A doctor, frustrated with the disgraceful state of the health system in the Keewatin, resigns with the one stated purpose of getting the attention of someone in authority.

The doctor, newly recruited at considerable effort and expense, was adding his voice to a year-long outcry from the leaders of every political body in the region, from hamlet mayors to Inuit organizations, demanding an end to the ill-conceived plans of the Keewatin Regional Health Board.

Throughout the sustained protest, the responsible politician, NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng, ignored the clearly stated public concern, listening only to the chair of the regional board he appointed and the people on his payroll.

Ng's first public reaction was to leave things alone until 1999. Then, unable to stem the calls for a public inquiry from every sector, he agreed to a departmental inquiry last fall.

As hastily as the inquiry was put together, the department identified poor planning and a lack of communication. A reporting process was set up between the board and the minister's office to set things right.

This month the Keewatin health system deteriorated to the point that, not only had the doctor resigned, but so had the board's chair and executive director.

So we have a minister that is either incompetent or ignorant of his responsibilities to the people of the NWT.

We also have to wonder where the MLA for Keewatin Central, John Todd, and Aivillik MLA Manitok Thompson have been fiddling while the health system in their ridings disintegrates.

Obviously Todd puts balancing the books and cabinet solidarity ahead of the health needs and rights of the people he represents. As for Manitok Thompson, perhaps she thinks ministers are supposed to mind the shop in Yellowknife while her constituents cry out for representation.

As the only leadership Premier Don Morin has shown leads him out of the territories, the only hope remaining rests with the integrity of the ordinary MLAs. The critical state of the health system serving the people of the Keewatin calls for direct and immediate action.

The good citizens of Enterprise have put forward the suggestion that they join the Deh Cho First Nations. While this is no doubt a political gambit in efforts to avoid annexation by the town of Hay River, it raises some interesting and substantial questions.

The DCFN will have to decide if the mainly non-aboriginal community must choose a chief. The move also prompts a re-examination of the definition of an "indigenous" group.

Perhaps the lesson is one of the importance to people of good governance. It transcends the sometimes ugly lines drawn by race, creed or color.

Lawrence Norbert and Harold Cook, the founders of the Grollier Hall Residential School Planning Circle, may have a lot of pain to deal with thanks to their experiences growing up in an environmental of abuse, but they have the strength to do something about it.

That strength -- to organize the circle in hopes of dealing with the memories, and helping others do the same -- is rare these days. Too often the victims of violence and abuse are encourages to look for quick and easy fixes, sometimes with the help of drugs, sometimes with questionable therapy.

Self-help is often the best medicine. Cook and Norbert's efforts deserve our moral, and financial, support.