Poelgeest should know. Jason Dickie, the third partner involved, is the restaurant’s operating manager and recently moved to St. John’s from Vancouver with his family. All three partners are originally from British Columbia, but Van Poelgeest’s home base is Halifax, the location of his first Boston Pizza franchise on Bayers Lake, a popular big-box store development outside the downtown. Unlike Stavanger Drive, Bayers Lake is also home to a large Empire and IMAX theatre complex, a set-up Van Poelgeest says was being considered for Stavanger Drive around four years ago, when Boston Pizza first started thinking about a St. John’s location. “The theatres, they haven’t had much luck in

St. John’s from what I understand,” he says. “That’s always been a really good tie in with us. The shopping’s good, but if you can get the theatres, that tends to be our sort of crowd too.” With Stavanger Drive only likely to continue expanding, Van Poelgeest is confident the restaurant will be kept busy by shoppers — as well as serving as a deliberate destination for people looking for some casual dining. “Our main demographic’s always been the families, so they’re going to be around the places like Costco and Wal-Mart, places like that.” He says people interested in acquiring a franchise like Boston Pizza can either approach the company and ask to be located at a new store, or pitch a new location themselves. It helps to have industry experience and Van Poelgeest says the company tends to favour applicants with an interest in operating their restaurant personally. “I think a lot of people want to get into the restaurant business because there’s a certain attraction to it … it looks like a lot of fun. Obviously there’s a lot more work to it than that. “The thing I like about (Boston Pizza), they

really want you to be an operating franchisee. They don’t typically look for people that say ‘I have enough money and I’ll find somebody to run it, I just want to own a restaurant.’” But financial backing is important and he says an average set-up like the restaurant on Stavanger Drive would cost about $2 million. Van Poelgeest suggests $500,000 in unencumbered funding would be a good starting point. He also advocates having more than one partner. “It would be a lot for one person to take on and honestly it kind of disperses your risk a little bit too. “My advice would be, if you don’t have an interest in being part of it every day, then it may not be for you.” Boston Pizza is currently Canada’s No. 1 casual dining chain with 225 restaurants across the country, 35 in the United States and annual sales in excess of $500 million. The Stavanger Drive location creates 110 new jobs for the community. clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

To the letter Province won’t release 22-year-old letter of intent without Hydro-Quebec permission By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

letter of intent sent from HydroQuebec in 1984 to Newfoundland Hydro stating a willingness to deal with the inequities of the upper Churchill contract is still safely within the possession of the provincial government, according to a spokeswoman with the Natural Resources Department. Carmel Turpin tells The Independent all such documents are generally archived, but she couldn’t say whether the letter might hold any relevance today if the Danny Williams administration attempts to take another look at the contract. She says government isn’t prepared to release a copy of the letter without first securing Hydro-Quebec’s permission. “We are doing a review of that,” she

says. “We have to contact a third party involved (Hydro-Quebec) and depending on when we hear back from them, would be whether or not it would be released.” Sylvain Theberje, a spokesman for Hydro-Quebec, says the company is still waiting to hear back from the province regarding its proposal to develop the lower Churchill alongside Ontario Energy Financing and SNC Lavalin, an engineering firm. He says they’re not currently prepared to consider renegotiating the upper Churchill contract. “No, for the moment we have an agreement and we are working very well with the Newfoundland and Labrador government with that agreement, with that contract, so nothing has changed,” says Theberje. The contract, signed in 1969, gives Hydro-Quebec cheap access to almost

all upper Churchill power until 2041. Industry experts have estimated the company could profit by up to $2 billion this year, compared to Newfoundland and Labrador’s $32 million take. GOOD WILL Hydro-Quebec’s 1984 letter of good will was sent during Brian Peckford’s tenure as premier, at a time of heated negotiations over the development of the lower Churchill. The correspondence first came to public attention in November 1996 when then-premier, Brian Tobin quoted from it in a speech about the upper Churchill contract. “Bearing in mind the need to reach a compromise approach to a more equitable return to Newfoundland as the owner of the hydraulic resources of the upper Churchill, the parties agree to devise a formula whereby Newfound-

land would receive a fair and equitable return for the electricity produced, taking into account the need to adapt the terms of existing arrangements to the new reality which has arisen since the original arrangements were entered into,” the correspondence read. Turpin says that excerpt from Tobin’s speech sums up the substance of the entire letter. In an interview earlier this month with The Independent, Peckford dismissed the relevancy of the letter today, saying Tobin “inflated” its importance. The letter is the first and perhaps only time Hydro-Quebec has ever formally admitted to inequities in the upper Churchill deal, but Peckford said it was simply an example of Hydro-Quebec’s “airy fairy” negotiating tactics at the time. “After we pursued it and we went back into negotiations big time, every-

thing, as always, it fell away,” he said. Premier Danny Williams says his administration is always examining ways to potentially tackle the terms of the upper Churchill contract, although they have no immediate plans to broach the subject with Hydro-Quebec. On Friday, the province announced a $17-million refundable application to Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie to request an open access, tariff-set transmission service of lower Churchill power through Quebec. The Department of Natural Resources currently has a team working to develop an energy plan for the province, and public and industry discussions examining resources from petroleum and hydro-electricity to alternative projects such as wind power are ongoing. clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca

24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

JANUARY 22, 2006

YOUR VOICE

Battery development sets ‘dangerous precedent’ Editor’s note: the following letter was sent to all councillors with the City of St. John’s, with a copy forwarded to The Independent.

residents. By extension, those councillors who agreed to this fast-track, bendover, and damn-the-rules way of business have shown the same disregard. City staff rightly told Mr. Butler that he would need to submit specific documentation. The minimum requirement is a site plan of the proposed building showing the height, bulk and sitting in relation to the surrounding area. That an artist’s sketch was submitted in lieu of this is a farce.

I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed text amendment to the St. John’s Development Regulations to accommodate the proposed redevelopment of the Battery Hotel site. My reasons are outlined below. 1) Following reason or free-for all? In recognizing the unique character and the cultural and historical importance of the Battery and Signal Hill area, the City of St. John’s in 2003 undertook a study to develop guidelines for future developments in that area. After several tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars were spent, and consultations and research undertaken, guidelines were drawn up to ensure that regulations were fair and explicit for existing and future property owners. City council adopted the guidelines and staff were advised to work on their implementation into the St. John’s

Digital illustration by Chris Brookes

Development Regulations. It should be remembered that these guidelines recommended that any further redevelopment of the Battery Hotel site stay within the existing building envelope (i.e. no increase in existing height or width). Coun. Keith Coombs’ motion and council’s acceptance to exempt the Battery Hotel site from the Battery guidelines form is clearly a dangerous precedent that will destabilize development in the Battery area. It may very well lead to a free-for-all. By ignoring

and contravening the development regulations and the Battery guideline regulations, the application sets a dangerous precedent for future development applications. 2. Message to developers: we bow to bullies. In circumventing the due building development process, Rick Butler has shown a blatant and arrogant lack of respect for the City of St. John’s, for its development regulations and for city

3. A double standard is no standard. By exempting the Battery site from the Battery guidelines for a U.S. developer while enforcing them for local residents is simply a despicable double standard. Residents have had to abide by these guidelines for nearly two years. There are several cases in which residents’ applications to expand existing property have been turned down — sometimes at great expense to them — because the city has followed these guidelines.

plan. Why is the city acting like a has-been bending over for a quick buck? Does it not realize that the Battery Hotel site is prime real estate and yes, if Mr. Butler doesn’t want to play by the rules, then there will undoubtedly be other developers in the near future who will? They’re not all going to run away because someone said respect our development process, our communities, our people and you will get the opportunity to redevelop the most sought-after hotel space east of the Rockies! A city that touts its heritage should chose carefully in whom it entrusts its future. In closing, I believe that increasing the size of the current Battery Hotel by 3.5 times is completely out of scale and context in a residential neighbourhood. It will become the focal point of Signal Hill when viewed from the rest of the city, and belittle the cultural and historical significance of The Battery, Cabot Tower, and Signal Hill. Alison Dyer, St. John’s

4. Prime real estate deserves prime

Government must change to save fisheries

‘How would Canadians react …’

Dear editor, According to research, 44,000 tonnes of groundfish were harvested in 2005, compared to 1.7 million tonnes in 1974. Those figures illustrate the decline in our fisheries that started in 1970-71 and actually continued through until the moratorium in 1992. While environmental conditions are always used by DFO as an excuse for their poor management of the resource, they have never been able to answer our question as to why several other countries in the north Atlantic still have strong sustainable fisheries in 2005. Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Barents Sea are all subject to the same environmental conditions as Canadian fisheries, but the difference is they have applied sustainable fisheries management to create healthy fisheries and as a result are more than capable of competing with China, Japan or any other country in the fishing industry. Officials with NAFO and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans cannot explain why fish stocks inside 200 miles are recovering — including

Dear editor, In 1949 Ottawa took possession and control of our fisheries as part of the package of our province joining Canada. They mismanaged the resource into oblivion during a process that allowed overfishing and the bartering away of licences to foreign countries that fished the continental shelf. The move resulted in the denial of our people’s right to inshore fish. This ongoing mismanagement is to blame for the slow and insidious decline of a magnificent 500-year-old coastal heritage, our very soul. Ottawa did not act at the time the upper Churchill contract was signed between Newfoundland and Quebec. Fearing Quebec would separate from Canada, they allowed a deal in which one province essentially took another province’s resource in total contradiction to that stated in our bill of rights. Or, as recently explained in an Independent article by Vic Young, the national policy that allows the transferring of oil across provinces but not electricity. How would any Canadian in any other province feel about their country if they had to live with these facts, that every day their government

cod on the St. Pierre Bank and bay stocks, as well as yellowtails on the Grand Banks — while the same groundfish species outside 200 miles show no signs of recovery. The reason is simple of course: foreigners are still brutally overfishing outside 200 miles and Canada doesn’t have the will to protect and properly manage fisheries. Canada has wasted 14 years since the moratorium during which absolutely nothing was done by any government to try and rebuild the resource. Unless there is a change in government and a completely new attitude in Ottawa all our fisheries will become extinct in the near future. Unless Canada implements some form of management over the total fishery resource off our coast we will never see any sign of recovery. Successive Liberal governments have shown no interest whatever in recognizing the enormous value of a recovered fishery — the only possible solution to saving rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Gus Etchegary, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s

allows another province to reap a tremendous wealth from their resource while they get next to nothing. How would any province feel if they, having the highest economic and infrastructure cost and largest out-migration of jobs (200,000 in some 30 years to other parts of Canada), were not allowed by the government to build a

This ongoing mismanagement is to blame for the slow and insidious decline of a magnificent 500-yearold coastal heritage, our very soul. new refinery to handle their future production of billions of barrels of oil until the refineries in other parts of Canada are at full capacity? The building and running of such a refinery would create thousands of high paying jobs and result in a strong economic and tax base well into the future. How would other Canadians react if

every step had been taken to disrupt the building of a smelter in their province? A smelter that would result in stopping the outflow of ore to other provinces while resulting in their province smelting the largest body of minerals the world has ever known (Voisey’s Bay), and in the process creating thousands of desperately needed jobs just as a new refinery would do. The federal government recently stated that during their tenure the nation has paid down her debt and that they are proud of the work they have done in strengthening the economy. Strengthening of the economy yes, but for anyone aware of how the federal government has allowed the abuse of Newfoundland’s resources, I ask how does this treatment strengthened the populace of Newfoundland and Labrador as a people of Canada? As members of the Canadian family our guardian has mainly been concerned about its economy, global image and maintaining its hold on power. The fact is they have neglected our rights as citizens of Canada, our rights so eloquently stated in the Canadian Bill of Rights. Dr Phillip Earle, Carbonear

‘Double standard’ at work with Labrador wind power Dear editor, According to The Globe and Mail’s Jan. 18 business report, Ventor Energy Inc. of Toronto (a private company) in conjunction with a “Metis” organization is spending $2.5 billion to build a wind-generated power project in the Happy Valley-Goose Bay area of Labrador. Power from this project would be transmitted via the Churchill Falls station. If a Toronto corporation is spending this kind of money, you can be sure they will get a somewhat better rate for their energy than Newfoundland and Labrador, which gets next to nothing. Obviously, a deal has been struck or at least Quebec has been “told” and this time around Quebec will not be lying in ambush like a bunch of lowbrow, bushwhackers. It would appear to me that a double

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standard is at work here, so I do not think it is unreasonable to infer that central Canada must think that with Confederation it “annexed” not only the island of Newfoundland but its mainland territory as well and therefore has the right to do, more-or-less, whatever it likes in Labrador. If this is so, viewed from a broader perspective, I would suggest that Ottawa and Quebec are playing a potentially dangerous game. For instance, in 1991 Saddam Hussein tried to “effect border change” in Kuwait with disastrous results. I hope that these people do not think that they have accomplished (i.e. overthrown the decision of the Privy Council of 1926) with guile and deceit what Saddam could not do with military force. Joe Butt, Toronto

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 25

IT worker shortage feared Perception of tight job market blamed

Douglas Coupland

John David Weir

Gen-X writer to design ‘killer toboggan run’ By Naomi Carniol Torstar wire service

ancouver writer Douglas Coupland wants to give Toronto the world’s best toboggan run. And an obstacle course for dogs. And maybe lookouts above the Gardiner Expressway. The author of Generation X and All Families Are Psychotic has been hired by Concord Adex Developments Corp. to help design a public park near the Gardiner. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Coupland says. “It’s not often you get a blank canvas like this.” The park will be part of Concord CityPlace, a 20-tower residential project between Front St. and the Gardiner on both sides of Spadina Ave. Coupland hasn’t designed a park before, but that might work to his advantage. Many designers on the shortlist had done large-scale works before, but there was “a sense of predictability,” says Karen Mills, a consultant who worked with Concord Adex to find a designer. The firm needed someone to deliver an innovative design. Coupland is famous for his writing, but he’s

also an artist. He studied at Vancouver’s Emily Carr Institute and his work has been shown at the Monte Clark Gallery in Toronto. “He uses materials and forms in ways that are not what you would expect,” Mills says The fact Coupland hasn’t designed a park is “a bit of a risk,” says Alan Vihant, Concord Adex’s vice-president of development, but he believes the gamble will pay off. “He’s got some off-thewall ideas to make this park memorable. And if a park is memorable … it can become an icon not only for this community, but for this city.” Coupland will collaborate with landscape architects Greg Smallenberg of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg and David Leinster of the Planning Partnership. They’ll look at making the park user-friendly at all times of the day and in all seasons. That’s where the toboggan run and dog obstacle course come in. There are 20,000 truckloads of dirt at the site. Some will help create a hill higher than the Gardiner, Coupland says. “What goes up must come down, so why not make a killer toboggan run?”

U.S. opts for security card WASHINGTON By Tim Harper Torstar wire service

n a foreshadowing of what will be required of Canadians, Americans entering their country by land will need a secure document the size of a credit card that carries a single photograph, a unique identifier and costs about $50. Details of the new ID card were released last week by state department and homeland security officials who then met with Canadian officials to work out details on a document that Canadians can use when they cross the international border. The cards will begin to be distributed by the end of this year, although they will not be required for land crossings until the end of 2007. But by the end of this year, all Canadians arriving in the U.S. by air or sea will require passports. While the officials stress that a version of the Canadian card is in Ottawa’s hands, it will have to meet the same security standards Washington expects of its own citizens. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff stress the welcoming nature of their country, but their officials say they are still seeking passenger data on domestic Canadian flights that use American airspace. “While advancing our legitimate security interests, we are taking new steps to welcome a greater number of foreign visitors to America than ever before,” Rice says. “We are renewing America’s welcome to general travellers and tourists.” One official concedes Washington often used a “blunt instrument’’ to deal with post-9/11 security concerns, but Rice also sought to dispel the notion that her department is often seen as “soft’’ on security. “We at the state department are firmly committed to border security and to protecting our nation and we will make the necessary tough decisions to do so,’’ she says. Chertoff says the U.S. card will be known as

the PASS (People Access Security Service) and will be invaluable for those who cross the northern or southern borders regularly. “We’re talking about essentially like the kind of driver’s licence or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets day in and day out,” he says. A homeland security official says Washington and Ottawa are “closely aligned’’ on the issue. “We’ve been talking carefully about the technology,’’ he says. “We know that they know there is a requirement from our Congress to do this, they know the timeline. We’ve got to work through the technology issues and we’ve got some process issues, … There’s a fair deal of work to do, but I think there is a good spirit and a good sense of working on it in common.” Another official says Canadians are as anxious to get this program working as the Americans and she says she noticed no slowing of the process because of the election in Canada. She says Ottawa has for years been urging Canadians to obtain a passport to travel to the U.S. and Washington sees this as the next logical step, something that will speed land passage at the border. Every individual crossing the border, including infants, will need a card, meaning it will cost a family of four close to $200 (U.S.). Officials did not say how long the card would be valid. Right now, U.S. passports are valid for 10 years. Canadian passports, while priced comparably, are valid for five years. The state department says it anticipates issuing some 27 million cards for Americans who cross land borders from either Mexico or Canada. It says 23 million Americans made 130 million border crossings on the north or south border last year, but says 500,000 persons made up almost half, or 60 million, of those crossings. Under U.S. law, the cards will be required by Jan. 1, 2008, from all Americans, Canadians and Mexicans arriving in the U.S. over land crossings.

he Canadian high-tech sector may be in full recovery, but a serious skills crisis looms unless more students, parents and high-school guidance counsellors shed the perception that information-technology jobs are in short supply, two industry groups are warning. “There’s a dichotomy at the moment in what kids are being told and what’s needed, and that’s creating a (skills) shortage and a problem that will emerge,” says Bernard Courtois, chief executive officer of the Information Technology Association of Canada. He says many students continue to be dissuaded from entering computer science and computer engineering programs despite the fact that employment in the sector is growing at levels not seen since the dot-com boom. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 13,000 new jobs were created in the country’s computer and telecommunications sector in 2005, bringing the total to 597,600. It’s not as high as the 664,200 jobs reached in the peak year of 2001, but it’s the first gain in four years. Those figures exclude information-technology jobs outside the industry, such as with banks, retailers and other sectors, where demand for skilled workers who can implement and manage IT systems may be growing faster than the domestic market will be able to handle down the road. Lynda Leonard, a senior vice-president at the IT association, says the trend is “quite troubling” and needs to be addressed. “The industry has to figure out what to do to intervene, to get the message out that there’s still really good, well-paying jobs in the sector.” The same trend is being observed at the Software Human Resource Council, which has been tracking the labour situation in the nation’s software sector since 1992. “I can’t tell you how many parents are telling their kids not to go (into computer science), or how many guidance counsellors are saying it, but what we’re seeing is a significant drop in enrollment, particularly at the community college level,” says Paul Swinwood, president and CEO of SHRC. Swinwood, who routinely holds meetings with college and university officials, says most college representatives to whom he’s spoken have reported a 30 per cent to 50 per cent decrease in program enrollments since 2002, and many universities have experienced declines of 20 per cent or more. “We’ve had colleges close their IT courses. We have had complete faculties laid off,” says Swinwood. “We’re quite concerned.”

TYLER HAMILTON

According to Statistics Canada, nearly 13,000 new jobs were created in the country’s computer and telecommunications sector in 2005, bringing the total to 597,600. It’s not as high as the 664,200 jobs reached in the peak year of 2001, but it’s the first gain in four years. He says the situation becomes more worrisome when one considers that a substantial portion of information technology workers in the country will be retiring over the next few years. In the federal government alone, 40 per cent of IT staff will be eligible for retirement come 2008, he adds. “How is that gap going to be filled?” Douglas Howe, director of the school of computer science at Carleton University in Ottawa, says there doesn’t appear to be a crisis at the moment. He reports that before 2004 there were substantial drops in computer science enrollments across North America, but the environment has since improved. “In the last year or two, enrollments seem to have stabilized,” Howe says. Torstar wire service

JANUARY 22, 2006

26 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION

Mobile Computing Analysts Ad #: Mobile Computing Analysts-CB

Location: St. John's, NL

YOUR FUTURE STARTS HERE…

…AND NOW.

Charles River Consultants has provided Technical Help Desk Support, Application Development and High Definition Imaging personnel to Major Corporations for long-term assignments for over twenty-three (23) years. We are currently searching for two additional Mobile Computing Analysts. Responsibilities include: • Mobile and Remote Access Platform System Configuration • Work in conjunction with the Mobile Remote Experts group to identify and resolve issues with remote remediation efforts to patch and update remote machines • Trouble Shooting remote connectivity issues • New and Emerging Technology Evaluation/Piloting • Off-Site Conference Remote Access Solutions and Support • Training users on procedures and policies, as well as the use of Firm's remote access tools • Train divisional helpdesks on supporting all remote access methods and tools • Mobile System and Technology Administration • Advises client users on the capabilities of client Mobile Computing and Remote access capabilities and recommend the best fit for their requirement - Supporting Dial up, Broadband, VPN, Citrix, and various other remote technologies • Administration of authentication tools such as SecurID and Active Directory • Application support including but not limited to Windows XP, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and various other browsers, VPN, Firewall, and Antivirus software • Supporting high profile clients including top level executives and managing directors • Supporting wireless devices such as RIM Black/Blueberries • Assisting users with the post cloning process to configure freshly built machines to connect properly and carry over their settings from regular profile.

CUSTOMER SERVICE JOB FAIR! Monday, January 23th, 2006 • 2 pm - 7 pm TeleTech Mount Pearl Square • 760 Topsail Road Mount Pearl, NL NOW HIRING FOR OPPORTUNITIES IN CUSTOMER SERVICE! INBOUND CALLS ONLY! Please join us. We are hiring for full time positions. Learn about our worldwide operations and discover the many advantages of being on the TeleTech team. We’re also hiring for a Human Capital Manager, Talent Acquisition Manager, Training Manager, Operation Supervisors and support position. As one of Mount Pearl’s largest employers, we offer great pay, excellent benefits including health, dental, life, retirement and tuition reimbursement programs - to enthusiastic, service-focused professionals who go the extra mile to satisfy our customers. Comprehensive benefit plans are available after a brief waiting period. Apply online to:

www.HirePoint.com Act quickly...these newly created opportunities are sure to fill up fast!

EOE

Skills/Qualifications • Computer Science Degree or Diploma in Computers preferred - Certifications would be considered an asset • Minimum of 5 years experience required • Extensive knowledge of the following: • Windows XP • VPN • Broadband(DSLCableISDN) • Active Directory • Wireless (802.11 b/getup/IP) • Blackberry • Candidate has to pass security background checks, including financial • Documentation experience with a minimum of 5 - 10 years business experience

Financial Consultants Ad #: CB-02-012409

Please email résumés with salary range expectations to hrtech@crc.net and include Mobile Computing Analysts-CB in the subject line.

Investors Group Financial Services has been a leader in Canadian financial planning for over 75 years. With a solid reputation and market leading systems and support, Investors Group is looking for driven, business-minded professionals across Atlantic Canada who are only satisfied with the best life has to offer. Key Qualifications include:

Safety Systems Lead Ad #: CB2005-22 At Petro-Canada, we believe superior business results are achieved by creating a work environment that values diversity and encourages people to perform at their personal best. We have an immediate opening for the following: Safety Systems Lead This position is accountable for the design and operation of Loss Control related facilities and equipment for Terra Nova. Specific responsibilities include: Providing loss control design, operability and maintainability in the fire protections systems, lifesaving appliances, evacuation systems and spill containment & drainage systems Resolving operational problems associated with Loss Control facilities and equipment Familiarity with flag state, classification society, SOLAS and other loss control rules, regulations and standards and demonstrated ability to manage regulatory issues related to Loss Control design Planning, preparing and coordinating execution of Safety equipment maintenance campaigns Promoting and introducing new technology Qualified candidates shall possess a Bachelor of Engineering degree and Professional Engineering designation and a minimum of ten years related experience in the Oil & Gas industry including experience in fixed and floating production systems, marine safety appliances, topsides facilities and systems and offshore operations support. We are seeking candidates with excellent leadership, communication and decision-making skills who have the ability to adapt behaviours and ideas to work effectively in a team based environment. Consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, qualified residents of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador will be given first consideration in staffing these positions. Engineers will be required to register with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador. Petro-Canada is the operator of the Terra Nova oil field development. The field is located on the Grand Banks 350 km east-southeast of St. John's. Discovered in 1981, Terra Nova is the second largest field off Canada's east coast. Estimated reserves are 370 million barrels of recoverable oil. The field is being developed using a floating production facility.

• An outgoing, confident personality • A strong sense of independence and desire to succeed • A professional demeanor • A proven track record of success • A natural instinct for networking and building relationships • A dedication to professional development While not required, the following advantages would be recognized: • Professional designation from or current enrollment in the Certified Financial Planners Council of Canada program • Experience in the financial services industry • Completion of licensing for mutual funds and insurance Successful Financial Consultants with Investors Group can expect the limitless financial rewards and personal freedoms that come from independently operating their own business. Together with the finest support systems in the industry, their level of success is determined by their own activity. There are also management opportunities available for the right candidates. To find out what your true potential is, send your resume and cover letter quoting reference #CB-02-012409 to:

Reply in confidence with resume, quoting competition # CB2005-22, by January 23, 2006, to: Human Resource Services 235 Water Street, Suite 201 St. John's, NL A1C 1B6 Fax: (709) 724-2901 Email: nfrecruitment@petro-canada.ca

Consultant Resumes Kim Jordan Suite 1409, Purdy's Wharf Tower 2 1969 Upper Water St. Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3R7 Fax (902) 422-5334

Petro-Canada appreciates the interest of all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Your application to this posting is deemed to be consent to the collection, use and necessary disclosure of personal information for the purposes of recruitment. Petro-Canada respects the privacy of all applicants and the confidentiality of personal information and we will retain this information for a period of 1 year.

Location: Labrador City,NL

Team Leader- Crane Crew

Ad #: CR-05228

Reporting to the Superintendent - Main Service Shops, the Team Leader (Crane Crew) will be responsible to ensure maintenance activities are carried out to fixed plant, mobile equipment and associated facilities in a safe and efficient manner to enable the Maintenance department to meet the present and future needs of the business. The successful candidate will under his/ her control:

Work Experience:

Desirable

Essential

• Ensure all work is carried out safely • Ensure job procedures are followed correctly and Maintenance activities are carried out as planned • Monitor compliance to maintenance schedules and provide timely feedback to Maintenance leadership • Ensure data integrity is maintained to ensure maintenance information systems are updated and accurate • You are a highly motivated individual with strong communication skills; you have the ability both to work independently and to contribute effectively to a team effort

Essential

• 3 year Technology diploma • Post Secondary Education

• Newfoundland Grade XII or equivalent

• Business experience with maintenance related activities • Basic computer literacy

Desirable • Overhead Crane and Elevator Maintenance Experience • Leadership experience • First Aid Certificate • Font line supervisory experience • Familiarity with relevant regulation

Compagnie minière IOC

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 27

Financial Advisor Ad #: 04-226-CB

Management Ad #: JAN09M-CB SS Subway Ltd established in 1986 with the first Subway restaurants in CANADA, is now hiring:

Location: St. John's, Gander, Marystown, Bay Roberts, Corner Brook, NL Company URL: http://www.lfs.ca Contact Name: Paula Coulson, Director of Recruitment and Training Contact E-mail: paula.coulson@LFS.ca

• Location Management

• Assistant Managers • Night Management

Be Daring! Join the LFS Team! Laurentian Financial Services (LFS) is part of Desjardins Financial Security, with assets of over $80 billion, the 6th largest financial services organization in Canada . We are a Canadian leader in the financial services industry with a dynamic coast-to-coast network, comprised of 43 financial centres and more than 1,100 associate partners. LFS is a full service financial services provider with access to multiple insurer and investment fund products. Our track record is based on the quality of support services delivered to associates with a company wide commitment to professionalism. We believe in listening to our associate's needs for providing the products and tools needed to maximize their value in meeting clients' financial planning needs. Due to our exceptional growth we are looking for individuals to join our newly established financial centre in St.John's, NL in the role of Financial Advisors. Join the LFS Team and improve your business by: We are looking for people who are: 1. Staying independent, while maintain access to • Entrepreneurial a multi-disciplinary team and qualified experts • Problem solvers 2. Receiving financial backing to purchase viable • Out-going blocks of business • Commitment to quality 3. Having access to multiple insurers and products and • Hard working more than 60 mutual funds and segregated fund companies • Professional 4. A competitive pooled compensation bonus structure • Service oriented and immediate vesting • Computer literate 5. Incentive plans based on multiple insurers' products, • Committed to continuing education and mutual and segregated funds personal development 6. New associate training and mentoring programs • Experienced in sales (an asset but not necessary) which are unique in the industry Interested individuals are invited to apply directly to Paula Coulson, 7. Market planning and support Director of Recruitment and Training via e-mail at 8. Business continuation support paula.coulson@LFS.ca quoting Ref#: 04-226-CB. 9. Leading edge technology

for their multi-unit operation in St. John’s, Mt. Pearl, Paradise. Successful candidates would have experience in the food service and/or hospitality industry, demonstrate mature business judgement, and hold strong problem solving and communication skills.

Responsibilities may include: Maintenance of all standards relevant to the franchise. Financial record keeping & banking. Marketing Human Resources Cost Control

Competitive Remuneration may include: NEW Progressive Salary & Quarterly Bonus structure Health & Dental Insurance ADD & Life Insurance Health & Fitness Benefits Flexible Scheduling Professional Development Training benefits To arrange a confidential interview, please forward your resume and cover letter, quoting JAN09M-CB, to: SS Subway Ltd Human Resources Dept. 25 Kenmount Road, Suite 204 St. John’s, NL A1B 1W1 Or by email subway@nfld.net

Asset Integrity Lead Ad #: CB2005-18

At Petro-Canada, we believe superior business results are achieved by creating a work environment that values diversity and encourages people to perform at their personal best.

We have an immediate opening for the following: Asset Integrity Lead This position is accountable for the management, coordination and execution of the integrity program for the Terra Nova FPSO. Specific responsibilities include: Developing and implementing pressure equipment, hull & topsides structure, lifting equipment and subsea integrity management programs; Providing recommendations, coordinating repairs and approving inspection plans; Delivering integrity assessments and providing repair recommendations; Performing failure analysis; Providing technical assistance on cathodic protection system design, specialty chemical treating, corrosion monitoring programs, electrochemical corrosion monitoring programs and inspection techniques; Performing audits of Terra Nova and contractor performance related integrity management. Qualified candidates shall possess a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical or Metallurgical) degree and Professional Engineering designation and a minimum of ten years related experience in the Oil & Gas industry including experience in implementing and managing integrity management programs and corrosion control systems. Working knowledge of API (American Petroleum Institute) 510 or National Board experience would be an asset We are seeking candidates with excellent leadership, communication and decision-making skills who have the ability to adapt behaviours and ideas to work effectively in a team based environment. Consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, qualified residents of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador will be given first consideration in staffing these positions. Engineers will be required to register with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador. Petro-Canada is the operator of the Terra Nova oil field development. The field is located on the Grand Banks 350 km east-southeast of St. John's. Discovered in 1981, Terra Nova is the second largest field off Canada's east coast. Estimated reserves are 370 million barrels of recoverable oil. The field is being developed using a floating production facility. Reply in confidence with resume, quoting competition # CB2005-18, by January 23, 2006, to: Human Resource Services 235 Water Street, Suite 201 St. John's, NL A1C 1B6 Fax: (709) 724-2901 Email: nfrecruitment@petro-canada.ca Petro-Canada appreciates the interest of all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Your application to this posting is deemed to be consent to the collection, use and necessary disclosure of personal information for the purposes of recruitment. Petro-Canada respects the privacy of all applicants and the confidentiality of personal information and we will retain this information for a period of 1 year.

EDI Administrator Ad #: EDI CB

Stationary Engineer (Second Class) Ad #: CR-05218 Labrador City, NL

Charles River Consultants has provided Technical Support, Application Development and High Definition Imaging personnel to major corporations for over twenty-five (25) years. We are currently searching for an EDI Administrator for St. John's, Newfoundland.

The Iron Ore Company of Canada has an immediate opening for Second-Class Power/ Stationary Engineer to join our Power Engineering Group in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador. As part of Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining corporations, the Iron Ore Company of Canada is experiencing a period of significant growth and has in excess of 100 years of resources at current production levels.

The EDI Administrator responsibilities include: • Analyze, design and develop specifications for enhancements and extensions with EDI application interfaces and maps. • Coordinate EDI testing and trading partner implementation initiatives. • Coordinate with application development and DBA functions to ensure availability and reliability of EDI systems to meet business demands. • Ensure that EDI - related production and procedures are maintained and executed, including development, change requests, and enterprise integration projects. • Experience interacting with clients to ensure all issues are resolved in a professional and timely manner. Required Skills and Experience: • Combination of education and several years of experience in the EDI field. To apply, please email résumés with salary range expectations to hrtech@crc.net and include EDI CB in the subject line.

As Power / Stationary engineer, you will be responsible for the safe and efficient operation of a steam plant, a high temperature hot water heating plant and a air compressor plant in support of making high quality iron ore pellets and concentrate. Applicants must also meet the physical fitness requirements of the role. Labrador City, Wabush and neighbouring Fermont, Quebec are thriving communities with amenities especially suited to the outdoor enthusiast including first-class nordic and alpine skiing, snowmobiling, mountain-biking, and hunting and fishing combined with a thriving arts community. The area provides for an affordable high quality lifestyle compared to larger centres. Please apply via our website – www.ironore.ca The Iron Ore Company of Canada offers a comprehensive salary and benefits package to successful candidates. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Education, Qualifications and Training: Essential: A Newfoundland or equivalent 2nd class ticket. Must exhibit strengths in customer service, communication, self-leadership, teamwork and adaptability. You are a highly self-motivated individual who works towards continuously improving the safety, cost, quality, production, and performance of operation.

28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

JANUARY 22, 2006

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Con game 5 Singer Harmer (“I’m a Mountain”) 10 Gent 14 Baby’s stomach pain 16 Pathogenic bacterium 17 French cream 18 Highest major lake in Canada 19 Stair post 20 Let the breeze blow through 22 Manitoba’s provincial bird: great gray ___ 23 To the inside of 25 Great ___ Lake, N.W.T. 27 Wind instrument, in brief 28 Prov. with most highway miles per capita 30 Brief, vigorous try (of a different profession, say) 33 French goose 34 Man or Wight 35 Antennas 37 Multimedia disk 39 Bird seen at winter feeders 41 Piece of beef 43 Titled 46 Drinking establishments 48 Alice ___, B.C. 49 Confident 51 I have

52 Say 54 Ballpoint 56 Not kosher 57 Speaker’s platform 59 Giant whirlpool off Deer Island, N.B.: “Old ___” 60 Wrong: prefix 62 Spew 63 Autumn flower 65 Born (Fr.) 67 Recap (2 wds.) 69 Belonging to: suffix 70 Free time 72 Giuseppe’s God 74 Was up against 76 ___ crow flies (2 wds.) 77 Public meeting to discuss an issue 79 Swiftness 80 Expunge 82 Like Giuseppe Verdi 84 Kick 87 Rat 88 Unit of evidence 89 Fool 93 Mischievous child 94 Cambodian 96 French silk 98 French wheat 99 Skullcap 101 Alberta spread 104 Master of bears, in Inuit mythology 106 Sask.-born playwright Joanna McClelland ___

(“Trying”) 107 Spry 108 No ___ Mischief (Alistair MacLeod) 109 Egyptian cobras 110 Stringed instruments 111 A great deal DOWN 1 Unstressed vowel 2 Loops 3 ___ That Matters (Wayson Choy) 4 Japanese-Canadian poet (Surrender, 2002 GG) 5 Spanish ladies 6 King topper 7 Line drawn in the garden 8 Pub rounds 9 Small rise 10 Native language from which “Saskatchewan” was derived 11 That woman 12 Gather 13 Flower part 15 Faces up to 17 Large underground hollows 18 Romaine lettuce 21 Devon river 24 You (Fr.) 26 Help 29 Golfer Lorie ___ 31 Place of worship 32 Belgian river

34 Imprison 36 Beige 38 Hop-drying kiln 39 It lies between Java and Borneo 40 Eye inflammation 42 Elec. unit 44 Religious recluse 45 Gave the meaning of 46 Like the whirlpool in 59A 47 Writing-on-___ Prov. Park, Alta. 49 Soul 50 Outmoded 53 She may have a little lamb 55 Flightless Australian bird 58 Last six lines of a sonnet 61 Dying down 64 German industrial region 66 Japan’s capital, once 67 It’s down on the map 68 Insect stage 71 Attains 73 Bearded spring flower 75 Watch over 77 Not provincial 78 Boglands 81 Uncle ___ 83 Sun sign 84 Best ___ and tucker 85 Last Greek letter 86 Sparkly stones from

Australia 90 WWII submarine 91 Schemes 92 Shriek of fear

94 Express affection toward 95 Pasta sauce 97 English noble

100 Classic cat compulsion 102 Louse egg 103 Key (Fr.)

105 New: prefix SOLUTION ON PAGE 31

WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 An argument with someone close to you puts you in a bad mood early this week, Aries. Don't let it ruin too many days. Busy yourself with something you enjoy to clear your mind. TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 Surprises are in store mid week, Taurus. Too bad you won't know if they're for the best or bad news until they actually happen. Either way, you'll be prepared. GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 You've been down in the dumps, Gemini, so recruit a few friends to help cheer you up. An impromtu get together could be just what you need to brighten your spirits. CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 A family member has tried your patience for the last time, Cancer. Keep out of this person's business to maintain your sanity. He or she will have to resolves his or her

own problems. LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 It's time to speak up concerning an issue that has been troubling you, Leo. No one will know how you feel until you voice your opinion. Expect surprise from those close. VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 You can't just burrow your head in the sand when things get tough, Virgo. When a challenge at home gets you worked up, think it through rationally and deal with it. LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 Put yourself first for a change, Libra. Stop compromising your comfort of living to accommodate others. Trust your instincts more so than the advice of others. SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 You're ready for a change, Scorpio, and the new year could be the perfect time to depart on a

trip or make a bold move in your career. Expect reservations from friends.

Tuesday is the time to make your move. The reception will be positive.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 You've pushed a family member too far, Sagittarius, and now it's time for you two to take a break. Let things cool down before you try to make amends.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 There's good news on the horizon, Capricorn. You just have to wade through some annoyances before you are able to realize it. Leo plays a key role on Thursday. AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 You're feeling under the weather, but all you can do is let it run its course, Aquarius. Don't expect others to baby you - you'll just need to deal with the annoyance. PISCES - FEB 19/MAR 20 You've had your eye on someone for some time now, Pisces.

JANUARY 22 Olivia d'Abo, actress (39) JANUARY 23 Richard Dean Anderson, actor (56) JANUARY 24 Mischa Barton, actress (20) JANUARY 25 Alicia Keys, singer (25) JANUARY 26 Ellen DeGeneres, comic (48) JANUARY 27 Alan Cumming, actor (41) JANUARY 28 Elijah Wood, actor (25)

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

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 29

Le May Doan slams Cherry in flag war Ex-Olympian: ‘His remarks disgust me’ By Donovan Vincent and Randy Starkman Torstar wire service

Don Cherry

Peter Jones/Reuters

on Cherry and Catriona Le May Doan went toe-to-toe last week on the issue of top Canadian athletes turning down the chance to be picked as Olympic flag-bearer. It turns out the normally cheery Le May Doan can land a few haymakers, too. Cherry sounded off last week on the Toronto Star’s report that many of Canada’s top candidates to carry the flag in the opening ceremonies at the 2006 Turin Winter Games — including cross-country skier Beckie Scott, speed skaters Clara Hughes and Cindy Klassen and bobsledder Pierre Lueders — asked not to be nominated so they could focus solely on their events. “I’m sure in the U.S. they don’t have a problem,” Cherry told CBC-TV. “They’re proud to carry the flag. ... Anyone not proud to carry it should be ashamed of themselves.” Le May Doan, usually known for avoiding controversy, says Cherry is the one who should be ashamed. “First of all, he obviously doesn’t understand what it takes,” says the two-time Olympic speed skating champion, who carried the flag at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and won gold. “He should issue an apology to every athlete. For him to be considered the greatest Canadian and questioning our athletes’ pride in Canada, it disgusts me.” Cherry says the athletes don’t care. “That nonsense about getting prepared — how long does it take? A little walk around. Come out and say you don’t care ... but don’t say, ‘It will upset my performance.’ That’s

ridiculous.” Le May Doan says the timing worked out for her in Salt Lake because she had nearly a week after the opening ceremonies before she skated — Scott, Hughes and Klassen compete two days after the ceremonies in Turin in races where they have strong shots at medals. “Marching in the opening ceremonies is exhausting, it takes so much out of you,” she says. “These athletes train their whole lives — 11 months a year, six days a week — so one day they can represent their country. Why else would they do it? They don’t do it for money, for recognition. Any athlete saying, ‘No’ is doing it because they want to be at their best for their country. We should be saying, ‘Thank you’ to them for not jeopardizing that.” MIXED REACTION The reaction was equally mixed among two past Olympic greats who carried the flag, figure skater Karen Magnussen and skier Nancy Greene Raine. Magnussen, who had the honour at the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, where she won silver, was shocked to learn athletes are bowing out. “I can’t believe it,” says Magnussen. “What is going on in this world? That blows my mind.” But Greene Raine says the level of competition has risen significantly since she won gold and silver after carrying the flag at the Grenoble Winter Games in 1968 in France. “What I’m hearing is the coaches and the athletes are focused on being absolutely prepared for the best performance of their lives. They don’t want to be distracted or have something interfere with their preparation. I think that’s fantastic,” she says.

Unassuming MoPete just keeps scoring Spotlight rarely shines on Raps’ steady swingman By Jim Byers Torstar wire service

s he walks out of the shower and towards his locker at the Air Canada Centre, Morris Peterson often finds his path blocked by an enormous throng of reporters. After becoming one of the Toronto Raptors’ top scorers in recent weeks, it is understandable if folks want a minute of his time. “Look at this,” says a smiling Peterson. “See what they’re doing to me?” Peterson is used to someone else getting the attention. When Vince Carter was on the Raptors, there was no doubt whose name was at the top of the marquee. Now that Chris Bosh and Mike James have emerged as the team’s top scorers, Peterson again finds himself something of an offensive afterthought on a team that often doesn’t call a single play for him. With James on the bench due to back spasms that left him unable to bend down and pick up his sweats last week, the pressure was on the rest of the Raptors to make up for his offence. Peterson has responded. ”I never feel forgotten because I realize my role,” Peterson says. “The faster guys realize their role on the team the better we’re going to be. I know I have tough defensive assignments and every once in a while I might get a couple shots, and it’s my job to hit ‘em.” “I tell my young guys all the time, do I run

any plays for Mo? Never,” says Toronto coach Sam Mitchell. “And Mo has been scoring ... because if we move the basketball good things are going to happen. “It’s him being ready to shoot the ball and take advantage of the opportunity but it’s moving the basketball ... and utilizing him in that corner,” Mitchell adds. The corner of the Air Canada Centre has become Peterson’s personal sweet spot. Raptor veteran Darrick Martin says it’s a special talent to be able to score when no one’s calling your number. “You gotta have the patience of Job to take that role in a league where egos often rule,” Martin says. “He’s got a level head. He has a great attitude about basketball. “I played with different guys in different systems. A guy like Cedric Ceballos, he never had plays called for him but he’d end up with 20 points and eight or nine rebounds a night. ... If we do what we’re supposed to do, the ball will find people in the right spots and we’ll get enough shots for everybody.” In a rare display of chest-thumping, Peterson early this year complained when rookie Joey Graham was starting ahead of him. Peterson has been in the opening lineup since Nov. 13, and averaging a career-high 14.6 points as well as five rebounds a game. “I feel like I know what I can bring to the team,” Peterson says. “That’s all I asked, for guys to know I really want to be on this team and help us win.”

Did Chinese sports officials ‘make’ Yao Ming? By Allan Ryan Torstar wire service

ccording to a new book, the Houston Rockets’ internationally beloved Yao Ming was literally made in China. At 7-foot-6, Yao, whom the Rockets made the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, stands nearly two feet taller than the average Chinese male. Veteran journalist Brook Larmer, author of Operation Yao Ming, suggests this was hardly by chance but rather the result of a combination of some possibly murky science with undertones of select breeding. Larmer, a former Newsweek bureau chief who currently lives in Shanghai, Yao’s hometown, also reveals that the now 25-year-old had hated basketball — and wasn’t particularly good at it — for almost a decade after being placed in China’s harsh, Soviet-style sports program at the age of 8. When he was already 5foot-7. Chinese officials had been literally awaiting his birth in 1980 (and that, a few years earlier, of another NBAer, Wang Zhizhi, who reached 7foot-1 and played for both Dallas and the L.A. Clippers). Yao’s father, Yao Zhiyuan, was 6-foot-9; his mother, Fang Fengdi, was 6-foot-2. Both had been national team basketball players and, on retirement, “encouraged” to wed.

Same thing for Wang’s parents, too. “It wasn’t a national breeding program,” Larmer recently told Agence France-Presse. “It was a desire among Shanghai officials for them to get together.” The wire service story also mentioned that scientists fed the young Yao a “steady stream of mysterious concoctions” designed to make him taller, raising the spectre of possible hormone treatment at a time when China was suffering a series of doping scandals.” “In Yao’s case, I don’t have any proof ...” Larmer is quoted, “(but) in that period of time in the 1990s, they were using all kinds of experimental stuff to enhance players’ stamina and strength.” And, yes, those would be the Beijing Olympics just two years away. Operation Yao Ming is also a tale of globilization. But one in which, as Larmer wrote, “the lives of Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi would trace the arc of China’s inexorable rise and its fitful emergence into the world. “As the boys, like their country, grew into behemoths, they would be pushed and pulled by forces far beyond their families’ control. Sports in China, after all, were not just a game; they were a projection of national ambition on the international stage — an ambition that Beijing had turned into an obsession with cultivating world-class athletes.”

NO ONE IS ALONE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER. Behind every person who is touched by cancer, there is a growing force fighting all types of cancer in communities eve r y w h e re. The Canadian Cancer Society is leading the way through research funding, information services, support pro g rams – and we advocate for healthy public policy. Together, we’re growing stronger. To volunteer, donate or for more information, visit cancer.ca or call 1 888 939-3333.

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

JANUARY 22, 2006

Cap signals power shift in CFL And Wright earns vote of confidence By Damien Cox Torstar wire service

n the surface, this was the long-awaited and relatively straightforward implementation of a salary cap system for the CFL, a league that supposedly had one in place for several years and then took the laughable public position that such payroll limits had, in fact, never existed. Those grand denials were a combination Who’sOn-First/Monty Python-Black Knight skit, funny and preposterous and not particularly helpful to the league’s public image. Based on what happened at the CFL meetings in Scottsdale, Az. last week, two things are clear. First, this isn’t a comedy show any more. Somehow some logical people have infiltrated the lodge. Second, the political ground has shifted dramatically over the past year in the nine-team league, with the tectonic plate movements at least working in favour of Tom Wright, if not guaranteeing, a long future for the CFL commish.

The announcement of a $3.8 million salary cap for the 2007 season, with all kinds of penalties, league-appointed cap cops and whistle-blower benefits included, was the major element in what was, really, a surprisingly comprehensive and sweeping overhaul of the manner in which the league develops, distributes and controls the paycheques and work-related activities of football players in the Great White North. “It adds a layer of needed sophistication to the league,” says Argonauts president Keith Pelley. No more hiding players on injured reserve. Expanded taxi squads to better absorb and evaluate the annual influx of NFL cuts. Sensible, useful changes to make the league work better. This was a package developed over the course of a year by the salary cap committee commissioned by Wright, who was savvy enough to let that committee present its detailed proposals with a 10-hour session last week in the desert. See, if Wright does the talking, he becomes the target. If the committee does it, it becomes more difficult for the traditional drawing

of knives to commence. “Maybe before things have not have the depth of planning that this had before they were brought before the owners,” says Calgary co-owner Ted Hellard, one of the serious people gaining influence in the league these days. “If you don’t have that depth and thought behind things, it allows the political side to come forward.” Hellard was part of the cap committee, and he says he wasn’t at all sure the package would pass muster when the meetings began. That it did was proof of both the quality of the proposals and of the fact that Montreal owner Bob Wetenhall and B.C. owner David Braley aren’t the kings of this particular castle any more. Over the past year, the sale of the Stampeders to Hellard, John Forzani and others has produced a solid organization that supports Wright and his initiatives. Similarly, the Argonauts, under owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon, are now a successful organization that people listen to, and the Argos are also behind Wright.

Last year, when the commissioner tried to get a multi-year deal, only three teams backed him, while three others were essentially neutral and three — Montreal, B.C. and Hamilton — wanted him gone. Last week’s 7-2 vote, which in some ways was an unofficial vote on Wright’s leadership, was evidence of the manner in which a strong new voting bloc has grown with a different set of priorities than the formerly powerful Braley and Wetenhall. Hellard preferred not to read political ramifications into the announcement. “All I can tell you is without cost control, you spend 90 per cent of your time on expenses,” he says. “So you nail down your costs first, then look to grow revenues.” Braley and Wetenhall opposed this type of reasoning mostly, one imagines, because they don’t like being told in any way, shape or form how to run their businesses. Both clearly have done well to rejuvenate their franchises, but politically speaking, they lost this round. And it was an important round.

OF THE

DEVIL WEEK Matt Fillier Age: 17 Hometown: Pictou County, Nova Scotia School: Mount Pearl Senior High Favourite movie: Slap Shot Favourite band: Big & Rich Favourite actor: Will Ferrell Favourite actress: Jennifer Aniston Impression of Newfoundland: “It’s an amazing place. Great people – I haven’t met any nicer.” What the toughest aspect of playing major junior hockey? “I have to try to focus on school in case hockey doesn’t work out. I want to have the marks to be able to go to university.”

German match-fixing referee Robert Hoyzer arrives before his trial in Berlin. Hoyzer, 26, and another referee, Dominik Marks, were found guilty of having fixed matches in return for payment from Ante Sapina, the Croatian ringleader of a $2 million betting fraud. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

DEVIL STATS NAME Scott Brophy Oscar Sundh Luke Gallant Nicolas Bachand Zack Firlotte Wesley Welcher Marty Doyle Olivier Guilbault Ryan Graham Sebastien Bernier 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 LW D RW D C RW RW LW D LW D C RW C D LW D RW D RW D

# 12 10 6 23 5 14 43 21 16 44 27 11 18 24 4 15 9 8 19 26 25 3

GP 40 29 42 43 44 44 44 44 33 43 37 35 44 38 39 11 18 24 6 20 34 41

G 16 9 12 18 6 15 9 10 8 4 5 3 4 6 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

A 22 29 24 15 22 10 14 9 10 13 8 10 7 2 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0

GOALTENDER Ilia Ejov Brandon Verge

W 10 4

L 13 11

GAA 3.81 4.33

S.PCT .889 .885

Cloud over Euro match fixing darkens

PTS 38 38 36 33 28 25 23 19 18 17 13 13 11 8 8 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

German referee’s trial reveals crime rings By Cathal Kelly Torstar wire service

Stats current as of press deadline Jan. 20

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 42 30 9 15 21 44 45

G 3 4 3 0 3 14 18

A 4 9 3 1 1 25 16

PTS 7 13 6 1 4 39 34

GOALTENDERS Ryan Mior Roger Kennedy Jason Churchill

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

TEAM P.E.I. Halifax Saint John

W 13 7 12

L 26 2 25

GAA 4.14 3.86 3.74

S.PCT .891 .871 .901

hile match-fixing scandals are recurring embarrassments in European soccer, they have generally been limited to the odd dirty ref. or isolated clique of dishonest players. But a new report suggests that unrelated gangs are busy creating a cartel capable of turning games in leagues across the continent. In an investigative piece in London’s Observer, journalist Jason Burke weaves a compelling story of widespread corruption uniting crooked footballers and underworld figures. Match fixing is nothing new. They seem an annual occurrence even in top leagues like Serie A. In the past year alone, the Observer cites corruption, or the strong suspicion of it, in games in Belgian, Portuguese, Polish, Finnish and French leagues. What is new here is the suspicion that the criminals involved are getting far more organized. The growing danger was illustrated during the recent trial of referee Robert Hoyzer. The 26year-old German has been sentenced to two years and five months in prison for manipulating the results of matches he officiated. Hoyzer was corrupted by a Berlin-based crime ring run by three Croatian brothers — Ante, Milan and Filip Sapina.

VIA TEXT MESSAGE It was revealed during Hoyzer’s trial that the Sapinas not only fixed German matches, but also bet on games fixed by other European crime rings. They made 750,000 euros ($1.05 million Cdn.) with an Italian game fixer. They conspired via text message with two players in Turkey. English football has been chilled by a report that the Sapinas sent a British accomplice to bet £800,000 ($1.5 million Cdn.) on matches in Manchester and London in 2003 and 2004. During his trial, Hoyzer alleged that he knew about the fixing of UEFA Cup games. The Sapinas also bet on Champions League matches. Exactly how big could this thing be? According to Burke, criminals are thriving in

second-tier leagues, targeting underpaid players and officials. By placing small wagers on “prop” bets — halftime score, over/under and the like — or, better yet, a combination of several such bets, a few euros are quickly multiplied thousands fold. And it’s not difficult for a crooked goalkeeper or referee to influence play without leaving much evidence of a cheat. MATCH FIXING One example cited in the Observer piece is an 8-0 defeat in the Finnish top flight in July. Someone wagered on that exact and unlikely final score — at 8,787-to-1 odds. A Chinese investor had recently bought into the losing team and imported a raft of new players. That same Chinese investor has since been connected to allegations of match fixing in Belgium. By criminal standards, the 8-0 game is not a good example of a fixed match, if that’s indeed what it was, since we’re talking about it here. The question is, how many matches aren’t we talking about? And how many leagues have been penetrated? In the course of his research, Burke interviewed a decidedly depressing UEFA official named William Gaillard, who laid out the worst-case scenario. “You can have a network of 20 or 30 clubs across different continents, all of which have a corrupt element,” Gaillard says. “It sounds a bit like science fiction. It would involve agents, owners, sponsors. ... They would not just rig the results of one or two games, but 15 matches or a series of results.” Tales of crooked owners or out-of-control agents are already rampant. The sad case of storied Italian side Genoa’s fall from grace this past summer had plenty of those. This week, French authorities announced that Nike, sponsor of giants Paris St. Germain, is being investigated in connection with a kickback scheme at that club. Suddenly, Gaillard’s “science fiction” doesn’t sound far off. But rather than seeming energized by the looming fight, the UEFA man sounded resigned to the inevitable. “You can buy European football if you want,” Gaillard told Burke.

JANUARY 22, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

From Russia with glove Fog Devils’ goalie Ilia Ejov didn’t start playing hockey until his family moved to Canada; may be drafted this summer By Darcy MacRae The Independent

t’s safe to say Ilia Ejov is a quick learner. The St. John’s Fog Devils’ goalie never played a game of hockey until he was 11 years old, and didn’t actually begin tending goal until he was 12. That he has been able to make it to major junior despite getting such a late start in the sport is testament to the type of athlete he is, says Fog Devils head coach and general manager Real Paiement. “He’s a raw talent,” Paiement tells The Independent. “He’s very fast and athletic. It’s not the normal path and he may be a little behind some guys who started at six years old, but he still has a lot of room to grow.” The fact Ejov didn’t strap on the pads until he was 12 is a shock to many of his teammates, especially given his play this season. “It’s extremely surprising, I didn’t know that,” says Brandon Verge, the other half of the Fog Devils’ goaltending duo. “I started playing hockey when I was four and a half and was in net by the time I was seven. For him to be able to make the jump so quickly is pretty impressive.” Through the first 44 games (as of press deadline), Ejov leads the Fog Devils in Molson Three Stars selections, having been selected the game’s first star four times, second star once and third star on three occasions. His cat-like reflexes often excite the crowd at Mile One, with his quick glove and ability to kick shots away at the last second bringing fans out of their seats on more than one occasion. And as good as Ejov has been, Paiement says chances are he’s going to be even better. “We’ve just tapped a little bit into his potential,” Paiement says. For Ejov, who recently turned 19, the road to St. John’s and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (Q, for short) actually began many miles away in Krasnodar, Russia. Ejov lived in the southern Russia city until he was 10 before moving with his parents to Montreal in 1997. He took to playing street hockey right away, and a year after coming to Canada joined the minor hockey system in Montreal. “My dad was a big fan of hockey and liked watching it. And at that time the (Detroit) Red Wings were dominating the league (NHL), and they had an allRussian line, so I got inspired by that,” Ejov says. At first, he played both defence and forward, but all along Ejov wanted to be between the pipes. By the time he celebrated his 12th birthday, Ejov was stopping pucks and loving it. Despite his late start, Ejov excelled at the game and his new position. However, there were setbacks, like the time he was cut from a local midget AAA team and wasn’t sure if he had a future in hockey. Following the advice of a coach, Ejov decided to go another route in pursuit of his hockey dream, and travelled to Ontario to play with the Akwesasne Jr. B Wolves. One year later, while still in Ontario, he was starring for the Hawkesbury Hawks junior A team, helping the club advance all the way to the Royal Bank Cup — the national

Ilia Ejov

Ilia Ejov Born: Dec. 1, 1987 in Krasnodar, Russia How acquired: Fog Devils’ fourth pick in QMJHL expansion draft Games: 27 Wins: 10 Losses: 13 Goals-against average: 3.81 Save percentage: .889 Little known fact: Ejov speaks three languages – Russian, French and English. junior A championships. “Last year was a lot of fun,” Ejov says of the 2004-05 campaign with Hawkesbury. “I really liked winning.” The Fog Devils were quick to select Ejov in the Q expansion draft, and figured he would be a solid backup to Verge, a 20-year-old with plenty of major junior experience. But when Verge went down with a bout of mononucleosis early in the season, Ejov had to step in — and step up his game. “He stole some games for us right away,” says Fog Devils’ winger Marty Doyle. “Even in the games we lost, he gave us a chance to win.” Ejov played so well during Verge’s absence that when he returned, Paiement simply couldn’t hand him back the position of the club’s No. 1 goalie. Instead, Verge and Ejov are splitting time in the Fog Devils’ crease. “I don’t think we have a No. 1 goalie now,” Paiement says. “At the beginning Brandon Verge established himself as the No. 1. But with what Ilia was able to do when Brandon was sick, I think now we have two No. 1s.” If Ejov can continue his strong play throughout the remainder of the regular

Rough ride From page 32 and the Colts choked — again — against the Steelers. I should point out that I am a Steelers’ fan, but I never thought they were going to beat the Colts. But as has been the case in the past, the Colts can’t win when it really matters. With a lifetime playoff record of 3-6, Peyton Manning is quickly becoming football’s version of Barry Bonds — the dominant regular season player who can’t get it done in the playoffs. If I ran the Colts, I’d give Peyton one more chance to guide the team to postseason glory. If he chokes again, trade him and find a new quarterback. CANADA IN FOR ROUGH RIDE Canada released the majority of its Solutions for crossword on page 28

roster for the World Baseball Classic last weekend, and by all accounts it is a decent — not great — team. Unless pitchers Eric Gagne, Rich Harden and Ryan Dempster are added to the club, Canada will not advance past the preliminary round. RYDING HIGH Michael Ryder sure is looking good skating on a line with Alexi Kovalev and Saku Koivu. With Kovalev’s skating and passing ability and Koivu’s tenaciousness and creativity, Ryder just has to get open in the slot and wait for a pass. Given his quick release, it’s not hard to imagine Ryder finishing the season with 40 goals. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca Solutions for sudoku on page 28

Paul Daly/The Independent

season and into the playoffs, Paiement says there’s a good chance he could be selected in this summer’s NHL draft. “I think he is being looked at right now,” says Paiement. “He’s done well enough to get the interest of certain scouts. There was some interest before. We talked to some NHL people before we took him in the expansion draft and they were aware of him.” As good as things are going for Ejov, he admits that at times he still wonders just what might have been had he started playing hockey at an earlier age. Growing up in the south of Russia,

there wasn’t any natural or artificial ice on which to play, leaving Ejov without the opportunity enjoyed by so many of his current counterparts. “I see the small kids play now, and always have a feeling that I never had that chance,” Ejov says. “I always wanted to play as a young kid and I wish I had those extra years. I think I could be a bit better now if I had five or six more years of playing. “I always felt I was a little behind everyone, so I had to work harder than everyone. I always forced myself to work harder, be faster than everyone.”

Ejov’s hard work is paying dividends for both him and the Fog Devils these days. His efforts have caught the attention of his teammates and the St. John’s fans, who have not hesitated to show their appreciation for the young netminder. For his part, Ejov says the feeling is mutual. “It’s a beautiful place to play,” Ejov says. “People are very welcoming. “The fans are good … as long as you try your hardest, they’ll be behind you.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2006 — PAGE 32

Tim Rusted, Darrin Marshall, Mark Tibbo and Shen Bin.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Record breakers

MUN swimmers set new standard for 4 x 50 m freestyle relay; coach says they can swim faster By Darcy MacRae The Independent

ince the university swimming season began in the fall, Shen Bin, Mark Tibbo, Tim Rusted and Darrin Marshall had one number on their minds – 1:40.32. That was the time of the Newfoundland and Labrador senior men’s record for the 4 x 50 metre freestyle relay, a record the foursome from Memorial thought they could break. “The guys had been keeping an eye on what the standard was,” says Paul Dawe, head coach of the MUN swimming team. “They were thinking they might have a shot at breaking 1:40.” While competing at the University of Toronto Jan. 14, Bin, Tibbo, Rusted and Marshall not only bettered 1:40, they beat it by more than a second to set a new provincial record in the 4 x 50 m freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.91. With Bin, Tibbo and Rusted cheering from pool side, Marshall swam the last leg of the race. As he approached the finish, his teammates were torn between watching him and keeping an eye on the clock. “We could see Darrin coming in and we were all just looking at the time,” says Tibbo, a 20-year-old Gander native. “We were watching Darrin and the clock and when he was so close we were like

‘We got it, we got it.’” Upon finishing the final 50 metres, Marshall quickly looked for the clock as well, speculating his team had just added their names to the provincial record books. “It’s my first record, and it’s the only one that was realistically on my mind,” says Marshall, a 19-year-old Paradise resident. “I’ve always wanted a record … When I got to the wall, I was pretty sure we had it.” Capturing any provincial record is no easy task, especially one in a race as short as the 50 metres, says Dawe. He says that unlike a long-distance race where extra effort can make up for mistakes, the smallest miscue in the 50metres can cost a team seconds. In order for the MUN foursome to finish at 1:38.91, they had to swim practically a perfect race. But as good as Bin, Tibbo, Rusted and Marshall were in Toronto, Dawe says they can swim even better, which means their new provincial record may not last long. “They should be able to drop that down again,” Dawe says. “Assuming they have a great race, I think they could drop that time by another second or more.” During the Toronto meet, the MUN foursome also had to deal with working together as a team for the first time.

While some members of the group had swum together on provincial teams in the past, Bin — a 22-year-old international student from China – had never even competed in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference before. “Where Shen hadn’t competed yet, we really didn’t know where he would be with his performance,” says Dawe. Bin says he would have liked to have a better personal performance in Toronto, but is happy about the provincial record. His coach says the native of China gave a good account of himself at the meet, as has been the case since he joined the MUN swim team in the fall. “He’s a sprinter first and foremost, so his training is pretty much geared toward that,” Dawe says. “He has a lot of stories about his experience back in China. The amount of hours a week involved (in training) is pretty impressive. It gives (his teammates) some perspective of what’s being done around the world.” While Bin, Tibbo, Rusted and Marshall train nearly every day in the pool and in the weight room, the workouts often pale in comparison to what Bin had to do back home. “In China, there were a lot of practices every day. In one day, we might spend eight hours practicing,” Bin says with a chuckle. While Bin’s training is in sprinting, some of his teammates actually come

from long-distance backgrounds. Dawe says although it may seem surprising that a record-setting 50-metre team has distance swimmers, it is a necessity because the group also competes in 100 and 200 metre races requiring several different strokes. “Tim’s got a bit of s distance background … he tends to swim primarily distance events but he’s also fairly quick at the short freestyles as well. Mark also swims fly and back stroke a lot, and Darrin is our primary freestyler, in terms of sprint freestyle — 50, 100, 200 metre distances,” says Dawe. “You need a balance on the team. Between those four guys, they give a pretty strong balance.” With the new record fresh in their minds, Bin, Tibbo, Rusted and Marshall are now training in preparation for the AUS championships next month in Fredericton, N.B. Although the 4 x 50 m freestyle relay is not an event at the meet, their performance in Toronto has the group convinced they can compete with the favourites from Dalhousie and the University of New Brunswick in both the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 200 m relays. “It helps a lot,” says Rusted, an 18year-old from Conception Bay South. “It’s not the same distance relay, but it does boost our confidence.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca

Bits and bites O

h, the dilemma. There are simply too many juicy topics this week to concentrate on just one. Dating back before Christmas there are issues I’ve wanted to address, but with Christmas parties, the world juniors, NFL playoffs, New Year’s parties and the upcoming World Baseball Classic, I’m overloaded with ideas, hypothesises, and tips for the modern sports fan. So here goes, a sampling of what runs through the mind of a sports writer who has an opinion on … well, everything. WEST COAST THE PLACE FOR CEHL Last week I spoke to Canadian Elite Hockey League (CEHL) commissioner

DARCY MACRAE

The game Kirk Tomlinson about the semi-pro league coming to Newfoundland. Tomlinson seemed pretty confident a CEHL club would call The Rock home next year, and I can’t say I blame him. Newfoundlanders love their hockey, and the brand the CEHL is selling seems like a sure fire fit on the island. But realistically, the best place for a team is Corner Brook — not St. John’s. The provincial capital has a bigleague team in the Fog Devils, and I have doubts as to whether a CEHL

franchise could survive here if it had to compete with the Q team for fans and corporate sponsors. Corner Brook, on the other hand, has a nice stadium, the 3,000 seat Pepsi Centre, and enough passionate fans to fill the place on a regular basis. I know Corner Brook already has a senior hockey team, but the west coast league is a three-team circuit that is in constant turmoil, and always appears to be on the verge of collapsing. My guess is Corner Brook hockey fans would welcome the higher level of play and stability the CEHL could offer. FOG DEVILS BELONG AT MILE ONE Before Christmas The Independent

broke word that the Fog Devils had contacted Mount Pearl Mayor Steve Kent about someday moving the team to the Glacier. While I have no doubt the proper renovations could be made to transform the Glacier into a 4,500seat arena, complete with luxury boxes and a state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line media centre, I hope it never happens. The best-case scenario in my eyes is to have St. John’s Sports and Entertainment and the Fog Devils iron out their differences and keep the team at Mile One. The downtown stadium is simply a wonderful place to watch a game and it would be a crying shame if it were someday without a major tenant. It also cost way too much money to build not to have a major junior or professional hockey team playing

there. And without trying to offend readers from beyond the overpass, St. John’s is the place best suited for this team. When people think Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s is the place that immediately comes to mind. Simply put, the Mount Pearl Fog Devils just doesn’t sound right. SO MUCH FOR THE MANNING BOWL I know some readers must be wondering what I was smoking a few weeks ago when I predicted this year’s Super Bowl would be an all-Manning affair. Eli and the Giants were blanked by the Carolina Panthers and Peyton See “Rough ride,” 31