Obits: Jim Bourque The North mourns
Jim Bourque

NNSL (OCT 23/96) -It will be a long time before history can fully measure the impact Jim Bourque has had on the Northwest Territories.

Bourque (left) passed away in Ottawa Saturday at the age of 60, the victim of a heart attack.

His influence, which has as much to do with the way he conducted his life as his accomplishments, shapes the north today as much as it ever did.

The words and the tone of those whose lives Bourque touched resonate with respect.

"If young people ever needed a role model to look up to, he was the one," said Premier Don Morin. "He always treated people with respect, and got it back in turn. He was an honest man."

"There's a lot of people crying across the territories," said Susan Fleck, a long time friend of Bourque's, who worked as his executive assistant during his final years with the territorial government.

"He couldn't walk into a community in the North without being stopped on the street by people who knew him. He was an incredibly humble man, for all his accomplishments."

The list of those accomplishments is a weighty one.

From 1991-92 he chaired the Commission for Constitutional Development, better known as the Bourque Commission.

The duty took him to communities across the north for a series of public meetings.

That dialogue began the daunting task of forging a new constitution, a project now nearing fruition.

In the mid and late 80s, a time when the fur industry was almost wiped out by European, American and Canadian anti-fur lobbyists, Bourque was northern trappers' most powerful advocate.

He founded the Northwest Territories Fur Institute and served as its chairman for five years. He was the driving force behind the establishment of aboriginal fishing and hunting rights.

Bourque waged these battles as deputy minister for the department of renewable resources, a post he held from 1982 until retiring in 1991. A year later he was appointed to the Privy Council.

"It was a real challenge to follow him," said Joe Handley, a brother Metis who knew Bourque for 11 years and was his successor at renewable resources.

"He was very well like by his staff. He had a simple and clear way of expressing himself that earned him respect in the communities, out on the land and among the most senior politicians."

Before being appointed a deputy minister Bourque served a term as president of the Northwest Territories Metis Nation.

Frank Laviolette of Fort Smith was one of his keenest supporters in the Metis leadership.

"There was a lot of disagreement among the Metis leaders then, especially in the west," recalled Laviolette. "But he brought them together."

Metis Nation president Gary Bohnet noted, "Jim had a gift for bringing together people who had opposite points of view...He is lost to us at a time when we most needed his guidance, especially now with his constitutional work becoming a reality."

Though he shaped history in the boardrooms of Yellowknife and Ottawa, Bourque was always a man of the land.

He embraced the teachings of his Cree grandparents. Through his life he spoke of the importance of aboriginal traditions, and the lessons the land holds for all.

"He was happy on the land, he liked the land, and he was also good in the office," said Laviolette, who helped Bourque relocate two herds of bison from Wood Buffalo National Park after an anthrax scare in the early 60s.

"He always did the best he could, not only for the Metis, not only for aboriginals, but for everyone," said Laviolette.

He and the four remaining others who were part of that relocation project will be travelling to Yellowknife to be part of the memorial service for Bourque Friday at the Legislative Assembly, starting at 2 p.m.

Flags in Ottawa and the NWT are at half mast this week in honor of Jim Bourque, and hearts are hanging across the North.