Infertility sucks

And it's something we need to learn to talk about

By Fiona Cunningham | May 17, 2012

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In a very ironic way, infertility is like parenthood. There is a very distinct shift from non-parenthood to parenthood. I’m not just talking about trying to get out the door for work, so weary from lack of sleep that you’re totally oblivious to the spit-up running down the back of your jacket or the cheerios smashed into your pocket or the sticky finger prints on your cell phone. Or the way your voice shifts up an octave and you forget how to talk to someone in a complete sentence. No, there’s a moment somewhere along the way that you...

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Try as you might, you can't budgit

One Labradorian pokes holes in the provincial government's Northern Strategic Plan as falling short of providing adequate investments to promote growt...

By Brandon Pardy | May 11, 2012

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So budget day came and went, and very few had much to say about it. I mean what could you say? There weren’t any big, new measures or cuts (especially since the government tested the waters on that subject months before releasing their needlessly late budget). I mean there were some social media-lites who fired a few shots across the bow. But this was a really, really dull budget. I mean there’s the issue about quietly slipping Nalcor EIGHT! (8) percent of the budget (or $664 million) to develop a project that hasn’t been approved yet....

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Suspending labour rights risks lives

The needs of the many outweigh the profits of the few

By Hans Rollmann | May 8, 2012

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While recently traveling from Halifax to St. John’s, I had an interesting experience. For only the second third fifth time in my life, I heard my name being called over the intercom. “Omg,” thought I, “the plane’s fully loaded and they’re waiting for me!” I tossed a $10 bill at the bartender for my glass of house white. “It’s $10.95,” she proclaimed. My eyes bulged, but my common sense – ‘GET ON BOARD’ – prevailed and I tossed a couple toonies her way, grabbed my bag and charged for the gate. I arrived on...

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The traditional economy

Even in the era of big mining, traditional industries still play an important role

By Keith Collier | May 7, 2012

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Much of the economic activity taking place in Nunavut right now revolves around the mining industry.  With multi-million – if not billion – dollar budgets, huge contract services and labour force requirements, not to mention global scale, it’s understandable that mining companies are huge players in the territory’s economy, and their activities get a lot of attention. But it’s important not to overlook the more traditional economy, which is still very much alive in Nunavut. Arviat especially has a reputation for being one of the m...

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Dying words

An elegy for the used bookstore

By Peter Hynes | May 3, 2012

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“A town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.” - Neil Gaiman, American Gods Whether it is nostalgia, my ongoing infatuation with words and story, or the indulgence of some resilient tactile addiction amidst pulp-scented hordes, I still love to wander bookstores. Used-bookstores, especially. Books are the nearest our species has come to developing telepathy, and I crave them, collect them, and desire to be surrounded by them. During an age in which...

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Mother Midwife

Midwifery saves money and lives. Why is Newfoundland and Labrador lagging so far behind the rest of Canada?

By Fiona Cunningham | May 2, 2012

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International Day of Midwifery is May 5th each year. While this is a column on all things birth and parenting and it would make sense to recognize this celebration on that basis alone, midwifery also has a personal importance to me. In 1892 Sir Wilfred Grenfell arrived in Newfoundland and established hospitals in Labrador and northern Newfoundland. He recruited medical professionals from the UK and in the late 1960’s my mother and father arrived independently in Goose Bay as a nurse midwife and dentist respectively. Obviously both adventur...

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Coming and going: Thoughts on what’s growin...

Our columnist shares some parting thoughts

By Laura Nelson-Hamilton | May 1, 2012

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“Say, where do you figure the farms are?” I asked aloud as the car I was sitting in moved across the Trans-Canada highway, somewhere on the West Coast of Newfoundland in July, 2008. A great expanse appeared beyond the windshield and I found myself at a loss to compare the landscape before me with what had come to pass in the miles that stretched between New Brunswick and the ferry in North Sydney. When we crossed the border and entered Nova Scotia I had noticed little more than the ways in which borders are constructed, maintained, an...

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