Cheers & Jeers
Jeers: to bunkum and balderdash. It must be nice to live in Advanced Education Minister Gerry Byrne’s world, where every day is sunny, even the cloudy ones; where down is actually up, and dismal failures are hailed as tremendous victories. Meanwhile, back in the real world, offering free skiing at a resort propped up with public money and attracting 1,298 people on Easter weekend 2017, as opposed to the 1,389 people who paid to ski on Easter weekend 2016, is hardly “a phenomenal success,” as Byrne claimed last week. Then again, it’s easy to tout the “success” of an act of government largesse when it isn’t your own money you’re throwing around.
Jeers: to hypocrisy. And while we’re on the topic of Gerry Byrne, while the Advanced Education minister — who you’d expect to champion the province’s only university — has lambasted Memorial University’s senior administration for a $720 business dinner for nine people, he had no problem jetting to Qatar for a College of the North Atlantic graduation ceremony May 22. If you flew to Qatar tomorrow from St. John’s, you’d cough up more than $2,000 — and that’s only for the flight. Frankly, the last thing new grads care about is which government representative is sitting on the stage. Save us a bundle, Mr. Byrne, and stay home next year. Having CNA’S president and CEO there is good enough.
Cheers: to candour. The National Recovery Advisory Committee (NRAC) is bringing the affliction of addiction into much sharper focus. At a news conference in St. John’s last week, members of the committee — many of them recovering or recovered addicts themselves, as well as professionals — made the point that addiction, far from being relegated to society’s back alleys, is a chronic mainstream health problem that requires mainstream treatment plans. “We see pink shirt days, balloons, and I don’t know a politician in this country that would take the podium at a breast cancer announcement that wasn’t flanked by women in recovery,” said NRAC member Marshall Smith, a recovering alcoholic and a senior adviser for recovery initiatives with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. “We don’t do that with addiction. We have to start at a very basic level with this.” Hear! Hear!
Jeers: to fashion “news.” Really? Are we supposed to care about this? “Melania Trump’s first outing in the Sicilian sunshine was in a colorful floral applique jacket by Dolce & Gabbana that comes off the rack at $51,000…,” The Associated Press reported Friday. “The colour burst comes after a steady wardrobe of mostly black during President Donald Trump’s overseas tour, including a prim black lace dress with a matching mantilla headcover that she wore to meet Pope Francis…” And Trump himself wore…? Exactly. Who cares.