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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A tenant at the Union of Northern Workers (UNW) building has taken matters into her own hands by cutting out a portion of fence that was limiting access by tenants to the building.

On Wednesday evening Michele LeTourneau cut out a section of fence that was blocking access to her apartment and the apartments of other tenants in the Union of Northern Workers building on 52 Street. The fence was back up by yesterday afternoon. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

On Wednesday night Michele LeTourneau took a pair of wire-cutters to fencing on the west side of the building to allow herself and other tenants easier access to their apartments.

"It's the safety of women at issue here," said LeTourneau.

With both sides of the building fenced off since an oil spill in a neighbouring parking lot last March, she and other tenants have been forced to trespass through the Aurora Village parking lot, which has poor lighting and is often used for large tour buses to idle. Another option is to walk around the block to the alley, which is icy in the winter and is also poorly lit. LeTourneau is concerned about the type of people who hang out in the alleyway.

"This is a known area for drug dealers," LeTourneau said. "The bottom line is that when they put up the fence it was inconvenient, we had to go around the other side, OK, big whoop ... and it was an inconvenience. But now it's more than an inconvenience. Now it's a danger.

"So, I decided to enforce the order that (NWT rental officer Hal Logsdon) had originally put out, which was open the fence, and I did it," said LeTourneau.

She said she took the action after applications she and two other tenants made to the NWT Rental Office, asking the UNW to comply with the order to open the fence, were adjourned Wednesday to a yet-to-be-determined date, likely next week.

"That was the final straw, I guess you can say," said LeTourneau.

Kathryn Carriere also rents an apartment in the UNW building and said she is also concerned about her safety and that of other tenants.

"The alleyway scares me. You never know who you're going to run into," said Carriere. "It's not as bad now (in the spring), but it will get worse again. We are sort of in between. In the winter there was the buses and it was dark. In the summer there will be a lot of people back and forth and it's just not safe."

She said it was nice to be able to go around the building from the west side yesterday, although she probably wouldn't have cut the fence herself.

"I wouldn't have done that ... I wouldn't have had the courage to do it, but I am proud of her for what she did," said Carriere.

As far as LeTourneau is concerned, she was simply helping the UNW comply with the order.

Logsdon, a rental officer with the NWT Rental Office who wrote a Jan. 17 order to open up the fence, said compelling the UNW to comply is not something he can do.

"The enforcement of the order is not the role of the rental officer. Orders of the rental office can be filed in the territorial court and they become judgments there when they're filed, and like any other judgments, they can be enforced in various ways," said Logsdon. "But we don't enforce orders."

UNW representative Roxanna Baisi, director of membership services, said Thursday she cannot comment on the issue because the matter is before the Supreme Court of the NWT where the UNW is appealing the NWT Rental Office's order.

LeTourneau called Yellowknifer at 4:45 p.m. yesterday to say that the section of fence she had removed had been put back up.

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