2007-04-27

VOL. 5 ISSUE 17

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007

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BUSINESS 13

LIFE 17

Province fights for stronger Canadian Navy presence

Crosbie roasted and toasted in Easter Seals fundraiser

BUDGET SHOES

‘Freaked out’ Alleged murderer in Worthman/Lockyer case charges conflict of interest; police misconduct BRIAN CALLAHAN

J

oe Oliver alleges police misconduct and a serious conflict of interest within legal aid in documents filed in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Three-and-a-half months after he was arrested in the murders of Dale Worthman and Kim Lockyer, Oliver still sits in jail — practically penniless and, now, lawyerless.

But the latter he blames on legal aid and a conflict of interest that he says could have been avoided, according to court documents obtained by The Independent.

Oliver claims he was “freaked out” by a call he received from a senior lawyer who has or did represent two people he’s been ordered to stay away from — namely Shannon Murrin and Shelly Stokes.

That lawyer, Bill Collins, also happens to be chairman of the Legal Aid

Joe Oliver

Commission’s appeal board.

Oliver applied for a legal aid lawyer because he couldn’t afford one in private practice. He was appointed a lawyer from Gander, but appealed that decision on several grounds and was turned down. He wants the Supreme Court to overturn that decision and allow him to have a private lawyer paid for by the province.

“This case is difficult and has been ongoing for 13-plus years, which means a lot of material and See “Abused ,” page 4

‘Flying blind’ Groundfish quotas depleted; scientist says more research needed JOHN RIETI

T

he total allowable catch for this year’s groundfish fishery for species such as cod and flounder is 143,800 tonnes, a far cry from the estimated 2-million tonnes landed in 1972, according to statistics provided to The Independent by Gus Etchegary, former head of Fisheries Products.

Etchegary’s statistics include not just fish landed by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, but foreign fleets outside of

the 200-mile limit as well. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) could not verify the statistics when contacted by The Independent.

Etchegary says rebuilding and restoring the fish stocks is essential to the future viability of the fishing industry and this big issue is receiving little attention.

Fred Woodman, who runs three fish processing plants in Trinity Bay, hadn’t even looked at the quotas DFO released earlier this week for the waters off the south coast, until a day after their release.

“I’ve gotten in trouble too many times See “A dying,”page 2

Premier’s campaign against Harper a distraction, opposition claims IVAN MORGAN

P

Finance Minister Tom Marshall shows off his new shoes the night before the Tories unveiled their 2007 budget. During the pre-budget lockdown, Marshall admitted to journalists he was mystified as to the origins of the tradition.

Paul Daly/The Independent

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Support Easter Seals, club harp seals.”

— Rick Mercer at the Feast of Crosbie in St. John’s, April 24. See pages 8-9.

IN CAMERA 8-9

Elvis tribute artist Albert Murphy performs in Town

STYLE 21

remier Danny Williams faces allegations that his fight with Stephen Harper over equalization is deflecting attention away from local issues such as the political spending scandal, the controversial fibre-optic deal, and weaknesses in his administration.

“I think the reason the premier wants to pick a fight with an outside force is to cover up his own inadequacies or inabilities to deal with the economy of this province,” Liberal opposition leader Gerry Reid tells The Independent.

Reid says the premier is resorting to “the oldest political trick in the book” —

Spring footware has a standout winner this season

attacking Ottawa to curry favour with the local electorate.

“It’s always been the case. And it works. It works. Everyone who has picked a fight with Ottawa has come out higher in the polls,” he says.

“The caveat is that Harper did make a commitment and he broke it.”

NDP leader Lorraine Michael says she doesn’t think the premier’s motivation is to deflect from other issues. She agrees with the premier that the prime minister lied, and says the premier had to speak out against him.

Michael quotes this week’s Speech from the Throne, saying the province has to “deal with the reality.

“He’s made the point, he’s made the See “Making us,” page 2

Scrunchins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ray Guy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Let their memory live on with the only monuments crafted from Newfoundland granite.

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2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

APRIL 27, 2007

Sexy Rexy rocks the House Randy Simms says more artistic types should run for elected office

I

was listening to an interesting radio program last week, on a taxpayerfunded network that shall remain nameless, about the lack of actors and singers engaged in the political process.

Frankly, I had never thought of it before, but the report made a good point. For some reason our famous performers rarely ever run for public office. We need to change that.

Our American cousins seem to elect people from the stage and screen on a regular basis, whereas here in Canada we rarely take a chance on our performers. When we do get the opportunity to vote for someone of fame we usually opt for the less famous and, some would say, less talented.

There are lots of examples. In the United States, citizens elected a B-movie actor as president. Ronald Reagan took the oath of office for his famous role with a chimp and one famous movie line. I guess people really did want to help him “win one for the Gipper.” The late Sonny Bono, famous as sidekick to singer Cher, won himself a Senate seat.

RANDY SIMMS

Page 2 talk Apparently singing a hit song can generate votes. I got you babe takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to the ballot box. Even Clint Eastwood, or Dirty Harry as we know him, got elected as the mayor of Carmel, California.

I know you think I’m missing the most obvious one. You’re thinking of the Terminator and his electoral success. We cannot move on without mentioning the Governor of California. Arnold Schwarzenegger took the top job in the state thanks to his strong political base among science-fiction fans. “I’ll be back.” He could never win a seat in Newfoundland and Labrador, but in lotus land … well, anything is possible.

Anyway, the whole thing got me thinking. I believe we need to put some actors, singers and artistic types in the

House of Assembly. The place lacks pizzazz and the way to improve it is to put people with pizzazz in the House.

Here are some of my choices for your consideration.

Mary Walsh would make one interesting politician. She proved herself worthy when she referred to Peter Mackay as an “arse licker of Satan,” with Mackay sitting in the audience. Granted the line comes from the film Young Triffie, but it seemed to really work in a more formal setting. Could you imagine her performance during question period? God, what theatre.

In the movie Young Triffie the line is said by none other then Andy Jones.

Now that’s a guy who would really improve politics in our province. His press releases would be written to sound like his Letters From Uncle Val CD. News editors would appreciate his writing much better then the spin they get these days from the communications experts. His one-man shows always sell out and we need a few more one-man shows around here, don’t you think?

Listen to me Andy — politics could be your true calling.

Back a few years ago Pete Soucey did try to win a seat in the House. You know Pete Soucey … he’s Snook b’y. I think he would make a great minister of something and his news conferences would really draw attention. Dougie could be his chief of staff.

Of course the king of performers in the House would be none other than Rick Mercer. His rants would take on a whole new character. He could be premier and when he wants to address the province he could do it in three-minute bits while briskly walking along the waterfront in St. John’s. Beats the hell out of that one-ton challenge thing and his reports to the province would be short enough to fit into a commercial break. No interruption of regular programming.

Rick proved himself an ideal candidate for public office when he went to Afghanistan to entertain the troops and took on Noreen Golfman for questioning our role in that forlorn sand box. Ms.

Golfman and Mr. Mercer got into a little spitting contest over that one. Seeing these two go at it in the House of Assembly would be a ratings winner.

Well to round it out we need a writer or two. Ray Guy is a little too old to put up with nonsense anymore so he won’t run, but maybe someone like Ed Smith would consider it. His View From Here could be renamed to What the hell are we doing here? Is Greg Sharpe too young for a political job? Rex Goudie may soon be looking for something new.

I like Kelvin Parsons and Gerry Reid, but the House could use a good rocker like Sexy Rexy.

Think about it.

What party would any of these guys run for? Is Walsh a New Democrat or what? Is Mercer a Tory? When I start thinking this way I know a rest is in order. I’m going on vacation. See you next week.

Hearn and Fabian (Manning) off the hook would be … wrong.”

The premier says his party’s polling numbers have been consistently high in the polls and remain so today.

“We didn’t need any gimmicks, nor will we use any gimmicks to try and retain our popularity.”

He said Reid’s response to the throne speech reflects the attitude that “got us where we were” before the Tories took power — a “negative, pessimistic, cynical, defeatist attitude.”

Reid says the days of bad deals like the upper Churchill are behind them, and it is

time to stop confrontational politics and start negotiating deals with the federal government, oil companies and others who can help develop the province’s economy.

“We are educated enough to sit at a table and make a deal,” says Reid. “We have the intelligence and the intellect and the ability to strike a deal that’s beneficial to everybody.”

Reid says Williams attacks everyone who has an opinion other than his own.

“He threatens to sue me every second day in the House of Assembly,” he says. “If I say ‘You should talk to people’ then I am in bed with big oil, or I’m in bed with Stephen Harper.

“My God, b’y, what kind of person does he think I am if I am sleeping with all these characters?” he laughs.

In a statement e-mailed to The Independent, federal Fisheries minister Loyola Hearn says he is still hoping to work together with Williams.

“Perhaps the only thing less productive than actually having a conflict is spending time speculating on what political motivations might be driving someone to behave a certain way. I stand by my comments from last Friday’s event at the board of trade, and have nothing further to add at this time.”

Randy Simms is host of VOCM’s Open Line radio show. rsimms@nf.sympatico.ca

‘Making us look like choirboys’ From page 1 point well, and I think he should have made the point,” says Michael. “But now we have to move on.”

Reid notes that the Williams administration’s first throne speech in 2004 cited improving federal-provincial relations as a goal.

He says that sounds funny now.

“He’s making us look like choirboys, when it comes to confrontation,” says Reid. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a premier who’s been more confrontational than the one we have today.”

Williams is unapologetic.

“I certainly hope so,” says Williams. “If governments in Ottawa, whatever party they are — and I’ve proved this is not a partisan exercise —, if they’re going to turn around and shaft Newfoundland and Labrador and break commitments that have significant economic consequences for us, then I’m going to take them on.”

Williams says insinuations he is using the equalization flap for political advantage are insulting, saying it is his style that “got the $2 billion cheque” from Paul Martin’s Liberals. He says $11 billion is at stake in this struggle, enough money to pay

off the provincial debt.

“That’s how big this issue is. You can’t underestimate it. For him (Reid) to say it’s just … it’s politics?

“I’ll never give up on that fight. I’ll drop or I’ll be gone before I’ll give up on that,” says the premier. “You can’t let these people off the hook just because they decide, in their own wisdom and fat on their chairs in Ottawa that, no, we’re not going to do this for Newfoundland and Labrador, and we’re going to continue to make them the second class citizens and the backwater of this country.”

“To let Harper and company, Loyola

‘A dying industry’ From page 1 just thinking about how that quota this year is going to impact me,” he says.

Woodman adds he’s more concerned about the accuracy of the quotas. “We learned a long time ago that if you’re penny-wise and pound-foolish and you don’t follow conservation now than you’ll pay a heavier price later.”

DFO officials say the south coast groundfish quota of 23,300 tonnes is sustainable and is the primary measure in place to restore fish stocks.

But, George Rose, Memorial University’s cod fishery expert, says government cuts have left scientists “flying blind.”

Rose says university scientists were unable to complete a survey on fish stocks last year because they couldn’t get a boat.

Without this information they cannot create a formal assessment of this year’s stock. Rose considers the status of the resource to be “quite uncertain.

“At the university here we’re doing less and less all the time,” he says. “The lack of funding is also costing the province its top scientists who are moving away in search of jobs.”

Rose says DFO’s scientists are doing well to produce a yearly stock report, but more research needs to be conducted. “We don’t really understand the problems, that’s the difficulty. You can’t recommend solutions if you don’t understand the problem.”

Along with its dock monitoring system, DFO has set limits on the amount of gear, like gill nets, fishermen can use. Young fish are also being protected by a small fish protocol that allows DFO to close the fishery if more than 15 per cent of catches are too small.

This year’s offshore groundfish fishery will not begin until June 30, and the inshore fishery won’t open until mid-May, protecting cod during their spawning season.

DFO has also begun a tag-and-release program to track the cod stocks migration and growth.

But for all the talk about growth, Woodman remains skeptical.

“The industry itself is a dying industry.

It is, whether anyone wants to admit it or not,” he says. john.rieti@theindependent.ca

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

SCRUNCHINS A weekly Newfoundlandia

collection

YOURTOWN

of

Two local homeboys are going head-to-head these days on the international stage as the Detroit Red Wings take on the San Jose Sharks in the NHL playoffs. It’s Ryane Clowe of Fermeuse against Danny Cleary of Riverhead, Harbour Grace in the second round matchup. It’s always a treat to read how U.S. media write about little ol’ Newfoundland, their knowledge of which probably begins and ends with the Titanic’s resting place.

Think Rick Mercer and Talking to Americans: persuading them to congratulate Canada on legalizing VCRs or adopting a 24-hour day, congratulating the Canadian government on building a dome over its “national igloo,” asking students and professors at Columbia University to sign a petition persuading Canadians to discontinue the practice of abandoning the elderly on ice flowes, or congratulating Canadians on classifying Labrador Retrievers as elephants, to prevent them from being used for hard labour. In a story published earlier this year in the San Jose Mercury News, Newfoundland was described as “an independent state from 1907 until 1949, when it joined Canada as a province. “Because of its status as a relative newcomer to the nation,” the story read, “Newfoundland has been the butt of Canadian jokes in a way that is roughly equivalent to Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck humour.” As for how that goes — you know if you’re a redneck if you’ve … been married three times and still have the same inlaws; you think a stock tip is advice on worming your hogs; or your house still has the “wide load” sign on the back …

HISSY FITS Jonathan Kay of the National Post wrote a piece this week headlined Maîtres chez Newf, a play on the Masters of Our Own House Throne Speech. Kay wrote that if Newfoundland and Labrador could export Danny Williams’ “melodramatic rhetorics, the province would be Canada’s richest, instead of its poorest. Kay said that Canadians are more “bemused than impressed” by the antics of our Danny, “best known for his endless tantrums directed at Ottawa, and his juvenile decision to lower the Canadian flag during a 2004 spat with Paul Martin’s Liberals about — what else? — the size of the handouts Newfoundland was getting from the rest of Canada.”

Get a load of these fighting words: “If Mr. Williams is so keen on becoming master of his house, why does he spend most of his time playing the surly teenager, endlessly haranguing his parents over the size of his allowance? A ‘proud nationalist’ would be embarrassed by the fact that his province survives only because it receives transfers from Ottawa of $1.67 billion — or $3,296 per person.

He wouldn’t be throwing hissy fits, demanding more.”

Hold on, there’s more …

“Mr. Williams — and the voters who support him — have got to decide what their political shtick is.

Either they’re rugged individualists, proud of their identity and selfreliance. Or they’re professional welfare cases, endlessly harassing the rest of us for more handouts. You can’t have it both ways.” Actually, Danny’s way would be just fine …

RALLYING CRY Spearheaded by the likes of Jon Drover and Ward Pike, two of the founders of The Sunday Independent (the paper that evolved into what you’re reading today), a rally is being organized in support — and I have to be careful here — not so much of Danny himself, but of the province’s anti-Stephen Harper position re. the Atlantic Accord and equalization.

Peter Whittle, former chief of staff to

Ed Roberts at Government House.

Liberal leaders Roger Grimes and Gerry Reid, is also behind the event, which, he says, will cross partisan lines. Whittle points to a recent editorial cartoon in The Globe and Mail that had Danny arguing with the Easter Bunny about the fair distribution of eggs in Newfoundland. He says Canadians have to be shown that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians stand as one in terms of the premier’s position. “We’re finally getting ahead and Ottawa wants to slap us up the side of the head.” A date and time has yet to be set for the rally, to be held in front of Confederation Building. The leaders of each of the three main political parties will be asked to speak, as well as “prominent” labour and community leaders. Aren’t there any fresh voices out there?

TAG, YOU’RE IT Celeste Mercer of St. John’s was one of the lucky $100,000 TAG prize winners in March.

Celeste attends university and works part-time at a local Dominion Store. She purchased her ticket at a store on Blackmarsh Road in Town.

Asked to describe her winning experience, Mercer had this to say, “It’s cool.” Damn right …

FEAST OR FAMINE Jokes from this week’s Feast of Crosbie: What do you call a Newfoundlander in Toronto?

Answer: Sir. What do you call a Newfoundlander in the Canadian Forces?

Answer: General, sir.

tucked inside sheltered coves where gritty fishing boats bob. Salt-encrusted fishermen, with chipped teeth and missing digits, mend nets together and talk to me about the weather, changing times and whether the cod will ever come back. These are resilient men, who take nothing for granted and are surprisingly goodnatured, given that fishing is one of North America’s most dangerous occupations.” Sounds about right …

MOXY MOXON This week’s Speech from the Throne was the fifth and likely final one for Lieutenant-governor Edward Moxon Roberts, whose term wraps up in November, raising the question of his replacement. Will a woman be appointed as the Queen’s 12th representative in Newfoundland and Labrador? As for candidates, feel free to write in with your suggestions and I’ll publish those fit to print. I’ll leave it to Ed to wrap up this week’s column: “There are many ways to serve our country and our province, but there is no finer way than to be a member of this House. Do so with pride, and be forever grateful that you have been given the opportunity to do so.”

St. John’s photographer Chris Crockwell shot these night scenes of The Narrows in St. John’s “to show the balance of our rugged landscape mixed with our beautiful city.”

ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

TRIP OFF THE OLD ROCK Ever wonder where Scrunchins come from? In some cases they’re sent from Newfoundlanders around the world, including one who wrote me this week from an Internet café in Swaziland, Africa, to tell me he was missing home after reading an article about Newfoundland in the Washington Post. The story, headlined A trip off the Old Rock, was about the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve and the drive down the Southern Shore.

“These picturesque villages are

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

APRIL 27, 2007

‘Oh my God factor’ One toppled Daniel’s Harbour bungalow; countless global newsreels

By Mandy Cook The Independent

I

f you were sitting in front of a television or computer screen on Thursday, April 19, in all likelihood you caught the footage of a little white house tipping off the Great Northern Peninsula into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The tape — as those in the television biz call it — was beamed all around the world including on the BBC, Britain’s public service broadcaster, the American network giant CNN and television stations Local 6 in Florida and WTKR in Virginia. Media types jump at the kind of images that were filed out of the tiny west coast town of Daniel’s Harbour, population 350, last week.

“It’s an ‘Oh my God’ factor,” says Susan Newhook, television instructor at the university of King’s College in Halifax. “Some of those really strong pictures make you think, ‘God, what if that was me? What if that was mine?’”

It is the second time in six months

landslides occurred in the area, about 200 kilometres north of Corner Brook.

The first slide prompted evacuations of four homes and a convenience store, but the second event took a home, several sheds and 120,000 cubic metres of soil down over the eroding cliff. No one has been reported injured.

Paul Dean, a geologist and the executive director of the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s, says coastlines are areas of active erosion, whether the land is made up of rock, soil or clay. He says there is a clay-rich area under Daniel’s Harbour, deposited there in glacial times, which is vulnerable to instability. Possible triggers of a landslide are general instability, excessive water in the clay or even gravity.

Dean says he isn’t surprised by the soil giving way.

“I think this is a normal event on the coast of western Newfoundland and they’re the kinds of events that happen perhaps infrequently, but they’re the kind of events you can expect to happen every 20 to 100 years.”

Daniel’s Harbour landslide.

Dean says the difference between the infrequent landslides and the recent event is it occurred where people happened to settle a community. He says there would

Curtesy of CBC Television

be “scars” on the landscape up and down the coast near Daniel’s Harbour indicating previous landslides over thousands of years, but that’s not the case for the entire

Northern Peninsula.

“You wouldn’t have those same conditions at Port au Choix, for example, or at Cow Head, but you may have similar conditions somewhere along the coastline, say between Daniel’s Harbour and Rocky Harbour, but you have very few people living along that piece of the coastline, so you wouldn’t really draw that much attention to it,” Dean says.

Newhook makes the same point. She likens the television clip of the Daniel’s Harbour house sliding down the cliff to the more common images of a train going off the tracks. It boils down to which pictures are available to fill a slot in the newscast.

“If nobody had shot the house going over the side it probably wouldn’t have gotten as much coverage as it did, even if (the camera person) got it afterwards,” she says. “The other interesting part is you get to hear the BBC try to pronounce Newfoundland. The guy mangled it — it ended up being a (mumble).”

Missing in action?

A review of the compensation package for MHAs — which Chief Justice Derek Green was asked to conduct “as expeditiously as possible” in July 2006 — is not complete, although it was hoped to be finished last fall.

Further, the man writing the report is not returning media calls.

The Independent attempted to contact Green through a number of routes, all of which were unsuccessful. A Department of Justice spokesper-

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Joe Oliver.

son says Green is being given “the time he needs” and his report will be ready “within the next few weeks.”

Green has been asked to look into all aspects of MHA compensation and recommend policies and practices that will safeguard against financial abuse in all aspects of political compensation and the financial practices of the House of Assembly.

— Ivan Morgan

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Abused and manipulated’ From page 1

Stokes.

Two days after Oliver’s arrest on Jan. 12, Murrin disclosure,” Oliver, assisted pro bono by his former claimed Oliver was trying to finger him for the lawyer Bob Buckingham, states in a letter to the crime. Meanwhile, Stokes, a local psychic, told legal aid appeal board. media she played a key role in leading the police to “I have a Grade 4 education and can barely read the bodies off Thorburn Road. and write, so it is important all my material be close Neither claim has been substantiated and no other with a lawyer that can meet me at any time to dis- arrests have been made. cuss the file. Therefore I should But the fact Collins reprehave a St. John’s-based lawyer. sented or advised Stokes and “The charges are serious and I Murrin at all is enough to crecould go to jail for life. I need a ate “a reasonable apprehenlawyer with a lot of courtroom “I have over 35 years sion of bias” in the appeal experience in serious criminal process, Oliver’s application of legal experience trials and with jury experience. states.

“I do not think the lead lawyer and I believe I would CONFLICT DENIED assigned to me has enough criminal courtroom or jury experiCollins, meanwhile, denies know if my actions ence to represent me on these any conflict in the matter. In a were inappropriate. charges.” letter to Oliver addressing the Oliver, who has a commonmatter, the renowned defence And I can assure law wife of 20 years, an 18-yearlawyer notes he last representold son and 16-year-old daughed Murrin 20 years ago in an you they were not.” ter, argued that any lawyer outunrelated matter, and “the side St. John’s would be too far other person consulted me.”

Lawyer Bill Collins away to properly communicate Contacted this week, with him and prepare for what Collins reiterated his position. would likely be one of the most “I have over 35 years of sensational and high-profile trilegal experience and I believe als in recent Newfoundland history.

I would know if my actions were inappropriate,” “With respect, the lead lawyer assigned to my Collins tells The Independent. “And I can assure case has mostly practiced in the area of landlord and you they were not.” tenants,” he states.

Meantime, Oliver has yet to apply for bail, since Oliver also claims his rights have been “abused he does not have a full-time lawyer to make his case and manipulated’ by the police, but he does not for release pending trial. elaborate.

His application against legal aid was called in Supreme Court April 26, but has yet to be resolved.

LAWYER NEEDED Oliver, 37, has been charged with two counts of sec“Therefore, I need a lawyer who I have confi- ond-degree murder in the August 1993 executiondence in and who will protect me from future style shootings of Worthman and Lockyer. improper police actions. I think this file will require But police have always believed the killings were nearly full-time work by my lead lawyer and from planned or premeditated, which is a prerequisite for what I hear, legal aid lawyers have too many other first-degree murder charges. cases to give mine the time it requires.”

A police spokesman said this week there is nothOliver filed the application with Supreme Court ing else new to report in the case. alleging conflict of interest and bias after his appeal A day after Oliver’s arrest, RNC Const. Paul for a St. John’s lawyer, or private lawyer paid by the Davis told media there was another suspect. province was rejected, “Yes, that is still the case,” he said this week.

The application states Collins should never have “But I cannot tell you anything else, other than the heard the appeal in the first place because “he had a fact the investigation is still ongoing.” professional relationship with two of the people involved” in the double murder case —Murrin and bmcallahan@hotmail.com

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

‘Within our means’ Tory government’s fourth budget has something for everyone

By Ivan Morgan The Independent Finance Minister Tom Marshall says taxpayers will get a “raise” in real income of one to two per cent as the Williams administration moves the province’s personal income rates from the highest in Atlantic Canada to the lowest.

The 2007 budget — Williams’ fourth — boasts the province’s first back-toback surplus, eliminates many government fees and reduces others, exempts more low-income earners from paying taxes, raises the minimum wage, improves benefits for seniors, reduces post-secondary student-debt loads, provides more money for education and promotes small business in the province.

Marshall says he wants to put money back in the pockets of taxpayers.

Revenues were down more than $170 million in 2006, primarily because of the unexpected Terra Nova shutdown, but government was able to offer the new perks, says Marshall, because of increased oil and gas revenues ($1 billion up from $400 million), a doubling of mineral royalties to $200 million, and a reduction of the provincial debt, resulting in a cut in the cost of debt servicing.

In addition, mid-year concerns regarding revenue flow prompted cutbacks on spending, resulting in a 2006 surplus of $76 million. Marshall predicts a surplus of more than $261 million for the coming fiscal year.

Marshall says the budget addresses the problem of out-migration by setting up a competitive tax structure to attract skilled workers to the province, and encourage others to stay.

He says the perception of high provincial taxes in other parts of the country inhibits economic growth in the province.

Marshall says with no tax increases, significant cuts and reductions, and increased spending, some may view this budget as a pre-election political budget. He says it is designed to promote the economy.

Marshall says the budget reflects the Tory administration’s goal of “putting their fiscal house in order” to allow the government to diversify the economy, while reducing the debt load and providing social programs. This must be done, he says, as the non-renewable resources fuelling this budget will not last forever.

“After 55 years we are finally addressing our debt … we are living within our means.”

The minister provides a reality

Finance Minister Tom Marshall announces his budget in the House of Assembly.

Paul Daly/The Independent

check, reminding taxpayers that the province still labours under huge provincial debt — $11.7 billion after this year’s $2 billion pay-down, and $1.6 billion in equalization from the federal government.

The education system will receive over $1 billion — the highest in the province’s history. Education Minister Joan Burke says with this budget she

Déjà vu I

n this business, waiting is what you do lots of. Waiting for Smallwood to stop talking. Waiting for Moores to get out of bed. Waiting for Peckford to go right around the twist. Waiting for Tobin to get the most for Tobin.

And still we wait. Today we wait on Williams. We wait for Williams to snatch the crown from the archbishop and place it on his own head … a la Napoleon.

Though but a rookie journalist on that occasion, I still remember it well.

Napoleon Bonaparte was about to be crowned emperor of France at Notre Dame cathedral. The poor old arch bish raised the crown high, when suddenly little Nappy snatched it from his hands and placed it on his own head.

I remember remarking to my colleague from the now defunct St. John’s Daily News: “Wow. That Gaul has sure got gall!”

He chortled at my japery, as was his wont.

Right now, on a slightly smaller scale, we wait for a crown for Danny.

By far, the greater part of the population (polls show) demand his elevation to the throne. A word against Williams is a treacherous slur on our own native isle, Newfoundland. True believers, their eyes flashing fire, stand ready to rip Danny’s detractors limb from limb.

You might as well cast aspersions on Christ their Lord at a convention of holy rollers. Bite your thumb at the Pope in a congregation of nuns. Call W. Churchill a fat drunk in the west London of 1942.

By a combination of circumstances and his own machinations, Dan the Man has been lifted high. Little children roam the street shaking collection boxes — all proceeds toward a crown for Danny.

Loyal heartbeats slowed while he was south on holidays and resumed at triple beat when he returned and spat righteous fire.

A regular coincidence works to Williams’ advantage. “There is a tide in the affairs of men...” In our own case, it’s a regular and reoccurring chatter about “independence,” which rolls around every eight or ten years … ever since I can remember, anyhow.

RAY GUY

A Poke In The Eye The two main elements are (1) Canada done us wrong and (2) Look at Ireland ...

Iceland ... Norway ... Quebec ... even at a greater stretch, perhaps, Taiwan. You get your stirrings in the bars, your natter in the university coffee shops, your infill on the radio open lines. If the premier of the time sees an advantage he’ll chuck some anti-Ottawa gas on the sparks a la Smallwood or Peckford or Williams.

It’s usually great fun while it lasts and gets us through another dreary March.

The work-to-rule local press appreciates having their job done for them. But if the pattern of the past is anything to go by it all blows over until the next time.

This is a next time. Oh what we poor serfs have suffered under the cruel knouts of the Canadian kulaks. Where is our champion, who will save us from this cruel fate, who shall ride at the head of a risen coast, who will lead us from the front in the sacred pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? No, no, Billy, not the Incredible Hulk ... Mr.

Danny Williams!

To those newly come to Newfoundland politics this is all something fresh and interesting. To those who’ve seen it many times before, what a crucifying bore. But maybe that’s the way of the world, round and round in the circle game.

Maybe it’s not seemly for those of us of riper years to spoil the novelty of the game for the youngsters. I’m just saying, that’s all. Perhaps Newfoundland is too poor for democracy and what we really need is the Strong Man. Let Dan the Man crown himself at the Basilica but to avoid any unpleasantness whatsoever, let’s hope he keeps the Opposition on at full pay but in an even more useless capacity.

Is everybody happy? I foresee the open line radio shows closing down, their main clientele speechless with joy.

I see the newspapers each and every day with a fine set of Teddy Roosevelt teeth on the front page. I see the TV screens given over to pomp and public ceremony ... until Waterloo.

Far as I can see, grumpy old fart that I am, there’s only one possible bright spot.

A head that size would need a crown that big that there’s not enough gold in the entire Kingdom of Dan.

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hopes to eliminate the stigma of poverty from the education system. She says free textbooks for core K-12 courses for the 2007-2008 academic year is a big step in that direction.

Other budget highlights: • A one per cent reduction in Retail Sales Tax for private vehicle sales.

• No reduction in motor registration, but a 10 per cent discount for register-

ing online.

• Progressive increase in the minimum wage to “allow low wage earners in the province to catch up with Atlantic Canada.”

• Newfoundland and Labrador Child Tax Benefit up $5 a month.

• Fees eliminated from provincial parks such as Cape St. Mary’s and Salmonier Nature Park.

• $440 million for infrastructure.

• $91 million to address poverty reduction.

• $32 million to attract business to the province.

• $29 million for research and development in natural resources and knowledge-based industry.

• Funding for two new ferries.

• Over $19 million for water bomber fleet.

• $500,000 to begin planning for a new prison.

• $575,000 to address problem gambling.

• $585,000 for women vulnerable to poverty.

• $5.2 million to retain 137 teaching positions.

• Two new university student residences, one in Corner Brook and one in St. John’s. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

APRIL 27, 2007

Vive les b’ys E

ver since Danny removed the Maple Leaf from provincial government buildings in December 2004, the country has been waiting for his “or else.”

So Ottawa won’t give in and say Uncle Dan. So the Government of Canada won’t relent. What’s Danny Williams going to do about it?

The wait is over, the “or else” has been revealed; there are new masters on the bloc — and it is us. Not the Government of Canada, not the federal Conservative party, likely the country’s next majority government, not Loyola Hearn and his Efford ilk who choose to kowtow to mainland masters. (It’s not Danny alone either, but I’ll come to that.) We will “chart our own course” — either within the Canadian federation, or without.

Danny doesn’t say that in so many words; he’s not so direct in his speech.

The message is still clear: “We as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians aspire, not to perpetual subservience, but to self-sufficiency.”

So, read this week’s Speech from the Throne, Danny’s roadmap to get us where we’re going. To the Land of Have, where have-not will finally be no more, the sun shines every second of every day, without a shred of fog or cloud to stain it,

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander and every mother’s son lives just over the road with his wife and outport brood.

The message had a distinct French flavour to it, stirring a Vive les b’ys attitude in the Newfoundlanders it was aimed at. The speech was peppered with patriotism: “distinct people;” “proud nationalists;” “affirming our identity;” “self-reliance;” and “moral and financial autonomy.”

The telltale phrase was in the headline of Ed Roberts’ nine-page barnburner: Achieving Self-Reliance by Becoming Masters of Our Own House.

Masters of our own house — or Maîtres chez nous — just happened to be the mantra of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, characterized by the rise of nationalism among Francophone Quebecers and the nationalization of electricity production and distribution.

Quebec essentially nationalized U.S. privately–held hydro companies, which paid virtually no rent to the province.

Here at home, we, you and me, own

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, a provincial Crown corporation. Hydro makes electricity, 92 per cent of which is sold to Newfoundland Power, a private company that distributes the power and sells it back to us at a generous rate set by the Public Utilities Board.

What should we read into the Masters headline?

Does Danny intend to model his soonto-be released energy plan after Quebec by nationalizing Newfoundland Power?

It would be curious to see what the Globe and various Quebec newspapers would have to say about that particular chess move.

How about nationalizing an oil project or two on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland? Could that be in Danny’s cards?

The question remains, how exactly are we to become self-sufficient? Ottawa could finally roll over and relinquish control of the fisheries and offshore oil fields, but there’s more of a chance of Loyola Hearn walking up to Danny and giving him a big wet one on his sunkissed cheek.

The only way for this place to move forward is with the ultimate threat of doing for ourselves. The self-sufficiency strategy certainly worked for Quebec.

Did La Belle Province have to leave

Canada to get what it wanted?

No, her people were crowned a nation within a nation just a few months ago. Is it so foolish for Newfoundland and Labrador to think that way? Mike Duffy and national media types like him would say yes.

Confrontation isn’t the way to “win the game,” the CTV newsman told a crowd gathered in St. John’s this week for the Crosbie feast. (For Duffy it was more a feast on the white meat of Sheilagh Guy-Murphy’s heaving chest, but that’s another story on page 17.)

John Crosbie said the same himself when he took to the stage, calling for calmer Canadian heads to prevail in ending the “ferocious battle” between Danny and Goliath.

“We need our premier and our federal minister (Loyola Hearn) to work together to achieve this, not to be at one another’s throats,” said Crosbie, the same old curmudgeon who would sooner tap Danny in the head than look at him.

For Danny’s part, the Throne Speech also spelled out how the time has come to “put all our strength to work for Newfoundland and Labrador, and unite in the drive for self-reliance.”

That’s the same Danny who wouldn’t be caught dead in a room with Hearn or

Fabian Manning or even his old friend Norm — none of whom showed up at the five-hour feast of Crosbie. Danny isn’t setting a good example for unity when he isn’t on speaking terms with half the Conservative family. A leader leads by example and takes the high road, which the premier isn’t prepared to do just yet.

But then he may have given up on the federalist way.

To quote from the Throne: “We have learned that we cannot rely upon those elected to offices outside of this province to deliver what is in our best interest.”

Likewise, no one single man or woman elected within this province has ever been able to deliver us to our fabled future, a lesson we must remind ourselves whenever Danny’s name is spoken.

The organizers of an upcoming rally on Confederation Hill are careful to say it’s not a show of support for Danny, so much as the province’s position.

It’s about time we showed our strength.

Changing course can be intimidating when the waters beyond the horizon are unchartered. No one says it will be easy, but a step has been taken in the right direction. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

YOUR VOICE Reward: $1 billion for undoing upper Churchill contract Dear editor, You have asked the question: how do we push this place forward? (With us or agin’ us, April 20 edition, by Ryan Cleary) The simple answer: get back the upper Churchill and its windfall profits. Then we would be a “have” province.

We subsidize Quebec to the tune of about $1 billion per year. Why? Because the federal government of Lester Pearson caved to the terrorists of Quebec, who at the time were busy blowing up mailboxes and Anglo storefronts and hadn’t yet advanced to kidnapping and murder (October, 1970). The memoirs of former MP Jack Pickersgill and pig farmer Joe Smallwood provide interesting reading on those times. A question for our legal community: was the contract with Hydro-Québec signed under duress? If so, the contract is voidable at the option of the victim.

I find it significant that the amount we subsidize Quebec is about equivalent to the interest we pay on our provincial debt ($950 million per year).

The Atlantic Accord is an agreement between the Government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to unilaterally change a provision of that contract. Yet the Churchill Falls contract — a mere commercial contract — remains sacrosanct. Absolutely

amazing.

Perhaps it is time the provincial government offered incentives in the search for a way out of the Churchill Falls contract. We could throw open the competition to past and present residents of this province, to present and former employees of Hydro Quebec, to large American (remember the tobacco lawsuits and their huge settlements), British, Canadian, and French (schooled in le Code Napoléon) law firms. Don’t be niggardly. Make the incentive worthwhile — I’m thinking along the lines of a finder’s fee of 10 per cent of upper Churchill electricity production for a period of 10 years. A cool $1 billion.

When former premier Brian Peckford went after redress on the upper Churchill in the late 1970s and early ’80’s, his problem was that both July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2041 were a long way off. July 1, 2016 is not that far away anymore. That is when the original 40-year contract expires and the 25-year extension (at Quebec’s option) comes into effect. What a victory, what a psychological boost for us if Quebec was to decline, or be deprived of her ill-gotten 25-year extension.

There has to be a legitimate way out of the contract. You haven’t looked for the way out yet. I have.

Tom Careen, Placentia

‘Makes my stomach heave’ Dear editor, Who needs television when they can see violence and death from their front windows? I live in Torbay and have a beautiful view of the ocean via Torbay Bight from all my east-facing windows. On a recent afternoon I was appalled to see a man striding across the pack ice that had drifted into the bay overnight. My fears were that he would slip and be crushed amidst the large blocks of ice. However, to my dismay, he walked two-thirds of the way across the bay from Tapper’s Cove and proceeded to beat a seal with a large stick. In full view of the homes facing the bay, he skinned, gut-

ted, and dragged it back across the ice, leaving scraps and blood-stained ice behind for the seagulls to squabble over. Looking out my windows this morning, the blood remains a fresh and bright stain in the ice. A testament to what? A hunter’s skill in feeding his family? I think not.

I guess I’m not a very good Newfoundlander, because the sight of somebody casually strolling across the ice in order to butcher a small living thing for no other reason than that he could makes my stomach heave.

Welcome to Newfoundland.

Christine Norman, Torbay

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

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by Independent News Ltd. in St. John’s. It is an independent newspaper covering the news, issues and current affairs that affect the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.

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sales@theindependent.ca • production@theindependent.ca • circulation@theindependent.ca All material in The Independent is copyrighted and the property of The Independent or the writers and photographers who produced the material. Any use or reproduction of this material without permission is prohibited under the Canadian Copyright Act. • © 2007 The Independent • Canada Post Agreement # 40871083

The Independent welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words in length or less and include full name, mailing address and daytime contact numbers.

Letters may be edited for length, content and legal considerations. Send your letters in care of The Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 or e-mail us at editorial@theindependent.ca

‘An honest, gutsy piece’ Dear editor, First of all, congratulations to Michael Temelini for an honest, gutsy piece (‘Is there a better way’, April 20 edition, by Katie Hyslop). He stated our situation with great insight and clarity.

Speaking of clarity, it’s interesting how Temelini’s ideas parallel the words and theme of this week’s Speech from the Throne. Using the Clarity Act to provide a mandate to truly negotiate our place in Confederation is brilliant, but it

can only be done by a people who are distinct. In short, a united people who have the status of a nation within a nation. That’s why the Clarity Act was designed for the so-called Quebec question. People in Ontario, Alberta, or Nova Scotia will never use the Clarity Act. They have no national history and no distinctive culture.

The Speech from the Throne opens the door for Newfoundland and Labrador to be recognized as a nation

within a nation, just as Scotland is in the U.K. or Quebec is in Canada. It also opens the door to use legislation such as the Clarity Act to have the people empower their representatives to negotiate fair terms.

Seems to me that our government could learn a lot from Temelini.

Perhaps they already have.

Paul Walsh, St. John’s

Unwarranted criticism of Memorial Dear editor, Re: the letter to the editor, Memorial must reexamine its priorities, by Dr. Rani Panjabi in The Independent’s April 20 edition Dr. Panjabi suggests that the funds used by the university to review the work experience of the late Dr. Deepa Khosla and the working environment at Memorial University could somehow have been better spent. Her outright dismissal of the independent investigator and review is unwarranted.

The investigation was conducted by Dr. Shirley Katz in accordance with procedures that she deemed appropriate. Dr. Katz is a faculty member at York University and a lawyer with considerable experience in investigating equity and human rights issues.

She is very knowledgeable about universities, both as an academic and former academic administrator and legal counsel.

Dr. Katz interviewed and received input from many members of the Memorial University community.

Dr. Katz found that university administrators, in terms of their dealings with Dr. Khosla, acted with “alacrity and utter good faith.” Dr. Katz’s report also included 12 recommendations; all of which the university is acting upon. Actions groups, comprised of student, faculty and staff volunteers from throughout the university, have been following up on these recommendations and are reporting back to the university community periodically.

All this activity is directed towards one goal: maintaining a positive and equitable learning and working environment at Memorial University. That is a prudent goal that deserves the university’s support, financially and otherwise.

Peter Morris, Memorial University of Newfoundland

St. John’s airport

Paul Daly/The Independent

Is St. John’s airport worth the risk?

Dear editor, St. John’s and its surrounding highways must be the most poorly lit in North America. On the parkway lights are often out of commission for weeks. Worst of all is the road leading to St. John’s airport — often used by visitors like myself.

At night the approach to the airport turn off is very easy to miss — I’ve learned to get behind a taxi. On a recent day at about 1:30 a.m., leaving the airport this time, I drove into greyness — no road markings to be seen at all. At the exit from the airport road I missed the divide and came out on the wrong side facing on-coming traffic. Fortunately nothing was coming and I could back up.

I’m an experienced driver with 20 years without an accident, but this experience has made me wonder if stopping in St. John’s is worth the risk.

M. W. Greyham, Pt. Clare, Ont.

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Volunteering? Whatever

V

olunteer Week always generates lots of well-meaning, earnest, and up-lifting copy about the importance of volunteers to the community. Like most inspirational copy (some of which I have had to churn out in what I laughingly refer to as my career) it’s mostly an insipid, glossy barrier to true experience. Doing good for the community spreads good and makes you good.

Whatever.

The truth — for what it’s worth — is always more complicated and less attractive.

Like the real reason I became a lifelong volunteer.

In Grade 11 at the boarding school in Ontario where I lived, someone decided it would be uplifting for we boys to volunteer in the community.

Give something back, as it were. Raise the profile of our snooty boarding school in the snooty Toronto suburb where we lived.

Whatever.

I snickered when I heard the lunchtime announcement looking for volunteers. Like I’m going to bust my ass — for free — for some geek, freak, retard, or spaz. At 16, I knew better than to get sucked in.

It was one of the older boys who smartened me up.

“You are such a newf. Get a clue. Tuesday nights? Three hours in town? No study hall? Even a newfie should figure that out.”

Right. Suddenly I had a burning desire to be volunteer of the month.

Seniors sounded like an easy gig, so I signed on with a senior’s home.

The following Tuesday evening I found myself not in study hall, but walking through town free as a bird, smoking a cigarette. Sweet.

When I got to the home I was told to wait for Harold. Harold was fat, 40, balding and gay. He didn’t want to do orientation with me and the other candy stripers. He let us know that in his tone and mannerisms. He was an angry guy.

He paraded us through the facility. It reeked of solvent and old age. Old people shuffled by in dressing gowns. Liver spots, hunched backs, and slippers are the order of the day. Jesus.

Then we were told to find a geezer and visit them.

Whatever.

The first thing I did was go outside and blow off a J with this girl I met in orientation. Did I mention I went to an all-boys’ school? I was beginning to love volunteering. She went back inside, so I did too, and we start roaming the halls, knocking on doors. My parents raised me to be polite and respectful around ancients. So I was.

It was dead boring and a little weird, what with me being buzzed and all.

That’s when I met Mr. Kilmer. He was a great old guy. The first night he said he was watching me following that girl around. Yes sir. He laughed and told me about girls when he was young. He smiled. And he wasn’t creepy about it — he was funny. Whatever.

The following Tuesday, after another spliff with the girl in the parking lot, I found myself cruising

IVAN MORGAN

Rant & Reason the halls. Popped in to see old man Kilmer. I liked him. Cheery guy. He showed me he only had one leg. That freaked me out. Pulled off the blankets and showed me the stump. Lost it in the First World War, over a million years ago. Over ran his own artillery shells in a frontal attack. Blew it clean off. He had to pull himself back to his own trench. He used to joke that’s what he got for being a volunteer at 18.

Shit. A year older than me.

Mr. Kilmer. Great sense of humour. Great love of life. I got bored with the girl, and the dope.

Saved them for Saturday nights. Tuesdays I hung with Mr. Kilmer. He was always upbeat, and not in an insincere way, but in a man’s man, buck-up sort of way.

He had clear, bright, kind eyes. He spoke of coming back to Canada injured, to a sweetheart not interested in a cripple. Tough break, he said.

No matter. He met another girl, had a family, and travelled northern Ontario for 50 years as a salesman.

He had a million stories about Haliburton, Collingwood, Peterborough, Timmins, and North Bay. He made them seem like Paris, Rome, and Athens. He loved to tell stories. I liked listening to them. He had loved his life.

Now? His kids were grown with families of their own, his wife had died, and he couldn’t look after himself anymore. So here he was. Day after day looking out the window (he had no use for TV). Sometimes there was another person in the room, moaning, gasping, wheezing in the other bed. They’d be there for a few weeks and then they’d be gone.

There were times when he wasn’t so good, when you could see he was working at keeping cheerful — weeks when he nodded off in the middle of the fishing stories from Lake Simcoe. But, as a rule, he was great. He hated the attendants.

“Unions make people damned lazy and rude!” He loved his grandchildren. He hated the food. He loved whisky. His doctors told him it was dangerous to his health. Hard as it was to get, I got it for him.

Maudlin as it reads, everything is new to 17year-olds, and I was not ready for Mr. Kilmer’s empty room when I walked into it one Tuesday night. I asked the attendants where he was.

“Piss off kid. How the f—k would I know?”

Harold: “Kilmer? He croaked. Friday. Why?” After hounding, harassing and whining, I finally got Mr. Kilmer’s son’s phone number.

“Yeah kid. He died Friday. He was a great guy.

He mentioned you once. He liked you.”

Whatever.

That’s how my first volunteer gig ended — in a phone booth outside a budget senior’s facility near the expressway next to the industrial park.

I am a volunteer.

YOURVOICE

April 19, 2007 - Two fishing vessels trapped in ice along the northeast coast of Newfoundland. As a precautionary measure, the vessel at the left has secured its anchor to the ice hoping to avoid the possibility of rolling over.

Sealers’ pleas fell on deaf DFO ears Editor’s note: the following letter was written recently to John Furlong, host of CBC Radio’s Fisherman’s Broadcast, with a copy forwarded to The Independent.

Every once in a while conditions conspire in communities along the northeast coast that afford sealers an opportunity seen perhaps as little as once in a lifetime.

Such was the case in Twillingate Bight on Friday, April 20, supposedly the opening date for the smallboat seal hunt in the Twillingate area.

On Thursday, April 19, numerous sealers from the Twillingate area called DFO’s offices in Twillingate, Grand Falls and St. John’s pleading the federal department not to delay the scheduled opening, as they could see hundreds of seals from their doorsteps.

Such pleas fell upon deaf ears, as apparently, if what I am hearing is correct, a few influential indi-

viduals further in the bay were blocked in.

If indeed DFO is siding with those with influence, while ignoring the pleas of the many wishing to seize upon the rare good fortune that nature presents, it has brought upon itself, not only the most venomous curses of the frustrated small-boat sealers, but has, in my opinion, compromised any measure of integrity and fair play that fishers may have been willing, in the past, to grant to the department.

From my conversations, many of the managers seem to have zero empathy and no sense of the frustration of the family man, his employment entitlement just exhausted, out on the headland watching the seals in the bay on an opening date set months earlier, and now postponed at the 11th hour by a government department that seems unable to get anything right!

David Boyd, Twillingate

YOURVOICE Labrador also wants separation Dear editor, Most everyone who writes in The Independent about the idea of Newfoundland “separating” from Canada include Labrador, incorrectly, as “part of” Newfoundland.

One of the things they all say that irks me is how Newfoundland can afford to “go it alone” with the wealth of its natural resources.

They then go on to list Churchill (Grand) River hydro power, iron ore mines, a huge nickel deposit and now uranium mine development.

Whoops, those resources are all on the mainland of Labrador. However, as the Vic Young royal commission found out in every place it visited here on the mainland part of the province, Labrador also wants a separation — from Newfoundland.

I just skimmed through the 65 slick pages of A Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador and I’ll wait and see.

Jim Purdy, Goose Bay

‘We have to use all the tools we’ve got’ Dear editor, In The Independent’s April 20 front-page story, ‘Is there a better way’, Memorial University political science professor Michael Temelini underlines our weakness in the Canadian federation. With only seven seats we just don’t count.

At the time of Confederation we were virtually debt free. Fifty-eight years later we suffer under the largest debt in the country and it’s costing us almost $900 million a year to service. Our per capita debt is $23,000, an amount that under the new equalization formula can only get worse.

Compare our $12-billion debt to oil-rich Alberta.

Alberta is debt free and keeps on piling up budgetary surpluses. Yet at the time we entered the federation Alberta was struggling to balance its books. What a difference oil can make. Alberta gets to keep all its oil revenues while our nonrenewal resources are developed for the benefit of Ottawa and Big Oil. The 50 per cent cap under the new equalization formula will see our oil revenues get even smaller. The Harper government has deprived us of our last great opportunity to pay down our debt. Temelini is right — we have to use all the tools we’ve got.

Vic Young

The last surviving delegate to sign the present terms of union told the Vic Young royal commission “there were no negotiations.” We were to be treated the same as other provinces. In writing on the Terms of Union on Dec. 31, 1948, the late Albert Perlin wrote, “the financial arrangements are inadequate and may lead to much future trouble and even suffering.”

To quote from the Young commission itself: “The status quo is not acceptable.”

James A. McGrath, St. John’s

APRIL 27, 2007

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

APRIL 27, 2007

IN CAMERA

‘I’m not trying to be Elvis’ Elvis Presley tribute artist Albert Murphy recently gave a concert at the CLB Armoury in St. John’s. Murphy, a veteran of the business, has spent decades chasing the Elvis dream, visiting Graceland (Presley’s home in Memphis, Tennessee), recording at the famous Sun Studios where Presley got his start, and performing across the province and the nation. Photo editor Paul Daly and senior writer Ivan Morgan went to experience a bit of the magic of Elvis.

T

here is something sweet about Albert Murphy, a local Elvis tribute artist who performed recently at the CLB Armoury in St. John’s, where The Independent caught his act.

He says honouring Elvis Presley “is what he does,” and has been doing for upwards of 30 years. There’s something sweet about the fact he visits seniors homes, bringing his act free-of-charge to shut-ins and invalids.

There is something sweet in his earnestness. Celebrating Elvis is a serious business for Murphy.

The first thing he wants people to understand is he is not an impersonator.

“I don’t like those guys that go around — everything’s exact. I don’t believe in that. There’s one Elvis. You can’t be Elvis,” Murphy says in his dressing room before his Friday, April 13 show. “You might as well have originality in what you’re doing. There’s only one Elvis.”

There’s only one Albert Murphy. He may not be exactly like Elvis, but he is a lot like him. He has the big, black sideburns, he has the voice, the southern drawl, he has the mannerisms. He has the memorabilia — books, cups, shoes. He has the wardrobe — most of which he fashioned himself.

Tonight he hopes also to have the magic.

At 42, Murphy is the same age as the King when he died, on Aug. 16, 1977.

Murphy says he was 12 at the time, and helping his Dad renovate their bathroom in Parker’s Cove on the Burin Peninsula.

He says his Mom ran in, upset, to tell them the news. Murphy says he had never heard of Elvis, but was shaken by his parents’ strong reaction.

A month later his father died suddenly of a heart attack. So began Murphy’s own voyage. His mother, overwhelmed by the prospect of caring for 10 children alone, had Murphy and his siblings placed in foster care. It is there, Murphy says, alone and longing for his lost family, that he found his love of Elvis Presley.

“I leaned on the music for support,” he says.

Then he saw a made-for-TV movie called Elvis, starring Kurt Russell, and “thought what a nice guy Elvis was.”

Murphy decided he wanted to be like him. Coming in second at a high-school talent contest convinced the young Murphy he should dedicate his life to the promotion of Presley and his music.

And it has been close to 30 years of taking his act wherever he could, that’s brought him to the small stage with a small sound system, projection screen and few lights in the CLB Armoury on Harvey Road on this cold April night.

By show time a crowd of 80 people have gathered. People like Doug and Wendy Phillips, Ruth Corbett and Mary Corbett. They are serious Elvis fans.

“He is the man!” laughs Ruth Corbett.

Corbett has a lovely smile and a lively laugh, and tonight she is sporting an Elvis T-shirt, purse, and key chain.

“We like the ’50s and ’60s music. We grew up in that era. You can understand what they’re saying — you can understand the words,” says Wendy Phillips.

“It’s clean music,” she says. “There’s no dirt or foul language in it.”

And Elvis’ movies?

“There’s no sex or violence into it.”

Like most of the people who paid $12 to sit at the tables around the little stage

in the big hall, they are full of excitement and nostalgia. Tonight’s show is billed as a tribute to Presley’s movies, with songs from some of the more popular of his 31 films.

Mary Corbett still remembers the first Elvis movie she ever saw — at the Capitol Theatre on Henry Street in St. John’s. It had uniformed ushers with flashlights who showed them to their seats.

She was 12, she went with friends, and she paid 25 cents to see Presley in Blue Hawaii.

“I thought he was gorgeous,” she smiles.

None of these people have seen Murphy’s act before.

The crowd is a mostly older one. There are a few people in jeans and leather jackets, and a few thinning hairlines, Brylcremed — Elvis style.

Back stage Murphy paces. He says it’s what he does before a show. He says he had a show in January where almost 200 people came.

The audience is smaller tonight.

Almost three decades into this gig, Murphy has not completely conquered the pre-show jitters.

With little fanfare, he takes to the stage, launching into Jailhouse Rock. His voice is strong and deep, but there’s still a touch of nerves.

It’s hard to characterize Murphy’s performance. It isn’t quite karaoke — although he does sing to a musical track played on a CD. It isn’t choreographed, although he has a repertoire of studied “Elvis moves” he works through with a focused intensity.

His voice is mostly true, but there are a few stumbles with notes and lyrics, and a few miscues. It’s probably not like any act anyone here has seen before. This is serious business for Murphy.

The crowd is not sure about Murphy.

Murphy is not an Elvis impersonater. He is a tribute artist. He works to give people an “Elvis moment.” He works hard.

There are snickers from the crowd for sure, but soon enough, when he launches into a few ballads and the bar sales start to rack up, Murphy and his audience get better acquainted. Some in the crowd start singing along. There are a few tears too. The hankies were out at a few tables during Fools Rush In. A quick survey of the crowd during the second act gets a mixed response.

“If you were blindfolded you’d say it was Elvis.”

“Doing OK for a local fella.”

“Don’t ask me. I’d be too much like Simon Cowell.”

Murphy says he wants to evoke a sentiment.

“I’m not trying to be Elvis. I want to bring back that memory for that moment, for that time.”

And he brings a few in the crowd with him to that Elvis place. A few, for a few minutes, weren’t in the CLB Armoury on a bitter April evening, but lined up outside the Capitol a lifetime ago.

Many people believe Presley did not die in his bathroom, bloated, broken, and whacked out of his mind on painkillers.

Other people believe Presley is still alive and well.

Either way, as long as Albert Murphy keeps doing his thing, Presley’s spirit is strong. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

APRIL 27, 2007

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

MAN IN MOTION

Man In Motion Rick Hansen speaks with Corinna Anderson in front of the St. John’s Convention Centre. Anderson, camp manager of the Lion Max Simms Memorial Camp in Bishop’s Falls, sits in an Argo, an all-terrain amphibious vehicle for use by people with spinal cord injuries.

Bishop’s Falls is the third community in Canada to receive an Argo through the Rick Hansen Foundation.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Promises, promises W hen he was in St. John’s on April 20, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion commented briefly on the ongoing battle between the province and Ottawa over the effects of the federal budget on equalization.

He indicated he was on Newfoundland’s side. I heard him say — somewhat uncomfortably, I thought — that the federal Liberal policy was “no cap, and respect the Accord,” and then he added, significantly, that as prime minister he would “study” the question and “do what is fair for all Canadians.”

This seems to me a reasonable statement. He’s not in government, he’s just leader of the Opposition. It’s not possible for him to know what kind of factors and influences would be in play at the cabinet table to deal with complex issues.

Dion sat in cabinet, he knows this. So he said he would “do what is fair for all Canadians” if he got in.

That’s what Stephen Harper should have said when Premier Danny Williams asked him to state his position on equalization in November 2005, prior to the federal election. Politically, Harper was then in roughly the same position that Dion is in now. But Harper unwisely gave a specific, written commitment that a Conservative government would “remove non-renewable natural resource revenue from the equalization formula.” He should have known what a tangled web that promise might get him in, since all the other provinces must have a say in any new policy dealing with equalization. And, of course, his cabinet would have to agree to any change of policy.

We have cabinet government in Canada, not prime ministerial rule.

Harper was so hungry for power, the hated Liberals had been in office for so long, that he said what he had to say to get votes.

I’m not going to criticize the premier for extracting a promise from Harper, because given the weak position we occupy in the Canadian government and Parliament — a flea trying to shove aside an elephant, according to J.R. Smallwood — almost any gambit is worth trying. Still, it is always doubtful to credit pledges made in election campaigns.

I speak from experience.

Early evening canvassing in St. John’s West. First house on the street. A woman appears and invites me into the front hall.

Woman: See Johnnie? (Pointing to a young man on a sofa in the living room watching TV, a Dominion bottle in hand.) If you get him into the trades college, I’ll give you a vote.

Me: Er, I’m not sure I can do that.

I ...

Woman: Good enough, I hear you, you’re getting no votes here. Get the shag out.

Second house. Same scene. TV blaring. Noises, laughter heard from inside.

PATRICK O’FLAHERTY

A Skeptic’s Diary German shepherd with its nose in my crotch. A man of about 60 sleeps on couch.

Woman: Don’t mind the pooch. He’s friendly. No, no! Don’t put your hand on him! (She drags the dog off, returns.)

See poor old Heber over there (points to man), he’s a carpenter, he can put an ass in a cat, but can he get a job? No sir. But if you can get him on with the council, you’ll have six votes in this house.

Me: (Pauses) How many votes did you say?

A man canvassing in an election is not always to be depended on.

••• Harper made a promise the Conservative government didn’t keep.

The financial consequences for Newfoundland have been variously estimated. Professor Wade Locke made, to my knowledge, two computations.

First, he said we would get a boost of $5.6 billion from the new arrangement; later he said we would lose $1 billion.

Last week the premier said “they’ve taken $11 billion from us.” The consensus seems to be that we will lose a significant amount of revenue over the years to come, but exactly how much can’t be known since it will depend on the price of oil down the road, triggers, fiscal capacities, and other variables, some known only to astrologers.

So we’re back at war with Ottawa, much as we were in the 1980s when Brian Peckford was premier and Pierre Trudeau prime minister. One intriguing sideline, to me, is that a lot of stimulating commentary has been stirred up. A call for secession — rather, for threatening secession — has come from a Memorial University professor. James McGrath, for his part, declared that Parliament’s vote to admit Newfoundland in February, 1949 was “in breach of the Canadian Constitution,” and further that the fouryear long “process” leading up to Confederation “violated” Newfoundland’s constitution as well. (Both assertions being, in my opinion, erroneous.)

And there has been much talk of sending a Newfoundland bloc to Ottawa to defend our interests, just as the Bloc Québécois does for that province.

This proposal has had some able defenders, but it strikes me as hopeless.

Newfoundlanders adhere traditionally to the old parties, changing allegiance infrequently from one to the other.

Those who want to punish Harper in the coming election will vote either Liberal or NDP even if a Newfoundland bloc is an option.

Patrick O’Flaherty is a writer in St. John’s

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APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

‘Eye of the beholder’

WIDELY READ

St. John’s harbour-front looks great — shame about the boats

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

T

Canadian soldiers (l-r) Sgt. Ken Wells, Master Cpl. Cal Jones and Newfoundlander Cpl. Ian Dawe enjoys the Jan. 26 edition of The Independent at Patrol Base Wilson in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Courtesy of the Dawe family

YOURVOICE ‘You had a bad day, Mr. Editor’ Dear editor, Ever have a bad day? Of course, we all have. People, publications, institutions, and governments have bad days. I suspect that such was the case with The Independent’s April 20 edition.

The Independent chose as its frontpage lead story (‘Is there a better way?’) the comments of a political scientist at Memorial University (Michael Temelini) who regards a good number of us, if not the majority, as “ignorant curmudgeons.”

We might have to get an economist to crunch the numbers a few times for accuracy on this point.

The charge was then repeated in Ryan Cleary’s column (With us or agin’ us) in case some of us ignoramuses might have missed it on the front page. I suspect a lot of us ignoramuses read this paper.

If this scientist of politics wants to get

his philosopher and writer friends, among others, together for a rant on Newfoundland separating from Canada and possibly joining the European Union, fair enough. He wants to open the toolbox of possibilities for our province, but the rest of us ignoramuses would caution him not to open Pandora’s Box instead.

Remember, if Canada is divisible, Newfoundland is divisible. Now is your chance Labrador! Seize the momentum Quebec! Freedom at last Cape Breton!

What an opportunity Alberta! And rise up indigenous people and take a good lump of the land that was ripped from your hearts and hands. And on it goes ...

Labrador has a particularly strong case since it has been abused by Newfoundland for as long as I can remember. With a small population base it would be one of the wealthiest per capita countries in the world. You have

a different culture, you’re not contiguous with the rest of the province, your boundaries are constantly being questioned and were established under dubious circumstances in the first place.

And you have been abused by all parties ever since.

So that’s the ticket. Let’s atomize or vaporize Canada, no matter what the rest of us ignoramuses say. I would say one thing about breaking up Canada. If you think it would be clean and tidy, think again. If it’s only bluster and bluff, no harm done. But if it were ever put into play at a number of places around this great country ... then get ready for hell.

No, you had a bad day, Mr. Editor.

But don’t be too concerned, it happens to the best of us. Even ignoramuses.

Robert Rowe, St. John’s

Our place in the world?

Dear editor, I find it incredulous that a Memorial University political science professor (‘Is there a better way?’, April 20 edition) would suggest that “Newfoundland and Labrador should look into the possibility of joining the European Union, and what that would entail.” His reference to the model nations of Iceland and Greenland is also intriguing!

What can be behind this professor’s perilous plot? Certainly not research.

Good God my son, a quick Google will confirm that although being part of the Danish Realm, Greenland is not a part of the EU and Iceland has said no to EU membership. The most contentious issue regarding possible EU membership for Iceland was the loss of control over natural resources, notably fishing

grounds due to the EU’s Common fisheries policy. Sound familiar? Iceland is, however, a member of the European Free Trade Association, which certainly has benefits. Even if we were willing to again surrender control over natural resources, there are many criteria for EU membership, including geographic criteria. Oops, I forgot, perhaps we can promote the continental drift theory as grounds for membership.

Temelini’s assertion that “we don’t understand nationalism in Newfoundland” is condescending, inaccurate and demonstrates a great lack of understanding of our present and past political experiences. The plot thickens. We certainly do not need to take a cue from Quebec regarding the issue of secession. Our different political realities and history in respect to

nationhood and relationship with Canada make the Quebec experience of little value. Newfoundland and Labrador, more than any other province in Canada, including Quebec, has had significant experience with nationhood and all that it entails.

I do agree with the professor that it is time for Newfoundland and Labrador to consider other options and “do the homework.” A good suggestion — perhaps there is no plot. We have researched and published our place in Canada, and now we must professionally research and determine “our place in the world,” using independent professional experts, the best money can buy.

Terry Loder, St. John’s

he St. John’s Port Authority is happy to spend roughly $3.5 million prettying up the harbourfront with kiosks, a park and rest areas, but when it comes to the esthetics of some of the docked ships, nothing short of removing them could improve the view.

Take the Noviy Svet, for example, a Ukrainian trawler that’s been parked in pride of place behind the Scotia Bank building and Atlantic Place for months. Regular visitors to Cora’s Restaurant and Nubody’s Fitness, with their sweeping panoramic views of The Narrows and the Southside Hills, will be only too familiar with the sight of the abandoned Noviy Svet’s looming, dirty white hulk that appears to be weeping rust. The boat’s been parked there since August 2006 (according to Canada Border Services), October 2006 (according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans), and December 2006 (according to St. John’s Port Authority). Either way, it’s been there a while.

“That was scheduled to be in port for a much shorter period of time,” Sean Hanrahan, president of St. John’s Port Authority, tells The Independent. “The reason, I understand, is it’s been detained by the customs people.” He adds the vessel is also awaiting repairs that are scheduled for next week when the vessel will finally be removed and taken to St. John’s Dockyard.

A spokeswoman with Canada Border Services Agency was unable to comment on any potential customs charges involving the Noviy Svet.

“We have limited space in the port of St. John’s. It’s a great port but it’s a small one. So we don’t have a lot of choice.”

Sean Hanrahan St. John’s Port Authority President “Unless it’s public knowledge, due to confidentiality reasons I can’t comment on specific ships.”

A spokesman with the local shipping agent facilitating the vessel’s stay, Altamar Atlantic, says the boat has been waiting for spare parts and he confirmed it would be undergoing repairs next week.

Although the port authority takes time and money to make the harbour a pleasing place for locals and tourists to visit, Hanrahan says there are no regulations surrounding the appearance of its vessels. There is also no out-of-the-way docking space for stranded ships to wait out their time in port.

“What we’re most concerned with is that we have a viable, working harbour,” he says. “Once we are convinced a vessel is seaworthy and pays its bills, after that, the esthetics are in the eye of the beholder.

“We have limited space in the port of St. John’s. It’s a great port but it’s a small one. So we don’t have a lot of choice.”

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

APRIL 27, 2007

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AROUND THE WORLD Dr. Dick estimates that more than fourteen thousand millions of human beings have been slaughtered in war, since the beginning of the world, which is about eighteen times the number of inhabitants that at present time exist on the globe.

He adds, that a horrible and tremendous consideration, to reflect that 14,000,000 of beings endowed with intellectual faculties and curiously organized by Divine wisdom that the inhabitants of eighteen worlds should have been massacred, and mangled and cut to pieces by those who were partakers of the same common nature as if they had been created merely for the work of destruction!

— Mercury and General Advertiser, Carbonear, April 1846 AROUND THE BAY Edmund Phelan begs to state that he intends sending a careful Man round the Bay during the Winter, who will be accountable for all Letters and Parcels that may be committed to his care.

— The Star and Newfoundland Advocate, St. John’s, April 25, 1844 YEARS PAST Police Court: Fisherman of Brigus, drunk, was discharged.

— The Daily Globe, St. John’s, April 18, 1925 EDITORIAL STAND Recent years have brought vast, sweeping changes; changes which are having strong influence on us. These changes and influences often have dark and somber sides, beneath their disguise of being “modern,” “easier,” and “like the rest of the world.” One of the changes that came upon us during the past decade was a form of Government assistance known variously as

Winter Works, Local Institutive Projects, Canada Works or most recently Canada Community Development Projects. Like many other aspects of modern life this Government assistance was a mixture of good and bad. The Canada Works decade of the 1970s cut at the very roots of our pride and dignity and sapped our independence, striking most severely at the younger members of our society. We were taught, carefully, explicitly, and repeatedly that Government would give us all we needed.

— The Labrador South Review, Red Bay and Forteau, April 25, 1981 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir — We had a splendid parade on the 20 of February — Union Day — the first in this settlement. Volleys of guns announced the great day.

We paraded the settlement and returned to the hall for tea, which was an excellent one, and after tea, dancing was engaged in until 11 p.m. when all went home delighted with the day’s events. The F.P.U. is come to stay and we are determined to stand to your back, Mr. Editor, and fight your enemies. We intend to vote for Union candidates in 1913 and don’t care how soon the battle comes off. We want our own men to make laws to benefit the toilers, men we can see all the time and men we can have face to face at the Union meetings. Go ahead, Mr. Coaker, you can rely upon us, for we never saw the light as plain as we do now.

I remain yours truly, ONE OF THE UNION, Pike’s Arm. — The Fishermen’s Advocate, St. John’s, April 6, 1912 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The price of gas is getting so high, I’m afraid to burp.” — Paul Bradbury, VOCM. — Town Crier, St. John’s, April 1973

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INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007 — PAGE 13

Baseless

Province’s small navy presence does not reflect its strategic, geographic assets

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

T

he mayor of St. John’s says strategic considerations take a back seat to politics when it comes to the Royal Canadian Navy’s deployment on Canada’s East Coast.

When asked why Halifax is the base of the entire Atlantic fleet, Andy Wells is blunt.

“Halifax has more votes,” the mayor tells The Independent.

Besides being home port to the Atlantic fleet, Halifax is home to Canada’s largest military base, which sports a large navy dockyard, military and navy education facilities, including engineering, naval operations and warfare schools, an ammunition depot, a naval and army communications centre, housing divisions for base personnel and all the spin-off industries such a large presence generates.

Halifax harbour is home to over 30 different navy vessels — divided into classes — from multi-role patrol vessels (Halifax class), to patrol submarines (Victoria class). It also hosts foreign navy ships.

STRATEGIC LOCATION Considering St. John’s strategic location and the number of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who serve in the navy, Wells says there should be a much larger navy presence in the province.

A 2006 Memorial University report The Federal Government Presence in Newfoundland and Labrador noted almost eight per cent of Canada’s 62,000 regular military personnel are originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, and roughly one-half of these people are in the navy.

The report says the province’s strengths, such as geography and strategic location, should also point to the merits of having a large navy presence here, but the report states “that is not the case.”

Conservative MP Fabian Manning says he has been lobbying for a larger navy presence in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Right now we have a very limited navy presence,” he says.

Manning adds he hopes the Harper government’s recent anSee “These guys,” page 14

The HMS Toronto is welcomed back to St. John’s in 2006 from its war on terror in the Persian Gulf .

Paul Daly/The Independent.

The more you know When you see it listed in black and white your worth adds up

T

here’s much about the way Americans and the American media promotes all things U.S.A. that really does not turn my crank. But every now and then they hit on something that’s not only brilliantly done, it’s also a brilliant concept. Probably my favourite is a 20second television spot with the tag line “The More You Know.” Essentially, it challenges listeners to be ever aware and curious about their own world — to always look for ways to know more about almost every subject.

So, what of “The More You Know” about where your money goes? And what do you have to show for the money you’ve earned over the years?

AL ANTLE

Your Finances One of the best ways I’ve ever come across to measure this is by carrying out a complete household financial inventory. Sounds easy right? And it is, but I suspect most people view a financial inventory as a listing of the “cash” part of their lives. Some might even include their liabilities. If this is you, you’re partially right.

A household financial inventory is a complete listing of all assets, along with all liabilities and debts. Credit

Counsellors like the idea of the complete financial inventory because it tells people where much of their money has gone over the years.

What’s really nice though, is the sense of enlightenment most people feel as they look at the All Our Assets column. If you go through this process you’ll definitely know where some, possibly even the bulk of, your money has gone.

Yes, include at the top of your list all the cash in your life and include RRSPs, RESPs, bonds, investments, etc. Then move on to your house and include its financing costs — after all, this is about where your dollars go.

You might also start off outside your property; maybe even in the drive-

Look around outside a little more. Do you have a fence? Did you build it?

If so, what was the cost, including labour and materials? way. How much did your car cost, including financing? What about tires? Are they new or original? Have you had any major repairs? Have these enhanced the value of the vehicle?

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Look around outside a little more.

Do you have a fence? Did you build it? If so, what was the cost, including labour and materials? Don’t forget your patio. Consider, as well, those outside embellishments we carry out so frequently. For example, how much have you put into your garden?

And I don’t just mean planting. What about outdoor furniture? The lawn mower, snow blower, barbecue, watering systems and so forth? As you move inside and list the major items contained there, like furniture, appliances and electronics, consider how much you’ve spent on small appliances, dishes, and cutlery. What See “Give yourself,” page 15

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14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

APRIL 27, 2007

Increase in ferry rates could hit consumers

A

n increase in Marine Atlantic ferry rates and a possible fuel surcharge has trucking companies in the province worried — and the increased cost could be passed on to consumers.

Due to escalating operating costs like fuel prices and pensions, Marine Atlantic, the federal Crown corporation, raised ferry rates earlier this year by $9 per trip for trucks, a 2.1 per cent hike. Additionally, if the cost of fuel

‘These guys are full of bull’

continues to rise from the January 1 level, truckers may also be hit with a fuel surcharge.

Gordon Peddle, president of D.D. Transport Ltd. in Mount Pearl, says the increase has already caused some difficult negotiations with shipping and handlers. The company mainly serves the construction and oil and gas industries in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“The truck industry cannot sponge

that increase, so therefore it gets passed on to the shippers and receivers, who in turn pass it on to the consumer.”

A one-way trip on the ferry for a truck is now $450, which some drivers pay 1,300 times a year — a total of $585,000 per truck.

The Marine Atlantic Users Group, made up of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, the St. John’s Board of Trade and the Newfoundland

and Labrador division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, has started an online petition to protest the changes. To date, the group has collected over 2,000 signatures.

“The reality is, (the increase is) a disincentive to do business here, it really slows the economy,” says Peddle.

Although all trucking companies will have to deal with the same costs, Peddle says Newfoundland and

Labrador companies could be hit hardest by a slow down in the provincial economy, due to their reliance on other provincially-owned businesses.

After enduring a long winter of poor trucking conditions, business is picking up. But Peddle says inventories aren’t moving as quickly as in previous years, and if gas prices climb, so will the cost of everyday groceries.

— John Rieti

NEW GANDER SERVICE

From page 13 nouncement for the construction of a $101-million multi-purpose military facility in Pleasantville is the beginning of a return of overall local military presence, including ships to St. John’s harbour.

“Now again, to say that’s going to happen next month wouldn’t be the case, but certainly that it is part of the overall plan — to have a presence here on this end of Canada once again.”

Given the dispute with the Harper administration over equalization, Wells doesn’t expect anything will change anytime soon. He says the decision where to station the navy should be made on defence needs and “not just regional pork barreling.

“These guys are full of bull. They sold us down the river on the equalization,” says Wells, referring to the provinces’ federal MPs — Loyola Hearn, Norm Doyle and Manning.

“They’re old-style pork barrellers. I mean, ‘whatever you can bring back to keep the natives happy, b’y, that’s what we gotta do.’ That’s the mentality,” he says. “What they are going to try and do now is offer us a few candies, I suppose.

“If they had any balls they’d be sitting as independent Conservatives.”

Manning says increasing the federal government’s presence in the province is a “step-by-step” process and the signs are there for the federal government to enhance the province’s military complement. He says the Minister of Defence is “quite aware” of what the province can offer the navy.

“If we have one bone of contention in our province it’s the fact that for the past number of decades that presence has been diminished drastically in some places, and hopefully having it restored and enhanced is what the future is about. I feel confident that the support to do that here is certainly there with Minister O’Connor.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Hospitality and tourism groups applauded Air Canada’s announcement this week of a direct flight from Halifax to Gander. It is good news for the Gander International Airport, which is experiencing cash flow problems and has been fighting for a financial investment from Ottawa. The airline will launch the daily non-stop service on June 30.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Economist recommended for cost-benefit analysis of Confederation Dear editor, I thought I was a voice crying in the wilderness until I opened the pages of the April 13 issue of The Independent and read Walter Noel’s letter to the premier (What are the financial consequences of Confederation?) and Ryan Cleary’s column (‘Soul Crushing Tyrannical Autocractic Dictators’).

Over the years I have approached successive provincial governments to engage a reputable economist to do a

complete analysis of the benefits we receive from Ottawa and the contribution we, in turn, make to the Canadian economy.

In his letter to the premier, Noel states: “You would do our province a great service by having such a study undertaken by an internationally recognized consultant.” He further comments: “the Royal Commission on Our Place in Canada was given the mandate and resources to have a proper financial

study done. Unfortunately the commission chose not to do so.”

The Independent, with limited resources, attempted to do such a study in 2004 and concluded we are contributing a great deal more than the benefits we are receiving.

I met with the chairman of the commission, Vic Young, shortly after his appointment and recommended an internationally-renowned economist for such a study that would have the credibility of the federal government, the Canadian business community and Canadians in general. The individual in question, Dr. Jayson Myers, is chief economist with the Canadian Manufacturing Association, an organization representing the largest corporations in Canada.

Myers received his doctorate from Oxford University and was also a lectur-

er at the university. He has received several international and national awards for his contribution in the field of economics. I discussed this matter with him and he indicated he was quite prepared to undertake such a study.

Premier Danny Williams is a lawyer and he is well aware that you have to present facts and credible witnesses in court if you expect to win your case.

Similarly, the same rules apply in the court of public opinion. We have failed miserably in this regard.

What has been lacking in making our case to the rest of Canada are the facts and a credible witness to support those facts? Until we do we will still be regarded as the poor cousins of Canada with our begging bowls in hand.

Burford Ploughman, St. John’s

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

YOURVOICE What EU membership could do for NL Dear editor, This is a response to Katie Hyslop’s April 20 story, ‘Is there a better way?’ Memorial professor says province should initiate ‘serious discussion’ about separation from Canada; investigate joining the European Union.

I have vivid memories of the two suits who came to Indian Islands on the northeast coast in early 1949 and “supervised� the final referendum vote when I was six years old. My father and mother — diehard nationalists, but apparently in a minority after Joey Smallwood had spoken publicly at length on the topic — wanted nothing of it and loudly said so. In protest, they voted to join the United States in an earlier referendum. My mother, who just turned 89, sports a gold Newfoundland Pink, White and Green ring and proudly flies an old flag in her room at Mountain View Estates here in Corner Brook.

And so, I was born a Newfoundlander and might, with a bit of luck and some time yet, die one. Oh, my wife and I have had the benefit of Canadian mainland universities to do graduate degrees, but these we paid for as we and all fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have been paying for in one way or other since April Fool’s Day, 1949, when Smallwood so cavalierly brought me and my family — kicking and screaming — into Canada. Incidentally, our three grown children with their own families live in Calgary, Alberta; Elko, Nevada; and Seattle, Washington. With their spouses, they are all highly valued professionals in their particular locales. How’s that for a real family contribution back to the mainland of North America?

As a Newfoundland nationalist all my life (and a retired marine biology professor from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College), but one just now fully articulating my feelings, I would like to add my support to what professor Michael Temelini said as quoted in the Hyslop article and try to correct some errors.

Only one of the three countries quoted is actually an independent member of the EU. Ireland is a full member of the EU, having joined in 1973; Greenland once was and will likely try to enter the EU again, although it is now a self-governing dependency of Denmark (which also joined the EU in 1973); and Iceland has never been a member of the EU, although speculation is that it may at some point try to join.

With some 27 current EU members, other coun-

tries speculated as possible EU joiners include: Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Other possible microstates that could at some point join include: San Marino, Vatican and Monaco. With further independence, dependencies like Greenland, the Faroe Islands, New Caledonia and a handful of others could join the EU. There are even some non-European possibilities: Morocco, Cape Verde and Israel. Some have even speculated that Canada might join! If Canada has been considered by some, might not the yetagain independent country of Newfoundland also be considered as a member of the EU? A joining of the Arctic islands in the north — with Greenland and Iceland obtaining EU membership — would need Newfoundland to complete the circle.

There are several other even more compelling reasons. With globalization extending to the Humber Valley here on the west coast, the Humber Valley Resort has hardly a North American client.

People in Ireland and England know all about the potential here and are taking full advantage of it.

Think what EU membership could do. Business, cultural and historical connections, after an absence in some cases of some 400 years, are now again being re-established between Newfoundland and the U.K. (particularly with Ireland) at a startling rate. Think further what membership in the EU might do to (and about) foreign overfishing on the nose and the tail of the Grand Banks. Think of the implications of banning seal pelt sales from Newfoundland and Labrador in Europe by members of your own EU? Now there’s an interesting prospect. Finally, think about what abundant renewable and non-renewable resources and the proper accompanying research and development might do to the economy of Newfoundland with EU membership and access to that massive market.

Yes, professor Temilini, EU membership for Newfoundland should certainly be considered.

And, you notice I have not mentioned Quebec with its 36 out of the past 39 Canadian prime ministers or its Ottawa budget favouritism in the last budget, or ‌ Michael, you make a fine argument for a fellow who has only been here for three years and then even from Ontario.

Don Downer, Corner Brook

Give yourself some kudos From page 13 about cookbooks and the like? Consider the improvements and decorating of the inside of your home. Have you added hardwood or new windows? Do you carry out repairs yourself, or are you like me, and generally end up paying to have the most mundane chore completed?

It’s within the little things that major dollars hide. Look long and hard inside jewelry boxes, bookcases and obscurely located drawers. Just how many videos, DVDs and CDs do you own?

And speaking of music, are there instruments in your house? Did you retain a lot of your books and novels or did you chuck them out or give them away? Have you been collecting art? Are you another kind of collector? And don’t forget tools.

Try as best you can to recall, and then assign, the original purchase price you paid.

Now, get out your calculator and add the original costs of the whole lot together. Wait for the shock; chances are there will be one.

Give yourself some kudos. Obviously you’ve done very, very well. You just need to see it all before your eyes, to see just how well.

There’s another upside to this little exercise too. With the inventory completed, you’re ideally situated to respond to any concerns or questions raised by your insurance company in the event of a claim.

Your list will likely be extensive. So it’s also a great idea to photocopy it and keep it in your safe deposit box with the other important documents you feel are worth preserving.

And if you really want to assure the validity of your inventory list, from the perspective of security, make a video or take extensive photos of the various rooms in your house, along with item-by-item pictures of jewelry and other small items.

But this exercise is first and foremost about you feeling good about your place in the world. Human beings love to beat themselves up on all things financial. It’s either that or the other extreme: we estimate our worth to be much more than it is. This little listing process keeps you balanced and easily lays out the facts.

It’s like I said: “The more you know!�

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

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16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTLIFE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007 — PAGE 17

Sheilagh Guy-Murphy and Sheila (Tequila) Copps.

John and Jane Crosbie

John Crosbie with the Diva dancers.

World-renowned tenor Michael Burgess sings Danny Boy to Mike Duffy, Brian Mulroney and John Crosbie.

Jonathan Pittman, an Easter Seals kid.

Michael Burgess.

Mike Duffy and Brian Mulroney.

Rick Mercer makes a video appearance.

Newfoundlander Rex Murphy.

John and Jane Crosbie with Michael Burgess and Rick Hansen.

Rick Hansen, Man in Motion.

By Clare-Marie Gosse The Independent

John Crosbie with grand-daughters and Shielagh Guy-Murphy Photos by Paul Daly/The Independent

A night with J.C.

I

t was an event that raised over $600,000 for Easter Seals; it was attended by in excess of 500 of Newfoundland and Labrador’s finest and shiniest — not to mention some prestigious mainlanders like former prime minister Brian Mulroney and Man in Motion Rick Hansen. There was opera, arm-wrestling, burlesque, an auction, and some killer beef ten-

Former PM Brian Mulroney.

derloin. But ultimately, what everyone at John Crosbie’s lengthy fundraising roast on April 28 in St. John’s took away with them (aside from warm fuzzy feelings of course), was the visual image of host, Sheilagh Guy-

Murphy, clasping Mike Duffy’s face between both hands and massaging it into her impressive cleavage (right after introducing her bosom buddy as one of Chatelaine magazine’s former sexiest men in Canada).

Right there, Crosbie was upstaged once again. For as Rex Murphy quipped in his tribute to one of the province’s best-loved politicians, who in his career was forever fighting for the top spot without success, “As

Students! Get ready for a . . .

everyone knows, John is a person who’s done everything with a ladder except reach the last rung.”

And if that seems harsh, rest easy, it was about the crispiest comment directed Crosbie’s way all evening, in a night more full of toasts than roasts.

From the moment Guy-Murphy opened with comments like, “We love you John and I think that’s evident in

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APRIL 27, 2007

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

GALLERYPROFILE

Prize cuts ... from A Feast of Crosbie “He’s the most irresistible force in modern Newfoundland politics … he’s got more guts than a bucket of politicians.”

— Rex Murphy

appointed she was that morning. It’s time I told you the truth, John. Of all of your comments that kicked the crap right out of my reputation.”

— Former prime minister Brian Mulroney

“A prime minister is very, very lucky if he gets to have a John Crosbie in cabinet — one, not two.”

— Former prime minister Brian Mulroney

“’Duffy is not one of Canada’s sexiest men, he’s two of them.”

— Mike Duffy recalling a media colleague’s reaction to his ranking as one of Chatelaine’s sexiest men in Canada.

“John writes in his memoirs that when he ran for the leadership in 1983 he told Jane on the day of the vote that she would wake up in the morning in bed with the next prime minister of Canada. I can’t tell you how dis-

“Support Easter Seals, club Harp seals.”

— Rick Mercer.

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V

isual artist Jennifer Barrett, a graphic marks delineating a clenched jaw native of Paradise, is pressing or a furrowed brow. Barrett says her preblue ink onto pink paper through ferred style of work can be traced back to the printing press in St. Michael’s studio the process she enjoys so much. by the harbourfront in St. John’s. Even “With the linoleum prints, the tools I though she’s having trouble linhave to use makes it harder to ing up the edges — or, the regdo very small, fine detailed istration, as it’s called –— she imagery, so I intuitively go the doesn’t mind in the least. other way and go bolder with “It’s mainly a process. It’s thicker lines. I love the way it complicated and it’s frustrating looks so I just keep going with but it’s always surprising,” says it,” she says. “I was doing an Barrett with an ever-present etching class and we did smile. “I never know what I’m JENNIFER aquatint (a printing process) and going to get and I like that. I like you can get all these nice differto control what I’m doing but I BARRETT ent tones of gray, white to black like the element of surprise, too.” Visual Artist and they look like film grain.

A graduate of Grenfell ColObviously, this lends itself to lege’s visual arts program in Corner film imagery so I tried a print, then, of a Brook, Barrett only just started experi- film still.”

Barrett’s graphic skills have not gone menting with the printing process late in her program. Once she sampled an unnoticed by appreciative fans. Comic overview of the meticulous printing tech- strip illustrations she posted on a social niques such as linocut, silkscreen, relief network website were picked up by St. and etching, Barrett was hooked. She John’s events listing paper The Scope. cracks a joke — the first of several during Barrett’s Childhood Memories and Talkin the course of the conversation — about ’Bout Cats can be found in tiny format, bordering the bottom of the paper’s her “exclusive” skills.

“The techniques are so weird and dif- pages. The jokes are alternately sweet and ferent, so you kind of feel like being part slightly bizarre — perfect fodder for the of a special club. It’s nice to know how to quick, compartmentalized panels.

“I think of random things, stupid gags, do something not a whole lot of people know how to do. I also like using tools but I think it’s funny … everybody can and big machines — it’s kind of industri- relate to it,” she says. “Stories and pictures — that’s what it comes down to. al. I like the smell of the ink.”

Barrett is making her professional I’ve discovered the serious side of graphdebut at The Bonnie Leyton Gallery in St. ic novels. Not just superheroes — even John’s, May 5-26, joining visual artists Charlie Brown I totally appreciate on a Gordon Laurin, Carolyne Harrison and different level now. They’re the most Margaret Ryall. There will be a selection heartbreaking, beautiful comic strips.”

Barrett says she will take a printing of styles and media, but Barrett’s work will focus on her ink prints — particular- break after her month-long residency at ly images gleaned from classic St. Michael’s is up. She will use the time to paint, but it’s the print process that Hollywood films of the 40s and 50s.

Akin to their source, the images are appeals to her the most — particularly the black and white and high in contrast. The control factor.

“I like that you get to have more than leads, iconic stars such as Grant and Bergman, and Tracey and Hepburn, are one, so if I make an edition I can always framed and paired together, caught in var- keep one — I’m a pack rat.” ious poses. The tension of the dramatic mandy.cook@theindependent.ca moments is underscored by the robust,

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Shot in the arm

Theatre outside Town is crucial and needn’t forfeit art for tourism

I

t’s reportedly spring! May swiftly approaches and all over the province theatre companies big and small are gearing up to start rehearsing and presenting their summer seasons. In the capital, summer is always a pretty busy time, but that’s nothing compared with the full-on mayhem of tourist season in Trinity, Newtown, Grand Bank, Cow Head and elsewhere out there beyond the overpass.

Like it or not, in the summer theatre scene — as with most things provincial — there’s a Town/Bay divide. You hear a lot of snide comments about rural theatre festivals from people in the city. Some of it is nothing more than the deeply ingrained Townie chauvinism underlying everything that goes on in these parts, from how the provincial government spends money, to news coverage, to professional respect and recognition.

Speaking as someone born and raised in St. John’s I can tell you the stuck-up Townie stereotype exists for a reason. We’re not so bad individually, but en masse, people from St. John’s are to the rest of the province as Torontonians are to the rest of Canada.

When it comes to the dark and shadowy world out there beyond the city limits, our manners tend to be bad, our geography worse and our attitude patronizing.

But the tired old Town versus Bay fight is only part of the difficulty facing theatre companies in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. There’s a combination of economic and practical concerns that dictate what festivals present and how.

Because they rely mainly on tourists for audiences, any show they put up is necessarily going to be half art and half tourism. That doesn’t mean it has to be bad; it simply means there’s more to think about than simple artistic expression. Writing quality touristappropriate material is a hell of a lot tougher than most art snobs imagine.

First off, you have to assume your audience doesn’t know anything about your area or its history. That puts you in the awkward position of having to explain a great many things as you go along. Complex things. For instance, have you ever wondered why so many historical Newfoundland plays con-

SEAN PANTING

State of the art tain the “evil merchant” bit? You know the one: Hard working but luckless FisherFolk come to the Evil Merchant begging him to extend their credit. Evil Merchant refuses, condemning them to a long, cruel, molasses and tea-free Newfoundland winter. Everybody perishes of cold, malnutrition and/or TB. The End. I’ll tell you why you see that scene in virtually every play that ever gets written about our history — because that’s what happened. We may know all about it and see it as a hackneyed and predictable moment, but if you’re from Missouri or Toronto (or possibly St. John’s) and you don’t know how the relationship between merchants and fishermen worked back in the day,

‘I call him J.C., not because of his initials, but because he thinks he’s God’

On set at Rising Tide’s Summer in the Bight Theatre Festival in Tninity.

Paul Daly/The Independent

tourism pitfalls. Their Gros Morne Theatre Festival has a nice balance of “serious” plays, comedy and traditional music, giving people what they came to see without making Newfoundlanders look and sound like a bunch of idiots, proving that it’s possible to laugh at ourselves without becoming a joke.

Summer theatre is a great shot in the arm for rural communities and a reliable source of employment for actors (making it something of a minor mira-

cle right there). It can be a venue for exciting new work and at the same time, satisfy a tourist audience’s desire for light and fun fare. It doesn’t have to be cheap or stupid or in poor taste.

It doesn’t have to insult our culture or the audience’s intelligence and as long as the folks producing the festivals keep that in mind, it won’t.

Sean Panting is a writer, actor and musician living in St. John’s. His column returns May 11.

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From page 17 all of the wonderful people who’ve come to join you,” to (slightly crispier), “I call him J.C., not because of his initials, but because he thinks he’s God,” Crosbie was affectionately cosseted. Mulroney credited him with being indirectly responsible for putting him in the PM spot and wholly responsible for the Atlantic Accord, Hibernia and all the offshore action thereafter.

Crosbie himself seemed to genuinely enjoy the evening, and impressively, managed to keep both eyes (almost) wide open for five hours, right up until it was time for his own final speech.

After recovering from GuyMurphy’s stage-welcome offering of gyrating, pink feather-clad burlesque nymphs, he conceded he now understood why people would get so “pissed off” at him when he rambled on for too long.

“In a speech made in England some years ago, the speaker was quite lengthy and when he was finished, the person appointed to thank him said he had ‘exhausted time and encroached upon eternity.’”

To Crosbie’s credit, although he swiftly got into the swing of his former soap-box days, he did keep it snappy (by Crosbie standards), and after some jokes and some head shaking over the current state of political strife between the province and Ottawa, he wrapped up on a serious note.

“Both governments and leaders will continue to exist and have to deal properly and fairly with one another in the future. I end quoting U.S. President Thomas Jefferson … ‘the love of our country should sour above all other passions.’”

Earlier in the evening Rex Murphy quoted the owner of Belbins Grocery who was of the opinion “the success of any roast depends primarily on the quality of the beef.” If that’s really the case, then the evening’s sponsors, Oceanex, can rest easy in the knowledge they pulled off a solid event.

No one seemed to have much of a beef with Crosbie — but the tenderloin was slice-with-a-butter-knife sensational.

there’s a whole lot of other things you’re not going to understand either.

As a theatre company you also have to be conscious of keeping it light enough for the audience you’re attracting. People on vacation might be into one play about a shipwreck or tragedy, but you can’t pile on the human suffering so thick they can’t enjoy their whale watching tours.

Comedy is always a good bet, and because they came to see what Newfoundland and Labrador is like, it’s natural to have a few laughs with the culture. This is where things sometimes go off the rails. Laughing with quickly becomes laughing at and the whole thing descends into the kind of cod-kissing, Screech-swilling, halfwitted rubberbootery that’s so infuriating to the “don’t call me Newfie” set (of which I am one). It doesn’t have to be that way, of course. And often it isn’t.

As an example, Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador does a commendable job of navigating the art versus

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APRIL 27, 2007

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Ode to form

POET’S CORNER

April Love Scenes

With a little ‘thought rhyme’ a new sonnet is born MARK CALLANAN On the shelf The Rush to Here by George Murray Nightwood Editions, 2007, 79 pages

W

hen Robert Frost famously asserted he’d “just as soon play tennis with the net down” as write free verse, he was thumbing his nose at poetry that played by no set rules. He might have been pleased, then, to see that after a long dalliance in free verse modes of expression, Canadian poetry seems to have returned to the use of form. The sonnet, particularly, is enjoying a new heyday.

Most of us have at least a passing familiarity with its two basic incarnations: 14 lines broken down into an eight-line setup (the octave), and the sea change that plunges us into the six-line conclusion (the sestet) of the Petrarchan sonnet, or the twelve line setup and two line conclusion of the Shakespearean sonnet. The beauty of the sonnet lies in the economy of its expression, and in its potential for variation.

From John Milton to Paul Muldoon, poets have been adapting the sonnet to suit their needs for hundreds of years. Ever since its appearance as a recognizable form in 13th century Italy, the sonnet has survived the loss of regularized metre, had its

number of lines knocked about (see Gerald Stern’s twenty-odd lined American Sonnets), and otherwise been pinched and pulled into near unrecognizability.

In The Rush to Here, recent Newfoundland import George Murray adds another trick to the sonneteers repertoire, the “thought rhyme.” The idea is simple enough: thought rhymes are conceptual rather than auditory in nature, bound by associations of meaning rather than tonal similarities. So, Murray can rhyme sun with light, scarves with flags, or — less directly — bull with harassed.

There is plenty of room for playful punning here as well.

Murray pairs the verb fall with autumn; bucket “rhymes” with the homonymous pale. The resulting poems are part formal experiments and part freely associative meditations on the process of maturation and the struggle towards greater self-knowledge — the stuff of the past arriving at the present tense.

“Once I cooked in a greasy roadside spoon,” Murray writes in Truck Stop Gothic: just like this, and during one rotten lunch rush swiped my stainless steel knife at a passing fly, cutting its head clean off, right through where a neck should be. I felt divided…

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The speaker, having admitted that he then “went back to slicing / toasted western triangles in a trance” with his soiled knife, apologizes to a nameless you (presumably the reader) who may have eaten that particular sandwich order. “And the quick death hiding in the bread’s darkness? / Sorry you tasted such greatness and never knew.”

Though Murray tends to vary the rhyming pattern of his opening 12 lines, he always ends on the double hammer strike of the rhyming couplet (as in the Shakespearean sonnet form). The result is often of an epigrammatic nature that could stand on its own: “It can be tricky to let your-

self go / ways other than those you came in by” (Distilled Water); “There are so few barriers to proper sense, / but sense is among them, if you get my drift” (The Corner); “Open your mouth and fill it with food or rage. / The same leaf that turns to the light shies from the blaze” (Lullaby).

Purists of form poetry might be tempted to point out that the musicality of the well-placed end rhyme is absent here, and that, in choosing sense over sound, Murray has eliminated one of the sonnet’s chief virtues: its ability to insinuate itself into our consciousness through the pattern of the auditory echoes it creates. And while it’s true that we respond more viscerally to sound than we do to conceptual echoes, these poems are aimed more at the head than the heart.

In reading Murray’s sonnets, the question to ask yourself is this: Is his innovation on rhyme a useful system for deploying language in a memorable and insightful fashion, or does it amount to sleight-of-hand that only ever mimics magic? I would suggest he has hit on a means of expression that works well to coax out his weighty, witty meditations. It is another kind of spanner for the poet’s toolkit. The “thought rhyme” is a fascinating concept, and one that provides limitless potential for poetic investigation. These are poems well worth reading.

Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s.

Hs column returns May 11.

Lawnscape latched with gravel-crusted glaciers; trickling pools of gall and grunge.

Pitiful, paralyzed, primrose expelled prematurely; “Why me, Lord? Why here?

Another month in the womb wouldn’t have hurt!”

Rigid rhododendrons; bearing like palace guards; should be at ease by now; sent flapping like apocalyptic rotors in aborted ascent.

Walkers numbed by November winds; leaning in acute angles spring gear still in closets!

Grey-gauzed, pine-clad hills; slush splattering this frowning land of sagging spirits.

Diaphanous glitter frosting bare limbs; dripping beads; pretty in photos; ploy for impending darkness … bent on destruction.

Seniors’ moment: smiling faces hopping gamely from flipper trucks into camera glare: diners destined to decline.

“Ill-wind” — blown sealing ships upon packed flows; paradise to passionate protesters; another season’s bounty in the red.

Hardly inspiration to arouse poetic thoughts!

Oh, to be anywhere now that April’s here!

A few mild days unbroken; labour pains forgotten as spring toddles forth in our smiling land of hopeful hearts.

Last Snowfall dithering, “Will I? Won’t I? Isn’t it hysterical to watch them stow away shovels and roll out summer tires?”

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Liz Pickard of Lizband is a featured act at the Rose and Thistle in St. John’s, April 28th.

Robert Chaytor

APRIL 27 • Official launch of Human Beans by Ron Pumphrey. The author will be present to read from his book and sign copies, Chapters, Kenmount Road, St. John’s, 7 p.m.

• Acoustic Teen ‘Open Mic,’ A.C. Hunter Library, Second Floor, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 7 p.m. To register to perform or for more info call: Betty at 737-3317.

• Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland presents Belly Up, written and performed by Robert Chafe, LSPU Hall, Victoria Street, 8 p.m. Until April 29.

• Music at Memorial, The MUN Chamber Orchestra, D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MU-1045, 8-10 p.m.

APRIL 28 • The Montreal Symphony Orchestra, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 7293900.

• Second Annual STEP Scuff Scholar-

ship Fund Raiser. Music by Geoff Panting and surprise guests. Dance calling and instruction by Jane Rutherford, Masonic Temple, Cathedral Street, St. John’s, 9 p.m.

• Rock Can Roll. Liz Solo, Jen Skywalker and Pinky the Bra. Rock Show at Midnight featuring Jen King and the Lizband, Rose and Thistle, 9:30 p.m.

• Spring Knitting Classes, Anna Templeton Centre, Duckworth Street, St. John’s, 739-7623.

• Benefit Concert for Team Diabetes, Club One, St. John’s, 9 p.m.

APRIL 29 • East / West, an exhibition of recent works by Linda Swain, Pollyanna Art Gallery, Duckworth Street, St. John’s, 2-4 p.m., until May 29.

APRIL 30 • Boyle’s Historical Walking tours are now back in operation, to reserve a tour

call 364-6845 or email info@boyletours.com.

MAY 1 • Botanical Garden opening for the season, MUN Botanical Garden, Mount Scio Road, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

• The Life and Art of a Country Painter: Anthony Flower (1792-1875), The Rooms, until May 13.

MAY 2 • Folk Night at the Ship Pub, Duckworth Street, St. John’s, 9:30 p.m.

• Newfoundland Science Centre’s Starlab, a guided tour of the night sky in the Newfoundland Science Centre’s Starlab, The Planetarium, 2 p.m., 7540823.

MAY 3 • 24th Annual Home Show, Mile One Stadium, New Gower Street, St. John’s, 576-7657, until May 6.

To join our Carrier Crew Call 726.4639 or visit www.theindependent.ca

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INDEPENDENTSTYLE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007 — PAGE 21

TASTE Caveat emptor — buyer beware

By Nicholas Gardner For The Independent

M

any of us are wary about what we do these days. With fears of things happening to us like identity theft, or stealing credit card numbers online, we tend to be cautious, if not paranoid.

So what happens when you buy five bottles of wine for $500,000? Do you trust the sellers? Do you go on gut instinct?

Winemaking is a very old trade and some Châteaux in France are famous for their wines, but in 1787 Château Lafite was visited by a man who would become President of the United States — Thomas Jefferson.

The Jefferson Bottles were legendary in the wine community; they were thought to be part of a collection in France that was hidden from looters during the Second World War only to be liberated shortly afterwards. Five bottles were found, each bearing three significant scratchings: the first is the name of the château, Lafite; the second, the year 1787; and the most crucial of them all, the initials, “TH. J.” All these things turned into a great story of historical significance, but more importantly they went on the block — they were to be auctioned off.

The auction house chosen for this historic event was equally impressive.

Christie’s of London had been doing business since 1766 and had been auctioning wine almost since the doors opened.

When the hammer fell in 1985, so too did all other auction records to follow.

The five bottles of wine sold for over $500,000 — the most expensive bottle was hammered down for over $160,000.

No single bottle of wine has ever come close to that price at auction.

But like every good story, there’s a twist in the tale. It came to light only this month that there’s a bit of snake oil in the bottle — that possibly the whole thing was a sham, and the 1787 Bordeaux with the Thomas Jefferson inscription is a fake.

The buyer of the wines was William Koch, an American billionaire. His collection of vintage wines is estimated to be worth over $9 million and comprised of over 35,000 bottles.

The provenance of the Jefferson bottles came up as he was lending the bottles to be displayed at a museum in Boston. Using FBI forensic techniques, they found out the engraving was done with an electric power tool not available at the time. As well, historians agree that there was no evidence Thomas Jefferson ever engraved his wine bottles at any time.

So what’s the result of this? Right now, not much, as the investigation is ongoing, but it brings to the public’s attention that more than handbags, shoes and computer software can be counterfeit these days.

So what can you do to protect yourself from an unscrupulous deal on a high end product?

Only deal with experts. Choose wine dealers who have provenance of selling quality product, and if this is too difficult to do, ask the winery. Every major label from Lafite to Petrus has a website — and they list where their product is sold.

Deal only with those people and you are sure to get an original.

Heel appeal Spring shoe line-up an assortment of detail and design — with one standout winner

By Mandy Cook The Independent

A

h, shoes, glorious shoes!

Women everywhere are currently salivating over the happy (read: warm) season’s selection of spring shoes. And appreciative male admirers will be just as delighted to glimpse bare feet and painted toes emerge from bulky winter boots, to be sheathed instead in eye-catching (skimpier) footwear. While there is one obvious frontrunner for women’s styles this season, there’s also something for everyone. And, surprisingly, there’s a colourful and decorative range that won’t force your feet to suffer for fashion.

“In my opinion, the wedge is the biggest hit this year,” says Katilina Zidarova, a salesperson at Gallery Shoes on Water St., St. John’s. “The wedge is very important in Newfoundland because of our hilly streets.

This year the style is completely different than years before.”

While the skyscraper high heel is still a must-have among glamourtypes, there’s just a smattering of a selection to be found this season, compared to the more versatile and supportive wedge. The Jessica Simpson line has been sought after at Gallery, so owner Phonse Miller has brought in some killer sexpot styles.

Black patent leather is popular, and one notable style is a gently pointed peep-toe with a raised platform sole.

The platform provides an illusion of height, but reduces stress on the foot — while the clear, tortoise-shell sole adds the va-va-va-voom factor.

But the wedge has the It appeal this spring. Elsa Morena, a 22-year-old English student at Memorial, says she’s looking forward to snagging a pair.

“I definitely want to get a pair of wedges with a cork heel to go out

dancing or to a club,” she says, “but I would also like to get a nice pair of open-toe flats for work or even to go shoe shopping in.”

And the shade? “Anything yellow!”

Bright colours, interwoven straps and buckles are big this season. God is in the details, as the expression goes.

Strappy and beaded pastel-hued sandals are popular among the spring vacation set, for walking and lounging; pretty flats with a kitten heel and a bow across the toe are getting snapped up by the younger crowd.

The wedge is the runaway winner, though. Think slip-on or sling back, buckled or bejeweled with chunks of turquoise and tiger eyes. The heel can be smooth or textured with raffia or bamboo. But Zidarova sums it up best for the well-heeled woman.

“My favourite wedge is sexy, hot and comfortable!” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

French living: a cure for the winter blues

S

pring is the time when men’s feelings turn to love. The birds start to chirp in the morning, the sunshine peeks from behind the clouds and the snow melts in rivers. People are nicer now. They have shed their sullen and grumpy faces like bears just out of hibernation. They walk down the street in pairs chatting during the lunch hours, enjoying the outdoors, and generally, the world looks better for shaking off winter.

After suffering through what I felt was the longest winter in modern histo-

NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the Eating Path ry, I became one of those fed up and grumpy types. However, since then, I found the all-encompassing cure for whatever ails you — while the rest of the world walks around the block, I eat like I could if I were in France.

My wife has a long-time affinity for

all things French — books, culture, art, fashion, and music. Me, I just visit for the food.

So this weekend we thought we’d try to make a feast of French foods and be as local about it as we possibly could.

First stop was the boulangerie — a bakery that specializes in bread — and there’s no better place than Georgetown Bakery in St. John’s. My wife picked up the quintessential piece, the baguette, still warm from the oven, and we started from there. By the time the bread reached home, the end was

already torn off and the yummy, creamy crumb exposed.

We then headed for other destinations around the city, and went searching for the best depanneur or general store. At Belbin’s Grocery we found duck breasts ready for cooking and a fine selection of cheeses — goats and rich double creams. I was taken aback by the great selection of other exotic ingredients — fresh pressed olive oils for drizzling just before serving, truffle oils, aged balsamic vinegar and a treasure trove of other delights were also

available. As well, if you’re looking for someone — chances are they’re shopping at Belbin’s on the weekend. We found our shopping excursion to be a never-ending stream of familiar faces.

It felt like our corner store in a small French village.

Next, a quick side trip to the boucher (butcher). There is no other institution but Halliday’s Meats to pick up some smoked sausage, and they’re always happy to help with any questions you See “Shop for,” page 24

APRIL 27, 2007

22 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

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INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 23

Stitch in time saves nine T

he saying, don’t judge a book by its cover, doesn’t always count when it comes to a home, says Jim Burton, an agent with Remax Plus in St. John’s. “Eighty per cent of the people we deal with start their home-buying experience on the Internet so you better believe a picture is worth 1,000 words.”

Outside maintenance like replacing or repairing windows and doors can have multiple benefits, Burton says. “Anything you do that is esthetically pleasing as well as energy efficient will be a double win for any homeowner and at the end of the day spending money to save money while increasing the value of your home is a smart move.”

Dan Lundrigan, a contractor with St John’s-based Pride Construction, says keeping the exterior of your home in good condition comes with being a homeowner. “Maintaining your property means you get to enjoy everything it has to offer all year round,” he says. Performing repairs when needed, maintaining the landscape, and carrying out other tasks on a regular basis will ensure your home not only looks

good — but saves you money.

Keeping on eye on roofs and gutters on a seasonal basis will make life easier in the long run. As with everything in life, a stitch in time saves nine, Lundrigan chuckles. Repairing a damaged roof will make it last longer and can prevent more severe problems caused by water leakage. Years ago, Lundrigan says, not enough thought was put into the heat that can build up in an attic. “Shingles that should have had a 25-year life span were expiring in 15,” he says, advising people to check with a professional on ways to increase the life of their investment.

Lundrigan says today’s windows are maintenance free, energy efficient and many come with lifetime warranties. As long as you have the latest, and they are installed properly with the correct seals, you should be fine.

Lundrigan advises to give windows and doors a “once over” on a seasonal basis.

“Mould is a four-letter word when it comes to a home,” he says, adding people live, cook and clean in “plastic bag” homes. Lundrigan says the answer to mould problems is prevention — buy a good

quality heat and air exchanger and maintain it. “Clean the filter with soapy water in the bathtub twice a year and sweep flies and dust out of the bottom of it.”

What’s on the outside — siding or hardiplank — is more about personal preference that anything else, Lundrigan says, as both have equal value when it comes to being maintenance free. Keep on top of minor repairs to siding and chipped paint to increase the life and look of your home.

If you've recently purchased a home, you may be planning to build a fence or deck, or you might need to carry out some maintenance to what you already have.

Lundrigan says with proper planning and research, most homeowners can have a deck they can enjoy for years with very little upkeep as today’s materials are designed to withstand the elements. Checking for rot or insect damage should be a quick job, he says, and most pressure-treated lumber looks even better after it “weathers.”

Andy Edwards of Aylwards, a home hardware store in See “Every little thing,” page 24

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24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

School’s out; lessons learned A

year of university done … and only four more to go. Lucky for me I have this long summer to spend doing whatever my heart desires, if I only knew how to do that still.

I don’t want to portray high school as a breeze and university as a nightmare — because they’re neither. Both take hard work and focus, but the extent to which school has taken over my life is what gets under my skin. I’ve been stuck in a MUN snow globe for a year and everyone else outside of it gets to look in and laugh. Everything I did seemed to revolve around school, and by the end of term I was sick of being trapped in a tiny world with no easy exits — where the weather was always stormy. I wanted to be a part of what I could only glimpse through the walls, but as soon as I would reach for it I’d have the hand of my conscience slap it away with a reminder there was more work and studying to be done.

My priorities changed. Weekends normally spent drifting by, doing the everything and nothing all teenagers do, I spent boarded up in my room studying. The effort it takes to stay on top of all the work is more than I’ve put

LEIA FELTHAM Guest Column into school in the past and I feel utterly drained, but more proud of what I’ve achieved than I ever have before.

The sad truth of how much MUN has coiled around my life demonstrated itself recently when I was at a party.

Generally around a table late at night with a group of old friends, conversation topics get tossed back and forth like an accelerated game of ping pong, but it seemed one particular area was a magnet that drew us in every time. It became a game to see how long we could go without talking about school, and we all lost miserably. Getting back to reality hasn’t been as easy as I thought.

Summer has changed for us — matured and evolved with our bodies and minds. Responsibilities weigh heavily and instead of wasting our months of freedom, like we want to, almost everyone I know is working full

time. It’s like we’ve been put into motion for so long we don’t know how to use the brakes anymore. I know personally, I’ve found it hard to pull together the severed threads of what made the fabric of my life before university. I want the days back of driving around with no destination and piling together with friends on basement couches. Most of all I want to let go of all the worry for the future this transition has created. But it wouldn’t be fair to say that university has only given me burdens.

I’ve had my share of migraines and sleepless nights, but Memorial has also become a place I can identify myself with. I feel like I’m part of something, a collective group of people, who for the most part, are all working hard to achieve their goals. What I never expected to gain from university was friendships. I learned that people who share the same boat get further rowing together. Those who were fighting to get through the same classes as me were openly helpful and we supported each other to deal with some eccentric profs and heavy workloads and maybe we were all more successful in the end

because of it. Even though we might never talk except for in passing after classes end, I still gained temporary companions that made the year easier.

They tell you high school days are the best of your life, but I still can’t support that completely. I do miss the safeness of seeing the same faces I’ve always known. There was a closeness during grade school that came with spending years growing up together and I thought that would be completely lost in university, but there exists a different kind of familiarity among the student body. We don’t all know each other, or even have a lot in common, but what we all did share entering Memorial was a vulnerability in starting a new chapter of life, and a mutual goal of trying to achieve our academic dreams. We were brought together by a shared idea of what we wanted for our future and the university became our outlet to learn and help shape that.

I realize reality isn’t always as straight forward as that, yet even the smallest sense of togetherness can help individuals in their studies and in their private lives. I’ve personally witnessed how unity helps people cope in times of

grief. I’ve seen how the loss of one beloved student can affect and devastate a school, but also how people can come together to find solace.

I can’t speak about universities without being reminded of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech and one of my first thoughts I have is that I’m so lucky all the many gifted and amazing people I’ve met at my short time at MUN are still here with us. I hope that those at Virginia Tech will lean on each other and let the unspoken bonds they share help them through.

University has proven vastly different from high school and has its ups and downs, like any major change in life. I’ve gained knowledge and lessons, one of which I feel still stands among the most important: a university is only buildings without the people.

The people determine what a school is truly made of and it’s what you take from them — the students, the teachers, every person — that will stay with you forever.

staple of French supplies if you know where to look.

St. John’s is filled with all the possibilities of good eating. Search out places you haven’t been. Turn your afternoon into an adventure of foraging for a meal. It is an enriching experience and you meet people along the way.

The French attitude to food is contagious — shop for the freshest product

available in the areas closest to you.

Make the search for the perfect ingredients as satisfying as the meal and you’ll take away more than just breakfast, lunch or dinner — you’ll take away a lifestyle.

Leia Feltham is a first-year student at Memorial University. Her column returns May 11.

Shop for freshest products in areas closest to you From page 21 might have.

Which brings me to our final stop — the wine for this gastronomic repast.

When looking for the perfect accompaniment for the meal there is no other place to turn to other than the local wine shop for regional vin de pays.

While we couldn’t agree on what was more local, Newfoundland wines or

French, we settled on French regional wine for our meal.

The St. Emilion Grace Dieu 1999 was a light and refreshing wine from the Bordeaux region made up of mostly Merlot with a healthy portion of Cabernet Franc. It was both light and fruity — the essence of springtime.

We gathered our French bits and headed home. Our first meal was a luncheon of baguette, a collection of

French cheeses, some pickled asparagus and olives and a small pot of rilletts du porc direct from Brittany, France.

The paté was a touch salty for my taste, but it was rich and flavourful and was one of the highlights of the meal.

After our luncheon was over we relaxed and chatted over our café au laits — dark, rich, filtered coffee and warm milk, served in coffee bowls. We had discovered it is easy to find a good

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

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Every little thing will be noticed From page 23 Marystown, says that keeping the exterior of your home “spic and span” has become easy and affordable. “For under $200 you can wash everything from your vehicle and your boat to your driveway, deck and windows as well as any professional,” he says. Pressure washers are on the move again this year.

As weather improves, so do sales. “People take pride in what they own, they work hard for their dollars and keeping things looking nice is part of maintaining that investment.”

Richard Kennedy, an agent of Coldwell Banker Hanlon in St. John’s, agrees. “If the outside looks great and is well maintained then little imperfections inside can be overlooked, but if a home looks neglected before you even get inside, then every little thing will be noticed,” he says.

But it isn’t “just” about selling your home, Kennedy stresses.

“A well-kept house is appealing and desirable to come home to at the end of a long day.”

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Paul Daly/The Independent

Making the wheels go ’round and ’round M y field of specialty, out of complete without a couple of hockey every possible vehicular cards flapping on the spokes to give it genre, each shade or nuance that realistic motorcycle sound. For of mechanical motility, believe it or some odd reason I was particularly not, is bicycles. fond of goalies for my spokes and disI’m the go-to guy in that depart- tinctly remember having Gerry ment and possess “mad Cheevers with his famous skills,” as they say. I picked stitch-marked mask, flapup the skills at an early age, ping his brains out on my because, as the oldest of five bike. brothers, we had a lot of As if he hadn’t suffered bikes kicking around. We enough. accumulated a lot of bikes Many years later, as my too, and had a disproportionson approached that excelate amount in our backyard. lent age when he was ready Most houses on our street to learn how to ride a bicyMARK WOOD had a lawn gently sloping cle, we practiced riding in away in the back, whereas the school parking lot.

WOODY’S Naturally I had to build a ours was level and retained by a two-metre concrete wall WHEELS chopper to ride with him where we stored our bicycle and picked right up where I inventory. It was more of a scrap yard left off years earlier. Just like a kid and as years went by we threw the again. Actually, height has a lot to do odd motorcycle down there as well. with maturity, and my “less-thanWhenever a part was needed one had overly tallness” permitted me a generonly to climb down with a wrench and ous allowance of youthful exuberretrieve just about any treasure imagi- ance. nable. Fortunately, it was a time when I started accumulating bicycles bicycles were evolving into choppers again from the largest supplier of and extra sets of front forks were in bicycles in Canada. CCM manufachigh demand. We had a custom bicy- tures 250,000 a year, and through negcle fabrication shop long before it was lect, a portion of those don’t last a fashionable. Of course, no bike was year. They’re bought in the spring,

ridden for a summer, left in the snow all winter, and discarded the following spring. Is there a celebrity willing to help stop the senseless slaughter of bicycles? Sadly, no, it’s all up to me. I drive by and throw them in the back of my pickup truck. Depending on their condition they can be restored, salvaged for parts, or made into something really interesting.

My last project required a couple of bikes and I easily found three in an afternoon. All the necessary ingredients for my “tall bike” recipe: take two bikes, weld one frame on top of the other, paint and reinstall the running gear. Other than a seat that’s almost two-metres tall, it handles like a regular bike once you’re up there and quite an eye catcher, especially at night with a couple of lights on it.

It’s just one of over a dozen and a half bicycles in my collection, spanning just about every style available.

There are choppers, of course, and mountain bikes, a droopy-handle bar racer, and a full suspension vintage BMX. One of the gems is a mint condition banana bike, a Cougar XR-100 with a three-speed stick shift similar to the one I rode as a kid. For short trips to the pond we like to ride old cruisers with springy seats and wide

A Mark Wood creation.

comfortable handlebars — one called Jaunty Bike; the other, Jauntier Than Thou. On a summer’s day, with a towel draped over the shoulders, it’s a scene right out of an old catalogue.

My sons’ friends visit on sweet mountain bikes and head straight for our chopper every time. The driveway

Mark Wood photo

swarms like a wasps’ nest with kids on bikes, doing wheelies and hanging out, and I’m always there with a wrench, making the wheels go ’round.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s runs an underground bike shop called Cycletherapy.

26 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT

APRIL 27, 2007

APRIL 27, 2007

INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 27

FREESTYLIN’

Freestyling motocross world champion Mat Rebeaud of Switzerland is airborne with his motorbike next to the ancient Acropolis during a bike show in Athens April 25, 2007.

Yannis Behrakis/REUTERS

Sounds of summer T

he continuous rhythmic throbbing next to making the football team or curing acne. It was me infiltrated every one of my having his own car with house speaksenses, blocking out all but its ers and miles of speaker wire stuffed own insistent pounding. Unable to down the back of the seats. avoid it, I found myself incorporating As I sat beside this young lad, a the steady pulse into my own heartthought occurred to me: why not make beat, involuntarily making two hearts eye contact, acknowledge the thrill of beat as one. a cool car on a hot day? Why not Summer has landed with a thud, and remind myself of my younger days the little doofus next to me at a red when annoying music was just definlight refuses to turn down his stereo. ing one generation, and not intentionLORRAINE I’d felt the pavement shaking a ally disrespecting another?

SOMMERFELD block back and had already put up my Because he would look at me like I windows. And it’s not as if I don’t was a crazy freak lady, that’s why. understand — appreciate even — the While poking around in my gauzy wonder of warm weather, a trick car nostalgia, I forgot one very important and great tunes. It’s just that technolopoint. While taking in the view before gy has produced car stereo systems that are total- me, I was forgetting the view before him. A nutly wasted … in a car. And while the young driv- ter woman in a minivan was smiling and shrugers stare resolutely ahead from under the peaks of ging like a loon, and, wait, did she actually do a their caps, I wonder if they realize they’re using thumbs up motion with her hand? up all of their hearing points before they turn 30.

This is why adults look like fools most of the I long to have this discussion with one of them. time. In our heads we are still 18, but to the actuI also recognize that nobody could have had it al 18-year-olds we couldn’t be more hopelessly with me. We’d cruise around when spring finally ridiculous if we tried — especially if we’re relatbroke, the height of cool in a huge car effective- ed to them. ly turned into a two-seater because there were six To the kid who thought some cougar was hitfeet of house speakers lying across the rear seat. ting on him, I’d only like to mention that if you There was always one guy in high school who’d turned it down a little, you wouldn’t have to figured out the best way to get a girlfriend wasn’t avoid eye contact with everyone around you. It’s

POWER SHIFT

your music, it’s your car, it’s your summer and we’ve all been there.

I save my most twitching annoyance for the un-muffled mufflers that surely can’t be legal.

You will have the wrath of shift-workers, light sleepers and parents of small kids everywhere raining down on your head every time you turn into the street. We’ll have that talk about karma when you’re a little older.

While there really is no mystery to the young men who drive these noise boxes, I admit to being totally perplexed by their parents. If my kid earned enough to pour $30,000 into a car, I’d be wielding my Harsh Parenting textbook and circling housing alternatives in the local paper for him. Independence is not defined nor nurtured by living on Mommy and Daddy’s dime while creating a car that rattles the window frames every time it’s started. The window frames of the place you sponge off of.

I know not everyone shares my lust for a quieter life. To a toddler, all the world is knees; to my over-40 ears, it’s all noise. And while I’ll probably give up trying to exhibit my earnest efforts to appreciate the ruckus in the car next door, at least I’ve figured out the music thing.

It’s not to annoy us; it’s just to keep us away from them. www.lorraineonline.ca

28 • INDEPENDENTFUN

APRIL 27, 2007

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 ___-by-Chance, Nfld.

5 Galileo’s birthplace 9 Rodent 13 Tsp’s larger cousin 17 Captain’s cry 18 Indigo plant 19 Free of infelicities 20 ___ is where the heart is.

21 Hearth 23 Gloomy 25 Vast time frame 26 Sow sound 27 Scanned 28 Game of numbers 29 Trig function 30 Throw rocks toward the hog line 31 Pat gently 32 Season for iceberg sightings off Nfld.

35 Chinese energy 36 ___ Peter to pay Paul 37 Milk container 40 On the ball 41 Man. town named after Flintabattey Flonatin (of sci-fi) 44 Swing music 45 Skate string 46 Past participle of lie 47 Beam of light 48 Elephant statue in St. Thomas, Ont. 49 Explosive 50 Fire: prefix 51 PC cousin 52 Inoculation

53 B.C. whale watching port 55 Summer time in Banff 56 Nova Scotian who founded a shipping line 59 Traveller’s stopover 60 “O Canada! Terre de ___ aïeux” 61 Lorie of the links 62 Bird once native to Funk Island: Great ___ 64 First woman GG 67 Tenor Vickers 68 Shakespearean heavy 69 Stratford’s river 70 Stare lasciviously 71 It left a ___ in my mouth (2 wds.)

73 Wind: prefix 74 Small in Scotland 75 “The ___ Boy” (Petrie film) 76 Wheat (Fr.) 77 Before this time (arch.)

78 Treat flax 79 Masculine 81 Corner of a sail 82 Country with many official languages 85 Conceal 86 Gaspé mountains: les ___-Chocs 87 Provincial pol.

90 Future fiancé, maybe 92 Of a Eurasian region 94 Slanting type: abbr.

95 Sick sea of Asia

CHUCKLE BROS

96 Not pro 97 Related 98 Fake shot 99 As plain as the ___ ...

100 Track tournament 101 Surrender possession of DOWN 1 Coffee shop 2 State on L. Erie 3 Dawn, poetically 4 Hurricane hub 5 Fence of pickets 6 Silly 7 Twisted 8 Brew 9 A Mansbridge 10 Perfect 11 Sort 12 Got into a stew?

13 Pulsate 14 Cowboy footwear 15 Obscenity 16 Mexican money 22 Nfld. site with oldest fossil evidence of early multicelled life: Mistaken ___ 24 Reveal indiscreetly 27 Wreck 29 Stable parent 30 Goatee site 31 Ferguson of “Air Farce” 32 Road crew supply 33 Nfld.’s official flower: pitcher ___ 34 Verso’s opposite

35 History muse 36 Dupuis of “Maurice Richard” 37 “FBFW” grandpa 38 Ultraviolet rad.

39 Earth: prefix 41 Yukon town near Pelly R. 42 Campus club, briefly 43 Quebec lake 44 Ukrainian mayor of Winnipeg, 1957-77 46 “FBFW” creator Johnston 48 Vocalist Siberry (“Small Fires”) 50 N.W.T.’s official tree: jack ___ 51 Rx writers 52 Code name for beach where Canadians landed on D-Day 54 High ___ 55 Quebec mountain 56 Budgie container 57 Big black bird 58 Italian cathedral 60 Show drowsiness 61 A McGarrigle sister 63 Be acquainted with 64 Seed 65 ___ of consent 66 Diminutive suffix 67 B.C.’s official bird: Steller’s ___ 68 Capri 69 Once more 71 Flying mammal 72 Up to the task

73 Palm native to Asia 75 Polar ___ 77 Draw out 78 Long gun 79 N.S. basin with

world’s highest tides 80 Confuse 81 Laundry ___ 82 Footnote abbr.

83 Short letter

84 Borneo native 85 The good guy, usually 86 Walking stick 87 P.M. Pearson, to pals 88 Set down

89 A Brontë sister 91 Mr. Hanomansing 92 Part of rotating shaft 93 French bag Solutions on page 30

Brian and Ron Boychuk

WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) You still might have to deal with some lingering confusion that marked a recent workplace situation. But for the most part, you should now be well on your way to your next project.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) A new commitment might demand more time than you’d expected to have to give it. But rely on that special Bovine gift for patience, and stick with it. You’ll be glad you did.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) You’re earning the admiration of a lot of people who like the way you handle yourself when your views are on the line. Even one or two of your detractors are being won over.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22) Taking your responsibilities seri-

ously is what you do. But ease up on the pressure gauge and make time for much needed R & R. Start by making this weekend a “just for fun” time zone.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) Some recently uncovered information might make a change of plans inevitable. If so, deal with it as quickly as possible, and then find out what went wrong and why.

What you learn might surprise you.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) Aspects favour moving carefully and deliberately when making any significant changes. Could be there are more facts you need to know, which you might overlook if you rush things.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) A problem neighbour might be looking to goad you into an action

you don’t want to take. Ask someone you both respect if he or she would act as an impartial arbitrator for both of you.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) A recent workplace accomplishment hasn’t been overlooked by those who watch these things.

Meanwhile, start making travel plans for that much-too-longdeferred trip with someone special.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) Those money matters continue to move in your favour. Now would be a good time to start putting some money back into the house, both for esthetic as well as economic reasons.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) A changing workplace environment can create job pressures. But, once again, follow the example of your

birth sign and take things a step at a time, like the sure-footed Goat you are.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) Cheer up. You could soon have the funds you need for your worthy project. Your generous gifts of time and effort are well known, and someone might decide it’s time to join with you.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) Your inner scam-catcher is right on target, and you’re absolutely right to reject that “too-good-to-be-true” offer. Meanwhile, something positive should be making its way to you.

YOU BORN THIS WEEK You are generous and also sympathetic to people who find they need the help of other people.

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

(c) 2007 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

SOLUTION ON PAGE 30

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007 — PAGE 29

Rod Snow, former international rugby star, is the project manager of the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre in St. John’s.

By John Rieti The Independent

R

od Snow trots onto the Swilers rugby field in St. John’s, surveying its patchy turf, scarred with the tire tracks of mud left by someone out for a joy ride. The bleachers are rusty and bent, their pink, white, and green paint faded from the long winter.

Snow and The Rock, Newfoundland’s provincial rugby team, will bring those stands back to life when they host Quebec on June 2.

The team has been training indoors since November, working on the strength, speed and stamina they hope will lead them to another Rugby Canada Super League title, and more success against international teams like England’s Lancashire, and an Irish college all-star team, both of which are scheduled to play this summer.

Snow played his first game in 1986 and has since become Newfoundland and Labrador’s biggest star, competing professionally in Wales, and nationally for Canada. He hasn’t decided whether he will play for Canada again, but will be

a leader on The Rock.

Now, in the final years of his career, Snow looks forward to a competitive future in sports business.

Adjacent to the ravaged Swilers’ field on Crosbie Road in the city is another muddy patch of land, but one Snow is much more pleased with.

This is the construction site of the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre, a $7-million indoor gym and strength training facility for the province’s elite athletes, scheduled to open Nov. 7.

Snow is the sport centre’s project manager, a job that has introduced him to bargaining, fundraising, logistics planning, and event promotion.

“The approach I took as an athlete I take to my business as well,” Snow tells The Independent.

Although he has no formal business training, Snow says the leadership, work ethic, and positive outlook rugby has given him has helped him manage the sports centre from conception to construction. His passion for the project, however, springs from his vision of a healthier province.

“I’ve been very fortunate to feel the effects of what sports had to offer me and I’d love to be able

Paul Daly/The Independent

to pass some of that on to the youth in this province,” he says.

“I trained as a physical educator, and that’s really where I see myself at heart.”

Snow hopes the sports centre will not only produce Olympic-calibre athletes, but also help youth understand the value of physical fitness and cut down on health problems like heart illness and diabetes that plague the province. It’s a huge goal, but one matched by his optimism.

“You start right away by looking at what you can do, not what you can’t do,” he says. “I came from Newfoundland playing rugby, nobody’s ever done that before, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do it, I just had to be the first to do it.”

Snow says Newfoundland’s athletics and business community need to work together to overcome their challenges.

This week the Newfoundland Rugby Union took a nasty hit as a jump in airline prices forced this summer’s National Rugby Festival to be relocated from St. John’s to Montreal. The festival would have brought 850 rugby players and hundreds of supporters to the province, which would

have seen benefits for the sport and the local economy.

“We don’t have enough (high-level competition) here in this province, we don’t attract enough of it, and I’d love to be part of a facility and institution that … is capable of hosting high-end events,” says Snow.

He plans to be heavily involved when the rugby union attempts to bring the rugby festival to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009.

Currently, The Rock is working hard to bring some of their top players home to compete in this summer’s matches.

“Some of our players have been forced to move out of the province because of work-related reasons. We’ve made a point of keeping them involved in the team and bringing them back to play for us. They’re all Newfoundlanders, who don’t really see themselves playing for anyone other than us.”

Rugby fans certainly count on Snow suiting up for The Rock this summer, and look forward to him suiting up as rugby’s top future businessman. john.rieti@theindependent.ca

Trying to survive Icing a team during Easter’s minor hockey tournaments not easy

B

otwood is a sleepy little place.

Buildings are boarded up all over town — whether it’s the old Abitibi-Consolidated plant, a restaurant, or a convenience store. There are also some houses sporting plywood for windows.

Times in this central Newfoundland town are tough.

Driving around — which takes approximately seven minutes, on the scenic route — shows no sign of life, which is especially surprising because it’s the middle of the day during Easter week. There are no children outside playing, no teenagers walking the roads, no kids anywhere to be seen. But you know there are kids in town, because the elementary and high schools are the best-looking structures in the area.

You also know there are kids here because the Botwood Minor Hockey Association hosted the provincial Atom K championship in Harry Ivany Arena.

Six teams from across the province converged on Central Newfoundland to compete in the annual ritual of minor hockey — the Easter tournament. Bell Island, the CeeBees, United Towns

DON POWER

Power Point (from the Burin Peninsula), Northeast, Fogo/Change Islands and the host team competed over three days for the title, the right to hang a Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador banner in their rink and to create memories that will last a lifetime.

(My son played in the tournament, so Easter Sunday the family took off for Central.)

Tournament organizers did a great job with the event, which Northeast won over Fogo/Change Islands 5-4 in double overtime (a thrilling finish). However, what’s more impressive than their organizational skills is the fact some of these small towns still ice teams.

It is, as Barry Miller from Fogo/Change Islands’ team says, a difficult chore.

“We had 17 players on our team and

out of this we had seven girls. Our association has 97 players in seven divisions (which includes female). We had trouble with numbers in our bantam division, and had to pick up players from another association.”

Yet they sent teams to atom (Botwood), pee wee (Lewisporte), bantam (La Scie) and midget (St. Anthony).

Why? Because nowadays Easter means minor hockey more than it means bunnies and chocolate.

“These tournaments are very important to our players,” Miller continues.

“They get to meet others and also to see how they, as a team, play compared to other teams. I know that our atom team played in a tournament in Grand Falls in January and did not make the playoffs, but after they returned home they worked harder to improve.”

Miller’s kids have to travel, because of the difficulty in getting teams to travel to Fogo Island.

“Other associations are reluctant to come because of the isolation and the ferry system.

“We are having problems trying to keep our association going financially.

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We try to keep our registration as low as possible and fundraise. However, we had to raise our fees this past year and will probably do so again next year.”

United Towns minor hockey director, Greg Downey, from the Burin Peninsula, faces the exact same challenges.

There are other towns like Botwood, where out-migration has taken the younger members of the community, adults of childbearing age, leaving the seniors and some families behind.

“We found it hard last year to ice an atom team,” says Downey, who took the atoms to Botwood. “We had eight atomage players and that was all. We move up seven novice players to make an atom team of 15 players. This year we had only two players in the second year atom age, and the rest, 11 players, were first year atom age.

“With low numbers, it makes it very difficult to ice teams. We’re expecting to have the same problem at the pee wee level next season, because it is the second year where players move up a division.”

There is a bit of good news for United Towns, which had 90-100 players regis-

tered this past season. That total is approximately 20 more than last year.

The kids in these associations don’t have house league or all-star teams.

They have an atom team, a pee wee team, etc. Each team gets two hours of ice a week.

Games are rare, but welcome.

“Our location makes it very difficult to play other teams,” Downey explains.

“If we travel off the Burin Peninsula to play a hockey game, we have to prepare for overnight stay. The cost to play a game would be too high.”

Here in the capital city (although I’m not actually in St. John’s), we sometimes tend to think our problems are the biggest in the world. And then you meet these guys.

For the majority of the 50 or so associations across Newfoundland and Labrador, they’re just trying to survive.

As Fogo/Change Island’s Miller says: “We didn’t expect to get as far as we did.

Our kids played exceptionally well and really enjoyed themselves.”

Isn’t that what it’s all about? donniep@nl.rogers.com

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

APRIL 27, 2007

Be prepared for the meeting of rubber on rock T

here can’t be anything much more galling then slicing open an ATV tire 10 miles into the backcountry. Maybe disastrous would be a more appropriate word. Imagine this: late last fall my hunting amigo, Rod Hale, shot his caribou very late in the season — about 10 miles from the road over some very rugged terrain. Due to business and family commitments he was unable to hunt with me in balmy September weather when I killed my beast, so along with another friend, Robert Richards, I selflessly accompanied Rod back over the rolling hills and glassed for animals through intermittent snow squalls. We spotted a nice stag and hiked about two miles from the ATV trail to make the kill. All went well. Robert and I hiked back to the quads while Rod field-dressed his winter’s venison. The plan was for Robert and I to take our machines off trail and pick up the caribou. The going was rough — very rough, and we had no choice but to ride over quarries of jagged boulders and nasty stumps that could easily puncture all but the toughest rubber. But our tires held up and we retrieved Rod’s animal without incident.

This is a story about what could have happened.

I learned many years ago that the cheaper and often fragile 2-ply tires that come as standard equipment on most ATV’s are definitely an unwanted risk on backcountry excursions. They can be easily punctured under demanding conditions; like traversing those sharp rocks between Rod’s caribou and us. Imagine the pickle we would have found ourselves in with a flat tire, 10

PAUL SMITH

The Rock

Outdoors miles in country, late on a snowy cold evening. There would have been no option but to leave the machine and return the next day to either tow out the disabled ATV, or replace or repair the tire. Towing an ATV on this particular trail is something I’ve never experienced or want to experience. There are stretches of muck, boulders and stumps that challenge a single machine under power; let alone 700-lbs of broken down ATV. I’ve been hunting this area for about seven years now and so far mine and my buddies’ tires have held up, but you never know, one day we might be faced with the flat tire or broken down dilemma. That’s hunting. There are many uncontrolled variables (incidentally, we all carry tire repair kits, tools, and pumps to deal with minor tire and mechanical issues). All a backcountry hunter can do is be prepared and keep both quad and tires in tip top shape at all times — and buy the best and most rugged tires they can afford.

Compromise on your formal attire, or something else that’s less critical.

Nowadays, most ATV buyers upgrade their tires at the time of purchase. This is definitely a smart move.

Dealers give full credit for the price of the factory-supplied tires towards purchase of the upgraded more robust aftermarket option. If you take just one short run on those factory tires they will

Solutions for crossword on page 28

ATV on high.

Paul Smith/For The Independent

be considered used and only worth about half their original value. So upgrade by all means.

But what should you look for in an aftermarket tire? There are important decisions to make. Many riders wish to step up in tire size to gain a little extra ground clearance but there is always a downside. Bigger tires need more torque to turn them and this can stress a number of components such as CVjoints, axles, and transmissions. Too large a tire can overheat your engine as it works harder to provide that extra torque. The extra rolling mass is also more difficult to stop, and negatively impacts braking. But you do gain a little ground clearance, and to many of us who tango with stumps and boulders, that’s quite significant. Most dealers and people in the know suggest that we increase overall tire diameter no more than one inch from factory specs. On my 500 Arctic Cat, I replaced my facto-

ry 25-inch tires with a set of 26-inch Goodyear Mudrunners; complete with a blessing from my dealer.

The next consideration is the tire’s ply rating. This is essentially a measure of a tire’s toughness and resistance to puncture. Of course tires with higher ply ratings are generally heavier and more difficult to turn, which invokes all the same disadvantages of bigger tires.

So we must find a balance that suits the terrain we typically drive on. If I rode rail-beds and wood roads most of the time I would opt for a lighter tire, but I give my tires plenty of abuse, so I prefer robust tires with a 6-ply rating. Tires with a sidewall profile that protrudes well outside the rim, provide a measure of protection to rims from rocks and stumps — a worthwhile feature indeed.

This styling is common in heavier ply tires. Another advantage of heavier ply is the ability to run flat. This can really get you out of a jam.

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Tread pattern is critical but often overlooked. ATV tires are produced with four basic tread styles: mud, trail, sand and racing. Most Newfoundland hunters probably need mud tires. Our island has no shortage of bog and muck. Mud tires are manufactured in varying degrees of aggressiveness and can make a huge difference in boggy performance. They are characterized by inside to outside angled bars, typically an inch in depth on more aggressive models. However, more aggressive tires are only useful if your have the power to turn them when the going gets dirty. Again, find a balance. A mediumaggressive mud tire is probable the best all around choice. Mud tires wear very quickly on harder trails and especially on pavement. The ride is also somewhat on the rough side particularly for machines lacking independent suspension. My mudrunners are designed primarily as a mud tire but also perform reasonably well on rocky hard trails — an ideal compromise for me. Trail tires are kind of the multi-purpose or Swiss army knife approach — neither fish nor fowl. They have lower and more closely spaced thread patterns and might be your best choice if you spend little time in the muck. They wear better on harder trails and generally are a bit easier on the wallet.

As for racing and sand tires, I’ll leave those subjects to someone who knows something about them. There aren’t a whole lot of sand dunes in caribou country, and we seldom rush.

Paul Smith is a freelance writer and outdoors enthusiast living in Spaniard’s Bay. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com

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INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

Clowe vs. Cleary Newfoundlanders set to battle in NHL playoffs

T

wo Newfoundlanders will face off in the NHL Western Conference semi-finals when Ryane Clowe of the San Jose Sharks takes on Daniel Cleary and the Detroit Red Wings.

Cleary’s Red Wings are the favourites, but the Sharks won three-of-four regular season meetings and dominated the Nashville Predators in the opening round.

Catch the games on: Saturday, April 28; Game 3 on Monday, April 30; and Game 4 on Wednesday, May 2.

— John Rieti

RYANE CLOWE Born in Fermeuse on the Southern Shore and raised in St. John’s Left wing, San Jose Sharks 1st year Regular season: 16 goals, 18 assists — 34 points Playoffs: 3 goals Highlights: Scored the winning goal in game 3 of the Nashville series Press: “‘I’ve played with some guys from Newfoundland; they’re all alike, too,’ Sharks Coach Ron Wilson joked. ‘They’re not sophisticates, to say the least.’ The kidding, though, is all good-natured with Clowe.”

— Victor Chi, San Jose Mercury News

MJ Masotti Jr / Reuters

DANIEL CLEARY Born and raised in Riverhead, Harbour Grace Right wing, Detroit Red Wings 8th year Regular season: 20 goals, 20 assists — 40 points Playoffs: 1 goal, 2 assists Highlights: Scored on a penalty shot in Game 4 of the opening-round series against the Calgary Flames.

Press: “The history of the NHL is rife with stories of talented players who, propelled by unfulfilled expectation and shattered confidence or a lack of desire or commitment, plunge headlong into the void. Poof. Gone without a trace. Daniel Cleary came to that edge. Put his skate blade over, even. And stepped back.” — Scott Burnside, ESPN.com Paul Daly/The Independent

INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIED FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, APRIL 27-MAY 3, 2007 — PAGE 32

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