Ottawa funding high speed internet upgrade in region

Improved high-speed Internet services are coming to an additional 13,500 homes across the province, including in this region, thanks to an investment this summer by the federal government.
The local communities that will get the service upgrades include Admirals Beach, Aquafort, Bay Bulls,  Branch, Cape Broyle, Colinet, Fermeuse, Ferryland, Fox Harbour, Gaskiers – Point La Haye, Long Harbour – Mount Arlington Heights, Mount Carmel – Mitchells Brook – St. Catherine’s, Placentia, Portugal Cove South, Renews – Cappahayden, Riverhead, St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s, St. Vincent’s – St. Stephen’s – Peter’s River, Trepassey and Witless Bay.
Everyday tasks that were once done in person, such as shopping, communicating, learning and banking, are now done online, noted Rob Moore, the Regional Minister for Newfoundland and Labrador and Minister of State  for ACOA. “The Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment to rural Canadians to connect an additional 280,000 households in rural and remote regions of the country to high-speed Internet at minimum speeds of five megabits per second,” he added. “Much of this will be completed by the time Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2017.”
Last summer, the government invited Canadians to provide feedback online to help better determine areas in need of high-speed Internet access, Moore said. Once information was received from individual Canadians and governments across the country, Industry Canada invited Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to submit proposals for funding to build wireless or wired infrastructure.

Witless Bay council sends another councillor to a 'Friendly Hearing'

Witless Bay council has voted to give a third councillor a ‘Friendly Hearing’ on a charge of conflict of interest as it serves formal notice to two other councillors that their seats have been vacated.
Councillor Kevin Smart is accused of having voted to adopt Witless Bay’s new Town Plan, which rezones land he owns within the community.
No date was set for the hearing, which is required under the Municipalities Act when a councillor is accused of failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
Husband and wife councillors Ralph Carey and Dena Wiseman were fired from council last month for failing to disclose they own land on Pond Path when they participated in a discussion last summer about the town providing snow clearing services on the private lane.
Like Smart, they were also accused by developers and land owners of breaking conflict of interest rules when they voted on the Town Plan, because it rezones their land off Pond Path to allow for housing development.
Tuesday’s meeting also saw council tussle over whether councillor Albert Murphy can vote on the Town Plan, which has been sent back from the province  because of irregularities in the way it was handled by council.
Several meetings ago Mayor Sébastien Després moved preemptively  to declare Murphy in a conflict of interest because Murphy’s brother-in-law, Ron Harte, applied several years ago to have land below Mullowney’s Lane rezoned to allow a building lot for his daughter. At the time, council rejected his application. Després, Wiseman, Carey and Smart also passed amendments to make all the Crown land around Harte, and another property owner, Gary Churchill, into a park or conservation zone to prevent any development in the area.
The Department of Municipal Affairs has since ruled that council didn’t follow proper procedure in making those and other amendments to the proposed Town Plan. Council has written Harte telling him his land will retain its old zoning. That led councillors René Estrada and Ken Brinston to argue last week that because Harte’s land is not being rezoned, Després had no grounds to rule Murphy was in a conflict of interest.
“I hate to say this, but you’re in the wrong there,” Estrada told Després.
The mayor disagreed, claiming it is a “classic” example of conflict of interest. He challenged Estrada to make a motion to overturn his ruling. Estrada complied. But with only four councillors left to vote on the motion, it tied 2-2.
“The motion fails,” said Després. “Councillor Murphy is in a conflict of interest.”
The decision means that unless council quickly fills the two vacant seats left by the departure of Carey and Wiseman, it will not have a quorum to vote on the Town Plan, because only Després, Estrada and Brinston are not in a conflict of interest. The town was under an order from the Department of Municipal Affairs to approve the Plan by July 15 or call a new public hearing on it.
“Where does this leave us?” asked councillor Brinston, who along with Murphy was elected in a by-election in late February and sworn into office in March.
“We’ve been in this situation before actually, councillor Estrada and I,” Després noted. He said the town can ask the Minister of Municipal Affairs for permission to allow three people to vote on the Town Plan. “But I would like to make it shown in the record that I am actually opposed to voting as a reduced quorum.”
That remark drew laughter since it was Després, when the accusations against Smart, Carey and Wiseman were made last fall, who claimed he had received permission from the Department to settle the accusations without a quorum. Correspondence between the town and the Department surfaced later showing the mayor’s request was denied. Instead, council had been directed to fill the two vacancies it had as soon as possible so it could have a quorum.
On Tuesday, Després reversed tack, seemingly taking up the department’s ruling of last fall and adopting it as his own. “The last two times we asked the minister he made it very clear there is a way for us to gain quorum,” said Després. “It’s by holding a by-election.”
Murphy cautioned that council should hold off calling a by-election until the period expires for Wiseman and Carey to appeal the vacating of their seats.
“They have appealed it,” Després said.
“We (the rest of council) weren’t aware that they appealed it,” Murphy said.
 

Former mayor looking for PC nomination in Placentia - St. Mary's

The PC Party will see a contested nomination in the district of Placentia-St. Mary’s with former Justice Minister Judy Manning and former Riverhead Mayor Colin Corcoran vying for the right to represent the party in the November 30 provincial election.
Manning, who had promised to seek the nomination in her district when she was appointed to cabinet, without having been elected, by Premier Paul Davis last fall, fulfilled that commitment last week. Corcoran, who was a volunteer on the campaigns of PC incumbent Felix Collins, declared his candidacy at a meeting in St. Mary’s on Sunday night.
“I can safely say I’ve spent the last 20 years volunteering my time in some capacity or the other,” said Corcoran, who is 26. “Over the years I’ve written grant applications, I’ve made phone calls, I’ve sat on committees, I did a stint for four years on council and then eventually mayor, I sit on the Holyrood Pond Development Committee. And every single time there is an issue or anything the community needs, what I end up doing at the end of the day is calling the MHA. So I can continue doing this for years and years to come… I can continue to spin my wheels, but I think the best use of my time now, for the people of Placentia-St. Mary’s, is that when someone calls, I’m the person on the other end of that line.”
As mayor of Riverhead, Corcoran generated controversy because he worked, and some said lived, in St. John’s, causing some members of council to question his residency qualifications for the office. The Chartered Professional Accountant still works in the city, but he and his wife Nanci recently purchased the former Harbourview Restaurant and Lounge in St. Mary’s, relaunching it as the Celtic Knot.
“We decided a long time ago that we wanted to reinvest in the community and when the opportunity arose to purchase a business in St. Mary’s, we jumped all over it,” he said.
Whoever wins the PC nomination will have a tough fight to hold onto the seat against a popular Liberal party and a resurgent NDP. In the 2011 election, the seat saw a fairly even three way split, with Collins managing to go up the middle on a few extra votes. Liberal hopeful Sherry Gambin-Walsh has been campaigning since last fall when she won her party’s nomination, which has been called again due to the redistribution of district boundaries and reduction of seats. She is in a nomination battle against musician Larry Foley of Placentia, who also ran last time, and teacher Gabe Ryan of Holyrood, who ran for the NDP in a different district in 2011. The NDP has yet to choose a candidate for the district, which has been made larger by redistribution to include a number of communities in Trinity Bay.
Corcoran acknowledged he has a big job ahead of him with the way the PCs are in the polls. “It is an uphill battle both ways,” he said, “one, in terms of the nomination, because you know who my contender is, and two, for the party in general. But I fundamentally believe the Progressive Conservative Party is the best option for Newfoundland and Labrador right now. It is the party that is coming up with more progressive policies.”
He pointed to Premier Davis’s promise to eventually start a trust fund for the province using oil royalties. “I think that is a really smart move,” said Corcoran. “And it is that forward thinking that will really bring the PCs through this next election and really make them shine.”
Corcoran said he plans to get to all parts of the new, bigger district during the short campaign window of the nomination period. Anyone living within the district can vote in the nomination. You don’t have to be a party member.
“I’ve been hemming and hawing about this for two years now and having serious conversations with people whom I respect and admire,” Corcoran said… “It’s been a quick decision, but a long time percolating that eventually I would run. And this election or the next election, it was inevitable that I would.”

Stella Maris honours world class alumnus

By Judy Brazil

One of the highlights of Stella Maris Academy’s 50th anniversary and reunion last week was a special tribute paid on opening night to former student Melvin Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was born in Trepassey in 1953. At age two he was stricken with polio. He had little involvement in organized sports except for softball where he would bat the ball and someone would run to the bases for him. He did not begin his involvement in wheelchair sports until he moved to St. John’s in 1973 at the age of 20.
He began training in earnest with a rigorous weight-training and endurance conditioning program. He set up house at the YM-YWCA where he trained for hours daily, taking only Sundays off.  To gain power in his arms, he did endurance work on a stationary bicycle, with resistance capacity, pedalling it with his arms. 
The long hours of training and his determination paid off. He entered his first national competition in 1976 and in 1977 won his first medal, a bronze, in the national games for the physically disabled held in Edmonton, Alberta.  In 1978, when the annual competition was held in St. John’s, he won five gold medals and a silver in wheelchair races and was chosen to represent Canada at the Pan-American Wheelchair Games in December 1978. 
There, he set two new world records, won gold medals in the 800 metre and 1,500 metre events, silver medals in the 100 metre, and was a member of the Canadian relay team that won the silver medal. That same year he competed in the Tely 10 Road Race in St. John’s as the only wheelchair athlete, and finished in first place with a time of fifty-two minutes. As a representative of Canada at the Stoke Mandeville Games in England, he won gold medals in the 100 m and 500 m events and a bronze as part of the Canadian relay team. In August of 1979 he was a member of the Newfoundland team at the eleventh national games for the physically disabled in Vancouver. At the opening ceremonies, he was presented with the Gene Reimer Award as the best Canadian athlete in national and International competition during the previous year.  He then went on to win gold medals in the 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m, 5,000 m, 15,000 m races.
Fitzgerald was named the outstanding athlete in his class, and was chosen to attend the 1979 International Super challenge held in Montreal, where he competed in the Pentathlon. He also represented Canada at the Olympiad for the physically disabled at Arnhem, Holland and led Canada to a fourth-place finish in competition against more than 100 countries, winning two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
In September that year he was the only wheelchair athlete to compete in the National Marathon finishing the 42 km race in two hours thirty-five minutes. In 1979, Fitzgerald held seven Canadian records simultaneously and up to 1982 held all Newfoundland records in his class. In 1980, he was named the winner of the Tom “Dynamite” Dunne Memorial Award as the St. John’s Male Athlete of the year. 
In 1981, Fitzgerald competed for Canada in the Rome, Italy Games for the Physically Disabled.  One of the highlights of his visit to Rome was the honor of meeting and shaking hands with Pope John Paul II. This was after winning the Gold Medal in the 1,500 metre event and a bronze medal in the 100 metre course.  
In January of that same year, he received the Canadian Amateur Sports Federation’s highest honour when he was named winner of the Norton M. Crow Memorial Award as Canada’s top male athlete of the year.  In 1982, he was named to the Order of Canada. In 1982 he also set world records at the Pan American Wheelchair Games in Halifax in the 800 metre race with the world record time of ...two minutes 12.9 seconds. 
In 1984 Fitzgerald competed in the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles and in May of 1985, at the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa. In September that same year, he competed at the Toronto and Montreal marathons. 
Fitzgerald is truly one of the best athletes to ever come from Stella Maris School in Trepassey.
To honour Fitzgerald’s accomplishments, former teacher Ted Winter unveiled a special plaque that will be erected on the outside the school by the top of the hill as you turn down toward Stella Maris.

Renews residents hoping to give local landmark a face lift

The members of a committee of Roman Catholic parishioners and residents in Renews are hoping an injection of energy from a Spirit of Newfoundland performance will rally enough contributions to save the deteriorating façade of Holy Apostles Church.
The registered heritage structure was built in the 1870s and is still used regularly for Mass. Perched on a hill overlooking a Grotto with its famous Mass Rock, the building is a community landmark as well as a place of worship. In past years, the steeple on the church was used as a landmark for hunters returning from the woods and fishermen heading home from the fishing grounds.
But with Church attendance down and no funds available from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese Corporation to keep it up, the responsibility of maintaining the building rests with local citizens.
“The Church is in bad shape,” allowed Lois Berrigan, one of the members of the Holy Apostles Church Properties committee. “The front of it is woodpecker infested. For the first time ever we’ve seen that a lot of woodpeckers have eaten the front of the Church. Structurally it’s great, we’ve had it checked out, but it needs a lot of cosmetic work.”
The problem is finding the money to fix the problems. Due to declining populations and the limited availability of priests, parishes in the Archdiocese have been reorganized. There is only one parish now – and one priest -from Cape Broyle to Cappahayden. Proceeds from the collection plate circulated at the Masses held in the communities throughout the parish have to be shared throughout the parish. So when a particular church requires major renovations or repair, an outside injection of funds is needed. Hence the fundraiser set for Regina Mundi Cultural Centre on Lady Day, August 15, featuring Spirit of Newfoundland Productions.
Berrigan said the committee can qualify for a grant from the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland on a 70/30 basis. But the local committee has to come up with its 70 per cent first before the foundation will contribute its 30 per cent, up to a maximum of $50,000.
“We can also get new steps on the church through an Inclusion grant (from the provincial government), Berrigan pointed out. “So we’re applying for that.”
Berrigan said she would like to see $100,000 raised this year, but is doubtful the group can reach that figure. “But if we could raise probably $30,000 or $40,000 at least it’s a big start,” she said.
The money would be used to replace the clapboard and the corner boards, which appear to be rotted. “There’s a lot of rot,” Berrigan acknowledged. The steeple and roof also need attention.
Some people are sceptical about the notion of saving churches, because they aren’t used as much anymore, even for weddings and funerals, Berrigan admitted,. “But you don’t want to lose the church – it’s such a heart of your community, even the structure itself.”
The dinner show fundraiser is being organized by Natalie Brazil, who put together a similar event on Lady Day last year. This year’s entertainment features a performance by Spirit of Newfoundland Productions of their Beatles: Back in the NFLD show along with a three course meal for $65.
 

Bay Bulls council wracked by conflict of interest allegations

The largest crowd of spectators to attend in years was on hand last week as Bay Bulls council twisted itself into a tighter knot with three new allegations of conflict of interest coming to light.
Most of the crowd seemed to show up in support of Deputy Mayor Harold Mullowney, who is being accused by fellow councillor Jason Sullivan of being a competing land developer and therefore in a conflict of interest when he discussed Sullivan’s application this past March to acquire 37 acres of Crown land for a 50 lot subdivision.
Sullivan levelled that accusation after Mullowney pointed out in a public council meeting that much of the land in question is wetland and recommended the town get an opinion from the Department of Environment before it accede to Sullivan’s request to develop half acre lots in place of one acre lots.
Because Mullowney was applying for a small piece of Crown land across the highway from his development, Sullivan maintained the Deputy Mayor was a competing developer. Sullivan claimed the land was intended as an access to other property Mullowney has an interest in and intends to develop. Mullowney has denied the allegation.
The crowd in the gallery was clearly anxious for council to get to that matter and at times jawed Mayor Patrick O’Driscoll over his handling of the accusation. O’Driscoll shouted down the crowd and pounded his gavel onto his desk.
But the surprise of the night was when Mullowney insisted that a letter received by council the previous day be reinstated to the agenda for discussion. Mayor O’Driscoll had disallowed the item before the start of the public meeting. After heated debate, and loud complaints from the spectators, the mayor was outvoted.
“This is a democracy, not a dictatorship,” said one woman.
“This reflects back on the whole community,” added another woman. “Harold has been an excellent councillor for 26 years. Harold Mullowney has been an individual who has put himself forward on many occasions to do things that nobody else would. And he deserves the respect of this community.”
Another resident, Kevin O’Brien, suggested Mayor O’Driscoll was himself in a conflict because earlier in the meeting he had voted on a development application from his aunt. O’Driscoll said that wasn’t a conflict of interest under the Municipalities Act. “Don’t get up there and make accusations against me,” he told O’Brien.
As for the letter, it was written by Martina Aylward, who is a partner in a property development company with her brother Ernest Dunn. It accused councillor Sullivan of breaking conflict of interest rules on six or seven occasions. The first charge involved Sullivan allegedly voting on a council motion to pay Sea Gypsy Enterprises, which is owned by his father, almost $2,000 for work down for the Town.
The other allegations centre on Sullivan taking part in discussions and votes involving other development applications. Aylward contends that because Sullivan is a developer - his application for Crown land dates back to August 2013 and he was involved in housing construction before that - he should have excused himself from any decisions involving other subdivision developers.
Aylward and Dunn’s company has filed a legal action against the town over the way council handled its development application in June 2013 involving Crown Land that was also being sought by developer Fraser Paul and sod farmer Christa Luby. The land is about a kilometre or so away from the 37 acres being sought by Sullivan.
In a private meeting in June 2013, council approved Paul’s application in part, along with Luby’s. The decision on Aylward’s and Dunn’s application has never been made fully clear. Meanwhile, council has since rescinded its approval of Luby’s application.
Rather than discuss the allegations against Sullivan publicly, council moved the matter to a privileged session along with the two other allegations involving councillors that were revealed Tuesday night.
The first involves a conflict of interest allegation against councillor Joan Luby stemming to her first night on council.
Luby was elected by acclamation on April 1 and sworn in at the start of the public meeting on April 13. She had asked to be sworn in earlier so that she could get a copy of council’s agenda to prepare for the meeting, but was turned down. Partway through the meeting, Mayor O’Driscoll ordered the public out of the chamber so that council could meet in private. The nature of the discussion was not disclosed. But the Irish Loop Post has learned that it involved developer Fraser Paul’s subdivision application.
Luby said at the time she didn’t even know where Paul’s land was located.
“I said to (the mayor) Patrick, am I in conflict on all this?” Luby recalled. “No one said a thing… It was a decision just to go to a lawyer (for advice), that was all… I said, ‘What is it on? I didn’t know anything about this.’”
The next day, said Luby, Paul wrote the Town accusing her of having broken conflict of interest rules because a corner of the land had also been sought by her sister-in-law, Christa Luby.
“I never knew about that,” said the councillor, pointing out it was first night on council and she had not been given a chance to review any of the information in her councillor’s package before each item came to the table for a discussion and vote.  
Luby said she is unsure how Paul found out about council’s discussion so quickly since it was a privileged session. Sullivan was absent from that night’s meeting and councillor Rick Oxford, who is Paul’s brother-in-law, did not participate in that part of the session.
The third new conflict allegation also involves Paul. He is contending, like councillor Sullivan, that Deputy Mayor Mullowney is a competing land developer and therefore should have abstained from any votes or discussion involving his subdivision application.
Near the end of the public meeting, Mayor O’Driscoll asked the public to clear the chamber so council could meet in private. Two hours later, the chamber doors reopened. Going through each matter one at a time, council agreed to refer each allegation to a lawyer for advice.
Earlier in the meeting, before council broke for the private session, the crowd urged Mullowney to give his side of the story.
“I think I was totally blindsided and set up here,” said Mullowney. “I am not a developer… And yet we have an individual sitting in this chamber, who has told everyone he is a developer, and continues to vote on development… I built my own house (years ago) with a great deal of help from my brothers. I have not built any houses for sale. I am not a developer.”
When councillor Sullivan, who took Mullowney’s remarks as being directed at him, contended he is not a developer either, the crowd groaned and hooted.
“I can’t wait for the next election,” said one of the spectators.
During the whole of the three hour meeting, two uniformed RCMP officers remained standing outside the back of the Town Hall. Mayor O’Driscoll would not say if he had asked the police to remain on standby for the council meeting.

Ferryland Guide looking forward to an India summer

Brandi O’Keefe is having a pretty good year. In May, the 23 year old Ferryland native graduated from Dalhousie University with a combined honours degree in marine biology and oceanography. Last week she started a new job with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans lab in St. John’s. And next week she leads a Canadian delegation of Girl Guides to India.
O’Keefe is one of two leaders selected for the month long trip. Her nomination was promoted by the Guiding movement in Nova Scotia. O’Keefe and the other leader, who is from Alberta, will take eight younger Guides, including two from Newfoundland, to Pune, India for an international conference and then some sightseeing around Delhi and other places on the subcontinent.
“I’ve been involved in Girl Guides since I was five, from Kindergarten right through to Grade 11,” said O’Keefe, who is back living in Ferryland.
O’Keefe is used to travel, and achievement. In her final high school year, she was selected as a Pearson scholar, which qualified her for two years of study at Pearson College in Victoria, British Columbia. The school was founded by and named for the late Lester B. Pearson, a former Prime Minister of Canada and Nobel Laureate.
O’Keefe kept up her involvement in the Girl Guides while in B.C., becoming a Leader. “I graduated from Pearson College and moved to Halifax and I got really involved with Girl Guides there, from a district level to a provincial level,” she noted.
In Nova Scotia, O’Keefe became a District Commissioner, essentially running the Girl Guides’ operations in Halifax, which consists of nine clubs.
Every year, Girl Guides of Canada sends a delegation somewhere internationally. When O’Keefe heard one of the trips this year included India, she got excited.
“I always wanted to go to India,” O’Keefe said. “I love to travel… So I said I would give it a shot and apply.”
O’Keefe got through the initial round of applicants and was selected for an interview as a Nova Scotia Guide. A week later she was notified that she was one of two applicants whose resumes from that province were being passed on to the national council for consideration. That was followed by a second interview that got her placed on a short list of 10 candidates nationally. Then came another interview, which occurred while she happened to be home in Ferryland for a visit this past February. It included a 30 minute panel discussion over the telephone with six judges.
“Mom was in the kitchen when I came and out and said ‘How was it?’ I said ‘I have no idea. They fired questions at me.’ It was quick, quick, quick, with no input on how I did, nothing.”
On Saturday night O’Keefe’s e-mail started to light up. The first message informed her she had been selected to co-lead the trip to India. “I actually screamed,” said O’Keefe. “Dad jumped out of the chair and everything.”
Since then she and the co-leader from Alberta have been planning the trip and coordinating things with the other Guides. The delegation will assemble in Toronto, fly to Frankfurt, Germany, change planes for Mumbai, India and take a five hour bus ride to Pune, site of the Girl Guide World Centre. “We’re going to stay there for 10 days and take part in an international leadership conference, volunteer in some schools and an orphanage and help build a new school,” O’Keefe said.
That’s followed by two weeks of touring.
O’Keefe has to get a month’s leave of absence from her new job to make the trip. Guiding is that important to her.
“Being involved in it so long, I’ve seen everything that Girl Guides has to offer,” she explained. “You learn everything from leadership skills to camping. It became part of me and giving back to the community is a big thing. I’ve seen what Girl Guides can do for me, giving me such a good outlook and teaching me so much. Now it’s my time to give back to the people who gave to me.”
Girls Guides also offers a lot of opportunities scholastically and travel wise, O’Keefe noted. “Girl Guides offers scholarships like no other (organization),” she pointed out. “There are national scholarships, provincial scholarships, District scholarships. There are all kinds of conferences (out of the province). There are opportunities galore and that’s a big part of it.”
India won’t be O’Keefe’s first international trip. She spent a summer in Kenya on a Pearson College program, backpacked through Europe and visited South America.
The DFO job will also be interesting. O’Keefe has an eight month contract studying capelin, including the factors that affect their reproduction and abundance. She is looking forward to spending time on the water this fall with the Coast Guard conducting capelin sampling exercises.
Meanwhile, she is preparing for monsoon season in India where daily temperatures hit about 42 degrees.
“It’s definitely a big place to visit and culturally diverse,” said O’Keefe.
That’s something she expects to enjoy. Pearson College had over 200 students from 100 different countries. “It was exciting that they got to live with us and experience Canadian culture,” O’Keefe said. “Now I’m really excited to go and experience what they have to offer and where they came from and everything they practice from yoga to being a Buddhist or Hindu, and taking part in different religious ceremonies, seeing all the temples, everything.”

For NDP hopeful it's the Wright time to run

Kingman’s Cove resident Jenny Wright is hoping to turn a career of social activism into a political one with her run for the NDP nomination in the riding of Avalon and potentially a seat in parliament.
Wright, 49, is the executive director of the St. John’s Status of Women’s Council, a job she took just over a year ago. Before that she worked with Choices For Youth and the Child and Youth Advocate’s Office.
“I’ve done that work most of my life – advocating for women’s rights, homelessness, anti-poverty work,” Wright said, during a phone interview on her way to Cape St. Mary’s Bird Sanctuary. She is in the middle of a two week holiday, time she is using to explore the nooks and crannies of the riding. It includes the Southern Shore from Mobile southwards, both sides of St. Mary’s Bay, and both shores of Conception Bay – as far as Salmon Cove in the north and Paradise in the south. That gives it some of the province’s largest municipalities in Conception Bay South, Paradise, Bay Roberts and Carbonear, and some of the smallest, unincorporated ones.
“I’ve never run for politics before,” Wright said. “I’ve always worked for advocacy organizations, fighting for people’s access to government services. But if there’s a time to run, this is it. It’s time for a real big change. I’m really concerned about where the country is going and after Bill C-51 I thought, ‘This is it, I’m going to have to take a stand.’ And I want to run. I really want to run in Avalon. My heart and soul is in it and I live in it and it’s a diverse district.”
Wright is using her vacation time to meet with people throughout the riding and ask about their issues and concerns. “Everyone is saying to me, ‘We need change.’ People are unhappy,” she said.
Wright has been struck by the number of people who told her they’ve never voted before but want things to change. “It’s very positive,” she said. “People are very activated, very stimulated… so I’ve just been having a wonderful time talking to people seeing what the issues are.”
Bill C51, the Conservative government’s ‘Anti-terrorism Act,’ was tepidly supported by the Liberals in Parliament, but opposed by the NDP. It allows for “preventative detention” of terrorism suspects before they commit a crime and the sharing of personal data among government agencies. Security experts have warned the new provisions could lead to abuse of suspects while in detention and the possibility of innocent people being detained. There is also concern the new Act will criminalize some protesters and restrict free speech. Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, has also gained new powers.
“We can’t allow government and CSIS and our police systems to have that much power, to have surveillance monitoring and arrest powers over people with absolutely no oversight,” Wright argued. “I mean this is unheard of in Canada and it has so many repercussions for advocacy groups, even for groups like Greenpeace or First Nations people who are out protesting. Under this new law, everyone who is out protesting for change against the government could be hauled in and charged. This is not the Canada that we’re used to. I just think Bill C-51 pushes that too far and for me that was the final straw. I thought, ‘I don’t recognize my country anymore, this is not the country I grew up in.’”
Among the other issues important to Wright is “detangling the mess that is the DFO,” she said. “I live in a very small fishing community and the rules, policies and procedures that are coming down when it comes to managing the fisheries are just a mess and it’s getting in the way of us working on a good resources management plan.”
Affordable child care, is also important, Wright said, because the lack of it is stopping some people from being able to take jobs outside the home. Economic development, including support for small businesses, is also on her list.
“And I’m absolutely passionate of course around women’s issues,” Wright added. “I’ve been a strong feminist voice in this province for a while. We need a strategy to end family violence, we need much more women in government in leadership positions in the province. And all of those issues are not just women’s issues, they’re family issues and community safety issues and they become economic issues with the drain on the economy that happens around family violence and the drain on the economy when women can’t work because of the lack of childcare.”
Wright said many people she has talked to were unaware the Harper government has raised the qualifying age for Canada Pension to 67, up from 65. Many rural residents are worried about being able to retire with dignity, she said, especially when it comes to accessing health care. “If you want to keep people staying in their communities, and get the population growth up, which is a huge issue that we’re dealing with, people need access to health care and to be able to retire with some kind of dignity,” she said.
Jeannie Baldwin, a senior vice president with the Public Service Alliance of Canada has also announced her intention to seek the NDP nomination. In a press release, Baldwin described herself as a “born and raised” Newfoundlander, though she now lives in Nova Scotia. Wright is originally from Wiarton, Ontario, home of the famous weather prognosticating groundhog, Willie. Whoever wins the nomination will face Conception Bay South Mayor Ken McDonald, who is the Liberal Party candidate. Scott Andrews, the incumbent MP who was kicked out of the Liberal Party after an internal party investigation into reports of sexual misconduct towards a federal NDP member from Quebec, is also expected to run. The Conservative Party of Canada is without a candidate since it blocked the nomination of St. John’s lawyer Ches Crosbie.
The NDP nomination is set for August 26 with ballot boxes at the Royal Canadian Legion in Kelligrews. There may also be voting stations in Trepassey and Placentia. In order to vote, you have to be a member of the party for at least 30 days prior to August 25. That means anyone wanting to cast a ballot must sign up as a party member by July 25. Membership is free and can be obtained online.
“Hopefully they will come out and vote for the candidate that they want,” Wright said. “I think a lot of people are going to come out. I’m so pleasantly surprised talking to people all over the region. I’ve been absolutely everywhere and people are really engaged, I’m having fantastic conversations, people want change and they’ve definitely had enough of Harper.”

BBBAA Auction draws biggest crowd yet

Organizers of the annual Bay Bulls to Bauline Athletic Association Auction hope to have a tally within the next week or so on how much money they netted from this year’s event.
Last year the event grossed some $123,000 and left the association with $70,430 after expenses to put into programs and infrastructure in the region. This year’s auction was even bigger in terms of attendance, said BBBAA president Scott Penney.
“It was the biggest crowd ever,” said Penney, “over 370 people. We sold nine more tables over last year… It was amazing. It was a great time. It was great to see so many new people and new faces.”
Among the prizes auctioned off was a seat from the Montreal Forum autographed by the late Jean Beliveau, commissions by painter Jean Claude Roy to paint a scene of the winner’s choice, use of a condo in Florida for a week, $1,000 in Provincial Airlines certificates, a pig roast for 70 at Lester’s farm or at your home and catered by Lester’s, and private performances by the band Bic and the Ballpoints. Three people went home with Roy commissions, at bids of $7,500 each, while a boat tour for 100 people aboard O’Brien’s whale watching boats went for  $3,000.
Other items up for auction or prizes included a couple of high powered rifles, a necklace from Diamond Design, a ‘Passion Party Chest,’ and paintings by Christine Koch and Susan Boyle.
It’s a lot of work keeping such an event going, Penney allowed, but he said it’s possible due to a strong committee of organizers and help from sponsors and others such as the Community Credit Union in Witless Bay, whose staff volunteer to work the show handling the money from the night’s proceedings. Businessman Andrew Bell donated enough wine for every table.
The BBBAA has already booked Bic and the Ballpoints to perform for the dance at next year’s show, which is set for May 28, 2016 and again at the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre.
Penney said the money raised at the auction will be put to good use. “We’re in discussions now with Witless Bay and hope to announce soon a project over there,” he said. “We’re in the process of submitting an application (to government) and trying to pull a few things together but we’re there with a significant investment to put into that community.”
Penney said the BBBAA hopes to have a new regional recreation director in place by this fall – the previous one left for a job in the oil and gas industry – and is looking for office space. The association currently works out of free space inside the Bay Bulls Town Hall.
Penney said the association will also look around and entertain proposals to invest in recreational infrastructure throughout its coverage area. “Our goal is to put this (auction) money out into the community as quick as we possibly can.”

Shamrock Folk Festival planning fireworks this year

The organizers of the Shamrock Folk Festival are marking a milestone this year: It’s the 30th anniversary of the annual Ferryland spree that has become a ritual of summer for many people on the  Southern Shore and beyond.
The key to the event’s longevity has been the caliber of Irish and traditional Newfoundland music right from the time the festival was started by the Southern Shore Development Association in 1986 and taken over by the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council nine years later.
“Like any new venture it was humble beginnings,” said the Folk Arts Council’s executive director Keith Mooney, who can remember the very first show. “You have to acknowledge the great decision to start it on the Southern Shore. It was a great fit for our Irish heritage.”
The festival is still operating from the same venue where it started – a former ball field with a temporary stage that has since seen a series of upgrades to better suit a music site.
Mooney remembers the 1996 festival in which the area suffered a tremendous amount of rain and wind with tents blowing down and damage to the field itself. It was an ill wind with a silver lining. The damage hastened the implementation of a Master Plan that had been developed for the Colony of Avalon that included a village green in the area of the ball field. The Folk Arts Council was able to obtain funding to rehabilitate the site.
“We built up the site above the water table and constructed a new stage,” Mooney said. “That was in 1997.”
Over the years other improvements were made too, including a new fence and a concession park.
“Over the years we’ve seen a lot of great performances,” Mooney allowed, reciting a list of acts that have regularly trod the stage including the Masterless Men, Celtic Connection, Ron Hynes, The Navigators, The Punters, Stogger’ Tight and Shannyganock. That’s in addition to many local performers from the area.
“People look forward to the festival every year,” Mooney said. “Depending on the weather, you can get a large turnout of people. They come for a good time and to socialize and just to take advantage of the good weather and the outdoor music… It’s a great garden party (atmosphere). People plan their holidays around it. People have ongoing parties in their houses. For Ferryland and the area it’s an annual get together. We get a lot of visitors from the Avalon Peninsula and inquiries from all over the island and the mainland. It’s one of the longest running festivals and that garners a lot of interest in itself.”
Like all festivals, attendance is often weather dependent. Along with some rained out sessions there have been bouts of great weather. “1999, I remember, was just an exceptional year,” Mooney recalled. Last year saw perfect weather too, he added. “We’ve had it all. We’ve had tremendous crowds.”
Mooney said the Folk Arts Association has taken measures to make the festival an enjoyable family event. It’s Dinner Theatre is held in conjunction with the festival, and an art show has become an annual part of the weekend as well. This year fireworks have been added to close the event on Saturday night.
This year’s festival is set for July 25-26. Headlining the shows are Middle Tickle, The Masterless Men, Generations, Slainte, Jackie Sullivan, The Dunne Family and Sullivan & Slaney.
The festival will feature two sessions, Mooney noted, with an evening show on Saturday, July 25 and the traditional Sunday afternoon show on July 26.
“We really wanted to combine our Saturday afternoon and evening shows to bring together our family and evening audiences to hear several great acts starting off with the popular youth session,” he explained.
Beginning at 5 p.m., Saturday evening’s session will feature 12 performances and close out with a fireworks display. “We are very fortunate to have support from The Town of Ferryland and Dalton’s Home Hardware in making sure our new Saturday evening session finishes with a real blast,” said Mooney. “We want to invite our local supporters and our friends and visitors from near and far to help us celebrate 30 great years. Mark your calendar now for an event that will be the highlight of your summer.”
The weekend will also feature a Friday evening performance of this year’s dinner theatre, Outport Taxi, a special menu at the Tetley Tea Room By The Sea, the annual Art Exhibition, children’s activities, plenty of food vendors and a beer garden. A full schedule of Festival events and acts can be found at www.ssfac.com.
“There’s no nicer place than festival Park on a sunny, breezy day to socialize and have a bite to eat or a refreshment,” said Mooney. “It highlights the Irish Loop region. It’s been the biggest event in the region for a number of years on the Irish Loop and we’re working this year to have a special event for out 30th anniversary.”

MHA gives constituents something to think about

Whoever wrote the letter for Keith Hutchings to Witless Bay council did a skillful job of making the minister of Municipal Affairs sound tough, while actually doing nothing to rectify a situation that has plagued the town for the past year.
Rather than make the mayor and council deal with two alleged cases of conflict of interest in a transparent and accountable way, Hutchings has approved a process that raises more questions than provides answers. And he has done so while giving false hope to some citizens and developers who were led to believe he was going to be forceful in holding council to account.
The outcome of the letter was so skillfully disguised, in fact, that when it was first delivered to council, those who have been most detrimentally affected by last minute changes to the Town Plan made by Mayor Sébastien Deprés and councillors Dena Wiseman and Ralph Carey, actually thought Hutchings was ordering council to retake the vote on the conflict of interest allegations.
Not so. Instead, a careful parsing of the letter, and followup e-mails to his staff,  confirm Hutchings has accepted the mayor’s claim that council cleared Wiseman and Carey during a vote conducted in a private meeting. That vote is problematic for several reasons, not the least of which was that it was done behind closed doors and not ratified during a public session. A rumour has arisen that at least one councillor who voted to clear Carey and Wiseman thought he was voting to do the opposite, while another councillor has publicly challenged the outcome of the vote and has called for a ‘Friendly Hearing’ for the two councillors as is spelled out in the Municipalities Act. The bottom line is that the circumstances of the vote – how it was conducted, who set the ground rules, how the motion was worded, who else spoke to council in the moments prior to the vote – are unclear and clarity in such a matter should be a first order of business.
Hutchings’ failure to ensure the matters were disposed of in a transparent and accountable way is all the more disappointing given that Witless Bay is one of the principal towns in his district. If the local MHA, who happens to be the minister responsible for enforcing the Municipalities Act, won’t ensure a proper job for these constituents, what can the rest of the people in the district expect?
This failure to maintain open and accountable government at the municipal level is the latest in a string of incompetent and damaging moves by the current government. It was one of Hutchings’ predecessors in the portfolio, Kevin O’Brien, who messed up the wording of a departmental directive to the Town of Witless Bay regarding the controversy at Ragged Beach. That boner, whether deliberate or a genuine mistake, led in part to the situation still bedeviling the council. As a result, development throughout the town is held up. One contractor estimates the town is losing out on some $200,000 a year in residential taxes from his long delayed subdivision alone.
It was the PC regimes of Danny Williams, Kathy Dunderdale and now Paul Davis, who changed the rules and set a tone of government secrecy for councils to emulate. Town councils are far less open and transparent than they used to be. It’s gotten to the point that councils no longer identify applicants who are seeking development permits on the public agenda. In effect, the province, acting through municipalities, has trampled on the right of citizens to know what is going on in their communities and who is doing it.
It’s unclear that a Liberal or New Democratic administration would do any better when it comes to ensuring openness and accountability on the part of town councils. But it’s hard to imagine they could do worse. The last 12 years of government has been one constant attack on the public’s right to know. The citizens of Witless Bay in particular and Ferryland District in general should weigh the negative impact of that when they go to the polls this fall.
By failing to make sure the council in Witless Bay followed the rules in a timely, accountable and transparent way, the local MHA has given his constituents something to think about.
Much Deserved
On a happier note, and concerning a fellow who doesn’t shrink from his duty, it was heartwarming last month to hear that Ken Williams was being inducted into Newfoundland’s Hockey Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony occurred this past weekend. It’s no exaggeration to say Williams is as much responsible for the Southern Shore Breakers’ storied history in senior hockey as any of the players who ever laced up a skate. Williams has kept not only the team, but also the rink in Mobile alive and open through thick and thin and helped ensure the operation of an important facility for the whole region. On top of all that, he is one of the wittiest and smartest fellows around and a joy to know. Well done Ken Williams.
 So long Joe Croft
One of the privileges of publishing this newspaper is that you get to meet, and in some cases know, many people in the Goulds, the Southern Shore and St. Mary’s Bay. A highlight is delivery day, when you get to stop at all the stores along the route. That often entails a quick chat with some of the operators. All those weeks that I’ve delivered the paper over the past eight years, and for the three years in the late 1990s when I published The Southern Post, included a call at Joe Croft’s store in Aquaforte.
Almost always, Joe was there. A man who had a keen interest in life around him, Joe could fill you in on how the fishery was going, local history, or anything else in the area.
Joe passed away suddenly last week. Perhaps appropriately, he died in the store. Joe Croft was a gentleman and a good businessman who, with his wife Carmel, managed to keep a store going in thin times and full in a small community. That’s not an easy accomplishment. Joe will be sorely  missed by his family but also by all us regulars who called at the shop.

Southern Shore’s Mr. Hockey inducted into HNL Hall of Fame

The man with a wit as sharp as a skate and a dedication to his community as thick as a Southern Shore fog was inducted amid much accolades into Hockey NL’s Hall of Fame Saturday during a gala dinner at the group’s annual general meeting and conference in Gander.
Ken Williams, the long-time manager of the Southern Shore Arena and organizational genius behind the Breakers’ senior and junior hockey clubs for many years, was described as “owning a 32-year hockey career that is overflowing with hard work, valuable contributions and a multitude of sensible decisions that have been very important to the overall success of hockey within Newfoundland and Labrador. He is simply an extremely good hockey person.”
Williams’ contribution to amateur hockey in the province extends from making it possible for generations of the youngest minor hockey players to ever try out the game to keeping the most elite levels of the sport viable through challenging times and circumstances. And he did all that with an engaging wit and style that has earned him respect and many friends throughout the province.
Williams’ hockey “career” started on Maggoty Cove Pond in Bay Bulls. He went on to play organized hockey as a junior player in the Southern Shore Junior League. But it was in the boardrooms of minor and senior hockey where he has left his biggest marks.
Starting in 1986, Williams was instrumental in helping raise the money and organize the effort to build the Southern Shore Arena. Once built, he was a natural choice to serve as its manager. Williams was elected the founding President of the Southern Shore Minor Hockey Association and remains a volunteer with the organization. He has been the HNL provincial co-ordinator for 24 years.
Williams was also instrumental in reviving senior female hockey at the provincial level and brought the first team in many years to Prince Edward Island to compete nationally. He held a director’s position on the provincial female hockey committee for several years.
In 1993, Williams played a major role in organizing the Avalon West League as its first President and served as a director of the Southern Shore Breakers Senior Club. He served as treasurer for the Avalon East League and was president of the Southern Shore Amateur Hockey Association, which encompassed both junior and senior hockey.
Williams has served as chairman of Provincial Senior Hockey and was Branch Representative on Hockey Canada. In 2006, he chaired Hockey Canada’s meetings in St. Johns, which were deemed wildly successful. He is Provincial Senior Hockey Secretary and continues as President of the Southern Shore Hockey Association.
“Ken Williams has been, and continues to be, an outstanding contributor to hockey within Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Hockey NL executive director Craig Tulk.

Students show leadership, dedication in variety of sports

With a handful of championships in everything from soccer and basketball to cheerleading, plus enthusiastic contributions in ice and ball hockey, volleyball, softball and other sports, the students, teachers and coaches at Mobile Central High School have much to be satisfied with this past school year.
Like all the school’s in the coverage area of the Irish Loop Post, the students at Mobile High are distinguished for their team spirit, dedication and in many cases, athletic prowess.
The school recently held a banquet to pay tribute to all the student athletes and their coaches who represented Mobile Central High and their repsective communities this past year. Below are the individual members who stood out in the four main categories for each team: Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, Best Defensive Player and Most Sportsmanlike.
Boys Ice Hockey
MVP Kieran O’Driscoll; Most Improved A.J. Doyle; Best Defensive Player Jeremy Legge;
Sportsmanship Award Tyler Yard
Grade 7 Girls Basketball        
MVPs  Maggie Pottle and Caroline Murphy; Most Improved Rachel Lundrigan; Best Defensive Brooke Walsh; Sportsmanship Kathleen Murphy
Grade 8 Boys Basketball
MVPs Gavin Wall and Sean Wilson; Most Improved Patrick Maloney; Best Defensive Kurtis Clarke; Sportsmanship Ryan Power
Grade 8 Girls Basketball  
MVP Bridget Gatherall; Most Improved Victoria Maloney;
Best Defensive Jessica Carey;
Sportsmanship Amelia O’Driscoll
Grade 9 Boys Basketball   
MVPs Brendan Houlihan and Sean Wilson; Most Improved Cody Glynn; Best Defensive Gavin Wall; Sportsmanship Antonio Riberio
Grade 9 Girls Basketball   
MVP Meagan Mullowney; Most Improved McKenna Walsh; Best Defensive Nikita Harvey; Sportsmanship Dayna Power
Under 16 Boys Basketball  
MVP Luke Gatherall; Most Improved Kieran O’ Driscoll; Best Defensive Luke Power; Sportsmanship Jack Williams
Under 16 Girls Basketball    
MVP Sarah Walsh; Most Improved Hailey Power; Best Defensive Dana Mullowney; Sportsmanship Hayley Murphy
Under 17 Girls Basketball 
MVP Kendra Tobin; Most Improved Nikita Harvey; Best Defensive Janine Coombs; Sportsmanship Hailey Power
Senior Boys Basketball
MVP Jeremy Legge; Most Improved Tristan Melvin; Best Defensive Nick Power; Sportsmanship Dylan Woolridge
Senior Girls Basketball
MVP Brianna Walsh; Most Improved Stephanie Puddester;
Best Defensive Emily Walsh;
Sportsmanship Maria Sullivan
Cheerleaders
Cheerleaders of the Year Kathleen Houlihan and Caroline Murphy; Most Spirited Cheerleader Gabrielle Norris; Most Improved Junior Cheerleader Erin Walsh; Most Improved Senior Cheerleader Sarah Walsh; Most Dedicated Junior Cheerleader Meagan Mullowney; Most Dedicated Senior Cheerleader Bridget Keating
  
Junior Girls Hockey
MVP Jennifer Bidgood; Most Improved Chantelle Delaney; Best Defense (Baltimore Award) Christy Alyward; Sportsmanship Nikita Harvey
Under 17 Boys Basketball
MVP Tristan Melvin; Most Improved Lucas White; Best Defensive Luke Gatherall; Sportsmanship Kieran O’Driscoll
Senior Girls Soccer
MVP Chantal Armstrong; Most Improved Bridget Keating; Best Defensive Amanda Dalton; Sportsmanship Rachel Tobin
Senior Boys Softball
MVP Colin Dunphy; Most Improved Dylan Woolridge; Best Defensive Nick Walsh; Sportsmanship Trevor Hicks
Senior Girls Softball Slo-pitch
MVP Brittany O’Driscoll; Most Improved Chelsea Corrigan; Best Defensive Brianna Walsh; Sportsmanship Laura Tobin
Junior Boys Hockey
MVP Brendan Houlihan; Most Improved Ryan Noel; Best Defensive Kendall Power; Sportsmanship Devon O’Brien
Senior Girls Ball Hockey
MVP Emily Walsh; Most Improved Ericka Carew; Best Defensive Brianna Walsh; Sportsmanship Chantal Armstong
Boys Ball Hockey
MVPs Mitchell O’Driscoll and  Nick Walsh; Most Improved  Colin Dunphy; Best Defensive  Jeremy Legge; Sportsmanship  Christian Walsh
Senior Girls Hockey
MVP Brianna Walsh; Most Improved Emily Walsh; Best Defensive Keesha Power; Sportsmanship Award Chelsey Healey
Junior Girls Softball
2014 Fastpitch
MVP Brittany O’ Driscoll; Most Improved Maria Sullivan; Best Defensive Alyssa Power; Sportsmanship Hayley Power
 
Girls Senior Volleyball
MVP Kathleen Houlihan; Most Improved Brittany O’ Driscoll; Best Defensive Dana Mullowney; Sportsmanship Alyssa Power
Junior Girls Softball
2015 Fast pitch
MVP Jennifer Bidgood; Most Improved Meagan Mullowney; Best Defensive McKenna Walsh; Sportsmanship Dayna Power

Junior Male Athlete of the Year
Brendan Houlihan
Junior Female Athlete of the Year Meagan Mullowney
Senior Male Athletes of the Year
Colin Dunphy and Jeremy Legge

Senior Female Athletes of the Year Brianna Walsh and Kathleen Houlihan
 
Junior Male Academic
&Athletic Award
Adam Lake

Junior Female Academic
& Athletic Award
McKenna Walsh

Senior Male Academic
& Athletic Award
Nick Walsh
Senior Female Academic
& Athletic Award
Kathleen Houlihan

Bill Mulcahy Award
Tristan Melvin

David Emberley Award for Senior Male Athletes
Nick Walsh and Jeremy Legge

David Emberley Award
Senior Female Athlete
Emily Walsh

Mobile Central High celebrates a special year of athletic achievement

When the sports community at Mobile Central High handed out its recognition awards June 4, one special moment was reserved for the person who has been a key motivator and booster of athletic achievement at the school for the past 28 years.
For teacher and athletic director Shawn Doyle, the call to the podium and the accolades marked the second occasion in two weeks that his efforts were recognized: In late May, the School Sports Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SSNL) honoured Doyle with a coaching service award at its annual general meeting.
The Master of Ceremonies for the Monarchs’ awards presentation, Dana O’Driscoll, gently kidded Doyle before calling him to the podium where he was received by students, parents, coaches and teachers in the gymnasium with a prolonged and enthusiastic standing ovation.
“We honour him every day and genuflect daily,” O’Driscoll joked. “But our province has recognized his achievements as well…  We tend to think of Mr. Doyle as ours, but he is also the regional representative for the SSNL and has served on their committee for a number of years.”
When called to the podium, Doyle was true to form and used the occasion to highlight the achievements of the students rather than himself. He started by thanking all the students for showing such good conduct during what was a long evening of presentations.
“I just want to talk about the significance of Awards Night,” Doyle said. “If your child didn’t get an award tonight, or if they did, the whole concept and spirit of Awards Night is about determination of the athlete and trying to do well. And if you did well, people should recognize that you did well and through that recognition, others will be thrust forward to try to do well in the following year. That individual effort and reward builds toward teams and teams win banners.”
Doyle said this past school year saw a number of Mobile teams win provincial championships, including the AAA Girls soccer team, the AAA Boys basketball team, the Under 17 Boys A basketball team, the tier two AAAA senior girls’ basketball team and the cheerleading squad, which won the Charity Classic at the Bay Bulls Lifestyle Centre, the provincial championship at Jack Byrne Arena in Torbay and the national championship at Niagara Falls, Ontario. The Mobile boys also won the David Emberley Memorial Basketball Tournament, which they host every year. The variety of achievement in a spectrum of different sports by a wide gamut of student athletes was nice to see, he noted.
“The volunteers here at the school are awesome,” Doyle added. “Wherever I go for a provincial meeting, I always brag about Mobile and I tell everybody who wants to have a game, pick it and come up. I don’t care if it’s 4A, 3A or 2A, we’ll find someone to play you and we’ll give you a game.”
Doyle said the other thing he boasts about when talking with school athletic officials is that at Mobile he sometimes has to turn down people who want to work with teams, because there are so many good people available and willing to help. “That’s a compliment to the program,” said Doyle. “It makes me feel bad sometimes, because you should never have to turn away help, but there are so many people who want to be involved. If you look around here today, there are 50 or 60 people involved (as coaches, managers and trainers) in the program.”
Doyle singled out the cheerleaders for a particularly great season. The team won the Charity Classic Tournament, which it hosted at the Bay Bulls Lifestyle Centre, the provincial championships at Jack Byrne Arena in Torbay and the national championships held in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
He pointed out that for the first time since he’s been at the school, this past year saw Mobile field boys and girls basketball teams in the 4A division. “If you look at our school population, it’s 119 students from Grades 10 to 12,” Doyle said. “Next year, we will be going into games against schools with 800 and 900 students.”
The ability of a school the size of Mobile’s to do that is a “total compliment” to the communities in this area from which the student population is drawn, Doyle said. “You’re doing a great job.”
Before closing, Doyle also paid tribute to the relationship between Mobile Central High and Baltimore School in Ferryland. Earlier in the evening, representatives of Baltimore made a special presentation to the school recognizing their sportsmanship at the Paddy Kane Memorial Basketball Tournament.

Pirates, raids, religious and legal tussling part of Colony of Avalon story

The Colony of Avalon in Ferryland opens for the season today. One of the earliest permanent English settlements in Newfoundland, it’s recognized as the best preserved early English colony in North America.  An active archeological dig happens at the site every summer.
For those who’ve forgotten their Newfoundland history, or for those like me who moved to Newfoundland from elsewhere, here’s a little history lesson. The settlement in Ferryland known as the Colony of Avalon was established in 1621 by Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Other settlement attempts on the Avalon Peninsula pre-dated Calvert’s, most notably by John Guy at Cupids in Conception Bay and Sir William Vaughan up the shore on the southern end of the Avalon Peninsula. These gents and their colonists couldn’t handle the Newfoundland winters and became some of the first snow-birds from Newfoundland. 
Calvert’s colonists were a little hardier; surviving winters, pirates, fires, disease and more. Ferryland has been continuously inhabited ever since. George and his family also joined the snow-bird crowd, but his colonists persevered.
Jump forward to 1637 and King Charles I grants the whole island of Newfoundland to one of his favourite Knights, Sir David Kirke. Charles made his bud Sir David the supreme Lord and Governor of all the territories of Newfoundland, including Calvert’s Colony of Avalon. The Calvert family was a bit ticked off about this, but eventually lost in court. Eventually Sir David and his family moved to Calvert’s Governor’s Mansion at the Colony of Avalon, kicking out Calvert’s man and setting up what was essentially the capital of Newfoundland at the time. Sir David’s wife, Lady Sarah Kirke, ran the business and lived the good life in Ferryland for many years after he died; perhaps being the first woman entrepreneur in North America.
Generally, colonization of Newfoundland was all about the fish and money. However, to his credit, Sir George Calvert is thought to have also been trying to create a haven for religious tolerance outside of protestant England at the time. It is known that he brought several Catholic priest to the Colony of Avalon.  This was reinforced by the significant discovery last summer of an amazingly well-preserved copper crucifix by a MUN archeology student working the dig. The crucifix was once owned by a Catholic colonist at Avalon and served as a personal devotional item or as part of a rosary. This crucifix is one of an estimated two million artifacts recovered at the dig site – and the site has only been 30 to 40 per cent   uncovered.
You can get in touch with this history by visiting the Colony of Avalon this summer for a guided tour of the dig site, the 17th century gardens, the working 17th century kitchen and the many artifacts on display in the interpretive centre. And walk on the 17th century cobblestone street – the real thing, not a re-creation. If you’re looking to get your hands dirty, you can participate in the dig under the Archeologist for a Day program. In addition to the full-day program, you can try the Dig & Dig-In program of a half-day archeological experience. The Colony is also working to dig up capital of the dollar kind to support ambitious plans for the future operation and development of the Colony leading up to 2021, the 400th anniversary of Sir George Calvert’s first colonization in Ferryland. A fundraising drive is under way for this season and is benefitting from an anonymous donor matching up to $25,000 of donations received.
For more information on the Colony of Avalon, you can contact Maryanne Boland, the Executive Director, at info@colonyofavalon.ca or 709-432-3200.  And follow this season’s happenings at www.colonyofavalon.ca and Facebook.   
 

Town plan still in air

A last minute intervention by the Minister of Municipal Affairs may have further clouded the situation regarding alleged conflicts of interest involving at least two councillors.
According to Mayor Sébastien Després, members of council received the letter from Keith Hutchings at 4:41 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, less than three hours before this month’s regular public meeting of council.
Després tried to forge ahead anyway with a vote to decide one of the allegations – whether husband and wife councillors Ralph Carey and Dena Wiseman broke conflict of interest rules by discussing snow clearing on Pond Path, a private lane leading to property they own – but couldn’t force the rest of council to go along with him.
Després argued the minister’s letter referred only to the other allegation – namely that Carey and Wiseman were in a conflict of interest when they voted on the proposed new Town Plan, which rezones their land off Pond Path to allow for housing. But councillors Ken Brinston and René Estrada disagreed with the mayor. They countered that Hutchings’ letter referred to both allegations. Brinston pointed out Hutchings has asked to meet with the council on June 15 and moved that the vote on the snow clearing allegation be deferred.
“I think it would be a kick in the face to the minister if we went ahead and addressed this situation tonight,” Brinston argued.
Després insisted the minister’s letter was restricted to the Town Plan. “I will advise council that we have been advised six times by Municipal Affairs to make a decision on the allegations of conflict of interest,” he said. “So I see no reason to defer that one.”
Brinton, Estrada and councillor Albert Murphy were not persuaded. After further argument between them and the mayor, Carey and Wiseman left the chamber so council could vote on Brinston’s motion to defer the matter. It passed 3-2 with Després and councillor Kevin Smart voting against it.
In his letter to council, Hutchings said he has received “significant representation” on the alleged conflicts of interest. “I am advised that you have now reached a decision as a council on whether a number of councillors were in conflict during prior discussions and motions associated with the Town Plan and have decided they were not in conflict at that time,” he said. “I understand that this decision was reached in the context of prior discussions and motions that were focused on newer amendments proposed by the current Council, versus discussions on the entirety of the Town Plan.”
The minister’s letter skirts the contention of councillor Murphy that the private vote which cleared Carey and Wiseman was done incorrectly and also ignores his subsequent demand that the two councillors explain their actions in a ‘Friendly Hearing’ as spelled out in the Municipalities Act. It also ignores the fact that the private decision to clear the councillors has not been moved and adopted in a public meeting as required by the Act. And by agreeing to clear Wiseman and Carey on the basis that they voted only on amendments to the Town Plan instead of the document in its entirety, Hutchings appears to be ignoring a December 9, 2014 vote of council in which Carey made the motion to submit the 10 year plan, in its entirety, to the province for registration. The motion passed with Wiseman among the councillors who voted for it. 
“My intent is to now ensure that no confusion remains regarding the steps Council must now take if you wish to have the proposed town plan considered for registration,” Hutchings wrote.
The minister reminded council of “procedural errors” it made prior to submitting the Town Plan the first time and said those must be corrected before it submits it again. He also warned council that this time it must make sure no councillors are in a conflict of interest. He added that if council wants to amend the Town Plan - as Després, Wiseman, Carey and Smart opted to do before submitting it the first time - it may have to hold another public hearing.
“Given the length of time that work on the new Town Plan has taken and the numerous inquiries from residents, it is incumbent on council to move expeditiously,” Hutchings wrote. “As such, I ask that council make your determination on whether any members of council are in conflict with respect to a new vote regarding the entire Town Plan by June 21, 2015. Further, I ask that Council advise the Department at that time of whether you intend to hold a further or new public hearing, and if so the date for the hearing. In the absence of a further public hearing I ask that Council’s vote regarding whether to approve the plan to submit to the Department for registration occur by July 15, 2015. I ask for an expeditious and appropriate resolution to this issue, without which I will have no choice but to consider my authorities as Minister to address the matter.”
The latest wrinkle follows a raucous special meeting of council held May 26 in which Mayor Després tried to get council to ratify publicly the vote he said council had previously made in private that Carey and Wiseman were not in a conflict of interest when they voted on the Town Plan.
However, that voted had to be postponed because two councillors were absent and with Carey and Wiseman not allowed to vote on a matter pertaining to them, council lacked quorum. Després ordered another public meeting to be held two nights later, but again not enough councillors could attend to make quorum.
Meanwhile, the meeting with council that the minister has requested to go over the timelines for adopting and submitting the Town Plan is set for Confederation Building this evening.
 

Ginok Song helps new students find the artist within

As one of Newfoundland’s better known artists, Ginok Song has received a fair amount of recognition and even awards for her paintings. On Sunday, it was her students at the Petty Harbour Art School who were getting all the attention as they displayed their year’s work in the basement of St. Joseph’s Church.
The paintings ranged from portraits and scenics to the occasional still life. The basement was full as friends, family and the inquisitive perused the art, which was surprisingly good, some even excellent, given that many of the artists have only been painting for several years.
Shelly Humber, for instance, started painting three years ago after she retired as a physiotherapy assistant at Agnes Pratt Nursing Home. She paints “whatever catches my eye,” she said. Most of her works on display were scenics, including one of trees, a railway station and an old red barn.
Humber had taken up “dabbling” at painting once a week with a friend from her old job. Then Rhodie Ann Woodfine from Herbie’s Gift Shop in the harbour pointed her towards Song’s art class. “I started from there, and I love it,” Humber said.
“I’m a newbie,” she noted, admitting she couldn’t draw a stickman before she started taking lessons. She works with stained glass now too. Humber was delighted with the turnout for the school’s first show and the reaction the works were getting. The artists put a lot into the display of their paintings. Humber’s uncle even crafted a frame for one of her works from old farm board. “It’s perfect for it,” Humber said.
The oldest rookie artist, Marge Ward of the Goulds, turned 87 last Sunday. She took up painting less than three years ago, though her works look like they were done by someone with more experience.
“I talked about doing it for a long while, but I didn’t do it,” Ward said. “I kept busy at everything else. I have a list a mile long.”
Ward’s daughter Michelle Ward signed her up for Song’s class and insisted she attend. “So I came,” said Ward. “I didn’t know if I had the ability or not, but I thought I’d like to it.”
Ward isn’t particular about what she paints. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We have fun.”
Another latecomer to painting is Connie Murphy of the Goulds. Her pencil sketch of her grandson was one of the most striking works at the exhibit. She took up painting about three years ago after she retired as a commercial banker. She had been planning to do it for years.
“I really like to draw,” she said. The portrait of her grandson was going to be special to her anyway, she allowed, but doing it in graphite enabled her to capture much more detail, bringing the character of the child into the work. “I don’t think I could have painted him so realistically,” she allowed.
Not surprisingly, Song’s students sing their teacher’s praises.
“Fantastic,” Humber said, when asked to describe her teacher. “You couldn’t ask for any better.”
Murphy agreed. “She lets us do our thing,” she said. “And she guides us. That’s the best kind of teacher to have.”
Song’s teaching has even attracted established painters such as Peter Gard, a noted writer, journalist and artist. Gard has been dropping in on her classes off and on the past two years. One of his works on display at the exhibit was a whimsical ‘evolution of the egg,’ depicting eggs dressed up in human like costumes, including that of a knight. Gard used egg-related items from his household as ideas for the egg men. The painting got an honourable mention in this year’s provincial Arts & Letter’s Competition and would likely fetch a nice price and appreciative nods at any art gallery. “It’s good to have some funny art, I think,” said Gard.
Attending class with Song is good motivation to keep painting, Gard explained. “She’s a very warm person,” he said. “I enjoy coming here and if you go to her class, it always inspires you to do something as opposed to thinking about it. I really enjoy coming to the class.”
Song’s own works are collected throughout Canada, the United Kingdom and Korea. Lately she’s turned to moody, striking portraits whose subjects and tone are reminiscent of those of the great American realist painter Edward Hopper. Her work can be viewed at  www.ginoksong.com. Song was born and raised in South Korea, where she obtained a degree in fine arts, and moved to Newfoundland in 2000. She is working on a master’s degree in the humanities at Memorial University.
Song started offering art lessons in her house in Petty Harbour in 2003. About five years ago, she moved the classes to the basement of St. Joseph’s Church, which despite being a basement is above ground and catches lots of light. “This is a great space,” she said.
Song too was delighted with the turnout at the exhibit. Some of her students were even being asked to sell their work, which left them baffled about how much to charge. Eventually some of them will be able to have solo exhibitions, she said.
Teaching art serves as a way for Song to remind herself of the things she has learned over the years. “I’m learning a lot from the students as well,” she said.
Song isn’t surprised that her students’ work is so good even though many of them only started painting within the last few years. “I think most people have some kind of talent,” she said. “As an art teacher, I can teach a few things from the beginning, like how to draw and to mix colours and this leads into what they want to paint... I also try to teach different techniques so they can find what they like and develop their own artwork.”
 

Goulds Lions remember pal with a dog named Dougie

Lions Clubs across Canada recently held their annual Walk for Dog Guides, including the club in the Goulds, which raised some $2,582.35 as a tribute to former long time member Doug Harvey, who passed away last year.
The Goulds walk took place on Sunday May 31. About fifty people participated and walked from St. Kevin’s High School to the Goulds Lions Club. Appropriately enough, some of the participants brought their dogs with them. After the walk, folks went to Tim Horton’s for coffee.
The event, one of some 200 held across Canada, is sponsored by Purina Pet Foods.
“The Goulds Lions Club decided to dedicate this year’s Dog Walk in memory of Doug Harvey,” said Lion Pat McGrath.
“Lion Doug was an active member of our Lions Club for 36 years,” added Lion Gord Warford, who chaired this year’s walk. “He served as Treasurer, Secretary, twice as President and Zone Chairperson. He was President in 2004, when our Leo Club was formed. He helped with all projects, but was most known for calling bingo and participating in our Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guide walk. Doug was extremely busy with family and work commitments, but he always made time to help with our Lions projects. He was the recipient of the Judge Brian Stevenson Fellowship Award and the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, the highest awards given to volunteer Lions members.”
Harvey is survived by his widow Lynn, and children Katherine, Karen and Stephen.
All the money raised by the Goulds Lions Club walk goes to the Lions Foundation Dog Guide Program, which serves Canadians with visual impairments. The program provides eligible Canadians with a trained dog guide at no cost. Since its beginnings, the program has grown to include dog guide programs for hearing ear, seizure response, autism assistance, and diabetic alert.
“We don’t know where the dog we sponsor will go,” said McGrath. “But we do have some input into naming the dog. The dog guide we sponsor this year will be named Dougie in memory of Lion Doug Harvey and trained for a person with autism.”
Dog Guides profoundly impact the lives of those with disabilities, improving their safety, mobility and independence, Warford noted.
The Goulds Lions Club pledged to raise $12,000 over three years for the program.
Helping children ages three to 18, Autism Assistance Dog Guides provide safety, companionship and unconditional love,” said Warford. “These Dog Guides provide a calming relief for children in high anxiety situations and reduce the stress commonly experienced in public places. The bond that develops between the Dog Guide and child allows for increased social interaction for the family and the child.”
The Lions Foundation of Canada operates a national training school and charity that assists people with disabilities through dog guide programs. Canadian citizens in any province or territory may apply for a dog guide, and if eligible, they will receive a trained dog at no cost to them, even though it costs approximately $25,000 to train and place a dog. The money needed to breed, train and place dogs comes solely through individual donations, service clubs, foundations and corporations. The Lions’ breeding andtraining facility is located in Breslau, Ontario. It is the largest dog school of its kind in Canada.
All the dog guides are trained with a basic set of skills, useful to all handlers. But there may be training tailored to meet the specific needs of the client. The final stages of the dog guide training involves the client meeting their dog guide. Client and dog then live and train together for two to four weeks at the Oakville Facility to prepare them for going home.
For additional information on Dog Guides, contact any member of Goulds Lions Club or visit www.dogguides.com.

Aggrieved neighbour wins appeal, for now

After a couple of years of needling and lobbying council by an aggrieved neighbour, in the end it was the Eastern Regional Appeal Board who overturned a decision by the Town of Bay Bulls to allow a garage to operate out of a premises on Northside Road.
Mayor Patrick O’Driscoll noted the town has let the 10 day period it had to challenge the Appeal Board ruling expire, meaning council will not fight the decision. He noted council has also overturned its approval of the tire changing business.
Council had initially approved the business owner’s application to operate on Northside Road back in February. At the time, it attached conditions that allowed the business owner to store tires outside his property, but in the side and rear yards only.
However the appellant in the case before the Regional Appeal Board, Doug Chafe, who lives next door to where the garage was located, maintained the business had been operating for a couple of years prior to that without having any permit. On a couple of occasions at council, Chafe complained the garage changed the longstanding nature of the street and reduced the values of neighbouring homes. Chafe further claimed some members of council were using the business for their own tire repairs and maintenance knowing full well the business did not have a permit to operate.
“I never observed it (operating),” Mayor O’Driscoll said this week when asked if the business had been operating for two years without a permit. He pointed out most of the tire changing was done by a mobile unit taken to where the customers were located or needed help.
In its decision, the Appeal Board said that while council did have discretionary authority to approve a business on the street, the conditions attached to the permit were contrary to the town’s municipal plan. It also ruled that “the town did not correctly classify the tire repair service as a light industrial use.” As a consequence, the commissioners, found, “the town did not use its discretionary authority appropriately.”
The board vacated council’s approval of the business and instructed the town to reconsider the application in accordance with its municipal plan and development regulations. Council did so, O’Driscoll explained, when it voted this past spring to rescind the permit it had issued for the business.
However, the owner of the business has reapplied to operate at 135 Northside Road. The public has until Wednesday to submit a written comment to council.
 

One gutsy gal from the Goulds

Kielly Emberley has been hospitalized three times, undergone surgery and has to take monthly infusions of a drug that makes her nauseous and susceptible to a host of ailments including influenza, pneumonia and measles. But even all that hasn’t stopped the Grade 9 St. Kevin’s High School student from making the honours roll at school and performing as a leader on numerous basketball teams.
Not only does Emberley refuse to let ulcerative colitis get the better of her, she also takes positive steps to help find a cure for the disease, participating with her family, teammates and friends every year in the annual Gutsy Walk, which raises money for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada. 
This year’s walk, conducted in sodden weather in Paradise, raised some $77,000 for the organization.
Emberley’s mom, Donna, is understandably proud of the courage and perseverance shown by her daughter. Not only does Kielly play a lot of top calibre basketball – both with the Sonics and St. Kevin’s Grade 9, Grade 10 and senior girls teams where she has earned a spot in the provincial training pod for the 2017 Canada Games – but she is also on the school running team and participates in many extracurricular activities.
Kielly was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age 10. “Since that time, she has been hospitalized three times and undergone surgeries,” said her mom. “She has been on thousands of pills in that time and is currently receiving monthly infusions of Remicade to keep her symptoms at bay. Unfortunately, it is not a cure, but a drug that usually allows her four weeks symptom free. Yet, the drug also causes her to be extremely sick and makes her susceptible to influenza, pneumonia, measles, etcetera. Therefore, Kielly is always sick. But it still doesn’t stop her.”
To deal with the disease, Donna said, Kielly decided to become involved with the Crohn’s and Colitis foundation to help raise awareness and funds. “She attends their summer camp and is a leader in training for this camp,” Donna noted. “She is a spokesperson for the foundation and attends events to speak to other children about her experience and help them cope with the disease. She is an inspiration to many and always has a smile on her face.”
Walking alongside Kielly this year, sporting the same lime green tee shirts, was a bevy of her teammates, friends and even some past and present coaches and teachers. If the bright colour wasn’t enough, the team name emblazoned on them, “Kielly’s Gutsy Gals,” was equally noticeable.
“It is such a wonderful event that also shows how much support that Kielly gets from her Goulds community,” said Mom. “They are always there to support her.”