Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 11/00) - Yellowknife houseboaters were in a cheerful mood last Saturday.

Residents from the 17 houseboats on Yellowknife Bay gathered to celebrate the end of five years of litigation against them by the City of Yellowknife.

"This is to celebrate the end of a very unpleasant five years in the community," said Fraser Weir, master of ceremonies at the party, and owner of the Empress of Yellowknife, which he has called home since 1985.

It was after several months of haggling between the two parties that the City launched its first series of lawsuits against houseboater Matthew Grogono in 1996.

The City was attempting to gain jurisdiction over the lakebed, citing houseboaters were not paying for municipal services or property taxes.

Even though Weir said he was happy the City decided to abandon its lawsuit, action that eventually included two other houseboaters, Anthony Foliot, and Gary Vaillancourt last June, a element of bitterness remains.

"Listening to Ben MacDonald and (Mayor Dave) Lovell for five years, I don't think they learned anything and that's a real shame," Weir said.

"It showed a tremendous disrespect for the law. It was just a spend-you-to-death sort of thing."

Despite Weir's anger over the city's attempts to sue the houseboaters, Saturday evening's affair was tempered by ample amounts of food and beverages, and the mood remained festive for the most part.

Aleta Fowler, who was throwing the party on the houseboat she has lived on for the last two years, said the houseboating community has always been supportive of each other, whether it be in defence of City lawsuits or otherwise.

"It's an extremely tight community," Fowler said.

"A month after I moved out here, we had a rough storm and my anchor lines snapped. Everybody came out and helped, it was just fantastic. I didn't know anyone at the time."

The highlight of the evening came when legal documents against houseboaters were sent up in smoke via an old woodstove brought out to Fowler's residence for the occasion.

One of the first papers to burn were documents issued by the City to Anthony Foliot four years ago.

"It's been fun while it lasted," Foliot said. "It's certainly worth wearing a tie for."