2007-05-25

VOL. 5 ISSUE 21

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007

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SPECIAL REPORT

‘I just can’t sit back’ IVAN MORGAN

T

he mother of a woman murdered in her Airport Heights apartment on Jan. 21 says it’s time for the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to move on the investigation into her daughter’s death.

Yvonne Harvey says she fears previous wrongful convictions by the provincial Justice system are hamstringing the police’s investigation into Chrissy Newman’s unsolved killing.

Harvey says she will be in St. John’s early next month, when she intends to pressure the Constabulary directly.

“I have no choice. I can’t just sit back. We’re not compromising anything,” Harvey tells The Independent from her home near Ottawa. “We need to put pressure on the investigation and I really feel that we’re at a disadvantage here because of the mistakes that have been made in the past.

“I’m not prepared to let my daughter become another victim of a faulty system.”

Antonio Lamer, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice, headed a 2003 judicial inquiry into the wrongful convictions of Gregory Parsons,

Randy Druken and Ronald Dalton, all of whom served prison time for murders they were subsequently found not to have committed. The Lamer inquiry blamed the RNC for tunnel vision in investigations that led to wrongful convictions.

Harvey says as the current investigation drags on, her family is facing complications — including legal ones that she cannot talk about.

Harvey’s voice is soft, almost whispery, over the telephone, but there is no mistaking the steel in her tone.

“I’m hoping that I will be more knowledgeable once I have had a chance to speak to the police,” she says. “I’m not prepared to walk away without some concrete information this time.”

She acknowledges those are tough words.

“I am prepared to ask — at the highest level that I can — for some kind of accountability.

You know the squeaky wheel gets the grease, unfortunately.

And I think I have been very patient. I need to know why it’s still as it is. I know personally that there is a lot — a lot — of circumstantial evidence. A lot.

See “The pendulum,” page 2

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Speaker is a lonely job.”

— Harvey Hodder, page 5

Chrissy Newman and her mother, Yvonne Harvey on Newman’s May 2005 wedding day.

Illegal foreign fishing case stalled in court; Portuguese trawler racks up citations BRIAN CALLAHAN

I

BUSINESS 13

Tough season for lobster and crab fishermen LIFE 17

The EVA nominees are…

STYLE 23

Tricks and risks: grown men on teeny bikes

John Crosbie . . . . . . 13 Food & drink . . . 24-25 Woody’s wheels . . . 29

t’s been four years since a Portuguese captain and his trawler were charged with illegal fishing in Canadian waters.

The case, however, continues to face delays because the skipper, Jose Alberto Senos Ramalheira, says he’s still too sick to return to Canada.

“Currently, the Crown’s position is that our evidence is in place and we’re prepared for trial,” federal prosecutor Mark Stares tells The Independent.

“But the defence has put on the record that there are health issues with the accused travelling back to Canada. And the court has so far accepted that.”

What the court may not realize is that while Ramalheira, 52, said he was too sick to travel, his ship and crew continued fishing illegally on the Grand Banks

outside the 200-mile limit.

According to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the 65-metre stern trawler Santa Mafalda was issued two citations in January 2006 for using undersize mesh and failing to clearly separate catch by species.

There is no evidence Ramalheira was on board at the time, only seven months after he appeared in a St. John’s courtroom to face the 2003 charges.

But in May 2005 the captain told a judge he wouldn’t make his next court date. “I won’t be here,” he said at the time. “I’ll be working. I’ll be fishing.”

The arrest of Ramalheira and seizure of the Santa Mafalda was not routine.

Charges of unlawfully entering Canadian waters and illegally fishing in domestic waters were formally laid in November 2003, six months after the vessel was spotted by air surveillance.

But the ship got away and wasn’t seized until two years later, when it was next noticed fishing in the same restrict-

ed area.

Patient Canadian authorities waited two years for the vessel to return and then made their move, after receiving a tip that the ship had been in St-Pierre for repairs and was heading for Canadian waters.

At about 10:30 p.m. on May 29, 2005, two Canadian Coast Guard vessels bore down on the Santa Mafalda less than 100 kilometres south of Cape St. Mary’s, arresting the captain and steering his ship and crew of 30 back to St. John’s without incident.

Ramalheira remained in custody for four days before being released on conditions and after posting a $10,000 cash deposit.

To the best of DFO’s knowledge, he has not returned since.

Interestingly, the case has gone nowhere despite the fact Ramalheira does not even have to be here for trial.

See “Reason to,” page 2

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

MAY 25, 2007

‘A classic no win’ L

RANDY SIMMS

Page 2 talk

oyola Hearn, Fabian Manning and Norman Doyle are all well paid and wellknown federal Members of Parliament.

All three sit on the government side of the House of Commons, and one of them, Hearn, is a member of the federal cabinet. They are working on major salaries and major pensions. They get to travel to and from their ridings free of charge and they spend most of their time in the nation’s capital. They know most of the movers and shakers in the country and they rub shoulders with everyone from the ordinary citizen to the kings of industry.

These days I feel bad for them. Being an MP is supposed to be a good job and it should bring you honour and respect. Hearn, Doyle and Manning do not find themselves garnering much respect these days, and when you think about it, it may be a little unfair.

Our democracy seems to like putting elected officials in what I call the untenable situation.

One of those unique places where no decision is the right one and no matter what you do the level of criticism is equal from all sides. Hearn, Doyle and Manning know exactly what I mean.

For them the untenable situation deals with equalization and the federal budget. Our province is vehement in its opposition to the new equalization formula. The new regime will include the value of non-renewable natural resources and that will mean millions of lost dollars to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The debate now centres on just how much will be lost. No one knows for sure and no one at either the federal or provincial level is talking.

Neither government will crunch the numbers so

we can see what it all really means in dollars and cents. We have only one report from independent economist Wade Locke to go by and according to him the province comes out a big loser under the new formula.

So how can Manning, Hearn and Doyle vote for a budget that will include the new formula knowing it cost their province so much money?

Adding to the political injury is Stephen Harper’s now famous broken promise. The promise if kept would have put millions into the coffers of the provincial government.

Consider for a minute how it must feel to hear the premier of the province support a Conservative “goose egg” in the next federal election. Putting it bluntly, Danny Williams wants the three amigos voted out of office. It might not be so bad if this were a premier losing support himself and dropping in the polls, but such is not the case. Without an endorsement from this premier your time in office might well be cut short. Consider how it must feel to have thousands of e-mails sent to you condemning you as a traitor. Consider how it must feel to have thousands of people calling for your resignation.

What a predicament. If you vote for the budget you are a hero to your party and the people you serve with in Ottawa, but if you vote against them you are a hero at home and persona nongratis in Ottawa. If you believe Hearn, Doyle and Manning, to be out in the cold in Ottawa is to be of no further use to the province.

So what do you do?

As I said, this is the untenable situation a politician fears most. A classic no win. As Doyle himself put it, they were caught between a rock and a hard place. The last politician who found himself in this spot was John Efford. The result was not pretty. He ended up out of office and retired to his boat in Port de Grave.

As we know the three boys made their decision and they voted for the budget with the offending equalization formula included. There

‘Reason to postpone’ From page 1

Loyola Hearn

is a theory at work here. Vote for the budget; take the heat from home and brazen it out. If enough time passes between now and the next federal vote something else may come along to save their hides. Politics is a game of short memories and something else just might save the day.

Anyway, I feel a little bad for them. They did not have many good choices. No matter what they did it was going to turn out bad for them. I know most will argue there was a right choice whether they thought it a good one or not. Most will say they should have voted for the province and not the federal government. Voting against the federal budget would have sent that message.

It would have also sent our three Tory MPs into the political wilderness.

Can these guys survive this untenable situation?

Right now it doesn’t look good, but what’s that other old cliché? A week is a lifetime in politics.

Manning, Hearn and Doyle seem to be betting on it.

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

‘The pendulum has swung the other way’ From page 1

“And when something happens like this, this was not a random act. This was a very well thought out, planned act. And it was threatened for a long time.”

Harvey says she cannot go into details.

Chrissy Newman was found murdered in her apartment on the evening of Jan. 21. She had been living there with her infant daughter since she and her husband, Raymond Newman, split up. It has been reported in the media that Chrissy Newman had endured

spousal abuse in her marriage, and was planning at the time she was killed to return to Ottawa, her childhood home, with her child.

When asked if she will bring a lawyer with her when she meets with the RNC, Harvey says she believes she will bring something a

That’s because the charges have been filed by the Crown as a summary conviction, which is less serious than an indictable offence.

The defence takes the position, however, that Ramalheira has a right to be here to defend himself and the trial should not proceed without him.

Stares has argued the delays could jeopardize the Crown’s case.

“The position of the Crown is that the matter proceed in an expedient and efficient manner, and that justice be done.

Our concern in this case, of course, is should this matter delay and delay and delay further, witnesses’ memories tend to fade, they may move, and so forth,” he says.

Stares would not speculate as to whether the fishing captain’s alleged health problems are legitimate. At one of several hearings last year, it was noted in the court record that Ramalheira has a history of heart and psychiatric problems.

“Well, the important thing is a judge has found that to be a valid reason to postpone the trial, and it’s not for me to judge otherwise.”

That said, the federal prosecutor has presented options to get the matter moving.

“Well, what the Crown has put forth to the court — and it’s up to the court to accept this — is this is a summary conviction matter, which means the trial can proceed without the captain, or ex parte.

“We’ve proposed that, with allowances that it would not prejudice him. In other words, we would put forward our case in his absence but with his lawyer present, and we would allow time for the defence to prepare its case in response.”

That was in mid-March, around the same time the defence asked that the trial be postponed again until the fall.

The trial was scheduled for April 30-May 11, but provincial court Judge Colin Flynn sided with the defence and it is now set for Oct. 29-Nov. 9.

Whether that will be with or without the Portuguese captain remains to be seen.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn recently trumpeted the success of stepped-up efforts to crack down on foreign overfishing, but critics still say the rules lack the teeth to enforce the rules. bmcallahan@hotmail.com

little stronger: public support.

“I do have some thoughts as to how I am going to proceed,” she says. “I can’t do this on my own. One voice is one voice. I have always believed there is strength in numbers and I am not prepared to allow my daughter’s murderer to continue to enjoy the freedom that we pay for.”

Not living in the province, Harvey says she is “not that knowledgeable about the wrongful convictions issue,” but her “gut feeling” is past wrongful convictions have cost the province and the RNC “a lot” of its credibility, and brought into focus the concerns about innocent people being charged too quickly and being convicted without proper or thorough investigation.

“I can appreciate that. I can appreciate that from the point of view of a family member being victimized like that.”

Harvey says, from what she understands, the RNC has revamped its procedures and staff since the release of Lamer’s report.

“So when this happened to my daughter,” she says, “I have the impression that there were a whole new set of players at the helm.

“But I think if we start comparing the past with what’s happening right now, and not making a move on things a little bit quicker, or waiting until everything is pretty much 100 per cent, then I think we’re being victimized again, only the pendulum has swung the other way.”

The months since her daughter’s murder have done little to ease Harvey’s pain. She tried a vacation recently. She wrote about her experience in an e-mail to The Independent.

“Funny how foreign that term seems now. Vacation was always a time of rest, relaxing, exploring, and fun. Now it is a forced exercise to divert my thoughts away from the ‘act of atrocity’ and the feelings of immense loss and grief.

However, it didn’t work. This type of event leaves a hole in your soul, and no amount of diversion or time will heal that kind of a wound.”

It’s people like Harvey’s partner who help her in her grief. She says another reason she is coming to Newfoundland next month is to see her partner receive a lifetime achievement award. Harvey says her partner is an incredible support, not only to her but to her whole family.

Meantime, Harvey works to keep her daughter’s memory alive. A trust fund has been set up for Newman’s daughter — Harvey’s grandchild — and has already collected more than $22,000. Harvey is organizing a memorial golf tournament.

Heading into the Stanley Cup, Ottawa Senator Danny Heatley has donated his signed jersey and hockey stick to the cause. Harvey chose a golf tournament because she was playing in one when Chrissy phoned to tell her that her granddaughter had been born. She says next year’s tournament will be held in St. John’s.

Donations from other organizations and companies are pouring in.

“We have a lot of people coming together,” says Harvey.

“They don’t want Chrissy to be forgotten.”

Harvey says she remains in contact with the RNC. An RNC spokesperson says the police are “still in the same position that we have been for some time.” He was not willing to comment on the investigation or publicly name any suspects.

When Harvey talks about the investigation, she adopts a measured tone, speaking carefully, as if she is being careful not to say too much — or as if she is holding something back. She pauses, thinking, before she speaks about her daughter’s fate.

“She only made one mistake in her life.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

YOUR TOWN

Edward (Bud) Vincent of Harcourt, Trinity Bay, captured these images of animals around his community. Your Town is open to amateur photographers across Newfoundland and Labrador. Please send up to three pictures of your community to paul.daly@theindependent.ca.

SCRUNCHINS

M

A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

ore than three years into his mandate, Premier Danny Williams has yet to deliver on his promised energy plan. Page 30 of the Tory “bluebookâ€? of pre-election promises (some glad I kept my copy) stated clearly that such a plan would be handed down by the Williams administration ‌ it just didn’t say when.

A Progressive Conservative government will: “Implement an energy plan to ensure that all energy sources are used first to provide a reliable, affordable supply of power for domestic use and for provincewide economic development, and then to take advantage of business opportunities in export markets to sell energy that is excess to our needs on terms that secure maximum benefits for the province.�

A spokesperson for the premier’s office told The Independent this week that the energy plan is still being finalized, “and we have no firm date for its release.� The hope, the spokesperson went on to say, is to have the plan out within the next couple of months. Let’s see, two more months would probably mean July at the earliest. That’s awful close to the Oct. 9 provincial general election.

Danny Williams Guess the energy plan could be the next Tory Bluebook, or at least the guts of it. That’s one way to stretch a single mandate into two ‌

TOOTH AND NAIL Scrunchins takes a dramatic shift at this point to talk about dental care, and the general state of our gobs/mouths.

The Centre for Health Information released a report this week that revealed 48 per cent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians age 12 and older saw a dentist in the past year, far lower than the national average of 64 per cent. That’s a concern because, as the centre points out, Health Canada and the Canadian Dental Association report that poor oral health may contribute to diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The salt meat, salt fish and salt pork don’t help either. Not to mention the stress of waiting for an energy plan ‌ ACT OF COD Speaking of our general wellbeing, the Centre of Health Information

A catch of cod — not what it used to be.

released another study earlier this month on how the closure of the cod fisheries may have affected health. The study analyzed health, social and demographic data collected between 1991 and 2001 in outports on the island portion of the province.

Communities were classified according to their degree of reliance on the cod fishery — low, moderate or high.

Turns out the overall death rate actually declined over the 10-year time span, meaning we lived longer after the cod fishery sank. Not only that, but the lowest death rates were found in communities “highly dependent on the fishery.�

In surveys of emotional health, the average score remained constant for all but communities highly dependent on fishing, “where emotional health seems to have improved slightly.�

You would think that the shutdown of a 500-year-old fishery and resulting culture shock would have the opposite effect on Newfoundland health.

Shouldn’t the death rate have increased?

The report states the out-migration of ill and elderly people — perhaps to join their families or to be closer to healthcare facilities — may have had an impact. “This would tend to raise the death rates in the communities to which they migrated, and in fact we see that death rates have risen in non-fishing dependent communities,â€? the report reads. It goes on to say the “interplayâ€? between out-migration and health must be further investigated. At face value, maybe we should just resettle to the outports and live longer ‌

Paul Daly photos/The Independent

well ‌ in St. John’s at least. More than 250 students of Macdonald Drive Junior High in St. John’s were scheduled to perform Rock! Roots! Rising — a play about the province’s past, present and future — on May 24, 25 and 26.

Ever wonder what was on the menu when the first tourists came to Newfoundland in the early 1500s?

Well, you can find out at the play. “It’s guaranteed to warm your heart and fill your belly with laughter,â€? read the press release. A good roar is also good for your health ‌ TRUE COLOURS Mount Pearl Mayor Steve Kent announced recently he’s seeking the Tory nomination in the provincial district of Mount Pearl North (see Harvey Hodder retirement story, page 5). Back in March 2000 Kent held a press con-

ference to announce his “pride to be a Liberal� in entering the hunt for the party’s nomination in the then-federal riding of St. John’s West. Only a week earlier, however, Kent was considering running for the Canadian Alliance, describing it in e-mail correspondence as a “meaningful alternative.�

He added that Loyola Hearn, the Tory frontrunner at the time, would be hard to beat given Newfoundlanders haven’t been overly supportive of nontraditional parties. Wrote Kent, “I think, though, that the Alliance provides a meaningful alternative to the status quo that will gain considerable credibility and respect in the months ahead.�

And so it did when Loyola eventually joined forces with Stephen Harper, who, in turn, ruined the Conservative’s hard-fought credibility by breaking his word to us.

Steve may be a dirty word in these political parts, and Mr. Kent may have flirted with more than one political stripe, but at least his Pink, White and Green colours are consistent ‌ ENVELOPE PLEASE The Atlantic Journalism Awards were

Ron Hynes

recently handed out in Halifax. The Independent was nominated in three categories (the only print outlet in Newfoundland and Labrador to receive a nomination), including feature writing (Pam Pardy Ghent for ‘I’ll suck it up’, a story about her husband heading off to Alberta for work, and Susan Rendell for Sex in the city, an article about the St. John’s sex trade), as well as a nomination in the commentary category (that would be me, Ryan Cleary, for A fishing tale, a column about foreign fishing outside the 200-mile limit and Canada’s reluctance to do anything about it).

Ghent won gold (one out of three ain’t bad). Another winner was Philip Lee, who won the top award in the Atlantic Magazine — Best Profile Category for a feature piece on our own Ron Hynes, author of Sonny’s Dream. “I’ve never been able to escape Newfoundland,� Hynes says in the story. Wrote Lee, “Ron will keep going so long as his favourite song is the one he’s about to write, so long as he feels there is another great one just around the corner.�

Isn’t there always ‌ ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

Steve Kent

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4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

MAY 25, 2007

Fabian Manning on politics of the head and the heart

C

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

Paul Daly/The Independent

Iceberg revival

Sightings off Twillingate and Maddox Cove confirm province as berg hotspot

C

By Mandy Cook The Independent

ecil Stockley, the “Iceberg Man” of Twillingate, a 23-year veteran of the iceberg-chasing business, is optimistic about the chances of spying an iceberg this season — but admits to some uneasiness after two seasons of scarce sightings. “(There’s) always apprehension in the tourism business because we need one,” says the Twillingate Island Iceberg tour boat operator. “Sometimes we don’t even get one.”

Stockley says the view from Twillingate shows “a lot” of mediumsized icebergs running about 20 miles off the coast, but the majority are hugging the coastline in the offshore currents along Notre Dame Bay. He says the first iceberg showed up off Crow Head in February in the shape of an egg, or a “turtleback.” The berg wedged itself into one spot and stayed put.

“All the locals are saying that’s a tough old iceberg … and not breaking down at all,” he says. “He’s been part of the community for about four months yet.”

While Stockley says icebergs are a big part of the financial picture in Twillingate, the community on the northeast coast of the island was able to survive the lack of bergs in past years

because of the town’s development of its cultural industries. Dinner and musical theatre, whale watching and the natural beauty of the New World Islands are still draws for tourists.

When the makers of Iceberg Vodka ran into the iceberg crunch, they simply took their collector ships further north or out to sea. David Hood, vice-president of Canadian Iceberg Vodka Corporation, says there were plenty of icebergs to fill their giant holding barrels in various top-secret locations around the island.

Sold in 18 countries worldwide and the No. 1 selling vodka in Newfoundland and Labrador, the company is currently retrofitting a new barge in Carbonear and has another vessel in dry dock in St. John’s to assist in the netting of bergy bits used in vodka production.

Stephen Bruneau, author of Icebergs of Newfoundland and Labrador, is not convinced icebergs were ever “gone.”

He says the lack of sightings near the southern part of the island could be chalked up to warmer sea temperatures and the population’s elevated sensitivity to climate change.

“People are very sensitive to it now, so any anomaly in icebergs people are very quick to say it’s a long-term trend, but iceberg occurrence has always been a fluctuating thing,” he says.

While there may have been few glimpses of icebergs in the province in the last two years, Bruneau says St. Anthony and Labrador always see numerous bergs. But it was a helicopter ride to Ilulissat, Greenland that convinced him there is no shortage. The site is the source of most of the province’s icebergs and, Bruneau says, the glacier is calving huge chunks of ice at an increasing rate.

“The fjord is so packed with ice it is totally barricaded with icebergs.

There’s no visible water at all and the glacier front is hard to distinguish between the actual parts that detach and the parts broken off.”

But for iceberg viewing pleasure Bruneau says there is no place better than Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It’s an anomalous and fortunate situation because we are the furthest south latitude that anybody gets to see icebergs comfortably and the icebergs are so far out of their seemingly natural environment,” he says. “We’re one of the best places where you can come and see icebergs nestled into these bays with trees and a foreground and a background.”

Stockley says it best. He hopes to see icebergs off his coastline deep into summer.

“Iceberg on first of August — everybody is happier to work.”

onservative MP Fabian Manning says the acrimony between Danny Williams and Prime Minister Stephen Harper over what the premier says is a broken promise on equalization puts him in an awkward spot.

Over the last couple of weeks, he says people have been calling on him to resign.

“But what do you do? Do you pack up and go home out of it? Sit as an independent in the House of Commons? I’ve sat as an independent before. I had the T-shirt,” Manning says. “And it served no purpose to the people you represent. You’re a hero for 48 or 72 hours, and then after two or three months people say ‘Well Fabian, we need our road done or our wharf done or whatever the case may be.’”

As an independent, or in opposition, Manning says a politician isn’t in a position to help constituents.

“Then six months down the road people say “Well, you’re a nice fella, and we like you, but you can’t do us anything.”

SHORT-TERM GAIN Manning says he supports the federal budget because the province is receiving $1.5 billion this year. While the equalization debate will go on for years, he says there are a lot of good things for the province in the current budget.

Sitting next to the prime minister during a recent question period in the House of Commons was not a political statement, he says — just circumstance.

He says he had met with Harper the night before to discuss some issues concerning his riding of Avalon, and ended up sitting next to him when question period started.

Manning says no matter what the truth is, there are people who will think it was contrived.

He notes a quote one person emailed him: “It’s only here in Newfoundland and Labrador where we would have a problem with somebody sitting down next to the prime

Fabian Manning

Paul Daly/The Independent

minister of the country.”

Manning says politics in Ottawa is business-oriented, and much different from politics at the provincial level.

“Ottawa politics is mostly from the head, Newfoundland and Labrador politics is a lot from the heart.”

Manning says he does not agree with everything his party does, but he is a realist. He says in “the big circle of Ottawa,” the province’s numbers are small, regardless what party is in power.

“In the best of times it’s a struggle because there are a lot of agendas in Ottawa.”

Manning says the fact that the premier is advocating people not to vote Conservative in the next federal election doesn’t bother him. He says he will run for re-election, and he is confident he will win.

“I am always confident. You wouldn’t be in this business unless you were confident. I am confident but I’m never cocky.”

He is philosophical about Williams’ threats.

“As a point of interest he didn’t help me the last time either.”

He savours the irony of his political situation.

“I listened to the open line shows this morning. I mean they’re looking for federal help for wharves in certain places, federal help with students, federal help with agriculture, federal help with roads.

“At the same time they don’t want you up there. So go figure.” ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

A fresh token of Newfoundland

One needs a nimble mind to keep up with all the branding and rebranding that’s gone on in this province

W

hen she came in the door I was ready for her. I was cocked and primed with my finger on the trigger. If she wasn’t blown right off her feet it would be a strange thing.

A university student had phoned seeking an audience. I am so seldom out in society these days I welcomed her advance. She was working on a term paper and wanted my observations on “branding,” which was something I thought they did with cows out west.

I boned up on the subject beforehand. Surely Roy Roger’s brand was the Double R but what was Gene Autrey’s? Did Hopalong Cassidy rear cows at all or did he merely shoot at bad persons? The Lone Ranger certainly had no cattle to brand and neither did Tonto.

Then it struck me. Maybe our scholar’s interest in branding went beyond cows. Here, too, I was ready for her … armed with the knowledge that Leonard Slye had been rebranded Roy Rogers, Francis Gumm became Judy Garland and an Englishman by the name of William Henry Pratt was brought to market under the brand Boris Karloff.

I offered tea or coffee and we sat down. It was a disaster. My notion of branding was of no use to her and her academic interest in branding was so fresh out of the oven that I hadn’t

RAY GUY

A Poke In The Eye

caught up.

Her scholarly study of branding, I concluded after much later reflection, rested on the practice of governments and others to strongly suggest progress by means of new packaging.

I mean, where was the heart-searing cry from the Long Range Mountains for that new, improved pitcher plant?

Pete Soucy said it looked like the buttons on his mother’s winter coat.

The natural pitcher plant, selected

by Queen Victoria and formerly on the cent, is a meaty-looking freak that slurps insects and looks like something those CSI: Miami guys haul out of knocked-about corpses. Did we need a caricature of the brute on wavering tendrils to inspire fresh spasms of Newfoundland “nationalism”? Of course we do … your government and mine says so.

Newfoundland Political Dictum Number One: when in doubt, stamp and shout; wave your arms and run about. Most of our premiers have had a circus ready when the bread ran low. Smallwood used to stick an uplifting motto across our arses whenever there were mutterings

Harvey Hodder

among the tattered artillery.

I recall once a chilling hour on a gravel detour in deepest Georgia. A honking great Chevy full of tipsylooking good ol’ boys kept roaring up to thump my rear bumper, then falling back to laugh and hoot and pop another cool one. I was puzzled as to what had aroused their manly Southern aggression until I remembered my Newfoundland licence plate with its motto: “The Mighty Churchill.”

Joey made much hay with licence plates. Richard Needham, a Globe and Mail columnist, took a shine to what he thought was Newfoundland.

“The Happy Province,” Needham was pleased to call us.

Smallwood thought we should be kept in mind of the fact and so we were marked fore and aft. For a few years we had some of the jolliestlooking funeral processions around.

Other premiers, other mob-calming baubles. There was Peckford and the flag. Many yet living will recall the consuming and fraught ruckshuns about the flag … the Ruskies might have invaded and set up headquarters in Bonavista South and nobody would have noticed.

It was supposed to be a populist allconsuming event. It would be a great public “contest” with everything from little youngsters and their crayons to granny knitting a proud banner to stir men’s souls.

Paul Daly/The Independent

Playing the cards he was dealt

Harvey Hodder reflects on his 38-year political career

T

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

o understand Harvey Hodder, you need to know that the veteran politician — whose tenure as Speaker of the House of Assembly has been the most tumultuous since Confederation — takes the time every morning to play a hand of cribbage with Pearl, his wife of 45 years, before they start their day. They have been doing so for decades.

Hodder is rooted in family and community. Poised to retire from politics, he talks to The Independent about his political career.

In 2003, after forming the government under Danny Williams’ leadership, the long-time mayor of Mount Pearl and seasoned MHA offered himself as candidate to be the province’s first elected Speaker. He says it was his deep interest in parliamentary procedure that attracted him to the job.

Tradition dictates the Speaker be ceremoniously dragged to his chair by the premier and the Opposition leader. In Hodder’s case this was, in retrospect, perhaps particularly apt.

A public employee strike in April 2006, during his first House session as Speaker, saw Hodder being escorted to the House from his home by police.

In June 2006, Hodder dealt with a huge scandal involving constituency allowance overspending and questionable financial practices in the legislative accounts. He was “very much surprised” by the events.

Officers under his authority were suspended. Colleagues he had worked with for years, such as Ed Byrne, were implicated. The premier made intemperate remarks about Hodder’s performance — remarks that he, as Speaker, could not respond to.

“Speaker is a lonely job, because once a Speaker speaks out on particular issues, then he or she compromises the role of the Speaker,” says Hodder.

He says having no concerns about his own career enabled him to concentrate on his role in the event.

“Intense? Yes. Sleepless nights? No.” He’s been through worse.

Born in Creston South on the Burin Peninsula, Hodder graduated from St. Michael’s Anglican School and went to Memorial University, marrying Pearl Noseworthy after his first year. The young couple spent their first years together finishing their degrees.

Hodder was teaching at Morris Academy in Mount Pearl when he decided to run for council. It was 1969, Joey Smallwood was premier, and the campaign cost him $17 dollars.

He does not include the cost of shoe leather.

“There were 3,600 people living in Mount Pearl at that time, and I dropped off a brochure at every single household.”

His style of campaigning did not change from that first election — he always focuses on door-to-door.

He says his wife played a vital role in his career.

“She plays political organization like she plays crib. She plays to win,” he laughs.

After 20 years in council, including four terms as mayor, Hodder decided to make the jump to provincial politics.

When he ran in 1993 in the provincial district of Waterford-Kenmount, the mayor of Mount Pearl was told running in a district where 76 per cent of residents were in St. John’s was a “terrible way to finish up your political career.”

He won, and spent 10 years in opposition, serving stints as opposition

House leader, critic for many portfolios, and chair of the strategy committee that organized question period.

Then came the 2003 election and his four-year term as Speaker, which he says will pave the way for better government.

Hodder says the soon-to-be released report by Chief Justice Derek Green reviewing MHA pay and benefits will make his successor’s job easier. He says the next Speaker will preside over “the very best system of accountability and management” ever drafted.

Hodder speaks of the debt he owes to those he has represented for so long.

When he and his wife suffered the devastating loss of their 14-year-old son David — who died suddenly of an undiagnosed condition while watching television in their rec room — Hodder says it was his community that saved them.

“I think the way in which the Mount Pearl community wrapped their arms around us gave us the encouragement to continue on.”

Hodder says he is especially grateful for the teenagers of his community, “for their warmth, for their generosity … their comfort” which Hodder says gave him and his wife the ability to refocus and “go on in life.”

He says it was that kind of adversity that allowed him to deal with the trials of being Speaker.

“Handling the scandal in the House is nothing compared to that tragedy,” says Hodder, adding if the stress of the death of his son can be rated a 10, what happened in the House rates “no higher than a two.”

And as for the woman he plays crib with every morning? He says after all those years, they’re still playing, and they’re still married. ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

It was a splendid diversion. While the Sprung greenhouse proceeded without a murmur, half the population said they would cling to the old Union Jack until death; the other half looked to a future under brave devices full of pitcher plants, caribou, sou’westers, Purity bull's-eyes, silhouettes of Joey, Cabot’s bark, lobster pots, anchors and shoals of codfish.

SHAMBLES AND TWIGS Frightened by the shambles, the official judging committee called in artist Christopher Pratt. Labrador went off and drew up its own flag, one with a little twig on it.

Pratt says that the flag we honour and revere today has nothing to do with him because the judges got nervous and mucked around with his design.

Brian Tobin thought to do it on the cheap. He merely stuck the phrase “and Labrador” on to “Newfoundland.” I suppose that if the average IQ in Labrador equalled the average May temperature in Cartwright, slippery Brian’s childish gesture might have fooled a single soul.

There’s Newfoundland for you.

When bread is dear, pump up the jolly old branding machine. Three youngsters with rickets, one with scurvy and the two of us with TB? Never mind and be grateful for you live in “Britain’s Oldest Colony.”

Bankrupt after the Great War, thousands emigrating to the States, father with no help now that Johnny’s been blown to bits by the Krauts? Be of good cheer, we’ll put a fine-looking statue down in Bowring Park and call it “The Fighting Newfoundlander.”

There he stands to this day about to heave a hand-grenade across the road toward the Waterford Hospital. There we also have another change in brand. It used to be the Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases … I guess they had to change the name or else, due to excessive branding, we’d all be hammering the doors down.

I was slow off the mark with my branding student. On reflection, I don’t feel so bad about myself now.

The branding and rebranding business has greatly speeded up and you need the nimbleness of youth to keep track — witness the recent “Trust and Confidence” rally and petition.

Those of riper years might have confused it with Nelson Mandela’s “Truth and Reconciliation” movement in South Africa. But it’s an entirely different brand, even the flags are different. Our new wrapper, it seems, is a rather pallid pink, white and green affair, declared to be a fresh token of Newfoundland patriotism and under which, one hopes, no scoundrel will find a last refuge.

Ray Guy’s column returns June 22.

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

MAY 25, 2007

‘Heard you were dead’ H

e drove a mustang, four or five years old, dirty red and rumbling. The driver door swung open outside the gas station in the east end of Town and a seatbelt buckle slapped against the side of the car. The man behind the wheel had trouble unbuckling (or untangling) himself, escaping the car in an awkward birth of black leather and jeans. He swung his arms out from his body when he walked, carving the orbit of a much bigger man.

“Heard you were dead,” said the clerk behind the counter, a girl in her early 20s with pigtails and a belly tattoo. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the man since he entered the store and began searching the aisles, saucer eyes and sway.

“It’s cold,” the man said of being dead, as the local paper had reported in typical Mark Twain fashion: reports of Randy Druken’s demise had been “greatly exaggerated.”

“St. Peter sent me back,” he told the clerk. “He didn’t want me right then.”

Randy Druken isn’t dead, not yet, but he appears well on his way.

He recognized me. “Go ahead,” he said to my young fella, waving him to the counter with a generous smile.

RYAN CLEARY

Fighting Newfoundlander

“I figured you would have called me for a story,” said Druken, carefully, forming the words in his mouth before releasing them.

In fact, The Independent made contact with Druken in early April when reporter Brian Callahan wrote a frontpage article on how he’s been since receiving more than $2 million late last year. The money was compensation from the provincial government for his 1993 wrongful conviction in the gruesome stabbing death of his former girlfriend, Brenda Marie Young.

“I hear it all the time, right?” Druken told the paper. “People don’t think I’ll make it to next week. That’s enough for me right there … to prove ’em all wrong.

“Believe me … I’m far from killing myself. But I do have to keep a check on it. Some days are better than others.

But don’t get me wrong — I’m not walking around whacked out of it all the time, either.”

He appears slightly whacked out of it on this day.

Druken told me he managed to quit his addiction to Oxycontin. “It was only hard for three or four days,” but he says he’s still on drugs, Ritalin among them, an amphetamine-like stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder in kids.

Druken left the store, before returning quickly with a plastic cup of salsa.

“She didn’t want that kind,” Druken told the clerk of an unseen passenger in his Mustang, proceeding to the back of the store.

“I could write another story?” I suggested when Druken returned to the counter to exchange his purchase.

“Just get me on a straight day,” Druken responded, and he was off.

••• Druken sightings around Town are a reminder of all that is wrong with our provincial Justice system. Druken may have been given money for his troubles, but his troubles are still with him.

The wrongful convictions of Druken, Gregory Parsons and Ronald Dalton still reverberate throughout the land.

Our front-page special report this week is an interview with the mother of Chrissy Newman, who was murdered

in her Airport Heights apartment in mid-January.

Yvonne Harvey fears previous wrongful convictions by the Justice system are delaying the ongoing police investigation into her daughter’s death.

Her patience is running thin.“I’m not prepared to let my daughter become another victim of a faulty system.”

The Lamer inquiry may have investigated the wrongful convictions, recommending changes to strengthen the system, but the $11 million-plus judicial inquiry wasn’t a guarantee of restored faith in the system.

An apparent lack of faith continues to undermine our judicial system.

From the Mount Cashel scandal to the Lamer inquiry, from the Shirley Turner case and her murder/suicide to the back-to-back mistrials in the case of a St. John’s doctor accused of sexual assault and drug trafficking, from outdated jury lists to the police silence on the Chrissy Newman case, there’s reason for the public to be concerned.

The fact that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary won’t breathe a word about the Newman investigation doesn’t help matters.

Communication is nil.

Public confidence has been rattled,

not just in the Justice system either.

Faith in health care has been shattered with news this week that a judicial inquiry has been called to find out why more than 300 breast cancer patients were given wrong test results, possibly leading to incorrect treatment. In other news, a radiologist at the Burin Peninsula Health Centre has been relieved of his duties pending a review of an estimated 6,000 of his reports.

The right to health care and a sound justice system are the fundamentals of our society. Ours is showing cracks.

RARE BREED

Local radio icon Scott Chafe died this week after a brief battle with lung cancer.

Scott was a rare breed of newsman. He covered the legislature for VOCM when I covered it for The Telegram.

On more than one occasion when I had left the House of Assembly early for the day to get a head start on my stories, Scott would telephone me with a heads up if something had happened in the legislature.

Scott didn’t have to go out of his way for another reporter at another media outlet, but he did, because that’s the kind of man he was. Here’s to Scott, a finer soul I have yet to meet. ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

YOUR VOICE ‘They were very dear to me’ Dear editor, I have been watching the news with interest lately. I am distressed about the situation with the breast cancer testing issue. I have two cousins and an aunt who died within the last six years from breast cancer. They were very dear to me and are missed by everyone in our family. We mourn their passing. We are still suffering emotional stress because of the fact that they suffered so intensely before they passed. None of them were ever offered any chemotherapy because, supposedly, the fact that they had mastectomies was curative.

Removing their breasts was supposedly the only therapy they needed.

Family members are left to wonder if our relatives were among the ones who did not get the treatment they may have needed.

The husbands of my relatives who have passed do not want to open up their investigation into this topic and

get involved in the class-action suit.

At least two of them have remarried and want to move on from that painful period in their lives.

I commend Gerry Rogers for speaking out on this issue. I feel she is speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves because they are not here to do so.

It is my hope that systems will be put in place to ensure this does not happen again. No one should lose their life because proper tests were not done or they were not interpreted correctly.

Statistically we know that a certain small percentage of errors is considered “acceptable” in the realm of science. However, to have 200 women pass prematurely (in my opinion) is not acceptable statistically or in the real world.

Marg Osbourne, St. John’s

C-NLOPB ‘at risk’

Dear editor, St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells’ publicly stated opinion on the Hibernia South decision by the CanadaNewfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) has raised a frightful issue. Whether or not the board’s decision should have been different or that the process for arriving at such a decision ought to have been done differently is one thing. The merits and arguments of that will remain with those who had the facts at hand and who were vested with the responsibility of ensuring that due process was followed in all respects.

What is paramount, however, is that we must have, as required under the Atlantic Accord, a mechanism for preserving and establishing a fair and stable regime for managing our offshore petroleum resources. That was why the C-NLOPB was established in the first place. What is frightful is that such a stable regime is now seriously at risk.

Wells, as a member of the C-NLOPB, has apparently publicly referred to the board’s decision regarding Hibernia South as being “incompetent” and that the board is being run like a Soviet central committee. The fact that he has done so publicly as a serving member is

an important issue that the board has challenged and irrespective of the rules regarding conflict of interest and generally acceptable decorum, such a public challenge will likely do us more harm than good in the long run.

If Wells indeed is the only one in step in the parade and if what he is saying is true, then he should be commended and the rest of the board members should all be dismissed. If not, he should be dismissed. In any case, it is now the responsibility of both ministers to decide who is in step and to take the appropriate action. This should not be considered as simply a matter between the chair, Max Ruelokke and Wells.

What the mayor has raised does not smack of stability but instead has created a climate of mistrust, confrontation and is self-destructive and needs to be dealt with in the interest of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. I hope that the respective ministers have the balls to make a clear decision and clean up this mess because in the long run, there is a great deal at stake.

‘Fight if you’re a man’ Dear editor, Just reading Norm Doyle’s self-serving comments in my May 18 Independent (‘Between and a rock and a hard place’, by Ivan Morgan), in which he attempted to explain his spineless knuckling under to Stephen Harper in the matter of the recent budget vote.

I’m paraphrasing, but I think his whine went something like this: I couldn’t vote for my province because

I wouldn’t get any money for my riding; I’d be kicked out of caucus; I can do better working within the system; and it wouldn’t do any good because everybody else voted for it anyway. He also threw in a quote from a Kenny Rogers’ song, “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

Well, Mr. Doyle, being such a big Kenny Rogers fan, I’m sure that you’ll appreciate another selection from his repertoire. It’s called Coward of the

Learn to iron

Angus Taylor, English Harbour, Trinity (former C-NLOPB Manager, Legal and Land)

Pitcher Roger Clemens REUTERS/Scott Audette

‘Talk about an imbalanced society’

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

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County, and it ends with the line, “Sometimes you have to fight if you’re a man.”

Ada Bradbury, Upper Island Cove

Dear editor, What an imbalanced society we live in.

A headline in the sports pages reads, Roger Clemens gets $28-million deal with Yankees. The seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher must have had trouble paying his bills, so he came rushing out of retirement and signed “again” with George Steinbrenner’s big league money machine, namely the New York Yankees. In a May 18th exhibition game in Florida between the Tampa Bay Yankees and the Fort Myers Miracle, poor Roger was told to only pitch 45 to 60 pitches.

The Yankees owner and coaches hope poor Roger will get that count up to around 90 pitches when the regular Major League Baseball season starts.

At his 2007 rate of pay, poor Roger will get about $6,000 a pitch (hopefully all strikes). Talk about imbalance.

A week or so ago, Simon Cowell, the arrogant panel member on the

American Idol show, went to Africa “to help those poor downtrodden people.” Fox Network asked the ordinary people of North America to cough up hard-earned dollars to support the millions of people there who are destitute and sick with hunger and malnutrition.

Nearly a $100 million was sucked from the folks. (Hit them in the heart and the pocket book while things are hot.) Meanwhile, the U.S. government is spending billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan in an unwinnable war, a war they should not have started. So Roger plays ball and gets $28 million for just 80 or 90 pitches per game, and Bush continues to pile the money into the military. Those who have and those who have not, things will never change. Talk about an imbalanced society.

Bill Westcott, Clarke’s Beach

Dear editor, In response to the story Sew chic, (May 11 edition of The Independent by Mandy Cook), I would suggest that the 14 newly minted young artists be taught to use an iron. The seams on the dress in the photograph need a good pressing before any potential customer (blessed with good eyesight) would spring the $90 to $250 asking price.

P.A. McNeil, St. John’s

‘Super speech’

Dear editor, ‘Too long we have been silent’ was a super speech. I heard it at the Confederation Hill rally and I just read it again online (published in the May 11 edition, by Ryan Cleary). Great job!

Gord Dunphy, St. John’s

‘Don’t mean to be picky’

Dear editor, One would assume the Aliant phone book cover shown in your story (Scrunchins, May 18 edition) is the same for all Atlantic Canada, thus the winner from New Brunswick, of all places. Don’t mean to be picky. We look forward to Friday mornings.

Gordon Tizzard, Corner Brook

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

Should some people be denied health care?

I pose a question: if you refuse to wear a helmet while riding your bicycle, why should I have to pay your medical bills when or if you have an accident and suffer a head trauma? If you end up on life support, or in need of permanent care, why should the taxpayer be on the hook for your stupidity?

Just today I saw six different people cycling through traffic — none were wearing helmets.

Although I hate rules and live by the philosophy “I don’t wanna and you can’t make me,” I think the bylaw requiring cyclists to wear helmets is a good one. Pity it isn’t enforced. I think it should be toughened up too. Failure to comply should result in a big fine — say $1,000 — and the bike confiscated.

Zero tolerance. Seriously.

Harsh? Absolutely, but we have socialized medicine. If I am paying your medical bills, you should wear a helmet. Helmets have been proven to save lives and protect against serious injury.

The basic philosophy of our health

Rant & Reason

IVAN MORGAN

care system remains the same 40 years on — universal coverage for medically necessary health care services provided on the basis of need, rather than the ability to pay — principles I usually embrace.

But when it comes to the doofus I saw today, easily 30 years old, weaving and dodging helmetless through traffic on a mountain bike, I fear my principles waver.

If this guy, I thought as I watched him play chicken with a minivan, cannot understand the importance of wearing a helmet, why should we be on the hook for the $200,000 a year or more we will have to cough up if he zigs when he shoulda zagged and ends up lying in a long-term care ward?

I have heard all the arguments against this line of thinking. Universal

YOURVOICE

POOR COUSIN For many years Newfoundland and Labrador has been thought of as a pimple on the backside of upper Canada. Out of Parliament’s 308 seats, we have a meagre seven. How much clout do we really have?

Our fishery has been decimated and our hydro is controlled by Quebec.

They blocked Newfoundland’s efforts from putting a power corridor across its territory. Federal governments over the years have refused to intervene because of the number of seats that are available in Quebec. For the resources that Newfoundland had, we should be in the top three of the rich-

Not that we’re ungrateful mind, as sometimes you have been too kind; then again we’ve often felt, That usually we’re below the belt.

We sometimes cannot help but feel,

ment? Is there a dollar amount attached to saving a life? If not a dollar amount, an age limit? If not an age limit, then a lifestyle plateau? Quit smoking or get hove off the plan? Lose weight or get cut from the list? Start exercising or be left out in the cold?

It could be argued a drastically overweight person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and never exercises is doing the same thing as the cyclist with no helmet — just in slow motion. Do we have to foot the bill for his/her pending medical disaster? What do we do about this?

Unless we get a handle on health care spending, these are nasty questions that are going to have to be answered sooner rather than later.

I am sure the Lance Armstrong wannabe I watched made it home safe, this time. I am sure he has his reasons for not wearing a helmet. And right now, thanks to our universal health care, if he is hurt he is protected.

The question is: do we need to be protected from him? ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

calls from families around the province looking for direction and support and we are hopeful that the new centre will in time be able to respond to this need and provide more hope for affected families.

We need to remind ourselves once again that some 8,000 families are experiencing disordered eating and the foundation is encouraging families to come forward and seek counseling and support. It needs to be stressed that early treatment is key to successful recovery and families have to be more aggressive and determined to get the support they need. We must overcome the traditional stigma attached to eating disorders and recognize and accept that some 10-15 per cent of adolescents are experiencing

some form of disordered eating. The No. 1 priority for the recently established eating disorder foundation is to focus its resources on awareness programs and to challenge and mitigate the myths that currently are a serious impediment to our understanding of the real scope and extent of disordered eating. The establishment of a foundation coupled with a dedicated treatment centre will not only result in more responsive and effective treatment and family support services, but most importantly, will signal for the first time a sense of hope that something is finally being done.

Vince Withers, Chairperson, Eating Disorder Foundation, St. John’s

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

est provinces in Canada. Instead we remain in some aspects still the poor cousin. But today we have a premier who refuses to allow Newfoundland and Labrador to be pillaged any longer. Some see his ways as a deterrent to business in this province, but the day will come when all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will sing his praises.

On the equalization front where should our loyalties stand? The answer to this question is obvious — with the premier.

This I hope is the beginning of the end for the Stephen Harper government. The amount of equalization at stake would do wonders for Newfoundland and Labrador. It is time for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to stand united as one and show the rest of Canada that we believe in our premier and his government.

Wayne Lynch, Grand Falls-Windsor

that someone’s out to get us, steal; our legacy’s treasures yet again, as was so often stolen, then.

Yet, it’s yearned for even now, by some who fish or ply the plow; must be something in the air, that drives a few of us to care.

Dear editor, The establishment of an Outpatient Intensive Care Eating Disorder Centre, as announced in the provincial budget, is a major breakthrough for present and future disordered eating families.

The centre, once operational, will provide a front door to more focused and substantially improved treatment and related support services. The feedback received by the eating disorder foundation at several of its public meetings clearly indicated a dire need exists for such a centre. Today’s treatment services are fragmented and are unable to respond effectively to what, in my judgment, is a major health issue.

The foundation has received numerous

MUN CONVOCATION

Ship in state Independence, once, half-tasted, much of it was surely wasted; on the masses eking living, in a climate unforgiving.

advancing not so much.

The way it looks now, if you are my age (47) or younger, you could be paying into something that won’t be around to look after you in your declining years. If you are my age or older, you are probably poised to bankrupt the system into which you have paid your whole life, unless we get a handle on expenditures.

That’s the big question — how do we control spending? Do we start drawing lines?

We all pay into this public insurance plan. With private insurance, if you don’t lock your car, you’re not protected against theft. If you deliberately burn down your house, you’re not covered.

This is because if it weren’t this way the system would soon be bankrupted.

Hello?

So should some people be denied health care coverage? If so, where do we draw the terrible line?

Is it with bucko on the Raleigh with a death wish?

Should rich people get better treat-

Eating disorder centre ‘major breakthrough’

‘Pimple on the backside of upper Canada’ Dear editor, We have been a partner, though not equal, in Confederation for some 58 years. More and more we are hearing the word made famous in Quebec by the late Rene Lévesque — separation.

As a people we benefited from Confederation with money for roads, hospitals and schools, but as time went on, did our welcome get worn thin? Who is really benefiting from our resources? Since the late 19th century, Canada’s centre of manufacturing has been concentrated in two provinces — Ontario and Quebec.

The Ontario economic engine has been driven by the iron ore of Labrador that is used in the auto manufacturing and steel industries.

Because of cheap Churchill Falls power, Quebec can offer big business and industry appallingly cheap electricity, for producing many household and industrial products.

Have we been the victims of our own politicians over the years taking what Ottawa threw our way? Were we forceful enough in fighting for our fair share of federal programs and benefits? As a province of Canada are we getting fair treatment? Why are the majority of military jobs, especially naval, located in Nova Scotia?

health care is universal. We look after our idiots. If we start splitting hairs, where does it end? Do we exclude drunk drivers from free heath care? Do we exempt smokers? I have a weakness for sausages. Do we refuse to pay for my bypass if and when the sausages catch up with me? Do we start excluding fast food junkies? Do we start excluding people who don’t exercise?

Where does that line get drawn?

I’d like to say the line starts with this clown, but I couldn’t turn him away from emergency, damn it. But I wondered, as I watched this guy race a Metrobus, where will the line be drawn on health care?

And lines may some day have to be drawn. Our health care system gets more expensive every year. When universal health care was conceived, if your arteries were blocked you died. If you had most types of cancer, you died.

Medicine has now advanced to the point where medical procedures only dreamed about in the 1960s are now routine, and expensive. Medicine advancing is a good thing — age

Hardened, yet so fragile, we may think we’re happy, if we’re free; tormented psyche, troubled past, always pit before the mast.

This good ship Newfoundland and Labrador, never richer, yet still poor; whither tending, whence our lot, is it us good luck forgot?

Bob LeMessurier, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Kayla Walters and classmates at Memorial University’s spring convocation ceremonies this week

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

Fault lies not in the stars, but in Newfoundlanders

Editor’s note: the following letter was written to John Furlong, host of CBC Radio’s Fisherman’s Broadcast, with a copy forwarded to The Independent.

Listening to your interview with Leo Seymore last evening on the broadcast, a thought came to my mind. Time magazine has their Person of the Year so doesn’t The Broadcast have a Caller of the Year or Participant of the Year, and with that idea in mind my vote goes to Leo Seymore.

I have never met the man, nor do I know much about his situation, but I am struck by his concern for other fishers, outport Newfoundland, his frustration with those in control and his abundance of common sense — a quality sadly lacking in those whom we put in control of our lives and our destiny. It is too bad there are not more outport people like Mr. Seymore, as most people who do call The

7e love celebrations too.

Broadcast do so out of concern for their own situation and not for the general good of their communities and fellow fishers.

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words I am attaching to this e-mail a photo I took through my window this morning showing the ice conditions off Twillingate, a situation that has existed for months and threatens to persist for some time in the future.

Such conditions constitute an emergency situation for many fishing families along the northeast coast, yet I am struck by the silence of our elected members whose mandate it is to represent the interest of their constituents. Of course, as Shakespeare said, “The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves!”

The one thing I do know for certain is that the era of the small-boat fisher is over — not so much the fault of the egocentric politician, not so much the fault of the incompetence of DFO, but rather because

of the apathy and the silence of fisher people themselves.

We know from observing the politicians that their words are shallow camouflage that attempt to hide a grievous selfserving agenda, but yet as individuals we do not demand that politicians put the interest of their people above their own attempt at personal fame and fortune.

Our media, whose limited radar range extends not beyond the overpass, has sickened us along the northeast coast in recent weeks with the FPI soap opera, while largely oblivious to the situation experienced by fishers struggling to stay in their communities.

So John, I applaud the few lonely souls like Mr. Seymore whose heart is in rural Newfoundland, who wants to be able to live and work in his community, but yet remains largely ignored.

David Boyd, Twillingate

MAY 25, 2007

8 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

IN CAMERA

Kat Finck.

Kat Finck (right), Josh Oliver and Julia Halfyard.

(From top left) David Mercer, Anahareo White-Malone, Julia Halfyard, David Cox, Alison Collins, Josh Oliver, Kat Finck and James Burke. (Front) George Morgan, Greg Bruce, Beni Malone and Bill Brennan.

David Cox.

Wonderbolt grows Wonderbolt Circus, now 25 years old, has built a reputation for creating entertaining and action-packed shows both small and large, and founder Beni Malone has plans to take the show even further. Picture editor Paul Daly caught up with the Wonderbolt performers recently as they prepared for a major show at the St. John’s Convention Centre, while managing editor Stephanie Porter spoke with Malone about the evolution and future of Newfoundland’s only established one-ring circus.

B

eni Malone graduated from clown school and began planting the seeds for Wonderbolt Circus about the same time Cirque du Soleil was getting off the ground.

Cirque, of course, is now a global phenomenon, entertaining millions through its many shows and world tours. Wonderbolt, though it has been confined mostly within Canada’s borders, shares some similarities.

“We started at about the same time, and we both had the idea of going back to the one-ring circus concept,” Malone says. “They obviously — well, look at what they’ve done. But my own trajectory has gotten there, too, in a certain way.

“Cirque du Soleil realized 80 per cent of their audience are adults. At our circus (at St. Bon’s in St. John’s), we get a lot of kids … but you’d see it’s probably 50/50. It’s certainly fam-

ily friendly, it’s children friendly, for sure. But the most surprising thing about it is how adult interesting it is.

It’s not dumbed down like some kids’ shows.”

Wonderbolt has just passed its 25th anniversary, and seems to be gathering momentum by the season.

Most recently, Wonderbolt pulled off one of its biggest and best-received shows ever, for a room full of adults at the annual Newfoundland Ocean Industries Association conference at the convention centre in downtown St. John’s.

Given a solid budget and the goahead to do a top-notch Vegas-style show, Malone says he and his group took the opportunity to “get a lot of our ideas together” — and make a “more sophisticated” show that would stop the most staid and conservative audience members in their tracks.

There were 13 performers, including a three-piece jazz band, singer Julia Halfyard, a juggling troupe, aerialists, unicyclist, clowns and more.

There was song, dance, choreography, fun and drama.

“Before we even came out for our bow, everyone was on their feet,” says Malone. “It was a breakthrough show for us, on a bunch of levels. We came up with a whole new thing, new energy and jazzy music.

“I’m realizing now that we’ve got a show that could open in Amsterdam or Toronto or London and it would work.

But we’re living in St. John’s and we’ve got to find a market for it.”

And there’s the rub. Wonderbolt is currently on the lookout for corporate sponsorship — and more corporate gigs — to allow them to develop further. Because even after all this time, Malone still feels a degree of uncer-

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 9

Beni Malone.

Anahareo White-Malone.

Alison Collins.

up tainty at the beginning of each season. and big-ticket vaudeville shows that “It’s always, next year, are we going cost thousands to pull off. to make it? This year, are we going to be Malone still performs his solo acts able to pull it together? Every year, (“really traditional old-fashioned whatever I’ve got in June, I go with. clowning, which I love”) regularly, at And I do think peoschools and other events. ple are starting to And he’ll get together with get it.

“Any place that can a handful of performers on “We have a circus other occasions for their operating out of St. produce a circus is a scripted or seasonal shows John’s … and we — or more free-flowing sign that they can want to get one realperformances. ly great show runEven after hundreds of produce things.” ning around solo shows, and hundreds Newfoundland and more in an ensemble, Beni Malone that identifies with Malone says he still loves, Newfoundland. Any and believes in, what he place that can prodoes. New audiences and duce a circus is a sign that they can profrequent guest performers from all over duce things. And we can do this.” the world keep him inspired, enthusiasWonderbolt’s new jazzy show may be tic, and filled with ideas. on Malone’s mind at the moment, but “I love performing for audiences and the circus is not always flashy effects making the show work,” he says. “I’m

amazed that it always works … working with new people and seeing these new artists and having my daughter come back regularly (Anahareo WhiteMalone, an accomplished aerialist), that’s really helped me.

“And seeing the people she brings back, which are really these fantastic, dedicated, professional people. That’s really given me another jolt, helping bring the circus to a different level.”

This time of year, Malone and his crew are gearing up for Wonderbolt’s annual summer camp, welcoming students “from ages six to 60” starting the last week of June. For the fourth year in a row, the troupe will be taking over St. Bon’s gymnasium on Bonaventure Avenue in St. John’s — a space big enough for stilt walkers, plenty of clowns, and acrobatics in the air.

On July 18, the annual — but always different — Wonderbolt Circus Show

will open for a 10-day run, featuring a dozen or so musicians, magicians, jugglers, clowns, and everything else the group has become known for.

In August, Malone and company will pack up and travel to Labrador to again teach and perform at the Kamataukatshiut festival, a circus festival in the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish.

In 2008, there are plans afoot for a complete tour of Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It’s really quite exciting. And once we get to that next step …” Malone pauses. “Oh, you always have visions of where you want to go. I know where I want to be next year … but who knows?

We might be touring Norway or we might be beating the bushes just to get the best show we can in St. Bon’s. Who knows?” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS

EASTERN HEALTH UNDER SCRUTINY

MAY 25, 2007

THE LESLIE HARRIS CENTRE OF REGIONAL POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT The Impact of an “Atlantic Gateway” on Transportation Systems in Newfoundland and Labrador Holiday Inn, St. John's, NL On Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 8:30 am to 5:30 pm Speakers from government and industry will discuss the implications to Newfoundland & Labrador of the proposal to make Halifax an “Atlantic Gateway” for goods coming to North America from Europe and the Far East To register, contact the Harris Centre at: (709) 737-6186 or reneef@mun.ca More information is available at www.mun.ca/harriscentre/index.php

It’s been an intense week for Eastern Health. On May 18, George Tilley (pictured), president and CEO of the health authority, apologized for withholding information about hundreds of faulty breast cancer tests. Just a few days later, on May 22, Health Minister Ross Wiseman announced a judicial inquiry into the testing and the communications mismanagement in the two years since mistakes were discovered. That same day, another health care bombshell dropped: 6,000 files affecting 3,500 patients are to be reviewed after concerns were raised about the quality of radiology reports completed by a new radiologist at the Burin Health Centre. The radiologist has been temporarily suspended, at Paul Daly/The Independent least temporarily.

F

Insider winning

inance Minister Tom Marshall says he doubts implications of illegal “insider winning” involving retail outlets that sell Atlantic lotto tickets will impact the treasury.

“We’re not anticipating a decrease in revenue as a result of what has happened at the ALC,” Marshall tells The Independent.

Profits from lotteries brought $105 million to the province’s treasury last year. This year the province forecasts $96 million, but Marshall says

Tory MHA Charlene Johnson

that decline is due to the reduction of the number of video lottery terminals (VLTs) in the province.

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has forwarded 33 “customer complaints and concerns” to the province regarding retailer wins of up to $25,000.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Tom Rideout says those cases have been reviewed and forwarded to the RCMP for investigation.

— Ivan Morgan

Paul Daly/The Independent

No charges laid from police probe into development association

T

he police investigation into possible misuse of funds by the former executive of the North Shore Regional Development Association, which covers much of the north shore of Conception Bay, has concluded, and no charges will be laid.

“There was no detection of any matters we should be involved in, criminally,” says Cpl. Clarence Burgess of the RCMP’s Harbour Grace detachment, who conducted the investigation.

“It was something we were asked to look at, so we did … and we didn’t find anything we should be concerned about.”

Among other charges, the association’s new executive alleged thousands of dollars were directed into Northern Bay Sands, a park once owned by Ronald Johnson, a one-time head of the association, and father of Tory MHA Charlene Johnson.

The new executive also charged it had been blacklisted by Johnson — a charge the MHA denied.

Johnson is glad to see the investigation finish, for all involved.

“I think it was really sad and unfortunate that

these volunteers who were members of the past association had their reputations questioned. These people are very well known in the area for their volunteer work,” she tells The Independent. “As far as I know, they never asked for thanks … and they never asked for this either.

“I’m really happy for them that it’s all cleared up now.”

Johnson points out she was never personally under investigation. “The Liberals took advantage of this story and tried to create a notion of doubt about my reputation and integrity which is very important to me.

“They tried to create a scandal by raising it to the public in their mock question period … it was complete and utter politics as far as I’m concerned.”

At least one key member of the new association resigned during the seven-month investigation. No one on the current executive could be reached by The Independent before press deadline.

— Stephanie Porter

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

T

‘Premature’ to develop lower Churchill he recent rally near Confederation Building brought to mind one I attended in December 2002 at Mary Queen of Peace Parish Hall in St. John’s.

That rally featured PC leader Danny Williams in fine oratorical style. The theme of his speech, repeated on placards throughout the hall, was “No more giveaways.” What evidently worried Williams then was a suspicion that the thenLiberal government was about to dispose of the lower Churchill. He made it clear there would be no such giveaways if he got in.

“The power that’s on the Churchill is the power of the people, and it should be the power for the people,” he said. That event was well covered by the local media, and I daresay it had an influence on voters in October 2003 when the provincial election was held. I saw a few old Liberals in the hall. What they heard that evening must have made them think twice about their customary allegiance.

We’re in another election year and the lower Churchill is periodically back in

AROUND THE WORLD Sir — In your first issue just come to hand, I have read with much pleasure not only your Programme, which has the right ring in it, but a letter from Bishop Scandella, of Gibraltar, which deserves more pointed attention from Newfoundland readers than the cursory perusal which extracts from home papers commonly attract.

— Terra Nova Advocate and Political Observer, May 20, 1876

AROUND THE BAY Remember Mrs. Brushett of Black Duck Cove, Burin, who with a fine show of fortitude rocked for 103.5 hours to become the world rockathon champion? Her son is showing the same kind of initiative and determination. He is the Burin Peninsula Post’s star newsboy having topped the sales record two weeks in a row.

— Burin Peninsula Post, May 13, 1970

PATRICK O’FLAHERTY

A Skeptic’s Diary

the news. As we all know, cabinet has decided to proceed with the development.

A team to drive it forward is in place.

Officials with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro say that the lower Churchill should be generating electric power by 2015.

The main markets for Labrador power are the same now as they were in J.R. Smallwood’s time: Ontario, the eastern U.S., and Quebec. Ontario and the U.S. couldn’t be reached in the 1960s without the co-operation and agreement of the Quebec government, and the same pertains today.

Quebec stands between us and the markets. Quebec has the upper hand. Will politicians and officials there consent to “wheel” power from the lower Churchill through Hydro-Quebec’s transmission

lines without extracting a heavy price? I suspect “Non!” will be the answer. Any deal struck now will have to include a giveaway of some sort, though likely not as outrageous as the 1969 power contract.

One thing we can’t expect — that the federal government will intervene to help Newfoundland in any dispute with Quebec. It will not do so, no matter what party is in office in Ottawa, no matter what may be said in election campaigns.

Quebec’s position in the federation is stronger than it was in Smallwood’s day.

It’s officially a “nation” now; it was just a province then. The recent federal budget has shown once again how powerful it is.

I think it is premature to try and develop the lower Churchill, the last great undeveloped natural resource in the province. Bureaucratic and corporate pressure to get it underway should be resisted. We should let the Churchill River flow freely into the sea until the timing is opportune for us, which will likely be when the upper Churchill contract nears its expiry date in 2041. As that

approaches, Quebec will be forced to come to the table and we will have cards to play. By 2025, say, or 2030, the hardball Quebec attitude may have softened.

In any event, as years pass a technological breakthrough may occur that will allow power to reach the biggest market, the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, without going through Quebec.

Those dates are a long ways off. But what’s the hurry? It’s not as if the resource will depreciate in value over time. And the province is in fairly good shape economically, thanks in large part to the PC government’s efforts on the Atlantic Accord, for which they must be given credit. We can count on offshore oil revenues rolling in for the next few decades to support health care, education, and other programs. There are some reasons for anxiety, chief among them the rate of outmigration to Alberta, but government can do little if anything about that. I realize too that some areas of the province have very high unemployment rates. We can’t match Alberta’s economic performance — or Ontario’s, or B.C.’s, or

even Saskatchewan’s.

Not now. But we might — in time.

Time is on our side.

One more point. Newfoundlanders of the early and mid-20th century gave up their country’s independence and agreed to be taken over, first, by the Dominions Office in London, and second, by Ottawa — in other words, by foreigners.

Those of the late 20th century made a total bollocks of the upper Churchill, helped bring the once abundant cod to near extinction, and depleted mineral and forest resources. We in this generation are living well mainly off revenues from a non-renewable resource, i.e., oil. The question is: what kind of legacy will we leave behind? Should we leave something for our children and grandchildren to develop when and if they see fit, and to use as they see fit? That’s not an economic, but a moral question. I say we should.

No more giveaways.

Patrick O’Flaherty is the author of Lost Country: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland, 1843-1933.

YEARS PAST Recently the Council has been troubled with the problem of roaming cattle and have decided to crack down on this violation of local Municipal regulations. In future straying animals will be impounded in a yard that has been fenced behind the Town Hall.

— Wabana Star, May 30, 1962 EDITORIAL STAND Some are very much confused respecting the attitude of this paper. Strong Tories claim we are bent upon destroying the Tory Government, while strong Liberals claim we are strongly in favour of the Morris Government. Both are wrong. We will always condemn extravagance in public expenditure, graft, or the combination of the political machines, that is dishonest and deliberately wrong. We must condemn such outrageous deeds as permitting a Cabinet Minister to sit, vote, and argue, in favour of the enactment of measures which enable him to grow rich quick at the public expense. Such an action is contrary to the spirit and letter of our Constitution, and is a hard blow at the very root of Responsible Government.

— The Fishermen’s Advocate, St. John’s, May 23, 1911

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir — You are already aware that a General Election is to be held and that Polling Day is fixed for May 8. Owing to the short time at our disposal we fear it may not be possible for us to see all our friends in person. We therefore send you a copy of this Circular letter, in case we find it impossible to see you; to thank you most sincerely for the support

you gave us at the Election in November last and to ask you for a renewal of your confidence on May 8.

We ask you to vote for us, and to vote the STRAIGHT LIBERAL TICKET, as split votes and plumpers may mean the defeat of a candidate you would wish to be elected. We are yours faithfully, G.W.B. Ayre, G.W. Gushue and A.W. Miller

Stop a heart attack before it starts.

Your support is vital.

Research into the root causes of heart disease and stroke will help millions live longer, healthier lives. As a leading funder of heart and stroke research in Canada, we need your help.

Call 1-888-HSF-INFO or visit www.heartandstroke.ca

AXMITH M C I NTYRE WICHT LTD. CLIENT: Heart & Stroke AD N°.:

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The Fisherman’s Advocate, 1951

— The Enterprise, Trinity, May 1, 1911

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “This is not the cause of faction, or of Party or of any individual but the common interest of all.”

— The Sentinel, and Conception-Bay Advertiser masthead, May 26, 1840

HEARD ALL THE MYTHS ABOUT DEBT AND BANKRUPTCY? GET THE FACTS FROM NEWFOUNDLANDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PERSONAL DEBT EXPERTS

12 â&#x20AC;˘ INDEPENDENTNEWS

MAY 25, 2007

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A social exchange

St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native Sarah Goodridge is doing Grade 12 all over again â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but this time, in Italy

W

By Kyla Bruff For The Independent

hen Sarah Goodridge first arrived in Sardinia, Italy, she realized a piece of her luggage was missing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that she was completely incapable of explaining this to the family that would be hosting her for the next nine months.

A participant in the Rotary international exchange program, Goodridge, 18, couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t speak a word of Italian at the beginning of her exchange last September. Although she says this caused initial awkwardness â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and presented many challenges â&#x20AC;&#x201D; things have changed quite a bit for Goodridge since then.

Now, her weeknights usually involve meeting Italian friends at the main â&#x20AC;&#x153;Piazza dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Italiaâ&#x20AC;? in Sassari (the town sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s staying in) and chatting, in Italian, at the local cafĂŠs. Although she says her grammar still isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t great, Goodridge now speaks the language freely and fluently and is glad the exchange offered her the opportunity to learn it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Italian is a language that I more than likely would have not otherwise studied so it is great that I have had this opportunity,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The exchange really helps with the learning of the language because I am liv-

ing with an Italian family and going to a regular Italian school. Had I been living in Italy with my own family or studying in English I doubt that I would have picked (it) up.â&#x20AC;?

The exchange sends students like Goodridge from participating districts around the world each year. While Goodridge spends a year in Italy, there is an Italian student spending a year in Atlantic Canada. The Rotary Club covers all expenses, with the exception of airfare.

The program runs September to May with a primary goal of learning a new language, culture and way of life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At the beginning I did no school work because I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand anything,â&#x20AC;? says Goodridge. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I go to school now, I follow along but the teachers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind what I do because they understand that I have a diploma at home. The main purpose of me going to school here is so that I can learn the language and socialize with local students.â&#x20AC;?

Goodridge graduated a year ago from Holy Heart of Mary High school in St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. She says the exchange is an excellent gap year between high school and university.

Travelling to Italy has also enabled Goodridge to experience a climate and culture very different from that of Newfoundland. The historical sites and

buildings in her city have allowed her to grasp the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history and lifestyle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The historic centre of my city is quite interesting, filled with mazes of tiny narrow streets that a car can hardly pass through. Some houses are only attainable by foot because the streets are so narrow â&#x20AC;Ś churches can be found hidden at the centre of these mazes and people must go by foot to get there.â&#x20AC;?

From seeing the Pope give his weekly address to visiting the leaning tower of Pisa, Goodridge has seen a lot since her arrival. Her favorite sight of all was the Amalfi Coast â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a series of cliffs filled with small communities leading to the ocean.

Goodridge recommends this type of exchange to other students as a great way to learn about another culture and country.

Her own adventures wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end when she leaves Italy at the end of this month.

She plans to meet up with fellow Newfoundlanders and spend another four weeks extensively touring Europe. The stops on her list include Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Berlin, Krakow, Warsaw, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Barcelona and Paris.

Kyla Bruff is a level 3 co-op student at Holy Heart of Mary High School.

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INDEPENDENTLIFE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — PAGE 17

Top three Helen Gregory, Anita Singh and Michael Pittman have all had Large Years — but who will get the award?

N

By Mandy Cook The Independent

one of the three artists short listed for the second annual Large Year award — a prize awarded by Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador to an artist who has enjoyed an exceptional year of achievement and growth — is at all vocal about beating out their fellow nominees in a knock-down, drag-out art brawl.

Mostly, humble modesty prevails.

“Initially, my reaction was there’s so many people I know I feel that have done so much in the province and my first reaction was ‘Not me,’” says Anita Singh, one of three artists up for the award to be presented on May 30.

“Everyone’s got some creativity in them and we’re all supportive of each other.”

Michael Pittman, a mixed-media visual artist based in Grand Falls-Windsor, says it’s “really great” to be nominated — especially, he notes, because he hasn’t been showing his work for all that long. But in an exciting year when he got hitched to his new bride Krista in Pinch Gut on the west coast, he says it doesn’t bother him if his name is called out at the ceremony.

“So it’s been a large year for me whether I win or not. It’s been absolutely fantastic.”

St. John’s painter Helen Gregory puts the tight knit Newfoundland and Labrador artistic community in perspective. She was recently nominated for an artist of the year award (through the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council) for which Michael Pittman was a judge. Gregory laughs about how the situation was reversed last year and she judged Pittman for the same accolade.

“We’re all friends — I’m in good company,” she says. “I think these things are just acknowledgment from your peers as to how hard you work and acknowledgment of if you’ve had a good year and I had a great year last year.”

The highlight of Gregory’s large year was a sale to the National Gallery in Ottawa (“That’s huge!”), followed by the purchase of her work by the Beaverbrook Gallery in Fredericton and this province’s art procurement program.

For the upcoming year, Gregory will be showing new paintings at The Rooms, for which she will be interacting with museum collections across Canada.

Upon her exploration of natural visual elements, such as preserved bird specimens, Gregory says there is “a transformation” that occurs when a natural artifact becomes a cultural artifact.

“All these birds were just dead birds, but by preserving them and putting them into a museum they’re something more,” she says. “They have their information attached

See “Winner announced,” page 18

HELEN GREGORY “We’re all friends — I’m in good company.”

MICHAEL PITTMAN “So it’s been a large year for me whether I win or not. It’s been absolutely fantastic.”

ANITA SINGH “Everyone’s got some creativity in them and we’re all supportive of each other.”

Film wrap

Province’s indie movie scene ‘thriving’ despite fewer projects: filmmaker

J

By Mandy Cook The Independent

ustin Simms, filmmaker and director of the upcoming production of Joel Hynes’ novel Down to the Dirt, remembers how the classic moment in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark reinforced his youthful decision to make movies.

“There’s nothing cooler than Indiana Jones running away from the big ball when you’re 14,” he says.

Labrador City-born but Mount Pearl raised, Simms, a proud “product” of the

Newfoundland Independent Film Cooperative, is due to start shooting his first feature on location in St. John’s and Halifax in mid-June.

He says the $600,000 project began when he sat down with Hynes at a dining room table three years ago and the two made the decision to forge ahead with their ambitious plan. Now they’re finally selecting actors, locations and crew.

At the helm of the only major production confirmed for the province’s summer shooting season, Simms is pragmatic about the distinction.

“The thing about being a filmmaker in Newfoundland you have to realize it’s a very cyclical situation,” he says.

“We are a small community insofar that there’s only so many companies and people trying to set projects up.

“Our own case of Down to the Dirt exemplifies it’s going to take a period of time to put all the pieces together in terms of the script and the financing and a general approach.”

Besides Simms’ project, a spokesman for the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation says St. John’s-based Pope Productions

is tentatively scheduled to shoot a $1.3 million picture in June, entitled The Wall.

A $4 million CBC movie of the week is also shaping up in the coming months, as is a CTV project budgeted at $8 million. In addition to the shooting schedule are “a couple” of documentaries pegged at $400,000 apiece with local filmmakers such as Mary Sexton, Barbara Jones and Gerry Rogers at the helm.

Frank Fagan, international marketing director for the Producer’s Association of Newfoundland, says the perceived

slowdown in film productions this season is all about timing and the small — but determined — number of local film companies.

“There’s only a limited number of producers who’ve reached a built capacity that they’ve got something in development, something in production, something in post (production),” he says in a telephone interview with The Independent from the Cannes Film Festival. “The lifetime of a project is five to seven years.”

See “The big challenge,” page 19

MAY 25, 2007

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Winner announced May 30 From page 17

Pittman’s large year also involved in-depth research. In addition to a solo show entitled Towards an Indigenous Art at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s, he showed work at two galleries in Ireland, stemming from the Masters of Fine Art degree he completed at the

Waterford Institute of Technology.

Pittman spent a year painting on the Emerald Isle and another year-and-ahalf completing practical research at the Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial. He says his “digging” into the province’s history helped to define his own method of artistic documentation.

“My degree work focused on creating a personal visual language.

Creating icons or archetypes that I use to communicate my experiences as they relate to place in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Like Pittman and Gregory, printmaker Singh showed her work at a solo exhibition this past year. She was also involved in the St. John’s Mermaid Project — where Easter Seals kids used hand prints to create seaweed and scales on the mermaid’s tail — and taught art classes at the Anna Templeton Centre.

But it was a week-long project working with junior high and elementary school children in Lawn on the Burin Peninsula which she says was most “rewarding.

“It was reduction linocut printmaking. We did a large, as well as individual, panel and turned our prints into a large paper quilt,” says Singh. “It was very unusual for them and some of them really blossomed.”

The most significant part of Singh’s year, however, was a different kind of work of art. Since giving birth to her son 20 months ago, she says she’s been “busting with ideas.

“He’s definitely been part of my large year.”

The Excellence in Visual Arts awards, presented by Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador, will be awarded May 30 at the Rooms in St. John’s.

In addition to the Large Year Award, the Long Haul Award (for a senior artist who has made a lasting contribution) and the Kippy Goins Award (to an organization or individual whose efforts have helped to sustain and build the visual arts sector) will also be presented. mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTLIFE â&#x20AC;˘ 19

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The big challenge is trying to keep your passion upâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; From page 17

Justin Simms

Rhonda Hayward/For The Independent

Creating the on-line you

Who needs human interaction when we can just use our computers?

H

ereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little story about life in the 21st century. Recently, a relative of mine got engaged. Within minutes, her entire social circle and half her family knew all about it.

No phone call, no e-mail â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we found out about it on Facebook.

Yes indeed, everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite Internet social network has officially reached hula-hooplike pop culture fad status and it seems everyone I have ever known (including, sadly, me) has been swept up in the tide.

For those who have so far avoided its siren song, Facebook is a network that allows you to post a profile of yourself, join groups, post pictures and whatnot. Basically, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a way to interact with other people without ever having to leave the safe, secure cocoon of your home to do so. It has more or less replaced last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s insanely huge MySpace fad, which was more or less the same thing. Even the most avid Internet socializers will readily admit itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all an exercise in petty narcissism, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the way they â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I guess I should say we â&#x20AC;&#x201D; like it.

In my own defence, I will say such networks offer a swell way to stay in touch, or to re-establish contact with people you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen in a while. Situations in which a phone call or (God forbid) a real live in-person visit might be uncomfortable or just plain creepy are low-stress and most importantly optional online.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s getting to the point where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re better at interacting with the electronic devices we own than the people we know. There are folk out there who would rather sit in a room together sending messages back and forth on their Blackberries than go through the awkward ordeal of making a little eye contact and using their vocal cords to communicate.

And why not? People are inconvenient.

Dealing with one another through an electronic buffer eliminates the question marks, tailoring human interactions to our schedule and preferences. E-mail and voice mail already ensure that we speak only to the people we choose and only when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re good and ready. Internet socializing as a substitute for the real thing is simply the next logical step.

Sure, people use their computers to set up reallife encounters, but the interactions leading up to that point have all been carefully controlled. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an environment where you get a chance to edit and polish each and every word you say. You can even alter or erase things youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve already said.

Man, I wish my real life came with that feature.

In a way, the creation of an online persona has become an art form in and of itself. The online version you create when you post content on the web isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly you, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whatever version of yourself you choose to present. And unlike the real world, where thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only so much playing

Fagan says documentaries are the bread and butter of Newfoundland and Labrador filmmakers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get as much high-profile attention as the big budget dramas. He notes CBC has moved away from mini-seriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and movies of the week for television in the past year, which typically account for 75 per cent of this provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film output. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affected us greatly because those were the things producers outside of central Canada tended to be doing,â&#x20AC;? he says.

As for Simms, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focusing on his immediate personal and professional

test. He breaks down the three components of making a film from conception to theatres in a province with limited resources. First, he says, is the script â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without a good one, nothing else matters. Next comes countless hours of writing funding proposals and finding investors. After that is a great deal of personal will. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(The) big challenge is trying to keep your passion up because in the course of three years youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to hit peaks and valleys â&#x20AC;Ś hopefully your feeling for it and what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to say as a film is enough to power you through the most challenging times.â&#x20AC;? mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

7 ZH QW \

E XF NV

SEAN PANTING

State of the art

around with the facts you can do before you run up against certain undeniable truths, the Internet lets you take it as far as you want to go.

As the available technology becomes more sophisticated, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s harder to know if what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking at is really what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking at. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just a question of fudging a few age, height and weight-related numbers anymore, either. Get yourself a copy of Photoshop, spend an evening doing a little pointing and clicking and voila!

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re younger, hotter and more eligible than youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been in years â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or ever! Hallelujah!

Keep your relationships Internet-based, avoid the inconvenience of human interaction altogether, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got it made. Simply imagine the ease of having a special someone without all that pesky compromise and giving and â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ugh! â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sharing conventional relationships demand.

And as long as you never have to meet the people youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re talking to, you need never come clean about all that stuff you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand about yourself.

Small wonder Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is dropping. With talking to each other in person becoming so passĂŠ, getting close enough to actually procreate is a bigger challenge than ever. Stay tuned, though. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m certain lab-coated science nerds the world over are working like savages on some kind of virtual baby who grows into a virtual toddler, child and teenager.

That way, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to order exactly what you want and never have to be burdened with organic waste or unpredictable and annoying individual personality traits picked up from you.

Finally! Thirty per cent more family with none of the messy clean up.

Sean Panting is a writer, musician and actor based in St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

J L U O

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MAY 25, 2007

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

Festival 500 ‘ambassadors’ M

any hands make light work, says Janet Miller, operations manager with Festival 500.

“There are so many people who volunteer their time, people who come back for each festival simply because they enjoyed the experience so much.”

Miller say it’s “incredible” how those who give their time say they receive so much in return.

Patricia Young has volunteered since the first festival ran in 1997, and considers herself “privileged” to be involved with the celebrations again this year. “I experience real sadness when each festival is over. Waving good-bye to a choir you have been involved with as a volunteer is quite emotional,” she says. There are often promises to keep in touch, she says, and there are certainly tears at the conclusion of each festival.

Festival 500 is a non-competitive festival that celebrates choral music. It brings choirs, conductors, and scholars from all over the world to St. John’s.

This year’s performances run from July 1-8 and choirs are prepared to share their voices with Newfoundland and Labrador. Besides the visiting and local choirs, the week-long event draws a large audience. Without the help of over 150 volunteers, organizers say they would be lost.

Festival 500 takes two years to put together, Miller says, and besides “amazing performances,” her greatest reward is seeing how those involved “love to participate.

“When you stop and evaluate what goes into a festival of this size — how much work is involved behind the scenes — then volunteering is not a job, but a commitment,” she says.

Gary Lane, chair of the St. John’s organizing committee, agrees. “For everyone, no matter the job, they are ambassadors of this province,” he says.

Each participating choir is assigned a volunteer and finding the right fit can be a challenge. “A visiting choir from Spain will require a Spanish-speaking volunteer to act as a local host to answer any questions they may have,” Young explains.

The same must be done for each choir.

“As a volunteer you carry out whatever job you have taken on, be it greeting planes, taking tickets, serving lunches or handing out programs,” she says. There is a job for everyone. “It is hard work, but also a lot of fun,” Young laughs.

Lane runs through the list of services performed by volunteers, careful to capture them all. “Transportation, venue support, hospitality, merchandise sales, ushers … pretty much everything that

Previous participants from Festival 500.

goes on is performed by volunteers,” he says. Some volunteers open up their homes to visiting choral groups, others serve as guides or help prepare lunches.

“In my estimation, those who volunteer are the most important component of each festival,” Lane admits, adding volunteering comes with perks. “Each volunteer can enjoy the best choral performances in the world for free,” he says.

Miller says volunteering at festival time has become a regular part of many lives, some Newfoundlanders and Labradorians even co-ordinate their vacation time in order to participate.

“You tend to see the same faces each year, and that speaks volumes,” she says. “Volunteering must be a positive experience despite the hard work involved or we wouldn’t see the same people festival after festival.”

There is also the thrill of working with new volunteers, and meeting new choirs. “There is a growing excitement as you wonder who will you meet this year,” says Miller, who’s filled with awe at the end of each festival.

“When you look at the numbers that come to perform, and you realize the part you played in helping make that festival a success ... it can be overwhelming,” she admits.

Young agrees, saying she highly recommends volunteering with Festival 500, calling her own experiences “wonderful.

“You don’t have to be a great music lover to give your time,” she says, “you just have to be a great lover of people.”

If you would like to volunteer with Festival 500, or wish to purchase tickets in advance, visit their web site at www.festival500.com or call 709–738-

ARTS AND LETTERS MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

George Fodor and Penelope Turton of Ottawa check out the Arts and Letters awards exhibition at The Rooms museum. The winners of the 55th annual Arts and Letters Awards will be announced May 26;, the exhibition will remain on display until June 17.

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

To the faithful departed

Agnes Walsh’s latest book of poems example of new tradition of printed verse born from oral narrative here have been a number of attempts in recent years to explain the sudden power surge in the literature of Newfoundland and Labrador, especially in fiction. How could a province with barely a print tradition suddenly find itself at the forefront of Canadian writing, trendsetting with the likes of Wayne Johnston, Michael Winter and Lisa Moore? After all, we haven’t been publishing books for that long or that much. And given the relatively small size of our population, surely it should have taken us a few more years to catch up than it has.

The province’s oral tradition of story and song is often cited as a contributing factor in this rapid development. We may not have been writing, the theory goes, but we were certainly giving recitations, singing ballads, telling tales and otherwise making sport and art with the English language. It’s only a small jump, then, from what is said to what is written.

MARK CALLANAN On the shelf Mary Dalton’s third poetry collection, Merrybegot, is probably the best argument for that position.

Using multiple perspectives, Dalton sought to capture the music of the English language as it is spoken here.

Using the speech patterns, the idioms and rhythms of Newfoundland and Labrador, she created a lively portrait of a culture in a state of metamorphosis, and in so doing, obliquely commented on the dissolution of traditional culture and traditional speech.

Other Newfoundland poets (Michael Crummey in Hard Light, for instance; Al Pittman generally) have been similarly influenced, not by the word written down, but by the word expelled as breath and sound. All this is by way of saying Agnes Walsh’s second collection of poems, Going Around with Bachelors,

NEWS ICON PASSES

places her firmly in that same tradition of Newfoundland verse born of oral narrative.

The first poem of the collection, I Solemn, sets the tone for the rest of the book: “My mother scrubbed my face and braided my hair,” it begins. “She told me to put on my dark blue corduroy dress, / the good thick one from Aunt Mary.”

Narrative, rather than poetic trope, is the driving force here, the machine that keeps us reading Walsh’s account of a funeral that her speaker (seemingly a close analogy for Walsh herself) attended as a young girl.

Walsh’s poetry is simultaneously an act of recollection and an elegy; it is often funereal in tone. Throughout her poems, an older Newfoundland — one of old country mores bound to lives lived off the ocean — is in the process of disappearing.

In Homecoming to the End, a father’s passing takes away “a world” of “words and stories, ships hove into rocks, / St. Pierre wine in wooden casks, the whaling factory in Rose au Rue”; an old bachelor in Love is symbolically stripped of his

Iconic in his red VOCM blazer and for four decades of political reporting, Scott Chafe died on May 22 after a brief illness. Chafe covered the Legislature under all nine premiers, from Joey Smallwood to Danny Williams.

Paul Daly/The Independent He was 61.

smell, “the wood-smoke, the oil, the musk, / the years, the years and years.”

Going Around with Bachelors further emphasizes the connection between the written and the spoken word by its inclusion of an audio CD of Walsh reading selections. The poems (as in Rattling Books’ audio production of Walsh’s first collection, In the Old Country of My Heart) are interspersed with old-world ballads sung by the poet’s Simone daughter, Savard-Walsh. It makes for a beautiful marriage of words and music.

“I see a definite connection between … the old world ballads and the way that I write,” Walsh says in a commentary track on the enclosed CD. “I’ve spent so much time researching and looking into the oral history of Placentia Bay that I guess the ballad style has crept into my poetry.”

And it has. Hearing Walsh’s work per-

CARRIERS OF THE WEEK

T

Going Around with Bachelors

By Agnes Walsh Brick Books, 2007

formed is a mesmerizing experience, for the rhythms of the poems themselves, the power of their narratives, and for the experience of listening to Walsh’s rich reading voice. There is a definite musicality to her performance.

Walsh’s poetry is not one of profound metaphorical leaps or pyrotechnic explosion of language; you won’t find many lines here that emblazon themselves on your memory.

What you will find is a reverence for the tradition from which these poems have sprung and a mournful magic that conjures a world long gone. The value of this new collection lies in its ability to channel the voices of the dead, and to connect them to the living, breathing present.

Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s.

His column returns June 8.

Curtis Ryall The Carrier of the Week prize package is worth $175 and includes: • An official Independent baseball hat • $25 Indy Bucks • $50 Ballistic Bucks • $25 gift certificate for Don Cherry’s • Large pizza from Stoggers • 2 Kidclimb passes for Wallnuts

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

Skate • Snow • Style 170 Water Street • 726.2665

MAY 25, 2007

22 • INDEPENDENTLIFE

The right roles

Mount Pearl’s Krystin Pellerin works on stage, silver screen, and TV; learns to choose parts carefully

F

By Stephanie Porter The Independent

rom starring in a sci-fi monster movie with Terminator 2’s Edward Furlong to taking the stage at the National Arts Centre alongside Megan Follows, Mount Pearlnative Krystin Pellerin has jammed a lot of experience into the two years since she graduated from acting school.

She’s about to earn a whole lot more.

On May 23, while at home in St. John’s for her sister’s convocation, Pellerin got some great news: she landed a part on the highly praised television series The Tudors. Starring Sam Neill and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors is filmed in Ireland, where Pellerin will be heading soon.

She’s delighted with the latest news — and glad she’s stuck to her guns, having learned that it’s OK not to take on every role that’s offered.

After high school at Prince of Wales Collegiate in St. John’s, Pellerin completed her first year at Memorial.

She then found herself at an enviable crossroads, having to choose between music and acting. She had been accepted for programs at both Memorial’s School of Music and the National Theatre School in Montreal.

Theatre won out. Spots in the National Theatre School are extremely hard to come by — only 12 students a year are accepted in the acting program. Pellerin says the three years in Montreal were “the right decision.”

Pellerin, now 23, graduated in May 2005 and moved to Toronto to hit the audition circuit. She landed her first gig almost immediately, a role in Warriors of Terra, a science-fiction horror movie starring Furlong.

In Warriors, she plays a computer whiz who spends most of her scenes hunched over a glowing screen, planning and trouble-shooting. Filming took place between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in an abandoned glass factory in Hamilton, Ont. The film — which, admittedly, received harsh reviews — recently began showing on the Movie Network.

Pellerin chooses her words carefully when speaking about the experience.

“It was a great affirmation,” she says.

“It was a lot of fun and a great first job…

I would like to do more sort of dramatic, heartfelt stories about people and relationships rather than monsters running around an abandoned factory …”

She laughs. “You sort of take what you can get from the experience.”

Pellerin’s second film, Barstool Words, to be released later this year, is

Krystin Pellerin

gathering more positive early buzz.

Starring Colm Feore and Sarah Carter, the “raw and rugged” film catches up with two high school friends a decade after graduation as they face their demons and try to salvage relationships.

Pellerin says it’s the sort of project she’s proud to be part of.

“It’s more artistically satisfying, a really well-written script,” she says.

“There were a lot of really great actors involved … it was really cool.”

But Pellerin’s heart is still with live theatre, and she’s taken part in two highprofile productions since graduation.

The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard, was presented by Toronto’s Soulpepper theatre, and also starred Megan Follows (still best known as Anne of Green Gables). The Little Years by mathematician and playwright John Mighton, through Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, was next. Both were co-produced by the National Arts Centre.

“I love the immediacy (of theatre) and being able to go through an entire story

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

in an evening. I find it thrilling and the exchange — being able to sense an audience and being able to have that communication … it’s important.”

Before news of her success with The Tudors came in, Pellerin was tightlipped about her next project, saying only that she’s working with an agent and looking at scripts.

“It’s a balance. I think now I would be a little more choosy, now that I know it is more my choice and I don’t have to say yes to everything. That’s a great lesson to learn … I can take things that represent what I believe in.”

As if all that weren’t enough, Pellerin is also developing a children’s play, based on The Stolen Child, a poem by W.B. Yeats. She’s excited for all the future steps her career holds.

“It’s all very uncertain until you do it,” she says. “You just leap and hope it will turn out all right, and it usually does. All you can do usually is be honest and put yourself out there.” stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — PAGE 13

A crab boat unloads its catch in Harbour Grace.

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

‘A very difficult year’ Crab fishermen struggle to cope with ice; seek federal help

T

By John Rieti The Independent

he crab fishery has been open for weeks, but Twillingate fisherman Rodney Cooper must wait for the pack ice to clear before he and his partner can set their pots.

“You just can’t get out of the harbours and the coves, it’s just blocked … it’s been a very difficult year,” says Cooper, who fishes on Evan’s Endeavour, an under-35 foot boat.

The phone has been ringing off the hook at the FFAW offices in St. John’s. Earle McCurdy, president

of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, says there are 5,000 fishermen suffering from poor sea conditions in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Many fishing families are living without any income as their winter’s worth of Employment Insurance (EI) runs out.

McCurdy met with federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn in early May to request Ottawa provide benefits for fishermen affected by ice conditions.

McCurdy wants benefits to be delivered through the EI system to allow the quickest payment possible. “The time for doing something

has arrived,” he says.

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout says his department will continue to press the issue with Ottawa, but the response will be up to the federal government.

“We’re on top of it everyday,” says Rideout. “We will continue to do that, I heard the federal minister myself indicate publicly today that he and his officials are aware of the seriousness of the matter.”

Hearn could not be reached for comment by The Independent’s press deadline, but has told local media help is on the way. Rideout says Hearn has been aware of potential troubles since sealers

encountered problems with ice in late April.

Rideout says the province’s minister of Labour, Shawn Skinner, is also working with the federal government to find a way to get money to people affected. Payment is difficult because the EI system isn’t set up to allow extensions due to circumstances such as ice conditions.

Help can’t come soon enough Cooper and other for Newfoundland crab fishermen.

Every day the ice remains, the price of crab decreases, the season’s close looms closer and optimism fades. Despite delayed open-

ing dates, fishery closures can’t always be extended due to conservation concerns including softshell..

“It’s been terrible, we thought our year was going to start out good. We had a pretty good crab price set … we’ve already lost 16 cents off our price,” says Cooper.

The union negotiated price for crab is now $1.50 per pound.

Fishermen like Cooper are allowed to catch about 10,000 pounds, an income of at least $15,000. He says that after a long winter on EI, his family looks forward to the money See “Lobster, crab,” page 14

Why Afghanistan?

The government and people of Canada must back up our soldiers

A

lex Wilner, Security and Defence Policy intern at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), has suggested three principal reasons for Canada’s active engagement in Afghanistan.

First, to uphold our treaty obligations. We are a founding member of NATO. We and our 18 NATO allies declared war on the Taliban and al Qaeda when Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty was invoked following the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. NATO states “an armed attack on one shall be considered an attack on them all.”

A call for collective defence resulted in military action taken against Taliban Afghanistan and Canadian soldiers have been at the forefront ever since.

Second, our engagement is influenced by the fact that global terrorist activity can only occur if it first emanates from a land base. The current

JOHN CROSBIE diffuse nature of modern international terrorism, structured by a globalized economy, high-tech communications and decentralized leadership, requires physical land upon which to base operational development. Terrorists who wish to mastermind global acts of indiscriminate violence need a land base to rendezvous, organize, train, equip and plan.

It was the Taliban’s despotic government that provided al Qaeda with a territorial safe haven to construct the network of training facilities that pumped out thousands of elite terror operatives to bring terror to the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States and other

countries.

Third, Canadian soldiers are actively engaged in Afghanistan to defend our national interest and to protect Canadian citizens. We should not forget that al Qaeda has threatened our country specifically and repeatedly with mass terrorism. Bin Laden wrote: “In today’s wars, there are no morals … we do not have to differentiate between a military or civilian … they are all targets.”

We should not forget the 24 Canadians who died on 9/11 were citizens who were listed alongside our European allies as priority targets. Bin Laden’s deputy, al-Zawahri, has called us a “second-rate crusader” and threatened us with a terrorist “operation” similar to New York, Madrid and London.

In other words, we are at war with them and can expect to be attacked by them and must pursue a policy of offen-

sive and defensive preparation. We should be thankful Canadian soldiers and security personnel are placed at the forefront of the campaign.

As historian J. L. Granatstein points out, at times one would almost believe that Canadians had never fought a war before, that we had not sustained 60,000 dead in the Great War, 42,000 in World War II, more than 500 in Korea and an additional 100 in “traditional” peacekeeping.

Naturally we have to be concerned about the dangers that face our men and women overseas but we should understand Canadian forces undertake these risks because it may well help us at home. There is a bargain that soldiers strike with their government, an implicit contract in every military, especially in all-volunteer services such as the Canadian Forces.

The soldier who enlists accepts an arrangement of unlimited liability. He

recognizes his commitment to military service requires him to go where his government says and to do what it wants. It demands he obey the orders of his military superiors, even if those orders put him into a situation where he might be killed or wounded. The soldier’s job, which he willingly accepts, is to do his duty to his comrades and to serve his nation’s interest.

This is not a one-sided bargain. Our national government implicitly undertakes not to put our sons and daughters into impossible situations. It pledges to equip them adequately, to train them for the challenges they face and to sustain them in operations with reinforcements of men and material. It promises to care for them in perpetuity if they are wounded, to assist their family members and to hallow their memory if they are killed.

See “They will do,” page 14

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

MAY 25, 2007

Placentia Bay.

Paul Daly/The Independent

‘A good leap’

Placentia Bay facility could be shipping liquid natural gas by 2010

N

By John Rieti The Independent

ewfoundland and Labrador is poised to become a major source of natural gas when the reserves beneath the Grand Banks and Labrador are tapped into. Meanwhile Newfoundland LNG Ltd. intends to ship liquid natural gas for the rest of the world.

Pending positive reaction from public consultations held May 22-24 and a

federal government environmental study to examine every issue from sealife to air quality, Newfoundland LNG Ltd. can begin creating a liquid natural gas transshipment facility in Placentia Bay near Arnold’s Cove. The proposal has already been given a passing grade from provincial officials.

Liquid natural gas is natural gas processed to remove unwanted particles, then condensed into a liquid state.

The ability to compress large amounts of the valuable gas into smaller, more

manageable droplet of liquid allows for Turner says one of the biggest benemore to be shipped, although the infra- fits of LNG shipping is its safety. There structure is costly. have been few major accidents and Newfoundland LNG Ltd.’s proposed leaks and spills are less damaging than $1 billion facility would allow large crude oil spills for the environment. transport ships to dock and store LNG “Once (LNG) hits the atmospheric in one of eight storage pressure it just distanks. Each tank costs sipates and $85 million due to the vapourizes into engineering challenge of the air, so there’s contents keeping “It’s the largest, deep- no environmental extremely cold (-162 C). concerns there,” About nine per cent of est, ice-free port in the says Turner. each LNG tank is nickel.

The Placentia isn’t The giant ships that world … It has so many facility transport LNG are expecting to use benefits and positive any amongst the most techof nologically advanced on Newfoundland’s things for shipping it’s gas reserves when the seas.

Mark Turner, the it is scheduled to unbelievable.” president company’s open in 2010. and chief operating offiInstead, it will be a Mark Turner cer, is expecting steady shipping point for growth in liquid natural gas from the gas shipping.

Middle East, “In the first couple Qatar, Africa and years of operation there may be two Norway. vessels per week, 104 per year … as we Large LNG tankers would fill the go into full build-out and of course the facility’s tanks for smaller ships to coldemand for (liquid natural gas) increas- lect and bring to offshore buoys in es we could possibly see in the region places like Massachusetts. The offshore of 400,” Turner tells The Independent. buoy systems re-gas the liquid natural

gas and pump it directly into the energy grid.

Natural gas is already a multi-billion dollar industry in North America and demand is expected to grow.

According to Turner there are nine trillion cubic metres of stranded natural gas under the Grand Bank and Labrador.

“The future for LNG here in Newfoundland is looking very good,” he says. “(The facility) gives us a good stepping stone, a good leap, into processing and collecting our own stranded gas … we’ll be better prepared to control that here.”

He also predicts shipping LNG will continue to be the best method of transportation since pipelines are obtrusive and costly to maintain.

Placentia Bay’s geography makes it the perfect place for a transshipment facility. “It’s the largest, deepest, icefree port in the world,” says Turner. “It has so many benefits and positive things for shipping it’s unbelievable.”

Atlantic Canada has two other LNG shipping facilities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. If the federal report gives the project the go-ahead, construction will begin in March 2008. john.rieti@theindependent.ca

Oil and gas exploration doing well on island’s west coast

O

By John Rieti The Independent

il and gas exploration on Newfoundland’s west coast is going well as more favourable geological formations are discovered.

On May 22, Deer Lake Oil and Gas Inc. announced its intention to raise $1 million through the private placement of 2.5 million shares. The company plans to use the money for working capital, project acquisition fees and a marketing initiative.

The Newfoundland and Labrador company has been in business since June 1998. Based in St. John’s, it has three oil and gas targets on the west coast.

Cabot Martin, an oil industry expert and former advisor to premier Brian Peckford, is the company’s president.

Memorial University geologist and professor Derek Wilton leads the geological research team.

The company’s main site is in the Deer Lake basin, where it controls 230,000 kilometres of land. After conducting reviews, analysis and minor drilling Martin is excited about the site’s potential.

“There are significant oil targets that are relatively shallow and relatively

Cabot Martin

inexpensive to drill up,” Martin tells The Independent.

The company is budgeting $450,000 for further exploration on the Deer Lake basin in 2007. As oil companies expand their search for raw materials, Martin hopes to attract joint ventures that would help reduce the financial

Paul Daly/The Independent

risk of drilling.

Deer Lake Oil and Gas Inc. also has the option to acquire more land in the future. It already shares sites under Parsons Pond and Bay St. George which may have underwater gas reserves. john.rieti@theindependent.ca

Lobster, crab and lumpfish all down From page 13

from the fishery.

An estimated 79 million pounds of crab was caught in Newfoundland and Labrador last year, worth an estimated $36 million, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

It’s not just the crab fishery that is

behind; lobster and lumpfish fisheries are both down as well.

Last year, 142,000 pounds of lumpfish was caught and processed for its roe, worth $127,000.

A reported 255,000 pounds of lobster was caught in 2006, worth $1.2 million.

There is no negotiated price for lobster, or quota set by DFO. The lobster fishery is moderated by licences and pot

number and size restrictions.

In Twillingate a small patch of water opened on May 23 and Cooper watched as several boats went out to drop their pots. Other offshore fishermen made it out before the ice set in and moved to southern bays where they could fish.

But until more ice moves, Cooper remains stuck. john.rieti@theindependent

They will do Canada’s dirty work From page 13

In reviewing what has happened since the end of World War II it appears that (historically) service people have honoured this contract more willingly than Canadian governments. There have been years, hopefully now past, when our armed forces suffered inadequate training and lacked critically needed equipment.

However, the troops now in Afghanistan are highly trained and very professional volunteers and among the best troops we have ever deployed. The government’s side of the bargain in Kandahar seems met.

The Liberals who accepted the Afghan commitment, and the current Conservative government who have pledged to honour it, understand what is at stake. They both believed the benefits to be gained by putting Canadian troops into Kandahar, and the Canadian national interest achieved by so doing, outweighed the risks.

It is up to MPs to explain that what our troops are doing in Kandahar matters. We elect our leaders to make the tough judgment calls when they must be made to defend Canada and to share the burdens of democracy with other free nations.

While many soldiers may not be

politically sophisticated, they understand the basic equation — that they will do Canada’s dirty work and accept the blood and pain. But their government and people must back them up.

What we must do is ensure that our governments understand, honour and carry out their end of the bargain.

The Hon. John C. Crosbie, P.C., O.C., Q.C., is a former federal minister of Finance, the author of No Holds Barred and a lawyer with Cox Palmer.

This commentary was originally published in Atlantic Business Magazine, Atlantic Canada’s largest circulation business magazine.

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

YOUR VOICE Undoing the Gordian knot Dear editor Thank you for publishing Premier Danny Williams’ speech of May 3 to the Economic Club of Toronto (‘Contrary to some myths …’ May 4 edition).

Courtesy of the cable TV provided on CPAC, I also got to see, albeit taped, our own Grand Dan (O’Connell was Ireland’s) in action.

In his talk to that well-heeled club, Danny mentioned the outrageously lopsided Churchill Falls hydropower contract with Quebec. I have one quibble with his remarks and that is he omitted to tell his audience that if Newfoundland and Labrador had the windfall profit from the upper Churchill we would be a “have” province.

Quebec, however, would be still comfortably “have not.”

I have a question for Mr. Williams, Q.C., the noted and successful lawyer: was the Churchill Falls contract signed under duress?

I also have a message for our premier

and his government: the Gordian knot (recently, a local editor/twice-weekly columnist/writer incorrectly called it a Gordonian knot) of the Churchill Falls contract can be unloosed before July 1, 2016. Indeed, it must for our survival.

Not nibbled by mice, not hacked by brutish men, not cut with a sharp blade wielded by a clever and ambitious man; I do not mean burned or blown up or dissolved in vitriol, nor consigned to the deep sea. I mean properly and skillfully untied.

Again, I will put it in writing with my name attached for all to see. I have noticed something left undone in Newfoundland’s relations with Quebec and Canada. It just might be enough to get Quebec to the negotiating table and to act honourably, honestly, and seriously on the Churchill Falls contract. It is yours for the asking, Premier Williams.

Tom Careen, Placentia

16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTSPORTS

Holy Cross soccer team prepares for

Challenge Cup season

Running start

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — PAGE 33

Mike Dawe of Holy Cross kicks the ball around King George V field in St. John’s.

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

O

By John Rieti The Independent

ne hundred and fifteen minutes into last September’s Challenge Cup soccer semi-final, the Holy Cross team watched in horror as Mount Pearl’s Justin Pickford stole the ball and scored the overtime winner.

“We still feel we were the better team on the pitch that day,” says forward Mike Dawe. “That was a tough way to lose. We all still have a sour taste in our mouths … that’s really lit the fire under us this year.”

That fire isn’t dampened by the evening mist rolling over King George V field in St. John’s on a recent evening as the team stretches, jokes around and brace themselves for a 10-kilometre fitness run.

Holy Cross is scheduled to play its first game of the 2007 Challenge Cup, Newfoundland’s top men’s soccer league, on June 2 against Burin. The cardiovascular workout this particular evening is the finishing kick on months of punishing preparation devoted to avoiding semifinal agony.

Andre Le, who the team calls “the human odometer,” sets the pace as the team departs from the green turf and onto the parking lot pavement. The rookie defender has already run 20 minutes to the park, and plans on running home afterwards as well. Le also trains for track and field, a feat that mystifies many on the team.

Holy Cross’s season began in December with several short scrimmages each week. After adding some team runs into their routine, the team’s newest coach and fitness guru, Jake Stanford, put them on a six-week weightlifting workout plan.

“The coaches have a very direct, focused vision of where we want to go,” says Dawe.

The extra work has paid off so far.

Holy Cross is undefeated in four spring league games with two wins and two draws. Dawe says the team has been “heads and shoulders” above the competition in terms of fitness.

As the team of 11 winds down Harbour Drive and past the industrial landscape of the shipping terminal, their focus on building the team is clear. The only muttering comes from their goalkeeper.

“I don’t know why I have to do this,” says Colin Doyle, half laughing, half gasping for a breath. Nevertheless, the 23-year-old keeper who has been playing for six seasons finds a way to keep moving, just as he remembers veteran players doing when he started.

Doyle says the league has become much more professional since he started.

There are still road trip high-jinks and a strong sense of camaraderie, but a surge of younger players have brought a bigger commitment to fitness and increased the quality of the six-team league.

“There’s definitely a youth movement across the league and that’s a credit to minor soccer … it seems as though the youth have taken over and it’s given teams a whole new look for this season,” says Dawe. “It’s very exciting.”

Holy Cross is loaded with young talent.

John Hawko, 21, leads the team and league in scoring, and players like Le, 19, Zack Wade, 19 and Dawe, 21, all play on the Memorial University Sea-Hawks team in the fall.

It’s not just Holy Cross either. New players are starring for teams like Burin and Mount Pearl, not to mention the Under-18 All Star team that also plays in the league. St. Lawrence captured the title last season and will be looking to repeat, while the Feildians will be aiming to revive the capital city rivalry. Doyle says the league will be more competitive than ever this year.

Holy Cross remains confident. “We really have to believe that anything less than a win this year will be a disappointment,” says Dawe.

Forty minutes after their run began the team collapses under the stadium lights that are just flickering on for a night game. It looks like other teams will be running to catch up with them all season. john.rieti@theindependent.ca

Wings clipped, thankfully

B

Watching Dan Cleary’s run for the Stanley Cup didn’t fill me with the warm and fuzzy feeling others got y their very nature, sports are supposed to be an escape from the dreary mundane world of work and more work. They’re fun, enjoyable and make people smile.

To anybody participating in sports, they are a great form of exercise or pleasure, whether that’s a casual swim or bike ride — or a senior baseball or rugby game.

There are many things to like about sports — amateur especially, where the athletes and fans have many of the same things in common: they all have to go to work in the morning, for one. Sometimes professional sports, with their multi-million dollar contracts and distant atti-

Power Point

DON POWER tudes, have become so disenfranchised that Joe Public is quickly losing interest.

I find my interest in sports waning occasionally these days, especially during NHL playoffs that don’t feature the Toronto Maple Leafs. Baseball hasn’t heated up enough to catch my attention, and Barry Bonds’ chase of Hank Aaron is not doing it for anybody. Basketball is there, but the final two minutes of any

game is all you need to see.

Locally, there’s nothing happening on any field of play just yet. Senior leagues like rugby, baseball, softball and soccer will get under way in June, providing many nights of entertainment.

So I’ve got to go with the NHL playoffs, despite my lack of interest.

First off, the Ottawa Senators are sitting back waiting to play for Lord Stanley’s big prize. Leaf fans hate the Sens. It may be jealousy, who knows?

But there’s a whole lot of apathy in Canada now for hockey.

Fortunately, the Detroit Red Wings were eliminated Tuesday night. How bad would that have been had the Wings

faced off against the Sens in the Stanley Cup final? Two of the Leafs’ biggest foes playing each other, with one of them winning the Cup. It would have been unbearable for Leaf fans, who have suffered long enough, and — from the looks of the roster and the huge additions the club has inked this year (Ian White is hardly Chris Pronger) — will continue to be forced to put up with mediocrity. It’s the same fate that befalls Bruin fans each spring.

I realize there was a segment of the Newfoundland and Labrador population — mostly those in Riverhead, Harbour Grace — who wanted the Wings to win

for one particular reason.

Daniel Cleary is a local boy, and a Newfoundlander has yet to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup. They were hoping he’d be the first.

You’ll have to excuse me, but for whatever reason, I didn’t get the warm and fuzzies over Cleary potentially winning the Stanley Cup. I know there’s been a love fest on with this idea over the past few weeks — especially in this very paper — but you’ll pardon me for not jumping on board.

A former colleague related to me a

See “Too much,” page 34

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS

I

MAY 25, 2007

The Rock

PAUL SMITH

Outdoors

have a theory about trouting. Human beings generally and inherently like fishing, with the exception of individuals exposed to some negative stimulus or experience that causes an unnatural aversion to what is otherwise normal and enjoyable.

I believe that nurture as opposed to nature causes people to dislike fishing.

Well, I suppose there might be a very small percentage of individuals who hate fishing by genetic predisposition, but they are way out in the tail region of the infamous bell curve — anomalies of a sort.

Of course my hypothesis is not scientifically testable in the strictest sense, given I am dealing with human subjects.

How could all the variables be controlled and accounted for? First I would need a study group of children with unblemished minds. It would be necessary to group subjects by fishing experience and measure their love of fishing after repeated exposure. Negative variables might include excessive black-flies, cheap kiddy reels that just don’t work, no pondside lunch, tangles not cleared quickly by Mom or Dad, boots that gall heels or nip toes, impatient and preoccupied adults and so on.

I think you probably get the picture. I can’t imagine kids not enjoying a few hours of trouting with Mom or Dad as long as torments and unrealistic expectations for self-reliance are kept to a minimum.

Last weekend, droves of young newbie anglers hit the ponds and streams decked out in rubber boots and ball hats, tagging along behind those older seasoned pros.

They are the future of angling. Be patient. Treat them well and nurture them along the path to wholesome outdoor fun. But there are less obvious but even more significant benefits to fishing with your kids.

My father was 47 years old when I was born in 1959. I grew up in the ’70s with central heating, flush toilets, wild clothes and rock music. Dad’s youth was spent coping with the Great Depression. There was little luxury, only the essentials of life like hand-me-down handmade clothes, staple foods, a wood stove in the kitchen and an outhouse in the yard.

Jarrett Foote

Paul Smith photo

Bonding by the pond

Now’s the time to take your kids fishing, hiking, canoeing or camping I would call this a generational canyon. In spite of this, I had a wonderful relationship with my father. We talked and communicated all through my teenage years, which I now understand is the exception as opposed to the rule.

As an adult with teenage daughters,

I’ve often reflected on my own youth for guidance. Communication isn’t easy, and doesn’t randomly happen though kindred spontaneity.

But this is an article about fishing.

What does fishing have to do with teenagers and generation gaps? I can’t

CONFERENCE LEADER

say that my father and I would have had a totally dysfunctional relationship if it were not for fishing.

I will say fishing played a key role in fostering a strong father-son relationship despite our divergent realities. Succinctly and scientifically, it was our common

denominator.

My father took me fishing as soon as I was able to walk in thigh rubbers. Well actually, it was more like stumbling along with my feet slip-sliding in all directions on slippery rocks. That’s the way my mother described it. My first tackle was simple: a bamboo pole, black nylon line, a bobber and baited hook. It was also effective. I caught many trout and spent countless hours in the great outdoors, having fun and interacting with my father.

At that brief moment in time no one on the planet knew more about fishing than my Dad. My mother would come along as well, but only occasionally fished. She preferred to read or knit, either in the car or seated on a comfortable rock nearby.

There was nearly always food involved, either a boil-up or cold lunch.

I don’t know if anything else could have replaced fishing for my father and me. My father didn’t play ball or hockey, there were no video games, and I didn’t like gardening.

I soon graduated from the bamboo pole. For passing Grade 2, I received a fly-fishing outfit. It was waiting in the porch for me when I got home from my last day of school, an Algonquin fiberglass rod and a J.W. Young reel. I still have the butt section of the rod and the reel is still in use.

That same summer, my father and I took up salmon fishing for the first time.

I still have my first licence poked away somewhere. The RCMP issued them in those days. The season was mutually unsuccessful, but given I can remember details of our efforts 30-odd years later, it wasn’t a total waste of time.

The next year we were seasoned anglers, my father at 55, and me, eight. In one day we caught seven salmon. We were fortunate to be living in St. Anthony at a time when there was no shortage of salmon on the Northern Peninsula. Those are great memories. My father and I went on fishing together until his deteriorating health prevented it. Even then, we would sit and talk for hours about the memories we had created together.

I try to avoid the deeper levels of intellectualism and morality but this week I have a message. This summer, take your kids fishing — or canoeing, or camping, or something. Don’t leave raising kids to computers, video games and cable TV.

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

Dan Cleary (right) celebrates a goal with teammates (L-R) Nicklas Lidstrom, Andreas Lilja and Robert Lang in Game 5 of the Western Conference championship series. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks defeated Cleary’s Detroit Red Wings in six games. Cleary led the series in scoring and finished the playoffs with 4 goals, 8 assists Reuters/Rebecca Cook for 12 points in 18 games. Anaheim will now play the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup, with Game 1 scheduled for Monday, May 28.

Too much, too fast From page 33

defining story about Daniel Cleary many years ago that has stuck with me.

Fresh off a superlative-laced season with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League — I can’t remember now if it was his rookie year or his 115-point breakout season that had scouts comparing him to Wayne Gretzky — Cleary, the story goes, walked into a bar/pool hall in his hometown of Harbour Grace, threw the doors wide open and proclaimed, “Hey boys. Danny Cleary is here. Who’s going to buy

Solutions for crossword on page 32

me a drink?”

Of course, the morons in the bar tripped over each other racing to get the young hockey phenom — he was 15 or 16 at the time — a beer.

As the story was relayed to me, Cleary stood at the bar regaling the locals with his hockey exploits, obviously revelling in the limelight — or whatever limelight a bar in Harbour Grace affords you.

That story encapsulates everything that was wrong about Cleary’s junior hockey career. It was a case of too much, too fast. Overnight, the kid from Riverhead was the toast of major jun-

Solutions for sudoku on page 32

ior hockey, drawing comparisons with the best the game has ever seen.

But he didn’t learn his lesson. While still in junior, stories about Cleary abounded, about his arrogance and smugness, among other vices.

Twice he was cut from Canada’s national team, despite putting up numbers that obviously made him one of the best offensive threats in junior hockey. Yet, his talent was so immense that he still managed to be a first round draft pick.

After a second chance in Edmonton and a third in Phoenix, he got a fourth chance, wised up and has resurrected his NHL career in Detroit.

Does it make for a great story? Absolutely.

Can others learn from his mistakes? Without doubt.

Does it make you want to cheer for him any harder? Not necessarily.

Had it been his older brother Neil Cleary, I’d have no problem cheering for the Wings. Neil, a two-time Herder champ with the hometown CeeBees, is a nice guy, someone you don’t mind applauding.

Danny? No thanks.

Now if Ryane Clowe’s San Jose Sharks had reached the pinnacle, that’d be something to talk about. donniep@nl.rogers.com

MAY 25-31, 2007

What’s new in the automotive industry

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Cliffhanger I

’m a pickup truck kind of guy, and motor is. When you throw that mess into I’ve always got stuff going on in the a corner on a dirt road, the rear of the truck — which is theoretically back of my truck. unemployed — tries to come For some odd reason, up front looking for work. You objects tend to gravitate there tend to spin out of orbit unless — firewood, furniture, it’s already happened to you motorcycles, you name it. before and you’re expecting it.

That’s just my lifestyle and I That’s just what pickup trucks like it that way. A pickup do and we learn to live with it. truck is like a deck on the The Honda Ridgeline is not back of your house with an an ordinary pickup truck. I had engine hanging off the end (if MARK WOOD a chance to test drive one you can picture that), except recently and crawled all over decks tend to realize their WOODY’S and under it. Then I took it up limitations and stay off the road.

WHEELS on the highway and down on the dirt roads. The machine’s A pickup truck is one of the not normal, mostly because of most unpredictable vehicles you can drive under the slightest varia- the nearly perfect centre of mass. The tion of road conditions, mainly because front-to-rear weight ratio is 58 per cent most of the weight is up front where the and 42 per cent, which makes the all-

wheel drive Ridgeline handle superbly.

It’s a front-wheel drive under normal conditions and constantly assessing traction, looking for an excuse to transfer power to the rear wheels. So was I, right from the moment I got the keys.

Photographer Nick Langor and I were down by the Marine Lab outside St. John’s. He got into the photo shoot while I walked around, taking in the large day.

What we really needed was a few offroad shots and a bit of driving time to get a feel for the machine. Nick spied a set of tracks heading out onto a point on a cliff, a great shot, especially from the other side of the water. We drove halfway out, no problem, and he scrambled around with the camera while I walked out to the end of the point. My main concern was turning the truck around and we hoped there’d be enough

room at the end. A little way up ahead on the right the trail dipped off severely onto wet cliff, while the left side had grass right to the edge of a sheer dropoff.

I put one foot close to the edge and peeked over — it was a 100-foot drop to a boiling sea, the kind of height that makes your knees weak. I went back to the truck and looked at the possibility of turning it around right where it was.

There was a fair incline to the left, but just enough room to fit a truck. To the right was a gradual decline and another 100-foot drop into the sea.

I picked up some grass, rolled it between my fingers, checking for moisture like a golfer setting up a shot. It was dry enough to be safe — time for some precision driving.

I fired up the Ridgeline, rolled it ahead

into position and backed up the slope, sideways on the trail, facing the drop. If I messed up, Nick would document my demise and would have no trouble writing the headline for my story: Local boy screws up, big time. Might as well carve that on my tombstone, too.

But no, she crawled off that grassy cliff as she should. There was a patch of mud on the way out and an exclamation mark lit up on the instrument panel. One of the wheels slipped a bit and I don’t know who was more surprised — the truck or me.

The hardest part of driving beautiful machinery is returning it.

I love my old truck, but it has all the finesse of a shopping cart.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s lives another day.

30 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT

MAY 25, 2007

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 31

F

Training for auto racing’s big day or the past two weeks, I’ve been was called the International 500-Mile in training for the May 27 auto Sweepstakes, I watched the movie racing extravaganza Winning, starring Paul — the one day of the year Newman, Joanne Woodward when you can experience the and Robert Wagner. best racing’s three major The story’s not bad (OK, it leagues have to offer: the could be better) but the scenes Grand Prix of Monaco for shot in 1968 at the Indianathe Formula One crowd, the polis Speedway, particularly Indianapolis 500 for Indy car in the old Gasoline Alley enthusiasts and the Cocagarages, are so romantic (in Cola 600 for stock car fans. the literary sense) that you NORRIS MCDONALD To be in the proper frame can almost smell “the newof mind when I wake up mown hay send all its fraearly to watch the Grand grance,” and hear the military Prix, I’ve been soaking up bomb go off at 5 a.m. on race Monte Carlo’s atmosphere day signalling “gates open.” by looking at the photos and For the NASCAR 600reading the text of a huge, 450-page miler, I put through a call to Roger book called Grand Prix de MONACO, Slack, Canadian-born grandson of the

by Rainer W. Schlegelmilch and legendary Cayuga Speedway owner Hartmut Lehbrink, which I purchased a and promoter Bob Slack. Roger is few years ago. Every race through the director of events at the Lowe’s Motor streets of the principality, from 1929 to Speedway in Charlotte, N.S., scene of 1998 when the book was published, is this afternoon’s stock car classic that documented. The pictures, both black- usually runs into the mid-to-late evening. and-white and colour, are spectacular.

Slack’s father, Randy Slack, is one of Then, to get in the mood for the midday Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Canada’s most famous late-model driv91st edition of what — until 1980 — ers but son Roger was more interested

TRACK TALK

I

in being either a promoter or a flagman and it’s that ambition that got him — at age 32 — to where he is today.

Slack sums up his job at Lowe’s: “I’m responsible for just about everything people see, except the race,” which is all NASCAR. Slack said he was either in Grade One or Grade Two when he promoted his first event — a bicycle race. “The winner got five bucks, second paid three dollars and third got two.

Grandpa Slack gave me the money for the purse — and to buy ice cream for the field.”

But “Grandpa Slack” made him work for his money. “I cleaned a lot of toilets at Cayuga Speedway and I painted a lot of walls but I learned the business.”

And he idolized the flaggers. He loved watching those guys throw the green to start the races and the checkers to end them.

“I was 14 and standing on top of a hauler at Rolling Wheels (speedway) near Auburn, N.Y.,” he said. “The races were on and I was pretending to flag.

Glenn Donnelly (DIRT Motorsports promoter for many years) saw me up there and decided to give me a chance.

“My big break came in 1992 when I was flagging the World Karting Association finals at the speedway in Charlotte.”

Randy Slack

I flagged my first race at Rolling Wheels.

“My big break came in 1992 when I was flagging the World Karting Association finals at the speedway in Charlotte. That’s when I first met Humpy (H.A. ‘Humpy’ Wheeler, president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway). He urged me to stay in school (Slack is a graduate of McMaster University) but

when I was finished to come see him. I came down in May of 1993 and I’ve been here ever since.”

In addition to his event responsibilities at the big track (which also include promoting a racing program on a short oval inside the superspeedway that attracts 200 cars and big crowds on Tuesday nights all summer and is a “tremendous source of revenue”), Slack is promoter of racing at the nearby four-tenths-mile dirt track where dirt late models, modifieds and monster trucks entertain the fans.

“I come to Lowe’s Motor Speedway every day,” he said. “I see people who only come for events and they look around in awe at this place and that tells me how special this place is and it’s at times like that when I realize how fortunate I am to be here.

“At night, when the lights are out and it’s silent and there’s nobody around except maybe a stray cat or two, it’s just so neat.”

Who’s going to win the 600, Roger?

“Kenny Schraeder is my sentimental favourite,” Slack said, “but Tony Stewart is going to be hard to beat. And he’s such a nice guy.”

Where is that gas nozzle pointing? remember when gas was 50 cents a sheep manure. By smell. Never say I litre. My kids think I’m being nos- didn’t have a complete and varied education. talgic, and maybe I am, I wouldn’t bother seeking but it was only a few years to recreate this anyway; I ago, not in my black-andcouldn’t. Air conditioning, white childhood. (My eldest iPods and seatbelts have believed my life turned colour taken away all the fun. I’d only when the photos did, either hang my arms over the around my sixth birthday). front seat between my parSunday drives were a wonents while my sisters fought derful part of my childhood; behind me, or sit in the back they are a non-existent part of LORRAINE of the station wagon and my children’s. We could never SOMMERFELD watch the world in reverse. have afforded something like Now, we travel in seasonal a movie for all of us, or cocoons of comfort, forgetamusement parks or any other ting this may be our last organized entertainment that glimpse of the scenery my father would have hated before it gets paved over. anyway.

The cost of gas has traded places Instead, we’d cruise around the secondary highways fighting over the win- with the cost of the destination. I’m dow while my father made sure we torn in my resentment over the price of knew the difference between cow and gas and the understanding that the

POWER SHIFT

world has changed. I don’t question the need to consume less — I promote it.

But I do get angry at the implication that all of us who drive are reckless and thoughtless. I’m also perplexed by those who think higher energy costs don’t affect them.

Our entire economy hinges on fuel costs. Even if you bike everywhere, eat only your own toenail clippings and drink rainwater you collect in your eavestrough, you will feel the impact.

Where once the mighty railroad was the king of the country, we are now dependent on trucks, which are dependent on gasoline. This is where the reckless and thoughtless behaviour comes in — our insatiable need to consume too much, and our need to consume it around the clock.

There are champions of the current criminally high fuel costs; if we weren’t being gouged outrageously, I

might agree with them. I’ve always believed that artificially low hydro rates have historically led to incredible waste; now as people try to conserve, the rates go up anyway. I can put in all the twirly bulbs I want, but as long as my neighbour keeps spending $800 a month to heat a swimming pool, you have to wonder if personal responsibility will ever meet up with the collective good.

I’ve willingly given up drives for no reason, though some of the best memories of my childhood took place on just such aimless occasions. I’m peeved that I have to ration trips to the cottage, where I can teach my sons that the best things in life involve lakes and bonfires, not electronics and schedules.

I’m aware we have to find a better way, and I believe we can. I just shudder at the thundering edict from some quarters that the love of cars is the root

of all evil. No it’s not. The love of a disposable lifestyle is the source of most of our ills. Witness the loving restoration of a classic car, and I defy you not to see the art within. Not all cars are about consumption.

I hate the stupid comparisons that are made regarding the price of gas, letting me know the cost if I filled my tank with milk or Chanel No. 5 to prove what a deal I’m getting. I fill my gas tank with gas. Period. What used to cost my father eight bucks now costs me over 80. I resent the ever-elastic profit margins of the oil companies, and the psychobabble about consumers becoming inured to the dollar-a-litre barrier.

The oil companies need to understand I will never become inured to the feeling that the nozzle is being thrust somewhere other than my gas tank. www.lorraineonline.ca

32 • INDEPENDENTFUN

MAY 25, 2007

WEEKLY DIVERSIONS ACROSS 1 Light lunch (Brit.)

7 A Gretzky 12 Booboos 18 List of lapses 19 Intestinal obstruction 20 Disinclined 21 Sales trails 22 Twiggy digs 23 Having lobes 24 World lang.

25 ___ of the Mist 27 Creator of oral polio vaccine 29 Destroy 30 Place in Parliament 32 Makeover beam 35 Yes 36 High as a ___ 37 Speak off the cuff 39 Fashion figure 41 Like an old apple tree 43 Tourette’s symptom 45 Yukon’s official bird 47 French assent 48 Windbreaker 51 Award 53 Transparent material 57 I problem?

58 Disgusting gunk 60 Clear-thinking 62 Brief respite from racket 63 Preserve

CHUCKLE BROS

64 Perfects 66 Linked rings 68 Earth: prefix 69 Hastens 71 Canadian singer with Sinatra voice 73 One in a pod 74 Brain test, briefly 75 Available in draft (2 wds.)

77 Booth with a window 79 Alight 81 Brewer’s vessel 83 Hungarian wine 85 Medic 86 Meantime 90 L. Erie Point 92 Cheap protein 96 Umbilical ___ 97 Space 99 Harvests 101 Like some oil wells 102 Early Tokyo 103 Paul of “Due South” 105 Provoke 107 Quebec street 108 Ravine formed by erosion 110 Ont. lake with world’s largest freshwater island 113 Pilot a plane 115 Trees with fluttery leaves 116 Blazing 117 Established by law

118 Pet ___ 119 Effaced 120 Goes in

DOWN 1 Stratas of opera 2 Pressed 3 Penny-pinching 4 Dripping 5 Agenda detail 6 Twangy sounding 7 Our southernmost city 8 Schooner serving 9 Ballot option 10 From soup to ___ 11 School assignment 12 B.C. Gulf Island 13 Stratford’s river 14 Mo. of variable length 15 Ice in needleshaped crystals 16 What you will 17 Oozed 26 ___, you are, he/she/it is ...

28 Ask for alms 31 Slav leader, once 33 Dutch cheese 34 Make merry 36 Shrimplike sea creatures 38 Quebec’s official tree: yellow ___ 40 Alta. site of 1947 oil strike 42 Eighth mo.

44 Chocolate substitute

Brian and Ron Boychuk

WEEKLY STARS ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) A temporary setback could work in your favor. Use this time to take another long look at a situation you thought was absolutely foolproof. Better to find the flaws now instead of later.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) You divine Bovines could soon be scoring some impressive Bull’seyes as you get closer to putting those carefully made plans into motion. Be patient. Time is on your side.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Balance that slightly overly romantic view of your current situation with a much-needed dollop of reality from your practical side.

See it as it is, not as you would like it to be.

CANCER

(JUNE 21 TO JULY 22) Your self-confidence continues to grow, but be careful not to overextend yourself. Go forward one step at a time. A partner is ready to provide you with loving support.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) There’s no time for on-the-job catnapping for ambitious Leos and Leonas. Changes are coming, and you won’t want to miss out on any of the opportunities that go with them.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) Your adventurous side continues to play a dominant role in many of the decisions you’ll be making over the next few weeks. Enjoy the ride, but don’t get carried away.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22) Avoid distractions that intrude on

46 Tortilla with toppings 48 Play it ___, Sam 49 Piece for nine 50 Inuit filmmaker (“Atanarjuat”): Zacharias ___ 52 Northern B.C. river with hot springs 54 Helical tool 55 Like a dachshund’s coat 56 Long, laborious work 57 Canyon sound 59 Recorded item of debt 61 In small cubes 65 Single-masted vessel 67 Rich, influential type 70 Rescued 72 Gravel ridge 76 What’s expected 78 Cabbage cousin 80 Did well 82 Female feline 84 Longed 86 It’s melting!

87 Knobby 88 Company of actors 89 Long march leader 91 Start for dermis or glottis 93 Charge with bubbles 94 Castrate 95 Cyclist’s choices 98 Vexed word, once

100 Great ___ Lake, N.W.T. 103 DNA unit

the time you need to straighten out legal complications. Expect to do some work-related traveling over the next few months.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Be on guard against attempts to take advantage of your kind, caring nature. A trusted friend can help you get the facts before you reach for your checkbook.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) A recent unpleasant confrontation could soon flare up again unless all the areas of miscommunication are resolved. The sooner you start the process, the better.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) A recent workplace incident could continue to cause problems.

Prepare yourself with the facts you’ll need if you’re called upon to give your side of the story.

104 Member of mystical Muslim sect 106 Make square

109 Bulgarian currency 111 Roarin’ start

112 Galena or bauxite 114 Believer: suffix Solutions on page 35

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) This is a good time to speak up about a troubling situation. The sooner you do, the sooner others will realize what’s been going on and will help you deal with it.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) A change in travel plans could be the first of many that will occur over the next several months.

Meanwhile, deal with a problem involving someone close to you.

BORN THIS WEEK You have a bright, shining personality that attracts people to you.

You also have a way of seeing two sides of every issue. You would make a fine judge. (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

INDEPENDENTSTYLE

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — PAGE 23

T U D O E K C I R T

n w o d k ea r b s es t d s i r a i y s n u e h t e t n e n o e k s i Local b ery of big boy t s y m e th urover d th s l o o r e d a dd ery ki h, but the d on v e s e ut me bik perfor eir yo or ing th icks being nitely not f r i t f k e Coo wish re most d andy r-old

By M ependent hem a 22-yea ider, d a ll- t ateurs. n u , I f s e a : l h er T ho am em is Nic le, or extremciplines en th h e e l i n g r e h s C e w esty ou’v t dis guys minia- BMX fre he differen e. t grown town on e t s k l cu ur s of k li plain around s that loo their ex de the BMX all kind treet si “S ike re om le in “There a ,” he says. d rails zed b bed fr g ture-si ere just rob e young ma y n n i i f s l and le rid they w ther. Can th rd a proper r freesty ill go out nd, wherea e o o o i w t r f r a f r, kid b tion not a riders dges to g ay in a sk ” wonde u . a t e o l s e l r y u l the nd pop bicycle, wil nk? is a iders ls cilities sized e bikes shru opposite - ramp r d use the fa 0-inch whee s d e h l i 2 n t h e r have ctuality, t ders seen n park a bikes with -inch whe i 6 a o r X 2 e g e p n M I in th B us n the ost of rs or balanc icated ed to bike) and s r M a p . e m u i ed tr co in wn sta op ( n a mounta core, d ing do ils are hard ager to dr o ge 25 a — e g,” pa hand r pecialists, thousands e n i y f e d k t s ravity bike ds — if no m-made bi l, l ee “G o e t e r S s d u W n c u ? t h X ir nex e size on the se. And th flashy BM a e h c m r sa pu e the they’r

Y

Brian Carroll, 21, and Chris Langer, 22, at the Mundy Pond skate park in St. John’s.

Nicholas Langor/The Independent

MAY 25, 2007

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

Noble rot

A little bit of mould goes a long way in certain cheeses, meats and, of course, wines

I

picked up the package and gave a slight sniff. The wafting fragrance of penicillium roqueforti is aromatic, slightly woody and has a light acidic edge. Whatever the case, it generally brings a smile to my face — blue cheese has a tendency to do that to me.

Rot is something we all have to live with.

In the kitchen world we love a little age on things. Beef that has been left to sit in a cold place for up to three weeks is what we in the industry call “dry aged.” It works because it breaks down the fibres and adds an earthiness, which can be described as gamey. There is nothing wrong with this practise, as long as the temperature remains cold enough to stop bacterial growth. Age is one thing, but bacteria … that’s a whole different problem in the kitchen.

Cheese is one of the biggest users of the aging process as cheese makers use it to inject a rich and complex flavour into the product. Cheeses like Stilton, roquefort, and gorgonzola are peppered with the fragrant blue lines of penicillium roqueforti. While it is not technical-

NICHOLAS GARDNER

Off the Eating Path

ly a rot, it is a wonderfully cultivated mould that creates both the flavour and the distinctive pungency we associate with blue cheeses.

This, in turn, leads to up to 15 weeks of aging. This final step of aging gives Stilton, especially, that creamy and luxurious mouth feel.

Wine benefits immensely from natural aging.

Some of the most expensive wines on the planet give their value to the delicate art of rotting. Sémillon, sauvignon blanc and muscadelle grapes infected with Botrytis cinerea, a form of rot, turns mere grapes into an intensely sweet and lush dessert wine. This noble rot makes Sauterne king of all dessert wines.

In order for this to happen, there must be certain pre-existing conditions. The rot requires a moist environment — not

wet. Too much moisture, and the rot can mutate and destroy the crops. The grapes typically become infected when ripening.

As the weather becomes warmer and drier, the grapes begin to shrivel and dry up. Much like when grapes are harvested and dried, raisins become sweet — so too this process, combined with the Botrytis, is known as “noble rot.” Then the critical harvest takes place and only the best grapes are hand-harvested one by one to create one of the most sought after wines in the world. All because of a rotting grape.

If there is to be a ranking system and a crown to be bestowed it would have to be the noble house of Chateau d’Yquem, the Sauterne king of Kings.

While I would love to get my hands on a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem — and I can, the NLC has several vintages (1995, 2001 and 2003) — I am not sure my wife would allow it. At $315 for a half bottle (375 ml), it would be a treat of a fabulous Premier Cru Supérieur, the only such classification for a Sauterne in France.

For smart and savvy shoppers, there are many other sauternes available at a more reasonable price.

While Chateau Gravas Sauterne 2001 (NLC $21.64) is not a grand chateau, it still has a lot of character. It has become a medium-bodied wine with hints of white peaches, dried pineapple and spice. While I did not try this with food — silly me — it would have benefited from some acidity, perhaps in the form of fresh fruit or even an apple tart.

This is a good value wine for these who would like to experiment without

breaking the bank.

De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis 1997 (NLC $30.05) is an Australian wine made in the same way with the same Botrytis and hand-harvesting.

Noble One displays ripe tropical fruit aromas. The palate is long with an elegant balance of smooth honey, apricot and tangy grapefruit flavours. Lightly toasted oak adds extra complexity to this mouth-filling wine.

Who knew rot could be this good? nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

TASTE

Fresh ingredients prepared with care W

By Susan Sampson Torstar wire service

ant to visit Italy? Biba Caggiano will take you there.

In her latest cookbook, she explores the “glorious dining destinations” of Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan and Venice. It’s a charming book, warmed up with anecdotes about life in Italy.

There are guides to the types of eateries, dining customs, regional wines, local dishes, specialty food shops, cooking schools and even an espresso glossary.

The book came about because peo-

ple kept asking Caggiano where to eat in Italy. The Bologna native favours tradition, home-style cooking and unpretentious restaurants.

The freshest ingredients, simply prepared, add up to a cuisine that is more than the sum of its parts. I tested three of the 100 recipes in the cookbook: Poached salmon is topped with Bolognese salsa verde, or green sauce; the salmon is plain and gets too hard when chilled, but the salsa is lipsmacking tangy.

Spicy, grilled Cornish game hens, Roman-style, are so simple, yet attract a flurry of compliments. The Milanese take a spring vegetable to an interest-

ing place when they top asparagus with parmesan and fried eggs.

Caggiano is the chef and owner of Biba restaurant in Sacramento, Calif.

She is a cooking show host and has written a slew of Italian cookbooks.

This dish is a lovely way to launch the holiday barbecue season. It’s tender and mouth-watering, lashed with chili flakes and lemon and boasting a rich, golden brown skin.

HENS ALLA DIAVOLA Adapted from Biba’s Italy: Favourite Recipes From the Splendid Cities by Biba Caggiano. Diavola means “devil.” The Cornish game hen

is a small breed of chicken. In Rome, they use baby chickens, Caggiano says.

2 Cornish game hens (each 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 lb/700 to 800 g) 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 lemons, quartered 2 tsp each: kosher salt, chili flakes

Using poultry shears, remove backbones of hens. Place hens on work surface, skin side up. Flatten by pressing down with hands. Twist around and anchor wing tips to sit close to breasts.

Place hens in 9-by-12-inch baking

dish.

In small bowl, whisk together oil and lemon juice. Brush liberally on both sides of hens. Season all over with salt and chili flakes. Cover and let sit 30 minutes.

Preheat the grill to medium-high.

Add hens, skin side down. Reduce heat to medium-low, close cover and grill until skin is golden brown, 15 minutes.

Turn hens. Brush with oil mixture from baking dish. Grill until bottom is browned, skin is starting to crisp and juices run clear when thigh is poked with skewer, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hens with lemon quarters, to be liberally squeezed over meat..

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 25

DRINK

Kim Mitchell rocks a Toronto Manhattan

L

By Linda Barnard Torstar wire service

ike a killer guitar riff, a good cocktail is all about the execution.

And Canadian rock icon Kim Mitchell is very specific about how he likes his favourite, the classic Manhattan, to be made. “I like bourbon, not rye, and I don’t like the (Angostura bitters),” says Mitchell with a smile. We pull a couple of stools up to the long wooden bar at the cozy Superior Restaurant on Yonge St., which is just down from the Q107 Hard Rock Café studio where Mitchell does his afternoon radio show.

“And I don’t like it shaken. It gets all cloudy and weird.”

Given this is the Victoria Day weekend and summer’s unofficial kickoff, it seemed like an ideal time to sit down with the man responsible for seasonal anthems like “Patio Lanterns” to find out what he’ll be toasting summer with this weekend.

But Mitchell isn’t a cocktailwith-umbrella kind of guy. At home, he doesn’t go for soda on Friday when the workweek is behind him – it’s a shot of Grey Goose vodka from the freezer, poured into a frozen glass with a twist of lemon. But when he goes out, it’s Manhattan time.

Why the classic cocktail? The answer may surprise you.

“That’s what my mother used to drink,” Mitchell explains. “When we’d go out for dinner, she’d order a Manhattan. She died 14 years ago and I thought I’d try one.”

He did and he’s been drinking them ever since.

Mitchell laughs when I ask for his recipe. “I’m a guy. We do handfuls of salt and pepper. I don’t measure stuff.”

But Superior’s bartender, Glen Lexovsky, a solid mixologist who knows his stuff — he used to own the much-missed Stoney’s Bar & Grill in the Beach — is happy to follow Mitchell’s instructions and produced a delicious version of the cocktail.

“This reminds me of my mom, Sarnia, Ontario, home,” Mitchell says.

I suggest Mitchell try the Perfect Manhattan, where a 1/2 oz. each of red and white vermouth replaces the 1 oz. of sweet vermouth to make the drink lighter and less sweet. Mitchell loves it, although he’s not a fan of the martini glass it’s served in.

But he’s a man willing to make compromises.

“If I’m in Toronto, I’m going to do that,” he says nodding at the drink.

Rock on, Kim. KIM MITCHELL’S MANHATTAN three ice cubes 2 oz bourbon 1 oz sweet vermouth orange rind

Place three ice cubes in a cocktail shaker or glass. Add liquors.

Stir gently. Run the orange rind around the rim of a chilled rocks glass. Strain cocktail into the glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Makes one drink.

Gravity-defying tricks From page 23

sion-less frames are typically used for everything from street riding — where almost anything from walls and rails can be used for obstacles — to park riding in concrete bowls and ramps.

They’re also used to perform gravity-defying tricks on vertical ramps and for dirt riding on downhill trails.

However, Andrew Planchat, owner of Cychotic Bikes at 7 LeMarchant Rd. in St. John’s, says he’s seeing a “crossing over” of BMX riders and the average cross-country mountain bike — although he stresses the need to get a “jump specific” bike with components designed to take abuse.

“The guys who are doing the urban riding are trying the offroad stuff now and trying the dirt jumps and downhill trails and vice versa,” he says while installing a hydraulic break on a customer’s bike. Between 30 and 40 per cent of his store’s products are BMX bicycles.

Nicholas says it boils down to the feel of the ride and “personal preference.

“Seems the pros and the mountain bike scene are doing similar stuff to what the BMX guys are doing … that’s not to say the two can’t commingle and someone can’t take an eclectic approach to it and ride everything. Like myself, I kind of mix and dabble between (street and park).”

Planchat sums up the appeal of the adrenalin-laden sport nicely. With the concept of daredevil riding comes the desire to outdo the last guy’s sweet tailwhip or the last bloody-nosed wipeout posted on YouTube.

“With extreme riding the whole idea is to push the envelope and see how far they can jump, what kind of stunts they can pull, how high they can go, what kind of acrobatic they can do in the air while they’re up there.” mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) McKenzie.

Bob and Doug would be proud

A

By Josh Rubin Torstar wire service

s the two-four anniversary of Strange Brew approaches, we spoke to actor Dave Thomas, the alter-ego of über-hoser Doug McKenzie (Bob was played by Rick Moranis), about the movie, the SCTV show that inspired it and beer — including the Red Cap brew he’s promoting for anniversary festivities.

Q What was the first kind of beer you had?

A I don’t remember the actual kind. I wasn’t too much of a connoisseur of beer when I had my first one. As a teenager, it was the number of beers that counted rather than the brand. My tastes have changed. I’ve gone from light beer, to now

where I enjoy Newcastle (Brown Ale).

Q And the Red Cap? A Yeah, it’s nice beer and it’s something Bob and Doug would enjoy, too. I like Canadian beer. Generally speaking, it’s a lot better than American beer.

Q How did you guys hook up with Brick for this?

A Well, it was the only Canadian beer left that was being sold in stubbies, and we thought it would be something Bob and Doug would approve of. What’s the point of the long-necked bottles? Does beer have to travel further to taste better? That just delays the drinking of the beer.

Q Why do you think Bob and Doug were so popular?

A (Playwright and author) Rick Salutin once wrote that Bob and Doug McKenzie were popular because they were accessible — you didn’t have to be particularly talented to be Bob and Doug. All you had to was sit around and talk and drink beer.

That made the characters very accessible.

And I think they were funny, too. That always helps.

Q During the show, there were always beer bottles and two-fours around. How often were they real instead of props?

A It was real beer. The sketch was supposed to just be two minutes of filler, so the rest of the cast wasn’t around. We’d shoot 10 of the sketches, and they’d use three. It was just me, Rick Moranis, a floor director and a camera guy, so we had a few beers.

MAY 25, 2007

26 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

SPRING

A special 6 week series brought to you by

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 27

Home is where the hearth is C

hristine Hand, owner of Handyman Home Hardware in the Villa Nova Plaza in Manuals, says homeowners today consider their decks, patios and backyards extensions of their homes.

“Outdoor spaces are more than a place to plant marigolds,” she says. That’s a positive shift, Hand explains, as expanding a living space means more can be done with the home.

Gone are the days of the standard resin chair when it comes to relaxing and entertaining at home, she says. For today’s homeowner almost anything goes.

People buy everything from quality weatherproof fabric-covered chairs to outdoor fireplaces to patio heaters, Hand says.

Why the shift? There are quality products out there, the options and variety mean a family can maintain the feel of their home, and have something they can be proud of, Hand says. “Ponds, water features, garden ornaments and wind chimes can provide the desired accents to a space,” she says. These “little extras” set the tone for relaxing or celebrating, Hand says, depending on what you add to the mix.

Pat Snow, an employee at Party Time on Water Street in St. John’s, says entertaining inside and out is big business. Theme parties, he says, are “in.”

Have a Hawaiian-theme party and greet your guests in a grass skirt and a coconut bra, he suggests, or go with a rock-and-roll theme and pick up a few decorative 45s or a cut-out of Elvis.

“Parties are about having fun, and we have what you need to spice up your home décor temporarily to get everyone in the mood.”

Hand agrees. “Solar lights are a no-mess, no-fuss way to add to a relaxing atmosphere, but you can also have the old-fashioned patio lanterns if you want more of a party, fun feel.”

Hand says whether a homeowner is planning a lobster boil for a few friends or a barbecue for the neighbourhood, stores like Home Hardware have “everything you need, but the food.”

Rendall Brown, manager of the Dominion store on Blackmarsh Road in the capital city, says he can help with food, no problem.

“Today everyone is busy so why spend time cutting and chopping?” he asks.

Since you have to go out and buy it, why not buy it ready to serve?

“We make trays to order,” Brown says. Fruit trays, floral arrangements, cheese trays, veggie platters and special bakery items can be ordered and picked up.

“All you have to do is set it up and take the compliments,” he chuckles.

The options are limitless for entertaining at home.

From pots to propane burners to lobster claw crackers and picks, Hand has what you need for that lobster backyard boil up.

Want to add turf to your surf?

Hand can help there as well. “We sell steak spice and marinades, coal barbecues, and flavour chips that add that different flavour,” she says.

Homeowners are more serious about their space, and about enjoying and entertaining inside and outside the home, Hand says. “People are investing in things like more substantial barbecues that have the extra features they desire,” she says. “Used to be you would run out, throw on a steak and go back inside to eat, but today the outside deck is just as inviting as the inside dining area.”

— Pam Pardy Ghent

28 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE

MAY 25, 2007

EVENTS

Book launch of Mundy Pond, Roger Maunder’s first novel aimed at young adult readers and set in the summer of 1978 about the life of eleven-year-old Gordie McAllister growing up in Mundy Pond, on May 29 at the LSPU Hall Gallery, 3 Victoria Street, St. John’s, 7 pm.

Paul Daly/The Independent

MAY 25 • 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.

• Lady Cove Women’s Choir Annual Spring Concert, CLB Armory, Harvey Road, St. John’s, 8 p.m.

• Acoustic teen open mic event with host singer-songwriter Dan Rubin, A.C. Hunter Library, second floor, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 7-9 p.m., 737-3317.

• Back in Motion presented by DanSing Performance Studio, Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre, 944-5412, continues until May 26.

• Becoming an Outdoors Woman, beginners program offering sessions in canoeing, backpacking, fly fishing, and much more, Burry Heights, Salmonier Line, 229-7189, until May 27.

MAY 26 • Newfoundland Horticultural Society spring flower show, MUN Botanical Garden, Saturday, 12-5 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., 737-8590.

• Transformational Training Seminar, Spa at the Monastery, May 26-27, 693-1624.

• The Gower Community Band 10th Anniversary Gala Concert, D.F. Cook Recital Hall, Memorial University School of Music, 8 p.m.

• Mount Pearl School of Dance presents Everybody Dance Now, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, May 26-27.

MAY 27 • Grand Bazaar, sale of bellydance costumes, jewelry, and exotic clothing, The School of Dance, 163 Water Street, St. John’s, 12-3 p.m.

• Outside the Box accordion revelation presented by St. John’s Folk Arts Council, raising funds for the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, Geo Centre, Signal Hill, 7 p.m.

• Fresh Fish Crafty Privateers sale showcasing craftspeople under the age of 30, Masonic temple, 6 Cathedral Hill, St. John’s, 12-10 p.m., free admission.

MAY 28 • Managing your files and folders class, MUN

Division of Lifelong Learning, May 28 and June 24, 7-9:30 p.m., 737-7979.

MAY 29 • Adding colour to your garden with annuals, lunch and lecture with Garden Director Dr. Wilf Nicholls, MUN Botanical Garden, 12-1:45 p.m., 737-8590.

• Working with Digital Images class, MUN Division of Lifelong Learning, 2-4:30 p.m., 7377979, until June 19.

MAY 30 • Fishcakes, with Mike Hanrahan, Jason Whelan, Brian Kenny, Don Walsh, and Nadine Hollett, at Folk Night, the Ship Pub, St. John’s, 9:30 p.m.

• Blood donor clinic, Inco Innovation Centre lobby, 10:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

MAY 31 • The Perennial Garden gardening workshop with Garden Director Dr. Wilf Nicholls, MUN Botanical Garden, 7-9 p.m., 737-8590.

• Judy Knee Dance Studio presents Destination Dance, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 7:30 p.m.

• Deadpan Alley Productions presents the brilliant theatrical comedy, Cosi, Reid Theatre, Arts and Administration Building, 8-10 p.m., until June 2.

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.

Pumping iron modifies genes, study suggests

W

By Joseph Hall Torstar wire service

eight training can make old muscles new again — down to the genetic level — a study of seniors out of Hamilton’s McMaster University suggests.

The study, published May 23, says resistance exercise for people 65 and older can actually reverse important aging effects on skeletal muscles, to the point where they work genetically like those found in people four decades younger.

“We see big improvements … after weight training,” said Mark Tarnopolsky, an associate professor at the McMaster University Medical Centre.

“Many people were reporting they could pick up their grandkids, they could carry more groceries, it was easier to go up the stairs,” said Tarnopolsky, an expert on muscle diseases and one of the paper’s two lead authors.

The findings come as no surprise to life-long weightlifter David Smith.

“I’m 70 now — 70 — but it’s only an age,” said the Bolton resident. “I probably feel as if I was in my 30s to be honest. The only time I freak out is when I have to put my age down on a piece of paper for an application.”

Smith has been lifting weights since he was 16, and continued during a 35-year teaching career that saw him retire in 1994 as a principal in west Toronto.

A skin cancer scare proved the benefits of keeping in top physical condition, Smith said.

“The doctors figured the fact I was lifting weights for so long kept the immune system strong and helped the body to fight a recurrence and preventing it from spreading.”

The study, which was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was published online in the Public Library of Science’s journal

PloS One. The study looked at DNA expression in the muscle cells of 25 healthy seniors, who had undergone twice-weekly resistance training for six months.

It concentrated in particular on the cellular mitochondria, the “powerhouses” that fuel activity in cells. They are typically depleted in older people, with many of the genes that affect them turned on or off by age. This depletion resulted in a loss of muscle mass and many of the mobility restrictions often found in seniors.

But Tarnopolsky said the genetic “fingerprints” of the exercising seniors actually shifted from their age-altered state to one more closely resembling those found in young men and women in their mid 20s to 30s.

“We improved or reversed to a large extent the ... gene signature of aging,” he said.

The reversal was accompanied by a 50 per cent improvement in strength among the seniors.

Starting out about 60 per cent weaker than their younger study counterparts — determined via knee extension capacity — the training seniors ended up 38 per cent weaker after a half year of training.

Tarnopolsky said weight lifting might remove some of the mitochondria damaged by age-related stresses, replacing them with genetically intact ones. As well, it may turn on genes, switched off by age, that offer muscle cells protection from damage.

Dr. Howard Dombrower, director of rehabilitation at Toronto’s Baycrest Geriatric Health Care System, said it’s been well established that exercise benefits both the physical and mental wellbeing of seniors.

But Dombrower said he has typically recommended aerobic exercise like walking or biking for most of his patients and that the study may cause him to consider resistance training as well.

MAY 25, 2007

INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Abraham Nunez (3) tags out the Toronto Blue Jays Vernon Wells (10) as he tries to steal third base while Umpire Brian O'Nora watches the play during the fourth inning of their MLB interleague baseball game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 20, 2007.

REUTERS/Tim Shaffer

Where fly balls go to die Vernon Wells’ guide to the outfield

A

By Cathal Kelly Torstar wire service

t the instant a hitter puts his bat on the ball, Toronto’s Gold Glove centre fielder has started to make a host of calculations that will direct him to where the ball is going to land.

“Within a few feet,” Wells replied with a shrug recently when asked how close he can generally guesstimate.

Infielders get by on positioning and instinct. But a centre fielder patrols roughly an acre of empty space.

Merely tracking the flight of the ball can be deceptive and he has only an instant to plan his journey.

He needs to balance the odds by making a series of judgments based on what he sees long before the pitch is floating over the plate. Few do it better than Wells.

It starts in the clubhouse.

“You have to know the hitters and their tendencies,” Wells says. “What they tend to do early in counts, what they do later in counts, if they’re pull hitters or inside-out hitters.”

He watches videotape before every series. By game time, Wells has a strategy mapped out for every opposition hitter.

Standing in centre field, Wells has the game perfectly lined up in front of him: pitcher, hitter, catcher. The outfielders on either side of him have less ground to patrol, but they lack that advantage.

If the light’s right, Wells can read the catcher’s signs. If not, he watches the catcher’s set-up.

“If they set up on the inside, 90 per cent of the time it’s going to be a fastball. If they set up away, there’s more of a chance of (the pitch) being offspeed,” Wells says.

He stops and considers, then he launches into the variables.

“Actually, that’s the only time you can kind of get screwed up because if they set up outside and it’s an offspeed pitch, you can still pull that, even though it’s away. And you can still pull a fastball when it’s away,” Wells says, ruminating. “See, you have to know the hitters.”

If he sees the catcher set up on the inside corner of the plate, he guesses the hitter will more than likely pull the ball — to left field for a righthanded hitter, to right field for a lefty.

“Bottom line, if a pitcher’s hitting their spots, you can eliminate half the field given whichever pitch at whatever location,” Wells said.

So, as the pitcher winds up, Wells is leaning.

“Sometimes you have jumps before guys have even hit the ball,” he said.

Now the pitcher is into his motion.

Wells is watching the pitcher’s arm slot, confirming what he believes is coming. Simultaneously, he is watching the batter, watching how his body shifts, watching his “load.”

SWINGS AND MISSES Most of the time, nothing happens.

The batter watches the ball go by. He swings and misses. He hits the ball foul or along the ground. More than 100 times a game, Wells might go through that exercise to no avail. But the half-dozen or so times it matters, he’s ready.

“If you see the pitch and it’s hittable, then you see the hitter and he looks like he’s locked and loaded, then you know you should probably start moving,” Wells says.

So Wells has started to move, priming his body for action. He’s waiting for the next indicator.

“As soon as the ball’s on the bat, it’s a matter of bat angle,” Wells says. If the hitter is ahead of or behind the pitch, the ball is likely headed to

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Wells’ teammates in right or left field.

“If he’s catching it square, it’s coming to me.”

At that point, Wells veers from the visual to the aural. He listens. The sound of the bat hitting the ball tells him more than the sight of it happening. How soon does the crack let him know where the ball will land?

“Pretty much immediately,” Wells says, surprised someone finds that unusual. “If it’s hit over your head, you can turn your back and run to a spot and know where it’s going to land.”

Wells can’t explain that part. But, to reinforce that sense, the Jays’ outfielders practice a drill in which they must turn their backs on hard-hit fly balls and find them without looking for them, only turning at the last instant.

“It teaches you to trust the sound of the bat,” Wells says.

Now the ball is in the air. Wells’ senses have narrowed the field down from thousands of square feet to a few dozen.

He can be fooled. Bashers like Gary Sheffield or Travis Hafner cause him the most trouble. Their huge swings — “hellacious cuts” — can make a shallow pop-up appear to be headed for the warning track.

But far more often than not, Wells knows where he has to be. Now his body takes over.

At least once or twice in a game, Wells’ combination of speed and smarts will put him into position to catch a ball most others would be chasing to the wall.

“It’s more than making great plays,” says Wells, who is not beyond some light showboating. “A lot of stuff goes unnoticed. Cutting balls off, keeping guys to singles that should be doubles. It cuts down on a lot of runs in the long run.

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