Newfoundland (Celebrates?) 57 Years of Confederation
The end of March will soon be upon us. It's a time of year that means different things to different people. For some folks, primarily sealers and animal rights activists, March brings with it an annual opportunity to reap some sorely needed dollars, no matter which side of the debate you may be on. For others March marks the end of a long cold winter and the beginning of spring rebirth. For many people in Newfoundland and Labrador March 31 also marks the end of a cold, dreary period that was replaced 57 years ago by an even colder shoulder and a poor cousin’s welcome.
March 31, 2006 marks the 57 anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Confederation with Canada. To this day Confederation itself is an event that some in the Province tout as the beginning of our bright future, while others see it as simply the beginning of the end. Regardless of which side of the wharf on which you tie your boat, some facts are indisputable. One basic fact is that it hasn't been a smooth ride.
Newfoundland and Labrador entered Canada by the slimmest of margins, with the referendum vote split almost exactly down the middle. The day we walked through Canada’s proverbial back door, on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland (later to be re-named Newfoundland and Labrador) was given a few much needed crumbs that ensured its survival. It was then immediately assessed by Ottawa for what the land and resources could contribute to the good of the Country, not necessarily that of the people who lived in the Nation's newest Province.
There are those who always like to remind us that Newfoundland was basically bankrupt at the time it entered Canada. True, but I believe I also read somewhere that there was one million dollars in the bank. Not much by today’s standards of course but far better by comparison than the 12 billion dollar debt the Province has accumulated since being taken under Canada’s wing.
The truth is that Newfoundland was truly in dire financial need at the time. Much of the problem was the result of actually pay off its massive war debt from WWII. While Nation after Nation, including some of those very close to home, simply defaulted on their obligations, poor little Newfoundland didn’t and as a result was ripe for the picking when big brother Canada made its play for control.
Has it all been bad since then? It depends on your perspective I guess. What some people see as the benefits this Province has reaped as a result of Confederation others see as a hindrance. In other words, what one man views as support and safety, another may see as a crutch leading to everlasting dependence. It all depends on your perspective I suppose.
The list of potential or imagined pros and cons with regard to Confederation is far too long to recite. In fact, I doubt there is enough paper at an Abitibi-Consolidated newsprint operation to hold that list. Putting aside the “grey shades” of many of those issues, there are definitely certain long standing ones that have never been right since Joey Smallwood put his BIC to the Terms of Union that fateful day. Every day since then that list grows longer.
The list includes everything from a collapsed fishery (managed to extinction by Ottawa), the disappearance of a railway that once ran across the island (Ottawa decided that we didn’t really need that), the people of Labrador traveling hundreds of miles on a National highway that isn’t paved and a population that is ever dwindling because the best and brightest are forced to travel to places like Alberta if they want to find a job.
Would Newfoundland and Labrador have been better off if it had never joined Canada? Who knows, certainly not me. That debate has been going on since that March day in 49, but there is something I wonder somtimes. If the government of the day had simply borrowed 1.5 billion (12 billion by today's dollar value) would we be any worse off than we are now? Could we have used those funds to turn the place around, and would we still have a viable fishery? Remember, at the time you could buy a new house for less than the price of many used cars today.
I guess some folks will look back on March as the first month of spring and they'll begin looking ahead to the showers April will bring. In the mean time I’ll just sit here and contemplate the reality that is today’s Newfoundland and Labrador. I'll wonder what could have been and I’ll wonder too if we really shouldn’t have waited that one extra day before letting Joey sign us up. Maybe it would have been just a little more appropriate that way.
24 comments:
Are you sure it wasn't inked on April 1st? It seems that the whole Confederation idea was an early April Fools joke on us, that's for sure.
But then again, maybe it saved us from our own self destuction. I'm not sure we would of had a fishery as long as we did if we didn't have somebody else, namely Ottawa, manage it for us, irregardless of the giveaways and back-room deals for our fish that Ottawa has delt over the years. But then again, maybe we could of struck those deals ourselves and reaped 100% of the profits and political gains ourselves, instead of Ottawa.
The Confederation debate will be ongoing for some time yet, that's for sure. At least until long after we become a 'have' province. Maybe then, we'll only see the positive side.
As for me right now, I don't know what side of the wharf to tie upto, Myles. Maybe we should all opt to pull 'er up on the slip way for good, forget about the past, and move on. Pun intended.
ABC
In response to brigitte who so carefully tied my most recent commentary back to my previous one when she noted that we should not trust Ottawa to manage the seal stocks. Here is what she said:
"Why is ottawa being allowed to hunt the seal population into collapse? Even though they are thriving today, so were the fisheries.
"So why should we believe anything ottawa says?..."
"Why would we believe them where seal are the topic? I see a replay of past events and I am so ashamed to be Canadian right now."
Well Brigitte (or Ms. Bardot if you prefer), firstly I stand behind both commentaries I made and I don't see any conflict in doing so.
My previous hunt suggested keeping protesors off the ice but it did not recommend leaving the management of the hunt strictly with Ottawa. Instead the article recommended allowing, and I quote,
"...independent authorities" to access and monitor the hunt and also identified those possible authorities by saying, "...Permits to view the hunt should be issued to unbiased, perhaps even international observers, who are willing to report the truth, good or bad."
In my opinion that is not saying we should simply trust Ottawa. Having said all of that I do believe the numbers (6 million) quoted by DFO scientific staff are probably fairly accurate in comparison to the numbers identified for fish stocks over the years. After all it is much easier to track seal populations on ice flows using aerial survellience and sattelite imagery than it is to track fish.
Have you ever tried counting fish hundreds or even thousands of feet under the ocean? I haven't but I bet counting seals is easier.
Note: my last comment should have read:
"My last hunt article" not "My last hunt".
Just wanted to clarify.
I appreciate your comments Brigitte. Sometimes I get a little steamed when I read certain comments on this topic. Primarily because so much mis-information is spread around and many people, unlike yourself, seem to rely solely on the "cuteness" factor and the emotion this subject contains.
I am glad to hear you are trying to gather facts instead of just emotion. My only hope is that when you hear or read supposed facts bear in mind the source. As much as many of these animal rights groups claim to be presenting clear facts they often take liberties with them.
Good luck in your research.
How can you say a kill of 0.04% is a cull?
As for trapping I did sometrapping in my day and IMHO the present method used in the seal fishery is far more humane than any trap I ever used.
From other post very little of the animals trapped are eaten.
Sorry for overlap Patriot. Good post on this anniversary April fools day.
Cod taken off the shelves at Asda to preserve stocks
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 28 March 2006
Asda, Britain's second biggest supermarket, is removing North Sea cod from its shelves in response to the dramatic collapse of natural fish stocks.
In a sign of how overfishing has devastated the once-plentiful cod off Britain's coast, the supermarket said that it would suspend sale of North Sea cod by July. It said the move had been influenced by attacks from environmentalists for its sale of endangered fish such as cod, which is heading towards commercial extinction in the waters off Britain.
Greenpeace demonstrators scaled the roof of Asda's Leeds headquarters in January and unfurled a banner that read: "Will stocks last?" while the Marine Conservation Society ranked the store bottom for sustainable fish sales. In a self-declared conversion to environmentalism that includes selling sustainable hardwood and raising prices to dairy farmers, Asda said that as well as suspending North Sea cod, it would cease the sale of swordfish, which is also endangered.
The chain said that it intended to follow its parent company Walmart within five years by selling only fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, the London body which checks global fisheries for sustainability and legality. The move could make Asda among the most ethical supermarkets for fish - a distinction currently held by Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.
But Asda went one step further by suggesting that the whole of the North Sea should be turned into a marine conservation zone with commercial fishing limited to local boats to protect it from overfishing.
Green groups welcomed the supermarket's commitment, which they said highlighted how the ravaging of the seas was rising up the agenda of UK shopkeepers and consumers, who spend £1.8bn a year on fish. Overfishing has decimated stocks of cod, skate, monkfish, hake any many other species, resulting in the estimated loss of 90 per cent of the world's big fish such as tuna, swordfish and marlin.
Cod's global decline has been particularly stark. Stocks off Newfoundland, Canada, collapsed in the early 1990s and have not recovered, in a grim portent of what night happen in the North Sea. Historically, cod have teemed off British shores - fishermen from Scotland and the east of England were helping to land 300,000 tons a year in the 1970s and 1980s. But, for the past four years, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas - the scientific body which advises the EU on its common fisheries policy - has urged all cod fishing in the North Sea to stop.
Politicians in the European Commission have repeatedly ignored the advice and, this year, set a catch of about 23,000 tons - almost half of the remaining stock.
Blake Lee-Harwood, Greenpeace's campaign director, said Asda's move highlighted how store chains were rapidly "delisting" endangered species.
"It's one of those issues whose time has come and I think supermarkets have been looking at themselves and have thought: 'We can't really justify selling the last cod in the North Sea.'"
He believed consumers still had little idea just how overfishing has harmed stocks - 75 per cent are over-exploited. He said: "People think [the sea] is so vast we cannot possibly catch all the fish. If you have any experience of the fishing industry, you realise it is only too possible."
Bryce Beukers-Stewart, fisheries policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: "The warnings about overfishing have been going on for years and suddenly supermarkets are reacting.There's a lot of competition between supermarkets: as soon as you perceive that selling sustainable fish is beneficial, everyone jumps aboard."
Fish to avoid
* Atlantic Cod: overfished. Eat well-managed Icelandic cod.
* Monkfish: over-exploited, long-lived
* Marlin: predator plays an important role in marine eco-system. Over-fished.
* Seabass: avoid trawl fisheries that kill dolphins. Choose line-caught seabass
* Skates and rays: endangered, slow to mature
Fish to eat
* Herring: plentiful in North Sea. Contains Omega 3
* Salmon: organic farmed better for the environment
* Hoki: New Zealand white fish. Treat like cod
* Red Gurnard: fast growing and liked by chefs
* Alaskan Pollock: sustainably fished
Source: Marine Conservation Society
Asda, Britain's second biggest supermarket, is removing North Sea cod from its shelves in response to the dramatic collapse of natural fish stocks.
In a sign of how overfishing has devastated the once-plentiful cod off Britain's coast, the supermarket said that it would suspend sale of North Sea cod by July. It said the move had been influenced by attacks from environmentalists for its sale of endangered fish such as cod, which is heading towards commercial extinction in the waters off Britain.
Greenpeace demonstrators scaled the roof of Asda's Leeds headquarters in January and unfurled a banner that read: "Will stocks last?" while the Marine Conservation Society ranked the store bottom for sustainable fish sales. In a self-declared conversion to environmentalism that includes selling sustainable hardwood and raising prices to dairy farmers, Asda said that as well as suspending North Sea cod, it would cease the sale of swordfish, which is also endangered.
The chain said that it intended to follow its parent company Walmart within five years by selling only fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, the London body which checks global fisheries for sustainability and legality. The move could make Asda among the most ethical supermarkets for fish - a distinction currently held by Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.
But Asda went one step further by suggesting that the whole of the North Sea should be turned into a marine conservation zone with commercial fishing limited to local boats to protect it from overfishing.
Green groups welcomed the supermarket's commitment, which they said highlighted how the ravaging of the seas was rising up the agenda of UK shopkeepers and consumers, who spend £1.8bn a year on fish. Overfishing has decimated stocks of cod, skate, monkfish, hake any many other species, resulting in the estimated loss of 90 per cent of the world's big fish such as tuna, swordfish and marlin.
Cod's global decline has been particularly stark. Stocks off Newfoundland, Canada, collapsed in the early 1990s and have not recovered, in a grim portent of what night happen in the North Sea. Historically, cod have teemed off British shores - fishermen from Scotland and the east of England were helping to land 300,000 tons a year in the 1970s and 1980s. But, for the past four years, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas - the scientific body which advises the EU on its common fisheries policy - has urged all cod fishing in the North Sea to stop.
Politicians in the European Commission have repeatedly ignored the advice and, this year, set a catch of about 23,000 tons - almost half of the remaining stock.
Blake Lee-Harwood, Greenpeace's campaign director, said Asda's move highlighted how store chains were rapidly "delisting" endangered species.
"It's one of those issues whose time has come and I think supermarkets have been looking at themselves and have thought: 'We can't really justify selling the last cod in the North Sea.'"
He believed consumers still had little idea just how overfishing has harmed stocks - 75 per cent are over-exploited. He said: "People think [the sea] is so vast we cannot possibly catch all the fish. If you have any experience of the fishing industry, you realise it is only too possible."
Bryce Beukers-Stewart, fisheries policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: "The warnings about overfishing have been going on for years and suddenly supermarkets are reacting.There's a lot of competition between supermarkets: as soon as you perceive that selling sustainable fish is beneficial, everyone jumps aboard."
Fish to avoid
* Atlantic Cod: overfished. Eat well-managed Icelandic cod.
* Monkfish: over-exploited, long-lived
* Marlin: predator plays an important role in marine eco-system. Over-fished.
* Seabass: avoid trawl fisheries that kill dolphins. Choose line-caught seabass
* Skates and rays: endangered, slow to mature
Fish to eat
* Herring: plentiful in North Sea. Contains Omega 3
* Salmon: organic farmed better for the environment
* Hoki: New Zealand white fish. Treat like cod
* Red Gurnard: fast growing and liked by chefs
* Alaskan Pollock: sustainably fished
Source: Marine Conservation Society
"And in regards to Newfoundland and these sealing/fishing communities unless you were born and raised there you will be treated as an outsider. Of course if you want to visit Newfoundland as a tourist and give them your money for a B&B stay, etc. they will be more than happy to take it, try and discuss the seal hunt issue, try to learn how they tick and communicate with them on this level and you can forget it.
Wrong generation, wrong time.
One more thing, the standard deal for the fishermen of Yarmouth was to go and fish as much as they could for whatever season they had and then spend all their money (saving is typically a foreign idea to them) following which they would go on unemployment benefits and then repeat this scenario a year later. This has been the standard economic template for Atlantic Canadian fishermen for at least one generation.
It is easy to make yourself into a victim and the Atlantic fishermen of Canada have done a bang up job of this, in turn they have spread the "wealth" making the seals of Canada victims as well."
from a former Nova Scotia resident, and from which I a decendent.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-10-02-sea-lion-ruckus_x.htm
No choice but to cut crab quota: DFO
Last updated Mar 30 2006 02:00 PM NST
CBC News
The quota for snow crab – by far the most valuable fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador – will be cut by seven per cent this year.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the measures are necessary to protect crab stocks, which have come under intense fishing pressure over the last decade.
Crab quota cuts
Area 2006 quota 2005 quota
2J 1,425 1,425
3K 10,430 12,860
3LNO 29,798 29,748
3PS 3,045 4,065
4R3PN 1,535 1,845
Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said the handling of immature and undersize crab is "seriously threatening" the resource.
"Changes to management measures must be made or the crab simply won't be there to catch in future years," Hearn said.
While the overall quota cut is seven per cent, fishermen in some zones will see their respective quotas drop by as much as 25 per cent.
DFO has set the total allowable catch at 46,233 tonnes.
Among the areas that will be hardest hit are in areas 3K, along the northeast coast of Newfoundland, and in 3PS, along the island's south coast.
Loyola Hearn
John Gillett, who fishes from Twillingate on the northeast coast, said fishermen in his area will have to cope with quota cuts of about 20 per cent.
"My enterprise can't work on this kind of stuff," said Gillett, whose quota last year was 10,000 pounds, or about 4,500 kilograms.
"You're not going to get a crew. You're not going to get nobody to go with you if they keep on cutting."
In St. Bride's on the south coast, fishermen like Kevin McGrath will see their quotas cut by 25 per cent.
He figures the lower quota will cost him and crew about $30,000 and will make it harder to qualify for employment insurance.
"Last year … you were just scraping a few stamps. You weren't making no big pile of money, and this year, it's looking harder for the stamps and that," he said.
Crab catches triggered a boom in Newfoundland and Labrador's fishery in the mid-1990s, with some fishermen investing heavily in new gear to adapt to the lucrative trade.
Scientists and some fishermen have warned that catches were jeopardized by too much effort.
In 1992, only 750 licences for crab had been issued in Newfoundland and Labrador. By 2004, that number had climbed to 3,411.
On top of resources issues and high fuel costs, the industry is dealing with a sagging marketplace this season.
FROM MARCH 8, 2006: Crab prices dropping, analyst warns
U.S. consultant John Sackton, whose views on the seafood industry are followed closely in Eastern Canada, said earlier this month that the high Canadian dollar was contributing to depressed prices.
Seals eat crab too.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=3874872
If anyone is to blame fir the carcasses being left due to lack of markets it is the ARA's for shutting down any new markets that were found for the meat, take that issue up with the ARA's who's only agenda is to stop all meat eaters.
Were not talking about animal welfare groups but animal rights groups.
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1999/03/09/56.asp
Whats the matter isn't just the thing you are advocating let nature take it's course right.
Let the seals die of Phocine Distemper virus and have the seals eat the fins of the cod. Or was it eat the cod with only one fin.
0.04% isn't going to have any real effect on the numbers of seals out there.
http://www.exn.ca/news/images/1999/03/09/19990309-deadcod1.jpg
These are your ARA's who you so vehemently support.
http://www.furcommission.com/news/newsC7.htm
http://www.activistcash.com/
How can you call a seal fishery of 0.04% a mass cull come on, it's all relative.
Your arguement about leaving the carcasses to rot needs to be brought up with the ARA's they are the ones who have closed any markets that were ever found and are still doing it with the recent removal of Omega 3 seal oil capsules from shelves.
Sea Shepherd News
News Releases
03/30/2006
Seal Wars! – Report from the Frontlines
The Frontlines of the campaign to abolish the slaughter of seals in Canada is now global. We are now fighting this obscene slaughter on the ice, in the courts, in the media, in Ottawa, and on the streets of dozens of countries around the world. Seal Warriors are musicians, actors, activists, hunger strikers, cartoonists, writers, consumers, chefs, retailers, travel agents, documentarians, pilots, poets, school children, college students, environmentalists, animal rights activists, conservationists, and the person next door. It is a rapidly growing movement against cruelty and ecological degradation.
LIES AND LYING CANADIAN SENATORS WHO TELL THEM
Canada is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the international public. Few people outside of Canada buy the argument that the slaughter of 325,000 seal pups is necessary or humane.
People are more inclined to believe their own eyes than the lies of politicians. When Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams tells 60 million viewers of the Larry King show that sealers do not kill seals with clubs and the viewers are watching images of sealers clubbing seals as they listen to him, they can see just how blatant these lies can be.
The Canadian media have become so desperate to justify the seal slaughter that they enlisted the hardly impartial right-wing lobbyist group Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) to attack the seal defenders with the bogus claim that the international Boycott of Canadian Seafood is not working.
Apparently, the CCF found a couple of restaurants that had signed onto the list to boycott Canadian fish but appeared to know nothing about it. That’s what happens when the dishwasher answers the phone.
For a boycott that “is not working,” the Canadian government is spending a great deal of money and effort to refute the effectiveness of the boycott, which tells us that the boycott is in fact being effective.
The government reports did not mention the ban on Canadian seafood by large U.S. retailers such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Food Markets, Wild Oats, Marks and Spencer, Legal Seafood, etc…
Canadian Senator George Baker appeared on the CTV Mike Duffy program to claim that “Canada is the only country in the world that allows you to take a camera to the seal hunt to document the killing.” This is, of course, not true – seal hunts in the rest of the world are documented and Canada is the only country that requires special permits to film or photograph. It is also the only country that has arrested and convicted people for witnessing and filming the slaughter.
Newfoundland Senator Baker also made the absurd claim that Canada is the only country that has banned the killing of baby seals and further claimed that Americans were killing whitecoated harp seals and blue-backed hood seal pups. Baker was introduced as a vegetarian by Mike Duffy, something that he is not.
Blatant lies. Canada kills baby seals. That is a substantiated and documented fact. The only difference between the seal slaughter today and that of twenty years ago is that the seals killed today are one week older. A baby seal is still a baby seal after losing the whitecoat.
Additionally, the United States does not have a commercial seal hunt. Fur seals are killed by Aleut Indians in the Bering Sea as a subsistence hunt – not whitecoats or bluebacks as Baker claims and not baby seals. There is no U.S. commercial seal hunt.
Baker was not the only Senator to lie about the seal slaughter. Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette debated Captain Paul Watson on the Mike Duffy program a week earlier and claimed that the hunt was for aboriginal people. When Captain Watson corrected her, she said, “Well, the sealers are Canadians.” Captain Watson pointed out that he was also a Canadian and it was a lie to continue stating that this hunt is conducted by aboriginal people.
Senator Hervieux Payette also claimed that the hunt was humane. Captain Watson countered by saying that he had seen seal pups kicked in the face and skinned alive. The Senator said this was not possible because the hunt was humane. Captain Watson said, “Have you been on the ice Senator, have you seen the killing of the seals?” The Senator replied that she had not. “Then don’t call me a liar, go there yourself, see for yourself and then come back and tell me that I’m lying.”
THE GOVERNMENT LIES ARE NOT WORKING
Outside of Canada, the lies are falling on deaf ears. Sir Paul McCartney and Lady Heather Mills McCartney vowed to do everything they can over the next year to shut down the slaughter.
Musician Morrissey has announced he will not do any tours of Canada until the seal slaughter is shut down.
Morrissey released the following statement:
"We will not include any Canadian dates on our world tour to promote our new album. This is in protest against the barbaric slaughter of over 325,000 baby seals which is now underway.
I fully realise that the absence of any Morrissey concerts in Canada is unlikely to bring the Canadian economy to its knees, but it is our small protest against this horrific slaughter - which is the largest slaughter of marine animal species found anywhere on the planet.
The Canadian Prime Minister says the so-called "cull" is economically and environmentally justified, but this is untrue.
The seal population has looked after itself for thousand of years without human intervention, and, as the world knows, this slaughter is about one thing only: making money. The Canadian government will stream all of the pelts into the fashion industry and this is the reason why the baby seals are killed with spiked clubs that crush their skulls - any damage to their pelts is avoided. The Canadian Prime Minister also states that the slaughter is necessary because it provides jobs for local communities, but this is an ignorant reason for allowing such barbaric and cruel slaughter of beings that are denied life simply because somebody somewhere might want to wear their skin.
Construction of German gas chambers also provided work for someone - this is not a moral or sound reason for allowing suffering.
If you can, please boycott Canadian goods. It WILL make a difference. As things stand, Canada has placed itself alongside China as the cruelest and most self-serving nation."
Following on the heels of Brigitte Bardot’s media conference in Ottawa, Pamela Anderson has requested a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on April 3rd. The Prime Minister will not be able to dismiss Pamela as he did with Brigitte. Pamela is a Canadian citizen and she has a modern base of fans across Canada. If he meets with her or he does not meet with her, the Canadian media will not ignore her.
CITIZENS HUNGER STRIKE FOR SEALS – HUNGER STRIKING IN OTTAWA
In Ottawa, Svetlana Fotinov is in her 3rd day of a hunger strike before the Canadian Parliament Buildings.
Svetlana Fotinov before the Canadian Parliament Buildings
HUNGER STRIKING IN JAIL
In Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon from Los Angeles is in his 3rd day of a hunger strike inside the jail where he has been sentenced to twenty-two days for approaching within a half of a nautical mile of where a sealer was killing a seal.
Twenty-two days for witnessing the cruel and brutal slaughter of a seal pup. Not only was Dr. Vlasak charged with this, he was attacked by sealers on the ice, struck with a sealing club, and his face bloodied. The Mounties refused to lay charges against his assailants.
SEA SHEPHERD CREW MEMBER LISA SHALOM TO BE SENTENCED ON APRIL 3rd FOR FILMING SEAL SLAUGHTER
Canadian Lisa Shalom from Montreal, who was arrested last March for witnessing a seal being killed, is scheduled to appear in court in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on Monday, April 3rd for sentencing.
Ten of the eleven Sea Shepherd crew have been sentenced to pay $1,000 fines each for approaching sealers engaged in the act of killing seals. The convictions are being appealed. Lisa Shalom was the only Canadian charged and was given a separate sentencing date. There is some speculation that because she is Canadian her sentence could be more severe.
Lisa Shalom is presently in Prince Edward Island representing the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and investigating sealing activities.
HSUS GROUNDED IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Canadian and Newfoundland native Rebecca Aldworth and her crew from the Humane Society of the United States have been grounded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
After having seal guts thrown at them by sealers and after their inflatable boat was rammed by a sealing vessel, Rebecca, five other crew, and a reporter from Reuters were charged with approaching within 10 meters of the sealers who attacked them. The HSUS boat was damaged.
They all had permits to document the slaughter, however, the permits restrict the approach to the sealers to a distance of 10 meters. Alternatively, the sealers are not restricted from approaching the people with the permits. When a sealer approaches a person with a permit, the permit holder is required to withdraw and maintain a 10 meter distance. Therefore, when the sealers came toward and attacked the HSUS crew, the victims in the attack automatically were in violation of the regulations.
Of course, no sealers were charged with assault or damage to property.
The law is one sided in favor of seal killers in Canada.
CANADA IS PLANNING A WEST COAST SEAL HUNT
On March 28th, Captain Paul Watson was interviewed by CBC television for his response to a call for a West Coast Canadian Seal Slaughter.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is making noises about setting a quota of 20,000 seals on the West Coast. There was no indication as to the targeted species – harbour seals or seal lions?
Captain Watson informed CBC that any move towards opening a slaughter of seals on the Pacific coast would be strongly opposed.
CANADIAN BOYCOTT TO ESCALATE
Friends of Animals in the United States has called for a boycott of tourism to Canada. Sea Shepherd supports this boycott.
Actor Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) suggested to Captain Paul Watson that a boycott be organized directed at having non-Canadian production companies boycott Canada for the purpose of making movies and television shows. There is also a movement (led by Morrissey’s example) for musicians to boycott Canada and to refrain from touring Canada until the seal slaughter stops.
DEBATE ON SEAL SLAUGHTER IN NEWFOUNDLAND CANCELLED
Captain Paul Watson was scheduled to debate pro-sealers in St. John’s Newfoundland on March 31st.
He agreed to attend a screening of the Newfoundland film My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers, a National Film Board of Canada production that supports the culture of killing seals in Newfoundland.
The debate had been organized by the CBC and the National Film Board of Canada. Three days before the debate, the event was cancelled when the pro-hunting supporters withdrew.
Ann Troake, the director of the film was one of the people and Premier Danny Williams was invited to the panel. Apparently Ann Troake felt that she would not be able to defend her bloody tradition and backed out.
Danny William, who was unable to debate the issue effectively with Paul and Heather McCartney would not participate.
In the end, the National Film Board of Canada and the CBC were unable to assemble any defenders of the seal hunt willing to debate the controversy with Captain Paul Watson.
Big, brave, club-swinging barbarians on the ice when it comes to bashing in the heads of baby seals but complete cowards when it comes to debating the issue with a seal defender with three decades of experience on the ice floes protecting the seals.
The title of the film – My Ancestor Were Rogues and Murderers – is a very appropriate title indeed about a tradition of bloody exploitation by a culture that drove numerous indigenous species including the indigenous people of Newfoundland to extinction.
The Beothuk people, the now extinct Labrador duck, giant auk, sea mink, Newfoundland wolf, walrus, and much-diminished species of cod, pilot whales, and so many others would agree – Ann Troake’s ancestors were in fact rogues and murderers although she appears to be quite proud of this history but then again the family on the cover of the DVD looks pretty inbred.
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON:
“Opposition to the horrifically-cruel and ecologically destructive slaughter of over 325,000 seal pups is building. It has become an international movement with a life of its own involving hundreds of organizations, businesses, and thousands of individuals. Canadian Consulates have witnessed demonstrations in dozens of cities worldwide. Every week, another country announces that they will ban seal products. We even had Costco remove seal oil Omega-3 capsules from the shelves of their stores in Newfoundland and Eastern Canada.
We can win this fight for the seals. We have it in our power to shut down and abolish the Canadian commercial seal hunt. We need to work together and we need to keep the pressure on Canada. We need more celebrity input, more restaurants, and retailers to sign onto the seafood boycott. More petitions, more hunger strikers, demonstrators, and letter writers.
We must send a message loud and clear to the Canadian government that this movement is not going away, that Canada is gaining a reputation around the world as a cruel and insensitive nation and for what – to protect a few jobs in an industry that lasts only for a few weeks.
This slaughter is costing Canada more than it makes now, much more. How much more will it cost before these politicians decide that their stubborn pride must give way to the interests of concerned citizens around the world?
The cruel and ecologically destructive slaughter of seals is a national disgrace. It has no place in a civilized world, no place in the 21st Century and no place in a world that strives towards decency and kindness.
This blood-soaked obscenity of cruelty must be ended.”
THE LONDON DAILY MIRROR SLAMS THE CANADIAN SEAL SLAUGHTER
GO TO:
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16864766%26method=full%26siteid=62484%26headline=exclusive%2d%2dseason%2dof%2dslaughter-name_page.html
OR READ FULL TEXT BELOW:
SEASON OF SLAUGHTER
Pups are clubbed & then skinned alive in front of their mothers... You can hear their bleating as the babies are dragged away
Dennis Ellam and Roland Leon in the Gulf of St Lawrence
BLOOD is spreading across the ice. Obscene scarlet on pure white.
At the stroke of 6am yesterday - right on schedule - Canada's annual slaughter of the seal pups got under way.
It's the biggest and the most barbaric cull anywhere on Earth.
By the time you read this 70,000 pups will have been killed. A total of 325,000 will die - either clubbed to death or shot - within the next three weeks. But it might take just five days.
As dawn broke yesterday the bloodbath began, with men jumping from their fleet of boats, running across the ice, swinging their spiked clubs as they went.
The impassioned pleas of Paul and Heather McCartney and Brigitte Bardot - and worldwide condemnation - count for nothing out here. Thirty-eight years to the day after our sister paper the Daily Mirror's iconic front page revealed the horror of the cull to the nation, nothing has changed.
Just 24 hours earlier, when we flew into this remote wilderness, it was still untouched, a natural nursery for thousands of month-old pups, basking on the ice in the thin sunshine, their proud mothers beside them.
Today, the pups' freshly-skinned carcasses, still steaming from their body heat, litter the ice. Their mothers lie beside them, pining for their dead babies, their mournful bleating carried in the cold air.
Nothing prepares you for such a sickening spectacle.
They call it a hunt, of course, to make it sound like a noble challenge between man and beast. But a harp seal can't run like a fox, it has nowhere to hide like a deer in a forest, it can't fight back like a grizzly. It just lies there, helplessly waiting to be slaughtered.
It's only three weeks since the McCartneys came here, to make their emotional and - out here - controversial plea for the slaughter to be abandoned.
Canada's response? It promptly increased the quota hunters are allowed to kill by another 5,000. "When so-called celebrities come across here making their pronouncements - wealthy people telling folks how they should earn their living - well, we're outraged," government official Phil Jenkins, told me. "We don't feel we need to justify the hunt to anyone."
I paid £12 my "observer's" permit allowing me to watch the slaughter. The "hunters" have paid just £2.50 each for their licences to kill. A top hunter will bag around 1,000 pups a week - and earn over £3,000.
This year, the Canadian government has decreed, 325,000 seal pups can be culled on their journey out of the St Lawrence, from the breeding ground where they were born to the open sea.
Most will die before they have even taken their first swim.
There is simply no logic in the old argument that seals have to be culled to keep their population down and protect fish stocks. Nature has its own ways.
The waters in the Gulf are warming, the ice is thinner than it has ever been in living memory.
For hundreds of square miles it is broken and cracked like a vast crazy paving. Amazingly, our helicopter pilot managed to put down photographer Roland Leon and Myself on a pan of ice that was barely any bigger than the chopper, while the floe pitched and rolled all around us in a raging gale.
In these treacherous conditions, countless new-born seals, would have I fallen into the sea and ' drowned anyway.
In fact, as the Canadian government now admit, the impetus for the hunt is commercial. It makes money.
Yesterday I watched in horror as the hunters swarmed on to the ice with knives dangling from their belts and their traditional "hakapik" clubs slung over their shoulders.
The hakapik is a multipurpose killing tool - a heavy wooden club, with a hammer head on one side to crush a seal pup's skull, and on the other a hook to drag away the carcass to be skinned.
THE first two days of the hunt are always the busiest, I am told. There must be 50 men swarming over the ice - and thousands of pups waiting to be slaughtered. So many to kill, so little time.
The hunters are supposed to club them three times over the head, then touch their eyeball to make sure they are dead before being skinned.
A moment ago one baby seal was a living creature, looking up towards its executioner, fear etched on its face. Its last gesture is to open its mouth wide. A silent cry for mercy.
Now it's a battered heap, waiting for the skinners who follow the hunters. Blood runs from its wounds and its mouth.
The force of the blows has forced its eyes from its sockets. I turn away only to catch out of the corner of my eye the sudden movement of a bloody shape.
A seasoned hunter will you tell this is just a death spasm. Some vets, however, think differently.
According to one report, as many as 40 per cent of seal pups could still be alive when they are skinned.
This one is wriggling and writhing in agony, as it is dragged along, leaving a crimson trail. The hunters lift it, still thrashing, aboard their boat to skin out of sight of our camera.
Earlier I met Robbie Marsland in the offices of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
HE showed me a collection of seal products - tins of seal meat, hats and gloves made from seal fur, even a seal's penis, a delicacy in the Far East where they powder it down and drink it with wine as an aphrodisiac.
Discreetly, the Canadians are now hoping to push seal oil onto the market too, in Omega 3 capsules.
But the main prize is the skin. This year's price is around £30 a pelt, boosted by a sudden demand from the big fashion houses.
Last season, for example, you could have bought a Gucci sealskin coat.
That's why the hunters prefer to club the pups' skulls rather than shoot them and risk hitting the hide. Nothing ruins a £1,000 Gucci coat more than an unsightly bullet-hole.
In the isolated fishing communities around Newfoundland and Labrador, they will tell you that the seal hunt is vital to their way of life, and has been for generations.
"A man has to feed his family, that's the stark truth out here," says Mark Small, 59, a hunter for more than 40 years, like his father and his grandfather before him. "A guy can earn 6,000 dollars in a week. That's one quarter of his annual income. How do you take that away?
"The world thinks we're barbarians, but we're not. Our ancestors settled here to work the oceans, and we have respect for the animals that live here. Seals too. But what do you do with pests in other countries? You get rid of them.
”We don't need you folks to tell us how to run our lives."
HOW YOU CAN STOP THIS SLAUGHTER
Sir Paul McCartney and wife Heather issued the following statement through the Sunday Mirror: "We are devastated to learn that 325,000 of these harp seals – almost all of them defenceless babies – will be clubbed and shot to death. Compassionate people from all around the world are opposed to this seal hunt, including the majority of Canadians, and we urge them to contact their Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and ask him to ban the hunt.
"We chose to come out to the ice floes before the hunt began because it would break our hearts to have to see the cruelty of the hunt.
"But we are absolutely committed to making sure this is the last slaughter of baby seals in Canada anyone will ever have to witness. An important strategy to ending the hunt is closing down the global markets for seal products. Countries such as Greenland, Mexico, and Italy have taken steps to ban the import of sealskins
"When countries stop buying sealskins, there will be no reason for sealers to kill the seals. We are asking every single country to please, please stop buying seal products so this hunt will stop. We're proposing a fair solution to all of this - a sealing licence buy-back plan.
"This is a win-win solution: fishermen would be compensated for any lost revenue when the hunt is closed, and Canada would have a graceful way to put an end to a cruel and needless practice that should have been stopped many years ago."
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has the power to stop the hunt
Let him know he needs to do his job to protect our oceans!
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Canada
Constituency Tel (for Canadians): 613-992-4211
Sealed off
It is absolutely appalling to see the way in which the government of Canada protects and promotes the seal hunt.
Upon reading that eight people had been arrested and ordered to stay off the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, I wondered what country I actually lived in.
Forget the fact that our government allows the unnecessary slaughter of over 300,000 harp seals, but now they are restricting our right to freely move within Canada and on its waters.
Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadian citizens the right to move from place to place. However, apparently this does not apply to those who wish to venture out onto the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the seal hunt.
How can they justify forcing people to apply for an observer status of the hunt on Canadian waters? Does this mean that if I want to go for a boat ride on the Bras Or Lake that I should get an application in before Victoria Day weekend?
From an ecological perspective, the large-scale removal of seals is being done with no real scientific evidence of the effects on a seal population, on that of fish, or the complexities of the marine food web. In fact, there is rising evidence that seal populations may actually have a positive effect on cod stocks.
How the government can continue to validate the hunt with no scientific evidence is extremely irresponsible considering the fact that the problem has stemmed from a lack of responsible coastal management in the first place.
The government has seemingly also failed to consider the fact that our fish stocks are dwindling because of overfishing by the very people who are making the argument in favour of the seal hunt.
Would we then be justified in implementing a widespread slaughter of fishermen in order to increase our fish stocks?
Corinne Goyetche, Antigonish
Dead seals on N.S. shores not related to seal hunt, Fisheries official says
March 31, 2006....well here is one of those natural disasters again just like last year that killed 2000
after that hunt. Do they count these numbers in the cull?
And Newfoundlanders think it is because they aren't taking them fast enough. Oh please hurry and kill so
we get the pelt! Don't want anymore to die before we get our quota. They are gonna die anyway. yadda...How do
you know how many will die in the coming weeks? Add this number to the quota so the PLAN will work to save the cod.
Ridiculous.
See, now what will Canada do when most of the babies drown and die, because of poor ice conditions.
WAKE UP! You can't kill the seal to save them. And the ecosystem is a disaster, global warming etc.
How do you know how many you can safely kill when stuff like this happens? Another species marked up
for Canada hunted or fished to extinction.
Way to go!
Vancouver, British Columbia — Newfoundland native Nadine Saunders is so disgusted by the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of harp seals in her native province that she wishes that she hadn’t been born there. That’s why she will be returning her birth certificate to the Newfoundland government today in protest of the seal hunt that takes place every spring on Canada’s East Coast.
"Thousands of helpless baby seals are bludgeoned to death in the province where I grew up. It makes me ashamed to be a Newfoundlander," says Nadine.
March 31,2006
nadinemsaunders@gmail.com Give her some feedback :)
What a great discussion on confederation this turned out to be...
Hard to think about anything else..............for anyone.
The facts: the economical motivation here is not the seals, it is the cod and other fisheries. The seals are just in the way. They use the fact that there are 6 million of them as an argument, but when you put them in the category with all large marine predators v/s prey, the prey are winning, instead of being about 65 to 100 or more times that of the large predators, there are something like 1000 times more prey or more. And this causes weakness and illnesses because they are not naturally culled. The DFO and Ottawa are only taking the seal and cod numbers. They are not taking the need for large marine predators as a whole. And using the high seal number as an excuse to kill them so that they can make billions off of the fishery surplus. So we don't eat cod, or seafood, We say let the seals have it, We can eat something else.
Funny that this argument was presented by one John Efford, in saving the cod a few years back...
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the 6 million seals, or whatever number is out there, killed and sold, or destroyed and burned. I do not care what happens to them… the more they kill the better I will love it.”
John Efford, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources
Seals implicated in ‘killing fields’ of Newfoundland cod
As Efford put it, “if we continue to remain silent on the harp seal issue and by our silence let Ottawa decide on the best course of action, we might as well roll over and die. Ottawa played a role in the decline of our ground fish fishery. Are we going to remain silent and let Ottawa deciding on the ways and means of its complete destruction?”
Response....
Dr. Jeff Hutchings
PROFESSOR
BSc (Toronto), MSc (Memorial)
PhD (Memorial)
As Dr. Jeff Hutchings, a fish biologist at Dalhousie University and an expert on cod states, “[Efford] has documentation of an episode in which seals have apparently consumed parts of cod and we see the bodies of cods lying on the bottom.” But Hutchings says the video is of more political significance than scientific importance. “It’s not a particularly unusual thing to see,” remarks Hutchings.
Unbelievable.
www.boycott-canada.com/news/geneva.htm It is not for the boycott
Read this for the Geneva court findings.
Also a man in power from here once said, Seals are smart you won't have to kill too many of them before they will just all leave. Looks like he meant will have to kill TOO MANY.
The fact is he is a moron, they will not leave until their food supply is deleted, it is instinct.
We say, Mr. out fish the seals then, beat them to it, then we say oh yeah that's right seals are smart so we just kill em for it, huh?
That is the truth about this whole thing. There are so many ugly things about this, lies and deceit and a lot of innocent marine warm blooded, blood.
A long with global warming they break the ice to allow hunters access. This year they have already started washing up, they call it a natural event, last year 2000 or more washed ashore the day after the hunt. Coincidence? We think not, they are drowning because of the small ice pans from warming and help from the DFO when breaking the ice, this only happens around this time in these numbers every year. And they don't add these numbers to their hunt.
There are so many facts I could write forever. In response to the shortage of cod and compliments (I believe) of Paul McCartney, Britain has removed all cod from the shelves.
Kill the fisheries, if Ottawa and the DFO want to kill the seal to fish the waters to extinction for billions, the world won't eat the fish, seafood etc. Costco has removed omega 3 oil, which is abundant in at least 7 species of abundant cold water fish and doesn't have to come from seal. In fact it is very expensive from seal. And cheap in fish.
The truth behind this is a lot of Canadians (not us) and sealers trust Ottawa and the DFO, the same ones who mismanaged the fisheries to collapse. When their only motivation is to fish the waters, again the seal are in the way.
In the end we guess we can thank those behind this for a few more extinct species. Where they have already contributed enough. Remember these are not Inuit’s, they are English, Scott, Irish, French etc... The Inuit’s only hunt for food survival and never kill for commercial reasons, there kill quota is 10,000, Quebec’s, 91,000 and Newfoundlanders 235,000, which will start in April, and where the fishing industry for Ottawa makes billions.
Kill the seal and allow the corpses to rot, causing carbon dioxide in already oxygen depleted waters. The rot causing the fish that eats from it to get fungal infections. Dead seals are worse for the environment than live ones. But the live ones are worse for the pocket book. The world does have a clue.
Killing 335,000 warm blooded marine animals leaving their corpses to rot causing carbon dioxide in already oxygen depleted waters, allowing the fish to eat from the rot causing fungus in those that eat from it.
We have to say this is as deplorable as China and the cats and dogs for fur, for economic gain. Worse actually because this has very adverse effect on the worlds environment and affects us all, in our ability to survive. It doesn't just tug at the heart and stomach.....but also the very essence of our life as we know it.
In fact the sealers are just the assassin’s for the Government, for access to economic gain.
They attack the ARA's and say they just want money, it's an annual fund raiser, they have been trying for longer than we have seen in view to stop this, but the question is, how much would you pay, if you were wealthy, to Paul Watson, if he was an attorney, to protect someone or something you love from the death penalty, as an innocent person or thing? Fact they have been audited and passed with flying colors.
The senator that claimed he had the goods on the Sea Shepherd Conservative Society because they had an account in Switzerland. (In fact they did have an account in Switzerland, with limited funds, but it was for the Sea Shepherd Conservative Society Switzerland. Where else would the account be? ) He was later fired for misappropriating funds, or stepped down we can't remember. See how they get people to believe their bull while they profit from blood? I say it takes a true dummy to believe their crap.
They say they care about culture and saving it, once again these are not Inuit’s. When the whole time they are saying this, they are Ignoring the Canadian aboriginals deplorable water supplies that are not fit for a rat to drink, and many, mostly children are sick from it.
The premier from Newfoundland states he is upset Costco made this decision without hearing their views.
What he is not remembering is, we have heard his views, on CNN, Larry King. The, we don't club baby seals anymore, most are shot, this is an oxy moron most meaning you do still club some? In the mean time pictures are showing seals being clubbed.
Also we have seen the pictures of seal pelts and penis's an exact match in numbers, what happened to the 50% female pelts, Danny? Were they white....maybe, but the fact is you can not sex these seals until they are dead, So you kill many and only take the pelts and penis's from the males and females with perfect pelt. You do not eat it, fins for fin pie, but not 300,000 plus seal fin pies. Fact only 8% of restaurants sell it, there is no market for it, you blame the ARA's again, no Danny there has never been a market for it outside Northern Canada. And never 300,000 seals worth of it, not even close. Low income families can not consume that much seal, a million in three years? Again you kill the seal to fish the waters. You don't like the seal because they eat your precious money.
Ok Danny, if you want the world to hear your views, talk about it, don't hide, why did you cancel the meeting with Paul Watson? Why does our "Christian" Prime Minister ignore everyone and give no explanation? Why does the only other party with a leader right now, sit quiet? The man who hides has something to hide. The truth is Ottawa, you let the world hate the sealers when you motivate them and use them as a front...DISGUSTING!
And Danny step into the year 2006, your argument that the omega 3 oils are healthy are the only factual ones we have heard, however they are found in at least 7 species of abundant cold blooded fish, at rock bottom prices.
The fact is you all hide, because you are scared, not for your safety, but for your pocketbooks, you have no sound argument, it is all based on lies and blood, for profit. There are some of us Danny who do have a brain, that your government has not brain washed into hate the world sentiments, love Canada. Always posting what's wrong with the world and never looking at Canada, keeping the media under control, communism plain and simple.
If the world has to kill us economically, to stop this, they will this time, this year is different we see the effects of over hunting, global warming and environment effects, it doesn't take scientist. If they make us stop we will never live it down, we have to choose to stop before the world will see Canada for who she really is.
What a great discussion on confederation this turned out to be...
My thoughts exactly, I was thinking about typing something out regarding my thoughts on confederation; however, it appears it would be a waste of time.
I guess the average anti-sealer doesn't have the intellectual ability required to read the title nor the content of a Blog, or perhaps they feel that whatever is written is in some way propaganda towards hunting seals.
(Ottawa decided that we didn’t really need that)
That decision was made by BOTH levels of government.
the people of Labrador traveling hundreds of miles on a National highway that isn’t paved
That's DESPITE Confederation, not because of it: the federal government has outspent the province 10 to 1 on the Trans-Labrador Highway over the years. It's the provincial government that has failed, time and time again, to come to the table and pump Labrador tax and resource income back into Labrador. In fact, there wasn't a single mile of public highway in Labrador before Confederation, other than what the Canadian government built around the Goose Bay area, even before Labrador joined Canada!
and a population that is ever dwindling because the best and brightest are forced to travel to places like Alberta if they want to find a job.
The best and the brightest are forced nothing; what's stopping them from starting their own jobs locally, instead of getting a job?
As long as the mentality exists that a job is something you get, not something you make, the provincial economy will never get ahead.
I have read so many posts by you on this site and have either laughed out loud at the consistent complaining or scratched my head wondering how someone can have such a hard on for everything Myles writes.
I worked hard for where I am today and for my age I am extremely successful. Would I have rather stayed in Newfoundland over the past six years than moving around the USA and mainland Canada, YES! Did I have much of an option NO!
Having an Entrepreneurial spirit is something I pride myself in and I am very confident that it will lead me to greater success in the future. But, if you are trying to fool me or anyone else for that matter in saying that a job is something you make and not get you a very wrong.
It would be an interesting world if EVERYONE started their own job rather than working for someone else. Who would you find to work for you if everyone was creating jobs rather than getting them?
The best and the brightest of our province are leaving everyday, if don’t realize that, than you are very far out of reality. If you were a University Grad and could get a job that paid you four times what they paid you in Newfoundland what would you do?
I have read so many posts by you on this site and have either laughed out loud at the consistent complaining
Do you laugh out loud at Myles' consistent complaining? Why or why not?
Did I have much of an option NO!
Why not?
It would be an interesting world if EVERYONE started their own job rather than working for someone else.
It would be.
But that's not what I'm suggesting.
There need to be MORE people willing to make their own work at home rather than hope to have work come to them. More entrepreneurial spirit. That's what I'm getting at.
As long as entire communities sit waiting for government or the local large employer to save them, there is going to be economic stagnation and decline.
If just one person in every town of 300 or more made their own work -- and that's a realistic goal -- that's several hundred rural jobs right there.
Who would you find to work for you if everyone was creating jobs rather than getting them?
Aha! A labour shortage. That can only be solved by... in-migration. Or a very high rate of births and precocious youngsters...
The best and the brightest of our province are leaving everyday, if don’t realize that, than you are very far out of reality.
I DO realize that.
Unlike you, however, I also realize that entrepreneurship and the ability to unlock local capital is the only way that is going to change.
Unfortunately, the Provincialist Communists of Chairman Danny Williams are making it impossible for anyone with capital locally to invest in potential growth sectors like alternative energy, since his Provincialist Communists want government to own everything.
That might -- emphaisise the "might" -- be a recipe for a short-term increase in government revenues. But it's a recipe for economic disaster in the broader economy. (See how well it's worked for Cuba?)
If you have capital, you have to invest it outside the province. And if you are already outside the province, your capital can be invested more easily and productively elsewhere in the world.
If you were a University Grad and could get a job that paid you four times what they paid you in Newfoundland what would you do?
Take it!
Unless, of course, I spotted the opportunity to make my own work, and make five times what someone in Newfoundland would pay me as an employee...
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