Fisherman's Road

The following commentary was phoned in to CBC Radio’s Fisheries Broadcast on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010. The commentary, for whatever reason, did not air. My name is Ryan Cleary and I’m calling from St. John’s. I’m prompted to call in from listening to Gus Etchegary on Tuesday’s (April 20th) Fisheries Broadcast. I know people who hear Gus Etchegary and immediately tune him out. I’m not one of those people. I’m a long-term admirer of Mr. Etchegary’s passion and personal sacrifice. When he speaks — I tune in. Those same people also can’t stand to hear or read the word fish . It’s dirt to them. They believe the fisheries are dead, that it’s time to let them go for good and move on. I’m not one of those people, either. I believe we can rebuild the groundfish fishery into something it’s never been — a well-tuned economic engine for the outports and the good of all Newfoundland and Labrador. To do that, we need a new economic model; perhaps one based on community ownership of the resources...

Now that we’re stuck with the Grand Falls-Windsor paper mill, the next question is what to do with it? Actually, the next question is this: Where do paper mills go when they die? The great scrap heap in the sky? Well, no. That’s just silly. They go to the great scrap heap in Montreal known as American Iron & Metal Company. Insolvent newsprint giant AbitibiBowater asked bankruptcy court in mid-April for approval to sell four closed paper mills in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick to Montreal-based American Iron & Metal for $8.7 million. According to a Canadian Press story, the scrap metal company would also pay AbitibiBowater 40 per cent of the money raised from the sale of the paper machines. Even if the machines are sold for scrap, American Iron would pay at least $5 million. Even better, and this line is directly from the CP story — “The metals company would assume all environmental liabilities associated with the closed mills.” That’s a big deal, considering when the Danny...

How Abitibi was practically chased out of town “The time has come for Abitibi to sell those two mills and get the hell out of here.” — Max Michaud, Atlantic region vice-president for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ union, representing Abitibi Consolidated employees, as quoted in the May 1-7, 2005 Independent newspaper. ••• Abitibi didn’t have to be told twice. Only the company didn’t sell its Stephenville and Grand Falls-Windsor mills — it shut them down. Permanently. I wonder if the hundreds of former workers at both mills had their time back whether they would have went along with their union’s get-the-hell-out, bitch-slap attitude. Probably not. The union obviously underestimated the severity of the downturn in the paper-making industry and Abitibi’s urgency to cut costs. “Give a chance to another player and it would be the best thing that could happen to the population of Newfoundland,” Michaud told The Independent in his thick French accent. Only there was no other ...

"We have a tendency to eat our own, and spit out the bones on Open Line.” — The Independent , March 2008. ••• "There is no union boat,” Randy Simms said this morning (Wednesday, April 28th) on Open Line. Simms checked it out the day before with Earle McCurdy himself, who was a guest on the show, and was told a “union boat” doesn’t exist. The union has never owned a boat. Period. The union has never owned a crab quota. Period two. There is an actual boat. True. And there is a union — of fish, food and allied workers. Fact. In fact, members of the “union” own and operate the “boat” in question, and hold the rights to a crab quota. But there is no “union boat.” Period three. McCurdy was on Open Line to talk about the latest crisis in the fishery crisis. The “union-boat” issue was raised when a fisherman called in about it. There are ties between the “union” and “boat” in question. Undeniable. Just don’t stick the two words together. ••• I wrote several articles and columns on th...

Bill Rowe on our Ottawa embassy “In the middle of bandying boring numbers about, Williams and Martin lunged from their chairs and stood toe-to-toe, fists clenched, shouting abuse and spittle into one another’s face. The dispute seemed to be about which leader was most lacking in honour and gonads. Only the intervention of a gutsy aide thwarted a fistfight between the two statesmen.” — Bill Rowe of a November 2004 meeting between NL Premier Danny Williams and then-Liberal PM Paul Martin over the Atlantic Accord. ••• The position of NL’s representative in Ottawa — which is open — doesn’t only pay half-decent at $148,000 a year, but there could be a book deal when it’s done. Bill Rowe, the province’s first ambassador/emissary to the nation’s capital, is writing a book about his nine months in Ottawa (July 2004-March 2005), tentatively titled Danny Williams: The War with Ottawa. But then it could be titled a lot of things. Danny Williams: The War with Doctors. The War with Nurses. The War ...

“In oil equivalents, there are 55 million barrels a year in production at Churchill Falls which are being sold to Hydro Quebec at a price of $1.80 per barrel for the past 22 years and will continue to do so at prices as low as $1.20 per barrel over the next 43 years. This is a true Canadian tragedy.” — Vic Young, who served as chair and CEO of Newfoundland Hydro and Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation (1978-84), corresponded in 1996/97 with then-prime minister Jean Chretien, calling for a tripartite resolution (involving the feds, Quebec and NL) to the “unconscionable” Churchill River situation. The above quote is taken from that correspondence. Oh, and a barrel of oil today goes for almost $85. ••• Make no mistake, there’s big money in hydro. And the mountains of cash will only get bigger. Take this morning’s Globe and Mail as yet another sign of just that. A business headline blares: Ottawa tells energy firms to start powering down coal-fired plants . Ottawa has told Canadian power...

CAST AWAY “Cast away, to be forced from a ship by a disaster.” — The Mariner’s Dictionary , as quoted in The Shipping News . “Who is going to look after the sea after the fishermen are gone?” — Angela Sanfilippo, an activist with Fishermen’s Wives of Gloucester, in the late 1990s. “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s …” — Neil Young, After the Gold Rush , 1972. “The oddity of a province, located on a major world fishing resource, that is unable to support decently some 15,000 fishermen and that is encouraged by the national government to reduce its fishing commitment requires some explanation.” — The late David Alexander, an economic historian, 1977. “What we have is not an adjustment problem, but the most wrenching societal upheaval since the Great Depression. Our communities are in crisis. The people of the fishery are in turmoil.” — Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, as quoted in Atlantic Fisherman in the early 1990s. “The beginning of t...

“I share the view that the good of the community is just as important as individual liberty, and I suspect the vast majority of Canadians do as well.” — Brian Tobin, from his 2002 book All in Good Time . ••• Considering this week’s news, the good of the City of Ottawa is just as important as Brian Tobin’s individual liberty, which certainly seems to be paying off since he retired from politics. Not one to miss the bus, the province’s sixth premier — who chiseled his name in history for gluing Labrador to Newfoundland’s nameplate and building The Rooms, not to mention standing up for turbot, the boot-ugly fish with fingernails — is actually selling the bus. Or buses. Tobin is chairman of the board of Winnipeg-based New Flyer, one of North America’s leading manufacturers of heavy-duty buses. New Flyer is close to doing a $156-million deal to sell the City of Ottawa 226 buses. The buses were to be sold to Chicago, but the deal fell through after the state couldn’t come up with the funding...

What’s wrong with the following headline in Tuesday's Globe and Mail : Auditor-General open to investigating House and Senate expenses in wake of British and Nova Scotia scandals Technically, there’s nothing wrong with it. But ask yourself this: how could a national newspaper not mention Newfoundland and Labrador in the same breath as scandal ? Sure, numerous Nova Scotia politicians have made inappropriate purchases under a secretive system of lax rules. Shockin’. Sure four British lawmakers have pleaded not guilty in a scandal involving fraudulent expense claims by hundreds of politicians, and nine of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s ministers have quit in disgrace. In one case British taxpayers’ money was even spent to buy a moat. Unbelievable. But it’s Newfoundland and Labrador that takes the scandalous cake. Four MHAs, representing all three political stripes, have been convicted in provincial court, as well as a high-ranking House of Assembly bureaucrat and a shady trinket peddl...

I always keep an eye out to see if NL makes the national news. You never know when or why we’ll be in the headlines. Take today’s Toronto Star story. Red wine is cutting into beer’s traditional market dominance across Canada, Stats Canada reported Tuesday (April 20th, 2010). New numbers show that beer remains the most popular alcoholic drink in Canada, but its market share has fizzled to 46 per cent in 2009 from 53 per cent in 1993. Beer stores and agencies sold 2.3 billion litres of beer in 2009, or $318.30 a person for every Canadian over the age of 15. While Canada may be on its way to becoming a nation of winos, we Newfoundlanders still like our beer. Which is why we made the national news today, although the precise reason was buried deeper in the story. The biggest beer sales per capita were recorded in … Drum roll please … Newfoundland and the territories. God love us, we're always making the top of some cross-Canada list. It’s actually too bad we don’t like wine more. Nume...

Blasts from NL's past — The Harbour Grace Standard , April 13th, 1895. “A minister wished to ascertain what influence the hard times had upon his congregation, and said at the close of the sermon, ‘I would ask everyone who is still able to pay his debts to rise from his seat.’ The whole congregation arose, with the exception of one man. The parson then asked that all those who were unable to meet their bills should rise. Thereupon the aforementioned solitary individual got up, whose features revealed a terrible struggle of one fighting hopelessly against the vicissitudes of this world. The minister regarded him attentively, yet kindly. ‘How is it my friend,’ he said, ‘that you are the only person who cannot pay his debts?’ Sir, I publish a newspaper, and these, my brothers who rose just now, are all subscribers and —' but the minister interrupted him hastily. 'Let us pray,' he said." — Sunday Herald , St. John’s. April 13th, 1947. “Liquor Rationing in NFLD May Neve...

“The doctors said I had four months to live unless I got myself a new lung. That’s when I decided that death was not an option.” — The late Craig Dobbin. ••• It seems our health-care system is always under the microscope. Or knife. With no appreciable results. The complaints are endless. From the Cameron Inquiry into faulty breast cancer tests to the latest report this week that a doctor shortage in Newfoundland and Labrador is harming patient care, the news is always negative. Is there anything good for what ails us? Of course there is. Money. It seems to have worked for Danny Williams. The premier got top-drawer medical treatment when he went to the U.S. for heart surgery, although he was crucified for it. The media on both sides of the border screamed Tory blue murder over the high-profile case of medical tourism, using it as evidence that the Canadian system is second-rate and two-tiered. But the cost of Williams’ heart surgery likely pales in comparison to the millions of dollars ...

I’ve had a few special “moments” in my life as a journalist. One such moment happened in August 2001 when I interviewed Malachy McCourt, Irish-American author of A Monk Swimming , at a downtown St. John’s restaurant that’s long since closed. The title of the book was a cute one; Malachy's youthful misunderstanding of the phrase amongst women in the Hail Mary. Malachy isn’t as well know as his older brother, the late Frank McCourt, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Angela’s Ashes . But Malachy, who’s starred in his share of TV shows and movies, was quite the talent and character in his day. The “moment” came at the end of the interview when I asked Malachy what he would be up to next. Malachy said he was working on a book about the history of the song Danny Boy . The words had barely skipped from his lips when Danny Boy started playing over the restaurant’s loudspeaker. Malachy and I looked at each other, stunned at the coincidence. “Isn’t that lovely?” he said in his Iri...

The following quote was penned by Ray Guy in a Feb. 1, 1968 Evening Telegram column headlined, Newfie, Nigger, Frog or Wop : “Mainland newspaper editors seem unable, or unwilling, to grasp the fact that ‘Newfie,’ like ‘Nigger,’ ‘Frog’ or ‘Wop’ is a term of derision. The Americans, some of whom are masters of this sort of thing, pinned the title on us 20 years ago. ‘Goofie Newfies,’ remember?” FORTY YEARS LATER On Nov. 3rd, 2008, Premier Danny Williams made the following statement after Newfoundland and Labrador officially became a “have” province: “I don't think the Newfie joke is there anymore. I think we're now an example to our fellow Canadians of how it can be done and how to work your way through hardship." ••• So is newfie still a bad word? Notice I didn’t cap the N for newfie. I used to, once upon a time as editor of The Independent , but I stopped after readers complained. They felt that newfie was a garbage word, undeserving of the distinction of a capital N. I a...

One of the first things I do when I drop by a city or town that’s relatively new to me is buy the local paper. The way I see it, a newspaper is the quickest, easiest and most effective way to get a feel for the people and place. So when I dropped by Halifax earlier this month I picked up a copy of the April 3rd, Saturday edition of the Chronicle Herald , the highest circulation newspaper in the Atlantic provinces and the largest independently owned newspaper in Canada. The front-page, above-the-fold mainline story caught my attention, and I immediately read to the end of the page-2 turn (which doesn’t happen every day). “ Region’s voice weakening ,” blared the headline, above the smaller deck, “ New legislation would give 30 more Commons seats to larger provinces .” The angle of the story was that Maritimers should be “very concerned” about a bill introduced on April 1st that would see 30 new seats added to the House of Commons, increasing the total to 338. The parliamentary overhaul w...

The sixth and final person charged in the House of Assembly spending scandal pleaded guilty on Friday (April 9th, 2010) to defrauding Newfoundland and Labrador taxpayers and bribing a government official. His name is John William Hand. I know him as Ooga Booga. An off-the-wall nickname, but more than fitting in that Mr. Hand was once an importer of such Asian knickknacks as teak tribal masks with green eyes and fangs. The mask you see at the head of this post was imported from Asia by JAS Enterprises, which was owned by the family of Mr. Hand, a St. John’s businessman and friend of Bill Murray, the House of Assembly’s former director of financial operations. The mask was given to me in 2007, as then-editor of The Independent , by a former business associate of Mr. Hand as part of the newspaper’s ongoing investigation of the House of Assembly spending scandal. “Ooga booga” were the first two words that left my lips when I saw the mask. And so the nickname was born. “Questionable payment...

Blasts from NL's past YEARS PAST “This measles malady has spread throughout our town, scarcely a house but has been visited, in some cases seven and eight are suffering in one family at a time, happily so far, few fatal cases are reported.” — The Star, and Conception Bay Weekly Reporter , Harbour Grace, April 15, 1874. AROUND THE BAY “Seals were very plentiful here at Seal Island about a week ago, but the ice was in solid and it was hard going to try and get any. That week was hard work for the women of the Island too. They had to clean all the skins that were got and the old hoods were big and heavy to handle. You wanted your hulhues sharp for the job.” — Cartwright Courier , April 15, 1969. LETTER TO THE EDITOR “Dear Sir — I wonder if there is some recognition or a place in history for people who sleep too long. We are all familiar with the tales of Rip Van Winkle who slept for 20 years. Now it seems to me, Sir, that our local MHA has outdone Rip Van Winkle, for he has been aslee...

What are the chances of a Newfoundlander or Labradorian being appointed Canada’s next Governor General? Not friggin likely. Such appointments are usually strategic. Take current Governor General Michaëlle Jean. She’s black, a woman, a francophone, married to a divorced older white guy, a former journalist, and Haitian born (her late grandmother was a dirt-poor single mother who made ends meet sewing hems by candlelight). Her selection by former Prime Minister Paul Martin was seen as a stroke of genius, drawing Liberal votes from minorities, women, men, Quebec, and poor people everywhere. Jean also turned out to be a raw seal-meat eater. Like I said — genius. What could Stephen Harper get out of appointing one of us crowd? Not much, unless he appoints Jake from Republic of Doyle . Conservative ratings might go up then across Canada. At the same time, Steve would run the risk of Jake blackening his lamps. Which Jake tends to do to those who have it comin’. The PM is reportedly on the loo...

This being the 61st anniversary of Confederation, it's the one time of year I can revisit the shadowy events that got us here without being labeled a wing nut. People are always giving me old documents and papers, asking me to delve a little deeper into the conspiracy theory. Confederation has its grassy knoll, I spose you could say. Or knolls. Lee Harvey Smallwood didn't act alone. I'm in Halifax as I write this, but before I left the house this morning to catch a plane I grabbed an old paper from one of my bookcases. Confederation Revisited: New Light on British Policy was written in 1983 as a public lecture to the Newfoundland Historial Society by Dr. Philip McCann, an education professor with Memorial University of Newfoundland. Before I get to the real juice, an interesting tangent in McCann's paper. On July 22, 1948, three days before the vote on the second referendum, Philip Noel Baker, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, issued a memorandum to the Ca...