VOL. 4 ISSUE 7
—
ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12-18, 2006
—
WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA —
$1.00 HOME DELIVERY (HST included); $1.50 RETAIL (HST included)
IN CAMERA 20-21
GALLERY 18
The long and winding road from Placentia to Long Harbour
Painter Isle Hughes explores different views of St. John’s
‘Down the rat hole’
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Expert questions whether gravity-based structure best fit for Hebron field STEPHANIE PORTER
I
t has an all-too familiar ring. Thomas Tucker, a professor of economics at Dalhousie and Mount Saint Vincent Universities in Halifax, soundly criticizes the decision to construct a concrete gravity-based structure (GBS) for the Hebron-Ben Nevis development. “Technology has by-passed that long ago,” says Tucker. “If the (oil companies) do it, it’s because they’re being pressured by the Newfoundland government to create jobs. “Yes, if you construct something out of concrete, it’s going to take a lot more workers to do that. We piss the resource money down the rat hole when we would really like to see a brand new industry that’s sustainable for a couple of generations anyway.” The words echo those heard during the early days See “We need,” page 2
A happy Valentine’s Day to Independent readers …
Paul Daly/The Independent
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I really get surprised at the negativity that just creeps in out there, you know. Why can’t people in Newfoundland and Labrador accept a good news story?”
— Premier Danny Williams on reaction to Bill Barry’s plan to take over Harbour Breton fish plant.
Come by Chance refinery.
Paul Daly/The Independent
Safety first
Study into feasibility of second refinery must investigate oil spill response and prevention CLARE-MARIE GOSSE
A
new oil refinery in Placentia Bay — possibly three times larger than North Atlantic’s Come By Chance operation — would boost the province’s economy while having a massive impact on tanker traffic, further increasing the risk of oil spills. Fabian Manning, MP for Avalon and former MHA for Placentia-St. Mary’s, welcomes the potential economic boost of a new refinery, but says the study planned over the next nine months must consider a revamping of the area’s safety measures. Last week Premier Danny Williams announced Newfoundland and Lab-
rador Refining Corporation, a local company, intends to carry out a $7million study into the feasibility of building a new refinery to possibly process crude from the Grand Banks. North Atlantic Refinery currently processes imported sour crude only. Up to 500 loaded oil tankers travel through Placentia Bay annually, navigating an area with 365 surrounding islands and around 200 days a year of low visibility. “One of the biggest issues that we have had here over the years now is the fact that mechanisms to deal with an oil spill are not what you’d call readily available here,” Manning tells The Independent. “I would put forward that 100 per cent capability for dealing with an oil spill be placed in See “Major concerns,” page 2
OPINION 11
Michael Harris looks at Harper from peanut gallery BOOK REVIEW 22
Mark Callanan listens to Lure of the Labrador Wild Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Voice from Away . . . . . . . . . . Movie Review . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 10 13 19
Taking stock Royal Greenland increasing fishing effort in Canadian waters; Hearn plans quota review ALISHA MORRISSEY
N
ews broke last week that a Greenland-based fishing company intends to add two vessels to its fishing efforts in Canadian waters, targeting turbot and other species off Baffin Island, The Independent has learned. IntraFish, a seafood industry news agency, reported that officials of Royal Greenland, the world’s largest buyer of turbot, intend to add a 500tonne longliner and 200-tonne trawler to its existing vessels in anticipation of an expected increase in Canadian turbot quotas, which have yet to be announced. Then, several days after the news broke, Royal Greenland officials issued a statement to “correct” the IntraFish report, saying the company doesn’t have any trawlers fishing in Canada, nor does it plan to introduce any. “Royal Greenland is selling for various Canadian seafood companies and values their business in the past and future very highly,” reads the statement. “Royal Greenland does not have any trawlers fishing in Canada, nor does Royal Greenland plan to have trawlers fish for Greenland halibut/Greenland turbot in future.” A fishing industry source in
Newfoundland tells The Independent that the first report is indeed accurate. “Not only are Royal Greenland vessels fishing in Canadian waters as had been reported last year but as the first IntraFish article stated the Canadian-caught product is not being landed in Canada but in Greenland, often for processing in plants there.” The source, who asked not to be named, speculated Royal Greenland corrected the original news report because of possible repercussions to the Canadian quota holder, the Baffin Fisheries Coalition. The question of who owns the fish in Canadian waters and who exactly is catching it is being asked more and more these days as outports desperately search for quotas to feed their starving plants. Communities such as Harbour Breton wanted Fishery Products International to leave behind its quota when it pulled out of the south coast town in 2004, but no such luck. FPI took its quotas with it. Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn says he plans to follow through on a promise to review quotas for fish stocks in Canadian waters, determining who really owns the fish. “My main job, if I have one job, it’s to manage the resource and in order to do that properly I need to know what we have, who presently has it, who doesn’t have any of it, what’s there See “Slap-happy,” page 10
2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
‘We need those mega-projects’ From page 1
New Music in New Places is supported by The SOCAN Foundation and the Government of Canada through the Canada Music Fund.
Terrace on the Square, Churchill Square Store Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00am to 5:30pm Phone: 754-9497 diamonddesign.com
of Hibernia construction, when the project was attacked in the national press as little more than an expensive, massive make-work project. Plagued by delays and cost overruns, the lengthy construction phase was a field day for naysayers. Chevron, the lead partner in the Hebron negotiations, has confirmed their “current focus” is on a concrete GBS. And that’s the right decision, say experts based in St. John’s — who take issue with Tucker’s statements. While seeking economic benefits for the province is vital, they agree the technology behind the concrete GBS has advanced over the years, and is a viable option for the offshore. “I think (Hebron’s) design would be a lot more efficient than Hibernia,” says Hesham Marzouk, a Memorial University professor and chair of the civil engineering department. “We have learned a lot of lessons. “With the new development with the high-performance concrete, high-stress concrete, you can make a much more efficient design … and the oil industry, I don’t think they would invest in something, a white elephant, just because they want jobs.” Marzouk says the structure has many advantages, including stability, substantial storage, and lasting power. It may cost a little more at the front-end than a floating structure (like the Terra Nova FPSO), but the end result, he says, is worthwhile. “We don’t need something to be done in Korea or China, and ship it here like Terra Nova and then we have to start
correcting the mistakes,” he says. “If we have two options, almost equal, and one will bring prosperity to Atlantic Canada, we should pick that … we need these kind of jobs.” Marzouk was living and working in Alberta when Memorial University hired him to “promote an understanding of the complicated design of this structure.” He’s seen what the industry has done for Norway, and he believes it can do the same for Newfoundland — eventually. “When I came here, they told me prosperity was around the corner,” he says. “Now, 20 years later, I’m about to retire, I still don’t see that corner. It’s not in my lifetime. We need those mega-projects.” Ian Jordaan, retired Memorial professor and principal consultant with CCore, says the concrete GBS is quite practical for the North Atlantic. “In our part of the world, we have to deal with icebergs, and concrete structures provide a very good solution,” he says. “One other alternative is a disconnectable FPSO. The choice depends on a number of factors, but the GBS is a viable option, and developments in our knowledge have made our designs more efficient and economical.” Jordaan says, as far as he knows, the concrete structures — technology pioneered by the Norwegians — are still being built and used on the Norwegian continental shelf. Mark MacLeod, manager of external stakeholder relations for Chevron — the principal partner in the Hebron development — says the project could reach $3 to $5 billion in development costs. “The current focus is a concrete
n's NL h o J t. S . e e Av Bonaventur
a
.c s m o o r e h t . ww w 0 0 0 8 7 5 709 7
9 The Rooms
GBS,” says MacLeod. “And that, in and of itself, is a huge undertaking, not seen since Hibernia.” The structure would, he envisions, be similar to Hibernia, but with one shaft instead of four. “There are significant advances in design that would reduce the amount of concrete and reinforced steel required to build the platform. “So the cost of the platform, or the cost of the concrete, is in our mind significantly reduced since the days of Hibernia.” The oil of Hebron-Ben Nevis is heavier than that of Hibernia, and will take more time to extract. “In our worldwide experience in heavy oil production, you’re going to need a rig for a long period of time,” he continues. The ramifications for the provincial economy were a major factor in the decision as well. “One of the criteria in our selection process is that we believe it will bring more benefits to Newfoundland and Labrador.” More benefits, meaning employment? “Absolutely,” says MacLeod. He also confirms he “envisions” the GBS being built in Newfoundland, more than likely at Bull Arm. Tucker still thinks, from his research, that Newfoundland is missing an opportunity to learn sustainable, internationally valid skills. “Is that technology exportable? Is anyone else in the world building one of those?” he asks. “Jack-up rigs and semi-submersibles seem to be the way they’re going, even for the deep-sea drills. “I think Newfoundland is an aberration.”
Major concerns From page 1 Placentia Bay.” He mentions a 1990s report commissioned by the federal government that stated the area was the most likely place in Canada for a spill to occur. On a daily basis, tankers make their way to transfer stock to Whiffen Head Transshipment Terminal and North Atlantic Refining Ltd., sharing space with small boats and local fishing traffic. Manning says he would like to see local pilot boats meet the tankers at the mouth of Placentia Bay rather than halfway down, and also enhanced safety communication practices between land and sea. Bill Montevecchi, an animal psychologist at Memorial University with experience examining wildlife affected by oil pollution, says the small spills that inevitably occur during loading and unloading oil would be significantly increased by a new refinery. “We know that the traffic in there is really high at the present time so there would have to be very, very major environmental concerns,” he says. “The thing about Placentia Bay … that’s the remnant of our cod fishery and so there just has to be a tremendous level of precaution.” The province’s most recent, significant oil spill occurred in 2004 when 165,000 litres from the Terra Nova platform escaped into the ocean. The flushing of illegal bilge oil at sea, as well as minor accidental spills from vessels would also likely increase with more refining capacity in the area. According to the coast guard’s environmental measures division in St. John’s, an average of 200 spills are reported each year. Since September 2005, Transport Canada has been conducting an environmental risk assessment study of the entire south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is expected to be completed by fall 2006. Its purpose is to assess the risks facing the area over the next 10 years from the transportation of oil by commercial vessels and to provide information towards preventing incidents and improving Canada’s Marine Oil Spill and Preparedness Regime. Manning says impending environmental concerns shouldn’t stop the growth of the oil industry in the province, but they should be “minimized as much as possible.” North Atlantic’s Come by Chance refinery processes 105,000 barrels of oil a day. It’s proposed the new refinery would process 300,000 barrels a day. clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca
Corrections Dr. Peter Shelton was incorrectly identified in the Feb. 5-11 edition of The Independent in a story headlined Stop fishing. As well, a caption below a picture in the Jan. 29-Feb. 4 edition incorrectly stated the foreign vessel pictured was fishing inside Canadian waters. In fact, the vessel was fishing in international waters. The Independent regrets the errors.
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3
By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent
I
f Charles, Duke of New Orleans, really was the first recognized writer of a Valentine’s Day message in 1415, then Fogo Island has its own Valentine’s heroine with family ties to the Duke. A little girl named Nancy Simms, born on Fogo Island in 1773, was taken into the household of the Duke and Duchess of Orleans where she was renamed Pamela, raised as their daughter and hailed as a great beauty in French and English high society. Her portrait hangs in the Louvre, Paris and a family portrait of her with the Duke and Duchess hangs in the Palace of Versailles. Nancy from Fogo is recorded in Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia) as Pamela Fitzgerald, the “celebrated” wife of slain Irish aristocrat and revolutionary Edward Fitzgerald, to whose memory she remained “passionately devoted.” Pamela (or Nancy as she was first named), was born out of wedlock, which was apparently common amongst the scattered coastal communities of Newfoundland at the time, due to the lack of priests and licensed officials. Her mother was also named Nancy Simms and her father, Jeremiah Coughlan, was an English naval officer stationed at Fogo. After falling in love with Simms, Coughlan promised to take her back with him to be married in England — in the meantime, Nancy was born. Although the couple did eventually make the journey, there is no record they were ever wed. Some years later, Simms wrote a letter to her brother in Fogo, telling him she was too poor to keep Nancy and had parted with her. This came about when Nancy was sent to France at the age of six. The Duke of Orleans was looking for a young English girl to live with the family as a companion to his own small children, who were being educated by his wife’s niece, Madame de Genlis. The Duke wrote to a personal friend of his in London, Mr. Forth, asking for assistance. Shortly after, Forth happened to visit Christ Church, where Simms was living with her daughter Nancy, scraping an income from doing needlework. Taken with the little girl’s beauty and bright personality, Forth persuaded Simms to allow him to send Nancy to live with the royal family. In a letter to the Duke, he wrote “I am sending Your Highness the prettiest girl in England.” Madame de Genlis immediately took a strong liking to Nancy and she renamed her Pamela. Madame de Genlis became so fond of the child she began to dread the possibility of losing her and eventually went to England herself, looking for Simms. She found Pamela’s mother and paid her 25 pounds to resign all claim to her daughter. The girl from Fogo grew up educated with prince and princesses as companions, living in the best luxury France could offer. When the French revolution broke out, the Duke of Orleans sent Madame de Genlis and the rest of the family to safety in England and it was at this time he had a family portrait commissioned, which included Pamela, and was later hung in the Palace of Versailles. During their time in England, Pamela became engaged to a brilliant aristocrat, Richard Brinley Sheridan, but for unrecorded reasons, the attachment was broken and it wasn’t until a night spent at the theatre that she met her true love. She was sitting in a box watching Lodoiska when here famed beauty caught the attention of an Irish patriot, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. As soon as the curtain fell he had a friend introduce him to Pamela and less than a month later the two married. The ceremony was held at Tourney, France in 1792 and Louis Philippe, later King of France, was one of the witnesses. The couple soon
A Fogo fairytale returned to London and then travelled on to Dublin, eventually settling at a homestead in Kildare, Ireland. Fitzgerald returned to a former political seat with the Irish government. At that same time war broke out between Ireland and England and as a staunch patriot, he was unable to remain passive in the face of the oppression forced upon his country. In 1796 he joined the revolutionary underground Society of the United Irishmen and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was trailed by spies and given refuge at the homes of various colleagues, forced to visit Pamela — who was also a strong supporter of her husband and the Irish cause — in disguise. Fitzgerald had many narrow escapes, but was
eventually cornered in hiding by three spies in 1798. He was shot in the shoulder and conveyed to Newgate Prison, where he was denied proper medical treatment and died of his wounds. Before he died he asked a friend to “break the news gently” to his “dear wife Pamela.” Pamela, against whom the government probably held sufficient evidence to secure a conviction for treason, was forced to flee the country. She returned to the continent and in 1800, met and married a Mr. Pitcairn, the U.S. Consul to Germany. Not much is recorded about their relationship, but they eventually divorced and Pamela went back to live in France under the name Fitzgerald. She never returned to high society life and final-
ly retired to a convent in Paris where she died at the age of 55 in 1831. Her descendants (she had three children) had her ashes moved in 1880 from their resting place at Mont-Martre to the family vault near London. Although historical rumours have questioned Pamela’s origins (some suggest she was the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Orleans and his children’s educator, Madame de Genlis) there are more facts to support that Pamela Fitzgerald was born in Newfoundland under the name Nancy Simms. Volume two of the Book of Newfoundland states both the published memoirs of Madame de Genlis and the birth certificate used in Pamela’s first marriage, record her as a native of Fogo. clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca
SCRUNCHINS A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia
Paul Daly/The Independent
GREAT BIG SIN Thank goodness no one was hurt when Great Big Sea’s tour bus tipped over Feb. 9 on the highway east of Vancouver. The band was on its way from Alberta, where they had performed to great reviews, including this one from the Edmonton Sun: “There may never be an I Wish They All Could Be Newfoundland Girls — but it’s not for lack of trying from Great Big Sea. The Rock’s unofficial rock band makes their windswept, rugged economically troubled province sound as colourful as the Beach Boys did for California. The Beach Boys makes you want to frolic in the sand. Great Big Sea makes you want to be a pirate. They make you long for the salt spray in your face, the wind at your back, a hold full of cod and the hope of once again seeing your maiden fair, whom
you promised a forget-me-not, or something to that effect.” REFINERY ROW Talk of a second oil refinery in the province brings back memories of the grand dedication of the first one at Come by Chance Oct. 10, 1973. What a monumental event it was, climaxing when the most luxurious ocean liner of the day, the 66,851-ton Queen Elizabeth II, streamed up Placentia Bay with some 1,000 guests on board. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. By 1976 the refinery had declared bankruptcy, the biggest (at the time) in Canadian history, with debts of upwards of $500 million. The refinery was purchased in the early 1980s by Petro-Canada for the fire-sale price of $10 million and promptly mothballed. The operation was sold again in 1986 for $1 (you read that right — 4 quarters or
2006 CR-V SE 4WD 5-speed Kenmount Road 579.1999 / 800.667.9900 www.cityhonda.com
¥
2,313
WINTER
SALES DRIVE
BANNING CELLPHONES Newfoundland and Labrador may have banned the use of hand-held cellphones while driving in 2003, but debate still rages in provinces such as Ontario, where a woman and her son drowned last week after their SUV slid into an icy canal as she talked on the phone. Premier Dalton McGuinty isn’t convinced cellphones should be banned in Ontario. “I understand there’s a law on the books that has to do with dangerous driving See Scrunchins page 5
...delivers more
Value Price Advantage $ $3,413
100 pennies). A dollar won’t go near that far today, but then oil also sells for more than $60 US a barrel and Come by Chance processes more than 105,000 barrels a day. Don’t have a calculator handy? No worries — that works out to $6.3 million a day, give or take a dollar or two.
in extra value for only $1,100
• • • • •
16-inch Alloy Wheels Front & Rear Skid Plates Side Step Bars Front Fog Lights Roof Rack
2006 CR-V SE 5-speed *
$
308
Lease from
Quadruple 5-Star Safety
†1
0
$
SECURITY
MORE SAVINGS
All Honda vehicles are delivered with a full tank.
2006 CR-V SE
34 MPG (8.4L/100km) Highway
†
www.honda.ca
Limited time lease and finance offers available only through Honda Canada Finance Inc. O.A.C. *Lease is based new 2006 CR-V SE 5-speed manual (model RD7756E) for a 48 month term, OAC. Monthly payment is $308 with $5,725down payment or equivalent trade-in, respectively. Payments include $1,445 freight and PDI. $0 security deposit required. First monthly payment due at lease inception. Lease rate is 4.9%. 96,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometres. Total lease obligation is $17,001.60. License, insurance, PPSA, applicable taxes and registration are extra. Option to purchase at lease end for $14,064.00 plus taxes. †: As reported by EnerGuide published by NRCan – see www.vehicles.gc.ca for full details. †1: Quadruple 5-star safety rating based on crash tests by NHTSA for CR-V for driver, front passenger and rear seat passengers in both front-impact and side-impact crash tests, www.nhtsa.com. ¥: Calculation for $2,313 in extra value features is: 2005 CR-V LX with manual transmission is $28,200. Total value of additional SE features is $3,413 – based on dealer installed accessory pricing. Additional charge to consumer is only $1,100. Savings to consumer is $2,313. Limited time offers. See your Honda dealer for full details.
4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
Interest rate Committee chair says expressions of interest into Harbour Breton fish plant weren’t explored By Alisha Morrissey The Independent
W
est coast businessman Bill Barry wasn’t the only one interested in the Harbour Breton fish plant. Several informal expressions of interest were submitted by other companies, says David Vardy, chair of the committee asked to put together a business plan for Harbour Breton. Because there was no official call for expressions of interest, he says other proposals were never finalized. On Feb. 7, Premier Danny Williams and Barry, owner of the Barry Group of Companies, announced an agreement between the Town of Harbour Breton and the company. The agreement would see the Barry Group attempt to land a
quota for the plant to process mackerel, herring and caplin, with the by-products made into feed for the company’s aquaculture and mink interests. Barry has offered to pay for the stock assessment in the area, in hopes of proving a commercially viable herring stock exists off the south coast. While he won’t go so far as to accuse Williams of jumping the gun in accepting Barry’s proposal, Vardy says he’d be disappointed to learn there was possibly a better deal waiting in the wings. “You see who’s interested and you might find that nobody’s interested, in which case finding Mr. Barry at this point was a coup. If, on the other hand, there was another deal out there that was better then we might have lost that, so we may never know,” Vardy tells The Independent.
“I really find it difficult and quite strange that someone like Mr. Vardy can’t just wrap his arms around a really good proposal that has a really good future for this community.” Premier Danny Williams The Harbour Breton fish plant was shut down by Fishery Products International in the fall of 2004, throwing about 300 workers out of work. Since then the plant has been dormant and the community has been struggling
with outmigration and make work-projects. Vardy refused comment on the number of companies and the names of the parties interested in buying the plant, although he says executives weren’t banging down the door. Incentives could have made proposals even sweeter, Vardy says. Williams, for his part, says he wasn’t aware of any other proposals “I understood a couple of other people, for want of a better term, had sniffed around, but that’s as much as I know,” says the premier, adding Barry’s proposal was “serious,” “well-laid out,” and “genuine.” Policy doesn’t allow the province to provide incentives to fish processors, Williams says, adding he wasn’t approached about providing incentives to
companies interested in buying the plant. “Mr. Vardy certainly didn’t approach me with any requests for incentives for a company to develop Harbour Breton,” Williams says. “I really find it difficult and quite strange that someone like Mr. Vardy can’t just wrap his arms around a really good proposal that has a really good future for this community. “This is not something where somebody dropped into my door and said, ‘Hi, I’m going to do an announcement tomorrow, let’s go for it.’ No, this is where we had a lot of discussions. “We’re getting smart about the fishing business and that’s what’s needed here. I really get surprised at the negativity that just creeps in out there, you know. Why can’t people in Newfoundland and Labrador accept a good news story?” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca
‘We need help’ Constabulary chief says resources are an issue in wake of auditor general report By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent
R
oyal Newfoundland Constabulary Chief Richard Deering says most of the critical issues raised in the recent auditor general’s report examining police force operations stem from a lack of resources. Although some of the points made may look a certain way in “black and white,” he says there are logical reasons why the force has faced problems in areas such as administration, overtime, sick-leave spending and case reviews. “My job is to go to the people who can resolve some of these issues and say to them we need help,” Deering tells The Independent. “We have done that.” He adds the current provincial government has increased its support of the Constabulary’s finances and resources, and the force is in much better shape today than it was three or four years ago. One issue raised by Auditor
General John Noseworthy regarding a delay in reviewing over 21,000 closed cases is an example of staff shortages, particularly in the areas of civilian administration (the force has less than half the national average of administrative staff in ratio to uniformed members). Deering acknowledges the problem and calls it a result of resources and “the probability of solvability. “(Reviewing cases) is obviously very important in terms of doing quality insurance and ensuring files are brought to successful conclusion but … when you’re stretched in the resourcing area you have to make a determination what crimes or what files you’re going to put your efforts into.” He says without diminishing the importance of timely reviews, which the force is attempting to resolve, the more serious cases are “always front and centre,” but the smaller cases may get pushed back. Deering says increases in overtime and sick leave costs highlighted by the
The rush is over, the pudding is gone, and everyone got what they wanted. Now it’s your turn! Treat yourself — get here early for …
THE GREAT
big Sale!
Paul Daly/The Independent
report can be attributed to the Constabulary’s aging force. Overtime costs have risen by about $1.5 million since 2003 — overtime in 2005 alone is said to be in the $2.7 million range. “When you become an aging public service there’s a tendency for more sick time, more vacation, more leave for various things and at the end of the day if we were fully staffed, we
Happening
NOW!
wouldn’t have to backfill those vacancies with people on overtime.” Money for uniformed positions might need to be redirected towards civilian, Deering says, although he’s hopeful the Constabulary’s program in collaboration with Memorial University to train new officers, will continue to run into a fifth year. The force recruited 28 new members last year. There are currently 26
in training at Memorial, due to be on the street in September, and next year Deering says he hopes there will be 30 in training. “We’re hoping to have approval for year four and year five, which will put an additional 50 or 60 officers on the street, so we’re getting better from a resourcing perspective.” clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca
GENERAL MANAGER John Moores AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
john.moores@theindependent.ca
SALES MANAGER Gillian Fisher P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, gillian.fisher@theindependent.ca Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4 Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499 PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews Website: www.theindependent.ca john.andrews@theindependent.ca sales@theindependent.ca • production@theindependent.ca • circulation@theindependent.ca
40-90% OFF!
Jones New York, Michael Kors, Kasper, Tommy Hilf iger, InWear, Kenneth Cole, Simon Chang, Olsen, Hilary Radley, Teenflo, Liz Claiborne, and more ...
see you there!
April Fool’s 27 Rowan Street, Churchill Square Phone: 754-7000 Store Hours: Monday to Saturday: 10am - 6pm Thursday: 10am - 9pm
It’s Valentine’s Day.
Why celebrate Valentine’s day on a Tuesday in February, when you can do it on a Saturday in April? Just think, a romantic 3 Course Valentine’s Dinner at Peter Belbin’s Steak House, and tickets to RCA Theatre’s Third Annual April Fool’s Comedy Night. Starring Rick Boland, Phil Churchill, Steve Cochrane, Jonny Harris, Brad Hodder, Amy House, Joel Hynes, Susan Kent, Rory Lambert, Sheilagh Guy Murphy, Dana Puddicombe, Pete Soucy, and Dave Sullivan. The perfect gift for your funny valentine. Hurry. Limited number of tickets available. For more information call the Hall 753-4531.
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5
Norway could own more of Hebron than province in absence of equity stake By Stephanie Porter The Independent
U
Paul Daly/The Independent
Replacing Rowe Premier expected to fill Ottawa position shortly; Nova Scotia opens office in capital By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent
W
ith a new minority government in place in Ottawa, Premier Danny Williams is finally ready to select a replacement to fill the long departed shoes of Bill Rowe as Newfoundland and Labrador’s point man in the nation’s capital. Elizabeth Matthews, spokeswoman for the premier’s office, says Williams hopes to make an announcement within a month or so. “Now that we have a new federal government in place, we are proceeding in earnest to recruit the best possible candidate for this position,” she tells The Independent. Establishing an office in Ottawa, a commitment outlined in the Tory pre-election Blue Book, was designed to give the provincial government a stronger presence in Ottawa and was officially confirmed in July 2004 when Rowe was first appointed. Just a few months later, in February 2005, he announced his resignation, citing family commitments. The position, which comes with an approximate $400,000 annual budget, has remained vacant since. ‘LAY OF THE LAND’ In an interview with The Independent last October, Williams said he was waiting to assess the federal “lay of the land” before re-filling the “key position,” despite receiving some interest from potential candidates. “A certain person might fit appropriately for a Conservative government and somebody else might fit appropriately for a Liberal government,” he said at the time. “The last thing you want is the wrong person in that job.” Peter Boswell, head of political science at Memorial University, says he wonders how effective such a position could really be for the province. Newfoundland and Labrador already has a representative in the federal cabinet (recently appointed Conservative MP Loyola Hearn), as well as provincial senators. “There’s no measure of what he (Rowe) accomplished and it was never clear, as I recall from the original government announcement, what he was going to be doing concretely,” Boswell says. “The people that are making the day-to-day decisions and advising on policy, they’re always meeting with their counterparts so why would you need an extra one there that’s not connected with the governing structure?” A year after his resignation, Rowe, a former member of the House of Assembly and currently
SCRUNCHINS From page 3 and the like,” McGuinty told the Toronto Star. “We can’t have a law for everything.” The Star quoted Sgt. Rick Thorne of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary: “It can be very cumbersome to follow through with a conviction, but we still issue tickets.” Statistics about any reduction in accidents weren’t available. NORTHERN ADMIRER Premier Danny Williams met early last week with Joe Handley, premier of the Northwest Territories, who is trying to hammer out an energy deal with Ottawa. Williams removed the Maple Leaf from the front of all government buildings in late 2004, a move that eventually landed the province a new Atlantic Accord deal, although Handley isn’t prepared to go there just yet. “It’s premature right now for us to take the flag down,” Handley told the media. “A lot of northerns look to Newfoundland and say, ‘Gee, that was very successful, we admire what you did.’” SURVEY SAYS A telephone survey was carried out last week asking Newfoundlanders and Labradorians whether they preferred a government-run insurance system over the existing public insurance system. Respondents were also asked whether they’d prefer a single insurance system for the Atlantic provinces, or individual systems for each province. No word on who’s carrying out the survey. MEDIA RELATIONS Constabulary Chief Richard Deering came down hard on a newspaper reporter in St. John’s this week for printing a front-page story about an
an Open Line radio host for VOCM, remains emphatic the office is of the utmost importance. After meetings between the province and federal political officials, he says issues have a tendency to “lie fallow unless somebody is holding somebody else’s feet to the fire. “The function was to represent the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, not the federal government or the federal House of Commons, which is what the MPs are all about,” says Rowe. Hearn says he can see the possible benefit of having an individual solely representing the provincial government, but he stresses the importance of having a clear mandate that doesn’t cross purposes with the province’s seven MPs. “Representation of Newfoundland issues should be able to be done wisely and done right on the floor by Members of Parliament,” Hearn says. “However, behind the scenes digging and following up and refining issues and agreements … there may be something there that is above what either ourselves or our offices can do.” Rowe points to the fact a small handful of other provinces have similar representation in Ottawa, most notably Quebec, which has manned an office in the capital city since the early 1900s. Nova Scotia is the most recent province to jump on board. Premier John Hamm announced the opening of his province’s first Ottawa office Feb. 6. During his appointment, Rowe says Nova Scotia sent a delegation to talk with him about his own experience as a provincial representative. “I told them I thought the office was essential,” he says. Despite being a provincially designated representative in the federal scene in Ottawa, Rowe says he found it easy to carry out his job. “I had a number of contacts up there in the prime minister’s office and so on, but that wasn’t the main reason it was easy. The main reason it was easy was that I was recognized as representing the premier and Government of Newfoundland and Labrador,” he says. “When I would call up high officials, including deputy ministers in Ottawa or MPs, or senators, to talk about certain matters, I very quickly was able to have meetings with them.” Rowe says because of the importance of the Ottawa office, he can understand why Williams is taking his time finding a replacement to run it. “You really do need the right person up there, a person who can represent the provincial government adequately and he needs to size that up very, very carefully.” clare-marie.gosse@theindependent.ca
nless the Newfoundland and Labrador government negotiates an equity stake in the upcoming Hebron-Ben Nevis development, the Norwegian government will own more of the offshore project than the province. As Doug May, a professor of economics at Memorial University, points out, Norsk Hydro — one of the partners in the project — is 44 per cent owned by the Norwegian government. “My immediate response (to the Hebron negotiations) is to take an equity position, remembering that this is not the usual way of doing business in North America,” May tells The Independent. “Otherwise, gee, the Government of Norway has a greater equity position in our offshore than we do. What’s up with that?” Premier Danny Williams has publicly stated for months — and reiterated again last week — his intention to seek an ownership share in Hebron-Ben Nevis for the province. “I want to see us get some equity,” Williams told The Independent in an editorial board meeting last October. “I’d like to see us get a piece of the Orphan Basin … so that we’re growing an equity interest in our energy resources.” Although not speaking about the details facing the province’s negotiating team, led by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro president Ed Martin, Williams has said he is also looking for a better royalty regime and a refinery in the province. “Of all the partners in the Hebron development, Norsk Hydro should be very sympathetic to the Newfoundland and Labrador government asking for equity,” says May. “And it’s my understanding (they take) an active position … they’ve been very adamant about that. Norway is a big player in oil and gas.” According to Kama Holte Strand, a communications manager with Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian government — through the ministry of Trade and Industry — is the largest shareholder in Norsk Hydro, and has been since the country’s oil industry started in 1965. “The state has the same rights as any other shareholder,” Holte Strand says. “And will receive its share of each year’s dividend.” The government also receives money as owner of the Norwegian continental shelf, taxes and royalties (although the royalties are being phased
out). In 2004, 28 per cent of Norway’s revenues came from the petroleum sector, almost $35.5 billion (Cdn). More than half of that came from taxes; dividends accounted for a relatively small amount (about $1 billion). But not everyone believes seeking a share is the way to go. Peter Fenwick, a research fellow with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, says the government should stay out of the equity business — and take its cut of the profits from taxation and royalties. “It’s amazing how slow we are to learn the lessons that the rest of the world already knows,” Fenwick says. “Having governments own equity positions in any kind of company has always been a terrible mistake. “If the province is a stakeholder in an oil company, instead of the oil company being as efficient as possible, trying to make a decent profit, it ends up responding to a whole bunch of political interests.” Fenwick gives the example of Petro-Canada — he says it’s a good company now, but its success was limited as a Crown corporation. He looks westward, to Alberta, for another case in point. “Ask Alberta how many oil companies they have an interest in and the answer is, they don’t have an interest in any of them. All they do is have royalties and taxation and they get their $8 billion a year. That is, by far, the more sensible option.” Of course, oil prices are hitting record highs these days and profits appear endless — but that might not last. “People forget that oil is not a certain money maker,” Fenwick says. “Oil prices are high now, they could fall again. Then your equity goes down to almost nothing.” Fenwick’s other main concern with the current negotiations is that by putting new demands on the oil companies — things that weren’t discussed for previous developments — the entire process may be delayed, and other oil companies dissuaded from going after the energy off the province’s coast. That, in itself, in not of primary worry to May. “As for the premier and the speed of development, he is a skilled negotiator and advocate,” he says. “These matters do not need to be rushed. What’s important is to arrive at an agreement that you are satisfied with over the long haul.” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca
Have you noticed the benefits our oil and gas industry is bringing to Newfoundland and Labrador?
17,000 jobs.
alleged sex ring. But it’s not the first time the chief has had a few words with a member of the media. Deering called an Independent reporter to his office in May to discuss the paper’s coverage of an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into the Constabulary. The Independent quoted police sources, which infuriated the chief. Quote: “You want to hold us to a standard, but you want to be part and parcel of the corruption that goes on in society and particularly in police departments. You want us to conduct ourselves at a very high level, but you want to accept information from people who want to be corrupt in the police department. I just say you can’t have it both ways. What do you want? Do you want to be part of the solution or do you want to be part of the problem?” We just want the facts, chief. Just the facts. TRUE LOVE The Queen of Swansea left St. John’s on Dec. 5, 1867 with 14 passengers for Tilt Cove, Notre Dame Bay. The schooner never made it, running aground off an island near Shoe Cove. Eleven of the passengers managed to make it to land, where they eventually died of starvation. One of the men, Dr. Felix Dowsley of St. John’s, wrote passages to his beloved wife in St. John’s, including this last one, written in blood on Christmas Eve: “We are still alive. We have not tasted a bit of food since we were stranded here except the dirty snow–water around our feet. The place where we are sheltered is up to our knees in water. Oh, what a desolate Christmas! … I never knew how to appreciate the comforts of a bed and a home until now … My sufferings are beyond description. I would write more, but am now unable.” ryan.cleary@theindpendent.ca
There has been a steady increase in the number of jobs created by the oil and gas industry. In 2004 the total number of direct and spin-off jobs reached 17,300 and the oil and gas industry generated $967 million in personal income. To learn more please visit www.capp.ca.
A message from:
403, 235 Water Street, St. John’s, NL Canada A1C 1B6 Tel (709) 724-4200
6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
The wages of politics T
here has been a lot of discussion in the media recently about city council’s handling of its decision to increase its compensation. I think a few points are in order to set the record straight on what is always a contentious issue. As a matter of policy, council is not the highest paid employer in the province nor is it the lowest. We are somewhere in the middle. In setting compensation for employees in the context of bargaining or arbitration or increases generally granted to management/non-bargaining unit staff, our Human Resources Department regularly conducts a compensation survey in the Newfoundland public and private sectors entitled General Economic Increases for Selected Organizations. Collective agreements reviewed include the provincial government general service/MOS, police, correctional officers, City of Mount Pearl, City of Corner Brook and the City of St. John’s, locals 1289 and 569, as well as a number of other private-sector employers such as Aliant, Newfoundland Hydro and Newfoundland Power. The important collective agreement
ANDY WELLS
Guest column that really is the trendsetter for public sector bargaining throughout the province is the provincial government GS/MOS agreement. This agreement substantially determines compensation for public employees in the education system, health care field and provincial Crown corporations and the City of St. John’s. The city is usually one year behind the provincial government GS/MOS agreement in salary implementation because of the expiry dates of the collective agreements. The GS/MOS employees were awarded 6 per cent, 5 per cent and 5 per cent in 2001, 2002 and 2003. This created a trend for the public sector settlements during the period for 2001-2005. For example, the police received 6 per cent, 6.5 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 3.25 per cent; correctional officers 2.5 per cent, 5 per cent and 2.5 per cent and their contact expired in 2003 so the new agreement
will be retro to date. The City of Mount Pearl, including council members, received 1.87 per cent, 4.5 per cent, 3.97 per cent, 3.82 per cent and 4.24 per cent. The City of St. John’s, locals 1289 and 569, received 2 per cent, 2 per cent, 6 per cent, 4 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 1 per cent. Additionally, Members of the House of Assembly whose compensation, I understand, is set by an independent consultant received 6 per cent, 2.5 per cent, 5 per cent and 2.5 per cent in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. So, it is clear that on average throughout the public sector in this province — including elected officials such as MHAs and the City of Mount Pearl — there has been an increase in compensation of some 16 per cent. Further, all non-union employees with the City of St. John’s throughout this period enjoyed the same schedule of increases. Mount Pearl increased its compensation every year at a private meeting of council with no discussion or public announcement. MHAs increased their compensation annually over the past four years with no discussion or public announcement whatsoever. Perhaps council should have fol-
lowed the same process and given annual increases equal to those negotiated through collective bargaining. I wonder if it would have been any outcry. In any event, we did not. I will speak for myself. I see no reason why the salary of mayor should not receive the same schedule of increases as has been generally made available by whatever process in the public sector over the past four years. With respect to council compensation, the position of mayor was comprehensively reviewed in 1998 by Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltd. It was determined there was an adjustment required in the mayor’s salary, bringing it to $75,000, but there was no justification for further changes in the salary for councillors. In 2002, Mercer Human Resource Consulting did another compensation review entitled Compensation Review — Elected Officials in Eastern Canadian Municipalities. It found that the levels of pay for each elected office were appropriate when awarded and simply require indexation in accordance with some measure of wage change. On the basis of the report, council at
the time voted themselves a 9.3 per cent increase, which was not made retroactive. Because I was given an increase in 1998, I did not think it was appropriate to take 9 per cent retroactive to that date. There is every reason to believe that another compensation review would be consistent with the 2002 report, i.e. there is no justification for any change for the members of council except some indexing in accordance with some measure of wage change. In my opinion, the most significant measure of wage change is first of all within the organization. An increase of 16 per cent over the past four years. I repeat this is consistent with wage increases in the public sector throughout the province during the period, which is why I did not support hiring Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltd. Their 2002 conclusions are entirely appropriate for 2006. There is no change required except for some measure of wage change. I don’t believe council has any right to pay themselves more than others justly received, but what grounds are there why we should receive any less? Andy Wells is mayor of St. John’s.
YOUR VOICE Change CBC to ABC (Avalon Broadcasting Corp.) maybe sometime down the road a volDear editor, As I glanced through our local cano will erupt on the Northern newspaper a headline caught my eye, Peninsula and we will get plenty of “Revamped Here and Now viewers up coverage. It’s sad isn’t it, especially when I but only slightly.” For the management of the CBC I think of my Dad crawling through the have an idea how to boost your view- trenches at Beaumont Hamel so that ers: change the name to ABC — all of God’s creatures be treated equally. Avalon Broadcasting Corporation. Last year our health care was slated A little while ago they were celefor cuts as per the Hay brating in the newsroom report. Our people of the CBC because Here staged one of the and Now was going back After 50 years largest demonstrations to its one full hour of ever held on the supper-time news complaining I Northern Peninsula instead of the half hour. I know anything I but no CBC turned up. too felt a little like celeThis past spring our brating. I said to myself write won’t have people from this area at last we will be able to much effect. held an all night sit down and watch news wake-a-thon where from the Northern they raised over Peninsula. But to my disappointment all we got was more $40,000 for cancer research but no CBC. The next morning I phoned news from the Avalon. For over 50 years I have been writ- every news media outlet in the ing letters to the editor complaining province and asked why … I am still how the Great Northern Peninsula has awaiting an answer. been neglected over the years by govOn election day I watched as the ernments of all stripes. I have also CBC cameras scanned across the complained about being neglected by island letting the people know what the different news medias, including the weather was like. The Avalon, the the CBC. Gander area, the west coast and Oh how I recall back in the mid- Labrador but the Great Northern 1970s when our people tried to protect Peninsula didn’t exist. the seal hunt from Brian Davies and In spite of the neglect there is still Greenpeace. one bright light shining within the I was one of those fishermen who CBC, that light is Pauline Thornhill were dragged over the snow that and Land and Sea. If it wasn’t for morning by the more than 100 RCMP Pauline the remainder of the province police officers present. wouldn’t know where the Northern But what I recall most from that era Peninsula is. was that every hotel and motel in the After 50 years complaining I know north was filled to the hatches with anything I write won’t have much people from the media, including the effect. So I say to our newly elected CBC. politicians take up the cause of our I think the last time I saw a CBC people because we too own part of the camera in this area was three or four CBC. years ago when the Governor General Francis Patey, visited St. Anthony. But who knows, St. Anthony
Independent team commended Dear editor, The grand people at The Independent have done it yet again. The Feb. 5-11 edition included a letter to the editor from Russell Wangersky (Our angle?) The team of editors at The Independent is to be commended for reducing Wangersky’s usual meanderings to a mere 15 words.
Ol’ Wang hasn’t been the same since Miller Ayre gave the homeward bound Bill Rowe top billing on the Saturday Telegram’s opinion page and Rusty was and has been consigned to playing second fiddle on his tiny, out-of-tune violin. Tom Careen, Placentia
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
Job action L
et’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Loyola Hearn hasn’t offered me a job and I’m not after one. Aha, you say, but what would happen if the MP came calling, what would I say then? (Put me on the spot, why don’t you?) I’d say thanks, but no thanks Mr. Hearn, there are more important things than a big, fat federal government pay cheque, a pension (what the hell is that?) and a month or two holidays a year troutin’ in the Rideau Canal. Personally, I get off on the facts. There’s a story I’ve been waiting to tell for more than a decade, and I may soon get a chance to tell it … but more on that in a moment. I could have held a news conference this week, there were that many media inquiries — CBC Television, The Telegram, The Muse. They all wanted to know whether the rumours were true and if I’m off to Ottawa. Well, they didn’t word it as nicely as that. “You angling for a federal government job or something?” was how the editor of The Telegram put it. Again, the answer is no, I’m happy enough where I’m to. Indeed, these are exciting times in the news business in Newfoundland and Labrador. With the Conservatives in office we may actually get our hands on some power, otherwise known as information. The Liberals weren’t big on answering questions — no sir, they weren’t fans of the public’s right to know. Hopefully, the new crowd upalong will have a different attitude. “Right to know what?” you ask. Let’s start with the fish in the sea. The question on everybody’s lips these days is who owns it. The closure of the cod fisheries in the early 1990s taught us a hard lesson: fishing isn’t a birthright. At the same time, the fish is a common property resource — owned, in other words, by the people of Canada (that was the gift we handed to them in 1949 for taking us in).
RYAN CLEARY
Fighting Newfoundlander Surprise, surprise — turns out the fish in the sea aren’t ours at all. The fish are owned by the companies/individuals that hold the quotas. Stay with me now, it gets complicated. A lot of the fish — northern cod, for example — has been under moratoria for years and years. Companies such as Fishery Products International may not have fished that stock since Rex Goudie lost his baby teeth, but they hold the right to the quota in perpetuity, forever and a day. As for the few stocks that are still healthy enough to fish, FPI can process the fish wherever the hell it wants — Caplin Cove or Katmandu (although China is the preferred destination of late). Some quota holders (I can think of a certain dentist in the Maritimes) don’t have a thing to do with catching fish. They contract harvesting companies (and countries) to catch their quotas (shrimp in the dentist’s case) and sit back as the profits roll in. The Baffin Fisheries Coalition is another example. Ottawa gave them a turbot quota a while back and all they have to do is sit back and kick their feet up. The fish is actually caught by Royal Greenland, the largest turbot supplier in the world. Canada is expected to increase its northern turbot quota this year and Royal Greenland is actually gearing up for the bonanza, with plans in place to bring in two more trawlers to fish inside Canadian waters this year and process the turbot in Greenland. How sweet is that? There may come a day, if we’re not careful, when the fish off our shores is owned by the bunch over in China or Norway or Iceland or Greenland — everybody but us. One of the things on Hearn’s to-do
list is to take an inventory of the quotas for all species in Canadian waters to determine who holds them, who’s catching the fish and where it’s being processed. That’s a fabulous start. Then there’s foreign fishing outside 200 miles — my favourite topic. Certain media have been trying for years to build a case against foreign overfishing, but it’s hard to do with little or no information and no help from Fisheries and Oceans. How many illegal fishing citations have been leveled against foreign vessels since 1992, the year our cod fisheries first closed? What kind of discipline has been handed out to those trawlers by their home countries? As for stocks that are in danger of commercial extinction, how much of that fish have foreigners caught since our nets were pulled from the water? The answers to basic questions such as those could help build a case for action, but DFO would rather protect countries such as Spain and Portugal than one of their own, Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s hoped the Conservatives will finally open the floodgates and release the information. (Oh, before I forget, the science budgets for the past 10 or 20 years would be a useful piece of information to have, just to see if they’re up or down). As for actually trying to make things better, some media representatives say ideas such as custodial management aren’t necessary — the world will never go along with it, it’s never been done before, the proper channels have to be followed. In case you haven’t noticed, diplomacy hasn’t worked, and certain media pundits, like the federal bureaucrats they’ve cozied up to over the years, are overdue for a career change. But not me, not just yet, not with so many stories left to be told. Ryan Cleary is managing editor of The Independent. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca
FEBRUARY 12, 2005
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7
Cartoon capers
Ivan Morgan questions why Western newspapers aren’t running controversial Danish cartoons — respect for Muslins or fear of reprisal?
I
have to be careful with this column. I don’t want to fan any more flames. At least I hope I don’t want to. Like most people, I was aghast at the violent reaction in some Muslim countries to the publishing, in Denmark, of cartoons that are disrespectful of Islam’s prophet, Mohammed. The behaviour has bewildered more than just me. In my day job I am fortunate to get to work with students. Recently a lot of students have been asking me (out of legitimate curiosity) what is so offensive about the cartoons that vast crowds would riot and burn down buildings. Several were curious as to why they could not see the offensive cartoons so they could judge for themselves. Students are like that. But they cannot judge for themselves, as no newspaper, magazine or television station will publish them. I answered that the cartoons are offensive to Muslims and that’s why
IVAN MORGAN
Rant & reason they aren’t being run. “How offensive can a cartoon be?” a student asked me. I have been on the Internet and I have seen those cartoons and they are offensive. But to my Western eyes they are offensive in a crudely drawn, childish and ignorant way. They are the kind of drawings more suited for tacky thirdrate porno magazines than for anything else. And that is where they should stay. Normally no responsible newspaper, magazine or TV show would give them any exposure. But on the other side of the coin, no responsible person would burn a consulate down because of them either. So here comes the tricky bit. Are the cartoons not being reprinted here in Canada out of respect for Muslim sen-
YOUR VOICE Protection of environment ‘uppermost’ in Inco’s plans Dear editor, Eugene Conway’s letter to the editor (Feb. 5-11 edition of The Independent, Toxic waste behind Inco’s move) has misunderstood Inco’s intentions regarding waste from the future scaled-up hydromet operation. Large quantities of solid waste will indeed be generated for each ton of nickel, because the desired nickel, copper and cobalt constitute only about seven per cent of the mined ore. After the concentration steps in Labrador, the rest of the ore material not containing these metals will remain as waste solids. Very little water is used in the process, so a continuous stream of liquid will not be produced, as Eugene suggests. The problem is that the waste solid will be a fine powder. Containing sulfur, it will need to be covered with water to slow down oxidation to limit formation of sulfuric acid, which could
sibilities, as many news sources claim, or out of fear of mindless, vicious reprisal? The answer to that question is very important. There are lots of offensive pictures out there. I have seen Nazi cartoons of Jews so offensive that they defy reason. Jewish groups have been battling these images with words, education and infinite patience for decades. I have seen racist, sexist and homophobic cartoons that would make any decent person sick — hate-filled and twisted drawings made by hate-filled and twisted people. I have seen images reprinted in other local papers that I thought were offensive and that I would have resigned over. No kidding. I am deeply respectful of other’s beliefs. But I have my beliefs too, and they are just as near and dear to me as other’s beliefs are to them. And one of them is freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Threatening to kill anyone who dares publish satirical cartoons offends me. Fearing to publish them
because of these threats offends me too. Our values should be able to withstand threats. And threats coming from the Arab world are not only offensive, but hypocritical. Several years ago an Egyptian television network ran a popular “historical drama” miniseries, produced in Saudi Arabia, based on the deeply antiSemitic and highly offensive book Protocols of the Elders of Zion. For those of you fortunate enough to have never heard of this work, it is a fake “history” that claims to show how Jews are planning global domination. This popular miniseries was re-run all over the Arab world. Which is more offensive, some amateurish cartoons or a multi-episode, state-of-the-art modern television series? Yet not only were Egyptian embassies not burned, but the odds are you never even heard of it. Offensiveness is not the sole domain of the poor Danes. Saudi Arabian schoolbooks are filled with deeply offensive remarks about
Christians and Jews. Hell, why pick on Muslims alone. Go to American religious leader Pat Robertson’s website and read some of the things he has to say — or Jerry Falwell’s site. It’s a wonder we don’t burn down the American consulate. Let’s face it — it isn’t a very nice world. Yet we in Canada are trying to be fair. We are falling all over ourselves to be fair. And so we should. We are a decent, peaceful, respectful nation. I am proud that The Independent, like most responsible Canadian newspapers, will not reprint these offensive cartoons, as I have no desire to offend Muslim Newfoundlanders, some of whom I count among my friends. I am proud because I think we do it out of respect for Islam, not out of fear of reprisal. If I thought we were not reprinting them out of fear that might make things a little more difficult for me. Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
leach traces of (toxic) heavy metals present in the ore. Such settling ponds are common practice where hydrometallurgy is employed — these will not be pristine natural ponds or streams, but man-made containment ponds. With the anticipated large quantity of solid waste to be contained in such ponds, a very large area of land will be needed — all this, to avoid contamination of the province’s pristine environment. Voisey’s Bay Nickel will have to communicate their long-term plans regarding the waste, which certainly could be 50 million tons or more, but I believe protection of the environment is uppermost in their published reports. Frank Smith, retired professor of chemistry Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s
Canadian flag bearer Danielle Goyette leads Team Canada during the opening ceremony at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, February 10, 2006. David Gray/Reuters
Remove tax from funerals Dear editor, Following the suicide of her 17-year-old son, Bonnie Hourihan of Passekeag, N.B., being appalled by the amount of HST attached to the funeral costs, decided to take some concrete action. She has launched a petition to be submitted to the House of Commons requesting the tax be removed from funeral services and interest has been generated across the country. Having heard her being interviewed by Geoff Gilhooly on CBC Radio I made contact with her and now petitions are being circulated in the St. John’s area and on the south coast.
To date, they are available in St. John’s at Auntie Crae’s, Bennington Gate and the Senior’s Resource Centre. As well, a website is in the process of being developed and should be accessible fairly soon. As Bonnie said in her interview, this is not a common discussion topic over a cup of coffee but one that every family will have to face at some point so it’s in everyone’s interest to have the tax removed. Given the present political climate in Ottawa this may very well be an opportune time to address it. Patsy Ploughman, St. John’s
Salt in the wound Dear editor, I am starting to wonder when politicians are elected if part of the process is to undergo a frontal lobotomy. Or, is it their sense of entitlement which permits them to do and say as they damn well please? Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan is quick to defend executive pay scales and has been quoted to say “you cannot play in the big leagues if you don’t compete in the big leagues.” His concern for the retention of top public executives must come as an absolute smack in the face to the thousands of female employees who went through the due process and were awarded their pay equity only to be dismissed with a mere “we can’t afford it” response. No doubt the thousands of graduates each year from our accredited university and colleges must not only be offended by his comments — it most certainly dashes any hopes or aspirations of embarking on a career at home. They surely must feel insulted by such disparaging remarks as they shuffle off with
diplomas in hand, burdened with tremendous debt, headed to the mainland in hopes of a new start. What is most disconcerting are his remarks which seem to indicate that as an employer we are not paying the top cheese enough so it seems they are left to fend for themselves. His solution — to give them even more in an attempt to retain them. I guess this can be construed in some convoluted way of making them honest while at the same time elicit some sympathy for the poor things who were only taking what they were entitled to. His reference to “a level playing field” must be reserved for the top players, as it is quite evident by past actions that the bulk of the workforce are not even invited to the game. While that in itself may be disgraceful enough you don’t need to add salt to the wound! Susan Hatch, Conception Harbour
Trouble getting through Dear editor, I am writing regarding my recent experiences with Aliant. I’m hoping one of their employees might read this and give me a call. I’m having some trouble reaching them. A week or so ago, I dropped into the conveniently located Aliant dealer in Howley Estates in St. John’s to drop off my cellphone, which was on the blink. I was told I had to go to the very inconveniently located office on O’Leary Avenue for service. So on a Thursday, I scrambled over on my lunch break and took a number. I waited. And waited. I had to get back to work so I wrote a note with my contact number, told them the phone was broken and left. The phone was inches away from an employee. I called the next day — it was a 1-800 number — and spoke with a Francophone in God knows where. I explained the song and dance. She called O’Leary Avenue but had no record of my phone. I was told I can’t call into the O’Leary Avenue
office. A major communications company cannot receive phone calls. No matter. I went to their website and clicked on “contact us.” I typed a letter, which I presumed would get action, or at least a phone call. My e-mail came back “undeliverable.” This week I’m moving so I decided to disconnect the whole service: the residential phone, the unlimited long distance, the high-speed Internet and the cell, the whole shabang. I’m told I can’t disconnect the cell without paying $250 because I signed a contract. I’m told my best bet is to go to O’Leary Avenue (big surprise) and that for $70 or $80 I can get a new phone. I’m told I will be charged $5 to suspend the service that I’m not getting. I don’t like the idea of paying to stop getting what I’m not getting but I’m told that’s the best they can do. If only I could call Aliant! Or maybe someone from Aliant reading this could call me? Lynn Moore, St. John’s
FEBRUARY 12, 2005
8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS By Darcy MacRae The Independent
T
he lack of military presence in Newfoundland and Labrador coincides with the overall absence of federal jobs in the province and is yet another indication of the problems that exist in Confederation, says St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells. “When you look at defence spending, as with federal spending generally across the country, Newfoundland and Labrador always comes up short,” Wells tells The Independent. “It’s another example of how the Liberals, in the case of federal jobs, deliberately took jobs away from the province. “In the case of defence spending, we just don’t have a presence here. The navy is particularly ironic I suppose because of our history and our proximity to the North Atlantic.” Wells says St. John’s should have a much stronger navy presence than it does, since it is the country’s most easterly city and closest destination point for European vessels. The Independent conducted a cost/benefit analysis of Confederation in late 2004 that revealed the Department of National Defence had 604 regular forces personnel stationed in Newfoundland and Labrador, plus an additional 128 civilian personnel and more than 1,000 part-time reservists. The annual payroll for the province was pegged $5.4 million. Broken down, National Defence spends 1.1 per cent of its total budget in Newfoundland and Labrador, compared to 7.2 per cent in Nova Scotia, home to most of the East Coast fleet. “I don’t think defence spending should be a form of economic development. You should locate your facilities where there is a true need,” says Wells. “It’s all gone to Halifax and we get a few crumbs thrown our way. I would make the argument on the basis of geography and on the basis of our proximity to Europe. You could make a case that there should be a substantially increased presence in this province.” Wells says he sees the lack of navy presence in St. John’s and throughout Newfoundland and Labrador as an example of the problems that exist between the province and the federal government. “I think this is part of the larger issue respecting our place in Confederation,” Wells says. “Let us always remember that in the larger scheme of things we’re one-and-a-half per cent of the Canadian population and we send half a
dozen MPs off to Ottawa. In the larger scheme of things, we don’t matter squat, unfortunately.” Wells says he will lobby the federal government to bring a more prominent navy presence to St. John’s, adding with a new Conservative government he’s more confident of getting results than he was during the Liberal party’s reign in office. “We have a member in the federal cabinet now (Loyola Hearn), we have three MPs from the Avalon on the government side of the house,” Wells says. “I’d rather we have a Conservative government to deal with on some of these issues than Liberals. The Liberals … I honestly don’t know how anybody could have stood for the federal Liberal party in this province and look the people square in the eye. I couldn’t have done it, because what could I say to people based on their record in the past 10 years? The way they stripped jobs out, and undermined the federal presence in this province because we were the weakest and most vulnerable.” According to Hearn, MP for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl and federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Newfoundland and Labrador can expect Prime Minister Stephen Harper to make good on his promise to beef up the military’s presence in the province. “One of the things we talked about during the campaign was the military presence … and people can look to those promises being kept,” says Hearn. “We didn’t make these commitments just because there was an election. We knew that we had a chance of winning and we knew people would expect us to deliver and if we say we’re going to do something, then we’re going to do it.” In a letter to Premier Danny Williams, Harper said the Conservatives would station more than 600 military personnel at 5 Wing Goose Bay. Hearn says it shouldn’t take long before this promise, as well as other efforts to increase military presence in the province, becomes a reality. “I think you’re going to see movement on this issue sooner rather than later,” Hearn says. “I’m saying within the next few months and next few years you’re going to see an increase. I don’t think this stuff is going to take too long. “We are a very strategically located province, we have tremendous facilities, we have Goose Bay in particular, we have Gander, we have Stephenville, you know we have St. John’s where we still have a lot of facilities.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
FEBRUARY 12, 2005
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9
Change course
‘A few crumbs thrown our way’
Conservatives plan to reverse trend of coast guard cuts Alisha Morrissey The Independent
A
fter years of criticizing cuts to Canadian Coast Guard services in Newfoundland and Labrador, the province’s newest representative in the federal cabinet is prepared to reverse the trend. A review of coast guard services is already underway, MP Loyola Hearn tells The Independent. Meetings scheduled in St. John’s for Feb. 13 and 14 will include talks on the future of the coast guard. “We’ll be having a closer look to see No. 1 is it going far enough, what else we can do and I guess specifically, what can we do that will have more effect in our own province,” Hearn
Andy Wells says St. John’s should be navy focal point, not Halifax; Loyola Hearn says military presence here to be beefed up
says. The House of Commons Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans, which Hearn served on for years while in opposition, reported on problems in the coast guard as late as March 2005, making 18 recommendations, including funding for fleet renewal, armament of some coast guard vessels and upgraded and modernized infrastructure. Hearn says he would now like to explore some of those recommendations. “We did an extensive study in the coast guard and made a solid base of recommendations, solidly accepted … by the people in coast guard and management itself and certainly the unions,” Hearn says, adding during his election campaign a number of coast
guard employees volunteered “because they liked what we had done for them.” It’s early in the game, says Hearn, refusing to suggest a timeline for any of the changes he’d like to see. Hearn has opposed removing coast guard vessels from Newfoundland and Labrador, calling for a stronger search and rescue presence and improved fishery science. Coast guard vessels in Newfoundland and Labrador are regularly tied to wharfs for maintenance and repairs. Cash has also been tight for fuel money. Union leaders say there’s no backup in place when a vessel breaks down and while vessels in the fleet are supposed to get a retrofit at their mid-life
point, more often than not vessels are skipped over for several years due to budget constraints. Only a handful of ships in the coast guard fleet are less than a decade old — most were built in the 1970s and ’80s. The 31-year-old Shamook, an inshore-research vessel stationed in St. John’s, was slated to retire in 2005 but still patrols. The icebreakers Henry Larson, Ann Harvey, J. E. Bernier and cutters Sir Wilfred Grenfell, Leonard J. Cowley and Cape Roger also call St. John’s home. The 39-year old J E. Bernier was slated to be taken out of service in 2004 and the 29-year old Cape Roger is supposed to retire in 2007. alisha.morrissey@theindependen.c
Meal ticket MUN athletes receive less cash for food while on road than university employees; air fare major source of travel expense By Darcy MacRae The Independent
T
he meal per diem offered to travelling Memorial University student athletes is half of that given to travelling university employees, the auditor general’s report reveals. MUN enters mens and womens teams in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) soccer, basketball, volleyball, swimming, cross-country and wrestling. The clubs frequently take part in games or competitions on the mainland, and individual athletes are given $21 a day to pay for their meals while on the road. University employees travelling on school business receive $42 a day. Michelle Healey, program co-ordinator for Memorial athletics, says the per diem rate for students was determined after MUN researched what schools across Canada made available for their student athletes. She says the MUN per diem is superior to many
Captain Jean-François Dufour, Adjutant with 12e Régiment blindé du Canada, hugs the ground while the Griffon helicopter he had just disembarked from takes off at Valcartier Garrison, Quebec. Photo Cpl J.-F. Néron
Life is 24/7. Work doesn’t have to be. Need to leave the office but want to stay in touch? Consider affordable around the clock live call answering and messaging services from Telelink. Our operators will answer your phones professionally and promptly with your company name and relay your message to you via text, email, or fax, whichever you choose.
We’ll answer your call. 722-3730 • 1- 8 88 - 693 -2255 • www.telelinkcallcentre.com
Helicopter crash likely caused by bad weather It appears weather may have been the cause of a Transport Canada helicopter crash that claimed the lives of two government employees Dec. 7. Paul Traversey, lead investigator for the Transportation Safety Board, says the mechanical aspects of the chopper are still being looked at, but as they are ruled out weather is becoming a bigger player in the investigation. “The weather has always been an issue and the conditions at the time … the weather that day on the Burin Peninsula, was very much dependent on where you were standing,” Traversy tells The Independent. “Once it’s finally confirmed or that we’re comfortable that it had nothing to do with mechanical, well then it does really lead you towards the weather and we know the weather at the time of the accident was quite poor.” Veteran Transport Canada pilot
Gordon (Gordie) Simmons, 65, and Carl Neal, 46, a coast guard technician, drowned or died of hypothermia when their MBB-105 helicopter went down on a routine maintenance check of a fixed-navigational aid on Go By Point — just minutes away from Marystown. “Where he was on Go By Point, basically on the side of a cliff … a very small landing pad and a limited field of view and things like that, it would be difficult when he shut down at that place to access what’s going on around him in terms of weather,” Traversy says. The aircraft’s transmission and hydraulics were recently tested, with no problems detected. The engines are still undergoing testing, Traversy says. The main frame of the chopper was found on Dec. 17 and was sent to Halifax analysis. — Alisha Morrissey
YOUR VOICE Can’t take a joke? Dear editor, What is wrong with Newfoundland and Labrador’s sense of humour? I understand a member or members of the medical profession are criticizing the tourism prescription pad put out by the Newfoundland and Labrador Tourist Association. Personally I thought it was very effective because the message came in a unique package, i.e. a prescription pad, and immediately got one’s attention. It then suggested various sites to help one alleviate the disease of the “winter blues.” If, for example, one needed “water therapy,” one could go to a St. John’s hotel with a swimming pool and hot tubs, and so on. How any Newfoundland or Labrador resident, much less the medical profession, could be offended by that is beyond me. Surely we are being too nice, too politically correct when no political correctness is necessary. No group is slighted in these ads. Let’s leave the feigned slights to our
politicians who, when they are devoid of good oppositional material, lapse into the threat of lawsuits and other such garbage. If the medical profession and other such persons of exquisite taste want a good bone of contention, bite into the latest little draconian measure by the Opposition in the House of assembly who, pleading lack of funds, prevented a free and open leadership contest for the new Liberal leadership position by blocking Yvonne Jones’s bid. And this is the party that was going to get new blood into its ranks? You guys are a joke. I have more respect for Stephen Harper and his reactionary views than I do for you devious creatures. Thank God, we have a solid moral man as premier to keep you Liberal opportunists in line. If we didn’t, we’d be experiencing our own Newfoundland version of a Gomery inquiry. Aubrey Smith, Grand Falls-Windsor
schools registered with Canadian where with a healthy alternative. But Interuniversity Sport. you’re home by Sunday evening, so “That number was generated based you’re not paying very much out of on research from across the country in your pocket,” says Healey. CIS schools, and the actual average for Katherine Quackenbush, a member meal per diem is $17 of the MUN women’s per day for CIS basketball team, says schools,” Healey says. there are times student “Within the Atlantic athletes have to use University Sport con- “Within the Atlantic some of their own ference most schools money to pay for their University Sport provide $15 per day.” meals on the road. Healy was a basketshe adds it is conference most However, ball player for MUN in not something most stuthe early and middents have trouble with. schools provide 1990s, and was named “Sometimes it’s a litAtlantic conference tle more than ($21) a $15 per day.” MVP in 1995. She says day,” Quackenbush $21 a day should cover says. “If we’re there a student’s meal early in the morning, expenses. that’s three meals we “You’re primarily dealing with need to buy for $21. It can get a little breakfast at home or taking something tough at times. with you (before the team leaves for “In a perfect world, it would be nice games on the mainland), then you have (to have more money). But I know it’s a light lunch before you play and a hard … there are other things the post-game trip to Subway or some- money could go towards too.”
Auditor General John Noseworthy’s report also states MUN spent approximately $400,000 for travel costs associated with varsity sports teams during the 2004-05 season. Healey says the majority of the money was spent on flying teams and athletes to competitions on the mainland. “Pretty close to two-thirds of that would be for air travel,” she says. Healey adds flying is the only option for transporting student athletes, since travelling by ferry would keep the students away from class for too long. “There’s no opportunity (to use the ferry), just based on the league schedule being held during school semesters and all our games taking place on the weekends,” Healey says. “For us to drive and take the ferry would involve probably 36 hours of travel where normally we try to get to our competitions and back within 48 hours.” Besides air travel and meal per diems, MUN also covers hotel costs and ground travel. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
FEBRUARY 12, 2005
10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
LIFE STORY
Pouch Cove cowboy JIM SHEA 1905-2000 By Alisha Morrissey The Independent
J
im Shea may have lived most of his life in the southern United States, but his Pouch Cove home was always in his heart. Shea went on to become a prominent businessman in Dallas, Tex., and helped found the university there. Growing up in Pouch Cove in the early 1900s, Jim often fished with his father and helped with the family’s vegetable garden, but his big-city future was to be much different than his outport beginnings. In 1923, after being educated at St. Bonaventure’s in St. John’s, Shea moved to Brooklyn, New York where he managed a grocery store. “He was always oriented towards business, a very outgoing, personable person and very good with people. Kind of a born salesman, we called him, all of his life,” says Russell Shea, Jim’s nephew living in Washington. “After a while he was restless to go west — there were opportunities out there.” Shea became an American citizen and moved to Oklahoma in 1928. It was there that he met his wife, an artist named Nina. Russell’s sister, Mary Pawlowicz, says Jim used to love to tell the story
of meeting Nina and helping her find and buy paint and gold leaf for a set of china she was painting. The couple moved to Texas in 1945 and had a son, Pat. Shea opened Lone Star Wholesalers that year and ran it (later with his son) until he retired in 1970. Pawlowicz remembers Shea’s frequent trips to New York and Newfoundland, bringing gifts like air conditioners and radios. “My mother would always arrange these parties for him,” Pawlowicz says with a thick Brooklyn accent. “We lived in a small apartment in the city … she’d be cooking for days and then everyone would arrive, they’d all sit in the living room and they’d be a song fest and everybody was expected to sing or recite something.” Jim became a cowboy from Newfoundland, she says. “He was from Texas at that point, you know, and he knew that all the kids got a big bang out of that and so he would dress the part — he’d wear his boots and bring his big 10-gallon hat,” she says laughing. “We would round up all the kids and he would sing a couple of cowboy songs for us.” When Pawlowicz was married she too moved to Texas and spent a lot of time with Jim’s family, especially during the 10 years he took care of Nina, who died from Alzheimer’s nearly two decades before his own death. Since Shea founded the Dallas country club, Pawlowicz says, he had a life-
Jim and Nina Shea, 1940
time membership and whenever he’d disappear they could find him there in the card room. Shea was charity oriented too, she says, adding he and several local Catholic businessmen founded the University of Dallas in 1956. He was
AROUND THE BAY “According to statistics released to the Times this week by the company, there were 256 sailings from Bell Island last year transporting to Sydney and overseas 2,399,821 tons of iron ore. Eighty three of these sailings were to Sydney (for smelting).” — Bell Island Times, Feb. 22, 1954 YEARS PAST “The Government of the United States has now officially listed St. John’s, Newfoundland with St. Pierre, Halifax and other Atlantic seaports as headquarters for bootleggers who are interested in satisfying the thirst created in America by the probation law.” — The Daily Globe, Feb. 11, 1925
Feb. 14, 1925, Daily Globe
AROUND THE WORLD “The ancient and once honourable profession of begging has achieved greater financial dignity in New York today than in any period of its history, but its adepts are sometimes subjected to embarrassing little incidents. For instance, there was a woman beggar the other day who was searched by a police station matron and found to have $1,334 sewed into the lining of her
awarded an honourary doctorate from the university in 1998. “He was always a very staunch Catholic,” Russell says, “He’d go to mass daily for much of his life.” Shea returned to Newfoundland to visit his family and friends every two
years while he was capable, he says. “Even though he went away to the U.S. he didn’t forget Newfoundland, it was very much in his blood. He would sing the songs, the Newfoundland songs, he was a great singer.” alisha.Morrissey@theindependent.ca
the period during which re-conversion can be put into shape may be somewhat extended, the rationalization that new conditions have to be met has come to all sections.” — The Newfoundland Trade Review, Jan. 26, 1946 dress. What is a perfect lady to say at such a moment? Madame has been arrested for begging alms piteously outside a subway station. Just imagine how she must have blushed when the inquisitive police matron ripped out the $1,334. Or did she blush? Are beggars capable of blushing? Isn’t there something in the profession that bleaches the blushed at their source?” — The Daily Mail, Feb. 19, 1923 EDITORIAL STAND “The last post-war period caught this country on one foot. Naturally we lost our balance and paid a hefty price for it for no business employing people and providing lengthy terms of credit can go down without pulling a lot of people down with it. Fortunately the approach to the post-war period is not the blind man’s bluff it was in 1919 to 1921. Undoubtedly the lesson has been learned, and while it may well be that
LETTER TO THE EDITOR “Mrs. Lillian Gillingham … a bedridden 79-year-old is making out alright with the groceries the Department of Social Assistance gives her, but she needs fruit. She has a strong taste for fruit and can’t get any. If you would like to drop by with a few apples, grape or bananas, you’d be performing a fine Christian act. The woman doesn’t need clothing or basic foodstuffs. Just fruit,” signed A Neighbour. — The Freepress, Feb. 1973 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The editor of the Ledger lived long enough to see the utter prostration of the politics he advocated so stoutly but so insincerely and of the party he defended so boldly. Let him rest!” — Robert J. Parsons, publisher of The Patriot, after the death of his bitter rival Henry Winton who owned the Public Ledger, Jan. 22, 1855.
SHIPPING NEWS Keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s Harbour. Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre. MONDAY, FEB. 6 Vessels arrived: Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Sable Island; Maersk Chignecto, Canada, from White Rose; Franca Morte, Portugal, from Portugal; Maersk Challenger,
Canada, from Mulgrave; ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova. Vessels departed: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Panuke Sea, Canada, to Sable Island; Maersk Challenger, Canada, to Aberdeen. TUESDAY, FEB. 7 Vessels arrived: Cicero, Canada, from Montreal. Vessels departed: Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Hibernia; ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8 Vessels arrived: Nain Banker, Canada, from Fishing; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova; Atlantic Future, Canada, from Fishing. Vessels departed: Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, to White Rose; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, to Montreal; Burin Sea, Canada, to Terra Nova. THURSDAY, FEB. 9 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, from White Rose; Teleost, Canada, from sea. Vessels departed: Teleost, Canada, to sea. FRIDAY, FEB. 10 Vessels arrived: Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra Nova; Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Hibernia; Maersk Nascopie, Canada, from Hibernia. Vessels departed: Maersk Chignecto, Canada to White Rose; Capt. Earl W. Windor, Canada, to Man ‘O War Cove; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, to White Rose; Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia.
Loyola Hearn
Paul Daly/The Independent
‘Slap-happy’ quotas From page 1 that we’re not utilizing, what’s there that we can utilize better,” Hearn tells The Independent. “We can’t make any good decisions, any new decisions, any long-term decisions unless we know what we’re working with.” In early January Hearn called for a review of quotas just as two FPI trawlers, loaded down with yellowtail flounder, headed for processing in foreign countries. Companies like FPI continue to hold quotas for species such as northern cod that haven’t been fished for years. “What it really means is we want to see what we have. What’s being used or what’s being used in, what I would term, the proper way and then seeing if there’s a better way we can use that
resource to maximize benefits to people,” Hearn says. “I have to be shown that we’re doing that at the present because I don’t think we are to a large degree.” In January Hearn accused the thenLiberal government of handing out quotas in a “slap-happy manner,” adding Ottawa should ensure companies with the rights to quotas processed in local plants. “If you want a quota — and this is the way it always should be — if you’re coming for permission to catch product, then in my case I want to know how you’re going to do it, what you’re going to do with it, and is it for the benefit of our own Canadian people?” He refused to set a date by which the review would be complete.
“I’ll never tie my self down to a date because I’ve been around long enough to know that you can’t set dates on issues that are so big and so broad and with so many people involved,” Hearn says. “But I’m not talking about this as something you’ll see five years down the road, I’m talking about getting this stuff done right away. “I’m two days into the department so I’m talking about generalities and plans rather than specifics right now.” Hearn’s intention to follow up on the quota review comes on the heels of an announcement that provincial auditors will investigate companies that ship unprocessed fish out of the country. At the same time, fish not landed in the province doesn’t fall under processing legislation. In other words, it doesn’t have to be processed here.
INDEPENDENTWORLD
SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12-18, 2006 — PAGE 11
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Parliament Hill
Christinne Muschi/Reuters
Harper girds for child-care battle Conservatives will need support of the Bloc to ensure families get cheques by July By Chantal Hébert Torstar wire service
C
anada’s last Conservative minority government died a quick death on the arid hill of a steep hike in gasoline taxes; this one has chosen the grassy knoll of a popular $1,200 child-care allowance for its first do-or-die stand in Parliament. On his first day in office, Stephen Harper announced he would fulfill his bigticket promise to families by July 1. Win or lose, this is the battle that will set the tone for the rest of his mandate in and outside the House of Commons.
On the child-care front, Harper can expect little help from the Liberals or the NDP. The latter may actually be a bigger fan of the Liberal national daycare plan than its nominal authors. If the Conservatives are to survive their first budget and get to deliver cheques to parents of young children instead of funding to the provinces, they will need the support of the Bloc Québécois. Still reeling from the outcome of the election, Gilles Duceppe is not spoiling for an early showdown. If there is one area of the country where Harper’s controversial cabinet moves have not put much of a damper on his honey-
moon, it is Quebec where the advantage of securing a Montreal presence at the cabinet table has widely outweighed the unseemliness of appointing a non-elected minister to do so. At the best of times, most Quebecers are either lukewarm or indifferent to the notion of an elected Senate. For many, Lucien Bouchard gave floor-crossing a good name when he abandoned Brian Mulroney in 1990. This week, Duceppe said he did not oppose the notion of direct help to families. But he also hinted that to secure Bloc support, Harper would have to earn the blessing of Premier Jean Charest.
With his own election not all that far away, Charest is not about to stand in the way of the dispensing of federal money to Quebec families. Only half of them currently take advantage of the province’s generous child-care program. There have been suggestions this week that Charest could recoup the federal money from those who access the system by raising the daily fee of the program from $7 to $10. Charest also moved quickly to dispel the notion that the Conservative plan would hamper Quebec’s existing system. See “Coming to terms,” page 13
Accountability, Harper style PM’s decision to welcome David Emerson from the Liberals and appoint a backroom boy to Senate/cabinet hasn’t exactly gone over well
C
all it the peanut gallery factor. Everyone has a focal point for Stephen Harper’s “controversial” cabinet appointments. Mine is a couple of young Canadians, one a Conservative, the other a Liberal. Here is what Chris, the Tory, had to say to me after the new Conservative government made two discretionary appointments that would have made Jean Chretien or Paul Martin blush like school girls. “As a young Canadian, I have made it a personal goal to promote political
MICHAEL HARRIS The Outrider involvement on the part of my colleagues at the University of Ottawa. As we will soon be entrusted with the future of our nation, it is imperative we are active and informed. The general apathy towards the political process on the part of the students and youth is
summarized by the popular comment, ‘They’re all the same.’ I worked hard to debunk this myth and to show young Canadians that there are alternatives. It is with regret and dismay that I am now faced with the sad reality of this generalization. Any Conservative who questioned Belinda Stronach’s move to the Liberals should take a moment today to reflect on the hypocrisy of our leadership.” Now for the other young man, John McNamee, the Liberal. In fact, he was the Liberal riding secretary in
Vancouver-Kingsway for David Emerson when those around this political chameleon thought he had true Grit. “I was really shocked by what he did. When I was first told about it I thought it was a joke. At no point did any of us know that he was thinking about this. I think he should pay the money back that people gave to his campaign. There’s no way to repay the 300 volunteers for the time they spent getting him elected.” On a single day, his first day in power, Stephen Harper divided his supporters between partisanship and princi-
See “Emerson,” page 12
Simply fill out this form and mail to Walter Andrews, 5 Dartmouth Place St. John’s, NL, A1B 2W1
Ê
Looking for the perfect gift from home to send away?
ple, between corporate thinkers and the peanut gallery. In the process, he even managed to depress young people on the other political side. The partisans and corporate toadies who have rallied around Harper twist and squirm and do rhetorical back-flips to argue that David Emerson is actually a great catch. They also claim that backroom boy Michael Fortier’s Senate/cabinet appointment is either political necessity or strategic brilliance.
Name: ________________________________________ Street Address: _________________________________ City/Town: _____________________________________ Area Code: _____________ Phone: ________________
Authored by Walter Andrews and Illustrated by Boyd Chubbs • Where Once They Stood is a unique Newfoundland & Labrador chronology presented as a beautiful poster. • An accumulation and cataloguing of our history and cultural development, the material is presented in a continuum of time from the ice age to the Twentieth Century, supplemented by sidebars of interesting information and statistics. • The poster is of significant interest and informative to history buffs (young & old), tourists, expatriates, cultural supporters, education developers, tourist operators and the general public. Poster measures 2’ x 3’.
Quantity: ________ x $19.95 = ___________________ (Please include $5.00 for Shipping and Handling)
...or place your order by phone: Call Walter Andrews directly at
(709) 726-2671
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD
The Toronto lotto C
all it LOT-T.O. The cashstrapped City of Toronto is researching the idea of selling lottery tickets to raise cash for municipal projects. “It could (raise) hundreds of millions,” chief financial officer Joe Pennachetti says. At the request of city council’s budget committee, city lawyers are expected to report in a week on whether the new City of Toronto Act would give the city the power to run a lottery. “The way the draft legislation reads, you can do everything except what it says you can’t do,” says city manager Shirley Hoy. “They have not said you cannot do a lottery, so we’re saying to
our lawyers we should be able to do that.” The act would allow the city to impose a number of fees such as a sales tax on tobacco, alcohol and tickets to entertainment events. City staff have said that such fees could bring in about $50 million a year. But a lottery could allow the city, which is facing a $532 million shortfall in its 2006 operating budget, to tap into a lucrative revenue source. And as with the provincially run lotteries, the funds could be directed to specific projects. “My own feeling is it would need to be linked with very specific kinds of projects, for example culture grants or recreation programs or youth pro-
grams,” says Councillor Joe Mihevc, While the city may have the power, vice-chair of the budget committee. city council may not want to go down “People could then see a direct link that road, he warns. between the ticket “Studies have shown they’re buying and the it’s a tax on the poor. positive benefit in the “That’s how desper- Those are the folks who community.” lottery tickets in the ate you are, though, buy And while council is main and that’s someon record as opposing when you start to thing we would have to casinos in the city, a consider.” lottery may be differ“It’s certainly somelook at lotteries.” ent. thing that the province Joe Pennachetti “I don’t think there’s and hospitals and other a taste among Toronpublic agencies have tonians on the casino front, I don’t used as fundraising mechanisms,” says think it’s politically feasible, but on the Councillor Sylvia Watson. lottery ticket side it might be,” says “Leaving aside the fundamental Mihevc. question of whether lotteries are a
good, bad or an indifferent thing, if it’s a form of fundraising that has served other levels of government well, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t at least consider it.” “I’m quite prepared to buy lottery tickets if it’s going to help restore some of the programs we need,” says Councillor Kyle Rae. Pennachetti says the fact the city is even contemplating a lottery illustrates the serious predicament the city faces. “We don’t think we want to be in that business and we don’t think we should be,” he says. “That’s how desperate you are, though, when you start to look at lotteries.” — Torstar wire service
Emerson should resign From page 11
IT
COSTS
$ 405
A NIGHT TO RENT
A THREE BEDROOM LUXURY CHALET AT
H UMBER VALLEY R ESORT *
* WAIT A MINUTE ... THAT ’ S ONLY
$ 68 A PERSON
IF THERE ARE
6
OF YOU .
Luxury doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, at Humber Valley Resort, we’re all about living large— even with a not-so-large wallet. Take advantage of our mid-season rates and book now. You’ll see what we mean when you get here.
Call us at 1.866.686.8100 or visit www.humbervalley.com, and check out our great package deals.
The sophistry required to support either of these comic propositions is toxic to the message the Conservative pushed all through the election that brought them to power: a swift return to honesty and integrity in a badly ailing body politic corrupted by years of Liberal abuse. When the other guys did it, it was scandalous; when the new guys do it, it’s audacious leadership. Uh-huh. The peanut gallery, on the other hand, deals in plainer considerations. David Emerson, the Liberal, is the man who won a mandate from the voters of Vancouver-Kingsway. In fact, when the riding’s 212 polls were counted 81 per cent of the voters had chosen a party other than the Conservatives. Like a bandit wearing a disguise, Emerson has stolen their riding. Is it any wonder they want it back? If the new minister of International Trade lacked honour in this slick affair, the new prime minister displayed staggering disdain for our democracy and his own sales pitch to Canadians just a few short weeks ago. Throughout the election campaign, and for many months before, Harper gravely intoned that the people were the ultimate arbiters of everyone’s political fate. Once elected, the PM personally erased the relevance of the 20,000 Canadian voters who selected Emerson as their Liberal MP. That is the kind of thing that Harper used to denounce. Emerson should resign but he won’t. He should return $97,000 of Liberal contributions that got him elected, but instead chooses to claim that the only reason the party got that money was because of his magnetic personality. Just so he understands what his new party really thinks about this tawdry bit of treachery, here is what Carol Skelton, the current minister of National Revenue and Western Economic Diversification had to say while in opposition on the issue of changing parties like a pair of dirty underwear: “… any Member of Parliament who wishes to join a governing party between general elections must sit as an independent Member of Parliament for 35 sitting days, upon which a byelection will be held in the Member of Parliament’s riding and the electorate will decide if they will re-elect that member under their new political banner.” If Skelton’s private member’s bill had passed, there would be a bye-bye election in Vancouver Kingsway. Diane Ablonzy, who was passed over like a stale bun in favour of Emerson, says there is support now for reintroducing legislation to put a stop to what her party has just done. Nice to know that your colleagues think there should be legislation against people like you. Encouraging political turncoats is one thing, appointing unelected political cronies over elected MPs is even worse. How does an old Conservative warhorse like Myron Thompson, for example, explain to the folks back home a Conservative government elevating a backroom boy to cabinet through the Senate who expressly didn’t want to run in the election? It is true that Harper talked about such a possibility during the election, but that was only when the Conservatives expected doughnut holes in Quebec. With a handful of elected Quebec MPs, Fortier should have been left where he was most comfortable, in the warm, cozy world of corporate Montreal. That way Canada’s minister of Public Works would be where he should be — in the House of Commons answering questions about the biggest spending federal department of them all. Instead, Fortier will be bringing earplugs to the Senate to block out all the snoring while he reads the stock page. Accountability, Harper style. Derek Burney might call this getting it done. But it will never sell in the peanut gallery.
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13
VOICE FROMAWAY
A musical heritage Born in St. John’s and raised in Calgary, Jason Crocker says the biggest difference between the two places is money and culture By Ben Curties For The Independent
W
hen musician Jason Crocker returned to Newfoundland for a visit last year, he was blown away by the windy island’s concentration of music. “Everybody plays music there,” Crocker says. “Even if they don’t play professionally, they still play.” For Crocker, born in St. John’s and brought up in Calgary, music is work and play. He is rarely seen without his trusty guitar, though lately he has been at his computer 8 hours a day co-ordinating an upcoming cross-Canada tour to support his new jazz/indie-pop album, Melodies From the Outskirts. “I’m glad I wrote so much before because I can’t write anything now,” he sighs. Crocker certainly has his work cut out for him. His former booking agent has quit the business — though he’s coming on the tour as a soundman — and Crocker has decided he can’t trust anyone else to do it right. But booking a tour isn’t easy, especially when you have a 10-piece band. He’s still putting the finishing touches on the tour before the March 24th kick-off show, even while he packs for a three-date jaunt at the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance conference in Austin, Tex. Fortunately, he has a little help from his friends across the country, gleaned from years of touring, which belie his young age of 26. He has a publicist in Vancouver, a webmaster in Toronto, a label (Saved By Radio), a producer (Lorrie Matheson), and an all-star cast of musicians from Calgary, distribution (FAB) and a road manager from Montreal. He also has acquaintances and fans all over Canada who remember him from his expeditions with jam band Recipe from a Small Planet. Unfortunately, his 12-stop tour ends in Halifax, though Crocker would love to bring the show to his native St. John’s. “Next time for sure,” he vows. “It’s just so far out there. There’s not enough time or money to do it right now.” Crocker did manage a return to The Rock last spring with girlfriend Johanna Hayes, an artisan whose mother grew up in Placentia.
Jason Crocker
Coming to terms with Charest From page 11 In contrast with the other provinces, Quebec never planned to use the fiveyear funding it negotiated with the Liberals to create new places. But that does not mean Charest — who is financing the most extensive and affordable child-care network in the country — is willing to forgo almost a billion dollars in anticipated federal funds. The premier came away from a conversation with Harper last week with the impression that there was room for accommodation and that really got the attention of Ontario and Manitoba, the other two provinces that have signed five-year funding agreements with the Liberals. If Harper does not come to terms with Charest, he will put an early crink in the relationship of the two governments and undermine a premier who
needs all the help he can get on the popularity front. Second only to the goal of securing a majority for himself, Harper means to see to the re-election of a federalist government in Quebec. But if the Prime Minister were to make a special child-care deal with Charest at the expense of other provinces, he would be poisoning the federal-provincial well for the duration of his mandate. One working week into his government, the least that can be said about Harper is that he is no boy scout. As demonstrated with Monday’s cabinet, political expediency comes easily to the new Prime Minister. Whether that makes him extremely bold or just excessively reckless is now a matter of debate in and outside the nation’s capital. The upcoming child-care debate should shed a lot more light on that.
And while he had been back several times as a boy, the adult Jason Crocker was able to fully appreciate his ancestral home. “It was awesome,” he says. “Everything was exactly the way I imagined it. We went back during St. Patrick’s Day, and it was St. Patrick’s week there. There’s so much music and the people are so friendly. Everything was incredible.” Crocker immediately noticed the differences between St. John’s and Calgary. “It’s completely opposite,” he says. “Here we have tons of money; there they don’t have much money. Here we don’t have much culture; there they have tons of culture.” He took a trip to O’Brien’s Music Store on Water Street where his great-aunt Nell, widow of store founder Roy J. O’Brien, immediately recognized him as a Crocker. His relatives showed him pictures of himself on the upstairs wall, and sent him Newfoundland sheet music when he returned to Alberta. Nell’s brother — Crocker’s grandfather — worked for Canadian National (CN) like his father before him. Crocker’s father, Gordon, did the light show for his brothers’ bands The Abstract Number and Wabana (who opened for Alice Cooper at Memorial Stadium in the 1970s), and he also tried his hand at CN before becoming an auto mechanic. He met his wife in St. John’s, the daughter of a U.S. serviceman in Stephenville. Like many Newfoundlanders, Gordon found himself drawn to Alberta by the promise of work, and he packed his young family off to Calgary. Crocker’s job demands that he leave the comforts of Calgary again and again, searching for new fans and opportunities. With the next tour still over a month away, he’s already looking ahead to another crossCanada trip in the fall, and a solo jaunt in Europe after that. “It’s the only thing I can do,” he says of his musical career. “I don’t know, I just love it. I love that kind of communicating. It’s the art of organizing sound, and you can create this thing that’s so elusive, even to yourself. It just explodes into the air and it’s crazy. “I’m trying to get it in before the oil runs out,” he adds, laughing. “Then there will be no tours, except by horseback.”
14 • INDEPENDENTWORLD
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15
Preparing troops for war and the public for its consequences EDMONTON By Bill Taylor Torstar wire service
A
lexander the Great, Henry V, Wellington, Rommel ... forget the military giants of history who led their forces from the front. Today’s general is less a warrior, more a blend of CEO, politician and public-relations person, pre-programmed with glib lines to shoot down awkward questions in mid-flight. Canada is sending a planeload of troops from CFB Edmonton every couple of days through February, until there will be close to 2,000 in Afghanistan as part of a Canadian-led multinational combat force. For once, we’re taking the fight to the enemy rather than keeping opposing sides apart. Our soldiers have undergone cultural-sensitivity training so they’re less likely to tread on the toes of a society whose lives, taboos and religious devotions are alien to westerners. We’ve learned our lesson well from the sometimes gauche missteps made by U.S. forces. But the top brass are sensitive, too, to cultural hang-ups and finer feelings at home. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? We don’t like to think of ourselves as aggressors. We especially don’t like to think of the potential cost in human life — Canadian life. As the new operation gathers steam, the brass hats relentlessly accentuate the positive — rebuilding a nation rather than fighting its warlords to the death; the good people who want our aid rather than the bad people who violently resist it; not so much the inevitable casualties, more the topnotch medical care they’ll receive; less the hardship and perils of the battlefield, more the nurturing of the families left behind. Troops unworried about domestic issues are more efficient troops. The only weight on their shoulders should be the equipment they’re carrying. Emotional baggage is too heavy. Your average general is very good at answering the question he wants to answer, which may not be the question that was posed. Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff, was asked if the choreographed routine that saw the wounded men brought home and met by high-ranking officers would be standard procedure for future casualties. Hillier, a Newfoundlander who projects himself as a colourful, no-nonsense straight shooter, replied emphatically: “If you mean world-class medical care, absolute support for the families, and all of the dignity, care and respect they deserve, absolutely.” A great sound bite — the man has perfect pitch — but it ducked the issue. Your average soldier, too, is mediasavvy, with an instinct for avoiding verbal minefields. A private, box lunch in hand and about to board an army bus to Edmonton airport, is asked if he ever thinks to himself, “This is not my fight.” He stiffens. “I can’t ... I won’t go near that one,” he says. Edmonton has an Afghan population of about 2,500, according to community leaders. Some, including children, have been involved in cultural awareness and language training, says Brig.Gen. Tim Grant, commander of CFB Edmonton. “They came and role-played with us,” Grant says. “Seeing children around adds reality, helps set the scene. You have to get used to working with a translator. You’re going in and speaking to a tribal leader in a town or to a shop owner .... “This is a group that desperately needs and wants our help. But you can’t forget it’s a very proud society.” Lieut. Doug Thorlakson, leader of a transportation platoon, says the departing forces had a week of cultural training: “How you talk to them, respecting your elders, listening to people … It’s a warrior society. You have to be very straightforward with them. The respect you give is the respect you get. If you go in like a bunch of Keystone Kops, you’re gonna pay for it.” Thorlakson shrugs off the idea of a combat role being somehow new for Canadian troops. “I used to be an infantryman, and in my mind there’s no real shift. If the truth be told, we’ve been trained in the last 15 years as we’ve always been trained. You’re trained to fight.” Grant gives a pep talk to troops and families: “You are the best-equipped force in Afghanistan, bar none. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind. My sole job is to make sure your families are well taken care of. These months will go by. Your loved ones will come back.” Afterwards, he says: “In some ways this mission is no different than others ... to help rebuild. There will be some risks involved. The support systems for
“Canadians perhaps do not yet have a full understanding of what we are getting into. It is only fair to tell Canadians that this is dangerous stuff and that people may be killed.” Col. Steve Noonan families back here is vital. The more we do for the families, the better off the soldiers will be.” In the drill hall where troops say their farewells to nearest and dearest hangs a banner for the Family Support Co-ordination Centre, “supporting the heroes behind the heroes.” Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, commanding the multinational force, acknowledges: “We are prepared to kill if we have to. But that is not my mandate, to just go out and just kill. My mandate is to go out and help the Afghans address the challenges that face them. This mission is about Canadians helping Afghans.” Part of a rebuilding mission is ensuring things stay rebuilt. You don’t achieve that by fining miscreants and telling them not to do it again. This is
also a hunter/killer mission, backed up by jetfighters, attack helicopters and state-of-the-art armoured vehicles and artillery. It was left to Col. Steve Noonan, commanding Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan last year, to speak the unspeakable. “Canadians perhaps do not yet have a full understanding of what we are getting into,” he told the Ottawa Citizen. “It is only fair to tell Canadians that this is dangerous stuff and that people may be killed.” Capt. Manuel Panchana-Moya is in a wheelchair with a double-fractured left ankle and a shattered right heel after he was wounded in Kandahar on Dec. 12. Panchana-Moya looked very young and vulnerable as Hillier pinned a medal on him. But when he took questions, his voice was firm. What happened was something that went with the job, a risk he was prepared for. He was getting great care and wanted, if at all possible, to go back. He loved seeing new places and meeting new people. The language of a recruiting poster. Public relations or no public relations, families weep as families have always wept “I sleep well,” Thorlakson says. “I don’t dream about it.” Lt. Doug Thorlakson of 1 Service Batallion with daughter Cassandra, 2, before being deployed. Peter Power/The Toronto Star
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
16 • INDEPENDENTWORLD
$33529(' )RU )5(( /D\DZD\ 5HJDUGOHVV 2I &UHGLW +LVWRU\ %DQNUXSWF\ )L[HG ,QFRPH RU -RE 6WDWXV 1R ,QWHUHVW )((6 ‡ 1R 6WRUDJH )((6 ‡ 1R 7LPH 5HVWULFWLRQV ‡ 3ULFH +ROG 3URWHFWLRQ ‡ *XDUDQWHHG /RZHVW 3ULFHV
&KRRVH )URP 2YHU 'LIIHUHQW 6RID /RYHVHDW 3DFNDJHV ‡ :H :RQ W %H 8QGHUVROG
6RID 2QO\
6RID /RYHVHDW
6RID /RYHVHDW
6RID /RYHVHDW
2WWRPDQ
6RID /RYHVHDW
6RID /RYHVHDW
6RID /RYHVHDW
3LHFH 6HFWLRQDO
3LHFH %HGURRPV ,QFOXGHV +HDGERDUG 'UHVVHU 0LUURU 1LJKWVWDQG
&KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
&KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
&KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
&KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV &KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
&KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
'UHVVHU 0LUURU 1LJKWVWDQG DQG &KHVW $OVR $YDLODEOH
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
&RPSOHWH 4XHHQ %HG
3LHFH 'LQHWWHV $W )DFWRU\ 'LUHFW 3ULFHV ‡ 6DPH 'D\ 'HOLYHU\ ‡ 2Q 7KH 6SRW )LQDQFLQJ
3LHFH 'LQHWWHV $OVR $YDLODEOH $W /RZ 3ULFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
0$775(66 %21$1=$
$OO 3LHFHV
$OO 3LHFHV
$// 0$775(66(6 :,// %( 62/' 21 $ ),567 &20( ),567 6(59(' %$6,6
7UXFNORDGV 2I 0DWWUHVVHV :LOO %H 6ROG ‡ +XUU\ ,Q )RU %HVW 6HOHFWLRQ
)$&725< ',5(&7 35,&,1* 21 $// 2) 285 48$/,7< 0$775(66 6(76 6$0( '$< '(/,9(5< Â&#x2021; )5(( /$<$:$< Â&#x2021; :( :21 7 %( 81'(562/' $GYHUWLVHG PDWWUHVVHV VROG LQ VHWV RQO\ 6HH VWRUH IRU LQGLYLGXDO PDWWUHVVHV DW IDFWRU\ GLUHFW SULFHV .LQJ VHWV FRQVLVW RI SLHFHV
3RVWXUH 3OXV
67$57,1*
$7 21/<
3RVWXUH 3URILOH
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF
)8// 48((1 .,1*
<HDU /WG :DUUDQW\
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
'UHDPVOHHS
(QFKDQWPHQW
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
&KLUR (PLQHQFH
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
7DEOHV )DEULFV DQG &RORXUV PD\ YDU\ E\ VWRUH
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF
&KLUR 0DVVDJHU
7ZLQ HD SF
ZS
/7' :$55$17<
$FURVV IURP $YDORQ 0DOO QH[W WR $YDORQ 6RIWZDUH
&$// 7ROO )UHH
HD SF
7ZLQ HD SF
2Ò&#x2039;/HDU\ $YH 0RQ 7KXUV Â&#x2021; )ULGD\ 6DWXUGD\ Â&#x2021; 6XQGD\
HD SF
([FHOVLRU
7ZLQ HD SF
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF
HD SF
<HDU /WG :DUUDQW\
67 -2+1Ò&#x2039;6
2SHQ 7R 7KH 3XEOLF
HD SF HD SF
7ZLQ HD SF
)8// 48((1 .,1*
7ZLQ HD SF
7ZLQ HD SF
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF
HD SF
<HDU /WG :DUUDQW\
7ZLQ HD SF
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF
3RVWXUH (OHJDQW
7ZLQ HD SF
7ZLQ HD SF
$Q\ VL]H 3RVWXUH 3OXV 6HW
&KLUR
,PSHULDO
9LVLW 8V RQ WKH ZHE ZZZ VXUSOXVIUHLJKW FD /RFDWLRQV DOVR LQ $OEHUWD 0DQLWRED 2QWDULR 1HZ %UXQVZLFN 1RYD 6FRWLD 1HZIRXQGODQG
)8// HD SF 48((1 HD SF .,1* HD SF :H $FFHSW &DVK ,QWHUDF 9LVD 0DVWHU &DUG $PHULFDQ ([SUHVV &KHTXHV )5(( /D\DZD\
INDEPENDENTLIFE
SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12-18, 2006 — PAGE 17
Kevin Collins in Placentia
Paul Daly/The Independent
By Stephanie Porter The Independent
K
evin Collins had to make a choice, but it wasn’t a very difficult one: head to Prince Edward Island at the end of this month for the East Coast Music Awards (he’s up for the Country Artist of the Year) — or go to Ireland to sign a music publishing deal. “Ireland is a much better fit for me,” says Collins. The publishing deal is with Rosette music, one of Ireland’s largest Irish/country record labels, and home of Daniel O’Donnell, among others. “This is the best thing that could happen,” Collins continues. “I’m now into the biggest label over there that can do something for me for the type of music I do … they’ll promote me and my songs, and other artists could record my songs.” The label support will only add to what Collins has been able to accomplish in the two years since he first stepped onto the Emerald Isle. Nearly 10 of his songs have been taken on by Irish artists, including From an Island to an Island, penned by Loyola Hearn and popularized by Collins. “I can put out that song and in a year’s time, everyone over there is singing it,” Collins says. “And that’s with no big marketing behind it. So if we have that, and with Rosette, we should get the marketing.” His quick mark on the Irish music scene was duly noted in the form of a 2005 national songwriter of the year award in the country. Not a bad start in terms of making a name for himself — or in terms of royalties. Collins and his wife Roseanne are eager to get back across the ocean, to perform and promote, and see just how far this journey can go. “We’re just hoping (Rosette) will take the music and really do something,” Roseanne says. “I mean, my jeez, for all the years you’re after putting in, I hope now is the reaping time.” Collins is the first to admit the road of a
Full circle
Singer Kevin Collins, long a popular figure in this province, may be about to make a major breakthrough in Ireland — ‘It’s almost like it’s meant to be’ musical career is not easy. He started publicly performing at age 13, nearly 30 years ago (he did finish school and train as a welder — just in case). Since then, he’s released a dozen CDs — the majority featuring Irish/Newfoundland music, a handful of country-themed albums, a gospel record, and a Christmas CD. He and Roseanne spent a couple of years in Nashville where he met some of the country greats, learned a lot about recording and production work, and realized that the quality of
life back home in Placentia was worth a lot more than a few extra dollars in Tennessee. “I was well accepted there, I’m sure if I’d wanted to stay …” says Collins. “Or if I was 19 years old and had nothing to lose. “It’s a lifestyle, down there. You’ve got to be willing to give it up, your marriage, your family, to keep that engine running. But I had a good career here and a lot of things going.” So, a decade ago, the couple recommitted to living full-time in Newfoundland. Collins has kept moving his career forward, building
up a solid fan base in the province — he sold out two nights at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre last fall — and working on finding new markets. Both the Collins’ are from the Placentia area, and proud of their roots in this province and, further back, in Ireland. Today they live in a comfortable and cozy home close to their hometown, with a newly renovated 32-track studio attached. Collins started his studio, now Sawyer Hill Productions, in 1988, with four tracks and little experience. He’s since added to his set up and can now do virtually everything he needs to record, produce, mix, master, and manufacture CDs or DVDs. The only thing that has to be done out of house, he points out, is the printing of the CD jacket. “I don’t know of anyone else that can do all that,” he says. “And it’s high-end stuff.” Few days go by with an empty studio, he says. Much of Collins’ business comes from recording compilation CDs for come-home celebrations for various communities — musicians or singers, young or old, that may never have been recorded before, come in for a few sessions. But the focus these days is on Ireland. Although Collins says the East Coast Music Award nomination “is great publicity,” he’s not impressed with the music business in North America — including the East Coast. “The (ECMAs) are a popularity vote within the system, and I’m not really on the inside of the system,” he says. “It’s not a fair representation of what’s popular, or what’s best … “When I make a dive into the east coast music engine, it’s so political. I get an uneasy feeling.” Roseanne chimes in: “I don’t think Kevin will ever walk up on stage and accept an award that’s been bought and paid for.” So far at least, Collins’ dealings on the other side of the Atlantic have been much more humane. It was Roseanne who diligently sent out a number of her husband's CDs to various radio stations in Ireland. The first See “A natural,” page 19
LIVYER
Hear ye, hear ye Town crier on new TV job, community involvement and finding plumage By Alisha Morrissey The Independent
C
hristopher Pickard is ready to launch yet another career. Pickard is a husband and father of three kids, all under the age of 12, and despite his many duties at his day job as executive director of the St. John’s Boys and Girls Club, his night job as the city’s town crier, and his side gig as one half of CBC Radio’s duo of poet laureates, he’ll be taking on a new TV show beginning this week on Rogers Television. Called Speakeasy, the new call-in show will be co-hosted by Christopher and his brother Michael (the other half of the poet laureate duo) and the first guest (Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m.) will be Premier Danny Williams.
“We’d like to turn it over for a half an hour or more to the audience to call in to ask Danny what his golf handicap is to the lower Churchill and everything in between,” Pickard, 38, tells The Independent. The new television program is exciting news for the brothers, who’ve always been close. “We’ve always been collaborative, whether it’s just asking advice on everything from careers to anything we’re involved in,” Pickard says. As for taking on yet another major challenge, he says he feels energetic — not stressed. “(But) if someone offered me a day to do nothing, I don’t think I’d be bored. I think I’d relish it and just bask in that,” he says, laughing.
Pickard works full time at the boys and girls club, a job he got involved with after years of youth-based community work he began with his brother at Memorial University. With more than 767 kids involved in club programs, Pickard admits his job requires a little patience at times. “We fundraise and I think that’s one of the hardest parts of the job because you feel like you’ve always got your hand out,” he says, adding having one hand out for funding means having another hand available to help city kids with homework and other after-school activities. As for his part-time job of 15 years, Pickard says playing the town crier for the City of St. John’s has taken him from the decks of the world’s most luxurious
Chris Pickard
cruise ships to the dinner tables of premiers and other celebrities. “The costume has evolved quite a bit … I have the cape and the three-corner hat with ostrich feathers,” Pickard says. “One of the hardest things to do is find new plumage and on a trip to Toronto a
Paul Daly/The Independent
couple years ago my wife Coleen and I went from store to store to store and finally found some ostrich feathers.” All three of Pickard’s kids have been involved in his performances as well, he See “Criers in training,” page 19
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE
GALLERYPROFILE
ILSE HUGHES Visual Artist
I
lse Hughes’ career is marked by constant evolution. Trained as a dentist in London, England, she and her young family moved to Labrador in 1970. As a traveling dentist along the coast, she used her down time — or any wait time created by travel delays — to sketch or paint, exploring her creative side. When the Hughes moved to St. John’s in 1980 (“This province got under our skin,” she says), she scaled her dentistry practice back to parttime, devoting more energy to learning about and creating visual art. Soon, she herself was instructing, and embarking on a career as a professional artist. Since then, Hughes has become well known in the province and beyond for her portraits, florals, and other still-life work — always with a skilled use of vibrant colour. A few years ago, Hughes decided to tackle large-scale landscapes, expanding her portfolio and skill set once again. “I’ve been professionally painting for 25 years,” says Hughes. “But I’d always prefer to have something close to me, to have something right on the table in front of me and paint that or a portrait … nevertheless, I did do landscapes in a manner (generally, small ink drawings). I always felt they were pleasant, well done, but not really a challenge. “I always had it in the back of my mind that I’ve got to really attempt landscape one day, and now I have.” Hughes says it’s taken her three or four years to get to a comfort level with the work. But she can now paint the land, sea and sky with the same confidence and sincerity she brings to other subjects. “I don’t know if it was difficulty dealing with spaces that was holding me back,” she says. “Perhaps it was too intimidating to free oneself away from what it’s really like.” Having overcome those obstacles, Hughes has completed an impressive collection of land and cityscape paintings. City on the Edge, currently on display at the Red Ochre Gallery, is her first solo exhibition in six years — and it’s dramatic, engaging, and successful. “I feel really happy about it, it is a breakthrough for me …,” Hughes says. “But in a way, I haven’t changed all that much. “In fact, I think that it’s still quite intimate. I’m bringing the city up close. After all, I chose where to sketch subconsciously, I didn’t pick many of these wide vistas …” Instead, Hughes portrays St. John’s both as a city of fishing villages and of industrial business. She points to one painting, from a vantage point just to the west of the St. John’s harbour, looking up Patrick Street. In the foreground, wild grass and trees, then a line of trucks, and then colourful homes and churches. “People are living there, everything’s going on … some country elements, some industrial, some cityeveryday life … it’s a real mix,” she says. City on the Edge may be a different direction for Hughes, but her energy and imagination shine through in every piece. “It’s a switch,” she agrees. “But I think people will still recognize it as me.” — 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
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19
Abundance of insight in Capote way that there is much to explore and discover. There’s more going on here than simply a guy writing a book that will make him more famous than he is already, and if we look closer or look around, there’s an abundance of insight jammed into the film’s two hours.
TIM CONWAY Film score Capote Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener 1/2 (out of four) 114 min.
The Matador Starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis (out of four) 97 min.
A
lthough based on Gerald Clarke’s biography of Truman Capote, the Oscar-nominated Capote concentrates on the period between 1959 and 1965, during which the celebrated writer researched and wrote what many consider to be one of the landmark works of modern literature, In Cold Blood. As brought to life on the big screen, these few years appear to be as critical to Capote’s life as his career, presenting what was probably some of the author’s greatest personal challenges. It all starts with Capote well established within the circles of New York high society. He’d been drawn in about a decade before, following his first novel, and by the opening of the film, he had just finished work on adapting his Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the motion picture industry. Life is fairly cushy for Capote at this point. Behind the scenes, however, he has been developing his concept for a different approach to non-fiction. The opportunity to explore this notion finally presents itself when he reads of a family in Kansas that has been killed in their home. Wasting no time, he calls The New Yorker requesting to be assigned to the story. He is accompanied on the trip by Nelle Harper Lee, serving as his “research assistant and bodyguard.” Little did he know at the time, but before his account of the murders would be published, Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird would be printed, winning her the Pulitzer Prize, and go on to great success as a motion picture. Capote’s intention is to write about the effects of the murders on the townspeople, but his plans take a dramatic turn when the suspected killers are
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.
apprehended. When one of the suspects appears to be a quiet, articulate man, Capote is intrigued, and begins to approach his story from the other side as well. In jig time, he’s gotten himself into the middle of something that’s much larger than a magazine article, an incident that is the focal point of a number of before and after scenarios, an event that has changed numerous lives forever, most notably his own. In his multiple award-winning portrayal of Truman Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman displays the talent
that has made him a favourite with film fans over the last decade or so. In the role of a lifetime for any character actor, Hoffman brings Capote to the screen as a more complicated and complex individual than we encounter in the early moments of the film, skillfully revealing aspects of the character as the case wears on and he wears down. Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, and Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Edward Smith turn in marvelous performances as well, easily holding their own along-
‘A natural progression’ From page 17 person to cotton on to his sound was Breda Ryan, from a station in Tipperary — she remains a close friend today, and the station is one of Collins’ planned first stops on his upcoming trip. “Breda said, ‘I think it’s going down a treat here and I know it’s going to do well,’” Collins remembers. Soon after, he began his first tour of the country. Last year, Collins released a DVD, From an Island to an Island, mostly filmed in Ireland. Part two will be filmed this June in Newfoundland by an Irish crew. Although he’d never set foot in Ireland before 2004, Collins says he immediately felt at home.
‘Criers in training’ From page 17 says, often filling the rolls of “criers in training. “It’s the kind of thing that once I don the three-corner hat and the cape and bell and scroll, and I’m out in public I feel sometimes as if I cease being Christopher Pickard and I’m the town crier.” As if Pickard didn’t have enough to do, he and his wife also teach a marriage preparedness class. A tip for Valentine’s Day and beyond, Pickard says the key to a healthy marriage is always communication, and it’s not always hard work. “I look at life and I think a goal for so many of us is — not to leave a legacy — but to leave the world a little bit better for our kids to come,” he says. “It feels good for me to be involved and if you can, why not?” Pickard admits to indulging in good (and not necessarily good for you) foods, cooking and playing cards, but his most recent vice is cable television. “I’m a recent subscriber to cable television and … sometimes trying to peel me away from there is hard, but for downtime, I think that at the end of the day the greatest thing is walking in through the door and being attacked by three crazy kids.” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca
“Ireland is a natural progression for me, my music, my outlook and my values,” he says. “When the Irish came to Newfoundland, they could fish, could talk about their ghosts and the fairies and sing their songs, which is why, when you go over there, it’s so amazing, when you look at people and talk to people, there’s a connection.” He mentions John Hogan, an artist on the Rosette label who has already recorded Collins’ words. “He started reading off the words, and he said ‘Kevin, I can’t understand why it took so long. Your voice, your music, the words to your songs, it’s us. It’s going to appeal to everybody over here; it’s our life going full circle,’” Collins says. “You know, whatever it is about Ireland, it’s almost like it’s meant to be. It’s got a real calm feeling to it.”
side Hoffman and providing the kind of supporting work that goes unheralded much more often than it should. Unfortunately, the strength of the performances and the slow pace of the film distract us from the wonderful writing and directing that help make this one of the year’s best motion pictures. Director Bennett Miller works the story into a complex, three dimensional entity that demands our attention at all times, and writer Dan Futterman has helped construct this thing in such a
Things are about to change for Danny Wright. He can feel it. In Mexico City courting a prospective client, he and his business partner have just finished a sales pitch that is sure to be the first step up from a streak of bad luck that has plagued him for the last couple of years. Danny’s enthusiasm isn’t shared by the other patron of the hotel bar. Julian Noble is a world-class assassin who’s afraid that he’s losing his edge. He’s been busier than usual lately, and his is the kind of business that doesn’t easily afford recreational leave. The two men sow the seeds of acquaintance that will eventually blossom into an unlikely friendship, distinguished by moments of comedy, adventure, suspense, and the occasional dab of human drama. As Julian Noble, Pierce Brosnan takes his anti-Bond persona of The Tailor of Panama and exaggerates it even more for laughs, while Greg Kinnear steps up winningly in a role that was undoubtedly written with William H. Macy in mind. The Matador is an entertaining treat for fans of dark comedy and the occasional dose of crude humour. A bit erratic at times, it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than the silly romp that it is, despite a number of touching moments. It leans heavily on the charisma of the two leads and a remarkable supporting performance by Hope Davis, as Danny’s wife, Bean. Fortunately, for a bit of lightweight entertainment with a twist, this is all we need. Tim Conway operates Capital Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His column returns Feb. 26.
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE
IN CAMERA
Placentia Mayor Bill Hogan
THE LONG AND Jack Maher
Times have been rough in the area from Long Harbour to Placentia — the phosphorus plant in Long Harbour shut down, the base at Argentia packed up, and the fishery died. Then, in 1996, along came Voisey’s Bay Nickel Co. and the plan to construct a smelter in Argentia. The decade since has brought its share of ups and downs for the area, as plans evolved and changed, culminating in last month’s announcement the processing plant may now be built in Long Harbour. Photo editor Paul Daly and senior editor Stephanie Porter visited the communities last week.
T
he road to Long Harbour is desolate and windswept, with its fair share of potholes. The town at the end of the road isn’t much more lively — once both an industrial and fishing town, it’s now neither. Back in 1989, before the ERCO phosphorus plant closed, the population of Long Harbour was about 700. Now it’s less than 300. There’s a rusted school bus parked beside the road, a tumbledown fish plant on the water, wharves in a sad state of disrepair, and an eerie stillness everywhere. Across the water from the remaining homes are the remains of the plant, some old portables and steel bars are all that’s left of the industry that was once the lifeblood of the community. In the 17 years since the phosphorus operation left, advocates in the town have tried time after time to attract new business to the area. Gary Keating, mayor since 1989 and head of the Long Harbour Development Commission, says he’s kept his head up despite all the letdowns. “When I took the mayor’s job, once that plant shut down, I knew the challenge I would be facing,” Keating tells The Independent.
The new call centre near Placentia
“When you have a one-industry town and you lose all the benefits associated with that, it’s not easy. But we’ve maintained the services and a balanced budget with very little in the way of tax increases.” Keating says the town has been “very close” to a number of projects, most notoriously, a plan to import American garbage for incineration and energy production. “We’ve had 30-odd companies look over the years and didn’t come to reality,” he says. “But I think it’ll all be worth the wait.” The whole region — Placentia, Argentia, Freshwater, Long Harbour, Fox Harbour and other nearby communities — got a shot in the arm a decade ago when Voisey’s Bay Nickel Co. (a subsidiary of Inco) announced its intention to build a billion-dollar smelter in the Argentia industrial park, former home of the American base. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster since then, as plans have been laid, delayed, and altered. On Jan. 17 — almost exactly three months since Inco CEO Scott Hand opened the hydromet test facility in Argentia with much fanfare — the news broke that Voisey’s Bay was ruling out Argentia as a site for the nickel processing
plant. Citing environmental concerns, Voisey’s Bay officials have since suggested they are looking to Long Harbour as their next choice, which may be better suited to handling the chemical waste. CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC To that, Keating says the people of Long Harbour are cautiously optimistic. “I think after all of these years of waiting, we’ll get something we always wanted,” Keating says. “To put a billion-dollar building in a small town obviously speaks volumes to economic growth and opportunities for the town.” He admits the news is a blow for Placentia. “But I hope the area, once they get over the initial shock of the change of location, I hope everyone will realize we’ve still been successful. “We’ve been working with the chamber of commerce, with the town councils of both Long Harbour and Placentia and the Argentia Management Authority and the Long Harbour Development Corporation for the past eight years, working together to promote this industry.” The communities are only 20-odd kilometres from each other, Keating continues, and he’d like to continue the partnerships
that have been recently built. After all, he says, “we would have much more to complain about if it were to go to the west coast or somewhere else in the province.” On that point at least, Placentia Mayor Bill Hogan agrees. “What pisses us is that we’re losing it, not that they’re getting it.” As of The Independent’s press deadline, the two mayors hadn’t spoken about the major change in plans, but they both expressed the desire to work together. “It’s gone out of the backyard, but it’s still in the neighbourhood,” says Hogan. “There will still be employment, and business benefits. It’s not a total loss.” What the Placentia community will lose — and Hogan’s jurisdiction includes Argentia, Freshwater, Dunville and Placentia — is the major injection of tax dollars a tenant the size of Voisey’s Bay’s plant would have meant. “Running a town like this, it would have been equivalent to winning the lotto,” says Hogan. “It’s the big prize, a couple of million dollars a year in the coffers of the town … it’s all the things the town could wish to do, from infrastructure to recreation to socially, it would have all been accomplished. “It hurts, it’s a loss, we’re wounded, but
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21
Long Harbour Mayor Gary Keatins
WINDING ROAD
“Government has to do their due diligence but at the end of the day, when a company has to spend a billion dollars, they have some major say in where they can set up shop. They’ve indicated their time schedule is very tight and I think we should get on with it.” — Long Harbour Mayor Gary Keating it’s not a fatal blow.” Like Long Harbour, recent times have not been good to Placentia. There is still a certain amount of tourism in the picturesque town, thanks to the Marine Atlantic terminal in Argentia and the Castle Hill National Historic Site. There are a couple of tenants (like Metal World and the Inco demonstration plant) on the Argentia industrial park — the former base — and a new call centre is being built. “After losing ERCO industries and the base and the fishery, the announcement the smelter was coming here in 1996 was a huge relief,” he says. Now that it’s gone, the Argentia Management Authority is to set about attracting other businesses to the site. Hogan says he’ll concentrate on fixing up Placentia with a substantial injection of infrastructure money this year — the roads are in terrible shape and Hogan envisions a new town square area. “Tourism has potential, it’s not as lucrative as it should be because people need something to come and see, and we haven’t done as much as we should.” Hogan would like to build a small arts centre, a centre of genealogy, and develop the area’s archeological sites. “If we wrap it up in one package, it’ll do
a lot for tourism. Then you get the plants going, there are talks of Voisey’s Bay setting up a cobalt plant, get Inco started in Long Harbour, access some of the spinoffs …” It’s optimistic talk from someone who’s had to realign his planning and vision considerably over the past three weeks. “Yes, I think we’re doing really well,” Hogan says, “with the exception of that one piece of bad news.” LOOKING FORWARD TO POSITIVE CHANGE Jack Maher, head of the Placentia Area Development Association, is also looking forward to positive changes. He places the current unemployment rate of the area at about 65 per cent. “Yah, they’re hurting,” he says. He sees it first hand — his main role with the association is to set people up with job-creation programs and other government projects. “People call here all the time, to see if there’s a program coming up, to get a few stamps,” he says. “When they need work, they come to us, and we go to manpower. I don’t mind talking to government, and I’m hoping they’ll cough up some more (money) soon.” Maher is also mayor of nearby Fox
Harbour and a volunteer assistant fire chief. He points to the store down the road, Branton’s, a family-owned business closing up shop after 19 years. The mall is quiet, with more than a few empty storefronts. There are boarded up buildings along much of the main road. “If the plant goes to Long Harbour, it will be a great benefit to the area,” Maher says. “It’s a good chance for a lot of people … but are we being led down the garden path once again? Me, I have to think positive and hope that this time something has arisen and something will come out of it. We need it. “The only thing that’s bothering me is St. John’s, the new Trans-Canada Highway and the way they’ve got everything done, I could get in my car now and in 1 hour, 15 minutes, I could be in St. John’s … so is it going to be feasible to set up in Placentia? “We want something stable, we want people to pour concrete and stay.” Long Harbour Mayor Gary Keating is in his office looking over the Argentia site. He’s got maps in front of him of his home town, and is quick to point out why and how the former phosphorus site might prove ideal for Voisey’s Bay — the green field, the accessible power, the deep harbour, the nearby ponds, the infrastructure.
He’s used to the bottom falling out of promises and great plans — and impatient to have the nickel processing plant approved and on the way. “(The move means) no change for the province,” he says. “I get agitated with some of the government views on this. Our goal is to keep the resources in the province and if we have to move 15 kilometres … “Government has to do their due diligence but at the end of the day, when a company has to spend a billion dollars, they have some major say in where they can set up shop. They’ve indicated their time schedule is very tight and I think we should get on with it.” Keating is aware the process is long and “dragged out,” and the current timeline says the plant might not be operational until 2012. Until then, there’s construction, and, he hopes, an influx of people coming back. “The biggest environmental problem we’ve had to date is outmigration and the social issues that come with unemployment,” he says. “We’ve lost all our young people. It’s terrible, but what can you do?” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE
Hook, line and sinker MARK CALLANAN On the shelf The Lure of the Labrador Wild By Dillon Wallace, read by Jody Richardson Rattling Books, 2005. MP3 Audio.
T
FEBRUARY 12 • Youth and adult showcases at Mount Pearl’s Frosty Film Festival, Feb. 12, 5-9 p.m., Empire Theatres Mount Pearl. Applications and short film (25 min. max.) from young filmmakers welcome. For more, e-mail frostyfilm@aamp.ca. • The Avalon Unitarian Fellowship’s regular Sunday service starts 10:30 a.m. at the Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street. • TaDa events presents Cats, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m. • Mount Pearl’s annual Frosty Festival continues. Visit www.mountpearl.ca for schedule of events. Festival runs until Feb. 19. • Fun with fossils with paleontologist Doug Boyce, at The Rooms, 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. • Laura Morry Williams launches her novel Becoming Sarah, Ferryland Arts Centre, Bernard Kavanagh Premises, Ferryland, 2-4 p.m. FEBRUARY 13 • The City of St. John’s will raise the V-Day flag (supporting the effort to stop violence against women) 11 a.m. outside City Hall. • The Novaks, free show at CBTGs, George Street.
hunger for news touched us deeply,” Wallace asserts, immediately countering his initial impression with this gem: I have said that his hunger for news touched us. As a matter of fact, few things have impressed me as being more pathetic than that old man’s life up there on that isolated and desolate island, where he spends most of his time wistfully longing to hear something of the great world […] By a strange coincidence, this is also the point in the narrative at which you start to fervently wish it had been Wallace and not Hubbard who had prematurely met his maker. We as listeners are wont to think that, literacy being so commonplace in our society, one reading is as good as another, but try listening to a lengthy narrative told to you by someone with a voice like a loose fan belt. Jody Richardson’s voice, by contrast, is rich, compelling and highly listenable. Nor does he diffuse this natural gift by overacting the part — his interpretation lies somewhere between a dramatic and a straight reading. Subtle modulations in
the quality of his voice are more than enough to convey the sense of different characters speaking. Of course, there are weak points as well. Turn the volume on Lure up too high and popping plosives (for the record, not a species of bird) become a mild irritant. Also, because the book is recorded in MP3 format in order to fit its nine-hour playing time on a single disc, it can’t be played on older generation CD players. Still, any weaknesses are far outweighed by this book’s benefits, not the least of which is the fact that Wallace’s original text has been adapted in its entirety rather than abridged for the sake of convenience. But why, you might ask, would you want to listen to a book when you can read it yourself? All I can say to that is that like the young children we once were, we still enjoy hearing stories told. Maybe this comes down to our society’s roots in orally transmitted culture. Maybe there is something about language that lends it more power when it is spoken aloud, when it is incanted. I’d like to think so. Content is necessarily transformed by the medium it inhabits. Wallace’s Lure of the Labrador Wild is transformed by the aural medium; 100 years after it was first published, it is given new life. Mark Callanan is a writer and reviewer living in Rocky Harbour. He can be reached at callanan_ _@hotmail.com. His column returns Feb. 26.
FEBRUARY 14 • A Crowd of Bold Sharemen, 8 p.m., St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. • Valentine Burlesque, featuring Richard Michael Fox, Moist Sisters, Neil Conway, Lynn Panting, Barry Buckle and more. 8 p.m., LSPU Hall, 753-4531. • Lunch with traditional music featuring Frank Maher, Rick West, Stan Picket and Andrew Lang, Auntie Crae’s, 272 Water St., 12:30 p.m. 7540661. • 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. FEBRUARY 15 • Folk night at the Ship Pub hosted by Vicky Hynes, 9:30 p.m. • Ruby Gough reads from Robert Edwards Holloway: Newfoundland
By Vinay Menon Torstar wire service
A
re you psyched? Pumped? Eager to release your inner patriot? Ready to experience vicarious thrills and riveting athleticism as this great nation pursues Olympic glory? Yeah, me neither. The 2006 Olympic Winter Games are officially underway in Turin (Torino to locals) where 84 medals will be awarded over 17 days. Some more Turin numbers: 2,600 athletes, 15 sports, 2,500 officials, three Olympic villages, eight competition sites, 85 nations, 650 judges, 10,000 international journalists,
At just 26, he keeps his 88 straight! Masterwork s #3 Marc David conductor
David Jalbert piano Let’s dance! Folk, ballet, jazz and modern—clever orchestrations that will have your toes tapping! A national and international prizewinner, David Jalbert is already gaining recognition as one of Canada’s most remarkable pianists, “Jalbert dazzles with skill, style and taste.” Toronto Star
Friday February 17, 2006
Arts & Culture Centre – 8pm Prelude Concert – 7:15pm The Scruncheons Percussion Ensemble Symphonic Dances Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Slavonic Dance No.1 Piano Concerto in F
Tickets: $31/$26; $25.50/$19.50; $18/$15
Call 729-3900
Educator, Scientist, Photographer, 1874-1904, 7 p.m., AC Hunter Library FEBRUARY 16 • MUN Cinema series: Where the Truth Lies, 7 p.m., Studio 12, Avalon Mall. • Night Music No. 39 featuring Pat Boyle, Josh Ward and Brad Kilpatrick, at the Ship Inn, 10 p.m. Sponsored by Sound Symposium. • The Good Thief, written by Conor McPherson, performed by Aiden Flynn, Rabbittown Theatre Company, Merrymeeting Road, 739-8220. • Boyd Chubbs, Rose and Thistle, 6-9 p.m. FEBRUARY 17 • Gothic Vibrations concert series presents To Shorten Winter’s Sadness, a concert of light organ music by David Drinkell, Cathedral Organist, 8 p.m., Anglican Cathedral, Gower St. • Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series No. 3 Let’s Dance, 8 p.m. with a prelude concert with the Scruncheons Percussion Ensemble 7:15 p.m. St. John’s Arts and Culture, 729-3900. • Elimination Dance at the Spur, Water Street, 11 p.m. FEBRUARY 18 • Bluebird North, writers sing and tell featuring Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith, Ron Hynes, and Morgan Davis, LSPU Hall. COMING UP • Epilepsy Newfoundland and Labrador will be hosting a free province-wide epilepsy question and answer forum and teleconference with two of the province’s most knowledgeable neurologists. For more information, call 722-0502. IN THE GALLERIES • Where Wonder, What Weight by Will Gill and Beth Oberholtzer, The Rooms, 7 p.m. • Humble Goddess by Nicole Pitcher, Craft Council Gallery, Devon House. • Colour & Light, a joint exhibition by Danielle Lemelin and Laurie Leehane, balance restaurant and art gallery, 147 LeMarchant Rd, until Feb. 25.
Go Olympics!
Stewart Grant Bernstein Dvorak Gershwin
Peter Gardner General & Artistic Director Principal Conductor Marc David
Designed & Created by Fonda Bushell Inc.
he tragicomic fate of outdoor adventure writer Leonidas Hubbard Junior has long since ingrained itself in the Newfoundland psyche as a tale of adventure, but more importantly, as one of senseless male bravado. Hubbard, raised on a farm in rural Michigan, met his untimely end on the banks of the Susan River in Labrador, having made a navigational error early on in his three-man expedition into the land’s interior. And so it was not Hubbard who published an account of the journey, as originally intended, but Dillon Wallace, a New York lawyer and one of Hubbard’s companions on the trip. Last year, 100 years after the publication of The Lure of the Labrador Wild, Rattling Books of Tors Cove brought us an unabridged audio interpretation of Wallace’s classic tale. Lure and other books like it (here I’m thinking of Bob Bartlett’s The Last Voyage of the Karluk and Wilfred Grenfell’s Adrift on an Ice Pan, also Rattling Books productions) are products of the early 20th century’s obsession with stories of adventure and exploration, tales of heroism in unforgiving lands that are aptly termed survival narratives. Wallace’s writing is both cynical and reproachful in tone, searching for the cracks in his experience of Labrador and its people so that he may reveal them to the world at large. It is not a position that lends him a modern audience’s sympathies. “Steve was a characteristic livyere, shiftless and ambitionless,” he says of the man the group employs to take them 50 miles from Indian Harbour to Rigolet. On a night’s stopover at their boatman’s residence, Wallace can’t help but record what he deems to be a lack of sanitation: “The floor and everything else in the room,” he remarks daintily, “were innocent of soap and water.” When Wallace and party come across a cabin inhabited by an expatriate Englishman named Joe Lloyd, we are treated to a further instance of the author’s jaded, critical outlook. “His
EVENTS
dozens of great drinking games, and at least one of the Three Tenors. The official mascots at Turin are Gliz, a male ice cube, and Neve, a female snowball. Show of hands: who knew gender could be established after H2O changes states? Man alive. Pavarotti, a ballet rave, spontaneously combusting skaters, grinning snowballs, talking ice cubes — the future sounds spooky. It’s not that I hate the Winter Olympics. It’s more that I don’t get the Winter Olympics. First of all — and this is certainly my ignorance typing — some of these sports sound suspiciously similar. I mean, honestly, isn’t skeleton really just luge with a scarier name? And isn’t luge really just bobsleigh without a dude or dudette riding shotgun on brakes? What’s amazing is the unadulterated love these sliders profess for their sports. Even at gunpoint, I can’t imagine pushing a sled toward a precipitous drop, jumping aboard and careening down a treacherous, icy track at breakneck speeds, all to “win gold” or shave a few hundredths of a second from my personal best. The laws of physics are immutable, my slider friends. They should not be challenged. Then there’s the “Nordic combined” event which pairs the monotony of cross-country skiing with the insanity of ski-jumping. This should not be confused with the biathlon, which links the monotony of cross-country skiing with the insanity of suddenly stopping, lowering your heart rate, dropping your poles, hitting the ground and firing a .22-calibre rifle at targets. I’m guessing this is a skill set that can’t be appreciated until you find yourself on skis in the snowy hills being chased by an angry Yeti. Another eternal curiosity: curling. This sport not only has a rich history and massive global following, it’s also one of the few to combine adult pillow talk (hurry! harder!) with a preschooler’s vocabulary (stone, rock, hit, guard, house, hog, sheet, lead, raise). The exception to today’s silly whining is ice hockey, which I certainly plan to follow. But, even here, my interest is more default than pure. If my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs had managed to win one lousy Stanley Cup in my lifetime, there would be no monstrous void for Olympic hockey to fill. But this is all I have so, “Go Canada!” Well, that’s it. You know something? I’m even bored writing about the Winter Olympics. Come on, Feb. 26! Hurry! Hurry!
INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12-18, 2006 — PAGE 23
Tennille Ashley, co-owner of Twisted Sister Boutik on Water Street in St. John's, inspects merchandise at her store last week. Businesses such as Ashley’s will soon offer customers a slightly discounted price when the harmonized sales tax drops from 15 per cent to 14 per cent, thanks to Stephen Harper’s plan to decrease the GST. Paul Daly/The Independent
‘Revenue neutral’
Finance minister says cut to GST won’t hurt provincial revenues; provincial sales tax won’t be lowered
By Darcy MacRae The Independent
T
he federal government’s plan to cut the GST by two per cent will cause the harmonized sales tax (HST) to drop by the same amount, says the province’s finance minister. Loyola Sullivan tells The Independent because the province’s harmonized sales tax consists of an eight per cent provincial sales tax and seven per cent Goods and Services Tax, it will drop accordingly as the GST rate falls. During the recent federal election campaign, Conservative leader Stephen Harper vowed to lower the GST to 6 per cent from 7 per cent immediately, and promised to reduce the tax to 5 per cent within five years. As a result, the HST — which has been
in effect in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia since April 1, 1997 — will be a 14 per cent sales tax in the near future and eventually a 13 per cent sales tax. Sullivan adds that because the province’s portion of the HST does not change, provincial government revenues will not decrease. “It won’t affect our revenues, we’ll be revenue-neutral on this issue,” he says. Sullivan adds that a lower GST, and therefore a lower HST, could result in increased revenue for the Danny Williams administration from the province’s portion of the sale tax. “Hopefully, if taxes are lower, it may mean there’s more money in consumers’ hands. It could create more spending. People could buy more for the same amount of money, which means on the tax-
able items we might end up getting more revenue as a result,” he says. Sullivan also says, despite an expected surplus at the end of the fiscal year in March, the province is not currently considering lowering the provincial sales tax portion of the HST. “It hasn’t been discussed because we have been experiencing a significant deficit and we’re just now getting into a situation where we’re getting a balanced budget,” says Sullivan. “We still have a $12-billion debt to deal with and we have hundreds of millions of dollars in requests from various departments, requests departments feel are important. “We have to meet on-going needs for public services … we’re putting a lot of money into social programs in the province from our extra revenue and reducing that is not on the agenda right now.”
On the topic of a provincial surplus, Sullivan says things are looking good for the Danny Williams administration, and adds this year’s numbers are expected to be better than first expected. “We will have a small surplus this year,” Sullivan says. “And of course a variety of factors affect that. The price of oil has stayed up and gone up higher than when I projected the surplus at mid-year. These things will be articulated when I bring down my budget. “I’m not going to speculate at this point (as to the exact amount of the surplus), but I will say that with the price of oil and looking at where we’re to overall in our programs, there will be an improvement over the $1.5-million surplus I projected at midyear.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
By Alisha Morrissey The Independent
A
1997 study showed female codfish caught in the wild and fattened up produced significantly more eggs than fish tracked in the wild, although the researcher says the concept may not be a solution to bolster declining cod stocks. Wade Hiscock, a fisheries scientist with Memorial University’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources, based his master’s thesis on a simple question: do bigger fish produce more eggs? The simple answer is yes. The thesis, carried out over three spawning seasons in Trinity Bay, saw the capture and farming of 1,000 fish. Hiscock compared those fish with another 1,000 wild fish he kept tabs on with sonic tracking devices. The farmed fish grew faster than the wild ones and produced between two and four times as many eggs. The fish also returned to known spawning grounds when the experiment was over. Further, several years later a recapture showed the farmed fish remained a part of the area’s population. Though a number of farmed fish died, that was likely due to their new girth as they were probably caught in gill nets as bycatch. “It’s like fat, old, lazy cod — that’s how I looked at it — because they don’t have to work very hard to get their food and they’ll eat as much as you can give them, but because of that they’re going to produce much more eggs,” Hiscock tells The Independent. “So my 7 yearold cod would have twice as many eggs as a 7 year-old wild cod so therefore if you increase fecundity, which is the number of eggs per female, you would expect an increase in recruitment.”
Making a difference Farmed cod would produce more eggs, but scientist unsure whether method would improve wild stocks North Atlantic cod stocks have been in decline since the early 1990s when commercial fishing — at least in domestic waters — was first banned. The province has since been searching for a way to increase growth in cod stocks and has been looking at a number of aquaculture ventures, investing more
than $33,000 in a cod aquaculture demonstration farm at the end of January. Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout couldn’t be reached for comment prior to press deadline. While Hiscock admits his method “couldn’t hurt,” he says even under the
right conditions there’s no way to prove if farming cod would improve the health of the stocks. “We couldn’t measure that. All I can say is that if you were putting out more eggs from farmed cod then you could expect to have a better chance of survival in the wild because you’re produc-
ing a lot more,” he says, adding the price tag on “catch, grow-out and release” aquaculture would likely make it an unsustainable venture. “Whether that results in more fish being produced in the wild has yet to be determined because how do you measure it. Like, how do we know that the fish that you’re going to catch five years down the road are eggs from females that I released?” Hiscock asks. “But then you’d say who would get the benefit of it? Who’s got to put the time and effort into feeding fish … so the fisherman down the corner can catch them all?” At the same time, he says some fishermen claim the work he did from 1992 to 1995 is the reason there are cod stocks in Trinity Bay today, but there’s no way of confirming that. Subsequent studies have shown a lack of food supply for some populations of Atlantic cod, Hiscock says, possibly causing or enhancing low growth numbers. “There’s lots of young cod and … why aren’t these fish growing? Well, they’re probably not getting very much to eat,” he says. Studies off Hawke Channel in Labrador have shown codfish aren’t growing there because there’s not much food around. “The way you look at it is there’s a lot of small fish — unhealthy cod — in the wild right now. You can take them, put them in cages, fatten them up, even for one summer, and that will increase their likelihood of producing substantially more eggs than they would if left to their own devices in the wild, but I mean how much of that would you have to do to make a difference?” alisha.morrissey@theindependent.ca
24 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
Federal jobs for Atlantic Canada in doubt with naming of new Treasury Board president
YOUR VOICE
By Richard Roik Telegraph-Journal
Dear editor, Re the lead business story (Targeting Ontario) in the Feb. 5-11 edition of The Independent: for anyone who does any research about the Internet, it is clear that Newfoundland and its tourism managers are a few crucial steps behind the times, and that they are wasting your money. Noel O’Dea, Judy SparkesGiannou, and especially Tom Hedderson are blowing a bunch of hot air up the media relations exhaust pipe when they say $8 million is “tiny.” Granted, it is rather small when considering buying time and producing for television, but we have a new international marketing tool now — it’s called the Internet and it is showing higher growth, adaptation, and advancements than even what was prophesized before the bubble burst in 2000. These people need to re-align their thinking about the Internet — it’s not just a webpage holding bay anymore. Advertising is soaring online: go to any major media/portal site, and you will most likely see a flash (or flashvideo) ad running. Websites today are becoming multimedia extravaganzas that can educate, provide tours, be hosted by a real person, and engage in a way that no former marketing
A
proposal for relocating up to 1,000 federal translation jobs in New Brunswick is in jeopardy as the country’s new Treasury Board president says he opposes decentralizing the public service. John Baird, a rookie Conservative MP for Ottawa, has sent municipal officials across N.B. scrambling after saying he has “huge concerns” about moving jobs to the outlying regions. “We saw during the campaign Liberal candidates promising to take jobs out,” Baird says. “We even saw previous ministers giving thumbsup to that concept. “That obviously is a significant concern for me and one that, as we go through my early days and briefings, I will keep (an) eye to.” His comments landed with a thud in communities such as Dieppe and Fredericton, which thought they were in line for some of the 1,000 federal translation jobs with public works in Gatineau, on the Quebec side of the national capital region. “I’m very disappointed to hear there’s a possibility those jobs won’t be coming here,” Dieppe Mayor Achille Maillet says. “It’s certainly a blow for us if what the minister says happens.”
Maillet acknowledges there were no formal proposals on the table with the previous Liberal government to move the translation jobs. But he said he had received “assurances, for lack of a better word,” that up to 300 federal jobs could be headed to his fully bilingual city. “We were talking 2006 as the turning point, or 2007 at the latest,” Maillet says. “We were under the very distinct impression that we would be getting some translation jobs and other office space from the federal government.” He says he’s now going to take a few days to consider the city’s options with his council, and he suggests he may write to Baird to ask for a meeting. “Hopefully we can change his mind a little bit. We will certainly react, but we always do it in a positive way.” Whatever route Dieppe chooses, the city will get full support from Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside, who thought the provincial capital and Edmundston would also land some of the jobs. “I’m all in favour of any concerted effort by the three mayors,” Woodside says. “I was certainly aware our communities were in the running … and I would take whatever action is necessary.”
Tourism managers behind times; Internet advertising underutilized tool can — including television. More importantly, you can specify audience selection by placing your ads in appropriate places, at far less the cost of television, which has never proven to be that successful. Seriously, what effect can a two-minute television spot have when it has virtually no narrative or content and is only shown once in a small market area? That’s called putting too many eggs in one basket. Consider these facts: more people look to the Internet for information than anywhere else when it comes to tourism, especially mature audiences; recent research shows that more mature audiences are now utilizing streaming video, even more than the expected leader (males 16–34); a new study at eMarketer.com shows that viral marketing produces a 90 per cent likelihood regarding the forwarding of information to friends or colleagues; and the new Flash 8 (and its new video codec) is amazing. Let’s look at the Newfoundland Internet presence. First, Newfoundland.com is owned by a private individual who wishes to sell it. This should be alleviated immediately — if the provincial government cannot own it outright then it should just buy it.
Second, the existing web presence for Newfoundland and Labrador is atrocious by today’s standards, let alone next month’s standards. Simply having a mediocre website does not constitute a global Internet marketing and advertising strategy. Also, why are all the different groups (HNL, local artisans, etc.) not housed under one huge and brilliant portal that covers all of Newfoundland and Labrador, tourism and otherwise? The hardest thing I’ve found in returning to Newfoundland is accepting that the people accept the lack of vision shown by these so-called managers of our image. They are letting us down, and it is our tax dollars spent on these misguided attempts to promote tourism. I thought when I came back I could help out, but to no avail, everyone has their claim staked and what I could offer is neither accepted nor considered. It makes it very tough indeed to be a proud Newfoundlander. The now running “old man and the sea” is an old-world ad from old-world thinkers … how long until we put some of the youthful talent to work, the talent that Danny asked to come home?
ect and Danny Williams ensures its continuation and success with new development. We Newfoundlanders have been very fortunate in having both these gentlemen leading our province into a very prosperous future. My children and my grandchildren finally have a future in Newfoundland to look forward too. No, Danny can’t walk on water, so don’t expect him to solve the problems in every single community. The day will come when people will have to bite the bullet and realize it is time to relocate to a
more central location for employment. Children who grow up in small communities are moving out to more central locations, therefore these communities have long outlived their usefulness and are dying a natural death. I realize it is a hard thing to say but it’s the reality of life in the 21st century. Keep up the good work premier, and please God the people will have the good sense to reelect you. “Have not will be no more.” Don Lester, Conception Bay South
Gerard Whelan, St. John’s
Danny can’t walk on water, but … Dear editor, It looks as if Danny Williams has locked up the office of premier for a long, long time with the announcement of a possible second refinery. I’m quite confident it will refine our offshore crude and a petro-chemical complex will follow, creating many, many person years of employment. Poor Jim Bennett, his dreams of becoming premier are long, long gone. I’m quite confident Premier Williams will develop the lower Churchill, which should keep him in office for years to come. We finally have a leader, after 57 years, who knows how to run the province. John Crosbie had the vision to lead us into the 21st century with the Hibernia proj-
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 25
ELLEN ROSEMAN
How much do you need to retire?
Torstar
H
ow much do you need to retire and live well for the rest of your life? Is the number $1 million? Sounds good, but think again. A million dollars, conservatively invested at 5 per cent, gives you a pretax income of $50,000 a year — not enough to revel in your retirement years. How about $2 million? Maybe. But what about the tax you pay on your retirement savings? And what about the minimum payments you take each year? After converting to a registered retirement income fund, or RRIF, you’re forced to pull out 7.38 per cent of your savings at age 71. RRIF minimum payments go up to 8.75 per cent at age 80, 13.62 per cent at age 90 and 20 per cent at age 94. With such large withdrawals, can you stay ahead of inflation and taxes — and make your money last as long as you do? Probably not. There’s a magic number for drawing down your savings without eating into capital. It’s about 4 per cent a year. This assumes you’re 65 and you have half to three-quarters of your money invested in stocks, and the rest in bonds. The number used to be higher, says Lee Eisenberg, author of The Number (Free Press, $36). “Through the 1980s and ’90s, financial advisers and money magazines touted generous withdrawal numbers of 7 per cent, 8 per cent, 9 per cent, 10 per cent. Many retirees withdrew and spent
Author Lee Eisenberg
accordingly. “But — oops! — the financial advisers and magazines had overlooked the you-would-think-it-was-obvious fact that stock-market returns through that era were unusually robust.” And when did the government of Canada last revise its RRIF minimum payments? Would you believe 1992? Memo to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: you pledged to help seniors during the election campaign. So, why not cut the RRIF minimums to take account of lower stock and bond returns? Gordon Pape also has a message for
those getting older. “Don’t put all your retirement eggs in the RRIF basket. You’ll need some other sources of income if you live to a ripe old age,” he says in The Retirement Time Bomb (Penguin, $30). Pape has been writing about retirement planning longer than anyone else I know. His new book, released in December, is pragmatic, practical, factual and straightforward. While paying due attention to risks and dangers, he avoids fear-mongering. Best of all, he’s optimistic about ordinary Canadians’ chance of success with the right planning and advice.
Eisenberg, a former editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine, aims at a wider audience. He wants procrastinators to come out of the closet and work out their own magic number. Now 59, he avoided thinking about retirement until seven years ago. He was half in and half out of the workplace, consulting, dabbling, downshifting. But with two young children, he secretly agonized about whether he’d socked away enough money to be so casually employed. Then, he got an offer too good to refuse. Moving his family to Madison,
Wisc., he spent five years with Lands’ End, a publicly traded catalogue retailer. When asked why he took the job, “what I didn’t get into was the Number,” he writes. “I never came right out and said it, but our move was a swing for the financial fences.” He left Lands’ End after it was bought out by Sears Roebuck & Co., but not before securing valuable stock options. Then, he started talking with friends in their 40s and 50s about how confident they were about their financial prospects. “‘Do you have a plan?’ I asked. I discovered right away that almost no one wanted to talk about it, although they would admit they saw themselves coming to a fork in the road.” That led him on a quest to find why there’s such aversion in middle age to thinking about finances and the future. His book is entertaining, wide-ranging, provocative, clever, sometimes glib. “It’s not an advice book, and it’s not meant to be a wake-up call,” he says. He steers clear of most numbers (except for the 4 per cent drawdown rule and a half-page worksheet in the appendix). But his book could hit paydirt, according to these numbers: a first printing of 125,000 copies, 16th on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list, 116th in sales at Amazon.com. Retirement isn’t only about numbers. That’s Eisenberg’s message. You can’t save seriously without some serious soul-searching about what makes you happy and what you want to do with the rest of your life. For excerpts and an author’s blog, go to http://www.thenumberbook.com on the Internet.
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze at CBC By Antonia Zerbisias Torstar wire service
O
ne might wonder if the new Heritage Minister will sweep out CBC. After all, Bev Oda is a veteran broadcaster and CRTC commissioner, with close ties to the private industry. Indeed, like Sarmite (Sam) Bulte, the Liberal MP who lost in Parkdale-High Park, Oda’s prior campaign contributions have come from industry bigwigs who, in 2004, held a $250-a-pop fundraiser for her. (The details for 2005 are not yet in.) Anyway, it would appear that, out of financial necessity, CBC has already become a virtual broom closet, with employees jammed together so that the public broadcaster’s real estate holdings might be leveraged for revenue generation. Some 60 staffers are now attached to Michel Saint-Cyr, president of CBC’s real estate division, charged with managing CBC property so that profits are diverted into programming. It’s doubtful CBC founders had the real estate business in mind back in 1957, let alone a separate merchandising division headed up by yet another president, René Bourdages. He has 40 staffers making the most out of CBC’s brand with everything from CDs to Tshirts. Still, since its creation in 2000 under current CBC president and chief executive officer Robert Rabinovitch, the real estate division has generated or freed up $53 million. Not exactly small change. But, averaged out per year, it would not cover a full season of a drama series such as Da Vinci’s City Hall. At the same time, the real estate division has been credited — or blamed — for cramming CBC workers into call centre-like workspaces in Edmonton and Ottawa, where staffers are confined to 30 square feet per person in open newsrooms. The thing is, broadcasting is not telemarketing. Journalists work with computers, recording and editing equipment as well as telephones. They need to be able to communicate with each other, their sources, listen to their soundtracks
and hear themselves think. No wonder that, last week, the results of a health survey, co-sponsored by CBC and its unions and completed last June by a majority of its 9,000 employees, revealed almost half of the respondents “are considered to be at high risk of psychological distress.” Conducted by Laval University, the survey was done because health costs were spiralling. Covering even managerial staffers, it “identified the principal risk factors for the majority of employees that can lead to burnout and depression.” That includes all the classic symptoms of bad management. And all this before last year’s eightweek lockout. Imagine what would be uncovered today in the angry aftermath which many staffers say has never been dealt with. The survey was also conducted before CBC faced the prospect of a potentially axe-wielding
Conservative government. (Not that Liberals were generous, mind you.) Last week Toronto staffers received an internal memo announcing CBC had hired the “international consultancy firm” DEGW to redesign the downtown Canadian Broadcasting Centre so chunks of it might be leased out. “I think they’re under enormous financial stress. No question,” says Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, CBC’s biggest union. “But at a certain point, it’s a false economy. It’s going to cost more. You’ve got to evaluate what employees need rather than going for the lowest common denominator.” Counters corporate spokesperson Jason MacDonald: “Taxpayers invest a lot of money in CBC — and they deserve to know they’re getting value in return, that their money is being used wisely, efficiently and effectively.”
Meanwhile in Vancouver, CBC is building a new property alongside a condominium. “We’re not selling condos,” insists MacDonald. “The site is being developed. There is a residential tower going up as part of it. But the CBC building is being independently built. We have our own developer and designer, and it’s being developed with broadcasting in mind.” Rabinovitch, who created these divi-
sions in order to deal with the broadcaster’s very real financial problems, is winning praise from CBC’s board. Trouble is, squeezed from above, he’s in turn squeezing those below: the programmers. “This is Rabinovitch’s legacy: He is obsessed with revenue generation,” says Lareau. “Can you blame him in this climate? No. But I wish he’d be half as obsessed with programming as he is with revenue generation.”
26 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
Financial Consultants Ad #: CB-02-012409
Location: St. John's, NL
Mobile Computing Analysts Ad #: Mobile Computing Analysts-CB
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.
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
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, businessminded professionals across Atlantic Canada who are only satisfied with the best life has to offer. Key Qualifications include: • 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
Please email résumés with salary range expectations to hrtech@crc.net and include Mobile Computing Analysts-CB in the subject line.
While not required, the following advantages would be recognized: Financial Advisor Ad #: 04-227-CB
Location: Halifax, NS, Canada; • Company URL:http://www.lfs.ca Contact Name: Bruce Brinson, Managing Director • Contact E-mail: bruce.brinson@LFS.ca
Be Daring! Join the LFS Team!
• Professional designation from or current enrollment in the Certified Financial Planners Council of Canada program • Experience in the financial services industry
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 financial centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the role of Financial Advisors. Join the LFS Team and improve your business by: • Staying independent, while maintain access to a multi-disciplinary team and qualified experts • Receiving financial backing to purchase viable blocks of business • Having access to multiple insurers and products and more than 60 mutual funds and segregated fund companies • A competitive pooled compensation bonus structure and immediate vesting • Incentive plans based on multiple insurers' products, mutual and segregated funds • New associate training and mentoring programs which are unique in the industry • Market planning and support • Business continuation support • Leading edge technology
We are looking for people who are: • Entrepreneurial • Problem solvers • Out-going • Commitment to quality • Hard working • Professional • Service oriented • Computer literate • Committed to continuing education and personal development • Experienced in sales (an asset but not necessary)
Interested individuals are invited to apply directly to Bruce Brinson, Managing Director via e-mail at bruce.brinson@LFS.ca quoting Ref#: 04-227-CB.
• 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: Consultant Resumes Kim Jordan Suite 1409, Purdy's Wharf Tower 2 1969 Upper Water St., Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3R7 Fax (902) 422-5334
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 27
YOUR FUTURE STARTS HERE... ...AND NOW. Customer Service Representatives Temp – Full-Time
Join us at TeleTech where our fun, fast-paced team has been providing global telephone support and business solutions since 1982! Our primary goal is to help our clients satisfy the business needs of their customers. Come join our team of incentive-driven professionals today and enjoy great financial rewards, outstanding opportunities for career development and so much more! As a Customer Service Representative in our customer management center, you will handle inbound phone calls and provide concise, quality customer service for a large health care provider.
JOB FAIR
Date: February 18th/Time: 11 am - 3 pm At our location! 760 Topsail Road, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland A1N3J5 Qualifications include: • 6 months previous experience • Strong computer experience • Ability to work 8a-12p M-F, 8a-4:30 Sat-Sun • Goal oriented/dependable • High school diploma or GED Must be able to pass a background check and drug screen. Please apply online at:
or apply in person at 760 Topsail Road, Mount Pearl- A1N3J5. Your future can start right here…right now! An Equal Opportunity Employer, TeleTech values a diverse workforce.
28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Use hip boots, perhaps 5 Great Lakes fish 9 Steal from 12 Cover with asphalt 16 Equal (Fr.) 17 ___ Canaveral, Florida 18 Tavern tipple 19 Broadcast 20 Out of reach forever 23 Cancel (a debt or punishment) 24 Many an Albertan 25 Pelvic bones 26 Undomesticated 27 Make into leather without tannin 28 First lady of the guitar 29 B.C./N.W.T. river 30 First woman in Cabinet (1957): ___ Fairclough 33 In addition to 34 Dry (flax) 35 Its capital is Dublin 38 Prod 39 Golf pegs 40 Portend 41 Permit 42 Fall mo. 43 Quebec veal 44 Agave fibre 45 Wing-like 46 N.B. town with “world’s largest lobster”
48 Very strong wind 49 ___ Lake duck 50 River through Revelstoke, B.C. 54 Phycologist’s subject 57 Piece of cake! 58 Disconcerted 62 First black Canadian to win the Victoria Cross: William ___ 63 Republic in W Africa 65 Bridge support 66 Egg: comb. form 67 Shortened alias 68 Where the sun rises 69 Iron oxide 70 Gratis 71 People retire to these spots 73 Wind dir. 74 The Amish, e.g. 75 Table extender 76 Painter Milne 78 Anti-aircraft fire 79 The Bricklin, e.g. 80 L. Erie park: Point ___ 81 Non-clerical 82 Ready to listen 86 Open to bribery 87 B.C. river flowing from Shuswap Lake 89 Statement of belief 90 Party fig. 91 Scratches (out) 92 Verdi opera
SOLUTION ON PAGE 29
93 Purges 94 Army insect 95 A few 96 Stinging insect DOWN 1 Author of English “O Canada”: Robert Stanley ___ 2 Taj Mahal city 3 Mend a sock 4 Voted in 5 Peter Robertson’s invention 6 Tresses 7 Chimpanzee 8 Not straightforward 9 Foaming at the mouth 10 Earthen pot 11 Pollinating insect 12 Stone (Fr.) 13 Anteater cousin 14 Face concealment 15 Summer time in Sutton 19 Quarter 21 Comparison word 22 Popular Quebec singer of 1940’s: ___ Robi 26 A Castro 28 Blue (Fr.) 29 Lady loved by a swan 30 Conceited ones 31 Scottish lake 32 Behind
33 B.C.-Alta. river 34 “___ ourselves as others ...” 36 Quantity of paper 37 Tours to be? 39 Blue-green 40 ___ Bishop 43 Depraved 44 Mexican sauce 45 Part of B.A. 47 Cockpit face 48 Edouard Beaupre, the “Willow Bunch ___” 49 Largest lake wholly in Canada: Great ___ 51 Stop 52 Belt place 53 Make oneself an accessory 54 Melvillean mariner 55 ___ Superior 56 Made cheerful 59 Israeli folk dance 60 Happily follower, in fairyland 61 Passed away 63 Canadian film award 64 Clock pointer 65 The ref drops it 69 Attains 70 Front foot of felines 72 Caesar and Green Goddess 74 Knife cut 75 Lemon ___ (herb) 77 Brigitte’s bike
78 The San Andreas ___ 79 Shut 80 About: prefix
81 Ontario’s official bird: common ___ 82 “Excuse me ...”
83 China’s continent 84 Staffs 85 Jacket closer
86 TV adjunct, once 87 Place for pampering 88 Boxing defeat
WEEKLY STARS ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20 A surprise is in store for you by mid-week, Aries. You'll enjoy it a great deal, as will those close to you. Focus closely on work until your surprise is revealed. TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21 On Tuesday a situation occurs that cannot be avoided. Don't try to avoid it; this situation is better handled head-on. Aquarius plays a part in this. GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21 Romance is in the air all month, and particularly for you, Gemini. If you've been nursing a relationship, it's about to spark and grow in the days to come. CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22 You'll feel hurt and betrayed when a friend goes behind your back this week, Cancer. The act isn't so bad, it's the lying about it that gives you reason for concern.
LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23 Someone at work has been a thorn in your side for a while now, Leo. Finally, some justice will be had when this person is let go. But the replacement could be worse. VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22 Stop hiding your true feelings about the person you've been spending time with, Virgo. And if you're attached, embrace your special someone and show this person how much you care. LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23 You want freedom but are not showing the maturity level that accompanies this kind of responsibility. Change your attitude or expect to play by another's rules. SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22 Some good news falls in your lap this week, Scorpio. It's something that you've been expecting
for a while and will make a big difference in your current living situation. SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21 A change of heart occurs when a friend does something naughty. You thought you could trust this person, but you've quickly realized that you should look elsewhere for friends. CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20 When you and a loved one get into an argument this week, you learn that you cannot always get your way. This realization will be a catalyst for the way you conduct yourself from now on. AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18 A partnership involves two people, but lately you're acting like you're flying solo. Think about how you've been alienating a loved one, Aquarius. PISCES - FEB 19/MAR 20
A financial overhaul is required, Pisces. You've put off the task of balancing your budget for too long now. Get cracking. FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS FEBRUARY 12 Christina Ricci, actress (26) FEBRUARY 13 Stockard Channing, actress (62) FEBRUARY 14 Rob Thomas, singer (34) FEBRUARY 15 Jane Seymour, actress (55) FEBRUARY 16 John McEnroe, athlete (47) FEBRUARY 17 Denise Richards, actress (35) FEBRUARY 18 Molly Ringwald, actress (38)
Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each column of nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order. There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tips and computer program available at www.sudoko.com SOLUTION ON PAGE 29
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 29
By Rosie Dimanno Torstar wire service
T
he question: what think you of curling? Che? I said, curling. Culo? No, not ass. Curling — a game played with brooms and — Scopa? No, no, that’s a card game. And thus it went, this Italian version of Who’s On First, as conducted between reporter and handsome local last week at the Lingotto complex, where Fiat once made cars and Torinesi mall rats now shop in Canadian-style indoor comfort. In Italian, curling is called ... curling. There is no translation. Nor is there much history of the sport, with precisely 509 registered curlers in the entire country. Compare that with 955,000 in Canada, according to the World Curling Federation, or 94 per cent of known sweepers around the globe. We rock. Yet, in a stunning development, curling is turning out to be among the hottest of Olympic tickets, with more than 95 per cent already sold. Only speed skating and figure skating have proved more popular. Which is weird, considering curling — or “extreme shuffleboard,” as the unimpressed call it — only got included on the official Winter menu in 1998, after six shots as a demonstration sport, dating back to the first snow and ice Games in 1924. (Wheelchair curling makes its Paralympic debut here next month.) Not that there’s anything to be embarrassed about in chronic rejection by the IOC. Other sports to have more recently whiffed on the pitch are ski flying (like ski jumping, only with longer ramps and hills, so that one might more easily dislocate bone from bone), ski orienteering (finding the finish line through a wilderness course with map and compass issued), and ski mountaineering (whereby the competitor climbs a mountain whilst wearing skis, which sounds unfathomably stupid). But curling was so dimly viewed at its Nagano debut that then-broadcaster CBS limited air-time coverage to David Letterman’s mother reporting for late night TV amusement. Suddenly, eight years later, curling’s cool, apparently building on its breakout cult appeal from Salt Lake City. Admittedly, the newly constructed curling venue — Pinerolo Palaghiaccio, some 50 kilometres outside Turin — is a bijoux building, with a seating capacity of just 2,011, so it’s not difficult to sell out. But there are 12 straight days of
Brad Gushue will curl in front of a packed house in Italy.
Paul Daly/The Independent
Is curling now cool? No longer a cold-country cult sport with a broom fetish, it’s now one of the hottest tickets at the Games competition starting Feb. 13, which is a whole lot of hurry, hurry hard. Here’s the truth of it: those aren’t Italians shelling out hard euros to watch frenzied sweeping and clattering rocks. Officials have admitted that 75 per cent of curling tickets sold went to nonItalians. Blame the Dutch. Hollanders bought 38,000 tickets, according to Luciano Baro, chief operating officer of TOROC. See, the Dutch claim to have invented the game, and
Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen.
point as evidence to what looks like curling being played on frozen ponds in a 16th century Pieter Bruegel painting. This, naturally, has whatever the Scots wear under their kilts in a knot. They posit proprietary provenance of a sport played originally on frozen lochs. Whatever. Canadians are good at it. Italians ... not so much. The host nation, as is its privilege, gets to enter a team without qualifying. It will be Italy’s Olympic curling first-time
Jerry Lampen/Reuters
Olympic stardom looms for Klassen Speed skater remains modest despite success By Randy Starkman Torstar wire service
A
s a star hockey player growing up, one of the things Cindy Klassen was most skilled at deflecting was attention. Painfully shy and humble, she is deathly afraid of speaking in public and it took all the courage she could muster to talk about her faith journey in front of the congregation at her Mennonite church in Winnipeg when she was baptized as a 16-year-old. “It’s still so hard for me,” Klassen told the Toronto Star in an interview earlier this season. “I’m a really shy person. Just getting up in front of a crowd is terrifying to me.” The Canadian speed-skating star is going to have to get used to it. She’s been anointed as Canada’s starin-waiting at these 2006 Winter Games, an athlete with the potential to win as many as four medals based on her superb performances all season on the World
Cup and at last year’s world championships, where she twice beat German ace Anni Friesinger in her hometown of Inzell. The 26-year-old prays before races — not that she will win but that no one will get hurt — and her teammate Kristina Groves says she’s never heard her swear and that she “doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.” But don’t misconstrue that as weakness. Groves says she’s never seen a more physically talented athlete and marvels at Klassen’s brute strength. “A funny thing is she expresses more emotion in a laugh over a joke than she does when she wins a world championship gold,” says Groves. “She crosses the line, ‘Oh, I won,’ and she waves and smiles to the crowd. That’s Cindy. And I think because of that, people find her a hard one to crack because she doesn’t necessarily wear her emotions on her sleeve.” The contrast between the devoutly religious, strait-laced redheaded Klassen and
her rival Friesinger, a bleached-blonde, tattooed, speed-skating sex symbol, has garnered much attention in the build-up to the Games. Klassen favours blue jeans over designer duds, a preference that dates back to her childhood when her father Jake put a hockey stick in her hands when she was 2. She’d pretend she was Joe Sakic while playing street hockey in her driveway. No dolls for this tomboy. “All my friends were guys when I grew up,” says Klassen. “I could never have fun playing with dolls. I had to play sports all the time. “I think I had a Barbie, but it was probably stuffed in the back of my closet.” She still recalls her first pair of skates, the plastic Micron brand that resembled ski boots, and how her dad took her to nearby Harbourview Pond. “I’d put my hands out and get him to pull me along. I didn’t want to learn how to skate. I just liked going for a ride.” She’ll be self-propelled at these Games.
with the distaff squad hoping for a semifinal berth. This country has had a national curling federation since 1973, it’s true, but with just one international medal since, bronze at the world juniors in 2003. The Canucks, both men and women, will be looking to snatch gold here, although the defending Olympic Danish guy team led by Paal Trulsen is formidable, and the Swiss are in the medal hunt (their fans buying tickets large). Britain’s ladies won gold last time around, after
throwing the “Stone of Destiny.” And then there’s the ambitious American women’s team. At a press conference, third Jamie Johnson was bubbling over with excitement about being at the Olympics, among sports icons in the athletes’ village. “I saw Wayne Gretzky and I was, like, wow.” Wow, indeed. Far as we know, Gretzky’s still behind the bench in Phoenix.
Solutions for crossword on page 28
Solutions for sudoku on page 28
30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
Crouch impresses Boatmen Finally gets his chance to play as a QB By Rick Matsumoto Torstar wire service
T
he only thing Eric Crouch has ever wanted to do is play quarterback. And it looks as if he’ll finally get a chance to play that position professionally with the Toronto Argonauts. After spending the past four years with three NFL teams, who have attempted to convert him to another position, the 27-year-old 2001 Heisman Trophy winner was in Toronto last week showing the CFL franchise he still has what it takes to be a quarterback. He spent a half hour throwing to a quartet of Argos under the watchful eyes of what seemed like everyone in the organization. Perhaps, the highest praise came from Damon Allen, the team’s No. 1 quarterback. “He threw a heavy ball. He could be the modern-day Matt Dunigan,”Allen says. Allen and the Argo brass were most pleased with the strength of Crouch’s arm.
“We watched the tapes of him in Nebraska and there’s no question he can run with the ball and he has great instincts,” says Allen. “The question was can he transfer from throwing on the (smaller) U.S. field to the Canadian field. “You wonder if his arm is strong enough. He took that concern away. He made throws today that some guys who are playing in the league can’t make. So that’s a good sign.” The 6-foot, 210-pound Crouch says he was excited about getting the opportunity to play quarterback once again. “I felt good, I felt comfortable out there and I hope to be up here in May (for training camp),” he says. Crouch says he didn’t come to the CFL earlier in his career because NFL teams kept promising him the opportunity to play quarterback. However, he never got the chance. He will get his chance now and Argos are hoping they will have finally found a successor for the 43-year-old Allen.
OF THE
DEVIL WEEK Olivier Guilbault Position: right wing Age: 18
Jeff Topping/Reuters
Gretzky should go to Turin, NHL greats (and Harper) say By Curtis Rush Torstar wire service
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Height: 6’0
Wayne Gretzky speaks at a press conference in Glendale, Ariz., last week.
Gretzky went to Italy. On illegal gambling, Foligno was more forthright. The NHL simply can’t tolerate it, he says. ll of the former NHL greats in Toronto for “Part of being a professional hockey player is a charity dinner last week who were asked that you can’t wager bets. That’s part of the busiwere reluctant to comment directly on the ness that we have to accept with pride,” says gambling controversy swirling around Wayne Foligno, who now serves as coach of the Sudbury Gretzky and his wife Janet but they were vocal Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League. about one thing: Wayne Gretzky should go to the Foligno says young players on his team are Olympics. taught about the rules governing gambling. “The Not one was prepared to suggest that Gretzky OPP and the Sudbury police come in and talk to stay home to deal with the matter instead of going the players every year. We try to teach them not to Turin, Italy, to serve as executive director of the only about hockey, but about life. A lot of these Canadian Olympic hockey team and help Canada players are naive and young.” reclaim its gold medal. Nor was Canada’s new Former Canadiens pugilist John Ferguson Sr., Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who urged father of Toronto Maple Leaf general manager Gretzky to go. John Ferguson Jr., says that this is the biggest off“I’m sure he’ll do us proud over there,” Harper ice scandal to hit the NHL going back to the says. 1960s when he played. Ferguson, who owns four Former players like Islander standardbred horses and admits goalie Bill Smith, Montreal to wagering at the track, says the Canadiens greats John Fergbiggest scandal in his day was uson Sr. and Steve Shutt, and when several players in Montreal “Part of being a Buffalo Sabre/Detroit Red and Toronto lost money in a professional hockey stock swindle. Wing forward Mike Foligno were in Toronto on Feb. 9 for “I lost about $25,000, but that player is that you the annual Conn Smythe Sports was a lot of money in those Celebrities Dinner and Auction days.” can’t wager bets. in support of Easter Seals. The culture within the NHL “I’m sorry to hear it happen,” does involve wagering among That’s part of the says Smith. “I know it’s putting the players, Ferguson says, but him (Gretzky) in an awkward business that we have it’s small stuff. situation.” “There’s a certain amount of In fact, Smith says, Gretzky’s to accept with pride.” pool betting,” Ferguson says. presence in Turin could serve “There’s usually a weekly pool “to give them (the team) an among the players, betting the Mike Foligno, former excuse if they lose. You’re weekly NFL games. It’s somegoing across with NHL hockey thing that’s standard.” NHL player players. They’re not worried Shutt, who played alongside about Wayne. They’re worried Guy Lafleur with the Montreal about playing hockey. Could Canadiens, says the players are they use it as an excuse? Absolutely. Wayne is not more handsomely paid today, leading to more the guy that’s stepping on the ice.” temptations. Foligno was not prepared to cast judgment on “Nobody in my day had any money to bet,” Gretzky and says the controversy is fed by the Shutt says. “Money causes problems.” high-profile names related to the case. Bill Smith wasn’t so sure that money is the root “I don’t think so,” he said when asked if the of all evil. “There are temptations in all walks of players on Team Canada would be distracted if life,” the former Islander says.
A
Weight: 190 pounds
How acquired: Fog Devils 14th choice in the 2005 QMJHL expansion draft (selected from roster of Rouyn-Noranda Huskies) Last year’s team: Kahnawake Condors (Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League) Last year’s stats: 48 games played, 27 goals, 29 assists and 56 points Fog Devils’ first: Guilbault’s goal versus the Quebec Remparts on Sept. 30 was his first point as a Fog Devil and first career point in the QMJHL Recent accomplishment: Guilbault scored two goals on Feb. 8 to lead the Fog Devils to a 5-1 win over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens
DEVIL STATS NAME Oscar Sundh Scott Brophy Luke Gallant Nicolas Bachand Zack Firlotte Wesley Welcher Marty Doyle Olivier Guilbault Ryan Graham Sebastien Bernier Matt Fillier Pat O’Keefe Anthony Pototschnik Pier-Alexandre Poulin Jean-Simon Allard Rodi Short Ivo Mocek Josh McKinnon Kyle Stanley Jonathan Reid Paul Roebothan Matt Boland
POS. LW C D RW D C RW RW LW D C D RW LW C D LW D D LW RW D
# 10 12 6 23 5 14 43 21 16 44 27 11 24 18 4 15 9 8 3 n/a 19 26
GP 39 50 52 53 53 54 53 54 43 53 43 38 48 54 49 21 24 28 51 2 13 27
G 12 19 16 22 8 18 11 15 11 6 5 3 8 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
A 36 28 28 20 26 14 18 10 13 15 9 11 3 7 6 3 2 1 1 0 0 0
GOALTENDER
W
L
GAA
S.PCT
Ilia Ejov Brandon Verge
11 7
15 15
4.20 4.09
.883 .887
PTS 48 47 44 42 34 32 29 25 24 21 14 14 11 11 8 4 2 1 1 0 0 0
‘I’m happy in my role’ From page 32
Stats current as of press deadline Feb. 10
HOMEGROWN “Q” PLAYER Robert Slaney Ryan Penney Colin Escott Chad Locke 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 Cape Breton Gatineau P.E.I. Halifax Lewiston Rimouski
GP 47 15 35 17 28 50 53
G 3 1 4 3 3 15 22
A 4 4 9 3 1 30 18
PTS 7 5 13 6 4 45 40
GOALTENDERS Ryan Mior Roger Kennedy Jason Churchill
HOMETOWN St. John’s Mount Pearl Hodge’s Cove
TEAM P.E.I. Halifax Saint John
W 16 8 13
L 30 3 30
GAA 4.00 3.88 3.98
S.PCT .895 .872 .899
strong or if he’s a choppy skater. “They were really patient with me in that whenever I asked a question — why not this guy, he scored two goals — they’d say ‘These are the reasons why …’” Under the tutelage of two future NHL executives in Renney and Trapp, White further developed an already accomplished eye for talent. Soon he was able to move from the communications side of the game to the hockey side. “I prefer the hockey side because you’re working toward making a team better,” he says. White was later employed by the ECHL’s New Orleans Brass and Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies (both franchises have since folded) as a scout. More often than not he was assigned to AHL games at Mile One during the baby Leafs run in St. John’s, on the lookout for players on their way down who might fill a need in the ECHL. In between he also took a job with the Saint John Flames of the AHL, briefly returning to a behind-the-scenes role as director of communications and team services. While it wasn’t on the hockey side of the operation, the job did allow White to be part of the Flames’ march to a Calder Cup championship, as the giant gold ring littered with diamonds he wears attests to. “That was a thrill,” White says of the AHL championship. “We had an exciting team. We had a mix of up-and-comers and some really good pro players like Dave Roach, Marty Murray, Mike Martin, who had played a lot of pro hockey. “That was a lot of fun. That year we led the league in shots and had the lowest shots
allowed. I knew by February that we were something special.” These days White is working hands on with several sports, serving as program director for Special Olympics Newfoundland and Labrador during the day and tending to his duties with the NHL’s central scouting bureau in the evening. He attends every St. John’s Fog Devils game and evaluates draft-eligible players on both the home and visiting teams before sending a game report to the scouting bureau’s head office. His grading of players impacts the overall rankings for the 2006 NHL entry draft, and is a job White takes much pride in. He says he enjoys the position not just because of the quality hockey he gets to watch, but because of the people he meets — everyone from the players, coaches and general mangers to stick boys, equipment managers and trainers. “There’s a lot of great conversations to be had,” he says. In recent years, White has been offered fulltime communications and scouting jobs with professional hockey teams in the United States, including one NHL club. He turned down each offer, not because he didn’t think he’d like the position, but because living in St. John’s is what he, his wife Barbara and daughter Rebecca think is best. “I’m happy in my role here with Special Olympics and with the NHL,” he says. “I’d look at any offer that came, but I moved back to Newfoundland for a reason. “I’d prefer to stay here … it (moving) would be something I’d have to look long and hard at.” Darcy MacRae is The Independent’s sports editor. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
FEBRUARY 12, 2006
INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31
‘Always a possibility’ K-Rock Cup exposes players to scouts; hockey teams from Maritimes, United States interested in local talent By Darcy MacRae The Independent
H
ockey scouts in search of a diamond in the rough have their eye on St. John’s. With more than 50 teams and 1,300 players in the provincial capital Feb. 7-12 to take part in the K-Rock Invitational High School Hockey Tournament (formerly known as the Confederation Cup), scouts had plenty of young talent to watch in both boys and girls divisions. Each year the K-Rock Cup attracts teams from across the province as well as Ontario (five this year) and Atlantic Canada (nine this time around). The 2006 tournament has 40 boys teams and 16 girls teams, giving scouts a wide variety of players to asses. “There are some high school players who are being monitored, guys we want to see during the season,” says Bob Johnson, chief scout for the St. John’s Fog Devils. “There’s always a player here or there in high school, you just have to find the right one. There’s not a big crop of them in high school, but there’s always an exception.” Johnson says the Fog Devils have Newfoundland scout Steve Bishop watching the tournament, looking for a few players who may have flown under the radar in past player evaluations. Johnson says while the majority of players the Fog Devils will draft later this summer will have played midget AAA or junior A this year, players who impress at the high school level can earn invitations to training camp. As an example, he points out that at the Fog Devils inaugural training camp last September, Zach Tessier and Michel Breau of the Matieu Metadors high school hockey club in Moncton, N.B. tried out for the team. “There’s always a possibility. We did it last year, and Tessier played pretty well in camp,” says Johnson. Charlie Decker, co-ordinator of the K-Rock Cup, fields questions yearround from schools and teams inter-
Botwood Collegiate and Ascension Collegiate (Bay Roberts) battle in the girls’ division of the K-Rock cup.
“There’s always a player here or there in high school, you just have to find the right one. There’s not a big crop of them in high school, but there’s always an exception.” Bob Johnson, St. John’s Fog Devils chief scout ested in attending the annual tournament, which began in 1999 with 16 teams. He also receives calls from hockey scouts interested in watching both the girls and boys divisions. “They (scouts) always fit it into their schedule.” Although local scouts take an inter-
est in the tournament, Decker says a number of hockey people from outside the region also attend the KRock Cup. “Where they come from is prep schools in the United States and junior teams (from the Maritimes and other mainland regions) primarily,” Decker says. Some of the players taking part in the K-Rock Cup also suit up at the midget AAA level, so scouts have often already seen them in action prior to the tournament. However, as a local Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scout points out, for kids who don’t play midget AAA, the K-Rock Cup is an excellent way to get noticed. “There are kids who can’t afford to play midget AAA hockey and there are cases where coaches have made mistakes (and cut a player from midget AAA),” says Steve Callahan, the Q’s head scout in Newfoundland and Labrador. “There’s been stories like that in the past.” Callahan admits the K-Rock Cup is
Open to interpretation From page 32 don’t get points for how nice your uniform is, you just have to find a way — any way — to outscore your opponent. Imagine if the Super Bowl was decided using the same logic that crowns a figure skating champion. For starters, Ben Roethlisberger’s secondquarter touchdown wouldn’t have received the full six points since it really wasn’t that pretty a play. Although he found the end zone, he did it by using his 6’5, 250-pound frame to smash his way across the goal line. It’s not like he threw a pictureperfect 50-yard pass, so the play would probably only merit a few points. By
comparison, Antwaan Randle El’s touchdown pass to Hines Ward would be worth much more than the standard six points, since the play involved creativity and imagination. And hey, Randle El looked damn spiffy making that pass — his uniform was neatly tucked in and spotless — so the judges would have to throw in a few extra points for that as well. After that last piece of evidence, the missus mulled over my argument for a moment before determining I was indeed a Sports Conservative, a purist if you will. Someone, the missus says, who believes the difference between winning and losing should be determined only by the points on the score-
board, not by the interpretation of the judges. I can’t say I disagree with the missus on this one, and have to admit I kind of like the name Sports Conservative. It sounds kind of old school, don’t you think? But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the athleticism of figure skaters, because I honestly do, it just means I can’t look at a sport whose winner is determined by judges in the same light I do a game whose athletes settle things themselves. Darcy MacRae is The Independent’s sports editor. darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
not a heavily scouted event for Quebec-league teams, since most major junior clubs want to see 16and 17-year olds in action at the midget AAA level. But he adds several junior A clubs have a definite interest in the K-Rock Cup. He also says such a tournament gives scouts a chance to see players from rural communities who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to perform in front of junior and prep school officials. “Where a lot of the high level hockey is concentrated on the Avalon, it’s a great opportunity for us (scouts) to get out and see some of the teams from all over the province,” says Callahan. With prep school, junior A and even some major junior scouts in the audience, high school players were under a microscope at the tournament, but considering the number of players involved, it was no doubt difficult to catch the attention of a scout on a tight schedule. Johnson acknowledges as much,
Paul Daly/The Independent
and says any player looking to stand out had to demonstrate outstanding ability in one or more aspects of the game. “Skating is more and more important with the new rules,” Johnson says. “So he’s got to be a good skater and he’s got to be able to do things with the puck. “The other thing is he could be just average with the puck, but he could be a big, physical guy, a kind of grinder who can play a physical game.” As far as goaltenders are concerned, Johnson didn’t expect his scout to find a netminder playing in a high school tournament who is as technically sound as a seasoned pro. But that doesn’t mean goalies weren’t being watched carefully, since a goalie who steals the show will always catch the attention of a hockey scout. “For a goalie,” Johnson says, “he’s got to stand out.” darcy.macrae@theindependent.ca
INDEPENDENTSPORTS
SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12-18, 2006 — PAGE 32
Nelson White outside the Fog Devils’ locker room last week.
Paul Daly/The Independent
Hockey scout Nelson White of St. John’s works for the NHL central scouting bureau, but his hockey career didn’t start on the ice By Darcy MacRae The Independent
N
elson White has learned a lot about hockey since he began working in the sport more than a decade ago. While he has picked up a lot about the game’s finer points, he says his biggest lesson has little to do with ice, a hockey stick or puck. “In the game of hockey, a lot of it is who you know,” White tells The Independent. White, a resident of St. John’s who works for the NHL’s central scouting bureau, has worked at the university, major junior, minor pro and NHL levels, both as a scout and a communications specialist. The 38year-old made a habit of getting to know the right people since his first foray into the hockey world in 1995 — when he started working with the Laurentian Voyagers university men’s team in Sudbury, Ont. The native of Flat Bay, a small town just south of Stephenville, was working toward a sports administration degree at the Ontario school when he took a position that, in the beginning, had him taking care of all off-ice aspects of the program. But soon he was helping with player recruitment and eventually lending a hand with the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League. It was there White began making contacts that would form the foundation of his career in roles ranging from media relations to scouting.
“I wasn’t shy about going up and talking director of scouting for Hockey Canada. to the guys,” White says of his days in Trapp made many trips to Sudbury scouting Sudbury when he befriended scouts and players for the Canadian national junior general managers of junior and NHL teams. team, and one night told White about a job “As I got more comfortable with the guys opening at Hockey Canada. Trapp suggest… I guess I sounded like I knew what I was ed White apply for the position of off-ice talking about.” co-ordinator with the organization’s highAlthough his official job with the Wolves performance program, a job that would see was to take care of gameWhite spend much of his night operations such as time dealing with the dealing with the media, “Michael Ryder was national junior team. White eventually found White took Trapp’s himself spending a lot of on the 2000 team and advice and applied for the time chatting with pro position, and a short time I was his official hockey general managers. later was wearing a Team He says he would hurry Canada blazer. translator. I was each evening to get the “It was a big break pre-game chores done because I was dealing with the only other guy early so he could pick the elite level athletes and all brains of hockey big wigs, the (NHL) GMs,” White who could speak and soon was answering a says. lot of their questions. Some of White’s most Newfoundlander.” “Because I spent a lot of cherished hockey memotime around the Wolves, ries come from the two Nelson White they (scouts and general years he spent with the managers) would ask me national junior team. He about the kids’ attitudes and off-ice behav- fondly recalls the team winning a silver iour,” White explains. medal at the 1999 world championships in “I was off-the-record honest with them, Winnipeg, although he prefers to reminisce and I think that’s what they respected. I about the 2000 world’s in Sweden. wasn’t trying to torpedo any kid … but I “In 2000 I was a bigger part of the club,” also wanted to be honest with people.” White says. “I remember being in the team One person White impressed was Barry picture, putting on your Team Canada Trapp (current director of scouting with the apparel for the first time. Toronto Maple Leafs), who at the time was “I also remember the disappointment in
winning the bronze. We were one goal away from beating Russia (in the semifinals) …” The 1999 and 2000 national junior teams included several future NHL stars such as Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester. But some of White’s favourite moments actually occurred away from the playing surface, like befriending Canadian forwards Heatley and Matt Pettinger, and making sure Manny Malhotra had a crossword puzzle to fill out each morning. He also remembers a gifted right winger from Bonavista who brought a quick release and a heavy shot to the club. “Michael Ryder was on the 2000 team and I was his official translator,” White says. “I was the only other guy who could speak Newfoundlander.” White’s role with the national junior program was initially supposed to entail setting up the team’s evaluation camps and looking after their practice times and travel. But thanks to Trapp and national team coach Tom Renney, White learned the finer points of being a hockey scout. “They taught me, they explained things to me,” White says. “Little things, like where to sit. At Mile One I sit high up in the corner, so I can see how things are forming behind the play … I can see the ice really well — how the breakout is forming, how the guys are getting out of their zone. Things like how a guy skates, does he skate See “I’m happy,” page 30
Sports Conservative I
’m a Conservative, and proud of it. No, not those Conservatives, the ones running the country. I have voted for them before and may again, but I’ve also voted Liberal in the past so I don’t think I’d classify myself as a lifelong backer of either. To clarify, I’m a Sports Conservative. You may be asking yourself just what is a Sports Conservative? Is it a new political party? A renegade group of sports editors with aspirations of world domination? Or perhaps an amateur hockey team sponsored by Danny Williams? Well the answer to all three questions is simple — no. A Sports Conservative is a fan who uses strict rules and regulations to
DARCY MACRAE
The game determine exactly what is, and is not, a true sport. Some call us keepers of the faith, others refer to us as visionaries, while a few — the missus included — call us sports snobs. The topic arose last week when the missus and I were watching the Super Bowl together. Well, I was the only one actually watching the game, the missus was reading O magazine, Oprah Winfrey’s literary gift to women who should want more. Anyway, during half time I was flick-
ing channels and came across a commercial for Skating with Celebrities, the reality show that pairs an accomplished figure skater with a C-list celebrity and has them attempt moves even world champions would think twice about. Upon viewing the commercial, I remarked it was a fitting program for figure skating since it wasn’t a real sport anyway. This caught the missus’ attention, and her copy of O was tossed to the coffee table pretty quick. You see, the missus enjoys figure skating, having partaken in it as a kid. She didn’t agree with my assessment, and was curious as to why I didn’t consider figure skating a real sport. Contrary to what some believe — because this conversation has come up
before — the logic behind my opinion does not stem from my disapproval of the glittery, over-the-top, frilly and unnecessarily puffy outfits worn by both men and women. Sure, I think Emanuel Sandhu looks rather silly prancing around the ice in an outfit consisting of brightly coloured spandex, some fancy ribbons and a pirate shirt, but it’s up to him if he wants to dress that way. I doubt you’d ever see Elvis Stojko skate in that kind of outfit, but Stojko was never your typical figure skater anyway. My problem with figure skating is the way a winner is determined. Figure skaters, for all their athletic ability and hard work, do not ultimately decide who wins a competition —judges do that for them. I just can’t get into a
sport where the outcome is not known when the competitors leave the playing surface, but is instead announced a few minutes later when a panel of judges decide who was best. I tried explaining this to the missus during the Super Bowl, and luckily had the game itself to use for emphasis. The way I see it, a football game — just like hockey, baseball, basketball, rugby, tennis or curling — is decided by the opposing athletes. There are officials to enforce the rules, but the end result comes down to which team scores more points than the other during a head-to-head competition on the same playing surface. You don’t get points for style, you See “Open to,” page 31