An inaccurate report by Canadian Press caused the shares in Aber Resources to jump almost 15% recently. The story said that the Diavik mine had been approved by the federal government.

The incorrect story aside, it appears that the financial markets are eager for Diavik to get under way. These are people that vote with their wallets.

Such a display of confidence in the financial success of the Diavik project underscores the value of the secondary industries to the North.

Diavik must understand that sharing the wealth with the North is part of operating here. As far as we're concerned, that's non-negotiable.

Let's hope the newly-elected government of Nunavut doesn't choose to lead by previous example.

After biting the bullet and doing what was necessary to keep Nunavut's first budget in the black, Finance Minister Kelvin Ng was hit earlier this month with the news that the Office of the Interim Commissioner finished off with a $4.4 million deficit: a deficit the GN is expected to make up.

While it's bad enough that the federal government, in the persona of the OIC, couldn't keep itself within its $150 million budget, but to expect the fledgling government of Nunavut to pay for its mistakes seems grossly unfair.

The fact that the shortfall won't hurt the GN too badly is due to good management and planning on the part of Ng and his colleagues.

The courts have ruled that we need more MLAs to effectively, to legally, represent the people of the NWT.

Aboriginal leaders are concerned that this reshuffling of boundaries may have an impact on self-government negotiations.

The GNWT is holding a series of meetings around the territory to gather public input on these changes.

Assuming people turn out to these meetings, this could be a golden opportunity to consider self-government and legislature representation in one venue and perhaps even hammer out some meaningful solutions.

The question of whether Yellowknife should get three more MLAs, or Hay River and Inuvik should get another each is no longer at issue. The question now is how we can incorporate what must be done with what should be done to assure fair representation for everyone in the NWT.

Just shy of three decades ago, the federal government stepped into the NWT and imposed upon Inuit yet another initiative called Project Surname.

This project replaced an even more offensive project which saw federal government officials require residents of the Eastern Arctic to wear a disc around their neck with an "Eskimo Identification" number -- all so the feds could keep better track of Inuit.

Now, in 1999, those same Inuit and their children are at risk of losing the true meaning, the correct spelling and the cultural essence of their names and communities.

Something has got to be done to rectify the situation and it's not going to be cheap or easy. But because the mess was caused by the federal government in the first place, morally, it should take the lead and provide the necessary dollars to help preserve the heritage and the culture they almost succeeded in destroying.

There's a new trend right now that kids everywhere are going crazy for.

I'm not talking about Tommy Hilfiger or the Back Street Boys, though I wish I was. I'm talking about violence.

It seems like there's another school shooting every other week now. Thankfully, no one was killed during this latest one in Georgia, but that was just a lucky break. Most of them end up with several students and teachers dead.

Georgia seems like a long way off from Inuvik, NWT, but based on the recent death threats made to a high school teacher, how far off is it? Do we take these threats seriously?

I think we'd better start.

The teacher certainly took the threats seriously. She no longer lives here because of it. Can we blame her, in light of all the school shootings? Teens have certainly proven they are not above committing violent crimes.

How did it get to this point? Who do we blame: the kids, the schools, the police, the parents?

Maybe all of the above, I guess. The kids are the ones committing the crimes. The schools? Maybe they have to get tougher. I'm not talking about suspensions here. That just doesn't seem to do the trick, but that's not the fault of the teachers. That's pretty much the only option open to them as far as discipline is concerned.

What about the police? How much of their workload is taken up with young offender crimes? Too much, I'll bet.

That leaves parents. It seems more and more parents blame teachers for their handling of disciplinary problems. It is my belief that students should be disciplined at home first and at school as well if the situation warrants it. My parents would have dragged me out of school by my ear if I even so much as quirked an eyebrow at a teacher and I would have been grounded for months.

Of course, that probably has a lot to do with the fact that my dad was a teacher (I say was because he recently retired). Growing up, I attended the junior high where he worked and I even had him for a couple of subjects. The other kids got a great kick out of that. According to him, teaching today is a lot different from when I was in school. Oh, we weren't all angels, that's for sure. But certainly no one ever made death threats to teachers. Not in my school anyway. Even if there were, they most likely wouldn't have been taken seriously. Violence, back then, was a fight in the schoolyard between two boys. When one broke out, everybody would yell "Fight!" and we'd all run to watch.

Today, those schoolyard fights have turned into all-out wars and they're not restricted to just boys any more. Girls now brawl just as much as guys do. Much of the time, it's not settled in the schoolyard either. It moves into the courts, as one teen charges another with assault. Now, weapons are becoming involved.

I don't want to paint all teens with the same brush though. Most around here are down to earth, sensible young adults, based on what I've seen during my countless visits to the schools. But nowadays, too many have poor attitudes and are quick to violence. Most adults who spot a group of teens hanging out in front of a store won't go anywhere near the place. The kids could all have just come from a church meeting, but it wouldn't matter. They can still be pretty intimidating, whether they intend to be or not. It's too bad that this happens, but teens can't really blame adults for this. They have only their peers to blame.

No one wants to believe a kid in junior high would actually follow through on a death threat. Probably no one in Littleton, Colo., ever thought two students would show up at school with guns and go on a shooting rampage.

But it happened.

Calvin Pond's message to Fort Simpson is to give the disabled the same privilege to come and go that able-bodied people enjoy.

It really is something many of us take for granted. If we don't have to cope with a disability or live with someone who does, it's easy enough to put the issue of accessibility out of our minds.

Listening to Calvin Pond is a poignant dose of reality from someone who deals with being shut out on a daily basis. It can jolt one from complacency very quickly, especially when one considers that Pond was also an able-bodied person 14 years ago. He never envisioned himself in a wheelchair. He admittedly never gave accessibility issues much thought.

He fights the good fight, not by getting in your face or humiliating you. Rather, he casually makes suggestions regarding how we can make life easier for those who can't walk up three or four stairs, let alone an entire flight. After all, he or any other disabled person can't force anyone to install a ramp, so the best approach is the gentle art of persuasion, making others understand through telling his own story. If he can show them a way to make some changes, he can change their minds, he said.

Yet, there are some businesses in Yellowknife that have seemingly ignored his presence and that of other disabled persons for years. He's heard plenty of excuses, he admitted.

"I'll keep my money and spend it somewhere else," he said in response to those who won't let him in.

Essentially, that's what it boils down to, keeping the disabled on the outside. Sure, if they are accompanied by a friend or relative there's a chance they could be lifted or carried over the obstacle. Still, there's an issue of independence to consider as well. Because someone is in a wheelchair or using a walker, what right do we have to make them any more reliant on others?

We have a lot of work to do to make Fort Simpson more accessible and that includes the Drum office.

For all we know, we too could be in Calvin Pond's position tomorrow, next month or next year. It's not just a matter of opening our doors, it's a matter of opening our minds.

Shakes you up

Undoubtedly, everybody has heard about the fire at Checkpoint last week.

The gas bar burnt to the ground. Fortunately, nobody was injured. It sure shakes you up when you hear about it, though.

Just think about the effect it has had on the McKay family. Since the fire, Wayne McKay said he has cleaned out his generator house again, although it was already clean. Preventing another fire is foremost in his mind these days. Living 65 kilometres from firefighting services makes fire an even greater threat there.

Although the fire was ever so close to the fuel drums and the gas pumps, it's business as usual at Checkpoint. Even four or five days later, pulling up to those pumps, the charred remains were still smouldering. Thankfully, when the smoke cleared in the early hours last Wednesday morning, everything else was still standing.