Tag: Catherine Fenwick

This article takes the neat little meme Jasen Benwah shared — Indian Act control on one side, “inherent law” on the other — and lays it over the real power structures on the Port au Port peninsula. It tracks how Benoit First Nation’s bylaws were bent and then rewritten after a rule-breaking hire, how the band’s rulebook quietly moved from a public website into a paid “fundraiser” book, and how Catherine and Michael Fenwick sit at the intersection of ARCO’s francophone network, local heritage projects, and Benwah’s Mi’kmaq claims. With Ottawa pushing Bill S-2 to expand federal status entitlements after the Nicholas case, the piece asks whether any of that actually puts power back in the hands of ordinary people — or simply reinforces an overlapping circle that already speaks for everyone else. Read More...

Garden Hill was once promoted as Newfoundland’s next energy frontier — a project that promised jobs, prosperity, and renewal. Instead, it collapsed into rusting tanks and broken promises, leaving behind a scar rather than a legacy. Today, the Environmental Transparency Committee reframes the site as a symbol of heritage and tourism, invoking ancestors and lighthouses to cover decades of failure with the language of pride. This article traces how overlapping interests in Enegi, Investcan, Town of Cape St. George and FFTNL left their mark, how governance capture ensured no accountability, and how even the fence was only repaired once optics demanded it. Garden Hill is not renewal — it is the carousel turning again, with the same interested parties still guiding the ride. Read More...

This article explores how Newfoundland mistakes compliance for unity, showing how social rehearsal and enforced consensus keep communities stuck in dysfunctional cycles. From laughter on cue at staged meetings, to Paul Pike directing “acceptable” debate in Facebook groups, to Rae Miller choreographing opposition door-to-door, to Catherine Fenwick’s ideological loyalty tests and the intimidation of Nadine and Duran Felix — the culture rewards conformity and punishes deviation. Even elites like Andrew Parsons, Tony Cornect, and Chief Mi’sel Joe follow the same script, stepping into safe roles that preserve the cycle. The result is a province locked into megaproject failures and consultant schemes, not only by weak governance and opportunistic operators, but by its own rehearsal of safe narratives. Read More...