2007-05-25

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Speaker is a lonely job.”— Harvey Hodder, page 5

VOL. 5 ISSUE 21 — ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA — $1.50 HOME DELIVERY (HST included); $2.00 RETAIL (HST included)

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

BUSINESS 13Tough season for lobster and crab fishermen

LIFE 17The EVAnominees are…

IN CAMERA 8-9Wonderbolt circuspulls out all the stops

‘I just can’t sit back’

The mother of a womanmurdered in her AirportHeights apartment on

Jan. 21 says it’s time for theRoyal Newfoundland Constab-ulary to move on the investiga-tion into her daughter’s death.

Yvonne Harvey says she fearsprevious wrongful convictionsby the provincial Justice systemare hamstringing the police’sinvestigation into ChrissyNewman’s unsolved killing.

Harvey says she will be in St.John’s early next month, whenshe intends to pressure the Con-stabulary directly.

“I have no choice. I can’t justsit back. We’re not compromis-ing anything,” Harvey tells TheIndependent from her homenear Ottawa. “We need to putpressure on the investigationand I really feel that we’re at adisadvantage here because ofthe mistakes that have beenmade in the past.

“I’m not prepared to let mydaughter become another vic-tim of a faulty system.”

Antonio Lamer, a formerCanadian Supreme Court jus-tice, headed a 2003 judicialinquiry into the wrongful con-victions of Gregory Parsons,

Randy Druken and RonaldDalton, all of whom servedprison time for murders theywere subsequently found not tohave committed. The Lamerinquiry blamed the RNC fortunnel vision in investigationsthat led to wrongful convic-tions.

Harvey says as the currentinvestigation drags on, her fam-ily is facing complications —including legal ones that shecannot talk about.

Harvey’s voice is soft, almostwhispery, over the telephone,but there is no mistaking thesteel in her tone.

“I’m hoping that I will bemore knowledgeable once Ihave had a chance to speak tothe police,” she says. “I’m notprepared to walk away withoutsome concrete information thistime.”

She acknowledges those aretough words.

“I am prepared to ask — atthe highest level that I can —for some kind of accountability.You know the squeaky wheelgets the grease, unfortunately.And I think I have been verypatient. I need to know why it’sstill as it is. I know personallythat there is a lot — a lot — ofcircumstantial evidence. A lot.

S P E C I A L R E P O R T

IVANMORGAN

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

STYLE 23Tricks and risks: grownmen on teeny bikes

It’s been four years since aPortuguese captain and his trawlerwere charged with illegal fishing in

Canadian waters.The case, however, continues to face

delays because the skipper, Jose AlbertoSenos Ramalheira, says he’s still toosick to return to Canada.

“Currently, the Crown’s position isthat our evidence is in place and we’reprepared for trial,” federal prosecutorMark Stares tells The Independent.

“But the defence has put on the recordthat there are health issues with theaccused travelling back to Canada. Andthe court has so far accepted that.”

What the court may not realize is thatwhile Ramalheira, 52, said he was toosick to travel, his ship and crew contin-ued fishing illegally on the Grand Banks

outside the 200-mile limit.According to the federal Department

of Fisheries and Oceans, the 65-metrestern trawler Santa Mafalda was issuedtwo citations in January 2006 for usingundersize mesh and failing to clearlyseparate catch by species.

There is no evidence Ramalheira wason board at the time, only seven monthsafter he appeared in a St. John’s court-room to face the 2003 charges.

But in May 2005 the captain told ajudge he wouldn’t make his next courtdate. “I won’t be here,” he said at thetime. “I’ll be working. I’ll be fishing.”

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

Charges of unlawfully enteringCanadian waters and illegally fishing indomestic waters were formally laid inNovember 2003, six months after thevessel was spotted by air surveillance.

But the ship got away and wasn’tseized until two years later, when it wasnext noticed fishing in the same restrict-

ed area.Patient Canadian authorities waited

two years for the vessel to return andthen made their move, after receiving atip that the ship had been in St-Pierre forrepairs and was heading for Canadianwaters.

At about 10:30 p.m. on May 29, 2005,two Canadian Coast Guard vessels boredown on the Santa Mafalda less than100 kilometres south of Cape St.Mary’s, arresting the captain and steer-ing his ship and crew of 30 back to St.John’s without incident.

Ramalheira remained in custody forfour days before being released on con-ditions and after posting a $10,000 cashdeposit.

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

Interestingly, the case has gonenowhere despite the fact Ramalheiradoes not even have to be here for trial.

See “The pendulum,” page 2

See “Reason to,” page 2

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

CONTEST 4Last chance to enter

BRIANCALLAHAN

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

Harvey says she cannot go into details.

Chrissy Newman was found murdered inher apartment on the evening of Jan. 21. Shehad been living there with her infant daughtersince she and her husband, RaymondNewman, split up. It has been reported in themedia that Chrissy Newman had endured

spousal abuse in her marriage, and was plan-ning at the time she was killed to return toOttawa, her childhood home, with her child.

When asked if she will bring a lawyer withher when she meets with the RNC, Harveysays she believes she will bring something a

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS MAY 25, 2007

‘A classic no win’

Loyola Hearn, Fabian Manning andNorman Doyle are all well paid and well-known federal Members of Parliament.

All three sit on the government side of the Houseof Commons, and one of them, Hearn, is a mem-ber of the federal cabinet. They are working onmajor salaries and major pensions. They get totravel to and from their ridings free of charge andthey spend most of their time in the nation’s cap-ital. They know most of the movers and shakersin the country and they rub shoulders with every-one from the ordinary citizen to the kings ofindustry.

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

Our democracy seems to like putting electedofficials in what I call the untenable situation.One of those unique places where no decision isthe right one and no matter what you do the levelof criticism is equal from all sides. Hearn, Doyleand Manning know exactly what I mean.

For them the untenable situation deals withequalization and the federal budget. Ourprovince is vehement in its opposition to the newequalization formula. The new regime willinclude the value of non-renewable naturalresources and that will mean millions of lost dol-lars to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The debate now centres on just how much willbe lost. No one knows for sure and no one ateither the federal or provincial level is talking.Neither government will crunch the numbers so

we can see what it all really means in dollars andcents. We have only one report from independenteconomist Wade Locke to go by and according tohim the province comes out a big loser under thenew formula.

So how can Manning, Hearn and Doyle votefor a budget that will include the new formulaknowing it cost their province so much money?Adding to the political injury is Stephen Harper’snow famous broken promise. The promise if keptwould have put millions into the coffers of theprovincial government.

Consider for a minute how it must feel to hearthe premier of the province support aConservative “goose egg” in the next federalelection. Putting it bluntly, Danny Williamswants the three amigos voted out of office. Itmight not be so bad if this were a premier losingsupport himself and dropping in the polls, butsuch is not the case. Without an endorsementfrom this premier your time in office might wellbe cut short. Consider how it must feel to havethousands of e-mails sent to you condemningyou as a traitor. Consider how it must feel to havethousands of people calling for your resignation.

What a predicament. If you vote for the budg-et you are a hero to your party and the people youserve with in Ottawa, but if you vote againstthem you are a hero at home and persona non-gratis in Ottawa. If you believe Hearn, Doyle andManning, to be out in the cold in Ottawa is to beof no further use to the province.

So what do you do? As I said, this is the untenable situation a

politician fears most. A classic no win. As Doylehimself put it, they were caught between a rockand a hard place. The last politician who foundhimself in this spot was John Efford. The resultwas not pretty. He ended up out of office andretired to his boat in Port de Grave.

As we know the three boys made their deci-sion and they voted for the budget with theoffending equalization formula included. There

is a theory at work here. Vote for the budget; takethe heat from home and brazen it out. If enoughtime passes between now and the next federalvote something else may come along to savetheir hides. Politics is a game of short memoriesand something else just might save the day.

Anyway, I feel a little bad for them. They didnot have many good choices. No matter whatthey did it was going to turn out bad for them. Iknow most will argue there was a right choicewhether they thought it a good one or not. Mostwill say they should have voted for the provinceand not the federal government. Voting againstthe federal budget would have sent that message.It would have also sent our three Tory MPs intothe political wilderness.

Can these guys survive this untenable situation?Right now it doesn’t look good, but what’s thatother old cliché? A week is a lifetime in politics.Manning, Hearn and Doyle seem to be betting onit.

Randy Simms is host of VOCM’s Open Line radioprogram.

[email protected]

RANDY SIMMSPage 2 talk

little stronger: public support.“I do have some thoughts as to how I am going to pro-

ceed,” she says. “I can’t do this on my own. One voice isone voice. I have always believed there is strength in num-bers and I am not prepared to allow my daughter’s murder-er to continue to enjoy the freedom that we pay for.”

Not living in the province, Harvey says she is “not thatknowledgeable about the wrongful convictions issue,” buther “gut feeling” is past wrongful convictions have cost theprovince and the RNC “a lot” of its credibility, and broughtinto focus the concerns about innocent people beingcharged too quickly and being convicted without proper orthorough investigation.

“I can appreciate that. I can appreciate that from thepoint of view of a family member being victimized likethat.”

Harvey says, from what she understands, the RNC hasrevamped its procedures and staff since the release ofLamer’s report.

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

“But I think if we start comparing the past with what’shappening right now, and not making a move on things alittle bit quicker, or waiting until everything is pretty much100 per cent, then I think we’re being victimized again,only the pendulum has swung the other way.”

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

“Funny how foreign that term seems now. Vacation wasalways a time of rest, relaxing, exploring, and fun. Now itis a forced exercise to divert my thoughts away from the‘act of atrocity’ and the feelings of immense loss and grief.However, it didn’t work. This type of event leaves a hole inyour soul, and no amount of diversion or time will heal thatkind of a wound.”

It’s people like Harvey’s partner who help her in hergrief. She says another reason she is coming toNewfoundland next month is to see her partner receive alifetime achievement award. Harvey says her partner is anincredible support, not only to her but to her whole family.

Meantime, Harvey works to keep her daughter’s memo-ry alive. A trust fund has been set up for Newman’s daugh-ter — Harvey’s grandchild — and has already collectedmore than $22,000. Harvey is organizing a memorial golftournament.

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

Donations from other organizations and companies arepouring in.

“We have a lot of people coming together,” says Harvey.“They don’t want Chrissy to be forgotten.”

Harvey says she remains in contact with the RNC.An RNC spokesperson says the police are “still in the

same position that we have been for some time.” He wasnot willing to comment on the investigation or publiclyname any suspects.

When Harvey talks about the investigation, she adopts ameasured tone, speaking carefully, as if she is being care-ful not to say too much — or as if she is holding somethingback. She pauses, thinking, before she speaks about herdaughter’s fate.

“She only made one mistake in her life.” [email protected]

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

That’s because the charges have been filed by the Crownas a summary conviction, which is less serious than anindictable offence.

The defence takes the position, however, that Ramalheirahas a right to be here to defend himself and the trial shouldnot proceed without him.

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

“The position of the Crown is that the matter proceed inan expedient and efficient manner, and that justice be done.Our concern in this case, of course, is should this matterdelay and delay and delay further, witnesses’ memoriestend to fade, they may move, and so forth,” he says.

Stares would not speculate as to whether the fishing cap-tain’s alleged health problems are legitimate. At one of sev-eral hearings last year, it was noted in the court record thatRamalheira has a history of heart and psychiatric problems.

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

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

“Well, what the Crown has put forth to the court — andit’s up to the court to accept this — is this is a summaryconviction matter, which means the trial can proceed with-out the captain, or ex parte.

“We’ve proposed that, with allowances that it would notprejudice him. In other words, we would put forward ourcase in his absence but with his lawyer present, and wewould allow time for the defence to prepare its case inresponse.”

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

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

Whether that will be with or without the Portuguese cap-tain remains to be seen.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn recently trum-peted the success of stepped-up efforts to crack down onforeign overfishing, but critics still say the rules lack theteeth to enforce the rules.

[email protected]

Loyola Hearn

‘Reason to postpone’From page 1

A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

More than three years into hismandate, Premier DannyWilliams has yet to deliver on

his promised energy plan. Page 30 ofthe Tory “bluebook” of pre-electionpromises (some glad I kept my copy)stated clearly that such a plan would behanded down by the Williams adminis-tration … it just didn’t say when.

A Progressive Conservative gov-ernment will:

“Implement an energy plan to ensurethat all energy sources are used first toprovide a reliable, affordable supply ofpower for domestic use and forprovincewide economic development,and then to take advantage of businessopportunities in export markets to sellenergy that is excess to our needs onterms that secure maximum benefits forthe province.”

A spokesperson for the premier’soffice told The Independent this weekthat the energy plan is still being final-ized, “and we have no firm date for itsrelease.” The hope, the spokesperson

went on to say, isto have the planout within thenext couple ofmonths. Let’s see,two more monthswould probablymean July at theearliest. That’sawful close to theOct. 9 provincialgeneral election.

Guess the energyplan could be the

next Tory Bluebook, or at least the gutsof it. That’s one way to stretch a singlemandate into two …

TOOTH AND NAILScrunchins takes a dramatic shift at

this point to talk about dental care, andthe general state of our gobs/mouths.

The Centre for Health Informationreleased a report this week thatrevealed 48 per cent of Newfound-landers and Labradorians age 12 andolder saw a dentist in the past year, farlower than the national average of 64per cent. That’s a concern because, asthe centre points out, Health Canadaand the Canadian Dental Associationreport that poor oral health may con-tribute to diseases such as heart diseaseand diabetes. The salt meat, salt fishand salt pork don’t help either. Not tomention the stress of waiting for anenergy plan …

ACT OF COD Speaking of our general wellbeing,

the Centre of Health Information

released another study earlier thismonth on how the closure of the codfisheries may have affected health. Thestudy analyzed health, social anddemographic data collected between1991 and 2001 in outports on the islandportion of the province.

Communities were classified accord-ing to their degree of reliance on thecod fishery — low, moderate or high.Turns out the overall death rate actual-ly declined over the 10-year time span,meaning we lived longer after the codfishery sank. Not only that, but the low-est death rates were found in communi-ties “highly dependent on the fishery.”

In surveys of emotional health, theaverage score remained constant for allbut communities highly dependent onfishing, “where emotional health seemsto have improved slightly.”

You would think that the shutdownof a 500-year-old fishery and resultingculture shock would have the oppositeeffect on Newfoundland health.

Shouldn’t the death rate haveincreased?

The report states the out-migration ofill and elderly people — perhaps to jointheir families or to be closer to health-care facilities — may have had animpact. “This would tend to raise thedeath rates in the communities to whichthey migrated, and in fact we see thatdeath rates have risen in non-fishingdependent communities,” the reportreads. It goes on to say the “interplay”between out-migration and health mustbe further investigated. At face value,maybe we should just resettle to theoutports and live longer …

ROCK AND ROOTOf course, the culture and traditions

of rural Newfoundland are alive and

well … in St. John’s at least. Morethan 250 students of Macdonald DriveJunior High in St. John’s were sched-uled to perform Rock! Roots! Rising —a play about the province’s past, presentand future — on May 24, 25 and 26.

Ever wonder what was on the menuwhen the first tourists came toNewfoundland in the early 1500s?Well, you can find out at the play. “It’sguaranteed to warm your heart and fillyour belly with laughter,” read thepress release. A good roar is also goodfor your health …

TRUE COLOURSMount Pearl Mayor Steve Kent

announced recently he’s seeking theTory nomination in the provincial dis-trict of Mount Pearl North (see HarveyHodder retirement story, page 5). Backin March 2000 Kent held a press con-

ference to announce his “pride to be aLiberal” in entering the hunt for theparty’s nomination in the then-federalriding of St. John’s West. Only a weekearlier, however, Kent was consideringrunning for the Canadian Alliance,describing it in e-mail correspondenceas a “meaningful alternative.”

He added that Loyola Hearn, theTory frontrunner at the time, would behard to beat given Newfoundlandershaven’t been overly supportive of non-traditional parties. Wrote Kent, “I think,though, that the Alliance provides ameaningful alternative to the status quothat will gain considerable credibilityand respect in the months ahead.”

And so it did when Loyola eventual-ly joined forces with Stephen Harper,who, in turn, ruined the Conservative’shard-fought credibility by breaking hisword to us.

Steve may be a dirty word in thesepolitical parts, and Mr. Kent may haveflirted with more than one politicalstripe, but at least his Pink, White andGreen colours are consistent …

ENVELOPE PLEASEThe Atlantic Journalism Awards were

recently handed out in Halifax. TheIndependent was nominated in threecategories (the only print outlet inNewfoundland and Labrador to receivea nomination), including feature writ-ing (Pam Pardy Ghent for ‘I’ll suck itup’, a story about her husband headingoff to Alberta for work, and SusanRendell for Sex in the city, an articleabout the St. John’s sex trade), as wellas a nomination in the commentary cat-egory (that would be me, Ryan Cleary,for A fishing tale, a column about for-eign fishing outside the 200-mile limitand Canada’s reluctance to do anythingabout it).

Ghent won gold (one out of threeain’t bad). Another winner was PhilipLee, who won the top award in theAtlantic Magazine — Best ProfileCategory for a feature piece on our ownRon Hynes, author of Sonny’s Dream.

“I’ve never been able to escapeNewfoundland,” Hynes says in thestory. Wrote Lee, “Ron will keep goingso long as his favourite song is the onehe’s about to write, so long as he feelsthere is another great one just aroundthe corner.”

Isn’t there always …

[email protected]

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

SCRUNCHINS

Civic – Canada’s Clear Winner 9 Years Straight!

@

.

Terrace on the Square, Churchill Square 754-9497 diamonddesign.com Store Hours: Tuesday —Saturday, 9:00am to 5:30pm

Mary Pratt. Artist,Diamond Design Ambassador.

There’s somethingabout Mary Pratt.

Edward (Bud) Vincent of Harcourt, Trinity Bay, captured these images of animals around his community. Your Town is open to amateur photographers across Newfoundland and Labrador. Please send up to three pictures of yourcommunity to [email protected].

YOURTOWN

Danny Williams

A catch of cod — not what it used to be. Paul Daly photos/The Independent

Steve Kent

Ron Hynes


By Mandy CookThe Independent

Cecil Stockley, the “Iceberg Man”of Twillingate, a 23-year veteranof the iceberg-chasing business,

is optimistic about the chances of spy-ing an iceberg this season — but admitsto some uneasiness after two seasons ofscarce sightings.

“(There’s) always apprehension inthe tourism business because we needone,” says the Twillingate IslandIceberg tour boat operator. “Sometimeswe don’t even get one.”

Stockley says the view fromTwillingate shows “a lot” of medium-sized icebergs running about 20 milesoff the coast, but the majority are hug-ging the coastline in the offshore cur-rents along Notre Dame Bay. He saysthe first iceberg showed up off CrowHead in February in the shape of anegg, or a “turtleback.” The berg wedgeditself into one spot and stayed put.

“All the locals are saying that’s atough old iceberg … and not breakingdown at all,” he says. “He’s been partof the community for about fourmonths yet.”

While Stockley says icebergs are abig part of the financial picture inTwillingate, the community on thenortheast coast of the island was able tosurvive the lack of bergs in past years

because of the town’s development ofits cultural industries. Dinner and musi-cal theatre, whale watching and the nat-ural beauty of the New World Islandsare still draws for tourists.

When the makers of Iceberg Vodkaran into the iceberg crunch, they simplytook their collector ships further northor out to sea. David Hood, vice-presi-dent of Canadian Iceberg VodkaCorporation, says there were plenty oficebergs to fill their giant holding bar-rels in various top-secret locationsaround the island.

Sold in 18 countries worldwide andthe No. 1 selling vodka inNewfoundland and Labrador, the com-pany is currently retrofitting a newbarge in Carbonear and has anothervessel in dry dock in St. John’s to assistin the netting of bergy bits used invodka production.

Stephen Bruneau, author of Icebergsof Newfoundland and Labrador, is notconvinced icebergs were ever “gone.”He says the lack of sightings near thesouthern part of the island could bechalked up to warmer sea temperaturesand the population’s elevated sensitivi-ty to climate change.

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

While there may have been fewglimpses of icebergs in the province inthe last two years, Bruneau says St.Anthony and Labrador always seenumerous bergs. But it was a helicopterride to Ilulissat, Greenland that con-vinced him there is no shortage. Thesite is the source of most of theprovince’s icebergs and, Bruneau says,the glacier is calving huge chunks ofice at an increasing rate.

“The fjord is so packed with ice it istotally barricaded with icebergs.There’s no visible water at all and theglacier front is hard to distinguishbetween the actual parts that detach andthe parts broken off.”

But for iceberg viewing pleasureBruneau says there is no place betterthan Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It’s an anomalous and fortunate sit-uation because we are the furthest southlatitude that anybody gets to see ice-bergs comfortably and the icebergs areso far out of their seemingly naturalenvironment,” he says. “We’re one ofthe best places where you can come andsee icebergs nestled into these bayswith trees and a foreground and a back-ground.”

Stockley says it best. He hopes to seeicebergs off his coastline deep intosummer.

“Iceberg on first of August — every-body is happier to work.”

Iceberg revivalSightings off Twillingate and Maddox Cove confirm province as berg hotspot

Paul Daly/The Independent

By Ivan MorganThe Independent

Conservative MP FabianManning says the acrimonybetween Danny Williams and

Prime Minister Stephen Harper overwhat the premier says is a brokenpromise on equalization puts him inan awkward spot.

Over the last couple of weeks, hesays people have been calling on himto resign.

“But what do you do? Do you packup and go home out of it? Sit as anindependent in the House ofCommons? I’ve sat as an independentbefore. I had the T-shirt,” Manningsays. “And it served no purpose to thepeople you represent. You’re a herofor 48 or 72 hours, and then after twoor three months people say ‘WellFabian, we need our road done or ourwharf done or whatever the case maybe.’”

As an independent, or in opposi-tion, Manning says a politician isn’t ina position to help constituents.

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

SHORT-TERM GAINManning says he supports the fed-

eral budget because the province isreceiving $1.5 billion this year. Whilethe equalization debate will go on foryears, he says there are a lot of goodthings for the province in the currentbudget.

Sitting next to the prime ministerduring a recent question period in theHouse of Commons was not a politi-cal statement, he says — just circum-stance.

He says he had met with Harper thenight before to discuss some issuesconcerning his riding of Avalon, andended up sitting next to him whenquestion period started.

Manning says no matter what thetruth is, there are people who willthink it was contrived.

He notes a quote one person e-mailed him: “It’s only here inNewfoundland and Labrador wherewe would have a problem with some-body sitting down next to the prime

minister of the country.”Manning says politics in Ottawa is

business-oriented, and much differentfrom politics at the provincial level.“Ottawa politics is mostly from thehead, Newfoundland and Labradorpolitics is a lot from the heart.”

Manning says he does not agreewith everything his party does, but heis a realist. He says in “the big circleof Ottawa,” the province’s numbersare small, regardless what party is inpower.

“In the best of times it’s a strugglebecause there are a lot of agendas inOttawa.”

Manning says the fact that the pre-mier is advocating people not to voteConservative in the next federal elec-tion doesn’t bother him. He says hewill run for re-election, and he is con-fident he will win.

“I am always confident. Youwouldn’t be in this business unlessyou were confident. I am confidentbut I’m never cocky.”

He is philosophical about Williams’threats.

“As a point of interest he didn’thelp me the last time either.”

He savours the irony of his politicalsituation.

“I listened to the open line showsthis morning. I mean they’re lookingfor federal help for wharves in certainplaces, federal help with students,federal help with agriculture, federalhelp with roads.

“At the same time they don’t wantyou up there. So go figure.”

[email protected]

Fabian Manning on politics of the head and the heart

Fabian Manning Paul Daly/The Independent


A fresh token of NewfoundlandOne needs a nimble mind to keep up with all the branding and rebranding that’s gone on in this province

When she came in the door Iwas ready for her. I wascocked and primed with my

finger on the trigger. If she wasn’tblown right off her feet it would be astrange thing.

A university student had phonedseeking an audience. I am so seldomout in society these days I welcomedher advance. She was working on aterm paper and wanted my observa-tions on “branding,” which was some-thing I thought they did with cows outwest.

I boned up on the subject before-hand. Surely Roy Roger’s brand wasthe Double R but what was GeneAutrey’s? Did Hopalong Cassidy rearcows at all or did he merely shoot atbad persons? The Lone Ranger cer-tainly had no cattle to brand and nei-ther did Tonto.

Then it struck me. Maybe ourscholar’s interest in branding wentbeyond cows. Here, too, I was readyfor her … armed with the knowledgethat Leonard Slye had been rebrandedRoy Rogers, Francis Gumm becameJudy Garland and an Englishman bythe name of William Henry Pratt wasbrought to market under the brandBoris Karloff.

I offered tea or coffee and we satdown. It was a disaster. My notion ofbranding was of no use to her and heracademic interest in branding was sofresh out of the oven that I hadn’t

caught up.Her scholarly study of branding, I

concluded after much later reflection,rested on the practice of governmentsand others to strongly suggestprogress by means of new packaging.I mean, where was the heart-searingcry from the Long Range Mountainsfor that new, improved pitcher plant?Pete Soucy said it looked like the but-tons on his mother’s winter coat.

The natural pitcher plant, selectedby Queen Victoria and formerly onthe cent, is a meaty-looking freak thatslurps insects and looks like some-thing those CSI: Miami guys haul outof knocked-about corpses. Did weneed a caricature of the brute onwavering tendrils to inspire freshspasms of Newfoundland “national-ism”? Of course we do … your gov-ernment and mine says so.

Newfoundland Political DictumNumber One: when in doubt, stampand shout; wave your arms and runabout. Most of our premiers have hada circus ready when the bread ranlow. Smallwood used to stick anuplifting motto across our arseswhenever there were mutterings

among the tattered artillery.I recall once a chilling hour on a

gravel detour in deepest Georgia. Ahonking great Chevy full of tipsy-looking good ol’ boys kept roaring upto thump my rear bumper, then fallingback to laugh and hoot and pop anoth-er cool one. I was puzzled as to whathad aroused their manly Southernaggression until I remembered myNewfoundland licence plate with itsmotto: “The Mighty Churchill.”

Joey made much hay with licenceplates. Richard Needham, a Globeand Mail columnist, took a shine towhat he thought was Newfoundland.“The Happy Province,” Needham waspleased to call us.

Smallwood thought we should bekept in mind of the fact and so wewere marked fore and aft. For a fewyears we had some of the jolliest-looking funeral processions around.

Other premiers, other mob-calmingbaubles. There was Peckford and theflag. Many yet living will recall theconsuming and fraught ruckshunsabout the flag … the Ruskies mighthave invaded and set up headquartersin Bonavista South and nobody wouldhave noticed.

It was supposed to be a populist all-consuming event. It would be a greatpublic “contest” with everything fromlittle youngsters and their crayons togranny knitting a proud banner to stirmen’s souls.

It was a splendid diversion. Whilethe Sprung greenhouse proceededwithout a murmur, half the populationsaid they would cling to the old UnionJack until death; the other half lookedto a future under brave devices full ofpitcher plants, caribou, sou’westers,Purity bull's-eyes, silhouettes of Joey,Cabot’s bark, lobster pots, anchorsand shoals of codfish.

SHAMBLES AND TWIGSFrightened by the shambles, the

official judging committee called inartist Christopher Pratt. Labradorwent off and drew up its own flag, onewith a little twig on it.

Pratt says that the flag we honourand revere today has nothing to dowith him because the judges got nerv-ous and mucked around with hisdesign.

Brian Tobin thought to do it on thecheap. He merely stuck the phrase“and Labrador” on to “Newfound-land.” I suppose that if the averageIQ in Labrador equalled the averageMay temperature in Cartwright, slip-pery Brian’s childish gesture mighthave fooled a single soul.

There’s Newfoundland for you.When bread is dear, pump up the jollyold branding machine. Three young-sters with rickets, one with scurvy andthe two of us with TB?

Never mind and be grateful for youlive in “Britain’s Oldest Colony.”

Bankrupt after the Great War, thou-sands emigrating to the States, fatherwith no help now that Johnny’s beenblown to bits by the Krauts? Be ofgood cheer, we’ll put a fine-lookingstatue down in Bowring Park and callit “The Fighting Newfoundlander.”

There he stands to this day about toheave a hand-grenade across the roadtoward the Waterford Hospital. Therewe also have another change inbrand. It used to be the Hospital forMental and Nervous Diseases … Iguess they had to change the name orelse, due to excessive branding, we’dall be hammering the doors down.

I was slow off the mark with mybranding student. On reflection, Idon’t feel so bad about myself now.The branding and rebranding businesshas greatly speeded up and you needthe nimbleness of youth to keep track— witness the recent “Trust andConfidence” rally and petition.

Those of riper years might haveconfused it with Nelson Mandela’s“Truth and Reconciliation” move-ment in South Africa. But it’s anentirely different brand, even theflags are different. Our new wrapper,it seems, is a rather pallid pink, whiteand green affair, declared to be a freshtoken of Newfoundland patriotismand under which, one hopes, noscoundrel will find a last refuge.

Ray Guy’s column returns June 22.

RAY GUYA Poke In The Eye

Harvey Hodder Paul Daly/The Independent

By Ivan Morgan The Independent

To understand Harvey Hodder,you need to know that the veter-an politician — whose tenure as

Speaker of the House of Assembly hasbeen the most tumultuous sinceConfederation — takes the time everymorning to play a hand of cribbagewith Pearl, his wife of 45 years, beforethey start their day. They have beendoing so for decades.

Hodder is rooted in family and com-munity. Poised to retire from politics,he talks to The Independent about hispolitical career.

In 2003, after forming the govern-ment under Danny Williams’ leader-ship, the long-time mayor of MountPearl and seasoned MHA offered him-self as candidate to be the province’sfirst elected Speaker. He says it was hisdeep interest in parliamentary proce-dure that attracted him to the job.

Tradition dictates the Speaker be cer-emoniously dragged to his chair by thepremier and the Opposition leader. InHodder’s case this was, in retrospect,perhaps particularly apt.

A public employee strike in April2006, during his first House session asSpeaker, saw Hodder being escorted tothe House from his home by police.

In June 2006, Hodder dealt with ahuge scandal involving constituencyallowance overspending and question-able financial practices in the legisla-tive accounts. He was “very much sur-prised” by the events.

Officers under his authority weresuspended. Colleagues he had workedwith for years, such as Ed Byrne, wereimplicated. The premier made intem-perate remarks about Hodder’s per-formance — remarks that he, asSpeaker, could not respond to.

“Speaker is a lonely job, becauseonce a Speaker speaks out on particularissues, then he or she compromises therole of the Speaker,” says Hodder.

He says having no concerns about hisown career enabled him to concentrateon his role in the event.

“Intense? Yes. Sleepless nights? No.” He’s been through worse.Born in Creston South on the Burin

Peninsula, Hodder graduated from St.Michael’s Anglican School and went toMemorial University, marrying PearlNoseworthy after his first year. Theyoung couple spent their first yearstogether finishing their degrees.

Hodder was teaching at MorrisAcademy in Mount Pearl when hedecided to run for council. It was 1969,Joey Smallwood was premier, and thecampaign cost him $17 dollars.

He does not include the cost of shoeleather.

“There were 3,600 people living inMount Pearl at that time, and I droppedoff a brochure at every single house-hold.”

His style of campaigning did notchange from that first election — healways focuses on door-to-door.

He says his wife played a vital role inhis career.

“She plays political organization likeshe plays crib. She plays to win,” helaughs.

After 20 years in council, includingfour terms as mayor, Hodder decided tomake the jump to provincial politics.

When he ran in 1993 in the provin-cial district of Waterford-Kenmount,the mayor of Mount Pearl was told run-ning in a district where 76 per cent ofresidents were in St. John’s was a “ter-rible way to finish up your politicalcareer.”

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

House leader, critic for many portfo-lios, and chair of the strategy commit-tee that organized question period.

Then came the 2003 election and hisfour-year term as Speaker, which hesays will pave the way for better gov-ernment.

Hodder says the soon-to-be releasedreport by Chief Justice Derek Greenreviewing MHA pay and benefits willmake his successor’s job easier. Hesays the next Speaker will preside over“the very best system of accountabilityand management” ever drafted.

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

When he and his wife suffered thedevastating loss of their 14-year-oldson David — who died suddenly of anundiagnosed condition while watchingtelevision in their rec room — Hoddersays it was his community that savedthem.

“I think the way in which the MountPearl community wrapped their armsaround us gave us the encouragementto continue on.”

Hodder says he is especially gratefulfor the teenagers of his community, “fortheir warmth, for their generosity …their comfort” which Hodder says gavehim and his wife the ability to refocusand “go on in life.”

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

“Handling the scandal in the Houseis nothing compared to that tragedy,”says Hodder, adding if the stress of thedeath of his son can be rated a 10, whathappened in the House rates “no higherthan a two.”

And as for the woman he plays cribwith every morning? He says after allthose years, they’re still playing, andthey’re still married.

[email protected]

Playing the cards he was dealtHarvey Hodder reflects on his 38-year political career


‘Heard you were dead’He drove a mustang, four or five

years old, dirty red and rum-bling. The driver door swung

open outside the gas station in the eastend of Town and a seatbelt buckleslapped against the side of the car. Theman behind the wheel had troubleunbuckling (or untangling) himself,escaping the car in an awkward birth ofblack leather and jeans. He swung hisarms out from his body when hewalked, carving the orbit of a muchbigger man.

“Heard you were dead,” said theclerk behind the counter, a girl in herearly 20s with pigtails and a belly tat-too. She hadn’t taken her eyes off theman since he entered the store andbegan searching the aisles, saucer eyesand sway.

“It’s cold,” the man said of beingdead, as the local paper had reported intypical Mark Twain fashion: reports ofRandy Druken’s demise had been“greatly exaggerated.”

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

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

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

“I figured you would have called mefor a story,” said Druken, carefully,forming the words in his mouth beforereleasing them.

In fact, The Independent made con-tact with Druken in early April whenreporter Brian Callahan wrote a front-page article on how he’s been sincereceiving more than $2 million late lastyear. The money was compensationfrom the provincial government for his1993 wrongful conviction in the grue-some stabbing death of his former girl-friend, Brenda Marie Young.

“I hear it all the time, right?” Drukentold the paper. “People don’t think I’llmake it to next week. That’s enough forme right there … to prove ’em allwrong.

“Believe me … I’m far from killingmyself. But I do have to keep a checkon it. Some days are better than others.But don’t get me wrong — I’m notwalking around whacked out of it allthe time, either.”

He appears slightly whacked out of iton this day.

Druken told me he managed to quithis addiction to Oxycontin. “It wasonly hard for three or four days,” but hesays he’s still on drugs, Ritalin amongthem, an amphetamine-like stimulantused to treat attention deficit disorder inkids.

Druken left the store, before return-ing quickly with a plastic cup of salsa.“She didn’t want that kind,” Drukentold the clerk of an unseen passenger inhis Mustang, proceeding to the back ofthe store.

“I could write another story?” I sug-gested when Druken returned to thecounter to exchange his purchase.

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

•••Druken sightings around Town are a

reminder of all that is wrong with ourprovincial Justice system. Druken mayhave been given money for his trou-bles, but his troubles are still with him.

The wrongful convictions of Druken,Gregory Parsons and Ronald Daltonstill reverberate throughout the land.Our front-page special report this weekis an interview with the mother ofChrissy Newman, who was murdered

in her Airport Heights apartment inmid-January.

Yvonne Harvey fears previouswrongful convictions by the Justicesystem are delaying the ongoing policeinvestigation into her daughter’s death.

Her patience is running thin.“I’m notprepared to let my daughter becomeanother victim of a faulty system.”

The Lamer inquiry may have investi-gated the wrongful convictions, recom-mending changes to strengthen the sys-tem, but the $11 million-plus judicialinquiry wasn’t a guarantee of restoredfaith in the system.

An apparent lack of faith continues toundermine our judicial system.

From the Mount Cashel scandal tothe Lamer inquiry, from the ShirleyTurner case and her murder/suicide tothe back-to-back mistrials in the case ofa St. John’s doctor accused of sexualassault and drug trafficking, from out-dated jury lists to the police silence onthe Chrissy Newman case, there’s rea-son for the public to be concerned.

The fact that the RoyalNewfoundland Constabulary won’tbreathe a word about the Newmaninvestigation doesn’t help matters.Communication is nil.

Public confidence has been rattled,

not just in the Justice system either.Faith in health care has been shatteredwith news this week that a judicialinquiry has been called to find out whymore than 300 breast cancer patientswere given wrong test results, possiblyleading to incorrect treatment. In othernews, a radiologist at the BurinPeninsula Health Centre has beenrelieved of his duties pending a reviewof an estimated 6,000 of his reports.

The right to health care and a soundjustice system are the fundamentals ofour society. Ours is showing cracks.

RARE BREEDLocal radio icon Scott Chafe died this

week after a brief battle with lung cancer.Scott was a rare breed of newsman. He cov-ered the legislature for VOCM when I cov-ered it for The Telegram.

On more than one occasion when I hadleft the House of Assembly early for the dayto get a head start on my stories, Scottwould telephone me with a heads up ifsomething had happened in the legislature.Scott didn’t have to go out of his way foranother reporter at another media outlet, buthe did, because that’s the kind of man hewas. Here’s to Scott, a finer soul I have yetto meet.

[email protected]

Dear editor,St. John’s Mayor Andy Wells’ pub-

licly stated opinion on the HiberniaSouth decision by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador OffshorePetroleum Board (C-NLOPB) hasraised a frightful issue. Whether or notthe board’s decision should have beendifferent or that the process for arrivingat such a decision ought to have beendone differently is one thing. The mer-its and arguments of that will remainwith those who had the facts at handand who were vested with the responsi-bility of ensuring that due process wasfollowed in all respects.

What is paramount, however, is thatwe must have, as required under theAtlantic Accord, a mechanism for pre-serving and establishing a fair and sta-ble regime for managing our offshorepetroleum resources. That was why theC-NLOPB was established in the firstplace. What is frightful is that such astable regime is now seriously at risk.

Wells, as a member of the C-NLOPB,has apparently publicly referred to theboard’s decision regarding HiberniaSouth as being “incompetent” and thatthe board is being run like a Soviet cen-tral committee. The fact that he hasdone so publicly as a serving member is

an important issue that the board haschallenged and irrespective of the rulesregarding conflict of interest and gener-ally acceptable decorum, such a publicchallenge will likely do us more harmthan good in the long run.

If Wells indeed is the only one in stepin the parade and if what he is saying istrue, then he should be commended andthe rest of the board members shouldall be dismissed. If not, he should bedismissed. In any case, it is now theresponsibility of both ministers todecide who is in step and to take theappropriate action. This should not beconsidered as simply a matter betweenthe chair, Max Ruelokke and Wells.What the mayor has raised does notsmack of stability but instead has creat-ed a climate of mistrust, confrontationand is self-destructive and needs to bedealt with in the interest of allNewfoundlanders and Labradorians. Ihope that the respective ministers havethe balls to make a clear decision andclean up this mess because in the longrun, there is a great deal at stake.

Angus Taylor,English Harbour, Trinity

(former C-NLOPB Manager, Legal and Land)

C-NLOPB ‘at risk’

RYAN CLEARYFightingNewfoundlander

YOURVOICE

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

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

AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR

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

www.theindependent.ca • [email protected]

The Independent is published by Independent News Ltd. in

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

issues and current affairs that affect the people of

Newfoundland & Labrador.

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

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

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

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

‘Fight if you’re a man’Dear editor,

Just reading Norm Doyle’s self-serv-ing comments in my May 18Independent (‘Between and a rock anda hard place’, by Ivan Morgan), inwhich he attempted to explain hisspineless knuckling under to StephenHarper in the matter of the recent budg-et vote.

I’m paraphrasing, but I think hiswhine went something like this: Icouldn’t vote for my province because

I wouldn’t get any money for my rid-ing; I’d be kicked out of caucus; I cando better working within the system;and it wouldn’t do any good becauseeverybody else voted for it anyway. Healso threw in a quote from a KennyRogers’ song, “You got to know whento hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

Well, Mr. Doyle, being such a bigKenny Rogers fan, I’m sure that you’llappreciate another selection from hisrepertoire. It’s called Coward of the

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

Ada Bradbury,Upper Island Cove

‘Super speech’Dear editor,

‘Too long we have been silent’ was asuper speech. I heard it at the Confeder-ation Hill rally and I just read it againonline (published in the May 11 edi-tion, by Ryan Cleary). Great job!

Gord Dunphy,St. John’s

Dear editor,In response to the story Sew chic,

(May 11 edition of The Independent byMandy Cook), I would suggest that the14 newly minted young artists betaught to use an iron. The seams on thedress in the photograph need a goodpressing before any potential customer(blessed with good eyesight) wouldspring the $90 to $250 asking price.

P.A. McNeil,St. John’s

Learn to iron

‘Talk about an imbalanced society’

Dear editor,One would assume the Aliant phone

book cover shown in your story(Scrunchins, May 18 edition) is thesame for all Atlantic Canada, thus thewinner from New Brunswick, of allplaces. Don’t mean to be picky. Welook forward to Friday mornings.

Gordon Tizzard,Corner Brook

‘Don’t mean to be picky’

Dear editor,What an imbalanced society we live in.

A headline in the sports pages reads,Roger Clemens gets $28-million dealwith Yankees. The seven-time CyYoung Award-winning pitcher musthave had trouble paying his bills, so hecame rushing out of retirement andsigned “again” with George Stein-brenner’s big league money machine,namely the New York Yankees. In aMay 18th exhibition game in Floridabetween the Tampa Bay Yankees andthe Fort Myers Miracle, poor Rogerwas told to only pitch 45 to 60 pitches.The Yankees owner and coaches hopepoor Roger will get that count up toaround 90 pitches when the regularMajor League Baseball season starts.At his 2007 rate of pay, poor Roger willget about $6,000 a pitch (hopefully allstrikes). Talk about imbalance.

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

American Idol show, went to Africa“to help those poor downtrodden peo-ple.” Fox Network asked the ordinarypeople of North America to cough uphard-earned dollars to support the mil-lions of people there who are destituteand sick with hunger and malnutrition.Nearly a $100 million was suckedfrom the folks. (Hit them in the heartand the pocket book while things arehot.) Meanwhile, the U.S. governmentis spending billions of dollars in Iraqand Afghanistan in an unwinnablewar, a war they should not have start-ed. So Roger plays ball and gets $28million for just 80 or 90 pitches pergame, and Bush continues to pile themoney into the military. Those whohave and those who have not, thingswill never change. Talk about animbalanced society.

Bill Westcott,Clarke’s Beach

Pitcher Roger Clemens REUTERS/Scott Audette

‘They were very dear to me’Dear editor,

I have been watching the news withinterest lately. I am distressed aboutthe situation with the breast cancertesting issue. I have two cousins andan aunt who died within the last sixyears from breast cancer. They werevery dear to me and are missed byeveryone in our family. We mourntheir passing. We are still sufferingemotional stress because of the factthat they suffered so intensely beforethey passed. None of them were everoffered any chemotherapy because,supposedly, the fact that they hadmastectomies was curative.

Removing their breasts was sup-posedly the only therapy they needed.Family members are left to wonder ifour relatives were among the oneswho did not get the treatment theymay have needed.

The husbands of my relatives whohave passed do not want to open uptheir investigation into this topic and

get involved in the class-action suit.At least two of them have remarriedand want to move on from that painfulperiod in their lives.

I commend Gerry Rogers forspeaking out on this issue. I feel she isspeaking for those who cannot speakfor themselves because they are nothere to do so.

It is my hope that systems will beput in place to ensure this does nothappen again. No one should losetheir life because proper tests werenot done or they were not interpretedcorrectly.

Statistically we know that a certainsmall percentage of errors is consid-ered “acceptable” in the realm of sci-ence. However, to have 200 womenpass prematurely (in my opinion) isnot acceptable statistically or in thereal world.

Marg Osbourne,St. John’s


YOURVOICE

Dear editor,We have been a partner, though not

equal, in Confederation for some 58years. More and more we are hearingthe word made famous in Quebec bythe late Rene Lévesque — separation.

As a people we benefited fromConfederation with money for roads,hospitals and schools, but as timewent on, did our welcome get wornthin? Who is really benefiting fromour resources? Since the late 19thcentury, Canada’s centre of manufac-turing has been concentrated in twoprovinces — Ontario and Quebec.The Ontario economic engine hasbeen driven by the iron ore ofLabrador that is used in the auto man-ufacturing and steel industries.Because of cheap Churchill Fallspower, Quebec can offer big businessand industry appallingly cheap elec-tricity, for producing many householdand industrial products.

Have we been the victims of ourown politicians over the years takingwhat Ottawa threw our way? Were weforceful enough in fighting for ourfair share of federal programs andbenefits? As a province of Canada arewe getting fair treatment? Why arethe majority of military jobs, espe-cially naval, located in Nova Scotia?

POOR COUSINFor many years Newfoundland and

Labrador has been thought of as apimple on the backside of upperCanada. Out of Parliament’s 308seats, we have a meagre seven. Howmuch clout do we really have?

Our fishery has been decimated andour hydro is controlled by Quebec.They blocked Newfoundland’s effortsfrom putting a power corridor acrossits territory. Federal governmentsover the years have refused to inter-vene because of the number of seatsthat are available in Quebec. For theresources that Newfoundland had, weshould be in the top three of the rich-

est provinces in Canada. Instead weremain in some aspects still the poorcousin. But today we have a premierwho refuses to allow Newfoundlandand Labrador to be pillaged anylonger. Some see his ways as a deter-rent to business in this province, butthe day will come when all New-foundlanders and Labradorians willsing his praises.

On the equalization front whereshould our loyalties stand? Theanswer to this question is obvious —with the premier.

This I hope is the beginning of theend for the Stephen Harper govern-ment. The amount of equalization atstake would do wonders for New-foundland and Labrador. It is time forall Newfoundlanders and Labrador-ians to stand united as one and showthe rest of Canada that we believe inour premier and his government.

Wayne Lynch,Grand Falls-Windsor

Ipose a question: if you refuse towear a helmet while riding yourbicycle, why should I have to pay

your medical bills when or if you havean accident and suffer a head trauma? Ifyou end up on life support, or in needof permanent care, why should the tax-payer be on the hook for your stupidi-ty?

Just today I saw six different peoplecycling through traffic — none werewearing helmets.

Although I hate rules and live by thephilosophy “I don’t wanna and youcan’t make me,” I think the bylawrequiring cyclists to wear helmets is agood one. Pity it isn’t enforced. I thinkit should be toughened up too. Failureto comply should result in a big fine —say $1,000 — and the bike confiscated.Zero tolerance. Seriously.

Harsh? Absolutely, but we havesocialized medicine. If I am payingyour medical bills, you should wear ahelmet. Helmets have been proven tosave lives and protect against seriousinjury.

The basic philosophy of our health

care system remains the same 40 yearson — universal coverage for medical-ly necessary health care services pro-vided on the basis of need, rather thanthe ability to pay — principles I usual-ly embrace.

But when it comes to the doofus Isaw today, easily 30 years old, weavingand dodging helmetless through trafficon a mountain bike, I fear my princi-ples waver.

If this guy, I thought as I watchedhim play chicken with a minivan, can-not understand the importance of wear-ing a helmet, why should we be on thehook for the $200,000 a year or morewe will have to cough up if he zigswhen he shoulda zagged and ends uplying in a long-term care ward?

I have heard all the argumentsagainst this line of thinking. Universal

health care is universal. We look afterour idiots. If we start splitting hairs,where does it end? Do we excludedrunk drivers from free heath care? Dowe exempt smokers? I have a weaknessfor sausages. Do we refuse to pay formy bypass if and when the sausagescatch up with me? Do we start exclud-ing fast food junkies? Do we startexcluding people who don’t exercise?Where does that line get drawn?

I’d like to say the line starts with thisclown, but I couldn’t turn him awayfrom emergency, damn it. But I won-dered, as I watched this guy race aMetrobus, where will the line be drawnon health care?

And lines may some day have to bedrawn. Our health care system getsmore expensive every year. When uni-versal health care was conceived, ifyour arteries were blocked you died. Ifyou had most types of cancer, you died.

Medicine has now advanced to thepoint where medical procedures onlydreamed about in the 1960s are nowroutine, and expensive. Medicineadvancing is a good thing — age

advancing not so much.The way it looks now, if you are my

age (47) or younger, you could be pay-ing into something that won’t bearound to look after you in your declin-ing years. If you are my age or older,you are probably poised to bankrupt thesystem into which you have paid yourwhole life, unless we get a handle onexpenditures.

That’s the big question — how dowe control spending? Do we startdrawing lines?

We all pay into this public insuranceplan. With private insurance, if youdon’t lock your car, you’re not protect-ed against theft. If you deliberatelyburn down your house, you’re not cov-ered.

This is because if it weren’t this waythe system would soon be bankrupted.Hello?

So should some people be deniedhealth care coverage? If so, where dowe draw the terrible line?

Is it with bucko on the Raleigh witha death wish?

Should rich people get better treat-

ment? Is there a dollar amount attachedto saving a life? If not a dollar amount,an age limit? If not an age limit, then alifestyle plateau? Quit smoking or gethove off the plan? Lose weight or getcut from the list? Start exercising or beleft out in the cold?

It could be argued a drastically over-weight person who smokes a pack ofcigarettes a day and never exercises isdoing the same thing as the cyclist withno helmet — just in slow motion. Dowe have to foot the bill for his/herpending medical disaster? What do wedo about this?

Unless we get a handle on health carespending, these are nasty questions thatare going to have to be answered soon-er rather than later.

I am sure the Lance Armstrongwannabe I watched made it home safe,this time. I am sure he has his reasonsfor not wearing a helmet. And rightnow, thanks to our universal healthcare, if he is hurt he is protected.

The question is: do we need to beprotected from him?

[email protected]

Should some people be denied health care?IVAN MORGANRant & Reason

MUN CONVOCATION

‘Pimple on the backside of upper Canada’

e love celebrations too.

Editor’s note: the following letter waswritten to John Furlong, host of CBCRadio’s Fisherman’s Broadcast, with acopy forwarded to The Independent.

Listening to your interview with LeoSeymore last evening on the broadcast, athought came to my mind. Time magazinehas their Person of the Year so doesn’tThe Broadcast have a Caller of the Yearor Participant of the Year, and with thatidea in mind my vote goes to LeoSeymore.

I have never met the man, nor do Iknow much about his situation, but I amstruck by his concern for other fishers,outport Newfoundland, his frustrationwith those in control and his abundance ofcommon sense — a quality sadly lackingin those whom we put in control of ourlives and our destiny. It is too bad thereare not more outport people like Mr.Seymore, as most people who do call The

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

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words Iam attaching to this e-mail a photo I tookthrough my window this morning show-ing the ice conditions off Twillingate, asituation that has existed for months andthreatens to persist for some time in thefuture.

Such conditions constitute an emer-gency situation for many fishing familiesalong the northeast coast, yet I am struckby the silence of our elected memberswhose mandate it is to represent the inter-est of their constituents. Of course, asShakespeare said, “The fault lies not inour stars, but in ourselves!”

The one thing I do know for certain isthat the era of the small-boat fisher is over— not so much the fault of the egocentricpolitician, not so much the fault of theincompetence of DFO, but rather because

of the apathy and the silence of fisherpeople themselves.

We know from observing the politi-cians that their words are shallow camou-flage that attempt to hide a grievous self-serving agenda, but yet as individuals wedo not demand that politicians put theinterest of their people above their ownattempt at personal fame and fortune.

Our media, whose limited radar rangeextends not beyond the overpass, hassickened us along the northeast coast inrecent weeks with the FPI soap opera,while largely oblivious to the situationexperienced by fishers struggling to stayin their communities.

So John, I applaud the few lonely soulslike Mr. Seymore whose heart is in ruralNewfoundland, who wants to be able tolive and work in his community, but yetremains largely ignored.

David Boyd, Twillingate

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

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

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

We sometimes cannot help but feel,

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

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

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

Bob LeMessurier,Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dear editor,The establishment of an Outpatient

Intensive Care Eating Disorder Centre,as announced in the provincial budget, isa major breakthrough for present andfuture disordered eating families.

The centre, once operational, will pro-vide a front door to more focused andsubstantially improved treatment andrelated support services. The feedbackreceived by the eating disorder founda-tion at several of its public meetingsclearly indicated a dire need exists forsuch a centre. Today’s treatment servicesare fragmented and are unable to respondeffectively to what, in my judgment, is amajor health issue.

The foundation has received numerous

calls from families around the provincelooking for direction and support and weare hopeful that the new centre will intime be able to respond to this need andprovide more hope for affected families.

We need to remind ourselves onceagain that some 8,000 families are expe-riencing disordered eating and the foun-dation is encouraging families to comeforward and seek counseling and sup-port. It needs to be stressed that earlytreatment is key to successful recoveryand families have to be more aggressiveand determined to get the support theyneed. We must overcome the traditionalstigma attached to eating disorders andrecognize and accept that some 10-15 percent of adolescents are experiencing

some form of disordered eating. The No.1 priority for the recently established eat-ing disorder foundation is to focus itsresources on awareness programs and tochallenge and mitigate the myths thatcurrently are a serious impediment to ourunderstanding of the real scope andextent of disordered eating. The estab-lishment of a foundation coupled with adedicated treatment centre will not onlyresult in more responsive and effectivetreatment and family support services,but most importantly, will signal for thefirst time a sense of hope that somethingis finally being done.

Vince Withers, Chairperson, Eating Disorder

Foundation, St. John’s

Ship in state

Fault lies not in the stars, but in Newfoundlanders

Eating disorder centre ‘major breakthrough’

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Kayla Walters and classmates at Memorial University’s spring convocation ceremonies this week Nicholas Langor/The Independent


Beni Malone graduated fromclown school and began plant-ing the seeds for Wonderbolt

Circus about the same time Cirque duSoleil was getting off the ground.

Cirque, of course, is now a globalphenomenon, entertaining millionsthrough its many shows and worldtours. Wonderbolt, though it has beenconfined mostly within Canada’s bor-ders, shares some similarities.

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

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

ily friendly, it’s children friendly, forsure. But the most surprising thingabout it is how adult interesting it is.It’s not dumbed down like some kids’shows.”

Wonderbolt has just passed its 25thanniversary, and seems to be gatheringmomentum by the season.

Most recently, Wonderbolt pulledoff one of its biggest and best-receivedshows ever, for a room full of adults atthe annual Newfoundland OceanIndustries Association conference atthe convention centre in downtown St.John’s.

Given a solid budget and the go-ahead to do a top-notch Vegas-styleshow, Malone says he and his grouptook the opportunity to “get a lot ofour ideas together” — and make a“more sophisticated” show that wouldstop the most staid and conservativeaudience members in their tracks.

There were 13 performers, includ-ing a three-piece jazz band, singerJulia Halfyard, a juggling troupe, aeri-alists, unicyclist, clowns and more.There was song, dance, choreography,fun and drama.

“Before we even came out for ourbow, everyone was on their feet,” saysMalone. “It was a breakthrough showfor us, on a bunch of levels. We cameup with a whole new thing, new ener-gy and jazzy music.

“I’m realizing now that we’ve got ashow that could open in Amsterdam orToronto or London and it would work.But we’re living in St. John’s andwe’ve got to find a market for it.”

And there’s the rub. Wonderbolt iscurrently on the lookout for corporatesponsorship — and more corporategigs — to allow them to develop fur-ther. Because even after all this time,Malone still feels a degree of uncer-

INCAMERA

Wonderbolt grows upWonderbolt Circus, now 25 years

old, has built a reputation for creat-ing entertaining and action-packedshows both small and large, andfounder Beni Malone has plans totake the show even further. Pictureeditor Paul Daly caught up with theWonderbolt performers recently as

they prepared for a major show at the St. John’sConvention Centre, while managing editor StephaniePorter spoke with Malone about the evolution and futureof Newfoundland’s only established one-ring circus.

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

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


tainty at the beginning of each season.“It’s always, next year, are we going

to make it? This year, are we going to beable to pull it together? Every year,whatever I’ve got in June, I go with.And I do think peo-ple are starting toget it.

“We have a circusoperating out of St.John’s … and wewant to get one real-ly great show run-ning aroundNewfoundland andthat identifies withNewfoundland. Anyplace that can pro-duce a circus is a sign that they can pro-duce things. And we can do this.”

Wonderbolt’s new jazzy show may beon Malone’s mind at the moment, butthe circus is not always flashy effects

and big-ticket vaudeville shows thatcost thousands to pull off.

Malone still performs his solo acts(“really traditional old-fashionedclowning, which I love”) regularly, at

schools and other events.And he’ll get together witha handful of performers onother occasions for theirscripted or seasonal shows— or more free-flowingperformances.

Even after hundreds ofsolo shows, and hundredsmore in an ensemble,Malone says he still loves,and believes in, what hedoes. New audiences and

frequent guest performers from all overthe world keep him inspired, enthusias-tic, and filled with ideas.

“I love performing for audiences andmaking the show work,” he says. “I’m

amazed that it always works … workingwith new people and seeing these newartists and having my daughter comeback regularly (Anahareo White-Malone, an accomplished aerialist),that’s really helped me.

“And seeing the people she bringsback, which are really these fantastic,dedicated, professional people. That’sreally given me another jolt, helpingbring the circus to a different level.”

This time of year, Malone and hiscrew are gearing up for Wonderbolt’sannual summer camp, welcoming stu-dents “from ages six to 60” starting thelast week of June. For the fourth year ina row, the troupe will be taking over St.Bon’s gymnasium on BonaventureAvenue in St. John’s — a space bigenough for stilt walkers, plenty ofclowns, and acrobatics in the air.

On July 18, the annual — but alwaysdifferent — Wonderbolt Circus Show

will open for a 10-day run, featuring adozen or so musicians, magicians, jug-glers, clowns, and everything else thegroup has become known for.

In August, Malone and company willpack up and travel to Labrador to againteach and perform at theKamataukatshiut festival, a circus festi-val in the Innu communities ofSheshatshiu and Natuashish.

In 2008, there are plans afoot for acomplete tour of Newfoundland andLabrador.

“It’s really quite exciting. And oncewe get to that next step …” Malonepauses. “Oh, you always have visions ofwhere you want to go. I know where Iwant to be next year … but who knows?We might be touring Norway or wemight be beating the bushes just to getthe best show we can in St. Bon’s. Whoknows?”

[email protected]

ws up“Any place that can

produce a circus is asign that they can produce things.”

Beni Malone

Anahareo White-Malone.

Beni Malone.

Alison Collins.


EASTERN HEALTH UNDER SCRUTINY

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

THE LESLIE HARRIS CENTRE OF REGIONAL POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT

The Impact of an “Atlantic Gateway” onTransportation Systems in Newfoundland and Labrador

Holiday Inn, St. John's, NLOn Wednesday, May 30th, 20078:30 am to 5:30 pm

Speakers from government and industry willdiscuss the implications to Newfoundland &Labrador of the proposal to make Halifax an“Atlantic Gateway” for goods coming to NorthAmerica from Europe and the Far East

To register, contact the Harris Centre at: (709) 737-6186 or [email protected]

More information is available at www.mun.ca/harriscentre/index.php

The police investigation into possible misuseof funds by the former executive of theNorth Shore Regional Development

Association, which covers much of the north shoreof Conception Bay, has concluded, and no chargeswill be laid.

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

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

Among other charges, the association’s newexecutive alleged thousands of dollars were direct-ed into Northern Bay Sands, a park once owned byRonald Johnson, a one-time head of the associa-tion, and father of Tory MHA Charlene Johnson.

The new executive also charged it had beenblacklisted by Johnson — a charge the MHAdenied.

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

“I think it was really sad and unfortunate that

these volunteers who were members of the pastassociation had their reputations questioned. Thesepeople are very well known in the area for theirvolunteer work,” she tells The Independent. “Asfar as I know, they never asked for thanks … andthey never asked for this either.

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

Johnson points out she was never personallyunder investigation. “The Liberals took advantageof this story and tried to create a notion of doubtabout my reputation and integrity which is veryimportant to me.

“They tried to create a scandal by raising it tothe public in their mock question period … it wascomplete and utter politics as far as I’m con-cerned.”

At least one key member of the new associationresigned during the seven-month investigation. Noone on the current executive could be reached byThe Independent before press deadline.

— Stephanie Porter

No charges laid from police probeinto development association

Finance Minister Tom Marshall says hedoubts implications of illegal “insider win-ning” involving retail outlets that sell

Atlantic lotto tickets will impact the treasury.“We’re not anticipating a decrease in revenue as

a result of what has happened at the ALC,”Marshall tells The Independent.

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

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

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has forwarded33 “customer complaints and concerns” to theprovince regarding retailer wins of up to $25,000.

A spokesperson for Attorney General TomRideout says those cases have been reviewed andforwarded to the RCMP for investigation.

— Ivan Morgan

Insider winning

Tory MHA Charlene Johnson Paul Daly/The Independent


‘Premature’ to develop lower ChurchillThe recent rally near Confederation

Building brought to mind one Iattended in December 2002 at

Mary Queen of Peace Parish Hall in St.John’s.

That rally featured PC leader DannyWilliams in fine oratorical style. Thetheme of his speech, repeated on placardsthroughout the hall, was “No more give-aways.” What evidently worried Wil-liams then was a suspicion that the then-Liberal government was about to disposeof the lower Churchill. He made it clearthere would be no such giveaways if hegot in.

“The power that’s on the Churchill isthe power of the people, and it should bethe power for the people,” he said. Thatevent was well covered by the localmedia, and I daresay it had an influenceon voters in October 2003 when theprovincial election was held. I saw a fewold Liberals in the hall. What they heardthat evening must have made them thinktwice about their customary allegiance.

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

the news. As we all know, cabinet hasdecided to proceed with the development.A team to drive it forward is in place.Officials with Newfoundland andLabrador Hydro say that the lowerChurchill should be generating electricpower by 2015.

The main markets for Labrador powerare the same now as they were in J.R.Smallwood’s time: Ontario, the easternU.S., and Quebec. Ontario and the U.S.couldn’t be reached in the 1960s withoutthe co-operation and agreement of theQuebec government, and the same per-tains today.

Quebec stands between us and the mar-kets. Quebec has the upper hand. Willpoliticians and officials there consent to“wheel” power from the lower Churchillthrough Hydro-Quebec’s transmission

lines without extracting a heavy price? Isuspect “Non!” will be the answer. Anydeal struck now will have to include agiveaway of some sort, though likely notas outrageous as the 1969 power contract.

One thing we can’t expect — that thefederal government will intervene to helpNewfoundland in any dispute withQuebec. It will not do so, no matter whatparty is in office in Ottawa, no matterwhat may be said in election campaigns.Quebec’s position in the federation isstronger than it was in Smallwood’s day.It’s officially a “nation” now; it was justa province then. The recent federal budg-et has shown once again how powerful itis.

I think it is premature to try and devel-op the lower Churchill, the last greatundeveloped natural resource in theprovince. Bureaucratic and corporatepressure to get it underway should beresisted. We should let the ChurchillRiver flow freely into the sea until thetiming is opportune for us, which willlikely be when the upper Churchill con-tract nears its expiry date in 2041. As that

approaches, Quebec will be forced tocome to the table and we will have cardsto play. By 2025, say, or 2030, the hard-ball Quebec attitude may have softened.In any event, as years pass a technologi-cal breakthrough may occur that willallow power to reach the biggest market,the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, without goingthrough Quebec.

Those dates are a long ways off. Butwhat’s the hurry? It’s not as if theresource will depreciate in value overtime. And the province is in fairly goodshape economically, thanks in large partto the PC government’s efforts on theAtlantic Accord, for which they must begiven credit. We can count on offshore oilrevenues rolling in for the next fewdecades to support health care, education,and other programs. There are some rea-sons for anxiety, chief among them therate of outmigration to Alberta, but gov-ernment can do little if anything aboutthat. I realize too that some areas of theprovince have very high unemploymentrates. We can’t match Alberta’s economicperformance — or Ontario’s, or B.C.’s, or

even Saskatchewan’s.Not now. But we might — in time.

Time is on our side.One more point. Newfoundlanders of

the early and mid-20th century gave uptheir country’s independence and agreedto be taken over, first, by the DominionsOffice in London, and second, by Ottawa— in other words, by foreigners.

Those of the late 20th century made atotal bollocks of the upper Churchill,helped bring the once abundant cod tonear extinction, and depleted mineral andforest resources. We in this generation areliving well mainly off revenues from anon-renewable resource, i.e., oil. Thequestion is: what kind of legacy will weleave behind? Should we leave some-thing for our children and grandchildrento develop when and if they see fit, and touse as they see fit? That’s not an econom-ic, but a moral question. I say we should.No more giveaways.

Patrick O’Flaherty is the author of LostCountry: The Rise and Fall ofNewfoundland, 1843-1933.

PATRICKO’FLAHERTYA Skeptic’s Diary

AROUND THE WORLDSir — In your first issue just come tohand, I have read with much pleasurenot only your Programme, which hasthe right ring in it, but a letter fromBishop Scandella, of Gibraltar, whichdeserves more pointed attention fromNewfoundland readers than the cursoryperusal which extracts from homepapers commonly attract.— Terra Nova Advocate and Political

Observer, May 20, 1876

AROUND THE BAYRemember Mrs. Brushett of BlackDuck Cove, Burin, who with a fine show of fortitude rocked for103.5 hours to become the worldrockathon champion? Her son isshowing the same kind of initiativeand determination. He is the BurinPeninsula Post’s star newsboy having topped the sales record two weeks in a row.

— Burin Peninsula Post, May 13, 1970

YEARS PASTRecently the Council has been troubled with the problem of roamingcattle and have decided to crack down on this violation of localMunicipal regulations. In future stray-ing animals will be impounded in a yard that has been fenced behind the Town Hall.

— Wabana Star, May 30, 1962

EDITORIAL STANDSome are very much confused respect-ing the attitude of this paper. StrongTories claim we are bent upon destroy-ing the Tory Government, while strongLiberals claim we are strongly infavour of the Morris Government. Bothare wrong. We will always condemnextravagance in public expenditure,graft, or the combination of the politicalmachines, that is dishonest and deliber-ately wrong. We must condemn suchoutrageous deeds as permitting aCabinet Minister to sit, vote, and argue,in favour of the enactment of measureswhich enable him to grow rich quick atthe public expense. Such an action iscontrary to the spirit and letter of ourConstitution, and is a hard blow at thevery root of Responsible Government.

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

LETTER TO THE EDITORDear Sir — You are already aware that aGeneral Election is to be held and thatPolling Day is fixed for May 8. Owingto the short time at our disposal we fearit may not be possible for us to see allour friends in person. We therefore sendyou a copy of this Circular letter, in casewe find it impossible to see you; tothank you most sincerely for the support

you gave us at the Election in Novemberlast and to ask you for a renewal of yourconfidence on May 8. We ask you to vote for us, and to votethe STRAIGHT LIBERAL TICKET, assplit votes and plumpers may mean thedefeat of a candidate you would wish tobe elected. We are yours faithfully,G.W.B. Ayre, G.W. Gushue and A.W.Miller

— The Enterprise, Trinity, May 1, 1911

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“This is not the cause of faction, or ofParty or of any individual but the com-mon interest of all.”

— The Sentinel, and Conception-BayAdvertiser masthead,

May 26, 1840

The Fisherman’s Advocate, 1951

Research into the root causes of heart disease and stroke willhelp millions live longer, healthier lives. As a leading funderof heart and stroke research in Canada, we need your help.Call 1-888-HSF-INFO or visit www.heartandstroke.ca

Stop a heart attack before it starts.Your support is vital.

AXMITH MCINTYRE WICHT LTD.

CLIENT: Heart & Stroke

AD N°.: n/a

Ad size: 6 col x 40 lines

12.58” x 2.875

Pub.: Template

Colours: B/w

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS MAY 25, 2007HEARD ALL THE MYTHS ABOUT DEBT

AND BANKRUPTCY? GET THE FACTS FROMNEWFOUNDLAND’S

PERSONAL DEBT EXPERTS

www.JanesNoseworthy.com

In St. John’s, 364-8148Offices throughout NL

Toll Free: 1 800 563-9779

By Kyla BruffFor The Independent

When Sarah Goodridge firstarrived in Sardinia, Italy, sherealized a piece of her luggage

was missing — and that she was complete-ly incapable of explaining this to the fam-ily that would be hosting her for the nextnine months.

A participant in the Rotary internationalexchange program, Goodridge, 18, could-n’t speak a word of Italian at the beginningof her exchange last September. Althoughshe says this caused initial awkwardness— and presented many challenges —things have changed quite a bit forGoodridge since then.

Now, her weeknights usually involvemeeting Italian friends at the main “Piazzad’Italia” in Sassari (the town she’s stayingin) and chatting, in Italian, at the localcafés. Although she says her grammar stillisn’t great, Goodridge now speaks the lan-guage freely and fluently and is glad theexchange offered her the opportunity tolearn it.

“Italian is a language that I more thanlikely would have not otherwise studied soit is great that I have had this opportunity,”she says.

“The exchange really helps with thelearning of the language because I am liv-

ing with an Italian family and going to aregular Italian school. Had I been living inItaly with my own family or studying inEnglish I doubt that I would have picked(it) up.”

The exchange sends students likeGoodridge from participating districtsaround the world each year. WhileGoodridge spends a year in Italy, there isan Italian student spending a year inAtlantic Canada. The Rotary Club coversall expenses, with the exception of airfare.

The program runs September to Maywith a primary goal of learning a new lan-guage, culture and way of life.

“At the beginning I did no school workbecause I didn’t understand anything,”says Goodridge. “When I go to schoolnow, I follow along but the teachers don’tmind what I do because they understandthat I have a diploma at home. The mainpurpose of me going to school here is sothat I can learn the language and socializewith local students.”

Goodridge graduated a year ago fromHoly Heart of Mary High school in St.John’s. She says the exchange is an excel-lent gap year between high school and uni-versity.

Travelling to Italy has also enabledGoodridge to experience a climate and cul-ture very different from that ofNewfoundland. The historical sites and

buildings in her city have allowed her tograsp the country’s history and lifestyle.

“The historic centre of my city is quiteinteresting, filled with mazes of tiny nar-row streets that a car can hardly passthrough. Some houses are only attainableby foot because the streets are so narrow… churches can be found hidden at thecentre of these mazes and people must goby foot to get there.”

From seeing the Pope give his weeklyaddress to visiting the leaning tower ofPisa, Goodridge has seen a lot since herarrival. Her favorite sight of all was theAmalfi Coast — a series of cliffs filledwith small communities leading to theocean.

Goodridge recommends this type ofexchange to other students as a great wayto learn about another culture and country.Her own adventures won’t end when sheleaves Italy at the end of this month.

She plans to meet up with fellowNewfoundlanders and spend another fourweeks extensively touring Europe. Thestops on her list include Amsterdam,Brussels, Bruges, Berlin, Krakow,Warsaw, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest,Barcelona and Paris.

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

VOICEFROMAWAY

A social exchangeSt. John’s native Sarah Goodridge is doing Grade 12 all over again — but this time, in Italy

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

TopthreeHelen Gregory, Anita Singh andMichael Pittman have all had LargeYears — but who will get the award?

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


None of the three artists short listedfor the second annual Large Yearaward — a prize awarded by

Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador toan artist who has enjoyed an exceptionalyear of achievement and growth — is at allvocal about beating out their fellow nomi-nees in a knock-down, drag-out art brawl.

Mostly, humble modesty prevails.“Initially, my reaction was there’s so

many people I know I feel that have doneso much in the province and my first reac-tion was ‘Not me,’” says Anita Singh, oneof three artists up for the award to be pre-sented on May 30.

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

Michael Pittman, a mixed-media visualartist based in Grand Falls-Windsor, saysit’s “really great” to be nominated — espe-cially, he notes, because he hasn’t beenshowing his work for all that long. But inan exciting year when he got hitched to hisnew bride Krista in Pinch Gut on the westcoast, he says it doesn’t bother him if hisname is called out at the ceremony.

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

St. John’s painter Helen Gregory puts thetight knit Newfoundland and Labradorartistic community in perspective. She wasrecently nominated for an artist of the yearaward (through the Newfoundland andLabrador Arts Council) for which MichaelPittman was a judge. Gregory laughs abouthow the situation was reversed last yearand she judged Pittman for the same acco-lade.

“We’re all friends — I’m in good compa-ny,” she says. “I think these things are justacknowledgment from your peers as tohow hard you work and acknowledgmentof if you’ve had a good year and I had agreat year last year.”

The highlight of Gregory’s large yearwas a sale to the National Gallery inOttawa (“That’s huge!”), followed by thepurchase of her work by the BeaverbrookGallery in Fredericton and this province’sart procurement program.

For the upcoming year, Gregory will beshowing new paintings at The Rooms, forwhich she will be interacting with museumcollections across Canada.

Upon her exploration of natural visualelements, such as preserved bird speci-mens, Gregory says there is “a transforma-tion” that occurs when a natural artifactbecomes a cultural artifact.

“All these birds were just dead birds, butby preserving them and putting them into amuseum they’re something more,” shesays. “They have their information attached

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

ANITA SINGH “Everyone’s got some creativity in them andwe’re all supportive of each other.”See “Winner announced,” page 18

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


Justin Simms, filmmaker and direc-tor of the upcoming production ofJoel Hynes’ novel Down to the

Dirt, remembers how the classicmoment in Steven Spielberg’s Raidersof the Lost Ark reinforced his youthfuldecision to make movies.

“There’s nothing cooler than IndianaJones running away from the big ballwhen you’re 14,” he says.

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

Newfoundland Independent Film Co-operative, is due to start shooting hisfirst feature on location in St. John’sand Halifax in mid-June.

He says the $600,000 project beganwhen he sat down with Hynes at a din-ing room table three years ago and thetwo made the decision to forge aheadwith their ambitious plan. Now they’refinally selecting actors, locations andcrew.

At the helm of the only major pro-duction confirmed for the province’ssummer shooting season, Simms ispragmatic about the distinction.

“The thing about being a filmmakerin Newfoundland you have to realizeit’s a very cyclical situation,” he says.“We are a small community insofar thatthere’s only so many companies andpeople trying to set projects up.

“Our own case of Down to the Dirtexemplifies it’s going to take a periodof time to put all the pieces together interms of the script and the financingand a general approach.”

Besides Simms’ project, a spokes-man for the Newfoundland and Labra-dor Film Development Corporationsays St. John’s-based Pope Productions

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

A $4 million CBC movie of the weekis also shaping up in the comingmonths, as is a CTV project budgeted at$8 million. In addition to the shootingschedule are “a couple” of documen-taries pegged at $400,000 apiece withlocal filmmakers such as Mary Sexton,Barbara Jones and Gerry Rogers at thehelm.

Frank Fagan, international marketingdirector for the Producer’s Associationof Newfoundland, says the perceived

slowdown in film productions this sea-son is all about timing and the small —but determined — number of local filmcompanies.

“There’s only a limited number ofproducers who’ve reached a builtcapacity that they’ve got something indevelopment, something in production,something in post (production),” hesays in a telephone interview with TheIndependent from the Cannes FilmFestival. “The lifetime of a project isfive to seven years.”

See “The big challenge,” page 19

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE MAY 25, 2007

Pittman’s large year also involvedin-depth research. In addition to a soloshow entitled Towards an IndigenousArt at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s, heshowed work at two galleries inIreland, stemming from the Masters ofFine Art degree he completed at the

Waterford Institute of Technology.Pittman spent a year painting on theEmerald Isle and another year-and-a-half completing practical research atthe Centre for Newfoundland Studiesat Memorial. He says his “digging”into the province’s history helped todefine his own method of artistic doc-umentation.

“My degree work focused on creat-ing a personal visual language.Creating icons or archetypes that I useto communicate my experiences asthey relate to place in Newfoundlandand Labrador.”

Like Pittman and Gregory, print-maker Singh showed her work at asolo exhibition this past year. She wasalso involved in the St. John’sMermaid Project — where EasterSeals kids used hand prints to createseaweed and scales on the mermaid’stail — and taught art classes at theAnna Templeton Centre.

But it was a week-long projectworking with junior high and elemen-tary school children in Lawn on theBurin Peninsula which she says wasmost “rewarding.

“It was reduction linocut printmak-ing. We did a large, as well as individ-ual, panel and turned our prints into alarge paper quilt,” says Singh. “It wasvery unusual for them and some ofthem really blossomed.”

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

“He’s definitely been part of mylarge year.”

The Excellence in Visual Artsawards, presented by Visual ArtsNewfoundland and Labrador, will beawarded May 30 at the Rooms in St.John’s.

In addition to the Large Year Award,the Long Haul Award (for a seniorartist who has made a lasting contribu-tion) and the Kippy Goins Award (toan organization or individual whoseefforts have helped to sustain and buildthe visual arts sector) will also be pre-sented.

[email protected]

Winner announced May 30From page 17

Here’s a little story about life in the 21stcentury. Recently, a relative of mine gotengaged. Within minutes, her entire

social circle and half her family knew all about it.No phone call, no e-mail — we found out aboutit on Facebook.

Yes indeed, everybody’s favorite Internetsocial network has officially reached hula-hoop-like pop culture fad status and it seems everyoneI have ever known (including, sadly, me) hasbeen swept up in the tide.

For those who have so far avoided its sirensong, Facebook is a network that allows you topost a profile of yourself, join groups, post pic-tures and whatnot. Basically, it’s a way to inter-act with other people without ever having toleave the safe, secure cocoon of your home to doso. It has more or less replaced last year’s insane-ly huge MySpace fad, which was more or lessthe same thing. Even the most avid Internetsocializers will readily admit it’s all an exercisein petty narcissism, but that’s the way they — Iguess I should say we — like it.

In my own defence, I will say such networksoffer a swell way to stay in touch, or to re-estab-lish contact with people you haven’t seen in awhile. Situations in which a phone call or (Godforbid) a real live in-person visit might beuncomfortable or just plain creepy are low-stressand most importantly optional online.

It’s getting to the point where we’re better atinteracting with the electronic devices we ownthan the people we know. There are folk out therewho would rather sit in a room together sendingmessages back and forth on their Blackberriesthan go through the awkward ordeal of making alittle eye contact and using their vocal cords tocommunicate.

And why not? People are inconvenient.Dealing with one another through an electronicbuffer eliminates the question marks, tailoringhuman interactions to our schedule and prefer-ences. E-mail and voice mail already ensure thatwe speak only to the people we choose and onlywhen we’re good and ready. Internet socializingas a substitute for the real thing is simply the nextlogical step.

Sure, people use their computers to set up real-life encounters, but the interactions leading up tothat point have all been carefully controlled. It’san environment where you get a chance to editand polish each and every word you say. You caneven alter or erase things you’ve already said.Man, I wish my real life came with that feature.

In a way, the creation of an online persona hasbecome an art form in and of itself. The onlineversion you create when you post content on theweb isn’t exactly you, it’s whatever version ofyourself you choose to present. And unlike thereal world, where there’s only so much playing

around with the facts you can do before you runup against certain undeniable truths, the Internetlets you take it as far as you want to go.

As the available technology becomes moresophisticated, it’s harder to know if what you’relooking at is really what you’re looking at. It’snot just a question of fudging a few age, heightand weight-related numbers anymore, either. Getyourself a copy of Photoshop, spend an eveningdoing a little pointing and clicking and voila!You’re younger, hotter and more eligible thanyou’ve been in years — or ever! Hallelujah!

Keep your relationships Internet-based, avoidthe inconvenience of human interaction altogeth-er, and you’ve got it made. Simply imagine theease of having a special someone without all thatpesky compromise and giving and — ugh! —sharing conventional relationships demand.

And as long as you never have to meet the peo-ple you’re talking to, you need never come cleanabout all that stuff you can’t stand about your-self.

Small wonder Canada’s population is drop-ping. With talking to each other in person becom-ing so passé, getting close enough to actuallyprocreate is a bigger challenge than ever. Staytuned, though. I’m certain lab-coated sciencenerds the world over are working like savages onsome kind of virtual baby who grows into a vir-tual toddler, child and teenager.

That way, you’ll be able to order exactly whatyou want and never have to be burdened withorganic waste or unpredictable and annoyingindividual personality traits picked up from you.Finally! Thirty per cent more family with none ofthe messy clean up.

Sean Panting is a writer, musician and actor basedin St. John’s.

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

Creating the on-line youWho needs human interaction when we can just use our computers?

SEANPANTING

State of the art

Fagan says documentaries are thebread and butter of Newfoundland andLabrador filmmakers — but don’t getas much high-profile attention as thebig budget dramas. He notes CBC hasmoved away from mini-series’ andmovies of the week for television in thepast year, which typically account for75 per cent of this province’s film out-put.

“That’s affected us greatly becausethose were the things producers outsideof central Canada tended to be doing,”he says.

As for Simms, he’s focusing on hisimmediate personal and professional

test. He breaks down the three compo-nents of making a film from conceptionto theatres in a province with limitedresources. First, he says, is the script —without a good one, nothing else mat-ters. Next comes countless hours ofwriting funding proposals and findinginvestors. After that is a great deal ofpersonal will.

“(The) big challenge is trying to keepyour passion up because in the courseof three years you’re going to hit peaksand valleys … hopefully your feelingfor it and what you’re trying to say as afilm is enough to power you throughthe most challenging times.”

[email protected]

‘The big challenge is trying to keep your passion up’

From page 17

Justin Simms Rhonda Hayward/For The Independent


Festival 500 ‘ambassadors’Many hands make light work,

says Janet Miller, operationsmanager with Festival 500.

“There are so many people who volun-teer their time, people who come backfor each festival simply because theyenjoyed the experience so much.”

Miller say it’s “incredible” how thosewho give their time say they receive somuch in return.

Patricia Young has volunteered sincethe first festival ran in 1997, and consid-ers herself “privileged” to be involvedwith the celebrations again this year. “Iexperience real sadness when each fes-tival is over. Waving good-bye to a choiryou have been involved with as a volun-teer is quite emotional,” she says. Thereare often promises to keep in touch, shesays, and there are certainly tears at theconclusion of each festival.

Festival 500 is a non-competitive fes-tival that celebrates choral music. Itbrings choirs, conductors, and scholarsfrom all over the world to St. John’s.This year’s performances run from July1-8 and choirs are prepared to sharetheir voices with Newfoundland andLabrador. Besides the visiting and localchoirs, the week-long event draws alarge audience. Without the help of over150 volunteers, organizers say theywould be lost.

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

“When you stop and evaluate whatgoes into a festival of this size — howmuch work is involved behind thescenes — then volunteering is not a job,but a commitment,” she says.

Gary Lane, chair of the St. John’sorganizing committee, agrees. “Foreveryone, no matter the job, they areambassadors of this province,” he says.

Each participating choir is assigned avolunteer and finding the right fit can bea challenge. “A visiting choir fromSpain will require a Spanish-speakingvolunteer to act as a local host to answerany questions they may have,” Youngexplains.

The same must be done for each choir.“As a volunteer you carry out whatev-

er job you have taken on, be it greetingplanes, taking tickets, serving lunches orhanding out programs,” she says. Thereis a job for everyone. “It is hard work,but also a lot of fun,” Young laughs.

Lane runs through the list of servicesperformed by volunteers, careful to cap-ture them all. “Transportation, venuesupport, hospitality, merchandise sales,ushers … pretty much everything that

goes on is performed by volunteers,” hesays. Some volunteers open up theirhomes to visiting choral groups, othersserve as guides or help prepare lunches.

“In my estimation, those who volun-teer are the most important componentof each festival,” Lane admits, addingvolunteering comes with perks. “Eachvolunteer can enjoy the best choral per-formances in the world for free,” hesays.

Miller says volunteering at festivaltime has become a regular part of manylives, some Newfoundlanders andLabradorians even co-ordinate theirvacation time in order to participate.“You tend to see the same faces eachyear, and that speaks volumes,” shesays. “Volunteering must be a positiveexperience despite the hard workinvolved or we wouldn’t see the samepeople festival after festival.”

There is also the thrill of workingwith new volunteers, and meeting newchoirs. “There is a growing excitementas you wonder who will you meet thisyear,” says Miller, who’s filled with aweat the end of each festival.

“When you look at the numbers thatcome to perform, and you realize thepart you played in helping make thatfestival a success ... it can be over-whelming,” she admits.

Young agrees, saying she highly rec-ommends volunteering with Festival500, calling her own experiences “won-derful.

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

If you would like to volunteer withFestival 500, or wish to purchase ticketsin advance, visit their web site atwww.festival500.com or call 709–738-

Previous participants from Festival 500.

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 21

There have been a number ofattempts in recent years to explainthe sudden power surge in the lit-

erature of Newfoundland and Labrador,especially in fiction. How could aprovince with barely a print traditionsuddenly find itself at the forefront ofCanadian writing, trendsetting with thelikes of Wayne Johnston, Michael Winterand Lisa Moore? After all, we haven’tbeen publishing books for that long orthat much. And given the relatively smallsize of our population, surely it shouldhave taken us a few more years to catchup than it has.

The province’s oral tradition of storyand song is often cited as a contributingfactor in this rapid development. We maynot have been writing, the theory goes,but we were certainly giving recitations,singing ballads, telling tales and other-wise making sport and art with theEnglish language. It’s only a small jump,then, from what is said to what is written.

Mary Dalton’s third poetry collection,Merrybegot, is probably the best argu-ment for that position.

Using multiple perspectives, Daltonsought to capture the music of theEnglish language as it is spoken here.Using the speech patterns, the idioms andrhythms of Newfoundland and Labrador,she created a lively portrait of a culture ina state of metamorphosis, and in sodoing, obliquely commented on the dis-solution of traditional culture and tradi-tional speech.

Other Newfoundland poets (MichaelCrummey in Hard Light, for instance; AlPittman generally) have been similarlyinfluenced, not by the word writtendown, but by the word expelled as breathand sound. All this is by way of sayingAgnes Walsh’s second collection ofpoems, Going Around with Bachelors,

places her firmly in that same tradition ofNewfoundland verse born of oral narra-tive.

The first poem of the collection, ISolemn, sets the tone for the rest of thebook: “My mother scrubbed my face andbraided my hair,” it begins. “She told meto put on my dark blue corduroy dress, /the good thick one from Aunt Mary.”Narrative, rather than poetic trope, is thedriving force here, the machine thatkeeps us reading Walsh’s account of afuneral that her speaker (seemingly aclose analogy for Walsh herself) attendedas a young girl.

Walsh’s poetry is simultaneously anact of recollection and an elegy; it isoften funereal in tone. Throughout herpoems, an older Newfoundland — one ofold country mores bound to lives livedoff the ocean — is in the process of dis-appearing.

In Homecoming to the End, a father’spassing takes away “a world” of “wordsand stories, ships hove into rocks, / St.Pierre wine in wooden casks, the whalingfactory in Rose au Rue”; an old bachelorin Love is symbolically stripped of his

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

Going Around with Bachelors furtheremphasizes the connection between thewritten and the spokenword by its inclusion ofan audio CD of Walshreading selections. Thepoems (as in RattlingBooks’ audio productionof Walsh’s first collec-tion, In the Old Countryof My Heart) are inter-spersed with old-worldballads sung by the poet’sdaughter, SimoneSavard-Walsh. It makesfor a beautiful marriageof words and music.

“I see a definite con-nection between … theold world ballads and the way that Iwrite,” Walsh says in a commentary trackon the enclosed CD. “I’ve spent so muchtime researching and looking into theoral history of Placentia Bay that I guessthe ballad style has crept into my poetry.”

And it has. Hearing Walsh’s work per-

formed is a mesmerizing experience, forthe rhythms of the poems themselves, thepower of their narratives, and for theexperience of listening to Walsh’s rich

reading voice. There isa definite musicality toher performance.

Walsh’s poetry is notone of profoundmetaphorical leaps orpyrotechnic explosionof language; you won’tfind many lines herethat emblazon them-selves on your memory.What you will find is areverence for the tradi-tion from which thesepoems have sprung anda mournful magic thatconjures a world long

gone. The value of this new collectionlies in its ability to channel the voices ofthe dead, and to connect them to the liv-ing, breathing present.

Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s.His column returns June 8.

To the faithful departedAgnes Walsh’s latest book of poems example of new tradition of printed verse born from oral narrative

CA

RR

IER

SO

FTH

EW

EEK

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

170 Water Street • 726.2665170 Water Street • 726.2665

Skate • Snow • StyleSkate • Snow • Style

CurtisRyallThe Carrier of the Week

prize package is worth $175 and includes:

• An official Independent baseball hat • $25 Indy Bucks• $50 Ballistic Bucks • $25 gift certificate for Don Cherry’s

• Large pizza from Stoggers • 2 Kidclimb passes for Wallnuts

MARKCALLANANOn the shelf

Going Around with BachelorsBy Agnes Walsh Brick Books, 2007

ARTS AND LETTERS

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

NEWS ICON PASSES

Iconic in his red VOCM blazer and for four decades of political reporting, Scott Chafe died on May 22 after a brief illness. Chafe covered the Legislature under all nine premiers, from Joey Smallwood to Danny Williams. He was 61. Paul Daly/The Independent


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

By Stephanie PorterThe Independent

From starring in a sci-fi monstermovie with Terminator 2’sEdward Furlong to taking the

stage at the National Arts Centre along-side Megan Follows, Mount Pearl-native Krystin Pellerin has jammed a lotof experience into the two years sinceshe graduated from acting school.

She’s about to earn a whole lot more.On May 23, while at home in St. John’sfor her sister’s convocation, Pellerin gotsome great news: she landed a part onthe highly praised television series TheTudors. Starring Sam Neill and JonathanRhys Meyers, The Tudors is filmed inIreland, where Pellerin will be headingsoon.

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

After high school at Prince of WalesCollegiate in St. John’s, Pellerin com-pleted her first year at Memorial.

She then found herself at an enviablecrossroads, having to choose betweenmusic and acting. She had been acceptedfor programs at both Memorial’s Schoolof Music and the National TheatreSchool in Montreal.

Theatre won out. Spots in the NationalTheatre School are extremely hard tocome by — only 12 students a year areaccepted in the acting program. Pellerinsays the three years in Montreal were“the right decision.”

Pellerin, now 23, graduated in May2005 and moved to Toronto to hit theaudition circuit. She landed her first gigalmost immediately, a role in Warriors ofTerra, a science-fiction horror moviestarring Furlong.

In Warriors, she plays a computerwhiz who spends most of her sceneshunched over a glowing screen, planningand trouble-shooting. Filming took placebetween 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in an aban-doned glass factory in Hamilton, Ont.

The film — which, admittedly,received harsh reviews — recentlybegan showing on the Movie Network.Pellerin chooses her words carefullywhen speaking about the experience.

“It was a great affirmation,” she says.“It was a lot of fun and a great first job…I would like to do more sort of dramatic,heartfelt stories about people and rela-tionships rather than monsters runningaround an abandoned factory …”

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

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

gathering more positive early buzz.Starring Colm Feore and Sarah Carter,the “raw and rugged” film catches upwith two high school friends a decadeafter graduation as they face theirdemons and try to salvage relationships.Pellerin says it’s the sort of project she’sproud to be part of.

“It’s more artistically satisfying, areally well-written script,” she says.“There were a lot of really great actorsinvolved … it was really cool.”

But Pellerin’s heart is still with livetheatre, and she’s taken part in two high-profile productions since graduation.The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard, waspresented by Toronto’s Soulpepper the-atre, and also starred Megan Follows(still best known as Anne of GreenGables). The Little Years by mathemati-cian and playwright John Mighton,through Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, wasnext. Both were co-produced by theNational Arts Centre.

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

in an evening. I find it thrilling and theexchange — being able to sense an audi-ence and being able to have that commu-nication … it’s important.”

Before news of her success with TheTudors came in, Pellerin was tight-lipped about her next project, sayingonly that she’s working with an agentand looking at scripts.

“It’s a balance. I think now I would bea little more choosy, now that I know itis more my choice and I don’t have tosay yes to everything. That’s a great les-son to learn … I can take things that rep-resent what I believe in.”

As if all that weren’t enough, Pellerinis also developing a children’s play,based on The Stolen Child, a poem byW.B. Yeats. She’s excited for all thefuture steps her career holds.

“It’s all very uncertain until you do it,”she says. “You just leap and hope it willturn out all right, and it usually does. Allyou can do usually is be honest and putyourself out there.”

[email protected]

Krystin Pellerin Nicholas Langor/The Independent

Why Afghanistan?The government and people of Canada must back up our soldiers

Alex Wilner, Security andDefence Policy intern at theAtlantic Institute for Market

Studies (AIMS), has suggested threeprincipal reasons for Canada’s activeengagement in Afghanistan.

First, to uphold our treaty obliga-tions. We are a founding member ofNATO. We and our 18 NATO alliesdeclared war on the Taliban and alQaeda when Article V of the NorthAtlantic Treaty was invoked followingthe attack on the Twin Towers in NewYork. NATO states “an armed attack onone shall be considered an attack onthem all.”

A call for collective defence resultedin military action taken against TalibanAfghanistan and Canadian soldiershave been at the forefront ever since.

Second, our engagement is influ-enced by the fact that global terroristactivity can only occur if it firstemanates from a land base. The current

diffuse nature of modern internationalterrorism, structured by a globalizedeconomy, high-tech communicationsand decentralized leadership, requiresphysical land upon which to base oper-ational development. Terrorists whowish to mastermind global acts ofindiscriminate violence need a landbase to rendezvous, organize, train,equip and plan.

It was the Taliban’s despotic govern-ment that provided al Qaeda with a ter-ritorial safe haven to construct the net-work of training facilities that pumpedout thousands of elite terror operativesto bring terror to the United Kingdom,Spain, the United States and other

countries.Third, Canadian soldiers are actively

engaged in Afghanistan to defend ournational interest and to protectCanadian citizens. We should not forgetthat al Qaeda has threatened our coun-try specifically and repeatedly withmass terrorism. Bin Laden wrote: “Intoday’s wars, there are no morals … wedo not have to differentiate between amilitary or civilian … they are all tar-gets.”

We should not forget the 24Canadians who died on 9/11 were citi-zens who were listed alongside ourEuropean allies as priority targets. BinLaden’s deputy, al-Zawahri, has calledus a “second-rate crusader” and threat-ened us with a terrorist “operation”similar to New York, Madrid andLondon.

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

sive and defensive preparation. Weshould be thankful Canadian soldiersand security personnel are placed at theforefront of the campaign.

As historian J. L. Granatstein pointsout, at times one would almost believethat Canadians had never fought a warbefore, that we had not sustained60,000 dead in the Great War, 42,000 inWorld War II, more than 500 in Koreaand an additional 100 in “traditional”peacekeeping.

Naturally we have to be concernedabout the dangers that face our men andwomen overseas but we should under-stand Canadian forces undertake theserisks because it may well help us athome. There is a bargain that soldiersstrike with their government, an implic-it contract in every military, especiallyin all-volunteer services such as theCanadian Forces.

The soldier who enlists accepts anarrangement of unlimited liability. He

recognizes his commitment to militaryservice requires him to go where hisgovernment says and to do what itwants. It demands he obey the orders ofhis military superiors, even if thoseorders put him into a situation where hemight be killed or wounded. The sol-dier’s job, which he willingly accepts,is to do his duty to his comrades and toserve his nation’s interest.

This is not a one-sided bargain. Ournational government implicitly under-takes not to put our sons and daughtersinto impossible situations. It pledges toequip them adequately, to train them forthe challenges they face and to sustainthem in operations with reinforcementsof men and material. It promises to carefor them in perpetuity if they arewounded, to assist their family mem-bers and to hallow their memory if theyare killed.

See “They will do,” page 14

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

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

By John RietiThe Independent

The crab fishery has beenopen for weeks, butTwillingate fisherman

Rodney Cooper must wait for thepack ice to clear before he and hispartner can set their pots.

“You just can’t get out of theharbours and the coves, it’s justblocked … it’s been a very difficultyear,” says Cooper, who fishes onEvan’s Endeavour, an under-35foot boat.

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

of the Fish, Food and AlliedWorkers’ Union, says there are5,000 fishermen suffering frompoor sea conditions inNewfoundland and Labrador.Many fishing families are livingwithout any income as their win-ter’s worth of EmploymentInsurance (EI) runs out.

McCurdy met with federalFisheries Minister Loyola Hearn inearly May to request Ottawa pro-vide benefits for fishermen affect-ed by ice conditions.

McCurdy wants benefits to bedelivered through the EI system toallow the quickest payment possi-ble. “The time for doing something

has arrived,” he says.Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout

says his department will continueto press the issue with Ottawa, butthe response will be up to the fed-eral government.

“We’re on top of it everyday,”says Rideout. “We will continue todo that, I heard the federal ministermyself indicate publicly today thathe and his officials are aware of theseriousness of the matter.”

Hearn could not be reached forcomment by The Independent’spress deadline, but has told localmedia help is on the way. Rideoutsays Hearn has been aware ofpotential troubles since sealers

encountered problems with ice inlate April.

Rideout says the province’s min-ister of Labour, Shawn Skinner, isalso working with the federal gov-ernment to find a way to get moneyto people affected. Payment is dif-ficult because the EI system isn’tset up to allow extensions due tocircumstances such as ice condi-tions.

Help can’t come soon enoughfor Cooper and otherNewfoundland crab fishermen.

Every day the ice remains, theprice of crab decreases, the sea-son’s close looms closer and opti-mism fades. Despite delayed open-

ing dates, fishery closures can’talways be extended due to conser-vation concerns including soft-shell..

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

The union negotiated price forcrab is now $1.50 per pound.Fishermen like Cooper are allowedto catch about 10,000 pounds, anincome of at least $15,000. He saysthat after a long winter on EI, hisfamily looks forward to the money

JOHNCROSBIE

A crab boat unloads its catch in Harbour Grace. Nicholas Langor/The Independent

See “Lobster, crab,” page 14

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS MAY 25, 2007

manageable droplet of liquid allows formore to be shipped, although the infra-structure is costly.

Newfoundland LNG Ltd.’s proposed$1 billion facility would allow largetransport ships to dock and store LNGin one of eight storagetanks. Each tank costs$85 million due to theengineering challenge ofkeeping contentsextremely cold (-162 C).About nine per cent ofeach LNG tank is nickel.The giant ships thattransport LNG areamongst the most tech-nologically advanced onthe seas.

Mark Turner, thecompany’s presidentand chief operating offi-cer, is expecting steadygrowth in liquid naturalgas shipping.

“In the first coupleyears of operation there may be twovessels per week, 104 per year … as wego into full build-out and of course thedemand for (liquid natural gas) increas-es we could possibly see in the regionof 400,” Turner tells The Independent.

Turner says one of the biggest bene-fits of LNG shipping is its safety. Therehave been few major accidents andleaks and spills are less damaging thancrude oil spills for the environment.“Once (LNG) hits the atmospheric

pressure it just dis-sipates andvapourizes intothe air, so there’sno environmentalconcerns there,”says Turner.

The Placentiafacility isn’texpecting to useany ofNewfoundland’sgas reserves whenit is scheduled toopen in 2010.Instead, it will be ashipping point forgas from theMiddle East,Qatar, Africa and

Norway.Large LNG tankers would fill the

facility’s tanks for smaller ships to col-lect and bring to offshore buoys inplaces like Massachusetts. The offshorebuoy systems re-gas the liquid natural

gas and pump it directly into the energygrid.

Natural gas is already a multi-billiondollar industry in North America anddemand is expected to grow.

According to Turner there are ninetrillion cubic metres of stranded naturalgas under the Grand Bank andLabrador.

“The future for LNG here inNewfoundland is looking very good,”he says. “(The facility) gives us a goodstepping stone, a good leap, into pro-cessing and collecting our own strand-ed gas … we’ll be better prepared tocontrol that here.”

He also predicts shipping LNG willcontinue to be the best method of trans-portation since pipelines are obtrusiveand costly to maintain.

Placentia Bay’s geography makes itthe perfect place for a transshipmentfacility. “It’s the largest, deepest, ice-free port in the world,” says Turner. “Ithas so many benefits and positivethings for shipping it’s unbelievable.”

Atlantic Canada has two other LNGshipping facilities in New Brunswickand Nova Scotia. If the federal reportgives the project the go-ahead, con-struction will begin in March 2008.

[email protected]

In reviewing what has happenedsince the end of World War II it appearsthat (historically) service people havehonoured this contract more willinglythan Canadian governments. Therehave been years, hopefully now past,when our armed forces suffered inade-quate training and lacked criticallyneeded equipment.

However, the troops now inAfghanistan are highly trained and veryprofessional volunteers and among thebest troops we have ever deployed. Thegovernment’s side of the bargain inKandahar seems met.

The Liberals who accepted theAfghan commitment, and the currentConservative government who havepledged to honour it, understand whatis at stake. They both believed the ben-efits to be gained by putting Canadiantroops into Kandahar, and the Canadiannational interest achieved by so doing,outweighed the risks.

It is up to MPs to explain that whatour troops are doing in Kandahar mat-ters. We elect our leaders to make thetough judgment calls when they mustbe made to defend Canada and to sharethe burdens of democracy with otherfree nations.

While many soldiers may not be

politically sophisticated, they under-stand the basic equation — that theywill do Canada’s dirty work and acceptthe blood and pain. But their govern-ment and people must back them up.What we must do is ensure that ourgovernments understand, honour andcarry out their end of the bargain.

The Hon. John C. Crosbie, P.C., O.C.,Q.C., is a former federal minister ofFinance, the author of No HoldsBarred and a lawyer with Cox Palmer.This commentary was originally pub-lished in Atlantic Business Magazine,Atlantic Canada’s largest circulationbusiness magazine.

‘A good leap’Placentia Bay facility could be shipping liquid natural gas by 2010

From page 13

They will do Canada’s dirty work

from the fishery.An estimated 79 million pounds of

crab was caught in Newfoundland andLabrador last year, worth an estimated$36 million, according to theDepartment of Fisheries and Oceans.

It’s not just the crab fishery that is

behind; lobster and lumpfish fisheriesare both down as well.

Last year, 142,000 pounds of lump-fish was caught and processed for itsroe, worth $127,000.

A reported 255,000 pounds of lobsterwas caught in 2006, worth $1.2 million.There is no negotiated price for lobster,or quota set by DFO. The lobster fish-ery is moderated by licences and pot

number and size restrictions. In Twillingate a small patch of water

opened on May 23 and Cooper watchedas several boats went out to drop theirpots. Other offshore fishermen made itout before the ice set in and moved tosouthern bays where they could fish.

But until more ice moves, Cooperremains stuck.

john.rieti@theindependent

From page 13

Lobster, crab and lumpfish all down

“It’s the largest, deep-est, ice-free port in theworld … It has so many

benefits and positivethings for shipping it’s

unbelievable.”

Mark Turner


Newfoundland and Labrador ispoised to become a majorsource of natural gas when the

reserves beneath the Grand Banks andLabrador are tapped into. MeanwhileNewfoundland LNG Ltd. intends toship liquid natural gas for the rest ofthe world.

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

federal government environmentalstudy to examine every issue from sea-life to air quality, Newfoundland LNGLtd. can begin creating a liquid naturalgas transshipment facility in PlacentiaBay near Arnold’s Cove. The proposalhas already been given a passing gradefrom provincial officials.

Liquid natural gas is natural gasprocessed to remove unwanted parti-cles, then condensed into a liquid state.The ability to compress large amountsof the valuable gas into smaller, more


Oil and gas exploration onNewfoundland’s west coast isgoing well as more favourable

geological formations are discovered.On May 22, Deer Lake Oil and Gas

Inc. announced its intention to raise $1million through the private placementof 2.5 million shares. The companyplans to use the money for workingcapital, project acquisition fees and amarketing initiative.

The Newfoundland and Labradorcompany has been in business sinceJune 1998. Based in St. John’s, it hasthree oil and gas targets on the westcoast.

Cabot Martin, an oil industry expertand former advisor to premier BrianPeckford, is the company’s president.Memorial University geologist andprofessor Derek Wilton leads the geo-logical research team.

The company’s main site is in theDeer Lake basin, where it controls230,000 kilometres of land. After con-ducting reviews, analysis and minordrilling Martin is excited about thesite’s potential.

“There are significant oil targets thatare relatively shallow and relatively

inexpensive to drill up,” Martin tellsThe Independent.

The company is budgeting $450,000for further exploration on the DeerLake basin in 2007. As oil companiesexpand their search for raw materials,Martin hopes to attract joint venturesthat would help reduce the financial

risk of drilling.Deer Lake Oil and Gas Inc. also has

the option to acquire more land in thefuture. It already shares sites underParsons Pond and Bay St. Georgewhich may have underwater gasreserves.

[email protected]

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

Cabot Martin Paul Daly/The Independent

Placentia Bay. Paul Daly/The Independent

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

Undoing the Gordian knotDear editor

Thank you for publishing PremierDanny Williams’ speech of May 3 to theEconomic Club of Toronto (‘Contraryto some myths …’ May 4 edition).Courtesy of the cable TV provided onCPAC, I also got to see, albeit taped, ourown Grand Dan (O’Connell wasIreland’s) in action.

In his talk to that well-heeled club,Danny mentioned the outrageously lop-sided Churchill Falls hydropower con-tract with Quebec. I have one quibblewith his remarks and that is he omittedto tell his audience that ifNewfoundland and Labrador had thewindfall profit from the upper Churchillwe would be a “have” province.Quebec, however, would be still com-fortably “have not.”

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

I also have a message for our premier

and his government: the Gordian knot(recently, a local editor/twice-weeklycolumnist/writer incorrectly called it aGordonian knot) of the Churchill Fallscontract can be unloosed before July 1,2016. Indeed, it must for our survival.Not nibbled by mice, not hacked bybrutish men, not cut with a sharp bladewielded by a clever and ambitious man;I do not mean burned or blown up ordissolved in vitriol, nor consigned to thedeep sea. I mean properly and skillfullyuntied.

Again, I will put it in writing with myname attached for all to see. I havenoticed something left undone inNewfoundland’s relations with Quebecand Canada. It just might be enough toget Quebec to the negotiating table andto act honourably, honestly, and serious-ly on the Churchill Falls contract. It isyours for the asking, Premier Williams.

Tom Careen,Placentia

YOURVOICE

16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS MAY 25, 2007

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

By their very nature, sports aresupposed to be an escape fromthe dreary mundane world of

work and more work. They’re fun,enjoyable and make people smile.

To anybody participating in sports,they are a great form of exercise orpleasure, whether that’s a casual swim orbike ride — or a senior baseball or rugbygame.

There are many things to like aboutsports — amateur especially, where theathletes and fans have many of the samethings in common: they all have to go towork in the morning, for one. Sometimesprofessional sports, with their multi-mil-lion dollar contracts and distant atti-

tudes, have become so disenfranchisedthat Joe Public is quickly losing interest.

I find my interest in sports waningoccasionally these days, especially dur-ing NHL playoffs that don’t feature theToronto Maple Leafs. Baseball hasn’theated up enough to catch my attention,and Barry Bonds’ chase of Hank Aaronis not doing it for anybody. Basketball isthere, but the final two minutes of any

game is all you need to see.Locally, there’s nothing happening on

any field of play just yet. Senior leagueslike rugby, baseball, softball and soccerwill get under way in June, providingmany nights of entertainment.

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

First off, the Ottawa Senators are sit-ting back waiting to play for LordStanley’s big prize. Leaf fans hate theSens. It may be jealousy, who knows?But there’s a whole lot of apathy inCanada now for hockey.

Fortunately, the Detroit Red Wingswere eliminated Tuesday night. How badwould that have been had the Wings

faced off against the Sens in the StanleyCup final? Two of the Leafs’ biggest foesplaying each other, with one of themwinning the Cup.

It would have been unbearable forLeaf fans, who have suffered longenough, and — from the looks of theroster and the huge additions the clubhas inked this year (Ian White is hardlyChris Pronger) — will continue to beforced to put up with mediocrity. It’s thesame fate that befalls Bruin fans eachspring.

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

for one particular reason. Daniel Cleary is a local boy, and a

Newfoundlander has yet to have hisname etched on the Stanley Cup. Theywere hoping he’d be the first.

You’ll have to excuse me, but forwhatever reason, I didn’t get the warmand fuzzies over Cleary potentially win-ning the Stanley Cup.

I know there’s been a love fest on withthis idea over the past few weeks —especially in this very paper — butyou’ll pardon me for not jumping onboard.

A former colleague related to me a

Wings clipped, thankfullyWatching Dan Cleary’s run for the Stanley Cup didn’t fill me with the warm and fuzzy feeling others got

See “Too much,” page 34

DON POWERPower Point


One hundred and fifteen minutesinto last September’s ChallengeCup soccer semi-final, the Holy

Cross team watched in horror as MountPearl’s Justin Pickford stole the ball andscored the overtime winner.

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

That fire isn’t dampened by theevening mist rolling over King George Vfield in St. John’s on a recent evening asthe team stretches, jokes around andbrace themselves for a 10-kilometre fit-ness run.

Holy Cross is scheduled to play its firstgame of the 2007 Challenge Cup,Newfoundland’s top men’s soccer league,on June 2 against Burin. The cardiovascu-lar workout this particular evening is thefinishing kick on months of punishingpreparation devoted to avoiding semi-final agony.

Andre Le, who the team calls “thehuman odometer,” sets the pace as theteam departs from the green turf and ontothe parking lot pavement. The rookiedefender has already run 20 minutes tothe park, and plans on running homeafterwards as well. Le also trains for trackand field, a feat that mystifies many onthe team.

Holy Cross’s season began inDecember with several short scrimmageseach week. After adding some team runsinto their routine, the team’s newestcoach and fitness guru, Jake Stanford, putthem on a six-week weightlifting workoutplan.

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

The extra work has paid off so far.Holy Cross is undefeated in four springleague games with two wins and twodraws. Dawe says the team has been“heads and shoulders” above the compe-tition in terms of fitness.

As the team of 11 winds down HarbourDrive and past the industrial landscape ofthe shipping terminal, their focus onbuilding the team is clear. The only mut-tering comes from their goalkeeper.

“I don’t know why I have to do this,”says Colin Doyle, half laughing, halfgasping for a breath. Nevertheless, the23-year-old keeper who has been playingfor six seasons finds a way to keep mov-ing, just as he remembers veteran playersdoing when he started.

Doyle says the league has becomemuch more professional since he started.There are still road trip high-jinks and astrong sense of camaraderie, but a surgeof younger players have brought a biggercommitment to fitness and increased thequality of the six-team league.

“There’s definitely a youth movementacross the league and that’s a credit tominor soccer … it seems as though theyouth have taken over and it’s giventeams a whole new look for this season,”says Dawe. “It’s very exciting.”

Holy Cross is loaded with young talent.John Hawko, 21, leads the team andleague in scoring, and players like Le, 19,Zack Wade, 19 and Dawe, 21, all play onthe Memorial University Sea-Hawksteam in the fall.

It’s not just Holy Cross either. Newplayers are starring for teams like Burinand Mount Pearl, not to mention theUnder-18 All Star team that also plays inthe league. St. Lawrence captured the titlelast season and will be looking to repeat,while the Feildians will be aiming torevive the capital city rivalry. Doyle saysthe league will be more competitive thanever this year.

Holy Cross remains confident. “Wereally have to believe that anything lessthan a win this year will be a disappoint-ment,” says Dawe.

Forty minutes after their run began theteam collapses under the stadium lightsthat are just flickering on for a nightgame. It looks like other teams will berunning to catch up with them all season.

[email protected]

Run

ning

star

tHo

ly Cr

oss

socc

er te

am p

repa

res

for

Chal

leng

e Cu

p se

ason

Mike Dawe of Holy Cross kicks the ball around King George V field in St. John’s. Nicholas Langor/The Independent

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

Fresh off a superlative-laced season with theBelleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League— I can’t remember now if it was his rookieyear or his 115-point breakout season that hadscouts comparing him to Wayne Gretzky —Cleary, the story goes, walked into a bar/poolhall in his hometown of Harbour Grace, threwthe doors wide open and proclaimed, “Heyboys. Danny Cleary is here. Who’s going to buy

me a drink?”Of course, the morons in the bar tripped over

each other racing to get the young hockey phe-nom — he was 15 or 16 at the time — a beer.As the story was relayed to me, Cleary stood atthe bar regaling the locals with his hockeyexploits, obviously revelling in the limelight —or whatever limelight a bar in Harbour Graceaffords you.

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

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

But he didn’t learn his lesson. While still injunior, stories about Cleary abounded, about hisarrogance and smugness, among other vices.Twice he was cut from Canada’s national team,despite putting up numbers that obviouslymade him one of the best offensive threats injunior hockey. Yet, his talent was so immensethat he still managed to be a first round draftpick.

After a second chance in Edmonton and athird in Phoenix, he got a fourth chance, wisedup and has resurrected his NHL career inDetroit.

Does it make for a great story? Absolutely.Can others learn from his mistakes? Without

doubt.Does it make you want to cheer for him any

harder? Not necessarily. Had it been his older brother Neil Cleary, I’d

have no problem cheering for the Wings. Neil,a two-time Herder champ with the hometownCeeBees, is a nice guy, someone you don’tmind applauding.

Danny? No thanks.Now if Ryane Clowe’s San Jose Sharks had

reached the pinnacle, that’d be something totalk about.

[email protected]

34 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS MAY 25, 2007

Solutions for crossword on page 32 Solutions for sudoku on page 32

Ihave a theory about trouting. Humanbeings generally and inherently likefishing, with the exception of indi-

viduals exposed to some negative stimu-lus or experience that causes an unnaturalaversion to what is otherwise normal andenjoyable.

I believe that nurture as opposed tonature causes people to dislike fishing.Well, I suppose there might be a verysmall percentage of individuals who hatefishing by genetic predisposition, butthey are way out in the tail region of theinfamous bell curve — anomalies of asort.

Of course my hypothesis is not scien-tifically testable in the strictest sense,given I am dealing with human subjects.How could all the variables be controlledand accounted for? First I would need astudy group of children with unblem-ished minds. It would be necessary togroup subjects by fishing experience andmeasure their love of fishing after repeat-ed exposure. Negative variables mightinclude excessive black-flies, cheapkiddy reels that just don’t work, no pond-side lunch, tangles not cleared quickly byMom or Dad, boots that gall heels or niptoes, impatient and preoccupied adultsand so on.

I think you probably get the picture. Ican’t imagine kids not enjoying a fewhours of trouting with Mom or Dad aslong as torments and unrealistic expecta-tions for self-reliance are kept to a mini-mum.

Last weekend, droves of young newbieanglers hit the ponds and streams deckedout in rubber boots and ball hats, taggingalong behind those older seasoned pros.They are the future of angling. Bepatient. Treat them well and nurture themalong the path to wholesome outdoorfun. But there are less obvious but evenmore significant benefits to fishing withyour kids.

My father was 47 years old when I wasborn in 1959. I grew up in the ’70s withcentral heating, flush toilets, wild clothesand rock music. Dad’s youth was spentcoping with the Great Depression. Therewas little luxury, only the essentials oflife like hand-me-down handmadeclothes, staple foods, a wood stove in thekitchen and an outhouse in the yard.

I would call this a generationalcanyon. In spite of this, I had a wonder-ful relationship with my father. We talkedand communicated all through myteenage years, which I now understand isthe exception as opposed to the rule.

As an adult with teenage daughters,

I’ve often reflected on my own youth forguidance. Communication isn’t easy, anddoesn’t randomly happen though kindredspontaneity.

But this is an article about fishing.What does fishing have to do withteenagers and generation gaps? I can’t

say that my father and I would have hada totally dysfunctional relationship if itwere not for fishing.

I will say fishing played a key role infostering a strong father-son relationshipdespite our divergent realities. Succinctlyand scientifically, it was our common

denominator. My father took me fishing as soon as I

was able to walk in thigh rubbers. Wellactually, it was more like stumblingalong with my feet slip-sliding in alldirections on slippery rocks. That’s theway my mother described it. My firsttackle was simple: a bamboo pole, blacknylon line, a bobber and baited hook. Itwas also effective. I caught many troutand spent countless hours in the greatoutdoors, having fun and interacting withmy father.

At that brief moment in time no one onthe planet knew more about fishing thanmy Dad. My mother would come alongas well, but only occasionally fished. Shepreferred to read or knit, either in the caror seated on a comfortable rock nearby.There was nearly always food involved,either a boil-up or cold lunch.

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

I soon graduated from the bamboopole. For passing Grade 2, I received afly-fishing outfit. It was waiting in theporch for me when I got home from mylast day of school, an Algonquin fiber-glass rod and a J.W. Young reel. I stillhave the butt section of the rod and thereel is still in use.

That same summer, my father and Itook up salmon fishing for the first time.I still have my first licence poked awaysomewhere. The RCMP issued them inthose days. The season was mutuallyunsuccessful, but given I can rememberdetails of our efforts 30-odd years later, itwasn’t a total waste of time.

The next year we were seasonedanglers, my father at 55, and me, eight. Inone day we caught seven salmon. Wewere fortunate to be living in St. Anthonyat a time when there was no shortage ofsalmon on the Northern Peninsula. Thoseare great memories. My father and I wenton fishing together until his deterioratinghealth prevented it. Even then, we wouldsit and talk for hours about the memorieswe had created together.

I try to avoid the deeper levels of intel-lectualism and morality but this week Ihave a message. This summer, take yourkids fishing — or canoeing, or camping,or something. Don’t leave raising kids tocomputers, video games and cable TV.

Paul Smith is a freelance writer and avidoutdoorsman living in Spaniard’s Bay.

[email protected]

Bonding by the pondNow’s the time to take your kids fishing, hiking, canoeing or camping

PAUL SMITHThe Rock Outdoors

Too much, too fastFrom page 33

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

CONFERENCE LEADER

Jarrett Foote Paul Smith photo

What’s new in the automotive industryMAY 25-31, 2007

FEATURED VEHICLE

I’m a pickup truck kind of guy, andI’ve always got stuff going on in theback of my truck.

For some odd reason,objects tend to gravitate there— firewood, furniture,motorcycles, you name it.That’s just my lifestyle and Ilike it that way. A pickuptruck is like a deck on theback of your house with anengine hanging off the end (ifyou can picture that), exceptdecks tend to realize theirlimitations and stay off theroad.

A pickup truck is one of themost unpredictable vehiclesyou can drive under the slightest varia-tion of road conditions, mainly becausemost of the weight is up front where the

motor is. When you throw that mess intoa corner on a dirt road, the rear of the

truck — which is theoreticallyunemployed — tries to comeup front looking for work. Youtend to spin out of orbit unlessit’s already happened to youbefore and you’re expecting it.That’s just what pickup trucksdo and we learn to live with it.

The Honda Ridgeline is notan ordinary pickup truck. I hada chance to test drive onerecently and crawled all overand under it. Then I took it upon the highway and down onthe dirt roads. The machine’snot normal, mostly because of

the nearly perfect centre of mass. Thefront-to-rear weight ratio is 58 per centand 42 per cent, which makes the all-

wheel drive Ridgeline handle superbly.It’s a front-wheel drive under normalconditions and constantly assessing trac-tion, looking for an excuse to transferpower to the rear wheels. So was I, rightfrom the moment I got the keys.

Photographer Nick Langor and I weredown by the Marine Lab outside St.John’s. He got into the photo shoot whileI walked around, taking in the large day.What we really needed was a few off-road shots and a bit of driving time to geta feel for the machine. Nick spied a setof tracks heading out onto a point on acliff, a great shot, especially from theother side of the water. We drovehalfway out, no problem, and he scram-bled around with the camera while Iwalked out to the end of the point. Mymain concern was turning the truckaround and we hoped there’d be enough

room at the end. A little way up ahead onthe right the trail dipped off severelyonto wet cliff, while the left side hadgrass right to the edge of a sheer drop-off.

I put one foot close to the edge andpeeked over — it was a 100-foot drop toa boiling sea, the kind of height thatmakes your knees weak. I went back tothe truck and looked at the possibility ofturning it around right where it was.There was a fair incline to the left, butjust enough room to fit a truck. To theright was a gradual decline and another100-foot drop into the sea.

I picked up some grass, rolled itbetween my fingers, checking for mois-ture like a golfer setting up a shot. It wasdry enough to be safe — time for someprecision driving.

I fired up the Ridgeline, rolled it ahead

into position and backed up the slope,sideways on the trail, facing the drop. IfI messed up, Nick would document mydemise and would have no trouble writ-ing the headline for my story: Local boyscrews up, big time. Might as well carvethat on my tombstone, too.

But no, she crawled off that grassycliff as she should. There was a patch ofmud on the way out and an exclamationmark lit up on the instrument panel. Oneof the wheels slipped a bit and I don’tknow who was more surprised — thetruck or me.

The hardest part of driving beautifulmachinery is returning it.

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

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

Cliffhanger

MARKWOOD

WOODY’SWHEELS

THE CONCRETE IS YOURS TO CONQUERIntroducing the new 2007 Acura TSX. The TSX has such light, nimble handling you’ll be exhilarated from the very first curve you carve up. With a 205-hp, i-VTEC® engine leading the charge, Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA®) forsupreme control, HandsFreeLink ™, and an available navigation system, the concrete is yours to conquer. The TSX also provides a host of interior features to indulge the senses, like sumptuous, soft leather seats, two-levelfront seat heating, and a dual-zone, dual-mode automatic climate control system with air-filtration. For both performance and comfort the TSX has you covered! The Acura TSX starts at $36,100 and is available at Tucker Acuralocated at 915 Topsail Road, Mount Pearl. Pictures taken at the Littledale Conference Centre on Waterford Bridge Road, St. John’s. Nicholas Langor/The Independent

30 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT MAY 25, 2007

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 31

Where is that gas nozzle pointing?Iremember when gas was 50 cents a

litre. My kids think I’m being nos-talgic, and maybe I am,

but it was only a few yearsago, not in my black-and-white childhood. (My eldestbelieved my life turned colouronly when the photos did,around my sixth birthday).

Sunday drives were a won-derful part of my childhood;they are a non-existent part ofmy children’s. We could neverhave afforded something likea movie for all of us, oramusement parks or any otherorganized entertainment thatmy father would have hatedanyway.

Instead, we’d cruise around the sec-ondary highways fighting over the win-dow while my father made sure weknew the difference between cow and

sheep manure. By smell. Never say Ididn’t have a complete and varied edu-

cation.I wouldn’t bother seeking

to recreate this anyway; Icouldn’t. Air conditioning,iPods and seatbelts havetaken away all the fun. I’deither hang my arms over thefront seat between my par-ents while my sisters foughtbehind me, or sit in the backof the station wagon andwatch the world in reverse.Now, we travel in seasonalcocoons of comfort, forget-ting this may be our lastglimpse of the scenerybefore it gets paved over.

The cost of gas has traded placeswith the cost of the destination. I’mtorn in my resentment over the price ofgas and the understanding that the

world has changed. I don’t question theneed to consume less — I promote it.But I do get angry at the implicationthat all of us who drive are reckless andthoughtless. I’m also perplexed bythose who think higher energy costsdon’t affect them.

Our entire economy hinges on fuelcosts. Even if you bike everywhere, eatonly your own toenail clippings anddrink rainwater you collect in youreavestrough, you will feel the impact.Where once the mighty railroad was theking of the country, we are nowdependent on trucks, which are depend-ent on gasoline. This is where the reck-less and thoughtless behaviour comesin — our insatiable need to consumetoo much, and our need to consume itaround the clock.

There are champions of the currentcriminally high fuel costs; if weweren’t being gouged outrageously, I

might agree with them. I’ve alwaysbelieved that artificially low hydrorates have historically led to incrediblewaste; now as people try to conserve,the rates go up anyway. I can put in allthe twirly bulbs I want, but as long asmy neighbour keeps spending $800 amonth to heat a swimming pool, youhave to wonder if personal responsibil-ity will ever meet up with the collectivegood.

I’ve willingly given up drives for noreason, though some of the best memo-ries of my childhood took place on justsuch aimless occasions. I’m peevedthat I have to ration trips to the cottage,where I can teach my sons that the bestthings in life involve lakes and bon-fires, not electronics and schedules.

I’m aware we have to find a betterway, and I believe we can. I just shud-der at the thundering edict from somequarters that the love of cars is the root

of all evil. No it’s not. The love of a dis-posable lifestyle is the source of mostof our ills. Witness the loving restora-tion of a classic car, and I defy you notto see the art within. Not all cars areabout consumption.

I hate the stupid comparisons that aremade regarding the price of gas, lettingme know the cost if I filled my tankwith milk or Chanel No. 5 to provewhat a deal I’m getting. I fill my gastank with gas. Period. What used tocost my father eight bucks now costsme over 80. I resent the ever-elasticprofit margins of the oil companies, andthe psychobabble about consumersbecoming inured to the dollar-a-litrebarrier.

The oil companies need to under-stand I will never become inured to thefeeling that the nozzle is being thrustsomewhere other than my gas tank.

www.lorraineonline.ca

LORRAINESOMMERFELD

POWERSHIFT

Training for auto racing’s big dayFor the past two weeks, I’ve been

in training for the May 27 autoracing extravaganza

— the one day of the yearwhen you can experience thebest racing’s three majorleagues have to offer: theGrand Prix of Monaco forthe Formula One crowd, theIndianapolis 500 for Indy carenthusiasts and the Coca-Cola 600 for stock car fans.

To be in the proper frameof mind when I wake upearly to watch the GrandPrix, I’ve been soaking upMonte Carlo’s atmosphereby looking at the photos andreading the text of a huge, 450-pagebook called Grand Prix de MONACO,by Rainer W. Schlegelmilch andHartmut Lehbrink, which I purchased afew years ago. Every race through thestreets of the principality, from 1929 to1998 when the book was published, isdocumented. The pictures, both black-and-white and colour, are spectacular.

Then, to get in the mood for the mid-day Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the91st edition of what — until 1980 —

was called the International 500-MileSweepstakes, I watched the movie

Winning, starring PaulNewman, Joanne Woodwardand Robert Wagner.

The story’s not bad (OK, itcould be better) but the scenesshot in 1968 at the Indiana-polis Speedway, particularlyin the old Gasoline Alleygarages, are so romantic (inthe literary sense) that youcan almost smell “the new-mown hay send all its fra-grance,” and hear the militarybomb go off at 5 a.m. on raceday signalling “gates open.”

For the NASCAR 600-miler, I put through a call to RogerSlack, Canadian-born grandson of thelegendary Cayuga Speedway ownerand promoter Bob Slack. Roger isdirector of events at the Lowe’s MotorSpeedway in Charlotte, N.S., scene ofthis afternoon’s stock car classic thatusually runs into the mid-to-lateevening.

Slack’s father, Randy Slack, is one ofCanada’s most famous late-model driv-ers but son Roger was more interested

in being either a promoter or a flagmanand it’s that ambition that got him — atage 32 — to where he is today.

Slack sums up his job at Lowe’s:“I’m responsible for just about every-thing people see, except the race,”which is all NASCAR.

Slack said he was either in GradeOne or Grade Two when he promotedhis first event — a bicycle race. “Thewinner got five bucks, second paidthree dollars and third got two.Grandpa Slack gave me the money forthe purse — and to buy ice cream forthe field.”

But “Grandpa Slack” made him workfor his money. “I cleaned a lot of toiletsat Cayuga Speedway and I painted a lotof walls but I learned the business.”

And he idolized the flaggers. Heloved watching those guys throw thegreen to start the races and the checkersto end them.

“I was 14 and standing on top of ahauler at Rolling Wheels (speedway)near Auburn, N.Y.,” he said. “The raceswere on and I was pretending to flag.Glenn Donnelly (DIRT Motorsportspromoter for many years) saw me upthere and decided to give me a chance.

I flagged my first race at RollingWheels.

“My big break came in 1992 when Iwas flagging the World KartingAssociation finals at the speedway inCharlotte. That’s when I first metHumpy (H.A. ‘Humpy’ Wheeler, presi-dent of Lowe’s Motor Speedway). Heurged me to stay in school (Slack is agraduate of McMaster University) but

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

In addition to his event responsibili-ties at the big track (which also includepromoting a racing program on a shortoval inside the superspeedway thatattracts 200 cars and big crowds onTuesday nights all summer and is a“tremendous source of revenue”),Slack is promoter of racing at the near-by four-tenths-mile dirt track where dirtlate models, modifieds and monstertrucks entertain the fans.

“I come to Lowe’s Motor Speedwayevery day,” he said. “I see people whoonly come for events and they lookaround in awe at this place and that tellsme how special this place is and it’s attimes like that when I realize how for-tunate I am to be here.

“At night, when the lights are out andit’s silent and there’s nobody aroundexcept maybe a stray cat or two, it’s justso neat.”

Who’s going to win the 600, Roger? “Kenny Schraeder is my sentimental

favourite,” Slack said, “but TonyStewart is going to be hard to beat. Andhe’s such a nice guy.”

NORRISMCDONALD

TRACKTALK

“My big break came in 1992 when I was flagging the World

Karting Association finals at the speedway

in Charlotte.”

Randy Slack

32 • INDEPENDENTFUN MAY 25, 2007

WEEKLYDIVERSIONS

ACROSS1 Light lunch (Brit.)7 A Gretzky12 Booboos18 List of lapses19 Intestinal obstruc-tion20 Disinclined21 Sales trails22 Twiggy digs23 Having lobes24 World lang.25 ___ of the Mist27 Creator of oralpolio vaccine29 Destroy30 Place inParliament32 Makeover beam35 Yes36 High as a ___37 Speak off the cuff39 Fashion figure41 Like an old appletree43 Tourette’s symp-tom45 Yukon’s officialbird47 French assent48 Windbreaker51 Award53 Transparent mate-rial57 I problem?58 Disgusting gunk60 Clear-thinking62 Brief respite fromracket63 Preserve

64 Perfects66 Linked rings68 Earth: prefix69 Hastens71 Canadian singerwith Sinatra voice73 One in a pod74 Brain test, briefly75 Available in draft(2 wds.)77 Booth with a win-dow79 Alight81 Brewer’s vessel83 Hungarian wine85 Medic86 Meantime90 L. Erie Point92 Cheap protein96 Umbilical ___97 Space99 Harvests101 Like some oilwells102 Early Tokyo103 Paul of “DueSouth”105 Provoke107 Quebec street108 Ravine formed byerosion110 Ont. lake withworld’s largest fresh-water island113 Pilot a plane115 Trees with flut-tery leaves116 Blazing117 Established bylaw

118 Pet ___119 Effaced120 Goes in

DOWN1 Stratas of opera2 Pressed3 Penny-pinching4 Dripping5 Agenda detail6 Twangy sounding7 Our southernmostcity8 Schooner serving9 Ballot option10 From soup to ___11 School assignment12 B.C. Gulf Island13 Stratford’s river14 Mo. of variablelength15 Ice in needle-shaped crystals16 What you will17 Oozed26 ___, you are,he/she/it is ...28 Ask for alms31 Slav leader, once33 Dutch cheese34 Make merry36 Shrimplike seacreatures38 Quebec’s officialtree: yellow ___40 Alta. site of 1947oil strike42 Eighth mo.44 Chocolate substi-tute

46 Tortilla with top-pings48 Play it ___, Sam49 Piece for nine50 Inuit filmmaker( “ A t a n a r j u a t ” ) :Zacharias ___52 Northern B.C.river with hot springs54 Helical tool55 Like a dachshund’scoat56 Long, laboriouswork57 Canyon sound59 Recorded item ofdebt61 In small cubes65 Single-masted ves-sel67 Rich, influentialtype70 Rescued72 Gravel ridge76 What’s expected78 Cabbage cousin80 Did well82 Female feline84 Longed86 It’s melting!87 Knobby88 Company of actors89 Long march leader91 Start for dermis orglottis93 Charge with bub-bles94 Castrate95 Cyclist’s choices98 Vexed word, once

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

104 Member of mys-tical Muslim sect106 Make square

109 Bulgarian curren-cy111 Roarin’ start

112 Galena or bauxite114 Believer: suffix

Solutions on page 35

ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) A temporary setback could workin your favor. Use this time to takeanother long look at a situationyou thought was absolutely fool-proof. Better to find the flaws nowinstead of later.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) You divine Bovines could soon bescoring some impressive Bull’s-eyes as you get closer to puttingthose carefully made plans intomotion. Be patient. Time is onyour side.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Balance that slightly overlyromantic view of your current sit-uation with a much-needed dollopof reality from your practical side.See it as it is, not as you wouldlike it to be.

CANCER

(JUNE 21 TO JULY 22) Your self-confidence continues togrow, but be careful not to overex-tend yourself. Go forward one stepat a time. A partner is ready to pro-vide you with loving support.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) There’s no time for on-the-job cat-napping for ambitious Leos andLeonas. Changes are coming, andyou won’t want to miss out on anyof the opportunities that go withthem.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22) Your adventurous side continuesto play a dominant role in many ofthe decisions you’ll be makingover the next few weeks. Enjoythe ride, but don’t get carriedaway.

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

the time you need to straighten outlegal complications. Expect to dosome work-related traveling overthe next few months.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21) Be on guard against attempts totake advantage of your kind, car-ing nature. A trusted friend canhelp you get the facts before youreach for your checkbook.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21) A recent unpleasant confrontationcould soon flare up again unlessall the areas of miscommunicationare resolved. The sooner you startthe process, the better.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19) A recent workplace incident couldcontinue to cause problems.Prepare yourself with the factsyou’ll need if you’re called uponto give your side of the story.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) This is a good time to speak upabout a troubling situation. Thesooner you do, the sooner otherswill realize what’s been going onand will help you deal with it.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) A change in travel plans could bethe first of many that will occurover the next several months.Meanwhile, deal with a probleminvolving someone close to you.

BORN THIS WEEK You have a bright, shining person-ality that attracts people to you.You also have a way of seeing twosides of every issue. You wouldmake a fine judge.

(c) 2007 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

WEEKLYSTARS

CHUCKLE BROS Brian and Ron Boychuk

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

SOLUTION ON PAGE 34

TRICKED OUT

Local bike enthusiasts break down

the mystery of big boys on teeny rides

By Mandy Cook

The Independent

You’ve seen them: full-

grown guys wheeling

around town on minia-

ture-sized bikes that look like

they were just robbed from their

kid brother. Can the young male

population not afford a properly

sized bicycle, you wonder, or

have the bikes shrunk?

In actuality, the opposite is

true. Most of the riders seen rid-

ing down stairs or balancing on

hand rails are hardcore, dedicated

bike specialists, eager to drop

hundreds — if not thousands —

on their next custom-made bike

purchase. And the size? Well,

they’re the same flashy BMX

bikes every kid drools over dur-

ing their youth, but the death

wish tricks being performed on

them are most definitely not for

amateurs.

Chris Nicholas, a 22-year-old

BMX freestyle, or extreme rider,

explains the different disciplines

inside the BMX culture.

“There are all kinds of

freestyle riding,” he says. “Street

riders will go out and find rails

and ledges to grind, whereas

ramp riders will stay in a skate

park and use the facilities there.”

BMX bikes with 20-inch wheels

(compared to the 26-inch wheels

on a mountain bike) and suspen-

See “Gravity defying,” page 25

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

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

Ipicked up the package and gave aslight sniff. The wafting fragranceof penicillium roqueforti is aromat-

ic, slightly woody and has a light acidicedge. Whatever the case, it generallybrings a smile to my face — blue cheesehas a tendency to do that to me.Rot is something we all have to livewith.

In the kitchen world we love a littleage on things. Beef that has been left tosit in a cold place for up to three weeksis what we in the industry call “dryaged.” It works because it breaks downthe fibres and adds an earthiness, whichcan be described as gamey. There isnothing wrong with this practise, as longas the temperature remains cold enoughto stop bacterial growth. Age is onething, but bacteria … that’s a whole dif-ferent problem in the kitchen.

Cheese is one of the biggest users ofthe aging process as cheese makers useit to inject a rich and complex flavourinto the product. Cheeses like Stilton,roquefort, and gorgonzola are pepperedwith the fragrant blue lines of penicilli-um roqueforti. While it is not technical-

ly a rot, it is a wonderfully cultivatedmould that creates both the flavour andthe distinctive pungency we associatewith blue cheeses.

This, in turn, leads to up to 15 weeksof aging. This final step of aging givesStilton, especially, that creamy and lux-urious mouth feel.

Wine benefits immensely from natu-ral aging.

Some of the most expensive wines onthe planet give their value to the delicateart of rotting. Sémillon, sauvignon blancand muscadelle grapes infected withBotrytis cinerea, a form of rot, turnsmere grapes into an intensely sweet andlush dessert wine. This noble rot makesSauterne king of all dessert wines.

In order for this to happen, there mustbe certain pre-existing conditions. Therot requires a moist environment — not

wet. Too much moisture, and the rot canmutate and destroy the crops. Thegrapes typically become infected whenripening.

As the weather becomes warmer anddrier, the grapes begin to shrivel and dryup. Much like when grapes are harvest-ed and dried, raisins become sweet — sotoo this process, combined with theBotrytis, is known as “noble rot.” Thenthe critical harvest takes place and onlythe best grapes are hand-harvested oneby one to create one of the most soughtafter wines in the world. All because ofa rotting grape.

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

While I would love to get my handson a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem — andI can, the NLC has several vintages(1995, 2001 and 2003) — I am not suremy wife would allow it. At $315 for ahalf bottle (375 ml), it would be a treatof a fabulous Premier Cru Supérieur, theonly such classification for a Sauterne inFrance.

For smart and savvy shoppers, thereare many other sauternes available at amore reasonable price.

While Chateau Gravas Sauterne 2001(NLC $21.64) is not a grand chateau, itstill has a lot of character. It has becomea medium-bodied wine with hints ofwhite peaches, dried pineapple andspice. While I did not try this with food— silly me — it would have benefitedfrom some acidity, perhaps in the formof fresh fruit or even an apple tart.

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

breaking the bank.De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis 1997

(NLC $30.05) is an Australian winemade in the same way with the sameBotrytis and hand-harvesting.

Noble One displays ripe tropical fruitaromas. The palate is long with an ele-gant balance of smooth honey, apricotand tangy grapefruit flavours. Lightlytoasted oak adds extra complexity to thismouth-filling wine.

Who knew rot could be this good?

[email protected]

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE MAY 25, 2007

Fresh ingredients prepared with careBy Susan SampsonTorstar wire service

Want to visit Italy? BibaCaggiano will take you there.In her latest cookbook, she

explores the “glorious dining destina-tions” of Rome, Florence, Bologna,Milan and Venice. It’s a charmingbook, warmed up with anecdotes aboutlife in Italy.

There are guides to the types of eater-ies, dining customs, regional wines,local dishes, specialty food shops,cooking schools and even an espressoglossary.

The book came about because peo-

ple kept asking Caggiano where to eatin Italy. The Bologna native favourstradition, home-style cooking andunpretentious restaurants.

The freshest ingredients, simply pre-pared, add up to a cuisine that is morethan the sum of its parts. I tested threeof the 100 recipes in the cookbook:Poached salmon is topped withBolognese salsa verde, or green sauce;the salmon is plain and gets too hardwhen chilled, but the salsa is lip-smacking tangy.

Spicy, grilled Cornish game hens,Roman-style, are so simple, yet attracta flurry of compliments. The Milanesetake a spring vegetable to an interest-

ing place when they top asparagus withparmesan and fried eggs.

Caggiano is the chef and owner ofBiba restaurant in Sacramento, Calif.She is a cooking show host and haswritten a slew of Italian cookbooks.

This dish is a lovely way to launchthe holiday barbecue season. It’s tenderand mouth-watering, lashed with chiliflakes and lemon and boasting a rich,golden brown skin.

HENS ALLA DIAVOLAAdapted from Biba’s Italy:

Favourite Recipes From the SplendidCities by Biba Caggiano. Diavolameans “devil.” The Cornish game hen

is a small breed of chicken. In Rome,they use baby chickens, Caggianosays.

2 Cornish game hens (each 1 1/2 to 13/4 lb/700 to 800 g)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil2 tbsp lemon juice2 lemons, quartered2 tsp each: kosher salt, chili flakes

Using poultry shears, remove back-bones of hens. Place hens on work sur-face, skin side up. Flatten by pressingdown with hands. Twist around andanchor wing tips to sit close to breasts.Place hens in 9-by-12-inch baking

dish.In small bowl, whisk together oil and

lemon juice. Brush liberally on bothsides of hens. Season all over with saltand chili flakes. Cover and let sit 30minutes.

Preheat the grill to medium-high.Add hens, skin side down. Reduce heatto medium-low, close cover and grilluntil skin is golden brown, 15 minutes.Turn hens. Brush with oil mixture frombaking dish. Grill until bottom isbrowned, skin is starting to crisp andjuices run clear when thigh is pokedwith skewer, 10 to 15 minutes. Servehens with lemon quarters, to be liberal-ly squeezed over meat..

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

NICHOLASGARDNEROff the Eating Path

TASTE

By Josh RubinTorstar wire service

As the two-four anniversary ofStrange Brew approaches, wespoke to actor Dave Thomas, the

alter-ego of über-hoser Doug McKenzie(Bob was played by Rick Moranis), aboutthe movie, the SCTV show that inspired itand beer — including the Red Cap brewhe’s promoting for anniversary festivities.

Q What was the first kind of beer youhad?

A I don’t remember the actual kind. Iwasn’t too much of a connoisseur of beerwhen I had my first one. As a teenager, itwas the number of beers that countedrather than the brand. My tastes havechanged. I’ve gone from light beer, to now

where I enjoy Newcastle (Brown Ale).

Q And the Red Cap?A Yeah, it’s nice beer and it’s something

Bob and Doug would enjoy, too. I likeCanadian beer. Generally speaking, it’s alot better than American beer.

Q How did you guys hook up withBrick for this?

A Well, it was the only Canadian beerleft that was being sold in stubbies, and wethought it would be something Bob andDoug would approve of. What’s the pointof the long-necked bottles? Does beerhave to travel further to taste better? Thatjust delays the drinking of the beer.

Q Why do you think Bob and Dougwere so popular?

A (Playwright and author) Rick Salutinonce wrote that Bob and Doug McKenziewere popular because they were accessible— you didn’t have to be particularly tal-ented to be Bob and Doug. All you had towas sit around and talk and drink beer.That made the characters very accessible.And I think they were funny, too. Thatalways helps.

Q During the show, there were alwaysbeer bottles and two-fours around. Howoften were they real instead of props?

A It was real beer. The sketch was sup-posed to just be two minutes of filler, sothe rest of the cast wasn’t around. We’dshoot 10 of the sketches, and they’d usethree. It was just me, Rick Moranis, a floordirector and a camera guy, so we had a fewbeers.

Bob and Doug would be proud

sion-less frames are typically used for everything from street rid-ing — where almost anything from walls and rails can be usedfor obstacles — to park riding in concrete bowls and ramps.They’re also used to perform gravity-defying tricks on verticalramps and for dirt riding on downhill trails.

However, Andrew Planchat, owner of Cychotic Bikes at 7LeMarchant Rd. in St. John’s, says he’s seeing a “crossing over”of BMX riders and the average cross-country mountain bike —although he stresses the need to get a “jump specific” bike withcomponents designed to take abuse.

“The guys who are doing the urban riding are trying the off-road stuff now and trying the dirt jumps and downhill trails andvice versa,” he says while installing a hydraulic break on a cus-tomer’s bike. Between 30 and 40 per cent of his store’s productsare BMX bicycles.

Nicholas says it boils down to the feel of the ride and “person-al preference.

“Seems the pros and the mountain bike scene are doing simi-lar stuff to what the BMX guys are doing … that’s not to say thetwo can’t commingle and someone can’t take an eclecticapproach to it and ride everything. Like myself, I kind of mix anddabble between (street and park).”

Planchat sums up the appeal of the adrenalin-laden sport nice-ly. With the concept of daredevil riding comes the desire to outdothe last guy’s sweet tailwhip or the last bloody-nosed wipeoutposted on YouTube.

“With extreme riding the whole idea is to push the envelopeand see how far they can jump, what kind of stunts they can pull,how high they can go, what kind of acrobatic they can do in theair while they’re up there.”

[email protected]

Gravity-defying tricksFrom page 23

By Linda BarnardTorstar wire service

Like a killer guitar riff, agood cocktail is all aboutthe execution. And

Canadian rock icon Kim Mitchellis very specific about how he likeshis favourite, the classicManhattan, to be made. “I likebourbon, not rye, and I don’t likethe (Angostura bitters),” saysMitchell with a smile. We pull acouple of stools up to the longwooden bar at the cozy SuperiorRestaurant on Yonge St., which isjust down from the Q107 HardRock Café studio where Mitchelldoes his afternoon radio show.

“And I don’t like it shaken. Itgets all cloudy and weird.”

Given this is the Victoria Dayweekend and summer’s unofficialkickoff, it seemed like an idealtime to sit down with the manresponsible for seasonal anthemslike “Patio Lanterns” to find outwhat he’ll be toasting summerwith this weekend.

But Mitchell isn’t a cocktail-with-umbrella kind of guy. Athome, he doesn’t go for soda onFriday when the workweek isbehind him – it’s a shot of GreyGoose vodka from the freezer,poured into a frozen glass with atwist of lemon. But when he goesout, it’s Manhattan time.

Why the classic cocktail? Theanswer may surprise you.

“That’s what my mother used todrink,” Mitchell explains. “Whenwe’d go out for dinner, she’dorder a Manhattan. She died 14years ago and I thought I’d tryone.”

He did and he’s been drinkingthem ever since.

Mitchell laughs when I ask forhis recipe. “I’m a guy. We dohandfuls of salt and pepper. Idon’t measure stuff.”

But Superior’s bartender, GlenLexovsky, a solid mixologist whoknows his stuff — he used to ownthe much-missed Stoney’s Bar &Grill in the Beach — is happy tofollow Mitchell’s instructions andproduced a delicious version ofthe cocktail.

“This reminds me of my mom,Sarnia, Ontario, home,” Mitchellsays.

I suggest Mitchell try thePerfect Manhattan, where a 1/2oz. each of red and white ver-mouth replaces the 1 oz. of sweetvermouth to make the drinklighter and less sweet. Mitchellloves it, although he’s not a fan ofthe martini glass it’s served in.

But he’s a man willing to makecompromises.

“If I’m in Toronto, I’m going todo that,” he says nodding at thedrink.

Rock on, Kim.

KIM MITCHELL’SMANHATTANthree ice cubes2 oz bourbon1 oz sweet vermouthorange rind

Place three ice cubes in a cock-tail shaker or glass. Add liquors.Stir gently. Run the orange rindaround the rim of a chilled rocksglass. Strain cocktail into theglass. Garnish with a cherry.

Makes one drink.

DRINK

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 25

Kim Mitchell rocks aToronto Manhattan

Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) McKenzie.

SPRING

A special 6 week series brought to you by


MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 27

Home is wherethe hearth is Christine Hand, owner of Handyman Home Hardware in the Villa Nova

Plaza in Manuals, says homeowners today consider their decks, patiosand backyards extensions of their homes.

“Outdoor spaces are more than a place to plant marigolds,” she says. That’s apositive shift, Hand explains, as expanding a living space means more can bedone with the home.

Gone are the days of the standard resin chair when it comes to relaxing andentertaining at home, she says. For today’s homeowner almost anything goes.People buy everything from quality weatherproof fabric-covered chairs to out-door fireplaces to patio heaters, Hand says.

Why the shift? There are quality products out there, the options and varietymean a family can maintain the feel of their home, and have something they canbe proud of, Hand says. “Ponds, water features, garden ornaments and windchimes can provide the desired accents to a space,” she says. These “littleextras” set the tone for relaxing or celebrating, Hand says, depending on whatyou add to the mix.

Pat Snow, an employee at Party Time on Water Street in St. John’s, says enter-taining inside and out is big business. Theme parties, he says, are “in.”

Have a Hawaiian-theme party and greetyour guests in a grass skirt and a

coconut bra, he suggests, or gowith a rock-and-roll theme

and pick up a few decora-tive 45s or a cut-out of

Elvis. “Parties are about

having fun, and wehave what you need tospice up your homedécor temporarily toget everyone in themood.”

Hand agrees. “Solarlights are a no-mess,no-fuss way to add to

a relaxing atmosphere,but you can also have

the old-fashioned patiolanterns if you want more of

a party, fun feel.”Hand says whether a homeown-

er is planning a lobster boil for a fewfriends or a barbecue for the neighbourhood,

stores like Home Hardware have “everything you need, but the food.”Rendall Brown, manager of the Dominion store on Blackmarsh Road in the

capital city, says he can help with food, no problem.“Today everyone is busy so why spend time cutting and chopping?” he asks.

Since you have to go out and buy it, why not buy it ready to serve? “We make trays to order,” Brown says. Fruit trays, floral arrangements, cheese

trays, veggie platters and special bakery items can be ordered and picked up.“All you have to do is set it up and take the compliments,” he chuckles.

The options are limitless for entertaining at home.From pots to propane burners to lobster claw crackers and picks, Hand has

what you need for that lobster backyard boil up. Want to add turf to your surf? Hand can help there as well. “We sell steak spice and marinades, coal barbe-

cues, and flavour chips that add that different flavour,” she says.Homeowners are more serious about their space, and about enjoying and

entertaining inside and outside the home, Hand says. “People are investing inthings like more substantial barbecues that have the extra features they desire,”she says. “Used to be you would run out, throw on a steak and go back inside toeat, but today the outside deck is just as inviting as the inside dining area.”

— Pam Pardy Ghent


EVENTS

MAY 25• Annual Festival of New Dance, performances,dance films, classes, workshops, and choreogra-phies by local, national and international artists,LSPU Hall, 3 Victoria Street, St. John’s, 753-4531, continues until May 27.• Lady Cove Women’s Choir Annual SpringConcert, CLB Armory, Harvey Road, St. John’s,8 p.m.• Acoustic teen open mic event with hostsinger-songwriter Dan Rubin, A.C. HunterLibrary, second floor, St. John’s Arts and CultureCentre, 7-9 p.m., 737-3317. • Back in Motion presented by DanSingPerformance Studio, Labrador West Arts andCulture Centre, 944-5412, continues until May26.• Becoming an Outdoors Woman, beginnersprogram offering sessions in canoeing, back-packing, fly fishing, and much more, BurryHeights, Salmonier Line, 229-7189, until May27.

MAY 26• Newfoundland Horticultural Society springflower show, MUN Botanical Garden, Saturday,12-5 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., 737-8590.• Transformational Training Seminar, Spa atthe Monastery, May 26-27, 693-1624. • The Gower Community Band 10th Anniver-sary Gala Concert, D.F. Cook Recital Hall,Memorial University School of Music, 8 p.m.• Mount Pearl School of Dance presentsEverybody Dance Now, St. John’s Arts andCulture Centre, May 26-27.

MAY 27• Grand Bazaar, sale of bellydance costumes,jewelry, and exotic clothing, The School ofDance, 163 Water Street, St. John’s, 12-3 p.m.• Outside the Box accordion revelation present-ed by St. John’s Folk Arts Council, raising fundsfor the Newfoundland and Labrador FolkFestival, Geo Centre, Signal Hill, 7 p.m. • Fresh Fish Crafty Privateers sale showcasingcraftspeople under the age of 30, Masonic tem-ple, 6 Cathedral Hill, St. John’s, 12-10 p.m., freeadmission.

MAY 28• Managing your files and folders class, MUN

Division of Lifelong Learning, May 28 and June24, 7-9:30 p.m., 737-7979.

MAY 29• Adding colour to your garden with annuals,lunch and lecture with Garden Director Dr. WilfNicholls, MUN Botanical Garden, 12-1:45 p.m.,737-8590.• Working with Digital Images class, MUNDivision of Lifelong Learning, 2-4:30 p.m., 737-7979, until June 19.

MAY 30• Fishcakes, with Mike Hanrahan, JasonWhelan, Brian Kenny, Don Walsh, and NadineHollett, at Folk Night, the Ship Pub, St. John’s,9:30 p.m.• Blood donor clinic, Inco Innovation Centrelobby, 10:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

MAY 31• The Perennial Garden gardening workshopwith Garden Director Dr. Wilf Nicholls, MUNBotanical Garden, 7-9 p.m., 737-8590. • Judy Knee Dance Studio presents DestinationDance, St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 7:30p.m.• Deadpan Alley Productions presents the bril-liant theatrical comedy, Cosi, Reid Theatre, Artsand Administration Building, 8-10 p.m., untilJune 2.

IN THE GALLERIES:• Series of abstract paintings by local artist,Gordon Laurin, LSPU Hall Gallery, 3 VictoriaStreet, St. John’s, until June 3.• Eastern Edge Gallery celebrates The Year ofthe Craft, 72 Harbour Drive, 3 p.m., 739-1882,until June 16. • The Battery: People of the Changing Outporttells the story of The Battery, of dramatic social,cultural and economic changes occurring inmany outport communities, The Rooms, level 2,until September 3.• Brian Jungen’s Vienna, giant sculpture in theform of a pristine whale skeleton suspendedfrom the gallery’s cathedral ceiling, untilSeptember 16. • Natural Energies by Anne Meredith Barry(1931–2003), including 90 works created since1982, The Rooms, level 3, until September 30.

Book launch of Mundy Pond, Roger Maunder’s first novel aimed at young adult readers and set in the sum-mer of 1978 about the life of eleven-year-old Gordie McAllister growing up in Mundy Pond, on May 29 at theLSPU Hall Gallery, 3 Victoria Street, St. John’s, 7 pm. Paul Daly/The Independent

By Joseph HallTorstar wire service

Weight training can make old musclesnew again — down to the genetic level— a study of seniors out of Hamilton’s

McMaster University suggests.The study, published May 23, says resistance

exercise for people 65 and older can actuallyreverse important aging effects on skeletal mus-cles, to the point where they work geneticallylike those found in people four decades younger.

“We see big improvements … after weighttraining,” said Mark Tarnopolsky, an associateprofessor at the McMaster University MedicalCentre.

“Many people were reporting they could pickup their grandkids, they could carry more gro-ceries, it was easier to go up the stairs,” saidTarnopolsky, an expert on muscle diseases andone of the paper’s two lead authors.

The findings come as no surprise to life-longweightlifter David Smith.

“I’m 70 now — 70 — but it’s only an age,”said the Bolton resident. “I probably feel as if Iwas in my 30s to be honest. The only time I freakout is when I have to put my age down on a pieceof paper for an application.”

Smith has been lifting weights since he was16, and continued during a 35-year teachingcareer that saw him retire in 1994 as a principalin west Toronto.

A skin cancer scare proved the benefits ofkeeping in top physical condition, Smith said.

“The doctors figured the fact I was liftingweights for so long kept the immune systemstrong and helped the body to fight a recurrenceand preventing it from spreading.”

The study, which was supported by the U.S.National Institutes of Health, was publishedonline in the Public Library of Science’s journal

PloS One.The study looked at DNA expression in the

muscle cells of 25 healthy seniors, who hadundergone twice-weekly resistance training forsix months.

It concentrated in particular on the cellularmitochondria, the “powerhouses” that fuel activ-ity in cells. They are typically depleted in olderpeople, with many of the genes that affect themturned on or off by age. This depletion resultedin a loss of muscle mass and many of the mobil-ity restrictions often found in seniors.

But Tarnopolsky said the genetic “finger-prints” of the exercising seniors actually shiftedfrom their age-altered state to one more closelyresembling those found in young men andwomen in their mid 20s to 30s.

“We improved or reversed to a large extent the... gene signature of aging,” he said.

The reversal was accompanied by a 50 percent improvement in strength among the seniors.

Starting out about 60 per cent weaker thantheir younger study counterparts — determinedvia knee extension capacity — the training sen-iors ended up 38 per cent weaker after a half yearof training.

Tarnopolsky said weight lifting might removesome of the mitochondria damaged by age-relat-ed stresses, replacing them with geneticallyintact ones. As well, it may turn on genes,switched off by age, that offer muscle cells pro-tection from damage.

Dr. Howard Dombrower, director of rehabili-tation at Toronto’s Baycrest Geriatric HealthCare System, said it’s been well established thatexercise benefits both the physical and mentalwellbeing of seniors.

But Dombrower said he has typically recom-mended aerobic exercise like walking or bikingfor most of his patients and that the study maycause him to consider resistance training as well.

Pumping iron modifies genes, study suggests

MAY 25, 2007 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 35

Tony CoxOwner/Operator

754-3366

576-0100

SuperiorHome Care Services Inc.

Superior Care & Service, Our Commitment to You

Complete Tuxedo rental packagesstarting at $100 tax included

333 Freshwater Road

753-4410

Corporate Wear &Promotional Products

Ian Chaytor

Cool Stuff for Cool People! 480-0100 Reach more than

40,000 readersper week

77 Harvey Road

579-STOG

For just $20 per weekyou can have your business

listed in our quick reference guide.

Call Leslie-Anne now at726-4639 ext. 57

)��8M[\�+WV\ZWT¹>W\ML��WV�\PM�)^ITWVº

140 Freshwater RoadFor Home Delivery 579-1299

Lotto Line 726-5499

722-5521

Turn to the Experts

Call Jerome 895-3795

Fennelly’sC U S T O M S H E E T M E T A L

COMMERCIALRESIDENTIAL

AIR CONDITIONINGHEATING

VENTILATION

NL OWNEDAND OPERATED

CarrierYour

Heat PumpDealer

tel 709-334-3378fax 709-334-3379

Purchasing serviceswith a difference.

w w w . h a r v e y s p u r c h a s i n g . c o m

Would you like to swallow 20 pills every day,just to digest your food?

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

Please help us.

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

Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Abraham Nunez (3) tags out the Toronto Blue Jays Vernon Wells (10) as he tries to steal third basewhile Umpire Brian O'Nora watches the play during the fourth inning of their MLB interleague baseball game in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaMay 20, 2007. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer

Where fly balls go to dieVernon Wells’ guide to the outfieldBy Cathal Kelly Torstar wire service

At the instant a hitter puts his baton the ball, Toronto’s GoldGlove centre fielder has started

to make a host of calculations thatwill direct him to where the ball isgoing to land.

“Within a few feet,” Wells repliedwith a shrug recently when asked howclose he can generally guesstimate.

Infielders get by on positioning andinstinct. But a centre fielder patrolsroughly an acre of empty space.Merely tracking the flight of the ballcan be deceptive and he has only aninstant to plan his journey.

He needs to balance the odds bymaking a series of judgments basedon what he sees long before the pitchis floating over the plate. Few do itbetter than Wells.

It starts in the clubhouse.“You have to know the hitters and

their tendencies,” Wells says. “Whatthey tend to do early in counts, whatthey do later in counts, if they’re pullhitters or inside-out hitters.”

He watches videotape before everyseries. By game time, Wells has astrategy mapped out for every opposi-tion hitter.

Standing in centre field, Wells hasthe game perfectly lined up in front ofhim: pitcher, hitter, catcher. The out-fielders on either side of him have lessground to patrol, but they lack thatadvantage.

If the light’s right, Wells can readthe catcher’s signs. If not, he watchesthe catcher’s set-up.

“If they set up on the inside, 90 percent of the time it’s going to be a fast-ball. If they set up away, there’s moreof a chance of (the pitch) being off-speed,” Wells says.

He stops and considers, then helaunches into the variables.

“Actually, that’s the only time youcan kind of get screwed up because ifthey set up outside and it’s an off-speed pitch, you can still pull that,even though it’s away. And you canstill pull a fastball when it’s away,”Wells says, ruminating. “See, youhave to know the hitters.”

If he sees the catcher set up on theinside corner of the plate, he guessesthe hitter will more than likely pullthe ball — to left field for a right-handed hitter, to right field for a lefty.

“Bottom line, if a pitcher’s hittingtheir spots, you can eliminate half thefield given whichever pitch at what-ever location,” Wells said.

So, as the pitcher winds up, Wells isleaning.

“Sometimes you have jumps beforeguys have even hit the ball,” he said.

Now the pitcher is into his motion.Wells is watching the pitcher’s armslot, confirming what he believes iscoming. Simultaneously, he is watch-ing the batter, watching how his bodyshifts, watching his “load.”

SWINGS AND MISSESMost of the time, nothing happens.

The batter watches the ball go by. Heswings and misses. He hits the ballfoul or along the ground. More than100 times a game, Wells might gothrough that exercise to no avail. Butthe half-dozen or so times it matters,he’s ready.

“If you see the pitch and it’s hit-table, then you see the hitter and helooks like he’s locked and loaded,then you know you should probablystart moving,” Wells says.

So Wells has started to move, prim-ing his body for action. He’s waitingfor the next indicator.

“As soon as the ball’s on the bat, it’sa matter of bat angle,” Wells says. Ifthe hitter is ahead of or behind thepitch, the ball is likely headed to

Wells’ teammates in right or left field.“If he’s catching it square, it’s com-

ing to me.”At that point, Wells veers from the

visual to the aural. He listens. Thesound of the bat hitting the ball tellshim more than the sight of it happen-ing. How soon does the crack let himknow where the ball will land?

“Pretty much immediately,” Wellssays, surprised someone finds thatunusual. “If it’s hit over your head,you can turn your back and run to aspot and know where it’s going toland.”

Wells can’t explain that part. But, toreinforce that sense, the Jays’ out-fielders practice a drill in which theymust turn their backs on hard-hit flyballs and find them without lookingfor them, only turning at the lastinstant.

“It teaches you to trust the sound ofthe bat,” Wells says.

Now the ball is in the air. Wells’senses have narrowed the field downfrom thousands of square feet to a fewdozen.

He can be fooled. Bashers like GarySheffield or Travis Hafner cause himthe most trouble. Their huge swings— “hellacious cuts” — can make ashallow pop-up appear to be headedfor the warning track.

But far more often than not, Wellsknows where he has to be. Now hisbody takes over.

At least once or twice in a game,Wells’ combination of speed andsmarts will put him into position tocatch a ball most others would bechasing to the wall.

“It’s more than making greatplays,” says Wells, who is not beyondsome light showboating. “A lot ofstuff goes unnoticed. Cutting balls off,keeping guys to singles that should bedoubles. It cuts down on a lot of runsin the long run.

INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIEDFRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 25-31, 2007 — PAGE 36

F E A T U R E D H O M E 4 4 F L E M M I N G H I L L , T O R B A Y

Welcome to 44 Flemings Hill’s located in scenic Torbay, with an ocean view will take your breath away. This brand new 2 storey home is current-ly under construction with $9000.00 worth of allowances for Cabinets, Flooring and Light Fixtures. It boasts 3 bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths (includingand ensuite) plus roughed-in for bath in full open basement. With hardwood throughout a landscaped front and treed backyard, 2 car paved drive,10 x 12 back patio, 7 Year Home Builders Warranty, and a heat pump/air conditioner included this “just out of town” beauty is well worth finding.Please visit www.ebutler.nf.net or call Eric Butler at 685-2721 for more details and to arrange your personal viewing.

Photos by Nicholas Langor/The Independent

Something new and creative...Something St. John’s has never seen before!

Date post:	23-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	the-independent
View:	219 times
Download:	5 times

2007-05-25

Documents