2006-11-24

VOL. 4 ISSUE 47

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006

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GALLERY 18

IN CAMERA 8-9

Flattering the Masters at the LSPU Hall

Bodybuilders are back and ready to take the stage

REINDEER GAMES

What’s Danny to do?

New oil discoveries lead to political options; does Williams need a victory?

IVAN MORGAN

W

Gaylynne Lambert, marketing and events co-ordinator with the St. John’s Downtown Development Commission, puts the finishing touches on Blitzen, one of the reindeer featured on Santa’s float, which will anchor the annual downtown Christmas parade, Nov. 26.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Dying down

By Pam Pardy Ghent For The Independent

N

ews that Ottawa will make it easier for foreign workers to enter Canada and land jobs has spawned rumours that Alberta’s oil patch will soon dry up in terms of the demand for workers from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Henry Moores, president of CAW Local 20 at the Marystown shipyard, says he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but he has felt a change in the demand for local workers in Alberta.

“At least once or twice a week or more I would be getting calls from companies in

Demand for locals workers in Alberta oilfields may be trickling off, says Marystown union

Alberta looking for pipefitters, electricians and welders right up into September,” he tells The Independent, but things have certainly died down.

“The month of November I haven’t had one call — not one! And there were fellows told they would be working over two weeks ago and they only just left now, so if that doesn’t say things are slowing down I don’t know what it says.”

Moores says he can’t confirm that the drop in demand is because of an influx of immigrant workers, but he does say that he was told by one union member that they had a job out west, only to lose it because there was 600 foreign employees coming onto his work site for a six-

month contract.

“I can only go by what they tell me, but if you have a reduction in demand, then all you can do is assume there is a reason, and that looks like it might be why, doesn’t it?” Moores says of news that 300 Chinese tradesmen will soon be in the Alberta oil sands in response to labour shortages there.

Alberta has workforce challenges; there’s brutal competition even for low-skilled jobs.

By many accounts, employee loyalty is dead.

Hardest hit are small-business owners in the service sector, but the oil patch is also at a loss to fill some skilled trades positions. Alberta See “We have had,” page 2

Relaxing the rules

ith Husky Energy’s announcement of new reserves found on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, a crop of political questions have arisen questioning the Williams’ administration’s options regarding development of the reserves.

Are the new fields new? Or are they part of the existing White Rose field? The answer to those technical questions could make a world of difference for the provincial government’s financial and political fortunes.

If they are part of the current reserves, then they will be considered to be under the existing royalty structure, known as a generic royalty regime. They would likely be quickly developed and the revenues would soon fill provincial coffers (see related story, Good Prospects, on page 13). Possibly by $12 billion over the life of the field, an expert says, double the previous projected revenue.

If they are new fields, they could possibly be viewed as subject to a new royalty regime and potentially billions more in revenue.

But that could take years of negotiations to obtain.

In an election year, does Danny Williams need a “win” to prove that he can indeed make a deal?

Max Ruelokke, chairman and chief executive officer of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board, says it’s too early to tell what the new discoveries are.

“We have partial information from Husky on one of them, we are waiting for some additional information we would require to complete our review — we are expecting that sometime soon.”

Ruelokke says the new discoveries will fall under See “They are,” page 4

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “She says, ‘Run Mommy, run!’, and I can’t. I can’t even carry her. If something was to happen … I worry.”

— Margaret Rideout, 29, a mother living with MS. See page 17.

Common sense overhaul of 65-foot rule and other vessel regulations overdue: McCurdy

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

T

he head of the province’s largest fishermen’s union says the 65-foot rule setting the maximum length for boats prosecuting the inshore fishery needs to be rewritten to reflect industry changes.

Earle McCurdy says outdated rules and government budget cuts are causing discomfort and putting fishermen in danger.

“What we have is a reality. The 65-foot rule was brought in during a time when most of our under 65-foot vessels were fishing groundfish, primarily on day trips — out in the morning and back in the evening — fishing within 20 miles of shore,” says McCurdy, president of the Fish,

Food and Allied Workers’ union.

“Now we have people fishing shellfish, including with mobile gear — which is a stability issue. It’s a different world and we need rules to fit the current world, so provided the right policies and protection is there on owner-operator fleet separation policies, there is no reason in the world, and we would favour relaxing those rules to allow people to have appropriate safety provisions and comforts zone to do the job they are trying to do.”

He says a recent union survey shows 68 per cent of members think relaxing the 65-foot rule in very important or somewhat important. As well, 78 per cent showed a definite or possible interest in selling their enterprise if a buyout program was implemented.

With potential industry changes looming, McCurdy says the time is right for regulations to be revamped.

Any changes must take into account the nature of the fishery, distances that have to be travelled, technical aspects of the industry (freezing at sea, etc.) and safety perspectives.

McCurdy says critics who claim the union was responsible for implementing the 65-foot rule to divide the inshore from the offshore fishery are nonsense.

“Somebody could say we caused Hurricane Katrina too,” says McCurdy. “If people want to say something, they just repeat something over and over again and somehow it takes on the aura See “That is never,” page 12

STYLE 21

Johnny Ruth and Travelbug go west LIFE 19 & 20

Borat and Bond: Noreen Golfman and Tim Conway go to the movies Life Story . . . . . . .11 Voice from away . 22 Food. . . . . . . . . . . 23 Shift . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Classifieds . . . . . 32

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

The custodial management fantasy I cannot avoid coming back to the fishery. First, I congratulate federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn for obtaining $30 million to benefit the wild Atlantic salmon population in our four Atlantic provinces and Quebec. The endowment fund will assist the Atlantic Salmon Federation and its many volunteers in 125 river organizations with funding.

The Atlantic salmon recreational fishery is worth at least $200 million to Atlantic Canadian and Quebec communities and this will help that fishery grow as more runs are restored.

As a result of Greenland’s decision to suspend its commercial salmon fishery — which was killing North Atlantic salmon on their winter-feeding grounds — the salmon population grew to 701,000 in 2005 from an all-time low of 418,000 fish a few years earlier.

The $30-million fund will enable the salmon federation to better ensure the salmon that escape Greenland nets return to healthy rivers in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

I congratulate the minister also for the extra money, roughly $10.5 million, now going into DFO science.

Hopefully, this will be a start in boosting funding for resource surveys, personnel and research in DFO science.

JOHN CROSBIE

The old curmudgeon

Again congratulations to Hearn for not bowing to the hysteria of environmental fanatics who now wish to prohibit completely bottom trawling, which is neither sensible nor desirable.

There must be better control over the areas where bottom trawling can continue but a blanket prohibition would end the fisheries for shrimp, scallops and clams and impede seriously the groundfish fishery.

Trawling and dragging in sensitive areas called “sea mounts” must be avoided because of the presence of sensitive corals or spawning grounds. It is sensible to make sure before any new areas are fished that there is a full assessment to prevent dragging on seamounts or areas of sensitive corals or spawning grounds.

The minister has pointed out 28 per cent of our landings are caught by draggers, with the shrimp fishery depending entirely on trawling. The priority should be to develop technology that do less damage to the habitat with

improved separation or sorting systems The assertion of such a concept by to cut down on bycatch. DFO has to go Canada would likely mean the dissoluthe limit in protecting and preserving tion of NAFO and a situation where but also be sensible and not put a blan- Canada’s unilateral declaration could ket prohibition on trawling. not be made to stick since other states It is essential to remove the political would object and defy Canadian fantasies that governattempts to assert ments and politicians such jurisdiction. promote when under Since Canada is Why should other pressure to save fishnow a party to the eries. Our govern1982 UN Convention ments and legislators nations fishing waters on the Law of the Sea should cease promotare subject to the beyond our 200-mile we ing and wasting their mandatory dispute time on the will of the economic zone agree settlement procewisp and frivolous dures of that convenpolicies such as “custhat Canada have the tion and if forced into todial management,” dispute settlement right to mange the which we say should would lose. be given to Canada by To suggest that fisheries outside 200 other fishing nations other fishing countries over the high seas outwould voluntarily miles? side the 200-mile delegate to Canada limit. I agree with the the right to manage views of Philip fisheries on the high Saunders, dean of Dalhousie Law seas outside the current 200-mile ecoSchool, who reviewed in 2003 the legal nomic zones is to live a fantasy. Why and policy options for the management should other nations fishing North of straddling stocks and found custodi- Atlantic waters beyond our 200-mile al management incompatible with economic zone agree that Canada have international law and very likely to lead the right to mange the fisheries outside to even greater problems within the 200 miles?

NAFO management area.

Has Canada’s past administration of

fisheries inside 200 miles been so successful that the world should adopt the Canadian policy and management?

Let’s be serious! There are several fishing nations whose fishery policies have had much greater success than Canada, including the adoption of rights-based fisheries in New Zealand, Iceland and Norway. Those are the examples that Canada should be following — not concocting fantasies where the rest of the fishing world concedes to Canada the right to manage fisheries outside Canada’s own 200-mile limit on the high seas.

Our authorities in charge of fisheries, both federal and provincial, would be more usefully engaged if they changed our management regime to rights-based fisheries rather than the present common-property system with thousands of government regulations and ineffective enforcement. In Canada each fishing season is an evermore harrowing hitech race to catch an unpredictable share of a dwindling resource!

As Tennyson wrote in his poem Ulysses “Oh come my friends ’tis not too late to seek a newer world.” This is particularly so, not only in the fisheries of Canada, but of the world.

John Crosbie’s column returns Dec. 8.

‘We have had nothing but success with Newfoundland employees’ From page 1 has 15,000 temporary foreign workers and the province wants to double that number in order to fill key positions.

Gary Brenton, human resource manager for Kiewit Offshore Services, which runs the Marystown shipyard, says he hasn’t heard Newfoundlanders will be replaced by foreign workers in Alberta. “Kiewit is only one employer up there (in Alberta), so you’d have to check with them all to get a better sense, but there is still a lot of work to be done so I can’t see them putting anyone with experience aside,” he says.

Many Newfoundlanders are employed in Alberta on a rational basis — for example, six weeks on and two weeks off. Companies often pay for a Newfoundland employee’s airfare back and forth to the province.

It isn’t known whether the rotation schedule will make local workers less appealing than foreign workers willing to work for six-month stints.

Brenton estimates that there are about 5,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians working in Alberta now who aren’t on a rotational schedule. It isn’t known how many are working on the rotational schedule.

Kerri Johnson, general manager of workforce development for Flint, an Alberta construction company, says her company wants to grow, not decrease, its eastern Canadian workforce. “We will take any trade you have there,” she says, adding Flint will hire a Canadian worker before they would consider hiring from outside the country “in every circumstance.”

She does offer that foreign workers are a great “supplementary workforce.

“The fact is that we don’t always have enough journeymen to fill the positions we need and by law we need to have a one-to-one ratio of journeymen to apprentices and we just can’t find enough journeymen to do that in the compulsory (pipefitters, ironworkers, etc.) trades.” That’s when foreign workers fill in. “We couldn’t hire the Canadian apprentices to get the experience in some cases if we didn’t hire a journeymen from outside Canada,” she explains.

Johnson says that Flint hires 35 per cent of its workforce from eastern Canada; five per cent from Ontario; 20 per cent from Alberta; and 30 per cent from western Canada. “As you can see, foreign workers are a small part of the puzzle,” she says.

Flint has no plans to get rid of the flight plans they have in place for

employees, and the rotational plan stays. “I can tell you that we have had nothing but success with Newfoundland employees,” Johnson says. She laughs and adds that the other “groups” have to integrate with the Newfoundlanders if they want to fit in.

“Newfoundlanders have a strong presence here,” she says. It is a presence that Flint wants to increase, not decrease.

“There is a misconception out there that at times Canadians are not given that first opportunity,” she says, but that just isn’t the case.

Matt Mackenzie, recruitment manager with Kiewit Energy, says the company does not layoff or replace Canadian workers with foreign workers.

Newfoundlanders, he says, are quite safe. “They make up probably around 50 per cent of our workforce.”

“It is completely business as usual,” Mackenzie says, adding that Newfoundland is, and will continue to be, well represented within Kiewit’s workforce.

“Our percentage of foreign workers are less than our competitors,” he says, adding that there is actually no benefit to hiring from outside Canada besides filling a job. “It’s 100 per cent false when they talk expense,” he says.

“Foreign workers get paid and treated the same as Canadian workers, this is not how this works,” he says.

Johnson urges Newfoundlanders to keep bringing their skills west. “Right now this very second I’m looking for 50 journeymen pipefitters, so come on up,” she says.

“We have a toll free number 1-866GO-FLINT,” she laughs. “Get the word out there.”

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

N

ewfoundlanders and Labradorians don’t trust charities like they used to, according to a recent nation-wide poll.

The October survey shows that while Canada’s faith in charities has held firm since 2000, in Newfoundland and Labrador the level of trust has dropped 12 percentage points — from a high of 91 per cent in 2004 to 79 per cent this year.

The recent public opinion poll of Canadians on their views about charities conducted by Alberta’s Muttart Foundation shows while provincial trust in charities is dropping, it remains high.

Bob Wyatt, the foundation’s executive director, says he was surprised by the Newfoundland and Labrador results, but says he’s too far removed from the province to speak authoritatively.

“The study simply asks their views, and doesn’t get into the why questions,” Wyatt tells The Independent.

“There are people in Newfoundland and Labrador who I suspect may have better views than mine in terms of what happened, but yes, some of the changes surprised me.

“Obviously something has made the people of Newfoundland and Labrador more negative towards charities than they were two years ago,” he says. “I can tell you that were I a leader in the charitable sector in Newfoundland and Labrador I would be asking some questions about these numbers.”

Derek DeLouche, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador chapter of the Children’s Wish Foundation, who has read the report, says he suspects a number of factors are contributing to the decline in faith. He says negative media coverage of fundraising scams, the aggressive tactics of some organizations, donor fatigue, and an increased number of charities have all contributed to the drop.

But the drop has to be kept in perspective.

“If you look at it, there are still 79 per cent of Newfoundlanders and

Salvation Army kettle at the Village Mall in St. John’s.

Paul Daly /The Independent

Losing faith?

Attitudes towards charities

Survey indicates shift in provincial perception of charities Labradorians who feel charities are honest about the way they use donations,” says DeLouche. “So we are down, but it is still very high.”

Peter Dawe, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador division of the Canadian Cancer Society, who has not yet seen the report, says people in the province want more information on their charities before they make a decision to give.

He also sees negative media, an increase in the number of charities and the aggressive fundraising techniques of some charities as contributing to the drop in trust.

“We would never do telemarketing because I personally think it is intrusive, it is aggressive, it is a high-pres-

sure way to fundraise and a lot of the money doesn’t go to charity anyway — the vast majority of the money goes to the company doing the calls,” says Dawe. “There are organizations that do that with cancer in their name and we get phone calls saying ‘I am not going to donate to you anymore because you do telemarketing.’”

Dawe and DeLouche both say the long-term findings of the report show the public is interested in having more information about charities and their operations, which is a good trend. “(This) is a great sign for us,” says DeLouche. “Because the more informed donor is liable to volunteer and become more active in your activities. That is a positive thing for us in the

ness in the operations of charities.

“If you have one or two situations where someone got burned by a fraudulent fundraising activity which is not in fact a charity — it may colour people’s opinion of a charity.”

Rowe says that although the data is open to interpretation, the overall result of the survey is positive.

“When I read this report, this is a good news report,” she says.

“Because you learn that people’s regard for charities is very high compared to a lot of other official professions, and governments and businesses.

Again, charities are usually at the top of that curve.”

The study also shows that compared with other regions of Canada, people in this province are most likely to agree that a legal limit should be paced on the amount of money charities can spend on fundraising — 60 per cent are least likely to think that a proportion of their donations go to operating costs, and 92 per cent are most likely to think that running a business is a good way to raise money that charities aren’t able to get through grants and donations.

The report shows Canadians in general have concerns about fundraising and the transparency of operations. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

industry, because the more people get involved, the more they take an ownership and the more they put into the charity.”

“Thank heavens one of the issues is that people are getting smarter,” says Dawe. He says informed citizens make smarter use of their donations and “understand what we do and then make an intelligent decision whether you want to support us or not.”

Penelope Rowe, executive director of the Community Services Council, says the sample size of the survey may have affected the results, and the results of the survey show an overall drop in only five per cent from 2000, but factoring in those caveats, people in the province are showing more caution and aware-

• 86 per cent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are very/somewhat familiar with what charities do.

• 74 per cent think charities have too little money.

• 51 per cent think it’s appropriate that some of their donation go towards operating costs.

• 60 per cent think a limit should be set on fundraising expenses.

• 55 per cent want more information even if it costs the charity.

• Number of charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency in NL: 1,189 Results of a poll released in October by Muttart Foundation

SCRUNCHINS A weekly collection Newfoundlandia

of

S

crunchins begins this week on a legal note, and the threat of a lawsuit against The Independent by Bob Simmonds, one of the top defence lawyers in St. John’s. Simmonds defended Richard Parsons, the man convicted Nov. 2 of the hit-and-run death of Matthew Churchill, 15, in March 2005. Simmonds had a problem with a guest column by Deborah Burton of Mount Pearl.

The column, headlined ‘When a dead child is valued less than a poached moose,’ was critical of Simmonds. The judge gave Parsons six months in jail, a sentence that caused a furor, partly because Simmonds told the court he was working on an appeal.

In a letter to The Independent, Thomas O’Reilly, Simmonds’ lawyer, wrote, “There are a number of untrue, disparaging and defamatory imputations” contained in the guest column that reflected negatively on his client’s reputation. The letter demanded the paper immediately submit the draft of a “clear and unqualified” apology and retraction for publication “in an equally conspicuous position in a subsequent issue of The Independent appearing within the next week.”

Failure to do so would result in “proceedings in Supreme Court.” It’s been a week … but in case it wasn’t obvious, The Independent won’t be issuing an apology. The guest column appeared in the Nov. 10 edition. Four days later, on Nov. 14, Simmonds said Parsons had consulted with his family and decided not to appeal the six-month sentence. Good advice …

QUICK REHASH To quote the CBC website: “Simmonds has said the public’s reaction to the case was informed largely by the impression that Parsons was drunk at the time of the collision. No evidence was presented in court to prove that Parsons was drunk, although court heard he had consumed three large, freely poured glasses of rum and cola with a family member. Simmonds contended the Pepsi in the drinks was responsible for a sugar-induced blackout. Authorities were unable to determine blood alcohol levels because Parsons did not turn himself into police for several days.” Shockin’ …

CORNER BOY Breakwater released a wicked little book this week, A Corner Boy Remembers, Growing up in St. John’s,

by Frank Kennedy, a one-time photographer with the defunct Daily News and, later, the CBC. Kennedy has been around the block, to the point he remembers buying his first camera, a Baby Brownie, at the age of 16 for $1.20.

(Paul Daly couldn’t get a lens cap for that.) Kennedy has memories of the earthquake and tidal wave of 1929 (his house in Town shook so much that his father sent him to check the furnace and hot-water boiler).

My favourite story is about how the Hindenburg nearly crashed in Newfoundland. (You’ve got to read the book to learn the details.) Wrote Kennedy, “The arrival (July 4, 1936) over the city was unannounced and hundreds of children playing in the streets and their back gardens rushed into their homes telling their mothers to “Come out and see the big balloon!” The Hindenburg went down in flames 10 months later over Lakehurst, New Jersey, taking 36 passengers with it …

HAIL HARVEY In its December issue, Quill and Quire (Canada’s book-publishing magazine) names Inside, a book by Newfoundland author Kenneth J. Harvey, one of five best fiction books in Canada for 2006. A sample of reviews: “Shout Harvey’s name from the rooftops … buy this book. Inside is marvelous, strange, beautiful, sad … always utterly potent. There is no other writer like him, Canadian or otherwise.” (The Globe and Mail) “A tough, unrelenting novel, thrilling and dark-

ly eloquent and, in the end, a celebration of what life offers in even the harshest of circumstances.”

(John Banville, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea) DALY BREAD The Independent’s own Paul Daly has a new book out, Straight Shooter, a collection of his editorial shots from Newfoundland and Labrador and around the world. In his book, the mad Irishman includes a shot of a crab fisherman on a page across from a seal, Stephen Harper beside former NAPE president Leo Puddister, Mother Theresa next to Pope John Paul II, Mary Walsh and Rick Boland up against stars of the film The Commitments, and U2’s Bono over the way from singer-songwriter Ron Hynes. I know I’m biased (although Chapters gave Straight Shooter a fivestar rating) but I say that coffee tables around the province will be naked without Daly’s book …

THE CLAP Speaking of Bono, I was e-mailed a story this week about the Irish musician and a recent gig in Glasgow.

Bono apparently got the whole crowd to be silent and then slowly began clapping his hands. He got the crowd to clap along, the stadium hushed except for the rhythmic Paul Daly photo clapping. After a short spell Bono spoke, saying that every time he clapped his hands an African child died. Suddenly, from the front row of the venue, a voice broke out in thick Scottish brogue, ending the silence as it echoed across the crowd, “Well stop f—ing doing it then!” ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

‘They are special contracts’ From page 1 the generic royalty regime, which was put in place at the time to apply to all projects beyond Terra Nova.

“What you have over Hibernia and Terra Nova is contractual royalties, so they are special contracts that are signed by the government,” he says.

“So under that philosophy anything new, including this one, would be captured by that, so it would appear to be the same kind of royalty regime — in fact, exactly the same royalty regime as applies to the White Rose project,” Ruelokke tells The Independent. “However there have to be discussions about royalties between governments and the operator. We don’t participate in those discussions.”

There is speculation over the nature of those discussions, especially given the Williams administration’s stand on the Hebron field.

Liberal Opposition leader Gerry Reid says politically the Williams administration needs a favourable deal — a “win” — on these new discoveries.

“There is no doubt about it.”

Reid says if the oil can be pumped using the current FPSO platform at White Rose, then that will be how they do it. But if the fields are independent, and a new platform has to be used, then he has questions about the benefits for the province.

“When you look at benefits to the province, not only are you talking royalties, but you are talking about other benefits, in terms of jobs on land,” says Reid. “For example, if they needed a rig … and they just go out and lease one, then obviously there are not going to be benefits to the people of the province in terms of construction and things like that.”

Reid says that would be a loss for the province, as the only benefit will

Max Ruelokke

be royalties. On each of the other projects the province also got spin-off benefits in terms of major engineering and construction jobs.

“He (Williams) is going to be in a bit of a bind there, because if he says go ahead and lease yourself a rig and come and come back and suck this bit of oil up then obviously we are not getting the most benefits from our resources,” says Reid, adding that would contradict the premier’s past stance on resource development.

“What the premier has been saying since day one — even when he was in opposition — no resource giveaways — that may be interpreted as a weakness.”

Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale doesn’t think the premier is under any pressure to produce a “win.”

“We don’t think so. We think he wins all the time.”

She says it’s too early to speculate on how the government is going to deal with these new discoveries. They are waiting on more details.

“We have fundamentals that guide us in the development of our resources … we will look at the economics, the environment and the safety considerations and decide what gives the province the most benefit.”

When asked if these are the same fundamentals that led to the decision to leave oil in the ground on Hebron, Dunderdale says “Yes, but it is way too early to speculate on this.

“We are always going to look out for the best interests of the people in the province,” she says. “And if we think those interests are served then our actions will be determined. We have no reason to speculate that is the goal at this point in time.”

Reid says it’s a good possibility that Williams could treat this discovery as he is treating Hebron. “He is going to have to make some tough decisions.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Paul Daly/The Independent

Premier Danny Williams in the House of Assembly this week.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Optics: fibre and political Debate on fibre-optic deal dominates first week of new session of the House

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

T

he Opposition spent the first week of the new session of the House of Assembly hammering away at the Danny Williams administration over what they see as government’s political vulnerability on a deal involving former business associates of the premier.

Ed Byrne wasn’t the only thing placed on the backburner, as other House business was all but ignored in the face of the flap over the fibre-optic deal.

Opposition leader Gerry Reid says they are not about to let up any time soon.

“We are going to pursue it,” Reid tells The Independent.

The Opposition is gambling that the electorate will continue to be curious about the details and nature of the deal that sees the government putting $15 million into a consortium that will build a second fibre-optic network to compete with Aliant, which currently holds a provincial monopoly.

House theatrics were on the highest setting, with strong accusations and the premier’s temper flaring over remarks thrown across the floor of the legislature. Trevor Taylor was the star of the show, jousting with Reid and using quick wit, good humour and passion to defend the government. His performance was in sharp contrast to the premier’s often visible anger.

Taylor’s skills will likely be in

“The premier is on record as saying this deal is squeaky clean and there is nothing to hide,” demand again next week, according to Reid, who says the Opposition will be digging deeper into the deal.

“The premier is on record as saying this deal is squeaky clean and there is nothing to hide,” Reid says. “If there’s

not, then why not go ahead with it (a public accounts investigation)?”

He says every time the Opposition gets an answer to a question they have on the deal, it brings up more questions.

Reid says he asked one of the officials how they arrived at the sum of $15 million as their share in the consortium.

He said he was told the company said they needed $15 million.

“I told him to go back and find a more suitable answer simply than the company asked for it.”

Reid also points out that almost half the overland cable in this deal is going to be in Nova Scotia, according to an independent report that Taylor issued.

“Once they land in Nova Scotia in Cape Breton they are going to take that line right through to Halifax, and as they go through Nova Scotia,” says Reid.

“They are going to be allowed to pick up the universities on Cape Breton Island and other places — they are going to make money on that.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Foreign fishermen rescued for free

By Mandy Cook The Independent

A

Spanish fisherman who suffered an appendicitis attack on the high seas outside Canada’s 200mile limit earlier this week was rescued by a Canadian Cormorant helicopter — free of charge.

The man was flown to St. John’s airport, transferred to an ambulance, brought to hospital and treated on the taxpayer’s dime.

Two days earlier, on Nov. 17, another Spanish fisherman was medevaced from

his vessel off the island’s southeast coast for medical reasons.

Crewmembers from foreign vessels, particularly fishing trawlers, are rescued every year from the waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.

Lieut. Laura Collier, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence, couldn’t provide a figure on the number of rescues carried out this year, or in recent years.

Collier also couldn’t say how much is spent on emergency rescues on an individual basis, nor provide the total amounts from this year or past years.

Home countries of injured or ailing fishermen rescued by Canadian search and rescue are not billed for the service, says Collier.

In accordance with a treaty struck at the 1979 Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, the International Maritime Organization divided the world’s oceans into 13 search and rescue areas for which individual countries are responsible for picking up rescue costs.

If a Canadian seaman were to fall ill in international waters, the closest participating coastal state would dispatch a rescue vehicle to retrieve the sick per-

son.

Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union, says the treaty makes sense.

“If it’s a life-threatening situation it would be logical,” says McCurdy. “It’s pretty hard to argue that if there’s a crew member on a boat in distress the nearest authorities who are able to rescue them should do so.”

Collier says distress calls are answered in two ways. A call may come in for assistance via radio through one of the coast guard radio stations and then transferred to a joint rescue co-ordina-

tion centre. A call may also be received through 911 and similarly routed through to a rescue co-ordination centre.

Collier says at that point an investigation begins and a rescue vehicle is dispatched once the distress call is confirmed.

There is a Cormorant helicopter base located in Gander, and Greenwood, Nova Scotia. The Department of National Defence also uses fixed-wing Hercules aircraft for search and rescue. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

stories from here here Pu s h i n g t h e b o u n d a r i e s o f p o s s i b i l i t y.

Petro-Canada supports innovative research by directly investing in new ideas for both business and community. That’s why we created the Petro-Canada Young Innovators Awards Program, launched here at Memorial University in 1998. To date Petro-Canada has recognized 130 award recipients from 24 institutions across Canada.

We continue to invest in research vital to the growth of our community with leaders such as Dr. Jeffery Pittman, Young Innovator Award recipient for 2005 and Dr. Yvan Rose, Young Innovator Award recipient for 2006.

Dr. Pittman has pioneered research that identifies which financial statement characteristics investors’ value most as they relate to market confidence and corporate credit ratings. His significant contribution in this area of commerce will improve the quality of financial reporting.

Dr. Jeffrey Pittman, Young Innovator 2005.

Dr. Rose has developed new technology in the area of speech sciences that is advancing our understanding of how children acquire language. His work has led to a software program that can give detailed information about speech patterns. This program is the foundation for a powerful open source database, available to those working in language acquisition and speech disorders around the world.

Petro-Canada and Memorial University‘s resourceful partnership results directly in the wealth and well-being of our communities and our province.

Leaders in innovation.

Part of your community.

www.petro-canada.ca

Dr. Yvan Rose, Young Innovator 2006.

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

‘Giving up on him?’

Sister of missing fisherman unhappy with police investigation

By Mandy Cook The Independent

E

ver since the night Lona Pickett’s 24-year-old brother Danny failed to return to the fishing boat he called home, she says the Constabulary has been “beating around the bush” regarding the now month-old missingperson investigation.

Daniel Joseph Pickett was last seen at a downtown bar Oct. 24. He telephoned his twin brother Dennis from another bar an hour later and discussed working on the Newfoundland Tradition together next year. Danny hasn’t been heard from since.

Lona Pickett says it was several days after Danny’s disappearance that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary took a statement from Dennis, who originally reported Danny missing.

Daniel Pickett

Lona and the Pickett family also question why a search of St. John’s harbour — where the Newfoundland Tradition was docked and where Danny was to return at the end of the night —

occurred on Oct. 30, five days after Dennis filed a missing-person report.

Const. Shawn O’Reilly, spokesperson for the RNC, says the force is doing everything they can to search for the missing fisherman.

“Loved ones, I can understand where they’re coming from, but we have a policy that we follow and in this case we feel we’ve done a thorough job to date searching for Mr. Pickett.”

O’Reilly says Dennis reported his twin missing Oct. 26th at 1:00 a.m. and within 25 minutes a patrolling officer questioned employees on George Street and canvassed the area. O’Reilly says the RNC didn’t search the water in St. John’s harbour sooner because they had no reason to believe Danny would have fallen in. O’Reilly says the “vast majority” of cases solve themselves within a couple of hours or in one or two days

and it is therefore typical for police to initially assume a missing person has not met with foul play.

On Oct. 31, the RNC conducted a downtown search on horseback and another search along the Waterford River with a canine unit, in addition to a ground search on foot.

Lona Pickett says the only way she and her family can get information regarding Danny’s case is if they contact the RNC themselves. She says she spoke to the officer working on Danny’s case on Nov. 18 and asked him to call her at the end of the day regardless if he had news — good or bad. The officer never followed up.

“It’s frustrating and hard not knowing if they’re doing anything or giving up on him,” says Lona.

O’Reilly says he and most officers usually contact family members

involved in police investigations once a week. He says police would like to call with promising information but sometimes there are no changes to report. He believes the officer working on Danny’s case is making adequate contact with the Pickett family.

“In this case we’ve kept the family up to date and if any other leads come in we’ll follow up on them.”

When asked what she and her family do next, Lona replies quickly.

“Sit back and wait. We know the worst is going to come up out of it now, because it’s been too long for our liking.”

If you have any information regarding Daniel Pickett, please contact the RNC Communications Centre at 7298000 or contact the nearest RCMP detachment. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

‘Strange thing from the bottom of the deep’ Province portrayed in negative light in European travel guides

By Mike Flynn For The Independent

A

Kayaking in Labrador.

Paul Daly/The Independent

United Kingdom professor says European travellers are being misled about Newfoundland and Labrador by Rough Guides, a series of travel guidebooks around since 1982.

Rough Guides provides cultural and historical background of tourist destinations around the world.

Dr. Mike Robinson, chair of tourism and culture at Leeds Metropolitan University and director of the U.K.’s Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, says the guidebooks portray the province in a negative light.

The books are outdated, but because they are considered the bible of travel guides in Europe, they often serve to discourage travel to the province. Robinson, who visited Corner Brook in October, says he dropped by several communities described in the guides and found what he read often wasn’t true.

The introduction to the Newfoundland section begins with a quote by an American clergyman named Robert Lowell, who describes Newfoundland as “a monstrous mass of rock and gravel, almost without soil, like a strange thing from the bottom of the deep, lifted up, suddenly, into sunshine and storm.”

Lowell was a Church of England priest who spent two terms in Bay Roberts in the mid1800s and wrote New Priest in Conception Bay, the first novel describing first-hand life in Newfoundland.

Rough Guides describes Lowell’s quote as “an apt evocation of this fearsome island.”

Newfoundland’s distant position between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence has fostered “a distinct, inward-looking culture that has been unfairly caricatured by many Canadians in the stereotype of the dim “newfie.

“This ridicule can be traced to the poverty of

SHIPPING NEWS

K

eeping an eye on the comings and goings of the ships in St. John’s harbour.

Information provided by the Coast Guard Traffic Centre.

FRIDAY Vessels Arrived: Maersk Chancellor, Canada, from White Rose; Appak, Canada, Harbour Grace; Teleost, Canada, from sea; Hudson, Canada, from Dartmouth.

SATURDAY Vessels Arrived: Dorsea, Canada, from Long Pond.

Vessels Departed: Maersk Norseman, Canada, to Hibernia; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, to Terra Nova; Teleost, Canada, to sea; Monge, France, to sea.

SUNDAY Vessels Arrived: Ann Harvey, Canada, from sea; Cabot, Canada, from Montreal.

Vessels Departed: Newfoundland Alert; Canada, to fishing grounds.

MONDAY Vessels Arrived: Tuvaq, Canada, from Goose Bay; ASL Sanderling, Canada, from Halifax; Maersk Challenger, Canada, from Terra Nova.

Vessels Departed: Newfoundland Alert, Canada, to fishing; Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; Point Vim, Canada, to Bay Roberts.

TUESDAY Vessels Arrived: Maersk Nascopie, Canada, from Hibernia; Atlantic Osprey, Canada, from White Rose.

Vessels Departed: ASL Sanderling, Canada, to Halifax; Maersk Challenger, Canada, to Terra Nova.

WEDNESDAY Vessels Arrived: Atlantic Eagle, Canada, from Terra Nova; Atlantic Kingfisher, Canada, from Terra Nova; Atlantic Hawk, Canada, from Halifax.

Vessels Departed: Maersk Nascopie, Canada, to Hibernia.

the islanders, the impenetrability of their dialect — an eclectic and versatile mix of Irish and English — and even to their traditional food. Fish and chips, the favourite dish, is reasonable enough in the eyes of most people, but many stomachs churn at stand-bys such as cod tongues, fried bread dough and seal flipper pie.”

The description of some communities would make tourism stakeholders cringe. The authors have a habit of first listing the positive aspects of a community and then blind-siding readers with a negative comment sure to keep potential tourists away. In some cases some of the information is completely erroneous.

Harbour Grace is described as being situated on the Avalon Peninsula, a roughly “rectangular” slab of land connected to the rest of the island. It is “an elongated village,” the prettiest settlement in Conception Bay. Having described the beauty of the town, the authors conclude by saying there is no reason to spend more than a couple of hours there.

Heart’s Content, located in Trinity Bay, is said to be approached from Harbour Grace in Conception Bay when, in fact, it is approached from Victoria, near Carbonear. The guide provides a brief history of the Labrador coast from Blanc Sablon to Red Bay and says the livyers in the area trained Labrador retrievers to catch any fish that fell off the hook.

The Burin Peninsula doesn’t fare well in the guide — described as being “bony.” The highway through the area “starts promisingly with the melodramatic scenery of the Piper’s Hole River estuary where there’s excellent fishing and nearby hiking trails. After that the journey runs across bog-filled plateau, seemingly impenetrable, and probably not worth the time for most. The main reason for traveling the Burin peninsula highway is to catch the ferry to St. Pierre.”

The Town of Fortune is dismissed as a destination if you’re planning to visit the French

The Burin Peninsula doesn’t fare well in the guide — described as being “bony.”

islands.

Tourists are informed that if they take the Gulf ferry to the province, they shouldn’t expect too much in Port aux Basques. “Apart from the ferries, there’s no possible reason to come here, but in emergencies it’s useful to know that there’s a clutch of reasonably priced accommodations in the town.”

Even Corner Brook is said to be a city where there is not much to do or see. It’s essentially a pulp and paper town and a large mill on its waterfront pours out smoke from its stack.

Deer Lake is said to have fairly convenient accommodations but no decent restaurants.

Visitors are encouraged to eat in motel dining rooms or grab a snack at convenience stores.

In central Newfoundland, Gander is portrayed as an inconsequential town. There is no reason to stop there unless you have to. Its neighbour, Grand Falls-Windsor, doesn’t fare much better. The guide describes it as a company town, a singularly unprepossessing place built up around the paper mill that towers over the Exploits River.

St. John’s is described as the island’s only significant town and the obvious place to start a visit for its museums, flourishing folk music scene and easy access to the Witless Bay sea bird reserve.

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

Head games F

ree your mind and go along with me on this one … the date of the next provincial election may be set in legislative stone (Oct. 9, 2007), but what are the chances we’ll be called to the polls before that, this winter even?

Let’s say Stephen Harper sticks it to Danny and fiddles with the equalization formula, taking back some of the Atlantic Accord cash that our premier managed to squeeze from the Ottawa rock.

We’ll go off our heads — stark, raving mental for sure — but what would Harper care? So he could lose one measly Newfoundland seat. (Loyola Hearn, like John Efford before him, could potentially lose his head over this one. Norm Doyle’s riding would be safe; Norm’s got that wickedly soothing grandfather voice going for him.)

Potential political gains in Quebec — which would win under the proposed equalization changes — are much greater. (Isn’t that always the way?)

Keep in mind the federal Conservatives backtracked on their election promise to avoid taxing income trusts. The promise to little old Newfoundland and Labrador pales in comparison to that central Canadian whopper.

What will Danny do with his back to

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander the wall again … besides verbally blacken the prime minister’s lamps?

Remember the haymaker to the head the PM took in Gander? Harper was practically carried to the Challenger jet on a gurney. (MHA Kathy Goudie wasn’t pushing it … more on that in a moment.)

The question has been asked before: What will be Danny’s next “or else?”

It took pulling down Canadian flags to get the Accord victory in the first place — what move could top that in terms of the “dire circumstances” Danny has warned the feds about in recent months?

There’s pulling out of Canada and declaring independence — separation is always the ultimate threat, although there’s the question of the public’s appetite for going it alone, not to mention our ability to manage our own affairs. Our track record isn’t exactly sterling (see surrendering of democracy in favour of commission government, 1934-1949).

Joining the U.S. is another alternative; no worries about foreign overfishing then with the American navy playing war games on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Spanish and Portuguese wouldn’t be long pulling in their illegal nets and hightailing for the pirate ports they come from.

A far more probable alternative would be for Williams to call a snap election, to drive our displeasure home to Ottawa, to unite all 510,000 strong in a message to the mainland — don’t mess with us. An election would also turn attentions away from the fibre-optic deal and the fuss that appears to be driving Danny off his head. The opposition, not to mention the media, go wild at the smell of political blood in the legislative waters. The Liberals know Danny’s buttons and they’ll push them as long as they spark a jerk in Danny’s body politic — it’s called, what’s the word? … politics.

The Independent posed the possibility of a snap election to Opposition leader Gerry Reid. He says Danny would have to change the legislation governing the set election date — and he has the majority in the House to do it. “But it wouldn’t look good for him.”

Industry Minister Kathy Dunderdale, who flies in the premier’s inner circle,

says there’s been “absolutely no discussion” of a snap election.

She says it would have to be an “absolutely extraordinary circumstance, in my view, that would take us off this course.”

Dunderdale adds: “ I can tell you two things: I have not heard a whisper of any such plan, and I say that to you as a senior cabinet minister.”

STRANGE DAZE Stranger things have happened in provincial politics — although maybe not. Moving on to the juicy story of the last week or so … Humber Valley Tory MHA Kathy Goudie disappeared from the Newfoundland map recently to take a nursing job up north.

It’s one thing to keep your nursing licence current by taking a shift here and there at a local hospital; it’s another thing to take off to Iqaluit for a couple of weeks (where the pay is up to $40,000 a year more). That doesn’t say much for nursing wages here at home — and nurses just signed a spanking new contract. I understand it’s your business where you go on vacation, Kathy, but since when are MHAs entitled to time off? Kathy must have been absent the day the rulebook was handed out (The Independent

wasn’t). Kathy, Kathy, Kathy — it’s almost like you’re only in it for the money. Maybe someone should have a look into MHA compensation? Oh right, that’s what the auditor general and chief justice are up to …

CROSBIE CRITTER Finally this week, a parting shot at The Independent’s own twice-a-month columnist, John Crosbie (page 2 this week). The great, great grandfather of provincial politics (in his own mind … what can I say, I’m a s—t disturber) says custodial management is a pipe dream in terms of controlling foreign overfishing on the Grand Banks. I’m not about to cancel Crosbie’s column — even though he’s dead wrong (about Loyola Hearn, too). Opinions are opinions, which is what makes a newspaper a wonderful thing. A last word on Canada’s decision not to support a ban on bottom trawling … the stand confuses me. On the one hand our fish stocks have been wiped off the face of the Grand Banks; on the other hand Ottawa won’t even consider letting up a tad on the fishing effort.

God help us every one. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

YOUR VOICE ‘Roaring laughs guaranteed’ Dear editor, The province’s annual farce is tittering to a “growth area” near you.

Starring Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan, every mayor, union leader, and special-interest group is encouraged to don a gas mask and attend.

Roaring laughs are guaranteed and indexed. Sullivan will huff and puff and, like a bloated red sculpin, roar in unknown tongues about less oil, less taxes, too many communities, and too many needs.

Make sure requests are written on thin paper that can be quickly shredded or easily dissolved in the toilet.

Keep it simple: potholes, brush-cutting, grading cabin roads, more moose licences. Don’t mention minimum wage, special-needs teachers, high ferry rates, or jobs for youth eyeing U-hauls. If you bring up the missing

rural economic plan promised three years ago, the minister will take a fit.

What a laugh! Take a pill, boy.

Last year’s list will do. Nothing has changed since the last show. You’ll feel better after your two minutes are up. Proven therapy prior to winter’s blasts when oil and electricity consumption dramatically increase.

Bring your scissors and lighter. All government documents must be shredded and burned prior to the next election when they might be called to account. Shredders will be available next fall when MHAs come out of their dens prior to a provincial vote.

Expect to see big yellow shredders tearing up highways and laying fresh black top.

Jim Combden, Badger’s Quay

Head for the hills if you golfed with Danny Dear editor, Well, that’s it. I guess I’m going to have to go live in the hills. Why you ask? Because I happen to have lived on the same street as Danny Williams and his family for a few years in the ’70s and our daughters played together when they were very young. That means (according to the Liberals) I have to move. The new Liberal law states that if you happen to know, be a friend of, played golf with, or walked on the same side of the street that passed Danny’s house, you cannot do business with the Newfoundland and Labrador government. You had better load up the U-Haul and get out of Dodge.

The fibre-optic deal will bring jobs and benefits to the province (too many to list here), but now I guess we’ll spend this sitting of the House of Assembly listening to the Liberals waste our tax dollars discussing why it should not go ahead. The Liberals criticize government for not creating jobs and criticize them when they do. Let the process follow its proper path.

By that, I mean let the auditor general do his investigation first and let him decide if a public inquiry is necessary. The pre-

‘A diatribe against me’

mier agreed to the auditor general looking into the contract, which the Liberals demanded, but as soon as it reached the public accounts committee, Fearless Eddie Joyce and his gang of fearless fighters demanded a “public inquiry.”

That’s what is called putting the horse before the cart. It is also called small-time politics.

Everyone knows that you first let the auditor general do his job first.

I don’t care what your political stripe is, if you can bring an industry to our province and help stop the out-migration then you have my blessings. Living in Newfoundland makes it impossible to do any type of business without knowing someone.

Don Lester, Conception Bay South

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: Dr. Deepa Khosla, a political scientist who joined Memorial University in August, 2005 as an assistant professor, passed away from natural causes on Nov. 21, 2005. After her death, members of Khosla’s family and fellow scholars from outside Memorial alleged she felt a lack of support for her safety and an unwelcoming environment for women at the university. Dr. Shirley Katz, an association professor at York University, conducted the investigation. The report was released earlier this month. The following guest column is written by Ranee Panjabi, a fellow professor at Memorial and Khosla’s closest friend.

I

write to share with your readers my serious concerns about the process and the results of the “investigation” undertaken by Dr. Shirley Katz, who was appointed by the president of Memorial University to investigate the employment situation of my very good friend and faculty colleague, Dr. Deepa Khosla, who died tragically soon after her arrival in St. John’s.

I have served at Memorial since 1969, hold the rank of full professor of history, and as I am legally qualified, have also served our province as a labour standards adjudicator and labour relations arbitrator. I would be prepared to testify to the truth of this letter.

During her brief term at Memorial, Deepa and I had both expressed serious concerns to the president about the reappearance in my department of an individual, now in his mid 30s, who has been a student at MUN since 1993. The man has earned a BA and MA but continues to this day to take undergraduate courses in my department.

When I taught this individual (who took several of my courses), he resorted to stalking me on the campus, an ordeal that caused me terrible stress.

About two years after he took his last course with me, he wrote two crank complaints to the administration, alleging that while he was my student in a course, I had traumatized him.

Records revealed that after the alleged traumatizing, he returned and took another course with me. His complaints lacked credibility. I have learned that this person has a lengthy history of

unilaterally selected and appointed a mid-level administrator from a mainRANEE land university and set the frame of refPUNJABI erence for an “investigation.” I had hoped that a retired Newfoundland Guest column judge would conduct the investigation.

Having serious legally-grounded generating problems for some women doubts about the process and convinced at Memorial and the refusal of the that the result would not assist Deepa’s administration to address this matter cause, on the basis of legal advice, I resolutely and the inexplicable support declined involvement. for his continuation on the campus When the Katz report surfaced, albeit from the president, have complicated in censored form, my concerns were the situation considerably. confirmed. Although I took no part in As Deepa’s closest friend in St. this “procedure,” I have figured on at John’s, I am aware of the serious con- least 57 of the 128 pages of the report, cern she experienced before I had even disparagingly, with selective expedient met her about being accosted by this mission of crucial fact to garnish a consame individual near her home and then clusion that the individual who being badgered harassed Deepa by him at her and me was not office to enter one a threat, that the of her courses. administrators When the interim acted with utter dean of arts told good faith and her that this stuso on.

Most insidious of all dent could enter The report, has been the insinuation in the winter replete with semester 2005hearsay and that I exaggerated Deepa’s 06, Deepa’s gossip, is mainapprehensions ly a diatribe reactions and was increased. The against me, it responsible for c o n t r a d i c t o r y, says little about inept reactions of Deepa and too her apprehensions. university adminlittle about the istrators added to many other her concerns. women and Deepa and I men who grew to trust and bravely came to seek to protect forward with each other from the threat we both genuine concerns of their own. I was faced. The individual had in 2005 also appalled to see how Dr. Katz gave their written a third complaint against me, serious situations short shrift. Most but this time the document confirmed insidious of all has been the insinuation that he was encouraged to complain by that I exaggerated Deepa’s reactions the interim dean of arts and other and was responsible for her apprehenadministrators who falsely told him that sions. Anyone lucky to call Deepa a I had complained against him and kept friend knew that at the age of 41 she him out of the graduate program. I had was a very courageous, shrewd, intellidone nothing of the sort. The interim gent, articulate and discerning woman, dean had also warned me never to be unlikely to be duped or manipulated alone on campus and to avoid using the and determined to express and act upon tunnels. Both Deepa and I experienced her own opinion. Because of her a terrible sense of apprehension and expertise, I actually relied upon her to there appeared to be little effective investigate the person who was harassaction by the administration to assist us. ing us both and learned a lot about him After Deepa’s tragic death, the presiSee “Political agendas,” page 12 dent, under pressure from her family,

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

When in doubt, blow your horn A

fter all that pondering, the answer turned out to be visceral — I got so pissed off I just leaned on the horn in frustration.

For the last few years I have been noticing more and more people run red lights, and I have been wondering what to do about it. At my age, I am always questioning anything I think or say for signs of curmudgendom. It’s not that I don’t want to become one, I do, just not yet. So I thought about it, and watched, to make absolutely sure it wasn’t just me. It isn’t. In the last two months, I have seen more than 30 people deliberately run red lights.

I want to be clear on this. I am not referring to the badly timed yellow light run — most of us are guilty of that. We have all shot into the intersection thinking we still have a few seconds and seen the light shift red as we sail under it.

I am referring to those people who see the light turn red and shoot through anyway. Like this guy the other evening.

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason

It was like a kind of poetry. The light turned red and he stepped on it to get through the intersection. I blared the horn as he sailed through. His head jerked in my direction, his face a pale frame of pure surprise, ball-cap fashionably sideways, cheesy low-rent bling glistening on his pimply neck. He was what my kids, not burdened with pious political correctness, would call a “wigger.” And from the look on his face he thought he’d finally pushed it too far — he had a look they call “the fear of Christ.”

I got through to him. Sweet.

Traffic laws are there for a reason — in the case of traffic lights, the idea is that we all want to travel the roads with the reasonable expectation of arriving in one piece. It ain’t rocket science.

and calling the police. They are woefully understaffed and overworked. They aren’t even going to pretend to care. So what to do?

So I blew my horn.

Here’s what I propose — blow your horn. I figure if I do it, then the asshole taking my life in his hands might get the message. But if more of us started doing it, then maybe we might get somewhere. Maybe the majority of us, who can sit and wait for the light patiently (except for the one at the top of Long’s Hill — the longest light in Christendom) can blow our horns as a way of saying “Give it up!”

So next time you see someone deliberately sailing through a red light, lean on the horn. If we all did it, they’d get the message. I love the idea of intersections coming alive with horns every time some bozo thinks their time is more important than our lives and limbs.

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

AS NEWFOUNDLAND AS FLIPPER PIE

YOUR VOICE ‘Blatant disrespect for literacy groups’ Dear editor, On a recent business trip to Ottawa, I attended question period in the House of Commons. While I expected the antics that regularly mar partisan politics, I did not expect blatant disrespect for literacy groups, which have recently lost their funding.

During question period, Diane Finley, Conservative minister of Human Resources and Social Development, could not answer basic factual questions from the opposition about the extent and scope of her department’s cuts ($152 million), including this one: “Will the minister now specifically name which literacy groups she met with prior to announcing these cuts?”

Ms. Finley was eventually rescued

by Treasury Board minister John Baird who responded flippantly that his government “did not consult with people by the name of Gagliano, Dingwall,” etc. It was the anniversary of the Gomery report and the Conservatives decided to make a joke of it. No one leapt to their feet more gleefully than Fabian Manning and Norm Doyle. Clapping just as vigor-

The political philosopher Thomas discovery of “spring break.” We flew Hobbes thought a lot about things like through approximately 15 intersecthis centuries ago. I took time in my tions, speeding up, if anything, for the youth to read a lot of his stuff. He was reds. As my parents slept innocently in a great guy who worried a lot about their beds thousands of miles away, we how we were all going to get along. He tempted the time-space continuum in a felt it was important manner that makes that we understand we me queasy whenever must all give up a cerI think of it. It seemed What is the thrill tain amount of freelike a great idea at the dom in order to live time. of getting the kids well together. He is But now, 5:30 on a to hockey practice the fellow — much Tuesday night, I see misquoted — who middle-aged people on time? said that life outside of in minivans in Mount civil society would be Pearl tempting the “nasty, brutish, and short.” same fates.

And if there were not laws about Not that I am excusing the actions of when we could — or could not — go teenaged boys fried on a cocktail of through intersections, then a great illicit substances and the sudden access many more of our lives would be just to a seemingly endless supply of likethat. minded young women, but what is the Thirty years ago I sat in the back of a thrill of getting the kids to hockey prac1967 white Cadillac convertible chug- tice on time? Is it worth death? ging Jack Daniels as we sped through What’s a citizen to do? That has been the Florida night. We were all of us my problem for some time. There is no drunken, fried college boys high on the point in taking the licence plate number

ously was Loyola Hearn.

Meanwhile, literacy groups in this province and all over Canada are being forced to cancel programs and shut their doors. Apparently, Newfoundland’s Conservative MPs are quite happy that their government has left adult learners out to dry.

We should admire and support those adults who are trying to learn to read and write. The last thing they need is disrespect.

I am not a member of any political party but, as a citizen, I want to say that the federal Conservative party bears little resemblance to the old federal Progressive Conservative party. They are not the same as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Progressive Conservative party. Even the name is different. I hope Newfoundland voters remember this in the coming federal election. We need to elect MPs who will respect our people, understand their needs, and make effective representation on their behalf.

Maura Hanrahan, St. John’s

A hood seal turned up this week outside Twillingate’s Prime Berth Fishing Museum. Owner David Boyd says he gets lots of tourists but none cuter than this one. “Fortunately, we only shoot visitors to The Prime Berth with a camera.”

Photo By David Boyd

‘Nothing like greasing the political coffers’ Dear editor, In the news recently we learned that some municipalities have in their finite wisdom deemed it necessary to give donations to political parties. I can only ask what is that about? As a citizen of St. John’s I sure hope that

city council does not do the same.

I find it appalling. One can’t help but think that this kind of cozying up to a certain political party or candidate can only be an effort to ensure their community should get the goodies when said political party comes into

Succumbing to his own ‘victim mentality’ Dear editor, I read the article Victim Mentality

by Harry Tucker in the Nov. 17 edition of The Independent where Mr. Tucker, a former Bell Islander, lectured us on our can’t-do attitude.

Since he couldn’t turn the province around in four years, he succumbed to his own “victim mentality,” and now plans to return to New York.

Maybe if Harry was around in the 1800s, he would have told the Irish to go back to Ireland and stop complaining about the famine. Back in New York, he can always give Harlem street people a piece of his mind and tell them to cash in their mutual funds if they really want to get ahead.

Did Harry talk to any single moms in the province who are working two or three part-time jobs just to survive? Did he chat up the fixedincome seniors, victims that they are, who have to choose every winter between heat and medications? Pity Harry couldn’t move to the Northern

Peninsula where unemployment is 40 per cent. Some of those folks, with their can’t-do attitude, are now stuck in Alberta making $100,000 a year.

Losers.

Of course, they and many others — like Harry — are leaving because, directly or indirectly, they are victims of the cod moratorium. The big foreign factory ships fished all the cod and made a fortune selling it to fancy restaurants in places like – well, like New York, where Harry will live.

So now Harry me boy, listen to me.

When my Dad was alive, he often moved away to work. My grandfather also left in the 1930s to build bridges — in New York, of all places.

I myself have been away and now I am back. Maybe I’ll go again — just like my ancestors who moved out of Ireland over 100 years ago with a can-do attitude, and made Newfoundland their home.

Edward Smith, Corner Brook

power. There is nothing like greasing the political coffers with a bit of cash.

I sure hope the taxpayers in those towns where this goes on look into this. I know I would not want my local tax dollars going to a political party.

As it stands, I belong to a union and we

took a vote years ago not to give money to political parties. If an individual member or executive member wants to give a donation to a candidate or political party that is his or her choice. But the money comes out of his or her own pocket.

I would advise anyone who lives in a municipality whose town council has given donations to a political party or a candidate to tell these council members to cease and desist.

Regan Sage, St. John’s

‘We love to hate people who are successful’ Dear editor, Since my article, Victim mentality, was published in last week’s edition of The Independent, I would like to share some snippets from the more than 200 e-mails that I received (all were with me, none against). The e-mails came from MHAs, corporate CEOs and the presidents of companies from Newfoundland and across Canada … teachers, city councillors, doctors, nurses and many others. A large percentage of the e-mails came from people who have returned to Newfoundland from away.

The e-mails speak for themselves …

“We are, as you no doubt know, a passionate people … just think if all that passion could be channeled in a positive, change-embracing fashion.”

“I agree with you 100 per cent that we have a culture here that exists and thrives on beating itself up.”

“Congratulations on telling it like it is. I just finished reading your article in The Independent and you are spot on buddy.”

“You have said eloquently what so needs stressing — the harmful negativity here.”

“So so true it makes me sick, and to think

Harry Tucker

Paul Daly

that the brains of the media, and open-line shows are helping this mentality to grow.

Keep these articles coming.”

“We are fighting the biggest battle this island ever seen and that being the battle of bad attitudes. We love to hate people who are successful or who are perceived to be successful.”

“We have a whole industry here in Newfoundland that is dedicated to bitching,

complaining and knocking down any effort by either government or individuals to move ahead … one of the worst decisions that I’ve made was returning here.”

The one major dissenter I’ve heard is Randy Simms. “Newfoundland is extremely proactive and embraces an abundance mentality more than anyone,” Simms said.

“If Harry Tucker doesn’t see that, then there is a plane on its way to New York and I believe that he can’t get on the plane fast enough for my liking.”

An interesting note: the many people who have sent me comments have asked for anonymity to protect their careers and their families … I can see why. Mr. Simms made some strong comments without understanding the context of my article and the reasons why I wrote it. He missed my point when I stressed the wonderful opportunities that we should be cultivating in this province. Here’s a thought — let’s be grateful that when 9,000 people lined up for jobs to leave this “proactive” place that there weren’t 9,000 openings.

Harry Tucker, St. John’s (relocating to New York City within days)

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

IN CAMERA

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

On display Slated for this weekend in St. John’s, the Heavyweights Classics bodybuilding show will include some of the best talent this province has to offer. Picture editor Paul Daly and writer Don Power dropped by Definitions in downtown St. John’s to get a feel for what to expect at the competition. Power spoke with female bodybuilder Courtney Rowsell about how she’s trained to be strong and muscular — but still look feminine and graceful on stage.

B

Mike Newhook in a previous competition.

y any accounts, Courtney Rowsell is in great physical shape.

On Saturday, she’s slated to put that body on display, and listen as judges pick away at her flaws.

The native of Leading Tickles, Notre Dame Bay, is one of eight women vying for the title Nov. 25 in the figure competition at the Heavyweights Classics bodybuilding show at Holy Heart auditorium in St. John’s.

“It’s pretty nerve-wracking, but amazingly invigorating all at the same time,” she says during a workout at Definitions, a downtown gym. “You are on stage and under bright lights and your physique is going to be critiqued, so you’re basically on display up there for everyone to see.”

Although this is her first time on stage, Rowsell began shaping her body about three years ago. Unsure what to expect, she’s scared, nervous and excited.

“What I think they’re looking for is a woman who has muscular development but is still very feminine looking,” Rowsell says. “That’s part of the reason I entered this sport; women can be strong and have lots of muscles but still look very feminine and graceful and beautiful on stage.”

When people think of bodybuilding, they think of huge, barrel-chested men with bulging biceps and carved calves.

But organizer Rob King says the women who will compete in figure this weekend bring a different aspect of the sport to the forefront.

“It’s all about having lean muscle on stage,” King says, “the overall shape of the competitor.

“People think of musculature, which is usually based on men, and they get confused. You can be a muscular girl and be 110, 115 pounds and look awesome.”

King, a former competitor who will work behind the stage this year, says bodybuilding is not about who has the biggest chest or biceps. It’s about the Courtney Rowsell readies for her first overall body shape of the individual.

“It’s not so much the symmetry, but bodybuilding competition Nov. 25. it’s the proportions,” he stresses. “Let’s say your arms may be too big for your chest, or your legs being too big for your calves.

“We’re looking for good proportions, everything from top to bottom. How do his calves look? How do your shoulders look? It’s not just the biggest chest. You’re judged on how your body looks.”

And that judging begins first thing Saturday.

After a Friday weigh-in (and two days of “carb loading”) competitors rub their bodies down with tanning oil and other substances to darken their skin, and highlight the shape of the muscles.

King says each competitor will be asked to run through a series of poses: standing relaxed, front double biceps, standing lat spread, side chest, side triceps, back double biceps, back lat spread, front abdominal and thighs and full body contraction.

The group of five judges will determine which competitor has the best overall physique. That all takes place during the 9:30 a.m. session. The evening session is when competitors “let it all hang out” and show off for the audience and compete for the overall crown.

“Bodybuilding,” says Mike Newhook, who will enter his fourth provincial event Saturday, “is about muscularity, size, symmetry, leanness, hardness and vascularity. It all comes down to one ideal.

“If you don’t have the full package, you don’t win. You may have a great upper body — great arms or chest — but if your legs don’t match you’re upper body, then you’re out of proportion. That’s going to lose the competition for you.”

The Mount Pearl native says it takes a year to prepare for a show like this, with the final 12 weeks of intense training and proper nutrition consuming him “24/7.” The adrenaline rush he gets from walking on stage is what draws him back.

“The time in the gym is probably the smallest part of it,” Newhook says. “Every time you strip away the fat and get on stage and look back at the pictures and videos, you can see what needs improvement, what I need to work on for the next year.”

While King hopes to put off a smooth event — the largest ever in the province, with 28 total competitors — and Newhook preps his body for a shot at winning, Rowsell is living a dream.

The self-professed “gym junkie” has watched these competitions on television for years, always picturing herself in the bikini flexing her muscles.

Saturday’s event for her is not about the end result or what the judges say.

“For me this has been a personal journey, so I’ve already won in my books,” she says. “I’ve already gone through so much in terms of physical changes, emotional, spiritual, I’ve already won.

“It’s not about winning. I’ve competed with myself through this whole journey and no one can take that away from me. Sure I’m going to get critiqued, and there are things I can do better, but the constructive criticism is something I look forward to because I’ve worked so hard to get there.

“It’s already been an amazing journey for me.”

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

YOUR VOICE ‘We are all entitled to a full and fair defence’ Dear editor, Remember we are all innocent under the law The Independent carried a guest column in its until proven beyond a reasonable doubt that we No. 10 edition (‘When a dead child is valued are guilty. We are all entitled to a full and fair less than a poached moose’, by Deborah defence. This presumption of innocence is the Burton) regarding the criminal case surrounding cornerstone of our justice system. the death of Matthew Churchill.

In defending an accused person, a lawyer can Let me begin by saying that my heart goes out only go so far. Of course it would be wrong for to the Churchills. No parent should ever experi- the lawyer to hide evidence or help the criminal ence the tragedy of the loss of a child. commit the crime. That would itself be a crime.

But I wear another hat — that of president of Only in the rarest of cases in Canadian history the Canadian Bar Association, Newfoundland has there been any suggestion whatsoever that a and Labrador Branch. While I cannot comment lawyer defending an accused at trial did any of on any individual case that may be before the these things or encouraged anyone else to do court, some of the commentary surrounding this them. case has, in my view, lost sight of some of the It is tempting to criticize defence counsel underlying legal principles that are the basis of because we don’t like what his or her client did. our justice system.

We sometimes ask, “How can Part of the bar association’s they defend that person?” But mandate is public education if defence lawyers did not about the legal system. We are “We in Newfoundland defend the accused, our systhe voice of the legal profession. tem of justice would fail. It is When a crime occurs, the police and Labrador know all also tempting to criticize collect evidence. Based on that judges, but judges have partoo well the dire evidence, they, along with the ticular rules to apply in the prosecutors (Crown attorneys), context of every case. consequences of a decide whether to lay charges If a judge makes a mistake and what those charges will be. wrongful conviction… in applying the law, an appeal The prosecutor and police work can be made and a panel of for the public. we must be vigilant to three or more judges in the When a person has been court of appeal can be called protect the presump- upon to correct the error. charged with a criminal offence, she or he consults with a However, appeals cannot be tion of innocence.” defence lawyer. That defence brought just because somelawyer has one person’s interest one doesn’t like the decision. at the forefront — the client’s.

Appeals must be based on Although that lawyer has a duty to uphold the errors made on a point of law. Finally, we must law and an overall duty to the court, that all remember that a person can only be punlawyer’s ethical duty is to defend that client to ished for the offense for which he has been the best of their abilities within the confines of found guilty. The trial judge is allowed only to the law. base his finding of guilt or innocence on the eviWhen a person is found guilty after a trial, the dence presented in court and not on suspicion or judge decides the kind and length of punishment rumour. that should be imposed. The prosecutor and the We in Newfoundland and Labrador know all defence lawyer make recommendations as to the too well the dire consequences of a wrongful sentence. Under our adversarial system, all of conviction, and the recent Lamer report delved the best and worst of each side of a particular into these issues. argument are brought forward by highly trained We must be vigilant to protect the presumplawyers on both sides of the case. Many of my tion of innocence, for the benefit of us all. We fellow lawyers argue in favour of one side of a should debate how our justice system works, case one day and on the other side of a similar and we should always try to improve our syscase the next. This may appear two-faced, but is tem. Let’s just make sure that debate is not. It is advocacy, and it is a strength of our pro- informed. fession.

Lawyers must never allow their own personal Sheilagh Murphy, opinions to colour how they present their client’s president Canadian Bar Association, case. In this way, people in difficult or unpopuNewfoundland and Labrador branch lar situations can get the best help possible.

AROUND THE BAY Under most trying circumstances, the writer has just covered the ground from Hant’s Harbour to Lead Cove. The destruction caused by the storm of Friday night and Saturday is indescribable. No visit from the Huns could have wiped the shore cleaner of wharves, stages, fishing rooms and flakes than the recent storm has done.

— The Free Press, St. John’s, Nov. 22, 1921 YEARS PAST There is one perception which a horse possesses to which little attention has been paid, and that is the power of scent. With some horses it is acute as with the dog, and for the benefit of those who have to drive at night, such as physicians and others, this knowledge is invaluable. I have ridden hundreds of miles on dark nights. This is my simple advice: Never check your horse at night, but give him a free head, and you may rest assured that he will never get off the road, and will carry you expeditiously and safe.

— St. John’s Daily News, Nov. 10, 1868 AROUND THE WORLD Until 1980, Vanuatu was known as the New Hebrides. It is an archipelago of 80 islands, stretched out in a 700 km chain. Canadian University Services Overseas (CUSO) is sending Wayne Ledwell from Calvert and Ross Compden from Fogo Island — two experienced boat owners and businessmen – to assist in the development of a small-scale deep sea fishing industry, all expenses paid.

— Sunday Express, St. John’s, Nov. 16, 1986 EDITORIAL STAND Every move of the present Government proves its imbecility and ineptitude to rule this unfortunate country. No where on this side of the Atlantic have we an armed police but in Newfoundland, and to us its presence here is indicative of a determination to uproot the institutions of a portion of our people. In Newfoundland, the police rule by terrors, overawe the people in plain terms, to intimate to the public that unless the behests of the Government are obeyed, cold steel is the remedy.

— The Record, St. John’s, Nov. 8, 1862 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir – My husband went to Labrador seal

From The Fishermen’s Advocate, 1915

fishing, he and his boys, for a few years. So he got tired of that, going down without me cooking for him so he said to me, “Julia, you have to come live there,” but I did not want to go and I said I didn’t think I would like to live on the Labrador. Then I considered it over and I told my friends, “I am going down. I think my place is with my husband.”

So I packed up my few belongings and we started for a sail to Labrador. The boat wasn’t that big. We lived in a cotton tent for awhile. We’ve been fishing down here now for 43 years. After I came down here I was a very happy woman. Now my family have all grown up and married. My husband died 8 years ago. I still think he is coming home to me. Yours very sincerely, Mrs. Julia V. Wentzell (81 years) — The Labrador South Review, Nov. 29, 1979 QUOTE OF THE WEEK Mrs. Michael Ryan of Salmonier came to the Island last week to visit her Aunt, Mrs. Fred MacDonald, Town Squire. It was the second time that Mrs. Ryan was on Bell Island, and she intends to return again in the not too distant future. She took her car with her.

— Wabana Star, Bell Island, Nov. 8, 1961

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NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

LIFE STORY

Celebrating Newfoundland

Friends publish essays by late Memorial professor; a degree of wit and critique seldom seen STUART PIERSON 1934-2001

the level of universal elegy … and he wanted to celebrate that piece of work.”

While his essay on Hynes remains one of Pierson’s more passionate pieces, Dragland is quick to point out there were other works that displayed a sharper side, a degree of wit and critique seldom seen but just as memorable.

The best example is A Diatribe, a scathing review of the Historical Atlas of Canada that was so volatile the magazine that commissioned the piece wouldn’t publish it. Hard-Headed represents the first time the review has been printed in its entirety.

Dragland acknowledges Pierson’s fierce opinions in the review. “He thought (the atlas) was a dreadful piece of work. Three huge volumes that he felt were not pulling their intellectual weight.”

A literary critic and devoted teacher, Pierson first arrived in Newfoundland in 1970, working for Memorial University’s history department. In the decades to follow, his love for the province, and his interest in what he considered a remarkable depth for any one culture made him a well-loved figure in local literary circles, as well as those across Canada.

For Justin Hartery, a Memorial graduate who studied under him, Pierson was a never-ending stream of fascinating discussion, a professor who bridged the academic garrison to befriend his best students. “After I did his course, he e-mailed me at The Muse … where I (volunteered) as a movie reviewer. He had been reading my reviews and invited me to meet up for ‘a coffee or stronger.’ Needless to say, I was flattered and intrigued … he talked about having an idea of updating Casablanca for modern times.”

After his death, Dragland, along with a committee of Pierson’s other colleagues, got together with the wealth of his written material to see if a book could be made — what publisher Flanker Press considers a “a posthumous gift to his adopted nation.”

“I don’t know exactly why it was me that (edited it),” says Dragland. “It was both a love for the man and a love for his work.”

According to Pierson’s widow, Janet Kergoat, the entire process of collating and editing spanned five years.

The book launch, which took place at the Star of the Sea Hall on Nov. 11, was met with open arms, with more than 200 in attendance. “Those who couldn’t be there had sent their regrets, and a lot of others who weren’t in direct contact simply bought the book right away.

It was quite the success.”

Though the book has been well received, finally reaching the project’s finish line has been a bittersweet experience for Dragland. “I got to know the man way better by reading his work, than just by his friendship. He was a talker, a wonderful teacher, but he wasn’t academically ambitious. He probably wouldn’t have made his own book.

So paradoxically, there he is in the pages. In writing that is very, very him.

“He just seemed to know an awful lot about everything … he was relentlessly curious, a rare kind of a Renaissance man.”

apart, why not join in the spirit of its intent and find an acceptable way to assist it in moving it forward?

For 30 years, I have been appealing to the public at large to defy the negative predictions of Statistics Canada regarding our falling population. Why do we continue to see our brightest and best exit the province never to return again? Why is there no uprising to prevent this from happening? Why are people sitting back mired in compla-

cency, shrugging their shoulders and doing nothing to reverse that trend? It is purely a state of mind.

Forty years ago Ireland was in an identical situation — 60,000 Irishmen and women every year were leaving in droves to earn a living somewhere else.

Today 20,000 people a year are going to Ireland and there are still more jobs than people to fill them. Did that reversal of fortune happen by accident, was it divine intervention or was it a change

in the attitude of the people that produced the paradigm shift to make it happen? We all know that it was the latter.

Where are the fighting Newfoundlanders and Labradorians?

We need a new force dedicated to the revival and survival of our beloved province.

By Anshuman Iddamsetty For The Independent

“H

e never claimed to be a Newfoundlander,” chuckles Stan Dragland, correcting a common misconception about the late Stuart Pierson, one of Newfoundland’s premier literary critics.

It’s an easy mistake to make, however, after reading Pierson’s recently released book — Hard-Headed and Big-Hearted: Writing Newfoundland, a collection of his essays celebrating the province’s heritage and culture.

Dragland, a close friend of Pierson’s who edited the collection, says the essays are on the economics, photography, visual arts and even popular music of Newfoundland. “Stuart was a fierce thinker, a beautiful writer, and someone who was immersed (in this province).”

Pierson, born in Port Angeles, Washington State, passed away in 2001 after an extended struggle with cancer, an early death that jarred the province’s academic community.

Many of the essays collected in Hard-Headed were originally published in the Newfoundland Quarterly, spanning a range of artists from Ron Hynes to Mary Pratt.

“I think the essay on Ron Hynes is a

Stuart Pierson

terrific one, on the song Atlantic Blue… there’s deep emotion in that piece, even though it starts objectively and (keeps building),” says Dragland, “He (Pierson) thought it was real poetry and music integrated — it made him cry every time. He knew it came out of the loss of the Ocean Ranger. He also knew that it rose above that loss to

YOUR VOICE ‘Why is there no uprising?’

Dear editor, Kudos to Harry Tucker — Victim Mentality, Nov. 17 edition of The Independent.

Like so many visitors and newcomers, when I came to Newfoundland in 1974 I was awe struck with its natural beauty, the warmth of the people and a land rich in opportunities. At the same time, I was surprised to find an unhealthy supply of negative thinking and a lack of drive and enthusiasm

from some of the people I met. I am pleased to say that over the years the situation has improved. The problem is it is not changing fast enough to provide the opportunities and growth we need to sustain our economy.

When are we going to learn to stop criticizing the efforts of others to change our fortunes? No, I don’t mean that we blindly go forth accepting every concept regardless of its merits.

However, instead of tearing an idea

Dave Rudofsky, St. John’s

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

YOUR VOICE Cancer society exists to ‘do something’ about cancer Dear editor, I am writing in response to the letters in your paper on Nov. 10 by Brigid Kellett (Where have all the donations gone?) and on Nov. 17 by Margaret Osbourne (What does cancer society do with its cash?). The Canadian Cancer Society is a community-based organization of volunteers working with a small group of dedicated staff. We exist because people want to come together to “do something” about cancer.

This “something” can be categorized in five general areas: research, prevention, advocacy, information and support. We publish a community report

every year that describes the work we 50 per cent of the incidences of cancer do in these areas. can be prevented.

It also provides We know that 30 details of how much per cent of cancer is money is raised and caused by tobacco. how these funds are The cancer society is The cancer society used. Last year the has led the way in report was sent to over here to work with any- doing the research 127,000 households in and changing the Newfoundland and one who wants to help policies that have Labrador and is availseen smoking rates us in this effort. able on our website at continually drop and www.cancer.ca. more will be done.

One of the areas that We know that will make a huge difference to cancer healthy eating, regular exercise, and a rates is prevention. We know that up to healthy bodyweight will also reduce

‘That is never a free ride’ From page 1 of truth — but that is absolutely without foundation.”

McCurdy says changes must be dictated by common sense.

“Something that requires a huge new capital investment doesn’t make a lot of sense as we have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the current fleet, but there are clearly modifications and improvements that could be done if the rules were not so hidebound.”

McCurdy says the rigid inflexibility of regulations, combined with budget cuts, have led to disasters like the capsizing of the Ryan’s Commander in September 2004, taking the lives of two fishermen. The shrimp boat rolled over in heavy seas off Cape Bonavista. A Transport Safety Board report released this week cites flawed vessel design as a key factor in the disaster. The ship was designed to accommodate both the 65-foot rule and the 150-ton weight limit for small vessels imposed by Transport Canada.

McCurdy says restrictions in vessel replacement policy led to some vessel designs that are

far from ideal, and cuts in government departments have led to issues like safety not being properly addressed.

“In terms of numbers of inspectors, we have people going a long ways out and taking a lot of risks, and God knows it is a dangerous operation at best, and we don’t have the availability of inspectors to check on the stability of vessels,” says McCurdy. “A lot of our ability to deal with that stuff has been compromised over the years by continuous funding cuts.”

He says the call for less government and lower taxes is something society has moved towards, and there are consequences.

“That is never a free ride,” he says. “People wonder why we haven’t got enough inspectors to check fishing vessels — well because as a society we decided tax cuts were more important than public services. I never did agree with that, but that was the direction.

“You can’t have it both ways, and with governments, if that is the direction they are going in — then ultimately and ineffably there is going to be payback for that.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

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cancer rates.

Environmental concerns are a growing area for cancer researchers. We know there are dangerous substances that we come in contact with and more research will be needed to clearly identify what is safe.

We have made progress in some areas, such as pesticides and asbestos, but more information is needed about many issues, including dangerous consumer products.

The cancer society is working with the federal and provincial governments on these issues to affect change. People need to become more knowledgeable

about these issues and we are here to help.

The cancer society exists to “do something” about cancer. It is about people coming together with common goals. We all want to affect change to make things better. Changes are happening. Much more work has to be done. The cancer society is here to work with anyone who wants to help us in this effort. We want to create a world where no one fears cancer.

Peter Dawe, executive director, Canadian Cancer Society, Newfoundland and Labrador

‘Liberal leaders have been a curse’ Dear editor, If one was to take serious some of the writings and comments in our magazines and radio programs, one could believe that the present government is to blame for the outmigration happening here. Is it because our people do not know our history? Or is it that too many have short memories?

The Iron Ore Company of Canada was given permission to mine iron ore in Labrador, but why wasn’t the refining done in Labrador? Why was it shipped to Quebec for refining? I am not in a position to know how much tax our government receives each year from that resource, but there was a saying for a number of years that John C. Doyle made more money from Labrador mining than our provincial government.

I suppose there has never been in the history of mankind another give-away such as the lower Churchill. Where were the educated people in the Newfoundland legislature, the lawyers, advisers to give Brinco the authority to sign a deal that would give Quebec power for 65 years with no change in price over the life of the contract?

Most of us thought there would be no more give-aways, but what a mistake we made. Do you know that Inco or a developer of Voisey’s Bay nickel does not have to refine any mineral in this province? That was signed by a premier just four years ago.

When one looks back 50 years and considers the high resources we owned when we joined Canada and how our own elected governments had so freely disposed of them to benefit other provinces, there is no doubt that Liberal leaders have been a curse that has destroyed our people.

A few days ago I listened to a

The House of Assembly in action.

former politician say how Joe Smallwood fought the federal government, the government of John Diefenbaker over an $8million agreement. But what did Smallwood do or say when prime minister Lester Pearson would not give this province a corridor across Quebec to ship our power to the U.S. market?

That decision could have been overturned in the House of Commons, but Smallwood did not fight the prime minister — he did not speak about it for a

Paul Daly/The Independent

number of years. Why? Because he could not fight another Liberal, and by his inaction the people of this province would lose billions in revenue.

I do not believe that we have to spend much time trying to find the reason why so many people have to leave their homes and families or take their families with them and travel to other provinces to make a living.

Ted Shears, St. John’s

‘Political’ agendas From page 6 from her efforts.

As her closest friend in St. John’s, I did my utmost to protect her from the ordeal I had suffered at the hands of that person. This twisting by Dr. Katz of our close sisterly friendship has sought falsely to discredit me but it has also demeaned Deepa for insinuating that she could be manipulated.

I still miss Deepa terribly. Had she lived, she would have been a real asset to Newfoundland.

Like me, she truly respected her students. We shared a common love of teaching and considered it a vocation. In the months following her death, the same administrators who caused her so much apprehension have inflicted further harm on my career for resisting their support for the continuation of this stalker on campus.

I have been reprimanded for exercising my academic freedom to factually inform my departmental colleagues about this matter. The president has ordered me not to question his own motives or to mention the stalker or the endangerment of women, a clear violation of my freedom of expression and speech. I have been threatened with dismissal by the same interim dean. My department head and the president have acted to deprive me of two of my top popular courses, which have been allotted to professors whose expertise is in different areas. I have been dumped into a course that is not within my current expertise. Hence students are now being detrimentally impacted by these “political” agendas. Students deserve always to be taught by experts. Thank you for reading this letter.

Ranee Panjabi, PhD, Memorial University

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006 — PAGE 13

Good prospects Local economist spells out benefits of new oil discoveries

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

A

Memorial economist says the new oil discoveries on the Grand Banks announced by Husky Energy constitute a doubling of the value of the $24million field. He says the benefits to the province from the finds are potentially enormous, especially if all offshore oil finds are developed.

“Given the potential we have, within five years Newfoundland and Labrador won’t need equalization, if we realize this potential,” Wade Locke tells The Independent.

Husky Energy recently announced an increase of the assessment of their White Rose recoverable resources of 190 million barrels of oil based on two discoveries at wells North Amethyst K-15, and O-28.

That amount is added to estimated reserves of 2.751 billion barrels of oil discovered on the Grand Banks, according to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.

Locke puts this find in perspective.

“My opinion is this is a big deal,” Locke says. “This puts White Rose on a par with Terra Nova not just in terms of the amount of oil, but in terms of profitability as well.”

He says White Rose is a relatively lowcost field, and until recently a relatively small one. With the discoveries, they have more oil but not significantly higher production costs, which will lead to higher profits for both the oil companies and the province.

In round numbers, Locke assesses the value of the find at $12 billion over the life of the field. The provincial government will get between 20 and 30 per cent, amounting to $2.4 billion to $3.6 billion, although the price of oil could drive the amount higher.

“I would expect $3 billion to $4 billion would be a more reasonable estimate,” Locke says.

Locke cautions that these prices are rough estimates based on the generic fiscal regime, which is already in place for the White Rose fields. If government decides these finds are “new” fields and not tied to White Rose, then there would have to be a whole new structure. Locke says if that happens, no one will be able to say for certain what it might be, or when the province would see any revenue from these fields.

Hibernia’s gravity-based structure on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

“Unless somebody is going to start saying, ‘Well, now you got to do a refinery, and you have to do all these kinds of things,’” says Locke. “It is possible that the government can demand so many things from that, which are not feasible to do.”

Locke says profits from the new finds can flow quickly, as a lot of the production costs have already been met. He says even if these finds are considered a separate project, they will soon generate profits, especially if prices stay high. He says all his estimates are based on the price of oil at $50 a barrel. (The original break-even point for the Hibernia project was $13 US on a barrel of oil.)

Locke says it is important to remember that the provincial government could have the right and the option to request a better deal. The Hebron field is not being developed because government can’t reach a deal with ExxonMobil.

The province is increasingly dependent on oil revenues. Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan recently released the province’s mid-year financial update, forecasting a $39.8 million deficit for 2006-07 instead of the surplus of $6.2 million predicted earlier in this year’s budget. The shortfall is attributed to the shutdown of the Terra Nova FPSO. Locke says the benefits to the province if all oil fields were developed could be substantial.

“Add the other oil projects together, including Hebron and Hibernia itself — and there are big question marks on these kinds of things — before this announcement you are looking at somewhere around $23 billion. With this announcement you are looking at between $25 billion or $26 billion over the next 25 years.”

He says that works out to possibly over $1 billion a year for the provincial government, constituting 20 per cent of the provincial budget.

“That’s big numbers. That allows the government to deal with, in an orderly fashion, any financial priorities they deem important, any economic priority they deem important, any social priority they deem important,” he says. “It is not an issue that we have money now but we won’t next year.”

Handled correctly, Locke says the province will have money for a long time to come. “And that is the way to look at this,” he says. “That the potential is there.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Greg Locke/Reuters

Time to be heard

Mil rates will soon be set, writes Ray Dillon, and home and business owners must make a statement to city council

J

ean Baptiste Colbert, the Minister of Finance to King Louis XIV of France, once said, “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.”

It’s almost time for St. John’s City Council to set property mil rates for 2007, and we had all better start hissing.

Tax revenues to City Hall are set to rise next year. Normal organic growth of the local tax base from new construction and renovation activity added to the new money associated with dramatically higher reassessed property values (approximately 18 per cent on average, counting residential and nonresidential properties) together translates to a potential windfall of over $18 million in additional annual revenues in

RAY DILLON

Board of Trade 2007.

That would be the case if mil rates went unchanged. It is almost a given that council will lower mil rates for 2007. But by how much is still uncertain. If we’re not paying attention, they may end up shaving mil rates by just enough to avert a backlash from citizens — and keep the hissing at a minimum — but not enough to provide meaningful relief to you and me, the average taxpayer.

So, lowering mil rates for 2007 is not a matter of cutting our taxes. Rather, it has to do with ensuring the increase

coming to taxpayers next year is kept were high. Those conditions have fair and reasonable. Remember that cooled down since then, and we’re now we’re already absorbing significant experiencing a buyers’ market, meanwater tax hikes to help pay for the har- ing that lower demand is putting downbour cleanup and Windsor lake water ward pressures on resale prices. treatment projThere isn’t necesects. sarily a major flaw in The higher value of your the assessment and It’s not as if the spike in valuation process. property is on paper only – However, while it is property values means much to nice to see the value an average but your increased property of your property rise, homeowner, the fact is most of us tax is real and paid on a unless you’re will not be able to prepared to sell enjoy the fruits of cash basis. and downsize to our appreciating a less expensive home. The base date assets, since we will continue to live in from which the current reassessed or work out of the property we own, as property values are determined is Jan. opposed to selling it at peak market 1, 2005, a time when the housing and price. Therefore, the higher value of overall real estate market was still red your property is on paper only – but hot — demand was feverish and prices your increased property tax is real and

paid on a cash basis.

So, what needs to be done with mil rates? The Board of Trade believes that a couple of principles should be followed.

First, the city should maintain a sustainable year-over-year increase in spending and revenues, while passing the rest of the potential windfall back to taxpaying citizens and businesses. An overall three per cent rise in the city’s expenditures and revenues would easily account for typical inflationary cost increases from one year to the next.

This rate is higher than the St. John’s CMA’s Consumer Price Index — a measure of inflation — which is projected to rise by 2.2 per cent in 2006. A three per cent increase in revenues and expenditures would translate to approxSee “Pluck lightly,” page 15

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

Sex education

Newfoundland business caters to people’s pleasures

By Pam Pardy Ghent For The Independent

N

ewfoundlanders have always been known as an active bunch.

According to an annual poll conducted by Maclean’s magazine, Newfoundlanders have beaten out the other provinces for frequency of “doing it,” except in 2002 when Quebecers stole the crown. Our Pleasure, a sexual health store, takes aim at that “wantingmore” market.

Justin Daniels and his wife Cathy developed the concept for their Newfoundland-grown business that now boasts three stores around the province — St. John’s, Mount Pearl and Corner Brook, as well as a busy online service that attracts clients from across Canada.

“What I want to see driven home here is that we sell through education,” Daniels says, explaining that most customers know what they want before they enter a store, but they don’t know what’s out there or what it can do. Our Pleasure’s knowledgeable staff, Daniels says, can help. “People can come in, see, feel, taste, and get comfortable with the products we have available,” he says. “These are products that will be used in a very intimate part of a customer’s life, and like most stores, there are also cleaning instructions and warranty guidelines that need to be carefully explained. Buying a product with a battery from us might require a little instruction and our sexual health advocates (staff) can help with that.”

The training his staff undergoes is extensive for the retail industry. They work with a senior staff member and are educated on every product in the store. “They learn what everything does, they know what things taste like,

Our Pleasure’s president, Justin Daniels, in the Water Street location.

they learn the difference between latexfree products and non-latex free, they learn to be wary of allergies and health concerns.”

The sexual health of customers, Daniels says, is a responsibility they take seriously. Daniels is particular about whom he hires. “We have a lot of interest but we hire about one out of every 60 who apply. It’s a fun place to work and we have a very low turnover of staff here.”

Customers are greeted when they enter (customers have to be 19 years of age or older because of city bylaws) by a staff member wearing a white lab coat with the store name instead of their name embroidered on the lapel. Most

Paul Daly/The Independent

Dee Ivy has had pleasure parties in her home. She describes it as the modern day Tupperware party, “except everyone wants to come.” who enter are not shy, but if they are, they’re quickly put at ease.

Dee Ivy, 40, of St. John’s, saw an

advertisement in the paper and her curiosity got the best of her. “I went with caution,” she says of the initial visit. “My first impression was that it was such a classy place.” Ivy found that the “beautiful lingerie” in the front of the store increased her comfort level and as she grew more confident, she moved deeper into the store.

“There are oils and creams, and bath products — just like any other store, but then the more you explore, the more creative the item becomes.”

Ivy was impressed with the way the products are presented. “You can go in with a group of girlfriends and only go as far as you want to, or you can see it all if that’s what you want.”

She says she would be comfortable bringing her mother to the store. And the staff, she says, encourages newcomers and quickly puts them at ease.

“You might start off whispering a question, but before long the discussions become more comfortable, more normal. These are legitimate questions people have, and the staff is trained on what they sell. I find that the majority of women I know want to have a healthy sexual lifestyle and with products designed to increase pleasure and reduce discomfort then a confident woman is on her way to achieve that and Our Pleasure can help.”

Over the years, Ivy says she has brought “dozens” of her friends to the store.

“I work with one lady who has been married for 35 years and she asked me to pick her up some things. Instead, I encouraged her to go. There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, I told her, so she went and was glad she did.”

Those who don’t feel comfortable entering the store can still enjoy the experience with one of the company’s home “pleasure parties.”

“The parties are done in the home, it takes about three hours and it can be for women, men or couples. They can be done for bridal groups, or birthday parties, or just because a group of people want to get together and explore and enhance their sexual health,” Daniels says.

“We will go to your home, set up and demonstrate an extensive list of our more popular products,” he says. “A group can have a fun night out and get educated in the process.”

Ivy has had pleasure parties in her home. She describes it as the modern day Tupperware party, “except everyone wants to come.”

Give Dion credit for focusing on retirement

By James Daw Torstar wire service

P

ensions — and the lack of retirement savings — are hardly hotbutton issues for federal politicians or the Parliamentary Press Gallery these days.

Neither the next Liberal leader nor the next prime minister will float to victory on pension policies. Would-be leaders are more likely to play to the polls with talk about health care, Afghanistan, the environment, taxes, and maybe nation status for Quebec.

Political reporters had a sleepy response to the pension policy paper released by the technocratic Liberal leadership candidate, Stéphane Dion.

Dion suffers from having more optimism than others about his chances of leading his party. And news organizations rarely hold space for pension issues on the front page or the top of news broadcasts.

Dion is proposing to fill the gap in employer-sponsored retirement plans with voluntary, supplemental accounts, using the universal collection infrastructure of the government-run Canada and Quebec Pension Plans.

Obviously, his idea will not thrill managers or sales agents of mutual funds and segregated funds, and his proposal would need some refinement.

The mandate of fund managers at the

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is seeking a dynamic individual with a commitment to the public service to join the Executive Team. This motivated individual will be action and results-oriented, possess strategic vision and strong leadership skills, have senior management experience, and possess well developed communication skills.

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The incumbent will work with the IBP Advisory Board to ensure that the organization operates within a long term strategy, engages in activities that are within established policies and which focus on the priority areas of business opportunities, cultural collaboration, education and research, and enhancing the business climate for NL/Irish partnerships. A major role for this position will be to work with the Irish government and business organizations to facilitate linkages between business in Newfoundland and Labrador and the Republic of Ireland; advise government on means to enhance on the partnerships; lead the assessment process for funding proposals; and liaise with other government departments and federal agencies on issues affecting the partnership. The incumbent will also lead business or cultural missions between the

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Partners and will identify opportunities for business partnerships through various strategic alliances - joint ventures, technology transfer or marketing agreements.

The incumbent will cultivate and maintain liaison with community organizations, post-secondary institutions, and business organizations; promote the IBP mandate within the provincial business, education and cultural communities; develop linkages between tourism, culture and business sectors; and publicize the activities of the IBP through workshops, seminars and communications material.

The successful candidate will have significant private and public sector management experience, business development experience; knowledge of cultural and heritage issues; significant experience with business, cultural and educational organizations; and experience in regional economic development. The candidate should possess a university degree, preferably at the Masters level, in business administration, commerce, economics or regional economic development.

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CPP Investment Board is not suited to individual retirement savers.

But there is certainly a crying need to meet the objectives of his plan — broader and cheaper access to such long-term investments as stocks, bonds and real estate, and an uncomplicated choice of where to put one’s savings.

As Dion points out, a minority of workplaces with fewer than 99 employees provides access to a group savings plan, which tends to have far lower costs than retail investment funds. Most full-time and part-time workers get left out, as do all homemakers.

Despite intensive marketing of retail investment funds, many Canadians wait too long to save for retirement.

When they do start saving, their potential to earn high investment returns is hampered by the cost of individual accounts and personal advice.

These amateur investors will tend to have less money in retirement, and will thus put higher demands on tax-supported plans including the guaranteed income supplement to the old age security benefit.

That’s a dangerous combination for a nation where a quarter of the population will be 65 or older by 2031.

Dion is not suggesting that CPP/QPP guarantee retirement income, just the access to low-cost administration and investment management skills.

Contributions could continue despite job changes, or gaps in employment.

He suggests contributions by workers would face the same limits as group retirement savings plans —18 per cent of earned income to a certain dollar maximum per year. Those not employed, such as homemakers, would have a $4,000 annual limit.

Dion’s policy paper suggests the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board could provide investment management services. But, as actuaries pointed out when Toronto lawyer JeanPierre A. Laporte floated the idea two years ago, the investment board will take more risks than the typical pension plan.

Other ideas put forward by Dion, and earlier by the senators, could help lift economic activity when the working population has to carry more retirees: • Let those who want to work past 65 put off collecting old age security to enjoy a larger, inflation-protected pension.

• Let low-income seniors who qualify for the guaranteed income supplement earn a certain amount of employment income without losing the GIS. • Let workers collect a combination of employer-sponsored pension and wages so they can ease into retirement, work later in life and thus pay more taxes.

• It will be a surprise if Dion wins the leadership at the Liberal convention next week. But you never know.

Whatever happens, he deserves some credit for giving retirement issues an airing.

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

YOUR VOICE Provinces — not Ottawa — should control their resources

Has Quidi Vidi turned into a souvenir vending machine?

Dear editor, Positioned dead centre in the midst of Quidi Vidi village are two adjoining houses that obliterate the view of The Gut from which fishermen have come and gone for well over two centuries.

This small village is a jewel in the city’s crown of steep cliffs and undulating land of tundra-like escarpments. Little has changed here until now. With the construction of these homes, the erosion of the Quidi Vidi culture began, and contributed on a grander scale to the impact that social and economic factors are having on Newfoundland and Labrador.

Undeniably, the land upon which these homes are built is private and these families have rights. But do they override the collective rights of a people, their culture and inherent right to choose the destiny of this exceptional place carved out by nature?

Against all protest, and questioning of the rationale and fairness of sacrificing this village, the construction of these homes proceeded. But the construction was only a precursor of what was to come. In retrospect, this initial intrusion into the sanctity of Quidi Vidi village brings to mind an old phrase: the first cut is the

deepest. The building of these homes created a crack in the Quidi Vidi psyche, and as such introduced the winds of change.

Perhaps on the heels of the newly proposed development plan for Quidi Vidi lies the explanation for this. These winds now carry a proposal for a general store, visitors’ centre, tourist walking trail, Gut lookout, historical centre, a park around the cascading waters, and plans to enlarge the entrance to the harbour for more pleasure vessels.

In essence, this will result in the eradication of Quidi Vidi village as a quaint, historical and naturally maintained part of Newfoundland history. It will become just another overrun, over photographed, souvenir vending machine.

With the fish trade continuing to decline, Newfoundland has turned to tourism. But tourism, in its constant search for more avenues of revenue and entertainment, must be mindful not to bite that hand that feeds it. The beauty and historical preservation of this tiny village is what draws tourists and Newfoundlanders alike to spend time there. In its endeavour to enhance this experience, tourism is, in effect, destroying it.

Editor’s note: the following letter was written to Senator George Baker, with a copy forwarded to The Independent.

Quidi Vidi village

Paul Daly/The Independent

If we are to turn the tide and stem the gradual erosion of this island and its culture, let us begin here. It is possible, in spite of prevailing change, to preserve what

is left of this small village, and prevent further fracturing of this land and its people.

Hannah Mahoney, St. John’s

I heard you on VOCM recently and I would just like to thank you for your support of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery in calling for Canada’s support of the call for a moratorium on bottom dragging on the high seas.

You made some very good points about there being no foundation to the claim that if we support a moratorium on bottom dragging on the high seas it would in any way affect the fisheries inside our own 200-mile limit of the Grand Banks.

I also liked your explanation of the foreign factory-freezer fish plants out there from 17-20 foreign nations dragging night and day.

My take on why Canada refuses to support the moratorium is that Ottawa has to do what is in the best interest of the majority of Canadians, by default Ontario/Quebec. So if Ottawa were to support a moratorium we would be right back where we were with the turbot war and Spain threatening to cancel all of Bombardier’s contracts if the Estai affair didn’t go away.

This is why I feel resources should be the sole responsibility and benefactor of the provinces because Ottawa is in a conflict of interest in that the federal government has to do what is in the best interest of the majority of Canadians, even if that means the province that depends on the resource has to suffer.

I’m not sure if you are aware of this but I read this in a DFO document and some news articles. Forty per cent of the province’s continental shelf lies outside the 200-mile limit and 60 per cent of the world’s bottom dragging takes place on the 40 per cent of our continental shelf that lies outside the 200-mile limit.

By Canada’s own admission we don’t bottom drag outside the 200-mile limit on the high seas, probably due in part to the limitations imposed on our fishermen to keep their boats below the 65-foot mark.

Greg Byrne, Sackville, New Brunswick

‘Sign of a true dictator’ Dear editor, Not unlike his Progressive Conservative cheerleaders (i.e. MHA Sean Skinner, etc.) who have blocked the call-in shows during the past 10 days, the premier went on TV again to explain the merits of the fibre-optic deal.

It’s not the deal, but the course of action

taken to achieve the deal that’s being questioned. The politicians are providing a smoke screen over the method used to award the deal, by explaining the benefits, service, rates, redundancy, etc.

The premier again during the interview indicated that he rules the cabinet meetings

saying, “It was my decision to delay the announcement of the deal on two occasions for fear of the smell.” That was until the ideal opportunity which by luck came the failure of the Aliant system … the sign of a true dictator.

Boyd Legge Mount Pearl

‘Pluck lightly, or risk cooking the goose’ From page 13 imately $4.6 million over 2006 budget figures, which, if it were to be covered solely by property taxes, could still be achieved with a 1.8mil reduction in 2007 residential realty, business realty and business occupancy rates.

Operating an aging, expanding city is expensive, and revenue growth is needed to cover costs that rise over time. There are always areas council could find on which to spend more money — every government is in that position. It is critical, though, that our municipal government spends and taxes responsibly. It isn’t fair to take and spend a tax revenue windfall on the backs of citizens, nor is it conducive to business investment and growth in St. John’s.

The second principle is that mil rate reductions should be applied uniformly to residential and non-residential sectors, to ensure equity among taxpayers as much as possible.

Arguably, local businesses already pay more than their fair share of taxes for the level of municipal services they receive. For example, businesses pay for things like their own garbage collection, tipping fees, snow clearing, and water based on usage. However, a business generally pays a much higher rate of property tax than the average homeowner does.

It is also worth noting that businesses in St. John’s are taxed using a variable mil rate structure, so that some types of operations are taxed at much higher rates than others.

Over time, as more services are delivered through a user-pay approach, the gap between business and residential ratepayers will likely

Downtown St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

widen. Applying an equal reduction across the board to residential realty, business realty and business occupancy rates would ensure it doesn’t widen overnight.

Furthermore, the average business didn’t see as dramatic a spike in assessed property value as did the average homeowner in general. So, less of that market-driven wealth has accrued to the business sector. It would be a double hit to our local business community if, on top of that, a smaller mil rate cut was given to businesses than to the residential sector.

Tax rates in St. John’s are already higher than neighbouring communities. For instance, the business realty rate of 18.2 mils compares to Mount Pearl’s commercial property mil rate of 13.5, 10.4 mils in Paradise and 11.5 in CBS.

We need to keep working to maintain our identity as one of the most attractive cities in the country in which to live and operate a business.

St. John’s has an expanding core of small, homegrown service-based companies, and also a growing home-based business sector. It is the epicenter of the only region in the province where population and employment numbers are holding steady. We need to create conditions that are favourable to businesses that supply jobs and generate wealth in our community.

A meager half-mil reduction for businesses and the everyday citizen just won’t do. The message to council, as it gets closer to setting mil rates, is to pluck lightly or risk cooking the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Ray Dillon is president of the St. John’s Board of Trade.

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16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006 — PAGE 17

Elling Lien (back), Bryhanna Greenough and Ubu the kitten.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Scope it out Young newspaper fills St. John’s event listings void with tons of fun and panache

By Mandy Cook The Independent

E

lling Lien, 29, was in the middle of his journalism degree in Halifax when he accepted his girlfriend’s (and now publisher) challenge to start up a free alternative newspaper in his hometown of St. John’s. Makes sense for a budding reporter — in a masochistic sort of way.

Bryhanna Greenough, the 30-year-old publisher, says the idea continued to resurface throughout the school year as the pair slogged through their intense course loads (she was in a theatre program in addition to her English lit degree).

The paper became a reality when the premiere issue hit the stands in early July. Lien says the idea of starting a newspaper “really caught our imaginations on fire” despite his magazine instructor good-naturedly but half-seriously warning him against it.

“He said, ‘No! Don’t do it!’” laugh Lien and Greenough together, the first of many

indications the couple is genuinely connected on many fronts.

Seated in their living room with Ubu, a mewling seven-week old fluffy tabby vainly attempting to headbutt his way through a glass coffee table, the newspaper duo are sacrificing several precious minutes of production time to answer a fellow nosy reporter’s questions. The now “fortnightly” paper goes to press in its 20th edition in two days, and every second counts.

The decision to move from a weekly to a biweekly publication was a recent one. It was “too much of a grind,” says Lien, adding they wanted the extra days to gather more stories, information — and advertising. As a result, they’ve expanded to 12 pages from eight, and hope to be thicker in the near future.

Sliding pocket doors to the adjacent room reveal The Scope’s production office — a trio of computers overlooking a sliver of Narrows through a big bay window. The tell-tale signs of a newspaper operation are

about — well-thumbed copies of the competition, cartoon mock-ups push-pinned to a corkboard, colourful invites to gallery openings. The visually stimulating space reflects the curious and clever mandate Lien and Greenough have determined for their paper.

“My goal is to help people connect to St. John’s … and integrate themselves in the city,” says Greenough.

“Our focus on entertainment and events happening in the city gives people the chance to go out and explore places and meet people and do things they might just stumble upon by chance only.”

The Scope is a young, fun read. It’s packed with pictures, miniature comic strips, recipes and the always profound syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage. Most contributors fall in the 20-something range and are full of giddy — but polished — musings. The layout is clean and eye-catching — necessary qualities for any publication, let alone a biweekly freebie trying to break into the market. Lien thinks The

Scope is recognizing and covering a “spirit” in St. John’s that other local media are not.

“To express a personality you have to look at it from all different angles and we just felt that we had an original young angle to look at it,” he says. “The culture here is so vibrant and has so many layers … it’s like a human.”

Lien and Greenough say they now have their production process “refined.” Most of their writers hold down regular jobs in addition to contributing to The Scope, so the core group of eight to 10 people meet Saturday mornings, munch on Georgetown Bakery bagels and assign stories for the upcoming issue. Lien says they are adamant about paying their writers, but he and Greenough don’t draw a salary. They cut costs where they can by distributing the paper themselves, work on donated computers and “buy wine in boxes,” as Dana Cooper, The Scope’s advertising part-timer, See “Planning into,” page 19

Health or welfare?

Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province that doesn’t cover expensive MS drugs — why?

M

argaret Rideout is a 29-year-old fisherwoman. In 2003, just after her wedding, she was diagnosed with multiple sclero-

sis (MS).

Rideout and her husband, Jamie, chase crab, skate, monkfish, whelk and cod from April to November in their 40-footer, the Grand Ride, a way of life Rideout loves. “It’s just so beautiful out there, even if you have to get up at five in the morning — you can see dolphins and whales. It’s so peaceful,” says the soft voice across the telephone lines between Garnish and St. John’s, a voice accompanied periodically by a younger voice in the background.

SUSAN RENDELL Screed and Coke That voice belongs to four-year-old Katelynn, Rideout’s daughter. Being a mother with MS isn’t easy, Rideout tells me. “She says, ‘Run Mommy, run!’ and I can’t. I can’t even carry her. If something was to happen … I worry.”

Rideout has relapsing/remitting MS. On this particular day, she can’t feel anything below her waist. “If I had to go out on the water today,” she

says, “I wouldn’t have the same balance.” But she’d go anyway. “You can’t afford to lose a day during the season.”

Rideout and her husband (“a great support”) can’t afford the drugs that would help control her symptoms and stop the disease from progressing.

But she’s not willing to put her family on welfare or give up their savings. “They (the government) don’t want us to have a future, and we’re working towards our future,” she says, that soft voice suddenly growing horns. “There are so many people just like me, that want to work, want to contribute.”

Rideout takes vitamins and stays positive. “It’s

a gamble, a throw of the dice,” she says. “I could have small relapses — or bigger relapses to the point where I can’t walk.” Although she hasn’t had an MRI scan recently, her body tells her the disease is progressing, that there are likely new lesions in her brain and spinal cord.

Rideout can’t understand why the provincial government refuses to cover the hefty drug costs faced by the province’s MS sufferers. “Is it cheaper to keep me on welfare or in the hospital? And what’s Danny Williams paying for right now? A $15-million fibre-optic link — well, there’s a lot See “Exclusive to,” page 20

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

Flattering the Masters III

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

A

bout three months ago, a list of Newfoundland and Labrador artists (or with connections to the province), were invited to take part in the third Flattering the Masters exhibition at the RCA gallery in the LSPU Hall in downtown St. John’s.

As in past years, they were asked to provide their own versions of previously done artwork — famous or known paintings, sculptures, photographs or installations.

“The guidelines are completely open,” says Corey Gorman, gallery co-ordinator. “It can be contemporary, it can be a copy, interpretation, whatever.”

Gorman didn’t know what to expect until the pieces started to show up at the gallery — and he’s still not sure what’s left to come.

What arrived — and is now hanging on the gallery walls for public consumption — is a wide range of work by an equally diverse group of people.

Bill Rose’s gridwork is instantly recognizable in his versions of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa with a 5 o’clock shadow) and Rembrandt’s Bathsheba at her Bath. Labrador artist Mark Igloliorte took on two pieces by Goya; Scott Goudie rendered Claude Monet in pastel on paper. Ceramic artist Jay Kimball based a work on Picasso’s Man’s Head with Long Hair; Anita Singh did a monotype interpretation of the work of Henri Matisse; Kym Greeley did a sealskin version of German artist Meret Oppenheim’s fur-lined teacup and spoon.

And there are two-dozen more works, by well-established and emerging artists. It’s a fun exhibition to visit and explore while it’s up. All pieces will be auctioned off live at the LSPU Hall, Nov. 26, at 3 p.m.

Flattering the Masters, now a biennial event, is a major fundraiser for the RCA gallery. In 2004, the live auction brought in a total of $35,000 (the price on a painting is split 50-50 with the artist).

“It was a hit the first two times we did this; I hope it is again,” says Gorman. “Everybody likes it, likes the idea of it. A lot of people get to try things they haven’t done before.”

— Stephanie Porter Top, clockwise from left: Jennifer Barrett, oil on canvas based on Roy Lichtenstein’s Hopeless: Bonnie Leyton, oil on canvas based on The Carrying of the Cross, by Bosch; Phil Simms, oil on canvas based on the work of Alfons Mucha; Danny Woodrow, oil on canvas based on Edouard Manet’s Still Life with Fish; Will Gill, bronze sculpture based on Painted Bronze (Ballantine Ale) by Jasper Johns. Below: Corey Gorman, oil on aluminum based on Frank Stella’s protractor series.

Photos by Paul Daly

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Bond vs. Borat

POET’S CORNER

The blockbusters of November duel for box office dollars — both are worth it

On the tarmac a Canadian soldier tears rolling down his rugged face

TIM CONWAY Film Score

Heart broken his marine comrade now inside a steel coffin

Casino Royale Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green (out of four)

Pall bearers in slow procession on their shoulders another victim of an unwinnable war

I

t seems like only a couple of years ago that the last James Bond film opened on local screens. In fact, it was 2002. Time certainly flies, but when we think back on the speculation regarding the 21st Bond film, the fuss did seem to go on forever.

The on-again off-again rumours regarding Pierce Brosnan returning for a fifth time, with or without Quentin Tarantino in the director’s chair, were interrupted by various statements that the actor’s salary demands were too high and that a search for a new Bond was on. That graduated to conjecture in various forms of the entertainment media about the appropriate choice for the next “double nought spy.”

It had been determined that the next in the series would be Casino Royale, based on Ian Fleming’s novel, and the screenplay was in the works. A little over a year ago, Daniel Craig was announced as the man to star in the film and the reaction ran from “Who?” to wailing and gnashing of teeth. The dust had barely settled when the spotlight turned onto who would be the next “Bond girl,” and long after Eva Green was chosen to co-star, the fuss still continued surrounding who didn’t get hired.

The whole process played out in the entertainment media with all of the urgency and importance of a Tom Cruise wedding. Still, on this part of the planet, it’s easy to encounter someone who’s unaware that they’ve recast the role of James Bond. It’s refreshing to know that it is possible to avoid the hype. Then again, despite the longevity and financial success of the Bond films, perhaps this disinterest is indicative of how close the franchise has come to blowing itself out of the water.

With a new actor in the role, in a film based on the novel that explores the early days of Bond’s double-0 status, and the critical and box-office success of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series, the time couldn’t be better to get back to basics.

This time around, there are no death ray evil geniuses, or silly toy store gadgets, and thank goodness, none of the innumerable lame puns forced into the dialogue that some endearingly refer to as “double entendre.”

Subsequent to his promotion to “00” status within MI-6, James Bond sets off a diplomatic furor and is sent on vacation. Not one to submit readily to authority, he follows a lead to the Bahamas, which helps avert an imminent terrorist plot. Seizing an opportunity, MI-6 manages to get him included in a high stakes poker game that could help secure the participation of the man running the event, a leading financier of terrorist organizations.

Throughout the picture, there are numerous action sequences that rely on stunt work more than computer effects, and human physicality more than handy gadgets. The usual exotic locations and detailed sets serve up the typical Bond environment, while meticulous attention to costumes and makeup goes a long way to reinforcing the concept that this is a Bond with a difference.

He probably still has his detractors, but Daniel Craig has firmly planted

Tears for a comrade

Husband, father viciously cut down his casket draped with the Canadian flag Heart broken mother angry friends a Taliban victory in dusty trench

Bond (top) and Borat (below) dress up and meet with some acquaintances.

himself in the role of James Bond.

Given the extra burden of re-establishing the character, he’s not simply carrying a torch handed to him, but successfully lighting a new, brighter one off the old.

In re-establishing the Bond character, Craig’s contemporaries behind the scenes are a little less successful.

Despite the participation of screenwriter Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash), the story goes on too long and in a couple of instances gets a little muddled.

Of 21 Bond films, this one has the longest running time, almost two and a half hours. With 45 minutes and a fair bit of drama left to go, we’ve been thrilled to our limits, and having us hang on for more almost undermines the films accomplishments.

Still, we’re left satisfied and optimistic. Despite the blatant product endorsements and featuring the popular Texas hold ’em poker instead of Bond’s usual Baccarat, Casino Royale reasserts the James Bond series within the genre of espionage, by not selling out to gimmicks or pandering to fads.

It’s not just a good thing, it’s great.

Borat: cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan Starring Sacha Baron Cohen (out of four)

E

ven people unaware there’s a new actor playing James Bond have heard of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s TV character brought to life in his own motion picture. In the last few weeks Borat has been seen and talked about more than Santa Claus, and if any of the upcoming office Christmas parties have a costume theme, you can bet your mistletoe that there’ll be a Borat amongst the revellers.

Planning into the future From page 17 offers up. Circulation numbers are at 7,000 and are not just reaching the traditional 19-34 core audience of “an events” paper — it is landing in the hands of a varied selection of readers.

“Joe at Transcontinental (when the paper is printed), he likes our paper and reads it and heard about Critical Mass (a biking event),” says Lien. “He read about it and then he went and did it.

He’s in his 40s and is outside of our theoretical range but I think people who love their city and who are active in their city appreciate it.”

The creators of The Scope are planning into the future — they’ve got a downtown bar booked in January to hand out awards to the winners of the “Best of St. John’s” readers’ survey — but are continuing to focus on stories they feel are worthy of attention. Like local professional wrestlers. Upon the discovery of not one, but two professional wrestling alliances in town, The Scope decided to feature them on their most recent cover: a picture of two grown men rolling around a padded ring complete with a referee. Behind the action sits a handful of teenage girls and just as many empty chairs.

“The more we learned about it the more we thought it was really cool,” says Lien. “And part of our job is to fill those chairs.”

The Scope is available, free, in and around St. John’s every second Thursday. Contact them at editor@thescope.ca or check online at thescope.ca. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

In an effort to understand the economic hardship of his home country, Kazakhstan, news reporter Borat Sagdiyev is sent to explore the culture that has led to the prosperity and wealth associated with America. Landing in New York with his producer and film crew, Borat is to interview key individuals while sampling life in the “U.S. and A.” During his stay, he becomes enamoured of Pamela Anderson, and sets off for California to find her. Thus, the culture shock comedy hits the road.

Mechanically, this motion picture works Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans segment into a narrative version of Jackass, as though directed

by Michael Moore. Through improvised and scripted encounters, the film goes from low brow silliness to pointed satire, often involving unwitting participants who assume that their candid responses will never see the light of day in America.

Unsophisticated, sometimes crude, and always outrageous, Borat delivers a whupping to racism and bigotry not seen since the early days of All in the Family. At its core, the film’s objectives are to simultaneously shock us and make us laugh, and it is successful on both counts. At the same time, the home of political correctness, that murky area between tolerance and acceptance, gets a comic disruption, and the fallout is sure to fuel discussion for weeks.

The film doesn’t seem to offer much of a middle ground. Some are bound to be offended and wonder where the humour is, while the majority are sure to continue laughing for days. Either way, the result is that this is a motion picture that kicks up the dust and gets us talking, no matter how much our sides hurt.

Tim Conway operates Capital Video in Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His column returns Dec. 8.

Afghanistan His platoon fights on angry frightened determined and sad More tears streaming down his commander’s face a bugler’s last call a final salute For a peacekeeper fellow Newfoundlander casualty of horrible war A political war George Bush’s war one we should have never fought Bill Westcott, Clarke’s Beach

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Just for laughs?

Hilarious or humiliating? Noreen Golfman doesn’t find the antics of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat particularly funny NOREEN GOLFMAN Standing Room Only

L

ast week a friend wrote me to say she thought the play she had just seen “sucked.” She was talking about the adaptation of Wayne Johnston’s The Story of Bobby O’Malley, an early novel about Catholic boys growing up in the Newfoundland of the 1960s. The play opened at the Rooms and then went on to a run at Rabbittown Theatre. We almost always agree about everything from men to movies to clothes, and so I took her assessment seriously. It was, however, contradicted by a glowing review in the city’s other paper and by the author himself, who said he was really pleased with what Joan Sullivan had done to his source material and the actual production.

The only way to resolve the conflict between opposing, credible evaluations was to see it for myself. How do we decide what play or movie or art exhibition to see? We follow the hype, attend to the reviews, and listen to friends who have already gone ahead.

Word of mouth is probably more influential than any reviewer’s comments. Reviews are important in helping to shape a public dialogue about art.

They also have the power to stimulate or discourage box office receipts. But they ought not to be taken as the last word. They are just part of a public

Borat with his American driving instructor — just one of the unsuspecting folks Sasha Baron Cohen dupes in his film.

debate.

So it was that I hauled myself to see the latest popular subject of discussion and controversy, the “Borat” movie, properly called Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation.

Here is a perfect example of having to see it for yourself: the range of reactions is charged and you really want to be there to test the limits of your capacity to laugh. Perhaps that’s why Michael Ignatieff drove himself to see it last weekend, although a shrewder leadership candidate might have chosen Flushed Away.

Well, I laughed, I squirmed — a lot.

As everyone surely knows, the film is a mockumentary conceived and performed by English comedian Sacha

Baron Cohen. It opened modestly on a wave of advance chatter and overdetermined enthusiasm and broke all box office records. By last weekend it was playing on 2,600 screens in North America, showing no signs of losing its appeal.

It is hard to argue with the genius of Cohen’s invention. Borat Sagdiyev is a reporter for Kazakh television, a horny, ignorant, third-world racist jerk who comes to America to learn, as the mangled English of the title suggests, something about the way the first world works. The device allows him to interview everyone from Washington politicians to ordinary citizens of the heartland, exposing their own bigotry and ignorance without a filter.

Some of the sequences are obviously

staged, but most seem to have been played out for real, with one gullible American after another advising Borat how to shoot a Jew or clean up after his toilet.

The sheer audacity of his straightfaced performance, and presumably that of his camera crew, generates what we might call the laughter of shock, but it is chased down with a heavy dollop of unease. Indeed, almost every gag, except perhaps for the amazingly vulgar farce of a nude male wrestling match at the heart of the movie, forces a price for your laugh.

To my surprise, the majority of reviewers to date fiercely argue the merits of Cohen’s madness, seeing in his deliberate, racist provocations the necessary uncovering of America’s bigoted, homophobic, misogynist, and anti-Semitic tendencies.

Others, and I now number among this twitchy minority, believe this to be a gross over reading of what Cohen actually achieves. His shots are cheap and easy and, ironically enough, reveal more about the actual well-intentioned earnestness of Americans than they do of any deep-seated bigotry. The biggest sin most of these people commit is in taking Borat as the real thing in the first place.

Consider the hapless antique dealer who must witness Borat flailing about his china cups and porcelain lamps, smashing every cheap plate in sight.

What’s really amazing is how composed and polite he remains while this gawky outsider destroys a whole section of his shop. Or think about the gullible Southern dinner hosts who are

repeatedly humiliated by Borat’s offensive remarks and literally in-your-face bathroom manners.

If you don’t have a twinge of sympathy for these naïve, hospitable, and admirably restrained people with the bad luck to find themselves directly in the line of Borat’s satire, then there’s something wrong with you. But the movie is not aiming for that kind of sympathy anymore than Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans ever was. It’s pitched at ridiculing feminists, cowboys, car dealers, frat boys, shopkeepers, and anyone living in Middle America.

Sure, some of these characters are just a little too eager to agree with Borat’s homophobia or sexism, and the frat boys are particularly obnoxious, but then they are drunk, they are frat boys, and perhaps understandably, they are now suing the producers for having been set up and disgraced before the whole world.

Cohen’s creation is hilarious, yes, but every time he approaches another victim you have to brace yourself for their inevitable humiliation. Satire ought to make people feel uneasy about their own prejudices. This movie encourages audiences to laugh at others, and feel superior to the whole gullible exercise.

Marshall McLuhan famously said “good taste is the last refuge of the witless.” Call me witless. Borat left me with a really sour taste in my mouth — and that’s not funny.

Noreen Golfman is a professor of women’s studies and literature at Memorial University. Her column returns Dec. 8.

Exclusive to northern latitudes From page 17

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of controversy over that.”

Between 1,200 and 1,500 people in Newfoundland and Labrador suffer from a disease once known as “creeping paralysis.” The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, considered it a phantom of the mind; specifically, a product of female hysteria.

Today it’s called MS, an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system that affects the brain and spinal cord, impacting a victim’s ability to walk and digest food, bladder control, speak and see — sometimes even breathe.

Freud is taking a bit of a beating these days — it seems the roots of modern psychology were partly, at least, twisted. One of Freud’s early mentors was a French neurologist, Jean Martin Charcot, in the days when neurology, the study of the brain, was in its infancy.

In Paris’s famous La Salpêtrière hospital in the late 1800s, Charcot and Freud studied people who came to them with physical symptoms that the medical establishment of the day wasn’t equipped to diagnose. Hence, the “all in the mind” label for Margaret and Katelynn Rideout conditions ranging from Tourette’s to MS. Advances in technology since the Victorian era have taken MS out of the “mind” and placed it amount to $6 million annually.

Her group’s counter-argument is that governsquarely in the brain and spinal cord. But even though radiologists can easily identify abnormali- ment is not funding only the drugs of MS sufferers ties caused by MS from an MRI scan, the cause of forced to go on welfare, but everything else — the disease has remained elusive: genetics, viruses, food, shelter and other drugs. They’ve done the environmental factors and diet have all been impli- math, she says — it would be cheaper for governcated, but there’s no conclusive proof that any — ment to pay for the prescriptions of MS victims.

But if you’re one of the 55,000 to 75,000 people or even all — of these factors are responsible.

There seem to be only two established facts in Canada who have MS and you live in any other about MS: women contract it three times as often province besides this one, the drug issue isn’t an as men, and it occurs almost exclusively in north- issue. The tab for your medication is picked up by your provincial government — some provinces ern latitudes.

That’s why Canada has the highest rate of MS in cover the full cost, some pay according to a slidNorth America — and one of the highest in the ing-scale based on income.

Why is Newfoundland the world. But for some reason, dark spot on this country-wide Newfoundland has the lowest Even the most canvas? rate. At least one researcher into I called Health and the disease has postulated that generous drug plan Community Services Minister this province’s fishing villages Tom Osbourne to ask him that have been spared, traditionally leaves an MS victim question, and was directed to at least, because of diet. It seems that cod liver oil — or fish in any with a monthly outlay Colleen Janes, director of pharmaceutical services, the departform — is, indeed, “so pure and so strong.” Lack of vitamin D is rivaling that of a utility mental branch that administers the province’s drug plan. Her currently considered a potential bill or a car payment. response was that “from an piece of the puzzle that is MS. equality perspective, we have to Striking between the ages of 15 and 40, MS disrupts what is often the most pro- consider there are people in many drug groups.” ductive period of life. Unfortunately, the drugs that Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis also face signifienable people with MS who have the less debilitat- cant drug costs, she said.

(According to a doctor I spoke with, rheumatoid ing forms of the disease live normal, functional lives cost from $18,000 to $26,000 a year. Even arthritis can often be managed with aspirin; she the most generous drug plan leaves an MS victim also said that other drugs used to combat the diswith a monthly outlay rivaling that of a utility bill ease are old and not prohibitively expensive like MS drugs, which haven’t been on the market that or a car payment.

The St. John’s chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis long.)

The provincial government’s reasoning in this Society of Canada hopes the provincial government will step up to the plate and provide univer- case is specious (the polite word): don’t help anysal coverage for MS drugs. Jackie Williams- one if you can’t help everyone? That’s not the way Connolly, who looks after client services and the rest of the country sees it.

What is a life worth anyway? Is this government fundraising for the group, says that approximately half of MS sufferers in Newfoundland don’t have considering individual lives, or are we just human resources to the powers that be? personal medical coverage.

According to the provincial government’s antiThat leaves them with two choices under current legislation: go on welfare, in which case the gov- poverty manifesto, Reducing Poverty: An Action ernment will pay for their drugs, or go without Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador, “People medication. (Actually, there’s also a third choice: affected by poverty are not able to fulfill their spend all your savings, dissolve your RRSPs, and potential to contribute to their communities. The you might be eligible for coverage and still be more people who live in poverty, the greater the allowed to work — if you continue to keep that impact on community life and well-being.”

Only a few thousand lives are affected bank account bare. A fourth choice is to make sure you turn 65 on your next birthday: seniors are also provincewide by MS, hardly enough to bring the economy to a halt, or even significantly affect one covered.)

The government’s take on the issue, according small community.

Perhaps Premier Williams could explain that to to Williams-Connolly, is that the province can’t afford the outlay for the drugs, which could Margaret Rideout’s daughter.

INDEPENDENTSTYLE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006 — PAGE 21

East meets west Two St. John’s businesses merge for three-month Corner Brook experiment

By Mandy Cook The Independent

B

est wishes to the happy couple: Johnny Ruth and Travelbug.

The two downtown St. John’s retailers just got hitched! The marriage of the sweatshop-free clothing store and specialty travel shop into a new, combo, co-op store on the island’s west coast means Corner Brook shoppers can find a fabulous new traveling suit to go with their Briggs and Riley luggage, all under one roof.

Located at 98 Broadway St., the longtime home of Corner Brook anchor stores Alteens Jewellers and Just Hers clothiers, Kim Winsor of Johnny Ruth and Peg Norman of Travelbug say their new venture, Johnny Ruth Gets The Travelbug, was a fun and easy project. All it took was an idea, one truck full of merchandise and two days of prep.

“It was like guerilla retailing,” says Winsor. “We don’t believe in obstacles.”

When asked why enter into a partnership of clothing and travel accessories, Norman answers back with

typical pluck.

“Why not?” she says. “We’re in cahoots with each other. We’re growing.”

Besides Winsor’s and Norman’s mandate to fill niche markets in Corner Brook that they say no other retailer is currently doing, the entrepreneurs remain very conscious of the bottom line. By sharing a space, they can expand their businesses and share the corollary costs — from rent to advertising to supplies. The arrangement allows the businesswomen to explore a new market while sharing the risks. Norman says the endeavour is perfectly “complementary” and suits the adventurous shopper.

“The people who shop at Johnny Ruth tend to be a little bit more daring, looking for something that is a little different, that not everybody else has,” she says. “And there’s not a spot on the planet Earth Newfoundlanders have not travelled.”

This weekend Winsor — who is currently in Corner Brook finalizing the finishing touches on the shop before Norman travels west to relieve

her — will bring Tilley hats, Moleskine journals, silkscreen T-shirts and Jack and Marjorie canvas bags to the Sir Wilfred Grenfell campus to give university students a taste of what the store has to offer. It is a friendly introduction to what Winsor refers to her “little mini-department store.”

She says it is necessary in order to survive in the province’s retail environment.

“We’re offering something for everyone. From 16 to 76, I think you have to do that in Newfoundland — you can’t be too specialized. You really have to cater.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

Top images, clockwise from left: Brenda Beddome lace shirt, $125; L'il Lewis travel pillow, $16.95; Flyball bag, $75; Sammie's penguin backpack, $28. At right: Anne-Marie Chagnon necklace, $56, and ring, $55.

Below: travel sewing kit, $2.99. All items provided by Johnny Ruth and Travel Bug and are available in both locations.

Paul Daly photos/The Independent

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

22 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

Luka-Sky’s closet St. John’s-native Tiffany Elton (a.k.a. Luka-Sky) has launched her first clothing line from Montreal

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

T

iffany Elton describes Luka-Sky, her alter-ego, as “definitely feisty, happy-go-lucky, everything I was too shy to be when I was younger. Artistic and a little bit dark — but fun.”

Elton, 26, was born and raised in St. John’s. A singer, songwriter, musician and visual artist, she was given her nickname at 15 — from Luka, the Suzanne Vega song she played relentlessly on guitar, and the day she exclaimed, “Look at the sky!” Her friend put the phrases together, and Luka-Sky was born.

“I started drawing pictures of LukaSky and a little comic strip, and she became sort of an artistic outlet,” Elton says. “When I drew her, I drew her wearing clothes I wanted to wear.”

Now Luka-Sky Designs is a line of funky, punky, and well-priced clothing for women, complemented by Loki, clothes for the “perfect partner in crime.”

By 19, Elton was a hairstylist in St. John’s, but, with the encouragement of some friends, she moved to Montreal

and enrolled in a one-year intensive fashion-design program at the International Academy of Design. She went on to LaSalle College for courses in fashion marketing. (“Math finally became relevant to me, in a fashionbuying and accounting kind of way,” she laughs.)

After a few years of working in the fashion and hairstyling industries in Montreal, Elton decided it was time to make a move. Full of ideas, energy, and determination, she applied for and received a grant from Jeunes Voluntaires, a Quebec-based organization. The grant gave her 10 months to ramp up her business and develop a website and an initial offering of clothes.

Those 10 months are almost up, and Luka-Sky.com is a professional, working web boutique.

“This line, which is basically my artwork printed on clothing, is a gateway to start getting the Luka-Sky and Loki names out there,” Elton says. “With the images, it’s easier to get a style across so people can understand what it’s all about.”

Elton says she’s inspired by “oldschool skateboard graphics. I grew up

around skateboarding and comic books … basically, it’s everything that’s in my head. I do a lot of goddesses too; I’m interested in Buddhism and Zen-type things inspire me.

“And I’m really into hardcore rock ’n’ roll …”

The end products — hoodies, Tshirts, skirts, tanks and dresses — are decorated with a creative mix of everything from skulls and guns to swallows and flowers to Jesus. There’s also an ’80s-inspired Madonna dress, a nod to the days when Elton was doodling early designs, complete with “lots of peace signs and fringes.”

Although Elton admits she wasn’t quite ready to leave Newfoundland at age 19, she’s glad she made the jump.

She says being in Montreal is a constant inspiration and a huge factor in her success. She’s made connections and friends with other designers — and still plays music whenever she can.

“There’s a lot of funding here for fashion and art, especially independent designers,” she says. “And people here are less afraid to be different. They’re more avant-garde with their fashion, not afraid to wear something different.

“I see a lot of different styles and fashions on the street. There’s a lot of music, a lot of shows, and different styles … I know there’s a lot of really good music at home, but here there’s just more.

“I was scared to death when I came here, but now it’s more like home. I wouldn’t take it back, at all.”

Now that her website is up and running, and her marketing efforts on the way, Elton is excited to get back into production. She’s itching to see her designs come to life. “I’m going in for another grant, so I’m hoping to add the made clothes (designed and produced

by Elton) and I have ideas for a jewelry line …

“I’ve got a lot of fitted jackets for women, rockabilly-style clothes … I really love the femme fatale look, pencil skirts and baby doll dresses. Very cute but classy.”

But always, Elton watches her home province from afar. Whether or not she eventually decides to move back east where her “heart will always be,” she hopes the market will be right to accept some of her designs.

“I think St. John’s is getting back to more authenticity,” naming a handful of local designers as well as Twisted Sisters Boutik, Johnny Ruth, and the Anna Templeton Centre as places to be excited about.

“People are getting away from the malls and back to the little shops … it’s back to authenticity. There weren’t many resources for me when I left, but that’s changing.

“I do feel like bringing it home.” www.luka-sky.com

Above and right: some of Tiffany Elton’s designs

A revolving-door husband It’s hard to say which is harder, writes Pam Pardy Ghent, adjusting to a husband moving away, or getting ready for him to come back PAM PARDY GHENT

Seven-day talk

M

y husband is returning from Fort Mac. A lot has happened in five months and one week. He missed one karate tournament and one piano recital. He missed spending Father’s Day and his birthday with his family. He missed a summer filled with swimming, camping and beach fires. He missed Halloween, he missed bonfire night.

He missed the flood I had in the basement. He missed the mess I had to face when the coat closet spontaneously combusted. He missed the heartache we endured when our ancient, monstrosity of a goldfish passed on.

(Our boy wanted to preserve our pet’s remains in a drinking glass in the refrigerator until dad returned for a family burial. My mother’s level head prevailed and she performed the grisly task to save us the agony. “Some things Arm and Hammer can’t cover up,” she said before that final flush).

It hasn’t been that bad. Having no man has its advantages. No one annoys me by walking around the rugs with shoes on, no one drives me insane by spilling sugar and slurping tea. There is less laundry, less to scrub and scour. My parenting goes unchallenged. Meals are simpler. I keep my own schedule. Things are my way.

There are no M*A*S*H reruns to endure, no 007 marathons to dread. No one forgets to turn the heat down or lock the door at night. The garbage is out on Mondays and I always know where the dog is. No one sneaks a smoke on the

front porch, making the house stink of ’baccy.

No one tells me I’m drinking too much or getting too chunky. I have become my own perfect partner, my own favorite companion.

Hubby isn’t planning on being home for long — stopping for Christmas and then gone again by mid-January. I have a “honey-do” list that should keep him busy until then, but it has also caused an argument over what this pit stop home should be. He wants a rest, and I need crap done.

To be honest (and unpopular with in-laws I am already not that popular with) I’m not sure how having a man in the house again can work.

I’m not trying to be cruel, I don’t want to sound heartless, but picking him up at the airport has me frightened to death. How does someone you have had to do so long without fit in your life again?

There are some things I am looking forward to. Our son is excited. I will be able to let my guard down and relax more — being all things at all times can be a burden. I have missed asking for things — there’s no point asking for anything “since you’re up” ’cause there ain’t no one up.

I am looking forward to being able to give in and stay down when I’m sick or just pretending to be. There will be someone to carry things for me so I don’t feel like a beast of burden on shopping days. There will be someone to baby me when I’m sad, tell me I’m amazing when I’m not feeling that great and feed me a dose of reality when I’m acting too big for my britches.

There will be someone to blame things on.

There will be someone to tease me. There will be someone to torment. Best of all, there will be someone to laugh with.

I will welcome this guest-of-sorts into my home again and hope he is gentle and understanding when I grimace as he disturbs “my” things. I will try hard to let him be himself in what is supposed to be his home as well as mine.

Pam Pardy Ghent, her husband Blair, and son Brody. This picture was taken in June, when Blair was on his way to Fort McMurray to work.

Paul Daly/The Independent

I will not be too harsh if the toilet seat is left up once in a while.

I will not gripe too loudly when he forgets his indoor voice, bitch too much when he ties up the phone line or pout that long when he messes the kitchen.

I will do my share of the bad chores, remembering that just because he didn’t have to clean the bathroom here for six months doesn’t mean he should do it every time to make up for it.

(Though it would be heavenly if he did.)

I will try and remember what being a wife is supposed to be and what having a husband around feels like. I will try to like him and hope that he still likes me. When I think about what he

has to face when he comes back — the daily responsibility of a family that has been neglected and a household that needs tending — I should be grateful that he longs to be here at all.

Dealing with a revolving-door spouse is all about acceptance and adjustment. We finally accept having him gone when it’s time to adjust to having him around. Then, just as we accept having him back, we will have to adjust to having him gone again.

I’m not sure which is the harder of the two is at this point. Check back again in a few weeks.

Pam Pardy Ghent lives in Harbour Mille.

Her column returns Dec. 8.

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 23

The perfect grilled cheese sandwich I

love bread and cheese. They’re two of the simplest things to put together and they’re always a good match.

Cheese has an ancient history. Many stories about the genesis of cheese have been around. Legend has it that cheese was ‘discovered’ by an unknown Arab nomad. He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert by horse.

After several hours of riding he stopped to quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into pale watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun, and the galloping motions of the horse.

The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible. The world

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the Eating Path changed forever.

Cheese is going through a bit of a revival of sorts with stores stocking up to 200 different types at any one time.

Cheese is separated into categories based mainly on their age and water content. The general rule is the fresher the cheese, the more water is present.

Here’s the rundown on the different types of cheeses you can find: • Fresh – think cottage cheese, fresh mozzarella and feta. Think of them as being very perishable and full of moisture.

• Soft – These are soft when at room temperature and have a thin rind. Like Brie, camembert and gorgonzola.

• Semi-soft – cheeses with a sliceable texture. Blue cheeses, gouda and havarti are examples.

• Firm – these have a dense texture, but easily sliceable, like cheddar and emmenthal.

• Hard – brittle or crumbly textures.

Parmigian reggiano and Asiago are examples.

Now the complex art of putting together the sandwich begins.

Choose the bread carefully. For me it is a good sourdough, used for two rea-

sons. One, it is a bit tart and has a good natural flavour without overpowering the cheese and the second, well, I like to eat and generally sourdough loaves are bigger.

Choose the cheese wisely as well. I recommend you try semi-soft or firm cheeses first. They withstand the heating and melt, rather than run, over the bread. With your cheese and bread in hand, let the sandwich making begin!

Slice the bread to about one centimetre thick — and cut two slices, please.

Cut the cheese to about an eighth of an inch thick, or the bread will be black before the cheese melts.

Butter only the outside parts of the bread. This one stumps my wife, but it is logical. If there is butter on the bread between the cheese and the bread then the bread will get soggy because of the butter, and the cheese will not stick to the bread. Butter the outside for browning only.

Butter both slices and place the bread in a warm pan. Not hot. Try a medium setting. The pan should just sizzle as the bread goes down. Make sure the bread fits the pan and accommodates both slices (the bigger the bread, the bigger the pan).

Put one layer of cheese on the bread, but not so that it overhangs the edge.

Turn the heat down a little, and wait for the cheese to get sticky. This should take between four and five minutes, but

TASTE

Hot chocolate with kick

By Susan Sampson Torstar wire service

T

he warming action of hot chocolate is enhanced with a hit of liqueur. Just the thing for your next grown-up skating party. For more graceful skating, drink it after — not before — twirling around the rink.

ORANGE MOCHA CUP Adapted from 125 Best Chocolate Recipes

by Julie Hasson.

500 ml carton whole milk 1/4 cup packed brown sugar Finely grated zest of 1 orange 1/4 lb (120 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Adult $44995

1 tbsp instant coffee granules 1/4 cup orange liqueur GARNISH: Whipped cream to taste 6 thin slices orange peel In small pan on medium-high heat, bring milk, sugar and zest to verge of boil. (Do not allow to boil.) Pour through strainer into blender. Discard zest in strainer. Add chocolate and coffee. Blend until smooth. Blend in liqueur.

Pour into 6 small cups. Garnish each drink with dollop of whipped cream and twist of orange peel.

Makes about 3 cups, or 6 small servings.

it could be shorter, depending on the cut of the bread and the hardness of the cheese.

The bread should be a golden brown and the cheese melted, but not runny.

Season one side with salt and pepper — or you could use cayenne or paprika if you are feeling a bit adventurous — but I prefer simple seasonings.

Put together and cut diagonally and there is no way that you can beat that flavour.

Fancy them up by cutting off the crusts and adding smoked salmon and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. Or, dip

them in egg wash (seal them in completely) and cook until golden. The possibilities are endless.

My personal favourite at the moment is Brie and smoked turkey breast. The combination is divine, and when paired with a piping hot bowl of tomato soup, my French tendencies take hold and I have to dunk my sandwich into the soup — just like being a kid again.

Grilled cheese sandwiches: family friendly food for children and adults alike.

Nicholas Gardner is a food writer and erstwhile chef living in St. John’s.

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

High noon for the Zune

By Jen Gerson Torstar wire service

I

t looks like a brick. Watching last week’s release of Zune, Microsoft’s iPod-killer-wannabe, evoked thoughts of bad 1950s architecture, not images of futuristic design and musical sexiness.

Get this: its signature colour is brown. Hot. So hot.

The Zune has a few neat features in iPod absentia — an FM radio tuner and a wireless feature that lets you send songs to friends — at the reasonable price of about $250 US for a 30 gigabyte model. It hasn’t been released in Canada and no date has been set.

Other competitors, like Creative, have also tried taking a bite out of the iPod pie by loading up on trinkets. Its Zen line of music players have featured bigger screens for movie watching, clean designs, FM tuners, voice in recording, intuitive interface and good pricing.

Ever heard of Creative?

Right.

Though Microsoft has a solid track record of stealing, um, improving upon a competitor’s idea and then forcing, um, encouraging everyone to buy it, the Zune does not look like a solid idea.

The iPod has succeeded because it’s based on a kind of “low-end theory.” It offers fewer choices and fewer features, but it is easy to use and works well.

Apple has also paired this theory with a machine that looks undeniably hot.

The only thing the consumer has to fret over is which iPod will go well with his or her wardrobe, presuming that he or she has a wardrobe comprised entirely of shades of neon.

Pair this with an ad campaign so pervasive that even Luddite boomers are using improper Mac-Cult Speak in a

vain attempt to seem relevant to their children, and the iPod has become a machine with cachet.

Microsoft’s ad campaign has been, shall we say, high concept, featuring strange stick drawings and videos of exploding chirping cartoon canaries.

Microsoft has taken YouTube marketing to inexplicable new dimensions: Fourth dimensions from Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Its player is bigger, heavier and far less sexy than the iPod. Also, its music store hasn’t improved on any of iTune’s oft-reproached digital rights management restrictions.

In fact, if an iPod lover were to switch to a Zune, he’d be unable to play any of his iTunes-purchased music on Microsoft’s player because of Apple’s rights management restrictions.

According to Apple’s website, music files purchased through iTunes can’t be transferred to anything non-iPod. Files that are bought through the Zune store will not be able to be played on an iPod. The format wars are on.

And with the Zune marketplace carrying a fraction of the songs that iTunes does, (two million versus iTunes’ 3.5 million) it’s a war that seems weighted in the latter’s favour.

Also, Zune’s Wi-Fi song-sharing feature has limited appeal: The song you send to a friend can be listened to only three times before the player scraps it, or you buy it.

Apple’s Steve Jobs dismissed the feature several months ago, saying that it just made more sense to pop an earbud into a friends’ ear, although Wi-Fi does lessen the incidence of ear-born cooties.

Good luck to the Zune. The ubiquity of the white headphone would indicate, however, that Apple isn’t going to give a piece of this market away easily.

EVENTS NOVEMBER 24 • Wayne Johnston’s The Story of Bobby O’Malley, adapted by J.M. Sullivan, starring Petrina Bromley, Neil Butler, Aiden Flynn, Mark O’Brian, Berni Stapleton, and Adam Brake, Rabbittown Theatre, 7:30 p.m. until Nov. 26, 739-8220.

• Andy Jones in performance, LSPU Hall, St. John’s, 7534531. Continues through Nov. 26 (Held over an extra night due to demand).

• Kaleidoscope, annual group Christmas exhibition opens at Red Ochre Gallery, 96 Duckworth St. St. John’s.

• Spirit of Newfoundland presents Humbug by Barry Galloway and Peter Halley, a Andy Jones musical comedy based on the classic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol. Reserve tickets for dinner and show 579-3023.

NOVEMBER 25 • Home-cooked supper and concert with fusion band Night Kitchen, Anglican Parish of All Saints Church in Pouch Cove, 335-7007, www.blueislandrecords.com.

• Texas Chainsaw Acoustic, The Nordic Beat, Chris Picco band at the Ship Inn, 11 p.m.

• Book launch: The Gift of Christmas by Nellie P. Strowbridge, 2:30-4:30 p.m., Grand Lake Centre of Economic Development, 44 Trans-Canada Highway, Deer Lake, 1-866-739-4420.

NOVEMBER 26 • Flattering the Masters III, reception and live auction at the LSPU Hall, Victoria Street, St. John’s, 3 p.m.

NOVEMBER 27 • Back Door Cabaret, a performance series at the LSPU Hall which provides emerging artists of all disciplines with a platform for presenting their talents, ideas, projects, 7 p.m., 753-4531.

NOVEMBER 28 • Musicraft and Memorial’s School of Music lunchtime series at Petro-Canada Hall presents Pamela Morgan, performing traditional English songs with Sveti Ivan, a Balkan choir conducted by Kate Wiens, 1 p.m. Free.

Microsoft’s Zune (top), is trying to take on Apple’s iPod.

NOVEMBER 29 • Weekly afternoon concert by David Drinkell, Cathedral Organist, 1:15-1:45 p.m., Anglican Cathedral, St. John’s.

• Mad Hatter night at folk night at the Ship Pub, St. John’s, 9 p.m.

• Our Divas Do Christmas returns, featuring tenor Michael Burgess, star of Les Miserables. At the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre until Dec. 3. Proceeds support the Tommy Sexton Foundation.

NOVEMBER 30 • Midwifery film screening and public panel, 7 p.m., Main Auditorium, Memorial Medical School, Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s.

• Foley, by Michael West and performed by Geoff Adams, Rabbittown Theatre, St. John’s, until Dec. 3.

IN THE GALLERIES • Comfort and Joy at the Devon House Craft Centre, Duckworth Street, St. John’s.

• New work by Will Gill and Anita Singh’s Germination Series, at the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, Baird’s Cove, St. John’s, 722-7177.

• Painting in the Garden, group exhibition at Memorial University Botanical Gardens, until Dec. 1.

• Thaddeus Holownia: The Terra Nova Suite, The Rooms, until Jan. 7.

• Light on the Land, nature and landscape photography

by Dennis Minty, Bay Roberts Visitor Pavilion, Veteran’s Memorial Highway (Route 75), until Nov. 26.

• Melt, an interactive video installation by Toronto-based Michael Alstad, at Eastern Edge Gallery, Harbour Drive, St. John’s • The Basilica Museum Christmas exhibit Away In A Manger, until Dec. 19

What’s new in the automotive industry

NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006

FEATURED VEHICLE

Designed in the heart of Scandinavia, the dynamic Saab 9-5 sedan is built to thrive in harsh winters and hot summers. With agility and turbo power at your command, the more you drive, the more you'll enjoy that exceptional spirit. Featuring a 2.3 litre, 260 horsepower turbo engine with impressive reserves of speed and power, the 2007 Saab 9-5 soars across asphalt with confidence and ease. The 9-5 also boasts exceptional comfort with its electrically adjustable driver and passenger seats for height, tilt, length, seat back angle, lumbar support with one-position memory on driver’s seat and exterior mirrors; sport leather classic; heated front seats with three position switch and storage seat pockets on driver and passenger seat backs. The integrated navigation can help you reach your destination, while the powerful sound system surrounds you with your favourite in-flight music. The 9-5 comes standard with an integrated in-dash 6-disc CD player and XM satellite radio. The 2007 Saab 9-5 Sedan is available at Hickman Saturn Saab, located at 20 Peet Street, St. John’s. Pictures taken at The Basilica in downtown St. John’s by Paul Daly.

‘A cling to remember’ I

grew up just outside St. John’s in a small fishing community called Wedgewood Park (we fished for trout). One of our favourite winter sports was “clinging” or sliding on your feet in the crouched position while clinging to the (rear) bumper of a moving vehicle.

The sport obviously originated from the late-1800s Dickensian era whereby snot-nosed street urchins, accessorized with scarfs and fingerless gloves, would

MARK WOOD

WOODY’S WHEELS

latch onto or “cling” to the rear of a horse-drawn carriage whilst fleeing from one crime scene to another (usually in the act of stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving families).

Skip ahead a hundred years or so to find us well-fed, teenage, suburban fisherman clinging (in the off season) for the sheer sport of it.

Ah, the first snowfall, just the right amount and texture for sport. It wasn’t long before a car would pass with a couple of kids attached to the bumper.

We’d cheer them on merrily, “See you mothers calling us for supper, “Get in at the hospital.” Oddly though, no one the house, the Mounties are on the way.” ever did get Clinging was hurt. also sport for Another car The scene could have young drivers who would pass and weren’t that far soon we’d all be been an advertisement in the game, removed from the clinging on, bumper themfor just about anything, going around selves. It was coma beer commercial, the neighbourmon, nay, polite, hood until we for someone’s older arthritis medication … were cold, wet, brother who haptired and hunpened to be driving gry. by, to slow down and accommodate a In the distance, we could hear our slew of kids on his bumper. He’d basi-

cally drive them to the store and back if they wished or, lacking funds and no particular destination, a cruise around the neighbourhood to look at houses decorated with Christmas lights.

We eventually grew up, ceased clinging altogether and I adorned my finger with a slender gold shackle in the presence of all assembled, and promised to end my juvenile ways. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but not until I had one final cling before I was married — a cling to remember.

See “The teeth,” page 26

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

26 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

Big times ahead NORRIS MCDONALD PICKS THREE YOUNG — VERY YOUNG — CANADIAN RACERS TO WATCH

H

ere’s a quick look at “But when I won the final, three young Canadian I popped the chute and I racers we’re certain to stamped my feet and clapped hear lots about in the years my hands and screamed all ahead: the way along the runoff and Michael Angelo CampI was so happy that I nearly olucci, 20, of Woodbridge, went off the end!”

Ont., wants to be a professionHis second-best finish this al drag racer in either Pro year was last month at St. NORRIS Stock or Pro Modified.

Thomas Dragway in the MCDONALD He served notice this NHRA National Dragster August that he has the talent Challenge. He was runner-up by winning the biggest and in the Quick 8 program. most important Pontiac drag Short-term, Campolucci is race on the planet, the Ames hoping to land a major sponPerformance Tri Power Pontiac sor in order to compete in NHRA and Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

IHRA Top Sportsman classes next seaHe qualified the Stallion Motorsports son. Long-term, that pro career.

Inc. 455ci alcohol-injected 1996 Grand Prix (owned by his father, Maurizio) SPRINT CAREER fourth fastest with a run of 8.46 seconds Ryan Litt, 19, of Lyons (near (159 miles an hour). When the dust set- London, Ont.), wants to be a profestled, he was the first Canadian and the sional Indy car driver. youngest driver to win the prestigious He’s won two features this season in event. the tough U.S. Auto Value Super Sprint And it was in his rookie season, to Car Series and has his sights set on boot. moving to Indiana and launching a full“I never drove a race car before this time sprint car career with the U.S. season,” he said. “I helped my dad for Auto Club (USAC) in advance of landyears, of course, but this was my first ing that Indy ride. year in the cockpit.” (In fact, Michael Ryan’s father, Wade, was a good Angelo’s first win, on Aug. 6, came 11 supermodified runner for many years, years to the day after his father’s first “but he sold out when I turned 15 and started to drive street stocks at win, which was at Cayuga, Ont.) Campolucci said winning the Pontiac Delaware (speedway, near London).”

Litt got his first taste of racing when Nationals was the best feeling he ever he was sixand had some runs in a junhad.

“I’ve played on good hockey teams ior dragster. An outing in a kart race since I was four,” he said. “I’ve won saw him finish second to an 18-yearchampionships before but I never expe- old and that convinced the family that rienced anything like the feelings I had young Ryan had some talent.

The next rung up the racing ladder when I won that race.

“The track (in Ohio) has a really long for Litt came in junior open-wheel runoff after the finish line. I never sprints before he gave the street stocks popped the chute there; I just let the car a try. Two seasons of Indiana Ford slow down and then I put on the brakes. Focus midget competition followed,

TRACK TALK

which prepared him for his move to the from 109 other youth drivers.

Auto Value 410 sprint circuit.

He also races at the club level with Every May, on the Saturday night the Toronto Kart Club and Cameron before the Sunday afternoon Indy 500, Motorsports’ Hamilton Regional Kart the speedway in Anderson, Ind., just Club. He finished second in the Toronto north of Indianapolis, promotes the club’s championship standings with Little 500. Thirty-three sprint cars, four wins; he’s the youngest member starting out in 11 rows of three, race on the Cameron Motorsports national 500 laps around a high-banked, quarter- team.

Matteus was Toronto City TV’s athmile, paved oval. It’s an incredibly hairy show but the important thing is lete-of-the-week on Aug. 22 and that many of the drivers over the years appeared on Breakfast Television dur— Johnny White, Ronnie Duman, Jim ing the Stars of Karting event held at McElreath, Arnie Knepper (to name a Woodbine racetrack in September. few) — have moved up from the Little A young fellow of few words, he let 500 to the real deal. his father, Satch, do Although he hasn’t the talking for him. won it, Litt finished “I have a clothing Matteus Makos, 7, seventh two years company and he and ago and was up to his brother Julius — is in Grade 2 in fourth this year who’s also a karter and before he experidoes really well — Richmond Hill, Ont. enced motor trouble. come to the shop every He could be in But he vows he’ll win day after school. it someday and Almost as soon as he Formula One there’s no doubt that finishes his homehe can more than work, Matteus goes someday hold his own in the out to the back and rough-and-tumble cleans and polishes his world of take-no-prisoners sprint-car kart.” combat.

Short-term, Matteus will be competShort-term, Litt hopes to run as many ing on the U.S. Karting Winter Tour USAC pavement races next year as he from January through March. Longcan, be they in sprint, midget or Silver term? I told you: F1.

Crown cars. Long term: big Indy.

NOTES …

YOUNGSTER TO WATCH It’s great that Champ Car has a TV Matteus Makos, 7, is in Grade 2 at deal with ABC/ESPN (Tony George Bayview Hills Elementary School in must have choked on his corn flakes Richmond Hill, Ont. He could be in when he heard the news). But what Formula One someday. about Champ Car fans in Canada — the Matteus ran in 15 arrive-and-drive most loyal in the world? Last time I youth kart races at Goodwood looked, we can’t get ESPN or ESPN2 Kartways in Ontario this season and — unless one happens to have an illewon 12 of them. He was second twice gal satellite receiver. Let’s hope a and third once. He also won 12 poles — Canadian TV partner is announced

soon — one that will show the races live, rather than on tape after the baseball, football, golf, tennis or tiddlywinks tournaments are over …

Somebody better tell Juan Pablo Montoya to knock it off with the Mr. Nice Guy stuff or he’ll be out of NASCAR before you can say his name five times quickly. Ryan Newman (or was it J.J. Yeley?) crashed him on purpose last Sunday and his smiley-face F1 response (“these things happen”) will get him nothing but another bunt into the wall. Even though the next race is the Daytona 500, Montoya has to go out there and put Newman/Yeley into the fence or it’ll be open season on him.

Years ago, Rusty Wallace had a couple of run-ins with Ernie Irvan. Wallace stood up at a driver’s meeting, pointed his finger at Irvan and said: “Come near me again and I’ll wreck ya.” He never had another problem with Irvan.

NASCAR race announcer Mike Joy was on Wind Tunnel last Sunday night and said this about Paul Tracy in the Busch Series: “The drivers were lining up to take a run at him.” Juan Pablo, take note: Get nasty …

The Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada (VARAC) is planning a big celebration next June 22-24 at Mosport to mark the 40th anniversary of the first Formula One race in Canada. A race featuring vintage F1 cars is planned and the latest news is that Wallie Branston, who was Mosport’s starter for many years, will come out of retirement to flag the race.

Branston is famous for leaping high into the air to wave the checkered flag as the winner of that inaugural event, Sir Jack Brabham, flashed past the finish line.

Hertz makes strong debut A late rally drove shares of car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. up nearly 5 per cent in their market debut last week as bargain hunters were lured by an initial public offering priced below the forecast range.

Those investors helped lift shares that were weighed down most of the day by concerns about the company’s debt, but the stock’s closing price of $15.72 (U.S.), up 4.8 per cent in its first day, was still below the forecast range of $16 to $18. The Hertz initial public offering was the latest in a series sponsored by private equity funds trying to cash out on multi-billion-dollar takeovers.

The teeth of a gale From page 25 Two buddies and myself were in downtown St. John’s on a beautiful, calm December night. We emerged from the bars hours later in a raging snowstorm, streets choked with snow and no cabs available. Heading towards Long’s Hill we saw a taxi approaching, a massive lifeboat of a station wagon laden with the last, lucky, revelers.

“Cling!” we shouted, and latched on.

Up over the hill she went. We got the green light at the top and proceeded along Freshwater Road towards Ches’s Fish and Chips. “Let’s eat,” someone suggested and we let go, while the cabriolet went on without us.

The place was full, naturally, with customers looking out at the weather.

They were treated to the spectacle of three guys sliding up the road, decelerating from about 50 kilometres per hour and walking in the store. Maybe even swaggering a bit, after such an adventure. The scene could have been an advertisement for just about anything, a beer commercial, arthritis medication, a retirement savings plan or even life insurance.

We ended our clinging careers on a high note — Vegas-style, always leave the crowd wanting more. But what I realize now is that while we were hanging on the back of that car we were clinging onto our youth. Our wild, excellent, carefree ways.

As kids, we could disappear for a full day without anybody worrying about us. No phone calls, no plans, no worried parents. We took peanut butter sandwiches to school and no one had allergies or asthma. We rode bikes without helmets and yes, we’d cling on cars in the winter. That may have even been a bit much, but it’s over now. Like all the rest of the fun.

And when we finally let go and stood up in the teeth of a gale we faced the future.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s clings to his memories.

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 27

Above left: A model poses beside a Chevrolet 'Ultra' concept car displayed at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition Nov. 22. China may still be the promised land for global auto makers but competition is set to reach new heights in coming years. China is the world's second largest automobile market after the United States. Above right: A model sits inside a SAAB 'Aero X' concept car, also on display in Beijing.

Claro Cortes IV/Reuters

Early intervention against road rage LORRAINE SOMMERFELD AND HER SON HEARD JOE EDMONDS’ STORY. SHE SUGGESTS YOU DO TOO

A

n appeal court hearing scheduled for March could prove useful to Ontario motorists injured while on vacation outside of Canada or the United States.

A judge has ordered an Ontario insurer to compensate a man who was injured in Jamaica, even though it is outside the territorial limits of the province’s automobile policies.

Justice Margaret P. Eberhard of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Barrie ruled in June there is no clear language to limit the territory of an optional policy endorsement that tops up another driver’s liability coverage if that motorist has too little coverage.

Officials at Pilot Insurance Co., part of Aviva Canada Inc., say the company has appealed Eberhard’s ruling.

COSTLY IMPLICATIONS FOR INSURERS So a panel of the Court of Appeal for Ontario will decide whether the popular and inexpensive policy option known as family protection coverage applies everywhere in the world.

Greg Somerville, executive vice-president of Aviva, said Eberhard’s unexpected ruling would have costly implications for all insurers. “How do you underwrite every jurisdiction where you don’t know the minimum coverage limits?”

Yet the judge’s ruling was vitally important to Everett Sutherland of Toronto. He was left a quadriplegic after a head-on vehicle collision on the last day of 2001. He was a passenger in one of the vehicles that collided. Neither driver involved in the collision had more than a million Jamaican dollars in liability coverage, which is the equiva-

lent today of about $17,560 in Canadian dollars.

Sutherland’s own Ontario policy, however, provided up to $1 million in coverage if he or a family member was ever injured by an under-insured motorist.

Sutherland’s lawyer, James Vigmond of Barrie, argued successfully that protection from underinsured motorists is not specifically limited. The over-all policy is limited to Canada, the United States, other jurisdictions designated in a Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (where Quebec is excluded), and on a vessel travelling between ports of those countries.

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listening, believing most of this presentation to be aimed over his head.

But then an amazing thing happened.

Joe started telling you what you should do if the person you’re driving with is acting irrationally. He provided help for kids as young as Jackson to take some control over a dangerous situation. On the way home, Jackson was repeating them to me, telling me what he would do.

Car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death and debilitating injury for people aged 15-25. Think of all the dangers we worry about as we send our kids out into the world every day, and think that the one at the top of the list could be avoided.

We all know that hindsight is 20/20.

We’ve all at some point asked if there was anything we could have done differently. Well, here it is. This is what you can do differently.

Look up The Jason Edmonds Foundation for Road Safety. Call your children’s school. Maybe Joe’s fierce loss can save another family.

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AMBIGUITY “The absence of clear and express language (on the territory for optional under-insured motorist protection) has left the question in a state of ambiguity,” Eberhard ruled.

“As such, the issue is to be resolved in favour of the insured.”

Vigmond says Eberhard’s ruling is “just advancing the natural interpretation of the words of the endorsement.”

In an unrelated insurance matter, the Court of Appeal has ruled that a woman’s insurer should not have to pay accident benefits to her independent adult son simply because he was injured while temporarily living under her supervision as a condition of his bail.

The court overruled Justice Elizabeth M. Stewart and endorsed the original finding of a provincial arbitrator.

Joshua Williams will thus collect benefits from The Co-operators General Insurance Co., which insured the vehicle of a friend that Williams was driving at the time he was injured. His mother’s insurer, Oxford Mutual Insurance Co., will not have to pay.

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GM open to Ford alliance No. 1 U.S. carmaker General Motors is open to an alliance with its No. 2 rival Ford, vice-chair Bob Lutz says.

Asked whether GM would choose to go it alone or merge with Ford, Lutz said, “We are open to alliances. But we can also be successful alone.”

Both Ford and GM are restructuring North American operations to adjust to a loss of market share in their home markets. GM is attempting to recover from a $10.6 billion loss in 2005.

Lutz said GM remained open to a smaller deal

with Renault-Nissan after GM declined to pursue a larger tie-up with the French-Japanese group.

“We would have been in agreement with a smaller deal on engines, and we still are today,” he said.

After nearly three months of talks, GM, Nissan and Renault said in October that they would end their discussions on a possible partnership.

Lutz told the newspaper that GM would have benefited from the proposed alliance far less than Nissan and Renault.

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identify, when we can connect with the only one woman left standing. Maybe human pain on the other end of the she was the one I’d cut off. Careful number. drivers are a source of road rage for I listened to Joe tell the story of two others, after all. younger brothers As you would stripped of their expect, Joe idol. Of a commuEdmond’s pain is nity losing a leader palpable. He is an Think of all the of its youth. extraordinary musiAnd I listened as dangers we worry about cian; in fact his a father’s voice still presentation reveals breaks, nearly a hugely talented as we send our kids seven years on, as family. Jason was out into the world he tries to use a an athlete; he was a speech to describe a leader; he was an every day, and think loss beyond words. actor.

In an embarrassHe was the kid that the one at the ingly revealing you’d want to have demonstration, Joe as a son or brother. top of the list could asks everyone to And he is dead stand. He asked a because two drivers be avoided. series of questions who should have to establish where known better felt you might fall on safe and anonythe road rage index. His second ques- mous and mythically powerful inside tion, “Have you ever intentionally cut their cars. someone off?”, made me sit down. I’m My 12-year-old son, Jackson, came not proud, but I’m honest. I have. with me. As he’d hoped, there were free Within a couple of questions, there was Timbits at the back of the room. He sat

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onsidering how Joe’s efforts in establishing a much I talk, people foundation in Jason’s memory, might be surprised to The Jason Edmonds learn how much I really lisFoundation for Road Safety, ten. You learn more with are actually even more remarkyour yap shut, and I am no able than you might think. He exception to that rule. doesn’t hold his son blameless I recently had the good for what took place inside the luck to hear a remarkable car that night.

LORRAINE man speak. He spoke eloInstead, Edmonds conveys a SOMMERFELD quently, he spoke effectivelesson for which every high ly, he spoke powerfully, and school across the country he spoke for all the wrong should provide him a forum. reasons.

They should cram their gymnaIn January, 2000, Joe siums full of kids and make Edmonds lost his 23-year-old son in a them listen. Make them watch as Joe horrific traffic tragedy. I agree with him flashes up a photo of an absolutely when he says there are very few acci- beautiful young man, on the verge of dents that happen on our roads. Most, if everything good in his life, beside a not all, could be avoided. Jason newspaper photo of the car carnage that Edmonds and his two friends, Shaun claimed his life.

Lodge and Stewart Farnum, were pasThere is a moment when the screen is sengers in a car being driven by a crammed full of all the usual statistics. young man later convicted of road rage. Headlines that spout numbers and studThe four friends were in a deadly ies that offer up percentages. If you game of He-Man Masters of the Road have lost a loved one in any way that is with another older driver, who surely ‘counted’ in this fashion, you know all should have known better if the young too well how stripped of meaning it men didn’t. becomes. We only care when we can

28 • INDEPENDENTFUN

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Hula ___ 5 Ham it up 10 Vivacity 14 Of bees 16 Of warships 17 Nfld. site with oldest fossils of early multicelled life: Mistaken ___ 18 Steel maker 19 There it is! (Fr.) 20 Salt of a kind 22 For each 23 Foxlike animal of Africa 25 Les ___-Unis 27 Whose maiden name was 28 Man who took a ribbing?

30 Kitchen graspers 33 Business abbr.

34 Fiddlehead, e.g.

35 Shell used in jewellery 37 Different 39 Lawful 41 La femme de papa 43 Decree 46 Maxims 48 Hairpiece 49 Translated in Témiscaming 51 Pass with top marks 52 They hold back the sea 54 Cassowary cousin

56 French river 57 Highs and ___ 59 First ___ 60 Wind up 62 Asian bovines 63 Present on stage 65 Dawn goddess 67 French farewell 69 Wager 70 Accidents 72 Double curve 74 Mounted military 76 Ill-mannered one 77 Units of electricity 79 Goddess of agriculture 80 Carefree: sans ___ 82 Horse breed 84 SE Asian nation 87 Summer time in Worry Lake 88 Dried squash, as a container 89 Makes a pick 93 Pen fluid 94 How angry words are spoken 96 Network (as for power) 98 Electrify 99 Inwood, Man. roadside attraction: garter ___ 101 Seemingly supernatural 104 Vancouver chef Rob ___ 106 Toward the attack-

PROSTHETIC HYMNS

ing zone 107 First woman GG 108 Fenced areas 109 Chain piece 110 Polishing result 111 Campus club DOWN 1 Despised 2 Musical theatre 3 Wildcatter’s find 4 Large Mexican rodent 5 Embitter 6 Chinese dictator, once 7 Egg: comb. form 8 Grimm offering 9 High spirits 10 Opposite of applause 11 Relieved (of) 12 Silly 13 Playful marine mammal 15 Homesickness for the past 17 Nfld.’s flower: ___ plant 18 Skin treatment place 21 Dusk to Donne 24 The sun (myth.)

26 Army insect 29 Christmas trio 31 Chews 32 Start for colon or circle 34 Best day of the

SOLUTION ON PAGE 30 week, for some 36 Musical group 38 Wax-coated cheese 39 Opposite of wordy 40 Misleading statements 42 Sit in the cellar, maybe 44 Responding to treatment 45 Works in an amateurish way 46 City of 1692 witchcraft trials 47 Sask. tourism motto: “Land of living ___” 49 Part of a uniform 50 Irritable 53 Shogunate capital 55 Intermediate: prefix 58 Straight downhill ski run 61 Add alkalinity (to soil, e.g.)

64 Tuber made into poi 66 Ocean 67 Relating to outer space 68 Eye part 71 Feathered 73 Pre-wedding party 75 River through Florence 77 ___ Bay Ecological Reserve, Nfld.

78 River through Walkerton, Ont. 81 Summer time in

Wicked Point 83 “It’s a cold one!”

84 Fleur de ___ 85 Cancel

86 Giraffe’s cousin 90 Zoo favourite 91 Kind of tie 92 Date

94 Mild expletive 95 Slangy assent 97 Unable to hear 100 Cousins

102 Sherbrooke street 103 I have 105 Prove human

By Levi Hansen

The platypus, nature s anomaly, finally discovered its true purpose. Now all shall feel the wrath of the furry webbed overlords.

WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MARCH 21 TO APRIL 19) You often let others complete projects that you’ve started, but you’d be wise to stick with this one if you hope to make that important professional impression.

TAURUS (APRIL 20 TO MAY 20) As you begin to shop for Christmas presents, be sure to put yourself on your list for a wellearned special gift. (Perhaps that trip you’ve put off for so long?)

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) It’s decision-making time in the workplace. Use your communication talents to put your case for a promotion in the best light. A family member has news.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)

You continue to see progress in both your personal and professional aspects. But be careful not to allow holiday pressures to erupt and cause new problems.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUGUST 22) You relish being surrounded by the bright lights of the holiday season, but be careful they don’t blind you to the true motives behind a friend’s recent behavior.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) “Flexibility” remains your watchword at this time. Expect more changes in your plans. But stay the course, and you’ll soon enjoy smooth sailing.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) Recent family problems have simmered down for the holidays, but they’re still boiling beneath

the surface. Expect new support in your search for a resolution.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Holiday plans could include longdelayed reunions with people you loved in the past and still keep close to your heart. Reach out to them.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) Opposites attract in physics, but not necessarily between humans.

Be wary of a relationship with which you don’t feel comfortable.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) That business decision finally can be made now that you have the facts to back it up. You could get a surprise offer to do some holiday traveling.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) Your circle of friends widens as new people come into your life.

An old friend urges you to reconsider those travel plans you put aside.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MARCH 20) You have a warm and generous nature, but be careful it doesn’t get out of control during these holiday times. Make careful decisions and stick to them.

YOU BORN THIS WEEK: You have a gift for seeing beyond the obvious. You also have a sense of curiosity that makes you want to discover hidden places.

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 30

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006 — PAGE 29

Kerri-Ann Evely grapples with teammate Allison Rockwood during a practice this week at Memorial University in St. John’s.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Seventh heaven

By Don Power For The Independent

L

ike many women, Kerri-Ann Evely doesn’t mind talking about jewellery. “Gold is our favourite colour,” the Carbonear native tells The Independent.

But Evely isn’t talking about a certain ring or particular necklace. She’s talking about gold as a prize — as in first place.

The fifth-year student is not only Memorial’s most experienced wrestler, she’s the school’s most talented, having been named the university’s wrestler of the year the past two seasons.

In fact, Evely is probably the best female wrestler in Atlantic Canadian universities right now.

In 2004-05, Evely captured a bronze medal at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships. Last year, a lapse saw her drop to a disappointing seventh place. This year — and this is where the gold reference comes in — Evely has her eyes set on a bigger prize.

She can land the reward at the national wrestling championships, slated for the University of Saskatchewan in early March.

“Medal is an attainable goal,” Evely says during a team practice. “You have to

Memorial wrestler Kerri-Ann Evely has sights set on top-10 national ranking set realistic goals. I believe in competing against myself. I want to improve on my past achievements.

“I’ve reached that goal once — I’ve reached that bronze medal. I’d like to meet that this year again, and even better it.”

Competing at the national level is difficult for Evely — and all Memorial wrestlers — because of the same disadvantages other Newfoundland and Labrador athletes face. Evely just doesn’t get enough matches to give her that battle-tested feel that mainland wrestlers experience.

She remembers two years ago at the CIS awards banquet, another wrestler’s bio was read aloud, stating she had close to 70 matches that season. Memorial head coach Glenn Clark looked at his prized athlete and asked how many Evely had.

“Twelve,” was the answer.

“There is no way you can win at CI’s without getting in at least 15 matches, minimum,” Clark says.

To achieve that total, Clark is taking his team to a couple more competitions this year, to better prepare what he considers to be a strong team for CI qualification.

The team already competed at an invitational meet at McMaster University in Hamilton, where Evely won bronze despite losing her first match.

Early next month, the Sea-Hawks will travel to Thunder Bay for a meet at Lakehead University. Throw in a couple of extra trips after Christmas, and Evely might have a shot at doing something big.

But Evely’s thoughts are not what she might accomplish so much as what the team can do. Wrestling, she says, is a team sport.

“You can’t practise unless you have someone to practise with. We have dummies in there, but they don’t fight back.

You can’t practise unless you have the team to practise with.

“I’ve said this many times before: everyone says wrestling is an individual

sport, and sure you compete on the mat as an individual. There’s no one there to hold you up. However, you wouldn’t be able to wrestle if you didn’t have a team.”

So Evely sets her sights on everybody achieving something special.

“My goal this year, and it’s a team goal, is to have a ranking of seventh in the country for the year,” she says, adding Memorial is ranked ninth in Canada heading into the season.

“Beside that, you always want to improve on your individual goals and I finished third two years ago and I’d like to beat that goal at CI’s.”

Clark says as many as seven or eight of the female wrestlers can make CI’s, a huge feat that will have to be realized at the Atlantic championships at the University of New Brunswick in February.

“We’ve got a real strong team,” he says, adding Evely is the key component.

More than a strong competitor, Evely is also a strong role model for the younger wrestlers. And although she doesn’t want to consider the fact her university career is winding down, she does recognize that some of the younger athletes may look up to her.

See “Bigger prize” page 30

‘Life in Newfoundland is like an Ironman’ Corner Brook nabs Ironman event in 2007; west coast city world renowned for hosting triathlons

L

ast summer, the biggest athletic event in Corner Brook turned 25. The annual triathlon in the west coast city celebrated a quartercentury in style, with hundreds of competitors gracing the streets of Corner Brook for the ITU World Cup. The event, in late July, has become a staple of the International Triathlon Union’s schedule.

It all began as a tiny race featuring about a dozen hardy souls doing what most people thought ludicrous — “you’re swimming, cycling and running, all in the one race?” was often the reaction from startled bystanders.

Since then, of course, the fitness craze has overtaken North America and what was once considered a fringe event is more mainstream.

Now the triathlon is not just a single event. There’s a Kids of Steel race, a Downtown Dash, a swim relay, a duathlon, a sprint triathlon and junior triathlon, in addition to the pro race.

Well, next year, add another event to that line-up.

Corner Brook has been awarded an Ironman race.

Newfoundland’s triathlon capital will host a race that is part of the Ironman 70.3 Series, the

DON POWER

Power Point Newfoundland Ironman 70.3.

It’s not a full Ironman event, like the world famous one in Hawaii in which competitors swim two miles, bike 180 miles and then run a full marathon.

This event includes a 1.9-kilometre swim, a 90-kilometre “scenic valley” bike ride and a 21-kilometre lakeside run.

According to the website www.runnersweb.com, Corner Brook will get the Ironman race July 29, 2007. That race will automatically become a qualifying race for a similar Ironman World Championship race in Clearwater, Florida in November of next year.

A total of 75 qualifiers from Corner Brook can compete in Clearwater.

The Newfoundland Ironman 70.3 will be managed by Wreckhouse Entertainment, “a not-for-profit company established in 1999 with a goal

of attracting international events to Western Newfoundland,” according to the website.

The site notes Wreckhouse’s directors were involved with the world cup’s host organization last year.

“The partnership with Ironman demonstrates our commitment to the province — one of the most beautiful places in the world,” Peter Antle of Wreckhouse Entertainment is quoted as saying at runnersweb.com. “We look forward to embracing and recognizing those individuals who push their limits. In many ways, life in Newfoundland is like an Ironman — each stage brings new challenges and conquering them makes you stronger.”

Unlike the World Cup Triathlon, the swim portion of this race will be held in Deer Lake, with the bike portion running through Humber Valley.

Organizers are predicting this new event can become one of their signature events.

They’re already billing it as a race that will be unique, with a swim held in “fresh water clean enough you can drink it while you swim.” A newsletter on the race also promotes the land portion as a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“A two-loop 90 km/56 mile signature bike route through the scenic Humber Valley,” the newsletter reads.

“Carved by the mighty Humber River, the road is flanked by forest on both sides and features a pass-by of Marble Mountain Ski Resort and majestic views of the Bay of Islands and the city of Corner Brook.

“The road along the valley is mostly flat with a 160-metre four-kilometre climb at the end of the loop. As you pass by the buried treasure at Shellbird Island, closely guarded by the Man in the Mountain, and the Steady Brook waterfalls, your biggest challenge will be focusing on the race and not the scenery.”

Corner Brook has already hosted nine ITU World Cups as well as the World Duathlon Championships last year. And with a new website launched Nov. 22 — www.ironmannewfoundland.com — people from around the world will be checking out Corner Brook.

Clearly, Corner Brook has shown its aptitude at hosting world-renowned international events like this. donniep@nl.rogers.com

It all began as a tiny race featuring about a dozen hardy souls doing what most people thought ludicrous — “you’re swimming, cycling and running, all in the one race?” was often the reaction from startled bystanders.

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

‘Bigger prize’ From page 29 “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Kerri=Ann,” says Allison Rockwood, a third-year wrestler. “I come in here and train with Kerri-Ann. I wrestle her, and I would definitely not be here if it weren’t for Kerri-Ann.” Clark recognizes that, too. At 65, he is eligible for retirement this spring.

Although no plans have been formalized, Clark has thought ahead.

“She’s real experienced and a real leader,” he says, nodding towards the unmistakable leader of his squad.

“She’s studied coaching as well, so she helps a lot with coaching. Kerri-Ann is a real leader. I’m set to retire, and if I had my druthers, I’d make her the new coach.”

Hold on a minute, Evely says. While she has displayed leadership like any fifth-year student (on a team with nine

first-year athletes), Evely hardly considers herself ready to unlace her wrestling shoes yet.

“I don’t want to consider myself as a coach because I’m still an athlete,” she says, “but we do give the younger wrestlers guidance.”

Evely looks back now and remembers quitting the sport after Grade 10.

An athletic teen, she decided to concentrate on swimming (and her lifeguard duties in Carbonear) so wrestling was set aside. After the local pool closed (and a change of heart), Evely returned to the mat.

The sport, she says, “grabs hold of you” and doesn’t let go.

“When someone experiences wrestling, there’s no going back.

Wrestlers are some of the best people you’ll ever meet.” donniep@nl.rogers.com

If you don’t have a compass …

Paul Smith offers some more tricks to help you find your way home

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T

he moral of last week’s column was never venture into the woods without a compass. In a perfect world, such would always be the case — but the world is far from ideal and you never know how the twists and turns of fate can land you in a predicament.

How can you possibly navigate or find north when you’re disoriented in the woods without a compass? There are actually many ways.

The compass has been with us as an ancient Chinese invention since about 200 BC, but didn’t come into common navigational use until the 14th century.

Affordable pocket compasses are a recent technology, so our ancestors had to find their way around some other way.

So you’re lost in the woods with no compass. There’s not often you learn something useful from a Hollywood movie, but if you happened to see The Edge with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, you’re in luck. You can rig a makeshift compass with readily available material.

In the movie, three men were stranded in the wilderness after their bush plane collided with a flock of geese. They survived the crash, but were stranded with no compass to find their way home.

Anthony Hopkins’s character, an eccentric billionaire, magnetized a sewing needle by rubbing it with a silk handkerchief. Then he placed it on a leaf and floated it on a still pool of water. The needle leaf and needle spun around in the water and pointed north.

This wasn’t just Hollywood nonsense.

It really works. I’ve tried it. The problem is, I’m more likely to have a compass than anything silk — however I do always carry needle and thread in my emergency kit. A magnet works even better than silk if you have one. Just stoke the needle with the magnet a few times and either float it on something (leaf, paper, birch bark, etc.) or suspend it with a piece of light thread. If you

PAUL SMITH

The Rock

Outdoors don’t have a needle, any thin long piece of ferrous metal will do.

Yet another way to magnetize the needle is to place it in a solenoid. To make a solenoid, wrap about 10 loops of wire loosely around your finger and then pull your finger out, leaving the coils intact.

Snare or tie wire will do. Now connect the loose ends of wire to the positive and negative terminals on a battery. When you place a needle inside the solenoid it will magnetize. Good stuff to know.

When I’m walking in the woods on a starry night I’ll often get my bearings from the North Star. It’s quicker and more convenient than using a compass in the dark. The North Star is directly above the geographic North Pole of the earth and is the only star that remains stationary in the night sky. All the other stars revolve around it.

The North Star, as the name implies, points the way north. Everyone should know how to find it, and luckily it’s very simple. Just locate the big dipper (Ursa Major): The two stars that form the end of the dipper away from the handle are Merak and Dubhe – bottom to top.

Mentally extrapolate the line from Merak to Dubhe out past Dubhe about four times the distance that separates the two stars. At this location you will see a very bight star pointing the way north.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west (well, sort of). In summer, the sun’s path across the sky is more to the north, and in winter it’s further south.

Theoretically, if you know the day of the year and the time of day you can deduce direction from the sun’s position. But most of us lack the knowledge and data tables necessary.

Here’s a practical method to get rea-

SOLUTIONS FOR CROSSWORD ON PAGE 28

Skate • Snow • Style

sonably accurate direction from the sun.

Erect a two- or three-foot stick as vertically as possible and place a stone at the tip of the shadow cast by the stick. Wait at least 15 minutes and place another stone at the shadow’s new position. The two stones will form an east-west line, the first stone being west.

If you happen to be wearing an analog wristwatch (watch with hands) you can use it as a kind of sun compass. With the watch set to true time (non-daylight saving), hold it horizontally and spin yourself around so that the hour hand points towards the sun. North is halfway between the hour hand and the 12 on your watch. If you happen to be south of the equator, point the 12 at the sun and halfway to the hour hand is a north south line. Very cool.

Flora can also help us find north. The North Pole plant grows in Africa and always leans north to take full advantage of the sun’s warmth. In North America the compass plant orients its leaves along an east-west line. Next summer I think I’ll check out our pitcher plant and see if it orients itself in any particular way. Maybe nobody ever really checked.

Juniper trees in Newfoundland lean towards the east, due to the prevailing westerly wind. You can even find north from a tree stump. Growth rings are wider on the side of a tree facing south.

Also moss grows thicker on the north side of trees, away from the sun.

In spite of the woodsy and crafty ways to find north, the moral of the story remains. Carry a compass. In fact, keep a spare one in your emergency kit. Most of the above methods are useless in fog and snow when you can’t see a hand in front of you. I can’t count all the times the earth’s magnetic field has guided me home. It’s one thing in life you can count on.

Paul Smith is a freelance writer living in Spaniard’s Bay. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com

SOLUTIONS FOR SUDOKU ON PAGE 28

NOVEMBER 24, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIED FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24-30, 2006 — PAGE 32

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