One visit to any area of the province will leave folks saying; why did we stay where we’re to? We should have come where you’re at long ago.

 “It’s been overwhelming, overwhelmingly positive,” says Premier Andrew Furey of Come Home 2022. Furey himself has been touring the province as much as possible himself too, he shared.  

Exactly what NL needed

“It’s just been an incredibly joyous, happy occasion for communities throughout our province. Coming out of the pandemic, this is exactly what people needed. People celebrating life … all rallying around this call to come home. And I couldn’t be more proud with the results from this campaign,” he said.

From Regatta and Churchill Park Music Festival to Monster Trucks, George Street Festival, Tell Tale Harbor and Come From Away, Furey and team have been proudly supporting events held throughout the province.  “This was exactly what the province needed right now. For decades, centuries even, we’ve had a history of festivals in towns and communities. Of concerts, arts festivals and more, but because of the pandemic these things mostly stopped. We needed an injection of enthusiasm to reinvigorate them and I think that Come Home Year 2022 did exactly that.”

Whether it was a large concert or a smaller gathering on an outport wharf, it’s been quite a summer to celebrate. The numbers speak for themselves, he said. 

In auto traffic, the province is up 166 per cent from 2019 and growing. Travellers in general are up almost 300 per cent compared to 2021. “It’s special, it’s emotional and it’s economically beneficial at the end of the day as well,” Furey  said.  

Furey shared he figures he spent one weekend in his own bed this entire summer. “It was really nice to see the hope and optimism and the spirit of Newfoundland and Labrador on full display in many communities – all communities, frankly – around the province,” he said. 

This has always been an incredible place to visit, he added. “It’s really more than just about one year. It’s about reinjecting  enthusiasm and optimism … that will live beyond 2022.” 

The premier says he has been so proud as he’s travelled around. “I’d like to thank everybody for being involved and for embracing (Come Home 2022). We were in communities that normally only have 100 people in it and to see it grow to 300 or 400 people in an afternoon to  celebrate the culture of Newfoundland and Labrador … was just fantastic.  

I was driving out the Kenmount Road the other week and my car dropped into a pothole in the road under construction. It was of Olympic proportions. Is it my imagination, or has that road been under construction for a couple of decades? 

Now it did not flatten my tire or bend my wheel, but it was a nice bump, and I was peeved. “Peeved” is not the word that came immediately to mind, but it will do. 

I was reminded then of another summer day some years ago. We had just had a rough crossing from Dover to Calais and had passed through an outdoor refugee camp outside Calais. The camp was nicknamed “the jungle” and held desperate people mostly from Africa trying to get through Europe to England and a hoped-for better life. They lived in tents and at one time there were as many as five thousand people there. Ultimately that camp was closed, but still people remain in the area. 

Skip back a couple of years from that to another summer and what was the former Olympic site in Beijing, China. My wife and I were there as visitors and there at the Olympic Village lying on the ground on a mat outside the gates was a beggar. This was not like somebody panhandling on Water Street. This poor fellow, who was attended to by another man, had no arms and no legs. It’s a situation almost hard to imagine. He had a little plate in front of him where you could leave an offering. We did just that, but I noticed a couple of touristy types taking pictures. God forgive me, but I so wanted to smash their faces in.

It’s about perspective

A year later in London, England we were rushing to Waterloo station to catch an early morning train from Waterloo to Gatwick airport and there in an underground tunnel at Waterloo was a man asleep on the ground on a piece of cardboard.  He had, what appeared to have been what were his belongings with him, and he was covered by an old tarpaulin.  We passed quietly by at first, but then returned and left a few coins in a cup next to him. We didn’t wake him. We just moved on to our train and our flight from Gatwick and back to Canada. 

What are lessons from all of that? What was learned? Well, it’s about perspective. There’s something about travel that’s very real. We see things that we are not used to and then we return to our comfortable everyday world. It’s true though that once something is seen, it cannot be unseen. 

I feel so very badly about my anger a few weeks ago at a bump on my wheel during a drive up a St. John’s road that was under repair. The lesson though is learned. 

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

You know I am privileged to live in a major centre (all things are relative) and to have a family doctor. The corridors of the Health Sciences are familiar to me because I have been there many times with the assorted afflictions that come down upon a man in his mid-seventies. 

I have known the operating room. I have been in emergency. Been to x-ray and all kinds of diagnostic imaging procedures and tests. Spent time in the chapel. I am privileged and it is hard to even imagine not being able to see a doctor. Unfortunately, many people in our province don’t have that same access. 

 Honestly, there is going to be no quick solution to our health care crisis. Is there a crisis? Absolutely!  As most of you know emergency rooms have been forced to temporarily close in several communities recently Why? Because there aren’t doctors to staff them. Everybody knows that but the question is Who is the bad guy? 

Apple pie & motherhood

It is okay for opposition parties or labour groups to say government needs to do more to attract and retain doctors. That is apple pie and motherhood. I can tell you who the bad guy is. It is geography. You must ask the question about how you can get someone to practise medicine in tiny rural communities. Communities by the way that are smaller than they used to be. 

 What are you going to offer a med-school graduate to come here and to Newfoundland and Labrador and set up a practise? Money? That won’t do it. A doctor is going to have money wherever he or she hangs out their shingle. Lifestyle? The doctor shortage is such that all you can offer is incredibly long hours and hard work. Doctors are going to be run off their medical feet.

Now it isn’t easy to write this without offending anyone but if you want me to practise in a community you must ask the question as to why I should move there. I have never been there. And it is not even on the road to any where. My guess is that someone from that community or nearby would be an excellent choice. 

That would be true for Bonavista or Ferryland or Buchans and a whole bunch of places like it. I am from inner city St. John’s so you can take a stab at where I might like to practise.  It is most unfortunate but that is the reality of the situation. Newfoundland, in many sections anyway, is “emptying out” for economic reasons. There is a price attached to that and it is unfortunately the way things are. I wish it wasn’t that way.      

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

On November 29, 2021, Bill C-4, a bill to amend the criminal code making it illegal to practice conversion therapy in Canada, was tabled. 

NL’s own Gemma Hickey was invited to Ottawa by the Minister of Justice to witness this pivotal moment in the House of Commons.  

We sit down with Hickey to talk Pride and the advances made towards ending prejudice for those in the LGBTQQIP2SAA community.

 How did it make you feel when you realized real change would be forthcoming?

I never thought I’d live to see this day. My life could’ve ended as a statistic. I attempted suicide as a teenager because I saw a conversion therapist and spent the start of my senior year of high school in hospital recovering. I spoke at the press conference following the tabling of the bill alongside Ministers David Lametti, Marci Ien, Randy Boissonnault, Pascale St-Onge, and Rob Oliphant MP and dedicated my speech to all the members of my community whose lives ended tragically by suicide. 

Following the presser, I met with fellow Newfoundlander and Labradorian Minister Seamus O’Regan to celebrate. 

What exactly is conversion therapy? Can you explain to those who don’t know? 

It’s a pseudo-medical practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity to heterosexual or cisgender. Misleading marketing campaigns have promoted this view for years enabling countless vulnerable youth to be placed in harm’s way. 

Efforts to restrict and ban the practice have recently gained momentum due to the hard work of survivors like myself, who have shared our stories in the hopes that others will be spared. Together we formed a network and created the political will that converted a country. On December 2, 2021, through a rare occurrence of bi-partisan cooperation, conversion therapy became illegal in Canada. A bittersweet victory because of all the causalities my community endured.

It’s Pride season across the country. How far have we come? Are we getting to where we need to be? 

The activist in me was born the day I left that hospital. No one believed me that conversion therapy existed back then. I devoted the next three decades of my life to advocacy co-leading movements that fostered societal recognition, such as same-sex marriage, gender neutral identification, the removal of the gay blood ban, and so on. 

Locally, I became General Director of LBGT-MUN, co-chair of NGALE and chair of Pride until becoming more involved on the national scene as the Presidents of Egale Canada, PFLAG Canada and a founding member of Canadians for Equal Marriage. I’ve witnessed, and been a part of massive societal change, and although we’ve made great strides, we’re not there yet. 

We need accessible healthcare for transgender individuals, improved mental health supports for the LGBTQQIP2SAA community and representation within our education system. Also, if businesses and organizations are celebrating Pride and not updating their forms or computer systems to include gender-neutral options and the honorific Mx., they’re not practicing inclusivity. After I won my fight for gender-neutral identification I wrote airplanes, universities, insurance companies, etc. That fight continues to this day.

In July of 2015 you walked almost 1,000 kilometers across Newfoundland to raise funds and awareness for survivors of religious institutional abuse. The anniversary of your Hope Walk is coming up. Does the journey continue?

The journey never ends. I knew in 2013 when I founded the Pathways Foundation that we had only scratched the surface when it came to this issue. It’s been almost seven years since I ended my walk at the Mount Cashel Memorial in St. John’s. Since that time countless bodies of children have been discovered across the country at the former sites of residential schools and more allegations have surfaced against clergy all over the world. I formed a network with other Canadian survivors called ACTS Canada (Advocates for Clergy Trauma Survivors). 

We’ve been to Rome twice to lobby church officials to release church records, to the United Nations in Geneva to lobby against child torture and launched a national campaign to lobby the church to release the names of the credibly accused. Except for the UN, all other attempts remain futile, forcing survivors to litigate or remain in the shadows.

What is ‘On The Fringe’? can you expand this to fit two lines?

In my day job as Executive Director of Artforce (formerly For The Love Of Learning) I offer support to youth, many of whom are marginalized within society. They struggle with homelessness, addiction, mental health, etc. As an arts-based charity we offer creative projects in film, writing, photography, music, theatre, art, etc. We pair young people up with well-known artists from the community through workshops and mentorship programs and promote their work at festivals, exhibits, on stage or in a publication. On The Fringe is our latest production in partnership with Walsh Productions. It debuted on CBC Here & Now recently and highlights the challenges that sex workers faced during the pandemic. Some of our clients are sex workers and as a result couldn’t apply for government support during Covid-19. 

Do you have any bucket list items left to conquer? 

Always. I’ve got several projects ongoing now. I’m working on my second book and my first feature length documentary film. But I wouldn’t rule out politics or another long walk in my future. 

Every situation, good or bad, is an opportunity. My losses in life have turned me into a winner. 

While many see you as a leader and an advocate for all, do you see yourself as inspirational? 

I don’t really think about how others see me. I only think about how I see myself. When I look in the mirror now, I’m finally happy with the image staring back. I learned how to become the hero of my own story. I may not have faith in the institution of the church anymore, but I have faith in the people around me who inspire me every day. 

Jodi Cooke is one of NTV’s most seasoned journalists and perhaps the province’s most dynamic.

She embodies the spirit of NTV News, where versatility and professionalism are paramount. Cooke, who’s been with NTV for over 15 years, is willing to tackle any story, asking tough questions and delivering the product with accuracy and acumen.

Equally comfortable behind the desk as in the field, she perhaps shines brightest on live television. Her poise and comfort in front of a live television audience, as a reporter, is second to none in Newfoundland and Labrador broadcasting – no small task when considering the material she delivers is often technical and complicated.

Cooke also has the unique ability to make viewers feel like they’re listening to a trusted friend. That’s why you’ll see her fronting those “live hits” for national television, covering stories like the recent Royal Visit or major breaking news events that speak to a national audience.

Sunday Evening News

But like so many of her colleagues, Cooke doesn’t take herself too seriously. Yes, she takes her career seriously but is game for any challenge. 

A self-described adrenaline junkie – who has a penchant for adrenaline sports like skiing – it’s no surprise she tackles her journalism career with the same passion and vigor. 

She’s the first to raise her hand for participatory journalism assignments, from training with a search and rescue team to, wait for it, repelling from a helicopter. 

Those assignments, she admits, are among her most fun days at the office. Versatile is a word that best defines Cooke and, well, many of her colleagues.

She’ll file a major story one day and sit in the anchor chair the next. Cooke will anchor Newsday, First Edition and co-anchor The NTV Evening Newshour, and will be back reporting in the field just a day later. That’s the type of virtuosity that separates NTV News from the competition.

She’s not alone. Like Cooke, Amanda Mews has hosted everything from morning news and entertainment checkpoints, from Newsday to First Edition and the Evening Newshour. You can also find her, on occasion, delivering the weather forecast when Eddie Sheerr is out of the office. Did we mention she’s Cooke’s co-host on the The Sunday Evening Newshour?

Mews is also the station’s popular entertainment reporter, has a weekly feature (Backstage Pass) and hosts a weekly half-hour entertainment show. Oh, and is the main reporter for the daily Your Community feature.

Like Cooke and Mews, veteran journalist David Salter has hosted many of the same programs from time to time – news and entertainment checkpoints, Newsday and even First Edition, The Evening Newshour and Sunday on occasions. Salter also hosts his own weekend news program, Eyewitness News.

When he’s not anchoring, Salter is filing top news stories as a general assignment news reporter.

The station’s commitment to news – provincially, nationally and internationally – is what makes it a news leader. The NTV Evening Newshour has been the province’s top newscast for two decades, averaging over 100,000 viewers each night in this province alone. 

In fact, it’s not only the top newscast but is the most-watched program in Newfoundland and Labrador. There are nights, for example, when over 120,000 people in this province are tuning in, astonishing for a province of about 500,000.

“It says a lot about the incredible work this team does,” says Mark Dwyer, NTV’s Director of News and Current Affairs. 

“Hard work, consistency, a commitment to local news and a very talented team of people has earned us the trust of our viewers. We take that responsibility very seriously.”

‘Commitment to news’

NTV’s news team features many of the province’s top journalists. The anchor team is led by veteran broadcasters Toni-Marie Wiseman and Michael Connors, among two of the most trusted names in local news. Wiseman, of course, began her career with NTV over three decades ago. 

“I’ve been very fortunate to work with some great people over the years but, honestly, this team is incredible,” says Wiseman, who also anchors First Edition.

Her co-anchor, Michael Connors, is one of the province’s most trusted journalists. Connors was NTV’s legislative reporter since 2005, replacing Glen Carter at the desk when he retired earlier this year.

“I think our success stems from the Stirling family’s commitment to news,” says Dwyer. “In an era when other networks are looking for ways to cut, we look for growth. I’m very fortunate to be part of a team that works together to tell the stories that matter in this province, and around the world.”

And, of course, no topic is more important to people in this province than the weather and that’s why NTV Chief Meteorologist Eddie Sheerr plays such a pivotal role. No one delivers more detailed, in-depth and expert weather forecasting than Sheerr.

The NTV News brand is demanding. There are morning news checkpoints, a half-hour Newsday newscast at noon (weekdays at noon), not to mention 90 minutes of news from 5:30 to 7 (First Edition and NTV Evening Newshour). There’s The Sunday Evening Newshour, an hour-long broadcast anchored by Jodi Cooke and Amanda Mews

There’s news-driven programs like Issues and Answers (hosted by Michael Connors), Eyewitness News (hosted by David Salter), Week-in-Review (a half-hour recap of the week’s top stories), not to mention a half-hour weekly entertainment show (hosted by Amanda Mews). 

There’s also breaking news programs, everything from the provincial budget to election coverage.

“It’s a challenge to deliver all these programs but it truly shows how much depth we have at NTV,” says Dwyer.

One of NTV News’ secret weapons over the past few decades has been photojournalist Bart Fraize, noted for his work in spot news – from tragedies to rescues. His work has elevated NTV as a breaking news leader. 

Acquiring talent

Speaking about outstanding camera work, NTV has two of the best in Tony Barrington and Glenn Andrews. Barrington recently celebrated his 44th anniversary with the company. Andrews is emerging as one of the province’s top feature editors.

And the team keeps getting better with the acquisition of talent. Beth Penney, the 2018 Geoff Stirling Memorial Scholarship winner, has emerged as one of NTV’s top young journalists. Ben Cleary, who pursued a journalism degree after graduating with a political science degree at MUN, was named Atlantic Canada’s Top New Journalist in 2020. 

Cleary is now NTV’s legislative reporter. Bailey Howard and Marykate O’Neill, both outstanding young journalists, have been key additions to the NTV lineup in recent years.

The latest to join the award-winning newsroom is an award-winning journalist herself, Rosie Mullaley. After over three decades at The Telegram, she made the switch from print just weeks before Carter’s retirement.

Of course, that’s the St. John’s newsroom. Two of the province’s most familiar journalists are outside the overpass – Don Bradshaw and Colleen Lewis, the talented west coast and central correspondents who are fixtures with the NTV news brand.

“I challenge you to find a more talented, dedicated, multi-dimensional team,” says Dwyer, answering his own challenge with: “You simply won’t. This is a team I am so proud to be a part of. And when you factor in people like Sharon Snow, who can deliver the weather forecast, file a Your Community and Places to Go feature, you know you have a star-studded team.”

It’s no secret that NTV News has been number one in the ratings for over two decades. Incredibly, as conventional news audiences decrease throughout much of the world, NTV’s brand continues to grow. 

For a province of about 500,000 people, over 100,000 of them tune into NTV each day at 6 o’clock and just under 90,000 for First Edition at 5:30. Numbers continue to climb each year. The Sunday Evening Newshour also grew its audience with over 50,000 viewers tuning in each weekend.

There’s no secret recipe to NTV’s success over the years but the ingredients are obvious. It takes talent, hard work and leadership. It’s about telling stories and keeping viewers informed, and never has there been an era more important for doing just that.

Just as I thought the damage was done and the much-repudiated Donald Trump had exited the stage we find his ghost still haunts the halls, at least for a little while longer.  

The democratic process in the United States said a resounding “NO” to Donald of the orange hair in the ballot box for control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, yet we are not out from under his dark shadow.

The United States and the world really were shocked last week by the Supreme Court striking down a court decision half a century old. It was the court decision that had recognized the right of a woman to access an abortion, that decision was the monumental decision that’s known commonly as Roe V. Wade, and it has prevailed as law in the U.S. since 1973. Now, an ultra conservative panel of mostly Trump appointed Supreme Court judges has changed the law. That’s despite the fact 70 per cent of Americans favoured retaining it.  

Roe V. Wade

The decision by the Supreme Court had not been printed before the protests started. Overturning Roe V. Wade was seen around the world as a backward step since it’s completely at odds with how most of the world is thinking and reflected, not the will of the people, but the will of the ultra right Trump wing of the Republican Party. What’s truly frightening is that Roe V. Wade and what it already has done to the social fabric of society may well be the thin edge of the wedge. 

Who knows what’s next? The target might be sexual orientations or the legality of some activities between consenting adults. 

In Canada we have some protection and I am forever grateful to Pierre Elliott Trudeau who changed our lives in Canada when he said, “the State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” That was Canada, but who knows what might be on the horizon in the United States. 

The political coffin

You know the real irony in this is that it might be a final nail in the political coffin of Donald Trump. He still is a major influence on who wins Republican nominations, but that influence is within the party. The Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade will not help them at the polls. I expect that realization will roll across the Republicans. Trump himself has referenced it. I find comfort in the fact that “the people” will speak and the will of those people will prevail. 

A look at the polls in the United States show a ten-point swing toward the Democrats in the past four months. 

A woman will still be able to have options in the U.S., but only if she has access to resources. Not everybody does. That is an aspect of the Roe V. Wade decision that’s so sad.      

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

A graduate of Memorial University in Biology and Geography, Snow spent over 35 years in the fisheries sector with the Canadian government and private industry in resource management and harvesting through the market, consulting those in government and industry and travelling to international markets over the course of three decades.

Snow did his research, and kept notes, and as such had more than a few stories to share.

“All of my fishing career, I had gathered a lot of documentation and oh jeez, I don’t know how many years it took before I got around to writing the book called From Fishing Boat To Ottawa,” shared Snow, a proud Newfoundlander who now calls Ottawa home. “I pretty well told the whole story of the fishery off Newfoundland as it pertained to Canadian fisheries and also foreign fishing as well.”

Trio of tales

Snow’s From Fishing Boat To Ottawa applied his vast experience in government and industry as a manager and consultant to reveal hidden features of Eastern Canada’s fishing industry. It would follow An Atlantic Trilogy, a trio of tales of survival and tragedy centered on a fishing family, pilot whale disaster and a unique take on an Atlantic salmon’s life story.

Most recently, Snow made his debut foray into fiction with Foreign Danger, a novel of drama, suspense and intrigue that applied Snow’s own real world fisheries expertise and examines fisheries surveillance on Canada’s East Coast.

“I used to have a chance to explain to a lot of people here in Ontario about what happens offshore in Newfoundland with foreign fishing. They only know what they see sometimes in the news. So a friend of mine said ‘you should write a novel about that,’” Snow recalled. “I thought about it for a couple of years before I got around to it. And then in 2021 I managed to put it all together and got a publisher over in the U.K. and that came out. And of course, it’s called Foreign Danger.

“When I was in Newfoundland I was director of resource management there. I was involved in all the offshore activities related to foreign countries and whatever. So based on that, I wrote a novel. Now, a lot of it of course is true. It’s very realistic, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s a lot of parts of course that are not. I used my imagination on a lot of it as well.”

‘It was catastrophic’

Reflecting on three decades since the cod moratorium rocked the foundations of the province and Snow, who was in a real world position to see the ins and outs of the devastating deal, pauses.

“It was catastrophic, and it should never have happened,” he admits, explaining that warning signs were there long before ‘92.

“Back in the ‘84 and the Kirby report came out saying that we were going to have 465,000 tons of cod available and all this kind of thing, my information didn’t agree with that. And I sat down with some people and sort of explained to them and the final answer they used to give me was ‘well, this is what the scientists say.’ But you see, there were other things happening as well. I was talking with fishing vessel captains from all across the south coast who were out on the Grand Banks fishing for years. I talked with many fishermen, and the information they were giving me certainly didn’t justify that there was going to be this big influx of cod, for instance, and other ground-fish as well.

“Of course that could never last,” he adds somberly. “When I got out of university in 1970, I knew one thing for sure: unless we change management in fisheries, it couldn’t last. It just could not last. And of course, it took till ‘92 before it was completely fished out. It’s a sad story. Of course, what kills me is I was part of it. It was a sad, sad state. I mean, a lot of fishermen and a lot of people were out of work. Thousands, 30-40,000. So that’s catastrophic. It was a sad day, there’s no doubt about that, when John Crosbie had to announce that.”

For more on the written works of Gordon Snow and much more visit gordonsnow.com

Thirty years after northern cod moratorium stock remains on its knees

Some stories stick with a journalist. The killing of a little girl in outport Newfoundland, the fall of a cabinet minister, our place in Canada. My list is long, but near the top is the day almost 30 years ago when the late John Crosbie shut down the northern cod fishery.

It was a job to focus on Crosbie at the front of the room (he never stopped talking) when fishermen were trying to batter their way in at the back. The news conference was the only one I ever covered where the speaker left under police escort. 

I was 25-years-old, recently given my first newspaper beat (fisheries) at the St. John’s Telegram, and hungry for a front-page byline.  

I had spent weeks leading up to the moratorium travelling the province’s northeast coast, speaking to fishermen, religious leaders, mayors, business owners, etc. about the rumoured shutdown.

The hill to die on

I was at the downtown St. John’s hotel when Crosbie shut down the northern cod fishery, the biggest layoff in Canadian history (to this day), when 30,000-plus lost their jobs. 

I also bore witness over decades to the slow drain of upwards of 80,000 of our people, the impact on rural communities, and on our psychic as a people. 

The northern cod moratorium ruined me as a journalist — because I couldn’t let the story go, and I took the mismanagement personally as a Newfoundlander.  

It drove me a Member of Parliament, as President of FISH-NL, and now as a leader of SEA-NL. I have planted my flag on the inshore fishery as the hill to die on, and it’s here I will be planted.

I may not have spent much time on the deck of a fishing boat, but I’ve become as close to the sea, in my own way, as any fisherman. 

As the 30th anniversary of the northern cod moratorium approaches, the state of federal fish science in this province is an embarrassment, the small-scale inshore fishery limps on with an average price of 64¢/lb, and the number of active enterprises has nose-dived to 1,259.

That’s a shadow of the fishery’s glory days when northern cod supported 30,000-40,000 direct jobs on and off the water.

DFO science 

On the plus side, scientists with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) finally acknowledge that seals “undoubtedly” have an impact on cod — just not as huge as the lack of caplin (which seals also eat by the millions of tonnes, but one DFO baby step at a time).

DFO science surveys were incomplete on all fish stocks last year, primarily because of mechanical issues with the research ships. This year’s northern cod assessment was canceled outright.

One industry representative said the level of patience with DFO science has gone from “frustration to embarrassment.” To me, that target was hit decades ago.

DFO officials say foreign fleets outside the 200-mile limit harvest only about 300 tonnes of northern cod a year, but then there’s little faith in department numbers.

Last October the captain of a Faroe Islands longliner accused “pirate trawlers” of destroying the Grand Banks under DFO’s nose by directing for moratorium species such as cod and other illegal fishing activities. The pirate skippers tell DFO there’s Covid among the crew so enforcement officers won’t board. 

Canada brought down the northern cod moratorium on July 2nd, 1992, but foreign draggers continue to pillage the migratory stock to this day with practical impunity when the fish swim outside the 200-mile limit. 

The landed value of the northern cod stewardship fishery last year was $15.2 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the snow crab fishery’s landed value of $612 million for the first 11 months of 2021.

But then the average landed price (round weight) for cod last year was 64¢/lb — an 8¢/lb drop from 2019, and $6.96/lb less than this year’s snow crab price. Many enterprise owners don’t want to hear talk of cod. 

What rebuilding plan?

After 28 years of moratorium, DFO released a rebuilding plan for northern cod in December 2020.

Independent cod scientists condemned the plan, saying it is not legally binding, can be modified at any time, and does not include rebuilding targets. 

The other bone of contention with the rebuilding plan is that its mathematical model is based on the premise that overfishing was not what led to the 1992 moratorium. (Gus Etchegary, among others, would beg to differ.).

The department now says the stock collapse was due to a massive sudden die off of cod — one that DFO scientists can’t explain. 

The delayed/cancelled/thinning out of DFO surveys — on top of recent interference complaints by the union representing scientists, and this year’s 30th anniversary of the moratorium, with little stock improvement — underscores, yet again, the urgent need for an independent review of DFO science/management. 

A class-action lawsuit against DFO/the federal government would be another way to push the fishery forward. What was initially supposed to be a two-year moratorium is now almost 30 years with no end in sight. 

It’s bad enough that Newfoundland and Labrador handed over management control of her fisheries to the Government of Canada with the Terms of Union, but the fact that federal mismanagement has been so epic — with no real action to correct the course — is Confederation’s greatest shame.

That’s because, despite being an old St. Bon’s boy and a member of the Catholic Church in more or less good standing,  whatever was visited upon the Church these days was somehow a case of the chickens coming home to roost. 

It was a form of belated delayed justice. Now the actual perpetrators of hideous crimes against children at Mount Cashel have mostly gone to judgment and some of them are shoveling coal in Hell, but it is right and fitting that compensation to their victims has been ordered and there’s a piper that’s to be finally paid. 

Now I did watch with interest as some people in other parishes complained their properties were in danger of being sold when they, the parishioners, had done so much fundraising to keep their parishes going and now might have their churches sold out from under them to pay for crimes in which they had absolutely no part or knowledge.

Now I tell you any attempts by people associated with a liquidation of assets, while decent and honourable, have their pleas fall on my deaf ears when they see themselves as somehow “victims.”

I know a victim when I see one and there’s the haunting image of little boys crying in a dorm at places like Mount Cashel that haunt my thoughts; not church buildings going on sale.  

All of that’s prelude now to the news that a Catholic consortium has successfully purchased the Basilica, St. Bonaventure’s private school and the St. Bon’s Forum. The purchasing group raised millions of dollars, although it’s yet to be approved by a judge. I was approached for a donation by the fundraising appeal. 

A suggested donation was ten thousand dollars or a smaller amount. I did not donate ten thousand dollars because I do not have it and I can tell you here I did not give a smaller amount because I did not want to. 

 Now here’s what’s interesting is that despite my intellectual disinterest in saving the Basilica from turning into a condominium and the other properties falling into secular hands, when the decision was announced I felt an emotional sigh of relief. That’s the hold the Church has on me. On some level I want St. Bon’s to be there. I want the Basilica to be there glowering out over the harbour of St. John’s. I find solace in the fact that at least I did not give them any money.      

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

The race does not always go to the swiftest or so we are told in Ecclesiastes. The cold reality is that it usually does and smart money bets it that way. 

Those words are a grim reminder that the bloody war in Ukraine continues to ooze across that smashed nation and there seems no sign in sight of the Russians even thinking about a cease fire.

Moral support for Ukraine fighters after the Russian invasion is all over the place but they, the Ukrainian fighters,  are essentially on their own. I know you do not like to hear that, in fact I don’t like writing it; but it is true. Also true is that as horrible as it is in Ukraine the lead story these days is from Texas and yet another attack by a gunman on children. Such is news.  

Uneven Struggle

Now the last two world wars were settled and won by the guys with the most men and the most bullets. You look back to history and it is but a rare conflict where that does not happen. The great exception was Vietnam where the Americas were beat up despite the fact they had every weapon on the face of the earth but lost anyway because they just were not sure where to point those guns. That tragic war was fought in jungles often and all solders were not in uniform. 

It was an uneven struggle in terms of weapons, but it was not at all like the Ukrainian situation. Russian invasion is more a conventional battle where raining firepower on towns and cities is not necessarily doomed to failure.

Fighting Alone

Moral condemnation of the Russians will not win the war. In the absence of a sea-change in how the war is going the Russians should win because the Ukrainians are fighting alone. Yes, generous nations like Canada are doing what they can to help with weapons and sheltering people forced from their homeland. It is admirable and they are doing remarkably well at saving people, but I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said after the Allies were squeezed and driven out of Europe by the Germans at Dunkirk. While England marvelled at how the English were able to get many soldiers out of harms way, he said, ‘’ Wars are not won by evacuations “ 

path of victory

I look at the situation and I watch the Russians and I watch the battles and I wonder where the path of victory lies without the current limited war becoming something else. How long does the informal coalition of forces against the Russians hold? Ukraine will continue to exist I expect but not with its present borders. That is not a popular position but in war the good guys do not always win.