Fisherman's Road

Why should Newfoundland and Labrador be concerned about the Harper government’s secret free-trade negotiations with the European Union? Because they could screw us to the wall. The same Europeans nations that fished out/ raped the Grand Banks are negotiating a deal with the Government of Canada. And no one reports to Parliament on the status of negotiations. In other words, Canada is doing a back-room deal with a group of serial rapists. How scary is that? ••• Gus Etegary drove home that point, as only he can, during a Town Hall meeting in St. John’s Wednesday night to publicize the perceived evils (the only documents available are leaked ones) of a Canada/EU free-trade deal. An 8 th round of negotiations over the so-called Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is planned for July 10 th in Brussels. The Council of Canadians, along with CUPE, held the Town Hall (part of a national tour) to warn how such a free-trade deal would be “bad for Canada.” The Harper ...

I gave the following speech on the floor of the House of Commons on Saturday morning (June 25 th ) at roughly 9:30 a.m., Ottawa time, just prior to the start of a rally on the St. John’s waterfront to protest the closure of the Marine Rescue Centre. The speech was interrupted multiple times by Conservative MPs, so that I had to cut it short. A 5-minute question-and-answer session followed the speech, part of the filibuster debate on the Conservative government’s back-to-work legislation for postal workers. I read the end of the speech as the answer to a question posed by a Conservative MP. ••• Madam Speaker, Honourable members of the House of Commons. I wasn’t supposed to be here today. I was expected back in my riding of St. John’s South-Mount Pearl to speak at what’s predicted will be the largest rally in years. A rally on the St. John’s waterfront, the size of which hasn’t been seen in my home province in decades — since the fall of the fisheries in the early 1990s. T...

I gave the following speech in the House of Commons on Friday (June 24 th ) as part of the ongoing marathon Canada Post debate. Mr. Speaker, The No. 1 issue during the 2011 federal election campaign in my riding of St. John’s South Mount Pearl was pensions. It was the No. 1 issue for seniors. It was the No. 1 issue for working people. For seniors — their concern was how to get by on a fixed income. Seniors asked me not to forget them when I went to Ottawa. I have not. I will not. There’s a lot of talk in Newfoundland and Labrador these days about fog — and not just the type that creeps in off the North Atlantic and shrouds the outports and cities — but FOG , the acronym for food, oil and gas. The cost of necessities like food, oil and gas continue to rise as fixed incomes remain just that — fixed. Seniors struggle with the question of how to pay for the rising cost of living while on fixed incomes like pensions. I couldn’t count the number of seniors I visited i...

I posed the following question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Thursday (June 23 rd ), but the reaction of a Conservative MP across the floor mid-way through my question rivaled the eventual answer in terms of outrage. ••• Mr. Speaker, Last night the Prime Minister spoke with the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. And, despite objections from everyone — except, it would seem, the honourable member for Labrador — the Prime Minister confirmed he has no intention of reversing the decision to close the Search and Rescue Centre in St. John’s. This so-called “decision-making measure” will reportedly save $1 million a year. Mr. Speaker, Could the Prime Minister tell us exactly what price he’s putting on the safety of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians? ••• I heard some clapping when I was speaking, clapping that I ignored. Immediately after I took to my seat, Liberal MP Judy Foote, who sits three rows to my left, approached me to say she was “appalled.” At...