Artists need a home Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 4, 2016
The Yellowknife Artist Run Community Centre only got off the ground in 2011 but rapidly became a key note in the symphony of Yellowknife's vibrant arts community.
But from its earliest days finding a permanent home for the not-for-profit organization has been a struggle.
Its first home, the old Pentecostal Church on 49 Street, was demolished just six months after YK ARCC opened its doors.
More recently, the society had to vacate its studio and gallery room space when its lease ran out last July. Home is now in Old Town but only until the end of this month.
It must be incredibly distracting for the volunteers who run the organization to be ever searching for a permanent home to meet its mandate, which is to provide space for Yellowknife artists to work, show their work, host fundraising events and generally boost Yellowknife arts.
The city would be well-advised to make a space for YK ARCC a key part of any deliberations regarding the 50/50 lot, along with a cultural centre.
This organization's resiliency to date demonstrates the need and demand for what it brings to the city.
If the society had a permanent home built to meet its needs, there is no limit to what this group would be able to accomplish.
There should be no doubt that tourists check out the arts and cultural opportunities available in Yellowknife when they consider a visit here, even if their primary consideration is aurora viewing or fishing.
Yellowknife has always been strongly defined by its artist community. Finding a permanent home for YK ARCC would go a long way toward solidifying this important part of Yellowknife's diversity.
In the meantime, do keep your eyes and ears open for events YK ARCC may be hosting and participate as best you can. Yellowknife needs its artists but its artists need Yellowknife as well.
Flawed count still a win High school extends helping hand - Friday, March 4, 2016
Without a plan, challenges not addressed can snowball beyond manageability - especially for young people trying to navigate the journey toward adulthood.
Stress at home turns into missed classes and then students find themselves falling behind, resulting in more stress.
It is an uphill battle but a helping hand can mitigate that.
Students at risk of missing their graduation at Sir John Franklin High School are finding help thanks to the high school's counselling department.
The department has identified 93 students in need of a helping hand. This requires tracking their credits and monitoring their progress, even visiting their homes.
More important than the walk across the stage before friends and family for a hard-earned diploma, these students are learning how to overcome adversity, where to find help and when it is necessary to accept it.
That's an important lesson at every stage of life.
In this case, it has been the guidance team at Sir John who have worked to bridge the gap between the school and at-risk students.
A less flexible group of educators might have decided students falling behind should simply drop out.
By choosing a more hands-on approach, the counselling team has demonstrated a more nuanced understanding of the situation.
For that, they deserve kudos.
The system worksDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 3, 2016
Every so often, a government's people are treated to a display of defiance from their elected officials toward the governing elite.
In the Northwest Territories legislative assembly's consensus government model, that display takes the form of regular MLAs standing up to cabinet ministers and the premier.
Residents witnessed such a treat this past week in the assembly when MLAs pushed through 25 amendments to the government's proposed mandate. The amendments expand on some of the more vague sections
One of those amendments, moved on Feb. 23 by Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson, would see the government commit to erecting emergency shelters along remote highways.
For Thompson -- who started off his term as MLA in November by helping someone out of a ditch -- emergency shelters would mean the territory could lend a hand to people who break down on the land or highway, while at the same time increasing tourism and travel due to safer highways.
Thompson said highway shelters were one great concern brought up to him by Nahendeh residents.
Contesting Thompson's motion, Premier Bob McLeod tabled an amendment to Thompson's amendment to remove reference to emergency shelters. That amendment, which had full cabinet support from all ministers, was shot down by a united vote from regular MLAs.
In speaking against the shelters, McLeod said the territory already has roadside pull-outs for travellers, and that past installation of emergency shelters has "promoted vandalism and other misuse."
However, Thompson's original amendment passed despite all of cabinet voting against it.
A similar theme played out throughout the other amendments, with regular MLAs pushing through what they wanted.
If that isn't good governance, then nothing is.
Seeing MLAs, many of whom are new, exercise their power in the house is remarkable because it seems so unusual. In other provinces and territories, and even in the NWT, leaders often fall in line behind those with more experience and authority.
That is one of the factors contributing to political fatigue, as residents expect less and less from their government. In those situations, the government eventually stops working for the people and instead starts working in its own interests, while the people they are elected to represent lose faith in the political process.
Hopefully, discussion on the mandate told the cabinet loud and clear that regular MLAs are seizing their spot at the decision-making table. As for those MLAs, it will be necessary for them to keep up a united front in the future on decisions they feel strongly about.
Government works when leaders hold each other accountable. They are not enemies, but rather should see themselves as partners working for a better NWT.
Cabinet and regular MLAs must move forward as equals in order for consensus government to truly work.
On the importance of scienceInuvik Drum - Thursday, March 3, 2016
Last week, during one of the two brief interludes where media were allowed into the beluga summit, I chose to instead to attend the elementary school science fair.
While no doubt the opening comments from traditional leaders and government scientists were interesting -- I have certainly only heard good things coming out of the summit from people who were there -- so was a massive group of students getting together to show off their projects. Despite rather significant disparities in results and impact, the two are quite clearly linked.
The strength of conferences like the summit is that they bring together two aspects of observation that are rarely seen as complementary -- scientific inquiry and traditional knowledge. In the usual narrative, you have hunters on one side arguing for their traditional way of life, and government (and their scientists) on the other, trying to force change for their own reasons. Participants in the summit said they felt their input was not only heard, but valued.
But all that interest has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is often across the road at the school, where classes in Grades 4, 5 and 6 presented their projects. While disappointingly few students I spoke to were able to talk about the underlying scientific principles that governed their experiments, they had all learned about the scientific method and hopefully had fun doing so.
The school this year also changed how they run the fair, allowing more students than previous years to take that extra step up from doing a project in class to showing it off at the fair. While this did make for a wider range of results than one might expect in a top-three-per-class system, hopefully it also helped more students light the spark of inquiry and take pride in their work. What both the beluga summit and the science fair proved is that science isn't exclusively something done by people sitting in labs far away from Inuvik and the North. Children (and adults) complain about how so much of what we learned in school isn't applicable to real life. For instance, I can personally tell you all about the Pythagorean Theorem but am incapable of calculating my grocery bill in my head. Last week was an obvious example of where a pursuit of a scientific career can lead, namely right back home.
An Arctic inspirationYellowknifer - Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Arnold Witzig has deep pockets and a love of the North - a combination which has benefited several organizations since 2012.
The Switzerland native, and his wife Simi Sharifi, who came to Canada as a political refugee from Iran, founded the Arctic Inspiration Foundation, and in 2012 started doling out $1 million annually under the prize of the same name to Northern organizations.
Yellowknife-based FOXY, a sexual health organization for youth, garnered the entire 2014 prize.
Those who have benefited from this generous benefactor since the prize's inception celebrated at a special ceremony last month, where they were regaled with the inspiration behind the inspiration from the founder himself.
Turns out, he just loves the cold and the North and Canada and decided that giving back from the proceeds of his successful international architecture firm to "the very first Canadians" of the North felt like the right thing to do.
With funding comes responsibility and the best way to ensure this prize continues benefiting Northerners through the organizations that receive money is for those organizations to make the most of the award.
FOXY has done just that.
Its co-founder Candice Lys told Yellowknifer last week the prize is invaluable to the non-profit organization.
Since receiving the $1 million, FOXY, which was aimed at young girls, expanded to include boys. The organization, which travels around the North for workshops and programming, would have had to scale back had it not received the prize, according to Lys.
The success of FOXY, as well as the other 11 organizations which have benefited from the prize over the years, should be a signal to Witzig that his generosity has had a measured effect on the place he loves so much.
This sets a positive standard for potential future recipients of the prize and improves life for Northerners without coming out of the government mandate.
The power of community involvementYellowknifer - Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Volunteering can sometimes feel like a thankless activity with long hours working to organize events and people but the impact can last well beyond a person's lifetime.
Yellowknife lost another great matriarch on Feb. 18 with Esther Braden's death at 92. Two of her surviving sons told Yellowknifer she has left a legacy of community leadership the city won't soon forget while challenging her descendants to pick up where she left off.
Braden's many accomplishments include aiding in the establishment of the Avens Community for Seniors and the founding of the Yellowknife chapter of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. She was also affiliated with the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, Alison McAteer House, the YWCA and seniors groups. She received the Order of Canada in 2006.
It was only a year ago the city lost another pioneering lady who like Braden left a legacy through her volunteer work. Barb Bromley, nurse, businesswoman, seniors advocate and a Order of Canada recipient herself, died last February after an equally impressive lifetime of service for Northerners.
Her many accomplishments include leading the drive to form an NWT registered nurses association, helping establish Aven Manor and founding the city's Cub Scouts chapter with her deceased husband Peter Bromley.
These two great ladies prove one doesn't need to be wealthy or hold a high political office to make a difference. With a little hard work and dedication to a cause that serves the greater good, anyone can leave a lasting impression on their community.
Leadership beyond the callEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Kudos where kudos are due, and two large groups of kids in our region -- one in Naujaat and one in Rankin Inlet -- are benefitting big time from the efforts of two very special people.
In Rankin, while there can be no downplaying the efforts of anyone who lends a helping hand, members of the local cadet corps owe almost their entire programming to one Dorothy Tootoo.
The commanding officer has gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep the Rankin program alive the past few years, and is still slugging it out even though she knows in her heart of hearts it's time to walk away.
Yet as tired as she may be, Tootoo continues to answer the bell and keep the corps alive until enough adults step up in the community to allow her a well-deserved rest away from the program.
The cadet program is one of the most positive, character-building programs available to youth anywhere, let alone the Arctic.
And thanks to the almost at times Herculean efforts of Tootoo, a number of Rankin youths continue to reap the benefits of being involved in the cadet program.
I have no idea what the Rankin corps may plan when Tootoo is finally able to step down, or at least back away from her position, but it should be one of the biggest thank-you bashes youth in this community ever hold.
In Naujaat, Lloyd Francis is to be highly commended for taking the groundwork laid out before him by Leonie Aissoui and Jennifer Perry and scaling heights in the local cadet program once never thought possible.
It is nothing short of incredible to see the corps in this tiny hamlet grow to be the absolute largest of any among Canada's three territories.
Equally impressive is the fact cadets in Rankin continue to excel while the corps, itself, has been on life support.
And likewise, the level of success being achieved by cadets in the Naujaat corps has been growing almost as quickly as their numbers.
These achievements can be summed up in one word -- leadership.
While nothing in our region can be taken for granted due to its transient nature, it will be more than a little interesting during the coming years to see just how far Francis takes the Naujaat corps.
The amicable captain shows no sign of pulling up stakes anytime soon and, if his track record to date is a true indicator, plenty of good things await the youths of 3055 Naujaat Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps in years to come.
The man has a chance to leave quite the cadet legacy behind, should the day ever come when he decides to leave the North for good.
To this scribe, Tootoo has already cemented her legacy as a determined, dedicated and willful cadet leader.
She has stayed the course and fought to keep breath in the Rankin corps when many others would have walked away in despair.
Those who dedicate countless time and energy to a youth program are never really quite sure how much, if at all, their efforts are appreciated by the community they serve.
But then again, they rarely do the job for accolades.
They do it out of love for the program and the youth it serves.
In the case of Tootoo and Francis, the accolades are quite well-deserved, if not downright demanded!
Banishment isn't a wise optionNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, February 29, 2016
What is a community to do when under siege from its criminal members?
Following a string of break and enters, thefts, assaults and other crimes, residents in Fort Providence are asking this question. The situation came to a head two weeks ago when the community's Deh Gah School had to cancel classes after it was broken into -- for the fourth time since September.
Residents are justifiably frustrated. A Citizens on Patrol group has been on watch since late January and organizer Linda Croft says it's making a big difference. But, she says, they can't patrol every night of the week - and the crimes just continue on the nights citizens aren't patrolling. So, she started an online petition to banish the people responsible for these crimes.
Legally speaking, banishment can be an option. There have been cases where community banishment has been tacked on to peace bonds and upheld in appeals court, according to a 2012 Globe and Mail column on the subject. While banishment might be a legally feasible option in rare situations, this probably isn't the wisest solution for a small town where everybody knows each other.
Positive solutions, like the ones suggested by Deh Gah School principal Lois Phillipp in the Feb. 15 News/North ("Deh Gah School searching for answers after break-ins") are better in the long run. She asks for residents to focus on the positive things youth are doing in the community and try to keep in mind the inter-generational issues that might put a teen on a wayward path. Instead of banishment, she urges the community to offer support and understanding to troubled youth.
The results will not be immediate but working with families to address the root causes of criminal behaviour - residual trauma from residential schools being one issue Phillipp specifically points to - is a good place to start.
In the mean time, Deh Gah School could invest in security cameras to deter troublemakers from breaking in.
How to find an extra $150 millionNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, February 29, 2016
Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod laid out a challenge for his fellow leaders in the 18th Legislative Assembly last week - somehow over the next four years, the government is going to need to find $150 million.
In his Feb. 19 minister's speech, he laid out a plan to take austerity measures, an idea that has proven unpopular with the regular MLAs on the other side of the assembly. The fact is, the government is taking in less money than it is spending, and something has to give.
McLeod is correct when he says raising taxes will do more harm than good. The territory is trying to attract people and low tax rates are one of the biggest economic selling points for living and doing business here.
But if things have to be axed, how will McLeod and his colleagues in the legislative assembly know what to chop? He would be better suited to hand over his ax to the people below him.
The bureaucrats who fill government departments make their own project budgets, allocate money and know the difference between what they want and what they need. It is the people at ground level who are best suited to do this work.
The government could even give out awards for it. Like the Premier's awards, which in the past have congratulated bureaucrats for their work on successful policy and project implementation - such as devolution, the development of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Project and Deline Self Government - the territorial government could recognize people who save the most money.
Catch the wave of Winter Games feverNunavut/News North - Monday, February 29, 2016
The roster has been released and dozens of athletes who make up Team Nunavut are preparing to don their uniforms and represent the territory in an event that will represent the culmination of years of effort, dedication and resolve.
The 2016 edition of Arctic Winter Games is drawing together Nunavummiut from 17 communities, starting with Arviat and Arctic Bay and ending with Sanikiluaq and Whale Cove.
They will be competing in everything from basketball and badminton to table tennis and volleyball. Many of the athletes have dreamed of the moment that will finally arrive starting March 6 in Nuuk, Greenland.
All told, Team Nunavut consists of about 175 athletes, cultural performers and mission staff. All of the sports competitions except hockey will be played in Greenland. Iqaluit is hosting the hockey events because Nuuk does not have the facilities required.
For many of the athletes, all those early-morning or late after-school practices will finally pay off in competition against the best rivals from around the circumpolar North. Once again, there will be nine contingents of athletes -- from Nunavut, the NWT, northern Alberta, Alaska, Sapmi (from Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia), the Yukon, Yamal (Russia) and Greenland.
For some of the participants, this will be the first time they get to travel outside of their communities.
Making the Arctic Winter Games team is a dream come true for many of them. Some deliberately set goals and religiously worked on personal development, building up skills and abilities in a particular area of interest, with the knowledge that the reward is exposure to other cultures, people and places.
Besides the sporting activities are cultural performances by each of the contingents, giving a glimpse into the art and customs of other countries. Some of the other activities for members of Team Nunavut to look forward to include pin exchanges and even the exchange of different parts of their uniforms.
Arctic Winter Games organizers on the host committee have been working for years to get ready for this event, which is held every two years and rotates through different host countries.
We have caught the wave of excitement and created a special supplement, inserted into today's newspaper, and a special website to follow Team Nunavut, highlight the challenges and keep track of the ulus awarded at teamnunavut.com
From the glitter and fireworks of the opening ceremony, to the gymnasiums, the volleyball court, the wrestling mat and the hockey rink, we'll be there to capture the individual performances and team efforts.
The countdown is on, most of the arrangements have been made and participants are prepared to pack their bags.
Join us in cheering on Team Nunavut at the Arctic Winter Games.
