When it comes to the near extinction of the Grand Banks cod— for 500 years one of the world’s known natural wonders—people in Newfoundland and governments in St. John’s and Ottawa set up an impenetrable defence. Perhaps shamed and embarrassed by their complicity in a biological disaster to rival anything in recent history, many have taken refuge in denial, obfuscation and a self-righteousness that always blames the other; the naturally garrulous people of Newfoundland have been reduced to a stony silence. This made research maddening, circular, Sisyphean. But others, undaunted by academic careerism, pensions, pay cheques or party lines, worked overtime.
