Weekly update from the Commons - Mar. 4th - 8th, 2013

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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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A survivor’s story

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The above picture of Bernard Dyke, a fisherman from Eastport, Bonavista Bay, was taken about two weeks after the fishing vessel Melina and Keith II sank off Cape Bonavista on Sept. 12, 2005. Dyke, then 17, was one of four crewmen who survived after spending four hours in the North Atlantic waiting to be rescued. Four others —Ivan Dyke, Justin Ralph, Anthony Molloy and Joshua Williams — were lost. Dressed only in T-shirt and underwear, Dyke survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat. (His story is published below.) The search and rescue response times of the military’s Gander-based Cormorant helicopters are in the news again this week with parliamentary hearings being held in St. John’s. The story of the Melina and Keith II and an investigation into response times was covered in-depth by the now defunct Independent newspaper. The first coast guard vessel to arrive on scene was the Leonard J. Cowley — 9 hours and 45 minutes after it had been confirmed the vessel went down and ...
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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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