Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 25/98) - Deputy Premier Goo Arlooktoo has tabled in the legislature two reports he says lay to rest speculation that he wrote a controversial note during the last session.

But the forensics report and results of a lie-detector test supply no definitive answers.

The forensics examination, conducted by an Alberta firm, of photocopied handwriting samples by Arlooktoo and High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas, who admitted writing the original note, was inconclusive.

"The features observed ... are not of sufficient strength to permit a completely positive identification or elimination of either writer," said Leslie Peace of Questioned Document Investigations.

To prove Barnabas wrote the note to Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen, Arlooktoo sent a reproduction of it to Peace. The note said, "Jane How did you get 800,000 loan from this gov't."

(Groenewegen said she considered the note an attempt to stop her asking questions about a lease the GNWT signed for Yellowknife's Lahm Ridge Tower, which had recently been bought by two close associates of Premier Don Morin.)

Peace said that the note in question was "probably not written" by Arlooktoo and was "probably" written by Barnabas.

"The term 'probably' in the above conclusion is intended to describe a level of certainty which is relatively high, and which, in my estimation, includes only a remote chance of error," said Peace.

If a more definitive assessment of probabilities or certainties is to be done, Peace said he would need the original questioned note or a good-quality first-generation photocopy. Groenewegen still has the original note.

Peace said the note has only nine words and one number and therefore it is extremely difficult for any examiner to evaluate and assess the authorship.

The polygraph test for which Arlooktoo volunteered was a little more conclusive, though less detailed, than the forensic report.

Arlooktoo was asked six questions about the mystery note by examiner Ray Renaud of Bison Security Group in Calgary.

"In my opinion, based on Mr. Arlooktoo's polygraph examination results that he was telling the truth when he answered the above listed questions," said Renaud.

No details about the test itself were released.