2006-12-15

VOL. 4 ISSUE 50

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006

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LIFE 17

SPORTS 29

Last Nutcracker for Kittiwake co-founder

Players get used to new rules, faster hockey

‘Gone, gone, gone, gone’

FINDING THE PERFECT TREE

Future of 9 Wing, Nav Canada and other services in question if Gander airport closes IVAN MORGAN

W

hen asked about the future of 9 Wing Gander, military landings, Nav Canada and other services based in Gander if the town’s airport closes, MP Scott Simms checks his list.

“Gone, gone, gone, gone.”

The Gander Airport Authority is in financial trouble, and recently turned down an offer of $5.9 million over two years from the federal government, saying it was not enough. The authority has made a counter-offer to the federal government for a one-time payment of $10 million, or an annual payment of $2.5 million for five years.

If an agreement cannot be reached with the federal government, the authority is considering handing the keys back to Transport Canada, which is ultimately responsible for the facility. That would throw into question the fate of other services currently using the airport.

Government figures show 9 Wing employs 139 military personnel and 29 civilians. Nav Canada has approximately 12 employees contracted at the airport.

Gander airport can see between 700 and 1,500 military and government plane landings a year.

The provincial water bomber fleet and other services, also located at the airport, employ scores of people and add millions of dollars to the local economy.

Their departure would add to the already serious economic blow of an airport closure.

Gary Vey, president of the Gander Airport Authority, says the authority provides snow-clearing and emergency response services. If the facility closed, each would have to find alternate arrangements.

“What would happen to them? I don’t know,” says Vey. “Maybe someone would step up to the plate and do that.”

Lieutenant-Colonel James MacAleese, commanding officer of 9 Wing Gander, says they have no plans to move — even if the airport closes. He says helicopters don’t need an airport to operate effectively.

See “We need,” page 4

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I would try and make the game a little sexier, I guess. Maybe change some of the clothing and just promote it that way. For some reason, we curlers seem to wear the most boring clothing you could ever imagine out on the ice.”

— Brad Gushue, on how he would improve his sport of choice.

See page 31

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO OUR READERS AND ADVERTISERS The advertising deadline for next week’s paper is Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 5 p.m.

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There will be no paper the week of Dec. 25-29.

SEASON’S GREETINGS TO ALL

Patrick O’Flaherty . .

Gallery . . . . . . . . . . .

Book reviews . . . . . .

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

Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11 18 20 21 23

Ron Kirby sets up his Christmas tree lot every year on the old Dominion parking lot on Ropewalk Lane in St. John’s. He expects to sell about 40 Newfoundland-grown trees this weekend. Kirby says most people who buy real trees will purchase them this weekend.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Out there’

Eastern Health breaks silence on inaccurate breast cancer results

STEPHANIE PORTER

E

astern Health broke a yearlong silence this week, addressing the media about the results of their decision to re-test nearly 1,000 breast cancer specimens to address possible inaccuracies.

Eastern Health says 117 breast cancer patients were “identified as requiring treatment changes,” as a result of the new tests and subsequent case reviews. There is no one issue or

mistake that led to the changes, according to the organization; rather, it was “a systems problem.”

The exact number of incorrect results was not released, due in part to a pending class-action suit against the health authority. Meantime, the number of registrants in the class action is growing steadily, with lawyer Ches Crosbie reporting at least three new participants in the past week — raising the total to more than 40.

When The Independent broke the story of the inaccurate tests in October 2005, there was a flurry of media appearances by hospital officials. Since then, spokespeople have repeatedly

turned down requests for interviews, deferring any public statements until all test results were in and all patients contacted.

“We were criticized for not being out there in the public,” cancer program clinical chief Kara Laing tells The Independent. “But we felt that we had to take the time and the energy we had and we had to focus it on the patients and that we couldn’t really spend a lot of time out in the broad public arena.

“Until we had the opportunity to meet with and decide what we were going to do with See “We’ve made,” page 8

Streetlight fees reduced; Twillingate town manager says nothing to get excited about MANDY COOK

N

ewfoundland and Labrador towns will get a break this winter on street lighting costs, though the reduction works out to less than one per cent.

Twillingate’s town manager describes the reduction as “very insignificant,” but welcome.

With a street light bill running the town of 2,600 people $80,000 a year, Dave Burton calculates the upcoming 0.05 per cent decrease in electricity rates will save the residents approximately $40.

“It’s not a real significant savings, though we can use any savings I must say.”

Newfoundland Hydro announced the fee

decrease on Dec. 8. It follows an updated application the Crown corporation made to the public utilities board in August of this year.

Newfoundland Hydro initially filed for an approximate 4.5 per cent hike on electricity rates, but has since reviewed its request and replaced the proposed hike with the 0.05 per cent drop.

Newfoundland Power says it will match the decrease come Jan. 1. Newfoundland Power delivers electricity to about 80 per cent of the province’s customers.

Some municipalities are heartened to hear their streetlight bill will be reduced. Wayne Ruth, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Municipalities says Labrador City mayor Graham Letto was “delighted.”

“Mayor Letto was overwhelmed by the fact.

He was encouraged that this (hike) would be eliminated for the time being … (it) was more palatable to the residents of his community.”

Ruth says the decrease will make a difference in many Newfoundland and Labrador communities. He says bright lights are a sign of a healthy town.

“The cost of running a town, everything goes up,” he says from his home of Kippens, near Stephenville. “If the streetlights go up here, we have to make a choice and we don’t want to be regressive and start turning off streetlights because that means your town is shutting down. I’ve heard of these scenarios before where towns have taken extreme measures and had streetlights removed a few years ago.

“It seems like the town is dying.”

See “Costs are,” page 2

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

FEBRUARY 20, 2005

Days of our MHAs’ lives

Randy Simms says House of Assembly channel needs tweaking; roaming camera wouldn’t go astray

M

ost people probably didn’t notice but every afternoon for the last three weeks or so a cadre of political types rushed to their television sets each day to watch a short-lived soap opera. I’m referring to the House of Assembly — not The Young and The Restless. The soap came to an end this week and will not return until the House reopens.

It was in November 2001 that the House proceedings were first broadcast. I can recall the public debate it sparked. Some felt a television camera would intimidate members, curb debate and slow proceedings; others felt showing the House on television would enhance democracy and engage citizens.

Today, a short five years later, our MHAs seem to have weathered the intrusion of cameras with little difficulty. The level of debate has not improved and, to be honest, it hasn’t declined either.

Decorum in the House remains as elusive as ever, something between a verbal sparring match and an all-out brawl.

I was one of those people who thought putting our members on TV was a good idea. I still do. But I have problems with the way things have progressed since its inception. For one thing the little cadre of people I referenced a moment ago is much smaller than it should be. The House only airs while it’s actually in session and people who have something better to do at 1:30 p.m. most weekdays are

RANDY SIMMS

Page 2 talk not able to access it at all. That’s unfortunate — working people would love to be able to tune in and see their members at play.

I have some issues with the lack of true production value as well. I know the rules, but I find it disconcerting that the camera will only show the member speaking and never those who are listening or catcalling, etc. When the Speaker introduces and welcomes special visitors to “our House” there is never a shot of those honoured guests sitting in the Speaker’s box or the visitors’ gallery. We just see a picture of the Speaker looking to some far off place with a welcoming smile while we hear members bang their desks.

The production rules are designed to make the broadcast boring: nothing but headshots and that one long shot of the Speaker’s chair from time to time.

The quality of production could use a little tweaking. For example, when the Opposition House leader Kelvin Parsons says something like, “I can see the minister on that side Mr. Speaker, interrupting, yelling across the floor and grinning. Well, he won’t be grinning much longer, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that.”

I, for one, would like to get a shot of that grin. A quick camera cut to the offending minister would be nice. It would add to the raw drama and give context to the “live” debate.

There are risks of course. If the cameras were allowed to randomly focus we might find things like members not listening, nodding off, picking noses and God knows what else. Given the few short days our House is in session it’s a small risk to run.

The House channel could be much improved. For one, let the cameras roam. If a speaker is literally talking to an empty chamber because so many members have decided to pay a visit to the common room, let us see it. Two — replay the proceedings in prime time. The more people who see our members at work the better. And three — use the channel for more than just broadcasting the House. How about seeing inside committee meetings? I bet the internal economies commission or the public accounts committee would make for interesting viewing.

When the opposition parties were treated to a briefing on the fibre-optics deal last month we only heard about it. It would have made for riveting television.

While I think these ideas are good there is a problem. The costs are enormous to provide the satellite feed to Newfoundland and Labrador. The province pays $260 per hour for satellite time. It’s a lot of cash. Right now the service only has three employees and my plans would require an expansion.

Maybe the new fibre-optic arrangement will lead to a lower price and my suggestions can be acted upon. Until then, we have to live with the House of Assembly channel broadcasting coloured bars as soon as adjournment is called.

This year the House quit for Christmas with a cliffhanger, just like the soaps. Will the people of Ramea and Burgeo ever get those flush toilets at the ferry terminal?

Stay tuned.

Randy Simms is host of VOCM’s Open Line radio show.

‘Costs are going up’ From page 1 Spokespeople from Newfoundland Hydro and Newfoundland Power do not have official records of communities that shut off streetlights to pay the bills, but Dawn Dalley at Hydro says the one incident she can recall was a town’s short-term solution.

She says Hydro only increases the cost of power when overall costs increase.

“We’re not in the business of increasing rates for the sake of increasing rates. We increase them because costs are going up,” she says.

“The premise is customers should be paying the true cost of power. If you use it, then you pay for it.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

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DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

SCRUNCHINS A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

T

here’s no better way to begin a Scrunchins column than with a drink — not when the spirit is poured from a bottle of the old Pink, White and Green. Well, the amber rum is actually from Ragged Rock, a new brand out this Christmas from the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation.

The bottle stands out on liquor store shelves because of the tattered old Newfoundland flag flying on the label. The liquor corp. also prepared some marketing literature …

Surrounded by thousands of miles of rocky coastline along the frigid North Atlantic, Newfoundlanders have developed an unrivalled resilience. The harsh realities of the life in the North Atlantic brought its people a sense of independence and pride that still lives today. For over 150 years, the Pink, White and Green flag has been the unofficial symbol of this spirit of independence. It speaks of the greatness of our past, a proud and defiant people with a truly distinct and unique culture.

That sounds a hell of a lot like the text that accompanied the pitcher plant/alien tendril logo that the province released last fall — only better. Danny could have saved a million bucks and asked the liquor corp. to come up with our new symbol. The Pink, White and Green would have been perfect. Rex Goudie had a Pink, White and Green bracelet on this week during an interview on CBC Television. For the life of me I can’t see Sexy Rexy wearing a pitcher plant tendril, which just goes to show the provincial government didn’t learn a thing from the new Newfoundland and Labrador flag — symbols aren’t created so much as forged.

An elderly gentleman of fine taste who had picked up a bottle of Ragged Rock at the liquor store left a message on my message manager to say Ragged Rock was smooth … real smooth.

the e-mail and he and Ward went at it.

Hynes’ last e-mail went like this, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand the complexities of this decision … you’re a foreign jackass.” In another e-mail, Hynes wrote he wouldn’t be “denigrated or intimidated by selfimportant non-Canadians.” Not to mention non-Newfoundlander …

PROMISES, PROMISES As the Conservative candidate, Hynes promised to bring back the weather office to Gander airport. On Jan. 15, a week before the federal election, Stephen Harper sent a letter to Gary Vey, president and CEO of the Gander International Airport Authority.

“I am pleased to confirm that a Conservative Transport minister under my leadership would investigate the financial impact of government and military aircraft landing free at Gander, and would take steps to mitigate this impact,” Harper wrote.

“As a result of the extraordinary volume of military and government traffic (the airport) accommodates, we do not believe the federal government should place such an unfair burden on a community-based not-for-profit body. A Conservative Transport minister would work with the Gander International Airport Authority to develop a suitable formula to offset that burden. Among other options, we would consider a system of payments to the Gander International Airport Authority similar to the ‘grant in lieu of taxes’ paid by the federal government to the City of Ottawa for the use of municipal infrastructure and services.”

Funny, that sounds nothing like the take-it-or-leave-it alternative MP Loyola Hearn gave to Gander airport a few days ago …

BIG SPENDERS An advertising supplement in the Dec. 11 issue of Maclean’s magazine ranked Newfoundland and Labrador seventh among provinces and territories in terms of provincial holiday spending — $781. No. 1 was Alberta ($967); Saskatchewan was last ($699). Maybe we should spend more time at the mall …

The bergship

DION MUSTARD In a Dec. 7 television interview with CBC National’s Peter Mansbridge, Liberal leader Stephane Dion referenced how the best universities in Canada — from Halifax to Alberta — would be used to develop oil-field technology. Guess the honourary doctorate from Memorial is out now …

HYNES CATCH UP Poor old Aaron Hynes, the failed Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal election for the federal riding of Bonavista-Gander-Grand FallsWindsor. First he lost the vote to Liberal Scott Simms, now he’s lost his job. According to the StandardFreeholder newspaper out of Cornwall, Ont., Hynes was “let go” recently after reports surfaced that he called an American businessman a “foreign jackass.” Hynes worked as a legislative assistant to Ontario MP Guy Lauzon, who says he didn’t so much fire Hynes as reorganize his office. At the same time, The Globe and Mail reported a week before about a heated e-mail exchange between Hynes and Florida money manager Daniel B. Ward over income trust legislation.

In November, Ward sent an irate email to people in the Conservative party over their decision to tax income trusts. Hynes eventually got a copy of

Proposed Second World War project would have dwarfed Hibernia GBS

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

A

block of ice dropped into Sir Winston Churchill’s bathtub — while he was in it — almost led to Corner Brook being the site for the largest engineering project proposed in Canada to that time.

During the Second World War the Allies, facing disaster from German Uboat attacks on convoys bringing essential supplies to Great Britain, seriously considered building an aircraft carrier out of ice in Corner Brook.

The ship, referred to as a “bergship” by its eccentric inventor Geoffrey Pyke, was to be made of an ice and wood pulp combination.

Pyke had learned that adding wood pulp to ice — which is brittle — made it a much stronger building material. He also discovered the pulp served as insulation, which meant the ice didn’t melt as fast. The frozen concoction was called pykrete in his honour.

Pyke’s idea was to build a man-made, motorized iceberg out of pykrete, which would serve as an indestructible platform for airplanes in the middle of the North Atlantic.

As Paul Collins noted in his 2003 article The Floating Island, the British military’s chief of combined operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was so excited by the idea that he went to visit Churchill.

He barged into Churchill’s bathroom and tossed a block of pykrete into the tub.

BIBLE THUMPER The Globe and Mail listed HumberSt. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrne as voting against same-sex marriage.

What’s up with that?

BACON DIPPER Rex Goudie, whose new album, Look Closer, was released this week, was quoted in the Edmonton Sun this way: “I’d die if there wasn't something to do,” said the svelte 21-yearold, picking at his humongous arteryhardening pile of syrup-coated bacon during breakfast. He then proceeded to dip bread into his oatmeal — a Newfie tradition, he told me.

That’s OK Rex, keep wearing the Pink, White and Green and you can make all the new traditions you like … ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

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literally dropped in his lap, and so he seized on it.”

O’Brien says the British saw this as a way to introduce planes — especially Spitfires, their most effective fighters — to the Battle of the Atlantic.

“At the time, British carriers couldn’t launch Spitfires and long range bombers,” says O’Brien. The bergship would solve this problem.

While the exercise, christened Project Habukkuk (after an Old Testament prophet), was being designed and built on a lake in the Rockies, the logistics of building a full-scale aircraft carrier out of pykrete were investigated.

Max Perutz, who later won the 1962 Nobel Prize for chemistry, worked on the project during the war. In his memoirs he wrote about the need to find a place to construct pykrete blocks and build this “ship.”

Corner Brook was considered a suitable site to manufacture pykrete and possibly build the ship, he wrote. It had a long, cold winter, a good harbour, and steady supply of wood pulp from the paper mill.

There were many challenges to the project. While the 60-metre prototype, built in great secrecy on Patricia Lake, near Jasper, Alta., was a success, the challenges of building the full-size craft proved daunting. The engineering was far from sound. There were questions of manpower — estimates called for

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When it didn’t melt, Churchill was sold.

“Churchill never met a hair-brained scheme he didn’t like,” Memorial University professor Michael O’Brien tells The Independent. Churchill authorized further investigation of the idea under strict military secrecy.

“The whole thing was linked to the war situation and the Battle of the Atlantic in terms of timing,” says O’Brien “It was all about trying to fill up what was called the “black hole,” the area of the mid-Atlantic where convoys were out of range of planes from Allied air bases in Iceland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. They were sitting ducks for German U-boats. By 1942 they were losing a great many ships.

“So they had this utter crisis. There was a panic going on — not in the Royal Navy, because they had more of a sense of what the situation was. But Churchill in particular was in a panic, and willing to seize on anything, and I guess had this

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

DECEMBER 15, 2006

‘We need that airport’ From page 1 “We are watching what is happening … to get a better feel for what ‘closed’ means. Does closed mean they lose their international status and becomes a domestic airport with limited services? That probably wouldn’t hinder us at all,” says MacAleese. “If closed means the runway is shut down and everything and everybody goes home, then that’s a different story.”

In that case, he says, they’d have to look at bringing in some of their own people to provide what the airport used to.

Simms says 9 Wing could stay — unless they get the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft under consideration. Then, says Simms, they may have to look at moving.

“Helicopters can land. You’ve got your patch of pavement. You’ve got your parking lot. You can land on it.

But if you’ve got fixed-wing aircraft, where are you going to go?

“St. John’s becomes the defacto airport to land for the rest of the aircraft, the C-17s and that sort of thing.

So it just makes sense to put the rest of them in there too.”

Vey says Nav Canada would face new expenses if they stayed on after a closure.

“We are required to give them space free of charge, so if we weren’t here and the building was closed down then I guess they would have to pay the cost of upkeep themselves,” says Vey. “It would be a major, major expense.”

Nav Canada spokesman Louis Garneau says the air traffic con-

trollers currently working at Gander airport would have to be reassigned — a loss of upwards of 15 jobs.

Gander Mayor Claude Elliott says if the airport shuts down, the military craft will have to land elsewhere — and they’ll take their business with them. The water bomber fleet would also have to relocate. He says the situation is very difficult and is taking its toll on the town.

‘REFUSES TO PAY’ “If the government of Canada paid for the service that they are providing for them, then there would be no problems,” says Elliott. “It is unfortunate that a service is being provided to a customer, and that customer refuses to pay.

“I mean the Gander airport to us is the fish plant to other communities.

We need that airport.”

“When the prime minister went to Gander, he didn’t pay a thing,” says Simms, referring to Stephen Harper’s visit in October. “When Harper went to Gander, his plane didn’t pay a thing when it landed.”

Simms says airports like Gander need protection from these federal government policies.

“We need a policy for smaller airports that have a tremendous amount of pressure from military landings and government landings. They have to be provided with a lifeline,” he says.

“The new government is now saying you have to act as a business, but their number one client — meaning them — is delinquent.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Randy Druken

Paul Daly/The Independent

$2 million for Druken

R

andy Druken will be paid $2 million in compensation for his wrongful murder conviction and subsequent six years imprisonment in a maximum-security facility in Renous, N.B. He was released in 1999 pending an appeal and later exonerated

by DNA evidence.

A spokesman for the Justice department says the method of payment — whether a lump sum or structured settlement — will be determined by Druken’s lawyer. General damages are not usually considered taxable.

The spokesman says government does not have insurance to cover these

types of payments. He says the government is making the payment voluntarily.

Gregory Parsons, also wrongfully convicted for murder, was awarded $1.3 million in two $650,000 payments.

— Ivan Morgan

‘More fun than getting drunk’ Conne River teacher spearheads new youth centre initiative

By Sean Ridgeley For The Independent

S

cott Oosterom, a teacher at Se’t A’neywey School in Conne River, is about to step into the position of youth counselor. One of his main goals is to offer some healthy activities for the older high school students to be involved in.

“Most of them are out drinking every weekend.

The problem is there’s nothing else for them to do,” says Oosterom, a recent graduate from Memorial University.

Se’t A’neywey School (or St. Anne’s) is the only school in Conne River, a small and tightly

knit Indian reserve in central Newfoundland. The kindergarten-Grade 12 school employs a staff of 18 teachers.

A youth centre is already active in the community, offering movie nights, cooking events, computers with high-speed Internet, a big-screen TV, video game consoles, and more — but is essentially limited to younger kids. The seniors are permitted to use the facility only after the younger ones have left, and as Oosterom states, there isn’t an organized group for them — or much time.

Senior student Kristien Hinks feels she and her classmates need their own space.

“I think people would like a place to go where there’s no younger kids, where we could have the right to go whenever we wanted,” she says.

“With the youth centre now, we’re only allowed there after the daycare is done using it.

And there’s a lot of young kids there that bother the older crowd, so we usually leave and wander about.”

Oosterom takes over the position of youth counselor in January, effectively fulfilling the role of supervisor.

The area has had a problem with vandalism in the past. A lot of the older kids used to hang out at the arcade, but due to acts of vandalism, the business shut down.

Oosterom will be working with some of the older students, as well as the Conne River Health and Social Services, run by the Miawpukek band government that is instituted in the community.

“In order to make better use of the youth centre, and perhaps the gym at school, the seniors need to have a supervisor or two,” he says.

“See, I do seem to have a good standing with the kids … They came to me specifically asking me if I would be a youth counselor for them, and I think if I was willing to do this with them it would help, in many ways. I am not gonna let them down.”

It’s not going to be easy, admits April Hinks, a youth coordinator with the local social services organization.

“Donations from the community would be my biggest obstacle,” she says. “Some parents think because we are a branch of the health and social services we have all the money to buy the things we need.”

As was the case with the current youth centre,

stories from here

‘Utterly pointless’ From page 3

Each year, a group of Petro-Canada employees donate Christmas hampers and volunteer their time to prepare packages full of gifts, food and goodwill for less fortunate families in our community. We acknowledge this generous spirit and their gift of giving that helps to make the festive season warmer and brighter for others.

Part of your community.

student fundraising activities are going to be organized to kick-start the centre and provide youth with the things they want. They’ll include wake-a-thons and selling draw tickets, among other events.

Financial difficulties aside, the challenge is still there: how are they supposed to attract the older students?

“I have been puzzled as to how to go about starting something for them,” says Oosterom.

“Because what would they do that, for them, is more fun than getting drunk?”

Things aren’t all bad. When asked, many of the seniors seemed enthusiastic about the prospect of a youth centre.

“I’d like to have a place to go to because we can’t go to other peoples’ houses all the time, we’re getting tired and bored of it,” responded Kristien Hinks. “And with it being winter, there’s no point to being outside and doing nothing but freezing.”

“I think it would be good to have a youth centre for the older kids,” said senior Ian Benoit. “I wouldn’t rather do anything else.”

Jacob Benoit, a Grade 10 student, echoed their feelings. “A youth centre with no little kids would be awesome!”

April Hinks, with health and social services, remembers her own teenaged experiences with the youth group.

“I just think, if the adults were more open minded and helpful, the senior high students would have a great time having a group. I did when I was a teen because the supervisors were awesome, open-minded, responsive, fun people.”

The process will get underway after the holidays.

www.petro-canada.ca

upwards of 8,000 people taking eight months to complete the project.

The pykrete plant was projected to require 100 acres. There was a suggestion Corner Brook harbour would have to be dammed and drained.

Then there was the cost — a projected $70 million. As O’Brien says, “It doesn’t look to me like it would ever have been feasible.”

Some in the British military remained unfazed by the price tag. Mountbatten was so enthusiastic he brought a block of pykrete to a meeting with high-ranking American military officials in Quebec in the fall of 1943.

Ever the showman, he drew his pistol in the office and shot the block to prove its toughness. The bullet ricocheted off the block, and grazed one of the senior American military officials. They were not sold on the idea, put off by the cost, the time required for construction, and the fact they knew they had their own secret project — the nuclear bomb.

“I think it was May 1943 (when German) U-boats were pulled out of the mid-Atlantic anyway, because of losses,” O’Brien says. “At that point it became utterly pointless to have this thing.”

The plan didn’t officially die until 1944. American writer Collins says the astronomical cost, the increased range of new bombers, American disinterest and the general course of the war killed the project. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Puddister on the mend

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

LOYOLA’S LOOT

L

eo Puddister, the colourful former president of NAPE, has been hospitalized for an undisclosed heart condition.

Daughter Krista Puddister says her father is now on the road to recovery.

“He’s doing well.

He had a little bit of a setback of course for such a big, strong, important man, but it looks good. Looks like its going to be a little bit of a longer road to recovery than my Dad would like, but things are looking good right now,” Puddister tells The Independent. “His spirits are very, very good — but then his spirits are always very good.”

Close personal friend Ed McKee says Puddister will need to slow down a little.

“He is in good spirits. Leo is one of these guys who is driven. He’s always working and he’s always busy and he’s always putting himself under pressure. He’s not a guy who sits back and does nothing so he’s probably just driven himself a bit too hard, I would think.”

— Ivan Morgan

Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan briefs reporters at a press conference Dec. 13 at the Confederation Building to announce $199.3 million surplus for 2005-2006 fiscal year. Sullivan says sound fiscal management, the finalizing the 2005 Atlantic Accord agreement and improved offshore oil revenues contributed to the largest surplus in the province’s history.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Armageddon philosophy Cod scientist calls predictions of fish stock collapse ‘sensational’

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

R

enowned cod scientist George Rose says some scientific journals sensationalize stories to boost circulation — and are confusing the public and hurting the cause of good science in the process.

Rose refers specifically to recent conflicting reports about the state of the global fishery. A study issued from Dalhousie University grabbed international headlines by predicting the collapse of the world’s commercial fishery by 2048. The original story ran in one of the world’s most prestigious science journals, Science.

Last week, a scientist based at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Ray Hilborn, challenged this study, stating the research was flawed, and the conclusions inaccurate.

That left many wondering which, if

either, of the claims was more accurate.

Rose says the published prediction of a total collapse is “nonsense” and was made to draw media attention to the study.

“It’s very important what the public thinks and believes about this, because it translates into political action,” Rose tells The Independent. “And if the political actions are based on half-truths, mistruths and sensationalization — we don’t want to go there.”

Rose says sensational headlines make the hard work of science all that more difficult. Research has implications beyond the world of science, he continues, and the public and politicians have to act on what they think is the truth, as it is uncovered by research.

“This is why I guess I feel strongly about this,” says Rose. “It’s difficult enough with the best of information for our political masters and managers to make the correct decisions. It’s very

difficult.”

Rose says Hilborn gives examples of how the dire prediction was based on misinterpreted information. The Dalhousie study uses catch rates of haddock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as data to show the stock has collapsed — but Hilborn says the George’s Bank haddock population is way up.

Rose says the meat of the Dalhousie study was not even about global stock collapse — it investigated the loss of biodiversity in the ocean and, on that level, made fairly good contributions.

But, he adds, the prediction of a total collapse was added to attract attention, and was successful in doing so.

“From the science side this is a questionable tactic and certainly it has the potential to discredit science, which I think is not really what we want to do,” says Rose. “To make such a projection is downright foolish.

“The part about the 40-year projec-

tion was only a very small part (of the study) — in fact its basically one or two sentences in the conclusion based on a small part of the paper. It probably would have been better if they had just left that right out.”

He says he doesn’t want to make blanket statements about all publications, because many are trying to be responsible in their reporting.

Rose agrees there are many serious problems facing the world’s fish stocks and says he does not want to discredit the main point the report makes — that there are problems in the global fishery.

“It is just we are not on the Armageddon kind of philosophy. We don’t think it is all going to come to an end tomorrow.”

He says it is hard to fault the mainstream media or the general public for being confused.

“This is a problem that is coming out of some of the most prestigious science

journals in the world,” says Rose. “I mean this was published in Science, and there have been other similar things published in Nature, and Science and Nature are two of the most prestigious science magazines in the world.

“It is fine for people like me, because I’ve kind of got inside knowledge on this … I certainly don’t blame the public. How are they supposed to know?

“If there is one place that really is responsible for this, it is the scientific magazines, because they are kind of the medium through which we vet science in the world. And they appear — not all, but some of the more high level ones — to kind have bought into the sensational.”

Science was contacted by The Independent for a comment, but declined. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

DECEMBER 15, 2006

A life without Danny D

anny has thought about quitting politics, he said so himself when the media asked him how he was doing, which means it’s fair game for me to picture Newfoundland and Labrador without him. Excuse me for a second, I’ve found my powers of concentration are much sharper when I connect the alien tendrils from the provincial logo to my temple lobes. There … all done — I may have a couple of stylized pitcher plants suction-cupped to my forehead but the reception is much clearer than with the old-fashioned rabbit ears. See all that Danny does for us?

Now he’s gone.

Let that thought sink in for a moment — Danny’s done. My first reaction is pity for the Tory party he leaves behind. The premier’s popularity may have dipped in the polls to 73 per cent today from 78 per cent in August, but he’s still red lining in the messiah/Smallwood/Moores/Peckford /Wells/Tobin zone.

The Conservatives would be lost without him, a herd of moose caught in the headlights, tongues lapping salt off the pavement of the Trans-Canada, with no one to lead them to the Promised Land/highway shoulder.

The Conservatives are almost guaranteed a second mandate come next October, but

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander that’s only if Danny leads the way.

Without a shining star like He Who Takes No Salary, the Tories would be fair game for the likes of Gerry Reid, a rather dull Liberal star, more of a tide-themover, sacrificial-lamb leader (Gerry knows that himself). Forget Danny’s departure, Lorraine Michael wouldn’t have a chance of becoming premier if the entire caucus of both other parties attached special transport tendrils to their suits and beamed to Maher’s (that’s the place out by Roaches Line).

For sure there’d be a dogfight between the Liberals and Tories.

Not a soul could take Danny’s place, of course. Loyola Sullivan has already had his kick at the leadership can and stubbed his toe. Trevor Taylor is handsome as all get out, with real Bay appeal, but he couldn’t make a go of it in the Fisheries Department when he had the helm.

And as the fishery goes, so goes this place. While I’m on the Trevor topic, the minister called into Open Line Thursday

morning to praise the announced reopening of the Harbour Breton fish plant.

Randy Simms caught Trevor off guard when he asked the minister about the $2an-hour salary cut that the workers had to swallow for the plant to reopen.

Trevor expressed surprise, like he didn’t know about it. (What the hell was that about?)

After Trevor … the list of leadership hopefuls tails off dramatically.

So let’s not piss off Danny too much or he’ll leave us stranded, alone in the North Atlantic dark with no one to lead us to the light. We should be grateful for all he has done/is doing for us. The Opposition should know better than to stick it to him every day in the House of Assembly. How dare they question the premier’s actions?

No wonder Danny shut down the kitchen, by rights he shouldn’t have to take the slightest degree of heat.

The fibre-optic deal, Joan Cleary’s amputation from Bull Arm (I don’t want to sound defensive, but no relation) … what right do the Liberals have to buck cowboy Danny? Even the media seem a little timid around the fibre-optic story … best to stay in Danny’s good books, makes for a much smoother ride through Dannyland.

SULLIVAN SURPRISE

On Wednesday, Sullivan held a news conference to announce a $199 million surplus for last fiscal year, which obviously looks good on the Tories. How did we do so well? New Atlantic Accord money (thanks again, Danny), improved offshore revenues and “sound fiscal management.”

The Sullivan release is even front and centre on the provincial government’s website, directly below the headlines Tremendous day for Harbour Breton and Government launches campaign to promote good hygiene. (Is that another hint that Danny’s going to wash his hands of us all?)

Curiously, later that same day, Dec. 13, auditor general John Noseworthy issued his own release elaborating on the province’s fiscal footing.

Some points that didn’t make it to the Sullivan release had to do with how Newfoundland and Labrador’s finances compare to other provinces.

BAD NEWS The highest net debt per capita of any province in Canada — approximately $23,000 for every man, woman and child.

The province was included in the lowest credit rating category of any province.

GOOD NEWS

It would only take a surplus of $300 million a year for 40 years for us to become debt free. Under the did-youknow category, transfer payments from Ottawa made up $1.9 billion or 34 per cent of total revenues in 2006. Health and education costs ate up $3 billion or another 57 per cent of the money coming in (twice as much as in 2001). Noseworthy called for a debt-reduction plan. We’ll keep an eye on that and check back with you down the road.

WISH LIST I’m going to switch topics now and end off on a happy note. The Toronto Star carried a piece by regular columnist Vinay Menon this week headlined, All a TV writer wants for Christmas …

Most interesting in the Top-50 list were numbers 5 and 14: No. 5 … Rick Mercer visit my home each week to rant on a topic of my choosing: “Why is it the man’s job to sort the recycling? Don’t women use canned goods?”

No. 14: A new comedy starring Shaun Majumder and Mark Critch as adopted brothers who pose as pretentious abstract artists to meet hot debuntantes. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

YOURVOICE ‘I disagree with Mr. Simms’ Dear editor, In the Dec. 8 edition of The Independent, columnist Randy Simms questioned the need for a byelection at the present time in the district of Kilbride (The Kilbride conundrum).

As we all know, within the next year the people of this province will vote to elect MHAs in all 48 seats in the province’s next general election and Mr. Simms wonders if there needs to be a byelection in that district so close to a general election.

While Mr. Simms raises a good argument, I have to disagree with him. Just because there is an election in October of next year does not mean that a district should go without representation in the House of Assembly for X number of months, especially during the spring sitting of the House of Assembly in which the budget is often debated. The people of Kilbride would want their MHA to be able to stand up in the House and give their thoughts on the budget and other matters that impact their area,

Byelections have happened before in the year prior to an election and I agree with them. While Mr. Simms raises the argument over an MHA possibly resigning in July and because of this new law there would have to be a byelection in September and a regular election in the same district in October, I disagree with that. I figure that any member who chooses not to run in an election will not resign their seat three months before the election but rather wait until the general election to resign.

So I disagree with Mr. Simms’ argument — this new law is one of the best laws ever presented for electoral reform in Newfoundland history and provides for adequate representation in the House for every district. I notice that not many people mind this as people have come across from the two major political parties to run in the Kilbride byelection.

Tony Ducey, Garnish

Crank or whistleblower?

Dear editor, I write in response to Noreen Golfman’s Dec. 8 column in The Independent (The arm bone’s connected to the …). She roundly condemned Paul Bowdring’s criticisms of government in his resignation as co-vice chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.

In short, Bowdring charged government with under funding the arts council, as well as meddling in its affairs. Either Bowdring is largely a crank whose complaints are illfounded, or he is largely a whistleblower whose complaints have some truth. He cannot be both, or neither.

Tourism, Culture and Recreation Minister Tom Hedderson, of course, defended his office and shuffled other questions back to chairman John Doyle. Doyle agreed with the minister, and other “respected and uncompromising” board members were silent. Golfman concludes, therefore, that Bowdring must be a crank and says so in a rather savage and personal way from the height of her public rostrum in The Independent.

But no one who openly opposed

Bowdring or silently acquiesced, from the minister to the other arts council members, can be said to be impartial, and don’t we need at least one opinion from an impartial third party, or do we simply condemn dissenters because they dissent?

It could be that Bowdring is a whistleblower, and like all whistleblowers is surrounded by discreet sheep, and these “respected and uncompromising” Doyles and Walshes are merely the bigger and more prosperous sheep. How are we to know?

I ask these questions because Golfman did not. Is the local “arts community” so repressed and fearful of dissent, that it leaps so quickly and brutally?

I hope my dissenting voice is not the only one to answer Ms. Golfman. But if it is, and she doesn’t think she owes Bowdring an equally public apology, then I invite her to debate freedom of speech and dissent with me, in a public forum, and on equal rooting and the sooner the better.

Frank Holden, St. John’s

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‘We must fight for something better’

Y

our revitalized, affirmative, challenging, controversial Independent newspaper will hopefully awaken the sleepers, encourage the defeated, stir the doubters, and energize the “activists” … if any remain? Congratulations!

The recent series of articles that focused on reviewing the Terms of Union with Canada and the ensuing recommendations are a commendable and, at this point in our history, essential endeavour.

As a young man in teacher training, I experienced the advent of Confederation. I knew first-hand the effect of promised freebies on the impoverished outports; heard the pro-Confederation rhetoric of Smallwood, Roberts and other stanch confederate supporters from the stage of the C.L.B. Armory (Harvey Road, St. John’s summer 1948); saw and felt the hostility of anti-confederates as I viewed them ripping the coat from Smallwood’s back as he jumped into the dump of a pickup truck to hastily escape their wrath.

That Confederation rally ended prematurely but Confederation is a reality and has been for 59 years. Our province has experienced progress in many areas, let’s consider just a few.

EDUCATION In the 1930s, ’40s and early ’50s children were taught in three- to fiveroom schools in most outports.

Teachers were poorly trained; program offerings were few. Dropout rates were high. Larger towns fared a little better.

Beginning in the late 1950s a network of centralized schools were built.

These gradually spread across the island. Teachers were better trained, program offerings were expanded, graduation percentages increased.

At the post-secondary level, career training options were limited to teaching, nursing and a few trades.

Today with a network of privately funded career schools, the College of the North Atlantic and our vastly expanded Memorial University, career options are unlimited.

GORDON STEWART Guest column

Progress in certain areas cannot be denied but let it be noted that the Canadian federation was and is now being richly compensated.

HEALTH In the early 1940s most infants born in “the bays” and on “the islands” were delivered by midwives; plagues like dipthera, tuberculosis and polio decimated families, sometimes communities.

Diseases of the poor and elderly were often never diagnosed or treated — death was attributed to unknown causes.

These conditions cease to exist today.

TRANSPORTATION The Newfoundland railway, motorized schooners and a fleet of coastal boats provided transportation for the people and goods of our island prior to Confederation. A few roads, usually gravel, some with hard surfaces, served the Avalon Peninsula and larger towns.

The remainder of us used our top-grade “cow paths.” Water links for us were by dory and small, motorized boats. We were linked to the mainland by the Port aux Basques-to-North Sydney ferry service.

The most significant transportation venture since Confederation was the construction of roads. Our section of the Trans-Canada has been completed, partially four-laned, with passing lanes at most strategic locations. Most towns and communities on the island can access the Trans-Canada. The former cow paths are now paved roads, with bridge connections across water.

The most significant transportation

crisis since Confederation — our railway was discontinued.

True a commission solicited information from 120 communities, held 15 public inquires and recommended the railway be phased out, despite the fact the general public was against the proposal. It is fair to conclude — with the exception of our railway loss, transportation facilities are vastly superior to those prior to 1949.

Prior to Confederation (1930s to early ’40s) our social network was in desperate need of mending. Wages were low, work was scarce, poverty was rampant.

Welfare victims received six cents per day for food. With the advent of Confederation the relatively new and improved Canadian social programs were a welcome temporary solution.

Unemployment insurance, widows’ allowances, family allowances, Canada and seniors pensions enhanced the life style of many new Canadians in the province of Newfoundland.

Progress in certain areas cannot be denied but let it be noted that the Canadian federation was and is now being richly compensated. One of the richest fishing grounds on earth was made available to Canada for barter and trade. Blatant federal government mismanagement, tangled, unfair, illogical regulations allow foreign nations to fish our stocks while Newfoundland boats go idle. The lack of protection for fish stocks has reduced many species (especially cod) to protected-species status.

We expect better,Canada!

Unimaginable fish resources, minerals, oil and water resources were there for harvesting. Past and ongoing development of the resources result in billions of dollars being absorbed by giant corporations with a few pennies being dropped to the province and tens of thousands of Newfoundlanders being flown to Alberta, Ontario and B.C. to earn a livelihood.

Where are the fish processed? Russia, China, Nova Scotia, Spain, Portugal, etc.

Where are the oil refineries? Would you believe … Houston?

See “Glorified,” page 12

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Decorum? Not in my House O

ne of the best things about parliamentary democracy is the lack of what some people call “decorum.” I have a life-long loathing of the term. When I was young the word was used by adults to make me to sit still in church, assembly, or wherever I was forced to be by adults.

From time to time someone is quoted in the media as saying the House should have more decorum — whatever that ever meant. The behaviour of MHAs in the House has always been an easy target for journalists. Clips of yelling and desk thumping, taken out of context, do make sessions in the House seem unruly, but they don’t tell the real story.

The fact that MHAs have the latitude to act childishly means they sometimes do, but free and open democracy requires that they have this latitude. The rules for behaviour in parliaments like our House of Assembly have taken centuries to develop, and they are what they are for a reason. As the highest law in the land, they have only each other’s honour to rely on.

In a presidential system, like in the

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason U.S., the president can surround himself (herself? Hillary in ’08?) with “yes” people and supporters, and rarely hear a negative word. In effect, he can shield himself from criticism.

Not with our form of government. In our democracy, if you are elected and accountable, you are constitutionally required to sit in a big room across from people who would like nothing more than to paint you for the incompetent charlatan they think you are. It is their sworn duty. It’s your sworn duty to sit there and take it.

You might think you are all that and more, but if you are elected to the House of Assembly, you are going to be told — loudly, mockingly, and sometimes even accurately. And you are going to be told in front of the salivating press. This tends to keep politicians on their toes.

shone in the sessions they found themselves in — on their toes, prepared, in control, and ready to fend off the best the Opposition had to throw at them.

Heckling, catcalls and jeering included.

When I hear people call for decorum in the House, I think what they are really saying is they aren’t used to working in such a raucous environment — they don’t like being ridiculed, mocked, shouted down or criticized.

Tough.

The House is a wide-open opportunity for every person privileged to sit in it.

The House can test a person’s personality. It provides the opportunity to soar, or to crash and burn. It can show us all the true measure of a leader stripped of his or her spin doctors, apologists and communications people.

To those who say MHAs should be forced to clean up their act in the House, allow me to quote Trudeau, our greatest prime minister, in a famous lapse of parliamentary decorum: “fuddle duddle.”

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

Mervin Wiseman, president of the Fur Breeders’ Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, says that this province’s fur farming is characterized by “humane methods.”

I’d like to know what his definition of “inhumane” is. Wiseman wants more money from the government to support the industry, which he says is on the upswing.

Yes, it is. But mainly in countries where they’re just as likely to put an electric prod up the anus of a human being as a fox or a mink. Russia and China, for instance, the booming new markets for Newfoundland “farmed” fur.

I’m not a fan of Joey Smallwood — except in the sense that his reign had some great dramatic moments — but he once said something that impressed me. It was to the effect that maybe the trouble with this province is that its history is based on killing things — on destroying instead of creating. Stifles the imagination, which doesn’t do anything for either the spirit or the economy. Perhaps he was a little bit right, just that once.

Susan Rendell, St. John’s

Liberal MHAs Roland Butler, Oliver Langdon and Eddie Joyce listen in from the sidelines while Gerry Byrne, leader of the Opposition, and Justice and Natural Resources critic Kelvin Parsons hold a faux question period. In a surprise move, the government closed the House of Assembly Dec.12, two days earlier than expected.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Connecting the dots

Cancer society works hard to educate Dear editor, I am writing in response to a letter in the Dec. 8 edition of The Independent by Margaret Osbourne, ‘We are living in a chemical jungle.’

The Canadian Cancer Society believes that no Canadian should be exposed to cancer-causing substances. We work very hard every day to educate people about preventative measures that can reduce the risk of developing cancer, including extensive work in the areas of environmental and occupational carcinogens.

The cancer society has worked dili-

the only reaction they garner is the rolling of journalists’ eyes. He reads the same statement in the House and he’ll weather the howls of scorn from the Opposition. Very telling.

A member of the opposition can stand and accuse the government of wrongdoing, and be quickly and effectively answered by a premier, backed by a chorus of cheers and insults from those on the government’s side. Game, set, and match.

Watching the House is sort of like watching sports in reverse. The crowd stays quiet and the players bawl at each other — and it is the bawling that most go to see. Admission is free because no one would pay to watch it.

George W. Bush would never have made it in open parliament. Can you honestly see him standing and fielding questions from the Opposition? On the other hand, I suspect Bill Clinton would have made a brilliant parliamentarian.

Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney (God strike me dead for saying anything nice about him), Sheila Copps and our own John Crosbie all

FAUX QUESTION PERIOD

YOURVOICE ‘That’s fur farming’ Dear editor, I am writing in response to an article on Newfoundland’s fur-farming industry, Strutting their stuff, published in The Independent’s Dec. 8 edition. The story was accompanied by photo of a model “strutting” a mink coat.

I wonder if the model knew what she was actually wearing. She was wearing something she didn’t need, obtained by sticking a rod up another creature’s anus and electrocuting it.

Several creatures, all approximately six months of age, whose short lives in a crowded pen ended in fear and pain. That’s fur farming. Nice pastoral image.

The new trend in the West is to outlaw it. Fur farming is illegal in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Austria. It’s being phased out in Italy, as is fox farming in the Netherlands and Sweden. There is a growing movement, backed by retailers and designers great and small (Marks and Spencer and Polo Ralph Lauren, for example), humane societies and the general public, to stop the sordid cruelty which has vanity as its only raison d’etre — that and the opportunity to make money.

Is it rude to heckle, interrupt and attempt to drown out someone who is speaking? Perhaps, but in the House it is fair game. There are rules, and the Speaker enforces them, but the latitude for behaviour is wide.

If everyone waited their turn and debated carefully, much would be lost.

When it comes to debate in the House, often more is learned in the mayhem than in the carefully prepared and delivered speeches. Often the most telling moments for a government occur when “decorum” is abandoned.

The fact is, for many powerful politicians, the House is the only place left where they are not protected from the press and the public by professional communications people, well paid to keep them on message and away from errors and controversy.

When an opposition member asks a question of a weak minister, and a colleague stands to field the question, the booing, jeering and catcalls at the silent minister say it all.

A minister can issue press releases so sugary it will make your teeth ache, and

gently with all levels of government to help protect people from dangerous substances. Dec. 8 saw an important result of some of this work when the federal government announced a four-year, $300-million chemicals management plan. The plan will establish Canada as the first country to take such aggressive preventative measures in the regulation of dangerous chemicals. The plan’s development is due in large part to the research and perseverance of the Canadian Cancer Society.

The cancer society is essentially an

organization of volunteers working with a small group of staff to ultimately eradicate cancer and provide support to those living with the disease. To state that we are doing nothing in this particular area of our work is both factually incorrect and displays a lack of understanding of the organization.

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

Dear editor, It is surely indisputable that positive change depends on the co-operation and contribution of women. What affects women, affects families and children. This understanding hit me with special urgency on the day of remembrance for the Ecole Polytechnique massacre of 14 women, murdered not only because they were women but also because they were poised for success in a hitherto maledominated profession. For me, the remembrance underscores the present day withdrawal of government fund-

R-word joins the N-word

‘Be prepared for the backlash’

Dear editor, I never write anything that’s offensive. However, at times I am forced to react strongly to what I think is wrong.

First, let me say that I really don’t like The Rick Mercer Report seen weekly on CBC Television. Under the guise of humour, Mercer blurs out a weekly bucket full of human vanity and diatribe. His show is condescending, pompous, raucous and at times absurd.

On a recent show I am almost certain I heard Mercer, in one of his fast-talking walking rants about our political leaders, use the word retarded.

Mercer used the antiquated word that 20 years ago used to be associated with “the mentally challenged.” These poor unfortunates are the same as those who are “physically challenged,” except

Dear editor, It seems to me that Harry Tucker (Proving the point, Dec. 8 edition) has learned a lesson in life. If you’re going to give the people of this province a tongue lashing, especially one that was not particularly useful, you’d better be prepared for the backlash. Consequently his tone is now defensive and somewhat contrite, his substance weak, and his logic bewildering. It’s best he quit while he’s behind.

He particularly noted our negative attitude concerning a public financial contribution to a new fibre-optic opportunity for the province. But we have an obligation to speak to the terms, conditions, and process of this project in a vigorous manner. Don’t ask us to keep quite and characterize our questions and

their problems are in the mind and in their emotions. I grew up when the dreadful word was commonly used to refer to patients of the “mental hospital” (which it was called in those days) and is now The Waterford hospital.

Modern times and caring leaders banished forever that R-word and replaced it with “mentally challenged.”

Using the word is now tantamount to calling Afro-Americans “niggers.”

If I am right, Mercer should apologize to the mentally challenged and to their relatives and friends as well as those who provide them care. If, on the other hand, I am wrong, I will be happy to write an apology to Mercer and the CBC producers of the show.

Bill Westcott, Clarke’s Beach

criticisms as negative. That’s the modus operandi of all those who have been victimized.

So before you generalize us all out of existence with empty platitudes and ask us to hold our tongues, how about leaving an idea or two behind for us to chew on while you’re gone?

Far from being “never wrong,” opinions are quite often wrong — mine no more or less than anyone else’s. It’s something akin to saying that the customer is “always right.” This is very likely false. You may argue that opinions should be encouraged but not that their mere expression is a self-evident truth.

You then appeal to those of us of a contrary view to only express “valid” counter reasons and not “ad hominem” arguments.

ing for status of women offices and provincially and federally organized women’s shelters.

Can we not connect the significance of government cuts to literacy programs, public computer locations and, now, women’s well-being? Our society is moving dangerously towards inequality of opportunity and condition — for rural/urban communities, class and ethnic groups, as well as for women. Dec. 6 calls us to reflect and act.

Carol Harris, Woody Point

Fair enough, but your own article basically trashed most of us so you need to “reach out” to more than Randy Simms; you need to appeal to the best nature of everyone in this province. If you leave your home it’s best not to stand outside and throw rocks at it.

Doesn’t help.

Even more obnoxious is the Dec. 1 letter to the editor by Lloyd Rees, Cooke Aquaculture ultimate in stupidity. Tell that to the people of Belleoram and the hundred other potential sites in this province. Now here’s an opinion that provides no room for discussions, no latitude for debate, that aquaculture is simply an unworthy and stupid idea. And they say opinions are never wrong.

Robert Rowe, St. John’s

DECEMBER 15, 2006

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

IN CAMERA

‘We’ve made the lab better’ This week, officials from Eastern Health led the media through the process of testing cancer cells for estrogen-progesterone receptors. Photo editor Paul Daly cap-

tured some of the images as chief pathologist of the laboratory program, Dr. Nash Denic, detailed the many steps of the procedure.

Dr. Nash Denic

Myrtle Lewis

‘I hope I never have to do it again’

From the beginning: the chronology

From page 1 every single one of the patients — although we knew there was the whole element of the public trust — at the time, our main focus was on the patients.”

At issue are the outcomes of seven years’ worth of estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) testing, done at the laboratory at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s.

The tests, conducted on tissue samples from breast cancer tumours, are used to guide oncologists in determining the best therapy for the patient after surgery.

A positive test result means the patient may respond to hormone therapies, such as the drug Tamoxifen — which is taken by mouth and generally thought to carry less side effects than chemotherapy. A negative test result means hormone therapy is not an option.

••• The ER-PR test is not an exact or simple procedure. In 2004, a new semiautomated system, called Ventana, was installed in the Health Sciences Centre laboratory. It replaced the Dako System, a more complicated, manual procedure, involving more than 40 steps.

Nash Denic, chief pathologist of the laboratory program, gave media representatives a tour of the labs last week.

From room to room, machine to machine — from watching tiny samples being taken from a kidney tumour to looking through a microscope at treated tissue — he explained the procedure.

“I want to show you the complexity of doing the test,” he says. “I hope I don’t leave you more confused than before.”

Eight million tests are completed in the lab every year, says Denic, of which between 300 and 400 are ER/PR. Even with the new, more automated system, there are a number of steps, and the end result is a matter of judgment — different doctors may look at the final sample and offer slightly different results.

What constitutes a positive result is also changing. At one time, if fewer than 30 per cent of cells were positive, it would be considered a negative result.

That benchmark has fallen in recent years, to 10 per cent, and even down to one per cent — today, an oncologist may decide to use hormone therapy to treat a cancer with any sign of positivity.

“Ten years from now, we might be saying 90 per cent of tumours are positive, where now we say it’s 75,” says Laing. “The testing may get better, the antibodies may get better. What we know about things is changing all the

time.”

••• With all the media coverage this week, lawyer Ches Crosbie — who has filed the application to be certified as a class-action — has received three more registrations from women wanting to be part of the class action suit. That puts the total “in the 40s,” he estimates.

“I guess this reminded them of the whole situation,” he says. “Well, they’re members (of the lawsuit) anyway, in the sense that they’re in unless they opt out when notice is given after certification,” he says. “But people have been indicating an interest in being in the class.”

The suit is being filed on behalf of women (and men) who fall into three categories. First, a large class of people whose retests did not result in any changes — but the process caused the women unnecessary stress and anxiety.

That class could be 1,000 or more.

Secondly, he represents those whose initial test were shown to be incorrect, or who may have been offered a treatment that was not ideal, which may have affected the outcome of their cancer.

Third — and this may not be strictly related to the results of the ER/PR tests — Crosbie represents a small group of women who may have had unnecessary surgery.

Myrtle Lewis, who was profiled in The Independent last July, had both breasts and a number of lymph nodes removed seven years ago, and underwent months of debilitating chemotherapy. Last summer, she says, her doctor revealed that the review of her file indicated her cancer may not have been as invasive as originally believed — indeed, she may never have needed the double mastectomy. She’s not the only one.

“I was contacted by a lawyer for a woman in the same position this week, so that makes three, I guess, who I’ve been told about,” says Crosbie.

“Three people whose pathology was misread as being cancer and who received a mastectomy — but it wasn’t cancer in that sense, it was cancer in situ (similar to precancerous cells).”

The problem is wider than the reading of the ER/PR tests, he says.

“It’s a problem with pathology and quality control in pathology. And we’re arguing that there effectively wasn’t any.”

Eastern Health is not commenting on the lawsuit.

••• Laing was part of the eight-person “tumour board” (two oncologists, two surgeons, two pathologists, a representative from the quality department and one support person) tasked with reviewing

the complete file of every patient whose specimen was sent to Toronto for retesting — many of whom may now be involved in the lawsuit.

The board met every Thursday night for months, slowly working through the paperwork, charts, and files.

“It was a stressful time because we were worried about our patients,” says Laing. “I don’t think I would have changed how things happened or unfolded, but it was a lot of extra work.

“It wasn’t something that you could just say, ‘everybody do this for two months or six months until it’s all sorted out,’ because this needed to be done in addition to the regular day-to-day work and new patients … I hope I never have to do it again.”

Oscar Howell, the new vice-president of medical services for Eastern Health, says the past year has been “pretty stressful for (medical staff), as it was for cancer patients.” He keeps his tone optimistic though, touting advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the strength of the doctors — if not the quantity.

“We do have a shortage of pathologists now, and that concerns me greatly, and we are trying to recruit additional pathologists,” he says.

“If there’s good that came out of it, it’s that this will allow us to make this part of the lab the best it can be … and if we can take the learning from this and extrapolate that back through our entire laboratory, I would hope that we would make it so good we will attract a lot more people.”

Looking back on the media presentations and interviews she participated in this week, Laing says she found the process “difficult,” adding that she found the tone “demanding, accusatory, like there’s some big thing we’re hiding from everybody.”

Laing maintains there is no big secret being protected from the public’s always critical — and often cynical — eyes. “(We’ve) made the lab better,” she says. “We have a core group of people doing things in the lab; you now have stability in the oncology workforce. You now have people who are paying attention, not just to this, but to all things that are happening — so if things start to appear out of sync, you can look at it now.

“It really was a systems problem and we’ve done everything we can to fix the problem and we hope other labs learn from this.”

The lab at the Health Sciences Centre will start conducting ER/PR tests again in an estimated two months. stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

May 2005: The first evidence surfaces that an estrogen/progesterone receptor (ER/PR) test had given a false negative, according to Eastern Health.

An oncologist was treating a breast cancer patient, and “given the nature of this woman’s cancer, her age and other factors, the oncologist requested the test be repeated,” states Eastern Health.

The new test, using updated technology, converted to a positive result.

Five more negative patients are retested — all also converted.

June 2005: Medical staff decide to retest all negative results from 2002 to determine if the cases were isolated. All labs in the province are asked to send specimens to St. John’s for retesting.

Over the next two months decisions are made to retest all ER/PR negative patients as far back as 1997, and that an external laboratory — Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto — should conduct the tests, according to Eastern Health.

Almost 1,000 specimens would be sent off.

Early October 2005: The first set of results arrive from Mt. Sinai, according to Eastern Health. As results become available, patients are contacted, one by one.

A tissue sample is taken from a kidney tumour.

October 2, 2005: The Independent learns about the retesting, and brings the story to the public’s attention for the first time. Other local and national media follow.

Dr. Kara Laing, cancer program clinical chief with Eastern Health, speaks with The Independent. “The reason we haven’t gone public with this is we don’t have all the answers,” she said.

“The last thing you want to do or we want to do is make people afraid … is to cause some sort of mass hysteria.”

Eastern Health purchase advertising to inform the public of the retesting.

Patient relations officers begin calling all patients who had been retested.

(In an interview this week, Laing says there were “hundreds of patients contacts and encounters,” and many times that number in incoming phone calls. “There was a lot of anxiety, a lot of phone calls, a lot of meetings to be arranged — not just breast cancer patients who had a change, but all the breast cancer patients … then there were other cancer patients calling in, ‘should I be concerned? Does this affect me?’”)

October 2005: According to Eastern Health, a tumour board is set up to review the complete medical file of every patient that had been retested, as

the results arrive.

The external review process of the laboratory at the Health Sciences Centre begins.

January 29, 2006: A spokeswoman for Eastern Health confirms to The Independent the retest results are in — but declined to make a public statement until all patients had been contacted.

“I think as soon as they knew that something was wrong, they should have told us immediately,” filmmaker and breast cancer survivor Gerry Rogers told The Independent. “They should have done it immediately and explained what they did and didn’t know, because we’re not children.

We’re health-care consumers, and this is a system that we all own.”

February 5, 2006: A follow-up story in The Independent reports on what appears to be the first attempt by a breast cancer patient to sue Eastern Health over the ER/PR test results.

A lawyer filed a statement of claim on behalf of Michelle B. Hanlon of Mount Pearl, alleging the cancer that cost her both breasts and later spread to her lungs, liver and brain could have been stopped or slowed if she had received the correct ER/PR test result.

Although more lawsuits are predicted, an Eastern Health spokesperson confirms, “as of right now at this moment in time, (Hanlon’s) is the only lawsuit that I’m aware of.”

February-May 2006: Armed with all the retest results, the tumour board makes a “concentrated effort … to review results, write recommendations and conduct disclosures,” according to Eastern Health. The organization allows the subsequent six months to offer all patients an opportunity to discuss with their physicians.

“My clients feel there are many women out there who are upset and feel that they’d like to do something legally or they’d like to have a remedy or they’d like to know what happened.”

Myrtle Lewis

July 30, 2006: The Independent publishes a story about Myrtle Lewis, a breast cancer survivor, and her lawyer, Ches Crosbie. In the late-’90s, Lewis had both breasts and 11 lymph nodes removed, and underwent months of chemotherapy, which she says stripped her of energy, compromised her immune system, and left her sensitive to sunlight and many chemicals.

On July 5, she was contacted by the hospital and went in for a meeting. She was told medical staff had determined her cancer was “in situ,” a less invasive and more localized form of breast cancer than her original diagnosis. Her specimens were among the hundreds that were retested.

Lewis joined a number of other women who are part of a class action lawsuit against Eastern Health, filed by Crosbie.

“My clients feel there are many women out there who are upset and feel that they’d like to do something legally or they’d like to have a remedy or they’d like to know what happened,” he says.

“It’s a problem with pathology and quality control in pathology. We’re arguing that there effectively wasn’t any.”

Oct. 13, 2006: Ches Crosbie files papers asking for certification as a class. At least 39 women have signed on to be part of the suit.

November 2006: Eastern Health completes its quality review process.

Dec. 11, 2006: For the first time in more than a year, Eastern Health representatives speak to the media. A technical briefing is provided, as well as a tour of the immunohistochemistry lab.

Oscar Howell, vice-president of medical services says 939 negative tests were sent to Mt. Sinai for retesting. Although the conversion rate is not released, he does state that, after all files had been reviewed, 117 patients “had been identified as requiring treatment changes.” In some cases, a changed ER/PR result was the cause of the change; in other cases, there were other factors involved.

Dec. 15, 2006: The defendant’s (Eastern Health) materials are due to be filed in court. A date will then be set for the argument to determine if the case will be certified as a class action and proceed as such.

— Stephanie Porter

DECEMBER 15, 2006

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS of a great new mining boom, and it is almost certain that we shall soon see a very great hydroelectric development in this Province, especially in Labrador. – Joseph Smallwood — The Bell Island Examiner, Dec. 22, 1956

AROUND THE BAY A giant squid, measuring 19 feet in length, with the body being seven feet and tentacles about 12 feet, and weighing between 300 and 400 pounds, was washed up by a Northeast wind on the shore at the foot of Cedar Lane and found by a member of the Earle family. Giant squids are apparently found in 30-year cycles. Each tentacle, and there are 15 or 20 enormous ones, each about as round as a

tumbler, are covered in horn-like suckers. Normally squid measure 12 to 14 inches.

— Springdale News, Dec. 1, 1965 YEARS PAST Providence has blessed Newfoundland with another increase of prosperity in 1956, and I firmly believe that 1957 will be even more prosperous for the people of this Province. We are at the trembling edge

AROUND THE WORLD Mr. Shea, in reference to Whiteway’s remarks and referring to the Norwegians generally, stated that they were “the most miserable people on the face of the Earth.” Mr. Shea is not a very well-read man, or he could not have made such a statement, as on the contrary the Norwegians — the Vikings of the North — hold to-day the same virtues and characteristics for energy and intelligence that characterized their ancestors, and are probably next to the Icelanders, the best educated in the world.

— Our Country, St. John’s, Dec. 10, 1883 EDITORIAL STAND I must make a special request to local Santas to CLEAN UP THEIR ACT. I’ve only seen two so far this season and both were poor excuses for the “Real Thing.” We grown-ups sometimes forget the hearts and beliefs of small children who rush to see Santa Claus only to be disappointed by a scrawny looking, poorly dressed imitation. While there are those who wish to put Santa in his grave, I believe we must do everything in our power to protect the small children’s dreams and fantasy and to do it while they are still young enough to enjoy it.

— The Reporter, Stephenville, Dec. 5, 1979 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Santa — This is my first letter to you and it won’t be my last. Could you please bring me a little building set and a little car or wagon to ride on.

Also some surprises. Lots of love to you and Mrs. Clause from: William xoxo — The Metro Advertiser, St. John’s, Dec. 2, 1984

Springdale News, 1965

YOURVOICE

QUOTE OF THE WEEK One of Bro. Thompson’s Brigus friends is authority for the statement that during the editor’s visit to St. John’s, he would secure a big fat job, the commission for which would be brought home in his coat-tail pocket.

— The Daily News, St. John’s, Dec. 1, 1900

‘What’s the definition of schizophrenia?’

Dear editor, Don’t you just love it! Danny has the Opposition talking to themselves. Yep! That’s right folks, the Opposition Liberals held a question and answer period Dec. 13 with themselves. Can’t you just hear it …

Gerry Reid: Mr. Invisible Speaker.

I would like for the member for Port aux Basques to list all of his political friends for this House. Will he do it Mr. Invisible Speaker, or is he afraid?

Kelvin Parsons (member for Port aux Basques): Mr. Invisible Speaker, I have no friends.

Gerry Reid: See that Mr. Invisible Speaker, the member is misleading the house. He’s a lawyer isn’t he?

Therefore he has to have friends ••• Gerry Reid. Mr. Invisible Speaker, I would like for the member of Grand Bank-Fortune to tell this honourable House what trips she plans to take this

coming fiscal year.

Judy Foote (member for Grand Bank-Fortune): None, Mr. Invisible Speaker.

Gerry Reid: If that is so Mr. Invisible Speaker, I would like for her to tell this House how in God’s name her husband is supposed to have a vacation in the next fiscal year.

Yes folks, Dec. 13, 2006, question and answer period in the Newfoundland legislator will go down in Newfoundland history as a real intelligent piece of political accomplishment today by the Liberal party.

Danny has Gerry Reid and the Liberal gang so frustrated and disorganized over the fact that he has a popularity rating of 70 per cent after three years in power that he’s got them talking to themselves. What’s the definition of schizophrenia?

Don Lester Conception Bay South

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

Freedom to fish

Patrick O’Flaherty says food fishery should be left as is; warns ‘forces’ may be at play against it

M

y old acquaintance, David Boyd of Twillingate, in a letter to The Telegram a few weeks ago, said “the hour of decision” is at hand for the Newfoundland outport. “Right now its condition is critical,” he wrote, and “two things must be done.”

No. 1: “The catching of fish must be the sole privilege and prerogative of professional fish harvesters.”

In other words, ban the food fishery once again. That is how “to keep rural Newfoundland alive.” The food fishery is a path towards “a very slippery slope leading into oblivion.” Doomsday is imminent.

David seems to think the food fishery is a threat to the cod stocks. I spent a large part of last summer in “rural Newfoundland” and took part in the federally regulated food fishery. My personal assault on the stocks, after five or six trips to the fishing grounds, mostly in blustery weather, and after spending over $100 on berthage, gasoline, lures, lines, etc., amounted to 13 codfish.

Which brings me to my first point in response to Boyd’s letter. If the limited food fishery has damaged the cod stocks — and nothing I’ve seen or read suggests it has — then the damage was done as much or more by licensed fishermen like himself. The licensed fishermen I met were, naturally, as eager to catch their daily quota of cod as other

PATRICK O’FLAHERTY A Skeptic’s Diary citizens, and since they knew exactly where and when to go to catch it, owned the proper equipment, and had the time and skills and nerve required, they were much more efficient cod killers than weekending or resident amateurs like me with their makeshift gear, small boats, and often an inept manner of fishing.

I believe the limited food fishery of 2006 did no damage whatever to the outport economy. Far from damaging it, the food fishery improved it. It did this by restoring the morale of outport people generally, and making the outport a more attractive place to live in and visit. It was a great boon. The licensed fishermen I know are the finest kind of men and I wouldn’t say a word against them, but they are not the only inhabitants of the outports. In most places they are in a minority. The rights of other residents have to be identified and maintained as well as theirs.

There’s something demeaning in living next door to the ocean and being denied access to the fish in it. In the past this practice has bred resentment

Paul Daly/The Independent

in the non-fishing population towards licensed fishermen — many of whom are more prosperous than their neighbours. It is accepted now that such fishermen should have privileged access to the common resource — that only they can catch fish in large quantities, and only they can sell it. But to give them exclusive access is an affront to other residents of the province, who not only enjoy trying their hand at fishing, but want the freedom to catch as much as they can for their own consumption.

“Outport Newfoundland,” says Boyd, “exists for one reason and one reason only — the fishery.” That is at best a half-truth. In some locations it is certainly vital; I wouldn’t deny that.

In others it is not. Trinity, Trinity Bay, is not dependent on fishing. Nor are Woody Point, Holyrood, various other settlements in Conception Bay, Port Blandford, Port aux Basques, Birchy Bay, Bell Island. It’s not hard to come up with a much longer list.

Outport Newfoundland is now a tapestry of many threads. I would put Boyd’s

statement another way. Outport Newfoundland exists because people of many backgrounds and callings choose to live there or spend time there: artists, operators of tourist establishments, sawmill operators, outfitters, mechanics, woodsmen, teachers, seamen, doctors, nurses, government employees, pensioners, craftsmen and women, shop-owners, truck-drivers, cottagers, itinerant workers, photographers, and, of course, fishermen.

All contribute to the rural economy.

And one factor that will keep more people in rural communities is freedom, within limits, to go cod fishing, to catch fish species besides cod, and to have access to other resources in the area where they live.

Last summer’s food fishery was limited not just in the number of cod to be caught but in the number of weeks allocated for it. Let’s hope there will be no cutting back of either element next year. The federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans is to be congratulated for implementing this change in fisheries policy. But the letter from David Boyd is a hint that forces are at play against the change. Those who want to prevent another shutdown of the food fishery should remain vigilant.

Patrick O’Flaherty’s Lost Country: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland, 18431933, was published in 2005.

YOURVOICE ‘The only way to stop the heartbreak’ Dear editor, As I sit and write this letter I am doing so with an ache in my heart. A former classmate of mine was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer last year this time and now he has been deemed palliative by his doctor. This classmate, whom I will call Jamie, lives out west and I cannot even be there to visit him in his last hours. I am overwhelmed with sadness on this occasion.

When Jamie passes he will leave a lovely wife and a six-year-old son. He will leave a job and co-workers that he loves. He will leave this life that he

loves.

I have been reading The Independent and there have been letters to the editor on the issue of cancer. I know that the executive director of the Canadian Cancer Society sounds defensive in his letter but can he really blame people for being angry and frustrated? It is not that anyone is upset with the individual people who work for the cancer associations. If we are upset it is because so many of our loved ones, co-workers, friends and even people we do not know have died with cancer and still others are being diagnosed every day. I know a

young child who was just diagnosed with cancer and while I was out shopping an older lady told me she has cancer. The list goes on.

We have had walks, runs, golf games and dress-down days to raise money for cancer. We sell pins and ribbons for cancer research funding and still it seems there is no end to the number of people who are afflicted with and or die from one or the other type of cancer.

Naturally we do wonder where all of this money is going to if there are still people dying from this disease and there are still people being diagnosed every day.

I found a paper called Known and Probable Carcinogens on the American Cancer Society website. This is a list of chemicals that we are exposed to in our everyday lives. While the chemical names may be intimidating to some of us, I found that if I just typed a name in to my search engine it gave me a lot of information on where these chemicals come from and what products they are used in.

Getting these chemicals out of our lives I think will help cut down on the high rate of cancer in this country.

Everyone should download this list and

see where we can eliminate these items from our lives.

I expect to hear any day now that my former classmate has passed away. I am hoping that the different cancer societies will put more emphasis on the prevention of cancer. While the prevention of cancer might not bring in the bucks like “finding a cure” does, it is the only way to stop the heart break and suffering that surrounds us when we or a loved one is diagnosed with cancer.

Sheila Hunter, St. John’s

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12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

From page 6 Where are the petro-chemical plants? Would you believe, Houston?

Where have billions of dollars from Churchill Falls gone? Quebec.

Where is Voisey’s Bay nickel smelted? Ontario and Manitoba.

Where is Labrador iron smelted? Quebec.

Is it any wonder we keep airlines busy flying our Newfoundlanders to work?

Somebody’s stealing our turkeys — help.

REVIEW TIME How did we get where we are?

The commission government (a group of six commissioners appointed to govern between 1936 and 1949) had run its course; a replacement was necessary.

In June 1946, the British government arranged for the Newfoundland people to elect 45 members to a national convention that was given authority to consider changes.

The elected national convention members approved two forms of government: commission government and responsible government. The national convention members by a vote of 29 to 16 voted to reject Confederation with Canada.

In spite of this democratic decision a pro-confederate group lobbied the British government and Confederation with Canada became an option.

Our opportunity for democratic freedom was denied.

Instead we were lobbied into accepting a colonial-type local government with the authority of a glorified town council.

We deserved better. We must fight for something better now or forever remain in the grip of a Canadian-style plutocracy.

Gordon Stewart was a teacher and principal for 34 years in rural Newfoundland. He lives in Glovertown.

Bringing Newfoundland to Canada Newfoundland culture isn’t songs and accents, writes Duleepa Wijayawardhana from Edmonton, it’s who we are EDMONTON

By Duleepa Wijayawardhana For The Independent

T

he three-piece band was outfitted with an accordion, a fiddle and a guitar.

The beer was flowing under banners of the provincial flag. The people were loud and boisterous.

Somewhere at the end of the bar a couple of people were staring unblinkingly at whirling slot machines and chatting about what Danny was up to.

Just as the band struck up the refrain from The Black Velvet Band, my fellow Newfoundlander Ted leaned over to me and asked: “How can you listen to that and live here? Can’t you feel it? Don’t you want to be home?”

FAR FROM HOME Outside the temperature had fallen to -30 C and was threatening to plummet well below anything resembling habitable. We weren’t anywhere close to Newfoundland. We were far from the sea, far from the foghorns and far from both Gulf stream and Labrador current.

We were in Edmonton, Alta., the new Mecca for Newfoundlanders and Maritimers. The house that Ralph built is bulging at the seams with jobs and job seekers. But this story isn’t about yet another migration of Newfoundlanders. It’s about the reverse migration of Canadiana into the heart of Newfoundland.

On the outskirts of every major city in Canada now stand enclaves of big box stores and warehouse retail outlets. You cannot ever get lost in these complexes as they are pretty much the same no matter

where you go. A home renovation store gives way to a big electronics outlet ending at a huge supermarket of food. Along with these box-store nations, we have a growing common suburbia with houses that could be plucked from Edmonton into St. John’s and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. You begin to wonder if all the architects in Canada go to the same school.

How different St. John’s is from 15 years ago when I first came.

With each passing year as I visit from Oiltown, I notice the homogenization of North America’s oldest city. There’s already little separating Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and a host of other cities in mid-west English-speaking North America both in culture and in how we live. Watch out — this movement is spreading fast and engulfing everything in its path.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the box stores or the houses. They are popular because it’s what consumers want. My worry is that hidden in this influx of box-store, suburban culture will be the dilution of the Newfoundland culture which made me adopt the island as home.

Will what I remember of Newfoundland become what I find in this Edmonton-Newfoundland pub? No more than a host of songs, tacky fishing tackle on the walls, a few flags to remind us of our independent past? Will the accent be all that is left identifying Newfoundlanders from the rest of the mainland once we have all embraced this all-encompassing culture in a few more decades?

It’s not the songs I seek to pro-

There are few people in the world who are as friendly as Newfoundlanders and I miss that here every day.

Duleepa Wijayawardhana, Alberta tect but the feelings and memories they wake inside. For me, Newfoundland isn’t about accents or songs. It’s about friendliness and collective caring for their fellows; practising inclusion and avoiding exclusion, no matter how braindead the newcomer is.

It’s about trying new things to make the existence on a bare rock more colourful and exciting. It’s about understanding the forces of the sea and wind as they shape the lives of both islanders and island.

It’s about fighting overwhelming odds and succeeding where others expect you to fail.

At the same time, no culture should stagnate into a common

derivative of its constituent memories. Yet I worry the very things that make me yearn for Newfoundland no matter how far I travel will soon become a thing of the past and that I will notice little difference between the people of Edmonton or St. John’s, and not for the better. There are few people in the world who are as friendly as Newfoundlanders and I miss that here every day.

Perhaps it’s time that we turned the tables. As much as box-store culture spreads its tendrils into Newfoundland, we Newfoundlanders should make a concentrated effort to influence Canada into partaking in our culture.

We already have a huge population of Newfoundlanders abroad and they are ideal ambassadors to shape the future of our country.

What a difference the big cities would be if they would share the community aspects of outport Newfoundland. How would the major centres be if people said “Hi” and “What are ya at?” to random strangers and were more inclusive? How about going to any pub in downtown Toronto and being greeted as if you were home by any number of strangers? Our greatest export isn’t an accent or a song, it’s who we are.

Yes, Ted, when I listened to that band, I wanted to be home, but maybe this pub in Edmonton isn’t a bad place to start changing where we live.

Duleepa adopted Newfoundland as his home many years ago but now lives in Edmonton, Alberta where he mulls the relevance of computer games while working for BioWare Corp. He can be reached at dups@dups.ca

YOURVOICE Absolute feminism corrupts absolutely Dear editor, I am not a feminist but I am a supporter of women. As its central tenet, feminism believes in abortion. Abortion is the deliberate killing of innocent Canadian children. I cannot support this killing of children.

Real women do not believe children have to be killed to achieve equality.

I disagree with Ivan Morgan (Women’s movement needs new strategy, Dec. 8 edition). Harper is simply an ideological Conservative while the others were ideological liberals. The liberals supported the feminists because they were ideological fellow travelers. Government agencies were set up to support interest lobby groups. However, systemic abuse kicked in very early in the game. Rather than simply being fair, ideological sisters within these agencies began

hope

Glorified town council

to abuse the system and supported only their like-minded sisters.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If you were Christian, straight, pro-life and pro-family you were quickly rejected for funding. The pro-life and profamily women’s group criticized this abuse in funding for years.

They believed either everyone should be funded or nobody should be funded. No one should be discriminated against to the degree it was happening with this program.

I do not feel sorry for the feminists; they have been sponging off the public purse for too many years. I do feel sorry for all those deserving groups their ideological sisters consistently rejected due simply to their meanness and abuse of powers. I truly hope the status of women is completely defunded from the government

I truly hope the status of women is completely defunded from the government purse.

purse. Why? What’s being funded is a vocal minority who do not represent Canadian women.

Witness in recent weeks the whining feminists as their funding was cut. They had not even the decency to thank the taxpayers whose dollars kept them well-fixed for so long. As they say what goes around, comes around.

Now the feminists will be

forced to do what all the groups they “looked down their noses at” have been doing for years.

They will have to get off their collective butts and actually work the grassroots level for their funds. They’ve been claiming massive support for years; they should, therefore, be drowning in support dollars once they “hit the streets.” They should be choking in funding and reaching out for help to count the bags of money that smack them in the face as they open their doors.

Just in case funding dollars do not dance into their laps, keep the phone number of one of the aforementioned groups their sisters rejected. They know how to really work to get their funding as they have been doing it for years. Give them a call; maybe ask for a loan!

David M. Duff, St. John’s

For every question there is an answer.

Hope through education, support and solutions.

We’re here.

1.800.321.1433 www.arthritis.ca

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 13

Jonathan Brett of Mediclink won the St. John’s Board of Trade Start Up award Dec. 6.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Broader vision’

By Mandy Cook The Independent

W

hen the company Jonathan Brett worked for folded six years ago, he decided to put his computer programming skills to work by setting up shop in his parent’s basement — even holding business meetings in his neighbourhood Tim Horton’s.

While getting his business off the ground, Brett, 27, springboarded from one consulting gig around town to another until he happened to land in an optometrist’s office.

The doctor was in need of a new software program to track his

Young St. John’s business wins Board of Trade award, is expanding internationally, and may be partnering with a reality TV star clients and transactions. Brett put his computer skills to work and an early version of his now highly successful eye-care software program, Eyesistent, was conceived.

Brett says the business has been charmed since the beginning.

“I was just sitting around and developing the product and making it a little bit better while these people were calling and buying the product from me,” he says.

“So I’m fortunate I guess to have people knocking on my door,

which doesn’t happen too much in a small business.”

The recent winner of the St. John’s Board of Trade Start Up award, MedicLink Systems Ltd. is now in its fourth year. In its initial stages, Eyesistent was successfully shopped around Atlantic Canada. Brett estimates he sold 36 programs in eight months, but says the business was outpacing his own entrepreneurial savvy.

“I didn’t have a strong business sense, so I didn’t really know how

to price the software or if I was making money on it. I just knew there was a cheque coming in once in a while, so it was good enough for me,” he laughs.

Enter the Genesis Centre, a high-tech business incubator at Memorial University — and, Brett says, an integral part of MedicLink’s success.

First, the centre helped put a strategy into place where the “higher-ups” of provincial optical and optometrist associations

across the country were contacted, with the hopes the software would be well-received and result in a trickle-down effect.

Brett says Eyesistent traveled well and resulted in more sales for MedicLink, but it still needed a competitive edge.

The company changed the focus of the software to be more of a management and business growth tool, which is where the product stands today. The program not only manages MedicLink’s customers’ day-today affairs, it also crunches their collective data to better understand what eye glasses are selling See “Trickle-down,” page 15

Don’t feel sorry for your-elf Think creatively, enjoy the sights of the season, and stick to your Christmas budget

W

ith about a week to go to Christmas, the malls and big box stores are just about bursting at the seams. Most people are just about “there” as far as preparations go. In all likelihood, the bulk of us are down to the final chores, the supermarket, meal plans, guest lists and cluing up the decorating.

But for some, those of us in the midst of a money crunch, the next week will be possibly one of the most financially stressful times all year.

Christmas, and the expense which accompanies it, is tough for almost everyone. No matter what our income level, how well we’re organized, or how early we begin to prepare, very few of us can say in definitive terms, that we feel OK about how the season impacts us financially.

AL ANTLE

Your Finances This year, on average, we’ll spend just under $900. Last year it was around $800. That’s quite a jump. For people who simply can’t afford this kind of outlay, feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment and, to a lesser extent, demoralization. At Credit and Debt Solutions, clients have been telling us stories that reflect these feelings for about six weeks now. We provide assurance and encouragement and we try giving people some practical suggestions, which we hope will minimize negative feelings.

If you’re fortunate enough to have some money, you just feel it’s sparse since you’ve got an extensive list of family, extended family and friends, then you might try a little trick we call the 70 per cent rule. (This one works well for people who don’t feel financially inadequate too).

It’s quite simple. You spend 70 per cent of your allocated Christmas spending amount on the people you live with: your children, partner, parents, siblings, and so one.

You then spend 70 per cent of the remainder on extended family, and 70 per cent of the amount yet still remaining on what we call acquaintances. The remainder you give to charity.

So a $200 budget goes like this: $140 on your household, $42 on people you’re close to outside your household,

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$15 on tokens to people important to you and $3 to charity, like the Salvation Army kettle.

If your household has a number of people, and $140 just won’t cut it, consider instead a single large family gift.

You can spread your $42 to a greater number of people by purchasing supplies and working from your kitchen. If you’re not talented in that area, maybe you can co-operate with a friend in a similar situation who is talented but has no money.

You bring the material and they bring the labour.

Secret Santa, the practice of drawing a name and purchasing a single gift, also works well as a way of cutting costs — although a week before Christmas is not a good time to introduce the concept. (Mark your calendar

for Sept. 1, 2007 and float the idea around that time for next Christmas.)

Just because you’re financially limited, does not mean you’re not resourceful. You could consider giving your whole budget to one or more charitable causes or organizations that work with and on behalf of the needy. You can then present a card to everyone on your list, advising them that a donation to XYZ organization has been made on their behalf.

You don’t have to tell them how much the donation was. By doing this you preserve a little of the dignity you might have otherwise feared losing.

Chances are, the card recipient will get a warm and fuzzy feeling when they open it — at least, most people will.

See “Avoid,” page 14

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Avoid disasterous Christmas loans and credit From page 13 If you’ve got no money, it must be acknowledged that your choices are even more limited when viewed in traditional terms. But think for a moment, you’re in a position to give the best gift of all, a little piece of you. You can give the gift of time. You can present handmade coupons for free babysitting or yard work. You can promise to take a family member to the market, mall, bank, church or park a time or two.

You can agree to read a book, do

some housework or clear the snow several times. Something as simple as visiting a loved one’s home and preparing and serving a meal there is also a great idea. The coupon might entitle the bearer to a “Romantic Winter Evening” in their own home, compliments of you.

Make sure you sign all you coupons with lots of love and affection.

The next few days will possibly see you leaning toward borrowing or using a charge card, particularly as the week goes by and you fear you are therefore running out of options. If you’re already

in a financial pinch, deciding to go it on credit is a lousy solution. There’s no kind way to say otherwise. Avoid that direction at all costs.

Equally disastrous is a payday loan, or borrowing from family or friends.

Try to the best of your ability to move your focus away from what you see as a quandary.

Take in some of the numerous church services, which will all be underway in the next few days. You might even visit a church you’ve not seen before or one of a different faith or tradition. Church

music is great this time of year.

After dark, go for a walk in your neighbourhood. You’ll find the light and outdoor displays spectacular. Or try watching little children play — they’ve got Christmas down to its truest form and state. They don’t judge, they give freely, they understand simply and they have tons of fun, hysterically playing with the trappings of Christmas: empty boxes, torn paper, shredded ribbon and, heaven forbid, snow. Best of all, they’re happiest in familiar surroundings and around people who care about them.

So don’t be elf-conscious, or elf-deprecating, and work hard at not feeling sorry for your-elf. Be elf-confident that everything will be OK. Elf propel into 2007. Tel your-elf it’s your year — and it starts in only a few days!

Thanks for reading and for all the calls and questions over the last few months.

Merry Christmas!

Al Antle is the executive director of Credit and Debt Solutions.

YOURVOICE ‘A logic so warped it boggles the mind’ Dear editor, With the fisheries pretty much a lost cause, our last kick at the can, in terms of still owning a resource with the promise of future prosperity, is the lower Churchill.

What I fear is being overlooked by the decision makers is that it is not economics only that should be the deciding factor, for it is not the hydro power potential that is the most valuable component of this resource, but rather the latent power of the spirit of our people: their pride, their strength, their hopes and their dreams, now lying dormant as a result of more than half a century of subservient membership in the Canadian federation. I cringe in dread whenever I hear Premier Danny Williams speaks of the necessity of negotiating favourable terms with Quebec. Further, for him to contend that because we cannot use this power at the present time we must pass it over to others, or that in order to develop it we have to sell it, is a logic so warped that it boggles the mind.

Compounding this lack of vision is the mentality of individuals like John Crosbie who delight in reminding us of all the blessings bestowed upon us by Canada and that we ought to be more grateful. It is this mentality — shades of the rule by the churches and Water Street merchants — that has become our nemesis, and unless we determine to rid ourselves of it, we don’t deserve to survive.

We know that in the evolution of survival values, it is not weakness and subservience that prevails. This is not a case of hoping that this time Quebec and Ontario will do right by us, but a case of our doing right by ourselves. If Danny lets us down in this deal, it is only because we allowed him to do so.

Yes, we do have the power and the means to determine our own destiny, but the question is, do we have the guts!

The bottom line is that people should be screaming to the high heavens in protest over even the suggestion that our premier and his little band of opportunists might even be, considering the thought of giving this treasure away, for that would be the absolute coup de grace: a blunder so awful as to make Smallwood look like a new age Solomon.

Lloyd C. Rees, Conception Bay South

‘David’s slingshot is no match for fine print in Goliath’s insurance contract’ Dear editor, Auto insurance companies are one of the best bets for investment for any wild dollars a person might have.

Why? First of all, you have to pony up a premium to allow you behind the wheel. You not only have to pay for yourself, but you must also carry a bit extra for the driver who has insufficient or no insurance. The only one missing so far is the sneezing clause which would require a new premium if you happen to lose control of your vehicle and have an accident.

So if you purchase all the options, and are fully covered with insurance and liability you should be safe.

Right? Wrong. About 18 months ago, I hydroplaned and destroyed my car but had liability. After it was all over, I still had to pony up about $1,000 to cover off damage to a vehicle behind me hit by flying highway shoulder stone. And though I appealed the decision to the provincial administrator of insurance, who I believe once worked in the insurance business himself, I still had to pay.

Personally, I don’t feel that enough is being done to protect the individual insurance purchaser. To me, the whole process seems to be favouring the insurance company. The whole business is premised on a David/Goliath set-up, but unlike in the biblical account, David’s slingshot is no match for the fine print in Goliath’s insurance contract. In fact, one often gets the impression that insurance companies have no fear whatsoever of the consumer and are almost as likely to tell David to go pound rocks as they are to take his premiums month after month.

The relationship between insurance companies and the bureaucratic “governmental control” officials is far too cozy and warrants a full-fledged investigation. There needs to be a lot more distance between the two groups and a lot less bias.

Aubrey Smith, Grand Falls-Windsor

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

Trickle-down effect From page 13 and which ones are deadweight.

“It provides managers and owners a bird’s eye view of how their business is operating,” explains Brett.

MedicLink has already launched Eyesistent in Florida, Boston and New York. As a result of e-mail and “random calls,” the company even struck up a relationship with an investment firm connected with Dr. Will Kirby, a dermatologist and reality-television show participant on Big Brother on CBS. Brett will be traveling to California in January to meet with Kirby and discuss a partnership with the dermatology business. It all seems part and parcel of the company’s charmed trajectory.

“I’ve always had a broader vision.

That’s why we called it MedicLink.

Although we’ve been in eye care, I’ve always wanted to switch over to chiropractic or dental or some other industry, but dermatology just dropped in our lap.”

Brett says his company’s versatility comes from its youth — the average age of the seven employees is 28 — and says he wouldn’t want to build his business anywhere else but in Newfoundland.

He says he can’t imagine businesses in a competitive environment like Ottawa answering his questions like local technology companyw Cathexis patiently did.

MedicLink is now on its feet and will be moving out of its office space in the Genesis Centre and into its own digs in the next three or four months.

Brett says it’s a great feeling to have created work opportunities for himself and others.

“We’ve got employees that can go out and buy new cars and new houses and a lot of it is due to us,” he says.

“Some of them were frustrated and were underemployed and couldn’t find a job, so we tend to find underdogs to employ and it’s worked out great for us.”

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Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Internet music store suffered a 65 per cent slump in sales during the first six months of the year, according to Forrester Research Inc. The decline is a reversal of almost two years of increases from April 2004 through January 2006, the Massachusetts-based market-research firm said. Between January and June, iTunes transactions declined 58 per cent, while transaction size fell 17 per cent, Forrester said.

Forrester, which based its findings on analysis of 2,791 U.S. iTunes debit and credit purchases, said it is too soon to tell whether the decline is seasonal or if demand for digital music is falling.

Apple got $452 million (U.S.) in sales last quarter from music sold through iTunes as well as accessories for its market-dominating iPod device, the Cupertino, Calif., company reported in October.

The report also found that most music stored on iPods isn’t purchased from iTunes. Apple sells about 20 iTunes songs at 99 cents each for each iPod purchased.

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16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 17

Linda Rimsay in costume as Drosselmeyer from The Nutcracker ballet.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Kittiwake director takes flight After 20 years at the helm of Kittiwake Dance Theatre, co-founder Linda Rimsay to start new job with National Ballet of Canada

By Mandy Cook The Independent

O

n the eve of the 20th run of her dance company’s signature performance, The Nutcracker, Linda Rimsay says it’s nice to stand back and let somebody else lug the heavy props and costumes from her downtown St. John’s studio to the Arts and Culture Centre for a change.

“I can’t lift those things any more like I used to,” Rimsay laughs, sitting amidst a rack of embellished costumes and a street lamp on wheels. Behind her, an open dance space overlooks the harbour. “This is the last year I have to worry about this!”

Her departure from the company she co-founded with teacher Gail Innes 20 years ago is the end of a local dance era.

Rimsay has accepted a position with the National Ballet of Canada, where she will teach movement in the school’s outreach program. Her students will range from school children right up to beginner adults.

Originally from Michigan, Rimsay has called Newfoundland home for 28 years. In 1978, her husband took a job at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s and the couple subsequently acquired “too much stuff” to move again. She will depart for Toronto in the beginning of the new year with no regrets, but says there is much she will

“In Nutcracker alone, we estimate that there are probably 2,000 people who have performed in that over the 20 years.”

Linda Rimsay

miss — most notably those who have grown up with and alongside Kittiwake.

“In Nutcracker alone, we estimate that there are probably 2,000 people who have performed in that over the 20 years,” she says. “Some of them we’ve watched grow up and go from a mouse to Clara to adult. Some of them are even on our board of directors now.”

A not-for-profit dance company, Kittiwake doesn’t train dancers — they hire them. Over 20 years, the focus has been to choreograph, audition for, and perform original work. The company provides workshops for local dancers, residency projects for Kittiwake’s artistic staff and touring dancers, and apprenticeship programs for young

dancers who wish to develop their passion into a career.

Unlike most professional companies, Rimsay says, Kittiwake strives to keep things local.

“It allows us to do more indigenous work, which I think is very important. It helps young people understand their culture.”

While many of Kittiwake’s works are based on Newfoundland music and lore, the company also interprets classical works of literature — including Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry — or world events, like the Chinese government’s violent See “Projecting,” page 18

Family business

Granddaughter of internationally acclaimed abstract painter brings talent and artistic pedigree to Eastern Edge gallery

By Mandy Cook The Independent

M

ichelle Bush always wanted to come to Newfoundland, but it wasn’t until her 13year-old daughter looked the province up online and insisted on a move from their home in Toronto that the wheels were put in motion.

Bush, a textile, performance and installation artist, was tipped off to a job opening in St. John’s by fellow

Concordia University fine arts graduate, local artist Andrea Cooper, three years ago. Eastern Edge Gallery, an artist-run space on Harbour Drive, was looking for an artistic director.

“My eldest daughter researched Newfoundland and decided it was really pretty and that we were moving to Newfoundland,” Bush says. “She told all of her friends we were moving before I even applied.”

The gallery champions non-traditional artwork and fosters emerging artists

working in diverse media, including film, video, performance, installation, visual and audio arts. A non-commercial space — meaning no works are bought or sold from the gallery — Eastern Edge explores how art can be used as a tool to facilitate community discussion in contemporary society.

The gallery and position is a great fit for an artist such as Bush. Her grandfather, Jack Bush, is an internationally recognized abstract expressionist painter, known in art circles for his

mastery of colour — some critics say one of the greatest since French painter Henri Matisse.

The works he produced during and after his involvement with the Painters Eleven, a collective of abstract artists that dissolved in 1960, established his reputation as one of North America’s best abstract painters.

Leafing through a now out-of-print and treasured hardcover of her grandfather’s collected works, Bush picks out a favourite painting. Entitled Chopsticks,

it consists of multi-coloured rectangles arching together in vertical stacks, echoing the keys of a piano. Bush says it is related to her grandfather’s love of jazz and was one of the last pieces he was working on before he died in 1977.

“This is one where the colours really work for me,” she says in her thoughtful and delicate voice. “I love the vibrancy and the movement. Almost literal.”

See “Creative,” page 19

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

‘Projecting a point of view’

DECEMBER 15, 2006

GALLERYPROFILE

From page 17 tactics to quell student rioting at Tiananmen Square.

Rimsay says Kittiwake’s mandate has always been to provoke thought and dialogue — and use movement to do it.

“That is what I think is what professional art is about, holding the mirror up for society to see, projecting a point of view, which may or may not have been thought of, getting people to think about issues,” she says.

Rimsay’s new position at the National Ballet will focus less on social commentary and more on using movement as a teaching tool and for physical well-being. As part of the outreach program, Rimsay will visit Toronto schools to show how dance can help teach math and physics and guard against childhood obesity.

It is a continuation of the work she carried out in Newfoundland schools as a volunteer for the National Ballet. Last year Rimsay helped bring workshops to North River, which even involved sessions to properly fit pointe shoes.

Now that Rimsay has comfortably handed the reins to incoming artistic director Martin Vallée of Dance Studio East, she happily offers vivid memories from the last two decades of nurturing the local dance scene.

She recalls doing laundry and scrubbing the floors in a restaurant to help float some of the first shows. One year, during a two-week run of The Nutcracker, the numerous children playing mice characters passed chicken pox along to each other as the evenings progressed.

“I think the last eight shows, without fail, there was a little mouse who would come up to me scratching some part of their body and say, ‘Linda, I’ve got this funny itch right here!’

And I’d look at it and say, ‘Another one!’ Merry Christmas!’”

Rimsay says she will miss everyone she’s come to know in the artistic community. At the same time, she recognizes that teaching students for fun or leading adult evening classes is just what she needs at this juncture in her life.

“I’m not getting any younger. So it’s a way for me to continue my interest, and I’ve always believed the arts belong to the people. You need your professionals, but you have to have those people who still dance in their kitchen.”

The Nutcracker runs Dec. 15-17 at the Arts and Culture Centre. Call 729-3900 for more information. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

GRAND FALLS-WINDSOR

By Janine Taylor For The Independent

A

ALICE DICKS

lice Dicks’ first painting experience involved fiddling with her brother’s art supplies while he was home from art school for summer vacation. Fifty-six years and many accolades later, the result of that first experiment, Pansies, was included in her recent exhibition, Retrospective Phase I, at the Gordon Pinsent Centre for the Arts in Grand Falls-Windsor.

“Painting was a hobby for me when my husband and I were raising the children,” she says. “Much like other women knitted or did needlepoint. It was a way to escape the routines of motherhood. I have always been very involved in the art community of whichever town we were living in.”

That hobby has evolved into something much bigger. The provincial government recently purchased 14 of her paintings for its art collection. Dicks is a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Visual Arts Society and the Canadian Arts Representative.

She has acted as an external evaluator for the provincial arts council, was a member of the Patrick O’Flaherty Committee for the State of the Arts, and is a founding member of the Central Newfoundland Visual Arts Society.

She taught Memorial University extension

Visual Artist courses and still teaches private lessons to adults and children.

“I feel so strongly that we need to let children be creative,” she says. “We should not instruct young children when they are making art.

“It is just about encouraging them to get colour down on their paper and letting them paint the tree they see in their minds, rather than the tree they can see out the window. And praise — with children, praise is so important.”

Dicks has worked with many media over the years, and she likes to vary her style. She chooses the approach for each piece, based on her emotions and the message she wishes to convey.

When great world events occur, Dicks often creates an abstract painting in an effort to purge her consciousness. She speaks of “taking the feelings that I have regarding something and putting them on the canvas” as if they are tangible elements she must deposit somewhere. Doing so brings closure for her.

“With an abstract painting, people can take

away what they want to take away,” she says.

“I have my own understanding of what the painting’s significance is, but I don’t like to explain that to people because then the conversation is over. They’re not interested anymore. I want people to gather their own impressions.”

Tsunami is one such piece. There is more than a hint of violence in the dark, dominant sphere at the top of the work, and the ripple effect created by circles moving outward echoes the catastrophic force of the 2004 tsunami.

At the base of the painting, shadowy figurelike shapes are shunted aside by the torrent of colour, which pours downward. Amidst the darker shades there is some yellow, a sign of the light of hope which persists even during humankind’s most troubling times. The piece is bold and eye-catching with its depth of colour and emotion.

Dicks says artists must constantly evolve and attempt new things. “I have tried almost everything in the past 40 years or so,” she says. “If you’re making art and you’re always doing the same thing you aren’t growing. You become stagnant.

“Everyone has something that they do that they feel passionate about, and they have to work at that. Art is no different. It is always changing because people are always changing.”

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DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

A pony, time-travel and green wool socks Sean Panting reveals his Christmas list — just in case someone wants to do something about it

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Michelle Bush

Paul Daly/The Independent

Creative legacy From page 17 Bush was 10 when her grandfather died. Her memories of him revolve around sketching on pads of paper at his house with her siblings and cousins and banging away on his piano. And although she has great admiration for her grandfather’s work, as a grown artist with a critical eye, she admits to not being a total fan.

“Honestly, there’s a lot of his work that I don’t really enjoy,” she says. “I admire it but on just pure personal aesthetics, I don’t like the colour combination or I don’t like the background but the majority of the ones that I really, really love are all related to jazz or the piano.”

Bush says she never wanted to paint like her grandfather, but “just wanted to do my own thing.” After receiving her Masters of Fine Arts (back-to-back with her undergrad) at Concordia, she traveled in Europe, ran a farm in rural Quebec with her two daughters, and worked in multiple capacities in the arts — mainly artist-run, not-for-prof-

it centres.

Since starting work at Eastern Edge, Bush says she’s seen “some pretty interesting and intricate” installations, hosted artists whose works develop and morph with each gallery stop, and held numerous talks and workshops with touring artists.

She says the gallery is very necessary in a city focused, in her mind, on the selling aspect of art as opposed to showing art for art’s sake.

“The reason we’re putting art up and have exhibitions is more to do with the theories and the knowledge and information and discussion and discourse and contemporary issues and issues in society at large that artists are working with and we want people to interact with.”

The creative legacy of the Bush family has apparently passed on to Bush’s offspring. Although she has never taught her children figure drawing, one of the girls caught her off guard one day.

“My daughter would just sit down in front of the TV and it was on this piece of antique furniture and she would just draw that, she was really young, only four,” she says. “I was blown away.”

The annual members exhibition and auction is showing at Eastern Edge Gallery until Dec.16. Check out www.easternedge.ca for more information. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

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s this is my last column of 2006, and ’tis the season to be jolly etcetera etcetera, I SEAN figured now would be as good a time as PANTING any to run down my Christmas wish list. Not that I’m asking anybody out there to get me a State of the art present — that would be tacky — but if you’re flush with holiday spirit and feel compelled to make my Christmas brighter, the least I can do where he says “Can’t tell one thing from anothis point you in the right direction. er, I got married to my brother” celebrates a defI won’t set myself up for disappointment by inition of marriage so non-traditional I’m surasking for the impossible, like an end to hunger, prised the federal Conservatives haven’t organwar, intolerance, or the general tendency to act ized a record burning yet. like jerks and treat each other like crap that A pony. After 30 years of asking Santa withseems to be at the root of all human suffering. out success, I think maybe it’s time to throw this But maybe, just maybe, I could go for some- one open to all comers. thing more manageable, like an end to the conI’d really enjoy a Nintendo Wii. I’m not a stituency allowance scandal. While it’s been a gamer, myself, but I could make a small fortune virtually endless source of comedy gold for me selling that baby on EBay. Does that count as reand my colleagues in the news and entertain- gifting? ment sectors I would be more than happy to Gym equipment. I’ve never been what you’d learn that all the rest of our esteemed MHAs call a fitness nut, but once Christmas is over I’m past and present have been playing by the rules, going to have to do something about the turkey respecting the law and using our money respon- dinner and hors d’oeuvre tray-related weight sibly. Don’t feel bad if you can’t deliver on this gain pronto before the Valentine’s and Easter one. Santa hasn’t gotten back to me, either. chocolate weight gain season.

The steady advance of global warming should Alternatively, you could pick me up a gift cerhave socks, hats and mitts knocked off the list in tificate for some liposuction or maybe a stomfavour of sunscreen and bottled water by some ach stapling and we can avoid the whole probtime in the next decade or so, but for now the lem. Is there such a thing as liver stapling? If so, knitters amongst you can feel free to shower me you can sign me up for one of those as well. with wooly goodness. My favorite colour is And finally, I’d like a couple more weeks green. before I have to start doing someUntil we do become a tropical thing useful about Christmas. We paradise, how about a sidewalk haven’t been making the grand plow or two on the streets of St. leaps forward in time travel techIs there John’s? Hell, I’d like to see a sidenology I’ve been hoping for in the walk plow on the streets of just 21st century, so I know it’s a tall such a about any town in Newfoundland order, but two extra weeks of and Labrador if it means somebody thing as liver Christmas prep would sure take is going to be able to get where some of the pressure off. they’re going on foot without riskThat would allow me another 14 stapling? ing life and limb to do it this winter. glorious days of procrastination Snowplows. See item number before I ended up right back here three above. where I started with 10 days to go I’d like to get all the way through the joyous and nothing done. season without hearing The Hat I Got For Until 2007, this is me signing off to go think Christmas Is Too Big. Call me a pc (politically about the possibility of making a plan to start correct) thug, but I’m not sure it’s still socially looking at some things I may or may not want to acceptable to make fun of Mexicans or their hats buy when I finally do go out shopping this of choice. And as side-splittingly hilarious as Christmas Eve. Mel Blanc can be, I think I can safely say that Happy holidays, everyone. we as a civilization have reached the saturation point on this one. I can’t be the only person Sean Panting is a writer, musician and actor who’d like to see this song go, either. That line living in St. John’s. His column returns Jan. 5.

DECEMBER 15, 2006

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Merry Crumbfest!

The Independent’s book reviewer picks four gifts of the season

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ant to make up for the embarrassingly festive LED tie buried in your father’s sweater drawer? The artless handicrafts you foisted on your sister? Read on, dear shopper, and let The Independent guide you towards four gifts guaranteed to absolve past yuletide transgressions.

But be warned: crack the covers of these babies and you may find yourself with a shelf full of well-read books and nothing but apologies to give.

Letters from Uncle Val Andy Jones with Michael Jones Sr. (performed by Andy Jones) Rattling Books, 2006. Audio CD

Ex-Codco member and “King of Comedy” Andy Jones has just released his first audio book. Letters from Uncle Val is a series of fictional epistles adapted from the stage play of the same name. Uncle Val, an “elderly outharbour gentleman,” lives with his daughter Margaret in the suburbs of St. John’s along with her husband Bernard, children Jimmy and Kimmy, poodles Tiffy and Tuffy and an undisclosed number of goldfish.

In these letters to his friend Jack, Val decries everything from the over-exuberant “Newfoundlander-gone-to-themainland brand” to the state of children’s television programming and, especially, the ongoing antics of Bernard. One of the “new townies” with “twangy accents and Florida tans,” Bernard is often to be found drunk and practising “his chosen field of bull artistry” with great devotion.

As the displaced Val, Andy Jones is as funny as ever, offering up light comedy and telling observations often enough to blur the lines between entertainment and social critique.

Red Ledger

By Mary Dalton Signal Editions, 2006. 101 pages.

Red Ledger, the subject of a positive — if somewhat bewildering — review in last weekend’s Globe and Mail, is the follow-up to Mary Dalton’s acclaimed 2003 poetry collection, Merrybegot. Those looking for a repeat

MARK CALLANAN On the shelf of the concentrated, high-heat flame of Dalton’s speech poems will find it scattered throughout this new book, but on the whole, Red Ledger burns on a different kind of fuel.

The inclusion of several poems from Dalton’s first two books, The Time of Icicles and Allowing the Light, is a decision calculated, no doubt, to bring a growing mainland audience up to speed with her range of expression; it also initiates a dialogue between her earlier and later poems. There is impressive new work here as well — Osmotic and the prose poetry sequence Reaney Gardens, to name a couple.

Throughout, Dalton traces “the body’s memory of its own blood lines” but also wars against “the Great Divide” — the disparity between mainland Canada and its uneasy bride, Newfoundland. There is enough range here to suit readers of any taste. More on this one in a future column.

Inside

By Kenneth J. Harvey Random House, 2006. 282 pages.

Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside has, at last count, been named on five Best Book of the Year lists, and deservedly so. Harvey propels his protagonist, Myrden, through the aftermath of a wrongful murder conviction and the netherworld of newfound freedom.

Myrden’s greatest struggle is not in asserting his innocence to those who still suspect his guilt, nor in fending off the hounds of local media, but in escaping the concrete and barbed wire of his own mind.

Harvey’s technique is notable for its skilful marriage of form and content.

Short, blunt sentences drag readers forcibly through Myrden’s claustrophobic world of hard living and violence. What makes Myrden such a tragic character is his tenderness

towards loved ones as he struggles against “the cycles of revenge and failure that have marked his life.” If you read only one book this year, pick the latest Dan Brown masterpiece and explain to me what all the fuss is about.

But if you read two …

The True Meaning of Crumbfest

By David Weale (read by Antonia Francis) Rattling Books, 2005. Audio CD.

The audio version of David Weale’s The True Meaning of Crumbfest is a good fit for the entire family this sea-

son. Weale’s story about a young mouse named Eckhart with “quick tiny feet, shiny black eyes and an extra long tail” is exuberantly narrated by Antonia Francis, five years old at the time of the recording. It is the most engaged and animated reading you’ll ever hear.

During the cold winter months, Eckhart and his family live in the walls of a farmhouse where food is scarce except in late December when a bounty of crumbs mysteriously appears.

Eckhart, being young and curious, wonders about the provenance of this

yearly feast. “Crumbfest happens and that’s all there is to it,” his grandfather scolds him, but Eckhart is determined to uncover the season’s secret.

Strange as it may sound, the shaky production quality of the recording (it was originally intended solely for broadcast on a community radio program) actually lends it further charm. If The True Meaning of Crumbfest doesn’t make you smile, then I’m sad to say you’ve got a heart at least two sizes too small.

Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s.

His column returns Jan. 5.

A CHRISTMAS TIME

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Program curriculum will include: • Field trips and shop visits • Exposure to training programs • Job interviewing skills • Stress and time management

The Celtic Fiddlers, MusicNL instrumental artist of the year 2006, present Christmas in the Kitchen at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub Dec. 15, 7-9 p.m.

Tickets are $10 and a portion of the proceeds go to the VOCM Happy Tree project.

Paul Daly/The Independent • • • •

Job shadowing exercises Resume writing Leadership skills Computer skills

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We’re so much more. www.cna.nl.ca | 1 888 982.2268

YOURVOICE ‘The best deserve the best’ Dear editor, Sean Panting’s column in the Dec. 1 edition of The Independent (‘Money well spent’) has rubbed a few nerves raw amongst people in the cultural industries. The column implies that government was a bit too frivolous in spending on the premiers’ conference this past summer. The article also implies that government only injects money into the arts community when “company comes over” — referring to the premiers’ conference. I truly believe that the conference was a showcase of some of our province’s finest talent — Great Big Sea, Chris Pickard, Harry Martin, Jonny Harris, Kelly Ann Evans, Rick Mercer, Marie Craig, Spirit of Newfoundland, Quintessential Vocal Ensemble, Ron Hynes, Shallaway and The Fables were the performers for the conference.

Not only were some our best performers put forward, our production companies, hotels and convention facilities and suppliers were also utilized for the whole conference that deposited over $1.4 million into the economy. If this wasn’t a showcase, I for the life of me, can’t figure out who or what a showcase implies. Strutting your stuff in front of some extremely influential

business/government people in my mind constitutes a showcase.

I take great offence to the implication the Danny Williams government does not support the arts community. Having been personally involved in negotiating funding for our music industry during the first months of the Williams term, this was the first time that government has recognized the industry and actually put their money where their mouth is. I was really upset with former governments that touted our musicians and cultural workers as the backbone for our tourism industry and never supported it in an actual plan and real money.

Since the current government has taken power, the music industry alone has received over $800,000 that has gone directly to artists. Hopefully, there will be more when the music industry association does an impact study to show actually how the provincial government funding has improved the lives of professional musicians in the province. In addition, the most recent budget has earmarked over $18 million into the total cultural industries for the next fiscal period. Wow … I do not understand Mr. Panting’s argument.

If one thing came out of the premiers’ conference it is the fact that the

bar has been raised. Good money was spent on this and all of those musicians received a good salary for their performances — the best deserve the best.

The question remains the same — when will the business world recognize that cultural industries are basically the backbone of all that we hold dear to our hearts in the province? I may sound a bit biased, but the musicians are what tourists and locals take away as our defining nature and what most remember about us. With that kind of community support, why can’t financial institutes and the business world recognize that the artists are very large economic generators? Our contribution to the whole GDP is $40 million. We command the kind of recognition that this revenue generates.

I challenge government to make the next step as our Irish friends have done with their cultural workers — tax relief for working musicians. Our government has been talking about the real connection with Ireland and it’s time now for our government to take the Irish government’s approach to the arts community and make it the true economic force that it could be.

The artist’s name has been witheld by request.

INDEPENDENTSTYLE

FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 21

Taking the cake

By Kristine Power For The Independent

W

hen Lisa McKenzie talks to prospective clients, she asks personal questions. She’ll ask them to describe their wildest dreams. Whether they like fast cars. Who their favourite superheroes are.

But McKenzie isn’t a psychiatrist, a career counsellor or a matchmaker. She bakes cakes. Cakes shaped like a grand pianos with 88 tiny black-and-white keys. Or a Scottish terrier with black clumpy fur, made from icing so lifelike the man celebrating his birthday couldn’t bring himself to eat it.

“I’m very critical of my own work. It has to be exact or as close to the real thing as possible,” McKenzie says.

One of her strangest requests came from the mother of a little boy who was very specific about the cake he wanted: a gross spider with an oozing head. McKenzie went to work.

She shaped and scooped out the head of a moist cake and injected edible green ooze. It was the hit of the birthday party, creating a moment of awe.

That’s why she does what she does — so a special occasion becomes something even more wondrous.

McKenzie doesn’t do the basic rosettes and drop flowers, if she can help it. She leaves that to the grocery stores and conventional cakemakers. It takes McKenzie two

to three hours to decorate a cake — and that doesn’t include the mixing and baking.

She’s a chef by trade, but this artful medium requires more expertise then even her day job demands. “I have a bit of artistic skill, but I am a copier,” she admits. “If you put something in front of me I can recreate it.”

She starts with a base shape or mold, and works up from there, adding tiny details that require imaginative flare — especially if they are going to be edible.

“The pool table that I did for my husband’s birthday cake last year was actual cake with a green icing surface and edging around it. Then I sculpted individual little pool balls and painted them different colours.”

Her latest project is a snow globe she was commissioned to make for a Christmas party.

This posed a challenge for the obvious reasons: a snow globe is transparent, with snow falling on the inside.

McKenzie iced the globe so everything was on the outside in 3-D form — the exact opposite of a snow globe, but she pulled it off. “I just pictured in my head what a snow globe looked like and how do I make See “Chocolate,”page 24

Paul Daly/The Independent

DECEMBER 15, 2006

22 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

The fanny pack’s return

W

e know we’re flash dancing back to the 1980s when it comes to fashion, but does a revival of the leg warmer era really mean we should embrace fanny packs?

Americans drop wads of cash to eliminate flab from the fanny and surrounding areas, so why we’d attach anything to our hips, belly or rear — by choice — seems illogical, contrary.

Nevertheless, the bags are back, and much, much better than the original styles associated with tourists, runners, hikers and busy moms.

“In the past, they made the leap from athletic accessory to suburban icon without any change in style,” says Michelle Madhok, editor with SheFinds.com, a shopping blog.

That’s all changed. Now that couture designers such as Gucci, Prada and Marc Jacobs have created versions, the accessory that is as practical as a shoelace, actually has style.

“Now that high-end fashion designers do them and cool people wear them, they are changing their spots a little bit,” says Constance White, a fashion editor with eBay.com/personalstyle.

These newer bags eliminate bulges, sit flat against the body, and come in colours and fabrics outside of neon nylon of yesteryear.

A new bag also means a new name.

They’re now called “waist packs,” “body wallets” or “belt bags.”

For others, the packs are still as horribly unfashionable as shoulder pads.

“For some bold people and drag queens it could work really well,” says Jeralyn Gerba, editor with the fashion and trend website DailyCandy.com.

“For the rest of us, we should just let it go.'”

— Torstar wire service

All I want for Christmas is food porn M

y collection started a while ago. It started with one book.

It was large and robust and too big to fit on the shelf. I found it in a library.

I took it home and I read it cover to cover — in bed. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was seductive and sensual and visually appealing. The pictures were beguiling — entrancing — and mouth watering.

I kept that book for weeks. I couldn’t let it go back. The library called, said it would suspend my account. To hell with them. I’m keeping the book!

But I acquiesced. I gave in. I paid the fines and sent it back. I was sad and bereft — they took my cookbook away.

They took away my food porn. So I bought the book.

Food porn consists of cookbooks (specifically) whose presentation and pictures is as appealing as the writing or the recipes themselves.

Most of my cookbooks fall into this category.

The book that started my collection is The French Laundry Cook Book.

This book is about Thomas Keller and his famed restaurant in the Napa Valley.

His food has been described as the perfect representation of French cooking.

He is bold and funny, and his technique is unequalled.

The French Laundry is the perfect food porn book — sexy pictures of perfectly plated food paired with recipes

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the Eating Path so deep and complex it would take an army of chefs to create even one dish.

That’s what food porn is. Food that you drool over, because for the majority of us hard-core foodies, we’re not going to be able to eat there.

Why? Well, the restaurant is in California and they take reservations three months out. Looking for the Valentine’s night special occasion?

Forget it, it’s been booked since November. That’s why I turn to food porn. You get all the stimulation but you have to do the work yourself — it is a cookbook after all.

Books like The French Laundry are carefully crafted to bring a balance of writing and presentation. Looking at the cookbooks you’ll find it is possible to recreate this intricate and beguiling food; it just takes a whole lot of time, even for a seasoned professional.

On the other side of the food porn world are books filled with luxurious language, prompting you to squeeze every morsel out of the seductive side of food. No one does it any better than Nigella Lawson.

Her writing style is mouth-watering, her words sound pornographic.

Meltingly, squooshy, dollop, unctuous, luscious — these words punctuate her writing. Her latest cookbook release Feast: Food that Celebrates Life is no exception.

What I love about her cookbooks is that, unlike the meticulous nature of the French Laundry book, her food is not tweaked or cajoled into submission.

Her food is simple and easy to prepare but certainly no lighter in fat or flavour.

The pictures within are not twisted and ring-molded into place — it is food we can all cook. She lovingly refers to most dishes as comfort food.

These books of food porn work in two different ways. I enjoy the painstaking, tedious nature of The French Laundry — jewels of colour, elevated from the plate, constructed with the intricacy of a Swiss watchmaker. This is the food that chefs drool over. It is so

very complex that it challenges us to say “I can do that too.”

On the other side, I enjoy the writing of the Lawson series: “…the layers of sponge, with their crisp-carapaced squashy-bellied meringue topping, are sandwiched with tart lemon curd and softly whipped cream, so much better than a lemon meringue pie could ever be.” With writing like that, who wouldn’t want to have it for nighttime reading?

Food is life. It is bold and exciting and feeds and nourishes us. The more passion we have for new and exciting food, in whatever form you choose — the more pleasure you’ll find in your cooking.

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

His column returns Dec. 20. nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

TASTE

Kick back after your shopping is done

By Susan Sampson Torstar wire service

C

ocktails are in order after a hard day of Christmas shopping.

These will kick you into holiday mode with popular flavours of the season.

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COCKTAILS Adapted from 125 Best Chocolate Recipes by Julie Hasson.

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar • Ice cubes to taste • 1/3 cup vanilla vodka • 1/4 cup each: crème de cacao, store-bought or homemade chocolate syrup • 1-1/2 tsp peppermint schnapps • Whipped cream to taste • 2 small candy canes

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Every bag has a silver lining www.thetravelbugstore.com

Chill two martini glasses in freezer for 10 minutes.

Spread sugar on small saucer. Lightly moisten tops of martini glass rims and dip in sugar to coat. Discard remaining sugar.

Fill cocktail shaker half full of ice cubes. Pour vodka, crème de cacao, chocolate syrup and schnapps. Shake until frosty cold. Strain into prepared glasses. Discard ice.

Garnish each drink with dollop of cream and candy cane.

Makes 2.

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 23

The dream maker

By Nicholas Gardner For The Independent

I

t’s late at night and I’m wide awake. Staring blankly at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come, but it is no use. I’m so awake, I’m wired for sound.

What to do to cure this dreaded insomnia? Tossing and turning does me no good. With each roll in the blankets my wife shifts a bit and wakes just a little more. Time to get up and come up with a plan to get back to sleep.

Getting something to eat would work. But I’m not hungry. A warm glass of milk? Uh uh. Not my thing either. I want a good solid way to relax and get the sleep needed. It’s time to pull out the big guns. It’s time for the hot toddy.

The origin of the hot toddy comes from Scotland. It refers to a “mixed drink served hot.”

Of the many variants there is always an alcohol component (whiskey, brandy or rum), a hot liquid (generally tea), a sweetener (honey or sugar) and a citrus (lemon or orange).

I have been told that if consumed, um, vigorously, it is guaranteed to put you flat on your back. So off I go to score the perfect insomniac’s TKO, and my commentary on how it all went down.

HOT TODDY 1 teabag of black tea (I chose decaffeinated to help me sleep)

2 oz whiskey — use what you have.

I had a single malt on hand but a blend is just as good.

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar 1 round slice of lemon Boil the kettle. Fill the cup threequarters of the way over the teabag, lemon and sugar and steep for a couple of minutes. Remove the teabag and add the whiskey.

This is how it worked: The first sip: oww! Super hot. I think I burned myself. Nope. The lemon and the whiskey are working in harmony. I can feel the relaxing properties of the whiskey. Bless the Scots for this invention.

Second sip: it slithers down my throat and it is very warming. I can feel it as it makes its way down into my stomach. It is a funny sensation.

Third sip: no pain here. Shoulders are relaxing and I am getting a little sleepy. This is working.

Fourth Sip: not much left. Lots of sugar. Should have stirred it a bit more. The sugar is not helping things here at all.

The warmth is like a blanket.

Everything is a little fuzzy but not dangerously so. I think this is going to work. When it was all over I slept like a log.

The verdict is that for me, a hot toddy works really well. A bit of a warning though: it dries you out the next day and it has the potential to become a hangover of immense proportions. My advice is to have a lot of

water on standby when you wake up after your toddy-induced sleep. It is not something to use every night to put you to sleep, but in a pinch, a hot toddy will work wonders. When you can’t sleep the hot toddy can become the stuff of which dreams are made.

This too shall pass As Leia Feltham experiences the various stages of exam stress, she takes a moment to look ahead

’T

is the season to be merry … and to study. University students know all too well that the month of December means a visit from not just Santa, but also a not-so-cheery friend — stress.

If stress could take a human form, it would be the kind of person that, if you saw him walking towards your front door you’d turn off all the lights, dive for the floor and pretend no one was home.

Unfortunately, this person would know you all too well and be able to find where the spare key was hidden. He’d just walk right into your house anytime he wanted and you’d be helpless against him. You could move and he’d follow right behind.

The point is, my attempt to avoid stress this term has failed once again.

The art of faking sick may have worked for the Grade 6 algebra test, but not for university finals.

If your goldfish dies, you get to bring a tissue to your exam.

PATTERNS EMERGE Through many years of tests and exams I’ve come to notice a pattern. I really think stress follows similar steps to the grieving process. A little weird, but bear with me.

It all starts with denial. Time has a way of sneaking up on you and before you can blink, the first day of school is over and the teacher is talking about midterms and finals. During the “study period,” all those video games, projects, or un-updated MySpaces you’ve somehow managed to ignore for ages are suddenly irresistible. You find yourself reorganizing your clothes by colour, watching terrible daytime television shows, or doing any other pointless activity in order to hide from reality.

Then comes anger. Trying to cram as much information into your head as possible into a short period of time is enough to make anyone a little edgy. The only image my tired mind comes up with right now is Barney. Imagine him trying to learn biology, chemistry, math, history and French all at once. His big purple head wouldn’t nearly be large enough to hold all of that and I doubt he’d be singing happily for long.

Losing patience with yourself is often the greatest danger, and can make you a formidable weapon against those who aren’t feeling the same pressure. There are many casualties among people blindly entering the warpath of frustrated students.

Bargaining — the most entertaining of stages in this exam process. The art of faking sick may have worked for the Grade 6 algebra test, but not for university finals. If your goldfish dies, you get to bring a tissue to your exam. There’s not much sympathy and unless you’re on your deathbed — and with the colds that stress breeds you may feel this way — you had better suck it up. The funny part is, if students were half as creative with ways to focus on studying as they were with excuses not to study, they might be more successful.

Myself included.

Depression, or rather, dismay. Exams are no reason, unlike grief, to sink into a deep sadness. It is nonetheless hard to be cheery when you’re trapped in a room reading notes, practising equations and all social interaction has gone down the drain.

LEIA FELTHAM Guest Column

I know my friends make me happy and when the only conversation between us is: “What’s gonna be on the exam?” I get pretty down.

Finally comes acceptance. My personal favourite. Eventually you get to the point where you know you’ve got one more night to learn all that you can. All the time you’ve wasted in the days and weeks before comes back to haunt you, and like memories from those passed away, there are reminders everywhere you look that time is running out.

There’s nothing more final in final exam than when the paper hits the table. You could resort back to bargaining and thoughts of faking passing out come to mind. It would never be worth the trouble, so there’s nothing left to do other than pick up the pencil and do your best.

I used to worry a lot more about exams than I do now, which is the reverse of what I expected. I guess somewhere along the way, with all the academic information I’ve absorbed, I’ve also learned that every moment, even the worst ones, will pass.

EXAM ROOM I walk into the exam room now and tell myself, “I know what I know, and I’ll do what I can.” Whatever comes of it I’ll deal with because I have no other choice. I take responsibility for my achievements, and also my disappointments.

Writing this column was a welcome break and I dread going back to the little nook in my room covered with coffee mugs, binders and textbooks. University is a lot of work and no one likes being stressed.

Yet it’s all part of the uphill battle and it’s worth the reward at the top. To all those slaving away, good luck and look forward to your well deserved break.

Leia Feltham is a first-year Memorial University student. Her column returns Jan. 5.

DECEMBER 15, 2006

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

Cool presents are hot sellers Retailers scramble to restock popular holiday products as they’re snapped up

By Surya Bharracharya Torstar wire service

Tyco’s remote controlled Nsect ($109.99)

Trucks and G.I. Joe, which was launched in the 1960s, and Rubik’s Cube from the early ’80s.

And a few perennial favourites are back among the hottest items this season.

This year, along with TMX Elmo, Transformers Robot Toys are selling out, as is a new favourite, Tyco’s Nsect ($109.99), a remote-controlled spider.

Driving the retro cool rage is nostalgia.

“My theory has always been what you played with 20 years ago, these are your security blanket,” Joshi says. “Now it’s a whimsy and you can afford it. The memory and the disposable incomes are the drivers for the return of retro cool.”

Looking at a target market and what it did 20 years ago is a good way to gauge upcoming “retro cool” trends, he adds.

Even fabrics can make a comeback.

Cashmere sweaters and hoodies for women

($175-$225) and men’s cashmere sweaters met great success last season.

“We sold out completely last year and so this year, we’re not sold out yet because we’ve invested heavily in that commodity,” Evanson says.

Cashmere throws have been added to the fashion line-up this year.

While classic gifts for women such as freshwater pearls (upwards of $99) and white gold and platinum jewellery continue to be bestsellers every holiday season, the M.A.C brush evening kit with an evening clutch ($62) for women has been a surprise hit this year.

“It sold out and we’re just replenishing that.

It’s interesting how they connected what a woman would carry,” Evanson says.

“Most cosmetics are carried in a pouch within a purse but this pouch, you can carry as a purse.”

EVENTS DECEMBER 15 • Spirit of Newfoundland presents Humbug by Barry Galloway and Peter Halley, a musical comedy based on the classic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol.

Reserve tickets for dinner and show 579-3023.

• Bob MacDonald Christmas with Class CD re-release at The Republic, Duckworth Street, St. John’s, 6-10 p.m.

• Book signing: Straight Shooter, editorial photographs by Paul Daly, 6-8 p.m., Bennington Gate Book Store, Churchill Square, St. John’s.

• Colleen Power and band at the Rose & Thistle, Water St., 10 p.m.2 a.m.

• Rowdy Blues by John Clarke, Scott Goudie, Peter Narvaez and Denis Parker, 10:30 p.m. at The Fat Cat, George Street. Also Dec. 16.

• The Celtic Fiddlers, present Christmas in the Kitchen, O’Reilly’s Irish Pub, George Street, 7-9 p.m.

• Kittiwake Dance Theatre presents The Nutcracker, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. Continues until Dec. 17.

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas, LSPU Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Continues Dec. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 753-4531 for tickets.

DECEMBER 16 • Book signing: Straight Shooter, editorial photographs by Paul Daly, 2-4 p.m., Chapters, Kenmount Road, St. John’s.

• Christine Koch open studio and art sale, 177 Water St., St. John’s, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Continues Dec. 17.

• The Greek community of

By Gordon Stimmel Torstar wire servce

A

Y

ou know the drill. Be prepared to stand in line. Or to shove and push to get the hottest gifts in time.

Whether it’s the latest gadget like Sony PlayStation 3 ($659.99) or the return of a childhood toy like Elmo — now reconfigured as TMX Elmo — some items are so hot this holiday season, that retailers are already scrambling to restock.

While books, socks, ties, DVDs and household items like the Rachael Ray cookware set ($299) sell well, they don’t carry the same buzz as some of the more hard-to-get gifts.

Video game consoles such as Nintendo’s Wii ($299.99) and the PS3, both available only in limited quantities, started selling out immediately after their recent launches.

“They’re hot, sold, and we’re replenishing,” says John Evanson, store director for the Hudson Bay Company’s flagship store in downtown Toronto. “With iPods, it’s the same thing.”

Promoting a product extensively but selling it at very few outlets creates “hot items,” according to Ashwin Joshi, associate professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University. The excitement generated carries the product through the holiday season, often extending into the new year, he adds.

Remember when Beanie Babies were hot?

Or when nary a Cabbage Patch Kids doll could be found in the stores?

Still kicking around as popular gift items are Mr. Potato Head, first sold in 1952, Tonka

Wine books for stockings and more

Newfoundland and Labrador’s annual dinner and dance party at the Battery hotel, tickets available at Bennington Gate and from O’Brien’s Music Store, call 7378635 or 685-2298.

• Kris Kristofferson at Mile One Stadium, St. John’s, 8 p.m.

DECEMBER 17 • The Health Care Foundation’s Tree of Memories Christmas carol service, 4 p.m., in front of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital on LeMarchant Road, 777-5907.

• The St. John’s Folk Arts Council presents a Christmas Carol singalong and fundraiser, 3 p.m., Gower Street United Church.

Featuring Carolyn Schiller, Alan Doyle, George Miminis, Anita Best and Pamela Morgan and more.

• Avalon Unitarian Fellowship’s weekly service, 10:30 a.m., Anna Templeton Center, 278 Duckworth St. DECEMBER 18 • Snook’s Christmas at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 8 p.m., 729-3650.

DECEMBER 20 • Weekly afternoon concert by David Drinkell, Cathedral Organist, 1:15-1:45 p.m., Anglican Cathedral, St. John’s.

• Arthur O’Brien & Fred Jorgensen folk night at the Ship Pub, St. John’s, 9 p.m.

• Ed Kavanagh will launch his new Celtic harp CD One Star Awake at The Studio above Auntie Crae’s, 272 Water St, 7-9 p.m.

One of the photographs in Human Natured, an exhibition of black and white work by Sheilagh O’Leary. Flower Studio Gallery, 124 Military Road, St. John’s, until Jan. 6.

DECEMBER 21 • Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol, adapted and performed by Aiden Flynn, 7:30 p.m., at Rabbittown Theatre, 739-8220.

Continues Dec. 22 and 23.

• Blair Harvey and The Dregs CD Release Party for the new album Gutter Be Gutted, with Mark Bragg Band and The Nordic Beat at Junctions, St. John’s.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS • The Independent Artists Cooperative presents the Third Annual Rock Can Roll Independent Music and Video Festival Jan. 26-28, 2007 in St. John’s. The cooperative is calling for submissions of short films and videos from bands, and work from filmmakers and new media artists with rock-related subject matter, themes or soundtrack. Entry fee is $10, deadline is Jan. 15. Send submissions, preferably in DVD or mini DV format (VHS is also acceptable) to: Rock Can Roll Records, P.O. Box 2383, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 6E7.

Contact 754-6662 or

indieartscoop@gmail.com.

IN THE GALLERIES • The League of Artists of Western Newfoundland (LAWN) presents The HeART of Giving Christmas exhibition at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre gallery, until Dec. 16.

• Comfort and Joy at the Devon House Craft Centre, Duckworth Street, St. John’s, until Dec. 17.

• Annual Christmas show at the Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, Baird’s Cove, St. John’s, 722-7177.

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

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

• Scott Goudie, The Tuscan Landscape, Christina Parker Gallery, until Dec. 22.

re books dead? And are wine books obsolete? Well, sure you can glean instant information on wine from the Internet. Every winery has a website. The contemporary tribal telegraph of the computer has transformed us immensely. A million wine hits instantly await your queries online.

But wine books still survive with data that are almost instantly obsolete due to constant change, be it vintage variation, transient media darling winemakers migrating jobs laterally, or new wines never reviewed before, pouring nonstop into the global marketplace.

I’ve already touted a seminal work on Canada as an emerging wine universe, Tony Aspler’s The Wine Atlas of Canada (2006, $60). Parts of it are suddenly outdated, but the core focus on wine as a varied expression of disparate personalities remains vital and enduring.

This is a cellar keeper for lovers of Canadian wine. It is an important snapshot of Canadian wine coming of age in the early 21st century.

Another giant that stands the test of wine time is the third edition of Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine (2006, $75).

Exhaustively updated since its 1994 debut, this bible contains 4,000 entries on the history of wine, grape varieties, hundreds of wineries, as well as 75 maps of global growing regions, all dished up with the signature verve and wit by the woman who has become the modern, Londonbased Boswell to the grape industry.

OK, at times it is like reading the Encyclopedia Britannica for breakfast. This is a book for the wine connoisseur in your life who thinks he/she knows everything. A hint: he/she doesn’t.

If you have ever eaten in a pretendo bistro or a three-star Michelin restaurant in France, you know the little brilliant tidbit of food trundled out gratis by the inspired chef before the first course. It’s called an amuse gueule or amuse bouche. In this category is Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape by Peter F. May (2006, $21.95), which warns readers it “contains sulfites.”

This book details “odd wines from around the world,” such as Flying Pig, Old Fart, Frog’s Piss, The Dog’s Bollocks and many in our marketplacee such as Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, Le Freak, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Laughing Magpie and Goats Do Roam.

Taken in short sips, with a label per page, this is drinkable. Barely. It’s stocking stuffer stuff.

The weirdest wine book of the year is The Da Vino Code: Mysterious Paintings Reveal the Timeline of Wine (2006, $25.50). We know we are in deep doodoo when LeonARTo da VINO (Chuck Gray), the author, is heralded as beginning his study of wine “with a bottle of Thunderbird behind the high school gymnasium.”

Late in life, he created this magnum oopsus on 32 pages, depicting very bad paintings with such titles as Winestoned Cowboys. This satiric art book falls flatter than a wine stain.

Twenty years past his famed novel Bright Lights, Big City, author Jay McInerney forges ahead on his wine grail, in A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006, $30), a highly literate compilation of essays distilled from five years of wine scribbling.

The style is reminiscent of my first favourite wine writer, Auberon Waugh, whose civilized wit and wine wisdom awed me when I began my own wine journeys.

McInerney dishes up lovely short essays with insights into major regions, producers and trends in wine, always with a wry eye for the individual nuances of his profiled subjects. This is a perfect gift for someone who has lived and breathed wine lore for at least a decade.

The most practical wine guide is Billy’s Best Bottles: Wines for 2007 (2006, $21.95) which keeps a sharp focus on everyday wines that help nurture us through the week.

These days, Billy Munnelly is big on teaching us to match wines to our moods. Munnelly’s approach is always refreshingly low-brow, and although not all the wines are stunners, many of them I count among my best values year after year.

Chocolate Buddha cake From page it as snowy and sparkly as possible.”

There are days she admits the stress is hard to take, but she loves creating people’s fairy-tale desserts. In her tiny kitchen, which smells of chocolate and vanilla more days than not, an oven continually beeps, signaling her into action on the next project.

This is the studio where she works her magic and someday she wants to do only this. But for now she works a full-time job at the Casbah restaurant in St. John’s and then comes home to bake until 11 most nights to finish all her Christmas orders in time.

And there are occasions when cakes go wrong and things take longer than expected. A nose can drop off a perfectly formed dog during the night, forcing her into emergency carving and recreating the day of delivery. If something doesn’t look right, she scrapes the cake clean of icing with a spatula and starts again on a new canvas.

It has to be perfect, or the cakes haunt her.

No matter how pretty or how cool a cake looks, McKenzie says, it still has to be transportable and people still need to dig in. “As a chef, the most important part for me is how it tastes. If you can’t eat it, what’s the point? You might as well make it out of plaster.”

Michelangelo had David. Auguste Rodin had The Thinker. Lisa McKenzie wants her turn at a career-defining masterpiece.

“One of the things I really want to do is make a Buddha,” she says. “I keep thinking about how good the Buddha would look in chocolate cake form, so I am waiting for the opportunity for someone to request that.

Hopefully someday I will have that one.”

If completed, it will surely take the term “soul food” to a new level.

DECEMBER 15-20, 2006

What’s new in the automotive industry

FEATURED VEHICLE

KING OF THE HILL Meet the new King of the hill, valley, rock, stream, mud, sand, snow and ice — the 2007 FJ Cruiser. The culmination of a half-century of truck know-how, Toyota FJ Cruiser is as rough and ready as its legendary namesake, the FJ40 Landcruiser, but with some new tricks all its own. The FJ Cruiser starts at $29,900 and is available at Toyota Plaza Kenmount Road. Photos by Paul Daly.

‘Free Dougie’ T

he first time I ever heard of A handful of cops went in the house Dougie was on the radio … he and came out with a guy a few minutes was apprehended after a high- later. They took him quietly and disapspeed chase from St. John’s all the way peared. I went back to bed and wonto St. Philip’s. dered, what the hell was that all about?

All seriousness aside, this is a great It was on the radio in the morning — a story, part of my neighbourhigh-speed chase the night hood history. So let’s all get before with a suspect in cussanctimonious and agree tody. there’s nothing so uncivilized And that’s how an outport as disobedience (but it makes delinquent named Dougie for a great read). made it to the radio. He met Imagine this is one of those the judge on Monday morntrashy detective novels and ing and received a fine. The I’m tapping it out on a manujudge also distinctly told al typewriter with a strong Dougie not to be newsworthy.

MARK cup of coffee steaming next I never heard of Dougie WOOD to it. Some dame walks in, again until I was introduced wants to know about Dougie. him years later, in a popuWOODY’S to The scene’s in black and lar local hangout, Smokin’ WHEELS Joe’s shed, an absolute gold white and narrated into a big square microphone by a mine for wild stories and as voice reminiscent of Humphry Bogart good a confession box as you’ll find with a sudden sure (Southern Shore) anywhere. Amongst all the b’ys and accent ... beer, Dougie shyly recounted his terriIt was years ago, early on Sunday ble, hilarious tale. morning, around 3 a.m. I awoke to a For some odd reason, the cops lit up house lit with flashing red and blue behind poor Dougie downtown and for lights. There was an RNC cruiser shin- no odd reason he took off. The ancient ing a spotlight on my car, and two more Honda Civic hatchback screamed all cruisers creeping up and down the road. the way in Thorburn Road, three cop They honed in on an identical car a cars on his arse, lights and sirens wailcouple of doors down from me and tore ing. off. I got out the binoculars and We all snickered, wood stove crackwatched the show, my heart pounding. ling in the corner. For 99 per cent of the

population, when flashing red and blues appear in the rear-view mirror their stomachs turn over and they stop.

Not Dougie.

When he turned right at the Sunshine Camp he was on the back roads and knew every bump, dip, groove, pothole and corner, just like any other moonshine-runnin’ hillbilly story you’ve ever read. There was no way those big cruisers could keep up with a little Honda on the dark, twisty roads. “And

she goin’,” Dougie told us b’ys in the shed, his voice tailing off with the memory of it.

He managed to get a couple of minutes between him and the cops, booted her past my house and hauled right into his driveway.

“What’d ya do then, Dougie?” one of the b’ys asked. We all leaned closer — captivated, spellbound.

“Hopped right in the bed!” Dougie howled. We roared and belly laughed

into teary-eyed fits.

The cops burst in and there was Dougie doing his best fake snore. They hauled back the blankets and there he lay in the bunk with his boots on, fully clothed. He pretended to wake up, disoriented, still out-of-breath, feigning innocence.

Dougie’s incident was long before police cars were fitted with cameras, although the chase would have made for excellent reality TV. If there were video, Dougie’s reckless behaviour and cameo performance would be on every screen in the free world. Every pandering Internet site would feature Dougie pretending to be surprised there were a bunch of cops in his bedroom. Then would come the T-shirts with Dougie’s foolish expression staring out below expressions like “Free Dougie”, or “Follow me to Dougie’s.”

There could still be movie rights yet, which would probably work well for, ahem, Douglas, but not for me. The moving picture business is full of riff raff. Besides, I’m busy typing out the next, great, motorized mystery — another black and white flick.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s has a small collection of manual typewriters and a romantic notion of how their personality can influence a page.

26 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT

DECEMBER 15, 2006

More racing books and other loose ends I

n my annual Christmas gift column (published last week), I neglected to mention four new Canadian books on auto racing because, a) my column was a mile long already (oops, make that a kilometre long) and I didn’t want to make my editor any more angry than he already was and, b) none of the people I talked to about gift items happened to mention them and I never like to “cook the books” (if you’ll pardon the expression) in those situations.

So, here goes. If you need last-minute gifts, these are dandy stocking-stuffers and can be purchased at just about any book store or book section NORRIS MCDONALD anywhere.

1. Nascar Now! by Tim Miller, motorsport columnist for the Hamilton Spectator, and Steve Milton. This is the second edition of a book I reviewed a year ago and is terrific.

Literally everything you ever wanted to know about NASCAR is in this book and the photos are terrific.

My one nit with this when it first came out is that it didn’t have anything about NASCAR’s Canadian connection. After all, there were two Grand National races held in this country back in NASCAR’s early years and a number of Canadians (Earl Ross, in particular) raced with the sanctioning body but it was as if that information didn’t count.

This second edition makes up for those early omissions in spades. Good for Tim and Steve (and publisher, Firefly Books). It sells for $24.95 2. Vroom! is also by my good friend Tim Miller, who’s also the curator of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. He calls it a children’s book (which it is, in large part) but I also would call it a primer for people who might be getting interested in the sport.

It tells you the history, the traditions and the nuts and bolts of all types of racing, from Formula One through drag racing to sports cars and Indy cars. It’s a great little gift for $22.99 and is published by Tundra Books.

3. Track Talk (Racing Memories by Jalopy, Hobby, and Canadian Vintage Modified Drivers) is by Wendy Ward Roper (www.Tracktalk.ca), who traces the evolution of Canadian stock car racing from the ’60s to the present.

Published by Mosaic Press and selling for $24.95, this book uses interviews with drivers to create an oral history of this period. It makes for great reading.

TRACK TALK

4. Greatest Stock Car Races (Triumphs and Tragedies of Yesterday and Today) recreates races from the first “official” stock car race ever run to the 1991 Daytona 500 in which Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed. Written

by Glenda Fordham, it is published by Overtime Books and retails for $9.95.

OK, moving right along, it is my pleasure today to announce that the first Canadian Motorsports Expo will take place at the Toronto Congress Centre next April 6-8.

Organizers promise a one-stop shopping and viewing experience: racing cars, boats and motorcycles, autograph opportunities

from celebrity drivers, parts and accessories, safety equipment, product demonstrations, collectibles, free how-to seminars, racing history, fan forums and celebrity appearances are all on the schedule.

More about this fascinating event as the time draws near.

A few more last-minute Christmas suggestions: Brudgestone Racing Academy gift certificates are available at 905-983-1114 or online at www.race2000.com. Half-day programs at the facility next to the speedway at Mosport start at $585.

And talking about Mosport, you can purchase gift certificates that can go toward admission to the grounds for some of the circuit’s big weekends scheduled for next summer. Or you can purchase merchandise with them, or whatever.

Big events next summer include the Grand Am series, the VARAC celebration of 40 years of F1 in Canada and, of course, the big American LeMans Series for sports cars race in late August. Call 1-800-8661072 or go to www.mosport.com for details or to order.

Whoops — here’s another book I forgot

about.

When my editor gave it to me several months ago, he said these exact words: “Keep this under wraps. There are people who would kill to get their hands on this book.”

An exaggeration, of course, but it really is a spectacular work. Called Inside Ferrari, it is one of the most spectacular picture books you will ever see. It takes an up-close-andpersonal look at all-things Ferrari, from the actual manufacture of the racecars right through race weekends.

I only have one problem with this book.

It is too out of date. Although released during the latter half of this year, it stops at the end of 2005 season. So what’s the problem with that, you ask?

Well, Felipe Massa was Michael Schumacher’s teammate this year, but Rubens Barrichello is featured throughout.

This is a bigger deal than you might think.

But if you’re a Ferrari fan, you will care less.

Inside Ferrari is published by Firefly Books and retails for $39.95.

And now for something completely different.

Hard on the heels of revelations that American viewers are turning away from NASCAR (not in droves, but most races saw empty seats this year and TV ratings were down pretty much across the board) and Canadian viewers appear to be turning away from professional hockey (Hockey Night In Canada ratings are off 19 per cent for the early Saturday game; TSN’s ratings have dropped 18 per cent) comes word that British viewers are switching off Formula One. F1 TV audiences in the U.K. are down by an average of nearly 40 per cent over five years, according to reports.

Wow. Britain is the cradle of F1 and if the sport is having trouble holding its audience there, it does not bode well for the rest of the world.

Now, there are probably two significant reasons for this sad state of affairs. First, who wants to watch an F1 race when you know that either Michael Schumacher, or somebody else driving a Ferrari, is going to win it? So interest could increase next year simply because Michael won’t be on the grid.

But the real reason is probably the 400channel universe. In the “old” days, when people could only get seven or eight channels, max, you pretty much watched what was on because that was all you could get.

Today, there are TVs in every room, including the kitchen, and every member of the family can be watching something different.

Which makes it really tough to reach a mass audience.

Subaru top safety pick

S

ubaru Canada, Inc. is proud to announce that the Subaru Legacy, Forester and B9 Tribeca have each been named a 2007 top safety pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The award recognizes vehicles that provide the best protection for drivers and occupants in front, side and rear crash tests conducted by the institute.

The IIHS rates vehicles as good, acceptable, marginal or poor based on performance in high-speed front and side crash tests, and for the neck protection offered by seats and head

restraints in rear impact.

To be designated a top safety pick, a vehicle must earn a rating of good in all three tests. In addition, there is a new criterion for 2007; each top safety pick must offer electronic stability control. The institute has determined that stability control can significantly reduce the risk of injury in a crash by helping a driver maintain vehicle control during emergency manoeuvres.

“Safety leadership is a top priority for Subaru, so we’re delighted that three out of the 13 top safety picks were Subaru vehicles,” said

Katsuhiro Yokoyama, president, chairman and CEO of SCI. “The IIHS tests are of particular importance because they evaluate vehicles’ actual performance in the most common types of real-world collisions.

This tells customers that when they buy a Subaru, they’re giving their families and passengers the highest levels of protection available.”

For more information about the IIHS and its safety testing, please visit the Institute’s website at www.iihs.org. To learn more about the Subaru Legacy, B9 Tribeca and Forester, go to www.subaru.ca.

Millionth Mazda3

M

azda Motor Corporation has announced that total production of the Mazda Axela (known as Mazda3 in overseas markets) in Japan reached the one million-unit milestone at the end of August 2006. This achievement comes three years and two months after production of the Mazda3 started at Mazda’s Hofu Plant No.1 (H1) at the end of June 2003 and establishes a new record for the fastest time to produce one million units of a Mazda vehicle.

The Mazda3 development concept was focused on producing a “dynamic sports compact that exceeds your expectations” and has become a core model in Mazda’s global compact vehicle segment

strategy. It delivers outstanding dynamic performance, a vibrant design and high quality craftsmanship, having been developed to be a globally competitive vehicle with attractive driving characteristics and value-for-money attributes.

The Mazda3 won second prize in the 2004 European Car of the Year awards — the highest-ranking Japanese car that year — and was picked as the 2004 Canadian car of the year. It has also been praised by the media and customers alike, winning 67 automotive awards to date.

With this history of excellence, it continues to enjoy steady sales in markets throughout the world.

Mazda freshened the Mazda3 lineup in June 2006. While the freshened

Mazda3 enhanced existing strengths such as delightful exterior and interior styling, dynamic performance and craftsmanship, fuel economy and road quietness were improved and a new all-wheel drive (AWD) grade was added. At the same time, the Mazda3 MPS, a high performance model with a 2.3-litre Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) Turbo engine, was newly added to the lineup in Japan.

With ongoing steady global sales, Mazda has been adding to the Mazda3 production system year after year. Total production of the Mazda3 in Japan in 2005 was 364,668 units, boasting one of the highest single model production volumes in Japan.

DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 27

Gifts that start at $0 B

efore you buy the car enthusiast you love another toy model version of his or her dream car, lets discuss some really useful ways to spend your money.

With many new cars you purchase or lease now, you get an automatic roadside assistance program.

That’s great. It would be even better if they’d let me use it for my 12-year-old car instead. When something is handed out as a bonus, the odds are pretty good the company knows it isn’t going to cost them much. Buy someone a program that doesn’t have one. This is especially nice for parents to buy kids.

It’s a taking-care-of-you present they pretend to hate, but actually love.

A fabulous snowbrush would make me very happy. I hate getting crud all over my coat because the brush is too short, or because the bristles look like a giant has been brushing his teeth with them.

Consider the shorter people in your life, and look at those telescoping brushes. In relative terms, the best of the brushes don’t cost a lot of money.

I swear by those big car mats that suck up a ton of

slush. They hold an entire Bigee-Sized tle green tree swinging from your Coke. If you’d like to know how I know rearview is just earrings on a pig. this, you’d have to ask my son, who can The single best gift does not cost a take your call any time because he is curdime. Chances are that someone in your rently grounded. house leaves for work early. Depending New car seat covers are a great way to on the depth of your affection for this permake an older car look great again, and to son, write up a promise to be out to clear protect a new car from spills and tears. their car after a storm, or five storms.

Putting them on requires an Engineering Shovel the drive, warm up the car, and LORRAINE degree (they have more elastic straps and chip off the ice. It means getting up when SOMMERFELD hooks than a prom queen), but we’ve they do, and heading outside in the dark. found there is usually someone in the My boys have done this for Brad, when house that can figure it out. My 12-yearhe was heading out at 5:30 a.m. I do it old is pretty good at it. because I love the early morning quiet, A terrific gift for anyone is a car detailand the smell of the cold after a foot of ing. It’s like a day at the spa for your car. If you can snow has dropped. I just cram my pyjamas under steal the car and get it done ahead of time, great. If snow gear, and throw snowballs at the kids’ winnot, get a gift certificate (it’s around $100-125 usu- dows to wake them up. But I admit, mostly I just ally). I promise you, next to getting my own chassis love the peace and stillness. Contrary to all the ads spoiled for a day, it’s the next best thing. Your car on TV, the best gifts do not begin at any store. will no longer smell like a pungent mix of dog and Both of the boys are car-racing nuts. Over the gym shorts and French fries. And sorry, but that lit- years, I’ve bought Marc, 15, several books on cars I

POWER SHIFT

know he likes. I asked Jackson, 12, what books he might like for Christmas. He looked at me as if I’d offered to wrap up Brussels sprouts and scream “Merry Christmas!” He prefers his entertainment to appear on a screen, or to be needed to be pedaled furiously.

This year, one of my fellow columnists has answered my prayers with a book he’s written.

Vroom, by Tim Miller, is specifically for the nine-to12-year-old set. If you have a kid who has an interest in any kind of auto racing, this is the book that should be sticking out of his or her stocking. Lots of pictures, clean format, a glossary that I spent a lot of time in, a list of websites for further information — this book delivers. It fills a demand for a respectful look at auto racing that is neither too jargon-heavy for the less experienced, nor too condescending for younger fans of the sport. It’s available at all the bookstores.

There you go. Gifts that start at $0. And not a Brussels sprout in the lot. www.lorraineonline.ca

Consumers driving ‘greener’ car market C onsumers, looking for “greener” choices when they purchase a new car or truck, count fuel efficiency among the top three purchase motivators.

And while after 100 years of service and refinement the gasoline-powered engine is still consumers’ top choice, automakers are testing the market with vehicles powered by just about every new fuel alternative there is. At the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, for example, Ford, General Motors and BMW each unveiled vehicles that run on hydrogen, while other companies, including DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen, promoted vehicles powered by E85 ethanol, electric-gas hybrid engines, biodiesel, natural gas and low-sulfur – or “clean” — diesel fuel.

“Consumers are speaking loud and clear,” said Mark Fields, Ford president, The Americas.

“They’re telling us that the social and environmental trade-offs associated with automobiles are increasingly unacceptable.”

According to internal Ford research, the percentage of Americans who say they are “very concerned” about the environment is approaching 70 per cent, up nearly 10 points in the past five years.

Fuel efficiency, quality and safety are their top purchase priorities.

“They want cleaner, safer and more efficient vehicles that don’t compromise on function or value, while lessening America’s dependence on foreign oil,” Fields said.

It is a sentiment echoed in a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Energy, which predicts the sale of flex-fuel vehicles — those that can run on gasoline and ethanol — could reach two million units annually by 2030, with about the same number of hybrid gas-electric vehicles sold.

Including diesel vehicles and those running on unconventional technology, such as hydrogen or fuel cells, the department of Energy sees alternative-fuel-powered vehicles accounting for nearly 30 per cent of light-duty vehicle sales in 2030, compared with more than eight per cent today.

The trick will be to determine which fuel holds

the most promise for future motorists.

“Like every other major automaker, Ford is not betting on a single technology to replace gasoline engines,” writes Sebastain Blanco, editor-in-chief of AutoblogGreen.com, in an article for Ford’s “Bold Moves” Web site, www.fordboldmoves.com. “It’s pretty clear that hybrids and biofuels are bridge technologies, something greener than gasoline to get us to a future of either hydrogen fuel cell or pure electric cars, or both.”

“We believe hydrogen may become a viable motor fuel in the long term,” said Gerhard Schmidt, vice president, Research & Advanced Engineering.

In its latest attempt to raise the bar in the hydrogen fuel cell race, Ford unveiled an all-new fuel cell-powered Explorer prototype in Los Angeles that can travel 350 miles on a single fill-up, more than any fuel-cell vehicle on the road.

The vehicle, a prototype built for the department of Energy, has a center-mounted hydrogen tank as well as space for six people and their cargo. Ford has logged more than 17,000 miles testing the Explorer, including over 1,500 miles during one 24-hour period, which Ford called a record for any fuel-cell vehicle.

“With these technology demonstration vehicles, Ford continues to lead the way in the development of hydrogen technology,” said Schmidt.

Ford currently has a fleet of 30 hydrogen-powered Focus fuel-cell vehicles on the road as part of a worldwide, seven-city effort to conduct realworld testing of fuel-cell technology.

The company also recently delivered the first in a series of hydrogen internal combustion engine powered E-450 shuttle buses on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

BMW, meanwhile, displayed its new Hydrogen 7, powered by a 12-cylinder combustion engine that it touts as “the world’s first hydrogen-powered performance sedan.” The unveilings in Los Angeles are a further step toward bringing hydrogen vehicles to market, said JoAnn Milliken, acting hydrogen program manager, which is helping

Reuters

automakers underwrite the cost of such hydrogen demonstration vehicles through tax credits.

Still, major obstacles remain to the mass-adoption of hydrogen-powered vehicles, including the cost of developing fuel and the service station infrastructure needed to support demand.

“Integrating these new technologies into a system is major progress,” Milliken said.

“There are likely to be more incentives down the road as we get closer to achieving our targets,” she said.

28 • INDEPENDENTFUN

DECEMBER 15, 2006

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Drooler’s accessories 5 Trudge 9 Eggs 12 Totals two numbers 16 Polish prose 17 She ranks in Raipur 18 PC cousin 19 Underhanded type 20 Measure of wind force (2 wds.)

23 Foe 24 Sask. town with T. rex Discovery Centre 25 Ancient letter 26 Fleshy fruit with seed inside 27 Links peg 28 Japanese sandal 29 Get wool from sheep 30 Shouted 33 Boston lettuce 34 Provincial rep.

35 Small suckers 38 “We’ll rant and we’ll ___ ...”

39 A Callwood 40 Boater’s worry 41 By way of 42 20’s dispenser, for short 43 Grape-pressing residue 44 Terra ___ 45 Paraphernalia 46 B.C. town with Molly’s Reach

(“Beachcombers”) 48 Portend 49 A Great Lake 50 Arousing debate 54 Object formally 57 Bovine plough pullers 58 Underwater missile 62 More than a quiz 63 Yukon’s official bird 65 Ian Fleming’s 007 66 ___ and saucer 67 Spring mo.

68 Word with friendly 69 Mother 70 Seethe 71 Island off NE Nfld.

73 At a great distance 74 Big horn 75 The ___ Woman (Atwood) 76 Enjoyed to the max (2 wds.)

78 Turbine blade 79 RPM part 80 Liberals 81 N.W.T.’s mineral emblem 82 Canadian poetry prize 86 Earlier 87 Education degree 89 Compact 90 Affirmative vote 91 Tear apart 92 Blue flag 93 Affectedly dainty 94 Building extension

95 Rim 96 Throw DOWN 1 French infant 2 Theme 3 Prejudice 4 Repeat oneself?

5 Lying flat 6 Animal fat 7 Man. neighbour 8 Strip 9 Native of Muscat 10 Poetic valley 11 Sleeve card?

12 Yearly 13 Ont. town with Canadian Clock Museum 14 French lady 15 It’s up above 19 Dried up 21 Cater to 22 Rein in 26 Capital of Bangladesh 28 White metal 29 Part of a blind 30 Rugged rock 31 Roast (Fr.) 32 Two-syllable foot (poet.)

33 Rupture 34 Taxi totaller 36 “See you later!”

37 Get a salary 39 Singer Arden 40 Water-resistant wool

43 Tie up (a boat) 44 Assembly of witches 45 Swallow eagerly 47 Pond surface (polluted) 48 Dog breed 49 Like diamonds 51 Dog’s name 52 Tiny pore 53 N.S. town with Highland Village 54 Unable to hear 55 Montreal success of 1967 56 Butter substitute 59 ___ Secum, N.S. 60 Russian house of parliament 61 “___ your eyes!”

63 Singer-songwriter Wainwright 64 Pronto!

65 Infant 69 Alta. town with giant Ukrainian sausage 70 Penalty 72 Serving no useful purpose 74 Post-shower sprinkle 75 Small overflow dam 77 Pierrette’s perhaps: peut-___ 78 Outspoken 79 He’s overly concerned with decorum 80 Shot up 81 Celt 82 CBC’s longest-run-

ning radio show: “The Happy ___” (1937-59) 83 Yukon town near

Pelly R. 84 Inflammation: suffix 85 Loch ___

86 Summer time in Metchosin 87 So long!

88 Had the lead Solutions on page 30

WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) I know, dear Lamb, that you don’t like anyone trying to take charge of one of your projects, but try to be a bit more flexible. A new idea could help hasten a positive result.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) I’m sure, like the time-thrifty Taurus that you are, that you’ve done much of your holiday shopping. But don’t relax yet. Wrap those gifts now to save yourself lots of unwanted pressure.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Be receptive when a family member or friend asks to confide in you. Your positive reaction could ensure that he or she will have a happy holiday experience.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)

Don’t be rushed into wrapping up that workplace problem. Consider leaving it until after the holidays. This way you’ll have the facts you need to reach the right resolution.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) You’ll get news that will make you glow brighter than the lights of the holiday season. Be sure to use what you learn both carefully and kindly in order to avoid giving the wrong impression.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) That frayed relationship could be mended in time for the holidays if you were more flexible. Give a little, and you could get back a lot more than you imagined.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) Things might not seem to be settling down as quickly as you

would prefer. But it might just be a little holiday time flutter. You’ll soon get news that will lead to more stability.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Stop getting so involved in everyone’s personal problems that you lose precious time with loved ones. Remember, even the Supreme Court closes for the holidays.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) All signs point to a bright holiday, with all of those pesky problems finally resolved in your favor.

Share the good times with people you love and, of course, who love you.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) Your plans should not be set in stone and cemented over. Leave some openings in case you need

to make changes. Spend the holidays with your nearest and dearest.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) Surprise! This holiday finds you on the receiving end of the generosity of those who are usually the recipients of so much that you give so freely and lovingly.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) That piece of good news assures that you’ll be swimming in clearer, calmer waters this holiday season. There might be a storm or two ahead, but you’ll weather it all in fine style.

YOU BORN THIS WEEK You have a flair for seeing things as you’d like them to be, as well as a gift for turning your perceptions into reality. (c) 2006 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each column of nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order.

There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tips and computer program available at www.sudoko.com SOLUTION ON PAGE 30

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 29

By Don Power For The Independent

C

hris Bartlett’s best year in the Avalon East Senior Hockey League — statistically speaking, at least — was his rookie year with Outer Cove.

That season, 1999-2000, Bartlett returned home from playing hockey on the mainland to surprise the entire league, and tear it apart. Thirty-one goals and 27 assists as a rookie is pretty good.

Part of the reason Bartlett enjoyed so much success is that nobody knew who he was, or at least, very few people. So he had room to skate.

A couple of times around the league, however, and everybody had their eyes on No. 2. In fact, people had more than their eyes on Bartlett.

There was a good chance that by the time the St. John’s native skated the 200-foot length of the ice, there were sticks and hands impeding his progress everywhere he turned.

Fast forward seven seasons, and Bartlett — now with the Conception Bay North Cee Bees — has three league championships and a Herder. He also has room to skate again, just like he did as a rookie.

“It’s been a big change for us as senior hockey players,” Bartlett tells The Independent.

The change Bartlett talks about is one being implemented by Hockey Canada and trickling down through all levels of hockey. Following the successful introduction at the National Hockey League level after its lockout, Hockey Canada — and therefore Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador — has told its officials to call games by a new standard.

“They’re not new rules,” Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador referee-inchief Don Kelly stresses. “It’s the old rules, with a new standard.”

Restraining fouls, like the little hooks and slashes that Bartlett played through his entire career, will now get you two minutes. Anything that slows a player’s progress will get you two minutes.

Hands or sticks in a “danger zone”?

You’re in the sin bin.

It’s all designed to eliminate clutching and grabbing from the game, and return hockey to the skaters.

“We’ve seen a big change in the play,” says Kelly, who held clinics at the start of the year to inform players, coaches and officials of the new standards being enforced.

“What we’re finding is for the most part, players have started to adapt to the new rules and you’re not seeing as many infractions.”

But it hasn’t been an easy road. In fact, it’s been a bumpy process.

At the start of the season, players and officials were still learning what did or did not constitute a penalty. That led to confusion and frustration during games, in which upwards of 40 or 50 infractions were whistled.

In October, the St. John’s Junior Hockey League played 32 games, and averaged 37 penalties a game. In

CeeBees’ Mitchell Oake (dark jersey) is not touched as he chases the puck during an Avalon East game Wednesday.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Sticking to it Players say changes a speed bump en route to faster hockey November, in 30 games, that number dropped to 26 penalties a game. A Nov. 30 game between St. John’s and Avalon saw just 11 penalties called, seven of them restraining fouls.

The Avalon East averaged 32 penalties a game starting out, but have cut nine penalties a game from that in two months.

The high number of penalties in early games led to long games, and some players — especially those on the third or fourth lines — received little ice time.

Bartlett says it was difficult, because there was no easing into it.

“It’s hard to get used to,” he admits.

“Change is change and hopefully we’ll get used to it.

“We (Cee Bees) have a pretty good hockey team and a lot of times only the

first two lines get an opportunity to be on the power play. Our third and fourth lines might only get three shifts a period and that’s hard, because when you get into a big game, you’re not getting a good flow and they’re not used to playing in these situations.

“That’s a big change and some guys do get frustrated because they’re used to playing a lot.”

Sometimes that frustration bubbles over. During a recent Avalon East game in Mount Pearl, Blades coach Greg (Bird Dog) Smyth approached Kelly with an alleged verbal assault that earned him a gross misconduct.

The problem is that the officials are being told between periods about calls they missed, so when teams return to the ice for the next period, the officiating

changes mid-game.

Kelly agrees there is still work to be done. Everybody, he notes, has to learn to adjust to the new standards. But he says the changes have been tough on his referees.

“You have to think more instead of reacting,” Kelly said. “Officials are so used to the rules, especially, they react; they don’t have to think about it. All of a sudden, they’re right back to where they began. They’ve got to blend old with the new.”

Kelly is confident that will happen, sooner rather than later.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more players learning the skills,” he notes.

“Kids are going to know that if they want to stay in the game, they’re going to have to develop their skills.”

Bartlett, who also coaches the Junior Celtics, agrees, and says that while the current road is bumpy, it will eventually become a nice paved highway.

“The game is a lot faster when it’s being played. The skill is coming back into the game,” Bartlett says. “You don’t have the big muckers and grinders starting to push and shove and hook and hold like it was years ago. The skill level is rising up. The speed is rising up. You’re seeing prettier goals and prettier passes.

And believe it or not, you’re seeing more open ice hits and a lot more battles along the boards.

“It’s a skilled game. I think the end result will be a better style of hockey for everyone involved.”

provincial opposition this season, running up a 21-1 record. The Western Kings, in second, have but 10 wins.

There is no competition for the Leafs in Newfoundland.

So the adage about great goaltending is proven correct. Well, it would be if not for the fact the Leafs hardly need a goalie. (Head coach Rick Babstock is shaking his head and swearing at me right now.)

In the case of the St. John’s Midget Maple Leafs, it wouldn’t matter if you took a peewee and placed him between the pipes at Goulds Arena. The Leafs would still romp to victory.

Case in point: last weekend, with Downer in Cape Breton and Mosher with the Q’s Prince Edward Island Rocket (the Leafs really have good goaltending, did I mention that?),

Andrew Caines allowed just two goals as St. John’s beat Western 5-1 and Central 11-1. Brandon Decker allowed four goals in an 8-4 win over Central.

This is not meant to disparage Caines or Decker. But when your team has eight of the top 10 point-getters in the league, just one loss in 22 games, 162 goals for and 34 against — not to mention the most penalty minutes by far — you have the best team.

There have been a few cries so far this season to break up the Leafs (mostly from people losing to the Leafs). And while I don’t agree with Travis Randell being allowed to leave his native Twillingate to play for St. John’s when Central has a team in the same league, you can’t have two major midget teams out of the capital

donniep@nl.rogers.com

Midget Leafs standing tall AAA hockey team head and shoulders above the opposition

I

f you were one of the announced 2,355 who attended Tuesday night’s St. John’s Fog Devils game, you may dispute this, but goaltending wins hockey games.

(Never mind the fact you may have been counted twice. There was no way almost 2,400 people watched that game Tuesday. They must have been counting eyes.)

Anyway, it has long been said that the guy with the big pads between the pipes is directly responsible for many of a hockey team’s victories.

That wasn’t necessarily the case Tuesday night.

Ilia Ejov was absolutely brutal in the Fog Devils net (and why he wasn’t benched is a total condemnation of backup Devin O’Brien). David Davenport in the Screaming Eagles net

DON POWER

Power Point was worse, at least during the 6:07 he punched before being mercifully pulled from goal and replaced by St. John’s native Kyle Downer.

Downer, on the other hand, was solid, sometimes outstanding in the loss, stopping 34 of the 38 shots he faced.

Downer is also used to winning, something he couldn’t manage Tuesday in his QMJHL debut. However, it is something he’s done quite frequently with his regular team — the St. John’s

midget Maple Leafs.

So far this year, Downer has won eight times in nine games and has a 1.67 goals against average. That sounds good, until you consider his goaltending partner, Evan Mosher, has won 10 times in 10 starts and has a GAA of 1.30. (These stats are from provincial play, and don’t include the Monctonian tournament, which the Leafs won.)

Assuming the theory that goaltending wins hockey games is correct, it’s probably safe to assume that either Downer or Mosher is the Leafs MVP. And perhaps one is.

But don’t count on it.

The St. John’s Maple Leafs are a provincial powerhouse. In fact, the team is probably a national powerhouse.

The Leafs have steamrolled over its

See “Getting,” page30

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

Book signing at Chapters on Kenmount Rd. Saturday, December 16, 2006 • 2-4pm

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Getting to the next level From page 29 city. There aren’t enough good players to be competitive.

Sure, it’ll make for better provincial hockey. But you won’t win squat on the national scene.

There’ll be no Monctonian championship. There’ll be no potential Atlantic championship. No trip to the Telus Cup. No potential national championship.

The St. John’s Maple Leafs have been successful for a very long time.

Success for this team, however, is not measured necessarily in wins and losses.

Ever since Babstock has been in charge, the entire mantra of the team — and of the league, to be truthful — is to get players to the next level.

Whether that’s major junior, Junior A, university or American college is

immaterial. It’s getting the kids to another level. Babstock’s teams have always had some things in common.

They don’t have a power play unit.

They don’t employ penalty killers.

There is no No. 1 goalie. Babstock rolls his four lines and six defencemen every game. The extra players are rotated in turn. (The Monctonian championship game top scorer Chad Earle and top defenceman Mitch Flynn were scheduled to sit … and did.)

Everybody plays, and everybody plays equally. Of course, if I were paying $10,000 a year for my son to play hockey, I’d want assurances he’s going to get on the ice. That doesn’t sit well with some folks, but it works.

You can’t argue with success.

And Rick Babstock knows success, with or without his regular goalies. donniep@nl.rogers.com

Paul Smith in action.

My old .22 PAUL SMITH

The Rock Roger Clemens throws against the Detroit Tigers in 1998

Greatest free agent deal ever Rocket won two Cy Youngs for less than Lilly money

By Dave Perkins Torstar wire service

W

hen a four-year contract for about $40 million isn’t enough to keep Ted Lilly or Gil Meche from going elsewhere to heed the lure of last-place teams, it makes you wish for the good old days.

Like, 10 years ago this week, believe it or not, when the Blue Jays signed Roger Clemens to a four-year contract for $31.1 million (U.S.).

Clemens certainly worked out for the Jays in one way, although not every way.

He became, without question, the greatest free agent signing in sports history, counting only individual production; he won consecutive pitching triple crowns (wins, ERA and strikeouts) and two Cy Young Awards in his two seasons in Toronto.

There is no better free agent record.

On the other hand, the team went nowhere and, amazingly enough, he didn’t draw even an extra 1,000 fans a game in the SkyDome when he pitched. Seeking jewellery, he bulled his way out of town to New York, where he would get two World Series rings.

“It was (former GM) Gord Ash’s idea,” ex-president Paul Beeston remembers.

“Gordy asked, ‘Do you think he’d come to Toronto?’ I didn’t know, so I Solutions for crossword on page 28

Outdoors

REUTERS/Shaun Best

called Randy Hendricks (Clemens’ agent in Houston). We’d always had a pretty good relationship with the Hendricks brothers (Randy and Alan), right back to the days of Rico Carty.

They had players like George Bell, Mike Timlin, Al Leiter. We had what you’d call a beneficial relationship.

“I called Randy and asked him the question and he said, ‘Why don’t you come down here and ask Roger yourself?’ I figured out what he was saying,” Beeston said.

“The light went on for me when I sat on his couch and he looked me in the eye and said he wasn’t going back to Boston. That’s when I knew we had a chance.”

It took another week and it took money, but that’s not all it took. The Indians, Orioles and Yankees were bidding, too.

The dealmaker was that the Blue Jays would allow him to take his sons out to play on the field on the afternoon of games, while Yankee Stadium was off limits for family fun.

The Jays, alas, didn’t live up to their contender billing and Clemens soon tired of being an also-ran.

He fled to the Yankees and you know the rest.

Hey, just a thought, but 10 years later there’s another hole in the starting rotation; maybe they can sign Clemens again today, for old time’s sake. It would make Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

I

went walking in the woods this morning toting my old .22 Rimfire, just in case a big white December rabbit crossed my path. Rabbit stew is a very good thing on a cold winter night.

My .22 rifle is one of my most prized possessions. Not that it’s an expensive or unique firearm, rather it’s quite an ordinary Cooey Model 600 repeater.

It’s the bolt-action type, with a tubular magazine that I’m sure anyone familiar with guns has at least seen, if not used.

What makes this shootin’ iron special to me is how I acquired it. I remember it like yesterday, maybe better.

I had been shooting a pellet gun for two years and had developed a keen eye and steady aim. We lived in a rented house in St. John’s that had an unfinished basement, and my father had set up an indoor pellet gun range for me.

Just about every night after supper we would plink away at paper targets and cans while Mom washed dishes and tidied house.

One night I declared that I could cut down a matchstick. Dad didn’t think so and promised me a .22 for passing Grade 5 if I could. I’d been secretly practising on matches when Dad was at work and Mom was out of the house. I nailed two matches with three shots. I think Dad suspected I was getting in some extra practice, but he said nothing and kept his promise.

That June, we went to Canadian Tire and walked out with a brand new .22 rifle. It had a running rabbit engraved into both sides of the pistol grip. I must have been the proudest boy in the world. The only condition was absolutely no unsupervised shooting until I was 16, old enough to legally hunt.

But hunting with my .22 would be a long while coming, at least in my home province. Newfoundland had banned the .22 Rimfire for hunting in 1963.

Moose were becoming prolific and the

Newfoundland was the only place in North America where a .22 rifle was prohibited for small game hunting. In 1998, then minister of Forest Resources and Agrifoods, Kevin Aylward, lifted the ridiculous 35-year ban.

Aylward pointed out that Newfoundlanders had come a long way since the ban. perception was that .22 rifles would be used for poaching. It seems to me that we Newfoundlanders tend to convict ourselves before any wrongdoing ever takes place.

Why do we think so lowly of ourselves and our neighbours? Why would we illegally and unethically shoot moose or caribou with a small-game rifle just to avoid losing the old .303 Enfield to the warden? Why would we be poaching in the first place? Are we always trying to get more than our share? Maybe somebody shot a moose with a .22 but even if they did, does that justify eradicating the right to carry a perfectly legitimate firearm for everyone else?

I wouldn’t be lamenting about this sort of thinking if it were a relic of the past. Just last week, a fellow Newfoundlander wrote a letter to the editor complaining that duck, rabbit, and upland bird seasons do not all open on the same day. The reasoning being that someone would buy a duck licence to shoot rabbits out of season (and so on).

You get the idea.

Coyotes spread over the entire province before Newfoundlanders were permitted to hunt them. Finally sense prevailed, and we have a 10month coyote season, but it didn’t come easy. There are many more examples, but I think I’ve made my point. We need to give each other some credit — we’re innocent till we do something wrong.

Newfoundland was the only place in North America where a .22 rifle was prohibited for small game hunting. In 1998, then minister of Forest Resources and Agrifoods, Kevin Aylward, lifted the ridiculous 35-year ban. Aylward pointed out that Newfoundlanders had come a long way since the ban.

Poaching had been reduced through better enforcement and public education, and a whopping 110,000 individuals had passed the province’s hunter education program — 20 per cent of the population. He added that using a rifle as opposed to a shotgun for small game would generally improve marksmanship and produce more capable big-game hunters. Good points all around, but I think we probably didn’t give ourselves enough credit in the first place.

After the announcement to lift the ban, open line shows reverberated with .22 talk. “There will be bullets flying everywhere,” “Not safe to go in the woods,” “Moose riddled with .22 bullets” … there we went again. No matter that people hunt with .22s everywhere else on the planet.

Anyway, I’ve been shooting the occasional rabbit or grouse with my prized .22 for eight years now and I’ve enjoyed every minute. Taking game with a precise shot is much more satisfying than plastering it with a scattergun. Better for eating as well. The woods are still safe and nobody’s been shot with a stray .22 bullet.

By the way, the .22 Rimfire is an amazing target and small-game round with a very long and intriguing history — I’ll get to that another week.

Paul Smith lives in Spaniard’s Bay, enjoying all the outdoors Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com

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DECEMBER 15, 2006

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

A Rock solid choice for future PM A candid Brad Gushue talks about curling fashion, his tap-dancing past, and his political aspirations

By Randy Starkman Torstar wire service

G

olden Gushue. Sounds like an item on a Chinese restaurant menu, but it’s the title for the new book written about Olympic curling champion Brad Gushue and his rink’s journey to the top of the podium at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The book (Nimbus Publishing, $17.95) is just one of many things that have kept Gushue hopping from stop to stop like the politician he may one day become. He also recently helped open a new company in St. John’s, ACME Financial Services (the name owes something to the old Roadrunner cartoons), dealing in mortgages, investments and insurance.

Gushue took time from his hectic schedule recently to talk with Unplugged about taking the Big Apple by storm, a premier idea, and bringing sex appeal to curling.

What’s your favourite story in the book?

My favourite part of the book is where people talk about where they were and how our win made them feel.

There’s a couple of pages in there from people all across Newfoundland and even different parts of Canada where they just talk about our win. All the other stories we had been a part of or we had told (author) Alex (J. Walling).

To read that, that was kind of a neat part of the book for me.

What’s sudden fame been like?

It’s been different. It’s been fun. I’ve got to experience a lot of things that I would never, ever experience. I’ve been enjoying it. But it is an adjustment. The fact that you go out to a movie and people know who you are and want to come up and introduce themselves. It is definitely an adjustment, but I wouldn’t trade it because some of the experiences I’ve had have been truly incredible.

What have been the most incredible so far?

I’ve gotten to take part in the Juno awards … to go down to New York City and experience that. I’d never been to New York. I’ve been able to travel all across Canada. I’ve hit every province I think a couple of times so far this year. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve been over to Switzerland. We’ve been able to do a lot of things we wouldn’t have gotten to do if we didn’t win the gold.

Did you get recognized in New York?

It was a funny story actually. After the first full day that we had in the city by ourselves, my wife and I decided to walk around and do some shopping. We were walking down Fifth Avenue, it was basically right across from Trump Tower, I heard someone scream my name. And I never, ever thought that would happen in New York City, but a gentleman and his two sons had been

Brad Gushue

down there from Toronto and noticed me and introduced themselves and got a picture taken. And I figured that would be it. But we walked two blocks further and the same thing happened. A man and his wife from Winnipeg had recognized me.

What future objectives have you got in and out of curling?

Curling related, we just want to become as good as we can be, become more consistent and hopefully win a few Canadian championships or a Canadian championship, I should say, and maybe get back to the Olympics.

On a personal standpoint, I just started a company with a couple of other guys and I’d love to see that become really successful, maybe down the road venture into politics or something like that.

I have some different things in mind.

I’d imagine you could win any election in Newfoundland right now. (little laugh) I think my chances will be pretty good right now, but it’s definitely not the time for me. I have other things in my life I would want to achieve before venturing into that. I see that as something that will be 10, 15, 20 years down the road.

Are you thinking prime minister?

Umm, I haven’t thought about it a whole lot, but if I did go into it I’d probably want to become premier. It’s something that I thought would be pret-

Paul Daly/The Independent

ty cool. I love Newfoundland and Labrador and I love being from Canada. Usually when I set a goal, I set it pretty big, so I guess if I was going to go into federal politics, I’d want to go all the way. And if I was to go into provincial politics, I’d want to go all the way, too.

If you could have any three people in history to dinner, who would they be?

Oh wow. Albert Einstein would be one. Wayne Gretzky would be another.

And I’m a big sports fan so I’d probably go with Tiger Woods for the third.

What’s the biggest extravagance in your life?

I really don’t have one, to tell you the truth. I’m not an extravagant guy by any means. If I can afford it, I’ll get it.

If I can’t, I won’t. If I was going to splurge on anything, it would probably be a television because I’m a bit of a movie buff.

What’s your favourite movie?

Gladiator and Shawshank Redemption are my two favourites.

Is there a movie you watch when you’re looking for a bit of inspiration?

There’s a couple actually. One that I found real good is Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. (Olympic) hockey team.

Rudy is another one, and obviously the Rocky movies are very motivational.

If you were a promoter, what would you do to boost curling’s popularity?

I would try and make the game a little sexier, I guess. Maybe change some of the clothing and just promote it that way. For some reason, we curlers seem to wear the most boring clothing you could ever imagine out on the ice. You see sports like tennis and some of the other sports that have at least fashionable clothing. But curlers don’t seem to go that route.

How far would you go with the clothing thing? Are we talking muscle shirts?

Well, they would have to have muscles. That’s the problem. As long as it’s functional, I don’t think there should be any limits.

What’s your favourite way to unwind?

Crawl into bed and flick on a movie.

Who would you cast in the lead role if a movie of the Brad Gushue Story was ever made? (laughs) Wow. Can I pick two? I would have to say Ben Affleck. But I think other people would say Keanu Reeves.

What’s the worst job you ever had?

Probably a paperboy. I got bitten by dogs.

When was the last time you cried?

At the Olympics, after the win, when I phoned home.

Greatest fear?

Becoming nothing.

Do curlers have groupies?

Yes. They range from young to old, to good looking to not good looking.

Who would we be surprised to learn is a really big curling fan?

Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo is a curling fan. Also, Stephen Harper is a big curling fan. After we won the Olympic gold, he called and said he watched us and actually met us back in 2004, and said he’s been following our progress.

Did you say, ‘I want your job one day?’ (laughs) No. But I did ask him how the new job was going.

Your most annoying habit?

Too many to list … I rub my feet a lot. I always have cold feet so I’m just trying to warm them up. My wife and my family absolutely hate it.

Any superstitions?

I guess the only superstition is trying not to be superstitious. I used to be superstitious to the point of wearing the same clothes to a game. I tried to get away from that because it’s no fun.

What’s something you’d be embarrassed to let people know about you?

Our class did tap dancing in Grade 4.

I actually did tap dancing in the school concert.

INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIED FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 32

F E AT U R E D H O M E 2 B L U E B E L L B E N D , S T. P H I L I P ' S

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