Weekly Update from the Commons (May 28 - June 1, 2012)

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The story of Samantha Walsh

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Samantha Walsh, a 13-year-old, Grade 8 student from Fleur de Lys on the Baie Verte Peninsula, disappeared one Sunday evening when walking home from her Grandmother's house, and I traveled to the community to research her story. The following feature article was published in The Telegram in February 2000. ••• "Sam, who had stripped off her ski pants when she got to her grandmother’s house, didn’t bother to put them on for the three-minute walk to her house. She went home wearing her coat and hat and long johns covered by flannel pajama pants, pink with black and white lambs, bought the day before at Value Village. But Sam never made it home. 'Loves you, Mom,' were her last words to her mother." ••• Samantha’s story By Ryan Cleary, The Telegram FLEUR DE LYS — The voice is that of a child, rising with a soft and sweet delivery from a room of living hell. It’s a haunting sound, the words of  Salt Water Joys , sung by a very talented and pretty littl...
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'What kind of sick bastard would kill and rape their mother'

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“Constable Hierlihy played the ‘good cop’ who would be alone with Gregory Parsons and reassure him that there seems to be truth in his responses. Sergeant Singleton would then come in and ask “what kind of sick bastard would kill and rape their mother.” — The 2006 report of the Lamer Commission of Inquiry Pertaining to the Cases of Ronald Dalton, Gregory Parsons and Randy Druken . ••• CBC reports that the man wrongfully convicted in the August 1991 murder of his mother is upset that the lead investigator in the case has been promoted. Ab Singleton is now the No. 2 man in the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, appointed deputy chief on June 16th. Which makes Gregory Parsons livid. “All you’re doing is rewarding incompetence,” Parsons told CBC News. Singleton was the lead investigator in the Parsons case, but he also played a key role in the wrongful conviction of Randy Druken for the murder of his then-girlfriend, Brenda Marie Young, in 1993. In 2006, the Lamer Inquiry conc...
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Millions in dockside monitoring fees paid to FFAW for 'shrimp grading and crab research'

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An FFAW-controlled company responsible for overseeing the provincewide Dockside Monitoring Program paid the union almost $5.7 million over 10 years (1999-2009) for “shrimp grading and crab research fees,” audited documents reveal. That’s even though the Fish Harvesters’ Resource Centres (FRC) is a not-for-profit company created in 1993 strictly to verify fish landings.  Further, the bulk of the FRC’s revenue comes from fishermen, who are charged a fee for dockside monitoring based on species and catch (with cod, for example, fishermen pay two cents a pound, plus HST).   The news raises the question whether fishermen — many of whom are already struggling in light of dwindling stocks such as crab and shrimp, as well as escalating fishery fees — have been overcharged for dockside monitoring, which is mandatory as a condition of licensing.  According to the audited financial statements, the FFAW/CAW has an “economic interest” in the FRC. Earle M...
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