2006-09-10

VOL. 4 ISSUE 36

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LIFE 13

Belly dancing on steps of the Colonial Building

Joy Norman shows country side on second recording

Fish for France Canada allows St-Pierre-Miquelon to swap cod quotas from Gulf to south coast; less fish for Newfoundland fishermen RYAN CLEARY

T

he Government of Canada has granted permission for France to “swap” a cod quota it holds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for a quota of cod off Newfoundland’s south coast,

closer to the French islands of StPierre-Miquelon, The Independent has learned.

The fishermen’s union, which is dead set against such an exchange, says Ottawa only agreed to the swap to pacify France, which isn’t satisfied with the size of its cod quotas, a charge the federal government denies.

“We committed to trying to facilitate it (the swap),” says Guy Beaupre, director general of international affairs with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Ottawa. “I can’t tell you if it’s happened yet — I don’t know.”

Beaupre says Canada was asked by France to “facilitate” a swap whereby

France — which holds a 156-tonne cod quota in the Gulf this year — could exchange it with a company that holds a similar size cod quota off the south coast.

“It allowed them (French fishermen) to get some cod for processing capacity,” says Beaupre. “They have a processing plant and they’re looking for

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is grilled by the media Sept. 9 about his stand on NAFO.

‘It just never ends when you have a child in danger’

By Pam Pardy Ghent For The Independent

OPINION 10

S

ue Morgan, 54, of Upper Gullies, is worried. She tries not to break down in front of the two children she’s caring for while their mother — her daughter — is in Afghanistan.

Morgan’s 32-year-old daughter, Jeanne Crane, is one of more than 2,800 Canadian soldiers, sailors and air force personnel deployed overseas on operational missions.

Crane’s daughters, Laura, 13, and Matilda, 4, were left in their grandmother’s care. They have all adjusted as best they can.

“Jeanne was talking to Mark (Pte. Mark Graham, one of four Canadian soldiers who died Sept. 4 near Kandahar) the day before he was killed,” Morgan says.

“He is a big fella, and Jeanne is so tiny, and he asked her if she thought she could carry him off the field if he got hurt.” Morgan has to pause.

“It’s hard,” she continues. “People have no idea, there are suicide bombs there every day, another 20 were just

See “Mommy’s show,” page 2

See “We just don’t agree,” page 2

Paul Daly/The Independent

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “One of the things, looking back now, five years later, is the threat of this happening again is still there.”

injured — friendly fire, enemy fire, phone calls, questions, no phone calls, no answers, it just never ends when you have a child in danger every single second, you can’t rest because they can’t rest.”

Laura has been with her grandmother since March because her mother was in intensive training for her first overseas mission. Matilda, the youngest, joined her sister in July, just before her mother’s deployment.

Morgan expects to have both girls until March, when her daughter returns.

Morgan decided to quit her job in a local convenience store. She loved the work for the social interaction it provided — but knew she was too on edge.

She found herself wanting to scream — “My daughter’s in Afghanistan!” — to every customer that came through the door. And she couldn’t watch the news or be near the phone like she could at home.

“I have the news on all day, every day … it’s stressful with it, but worse

fish to process, that was one of the possibilities in their view.”

Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union, says as far as he knows, France’s cod quota in the Gulf hasn’t been fished in recent years. Further, he says south

— Gander Mayor Claude Elliot, page 4

Susan Rendell’s got an animal welfare solution MOVIE REVIEWS 15

End of summer cinema GALLERY 14

King’s Point Pottery in St. John’s Voice from away. . . . . . . . . . .

Book reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comics & crossword. . . . . . .

11 16 17 20

In the dark about the park Part of the T’Railway provincial park moved for executive development; Holyrood residents claim they had no say IVAN MORGAN

A

private developer has received permission to move a section of the T’Railway provincial park in Holyrood in order to a build a high-end residential subdivision, leaving some local residents angry and confused.

The T’Railway park runs across the province on the former railway bed, and is frequented by walkers, joggers and cyclists.

Town of Holyrood officials claim it was the province’s responsibility to consult with the public before interfering with the provincial park. Provincial government officials claim that it was the town’s responsibility to notify their residents about planned development.

Residents say they received no notification.

David Tutton, a local, found out by accident. “Didn’t know it was going to happen. The first I got wind of it was about a week or so ago,” he tells The Independent.

“When (the railway) was taken out, it became a walking trail and remained as a right-of-way. You don’t move a right-of-way because some wealthy

person wants to put in a house with a good view.”

Edwena Kavanagh is a member of the Town of Holyrood’s beautification committee, responsible for public places, including hiking trails. She says she “definitely” should have been notified that the park was going to be moved, and cannot understand how the committee was not made aware of this proposal.

“If there is no notice given for something that affects all of us … I think that is terribly wrong,” Kavanagh says.

Some residents say the developer asked to move the park to allow clients’ homes to have a better view.

Representatives from the developers, MAE Design, an engineering services firm located in Conception Bay South, were unavailable for comment.

When asked if she would have objected to the section of park being moved, Kavanagh is clear.

“Having it moved for someone’s convenience? Yes, I object to that. No question,” she says.

Scott Devereaux, town clerk for the Town of Holyrood, says it was not the town’s responsibility to notify its residents about the move.

See “T’Railway,” page 4

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

‘We just don’t agree’ From page 1 coast fishermen have experienced a decrease in cod quota (from 15,000 tonnes to 13,000 tonnes), and a decision to allow France access to cod will mean less fish for Newfoundland fishermen.

“It’s not like we had a surplus of fish — we had a shortage, we didn’t have enough last year really for people in places like St. Lawrence and Harbour Breton to make a decent living at it … and even in the face of that reduction to offer up some of the reduced amount of fish available, we just don’t agree,” says McCurdy.

He adds the union wasn’t consulted about the quota swap. “I don’t know why they’d even entertain it in the first place.”

Beaupre says it’s not the first time France has made such a request, although he couldn’t say whether Canada granted permission before. “I frankly can’t tell you that because I don’t know.”

Beaupre says any company willing to swap cod quotas with France would have to hold a cod quota in both the Gulf and off the island’s south coast in fishing zone 3Ps. “If a company is willing to do that, it allows France to get some fish from 3Ps and would likely be fished by a Canadian company, because already we fish 70 per cent of their cod.”

France receives allocations of cod in the Gulf and off the island’s south coast under a 1972 treaty, which is the basis for Canada’s fisheries relations with France. The treaty provides access to

vessels from St-Pierre-Miquelon to harvest cod in the Gulf in perpetuity.

The quota is limited to 2.6 per cent of the total allowable catch (TAC).

France also shares a trans-boundary quota off the south coast, receiving 15.6 per cent of the TAC. Most of that fish is caught by Canadian fishing vessels and landed in St-Pierre-Miquelon for processing.

McCurdy was aware France had asked the federal government for access to south coast cod, but he didn’t know many details until informed by The Independent.

“We don’t think they (the French) are entitled to a pound more than what they’re already got,” McCurdy says.

“We made it absolutely clear to government we would firmly oppose any suggestion to increase their catch in 3Ps … we would T-totally oppose it.”

A 10-year management agreement between Canada and France is set to expire on April 17, 2007.

McCurdy says he was told that France wasn’t pleased with the cod quota as set by Ottawa this year and the federal government was considering the swap to appease the French.

“The explanation given to us was that it was part of trying to get an agreement on this year’s cod quota,” he says.

“But if they set the quota based on scientific advice they shouldn’t have to give them anything to get them to agree to it. It should be a matter of course.

“While these negotiations (on a new management agreement) are taking place, quite frankly, I don’t see any reason why Canada would make that accommodation.” ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

Sue Morgan (centre) with her granddaughters Laura and Matilda. Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Mommy’s show’ From page 1 without it on,” she says. “I had it on the other day and Matilda goes, ‘Look!

Mommy!’ and sure enough, there was Jeanne with her ponytail.”

Morgan says she puts children’s programming or a family movie on the television before putting the youngest to bed. But before Matilda will fall asleep, she asks for the news to be put back on — in hopes she will once again catch a glimpse of her mother.

“She calls it ‘Mommy’s show,’” Morgan laughs. “’Let’s put on Mommy’s show.’ When she doesn’t see her mother, she will wait until she sees a soldier, any soldier, and asks them to say good-night to Mommy for her.”

Laura seems to understand better, Morgan says, but that can make things worse. “Watching those caskets being taken off the plane, I don’t know if it’s right to let her see it,” she says. “She knew two of the families, she played

Come Home Year!

with the kids, one boy is in her class back in Petawawa, these are real families to her, to us, not just a cold image on a television set.”

With the help of other family and friends, Morgan does the best she can for the grandchildren she loves. She deals with the many questions fired at her from her pre-school granddaughter, and deals with homework, parent/teacher meetings, boys, makeup and fighting over clothing choices with the teen.

“If anything happens to Jeanne, and you hope it never does, I am prepared to be mother to the kids,” she says quietly. “The kids understand that, they see the images, they know that this situation isn’t safe, my kid — many of our kids … it’s more than me — is in real danger.

“And I am just doing what any mother does when their child needs them — doing the best I can so she can do the best she can.”

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

SCRUNCHINS

Reflecting on Fidel

A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

Thirty-two years later, Geoff Stirling talks about the making of Waiting For Fidel

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

I

RE JOYCE West coast Liberal MHA Eddie Joyce doesn’t exactly get along with Corner Brook Mayor Charles Pender.

Joyce issued a press release recently to say he was upset City Council didn’t invite him to a meeting to discuss the proposed closure of the tourist chalet that serves Corner Brook, the Bay of Islands and parts of western Newfoundland.

“Even though the premier’s office and minister (Tom) Marshall’s office received invitations, my name was conveniently left off the list,” Joyce was quoted in a press release. “This is indicative of a mayor who forgets that Curling is part of the City of Corner Brook.” Eddie is apparently left out fairly often. Too bad Scrunchins doesn’t have a shoulder, Eddie — you could cry on that …

GUY SMILEY The 26th annual Atlantic Film Festival, slated to run Sept. 14-23 in Halifax, will screen 223 films (not a huge number, considering the 1,778 entries), both local and international.

The Halifax Daily News ran a piece recently on the lineup, which will feature the directorial debut of Marie Walsh for Young Triffie’s Been Made Away With, “adapted from the late, legendary St. John’s columnist Ray Guy’s famous play.” Attention Ray Guy if you’re reading: pinch yourself to see if you’re still with us. And do you suppose Mary could have changed her name and forget to tell us about it …

OTTAWA TAKE OFF The Financial Post carried an article in late August on Gander International Airport (Gander on the Rocks, An unlikely candidate for federal aid, struggling airport faces an uncertain future.) Gary Vey, head cheese at the Gander airport, has been told by federal bureaucrats that the town’s airport is no longer an “essential” part of Canada’s aviation system and, as a result, an unlikely candidate for federal aid.

According to the Post, Vey bristles when he hears that, considering five years ago Gander was lauded for its role during 9/11, when it provided safe haven for 38 commercial jetliners forced to make emergency landings.

Gander apparently came close to providing an encore performance in early August when British authorities uncovered an alleged plot to detonate bombs on as many as 10 jetliners bound for the U.S. There were 52 planes lined up to come to Gander.

“The control centre here in Gander told me that we were hours away from having the North Atlantic shut down again,” Vey told the Financial Post.

“Now, obviously, I’m a bit onesided on this issue. But I say to Transport Canada: ‘What happened during 9/11? Were we then considered to be essential to aviation?’ I guess those planes could have landed somewhere else that day. Or maybe

BEST FOR LAST Not that we enjoy picking on the competition, but every now and then it has it coming. The Telegram carried a supplement this week titled MOVE WEST, a magazine focused on spreading the word in Atlantic Canada about how wonderful it is out west (so much for down home).

The licence plate of the van on the cover was Photoshopped out but it could have been from Newfoundland, given there was a lobster pot tied to the roof. (Granny must have been inside the vehicle, given the absence of a rocking chair on the roof.)

The magazine included stories of transplanted Newfoundlanders — including Hal Osmond and Herb Nicholas, who are living “every Newfie’s dream” on Vancouver Island. Robin Ryan of Trinity pulled up stakes and moved to Calgary, where she works as a cashier at — wait for it — Mary Brown’s Fried Chicken. Anna Nash of Pointe Verde, a civil servant in Vancouver, said what she likes best about the west coast city is meeting up with other Newfoundlanders. “You can just about trip over them,” she said. “You pick up on their accent.”

Why is the “people’s paper” sending all the people away … ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

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tycoon, and the leftist director argue politics and philosophy at dinner in the villa Castro provided, seemingly unaware they are being served by silent Cuban servants in formal dress.

Stirling says had he waited a month, he would have gotten to see Castro, but he was a busy man and hadn’t the time. He still wants an answer to the question he never got to ask. “If you are not willing after 45 years in power to risk an election, what have you accomplished?”

As for Cuba’s future after Castro?

Stirling sees promise. “Free enterprise is creeping back into Cuba,” says Stirling. “Small restaurants, coffee shops and such things are appearing.”

But they need to return to democracy, he says, and full economic freedom. When asked how they would accomplish that, Stirling falls silent for a moment.

“They will have to have a convention, to see what people want says the former passionate anti-Confederate.

“They will have to announce elections will be coming.”

From

50 5.7

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REUTERS/Prensa Latina/Files

sizes the spiritual aspect of democracy and free enterprise. He says that’s what Cuba still lacks. He argues on the importance of an “enlightened economic system.”

“Free enterprise is about freeing our God-given talents. To ignore the spiritual is to lose the fun of the game,” he says.

In light of history’s judgement since 1974, Stirling’s observations seem prescient. In the film they are shown touring a university, where they are told students there work 20 hours a week in the factories. Stirling looks around, and says it appears to give workers the illusion they are university students.

Later, in arguing the benefits of democracy and freedom with young Cubans, Stirling tells them how Smallwood (standing next to him) had built a university in Newfoundland and the students, as soon as they graduated, were the first to protest against him. He saw this as marvellous. Smallwood says little.

The film is full of paradox. The socialist ex-premier, the business

Winner

S

they couldn’t have. We’ll never know.”

The Financial Post reporter wrote that while Gander airport’s stature as the “Crossroads of the World” may be slipping, it still deserves its reputation as the “lifeboat of the North Atlantic.” That’s if it can stay afloat …

crunchins begins this week on top of the world. Well, not exactly the top of the world — the summit of Mount Elbrus actually.

At 5,642 metres, the peak is the highest in continental Europe and one of the world’s seven summits. What better place to unfurl the old Newfoundland flag — the Pink, White and Green (complete with a Free NFLD. postcard pinned to the centre). Memorial University alumni Duleepa (Dups) Wijayawardhana, left, and Keli Ryan made it to the summit June 26, braving blowing snow, ice pellets and the effects of high altitude to get there. The picture made it to the front page of the Aug. 31 edition of the Gazette, MUN’s newspaper (thanks to editor David Sorensen for allowing us to run the photo). The flag atop Elbrus looks almost as grand as the Pink, White and Green that flies on the summit of the Southside Hills in St. John’s, across the Narrows from Signal Hill.

Well, almost …

DRIVE Our

Sergei Beranov/the Gazette

n 1974, Geoff Stirling and former premier Joseph Smallwood flew in a chartered jet to Havana, Cuba, to make a film. They did it, says Stirling, because “we wanted to see for ourselves.”

As Castro ails and the world speculates on his health, his death and the future of Cuba, the National Film Board film Waiting for Fidel, provides a fascinating window into the nature of communism, socialism and dictatorship.

For Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who know their history, there is another dimension. The film shows a recently retired — some would say ousted — self-proclaimed socialist premier Joseph Smallwood investigating another “socialist experiment” with his businessman friend and intellectual sparring partner, Stirling.

Stirling and Smallwood may have been going to see for themselves, but they were each going with different eyes. Smallwood’s socialist experiment in Newfoundland had been more disaster than success. His failures, and the democracy he was so keen to challenge Castro about, had led to his undignified defeat.

Self-made millionaire Stirling went with the skepticism of someone whose beliefs were in direct opposition to the Castro philosophy. But he tried to keep an open mind.

“I have seen many economies. I have seen an enlightened economic system. We thought ‘Let’s see what Cuba has to offer,’” Stirling tells The Independent.

Castro’s revolution — an armed insurrection which toppled the corrupt rule of General Fulgencio Battista — was in its 15th year.

Smallwood’s experimentation with socialism was over.

If there was ever a shining example of the adage “if life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” then Waiting for Fidel is it. The pair went to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro.

They never got that interview.

Undaunted, director Michael Rubbo put himself in front of the camera and cut the film to reflect the trip and their conversations.

Since its release, it has become an iconic film to many people for many reasons. It is billed as inspiration for current filmmakers such as Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11).

The film provides plenty of food for thought on Smallwood and his musings on “what might have been” in Newfoundland. Smallwood seems pensive, almost wistful at times. At one point, he says he is prepared to understand and “make excuses” for Castro. “I once had a job once — something like his job — a bit like it,” says Smallwood.

Thirty-two years have passed since then, but Stirling is still on message about Cuba and the socialist experiment.

“Socialism is dogma, it freezes free enterprise. Free enterprise is development, it frees the spirit,” says Stirling.

He says he wanted to tell Castro something: “We wanted to say ‘You have had 15 years to test a system — why can’t you afford to have an election?”

Stirling saw Castro’s socialist paradise as godless and ultimately soul destroying. He wasn’t impressed then, and he isn’t now. He empha-

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

Five years on Gander residents remember 9/11, are always aware it could happen again

By Mandy Cook The Independent

F

ive years ago Monday, 38 planes landed in Gander, marooning 6,595 passengers and crew in a town of approximately 10,000. For almost a week, the residents of Gander stopped in their tracks and donated time, toothbrushes, sheets and showers to stranded passengers en route to the besieged United States.

In New York, the World Trade Center had been decimated, but in this small Newfoundland town, the human spirit flourished.

Five years have passed, but Gander mayor, Claude Elliot, says it feels like yesterday — and fears another emergency as witnessed in his town on Sept. 11, 2001 is a very real possibility. “One of the things looking back now, five years later, is the threat of this happening again is still there,� he says. “That it is still a concern.

Somewhere down the road we may be called upon to do the exact same thing again. “It’s only because of the intelligence and the interceptions that they’ve done that we’ve avoided it because when they had that bust in London (England) we were not that far away from almost experiencing the same thing again.�

If the airspace had been shut down on Aug. 6, the day British authorities arrested 21 people, 52 airplanes would have needed a patch of tarmac to land on at Gander International Airport. It is a worry Elliot says is never far from his mind.

When Queen Blundon, a Gander businesswoman, heard her little town would be hosting thousands of people on that September day in 2001, she and her husband Dave immediately pitched in, buying supplies all over town.

Dave is a member of the Masonic Temple, so the couple spent most of the evening preparing beds for people to sleep in. Although Queen had to mind her flower shop the next day,

Dave decided to help out — passing out toiletries, blankets, or pillows.

By the end of the first day, they had invited anyone who needed a shower to come back to their house. Before the evening drew to a close, they had “adopted� a man, woman and her 80year-old father from St. Louis, Missouri to stay with them. Queen would have it no other way. “Poor old soul,� she says, thinking back. “I said, ‘He’s not sleeping on the floor!’ So we took them back for the duration — I can’t even remember the number of days it was now. We basically took that family and moved them in.�

Looking back, Queen says, she regrets not keeping a guestbook of all the international friends she made.

Most of all, she wishes she had brought Jeff, her son, in from St. John’s to witness the event. “My son was in university then,� she says. “I think if I had my time back I would have brought him home to Gander so he could be part of it. I didn’t realize it at the time, what history it was.�

As Elliot recalls that infamous day, he is still in shock over how the little town of Gander could be so far removed from Ground Zero — yet so crucial. “That’s the thing I think I look back at and say, ‘Wow,’� he says. “I didn’t think we would be such a large player in something that happened so far away.�

Queen says anyone in this province, not just her fellow residents of Gander, would not hesitate to give as generously and selflessly as they did that day.

She says it’s an inherent quality of those from here. “As Newfoundlanders, I know that’s just the way people are,� she says. “And not just here in Gander, in Lewisporte and Gambo, there was stories everywhere. Glenwood. Appleton.

It just goes on and on.� mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

David Tutton and Edwena Kavanagh on Holyrood T’Railway

Paul Daly/The Independent

T’railway is ‘part of our heritage’ From page 1 “Why would there be? Why would the town publicize it? We don’t have a procedure for it. It’s a provincial rightof-way.�

He also says the beautification committee should have been aware. “There is a member of council on the beautification committee. That member of council saw the plans for that development,� says Devereaux.

An official for the provincial Department of Environment and Conservation appears to contradict the town clerk. In an e-mail to The Independent the official wrote “notification (of the public) is the responsibility of the Town of Holyrood, as it would be within their development process that any public consultations could occur.�

Representatives of at least two nonprofit associations linked to the park — the Newfoundland T’Railway Council and the Avalon Trailway Association — say they were contacted by the province and approved the changes the developer

“You don’t move a cathedral because somebody wants to put a parking lot there.�

David Tutton had suggested.

Terry Morrison of the Newfoundland T’Railway says his group understands sometimes sections of the park must be moved. As long as their criteria — designed to preserve the integrity of the park and spare the taxpayer any cost — are followed, his organization has no issue with changes. Morrison says they approved the developer’s plans. They were not involved in any public consultations.

The lack of consultation from the town frustrates Tutton. “While it affects people along the route, in actual fact if it doesn’t touch your property I don’t

think you are really let known what goes on. And that’s the way this town is with several different projects that happen. “A lot of people use the T’Railway, there are always ATVs, people walking their dogs, a lot of people hiking that portion of the T’Railway. All the way to the Hydro plant is always in use. “You don’t move a cathedral because somebody wants to put a parking lot there. The railway and the hiking trail are part of our heritage and they should stay in the spot that they were originally located.�

Kavanagh is concerned about the precedent set. If a developer can have a park moved with no public input, she wonders, where will it end?

Tutton is clear on his theory of the lack of consultation. “I think that they’ve sold it so that somebody else — with a little bit of money in their pocket — can put a house there and have that view. I think that sounds like that’s what they have done.� ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

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 Vessels arrived: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova; Amsterdam, Netherlands, from St. Anthony; Maersk Challenger, Canada, from White Rose; ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Cape Ballard, Canada, from sea.

Vessels departed: Gallipoli, Canada, to Ramea; Oceanex Avalon, Canada, to Montreal; Cape Ballard, Canada, to Marystown; Amsterdam, Netherlands, to New York.

TUESDAY Vessels arrived: Maersk Placentia, Canada, from Hibernia; Ann Harvey, Canada, from sea; Sauniere, Canada, from Grand EntrĂŠe.

Vessels departed: Maersk Detector, Canada, to Orphan Basin; Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to Terra Nova; Ann Harvey, Canada, to sea; ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Corner Brook.

WEDNESDAY Vessels arrived: Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, from Orphan Basin; Maersk Noiseman, Canada, from Terra Nova; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose; Burin Sea, Canada, from Terra

Nova; Acadian, Canada, from Saint John, N.B. Vessels departed: Maersk Placentia, Canada, to Hibernia; Maersk Chignecto, Canada, to White Rose; Sauniere, Canada, to sea.

THURSDAY Vessels arrived: Ann Harvey, Canada, from sea.

Vessels departed: Alumercia, Netherlands, to Lunenburg, N.S.; Ann Harvey, Canada, to sea; Maersk Norseman, Canada, to Hibernia; Acadian, Canada, to Charlottetown; Maersk Dispatcher, Canada, to Terra Nova.

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

Where are the jobs?

Federal Tories slow to deliver on promise of returning federal jobs to the province

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

T

he Stephen Harper government is not living up to its campaign promise to return federal government jobs to Newfoundland and Labrador, says a spokeswoman for the union for federal civil servants in the province.

Leading up to last January’s election, the federal Conservatives promised to create jobs by increasing military presence in the province, returning jobs lost during the federal Liberal administration, and reopening the Gander weather office.

“The only thing that’s happened is they (the Harper government) did do the re-instatement at Gander weather forecasting,” says Jeannie Baldwin, the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s regional executive vice-president. Even in that instance, she says, not all the jobs will return. “There may be 20 to 30 jobs in that area.”

A 2005 Memorial University report stated the number of federal government jobs in the province had dropped to 6,970 in 2004 from 10,250 jobs in 1994 — a loss of over 3,280 jobs.

Memorial University is set to release a final report on this study next week.

Baldwin says the news won’t be good.

“There is no big increase or fluctuation of any federal jobs within the Newfoundland and Labrador region.”

She says looking at the total number of jobs lost does not tell the whole story.

She says since 1994 there has been a

“The only thing that’s happened is they (the Harper government) did do the re-instatement at Gander weather forecasting.”

Jeannie Baldwin disproportionate loss of federal jobs in the province in relation to the rest of the country. In addition, the structure of the federal government workforce in the province is changing.

This is reflected in the Memorial report, which says the province has the lowest number of executive jobs of any province in Canada, and a far lower percentage than should be here, according to our population.

Baldwin says the shift of jobs out of the province — especially executive level jobs — is continuing.

While the number of Service Canada jobs in the province remains at about 800, Baldwin says they’ve increased in the Ottawa area by almost 2,000 in the last 10 years.

“This is a re-allocation of the workload — they have taken the work out of the regions and relocated it in other areas — and most of the work is being put back into the Ottawa area,” Baldwin says.

MP Loyola Hearn, Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in cabinet, did not return calls by The Independent.

People should be more concerned about the repercussions of this transfer of work, Baldwin says, adding that fewer executive positions equal a “brain drain” from the community.

Baldwin says people should be concerned about the level of local control.

“Where are most of the decisions being made? The decisions are not being made — at the federal level — within the Newfoundland and Labrador region,” says Baldwin. “It’s sad, what is happening.”

She says the federal government’s redesign of how they interact with citizens is going to mean even fewer jobs, and what jobs there are will be lower paying service positions.

“They are changing the whole face of Service Canada. They are making them points of service. Those points of service don’t guarantee that you are going to get service by a live individual across the table to sit down and help you.”

She anticipates more cuts in the future. “The front end at the Canada Revenue Agency is going to be eliminated.”

Baldwin says her union wants to see more action on the promises they lobbied so hard to win from prospective federal candidates in the last election.

“I know it’s not been a year yet, but I think that when they make promises like that, they should deliver.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives to deliver a speech during a Conservative caucus retreat in Cornwall, Ontario August 3, 2006.

REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Atlantic provinces to adopt similar driver’s licences

D

river’s licences from all four Atlantic provinces will look the same “within the next year,” says the communications director of the Department of Government Services.

According to Vanessa Colman-Sadd, the new system is scheduled to roll out in Newfoundland and Labrador in November. The existing licencing agreement is up, and will be replaced with an $18-million contract with Canadian company Digimarc.

The new system will run through mid-2014. Colman-Sadd says Newfoundland and Labrador will be the second province to adopt the technology.

“Each province is responsible for

St. John’s International Airport last week.

Paul Daly/The Independent

CanJet anti-union, says pilots

By Mandy Cook The Independent

A

spokesman for CanJet pilots says their organization has no choice but to believe they lost their jobs because of attempts to unionize.

Capt. Scott Bringloe says pilots went to work on Tuesday to find severance notices in their mail slots. CanJet airlines, owned by Halifax-based IMP Group International, claims financial difficulties led to the termination of passenger service, including the rising cost of fuel and landing fees.

Bringloe acknowledges the increased expense but says fare costs have gone up as well. CanJet officials failed to return The Independent’s calls.

“If you look at the big picture it appears as if we were doing reasonably well,” he tells The Independent from Halifax. “We may not be making wads of money but I don’t know if they can claim financial hardship. We are not

“The atmosphere at work is fabulous — we have an unbelievably dedicated and loyal and professional group there and a lot of customers will tell you it’s one of the friendliest and most efficient airlines going.”

Capt. Scott Bringloe allowed to see the books so we can’t say and basically most of the pilots and all of the other employees are a bit confused as to how we can find ourselves in this situation.”

A statement released by the Airline Pilots Association states a number of

labour violations by their employer, including setting deadlines for acceptance of severance packages, failure to inform the employees of layoffs and attempting to “coerce pilots into terminating their own employment.”

Up until their notice of termination, Bringloe says CanJet was a great place to work and there were no previous problems between staff and employer.

“The atmosphere at work is fabulous — we have an unbelievably dedicated and loyal and professional group there and a lot of customers will tell you it’s one of the friendliest and most efficient airlines going,” he says.

The pilots approached the Airline Pilots Association in recent months because CanJet pilots governed themselves by an in-house, one-on-one association. Considering CanJet flies to exotic and foreign countries, Bringloe says it is a natural, evolutionary step to join the international union. The Airline Pilots Association represents over half of the airline pilots in the world.

issuing their own licences, but they will have the same look and feel to them so there’s some consistency,” says Colman-Sadd.

Although the licences will be similar in design, each province will have its own name on the cards. People who move between provinces will still need to apply for a new licence, specific to the particular province.

The licences will be handed out gradually as drivers renew their picture IDs every five years. The cards will include several security features such as digital watermarks and advanced identity verification elements to thwart identity fraud.

— Mandy Cook

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

A war that’s just I

t’s shockin’ to say, but I believe in war. Not the kind of fighting that goes on in Afghanistan, that’s just wrong. Canada should no more be over there than Stephen Harper should be voted in a second term. Canada, as a peacekeeper, was a great country, known for fine and noble deeds. Not in Newfoundland and Labrador, mind you, but pretty much everywhere else.

As a foreign invader, Canada has lost its appeal in terms of sewing a Canadian flag on a backpack and traipsing around the world. You might just get shot in the head.

The Maple Leaf has been transformed into a bull’s-eye. The Leaf has been mulched with the Stars and Stripes and raked into one ugly military lump. I may be a Newfoundlander first, but Canada is changing before our eyes, and it’s a sin to see. Fighting Newfoundlanders are falling as I write this, and they shouldn’t be.

Not in a war that is not Canada’s, and not our own. Our soldiers aren’t supposed to join in a fight so much as ensure two sides get along after dusting off and shaking hands.

There are also times when war is unavoidable, or at least the threat of war, although that’s useless without intent. Some things are worth fighting

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander for — the Grand Banks of Newfoundland being one of them.

Tobin had the right idea when he went after the Spanish trawler Estai.

He got the world’s attention before being distracted by the makeup and mirror. In the end, the Turbot War wasn’t so much a war as a Turbot Tussle, with no lasting effects besides the flash in the pan that was the Tobinator’s rise and fall. The charges against the Estai were eventually dropped, the cargo of fish returned, and the Spanish were paid for their trouble.

The tiny turbot were the big losers.

So were we — in case you missed the vacancy signs hanging in the outports.

Iceland knew how to get things done — it didn’t tread water for more than 30 years, dipsy-doodling diplomatic rubber daggers as its culture and economy slowly faded from the land. It declared Cod Wars and got things done.

Iceland’s Cod Wars, three in all, didn’t involve bullets, but scissors —

giant net cutters.

The first Cod War took place in 1958 when Britain tried to prevent Iceland from extending its fishing limit to 12 miles from four miles.

Snip, snip — Iceland won that one.

The second Cod War was waged from 1972-73 when Iceland extended its offshore reach to 50 miles.

Snip, snip — Iceland won that one too.

When that agreement expired on Nov. 13, 1975, the third Cod War began. Iceland wanted a 200-mile limit, which was practically unheard of at the time (imagine the gall, the audacity of the fighting Icelanders).

All hell broke loose on the high seas.

David struck back at Goliath by once again dragging giant scissors behind its Coast Guard cutters and snipping the nets of British trawlers. The UK brought in almost two-dozen frigates and flexed some mighty muscle to scare the Icelanders back to their wharves and villages.

Iceland went so far as to threaten to close the NATO base at Keflavik, which would have threatened NATO’s ability to defend the Atlantic from Soviet incursions.

Few shots were fired, but several ships were rammed during the conflict

and some damage was inflicted, with a few injuries sustained. Iceland was motivated by declining cod stocks — a grave situation given Iceland lived on fish. Iceland won the third Cod War and the British trawlers eventually withdrew, leaving behind about 23 million pounds of catch a year.

Thousands of British fishermen and plant workers lost their jobs, but that was that.

Iceland’s giant underwater scissors were the envy of the downtrodden fish nations of the world for the longest while. John Efford and crew had an Icelandic skipper brought over here in the early ’90s to show Newfoundland fishermen how it’s done … how to use a pair of scissors to clean up the Nose and Tail.

Efford et al. could talk the talk but, in the end, they couldn’t walk the walk. The federal government came up with another package, some more make-work and an EI top-up or two and the rabble quieted down and settled in for a long winter’s nap.

Which brings us to today, and Danny’s recent trip to Iceland and Norway to see the sights. Tom Rideout, the Fisheries minister, was by the premier’s side.

“There are many lessons the

province of Newfoundland and Labrador can learn from the Icelandic fishery,” Rideout said when he got back.

The minister talked of new ideas like “consolidation, rationalization, and diversification” … meaningless words when there aren’t any fish in the water. Turns out Iceland also has fish science — can you believe it! More than that, the fish managers also work hand in hand with university and industry. Who knew?

Again — that’s not much good without fish.

Danny and his Fisheries minister didn’t breathe a word about scissors when they got back from Iceland — but you can be sure they heard a tale or two on their travels.

Danny’s latest row with the prime minister is a prime example of Ottawa’s will to buck the status quo on our behalf. The Government of Canada has chosen the side of the oil companies — nothing new there.

Likewise, the federal government won’t be moving anytime soon to end foreign overfishing. Ottawa has its own demons to fight.

Our enemy is within. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

YOUR VOICE Let’s go ‘Frog Devils’ Dear editor, I was less than excited about the Fog Devils being chosen as the name for the new team in St. John’s.

I thought about things like how it referred to a negative aspect of the city and how the name would be interpreted by other hockey cities in the league throughout Canada and the U.S. Well it seems through typo or a general inability to comprehend, our

Fog Devils appear as none other than St. John’s Frog Devils on Page 56 of the Aug. 22, 2006 edition of the Hockey News, under 2005-2006 Statistics. There you have it, don’t know if you already knew but now you do and I think this is very worthy of a blurb.

Rob Soulier, St. Philip’s

Tri-colour dinner Dear editor, The other day I was making Sunday dinner. As I placed the food on the plates and served it up I thought of The Independent and/or the flag.

The dish consisted of a poached salmon fillet, cream of O’Brien potatoes and green peas. I thought and said to everyone at the dinner table, “This looks like The Independent flag,” “This should be the official din-

ner of the Independent Republic of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Anyway, this dish has no doubt been served up by Newfoundlanders for hundreds of years and someone has probably mentioned to you before, but just in case, I thought I should send it along.

Bob O’Leary, St. John’s

Panel paralysis Editor’s note: the following letter was written to Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout and Human Resources Minister Paul Shelley, with a copy forwarded to The Independent.

Dear ministers, On behalf of member companies I am requesting your intervention to deal with a violation of the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act by the Fish Price Setting Panel.

This violation is having a negative financial impact on processors. On Aug. 28, the panel convened a hearing to set the price for mackerel for the 2006 season. One week has elapsed since the panel heard submissions from the FFAW and Association of Seafood Producers regarding price.

Still, no decision has been made by the panel.

I understand the panel called the parties to a meeting on Aug. 31 to clarify their positions. The positions of the parties are clear as outlined in their respective positions to the panel at the hearing. The act is also clear: “The panel shall notify the parties of its decision not later than 3 days before the normally scheduled opening date of the fishery concerned.”

‘Disrespect for this province’ The mackerel season has been underway for approximately two weeks.

The act is equally clear on the issue of final offer selection. The fact that the parties are not close on price does not give the panel the right to delay the decision and to attempt to have the parties change their positions.

Such actions by the panel serve to undermine the final offer selection process. The role and procedures of the panel need to be formalized so that the panel understands and follows the established procedures. On a number of occasions this year the panel has not performed its functions as intended by the legislation.

The panel is perceived to be communicating a message that it does not understand the final offer selection process or is attempting to create a process that is not within the scope of the legislation created by government.

The panel needs to be advised clearly of its role.

Your input in this matter is greatly appreciated.

George Joyce, Executive director, Seafood Processors of Newfoundland and Labrador

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 Independent News Ltd. 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 EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Cleary MANAGING EDITOR Stephanie Porter PICTURE EDITOR Paul Daly PRODUCTION MANAGER John Andrews

sales@theindependent.ca • production@theindependent.ca • circulation@theindependent.ca 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. • © 2006 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

Editor’s note: Judge Bruce Short made the following remarks in Gander provincial court on Sept. 6 in the case of Archibald Collins, 75, of Hare Bay. Collins pleaded guilty to catching cod during 2005’s illegal food fishery.

I

’m going to make a couple of comments which I think in all fairness someone should make, and I guess I haven’t been a position where I suppose I can make them. It does strike me a little bit odd at times, and I’m perhaps not familiar enough with the fishery to comment in any great extent, but it does seem to me to some degree that this particular province, for whatever reason at times, seems to bear the brunt of regulations which might properly be placed in other areas.

Everyone knows that our fishery, you know, essentially got destroyed. There is some debate as to why it got destroyed but from my perspective I’m going to basically offer these comments. First and foremost, it’s no secret that foreign vessels are just absolutely raping the stocks just outside of our limit and one has to question why that’s been allowed to continue for years and years.

One would think logically enough that if the country felt that the resource had any value whatsoever, that the country would be significantly more diligent in protecting that resource.

One could only reasonably conclude, it seems to me, that the trade off is that the country is getting something else that it considers more valuable and I think that’s sad. From my point of view it shows disrespect for this province and that’s abundantly clear.

Our fish is getting traded off for other things that presumably benefit other provinces and cause this province to suffer and never, ever should happen.

The second comment I’ll make and I’m sure there are different views on this but it seems to me that if you have a resource such as fish — and I won’t make any differentiation between fish and trees and anything else — that if they develop equipment that can basically take all of the fish out of the ocean in a very short period of time and you don’t do anything to prohibit that from

happening, it seems to be reasonable enough for anyone to conclude that after a while you’re not going to have any fish.

I have always been of the view — and that does not seem to be a view that was held by the regulators — that it’s a whole lot better for a significant number of people to make a decent living off a resource than a small number of people to make a fortune. That, unfortunately, is something that we just don’t seem to get here and that to me is a significant reason why we don’t have any fish.

If you look at Iceland their fishery has been fine, it’s been fine all along and people are still making a good living off that. I recognize the state of the law at the time that Mr. Collins committed this offence and obviously, Mr. Collins, you breached the law and I mean that’s the bottom line and I don’t begrudge the fisheries officers for one minute fom enforcing the law.

But what it seems to me — and I do have to say that from the court’s standpoint it’s extremely aggravating and extremely frustrating — that it seems to me that people who have no knowledge whatsoever of the fishery, have no history or connection with the fishery whatsoever and who are so far removed

from the immediacy of the fishery, are the individuals who get to make the rules governing the fishery.

I don’t have any hesitation in saying that from my point of view it’s idiotic, it’s not the way that it should be done and until we are able to gain much more control in the decision-making process of our own resource, then it seems to me that our resource is not going to be properly protected. Having said that, the precedent that has been pointed out to me where the lowest fine imposed was one of $200 and that’s the one that I’m going with and I can tell you that if a precedent was pointed out to me where there was a lower fine than that imposed, then I would impose a lower fine.

Not that I condone, by any stretch of the imagination, a violation of the law, but it does seem to me that people in this province have been put in a position quite unfairly by the regulators of this resource, for the most part, in my view at least, either don’t know how to properly regulate the resource or quite frankly don’t really care to properly regulate the resource. That to me is the bottom line.

Collins was fined $200 and given six months to pay it.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

‘Friendly fire’ and other infuriating phrases

W

ords are so important. I continue to stare in disbelief at the headlines and the talking heads that perpetuate nonsense and doublespeak surrounding our soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan. There are so many aspects of this epic tragedy that I think are being misrepresented, I hardly know where to begin Maybe I should begin with the continuous use of the infuriating term “friendly fire.” It was again invoked this weekend to explain the pointless and incompetent killing of a Canadian soldier — not to mention the wounding and maiming of many others — by American pilots. This phrase, which seems to have been stripped of any grim irony it once had, should be stricken from the word processor of anyone referring to this mess called Afghanistan.

The correct phrase is “killed by lethal f*****g stupidity and callous indifference.” That is the headline. But that is not what we are served. Instead we are given headlines like the one in last week’s Globe and Mail: “Bloodied but unbowed.” It referred to Canadian troops fighting Taliban insurgents. The

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason news included the tidbit that, yes, we lost young people, but we killed a lot of the enemy. Are they kidding? We are keeping score? What is this, some sort of gruesome game? It is as if the headline writers at the big media outlets were reliving some weird World War Two fantasy.

Words are important. It is fashionable for supporters of this “war” to label critics of the Afghan operations with such terms as “weak-kneed.” I never know what that means. Are you braver if you jump on the Bush administration’s bandwagon?

The other trick is to infer that we are somehow unpatriotic. For instance, politicians lecture us that we must support our troops. Of course we support our troops. It is because we do that we question the people who send them off to do what they are doing. They don’t choose

YOUR VOICE More to Danny than fight Dear editor, The latest party-leader poll in Newfoundland and Labrador has shown that Danny Williams has once again risen in popularity among voters. This, while exceptional, is not surprising to me.

I keep as close an eye as I can on our premier, and almost every article I read that tries to explain his popularity says the same thing. It would appear that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador like our premier because he takes a hard stance against the federal government and big oil.

Fair enough — that’s probably a strong factor in our approval. But do these reporters really think that almost 80 per cent of the population want him as premier simply because he’s a fighter? Surely they can give us more credit than that.

The reason I support our premier lies in the (not-so-minute) details. I think the citizens of our province would agree that the current government has a clear vision for the province, and is making stupendous progress in achieving it.

Aside from things like an ambitious energy plan (to be released in November), a red-tape reduction strategy (which has already received kudos from business groups), and major investment into transportation infrastructure, this government shows

concern for the people of the province. And while the recent funding announcement for arts and culture is close to my heart, what I feel is the most intelligent and forward-thinking venture by this government is its poverty reduction strategy.

The premier has committed to reducing the poverty rate in Newfoundland and Labrador from the highest in the country to the lowest.

Government is paying most school fees for students this year, saving potentially hundreds of dollars for some families; access to prescription drugs are being improved for families with low incomes; incentives will be given for people to stay in school by offering rental rebates to home-owners; and healthy lifestyles are being supported and promoted in schools and at the workplace.

Imagine a province where almost everybody is self-reliant. Reducing poverty, especially childhood poverty, is in my opinion one of the most effective long-term elements of prosperity. Yes, our premier is a fighter, and that is an important trait for a leader of this province. But I believe the majority of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who support Danny Williams see beyond this and appreciate his pursuit of long-term objectives while managing the issues of today.

Dave Lane, St. John’s

Blanket coverage Cover your garbage, The Council insists.

You could pay a fine, If you try to resist.

With nets and with blankets, Our garbage we cover, While the cats and the gulls, Sad faced do hover.

But the nets and the blankets, A problem are makin’.

While the blankets are left, The nets, they are taken.

The solution is simple, As simple as pie.

When the garbage is out, Right on it, we lie.

No blankets, no nets, Just bodies galore, Draped over the garbage, Protected for sure.

But if we doze off, As blankets we pay, We could be lugged off, To Robin Hood Bay. The problem is solved, From out by the lawn.

The Council is happy, With our garbage we’re gone.

Kevin Lewis, St. John’s

A proper sign Green, white and pink, from mast, a better link to storied past; a proper sign of once-proud state than golden shaft, whose symbols grate.

Shafted, once too often, plus, this phallus doesn’t cut with us; though Fleming’s flag was not endorsed, the other one was near fed-forced.

Unfurled, unfettered, flying proud, its bold intent is said aloud; waving dependence from its mast when time is ripe, its die is cast.

Dominion over all it flies, from sea and cape to ruddy skies; our own tri-color speaks its mind, and doesn’t piss against the wind.

Bob LeMessurier, Goulds

the battles — they just fight them.

Are they doing the best they can? Of course they are. Should they be doing what they are doing? That is a very different question. I don’t think they should.

A sad milestone passed last month.

The death of a Canadian soldier was not given the same treatment it would have earlier in the campaign. The media is beginning to spend fewer words on the death of “just” one soldier. That minimizes the deaths of our troops in Afghanistan. The story was soon buried in other, more “important” stories. We must not let this happen.

An excerpt from a department of National Defence backgrounder on the Canadian army’s operations in Afghanistan says we are there at the request of the Afghan government. We are there at the request of the Bush administration. It is an embarrassment and disrespectful to the young men and women fighting there to suggest otherwise.

Here is what the minister of National Defence said in a press release about the killing of a Canadian soldier by

American fighter pilots. “Private Mark Anthony Graham … died while fighting in an ongoing offensive operation in Afghanistan.”

Not a word about the way he died — or who killed him. Is this respectful? It looks to me that our government is afraid of upsetting the Americans. It sounds like they don’t want to make an issue of this. Why not?

If I object to our troops in Afghanistan, I get insults. Someone called me “Jack Layton” the other day. It’s the “kit and kaboodle” implication — if I agree with Layton on removing the troops, then I must agree with him on everything else.

I cannot stand Layton, but I applaud his courage on speaking out on this.

I wish more people would speak out against our troops fighting in Afghanistan. In Newfoundland and Labrador, we have for generations passively allowed “others” to determine our fate.

The federal government traded our fishery away for favours from the European markets. They decided our offshore oil was theirs. Our resources — forests, minerals, people — are given to

multinational corporations. They look the other way on the Churchill Falls contract, as it humours Quebec. They gripe about the “drain” we are on the Canadian economy.

Now they are prepared to sacrifice our young people — raised on Nintendo, MacDonald’s and Great Big Sea — to curry favour with the Bush administration. Why are we so “understanding” of the “friendly fire” incident? These things, tragic as they are, happen, says the Canadian Chief Military Adviser to NATO, Gen. Ray Henault. We know.

Americans have accidentally killed Canadian troops before.

How many more young men and women, some of them from this province, are going to die in Afghanistan? It is now safe to question decisions made by past governments regarding the wisdom of our troops fighting in World War I, Korea or Vietnam long after the soldiers have died.

Why can’t we question them before they die?

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca.

ANGEL INVESTMENT

Board of Trade president Ray Dillon and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn jointly announce a new investment capital training and development project Sept. 8 at the Fairmont Newfoundland.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Seal suggestions Dear editor, The problem with the seal hunt, as I see it, is the first-come, first-serve quota system. Quotas need to be allocated per sealer or boat. The entire seal also needs to be landed so rotting carcasses aren’t left to starve the ocean of oxygen.

By mandating that the entire seal be landed the unsightly blood, guts, and carcass will all be handled onboard the boats and remove the propaganda photo ops from the pro-vegetarian animal rights’ activists.

Sealers won’t be able to high-grade by throwing back female seals in a bid to get only male seals for their valuable penises. By mandating the entire carcass be landed inspectors can check all seals to ensure they were dispatched humanely.

By eliminating the first-come, firstserve quotas there will be no need for sealers to run around killing as many seals as possible as fast as possible before the quotas are filled and the hunt closed.

By mandating the entire carcass be landed we could develop a food industry for our mink farms, aquaculture and

pet food industry. By mandating that all of the seal be landed the seal would be pelted onboard the boat and hence the chances of a seal being pelted alive would be eliminated.

Also the rule that doesn’t allow shotguns to be used should be eliminated

since we no longer use lead shot, which was the problem with shotguns for hunting.

Waste not, want not!

Greg Byrne, Sackville, N.B.

That time of year again Dear editor, It is that time of year again when the Trinity Conception Fall Fair is just around the corner.

I would like to inform your readers that the Miss Newfoundland and Labrador pageant is in its 48th year.

There will be two days of activities,

appearances, fun and friendship. Any girl who is 18-24 years of age is encouraged to enter before the Sept. 15 deadline.

It is a wonderful opportunity for girls to meet other youth from around the province as well as improve their communication skills, build self-

esteem and have a chance to win many wonderful prizes.

For an application form call 5963631 or visit us online at www.hrgrace.ca.

Suzanne Williams, Suzanne Chafe Co-ordinators

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

IN CAMERA

Belly dance

According to instructor Sonya King, belly dancing is fast growing in popularity in St. John’s, with more than one troupe recruiting, teaching and performing. Her style of choice is an Egyptian dance, with all the colours, sparkles and spangles that go along with it. Independent photo editor Paul Daly and managing editor Stephanie Porter met up with King and some of her dancers — a group of enthusiastic, smiling and poised women.

T

he first thing everyone remarks on as they walk through the door of Sonya King’s home is her belly.

There it is — beneath a brightly sequined halter top dripping loops of gold beads, above the satiny skirt and jangly, dangly scarf cinched around her waist — the lovely and round stomach of a woman five-and-a-half months pregnant.

King grins, and glows. As a belly-dance instructor, she’s used to having people scrutinize her body parts, but this is even better.

“I can’t lean back too far in the couch,” she says, pushing back long blond hair and laughing. “Or

I’ll never get up again.”

That said, King intends to keep on belly dancing for a couple of months yet. She may have to ease up on some of the moves and intensity, but her favourite pastime should keep her strong and flexible through her final months.

Some members of King’s bellydancing troupe have volunteered to gather, in full costume, for a demonstration and photo shoot.

Her students range in age from teens to 50-something; a group of diverse women who have come together for fun, fitness, or fascination with Middle Eastern culture and the mysterious, graceful dance.

King, a St. John’s native, started

belly dancing 15 years ago in British Columbia, where she lived at the time. “It’s really big out there,” she says. “There are dancers in restaurants, they have full fairs around the Middle East — the food, the music, the dance …

“I saw the Hollywood stereotypes on TV, always loved the belly dance, it’s such a beautiful thing. I’d done the study on it as far as history of it and where the dance stemmed from, so I had a background education.”

King studied an Egyptian style of dance. When she moved back to St. John’s, she kept practicing, on her own, and eventually connected

“I’m not going back to the gym because I find it so boring” Monica Walsh with the small belly-dancing community in the province — one woman teaches a style with roots in Iraq, and the Neighbourhood Strays (still dancing today), which King describes as “gypsy-style” dancers.

“I was with them for two years, but then I went back towards the cabaret and the Egyptian style I loved,” she says. “I decided I wanted to teach what I knew.”

All the many variations of belly dancing have the same core moves, King says, but each carries specific flourishes. And while the gypsystyle dancers tend to wear black, King embraces vibrant colours, sequins and sparkles.

Monica Walsh, a student of King’s for just a few months, laughs. She points to her partly handmade outfit — the bra she picked up for $12 and turned into a gorgeous top by dying it a brilliant violet and painstakingly adding

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

sequins and details.

The other women have similar stories, wearing outfits that are part homemade, part purchased locally or on-line.

“It was so fun to pick out our materials and watch videos so we could think about what other girls were wearing,” says Sarah Cahill, a dancer for just over a year. “To look at all the styles and things.”

Gathering to make the costumes, it seems, was almost as much fun as the dancing — but not quite.

“I’m not going back to the gym because I find it so boring,” Walsh says. “This is something I look forward to. It’s fun and I sweat …

“It’s great because it’s for all

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

ages, all body types, it’s just open to all.”

And it’s not too hard to learn the basics, says King. Her students, after just a couple months of training, performed at Summerdance in Pippy Park in late July.

“In two months, most of those girls went from never belly dancing to doing a performance,” she says. “Practice is not like work, it’s a lot of fun … you’re there, dancing with all the girls and time goes so fast.

“You use your body completely differently than you would with other types of dancing because belly dancing is all about isolating … when people look at a belly dancer, she’s moving all over the

place, but they don’t realize how controlled it is.

“You start off, you’re learning to do something with your chest and keep everything else still … you have to learn to isolate one part of your body from the other, control it, and layer that together.”

The students pile appreciation on their teacher — who formerly taught roller-skating and figure skating, her first loves.

“She’s so patient,” says Cahill, as the others nod. “And very encouraging.”

The troupe, as it currently stands, includes three sisters, a mother and daughter, girlfriends and others. There’s an easy camaraderie between the women, and

lots of chatter.

Those who came for the photo shoot head to the Colonial Building. Before any pictures can be taken, a handful of teenage skateboarders must be shooed off the steps — probably a first for them — and then, it’s time to dance.

The ladies shimmy and twirl, arms and hips floating and graceful. The coins on their sashes jingle across the park as passersby pause and admire.

Although there are no men currently in King’s group, belly dancing is open to both sexes — though it is slightly different for both, men and women being better suited to different moves, she

says. She’s had some enquires from fellows, though none have shown up yet.

Steven Butt, husband of dancer Goldie, stands back from the Colonial Building to watch. He mentions the dancing is a great way to build strength and all-over fitness. He laughs, adding people don’t always know what to think when he says his wife’s a belly dancer.

“I guess they think she’s part of a harem,” he says. “But it’s not quite like that.”

Sonya King has new classes starting on Sept. 21. For more information, call 579-7066.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

Taking a bite from the Big Apple Writer Susan Rendell thinks St. John’s should follow New York’s example when it comes to animal welfare advertising and fund-raising. “For example, New Yorkers love to go to the parks,” Kwan said. “So a lot of events are held outdoors, even adoptions.” (Imagination is free, and effective.)

New York city is only one example of the growing trend away from killing. California is seeking to go entirely no-kill by 2010. The following is an excerpt from that state’s Hayden Law, enacted in 1998:

SUSAN RENDELL Screed and coke For Maggie Rendell-Dobbin (1989-2006)

M

y sister’s cat Maggie died last week. She went out on a fat full moon, 17 years after my eight-year-old daughter found her near a strip mall, a small silhouette on a snow bank, struggling against a wind that was trying to bury her.

My daughter, Jessica Rendell, is the founder and president of Heavenly Creatures, the local no-kill animal shelter Mayor Wells recently accused of dumping its charges at the city’s animal facility. But this isn’t about Heavenly Creatures, except peripherally, or my daughter’s love of animals, which didn’t begin with the saving of Maggie anyway.

The first memory I have of Jessica’s passion for all that walks or crawls upon the earth, or flies in the firmament, is the whinny she emitted at six months. She was too young to talk; it turned out to be her way of saying “I want to go see the horses.”

I worked in a riding stable until I was four months pregnant, so perhaps Jessica’s devotion to animals began in utero. (Although the first time she met a horse, she brought her kumquatsized fist squarely down between his ears for trying to divest her of her diaper with his teeth.)

In the middle of all the brouhaha over the mayor’s comments about Heavenly Creatures, a local newspaper ran an article on the city’s Humane Services Division. Entitled The Cat Whisperer, it profiled one of the animal technician/receptionists who care for lost and abandoned animals at what is generally referred to as the pound.

The point of the front-page story was the city’s shelter workers are kind

Paul Daly/The Independent

and competent animal lovers. I’m sure this is the case, just as it is with the staff and volunteers of every other animal shelter/rescue group in the province — and veterinary workers.

There is, however, a fly in this Florence Nightingale scenario. The employees at Humane Services are akin to palliative care nurses. Over half of the animals they name, cuddle and dish out Whiskas and Pal to will be dead within days; at best, weeks.

For the record, I sympathize with Humane Services. As the city’s animal control division, they can’t limit the number of animals they take in. And under current operating policies, they have no choice but to kill so many of them (over 2,000 animals died last year, between the city and the St. John’s S.P.C.A.).

The reason healthy and therefore adoptable puppies, kittens, cats and dogs are being killed by Humane Services and the St. John’s S.P.C.A. is a lack of commitment to no-kill policies increasingly being adopted by animal shelters globally. The solution is the adoption of such policies, and proactive liaising on the part of all animal welfare groups in the city — ultimately the province.

A simple solution, but not necessarily an easy one.

My research into no-kill kept turning up the same caveat, city by city, province by province, state by state.

Which is that without the willing and concentrated cooperation of everyone involved in animal welfare — public and private organizations, veterinarians, individuals — it’s not going to

happen.

Human nature being what it is, turf wars between “rival” animal groups are not uncommon. Egos become more important than lives.

Mayor Wells is a case in point. Two weeks ago, he made certain allegations that flew in the face of the facts. The mayor is adamant in his refusal to retract or apologize — that foot is staying between his teeth. Too bad he doesn’t use his energy to make like Mayor Bloomberg of New York City.

A leisurely, lengthy phone call with Patrick Kwan, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, Inc., resulted in a wealth of information on how the Big Apple addresses the problem of homeless animals.

Several years ago, New York decided to place itself firmly on the side of no-kill. “Mayor Bloomberg is interested in doing things another way,” said Kwan. “A more humane way.” The result is the Mayor’s Alliance, an umbrella organization of all animal groups, public and private, within the city limits. That’s a lot of turf, a lot of organizations — 130, to be exact.

The Alliance wages an all-out campaign to place abandoned animals, and to prevent unwanted animals from being born. (For example, if you’re on social assistance, you can go to one of the veterinary clinics affiliated with the fund, produce your Medicaid card, and have your pet spayed or neutered for $10–$20.)

Shelters take in one another’s animals when there are space problems; they share records and get together to host events. Kwan said the Alliance has had a lot of success with foster care. And there’s even an animal version of 911.

My first reaction was, well, New York is bigger and richer than St. John’s. Yes it is. Much, much bigger, and therefore mind-bogglingly more complex to administrate. Richer by far — yet Kwan said no-kill is actually saving the city money by cutting down on vet bills and the cost of euthanasia.

He also kept bringing the conversation back to ethics. “It’s more humane,” he repeated. “Even people who don’t particularly care about animals get involved with the Alliance for that reason.”

The money for Alliance programs such as subsidized spaying and neutering comes from vigorous promotion,

(1) Redemption of owned pets and adoption of lost or stray adoptable animals is preferable to incurring social and economic costs of euthanasia.

(2) Shelters should be open during hours that permit working pet owners to redeem pets during nonworking hours.

(3) Shelters should aggressively promote spay and neuter programs to reduce pet overpopulation.

(4) Shelters should not adopt out animals that are not spayed or neutered.

(5) Public shelters should work with humane animal adoption organizations to the fullest extent possible to promote the adoption of animals and to reduce the rate of killing.

The City of St. John’s pays 11 employees $18.75 an hour to catch and collect strays, and provide basic maintenance for the animals in its care. I think we deserve a better bang for our buck. Humane Services workers are quite capable of expanding their activities to include those required for operating a no-kill facility.

I believe they’d be more than happy to embrace a regime that would rid them of the psychological stress of Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those are the days on which employees of the Sunrise Animal Hospital show up to lethally inject anywhere from two or three to 30 or more of the animals city shelter workers have so lovingly cared for. Many of them healthy animals, who can smell death a mile away. The sight of their corpses being bundled into plastic bags and boxes and blankets for a trip to the crematorium can’t be good for morale.

Humane Services employees are Nightingales, after all, not Nazis. They know — we all know — it’s morally wrong for a puppy that should be playing in the grass to end up as grass fertilizer when there are options.

When we put Jane’s cat Maggie into her pillowcase shroud, my sister said it was like picking up a shadow. And so it was; she was as light in death as the nine-week-old kitten my daughter brought in out of the snow so many years ago; the great Wheel had come full circle. Maggie fell asleep and never woke up, in the comfort of her bed and the comfort of my sister’s love. Every animal deserves a chance at such a death — and the long, happy life that went before it.

The slogan of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals is “Adopt a Little New Yorker Today!” C’mon, Andy.

Start the ball rolling. Spit out the shoe leather and say it — “Adopt a Little Townie Today!”

And then back it up with all your considerable might.

Susan Rendell is a freelance writer and editor living in downtown St. John’s. Her collection of short stories, In the Chambers of the Sea, was published by Killick Press in 2003. srendell@nf.sympatico.ca

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

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Shawn Stratton in Kenya (above); the Maasai people of Kenya (below).

Home is where his mailbox is Newfoundland-born adventurer Shawn Stratton spends much of his working life out of touch — but that’s not a bad thing

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

I

n starting a small business, St. John’s native Shawn Stratton has encountered a few more hurdles than your average budding entrepreneur.

“A lot of people start a small business, keep their day jobs for a while and work on their own thing on weekends and evenings,” Stratton says from his home in Vancouver, B.C.. “But that’s kind of hard when your day job is being on expedition and being out of touch.

“People think when I travel, ‘Oh great you’ll be checking e-mail …’ But no, I won’t be. You’ll hear from me in a month or so … people don’t like that when you’re sending them business proposals.”

Stratton’s “day job” — a senior instructor of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) — has brought him to some of the most remote backcountry and wilderness areas in the world, sometimes for months at a time.

And when he’s not working? He’s usually on, or planning, an expedition of his own, whether it be scaling Mount Logan, on safari in Kenya, or exploring Guatemala.

Through his fledgling business, Live More Adventures (www.livemoreadventures.com), Stratton has already worked as a consultant with school and other groups and taught wilderness firstaid courses.

“I’m slowly building as I go, paying the bills and doing everything else it takes to build a small business,” he says. “The idea and the thought have been going for about 10 years and last year was time for me to take the plunge.”

Now, fresh back from leading a 28-day wilderness course in Alaska, he’s doing his familiar scramble to catch up with the rest of life and business.

(About that trip in Alaska: he says it rained 25 of the 28 days. “It’s a harsh environment and if people are coming on these courses to learn about leadership and tolerance for adversity and camping … it’s one of the best locations because if you can camp there and do it well, you can do it anywhere.”)

Stratton laughs as he says he’s “from a family of accountants.” He’s a middle child and grew up an enthusiastic member of the Boy Scouts in St. John’s — the organization provided his only opportunity to go camping.

He was also heavily involved in water polo and triathlon, the latter sport the reason he enrolled at Dalhousie University (Halifax was nearer more competitions than St. John’s).

While working on a degree in recreation management, Stratton took a course in experiential education, which immediately changed his career path.

“That focused me,” he says. “It set off the light bulb, blew me away, and that’s where I found out about Outward Bound and NOLS and I kind of committed then to one day working for them.”

While in university, he worked with the North Carolina Outward Bound organization, and spent a couple of summers at a camp in Alberta, leading trips into the Rockies. After graduation, he did a month-long instructors’ course at NOLS and was lucky enough to secure regular work with the popular school.

Since then, he’s been working on contracts for the school, and his own freelance outdoor education work.

He’s been based in Vancouver for the last seven years — at least that’s where his mailbox was.

“Vancouver is kind of in the middle between Mexico and Alaska, where I spend a lot of my time,” he says. “I kept a mailbox here because I had

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too much mail being lost … after a few months away, I’d come here for a couple of weeks and do all my life’s business, go to the bank, the doctor, renew my insurance …

“I went through eight-and-a-half years without living in one place more than three months — which was living my dream, it was awesome, I loved it.”

He’s got a fixed address in the city now, has had it more than a year, and admits, “It’s nice now to have a closet to come home to.”

In starting Live More Adventures, Stratton says his goal isn’t to do more trips. “I feel like I’ve done that,” he says. “I love it and I’ll always do it, but I’m starting a company and I’m looking to settle a little more, have a little more control over things …”

That said, he is currently the only employee of the company — though he will contract work out to guides he trusts. He’s already developing a trip with a school in Chicago to bring a group of environmental studies students to Newfoundland.

He’s also promoting his first major international tour, a trip to Kenya (there are 11- and 18-day options) next February. It’s a wilderness adventure, with only a handful on nights scheduled for hotels.

Key attractions include three safari trips, a rare cultural experience — four days living among the Maasai, a traditional culture — and the opportunity to sail a traditional dhow boat to a remote island in the Indian Ocean. “That’s an incredible place,” he says, “there’s snorkeling on a coral reef, body surfing off the coast, camping and eating unlimited mangoes and pineapples.”

Stratton spent six weeks in Kenya earlier this year to scout all the events and meet with Kenyan guides.

“Experiences like that blow your mind,” he says of the entire experience.

While there are many more world adventures ahead for Stratton — he says he’d like to spend time in China and Tibet, and is planning a sea-kayaking trip along the coast of Labrador — he’s trying to stay focused on his business.

“I’m excited,” he says. “Excited to offer opportunities to staff and others to see some of the things I’ve seen all over the world.”

Shawn Stratton will present a slideshow on Kenya Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m. at The Outfitters on Water Street.

Space is limited and can be reserved at 579-HIKE.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2006 — PAGE 13

Just 21, Joy Norman has released two albums, attracted fans around the world, and had the rare experience of playing a show in the Pen.

By Devon Wells For the Independent

I

t may not be Her Majesty’s Penitentiary, but Joy Norman still had a great time playing O’Reilly’s for the release of her sophomore album Field of Diamonds late last month.

While the pub is a more popular spot for live music, Norman insists the prison show was one of her best ever.

“They were singing along and singing out stuff they wanted to hear and clapping,” she says. “They loved it.

It actually was really nice because it was different and you know they really appreciated it.”

The 21-year-old singer performed at the Pen almost three years ago, when Leo Puddister was arrested during the NAPE strike. Her love of the venue makes sense, since her new album gets its title from a lesser-known song by Johnny Cash, who lobbied heavily for prisoners’ rights.

Still, Norman is no half-done June Carter ripoff; she’s a busy musician with big plans for the future, trying to squeeze in shows between school, work, and keeping sane.

“It was crazy recording the last record,” she says while stroking her dog, Milo, in her St. John’s apartment.

“It was in the winter, so it was getting close to exam time. (I was) just leaving class at 5 or 6 p.m. and going straight to the studio and staying there all night ’til 11 or 12 or 1 a.m. or whenever we’d finish, (then) going home and studying all night and going to class the next day.

“I’m sure if you listen really close you can hear us burning the midnight oil.”

Although it was demanding, Norman struggled through with the help of her friend — and producer — Larry Foley, frontman for the Punters and the 8Track Favourites.

“There were lots of nights I sat in a chair at the studio and studied for

Joy Norman

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘This is who I am’ exams while the boys were re-listening to the tracks,” she says. “They make fun of me for it, actually.”

They should make fun — with her songs Cape Shore Lady and Field of Diamonds gaining regular airplay on the radio, she may not need that sociology degree to leave her mark. Still, Norman wants a backup plan, just in case, and she knew she’d never go to

university if she took time off after high school.

Although a full course load eats up her schedule these days, she hasn’t stopped performing since she was 13, when she was discovered by a record producer from Michigan while he was birdwatching in her hometown of St. Bride’s.

It took her three years to get inside a

studio, but her debut record, Lately, was enough of a hit to prompt Ron Hynes and P.E.I. singer Nathan Wiley to offer their tunes for the follow-up.

It’s been five years since Lately, and she’s obviously finding her stride — and her own sound.

While Norman has a couple of originals on Field of Diamonds, the album is chiefly made up of covers new and old

— each with her own spin. Even the title track doesn’t have the slow rocksteady rhythm of the Man in Black’s version, but instead has drums, fiddle, and a faster tempo, giving a modern country feel that continues throughout the album.

“It’s just kind of fun to take a song See “Everyone gets to know,” page 14

Vet camp Summer camp in PEI gives two local junior high students a glimpse of animal medicine

M

ark Foley, 29 is in his third year of the doctor of veterinary medicine program at the Atlantic Veterinary College. But this summer he watched over more than animal — as coordinator of the college’s summer vet camp, he introduced junior high students from all over the world to the world of animal

medical care.

“One of the best things about a camp like this is that the kids get exposed to what it’s really like (to be a vet),” Foley says. “The teens are then in a better position to “decide if it’s something they really want to do and work hard at.”

This program at the University of

PEI — the only one of its kind in Canada — is open to youth who will be entering Grades 7, 8 or 9.

Participants observe surgeries, learn to perform first aid on a family pet and learn how to give stitches.

They’re exposed to the realities of practicing medicine on mammals, reptiles, birds and fish.

Over 150 junior high students attend the vet camp, which started in 1999, each summer.

This year’s theme, selected by Foley, was A doctor of all trades. The programming focused on showing campers being a vet is more than caring for house cats and poodles.

“Most have a narrow view of what

being a vet is,” Foley says. “By exposing these kids to a wide variety of activities you expand their knowledge with exciting activities involving exotic animals like reptiles and exposing them to challenging lab activities.”

See “More than just,” page 16

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

14 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE LINDA YATES & DAVID HAYASHIDA

O

n the far wall of Linda Yates and David Hayashida’s exhibition, Saucy Boats and Knotty Baskets, hangs a striking photo of a person, spraying something — seawater and soda ash, it turns out — at a fiery oven.

The photo is orangey red, colours that would pop into mind as Hayashida says the oven is heated to a temperature of 2300 F. It’s a snapshot of a process the artists have been experimenting with over the past few years. They decorate their unfinished pottery with local clays, minerals, ash and sea glass, glazing, painting or sprinkling as they like. The pieces are placed in the propane-fueled kiln, and the flames — and seawater — do the rest.

The resulting ceramics shine, with details and textures the artists could only guess at.

Each time they open the cooled kiln “is kind of like Christmas morning,” says Hayashida, with all the nervousness and excitement of the unknown.

Yates and Hayasida, owners of King’s Point Pottery in King’s Point, on the Baie Verte peninsula, have made a name for themselves over the past decade in craft circles.

Their production pottery — blue-and-white plates, bowls and dishes with whales and other icons — are familiar to anyone who frequents craft shops and are steady sellers year-round.

But the 116 pieces in the current exhibition are oneof-a-kind pieces of art.

They’re functional sauce boats, pots and baskets, finished with driftwood and other found objects — but elevated by the artists’ commitment to local materials and the magical things that happen in the salt water and soda kiln.

“We do certain things to the piece before it goes into the oven, but the oven does almost half the things too,” says Hayashida. “Depending on how the flame moves through the oven or how these things move around and the colours you get.”

Yates and Hayashida seem to complement each other perfectly, in life and art. Yates, born in King’s Point, met Hayashida, from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., while both were studying on the mainland.

Curious about Newfoundland — in particular, Gros Morne — Hayashida came to visit Yates. Two weeks later, the one-time interior designer moved to the province. That was 14 years ago.

“I was obviously taken by Linda, and by the beautiful area,” says Hayashida. “Living by the water by the ocean is pretty incredible.”

Whereas Yates throws and trims all the pots, Hayashida does the design, decoration and glazing. At least that’s how it goes when they’re working on the production line. For the artwork, says Yates, it’s much more collaborative.

“With my background and David’s background it’s a great collaboration,” she says. “We think differently, but it works … David thinks on paper, I have to go to the wheel and actually do it. We don’t have any lack of ideas, it’s the time to do them all …

Hayashida agrees. “We’re just experimenting with different minerals. It’s really fun, but it’s time-consuming. The labour is the big thing … we’re only restricted by the hours in the day.”

Saucy Boats and Knotty Baskets is on display in the Craft Council Gallery, Devon House, until Oct. 6.

— 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

‘Everyone gets to know who you are pretty quickly’ From page 13 and do something different with it and recreate it,” she says. “It gets boring if you just take a song another artist did and do it the same way. What makes you stand out from that person? Nothing, really.”

The new country sound is a change from the more Irish-inflected Lately, but her fans should only expect a more mature Norman, not a different one. While the pressure to make the jump to pop music is everywhere, she has no desire to crossover.

“I’m really headstrong about doing what I do. This is who I am,” she says. “I’m sure if I tried to do pop or rock music I could do it, but I’d kind of be cheating on myself.”

Besides, she says, the folk scene in St. John’s is as popular as the rock scene, among young and old alike.

“It’s not like it’s difficult to succeed in this industry rather than the pop industry, it’s equally as hard,” she says. “But, you wouldn’t quit a job that you love to do something that you hated.”

And she can continue to do what she loves with the support and opportunities for musicians in

Newfoundland and Labrador.

“No musician in St. John’s should ever be stuck for gigs. You can play anywhere,” she says. “You may not always fill the venue, but people who are there are appreciating what you do and they’re there to hear you and enjoy the music.

“I think it would be really sad to be in a bigger city, being this musician trying to make it, and have nowhere to play, not be able to get yourself out there. But here in St. John’s, it’s a city but it’s a small city, and word travels fast and everyone gets to know who you are pretty quickly.”

Word has spread fast about Norman, who has a following in places as far away as California, Hawaii, and Australia. But, while she hopes to tour regularly, she has no plans to leave the province permanently.

“I’d like to go somewhere different and just take my guitar … somewhere bizarre,” she says. “[But] nowhere else in the world can people go out on a Monday or Tuesday night and have bars full of local talent.”

Joy Norman will perform in Bay Bulls on Sept. 15 as part of the Festival of the Sea. For more information, visit www.joynorman.ca.

A LITTLE OF YOUR TIME IS ALL WE ASK. CONQUERING THE UNIVERSE IS OPTIONAL. Think it requires heroic efforts to be a Big Brother or Big Sister?

Think again. It simply means sharing a few moments with a child. Play catch.

Build a doghouse. Or help take on mutant invaders from the planet Krang.

That’s all it takes to transform a mere mortal like yourself into a super hero who can make a world of difference in a child’s life. For more information...

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Newfoundland 1-877-513KIDS (5437) www.helpingkids.ca

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 15

Paul Giamatti and Edward Norton star in The Illusionist.

End-of-summer cinema treats The Illusionist has its share of magic; Little Miss Sunshine filled with humanity and hilarity TIM CONWAY Film Score The Illusionist Starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti (out of four)

I

n the late 19th century, a pair of teenagers land in emotional territory familiar to Shakespeare’s famous star-crossed lovers, but in their case, social class, not family feuding, threatens to drive a wedge between them.

Our young counterpart to Romeo, the son of a cabinet-maker, is learning his father’s craft while enthusiastically pursuing another that requires manual dexterity: magic or, if you prefer, “sleight of hand.” As talented as he is, however, to secure a future with our equivalent of Juliet, he needs something up his sleeve that’s beyond the capability of the most gifted of conjurers — veins coursing with the right blood.

Their solution is to run away together, but at the appointed time, they are intercepted, and she is held behind.

Flash forward a decade or so, and the year is 1900, and the place is Vienna, where Eisenheim the Illusionist opens his show to ecstatic applause. The enthusiasm prompts Crown Prince Leopold to visit a performance, and when a volunteer is requested from the audience, he offers the participation of his “intended,” Duchess Sophie von Teschen.

She’s not as quick to remember as Eisenheim, who immediately recognizes the woman who was the girl he left behind. In jig time, the flicker of memory bursts into the flame of passion, and they’re both caught up in a predicament vastly more perilous than that of their youth.

Although not without its problems, The Illusionist has a lot going for it, and detractors are sure to be few in number. Right off the mark, it establishes itself as a perfect fit for the big screen experience, thanks to its visual appeal, clever camera work, detailed sets, and convincing period costumes. The story, meanwhile, offers a blend of romance and intrigue that endeavours to engage our minds as well as our emotions, and succeeds to a greater degree than most.

Finally, the performances, although maybe not the best we’ll see come the Oscars, are collectively among the top we’ve seen this year, and arguably set the bar against which future nominees will be measured.

As Eisenheim, Edward Norton presents a confident, disciplined, and self-controlled

individual whose illusions are made more grandiose by his own restrained manner.

Gracious and composed, he doesn’t seem to desire praise for himself as much as for his tricks. Unfortunately, Norton is a little too tightly wound here, and Eisenheim often comes across as more cold and impassionate than is desirable in certain scenes.

Jessica Biel as Sophie isn’t given much to do, but manages to light up the screen, and in the company of her experienced peers, manages to hold her own.

Likewise, Rufus Sewell, as Leopold, is given a rather thin role — and a moustache that seems to be constantly trying to run away — but he embraces his character with zeal, infusing the Crown Prince with as much bile and malice possible without making him comic.

Occasionally flirting with overdoing it, Paul Giamatti as the intriguing and complex Chief Inspector Uhl, turns in a stellar performance that often rises above the role.

Occasionally flirting with overdoing it, Paul Giamatti as the intriguing and complex Chiel Inspector Uhl, turns in a stellar performance that often rises above the role. A character caught between his desires and his better judgment, Uhl is the catalyst that keeps the story moving on almost every level, and Giamatti handles the task skillfully.

Directing his own adaptation of Steven Millhauser’s short story, Neil Burger demonstrates potential, but also the need for a bit more experience. While everything plays out with measurable precision, he’s restricted some of the characters too much in the screenplay, and impeded the emotional heights that would have made this a more powerful film.

Consequently, the pacing feels slower, and the tone is muted.

It’s not perfect, not even great, but The Illusionist is a very good motion picture that gets our attention and maintains it. For the most part, that effort is successful; we’re satisfied, and suitably entertained. A little bit more work, and a touch of experience applied here and there, and it would have been magical.

POET’S CORNER Inventory of Hades (from “The Witch’s Brew”)

by E.J. Pratt 1. Statesmen and apothecaries, Poets, plumbers, antiquaries, Premiers with their secretaries, Home and foreign missionaries, And writers of obituaries.

2. Mediaeval disputants, Mystics in perpetual trance, Philosophers in baggy pants, Puritans to whom the chance Had never come in life to dance Save when the dreadful circumstance Of death removed their maiden aunts.

3. Scribes with wide phylacteries, Publicists and Sadducees, Scholars, saints, and PhDs. 4. Doctors, auctioneers and bakers, Dentists, diplomats and fakirs, Clergymen and undertakers.

5. Rich men, poor men, fools and sots, Logicians, tying Shades in knots, Pagans, Christians, Hottentots, Deacons good and bad in spots, Farmers with their Wyandots.

From Here the Tides Flow, 1962.

Little Miss Sunshine Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell (out of four) According to Richard Hoover (Kinnear), the world is made up of winners and losers, and he’s got a plan that will ensure that anyone who’s the latter, becomes a winner.

This is all theory, of course, but will be proven when his agent sells it to the right people. First there’s a book, then promotional tours, video, and so on. After this weekend, his hard work, and his wife shouldering the financial burden for so long, will bear the fruits of success ... because Richard’s a winner ... waiting for a phone call.

Although he’s got to be ready to mobilize when the time comes, Richard has a more pressing engagement. His daughter, Olive, who inadvertently entered a beauty pageant and came in first runner-up, is bumped up to first place and qualifies for a shot in a contest in Redondo Beach, Calif. She’s been working hard at it, and really wants to go. To get there, Richard’s got to drive from Albuquerque, New Mexico and arrive by 3 p.m. the next day. Olive is only five or six years old, and she’s a winner.

If Richard, his wife Sheryl (Collette), and Olive to go to the pageant, Richard’s father, Olive’s coach, has to go as well. In addition, Sheryl’s brother Frank (Carell), who has just been released into her care following an attempted suicide, would be left at home with her son Dwayne. Since she doesn’t want to put that much responsibility onto Dwayne, they’re going as well.

With tension at the breaking point between Sheryl and Richard over the impending deal, Dwayne’s vow of silence and contempt for everyone around him, and Grandpa’s irrepressible antics, they hit the road in an old VW minibus to drive the 800 miles to the Little Miss Sunshine contest.

On the one hand, we’re glad to not be inside the vehicle with them. Conversely, sensing some sort of impending disaster, our curiosity prevails, and we have to go along.

While this ensemble of characters hardly resembles a slice of real life, the film offers numerous moments of authentic humanity balanced with an equal portion of genuine hilarity.

Simultaneously smart and charming, with solid performances from the entire cast, Little Miss Sunshine provides a perfect blend of comedy and light drama.

For the past number of years, there has been an independent film that comes out of nowhere to become the surprise entry in an otherwise typical summer line-up. This year, it’s Little Miss Sunshine.

Tim Conway operates Capitol Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His column returns Sept. 23.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

16 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Staying in the Loop MARK CALLANAN On the shelf Down to the Dirt

By Joel Thomas Hynes Rattling Books, 2006. MP3 audio CD Becoming Sarah

By Laura Morry Williams LAU Publications, 2006

S

outhern Shore writers Joel Thomas Hynes and Laura Morry Williams delve into Catholicism, substance abuse and the quasi-Irish sensibility that infuses their shared stretch of the island. They have little else in common.

Since its initial publication by Killick Press in 2004, Joel Thomas Hynes’ first novel Down to the Dirt has met with both critical and commercial success. David Adams Richards calls Hynes “the best young voice in years.”

Down to the Dirt was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, has been reprinted by Harper Collins Canada and published for the U.S. market by Carroll & Graf.

Most recently, Rattling Books of Tors Cove produced it as an unabridged MP3 CD audio book.

As many readers will no doubt be aware, Hynes is not only an author, but also an actor of some note. He was awarded the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Actor at the Yorkton Film Festival. He plays Nick Crocker in the CBC comedy series Hatching, Matching and Dispatching and starred as Keith Kavanagh in The Devil You Don’t Know, a stage adaptation of Down to the Dirt. In Rattling Books’ production, Hynes plays Kavanagh

again and is joined by fellow actors Sherry White (as Keith’s girlfriend Natasha) and Jonny Harris (Keith’s friend Andy).

Hynes’ gritty voice is perfectly suited to the role of Keith, a troubled young offender from “the Cove” who ricochets from adolescent angst-ridden episode to episode. As Keith navigates a modern Newfoundland that seems futureless and cold, egged on by various foreign substances, violent impulses and the obsessive love he holds for Natasha, Hynes’ voice ranges from wry amusement to feral snarl. White and Harris are similarly convincing in their respective roles.

“Down to the Dirt should have been an audio book from the get go,” Rattling Books’ promotional material boasts, and while this may sound like so much publisher’s hubris, it isn’t far off the mark. With its fine ear for dialogue and often lyrical descriptions, Hynes’ novel is as enjoyable heard aloud as it is read silently. Perhaps even more so.

TRICKY LINE Hynes has admitted in interviews that Down to the Dirt is a fictionalized version of his own life; Becoming Sarah, Laura Morry Williams’ first novel, is similarly based on the author’s experiences. This is always a tricky line for a reader to walk — wondering what elements are or aren’t fiction in a given novel can lead to frustrating (and largely pointless) scrutiny.

It is an activity best reserved for the study of biographies and memoirs. If a book declares itself to be a work of fiction, then we should be willing to accept and treat it as such.

Still, it’s hard to read a novel like Becoming Sarah, which seems so much of a personal exorcism, without wondering how analogous it is to the

EVENTS SEPTEMBER 10 • Rattling Books launches audiobook Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes, Bianca’s Bar, Water Street, 7-9 p.m.

• Bluegrass and old-time country music jam session, Lions Club, Bay Roberts. Warm-up noon-1:45 p.m., open mic and play along, 2-5 p.m.

• The Laramie Project, by Janus Productions, LSPU Hall, 753-4531.

SEPTEMBER 11 • Miriam K. Martin and the Presentation Sisters launch A New Dreaming, a recording of contemporary spiritual music, 7:30 p.m., The Lantern, 35 Barnes Rd.

author’s life. If Williams’ own experience has been anything like that of Ellen, her protagonist, then I’d say she’s had a hard run of luck. Ellen marries an alcoholic husband whom she tries to leave but inevitably drifts back to each time; she is unable to find permanent employment despite her best efforts to earn better qualifications; her beloved son dies in a car accident.

In a workshop setting (Williams is a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and, her press material states, has undergone critique in that setting) it is possible — and perhaps helpful to budding writers — to applaud effort as well as accomplishment.

In the world of publishing, however, it is necessary to be more ruthless.

Writing certainly has great therapeutic potential but if healing wounds is its only purpose, it is doomed to fail as a public offering. Becoming Sarah may have been necessary and helpful for its author, but for readers it may prove a different experience entirely.

While Hynes is able to involve his audience by universalizing the individual and the personal, Williams only manages to alienate hers. The story of Ellen’s life is interesting only insofar as we perceive it to be a mirror held up to the author’s life. Hynes’ story would be just as good if it had been written by a 90-year-old grandmother, a particularly intelligent cat or a computer program.

Being able to relate an author’s work to their biography can allow for deeper insight into the personal or social context from which that work arose, but in the end, the work must be able to speak for itself. Books succeed or fail on their own merits alone.

Down to the Dirt will be launched on Sept. 10, 7-9 p.m. at Bianca’s Bar on Water Street. Readings by the author and special guests, music by Cherie Pyne. A review of the print version of Down to the Dirt can be found at: www.markcallanan.com/newwaveofnfld.pdf Mark Callanan’s column returns Sept. 23.

SEPTEMBER 13 • Folk night at the Ship Pub with Mike Walsh, Jason Whelan, Billy Sutton • The TV premiere of Andy Jones’ King O’ Fun, Bravo!, 8:30 p.m.

• Plant sale, at the INCO Innovation Centre lobby, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

SEPTEMBER 14 • The St. John’s Storytelling Circle meets, 7:30-9:30 at the Crow’s Nest Officer’s Club.

• MUN Cinema Series presents The Proposition, featuring Richard Wilson, Noah Taylor and Guy Pearce, Studio 12, 7 p.m.

SEPTEMBER 15 • The Grand Old Newfoundland Opry dinner and a show, Majestic Theatre, call 579-3023 for reservations. Continues Sept. 16.

• Festival of the Sea begins, with concerts, lectures and other events. for a schedule, call 576-8106.

SEPTEMBER 16 • The Studio’s annual fall photography flea market, 272 Water St., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

‘More than just a love of animals’ From page 13 Foley introduced the kids to a veterinary acupuncturist, and arranged a lecture on zoonotic diseases — those that can be passed form animals to humans — like rabies and bird flu.

Many veterinarians picked their career in childhood, and Foley is no different. His father bred Irish Setters in the province and he was exposed to animals his entire life.

“You have to have more

“These kids have the advantage of discovering if this is for them early on and they can prepare mentally and academically for this competitive field if they choose.”

Mark Foley

than just a love of animals, it isn’t easy to become a vet,” he says.

“These kids have the advantage of discovering if this is for them early on and they can prepare mentally and academically for this competitive field if they choose to.”

CRITICAL ROLE Veterinary medicine plays an increasingly critical role in public health, research, aquaculture and food safety — yet there are only three veterinary schools in Canada.

The Atlantic Veterinary College, which admitted its first students in 1986, accepts 60 students a year. Of 35 and 40 seats reserved for residents of Atlantic Canada, only two are reserved for Newfoundland students.

The remaining seats go to international students.

The odds didn’t deter two Newfoundlanders from attending the camp, nor from perhaps becoming veterinary doctors down the road.

Two grade 9 students from Frank Roberts Junior High School in Foxtrap, Jessica Butler and Kirsten Rodden-Clarke, both 14, were randomly selected from the many applicants for the camp this summer.

“Most of us there want to be vets when we finish school,” Butler says.

While she says making friends with like-minded peers was one of the attractions of the camp, working with the animals was — without a doubt — the best part.

“It was just incredible what we got to do, and (Foley) made it fun,” she says. “We learned how to restrain rats and rabbits if you need to work on them, we watched two surgeries … the only down is that I can’t go back anymore, I’m too old.”

Rodden-Clarke feels the same.

“The surgeries were interesting, the people were great and if you want to be exposed to what it’s like to be a vet then I would recommend the camp … being around people with the same interests from all over the US and Canada was exciting and you make a lot of friends,” she says.

Foley is proud of the impact the camp has on students, and thrilled to see Newfoundland students travel for the camp.

“You really see their eyes open to the different areas of the practice … when they see the real opportunities in the field it’s really amazing,” he says. “I had to leave (Newfoundland) to study, but there is no better place than home.”

Will Foley return home after graduating in ’08?

“I would like to,” he says, but admits that the opportunities for research and revenue haven’t reached Newfoundland yet. “But then who knows,” he says. “Things can change.”

INDEPENDENTSTYLE

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2006 — PAGE 17

Not your everyday wear Etcetera boasts one-of-a-kind handmade accessories from a host of inspired artists

By Mandy Cook The Independent

Y

ou are a blank canvas, ripe with the possibility of infinite incarnations of personal expression. The Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador invites you to adorn your fabulous self with something woven, hooked, felted, quilted or knit and be transformed into a walking, talking work of art.

Et cetera, an exhibit of wearable art accessories by both local and national craftspeople, is currently on display.

The show continues until Oct. 6.

Housed in the Devon House gallery on Duckworth Street, the exhibition includes a to-die-for shirred, silk organza cape in a purple and black fern print; matching strings of perfectly round, merino wool pompom balls to clasp about your wrist and throat; and a divine, intricately looped scarf of iridescent corals, yellows and greens.

Salivating yet? And that’s just a few of the delicate, but durable, craft-y creations on display and (lucky for us) on sale.

Sharon LeRiche, gallery director at Devon House, says the council wanted to remind people about the countless ways to dress up your everyday wear or spruce up your tired wardrobe without breaking the bank — simply by accessorizing with a few sumptuous pieces.

“We’ve done wearable art exhibits before where we’ve done performance rather than a fashion show, where we’ve used dance and different sorts of things to show the art,” she says.

“We just wanted to encourage people to start thinking about accessories again because they’re such a fun way to express yourself, (are) accessible for people and there’s such a variety of things you can do … so it’s just sparking that inspiration.”

Stephanie Barry, one of the textile artists featured in the show, finds her inspiration from that which is physically closest to her at her cliff-side home in Tors Cove: the natural world.

Her contribution, Midnight Tidal Pools, consists of earrings and a brooch. The royal blue and purple pieces are crafted with thread, beads and coiled, silver hardware. The brooch is reminiscent of a fishing net fraying at the bottom, while the metallic beads are caught in its web. The earrings are tightly spiraled with more beads tucked snugly inside, as if in a shell. Leriche says the pieces are a See “Fascination,” page 19

Top to bottom: fibreglass screen neckpiece

by Heather Reeves, $350; mohair hat by Kate De Cent, $38; and hooked handbag by Joan Foster, $300; embroidered bag by Carolyn Morgan, $650; knit headdress by Sarah Minty, $250; rayon and silk scarf by Judy Cooper, $120.

At left: woven alpaca shawl by Leslie Armstrong and Anke Fox, $240 Paul Daly/The Independent

A fool on a (blueberry) hill

S

tanding on a hill overlooking New Perlican, I was overcome with a sense of impending change. The sun was warm on my face and back as my wife and I lazily flew multi-coloured kites complete with long, twirling tails.

We laughed and acted like children at the end of the summer — knowing full well the days of wine and roses are ending.

At one point I became a sprinter as my kite got the better of me and sought free-

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the Eating Path dom, taking off into the sky. Were it not for my not-so-graceful lunge at the last minute it would have disappeared forever.

Much like the summer this year: brilliant one minute, over the next.

As I sat and recovered from my athletic run, my wife produced a small bounty.

The small blue buds, warm from the afternoon sun, burst in my mouth, spilling their sweet juices developed after a whole summer basking in the sun.

Such is the life of a blueberry in Newfoundland.

We are showered with an abundance

of great tasting and beautifully proportioned fruit — unheard of through the rest of Canada. Sure, the large, almost thumb-sized fruit of Quebec or the minuscule dots from New Brunswick are a close second in taste, but nothing beats the wild, straight-from-the-bush flavour of a wild Newfoundland blueberry.

Foraging for fruit at the end of the summer has become one of our traditions. Okay, one of my wife’s traditions.

See, I am not much of a berry picker. I love the fruit and treat it with the respect it is due, and I certainly love the care that is placed in quests to fill salt beef buckets with blueberries.

The only thing is I don’t have the stamina for it. My mind wanders endlessly at the scenery. I can’t be bothered to look for the hidden gems packed tightSee “Hidden gems,” page 19

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

18 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

When your best is all you’ve got

DRINK

L

What does your drink say about you?

W

e’ve covered the basics of drinking — how to set up a first-time bar, some cool drinks to get the party going, and a good collection of wines to start that fledgling cellar. A good appreciation for drinks and drink-making also makes you more interesting — or does it?

What does your favourite tipple say about you? Many studies report what you drink is as revealing as the clothes you wear or the job you have.

However, like a good stiff shot of premium tequila, this should be taken with a grain of salt.

THE BEER DRINKER He’s a straight shooter with few pretensions. Generally what you see is what you get. However, those who go for the exotic or regionally specific small-cask premium brands are either wound up like a coiled spring or just trying too hard.

The girl who drinks a beer is a free spirit, not afraid to tell you what she’s thinking and how you should be thinking about the same thing. Tshirts, jeans and just hanging out are her fave things to do.

THE MARTINI DRINKER For him: sticking to the finer points is one thing, getting all worked up because there is no premium brand booze is another. The guys who order the vodka martinis are wannabe secret agents, and the gin drinkers tend to know what they’re getting into. Beware the guy with more olives than drink — he will always want it his way or the highway.

For her: the quintessential accessory for a night out with the girls, that

je ne sais quoi that is as important as the right shoes and dress combo.

She’s a perfect fit.

THE WINE DRINKER For a fellow, it’s a reason to flex the intellectual side, to show how cultured and how well put together he is. The wine drinker who looks for the “gems” is more interested in sharing a good find with friends than adding another notch to his growing collection of cellared bottles.

However, if all he does is drone on about the evils of merlot, forget him, he’s just quoting from Sideways.

The woman wine drinker is a philosopher, contemplator and debater. Much like the wine chosen, she will either open up and become more engaging as the wine develops, or become cold and closed down. Look for the talkers — they’re the ones who know what they want, how to get it, and how to keep it.

THE WHISKEY DRINKER It depends on his brand. The single malt guy knows what he wants, and if ordered with water on the side, it shows he realizes the best qualities of things are almost always hidden and should be searched out. The bar stock guy is either a) trying too hard, or b) looking for love in all the wrong places.

For her, whiskey is fiery like her temperament. She’s dangerous, full of life and ready for anything — almost.

What do I drink? Well, everything, so I guess I’m a wound-up, intellectual secret agent, who searches out the truth in everything. nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

eaving junior high and entering the daunting world of high school, one of my reasons for being excited had little to do with growing up or nearing the end of my education. Rather, it involved a certain dreaded class I would no longer have to participate in: gym.

High school meant the freedom to choose, to focus more of my time and efforts on subjects that appealed to me. I don’t have anything against sports, and I admire those who have the skill and dedication to really succeed. I’m not one of them.

As a kid I first noticed my ineptitude in athletics when someone would toss to me a set of keys, for example.

They’d fly right past me, and I’d be left standing there with an empty hand and a sheepish smile that said, “I know I should have caught that.” I knew then I was damned to a life of forever being the one who misses the ball.

In primary and elementary school it wasn’t so bad. Games like Red Rover didn’t require too much of that elusive little thing called hand-eye co-ordination. Those games didn’t last long though, unfortunately, and I tried to find a sport I could say I had some talent in.

There was soccer, no luck there.

I’m known for having bruised knees because even a living room is too much of an obstacle course when I’m having a klutzy day.

Basketball is much the same, but to add insult to injury I’ve been blessed with “great” height (a laughable 5’ 3”), so that was hopeless as well.

Badminton was one of the few activities I didn’t loathe — I felt I could make less of a fool of myself playing it. Looking back now, I remember a

LEIA FELTHAM Guest Column lot of laughter from a class of first graders when the gym teacher introduced the name of the ball as a shuttlecock or birdie (even now it’s hard not to smile).

Hockey was bearable because I could claim the position of goalie and manage to stay out of the way. Yet there was nothing I felt truly confident in.

The search for the perfect sport ended pretty quickly, so I settled for being a part of the scenery on the gym floor. It wasn’t all torture though, and I’m glad I’m able to make a joke of situations that are uncomfortable. If I could distract my mind with laughter, then I would be less painfully aware of all I couldn’t do.

WORST NIGHTMARE I think the only time I ever felt humiliated, and I mean couldn’tlaugh-it-off embarrassed, was when the school board implemented a system of grading for gym class. This was the worst nightmare for the girl who got by on participation marks.

This wasn’t like any other test, I couldn’t study for it and with no textbook or answers to my problem I felt utterly unprepared.

I could practice all I wanted but I had already accepted that I was good as I was going to get, and for a long time I was OK with that. Now I had to perform in front of an entire class and they’d all know just how bad I really was.

I was backed into a corner. I had no choice but to face my fears, and all I could do to keep from panicking was think about a saying I love: “This too shall pass.” It was just a moment in life that I had to overcome, and it definitely wasn’t the end of the world.

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t happy as hell when it was over, but in a way I’m glad it happened. It showed me something I may not have understood otherwise.

I had always heard school is about putting in all your effort and being proud of what you achieve when you know you gave it your all. Until that moment I hadn’t faced a situation where I felt the world was going to watch me fail.

Public speaking, math, a foreign language — I had heard so many others in school talk about subjects that they felt were unconquerable. In that gym class I stood in those shoes and learned that frustration. It’s hard to believe your best is good enough, but sometimes that’s all you have to give.

I’m starting university shortly, and once again I’m gym-free. Now I sit on the sidelines, cheering on friends and feeling part of the game that way. I’m proud to say I’ve even found a sport I enjoy watching on TV, thanks to my trip to Toronto where I spent hours in the relentless sun to see a baseball game.

It was nice to get involved in a game where I knew no one playing, and to cheer because I genuinely liked it. It’s never too late to start loving something new, but I’m just glad the only thing I have to toss these days are good lines.

Leia Feltham is a first-year student at Memorial University.

TASTE Packing lunches: raising the bar non-dairy chocolate chips or carob chips.

By Dreena Burton For The Independent

B

efore you pack another granola bar assuming it is a healthy snack, take a look at the ingredients. Do the first five ingredients contain sugar or corn syrup? Do those bars also contain hydrogenated (or partially hydrogenated) oils? Are there preservatives, colourings, and other substances that you cannot even pronounce?

Most likely they do. While marketed as healthy, most granola bars do not deliver much nutrition and are full of sugar and chemicals.

For back-to-school lunches — or for your own mid-day snack — you can make your own energy bars without much fuss. These Easy Pleasin’ Oat Bars from my second cookbook, Vive le Vegan!, are simple and inexpensive. Best of all, they have no refined sugars, are even wheat-free and are a truly wholesome snack bar.

This recipe calls for ground oats.

Ground oats can be made from quick oats, which are available in grocery stores. Use your food processor and process the quick oats for a minute or two. The consistency should be similar to coarse flour.

If you aren’t familiar with barley malt (or brown rice syrup), you can find it in the natural foods section of your grocery store. These natural sweeteners are made from barley and brown rice. They are very thick — similar to molasses or honey in texture — but not as sweet or strong tasting.

(Note: if you can’t find barley malt

• 2 cups ground oats (see note) • 1 cup quick oats • 1⁄4 tsp sea salt • 1⁄4 tsp cinnamon • 1⁄4 cup pure maple syrup • 1⁄3 cup barley malt or brown rice syrup (see note) • 1⁄4 cup vanilla or plain soy milk or other non-dairy milk • 11⁄2 - 2 tbsp canola oil

or rice syrup, honey can be substituted — but the flavour will change slightly.)

EASY PLEASIN’ OAT BARS These wonderful snack bars are a little crunchy, a little chewy, and not too sweet.

They’re a cinch to make, and freeze well. For some different flavors and textures, try stirring in 1⁄4 cup of dried fruits and/or toasted nuts, such as dried cranberries and toasted pecans, raisins and toasted almonds, dried apricots and toasted walnuts, or some

Preheat oven to 350F (176C). In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, stirring until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled 8”x12” baking dish and press down until evenly distributed.

Using a sharp knife, cut to mark out the bars before you bake them to make it easier to remove the bars once baked. (I usually mark out 12 rectangular bars, but you can make whatever size you like.)

Bake for 19-21 minutes, then remove and let cool in pan. Once cool, use a sharp knife to fully cut the bars, then remove with a spatula.

Tip: The bars are softer if they are not overbaked. For even softer bars you can use a smaller pan to yield thicker bars.

Makes 10-14 bars.

Dreena Burton is the author of the bestselling cookbooks Vive le Vegan! and The Everyday Vegan. You can visit her vegan cooking blog at http://vivelevegan.blogspot.com

A stunning collection of photography from the portfolio of The Independent’s own Paul Daly.

Available this fall. To preorder your copy, contact

Boulder Publications at 895-6483

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 19

‘Fascination with fibre’ From page 17 departure for the artist.

“That’s the fun thing about this sort of show — you get a lot of different artists who work in other kinds of areas or in larger works or in other types of mediums but they’ll use this as a take off to do something kind of different,” she says. “(Barry) wouldn’t normally do jewellery, but they’re like little works of art you can wear that are a little more accessible for people if they don’t have room for a big piece, just to decorate their body.”

Not only does the show feature established artists like Barry, emerging artists’ work will be on display.

Sarah Minty, a weave and print dye textile artist and graduate of the College of the North Atlantic textile studies program, is showing two pieces of work in Etcetera.

Her knitted hat, Jelly Fish #2 — Lion’s Mane, is a riot of blue, yellow, orange and brown. The jellyfish “tentacles” — dreadlocks of silk, nylon, Italian synthetics, and handdyed 100% wool — fall down the sides and back, or, ingeniously, can disappear when the open end of the hat is pulled up and over to tuck the “mane” partially inside. Like Barry, Minty says she’s inspired by the wealth of life around her in her island home.

“I have a fascination with a huge list of creatures out there and equally a fascination with fibre,” she says.

“So obviously we live in Newfoundland, by the ocean, and are surrounded by such creatures, but I try to echo things that already exist with textiles. Not necessarily with an object, but it could just be a thing. It could be just a piece of textile art — not necessarily wearable.”

Wondering just how wearable the art/accessories will be? LeRiche says not to worry.

“Not everyone would wear them, but you know some would look great on some people but terrible on me,” she says wryly.

“But if you want to make a statement … all of these things are very much wearable. The material itself is very strong. You certainly have to be careful with the texture to not get things hooked in it. It’s not your everyday wear. You’re going to wear it to a very special event.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

Paul Daly/The Independent

Hidden gems in New Perlican From page 17 ly next to wild rose bushes, whose prickly stems still have sting and long term houses for creepy-crawlies.

Until this year I would have said “let the professionals handle that one,” but not now.

This past weekend I saw the light — if only for a little while. Berry picking is a quiet meditation. No conversation is required, just patience and a strong back.

Once I got into the rhythm of the day, the minutes ticked by and the container began to fill. By the end of my short stint picking, I was amazed by the quality of the fruit.

Berries a centimetre across are not uncommon — and we even stumbled upon a patch of partridgeberries, tart and bursting with flavour. Our perfect day was made complete with the spotting of a wild blackberry bush, but we left it be as there was so little fruit.

Better for the birds to enjoy before the fall weather arrives.

Before the summer comes to its climax and ends, we must make the best of it.

A decadent, soft and rich dessert suitable for the last days of summer is what is needed.

Nicholas Gardner is a freelance writer and erstwhile chef now living in St. John’s nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

Blueberry Fool • 1 tablespoon butter • 2 cups blueberries, stemmed and rinsed • 1/3 cup sugar • 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and stir in the blueberries and sugar. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the blueberries release their juices, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool slightly.

In a blender or food processor puree the berries until smooth. Refrigerate the sauce until completely cooled.

Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form using a whisk or mixer.

Reserve 1/4 cup of the blueberry sauce,

then using a spatula, fold the remaining sauce into the whipped cream until thoroughly combined.

Pour mixture into ramekins or small parfait glasses. Spoon some of the reserved blueberry sauce over the top. Refrigerate until you’re ready to eat.

Makes 6 moderate servings.

Also: remember that the blueberry sauce, once cooled, will last in a sealed jar for up to two weeks.

Some things are better when they come off the vine and straight onto the plate. The berries of the summer will make their way through a whole host of other meals — on cereal for breakfast, or tumbled over lightly poached white fish — a sweet end to a fruitful summer.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

20 • INDEPENDENTFUN

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Chatter 4 National force 8 Muslim woman’s scarf 13 Dad 17 Asian capital, once 18 Cote d’___ (France) 19 Stamp saver 20 Citrus hybrid 21 Loan for a house 23 African language group 24 Honey wine 25 Nfld. town with insectarium: ___ Lake 26 Military operation 28 Show clearly 30 Dried shell of a squash 32 Nfld. seabird 33 Expelled 34 Chinese currency 35 Relinquish (an office) 36 Related on mother’s side 37 Wrong: prefix 38 Morse and others 39 Quebec film director Arcand 40 Hither and ___ 43 Waldorf or green goddess 44 Infectious agent 45 Italian lake near Milan

46 Small falcon 49 Hub-to-rim lines 50 Stuck on 51 Overstep 52 Endured 53 Barn (Fr.) 54 Separated 55 Inuit name for race that preceded them 56 Mace, e.g.

57 Story 58 Bearlike mammal 59 Sesame plant 60 Pigpen 61 Dance music of 1970’s 62 Stonehenge priest 63 Cdn. motoring assn.

66 Clear soup 67 A ___ of the action 68 Not that 69 Shell used in jewellery 72 Singer Harmer (“I’m a Mountain”) 73 Lines of sewing 74 Cookbook item 75 Cat that’s not a feline 76 Park of Air Farce 77 Drink noisily 78 Ont. town on Grand River 80 City with Stelco and Dofasco 84 Curse 85 Yukon’s official bird

86 Fine-tune a manuscript 87 Shortened alias 88 Ninotchka’s no 89 Play part 90 Some Fr. martyrs 91 Dog good with kids DOWN 1 Sapphire, e.g.

2 Big flap 3 Quebec abstract painter 4 Threw a tantrum 5 Emperor 6 Face 7 Took for granted 8 She wrote Kamouraska 9 PR concern 10 Singer-songwriter Siberry (“Small Fires”) 11 Small island 12 They won 1992 and 1993 World Series 13 Grooming rock 14 He gets parts for thespians 15 Position 16 Assisted 22 Sea swallow 27 Blue flag 29 Cat scanners?

30 Workout spot 31 Yep in Dieppe 32 Decoration for merit 33 Boredom

35 Meted out 36 Causing goose bumps 38 Insert mark 39 Did not 40 In one’s prime 41 Greek letter 42 Centre points 43 Firewood measure 44 Miscellany 45 N.S. site of oldest Acadian festival in Canada 46 English poet who died young 47 One who lives abroad, in short 48 Like fish 49 Sonata’s final movement 50 ___ Manan, N.B. 52 ___ of grapes 53 Canadian film award 55 Gustatory sense 56 Ecum ___, N.S. 58 Settlers 59 Takes in air 61 Fall 62 Dreadful 63 Vocalist Kreviazuk 64 Goal 65 Donkey 66 Plant disease 67 Stately dance 68 Blue-green 69 Welding gas

70 Make fast (naut.)

71 Sharp 72 Warning sound

73 Narrowed eyes 75 Ladle ___, Nfld.

76 Gal pal (Fr.)

79 French lake 81 Summerside summer time

82 Quebec cheese 83 Arrest Solutions page 27

WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) Your ideas earn the respect of your colleagues. But you’ll have to present some hard facts and figures if you hope to persuade those who make the big decisions to support you.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) Keep those bright Bull’s eyes focused on the project at hand.

Avoid distractions. There’ll be lots of time for fun and games later.

Expect to get welcome news on the 22nd.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) You might soon have to decide about moving a relationship from its current status to another level. Don’t let anyone influence your decision.

It must be yours and yours alone.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)

You can finally get off that emotional roller coaster and get back to focusing on your goals without interruptions through the rest of the week. A nice change is due by the 22nd.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) Trying to make an impression on some people runs into a bit of a snag at first, but it all works out.

An old and almost forgotten personal matter once again needs attention.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) A rise in your energy level helps you finish an especially demanding task. Take some time now to spend with family and friends before starting a new project.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) This is a good time to re-establish

contact with trusted former associates who might be able to offer good advice regarding that career change you’ve been contemplating.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Your resourcefulness combined with a calm, cool approach help you work your way out of a knotty situation and avoid a potentially serious misunderstanding.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) A calm, quiet period allows you to recharge your energies. But on the 20th, you’re ready to saddle up and gallop off in pursuit of your goals.

CAPRICORN (DEC.22 TO JAN. 19) Family matters need your attention. Check things out carefully.

There might still be unresolved tensions that could hinder your

efforts to repair damaged relationships.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) It’s a good time to take a stand and show as much passion on your own behalf as you do when arguing for the rights of others. You might be happily surprised by the reaction.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) You bring sense and sensitivity to a confusing situation. Things settle down by the 20th, leaving you free to enjoy a weekend of fun and relaxation with friends and family.

YOU BORN THIS WEEK You have a talent for being able to perceive possibilities where others see only problems. (c) 2006 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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 27

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2006 — PAGE 21

Colin Anthony

Paul Daly/The Independent

Click to rent New company lets renters do their legwork online

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

C

olin Anthony wants to get people settled away. Anthony, 30, has just started a new on-line property rental business he says bridges the gap between prospective tenants and property owners in the St. John’s area.

Anthony says getting around the capital city can be confusing and intimidating for someone new to the region.

“The streets are like a bowl of noodles,” he says. With the economic growth of the northeast Avalon, a lot more people are moving to St. John’s. Anthony’s fiveweek-old company is designed to make their transition a little easier.

Anthony says he got the idea from personal experience: he moved around

Canada several times and faced the hassle and stress of getting settled in every new place he went. He thought people might pay to be spared that aggravation.

He says he’s discovered they will. As Anthony gets busier, he’s learning that his clients want him to do a lot for them — and they don’t mind paying.

“If you think about the clientele out there … you have classified ads and property management. You have a huge amount of clientele and the only way for them to advertise is classifieds. What we are doing is giving people a new way to advertise their apartment,” he says.

“I created Rent Assist based on what people would want and need, and what would save them time and money.”

The core of the business is a website (www.rentassist.ca) which advertises

rental properties in St. John’s and the surrounding areas. The company offers people the opportunity to advertise their properties without the space limitations of traditional classified ads. Online ads feature colour interior and exterior shots as well as additional information. Potential tenants can browse the site to see what is available — whether they are down the street or in Tokyo.

PERSONALIZED SERVICES In addition, Rent Assist offers other, more personalized services, some of which have proven far more successful than they originally anticipated.

For a fee, Anthony will help people find a place to live before they arrive in the city — or as soon as they arrive.

A client lists the price range, neighbour-

hood, proximity to work, size and other features he or she is looking for. Rent Assist finds a number of apartments that match those requirements. The company then e-mails the information on the properties, or, for an additional fee, a driver will take the customer around those sites when they get to St. John’s.

Anthony recalls a client he met earlier this month at the airport. She was moving to St. John’s for work. She called from Ottawa and gave Rent Assist an outline of what she was looking for.

“She flew to Newfoundland at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning and by 7 p.m. she had an apartment,” says Anthony. “She was really pleased.”

In addition to driving clients around to

Four rules of food shopping I

n almost 24 years of helping people, we’ve talked finance with over 21,000 individuals and families, from all parts of the province: St. John’s in the east to Port aux Basques in the west, from Lawn in the south to Nain in the north.

Their financial plights have been many and varied and the planned resolutions our counsellors have introduced have at times been almost as varied as the people themselves.

They’ve all had one single trait though. Maybe all is an overstatement — but almost all certainly isn’t.

Almost all our clients don’t understand food and the financial management that goes along with achieving the best value for their food dollar.

Now that I’ve either offended you or piqued your interest, let me explain.

In our experience, the majority of the population views the purchase of food as anything but the big ticket item it is.

AL ANTLE

Your Finances I’m not implying people do not understand the importance of being reflective in the purchase of a bigticket item like a vehicle. They almost always are. Normally, they carry out significant Internet research, visit numerous dealerships, test drive dozens of vehicles and seek the advice of existing owners of similar cars. They even search down the original owner of a used car.

They understand the purchase is a big deal, with 12 payments of $400 in the next year, and the same for four more years. They take possession of an item that will cost $4,800 over the next year.

But on the way home in their newly acquired roadster, they pop into the

supermarket and toss $300 worth of what they believe is food into a cart in under 15 minutes with no thought whatsoever. And they do this three times every month, spending $10,800 a year.

So the first rule of shopping for food is to fully understand and embrace the notion that this stuff constitutes a big-ticket purchase.

Therefore, it requires the same reflective second thought.

In your mind’s eye, look into your last grocery cart. Look long and hard, take 30 or so seconds. Ask yourself if 100 per cent of what you are looking at can be eaten. You see, 100 per cent of our food budget should be spent on edible things. So the other stuff, things we confuse with food — sandwich bags, paper towels, oven cleaner, washing powder and bathroom tissue — are not food.

I think what’s happened, to be fair, is we’ve confused groceries (the things you get at the supermarket),

with food (things you find in your pantry). It has been estimated we spend 18 per cent of our net income on food and foodstuff. So rule No. 2 is recognizing the importance of separating food costs from household costs (detergents, cleaners, etc.) and personal care things (soap, hair-care products and bathroom tissue).

Ask yourself if the supermarket consumes all your food budget.

Chances are you’ll say definitely no, particularly if your really understood our rule No. 2: food must be 100 per cent edible.

Things like your workplace coffee fund is part of your food budget. The fast food you buy every payday is as well. Kids’ lunch breaks and yours, be they brought or bought, are food expenses and so is the cost you incur throwing a dinner party on Saturday night.

Rule No. 3 is, if you think beyond See “A huge,” page 22

See “I try,” page 22

22 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

THE FISSION GROUNDS

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

‘I try to make them feel welcome’ From page 21 tour various rental units, Anthony gives them background on the city — its history, culture and other information.

He says his clients seem to really appreciate the service.

“I try to make them feel welcome as well,” says Anthony.

He says his clientele aren’t only people moving here from elsewhere for work. Although he started a little late to catch the market this season, he hopes to be able to help students moving to St. John’s to attend school. He has spoken with parents who are currently staying in a hotel while they try and find their children accommodations.

“That can cost big money,” says Anthony. “If they can use us to beat the streets of St. John’s and e-mail them pictures back (of the prospective apartments), and answer any questions they may have, just think of the money they can save.”

QUICKLY AND EASILY He says Rent Assist is not a property management company. All his company does is find accommodations his clients want, quickly and easily. Once the relationship between landlord and tenant is established, Anthony’s work is done.

The home-grown business has taken Anthony almost seven months to get off the ground, and is now in its fifth week of operation. Anthony prepared by developing a business plan with ACOA, qualifying for one of their young entrepreneur loans, and hiring an employee under the Newfoundland and Labrador Works program. He designed the company’s logo, made the uniform and has done all the promotion himself.

Anthony says he’s already been asked many times if he’s a franchise. Busy as he might be growing his new business, that is a question that has him thinking. St. John’s is not the only place people move to. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

The rise in the price of uranium has resurrected interest in the search for the metal in Labrador. Newfoundland native Mark O’Dea (above) is CEO of Aurora Energy Resources Inc., which is currently conducting an engineering study to evaluate the feasibility of building an uranium mine in the region.

Paul Daly/The Independent

A huge challenge From page 21 your obvious food costs, you’ll be surprised by what you see and learn.

I always save the toughest for last, and rule No. 4 is the toughest.

Our biggest challenge in the area of helping people plan for food shopping is getting them to buy into the notion that food purchases, like everything else we consume, have to be driven by our income, not our likes and dislikes and not by our family size. This a HUGE challenge, particularly for single-parent households and those with modest incomes.

I’m distressed when I find myself looking into the troubled eyes of a single mom as I tell her that she needs to try to feed her three children for $234 per month from her $1,300 income, because that’s 18 per cent of her net income. Mom is forced to purchase traditional vegetables and not the kind we see on TV. Red meat is a treat for the household, and even that will likely be a cheaper cut. Beans, peas, eggs and peanut butter are suggested as cheaper protein options. She needs to become a baker, and over time, she needs to acquire a big spice collection as a means of jazzing up bland-tasting things a little.

Her milk is powdered or half regular milk and half powdered milk and juice is watered down to the maximum and is frozen from concentrate. Everything is spare, and nursed along.

Next time, we’ll have 10 easy steps to help you shop for food for your family. And no, it doesn’t involve driving to Clarenville because soup is on sale there this week.

Al Antle is executive director of the Credit Counselling Service of Newfoundland and Labrador.

What’s new in the automotive industry

SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2006

FEATURED VEHICLE

ROAD TRIP Introducing the new Mitsubishi Outlander Special Edition, an SUV with the comfort and engineering precision of a sedan. With its 2.4-litre, 160 hp, 16-valve MIVEC engine and available all-wheel drive, Outlander is always prepared no matter what the driving conditions. Its spacious interior includes 60/40 split-folding reclining rear seats, loads of cargo room, comfortable seating for five adults, and a 210-watt Mitsubishi/Infinity Premium AM/FM/6-disc CD player with six speakers + MP3 playback. This vehicle is available at Capital Mitsubishi, 475 Kenmount Rd. Photo taken in the Battery, St. John’s.

Paul Daly photos/The Independent

’til death do you part A DRIVER’S LICENCE NEVER EXPIRES, IT JUST FADES AWAY

T

hey still shoot horses, don’t they? Not around here they don’t. You live with them and love them and when it’s time for them to go you call in the vet. Whether it’s illness or old age, you take responsibility and make a choice out of respect.

But you can’t stop an elderly person from driving.

You might creep up on one in traffic.

Little tufts of white hair poking up

over the headrest … if you can see them at all. Be patient, if they’re doing the speed limit and staying in their own lane then God love ‘em and keep your distance. It’s the ones that shouldn’t be on the road I’m worried about.

I met a wonderful elderly lady in Florida years ago who drove a massive, ancient Lincoln Continental. She sat on a pillow so she could peek out under the top of the steering wheel and

somehow managed to get around. And oh how she loved her cats and fed all the strays in the neighbourhood. In the evening she’d cruise down the road with her door open, lean out with one hand on the wheel and pour out a box of cat food screaming, “Here kitty, kitty.”

Imagine a vacant Lincoln spewing cat food bearing down on you. I don’t know what happened to her.

Then there’s the story old right now. about the elderly gent in Both of these people drove Florida, the father of a cars well into their years but Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s practically set their own limit organic farmer and a much on when to stop. more sensible driver. In TRUST 1993, at 87 years of age, he Driving is a relationship bought a new car and insistbased on trust — I trust you’ll ed on something with a MARK stay on your side of the road five-year warranty. He was WOOD and try not to hit me. My rumoured to be the oldest new-car buyer in the States.

WOODY’S Momma says driving is like a box of chocolates, but then In 1998, after the warranty WHEELS again, she’s creeping along in expired, he moved to North years and doesn’t drive on the Carolina and ceased driving at age 92. He claimed it was too diffi- highway anymore.

Young drivers in this province build cult to learn his way around a new city.

His excellent driving skills and evi- up their skills and my trust through a dence not to use them are both a tribSee “Dress for the slide,” page 25 ute to his longevity. He is 100 years

24 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

So much racing, so little column ...

NORRIS MCDONALD ON CURRENT EVENTS - AND OTHER TIDBITS - IN THE AUTO RACING WORLD

T

his week in Augusta, Ga., the people “I had to earn a living,” he says. preserving the memory of the old Now he owns a CASCAR operation but has Augusta International Speedway will had to park it. induct 11 new members into its Hall of Fame.

“My wife divorced me in 2003,” he says, One of them is a Canadian. “and I’m still regrouping. But I hope to have Being honoured are early someone in the car and be back out NASCAR stars Richard Petty, David there in ‘07.”

Pearson, Glenn (Fireball) Roberts, Jim Bray was a Canadian NASCAR Sam McQuagg, Jack Smith, Bob racing pioneer. Now he’s going into a Moore, (Tiger) Tom Pistone, Marvin southern U.S. Hall of Fame as an equal Panch, Wendell Scott, Ned Jarrett with Petty, Pearson and Panch. and Jim Bray of Brantford, Ont. Pretty good company, eh?

Jim Who? FIRST CANADIAN “I was only the second Canadian to make the field for the Daytona 500 For those of you who might be wonNORRIS (in 1960),” laughs Bray, who makes dering, Dick Foley of Montreal was MCDONALD his livelihood these days building the first Canadian to qualify to race in and selling trailers of all shapes and the Daytona 500. He did it in 1959. sizes.

After Bray came Don Biederman, Vic “I ran a couple of dozen U.S. pro Parsons and Earl Ross of Ontario, races back in those days,” he says. “I Trevor Boys of Alberta and Roy Smith ran places like Daytona and Richmond, Va., of British Columbia. with NASCAR and Langhorne (Pa.) with THE REAL CASCAR STORY USAC. “I ran road courses, too. I was in the USAC Dave Whitlock won his second CASCAR race at Mosport in 1962 (the Kawartha 250), race in a row at Cayuga Labour Day weekend, which was the first stock car race ever held at but the story was Patrick Carpentier, the exthat circuit. And I went out to Riverside, Calif., open wheel star (CART/Champ Car and the IRL) who’s joining a growing list of formula for the NASCAR race in January in 1964.

“My last race with NASCAR was in 1974 at car drivers who want to race in NASCAR next Dover, Del.” season (Paul Tracy, et al).

Unlike Tracy, who crashes whatever he’s One of the original Pinecrest Speedway runners, Bray continued to race “on and off” driving (he piled up yet again in a Busch race at around Ontario but never took the sport as seri- California Speedway a week ago), Carpentier finished sixth in his stock car debut - an impresously as he did back in his NASCAR days.

TRACK TALK

sive performance.

Although it’s unlikely that Carpentier will land a full-time Busch ride in the short term, he’s a cinch to pilot a car when the Busch series runs its first race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal next year.

Oh, and speaking of CASCAR, if it wants to continue calling itself a national series, it must return to the Maritimes. And I know just the speedway.

John Chisholm, an Antigonish businessman, spent several millions of dollars in the last year turning the old Riverside Speedway, just off the Trans-Canada Highway between New Glasgow and Antigonish, into an ultra-modern facility with a banked-track almost identical to the one in Bristol, Tenn.

The grand reopening took place several weeks ago and the place was packed. They planned for 5,000 spectators and were almost overwhelmed when 9,000 showed up.

There is now absolutely no excuse for CASCAR not to go east.

SPECTACULAR LAP During American LeMans Series practice at Mosport Sept. 2, GM Racing Corvette driver Ron Fellows of Mississauga drove a spectacular lap in the rain - a full second-and-a-half faster than teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the second Corvette Gavin was clearly impressed. “How’d you do that?”

“I don’t know,” laughed Fellows. But then he said, “Wait, I do know. I watched Ronnie

Peterson drive in the rain.”

It was at Mosport in 1977. Peterson was driving the six-wheel Tyrrel Formula One car during a practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix. It was pouring rain.

“None of the other drivers wanted to go out.

Ronnie went out and I had the time to walk around and watch him drive through just about all the corners. He had complete control.

“So when I was out there today, I was thinking of Ronnie Peterson and how he drove in the rain.”

MOST FASCINATING John Graham of Toronto is one of the most fascinating motor racing people you’d ever want to meet. He’s been a champion racer (class winner at the 24 Hours of LeMans) and race promoter (the Moosehead Grand Prix, which ran through the streets of Halifax and at CFB Shearwater, N.S., in the early 1990s).

He’s a genius at finding money to finance his racing. For the recent American LeMans Series race at Mosport, for instance, he had sponsorship from the NHL Players Association.

And then there was the time (when he was sponsored by Labatt, by the way) that he got lost in the Sahara Desert while driving in the Paris-Dakar Rally. But wait - I’ll let him tell you: “That was in 1986,” he says. “That was the year 700 started, 48 finished and 11 died. I lasted 14 days and broke down in the middle of the desert. I asked the organizers what I should do.

They said I was out of the race and they no longer felt responsible for me.

“I found a Red Cross relief station. It was there that I met Adnan Kashogi’s daughter (he was the richest man in the world at the time).

She saved my life. I met her father. He wound up sponsoring me in IMSA sports car racing and Indy Lights.”

As I said, a fascinating guy.

TARGA NEWFOUNDLAND Talking about rallies, one of North America’s motoring highlights, the Targa Newfoundland, a 2,200 km automotive adventure started Sept.

9 and runs for a week over roads in the eastern and central areas of the island.

Competitors drive on public roads in what they call “transit” sections (which means drivers have to obey all the rules of the road, including speed limits) and in “targa” sections (full-speed ahead and damn the torpedoes) that are held on roads closed to the general public.

The “targa” sections make up about a quarter of the total.

I have friends who are involved in organizing the event and others who drive in it and they make me jealous. I understand it is one of the most enjoyable automobile competitions anywhere and that the Newfoundland people - for the most part - welcome them with open arms.

Maybe I’ll enter it next year.

Each week on his auto racing podcast at www.thestar.com/wheels, Norris McDonald previews the weekend’s big-league racing action and comments on many of the racing issues of the day.

Honda celebrates 20 years in Canada COMPANY TAKES CAUTIOUS APPROACH, CEO SAYS ALLISTON, Ont. wo decades after opening an assembly plant in a former potato field here, Honda of Canada Manufacturing celebrated its 20th anniversary and emergence as a major player in the country’s auto industry yesterday. But officials weren’t setting any new big targets.

Takeo Fukui, chief executive officer of Japanese-parent Honda Motor Co., said he is not thinking about overtaking DaimlerChrysler after Honda’s operations, 85 km northwest of Toronto, passed Ford in Canadian auto production a few years ago.

“I don’t care about other companies,” he said, standing beside the Acura MDX luxury sport utility vehicle, the latest model coming out of what is now an assembly complex. “We focus on our customers. So (being) No. 2 or No. 3, we don’t care.”

Honda, which had annual output of only 40,000 Accords when it opened the first Alliston plant in 1986, has steadily increased production ato 390,000 vehicles a year from two operations.

Output reached a peak of 392,528 in 2004 with overtime because of high demand.

About 4,300 workers build six models in flexible manufacturing operations including the Civic, Canada’s best selling car for nine consecutive years; the Pilot SUV; the Ridgeline pickup truck; and the latest model, the MDX, which will enter showrooms next month.

The company has invested about $2.15 billion in Canada to date including $154 million earlier this year for an engine plant that will employ 340 workers when it opens in 2008.

Fukui acknowledged the Alliston complex is one of the two top Honda operations in the world outside of Japan.

Fukui would not speculate on when Honda, which is increasing business around the world, particularly in North America, would build another plant in Canada.

“We always take the very cautious approach,” added Jim Miller, senior executive vice-president at Honda Canada. “We will grow with the market.”

T

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 25

Is divorce a valid marketing tool?

S

urvivor is a pretty dumb show. I vehicles for years now on this show. I don’t care if you like it or watch never quite got the tie-in. I mean, this is it, but you have to admit, it a bunch of un-bathed people in the junburned out a long time ago, and it’s gle subsisting on rat droppings and never a big deal if the phone rings pine nuts. And then someone gets a while it’s on. The kids put it on once in new truck. I think I tuned out for good awhile, but as I continually remind when one of the guys spent the night in them, I have enough annoying people a GM Aztec — with his mother. right here in my own home without Ford has produced a commercial having to import any addiabout a divorced couple and tional ones through the teletheir SUV. I’ll link it on my vision. website (www.lorraineonGeneral Motors has line.ca) — judge for yourself. recently announced that they I think it’s a piece that are pulling their advertising believes itself to be current from this show. It came on and pensive. It’s not. It shows the heels of the rather odious a mother and father driving announcement that this seawith their kids and the dog. son, tribes would be separatAt the end the father hops out LORRAINE ed along racial lines. The and bids a tearful goodbye to SOMMERFELD tribe thing is important in them all and goes off to wherthis show, because first they ever divorced fathers go. all have to work together, With gas sources severely and then they join them threatened, I realize the car together to seriously start companies have to find new hating each other. What a riot. ways to make us want SUVs and cars.

General Motors insists the timing is I remember the good old days when coincidental. As a GM owner, I would Ford merely had to roll out a new monprefer they stated it is precisely ster vehicle to make pulses race. First because of this new development. the Escape, then the Explorer, then the I pay attention to advertisers and Expedition, and then the Excursion. I what they support. I care where my feared the next one was just going to be money is going, and the message it is called the Explosion. carrying along with it. I am not perfect, I feel manipulated when an ad tries but I am diligent. A primetime show to cram serious social issues into a that would intentionally inject racial blurb to sell something. If they’re seridiscord or stereotyping is not thought ous about the impact of divorce on kids provoking. It is a vile social experi- and parents, they can back a documenment for the sake of ratings. Period. tary or movie that deals with the issues General Motors has given away in a responsible way. I’m unaware if

POWER SHIFT

the ad is running in Canada, but it’s running all over the Internet.

Let me put in another way: I don’t think for an instant Ford, or any other car manufacturer, gives a rat’s butt about whether the people that purchase their vehicles are single or divorced. I don’t think they consider for an instant how tough it is to purchase a vehicle as a single mother, because their financing guidelines are nowhere near as touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy as that ridiculous commercial.

Am I put off Ford products? No, it’s a single ad, and I would still consider buying the product. But if they were to roll out an entire campaign presuming to comment on serious social issues, I would revisit that answer.

I’d like to see car manufacturers sticking to the things that they do have a right, not to mention an obligation, to be addressing. Environmental responsibilities, gas consumption, and the role of vehicles in the future of our planet.

Does racial discrimination exist?

Does divorce exist? Of course. But why would I support a company that warms its hands around the fire of discord created by these serious problems?

As long as corporations see social ills and cultural disasters as arenas for making a buck, they are not addressing nor meaningfully contemplating these problems. They are merely profiting from them.

But not from me they’re not. www.lorraineonline.ca

‘Dress for the slide, not the ride’ From page 23 graduated system and I believe it works quite well. I understand the mandatory motorcycle course instills confidence and wisdom.

“Dress for the slide, not the ride,” they say. Way to go, people! (Polite golf clap.)

But when to haul them all off the road when age is an issue? There are many factors: medication, eyesight, senility and naptime. My trust is gone, I’m afraid. There’s not even a grey area in provincial legislation for this scenario. You have a driver’s licence

‘till death do you part.

I’m actually going through the throes of dealing with my father-inlaw right now, who should not be driving. He’s used to a lot of highway driving around the province and lately he’s destroyed my trust. A couple of years ago he fell asleep at the wheel coming back from Corner Brook and woke up in the woods. The airbags saved him.

The whole family was in a tizzy, relieved he was still alive. They hoped he’d give up galavanting around the Island.

Last week he announced his plans for a little road trip, a quick shot out to

Port aux Basques and back. In two days. It could be done, of course, by a young whipper-snapper or a professional truck driver, but at 79, with his track record, he’s pushing his luck. His kids burned up the phone lines and tried to devise a plan to derail the trip.

One even offered to fly him out and back, to no avail. He has every legal right to drive.

I had a horse die in my arms once. It was the saddest I have ever felt in my life.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s works on a ranch.

No Korean auto pact: Ontario

By Tony van Alphen Torstar wire service

T

he Ontario government is demanding Ottawa exclude the auto sector from free trade talks with Korea because of potential harm to the industry.

Joe Cordiano, Ontario minister of economic development and trade, says he’s asked the federal government for the exclusion because the sector is experiencing serious competitive challenges and doesn’t want a deal with Korea to worsen conditions.

“We’re not mincing words on this,” Cordiano says. “We want to be very clear about our position that we want to set aside the auto sector in the negotiations. The industry has screamed loud and hard that it will be detrimental to them if we don’t get it excluded.”

Bob Klager, director of communications for International Trade Minister David Emerson, says it’s unclear whether he had received a letter outlining the request.

The federal government has been negotiating with Korea for a year for a comprehensive free trade deal.

But some Canadian auto makers and parts producers fear they won’t receive the same access to Korea as companies from that country will get to Canada.

Earlier this year, Steven Landry, chairman of DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc., expressed fears that federal trade negotiators were ignoring industry

concerns and racing to a deal.

Cordiano says the Ontario government agrees about the need to avoid any possible negative fallout for the industry. All of Canada’s 11 assembly plants and most of the parts sector are concentrated in southern Ontario.

Cordiano says a Korean free trade deal could trigger a flood of Korean auto imports, which would only exacerbate the Canadian industry’s problems.

General Motors and Ford are in the middle of major restructurings in North America, which include their Canadian operations because they have too much production capacity amid falling demand. Many autoparts companies are also struggling because of price pressures from customers and higher material costs.

Korea is Canada’s seventh-largest trading partner. Bilateral merchandise trade climbed to $8.1 billion last year and the federal government says a deal would enhance access and open doors in neighbouring China and Japan.

Meanwhile, Cordiano says he met with officials of Ford Motor Co. in Detroit earlier this week to emphasize that his government and other stakeholders are ready to work with the company to ensure the future of plants in St. Thomas and Windsor.

Ford expects to announce more plant and job cuts in North America during the next few months. The St. Thomas assembly operation is considered a possible candidate for closing.

26 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

PGA drug tests looming

Baseball briefs and predictions

By Dave Fescuk Torstar wire service

But AL Central getting dicey; Twins look to knock Sox off

T

im Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, was asked a question of substances last week, specifically performanceenhancing ones: in light of Tiger Woods’ recent endorsement of mandatory drug testing on the tour, was there room for Finchem to reconsider his position?

Finchem, after all, has repeatedly said that golf’s self-policing nature makes testing unnecessary. But on Sept. 6, suddenly, he said his anti-testing position has been “misconstrued.”

He said the issue is too “complex” to be addressed in a press conference.

Woods obviously understands the no-testing approach only served baseball until the steroid era’s dirty laundry was dragged before the U.S. courts. He understands no sporting organization can claim to be clean unless it procures the pee to prove it.

Suddenly players, speaking in the lead-up to the Canadian Open, seem to be falling in line. Stephen Ames Solutions for crossword on page 20

Solutions for sudoku on page 20

gave the thumbs up to testing, as did Trevor Immelman. Note that before Woods spoke from his mount, the prevailing opinion on tour seemed to be that drug testing was unnecessary.

“We’re self-policing out here,” Fred Funk said in July. “You’re either good enough or you’re not good enough. I don’t think drugs will help you get better.”

The romantics might say it’s a game of skill and a game of feel, which sounds an awful lot like the line of thinking in baseball a decade ago. But golf, some forget, has already had a small dose of drugrelated controversy.

In 1994 Mac O’Grady, the former PGA pro and acknowledged left fielder, said he experimented using beta blockers — the heart and blood-pressure drugs also said to give users a calming effect helpful on the putting green — in 1988 but gave up the drugs after six months for ethical reasons. O’Grady also estimated at the time that seven of the world’s top 30 players were using beta-blockers.

All we know now is that the stakes, financially, are higher than they’ve ever been. And the drives are longer, too. There are currently 22 golfers averaging 300 or more yards per drive on the tour. There are 57 averaging 295 or more. Equipment makes a difference. Better diets and exercise regimes make a difference. But you’d be a firm believer in the inherent goodness of human nature to believe no golfer has experimented with the viability of an occasional vial, especially when the chance of getting caught remains zero.

Strap another 10 pounds of muscle on any athlete, in any sport, and you’ve made a better athlete. Make it easier for him or her to recover from a day of beating balls and you’ve made a better athlete who can practise harder and longer. Testing, even if it won’t catch up with the best chemists, is the no-brainer first step.

Says Immelman: “If we’re going to keep the world quiet and stop asking these questions, then we just need to go ahead and do the testing and prove that we’re a clean sport.” So long as the commissioner of the PGA Tour realizes that, be he named Tiger or Tim, golf’s on the right road.

By Allan Ryan Torstar wire service

W

ith roughly 140 of 162 polls reporting, we’re prepared to go way out on a limb here and call it a ninth straight AL East title — and 12 post-seasons in a row — for the boys from the Bronx.

Hey, they paid for it, including a total of $26 million for would-be corner outfielders Gary Matsui and Hideki Sheffield and their combined 62 games, nine homers and 38 RBIs, thus far.

Potential Yankee batting order for those first two playoff rounds: Damon, Jeter, Abreu, Rodriguez, Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui, Posada, Cano.

THE A’S HAVE IT We’re also pretty much prepared to call the A’s in the West, mostly because they’re 29-10 since July 25; the rival Angels play 20 of their final 22 against teams currently over .500 (including seven of their final 10 versus Oakland); and our old, strange pal, Esteban Loaiza, is 5-0 for his last six starts with the A’s and has conceded but two runs over his last five for an ERA in the vicinity of 0.47.

THE MIDDLE GRIND What’s left for serious contemplation in the AL, then, is the Central, where it would seem logical to figure that either the Twins or White Sox bag the wild card — but also where things aren’t nearly so comfy for the Tigers anymore.

Particularly not for Tiger fans, trying to come to grips with not only the team’s first winning season since 1993, but also its first post-season possibilities since 1987.

For instance, since Aug. 7, when the Bengals were a season-high 40 games over .500 (at 76-36) and 10 up on the defending world champs, they’ve gone 9-19 and are 0-5-1 in their last six series.

The White Sox, no particularly great shakes in this interim, nevertheless went 15-14 to close to within 4 lengths, while the ever-surprising Twins have gone 15-12 to creep within four.

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland pats the back of catcher Ivan Rodriguez before their game against the Texas Rangers in their American League baseball game at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan on August 17, 2006.

REUTERS/Jeff Kowalsky

“Do we have pressure on us? Yeah, we do,” said even-keeled, chainsmoking skipper Jim Leyland. “But, in my opinion, we have less pressure than Minnesota, the White Sox and some of the other teams that were supposed to win. We were supposed to get better.”

AND WHY WORRY? Well, as of Sept. 7, the Tigers were up 10-5 on the season series with the Twins — a series, however, that once stood 9-2 in their favour. The Tigers are also 5-11 versus Chicago, which they visit for three, Sept. 18-20. The Twins, 9-7 against the Sox, are home to Chicago the final three games of the season.

SOCKING THE SOX As for that White Sox/Twins thing, Justin Morneau might not have been around long enough to fully appreciate the full intensity of this particular rivalry but said all the right things when asked for his take on the race.

“I just want to win and I’ll do anything to not let Chicago get into the playoffs,” said the B.C. native. “That’s all that matters. Obviously, we’re still trying to chase Detroit but you’d almost rather see anybody go in other

than Chicago.”

COMMENT, OZZIE? But of course. Ask and you shall receive.

“I was thinking the same way,” said Guillen, the White Sox manager/quote machine. “I would like to take the Minnesota Twins out of the playoffs. ..

They have so many ways to win.

“We can make more mistakes with another ball club. With the Minnesota Twins, we can’t because they play so well. I’m glad (Morneau’s) worried about us. Well, we’re worried about them, too.”

MINNY LOOKING MIGHTY Couple more things to consider about the Twins: They’ve got the best home record in the majors (45-22 versus the Yankees’ 43-25); phenom Francisco Liriano could be back in the rotation as early as a week tonight; and Johan Santana, unbeaten in a major-league record 21 straight home starts, is teed up for the Sunday finale against the Tigers.

In those 21 starts, by the way — ever since the A’s beat him 2-1 at the Metrodome on Aug. 1 (of 2005) — Santana’s 14-0 with seven no-decisions; the team a mere 21-0.

Canada loses its grip on Open

By Chris Zelcovitch Torstar wire service

R

NO ONE IS ALONE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER. Behind every person who is touched by cancer, there is a growing force fighting all types of cancer in communities eve r y w h e re.

The Canadian Cancer Society is leading the way through research funding, information services, support pro g rams – and we advocate for healthy public policy. Together, we’re growing stronger. To volunteer, donate or for more information, visit cancer.ca or call 1 888 939-3333.

ichard Wells has done many big events in his 22 years at TSN. But if he could do only one, his choice would be the Canadian Open.

“Everybody in the business feels that way,” says Wells, who directed TSN-CTV’s golf coverage from Ancaster last week. “Golf’s a tremendous challenge and this is a tremendous event.”

Barring a miracle of biblical proportions, the Sept. 10 broadcast will mark the last time this country’s national golf championship will be produced by Canadians.

“That would be sad if that’s the case,” says Wells.

“We’re all keeping our fingers crossed.”

They’d better cross their toes, too, and plan a pilgrimage to Lourdes. This is a done deal, thanks mainly to the PGA’s new 15-year contract.

Starting next year, the Golf Channel will air the first two rounds while CBS picks up the weekend action.

Because producing four rounds of golf costs about $1 million, Canadian networks say they won’t touch it because they’ll lose half their weekend audience to CBS. There’s a good possibility that either TSN or Rogers Sportsnet will make a deal to carry the Golf Channel’s production so those without digital boxes can watch.

“At this point we are in discussions with the PGA,” says TSN president Phil King. “Hopefully, we’ll carry the Canadian Open next year.”

Most likely, CTV or Global will simulcast the CBS product on the weekend.

But all of it will be produced by Americans, who will be coming here next year to take Canadian jobs so they can produce our biggest golf tournament.

“Canadian production and technical people are recognized around the world for their expertise,” says Scott Moore, who used to produce golf for CTV. Moore’s Vancouver production company, for example, will do the Asian Games in Qatar this winter.

“When events like this are done by Americans, it puts those people out of work,” he says. “That’s disturbing.”

A Canadian championship should be produced by Canadians.

Here’s why: This week, TSN and CTV will air 22 hours of Open coverage. Next year, the Golf Channel and CBS will most likely carry about 10.

TSN and CTV are broadcasting in high definition.

There is no way the American networks will do that, not for an event that will soon be in the same league as the John Deere Classic.

Last week, TSN cameras focused on a string of Canadian golfers, with an even sharper focus on Mike Weir and Stephen Ames. Next year, the likes of Victor Ciesielski and James Lepp won’t get a minute of camera time unless they take a CBS cameraman hostage. Weir and Ames will get some only if they’re near the lead.

A Canadian network might enhance the American coverage with studio shows and inserted updates on this country’s golfers, but it won’t be the same.

The fact is that CBS will give the Open the same kind of exposure it gives minor tournaments, which is what this will be by next year.

More important, Canadians will lose control of yet another major sports tradition.

SEPT. 10, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 27

Right rifle From page 28 on-the-move shooters fuss about.

Finally I popped the big question: “How accurate a rifle are you happy with?” This has everything to do with ethical hunting, whether it’s in the mountains or beside your truck on a logging road.

For years I’ve been preaching that a serious hunter should be able to hit a one-gallon beef bucket cover consistently from whatever distance and position (prone, kneeling, standing) he or she chooses to shoot.

I think this standard ensures at least a 90 per cent one-shot kill rate. The vital area on a moose or caribou is about the size of a beef bucket cover. I refer to this as my minute of beef bucket rule. The “minute” comes from a common shooting term, “minute of arc.”

Minute is an angular measure (1/60th of a degree) and translates to an inch at 100 yards. This means if you move your gun barrel one minute off target, your bullet will miss by one inch on a 100-yard shot. Hunting rifles that shoot less than minute of arc from a solid rest are damn fine shootin’ irons and hunters who can do the same from a field position deserve to be called marksmen.

When a bullet misses a target it’s a combination of natural rifle error and human error. Heavy target rifles have far less natural error than lightweight hunting rifles. Hence my question.

Gale took a sip of coffee and thought for a few moments.

“Sheep are tiny in the big game world, but if I can hit a grapefruit … Minute of grapefruit suits me fine.”

I was pleased his view is pretty in line with my philosophy on moose hunting. I told him about my beef bucket standard and he approved. So this is not just from me, but from a lifetime of experience all over North America.

Before you take to the woods this fall to put wild meat on the table, make the time to practice and know what you are capable of hitting with your rifle. If you have an old 30-30 lever gun and you can nail that cover from 150 yards, then perfect, just limit yourself to 150 yards. If you have a modern flat shooting high power and you can do the same at 300 yards, then fine.

Please make every effort possible not to wound and maim our wildlife. In the words of Clint Eastwood playing detective Harry Callahan: “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

I’ll pass on more of what I learned from Gale in future columns. He’s a living archive of practical information on shooting in the field and lightweight rifles.

Paul Smith is a freelance writer living in Spaniard’s Bay, enjoying all the outdoors Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com

NFL deal just a start

By Dave Perkins Torstar wire service

F

irst, the disclaimer: No taxpayers were harmed last week as Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Rogers Communications officially rolled back the covers to begin consummating what undoubtedly will turn into a multi-billion-dollar sporting marriage.

The goring of the taxpayer assuredly will come later.

For the time being, there was Ted (Uncle Junior) Rogers smiling broadly from behind his Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, finally in the MLSE fold, as Larry Tanenbaum, his friend and Forest Hill neighbour, giggled like a young bride.

The first step is a sponsorship deal, Uncle Junior’s telecommunications giant handing over a few measly million in a six-year deal to provide services to MLSE and, as King Richard Peddie put it, “to deliver our teams’ content over many platforms.’’

By that he means Leafs, Raptors, Marlies until they move away and the soccer team until it folds. Rogers provides a cable TV carrier, phone company, wireless provider, you name it. Don’t be surprised if, one day, it all shakes down into pay-TV for Leaf games.

“We’ll see where technology takes us,’’ Uncle Junior said of the great unknown, but it sounds as if sooner rather than later you’ll be able to watch Maple Leaf goals on your Rogers cell phone.

“For the appropriate fee, of course,’’ he said, maintaining the correct $pirit.

The big dream, as was written here before and finally was confirmed by both men, is joint proprietorship of an NFL franchise for Toronto. That would be both Tanenbaum and Rogers as individuals, rather than MLSE and Rogers Communications, based on NFL ownership requirements. A few of the principals are jetting away to Cleveland, on Larry’s private jet, to finalize a 2007 or 2008 NFL regularseason game in Toronto, likely a Browns game, as a precursor to landing an NFL franchise.

Phil Lind, No. 2 man at Rogers, has been making nice with Roger Goodell, the incoming commissioner of the NFL. Sure, sure, you’ve heard it all before about an NFL team for Toronto. But here are two awfully rich guys, governments in their pockets, already sharing their sports toys, now going public about the NFL. Asked the standard question about a suitable stadium, Tanenbaum mumbled about Rogers — and the Rogers Centre — now being part of the team.

But Larry likes to pour concrete. That’s his business. It’s not a stretch to see these two trying to line up our gullible governments to provide a new NFL-suitable stadium — and you just know who will be allowed to pay for it: (Read back to that first paragraph).

That’s down the road. The majority of this new partnership obviously is.

Larry and I have been successful in getting our groups together,’’ Rogers said. “We hope to have more joint ventures in the future (but) as far as ownership (of MLSE) there have been no discussions.’’

They’ll start small, but both Uncle Junior and Larry made repeated references to more marketing opportunities and expanding the brand and so on. Nobody ever mentioned the word championship, but why bother? They never need to around here.

In the meantime, look at the other part of this deal. It’s Rogers replacing Bell as communications provider and that much is significant. Bell and Rogers are bitter rivals in the cup-and-string universe. Would any company in a strong ownership position allow its main competitor into an asset?

No chance.

Both Tanenbaum and Peddie said ownership provides no exclusivity and that MLSE makes deals according to what’s best for MLSE, not for any part-owner. Maybe, but it looks more likely as if Tanenbaum will end up with the Bell Globemedia ownership share.

It has been mentioned here before that things are happening at the top level of MLSE and it became official yesterday, when Rogers puts his/its foot in the Maple Leaf door.

It’s the beginning of big things, all right.

“

“

”

You have to see it to believe it.

”

The accommodations are magnificent.

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Canada’s best kept secret.

1.866.686.8100 humbervalley.com

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2006 — PAGE 28

Will Fitzgerald, Tony Young, Caroline McIlroy, Tim Turner, Doug Hall and Bill Aylward plan to run the Newfoundland Provincial Marathon Sept. 17.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Completely wild thing to do’ Organizers of the Newfoundland provincial marathon are hoping for their biggest crowd yet

By Bob White For The Independent

F

ittingly, when the Newfoundland Provincial Marathon became accredited as a qualifier for the marathon of all marathons — the Boston Marathon — it was a painstaking chore measured right down to the inch.

Not unlike the actual running, where each stride in the 42.2 km race is as important as the previous and the next. It took two people, on bicycles, covering the course twice over to meet the requirements of Athletics Canada/Run Canada Committee certified standards.

Tony Young, who completed the laborious task along with Gene Noble, says it was an exercise in precision and patience.

“It was very labour-intensive and it took about two and a half months to complete,” says Young, an organizer for the provincial marathon and a member of the Nautilus Running Club.

“Really, it was a completely wild thing to do. If you came up on a car parked on the side of the road, you had to stop, measure off exactly where you are and then make a straight line to the outside of the car and then along the length of it.

You had to be very precise to make sure the measurement was accurate right down to the last inch.”

The run starts at the Mount Pearl Track and Field Centre, winds its way out of Mount Pearl and tracks through Goulds all the way out to Bay Bulls Big Pond, and back towards St. John’s where the race finishes at Bowring Park next to the swimming pool.

Glen Smith, another race organizer who ran the marathon in the past, says the course will likely stay for the foreseeable future. During its history, the St. John’s-based event has had several different courses, but now that it’s accredited, the province’s only marathon is committed to the current course for (pardon the pun) the long haul.

“It’s a popular course with the runners and we had good feedback after the first year, which has continued,” Smith says.

“There’s not a lot of hills, which is great for a runner and actually pretty hard to find here in this province.”

Smith recalls when the race started out at the Witless Bay line and then came back into St. John’s. The runners were bussed out to the starting line and then ran back into the capital city, managing the hills and turns along the way. It was a

tough course for an already grueling distance and Smith says there wasn’t much positive feedback.

“It’s been a trial and error process to get to this point, and it’s at our discretion to change it again. But if we change the course just a little bit, then we need to have it re-certified which would require more work. So, simply, there are no plans to change it.”

The field of runners has always attracted the devoted locals, but it has also enticed a fair number of runners from outside the province and outside the country.

There isn’t an abundance of accredited marathons in Canada, which adds to its allure. Smith said the event is good for tourism, as it has become well-known among marathoners worldwide.

“And then you get the runners who want to do a marathon in every province and every state,” Smith said. “That is common.”

Typically, a runner who is preparing for a marathon will start intensive training anywhere from three to six months prior to the event.

There are a couple of schools of thought in how to best prepare oneself, says Smith. According to one way of

doing things, runners will over-train prior to the event, and travel more than a marathon distance during training runs.

This way, Smith says, when the time comes for the marathon it is actually easier than the training.

Another choice is to under-train, running practice distances up to, but no more than, 20 miles. Smith says this is much more popular — it allows a runner to reduce the risk of injury while training and to conserve energy for the big day and the 26.2 miles.

The universally desired time of under three hours is a goal for most welltrained marathoners, but it also tough to reach.

Last year, out of 62 runners that finished the race, only five runners made it across the finish line in under 180 minutes. Times ranged from 2 hours 45 minutes to 5 hours 34 minutes.

Qualifying times to run the Boston Marathon vary with age and sex. For men 18-34, they must finish in 3 hours 10 minutes; women in that age category must break 3 hours 30 minutes.

Smith says this year’s event, slated for Sept. 17, already has over 60 runners registered. He expects the final numbers to be near the 100 competitor mark.

A man has to know his limitations

“M

inute of grapefruit suits me fine.” That’s what Gale Sunderland told me on a flight from Yellowknife to Edmonton. I met Gale while we were both lake trout fishing at Great Bear Lake. He’s a lean, agile man, maybe 140 pounds, with a weathered face typical of people who live and play outdoors.

Gale is a retired Wyoming rancher in his early 70s, and he hunts harder than ever. Last fall he chased bighorn sheep in Alaska. A Piper Super Cub flew Gale and his guide into the wilderness. They landed on a river’s gravel bar at the base of the mountains hundreds of

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Outdoors miles from the nearest road. Their only link to civilization was a satellite phone.

Gale and his guide hiked and hunted in the hills for 18 days before tagging a trophy bighorn. Then they packed the horns, hide and meat down to the river, where they had set up their base camp near the landing strip. They hung the meat for two cool autumn days and

feasted on the river’s bounty of salmon before calling for a plane to pick them up.

Now that’s hardcore hunting — and a fine way to wile away your golden years. When Gale isn’t hunting himself, he arranges and guides horseback elk hunts in the hills of Wyoming.

A mountain sheep hunt has been on my “things to do list” since I read about an Alberta backpacking hunt for bighorns in Sports Afield two decades ago. I remember the author’s recommendation of being able to walk 20 miles in your hunting boots before leaving the comfort of home.

I was intrigued, and it’s an itch I just

have to scratch someday. I’ve gotten as far as putting together a custom mountain rifle. A mountain rifle is designed as a trade-off between weight, power and accuracy on the other. The ideal mountain rifle hits hard enough for a clean, humane kill and is accurate enough for a 300-yard shot while weighing in around six pounds.

A few pounds on a rifle feels like a ton when you’re toting it all day over rough terrain. Heavy barrels are more accurate but render rifles a chore to carry — that’s the dilemma.

Many Newfoundland hunters who like to hunt the backcountry on foot, myself included, would appreciate a

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light, accurate hard-hitting rifle. Our topography isn’t the Rockies but we have a hill or two, along with thick woods and endless barrens.

I was sitting next to a man who had spent 50 years hunting the most remote and inhospitable North American hotspots from Wyoming to the Arctic tundra. I can recognize an opportunity when it kicks me in the butt. With a two-hour flight well above the clouds to endure, I asked Gale for advice on mountain rifles.

We mulled over graphite stocks, alloy receivers and fluted barrels; stuff See “Right rifle,” page 27