Newfoundland and Labrador towns willget a break this winter on street lightingcosts, though the reduction works out to

less than one per cent.Twillingate’s town manager describes the

reduction as “very insignificant,” but welcome.With a street light bill running the town of

2,600 people $80,000 a year, Dave Burton cal-culates the upcoming 0.05 per cent decrease inelectricity rates will save the residents approxi-mately $40.

“It’s not a real significant savings, though wecan use any savings I must say.”

Newfoundland Hydro announced the fee

decrease on Dec. 8. It follows an updated appli-cation the Crown corporation made to the pub-lic utilities board in August of this year.Newfoundland Hydro initially filed for anapproximate 4.5 per cent hike on electricityrates, but has since reviewed its request andreplaced the proposed hike with the 0.05 percent drop.

Newfoundland Power says it will match thedecrease come Jan. 1. Newfoundland Powerdelivers electricity to about 80 per cent of theprovince’s customers.

Some municipalities are heartened to heartheir streetlight bill will be reduced. WayneRuth, president of the Newfoundland andLabrador Federation of Municipalities saysLabrador City mayor Graham Letto was“delighted.”

“Mayor Letto was overwhelmed by the fact.

He was encouraged that this (hike) would beeliminated for the time being … (it) was morepalatable to the residents of his community.”

Ruth says the decrease will make a differ-ence in many Newfoundland and Labradorcommunities. He says bright lights are a sign ofa healthy town.

“The cost of running a town, everything goesup,” he says from his home of Kippens, nearStephenville. “If the streetlights go up here, wehave to make a choice and we don’t want to beregressive and start turning off streetlightsbecause that means your town is shuttingdown. I’ve heard of these scenarios beforewhere towns have taken extreme measures andhad streetlights removed a few years ago.

“It seems like the town is dying.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“I would try and make the game a little sex-ier, I guess. Maybe change some of theclothing and just promote it that way. Forsome reason, we curlers seem to wear themost boring clothing you could ever imag-ine out on the ice.”

— Brad Gushue, on how he would improve his sport of choice.

See page 31

See “Costs are,” page 2

Ron Kirby sets up his Christmas tree lot every year on the old Dominion parking lot on Ropewalk Lane in St. John’s. He expects to sell about 40 Newfoundland-growntrees this weekend. Kirby says most people who buy real trees will purchase them this weekend. Paul Daly/The Independent

VOL. 4 ISSUE 50 — ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR — FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CA — $1.50 HOME DELIVERY (HST included); $2.00 RETAIL (HST included)

‘Gone, gone, gone, gone’

Future of 9 Wing, Nav Canada and other services in question if Gander airport closes

Patrick O’Flaherty . . 11Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . 18Book reviews . . . . . . 20Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

LIFE 17Last Nutcracker forKittiwake co-founder

SPORTS 29Players get used to newrules, faster hockey

FINDING THE PERFECT TREE

When asked about the future of 9 Wing Gander,military landings, Nav Canada and otherservices based in Gander if the town’s airport

closes, MP Scott Simms checks his list.“Gone, gone, gone, gone.”The Gander Airport Authority is in financial trouble,

and recently turned down an offer of $5.9 million overtwo years from the federal government, saying it wasnot enough. The authority has made a counter-offer tothe federal government for a one-time payment of $10million, or an annual payment of $2.5 million for fiveyears.

If an agreement cannot be reached with the federalgovernment, the authority is considering handing thekeys back to Transport Canada, which is ultimatelyresponsible for the facility. That would throw into ques-tion the fate of other services currently using the airport.

Government figures show 9 Wing employs 139 mili-tary personnel and 29 civilians. Nav Canada hasapproximately 12 employees contracted at the airport.Gander airport can see between 700 and 1,500 militaryand government plane landings a year.

The provincial water bomber fleet and other services,also located at the airport, employ scores of people andadd millions of dollars to the local economy.

Their departure would add to the already serious eco-nomic blow of an airport closure.

Gary Vey, president of the Gander Airport Authority,says the authority provides snow-clearing and emer-gency response services. If the facility closed, eachwould have to find alternate arrangements.

“What would happen to them? I don’t know,” saysVey. “Maybe someone would step up to the plate and dothat.”

Lieutenant-Colonel James MacAleese, commandingofficer of 9 Wing Gander, says they have no plans tomove — even if the airport closes. He says helicoptersdon’t need an airport to operate effectively.

IVANMORGAN

See “We need,” page 4

Streetlight fees reduced; Twillingate town manager says nothing to get excited about

MANDYCOOK

‘Out there’Eastern Health breaks silence on inaccurate breast cancer results

Eastern Health broke a yearlong silencethis week, addressing the media aboutthe results of their decision to re-test

nearly 1,000 breast cancer specimens to addresspossible inaccuracies.

Eastern Health says 117 breast cancerpatients were “identified as requiring treatmentchanges,” as a result of the new tests and subse-quent case reviews. There is no one issue or

mistake that led to the changes, according to theorganization; rather, it was “a systems prob-lem.”

The exact number of incorrect results was notreleased, due in part to a pending class-actionsuit against the health authority. Meantime, thenumber of registrants in the class action isgrowing steadily, with lawyer Ches Crosbiereporting at least three new participants in thepast week — raising the total to more than 40.

When The Independent broke the story of theinaccurate tests in October 2005, there was aflurry of media appearances by hospital offi-cials. Since then, spokespeople have repeatedly

turned down requests for interviews, deferringany public statements until all test results werein and all patients contacted.

“We were criticized for not being out there inthe public,” cancer program clinical chief KaraLaing tells The Independent. “But we felt thatwe had to take the time and the energy we hadand we had to focus it on the patients and thatwe couldn’t really spend a lot of time out in thebroad public arena.

“Until we had the opportunity to meet withand decide what we were going to do with

STEPHANIEPORTER

See “We’ve made,” page 8

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO OUR READERS AND ADVERTISERS

The advertising deadline for next week’s paper is Tuesday,Dec. 19, at 5 p.m.The Independent will be distributed on Thursday, Dec. 21The Independent offices will be closed Dec. 23-Jan. 2.There will be no paper the week of Dec. 25-29. SEASON’S GREETINGS TO ALL

2 • INDEPENDENTNEWS FEBRUARY 20, 2005

Most people probably didn’t notice butevery afternoon for the last three weeks orso a cadre of political types rushed to their

television sets each day to watch a short-lived soapopera. I’m referring to the House of Assembly —not The Young and The Restless. The soap came toan end this week and will not return until the Housereopens.

It was in November 2001 that the House proceed-ings were first broadcast. I can recall the publicdebate it sparked. Some felt a television camerawould intimidate members, curb debate and slowproceedings; others felt showing the House on tele-vision would enhance democracy and engage citi-zens.

Today, a short five years later, our MHAs seem tohave weathered the intrusion of cameras with littledifficulty. The level of debate has not improvedand, to be honest, it hasn’t declined either.Decorum in the House remains as elusive as ever,something between a verbal sparring match and anall-out brawl.

I was one of those people who thought puttingour members on TV was a good idea. I still do. ButI have problems with the way things have pro-gressed since its inception. For one thing the littlecadre of people I referenced a moment ago is muchsmaller than it should be. The House only airs whileit’s actually in session and people who have some-thing better to do at 1:30 p.m. most weekdays are

not able to access it at all. That’s unfortunate —working people would love to be able to tune in andsee their members at play.

I have some issues with the lack of true produc-tion value as well. I know the rules, but I find it dis-concerting that the camera will only show the mem-ber speaking and never those who are listening orcatcalling, etc. When the Speaker introduces andwelcomes special visitors to “our House” there isnever a shot of those honoured guests sitting in theSpeaker’s box or the visitors’ gallery. We just see apicture of the Speaker looking to some far off placewith a welcoming smile while we hear membersbang their desks.

The production rules are designed to make thebroadcast boring: nothing but headshots and thatone long shot of the Speaker’s chair from time totime.

The quality of production could use a littletweaking. For example, when the Opposition Houseleader Kelvin Parsons says something like, “I cansee the minister on that side Mr. Speaker, interrupt-ing, yelling across the floor and grinning. Well, hewon’t be grinning much longer, Mr. Speaker, I cantell you that.”

I, for one, would like to get a shot of that grin. Aquick camera cut to the offending minister would benice. It would add to the raw drama and give con-text to the “live” debate.

There are risks of course. If the cameras wereallowed to randomly focus we might find thingslike members not listening, nodding off, pickingnoses and God knows what else. Given the fewshort days our House is in session it’s a small riskto run.

The House channel could be much improved. Forone, let the cameras roam. If a speaker is literallytalking to an empty chamber because so manymembers have decided to pay a visit to the commonroom, let us see it. Two — replay the proceedings inprime time. The more people who see our membersat work the better. And three — use the channel formore than just broadcasting the House. How aboutseeing inside committee meetings? I bet the internaleconomies commission or the public accounts com-mittee would make for interesting viewing.

When the opposition parties were treated to abriefing on the fibre-optics deal last month we onlyheard about it. It would have made for riveting tel-evision.

While I think these ideas are good there is a prob-lem. The costs are enormous to provide the satellitefeed to Newfoundland and Labrador. The provincepays $260 per hour for satellite time. It’s a lot ofcash. Right now the service only has three employ-ees and my plans would require an expansion.

Maybe the new fibre-optic arrangement will leadto a lower price and my suggestions can be actedupon. Until then, we have to live with the House ofAssembly channel broadcasting coloured bars assoon as adjournment is called.

This year the House quit for Christmas with acliffhanger, just like the soaps. Will the people ofRamea and Burgeo ever get those flush toilets at theferry terminal?

Stay tuned.

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

Days of ourMHAs’ livesRandy Simms says House of Assembly channelneeds tweaking; roaming camera wouldn’t go astray

RANDY SIMMSPage 2 talk

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Spokespeople from Newfoundland Hydro andNewfoundland Power do not have official records ofcommunities that shut off streetlights to pay thebills, but Dawn Dalley at Hydro says the one inci-dent she can recall was a town’s short-term solution.She says Hydro only increases the cost of powerwhen overall costs increase.

“We’re not in the business of increasing rates forthe sake of increasing rates. We increase thembecause costs are going up,” she says.

“The premise is customers should be paying thetrue cost of power. If you use it, then you pay for it.”

mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

‘Costs are going up’From page 1

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 3

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A weekly collection of Newfoundlandia

There’s no better way to begin aScrunchins column than with adrink — not when the spirit is

poured from a bottle of the old Pink,White and Green. Well, the amberrum is actually from Ragged Rock, anew brand out this Christmas from theNewfoundland Liquor Corporation.The bottle stands out on liquor storeshelves because of the tattered oldNewfoundland flag flying on thelabel. The liquor corp. also preparedsome marketing literature …

Surrounded by thousands of milesof rocky coastline along the frigidNorth Atlantic, Newfoundlandershave developed an unrivalledresilience. The harsh realities of thelife in the North Atlantic brought itspeople a sense of independence andpride that still lives today. For over150 years, the Pink, White and Greenflag has been the unofficial symbol ofthis spirit of independence. It speaksof the greatness of our past, a proudand defiant people with a truly dis-tinct and unique culture.

That sounds a hell of a lot like thetext that accompanied the pitcherplant/alien tendril logo that theprovince released last fall — onlybetter. Danny could have saved a mil-lion bucks and asked the liquor corp.to come up with our new symbol. ThePink, White and Green would havebeen perfect. Rex Goudie had a Pink,White and Green bracelet on thisweek during an interview on CBCTelevision. For the life of me I can’tsee Sexy Rexy wearing a pitcher planttendril, which just goes to show theprovincial government didn’t learn athing from the new Newfoundlandand Labrador flag — symbols aren’tcreated so much as forged.

An elderly gentleman of fine tastewho had picked up a bottle of RaggedRock at the liquor store left a messageon my message manager to sayRagged Rock was smooth … realsmooth.

HYNES CATCH UPPoor old Aaron Hynes, the failed

Conservative candidate in the 2006federal election for the federal ridingof Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor. First he lost the vote toLiberal Scott Simms, now he’s lost hisjob. According to the Standard-Freeholder newspaper out ofCornwall, Ont., Hynes was “let go”recently after reports surfaced that hecalled an American businessman a“foreign jackass.” Hynes worked as alegislative assistant to Ontario MPGuy Lauzon, who says he didn’t somuch fire Hynes as reorganize hisoffice. At the same time, The Globeand Mail reported a week beforeabout a heated e-mail exchangebetween Hynes and Florida moneymanager Daniel B. Ward over incometrust legislation.

In November, Ward sent an irate e-mail to people in the Conservativeparty over their decision to tax incometrusts. Hynes eventually got a copy of

the e-mail and he and Ward went at it.Hynes’ last e-mail went like this, “Iwouldn’t expect you to understand thecomplexities of this decision …you’re a foreign jackass.” In anothere-mail, Hynes wrote he wouldn’t be“denigrated or intimidated by self-important non-Canadians.” Not tomention non-Newfoundlander …

PROMISES, PROMISES As the Conservative candidate,

Hynes promised to bring back theweather office to Gander airport. OnJan. 15, a week before the federalelection, Stephen Harper sent a letterto Gary Vey, presi-dent and CEO of theGander InternationalAirport Authority.

“I am pleased toconfirm that aC o n s e r v a t i v eTransport ministerunder my leadershipwould investigate the financial impactof government and military aircraftlanding free at Gander, and wouldtake steps to mitigate this impact,”Harper wrote.

“As a result of the extraordinaryvolume of military and governmenttraffic (the airport) accommodates, wedo not believe the federal governmentshould place such an unfair burden ona community-based not-for-profitbody. A Conservative Transport min-ister would work with the GanderInternational Airport Authority todevelop a suitable formula to offsetthat burden. Among other options, wewould consider a system of paymentsto the Gander International AirportAuthority similar to the ‘grant in lieuof taxes’ paid by the federal govern-ment to the City of Ottawa for the useof municipal infrastructure and servic-es.”

Funny, that sounds nothing like thetake-it-or-leave-it alternative MPLoyola Hearn gave to Gander airporta few days ago …

BIG SPENDERSAn advertising supplement

in the Dec. 11 issue ofMaclean’s magazine rankedNewfoundland and Labradorseventh among provinces and territo-ries in terms of provincial holidayspending — $781. No. 1 was Alberta($967); Saskatchewan was last($699). Maybe we should spend moretime at the mall …

DION MUSTARD In a Dec. 7 television interview

with CBC National’s PeterMansbridge, Liberal leader StephaneDion referenced how the best univer-sities in Canada — from Halifax toAlberta — would be used to developoil-field technology. Guess the hon-ourary doctorate from Memorial is outnow …

BIBLE THUMPERThe Globe and Mail listed Humber-

St. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrneas voting against same-sex marriage.What’s up with that?

BACON DIPPERRex Goudie, whose new album,

Look Closer, was released this week,was quoted in the Edmonton Sun thisway: “I’d die if there wasn't some-thing to do,” said the svelte 21-year-old, picking at his humongous artery-hardening pile of syrup-coated baconduring breakfast. He then proceededto dip bread into his oatmeal — aNewfie tradition, he told me.

That’s OK Rex, keep wearing thePink, White and Green and youcan make all the new traditions youlike …

ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

SCRUNCHINS

The bergshipProposed Second World War project would have dwarfed Hibernia GBS

By Ivan MorganThe Independent

Ablock of ice dropped into SirWinston Churchill’s bathtub —while he was in it — almost led

to Corner Brook being the site for thelargest engineering project proposed inCanada to that time.

During the Second World War theAllies, facing disaster from German U-boat attacks on convoys bringing essen-tial supplies to Great Britain, seriouslyconsidered building an aircraft carrier outof ice in Corner Brook.

The ship, referred to as a “bergship” byits eccentric inventor Geoffrey Pyke, wasto be made of an ice and wood pulp com-bination.

Pyke had learned that adding woodpulp to ice — which is brittle — made ita much stronger building material. Healso discovered the pulp served as insula-tion, which meant the ice didn’t melt asfast. The frozen concoction was calledpykrete in his honour.

Pyke’s idea was to build a man-made,motorized iceberg out of pykrete, whichwould serve as an indestructible platformfor airplanes in the middle of the NorthAtlantic.

As Paul Collins noted in his 2003 arti-cle The Floating Island, the British mili-tary’s chief of combined operations, LordLouis Mountbatten, was so excited bythe idea that he went to visit Churchill.He barged into Churchill’s bathroom andtossed a block of pykrete into the tub.

When it didn’t melt, Churchill was sold.“Churchill never met a hair-brained

scheme he didn’t like,” MemorialUniversity professor Michael O’Brientells The Independent. Churchill author-ized further investigation of the ideaunder strict military secrecy.

“The whole thing was linked to thewar situation and the Battle of theAtlantic in terms of timing,” saysO’Brien “It was all about trying to fill upwhat was called the “black hole,” thearea of the mid-Atlantic where convoyswere out of range of planes from Alliedair bases in Iceland, Northern Ireland andGreat Britain. They were sitting ducksfor German U-boats. By 1942 they werelosing a great many ships.

“So they had this utter crisis. Therewas a panic going on — not in the RoyalNavy, because they had more of a senseof what the situation was. But Churchillin particular was in a panic, and willingto seize on anything, and I guess had this

literally dropped in his lap, and so heseized on it.”

O’Brien says the British saw this as away to introduce planes — especiallySpitfires, their most effective fighters —to the Battle of the Atlantic.

“At the time, British carriers couldn’tlaunch Spitfires and long rangebombers,” says O’Brien. The bergshipwould solve this problem.

While the exercise, christened ProjectHabukkuk (after an Old Testamentprophet), was being designed and builton a lake in the Rockies, the logistics ofbuilding a full-scale aircraft carrier out ofpykrete were investigated.

Max Perutz, who later won the 1962Nobel Prize for chemistry, worked on theproject during the war. In his memoirs hewrote about the need to find a place toconstruct pykrete blocks and build this“ship.”

Corner Brook was considered a suit-able site to manufacture pykrete and pos-sibly build the ship, he wrote. It had along, cold winter, a good harbour, andsteady supply of wood pulp from thepaper mill.

There were many challenges to theproject. While the 60-metre prototype,built in great secrecy on Patricia Lake,near Jasper, Alta., was a success, thechallenges of building the full-size craftproved daunting. The engineering wasfar from sound. There were questions ofmanpower — estimates called for

H.M.S. Habakkuk

• Proposed length: 600 m (2,000 feet)• Displacement: 2 million tons • Blocks of pycrete needed: 280,000• Proposed width of ship’s walls: 50 feet

thick• Projected top speed: 10 knots (18 km/h)• Power plant: 26 electric motors mounted

on the sides• Space for housing for personnel, an

airstrip and 150 twin-engined bombersand fighter aircraft

See “Utterly pointless,” page 4

4 • INDEPENDENTNEWS DECEMBER 15, 2006

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Part of your community. www.petro-canada.ca

stories from herestories from here upwards of 8,000 people taking eightmonths to complete the project.

The pykrete plant was projected torequire 100 acres. There was a sugges-tion Corner Brook harbour would have tobe dammed and drained.

Then there was the cost — a projected$70 million. As O’Brien says, “It doesn’tlook to me like it would ever have beenfeasible.”

Some in the British military remainedunfazed by the price tag. Mountbattenwas so enthusiastic he brought a block ofpykrete to a meeting with high-rankingAmerican military officials in Quebec inthe fall of 1943.

Ever the showman, he drew his pistolin the office and shot the block to proveits toughness. The bullet ricocheted offthe block, and grazed one of the seniorAmerican military officials. They werenot sold on the idea, put off by the cost,the time required for construction, andthe fact they knew they had their ownsecret project — the nuclear bomb.

“I think it was May 1943 (whenGerman) U-boats were pulled out of themid-Atlantic anyway, because of losses,”O’Brien says. “At that point it becameutterly pointless to have this thing.”

The plan didn’t officially die until1944. American writer Collins says theastronomical cost, the increased range ofnew bombers, American disinterest andthe general course of the war killed theproject.

ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

From page 3

‘Utterly pointless’

By Sean RidgeleyFor The Independent

Scott Oosterom, a teacher at Se’t A’neyweySchool in Conne River, is about to step intothe position of youth counselor. One of his

main goals is to offer some healthy activities forthe older high school students to be involved in.

“Most of them are out drinking every weekend.The problem is there’s nothing else for them todo,” says Oosterom, a recent graduate fromMemorial University.

Se’t A’neywey School (or St. Anne’s) is theonly school in Conne River, a small and tightly

knit Indian reserve in central Newfoundland. Thekindergarten-Grade 12 school employs a staff of18 teachers.

A youth centre is already active in the commu-nity, offering movie nights, cooking events, com-puters with high-speed Internet, a big-screen TV,video game consoles, and more — but is essen-tially limited to younger kids. The seniors arepermitted to use the facility only after theyounger ones have left, and as Oosterom states,there isn’t an organized group for them — ormuch time.

Senior student Kristien Hinks feels she and herclassmates need their own space.

“I think people would like a place to go wherethere’s no younger kids, where we could have theright to go whenever we wanted,” she says.

“With the youth centre now, we’re onlyallowed there after the daycare is done using it.And there’s a lot of young kids there that botherthe older crowd, so we usually leave and wanderabout.”

Oosterom takes over the position of youthcounselor in January, effectively fulfilling therole of supervisor.

The area has had a problem with vandalism inthe past. A lot of the older kids used to hang outat the arcade, but due to acts of vandalism, thebusiness shut down.

Oosterom will be working with some of theolder students, as well as the Conne River Healthand Social Services, run by the Miawpukek bandgovernment that is instituted in the community.

“In order to make better use of the youth cen-tre, and perhaps the gym at school, the seniorsneed to have a supervisor or two,” he says.

“See, I do seem to have a good standing withthe kids … They came to me specifically askingme if I would be a youth counselor for them, andI think if I was willing to do this with them itwould help, in many ways. I am not gonna letthem down.”

It’s not going to be easy, admits April Hinks, ayouth coordinator with the local social servicesorganization.

“Donations from the community would be mybiggest obstacle,” she says. “Some parents thinkbecause we are a branch of the health and socialservices we have all the money to buy the thingswe need.”

As was the case with the current youth centre,

student fundraising activities are going to beorganized to kick-start the centre and provideyouth with the things they want. They’ll includewake-a-thons and selling draw tickets, amongother events.

Financial difficulties aside, the challenge isstill there: how are they supposed to attract theolder students?

“I have been puzzled as to how to go aboutstarting something for them,” says Oosterom.“Because what would they do that, for them, ismore fun than getting drunk?”

Things aren’t all bad. When asked, many of theseniors seemed enthusiastic about the prospect ofa youth centre.

“I’d like to have a place to go to because wecan’t go to other peoples’ houses all the time,we’re getting tired and bored of it,” respondedKristien Hinks. “And with it being winter, there’sno point to being outside and doing nothing butfreezing.”

“I think it would be good to have a youth cen-tre for the older kids,” said senior Ian Benoit. “Iwouldn’t rather do anything else.”

Jacob Benoit, a Grade 10 student, echoed theirfeelings. “A youth centre with no little kidswould be awesome!”

April Hinks, with health and social services,remembers her own teenaged experiences withthe youth group.

“I just think, if the adults were more openminded and helpful, the senior high studentswould have a great time having a group. I didwhen I was a teen because the supervisors wereawesome, open-minded, responsive, fun people.”

The process will get underway after the holi-days.

‘More fun than getting drunk’Conne River teacher spearheads new youth centre initiative

$2 million for DrukenRandy Druken will be paid $2

million in compensation for hiswrongful murder conviction

and subsequent six years imprisonmentin a maximum-security facility inRenous, N.B. He was released in 1999pending an appeal and later exoneratedby DNA evidence.

A spokesman for the Justice depart-ment says the method of payment —whether a lump sum or structured set-tlement — will be determined byDruken’s lawyer. General damages arenot usually considered taxable.

The spokesman says governmentdoes not have insurance to cover these

types of payments. He says the govern-ment is making the payment voluntari-ly.

Gregory Parsons, also wrongfullyconvicted for murder, was awarded$1.3 million in two $650,000 pay-ments.

— Ivan Morgan

‘We need that airport’

“We are watching what is happen-ing … to get a better feel for what‘closed’ means. Does closed meanthey lose their international status andbecomes a domestic airport with lim-ited services? That probably wouldn’thinder us at all,” says MacAleese. “Ifclosed means the runway is shutdown and everything and everybodygoes home, then that’s a differentstory.”

In that case, he says, they’d have tolook at bringing in some of their ownpeople to provide what the airportused to.

Simms says 9 Wing could stay —unless they get the fixed-wing searchand rescue aircraft under considera-tion. Then, says Simms, they mayhave to look at moving.

“Helicopters can land. You’ve gotyour patch of pavement. You’ve gotyour parking lot. You can land on it.But if you’ve got fixed-wing aircraft,where are you going to go?

“St. John’s becomes the defactoairport to land for the rest of the air-craft, the C-17s and that sort of thing.So it just makes sense to put the restof them in there too.”

Vey says Nav Canada would facenew expenses if they stayed on after aclosure.

“We are required to give themspace free of charge, so if we weren’there and the building was closeddown then I guess they would have topay the cost of upkeep themselves,”says Vey. “It would be a major, majorexpense.”

Nav Canada spokesman LouisGarneau says the air traffic con-

trollers currently working at Ganderairport would have to be reassigned— a loss of upwards of 15 jobs.

Gander Mayor Claude Elliott saysif the airport shuts down, the militarycraft will have to land elsewhere —and they’ll take their business withthem. The water bomber fleet wouldalso have to relocate. He says the sit-uation is very difficult and is takingits toll on the town.

‘REFUSES TO PAY’“If the government of Canada paid

for the service that they are providingfor them, then there would be noproblems,” says Elliott. “It is unfortu-nate that a service is being providedto a customer, and that customerrefuses to pay.

“I mean the Gander airport to us isthe fish plant to other communities.We need that airport.”

“When the prime minister went toGander, he didn’t pay a thing,” saysSimms, referring to Stephen Harper’svisit in October. “When Harper wentto Gander, his plane didn’t pay a thingwhen it landed.”

Simms says airports like Ganderneed protection from these federalgovernment policies.

“We need a policy for smaller air-ports that have a tremendous amountof pressure from military landingsand government landings. They haveto be provided with a lifeline,” hesays.

“The new government is now say-ing you have to act as a business, buttheir number one client — meaningthem — is delinquent.”

ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

From page 1

Randy Druken Paul Daly/The Independent

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 5

LOYOLA’S LOOT

Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan briefs reporters at a press conference Dec. 13 at the Confederation Building to announce $199.3 million surplus for 2005-2006 fiscal year. Sullivan says sound fiscalmanagement, the finalizing the 2005 Atlantic Accord agreement and improved offshore oil revenues contributed to the largest surplus in the province’s history. Paul Daly/The Independent

Armageddon philosophyCod scientist calls predictions of fish stock collapse ‘sensational’By Ivan MorganThe Independent

Renowned cod scientist GeorgeRose says some scientific jour-nals sensationalize stories to

boost circulation — and are confusingthe public and hurting the cause ofgood science in the process.

Rose refers specifically to recentconflicting reports about the state of theglobal fishery. A study issued fromDalhousie University grabbed interna-tional headlines by predicting the col-lapse of the world’s commercial fisheryby 2048. The original story ran in oneof the world’s most prestigious sciencejournals, Science.

Last week, a scientist based at theUniversity of Washington in Seattle,Dr. Ray Hilborn, challenged this study,stating the research was flawed, and theconclusions inaccurate.

That left many wondering which, if

either, of the claims was more accurate. Rose says the published prediction of

a total collapse is “nonsense” and wasmade to draw media attention to thestudy.

“It’s very important what the publicthinks and believes about this, becauseit translates into political action,” Rosetells The Independent. “And if the polit-ical actions are based on half-truths,mistruths and sensationalization — wedon’t want to go there.”

Rose says sensational headlinesmake the hard work of science all thatmore difficult. Research has implica-tions beyond the world of science, hecontinues, and the public and politi-cians have to act on what they think isthe truth, as it is uncovered by research.

“This is why I guess I feel stronglyabout this,” says Rose. “It’s difficultenough with the best of information forour political masters and managers tomake the correct decisions. It’s very

difficult.”Rose says Hilborn gives examples of

how the dire prediction was based onmisinterpreted information. TheDalhousie study uses catch rates ofhaddock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence asdata to show the stock has collapsed —but Hilborn says the George’s Bankhaddock population is way up.

Rose says the meat of the Dalhousiestudy was not even about global stockcollapse — it investigated the loss ofbiodiversity in the ocean and, on thatlevel, made fairly good contributions.

But, he adds, the prediction of a totalcollapse was added to attract attention,and was successful in doing so.

“From the science side this is a ques-tionable tactic and certainly it has thepotential to discredit science, which Ithink is not really what we want to do,”says Rose. “To make such a projectionis downright foolish.

“The part about the 40-year projec-

tion was only a very small part (of thestudy) — in fact its basically one or twosentences in the conclusion based on asmall part of the paper. It probablywould have been better if they had justleft that right out.”

He says he doesn’t want to makeblanket statements about all publica-tions, because many are trying to beresponsible in their reporting.

Rose agrees there are many seriousproblems facing the world’s fish stocksand says he does not want to discreditthe main point the report makes — thatthere are problems in the global fishery.

“It is just we are not on theArmageddon kind of philosophy. Wedon’t think it is all going to come to anend tomorrow.”

He says it is hard to fault the main-stream media or the general public forbeing confused.

“This is a problem that is coming outof some of the most prestigious science

journals in the world,” says Rose. “Imean this was published in Science,and there have been other similar thingspublished in Nature, and Science andNature are two of the most prestigiousscience magazines in the world.

“It is fine for people like me, becauseI’ve kind of got inside knowledge onthis … I certainly don’t blame the pub-lic. How are they supposed to know?

“If there is one place that really isresponsible for this, it is the scientificmagazines, because they are kind of themedium through which we vet sciencein the world. And they appear — notall, but some of the more high levelones — to kind have bought into thesensational.”

Science was contacted by TheIndependent for a comment, butdeclined.

ivan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Puddister on the mend

Leo Puddister, the colourful for-mer president of NAPE, has

been hospitalizedfor an undisclosedheart condition.

Daughter KristaPuddister says herfather is now on theroad to recovery.

“He’s doing well.He had a little bit of a setback ofcourse for such a big, strong, impor-tant man, but it looks good. Lookslike its going to be a little bit of alonger road to recovery than my Dadwould like, but things are lookinggood right now,” Puddister tells TheIndependent. “His spirits are very,very good — but then his spirits arealways very good.”

Close personal friend Ed McKeesays Puddister will need to slowdown a little.

“He is in good spirits. Leo is oneof these guys who is driven. He’salways working and he’s alwaysbusy and he’s always putting him-self under pressure. He’s not a guywho sits back and does nothing sohe’s probably just driven himself abit too hard, I would think.”

— Ivan Morgan

Your revitalized, affirmative,challenging, controversial In-dependent newspaper will

hopefully awaken the sleepers, encour-age the defeated, stir the doubters, andenergize the “activists” … if anyremain? Congratulations!

The recent series of articles thatfocused on reviewing the Terms ofUnion with Canada and the ensuingrecommendations are a commendableand, at this point in our history, essen-tial endeavour.

As a young man in teacher training,I experienced the advent of Confeder-ation. I knew first-hand the effect ofpromised freebies on the impoverishedoutports; heard the pro-Confederationrhetoric of Smallwood, Roberts andother stanch confederate supportersfrom the stage of the C.L.B. Armory(Harvey Road, St. John’s summer1948); saw and felt the hostility ofanti-confederates as I viewed themripping the coat from Smallwood’sback as he jumped into the dump of apickup truck to hastily escape theirwrath.

That Confederation rally ended pre-maturely but Confederation is a realityand has been for 59 years. Ourprovince has experienced progress inmany areas, let’s consider just a few.

EDUCATIONIn the 1930s, ’40s and early ’50s

children were taught in three- to five-room schools in most outports.Teachers were poorly trained; programofferings were few. Dropout rates werehigh. Larger towns fared a little better.

Beginning in the late 1950s a net-work of centralized schools were built.These gradually spread across theisland. Teachers were better trained,program offerings were expanded,graduation percentages increased.

At the post-secondary level, careertraining options were limited to teach-ing, nursing and a few trades.

Today with a network of privatelyfunded career schools, the College ofthe North Atlantic and our vastlyexpanded Memorial University, careeroptions are unlimited.

HEALTHIn the early 1940s most infants born in

“the bays” and on “the islands” weredelivered by midwives; plagues likedipthera, tuberculosis and polio decimat-ed families, sometimes communities.Diseases of the poor and elderly wereoften never diagnosed or treated —death was attributed to unknown causes.These conditions cease to exist today.

TRANSPORTATIONThe Newfoundland railway, motor-

ized schooners and a fleet of coastalboats provided transportation for thepeople and goods of our island prior toConfederation. A few roads, usuallygravel, some with hard surfaces, servedthe Avalon Peninsula and larger towns.The remainder of us used our top-grade“cow paths.” Water links for us were bydory and small, motorized boats. Wewere linked to the mainland by the Portaux Basques-to-North Sydney ferryservice.

The most significant transportationventure since Confederation was theconstruction of roads. Our section of theTrans-Canada has been completed, par-tially four-laned, with passing lanes atmost strategic locations. Most towns andcommunities on the island can accessthe Trans-Canada. The former cow pathsare now paved roads, with bridge con-nections across water.

The most significant transportation

crisis since Confederation — our rail-way was discontinued.

True a commission solicited informa-tion from 120 communities, held 15public inquires and recommended therailway be phased out, despite the factthe general public was against the pro-posal. It is fair to conclude — with theexception of our railway loss, trans-portation facilities are vastly superior tothose prior to 1949.

Prior to Confederation (1930s to early’40s) our social network was in desper-ate need of mending. Wages were low,work was scarce, poverty was rampant.Welfare victims received six cents perday for food. With the advent ofConfederation the relatively new andimproved Canadian social programswere a welcome temporary solution.Unemployment insurance, widows’allowances, family allowances, Canadaand seniors pensions enhanced the lifestyle of many new Canadians in theprovince of Newfoundland.

Progress in certain areas cannot bedenied but let it be noted that theCanadian federation was and is nowbeing richly compensated. One of therichest fishing grounds on earth wasmade available to Canada for barter andtrade. Blatant federal government mis-management, tangled, unfair, illogicalregulations allow foreign nations to fishour stocks while Newfoundland boats goidle. The lack of protection for fishstocks has reduced many species (espe-cially cod) to protected-species status.We expect better,Canada!

Unimaginable fish resources, miner-als, oil and water resources were therefor harvesting. Past and ongoing devel-opment of the resources result in billionsof dollars being absorbed by giant cor-porations with a few pennies beingdropped to the province and tens ofthousands of Newfoundlanders beingflown to Alberta, Ontario and B.C. toearn a livelihood.

Where are the fish processed? Russia,China, Nova Scotia, Spain, Portugal, etc.

Where are the oil refineries? Wouldyou believe … Houston?

6 • INDEPENDENTNEWS DECEMBER 15, 2006

A life without DannyDanny has thought about quitting

politics, he said so himself whenthe media asked him how he was

doing, which means it’s fair game for meto picture Newfoundland and Labradorwithout him. Excuse me for a second, I’vefound my powers of concentration aremuch sharper when I connect the alientendrils from the provincial logo to mytemple lobes. There … all done — I mayhave a couple of stylized pitcher plantssuction-cupped to my forehead but thereception is much clearer than with theold-fashioned rabbit ears. See all thatDanny does for us?

Now he’s gone.Let that thought sink in for a moment

— Danny’s done. My first reaction is pityfor the Tory party he leaves behind. Thepremier’s popularity may have dipped inthe polls to 73 per cent today from 78 percent in August, but he’s still red lining inthe messiah/Smallwood/Moores/Peckford/Wells/Tobin zone.

The Conservatives would be lost with-out him, a herd of moose caught in theheadlights, tongues lapping salt off thepavement of the Trans-Canada, with noone to lead them to the PromisedLand/highway shoulder. TheConservatives are almost guaranteed asecond mandate come next October, but

that’s only if Danny leads the way.Without a shining star like He Who

Takes No Salary, the Tories would be fairgame for the likes of Gerry Reid, a ratherdull Liberal star, more of a tide-them-over, sacrificial-lamb leader (Gerryknows that himself). Forget Danny’sdeparture, Lorraine Michael wouldn’thave a chance of becoming premier if theentire caucus of both other partiesattached special transport tendrils to theirsuits and beamed to Maher’s (that’s theplace out by Roaches Line).

For sure there’d be a dogfight betweenthe Liberals and Tories.

Not a soul could take Danny’s place, ofcourse. Loyola Sullivan has already hadhis kick at the leadership can and stubbedhis toe. Trevor Taylor is handsome as allget out, with real Bay appeal, but hecouldn’t make a go of it in the FisheriesDepartment when he had the helm.

And as the fishery goes, so goes thisplace. While I’m on the Trevor topic, theminister called into Open Line Thursday

morning to praise the announced reopen-ing of the Harbour Breton fish plant.Randy Simms caught Trevor off guardwhen he asked the minister about the $2-an-hour salary cut that the workers hadto swallow for the plant to reopen.Trevor expressed surprise, like he didn’tknow about it. (What the hell was thatabout?)

After Trevor … the list of leadershiphopefuls tails off dramatically.

So let’s not piss off Danny too much orhe’ll leave us stranded, alone in the NorthAtlantic dark with no one to lead us to thelight. We should be grateful for all he hasdone/is doing for us. The Oppositionshould know better than to stick it to himevery day in the House of Assembly. Howdare they question the premier’s actions?No wonder Danny shut down the kitchen,by rights he shouldn’t have to take theslightest degree of heat.

The fibre-optic deal, Joan Cleary’samputation from Bull Arm (I don’t wantto sound defensive, but no relation) …what right do the Liberals have to buckcowboy Danny? Even the media seem alittle timid around the fibre-optic story …best to stay in Danny’s good books, makesfor a much smoother ride throughDannyland.SULLIVAN SURPRISE

On Wednesday, Sullivan held a newsconference to announce a $199 millionsurplus for last fiscal year, which obvi-ously looks good on the Tories. How didwe do so well? New Atlantic Accordmoney (thanks again, Danny), improvedoffshore revenues and “sound fiscal man-agement.”

The Sullivan release is even front andcentre on the provincial government’swebsite, directly below the headlinesTremendous day for Harbour Breton andGovernment launches campaign to pro-mote good hygiene. (Is that another hintthat Danny’s going to wash his hands ofus all?)

Curiously, later that same day, Dec. 13,auditor general John Noseworthy issuedhis own release elaborating on theprovince’s fiscal footing.

Some points that didn’t make it to theSullivan release had to do with howNewfoundland and Labrador’s financescompare to other provinces.

BAD NEWSThe highest net debt per capita of any

province in Canada — approximately$23,000 for every man, woman and child.The province was included in the lowestcredit rating category of any province. GOOD NEWS

It would only take a surplus of $300million a year for 40 years for us tobecome debt free. Under the did-you-know category, transfer payments fromOttawa made up $1.9 billion or 34 percent of total revenues in 2006. Health andeducation costs ate up $3 billion or anoth-er 57 per cent of the money coming in(twice as much as in 2001). Noseworthycalled for a debt-reduction plan. We’llkeep an eye on that and check back withyou down the road.

WISH LISTI’m going to switch topics now and end

off on a happy note. The Toronto Star car-ried a piece by regular columnist VinayMenon this week headlined, All a TVwriter wants for Christmas …

Most interesting in the Top-50 list werenumbers 5 and 14:

No. 5 … Rick Mercer visit my homeeach week to rant on a topic of my choos-ing: “Why is it the man’s job to sort therecycling? Don’t women use cannedgoods?”

No. 14: A new comedy starring ShaunMajumder and Mark Critch as adoptedbrothers who pose as pretentious abstractartists to meet hot debuntantes.

ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca

‘We must fight for something better’

RYAN CLEARYFightingNewfoundlander

YOURVOICE‘I disagree with Mr. Simms’Dear editor,

In the Dec. 8 edition of The Inde-pendent, columnist Randy Simmsquestioned the need for a byelectionat the present time in the district ofKilbride (The Kilbride conundrum).

As we all know, within the nextyear the people of this province willvote to elect MHAs in all 48 seats inthe province’s next general electionand Mr. Simms wonders if thereneeds to be a byelection in that dis-trict so close to a general election.

While Mr. Simms raises a goodargument, I have to disagree withhim. Just because there is an electionin October of next year does notmean that a district should go withoutrepresentation in the House ofAssembly for X number of months,especially during the spring sitting ofthe House of Assembly in which thebudget is often debated. The peopleof Kilbride would want their MHA tobe able to stand up in the House andgive their thoughts on the budget andother matters that impact their area,

Byelections have happened beforein the year prior to an election and Iagree with them. While Mr. Simmsraises the argument over an MHApossibly resigning in July andbecause of this new law there wouldhave to be a byelection in Septemberand a regular election in the same dis-trict in October, I disagree with that. Ifigure that any member who choosesnot to run in an election will notresign their seat three months beforethe election but rather wait until thegeneral election to resign.

So I disagree with Mr. Simms’argument — this new law is one ofthe best laws ever presented for elec-toral reform in Newfoundland historyand provides for adequate representa-tion in the House for every district. Inotice that not many people mind thisas people have come across from thetwo major political parties to run inthe Kilbride byelection.

Tony Ducey,Garnish

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. • © 2006 The Independent • Canada Post Agreement # 40871083

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GORDONSTEWARTGuest column

Dear editor,I write in response to Noreen

Golfman’s Dec. 8 column in TheIndependent (The arm bone’s con-nected to the …). She roundly con-demned Paul Bowdring’s criticismsof government in his resignation asco-vice chair of the Newfoundlandand Labrador Arts Council.

In short, Bowdring charged gov-ernment with under funding the artscouncil, as well as meddling in itsaffairs. Either Bowdring is largely acrank whose complaints are ill-founded, or he is largely a whistle-blower whose complaints have sometruth. He cannot be both, or neither.

Tourism, Culture and RecreationMinister Tom Hedderson, of course,defended his office and shuffledother questions back to chairmanJohn Doyle. Doyle agreed with theminister, and other “respected anduncompromising” board memberswere silent. Golfman concludes,therefore, that Bowdring must be acrank and says so in a rather savageand personal way from the height ofher public rostrum in The Indepen-dent.

But no one who openly opposed

Bowdring or silently acquiesced,from the minister to the other artscouncil members, can be said to beimpartial, and don’t we need at leastone opinion from an impartial thirdparty, or do we simply condemn dis-senters because they dissent?

It could be that Bowdring is awhistleblower, and like all whistle-blowers is surrounded by discreetsheep, and these “respected and un-compromising” Doyles and Walshesare merely the bigger and more pros-perous sheep. How are we to know?

I ask these questions becauseGolfman did not. Is the local “artscommunity” so repressed and fearfulof dissent, that it leaps so quicklyand brutally?

I hope my dissenting voice is notthe only one to answer Ms.Golfman. But if it is, and she doesn’tthink she owes Bowdring an equallypublic apology, then I invite her todebate freedom of speech and dis-sent with me, in a public forum, andon equal rooting and the sooner thebetter.

Frank Holden,St. John’s

Crank or whistleblower?

Progress in certain areascannot be denied but let itbe noted that the Canadianfederation was and is nowbeing richly compensated.

See “Glorified,” page 12

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 7

YOURVOICE

Dear editor,I am writing in response to an arti-

cle on Newfoundland’s fur-farmingindustry, Strutting their stuff, pub-lished in The Independent’s Dec. 8edition. The story was accompaniedby photo of a model “strutting” amink coat.

I wonder if the model knew whatshe was actually wearing. She waswearing something she didn’t need,obtained by sticking a rod up anothercreature’s anus and electrocuting it.Several creatures, all approximatelysix months of age, whose short livesin a crowded pen ended in fear andpain. That’s fur farming. Nice pas-toral image.

The new trend in the West is to out-law it. Fur farming is illegal in theUnited Kingdom, Northern Irelandand Austria. It’s being phased out inItaly, as is fox farming in theNetherlands and Sweden. There is agrowing movement, backed by retail-ers and designers great and small(Marks and Spencer and Polo RalphLauren, for example), humane soci-eties and the general public, to stopthe sordid cruelty which has vanity asits only raison d’etre — that and theopportunity to make money.

Mervin Wiseman, president of theFur Breeders’ Association ofNewfoundland and Labrador, saysthat this province’s fur farming ischaracterized by “humane methods.”I’d like to know what his definition of“inhumane” is. Wiseman wants moremoney from the government to sup-port the industry, which he says is onthe upswing.

Yes, it is. But mainly in countrieswhere they’re just as likely to put anelectric prod up the anus of a humanbeing as a fox or a mink. Russia andChina, for instance, the booming newmarkets for Newfoundland “farmed”fur.

I’m not a fan of Joey Smallwood —except in the sense that his reign hadsome great dramatic moments — buthe once said something thatimpressed me. It was to the effect thatmaybe the trouble with this provinceis that its history is based on killingthings — on destroying instead ofcreating. Stifles the imagination,which doesn’t do anything for eitherthe spirit or the economy. Perhaps hewas a little bit right, just that once.

Susan Rendell,St. John’s

One of the best things about par-liamentary democracy is thelack of what some people call

“decorum.” I have a life-long loathingof the term. When I was young the wordwas used by adults to make me to sit stillin church, assembly, or wherever I wasforced to be by adults.

From time to time someone is quotedin the media as saying the House shouldhave more decorum — whatever thatever meant. The behaviour of MHAs inthe House has always been an easy tar-get for journalists. Clips of yelling anddesk thumping, taken out of context, domake sessions in the House seemunruly, but they don’t tell the real story.

The fact that MHAs have the latitudeto act childishly means they sometimesdo, but free and open democracyrequires that they have this latitude. Therules for behaviour in parliaments likeour House of Assembly have taken cen-turies to develop, and they are what theyare for a reason. As the highest law inthe land, they have only each other’shonour to rely on.

In a presidential system, like in the

U.S., the president can surround himself(herself? Hillary in ’08?) with “yes”people and supporters, and rarely hear anegative word. In effect, he can shieldhimself from criticism.

Not with our form of government. Inour democracy, if you are elected andaccountable, you are constitutionallyrequired to sit in a big room across frompeople who would like nothing morethan to paint you for the incompetentcharlatan they think you are. It is theirsworn duty. It’s your sworn duty to sitthere and take it.

You might think you are all that andmore, but if you are elected to the Houseof Assembly, you are going to be told —loudly, mockingly, and sometimes evenaccurately. And you are going to be toldin front of the salivating press. Thistends to keep politicians on their toes.

Is it rude to heckle, interrupt andattempt to drown out someone who isspeaking? Perhaps, but in the House it isfair game. There are rules, and theSpeaker enforces them, but the latitudefor behaviour is wide.

If everyone waited their turn anddebated carefully, much would be lost.When it comes to debate in the House,often more is learned in the mayhemthan in the carefully prepared and deliv-ered speeches. Often the most tellingmoments for a government occur when“decorum” is abandoned.

The fact is, for many powerful politi-cians, the House is the only place leftwhere they are not protected from thepress and the public by professionalcommunications people, well paid tokeep them on message and away fromerrors and controversy.

When an opposition member asks aquestion of a weak minister, and a col-league stands to field the question, thebooing, jeering and catcalls at the silentminister say it all.

A minister can issue press releases sosugary it will make your teeth ache, and

the only reaction they garner is therolling of journalists’ eyes. He reads thesame statement in the House and he’llweather the howls of scorn from theOpposition. Very telling.

A member of the opposition can standand accuse the government of wrongdo-ing, and be quickly and effectivelyanswered by a premier, backed by achorus of cheers and insults from thoseon the government’s side. Game, set,and match.

Watching the House is sort of likewatching sports in reverse. The crowdstays quiet and the players bawl at eachother — and it is the bawling that mostgo to see. Admission is free because noone would pay to watch it.

George W. Bush would never havemade it in open parliament. Can youhonestly see him standing and fieldingquestions from the Opposition? On theother hand, I suspect Bill Clinton wouldhave made a brilliant parliamentarian.

Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, BrianMulroney (God strike me dead for say-ing anything nice about him), SheilaCopps and our own John Crosbie all

shone in the sessions they found them-selves in — on their toes, prepared, incontrol, and ready to fend off the bestthe Opposition had to throw at them.Heckling, catcalls and jeering included.

When I hear people call for decorumin the House, I think what they are real-ly saying is they aren’t used to workingin such a raucous environment — theydon’t like being ridiculed, mocked,shouted down or criticized.

Tough.The House is a wide-open opportuni-

ty for every person privileged to sit in it.The House can test a person’s personal-ity. It provides the opportunity to soar,or to crash and burn. It can show us allthe true measure of a leader stripped ofhis or her spin doctors, apologists andcommunications people.

To those who say MHAs should beforced to clean up their act in the House,allow me to quote Trudeau, our greatestprime minister, in a famous lapse of par-liamentary decorum: “fuddle duddle.”

Ivan Morgan can be reached ativan.morgan@theindependent.ca

Decorum? Not in my HouseIVAN MORGANRant & Reason

FAUX QUESTION PERIOD‘That’s fur farming’

Cancer society works hard to educateDear editor,

I am writing in response to a letterin the Dec. 8 edition of TheIndependent by Margaret Osbourne,‘We are living in a chemical jungle.’

The Canadian Cancer Societybelieves that no Canadian should beexposed to cancer-causing sub-stances. We work very hard every dayto educate people about preventativemeasures that can reduce the risk ofdeveloping cancer, including exten-sive work in the areas of environmen-tal and occupational carcinogens.

The cancer society has worked dili-

gently with all levels of governmentto help protect people from danger-ous substances. Dec. 8 saw an impor-tant result of some of this work whenthe federal government announced afour-year, $300-million chemicalsmanagement plan. The plan willestablish Canada as the first countryto take such aggressive preventativemeasures in the regulation of danger-ous chemicals. The plan’s develop-ment is due in large part to theresearch and perseverance of theCanadian Cancer Society.

The cancer society is essentially an

organization of volunteers workingwith a small group of staff to ulti-mately eradicate cancer and providesupport to those living with the dis-ease. To state that we are doing noth-ing in this particular area of our workis both factually incorrect and dis-plays a lack of understanding of theorganization.

Peter Dawe,executive director

Canadian Cancer Society,Newfoundland and Labrador Division

Connecting the dotsDear editor,It is surely indisputable that posi-

tive change depends on the co-opera-tion and contribution of women. Whataffects women, affects families andchildren. This understanding hit mewith special urgency on the day ofremembrance for the Ecole Poly-technique massacre of 14 women,murdered not only because they werewomen but also because they werepoised for success in a hitherto male-dominated profession. For me, theremembrance underscores the presentday withdrawal of government fund-

ing for status of women offices andprovincially and federally organizedwomen’s shelters.

Can we not connect the signifi-cance of government cuts to literacyprograms, public computer locationsand, now, women’s well-being? Oursociety is moving dangerouslytowards inequality of opportunity andcondition — for rural/urban commu-nities, class and ethnic groups, as wellas for women. Dec. 6 calls us toreflect and act.

Carol Harris,Woody Point

Dear editor,It seems to me that Harry Tucker

(Proving the point, Dec. 8 edition) haslearned a lesson in life. If you’re goingto give the people of this province atongue lashing, especially one that wasnot particularly useful, you’d better beprepared for the backlash. Consequentlyhis tone is now defensive and somewhatcontrite, his substance weak, and hislogic bewildering. It’s best he quit whilehe’s behind.

He particularly noted our negativeattitude concerning a public financialcontribution to a new fibre-optic oppor-tunity for the province. But we have anobligation to speak to the terms, condi-tions, and process of this project in avigorous manner. Don’t ask us to keepquite and characterize our questions and

criticisms as negative. That’s the modusoperandi of all those who have been vic-timized.

So before you generalize us all out ofexistence with empty platitudes and askus to hold our tongues, how about leav-ing an idea or two behind for us to chewon while you’re gone?

Far from being “never wrong,” opin-ions are quite often wrong — mine nomore or less than anyone else’s. It’ssomething akin to saying that the cus-tomer is “always right.” This is verylikely false. You may argue that opinionsshould be encouraged but not that theirmere expression is a self-evident truth.You then appeal to those of us of a con-trary view to only express “valid” count-er reasons and not “ad hominem” argu-ments.

Fair enough, but your own articlebasically trashed most of us so you needto “reach out” to more than RandySimms; you need to appeal to the bestnature of everyone in this province. Ifyou leave your home it’s best not tostand outside and throw rocks at it.Doesn’t help.

Even more obnoxious is the Dec. 1letter to the editor by Lloyd Rees, CookeAquaculture ultimate in stupidity. Tellthat to the people of Belleoram and thehundred other potential sites in thisprovince. Now here’s an opinion thatprovides no room for discussions, no lat-itude for debate, that aquaculture is sim-ply an unworthy and stupid idea. Andthey say opinions are never wrong.

Robert Rowe,St. John’s

Liberal MHAs Roland Butler, Oliver Langdon and Eddie Joyce listen in from the sidelines while Gerry Byrne, leader of the Opposition, andJustice and Natural Resources critic Kelvin Parsons hold a faux question period. In a surprise move, the government closed the House ofAssembly Dec.12, two days earlier than expected. Paul Daly/The Independent

‘Be prepared for the backlash’Dear editor,

I never write anything that’s offen-sive. However, at times I am forced toreact strongly to what I think is wrong.First, let me say that I really don’t likeThe Rick Mercer Report seen weeklyon CBC Television. Under the guise ofhumour, Mercer blurs out a weeklybucket full of human vanity and dia-tribe. His show is condescending,pompous, raucous and at times absurd.

On a recent show I am almost certainI heard Mercer, in one of his fast-talk-ing walking rants about our politicalleaders, use the word retarded.

Mercer used the antiquated word that20 years ago used to be associated with“the mentally challenged.” These poorunfortunates are the same as those whoare “physically challenged,” except

their problems are in the mind and intheir emotions. I grew up when thedreadful word was commonly used torefer to patients of the “mental hospi-tal” (which it was called in those days)and is now The Waterford hospital.

Modern times and caring leadersbanished forever that R-word andreplaced it with “mentally challenged.”Using the word is now tantamount tocalling Afro-Americans “niggers.”

If I am right, Mercer should apolo-gize to the mentally challenged and totheir relatives and friends as well asthose who provide them care. If, on theother hand, I am wrong, I will be happyto write an apology to Mercer and theCBC producers of the show.

Bill Westcott,Clarke’s Beach

R-word joins the N-word

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 98 • INDEPENDENTNEWS DECEMBER 15, 2006

From the beginning:the chronology

INCAMERA

every single one of the patients —although we knew there was the wholeelement of the public trust — at thetime, our main focus was on thepatients.”

At issue are the outcomes of sevenyears’ worth of estrogen and proges-terone receptor (ER/PR) testing, done atthe laboratory at the Health SciencesCentre in St. John’s.

The tests, conducted on tissue sam-ples from breast cancer tumours, areused to guide oncologists in determiningthe best therapy for the patient after sur-gery.

A positive test result means thepatient may respond to hormone thera-pies, such as the drug Tamoxifen —which is taken by mouth and generallythought to carry less side effects thanchemotherapy. A negative test resultmeans hormone therapy is not an option.

••• The ER-PR test is not an exact or sim-

ple procedure. In 2004, a new semi-automated system, called Ventana, wasinstalled in the Health Sciences Centrelaboratory. It replaced the Dako System,a more complicated, manual procedure,involving more than 40 steps.

Nash Denic, chief pathologist of thelaboratory program, gave media repre-sentatives a tour of the labs last week.From room to room, machine tomachine — from watching tiny samplesbeing taken from a kidney tumour tolooking through a microscope at treatedtissue — he explained the procedure.

“I want to show you the complexity ofdoing the test,” he says. “I hope I don’tleave you more confused than before.”

Eight million tests are completed inthe lab every year, says Denic, of whichbetween 300 and 400 are ER/PR.

Even with the new, more automatedsystem, there are a number of steps, andthe end result is a matter of judgment —different doctors may look at the finalsample and offer slightly differentresults.

What constitutes a positive result isalso changing. At one time, if fewer than30 per cent of cells were positive, itwould be considered a negative result.That benchmark has fallen in recentyears, to 10 per cent, and even down toone per cent — today, an oncologistmay decide to use hormone therapy totreat a cancer with any sign of positivi-ty.

“Ten years from now, we might besaying 90 per cent of tumours are posi-tive, where now we say it’s 75,” saysLaing. “The testing may get better, theantibodies may get better. What weknow about things is changing all the

time.”•••

With all the media coverage thisweek, lawyer Ches Crosbie — who hasfiled the application to be certified as aclass-action — has received three moreregistrations from women wanting to bepart of the class action suit. That puts thetotal “in the 40s,” he estimates.

“I guess this reminded them of thewhole situation,” he says. “Well, they’remembers (of the lawsuit) anyway, in thesense that they’re in unless they opt outwhen notice is given after certification,”he says. “But people have been indicat-ing an interest in being in the class.”

The suit is being filed on behalf ofwomen (and men) who fall into threecategories. First, a large class of peoplewhose retests did not result in anychanges — but the process caused thewomen unnecessary stress and anxiety.That class could be 1,000 or more.

Secondly, he represents those whoseinitial test were shown to be incorrect, orwho may have been offered a treatmentthat was not ideal, which may haveaffected the outcome of their cancer.

Third — and this may not be strictlyrelated to the results of the ER/PR tests— Crosbie represents a small group ofwomen who may have had unnecessarysurgery.

Myrtle Lewis, who was profiled inThe Independent last July, had bothbreasts and a number of lymph nodesremoved seven years ago, and under-went months of debilitating chemother-apy. Last summer, she says, her doctorrevealed that the review of her file indi-cated her cancer may not have been asinvasive as originally believed —indeed, she may never have needed thedouble mastectomy. She’s not the onlyone.

“I was contacted by a lawyer for awoman in the same position this week,so that makes three, I guess, who I’vebeen told about,” says Crosbie.

“Three people whose pathology wasmisread as being cancer and whoreceived a mastectomy — but it wasn’tcancer in that sense, it was cancer in situ(similar to precancerous cells).”

The problem is wider than the readingof the ER/PR tests, he says.

“It’s a problem with pathology andquality control in pathology. And we’rearguing that there effectively wasn’tany.”

Eastern Health is not commenting onthe lawsuit.

•••Laing was part of the eight-person

“tumour board” (two oncologists, twosurgeons, two pathologists, a representa-tive from the quality department and onesupport person) tasked with reviewing

the complete file of every patient whosespecimen was sent to Toronto for retest-ing — many of whom may now beinvolved in the lawsuit.

The board met every Thursday nightfor months, slowly working through thepaperwork, charts, and files.

“It was a stressful time because wewere worried about our patients,” saysLaing. “I don’t think I would havechanged how things happened orunfolded, but it was a lot of extra work.

“It wasn’t something that you couldjust say, ‘everybody do this for twomonths or six months until it’s all sortedout,’ because this needed to be done inaddition to the regular day-to-day workand new patients … I hope I never haveto do it again.”

Oscar Howell, the new vice-presidentof medical services for Eastern Health,says the past year has been “prettystressful for (medical staff), as it was forcancer patients.” He keeps his tone opti-mistic though, touting advances in can-cer diagnosis and treatment, and thestrength of the doctors — if not thequantity.

“We do have a shortage of patholo-gists now, and that concerns me greatly,and we are trying to recruit additionalpathologists,” he says.

“If there’s good that came out of it,it’s that this will allow us to make thispart of the lab the best it can be … andif we can take the learning from this andextrapolate that back through our entirelaboratory, I would hope that we wouldmake it so good we will attract a lotmore people.”

Looking back on the media presenta-tions and interviews she participated inthis week, Laing says she found theprocess “difficult,” adding that shefound the tone “demanding, accusatory,like there’s some big thing we’re hidingfrom everybody.”

Laing maintains there is no big secretbeing protected from the public’s alwayscritical — and often cynical — eyes.

“(We’ve) made the lab better,” shesays. “We have a core group of peopledoing things in the lab; you now havestability in the oncology workforce. Younow have people who are paying atten-tion, not just to this, but to all things thatare happening — so if things start toappear out of sync, you can look at itnow.

“It really was a systems problem andwe’ve done everything we can to fix theproblem and we hope other labs learnfrom this.”

The lab at the Health Sciences Centrewill start conducting ER/PR tests againin an estimated two months.

stephanie.porter@theindependent.ca

May 2005: The first evidence sur-faces that an estrogen/progesteronereceptor (ER/PR) test had given a falsenegative, according to Eastern Health.An oncologist was treating a breastcancer patient, and “given the nature ofthis woman’s cancer, her age and otherfactors, the oncologist requested thetest be repeated,” states Eastern Health.The new test, using updated technolo-gy, converted to a positive result.

Five more negative patients areretested — all also converted.

June 2005: Medical staff decide toretest all negative results from 2002 todetermine if the cases were isolated. Alllabs in the province are asked to sendspecimens to St. John’s for retesting.

Over the next two months decisionsare made to retest all ER/PR negativepatients as far back as 1997, and that anexternal laboratory — Mt. SinaiHospital in Toronto — should conductthe tests, according to Eastern Health.Almost 1,000 specimens would be sentoff.

Early October 2005: The first set ofresults arrive from Mt. Sinai, accordingto Eastern Health. As results becomeavailable, patients are contacted, oneby one.

October 2, 2005: The Independentlearns about the retesting, and bringsthe story to the public’s attention forthe first time. Other local and nationalmedia follow.

Dr. Kara Laing, cancer program clin-ical chief with Eastern Health, speakswith The Independent. “The reason wehaven’t gone public with this is wedon’t have all the answers,” she said.“The last thing you want to do or wewant to do is make people afraid … isto cause some sort of mass hysteria.”

Eastern Health purchase advertisingto inform the public of the retesting.Patient relations officers begin callingall patients who had been retested.

(In an interview this week, Laingsays there were “hundreds of patientscontacts and encounters,” and manytimes that number in incoming phonecalls. “There was a lot of anxiety, a lotof phone calls, a lot of meetings to bearranged — not just breast cancerpatients who had a change, but all thebreast cancer patients … then therewere other cancer patients calling in,‘should I be concerned? Does thisaffect me?’”)

October 2005: According to EasternHealth, a tumour board is set up toreview the complete medical file ofevery patient that had been retested, as

the results arrive.The external review process of the

laboratory at the Health SciencesCentre begins.

January 29, 2006: A spokeswomanfor Eastern Health confirms to TheIndependent the retest results are in —but declined to make a public statementuntil all patients had been contacted.

“I think as soon as they knew thatsomething was wrong, they shouldhave told us immediately,” filmmakerand breast cancer survivor GerryRogers told The Independent. “Theyshould have done it immediately andexplained what they did and didn’tknow, because we’re not children.We’re health-care consumers, and thisis a system that we all own.”

February 5, 2006: A follow-up storyin The Independent reports on whatappears to be the first attempt by abreast cancer patient to sue EasternHealth over the ER/PR test results.

A lawyer filed a statement of claimon behalf of Michelle B. Hanlon ofMount Pearl, alleging the cancer thatcost her both breasts and later spread toher lungs, liver and brain could havebeen stopped or slowed if she hadreceived the correct ER/PR test result.

Although more lawsuits are predict-ed, an Eastern Health spokespersonconfirms, “as of right now at thismoment in time, (Hanlon’s) is the onlylawsuit that I’m aware of.”

February-May 2006: Armed withall the retest results, the tumour boardmakes a “concentrated effort … toreview results, write recommendationsand conduct disclosures,” according toEastern Health. The organizationallows the subsequent six months tooffer all patients an opportunity to dis-cuss with their physicians.

July 30, 2006: The Independent pub-lishes a story about Myrtle Lewis, abreast cancer survivor, and her lawyer,Ches Crosbie. In the late-’90s, Lewishad both breasts and 11 lymph nodesremoved, and underwent months ofchemotherapy, which she says strippedher of energy, compromised herimmune system, and left her sensitiveto sunlight and many chemicals.

On July 5, she was contacted by thehospital and went in for a meeting. Shewas told medical staff had determinedher cancer was “in situ,” a less invasiveand more localized form of breast can-cer than her original diagnosis. Herspecimens were among the hundredsthat were retested.

Lewis joined a number of otherwomen who are part of a class actionlawsuit against Eastern Health, filed byCrosbie.

“My clients feel there are manywomen out there who are upset and feelthat they’d like to do something legallyor they’d like to have a remedy orthey’d like to know what happened,” hesays.

“It’s a problem with pathology andquality control in pathology. We’rearguing that there effectively wasn’tany.”

Oct. 13, 2006: Ches Crosbie filespapers asking for certification as aclass. At least 39 women have signedon to be part of the suit.

November 2006: Eastern Healthcompletes its quality review process.

Dec. 11, 2006: For the first time inmore than a year, Eastern Health repre-sentatives speak to the media. A techni-cal briefing is provided, as well as atour of the immunohistochemistry lab.

Oscar Howell, vice-president ofmedical services says 939 negativetests were sent to Mt. Sinai for retest-ing. Although the conversion rate is notreleased, he does state that, after allfiles had been reviewed, 117 patients“had been identified as requiring treat-ment changes.” In some cases, achanged ER/PR result was the cause ofthe change; in other cases, there wereother factors involved.

Dec. 15, 2006: The defendant’s(Eastern Health) materials are due to befiled in court. A date will then be set forthe argument to determine if the casewill be certified as a class action andproceed as such.

— Stephanie Porter

‘I hope I never have to do it again’

From page 1

Myrtle LewisDr. Nash Denic

‘We’ve made the lab better’This week, officials from Eastern Healthled the media through the process of test-ing cancer cells for estrogen-progesteronereceptors. Photo editor Paul Daly cap-

tured some of the images as chief pathol-ogist of the laboratory program, Dr. NashDenic, detailed the many steps of the pro-cedure.

A tissue sample is taken from a kidney tumour.

“My clients feel there aremany women out therewho are upset and feel that they’d like to do something legally or they’d like to have a

remedy or they’d like toknow what happened.”

Myrtle Lewis

10 • INDEPENDENTNEWS DECEMBER 15, 2006

Dear editor,Don’t you just love it! Danny has the

Opposition talking to themselves. Yep!That’s right folks, the OppositionLiberals held a question and answerperiod Dec. 13 with themselves. Can’tyou just hear it …

Gerry Reid: Mr. Invisible Speaker.I would like for the member for Portaux Basques to list all of his politicalfriends for this House. Will he do it Mr.Invisible Speaker, or is he afraid?

Kelvin Parsons (member for Portaux Basques): Mr. Invisible Speaker, Ihave no friends.

Gerry Reid: See that Mr. InvisibleSpeaker, the member is misleading thehouse. He’s a lawyer isn’t he?Therefore he has to have friends

•••Gerry Reid. Mr. Invisible Speaker,

I would like for the member of GrandBank-Fortune to tell this honourableHouse what trips she plans to take this

coming fiscal year.Judy Foote (member for Grand

Bank-Fortune): None, Mr. InvisibleSpeaker.

Gerry Reid: If that is so Mr.Invisible Speaker, I would like for herto tell this House how in God’s nameher husband is supposed to have a vaca-tion in the next fiscal year.

Yes folks, Dec. 13, 2006, questionand answer period in the Newfound-land legislator will go down inNewfoundland history as a real intelli-gent piece of political accomplishmenttoday by the Liberal party.

Danny has Gerry Reid and theLiberal gang so frustrated and disor-ganized over the fact that he has a pop-ularity rating of 70 per cent after threeyears in power that he’s got them talk-ing to themselves. What’s the definitionof schizophrenia?

Don LesterConception Bay South

AROUND THE BAYA giant squid, measuring 19 feet inlength, with the body being seven feetand tentacles about 12 feet, andweighing between 300 and 400pounds, was washed up by a Northeastwind on the shore at the foot of CedarLane and found by a member of theEarle family. Giant squids are appar-ently found in 30-year cycles. Eachtentacle, and there are 15 or 20 enor-mous ones, each about as round as a

tumbler, are covered in horn-likesuckers. Normally squid measure 12to 14 inches.

— Springdale News, Dec. 1, 1965

YEARS PASTProvidence has blessed New-foundland with another increase ofprosperity in 1956, and I firmlybelieve that 1957 will be even moreprosperous for the people of thisProvince. We are at the trembling edge

of a great new mining boom, and it isalmost certain that we shall soon see avery great hydroelectric developmentin this Province, especially inLabrador. – Joseph Smallwood

— The Bell Island Examiner, Dec. 22, 1956

AROUND THE WORLDMr. Shea, in reference to Whiteway’sremarks and referring to theNorwegians generally, stated that theywere “the most miserable people onthe face of the Earth.” Mr. Shea is nota very well-read man, or he could nothave made such a statement, as on thecontrary the Norwegians — theVikings of the North — hold to-daythe same virtues and characteristicsfor energy and intelligence that char-acterized their ancestors, and are prob-ably next to the Icelanders, the besteducated in the world.

— Our Country, St. John’s, Dec. 10, 1883

EDITORIAL STANDI must make a special request to localSantas to CLEAN UP THEIR ACT.I’ve only seen two so far this seasonand both were poor excuses for the“Real Thing.” We grown-ups some-times forget the hearts and beliefs ofsmall children who rush to see SantaClaus only to be disappointed by ascrawny looking, poorly dressed imi-tation. While there are those who wishto put Santa in his grave, I believe wemust do everything in our power toprotect the small children’s dreamsand fantasy and to do it while they arestill young enough to enjoy it.

— The Reporter, Stephenville, Dec. 5, 1979

LETTER TO THE EDITORDear Santa — This is my first letter toyou and it won’t be my last. Could youplease bring me a little building setand a little car or wagon to ride on.Also some surprises. Lots of love toyou and Mrs. Clause from: Williamxoxo

— The Metro Advertiser, St. John’s, Dec. 2, 1984

QUOTE OF THE WEEKOne of Bro. Thompson’s Brigusfriends is authority for the statementthat during the editor’s visit to St.John’s, he would secure a big fat job,the commission for which would bebrought home in his coat-tail pocket.

— The Daily News, St. John’s, Dec. 1, 1900

YOURVOICE

Springdale News, 1965

‘What’s the definition of schizophrenia?’

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTNEWS • 11

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Freedom to fishPatrick O’Flaherty says food fishery should be left as is; warns ‘forces’ may be at play against it

My old acquaintance, DavidBoyd of Twillingate, in a let-ter to The Telegram a few

weeks ago, said “the hour of decision”is at hand for the Newfoundland out-port. “Right now its condition is criti-cal,” he wrote, and “two things must bedone.”

No. 1: “The catching of fish must bethe sole privilege and prerogative ofprofessional fish harvesters.”

In other words, ban the food fisheryonce again. That is how “to keep ruralNewfoundland alive.” The food fisheryis a path towards “a very slippery slopeleading into oblivion.” Doomsday isimminent.

David seems to think the food fisheryis a threat to the cod stocks. I spent alarge part of last summer in “ruralNewfoundland” and took part in the fed-erally regulated food fishery. My per-sonal assault on the stocks, after five orsix trips to the fishing grounds, mostlyin blustery weather, and after spendingover $100 on berthage, gasoline, lures,lines, etc., amounted to 13 codfish.

Which brings me to my first point inresponse to Boyd’s letter. If the limitedfood fishery has damaged the codstocks — and nothing I’ve seen or readsuggests it has — then the damage wasdone as much or more by licensed fish-ermen like himself. The licensed fisher-men I met were, naturally, as eager tocatch their daily quota of cod as other

citizens, and since they knew exactlywhere and when to go to catch it,owned the proper equipment, and hadthe time and skills and nerve required,they were much more efficient codkillers than weekending or residentamateurs like me with their makeshiftgear, small boats, and often an ineptmanner of fishing.

I believe the limited food fishery of2006 did no damage whatever to theoutport economy. Far from damagingit, the food fishery improved it. It didthis by restoring the morale of outportpeople generally, and making the out-port a more attractive place to live inand visit. It was a great boon. Thelicensed fishermen I know are thefinest kind of men and I wouldn’t say aword against them, but they are not theonly inhabitants of the outports. Inmost places they are in a minority. Therights of other residents have to beidentified and maintained as well astheirs.

There’s something demeaning in liv-ing next door to the ocean and beingdenied access to the fish in it. In thepast this practice has bred resentment

in the non-fishing population towardslicensed fishermen — many of whomare more prosperous than their neigh-bours. It is accepted now that suchfishermen should have privilegedaccess to the common resource — thatonly they can catch fish in large quan-tities, and only they can sell it. But togive them exclusive access is anaffront to other residents of theprovince, who not only enjoy tryingtheir hand at fishing, but want the free-dom to catch as much as they can fortheir own consumption.

“Outport Newfoundland,” saysBoyd, “exists for one reason and onereason only — the fishery.” That is atbest a half-truth. In some locations it iscertainly vital; I wouldn’t deny that.

In others it is not. Trinity, TrinityBay, is not dependent on fishing. Norare Woody Point, Holyrood, variousother settlements in Conception Bay,Port Blandford, Port aux Basques,Birchy Bay, Bell Island. It’s not hard tocome up with a much longer list.Outport Newfoundland is now a tapes-try of many threads. I would put Boyd’s

statement another way. Outport New-foundland exists because people ofmany backgrounds and callings chooseto live there or spend time there: artists,operators of tourist establishments,sawmill operators, outfitters, mechan-ics, woodsmen, teachers, seamen, doc-tors, nurses, government employees,pensioners, craftsmen and women,shop-owners, truck-drivers, cottagers,itinerant workers, photographers, and,of course, fishermen.

All contribute to the rural economy.And one factor that will keep more peo-ple in rural communities is freedom,within limits, to go cod fishing, to catchfish species besides cod, and to haveaccess to other resources in the areawhere they live.

Last summer’s food fishery was lim-ited not just in the number of cod to becaught but in the number of weeks allo-cated for it. Let’s hope there will be nocutting back of either element nextyear. The federal minister of Fisheriesand Oceans is to be congratulated forimplementing this change in fisheriespolicy. But the letter from David Boydis a hint that forces are at play againstthe change. Those who want to preventanother shutdown of the food fisheryshould remain vigilant.

Patrick O’Flaherty’s Lost Country: TheRise and Fall of Newfoundland, 1843-1933, was published in 2005.

PATRICKO’FLAHERTYA Skeptic’s Diary

YOURVOICE

Dear editor,As I sit and write this letter I am doing

so with an ache in my heart. A formerclassmate of mine was diagnosed with arare type of cancer last year this time andnow he has been deemed palliative byhis doctor. This classmate, whom I willcall Jamie, lives out west and I cannoteven be there to visit him in his lasthours. I am overwhelmed with sadnesson this occasion.

When Jamie passes he will leave alovely wife and a six-year-old son. Hewill leave a job and co-workers that heloves. He will leave this life that he

loves.I have been reading The Independent

and there have been letters to the editoron the issue of cancer. I know that theexecutive director of the CanadianCancer Society sounds defensive in hisletter but can he really blame people forbeing angry and frustrated? It is not thatanyone is upset with the individual peo-ple who work for the cancer associa-tions. If we are upset it is because somany of our loved ones, co-workers,friends and even people we do not knowhave died with cancer and still others arebeing diagnosed every day. I know a

young child who was just diagnosedwith cancer and while I was out shop-ping an older lady told me she has can-cer. The list goes on.

We have had walks, runs, golf gamesand dress-down days to raise money forcancer. We sell pins and ribbons for can-cer research funding and still it seemsthere is no end to the number of peoplewho are afflicted with and or die fromone or the other type of cancer.Naturally we do wonder where all of thismoney is going to if there are still peopledying from this disease and there are stillpeople being diagnosed every day.

I found a paper called Known andProbable Carcinogens on the AmericanCancer Society website. This is a list ofchemicals that we are exposed to in oureveryday lives. While the chemicalnames may be intimidating to some ofus, I found that if I just typed a name into my search engine it gave me a lot ofinformation on where these chemicalscome from and what products they areused in.

Getting these chemicals out of ourlives I think will help cut down on thehigh rate of cancer in this country.Everyone should download this list and

see where we can eliminate these itemsfrom our lives.

I expect to hear any day now that myformer classmate has passed away. I amhoping that the different cancer societieswill put more emphasis on the preven-tion of cancer. While the prevention ofcancer might not bring in the bucks like“finding a cure” does, it is the only wayto stop the heart break and suffering thatsurrounds us when we or a loved one isdiagnosed with cancer.

Sheila Hunter,St. John’s

‘The only way to stop the heartbreak’

Paul Daly/The Independent

EDMONTONBy Duleepa WijayawardhanaFor The Independent

The three-piece band wasoutfitted with an accor-dion, a fiddle and a guitar.

The beer was flowing under ban-ners of the provincial flag. Thepeople were loud and boisterous.Somewhere at the end of the bar acouple of people were staringunblinkingly at whirling slotmachines and chatting about whatDanny was up to.

Just as the band struck up therefrain from The Black VelvetBand, my fellow NewfoundlanderTed leaned over to me and asked:

“How can you listen to that andlive here? Can’t you feel it? Don’tyou want to be home?”

FAR FROM HOMEOutside the temperature had

fallen to -30 C and was threaten-ing to plummet well below any-thing resembling habitable. Weweren’t anywhere close toNewfoundland. We were far fromthe sea, far from the foghorns andfar from both Gulf stream andLabrador current.

We were in Edmonton, Alta.,the new Mecca for Newfound-landers and Maritimers. Thehouse that Ralph built is bulgingat the seams with jobs and jobseekers. But this story isn’t aboutyet another migration ofNewfoundlanders. It’s about thereverse migration of Canadianainto the heart of Newfoundland.

On the outskirts of every majorcity in Canada now stand enclavesof big box stores and warehouseretail outlets. You cannot ever getlost in these complexes as they arepretty much the same no matter

where you go. A home renovationstore gives way to a big electron-ics outlet ending at a huge super-market of food. Along with thesebox-store nations, we have agrowing common suburbia withhouses that could be plucked fromEdmonton into St. John’s and youwouldn’t be able to tell the differ-ence. You begin to wonder if allthe architects in Canada go to thesame school.

How different St. John’s is from15 years ago when I first came.With each passing year as I visitfrom Oiltown, I notice the homog-enization of North America’s old-est city. There’s already little sep-arating Edmonton, Calgary,Saskatoon and a host of othercities in mid-west English-speak-ing North America both in cultureand in how we live. Watch out —this movement is spreading fastand engulfing everything in itspath.

There’s nothing inherentlywrong with the box stores or thehouses. They are popular becauseit’s what consumers want. Myworry is that hidden in this influxof box-store, suburban culturewill be the dilution of theNewfoundland culture whichmade me adopt the island ashome.

Will what I remember of New-foundland become what I find inthis Edmonton-Newfoundlandpub? No more than a host ofsongs, tacky fishing tackle on thewalls, a few flags to remind us ofour independent past? Will theaccent be all that is left identifyingNewfoundlanders from the rest ofthe mainland once we have allembraced this all-encompassingculture in a few more decades?

It’s not the songs I seek to pro-

tect but the feelings and memoriesthey wake inside. For me, New-foundland isn’t about accents orsongs. It’s about friendliness andcollective caring for their fellows;practising inclusion and avoidingexclusion, no matter how brain-dead the newcomer is.

It’s about trying new things tomake the existence on a bare rockmore colourful and exciting. It’sabout understanding the forces ofthe sea and wind as they shape thelives of both islanders and island.It’s about fighting overwhelmingodds and succeeding where othersexpect you to fail.

At the same time, no cultureshould stagnate into a common

derivative of its constituent mem-ories. Yet I worry the very thingsthat make me yearn for New-foundland no matter how far Itravel will soon become a thing ofthe past and that I will notice littledifference between the people ofEdmonton or St. John’s, and notfor the better. There are few peo-ple in the world who are as friend-ly as Newfoundlanders and I missthat here every day.

Perhaps it’s time that we turnedthe tables. As much as box-storeculture spreads its tendrils intoNewfoundland, we Newfound-landers should make a concentrat-ed effort to influence Canada intopartaking in our culture.

We already have a huge popula-tion of Newfoundlanders abroadand they are ideal ambassadors toshape the future of our country.What a difference the big citieswould be if they would share thecommunity aspects of outportNewfoundland. How would themajor centres be if people said“Hi” and “What are ya at?” to ran-dom strangers and were moreinclusive? How about going toany pub in downtown Toronto andbeing greeted as if you were homeby any number of strangers? Ourgreatest export isn’t an accent or asong, it’s who we are.

Yes, Ted, when I listened to thatband, I wanted to be home, butmaybe this pub in Edmonton isn’ta bad place to start changingwhere we live.

Duleepa adopted Newfoundlandas his home many years ago butnow lives in Edmonton, Albertawhere he mulls the relevance ofcomputer games while workingfor BioWare Corp. He can bereached at dups@dups.ca

12 • INDEPENDENTNEWS DECEMBER 15, 2006

Bringing Newfoundland to CanadaNewfoundland culture isn’t songs and accents, writes Duleepa Wijayawardhana from Edmonton, it’s who we are

There are few people in the world who are as friendly asNewfoundlanders

and I miss that here every day.

Duleepa Wijayawardhana,

Alberta

Where are the petro-chemical plants? Would youbelieve, Houston?

Where have billions of dollars from Churchill Fallsgone? Quebec.

Where is Voisey’s Bay nickel smelted? Ontario andManitoba.

Where is Labrador iron smelted? Quebec.Is it any wonder we keep airlines busy flying our

Newfoundlanders to work?Somebody’s stealing our turkeys — help.

REVIEW TIME How did we get where we are?The commission government (a group of six commis-

sioners appointed to govern between 1936 and 1949) hadrun its course; a replacement was necessary.

In June 1946, the British government arranged for theNewfoundland people to elect 45 members to a nationalconvention that was given authority to consider changes.The elected national convention members approved twoforms of government: commission government andresponsible government. The national convention mem-bers by a vote of 29 to 16 voted to reject Confederationwith Canada.

In spite of this democratic decision a pro-confederategroup lobbied the British government and Confederationwith Canada became an option.

Our opportunity for democratic freedom was denied.Instead we were lobbied into accepting a colonial-typelocal government with the authority of a glorified towncouncil.

We deserved better. We must fight for something betternow or forever remain in the grip of a Canadian-style plu-tocracy.

Gordon Stewart was a teacher and principal for 34 yearsin rural Newfoundland. He lives in Glovertown.

Glorified town councilFrom page 6

Dear editor,I am not a feminist but I am a

supporter of women. As its cen-tral tenet, feminism believes inabortion. Abortion is the deliber-ate killing of innocent Canadianchildren. I cannot support thiskilling of children.

Real women do not believechildren have to be killed toachieve equality.

I disagree with Ivan Morgan(Women’s movement needs newstrategy, Dec. 8 edition). Harperis simply an ideologicalConservative while the otherswere ideological liberals. Theliberals supported the feministsbecause they were ideologicalfellow travelers. Governmentagencies were set up to supportinterest lobby groups. However,systemic abuse kicked in veryearly in the game. Rather thansimply being fair, ideological sis-ters within these agencies began

to abuse the system and support-ed only their like-minded sisters.Absolute power corruptsabsolutely.

If you were Christian,straight, pro-life and pro-familyyou were quickly rejected forfunding. The pro-life and pro-family women’s group criticizedthis abuse in funding for years.They believed either everyoneshould be funded or nobodyshould be funded. No one shouldbe discriminated against to thedegree it was happening with thisprogram.

I do not feel sorry for the femi-nists; they have been spongingoff the public purse for too manyyears. I do feel sorry for all thosedeserving groups their ideologi-cal sisters consistently rejecteddue simply to their meanness andabuse of powers. I truly hope thestatus of women is completelydefunded from the government

purse. Why? What’s being fund-ed is a vocal minority who donot represent Canadian women.Witness in recent weeks thewhining feminists as their fund-ing was cut. They had not eventhe decency to thank the taxpay-ers whose dollars kept themwell-fixed for so long. As theysay what goes around, comesaround.

Now the feminists will be

forced to do what all the groupsthey “looked down their nosesat” have been doing for years.They will have to get off theircollective butts and actuallywork the grassroots level fortheir funds. They’ve been claim-ing massive support for years;they should, therefore, be drown-ing in support dollars once they“hit the streets.” They should bechoking in funding and reachingout for help to count the bags ofmoney that smack them in theface as they open their doors.

Just in case funding dollarsdo not dance into their laps, keepthe phone number of one of theaforementioned groups their sis-ters rejected. They know how toreally work to get their fundingas they have been doing it foryears. Give them a call; maybeask for a loan!

David M. Duff,St. John’s

Absolute feminism corrupts absolutelyYOURVOICE

I truly hope the statusof women is complete-ly defunded from thegovernment purse.

hope For every

questionthere is ananswer.

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Hope through education, supportand solutions.

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Don’t feel sorry for your-elfThink creatively, enjoy the sights of the season, and stick to your Christmas budget

With about a week to go toChristmas, the malls and bigbox stores are just about

bursting at the seams. Most people arejust about “there” as far as preparationsgo. In all likelihood, the bulk of us aredown to the final chores, the supermar-ket, meal plans, guest lists and cluing upthe decorating.

But for some, those of us in the midstof a money crunch, the next week willbe possibly one of the most financiallystressful times all year.

Christmas, and the expense whichaccompanies it, is tough for almosteveryone. No matter what our incomelevel, how well we’re organized, or howearly we begin to prepare, very few ofus can say in definitive terms, that wefeel OK about how the season impactsus financially.

This year, on average, we’ll spendjust under $900. Last year it was around$800. That’s quite a jump. For peoplewho simply can’t afford this kind ofoutlay, feelings of inadequacy, embar-rassment and, to a lesser extent, demor-alization. At Credit and Debt Solutions,clients have been telling us stories thatreflect these feelings for about sixweeks now. We provide assurance andencouragement and we try giving peo-ple some practical suggestions, whichwe hope will minimize negative feel-ings.

If you’re fortunate enough to havesome money, you just feel it’s sparsesince you’ve got an extensive list offamily, extended family and friends,then you might try a little trick we callthe 70 per cent rule. (This one workswell for people who don’t feel finan-cially inadequate too).

It’s quite simple. You spend 70 percent of your allocated Christmas spend-ing amount on the people you live with:your children, partner, parents, siblings,and so one.

You then spend 70 per cent of theremainder on extended family, and 70per cent of the amount yet still remain-ing on what we call acquaintances. Theremainder you give to charity.

So a $200 budget goes like this: $140on your household, $42 on peopleyou’re close to outside your household,

$15 on tokens to people important toyou and $3 to charity, like the SalvationArmy kettle.

If your household has a number ofpeople, and $140 just won’t cut it, con-sider instead a single large family gift.You can spread your $42 to a greaternumber of people by purchasing sup-plies and working from your kitchen. Ifyou’re not talented in that area, maybeyou can co-operate with a friend in asimilar situation who is talented but hasno money.

You bring the material and they bringthe labour.

Secret Santa, the practice of drawinga name and purchasing a single gift,also works well as a way of cuttingcosts — although a week beforeChristmas is not a good time to intro-duce the concept. (Mark your calendar

for Sept. 1, 2007 and float the ideaaround that time for next Christmas.)

Just because you’re financially limit-ed, does not mean you’re not resource-ful. You could consider giving yourwhole budget to one or more charitablecauses or organizations that work withand on behalf of the needy. You canthen present a card to everyone on yourlist, advising them that a donation toXYZ organization has been made ontheir behalf.

You don’t have to tell them howmuch the donation was. By doing thisyou preserve a little of the dignity youmight have otherwise feared losing.Chances are, the card recipient will geta warm and fuzzy feeling when theyopen it — at least, most people will.

See “Avoid,” page 14

INDEPENDENTBUSINESSFRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 13

‘Broader vision’By Mandy CookThe Independent

When the companyJonathan Brett workedfor folded six years

ago, he decided to put his comput-er programming skills to work bysetting up shop in his parent’sbasement — even holding busi-ness meetings in his neighbour-hood Tim Horton’s.

While getting his business offthe ground, Brett, 27, spring-boarded from one consulting gigaround town to another until hehappened to land in anoptometrist’s office.

The doctor was in need of anew software program to track his

clients and transactions. Brett puthis computer skills to work and anearly version of his now highlysuccessful eye-care software pro-gram, Eyesistent, was conceived.

Brett says the business has beencharmed since the beginning.

“I was just sitting around anddeveloping the product and mak-ing it a little bit better while thesepeople were calling and buyingthe product from me,” he says.“So I’m fortunate I guess to havepeople knocking on my door,

which doesn’t happen too much ina small business.”

The recent winner of the St.John’s Board of Trade Start Upaward, MedicLink Systems Ltd. isnow in its fourth year. In its initialstages, Eyesistent was successful-ly shopped around AtlanticCanada. Brett estimates he sold 36programs in eight months, butsays the business was outpacinghis own entrepreneurial savvy.

“I didn’t have a strong businesssense, so I didn’t really know how

to price the software or if I wasmaking money on it. I just knewthere was a cheque coming inonce in a while, so it was goodenough for me,” he laughs.

Enter the Genesis Centre, ahigh-tech business incubator atMemorial University — and,Brett says, an integral part ofMedicLink’s success.

First, the centre helped put astrategy into place where the“higher-ups” of provincial opticaland optometrist associations

across the country were contact-ed, with the hopes the softwarewould be well-received and resultin a trickle-down effect.

Brett says Eyesistent traveledwell and resulted in more sales forMedicLink, but it still needed acompetitive edge.

The company changed thefocus of the software to be moreof a management and businessgrowth tool, which is where theproduct stands today. The pro-gram not only managesMedicLink’s customers’ day-to-day affairs, it also crunches theircollective data to better under-stand what eye glasses are selling

AL ANTLEYourFinances

Young St. John’s business wins Board of Trade award, isexpanding internationally, and may be partnering with a reality TV star

See “Trickle-down,” page 15

Jonathan Brett of Mediclink won the St. John’s Board of Trade Start Up award Dec. 6. Paul Daly/The Independent

14 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS DECEMBER 15, 2006

If you’ve got no money, it must beacknowledged that your choices areeven more limited when viewed in tra-ditional terms. But think for a moment,you’re in a position to give the best giftof all, a little piece of you. You can givethe gift of time. You can present hand-made coupons for free babysitting oryard work. You can promise to take afamily member to the market, mall,bank, church or park a time or two.

You can agree to read a book, do

some housework or clear the snow sev-eral times. Something as simple as vis-iting a loved one’s home and preparingand serving a meal there is also a greatidea. The coupon might entitle the bear-er to a “Romantic Winter Evening” intheir own home, compliments of you.Make sure you sign all you couponswith lots of love and affection.

The next few days will possibly seeyou leaning toward borrowing or usinga charge card, particularly as the weekgoes by and you fear you are thereforerunning out of options. If you’re already

in a financial pinch, deciding to go it oncredit is a lousy solution. There’s nokind way to say otherwise. Avoid thatdirection at all costs.

Equally disastrous is a payday loan,or borrowing from family or friends.Try to the best of your ability to moveyour focus away from what you see as aquandary.

Take in some of the numerous churchservices, which will all be underway inthe next few days. You might even visita church you’ve not seen before or oneof a different faith or tradition. Church

music is great this time of year. After dark, go for a walk in your

neighbourhood. You’ll find the light andoutdoor displays spectacular. Or trywatching little children play — they’vegot Christmas down to its truest formand state. They don’t judge, they givefreely, they understand simply and theyhave tons of fun, hysterically playingwith the trappings of Christmas: emptyboxes, torn paper, shredded ribbon and,heaven forbid, snow. Best of all, they’rehappiest in familiar surroundings andaround people who care about them.

So don’t be elf-conscious, or elf-dep-recating, and work hard at not feelingsorry for your-elf. Be elf-confident thateverything will be OK. Elf propel into2007. Tel your-elf it’s your year — andit starts in only a few days!

Thanks for reading and for all thecalls and questions over the last fewmonths.

Merry Christmas!

Al Antle is the executive director ofCredit and Debt Solutions.

Avoid disasterous Christmas loans and credit

‘A logic so warpedit boggles the mind’Dear editor,

With the fisheries pretty much a lost cause, our lastkick at the can, in terms of still owning a resource withthe promise of future prosperity, is the lower Churchill.What I fear is being overlooked by the decision makers isthat it is not economics only that should be the decidingfactor, for it is not the hydro power potential that is themost valuable component of this resource, but rather thelatent power of the spirit of our people: their pride, theirstrength, their hopes and their dreams, now lying dormantas a result of more than half a century of subservientmembership in the Canadian federation. I cringe in dreadwhenever I hear Premier Danny

Williams speaks of the necessity of negotiatingfavourable terms with Quebec. Further, for him to con-tend that because we cannot use this power at the presenttime we must pass it over to others, or that in order todevelop it we have to sell it, is a logic so warped that itboggles the mind.

Compounding this lack of vision is the mentality ofindividuals like John Crosbie who delight in remindingus of all the blessings bestowed upon us by Canada andthat we ought to be more grateful. It is this mentality —shades of the rule by the churches and Water Street mer-chants — that has become our nemesis, and unless wedetermine to rid ourselves of it, we don’t deserve to sur-vive.

We know that in the evolution of survival values, it isnot weakness and subservience that prevails. This is not acase of hoping that this time Quebec and Ontario will doright by us, but a case of our doing right by ourselves. IfDanny lets us down in this deal, it is only because weallowed him to do so.

Yes, we do have the power and the means to determineour own destiny, but the question is, do we have the guts!

The bottom line is that people should be screaming tothe high heavens in protest over even the suggestion thatour premier and his little band of opportunists might evenbe, considering the thought of giving this treasure away,for that would be the absolute coup de grace: a blunder soawful as to make Smallwood look like a new ageSolomon.

Lloyd C. Rees,Conception Bay South

From page 13

YOURVOICE

‘David’s slingshot is no match for fine print in Goliath’s insurance contract’

Dear editor,Auto insurance companies are one of the best bets for

investment for any wild dollars a person might have.Why?

First of all, you have to pony up a premium to allowyou behind the wheel. You not only have to pay for your-self, but you must also carry a bit extra for the driver whohas insufficient or no insurance. The only one missing sofar is the sneezing clause which would require a new pre-mium if you happen to lose control of your vehicle andhave an accident.

So if you purchase all the options, and are fully cov-ered with insurance and liability you should be safe.Right? Wrong. About 18 months ago, I hydroplaned anddestroyed my car but had liability. After it was all over, Istill had to pony up about $1,000 to cover off damage toa vehicle behind me hit by flying highway shoulderstone. And though I appealed the decision to the provin-cial administrator of insurance, who I believe onceworked in the insurance business himself, I still had topay.

Personally, I don’t feel that enough is being done toprotect the individual insurance purchaser. To me, thewhole process seems to be favouring the insurance com-pany. The whole business is premised on aDavid/Goliath set-up, but unlike in the biblical account,David’s slingshot is no match for the fine print inGoliath’s insurance contract. In fact, one often gets theimpression that insurance companies have no fear what-soever of the consumer and are almost as likely to tellDavid to go pound rocks as they are to take his premiumsmonth after month.

The relationship between insurance companies and thebureaucratic “governmental control” officials is far toocozy and warrants a full-fledged investigation. Thereneeds to be a lot more distance between the two groupsand a lot less bias.

Aubrey Smith,Grand Falls-Windsor

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTBUSINESS • 15

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and which ones are deadweight. “It provides managers and owners a

bird’s eye view of how their businessis operating,” explains Brett.

MedicLink has already launchedEyesistent in Florida, Boston and NewYork. As a result of e-mail and “ran-dom calls,” the company even struckup a relationship with an investmentfirm connected with Dr. Will Kirby, adermatologist and reality-televisionshow participant on Big Brother onCBS.

Brett will be traveling to Californiain January to meet with Kirby and dis-cuss a partnership with the dermatol-ogy business. It all seems part and par-cel of the company’s charmed trajec-tory.

“I’ve always had a broader vision.That’s why we called it MedicLink.Although we’ve been in eye care, I’vealways wanted to switch over to chiro-practic or dental or some other indus-try, but dermatology just dropped inour lap.”

Brett says his company’s versatilitycomes from its youth — the averageage of the seven employees is 28 —and says he wouldn’t want to build hisbusiness anywhere else but inNewfoundland.

He says he can’t imagine businessesin a competitive environment likeOttawa answering his questions likelocal technology companyw Cathexispatiently did.

MedicLink is now on its feet andwill be moving out of its office spacein the Genesis Centre and into its owndigs in the next three or four months.Brett says it’s a great feeling to havecreated work opportunities for himselfand others.

“We’ve got employees that can goout and buy new cars and new housesand a lot of it is due to us,” he says.“Some of them were frustrated andwere underemployed and couldn’tfind a job, so we tend to find under-dogs to employ and it’s worked outgreat for us.”

mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

Trickle-down effectFrom page 13

iTunes sales slide 65 per cent

Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunesInternet music store suffered a 65 percent slump in sales during the first sixmonths of the year, according toForrester Research Inc.

The decline is a reversal of almosttwo years of increases from April 2004through January 2006, theMassachusetts-based market-researchfirm said. Between January and June,iTunes transactions declined 58 percent, while transaction size fell 17 percent, Forrester said.

Forrester, which based its findings onanalysis of 2,791 U.S. iTunes debit andcredit purchases, said it is too soon totell whether the decline is seasonal or ifdemand for digital music is falling.Apple got $452 million (U.S.) in saleslast quarter from music sold throughiTunes as well as accessories for itsmarket-dominating iPod device, theCupertino, Calif., company reported inOctober.

The report also found that mostmusic stored on iPods isn’t purchasedfrom iTunes. Apple sells about 20iTunes songs at 99 cents each for eachiPod purchased.

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16 • INDEPENDENTBUSINESS DECEMBER 15, 2006

By Mandy CookThe Independent

On the eve of the 20th run of herdance company’s signature per-formance, The Nutcracker,

Linda Rimsay says it’s nice to standback and let somebody else lug theheavy props and costumes from herdowntown St. John’s studio to the Artsand Culture Centre for a change.

“I can’t lift those things any more likeI used to,” Rimsay laughs, sittingamidst a rack of embellished costumesand a street lamp on wheels. Behind her,an open dance space overlooks the har-bour. “This is the last year I have toworry about this!”

Her departure from the company sheco-founded with teacher Gail Innes 20years ago is the end of a local dance era.Rimsay has accepted a position with theNational Ballet of Canada, where shewill teach movement in the school’soutreach program. Her students willrange from school children right up tobeginner adults.

Originally from Michigan, Rimsayhas called Newfoundland home for 28years. In 1978, her husband took a jobat the Health Sciences Centre in St.John’s and the couple subsequentlyacquired “too much stuff” to moveagain. She will depart for Toronto in thebeginning of the new year with noregrets, but says there is much she will

miss — most notably those who havegrown up with and alongside Kittiwake.

“In Nutcracker alone, we estimatethat there are probably 2,000 peoplewho have performed in that over the 20years,” she says. “Some of them we’vewatched grow up and go from a mouseto Clara to adult. Some of them are evenon our board of directors now.”

A not-for-profit dance company,Kittiwake doesn’t train dancers — theyhire them. Over 20 years, the focus hasbeen to choreograph, audition for, andperform original work. The companyprovides workshops for local dancers,residency projects for Kittiwake’s artis-tic staff and touring dancers, andapprenticeship programs for young

dancers who wish to develop their pas-sion into a career.

Unlike most professional companies,Rimsay says, Kittiwake strives to keepthings local.

“It allows us to do more indigenouswork, which I think is very important. Ithelps young people understand theirculture.”

While many of Kittiwake’s works arebased on Newfoundland music and lore,the company also interprets classicalworks of literature — includingSophocles’ Oedipus Rex and EdgarAllen Poe’s poetry — or world events,like the Chinese government’s violent

INDEPENDENTLIFEFRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 17

Family businessGranddaughter of internationally acclaimed abstract painter brings talent and artistic pedigree to Eastern Edge gallery By Mandy CookThe Independent

Michelle Bush always wantedto come to Newfoundland,but it wasn’t until her 13-

year-old daughter looked the provinceup online and insisted on a move fromtheir home in Toronto that the wheelswere put in motion.

Bush, a textile, performance andinstallation artist, was tipped off to ajob opening in St. John’s by fellow

Concordia University fine arts gradu-ate, local artist Andrea Cooper, threeyears ago. Eastern Edge Gallery, anartist-run space on Harbour Drive, waslooking for an artistic director.

“My eldest daughter researchedNewfoundland and decided it was real-ly pretty and that we were moving toNewfoundland,” Bush says. “She toldall of her friends we were movingbefore I even applied.”

The gallery champions non-tradition-al artwork and fosters emerging artists

working in diverse media, includingfilm, video, performance, installation,visual and audio arts. A non-commer-cial space — meaning no works arebought or sold from the gallery —Eastern Edge explores how art can beused as a tool to facilitate communitydiscussion in contemporary society.

The gallery and position is a great fitfor an artist such as Bush. Her grandfa-ther, Jack Bush, is an internationallyrecognized abstract expressionistpainter, known in art circles for his

mastery of colour — some critics sayone of the greatest since French painterHenri Matisse.

The works he produced during andafter his involvement with the PaintersEleven, a collective of abstract artiststhat dissolved in 1960, established hisreputation as one of North America’sbest abstract painters.

Leafing through a now out-of-printand treasured hardcover of her grandfa-ther’s collected works, Bush picks out afavourite painting. Entitled Chopsticks,

it consists of multi-coloured rectanglesarching together in vertical stacks,echoing the keys of a piano. Bush saysit is related to her grandfather’s love ofjazz and was one of the last pieces hewas working on before he died in 1977.

“This is one where the colours reallywork for me,” she says in her thought-ful and delicate voice. “I love thevibrancy and the movement. Almost lit-eral.”

See “Creative,” page 19

Kittiwake director takes flightAfter 20 years at the helm of Kittiwake Dance Theatre, co-founder Linda Rimsay to start new job with National Ballet of Canada

“In Nutcracker alone, we estimate that there

are probably 2,000 people who have performed in that

over the 20 years.”

Linda Rimsay

See “Projecting,” page 18

Linda Rimsay in costume as Drosselmeyer from The Nutcracker ballet. Paul Daly/The Independent

18 • INDEPENDENTLIFE DECEMBER 15, 2006

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GRAND FALLS-WINDSORBy Janine TaylorFor The Independent

Alice Dicks’ first painting experienceinvolved fiddling with her brother’sart supplies while he was home from

art school for summer vacation. Fifty-sixyears and many accolades later, the result ofthat first experiment, Pansies, was included inher recent exhibition, Retrospective Phase I, atthe Gordon Pinsent Centre for the Arts inGrand Falls-Windsor.

“Painting was a hobby for me when myhusband and I were raising the children,” shesays. “Much like other women knitted or didneedlepoint. It was a way to escape the rou-tines of motherhood. I have always been veryinvolved in the art community of whichevertown we were living in.”

That hobby has evolved into somethingmuch bigger. The provincial governmentrecently purchased 14 of her paintings for itsart collection. Dicks is a member of theNewfoundland and Labrador Visual ArtsSociety and the Canadian Arts Representative.She has acted as an external evaluator for theprovincial arts council, was a member of thePatrick O’Flaherty Committee for the State ofthe Arts, and is a founding member of theCentral Newfoundland Visual Arts Society.She taught Memorial University extension

courses and still teaches private lessons toadults and children.

“I feel so strongly that we need to let chil-dren be creative,” she says. “We should notinstruct young children when they are makingart.

“It is just about encouraging them to getcolour down on their paper and letting thempaint the tree they see in their minds, ratherthan the tree they can see out the window. Andpraise — with children, praise is so impor-tant.”

Dicks has worked with many media overthe years, and she likes to vary her style. Shechooses the approach for each piece, based onher emotions and the message she wishes toconvey.

When great world events occur, Dicks oftencreates an abstract painting in an effort topurge her consciousness. She speaks of “tak-ing the feelings that I have regarding some-thing and putting them on the canvas” as ifthey are tangible elements she must depositsomewhere. Doing so brings closure for her.

“With an abstract painting, people can take

away what they want to take away,” she says.“I have my own understanding of what thepainting’s significance is, but I don’t like toexplain that to people because then the con-versation is over. They’re not interested any-more. I want people to gather their ownimpressions.”

Tsunami is one such piece. There is morethan a hint of violence in the dark, dominantsphere at the top of the work, and the rippleeffect created by circles moving outwardechoes the catastrophic force of the 2004tsunami.

At the base of the painting, shadowy figure-like shapes are shunted aside by the torrent ofcolour, which pours downward. Amidst thedarker shades there is some yellow, a sign ofthe light of hope which persists even duringhumankind’s most troubling times. The pieceis bold and eye-catching with its depth ofcolour and emotion.

Dicks says artists must constantly evolveand attempt new things. “I have tried almosteverything in the past 40 years or so,” shesays. “If you’re making art and you’re alwaysdoing the same thing you aren’t growing. Youbecome stagnant.

“Everyone has something that they do thatthey feel passionate about, and they have towork at that. Art is no different. It is alwayschanging because people are always chang-ing.”

ALICE DICKSVisual Artist

‘Projecting a point of view’

tactics to quell student rioting at Tiananmen Square. Rimsay says Kittiwake’s mandate has always been to pro-

voke thought and dialogue — and use movement to do it.“That is what I think is what professional art is about, hold-

ing the mirror up for society to see, projecting a point of view,which may or may not have been thought of, getting people tothink about issues,” she says.

Rimsay’s new position at the National Ballet will focus lesson social commentary and more on using movement as ateaching tool and for physical well-being. As part of the out-reach program, Rimsay will visit Toronto schools to showhow dance can help teach math and physics and guard againstchildhood obesity.

It is a continuation of the work she carried out in New-foundland schools as a volunteer for the National Ballet. Lastyear Rimsay helped bring workshops to North River, whicheven involved sessions to properly fit pointe shoes.

Now that Rimsay has comfortably handed the reins toincoming artistic director Martin Vallée of Dance Studio East,she happily offers vivid memories from the last two decadesof nurturing the local dance scene.

She recalls doing laundry and scrubbing the floors in arestaurant to help float some of the first shows. One year, dur-ing a two-week run of The Nutcracker, the numerous childrenplaying mice characters passed chicken pox along to eachother as the evenings progressed.

“I think the last eight shows, without fail, there was a littlemouse who would come up to me scratching some part oftheir body and say, ‘Linda, I’ve got this funny itch right here!’And I’d look at it and say, ‘Another one!’ Merry Christmas!’”

Rimsay says she will miss everyone she’s come to know inthe artistic community. At the same time, she recognizes thatteaching students for fun or leading adult evening classes isjust what she needs at this juncture in her life.

“I’m not getting any younger. So it’s a way for me to con-tinue my interest, and I’ve always believed the arts belong tothe people. You need your professionals, but you have to havethose people who still dance in their kitchen.”

The Nutcracker runs Dec. 15-17 at the Arts and CultureCentre. Call 729-3900 for more information.

mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

From page 17

As this is my last column of 2006, and ’tisthe season to be jolly etcetera etcetera, Ifigured now would be as good a time as

any to run down my Christmas wish list. Notthat I’m asking anybody out there to get me apresent — that would be tacky — but if you’reflush with holiday spirit and feel compelled tomake my Christmas brighter, the least I can dois point you in the right direction.

I won’t set myself up for disappointment byasking for the impossible, like an end to hunger,war, intolerance, or the general tendency to actlike jerks and treat each other like crap thatseems to be at the root of all human suffering.

But maybe, just maybe, I could go for some-thing more manageable, like an end to the con-stituency allowance scandal. While it’s been avirtually endless source of comedy gold for meand my colleagues in the news and entertain-ment sectors I would be more than happy tolearn that all the rest of our esteemed MHAspast and present have been playing by the rules,respecting the law and using our money respon-sibly. Don’t feel bad if you can’t deliver on thisone. Santa hasn’t gotten back to me, either.

The steady advance of global warming shouldhave socks, hats and mitts knocked off the list infavour of sunscreen and bottled water by sometime in the next decade or so, but for now theknitters amongst you can feel free to shower mewith wooly goodness. My favorite colour isgreen.

Until we do become a tropicalparadise, how about a sidewalkplow or two on the streets of St.John’s? Hell, I’d like to see a side-walk plow on the streets of justabout any town in Newfoundlandand Labrador if it means somebodyis going to be able to get wherethey’re going on foot without risk-ing life and limb to do it this winter.

Snowplows. See item numberthree above.

I’d like to get all the way through the joyousseason without hearing The Hat I Got ForChristmas Is Too Big. Call me a pc (politicallycorrect) thug, but I’m not sure it’s still sociallyacceptable to make fun of Mexicans or their hatsof choice. And as side-splittingly hilarious asMel Blanc can be, I think I can safely say thatwe as a civilization have reached the saturationpoint on this one. I can’t be the only personwho’d like to see this song go, either. That line

where he says “Can’t tell one thing from anoth-er, I got married to my brother” celebrates a def-inition of marriage so non-traditional I’m sur-prised the federal Conservatives haven’t organ-ized a record burning yet.

A pony. After 30 years of asking Santa with-out success, I think maybe it’s time to throw thisone open to all comers.

I’d really enjoy a Nintendo Wii. I’m not agamer, myself, but I could make a small fortuneselling that baby on EBay. Does that count as re-gifting?

Gym equipment. I’ve never been what you’dcall a fitness nut, but once Christmas is over I’mgoing to have to do something about the turkeydinner and hors d’oeuvre tray-related weightgain pronto before the Valentine’s and Easterchocolate weight gain season.

Alternatively, you could pick me up a gift cer-tificate for some liposuction or maybe a stom-ach stapling and we can avoid the whole prob-lem. Is there such a thing as liver stapling? If so,you can sign me up for one of those as well.

And finally, I’d like a couple more weeksbefore I have to start doing some-thing useful about Christmas. Wehaven’t been making the grandleaps forward in time travel tech-nology I’ve been hoping for in the21st century, so I know it’s a tallorder, but two extra weeks ofChristmas prep would sure takesome of the pressure off.

That would allow me another 14glorious days of procrastinationbefore I ended up right back herewhere I started with 10 days to go

and nothing done.Until 2007, this is me signing off to go think

about the possibility of making a plan to startlooking at some things I may or may not want tobuy when I finally do go out shopping thisChristmas Eve.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Sean Panting is a writer, musician and actorliving in St. John’s. His column returns Jan. 5.

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTLIFE • 19

A pony, time-traveland green wool socksSean Panting reveals his Christmas list — just in case someone wants to do something about it

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Bush was 10 when hergrandfather died. Hermemories of himrevolve aroundsketching onpads of paper athis house withher siblings andcousins and bang-ing away on hispiano. And althoughshe has great admiration for her grandfa-ther’s work, as a grown artist with a crit-ical eye, she admits to not being a totalfan.

“Honestly, there’s a lot of his workthat I don’t really enjoy,” she says. “Iadmire it but on just pure personal aes-thetics, I don’t like the colour combina-tion or I don’t like the background butthe majority of the ones that I really,really love are all related to jazz or thepiano.”

Bush says she never wanted to paintlike her grandfather, but “just wantedto do my own thing.” After receivingher Masters of Fine Arts (back-to-backwith her undergrad) at Concordia, shetraveled in Europe, ran a farm in ruralQuebec with her two daughters, andworked in multiple capacities in thearts — mainly artist-run, not-for-prof-

it centres. Since starting work at

Eastern Edge, Bush says she’sseen “some pretty interestingand intricate” installations,hosted artists whose worksdevelop and morph with eachgallery stop, and held numer-ous talks and workshops with

touring artists. She says the gallery is very

necessary in a city focused, inher mind, on the selling aspectof art as opposed to showingart for art’s sake.

“The reason we’re putting artup and have exhibitions is more to do

with the theories and the knowledge andinformation and discussion and dis-course and contemporary issues andissues in society at large that artists areworking with and we want people tointeract with.”

The creative legacy of the Bush fami-ly has apparently passed on to Bush’soffspring. Although she has never taughther children figure drawing, one of thegirls caught her off guard one day.

“My daughter would just sit down infront of the TV and it was on this pieceof antique furniture and she would justdraw that, she was really young, onlyfour,” she says. “I was blown away.”

The annual members exhibition andauction is showing at Eastern EdgeGallery until Dec.16. Check outwww.easternedge.ca for more informa-tion.

mandy.cook@theindependent.ca

CreativelegacyFrom page 17

Michelle Bush Paul Daly/The Independent

SEANPANTING

State of the art

Is there such a

thing as liverstapling?

Want to make up for the embar-rassingly festive LED tieburied in your father’s

sweater drawer? The artless handicraftsyou foisted on your sister? Read on,dear shopper, and let The Independentguide you towards four gifts guaranteedto absolve past yuletide transgressions.But be warned: crack the covers ofthese babies and you may find yourselfwith a shelf full of well-read books andnothing but apologies to give.

Ex-Codco member and “King ofComedy” Andy Jones has just releasedhis first audio book. Letters from UncleVal is a series of fictional epistlesadapted from the stage play of the samename. Uncle Val, an “elderly outhar-bour gentleman,” lives with his daugh-ter Margaret in the suburbs of St. John’salong with her husband Bernard, chil-dren Jimmy and Kimmy, poodles Tiffyand Tuffy and an undisclosed numberof goldfish.

In these letters to his friend Jack, Valdecries everything from the over-exu-berant “Newfoundlander-gone-to-the-mainland brand” to the state of chil-dren’s television programming and,especially, the ongoing antics ofBernard. One of the “new townies”with “twangy accents and Floridatans,” Bernard is often to be founddrunk and practising “his chosen fieldof bull artistry” with great devotion.

As the displaced Val, Andy Jones isas funny as ever, offering up light com-edy and telling observations oftenenough to blur the lines between enter-tainment and social critique.

Red Ledger, the subject of a positive— if somewhat bewildering — reviewin last weekend’s Globe and Mail, isthe follow-up to Mary Dalton’sacclaimed 2003 poetry collection,Merrybegot. Those looking for a repeat

of the concentrated, high-heat flame ofDalton’s speech poems will find it scat-tered throughout this new book, but onthe whole, Red Ledger burns on a dif-ferent kind of fuel.

The inclusion of several poemsfrom Dalton’s first two books, TheTime of Icicles and Allowing the Light,is a decision calculated, no doubt, tobring a growing mainland audience upto speed with her range of expression;it also initiates a dialogue between herearlier and later poems. There isimpressive new work here as well —Osmotic and the prose poetrysequence Reaney Gardens, to name acouple.

Throughout, Dalton traces “thebody’s memory of its own blood lines”but also wars against “the GreatDivide” — the disparity between main-land Canada and its uneasy bride,Newfoundland. There is enough rangehere to suit readers of any taste. Moreon this one in a future column.

Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside has, atlast count, been named on five BestBook of the Year lists, and deservedlyso. Harvey propels his protagonist,Myrden, through the aftermath of awrongful murder conviction and thenetherworld of newfound freedom.Myrden’s greatest struggle is not inasserting his innocence to those whostill suspect his guilt, nor in fending offthe hounds of local media, but in escap-ing the concrete and barbed wire of hisown mind.

Harvey’s technique is notable for itsskilful marriage of form and content.Short, blunt sentences drag readersforcibly through Myrden’s claustro-phobic world of hard living and vio-lence. What makes Myrden such atragic character is his tenderness

towards loved ones as he strugglesagainst “the cycles of revenge and fail-ure that have marked his life.” If youread only one book this year, pick thelatest Dan Brown masterpiece andexplain to me what all the fuss is about.But if you read two …

The audio version of David Weale’sThe True Meaning of Crumbfest is agood fit for the entire family this sea-

son. Weale’s story about a youngmouse named Eckhart with “quick tinyfeet, shiny black eyes and an extralong tail” is exuberantly narrated byAntonia Francis, five years old at thetime of the recording. It is the mostengaged and animated reading you’llever hear.

During the cold winter months,Eckhart and his family live in the wallsof a farmhouse where food is scarceexcept in late December when a bountyof crumbs mysteriously appears.Eckhart, being young and curious,wonders about the provenance of this

yearly feast. “Crumbfest happens andthat’s all there is to it,” his grandfatherscolds him, but Eckhart is determinedto uncover the season’s secret.

Strange as it may sound, the shakyproduction quality of the recording (itwas originally intended solely forbroadcast on a community radio pro-gram) actually lends it further charm. IfThe True Meaning of Crumbfest does-n’t make you smile, then I’m sad to sayyou’ve got a heart at least two sizes toosmall.Mark Callanan writes from St. John’s.

His column returns Jan. 5.

20 • INDEPENDENTLIFE DECEMBER 15, 2006

Merry Crumbfest!The Independent’s book reviewer picks four gifts of the season

Career Exploration for Women

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A CHRISTMAS TIME

Letters from Uncle ValAndy Jones with Michael Jones Sr. (performed by Andy Jones)Rattling Books, 2006. Audio CD

Red LedgerBy Mary DaltonSignal Editions, 2006. 101 pages.

InsideBy Kenneth J. HarveyRandom House, 2006. 282 pages.

The True Meaning of CrumbfestBy David Weale (read by Antonia Francis)Rattling Books, 2005. Audio CD.

YOURVOICE

Dear editor,Sean Panting’s column in the Dec. 1

edition of The Independent (‘Moneywell spent’) has rubbed a few nervesraw amongst people in the culturalindustries. The column implies thatgovernment was a bit too frivolous inspending on the premiers’ conferencethis past summer. The article alsoimplies that government only injectsmoney into the arts community when“company comes over” — referring tothe premiers’ conference. I truly believethat the conference was a showcase ofsome of our province’s finest talent —Great Big Sea, Chris Pickard, HarryMartin, Jonny Harris, Kelly Ann Evans,Rick Mercer, Marie Craig, Spirit ofNewfoundland, Quintessential VocalEnsemble, Ron Hynes, Shallaway andThe Fables were the performers for theconference.

Not only were some our best per-formers put forward, our productioncompanies, hotels and convention facil-ities and suppliers were also utilized forthe whole conference that depositedover $1.4 million into the economy. Ifthis wasn’t a showcase, I for the life ofme, can’t figure out who or what ashowcase implies. Strutting your stuffin front of some extremely influential

business/government people in mymind constitutes a showcase.

I take great offence to the implicationthe Danny Williams government doesnot support the arts community. Havingbeen personally involved in negotiatingfunding for our music industry duringthe first months of the Williams term,this was the first time that governmenthas recognized the industry and actual-ly put their money where their mouthis. I was really upset with former gov-ernments that touted our musicians andcultural workers as the backbone forour tourism industry and never support-ed it in an actual plan and real money.

Since the current government hastaken power, the music industry alonehas received over $800,000 that hasgone directly to artists. Hopefully, therewill be more when the music industryassociation does an impact study toshow actually how the provincial gov-ernment funding has improved the livesof professional musicians in theprovince. In addition, the most recentbudget has earmarked over $18 millioninto the total cultural industries for thenext fiscal period. Wow … I do notunderstand Mr. Panting’s argument.

If one thing came out of the pre-miers’ conference it is the fact that the

bar has been raised. Good money wasspent on this and all of those musiciansreceived a good salary for their per-formances — the best deserve the best.

The question remains the same —when will the business world recognizethat cultural industries are basically thebackbone of all that we hold dear to ourhearts in the province? I may sound abit biased, but the musicians are whattourists and locals take away as ourdefining nature and what most remem-ber about us. With that kind of commu-nity support, why can’t financial insti-tutes and the business world recognizethat the artists are very large economicgenerators? Our contribution to thewhole GDP is $40 million. We com-mand the kind of recognition that thisrevenue generates.

I challenge government to make thenext step as our Irish friends have donewith their cultural workers — tax relieffor working musicians. Our governmenthas been talking about the real connec-tion with Ireland and it’s time now forour government to take the Irish govern-ment’s approach to the arts communityand make it the true economic force thatit could be.The artist’s name has been witheld byrequest.

‘The best deserve the best’

The Celtic Fiddlers, MusicNL instrumental artist of the year 2006, present Christmas in the Kitchen at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub Dec. 15, 7-9 p.m.Tickets are $10 and a portion of the proceeds go to the VOCM Happy Tree project. Paul Daly/The Independent

MARKCALLANANOn the shelf

By Kristine PowerFor The Independent

When Lisa McKenzietalks to prospectiveclients, she asks per-

sonal questions. She’ll askthem to describe their wildestdreams. Whether they like fastcars. Who their favouritesuperheroes are.

But McKenzie isn’t a psy-chiatrist, a career counsellor ora matchmaker. She bakescakes. Cakes shaped like agrand pianos with 88 tinyblack-and-white keys. Or aScottish terrier with blackclumpy fur, made from icingso lifelike the man celebratinghis birthday couldn’t bringhimself to eat it.

“I’m very critical of my ownwork. It has to be exact or asclose to the real thing as possi-ble,” McKenzie says.

One of her strangest requestscame from the mother of a lit-tle boy who was very specificabout the cake he wanted: agross spider with an oozinghead. McKenzie went to work.She shaped and scooped outthe head of a moist cake andinjected edible green ooze. Itwas the hit of the birthdayparty, creating a moment ofawe.

That’s why she does whatshe does — so a special occa-sion becomes something evenmore wondrous.

McKenzie doesn’t do thebasic rosettes and drop flow-ers, if she can help it. Sheleaves that to the grocerystores and conventional cake-makers. It takes McKenzie two

to three hours to decorate acake — and that doesn’tinclude the mixing and baking.

She’s a chef by trade, butthis artful medium requiresmore expertise then even herday job demands. “I have a bitof artistic skill, but I am a copi-er,” she admits. “If you putsomething in front of me I canrecreate it.”

She starts with a base shapeor mold, and works up fromthere, adding tiny details thatrequire imaginative flare —especially if they are going tobe edible.

“The pool table that I did formy husband’s birthday cakelast year was actual cake witha green icing surface and edg-ing around it. Then I sculptedindividual little pool balls andpainted them differentcolours.”

Her latest project is a snowglobe she was commissionedto make for a Christmas party.This posed a challenge for theobvious reasons: a snow globeis transparent, with snowfalling on the inside.McKenzie iced the globe soeverything was on the outsidein 3-D form — the exact oppo-site of a snow globe, but shepulled it off. “I just pictured inmy head what a snow globelooked like and how do I make

Paul Daly/The Independent

INDEPENDENTSTYLEFRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 21

See “Chocolate,”page 24

Taking the cake

My collection started a whileago. It started with one book.It was large and robust and

too big to fit on the shelf. I found it in alibrary.

I took it home and I read it cover tocover — in bed. It was like nothing Ihad ever seen before. It was seductiveand sensual and visually appealing. Thepictures were beguiling — entrancing— and mouth watering.

I kept that book for weeks. I couldn’tlet it go back. The library called, said itwould suspend my account. To hellwith them. I’m keeping the book!

But I acquiesced. I gave in. I paid thefines and sent it back. I was sad andbereft — they took my cookbook away.They took away my food porn. So Ibought the book.

Food porn consists of cookbooks(specifically) whose presentation andpictures is as appealing as the writingor the recipes themselves.

Most of my cookbooks fall into thiscategory.

The book that started my collectionis The French Laundry Cook Book.This book is about Thomas Keller andhis famed restaurant in the Napa Valley.His food has been described as the per-fect representation of French cooking.He is bold and funny, and his techniqueis unequalled.

The French Laundry is the perfectfood porn book — sexy pictures of per-fectly plated food paired with recipes

so deep and complex it would take anarmy of chefs to create even one dish.That’s what food porn is. Food that youdrool over, because for the majority ofus hard-core foodies, we’re not goingto be able to eat there.

Why? Well, the restaurant is inCalifornia and they take reservationsthree months out. Looking for theValentine’s night special occasion?Forget it, it’s been booked sinceNovember. That’s why I turn to foodporn. You get all the stimulation butyou have to do the work yourself — itis a cookbook after all.

Books like The French Laundry arecarefully crafted to bring a balance ofwriting and presentation. Looking atthe cookbooks you’ll find it is possibleto recreate this intricate and beguilingfood; it just takes a whole lot of time,even for a seasoned professional.

On the other side of the food pornworld are books filled with luxuriouslanguage, prompting you to squeezeevery morsel out of the seductive sideof food. No one does it any better thanNigella Lawson.

Her writing style is mouth-watering,her words sound pornographic.

Meltingly, squooshy, dollop, unctuous,luscious — these words punctuate herwriting. Her latest cookbook releaseFeast: Food that Celebrates Life is noexception.

What I love about her cookbooks isthat, unlike the meticulous nature of theFrench Laundry book, her food is nottweaked or cajoled into submission.Her food is simple and easy to preparebut certainly no lighter in fat or flavour.

The pictures within are not twistedand ring-molded into place — it is foodwe can all cook. She lovingly refers tomost dishes as comfort food.

These books of food porn work intwo different ways. I enjoy the pain-staking, tedious nature of The FrenchLaundry — jewels of colour, elevatedfrom the plate, constructed with theintricacy of a Swiss watchmaker. Thisis the food that chefs drool over. It is so

very complex that it challenges us tosay “I can do that too.”

On the other side, I enjoy the writingof the Lawson series: “…the layers ofsponge, with their crisp-carapacedsquashy-bellied meringue topping, aresandwiched with tart lemon curd andsoftly whipped cream, so much betterthan a lemon meringue pie could everbe.” With writing like that, who would-n’t want to have it for nighttime reading?

Food is life. It is bold and excitingand feeds and nourishes us. The morepassion we have for new and excitingfood, in whatever form you choose —the more pleasure you’ll find in yourcooking.

Nicholas Gardner is a freelance writerand erstwhile chef living in St. John’s.His column returns Dec. 20.

nicholas.gardner@gmail.com

22 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE DECEMBER 15, 2006

TASTE

All I wantfor Christmasis food porn

NICHOLASGARDNEROff the Eating Path

By Susan SampsonTorstar wire service

Cocktails are in orderafter a hard day ofChristmas shopping.

These will kick you into hol-iday mode with popularflavours of the season.

CHOCOLATEPEPPERMINTCOCKTAILSAdapted from 125 BestChocolate Recipes by JulieHasson.

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar• Ice cubes to taste• 1/3 cup vanilla vodka• 1/4 cup each: crème de

cacao, store-bought or homemade chocolatesyrup

• 1-1/2 tsp peppermintschnapps

• Whipped cream to taste• 2 small candy canes

Chill two martini glassesin freezer for 10 minutes.Spread sugar on smallsaucer. Lightly moisten topsof martini glass rims and dipin sugar to coat. Discardremaining sugar.

Fill cocktail shaker halffull of ice cubes. Pour vodka,crème de cacao, chocolatesyrup and schnapps. Shakeuntil frosty cold. Strain intoprepared glasses. Discardice.

Garnish each drink withdollop of cream and candycane.

Makes 2.

Kick back after your shopping is done

We know we’re flash dancingback to the 1980s when itcomes to fashion, but does a

revival of the leg warmer era reallymean we should embrace fanny packs?

Americans drop wads of cash toeliminate flab from the fanny and sur-rounding areas, so why we’d attachanything to our hips, belly or rear — bychoice — seems illogical, contrary.

Nevertheless, the bags are back, andmuch, much better than the originalstyles associated with tourists, runners,hikers and busy moms.

“In the past, they made the leap fromathletic accessory to suburban iconwithout any change in style,” saysMichelle Madhok, editor withSheFinds.com, a shopping blog.

That’s all changed. Now that couturedesigners such as Gucci, Prada andMarc Jacobs have created versions, theaccessory that is as practical as ashoelace, actually has style.

“Now that high-end fashion design-ers do them and cool people wear them,they are changing their spots a littlebit,” says Constance White, a fashioneditor with eBay.com/personalstyle.

These newer bags eliminate bulges,sit flat against the body, and come incolours and fabrics outside of neonnylon of yesteryear.

A new bag also means a new name.They’re now called “waist packs,”“body wallets” or “belt bags.”

For others, the packs are still as hor-ribly unfashionable as shoulder pads.

“For some bold people and dragqueens it could work really well,” saysJeralyn Gerba, editor with the fashionand trend website DailyCandy.com.“For the rest of us, we should just let itgo.'”

— Torstar wire service

The fannypack’s return

We have... Healthy Back Bags

Every bag has a silver lining

www.thetravelbugstore.com

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTSTYLE • 23

’Tis the season to be merry … and tostudy. University students know alltoo well that the month of

December means a visit from not just Santa,but also a not-so-cheery friend — stress.

If stress could take a human form, it wouldbe the kind of person that, if you saw himwalking towards your front door you’d turnoff all the lights, dive for the floor and pretendno one was home.

Unfortunately, this person would know youall too well and be able to find where thespare key was hidden. He’d just walk rightinto your house anytime he wanted and you’dbe helpless against him. You could move andhe’d follow right behind.

The point is, my attempt to avoid stress thisterm has failed once again.

PATTERNS EMERGEThrough many years of tests and exams

I’ve come to notice a pattern. I really thinkstress follows similar steps to the grievingprocess. A little weird, but bear with me.

It all starts with denial. Time has a way ofsneaking up on you and before you can blink,the first day of school is over and the teacheris talking about midterms and finals. Duringthe “study period,” all those video games,projects, or un-updated MySpaces you’vesomehow managed to ignore for ages are sud-denly irresistible. You find yourself reorganiz-ing your clothes by colour, watching terribledaytime television shows, or doing any otherpointless activity in order to hide from reality.

Then comes anger. Trying to cram as muchinformation into your head as possible into ashort period of time is enough to make anyonea little edgy. The only image my tired mindcomes up with right now is Barney. Imaginehim trying to learn biology, chemistry, math,history and French all at once. His big purplehead wouldn’t nearly be large enough to holdall of that and I doubt he’d be singing happilyfor long.

Losing patience with yourself is often thegreatest danger, and can make you a formida-ble weapon against those who aren’t feelingthe same pressure. There are many casualtiesamong people blindly entering the warpath offrustrated students.

Bargaining — the most entertaining ofstages in this exam process. The art of fakingsick may have worked for the Grade 6 algebratest, but not for university finals. If your gold-fish dies, you get to bring a tissue to yourexam. There’s not much sympathy and unlessyou’re on your deathbed — and with the coldsthat stress breeds you may feel this way —you had better suck it up. The funny part is, ifstudents were half as creative with ways tofocus on studying as they were with excusesnot to study, they might be more successful.Myself included.

Depression, or rather, dismay. Exams areno reason, unlike grief, to sink into a deepsadness. It is nonetheless hard to be cheerywhen you’re trapped in a room reading notes,practising equations and all social interactionhas gone down the drain.

I know my friends make me happy andwhen the only conversation between us is:“What’s gonna be on the exam?” I get prettydown.

Finally comes acceptance. My personalfavourite. Eventually you get to the pointwhere you know you’ve got one more night tolearn all that you can. All the time you’vewasted in the days and weeks before comesback to haunt you, and like memories fromthose passed away, there are reminders every-where you look that time is running out.

There’s nothing more final in final examthan when the paper hits the table. You couldresort back to bargaining and thoughts of fak-ing passing out come to mind. It would neverbe worth the trouble, so there’s nothing left todo other than pick up the pencil and do yourbest.

I used to worry a lot more about exams thanI do now, which is the reverse of what Iexpected. I guess somewhere along the way,with all the academic information I’veabsorbed, I’ve also learned that everymoment, even the worst ones, will pass.

EXAM ROOMI walk into the exam room now and tell

myself, “I know what I know, and I’ll do whatI can.” Whatever comes of it I’ll deal withbecause I have no other choice. I take respon-sibility for my achievements, and also my dis-appointments.

Writing this column was a welcome breakand I dread going back to the little nook in myroom covered with coffee mugs, binders andtextbooks. University is a lot of work and noone likes being stressed.

Yet it’s all part of the uphill battle and it’sworth the reward at the top. To all those slav-ing away, good luck and look forward to yourwell deserved break.

Leia Feltham is a first-year MemorialUniversity student. Her column returns Jan. 5.

This too shall passAs Leia Feltham experiences the various stages of exam stress, she takes a moment to look ahead

The dream maker

LEIAFELTHAM

Guest Column

By Nicholas GardnerFor The Independent

It’s late at night and I’m wideawake. Staring blankly at the ceil-ing waiting for sleep to come, but

it is no use. I’m so awake, I’m wiredfor sound.

What to do to cure this dreadedinsomnia? Tossing and turning doesme no good. With each roll in the blan-kets my wife shifts a bit and wakesjust a little more. Time to get up andcome up with a plan to get back tosleep.

Getting something to eat wouldwork. But I’m not hungry. A warmglass of milk? Uh uh. Not my thingeither. I want a good solid way to relaxand get the sleep needed. It’s time topull out the big guns. It’s time for thehot toddy.

The origin of the hot toddy comesfrom Scotland. It refers to a “mixeddrink served hot.”

Of the many variants there is alwaysan alcohol component (whiskey,brandy or rum), a hot liquid (generallytea), a sweetener (honey or sugar) anda citrus (lemon or orange).

I have been told that if consumed,um, vigorously, it is guaranteed to putyou flat on your back. So off I go toscore the perfect insomniac’s TKO,and my commentary on how it allwent down.

HOT TODDY1 teabag of black tea (I chose decaf-

feinated to help me sleep)

2 oz whiskey — use what you have.I had a single malt on hand but a blendis just as good.

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar1 round slice of lemon

Boil the kettle. Fill the cup three-quarters of the way over the teabag,lemon and sugar and steep for a coupleof minutes. Remove the teabag andadd the whiskey.

This is how it worked:The first sip: oww! Super hot. I

think I burned myself. Nope. Thelemon and the whiskey are working inharmony. I can feel the relaxing prop-erties of the whiskey. Bless the Scotsfor this invention.

Second sip: it slithers down mythroat and it is very warming. I canfeel it as it makes its way down intomy stomach. It is a funny sensation.

Third sip: no pain here. Shouldersare relaxing and I am getting a littlesleepy. This is working.

Fourth Sip: not much left. Lots ofsugar. Should have stirred it a bitmore. The sugar is not helping thingshere at all.

The warmth is like a blanket.Everything is a little fuzzy but notdangerously so. I think this is going towork. When it was all over I slept likea log.

The verdict is that for me, a hottoddy works really well. A bit of awarning though: it dries you out thenext day and it has the potential tobecome a hangover of immense pro-portions. My advice is to have a lot of

water on standby when you wake upafter your toddy-induced sleep. It isnot something to use every night to putyou to sleep, but in a pinch, a hottoddy will work wonders. When youcan’t sleep the hot toddy can becomethe stuff of which dreams are made.

The art of faking sick may haveworked for the Grade 6 algebra

test, but not for university finals.If your goldfish dies, you get to

bring a tissue to your exam.

By Surya BharracharyaTorstar wire service

You know the drill. Be prepared tostand in line. Or to shove and push toget the hottest gifts in time.

Whether it’s the latest gadget like SonyPlayStation 3 ($659.99) or the return of achildhood toy like Elmo — now reconfiguredas TMX Elmo — some items are so hot thisholiday season, that retailers are alreadyscrambling to restock.

While books, socks, ties, DVDs and house-hold items like the Rachael Ray cookware set($299) sell well, they don’t carry the samebuzz as some of the more hard-to-get gifts.

Video game consoles such as Nintendo’sWii ($299.99) and the PS3, both availableonly in limited quantities, started selling outimmediately after their recent launches.

“They’re hot, sold, and we’re replenish-ing,” says John Evanson, store director for theHudson Bay Company’s flagship store indowntown Toronto. “With iPods, it’s thesame thing.”

Promoting a product extensively but sellingit at very few outlets creates “hot items,”according to Ashwin Joshi, associate profes-sor of marketing at the Schulich School ofBusiness at York University. The excitementgenerated carries the product through the hol-iday season, often extending into the newyear, he adds.

Remember when Beanie Babies were hot?Or when nary a Cabbage Patch Kids dollcould be found in the stores?

Still kicking around as popular gift itemsare Mr. Potato Head, first sold in 1952, Tonka

Trucks and G.I. Joe, which was launched inthe 1960s, and Rubik’s Cube from the early’80s.

And a few perennial favourites are backamong the hottest items this season.

This year, along with TMX Elmo,Transformers Robot Toys are selling out, as isa new favourite, Tyco’s Nsect ($109.99), aremote-controlled spider.

Driving the retro cool rage is nostalgia.“My theory has always been what you

played with 20 years ago, these are your secu-rity blanket,” Joshi says. “Now it’s a whimsyand you can afford it. The memory and thedisposable incomes are the drivers for thereturn of retro cool.”

Looking at a target market and what it did20 years ago is a good way to gauge upcom-ing “retro cool” trends, he adds.

Even fabrics can make a comeback.Cashmere sweaters and hoodies for women

($175-$225) and men’s cashmere sweatersmet great success last season.

“We sold out completely last year and sothis year, we’re not sold out yet becausewe’ve invested heavily in that commodity,”Evanson says.

Cashmere throws have been added to thefashion line-up this year.

While classic gifts for women such asfreshwater pearls (upwards of $99) and whitegold and platinum jewellery continue to bebestsellers every holiday season, the M.A.Cbrush evening kit with an evening clutch($62) for women has been a surprise hit thisyear.

“It sold out and we’re just replenishing that.It’s interesting how they connected what awoman would carry,” Evanson says.

“Most cosmetics are carried in a pouchwithin a purse but this pouch, you can carryas a purse.”

24 • INDEPENDENTSTYLE DECEMBER 15, 2006

it as snowy and sparkly as possible.” There are days she admits the stress is hard to take, but

she loves creating people’s fairy-tale desserts. In her tinykitchen, which smells of chocolate and vanilla more daysthan not, an oven continually beeps, signaling her intoaction on the next project.

This is the studio where she works her magic andsomeday she wants to do only this. But for now sheworks a full-time job at the Casbah restaurant in St.John’s and then comes home to bake until 11 most nightsto finish all her Christmas orders in time.

And there are occasions when cakes go wrong andthings take longer than expected. A nose can drop off aperfectly formed dog during the night, forcing her intoemergency carving and recreating the day of delivery. Ifsomething doesn’t look right, she scrapes the cake cleanof icing with a spatula and starts again on a new canvas.

It has to be perfect, or the cakes haunt her. No matter how pretty or how cool a cake looks,

McKenzie says, it still has to be transportable and peoplestill need to dig in. “As a chef, the most important partfor me is how it tastes. If you can’t eat it, what’s thepoint? You might as well make it out of plaster.”

Michelangelo had David. Auguste Rodin had TheThinker. Lisa McKenzie wants her turn at a career-defin-ing masterpiece.

“One of the things I really want to do is make aBuddha,” she says. “I keep thinking about how good theBuddha would look in chocolate cake form, so I am wait-ing for the opportunity for someone to request that.Hopefully someday I will have that one.”

If completed, it will surely take the term “soul food” toa new level.

Cool presents are hot sellersRetailers scramble to restock popular holiday products as they’re snapped up By Gordon Stimmel

Torstar wire servce

Are books dead? And are wine books obsolete? Well,sure you can glean instant information on winefrom the Internet. Every winery has a website. The

contemporary tribal telegraph of the computer has trans-formed us immensely. A million wine hits instantly awaityour queries online.

But wine books still survive with data that are almostinstantly obsolete due to constant change, be it vintage vari-ation, transient media darling winemakers migrating jobslaterally, or new wines never reviewed before, pouring non-stop into the global marketplace.

I’ve already touted a seminal work on Canada as anemerging wine universe, Tony Aspler’s The Wine Atlas ofCanada (2006, $60). Parts of it are suddenly outdated, butthe core focus on wine as a varied expression of disparatepersonalities remains vital and enduring.

This is a cellar keeper for lovers of Canadian wine. It isan important snapshot of Canadian wine coming of age inthe early 21st century.

Another giant that stands the test of wine time is the thirdedition of Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion toWine (2006, $75).

Exhaustively updated sinceits 1994 debut, this bible con-tains 4,000 entries on the his-tory of wine, grape varieties,hundreds of wineries, as wellas 75 maps of global growingregions, all dished up withthe signature verve and witby the woman who hasbecome the modern, London-based Boswell to the grapeindustry.

OK, at times it is like read-ing the EncyclopediaBritannica for breakfast. This is a book for the wine con-noisseur in your life who thinks he/she knows everything. Ahint: he/she doesn’t.

If you have ever eaten in a pretendo bistro or a three-starMichelin restaurant in France, you know the little brillianttidbit of food trundled out gratis by the inspired chef beforethe first course. It’s called an amuse gueule or amusebouche. In this category is Marilyn Merlot and the NakedGrape by Peter F. May (2006, $21.95), which warns readersit “contains sulfites.”

This book details “odd wines from around the world,”such as Flying Pig, Old Fart, Frog’s Piss, The Dog’sBollocks and many in our marketplacee such as Cat’s Peeon a Gooseberry Bush, Le Freak, Mad Dogs andEnglishmen, Laughing Magpie and Goats Do Roam.

Taken in short sips, with a label per page, this is drink-able. Barely. It’s stocking stuffer stuff.

The weirdest wine book of the year is The Da Vino Code:Mysterious Paintings Reveal the Timeline of Wine (2006,$25.50). We know we are in deep doodoo when LeonARToda VINO (Chuck Gray), the author, is heralded as beginninghis study of wine “with a bot-tle of Thunderbird behind thehigh school gymnasium.”Late in life, he created thismagnum oopsus on 32 pages,depicting very bad paintingswith such titles as Wine-stoned Cowboys. This satiricart book falls flatter than awine stain.

Twenty years past hisfamed novel Bright Lights,Big City, author JayMcInerney forges ahead onhis wine grail, in A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006, $30), ahighly literate compilation of essays distilled from fiveyears of wine scribbling.

The style is reminiscent of my first favourite wine writer,Auberon Waugh, whose civilized wit and wine wisdomawed me when I began my own wine journeys.

McInerney dishes up lovely short essays with insightsinto major regions, producers and trends in wine, alwayswith a wry eye for the individual nuances of his profiledsubjects. This is a perfect gift for someone who has livedand breathed wine lore for at least a decade.

The most practical wine guide is Billy’s Best Bottles:Wines for 2007 (2006, $21.95) which keeps a sharp focus oneveryday wines that help nurture us through the week.

These days, Billy Munnelly is big on teaching us to matchwines to our moods. Munnelly’s approach is always refresh-ingly low-brow, and although not all the wines are stunners,many of them I count among my best values year after year.

Chocolate Buddha cakeFrom page

Tyco’s remote controlled Nsect ($109.99)

EVENTSDECEMBER 15• Spirit of Newfoundland presentsHumbug by Barry Galloway andPeter Halley, a musical comedybased on the classic CharlesDickens story, A Christmas Carol.Reserve tickets for dinner andshow 579-3023.• Bob MacDonald Christmas withClass CD re-release at TheRepublic, Duckworth Street, St.John’s, 6-10 p.m.• Book signing: Straight Shooter,editorial photographs by Paul Daly,6-8 p.m., Bennington Gate BookStore, Churchill Square, St. John’s. • Colleen Power and band at theRose & Thistle, Water St., 10 p.m.-2 a.m.• Rowdy Blues by John Clarke,Scott Goudie, Peter Narvaez andDenis Parker, 10:30 p.m. at The FatCat, George Street. Also Dec. 16.• The Celtic Fiddlers, presentChristmas in the Kitchen,O’Reilly’s Irish Pub, GeorgeStreet, 7-9 p.m. • Kittiwake Dance Theatre presentsThe Nutcracker, St. John’s Artsand Culture Centre. Continuesuntil Dec. 17.• How the Grinch StoleChristmas, LSPU Hall, 7:30 p.m.Continues Dec. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21,753-4531 for tickets.

DECEMBER 16• Book signing: Straight Shooter,editorial photographs by Paul Daly,2-4 p.m., Chapters, KenmountRoad, St. John’s.• Christine Koch open studio andart sale, 177 Water St., St. John’s, 11a.m.-5:30 p.m. Continues Dec. 17.• The Greek community of

Newfoundland and Labrador’sannual dinner and dance party atthe Battery hotel, tickets availableat Bennington Gate and fromO’Brien’s Music Store, call 737-8635 or 685-2298. • Kris Kristofferson at Mile OneStadium, St. John’s, 8 p.m.

DECEMBER 17• The Health Care Foundation’sTree of Memories Christmas carolservice, 4 p.m., in front of St.Clare’s Mercy Hospital onLeMarchant Road, 777-5907.• The St. John’s Folk Arts Councilpresents a Christmas Carol sing-along and fundraiser, 3 p.m.,Gower Street United Church.Featuring Carolyn Schiller, AlanDoyle, George Miminis, AnitaBest and Pamela Morgan andmore. • Avalon Unitarian Fellowship’sweekly service, 10:30 a.m., AnnaTempleton Center, 278 DuckworthSt.

DECEMBER 18• Snook’s Christmas at the St.John’s Arts and Culture Centre, 8p.m., 729-3650.

DECEMBER 20• Weekly afternoon concert byDavid Drinkell, CathedralOrganist, 1:15-1:45 p.m., AnglicanCathedral, St. John’s. • Arthur O’Brien & Fred Jorgensenfolk night at the Ship Pub, St.John’s, 9 p.m.• Ed Kavanagh will launch hisnew Celtic harp CD One StarAwake at The Studio above AuntieCrae’s, 272 Water St, 7-9 p.m.

DECEMBER 21• Charles Dickens Writes AChristmas Carol, adapted and per-formed by Aiden Flynn, 7:30 p.m.,at Rabbittown Theatre, 739-8220.Continues Dec. 22 and 23.• Blair Harvey and The Dregs CDRelease Party for the new albumGutter Be Gutted, with MarkBragg Band and The Nordic Beatat Junctions, St. John’s.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS• The Independent ArtistsCooperative presents the ThirdAnnual Rock Can RollIndependent Music and VideoFestival Jan. 26-28, 2007 in St.John’s. The cooperative is callingfor submissions of short films andvideos from bands, and work fromfilmmakers and new media artistswith rock-related subject matter,themes or soundtrack. Entry fee is$10, deadline is Jan. 15. Send sub-missions, preferably in DVD ormini DV format (VHS is alsoacceptable) to: Rock Can RollRecords, P.O. Box 2383, Station C, St. John’s, NL, A1C 6E7.Contact 754-6662 or

indieartscoop@gmail.com.

IN THE GALLERIES• The League of Artists of WesternNewfoundland (LAWN) presentsThe HeART of Giving Christmasexhibition at the Corner Brook Artsand Culture Centre gallery, untilDec. 16.• Comfort and Joy at the DevonHouse Craft Centre, DuckworthStreet, St. John’s, until Dec. 17.• Annual Christmas show at theLeyton Gallery of Fine Art, Baird’sCove, St. John’s, 722-7177.• Thaddeus Holownia: The TerraNova Suite, The Rooms, until Jan. 7.• Melt, an interactive video instal-lation by Toronto-based MichaelAlstad, at Eastern Edge Gallery,Harbour Drive, St. John’s• The Basilica Museum Christmas

exhibit Away In A Manger, untilDec. 19 • Kaleidoscope, annual groupChristmas exhibition opens at RedOchre Gallery, 96 Duckworth St.St. John’s. • Scott Goudie, The TuscanLandscape, Christina ParkerGallery, until Dec. 22.

One of the photographs in Human Natured, an exhibition of black and white work bySheilagh O’Leary. Flower Studio Gallery, 124 Military Road, St. John’s, until Jan. 6.

Wine books for stockings and more

What’s new in the automotive industryDECEMBER 15-20, 2006

FEATURED VEHICLE

‘Free Dougie’The first time I ever heard of

Dougie was on the radio … hewas apprehended after a high-

speed chase from St. John’s all the wayto St. Philip’s.

All seriousness aside, this is a greatstory, part of my neighbour-hood history. So let’s all getsanctimonious and agreethere’s nothing so uncivilizedas disobedience (but it makesfor a great read).

Imagine this is one of thosetrashy detective novels andI’m tapping it out on a manu-al typewriter with a strongcup of coffee steaming nextto it. Some dame walks in,wants to know about Dougie.The scene’s in black andwhite and narrated into a bigsquare microphone by avoice reminiscent of Humphry Bogartwith a sudden sure (Southern Shore)accent ...

It was years ago, early on Sundaymorning, around 3 a.m. I awoke to ahouse lit with flashing red and bluelights. There was an RNC cruiser shin-ing a spotlight on my car, and two morecruisers creeping up and down the road.They honed in on an identical car acouple of doors down from me and toreoff. I got out the binoculars andwatched the show, my heart pounding.

A handful of cops went in the houseand came out with a guy a few minuteslater. They took him quietly and disap-peared. I went back to bed and won-dered, what the hell was that all about?It was on the radio in the morning — a

high-speed chase the nightbefore with a suspect in cus-tody.

And that’s how an outportdelinquent named Dougiemade it to the radio. He metthe judge on Monday morn-ing and received a fine. Thejudge also distinctly toldDougie not to be newsworthy.

I never heard of Dougieagain until I was introducedto him years later, in a popu-lar local hangout, Smokin’Joe’s shed, an absolute goldmine for wild stories and as

good a confession box as you’ll findanywhere. Amongst all the b’ys andbeer, Dougie shyly recounted his terri-ble, hilarious tale.

For some odd reason, the cops lit upbehind poor Dougie downtown and forno odd reason he took off. The ancientHonda Civic hatchback screamed allthe way in Thorburn Road, three copcars on his arse, lights and sirens wail-ing.

We all snickered, wood stove crack-ling in the corner. For 99 per cent of the

population, when flashing red andblues appear in the rear-view mirrortheir stomachs turn over and they stop.Not Dougie.

When he turned right at the SunshineCamp he was on the back roads andknew every bump, dip, groove, potholeand corner, just like any other moon-shine-runnin’ hillbilly story you’veever read. There was no way those bigcruisers could keep up with a littleHonda on the dark, twisty roads. “And

she goin’,” Dougie told us b’ys in theshed, his voice tailing off with thememory of it.

He managed to get a couple of min-utes between him and the cops, bootedher past my house and hauled right intohis driveway.

“What’d ya do then, Dougie?” one ofthe b’ys asked. We all leaned closer —captivated, spellbound.

“Hopped right in the bed!” Dougiehowled. We roared and belly laughed

into teary-eyed fits. The cops burst in and there was

Dougie doing his best fake snore. Theyhauled back the blankets and there helay in the bunk with his boots on, fullyclothed. He pretended to wake up, dis-oriented, still out-of-breath, feigninginnocence.

Dougie’s incident was long beforepolice cars were fitted with cameras,although the chase would have madefor excellent reality TV. If there werevideo, Dougie’s reckless behaviour andcameo performance would be on everyscreen in the free world. Every pander-ing Internet site would feature Dougiepretending to be surprised there were abunch of cops in his bedroom. Thenwould come the T-shirts with Dougie’sfoolish expression staring out belowexpressions like “Free Dougie”, or“Follow me to Dougie’s.”

There could still be movie rights yet,which would probably work well for,ahem, Douglas, but not for me. Themoving picture business is full of riffraff. Besides, I’m busy typing out thenext, great, motorized mystery —another black and white flick.

Mark Wood of Portugal Cove-St.Philip’s has a small collection of manu-al typewriters and a romantic notion ofhow their personality can influence apage.

MARKWOOD

WOODY’SWHEELS

Meet the new King of the hill, valley, rock, stream, mud, sand, snow and ice — the 2007 FJ Cruiser. The culmination of a half-century of truck know-how, Toyota FJ Cruiser is as rough and ready as its legendary name-sake, the FJ40 Landcruiser, but with some new tricks all its own. The FJ Cruiser starts at $29,900 and is available at Toyota Plaza Kenmount Road. Photos by Paul Daly.

KING OF THE HILL

26 • INDEPENDENTSHIFT DECEMBER 15, 2006

More racing books and other loose endsIn my annual Christmas gift column

(published last week), I neglected tomention four new Canadian books on

auto racing because, a) my column was amile long already (oops, make that a kilo-metre long) and I didn’t want to make myeditor any more angry than he already wasand, b) none of the people I talked to aboutgift items happened to mention them and Inever like to “cook the books” (if you’ll

pardon the expres-sion) in those situa-tions.

So, here goes. Ifyou need last-minutegifts, these are dandystocking-stuffers andcan be purchased atjust about any bookstore or book sectionanywhere.

1. Nascar Now! byTim Miller, motor-sport columnist forthe HamiltonSpectator, and Steve

Milton. This is the second edition of a bookI reviewed a year ago and is terrific.Literally everything you ever wanted toknow about NASCAR is in this book andthe photos are terrific.

My one nit with this when it first cameout is that it didn’t have anything aboutNASCAR’s Canadian connection. Afterall, there were two Grand National racesheld in this country back in NASCAR’searly years and a number of Canadians(Earl Ross, in particular) raced with thesanctioning body but it was as if that infor-mation didn’t count.

This second edition makes up for thoseearly omissions in spades. Good for Timand Steve (and publisher, Firefly Books). Itsells for $24.95

2. Vroom! is also by my good friend TimMiller, who’s also the curator of theCanadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. Hecalls it a children’s book (which it is, in largepart) but I also would call it a primer forpeople who might be getting interested inthe sport.

It tells you the history, the traditions andthe nuts and bolts of all types of racing, fromFormula One through drag racing to sportscars and Indy cars. It’s a great little gift for$22.99 and is published by Tundra Books.

3. Track Talk (Racing Memories byJalopy, Hobby, and Canadian VintageModified Drivers) is by Wendy Ward Roper(www.Tracktalk.ca), who traces the evolu-tion of Canadian stock car racing from the’60s to the present.

Published by Mosaic Press and selling for$24.95, this book uses interviews with driv-ers to create an oral history of this period. Itmakes for great reading.

4. Greatest Stock Car Races (Triumphsand Tragedies of Yesterday and Today)recreates races from the first “official” stockcar race ever run to the 1991 Daytona 500 inwhich Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed. Writtenby Glenda Fordham, it is published byOvertime Books and retails for $9.95.

OK, moving right along, it is my pleasuretoday to announce that the first CanadianMotorsports Expo will take place at theToronto Congress Centre next April 6-8.

Organizers promise a one-stop shoppingand viewing experience: racing cars, boatsand motorcycles, autograph opportunities

from celebrity drivers, parts and acces-sories, safety equipment, product demon-strations, collectibles, free how-to seminars,racing history, fan forums and celebrityappearances are all on the schedule.

More about this fascinating event as thetime draws near.

A few more last-minute Christmas sug-gestions:

Brudgestone Racing Academy gift cer-tificates are available at 905-983-1114 oronline at www.race2000.com. Half-dayprograms at the facility next to the speed-way at Mosport start at $585.

And talking about Mosport, you can pur-chase gift certificates that can go towardadmission to the grounds for some of thecircuit’s big weekends scheduled for nextsummer. Or you can purchase merchandisewith them, or whatever.

Big events next summer include theGrand Am series, the VARAC celebrationof 40 years of F1 in Canada and, of course,the big American LeMans Series for sportscars race in late August. Call 1-800-866-1072 or go to www.mosport.com for detailsor to order.

Whoops — here’s another book I forgot

about.When my editor gave it to me several

months ago, he said these exact words:“Keep this under wraps. There are peoplewho would kill to get their hands on thisbook.”

An exaggeration, of course, but it really isa spectacular work. Called Inside Ferrari, itis one of the most spectacular picture booksyou will ever see. It takes an up-close-and-personal look at all-things Ferrari, from theactual manufacture of the racecars rightthrough race weekends.

I only have one problem with this book.It is too out of date. Although released dur-ing the latter half of this year, it stops at theend of 2005 season. So what’s the problemwith that, you ask?

Well, Felipe Massa was MichaelSchumacher’s teammate this year, butRubens Barrichello is featured throughout.This is a bigger deal than you might think.But if you’re a Ferrari fan, you will careless.

Inside Ferrari is published by FireflyBooks and retails for $39.95.

And now for something completely dif-ferent.

Hard on the heels of revelations thatAmerican viewers are turning away fromNASCAR (not in droves, but most racessaw empty seats this year and TV ratingswere down pretty much across the board)and Canadian viewers appear to be turningaway from professional hockey (HockeyNight In Canada ratings are off 19 per centfor the early Saturday game; TSN’s ratingshave dropped 18 per cent) comes word thatBritish viewers are switching off FormulaOne.

F1 TV audiences in the U.K. are down byan average of nearly 40 per cent over fiveyears, according to reports.

Wow. Britain is the cradle of F1 and if thesport is having trouble holding its audiencethere, it does not bode well for the rest of theworld.

Now, there are probably two significantreasons for this sad state of affairs. First,who wants to watch an F1 race when youknow that either Michael Schumacher, orsomebody else driving a Ferrari, is going towin it? So interest could increase next yearsimply because Michael won’t be on thegrid.

But the real reason is probably the 400-channel universe. In the “old” days, whenpeople could only get seven or eight chan-nels, max, you pretty much watched whatwas on because that was all you could get.Today, there are TVs in every room, includ-ing the kitchen, and every member of thefamily can be watching something differ-ent.

Which makes it really tough to reach amass audience.

NORRISMCDONALD

TRACKTALK

Subaru Canada, Inc. is proud toannounce that the SubaruLegacy, Forester and B9

Tribeca have each been named a2007 top safety pick by the InsuranceInstitute for Highway Safety (IIHS).The award recognizes vehicles thatprovide the best protection for driv-ers and occupants in front, side andrear crash tests conducted by theinstitute.

The IIHS rates vehicles as good,acceptable, marginal or poor basedon performance in high-speed frontand side crash tests, and for the neckprotection offered by seats and head

restraints in rear impact. To be designated a top safety pick,

a vehicle must earn a rating of goodin all three tests. In addition, there isa new criterion for 2007; each topsafety pick must offer electronic sta-bility control. The institute has deter-mined that stability control can sig-nificantly reduce the risk of injury ina crash by helping a driver maintainvehicle control during emergencymanoeuvres.

“Safety leadership is a top priorityfor Subaru, so we’re delighted thatthree out of the 13 top safety pickswere Subaru vehicles,” said

Katsuhiro Yokoyama, president,chairman and CEO of SCI. “TheIIHS tests are of particular impor-tance because they evaluate vehicles’actual performance in the most com-mon types of real-world collisions.This tells customers that when theybuy a Subaru, they’re giving theirfamilies and passengers the highestlevels of protection available.”

For more information about theIIHS and its safety testing, pleasevisit the Institute’s website atwww.iihs.org. To learn more aboutthe Subaru Legacy, B9 Tribeca andForester, go to www.subaru.ca.

Subaru top safety pick

Mazda Motor Corporationhas announced that totalproduction of the Mazda

Axela (known as Mazda3 in over-seas markets) in Japan reached theone million-unit milestone at the endof August 2006. This achievementcomes three years and two monthsafter production of the Mazda3 start-ed at Mazda’s Hofu Plant No.1 (H1)at the end of June 2003 and estab-lishes a new record for the fastesttime to produce one million units ofa Mazda vehicle.

The Mazda3 development conceptwas focused on producing a“dynamic sports compact thatexceeds your expectations” and hasbecome a core model in Mazda’sglobal compact vehicle segment

strategy. It delivers outstandingdynamic performance, a vibrantdesign and high quality craftsman-ship, having been developed to be aglobally competitive vehicle withattractive driving characteristics andvalue-for-money attributes.

The Mazda3 won second prize inthe 2004 European Car of the Yearawards — the highest-rankingJapanese car that year — and waspicked as the 2004 Canadian car ofthe year. It has also been praised bythe media and customers alike, win-ning 67 automotive awards to date.With this history of excellence, itcontinues to enjoy steady sales inmarkets throughout the world.

Mazda freshened the Mazda3 line-up in June 2006. While the freshened

Mazda3 enhanced existing strengthssuch as delightful exterior and interi-or styling, dynamic performance andcraftsmanship, fuel economy androad quietness were improved and anew all-wheel drive (AWD) gradewas added. At the same time, theMazda3 MPS, a high performancemodel with a 2.3-litre DirectInjection Spark Ignition (DISI)Turbo engine, was newly added tothe lineup in Japan.

With ongoing steady global sales,Mazda has been adding to theMazda3 production system yearafter year. Total production of theMazda3 in Japan in 2005 was364,668 units, boasting one of thehighest single model production vol-umes in Japan.

Millionth Mazda3

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTSHIFT • 27

Gifts that start at $0Before you buy the car enthusiast you love

another toy model version of his or her dreamcar, lets discuss some really useful ways to

spend your money.With many new cars you purchase or lease now,

you get an automatic roadside assistance program.That’s great. It would be even better if they’d let meuse it for my 12-year-old car instead. When some-thing is handed out as a bonus, the odds are prettygood the company knows it isn’t going to cost themmuch. Buy someone a program that doesn’t haveone. This is especially nice for parents to buy kids.It’s a taking-care-of-you present they pretend tohate, but actually love.

A fabulous snowbrush would make me veryhappy. I hate getting crud all over my coat becausethe brush is too short, or because the bristles looklike a giant has been brushing his teeth with them.Consider the shorter people in your life, and look atthose telescoping brushes. In relative terms, the bestof the brushes don’t cost a lot of money.

I swear by those big car mats that suck up a ton of

slush. They hold an entire Bigee-SizedCoke. If you’d like to know how I knowthis, you’d have to ask my son, who cantake your call any time because he is cur-rently grounded.

New car seat covers are a great way tomake an older car look great again, and toprotect a new car from spills and tears.Putting them on requires an Engineeringdegree (they have more elastic straps andhooks than a prom queen), but we’vefound there is usually someone in thehouse that can figure it out. My 12-year-old is pretty good at it.

A terrific gift for anyone is a car detail-ing. It’s like a day at the spa for your car. If you cansteal the car and get it done ahead of time, great. Ifnot, get a gift certificate (it’s around $100-125 usu-ally). I promise you, next to getting my own chassisspoiled for a day, it’s the next best thing. Your carwill no longer smell like a pungent mix of dog andgym shorts and French fries. And sorry, but that lit-

tle green tree swinging from yourrearview is just earrings on a pig.

The single best gift does not cost adime. Chances are that someone in yourhouse leaves for work early. Dependingon the depth of your affection for this per-son, write up a promise to be out to cleartheir car after a storm, or five storms.Shovel the drive, warm up the car, andchip off the ice. It means getting up whenthey do, and heading outside in the dark.

My boys have done this for Brad, whenhe was heading out at 5:30 a.m. I do itbecause I love the early morning quiet,and the smell of the cold after a foot of

snow has dropped. I just cram my pyjamas undersnow gear, and throw snowballs at the kids’ win-dows to wake them up. But I admit, mostly I justlove the peace and stillness. Contrary to all the adson TV, the best gifts do not begin at any store.

Both of the boys are car-racing nuts. Over theyears, I’ve bought Marc, 15, several books on cars I

know he likes. I asked Jackson, 12, what books hemight like for Christmas. He looked at me as if I’doffered to wrap up Brussels sprouts and scream“Merry Christmas!” He prefers his entertainment toappear on a screen, or to be needed to be pedaledfuriously.

This year, one of my fellow columnists hasanswered my prayers with a book he’s written.Vroom, by Tim Miller, is specifically for the nine-to-12-year-old set. If you have a kid who has an inter-est in any kind of auto racing, this is the book thatshould be sticking out of his or her stocking. Lots ofpictures, clean format, a glossary that I spent a lot oftime in, a list of websites for further information —this book delivers. It fills a demand for a respectfullook at auto racing that is neither too jargon-heavyfor the less experienced, nor too condescending foryounger fans of the sport. It’s available at all thebookstores.

There you go. Gifts that start at $0. And not aBrussels sprout in the lot.

www.lorraineonline.ca

LORRAINESOMMERFELD

POWERSHIFT

Consumers, looking for “greener” choiceswhen they purchase a new car or truck,count fuel efficiency among the top three

purchase motivators.And while after 100 years of service and refine-

ment the gasoline-powered engine is still con-sumers’ top choice, automakers are testing the mar-ket with vehicles powered by just about every newfuel alternative there is. At the recent Los AngelesAuto Show, for example, Ford, General Motors andBMW each unveiled vehicles that run on hydrogen,while other companies, including DaimlerChryslerand Volkswagen, promoted vehicles powered byE85 ethanol, electric-gas hybrid engines, biodiesel,natural gas and low-sulfur – or “clean” — dieselfuel.

“Consumers are speaking loud and clear,” saidMark Fields, Ford president, The Americas.“They’re telling us that the social and environmen-tal trade-offs associated with automobiles areincreasingly unacceptable.”

According to internal Ford research, the percent-age of Americans who say they are “very con-cerned” about the environment is approaching 70per cent, up nearly 10 points in the past five years.Fuel efficiency, quality and safety are their top pur-chase priorities.

“They want cleaner, safer and more efficientvehicles that don’t compromise on function orvalue, while lessening America’s dependence onforeign oil,” Fields said.

It is a sentiment echoed in a report released lastweek by the U.S. Department of Energy, whichpredicts the sale of flex-fuel vehicles — those thatcan run on gasoline and ethanol — could reach twomillion units annually by 2030, with about thesame number of hybrid gas-electric vehicles sold.

Including diesel vehicles and those running onunconventional technology, such as hydrogen orfuel cells, the department of Energy sees alterna-tive-fuel-powered vehicles accounting for nearly30 per cent of light-duty vehicle sales in 2030,compared with more than eight per cent today.

The trick will be to determine which fuel holds

the most promise for future motorists.“Like every other major automaker, Ford is not

betting on a single technology to replace gasolineengines,” writes Sebastain Blanco, editor-in-chiefof AutoblogGreen.com, in an article for Ford’s“Bold Moves” Web site,www.fordboldmoves.com. “It’s pretty clear thathybrids and biofuels are bridge technologies,something greener than gasoline to get us to afuture of either hydrogen fuel cell or pure electriccars, or both.”

“We believe hydrogen may become a viablemotor fuel in the long term,” said Gerhard Schmidt,vice president, Research & Advanced Engineering.

In its latest attempt to raise the bar in the hydro-gen fuel cell race, Ford unveiled an all-new fuelcell-powered Explorer prototype in Los Angelesthat can travel 350 miles on a single fill-up, morethan any fuel-cell vehicle on the road.

The vehicle, a prototype built for the departmentof Energy, has a center-mounted hydrogen tank aswell as space for six people and their cargo. Fordhas logged more than 17,000 miles testing theExplorer, including over 1,500 miles during one24-hour period, which Ford called a record for anyfuel-cell vehicle.

“With these technology demonstration vehicles,Ford continues to lead the way in the developmentof hydrogen technology,” said Schmidt.

Ford currently has a fleet of 30 hydrogen-pow-ered Focus fuel-cell vehicles on the road as part ofa worldwide, seven-city effort to conduct real-world testing of fuel-cell technology.

The company also recently delivered the first ina series of hydrogen internal combustion enginepowered E-450 shuttle buses on Parliament Hill inOttawa.

BMW, meanwhile, displayed its new Hydrogen7, powered by a 12-cylinder combustion enginethat it touts as “the world’s first hydrogen-poweredperformance sedan.” The unveilings in LosAngeles are a further step toward bringing hydro-gen vehicles to market, said JoAnn Milliken, actinghydrogen program manager, which is helping

automakers underwrite the cost of such hydrogendemonstration vehicles through tax credits.

Still, major obstacles remain to the mass-adop-tion of hydrogen-powered vehicles, including thecost of developing fuel and the service stationinfrastructure needed to support demand.

“Integrating these new technologies into a sys-tem is major progress,” Milliken said.

“There are likely to be more incentives down theroad as we get closer to achieving our targets,” shesaid.

Consumers driving ‘greener’ car market

Reuters

28 • INDEPENDENTFUN DECEMBER 15, 2006

WEEKLYDIVERSIONSACROSS1 Drooler’s accessories5 Trudge9 Eggs12 Totals two numbers16 Polish prose17 She ranks in Raipur18 PC cousin19 Underhanded type20 Measure of windforce (2 wds.)23 Foe24 Sask. town with T.rex Discovery Centre25 Ancient letter26 Fleshy fruit withseed inside27 Links peg28 Japanese sandal29 Get wool fromsheep30 Shouted33 Boston lettuce34 Provincial rep.35 Small suckers38 “We’ll rant andwe’ll ___ ...”39 A Callwood40 Boater’s worry41 By way of42 20’s dispenser, forshort43 Grape-pressingresidue44 Terra ___45 Paraphernalia46 B.C. town withMolly’s Reach

(“Beachcombers”)48 Portend49 A Great Lake50 Arousing debate54 Object formally57 Bovine ploughpullers58 Underwater missile62 More than a quiz63 Yukon’s official bird65 Ian Fleming’s 00766 ___ and saucer67 Spring mo.68 Word with friendly69 Mother70 Seethe71 Island off NE Nfld.73 At a great distance74 Big horn75 The ___ Woman(Atwood)76 Enjoyed to the max(2 wds.)78 Turbine blade79 RPM part80 Liberals81 N.W.T.’s mineralemblem82 Canadian poetryprize86 Earlier87 Education degree89 Compact90 Affirmative vote91 Tear apart92 Blue flag93 Affectedly dainty94 Building extension

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ning radio show: “TheHappy ___” (1937-59)83 Yukon town near

Pelly R.84 Inflammation: suffix85 Loch ___

86 Summer time inMetchosin87 So long!

88 Had the lead

Solutions on page 30

ARIES (MAR. 21 TO APR. 19) I know, dear Lamb, that you don’tlike anyone trying to take chargeof one of your projects, but try tobe a bit more flexible. A new ideacould help hasten a positiveresult.

TAURUS (APR. 20 TO MAY 20) I’m sure, like the time-thriftyTaurus that you are, that you’vedone much of your holiday shop-ping. But don’t relax yet. Wrapthose gifts now to save yourselflots of unwanted pressure.

GEMINI (MAY 21 TO JUNE 20) Be receptive when a family mem-ber or friend asks to confide inyou. Your positive reaction couldensure that he or she will have ahappy holiday experience.

CANCER (JUNE 21 TO JULY 22)

Don’t be rushed into wrapping upthat workplace problem. Con-sider leaving it until after the hol-idays. This way you’ll have thefacts you need to reach the rightresolution.

LEO (JULY 23 TO AUG. 22) You’ll get news that will makeyou glow brighter than the lightsof the holiday season. Be sure touse what you learn both carefullyand kindly in order to avoid giv-ing the wrong impression.

VIRGO (AUG. 23 TO SEPT. 22)That frayed relationship could bemended in time for the holidays ifyou were more flexible. Give alittle, and you could get back a lotmore than you imagined.

LIBRA(SEPT. 23 TO OCT. 22)Things might not seem to be set-tling down as quickly as you

would prefer. But it might just bea little holiday time flutter. You’llsoon get news that will lead tomore stability.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 TO NOV. 21)Stop getting so involved in every-one’s personal problems that youlose precious time with lovedones. Remember, even theSupreme Court closes for the hol-idays.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 TO DEC. 21)All signs point to a bright holiday,with all of those pesky problemsfinally resolved in your favor.Share the good times with peopleyou love and, of course, who loveyou.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 TO JAN. 19)Your plans should not be set instone and cemented over. Leavesome openings in case you need

to make changes. Spend the holi-days with your nearest and dear-est.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 TO FEB. 18) Surprise! This holiday finds youon the receiving end of the gen-erosity of those who are usuallythe recipients of so much that yougive so freely and lovingly.

PISCES (FEB. 19 TO MAR. 20) That piece of good news assuresthat you’ll be swimming in clear-er, calmer waters this holiday sea-son. There might be a storm ortwo ahead, but you’ll weather itall in fine style.

YOU BORN THIS WEEKYou have a flair for seeing thingsas you’d like them to be, as wellas a gift for turning your percep-tions into reality.

(c) 2006 King Features Syndicate, Inc.

WEEKLYSTARS

Fill in the grid so that each row of nine squares, each col-umn of nine and each section of nine (three squares bythree) contains the numbers 1 through 9 in any order.There is only one solution to each puzzle. Solutions, tipsand computer program available at www.sudoko.com

SOLUTION ON PAGE 30

By Don PowerFor The Independent

Chris Bartlett’s best year in theAvalon East Senior HockeyLeague — statistically speaking,

at least — was his rookie year withOuter Cove.

That season, 1999-2000, Bartlettreturned home from playing hockey onthe mainland to surprise the entireleague, and tear it apart. Thirty-onegoals and 27 assists as a rookie is prettygood.

Part of the reason Bartlett enjoyed somuch success is that nobody knew whohe was, or at least, very few people. Sohe had room to skate.

A couple of times around the league,however, and everybody had their eyeson No. 2. In fact, people had more thantheir eyes on Bartlett.

There was a good chance that by thetime the St. John’s native skated the200-foot length of the ice, there weresticks and hands impeding his progresseverywhere he turned.

Fast forward seven seasons, andBartlett — now with the ConceptionBay North Cee Bees — has three leaguechampionships and a Herder. He alsohas room to skate again, just like he didas a rookie.

“It’s been a big change for us as sen-ior hockey players,” Bartlett tells TheIndependent.

The change Bartlett talks about is onebeing implemented by Hockey Canadaand trickling down through all levels ofhockey. Following the successful intro-duction at the National Hockey Leaguelevel after its lockout, Hockey Canada— and therefore Hockey Newfoundlandand Labrador — has told its officials tocall games by a new standard.

“They’re not new rules,” HockeyNewfoundland and Labrador referee-in-chief Don Kelly stresses. “It’s the oldrules, with a new standard.”

Restraining fouls, like the little hooksand slashes that Bartlett played throughhis entire career, will now get you twominutes. Anything that slows a player’sprogress will get you two minutes.Hands or sticks in a “danger zone”?You’re in the sin bin.

It’s all designed to eliminate clutchingand grabbing from the game, and returnhockey to the skaters.

“We’ve seen a big change in theplay,” says Kelly, who held clinics at thestart of the year to inform players,coaches and officials of the new stan-dards being enforced.

“What we’re finding is for the mostpart, players have started to adapt to thenew rules and you’re not seeing as manyinfractions.”

But it hasn’t been an easy road. Infact, it’s been a bumpy process.

At the start of the season, players andofficials were still learning what did ordid not constitute a penalty. That led toconfusion and frustration during games,in which upwards of 40 or 50 infractionswere whistled.

In October, the St. John’s JuniorHockey League played 32 games, andaveraged 37 penalties a game. In

November, in 30 games, that numberdropped to 26 penalties a game. A Nov.30 game between St. John’s and Avalonsaw just 11 penalties called, seven ofthem restraining fouls.

The Avalon East averaged 32 penal-ties a game starting out, but have cutnine penalties a game from that in twomonths.

The high number of penalties in earlygames led to long games, and someplayers — especially those on the thirdor fourth lines — received little ice time.Bartlett says it was difficult, becausethere was no easing into it.

“It’s hard to get used to,” he admits.“Change is change and hopefully we’llget used to it.

“We (Cee Bees) have a pretty goodhockey team and a lot of times only the

first two lines get an opportunity to beon the power play. Our third and fourthlines might only get three shifts a periodand that’s hard, because when you getinto a big game, you’re not getting agood flow and they’re not used to play-ing in these situations.

“That’s a big change and some guysdo get frustrated because they’re used toplaying a lot.”

Sometimes that frustration bubblesover. During a recent Avalon East gamein Mount Pearl, Blades coach Greg(Bird Dog) Smyth approached Kellywith an alleged verbal assault thatearned him a gross misconduct.

The problem is that the officials arebeing told between periods about callsthey missed, so when teams return to theice for the next period, the officiating

changes mid-game.Kelly agrees there is still work to be

done. Everybody, he notes, has to learnto adjust to the new standards. But hesays the changes have been tough on hisreferees.

“You have to think more instead ofreacting,” Kelly said. “Officials are soused to the rules, especially, they react;they don’t have to think about it. All ofa sudden, they’re right back to wherethey began. They’ve got to blend oldwith the new.”

Kelly is confident that will happen,sooner rather than later.

“I think you’re going to see a lot moreplayers learning the skills,” he notes.“Kids are going to know that if theywant to stay in the game, they’re goingto have to develop their skills.”

Bartlett, who also coaches the JuniorCeltics, agrees, and says that while thecurrent road is bumpy, it will eventuallybecome a nice paved highway.

“The game is a lot faster when it’sbeing played. The skill is coming backinto the game,” Bartlett says. “You don’thave the big muckers and grinders start-ing to push and shove and hook and holdlike it was years ago. The skill level isrising up. The speed is rising up. You’reseeing prettier goals and prettier passes.And believe it or not, you’re seeingmore open ice hits and a lot more battlesalong the boards.

“It’s a skilled game. I think the endresult will be a better style of hockey foreveryone involved.”

donniep@nl.rogers.com

INDEPENDENTSPORTSFRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 29

If you were one of the announced2,355 who attended Tuesdaynight’s St. John’s Fog Devils game,

you may dispute this, but goaltendingwins hockey games.

(Never mind the fact you may havebeen counted twice. There was no wayalmost 2,400 people watched that gameTuesday. They must have been count-ing eyes.)

Anyway, it has long been said thatthe guy with the big pads between thepipes is directly responsible for manyof a hockey team’s victories.

That wasn’t necessarily the caseTuesday night.

Ilia Ejov was absolutely brutal in theFog Devils net (and why he wasn’tbenched is a total condemnation ofbackup Devin O’Brien). DavidDavenport in the Screaming Eagles net

was worse, at least during the 6:07 hepunched before being mercifully pulledfrom goal and replaced by St. John’snative Kyle Downer.

Downer, on the other hand, wassolid, sometimes outstanding in theloss, stopping 34 of the 38 shots hefaced.

Downer is also used to winning,something he couldn’t manage Tuesdayin his QMJHL debut. However, it issomething he’s done quite frequentlywith his regular team — the St. John’s

midget Maple Leafs.So far this year, Downer has won

eight times in nine games and has a1.67 goals against average. That soundsgood, until you consider his goaltend-ing partner, Evan Mosher, has won 10times in 10 starts and has a GAA of1.30. (These stats are from provincialplay, and don’t include the Monctoniantournament, which the Leafs won.)

Assuming the theory that goaltend-ing wins hockey games is correct, it’sprobably safe to assume that eitherDowner or Mosher is the Leafs MVP.And perhaps one is.

But don’t count on it.The St. John’s Maple Leafs are a

provincial powerhouse. In fact, theteam is probably a national power-house.

The Leafs have steamrolled over its

provincial opposition this season, run-ning up a 21-1 record. The WesternKings, in second, have but 10 wins.There is no competition for the Leafs inNewfoundland.

So the adage about great goaltendingis proven correct. Well, it would be ifnot for the fact the Leafs hardly need agoalie. (Head coach Rick Babstock isshaking his head and swearing at meright now.)

In the case of the St. John’s MidgetMaple Leafs, it wouldn’t matter if youtook a peewee and placed him betweenthe pipes at Goulds Arena. The Leafswould still romp to victory.

Case in point: last weekend, withDowner in Cape Breton and Mosherwith the Q’s Prince Edward IslandRocket (the Leafs really have goodgoaltending, did I mention that?),

Andrew Caines allowed just two goalsas St. John’s beat Western 5-1 andCentral 11-1. Brandon Decker allowedfour goals in an 8-4 win over Central.

This is not meant to disparage Cainesor Decker. But when your team haseight of the top 10 point-getters in theleague, just one loss in 22 games, 162goals for and 34 against — not to men-tion the most penalty minutes by far —you have the best team.

There have been a few cries so far thisseason to break up the Leafs (mostly frompeople losing to the Leafs). And while Idon’t agree with Travis Randell beingallowed to leave his native Twillingate toplay for St. John’s when Central has ateam in the same league, you can’t havetwo major midget teams out of the capital

Midget Leafs standing tallAAA hockey team head and shoulders above the opposition

See “Getting,” page30

Book signing at Chapters on Kenmount Rd.Saturday, December 16, 2006 • 2-4pm

A stunning collection of photography from the portfolio of The Independent’s own Paul Daly.

DON POWERPower Point

Sticking to itPlayers say changes a speed bump en route to faster hockey

CeeBees’ Mitchell Oake (dark jersey) is not touched as he chases the puck during an Avalon East game Wednesday. Paul Daly/The Independent

30 • INDEPENDENTSPORTS DECEMBER 15, 2006

Solutions for crossword on page 28 Solutions for sudoku on page 28

Iwent walking in the woods thismorning toting my old .22 Rimfire,just in case a big white December

rabbit crossed my path. Rabbit stew is avery good thing on a cold winter night.

My .22 rifle is one of my most prizedpossessions. Not that it’s an expensiveor unique firearm, rather it’s quite anordinary Cooey Model 600 repeater.It’s the bolt-action type, with a tubularmagazine that I’m sure anyone familiarwith guns has at least seen, if not used.What makes this shootin’ iron specialto me is how I acquired it. I rememberit like yesterday, maybe better.

I had been shooting a pellet gun fortwo years and had developed a keeneye and steady aim. We lived in a rent-ed house in St. John’s that had an unfin-ished basement, and my father had setup an indoor pellet gun range for me.Just about every night after supper wewould plink away at paper targets andcans while Mom washed dishes andtidied house.

One night I declared that I could cutdown a matchstick. Dad didn’t think soand promised me a .22 for passingGrade 5 if I could. I’d been secretlypractising on matches when Dad was atwork and Mom was out of the house. Inailed two matches with three shots. Ithink Dad suspected I was getting insome extra practice, but he said nothingand kept his promise.

That June, we went to Canadian Tireand walked out with a brand new .22rifle. It had a running rabbit engravedinto both sides of the pistol grip. I musthave been the proudest boy in theworld. The only condition wasabsolutely no unsupervised shootinguntil I was 16, old enough to legallyhunt.

But hunting with my .22 would be along while coming, at least in my homeprovince. Newfoundland had bannedthe .22 Rimfire for hunting in 1963.Moose were becoming prolific and the

perception was that .22 rifles would beused for poaching. It seems to me thatwe Newfoundlanders tend to convictourselves before any wrongdoing evertakes place.

Why do we think so lowly of our-selves and our neighbours? Why wouldwe illegally and unethically shootmoose or caribou with a small-gamerifle just to avoid losing the old .303Enfield to the warden? Why would webe poaching in the first place? Are wealways trying to get more than ourshare? Maybe somebody shot a moosewith a .22 but even if they did, does thatjustify eradicating the right to carry aperfectly legitimate firearm for every-one else?

I wouldn’t be lamenting about thissort of thinking if it were a relic of thepast. Just last week, a fellow New-foundlander wrote a letter to the editorcomplaining that duck, rabbit, andupland bird seasons do not all open onthe same day. The reasoning being thatsomeone would buy a duck licence toshoot rabbits out of season (and so on).You get the idea.

Coyotes spread over the entireprovince before Newfoundlanderswere permitted to hunt them. Finallysense prevailed, and we have a 10-month coyote season, but it didn’tcome easy. There are many moreexamples, but I think I’ve made mypoint. We need to give each other somecredit — we’re innocent till we dosomething wrong.

Newfoundland was the only place inNorth America where a .22 rifle wasprohibited for small game hunting. In1998, then minister of Forest Resourcesand Agrifoods, Kevin Aylward, liftedthe ridiculous 35-year ban. Aylwardpointed out that Newfoundlanders hadcome a long way since the ban.

Poaching had been reduced throughbetter enforcement and public educa-tion, and a whopping 110,000 individ-uals had passed the province’s huntereducation program — 20 per cent ofthe population. He added that using arifle as opposed to a shotgun for smallgame would generally improve marks-manship and produce more capablebig-game hunters. Good points allaround, but I think we probably didn’tgive ourselves enough credit in thefirst place.

After the announcement to lift theban, open line shows reverberated with.22 talk. “There will be bullets flyingeverywhere,” “Not safe to go in thewoods,” “Moose riddled with .22 bul-lets” … there we went again. No matterthat people hunt with .22s everywhereelse on the planet.

Anyway, I’ve been shooting theoccasional rabbit or grouse with myprized .22 for eight years now and I’veenjoyed every minute. Taking gamewith a precise shot is much more satis-fying than plastering it with a scatter-gun. Better for eating as well. Thewoods are still safe and nobody’s beenshot with a stray .22 bullet.

By the way, the .22 Rimfire is anamazing target and small-game roundwith a very long and intriguing history— I’ll get to that another week.

Paul Smith lives in Spaniard’s Bay,enjoying all the outdoorsNewfoundland and Labrador has tooffer. flyfishtherock@hotmail.com

My old .22

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Greatest free agent deal everRocket won two Cy Youngs for less than Lilly money

By Dave PerkinsTorstar wire service

When a four-year contract forabout $40 million isn’tenough to keep Ted Lilly or

Gil Meche from going elsewhere toheed the lure of last-place teams, itmakes you wish for the good olddays.

Like, 10 years ago this week,believe it or not, when the Blue Jayssigned Roger Clemens to a four-yearcontract for $31.1 million (U.S.).

Clemens certainly worked out forthe Jays in one way, although notevery way.

He became, without question, thegreatest free agent signing in sportshistory, counting only individual pro-duction; he won consecutive pitchingtriple crowns (wins, ERA and strike-outs) and two Cy Young Awards in histwo seasons in Toronto.

There is no better free agent record.On the other hand, the team went

nowhere and, amazingly enough, hedidn’t draw even an extra 1,000 fans agame in the SkyDome when hepitched. Seeking jewellery, he bulledhis way out of town to New York,where he would get two World Seriesrings.

“It was (former GM) Gord Ash’sidea,” ex-president Paul Beestonremembers.

“Gordy asked, ‘Do you think he’dcome to Toronto?’ I didn’t know, so I

called Randy Hendricks (Clemens’agent in Houston). We’d always had apretty good relationship with theHendricks brothers (Randy and Alan),right back to the days of Rico Carty.They had players like George Bell,Mike Timlin, Al Leiter. We had whatyou’d call a beneficial relationship.

“I called Randy and asked him thequestion and he said, ‘Why don’t youcome down here and ask Roger your-self?’ I figured out what he was say-ing,” Beeston said.

“The light went on for me when Isat on his couch and he looked me inthe eye and said he wasn’t going backto Boston. That’s when I knew we hada chance.”

It took another week and it tookmoney, but that’s not all it took. TheIndians, Orioles and Yankees werebidding, too.

The dealmaker was that the BlueJays would allow him to take his sonsout to play on the field on the after-noon of games, while YankeeStadium was off limits for family fun.

The Jays, alas, didn’t live up totheir contender billing and Clemenssoon tired of being an also-ran.

He fled to the Yankees and youknow the rest.

Hey, just a thought, but 10 yearslater there’s another hole in the start-ing rotation; maybe they can signClemens again today, for old time’ssake. It would make Ripley’s BelieveIt Or Not.

city. There aren’t enough good playersto be competitive.

Sure, it’ll make for better provincialhockey. But you won’t win squat onthe national scene.

There’ll be no Monctonian champi-onship. There’ll be no potentialAtlantic championship. No trip to theTelus Cup. No potential nationalchampionship.

The St. John’s Maple Leafs havebeen successful for a very long time.Success for this team, however, is notmeasured necessarily in wins andlosses.

Ever since Babstock has been incharge, the entire mantra of the team— and of the league, to be truthful —is to get players to the next level.Whether that’s major junior, Junior A,university or American college is

immaterial. It’s getting the kids toanother level. Babstock’s teams havealways had some things in common.

They don’t have a power play unit.They don’t employ penalty killers.There is no No. 1 goalie. Babstockrolls his four lines and six defence-men every game. The extra playersare rotated in turn. (The Monctonianchampionship game top scorer ChadEarle and top defenceman MitchFlynn were scheduled to sit … anddid.)

Everybody plays, and everybodyplays equally. Of course, if I werepaying $10,000 a year for my son toplay hockey, I’d want assurances he’sgoing to get on the ice. That doesn’tsit well with some folks, but it works.You can’t argue with success.

And Rick Babstock knows success,with or without his regular goalies.

donniep@nl.rogers.com

Getting to the next level

Roger Clemens throws against the Detroit Tigers in 1998 REUTERS/Shaun Best

Newfoundland was the only place in North

America where a .22 riflewas prohibited for smallgame hunting. In 1998,

then minister of Forest Resources

and Agrifoods, KevinAylward, lifted the

ridiculous 35-year ban.Aylward pointed out

that Newfoundlanders had come a long way

since the ban.

From page 29

PAUL SMITHThe Rock Outdoors

Paul Smith in action.

DECEMBER 15, 2006 INDEPENDENTSPORTS • 31

A Rock solid choice for future PMA candid Brad Gushue talks about curling fashion, his tap-dancing past, and his political aspirationsBy Randy StarkmanTorstar wire service

G olden Gushue. Sounds like anitem on a Chinese restaurantmenu, but it’s the title for the

new book written about Olympic curl-ing champion Brad Gushue and hisrink’s journey to the top of the podiumat the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The book (Nimbus Publishing,$17.95) is just one of many things thathave kept Gushue hopping from stop tostop like the politician he may one daybecome. He also recently helped open anew company in St. John’s, ACMEFinancial Services (the name owessomething to the old Roadrunner car-toons), dealing in mortgages, invest-ments and insurance.

Gushue took time from his hecticschedule recently to talk withUnplugged about taking the Big Appleby storm, a premier idea, and bringingsex appeal to curling.

What’s your favourite story in thebook?

My favourite part of the book iswhere people talk about where theywere and how our win made them feel.There’s a couple of pages in there frompeople all across Newfoundland andeven different parts of Canada wherethey just talk about our win. All theother stories we had been a part of orwe had told (author) Alex (J. Walling).To read that, that was kind of a neat partof the book for me.

What’s sudden fame been like?It’s been different. It’s been fun. I’ve

got to experience a lot of things that Iwould never, ever experience. I’vebeen enjoying it. But it is an adjust-ment. The fact that you go out to amovie and people know who you areand want to come up and introducethemselves. It is definitely an adjust-ment, but I wouldn’t trade it becausesome of the experiences I’ve had havebeen truly incredible.

What have been the most incredibleso far?

I’ve gotten to take part in the Junoawards … to go down to New YorkCity and experience that. I’d neverbeen to New York. I’ve been able totravel all across Canada. I’ve hit everyprovince I think a couple of times so farthis year. It’s been a lot of fun. We’vebeen over to Switzerland. We’ve beenable to do a lot of things we wouldn’thave gotten to do if we didn’t win thegold.

Did you get recognized in New York?

It was a funny story actually. Afterthe first full day that we had in the cityby ourselves, my wife and I decided towalk around and do some shopping. Wewere walking down Fifth Avenue, itwas basically right across from TrumpTower, I heard someone scream myname. And I never, ever thought thatwould happen in New York City, but agentleman and his two sons had been

down there from Toronto and noticedme and introduced themselves and gota picture taken. And I figured thatwould be it. But we walked two blocksfurther and the same thing happened. Aman and his wife from Winnipeg hadrecognized me.

What future objectives have you gotin and out of curling?

Curling related, we just want tobecome as good as we can be, becomemore consistent and hopefully win afew Canadian championships or aCanadian championship, I should say,and maybe get back to the Olympics.On a personal standpoint, I just starteda company with a couple of other guysand I’d love to see that become reallysuccessful, maybe down the road ven-ture into politics or something like that.I have some different things in mind.

I’d imagine you could win any election in Newfoundland rightnow.

(little laugh) I think my chances willbe pretty good right now, but it’s defi-nitely not the time for me. I have otherthings in my life I would want toachieve before venturing into that. I seethat as something that will be 10, 15, 20years down the road.

Are you thinking prime minister?Umm, I haven’t thought about it a

whole lot, but if I did go into it I’dprobably want to become premier. It’ssomething that I thought would be pret-

ty cool. I love Newfoundland andLabrador and I love being fromCanada. Usually when I set a goal, I setit pretty big, so I guess if I was going togo into federal politics, I’d want to goall the way. And if I was to go intoprovincial politics, I’d want to go allthe way, too.

If you could have any three peoplein history to dinner, who would theybe?

Oh wow. Albert Einstein would beone. Wayne Gretzky would be another.And I’m a big sports fan so I’d proba-bly go with Tiger Woods for the third.

What’s the biggest extravagance inyour life?

I really don’t have one, to tell you thetruth. I’m not an extravagant guy byany means. If I can afford it, I’ll get it.If I can’t, I won’t. If I was going tosplurge on anything, it would probablybe a television because I’m a bit of amovie buff.

What’s your favourite movie?Gladiator and Shawshank

Redemption are my two favourites.

Is there a movie you watch whenyou’re looking for a bit of inspira-tion?

There’s a couple actually. One that Ifound real good is Miracle, about the1980 U.S. (Olympic) hockey team.Rudy is another one, and obviously theRocky movies are very motivational.

If you were a promoter, what wouldyou do to boost curling’s popularity?

I would try and make the game a lit-tle sexier, I guess. Maybe change someof the clothing and just promote it thatway. For some reason, we curlers seemto wear the most boring clothing youcould ever imagine out on the ice. Yousee sports like tennis and some of theother sports that have at least fashion-able clothing. But curlers don’t seem togo that route.

How far would you go with the clothingthing? Are we talking muscle shirts?

Well, they would have to have mus-cles. That’s the problem. As long as it’sfunctional, I don’t think there should beany limits.

What’s your favourite way to unwind?Crawl into bed and flick on a movie.

Who would you cast in the lead roleif a movie of the Brad Gushue Storywas ever made?

(laughs) Wow. Can I pick two? Iwould have to say Ben Affleck. But Ithink other people would say KeanuReeves.

What’s the worst job you ever had?Probably a paperboy. I got bitten by

dogs.

When was the last time you cried?At the Olympics, after the win, when

I phoned home.

Greatest fear?Becoming nothing.

Do curlers have groupies?Yes. They range from young to old,

to good looking to not good looking.

Who would we be surprised to learnis a really big curling fan?

Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo is acurling fan. Also, Stephen Harper is abig curling fan. After we won theOlympic gold, he called and said hewatched us and actually met us back in2004, and said he’s been following ourprogress.

Did you say, ‘I want your job one day?’(laughs) No. But I did ask him how

the new job was going.

Your most annoying habit?Too many to list … I rub my feet a

lot. I always have cold feet so I’m justtrying to warm them up. My wife andmy family absolutely hate it.

Any superstitions?I guess the only superstition is trying

not to be superstitious. I used to besuperstitious to the point of wearing thesame clothes to a game. I tried to getaway from that because it’s no fun.

What’s something you’d be embar-rassed to let people know about you?

Our class did tap dancing in Grade 4.I actually did tap dancing in the schoolconcert.

Brad Gushue Paul Daly/The Independent

INDEPENDENTCLASSIFIEDFRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15-20, 2006 — PAGE 32

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