A former leader of the Green Party of Quebec, Scott McKay visits Bates College to discuss globalization, national distinctiveness, sovereignty and the environment at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, March 18, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Titled Environmentalism and Sovereignty for Quebec: Perspectives from the Parti Quebecois, McKay’s talk is sponsored by the Sociology Department and the Mellon Foundation Faculty Innovation Fund. For more information, please call 207-786-8296.

McKay led the province’s Green Party from 2006 through 2008. He is now a member of Quebec’s National Assembly for the Parti Quebecois. His party has a special vision for the place of Quebec in Canada and the world. In favor of autonomy or outright independence from Canada, the PQ is for a progressive, environmentally conscious and culturally distinctive Quebec.

With 30 years’ experience working for environmental causes in Canada, McKay has contributed greatly to the PQ’s visions and hopes for a green, sovereign Quebec.

(This  lecture will be recorded at the request of Maine Public Broadcasting’s “Speaking in Maine” series for possible broadcast at a later date.)

The Portland Press Herald, Lewiston Sun Journal and Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Maine Things Considered all sought out Tyler Fish ’96 during his recent visit to Maine and Bates as part of the 90th anniversary celebration of the Bates Outing Club. Last April, Fish and friend John Huston became the first Americans to complete an unsupported, unassisted ski trek to the North Pole. Fish tells the Press Herald that his Outing Club experiences fostered his adventurous spirit. ”Life is largely made up of people you meet and opportunities you choose to take,” he said. ”One of the things that helped me for sure is the Bates education that taught me that it takes a lot of hard work to do something well.”

With her 21st-place finish at a World Cup race in Pokljuka, Slovenia, on Dec. 17, Haley Johnson ’06 becomes the first woman to win a spot on the U.S. Olympic biathlon team, the U.S. Biathlon Team reported Thursday.

“We did know that she is able to finish in a good position but it was only during the last days that Haley really calmed down,” said head coach Per Nilsson. “She was confident of herself and her ability on the shooting range and what she showed today seemed just like a normal and perfect training race. It’s just amazing how she pulled that off.”

“It was amazing but it was also super simple,” Johnson said in a video statement afterwards.

The 2010 Olympics take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Feb. 12-28.

Johnson, who studied at Bates for two and a half years before leaving to pursue biathlon training at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Caribou, was a two-time performer at the NCAA Skiing Championships. She placed 25th in the women’s 5K classical race at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in 2002, and 17th in the women’s 5K in 2003 at Dartmouth. In February 2003, she won the 10K freestyle event at the Williams College Carnival, the first Bates woman to win a carnival race.

“She has never gotten distracted along the way.”

Johnson’s success does not surprise her Bates coach, Becky Flynn Woods ’89. “Haley is successful because it was always clear that she was pursuing a goal,” Flynn said. “She has never gotten distracted along the way.” Attending Bates was perhaps a slight detour, Woods says, since Johnson had to take a break from biathlon competition while at Bates. “I think it was nice for her to concentrate only on her skiing, but it did leave shooting behind. It’s clear that biathlon was always part of her trajectory.”

Johnson is the third Bates alum to win a spot on a Winter Olympics team. All-America Nordic skier Justin Freeman ’98 competed at the 2006 games (Turin, Italy), and Nordic skier Nancy Ingersoll Fiddler ’78 competed in 1988 (Calgary, Canada) and 1992 (Albertville, France).

In the Summer Olympics, rower Andrew Byrnes ’05 was a gold medalist with the Canadian rowing team in 2008 in Beijing, China. Mike Ferry ’97 competed for the U.S. in the double sculls at the 2000 Olympics, and runner Arnold Adams ’33 was a member of the U.S. team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics but did not compete due to a foot injury.

Harlan Holden, a member of the Class of 1913 who attended Bates for two years, competed in the half mile at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm, while his Bates teammate Vaughn Blanchard ’12 competed in the 110-meter hurdles at Stockholm.

On Sunday, December 7th, Bates College held a banquet in Chase Hall to honor its first Olympic medal winner.  Accompanied by fellow Bates alum and rowing Olympian Mike Ferry ’97, Byrnes took the time to meet the team for a discussion about the Olympic experience and the values learned at Bates before heading to a dinner which was attended by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh, Interim Head Rowing Coach Peter Steenstra, the men’s and women’s rowing teams, and many alumni and parents.

Both oarsmen signed the Champions’ Blade, which will be mounted in the erg room at Merrill Gymnasium. Byrnes also received a commemorative oar and a two-piece framed painting. One of the pieces was created by current men’s team captain and art major Cory Sanderson ’10.

Byrnes came to Bates in 2001. He likes to tell the story of his visit to Bates during the previous winter. He arrived on the snow-covered campus at the start of February break, and other than the two captains of the rowing team who showed him around, very few students were still on campus. Most of the staff was gone and the Dining Commons in Chase Hall was closed. When the captains took Andrew to the boathouse, he was surprised to see that it was empty. All the boats were being driven to Florida by the head coach at the time, who was unable to meet with Byrnes during his visit. When the coach asked the captains how the visit went, they replied, “he’s a great kid, but there’s no way he’s coming to Bates.”

Luckily, Andrew did decide to come to Bates. The few individuals he was able to interact with during his visit (the two captains and a few special staff members) made a lasting impression on him, and he knew that if he came to Bates, he would be surrounded by good people. By the time he arrived in the autumn of 2001, the rowing team had more resources available and a long-term coach with a detailed training plan. Though the team wasn’t incredibly successful, Andrew set records on the erg that still stand to this day.

After finishing third in the coxed pair at the 2006 World Championships in Eton, England, Andrew caught the attention of coaching legend Mike Spracklen, who is the men’s coach of Rowing Canada.  Byrnes was added to the Canadian men’s eight in 2007. That crew went unchanged and unbeaten throughout 2007 and 2008. They won the Grand Challenge Cup at the 2007 Henley Royal Regatta, the 2007 World Cup, the 2007 World Championships, the 2008 World Cup, and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On November 1st, Andrew reported back to Victoria, British Columbia, to rejoin the Canadian Men’s National Team for training.  He hopes to compete for Canada again in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Mike Ferry ’97

Though Andrew Byrnes and Mike Ferry were separated by only four years, the pair had very different experiences while rowing at Bates. Ferry came to the college when the rowing program was only a seven-year-old club with a few lightweight rowers. His passion for the sport was developed during his collegiate years and he looked to continue rowing beyond college. Though he never learned how to scull at Bates (the club had very limited equipment at the time), he began sculling with Vesper and went on to row the USA 2x at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The crew advanced to the semifinals, where it missed making the Olympic finals by one spot. Two autumns after Ferry graduated, rowing became a varsity sport at Bates.

Mike retired from rowing following the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and now lives in New York City, where he hopes to get on the water more often.

Bates College graduate Andrew Byrnes and the Canada men’s eight captured the gold medal on Sunday at the Shunyi Rowing–Canoeing Park, Canada’s first medal in the event since 1992.

Byrnes, a Toronto native and resident who graduated from Bates in 2005, becomes the first former Bates athlete to earn an Olympic medal. He and his crewmates become the first world champion crew to follow up with Olympic gold in 35 years.

“I am extremely lucky to have been able to win gold in my first Olympics,” Byrnes said via e-mail. “We were confident going into the regatta, and winning was justification for the long hours of work we had put in over the last four years.”

A second-year veteran of the Canadian men’s eight, Byrnes is also the newest member of the boat. Byrnes’ ascendance to the country’s top eight has coincided with an impressive run of success, including a gold medal in the 2007 FISA World Championships and three World Cup gold medals since 2007.

Canada led wire-to-wire and finished in 5:23.89. Taking the silver was Great Britain, while the United States, winners of the gold in 2004, took the bronze.

“Before the race, I was calm,” said Byrnes. “This was our 10th 2K race together, so we knew we needed to just execute one more top performance. The one thought that did flash into my mind while we were in the blocks was, ‘Well, this next 2000m is the point. This is the point of everything we have done up to now.’”

For Byrnes, there was little mystery as to what made Canada, the odds-on favorite to win gold, the superior boat in the Olympic final.

“We work harder in practice than any other crew out there,” he said. “It’s not just that our coach writes a hard training program, but guys commit to it.”

The Canadian eight hasn’t lost a race over the past two years, and it dominated its opening heat Monday, defeating second-place Poland by seven seconds. Canada’s semifinal time of five minutes, 27.69 seconds in that race advanced it straight to Sunday’s final.

Byrnes, who was a standout rower at Bates, joins the list of former Bobcat athletes who have competed in the Olympics, and the second rower, after Mike Ferry ’97, who competed in the double sculls at Sydney in 2000.

“Although Bates is a Division III school, it has a very strong athletics program, and the rowing team has the attitude and rigor that is characteristic of the top rowing programs in the country,” said Byrnes.

The Bates Olympians list includes Justin Freeman ’98, a Nordic skier for the U.S. at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and Nordic skier Nancy Ingersoll Fiddler ’78, who competed at Calgary in 1988. Harlan Holden, a member of the Class of 1913 who attended Bates for two years, competed in the half mile at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm (Read the article about him in the August 10, 2008 Worcester Telegram & Gazette), while his Bates teammate Vaughn Blanchard ’12 competed in the 110-meter hurdles at Stockholm. Runner Arnold Adams ’33 was a member of the U.S. team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics but did not compete due to a foot injury.

Material from the Canadian Broadcasting Company and The Associated Press was used in this story.

Read the story about Andrew Byrnes in the Aug. 12 Portland Press Herald

Taking its name (pronounced “bara-SHWA”) from the Acadian term for pools of water cut off from the sea by sand dunes, Barachois plays the folk music of the Acadians, descendants of the French colonists whom the British expelled from Nova Scotia in 1755. (In Maine, the St. John River Valley in Aroostook County is home to a sizable Acadian population.)

With three albums to its credit and a growing international following, Barachois is a band on the rise. It consists of a brother and sister, Albert Arsenault and Hélène Arsenault-Bergeron (children of the renowned fiddler Eddy Arsenault); their cousin, Louise Arsenault; and Chuck Arsenault (not a family relation). To the traditional Acadian instrumentation of twin fiddles and piano or pump organ, the foursome adds guitar, harmonica, brass and myriad percussion.

Barachois brings a contemporary sophistication to songs that in some cases are centuries old. But its performance is as much about dance and humor as music. Veterans of countless family “kitchen parties,” the members of the band are lively wits and accomplished step dancers.

The concert is presented by the Freewill Folk Society.