2007-06-08

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“Every time my father saw a wave wash up on shore on a TVshow, he would cry.” — David French, a Newfoundland-born Toronto

playwright of his Dad’s homesickness. See page 17

VOL. 5 ISSUE 23 — ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA — $1.50 HOME DELIVERY (HST included); $2.00 RETAIL (HST included)

Life Story . . . . . . . 10Paper Trail . . . . . . 12Crossword . . . . . 30Don Power . . . . . 31

STYLE 23Newfoundland tartanmodelled at the Cape

LIFE 17Carbonear opera singer Calvin Powell’s rock ’n’ roll life

GALLERY 22NL-based photographer JohnHaney’s larger-than-life images

Whales for the killing?

An increase in international whalingpractices in recent years has led tospeculation that Canada’s eastern

waters may see the return of a whale fishery. In the face of fierce opposition to proposals

to launch commercial whaling ventures at theannual International Whaling Commissionmeeting in Anchorage, Alaska last month,Japan threatened to quit the commission tostart its own organization, or resume coastalwhaling in defiance of an international ban.

International anti-whaling organizationssay the Japanese government has been push-ing for a return to commercial whaling forover a decade, killing 945 whales last year

under the guise of scientific research (sellingthe meat after they finish studying it).

Norway and Iceland both have controlledwhale fisheries — which they claim is sus-tainable and “green” — harvesting quotasbased on scientific research.

A Department of Fisheries and Oceansspokesperson in Ottawa tells TheIndependent the federal department hasn’treceived any inquiries or requests to com-mence whaling off the East Coast.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Tom Rideoutalso says he’s not aware of any request or anyinterest to participate in a “whale fishery orhunt or whatever the appropriate terminologyis.

“I’m certainly not advocating one,”Rideout tells The Independent.

Retired whale expert John Lien says hedoes not expect a re-emergence of a whalefishery in the province.

“Here? No. No way. I think we would just

be scalded,” says Lien.“I don’t think so, because they make so

much money on tour boats.”Lien says he would not want to see a return

of the commercial whale harvest.“People get upset,” says Lien. “They

(whales) are a symbol of a healthy ocean andif we can’t save whales and have whales backto historical highs, then they’re not happy.”

Lien says nations that still prosecute awhale fishery do a lot of research to justifywhat animals they take. He says Norway setsquotas for its whale harvest based on theirresearch “and they say they can justify it.”

When asked why Iceland and Norway donot receive strong negative reaction from theinternational press, he says it’s a difficultquestion to answer, but part of the reason is

International outrage or ‘green’ industry — why doesn’t NL have a whale fishery?

Broken contract?Liberal alleges federal job yanked due to political stripe

The well-known Liberal and chair-man of the recent Trust andConfidence Rally in St. John’s says

he’s been unceremoniously axed as acommunications consultant with the fed-eral Department of Fisheries and Oceansin St. John’s because of his political affil-iation. Further, Peter Whittle, former chief

of staff to Roger Grimes, plans to takeDFO to court.

“I am absolutely convinced this camefrom senior levels of the minister’s office,the highest levels of the minister’s office,”Whittle tells The Independent.

As of press time, Whittle says he hasyet to receive any written confirmationregarding the termination of his six-monthcommunications contract.

A DFO spokeswoman in St. John’s says

IVANMORGAN

‘All still very Irish’

Paul Daly/The Independent

See “Canada is a wimpish,” page 2

Independent managing editorStephanie Porter returns to Ireland 12 years later to seewhether prosperity has changed the country. Is the Celtic tiger still worth looking up to?

MANDYCOOK

A humpback whale breaches the waters of Bay Bulls in 2006.

Dublin, Ireland

Forty-seven Coleraine Street isexactly the way I remember it.Exactly.

I didn’t think this article, or weekvisiting former haunts in Dublin,would start that way. It’s been 12 yearssince I lived in the small two-storey

row house on the north side of the city,sharing the space for almost fourmonths with three other women, all ofus there for a summer of working andliving away.

For years the changing face ofDublin has been in the news — theCeltic tiger and the booming economy,the increasingly multicultural popula-tion, the rebuilding, gentrification,population explosion, increase incrime rate. Every report of abundant

See “Euro-town,” pages 8, 9 See “Matter of principle,” page 2

STEPHANIEPORTER

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS JUNE 8, 2007

Raising the Star of Logy Bay: a Father’s Day tale

So what’s Dad getting for Father’s Day thisyear? Another tie to go with the 30 or so henever wears? A flask of Bacardi Gold to

strengthen his liver? A DVD of Ben Hur?How about a book? Let me suggest three. Father

and Son (1890) by Edmund Gosse is an amusingand moving story of the quirky naturalist PhilipHenry Gosse, who once wrote a treatise showingwhy it was perfectly reasonable to think that Adamand Eve, though created by God and not born ofwoman, each had a bellybutton.

That did not impress Darwinian theorists of theday.

Then there is the great American writer PhilipRoth’s Patrimony (1991), an account of the illnessand death of his father Herman Roth. That soundsgrim and it is in places, but it is touching and oftenfunny as well.

I also have to list Percy Janes’ House of Hate(1970), a novel centering on Saul Stone, an embit-tered tyrant working in the paper mill in CornerBrook who poisons the life of his family. He wasclosely modeled on Eli Janes, Percy’s father. Ifyou’re having a tiff with your old man, this might bejust the thing to heave at him. At any rate, I comeaway from the book feeling some sympathy forSaul. For Eli too.

House of Hate was a riveting and unforgettableperformance by Percy Janes — far and away hisbest work.

Fatherhood intrudes into many other books ofcourse, including the works of Shakespeare. InHamlet and King Lear, for instance, it is a dominanttheme. But let me return to Newfoundland, and to amore homely item than either books or plays —namely the song Star of Logy Bay. After the openingstanza, where the speaker says the curling of her yel-low locks was what “stole his heart away,” we havethis:

T’was on a summer’s eveningthis little place I found,I met her aged fatherwho did me sore confound;saying “If you address my daughter,I’ll send her far away,and she never will return againwhile you’re in Logy Bay.”

I’m fairly sure that most singers of the song auto-matically feel a twinge of sympathy for the lover. Hewent along to Logy Bay, had the courage to confrontthe aged father, apparently asked if he could“address” — not undress — the daughter, and wasstopped in his tracks in a most extraordinary fash-ion.

You address her, the father says, and I’ll deporther; she’ll never return to Logy Bay while you’rehere.

The lover thinks it “cruel” to be parted from hislove, and tells the father just that. This could beRomeo and Juliet starting over again. Or so youmight think.

But maybe not. I have some feeling for the oldguy. Perhaps he looked at the young man on hisdoorstep and saw something he didn’t like — aboldness or aggressiveness that he didn’t want hisdaughter mixed up with.

He may have been protecting his daughter againstsome quality he perceived, something immediatelyvisible to him, a toughness that might lead to cruel-ty.

The brute might hit her later on. Want to own her,keep her penned up in the kitchen.

And the father meant what he said, for, on learn-ing that the lover would continue his suit, the verynext morning, as we all know, he went to St. John’stown “and engaged for her a passage/in a vessel out-ward bound.” It is not stated where she went.Australia? The Andaman Islands? The lover feels hehas been “robbed” and decides to go a-roaming in“every country” to look for her:

I’ll search in vain thro’ France and Spain,likewise Americay,’till I will sight my heart’s delightthe star of Logy Bay.Which leaves open this question: if he thinks it’s

going to be “in vain” to look for her in France andSpain, why would he go there? Maybe he’s thick.Maybe that’s what the father sees.

To be the father of daughters, I often think, mustbe one of the most hair-raising experiences a mancan have.

You raise up a beautiful child to the age of 15 or16, and then one day she drags home a vagabondwith orange hair, a brass ring in his nose, and amotorcycle in the driveway. “Dad, this is myboyfriend Tyler,” she says.

If you have some fear for her fate, I suppose youhave to act. But how?

Sending her far away might not be a bad idea.MUN is a great place I know, but Australia has a lotof fine universities too.

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

PATRICKO’FLAHERTYA Skeptic’s Diary

the department is aware of Whittle’s alle-gations, but will not comment because itis a legal matter.

Whittle was due to start work onMonday, May 28, and was in the officethe previous Friday preparing for his firstassignment when he received a call fromhis supervisor.

“I was to travel with a group of broad-cast journalists from New York City out tothe ice off Twillingate for a couple of daysfor the fourth of June,” says Whittle. “Buta couple of hours later I get a call saying,‘Look Peter, I’m really sorry but due tosome organizational issues up here thatsuddenly have come up I’ve got to tellyou we’re not going to be able to do any-thing.’”

Suspicious of the reasons given for histermination, Whittle says he spoke tosome contacts within DFO and nowbelieves the decision was politically moti-vated and handed down from the highestlevel.

Whittle says he’s worked on and off forthe provincial and federal governmentssince 1988. Describing himself as a careercivil servant mostly in political roles, hesays he is fighting the decision because itis a “matter of principle.” He says he islooking for special and punitive damages.

“I feel like asking for a dollar just to beright . . . I want to prove the excuse pro-vided to me is not the real reason for thecancellation of the contract,” Whittlesays. “Does my involvement in the rallymake me a dissident of some sort … Iview this as a very serious intrusion by thepolitical minister.”

their scientific research. Lien says a barrier to commercial

whaling in Canada — other than an inter-national public outcry — is Canada can-not match the science of countries likeNorway.

“We have one whale researcher inDFO now. That’s it,” says Lien.

The Norwegian Embassy’s Canadianwebsite cites their minke whaling indus-try as a green and sustainable harvest,based on the small amount of energyexpended to attain such large amounts ofmeat. It notes internationally approvedscientific research has established thattheir annual quota does not impact onwhale populations. The industry alsoprovides much needed employment topeople living in rural Norwegian fishingcommunities.

“What many people don’t realize,”says Lien “is we have not studied num-bers of whales here in these waters for along time.”

Lien says another issue used by peopleopposed to the whale fishery is cruelty.

“And really what they do is they shoota harpoon into the animal and then itexplodes inside the animal, so it destroysthe lungs and heart — and (they’re) justdead.”

Lien says a vet he knows told him, “Ithink if I was going to be killed I’d liketo get killed like that.”

Retired fishing industry executive andactivist Gus Etchegary points to theprovince’s long history of whaling.

Whales were harvested in the provincefor centuries. Red Bay, Labrador was thesite of North America’s first industrialoperations, with whale oil processingsites discovered dating from the early1500s.

Etchegary says his old company,Fishery Products, entered into a 50-50partnership with a Japanese whalingcompany in the 1950s. They built a plantin Williamsport, on the NorthernPeninsula, which employed over 100people. He says the plant operated for 20years, processing up to 220 whales ayear.

“It never did affect the population oneway or the other,” says Etchegary.

He says in 1972 “without any warn-ing” the Government of Canada orderedthem to close operations “because ofpressures brought on by the animal-rightspeople.”

Fishery Products did not receive anycompensation for the closure of thewhale fishery.

“Christ, no. There was nothing. Therewas just the whaling operation was shutdown, we parted company with ourJapanese friends and that was the end ofit.”

Etchegary says Norway and Iceland“in spite of all the hullabaloo” continuedto fish whales, and prosecute a “bustling”fishery today. He says the Norwegiangovernment subsidizes the industry.

“The fact of the matter is there is awhaling industry carried on in manycountries, there is a market for whalemeat, it’s there for anybody to see,” saysEtchegary. “And the fact of the matter isnot likely will there ever be a whalingindustry here because the Canadian gov-ernment won’t permit it.”

“Canada is a wimpish nation as far asfisheries is concerned.”

‘Canada is awimpish nation’From page 1

‘Matterof principle’From page 1

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

Fighting Newfoundlanders have torelax once in a while and take amoment to smell the lilacs (when

they ever bloom). Our precious existenceon God’s country/ragged rock won’t lastforever — not when our destiny is to bebrutally slaughtered by unstoppable killerrobots. So says Scott Feschuk, a colum-nist with Maclean’s magazine. In his June11 column, Ladies and gents, I present toyou: the apocalypse, Feschuk writesabout recent news reports suggestingwe’re moving ever closer “toward thechilling blood-soaked dawn of themachine apocalypse.”

Feschuk cites the example of SimpleRobot Inc., which has developed a“Manta” autonomous swimming poolcleaner, “capable of ridding pools of dirt,leaves and, when the uprising begins,humans with legs.

But not all robotic developments her-ald the inevitable erasure of the humanstain, Feschuk writes. The government ofJapan, he continued, just spent $12 mil-lion US to develop a baby harp seal robot,designed to comfort lonely old people.

“The device is equipped with motionsensors that enable it to respond to beingtouched with cute seal-like chirps. (It willbe ready for export to Atlantic Canadaonce technicians retrofit it with lifelikeblood splatter packs and a woundedmoan.) Surely nothing as adorable as ababy harp seal could ever turn on itshuman master and — omigod!! Myhaaaaaaand!!!!!”

NEWFOUNDLAND NESSIEForget killer machines, Newfoundland

and Labrador is rife with stories about seacreatures and assorted monsters from thedeep. It was only recently that bones werefound embedded in a melting icebergdrifting past Bonavista Bay.Anthropologist Peter Whitridge told theCBC it’s possible the skeleton came froma seal that had been dragged up on the iceby a polar bear. (I may be going out on alimb here, but it could have been a robotseal from the future that forced a polarbear to bore into a berg to save its life —unsuccessfully, of course.) The storymade its way around the world in jigtime, much like the 2001 tale about astrange sea creature that washed up on theshores near St. Bernard’s on the BurinPeninsula. “Newfoundland Nessie a mon-ster of mystery,” read the headline thatappeared in newspapers across the globe.“A headless furry white sea monster haspeople around Newfoundland’s FortuneBay puzzled.” It turned out the monsterwas likely a basking shark, rotted to thepoint it resembled a skinned grape. I liketo think that’s just what we were told …

MIDDLE COVE BAPTISM Sea monsters aren’t the only unusual

phenomenon to be spotted in waters offour shores. Canadian Jewish Newsreported recently that John Langlottbecame the first person to undergo con-version to Judaism in Newfoundlandwhen he was dipped in the waters offMiddle Cove Beach near St. John’s. “Itwas a very powerful experience for me,”said Langlott, a 41-year-old music com-poser, who moved here three years agofrom the States because he didn’t like thepolitics there. “I felt I had been doing

many things Jewish in spirit for the pastfew years, but needed this conversion tocomplete my soul.” But did he need thehypothermia …

DARK SIDEA little trivia about our Jewish popula-

tion, now that I’ve brought it up. TheHebrew Congregation of Newfoundlandwas founded in the late 1890s by noneother than I.F. Perlin, according to theBook of Newfoundland (Volume Two).The first synagogue was located on WaterStreet in St. John’s, and there’s one todayon Elizabeth Avenue, although the size ofthe building has been reduced in recentyears and nearby land has been sold offfor building lots. Our history with theJewish people isn’t a proud one. In anarticle prepared for the Newfoundland-Labrador Human Rights Association,Mike Murray writes of the “darker side ofNewfoundland.”

Between Hitler’s rise to power inGermany and the outbreak of the SecondWorld War, thousands of Jewish refugeesapplied for permission to come toNewfoundland to escape persecution, butonly 11 people were allowed to settlehere. At the same time, the smaller, poor-er and more crowded Caribbean nation ofthe Dominican Republic offered to takein over 100,000 refugees.

Wrote Murray: “We know the eventualfate of most of those Jewish people whowere not accepted as refugees. Howwould our fate have been different hadwe accepted them?”

We don’t need killer robots to bringabout The End …

UNSUITABLE PEOPLEThe Chinese Immigration Act of 1906

and the Immigration Act of 1926 allowedgovernment to block entry to people“belonging to any race deemed unsuited”to Newfoundland, and in 1932 that was

narrowed to specifically include “all cen-tral and East Europeans ... personsbelonging by race to any country inAfrica or Asia, and of all non-Newfoundlanders who were of thelabouring classes, Murray wrote.“Although Newfoundland needed immi-grants to help develop the interior of theisland and Labrador, government policyappears to reflect an interest in peoplefrom the British Isles only.” No wonderwe all look alike …

SHIP TO SHOREWe’re not all that bad. St. John’s had a

hand recently in the Irish peace process— the HMCS St. John’s, that is, as in theNavy frigate. Mitch Potter of the TorontoStar reported last week that the St. John’swas the first Canadian warship to visitBelfast harbour since before “TheTroubles” began. The ship’s arrival,

timed to coincide with a visit by a host ofCanadian and British dignitaries, was tomark Canada’s commitment to help steerNorthern Ireland “back to sanity.” Ottawais apparently confident that a lastingpeace is within reach, thanks to the recentinauguration of a power-sharing govern-ment between Catholics and Protestantsin Belfast.

Maybe we can get one of those new gov-ernments between Ottawa and Town …

RACE DAYThe Mississippi Press reported this week

on the recent christening ceremony for theUSS Truxtun, named after a ship that sankin 1942 off Chamber’s Cove near Lawn onthe Burin Peninsula. Lanier Phillips andEdward Lewis were two survivors.

According to the newspaper report, thathorrible February day off Newfoundlandchanged the way Phillips — a black sailor

from Georgia and the son of a sharecropper— thought of race in America. He jumpedoff the ship and somehow made it to shore,passing out after being found by rescuers.When Phillips awoke, the newspaperaccount read, he said his worst childhoodnightmares were coming true. His wetclothes had been removed, and he wasnaked on a table with four white womenmassaging him to get warmth back into hisbody.”

“I thought I would be lynched,” Phillipssaid.

“Instead he was bathed and clothed.Once he was warmed up sufficiently toleave the warming station, which was in anearby mine, he said he was carried to thehouse of a St. Lawrence resident where heate at the dinning room table with the restof the family.”

That sounds more like us …[email protected]

SCRUNCHINS

YOURTOWN

Bernie Richardson of Torbay took these pictures of clothes drying on a fence, the view from his window and a close-up of a smashed sea urchin shell.

View from Robin Hood Bay toward Black Head. Paul Daly/The Independent

By Ivan MorganThe Independent

James Feehan, co-author of a paper thatclaimed the infamous upper Churchill con-tract was signed because of a last-minute,

gun-to-the-head, non-negotiable demand byHydro-Quebec, says he’s working on an expandedversion.

“I guess it is more of an elaboration than anextension,” Feehan, a Memorial University eco-nomics professor, tells The Independent. “I’mgoing back and I am getting more details on theseissues and I am trying to get a bit more informa-tion to flesh out much of the arguments I havealready made.”

Co-written with historian Melvin Baker, thereport claims the original upper Churchill contractcontained relatively reasonable terms until Hydro-Quebec, acting on what some say was insiderinformation, realized the company in charge of thedevelopment — the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Co.(CFLCo) — was bordering on bankruptcy. At that point, Quebec altered its demands concern-ing a renewal clause, insisting on an automatic 25-year extension. CFLCo was forced to agree — orfold, taking the already well-underway upperChurchill project with it.

Feehan says while he hasn’t yet uncovered any-thing new, he is fleshing out his original work,checking his sources and “looking around to see ifthere is anything else I should examine trying toget some more information.”

“The previous thing I did is still there and I amjust adding more meat to the skeleton that’s there.”

Feehan says he hasn’t been thrown off track byanything he has come up with, but he says “youcan never tell if you come across something thatwill contradict what you have already found.”

Some details exposed by the original paperinclude the fact the upper Churchill contract wasoriginally set to be renegotiated in 2016; CFLCowas completely aware of the importance of escala-tors (which are absent from the contract, meaningHydro-Quebec gets fixed, low-rate power for 65years); and then-premier Joey Smallwood was notpart of negotiations and had no power to stopCFLCo signing the contract, due to the fact thethen-privately owned company leased theChurchill water rights.

Feehan says he will look at other aspects of thewhole debate over what occurred around theChurchill Falls hydro deal.

“I want to be very cautious on these thingsbecause it is a big issue. You put something outyou want to make absolutely certain it’s been dou-ble-checked and triple-checked so the facts areright.”

Feehan says he has other projects he wants tofinish before he puts his full efforts into finishingthis one, so it will be “a couple of months” beforethe paper is completed.

“I’ll take as much time on this one as I willrequire.”

[email protected]


CALVERTBy John RietiThe Independent

It’s 6:15 a.m. as Lawrence Shannahansurveys the calm, glassy surface ofCalvert Bay hoping that underneath

the green water his pots are filled withthrashing lobsters. His brother Lindsayhops aboard their 16-foot boat and theyhead out into the morning sun and coolbreeze to pull up the 100 lobster potsthey’ve set around the bay.

Calvert, a small community on theSouthern Shore, isn’t the best place forlobster fishing — “it’s probably theworst,” laughs Lindsay — but the broth-ers have made their life here.

Self taught, they’ve been fishing sincethey got out of school, first working inthe fish plants along the shore before get-ting their own boats and traps. They nowcatch cod, crab and lobster during thespring and summer. Lindsay says theyhave to do all three if they want to makea living.

The brothers set their pots close to thesteep cliffs that line the bay, usually opt-ing for small coves. They say there are notricks to catching lobster — just luck andbait.

As Lawrence manoeuvers the boataround the bay it’s clear he knows everyunderwater obstacle and every current.He pilots the small boat within a few feetof the sharp shoreline as Lindsay pulls upthe pots, leaving the boat to float freelywhile helping wrestle an entangled lob-ster out of a pot.

Pulling a pot is routine, but definitelynot easy. The ropes are often slimy withseaweed and each pot is weighted with55 pounds of stone. The cold oceanwater, which hasn’t had time to warm up,stings the hands and a sturdy pair of sealegs is needed to balance.

What comes up in the pot is alwaysdifferent. Sometimes there is a lobster ortwo writhing around the wire pot’s innernet. There’s a little celebration each timethe brothers get one — a happy gruntfrom Lindsay or a gruff “yup” fromLawrence.

Sometimes they pull up nothing butthe skeleton of the herring used as bait —picked clean by underwater scavengers.Often the pot is teeming with all sorts ofsea life like urchins, starfish, crab, fish,

or sometimes even an eel, all of whichare thrown back.

High above the fishing boat two baldeagles watch over the fishermen, whooften throw a herring onto the rocks forthem.

The brothers are doing well on thistrip, landing several large lobsters,including a huge, bulging female theyput back carefully. Only male lobsters of

a specific size — Lindsay measures bysight — are legal to catch here.

Lawrence says when he spent a seasonfishing lobster in Nova Scotia he mademore money because they could sellsmall lobsters to the American market.Nova Scotia fishermen would get over$14 a pound.

The brothers make $6 a pound for theircatch. Lindsay says people line up on the

wharf to buy lobster from them, and theysell to local markets like Bidgood’s in theGoulds and the Churchill Square fishmarket in St. John’s.

So why is the price so low? “Becauseit’s Newfoundland,” says Lawrence in atone that implies that’s the entire answer.

In 2006 Newfoundland and Labrador’slobster fishermen caught 5.8 millionpounds of lobster, worth an estimated

$29 million, according to the Departmentof Fisheries and Oceans.

This season has gotten off to a slowstart for the brothers. Lindsay says ontheir first trip in May they returned withonly one lobster. Lindsay says the num-bers are always up and down and thatevery lobster fishermen in the province isgoing through the same thing.

[email protected]

Economics processor expands originalpaper on upper Churchill signing

Pulling potsLobster fishing with Lawrence and Lindsay Shannahan of Calvert

Lobster fishermen Lawrence (top left) and Lindsay Shannahan pull their pots off Calvert on the Southern Shore. Nicholas Langor/The Independent


Topsail MHA Beth Marshall says shewill not seek the Conservative nomi-nation in the federal riding of St.

John’s East. In March Marshall had indicat-ed she would not rule out an attempt atswitching to federal politics.

“I’ve ruled it out now,” Marshall tells TheIndependent.

She says she has been re-nominated asthe Progressive Conservative candidate inthe provincial district of Topsail, and will be

running again in the October provincialelection.

There was speculation around Marshall’spolitical future after sitting ConservativeMP Norm Doyle announced he would notbe seeking re-election.

Marshall was minister of Health andCommunity Services in Danny Williams’cabinet in 2004, but resigned after the pre-mier intervened to settle a strike byVictorian Order of Nurses in Corner Brook.

Since then, Marshall, a former auditorgeneral and deputy minister, has remainedin the backbenches of the Williams govern-ment.

In response to rumours circulating thisweek that he was considering running in St.John’s East, former provincial cabinet min-ister and chief electoral officer Chuck Fureysaid, “That’s the first I’ve ever heard of it.”

— Ivan Morgan

Marshall and Furey won’t be running federally

Medical board to review doctor application processBy Ivan MorganThe Independent

In light of recent incidents in whichradiologists licensed by the provin-cial college of physicians and sur-

geons have had their work questionedand investigated, the college’s registrarsays they will review their accreditationprocess.

“Absolutely. We always do that. Wewould look back and say, OK, is theresomething that we should have donehere?” Dr. Robert Young tells TheIndependent.

Two radiologists — a foreign-trainedphysician practising in Burin and aphysician based in Gander — have beensuspended after questions about the accu-

racy of their work prompted a review oftheir past diagnosis.

A review of approximately 4,600records from the Burin doctor’s practiceis underway. The radiologist in Ganderhas worked on 49,000 files in three yearsof practice, and the Central health boardhas commissioned a review of a sampleof his work.

In his 14 years as a registrar, Youngsays he has seen this situation “perhapsthree times,” although he says it couldhave happened and he wouldn’t haveknown.

Young says while the college is the“final arbiter” of who is licensed to prac-tice medicine in the province, hospitalshave a responsibility to review the per-formance of the doctors who work for

them.Young says the college receives

approximately 700 “expressions of inter-est and curriculum vitae” a year fromdoctors looking to practise in theprovince. After reviewing these, the col-lege sends out applications to approxi-mately 275. By his estimate, last year224 doctors applied and 156 — Canadianas well as international medical gradu-ates — were licensed by the college.

While the majority of original applica-tions come from international medicalgraduates, Young estimates of the 156doctors licensed last year, over 80 got afull licence “and were probably Canadiangraduates, and over 60 got a provisionallicence and were probably internationalmedical graduates.”

He says the perception that it is easiernow for foreign-trained doctors to getlicensed in the province than it once was,possibly because of a doctor shortage, isnot accurate.

He says the number of foreign-traineddoctors licensed to practise in theprovince has not changed in the last fouror five years. Roughly 45 per cent of doc-tors licensed each year, says Young, areforeign-trained and it has been at thatlevel “for years.

“We have a great reliance on interna-tional medical graduates,” he says.“Some of our senior physicians are inter-national medical graduates.”

Young says the licensing of a doctor isonly one step in a process that monitorsdoctors’ performance. The college grants

the licence, but then a hospital creden-tials committee grants them privileges,puts them on probation, and monitorstheir performance.

He says hospitals have a responsibilityto ensure their doctors are competent.

“I don’t think that we should say whenwe are going to license the doctor that weshould say, ‘Well, we don’t need to cre-dential them. We don’t need a period ofprobation. That the college — if they saya person is eligible for a licence — thatthere’s no need to do this.’

I think the system recognizes that thereis a work-related performance that mustbe carried out by the hospital, because wehaven’t seen the doctor in action.”

[email protected]

Faith, hopeand no more charitiesChief justice’s report encompasses strict new guidelines

By Ivan MorganThe Independent

The release of Chief Justice DerekGreen’s much anticipated reporton constituency allowances and

fiscal controls “closes the chapter” onthe province’s political scandal, saysPremier Danny Williams.

The 1,300-page report contains 80recommendations that the premier sayswill be implemented “sooner rather thanlater,” possibly in this session of theHouse, with legislation poised to beintroduced early next week.

The report addresses all aspects of theoperation of the legislature’s financialoperations, and establishes strict newguidelines for MHA salaries andallowance.

The report sets out a time line thatshows the process that led to the House’sfinancial trouble, and divides recom-mendations into nine categories: fail-ures, responsibility, structure, controls,audits, compensation, allowances, pen-sions and renewals.

The report outlines “failures” such asabuse of legislative independence, fail-ure in management accountability andresponsibility, and notable inappropriatedecisions.

Among the stronger recommendationsare a call for MHAs to bear “ultimate

responsibility” to comply with the spiritand intent of the new reimbursement“regime.”

While the premier says he did notwant to diminish the current work ofauditor general John Noteworthy, hisprimary work has been done, and hispending report will be “secondary.” Thepremier hopes, with the passing of newlegislation embracing the 80 recommen-dations in Green’s report, that theprovince will be able to put the scandalbehind it.

Other highlights:• Williams says the report’s title,

Rebuilding Confidence, is “exactly” hisgovernment’s goal. He says he hopes toput the recommendations in place“ASAP.” He says two thirds can beimplemented through policy, while theother third will require legislation, mostof which is either currently drafted or inthe process of being drafted.

• Former auditor general and Healthminister Beth Marshall is “playing a sig-nificant role” in assisting in the imple-mentation of the recommendations, saysthe premier.

• The creation of a House audit com-mittee comprising of two membersappointed by the chief justice, as well asfinancially literate members of the pub-lic and at least one member from anopposition party.

• New pension scheme for newMHAs, leaving the existing plan forlong-standing MHAs.

• MHAS to be fined $200 a day forbeing absent from the House withoutgood reason.

• Premier says the report, with a priceof $675,000, was “very reasonable.”

• Enhanced role for the clerk of theHouse, including expanded financialresponsibilities.

• End of reimbursement to MHAs for“charitable donations, sponsorships ofindividuals or groups, raffle tickets,alcoholic beverages, artwork, gifts, trav-el costs for constituents, travel costs forspouses or dependents, financial assis-tance to constituents, or expenses relatedto politically partisan activities.”

• Members may make donations outof personal funds but not as an MHA —only as a private citizen. The premieracknowledged his own foundation, setup at arm’s length to donate his salary tocharity, will have to be examined toensure it is not being used to politicaladvantage.

• Time line of events that led to thescandal divided by Green into four eras:the Morgan Era (1989 to1996); thePolicy Shift Era (1996-2001); the Holdthe Line Era (2001-2003); and theRefocusing Era (2003-2006).

[email protected]

Premier Danny Williams spoke early Thursday, June 7, in downtown St. John’s at a nursing conference before releasing Chief Justice DerekGreen’s report on MHA constituency spending on Confederation Hil later in the morning. Paul Daly/The Independent


It ain’t over until AG singsThe premier’s office didn’t do The

Independent any favours when itcame to the release of Chief

Justice Derek Green’s report into polit-ical pay, but then this newspaper hasalways been hard on politicians interms of the perks of office, right downto the poor quality of the 79 gold ringsthey gifted their hardworking fingersand toes.

“Goldfingered,” read at least onecolumn headline. We had the rings val-ued at $300, less than half the $750cost. A local jeweller took issue withthe fact they were called MHA rings.“I’d stop calling it an MHA ring andcall it a poorly-crafted-Coat-of-Arms-of-Newfoundland ring,” the jewellersaid.

What do politicians know about goldanyway, other than how to melt itdown and flash it around? What dothey know about magnets, for that mat-ter, other than they’re a good way forconstituents to see their faces everytime they open the fridge door?

The premier himself has spit nails inour direction from time to time overcoverage of the spending scandal, los-

ing his mind when we published areport on what happens with the salaryhe donates to charity. (Charity case,read that headline, a little cheeky uponreflection, but Danny acknowledgedour point at the Thursday press confer-ence.)

The broader point was accountabili-ty, and the fact there was none.

Green’s sweeping report wasn’t tobe released until 11 a.m. Thursday —a handful of hours before our pressdeadline — and we pleaded/grovelledfor an advance copy. Under embargo,of course — we wouldn’t breathe aword of it prior to government’s offi-cial launch.

We just needed time to digest thereport. “We cannot possibly give thisreport to a media outlet (even embar-goed) before we give it to the opposi-tion parties, or other media for that

matter,” said a spokeswoman for thepremier’s office. “That would beunfair.”

Fair enough. The spokeswoman thought The

Independent’s press deadline wasnoon, giving us an hour to read the1,300-page report, “plenty of time towrite a story.”

Well no, not exactly.At the same time, it’s fair to say —

keeping in mind we only had time toflip through the executive summary —that the report will lay the blueprint forRebuilding Confidence in the powersthat be. Our political pipes will surelyget a good flushing and leave us withan open and transparent system.

A cynic might look at the Greenreport as damage control, a little over-due but in plenty of time to start thepolitical healing process before thelegislated October provincial election.From this day forward all politicianswill be seen as pure as the driven snow.

A cynic might look at the underlyingtheme of this report as the DannyWilliams team cleaning up the mess ofprevious Liberal administrations.

A cynic might disagree with DerekGreen’s breakdown of the time line:the Morgan Era (1989-1996); thePolicy-Shift Era (1996-2001); theHold-The-Line Era (2001-2003); andthe Refocusing Era (2003-2006).

With due respect to the chief justice,a cynic might see only two eras: Pre-Ed-Byrne-Getting-Caught Era (other-wise known as Get-While-the-Getting’s-Good era); and post-Post-Ed-Byrne-Getting-Caught Era, other-wise known as We-Got-Caught Era.

The Green report outlines recom-mendations that can be implementedthrough policy and legislation, but youcan’t legislate public confidence. Thedamage is done, the damage is deep,and few people will have the intestinalfortitude to plow through 1,300 pagesof dry legalese.

What will change? Danny talked about new political

attitudes. For example, if you canbelieve it, politicians may actually beexpected to work “deep” into the sum-mer this year to implement the Greenrecommendations. Maybe ’til the endof June. How will they cope?

Danny also talked about JohnNoseworthy’s pending report into theconstituency allowances of everyMHA dating back to 1989 as being sec-ondary to Green’s. But how can thepremier say that? He may be puttingthe cart before the horse. We reallywon’t know the extent of the messwe’re cleaning up until Noseworthy’sreport is released.

And it does matter. Maybe the premier will use the

Green report as a political fire extin-guisher to spray all over the red hotNoseworthy report, which is bound tocatch fire prior to the October election.It’s starting now with the premierdiminishing (although he made a pointto say he wasn’t) the upcoming auditorgeneral’s report.

Only after we come to terms with thefull extent of the political spendingscandal can we truly enter into a newpolitical era. The House of Assemblymay finally have rules, but the rules areonly ever as good as the politicianswho enforce them.

Maybe that’s the broader [email protected]

Dear editor,I feel obligated to put forth a few

words on the sports column writtenby Don Power in The Independent’sMay 25 edition (Wings clipped,thankfully). Hockey is certainly ournational sport and I would suspect themajority of Newfoundland andLabrador hockey fans are supportiveof their fellow Newfoundlanders whohave had the talent, perseverance andpresence of mind to succeed to theNational Hockey League.

Daniel Cleary came off the bestyear of his career and was a role play-er on the Wings. He left home at 14years of age — only a boy, barely ateenager. That in itself showed hischaracter and determination. Dan hasdeveloped into the hockey player hehad within him and also into a fineyoung man with a wife and babydaughter.

Mr. Power’s column appears tohave been written to expressly attackDan Cleary and rural Newfound-landers who are known for their per-sonable demeanor and hospitablenature. Harbour Graceians fall intothat same category. We all don’t livein the big city, but I can assure you we

are not morons! That may be a sur-prise to Mr. Power, but we have per-sons of all walks of life come fromour community and many great suc-cess stories. Yes, we are feeling theeffects of the down turn in the fisheryand while it has affected our infra-structure it certainly has not affectedour pride!

Journalists carry a great responsi-bility, and we who read yourthoughts like to think, from a legaland ethical standpoint, your scrib-bling will be non-defamatory, factualand without personal animosities.Mr. Power’s article does not meetthese criteria. He is using his positionand The Independent for whateverreason to slander a youngNewfoundlander and his hometown.He should take a page from BobbyWhite who wrote sports articles forThe Independent and put forthDanny’s career in a professional,objective manner. As was quotedrecently by Ted Nolan when refer-encing Dan, “It is not how you startout but rather how you finish.”

Luke Reynolds,Riverhead, Harbour Grace

The hockey player within

RYAN CLEARYFightingNewfoundlander

YOURVOICEPrepared to sign away last six months of lifeDear editor,

Ivan Morgan opened up a topicthat we will hear plenty about infuture (Should some people bedenied health care? May 25 editionof The Independent). Although Ivanhit some controversial points, hestopped short of the “E” word(euthanasia). Doctor friends tell methat most of us will cost the healthsystem more money in the last yearof our lives than the rest of our lifeput together. I have heard figuresthat show this can consume in excessof 30 per cent of the health-carebudget, which consumes over 40 percent of all government expendituresor about $120 billion per year.

To put it in perspective, we havebecome accustomed to readilyspending $36 billion per year toattempt to keep us alive an extra sixmonths, albeit in dire pain and suffer-ing (one wouldn’t do it to a dog). Yetthere was a debate in the federal elec-

tion of January 2006 about whetherwe follow the Liberal’s plan of $1billion for national day care or theConservative’s plan of $1 billionpaid directly to families with smallchildren. The country — particular-ly Newfoundland and Labrador — isin need of immigrants because wehave not had enough children. Yet weare prepared to spend more on lostcauses and almost nothing on thenext generation.

Show me the papers now while Ibelieve I am sane and I will signaway those six months in exchangefor a promise that the money will bespent on the next generation andquality of life, things such as recre-ation for the healthy (it might dosome good for the obesity problem,which is also going to cost thehealth-care system a fortune).

George Power,St. John’s

All material in The Independent is copyrighted and the property of The Independent or the writers and photographers who produced the material. Any use or reproduction of this material without permission is

prohibited under the Canadian Copyright Act. • © 2007 The Independent • Canada Post Agreement # 40871083

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499

www.theindependent.ca • [email protected]

The Independent is published by Independent News Ltd. in

St. John’s. It is an independent newspaper covering the news,

issues and current affairs that affect the people of

Newfoundland & Labrador.

PUBLISHER Brian DobbinEDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan ClearyMANAGING EDITOR Stephanie PorterPICTURE EDITOR Paul DalyPRODUCTION MANAGER John AndrewsADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sandra ChartersSALES MANAGER Gillian FisherCIRCULATION MANAGER Karl DeHart

The Independent welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words in length or less and include full name, mailing address and daytime contact numbers. Letters may be edited for length, content and legal considerations. Send your letters

in care of The Independent, P.O. Box 5891, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X4 or e-mail us at [email protected]

[email protected] • [email protected] • [email protected]

How a real MP does itDear editor,

This is how a real MP does it, he putshis province before himself/party:“OTTAWA — A Nova Scotia MP (BillCasey) has been booted from theConservative caucus after voting againstbudget legislation that he says will costhis province as much as a billion dol-lars.”

Loyola Hearn does this sound famil-iar? I lost all respect for you when youvoted against your province. Shame onyou.

Richard Duke,St. John’s

Move rust buckets from St. John’s harbourDear editor,

With the tourist season upon us,maybe it is time to move the two or threerust buckets docked near Atlantic Placein downtown St. John’s.

For most of the past six months mostof the Harbour Drive dock area has beentaken over with favourites of the ’60s —

the Apollo and another old green andwhite coastal piece of work, the name ofwhich I forget. When I took my familyfor a drive to St. John’s on a recentSunday my eight-year-old son com-plained he could not see across the har-bour because two old oil tankers wereblocking the view of our splendid tourist

attraction. The old ships should bedocked on the Southside where theybelong. Please make room for our mod-ern cruise ships and naval fleet and moveon.

Barry Fitzpatrick,Mount Pearl

‘Fighting for what is rightfully ours’Dear editor,I’d like to address several letters to

the editor and stories that appeared inThe Independent.

Fight if you’re a man by AdaBradbury, May 25 edition: In NormDoyle’s weird twisted way he’d haveyou believe he had no choice but signthe deal Stephen Harper presented.Doyle said he’d be kicked out of caucusif he hadn’t sided with Harper. Soinstead of standing up for allNewfoundlanders, he stood up for hisown selfish greed.

What Doyle did is clearly wrong, heshould have backed Premier DannyWilliams even if it meant gettingkicked out of caucus. I’m sureNewfoundlanders would fight the goodfight for Mr. Doyle. It’s called discrim-ination and we won’t go down withouta fight on that one.

Then there’s Fabian Manning on

politics of the head and heart (May 25edition).

If anyone needs a heart, it is Manningbecause he certainly didn’t have anyintelligence when he signed on withStephen Harper. Newfoundlandershave a heart, we are known for ourfriendliness, but we also have enoughintelligence to know a rat when wesmell it.

As for the letter to the editor, C-NLOPB ‘at risk’, (May 25 edition) thewriter, Angus Taylor (a former C-NLOPB manager), wants to pit the C-NLOPB against Andy Wells justbecause Mr. Wells disagreed with theboard members.

Taylor wants either Wells dismissedor all the other board members dis-missed because there’s a disparity. Howstupid does he think the averageNewfoundlander is to even try andprocess that kind of talk? Wells is not

going anywhere and if they try to dis-miss him they’ll have a real fight ontheir hands.

Another letter, ‘Pimple on backsideof upper Canada’ (May 25 edition) byWayne Lynch, asks “how much do wereally have?”

That remains to be seen, we aren’tfinished fighting for what is rightfullyours and this time around we have apremier and a mayor who are just notgoing to back down. The difference thistime is that a majority ofNewfoundlanders are behind them,according to the polls.

Loyola Hearn, Fabian Manning,Norm Doyle and certain unsupportingmembers of the media have finally mettheir match. Maybe politics will neverbe the same for them again, I hope.

Marian Walsh,Conception Bay South

Loyola Hearn.


On June 4th, 1989 the men controlling China(I’ll be damned if I call them a govern-ment) made the decision to slaughter stu-

dents who, for the past few months, had beenprotesting in Tiananmen Square in Beijing — in thetens of thousands — for political reform.

Young, ambitious, and idealistic, these studentsfound the moxie to defy the monolithic CommunistParty that had held the nation by the throat since ittook power by force in 1949.

They wanted reform. They wanted democracy.They wanted freedom. They wanted a better life forthemselves. They were the best and the brightest,and they took to the streets in many Chinese cities,and in Beijing they took to Tiananmen Square.

Inspired by Hu YaoBang, a high-rankingCommunist, the students dared do what he did.They spoke the truth. He had called for reform. Hehad lived through the brutal insanity that wasChairman Mao Zedong’s rule. Think your life iscrazy? Pick up a book on Mao`s rule of China. Itmakes no sense. That’s because it made no sense.

And Hu, among others, tried to talk commonsense. His Communist colleagues did not appreci-ate his remarks. He got himself “retired” for histroubles.

When he died, officially disgraced, on April 15,1989 several thousand students — to whom he wasa hero — gathered to mourn him publicly. Theywere forcibly dispersed by security personnel.News of that brought 100,000 students out into thestreets in protest. Good for them.

It took off from there, and as the protests grew,the men who controlled the country — theCommunists — started to get more and morefreaked out. A core of the student protesters starteda hunger strike to draw attention to the fact theircall for reforms was being ignored.

Zhao Ziyang, another high-ranking Communistwho openly sympathized with these young people,came (or was sent) to try and talk to the young pro-testers in Tiananmen. He wanted them to see rea-son. He gave a patient, caring speech aimed atdefusing the situation. It didn’t. He said somethingto them that is remembered for its haunting irony.He told them they had to live to see China’s future.

“You are not like us,” he said. “We are alreadyold, it doesn’t matter any more.”

Which is why, one supposes, Zhao was neverseen in public again. He was relegated to housearrest for the rest of his life, because what he and

the students cared about didn’t matter to the rulersof China.

Which is also why, I suppose, the wily oldCommunist leaders chose to use troops fromChina’s hinterlands to do the killing — the troopsin the city wouldn’t do it.

On June 4, 1989 there were pitched battles inChina’s capital city, as the young men from thecountryside were ordered to “save” the city fromthe protesters. Young Chinese killing youngChinese. Peasants killing students. The old rulersordered the killing because the only thing that didmatter — that ever mattered to these men — washolding power.

Eyewitnesses claimed the students called out tothe advancing soldiers, yelling “Why are youkilling us.”

With control came retaliation, as the rulersordered the students who were involved hunteddown, one by one, in the weeks and months tocome.

And now we have the China of today — a so-called economic powerhouse that does all our workfor us cheap. Real cheap. Whether making partyfavours, electronics, household goods, or process-ing our fish, the poor labourer in China is doing itfor next to nothing.

They know better — thanks to Tiananmen —than to ever speak up.

It takes a lot to get me into the street, but in April1999 — not 10 years after this global atrocity —then-premier Brian Tobin invited one of those bas-tards here to our province in the name of economicdevelopment. Bought him lunch at the FairmontHotel, if you please.

Andy Wells flew the Tibetan flag from City Halland I watched while a lot of people drove past ourprotest line to eat salmon with a butcher. I hope, ifyou were there and you are reading this now, thatyour face burns with embarrassment. Shame onyou.

We put warning signs on cigarettes. We putwarning labels on booze. I would love to see theiconic image of that lone young man standing infront of a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square onevery product we buy made in China. We all buythem — how can we not? But when I see Made inChina I wince.

We in Newfoundland and Labrador bemoan theloss of a generation who died on July 1st, 1916.What, we ask every year, would our little corner ofthe world have been like had they lived?

What would the world be like today had thosebeautiful, brave, strong idealistic young studentsnot been butchered wholesale? We will neverknow. Hell, I doubt many people even care.

To quote Zhao, maybe it doesn’t matter [email protected]

Made in China (with blood)IVAN MORGANRant & Reason

‘Share with us the utter bliss’Dear editor,

It is unfortunate that since herhusband left for Alberta, PamPardy Ghent’s life has becomevirtually unbearable (A letter

from home to a husband hard atwork in Alberta, June 1 edition).

Perhaps upon her husband’sreturn, Pam will share with usthe utter bliss that she will sure-

ly derive from living day in andday out with the same personunder one roof.

Katrina Thorarinson,St. John’s

SCHOLARSHIPS ANNOUNCED

‘Thanks so much for the effort and thought’Dear editor,

Just a note to say how much I enjoy reading TheIndependent. We get The Telegram also and I mustsay I read more of The Independent articles than Ido any others.

I particularly enjoy Ivan Morgan, Susan Rendell,Ryan Cleary, Noreen Golfman and Pam Pardy-Ghent. I also enjoy Scrunchins and the Gallery.

This past week, the photos and story Wheelingaround by Stephanie Porter was excellent and thearticle Scandal breakdown (also by Porter) wasinformative.

Thanks so much for the effort and thought thatgoes into The Independent.

Theresa Forsey,St. John’s

Editor’s note: the following letter was writtento Health Minister Ross Wiseman, with a copyforwarded to The Independent.

Dear Minister Wiseman.I thought I would write to inform you that the

cost of treating AMD (age-related maculardegeneration) patients who suffer from the wetvariety of the disease has been lowered at theBense Eye Centre in St. John’s.

Dr. Bense has lowered the cost of his treat-ments to $500 from $1,500 per treatment. Thereduction in price is brought on largely becauseof the large numbers of patients he has beentreating lately, all the patients that your govern-ment has not stepped forward to help.

When the Bense Eye Centre was contacted toask why the reduction, they indicated they wereswamped. Remember, Minister Wiseman, theseare seniors who have made this province thegreat place it is and your government has castthem aside to have to deal with financial hard-ship.

And you and your staff have shown great con-tempt to the people here by refusing to answer

some basic questions. You should resign as min-ister. You won’t even talk to anyone because youare a “busy man.”

As your executive assistant Sharon Vokey putit when I spoke with her, I may be acting like achild and keep asking for something, but the factof the matter is I am not going away until thisgovernment or any other government steps up tothe plate and takes responsibility for paying forthese treatments.

Maybe you should pay for some training foryour staff so they have a bit of compassion andshow some respect for the people when they talkto them. It’s been almost eight weeks nowMinister Wiseman, and you still haven’t got thecourage to call me, or still haven’t providedanswers to my questions that I have sent to youand that Ms. Vokey said she would get theanswers for and get back to me. That was almostthree weeks ago.

Again, contempt is what’s being shown to thevoters.

Barry Wheeler,Corner Brook

‘Contempt’ for the needy

YOURVOICE

Robert Bartlett, Kyla Fisher, Anthony Maher and Hilary Wicks sit beneath portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert atGovernment House in St. John’s. They are just four of the 21 recipients from this province who were presented with 2007Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation awards on June 6. The awards recognize students entering university or collegefor their skills in leadership, community involvement, academic achievement and innovation. Since 2000, the foundation hasgranted $2.3 billion in bursaries and scholarships to students in Canada. Paul Daly/The Independent

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 98 • INDEPENDENTNEWS JUNE 8, 2007

INCAMERA

public drunkenness and violence is matched byanother boasting about the high standard of livingand a sought-after model for economic develop-ment. The skyline is changing fast, there’s nodoubt about that, and some moan that the Irish cul-ture is slipping away right along with it.

After a dozen years of vast change, I was sure myformer home with the dripping ceilings, dodgy stair-case and flaking plaster walls — along with the shortstreet it sat on — would have been flattened.

Though the current residents of 47 Coleraine are nodoubt paying several times the 20 Euro a week I did,the building remains, with the same grey gravellyfront and peeling wooden window panes. The rest ofthe street is pretty much the same too, as is the build-ing of crowded-looking flats across the way. The pubon the corner where we used to go use the phone (weonly had incoming service) looks as gloomy as ever.

But some of the streets I was once leery of walkingdown are now clean and lined with spotless apartmentbuildings. There’s a new concentration of stores near-by run by Chinese immigrants — not quiteChinatown, but something getting close to that.There’s no sign of the newsstand I used to stop byevery day for a paper and a chat, or the post officewhere I used to mail letters home.

Many of the things I pass don’t seem familiar —but it’s hard to say if that’s because the Celtic tiger hastaken hold and made the city over. It has been a dozenyears, after all, and I’m only just starting to reorientmyself.

•••I arrange to meet up with Placentia-born Glenda

O’Keefe, a busy and efficient account manager for acomputer firm, for some perspective. She came toIreland eight years ago knowing no one, with just herbackpack and a plan to stick it out for eight weeks.She’s delighted she took the chance.

From the beginning, O’Keefe says, she was takencare of and watched out for by everyone she lived andworked with.

Outgoing and a dramatic storyteller, it’s no doubtshe fits in well wherever she goes.

When asked about the changes over the past eightyears, she’s quick to rhyme off a litany: more drivers,more women drivers, bigger cars, non-stop construc-tion, new cultures in her neighbourhood, new shop-ping malls, housing developments and on and on.There’s better public transportation — a tram (theluas) makes commuting on certain routes a breeze —and an energy and vibrancy to the city that seems onlyto be on the increase.

O’Keefe still longs to move to St. John’s, some-times. She’s only met up with a handful ofNewfoundlanders in her time in Dublin, and she’seager for news from home.

But she’s not sure when or if she’ll leave — she’slong been entranced with the country she now lives inand the connection she feels.

“I love it,” she enthuses, more than once. “I can’tbelieve I came over here like that .. but I can’t believehow well it’s turned out. This is a great place to be.”

•••Writer Joel Hynes spent six months in Dublin in

1999, and says he felt at ease right away — thougheven then, it wasn’t the city he expected.

“There was a lot of money and work and partyingand cellphones were everywhere,” he says. “But itwas all still very Irish, Dublin. I guess when I origi-nally went over there I was expecting FrankMcCourt’s Dublin, grey and rough and cobblestoneddrizzle. I wasn’t expecting the fast, touristy Euro-town that it was and now really, really is.”

Hynes went to Ireland as part of a work programoffered through the Brother T.I. Murphy Centre in St.John’s, a centre designed to help youth at risk explorecareer options. He lived with a family, took courses instage design and music, and wondered if he wouldever return to the other side of the Atlantic.

“I felt comfortable and safe and right at home,” hesays. “It was vibrant and crowded … And I guessgrowing up on the Southern Shore and hearing somuch about Ireland and our surnames and geographyand even the accents and food preferences being sovery similar, it just seemed like the logical place to goand figure my shit out. It wouldn’t have made sensefor me way back then to take off to Toronto or Calgarywhere I had absolutely no connections to the cultureor the people.

“I was made to feel alright about where I came fromand people were interested and made a fuss over whatNewfoundland is, as opposed to coming at me with allthe stereotypes imposed upon us when we go to themainland. I felt I could relax.”

Hynes returned during the March Hare tour ofIreland earlier this year, now a successful and recog-nized writer and actor.

“To be honest, I was expecting some sort of home-coming, I guess, but it was like walking through theghost of a town that might not have really been therein the first place,” he says.

He was struck by two other things: the amount ofdrinking in public (which has been referred to as a“national emergency”); and the lack of Irish workingin the service industry.

“Mass waves of Eastern Europeans show up everyday in search of those very jobs that the Irish won’twork at anymore and the result being a very diluted,yet multi-cultural, culture,” he says. “Not a raciststatement in the least, just that it seems to have great-ly influenced the character of Dublin. It doesn’t feelIrish over there. It feels European.”

•••In the summer of 1995, I worked in a bar called

Papa Joe’s, an awkward piano bar near ChristchurchCathedral, not far from Dublin’s city centre. It wasn’tvery busy, but was plenty of fun — great bar staff,friendly and patient regulars, and tasty pints after clos-ing time.

I also did shifts at the Castle Inn around the corner,at the time a very dark and dirty pub, frequentlycrowded, loud, and at times utterly bewildering. Itwasn’t rare to see a punch — or something else —thrown on a Friday night, but it was also a highlyentertaining place to work, filled with personality andvigour.

Papa Joe’s, not surprisingly, doesn’t exist anymore,at least not in name. The building still stands, and theinterior has barely changed, but it’s now called ThePale and caters primarily to the tourist traffic heading

to and from the Guinness brewery.The Castle Inn is now the Bull and Castle, and has

received a complete and successful facelift. It’s stilldark, but very modern and clean, boasting dozens ofbrands of beer from around the world. It doesn’t havethe same energy (or the stuffed animal heads andantlers on the wall), but it’s hard to make a judgment,being early on a weekday evening.

I do know that 12 years ago, myself and my room-mates would make a point of visiting small pubs andchatting with the bar staff — almost certainly Irish —about the country, the city and the way things worked.We were trying to absorb as much as we could, feel athome as quickly as possible, and the folks behind thebar were generally more than willing to tell storiesand provide opinions on everything.

As Hynes says, most of the people working the barnow are from far afield — with a whole new set ofstories to tell, no doubt, if they have time to do so.

•••St. John’s-based folk musician Fergus O’Byrne

grew up in Dublin. He last returned three years agoand agrees that downtown Dublin is “very familiar instructure but very different with so many different

accents and languages being spoken.”It’s a far cry from the city he knew as a youngster

— but that’s hardly rare, from a global perspective.“The pace of life seems so much faster,” he points out,“but that’s indicative of any large city in the world.”

Like many Newfoundlanders, O’Byrne says henow finds more of an affinity for the west part of thecountry, places like Galway and surrounding counties— literally and figuratively closer to Newfoundlandand filled with the things that speak to his roots andpassion for traditional music.

“I guess the pace (in the west of Ireland) remindsme more of what is here in Newfoundland,” he says.“Galway is such a good place to find traditional musicthat’s easily accessible.

“Newfoundland is my home but I still have anancestral attachment to Ireland, especially through thegreat music that comes from there. When I was homethree years ago I was greatly impressed by the num-ber of young people in their teens and early 20s whoplay their instruments with such expertise. But thesessions here in St. John’s are equally as impressive,not only for the musicality, but because of the wel-come mat that’s laid out.”

***For the next week or so, I’m a guest, a tourist in

Dublin again, staying with a friend I met the last timearound.

It’s difficult to compare the experiences — now I’m31, not 19, and plenty has happened in the time inbetween to change the way I see and react to a place.

That summer a dozen years ago, I worked in a pubfor two pounds an hour. There was no extra money fordinners out or shopping, but that’s not what I was herefor — it was a grand adventure, a great few months oflearning and exploring and socializing in a place thatseemed remarkably close to home. And it still does,for whatever reasons.

And so, there may or may not have been hundredsof great places to eat a decade ago. There certainly arenow (this includes, as before, Leo Burdock’s fish andchips, but also takes in everything else you couldthink to list).

I’m sure shopping has come a long way as well, theresult of increased demand, more disposable income,and a higher standard of living. The boutique-linedGrafton Street is jam-packed every afternoon, and thecustomers are most definitely not all tourists.

The friend I’m staying with has seen changestoo, of course, having grown up in Dublin,moved away, and returned home to a good job.The house he bought five years ago — justaround the corner from the home he grew up in— has likely doubled in value in that time.

We drop by his parents for a cup of tea, andthey’re enthusiastic about the Dublin of today.Without hesitation, they say, the past 10 yearsin the city have been the best they can remem-ber: people have jobs, people have money andpolitics are relatively stable.

Everyone has concerns about housing prices,certain taxes, health care, garbage removal,local crime — issues common to many a grow-ing city. But even in the heart of town, the localpub still exists, neighbours still know eachother’s business, families and communities sur-

vive.•••Here’s my confession: as far as I know, I

have no ancestral links to Ireland. No Irish inmy blood. My family comes from England,Wales, maybe Scotland.

Maybe it’s just growing up inNewfoundland, surrounded by music and storyand hearing so many of the soft accents mywhole life — even picking up on some of thelilt and lingo myself. (Or some sort of inherentappreciation for the brave souls who first set upin my province.) Either way, I feel close tohome here, even in a big blustery city that like-ly actually has little in common with St. John’s.

But that sense of place, as we hear over andover again, goes both ways.

The Ireland-based Irish Newfoundland

Partnership was formed in 2001 (there’s aNewfoundland equivalent, the Ireland BusinessPartnership, based in St. John’s) and AgnesAylward has been executive director since thefirst year. They organize cultural programs andexchanges — the annual Festival of the Sea, forone, and there’s a long list of music, art and the-atre that has been shown on both sides of theAtlantic because of it. There’s also knowledgetransfer, trade missions, science forums andcommunity development projects.

I stopped by the partnership’s offices theother day to say hello. Aylward is from countyWaterford, where so many Newfoundlandershave direct ties, dating back to the 17th centu-ry.

“I’m very interested in the work,” saysAylward. “And very interested because when Iwent to Newfoundland there were so manynames there from my part of Ireland and somany names and so many faces and so manyvoices were so similar. It was uncanny … everyperson I met on the Southern Shore had thesame name as someone I went to school with inthe small town I grew up in.”

Then Aylward said something that stuck withme, and makes more and more sense in today’sworld, with mass culture and globalization andall those other buzz words. She says the Irishshe brings over to Newfoundland for the firsttime are always surprised and delighted bywhat they find. “In the end,” she says. “We alllove to find ourselves somewhere else.”

[email protected]

‘Euro-town’A horse and cart delivering boxes of fruit to the markets in Dublin. Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland A multicultural nation: Traders sell phone cards on Dublin’s Moore Street.

Leon Farrell/Photocall IrelandPeople drinking in O’Reilly’s Pub on Merrion Row in Dublin on New Year’s Eve.Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Polish immigrants. A woman buys a Polish languagepaper at a newsstand on Dublin’s O'Connell Street.Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

From page 1

Breathe through a strawfor 60 seconds.That’s what breathing is like with cystic fibrosis.

No wonder so many people with CF stop breathing

in their early 30s.

Please help us.

1-800-378-CCFF • www.cysticfibrosis.ca

Dublin by night. Dublin City nighttime scenes with traffic on O’Connell Street. Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Joel Hynes (left) and Fergus O’Byrne Paul Daly/The Independent


LIFESTORY

By John RietiThe Independent

Red blazer draped over his shoulders, cassetterecorder and microphone dangling by his side, ScottChafe, one of VOCM’s most decorated reporters, wasalways the last person to leave the House of Assembly.

A political reporter with the radio news station for over40 years, Chafe interviewed every Newfoundland andLabrador premier that held office. He passed away lastweek at the age of 61 due to illness, working until his finaldays.

Chafe often spent his breaks smoking cigarettes withPercy Barrett, the liberal MHA for Bellevue. The twodeveloped a friendship that Barrett says was never chal-lenged by their professions.

“We didn’t talk politics all the time … we talked aboutwhat he was fanatical about, trouting and salmon fishing,”says Barrett.

Chafe covered news across the island, beginning hiscareer in Marystown before moving to St. John’s to coverthe legislature. Despite his travels around the province,Chafe had never fished in Placentia.

“You’re going to have to take the trip someday,” Barrettremembers telling Chafe.

“It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to be seen on the sameboat together,” replied Chafe.

Barrett told Chafe that when he retired he would takehim fishing around his hometown.

“When I heard about his death, the first thing that cameacross my mind was the only way I’m going to be able todo this fishing trip with Scott is in spirit,” says Barrett.

Chafe spent countless hours perched in the press galleryabove the House of Assembly, but he had a knack for tak-ing long-winded debates and turning them into short andsimple radio pieces.

Bob Wakeham, who covered the same stories as Chafefor other news agencies, is still amazed by how quickly andaccurately Chafe could file his reports.

“He could have covered any story in the world and comeback with just the facts, just the accurate facts … I’m sureVOCM has never got calls from anybody saying ‘Scott gotit wrong,’ he always got it right,” says Wakeham.

Chafe also rose above the controversy and competitionof the tiny legislative newsroom — three radio booths anda line of shallow work stations — where reporters con-stantly try to beat each other to stories.

“Scott was first and foremost an incredibly pleasant,decent and nice man. He wasn’t a self-centered prick oranything along those lines like a lot of us are … I used towatch him share his stuff with his radio competitors.”

Wakeham said this friendly approach made Chafe a per-fect fit for VOCM, a station that prides itself on being partof the community and getting Newfoundlanders andLabradorians as soon as it happens.

Chafe took an old-fashioned approach to journalism —just the facts, no twists, extra context, or analysis.Wakeham says this is how he will remember Chafe and hecan still repeat the reporter’s outro, “Scott Chafe, VOCMNews at the House of Assembly.”

Just the facts

‘Could we rear donkeys with caribou?’Dear editor,

The Akbash dog has been used to guard live-stock since biblical times. It is a large, whitedog originating in Turkey, where it isemployed to watch over sheep and protectthem from wolves, etc.

Now an Israeli farmer has reared the Akbashdog with yearling cattle on a farm so theywould learn by instinct to protect the cattle. He

then released the Akbash dogs to the wildwhere they are protecting cattle from wolves.What has this got to do with the province?

Could we not use the Akbash dog to protectour caribou herds from coyotes? I have notedthat Newfoundland farmers have successfullyused donkeys to protect their sheep from coy-otes. Could we rear donkeys with caribou (likethe Israeli cattlemen) and then release them to

the wild to protect the caribou herds? The wildhorses of Cormack have survived harsh win-ters of insular Newfoundland for half a centu-ry.

These are only suggestions, and I would likewildlife biologist Shane Mahoney (or others)to give informed opinion.

Chas Luter,Buchans

YOURVOICE

Dear editor,I am writing regarding the recent attack by

a Doberman in St. John’s. I really do notunderstand this kind of thing happening. Ihave three mixed breed dogs that are welltaken care of by my partner and me. We walkour dogs daily. We mix with many types ofdogs and their owners, Dobermans included.We have never had a problem with Dobermanin any way shape or form. They are friendlyand loving animals. The Dobermans that wehave been in contact with in this city are muchmore interested in playing with our dogs than

they are interacting with humans. In fact, theymore or less ignore humans if there is anotherdog around.

I do not understand this person being hurtby a Doberman. The dog may have felt threat-ened by the man or something like that. Wehave a dog that is part husky and in the sum-mer he pants and his tongue hangs out becausehe is too hot. Panting is how dogs cool them-selves off. Some people think that because adog’s mouth is open and his tongue is hangingout that he is going to eat them. When it comesto dogs that attack or hurt people, like they say

about bad children “the apple does not fall farfrom the tree.” Meantime, I know a friend ofmine had to give her dog away to friends inOntario because the kids next door wherealways throwing rocks at her when she wentout to the yard to do her business. In the longrun I would trust any dog any time of the dayor night over a human. Most dogs like humansand want to get along with them. I cannot nec-essarily say that for some people.

Garry Blake,Conception Bay South

Dobermans are our friends

Scott Chafe Submitted photo



AROUND THE WORLDOn Thursday last, the anniversary of theMost Gracious Majesty’s Birth was cele-brated in this loyal city, by its being keptas a general holiday. During the day theForts at the Block-house at Signal-hillwere gaily decked out with flags of allkinds; and in the evening the apartmentsat Government house were thrown opento a brilliant party; the lady of hisExcellency presided with her accus-tomed dignity, amiability and grace, andhis Excellency with his usual urbanity.The entrance to Government house wasneatly illuminated — the Royal initialwas handsomely typified by lamps, andthe people lit up Cochrane Street, in therear of his Excellency’s palace, withblazing tar-barrels, til far in the night.Indeed the day was well-kept — signifi-cant of the devoted feelings of the peopleof this ancient colony towards her mostgracious Majesty.

— The Reporter, St. John’s, June 5, 1856

AROUND THE BAYA Heart’s Content dispatch of the 10thinst. states that “During yesterday’sbreeze a man named George Clark,”while endeavouring to beat his boat intoHeart’s Desire swamped about four milesoff and was drowned. His brother, in

another boat, was some distance leewardof the unfortunate man and consequentlycould render no assistance. Clark leavesa wife and one child to mourn hisuntimely end.

— The Weekly Record, Trinity, June 18, 1892

YEARS PASTThe name of Hon. Edgar R. Bowring isincluded in the list of Birthday Honoursand he has been given a Knighthood. Therecognition is well-deserved and the hon-our is one that every Newfoundlanderwill appreciate, for the name of Bowringhas been a household word for the lastcentury in this Colony. Sir Edgar is a sonof the late John Bowring and was born inSt. John’s in 1858.

— St. John’s Daily Star, June 4, 1915

EDITORIAL STANDOur Newfoundland bank fishery diedout many years ago, with the decease ofthe last of our old West of England bank-ing establishment. Since then it has beenrelegated to the French and Americanbankers, who, having no coast line ofvalue to work over, have been necessari-ly driven to look for still more profitablefares in deeper waters. We have no doubtthat before the present generation passesaway, we shall find the two or three ves-sels now fitted out for the Bank fisheryrepresented by as many thousands,manned by those of our fishermen whonow grope about the shore in smallboats, satisfied with catching a few“tomcods,” but who, under the new con-

dition of things, will be endowed with amore ambitious hardihood, and insteadof becoming fishermen only — to theextent to which the term may be appliedto them — will not only become fisher-men in the truest sense of the word, buthardy and experienced seamen as well,to their own infinite advantage and to theadvantage of the Colony as well.

— The North Star, St. John’s, June 22, 1878

LETTER TO THE EDITORDear Sir – Lady Squires has scored adouble victory by being the first womancandidate for political honours and alsobecause she has proven that a woman iscapable of running an election campaignagainst the seasoned Tory party, as wellas beating them at their own game, andnot only so but she has rolled up atremendous vote and may well feel proudof the confidence shown by the voters ofLewisporte who were determined thatLady Squires should be the first womanto mark the stepping off place betweenthe old iron-bound traditions and the newprogressive modern ideas.

— The Liberal Press, St. John’s, June 7, 1930

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“I feel that I certainly will be Premiersoon. I am in my sixties but I still feelyoung enough to assume the Premiershipand to be very active in the capacity.” —PC Leader Malcolm Hollett

-The Newfoundland Weekly, St. John’s,June 20, 1957

Fig.16

I’ve got the money, honeyIn almost every year I’ll speak to just

over 100 groups and organizationsabout money and personal finances.

It’s all part of a commitment to publiceducation. Doing these sessions isalmost at the top, the best part of myjob, second only to meeting face to facewith people. It’s also been a greatopportunity for me to learn more aboutcouples and their money.

I’ve learned that many people sign upfor courses with a single goal in mind:they want someone to tell them how tohandle their money more effectively.They presume they’re practically finan-cially illiterate, or only just beyond, thatthey have nothing to manage in anyevent, and finally, that they desperatelyneed to change. They are husbands,wives and partners, parents, grandpar-ents, siblings and friends. They are usu-ally ordinary people and typicallythey’re decent. I’ve come to learn thatgenerally they are neither illiterate nor

inflexible and certainly not impover-ished. Simply put, they are individualsmisinformed about money, and theytake that misinformation into their cou-ple-hood.

They fail to see money for what ittruly and exclusively is — power. Morespecifically, the power to choose.Couples who fail to grasp this realiza-tion, in my experience, spend yearsgoing around in circles, looking foranswers that typically never appear. Forexample, some couples fail to see theirincome as entitling them to a certainlevel of power as consumers. Theyshould then build their family life tothat point, to benefit all family mem-

bers. Instead they view their standard ofliving as a cross to bear. They spend lit-tle on themselves, but their childrenhave the best of everything.

Then again, in some relationships onespouse recognizes the power thatmoney brings while the other does not.The person in the know enjoys being infinancial control, and they don’t like thenotion of surrendering it at all. To insuresuccess, they both confirm and affirmtheir partner’s perceptions and saythings like, “Thank God I’m better withthe money than you are,” and “If we leftthings to you, we’d be in the poorhouse.”

And, of course, in some relationshipsone of the partners willingly surrenderscomplete financial control. But at nopoint do they perceive themselves asactually giving up financial responsibil-ity. Have you ever heard or said, “I’mjust awful with money, you’d better seeto it.” I must acknowledge that some

people may genuinely be unable to han-dle money due to literacy challenges,mental-health issues or general fear andstress. Then there are those who simplycould not be bothered. The real “stress”is passed to the other partner who’sstuck as the family treasurer — whetherthey want the job or not.

Another dynamic we see in couplesis a play for the financial power in ahousehold. This is achieved throughthe message, “Aren’t you glad Ichoose to love you.” These peoplerarely surrender any control to theother spouse even though she or he isquite capable. Typically they dole out apersonal allowance and then hold theother spouse to account for how theyspend it.

There’s the type who uses his, andyes it’s typically his, money to controland intimidate. These are the peoplewhose spouse believes that she hasnowhere to go if and when the relation-

ship turns sour. She fears being tossedunceremoniously into the street with nofinancial resources of her own. Theytypically feel they are not allowed tohave — aren’t entitled to, in fact — apoint of view on financial matters. Theyspend their time trying to keep thepeace, by walking on eggshells and byrepeating in their own mind, over andover, “Don’t get Daddy on the go.”

But we also see wonderfully positivefinancial relationships. These are notthe exclusive domain of the well edu-cated who enjoy an above-averageincome. I remember talking to one guyabout 15 years ago and suggesting tohim that his household debt could becut a little if he sold a small parcel ofland adjacent to his property whereanother house could be built. He rea-soned that my idea had merit, butSusan, his spouse, loved the view

See “Financial relationship,” page 14

INDEPENDENTBUSINESSFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — PAGE 13

AL ANTLEYourFinances

What brings you to NL?By John RietiThe Independent

Still excited from seeing a hugeiceberg floating just outsidethe hills of Quidi Vidi Gut in

St. John’s, a group of tourists talkover each other to describe their visitto the province.

“It’s a beautiful place, it’s gor-geous,” says Jerry Keane fromAlberta.

“That’s what we discovered after-wards, they didn’t tell us in Englandhow wonderful it was,” says RoyFinley from Wiltshire, UK.

“They didn’t tell us how cold it waseither,” adds Jytte Finley, his wife.

“The important thing is we will be

coming back,” says Roy.Finley was in town for the

Embroidery Association of Canadaconference along with Keane’s wifeEmily. Together the group had eatenseafood — “you don’t get it this freshon the prairies,” says Emily — expe-rienced some of Newfoundland’snature, and were about to tour theQuidi Vidi Brewery.

Shane Lynch, marketing assistantwith the provincial tourism depart-ment, says May has been a busymonth. Although there are no statisticsavailable for 2007, the governmentpredicted conferences would cause aswell in tourist numbers in May. Asimilar increase is expected in the fall.

Last year, just under 500,000 peo-

ple visited Newfoundland andLabrador. Seventy per cent of touriststraveled to the island from Ontarioand the Maritimes.

Atop Signal Hill, nurses KendraGunn and Karen Keefe from P.E.I.brace themselves against the wind andare blown away by the scenery.

“We arrived this afternoon andwe’ve been out to see the icebergs andout to Cape Spear … it’s just beauti-ful,” says Gunn who is in town for aconvention.

Gunn says she has noticed morepromotional material for the provincerecently, specifically a television adplaying on the titles of ruralNewfoundland towns like Heart’sContent. The provincial government

spent $6.4 million on television andprint advertising this year. In 2006visitors spent $366.3 million in theprovince.

This May the icebergs have becomefloating billboards. “(Tourists will)come down just to see the icebergs,”says Lynch. “You’re not going to seethat anywhere else, besidesGreenland.”

The icebergs have also turned peo-ple into tourists in their own province.Jonathan Penney of St. John’s racedout to photograph the icebergs as soonas he could. He says photography hasopened his eyes to the province andthat he has been “just as amazed as

See “It’s tough,” page 14

A tourist observes a pinnacle iceberg as it rests outside The Narrows. Nicholas Langor/The Independent

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS JUNE 8, 2007

across the harbour from the front-room window. It gave him pleasure tojust watch her looking.

“Al b’y,” he said. “Is loosing all thatgoing to be worth the $7,000 I’ll get?”The look on his face and the words hespoke have remained with me over allthese years. Regrettably, I don’t knowif they ever sold.

I sure hope not.We also see couples who demon-

strate incredible respect for the other’shard work. I dealt with a young physi-cian a number of years ago whosepartner was a stay-at-home parent.Among his chief financial prioritieswas a four-day weekend jaunt for hiswife to her friend’s place in upstateNew York several times each year.

He’d stay at home with their children,doing her daily chores.

“It’s the least I can do,” he said.“She saves us a fortune on daycare.”Getting his wife off to those specialweekends came before everythingelse. In his view, her stress was somuch greater than his own.

So what kind of financial relation-ship do you and your honey have? Doyou understand its rewards and limita-tions? Are you OK with things overall

Stuff that’s reflected in the sheets ofyour bank statement can definitelyfind their way between other sheets inother aspects of your life too.

Al Antle is executive director of Creditand Debt Solutions Newfoundland andLabrador (Formerly Credit CounsellingService of Newfoundland and Labrador).

Financial relationship

Skills drainProvince’s in-demand trades workers need wage increase to stay: employer’s council

By Mandy CookThe Independent

Chris Wells’ four-year electricaljourneyman’s program atAcademy Canada in St. John’s

will keep him bouncing between class-room and fieldwork — and employmentinsurance.

The 34-year-old is currently workingin the capital city, logging enough hoursas an apprentice to return for a secondterm of class instruction. Meanwhile, the$15 he makes per hour and the prospectof filing for EI while in school is dis-couraging him from sticking around theprovince to complete his program.

“In Alberta I can walk in off the streetand make $34 bucks an hour,” he says.“Everything is paid for at the camps —your food, your accommodations.There’s even a maid service to come and

make the bed.”Wells will decide in the next two weeks

if he will take his buddy up on his offer ofa job in remote Alberta, working threeweeks on, one week off. He says eventhough there’s plenty of work for him inNewfoundland and Labrador — the com-pany he works for has 14 big jobs comingup and only 18 electricians to do the work— the high wages to be earned inAlberta’s labour crunch are tempting.

Derm Corbett, mayor of Buchans incentral Newfoundland, says the DuckPond base metal mine 20 kilometresfrom nearby Millertown has “prettymuch” accessed all the tradespeopleavailable from the local area.

Of the 200 people working there, heestimates 25 to 30 are from his commu-nity, and others have come from Badger,Grand Falls-Windsor, Springdale andthe Baie Verte area. Still, the labour

force had to be topped up with workersfrom Quebec and Ontario.

“There’s a tremendous shortage ofskilled experienced miners and if you’relucky enough to fit into that categoryyou can pretty much pick where you’dlike to work — in the province and thecountry,” he says.

Two weeks into production, Corbettsays there are about a dozen trucks a dayshipping zinc, copper and lead to thewest coat to connect with the Port auxBasques ferry. He says Duck Pond mineis one of the more “significant” mineson the island portion of the provinceright now and has a life expectancy ofbetween six and eight years. Ironically,Corbett expects to see an eventual skillsdrain from his town to another miningcommunity.

“(Duck Pond’s) got their work forcein place but undoubtedly they’ll have a

few of their experienced workers nowleak away to Baie Verte because theoperation in Baie Verte will be startingup soon and a number of them workingup there are from Baie Verte so undoubt-edly they’re going to probably want tomove up there,” he says. “It’s one thingto get them it’s another to hold on tothem.”

Marilyn Tucker, president of theNewfoundland and LabradorEmployers’ Council, says the key toretaining skilled workers in any capacity

is a wage increase. In addition to attractive salaries,

Tucker says there will have to be“lifestyle factors” included in compen-sation packages such as more familytime to encourage those new to the workforce to consider a career in skilledtrades. She also says the education sys-tem needs to match skills training withcorresponding industries currently lack-ing workers.

Although Wells knows he can findsteady work in his home province —and that local contractors are so desper-ate they personally approach trades col-leges to offer opportunities to new grad-uates like himself — he cites a lack ofbenefits and his hourly wage as reasonsto leave.

“I don’t want to go,” he says. “I’d stayif I was making more money.”

[email protected]

Trade College Privates Totalof the N. A.

Carpentry 47 102 149Electricians 125 224 349Mining Technician 136 0 136Plumbing 16 32 48Welders 201 126 327

Source: Department of Education

From page 13

any tourist.“They’re a unique thing that not many people around the

world get to see … something different that’s part of our cul-ture,” says Penney.

Signal Hill, Blackhead and Cape Spear have all been pop-ular vantage points for bergs, as well as the northern coast ofthe province where there is an abundance of sea ice.

The province’s tourism outlook for 2007 predictsAmerican visitors will remain low (just 12 per cent of themarket), however two tourists on Signal Hill this week werefrom New York.

When LiQi Ang and Iris Yang found out they would bevisiting Newfoundland for the Air, Ocean, Earth and Ice onthe Rock! meteorological conference, they extended theirstay for an extra week.

Yang says they were attracted to the province’s history,which they read about online and in Frommer’s travelguidebook to Canada. Highlights of their trip were hikingthe East Coast Trail and seafood at Zachary’s Restaurant.

“It’s tough to come here though … it took us 36 hours toget here because of flights,” says Yang.

Was it worth the trip? “Definitely.”[email protected]

‘It’s tough to come here’From page 13

Protecting the dealFisheries minister says FPI deal penalties have teethBy Ivan MorganThe Independent

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideoutsays government has built thebest financial commitments into

the pending FPI deal that they could.Speaking in reaction to a story in last

week’s Independent that suggested theprovince’s track record enforcing mil-lion-dollar penalties attached to agree-ments with private companies is not astrong one, Rideout says the penaltiesthey have put in place to protect thetentative deal with processors OceanChoice and Highliner to purchase theassets of Fishery Products are solid.

Rideout says a guarantee is only asgood as the intentions of the peoplebehind it, and he understands that con-ditions can change over the years.

“We all don’t have a crystal ball tostare that far out into the future,”Rideout tells The Independent. “Butthey’re guarantees as good as we canget … as good as circumstances willpermit us to arrive at, at this particularpoint in time.”

In 1998 the Tobin government soldthe Marystown shipyard facilities toU.S.-based Friede Goldman for $1. Atthe time, government made a point ofassuring the Newfoundland andLabrador public it was a sound deci-sion, citing commitments by the com-

pany to maintain a minimum number ofperson hours of work for the followingthree years. Failure to do so wouldresult in million-dollar fines

The company did not honour thecommitment or pay the fines. When thecompany sold the facility to PeterKiewit Sons in 2002, the Roger Grimesadministration waived the fines owedto government.

“I guess the reality has set in that youtake part of the loaf or no loaf,” Grimessaid in an interview last week, referringto the government’s pending deal to sellFPI. “And they’ll cry from the rooftops— just like Brian Tobin and the crewdid back then — that this is good andthis is secure and this is safe, but thefact of the matter is nobody will knowwhat it is going to look like in fiveyears time. Not a single living soul. Justlike we didn’t know then.”

Rideout says he has faith that OceanChoice and Highliner — both with longtraditions in the Newfoundland fishery— will honour their commitments tothe province and the communities inwhich they will be operating.

“I can’t see why any company worthits salt would want to shell out hun-dreds of millions of dollars to buy anasset and then pay several more milliondollars to close it down,” says the min-ister. “It would seem to me that themotivation would be to make it work.”

Rideout says there is a regime ofpenalties in the agreement that protectthe province’s stake in the deal.

He says Ocean Choice — the compa-ny to default on any of their agreementswith the province — stands to loseaccess to the offshore quota andlicences they will inherit under the deal.Control of the access to those quotaswould rest with the province for at leasta two-year period. The province wouldbe able to use that period of time to findsomebody else to access the licensingquotas. In addition, the province holdsthe right of first refusal on the quotas asthey are currently tied to theMarystown operation, as the provincehas the right of first refusal on theMarystown plant.

In Burin, says Rideout, the agree-ment with Highliner includes — inaddition to million-dollar fees for non-compliance with the sale agreement —a per pound penalty for failing toprocess the agreed upon 17.5 millionpounds of product.

A secondary processing facility cre-ates more jobs per pound of fish, saysRideout. A per pound penalty of sevencents is important, he adds, becausewhat creates jobs in Burin is “throughput” or secondary processing.

“So that’s the way you protect Burin.”

[email protected]

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout and Premier Danny Williams Nicholas Langor/The Independent

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS JUNE 8, 2007

By Mandy CookThe Independent

Calvin Powell arrives for a downtownSt. John’s lunchtime interview visiblychanged since his last visit to his

home province for a soloist role in theNewfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s sea-son finale Carmina Burana a month and ahalf ago. During that performance, Powellappeared on stage in tux, tails and spikedblonde hair — electrifying the audience withhis awesome baritone vocals.

This time, in casual jeans and hoodie, thesix-foot-four opera singer’s hair is black witha bright green splotch in the front.

Transformation seems to be a dominanttheme in Powell’s career. In 2000, heappeared at a provincial audition at the LSPUHall, red-haired, bushy-bearded and 110pounds heavier. The moment he opened hismouth, nearly taking the roof off the buildingwith the strength of his voice, his appearancewas immediately forgotten.

Soon after, having graduated with a degreefrom Memorial’s School of Music, Powellmoved to Ontario to study in the opera divi-sion at the University of Toronto. It was dur-ing this nationally esteemed training programthat he decided to lose the extra weight —dramatically slimming down to his now trimand striking appearance.

Not only did Powell’s endurance spike (“Ican do anything a director asks me”) he saysa singer’s appearance is a critical considera-tion when up for roles with the country’sleading opera houses.

“Tastes are changing and as the opera audi-ence gets older and they look for new audi-ences, the next generation will not accept twoyoung lovers not looking like Hollywood …a lot of opera companies are really lookingfor that,” he says.

The survival of Powell’s beloved art formis a topic close to his heart. He’s put muchthought into the changing world of opera andsays “if you don’t look the part you won’t getthe part.” Young and attractive performers

are necessary to keep new audiences’ atten-tion, particularly when staging older classicoperas such as 17th century baroque pieces.

“One of the best companies by far in per-forming baroque opera, Opera Atelier inToronto: the manager’s had an extensivecareer in dance, so all the performers lookgreat in tights and they’re all about sex, sex,sex — mostly because that’s what opera is,”he says.

Powell himself prefers newly written con-temporary Canadian opera, and recently per-formed at a performance space in theDistillery District in Toronto. Written by a

INDEPENDENTLIFEFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — PAGE 17

‘A story about immigration’Playwright David French’s story about transplanted Newfoundlanders returns to Toronto stage and rave reviews

TorontoKristine PowerFor The Independent

It’s not often, if ever, that you canwalk into a Toronto theatre to thesmell of frying fish and onions. In

David French’s play Leaving Home, pro-duced by Toronto theatre companySoulpepper until June 26, it is the first ofmany unexpected pleasures. As the audi-ence tries to find their seats, one of themain characters, Mary, stands in front ofa ’60s-style oven flipping fillets andmashing potatoes.

French, a Newfoundland-born play-wright, is an officer of the Order of

Canada, the first ever inductee into theNewfoundland and Labrador Arts Hall ofHonour, and his seminal play LeavingHome was named one of the 1,000 essen-tial plays in the English Language by theOxford Dictionary of the Theatre.

French has created one of the mostmemorable families in the history ofCanadian drama: the Mercers, a tanglybunch of Newfoundlanders transplantedto Toronto, not unlike French himself.

“It’s a story about immigration,” saysFrench, who has lived in Toronto sincemoving there himself as a child.

Maybe it’s that archetypal journey thatexplains the play’s success in the furthestof places.

The story of the Mercers is a complexaccount of a family’s intimate bonds. Thestern patriarch Jacob, who grew up fish-ing with only a Grade 3 education, triesto connect in a meaningful way with hiseducated and urban sons, but theirattempts at loving each other go awry asthey seek to find a common language ofexperience. Jacob’s wife, Mary, tries tobe the glue that holds them all together,but often fails.

“Everything is influenced by my mem-ory and my experiences with my family,”French says. And he was so afraid ofwhat his family might think of LeavingHome, the first of five plays about theMercer family, he didn’t even invite

them to its premiere. They went anywayand loved it, including his father, who isthe inspiration for Jacob.

“I thought maybe I had done my fatheran injustice, but he didn’t think so.”

French never wandered far for inspira-tion. He says his house was busier thanToronto’s Union Station, withNewfoundlanders coming and goingwith their stories, their dialects and allthe drama only reality could dream up.Everything was fodder for his develop-ing imagination. “I picked up a lotthrough osmosis,” he says.

Newfoundland lurks like the puppetmaster holding the strings and exertingits influence on all the characters in

almost all of French’s plays, pushingthem towards conflict and, more timesthan not, allowing them some form ofredemption.

Calvin Powell at Petro-Canada Hall in St. John’s. Paul Daly/The Independent

Wall of soundCarbonear native on the surprising rock ’n’ roll life of a modern-day opera star

See “The silence,” page 19

See “There’s a reason,” page 19

David French Submitted photo

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE JUNE 8, 2007

Leaving Home and French’s otherplays such as Saltwater Moon — whichis scheduled to be performed by RisingTide Theatre in Trinity this summer —are steeped in the cultural milieu of pre-confederate Newfoundland. “Every timemy father saw a wave wash up on shoreon a TV show, he would cry,” saysFrench of his own upbringing in Coley’sPoint.

It would be 35 years after Frenchmoved to Toronto before he would returnto Newfoundland. “I was afraid of goingback because I thought it would destroymy imagination.”

Retaining that child’s way of seeingand feeling the world has served Frenchwell as a playwright. “I wouldn’t havebeen a writer if I hadn’t have leftNewfoundland,” he says. “I wouldn’thave had an education.”

He doesn’t try to keep abreast of theisland’s news or politics. He doesn’t seethat as his job.

The plays are elemental in the way thatthey examine the most sacred privaciesof family life. Leaving Home has beenperformed in every regional theatre inCanada. But its essential truth crossesinternational borders. Shortly after itsinfluential first production at theTarragon theatre in Toronto in 1972, itsold out to African-American audiencesin Harlem, New York City. “Familieswould come back two or three times to

see the play,” says French.Soulpepper’s production, directed by

Ted Dykstra, stars some of Canada’smost elite actors: Kenneth Welsh, DianD’Aquila and Jane Spidell. It has beenplaying to packed audiences and hasreceived rave reviews in Toronto news-papers.

French is invigorated by the play’ssuccess. He is awed by some of the bestperformances he has yet to see. Hedescribes Kenny Welsh as “the mostmanliest and sexist Jacob” he’s everseen.

There were some tense first-night jit-ters for French. The play hadn’t been

produced in Toronto since 1972. Hewaited, sitting anonymously in thecrowd, to see how the audience wouldreact. “The silence went on and on,” hesays and then finally came the relief ofthunderous applause.

French is working on what he thinkswill be the final Mercer play, bringing

the tally to six and covering four genera-tions. He recently threw out two-and-a-half years’ worth of work because it justdidn’t feel right.

“It’s an intricate form that depends onevery line of the play to drive it for-ward,” he says. And he wants to get itjust right. Like the perfect fried fish.

In the local film community the buzzhad been building for months.Rumour had it that after last year’s

abysmal lack of employment for actorsand crew in these parts, we were in fora rip-roaring summer full of work, workand more work. In the topsy-turvy feastand famine world of the arts inNewfoundland and Labrador we wereat long last headed back toward thefeasting end of the cycle. Then lastweek we got the bad news. The biggestand most expensive film in the works,Atlantic Blue, is not happening.

Atlantic Blue was to have been a fea-ture film about the Ocean Ranger disas-ter — a project of real and lasting worthand a major employer to boot. In a jaw-dropping feat of fundraising, MarySexton actually managed to raise $8million to make the project happen,only to have to turn around and shelve itfor the want of an oil rig to film it on.

Everyone right on up to the mighty

provincial government was on side withSexton, anxious to make Atlantic Bluehappen for all kinds of reasons, bothpractical and emotional. No doubt theygave it the old college try, but consider-ing the frostiness of relations of latebetween our fearless leader and Big Oilit’s perhaps not surprising there wasn’tmuch that could be done.

In all fairness to Danny, it would havebeen a pretty hard — maybe impossible— sell at the best of times.

Sexton’s inability to find an oil com-pany willing to grant access to one of itsrigs should come as a surprise to no one.After all, what’s in it for them? It’s notlike they need the money, God knows.

And I’m sure Atlantic Blue’s entire $8-million budget is nothing comparedwith the insane cash a working oil rigsucks out of the briny depths in thespace of a couple of months anyway.That’s why they’re in the oil businessand not the movie business.

Besides, we can hardly be shockedand amazed that an oil company — anyoil company — is going to be reluctantto help make a film about a rig that goesto the bottom taking its entire crew withit. Despite Sexton’s assurances thatAtlantic Blue wasn’t going to be an anti-Big Oil hatchet job, it would still bepretty difficult to tell the story of themen who died without at least touchingon the sickeningly insensitive andunfair treatment their families receivedat the hands of the company thatemployed them. Big Oil has enough PRheadaches just now without remindingpeople of their past transgressions.

But all is not lost in the world of film

and television production. There’s beena small but comparatively steady streamof work for actors and crew. Over atPope Productions they’re casting up astorm for their new project, and JoelHynes’ novel Down to the Dirt is mak-ing the jump to film even as I write this.The odd bit of television production isquietly chugging along, too. It is per-haps a testament to the hardiness of ourburgeoning film and TV industry thatwhile having a big show like AtlanticBlue go by the boards is a kick in thehead, it isn’t the end of the world.

Large budget productions take a longtime to set in motion and as a conse-quence they rarely come along. It’s fab-ulous when they do, but in the absenceof such an arts mega-project it’s thesmaller budget, shorter term films,videos, commercials and TV shows thatcan spell the difference between scrap-ing by and actually making a living. Abig film every now and again is a great

boost for morale, for public image andfor everyone’s bottom line, but theimportant thing is to keep the ballrolling by supporting the people turningout quality work on a modest scale.

The Newfoundland IndependentFilmmakers Cooperative (NIFCO to itsfriends) has been in business since1975, training people in all aspects offilmmaking and providing assistance tohelp them make the films they want tomake. homegrown film festivals likeThe Nickel Independent Film Festivaland the St. John’s InternationalWomen’s Film and Video Festival, toname but two, give them venues toshow them when they’re done. They’rethe institutions our local film communi-ty is based on, the ones that help it growand the ones that will continue to ensurewe’re all in fighting form when the bigopportunities come knocking.

[email protected]

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Atlantic BluesOcean Ranger movie scuttled for lack of oil rig; industry chugs along

SEANPANTING

State of the art

The silencewent on and on

young composer and colleague ofPowell’s, his first line in the work was:“Let’s get f-ing wasted!” He laughsabout playing a rowdy party jock in anenvironment typically associated withrefined social etiquette, but says it’s theway of opera’s future — and singing inEnglish colloquialism is yet anotherway to build a modern fan base.

As portrayed by Powell, the opera-singing world sounds noticeably simi-lar to the hectic and bawdy show busi-ness life of any touring musician. He

just wrapped a gig with the VancouverOpera, traveling up and down thePacific coast performing for school-children. While he loved being onstage, he admits traveling in a bus withthe same people every day for weeks onend was “challenging,” but laughswryly about the value of paying hisdues.

“One school tour in the QueenCharlotte Islands, basically Alaska, theprincipal got up and introduced ourshow and the kids were all giggling andsqueaking but as soon as someonecame out to sing, suddenly there was

silence. Not a peep. They were focusedon it. There’s something about that.”

Powell will be performing a recital inboth St. John’s and Carbonear thisweekend, before he leaves to reprise hisrole as the Pirate King in Gilbert andSullivan’s Pirates of Penzance forRising Tide Theatre’s Summer in theBight Theatre Festival. Ever aware ofhis audiences’ enjoyment, he says hechose his favourite songs of spring,marriage and sea shanties sung bysailors and pirates to reflect season andplace.

When questioned about why he

believes so passionately in the exoticart form of opera, he pauses to careful-ly collect his thoughts. He says settingwords to music can heighten theirimportance, and giving them “care andthought” can enhance a listener’sunderstanding. Most of all, he sayssinging can connect people on an ele-mental level.

“There’s a reason why we sing tobabies. There’s something about thehuman voice that can really affect us ona level sometimes words don’t alwaysget to … so if you can do it well andyou have a message to send and you

believe in the message you’re giving,than you can really affect people on alevel sometimes they’re not even awareof.”

[email protected]

Calvin Powell will be performing at thePetro-Canada Hall at MUN’s School ofMusic Friday June 8 at 7:30 p.m. andin Carbonear on Sunday June 10 at2:30 (venue to follow). Tickets areavailable at the door, $10 admission,$6 students/seniors.

‘There’s a reason why we sing to babies’From page 17

From page 17

Kenneth Walsh and Dian D’Aquila in a touching scene in Leaving Home, performed in Toronto. Sandy Nicholson/Submitted photo


Come Solo F estival 500, Sharing the Voices

— an international, non-competi-tive festival of choral music that

attracts choirs, conductors and scholars

to St. John’s from all over the world —has something to offer everyone. Thosewho aren’t in a choir are also encour-aged to come share their voice. Soloists

are welcome, organizers say.Professor Ki Adams, one of the festi-

val’s artistic directors, says thoseinvolved in the planning of the celebra-tions wanted to provide an opportunityfor singers not in a choir to participatein the very best the choral world had tooffer. The Come Solo idea came out ofthe desire to be inclusive, he says.

Adams explains there are manywho participate in choral singing whosechoirs are not performing formally inthe festival. They are “more than wel-come to participate as individuals —we call these our Come Soloists,” heexplains.

Adams says the festival can attractup to 200 Come Solo participants.

Individuals who are not performingwith any registered choir are invited toattend workshops led by choral experts,offered the opportunity to hear choirsfrom around the world each evening,get to enjoy the opening ceremoniesand sing in the grande finale concert

that concludes each festival.Anne Hughes of St. John’s, a Come

Solo participant, says there isn’t onething she likes best about the event.Instead, she insists, she enjoys“absolutely everything.”

Hughes has attended each festival,since they began in 1997, as a comesoloist. “I am in love with everythingrelated to the celebration of choralsinging and the Come Solo opportuni-ties allow me to engage totally in thiscelebration,” she says.

There is absolutely no highlight, sheinsists. “The workshops are fun andinformative, the practices are great, theconcerts you get to enjoy in the eveningare amazing,” Hughes says. “Havingthe opportunity to sing in the massedchoir, the people you meet, the celebra-tions, the parties … . Festival 500 offersas much as you can handle,” she chuck-les.

For Hughes, even the bagged lunch-es prepared for the busy participants are

a bonus.Adams can understand why those

like Hughes enjoy Festival 500 somuch. Soloists have the opportunity tosing with an orchestra, to attend thesymposiums and they blend in beauti-fully with the other choirs in themassed performance at the end of thefestival, Adams says. “They come fromall over the world and hang out togeth-er and experience everything almost astheir own group.”

Adams stresses the focus is on shar-ing at each festival. “Soloists also share— they share their unique vocal abili-ties with the massed choir,” he says.This sharing of all voices, he insists,leads to an enriching and powerfulexperience for all who attend the cele-brations.

“This is a wonderful opportunity forvoices from all over the world to worktogether in one thrilling performance,”he says. More than that, he continues,this exists “right on our front doorstep.”

For Hughes, the excitement starts atthe opening ceremonies where ComeSoloists participate in the Ode toNewfoundland with the registeredchoral choirs — and never fades. “Thefestival offers fantastic opportunitiesfor soloists, but it becomes about somuch more,” she says. “This is just anoverall amazing experience, it reallyis.”

To find out more visithttp://www.festival500.com/To purchase tickets, telephone:

(709) 729-3900Toll free: 1-800-663-9449

— Pam Pardy Ghent

The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium 2005, cameo performance by Julia Halfyard, Kellie Walsh. David Chafe also performed. Submitted photo

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

Thirteen years of public educationcoming to an end, and what haveI learned? It’s a tough question to

answer — considering I somehow gotaway without doing math or science inmy final year — but one that I feel nec-essary to contemplate with my departurefrom high school.

Many people I know have a tendencyto crap on the school system. After all,we are hungry teens trying to figurethings out on our own, ready to shut outthe people and establishments trying tohelp. I understand the disdain for “thesystem” because I know about theunconcerned teachers, the math perma-nently forgotten after the final exam andlack of personal expression in absorbinginformation from a Powerpoint slideshow. Welcome to high school.

I think what it comes down to is sim-ple: I’m going to miss the parts of highschool that I found important. In orderfor a 17-year-old to find somethingimportant, it has to be enjoyable, reward-ing and interesting.

I can say for sure that I’m not going tomiss the attempts by various boringfaces and droning voices to pound equa-tions and facts into my head. I can alsosay for sure that I’m not going to remem-ber what was taught to me during thoselessons. But the band concerts, theteacher who understood when I couldn’tget that assignment in on time in Grade10 because of my first real break up, andmy experiences as a co-op student withThe Independent I will remember. I’llremember these things because I’velearned from them.

I don’t remember the pieces we playedin every band performance, but I willnever forget how I learned to love music,or the feeling of playing an important,appreciated role in a large ensemble. Idon’t remember exactly why I was soupset that day in Grade 10, but I doremember the hug from the teacher whogave me a Kleenex instead of harping onabout a missed deadline. As I continue

my writing, I may not remember everyarticle I wrote for The Independent, but Iwill remember the feeling of initiallyseeing my work published and my namein print. I will remember learning how touse quotations and dashes properly aftergoing over the edit of my first article. Iwill remember how they gave me a desk,a voice recorder — along with a coffee,of course — and told me I could writeabout whatever interested me. That typeof rewarding, independent crash coursein writing and expression is exactly howa 17-year-old learns.

As it is my last week writing as a co-opstudent with The Independent, along withmy last week in high school, I feel likethis should be a positive piece about clo-sure. The truth is, I hear countless peopleevery day say how they “can’t wait toleave this place.” In making my way tothe disgusting washroom stalls at school— with no locks or toilet paper — I’malways sure to be reminded by the graffi-ti how much “school sucks.” At thesetimes, the thought of a better life in uni-versity runs through my head as I think ofall the people who’ve told me high schoolwas the worst period of their life.

Ironically, I’m going to miss this place.I know graduation not only marks an

end, but also a new beginning. Truth beknown, I’m both excited and scared tomove on. I’m afraid of becoming justanother number next year. I know therewon’t be flexible due dates and con-cerned professors and bosses in the “realworld.” As Bill Gates stated in his 11rules for young people: “Life is notdivided into semesters. You don’t getsummers off and very few employers areinterested in helping you find yourself.Do that on your own time.”

So these past few days when I’ve foundmyself sandwiched between sweaty 10thgraders in the stairwell — moving slowlyby the inch trying to make it to my nextclass — I’ve stopped myself before say-ing “I can’t wait to leave.” High schoolhas been a good support base for me, andin the past three years the people andexperiences here have played a major rolein shaping who I am.

Kyla Bruff is a Level III co-op studentfrom Holy Heart of Mary High School inSt. John’s.

[email protected]

‘A new beginning’Reflections of a high school graduate

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Judith and Holofernesafter CaravaggioIt’s not the violence of the scene that impresses meso much as the look on Judith’s face. Holofernesis in a state, or blue-balled for the want of her,the way he gapes and leans into the hank of hairclasped in her fist. She might look disconcertedat the jet of blood upon the sheets, his concertedeffort to die extravagantly, but a man will bleed

so much and then it’s over — the executioner neednot be implicated. But Judith’s servant: her hatchetfeatures cleave the guilty from the innocent. Decapitate.The only good Assyrian’s a dead one. The hordeor the sword, my duck. They would have rapedboth child and woman, grinned as they torchedour homes. You slice, maid, she says. I’ll carry it.

The above poem by Mark Callanan, the Independent’sbook columnist, won a 2007 Arts and Letters Award inPoetry — senior division.

CITY CONFIDENTIAL

Cast of City Confidential rehearse in front of City Hall. They include Amy Anthony (bottom left) Bridget Wareham (middle bottom) Torquil Colbo (bot-tom right) Mark White (top left) Clint Butler (top right) not present Ruth Lawrence, writer, and Lois Brown, director. Nicholas Langor/ The Independent

POET’SCORNER

Level III co-op student Kyla Bruff


‘Columnist-cum-homemaker’Not being Martha Stewart is a much more entertaining way to live

When the unofficial queen of domes-ticity, Martha Stewart, was indict-ed in 2004 on charges of conspira-

cy, perjury, and obstruction of justice in aninvestigation into alleged insider trading, nosmall number of disgruntled serfs werepleased with the riches-to-orange jumpsuitreversal of their reigning monarch. JaniceWells, longtime columnist with the HalifaxChronicle Herald, was one of them. “I knewI was envious of Martha and I liked her betterafter she went to jail,” she writes in the pro-logue to Definitely Not Martha Stewart, aselection of her lifestyle columns for theHerald.

Wells first achieved popularity in the pagesof the Herald with The Gin and TonicGardener, a gardening column sprung fromher philosophy that “most things in life,including gardening, are more fun if youdon’t get uptight about them.” Based on thesuccess of that initial assignment, Wells wasasked to write a second to fill the wintermonths and Definitely Not Martha Stewart(part domestic journal, part survival hand-book for middle-aged women) was born.

At the outset of this latest book (selectionsfrom The Gin and Tonic Gardener also madean appearance in book form in 2006), Wells isliving with her “card-playing, rum-drinking,83-year-old father” who has just suffered astroke and her “hard-playing, man-eating, 40-something-year-old gay friend Nicholas,”while trying to glue-gun the ragged scraps ofher life together after the dissolution of a 20-year marriage. “We had many days,” Wellsremarks on her new roommates, “when ourrefinement peaked at coming to the table fullydressed.”

Wells sets her post-marital life of thrift andpenury against the glamorous engagements ofthe House of Stewart: the coy floral arrange-ments; the vexingly effortless potpourrisachet production; the mild, unruffled natureof Stewart’s delivery. “While Martha waspontificating on the advantages of buying thebest knives and copper pots and pans,” theprologue reads, our columnist-cum-home-maker was scrounging for salvage materials

with which to renovate her home.In the guise of a home reno alter ego she

calls Janice Crowbar Warrior, Wells wages acampaign on the basement of her house.She’s forever swooping from yard sale toyard sale like a bird picking random bits andpieces for its nest. Her friend and roommateNicholas ogles workmen and hits on the maleboarders Wells takes in to supplement herincome. Meanwhile, her father wanders aboutlistlessly, prescribing a panacea of rum andcards for every wound, and otherwise provid-ing comic relief in the form of profound utter-ances (“watching me wrap the sixth copperkettle, he pronounced that I had the place ‘allfucked up with antiques’ ”).

WRYLY FUNNYWells is wryly funny and self-deprecating

in her descriptions of third-hand bargainfinds, the aged denizens she’s failed to cleanfrom her freezer, and the plethora of potentialreparative roles performed by the commonpantyhose. She approaches difficult subjectmatter with the same undaunted optimism,rising above sentimentality even as she writesabout great sadness. She can titillate her read-ers one moment with an apt description, onlyto blindside them later with a confession thatis touchingly candid. In one such piece, hav-ing found her ailing father lying on the bath-room floor, unable to rise, Wells makes thecall for help and then curls up beside him.

The most appealing aspect of DefinitelyNot Martha Stewart, though, is its structure.Each entry builds upon the details of the lastso that, over time, readers become increasing-ly familiar with Wells’ various travails andcome to feel a certain fondness for her. Takentogether, the articles follow a narrative arcthat progresses very much like a novel. Thatbeing the case, the book is best read from startto finish, rather than dipped into at random —though, I suppose, it could also be read out oforder without losing much of its entertain-ment value.

My only criticism of Wells’ book (and aniggling one at that) is that it would havebeen nice if individual articles had beendated, just to give a sense of context and thetime elapsed between publications. Asidefrom that, Definitely Not Martha Stewart is afunny, occasionally touching account of onewoman making her way in the world, rebuild-ing her life in both the metaphorical and liter-al sense, and finding that while laughter isn’tstrictly medicinal, it certainly helps. As doesthe odd hand of cards and shot of rum.

Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s. Hiscolumn returns June 22

The Gallery is a regular feature in The Independent. For information, or to submit proposals, please call (709) 726-4639, or e-mail [email protected]

John HaneyPhotographer

“I’m not interested in making derelictbuildings look beautiful,” Ontario-bornphotographer John Haney says of

Pleasantville, one of his current projects. Itshows: the photos from this ongoing study ofthe wartime American base in the east end ofSt. John’s are documentary in aesthetic; they donot attempt to prettify dilapidated structures orshy away from engaging with other signs ofdegradation.

So far, he has catalogued everything fromshattered glass panels in the emergencyentrance of the old abandoned Janeway hospi-tal to a graffiti-covered wheelchair ramp, andchicken trailers parked near Pepperrell Field.One particularly striking image, the white Xthat designates a helicopter-landing pad, haseven made its way onto the cover of poetGeorge Murray’s latest collection.

“There’s a distinct lack of a centre there,”Haney says of the Pleasantville area. “There areall these peripheral things.” To his eye, it is aplace cut off from past and future, a ghost town,a post-apocalyptic vision. The absence ofhuman forms in these pictures only serves toheighten their tension.

Like many photographers, Haney began hiscareer working in 35 mm but soon developedan interest in large-format view cameras (thinkof the tripod-mounted, accordion-like contrap-tions of early portraiture). During his time as astudent of New Brunswick photographerThaddeus Holownia, Haney became “rabidlyenvious” of the level of detail captured by histeacher’s large-format camera. He eventuallyacquired a 1928 Eastman Kodak Co. EmpireState No. 1.

“View camera photography is a lot more con-scientious and intentional,” Haney explains,contrasting his preferred medium with itssmaller scale cousins. “Sometimes there aremoments of grace when things just happen …but the chances of those kinds of things hap-pening are much less when you have to set upthe tripod and you have to focus it and then you

have to put in the film plate.”In Common Prayer, another ongoing series,

Haney has been photographing AtlanticCanadian churches. Largely, the churches havebeen shot front-on and centred on the frame’shorizontal plane — an approach that lends hissubjects an air of austerity and of unshakeablecalm. The churches range from blocky, modernstructures bound in vinyl siding to traditionalarchitectural forms: arched windows andpeaked roofs capped with bell towers.

“There’s a wonderful combination thatcomes out of small places with congregationsthat don’t have a lot of money,” he observes.“They just make something with what theyhave. And so, in one case, the cross is made outof a plumbing pipe … these buildings werebuilt out of pure love.” The same might be saidof Haney’s work. His images convey great ten-derness: a parental concern for the world’sawkward or wounded creatures.

One of Haney’s previous projects, BermudaWedding, is a Martin Parr-inspired documen-tary of his mother’s resort wedding. Parr,Haney says, is a member of the highlyesteemed Magnum Photo Agency whose garishimages of working-class British vacationersearned him notoriety.

Haney’s answer to Parr is “a meditation onfamily, leisure, circumstance, and the nature ofwaiting,” a quasi-family photo album of por-traiture and landscape photography, rife withtechnicolour combinations: a beach towel’stropical palette in one image vies for attentionwith a pair of neon yellow sandals in another;electric green grass competes against a stormyseascape, below rich and darkly-coloured skies.

Haney has had four solo exhibitions to date:in Ontario, New Brunswick, and in Berlin. Hisphotos have been included in group exhibitionsin New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfound-land (at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College) and inOntario. A selection of his work will appear atthe Leyton Gallery later this summer.

Visit John Haney’s online gallery atwww.johnhaney.ca

— Mark Callanan

MARKCALLANANOn the shelf

Definitely Not Martha Stewart: Domestic Tales of Starting OverBy Janice Wells, Key Porter Books, 2007. 192 pages.

GALLERYPROFILE

‘Sometimes there are moments of grace when things just happen’

From Empire State Building, May 2000.

Unidentified, Bellburns, NL., August 2003 St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Dawsonville, N.B., May 2004

Infant southern right whale, Peninsula Valdez (Argentina), September 2003.

INDEPENDENTSTYLEFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — PAGE 23

Island tartanBy Mandy CookThe Independent

Although Samuel Wilansky, the latedowntown St. John’s clothier, createdwhat is known today as the

Newfoundland tartan in 1955, his young sondidn’t appreciate his father’s flair for design.

“My father used to make me wear the tiegoing to school and I’d get around the cornerand take it off,” says Gary Wilansky.

The idea struck the businessman upon learn-ing Nova Scotia — a hotspot of tartan produc-tion due to its Scottish roots — proposed a tar-tan design for Newfoundland. A proudNewfoundlander “to the core,” says his son, theelder Wilansky decided to take it upon himselfto produce a locally made tartan.

Officially registered in Scotland in 1973 andsanctioned by the provincial government,Wilansky designed the tartan colours to corre-spond with the provincial anthem Ode toNewfoundland. The gold represents the sun’srays; the green the pine-clad hills; the whiterepresents the cloak of snow; the brown refer-ences the Iron Isle, or the ore mined in BellIsland from the 1890s to the 1960s; and the redrepresents the Royal Standard for which ourfathers stood.

Samuel Wilansky sold kilts, scarves, ties,postcards and even Royal Doulton china setsadorned with his tartan pattern — arriving inhis shop from England in barrels of straw.These days, Newfoundland tartan is available atNONIA, 286 Water St., where manager JudyAnderson says it is “steady” in popularitywhether for patriotic Newfoundlanders or

Newfoundland plaid a tourist

favourite; young

designer revamps

classic design

Food flicks Sick of sautéing vegetables and scrubbing pots? Then retire to the couch

The scene is all too familiar: awealthy, poncey, know-it-allcity boy inherits a clapped out

French chateau, complete with wine-producing acreage from an uncle hehasn’t seen in years. The only prob-lem is the city boy doesn’t want anypart of it. Upon arriving at thechateau he is stoic in his decision toget rid of the place as fast as possible— both to hide his guilt and maxi-mize his profits. In a short amount oftime, however, he remembers his lostchildhood, falls in love and discoversthe merits of the provencal life — itmight not be as glamorous, but theyhave their priorities in order. The

poncey city boy ultimately trans-forms into the person his unclealways wanted him to be and earnsthe respect of the people in hischarge.

The book, A Good Year, was writ-ten by Peter Mayle in 1991. It’s areally good read with food on thetable and wine in hand, and it wasalso really relaxing to watch on DVD

this past weekend. Russell Crowe is Max Skinner, a

London Bond trader and gad abouttown. He is ruthless, cruel, anduncompromisingly smug even whenhe wins. He’s the perfect picture ofthe guy you always want to hate, andCrowe plays it to the hilt. The roughflashbacks throughout show the gadin training, learning the art of warthrough playing chess and being gra-cious in defeat — even when it hurts.

You want to hate Max — hate himbecause he’s so arrogant and irritatingyou want to see his pain. On the otherhand, the vistas of the chateau, theseemingly endless sun-filled days and

the other colourful characters he findsalong his personal journey, force youto cheer him on.

But this column isn’t about movies— it’s about food. Lots of food.Provence is noted for cuisine — and Iwas surprised that unlike the book (agood summertime read) there was lit-tle in the way of food in the film. Iwanted to see the feasts, the rusticcuisine: the almost palpable smell ofboar roasting, the pungent aromas offresh cheeses ripening in sunlight, thebuttery crunch of a rustic loaf ofbread while enjoying a far too youngnouveau presse, or the youngest winein the cellar. We missed the commu-

nity of the French lifestyle — they’veembraced the family meal as some-thing to be treasured, which unfortu-nately is wasted on a population try-ing to keep up with the Joneses.

So if you are trying hard to keepout of the kitchen, but are dying for afeast of the senses, here are someother choices to keep your body andmind occupied: Big Night (1996), theiconic kitchen movie. Primo is theartist chef creating fine food for art’ssake, but stuck cranking out mediocrefare (brilliantly played by TonyShaloub).

See “Recipe for disaster,” page 24

Model Kathryn Byrne at Cape Spear. Salt ‘n’ Pepper cap, $18; crewneck wool sweater, $155; Newfoundland tartan kilt, $175. Clothing provided by Nonia. Paul Daly/The Independent

NICHOLASGARDNEROff the Eating Path

See “Resurrected republic,” page 24

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE JUNE 8, 2007

Adam Sandler and Paz Vega in Spanglish

enthusiastic tourists.“We do really well with the scarves

and ties and we do really well with thechildren’s kilts and jumpers. A lot ofgrandparents sendthem to their grand-children living away,”she says.

Local artist Steph-anie Jayce Stokerloved the idea of theNewfoundland tartanso much she made herown.

Having studied therules and regulations oftartan design, Stokerknew the blocks andlines of colour shouldhave a “complete sym-metry.” She also knewtraditional Scottish andIrish tartans were based on natural dyesfrom the plants on their ancestral lands.

“That’s how you can tell where peoplecame from,” she says.

“We don’t do that anymore and youcan tell that from the Newfoundland tar-tan. Those colours, I don’t know anyplant in Newfoundland you can get thosecolours from.”

To reflect a more contemporary

Newfoundland and Labrador, Stokerdecided to use the resurrected Pink,White and Green colours in her tartandesign.

She used green to represent the beauti-ful greenery in the province; the natural

white of sheep’s wooland livestock farmedhere; and the pink ofour wildflowers, suchas fireweed.

Although she says itis financially prohibi-tive to commerciallyproduce a line of tartankilts and sweaters,Stoker says it’s her“dream” to mix herown natural dyes fromindigenous plants andweave bolts of thecolourful fabric.

Like Stoker, Wilan-sky had a vision for his

Newfoundland tartan. At that time, how-ever, it was made clear to him by certaingovernment figures he was expected tochannel a portion of the profits into theprovincial treasury. Wilansky, not keenon the backdoor dealings of politics,solved the problem by way of anotherinterest — he donated the royalties to hisBoy Scout troop.

[email protected] Secondo is the smooth-talkingfront man (Stanley Tucci, who alsowrote the movie). Their failingrestaurant needs one big hit torelease them from their troubles —one hit to make it their Big Night.

Spanglish (2004): he’s a chef andshe’s insecure. It’s a recipe for disas-ter. The Clasky family runs intotrouble after they hire an emigratedMexican single mother to work astheir housekeeper. John (AdamSandler) loses his passion for thekitchen and for his wife (Téa Leoni),

but ultimately finds passion comesfrom inside as shown by Flor (PazVega). While it isn’t a great foodmovie it does have some good inter-nal shots of his professional kitchenand Sandler has some good knifeskills and close up working shots.Well worth renting.

Chocolat (2001): for the choco-holics among you it’s a must see.Seductive and sensuous, Chocolat isthe dessert after a good meal. Achocolatier (Juliette Binoche) driftsinto a small French town and opens

a chocolate shop to the surprise ofthe locals. Over time, she weavesher magic to help those around herand herself along the way. Thissweet, romantic story includes somegreat performances by Judi Denchand Johnny Depp.

I think I have found my ultimateindulgence: cinema gastronomica— movies about food that I canenjoy without the clean up at theend.

[email protected]

Resurrected republic coloursFrom page 23

From page 23

Adapted from Biba’s Italy:Favorite Recipes From theSplendid Cities (2006, $39.95)

by Biba Caggiano. This dish fromBologna looks like ice cream, but it isactually a cheese course. Present it inindividual portions or pile the scoopsup to resemble a sundae. Serve withcrackers or toast. You can use slivered,dried figs instead of fresh ones.• 3/4 lb (350 g) parmigiano-reggianocheese• 2 cups whipping cream• 1/8 tsp ground white pepper• Balsamic vinegar to taste• 4 fresh figs, each quartered• 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces• Grate cheese in small, teardrop-

shaped holes of box grater (about 5cups). Heat cream in medium pan onmedium-high until it begins to simmer.Stir in cheese and pepper. Reduce heatto medium-low. Simmer, stirring, untilcheese melts and cream thickens,about 2 minutes.

Pour into 8-inch square baking dish.(Mixture will be about 1-1/4 inchesdeep.) Refrigerate without coveringone hour. Cover with plastic wrap;refrigerate until firm, preferablyovernight.

To serve, use ice-cream scoop toform balls. Place balls in sundae glass-es or bowls. Drizzle vinegar over top.Garnish with figs and walnuts.

Makes 16 servings.

“We do really well withthe scarves and tiesand we do really well

with the children’s kiltsand jumpers. A lot ofgrandparents sendthem to their grand-

children living away.”

Judy Anderson

Surreal diningrecipe

Erin Kobayashi Torstar Wire Service

El Naturalista’s logo may be afrog but, unlike Kermit whosang, “It’s not easy being

green,” this shoe brand is finding iteasy to be greener.

Founded in 2002, El Naturalistashows its sensitivity toward environ-mental and social issues by usingnatural and recycled materials, andmethods, in making its footwear.

Though the shoes are manufac-tured far away, in La Rioja, Spain,

and petroleum is used in their trans-portation to Canada, rest easy.

Most highly polluting shoemakingproduction systems are nearly obso-lete in Europe. El Naturalista usesmore modern shoemaking practices.

The good thing about being fromSpain is that the shoes offer NorthAmericans European flair in thestyling. The saturated colours anddistinctive shapes of the shoes havemade them widely popular inFrance, Germany, Israel and Japan.

Additionally, the bright colours –the pinks, reds, greens and yellows,to name a few – are obtainedthrough tanning and vegetable dying processes that try to use as little trivalent chromium as possible,if any.

Shoppers can avoid the chemicalaltogether with the company’s all-natural Dakyu series.

The shoes have environmentallyconscious natural and recycled outsoles. El Naturalista offers canvas shoes for vegans and the company is looking into alter-native materials such as hemp and

corn-based fabrics. El Naturalista is also involved in a

corporate responsibility program,whereby money from the Nasca linegoes toward the education of chil-dren in Peru. That means shopperscan feel a little less guilty when pay-ing $140 to $300 for their shoes.

Shoes will make you green — and envied

NO ONE IS ALONE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER.Behind every person who is touched by cancer, there is a growing force fighting all types of cancer in communities eve r y w h e re.The Canadian Cancer Society is leading the way through re s e a rch funding, information services, support pro g rams – and we advocate forhealthy public policy. To g e t h e r, we’re growing stro n g e r. To volunteer, donate or for more information, visit cancer.ca or call 1 888 939-3333.

Susan SampsonTorstar Wire Service

Recipe for disaster

Newfoundlanders andLabradorians are knownnationally for being charitable,

but that capacity for giving has exceed-ed the expectations of the NatureConservancy of Canada (NCC) inNewfoundland and Labrador.

Douglas Ballam, program managerfor the NCC in Newfoundland andLabrador, says donations from individ-uals within the province to specific pro-grams have never been higher. Eachperson in this province can make a dif-ference, he stresses.

“The latest land purchase originallybudgeted $2,000 from individualdonors — at the end of the project$40,000 had been raised (more than 20times the expected amount),” Ballamsays with pride.

The NCC is Canada’s leading nation-al charity dedicated to the protection ofecologically significant land across thecountry. The NCC’s success comesfrom partnering with individuals, cor-

porations, community and conservationgroups and with any government bodythat shares their passion for habitat con-servation.

The results speak volumes. Since 1962, NCC has protected more

than 2.2 million acres of land at morethan 1,700 sites across the country. TheNCC has acquired or contributed to theprotection of 25 parcels of ecologicallysignificant property in Newfoundlandand Labrador alone, totaling over 8,000acres.

The NCC works with landowners toprotect natural habitats for everyone.Those land owners may include corpo-rations, governments or individuals.Ballam says there is a misconceptionthat corporations contribute the most.

In fact, corporations — while valu-able and necessary — are actually thelowest contributing sector within theNCC, he explains.

“Our last project was $150,000 andless than one per cent came from corpo-

rate donations,” Ballam continues.While both the provincial and federalgovernments play a significant role inproject funding, it is the individualdonor and those volunteer their timethat the NCC says shines a spotlight onthe value of their efforts.

The NCC deals with willinglandowners who wish to donate or selltheir ecologically valuable property soit can be preserved, Ballam says. Thereare many options for those who wish toparticipate in land conservation, withbenefits for everyone.

While there has only been one pri-vate donation of land, it has been sig-nificant. An estimated 880 hectares ofland on the Lloyd’s River (habitat forrare plants and the Newfoundlandmarten) will now be protected forever,Ballam says, and the donor received atax receipt for the appraised land value.

Land can also be sold to the NCC,which has been made possible throughlocal fundraising efforts and individual

cash donations.“We have approximately 200 indi-

vidual donors in the province,” Ballamestimates, and while the funds are putto good ecological use, there is morevalue to offer than just dollars.

The NCC relies on the community atlarge to reach its goals, Ballam says.

Volunteers play a vital part in NCC’sstewardship program in Newfoundlandand Labrador, he adds. They bring theirenthusiasm and varied expertise andoffer a unique perspective on protectingthe region’s ecological integrity.Volunteers participate in the manage-ment of natural areas by monitoringspecies, reporting illegal activity andgenerally keeping an ever-watchful eyeon the nature around them.

Volunteers may be recruited to formlocal Stewardship Committees whoseactivities are considered paramount inthe maintenance of protected land.Amateur and professional botanists andbirders contribute important informa-

tion on the status of rare and endan-gered species by monitoring local plantand animal species.

Volunteers also participate in thephysical maintenance of properties.They help erect signs to delineate theproperty’s boundary lines, and clearwalking trails. At the Brier IslandNature Preserve, Ballam says localATV riders have voluntarily roped offareas that could be damaged by theirvehicles.

Not one group acts in isolation, hesays. “There are multiple partners onevery project,” he emphasizes.

The bottom line, Ballam says, isthat there is a role for everyone when itcomes to conservation. “There areopportunities for corporations,landowners, individuals and othergroups to partner with the NCC andcontribute to the conservation of naturein Newfoundland and Labrador.”

— Pam Pardy Ghent

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 25

How to make an environmental difference G

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Lloyds River Escarpment in central Newfoundland. John Riley photo


Cindy Murray of St. John’s has alwayshad good taste, but she never intend-ed to turn it into a business. Today,

Kitchen Kuisine, her sauce company, hasdeals with Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Cluband Wal-Mart to distribute her honey-pineapple sauce nationwide. It can also befound at Coleman’s grocery store.

“This came from a love of ham and tryingto find the perfect sauce to go with it, I justlove food … I like making it taste as goodas I can,” Murray tells The Independent.

Her knack for cooking to taste, andadding and subtracting ingredients on thefly, has enabled Murray to create the tastesshe envisions. Murray started by using theingredients listed on sauces she liked andwithin a month had created her own uniqueflavours.

The sauce business is competitive, butMurray is confident in her product. Whenshe attended a Wal-Mart trade show she

realized it would take something special tomake her product stand out amidst the 200other competing products.

Murray found out the conference’s buyerswould be having a buffet at 6:30 a.m., soshe woke up at 3 a.m. and cooked a roast inher sauce to go with breakfast.

“I cooked up a ham and brought it into thebuffet room, I just walked in and said ‘Thisham has to go on a table,’” says Murray,who put bottles of sauce and her businesscard next to the roast.

“I had an order for Sam’s Club before Ieven left,” says Murray. “The early bird getsthe worm … or roast.”

Since getting deals signed with big com-panies like Sam’s Club, Murray has beenbusy meeting the demand. She makes thesauce at a professional cooking facility atthe Marine Institute in St. John’s. Her teamof 12 spends three days stockpiling thesauces, but Murray says she might need toget a co-packer in Ontario as well.

Currently, Murray is working on the mar-keting of her sauces, specifically building

brand recognition and consumer loyalty.She says taste tests have been one of herbest methods.

“Once a customer tried a product oncethen word of mouth kicks in.”

Murray says the honey-pineapple sauceworks on both pork, chicken, and beefmeatballs. She’s gotten rave reviews forconsumers so far and her product has alsodone very well in competitions like NewYork’s Fancy Food show, where reviewerscalled it “excellent.”

Murray is also excited about the recipesshe hasn’t released yet, like a sweet creamcurry sauce. She says she’s always experi-menting with new recipes, eating out — shesays the food is better in Newfoundlandthan anywhere else she’s traveled — andlooking for new tastes to incorporate into asauce.

While she has no formal cooking trainingshe says she has a lifelong love of sauce.

“When I was young I always lovedketchup on everything and lots of sauce.”

[email protected]

26 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE JUNE 8, 2007

Saucy successCindy Murray’s Kitchen Kuisine scores national success

Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen wears a creation from Colcci's2008 spring/summer collection during Fashion Rio Show in Riode Janeiro June 5, 2007. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

RIO DESIGN EVENTSJUNE 8• Sorensen School of Dance presents YouCan’t Stop the Beat, St. John’s Arts andCulture Centre, 7 p.m.• Jeremy Bennett, Believe, Stephenville Artsand Culture Centre, 8 p.m.• Homeless Like Me, Reid Theatre, Arts andAdministration Building, Memorial Univer-sity, St. John’s, 7-9 p.m., until June 9.

JUNE 9• Pippy Park gardening program registra-tion, Pippy Park Headquarters, Mount ScioRoad, St. John’s, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.• NLSHC’s 3rd Annual Run for Respect, 5 kmrun or 2.5 km walk, 9:30 a.m. Pledge sheetscan be downloaded from www.nlsexual-healthcentre.org or are available at TheRunning Room. Free towels to the first 50who register. Awards and refreshments will beserved post-race at the Mews Centre immedi-ately following the race.

• The Rawky Horror Rumble, PWAwrestling event, CLB Armoury, Harvey Road,St. John’s, 4:30-10:30 p.m.

JUNE 10• Glen Downey and Friends, StephenvilleArts and Culture Centre, 7:30 p.m.• Throwing Pots in the Battery, Isabella St.John, gallery classroom, The Rooms, 2-4 p.m.

• Nature Hike, MUN Botanical Garden,Mount Scio Road, 10-11 a.m., 737-8590.

JUNE 11• Law of Attraction Workshop, 1062 TopsailRoad, St. John’s, 7-9 p.m., 693-1624,www.lifeonfire.ca.• The Request Line, presented by Jill DreaddyDance, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre,729-3900.

JUNE 12• Introduction to Energy HealingWorkshop with Amanda Maynard, energyworker, life coach, and founder of EnergyWorks, 1062 Topsail Road, St. John’s, 7-9p.m., 693-1624, www.lifeonfire.ca.• Public educational seminar, to have beenheld by The Parkinson’s Society, Burin,College of the North Atlantic, cancelled.Contact regional office for further informa-tion, 1-800-567-7020.

JUNE 13• Mandomania at Folk Night, Ship Pub, St.John’s, 9:30 p.m.

JUNE 14• The Learning Co-op (TLC) presents its firstsession as part of a summer-long series, So,You Want to Free Newfoundland? Sessionto feature movie, Hard Rock and Water fol-

lowed by a panel and public discussion withCraig Francis Power, Dr. Natalie Oman,Lorraine Michael and Dr. Nicole Power, Artsand Administration, A-1043, 7:30-9:30 p.m.,admission free, [email protected].

IN THE GALLERIES:• Eastern Edge Gallery celebrates The Year ofthe Craft, 72 Harbour Drive, 3 p.m., 739-1882, until June 16. • Catherine Beaudette’s Mushrooming, seriesof layered paintings, Pouch Cove Gallery, 14Grushy’s Hill, until June 30.• The Battery: People of the ChangingOutport tells the story of The Battery, of dra-matic social, cultural and economic changesoccurring in many outport communities, TheRooms, Level 2, until September 3.• Brian Jungen’s Vienna, giant sculpture in theform of a pristine whale skeleton suspendedfrom the gallery’s cathedral ceiling, untilSeptember 16. • Finest Kind, sampling display ofNewfoundland’s stories of nationhood, WorldWar I, and life on the land and sea throughartifacts, artwork, images and documents, TheRooms, Level 2, until September 16.• Natural Energies by Anne Meredith Barry(1931–2003), including 90 works createdsince 1982, The Rooms, Level 3, untilSeptember 30.

Cindy Murray Nicholas Langor/The Independent

What’s new in the automotive industryJUNE 8-14, 2007

FEATURED VEHICLE

Prepare to launchIs it possible to spend an hour and a

half in a new car, drive 50 kilome-tres and completely shatter every

preconceived notion you have aboutengine size and horsepower?

Apparently so. The Mazda RX 8 is pow-

ered by a rotary engine thatutilizes a single, three-sidedpiston, an engineering marvelcompared to the normal fare.It’s roughly half the weight ofa conventional four-cylinderengine and its light weightgives the car a distinct han-dling advantage. Positioningthe engine behind the frontaxles and moving the fueltank forward of the rear axlesgives a perfect 50-50, frontand rear weight distribution.Considering the overall weight of thecar is around 1,300 kilograms, andmounted on 17-inch, low-profile tires,

it really sticks to the road. I don’t knowhow Mazda managed to squeeze 232horsepower out of its tiny 1.3-litreengine. That’s roughly equivalent to

what six-cylinder engines arecapable of.

There’s a bit of race historyto boast about too.

A four-rotor, 2.6-litre rac-ing engine churning 930horsepower was developed tocompete at the 24 hours of LeMans. After Mazda won in1991 — the first and onlyJapanese manufacturer to doso — they were effectivelybarred for having a distinctadvantage over the competi-tion. That’s what you get withthe RX 8.

I cruised the twisty back roads, get-ting a feel for the car, gently goosingthe engine in the corners. The high-sided seats wrapped my lower ribs, car-

ried me through tight curves, and feltlike a knife carving up the road. Therewas a nice little stretch of straight roadand I purposely slowed down to acrawl and prepared to launch.

I should point out here that while theposted speed is the maximum, the rateat which you attain that speed is up toyou and perfectly legal.

The Mazda RX 8 is capable ofachieving 100 kilometres per hour insix seconds and it could probably dothat in second gear. I’ll never know forsure; a lot happened in a few seconds.At 4,000 rpms the low-rumblingexhaust raised pitch. At 5,000 rpms Iflew up the road and she howled like ascream muffled in a pillow. There wassteady acceleration right up to 7,000rpms and the sweetest exhaust note I’veever heard in my life — much like aFormula One race car. That distinctivenote was what probably flushed out agrouse from his spot and took flight,

except he only achieved an altitude ofone metre and cut directly across mypath.

As he emerged on my right frontfender, I stabbed the brake while hepassed in front of me and escaped withhis life. It’s considered bad form toreturn a car covered in feathers.

One thing I learned from that episodewas that while the traditional dialtachometer was easy to read, the digitalspeedometer was useless. It’s fine forcruising around, but absolutely unread-able when accelerating. Once you hitaround 4,000 rpms it’s just a blur. Itwouldn’t hurt Mazda’s reputation tohave a traditional dial speedometer topost the top speed.

The well-known secret is that thecomputer limits the fuel supply oncethe craft reaches 240 km/h (150 mph)and that’s only for your own good. TheRX 8 could easily go much faster, butaerodynamics play a large part at high

speed and it’s not as simple as bolting abigger wing on the back. There was alot of wind tunnel work involved tobasically transform the RX 8 into aplane that won’t fly. It’s a fast car, butit’s also very quick and nimble and itdoesn’t take long to build confidencecharging in the corners.

If you’re serious about buying a carwith a lot of performance, I’d recom-mend you give this one a good look. It’samazing.

Going back to my old truck was crueland unusual. The clutch felt sloppy andthe big old shifter sticking up out of thefloor looked like a joke. It took a fullafternoon to adjust to the absolutelygutless acceleration and general dull-ness, but for an hour and a half I wassomeone in a Mazda RX 8.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St.Philip’s is relieved no animals wereharmed in the process.

MARK WOOD

WOODY’SWHEELS

GENERATION NEXT: LONGER AND WIDER, SLEEKER, STRONGER AND SAFER.Still a beauty, with a bit of the beast. The all-new TT Roadster retrains the distinctive lines of its iconic predecessor but adds powerful, progressive touches. Underneath the sleek aluminum hood of every TT Coupe liesyour choice of eager engines, designed and engineered to deliver power. It goes without saying your car will feature a vast array of passive systems. From airbags, a highly stable occupant shell, side-intrusive protection,tire pressure monitoring and more. When you shop for Audi accessories, you can rest assured that every item matches your lofty expectations of exquisite form. We invite you to drive a car that’s as full of life as you are.Audi 2008 TT Coupe and Roadster available at Bill Matthews’ Volkswagen Audi, 211 Kenmount Rd. Nicholas Langor/For The Independent

28 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT JUNE 8, 2007

New faces, new thrillsWITH SCHUMACHER OUT, OTHER DRIVERS STAND A CHANCE

To date, there have been 38Formula One Grand Prix racesheld in Canada. The 39th will go

to the post Sunday (TSN: 2 p.m.Newfoundland time) and anticipationis high that for the first time since1992, when he first showed up, therace will be wide open and excitingbecause he won’t be in it.

The “he” I’m referring to is MichaelSchumacher.

He, and he alone, is respon-sible for (with one or twoexceptions) an extended peri-od of — and I can’t think of abetter word for it — boringF1 Canadian Grands Prix.

That’s boring as in b-o-r-i-n-g.

Look at the numbers.Between the first F1 GP atMosport in 1967 and the 22ndon the Isle Notre-Dame inMontreal in 1992 (two werecancelled), Nelson Piquetwon three races and two eachwere taken by Ayrton Senna,Allan Jones and the two Jackies - Ickzand Stewart.

A mish-mash of greats — NigelMansell, Denis Hulme, Jack Brabham,etc. — and not-so-greats — GerhardBerger, Thierry Boutsen, JacquesLaffite, etc. — won the others.

The point is, lots of people eitherwon, or could have won, the GrandPrix of Canada.

Not after Michael Schumacher rodeinto town.

From 1992 until the end of the racelast year — 15 GPs in all — he wasfirst in seven of them and second infive others. He was the winner in 1994,’97, ’98, 2000, ’02, ’03 and ’04.What’s really scary is that he was win-ning the 1999 race until he got a littlecareless near the end and clipped awall, thus allowing Mika Hakkinenthrough. Except for that race, and theones in ’95 and ’96, he was right upthere.

So, thank goodness he’s gone. Of course, unlike the “old days”

(pre-1992), when three or four teamsand as many as eight drivers couldconceivably have been the winner,tomorrow’s race will be between twoteams and four drivers: Ferrari (KimiRaikkonen and Felipe Massa) andMcLaren (two-time world championand defending Canadian GP winnerFernando Alonso and the refreshingLewis Hamilton.)

All except the British rookieHamilton have won races this year:Raikkonen in Australia to start the sea-son and two each for Massa (Bahrainand Spain) and Alonso (Malaysia andMonaco).

(An aside: if you think of alliterationas being a sign, Alonso is a shoo-in towin tomorrow, with Montreal match-ing up with Malaysia and Monaco.Just a thought.)

Young Hamilton, of course, is win-less but he’s tied for the lead in theworld championship (with Alonso) onthe basis of points scored for finishingsecond in every Grand Prix held to

date except the first one, when he wasthird. No poles, either, but he’s due toreach the top of that ladder any racenow and this one is as good as any.

Except for the sign from the godsthat suggests Alonso will win (see twoparagraphs above), Raikkonen andMassa would appear to have the upperhand going into tomorrow’s racebecause Ferrari really seems to have ahandle on the Montreal circuit.

Since the Grand Prixwas moved to Ilse Notre-Dame from Mosport in1978, Ferrari has won 10races to McLaren’s five.But one of those McLarenvictories was scored byRaikkonen, so he knowshis way around the place.

Hamilton, so the storygoes, is the first Grand Prixdriver to be groomed by anF1 team all the way upfrom karts to cockpit. Hewas nine years old whenhe won his first karting

championship and was honoured at theannual Autosport magazine awardsbanquet in London. He reportedlywalked up to McLaren’s Ron Dennis,who was also in attendance, and said:“I’m going to race for you one day.”

Dennis was impressed and had hisstaff keep an eye on the precocious kid.Four years later, McLaren made the 13-year-old Hamilton part of its driverdevelopment program. Included in thecontract was a clause committing thechild to a seat in a McLaren if heproved to be good enough, which madehim — if you want to stretch it a bit —the youngest F1 signing in history.

In any event, Hamilton didn’t disap-point, and carved his way through allof the British and European minor-league series, winning just abouteverything in sight. His reward thisseason, at age 22, was that F1 seat.

Now, good luck to him. On the otherhand, it sure would be nice to have asurprise tomorrow. As much as I wishHamilton success, I shudder to thinkwe might be on the brink of an era justlike Schumacher’s.

I don’t know about you, but another15 years dominated by one guy wouldjust about be too much — wouldn’t it?

•••This is how Bill France Jr., who died

this week, ran NASCAR.Early in his career, a young Darrell

Waltrip was penalized for somethingor other during a race and stomped intothe NASCAR trailer afterward. Hedemanded to see Bill France. All thetime Waltrip yelled and gestured,France sat there and doodled on a padof paper that was in front of him.

At the end of Waltrip’s tirade,France held up the paper and pointedat a drawing.

“Know what this is?” he askedWaltrip.

“It’s a race track,” the driver replied.“Know who owns it?” asked France.“You do,” said Waltrip.“Now,” said France Jr. “What was it

you wanted to talk to me about?”Dale Earnhardt with former NASCAR president Bill France Jr. in 2000. France died on June 4 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

NORRISMCDONALD

TRACKTALK

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 29

Another way to fight high gas pricesAt least five times a week, I get e-

mails exhorting me to backanother campaign to

boycott some brand of gaso-line in order to lower the cost.I’ve been getting these foryears, and pretty much ignorethem. I’ve cut my fuel con-sumption as costs have goneup, but I’m hardly holding BigOil hostage.

Gasoline is not a luxury formany of us. No matter hownoble the sentiment, if youdon’t get to work or feed yourkids, the last thing on yourmind is going to be the priceof gas. Boycotting one stationfor one day means you fill up the nextday. Not such a powerful message, I’mthinking.

Until one of our fuzzyheaded electedofficials rummages around in their pants

to find the strength to stake acampaign on freezing theprice of our fuel at 75 cents alitre, world markets bedamned — we’re on our own.

A new campaign called BeCar Care Aware (www.car-carecanada.ca) can help con-sumers combat the high costof fuel from another perspec-tive. Use less. SpokespersonKelly Williams, a formerCASCAR driver, stresses theimportance of two major fac-tors: simple, regular vehiclemaintenance and the way we

drive.“A clogged air filter can reduce fuel

efficiency by up to 10 per cent,” she

says. “It’s like a person trying to breathewith a bad cold.”

She continues to point out the dragfactor of loaded roof racks and excesstrunk weight, and something as easy tooverlook as a misfiring sparkplug,which can cut efficiency by as much as30 per cent. Under-inflated tires can cutgas mileage by as much as 15 per centand can also contribute to dangerouslyunsafe vehicle handling.

Idling wastes fuel. Get off your duffand go in and get your coffee. If youcan’t be motivated by the cost savings,perhaps you’ll consider the environmentinstead. Use only a qualified technicianwhen servicing your car’s air condition-ing, and though our summers are heat-ing up, recognize that blasting the A/Cwill sap your fuel economy by 10 to 20per cent. Park in the shade — or start

using your garage for your car instead ofhockey equipment and beer empties.

Speeding is a huge fuel hog. AsWilliams points out, if you drive at 124km/h, you will burn up to 21 per centmore fuel than you would obeying theposted limit of 100 km/h. Factor thisinto your daily commute and count onimmediate savings.

If you’ve ever driven with someonewho tromps on the accelerator when thelight changes to green, or slams on thebrakes like every stop sign is a total sur-prise, you can finally lend some cre-dence to your feelings of superiority.Driving like this severely saps your fuelefficiency.

The best way to drive? Pretend youhave a full bucket of water in your trunk.Drive like you don’t want to spill it. Ifthat doesn’t convince you to smooth

things out, pretend it’s full of somethingother than water.

Make sure your gas cap fits properlyand keep it tightened. Millions of litresof gas evaporate each year throughfaulty caps. Don’t squeeze the pumppast the first shut off. You may get yourround number, but you’ll be spilling pre-cious gasoline. Don’t bother with high-octane fuel unless your owner’s manualspecifically requires it.

Be Car Care Aware is aimed at maxi-mizing fuel efficiency and makinginroads into environmental awareness.The average age of a car on our roads iseight years; driving to your mechanicfor timely maintenance makes a lotmore sense than being towed in andfainting at the bill.

www.lorraineonline.ca

LORRAINESOMMERFELD

POWERSHIFT

MECHANIC SHORTAGE

Mechanic Gerry Young of King’s Bridge Service Station in the east end St. John’s. Young says he has no intention of leaving the family-run business, despite an exodus of the province’s skilled trade workers to Western Canada. See page14 for related story. Nicholas Langor/The Independent

30 • INDEPENDENTFUN MAY 7, 2007

WEEKLYDIVERSIONSACROSS1 Nose5 Leg. member8 Cleaner’s supply12 Beaver structure15 Seat of the pantsperformance17 Gun it in neutral18 Columbus’s state19 Refuse to okay20 Hi, more formally21 Spanish dance23 Comeback?24 Pseudonym26 Excavate27 Consented29 Believer: suffix30 ___ tongues (NL dish)32 Get into one’s head36 Wet37 Roman poet39 Fraternity letter40 Picnic pests41 Underhill’s skatingpartner44 “Reason overPassion” quilt maker(1968)46 Erase47 Bantu click lan-guage49 Not erratic53 Man who took aribbing?54 Saturate55 “___, sleekit,

cow’rin, tim’rousbeastie”56 Dawn goddess57 Wine in Ouessant58 Treaty to end Warof 181260 In front62 Fleur de ___63 Command to unchien64 Organ of sight65 Seize66 Coarse fibre forsacks67 Take away guns69 Throw out71 Pictures73 “Our land” inInuktitut75 Squid77 Jim’s wife(“FBFW”)79 Bear’s cave80 Tresses81 Stalks82 Stair part85 Possesses86 Whistler wintertime89 Seaport of N France91 It fastens a tent rope93 Buddhist teaching95 Hit the runway96 Fearless, longtimeChatelaine editor101 In an excited state102 They lay nits

103 Blacken, in a way104 Understanding105 Slow (mus.)106 Play the part107 1995 earthquakesite (Japan)108 Wind dir.109 Ager of parents?

DOWN1 Religion founded inIran2 Unspoiled places3 Pass out4 Potter’s oven5 Mr.’s spouse6 Like a ___ balloon7 A Lavigne8 Steal from9 Detection cry10 Tonic partner11 Kind of biscuit12 Deception13 Acropolis city14 Not always cheerful16 Refuse to buy from19 Porch22 Era25 Film28 Bestowed31 Loud noise33 Honeybee genus34 Large flightless bird35 Zilch38 Pen name of LeslieMcFarlane (HardyBoys)

41 Prominent 15th c.Italian family42 A Morissette43 Sleep stage44 Stir-fry pan45 Floundering46 Painter Milne48 Medicine ___, Alta.50 Saguenay whale51 Hang around doingnothing52 Some road curves54 Witness55 Spider’s trap58 “Beachcombers”star (1972-90)59 Song of praise60 Rainbow61 Get out of the egg65 Grasp, as a punch-line66 Traffic ___68 Energize69 At any time70 A Callwood71 Greek epic poem72 Fire ___ (official)74 Seaside summertime76 “Say ___!”77 Slanting letter78 Surviving organism81 Do to do, toDonizetti83 Spring mo.84 Office furniture86 Lying flat

87 Strike hard88 Raptor’s claw90 Home prov. of

Sandra Schmirler92 Departs94 Drive the getaway

car97 New: prefix98 Pat gently

99 Before of yore100 Wind dir.

Solutions page 32

ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) Try using that Aries charm towarm up the usual set of work-place naysayers, and then back itup with a solid block of facts andfigures to sell your idea to yourcolleagues.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) While nothing can deter a deter-mined Bovine from following acourse you believe in, it helps tohave some supporting data andstatements by trusted colleaguesto make your case.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Take advantage of new informa-tion that could help make yourcareer transition easier. The week-end is a good time to re-establishrelationships with people youhaven’t seen in a while.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)

Personal matters demand yourattention as once-stable situationsbegin to shift. Quick action toshore things up is called for inorder to avoid more problemsdown the line.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) Although your financial picturebegins to brighten, “thrift” and“caution” are still the watchwordsfor fiscally astute Leos andLeonas to live by. Expect newsabout a family matter.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22)Before you try to blame a col-league for a workplace problem,make sure you have the proof toback you up. Make some quietinquiries on your own to try tosolicit more information.

LIBRA(SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22)Trying to cheer up a depressedfriend or downcast family member

can be difficult. But keep at it, andyour efforts should soon pay off inways you might have neverexpected.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV.21)Taking a new look at an old andfrequently recurring problemmight lead you to consider makingsome surprising changes in theway you had been handling it uptill now.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC.21) Despite what the naysayers mightsay, setting your sights on a newgoal could be one of the smartestthings the typically sagaciousSagittarian has done in a longtime.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) Rebuilding an unraveling relation-ship won’t be easy. But you can doit if you really want to. Justremember to keep the lines of

communication open between thetwo of you.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) A new friendship could developinto a close relationship.Meanwhile, reassure an old friendwho might be feeling neglectedthat he or she is still an importantpart of your life.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) You might be feeling that you’restill in over your head as you con-tinue trying to adjust to your newsituation. But the pressures easeby week’s end, giving you time tocome up for air.

YOU BORN THIS WEEKYou have a gift for sensing thefeelings of others. You might con-sider a career in some aspect ofcounselling.

(c) 2007 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

WEEKLYSTARS

CHUCKLE BROS Brian and Ron Boychuk

Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each columnof nine and each section of nine (three squares by three) con-tains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order. There is only onesolution to each puzzle. Solutions, tips and computer programavailable at www.sudoko.com

SOLUTION ON PAGE 32


Ward Gosse’s pitches are drivenforward by a long stride, quickskip then a powerful cycle of

the arm — and the thought of capturing aCanadian championship on home soil.

Still months away, the Canadian men’sfastpitch softball championships, sched-uled for the weekend of Aug. 25 at theCaribou Complex fields in St. John’s, aregenerating excitement around the seniorsoftball league.

Two teams will be representingNewfoundland and Labrador at the tour-nament. Although Roebothan McKayand Marshall and Impact Signs willsponsor them, both teams will feature all-star lineups selected from across theprovince. The move is designed to com-pete with teams from Ontario whoemploy the same system.

Gosse, who was part of a silver medalwinning team in 2005, saysNewfoundland and Labrador has a goodshot.

“We’ve got a lot of good hitters in thisprovince, we always have,” Gosse tellsThe Independent. “We seem to produce alot of good raw ball players, once theyget playing in at the next level they real-ly produce.”

The pitching in the province has alsoimproved. Gosse was just one of severaldominating pitchers in the league lastseason and Blair Ezekiel has alreadyrecorded a no-hitter this summer.

Expanding to six teams this season, thesenior league should be more competi-tive than ever — if they can get everyoneto show up.

Gosse’s June 5 start was delayed 20minutes so his team could avoid default.His Roebothan McKay and Marshallteam was saved at the last minute bysome frantic cell phone calls and somereplacement players with only jeans towear over their jock and cleats.

In full uniform, Gosse spends the delaygunning pitches at his catcher — testinghis full arsenal of blazing fastballs, riseballs, curveballs and even softball’s ver-sion of a knuckleball.

When the game finally gets going, theintensity quickly picks up. The playerschatter and pitches pop off bats and intomitts. Anyone used to the plodding paceof beer league softball would be amazedat the speed of a fast pitch game, espe-cially when played on the tiny Lion’sPark field.

The pace is nothing to Gosse, who,along with several other Newfoundlandplayers, competes in the InternationalSoftball Congress, North America’s elitesoftball league, where teams payupwards of $300,000 to field competitiveteams and have a shot at winning one ofthe season’s eight tournaments.

Harold Kelly, vice-president of the St.John’s fastpitch league, says having play-ers who compete at this level and on anational stage playing in the city leagueis a great opportunity for young softballplayers in the province.

“We have some young kids that arevery talented … and when you’re playingwith, or watching guys like Ward you’replaying with as good as there is in thecountry right now.”

Kelly says getting kids involved at ayoung age has been an issue in the past,but hosting tournaments helps sparkinterest.

“I remember back in ’89 when thenationals were here, as a teenager gettingan opportunity to watch the country’sbest play here was a big point for me …it made me interested to go down to thepark and practise a bit more,” he says.

The province has already hostednumerous fastpitch tournaments like aworld youth tournament in 1997, a cou-ple of national junior men’s champi-onships and the Canadian senior men’schampionship in 1995.

Although not every player at Lion’sPark can wear the Newfoundland andLabrador jersey, Kelly says the overallquality of the league is improving, some-thing good for the fans as well.

“A lot of the fans that we have are tra-ditional fast pitch players who like tocome back and watch the game they usedto play when they were kids.”

[email protected]

INDEPENDENTSPORTSFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — PAGE 31

Golf is commonly called the gen-tleman’s game, because of thenature of it. Honesty and virtue

are key requirements in golf, as you arereally only cheating yourself when youreport a false score. (Unless you’replaying a buddy for $20, then you’rereally cheating him, but that’s anotherstory.)

Soccer, despite its competitivenature, is very much a gentlemen’ssport, too. (Note to readers: gentlemenhere refers to both genders. I only get800 words, so please understand.) If aplayer is tackled hard and writhing onthe ground, the opposition will deliber-ately kick the ball out of play to stop the

game, and allow the player to be tend-ed to by trainers or whomever. Whenthe ball is thrown back in, it’s thrownback to the team who kicked it out.

Call that soccer’s honour system. I’mnot a soccer expert, but I don’t expectto find that rule in any book. It’s part ofan unwritten code in sport. An honoursystem if you will. Every sport has it.

It’s about not stealing bases when

you’re up by seven or eight runs inbaseball or softball. You don’t run upthe score in hockey in a way to embar-rass your opponent.

In fact, a lot about the code is aboutnot embarrassing anyone. It’s not abouttaking advantage of your opponent,because you’re always looking forways to do that. If a team is shorthand-ed, you take advantage. A defencemandrops his stick, you use that to youradvantage.

But you do it as a sportsman.Monday night in Ottawa, Daniel

Alfredsson brought the code to theforefront of sport. Alfredsson put whatis apparently a sterling reputation on

the line with a bonehead play late in thesecond period, when he appeared toshoot the puck at Anaheim captainScott Niedermayer. That one play hasset off a firestorm of comments from allsides, about the code of the sport.

Tuesday evening, shortly after thedissection of Alfredsson, a televisionpromo touted the Blue Jays travellingto San Francisco for a series againstBarry Bonds and the Giants. Talk abouttiming. Here I was looking for a col-umn idea, and Bonds — the antithesisof the code of ethics — was mentioned.

Bonds has blown the honour systemout the door and hasn’t seeminglyobserved a code of ethics (sportsman-

ship is not even in on the discussion) ina while.

Whether or not Bonds took steroids,he certainly tainted what should havebeen one of the most glorious summersin baseball history. Sadly, because hecheated — allegedly, I’m probably sup-posed to add here — nobody is taking itseriously.

I remember reading about baseballand hockey as a kid (I’m older thancable TV, sadly) — the history, therecords, the all-time greats. I neverimagined I’d see 755 homers beapproached, never mind beaten.

Sports’ unwritten code

See “Athletes,” page 32

‘Good raw ball players’Ward Gosse and Newfoundland fastpitch softball players gear up for nationals

Ward Gosse at Lions Park in St. John’s. Paul Daly/The Independent

Research into the root causes of heart disease and stroke willhelp millions live longer, healthier lives. As a leading funderof heart and stroke research in Canada, we need your help.Call 1-888-HSF-INFO or visit www.heartandstroke.ca

Stop a heart attack before it starts.Your support is vital.

DON POWERPower Point

It’s June 1, 2007 and I’m sitting infront of my computer to write mycolumn. Today is very special — the

sun is finally shining after a drearyspring and it’s the first day of salmonseason for all of insular Newfoundland.

But this wasn’t always the case.Traditionally, Newfoundland’s salmonrivers have opened anywhere from June1-15, depending on what Department ofFisheries and Oceans (DFO) zone ariver might flow in. This could some-times prove quite confusing and possi-bly lead to an otherwise law-abidingangler being charged with fishing out ofseason. For instance, Salmonier Riverpreviously opened June 6, while nearbyRenews River opened June 15. The ear-liest rivers to open have traditionallybeen those on the west coast, due to theirearly runs of big fish on spring spate.Why not open all rivers on the samedate? If there are no fish, you simplywon’t catch any — no harm done.

In their new hot-off-the-press fiveyear (2007 – 2011) management planfor the recreational salmon fishery, DFOhas simplified things. Now all salmonrivers on the pine clad island will openJune 1, eliminating any possibility ofconfusion. I think there was really nogood reason — conservation or other-wise — for the staggered openings, sothumbs up to DFO from me. (By theway, the standard closing date is Sept. 7,although I’d rather not think about thatjust yet.) There are exceptions. Autumnfishing is allowed on three of our might-iest insular rivers: the Humber, Exploitsand the Gander. I’ve never fished whilethe leaves redden and fall to the ground,

but this year I vow to give it a go on theGander. I’ll tear myself away from hunt-ing for at least one weekend. Watch outfor the story in an October column whenI’m typically talking guns, quads, feath-ers and fur.

The five-year plan brings no changesfor Labrador (zones 1 and 2). All riversopen on June 15 and close on Sept. 15.In my view, writing this five-year planwould have been a fine opportunity tosort out the unclassified river business.Only in Labrador are there a bunch ofrivers designated in the angling guide asunclassified. This, in my view, makes uslook just a little bit dumb to anglersfrom outside our fair province. I’ve hadit said to me, “What’s this unclassifiedbusiness all about?”

For those who don’t know, all classi-fied rivers in Newfoundland and

Labrador are designated from Class I toClass IV. On Class I rivers, six fish maybe retained for the season and all sixtags (two red, two green, two blue) maybe used. The Humber, Exploits andGander are all Class I rivers under thenew five-year plan. Last year theExploits River was Class II and anglerswere permitted to retain only four fishusing two red and two green tags.

On Class III rivers, only red tags areusable and only two fish may beretained for the season. Class IV riversare hook and release fishing only. Andfinally, on unclassified rivers inLabrador — which are all listed in theAngler’s Guide — fishers may retainfour salmon using only red and greentags.

One may be a large fish over 63 cen-timetres, tagged with the No. 4 greentag. This unclassified category includesthe Eagle watershed which might indeedbe the most prolific salmon river inCanada. And unclassified rivers are notto be confused with unscheduled rivers,which automatically fall under Class IIIregulations. See what I mean?

As confusing as this is to non-residentanglers, it pales in comparison to theyellow tag folly of years gone by.Licence packages once came with eighttags, two each of red, green, blue, andyellow. The use of red, green and bluewas the same as now (and as explainedabove), but yellow was for hook andrelease. Why does an angler need a tagif he or she is releasing the fish? I haveno idea, and neither did groups of non-resident anglers who I’ve guided. Thenthere’s the issue of two yellow tags. Theinstructions roughly read: “Retain yel-low tag No. 7 for hook and release anddiscard yellow tag No. 8.” A couple ofanglers from up-along tried to make abit of a newfie joke out of it until Ireminded them the federal governmentmanages our inland fisheries by theterms of our union with upalong.

On a more positive note, Harry’sRiver has been moved from Class IV toClass III based on an increase in returns.It may even be bumped up further toClass II, pending an in-season review.Well, I suppose this is good news, butthere are those who would prefer a morecautionary approach on a river that is in

the early stages of recovery. Flat BayBrook has also been reclassified: fromIII to II.

For this five-year plan, no consensuscould be reached among interest groupson the very serious and contentiousissue of temperature protocol. Discus-sions will be held this coming fall.Temperature protocol attempts to decideat what point a river should be closed

due to low water levels and warm tem-peratures. The issue is complex, withpros and cons that are difficult to sortout and prioritize. I’ll have more detailslater, so stay tuned.

Paul Smith is a freelance writer andavid outdoorsman living in Spaniard’sBay.

[email protected]

32 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS JUNE 8, 2007

Solutions for crossword on page 30 Solutions for sudoku on page 30

Tag, you’re itNew five-year recreational salmon plan has good news and bad

Athletes have no doubt crossed the line

PAUL SMITHThe Rock Outdoors

Only in Labrador are there a bunch of rivers

designated in the anglingguide as unclassified.

Atlantic salmon in southern Labrador’s Pinware River Nicholas Langor/The Independent

(I never pictured Terry Sawchuk’s 103shutouts be approached, either, but MartinBrodeur is within distance after this season.)Now Bonds is at 746 (as of Tuesday night) andthe Blue Jays could be the team he breaks therecord against.

Regardless of what you think of Bonds —I’m not a big fan of him or his record chase —you have to stand back sometimes in awe atthe fact he’s done this, juiced or not. It’ll beinteresting to see how Major League Baseballhandles the situation.

Anyway, back to the code that everybodytalks about.

Does the code become obsolete when ath-

letes turn pro, and every win means dollarsand cents? Can there still be honour amongstprofessional ballplayers? When the stakes areat their highest, should we still expect playersto honour the code of sportsmanship?

Of course.Mark McGwire’s non-selection to the Hall

of Fame is another example of dishonouringthe code. McGwire has never been charged orconvicted of steroid use, but his exclusionfrom the hall sends a strong message. Hemessed with the code, and is now paying theprice.

(Rarely do we see that line crossed withkids and sport, unless that kid is told by his orher adult coach to cross it.)

There have been a few examples of local

athletes dishonouring the code, too. In somelocal senior hockey, baseball, soccer or soft-ball circles, there have been stories of an ath-lete who crossed the line of fair play.

Athletes have no doubt crossed the line in amoment of frustration or desperation to win,but you can bet long after the game is over, thelustre of the win is gone, the memory of thegame — and the lingering taste of breakingthe code — stays with the athletes.

And that can’t be a great feeling to live withbecause when a career is over athletes areoften remembered not by the number of titlesthey’ve won, but by how they played thegame.

[email protected]

From page 31

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 33

RANDY STARKMAN Torstar wire service

Forget about there being no place likehome for the Canadian women’s soccerteam. It turns out there’s no place at home

to play for this once-celebrated squad as theyprepare for the prestigious women’s World Cup.

They played in China last month. They’recurrently in New Zealand for two games. Thenthey’re off to South America.

Colin Linford, president of the CanadianSoccer Association, says it’s unlikely thewomen’s team will have a single exhibitiongame on home grass before the Sept. 10-30World Cup in China because they don’t havethe resources to stage one.

“We’d love to have a game, but are you goingto bankrupt the association to do it?” he asks.

The Canadian men’s team preparing for theunder-20 World Cup being staged in Canada —the final is in Toronto — will have about adozen games at home before the tournamentbegins June 30.

There’s a feeling in soccer circles that thewomen’s team has fallen completely off theradar since Linford took over last November.

The team has marquee names in ChristineSinclair, who contended for FIFA’s women’splayer of the year the last two years, andOakville’s Kara Lang. But not only do they notrate a single home date in a World Cup cam-paign, they don’t have a sponsor.

Linford says it’s a vicious circle.“What exposure can you actually give to the

sponsors?” asks Linford. “Let’s be fair. You saythe women’s team are not going to be playingany games in Canada prior to the World Cup.That’s highly probable. So if you were a spon-sor, what exposure would you actually get forbeing a sponsor within the country the teamrepresents?”

Keith McIntyre, a prominent Canadian sportsmarketer, says the women’s team “fell off theface of the earth” because the CSA failed topromote them.

“I mean I’ve rarely seen anything in print orin electronic media,” says McIntyre. “Whathappens is it loses its momentum.”

Things were dramatically different in thelead-up to the 2003 World Cup in the U.S.,where Canada finished a strong fourth. TheCanadian women’s team drew large crowds to

its seven home games — 18,000 and 19,000 totwo matches at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawaand 29,593 at Commonwealth Stadium inEdmonton.

Linford said despite the big crowds in 2003,the CSA lost money on every game because lowticket prices didn’t match the expenses.

Karin Lofstrom, executive director of theCanadian Association for the Advance ofWomen and Sport, noted the CSA doesn’t have“a history of being super supportive of thewomen’s side.” She said the question of equityhas more to do with the effort made than thedollars spent.

“It’s not like it’s only been a problem this pastyear,” says Lofstrom. “There’s a need for it tobe more than lip service.”

Linford insists the women’s program isn’tbeing ignored, a claim echoed by Chris Collie,managing director of the CSA’s marketing arm,Soccer Canada Properties.

“It’s probably more a reflection of the under-20 team just being front and centre in so manydifferent ways,” says Collie. “Colin, with theexecutive and the board, they have to balancewhat the priorities are. ... In no way should thatsend a message the women’s team or the men’steam are any less important.”

Linford has been unabashed in saying hebelieves a soccer nation’s true worth is deter-mined by its men’s team. He’s not prone tomention where the women fit in unless prod-ded.

“Obviously, the women give the countryexposure,” says Linford. “But if you’re talkingabout major, major revenues and major, majorsponsors, the men will always in any country inthe world generate more money and more expo-sure and more interest than the women’s game.”

While Linford seems keenly aware of alldevelopments on the men’s side, he was a littlewobbly in talking about the women’s prepara-tions when asked if the team had any tourna-ments before the World Cup in China.

“Uhhh, no. The Pan America (sic), I thinkthey might have been involved in or we’re look-ing at, but no tournaments as such, just exhibi-tion games,” says Linford.

The women’s team booked a spot six monthsago for the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro inJuly. They hope to reach the final against Brazilin Maracana Stadium before a sold-out crowdof nearly 100,000.

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS JUNE 8, 2007

Where’s our women’s soccer club?

Nicole Mailloux (10) of Ontario tracks down a stray ball with Germany’s Laura Grab (11) in hot pursuit during anexhibition game between the Canadian and German women’s under-17 soccer teams at the King George V soccerpitch in St. John’s on Sept. 7, 2006. Germany won the game 3-0. Paul Daly/The Independent

By Damien CoxTorstar wire service

It’s been pretty evident for morethan a year now that the NHL,despite its denials, is looking to

expand to 32 teams from 30.Despite all the damage done by

recklessly adding nine teams in nineyears from 1991 to 2000, the quickcash grab that is expansion has alwaysbeen irresistible to the league and itsowners.

Over the past week, there’s been alot of chatter about imminent expan-sion, likely to Kansas City — whichhas a brand new arena but failed tolure the Pittsburgh Penguins — andLas Vegas, which has no pro sportsteam. Yet.

Today, Sports Business Dailyreported the NHL has confirmed ithas “been in discussions” with filmand television producer JerryBruckheimer about a team in Vegas.Bruckheimer is a hockey fan and hasbeen around and about the NHL scenefor a while now. The story suggeststhat AEG, which owns the L.A. Kingsand has built the arena in K.C., wouldalso be involved in building a rink forthe new team in Nevada.

Isn’t this all nice and cozy?At the same time, of course, there’s

the business of Jim Balsillie buyingthe Nashville Predators, likely withthe intent of moving them to southernOntario. The deal is set to close June30, but both sides are trying to makeit happen before that date.

Today, the National Post reportedthat Canada’s Competition Bureauhas notified the NHL that it intends toexamine the league’s relocation poli-cies in regards to territorial infringe-ment by one team upon another.There has been speculation thatBalsillie has already acquired legalopinions suggesting that he couldfight the current rules which wouldforce him to compensate both Torontoand Buffalo if he moved the Preds towithin 50 miles of either team.

So we have Vegas, we have K.C.,and we have Balsillie ticking off theNHL brass a little more every day.

Fact is, of course, that Balsillie’s$220 million offer to buy the Predsbecomes a little more crucial to theleague if it wants to ask for an exorbi-tant expansion fee, perhaps $150 mil-lion or more.

Would the NHL governors be morewilling to accept a second team insouthern Ontario if new teams wereadded in K.C. and Nevada? Could thecompensation issue be somehowlinked to expansion, as it was whenL.A. owner Bruce McNall receivedhalf the $50-million expansion feewhen the Ducks moved to Anaheim?

Could the dreadful concept of NHLexpansion, and the obvious dilution oftalent it would produce, actually begood news for Canadian fans if itmeans a seventh Canadian team?

This story grows more intriguingand complicated by the hour.

JUNE 8, 2007 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

Here wego again

Research in Motion (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillieis silhouetted while speaking at the OttawaCentre for Research and Innovation TechnologyShowcase in March. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

1.800.321.1433 www.arthritis.ca

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INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIEDFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, JUNE 8-14, 2007 — PAGE 36

F E A T U R E D H O M E 6 9 P R I N C E O F W A L E S

OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY 2-4 p.m. $127,900.00Welcome to 69 Prince of Wales Street! Charming characterhome in a very convenient central area. Well maintained andrecently painted. New torch on roof, new furnace and oiltank with electrical and plumbing upgraded in the past twoyears. Main-floor laundry off kitchen and a pressure-treatedpatio from which to view the beautiful landscaping. At thisprice you can’t go wrong and you can’t wait. Owner trans-ferred. Priced to sell. For more information contact BernieO’Reilly at 576-6667 or 728-6313.

Photos by Nicholas Langor/The Independent

2007-06-08

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