2005-08-21

Sue Kelland-Dyer, an energyresearcher and former seniorpolicy analyst with the Grimes

administration, says the province mustimmediately produce its own energyplan. She says the only way to success-fully develop the lower Churchill is tokeep the project — as well as theresulting 2,824 megawatts of power —in-province and model Newfoundlandand Labrador Hydro after Hydro-Quebec.

Kelland-Dyer worked as a consultantunder Loyola Sullivan during histenure as Tory leader, as well as for for-

mer Liberal premier Roger Grimes,spending a year developing an energypolicy.

“An energy plan of mine wouldnever see a megawatt leave theprovince,” she tells The Independent.“Once you have the energy go, the peo-ple follow … if you say to Labradorwe’re going to develop 2,000megawatts of power and we’re going tosell it to Quebec and Ontario, you’veeffectively told the people of Labradorthat they will not have any industrialdevelopment for the next 25, 30 years.”

The province recently released ashort-list of potential developers for thelower Churchill.

Earlier in the year, the Williamsadministration announced intentions to

Editor’s note: Sixth in a series of arti-cles on the top 10 Newfoundlandersand Labradorians of all time. The arti-cles are running in random order, witha No. 1 to be announced at the series’conclusion.

In the early 1800s, at a time whenEngland and her church held muchof the power in Newfoundland,

Michael Anthony Fleming, a youngIrish priest, arrived in St. John’s.

Over the next25 years, Flemingtransformed thepolitical and reli-gious — not tomention physical— landscape of the colony. Serving asbishop for two decades, Fleming devel-oped a strong, organized Catholic pres-ence across Newfoundland, buildingnew churches, opening chapels andcemeteries, restructuring parishes, andrecruiting Irish priests.

He also paved the way for the educa-tion of thousands of young girls, andenvisioned one of the first large-scale,permanent buildings in St. John’s. TheBasilica of St. John the Baptist wasmore than a place of worship; it was animposing statement that the people ofNewfoundland were there to stay.

Paul O’Neill, a former journalist andauthor of The Oldest City, a history of

St. John’s, says Fleming sawNewfoundlanders being treated thesame as the Irish in Ireland — andwouldn’t stand for it.

“We were both ignored by England,”O’Neill says. “Fleming had a big role,to get people together, as individualNewfoundlanders, rather than Englishcolonists … he was a great man.”

Fleming was born in Ireland in 1792.Encouraged by his uncle, the youngman entered the religious life, and wasordained in 1815. Eight years later, hewas asked to cross the ocean to work asa priest in St. John’s.

From the outset, Fleming was deter-mined to changethe way thingswere done inNewfoundland, a“country where theexecutive power

was exclusively Protestant,” as hewrote at the time.

His invitation to two orders of Irishwomen was perhaps the most notablepart of his drive to increase the strengthof the Roman Catholic Church.

“(Fleming) realized girls should beeducated,” says O’Neill. “There was nogirls’ school here in St. John’s as such.He went to Ireland, and brought backthe Presentation Sisters.

“When they opened their school onDuckworth Street, they had 450 littlegirls show up on the first day. And theywere of all denominations, not just

The unifierBishop Michael Fleming built the Basilica, broughtin Mercy and Presentation nuns, sobered the men,and changed life in Newfoundland

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“I can’t get into it. It is apolitical question and onethat unfortunately I’ve gotto avoid. I’ve got severalviews on it quite frankly butI can’t give them to you.”

— Danny Williams on how he feels about the pink,

white and green

See “Genuine faith,” page 2

The Sea Rose FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel was moored in Mortier Bay off Marystown Aug. 19 before sailing off to the White Rose oilfield on the Grand Banks.White Rose is the third major offshore project in the Jeanne d’Arc basin, following Hibernia and Terra Nova. Husky is the majority owner of the oilfield. Ray Fennelly/Husky Energy

VOL. 3 ISSUE 34 — ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 21-27, 2005 — WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA — $1.00 (INCLUDING HST)

WORLD PAGE 11Michael Harris compares GG-designateopposition to fight from dead dog

IN CAMERA 20-21Fog Devil wannabes heat up the ice at Mount Pearl Glacier

Power withinResearcher, policy analyst, radio call-in queen, Sue Kelland-Dyer says lower Churchill powershould stay in-province

Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Paper Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

OPINION 7Ivan Morgan onrebrandingthe province

LIFE 19Noreen Golfman on CBC withdrawal

Shrimp shut downIndustry suffering from highCanadian dollar, 20 per centEU tariff and market glutdue to foreign overfishing

The shrimp industry may be teeteringon the edge of collapse, industryrepresentatives warn.

Fisheries Minister Trevor Taylor says theindustry is in the worst shape it’s ever been.

With American seafood markets weaken-ing, a spiked Canadian dollar deterringAmerican buyers and — the biggest issue— a 20 per cent tariff on shrimp going intothe UK, Taylor says a creative solution willhave to be found soon or fishermen and fishplants in the province could be in trouble.

“I can only surmise, but the consensusseems to be that the whole fishery willprobably close down in fairly short order,”Taylor tells The Independent.

“I don’t know if that’s true — markets

See “Who cares,” page 2

ALISHAMORRISSEY

STEPHANIEPORTER

ONE FIELD TO THE NEXT

CLARE-MARIEGOSSE

See “Million dollar question,” page 4

Kelland-Dyer Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS AUGUST 21, 2005

Exclusively at

Main Floor, Terrace on the Square, Churchill Square.Store Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00am to 5:30pm

Phone: 754-9497 www.diamonddesign.com

Catholics.”That was in 1833. In 1842, he asked

the Sisters of Mercy to come toNewfoundland, also to teach youngwomen.

“They did such wonders for theschool system,” says historian JohnFitzGerald, who wrote his PhD disserta-tion on Fleming. “But the biggest lega-cy they left was musical and cultural, nodoubt.

“The nuns, what they were doing withmusic education, cut completely acrossreligious boundaries … it was the nunswho embraced the music festivals; theywere the ones who were playing theorgans in the Catholic churches whoinvited the Anglican organists andUnited Church organists up. We have pictures of it.”

The denominations also came together to build Fleming’sother great legacy. The Basilica — the largest church in NorthAmerica at the time — was built because of Fleming’s inter-national connections, determination, and ability to organizepeople in the region.

“He got people of all denominations to get out in their boatsand bring back stone from Kelly’s Island (in ConceptionBay),” says O’Neill. “He worked as a unifier … A lot of peo-ple think he was pro-Catholic and anti-other things, but that’snot quite true.”

“He was possessed by this; he was almost mad to finish thecathedral … Part of it was religious zeal; he was a zealot,”says FitzGerald. “Part of it was genuine faith and a desire togive glory to God.

“But (the Basilica) also symbolized a faith in the place, afaith in the people.”

Today, in the archives next to the Basilica, there is a bookcalled the Cathedral register, kept in Fleming’s handwritinguntil his death. It lists about 10,000 Newfoundlanders whodonated materials and efforts to the construction site.

“I’m looking at this,” saysFitzGerald, “and I’m saying … it wasthese church people who were the firstto believe in Newfoundland as an enti-ty.

“If you’re only going to be here tem-porarily, you’re going to slap up abuilding out of wood that’s going to rotin 30 years. They built the first perma-nent large-scale buildings that stated‘we are here and this is us. And dealwith us.’”

Fleming gave the first mass in theunfinished cathedral just before hisdeath in 1850. The Basilica was com-pleted five years later.

O’Neill brings up another, lesser-known legacy of Fleming’s. Back inthe 1830s, O’Neill says, employersused to give out glasses of rum to the

working men as young as 12 along the waterfront.“Fleming was so disgusted by this drunkenness, and that

these young boys were heading for a career as drunken hus-bands, that he had a law passed that juveniles were no longerable to be given tots of rum,” O’Neill says.

“He founded the first organization to get people sobered up… it’s what the AA is today. He realized that booze was thebiggest enemy the Irish had. Still have, maybe.”

Fleming is not free from criticism or fault, of course. Hewas known to be confrontational and dogmatic. O’Neill sayshe was a “domineering type”; FitzGerald says he was bothadmired for his audacity, and tarred for turning a blind eye to“certain things going on politically.”

At other times, he was scorned for being too vocal abouthis political opinions — and for some of his priests, who wereknown to encourage their congregations to vote a certain way.

England, FitzGerald says, tried her best to get rid ofFleming, going so far as to attempt to negotiate a deal withthe Vatican for his removal from the colony. That strife couldbe felt at times between the Irish and English in St. John’s.

“He was upsetting the apple cart,” FitzGerald says. “Hewanted his own cathedral, he wanted the Irish to do theirthing in politics, he didn’t want people ruling the place like aBritish colony …

“But neither did the locals, that’s why they thoughtFleming was so great.”

Although he was never actually a Canadian, BishopMichael Anthony Fleming has been designated a person ofnational historic significance to Canada by the Historic Sitesand Monuments Board of Canada.

A plaque in honour of this designation will be unveiled at apublic ceremony at the Basilica, 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2005— 150 years after the realization of Fleming’s vision for acathedral in St. John’s.

Judges selecting Our Navigators: John Crosbie, JohnFitzGerald, Noreen Golfman, Ray Guy, Ivan Morgan andRyan Cleary.

‘Genuine faith’From page 1

prepare an energy plan.Kelland-Dyer calls Hydro-Quebec

“probably the best energy company inthe world” and says Newfoundland andLabrador’s energy plan should followits example.

Hydro-Quebec rakes in around $1billion a year from the upper Churchilland as a Crown corporation, has man-aged to creatively re-direct profits intoa range of social, cultural and educa-tional programs. The practice hasrelieved various Quebec governmentdepartments of certain expenditures,while reducing Hydro’s profits at thesame time. As a result, that provincenetted hundreds of millions in equaliza-tion that wasn’t clawed back.

Kelland-Dyer says Newfoundlandand Labrador could benefit in a similarway by adapting its hydro company andcould attract energy-starved industrywith the promise of cheap, reliablepower from the lower Churchill.

Both Ontario and Quebec realizedthe importance of developing long-term energy plans as far back as the1960s and as a result, industry flockedto set up shop. Now, with a currentenergy draught threatening centralCanada, industry may be forced to lookelsewhere.

Years ago, Ontario deregulated andprivatized its energy system, tappinginto a larger North American powergrid. As a result, it was hit hard duringthe power blackout two years ago.Quebec — which took the risk of buy-ing out all its local private energy sup-pliers under Hydro-Quebec — createda more reliable network, giving someof its power, but blocking any return.This meant it was unaffected by theblackout.

“Who cares if it’s a decent price if it’snot reliable?” says Kelland-Dyer.

She would like to see Newfoundlandand Labrador Hydro encompass all theprovince’s energy suppliers, includingNewfoundland Power. The resultinglong-term energy plan would addressmarketing the province to attractenough extra industry (and subsequent-ly population) to use the 2,824 mega-watts of hydropower from the lowerChurchill. Newfoundland and LabradorHydro would also be in a position toplan for the eventual reclaiming of theprovince’s share of the upper Churchillin 2041, when the original 1969 dealexpires.

“It does see and should predict anextra 100,000 people in Labrador and Idon’t know why that’s far fetched.

“It’s more than that project (lowerChurchill) it’s all of our hydro electricresources, it is, in fact, our oil and gasresources, it’s everything … anywherethat (regions) are fortunate enough tohave hydro, they use hydro for them-selves. The other assets such as oil andgas are sold out to the market place.”

Starting off her career as a reporter,Kelland-Dyer first grabbed publicattention in the mid 1990s as a majoropponent against then-premier ClydeWells’ plan to privatize Newfoundlandand Labrador Hydro. Through hercareer as a researcher, consultant andpolicy analyst, she continues to remaininvolved in current affairs. She says her“pet project” has always been energy.

The issue of natural resources wasthe motivating mandate behind thebeginnings of the relatively short-livedNewfoundland and Labrador party in2000, which Kelland-Dyer helpedform.

“As unsuccessful as the structure (ofthe party) may have been, it was the

catalyst that started all the resourcedebates … and I think that that carriesthrough even today.”

Kelland-Dyer says although she isn’tsure Danny Williams will successfullypull off a development on the lowerChurchill, she’s convinced the provincecould financially produce the estimated$5 billion in funding — particularlywith the $2 billion Accord cheque ashealthy debt equity.

“I’ve never heard Danny Williamssaying that we cannot finance it our-selves,” she says, adding the federalgovernment should be right on board— particularly as Ottawa previouslyfailed to enforce the constitution andsubsequently a power line throughQuebec. They also have Kyoto com-mitments to fulfill.

“We have laws and sometimes weforget that, we forget that back in the’70s we put a law there called theLower Churchill Development Act,which is the federal statute, then aprovincial statute and, we both agreedto work in partnership and develop thatresource. So we’ve been kind of lettingthem off the hook for 30 years.”

Question is, can Williams succeedwhere all previous premiers havefailed?

“I think everybody is nervous aboutdoing the final deal, I don’t care whothey are.

“I look at Danny Williams and Ichallenge him a bit further … you arethe business man, you are the guy thatbeats up on Ottawa until you get yourthing; you’re the guy now that’s chair-ing up an energy council. You’ve got2,000 megawatts of power to sell inyour own province. Do you think youcan market it? And if you cannot dothat you are the wrong man for thejob.”

From page 1

‘Who cares if it’s a decentprice if it’s not reliable?’Keeping an eye on the comings and

goings of the ships in St. John’sHarbour. Information provided by theCoast Guard Traffic Centre.

MONDAY, AUG 15Vessels arrived: Maersk Chancellor,Canada, from White Rose Oil Field;Jim Kilabuh, Canada, from Lewis HillOil Fields; ASL Sanderling, Canada,from Halifax.Vessels departed: Maersk Chancellor,Canada, to Lewis Field; MaerskPlacentia, to Lewis Field.

TUESDAY, AUG 16Vessels arrived: Bear Cove Point,Canada, from Fishing; Atlantic Eagle,Canada, from Terra Nova; MaerskNascopie, Canada, from Hibernia.Vessels departed: Maersk Placentia,Canada, to Lewis Hills Oil Field;Atlantic Eagle, Canada, to TerraNova; ASL Sanderling, Canada, toHalifax.

WEDNESDAY, AUG 17Vessels arrived: Discovery, Bermuda,

from L’Anse Au Meadows; AtlanticKing Fisher, Canada, from TerraNova; Akademik Mistslau Keldysh,Russia, from Sea.Vessels departed: Jim Kilabik,Canada, to Lewis Hills Field.

THURSDAY, AUG 18Vessels arrived: Atlantic Hawk,Canada, from White Rose Oil Field;Irving Canada, Canada, from SaintJohn, NB; Cabot, Canada, fromMontreal.Vessels departed: Maersk Nascopie,Canada, to Hibernia; Anticosti,Canada, to Orphan Basin.

FRIDAY, AUG 19Vessels arrived: Burin Sea, Canada,from Terra Nova; Cicero, Canadafrom Halifax; CJO Deep Pioneer;Marshall Islands, from Bay Bulls.Vessels departed: Discovery,Bermuda, to Trinity; Atlantic Hawk;Canada, to White Rose; AkademikKeldysh, Russia, to Kiel, Germany;Cabot, Canada, to Montreal; BurinSea, Canada, to White Rose.

SHIPPINGNEWS

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

The cost of oil and Hubbert’s Peak Editor’s note: the following column ap-peared last week in The Record, a New Jer-sey newspaper. Reprinted with permission.

World oil prices pushed up to$67 a barrel last week. Is it justa seasonal phenomenon, a

reflection of summer driving patterns, asign of Saudi intransigence, a conspiracyby the oil companies? Perhaps. But farmore likely, it has something to do withHubbert’s Peak.

In 1956, Shell Oil geologist M. KingHubbert made a startling prediction.Judging from the rate new oil was beingdiscovered, he calculated that Americanoil production would reach its peak in1969.

The prediction received little attention.After all, people had been predicting thatoil would eventually run out sinceColonel Drake drilled the first well atTitusville in 1859. These pessimisticforecasts had always proved wrong.

But Hubbert had some logic on hisside. A veteran prospector, King hadnoticed that — largely because of

requirements by the Securities ExchangeCommission — oil companies did notimmediately add new discoveries to theirofficial “reserves” as soon as they werefound but parceled them out year by year.This created the illusion that new oil wascontinuously being found.

In fact, said Hubbert, when oil reserveswere assigned to the year in which theywere discovered, a startling fact emerged.American oil discoveries had peaked in1935 and declined steadily since then.Probably well over half the oil that wasever going to be discovered had alreadybeen found. Calculating that productionusually followed discovery in a 40-yearcycle, Hubbert predicted American oilproduction would peak in 1969.

He was off by one year. We brieflypumped 10 million barrels of oil a day in1970. Then production went into a grad-ual but inexorable decline. (We nowpump about 8.5 million.) All the fantasticnew technologies — the 3-D computerimaging, the horizontal drilling, the pres-surized recovery methods — have notlifted us back to where we were in 1970.

The consequences were immediate andextraordinary. In 1970 we were importing15 per cent of our oil. The productionpeak went unnoticed, demand continuedto rise, and within three years we wereimporting 30 per cent of our oil. This leftus sitting ducks for the 1974 Arab oilboycott.

There is now a theory that world oilproduction is approaching the same“Hubbert’s Peak.” Kenneth Deffeyes ofPrinceton, author of Hubbert’s Peak: TheImpending World Oil Shortage, is one ofthe principle proponents. ApplyingHubbert’s techniques to world oil,Deffeyes found that non-OPEC discover-ies peaked in 1975. That means weshould be approaching peak productionright about now.

As for OPEC production — whoknows? The Saudis are still highly secre-tive about both their reserves and theirproduction capacity — as are all OPECnations. OPEC parcels out its productionquotas on the basis of reserves — whichprompts all OPEC members to exagger-ate their capacity.

In addition, the countries are constant-ly cheating each other through overpro-ducing and don’t like to make the num-bers public. The most reliable figures —if they can be considered reliable —come from Petrologistics, a small Genevafirm that claims to have spies in everyOPEC nation’s ports.

What all this suggests is that $67-a-bar-rel oil is more than a passing phenome-non. What may be happening is some-thing one school of geologists has longpredicted — world oil production is top-ping out.

“We’re not going to feel anything whenwe pass over the peak,” says MatthewSimmons, a Texas oil investor whoserecent book, Twilight in the Desert, pre-dicts that Saudi oil may also be approach-ing its pinnacle.

“The only way we’re going to recog-nize it is in the rear-view mirror.”

Passing over Hubbert’s Peak doesn’tmean we’re “running out of oil.” It meanswe’re running out of cheap oil. Saudiwells, Caspian wells, Nigerian wells,Texas wells — all will continue to pump

oil. But like Alice and the Queen ofHearts, we’ll have to run as fast as we canjust to stay where we are.

Meanwhile — unfortunately —demand will continue to rise. China andIndia are rapidly increasing their demand,Europe still has high demands, and ofcourse the United States’ thirst for oil —despite all the talk — continues to riseunabated. That means rapidly risingprices.

Will paying $50 to fill up the tankmake Americans start thinking more sen-sibly about alternative means of power?Will gas-electric hybrids start to lookmore attractive? And if people start refu-eling their cars on the power grid, wherewill we get the electricity to accommo-date them?

We’d better not start blaming this all onPresident Bush or wailing about the perfi-dies of the oil companies. The time hascome to start rethinking our energy future.

William Tucker is an associate at theAmerican Enterprise Institute for PublicPolicy Research, one of America’s largestthink tanks.

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Berry Newfoundland

By Clare-Marie GosseThe Independent

Early settlers, shocked and appalled by the harshNewfoundland and Labrador weather and theapparent barrenness of the land, no doubtjumped for joy around late summer when the

berries began appearing. The land would graduallybecome awash with low bushels of what are today

known as bakeapples, not to mention dark, sweet,little crowberries, tart, ripe partridgeberries, high-

er growing squashberries — not forgetting theever-popular wild blueberry.

“It’s a traditional thing, I guess,” saysSteve Knudsen, owner of Dark TickleCompany, a business on the NorthernPeninsula that produces a wide variety oflocal berry products. “Years ago, tradition-ally, all those berries had their medicinaluses. They were a very strong part of their

history in the past, not only the aboriginalhistory but also the early European history …

all the berries were used for different things.”Knudsen knows berries. Dark Tickle even has its own

berry museum, which has been up and running for fouryears.

“It seems to be taking hold and I think it fits very wellinto where Newfoundland and Labrador is going, which isthe key assets, because the berries are unique and so is thegeology and the botany.”

In fact, berries are a million-dollar industry in theprovince, both wild and cultivated. Close to 100 per cent ofthe ever popular blueberries produced here (particularly thecultivated variety) are exported to the mainland, but thewilder, lesser known berries make their way into localproducts such as preserves and wine.

This year, Knudsen says crowberry and squashberrycrops are looking good, however bakeapples (also knownas cloudberries) are virtually non-existent.

He wonders if it has something to do with the dry sum-mer.

“I think they had a frost, probably some time in June andwe’ve had exceedingly dry weather and I don’t know if the

cloud in cloudberry means anything, but overcast is sort ofdamp weather and that would have an impact as well.”

Dealing with unpredictable wild fruit, Knudsen isalways prepared for the worst.

“When we buy, we freeze everything anyway so wecarry a big inventory, because we expect this sort of thing.”

The late June frost also seems to have had an impact onblueberries. Darryl Taylor, executive director of theBlueberry Development Corporation, says numbers aredown a bit this year.

The blueberry corporation was registered in 2000 andbegan with a five-year mandate to help revitalize blueber-ry cultivation in the province. An average of 2.5 millionpounds of blueberries — cultivated and wild — are pro-duced in Newfoundland and Labrador every year.

“Our mandate is ending March of next year and at thattime we’re also looking at the process of broadening ourmandate and carrying forward another term to include mar-keting,” says Taylor.

Although blueberries are a big exporter for the province,Knudsen says marketing the other berries seems to havebeen less successful.

“My understanding is … the shipments of partridgeber-ries haven’t been as strong, traditionally, as people wouldlike by any means. Cranberries are still much more widelyknown, as are blueberries.”

He says wild-picked berries are generally harder to mar-ket because they’re more expensive — although tastier —than cultivated berries.

The curiosity factor with the lesser-known berries isalways an attraction when it comes to tourists, however.

Winston Jennings, co-owner of Weil Winery inTwillingate, says his company sells lots of wine made withberries most people can’t find elsewhere.

“If it wasn’t for Newfoundland fruit and berries wewouldn’t be in the wine industry. Everything that we do ismade with fruit and berries that come from Newfoundlandand Labrador.”

The berries here are Weil’s alternative to grapes — justas they were for the early settlers.

“I guess in Newfoundland, we never ever had any grapesto make wine with, so we always made wine withNewfoundland fruits and berries.”

BERRIES OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

Bakeapple (cloudberry): the name bakeapple was derived from a French term (Baie, qu’appelle?) meaning ‘what is this berry called?’It has the appearance of a raspberry and the similar colour and (some say) taste of an apricot. They are generally ready for picking around

mid-August and are extremely rich in vitamin C. The juice has been used in the past to treat hives.

Partridgeberry (lingonberry): partridgeberries are a relative of the cranberry family and grow in dry, acidic soils around Newfoundland andLabrador’s barrens and coastal headlands. The berries ripen through September’s frost. They are high in vitamin C and antioxidants and are said

to have many medicinal qualities, including aiding with the prevention of certain forms of cancer.

Crowberry (Newfoundland blackberry): crowberries are similar in appearance to a black partridgeberry or blueberry. Their season usuallybegins in July and lasts until first snow. They grow in similar areas to the partridgeberry and are almost completely devoid of natural acid. Thesesweet berries have almost twice the vitamin C of blueberries.

Squashberry (highbush cranberry, mooseberry): squashberries are part of the honeysuckle family and thrive in middle elevations inNewfoundland’s moist forests, rocky slopes and wetlands. They ripen from August to October and persist through winter’s first frosts.Squashberry bark was often chewed and the juice swallowed to cure ailments such as lung colds.

Wild blueberry: a worldwide berry, with one or two species growing in Newfoundland. The picking season is between mid-August to lateSeptember and with a sweet taste that is far superior to their cultivated cousins, with high levels of vitamins and antioxidants, these berriesare said to prevent a wide range of ailments.

— Information compiled by The Dark Tickle Company


AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

P.O. Box 5891, Stn.C, St. John’s,Newfoundland & Labrador, A1C 5X4

Ph: 709-726-4639 • Fax: 709-726-8499Website: www.theindependent.ca

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EXECUTIVEDEVELOPMENTPROGRAM 2005September 18 - 30

25th Anniversary

Leading in a changing workforce...How to become anemployer of choice.

For further information or to receive abrochure, please contact Bill Morrissey at737-7977, e-mail: [email protected]

PLAN TOATTEND THE

EDP 25thANNIVERSARY

REUNION SEPT. 22-23

We interrupt our regular broadcast …CBC lockout will impact return of one-hour suppertime TV news

By Alisha MorrisseyThe Independent

Turn back to channel 5 — channel3 is on the fritz. An announcementby the Canadian Broadcasting

Corporation (CBC) that this province’ssupper-hour news show would return to afull hour of local programming in the fallmay have excited workers at the corpora-tion, but the recent lock-out of 5,500workers across the country has left theprogram’s future up in the air.

More than 160 CBC TV and radioworkers in this province have been walk-ing picket lines since Aug. 15.

The CBC and the Canadian MediaGuild have been in bargaining modesince the contracts for reporters in TV,radio and Internet, as well as technicaland support staff, expired at the end ofMarch 2004.

Both sides hit a wall on at least twocentral issues — contracting out andbumping rights. Union officials say theyare not opposed to some contracting out(one third of those on picket lines in thisprovince are temporary or contract work-ers). Rather they refuse to become part ofa “disposable workforce.”

It was announced on June 30 thatCBC’s local television newscast wouldreturn to its original one-hour format inSeptember. When the show was cut to ahalf hour in 2000 the number of nightlyviewers dropped to 40,000 or less from100,000, union officials say.

They add that since the lockout beganviewers may be down to as low as one in10.

Jason MacDonald, spokesman forCBC, says the ratings during the strike

aren’t as low as CBC expected theywould be and local broadcasting is sim-ply on the backburner until the labourdispute is resolved.

“As far as what our plans will be comeSeptember, well you’ve got to give ussome time and hope that we can get backto the table and hope that we can getsomething negotiated before then,”MacDonald says, adding national pro-gramming will be monitored for the

duration of the lockout and adjustedaccordingly.

“Obviously it puts things up in the airas to what we will do six, seven, eightweeks down the road or whatever thecase may be,” he says. “But as for sayingdefinitively what we’re going to do in thefirst week or the second week ofSeptember, you’re going to have to getback to us.”

He says the labour action will “go on

as long as the union wants it to.”Bob Sharpe, provincial representative

for the Canadian Media Guild, whoworks on the technical side of radio pro-duction, says this is his third time onstrike in six years with the CBC.

While he wouldn’t talk about whatwould happen to the supper-hour newsprogram on CBC TV in the fall, he saysthe CBC is losing viewers every daybecause of the work stoppage and there

has been a hostile response from acrossCanada.

“The supper hour news inNewfoundland was an astounding suc-cess — even when it closed down (to ahalf an hour).”

Sharpe says bargaining with the CBCwas going around in circles with the cor-poration offering the same package atevery meeting — just tied up “in a differ-ent ribbon.”

When asked about standard salaries,benefits and hours, Sharpe would onlysay employees worked “tremendousovertime” and technical workers makean average $25 an hour, though that cango up.

“This is not about money.” Talks between the union and corpora-

tion have been stalled since Aug. 14. It’ssaid dozens of issues are still on the table,a detail neither side would confirm.

The membership voted 87 per cent infavour of strike action before beinglocked out by the corporation.

Back in Ottawa, MacDonald says he’sfielding dozens of media calls a day fromvarious organizations.

“How is it being in the media spot-light? I mean we prefer that the spot-light’s on the programming that we’reputting on air and the exciting new pro-grams that we have in the can and theprograms we are getting ready to launchand those sorts of things,” he says,adding reporters are supposed to reportthe news not make it.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s a work stop-page at the national public broadcaster,but it’s a decision we made for all theright reasons and it was absolutely neces-sary.”


Mark Oct. 11, 2007 on your cal-endars, the day the provincegoes to the polls for the next

provincial general election.Premier Danny Williams says he has

no idea why there was so little mediacoverage of such an “important” piece oflegislation, which was introduced lastDecember and will change the way elec-tions are called in Newfoundland andLabrador.

In case voters hadn’t heard — Oct. 11,2007 will be the start of fixed-date voting.Every four years on the second Tuesdayof October, voters will go to the polls.

Williams says Bill 40 will allow allparties in the province to have a fairplaying field when an election is called.

“(That was) our experience when wewere in opposition and we felt it wasappropriate that we had a fair playingfield,” Williams tells The Independent.“You could have a situation where a per-son who’s not elected carries on govern-

ment and, you know, during the Grimesera the Voisey’s Bay deal was done andthere was an attempt to do the lowerChurchill deal which are two very signif-icant projects.

“This really ensures that the peoplehave a say and that government isaccountable.”

Williams says past premiers could callan election any time within their five-year mandate, giving the sitting govern-ment an edge over the opposition.

“They could be opportune, and take,announce it like the Accord, or anachievement like the Accord and jumpon the back of that and call an electionimmediately you know, so this allowsfor a fixed-date similar to the Americanexperience.”

Other provinces, including BritishColumbia and Ontario, have recentlypassed similar legislation and someorganizations are calling on the federalgovernment to adopt the practice.

Legislation in the province has alsobeen changed when it comes to byelec-tions and replacing a suddenly departed

premier.If a premier resigns within his first

three years, the new party leader must goto the polls within 12 months of takingoffice.

As for byelections, Williams says theynow have to be called within 60 days.

“When a district is not representedthat’s a very serious matter.”

The recent departure of Roger Grimesleft a vacant seat in the district ofExploits, which Williams said he’dwanted to fill immediately. In the end,the winner, Tory Clayton Forsey, addedanother seat to Williams’ side of theHouse.

As for the date of the upcoming elec-tion, Williams says it was chosenbecause it was around the time the cur-rent government was elected.

“The fall is generally a good time foran election as well because of the weath-er. Generally spring can be difficult inthis province because as you knowFebruary, March or April the weathercan be very unpredictable ... and thesummer is never good.”

Won’t be long now

CBC Radio reporter Suzanne Woolridge on the picket line with some of her colleagues. In total, 5,500 CBC workers — from receptionists toreporters — are locked out across the country. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

are so tight, the margins are sotight that you can’t continue muchlonger under these circumstances.”

The tariff in the European Union(EU) is set at 20 per cent forCanadian shrimp entering the mar-ket after the first 7,000 tonnes,which is only subject to a six percent tariff, provided it’s processedin Europe.

Canadian quotas caught in 2004were sent to Europe where most ofthe shrimp sat in storage, while thefirst 7,000 tonnes went to market,Taylor says, pointing out the rest ofthe fish caught in 2004 has alreadyconsumed the preferential tariff for2005.

“So everything that’s going intoEurope is going in at 20 per cent,couple that with the American dol-lar, the softening of the U.S. mar-ket and we’ve got ourselves a realchallenge. Add to that the price offuel for harvesters and it’s not avery good recipe.”

Industry experts, however, saythere’s another problem. Countriessuch as Greenland, the Faroe Islands,Iceland and Norway are catching hugeamounts of shrimp outside Canada’s200-mile limit and selling it to the EUthrough Denmark tariff free, creating aglut in the market.

In addition, the shrimp catch is based— not on quota — but on sea days.Experts say foreign vessels are catch-ing twice the recommended catch. Seadays are applied to the Flemish Cap, afishing zone west of the 200-mile limit,and quotas are legally overfishedaccording to the rules of the NorthwestAtlantic Fisheries Organization(NAFO).

Taylor says the issue will have tobecome a priority for InternationalTrade Minister Jim Peterson.

“This issue is a small issue in the

international trade business, but a hugeissue in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Taylor says two companies inDenmark — Royal Greenland, thebiggest processor of shrimp in theworld, and Polar Seafoods — areagainst lifting the 20 per cent tariff.Denmark, again, is the same countryselling foreign-caught shrimp from theGrand Banks to the EU.

David Wells, a fisheries consultantsince 1988, says he’s seen fisheriescome and go.

“The odd thing is the market isn’thorrible, the market is good, but it’sjust that Canada has a big penalty goinginto the market place,” Wells says.

“The U.K. wants our shrimp andthey support the reduction or elimina-tion of the tariff.”

Wells says many countries outside

the EU pay preferential tariffs — ornone at all, including Iceland andGreenland. Norway pays a 7.5 percent tariff into the European mar-ket, but only after the first 5,500tonnes.

“I think it can be said that ourfailing is that there’s not enoughemphasis on the cold-water shrimpas there is on softwood lumber andcows and beef. It’s federal jurisdic-tion to fight for tariff rates in for-eign markets, it’s notNewfoundland’s jurisdiction —although we do as much as we can,but we can only put pressure onthose who have the jurisdiction.”

ONLY SOLUTIONFederal pressure is the only solu-

tion to the tariff, Wells says.“If you do go after other markets

obviously you are going to begin toneglect your primary market whichis, again, Great Britain. We’ve builtup a terrific relationship and ourproduct has a fantastic reputation,”he says. “The jurisdiction lies withthe federal government … we may

have a louder voice, but theirs is theofficial voice.

“Even though it might seem likewe’re banging our head against thewall we have to keep fighting for thistariff to be reduced or eliminated.”

Derek Butler, executive director ofthe seafood producers association, rep-resenting most of the province’s fishplants, says industry has fought the tar-iff for years with little success — out-side the lesser 7,000-tonne tariff.

“That’s the million-dollar question.How do we get the Canadian govern-ment to adopt this file as one of greatimportance in this industry and go toEurope in the face of everything elsethey have to discuss with internationaltrade and say ‘Gee, today we’re con-cerned about Newfoundland shrimp’?”

‘Million dollar question’From page 1


The provincial government’s vehicle fleethas grown by 135 over the past fiscal yearunder a bulk-purchasing program institut-

ed by the Transportation Department, TheIndependent has learned.

Two more vehicles will be purchased for theprovince’s Fisheries Department before the yearis up.

Transportation Minister Tom Rideout says thelast administration had a freeze on buying orreplacing vehicles for government departmentsduring its last two years in office.

The current government has lifted that freeze.In fact, the Tory administration has spent $3.3

million on the purchase of new vehicles this fiscalyear. Another $417,000 was spent on long-termvehicle rentals, as well as $843,000 on mainte-nance.

“Up until this year each department would goout, if they had a budget, to purchase their ownvehicles. We’ve instituted a bulk-purchasing poli-cy whereby we do one tender for all of the wholegovernment (except the RNC) … for vehicles,cars and trucks $20,000 and under,” Rideout tellsThe Independent.

“You have to have a constant replacement poli-cy to keep your fleet up to date. If not I thinkMurphy’s Law steps in and you’re spending moreon maintenance than you are getting bang for yourbuck.”

The policy would explain why the Tory govern-ment has actually increased the number of cars onthe road — despite a pre-election promise to“downsize accordingly.”

The Independent reported last week govern-ment’s vehicle fleet had grown to 863 from 846 atlast count in February. But many of the new vehi-cles were actually replacements, so that the truenumber of new vehicles wasn’t immediately obvi-ous.

The average age of vehicles owned by theprovincial government is six years or older withan average of 120,000 kilometres on each engine.Some of the older cars, however, have hundredsof thousands of kilometres on the odometer.

The fleet includes sedans, vans, pick-ups andfour-wheel drives.

Rideout admits the numbers may not comeback showing savings for the government thisyear but will increase over time as maintenancebills decrease.

“Obviously you’ll try to keep the vehicle whileit has good life and it makes economic sense to

keep it but after a certain number of kilometresand age and so on then it would make better senseto replace it,” he says, adding it’s not just aboutsaving money, but keeping up a standard.

“If the vehicle is justified and the need for it isjustified then the vehicle should be provided. If,on the other hand, we’re providing too many vehi-cles well that’s something that if we’re going to bediligent with taxpayer’s money we should look at.

“One of the hardest things to pry out of somepeople’s hands are the keys to a vehicle.”

Former auditor general Elizabeth Marshallcompiled a report based on the wasteful usage ofgovernment vehicles, describing vehicles in the

six-year-old range as being “beyond their eco-nomic lives.”

The 1997 review of the province’s cars notedthe fleet, which numbered 869 light vehicles atthe time, had travelled in excess of 24 millionkilometres with operating and maintenance costsof almost $4 million.

The report recommended downsizing.In a 2000 update, the auditor general noted

many problems associated with the fleet had per-sisted.

Marshall was unavailable for comment.Current Auditor General John Noseworthy says

he has no plans to look at the fleet.


Not all leaky roofs repaired

Two-dozen schools in the EasternSchool District had their roofsrepaired this summer, but some stu-

dents will return to schools with leakyroofs this fall. The buildings still in need ofroofing repairs may have the work carriedout in the near future, however, accordingto a spokesman for the school board.

“While some of them haven’t beenrepaired, we expect tenders to be let, evenin the next week or so,” says Dr. BruceSheppard, director of education for theEastern School District, which consists of127 schools, approximately 45,000 stu-dents, and 4,000 teaching and support staffon the Avalon, Burin, and Bonavista penin-sulas.

Sheppard couldn’t say exactly howmany schools are still in need of roofingrepairs.

“There is ongoing roof work every sin-gle year,” Sheppard says. “Every singleyear, there are roof replacement projects.The roof on a flat-roof structure needs tobe replaced every 20-25 years. It’s a regu-lar part of maintenance.”

Last winter, after the provincial govern-ment announced in its budget that extrafunds would be made available to schoolboards for repairs, the Eastern School

District applied for $9 million for emer-gency work.

Of the $9 million, $6 million was need-ed for roofing repairs — although only $4million was approved.

Over the summer, 24 schools in the dis-trict were marked for roofing work.

“Some of them were partial replace-ments, others were complete replace-ments,” Sheppard says.

Sheppard says 20 schools in the districthad major leaks last year, while close to 50per cent of the district’s schools reportedminor leaks. There were disruptions at sev-eral schools due to leaky roofs — someclassrooms were littered with buckets tocatch drips, while others had plastic con-tainers running from the ceilings to catchwater.

“Last winter was a unique winter weath-er wise,” says Sheppard. “What we hadwas a major thaw and then a freeze up. Anytime we had snow and then a thaw, the icewas moving the water on the roof around.If there was any weakness on the roof wewere experiencing significant leaks.”

Hazelwood Academy, an elementaryschool in the west end of St. John’s, expe-rienced severe leaking problems, saysSheppard. Some classroom areas had to bevacated as did some classrooms all togeth-er. As a result, some grade levels had to bemoved to a different part of the school.

“That’s one example; we experiencedthat in quite a few schools,” says Sheppard,

adding the $4-million project over thesummer was the biggest in the area inyears.

“To this extent, it’s been quite sometime.”

The sad state of roofs in the EasternSchool District can be attributed to harshwinters and years of budget restraints bythe provincial government, says Sheppard.

“It’s been a combination of both. There’sno question whatsoever that the dollars putinto capital over the past number of years… these dollars have certainly not beensufficient,” he says.

The projects that begin in the fallshouldn’t negatively affect students, saysSheppard. If the repairs create interrup-tions, he says steps will be taken to dealwith the issue.

“We’ll be doing roofing as long as theweather co-operates,” he says. “Generallythat can be done with little disruption to theschool. We’ve got a couple of metal roofs,and when you have to repair those it can bequite noisy. We’re somewhat concernedabout what we can do about that.”

Although he doesn’t know how muchmoney will be made available by theprovincial government for roofing repairsnext year, Sheppard says it will have to beat least equal to what the school districtreceived in 2005.

“Anything less than what we got thisyear will find us back in major difficulty inthe years to come.”

NewcarsmellProvince purchased 135 new cars over 2004/2005fiscal year, spending estimated $3.3 million

DARCYMACRAE

Provincial government vehicles. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent


OURVOICE

The two-month yearAnumber of years ago my blood

pressure jumped considerablywhen I read one day the com-

ments of the Fortis CEO who suggest-ed that tourism in Newfoundland was abit of a folly, as there were only reallytwo months that you could reasonablyexpect to sell.

At the time we had just started theStrawberry Hill Resort development inHumber Valley, and had taken a leap offaith that we could generate enoughcash flow to survive by the time ouroriginal investment ran dry. Given wechose the winter of 1996 to start, ourtiming could not have been worse. Forthose of you who don’t remember, thatwas the year of the winter washout inwestern Newfoundland, and also theseason that Marble Mountain openedits doors after building its new infra-structure.

To call that winter a tourism disasterwould be generous. We watched as ouroperating capital set aside for the firstyear disappeared in the first twomonths and Marble Mountain succeed-ed in cutting its skier visits in half —

and that was after they spent about $30million sprucing the place up.

It was not a pretty time to be stakingyour future on the growth of tourism inwestern Newfoundland. I remember thelengths we went through to keep thedoors open, including one of our man-agers going to the ski hill and invitingacquaintances back to Strawberry Hillfor dinner. Any misconception they hadabout the generosity of the gesture wascleared up when they got the bill afterthe meal.

We did what we had to do, whichincluded our accountant and lawyercooking and cleaning, and I becamevery familiar with the serving stationsand the bartender’s manual.

We survived, and that experienceended up being of greater benefit to usthan any seminar or management

course. I would hope by now the success of

Humber Valley Resort has proven falsethe misconception of Newfoundlandtourism being a two-month year.

The fact of the matter is that the St.John’s tourism market is about twomonths long, if you exclude the year-round George Street tourism industry.Once you get off the Avalon Peninsulathere are many spectacular places to befound, and although not all have a win-ter product to compliment the summerand fall seasons, I can say with someauthority that the environmental condi-tions are much nicer.

I always assumed it was our oceancurrents that make St. John’s weatherso inhospitable — often too cold in thesummer and too warm in the winter tohave consistent snow. The really unfairpart of the equation is that the rest ofthe province gets branded with the cap-ital city’s international reputation forrain, drizzle, and fog. There have actu-ally been times when I have left thewest coast in June (the month of thelargest discrepancy in my opinion) and

have seen a 20-degree C difference inthe weather … not to the benefit of theeast coasters.

Just ask Jean Claude Van Damme.He has apparently been floating inNotre Dame Bay for the last weeks in aprivate yacht with his own group.When I heard that all I could think ofwas the Belgian film star lounging inhis euro-skimpy swim trunks aroundthe docks of my fishermen friends inNew World Island and Twillingate. AskGeorge Bush, who has come every yearfor fishing in either Labrador or LongHarbour, still accompanied by a con-sortium of secret service. Luckily, theonly real danger the former presidenthas seen in Newfoundland has beenfrom a bog hole.

I cannot write about the particularpeople who have come into HumberValley Resort and discovered theprovince, but getting chased around theValley one weekend by a paparazzi wasan unusual experience.

After stalking through the woods, thephotographer managed to get a pictureof her prey, which showed up the fol-

lowing week on the cover of a promi-nent European entertainment magazine.The funny part was that a lot of us werein the picture too but got airbrushed outbefore it went to press. Oh well.

But faithful reader, after 10 yearsstruggling and hustling to make tourismwork here, there is one feature of thisprovince that makes it a very naturalplace for success in this industry, anymonth of the year and in any corner ofthe land.

It’s the people. Having been aroundmost of the world by now, and havingbeen to many destinations that werebilled as the place to be, we have some-thing here that is more valuable thanany beach or weather condition or rep-utation — the most beautiful, sincere,generous, fun-loving, and genuine peo-ple in the world.

It’s not just my opinion, it’s the No. 1comment (by a long shot) that we getfrom our clients as they come here tofind a piece of the world where theycan relax and enjoy themselves andspend their money.

Not a bad industry, is it b’y?

You know it’s a shagged upweek when you find yourselfmissing Roger Grimes and all

he had to offer. A tragedy really: Grimes’ story. He

was the premier, remember, whopromised to do away with school feesif elected back to office, an offer mostpeople rejected as a desperate strokefor desperate Liberal folk. The poorman was trampled by Danny’s whitehorse galloping toward our destiny.

And so we’re stuck with schoolfees.

Used to be all a student needed togo to school was himself. Borrow thestub of a pencil from one of the girls,who always carried overfed pencilcases, and rip a sheet of paper from ascribbler.

Today a kid needs colour-codedduoTangs (to add flavour to the rain-water that collects in buckets in themiddle of the classroom, one pre-sumes. What else would you need twopackets of Tang for?) and insuranceand glue sticks and scrapbooks andworkbooks.

The list goes on … all the way tothe bank. The total cost for schoolmaterials and course materials(there’s apparently a difference) fortwo kids at a certain St. John’s schoolfor the first day of class rings in at$105.80. (The cost breakdown wasconveniently included with last year’sreport cards. There are always a fewcoppers for photocopying bills.)

To the penny: $63.55 for the Grade5; $42.25 for the Grade 1.

That doesn’t include “classroomsupplies” — rubbers (the old-fash-ioned kind), loose leaf, paint sets, tis-sues, sneakers, haircuts, the gas ittakes to get the kiddies to the door,film for the camera and a bucket ortwo to collect the water pouring infrom the roof.

Oh right, the roofs were fixed overthe summer (guess the Tang won’t benecessary). Well, not exactly. TheEastern School District needed $6

million for roof repairs but only got $4million. Some leaky roofs will have towait until there’s money for tar. Funny— get a leak in the roof of the houseand, come hell or high water, it’s fixedimmediately. Get a leak in a schooland you’re forced to wait, come hellor high water, until the provincialbudget is passed to see if roofs are apriority.

Another of Grimes’ legacies was in

the news this week — Voisey’s Bay. First for the history lesson and

another example of how this placegives in and is done in. It was BrianTobin who first uttered the words “notone spoonful” in reference to theamount of nickel that would beshipped out of Labrador for process-ing.

But then Tobin moved on andGrimes took over, exchanging thespoon for a barge to ship ore to thedestitute provinces of Ontario andManitoba. Only for a little while, ofcourse, until our processing plant is upand running, then mainland ore willbe shipped back here. (By then our

schools will be capped with gold andadorable little leprechaun-like Tobinswill play spoons on the rooftops as thechildren, down below in the class-rooms, perform water ballet in the rainbuckets.)

So much for the ore — at least wehave the jobs. Now we learn Voisey’sBay workers don’t even have to live inLabrador; the company will help themfly back (picking up 80 per cent of thetab) to civilization on the mainlandwhen their shifts are over.

How well that worked out for us —like everything else.

Towns like Goose Bay, Wabush andLabrador City were supposed tobecome bedroom communities butturned out to be closets to hang thehard hats and store the steel-toedboots. Why is it we can never win?

There was good news this week.The federal Department of Fisheriesand Oceans wrote The Independent aletter (see Dear editor, up and to theleft) to say Canada is a world leader infisheries science. Well that’s a relief.Now, finally, Newfoundlanders andLabradorians can go to sleep at nightknowing all is well and our cod stocksare in good hands.

There for a minute I thought theywere in danger of commercial extinc-tion, which would never happen withsuch good science.

But it’s the CBC that totallyshagged me this week. No news in themorning, no news in the evening —the days lost their beginnings andends.

Sat down one night this week towatch a movie (Old School) with thekids on CBC television. Good cleanfamily entertainment, I thought, untilthe two young girls wrestling in KYjelly raised their T-shits to an old mannamed Blue and he dropped dead of aheart attack.

Ryan Cleary is managing editor ofThe Independent.

[email protected]

Old school

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. • © 2005 The Independent • Canada Post Agreement # 40871083

RYAN CLEARYFightingNewfoundlander

But it’s the CBC that totally shagged me

this week. No news inthe morning, no news in the evening — the

days lost their beginnings and ends.

YOURVOICE‘Canada is a world leader in fisheries science’

Dear editor,The Aug. 14th article by Alisha

Morrissey entitled Economic Suicidepurports to compare fisheriesresearch efforts of Fisheries andOceans Canada (DFO) with those ofother countries. However, the articlemade a fundamental error that mis-represents DFO’s science initiatives.

The major mistake came early inthe article, and compounded all thatfollowed: “Canada’s exploration ofthe fishery off Newfoundland andLabrador’s coast seems to fall flatcompared to other fishing countriesaround the world.” The reporter com-pared only DFO’s research offNewfoundland and Labrador’s eastcoast — just a portion of DFO fish-eries research conducted in Canadianand international waters — to that ofthe total marine research programsconducted by entire countries in theirrespective coastal waters.

In fact, Canada has 22 vesselsengaged in its at-sea science program,not just the three the reporter men-tions working off Newfoundland andLabrador. As well, DFO has exten-sive research partnerships with thefishing industry to provide valuable

information on the state of Canada’smarine resources.

Having stated that Canada’s effortsseem to “fall flat,” the article thenstates, “Countries including Russia,New Zealand, Australia and evenSouth Africa have more than ade-quate research vessels …”

The reporter wrote that EuropeanUnion countries have “several” ves-sels, and that nearly all these coun-tries charter “a few vessels.”

“Several” and “a few” are not thebasis on which to compare anything.

The article quoted two former DFOscientists critical of the department,yet there was no view from those whoknow best — those currently workingin DFO science programs, and thosewho know that Canada is a worldleader in fisheries science. Whatshould have been mentioned is themore than $11 million recently com-mitted by Minister Geoff Regan toscience on the Grand Banks as wellas the building of two new, state-of-the-art research trawlers announcedin the federal February budget.

Dr. Wendy Watson-WrightAssistant deputy minister, science

DFO, Ottawa

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www.theindependent.ca • [email protected]

The Independent is published by The SundayIndependent, Inc. 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 DobbinMANAGING EDITOR Ryan ClearySENIOR EDITOR Stephanie PorterPICTURE EDITOR Paul Daly

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]

Quebec can’t colour inside the linesEditor’s note: the following is a copy ofa letter sent to Quebec Premier JeanCharest.

Dear sir,It was a great pleasure to receive

your tourist information brochuresenclosed with my July/August issue ofCanadian Geographic. However, Inoticed a rather large printing error inthese brochures I feel I must bring toyour attention to avoid any potentialembarrassment on your part.

It seems that the graphic artist whoprepared and coloured the maps print-ed on these brochures had difficultykeeping within the lines. I know that intimes of budgetary restraint a greatdeal of this work is contracted out andthat a lot of it is performed by the mostjunior person on the staff, who wasprobably handed the task on Fridayafternoon when he, or she, wanted toget off early and head down to Rue SteCatherine to get an early start on theweekend, but this is really inexcusable.

When I was in the army we used tojoke about how secure we felt knowingour rifles were manufactured by thelowest bidder. You see, this is the typeof thing that happens when you go withthe lowest tender.

I know that it’s very difficult for

young people to keep inside the lineswhen they are learning how to colour.God knows, my knuckles still remem-ber Sister Mary and her ruler but, withlots of practice, I did learn.

I realize you are busy and can’treview everything that goes on withinall your various departments. Perhapsyou could have the minister responsi-ble have a chat with his people aboutproof reading these things before theygo back to the printer for production.

You might also remind them that theinternational border between theDominion of Canada and theDominion of Newfoundland was set-tled in 1927 after a joint submission tothe Privy Council in London and wasrecognized under international law.

Oh, and before I forget, your govern-ment website under the heading,“Geography,” states Quebec is bor-dered on the east by the AtlanticOcean. I assume they are referring tojust the Gaspe and north shore of theSt. Lawrence, otherwise, they havemisplaced Newfoundland andLabrador. Most curious.

You might want to take a look at thistoo for clarification. I thank you foryour attention to this matter.

Edward Power,Upper Gullies

BRIAN DOBBINPublish or perish


YOURVOICE

Dear editor,As a former resident of Southside

Road in St. John’s, I found it oddwhen the work on the sewage treat-ment plant commenced at the head ofthe harbour.

While living on the southside, mykids and I frequented a monumentlocated on a large grassy hill just ashort walk from our house and direct-ly across from the dockyard. Whilethe kids played, I remember readingthe monument and found it interestingthat the location was the site of St.Mary’s, an old church that fishermenfrom around the island would frequentwhile away from their homeports.

The monument went on to say thatShawnadithit, the last knownBeothuk, was buried close to the site,along with other notable natives.

In the course of my research I didcome across some conflicting reports.There was once an Anglican cemeterynear the site of St. Mary’s, torn downyears ago and the road widened

I came across another articledescribing the last days ofShawnadithit. She succumbed to pul-monary consumption on June 6, 1829and was buried two days later in themilitary and naval cemetery on thesouthside near riverhead. A monu-

ment to her memory stands somewhatto the east of the general site of herburial.

Are we to believe that the future siteof the Riverhead WastewaterTreatment Facility is being construct-ed on top of a small cemetery or a mil-itary and naval cemetery? As I recall itdidn’t work out too well inPoltergeist, the movie. I wonder howmuch time was invested researchingthe site?

I’m wondering if any readerswould have more information on thesubject. I would like to know if thethousands of tons of gravel cartedfrom the southside of St. John’s con-tained the remains of unknown sol-diers or of the last known Beothuk.

On a lighter note, the City of St.John’s felt that it was important for thename of the new wastewater treatmentfacility to reflect the history of thisarea. St. John’s city council approvedthe name “Riverhead WastewaterTreatment Facility” for the new facili-ty at a special meeting of council onMarch 21, 2005. I guess they did notwant to call it the ShawnadithitMemorial Wastewater treatment facil-ity because of the bad press?

Shannon Cleary, St. John’s

So I am reading the best newspa-per in Newfoundland andLabrador (here’s a hint —

you’re holding it) and I come across aword. The word — rebranding — wasused by Leslie Galway, the newdeputy minister of something calledthe Department of Business, todescribe what she was going to do inher new job. She feels part of herduties include rebranding theprovince.

I don’t know what that word means.So I asked a few people. What was

fun was that three different people gaveme three different answers. I mean nodisrespect to Ms. Galway, who has thereputation of being a genial and compe-tent person, but rebranding sounds likea buzzword, and I have a deep distrustof buzzwords.

So what does it mean? Ms. Galwayhad this to say: “the challenge withbranding the province is to bring thatfresh, youthful look and creativity.”

Please God I hope that doesn’t mean

another series of glossy ads in nationalmagazines featuring smiling politiciansand spectacular local vistas and claim-ing that we are “Open for business.”We have been there and done that. Thathad nothing to do with business andeverything to do with a national profile— and I don’t mean for the province.

I hope it means more than creating afresh, new look. Every political partythat has marched into government forthe last 100 years has done that. Such isthe nature of new administrations. Joeywanted us to burn our boats. BrianPeckford was all about have-not beingno more. The list goes on and on. Weare continuously rebranded. It neverends.

And now it is Ms. Galway’s turn. I

don’t like the vague term rebranding.As deputy minister of Business, I hopeshe sees her task as sending a messageto the corporate world that we aren’tpushovers anymore. I hope she is goingto get the message out that we are fair-minded but tough and looking for thebest deal for Newfoundland andLabrador. But if that is her goal, thenher boss is not making her job easy.

Danny Williams had the chance tosend that message to corporate Canadaby getting tough with FPI. But thatwasn’t the message sent by the famous“free vote.” It didn’t exactly leave FPIshareholders quaking in their boots.

I watched the good people ofStephenville on TV recently meet withEd Byrne in an arena in the town. Likea similar meeting between the peopleof Harbour Breton and the premier thispast spring, there was a lot of emotionin the air. Unlike his fearless leader, Edkept his cool as presenter after presen-ter asked — pleaded — with him to cuta deal with Abitibi. They’re sweating it.

And who can blame them?Abitibi thinks, like all big corpora-

tions, that we are a bunch of pushovers— they said as much in the offer theymade to the province in order to stay. IsDanny going to “get tough” withAbitibi? Is that where we will startrebranding? What will that mean to thepeople of Stephenville? Joan Burke,minister of Human Resources, Labourand Employment, is facing severalhundred-plus unemployed people inher own riding if they don’t do some-thing. She might have her own spin ontaking a principled stand with Abitibi.How will Ms. Galway be able to do herjob if Williams caves to Abitibi like hedid to FPI? How will they stay inpower if he doesn’t?

Sir Richard Squires went to the pollsin 1923 after putting up millions of ourown money in guarantees to the privatecompanies who wanted to invest inpulp and paper on the west coast. Hewon, of course. He got the votes; theygot the profits. That’s how it has always

worked. Politicians know this.Company executives know this.

Ms. Galway’s task seems to be tochange these attitudes, over a centuryin the making, while responsible for aherd of bureaucrats and having toreport to Danny Williams. I don’t knowabout her, but the idea makes me nau-seous.

I wish Ms. Galway all the luck in theworld. Her success will be our success.But it is going to be a tough job. To doher job right is going to take nerve. Ihope she has the intestinal fortitude todeal with attitudes about us that aredeeply ingrained. I hope she has thesavvy to pick through the endless polit-ical minefields that she will comeacross. Most importantly, I hope shehas the steel to tell her boss what heneeds to be told — not just what hewants to be told. She is going to needgood advice. Perhaps she should havelunch with Elizabeth Marshall.

Ivan Morgan can be reached [email protected]

What does rebranding mean?Joey wanted us to burn our boats, Peckford said have-not will be no more, what’s Williams’ brand?

IVAN MORGANRant & reason

DICK’S KIDS

Help solve a Beothuk mystery

Dear editor,Newfoundland has a great deal to

learn. Here it is 2005 and many of ourpeople have had a chance to see andexperience design and architecturethrough travel and study, and St. John’sis uglier than ever.

(For me it’s two major things: thosedamn cheap black signs with cheesyneon lettering — you can’t go 10metres on Elizabeth Avenue and not seeone. That, and the profit-driven devel-opment of pockets of land wherein thetrees are all razed and as many sloppilybuilt, identical “dream homes” as canbe put in the space constitute a new“neighbourhood.” My favorite isGrovesdale Park off Thorburn road: incase you developers don’t know, agrove involves trees. Leave a fewaround for the kids for God’s sake.)

A new bit of news came to me lastweek — the architect for Wells’ newLoblaw’s sell-out at the Quidi Vidi parkarea, will be none other than the local

favorite, Philip Pratt.I mean, have you seen The Rooms?

This is sound contemporary architec-ture? Give us a break — we’re not allnarrow-minded fools who’ve neverseen anything. Have you been toAmsterdam lately? It’s awash in clever,stylish, concerned new architecture.

SMALL-TOWN AIRPORTThe Rooms, on the other hand, looks

like an airport in a small town inManitoba. It offers us green glass (deadsince the 1980s, and oversold then); alimited view (potential for the greatest-ever sweeping panorama of the townand harbour squandered); polishedgranite (zzzzzzz) giving the wholeplace a creepy and cheap shine;exposed ducts, cold materials, andpoorly-finished detailing of handrails,etc., throughout the expansive hall (sowhen you come up the stairs and lookup you see no art, and everything ishard and cold. Why didn’t they hang

that whale skeleton in that space?); anda cramped reality in the galleries (theypacked in the museum collection so itlooks like a junk shop) which betraysthe uselessness of the empty space inthe hall. Couldn’t we have had a boardof real architects review this work?

Holy moley Danny, you tell us tocome home, to help build the province,and then when we get here we see thesame old boys’ network underminingthe potential, wholly lacking in vision,and paying each other off with handoutpolitical projects.

The only thing worse than how TheRooms (and the new Dominion) lookin 2005, is how embarrassing they willbe in 15 years. But then who’ll be liv-ing here anyway, in over-priced “dreamhomes” with the politicians singing thesame old song about dear oldNewfoundland. What a farce. It’s nowonder everyone leaves.

G. Donald Neil,St. John’s

St. John’s ‘uglier than ever’

Dear editor,The recent consultation process ini-

tiated by the Department ofGovernment Services is very unfair totens of thousands of law-abiding citi-zens of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The purpose of the consultation issupposed to be gathering the opinionsand wishes of people concerning gov-ernment’s Proposals to AmendLegislation for the Use ofSnowmobiles, ATVs and Dirt Bikes.

Yet the way in which GovernmentServices is proceeding with this con-sultation is leading to a situation wherethe people most interested in howsnowmobiles, ATVs and dirt bikes areregulated won’t be able to have a say.

Government Services has done verylittle to inform people about thisimportant consultation process. It wasundertaken during the summer with no

public notice, when most people are onvacation and while the House ofAssembly was not sitting.

It’s important the people ofNewfoundland and Labrador, in partic-ular those who are owners and ridersof snowmobiles, ATVs or dirt bikes,know this consultation process isgoing on and that they only have untilAug. 31 to make their opinions known.

We urge all owners, riders and deal-ers that want to have their say abouthow they, their family, their friendsand their fellow enthusiasts can usetheir snowmobiles, ATVs and dirtbikes to seek out a copy of the govern-ment’s consultation document andsend in their comments on the propos-als before the Aug. 31 deadline.

Robert Ramsay, presidentCanadian All-Terrain VehicleDistributors Council, Toronto

ATV owners and ridersadvised to speak up

Arthur Miller's The Crucible will be performed at the Reid Theatre, Memorial University, Aug. 26 and 27. The play is a reunion project of Dick'sKids Productions, a group of friends, colleagues and former students of Dick Buehler, a retired professor. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent


By Ryan ClearyThe Independent

Oh to be a fly (one with a videocamera around its neck) on thewall of the Colonial Building in

St. John’s on Oct. 28, 1946 — the dayJoey Smallwood introduced a motion tosend a Newfoundland delegation toCanada to explore Confederation.

The place went up in a tooth-and-nailfight that lasted days.

The convention was held to reviewNewfoundland’s finances and decidewhether the colony was self-supporting,as well as to explore its options post-commission government.

Smallwood, “the self-appointed apos-tle of Confederation,” was accused ofoffering bribes to convention delegatesin the form of future Senate appoint-ments and luxurious trips to Ottawa ifthey went along with his motion —accusations he denied.

Anti-confederates felt Newfoundlandshould return to a democracy (responsi-ble government) before making anydecisions.

Confederates, even those on the fencewhen it came to Confederation, felt alloptions should be explored. The debateover the motion resulted in outstanding

oratory (on paper anyway), but then theentire 16-month convention was anexercise in passion and patriotism.

Smallwood himself was in top form. The quotes are too good to para-

phrase.• “… we are so used to our railway

and our coastal boats that we scarcelysee them; so used to our settlements,and roads, and homes, and schools, andhospitals and hotels and everything elsethat we do not even see their inadequa-cy, their backwardness, their seami-ness.”

• “Our danger, so it seems to me, isthat of nursing delusions of grandeur.We remember the stories of small statesthat valiantly preserved their nationalindependence and developed their ownproud cultures, but we tend to overlookthe fact that comparison ofNewfoundland with them is ludicrous.We are not a nation. We are merely amedium size municipality, a mereminiature borough of a large city.”

Then there was the other side.

Most of the delegates didn’t want tobe associated with Confederation in1946. But they were willing to entertainterms. Michael Harrington, delegate forSt. John’s West, said Smallwood was“jumping the gun” in wanting a delega-tion to travel to Canada, considering theconvention had only begun to assessNewfoundland’s financial status todetermine if it could be self-supporting.

Harrington told the convention thatSmallwood had tried to bribe him.

• “Every man for himself and thedevil take the hindmost. It’s get whatyou can for yourself, and don’t be both-ered by scruples. Proponents of thisdoctrine always make one mistake.They forget the integrity of the individ-ual conscience; that because they areclever in duplicity others may be just aswise in honour; are quite blind to thefact that some men will not barter thathonour for a nice trip to Ottawa, the baitthat was privately offered me, andgoodness knows how many others, ifwe supported the motion now before theHouse. To put it even more clearly, Iwas told by Mr. Smallwood that I wasslated to be a member of the delegationand that I should play ball to see thatthis motion was carried.”

• “I’d like to know, and a lot of other

people would like to know, who Mr.Smallwood is acting for. Is it for himselfor for the Canadian government, or sim-ply for his constituents? He will be hardput to it to convince me it is simply andsolely the latter.”

Malcolm Hollett, delegate for GrandFalls, said he, too, was offered a bribe.

• “I myself was offered a senator-ship … I fail to see how any man whohas an honesty of purpose, who has thepublic welfare of the people his thiscountry at heart, can be dancing aroundthis town of St. John’s, in and out ofhotels, offering jobs in Canada if wevoted for confederation.”

Smallwood admitted he had toldHarrington he would make a good dele-gate, although the future premier saidhe did not promise anything.

“I shall not appoint it. I suppose Iwould be lucky to be on it myself.”

As for Hollett’s alleged senatorship,Smallwood denied offering him one.“Firstly, because I have no senatorshipto offer. Secondly, because if I weregoing to offer him any job it would besomething on a much lower level than asenatorship.”

Delegate Edgar Roberts of St. Barbeaccused Smallwood of hurtingNewfoundland’s chances for decent

terms with Canada if confederationactually came about.

“When we read the history of thiscountry and see the raw deals that havebeen received, confederation may beanother one of those deals. If weapproach Canada as Mr. Smallwoodwould have us, saying we are a poor,ignorant, ill clad, diseased, starvingpeople, do you supposed we can expectgenerous terms? I would say no?”

Pierce Fudge, delegate for Humber,had this to say: “It appears to me, as ajudge of all trades, that the pro-confed-erates have a boat for sale and that boatis called the Newfoundland, and beforethere is a bid on it at all, it is pro-nounced 100 years behind the times,leaky and rotten. How can you expect tomake a sale and a good deal with I.”

In the end, Smallwood’s motion wasdefeated. However, an amendment tothe motion did pass, allowing a delega-tion to be sent to Canada a few monthslater in 1947.

The background for this column isfrom The Newfoundland NationalConvention, 1946-1948, by JamesHiller and the late Michael Harrington,available through the NewfoundlandHistorical Society and various retailoutlets.


Some people are fanatical about it.They get out of bed and washtheir face with pink, white and

green soap. Haul on their pink, whiteand green T-shirt and any number ofpieces of pink, white and green jew-ellery. Grab their pink, white and greenpurse. Snatch their pink, white andgreen keychain. As they start the carthey take one fleeting glance at thepink, white and green flapping next tothe front door.

Nycki Temple, owner of Hempwarein downtown St. John’s, says some ofher bestsellers have the tri-colouremblazoned on them and she’s proud tosee it.

“I think it’s just people getting con-nected to their roots and just wantingpeople to notice that we know wherewe come from and … that we’ve beenaround for a while and that we haven’talways been part of Canada,” Templetells The Independent.

“It’s just really nice to see that youngpeople, even though it’s the cool thingnow, that people are actually recogniz-ing where they came from and our her-itage,” she says.

“If you can make something that’spart of someone’s heritage a cool thingI think that’s pretty neat.”

Dave Hopley, owner of LivingPlanet, home of the FREE NFLD. T-shirt, says he’s selling a lot of pink,white and green right now.

“Whether it’s going to peter out it’shard to say. I think it’s just because …(of) people being passionate about theplace I think that it’s got stayingpower,” Hopley says. “It certainlyseems to have a lot more resonancewith people than the current flag.”

Scott Crocker, a sociologist atMemorial University, says he finds it“interesting” how a flag — known asthe people’s flag and “designed inopposition” — has become so fashion-able.

“The commercial interest — whoev-er is making them — they can be large-ly indifferent to the meaning. It’s acommodity, if they could make morefrom making green peas or somethingthen that would be equally good,”Crocker says.

He says it’s the people who buy the

products that raise the question of trendor tradition.

“It points to a strong sense inNewfoundland that people are formedin opposition to the official state andthis has been around for a long time inNewfoundland’s history, it goes back tothe early debates of whether it waslegal to stay here over the winter.

“It doesn’t represent any clearlydefined political program, but that’swhat’s refreshing about it, it representssome kind of oppositional current thatno matter who operates the officialreigns of power.”

Crocker owns a NewfoundlandLiberation Army T-shirt.

“You’ll find the rich and the poor fly-ing it, you’ll find it in urban and ruralareas, anyone can tap into that becauseit’s something that flies underneathofficial political culture.”

James McGrath, former lieutenantgovernor, had the flag incorporated intohis family crest. “Whether or not it’spart of our identity, it certainly is part ofour heritage,” he says.

Randy Simms, host of VOCM’sOpen Line, says the people of theprovince are proud to be Canadian andhe doesn’t “think that that wouldchange as a result of these symbolsexisting, if you will, almost in harmo-ny.”

Simms owns a pink, white and greenring which he picked up during theAtlantic Accord dispute last fall.

Local musician Colleen Power saysshe’s incorporated the pink, white andgreen into her posters and she’s pickedup plenty of merchandise bearing thetri-colour.

“I believe that the pink, white andgreen flag shows more of an independ-ent Newfoundland, not being driven byany other culture but our own,” Powersays.

Premier Danny Williams says thecolours are certainly trendy, but isn’tsure whether the flag is a fad.

“I mean it’s trendy now is what it is

… I noticed even Rex Goudie in hisperformance a couple of weeks ago hada pink white and green on,” Williamssays. “So it’s trendy, it’s fashionableand where it will take us from there, Imean, I have no way of predictingthat.”

He says it’s not likely the flag will beincorporated as part of the province’supcoming re-branding exercise.

As for how the premier feels aboutthe unofficial flag …

“I can’t get into it, it’s a politicalquestion and one that, unfortunately,I’ve got to avoid. I’ve got several viewson it, quite frankly, but I can’t givethem to you.”

Smallwood: ‘We are not a nation’A review of the Newfoundland National Convention (1946-1948)

Colleen Power at Living Planet in St. John’s. Paul Daly/The Independent

YOURVOICE

Dear editor,I came upon a rule of 20 per cent

being the maximum amount any chari-ty can offer ticket sellers. But in myexperience over the years I’ve seen farmore than 20 per cent of donationsbeing kept by ticket sellers.

I reported these details of how chari-ties offer ticket sellers a third and insome cases even nearly half of thefunds collected from sales. They are allaware of the rules, but people lackintegrity and honesty when handlingmoney.

My point is, when I reported this tothe provincial government, I was toldthere isn’t anything they can do about itbecause they simply don’t have thestaff to check things out. They recom-mended I bring my information to the

Royal Newfoundland Constabulary,which I did, but they said if an auditisn’t done to provide proof then no onecan be charged.

So here is where the problem sits.You have a system whereby any ticketseller can go to a willing charity andask to sell tickets for more than 20 percent commission. The charity can offerthem as much as they like because theyknow the system won’t follow up ontheir activities.

They can justify giving any amountof money out to ticket sellers as long asthey don’t say anything to anyoneabout it. The money is all straight cash,no paper trail except for a simple requi-sition form, which the charity provides.That can be simply laid to one side anda verbal agreement made between tick-

et sellers and the charity. The unsuspecting public is unaware

of the scheme behind the neatly printedposters and shiny prizes sitting in thehallway at the mall. The tickets lookproper, the business looks clean andabove board, however, a sly game isplayed behind the scenes.

As a member of the disabled commu-nity, I feel it is wrong to shortchangethe disadvantaged this way. These char-ity lottery games are a cash grab, Iknow, but there still needs to be someaccountability. These charity organiza-tions receive very good support fromthe public purse, they shouldn’t be hav-ing the wool pulled over their eyes inthis area of making contributions to aworthwhile cause.

Either the game of skimming extra

money off the ticket sales gets stoppedor the public ought to be made aware ofit happening with their money. In myopinion, when any ticket seller makesup their mind to sell tickets for 20 percent commission, if they feel that’s notenough, the proper process is to writeletters to government stating the rea-sons why the percentage ought to beincreased.

Many ticket sellers do not even havea disability, yet they feel the charityfundraising for a disability group cangive them extra money out of the dona-tion funds generated by charity lotterygames.

As a disabled person, I feel this is aninjustice within the system.

Anthony Fagan,St. John’s

Dear editor,I read your article about Ryan

Clowe (Almost there, July 31-Aug.6 edition of The Independent byDarcy MacRae) and wanted to tellyou how much I enjoyed it.

We live in Cleveland, Ohio andare fans of the Cleveland Barons.We are so lucky to have met andgotten to know Ryan through thevarious events with the Barons.Not only is he a super hockey play-er, he is very mature beyond hisyears. While we enjoy watchingRyan play, we know he is ready forthe NHL and will be a great playerfor the Sharks.

Tim Stovering,Cleveland, Ohio

More than ‘super’hockey player

‘Lottery games are a cash grab’

‘Staying power’Pink, white and green not just for T-shirts; part of pop culture

Road toCONFEDERATIONA N O N G O I N G S E R I E S


Brian House1972-2005

By Darcy MacRaeThe Independent

One term nobody could use todescribe Brian House was shy.Everywhere he went — work,

the motocross track, golf course ormovie theatre — he met and madefriends.

“He was very outgoing, friendly toeverybody,” says Gary Young, House’sfriend and business partner at DynamicPhysiotherapy in St. John’s.

“Everybody always knew whenBrian was on holidays, because theclinic was so much quieter. He wantedto know everybody. It didn’t matterwho you were, even if he just met youhe’d sit down and buy you a beer.”

During the three years Young andHouse ran Dynamic Physiotherapy,House’s outgoing personality set thetone throughout the office. He frequent-ly met clients with a quick smile and abig hello, and both gestures alwayscame from the heart.

“He didn’t have patients at his clinic— he had friends,” says Neil Croke, aclose friend of House’s since kinder-garten. “Everybody who came in, he

made them his friend.”House passed away on July 30 at the

age of 33 when he sustained fatalinjuries in a motocross accident inMoncton, N.B. He left behind Danielle,his wife of just under a year, his parentsLevi and Donna, his brother Leon, aswell as other countless family andfriends. He will be remembered best forloving life and always seizing themoment.

“You can sit back and say he wastaken way too young, which he was,but another thing you can always say isthat he lived his life to the fullest,” saysCroke. “If Brian wanted to do it, he didit. He didn’t say, ‘I’ll do that anotherday,’ he went out and did it — which iswhat we all should do.”

House was a good athlete growingup, excelling in various sports. But byfar his favourite sport was motocross,

an activity that offered challenges hethrived on.

“Brian was into motocross since hewas old enough to walk. He followedthe footsteps of his big brother, Leon,who was also into motocross,” saysCroke. “He loved the thrill of it. Heenjoyed the rush and it was somethinghe was naturally talented at.”

House enjoyed participating inmotocross so much that he was willingto travel across the Atlantic provincesfor competition. His passion was wellknown, with many fellow riders leav-ing their favourite stories about hisdrive on the Atlantic motocross web-site’s message boards(www.atlanticmx.com).

“It never ceased to amaze me howBrian and Danielle would show up outof nowhere, at a small race, as far awayfrom home as possible, and have a greatday racing, then turn around and headback home,” Darren Van Snick of NovaScotia writes.

Not only was House’s dedication anddrive apparent to those on themotocross circuit, his friendly person-ality also impressed those who compet-ed with him.

“The summer of 1989 brings backmany great memories. Glen Hoar andmyself travelled to St. John’s for thelast regional race to be held inNewfoundland. Brian and the crewgreeted us with open arms and the hos-pitality they showed us will never beforgotten by Glen and myself,” writesLarry Northrup of New Brunswick.

Danielle House accompanied her

husband on nearly every trip he madeto the mainland, and says the longdrives together were the couple’sfavourite part of the experience. Theyused to tell their friends and family“we’re the best team.

“He was my best friend,” she says.“If you had to pick a best friend, whatqualities would you like? My husbandhad all of those qualities.”

Danielle adds that her husband hadsuch a love for motocross that he neverplanned on giving up the sport.

“We always said that someday we’dgo riding with our canes and walkersand he would help me and I’d help himget on the bike,” she says. “He wasnever going to give up riding.”

House was also a fine hockey player,having played a key role on the HolyHeart High School hockey team in thelate 1980s and into the ’90s. Upongraduating from Holy Heart in 1990, heattended Memorial University andearned a physical education degree. Hewent on to do study physiotherapy inManchester, England, where he met hisfuture business partner Gary Young.

A couple of years after graduatingwith a degree in physiotherapy, Houseand Young opened Dynamic Physio-therapy, a business that has grownsteadily since.

“There’s a reason the clinic wentfrom being brand new to one of thebusiest in the city,” Croke says.“Brian’s personality attracted people.He was so friendly that people wantedto be around him.”

[email protected]


FROM THE BAY“The good price attainable for

shore fish this year should lendencouragement to continue fishingoperations into the winter months.Stormy weather has caused little delaythis year and even at this date themajority of the fishermen can get on

the grounds three or four days of everyweek.”

— From The Fisherman’s Advocate,Port Union, Oct. 18, 1929

YEARS PAST“There is a scarcity of men (for the

Newfoundland Constabulary) it is true

and the existing conditions are likely tocontinue until the government makes itworthwhile for suitable men to enlist. Arecruit receives at the rate of $1 a day forthe first year and then for five years afteris paid $1.05 per day, and after anotherfive years receives another five cents.”

— From The St. John’s Daily Star, May 15, 1916

AROUND THE WORLD“The Pope’s visit to Canada next

September will cost at least $15 millionand may generate $40 million in salesof such ‘quality’ souvenirs as PopeJohn Paul T-shirts at about $8 each …

“The Canadian Conference ofCatholic Bishops … stands to net asmuch as $4 million from royalties.”

— From The Daily News, Dec. 17, 1983EDITORIAL STAND

“This paper is opposed to the present

form of government. This paper is equal-ly opposed to any return of the evils thatgrew up around the practice ofResponsible Government. We want tofind out just what kind of governmentthe people want. This paper is publishedto be a means of giving the Newfound-land people a voice, a medium throughwhich to discuss this subject”

— From The Express, written by publisher Joey

Smallwood, Feb. 15, 1941

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“Hold back your fish and you will be

masters of the situation.”

— Robert Bond on negotiating fishprices, from The Evening Chronicle,

Jan. 6, 1909

‘He enjoyed the rush’Brian House of St. John’s was well known on and off the motorcross track

LIFESTORY

Brian House and his wife Danielle.

INDEPENDENTWORLDSUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 21-27, 2005 — PAGE 11

‘More fight out of a dead dog’Not surprising how GG-designate Michaëlle Jean is generally accepted despite toasting separatists — appointment is political

Liberal Canada has always been aplace where what the Boss saysis final. Nothing has changed in

the past week.In that respect, the Michaëlle Jean

Affair is just another tempest in a wineglass. Prime Minister Paul Martin hasthe power to make anyone he wantsGovernor-General of Canada, the sameway he can stock the RCMP, the diplo-matic corps or the Supreme Court bypersonal fiat.

The system reeks of old leather andstale cigar smoke and its machinationsare rarely reversed by so mild an irri-tant as public opinion. In the currentcase of imperial prerogative, there is noturning back. The photogenic televi-sion presenter and her separatist-toast-

ing hubby will be taking up residencein Rideau Hall.

It is not surprising how docile ourpoliticians have been in accepting theJean appointment. I’ve seen more fightout of a dead dog. They, as well as theprime minister, understand how deeplypolitical a move this really is.

Michaëlle Jean is about votes in andaround Montreal. That’s why Martinappointed her and that’s why both theBloc Quebecois and the Parti

Quebecois are soft-pedaling the issue.None of them are thinking of RideauHall, just the next election and thoseridings around Montreal that might beswayed by the choices of the city’slarge Haitian community.

As for Stephen Harper, his limpobjections to this unfolding tale of splitallegiances and thin resumes quicklygave way to uncritical acceptance ofstatements by the PM and the GG-des-ignate that avoided all the evidenceagainst this appointment. Yet again, themouse failed to roar. Gratefully, theelectoral trap is about to be triggeredand hopefully the poor creature’sdemise will be eye-poppingly swift.

Still, it is rather surprising that somany ordinary Canadians cling to the

quaint notion that fitness for the post isstill part of the job description. On thatscore, Michaëlle Jean brings a radiantsmile, her immigrant past and her workon the CBC as her principle assets.

When the first Canadian who filledthe Vice-Regal Office arrived on thescene back in 1952, he had alreadyserved as first Canadian Minister toWashington and High Commissioner toBritain. He had also chaired a RoyalCommission that gave this country twoenduring institutions, the NationalLibrary and the Canada Council.

Admittedly, Vincent Masseys don’tgrow on trees, but his C.V. was as solidas the walls at Rideau Hall and hisknowledge of the British connection asdeep as his experiences at Oxford.

Yet it is not the light-weight resumethat raises legitimate questions aboutthe Michaëlle Jean appointment.Everyone accepts that Andre Agassi isthe seer of our superficial times:“Image is everything.” Jean is female,immigrant, and urban, a poster-girl forcontemporary Liberalism and the mar-kets it wants to reach.

What bothers Canadians is notMichaëlle Jean’s assets but her bag-gage. There is the fact that she is a citi-zen of France as well as Canada, anundisputed and built-in division of loy-alties. How can a citizen of a republicbecome the vice-regal representative ofthe heaviest monarchy on earth? If she

See “Who would she,” page 14

Harper shows maturityBut Martin only builds on the missteps of past with Quebec-Canada file

By Chantal HébertTorstar wire service

When he settled on Michaëlle Jeanfor governor general, did PrimeMinister Paul Martin walk into a

political minefield with his eyes wide openor with a blindfold of ignorance?

It is unlikely that Canadians will everhave a definitive answer as to whetherMartin — with full knowledge of Jean andhusband Jean-Daniel Lafond’s back-grounds — failed to foresee a predictablestorm or whether he simply did not knowwhat he was getting into.

What is certain, though, is that the waythe controversy was handled has done littleto put to rest the issue of Martin’s clumsi-ness on the Quebec-Canada front.

It builds upon a track record that alreadyincluded other missteps.

Think of Martin’s glib referendum refer-ence to the loss of one million jobs in theevent of separation. The assertion put the

“No” campaign on the defensive at theworst possible time.

Think of the prime minister’s decision tokeep Stéphane Dion, the architect of thefederal post-referendumstrategy, out of his firstcabinet even as he wasrecruiting BlocQuébécois co-founderJean Lapierre to act ashis Quebec lieutenant.The moves needlesslyalienated his federalistbase.

Finally, ponderMartin’s sense that he isso rooted in his adoptedprovince that he neednot worry about the relative paucity ofQuebec-savvy advisers in his immediateenvironment.

That latter assumption was once againput to the test over the past week as thePrime Minister’s Office seemed to be fly-

ing blind through the flak of allegationsthat it should have seen coming.

In fact, the only surprise should havebeen the source of the accusations laid

against the next vice-regalcouple.

No one in his right mindcould have foreseen that itwould be hard-line sover-eignists, rather than themedia or the oppositionparties, who would stepup to the plate to questionJean and Lafond’s pastpolitics.

That was one ofMartin’s lucky breaks.

If the information hadbeen brought to light by a more neutralsource, the dynamics of the controversycould have been dramatically different.

If the story had come from outside theprovince rather than from within their ownranks, Quebecers would have reacted with

more outrage.Jean’s written assurances that she and

her husband are committed federalistswould have come across in Quebec as ademeaning concession to the intolerance ofother Canadians.

Elsewhere in Canada, critics of theappointment would have been less mindfulof playing into the hands of sovereignists.Martin’s other lucky break wasConservative leader Stephen Harper’ssteadfastness under fire.

If this episode has had a pivotal politicalcharacter, it has been the leader of the offi-cial opposition.

All week Harper held his finger in thedike of public opinion, querying Martinbut not withholding his support for theappointment.

In so doing, he stood against the flow ofhis own base and the advice of some of hisadvisers.

… the only surpriseshould have been thesource of the accusa-tions laid against the

next vice-regal couple.

See “Harper gave Jean,” page 14

MICHAELHARRISThe Outrider

Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper Jim Young/Reuters

12 • INDEPENDENTWORLD AUGUST 21, 2005

ANew Brunswick man has a cou-ple of vehicles for sale to any-body who’s sick of bloated

prices at the pumps.Gary Wiley is selling a couple of

four-wheelers, one horsepower each.Literally.“I had these on the lawn there but

they’re really not lawn ornaments and Iwas thinking somebody could usethem,” Wiley says of the two horse-drawn carriages he’s selling.

He had the nearly-century-old wag-ons stored in Sackville but recentlybrought them to his home near St.Stephen.

“With the price of gas right now, I

just thought somebody might be able touse them so, they’re for sale.”

He collected the wagons when heused to be involved with horses severalyears ago. He used them in parades andeven hitched them up to ride the coun-try roads on summer evenings.

Gas prices near his home this weekwere almost $1.13 per litre for regular.That doesn’t help Wiley when he has tofuel his truck but he expects it mightdrive the sale of his wagons.

“Anyone who has a nice quiet horsethat thinks they’d like to cut down ontheir gas consumption, these are forsale.”

— Telegraph-Journal

Old-fashioned answer to gas woes

Talking buses hit Toronto streets

Toronto’s talking buses will getmoving next month amid criti-cism the transit authority is

“dragging its feet” on making the sys-tem easier to use for the blind.

As part of a six-month pilot project,15 buses will have audio systems thatuse global positioning technology toautomatically announce all stops,while displaying the same information— including significant addressessuch as hospitals and schools — on amonitor near the driver. There will alsobe symbols and buzzers announcing“accessible” stops.

“During September, we’ll be look-ing for feedback from the users,” saysBob Boutilier, of the TorontoTransportation Commission.

The global positioning technologycould be expanded to the TTC’s 1,500buses and 250 streetcars at an estimat-ed cost of $3.5 million.

The project is in part a response tomounting criticism the TTC ignoresthose with accessibility needs, but itdoesn’t go far enough for DavidLepofsky, a blind lawyer who has bat-tled the transit authority for a decade.

In June, Lepofsky won a humanrights tribunal decision forcing theTTC to make consistent, clear subwaystop announcements. The tribunalruled that the TTC discriminatedagainst visually impaired riders by notregularly announcing upcoming stops.

“You don’t have to be a Harvardgrad to know if you’ve got to

announce subway stops, you’ve got toannounce bus stops,” says Lepofsky.

“Every driver has a mouth: ask themto announce each stop.”

Current TTC policy calls for busdrivers to call out major stops and anystops that are requested. But Lepofskysays they often forget.

Boutilier says bus drivers new toroutes may not know all the stops. Andvolume, enunciation and accent canvary from driver to driver. For consis-tency’s sake, Boutilier would ratherhave an automated system.

“I want to make sure whatever wedo works,” he says. “I don’t want tostart something off here and ... it’s notsustainable.”

— Torstar wire service

By Bruce BartlettTelegraph-Journal

The company hoping to rescue thebankrupt St. Anne NackawicPulp Co. Ltd. is offering to pay

$20 million to the New Brunswickprovincial government to buy out itsinterests in the mill.

And the American owners, who wereowed more than $35 million whenbankruptcy was declared lastSeptember, will only be out about $5.5million once the deal closes.

Those figures are contained in docu-ments set to go before a bankruptcycourt hearing in Fredericton. If thejudge approves, it will be a major leapforward for the new company, AVNackawic Inc., formed by Quebecforestry giant Tembec and Aditya BirlaGroup of India.

In April they proposed converting themill to manufacture a mix of papers,including dissolving and specialtypulps used in the production of rayon.

An affidavit by David Touchie, the

civil servant in charge of the St. AnneNackawic file, details the difficultiesovercome to find a new buyer andreach a deal on the mill.

On Sept. 15 last year the long-timeowners, Parson & Whittemore of NewYork State, placed the company inreceivership and closed it in the middleof a maintenance shutdown.

The mill’s boiler was completelytaken apart when workers were escort-ed off the premises, leaving the plantvulnerable to winter damage that wouldhave made it worthless.

The province with the help of thefederal government provided more than$5 million to repair the heating systemto protect it last winter.

The $20 million purchase price to bepaid to the province for its interest inthe mill and woodlands will come closeto covering what it has invested in St.Anne Nackawic.

The owners of the mill will recovertheir $35 million loan made in 2002from their first claim on the receiv-ables, inventory and equipment.

The mill had been in difficulty forseveral years before its bankruptcy. InJanuary 2004 George Landegger,whose family owns Parsons &Whittemore, wrote an open letter to allemployees saying the mill had lostmoney in four of the last six years.

He cited mills in the SouthernHemisphere producing pulp at a cost of$160 per tonne less than St. Anne’scosts, as well as the rising Canadiandollar and high transportation costs.

He asked the employees to take areduction in their fringe benefit pro-grams. That same month he also wroteto Premier Bernard Lord asking theprovince to increase its loan to the mill.A meeting took place but no loan wasmade because during the spring of 2004the price of pulp increased and theCanadian dollar decreased.

In August 2004, less than threeweeks before the company declaredbankruptcy, pulp prices fell and theCanadian dollar rose, Landegger againwrote to the premier asking for a loan,but was turned down.

N.B. to get $20 million in mill sale

The mill in Nackawic, N.B. Ron Garnett/Air Scapes

By Carol GoarTorstar wire service

If all goes according to plan, FinanceMinister Ralph Goodale willemerge from his autumn ritual

unscathed.Around mid-October, the govern-

ment will confirm what is nowinformed speculation: Ottawa’s latestsurplus is indeed double or triple the $3billion Goodale projected.

The finance minister will cheerfullyexplain that the economy performedbetter than expected, tax revenues weresurprisingly robust and his earlierwarnings that the cupboard was barewere made in good faith.

If there is any grumbling, Goodalewill point out that a windfall is betterthan a shortfall. He’ll remindCanadians that Ottawa’s fiscal record isthe envy of the world. And he’ll assuretaxpayers that their money is in safehands.

With luck, the nation will nod toler-antly — or indifferently — and thefinance department will set to work onits next budget, padding it with so manycontingency reserves, rainy-day funds,inflated spending estimates and conser-vative revenue forecasts that the samething is sure to happen again.

The formula has worked seven timesfor the federal Liberals. Why abandonit now?

There are strong philosophical rea-sons, but they’ve never carried muchweight with the finance minister.

Low-balling the surplus deepens

public cynicism, strips Canadians ofthe right to decide how billions of theirdollars are spent and taints all the infor-mation coming out of Ottawa.

Lately, however, significant politicaldrawbacks have developed. Goodalemight find them more compelling.

The first is that he is coming underattack from both sides of the politicalspectrum.

Until recently, it was primarily leftwingers who took umbrage at his budg-etary sleight-of-hand. They accusedhim of fudging his forecasts in order todampen demands for spending onaffordable housing, child care, the envi-ronment and foreign aid.

But lately, right wingers have joinedthe outcry. They claim the minister ishiding the bulges in federal coffers inorder to keep taxes needlessly high.

An eighth “surprise surplus” couldbe enough to convince Goodale’s crit-ics to make common cause.

The second is that Ottawa’s heftyannual surpluses are fuelling provincialresentment.

Every time the federal governmentcollects billions more than it needs tomeet its financial requirements, itstrengthens the provinces’ contentionthat they deserve a larger share of thecountry’s tax take.

The two government services thatCanadians value most highly — healthand education — fall within provincialjurisdiction.

Both suffer from funding constraints.Meanwhile, Ottawa is swimming inunbudgeted cash.

One more whopping surplus wouldmake the mismatch between thenation’s priorities and distribution of itstax dollars painfully apparent.

A third factor Goodale can’t afford toignore is the loss of credibility he suf-fered last spring when the governmenthatched its budgetary deal with theNew Democratic Party.

Any pretext that Ottawa’s spending

plans and revenue projections are care-fully calibrated went out the windowwhen Prime Minister Paul Martinfound a spare $4.6 billion, two monthsafter the budget, to buy support of theNDP in a crucial series of non-confi-dence votes.

Goodale grudgingly admitted thenew expenditures — on foreign aid,tuition assistance, low-income housing

and public transit — were affordable.With this as a backdrop, the finance

minister is going to have a tough timeconvincing Canadians that a forecast-ing error led to this fall’s revision of thesurplus.

Finally, there is the fact that an elec-tion is not far off.

Treating voters like dupes may beexpedient when they’re not in a posi-tion to do anything about it. But whenthey’re months away from going to theballot box, the risks become muchgreater.

To spare his Liberal colleagues theembarrassment of reconciling theirparty’s promises of openness andintegrity, and with his department’smiles-off-the-mark forecasts, Goodaleneeds a better defence than “oops, wegoofed.”

At a minimum, he owes Canada aplausible explanation of what wentwrong and a serious plan to producemore reliable numbers.

It is possible, of course, that luck willcarry the minister through anotherbudgetary cycle.

It is imaginable — though depressing— that Canadians are so used to gettinguntrustworthy information from thefederal finance department that they nolonger care.

It is conceivable that none of theopposition parties will be able to capi-talize on the Liberals’ record of mis-leading taxpayers.

But there are trouble signals in theair. Goodale would be wise to heedthem.

Oops, another forecasting errorGoodale, take note: Ottawa’s hefty annual surpluses are fuelling provincial resentment

Finance Minister Ralph Goodale Christinne Muschi/Reuters

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTWORLD • 13

VOICEFROM AWAYBy Stephanie PorterThe Independent

Krista Vincent says this is the off-season in Amsterdam, at least interms of art and music events.

But there’s still an overwhelmingamount of things to do.

“Any night of the week you can go toa fantastic restaurant, or hear greatmusic,” says the Lewisporte native. “Itranges from high opera, high sympho-ny orchestra stuff to smaller chamberworks to solo musicians to really exper-imental dance and music.

“It’s very inspiring for me to comehere and be part of that.”

Vincent began music lessons at ageseven, and hasn’t stopped playingsince. She completed a bachelor ofmusic at McGill University — and,wanting to continue her studies andgain experience abroad, she looked toEurope.

“I had a good friend from Holland,who suggested a school in the Hague,”Vincent says. “The school was knownfor a very good departments of jazz,and early music, and was really wellknown for electronic music, which iswhat I wanted to do there.”

Vincent studied the electronic musicprogram, then completed her master’sdegree in performance-based art. Hergoal, she says, is to “combine in a per-formance way, sound — not necessari-ly music — with something visual.”

During her four years of study,Vincent made contacts in her chosenfield, in school and out. “I got involvedin doing a project, someone saw thatproject, invited me to do another proj-ect, and that’s kind of led me to where Iam,” she says.

Vincent has now been composingand performing in Amsterdam profes-sionally for two years. She and her hus-band purchased a home in the city, andhave no immediate plans to relocate.

Electronic music is not quite whatVincent’s parents had in mind whenthey enrolled her in music classes allthose years ago. “There’s a bit of aneducation process,” she says. “Theyknow what I’m making … though theydon’t understand how it’s made.

“But they’re incredibly proud, andare wishing me well. And wishing Iwould come home.”

Vincent rarely writes music on paper,turning instead to a small tape recorder,

computer, and software in her homestudio.

“The simplest way to explain is that Ijust make sounds,” she says. “In myhouse or on the street, I take my littlerecorder and record things. And it couldbe anything — I sit at my table andclick a couple of pens together andrecord that sound, or run some waterand record it.

“The interesting part is when I take itback into the computer and modify it; Ilook for things within the sound that areinteresting, I slow it down or speed itup, transpose it and see if there’s any-thing there. Sometimes in one sessionaround the house … I’ll find a fragmentof sound that has a lot of possibilities,rhythmic possibilities or harmonic pos-sibilities and start working from there.”

There is a live component to

Vincent’s work. Sometimes she playsthe piano or accordion, depending onwhat kind of sounds she’s looking for.Other times, she’ll sing along, or playalong with the computer-generatedmusic with a variety of instruments.

“There’s lots of good software now,and lots of electronic music inAmsterdam,” she says. “I don’t thinkthat’s the selling point of what I do, Ithink it’s the performance aspect.

“I’m really interested in performingmy own work and acting as a performeron stage as opposed to someone whopresses a button. I like to incorporatemyself into the story.”

Most recently, Vincent composed themusic for Paradox of Desire, by chore-ographer Suzy Blok. The show was

performed for three weeks inAmsterdam earlier this summer; it willremount for a tour of Holland inSeptember.

Paradox featured seven performerson stage: four dancers, two actors, andVincent, in a small role.

“I’ve had no formal (dance) training,but I have no problems learning,” shesays. “But 90 per cent of the showthere’s music happening, I have to be incontrol of that — me standing behindmy computer on stage, it doesn’t leaveme very free to boogie.”

The show received positive reviewsin the papers — and was an educationin inter-disciplinary work and commu-nication for all involved.

Next up, “most important at themoment and challenging,” Vincentwants to develop her own show, basedon an opera by Mozart, translated intomodern times.

It’ll be a massive undertaking, andshe’s using this month of her off-seasonto “build up energy stores” for the sea-son and projects ahead.

“I’ve been busy non-stop the last twoyears, if not in a project, then workingon a project,” she says. “And if I’mworking on one, I try not to distractmyself.

“Right now, I’m just kind of enjoyinghaving lunch in Amsterdam, checkingout a couple of museums now that Ihave time.”

Amsterdam is comfortable and pro-ductive for now, says Vincent — thereis an established and vibrant new artand music scene. She would love tosomeday work in Canada, and recog-nizes there are cities — such asMontreal — with modern art scenes shecould fit into.

“But it would be like starting over,”she says. “In two years, I’ve grown intosomething resembling a career. It willbe hard to give that up.”

As culturally cutting-edge asAmsterdam is, Vincent says she stillmisses the laid-back live music ofNewfoundland and Labrador.

“It’s rare here, that you can just goout, sit in a bar, and listen to music,”she says. “That’s what I love aboutcoming home — lots of my friendsplaying guitar and just hanging out.’

Do you know a Newfoundlander orLabradorian living away? Please e-mail [email protected]

‘I just makesounds’Lewisporte native Krista Vincent is on the cuttingedge of Amsterdam’s electronic music scene

“I’m really interested inperforming my ownwork … on stage as

opposed to someonewho presses a button. I

like to incorporatemyself into the story.”

Krista Vincent

Krista Vincent as Mozart in a Dutch-language reworking of Peter Schaeffer’s Amadeus.

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If you had cystic fibrosis,you’d have no choice.

Please help us.

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


had been in Montreal in July, 1967,who would she have applauded —Charles de Gaulle and his “Vive leQuebec libre” or Lester Pearson for his“Canadians do not need to be liberat-ed?”

And although Prime Minister Martintold Stephen Harper the GG-designateand her hubby didn’t socialize withseparatists, who was that lady drinkingtoasts with some of the hardest line sep-aratists in Quebec, including the terror-ist founder of the FLQ, PierreVallieres? You remember him. He wasthe fellow who directed the kidnappingof Pierre Laporte, got a one-year sus-pended sentence and then accepted$100,000 a year from the Canadiangovernment under a book developmentgrant.

Vallieres is not the only terrorist thatpops up on the vice-regal couple’sresume. The film about Quebec separa-tion made by Jean-Daniel Lafond,Michaëlle Jean’s husband, was madewith the collaboration of former FLQterrorist Francis Simard. Simard was amember of the Chenier terrorist cellthat kidnapped and murdered QuebecLabor minister Pierre Laporte.

‘WITH BOTH HANDS’In the 1991 documentary, Pierre

Vallieres says, “Not only shouldMartinque go to independence, but torevolution, as Quebec should.”Michaëlle Jean replies, “Yes, one does-n’t give independence, one takes it.”Lafond himself said in a 1993 book thathe would applaud “with both hands”Quebec separation.

Before I applaud with both hands thismessy vice-regal appointment, I wouldlike to know if Michaëlle Jean and herhusband supported Quebec sovereigntyin 1995. It is the sort of question Jeanherself would have asked as a journal-ist, which is of course why we willnever find out. She no longer breathesthe air of journalism but the old leatherand stale cigar smoke of the establish-ment, the place where journalists arepests and the people are the ones whoget to eat cake.

Given her previous occupation, howvery telling that the GG-designate andher handlers ruled out a television inter-view as a means of reassuring the coun-try about her politics. It was, theydecided, too undignified. The establish-ment is very big on dignity. Dignity,you see, is the opposite of accountabil-ity

Michael Harris’ column will returnSept. 4.

Who wouldshe haveapplauded?From page 11

It is easy to say that had theConservative leader acted otherwise, hewould have traded short-term gain forpotential long-term pain. But it is alsoundeniable that the embattled Harperused up precious political capital togive Jean the benefit of the doubt.

Had he not done so, it is unlikely thatJean’s belated statement would havestood as good a chance of reversing thetide of concern about her imminentarrival at Rideau Hall.

Harper has been criticized in the pastfor failing to project beyond his narrowbase, most recently last June when hequestioned the legitimacy of the same-sex marriage law because it was passedwith the support of the Bloc Québécois.

In this case, though, he has shownhimself to be well up to the task ofmaking the measured judgment callsthat Canada is entitled to expect ofmature national leaders.

From page 11

Harper gaveJean benefitof the doubt

The world’s most northerly community greenhouseINUVIK, N.W.T.

There is a rumour in the north that,during the summer’s 24-hourdaylight, a sunflower will twist

off its own head trying to follow thesun.

Now, seeing that sunflowers don’texactly flourish in the harsh, treelesstundra, there aren’t many places whereyou can test out the hypothesis.

But one of them is the InuvikCommunity Greenhouse.

If you start in Vancouver and drivenorth, about 4,000 kilometres, you’llend up at the end of the road, in Inuvik,Northwest Territories.

The town of 3,450 people is theadministrative centre of the Western

Arctic.More multicultural that many south-

ern towns, it is a base for two nativecommunities — the Gwich’in and theInuvialuit — as well as southernersfrom as far away as the Sudan (duringthe weeks of the midnight sun, localMuslims use Edmonton time to figureout when to perform their sunsetprayers).

When the town was trying to figureout what to do with their old hockeyarena, they decided, hey, why not set upthe world’s most northerly communitygreenhouse?

The greenhouse opened in 1999 andwas an instant success. On the mainfloor (there are still puck marks on the

back wall) there are now 89 raised plotsfor the community.

On the second floor, there is a largecommercial greenhouse that makesenough money selling bedding plantsand hydroponic vegetables to helpcover about one-third of the cost of thewhole operation.

The rest is made up, in part, by plotfees (around $50 a plot, if you clean itout yourself at the end of the year), andmembership fees (for $20 members canattend workshops on everything frombedding to composting).

Yoenne Ewald, assistant co-ordina-tor, explains: “The greenhouse has hada tremendous impact on the communi-ty. It’s pretty amazing the number of

people involved. We have a very exu-berant bunch of gardeners. There areless people up here and we get waymore participation than they do downsouth. The volunteer firefighters evenhelp with the watering. It’s really build-ing a community.”

One of the reasons can be found inthe vegetable section of the local gro-cery store. The fruit costs a fortune andlooks tired. At the greenhouse, manypeople taste fresh-grown fruits and veg-etables for the first time.

Ewald explains that before the green-house officially opens in April, theybring seedlings to places like the eldershospital so that the patients can watchthe plants come to life.

“For many, it is the first time they seebeans grow. They are so excited. It isvery touching. And one young volun-teer from a northern community wasamazed at the ants and insects. He’snever seen them before.”

On their small plots, amateur garden-ers will give anything a go. The mid-night sun helps, prompting some plantsto spurt up as much as a centimetre aday.

At the height of summer, the old rinkis bursting with broccoli, cabbages,cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cucum-bers, melons, pumpkins, strawberries,squash, zucchini, sage, oregano, basil,beans and lavender.


AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTWORLD • 15

WASHINGTON, D.C.By Tim HarperTorstar wire service

Small knives, bows and arrows, ice picks andpossibly even box cutters could again beallowed on planes in the United States under

proposals being floated by the TransportationSecurity Administration.

The TSA, in a bid to be more “customer friend-ly,” is also mulling plans which would reduce thenumber of passengers chosen for secondaryscreening, meaning fewer passengers wouldundergo security “pat downs” because agentswould be given discretion to wave those wearingtight-fitting clothes through checkpoints.

Fewer passengers would also be required toremove their shoes before going through securityunder the proposals to be considered later thismonth.

They would also allow more discretion on whois chosen for more stringent screening, eliminat-ing the almost automatic scrutiny of anyone flyingon a one-way ticket or who changes travel plans atthe last minute.

MORE FREEDOMToronto passengers flying to Washington’s

Ronald Reagan Airport have already been grantedmore freedom after the Department of HomelandSecurity last month removed the rule requiring allpassengers remain in their seats for 30 minutesbefore landing or taking off from the airport.

TSA may also try to compile a list of those whowould be exempt from security screening, includ-ing state governors, cabinet ministers, federaljudges and military officials.

The new regulations would pertain to all U.S.-bound flights from Toronto and other Canadianairports where passengers are pre-cleared beforearriving in this country.

Canadian authorities moved to ban lightersfrom U.S.-bound flights in April to conform to thedecision made by the TSA to ban lighters.

Any moves toward more relaxed security stemfrom improvements in other areas, particularlycockpit security, U.S. security officials say.

“The process is designed to stimulate creativethinking and challenge conventional beliefs,”Mark Hatfield, the TSA’s spokesperson, says.

“In the end, it will allow us to work smarter andbetter as we secure America’s transportation sys-tem.”

Another TSA spokesperson says the agency didnot believe box cutters posed any threat, eventhough that was the weapon used by hijackers whoflew planes into the Pentagon and the World TradeCenter on Sept. 11, 2001.

Scissors and razors would also be allowed incarry-on baggage.

A similarly controversial “no fly list” — andWashington’s demand that Canadian airlines pro-vide passenger lists for any flights which passover the U.S. — does not appear to be ready for anoverhaul, however.

As the U.S. moves toward more relaxed carry-on and other security regulations, CanadianTransport Minister Jean Lapierre said this monththat Ottawa is moving to establish its own “no-flylist” by 2006.

The Canadian list will bar those who pose a ter-rorist threat from domestic flights which often flyover U.S. territory, widely seen as a response toWashington’s demand that passenger lists be pro-vided to U.S. authorities on Canadian domesticflights which pass over American airspace.

Canada initially resisted the Washingtondemand, saying it infringed on its sovereignty.

The U.S. “no-fly list” has been regularly criti-cized and ridiculed because of the number of inno-cent passengers snared because of similarities tonames on the list or because names on the list havebeen misspelled.

Among those who have been barred in theUnited States are veteran Massachusetts SenatorEdward Kennedy, John Lewis, a Democratic con-gressman from Georgia, and the son of CanadianSenator Colin Kenny who has chaired theCanadian Senate’s security committee.

Yesterday, the list came in for more ridiculewhen Associated Press revealed infants, includingnewborns, have been barred from flights becausetheir names match ones on the list.

It’s said some 89 infant names have been sub-mitted to a security ombudsman because they areerroneously on the list. Of those, 14 are under theage of two.

Tim Sparapani, of the American Civil LibertiesUnion, told AP the inclusion of babies on the listshows it doesn’t work.

Ice picks allowed on board?U.S. may relax air security rules to be more ‘customer friendly’

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza StripBy Mitch PotterTorstar wire service

Israeli withdrawal forces strippedGaza’s synagogues of their mostmilitant Jewish activists late last

week in a decisive day of battle thatsaw as many as 20 soldiers doused withacid during one vicious confrontation.

The combined tally of injuries — 47police officers, 31 soldiers and 22 civil-ians — was far and away the worst infive days of clashes against radicalopponents of the Israeli pullout.

The flaring violence overshadowedthe dramatic pace of withdrawal fromthe territory occupied since the 1967Six Day War. Israeli officials last nightdeclared 16 of Gaza’s 21 Jewish settle-ments virtually empty.

“What we saw here crossed allboundaries,” Israel Defense ForcesMaj.-Gen. Dan Harel said at the isolat-ed settlement of Kfar Darom, wheredisengagement forces were sprayedwith a caustic substance as they scaledthe outer walls of a synagogue in a bidto arrest diehard activists on the roof.

“Everybody who was now on the

roof will be arrested and put in prison.”Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz

condemned the assault as hooliganismdressed up as Zionism. “We thought aJew does not throw acid on anotherJew. Unfortunately, there are Jews thathave no limits to their violence,” Pines-Paz told the Israel Web portalYnetnews.com.

More than 50 activists were arrestedat Kfar Darom, where pullout troopsarrived Aug. 18 despite earlier indica-tions the devoutly religious settlementwould not be approached in the comingdays. The vast majority of the enclave’sresidents left without serious incident.

Radical youth from the West Bankand Israel proper were believed respon-sible for most of the violence. Israeliforces deployed water cannons and atone point attempted to trap the rooftopextremists with the use of a crane-oper-ated steel cage.

The activists also pelted police andsoldiers with eggs, paint-bombs andwatermelon, witnesses said. In a sepa-rate confrontation, more than 1,000 dis-engagement troops ended a daylongstandoff at the main synagogue com-plex inside Neve Dekalim, the largest

of Gaza’s settlements, by raiding andforcibly removing hundreds of mostlyteenage activists holed up inside.

The dramatic deployment of soldiersand police came after eight hours offailed negotiations toward a peacefulsurrender. The male and female hold-

outs ignored the final deadline, spend-ing their last moments singing, dancingand praying in separate synagoguesinside the complex as troops closed in.

Soldiers locked arms to bar escape asthe locked glass door of the synagoguewas carefully removed.

Then, working in teams of four,troops moved inside to pull worship-

pers from the building, one by one, andtake them to waiting buses.

Some were led away on foot; mostwere carried passively, while othersstill thrashed and wailed in a bid tobreak free of the soldiers’ iron grip.Some continued their resistance evenafter they boarded the bus, attemptingto kick out windows.

“You are not Jewish. You wouldn’tbe able to do what you are doing if youwere,” one teenage boy shouted as hestruggled against four police officerspulling him inside an idling evacuationbus.

Teens encamped in the women’s sideof the complex were pulled out withsignificantly less resistance by femalepolice and soldiers. Some read pas-sages of the Torah, tears streamingdown their faces, as they were led to thefleet of buses.

The Neve Dekalim operation result-ed in more than a dozen minor injuriesto police and civilian activists. But overthe course of the day, with the mainbody of protestors holed up in the com-pound, pullout troops succeeded inemptying the settlement of its remain-ing residents.

As of Friday, just seven familiesremained, an Israeli military officialsaid.

Though the swift completion of thepullout now appears inevitable, withsome Israeli officials predicting the fullevacuation of all Gaza Strip settlementswill be finished as early as Monday,protests continue.

Two major Israeli intersections wereblocked Aug. 18 by anti-disengagementactivists, and another fake bomb — thethird of its kind to be discovered inrecent weeks — was found inJerusalem.

As the process unfolds, Israeli andPalestinian officials remain on highalert, mindful that the potential forextremist attacks by either side is sig-nificant.

An Israeli who shot dead fourunarmed Palestinian workers in theWest Bank Aug. 17 was unrepentantlater in the week.

“I’m not sorry for what I did. I hopesomeone also kills (Prime MinisterAriel) Sharon,” said Asher Weissgan,38, of the West Bank settlement ofShvut Rahel, as he arrived at court for aremand hearing.

Showdown in thesynagoguesDespite violence, removal of settlers nearly complete A Jewish girl cries as she is removed by Israeli troops from the women's section of the syna-

gogue. Oleg Popov/Reuters

Israeli troops forcibly remove Jewish opponents of the Gaza pullout from the synagogue at the settlement of Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip, latelast week. Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

“You are not Jewish. You wouldn’t be able to do what you are doing if you were.”

Teenager pulled from synagogue


By Lisa Moore

Editor’s note: the following article ap-pears in the latest edition of New-foundland Quarterly. Reprinted withpermission.

The Newfoundland actor, BrianHennessey, has a distinctivenose, very similar in shape and

size to the nose of the Irish theatre

director Ben Hennessey. Both menhave similar shaped foreheads. Theyboth have a gaze that is receptive andengaging, commanding and inclusive.Most telling, perhaps, both men havehandsome, enigmatic half-smiles,seemingly full of wit. And they alsoshare, of course, the surnameHennessey. Can any other cultural,historical or genealogical conclusionsbe drawn from putting the portraits of

these two men side by side?Portraiture is a compelling art form

because it creates, in the viewer, acraving for narrative. It is impossibleto look at a good portrait — one thatcaptures an ineffable presence — andnot want to know more. Who are thesemen and women? Are they married?Do they have children? What isimportant to them? What do they havein common? Can such characteristics

as kindness, intelligence, wit and hon-esty really be read in a person’s face?

It could be argued that a portrait isalways a work involving three cre-ators: the subject, the photographerand the viewer. Perhaps it is becauseSheilagh O’Leary is charismatic andbristling with curiosity herself thatthese subjects, to a person, appear

INDEPENDENTLIFESUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 21-27, 2005 — PAGE 17

LIVYERS

The dog whispererBy Clare-Marie GosseThe Independent

Every first Saturday afternoon of themonth, a crowd of people spill out ofthe compact pet store, The Dog

House, on Duckworth Street in downtownSt. John’s. The reason (aside from the everpopular merchandise) is Glenn Redmond, alocal dog obedience and protection trainerwho stops by for free, a couple of hoursevery month, to chat to people about their

pets. New puppy parents, with their recently

acquired furry maniacs bouncing off thewalls, listen with rapt, sleep-deprived atten-tion as he helps explain the ins and outs oftheir seemingly complex — but as it turnsout — perfectly logical canine companions.

“The thing is, with dog behaviour, youcan read it like a book,” Redmond tells TheIndependent, “and it’s action and reaction… we’re consistently inconsistent whenwe’re with our animals so the same prob-

lems are usually a symptom of the sameactions by people.”

Sitting in a leather chair in his home inFoxtrap, Conception Bay South, Redmondtalks easily, with a depth of knowledgeeven a non-lover of animals would find fas-cinating. What he doesn’t know about dogsprobably isn’t worth knowing.

His own canine companion, Dakota, agolden, eight-year-old wolf/shepherd cross

See “It’s science,” page 18

Sheilagh O’Leary’s

Twinning LinesPortraits from Newfoundland and Ireland

Glenn Redmond and Dakota Paul Daly/The Independent

See “Sense of kinship,” page 19

Photo of Sheilagh O’Leary by Paul Daly/The Independent

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE AUGUST 21, 2005

GALLERYPROFILE

Artist Sherri Winsor may be justgetting her career off theground but she says she’s been

an artist her whole life. After studying visual arts at the

College of the North Atlantic inStephenville, Winsor says she finallyhas the technical skills to start creatingthe artwork she’s stored in her head herwhole life. Like most artists, Winsorstarted by doodling in school.

“When I was in school I spent mostof my time drawing the teachers. Mynotebooks were filled with sketches. Iwas worried that I’d end up a starving

artist, so I figured I’d give university ashot. I tried geology but physics wasquickly my downfall, so that was that.”

Winsor mostly paints but enjoys pot-tery and printmaking. A self-describedvisual junkie, Winsor has drawn on her

extensive travels to enrich her art. Shemoved to England with some of herfriends after leaving university, anexperience that she says changed heroutlook on life.

“It was an incredible time. Some dayswere magical but most were just awfuland difficult. You learn a lot about your-self in those conditions,” Winsor tellsThe Independent. “I feel as if I have abetter grasp on the world now. In termsof my art, I found a visual context to putthings in. The better you know theworld the more your eyes are open torealizing what’s special.”

Winsor uses photographs as sourcematerial for most of her paintings andenjoys painting foreign landscapes andarchitecture. She says she allows hermore abstract side to come out throughpottery.

“Clay is such a great material. Myfavourite use is in sculpture. You canmake anything you can dream up andjust get lost in the clay for eight or ninehours. Painting takes so much patienceand concentration. I prefer to workfast.”

Art school is just a stepping-stone inan artist’s career, but Winsor can’t seem

to decide where to go from here.“I guess the problem now is knowing

what to do next. I would really love toset up a studio, but I’d also like to dosome more travelling. Ideally, I’d like toset up a studio in South America or theMediterranean and sell through agallery in Canada. It would be great tobe somewhere warm, by the beach. Iwould never want to live inland. I’m toomuch of an island girl for that.”

—— Evan Careen is a journalismstudent at the Stephenville campus ofthe College of the North Atlantic.

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]

SHERRIWINSORVisual Artist

is gracefully passed out at his feet.In the building next door to Red-

mond’s house is his “personal carefacility” for dogs (and soon cats too).The set-up is an intimate boarding ken-nel with eight all-wood pens, a commu-nal doggy lounge with a television setand two large outside runs.

He explains the name of his boardingand training facility, Billy Nudgel’s K-9Services, came about after he and hisAustralian girlfriend, Natasha, weretraveling through her home country andcame across an impossibly tiny towncalled Billynudgel.

“The whole premise was that wewanted to market someone but not me.So Billy Nudgel becomes this fictitiouscharacter that we can create … ‘If youdon’t know ask Billy.’”

Redmond laughs as he describes howamazed people are after they come tohim with their dog problems and he canimmediately tell them exactly whatthey’ve unwittingly been doing wrong.

“It’s science, it’s not like some kindof guru stuff.”

Redmond only recently moved backto Newfoundland and Labrador twoyears ago. He grew up in Torbay, butrelocated to Ottawa to study (human)psychology and criminology andworked for a number of years as abehavioural therapist. After becomingdisillusioned with the social servicessystem he decided on a career change.

With a long-time love for dogs and adesire to continue using his psychologytraining and have his own business, hemoved to Vancouver and studied dogobedience and protection.

Redmond stayed on the West Coast,managing his own boarding and train-ing facility and also training dogs formovies and television. He worked forthree seasons as the head trainer andstunt man on Animal Miracles.

“My main job was to co-ordinate andtrain the animals for the script that Ihad, but if there were police take-downs, I would always play the badguy and do the stunt work.”

Displaying his forearms, Redmondshows a few bite scars, old and new. Heexplains he also teaches a form of dogtraining called Schutzhund, a sportderived for working breeds, focusingon tracking, obedience and protection.The protection aspect involves trainingthe dogs to bark at and hold a captive.

Redmond says he and Natashadecided to move to Newfoundland

because of their increasingly hecticschedules and the high cost of B.C liv-ing. He already had the plan for BillyNudgel’s K-9 Services in mind; it wasjust a matter of finding the right loca-tion.

Since setting up in Foxtrap, thedemand for Redmond’s services hassky rocketed. He’s also managed tocontinue his television work, recentlydirecting some canine stars on the setof CBC’s Hatching, Matching and Dis-patching.

“It’s taken off big time,” he says withsome amount of disbelief. “I mean thissummer was really crazy.”

Redmond says the biggest mistakeowners generally make with their dogsis to attach human qualities to them.

“When you come from that philoso-phy of treating the animal like a humanbeing you’re almost behind before youeven start.”

He adds hierarchy is key.“Dogs are great leaders and they’re

great followers and they’re comfort-able in either role, but they need toknow what that role is. If they’reallowed to be leaders sometimes andthey’re expected to be followers othertimes they’re always vying for positionso you’ll have a dog that’s always test-ing and testing and testing.”

Even Redmond knows what it can belike to get frustrated with a dog. Hisown pet, Dakota, had severe separationanxiety when he first brought himhome from an animal shelter in B.C. Ittook almost two years to calm himdown — which Redmond admits was abit embarrassing at first, consideringclients would often ask to see “thetrainer’s dog.

“He’s got some wolfy problems ... Iliterally could not walk outside myhouse. To bring out the garbage wouldmean to come back to a mess, or if Iwent to the store to get a pop or juiceI’d come back to, literally, no seat leftin the car.”

Redmond says most people general-ly have no idea how much work a dogcan be and are often apprehensive totrain them properly because they worrythey’ll inhibit the dog’s personality.

“So many people call and say, ‘WellI want a great dog, but I still want himto be a buddy’ … with more respectcomes a better bond and your dogdoesn’t change.

“If it’s done well, in respect to thedog and is not forced on the animal,this is something that the dog will wantto do.”

‘It’s science, it’s not like some kind of guru stuff’From page 17

Born This Wayby Leanne Averbach

Hair of four colours,a fetching freak at birth.Gray makes five.

My mother, accused, snarledBorn that way, hair and all!and they shut up, disbelieving.I grew accustomed.

Always had a wild taste; the sea, never far.A span of attention short and forgivingas a Newfoundland summer.Capsicum addict, food ruby hot.My lips, wandering and fleeing,learned from my ancestors.Language my demiurge.Intolerant: of ideology, peoplearranged in circles,intolerance.Apostate, actor, bumbler, recluse.Gray makes five.

Fire in my mouth, Russian steppes in my blood.Lips that live.

Averbach will launch her new book andCD, Fever, at the Leyton Gallery ofFine Art, St. John’s, Aug. 25. AuthorJoel Hynes will also read new work.Readings begin 7:30 p.m., reception tofollow.

POET’SCORNER EVENTSAUGUST 21• Family fun: explore a variety ofart and craft materials at the AnnaTempleton Centre with instructorPheilm Martin. Parents and childrenages six and up welcome, 739-7623.• All ages show at Junction’s, St.John’s, 4 p.m. Featuring In Case ofEmergency, Yesterday’s Hero, more.• Peter Pan Festival, BoweringPark amphitheatre, 576-6134.• Tuckamore Festival finale con-cert, Petro-Canada Hall, MUNMusic School, 8 p.m., 737-2372.

AUGUST 23• Open mic at O’Reilley’s pub,George Street, with Larry Foley.• Depression and anxiety supportgroup, 7-9 p.m, 753-8871.

AUGUST 24• Folk club with Alan Byrne at theShip Pub, St. John’s, 9:30 pm.• Neil Diamond dinner theatre, 7p.m., Majestic Theatre, 390Duckworth St., 579-3023.• Stones in his Pockets featuringAiden Flynn and Steve O’Connell,Rabittown Theatre. 7:30 p.m., 739-8220.• Ron Hynes and The Accessories atthe Rose and Thistle pub, WaterStreet, St. John’s.

AUGUST 25• Book launch and reading: authorand actor Joel Hynes reads fromnew work; Leanne Averback per-forms work from her new CD andbook of poetry, Fever. 7:30 p.m.,Leyton Gallery of Fine Art, recep-tion to follow.• It’s All Gone Pete Tong, directedby Michael Dowse. Empire Studio12, Avalon Mall Cinemas, 7 p.m.Fundraiser for the St. John’sInternational Women’s FilmFestival.• Active-Vision, live music for silentfilms, presents a Betty BoopRetrospective. Choral Room, MUNSchool of Music, 8 p.m. Free admis-sion, food bank donations accepted.

AUGUST 26• Arthur Miller’s The Crucible,presented by Dick’s KidsProductions, a collaborative effortof friends, colleagues and formerstudents of retired English professorDick Buehler. Reid Theater, MUNcampus, 8 p.m. Continues Aug. 27.• All-ages Punk Rock Prom at theSt. John’s Curling Club, 6 p.m.Semi-formal with live bands.Tickets at the door. • Wine and Words with award win-

ning author Robin McGrath, 7:30p.m. at the Newman Wine Vaults,436 Water St., 739-7871.• Mark Bragg with Defendant, liveat Junction’s bar, McMurdo’s Lane. • Cruise with the Karaoke Kops onboard the Nouvelle Orleans at Pier7, 834-6663.

AUGUST 27• Blue Kaffee benefit concert,Bowering Park amphitheatre, 2 p.m.Nine bands for $5.• Lunchtime Concert Series. JanetCull performs at Harbourside park,St. John’s, 12:30 p.m. Free, 691-5480.• Equestrain show. 754-2349,www.webpage.ca/nea

IN THE GALLERIES • Express ’05: 24-hour ArtMarathon at Eastern Edge Gallery,Aug. 27-28. 72 Habour Drive, St.John’s• Summer Dance: 17 artists doingwork and sculpture and paint re-flecting dance, Leyton Gallery ofFine Arts. • Pien Ashtunu: Pien builds aCanoe, showcasing traditional Innucanoe building, The Rooms.• Pen and ink drawings byChristopher Peet, BalanceRestaurant, 147 LeMarchant Rd.,722-2112. Until Sept. 24.• Annual members’ exhibit, CraftCouncil Gallery, Devon House, untilSept. 3.• A Brush with History: theGardens of the Colony of Avalon,watercolours by Margaret Best, inthe Colony of Avalon Building,Ferryland. Until Aug. 31.

A Betty Boop retrospective, accompaniedby live improvised music, takes placeAug. 25 at MUN Music School.

Waking up is hard to do.Most of us require somegraceful transition time

from the bliss of silence that comeswith sleep to the vulgarity of noisethat comes with daylight. It’s hard totrust people who bound out of bedwith their senses on orange alert.

Before I am ready to accept thesquawking of gulls or the hammeringof workmen across the street I need tohear voices of reason. I particularlyneed to hear the reassuring voices ofthe CBC radio announcers — that is,the men and women who speak at anunhurried pace, clear-ly, and with goodgrammar.

I would rather notwake up to news ofsuicide bombers hav-ing done their busi-ness in the middle ofthe night, or of crash-ing planes, toxicspills, or abandonedbabies, but if I mustleave sweet oblivionand enter harsh reali-ty I need to do it withhelp. By the time Iget to work I mightnot be fully awake to the world butyet I feel like an informed citizen, bet-ter prepared to deal with the world’schaos.

The beauty of CBC radio, especial-ly when you are waking up, is that thenetwork offers an appealing mix ofinternational and local content. In thespace of 20 minutes and without com-mercial interruptions, one can get apretty good sense of just how insanethings are on the Gaza strip, listen to arange of views about the closing ofthe food fishery, enjoy a story aboutthis year’s Tuckamore Festival cham-

ber music program, and laugh at a clipfrom a City Council meeting. Thatsort of mix can set you up well for justabout any conversation during theday.

There’s no reason to be ignorant.The network covers, discovers, anduncovers the waterfront.

The alternatives,as I have discoveredto my horror duringthe CBC lockout, areappalling. That is, ifyou are luckyenough to be livingin a part of theprovince that hasalternatives.

Citizens of StJohn’s have a smallmeasure of choiceson the AM and FMbands, but the samecannot be said formany others, where

the CBC dominates the airwaves. Ofcourse, the network is still operating,as management keeps reminding us,but only at 10 per cent capacity. Thatmeans if you wake up to the CBC inCartwright or Burgeo you are forcedto hear about weather forecasts fromsea to sea to sea but you won’t learnabout whether it will rain in your ownbackyard.

And so it is that weary of listeningto the fake, 10 per cent, repeat-broad-casting and irrelevant CBC I havebeen experimenting with otheroptions. Whereas CBC on the a.m.

dial is clearly a news and informationbroadcaster, the commercial stationsspecialize in everything from religionto golden oldies, with almost every-one playing the ubiquitous “classicrock,” a term that generally means atany time of day you can hear some-one, somewhere, spinning Stairway toHeaven or Hey Jude.

Well, I have learned the hard way. Inow know for certain that I do notwant to wake up with Jesus, whackygames, or ballads about the girlfriendleaving, the dog dying, and the truckon fire. I don’t want to wake up withPaul or George, let alone Elton orElvis, and I am now suspicious ofpeople who do. I certainly don’t wantto wake up to cheery conversationsbetween radio hosts who always findeach other’s jokes hysterically funny.

While it is true commercial radiooffers a modicum of news, the infor-mation is delivered so quickly, briefly,and unhelpfully the only sensible wayto react is to burrow deeper under thecovers.

Does anyone really need to knowthat the traffic on Kenmount Road isflowing smoothly, as if we were livingin Scarborough? Can anyone tellwhere the ads end and the so-calledreal information begins?

Why do commercial radio announc-ers scream at us in those panickyvoices? Why is the music so consis-tently jarringly awful? Is everyone on

black coffee and uppers? I know the world divides between

those who like commercial radio andthose who do not, and I really do haverespect for the way the world divides.But when the public broadcaster dis-appears you really notice the differ-ence. CBC produces a rich andhealthy culture of interest and diversi-ty, a community of listeners whoknow where they are and why. It isn’tperfect but it aims high and refuses tosound like every other station, with-out hysteria, hype, or false intensity.

And so over the last few days I haveteased myself by switching back toCBC, just to see what the networkwas doing with its 10 per cent capaci-ty and in some vague hope that thelockout was all a dream.

But instead of hearing familiarvoices at their rightful times I keephearing repeat broadcasts of Quirksand Quarks or short introductions tolong songs I never want to hear again.It’s all like some publicly fundedsatire.

Enough is enough. I want my CBC.I know I’m not alone when I say thatI am desperate enough to welcomeback Promo Girl, even in the morn-ing.

Noreen Golfman is a professor ofliterature and women’s studies atMemorial. Her next column appearsSept. 4.

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

I want my CBC

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TheThe“best“bestpizzzzainintown”town”isisBACK!BACK!

generous, forthright and embold-ened. O’Leary’s exhibition drawsfrom the viewer a similar curiosity,and raises important questions con-cerning our assumptions about race,history and culture.

Perhaps the most powerful aspectof O’Leary’s exhibition of New-foundland and Irish subjects pairedby the simple virtue of sharing a lastname is the compelling desire shestirs in the viewer to discover phys-ical similarities between both sub-jects. We find ourselves looking forthese similarities despite the sub-jects’ obvious differences in gender,age and the lack of any hard evi-dence, other then a shared surname,concerning a genetic link.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to look atthe portraits of Tina Brennan andAlex Brennan and not notice theirshared dimples, fair complexions,and their strangely similar, ultra-luminous grins. What traces of ourIrish heritage are still visible in theNewfoundland face? And most im-portantly, what does this link meanpolitically and culturally in the ageof globalization?

In many ways, Sheilagh O’Learyis being parodic with the notion of aquest for Newfoundland’s Irishancestry. Reliable genealogicalrecords concerning Newfoundlandancestry are scant and much specif-ic information of this sort has beenlost. The idea of creating a sense ofkinship, belonging and strengthen-ing notions of nationalism by virtueof shared genealogical roots has,historically speaking, been full ofpolitical nettles, sometimes causingan atmosphere of exclusivity, eventragedy. In the age of globalization,with mass immigration and racialintermarriage, it becomes impossi-ble to identify an Irish face. Oldstereotypes of the Irish — red hair,fair skin, green eyes — can nolonger encompass the rich varietyof Irish faces, if they ever did.

And yet many Newfoundlandauthors, performers and visualartists have recently been seeking tore-establish cultural ties withIreland. There is a renewed curiosi-ty about our shared heritage.

This probably has much to dowith Ireland’s recent economicboom, coupled with the arrival of ageneration of Newfoundland artiststoo young to have experiencedNewfoundland as a sovereignnation. Unlike our parents, manyworking Newfoundland artists wereborn Canadian. Though we enteredConfederation in 1949, a provincerich in natural and humanresources, we have not fully bene-fited from them because of unfairtransfer payments with Ottawa anda general attitude held by the rest ofthe country that Newfoundland andLabrador is a have-not province insearch of charity. In the face of thisdisparity it is not surprising thatNewfoundlanders are returning toour European roots to strengthenour notion of cultural identity.

Why, then, examine these impor-tant and complex questions of cul-tural identity with portraiture?

Because each portrait engages theviewer’s imagination in a rich andcompelling narrative, similar to thenarrative posed by the list of pas-sengers coming to the new world —the details in both cases are few andsuperficial — a list of names anddates in ship’s log, or in the case ofportraiture, a whole personalitysuggested by a glint in the eye. Butthese details are enough to make uscrave more of the story.

O’Leary’s Twinning exhibitionran in Waterford, Ireland in the fallof 2004. A St. John’s showing isplanned for Thursday evening,Sept. 15, 2005 at City Hall to coin-cide with the 150th anniversary cel-ebrations of the Basilica of St. Johnthe Baptist. For further informa-tion, visit her website atwww.sheilagholeary.com

NOREENGOLFMANStanding room only

‘Sense of kinship’

From page 17

Debbie Cooper in the CBC television studio in St. John’s prior to the recent strike. Paul Daly/The Independent

A LITTLE OF YOUR TIME ISALL WE ASK. CONQUERING THE

UNIVERSE IS OPTIONAL.Think it requires heroic efforts to be a Big Brother or Big Sister?

Think again. It simply means sharing a few moments with a child. Play catch.Build a doghouse. Or help take on mutant invaders from the planet Krang.

That’s all it takes to transform a mere mortal like yourself into a super hero whocan make a world of difference in a child’s life. For more information...

Big Brothers Big Sistersof Eastern Newfoundland

1-877-513KIDS (5437) www.helpingkids.ca

I now know for certainthat I do not want towake up with Jesus,whacky games, or ballads about the girlfriend leaving,

the dog dying, and the truck on fire.


INCAMERA

‘Can’t wish for anything

better’

Hockey players fromNewfoundland andLabrador, the Mari-times, Quebec, On-tario and Europe tookto the ice at the

Glacier in Mount Pearl last week as the St.John’s Fog Devils opened their inaugural train-ing camp. Reporter Darcy MacRae and pho-tographer Rhonda Hayward stopped by —and saw some young players facing the firstmajor test of their hockey careers.

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

There’s a buzz in andaround the Glacier inMount Pearl. Teenagedboys dressed in khakishorts and collared T-

shirts flood the hallways. They chatnervously with their parents, thenstrip down to their boxers in adressing room to be weighed andhave their measurements taken.

It’s registration night for theinaugural St. John’s Fog Devilstraining camp, as the team preparesfor its first season in the QuebecMajor Junior Hockey League.

Standing nearby is Paradise-native Scott Brophy, the team’sfirst pick in the expansion draft.Brophy jokes he’s not looking for-ward to having his height meas-ured.

“I always hate this part,” laughsBrophy, who at 5’9” is one of thesmaller players in the arena.

While many players are nervouson the eve of the biggest challengeof their young hockey careers,Brophy and fellow Paradise resi-dent Wes Welcher look relaxedwhile standing at ice level, watch-ing a group of novice players learnthe finer points of the game. Bothhave played in the league before —Brophy with Gatineau the last twoyears and Welcher with Moncton in04-05 — and know what to expectduring the camp.

“Right now my confidence is alot higher,” Welcher says. “I knowwhat I’m getting myself into. Iknow what’s coming up and hope-fully I can have a good camp.”

A year ago Welcher was a 16-year-old rookie in his first trainingcamp in Moncton. He recalls thenervousness that comes with theuncertainty of a major junior tryoutand feels for the players experienc-ing what he went through last year.

“For the 16-year-olds coming in,they don’t know what to expect incamp,” he says. “They’re comingto a different province, they don’tknow anybody here and have tostay at different houses with differ-ent families with different cultures.

“There’s a lot of stuff peopledon’t always think about. There area lot of changes you have to make.”

Welcher’s family is housing FogDevils’ hopeful Zach Tessierthroughout training camp. Tessier,a 17-year-old from Moncton, N.B.says he’s excited about his firstmajor junior tryout and doesn’t feelvery nervous. Having MichelBreau, his teammate on the MatieuMetadors high school hockey team

last year, also in camp makes himfeel more comfortable.

“It sure does make it easier,”says Tessier.

The next morning, players showup ready to take to the ice. Prior tothe first practice, Fog Devils’equipment manager Shannon(Shaq) Coady is in the hallwaypreparing coloured jerseys andtheir corresponding socks. Afterseveral years with the St. John’sMaple Leafs, Coady is no strangerto training camp and says eventhough this is a new team, there’sone familiar face around.

“I’m still here,” he says with asmile.

Soon players are flying aroundthe ice with much more speed andskill than one would expect from ateenager. Assistant coaches DarrylWilliams and Doug O’Brienexplain drills to players who areuncertain of what their roles will bewith this new team — but anxiousto find out.

“I can’t wait to get started,”Welcher says. “It’s a new experi-ence. I’m not a rookie anymore, soI have a new mindset heading intocamp. Having a new expansionteam here and playing at home isgoing to be great.”

Nervous parents, siblings andgirlfriends watch every move fromthe bleachers, hanging on everypass, every shot, and every goal.

“My parents didn’t get thechance to see me play too muchlast year,” Welcher says. “Havingmy friends and family come watchwill be a totally different experi-ence from last year.”

After the morning workouts,team officials take players on a tourof the city. They check out theusual sights and sounds, and by allaccounts are impressed by theprovincial capital.

“It’s a nice place,” Tessier says.“I really like it. The view (of theocean) is just excellent.”

Although the regular seasondoesn’t begin until mid-September,the air at the Glacier is thick withexcitement and anticipation. Itgives followers of the team theimpression something special isabout to be unveiled.

“It’s going to be a pleasure toplay here,” Welcher says. “When Ifound out I got picked (in theexpansion draft), I was ecstatic.You can’t wish for anything betterthan to play in your hometown.”

[email protected]


WEEKLYDIVERSIONSACROSS1 Lake SE ofWhitehorse7 Vocalist Harmer12 Eau de vie fromcherries18 Cut into19 Arbitrary command20 Feel intense aversion21 Free22 Ladies of Limoges23 Ensnare24 Fish with long beak-like jaws25 Plunge a knife into27 Remains of a fire29 Small island30 Equal (Fr.)32 Snow in the city35 Even in verse36 Galileo’s birthplace37 Medieval stringedinstrument39 No ___ Mischief(Alistair MacLeod)41 Longed43 Salmon ___, B.C.45 Some votes47 Midnight number48 Amorous involve-ment51 Talent53 Make diet-worthy57 Nigerian people58 Joint60 Lag behind62 Identical

63 ___ L’Argent, Nfld.64 Blissful spots66 Killed68 Revival technique,briefly69 French seasons71 Slope73 Vronsky’s beloved74 Unit of electricalresistance75 Spanish sherry77 Ice cream unit79 The Twins81 Small amount83 Theme85 Winter mo.86 Frenchman whocrossed Niagara Falls ona tightrope (1859)90 Three Musketeersauthor92 Hemispherical roofs96 Nimbus97 Chatter99 Down garment101 Unclothed102 Genetic material103 Waned105 Like failed humour107 Sold(i)er material108 Nurture alternative110 Nickname of Sovietleader who started dem-ocratic revolution113 List of lapses115 Model society116 Standard of perfec-

tion117 Spay or ___ yourpet118 She founded theCanadian Children’sOpera Chorus119 ___ Dame de Paris120 Fast

DOWN1 Pooh’s striped friend2 Infuriate3 Beetle in Egyptianhieroglyphs4 Set on fire5 Wife of Osiris6 Twiggy digs7 The Nickel City8 Short alias9 Meadow butter?10 Crossing the ocean11 German state12 Facial tissue (brand)13 Charged particles14 Refuse visitor15 Stress and ___16 Pierre’s chair17 Group of seven26 Math subj.28 ___ Nostradamus(Douglas Coupland)31 Turn over a new ___33 Search34 Has not36 Inquires impertinent-ly38 Atwood novel: Oryxand ___

40 Rips42 Help44 Looks after46 Italian staircase48 Diminish49 Lobby50 Staggers52 Wild ass of Asia54 Quebec way55 Both: comb. form56 Time in office57 Goat-antelope withlong curved horns59 Perform61 Covered on theinside65 Ornamental hairnet67 Having a label70 Inuit goddess of thesea72 Add to (2 wds.)76 Heavy-hearted78 Fine cotton80 Computer image82 Legendary PlainsCree chief84 Sask. town namedfor Scottish essayist86 ___ and Bailey (cir-cus)87 Crescent-shaped88 Gifted speaker89 Catch91 Snow runner93 Undergo a change94 Polished prose95 Pertaining to thenumber six

98 First Quebec womanin House of Commons100 Cries of agreement103 Shallowest Great

Lake104 Dead as the ___106 Get the veggiesready for the chef

109 Lines at a check-out?: abbr.111 No longer working,in short

112 Tender spot?114 Sherbrooke street

Solutions page 34

ARIES - MAR 21/APR 20Things are looking up this week,and you can expect to hear somegood news. Make the most ofthis stroke of luck, Aries. Shareyour good fortune with others.

TAURUS - APR 21/MAY 21You will have much moreresponsibility to deal with thisweek, Taurus. Don't let it getyou down, though. Higher-upswill be watching and taking noteof your work ethic.

GEMINI - MAY 22/JUN 21You may think you have every-thing under control, but whenyou least expect it, your life willgo topsy turvy. The only thing toexpect, Gemini, is the unexpect-ed.

CANCER - JUN 22/JUL 22Eliminate the negative thinkingthat has been holding you back,Cancer. By changing your outlook, you'll certainly changethe way others interact with you.

LEO - JUL 23/AUG 23Expect hidden issues that willleave you with a dilemma.Avoid relationships withcoworkers, Leo; it could onlylead to trouble. And you don'tneed any more trouble in yourlife.

VIRGO - AUG 24/SEPT 22Don't overspend on entertain-ment just to impress someone,Virgo. This person should likeyou for who you are, not whatyou have. Move on if you feelunappreciated.

LIBRA - SEPT 23/OCT 23You're confused about a particu-lar situation, Libra, and not see-ing events for what they reallyare. Keep quiet or else you'rebound to start trouble unneces-sarily.

SCORPIO - OCT 24/NOV 22Someone is trying to takeadvantage of you, Scorpio.Don't give away all of your secrets - you know

you're smarter than that. A“friend's” true colors will showthrough.

SAGITTARIUS - NOV 23/DEC 21You're invited to be part of an influential group, Sagit-tarius. Don't pass up the oppor-tunity, even if it requires a finan-cial contribution to get you start-ed.

CAPRICORN - DEC 22/JAN 20Don't mix business with pleas-ure this week, Capricorn.Otherwise you'll be the center ofattention for all the wrong rea-sons. Pay attention to subtleclues from your peers.

AQUARIUS - JAN 21/FEB 18Think about what your partnerwould love to do, Aquarius, and then plan the week's eventsaround his or her likes. You'll win plenty of browniepoints.

PISCES - FEB 19/MAR 20Watch out for potential money-

makers in the week to come,Pisces. You can end up withmore cash in your pocket if youplay your cards right.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

AUGUST 21Kim Cattrall, actress

AUGUST 22Howie Dorough, singer

AUGUST 23Jay Mohr, actor/comic

AUGUST 24Marlee Matlin, actress

AUGUST 25Elvis Costello, singer

AUGUST 26Macaulay Culkin, actor

AUGUST 27Sarah Chalke, actress

WEEKLYSTARS

Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each col-umn of nine and each section of nine (three squares bythree) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order.There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tipsand computer program available at www.sudoko.com

THIS WEEK’S SOLUTION ON PAGE 34

Of course every parent wants todo everything they can to helptheir children be healthy andhappy while at school.

A large part of maintaining health,both physical and mental, is thefood kids eat in school and athome.

Establishing healthy eating pat-terns during childhood can evenhelp prevent major health prob-lems such as obesity and heartdisease later in life. Healthy foodprovides the energy and nutrientskids need for concentration andlearning, energy to play, and over-all growth and development. Andwhen children are hungry they aremore likely to be irritable, feeltired, and be disruptive.

Breakfast

A good breakfast is one of themost important things a parentcan do to help their child performwell at school. But sometimes, inthe morning rush to get ready forschool, breakfast gets missed.

The Kids Eat Smart Foundationsupports nutrition programs forschool children. There are 160Kids Eat Smart nutrition programsthroughout Newfoundland andLabrador, and approximately16,000 children participate. Morethan 4,000 volunteers run pro-grams, going to the school orcommunity centres to prepare themeals, which typically includecereal, milk, toast, yogurt, fruitand juice.

At many schools, students volun-teer and may even take ownership

of the programs at the high schoollevel.

The goal of the programs is toensure that all students have thenourishment they need to focus ontheir schoolwork, and any childwho didn’t have breakfast at homeis welcome to participate.

Though most programs are break-fast, the Foundation also supportssnack programs and lunch pro-grams. There is no charge to par-ticipate, but each program has itsown fundraising capacity and hassupport from their local communi-ty. Parents, grandparents, commu-nity service groups, churchgroups, local businesses and oth-ers donate financially, with food

products and volunteering theirtime.

LunchFor parents who have both thetime and financial stability to pro-vide their children with adequatenutrition on their own, what togive that child is still a conun-drum many face. Maybe you havea child who is easily bored andwants a different lunch every day,or maybe you have a picky eaterwho has dislikes almost every-thing!

For those parents who have thetime, packing a lunch for yourchild can have many benefits.

Fuel for school

Kids Eat Smart supported nutrition programs offer a healthy start to the school day, and provide the energy students need to concentrate and learn. Pictured here are students ofHoly Cross Junior High School in St. John’s enjoying good company and a good breakfast at their Kids Eat Smart Breakfast Program.

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTSPECIALSECTION • 23

Mom and dad can be sure kids get foodsthey like to eat, and they can plan a nutri-tious healthy meal. Although there’s nevera guarantee your kid will actually eat it!

Here are a few points to remember whenpacking a lunch for your child:• The lunch should attempt to have oneitem from each of the five food groups • It should have no more than one itemhigh in sugar, fat or oil • It should contain high-fiber foods such aswhole-grain breads, vegetables, and nutswhenever possible • And perhaps most importantly – yourchild should actually enjoy eating the foodyou pack! As for what foods to include, here are afew simple combinations that don’t need tobe refrigerated in the few hours from leav-ing home to lunch hour: • Banana bread with peanut butter, slicedcucumber and pre-cut melon cubes. • A bagel with cream cheese (or mini-bagels), sugar snap peas, and a box ofraisins.• A tortilla rolled up with a slice of mildcheese, baby carrots, and a small orange.

• Half a pita with shredded carrot and mildcheese, and an individual cup of apple-sauce.

After SchoolAfter-school snacking is an important partof every child’s diet. At the end of a busyand often stressful day at school, takingtime to sit back, relax and refuel is essen-tial. Children need a certain amount ofnutrients and calories each day, and mealsand snacks added together should providethat amount. Therefore, snacks should bepart of the bigger plan.

If the snacks kids are eating are nutritioushealthy foods, then they don’t need to eatso much at dinnertime to meet their dailynutritional requirements. And, if the snacksare wholesome foods, you don’t need to beconcerned that empty-calorie foods arecrowding out what they really need. So,encourage your child to snack healthilyafter school, and don’t sweat it if they don’teat a huge dinner. As long as they’ve metthe daily requirements, when they’ve eatenis of little consequence.

Extracurricularactivities

We all know what to do for back to schoolbasics: new notebooks, backpacks, shoesand clothing. But what about outside ofclass? Every parent knows the importanceof extracurricular activities for children,but there are so many choices it can seemoverwhelming. Getting involved in newactivities with new people is a great wayto challenge your children to grow andexplore. Extracurricular activities help inother ways too; it looks good on collegeapplications, it’s an important way forchildren to meet other children and it’svital to maintaining emotional and physi-cal health. Guiding your children, intoconstructive extracurricular activities canbe difficult when there is so much tochoose from, so we’ve chosen a fewactivities you can explore locally to helpnarrow the field.

Music So many children demonstrate and apti-

tude for music and song early in life. Itcan prove to be an outlet for teenage frus-trations, a way for younger kids to expressthemselves and a great way to meet otherchildren. The fact that music is fun shouldnot be underestimated. Stimulating activi-ties like playing music will capture andhold children’s deepest interests. It alsoencourages the development of the wholechild by enhancing cognitive, social,physical, and emotional skills.

Norris Music in Mount Pearl has beenserving the complete needs of studentsand parents for more than 18 years. Theyprovide a wide range of instruments, fromtin whistles to saxophones, and ukulelesto guitars. They also have a very knowl-edgeable staff, useful for parents whoaren’t 100% certain what their children’sneeds are. Owner Marilyn Norris say’s“Back to school means back to music,”and she’s right – for many kids, music les-sons fall to the wayside in the summer

24 • INDEPENDENTSPECIALSECTION AUGUST 21, 2005

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTSPECIALSECTION • 25

months, and instruments lie gath-ering dust. That’s where anotherprogram offered at Norris Musiccan come into play; trade-in,trade-up program that allows par-ents to trade one instrument in onthe purchase of another. This canprovide a measure of insurance toparents whose children lose inter-est rapidly and it’s a great featurewhen kids need to move to a moreadvanced instrument as they

become more proficient.

DanceDance for children isn’t just funbut, also has therapeutic benefitssuch as building character, self-esteem and self-discipline. Danceclasses can build social bridges,and can help growing childrenlearn about and accept theirchanging bodies.

Connie Parsons School of Dancestays up to date on the latesttrends in dance and is able to pro-vide classes in current as well asclassic styles. “Hip Hop is reallybig these days”. We offer every-thing from ballet to breakdancing”says Parsons. Their on-site spe-cialty dance and active-wear store,The Dance Spectrum, has every-thing any parent might need fortheir child’s dance class. In addi-

tion to dancewear, The DanceSpectrum has clothing and acces-sories for gymnastics, figure skat-ing and yoga. For especially busyparents, there’s even an onlinebuying feature www.dance-spectrum.com

Scuba DivingScuba diving may not be the firstthing that pops to mind when par-

ents think of extracurricular activ-ities for their children. But, mostchildren love being in the water,and for those who don’t, the elim-ination of fear, and learning toswim are important lessons. Itprovides a chance to give a childincreased confidence, additionalwater-safety skills and a lifetimelove of the water.

Dive Newfoundland offers several

Extracurricular activities

Lyle R. Wetsch of Dive Newfoundland Connie Parsons of Connie Parsons School of Dance

Private Lessons

unique scuba diving opportunitiesfor children and adults. Almostanyone over the age of eight canparticipate.

Dive Newfoundland is offering aBack to School promotion thatallows you to try scuba diving in apool for only $10 per person. Foryounger kids, from eight to ten,there’s the bubblemaker programand kids ten and up can enroll in aDiscover Scuba experience.Everything is provided for thechild except swimsuit. Scuba div-ing is an unconventional andincredibly fun activity for theentire family to enjoy together, aschildren as young as 10 canbecome certified and can divewith their parents or a dive profes-sional.

After school activities are vital toa child’s development and growth,they empower a child to trust intheir own abilities and decisionmaking powers, they serve as asource for kids to explore socialand even career options, and teachresponsibility and teamwork.

With so many options out there, itmay take your child several trys tofind an activity they truly love, soit’s important to be patient andsupportive because in the long run,they’re sure to find something thatmakes both them, and you, happy.

26 • INDEPENDENTSPECIALSECTION AUGUST 21, 2005

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INDEPENDENTBUSINESSSUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 21-27, 2005 — PAGE 27

Burning moneyWilliams leaning towards another fuel rebate but consumer groups want HST removed entirely from home heating


The province and the federal govern-ment may be closed to the possibil-ity of removing gasoline taxes, but

the removal of HST on home fuel — aswell as electrical heating — is still up fordebate.

Danny Williams has indicated a possi-ble continuation of last winter’s $250 fuel-rebate program for qualifying low-incomehouseholds, but consumer groups arepushing for more.

George Murphy, a researcher with theConsumer Group for Fair Gas Prices, tellsThe Independent the group is hopeful theHST issue will get resolved this winter,despite the fact it needs co-operation fromthe feds and the other Atlantic provinces.

“We think there’s a pretty good chancethere,” he says.

“The reason being, if you go back towhen we presented the petition in the

house, that was March 28, 2001, it was(Minister of Natural Resources) Ed Byrnewho said that it would be their mandate toban, outright, the HST on all sorts ofheat.”

Murphy’s group is hopeful the upcom-ing Conference of New EnglandGovernors and Eastern CanadianPremiers, to be held in St. John’s thismonth, will give the Williams administra-tion a chance to seriously address theissue.

‘VERY WORRIED’Rosemary Lester, executive director of

the Senior Resource Centre ofNewfoundland and Labrador, says herorganization is “very worried aboutwhat’s going to happen this winter.”

She says many seniors require moreheat as a result of living in old, inefficienthouses in need of repair. The associationhas a home-repair program, but the list islong.

“We hear about it (heating issues) main-ly through our toll-free information lineand yes, I couldn’t tell you the numbers,but certainly we get a considerableamount of calls about that.”

Lester approves the potential removalof HST, rather than a $250 issued-upon-receipt rebate.

As well as obvious gas and heatingcosts, residents and businesses in theprovince are feeling the pinch in everyaspect of consumption. Whether individ-ual business sectors will be overtly affect-ed still remains to be seen.

Marilyn Thompson, president of the St.John’s Board of Trade, says the associa-tion has looked into two particular sectors,exporting and tourism, to see if there havebeen any significant declines.

“I guess if there was one real impactthat might set us apart from anywhere elseit’s that we export so much in raw materi-al, so we’re paying the cost of fuel twice.We’re sending things out and we’re bring-

ing things in.”She says there haven’t been any visible

changes to business yet, but it may be tooearly to tell.

IN THE MIDDLEDue to the current price of oil driving

up costs on an international level,Thompson says Newfoundland andLabrador’s exported products (fallingunder the higher Canadian dollar) proba-bly won’t be affected.

Oil and gas prices in Canada are variedacross the provinces and at the moment,Newfoundland and Labrador is hoveringin the middle range, with Quebec showingthe highest rates, and Alberta the lowest.

David Toms, acting director for theprovince’s petroleum pricing office, saysthe discrepancies are due to the variedprovincial tax structures.

“Actually, Newfoundland and Labrador

Industry vs. consumerEconomist says billions in oil revenues will leave province; consumers won’t benefit


Newfoundlanders and Labrador-ians along with the rest of NorthAmerica are reeling under ris-

ing fuel costs, but will increasedprovincial revenues generated by off-shore developments be enough to soft-en the blow?

Jim Stanford, a former energy econo-mist currently with the Canadian AutoWorkers union, says probably not.

“I’m not sure how much extramoney the province will get, becausethose royalty programs were designedvery favourably for the oil companies,so clearly, it’s the companies and notthe government that are capturing the

lion’s share of that,” he tells TheIndependent.

“Then, because the companies are allowned either elsewhere in Canada oroutside of Canada, that wealth will benominally accounted for inNewfoundland and Labrador’s GDP(Gross Domestic Product), but billionsof it will never set foot onNewfoundland’s soil.”

Recent oil prices have been pushingas high as $68 US a barrel and con-sumers are calling for government-imposed regulations to help with oiland gas costs.

On the other side of the coin, provin-cial royalty revenues are expected topull in at least $700 million this fiscalyear — over twice as much as predict-

ed in 2005’s budget. The current royalty regimes for

Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Roseare based on a formula that combines a

low gross royalty in the early yearswith a higher net profit royalty follow-ing the recovery of invested costs.

Due to high upfront expenses,Hibernia’s regime is particularlyfavourable towards its owner compa-nies and it’s unlikely the province’sroyalties will ever move beyond fiveper cent of revenues.

Terra Nova, on the other hand, mayachieve payout as early as next year,which will boost provincial royalties toas much as 30 per cent of revenues.White Rose, with its similar system,isn’t expected to begin productionbefore 2006.

Premier Danny Williams says he isnot prepared to renegotiate existingroyalty regimes, but he does expectmore favourable benefits from any newdevelopments, including Hebron-BenNevis.

The province and Chevron are cur-rently negotiating for the potentialdevelopment of the offshore site.

Aside from dealing with high fuelcosts, Stanford says the rising Canadiandollar could pose more problems forNewfoundland and Labrador’s con-sumers.

“If you don’t work in the oil industry,what does the dollar mean?” saysStanford.

“For the fishing industry it’s a clearnegative, because it means that it’smuch harder to sell product in the U.S.or anywhere else. When you add up allof the different loops and all of the dif-ferent connections it’s not at all clearthat Newfoundlanders are going to ben-efit.”

“It’s the companies and notthe government that are

capturing the lion’s share.”

Jim Stanford

See “Consumers,” page 28

George Murphy, a researcher with the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

28 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS AUGUST 21, 2005

By Tyler HamiltonTorstar wire service

Cape Breton may very well be oneof the most scenic places inCanada, but in the middle of that

East Coast paradise sits Sydney, anindustrial eyesore known more for itstar ponds than anything else.

It’s the result of nearly a century ofcoal mining and steelmaking, whichleft behind 900,000 tonnes of chemicalwaste and untreated sewage. About fiveper cent of that waste, or 45,000 tonnes,is contaminated with dangerous con-centrations of polychlorinatedbiphenyls, or PCBs.

First discovered in the late 1800s,PCBs were used throughout much ofthe 20th century as a fire-resistantingredient in industrial materials suchas inks, paint, caulking compounds,coolants and lubricants in electricalequipment.

By the late 1970s links to cancer,skin diseases, nervous system disor-ders, birth defects, reproductive prob-lems and other health issues led to aNorth American ban on the substancein 1977.

Last spring, Ottawa and the NovaScotia government said they wouldspend $400 million over 10 years todecontaminate the tar ponds, with $120million in federal money coming from$3.5 billion earmarked in the 2004 fed-eral budget.

“This material will be removed andsafely destroyed using a proven tech-nology such as high-temperature incin-eration,” states the Sydney Tar PondsAgency on its website. “Incineration iscurrently the most commonly usedmethod of destroying PCB waste inNorth America.”

Most common. Maybe. But is incin-eration the best way to go?

“I’ve seen these ponds myself, andit’s a nasty mess,” says Adam Sumel,co-founder and chief executive officerof Vancouver-based SonicEnvironmental Solutions Inc., whobelieves he’s got a better way to cleanup Sydney’s contaminated soils.

In essence, Sumel wants to give thesoil a good shake, using what hedescribes as the “world’s biggest vibra-tor.”

Sonic Environmental has developedand patented a system that uses the nat-ural resonance of a 14-foot, 2.8 tonnesteel bar to create an effect known as“sonic agitation,” which removes PCBsfrom soil and then destroys them com-pletely by altering their chemical com-position.

Resonance can be a powerful thingwhen properly harnessed. Ever had anannoying vibration in your car whenit’s in a certain low gear? Ever used atuning fork, or slid your finger aroundthe rim of a crystal wine glass only tohear a vibration sound grow louder andmore intense? What you’re experienc-

ing is the natural resonance of objects.“We actually drive this steel bar into

its resonance, capture its energy andthen apply it,” says Sumel, explainingthat each end of the bar is suspended bylarge magnets, allowing it to vibratewithout touching — that is, destroying— anything.

Sodium is then dispersed into thePCB-filled solvent. Again, the intensevibration of the steel bar accelerates achemical reaction, stripping chlorinefrom the PCBs — in other words,destroying them. When the solvent isrecovered from the soil, the end prod-uct is salt and low-grade fuel. And,most importantly, clean soil.

Sumel says incineration has manyproblems. First, you’ve got to relocate

the soil to an incineration facility thatcould be several hundred kilometresaway. Not only can this become costly,some people don’t take kindly to hav-ing trucks hauling contaminated loadsthrough their communities, even ifthey’re en route somewhere else.

Another risk with incineration, whichis why many countries have banned it,is incomplete combustion of the PCBscould lead to the release of even moretoxic particulates into the air.

On the other hand, SonicEnvironmental’s system is mobile. Andit’s relatively “green” in the sense itdoesn’t carry the same risks — and riskperceptions — of incineration. Sumelsays it also uses less power than a typi-cal incinerator system, meaning it’sspewing fewer greenhouse gases intothe atmosphere.

Environment Canada said earlier thismonth it will begin cleaning up the first100 of about 4,000 contaminated sitesunder the responsibility of the federalgovernment, including the Sydney tarponds.

“We know there are a few of thoseheavily contaminated with PCBs,” saysSumel, who says he’s met withEnvironment Minister Stéphane Dionto discuss the problem. “We’re movingtowards getting a piece of that. One ofthe first things we need is a demonstra-tion site with the government.”

But he doesn’t expect to get any trac-tion from government anytime soon. It

could be nearly a year, for example,before there’s action on the Sydney tarponds. As far as Canada goes, Sonic isin talks with a large international com-pany about cleaning up a private site ineastern Canada. Similar partnershipsare being discussed on other fronts.

Sonic Environmental is heavilyfocused on creating joint ventures inthe United States, the European Unionand Japan.

And it’s not just environmental regu-lation creating these opportunities.Land for development in certain high-population cities is becoming scarce,forcing developers to clean up dirty or“brownfield” properties that in the pasthave been overlooked.

Japan could offer a unique opportuni-ty. “Japan is addressing the soil prob-lem right now,” says Paul Austin, vice-president of marketing at SonicEnvironmental.

“You’re starting to see the big manu-facturers looking for innovative tech-nologies they can import to deal withthis problem. The fact is, you can’tincinerate in Japan.”

Over time the sonic generator will beadapted for many different industrialapplications — such as mixing chemi-cals — but Sumel and his team decidedto prove the concept by attacking thePCB problem first.

“To do something good for the worldand make money is quite honestly agood feeling,” he says.

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is doing quite well with respect to others … if youtake away the impact on the differences in thetaxation you’ll see that we’re actually even betterplaced compared to the other provinces.”

Although there’s not much the province can doabout globally-imposed oil prices, Toms says asecond local refinery — a potential projectfavoured by Williams — might make a differ-ence.

“Theoretically it could, depending on whatkind of marketing objective it might have … if ithad as a corporate objective, intention of captur-

ing a significant part of the local market, wemight see some strategy in place to try to competeon a local level against current market suppliers.”

The existing refinery at Come By Chancereceives its crude from developments outside theprovince and after processing, sends stores backout again. It does not process oil from the GrandBanks.

Toms predicts consumers will likely find them-selves practicing energy conservation, whichover time will lead to possibly driving smallervehicles and switching to alternative heating,therefore minimizing demand and graduallyreducing oil prices.

Consumers will conserveFrom page 27

FairmontNewfoundland still on market

The Fairmont Hotel in downtown St. John’s does-n’t have a for-sale sign out front, but it’s still onthe auction block, company officials confirm.

Officials with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts wouldnot comment on who is looking to purchase its proper-ty or exactly what the asking price is, but did say manypotential buyers have come forward.

“We have received a number of inquiries from inter-ested parties, but we’re just continuing with the sellingprocess and we haven’t identified any potential buy-ers,” says Denise Achonu, executive director ofinvestor relations for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

The Fairmont Newfoundland has been for sale sinceJune 7, with Collier’s International serving as the bro-ker. No deadline has been set for completion of thesale.

“Once we do have a final sale agreement we will bemaking a public statement,” Achonu says, adding “wedon’t have anything new to report.”

The hotel has 301 guest rooms and 14 suites, ahealth club, fine dining for up to 2,000, and 16 meet-ing rooms.

It is rumoured Fortis Properties, one of St. John’sbiggest real estate companies, is interested in buyingthe Fairmont Newfoundland.

Fortis Properties own 15 hotels across the country— including the Holiday Inn and Delta, both in St.John’s — and appears to be a natural suitor for thedowntown hotel.

— Alisha Morrissey

DISCOVERY CRUISE

Continuing a busy cruise season, the Discovery was in St. John’s this week, carrying 640 passengers. It will go on to make stops in four ports around the province. Fifteencruise ships were scheduled to come into the capital city this year. Paul Daly/The Independent

This idea deserves to clean upVancouver company proposes to clean up PCB sites — including the Sydney tar ponds — using ‘world’s biggest vibrator’

“To do something good for the world and make money is quite honestly a good feeling.”

Paul Austin


The Cochrane Pond Park about 20minutes’ drive west of St. John’shas been blocked all summer, to

the point that the owners are expand-ing.

Jeff Petten, the owner’s son and parkmanager, says only a half dozen or so ofthe seasonal campsites haven’t beensold out for the season. He can’t sayexactly how many seasonal sites thereare because the number is constantlyincreasing.

He says families started coming in onthe May 24 weekend and renting sitesfor the season, parking their campersand taking up residence in the park —even commuting to work in the cityfrom there.

The park has 76 campsites in total —60 of which are unserviced. Sites arebeing converted from nightly or month-ly rentals to seasonal at a rate of a fewa week.

“It’s become a community,” Pettentells The Independent. “It’s a familycampground … with a lot of kids —that we encourage. They come here andkids make their own friends.”

The private park, he says, wasn’tdoing too well in the beginning, but hasgrown every year for the past fewyears.

“This campground, it now sort ofcentres around senior citizens, which isquite compatible with young familiesand other than that they cater a little bitto the travelling tourist,” Petten says.“It’s like a suburb in the country.

“We turn more tourists away than …right now we can’t accommodatethem.”

Private parks are doing well thissummer, but so are provincial parksoperated by the province’sEnvironment Department, saysMinister Tom Osborne. Governmentofficials expect attendance numbers tocome in on par with previous years.

“Some of our parks have experienceda significant increase in visitation thisyear such as Cheesman Park out nearPort aux Basques. We’ve had some thathave experienced a decrease in visita-tion and that’s pretty normal,” Osbornesays.

He says the park with the lowestnumber of visitations this year isPistolet Bay on the Northern Peninsulaand the park with the best attendance is— as usual — Butterpot Park, about

half an hour away from St. John’s.In fact, Butterpot generally has a

waiting list and turns away as manypeople as there arecampsites in a sea-son. “It’s hard to saywhy, but year toyear you will seecertain parks with ahuge increase innumbers.”

Osborne says he,along with everyoneelse in the tourismindustry, hasnoticed a sharpdecrease in the use of national parks.

Greg Stroud, manager of visitor serv-ices at Terra Nova National Park, says

attendance at the park is down 10 percent over the same time last year. Hesays the season started off slowly this

year due to badweather, but hassince stabilized.

“This weekendcoming up (Aug. 20-21), it (the park) ofcourse is going to befull because of thefolk festival,” hesays of the annualTwillingate Fish, Funand Folk Festival.“So what happens it

goes up on the weekends about 80 or 90per cent capacity and then it goes downto about 65, 70 per cent capacity on the

weekdays.”Stroud says national parks don’t sell

seasonal campsites and the prices aregenerally a bit higher per night, thoughearly-bird season passes are availablethat provide discounts to visitors andthose who like to camp at the park.

Ken Kennedy, spokesman for GrosMorne National Park, says campingnumbers are down more than 24 percent. The park’s visitor centres showattendance is down about 10 per centsince 2001.

“That being said I hear that the pri-vate campgrounds are seeing a signifi-cant increase. They offer a differentlevel of service than we do at ParksCanada in western Newfoundland,” hesays.

The Gros Morne campground offersonly un-serviced or semi-serviced sites,he says.

“People are moving to the RVs and tothe serviced campsites so that’s proba-bly one of the reasons people are mov-ing to that service offer.”

Kennedy says camping in a nationalpark compared to a private or provin-cial park is a different experience andthe federal government doesn’t want tocompete with those options.

“We don’t want to be out reducingour prices and subsidizing the campingoffer such that we put a private operatorout of business.

“We want to work with them to growtheir business and make sure they’reviable too.”

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 29

FPI not fishing for income trust investors just yetBy Alisha MorrisseyThe Independent

Fishery Products Internationalhasn’t raised the $100 millionfrom its income trust idea just

yet, company officials say.Russ Carrigan, spokesman for FPI,

says the company is currently dottingthe Is and crossing the Ts on paper-work and hasn’t yet gone to publicmarkets to try and sell 40 per cent ofits American-based marketing arm inthe form of an income trust.

“At this point the work that we’redoing is internal. Again, it’s related tofinancial data and some of the legalwork that they have to do dealing withthe regulatory authorities involved,”Carrigan tells The Independent.

“There’s a lot of people with theirsleeves rolled up and beavering awayover the summer to get us to the pointthat we need to be as fast as we can get

there.”The plan to sell a portion of the

Massachusetts-based Ocean CuisineInternational was controversial, butapproved June 24 by a free vote in theHouse of Assembly.

The sale of the marketing and value-added arm would take the form of anincome trust that would allowinvestors to profit, but not allow themany say in how the company is run.

Stipulations of the plan, however,require FPI to give the Town ofHarbour Breton $3 million in incomesupport and access to a redfish quota.The company must also help out sev-eral other struggling communities,including Fortune.

Carrigan says the company may beready to accept offers for the incometrust as early as the fall.

“At that time the determining factorwould be market conditions. Unlessthere’s an unexpected change in the

conditions to launch an income trustpublic offering of the sort that we’retalking about then we’d anticipategoing in the fall,” Carrigan says,adding a lot of interest has beenexpressed in the market place.

“There are calls from time to timeabout are you guys still thinking aboutdoing an income-trust transaction withone of your divisions.

“So there’s a healthy amount of gen-eral interest out there, but I can’t com-ment on that.

“If we don’t think it’s going to gowell we’ll delay it that’s the way thatkind of thing works, but at this pointwe don’t anticipate that market condi-tions will be a problem.”

Carrrigan says the company is look-

ing forward to the capital that willcome in from the transaction to paydown a $30-million debt and invest ininformation technology and its opera-tions in Burin.

Ocean Cuisine International isresponsible for marketing and sales inNorth America.

In 2003 the company’s sales topped$487 million Cdn.

The federal and provincial govern-ments formed FPI in the early 1980sfrom a number of bankrupt fish pro-cessing firms.

Even though FPI is a private compa-ny, it remains governed by theprovince’s FPI Act, which limits theamount any one investor can own, upto 15 per cent.

‘Suburbs in the country’Campers appear to prefer private and provincial parks over national ones

Campers enjoy their days in Pippy Park — rain or shine. Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

“People are moving tothe RVs and to the

serviced campsites.”

Ken Kennedy

A generous film and television taxcredit proposed for California may hurtthe competitiveness of Ontario's reviv-ing production industry if the bill inGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger'sstate is passed.

“It (the credit program) will keep TVmovies and smaller studio pictures inCalifornia,” says Don Carmody, pro-ducer. He has helped bring such filmsas Chicago and Resident Evil toToronto.

But larger feature movies will proba-bly be unaffected, he says

The bill proposes a 12 per cent taxcredit on program spending in the state,with a cap of $3 million (US). An addi-tional three per cent credit will beoffered for television movies.

If the bill, headed to a state Senaterevenue and tax committee, is passed,Ontario will be in direct competitionwith California for smaller productionswith tight budgets.

In January, the Ontario governmentincreased the tax credit for domesticproductions from 20 per cent to 30 percent and for foreign films from 10 percent to 18 per cent. The credits are forlabour, and have no cap.

The change in credit has increasedproduction spending by $200 millionin the first six months of the year.


California’sfilm tax credit

30 • INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION AUGUST 21, 2005

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENT SPECIAL SECTION • 31

By Richard BrennanTorstar wire service

A$1 billion hydroelectric projectat Niagara Falls, billed as “oneof the biggest tunnelling proj-

ects in the world,” will help feed theprovince’s growing appetite for power.

The new tunnel, announced late lastweek by Ontario Power Generation,will supply additional water fromabove Niagara Falls to OPG’s Sir AdamBeck hydroelectric generating complexat Queenston Heights.

Increased water flow from the tunnelwill allow the station to generate anadditional 1,600 gigawatt-hours ofenergy annually. That’s enough to meetthe annual energy requirements of acity twice the size of Niagara Falls.

The 14 per cent increase will take theenergy production of the Beck complexfrom 11,800 gigawatt-hours annually toabout 13,400 gigawatt-hours annually.

“It will be one of the biggest tun-nelling projects in the world,” an OPGofficial says of the 10.4 kilometre-longtunnel, adding that it’s the largest con-struction project of its kind since theBeck tunnel was constructed 50 yearsago.

The tunnel will be 140 metres belowground and have an internal diameter of12.7 metres, making it wider than thetwo 7.6-metre-wide individual traintunnels of the Chunnel linking Britainand France.

“The new tunnel will be able to bet-ter utilize Niagara River water for elec-tricity generation, while not detractingin any way from the beauty of theNiagara Falls,” says Jim Hankinson,OPG’s president.

The senior OPG source says the $1billion price tag can be justifiedbecause the tunnel will help supply“clean renewable power over 90 years— by comparison a natural gas planthas a life expectancy of 20 years.”

OPG had considered adding a thirdgenerating station to the two existing

stations that now make up the Sir AdamBeck complex at Niagara Falls, butdecided there was not enough waterflowing over the natural wonder to sus-tain it.

Preparation work on the tunnel willstart next month, with additional powergeneration expected to be ready for theOntario market by late 2009.

That preparation includes construc-tion of a 14.4-metre-diameter tunnelboring machine thought to be thelargest in the world. The machine willcost between $75 million and $80 mil-lion and will take up to a year to build.

OPG awarded the $600 million con-tract to design and build the tunnel toStrabag AG of Austria, a major firmwith extensive experience in large tun-nel construction. The overall project isexpected to cost $985 million and the

province of Ontario has committed toprovide OPG with the required financ-ing for the project.

ILF Beratende Ingenieure of Austria,Morrison Hershfield of Toronto,Dufferin Construction of Oakville andseveral other local subcontractors willsupport Strabag.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncansays the project will be an “economicboon” to the Niagara Region withapproximately 80 per cent of total proj-ect construction dollars spent inOntario.

The site construction work force isexpected to average about 230 full-timeworkers, with peaks of up to 350 work-ers over the four-year construction peri-od.

The additional water flow providedby the new tunnel will complement the

upgrading of the 16 generating units atthe Sir Adam Beck 2 station that wascompleted in May. This upgradingincreased the potential peak power out-put of the 16 units by 194 megawatts,bringing it up to a total capacity of2,081 megawatts.

While the increase seems like a smalladdition to the total output of the com-plex, OPG stresses the tunnel willensure a constant, reliable source ofwater power to the two generating sta-tions.

On high demand days, Ontario needs25,000 megawatts of power to meet itsneeds.

Several times this summer, powersupplies have been so tight that powersystem operators have imposedbrownouts to avert the need for rollingblackouts.

32 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS AUGUST 21, 2005

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

Power boost from $1B tunnelNiagara hydro plant gets upgrade; will help growing energy needs

Niagara tunnel project

Ontario Power Generationplans to start work in Septemberon a 10.4-kilometre tunnel todivert more water to its NiagaraFalls hydroelectric generatingcomplex in a bid to help satisfy theprovince’s power needs.

Energy production: Energyoutput will be boosted by 1,600gigawatt-hours per year, enoughrenewable electricity to powerabout 160,000 homes — or a citytwice the size of Niagara Falls —for a year.

Total Cost: $985 million. OPGhas awarded a $600 million con-tract to Austrian company StrabagAG, which has expertise in tunnelconstruction.

Local subcontractors will helpwith the project.

Schedule: Work is expected tobe completed by late 2009.

New jobs: The constructionworkforce on the four-year projectwill average 230 full-time employ-ees, with peaks of up to 350 work-ers.

Plenty of local employment andbusiness opportunities are alsoexpected.

Dimensions: A tunnel-boringmachine with a diameter of 14.4metres will operate 140 metresbelow ground to excavate the 10.4-kilometre tunnel, which will sup-ply additional Niagara River waterto the Sir Adam Beck GeneratingComplex at Queenston Heights.

Source: Ontario Power Generation

The Niagara River gorge cuts through Ontario Hydro (left) and the Robert Moses Power Plant (right). Gary Wiepert/Reuters

CTV News wins with CBC lockoutBy Antiona ZerbisiasTorstar wire service

CBC workers may be locked outbut CTV is striking. Canada’slargest private network is taking

advantage of the giant gap in the TVnews market created when CBC man-agement shut out its 5,500 CanadianMedia Guild members Aug. 15.

Late last week, CTV began its offen-sive with two half-page ads, in theToronto Star and in The Globe andMail, which, like the network, is ownedby Bell Globemedia.

Both informed viewers that had a 10p.m. alternative to CBC-TV’s flagshipThe National, now off the air due to thelabour dispute.

That option is the Atlantic edition ofThe CTV National News with LloydRobertson on CTV Newsnet, muchhigher up the cable dial than CBCNewsworld, its chief rival.

“Basically, this is an appeal to CBC

traditionalists and loyalists in Ontarioand Quebec, telling them that there is acredible, good, solid, national newscastdone by Canadians available at 10o’clock — and it’s on News-net,” saysCTV News president Robert Hurst.

That’s one more reason that CBC’sdecision to lock outits workers will becostly. Once CBCviewers realize theyhave an option, theywill exercise it.

True, CNN is thetop news dog amongspecialty channels,with an average audi-ence of 24,100 viewers aged 25-54.Newsworld draws about 60 per cent ofthat, while Newsnet gets about 30 percent.

But CTV’s share is climbing. NielsenMedia numbers supplied by the net-work show Newsnet’s audience hasgrown by 19 per cent since June and is

up 48 per cent since July 2004.Now Hurst is pouring “several hun-

dred thousand dollars” into it and“bringing on more crews, more editors,more staff to deliver more news andmore urgent news.” He’s adding anentire new shift and creating new day-

time newscasts.Some of these

changes were in theworks anyway. Theonly difference is,thanks to CBC’slabour woes, News-net has bumped upits overhaul.

“Last Mondaymorning, I said to my senior staff, Iwant you to come up with an immedi-ate plan,” Hurst recalls. “There’s anobligation for us to try to serveCanadians with better, more aggressivenews.”

Clearly, it’s been a very good year forNewsnet, which now just breaks even.

But there was a big threat on the hori-zon: last winter, CBC executives toldParliament’s Standing Committee onHeritage they would be restoring manyof the 60-minute local supper-hournewscasts, and investing in late nightand weekend local news as well.

So Hurst and his team were alreadyon alert to increased competition.

Last month, says Hurst, veteran CTVNewsnet vice-president Derwyn Smithwas “released’’ and a “hot, young,under-40” trio — Jana Juginovoc,Jonathan Kay and Jon Taylor — wasinstalled. They quickly went to work torevamp Newsnet.

Their strategy is to stick mainly withbreaking news, and to avoid the softerprogramming offered by Newsworld(Fashion File, Antiques Road Showetc.). So there are no plans to producelegal or political shows, although thenightly Countdown with Mike Duffywill get a splashy launch next month.

Indeed, breaking news is CTV’s

strength. CTV News now has some 120camera crews across the country, whileCBC’s resources have contracted, lim-iting its ability to be first with the storyin many regions of the country.

The irony is it used to be the otherway around. CBC’s network operationcould count on its local “farm teams” tonot only feed it stories and images, butto also nurture the talent that would oneday make it to The National.

CBC might even incur far greaterlosses if Hurst goes raiding for talent onits picket lines. He says he’s hiring —and with many CBC workers disgrun-tled and facing a management push toput them on short-term contracts, Hurstcould land some very big prizes.

“We deliver locally, we delivernationally and now Newsnet is going tomake a promise to deliver much more,”Hurst says. “So, is it a lucky break forus? Well, if we don’t deliver, it won’thave been. But we’re going to deliver.”

CBC might incur fargreater losses if Hurstgoes raiding for talent

on its picket lines.

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 33

By Rick MatsumotoTorstar wire service

Damon Allen was back in his cus-tomary role as the TorontoArgonauts’ starting quarterback

last week. That puts Michael Bishop back on the

sidelines waiting for the next call to arms— be it next week, next month or nextyear. The pressing question for the Argos,however, is whether Bishop possesses thefull package to eventually replace Allen,even though the CFL’s elder statesmancontinues to defy Mother Nature at age42.

For the answer to be “yes,” Bishopmust show that he is more than the ownerof a right arm that can heave a football 70yards downfield while throwing off thewrong foot and tough enough to run overwould-be tacklers.

He needs to develop the mental abilityof a Russ Jackson, the leadership qualitiesof a Warren Moon, the heart of a RonLancaster, the gutsiness of a MattDunigan and Allen’s coolness under firein seeking out alternative receivers. Thoseare the qualities displayed by the top CFLsignal-callers over the years.

The 29-year-old Bishop, a HeismanTrophy candidate in his final season atKansas State, won the battle for the Argobackup job last season when the teamtraded Marcus Brady to the HamiltonTiger-Cats. And when Allen suffered abroken leg midway through the year hestepped in to put together a 4-3-1 recordas the team’s starter.

He got the call again Aug. 12 againstthe Montreal Alouettes when Allen washobbled by a bone bruise in his rightankle. However, he struggled through thefirst two quarters and head coach MikeClemons turned to Allen in the secondhalf in a desperate attempt to salvage avictory. The bid fell short, 18-10, despitea sterling effort by Allen.

Dunigan, who returned to the televisionbooth this season after one ill-fated seasonas Calgary Stampeders’ general managerand head coach, has watched Bishop overthe past 3 1/2 seasons and says he’s puz-zled by the quarterback’s failure to devel-op more quickly.

He says he was disappointed byBishop’s performance against theAlouettes.

“I saw hesitation, unsureness,”Dunigan says. “I saw a quarterback whowas not sure of what he was seeing. Tome, that can come with rust and lack ofplaying time. You give him the benefit ofthe doubt. But how long do you give aguy? How long do you give a Marcus

Brady, a Marcus Crandell, a MichaelBishop?”

Dunigan wonders if that missing item isa full mental commitment to their work.That, and not the physical aspect of thegame, is the biggest adjustment a quarter-back must make when he moves up to thepro ranks from college, says Dunigan.

“You really have to pour yourself into itmentally,” he says.

Dunigan wondered aloud whyEdmonton quarterback Ricky Ray wasable to come in so quickly and grasp thenuances and subtleties of the Canadian

game and perform well enough to earn ayear with the NFL’s New York Jets. Hesuggests it was the off-field studying Raywas willing to put into his work.

Bishop doesn’t necessarily buyDunigan’s position on the key to success.He feels the place to learn the game is onthe field.

“They can teach all day in the filmroom, but you actually learn on the fieldgoing through the live bullets,” saysBishop. “You can be the best studentinside the film room, but if you can’t do itout there on the field it’s a big waste.”

Argo general manager Adam Ritaremains hopeful that Bishop can beAllen’s successor. Rita says no team canbe sure that the understudy will ultimate-ly be able to take over from the master andperform at the same level. He says theonly way for a young quarterback to chal-lenge for the starter’s job is to get theopportunity to play and he acknowledgesthat backups rarely get that chance.

Dunigan doesn’t buy the argument thata lack of game experience has stalledBishop’s development as a quarterbackcapable of being a starter.

“I had 26 passes (in 1983) when JackieParker gave me the reins (from WarrenMoon who left for the NFL in ‘84),” saysDunigan.

Bishop’s self-confidence is unwaveringand he says he’s not concerned with anycontroversy as to whether he has the capa-bility to one day take over from Allen.

“I’m not worried about that,” he says.“Regardless of whether I play here or not,I’m going to be playing football some-where. I don’t care less what people thinkas long as I know within myself that I canplay.”

Grant happy to be back on the bladesBy Scott BriggsTelegraph-Journal

There was a noticeable absencewhen the Saint John Sea Dogshit the ice last week for their

first-ever training camp.Defenceman Alex Grant, the club’s

first overall draft choice and this year’snumber one pick overall in the QuebecMajor Junior Hockey League, didn’tplay in the ‘Quest for the Best’ mini-tournament due to a minor back injury.In fact, the Sea Dogs brass opted tokeep their prized pupil away fromHarbour Station entirely during thetwo-day event.

But Grant received medical clear-ance to skate with the team early lastweek on the third day of camp. The 16-year-old sustained the injury earlier thissummer at a hockey school in Ottawa.

“I wound up for a slapshot and justcramped up,” Grant says. “I guess itwas a sprain. It felt really tight and Icouldn’t straighten out.”

Saint John general manager TipperLeBlanc was pleased to see Grant laceup.

“Seeing him on the ice is a bigrelief,” LeBlanc says. “He’s going to bea big part of what we’re going to do.”

Grant played last season with hishometown Antigonish Bulldogs of theMaritime Junior A Hockey League. In50 games, he scored seven goals andnine assists for 16 points.

Grant also helped Team Atlanticmake history last season when it won abronze medal at the World Under-17Hockey Challenge.

Grant added some muscle this sum-mer to his lean 6-foot-2 frame. CentralScouting listed his weight at 170pounds last season, but he now checksin around 190.

“I hit the gym pretty much every day,so I feel I’m in pretty good shape,” hesays.

Grant became the third straight NovaScotian selected first overall in theQMJHL draft, following SidneyCrosby and James Sheppard.

“I feel good coming in,” he says.“Being drafted that high, I definitelyfeel some pressure, but I’m just puttingthat aside and playing how I normallyplay. It should be fine.”

Cherry in limbo during lockoutDidn’t even know he was in unionBy Chris ZelkovichTorstar wire service

Don’t expect to see Don Cherryhoisting a picket sign over theshoulder of one of his signa-

ture loud sports jackets. In fact, if theCBC lockout runs into the NHL sea-son, Hockey Night In Canada’s biggeststar might even cross picket lines.

Cherry says that he’s not sure whathe will do if CBC workers are stilllocked out when the network airs itsfirst game on Oct. 8. But the bombas-tic commentator was less than support-ive of the Canadian Media Guild,which represents 5,500 membersincluding him.

“It’s a funny thing that I didn’t evenknow I was in the union until you toldme,” he says. “That’s how many timesthey’ve been in contact with me.

“All the times that I’ve been hang-ing by a thread, 99 per cent being fired,I never once had a call from the unionsaying, ‘We support you, Don.’ Andnow that they’re in trouble, I’m sup-posed to say I support them.”

Asked if he would cross picket linesif the CBC allowed workers to breakunion ranks, Cherry says he expectedthe labour impasse to be solved bythen.

If not, “I’ll have to wait to see howthings unfold, what I do. But if I hearthe word salary cap I’ll know we’re all

in trouble,” he adds with a laugh.Media guild national president Lise

Lareau notes that Cherry has been amember of the union for several yearsbut says she understood his frustration.

INDIVIDUAL ISSUES“Don’s problems with the CBC over

the years involving statements he’smade on Hockey Night In Canadawere never collective agreementissues,” she says. “They were individ-ual issues between him and CBC man-agement about content. We don’t getinvolved in those sorts of things.”

The guild was quite vocal whenannouncer Chris Cuthbert was axedlast winter in a cost-cutting move pre-

cipitated by the NHL lockout. “That was a collective bargaining

issue,” she says.Lareau noted that CBC stars such as

Cherry make their own deals above theminimum salaries negotiated by theunion.

“For significant personalities likehim, the role of the union may not beas important as perhaps the rest of themembers,” she says.

She recalls talking with Cherry in1999 and giving him advice on how todeal with a potential labour disruption.

“I recall him telling us how hisfather was a good unionist, but Iunderstand if he feels he’s on hisown,” she says.

Does Bishop have a prayer?The jury’s still out on whether the Argos’ backup quarterback has what it takes to replace Damon Allen

Toronto Argonauts quarterback MichaelBishop has all the skills, but has yet toput it all together at the pro level.REUTERS/J.P. Moczulski

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS AUGUST 21, 2005

Solution for crossword on page 22

‘This is mylast chance’

vindicated Todd “I should be in jail”Bertuzzi was permitted to attend thecamp, much to the delight of fanseverywhere. This was most definitely arelief. After all, what nation wouldn’tbe proud to have a sucker-punchingthug represent its people at the mostprestigious sporting event in theworld?

These players’ attributes and abilitieswill be on display all winter, makingGretzky’s decision as to who makes theteam really easy, with or without theridiculous camp. Considering howutterly pointless the event was, I thinkI’ll stop writing about it right now.

DESERVING CHAMPIONSEven if you’re not a sports fan, you

have to be thrilled the NewfoundlandRock won its first Rugby CanadaSuper League championship on Aug.13 in Regina, Sask. Any organizationthat displays the passion and dedica-tion of the Rock deserves to accom-plish its goals, which is what makestheir championship run so special.

After losing in two of the last threeleague finals, the Rock stated from dayone this year they would be happy withnothing less than the super league title.Everybody in every sport tells you theywant to win, but when members of theRock said so, it was tough not tobelieve in them.

I remember watching an early seasonpractice back in the spring where itlooked like the Rock players weregoing to knock each other senselessbefore the 2005 campaign even started.The intensity they displayed convincedme right then and there that the loss inthe 2004 final was indeed a wound thatdid not mend and that it would serve asmotivation for a title run this year.

They never let up from that point on,and deservingly so, reaped their justrewards last weekend.

[email protected]

“When I came back, I was thinkingthat was my last chance,” he says. “Iwas wondering if I made the rightchoice in coming home.”

Even during his outstanding rookieseason in the local junior league,Halbot had a feeling of regret when hethought of what might have been hadhe stayed in Ottawa. That is why theopportunity given to him by the FogDevils means so much.

“I don’t want to look back and regretit, so I figured why not give it a shotand see what happens,” says Halbot.

Upon meeting the players he was upagainst in competition for a roster spotwith the Fog Devils, Halbot says herealized just how little hockey he hasplayed. Many of the young men talkedabout the different teams and leaguesthey’ve played for, sometimes spend-ing the entire year on skates. Halbotadmits he can’t help but wonder wherehe would be now if he had the sameopportunities, but adds he doesn’tregret anything about growing up onthe south coast of Labrador.

“I played with my dad in the seniorleague since I was in Grade 9, so if Iwas living in town I probably wouldn’thave had that opportunity,” saysHalbot.

Back home in Lance-au-Loup,Halbot has 600 people cheering hisevery effort. He regularly receives e-mails from friends, family and youngfans, all wishing him well and congrat-ulating him on making it this far.

Halbot knows that although he didn’tmake the Fog Devils’ final roster, hishometown will forever be proud ofwhat he accomplished. As far as he’sconcerned, it’s all part of what makestaking to the ice so special, whether atMile One Stadium or on the frozenponds of Labrador.

“I just love the game. That’s why it’ssuch a thrill to get this opportunity,”Halbot says.

[email protected]

Rock on a mission

Bertuzzi returnsForward’s reinstatement proof Olympic team’s been hijacked by NHL interests

By Damien CoxTorstar wire service

As it turns out, Hockey Canadaonly preaches a clean game.By including Todd Bertuzzi

on the roster for the Olympic orienta-tion camp, which began last week inVancouver, Bob Nicholson and thosewho operate Hockey Canada haveadopted a rather hypocritical, RafaelPalmeiro-like posture. Moreover, byannouncing Bertuzzi’s inclusion in thecamp last week, just hours after hewas reinstated by NHL commissionerGary Bettman, Hockey Canada offi-cials appeared obscenely eager to wel-come Bertuzzi back into the fold.

They couldn’t even wait one day.Those “Relax, It’s Just a Game”

commercials ring a little empty now,don’t you think?

If you didn’t believe before that theCanadian Olympic program has beenhijacked by NHL interests, this wasproof positive that such is the case.

An obviously contrite Bertuzzi triedto say all the right things as he spokeat a press conference wearing a TeamCanada cap and jacket. But while hetalked of becoming a “better personon the ice” he made it clear the eventsof the past 17 months haven’t con-vinced him of any need to alter hisapproach to the sport.

“I’m not going to change,” he saidfirmly.

Which brings us back to HockeyCanada.

The problem for Nicholson et al isthat by including Bertuzzi they haveembraced the outlaw element in thesport and turned their back on many ofthe principles for which HockeyCanada is supposed to stand. In pro-moting its well-meaning Speak Outcampaign, for example, HockeyCanada says its “primary interest isthe well-being of its participants.”

Unless, apparently, you’re SteveMoore and the guy who gooned you isa world-class player.

In its Fair Play Code, the organiza-tion urges parents to “understand thatchildren learn from adults, and mybehaviour reflects what I want chil-dren to learn.”

In this case, that lesson would bethat attacking a smaller player frombehind and breaking his neck does notpreclude a player from representingCanada at the highest level.

Here’s another edict from the FairPlay Code.

“I will encourage my child to playby the rules and to resolve conflictswithout resorting to hostility or vio-lence.”

See, by making Bertuzzi part ofTeam Canada, Hockey Canada iseither telling the country that its mostelite program exists outside the rulesand concepts that guide the nationalbody, or it is admitting that when itcomes to Olympic competition it iscompletely beholden to NHL valuesand priorities.

“He’s just too good a player,” saysTeam Canada executive directorWayne Gretzky.

Which means nothing else matters,including whether Bertuzzi embodiesthe values Hockey Canada supposedlycherishes.

This is not to say that Bertuzzishould never again be permitted toplay for Canada.

Just not yet.From a Canadian Olympic perspec-

tive, it would have been reasonablefor Hockey Canada to have requiredhim to first rehabilitate his tarnishedimage and earn his way back intoOlympic consideration through strong

play and spotless behaviour.After all, the best result from this

ugly episode would be to see Mooreget back to the NHL some day and towatch as Bertuzzi does a Stan Mikitaand transforms himself into one of thecleanest players in the sport.

But Hockey Canada didn’t want towait for that process to even begin.And Bertuzzi, sadly, apparently isn’tinclined to reform.

This is part of the problem withincluding professionals in theOlympic process.

The Canadian Olympic hockeyteam is now only about winning, andwinning by NHL traditions, certainlynot the traditions of Father DavidBauer.

That includes buying into theNHL’s addiction to brutality in thesport and its incessant need to ration-alize that addiction.

Despite the enormous hits in rev-enue and reputation the game hasabsorbed in recent years, the NHL isstill terrified to conduct business with-out fighting and all the related vio-

lence that comes hand-in-hand withofficially sanctioned pugilism.

Indeed, less bothersome thanBettman’s weak-willed decision toimmediately reinstate Bertuzzi wasthe fact the NHL has done nothingsubstantive to curb systemic violencein the sport since it was last open forbusiness in June, 2004.

The elimination of the red line wasdiscussed ad nauseum, but not fight-ing.

Shootouts have been rubber-stamped for the season ahead as partof a parcel of offence-enhancing rulechanges, but nothing has been donethat would prevent an incident similarto Bertuzzi’s attack on Moore in thefuture.

Moreover, recent personnel movessuggest enforcers and intimidationwill be very much a part of the “new”NHL.

Andre Roy was hired to ride shot-gun for Sidney Crosby. The MapleLeafs couldn’t bring back JoeNieuwendyk or Brian Leetch, butheavyweights Tie Domi and Wade

Belak both received two-year deals.Colorado, Moore’s erstwhile

employer, made the most startlingmove by acquiring muscular wingerBrad May, a former Bertuzzi team-mate who was recklessly outspoken inhis belief that the Canucks needed toget even with Moore for daring tobodycheck Vancouver star MarkusNaslund.

There was little doubt Bertuzziwould play again in the league.

The only surprise was that Bettmandidn’t at least force the Sudburynative to sit out a few games to startthe 2005-06 season in the interest ofoptics. But why does Hockey Canadahave to march to the same tune as adisastrously run, morally bankruptleague that has reduced its businesspresence in our country over the pastdozen years and is barely relevant onthe overall North American sportingscene?

Mostly, it would seem, becausethose entrusted with the care of ournational game have sold their souls inthe craven pursuit of Olympic gold.

Raptors’ GM eyes possible guardsBy Doug SmithTorstar wire service

It’s on to Plan B for Rob Babcock.Quickly. Foiled, as expected, inhis attempt to sign Chicago point

guard Chris Duhon and now withsome tax relief thanks to the departure— again — of Alonzo Mourning, theToronto Raptors general manager sayshe’ll accelerate his search for a thirdpoint guard.

“We’ll make some decisions in thenext three or four days on what we’dlike to do,” Babcock says. “We

absolutely want to carry three pointguards.”

There are only a few point guardsavailable who would fit Babcock’s cri-teria.

Memphis’s Earl Watson, Miami’sDamon Jones and Atlanta’s TyronnLue are three who are still availablebut likely too expensive for Toronto.

New Jersey’s Travis Best andunsigned ex-Raptor Milt Palacioremain on the market.

It was no surprise the Bulls matchedthe Raptor offer for Duhon, nor was ita surprise that Toronto waived

Mourning, again, to clear approxi-mately $4 million this season and nextfrom the Raptor salary cap for luxurytax calculations.

With Mourning now gone, Torontowill have about $57 million in salaryobligations this year; the dollar-for-dollar tax kicks in at $61.7 million.

Having the Duhon money freed upalso brings restricted free agent MattBonner back into the picture inToronto. The Raptors have made anoffer to Bonner already, but it’s for lessmoney and for fewer years than thesecond-year forward wants.

But if Bonner wants anything closeto the five-year, $15 million deal thatBoston gave free agent BrianScalabrine, he’s not going to get itfrom Babcock.

There were few surprises in theNBA’s one-time tax amnesty thatended last week. One name that willbe sure to get Toronto fans all up inarms was Jerome Williams, who waswaived by the New York Knicks.

And while some fans would certain-ly be excited about the possibility ofthe Junk Yard Dog coming back, it’sdoubtful.

Todd Bertuzzi was recently reinstated by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and was quickly invited to the Canadian olympic hockey team’sorientation camp in Vancouver last week. His presence at the camp angers some, who believe his punishment for attacking Colorado’sSteve Moore was not severe enough. Reuters

From page 36

From page 36

Solution for Sudoko on page 22

AUGUST 21, 2005 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

Ready for the ‘Challenge’Coming off disappointing 2004 season, Mount Pearl hopes to show Challenge Cup victory two years ago was no fluke


What a difference a year canmake. This time in 2004, theMount Pearl Challenge Cup

soccer team was entering the playoffround on a low note. They were thedefending league champions at thetime, but were coming off an unim-pressive regular season that saw themfinish just a hair above .500 andentered the playoffs looking like any-thing but contenders for the leaguetitle.

They failed to repeat as ChallengeCup champs, and left some wonderingif the win in 2003 was merely a fluke.At the end of the 2005 regular season,however, it’s obvious the Mount Pearlsquad is back to their form of two yearsago and are once again ready to chal-lenge for the championship.

“Last year we took some things forgranted, coming off a championshipthe year before,” says Walter Mavin,head coach of the Mount Pearl squad.“We found ourselves in some gameswhere our preparation and executionweren’t what they were the yearbefore. On some occasions it was alack of focus.”

Mount Pearl was back to their win-ning ways in 2005, compiling a 14-4(wins/losses) record to finish second inthe regular season standings, just threepoints behind first place St. Lawrence.Their performance has impressedmany who follow the league, and hassurprised a few fans as well.

“I don’t think people thought wewere going to do as well as we did,”says Bernie Manning, veteran forwardwith Mount Pearl. “We didn’t have agreat season last year and didn’t per-form up to our potential. But we’replaying much better as a complete unitthis year.”

Manning says the biggest improve-ment on his club has been defensively.Far too often last season Mount Pearllet their competition get too manyquality scoring chances, often leadingto disappointing losses. Manning saysthis season has been a different story.

“We’re not allowing as many goalsas we did last year,” says Manning.“We’ve minimized the number of

attacks against our team.”Manning has been one of the team’s

leaders on offence, finishing the regu-lar season with a club-high 10 goals.Ryan Caines was also a factor offen-sively, bulging the twine eight times.Shaun Manning, Ian Power, MarkReddy, Jeff Walsh and David Baileyalso made big contributions to theoffence, giving Mount Pearl arguablythe most balanced attack in the seven-team provincial league.

“We’ve had a couple of playerswho’ve been scoring regularly, otherthan that the goal scoring has beenshared around,” says Mavin. “That’sthe good thing about this team —

we’re not relying on any one player toput the ball in the net for us.”

Manning says another factor in theteam’s turnaround this year has beenthe chemistry in the locker room andon the pitch. A good mixture of youthand experience helps the team throughtough times, and provides for morethan a few jokes toward veteran play-ers such as Manning and Alec Turpin.

“The boys on the team call me dad,”says the 35-year-old Manning. “Theyget a couple of digs in about us beingold school, but we don’t mind.”

Although they like to clown around,Manning says the team’s younger play-ers are also very serious about winning

the 2005 Challenge Cup. “People might think we’re there to

keep everyone in line, but that’s not it,”Manning says. “A lot of them comefrom elite soccer, so they know what’sat stake. Keeping their heads onstraight is not a problem.”

Mount Pearl began the playoff roundwith a pair of wins, putting them ingood shape to qualify for the semi-finals on Sept. 2. Not qualifying forthis game would guarantee the clubwould have to play three times in threedays in order to win the ChallengeCup, a feat they accomplished in 2003but do not want to attempt to repeat thisyear.

“We’re gunning for one of the toptwo positions. Our goal is to make theone/two game on Friday night,”Manning says.

Mavin cautions that the quick start inthe playoff round does not guaranteesuccess the rest of the way. He wantshis team to be confident, but also toremember there is still a lot of soccer tobe played.

“We’ve got a tough road ahead ofus,” says Mavin. “You hope playersbring their best for every game in thisround. Every time out, you want to atleast match, or even improve upon, theeffort of the previous game.”

[email protected]

Mount Pearl’s Alec Turpin (23) fights off a Holy Cross defender while teammate Bernie Manning tries to get open for a pass during Challenge Cup playoff action. Paul Daly/The Independent


All Marc Halbot ever wanted was anopportunity. Growing up in Lance-au-Loup, a community of 600 on

the south coast of Labrador, he fantasizedof some day playing high-calibre hockey,but knew the chances of achieving his goalwere slim.

He played a lot of hockey as a kid, butmostly on frozen ponds. When he did playindoors, it was only for a few months a yearsince the ice in local arenas was natural, notartificial.

Despite the obstacles, Halbot never gaveup.

“Ever since I was young I dreamed aboutgetting somewhere with hockey. To finallyget the opportunity is just exhilarating,”Halbot tells The Independent.

Halbot was one of 14 players whoadvanced from the St. John’s Fog DevilsNewfoundland Dream Shot camp to theQMJHL team’s main training camp lastweek. He was one of seven players releasedon Aug. 19, but his breakaway speed, quickand accurate shot, and magic hands madehim impossible to miss at the Dream Shotcamp. He picked up a goal and an assist in

the camp’s final intrasquad game, butdespite his strong performance, the 19-year-old wasn’t taking anything for grant-ed.

“I was pretty nervous waiting to get inand talk with the coach, not knowing if Ihad gotten past the first camp,” Halbotsays. “I was pacing back and forth in thehallway. I’d say I burned a hole in thefloor.”

Halbot made waves in local hockey cir-cles last year when he was named the St.John’s Junior Hockey League’s rookie ofthe year as a member of the AvalonCapitals. He tallied 27 goals and 16 assistsfor 43 points in 27 games, first on his team

and 10th overall in the league. As impres-sive as his stats are, they are even moreextraordinary when one considers that itwas the first season Halbot played contacthockey.

The town of Lance-au-Loup runs its ownminor hockey program, covering the insur-ance needs of the players on its own. As aresult, they couldn’t afford to allow theolder players to check. Halbot says over theyears he probably played in only six orseven games where checking was allowed,so when he joined the local junior leaguelast fall he quickly discovered he’d have toget used to the physical play.

“At first, it was a little scary,” Halbotadmits. “I was wondering ‘How can I com-pete with these guys and what can I do tokeep myself away from the checking?’ untilI got used to it.”

Halbot grew accustomed to checking,and by the end of the season was giving asgood as he got. Although he took a fewlumps along the way, he loved every sec-ond of it.

“The biggest thing was that I got to playhockey for a full season,” he says. “I playedfrom the end of September until the middleof March. There were competitive teamsand it was contact hockey.”

Growing up, Halbot played with kids ofall ages until he was 14 and joined hishometown’s senior men’s team. But theshort season of indoor hockey just wasn’tenough to quench his thirst for the game, sohe and his older brother Shannon (a team-mate with the Avalon Capitals last year)took their game to the ponds of Lance-au-Loup.

“We’d be up clearing the ponds off with2x4s and plywood just to get on the ice,”says Halbot. “We even tried to cut holes inthe ponds and then go up with buckets sowe could flood the ice just so we could geta skate in the middle of December.”

With the help of his parents — Elaineand Wayne — Halbot used the big ice ofthe frozen ponds to become a prolific skaterand master puck handler. He would eventu-ally play a few games with the LabradorHuskies midget AAA team before headingto Ottawa at 16 to try out for a junior Aclub. Although it appeared he had a spot onthe team, Halbot decided to return homeupon discovering he would have to com-plete Grade 13 in Ontario to finish highschool. It was a decision he questioned inthe two years that followed.

INDEPENDENTSPORTSSUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, AUGUST 21-27, 2005 — PAGE 36

Acomplete waste of time.Unnecessary. Useless.Pointless. And for those who

like fancy words, superfluous. That’s my best use of terms to

describe last week’s orientation campfor the Canadian men’s hockey teamthat will compete at the upcoming win-ter Olympics in Turin, Italy. For fivestraight days the who’s who ofCanadian hockey flocked to B.C. topractice and scrimmage in front of themedia cameras. Close to 40 playersattended, with about 10 times as manyjournalists looking for the big scoop.But for all the effort and time put intosuch an extravaganza, I have to wonder

if any of it was worth so much as a sec-ond look.

I grew up playing sports, and knowthe reasoning behind holding tryouts,which is exactly what this orientationcamp was — even if Gretzky and com-pany don’t want to call it that. Coacheshave to get a look at players if they areto properly decide who makes the teamand, as I discovered far too often, who

is to be cut. The St. John’s Fog Devils inaugural

training camp was a perfect example.With more than 60 players vying for 23spots, the major junior club had sometough decisions to make. RealPaiement and his assistants drafted orinvited each player to camp, so they areaware of each kid’s strengths andweaknesses. At the same time, the FogDevils’ brass had never actually seen agood number of the players perform inperson, making the hopefuls’ play intraining camp the deciding factor inwhether they make the team.

But in the case of Team Canada, notryout was necessary.

These players are stars. Most ofthem have been since peewee hockey.Their strong points and weaknesseshave been on display for several sea-sons, so they weren’t going to do any-thing at the orientation camp that has-n’t already been seen before by eachand every hockey fan in the country.

The bottom line is that last week’scamp will have little to no effect onwho makes the team this winter.Really, what is Gretzky going to do ifMichael Ryder is leading the league ingoals by January, leave him off theteam because he wasn’t invited to theorientation camp?

Suppose Sidney Crosby proves to be

every bit as good as we’re hearing andhe’s in the top five of NHL scoring byChristmas. Do you think for one sec-ond his absence at the almighty orien-tation camp would keep him off theteam?

The hoopla surrounding the glorifiedtryout was even tougher to stomachthan the camp itself. Major headlineson sports web sites “shockingly”informed us Mario Lemieux wouldskip the camp … but was still penciledin as the team’s captain and first-linewinger. Another headline blissfullytold the tale of how recently freed and

Not worth the hype

See “Rock on a mission,” page 34

See “This is my,” page 34

Marc Halbot Rhonda Hayward/The Independent

DARCY MACRAE

The game

From the frozen ponds of southern Labradorto Fog Devils’ trainingcamp, Marc Halbot has come a long way

Long shot

Documents

2005-08-21