Two fathers of crew members on the Miss Ally are calling on officials to go bring back their boys. The two dads want a search done on the overturned fishing boat drifting out in the Atlantic. It was spotted as recently as yesterday afternoon by a Coast Guard vessel. George Hopkins and Stephen Nickerson say the bodies of their sons could still be onboard the Miss Ally. Nickerson tells the Canadian Press, "If my boy is in that boat, I want to bring him home." The RCMP's now handling matters and confirms a salvage operation is being considered. There are five grieving families and a community that shares their grief. Bringing all the bodies back home would be the decent thing to do. I do not know the logistics involved, but if there is anyway possible to do just that, then it needs to be done.
There's talk among the fishermen in Woods Harbour, the home base for the Miss Ally, of hiring a professional dive team to search the fishing boat if they get no help from federal officials. Some are suggesting they should go out there themselves if necessary.
Good get for CTV's supper hour news last night, an exclusive with Philip Halliday. Reporter Kayla Hounsell was invited inside the Halliday home in Digby for a glimpse at the reunited family. Philip then chatted with anchor Steve Murphy about his 3 year experience in a Spanish prison. Halliday was arrested in December 2009 after the boat he was a crewmember on was seized by Spanish police. There was $600 million worth of cocaine on boat. Halliday insists he did not know the boat was smuggling drugs, that he's completely innocent. The Spanish courts however convicted him of trafficking earlier this month, then sentenced him to time served. He plans to appeal. There's a meet and greet planned Sunday in Digby as the community welcomes him back home.
You mean they don't teach kids how to write in school these days? I'm sure glad my two sons have long finished with the public school system. With the onset of tablets and smartphones, apparently it's not mandatory to teach our next generation how to handwrite, cursive writing as it's called. It's left up to individual teachers to decide how much emphasis they should put on it. CBC reports writing by hand is becoming something of a nostalgic skill.
Sigh.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
