Sex ed today Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, November 6, 2015
A lot can happen in 17 years.
Aside from revolutionary advancements to technology and ways in which information is shared, people will retire, die, have babies, start new careers, get married, get divorced and so much more.
All the while, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's sex-ed curriculum has remained almost wholly unchanged - stagnant while the world zips by it like a special-effects timelapse in a movie.
But that is due to change.
The territorial education department is knee-deep into a 10-year education renewal - a sliver of which means an updated sex-ed curriculum. The wheels on this began turning a year ago, according to John Stewart, director of early childhood and school services, who told Yellowknifer this week students between grades 4 and 9 may be seeing the first hints of change over the next 18 months.
It's crucial a curriculum update takes into account the world as it is today - most youth have smartphones in their holsters and unbridled access to the Internet and its unfiltered dirty underbelly.
If one were to ask Yellowknife Education District No. 1 trustee Jay Butler his thoughts on the curriculum as it stands, he would likely repeat what he has already said: sex-ed is "woefully, dreadfully inadequate."
Elaborating on his conviction, the recently re-elected board member told Yellowknifer the curriculum that deals with the birds and the bees in the city's public schools is nearly 20-years out of date.
"Everything we are teaching is (from an era) before smartphones, let alone Facebook," said Butler.
While students are wandering around untethered in a digital world, they must have an internal framework in place from which to process what they may come across.
Right now, the curriculum touches on important topics such as STIs, AIDS, safe sex and homosexuality but it must go further in addressing the life students lead online.
The school system is just as responsible for comprehensively educating students about sex through the context of the digital world as it is about Shakespeare or multiplication.
But not all see it that way.
Much of Ontario went into an uproar this school year over what appear to be reasonable and necessary changes to its sex-ed curriculum, which itself hadn't been updated since 1998.
According to national media outlets, aside from educating students about the dangers of sharing explicit images through text messages or social media, sex-ed begins in Grade 1, with teaching the correct names of body parts. In Grade 2, students learn about the broad concept of consent; by Grade 8 they will have learned about intercourse, puberty, gender expression, contraception, STIs and anal and oral sex.
While the NWT's curriculum, when fully updated, won't necessarily be a reflection of Ontario's, the education department intends to borrow best practices from jurisdictions across the country and the world.
One must trust those 'best practices' will evolve into students having access to a sex-ed curriculum that serves them and their place in the world at this time.
Beyond that, there are the tools - the curriculum - and how they're used - the method in which sex-education is disseminated in classrooms. Here, it's up to educators to ensure the messages truly reach students.
In the meantime, as Butler inferred, there is FOXY - an independent sexual-health organization offering programming aimed at empowering youth in making decisions about their own sexuality - which both his daughters have been through.
There is undeniably a gap that needs to be filled, whether that's by FOXY, parents or, eventually, a curriculum that is reflective of the age we live in.
Councillor quits with integrityDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, November 5, 2015
Last week, recently re-elected village councillor Larry Campbell announced he is stepping away from the position.
Campbell would have begun his second term on council Nov. 2.
In resigning, he cited his personal conviction that doing business with the village as a contractor could be construed as a conflict of interest.
It is no secret that councillors have done business with the village in the past while serving on council. But while being a councillor does not preclude one from contracting with Fort Simpson, Campbell's actions are certainly admirable.
The village will now be going to a by-election.
With Campbell out, only two incumbents remain, meaning all other councillors are new.
On Nov. 2, those councillors spoke of their intent to set a new tone at the village and to not do things the way they have always been done.
Councillors looking for an ethical role model should weigh Campbell's decision to resign and make sure they fully understand the burden of the position they have taken on.
Not only will they be making decisions on behalf of the hundreds of people who live within Fort Simpson, but they also must be the face of the village.
If they venture into territory -- personally or professionally -- that could be considered "shady," they damage the entire image of the municipal corporation of Fort Simpson.
Alternatively, as Campbell has done, an ethical decision rooted in personal conviction truly boosts Fort Simpson's image.
In a place as small, population-wise, as the NWT it can be difficult to avoid perceptions of bias or conflict of interest.
That is in part because so many people know each other, and municipally speaking, Fort Simpson has the same issue.
Councillors already have a fine line to walk when it comes to making fair decisions on behalf of residents.
When they run their own businesses, fairness may become a touch more difficult.
I do not think I am alone in hoping the newly elected council will be more like Campbell and less like the stereotypical politicians everyone dreads.
With a mayor who ran on a platform of transparency and accountability, and considering Campbell's actions, village council is already off on the right foot.
Councillors should work to ensure their strong start lasts an entire term.
Other side of tourismInuvik Drum - Thursday, November 5, 2015
There has been some talk around town about an online travel blog by Mike Arkus about Inuvik, posted last week about his travels this past summer.
While it's great to see the town's name on an international platform, the tone and conclusions of the articles have left a bad taste in some people's mouths.
The first, which sarcastically lambasted the town for listing the welcome sign as its best attraction, had a multitude of photos with no people in them. Most of the images were of flowers and outdoor scenes of areas surrounding the town, sprinkled with a few street scenes.
While it is somewhat disappointing there were no pictures of any substance, it is easy to dismiss the writer as someone who perhaps failed to see Inuvik's very best quality -- its people.
A subsequent instalment, however, could hardly claim the same. It detailed the writer's experience at Aboriginal Day events, which he apparently didn't really enjoy. After a brief description of the drummers and dancers at Jim Koe Park, he billed them as "rather boring" and "tedious."
The thing is, although Aboriginal Day is a fun-filled festival, it is not designed for the benefit or edification of cultural tourists. Tourists are certainly welcome and the venue can certainly be seen as ideal for tourism. But it is far more than that.
Aboriginal Day is a celebration of aboriginal culture and is an opportunity for aboriginal people and others to enjoy their traditional activities. It is more about the participants and less about the spectators.
This is the trouble with tourism, this much-vaunted solution to all our economic problems, if municipal leaders are to be believed. The people coming for a visit will have their own opinions of this community, opinions that people who live here may not agree with. That in itself is fine, it's to be expected. It's a bit of a tougher thing to grapple with, however, when people, their traditions, and culture become part of the exhibit.
It's worth considering, if only for a moment, that when the community opens its doors and calls in the world, visitors may not like what they see and have the bad manners to share their shallow opinion with others.
Fortunately, most people who read the drivel on this particular individual's travel blog are intelligent enough to recognize what it is, and isn't.
A Homeful hopeYellowknifer - Wednesday, November 4, 2015
It seems highly unlikely that society will ever truly rid itself of homelessness but that doesn't mean it shouldn't try.
Enter the Yellowknife Homeful Partnership - a group of Yellowknife businesses who have bandied together with the stated aim of ending homelessness in Yellowknife by providing housing to the city's less fortunate.
A number of the partnership's members are property owners - people who know a thing or two about putting roofs over heads.
The group has already pointed out that a lot of office spaces in the city are former homes and could be converted back now that they are vacant.
And if some landlords are willing to donate apartments to the cause as suggested by Kelly Hayden, vice-president of Northern Properties REIT, so much the better.
The immediate hope is to work with government agencies, as well as the city's Community Advisory Board on Homelessness and NGOs to find housing for 10 people by winter.
Hayden, who is part of the partnership, said there is "enough money in the system" to address homelessness but setting up a one-stop shop for people facing homelessness includes some upfront costs.
Many people are homeless because they have serious mental health and addictions issues.
This can be problematic for landlords willing to donate. Some type of enforcement will be necessary to address this to avoid property damage and conflict with neighbours. The one-stop shop pitched by partnership participants Hayden and architect Gino Pin, may be an ideal place to direct people to the treatment they need in order to go about their lives.
It's making progress in Medicine Hat, Alta., where the Housing First model has delivered a 76 per cent success rate. If the same technique is as successful here, imagine what it would mean to the Yellowknife homeless population, not to mention the state of commerce downtown, where loitering and homelessness has driven shoppers and business away. A 100 per cent success rate in ending homelessness is perhaps a little ambitious.
Not everyone, after all, wants to be helped but if the partnership can produce numbers anywhere close to those in Medicine Hat the outcome would be nothing short of miraculous.
Plan for power should be a GNWT priorityYellowknifer - Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Last month during the municipal election, discussion turned to the option of nuclear power as an alternative power for the city.
In other years it might seem like an outlandish idea but not when hydro-producing rivers are literally running dry and the cost of diesel to supplement this failing energy sector costs $30,000 minimum per day.
This has been the case over the last year and appears likely scenario for some time to come.
The NWT is not a place that takes chances. As the proverbial Northern middle child, it looks left then right - waiting for someone else to make the first move.
The City of Whitehorse is reducing its reliance on diesel by replacing two generators with a new system fueled by liquified natural gas, cutting costs by approximately $2.2 million per year, while the NWT Power Corporation crosses its fingers and remains "cautiously optimistic" that water levels will rise.
Thanks for the wake-up call Mr. HarperEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, November 4, 2015
I was contemplating my own personal viewpoint on Stephen Harper's fall from grace this past week, and realized what had turned me so absolutely against our former prime minister was his willingness to bend almost any rule to get what he wanted.
Harper's heavy-handedness, and his cone-of-silence approach to governance that muzzled almost the entire scientific community, took me back to the years just before my father's death, and how, in our quickly changing society, he would often remark this wasn't the type of freedom he had gone to war for.
Alarm bells sounded for me when Harper asked the Governor General to prorogue Parliament so he could escape a vote of confidence.
Harper actually pulled the stunt twice, once in 2008 and again in 2009.
Some would even argue that he did it a third time, when, in 2007, he asked to push back parliamentary business to allow the Tories to prepare a new throne speech.
The one angle of this I had not explored, however, was that I should be grateful to Mr. Harper for reminding me how easily our parliamentary system can be manipulated.
That hit me over the head after reading a column distributed by Troy Media that was written by Doreen Barrie, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary.
Barrie wrote of five reasons to thank Harper for often seeing himself as a supreme ruler, rather than an elected prime minister.
All five issues she touched upon (increased voter turnout, forcing Canadians to contemplate existential questions, alerting us to the dangers that lurk in our parliamentary system, awakening two sleeping giants and making us realize just how fragile democracy is) impact Northerners on one level or another, but awaking the sleeping giants of aboriginals and youth strike us most directly.
With one Inuk and 10 First Nations candidates being elected on Oct. 19, one would be compelled to agree the giants won't be back to sleep anytime soon.
First Nations and Inuit share many concerns, and there is now a substantial aboriginal voice to be dealt with, especially in areas of health, education, exploration and the environment.
In the Kivalliq, more youth were aware of the issues and took part in the process than any other time I can remember in the past 17 years.
The combination of being aware of the issues and wanting a change in direction going forward resulted in the youths adding their voices to those who wanted the Tories out in Nunavut and who didn't want a new MP already past the best-before date.
Harper overstepped the boundaries Canadians feel comfortable within. And his actions, truth be told, do show the American system has far more checks and balances than an existing Canadian system inherited from Britain, like it or not.
So, in retrospect, I agree Mr. Harper inadvertently did a great deal of good for Canada during his decade-long reign of almost absolute power.
Going forward I expect Canadians to be far less complacent about the freedoms so often taken for granted, and I expect the voices of aboriginals and youth to grow stronger and be heard louder and more clearly.
So, in the spirit of back-handed compliments, thank you very much for a job well done, Uncle Stephen!!
The incredible disappearing $32 millionNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, November 2, 2015
Great news for those concerned about cost overruns on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway project - the territorial government has made them disappear.
This announcement comes about a month after contractor E. Gruben's Transport and Northwind Industries Ltd. indicated to the Department of Transportation in e-mails leaked to News/North they were preparing to submit a claim for $12 million in budget overages and warned the project could be $32 million over budget by the time it was complete.
The territorial government has refused to comment on the cause of these overruns to media but leaked e-mails reveal them. The three factors include costs incurred by winter access road construction, pit development and early break up/late freeze up shortening the construction season.
The government also won't comment where the overages to cover these incidentals have gone, while insisting the project will finish with its original timeline and budget. It doesn't take an accountant to determine this does not add up.
The thing is, the public wouldn't have even known the contractors had determined the Inuvik to Tuktoytaktuk project was over budget if it weren't for the fact that the e-mails were leaked. In fact, Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny, deputy chair of the committee that oversees the project, came forward at the time to say even he didn't know about the possible budget overage on which his committee should have been briefed.
In response to this criticism, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger claims the committee was in fact briefed on the situation, which only confuses things more.
These criticisms do not mean the project is not worthwhile in of itself. An all-weather link from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk will no doubt do great things for both Beaufort-Delta communities and could be a tourism boon for the entire territory, as tourists will be able to drive the entire Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean.
But hope for a new highway doesn't mean constituents shouldn't continue to question how the government made such a significant overage disappear, especially as the territorial election looms.
The estimated overage is equal to 10 per cent of the entire $299 million project budget, so that money had to go somewhere -- even if that place happens to be the to-do pile for the next government.
It's a thought worth remembering if the road comes in over budget in 2017, when all is said and done.
Balancing act for municipal leadersNunavut/News North - Monday, November 2, 2015
It is a challenging but rewarding job to be an elected leader at the municipal level.
It is the first experience as a politician for most people who are elected as councillor.
Often they are motivated by a desire to help their family, friends and neighbours, to fix problems they see in the way things are done by the hamlet or city, or because they have been recognized by others as a natural leader and encouraged to seek elected office. Sometimes it is a combination of all these factors.
In most cases, the heady few days following a positive election result are filled with elation, a feeling that changes for the better are inevitable, and an eagerness to get down to work.
Then the first few meetings of council happen and the first-time politician wonders where all the misconceptions came from.
Representing the public in an elected position is no picnic.
Sitting on council is part of a democratic process, which means each councillor has only one voice and has to go along with the result of a majority vote. Sometimes other councillors don't agree with a stated point of view, speak against it and vote for a different action to be taken. That can be frustrating if you are the councillor making a proposal.
Then there are communication issues. Councils come and go but staff members stay the same in many hamlets. Some staff members have the patience to explain details about expenditures, operations and technicalities to new members of council. Others not so much.
One Iqaluit city councillor explained his reasons for not seeking re-election on Oct. 19. One of Kenny Bell's main observations is that councillors tend to learn on the job while tasked with making decisions that potentially have a profound impact on residents. He said new councillors were not provided with bylaws and legislation related to municipal responsibilities.
All municipalities are corporations, accountable for millions of dollars worth of infrastructure and operating costs. The municipality is responsible for delivering a wide range of services to residents including sewer pumpout, water delivery, community freezer and garbage pickup. The municipality maintains roads, delivers recreation programs, operates the arena and plays a role in the provision of heat and electricity.
Strong leadership is required. Sometimes tough decisions need to be made, especially when there is not enough money to go around, a common occurrence. Municipalities are not supposed to run a deficit but many find themselves with shortfalls. Several had to turn to the Department of Community and Government Services for assistance to get out of perilous situations.
In a perfect world, councillors, municipal staff and residents would all work together toward a common goal.
When that doesn't happen, it is up to the mayor and council to make decisions which provide the best quality of life for all residents.
