Yellowknife City Councillor Alan Woytuik can be forgiven for saying gays and lesbians should be fighting for their rights in the courts and not the streets.

Woytuik made the statement during the council debate on declaring June 23 Gay Pride Day.

It is difficult for those who don't experience discrimination to understand the struggle others face for equality. While taking the fight into the courts is common, more common is the discrimination on the streets and that's where it hurts.

The impulse on the part of the majority to protect its culture and traditions too often translates into denying the same rights and freedoms to minorities. Is it jealousy or fear?

Council was correct in voting for Gay Pride Day. Perhaps it's the start of a new tradition in which the majority can take pride itself.

For a lot of people, sitting around a crackling campfire out in the woods is close to being in heaven.

As much as that campfire has the ability to sooth frayed nerves, it has more power to destroy.

Left unattended or not properly doused, that peaceful campfire can turn into a raging inferno, with the power to consume many hectares of forest.

It's something that's happening all too often lately, with fire danger hitting extreme in the Yellowknife area and throughout the North and South Slave regions.

Of the eight fires recorded in the North Slave region that have burned a little more than eight hectares of forest, seven have been dubbed "people oriented" by RWED's Forest Management Division. By comparison in June 1999, lightning caused all but one of the 12 fires. The other was listed as "non-people related."

A higher number of forest fires caused by people is to be expected in a region that is home to the majority of the NWT's population, but that's still a pretty lousy percentage.

People have to be more careful in the woods. That doesn't take a lot.

Don't toss your cigarette butt out the car window or casually on the ground. Make sure your campfire is out before you go to bed or leave your campsite -- you should be able to put your hand on the ashes. A bucket of water and shovel should also be within easy reach of a burning campfire, just in case.

It just takes common sense, whether the forest fire hazard is low or extreme.

It's also important people report any fires.

You need to know the location of the fire and how big it is, whether people or property are in danger. You also need to give your name and phone number so fire officials can contact you for more information.

Today, June 21, has been officially recognized as National Aboriginal Day.

Official days, as established by the government, provide a focus for recognition. Here in the NWT, 51 per cent of the population is aboriginal. In Yellowknife, a quarter of the residents are aboriginal, making Yellowknife the largest aboriginal community in the North. Recognition is hardly the issue.

The North is on the cusp of a new era: Territorial powers are under review, executive powers are being devolved to the communities, treaties are under discussion and bands are closing in on self-government.

The success of the new North will depend on mutual understanding, co-operation and patience. That's what we can all celebrate today.

There is no doubt there will be more than a few people in the Kivalliq Region shaking their heads in disbelief at the reasons given by addictions counsellor Beth Thomas for leaving Rankin Inlet.

The reasons for this are twofold.

First, many people would have you believe things like death threats just don't happen in the Kivalliq. Not serious ones anyway.

Second, Thomas may have irritated a number of people dependent on the drug trade during her stay in Rankin Inlet.

The problem was that she just wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to improving services in the hamlet.

Regardless of what people thought about Thomas personally, she produced results.

And since we have no valid reason to think otherwise, we must believe her contention that local dope dealers made her life miserable enough to force her out of town.

If this is the case, it illustrates just how far we still have to go to overcome our drug problem.

Dope dealers sending death threats to addictions counsellors is totally unacceptable, no matter how high or low the counsellor may be on some people's popularity list.

This, combined with some of the court sentences that have been handed out for trafficking convictions recently, have all of us shaking our heads in disbelief.

Those who believe this type of criminal behaviour doesn't happen in our region are the real dopes.

Power surge

Minister responsible for the Power Corp., Ed Picco, deserves a tip of the hat for the Baker Lake initiative.

Hopefully, the Power Corp.'s partnership with Nunavut Arctic College, to train residents for government jobs coming to their community through decentralization, will set a precedent.

As advocates of local training and hire, we hope other government departments setting up shop in the Kivalliq will follow Picco's lead.

It may not stop the ultimate failure of decentralization, but we will have Nunavut workers who are trained and able to move with their job if and when the day comes that our territory moves towards a centralized government.

While the initiative is a positive move towards maximizing the potential in local communities, it does little to off-set the high cost of travel and doing business in a Northern territory with a decentralized government.