Editorial

Some residents point to the city's decision to impose greater tipping fees at the dump last year as the primary reason people toss old appliances and TV sets into the bush. But bush dumping has gone on in these parts for decades.

In fact, looking around town, you can see how the city's tolerance for trash over the years has affected the community's mindset.

Drive through Old Town, the Kam Lake industrial park or even downtown and you're bound to find decades-old vehicles parked by the side of the road and yards filled with old junk.

As long as City Hall turns a blind eye towards the piles of trash along city streets, what's going to stop people from trashing the woods?

These offenders won't take the city's littering bylaws seriously unless they can see action being taken right here in town.

City Hall should demand that the urban trash heaps be cleaned up under threat of severe fines.

And to combat bush dumping, why not enlist bylaw to assist in roadside checks on the Ingraham Trail or beyond the airport on Highway 3?

Wildlife officers and the RCMP routinely check traffic on these routes for poachers and impaired drivers. Bylaw officers can come along to check for vehicles loaded up with trash to be dumped in the bush.

It's not illegal to carry trash in your truck but at least bylaw officers can get an idea of who's doing it and let people know that they're being watched.

Policing committee secrecy

We hope city Coun. David Wind doesn't resign from the Yellowknife Area Policing Advisory Committee as he vowed to do recently over the fact committee meetings are held in secret.

Without him fighting for the rights of Yellowknifers to know what's being discussed at a committee of city council, this travesty will continue without anyone caring.

Chair Jennifer Marchant said the reason the committee's meetings are secret are to protect sensitive RCMP information.

That doesn't make sense.

The committee's mandate is to advise police on community concerns. It can't do that by excluding the community.

Without public oversight, how do people know what is being discussed?

If someone living in Frame Lake South hears there's going to be discussion about break-ins in the neighbourhood, maybe he or she will want to speak to the committee to share ideas and information.

The more people who get involved, the better the police will understand community concerns.

Access to sensitive police information should be beyond the scope of the committee's mandate.

If there is a need to know, the committee can simply go behind closed doors to discuss those individual issues.

All discussions must be open to the public to allow the committee to serve the purpose it was meant to fill - to improve the relationship between the public and the RCMP. More secrecy will only have the opposite affect.

Tootoo versus the caboose

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Well, valued readers, as you're reading this I'm enjoying a little rest and relaxation on the East Coast as my wife and I charge up the batteries on our vacation.

The combination of my wife taking a new job and a June wedding in the family had us on a plane a little earlier this year. But, that only means we'll get to enjoy a bit of more of our Kivalliq summer upon our return.

I leave you in the more-than-capable hands of Christine Grimard during my absence, and I'm sure you'll be quite happy with Christine's work for the next little while. A growing number of sports writers seem to think they're writing for some Hollywood gossip tabloid these days and it's getting old.

To be honest, I've had either the Hockey News or Hockey Digest on my coffee table since I was kid, but, for the first time in my life, I'm seriously thinking about not renewing my subscription when it expires this time around.

For the past two years, writers for the Hockey News don't seem to like too much about the game and their constant criticizing and lobbying for unending change has passed beyond annoyance.

These guys make a darn good living from writing about the greatest game on Earth, and their constant bashing often has me wondering just what earned them their spot as supposed experts in the field.

Most professional athletes accept the fact their life is lived in a goldfish bowl as long as they're in the show. But too many hacks are filling space with cheap insults, and seem to take great delight in throwing out garbage that serves no other purpose than to embarrass people.

Our own Jordin Tootoo has been the target of some of this written diarrhoea during the past year because he continues to play the game with a (gasp) physical edge.

Some of the articles have been down-right laughable, like those that claimed the Tootoo Train only smacks little red cabooses from behind and never drops the gloves when someone else wants to try a derailing.

I'm not really sure if those "writers" ever watch an NHL game, but I digress. There was absolutely nothing funny this past week about Adam Proteau's little column (Eskimos and Igloos) on Jordin and his romantic interest, Kellie Pickler.

The piece had absolutely no point but to personally insult Pickler and question the couple's intellect - trash journalism at its best.

If this is the best writing the Hockey News can come up with these days, it's not the game that needs a major overhaul of its content.

While we won't waste space responding to Proteau's mean-spirited piece (written for no other reason than to take a cheap shot at a player whose style he doesn't like), we can't help but wonder how much about the person, Jordin Tootoo, this "writer" actually knows?

It's too bad guys like Proteau can't be made to play just one shift against the guys they direct such trash towards. Proteau's little caboose meeting the Tootoo Train on the trolley tracks of an NHL arena.

Now that would be funny!!

See you next month.

A trashy sendoff

Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
Friday, June 8, 2007

Smashing bottles and blacking out -- the way that Inuvik celebrates a high school graduation -- yep, the annual bash known as the grad party has come and gone and has left people picking up the pieces.

Early reports said the shindig would be happening at the Boot Lake park. It's a great location for a gathering: Lots of sun, a playground and access to the water. I guess the convenient location is just icing on the already sweet cake.

So after the graduates had finished their banquet, they dispersed to their respective corners and came out swinging, ready to party. How would they top other parties? What would become of the newest flock of graduates?

Well, the evidence shows that we've sent a group of destructive drinkers into the world, to accept the responsibilities of a new life outside the walls of Samuel Hearne.

I think it's too bad that the people who went out to party had to trash their venue. I didn't check it out, but I hear it was one

banging bash.

A few of my friends called me and it sounded like a lot of people were having a good time. Oh yes, I'm sure someone had their truck doors open and music was blaring.

On behalf of we who missed out on "Black-out fest 2007" I want to apologize to the graduates and to anyone else who celebrated that night. I don't want to come down on you too hard, but I am fresh off the heels from writing about littering and parties. This editorial seemed like a logical next step for me.

I know almost every one of the graduates and I'm surprised that there was a mess at all. I thought that we had a responsible group of teens who were willing to pick up after themselves. Or at least they would curb the impulse to smash empty bottles against playground equipment.

I can understand that you might not have been in control or maybe you were just caught in the moment, but come on. There are children who want to use those slides. Why should anyone have to deal with the aftermath of your "good time"?

I want to personally thank every RCMP officer who went down and spilled the bottles of those unlucky partiers.

I did laugh a few times at the saddened stories my friends told me about how brutal it was, watching a full 40-ouncer of tequila spill onto the ground.

I'm glad I wasn't at the party, because it sounded like the cops had a good lock on the situation once they arrived.

I have a few questions though, about why they allowed the party to continue. I thought it was illegal for under-aged people to drink.

But hey, I must congratulate the class of 2007 on their ability to host a party so wild that the bar-goers crashed it after last call.

Nothing like hitting on young drunk girls after striking out at the Trapper, I tell ya.

Here is a toast, to a society where we celebrate the accomplishments of our youth with wild parties. I don't want to come across like a jerk, but after talking with a family of kayakers who had to pick up five large bags of your garbage, I sympathize with the cleaners, not the partiers.

I enjoy a drink as much as the next guy in line at the bank, but really.

There are garbage bins to collect trash for good reasons. Even if your excuse is that the bins were full, don't be a fool. Littering is for tools.

Celebration of achievement

Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
Friday, June 8, 2007

Graduation ceremonies are events worth attending even if you aren't related to any of the students.

The ceremony held for 11 students from Thomas Simpson school on June 2 was a case in point. Although it was called a graduand ceremony, because officially the students haven't passed their final tests, the results were still the same.

To begin with, a graduation ceremony can be a walk down memory lane. It provides a chance for people to reflect back on their own high school graduation.

You can question whether or not your time in high school really was some of the best years of your life and wonder where your classmates ended up. Attending a graduation is a free ticket for nostalgia.

Graduation ceremonies are also great events to attend because of the positive emotions that surge from them. At the ceremonies there are seldom any unhappy faces in the crowd. Some people may be crying, but generally it's because they are overwhelmed with happy emotions.

The whole ceremony is designed to be a recognition of positive accomplishments. The students have put in years behind desks, bent over piles of notes and have emerged victorious, ready to face the next step in their lives.

It's hard not to smile and cheer as graduates parade into a hall. Family members are beaming and the graduates smile right along as they try to maintain some degree of composure.

For parents and other caregivers, graduations are a tangible acknowledgment that their children have reached an important milestone.

All those early morning wake-up calls and struggles to help their children with homework questions that sometimes even parents don't understand have paid off. Parents are able to breathe a sigh of relief that their child has made it this far before worrying what the next step will bring.

For students, the graduation ceremony is a time to celebrate their hard work and party with the friends from whom they might soon be parted.

Graduation ceremonies are also well worth a visit for the speeches.

Almost all speeches given by officials at graduations are pep talks in disguise.

Students are praised for their accomplishments and given nuggets of advice for how to continue on with the rest of their lives.Speeches given here in the Deh Cho usually touch on one or more of a series of set topics that bear repeating no matter how many times they've been said.

Each graduate is precious. Students face many challenges to reach a high school level of education. Getting to that point is not a given for all students and is worthy of praise.

No matter where graduates end up travelling to and creating their home, they should never forget where they came from and that they are always welcome to return.

The Deh Cho needs as many graduates as it can produce. There are openings in many communities in a variety of fields from professionals to trades people. It would be ideal to have these jobs filled by locals.

If the Deh Cho is going to continue to move forward, it will be the local graduates who make it happen.