The following played on CBC Radio on Friday, Jan. 29, in response to a commentary earlier in the week by Bob Wakeham … My name is Ryan Cleary and I’m calling from St. John’s. I’d like to comment on Bob Wakeham’s commentary on Tuesday’s Morning Show. Wakeham’s topic was Bill Murray — the former bureaucrat at the centre of the House of Assembly spending scandal — and how he pleaded guilty on Tuesday to four of seven charges against him. With Bill Murray’s confirmation that’s he’s a crook, as Wakeham put it, there’s not much of any entrails left to that rotting corpse known as the spending scandal. I disagree. I think a good part of the spending scandal story has never been told — and will never BE told. Was Bill Murray the bureaucratic criminal mastermind who engineered the changes in the House of Assembly that led to the legislative rot? To the scandal we’re still going through? I don’t think so. Not a single politician — not a single member of various internal economy commissions — ...

Jan. 16th letter to Telegram editor As an aspiring politician, I often shake my head at what I'm getting into. Democracy in Canada is in shambles. On the federal front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to pull the plug on Parliament is a blatant partisan move to sidestep the controversy generated by hearings into Canada's role in Afghanistan - more specifically, the alleged torture of Afghan detainees transferred by the Canadian military to Afghan authorities. So much for the truth - it's Conservatives first, democracy be damned. What must the world think of us? Earlier this week, Harper said financial markets are concerned about the stability of a minority government, claiming proroguing avoids instability. But isn't that the same as saying that suspending democracy avoids instability? Why not just trade in the Maple Leaf for a hammer and sickle? Closer to home, it was only last month that the federal Conservatives approved a renegotiated convention for th...

Dec. 12th Telegram letter to the editor I wish to make a correction to my Nov. 27 letter to the editor ("An olive branch is still a stick"), and make a further point. In the letter, I wrote that Loyola Sullivan, "Canada's $225,000-a-year Ambassador of Fisheries Conservation is a sell out - interested in toeing the federal bureaucratic line above all else." In fact, Sullivan e-mailed me after the letter was published to say his salary falls between $143,000 and $168,700 a year. My apologies to the sell out. In the most recent news on the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization front ("Jones, Shea meet in Ottawa," Dec. 5), The Telegram reported that provincial Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones met recently in Ottawa with federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea. Jones said she was surprised to learn that the federal government's decision on pending amendments to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization is final. The current debate in the House of Commo...

Nov. 27th Telegram letter to the editor Premier Danny Williams was quoted recently in the national media as saying that if Prime Minister Stephen Harper reaches out, he would accept any kind of olive branch. One such theoretical branch would be the appointment of Loyola Sullivan to the Senate and to the Harper cabinet. Besides being responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador, Sullivan could then broker a détente between the warring political factions, presumably for the greater Conservative good. Only what's good for federal Conservatives isn't necessarily good for Newfoundland and Labrador. Indeed, if Sullivan's Nov. 25 letter to The Telegram ("Focusing on the facts") is an indication, Canada's $225,000-a-year Ambassador of Fisheries Conservation is a sell-out - interested in toeing the federal bureaucratic line above all else. In his letter, Sullivan wrote that the amended Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention is heads and shoulders ahea...

A TALE OF TWO FISHERIES John Crosbie once asked, who hears the fishes when they cry? The answer apparently depends on the species of fish, and the political weight of the shores they frequent. The federal Conservative government has heard the sobs of sockeye salmon in British Columbia's Fraser River in recent weeks, calling a judicial inquiry into their vanishing numbers - which was the right thing to do. But it's been 17 years since groundfish stocks collapsed on the Grand Banks, and successive federal governments have been deaf to the cries of cod and flatfish. Indeed, it's been 18 years since Newfoundland's commercial salmon fishery was shut down, and - despite the fact Atlantic salmon numbers are reportedly lower now then they were in 1991 - still no inquiry. Why the double standard? Good reason to review The Fraser River's once-prodigious sockeye salmon runs have undergone a shocking decline, so much so that commercial and recreational fisheries were halted. N...

Making this a better place I applaud Ryan Cleary’s letter in the Oct. 31 Weekend Telegram (“Time to act, not talk”) touting teamwork as the key to forging a future for rural Newfoundland: it was eerily reflective of the premier’s front-page interview. It’s a prime example on how we all could, and should, put partisan politics and prejudices aside to perpetuate the one commonality that binds us — passion for the promise of this place. The power of that unified front is visible with the government’s prioritizing the H1N1 vaccination roll-outs this week, in light of the international crisis for Newfoundland and Labrador with changes proposed to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention, and the national crisis with Quebec and the Lower Churchill quagmire. The people of this place must come first and we personified that this week. Thus, there is hope for the future. Rise to the occasion Having said that, like the tide, we need to rise to the swell of occasion as well,...

Time to act, not talk Section: Letters to the editor I agree with letter writer David Boyd of Twillingate ("Fishy deal," Oct. 28) that the little boats of Newfoundland are being starved out of the fishery. But I disagree that the biggest "mind-boggler" of all is that no one speaks up for the outrage. We don't let up about it. There are as many so-called true Newfoundlanders, in terms of rants and roars, as ever. Check the open lines for proof. Hand lines may be empty, but phone lines are as blocked as ever. And there wasn't much to complain about in recent years. Rural Newfoundland did better than ever, the outports practically glowed (streetlights will do that). But Alberta oil only managed to fan an economic spark that was all but out. When Western work tapered off, the outports again looked to the sea. And, once again, the sea fails to provide for them, as does the latest make-work response. The $9-an-hour brush cutters on the Northern Peninsula will att...