VOL. 5 ISSUE 20
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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007
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LIFE 17
BUSINESS 13
Annual Festival of New Dance warming up
Northstar Network signs big deal with Lockheed-Martin
Whipping Wells St. John’s mayor says complaint attempt to stifle debate with regard to the general interests of the board …” “Well if it does, too bad,” Wells tells The Independent. “Ruelokke and company are fed he chairman of the board up because I supported the that oversees Newfound- province’s decision with respect land and Labrador’s off- to the Hibernia South applicashore oil play has written the tion as opposed to supporting provincial and federal ministers the companies and the federal of Natural Resources to com- government.” plain about public comments The letter also states that made by fellow board member Wells made the public stateand St. John’s Mayor Andy ments even though he had parWells. ticipated in the decision and “not In a letter expressed his obtained by The concerns at the Independent, Max “This board needs time or engaged Ruelokke, CEO of substantially in the Canada-Newdiscussion prior to get involved in foundland and to the vote on the discussing some Labrador Offshore decision.” Petroleum Board, Wells says of the issues with says comments by when the motion Wells that was made to the public.” appeared in the approve the March 2007 ediapplication at the Andy Wells tion of OilWeek board he was the magazine violated only one who the board’s conflict of interest voted against it. He says the vote guidelines. was 6-1. Referring to the C-NLOPB’s “If they didn’t know my posirecommendation to approve tion on the matter that’s their Hibernia Management and problem,” says Wells. “Perhaps Development Corporation’s they were sleep-walking.” request for an amendment to the Ruelokke quotes a section of Hibernia South development the conflict guidelines that says plan that was rejected by the board members “shall not disprovince, Wells said, “As far as cuss matters arising from board I’m concerned, the board didn’t meetings with any person other properly handle this … it was than full- or part-time members incompetent.” of the board” or anyone else In an April 27 letter to provin- unless they have the permission cial minister Kathy Dunderdale of himself as chairman, or one of and federal minister Gary Lunn, the ministers. Ruelokke wrote “such comRuelokke notes he did not ments speak to the integrity of give Wells — or any other board the board and are clearly incon- member — such permission. sistent with the principle that See “The public,” page 2 members shall act in good faith
IVAN MORGAN
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Detroit Red Wings fans in Riverhead — led by Kevin Cleary (foreground), father of NHL star and local boy Danny Cleary — during the Western Conference championship game May 15 against the Anaheim Ducks. Detroit won 5-0. Nicholas Langor/The Independent
Hockey night in Riverhead Danny Cleary brings the cheer back to Harbour Grace JOHN RIETI RIVERHEAD, HR. GRACE n explosion of red greets everyone who enters Mark Reynolds’ house, a striking contrast from the aging wooden houses and broken pavement of Riverhead, a corner of Harbour Grace near the rusting Kyle. The town seems to have lost most of its cheer. Houses are for sale throughout the community. Further down in Harbour Grace, the historic cathedral is crumbling and many buildings on Water Street have been abandoned — even the colours of the Spirit of Harbour Grace, a famous old plane mounted at the head of the harbour, look faded.
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Look past the boarded windows and you will see the home of champions. Curler Jamie Korab won gold. Neil Cleary, Danny’s older brother, hoisted the Herder this past April. And now Danny Cleary, a right-winger for the Detroit Red Wings, could be the first Newfoundlander to win the Stanley Cup. Danny springs over the boards on the big-screen TV in the living room packed with family, friends and the town mayor. Forget Detroit or Anaheim, tonight Riverhead owns the title of “Hockeytown.” As Danny collects the puck all hands are sucked into the television, cheering as if he could hear their voices from a world away. Everyone agrees: “Detroit gotta’ win tonight, definitely.” The hockey star’s father, Kevin Cleary, sits on the edge of the couch, arms crossed, leaning forward toward the TV — focused.
Cupids crossroads Planning for Cupids400 going strong; organizers itch for federal commitment STEPHANIE PORTER CUPIDS he Cupids400 celebration is at a critical juncture. Three years from 2010, which will mark four centuries since John Guy set up the first English settlement in Canada, and the event organizers are on pins and needles. On one hand, the province gave them a huge boost a month ago, with a $2.1 million commitment and a plug in the recent Speech from the Throne. On the other, they’re still looking for another $9 million from the feds, and it’s not coming easily, in spite of vigorous lobbying efforts and the considerable groundwork volunteers have laid. Politics being
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politics, especially these days, it’s safe to say they’re concerned. Event general manager Peter MacKenzie and archeologist Bill Gilbert — the man who discovered Guy’s 1610 dwelling 12 years ago — hope to fly to Ottawa next week to pitch their case directly. As they see it, the birthplace of English Canada is not something to be taken lightly. “Not to disparage our boy Cabot, but he might have shown up here, he might have stayed for a few minutes and went on, but John Guy is different than any of that,” MacKenzie says. Guy and the 38 other adventurous settlers came to start a new way of life. “He came over here, they knew they were coming to stay, they brought all the tools they needed, they brought all the workmen they needed, the fishermen, the boat-builders … this was the first English
colony in Canada.” “There’s a lot of firsts here,” echoes Gilbert. “The first brewhouse in Canada, they built the first ships here, the first sawmill, first grist mill, the first English child was born here, in 1613.” It brings to mind recent and much-promoted provincial celebrations like Cabot500 in 1497 and the 100th anniversary of Marconi’s wireless trans-Atlantic transmission in 2001 (dubbed “Receiving the world”). Both were promoted on a grand scale by the province — and boasted summers filled with activities and special events. “With all the mess and all the lawsuits that followed those, because of that it seems the government has decided not to do that kind of thing anymore,” MacKenzie See “We’re doing something,” page 8
Proudly wearing his son’s No. 11 jersey, he’s a self-described hockey fanatic. Although Kevin is friendly and can tell you anything about the Red Wings, don’t bother him during the game. Kevin has spent countless hours watching Danny play, in both the Harbour Grace arena and the fabled Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Amidst the beer, profanity and jokes he can still concentrate . See “My b’y,” page 33
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “It’s all right for people to say ‘You guys get up and vote against the budget,’ but boy I’ll tell you, there are consequences … sorry, that’s not on.”
— Conservative MP Norm Doyle. See page 4.
GALLERY 18
Christine Koch’s northern exhibition STYLE 23
A look at the jewelry of Don Beaubier and Wesley Harris Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Noreen Golfman . . . . . . . . . . Woody’s Wheels . . . . . . . . . . Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
MAY 18, 2007
BOUNDARY LINES
Rallying cry RANDY SIMMS
Page 2 talk
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Commissioner John Roil determined a proposed change to a municipal boundary by the City of Mount Pearl is not justified this week. The independent review states the disputed land in question, the old Sprung Greenhouse property, is to remain within the limits of the City of St. John’s. Above, St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells with capital city in background. Paul Daly/The Independent
‘The public are entitled to know’ From page 1 “That’s a load of crap as far as I’m concerned,” says Wells. “This board needs to get involved in discussing some of the issues with the public. “As far as I’m concerned it’s an attempt to stifle legitimate public debate and public discussion on important matters that the board has got to deal with, and I’m not going to abide by that. I was appointed by the province to represent that point of view. “If the board deals with a matter that I think is in the public interest, and I disagree with the board’s decision, I will make it
public. “I think the public are entitled to know how this board operates. Ruelokke and company don’t like that. They’re old-line bureaucrats, they’ve been around since time immemorial. They’ll go through the platitudes about talking about public disclosure but they’re not really seriously interested in it. “In my view there’s kind of a disdain for media and for public disclosure.” Ruelokke, contacted by The Independent, says he doesn’t comment on letters he writes to ministers. “We don’t ordinarily do business that way,” says Ruelokke. “I don’t have any comment on that letter at all. It’s a letter that in
my capacity I wrote to the ministers and as far as I am concerned it is correspondence that is private between the board and those ministers and I wouldn’t therefore see fit to comment on it.” Dunderdale says this is an internal matter involving Ruelokke and Wells and she is not prepared to comment. Attempts to contact Minister Lunn were not successful. Andy Wells was Premier Danny Williams’ choice to head the C-NLOPB, but a Supreme Court decision supported an arbitration panel’s decision that Ruelokke be appointed chair. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
ay 11 was a unique day for me. I found myself in front of a microphone, but not in the usual spot. Usually I’m locked away in a tiny studio, where it can often feel as if I’m talking to myself. Hosting a radio program can leave you feeling a little isolated. That feeling was not a problem on that May day. I was tasked with being master of ceremonies for the Trust and Confidence Rally on the steps of Confederation Building. It was a beautiful day in St. John’s with temperatures hitting 15 degrees. The organizers had asked me to be the MC and I wasn’t so sure about taking on the job. What if people didn’t show up? What if we embarrassed the province? My nerves were raw. This “people’s rally” to voice opposition to the Harper government’s changes in equalization was a real risk. If enough people did not show up to make the event a success mainland commentators would deem the matter closed. The rally could hurt — not help — and no one wanted that. As is often the case with a rally, people will try and estimate the size of the crowd. The numbers for this one ranged from 1,500 to 3,000. By the time Wince Cole completed his set of songs the steps of Confederation Building out to the parking lot were full. I pegged the number at 2,000, not including all of those public servants looking out the windows. By the time I called everyone to order and invited Ward Pike to lead us in the singing of the Ode to Newfoundland I felt confident the event would go well. The crowd sang the anthem with a gusto not often heard. The Ode holds a special place in our hearts, but on this day, on those steps, it seemed to take on a deeper meaning. “As loved our fathers so we loved,” sang the crowd, and they were truly belting it out. I had a list of speakers covering various walks of life — labour, students, teachers, health-care workers, police and municipal leaders. We even heard from Ryan Cleary, the editor of this august publication. He said a lot of our challenges were our own to conquer and conquer them we would. He left the stage to thunderous applause. Actually, everyone who spoke received a huge response. Cleary was supposed to be the last speaker, but in my zeal I had dropped someone off my list. Comedian I left those steps Kevin Noble — famous for his interpretation of that day feeling Joey Smallwood — was pretty proud. I supposed to have been called up earlier. wondered if people “Should I drop him or ask him to come up?” I who were not there inquired of chief organizer Peter Whittle? would call the rally “Call him up,” Peter said, and I did. Kevin a success. In the was funny, gave everyend, it did not come one a reason to laugh, not only at himself, but also at ourselves, and he down to the numbers. left the audience feeling good. It was time to end the event and when I started to wrap it up a chant of “Danny, Danny, Danny” started. The premier was out in the crowd somewhere. Before the event started he told me he would not be speaking because arrangements had not been made with the other parties in the House. It was obvious he was excited at the turnout though, and he weighed into the crowd shaking hands with anyone who reached out to greet him. The crowd continued to call for the premier, so again I turned to our chief organizer. Peter said to invite him up. I went to the microphone and asked if the premier would come and address the group. A huge cheer went out and after a minute of waiting he was there. He said above the noise that he wanted to make sure the other parties were represented before he spoke. Talk about your strange luck. A young boy in the front wanted to speak on behalf of the children in the province. I told the premier the story and he said to give the young man the microphone. His name is Tristen Lee. He is 10 years old and he was great. I have no idea how it got done, but by the time young Tristen finished his few remarks Lorraine Michael of the NDP was with us, and George Sweeney of the Liberals was there as well. The premier spoke, as did Lorraine and George, and Liberal MP Scott Simms concluded the event by recounting how a federal politician once told him he had to vote with the province on the Atlantic Accord and vote against his party. He said the advice came from Loyola Hearn. I left those steps that day feeling pretty proud. I wondered if people who were not there would call the rally a success. In the end, it did not come down to the numbers. It came down to seeing that crowd eat up every word spoken. It came down to hearing them sing the Ode with such passion. In the end, the numbers didn’t matter. For a brief moment in time a group of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians stood on the steps of our legislature and cheered for those who spoke of our pride and spoke of our future. It was the feeling, not the numbers, that mattered. The rally was a success to me. Randy Simms is host of VOCM’s Open Line radio program. rsimms@nf.sympatico.ca
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3
YOUR TOWN
Aiden Morrissey captured these winter scenes around his hometown of Brigus. Your Town is open to amateur photographers across Newfoundland and Labrador. Please send submissions to picture editor Paul Daly at paul.daly@theindependent.ca.
SCRUNCHINS A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia
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tephen Maher of the Halifax Chronicle Herald wrote a column recently that fairly well sums up Danny’s relationship with Stephen Harper. Note the headline: Williams prefers using hakapik to deal with PM. (A hakapik, according to Wikipedia, is a multi-purpose hunting tool — a heavy wooden hammer on one end (used to crush a seal’s skull), and a hook (used to drag away the carcass) on the other. More on the trusty hakapik in a moment.) The article that followed the headline read like this: “Danny Williams is offering Stephen Harper nothing but pain: scorched earth and poisoned wells, the flaming sword of the offshore petro-jihad.” And that’s pretty much the lay of the land. Maher went on to describe Williams’ style as “guerrilla politics,” and “what is strange about it is that it does not leave any compromise open to Harper.” Maher says the traditional position for a premier in a feud with the prime minister is to offer both a fist and an open hand. “Mr. Williams, on the other hand, is offering Mr. Harper two knobby fists, a bloody hakapik in each.” Maher’s column was prominently displayed on page six of the Saturday Chronicle Herald. Front and centre in Nova Scotia, in other words … PICKING AWAY Back to the hakapik … it was only in September 2006 Danny said he wanted Ottawa to ban the club. The premier said hakapiks provide ammunition to opponents of the hunt, a stand backed up by the president of the Magdalen Islands S e a l e r s Association at the time. But then Jean Claude Lapierre also said it’s difficult to find another safe method of killing seals because the hakapik is handy for steadying sealers as they jump between pans. In fact, the 1986 Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing in Canada found that the clubbing of seals, when properly performed, is at least as humane as, and often more humane, than the killing methods used in commercial slaughterhouses.
MAJOR GAFF Gaffs were prohibited for killing seals in 1967. Hakapiks were only allowed on the Front in 1976 (and three years later in the Gulf). According to the law, hooded seals that are shot must also be clubbed, and a seal must be dead before being skinned. Seems like common sense to me. As for Williams’ attempt to ban the hakapik, federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said in September 2006 he would consider it, although he ultimately decided against a ban. Would it be legal for Hearn to hakapik Danny upside the head? Would Danny be permitted to politically skin Hearn? Either way, a political reputation or two will be clubbed to death after the upcoming federal and provincial elections … COWARD CENTRAL A final note on Danny … the April 23 edition of Canadian Business includes a five-page spread on the premier. The headline ran like this: Danny’s war (in bold), followed by He says he wants Newfoundland to be the next Norway. But is he turning it into the next Venezuela? One of the few interesting quotes was by John Meaney, general manager of East Coast operations for Q’Max Solutions, a Calgarybased drilling fluids company that arrived in Newfoundland in 2002 with a contract at White Rose. Meaney said the public needs to be provided with real data on the oil industry’s potential, and those in the industry need to voice their concerns. “Right now no one is saying a word,” he says. “It’s all rhetoric that’s coming from the premier, and everybody else is a coward when it comes to speaking up. I don’t understand it because everybody has a significant investment down here.” Maybe they agree with Danny … PICTURE PERFECT Newfoundland and Labrador’s newest phone book is out, with a lovely hand-drawn cover picture of Aliant employees and volunteers. The picture, coloured with crayon, was chosen from over 1,000 entries in a contest “inviting children from across the region to show
Michael Winter
Michael Crummey
Wayne Johnston
us how Aliant helps in their community.” Only the picture on the province’s phone book was drawn by Danyka Leclair of New Brunswick, of all places. That reminds me of Liberal leader Gerry Reid’s criticism of the provincial government this week for giving the contract for the provincial park reservation system to a Quebec call centre. Reid questioned the level of knowledge that Montrealers have of the geography of Newfoundland and Labrador. Said Reid: “I am certain the Government of Quebec is not looking to use call centres in this province for information regarding their provincial park system.” Reid scored on that slap shot …
problems. The release warned homeowners of various dangers that go hand-in-hand with hockey playoffs. “Hockey fans pack into homes for parties, and the extra guests put an extra strain on the toilet.” Maybe so, but Ottawa games must put more strain on toilets in these parts than Detroit match-ups. You can’t leave the TV when Danny Cleary is on the ice …
ROCK AND ROAR Some of Newfoundland and Labrador’s “finest authors” will be profiled June 7 on Bravo! with a one-hour documentary special called Speaking Volumes: A Literary Roar from the Rock. Authors will include Lisa Moore (Open), Michael Winter (The Big Why), Wayne Johnston (Thr Colony of Unrequited Dreams) and Michael Crummey (The Wreckage). According to the promo: “Featuring interviews with the authors, book readings and the day-to-day life of writers working in Newfoundland” — though Winter and Johnston have been based in Toronto for years — “the documentary theorizes the wealth of authors and stories coming out of the small population, the influence of Confederation and the challenges of defining the voice of Newfoundland.” Or maybe we just have something to say … ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca
TOILET TEMPESTS The wildest press release of the week goes to the St. John’s franchise of Mr. Rooter. Read the headline: Before face-off, check bathroom to deflect plumbing
LIVING DEAD The past seven days were police week, in case you didn’t know it, and the RCMP ran a special program at Stella Marris school in Trepassey aimed at spreading the word about the dangers of drinking alcohol and using drugs. Called Whiteout, staff and students were randomly picked to have their faces painted white, with a cause of death affixed to their chests. A Newfoundland twist on the classic, Return of the Living Dead B’ys …
4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
MAY 18, 2007
‘Between a rock and a hard place’
MISTRIAL DECLARED
Norm Doyle on realities of voting against federal budget By Ivan Morgan The Independent
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orm Doyle takes exception to published remarks made by fellow Conservative Peter MacKay saying government MPs were “happy” to vote in support of the federal budget, and would not have been thrown out of caucus for voting their conscience. “No. That wasn’t the case at all,” Doyle tells The Independent from Ottawa. “I mean I don’t know where Peter got that idea, but obviously he wasn’t aware of the consequences. I don’t know why he wouldn’t be, but the consequences of voting against the budget would be to leave caucus. Absolutely. “No doubt. One hundred per cent absolutely sure.” Doyle says he voted for his party’s controversial budget — which contains the equalization formula Premier Danny Williams claims represents a broken election promise by Stephen Harper — on May 15 because of the benefits it contains for the people he represents. He says the $1.6 billion earmarked for Newfoundland and Labrador includes funds for projects in his riding — he lists the Torbay bypass road, the Flatrock marina and the eastwest arterial road as priorities — which would go ahead if, and likely only if, he voted with his party. He bristles at the notion he does not care about the equalization issue. Equalization, says Doyle, is going to be important in Canada for “years and years and years to come” but he has only “one shot” at seeing through projects for his riding. He says he and his Newfoundland MP colleagues are working to find solutions to the equalization flap, but adds, “I couldn’t put out expectations to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that we are going to be able to make any substantive changes. “I’ve got concerns about equalization that are just as valid as anyone in the provincial government. They don’t have ownership of this file at all. We all have, as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, great concerns about any reduction in funding that might come to Newfoundland.” Doyle, who has announced he won’t be running in the next federal election, says the projects he is working on are also important to people in his riding — and important to provincial MHAs and cabinet ministers too. Yet he says he was pressured to vote against his own government’s budget. “Now where does that place me? It places me
Norm Doyle
Paul Daly/The Independent
between a rock and a hard place here.” Doyle has no doubt about what would happen if he voted against the budget. “I’ll be sitting down in the back of the House somewhere on the opposite side saying ‘Well, gee, I had a good shot at that. Too bad it didn’t work out.’” Besides, Doyle says, voting against the budget would have made no difference, as the bill passed by 60 votes. “It’s all right for people to say ‘You guys get up and vote against the budget,’ but boy I’ll tell you, there are consequences — even for the people who are asking you to do that,” says Doyle. “Sorry, that’s not on.” Doyle says his 25 years in politics in Newfoundland have proven “Kenny Rogers got it right” — not only do you have to know when to “hold them or fold them” but also know how to work hard, how to pick your fights and how to live to fight another day. He says in politics “you’ll get absolutely nowhere unless you can compromise … I don’t think people generally are aware of what we’re trying to do up here.” Doyle says the flap over equalization will eventually pass, and it would be “tremendously helpful” to see a sign there is a desire to get the province and the federal government back on track and talking again. A quarter-century in politics has not made Doyle immune to some of the nasty comments made by people about his decision to back the government he represents. “It’s very difficult. It’s a good question. Being told you’re a traitor to the province by voting for the budget is very hurtful. That’s all I can say about it — it’s very hurtful.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
A second mistrial has been ordered in the case of Dr. Sean Buckingham (shown above during a previous court appearance). The Newfoundland Supreme Court made the ruling in the physician’s case due to an outdated juror’s list. Police allege Buckingham traded prescription drugs for sex. Paul Daly/The Independent
‘Heads in beds’
Convention season stretched; numbers still down By Mandy Cook The Independent
arriving in July for the Festival 500 Choral Festival and another 900 people with the Canadian Autoworkers’ Union in August. he typically convention-heavy months of On the west coast, Darren Martin of Tourism May, June, September and October in St. Corner Brook says the city is expecting 175 deleJohn’s are swelling to include earlier and gates at the Oil and Gas Symposium in June and later bookings — even extending into the leisure another 100 for the Conference of Provincial months of July and August. Command. Although numbers are down for 2007, Mike Buist, general manager of Destination St. Martin says 2006 was a banner year and expects John’s, says the “exotic” lure of the capital city has past successes will contribute to future bookings. resulted in a busy conference season, although the “The meetings and convention sector can only number of events and delegates has dropped in the grow in the region as businesses and organizations last two years. realize not only does western Newfoundland pos“We set a record for rooms sold and had seven sess first-rate facilities to house their meetings and major events in April,” he tells The Independent. events, but also has the outdoor adventure opporBuist says the prolonged convention schedule tunities to offer outside the boardroom.” can be chalked up to several causes. In addition to Buist echoes the same advantages in St. John’s, an increased number of national associations gath- but stresses the region must aggressively pursue its ering for events, delegates are willing to travel share of the competitive convention market more. Buist says reasons for coming to the port because “nothing sells itself. city aren’t necessarily weather-dependent and “It’s the combination of urban infrastructure and therefore people will travel earlier or later in the unique rural experience that I think sets our destiyear. nation apart and makes us that much more attrac“In lots of cases people are going for business tive.” reasons or going to enjoy a sport or cultural event Buist points to a 2005 study by Memorial that’s not weather sensitive — it doesn’t have to be University economist Wade Locke that breaks 95 and sunny.” down the economic impact conferences have on This month, the Canadian Library Association the eastern region by hotel, restaurant, entertainwill bring 1,000 delegates to the city. June will be ment and supplies. Locke found the industry to a slower month, but there will be 500 delegates contribute $20 million per year to the economy. Despite the drop in overall numbers, Buist is content with the 250Year 2007 2006 2005 2004 500 delegate, medium-sized conNumber of events 77 77 99 96 ventions booking consistently from Number of delegates 19,000 19,000 25,000 20,000 April to November. (est.) “We don’t mind as long as the Source: Destination St. John’s bottom line is heads in beds.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca
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MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5
Will mainland commuters vote? More research needed on ‘six and two’ shift By Ivan Morgan The Independent
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WEATHER REPORT
he provincial electoral office has begun a door-to-door campaign to build a new voters’ list for the October election, but no special provisions are being made to accommodate the thousands of people working in mining camps and other temporary work facilities elsewhere in Canada. In fact, there are no hard numbers on how many people are currently working the “six and two” — those who punch in a shift of six weeks then return to the province for two weeks ‘rest. Memorial economics professor Doug May says he thinks there are more than 20,000 people “commuting” between their homes in Newfoundland and Labrador and working in other parts of Canada, but cautions there are no real statistics to back his estimates. “The bottom line is we just don’t know, and we probably really would like to know and should know,” May tells The Independent. “It’s a very
large social phenomena.” The province’s new chief electoral officer, Paul Reynolds, says there are provisions in place for people who wish to vote but will not be in the province on election day. People working in other parts of Canada who are “ordinarily a resident of a district in Newfoundland and Labrador” have options. SPECIAL BALLOT “If they are not going to be home, they can make application to have a special ballot, to vote by special ballot.” Reynolds says an upcoming amendment to the legislation will allow a person to apply for a special ballot four weeks before the writ of the election. The ballot will be delivered and can be returned by mail. Although a person may be working in northern Alberta, if the worker determines — and people have that right — their primary residence is Newfoundland and Labrador, then they are enumerated in the town they are living. The enumeration, which takes place
this month, will be finalized on June 24. After that, potential voters who are not enumerated will have to contact the electoral office in order to be included on the new voter’s lists. Reynolds says no other provisions are in the works to accommodate this section of the electorate. He notes that in the 2003 election, 10,567 mailed in votes, while 11,095 voted in the advance polls. A total of 277,538 people voted in the 2003 provincial election. May says, while seasonal workers are nothing new in Newfoundland and Labrador, the “six-and-twoers” are a relatively new phenomenon. “The question is that if this is so important, then how come we don’t have this information?” asks May. “I don’t think it is an insignificant number … It could be as high as 20,000, or something like that. “It’s amazing that we don’t know more about this phenomenon, which is extremely important to the province and to many rural communities in it — not only in economic terms, but also in the social context. It’s huge.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
The classic debate every May 24th weekend is whether this particular one is the coldest, wettest, foggiest, mistiest, windiest, sunniest, cloudiest, greyest or rainiest ever. The Independent attempts to stimulate the age-old camping debate with these weather statistics — temperature and precipitation — from each of the past 20 years, compliments of Environment Canada. The forecast for this coming Saturday, May 19th, by the way, is 18 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of precipitation. — John Rieti YEAR 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
TEMP. (degrees C)
PRECIPITATION (mm)
2.6 24.2 15.2 3.3 6.7 5.5 22.3 8.7 9.1 10.4 5.8 9.1 12.5 12.8 10.3 15.8 7.5 10.8 6.1 11.8
5 0 .2 37.8 11.9 2.5 7.7 .8 17.1 0 14.7 17.1 4.8 0 .2 18.2 0 0 3.6 0
No snow was reported, although nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing. — Environment Canada
FPI sale should go through: McCurdy
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FAW president Earl McCurdy says his members would like to see the sale of FPI go through. “The clear view that emerged from our meetings is that our members think it is time to turn the page,” McCurdy tells The Independent. “They’ve been through a lot of turmoil and would like to see the sale take place.” With plants in Burin, Marystown, Bonavista, Triton, Port Union, Port au Choix and a cold storage facility in South Dildo, FPI employs approximately 1,700 unionized workers and 150 management. The fate of the company is of the utmost importance to the
economy of rural Newfoundland, says McCurdy. Under the sale agreement, were it to proceed, Highliner would purchase and operate the Burin plant, while Ocean Choice would take over the other locations. A recent vote by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ union accepting the latest wage offer by Ocean Choice is a bright spot in an otherwise difficult year. The sale of FPI is stalled by a disagreement between the federal and provincial government over control of groundfish quotas. Ice on the northeast coast is hampering the beginning of
the crab, lobster and shrimp fishery, and workers there are facing idle plants and expiring Employment Insurance claims. Were the sale approved, the union would have to go back to the table with Highliner as they have no contract agreement with the company. McCurdy says his membership simply wants the FPI issue settled and an end to the turbulence of the last few years. “By and large the membership is prepared to take a chance on what the future might bring.” — Ivan Morgan ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
MAY 18, 2007
Invitation to the dance A
Quebec television crew dropped by The Independent a day or two after the recent Throne Speech, the one where Danny broke the news that, after decades of being treated like an unwanted sister in Confederation, it turns out, low and behold, that we’re actually Cinderellas in our own house. Mainland media, when they parachute in every now and then to observe the natives, don’t quite know where to turn when they hear backtalk towards mainland Canada — the rebel NL yell. Come-from-away media are often directed to The Independent, where they’re almost guaranteed a harddone-by tale (good central Canadian TV to accent our whining welfare ways). The Pink, White and Green charge of the fighting Newfoundlander is replacing a fisherman in oilskins or overturned dory as the cliché image of this place. The alien tendrils from last year’s pitcher plant-logo didn’t quite stick as a defining brand. “Do you not like Quebec?” asked the Quebec reporter. “No b’y, it’s not like that,” was my reply. “I can’t remember meeting a
RYAN CLEARY
Fighting Newfoundlander Quebecer I didn’t like. They seem like good enough people from the scattered one I’ve come across.” More power to Quebec for protecting the distinct society and culture that it is. But then we’re just as special — I made that point too. Now that you mention it, Mr. Reporter, there is the old festering sore that is the upper Churchill. The contract numbers are worth repeating, which I did, directly into the camera lens: our loss from the upper Churchill is estimated at $1.3 billion minimum every year. Quebec rakes in $1 billion directly, and we make $75 million. Hardly seems fair. You wouldn’t think that members of the same Canadian family would treat each other so poorly. Those kinds of lopsided numbers could lead to a grudge, and they have, although we’re not about to go to war over it.
“If the ordinary people of Quebec knew of that imbalance would they think we had a legitimate beef?” was another point I made to the camera. The Quebec reporter caught me off guard when he commented that I seemed upset — “mad” even. But then I suppose I am. The fishery bothers me most, and how the Government of Canada wrote it off for dead years ago. Life may be draining from rural areas all over Canada, but outmigration here is tied to the failure of a fishery, which happened on Ottawa’s watch. I can’t let that go. Our forefathers left us the legacy that is the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. When the once mighty cod fisheries died we turned our backs and gave them the further disgrace of a pauper’s funeral, although headstones are appearing now in the form of abandoned outports. The May 11 rally on Confederation Hill was the first sign of life around here in more than a decade. The last public rally I remember was back in the mid 1990s when Tobin reigned in Ottawa. The “last, lonely, unattractive little turbot” was left clinging to the Grand Banks and all the Turbonator
could do was paint the poor fish’s fingernails a bright red and display his cosmetic talents for all the world to see on a New York wharf. There hasn’t been much of a rallying cry around here since then, which was what was so nice about the recent rally. There’s life in our fish bones yet. I’ve been criticized personally for giving a speech at the event. Pundits point the finger and say it’s finally clear that The Independent has an agenda. You’re damn right we do — that agenda is Newfoundland and Labrador. The paper has an agenda the same way the Globe and Mail has a central Canadian Conservative agenda. The same way that Le Devoir has a Quebec agenda. The same way the Halifax Chronicle Herald has a Nova Scotia agenda. The Independent’s focus is on all things Newfoundland and Labrador. That doesn’t mean we have a bias — reporters with this paper would never ignore the other side of a story if it doesn’t conform with the NL-first attitude. Does the local Business Post have an anti-Danny Williams agenda because editor Craig Westcott has an
apparent intense hate out for the premier? As one letter writer put it (see below), Westcott has turned into a media “shock jock.” Does CBC Radio’s David Cochrane have a bias when he tells the St. John’s Board of Trade that “when everybody is nodding their heads in agreement, I think it’s the journalist’s role to shout ‘bullshit’ from the back of the room.” Is that the only role? Journalists in these parts have been trained to build and destroy. When Westcott was the editor of the Newfoundland Herald he spent his time throwing palm leaves at Danny’s feet. When Danny got in power he crucified him. No wonder leaders are so hard to come by. Cochrane had it right when he told the board of trade that people “need to be free to question, challenge and criticize their government without fear of reprisal or of facing a public challenge to their patriotism.” At the same time, journalists need to be free to question this province’s place in Canada without fear of media reprisal or of facing a public challenge to their journalistic integrity. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca
YOUR VOICE ‘You have compromised your journalistic integrity’ Dear editor, With regard to the May 11 Independent article headlined Record demerits by Mandy Cook, I have the same name as the person with the dubious distinction of owing the most in traffic fines. I am a law-abiding citizen and, needless to say, I am not that person. I am concerned, however, that your newspaper so flippantly makes accusations against people without more specific information regarding their identity. Does this not make any other person with the same name
somewhat suspect? How are people to know the difference? If this much required “specific” information is not available then maybe you shouldn’t publish the article. Are you not concerned about damaging the reputation of innocent people? I feel that by publishing this information without sufficient detail your paper has done an injustice and, in my opinion, you have compromised your journalistic integrity. Paul F. Hennebury, St. John’s
SaskatchewanPremier Lorne Calvert.
‘Unfounded, misguided judgments’ Editor’s note: the following letter was written to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, with a copy forwarded to The Independent. Dear Star readers, I am writing in response to a letter (‘We are turned off by your premier’) that appeared in the May 11 edition of The Independent, a weekly newspaper in Newfoundland and Labrador, by Helen Hollingsworth of Saskatoon. It seems she is offended and embarrassed by our premier, Danny Williams. To Ms. Hollingsworth and all those who feel the same, I am sorry to hear that, but the most important thing is that the people actually living on this island are absolutely not embarrassed. This is the first time in my life that we have had someone who will take the Canadian government to task for national inequalities. If you feel it
necessary to boycott our province it truly is your loss. Supporting the other Atlantic provinces is your prerogative, but just so you know, their premiers support us, as much as your own premier (Lorne Calvert) does. Danny Williams is fighting alongside your premier for all our benefits. I am also sorry for your Newfoundland and Labrador friends for how they feel, it does make me sad to know fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have lost sight of the big picture. Lastly, regardless of Danny’s facial expressions, it is not nice to judge people on such a thing. He is quite happy and extremely proud. Perhaps you should come here and see and learn for yourself before you make such unfounded, misguided judgments on people. Stephanie Stoker, St. John’s
‘Taking a stand’ Editor’s note: the following letter was written in response to a recent post by local blogger and Telegram columnist Geoff Meeker. A copy of the letter was forwarded to The Independent. I completely disagree with your assessment of Ryan Cleary’s attendance at this May 11 rally, Geoff. Cleary is a managing editor of a newspaper. He is also a resident of this province who takes an open stand on what he believes is best for it. I admire him for that. There should be more like him. More media should openly bring forth their beliefs and positions and not hide behind the thinly-worded veil of media objectivity. Do you think for one minute that those who watch or read various media think them to be unbiased? If you do then I suggest you are indeed gullible in the utmost. There are times (David) Cochrane makes me cringe with apparent bias. (Craig) Westcott makes me cringe even more but then again that’s how he gets his status. A media shock jock. Labeling The Independent as a cheerleader for Williams and Company should be beneath you. I
would expect this type of behaviour from Ed Hollett as illustrated in his comments. The mere mention of Williams’ name sparks rage within his soul and a possible bubble in his substantial brain. Hollett and his disciples are constitutionally incapable of accepting that the Williams government can do anything good. His whole approach is so out there that I suspect it does him more harm than good. At times I find it predictable and boring. Are you going that way? Did you attend the rally? Did you hear what was being said by all other speakers? They spoke of supporting the province’s position in dealing with Ottawa. Were all of them shilling for the premier too? Was Lorraine Michael or George Sweeny shilling for the premier? Were all those who spoke as representatives of their various organizations? I submit they were supporting a principle on the prime minister’s failure to hold to a promise. They were taking a stand on their beliefs. You may not necessarily agree with them but at least they take one and are prepared to be public with that. They were supporting a principle and not a
personality. If the media or any part of it sees itself on some sort of an ethical pedestal then I encourage it to have a good look at itself. Media has a long history in Newfoundland and Labrador as favouring one side or the other. Mention the Daily News, the Shoreline, NTV and yes, your revered Sunday Express. I have heard many who believe they were Liberal rags or Tory rags or Smallwood boosters or merchant money past-times. That doesn’t make it true though. I take issue and disagree with Ryan Cleary and/or Danny Williams on many things. I compliment them for speaking at the rally. I compliment all who came out on that sunny Friday to have themselves heard. I compliment The Independent for its stand. I compliment The Independent for standing up for the province. It’s sad though when it appears that you want to set yourself on a pedestal to preach media ethics. It doesn’t suit you. Mike Kehoe, Paradise
AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
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The Independent is published by Independent News Ltd. in St. John’s. It is an independent newspaper covering the news, issues and current affairs that affect the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.
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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
‘Good luck, Mr. Manning, in your next career’ Editor’s note: the following letter was written to Conservative MP Fabian Manning, with a copy forwarded to The Independent. Dear Mr. Manning, You sir, are not speaking for me when it comes to anything that you have done with this budget. I find it insulting the way you have treated the members of your riding. How dare you mock us like you have been doing. I can only hope that in the next election, you sir will be put into retirement. I don’t understand for the life of me how you can be so smug and think that you are untouchable. John Efford was
one of the best MPs that this province has seen, with an abundance of good deeds behind him when he made his mistake, and it cost him dearly. I would like to think that you are doing this because you are still new to federal politics. But I am sorry to say, it only looks like someone out trying to climb that all-important ladder on your province’s back. Let’s hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so. Good luck, Mr. Manning, in your next career, because I don’t think for one minute you have a future in federal politics after this mess. If you do then there has seriously been a miscarriage of justice done to Mr. Efford. As far as I am concerned, if he had to pay the
consequences for what he did (and his party came through) then you and Mr. Hearn should also look into retirement. I will be taking Mr. Williams’ advice and voting ABC. Don’t bother knocking on my door next time Amanda McCarthy, Upper Island Cove
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7
Last in space
What would the first woman on the moon have said? We’ll never know
N
o little boy was more enamoured of the American space program than I. Named Ivan, I also had a secret affinity for the Russians, even though their technology always seemed so shabby and out-of-date. But their cosmonauts weren’t. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was my hero. When I went into space, I dreamed, as a Canadian I would refer to myself as a cosmonaut too, not the harsher sounding astronaut the Americans preferred. Such are the dreams of little boys. My dreams did come true to a certain extent, as I did grow up to be a space cadet. But travel to outer space? Alas no. And sadly, my admiration of NASA and the men who built it has faded too. Gus Grissom (whose middle name was Ivan), Wally Schirra, Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Neil Armstrong — these men were heroes of mine — fabulous adventurers whose names roll off the tongue. But when I grew up I learned of some names that didn’t. Jerrie Cobb, Gene
IVAN MORGAN
Rant & Reason Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Irene Leverton, Myrtle Cagle, Jane Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Hurrle Woltman, Sarah Ratley, Bernice Steadman, Jean Hixson, and the twin Jan Dietrich and Marion Dietrich. These women, known as the Mercury 13, trained to be astronauts, but were never given the chance to be astronauts. Not because they weren’t tougher, smarter, stronger, braver or more capable, but because they were women. They fared every bit as well as the men in NASA’s brutal training regime, but were dropped because they were women. That was reason enough in 1962. They even went to Congress to plead their case. Didn’t work. In 1962 the Russians sent Valentina
Tereshkova into space. I was so impressed when I read about it. A little boy needed ammunition if he was to defend his cosmonaut heroes, and I was proud of the Russians for being so progressive. The truth was less inspirational. It was fear of being “beaten” by the men of NASA, who were training the Mercury 13, that motivated the men running the Russian space program to fire a woman into orbit. For almost three days Tereshkova — who was not a pilot — lay strapped helplessly in her Vostok 6 capsule as it circled the Earth, with little to do except argue with her male supervisors about a fatal miscalculation she had noticed that ground control had not. She managed to convince them to fix it, saving her life. It ruined her career. Women who take the time to read the story will, I sadly suspect, understand. I have often wondered why the stories of the Mercury 13 and of cosmonaut Tereshkova were not better known. Why
isn’t this story a blockbuster feminist movie or book? Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff was. It was a book about the men who were the first astronauts. The title refers to the qualities NASA looked for in their candidates. They had to possess the “right stuff.” A book on the Mercury 13 by author Margaret Wietekamp is called Right Stuff, Wrong Sex. A friend of mine — who is no fan of feminism — says feminism allows unqualified and incompetent women to get ahead in their careers, often at the expense of qualified men. He’s right — but that’s not the point. What my friend doesn’t see is that once upon a time it was only men who got ahead. Such was the plight of the tough, driven women of the Mercury space program. Tereshkova’s “success” scuttled her career too. She was never anything more than a propaganda tool. It isn’t that some women who don’t deserve promotions get them because of feminism; it is feminism that protects
women who do deserve promotions and success. Are there lots of unqualified, stupid, incompetent women out there in jobs they got only because they were women? You bet. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their unqualified, stupid, incompetent male counterparts. The tragedy is the Mercury 13 never got the chance. The chance to crumble, or screw up, or triumph at what they wanted to do. And I never got the chance to grow up with them as my heroes. What might it have been like to see women, alongside men, pioneering the “race for space?” What would the first woman on the moon have said? Would she have radioed back to her child? Her own mother? Would she have paraphrased Neil Armstrong “This is one small step for a woman, but damn we women rule!” We don’t know because it didn’t happen. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
YOURVOICE ‘Not often have I been so moved’
‘Timely and thought provoking’
Dear editor, As a long-time supporter of and subscriber to your wonderful paper, I felt compelled to drop you a line to compliment you on the wonderful speech you gave on Confederation Hill on May 11 (A copy of the speech, ‘Too long we have be been silent’, by Ryan Cleary, appeared in the May 11 edition). Not
Dear editor, I just read your speech ‘Too long we have been silent’ on The Independent website. Indeed, it’s timely and thought provoking for us to realize that today it is us who will shape the future of our province, its place in Canada and Canada’s in the world. In August 1948, during a pre-Confederation interview with CBC radio, Joey Smallwood echoed that “Within one year of union, there will be no people in
often have I been so moved or had my exact feelings so eloquently stated. Keep up the great work on the paper; keep putting forth those wonderful ideas you have. There are those of us out here listening and agreeing and slowly becoming the not-so-silent majority. Rick Brown, Mount Pearl
Canada happier to be in Confederation than the people of Newfoundland.” I feel that even Quebecois are happier at the union than many of our kinfolks across the island and in Labrador. Please continue to inspire us. Ajmal Pashtoonyar LL.B. candidate Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
‘Not your masterwork’ Dear editor, A word or two on your speech, ‘Too long we have been silent’ by Ryan Cleary, published in The Independent’s May 11 edition. The National Convention of 1946-48 gave rise, among other things, to Cashinism and, even worse, Smallwoodism. As the lamb was laid out for the slaughter, the vultures of commercialism, opportunism, politics, and ideology moved in for the kill. They all blustered the most pedantic and accusatory rhetoric. No matter the merit of your current cause, your speech is a fine example in the Cashin lineage and, if you will forgive an opinion, is stylistically out of character. It is not your masterwork. My point today is not to challenge the tenets of a 60-year-old debate nor your speech, which, along with others, could not outdraw the Deer Lake Red Wings at a rally. But I would like to make a few observations on the logic and implications of your questions as they might apply to Labrador. Labrador has its own flag, its own anthem, and its own quite distinct history of being exploited. Ask yourself Labrador — why have successive governments, and therefore the people of Newfoundland, treated you the way they have since the Imperial Privy Council decision of 1927? Ask yourself Labrador — where is Voisey’s Bay located? Ask yourself — why is the post-mining production of Voisey’s Bay ore located anywhere but Labrador? Ask yourself — what happened to the Labrador fishery, your fishery? Ask yourself — where is the greatest single source of clean renewable energy, both water and wind power, available on this earth? Ask yourself — who has your timber rights and how many paper mills are located in Labrador? What is it about you that makes Newfoundland proper think they can deal with you the way they have for as long as I can remember? Ask yourself — why don’t you fight back? You must realize what a marvelous province, territory, or independent country Labrador would be. Robert Rowe, St. John’s
With his hand over his heart and holding the Pink, White and Green Matthew Della Valle sings the Ode To Newfoundland with the crowd at the “Trust and Confidence” rally in front of the Confederation Building May 11. Paul Daly/The Independent
‘Fight with the strength of 10’
‘We have a decade of struggle’
Dear editor, The May 11 rally on Confederation Hill was a meaningful step for the future of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was a success not because it was about politics, ideology or human sentiment, but because it was an honest expression from 3,000 of our people who have been silent for too long — silent of the pain in our hearts caused by the long unjust treatment by our federal government. Too long have we quietly accepted the violation of our constitutional rights to personal dignity, family structure and proper access to our provincial resources. Too long have we laboured under the leeching and usurping away, by big business and Ottawa, of the essential opportunities provided by our resources. Similar opportunities are not taken away from other provinces, but instead given rightfully to them. We demand to be treated the same as other provinces. Our problem is not that our provincial government is fighting too much with big business and Ottawa, but that we have not been fighting enough. Our
Dear editor, Based on media guesstimates, the patriotic rally on Confederation Hill on May 11 fell far short of the multitudes anticipated. Media icons forecasted in excess of 10,000, but only a couple of thousand turned out. Will mainland media view this as another newfie joke? The faithful throngs of the capital where Danny Williams’ support borders on the insane did not march to the divine steps to touch the Messiah’s garment. Surely, from among 100,000 faithful souls, 10 per cent could have stumbled up the hill. The weather was lovely, and speakers well chosen. A Confederation coffee break would have brought 1,000 outside for a whiff of patriotic air and a glimpse of the great one. I don’t deny there were more spirits than bodies present. But what happened to the hundreds of Pink, White and Green zealots? Where were our future students from Pouch Cove to Paradise? The premier, like all of us, refers to the youth as the foundation of our future. Do they like school that well? At a time when relationships with Ottawa are icy and dark, when Williams is worshipped on an unparalleled level by huge flocks, I fail to see why the sheep did not follow. Has Williams reached the pinnacle of his popularity? Has Danny’s attitude, fueled by unprecedented adoration, driven him to the extreme, with regard for nobody but himself? I gather from Stephanie Porter’s recent photo essay, In this corner …, May 11 edition, that our history of flags half-mast, marches, black bands, days of mourning, name-calling and personal attacks on any prime minister, serves to feed a premier’s ego, but rarely benefits the people. We have three choices: stay as we are and develop on our own, deal with Ottawa in a dignified and intelligent manner, or get the hell out of the union. Whatever path we choose, we will have a decade of struggle, but I believe that even if our standard of living never reaches that of Upper Canada, our quality of life is far superior to any I’ve witnessed on the other side of the Gulf. Jim Combden, Badger’s Quay
7e love celebrations too.
solution lies in continuing the present battle until our rightful destiny as a people is achieved. Some people may believe we can’t correct our situation; we are too insignificant to be heard by Canada and don’t have enough seats in Parliament. I remind you of the Boston tea party in which a few men didn’t want to pay an unfair tax on British tea. They threw the tea in the harbour in defiance. Out of that simple act by a few men came the United States of America. On May 11 the people of Newfoundland and Labrador finally spoke from their hearts. They sent a message that we will no longer accept without resistance, without a fight, the same abusive disrespectful treatment by Ottawa. We will fight for our rightful place in the society of Canada. We will fight with the strength of 10 because our hearts are pure and our cause is just. We will fight with weapons of integrity and principle, regardless that others fight us with betrayal, disrespect and deception. Phil Earle, Carbonear
MAY 18, 2007
8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9
IN CAMERA
‘We’re doing something for the country’ While the Cupids400 organizers lay the groundwork for a provincial festival in 2010 — and lobby for the funding they need to make it happen — they’re also hard at work keeping their award-winning museum and rich archeological site moving ahead. Photo editor Paul Daly and managing editor Stephanie Porter spent a day in the small Conception Bay community. From page 1 says. “They’ll support us — but we have to take this idea and run. That statement in the Throne Speech was the first indication they’re fully behind us.” The Cabot400 committee has big plans for the $12 million. They want to expand and renovate the current museum into a full-scale modern interpretation centre; they plan walkways and period gardens; the site of Guy’s first dwelling needs to be further excavated and properly developed to show it off to visitors (“right now you just walk into a potato garden on three pieces of private property”). And then there’s the celebrations themselves. Not to mention the harbour and community clean-up and other smaller projects, which will require further funding at the community or regional level. MacKenzie hopes the interpretation centre will be ready to open in 2009, which means the construction crew would have to break ground this time next year. And the architect, researchers, interpreters and storyline crew need enough time to do their part. “If we don’t get a commitment in the next few weeks, we’re going to start falling behind,” he says. “And if we don’t get it by the end of the summer, we won’t be able to open in 2009, which will leave us scrambling in 2010. We’re at a critical point.” But hardly at a standstill. ••• Linda Kane is the curator and life force behind the award-winning Cupids Museum. She moved to the town of 700 in the late-1980s, and “had an urge” to showcase its rich history. Besides the significant artifacts on display — which came from the dig site down the road — all the items in the museum were donated or are on loan from members of the community. There’s the massive Union Jack that was given to the town in 1910 for its 300year celebrations (a replica now flies in front of the museum during the summer and on special occasions), clothing, jewelry and kitchen, workshop and general store items. Kane carefully shows off the most recent donation, a wedding dress worn in Cupids in 1884, sent to the museum by the bride’s descendants in New Jersey. The second half of the museum is devoted to Present, Miss!, which Kane describes as “a lighthearted look at education in Newfoundland.” Based on oral histories given by 13 local senior citizens, and designed to look like a one-room schoolhouse, the exhibit has proven a success among adults and children. “And there’s a corner devoted to genealogy research,” says Kane. “People are mad about genealogy! It’s a big hobby now, and we have the 1610 list … anyone with the name Butler, Taylor, or LeDrew, those would be of special interest.” The museum attracts about 3,000 visitors a summer, and has been experiencing annual traffic increases of 10 per cent or more in the past couple of years. Like many organizations in the province, Kane was counting on government funding to hire two summer students to help run the facility this summer — but so far, the federal government hasn’t come through. She says she worries the museum won’t be able to open full-time for the season — there’s only so much she, and the other volunteers she counts on, can do. ••• Bill Gilbert also takes great pride in his work in Cupids. Since 1995, he and his crew have discovered the remains of four 17th century buildings and more than 122,000 artifacts. Hundreds of clay pipes have allowed him to date Guy’s home at 1610 — and to say it burned to the ground in the 1660s, though the site remained occupied until the turn of the century.
Archaeologist Bill Gilbert.
The archeology lab is in the same building as the museum. Walls and tables are lined with plastic boxes containing recent finds — pieces of pottery, glass, brick, metal and clay. His team is painstakingly rebuilding a window of fragile green glass. The dig site itself — tucked in behind a small residence — is still covered with gravel for the season to protect it from the elements. But Gilbert paints a vivid picture of Guy’s life and habits, and of the importance of his findings. “I never expected it to still be in the ground, not to this extent,” he says. “I just figured someone would have built a bun-
galow or something and would have destroyed most of it.” Since his initial find, Gilbert says the archeology has proceeded slowly but surely, “in dribs and drabs.” Like the museum, he’s pushed on, relying on the strength of volunteers and sheer determination when outside support wasn’t forthcoming. “A lot of people would have given up on it,” he says. “I don’t know if I’m stupid or what. There have been years we haven’t been able to start until midAugust. “But I really believe in it. If we hadn’t done it that way, it just wouldn’t have got-
ten done.” ••• Roy Dawe, a lifetime resident of Cupids and president of the town’s historical society, among other community organizations (MacKenzie dubbs him the Cupids version of the King of Kensington), says he’s been working towards, and rallying support for, the 2010 celebrations for 25 years. “Mind you, we’ve done a lot of projects in the meantime,” he says, “but as Peter reminds us now, we’re down to 900 and some-odd days.” Dawe would like to see his town take its place in the national history books.
Until now, he says, the significance of Cupids has been largely overlooked — he hopes all that will finally change in 2010. “As an amateur historian, I’d like to see Newfoundland’s history become a part of Canada’s history,” he says. “Canadian history is Champlain going up the river in a canoe and all that … but the reality is the English settlement was occurring in 1610 and that’s where English Canada began. “When (tourists from outside the province) come and hear about what happened here, they say, ‘How come we don’t know about this?’ And immediately their brains click in — someone has missed the boat somewhere. I know it sounds corny,
but we’re doing something for the country.” Waiting for federal funding is doing little to dampen Dawe’s spirits, or the commitment of anyone involved in planning to celebrate John Guy’s settlement. “We’re certain that the political climate will eventually ease,” says Dawe. “But we’re still going to have a party. It just remains to be seen how big it will be.” See related story page 10.
stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca
“Preparations for Cupids in 2010 are currently underway, and My Government will be ready to invite the world to a celebration truly befitting the long, proud history and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador. There is much to celebrate, and we will not be shy in showcasing our very best.” — From the 2007 Speech from the Throne, delivered by Lieutenant Governor Ed Roberts April 24, 2007
MAY 18, 2007
10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
Come springtime, adventurers launch ‘crazy death wishes’ from St. John’s By Mandy Cook The Independent
E
ver since British aviators Alcock and Brown lifted off from Lester’s Field in St. John’s on June 14, 1919 to complete the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic, the capital city has served as Point A for countless quests by other would-be record breakers or just plain adventurous eccentrics. Some beat the odds and are successful. Some … well, not so much. There are questionable accounts of attempts at crossing the Big Pond in vessels little more than the size of a teacup. People shake their heads and wonder who’s going to foot the bill when the next hang-glider announces he’s launching himself toward England, requiring nothing but a good gust of wind off Signal Hill. Others head in the opposite direction, declaring they will cross Canada — all 7,314 kilometres of it — on a tricycle. The question remains: what would possess someone to start such an epic trek? Many embark on ambitious adventures for altruistic reasons, raising funds for a particular cause. Eg Walters of St. John’s says he didn’t have a “crazy death wish” when he had the chance to boat across to Scotland in August 2004. He was traveling in a 10-foot Zodiac inflatable speedboat when a rogue wave “exploded” through his tiny cabin and began to take on water. Rescued 220 miles off the coast of Iceland, he
From left: Pete Bray, John Wills, Mark Stubbs and Jonathan Gornall leave St John’s on June 30, 2004.
says he just wanted to generate money for the Community Food Sharing Association during the slow summer months. “The hardest thing to do was to take the phone and leave a message with my girls’ godmother that we had catastrophic boat failure and it didn’t look like we were going to make it,” he remembers. “I said three times, ‘Look after my
girls,’ and then I had a great sense of peace after that — whatever was going to happen was going to happen.” Rich Ralph of Vancouver recently dipped his rollerblade wheel in St. John’s harbour and headed westwards. Like Walters, he too wants to raise money and awareness — but in Ralph’s case it’s in tribute to his 26-year-old friend who is battling cancer.
Paul Daly/The Independent
He says the response he’s received from drivers along the TCH is “amazing” and they have set the standard for the rest of the country. “Once I got started people were pulling over in front of me and handing me money,” he says, while waiting on a part for his broken-down safety vehicle in Corner Brook. “When I think of the 400 highway series in Ontario with
The Union Jack still flies in Cupids.
eight lanes of traffic — there’s actually been cars going along and stopping right on the highway, which is unheard of where I’m from.” Perhaps the most obvious “grand” voyage would be the re-creation of Alcock and Brown’s historic flight. Mark Rebholz piloted a replica Vickers Vimy biplane from St. John’s to Hole 8A of the Connemara Golf Links in Clifden, Ireland with billionaire Steve Fossett in July 2005. A fire fighting pilot, Rebholz read aviation history books and the accounts of early flights as a child. Flying out of the St. John’s airport and seeing spectators gathered on Signal Hill, Rebholz says he felt a historical connection flying over the same places Alcock and Brown did — such as Quidi Vidi, where the early duo assembled and testflew their craft. He compares the experience to today’s galactic frontier. “The modern version of that is flying a space shuttle and going to the moon,” tells The Independent in a telephone interview from Arizona. “I feel I had the same kind of adventure Alcock and Brown had.” Then there are those who are decidedly unimpressed with the whole endeavour. Mayor Andy Wells says the phenomenon is getting a little tired. “A lot of it is getting to be a bit hohum, don’t you think? There’s people biking, people riding, people skateboarding across Canada. I think the novelty aspect is pretty well exhausted.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca
Paul Daly/The Independent
First days in Cupids By Paul Butler For The Independent
“W
e would have you take with you a small number of evrie kind of (animal) male and female … with the care of herdsman they shal escape from wild beasts and so increase and multiplie …” If these words seem tinged with an Old Testament-aura of destiny, there is reason. The above quote is from the instructions of the Bristol-based Newfoundland Company sponsoring John Guy’s voyage to Cupers Cove — now Cupids. This was the dawn of the colonial age. Guy’s enterprise was not a seasonal venture, but a major undertaking that paralleled the contemporary colonies in Jamestown, Virginia, and Champlain, Quebec. The Newfoundland Company had been granted a royal charter by James I and its objective was to colonize the new land and begin industries based on livestock farming, lumber and mining. “The colonists,” according to Cupids400 general manager Peter Mackenzie, “were well-selected artisans and tradesmen.” And the enterprise got off to an auspicious start. In his October 1610 letter home to the company, John Guy spoke of the “goodness of the harbour, the fruitfullness of the soyle, the largenes of the trees.” He concluded there was “… nothinge to make a flourishinge Country but cat-
tle and the industry of men.” The animals Guy brought had survived the journey well, and the expedition unloaded 10 goats “well, stronnge and lustie like of this countrie,” as well as pigs and poultry. The first two winters were mild and the labours of the colonists proved fruitful. The island’s first loggers were able not only to fell trees but send the timber back to England on the same ship that had brought them. They made salt for the burgeoning fishery and built boats. By 1612 — because of the threat from pirates — they had also fortified Cupers Cove with three mounted guns. The colonists successfully began the province’s first farms, as the company had instructed, raising and breeding animals. The human contingent was bolstered in 1612 when Guy, who had traveled back and forth more than once, brought 16 women to the colony. On March 17, 1613 a son was born to the wife of Nicholas Guy: this is the first recorded birth of a European descendent within any of those territories later to become known as Canada. In time the colony’s population dispersed. Guy himself went back to England. Many planters relocated to Harbour Grace in 1617. But as Mackenzie points out, the success of Cupers Cove was that “it planted the seeds of settlement.” Paul Butler is a St. John’s-based author. www.paulbutlernovelist.com
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11
LIFE STORY
‘Little delightful twists in life’ Writer, artist and educator a gentleman to the end ALASTAIR MACDONALD 1920-2007
By John Rieti The Independent Alastair Macdonald was every bit the gentleman in his final days, as he was over the course of his life. The poet, who also wrote history and was a professor emeritus of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland, passed away peacefully amongst friends in early May. Helen Peters, a close friend and fellow academic, remembers rushing to the hospital to visit Macdonald, only to find the Scottish-born 86-yearold enjoying tea and toast in bed. She says Macdonald was too enthusiastic about his new book of poetry, The Cyclic Variations, and its launch party to worry about squaring up his estate. Peters fondly remembers her last visits with Macdonald, where she got to see him craft what would be his final poems. “He had a wicked sense of humour,” she says. “His newest poems are all about Newfoundland weather … they start in January and the poems about winter go on forever … the spring and summer poems are very brief.” Macdonald published eight books throughout his career, including collections the poetry If More Winters, or This the Last, Landscapes of Time, and A Different Lens. He also wrote a satirical book called Flavian’s Fortune and several academic It has always been like this for me works about the life of Thomas Gray, a famous 18th Looking at the moving picture century English poet. Others are making, finishing His poems often reflect on natural scenes, but his Since when little trying to puzzle out sense of humour, extensive travels, and fine educaThis world I don’t yet understand tion from universities like Aberdeen and Oxford allowed him to write about just about anything. — Alastair Macdonald, Looking Out Peters says Macdonald was fascinated in the “litFrom If More Winters, or This the Last tle delightful twists in life,” a phrase that might Courtesy Breakwater Books describe his own eccentric character as well. Macdonald prided himself on being a classic gentleman, says Peters. He had “beautiful manners,” always wore cuffed shirts, never jeans, and had a collection of 18 gold watches which he made sure kept the exact time. When he traveled, Macdonald would hide his watches in an unmade bed, because he thought thieves wouldn’t look for them there. When Macdonald moved to Newfoundland and Labrador, he rented houses during the winter, and travelled back to England or Scotland in the summer. His poems detail his visits to France and Italy, or sometimes even boyhood journeys he took on bicycle. Young travelers will still appreciate the fleeting romance of poems like The Train She Sat In. Fellow poet Roberta Buchanan says she appreciated the way Macdonald crafted his poems to make them elegant, yet simple. Many of his pieces are short, a sharp contrast from his academic work, which he couldn’t bear to edit. Buchanan and Peters worked with Macdonald for a summer at the North Library of the British Museum in London. “He was a true scholar, always in the library working on something,” says Peters. That summer at the library they discovered he was quite shy around women, especially when he was trying to work. Buchanan remembers him being perturbed by a woman who kept admiring him when he looked up from his books. His solution? “I’ll cross my eyes at her and stick out my tongue.” Macdonald never married, but had many friends who would invite him to dinner or talk with him at the university. “He was a very formal lecturer, but he was deeply concerned with his students,” says Buchanan. He was also a great painter and cartoonist. He gave up painting because it accumulated too quickly to fit in his condominium. His publisher, Breakwater Books, chose to use one of his caricatures for the cover of the recently released The Cyclic Variations. john.rieti@theindependent.ca
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MAY 18, 2007
12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS
YOUR VOICE
A ‘strong voice’ for the Isles of Notre Dame Dear editor, My name is Holly Rideout and I am originally from the small town of Cottlesville, one of 37 communities and five islands that make up the provincial district of Twillingate/Fogo — renamed The Isles of Notre Dame. I am currently seeking the PC nomination for this district that is my home. A fisherman’s daughter in a family of nine children, I feel I understand the needs and issues facing residents and what it takes to survive in outport
“Working together is the only way to insure a future and provide for a stronger voice within government�
Newfoundland. I am part of a fourth generation family who has lived here all their lives and continues today. My eight brothers and sisters live in Summerford, New World Island area and are actively involved in the fishing industry. I share a great love for rural Newfoundland and am concerned about the very survival of these islands. The decision to run was not an easy one for me. However, it is something that I have thought about for several years
and I know if given the chance I will make a difference. When someone from the district whom I have great respect approached me to run, I knew it was the right time. GREAT IDEAS I am young, enthusiastic, hardworking and committed to the people of these islands. I have great ideas for job creation, improved infrastructure and tourism. My background includes over 18
years working in tourism in Newfoundland and Labrador in sales, marketing and management. I would provide a strong voice for the people of The Isles of Notre Dame. This new name symbolizes a new way of thinking that we have to reconnect and unite as one, that working together is the only way to insure a future and provide for a stronger voice within government. Holly Rideout, St. John’s
A piece of the Atlanticateway action Dear editor, I just read the May 4 Independent article, ‘A piece of the action’, by John Rieti. David Vardy of the Harris Centre is, if nothing else, wise to suggest a logistical study to figure out the costs and potential rewards of an Atlantic gateway in Newfoundland. An Atlantic gateway is being proposed because there is a growing need to link North American markets to areas such as Asia and Europe. It is also being proposed because many larger ships are having trouble fitting through the Panama Canal and finding ports deep enough to accommodate them. Skeptics, and I am sure there would be many, are probably sitting home contemplating the foolishness of studying “using an island with no road or rail links to the mainland as a gateway.� I believe these skeptics to be short sighted. In early March I had the good fortune to do some work in a couple of Asian countries, one of them being the city state of Singapore. At 704.0 squre kilometres, Singapore is the smallest country in southeast Asia. Metropolitan St. John’s, by the way, is 804 square kilometres. Rather than discounting itself as a small island with no road and rail links, Singapore is a major Asian transportation hub, which bills itself as strategically lying on the “midpoints of sea and air trade routes� (sound familiar?). Its port is currently the world’s busiest in terms of total shipping tonnage. It handles a quarter of the world’s shipping
containers as the world’s busiest container port, and an enormous amount of crude oil as the world’s biggest ship refueling centre; all this from a tiny island with no natural resources. In fact, Singapore’s transportation industry comprises over 10 per cent of its GDP. To give a clear picture of what that means, Singapore is the 17th wealthiest country in the world, has a foreign reserve of $139 billion US and its quality of life is ranked the highest in Asia and 11th in the world by The Economist magazine. Our skeptics will say it is easier for ships to load up at their home port and bypass Newfoundland. In Singapore, however, the port is so competient at organizing containers that it is actually faster for a ship to use the Singapore port than travel directly to its main destination. A colleague of mine told me of a book he recently read which stated Newfoundland and Labrador will see few benefits outside of cheaper freight from the Atlantic gateway concept (a component of Atlantica) in its current state. With that in mind, and the potential we hold due to strategic location, members of the business community would best serve all of us as Newfoundlanders by offering Mr. Vardy and the Leslie Harris Centre all the money they need to examine how we can get as large a piece as possible of the Atlantic gateway action. Todd Benson, Nova Scotia
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INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007 — PAGE 13
Northstar Networks president Howard Nash peers through an advanced SONAR system in his company's lab in St. John's.
Paul Daly/The Independent
Northstar shining NL aerospace company signs contract with Lockheed-Martin, more work to come By John Rieti The Independent
N
orthstar Network, a Newfoundland and Labrador aerospace, defence, marine and homeland security company recently signed a $6.3 million contract with Lockheed-Martin, one of the world’s top aerospace companies, to provide a repair package for cargo planes. Company president Howard Nash has been working towards the deal for almost 10 years and has invested over $50,000 in the project — and the payoff has been worth it. Nash tells The Independent there’s more to come. When he brought eight Lockheed-Martin executives to Northstar’s production plant in Gander in early May he heard the words he’d been waiting for. “One of the comments they made was ‘you’re part of the family now, once you’re part of the family we’ll look out for you,’ they
told us that there will be more business coming our way if this contract works out the way we hope it will,” Nash says in an interview at his St. John’s office. Nash, along with engineering manager Jeff Fry, must now provide the mix of parts and materials that will add more than 15,000 flying hours — that’s up to 20 years of service — to each aircraft. Fry says they’ll meet the challenge by adding new materials and applying the latest technology to the P3 Orion cargo planes that were designed 50 years ago. Currently 18 countries use the aircraft (in Canada it’s known as a CP-140) for everything from troop deployment to maritime patrolling. Northstar’s first contract is for Norway’s fleet of six, but more are likely to follow. Further, because Northstar has been approved by LockheedMartin as a repair company, it can expect calls from clients needing wing repairs or overhauls.
“There’s more money in repair and overhaul than in upfront sales,” he says. But it’s not just airplanes Northstar is working on. They’re also developing components for planes with airlift capabilities, helicopters, search and rescue planes, unmanned planes, ships, submarines, heavily armoured vehicles and even personal body armour systems. It’s an incredible assortment of work, but one the company is organized to handle. “We can’t be experts in everything … we’re a systems integration house, our role is to provide a top level assembly and testing facility,” says Fry. While the company does its own in-house work and has several niches of expertise, they outsource wherever possible to keep costs down. Nash has developed a list of preferred affiliates that includes several Newfoundland and Labrador-based companies, pro-
viding everything from steel work to electronics. Nash’s networking has allowed his company to compete in terms of price, value and capability. He also has the advantage of a federal government that is investing heavily in its military. Nash says the Canadian government is slow to announce most military acquisitions, which resulted in a slow start up for the company. Under the current government, business is booming. “The Canadian government is making announcement after announcement … we have in-roads to just about every announcement and we’ll get some part of the contract,” says Nash. Ottawa has already spent $20 billion on new equipment and Nash expects $10-$12 billion more in the coming years. Nash says this spending is overdue and not necessarily in response to the conflict in Afghanistan. “The timing is right for the mili-
tary to build up what it didn’t have for a long time,” he says. “Our military people are in harm’s way, they need to have the best of equipment and support to do their jobs.” Nash keeps a spreadsheet with every project in North America, who’s in charge and what companies are likely to get it. He also keeps detailed brochures of every product and service his company offers, something he says is key to getting clients to sign quickly. It’s working. Nash estimates the publicly traded company — listed as Northstar Electronics — is now valued at $20 million. This year the company has tripled its sales and quadrupled its staff to 20, a trend Nash says will continue. Northstar Network’s biggest challenge in the future will be keeping up with the work. Lockheed-Martin told Nash that soon he will have to say no to some contracts — something Nash is looking forward to. john.rieti@theindependent.ca
Time for action
Skills task force suggests first steps towards closing local labour gaps
A
week or so ago, the provincial government released the final report of the Skills Task Force, a group consisting of about 20 representatives from government, the postsecondary education system, organized labour and the private sector. The report laid out 50 action items which the key stakeholders hope will help meet Newfoundland and Labrador’s current and future labour market demands. Coming up with meaningful recommendations was a daunting task, to be sure. For years we have been saying Newfoundland and Labrador must come to grips with the skills challenge — but exactly how we go about doing that, the actual tangible steps we need
CATHYBENNETT
Board of Trade to take, haven’t been nearly so readily identifiable or executable. Business has often emphasized that the education system must be responsive to industrial needs for qualified workers. But it’s debatable whether any headway has been made over time on that front. So it’s promising that, as a province, we are taking a long, hard, critical look from a multi-stakeholder perspective at what our challenges are, and how we
can meet those to build the labour market we will require down the road. The provincial government has already set aside over $9 million to address immediate needs in the province’s education and apprenticeship systems, including beefing up post-secondary programming in skilled trades and technology within the postsecondary public college curriculum, standardizing apprenticeship examinations, and promoting opportunities in the workforce for traditionally underrepresented groups such as women and aboriginals. An industrial coordinating committee will be established to pinpoint specific skills required by industries and large-scale projects. Obviously, that
effort needs to link into education policy, program development and delivery. One of the priorities for industry and employers, as suggested by the task force, should be to provide increased employment opportunities for co-operative education program students, apprentices and engineering and technology students. All this is well and good, and the members of the task force deserve kudos for the work they’ve done in defining some of the main restrictions on our labour market development and their potential solutions. At the end of the day, however, our ability to attract and retain skilled workers and compete with other jurisdictions all comes down to the opportu-
nities — or lack thereof — that Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer. We’re competing with the magnetic pull of Alberta and other provinces west of here, where there are big wages and jobs aplenty. The local evidence of that seemingly indomitable force is abundant. Alberta job fairs, employment advertisements in local papers, direct flights to Calgary and Fort McMurray lands of plenty indicate western Canadian industry has found a market here to tap for available workers at a time when labour is at a premium across the country. These migrant Newfoundlanders and See “We need to demonstrate,” page 14
14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
MAY 18, 2007
Taxman calling
TERMINAL EXPANSION
Province collecting on taxes owing for more than 15 years By Ivan Morgan The Independent
T
he provincial government is still actively collecting school tax, even though the tax itself was repealed in 1992. By the end of 2006, the debt was $22 million, owed by approximately 10,000 accounts, says a Finance department spokesperson. That’s a far cry from the 2004-2005 fiscal year when $46 million was owed to government, with over 30,000 accounts in arrears. The spokesperson said government would be collecting all of the remaining money owed. People have contacted The Independent to claim government is demanding payments for school tax arrears, with interest, as far back as 1981. The spokesperson said government currently has eight permanent and part-time staff dedicated to the collection of tax debts, including school tax. School tax was collected in the province prior to 1996 under provisions in Term 17 of the Terms of Union, which protected the province’s denominational school system. By 1991, there were 22 school tax authorities across the province. People paid school taxes of $90-$130 annually, regardless of their income, and businesses were taxed based on their property tax. The unpopularity of this tax system led to its abolition in 1992.
When the Williams government came to power they began an aggressive campaign to collect outstanding debts owed to the Crown, including school taxes. In May 2005 NDP leader and Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi MHA Jack Harris stated in the House of Assembly the interest burden on the accounts, many of them going back 13 years from that date, was punitive, sometimes amounting to far more than the original amount owed. Then Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan replied debt relief options were being considered. In July 2005 the Tories announced an interest relief package for people who voluntarily paid before the end of that year. Since that time the government has been using the tools at its disposal to collect school taxes. The spokesperson said this was in keeping with a “blue book commitment” the Williams government had made during its election campaign. Collection starts with a written request to pay, and can include garnishing wages, the issuing of a lien on the debtor’s property and through the sheriff seizing and selling off assets belonging to the debtor. Since February 2005 the provincial government has been able to intercept federal government income tax refunds and GST credits and apply them against debts of people they have listed as owing school tax. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca
Originally founded in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Newfound N.V. is an international developer, sales agent and operator of up-market resorts. With its head office in The Hague, The Netherlands, Newfound N.V. is traded on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange and is the parent corporation of a diverse group of international companies, with offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, and the Caribbean. Newfound’s vision is the creation of environmentally sustainable, up-market luxury resorts which incorporate the social, physical and cultural elements of the local environs. Newfound is currently seeking two lawyers interested in working towards this vision, for its offices in St. John’s and Humber Valley Resort, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Associate Corporate Counsel Newfound N.V. - St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada Competition # NNV 2007 – 003 Reporting to the Senior Vice-President and General Counsel for Newfound N.V., you will be involved in a variety of commercial matters, corporate governance, international contract negotiation and drafting, and property transactions, and will work closely with key business units. You will participate in decision making on issues that affect the development and operation of the company. Specifically, you will be expected to: • Assist with the preparation of periodic reporting and correspondence with AIM (London Stock Exchange) and other regulatory bodies in connection with securities and/or governance compliance matters under Canadian, Dutch and UK Law; • Provide guidance and education to directors, officers and others regarding compliance with securities and corporate laws, Board and committee independence requirements, governance best practices and fiduciary duty requirements; • Prepare agenda, materials and proposed resolutions for the Company’s Board and Committee meetings; • Negotiate, prepare and/or review legal and other documentation, and provide oversight and supervision in connection with general corporate compliance and transactional work; • Perform other reasonably related legal and/or business duties and functions as may be assigned or required including negotiation of resort development related agreements; • Present management reports in a timely manner; • Be available for international travel; and • Interact daily with international business partners.
The St. John’s International Airport Authority announced it closed a $55 million private placement bond issue this week. The cash will allow the facility to resurface the secondary runway, expand the terminal building, upgrade the winter operations vehicle fleet as well as add new passenger services for 2007. The airport is the tenth busiest airport in the country, up from 14th place. Paul Daly/The Independent
‘We need to demonstrate that we have a ready supply of labour’ From page 13 Labradorians are not forced to go elsewhere for work — but the opportunities outside the province are so much more plentiful. Demographics are not weighing in our favour. The province’s population is on a downward trend, and there are fewer and fewer young, working-age Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. In the meantime, we are laying the groundwork for the future development of lower Churchill hydro, a mega-project that will require a large supply of skilled workers. There simply aren’t enough of them in Newfoundland and Labrador for projects of that scale. We can’t just assume that if we build it, they will come. We will need to look outside the province and will have to be proactive in competing for those workers. In last month’s provincial budget, the government indicated it is formulating a plan to attract large-scale companies to set up operations in the province. Whether the targets are manufacturing facilities or other industries, those companies
will want to know about the local supply of skilled labour. Newfoundland and Labrador is facing a Catch-22. We need ample opportunities, in the form of well-paying jobs, to keep people here and recruit skilled workers from outside the province, thereby bolstering our labour force. But, in order to support new employers in providing these jobs, to attract new business, and to meet our industrial demands, we need to demonstrate that we have a ready supply of labour in the first place. The Skills Task Force outlined some first steps for stakeholders in our economy, and we all need to pull on the same oars if we are eventually going to close critical labour gaps and optimize our workforce. It’s only when more opportunities come knocking that we’ll be better positioned to attract workers and stem the outflow of human capital from our province. Cathy Bennett is president of the St. John’s Board of Trade.
In this position you will also liaise with and be part of a international legal team supporting the global operations of Newfound N.V. If you are an outgoing, confident, and result-oriented individual with excellent communication skills and judgment, and are a member in good standing with a recognized Law Society, this is the ideal position for you.
Legal Counsel Humber Valley Resort Corporation - Humber Valley Resort, Newfoundland, Canada Competition # NNV 2007 – 004 Reporting to the Senior Vice-President and General Counsel for Newfound N.V., you will be challenged with the pivotal responsibility of executing commercial, financial and real estate transactions which are instrumental to the development and sustained growth of Humber Valley Resort. As a member of an international legal team, you will lead the Resort’s Legal Department and be responsible for its effective and positive management. Working closely with all departments of the Resort, you will participate in decision-making on many issues that affect the long term development and operation of the Resort. You will be expected to: • • • • • •
Oversee the conveyancing of land to international clients; Present management reports in a timely manner; Project and meet cash flows from land sales and construction receivables; Effectively manage all aspects of the Legal Department; Consult on all legal issues affecting the Resort; and Interact daily with international clients.
The ideal candidate will be an outgoing, confident and dynamic individual with experience in commercial, real estate and corporate law; be a member in good standing with the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador; and demonstrate superior written, presentation, time management and communication skills. Experience in condominium, property development and resort-related law is a definite asset. Applications must be received by 4:30 p.m., May 25, 2007. Please quote competition # NNV 2007 - 003 and/or NNV 2007 - 004 when forwarding your resume, cover letter and references in confidence to: Derrick White, Senior VP & General Counsel Newfound N.V. - 187 Gower Street, Victoria Hall, St. John’s, Newfoundland A1C 1R2 Fax: 709-754-8411 Email: cpike@newfoundgroup.com www.newfoundgroup.com | www.humbervalley.com
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MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15
16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS
MAY 18, 2007
YOURVOICE ‘We love your city’ Dear editor, I write in response to the comments about the city’s ambassador program and the economic benefit of the cruise ship industry to the local economy in Patrick O’Flaherty’s column of May 11, Dear Patrick … Contrary to his assertion that “cruise ships add very little to the economy,” the cruise ship industry makes a significant contribution to the city. In 2007 the 12,669 passengers who visited the city contributed over $2 million to the St. John’s economy. Those statistics are based on our own surveys of passengers and industry standards. They do more than “buy a postcard or souvenir trinket.” They go on organized tours, visit our museums and historic sites, and many have lunch in one of our restaurants. This year we expect to have 22 ship visits with over 25,000 passengers and an estimated contribution of over $3.5 million to the local economy. As to the ambassador program, the city is very appreciative of their voluntary efforts. We have 30 ambassadors and have received a good response from out latest advertisements seeking new recruits. There is a place for voluntary work in our
community for activities like the ambassador program. Here is a sample of what passengers say about our ambassadors and our civic welcome: • Your red coat greeters were valuable. They were on the streets even helping people …. • Best group of local ambassadors we have encountered at any of our ports around the world. Star Princess • Your ambassadors were very informative and helped my wife and me very much. I have a VERY positive impression of St. John’s. As to his suggestion that deputy mayor Dennis O’Keefe and I should volunteer our efforts to greet visitors, I can advise your readers that we both do. The deputy mayor is chair of the city’s cruise ship committee and is heavily involved in greeting every cruise ship that comes to St. John’s. I was chair of the local organizing committee for the largest conference ever held in St. John’s — the 2005 FCM conference, and spent many 16-hour days alongside our ambassadors and city employees to help make the conference the great success our evaluations said it was. Ronald G. Penney, LL.B., Chief Commissioner and City Solicitor
INDEPENDENTLIFE
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007 — PAGE 17
Dancing in the street
B-boys to close Festival of New Dance; hip-hop stylings now recognized as ‘legitimate art form’
By Mandy Cook The Independent
D
ave Gardiner, member of the East Rock Crew, explains the origin of the dance movement associated with sampled re-mixes and repeated loops so that breakers — as the dancers prefer to be called — can continuously “break to the beat.” “B-boying is street culture,” he says. “It comes from grassroots, people in their basements or community centre — it comes from nothing. They take the music and their personality and they start inventing.” Gardiner and his St. John’sbased dance group are getting ready to bring the house down — for the second year in a row — in the upcoming hip-hop/funk extravaganza finale of the 17th annual Festival of New Dance in St. John’s. This year’s event takes place May 22-27 at the LSPU Hall and other offsite locations. If it was anything like last year’s show, the East Rock slow promises to be a crowd-pleaser.
“(Last year) was awesome — the place was blocked with everybody from three-year-old kids to grandmothers,” says Sarah Stoker, artistic liaison with the festival. Although hip hop-style dancing — typically associated with The Worm and back spins — is not the first thing that comes to mind as contemporary dance, by Gardiner’s definition, it’s a perfect fit. Contemporary dance embraces all movement outside the traditional sphere, celebrating unstructured work and welcoming unconventional methods. Gardiner says breaking is a freestyle dance, originating from dancers who squared off in break “battles” at the end of the block or the schoolyard. Each combatant conceives and self-styles new moves in a circle setting. Just as the genre may be somewhat new to the dance festival, the audience component is new to the East Rock Crew — though they welcome it with open arms. “Having these shows really pushes us because we have a goal that helps us train harder and makes
us better dancers,” says Gardiner. “Being in contact with (festival organizers) and having their attention helps us to develop ourselves.” In recent years, festival members such as Stoker recognized the impact hip hop was making on the local dance scene. So much interest was building in East Rock Crew, a British Columbia-based dancer who specializes in a fusion of contemporary dance and hip hop was brought in by the festival committee to workshop with the b-boys. ENVIABLE SPOT The results were obvious. Not only were the Crew slotted into the enviable closing night spot in the Festival of New Dance, they were one of six dance groups in the country accepted to perform at the
“B-boying is street culture” Dave Gardiner
Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa in June. Incidentally, Canada Dance has given this year’s show a hip-hop theme, something they’ve never done before. Stoker says it’s all part of a “criss-crossing” effect happening in the national contemporary dance scene. She also says it’s an organic method to cultivate the small but fiercely devoted core of local dance enthusiasts. “It’s an outreach tool because we’re always trying to increase our audience base, we’re always trying to get more people to shows, so it’s a really positive way to support the East Rock Crew and get people who wouldn’t normally be coming to the festival to come out.” Gardiner agrees. He says East Rock Crew’s inclusion in the Festival shows the significance of hip hop in the culture of the province’s youth. He says the style of dance has become accepted as a “legitimate” art form, something the Crew craves and nurtures by participating in the festivals. As for this year’s performance,
Gardiner says audiences should get ready to be entertained. An hourlong set will see the five-man group perform choreography they have developed as an ensemble, plus individual breakdown moves. There will be humourous theatrical elements and contemporary dance aspects absorbed from their local dance peers. But Gardiner is most excited about the live music component in the form of musical guests Funky Dory. He says the show will be “high energy and visually dynamic.” Stoker is delighted to have the breakers aboard. She says their youth and vitality is a good sign the local contemporary dance scene is alive and well. “Hip hop is great because it’s completely inclusive and the East Rock Crew is all about that: positivity.” For a full schedule of Festival of New Dance events, visit www.neighbourhooddanceworks.com. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca
Pictured, left-right: Matt Power, Tony Ingram, Jeremy Brown, Greg Bruce and Dave Gardiner of East Rock Crew.
Nicholas Langor/The Independent
The ugly, the bad and the good … City councils have the power to make or break the aesthetics of the town they govern. Too bad St. John’s suffers from a constant lack of vision
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ave you been following the racket they’re having up in Ottawa? I’m not talking about Stephen Harper’s make-up assistant, Stéphane Dion’s disappearing act, or Gilles Duceppe’s sudden reversal of fortune, but about the city itself. Writer and Carleton teacher Andrew Cohen has just published a book called The Unfinished Canadian in which he pretty well tears a giant strip off the town he has called home for several years. Like many who spend a lot of time in the nation’s capital, Cohen admires the natural beauty of the site in which the city is nestled, but he detests the built culture that is an affront to both
NOREEN GOLFMAN Standing Room Only beauty and humanity. There are fewer travel fates as dire as having to inhabit a downtown Ottawa hotel on a Sunday night, as I often do. Block after block of concrete and glass monoliths, the wide forbidding streets are as empty as a prime minister’s promise. I often wonder why they don’t film car commercials on Ottawa streets after six in the evening, since they have that
ready-made peoplelessness about them, as if all the citizens had been suddenly kidnapped by alien space ships. Ottawa after dark is an evacuation zone. Now, it is not entirely surprising that many of those citizens are furious about Cohen’s denunciations, fighting back on the open lines by extolling the city’s virtues and insisting on its deserved reputation as a “great place to raise kids,” the kiss of death to edgy fun if there ever was one. The built culture of St. John’s is not dominated by modern ugliness in the way Ottawa — with notable exceptions — is, but the random condo-development, view-blocking indifference of so
many recent modern mistakes threatens to inspire a book like Andrew Cohen’s. St. John’s will never produce that forlorn tumbleweed and steel feel that haunts Ottawa after hours, but it is certainly marked by enough missed opportunities to make an urban aesthete weep. Surely, the garbage-cover law is the most glaring, if not the most recent, example of how we, too, know how to uglify a streetscape. The whole damn business raises urban stupidity to new heights of embarrassment, and that’s saying a lot. Not once in the decades I have lived on my street have I ever seen gulls, cats or a hungry homeless guy attacking the neatly clustered garbage
bags in front of anyone’s house. Not once have I ever seen any of my neighbours putting their garbage out before the designated time of morning. But because of the return of this idiotic, invasive and rights-denying bylaw, all the good citizens of the town now play a part in contributing to a colossal, dumb exercise in ugliness. It is as if we were taking Kool-Aid once a week, compelled to surrender our minds to the irrational ravings of a cult council. We can now look forward to an entire summer of our streets littered with blood-red blankets and plastic green netting, See “Made of,” page 21
MAY 18, 2007
18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE
GALLERYPROFILE
CHRISTINE KOCH Visual Artist
W
hen Christine Koch moved to Newfoundland from Alberta 20 years ago, she immediately felt an urge to head north. Bit by bit, she’s gotten there. “There was something about the wilderness and the lure of the north,” Koch says. “It’s a very raw landscape. I won’t say I felt very comfortable in it, but it’s very strong.” As is her most recent work — inspired by the rocks, water, ice and tundra of parts of Canada few people get to see. As well as her studio in downtown St. John’s, Koch maintains a home and studio in Woody Point. The landscape of Gros Morne National Park has dominated and inspired much of
her recent work. Koch has also travelled through remote areas of Labrador and, in 2005, was thrilled to spend three weeks on Baffin Island. “The Labrador Long-Range Mountains are similar to parts of Gros Morne, they’re like that, only more so — they call it the Big Land for a reason, it’s more rugged and much more uninhabited,” she says. “Gros Morne seems really civilized after Labrador. And Baffin Island is exponentially more so.” Koch, always a believer in making one’s own opportunities, arranged a stint as a visiting artist with the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office. She secured sponsorship from De Beers (an international mining company) to help defray the considerable cost of northern travel. She was flown to Pond Inlet, well
towards the northern tip of Baffin Island. There, she was picked up and flown to the CNGO field camp, which she would share with 17 scientists. “It’s beautiful country up there,” she says. “I went out nearly every day in the helicopter … I got to see a lot of terrain, mostly inland, then we’d fly out to the coast and then we’d fly further inland to the ice cap … it was just spectacular. “Basically, I’d tell them where I wanted to work and they would drop me off.” Koch always had an armed assistant with her. Although the only polar bears she saw were from the helicopter, the danger was ever-present. Some days, Koch spent her entire work time in one position, studying and drawing the landscape. Other days, it was too chilly to sit still, and she’d move around.
“It’s not a playful landscape like Gros Morne, it’s not recreational. It’s harsh and desolate and vast and cold” — in spite of 24-hour daylight. Over the past two years, Koch has turned some of the many drawings and photographs from that trip into paintings and linocut prints. The ever-growing body of work shows the drama and harshness of the landscape — but also celebrates its untouched magnificence. “I’m still figuring out (how to capture that),” she says. “Most of the works I’ve done so far are sort of smallish … I’d like to start working larger and I’m still figuring out how to treat it appropriately.” Koch has already shown some of the work publicly in Calgary, Waterloo and Halifax, and Rock Water Ice: Studies of Baffin Island is currently on display at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit until June 10.
“I was really pleased to be able to show it up there, near the source and to northern people,” she says. “I’m hoping for more opportunities to show it in the south in public galleries, to share my experience because so few people get up there. It’s part of the Canadian psyche and so few Canadians get to see it. I feel privileged.” Although Koch says she gathered enough material to last her for years, she’s eager to head northward again, and is looking to make contact with another field camp that might be interested in hosting an artist. “It’s frustrating because there’s so much land and so little time,” she says. “Three weeks is not long — we were just stationed in one little camp and although we did travel around quite a bit, there’s so much more.” For more, visit www.christinekoch.com. — Stephanie Porter
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19
High praise for Away from Her In latest film, Gordon Pinsent delivers ‘performance of a lifetime’ Away From Her 110 min. Starring Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie 1/2 (out of four)
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hey’ve had ups and downs during their 44 years together, but in the 20 years since Grant and Fiona Anderson moved to her grandparents’ idyllic lakeshore home, their lives have been enviously blissful. As their twilight years approach, their relationship has endured setbacks but becomes that magical blossom they probably envisioned when they were first married. Unfortunately, adversity isn’t selective, and the Andersons discover that Fiona is in the early stages of what is believed to be Alzheimer’s disease. Hailing from the academic world, they do as much reading on the subject as possible, preparing themselves for the inevitable. When a critical stage of the inevitable arrives, however, Grant’s heart tries to rule his head. Despite their plans, he becomes increasingly reluctant to admit Fiona into a nursing home, his trepidation fuelled by the policy that the patient is to have no contact with anyone outside the facility for 30 days. In all of their years together, Grant has never been away from her for that long. What must be done, is done, although Grant maintains contact with one of the nurses, Kristy (Kristen Thomson, in a solid supporting performance), who helps temper his anxiety. Still, after the 30-day hiatus, he shows up at the home like a well-mannered teenager on his first date. To his chagrin, Fiona doesn’t know who he is, and has become attached to another patient, Aubrey. Grant’s dismay is further complicated by his own guilty feelings regarding his indiscretions from long ago, leaving him uncertain whether Fiona really doesn’t remember him — or is simply giving him a taste of his own medicine. Alice Munro’s short story The Bear Came over the Mountain, which many of her readers claim amongst their favourites, is adapted for the cinema as Away from Her. Since the movie’s first opening at the Toronto International Film Festival, established actress Sarah Polley has been showered with praise for this, her debut in the director’s chair. As significant — though often overlooked, despite receiving an award from
TIM CONWAY Film Score the Writer’s Guild of Canada — is the fact Polley’s work behind the camera also includes writing the screenplay. In the past half-dozen years, Alzheimer’s disease has been near the core of a couple of motion pictures that have transcended the kind of maudlin drama that gave television movies such a bad name in the final quarter of the last century. Both Iris and The Notebook examined how this disease affects the afflicted and their loved ones, and have done so without cheap melodrama. While The Notebook has been a big hit with the younger set, primarily for the romantic aspect of its story, Iris is the picture that
POET’S CORNER
Seal hunt Going out in the boat seal hunting with rubber clothes on. I smell the salt water. It is strong this morning. It’s rough on the water. A seal pops up in front of the boat. Bang! The gun goes off. The seal is dead. We quickly go and get the seal before he sinks. It is scorching because of the sun. We go home and pelt the seal. It is suppertime. We put the seal in the roaster and eat him for supper. Another day is over. Can’t wait for the next seal hunt! Jadon Elliott, age 8 Campbellton
more deeply probes the anguish that builds during the progression of Alzheimer’s. With Away from Her, we see another facet of the condition, as the character of Grant is neither directly responsible for Fiona’s care, nor is he able to command her attention and spend the time with her in the way he would like. What Sarah Polley has drawn from the story and presented to the screen demonstrates the kind of confidence that comes from hard work and insight, asking questions and finding answers. Deliberately paced, with an occasional heavy-handed moment, Away from Her comes across with a delicate grace and sensitivity that is still too rare at the movies, and certainly not at the hand of a filmmaker so young. As an actress, Polley is frequently sought by directors. Although it’s often difficult to hire her, she’s reportedly easy to work with from a filmmaker’s
perspective. In this case, she seems to have turned things around. Working with Gordon Pinsent as Grant and Julie Christie as Fiona, Polley has drawn performances out of them that I’d be surprised to see bettered for a long time. Already boasting a fine resumé, Pinsent turns out the performance of a lifetime. American audiences only had a glimpse of his talent in The Shipping News, while most of us have grown up watching him work his particular magic. But even the most astute of us are sure to be blown away to discover that after almost 40 years, we haven’t yet experienced the depth and breadth of his range. Likewise, although it’s been a few decades since Christie took home her Oscar, anyone looking to give her another one doesn’t have to make any excuses. In a role that is both physically and psychologically challenging, there isn’t a moment that seems less than genuine,
nor one that doesn’t keep us hanging on for the next. Beautifully filmed and assembled, Away from Her is a triumph for Polley as well as the cast and the crew. More than that, however, is the care and thought that’s gone into telling the story and bringing it all to life — with respect for Munro’s story, the talents of all involved, and the audience’s intelligence. There’s hardly a moment that suggests that we are experiencing anything less than the best these folks could offer, and fortunately, it turns out to be a motion picture that is sure to remain among the year’s best. Away From Her is currently playing at Empire Theatres Studio 12, St. John’s. Tim Conway operates Capitol Video on Rawlin’s Cross, St. John’s. His column returns June 1.
MAY 18, 2007
20 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION
Coro de Ninos y Jóvenes Ars Nova
Singing their hearts out T
he world is coming to Newfoundland in the form of Festival 500, an international non-competitive gathering of choral musicians from 12 different countries. According to volunteer chair, Harry Connors, last year’s show saw more than 1,200 participants from all over the world come to St. John’s, North America’s oldest city, to sing their hearts out. “It was something to hear these near 2,000 voices sing the Ode to Newfoundland at the grand finale last year,” Connors says, excited that, in some small way, Newfoundland and Labrador touched so many visitors to the province. It was, he says, something to experience. “Participants showcased their talents and we exposed Newfoundland to the world,” Connors says. Festival 500 is all about sharing, explains executive director Peter
Gardner. “This festival is about the sharing of skills, the sharing of voices I suppose, in a program that is unique, intimate and close up in a rather exotic setting,” he says. “Newfoundland is an exotic destination, you don’t come here for a cheap weekend, it must be by choice,” Gardner says. And that’s exactly what happens with this one-of-a-kind festival. Participants must apply and care is taken to select the best. “More choirs apply than are accepted,” stresses Connors, adding performing here is considered a privilege. Festival 500 received 75 applications from choirs for the 2007 festival, but only 32 were invited to perform. Again this year, choirs will come from all over the world to participate. Besides all over Canada, choirs from Australia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico and New Zealand will take part. Performers are responsible for getting themselves here. “When you con-
sider choral groups are coming from all over the globe, that can be an expensive venture and it seems to stop no one from participating,” Connors says. Once here, groups must secure local accommodations. “Imagine the boost to local hotels and bed and breakfasts, to restaurants, to shops, store and boutiques,” Connors says, stressing the globe-trotting choral performers are also tourists taking advantage of everything St. John’s has to offer. “Some might sightsee, others go for adventure tours, more visit our museums and take in cultural events,” Connors says, but all have one thing in common — they spend money right here. It’s estimated that more than $1.5 million was generated locally in one week during the 2005 festival, Connors says with pride. “We make our contribution to the economy,” he says without hesitation. The kick-off to this year’s festival is an a cappella group out of Chicago. Ac
“Participants showcased their talents and we exposed Newfoundland to the world.” Harry Connors
Rock is slated to perform a variety of selections from doo-wop standards to more recent rock favourites May 21 at the Gower Street United Church, beginning at 8 p.m. “You shouldn’t miss this,” Gardner says, proclaiming their look, style and sound to be “different from anything you have heard before.”
Connors says he doesn’t think you can measure in dollars what the event means to Newfoundland or to participants from around the world. “How can you measure the experience of being here? How does that impact anyone down the road?” he asks. Connors expects those who visit will come back, and at the very least, inspire others to “come have a look around our province.” Show organizers hope the same applies to those who come to enjoy the sounds of choral music at its best. “If you have been before, please return, and by all means, take along your friends,” Connors says. Event organizers encourage everyone to head out May 21 to celebrate the music of the 1950s-’90s at the first event of Festival 500 2007. Tickets for the Ac Rock concert can be purchased at Bennington Gate and Fred’s Records, the festival office at 738-6013 and at the door.
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21
Model of urban renewal From page 17 strewn messily all day about lawns and sidewalks while their owners remain at work. What’s more insane — the bylaw, our tacit complicity in it, or the city’s fervent determination to penalize anyone who doesn’t tuck their green smurfs of garbage in for the morning? The most recent example of municipal nuttiness is the graffiti debate. Honestly, does council think it’s going to put an end to tagging tunnel walls by sandblasting fresh markings? You have to admire the audacity of the wall writers, who are now as openly challenged to renew their graffiti campaign as any teenager who was ever advised that marijuana led immediately to heroin addiction. With all due respect for those earnest St John’s councillors suggesting discipline and punishment, waging war against graffiti with a whistle-blowing regime and a lousy $500 reward for snitching merely reinvents the generation gap, and makes the enforcers look ridiculous. If Ottawa is a useful example of what happens when large, ugly glass boxes take over a city’s core, Philadelphia is a brilliant example of how to deal with urban blight. In 1984 that American city started something called the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, or MAP. It
Debater Sam Greene in front of Holy Heart.
Nicholas Langor/The Independent
Arguing his case Holy Heart student having national and international debating success By Kyla Bruff For The Independent
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oly Heart of Mary High School student Sam Greene is the only Newfoundlander to qualify for this year’s Canadian high school debate team. Greene, 16, participated in a qualifier tournament in Ottawa earlier this month. He recently found out he’d earned a spot on the national team, which will compete in the Pan-American Games in Bermuda in September. To prepare for the tournament, Greene will travel to Calgary in July for an intensive debate camp. The camp focuses on improving style and how to apply debates. Greene says he’s prepared for criticism. The expectations are high, but Greene says he isn’t anxious. “After you do it enough, it stops being an issue of being nervous, because it becomes almost mechanical. You can’t totally shut down and be a machine about it, but there’s a technique to it, like there’s a technique to a sport,” says Greene. “You get in the right head space and you just do what you’ve practiced. Once you do it enough times you’re so used to it that the nerves go away.” Making Team Canada is not the only recent success for Greene. He was the only Newfoundlander to participate in the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships in April, and the first to ever place in the top 10. That event featured 80 competitors from 15 countries and was held in South Africa. Greene finished in seventh place overall and third in the debating category. He attributes most of his success to the work he does on his own time and his speaking style. “You have to absolutely know so much stuff,” says Greene. “It’s beyond just reading the newspaper every day. You have to read the Economist and a bunch of different newspapers; books and stuff that actually prepare you with the information you need.”
Greene says he tries to present his points as he would in a real life situation. He wins over audiences and judges with his conversational style and the believability of his arguments. “I try and get the judges on my side, because a lot of people when they argue are belligerent or mean,” he says. “I try and have something that real people can connect with, not just something for a few debaters that do it all the time.” Although Greene names Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton among his favorite speakers, he says political debating is not comparable to competitive debating. Greene started debating formally in Grade 8. Both his sister and father were debaters, leading to his pursuit of the craft. His step-dad is also an acclaimed debate coach who has helped him along the way. Greene is already helping other young students. He coaches the junior high nationals team, a group of dedicated debaters that have gotten hooked on debating at a young age. As the high school representative of the Newfoundland and Labrador Speech and Debate Union, Greene believes debating should be a mandatory subject in school. “It teaches people how to actually speak in front of a crowd and to communicate ideas to people in a clear and organized way,” says Greene. “It also teaches them how to analyze, argument, think critically and use information to construct a line of reasoning.” Still unsure of his career plans, he says the skills he has learned in debating will apply to whatever he decides to do. With his various interests and talents — Greene also plays trumpet in jazz band, concert band and jazz combo, and sings in chamber choir and concert choir — he has many options. In the meantime, Greene is excited about upcoming tournaments and the possibility of getting a debate scholarship from an American school. Kyla Bruff is a Level 3 student at Holy Heart of Mary High School.
was all about fighting graffiti, not with anger and old-fogy condescension, but with art. Philadelphia hired a well-known mural artist to contact graffiti writers and encourage them to channel their urges, so to speak, into large and lovely images. These young men and women, city-funded paint buckets in hand, got so caught up in their teacher’s lessons they ended up transforming both the city’s massive concrete walls and their own lives. In effect, the raging scribblers turned out to be the willing agents of the city’s beauty and their own education. Today, the MAP project is a model of urban renewal and a vehicle for neighbourhood revitalization. Everyone wins. It’s an amazing accomplishment, but Philadelphia now boasts over 2,700 murals, more than any other city in the world. Penalties and threats and sandblasting didn’t stop the graffiti — art did. And, let’s be straight — city councillors with vision and focus made it happen in the first place. When all is said and done, I’d rather not be in Philadelphia, but it would be so much more comforting to have some of that city’s good ideas percolating through council chambers. Noreen Golfman is a professor of literature and women’s studies at Memorial. Her column returns June 1.
MAY 18, 2007
22 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION
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or six months of the year, Anne Keeping’s home away from home is an 18-foot trailer parked in a gravel pit off the Burin Peninsula Highway. No matter the weather, if you want to find her after the long weekend, look no further than Baie De Leau Road. “We spent Mother’s Day weekend getting the camper ready,” she says, adding the threat of two centimetres of snow didn’t dampen her spirits. “Gravel pit campers are a hardy lot,” she chuckles, “weather surprises are to be expected in Newfoundland.” Dave Petten, manager of St. John’sbased Islander RV, says everything from RV sales, service and rentals have been operating at full tilt. As always, he says camping is popular in the province. “Campsites around the province have had to expand to keep up with the demand for more people with larger campers.” Petten says if he could find a way to install a pool inside one of his RVs it would sell. Trailers can be elaborate spaces, he says. “We’ve had them with three televisions, washers and dryers and fireplaces.” While some go “all out,” most people still enjoy camping on a smaller scale. Lorraine Burton, manager of The Scout Shop in St. John’s, says outfitting first-time campers is one of the benefits of her job. “Someone will come in with their child to pick up a few things and the next thing you know they are reminiscing about their first pocket knife, or their first camping trip.” Burton says she has been busy selling everything from flashlights and water bottles to backpacks, sleeping bags and tents. If renting a site on a campground isn’t for you this long weekend, why not experience nature with a professional? Stan Cook, operator of a sea kayaking
24th of May, time to get away adventure tour business out of Cape Broyle, says the May 24th weekend will be a busy one. “The phone starts ringing like crazy once the long weekend hits and people realize that summer is here,” he laughs. Cook takes locals and tourists on what he calls “soft adventure tours,” and says you don’t need to be an expert to enjoy yourself. “I have had everyone from an 80-year-old nun to a six-year-old girl out on the water,” he says. Kayaking can be fun for anyone, he adds. Ed English, owner and operator of Corner Brook-based Explore Newfoundland, says the season for businesses like his is from May through September and being busy this long weekend is “all a part of it.” English owns two lighthouse inns that he says provide the ideal spot
for viewing icebergs, whales, and everything else nature has to offer on the northern tip of Newfoundland. “I swear sometimes you can step off the rocks and walk onto the back of a humpback whale if you wanted to,” he says. Keeping says seeing the local wildlife — her fellow campers, in other words — is enough for her this weekend. “The social side of being down over the road is part of why we enjoy it so much,” she explains, adding she doesn’t mind late nights and early mornings on occasion. The first long weekend attracts everyone, she says, and that adds to her excitement. While she is busy planning what she needs for her three days “away from it all,” she says she can’t stop smiling. “All I can say is come on Friday.” — Pam Pardy Ghent
INDEPENDENTSTYLE
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007 — PAGE 23
Precious gems Local jewelers on their glittery craft and their love of the ‘provincial stone’ By Mandy Cook The Independent
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parkly things. Girls go ga-ga over them. Like magpies, our eyes get wider and rounder in direct proportion to how much a piece of jewelry twinkles. We are entranced by the light and how perfectly turquoise shoulder dusters bring out the hue of our sky blue eyes (with gold flecks). Not to mention how the ritual of selfadornment allows for one last confidence-boosting touch before heading out the door — whether sprucing up a plain but classic crisp white shirt or adding the finishing piece de résistance to a dramatic evening gown with a plunging neckline. Women know that extra something-something will make the difference between so-so and spectacular. Wesley Harris, a jewelry designer
Red jade and garnet necklace, $425, and Carnelian earrings, $130 by Donald Beaubier. Provided by Devon House.
who makes his home in Corner Brook, knows this too. Shiny jewels are as appealing to those wearing them as to those making them. “It’s an enhancement (for the body),” he says. “I like the reflective property of the metals. The precision I can achieve with metals is different from clay or cloth or paper. I’m attracted to the tangible materials with the stones and the colours, and with faceted stones at least there’s very often a play of light.” A jewelry maker for 35 years, Harris’ work is innovative and beautiful. Unimpressed with commercial jewelers’ settings, he invented his own to create less “clutter.” His stones are set with the fewest prongs possible — drawing the metal around the gem instead of securing it with visible claws. See “Baby sculptures,” page 28
Paul Daly/The Independent
MAY 18, 2007
24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE
Get fired up to meat your match By David Rider Torstar wire service
T
ed Reader, chef, author and barbecue expert, woke up in a Chicago hotel room at 3 a.m. literally drooling, he says, thinking about the 24-ounce rib steak he’d devoured for dinner. Well, almost devoured. He remembered he had a leftover chunk stashed in the mini-bar. A flurry of sheets, a flash of teeth and it was gone. “That was one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten,” he says wistfully. Scott Thompson, a grill chef at Barberian’s Steak House, has for 22 years worked what is essentially an indoor barbecue, coaxing an average of 120 steaks per night to flame-licked perfection for meat lovers including actors Alec Baldwin, the late John Candy and the Trailer Park Boys. You can often find Thompson working the Weber in his backyard, making himself … steak. “You want good flavour that stays,” he says, “like once you eat it, you say, ‘Damn, I can still taste the beauty of that steak.’” These men know, and love, their meat. On cuts, seasonings and grill technique, you might not expect Reader, the TV host of King of the Q and famous for fearlessly grilling pretty much anything on anything, to agree with a chef from an old-school steak house. But they had few bones to pick with each other’s pronouncements. Thompson steers home barbecuers to rib-eyes (flavourful, tender, usually boneless cuts of prime rib), rib steaks (rib-eyes without the bone) and strip loins (boneless beefsteak cut from the top loin muscle of the short loin). At home, he’s also partial to tenderloin. Thompson points to a rib steak’s heavy marbling — the white lines of fat that, when grilled, dissolve and make the meat juicy, tender and flavourful. “You want the marbling on the inside where the eye of the round is,” he says. Reader’s top grilling steaks, in order of preference, are: rib steak (bone in or out), New York strip loin, T-bone and filet. “People say filet is the most tender, which it is, but it doesn’t have a lot of fat and fat is flavour,” he says. Reader trims off the outside fat after grilling.
So do you have to pay a lot for a good steak? Thompson says butcher shops are best but, if you prefer the grocery store, you can get a decent grilling steak for $10 to $12. Avoid the pre-packaged stuff, he says. Ask the in-store butcher how long different cuts have been aged (moisture evaporates and natural enzymes break down hard connective tissues with aging) and get him to cut it for you. Reader, an admitted “steak snob” who has happily paid $20 for a single cut, tells people: “Buy the best quality piece of meat you can afford.” Less expensive but potentially delicious cuts include flank, sirloin and hanger, he adds. When it comes to flavouring meat, both Thompson and Reader eschew marinades and go for simple spice mixes that can be put on even five minutes before grilling. At home, Thompson uses Barberian’s secret-ingredient spice ($5 a jar), often mixing it with jerk or other seasonings. Reader is a “salt, pepper and garlic kind of guy.” For the grilling itself, both say you can’t beat lump hardwood charcoal (Barberian uses Maple Leaf brand, which retails for about $20 for an 8-kg bag) for flavour, although gas and infrared can yield great results. Thompson starts his fire with a few lumps of charcoal and then adds more, letting it burn for about 20 minutes to get to searing heat. For a thick rib steak, he’ll put it on the “hot spot” to sear in flavour for a minimum of five minutes, with flips to get the criss-cross marking, and then move it to a “warm spot” for, say, 25 minutes to get to his preference of well-done. Reader, who likes his steak two inches thick, sears for about five minutes a side, then closes the lid and lets it “roast” on indirect heat for about 15 minutes to get it medium-rare. Both chefs say the biggest mistake most grillers make is to continually prod, flip and pierce the meat, draining out flavour and toughening it. Thompson says: “Know your fire; don’t play with the meat.” For greenhorns, Reader advocates consistency. “If you don’t want to screw it up, you find one cut of steak you like, one thickness and one weight and you learn how to grill it perfectly.” But, at the end of the day, he adds, there really is only one rule: “Make your belly happy.”
TASTE
Big on flavour, small on calories By Susan Sampson Torstar wire service
H
ere’s a full-flavoured but low-cal alternative for lovers of eggplant dip. Serve it with toasted pita at snack time. Or use it like a condiment.
SMOKY EGGPLANT DIP Adapted from Healthy Helpings: 800 Fast and Fabulous Recipes for the Kosher (or Not) Cook by Toronto’s Norene Gilletz. The dip is good for a day or two. Each tablespoon has 6 calories and 0.2 grams of fat. Liquid smoke is sold in some supermarkets. • Vegetable spray to taste
• 2 eggplants (about 1 lb/450 g each) • 2 green bell peppers • 1 onion, peeled, halved • 1 clove garlic, peeled • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro • 1 tsp ground cumin • 1/2 tsp granulated sugar • 1/8 tsp liquid smoke • 1 tsp kosher salt • Freshly ground pepper to taste Spray baking sheet lightly with vegetable spray. Put eggplants, peppers and onion on sheet. Bake in preheated 400F oven until onion is soft, about 40 minutes. Remove onion to large plate. Bake until eggplants are soft, about five more minutes. Add
eggplants to plate. Bake until peppers are soft and browned, about five minutes further. Add peppers to plate. Let sit until cool enough to handle. Toss garlic into food processor with motor running, to mince. Add onion to food processor bowl. Pull off and discard stems and skin from peppers. Split peppers. Scrape away seeds and discard. Put flesh in food processor bowl. Add oil, vinegar, cilantro, cumin, sugar, liquid smoke, salt and pepper. Pulse to chop coarsely. Cut eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop out flesh and drain well. Discard skin. Add flesh to food processor. Pulse until puréed but still has texture. Makes about four cups.
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1-800-378-CCFF • www.cysticfibrosis.ca
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 25
Winning is ‘pretty darn wicked’ The lasting effects of accepting an Atlantic Journalism Award
I
know it happened, cause my guts are a little raw, my head has a slight throb and I feel sleep-deprived. My jaw aches from all the smiling I’ve done, my sides are cramped and my throat raw from laughing. I’m basking in the glow of the good-natured jokes friends and family are tossing my way. My plaque follows me from room to room (well, not all rooms — it might get steamed up in there) and when I visit my outport neighbours I bring it along, in case they want to have a gander. “Everything’s in order,” my father said to me on the phone before I left St. John’s to head on home out of it. “For what?” I asked. “For the motorcade we have arranged for you from Bay D’East on into Harbour Mille,” he deadpanned. I thought he was serious for a few moments and wished my eyes weren’t so damn bloodshot and my hair such a morning-after-the-night-before mess. “Everyone else is going to have to move out of the harbour to make room for her head,” one sister told my mother. “She was bad enough when she was famous in her own mind,” another joked.
PAM PARDY GHENT
Seven-day talk I laughed and giggled at it all until my husband’s “Here’s something else she won’t dust” line made me cranky. But I got over it pretty fast. After all, I did win. I know I should try and be a little modest. Before I went to the Atlantic Journalism Awards in Halifax I was reminding everyone who wished me luck that the real honour was in being nominated, but allow me my moment if you can stand it. Going to Halifax and attending the awards show was a high on its own. My mother, who was getting her arse there no matter what, enjoyed prepping for the trip. We shopped for new dresses, had our nails done (we selected matching diamond tips) and had our toes tended to. We endured a last minute diet that we didn’t really follow and, of course, we had our hair done. Mother and daughter bonding at its best.
There was a bit of drama in the midst of the preparation. My husband Blair, who has been working in Alberta since March, was given an unexpected 10 days off. He would be arriving in St. John’s a few hours before I was flying to Halifax for the awards presentation. Considering the piece I had been nominated for was about him going away for work and how difficult that was to deal with, I wondered what to do. He encouraged me to go enjoy myself, so I met him at the airport in time for him to see me off on my own flight. The only things I gave him that night were the keys to the can and a quick peck. My best friend since kindergarten met my mother and I in Halifax and we spent a few hours shopping, laughing, eating and reminiscing. The trip was already a success. Then there was the awards show and the win. I will never forget the emotion on my mother’s face, or the joyful squeals of my girlfriend. I dialed my father on my cellphone and brought it on stage with me so he could share in the moment. Before I started to speak, I heard my father say, “I knew you could do it.”
I must admit that this award for feature writing has very little to do with me. First, if my father hadn’t encouraged me, I might not have bothered to submit any pieces for publication at all. Dad covered my shifts at the store and took as much as he could on his broad shoulders so I could do what I love — write. My mother cooked many meals and lightened my load when deadlines meant I was pressed for time. The rest of my family read whatever I sent them and proclaimed each piece to be “brilliant.” Then, there was The Independent. It is probably fair to say I harassed Ryan Cleary to get that first shot at getting in the paper. Weeks when I didn’t make it in, I sulked and made sure I got a story in the next edition. He was patient with me at times, and quite crotchety at others. But he encouraged me, and that was the greatest kindness he could have shown a wannabe writer. Then there’s Susan Rendell, a fellow nominee in the feature-writing category. I remember picking up The Independent one weekend and seeing her piece, Sex and the City, on the cover. I started reading in the driveway,
and struggled my way into the house, not able to put the paper down. I was wrapped in her words and lost in the images of a St. John’s I didn’t even know existed. When I discovered I was nominated in the same category as Rendell, and for such a brilliant piece of writing, I admit I felt pretty damn good — and not very confident. But then, I heard my name, and that was pretty darn wicked. Some could say it’s tacky to write about winning, maybe boastful even, but I don’t mind. I will eventually catch up on the lost hours of sleep and my hangover will soon be a faint memory. My plaque will eventually find a permanent place on the wall of my saltbox — when it is done visiting neighbours of course — and I might even dust it on occasion. If I don’t get a chance to clean it off, I could always write about how my poor husband has to come home every six weeks from Alberta to dust my award. That’s funny stuff worth reading. My father thinks so anyway. Pam Pardy Ghent lives in Harbour Mille. Her column returns June 1.
Itching for an instant fine meal at home? Think beyond pizza and fish and chips
Takeout for the better NICHOLAS GARDNER Off the Eating Path
Y
ou can’t tell a book by its cover, but you can surely learn about a town by its Yellow Pages. I’m not talking about the infrastructure of the city — the buildings, the businesses, the centres of higher learning — I’m looking for takeout menus from the local restaurants. There was a time when the St. John’s Yellow Pages restaurant section was a bland list of forgotten places, dominated by the holy trinity of takeout — pizza joints, fish and chip shops, and Chinese restaurants. This is not the standard anymore. St. John’s is growing, and by all accounts, becoming more cosmopolitan by the day — and I don’t mean in the way in which drink menus are produced. Over the weekend my wife and ran I around the city enjoying the day after a great luncheon at The Rooms. There, the food and the company were paired with a commanding view of the city. We watched as the clouds gobbled up the remaining blue sky and waited for the splat of fat raindrops to sound off the tin roof. When we arrived home after speed grocery shopping we sat down and caught our breath. Just because I can cook does not necessarily mean that I want to cook all the time. We didn’t have the energy to go out, so we reached for the phone book
and decided stay in and have some food and a movie — the best date idea we’d had in ages. When we looked I thought OK, Chinese, what could be more movie friendly that that? I mean, every New York movie has at least one scene with the main characters eating Chinese food out of those square cardboard boxes. But we wanted something different. Curry from India Gate, the local curry house, sounded good at first, but we realized we already had a curry feast earlier in the week. The pizza chains and independent stores running through the city deserves its own phone book section, but we weren’t in the mood for the hour-long wait to have it delivered. Such is the life when ordering out. Then we spotted it: Sun Sushi. In the middle of the phone book is a series of menus from various places, and Sun Sushi is there with a good chunk of their menu printed in black and white. We ordered 20 pieces of sushi with the Spicy tuna roll. And as if there was a bonus goddess watching over us, we got an extra California hand roll because we ordered over $30 of sushi. Twenty minutes later I was at the restaurant eagerly awaiting our order and excited to take it home. See “Just a phone call away,” page 28
Sushi goodness from Sun Sushi on Duckworth Street in St. John’s
Nicholas Gardner photo
MAY 18, 2007
26 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE
SPRING
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MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 27
On deck and below
I
n his 21 years in business, Ray Johnson of Cangro Services Ltd. in Corner Brook says he has seen big changes in how homeowners view their living spaces. “Outside was for working in,” he says, but that isn’t the case today. “People live as much outside as in when the weather is nice, and a private yard with a comfortable deck is one creative way to extend the boundaries of your home without beating down or putting up walls,” he says. If families are spending time outside, then they need a homey place to do it in. It’s Johnson’s job to see that goal achieved. “Products need to be as affordable as possible while maintaining as much quality as possible,” he says. Of course, besides meeting budget, outside expansion projects must also match an individual family’s need. Johnson says he fields calls all year round as homeowners plan and plot for their next project. “The first question is how much, but to know that you need to have some questions answered,” he says. “If someone wants a fence built then knowing why will help guide us so we can help you better.” The two most common answers he receives to the question of a new fence? Security and privacy. For some families — usually those with children or pets — safety is a concern when fencing a backyard. Understanding the need will help determine what product is best to use. “In these circumstances, clients usually shy away from pressure-treated products so we suggest vinyl materials.” For mature families, pressure-treated wood might be the way to go, he advises, or a chain link with privacy slats. Costs for all types of fencing can vary depending on corners and gates, Johnson warns. Paul Porter, an independent contrac-
tor in Conception Bay South, says if you are thinking about adding on to your home, you can bank on spending anywhere between $85-$100 a square foot. Most requests he receives are for quotes on expanding a kitchen or for adding a den, office or family room. “I don’t know why folks want so much cupboard space,” he laughs, pondering the popular quest for bigger kitchens, although he can understand how a den, office or family room can give a growing family more space. There are ways to get extra living space, Johnson says, while enjoying nature at the same time. The answer is a deck or patio. When it comes to decks, Johnson says there are options to suit each need, including pressure-treated, manufactured, plastic or composite lumber. “Decks are for entertaining and relaxing and the size is restricted only by the dimensions of the property and how much green space you want,” he says. Multi-leveled decks are becoming common for larger properties or for families with children. Johnson says as long as there is room for a barbecue, a table and some chairs, most are satisfied, but he is seeing a trend towards the more elaborate. “I’ve seen everything from hot tubs to outside propane fire pits done with natural rock around it for a great setting in the backyard,” he says. It doesn’t matter how old your home is, a deck is a good fit for almost anyone, he says. “We are getting back into the outdoors — even if it is only in the backyard,” Johnson laughs. “It doesn’t matter if you have an older home or if you are rejuvenating an older one, a deck gives you a chance to expand without actually building on an extra room with a roof.” — Pam Pardy Ghent
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MAY 18, 2007
28 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE
‘Baby sculptures’
EVENTS
From page 23 “I’m always striving for that effortlessness, so there’s no evidence of a struggle,” he says. “The finished product always looks like it was meant to be.” Harris favours sterling silver because of its substantial strength to secure stones in place, but loves gold for its stable quality — the purity of the metal means it won’t tarnish. His choice of stone includes opal, agate and mother of pearl, but he says Labradorite is one of his favourites. He’s currently hand-carving a piece in order to drop some yellow citrine into its centre, and will shape a clasp of morning glory flowers to attach for a pendant. “I’m really attracted to our Labradorite, which is brittle — it’s a deuce of a stone to work with. It cleaves easily in layers so you have to be careful it doesn’t split, but it’s just worth it because it’s a beautiful stone and has such a lovely iridescence.” Bay Bulls-based jewelry maker Donald Beaubier is also a fan of the shimmering blue-green stone. He says he tries to get as much local Labradorite as he can, but it is “tricky” to get good pieces. Depending on how it’s mined, it can easily fracture. He Pieces by Wesley Harris, clockwise from top: sterling silver and mother of pearl moustache orders some of his supply from comb, large Labradorite pendant, and gold (gold ore and yellow gold wire) pendant. Madagascar and Finland, and acquires other exotic stones such as onyx, some surfaces while engraving patterns experience. moonstone and amethyst from as far into others. Beaubier says his “baby “I like the fact that jewelry is a very away as Bangkok. sculptures” are informed by his intimate thing. It’s worn on someBeaubier likes to mix metals, com- beloved landscape around him, refer- body’s body and it becomes almost part bining silver and gold to showcase the encing the water and the land into his of a person in a way.” distinctive elements. He is also keen to work. Crafting glittery treasures, he play with textual contrasts – polishing says, allows for a mutually beneficial mandy.cook@theindependent.ca
Just a phone call away From page 25
It’s a really good deal. For $36 including all taxes we had a sushi feast, beautifully created. It was like something out of a picture book. There we were watching our movie and munching on sushi. We felt like we were in a very big city. Perusing the Yellow Pages is as fun as walking down the street, looking for the enticing smells to beckon you in for a meal. I enjoy takeout. There is something very family-friendly about it — you can have all the flavors of the
world delivered to your door and you don’t even have to dress up to have a fancy meal. Here are some tips about getting the most out of your takeout: Look for places you haven’t tried. Like any food experience, it’s all in the experimentation. If you’ve heard that a place is good, then sometimes it is better to take a risk and find out. Call restaurants that don’t deliver too. Try fine dining. It won’t have the ambiance or the service, but if you’re in the mood for that baked halibut at your favourite lunch spot, maybe
they’ll pack it up for you if you pick it up. Think outside the box. Sometimes for a special night you can have food made from your favourite restaurant and have a quiet dinner at home. Sometimes the best things are the easiest things. Having a good meal can sometimes be a chore, but with takeout, it’s just a phone call away. Nicholas Gardner is a freelance writer and erstwhile chef living in St. John’s. nicholas.gardner@gmail.com
MAY 18 • 1919 Race to fly the Atlantic with Mike Wilkshire, Admiralty House, St. John’s, 7 p.m., 748-1124. • Tea, guest speakers and conversation, Seniors Bridging Culture Club, Seniors Resource Centre, St. John’s, 2 p.m., 737-2333. • Colleen Power, Aneirin Thomas and Paul Curnew at the Rose and Thistle, Water Street, St. John’s, 10:30 p.m. MAY 19 • The Latest in Archaeology at the Colony of Avalon, free public forum with Memorial archaeologists Jim Tucker and Barry Gaulton, Dr. Lisa Hodgetts from the University of Western Ontario and Mr. Paul Berry of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada, Fairmont Newfoundland, 1:30-4 p.m. MAY 20 • Watoto Children’s Choir, from Kampala, Uganda at Elim Tabernacle, corner of Ropewalk Lane and Empire Avenue, 11 a.m., free. • Sunrise Concert with Etobicoke Youth Band, Cape Spear, 5:17 a.m. • Rummage Sale and Fair for the whole family, magic, games, movie screenings, face painting, button-making, hoola-hooping and more, Eastern Edge Gallery, 72 Harbour Drive, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. MAY 21 • Festival 500, AC Rock, an a cappella group from Chicago, Gower Street United Church, 8 p.m., 738-6013. MAY 22 • International Day for Biodiversity lunchtime lecture with Madonna Bishop, MUN Botanical Garden, free admission, registration not required, 12-1 p.m., 737-8590, www.mun.ca/botgarden. • Annual Festival of New Dance, performances, dance films, classes, workshops, and choreographies by local, national and international artists, LSPU Hall, 3 Victoria Street, St. John’s, 7534531, continues until May 27. • Historical Walking Tours back in operation, Fairmont Hotel, Cavendish Square, Tuesday and Friday mornings, 75 minutes, contact the reservation hotline, 364-6845, www.boyletours.com. MAY 23 • Experience the East Coast Trail
with guest speaker Darlene Scott, A.C. Hunter Library, 7 p.m. • Chris Badcock at Folk Night, the Ship Pub, St. John’s, 9:30 p.m. • Tour the Battery exhibit, The Rooms, 2 p.m. • Women’s Job Talk: Interview Skills and the Hidden Market, St. John’s Women’s Centre, 150 LeMarchant Rd, 6-9 p.m., 753-0200. MAY 24 • Back in Motion presented by DanSing Performance Studio, Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre, 9445412, continues until May 26. • Celebrate 50 Years of Community Living, The NL Association for Community Living family conference, Capital Hotel, Kenmount Road, St. John’s, May 24-26, for registration call 722-0790, or email nlacl@nf.aibn.com. IN THE GALLERIES: • Series of abstract paintings by local artist, Gordon Laurin, LSPU Hall Gallery, 3 Victoria Street, St. John’s, until June 3. • Eastern Edge Gallery celebrates The Year of the Craft, 72 Harbour Drive, 3 p.m., 739-1882, until June 16. • The Battery: People of the Changing Outport tells the story of The Battery, of dramatic social, cultural and economic changes occurring in many outport communities, The Rooms, level 2, until September 3. • Brian Jungen’s Vienna, giant sculpture in the form of a pristine whale skeleton suspended from the gallery’s cathedral ceiling, until September 16. • Natural Energies by Anne Meredith Barry (1931–2003), including 90 works created since 1982, The Rooms, level 3, until September 30.
MAY 18-24, 2007
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Time to ignite the crotch rockets T
his is a difficult season, to be thing about the thrill of riding that sure. For the first time, as long as propagates the devil-may-care attitude I can remember, the and the camaraderie of riding deadline for removing studin a small pack that brings out ded snow tires has been the best in people. I’d like to extended for a full month and think that if one feels more we needed it too. Freezing confident, or even happier rain plagued us only recently when riding a motorcycle, and though it may be half then that’s what they should warm for a day or two here be doing. Perhaps that’s why and there, I don’t expect they start their season regardrelief any time soon. less of the weather. MARK That won’t stop the hardy Bikers, like any species, WOOD bikers from rolling out their can be further classified into machines. Like wasps emerg(all equal of course), WOODY’S groups ing from a woodpile after a according to different styles WHEELS of riding. This is a generalizalong winter sleep, they’ll roar around in defiance of the tion for the purposes of entercold. This is the beginning of their sea- tainment and should not be quoted as a son and they’ll take it by force if they reference for any sociological research. have to. We’ll start with the cruisers, generalIt’s not really fair to categorize bikers ly large bikes — lots of chrome, low as an overly spirited bunch, but it’s true seats, and wide handlebars. This is the — they’re all fanatical. There’s some- sort of machine gentlemen prefer, look-
ing for that bit of youth after being responsible for so long. A lot of people take stock of their working lives and realize that they deserve a little reward. Go ahead, have some fun, buy the bike. Cut this column out of the paper and stick it on the fridge. The street bike preferred by the younger crowd is a racer, or in slang terms, crotch rocket. Low, narrow handlebars and a high seat give the desired effect of crouching over the bike. To the untrained eye they look uncomfortable, however, they’re far more ergonomic and comfortable than cruisers. The rider’s weight is supported by their arms and lifted slightly by wind pressure, while their legs are bent to further absorb shock. Cruisers usually ride with their feet forward with outstretched arms, taking all bumps directly on the spine. Just thought I’d throw that bit of information out there and clear that up. Rockets are comfortable
to ride and a lot of fun. There’s nothing quite like carving up a twisty road by the sea on one of those. Been there, done that, and lived to type about it. The real fun — the sick fun — is in the dirt. In the past couple of years motocross bikes (also known as dirt bikes) have become wildly popular. These are all strictly off-road racers and capable of ridiculous stunts. A monster truck show wouldn’t be complete without some kid jumping a bus and hanging off a bike about 50 feet in the air. They can wheelie all day and tear across an open field at highway speeds. It’s the only bike you’d want to take out in wet weather and flick some mud around. You can even stud the tires in the winter and rip around in the snow. Motocross bikes are practically indestructible and are designed to take the fall. An acceptable practice for an outof-control wheelie is to jump off and run. Usually the bike just wobbles a bit
and flops on the ground. Once in my life I caught up to it again. It was a fine summer day, I was doing a wheelie across a field and I leaned too far back. I hopped off, started running while it rolled ahead of me. I caught up to the bike and hopped on again; luckily people were watching, otherwise no one would believe me. Been there, broke that and lined up at the hospital. There’s one more thing I should mention, the only gender-specific reference I made was about gentlemen and cruisers, and even then, only out of deference of age and politeness. Girls ride bikes too, more than ever before. They ride cruisers, rockets, motocross bikes and I couldn’t be happier for them. There’s no one cooler than a girl on a bike. Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s is still just a kid on a dirt bike.
30 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT
MAY 18, 2007
MAY 18, 2007
INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 31
‘You’re filling out a toe tag?’ POLICE OFFICERS NEVER KNOW WHAT — OR WHO — THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE TO FACE
POWER SHIFT
Denny Hamlin celebrates by spinning his tires
noise of traffic the entire time. “Buddy, what are ya doing? You can’t cross the highway like this, come on, what’s your name …” I sat in the passenger seat, and in that moment, I realized I could never be a cop. Every 10 seconds the scenario was changing, and getting scarier as it went. What had been a kid running across the road was now a man who was being asked if he was armed. A construction worker late for work, he’d decided dodging traffic made sense. He wasn’t armed with weapons, or apparently common sense. Dean made him put his bag in the trunk, and plunked him in the back seat. The inside of a cruiser is jammed with technical equipment, and feels quite tight, especially with a guy in the back who is being asked if he has any priors. As Dean called in the Artful Dodger’s ID, the disembodied voice crackled back
REUTERS/Charles W Luzier
Two new must-read Canadian racing books O
K, so I could have written a column this sport and corresponded with more than a dozen week about Denny Hamlin. The others. NASCAR Nextel Cup He started this project back in the Challenge goes May 19 at Lowes Motor early 1990s and he hadn’t expected it Speedway in Charlotte (8:30 p.m. would take so long. “I’m a military hisNewfoundland time, Speed Channel) torian by trade, and I run a research instiand an examination of Hamlin’s whintute at the university, so I did this in my ing in recent days could have been grist spare time,” he said. “I figured it would for my mill. take me five-to-seven years; I didn’t Oh, you haven’t heard? Hamlin wantexpect it would take me 18.” ed somebody fired after some lug nuts The book was worth the wait, though. NORRIS were dropped during a tire change at Charters’ thesis (he’s an academic, MCDONALD Darlington last weekend. He said the after all) is that sports car racing in subsequent delay cost him the win. Canada, which really got going in the I could have gone along with that if years following the Second World War, only Hamlin had suggested that he, was initially a sport organized by the himself, be fired after he lost the race competitors for their own enjoyment. In for his team at Phoenix a few weeks ago the following 40 years, it gradually when he was caught speeding on pit road. transformed into a spectator spectacle organized, But I didn’t hear a peep out of him then. promoted and exploited by commercial interests. So I’ll take a pass on Denny Hamlin. It’s a great read and Charters has made an Or how about that Lewis Hamilton? He’s taken invaluable contribution by researching and writing Formula One by storm! He’s the youngest driver it. Published by University of Toronto Press, it’s since Bruce McLaren in 1960 to be leading the available at bookstores everywhere. world championship standings and everybody’s The second book is by west coast racer, race-car all excited! designer and constructor and racing historian Tom I say big deal. He’s driven in four Grand Prix Johnston. Called “Westwood, Everybody’s races and he hasn’t won one yet. Favourite Racing Circuit,” it tells the story of Back in 1996, his rookie season, our own Canada’s first purpose-built road-racing track that Jacques Villeneuve was already a winner after opened for business in the Vancouver suburb of four races. And he’d won a pole, too — something Coquitlam on July 26, 1959. that young Hamilton hasn’t done yet either. One nit that I have with the first book is a lack I’ll get really excited about Lewis Hamilton of illustrations, something the Westwood book has when he gives me a reason. in spades. So I’m going to talk about a couple of Canadian For instance, Johnston reproduces a page from a racing books that have just gone on sale and I urge Sports Car Club of British Columbia newsletter in each and every one of you to go out and buy 1958 in which vice-president Claire Wilson urges copies because they are both wonderful. members to “Stop smoking! Stop drinking! Take The first one is The Chequered Past (Sports Car the bus!” in order to give every penny possible to Racing and Rallying in Canada, 1951-1991), by the Westwood building fund. David A. Charters, a professor at the University of There are other photos of great races, great New Brunswick. series and great drivers. There are reproductions This is a remarkably well-researched work. of posters, pit passes and programs. The last chapCharters, an active amateur racer, spent months ter, entitled Faces of Westood, includes mug shots going through the records of the Canadian of just about everybody who turned a wheel there, Automobile Sport Clubs and reading scores of from the famous to the not-so-famous — about periodicals and newspaper clippings. He conduct- 300 in all. ed interviews with nearly 40 of the giants of the It is published by Granville Island Publishing.
TRACK TALK
a code that made her grab the phone. She stayed calm, but something had changed. My heart rate ticked up. She had a gun and a bullet-proof vest. I had a notepad and a non-bullet-proof Old Navy tank top. Another cruiser appeared, ostensibly to help escort us to the exit. We were taking Buddy to his job site. Dean calmly told him to get his act together, deal with the problems, and keep off the highway. She didn’t give him a $110 fine, but a long warning about ending up dead. Contrary to what some of us believe, this cop, at least, is more carrot than stick. Afterwards, she told me he had a history. The other cruiser was back up, in case. I didn’t want to know in case of what, so I didn’t ask. On an undivided highway, I saved someone coming in the opposite direction a speeding ticket because Dean kindly didn’t want to slam my head into
CARRIERS OF THE WEEK
I
told the boys I was going out on a checking for aggressive drivers and the shift ride-along with OPP Constable unbuckled. As Dean explained the radar Linda Dean. I told them system to me, I looked up. A she was coming to the house, kid was running across the and they were to come down, highway. Sputtering, I pointed say hello and behave. and helpfully yelled “there’s a “Is your gun loaded?” was kid running across the highthe first thing Marc, 15, asked way!” I felt let down as I realher. ized my first big cop moment “Can I see your handcuffs?” was going to be something followed Jackson, 12. mundane. I groaned. Such nice boys. Only, not. She’d seen him LORRAINE As we turned to leave, she before I had, and smoothly SOMMERFELD looked up at Jackson and pulled the cruiser onto the asked for her cuffs back. inside shoulder. Cars all I was looking forward to this around were already braking. ride-along. I already knew a lot She pulled up beside the kid. about what a cop does. We all Who wasn’t a kid. He was a do, right? Wait for the nicest guy out man, straddling the barrier, and all of a there to barely break the speed limit, flag sudden I realized that if he bolted, he’d him over and give him a hard time. What be dead. And I’d be a witness. And I else was there to know? wanted to go home. We swung out onto the busy highway, Dean hopped out, talking over the
the side window doing a two-point turn. Yeah, they can catch you coming and going. Every time we pulled up behind a stopped car, I realized an officer has no idea what they were about to deal with. Tinted windows must be the bane of their existence. As we pulled up behind an SUV pulled way off the highway, Dean radioed in to check on an abandoned vehicle. “Now, what I do is fill out this tow tag in advance, so I can deal with whatever is going on and not get tied up in doing it at the vehicle,” she started, showing me a yellow tag with a string on it. I went white. “A toe tag? You’re filling out a toe tag?” She laughed hard enough to wake up the guy sleeping in the SUV. www.lorraineonline.ca
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32 • INDEPENDENTFUN
MAY 18, 2007
WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Not fem. 5 Prov. with heaviest hailstone (290 g) 9 Apron part 12 In addition 16 Pinnacle 17 Raise 18 Sphere 19 A little too smooth 20 Of the conversion of heat to energy 23 Organic soil matter 24 Rocks on edge 25 Pen points 26 Limping 27 Halifax summer time 28 Basic unit of heredity 29 Foggiest city: St. ___, Nfld. 30 Canadian film award 33 Humdinger 34 It’s often clawed 35 Molecule part 38 Longtime CBC host Maitland 39 Hoover and Aswan 40 Author of English “O Canada” 41 Yes in Ypres 42 Tot’s time out 43 Nanny’s young 44 Merry 45 Colony insects 46 Icy 48 Cut back 49 An educated ___
50 River through Revelstoke, B.C. 54 August 57 Give a loan 58 Fuzzy thinking 62 Imitate 63 ___ Callan (Richard B. Wright) 65 Hydrochloric ___ 66 Foofaraw 67 Have being 68 The ups and downs of fashion 69 Conduit 70 Rivulet 71 Moral obligation 73 Med. feeders 74 Rodent 75 Worked on a piano 76 Fox we won’t forget 78 Brewing choices 79 Curved bone 80 Vanquished one 81 Work of P.K. Page 82 Like Rick Mercer’s show 86 Composure 87 Agreeing in size or number 89 Hurricane of 1954 90 The sun (myth.) 91 Lunch hour 92 Victorian expletive 93 Mid-month, once 94 Some cards and tags 95 Like a moist complexion
CHUCKLE BROS
96 Cabbage cousin DOWN 1 Young crooner Dusk 2 Belly malady 3 Peter Pan pirate 4 Sure 5 Comedian Martin ___ 6 Assists 7 Best scenery in 5A 8 Dog-houses 9 Layered ice cream dessert 10 Jim’s second wife (“For Better or For Worse”) 11 British Broadcasting Corp. 12 Female graduate 13 Sedimentary rock often with fossils 14 Run before the wind 15 Green lights, for short 19 Iran’s ruler, once 21 Ancient Iranian 22 Japanese aboriginal 26 Under the Volcano author 28 Tooth foundations 29 Lock up 30 CBC radio’s longestrunning show (193759): “The Happy ___” 31 Mideast airline 32 U.S. wine region 33 Spoon
34 Park on L. Erie: Point ___ 36 Power cuts 37 Fail to hit 39 Clock face 40 What a wonderful ___ ...” 43 Slay 44 Mazo de la Roche’s fictional mansion 45 Self: prefix 47 “See you later!” 48 Wharves 49 Neuter 51 Seafood in sand 52 Witches’ religion 53 Dismounted 54 Deciphered 55 Beige 56 Set apart or isolate (people) 59 Secure 60 Keep the motor running 61 ___ turkey 63 Sound of some insects 64 Comedian Eugene (“SCTV”) 65 Diving birds 69 N.W.T.’s official gem 70 Actor Saul (“Unforgiven”) 72 Some votes 74 Quick look 75 Balkans leader, once 77 Rod and ___
78 Hacksaws, e.g. 79 Saving for a ___ day 80 Laundry unit
81 Goad 82 Put in the hold 83 Indian music form
84 Roman, e.g.: abbr. 85 Surrender 86 Fraternity letter
87 Greek letter 88 Fish eggs Solutions on page 34
Brian and Ron Boychuk
WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) Untangling personal problems might take more time than the impatient Lamb expected. But it’s important to hang in there until all those knotty situations are straightened out. TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) You still need to work out lastminute snags in your dealings with a rival. Hold your ground despite a perceived lack of support. Things should turn around before you know it. GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Best not to delay preparing for that upcoming family event. The sooner you get things started, the better chance you have of finding potential problems and making needed changes. CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)
The romantic Moon Child might be reluctant to see the reality behind that “ideal” situation. But by midweek, the practical Crab emerges to help clear away the moonbeams. LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) Although the Big Cat might be receptive to more “purr-suasion” to get you to agree to a workplace change, make sure you can distinguish the fine line between facts and flattery. VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) Your positive attitude in the workplace helps to get you noticed by the right people. Now go ahead and use some of that new self-confidence to help shore up a personal relationship. LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) Although you might still have to work out some problems with a
business partner, things go more smoothly on the home front. An investment opportunity might need more study. SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV.21) Don’t be reluctant to act on your suspicions. Even if others see nothing wrong, the astute Scorpio could sense an underlying problem that isn’t always obvious on the surface. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) A new opportunity presents some obstacles that need to be dealt with as soon as possible. Delaying action in hopes that the problems will go away could be counterproductive. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) A friend or family member’s request might carry some hidden factors that could later create problems. Be sure you know all
the facts before you make your decision. AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) A setback in implementing a plan could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Use the downtime to rework your original concepts and see where changes could be made. PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) You might not be consciously fishing for compliments, but admit it — won’t you feel great when your efforts are noticed? So accept the praise gracefully. You’ve earned it. YOU BORN THIS WEEK Your love of beauty in your personal life extends to your efforts to protect and preserve the natural world around you. (c) 2007 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each column of nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order. There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tips and computer program available at www.sudoko.com
SOLUTION ON PAGE 34
INDEPENDENTSPORTS
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007 — PAGE 33
CLOSE TO THE CUP Danny Cleary is six wins away from winning the Stanley Cup, something no Newfoundlander or Labradorian has done before. Here are some of the closest: Alex Faulkner, Detroit Red Wings, made the finals in 1963. Dave Pichette, Quebec Nordiques, made the semi-finals in 1982. Michael Ryder, Montreal Canadiens, made the second round in 2004. Other Newfoundland and Labrador players who have made the playoffs include: Brad Brown, Keith Brown, Ryane Clowe, Harold Druken, Don Howse, Jason King, Darren Langdon and John Slaney.
CLEARY’S BEST SEASON YET Regular season: 20 goals, 20 assists, 40 points in 71 games. Playoffs: 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points in 15 games.
— John Rieti
Detroit Red Wings forward Danny Cleary.
Matt Sullivan/Reuters
My b’y plays in the Big Leagues From page 1
0 is the worst lead in hockey. On the ice, Danny is controlling the game. He was there for Danny’s brilliant junior He leads his checking line to numerous scorcareer when he was dubbed “the next ing chances and shuts down Anaheim’s counGretzky” for his offensive skill — as a terattack. Bellevue Bull, he scored 127 goals and 196 Bearded and black-eyed, Danny is checkassists in 220 games. ing, racing fearlessly along the boards and disKevin was also there when Danny struggled playing perfect puck control, stepping around in his early years as a professional, bouncing Ducks, feeding passes to his teammates and between teams like Chicago, constantly on the verge of a Edmonton and Phoenix and goal. frequently getting sent back Of course, the living room to the minors. still feels the need to coach: “Danny exemplifies This year Danny started “Come on Danny, shoot it!” training with the same fitness Then, Danny snaps a wrist what’s happening guru used by teammates shot on net from a sharp Chris Chelios and Mathieu angle and everything goes with Newfoundland Schneider, found happiness silent for a split-second as the in his personal life by marrypuck disappears in a goaltoday” ing and having a baby, and mouth fray. It’s in. This cheer became a leader on the Red is louder, more intense and Harbour Grace Wings. more special than the other His father still tenses up two: “Danny’s goal! That’s Mayor Don Coombs during games. Panic sweeps Danny’s!” over his face as the Anaheim The goal is officially credDucks threaten to score; ited to Todd Bertuzzi as it relief comes in the form of deflected off his skate, but by the referee’s whistle. An early penalty for the now even Kevin has declared this game a Wings worries the entire room. guaranteed win and a new chant begins in the Then, a moment of exhilaration as Danny living room: “Stanley Cup and the Herder in breaks in short-handed, winds up and wires a the River.” shot destined for the top corner. An outWith the score 4-0 and an Anaheim comestretched Duck’s defenseman deflects the shot back unlikely, the room relaxes and there is just high. Everyone in the room is several talk about how to celebrate a Stanley Cup win. inches high too, hovering above their seats, Harbour Grace Mayor Don Coombs says hearts racing. he’s already had requests for Danny to speak at Kevin is perhaps the only hockey fan who dinners and attend events outside the commuenjoys commercial breaks, they’re the only nity, but both he and Danny want to keep the chance for him to relax without missing a sec- party in Harbour Grace. ond. When the stress gets to Kevin and he Coombs says Danny has expressed desire to steps outside for a smoke, everyone else focus- run hockey camps for local kids and create a es more in his absence. Nobody dares take his scholarship. He’s happy the kids have such a seat on the couch. strong role model. While he’s outside, the Wings snap in a “Danny exemplifies what’s happening with goal. The celebration is a chaotic mix of noise Newfoundland today,” says Coombs. “He’s and high-fives often missed by hands that got heart, he’s got soul, he’s got drive and he’s tremble with joy. The Red Wings jerseys, pic- got determination, that’s why he’s at where he tures, towels and banners that surround the is today.” room make it feel like a stadium. Children at Harbour Grace schools have The cheer goes up again as Kevin comes already sent Danny several e-mails wishing back inside. Everyone is anxious to do their him luck. best sportscaster impression and tell him who Reynolds says he and Danny have already scored and how. They know how important the talked about the celebration — a parade goal is to Kevin. Together, they even celebrate through Harbour Grace, and only Harbour the replay. Grace, to Riverhead and a huge party. The buzz has barely died down before the Kevin won’t say how he’ll celebrate, but he Red Wings strike again, making it 2-0. There’s knows he’ll put on his son’s jersey and watch still tension though, as Kevin and the other every game. hockey veterans know from past heartbreak, 2john.rieti@theindependent.ca
Kevin Cleary (right) cheers for his son’s team.
Nicholas Langor/The Independent
Cena ’nuff WWE wrestler John Cena and crew produce entertainment spectacle that rocked Mile One
A
s a lifelong sports fan, I’ve watched many events, both in person and on television. If I’m in a location and there’s a sporting event taking place — especially something major league — I’m all over it. There’s not much I won’t watch, and that includes figure skating and bowling. (Cricket I can do without, and rugby matches are far more entertaining when you’re at the pitch than on a couch removed from the action. I don’t consider poker a sport, so that’s not even on the list, although I have watched from time to time, to solve the rare case of insomnia I may have contracted.) One major event I recall missing —
DON POWER
Power Point totally my fault — was a 1994 World Cup soccer match in Orlando between Ireland and Belgium. We were in the Florida city on vacation, and landed the very same day of the game, unbeknownst to me at the time. Later that night, however, in a small pub in Olde Town in Kissimmee, we were treated to a raucous evening of revelry with the fans of both sides, who took turns chanting the songs they had
sung that afternoon in the cavernous Citrus Bowl in Orlando. You could tell these fans were rabid supporters of their country, and their football team. Ardent doesn’t come close to describing their devotion. (I remember one guy telling me his wife gave him a three-week U.S.A. World Cup vacation — Orlando, Chicago, New York — for his birthday, even though he needed to secure an extra week off from his boss. After telling the boss where he was headed, the boss booked time off and traveled with him.) But I’d never been in a stadium with fans as rabid and as excited as Saturday night at Mile One, when the WWE came to town. I was never a wrestling
fan, and don’t follow the current crop. My nine-year-old, however, does. With tickets in his pocket for months, he waited anxiously, bouncing off any wall for the past two weeks. “Dad, I can’t wait for Saturday.” “Dad, how much longer before we leave for Mile One?” “Dad, I can’t believe I’m going to see John Cena!” Saturday, he was totally psyched out, waiting for the big event. Me, I spent the day looking for earplugs to save my hearing. (I even convinced him to write about it afterwards: “Of all the wrestlers, I wanted to see John Cena the most,” he slowly typed into my computer. “He’s
my favourite wrestler. I was so excited to go to my very first WWE match, and John Cena was there. But during the first match, the best thing happened. My friend William got picked out of the crowd to be manager of the match. It was a sick night.”) Upon arrival at Mile One, you could feel the buzz and excitement from the fans, and it was difficult not to get caught up in it. I wasn’t excited about watching any of the matches, but my son was, so we got there nice and early. He talked of Cena, the Hardy Boys and some guy called The Great Khali. I tried to settle in for what I expected See “Dad, I can’t believe,” page 34
34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS
MAY 18, 2007
‘It’s not that bad out …’ Whatever the weather, make the most of May 24
“T
he 24th of May is the queen’s birthday — If we don’t get a holiday we’ll all run away.” I learned this succinct rhyme from my mother while still young and impressionable. Maybe it contributed to my obsession with all things fishing and outdoors. At the time, I had no idea which queen she was talking about. I assumed Queen Elizabeth II — the lady in the big picture at school and looming over our hockey games at Harbour Grace stadium. I recall how amused we were when she was struck with a slapshot from one of the more powerful brutes on the Spaniard’s Bay school hockey team. We were an irreverent bunch. Later I discovered, in Grade 8 history I believe, that my mother was actually referring to Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire from 1837 until her death in 1901 — hence Victoria Day weekend. In the jubilant, preoccupied world of my youth, I hadn’t quite pieced the obvious together. So the birth of Queen Victoria is responsible for the most celebrated of all long weekends — the 24th of May,
PAUL SMITH
The Rock
Outdoors our quintessential outdoor whoop ’er up holiday. There’s troutin’, camping, barbecuing, kettle boiling, ATV riding — whatever turns one’s outdoor crank. God love old Queen Victoria; she was born at just the right time to heave off the winter blues and kick-start summer. For many, the 24th of May is the start of camping season. Actually, it’s when most Newfoundland parks and campgrounds first open their gates for the season. Note the assortment of trailers, motor homes and campers parked along the highway by Butterpot Park, the queue for that arcadia just outside city limits. And 24th of May weather isn’t typically summerlike and balmy. On one particular Victoria Day, quite a few years ago — when the kids were wee and very energetic — I awoke in our trailer to an overcast sky and a thick
soggy covering of fresh snow. The evergreen boughs surrounding our campsite were so laden their lower limbs lay stuck on the ground. Our lawn chairs, strategically arranged for wiener roasting around a camouflaged fire-pit, looked like stuffed white sofa chairs. My propane lantern, once hung from a tree limb, was nowhere to be seen. I was not particularly excited. Without waking anyone I lit the furnace to warm my spirits and make the trailer comfortable for the kids. The strike of match and brimstone woke Goldie, my wife. She peeped out the window and muttered something about craziness, camping and living in Newfoundland. All I could muster by way of encouragement was cliché but pragmatic: “We’ll have to make the best of it.” I reluctantly ventured outside to get the bacon out of the Coleman icebox. Wiping off four inches of snow with bare hands temporarily erased the furnace’s effect on my spirit. But I had a plan. I slipped quickly back inside the trail-
er, trying not to shiver, and lied to Goldie: “It’s not that bad out, just a little chilly.” I lit the propane stove and warmed my hands before digging the cast iron frying pan out of the cupboard. Camping, especially when things get bumpy, is generally remembered as Dad’s idea. The onus was on me to make things right, or at least bearable. When the pan was ready I laid those delicious strips of smoked pig side by side in my mother’s old pan. Each piece immediately hissed and sputtered, releasing an intoxicating aroma. Tiny heads begin to stir beneath sleeping bags. “Oh Dad, that smells some good,” I heard. “There’s nothing wrong with someone cooking breakfast for me for a change,” added Goldie. Could bacon and eggs atone for Mother Nature’s impish 24th of May prank? “How do you want your eggs girls?” “Yolks runny,” came the usual response. I don’t know why I always ask. The pivotal moment approached. Megan, the eldest by five years, was
inching her head up for a look out the window. “Allison, Allison, get up and look out the window! It snowed last night. There’s snow everywhere. We can make a snowman.” Oh the resilience of youth! Had my fears been completely unwarranted? Were the bacon and eggs really necessary? It seemed to cheer Goldie up anyway. She was out of bed and had a pot of coffee brewing. The smell of fresh coffee and bacon filled the tiny trailer — all was well with the world. I’ll never know what might have resulted from cold cereal. After breakfast, the sun came out and the youngsters made their snowman, complete with fishing basket and hat. I dug my lantern out of the snow and chopped firewood for another campfire. Kids really do know how to make the best of things. Paul Smith is a freelance writer and avid outdoorsman living in Spaniard’s Bay. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com
Solutions for crossword on page 32
Solutions for sudoku on page 32
John Cena (right, black shirt) wrestles Randy Orton at Mile One Centre.
Don Power/For The Independent
“Dad, I can’t believe I’m going to see John Cena!” From page 33 to be a very boring evening. Boy was I shocked. Now, I know wrestling is fixed (choreographed for those who refuse to believe), and although there were several “championship matches” taking place, we knew no belts would change hands. Really, if you’re crowning a new champ, you’re not doing it in St. John’s.
You’re doing it at Wrestlemania 40 in Los Angeles, or whatever number they’re at now. But I’m here to tell you it was a fantastic evening of entertainment. From my son’s buddy dancing with the first tag team winners to Cena coming back from the dead to beat Randy Orton, it was a magnificent spectacle. Was it sport? Probably not, because there was no real competition.
Was it entertainment? Absolutely. Was it exciting? Surprisingly, yes. Say what you want, these are big guys. (One guy was six-foot-seven, 267 pounds, and The Great Khali stands seven-foot-three, 430 pounds: he stepped into the ring over the top rope. Picture it.) They’re also very athletic. Some of those moves would be difficult for small guys, let along these behemoths.
One more thing: I’ve never heard Mile One so loud, certainly not at Fog Devils (or before that, Maple Leaf) games. Wrestling fans certainly occupy a different demographic than hockey fans. But give them credit. When it comes time to cheer, boo or react, they don’t need a scoreboard to tell them how to do it. donniep@nl.rogers.com
MAY 18-24, 2007
INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35
Canadian content challenges Toronto FC 19 year-old Andrea Lombardo, who left at 15 to play in Italy, a bright spot By Dave Feschuk Torstar wire service
I
f you’re looking for reasons why Toronto FC has won once in five tries, understand that Major League Soccer is like the Canadian Football League in one respect: it has esoteric rules limiting the number of imported players on its rosters. The difference, of course, is that Toronto is the only Canadian entry in the MLS. So while the 12 U.S.-based teams are permitted to stock the bulk of their lineups with players from the U.S. — the world’s 29th best soccer nation according to the most recent FIFA rankings — the locals are forced to employ a large handful of homegrown talent, or lack thereof. Canada, ranked 94th on the planet, is the homeland of 12 of the 24 players listed on the roster on Toronto FC’s website. And when you consider the best young northlanders are playing in superior European leagues, the Canadian content regulations are not exactly a recipe for dominance. “It does handicap you,” says Mo Johnston, the Toronto coach. “I’m not going to beat around the bush. Some of the Canadian guys have found it hard to adjust to the MLS. “Can they get there? A little bit of hard work and a little bit of fitness and hopefully they can pick it up.” It’s not that there haven’t been bright spots carrying maple leaf passports. Andrea Lombardo, the 19year-old forward from North York, ON comes into tonight’s game against Houston on an impressive roll. He had a nifty assist in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Chicago, a day after he was the man of the match in Canada’s 2-1 loss to Argentina in an under-20 friendly. “Did you see him against the Argentinians? They were kicking him and fighting him and they were in his face. And he was very physical back. And that shows he can play against one of the best national
teams in the world,” says Johnston. “He’s making the adjustment (to the MLS), but he still needs to work hard.” He’s making the adjustment, perhaps, because he left home. At age 15 Lombardo took his only real advantage — an Italian passport by virtue of his father being born in Calabria – and combined it with his only connection — a brother of a friend of his father’s with ties to an Italian club, Atalanta, known for its commitment to developing young players. He sent Atalanta his resumé and landed a tryout on the condition he pay his own way to the club’s training facility a short drive northeast of Milan. And after a week of workouts, he signed a deal that began a three-year journey as an Italian-based pro. “It shows the kid’s got ambition,” says Johnston. “Kicking around here when you’re 16 years old doesn’t really help you.” For Lombardo, the challenges came on and off the field. Arriving in 2003, he enrolled in the equivalent of Grade 12 in an Italian school, this while he was more than a year away from being fluent in the language. “I had to take philosophy in Italian, and chemistry in Italian,” he says. “I mean, I wasn’t even going to take chemistry in English if I stayed here in Toronto.” For the record, he failed chemistry and passed philosophy and graduated successfully. And as for his athletic career, it blossomed in ways that would have been difficult to achieve on these shores. “Can (Canada) catch up to the Italians? I don’t think so,” says Johnston, a Scot. “They’re the best in the world. Are you ever going to win the World Cup? Likely not. It’s like Scotland. We’re the same. But can you get better? Of course you can. “Hopefully we can all make this thing better one day. I may be Scottish, but I’m eating and sleeping and living here in Canada. I want Canadian soccer to get better. “Because if it’s going to get better at the national level, it’s going to get better for me on the club level. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
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INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIED FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 18-24, 2007 — PAGE 36
F E AT U R E D H O M E 1 2 3 M O S S H E AT H E R D R I V E
Photos by Nicholas Langor/The Independent ENERGY EFFICIENT TWO-APARTMENT! $219,900.00 You won’t be disappointed with this stunning energy efficient two-apartment home. Hardwoods in family room, living room, main and top hallways. Ceramics in porch and bathrooms. Laminate in bedrooms. Laundry on main floor. Master bedroom has ensuite and walk-in closet. Plenty of storage. One bedroom apartment has separate covered entrance. Triple paved driveway. Beautifully landscaped backyard with a pressure-treated deck that steps down to a larger stone patio that leads to a 8x10 shed with an attached 5x6 garden shed. All this just minutes to the university, hospitals, schools and shopping. Call Amanda Ryan of the Jim Burton Sales Team at 689-8209 for details.
Breathe through a straw for 60 seconds. That’s what breathing is like with cystic fibrosis. No wonder so many people with CF stop breathing in their early 30s.
Please help us.
1-800-378-CCFF • www.cysticfibrosis.ca
Something new and creative... Something St. John’s has never seen before!