The poisoned pond at Colomac mine is breaching its banks, spilling thousands of gallons of toxic fluid onto the land and into the ground water that feeds a centuries-old ecosystem.
The tailings pond, holding byproducts of the mining such as arsenic, cyanide, and heavy metals, was never designed to hold this quantity of material.
It is currently leaking a chemical cocktail at a rate of about 180 gallons a minute.
Presently, pumps are working around the clock to divert the tainted water into an open pit which is neither lined nor approved for this type of material storage.
The toxic liquid will eventually seep through the cracks of the precambrian rock and leach into the surrounding streams and lakes.
DIAND cannot look to the bankrupt Royal Oak to deal with the mess.
While the government holds a $1.5 million security bond put up by Royal Oak, the cleanup, by the company's own estimates, will run anywhere from $6 million to $7.5 million.
The outcome of this nightmare ultimately lies in the lap of DIAND, since it has been their policy to approve and reapprove the inadequate storage of these materials.
While they have completed a comprehensive study on the area and the problem at hand, no full-scale cleanup is scheduled.
Licensing the storage of these tailings in the name of profit is a crime against nature and DIAND must now pay the fine.
Any further denial and delay will only worsen an already disgusting display of corporate negligence.
Premier Jim Antoine and MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew shouldn't waste any time using their political muscle to help Roberta Vaneltsi get her children back.
Five years ago, Vaneltsi's 12-year-old son Roman and 10-year-old daughter Petra were taken illegally to the Czech Republic by her estranged husband, Petr Cerny . Her battle to reclaim them, despite hiring a Czech lawyer and entering the archaic Czech court system, has proved futile. And if that's not discouraging enough, attempts to get MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew and Prime Minister Jean Chretien involved haven't amounted to a hill of beans.
What's wrong with everyone? Since the NWT courts awarded Vaneltsi sole custody of her children in 1995, surely the government can do something to put an end to this woman's tragedy.
As witnessed in Nunavut recently, community-based nutritional programs around the territory are filling more than just the hunger needs of women and their families.
In both Grise Fiord and Cape Dorset, along with a whole host of other communities, women attend weekly classes, and while they learn about the nutritional contents of food and how to prepare healthy recipes, they get to participate in a much-needed and supportive social setting.
In Grise Fiord, organizer Meeka Kiguktak puts the emphasis of her program, Healthy Family = Healthy Children, on promoting culture and tradition. But women are also given the opportunity to listen to guest speakers and to learn how to deal with the stress that modern living brings.
Dealing with childhood illness and developing parenting skills are also an integral part of the program and to positively reinforceall of the learning, participants play games and win prizes.
Anik Desrochers' Avuttutt - The Cravers program in Cape Dorset fills similar needs in the south Baffin. Women learn about food, pass on their knowledge to their families, all the while fostering their own sense of self-esteem.
And it's that end product, that improvement in one's idea of self-worth, that is at the root of it all. When the mothers in our society feel confident and capable, similar feelings are passed on through the generations. It's programs like this that will go a long way towards eliminating many of the social ills that plague the people of the territory.
It's also important to note that both of the programs provide free childcare to the participants -- an extremely important component in that it allows women the space to socialize and develop without their children in constant tow.
Afterall, while teaching a woman usually means teaching the entire family, unless she is in a healthy, rested and productive frame of mind, the lessons she learns will get lost in the shuffle.
The withdrawal of wildlife charges against five Dene hunters from Saskatchewan shows what shaky legal ground the federal government is on with its game laws and provincial borders.
The hunters were charged after chartering into Beaver Hill Lake to hunt caribou and muskox.
Wildlife laws are renowned for having very sharp teeth, but in this instance they were neutralized by the Dene hunters' traditional treaty and aboriginal rights. As a result, a path of mediation was chosen over legal confrontation.
Drawing lines on a map and enacting regulations is easier than proving ownership in front of a judge. Again, the threat of costly, ineffective court battles makes negotiation an attractive alternative.
Let's hope this week's meeting between Cambridge Bay's hamlet and the GNWT brings some immediate solution to the current shortage of space to house a library for Cambridge Bay.
The library, which was completely destroyed last summer when the high school and heritage centre was burned to the ground, isn't scheduled to be replaced until 2001.
Meanwhile, book donations from across the planet continue to pour in to the community, leaving students and residents frustrated at the desperate lack of access.
A recent letter writing campaign by 24 students urging action now shouldn't be ignored.