Is this a bad thing? It is to the Inuvialuit and Gwich'in. You can tell when Aboriginal Pipeline Group boss Fred Carmichael criticizes Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian for the court cases launched against the environmental review.
It shows just how far apart the Deh Cho and Delta partners are on a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
The Inuvialuit were the first to wrestle a land claim to the ground and are the most successful economically and politically. They have much to gain from a pipeline, with their vast reserves of natural gas on the land and under the Beaufort Sea.
The Dehcho First Nations wants no less than what Inuvialuit have - authority to administer Deh Cho lands, people and wealth.
Industry has been willing to play by these rules. The Inuvialuit have a close relationship with multinational oil companies and are in the oil business themselves.
Prime Minister Paul Martin and DIAND Minister Andy Scott are supportive. Our own Ethel Blondin-Andrew is Minister of State Northern Development. The problem is the middle and upper management of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
Bureaucrats have created three major and unnecessary problems with the present Mackenzie Valley process.
The first was the wife of a federal official buying up mineral rights on the very Deh Cho land her husband was researching for a potential pipeline route. Regardless of the integrity of the individuals involved, it was a serious breach of trust between two governments.
The second is the selection of members to the pipeline review panel by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. The Deh Cho asked to appoint two people to the seven-member panel. They were refused because federal bureaucrats had written legislation that prevents such a reasonable proposal. These are people who have never been within a country mile of the NWT nor had to answer to the people of Canada.
The third problem was the harassment of Deh Cho elders, hunters and families with cabins on Deh Cho lands. This summer, federal bureaucrats were demanding signed leases when the Dehcho First Nations have a stonger claim to ownership than the federal governent. That's what land claim negotiations are all about.
It's time the senior politicians step in. Treat the Dehcho First Nations as landholders, which they are, and the process will unfold with greater efficiency and to everyone's benefit.
Territorial politicians understand this, federal politicians seem to. Unfortunately until now, the federal bureaucracy has been running the show. There will be nothing but grief as long as they do.
When it is flu season, and everyone is being encouraged to get their shot, it is easy to talk to health care workers.
They will allow themselves to be quoted freely in the press about the dangers of not getting the flu shot and places to go to get it.
Same goes for any month's special focus, like Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Healthy Pregnancy Month and so on.
There will always be a health expert at the ready for the topic of the month.
But if you want to know how a health care worker in Sanikiluaq is feeling during a flu outbreak, or you want to know about services lacking at the health centre in Pond Inlet -- chances are you won't find out.
Journalists -- and it is not a far stretch to expect regular people have the same problem -- have to go through all sorts of channels before they may get to speak to a real live health care professional about a health issue.
The idea behind all the getting consent and waiting for interviews with "the right people" is that nurses around the North are "busy." They simply do not have time to take calls from people, especially journalists.
This is why hearing the voice of a working doctor or a nurse on the front lines in Nunavut is like finding the Holy Grail.
It is rare, highly prized, but often sought in vain.
With all the control over who can speak, the department of health and social services thinks that it is protecting its workers.
But the fact is, valuable debate is not happening right here in Nunavut because everyone is afraid of saying the wrong thing.
This doesn't help in a country where people with power to effect change do not even know where Nunavut is.
Listen to talk from the recent health care meetings. There is plenty of talk of the provincial leaders. Territorial? What is that? Nunavut speaks last, and short. Nunavut is thankful for the injection of cash that upon real inspection is a drop in the bucket.
The focus at these meetings is on what the most people are doing, feeling, living. But does anyone in Nunavut (except for the health care workers themselves) really know what is happening on the front lines?
Neither Prime Minister Paul Martin, nor Roy Romanow, nor Paul Okalik have the answer. The answer lies in the hands of the people who live and work in the North who are not allowed to talk.
Dialogue is healthy. But no one at Health and Social Services seems to have seen the memo on that one.
Editorial Comment
Lisa Scott
Kivalliq News
A news release came across my desk this week that has the capacity to put fear into the hearts of all Nunavummiut.
It was the result of a study by the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body made up of eight Arctic nations, including Canada.
Inuit and Arctic people, along with 600 scientists and the council, participated in it.
The results warn of an increasing warming trend that threatens to obliterate the Inuit way of life.
"Climate change will soon make the Arctic regions of the world nearly unrecognizable, dramatically disrupting traditional Inuit and other Northern native people's way of life," it warns.
It talks of melting sea ice and permafrost and the possible extinction of marine mammals like polar bears, walrus and seals.
Most Canadians have been aware of this warming trend for years, but are Inuit and other Arctic peoples aware of the added threat to Northern climates?
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment study says the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, with calculations of a 6C increase by the end of the century.
If the Arctic warming trend is truly "an early warning barometer for what will happen in the rest of the world," then that puts Arctic people in a position to be heard.
Speak out on climate change that's happening in your community when you travel. Record anything unusual that you notice on hunting trips about the animals or their environment. Contact your MLA to ask about climate change in the Arctic and ask them not only what they are doing about it, but what you can do, too.
Affirmative action tips
Environment Canada's Web site has a section devoted to affirmative action tips for Canadians to reduce their daily impact on climate change. You can take the one-tonne challenge to reduce waste and energy in your own household.
No action means "the end of the Inuit as a hunting culture," according to Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of the Arctic Council.
We are bombarded with studies like this one almost every day. But if its findings are even moderately accurate, Arctic communities stand to lose the most.
Look around and see what you can do to reduce waste and emissions. Walk to work, leave the Honda at the house and start working towards saving the Arctic way of life.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
After Quebec came away with a special deal from the First Minister's conference with Prime Minister Paul Martin, which revolved around leaving a legacy of improved health care for "generations to come," one has to question the meaning of "distinct society" as it relates to providing health care.
In the deal, Quebec is exempted from accountability measures imposed on other provinces for improving, among other things, patient waiting times.
Though the fine print leaves a lot of flexibility for all provinces and territories, so says the PM, the nasty odour of "distinct society" clauses once again permeates.
If one really wants to get into a discussion about distinct societies, the Northwest Territories is a great place to begin. While Quebec touts language as a cornerstone of its distinctiveness, the NWT has 11 official languages of its own. That's pretty distinct.
I wonder if the health service of a vitamin shot in the behind administered in Quebec is any more distinct than one given in Colville Lake.
Nevertheless, put this region's distinctiveness in the context of delivering health care and the entire North could be classified, if nothing else, as distinctly challenging when attempting to meet its residents' medical needs.
If the federal government can't bring itself to recognize aboriginal peoples as "distinct societies," as it accords Quebecers, at least it has offered $700 million in additional health care funding for aboriginal people to be spent over the next five years. This is over and above the nearly $1 billion per year the feds already provide for in this arena.
While the "shameful conditions" regarding the health status of First Nations people wasn't enough to get the feds to recognize any distinctiveness there, at least it activated a time-honoured Liberal tradition of throwing money at a problem to mitigate any embarrassment.
Following the Western Premiers Conference in Inuvik, Assembly of First Nations NWT Regional Chief Bill Erasmus told the Drum that more money was not necessarily the solution, rather more control over money already available.
Hopefully, the $200 million earmarked for improving co-ordination between the feds, provinces, territories and First Nations health jurisdictions will be used wisely.
Destroyed tent a wake-up call
When an Inuvik man brought me to the burned out ground where his tent used to be last week, the thought that someone could have been cruel enough to destroy a homeless man's shelter was sickening.
What have things come to when the weak are targeted in blatant acts of violence?
This kind of behaviour should not be tolerated and when the perpetrator(s) is (are) found, I think -- just for a moment -- that it's too bad we live in an age of kid-glove punishments, as breaking rocks for five years in a labour camp would be too good for those responsible.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
It's hard to imagine a more suitable individual for the role of Governor General than Adrienne Clarkson.
It seems that everyone who meets her has nothing but complimentary things to say about Her Excellency. She's radiant, gracious and she comes across as genuine. Even as she was obviously weary after a full day of travel and hobnobbing in Yellowknife and Fort Providence -- it's surely not good etiquette to point out the bags under her eyes -- she maintained a warm grin and pleasant demeanour well into the evening.
Perhaps you're thinking you too could fulfil the obligations of the Governor General in return for the generous salary and umpteen-million dollar budget that comes with the position. Maybe so, but the gig is not entirely glamorous. It's a rigorous schedule that she maintains. Not only that, there's a minimum of privacy that comes with the territory. Everywhere Clarkson and her husband, His Excellency John Ralston Saul, go, there's a rather large entourage that shadows them.
There's also a bevy of police officers present to offer protection. Then there's the media -- even in Fort Providence there were several of us constantly flashing the camera and sticking microphones in her face at every turn.
With all that attention, the Governor General can't simply slip out for a beverage and catch the latest sports scores. Neither could she very well decide she'd seen enough of an afternoon's festivities and retire to her motel room for a nap without disappointing the heck out of everybody.
It's demanding, but she seems to sincerely enjoy it. Furthermore, coming North as frequently as she does is a choice, not a requirement, so she must truly love it here.
However, she pops in, stays briefly and goes. It's been swell, but there likely won't be a return visit anytime soon.
That's why Fort Providence has it right
The community had Family Day planned for Tuesday of this week. The family is the core unit of everyone's life, or it ought to be. It should be celebrated more often. Hopefully there was a good turnout for Tuesday's activities.
At the same time, we can't forget about our neighbours who give of themselves on a regular basis: police officers, volunteer firefighters -- volunteers of all kinds for that matter, teachers, those who reinforce the aboriginal culture, medical staff and so on. These types of people make our communities better places in which to live.
Although they don't often get a lot of credit, public servants also deserve a tip of the cap, such as those who were given long-term service awards last week.
These folks keep the cogs turning in a relatively large bureaucracy for a small territory. It's true that some of them are busier than others. But many of them take flak for enforcing unpopular policies, things that are beyond their control. They must also do the best they can despite budget cuts.
Anyone who can remain loyal to an employer for 20 or 25 years is clearly an asset.
Rape charges against two Lutsel K'e men, Stanley Paul Desjarlais and Henry Lockhart, were stayed Sept. 17. Incorrect information was reported in NWT News/North Sept. 20.
We apologize for any confusion or embarrassment this may have caused.
In the Sept. 20 edition of Nunavut News/North, the wrong age was given for Pat Anablak. Anablak is in fact 51.
Nunavut News/North regrets any confusion or embarrassment caused by our error.