Say what you like about lawyers, they interpret a territory's way it treats -- and defends -- its people.
If you have southern lawyers dominating that interpretation, try as they might they will not have as complete a grasp of the nuances of cultural usage as someone directly linked to that culture.
The Akitsiraq Law School program is the egg farm that will produce such a family of Inuk legal interpreters.
Nurtured in Inuit ways of traditional law and culture as well as schooling in Canadian legal practice, the graduates emerging from this program will automatically be looked up to as leaders in Nunavut.
And why not.
The only Inuk lawyer in Nunavut now is also the incumbent premier: Paul Okalik.
He's representing Inuit traditions a different way. And he's a little bit busy to be working in the Nunavut Court of Justice, too.
Akitsiraq students are an amazing bunch, judging from their backgrounds.
Ranging in age from 25 to 48, among them are a Mountie, a filmmaker, and a sealskin fashion designer who is also a single mother of five.
As great as this crowd may turn out to be, Nunavut can't assume the project can stop with this class.
"Thirteen lawyers (the size of the current class) is not going to do it," said Ottawa Law School common law dean Bruce Feldthusen.
After they graduate, how long will the first 13 continue to practise?
They will be pressed to become Nunavut's next generation of MLAs and MPs.
They will be sought by government and industry alike. They will become the next group of judges to sit preside over the territory's courts.
The Nunavut government must commit to a continuation of the Akitsiraq Law School program beyond its 2005 end-date.
Don't let "others" tell you your own law.
Rocky Zoe was a "gentle soul."
So says his cousin Nora Doig. We'd like to say more about Rocky, but we can't.
He's dead, the victim of a knife attack on June 23, 2002. His family, who live in Gameti, continues to grieve and declined to talk about their son and brother.
Who can blame them? The same day they expected to welcome Rocky home from school, they received his body. They thought he would be safer in Rae, living with a sober uncle.
Now, the teen charged in Rocky's death has been acquitted.
Rae residents seem ready to close this painful chapter of their community's past.
Crown lawyers don't plan to appeal the case.
Police have closed the book: "All avenues were explored during the initial investigation," said an RCMP spokesperson. "The investigation is concluded."
This is not some television show where superhuman crime investigators or "cold squad" cops dig up new evidence that leads to a conviction.
This is real life. And real death.
Yes, it could have happened anywhere. Whether they're in Yellowknife, Edmonton, Whitehorse or Rae, teens will drink. They will get in fights. Once in a while someone will die.
Rocky Zoe was a victim of the dysfunction and alcohol-fueled violence that kills young and old alike in the Northwest Territories.
The coroner made that point in his most recent annual report. In 2002, alcohol was a factor in 80 per cent of all homicides and one-third of all suicides.
In that same year, there were 802 "crimes of violence" in the NWT, including four homicides and 712 assaults. It's not unlikely that alcohol played a role in many of those incidents.
On Aug. 23, 2003, a 17-year-old in Fort Resolution killed himself after going drinking with some friends. In that case, a woman was convicted of selling booze to teens.
The real tragedy is Rocky's death. Like so many others, it is without meaning.
He was not some noble crusader out to make a difference in the world.
Rocky was a quiet kid who got into a fight at a party, then someone pulled a knife.
We must not forget Rocky, not ignore the problems that led to his death.
It will take people like Rocky's cousin Nora to demand communities stand up against violence and don't shrug away alcohol abuse.
Perhaps it's time to ask coroner Percy Kinney to come before the legislature with a report on the deadly consequences of alcohol.
MLAs must commit more money to alcohol education and treatment.
Police must charge all adults who supply booze to teens.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It didn't take our leaders long to jump on the bad-feds bandwagon following the Auditor General of Canada's (Sheila Fraser) report to the House of Commons.
The backlash is focused on Chapter 8 of the report, which chastises the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for not meeting "the spirit" of the agreement signed in 1993. We were most impressed by the fact Fraser and staff spoke quite often with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. before releasing the report. Too bad they hadn't taken the time to speak to our education leaders.
Much of the rhetoric being launched in Ottawa's direction points at more Inuit hires in government. And the voice calling for student exams to be more culturally sensitive is also rising up, once again.
In view of all this, we have a few suggestions on where the feds should start funnelling money to eventually meet the objectives of the Nunavut Land Claim. Nunavut has one of the highest rates of absenteeism and tardiness in Canada's school system.
Conversely, it also has one of the lowest graduation rates.
So, the first thing the feds should consider is hiring a wave of truant officers to be strategically placed across Nunavut to ensure our students go to school, and on time.
Second, a wave of counsellors -- family counsellors -- should be placed across the territory to emphasize to parents the importance of working with their children to ensure they get a good education.
Once we've addressed the problem of actually getting the kids in school, it will be time to develop training and cultural sensitivity. African Canadian and African American students study Black History as part of their curriculum. In fact, schools across the globe place emphasis on the importance of allowing their students to learn about the great people of their culture.
They don't, however, replace essentials such as science, reading, writing and arithmetic with pottery making or basket weaving. We're all for developing a made-in-Nunavut curriculum that teaches today's youth about the great Inuit leaders of the past, as well as helping preserve their language and culture.
We also favour the implementation of proper trades training that will lead to employment. Let's be honest, we don't need to start graduating 200 carvers and wall-hanging experts every year.
So, instead of simply admonishing the Canadian capital for not being in the spirit of the agreement, maybe it's time to partner with Ottawa to ensure the proper path is blazed to get us where we expected to be with the creation of Nunavut.
That begins by addressing the problems we know exist at the grassroots level ourselves, not waiting around for someone else to come along and do it for us!
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
With the host of issues facing the Northwest Territories, one has to question the wisdom of Senator Nick Sibbeston's renewed push to change the name of the territory.
At the beginning of February, Sibbeston's office mailed out brochures to every household in the NWT, asking residents to come up with a new name for the territory.
Refusing to take the hint from a 1996 GNWT telephone survey in which the best alternative those polled could come up with was "Bob", and another attempt by former Premier Stephen Kakfwi that garnered lukewarm support, Sibbeston is giving it another try.
Vested with the responsibility of representing the interests of Canadian citizens, particularly those from the NWT, Sibbeston is appearing to squander his opportunity to highlight the need for more practical reforms with, what for all intents and purposes, is a legacy project.
A legacy project that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars at a time when the territory is staring a potential $70 million deficit in the face. Web sites, stationery, business cards, and tourism literature, just to name a few of the seemingly endless list of things that would need to be altered or replaced in the wake of such an implementation, should make the territories' bureaucrats cringe.
Not to mention the hassles tour operators would have to go through convincing prospective visitors that "Bannockland" -- Sibbeston's idea for a new name made in jest -- was indeed the former Northwest Territories.
Of course, as governments are notorious for doing, the costs involved with implementing such a name-change would be graciously passed on to the taxpayer, in the form, of say, the cost of replacing your licence plates. Here's to hoping it doesn't get to the referendum stage in which the territory will have to pick up some of the tab for something qualifying not so much as the ultimate white elephant, but more of a white woolly mammoth. And those creatures -- bless their hearts -- have become extinct; exactly what should happen to this drive to rename the territory.
To Sibbeston's credit, he has served the territory and his country admirably, pushing for aboriginal rights and better government for Northerners as former MLA and premier. During his tenure in the legislative assembly, the groundwork was laid for the splitting of the territory -- what he refers to as the final "lopping off" of a swath of land that once encompassed much of North America.
For some, the historical significance of the territories' name should be all the more reason to keep it. But, as Sibbeston rightly puts it, "this is it, we're bound as one territory."
So here's an alternative to all of this hullabaloo. Bulk mail each household and government agency a supply of liquid paper and magic markers, with the understanding that it's each citizen's and territorial employee's responsibility to alter the name Northwest Territories to Northwest Territory on all relevant material.
This way, we can avoid the expensive wholesale replacement of all signs, stationary and, our license plates and just white-out the "IES" and pencil in the "Y". Whether this option is seen as a compromise or cop out, I'm keeping my plates.
Pass the liquid paper please.
Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh Cho Drum
In early January, spurred by what was undoubtedly a deep concern for the flora and fauna in the area, the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines pushed to have an environmental review of the proposed bridge over the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence.
In all likelihood, construction on the bridge -- which has been delayed more often than a middle aged man's visit to his proctologist -- won't start for at least a year.
A panel of experts from the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board will spend the time deciding whether or not stationary, concrete pillars pose a threat to fish and other marine life in the Providence area.
"Do they expect the fish to bump into the supports or what," asked one of my friends.
The review board also has the authority to examine the socio-economic impact of projects like the bridge, a process that should take all of about two minutes.
The shareholders in the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation (Metis and Dene in Fort Providence area) stand to gain millions over the life of the project.
The construction of the bridge itself, not to mention maintenance and upkeep, will provide dozens of jobs for a community thirsty for employment.
Finally, more Northern residents won't have to suffer through rotten vegetables, spoiled milk and inflated prices for two months of the year.
You'd be hard pressed to find anybody opposed to the bridge, except for the Chamber of Mines.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the chamber's environmental and social concerns were raised after Bridge Corporation officials announced a possible toll on commercial traffic.
The chamber estimates the levy would cost the mines about $1.5 million annually -- or a good day at Ekati.
The fact that the Chamber of Mines used an environmental review process to delay a project that would benefit more than half of the territories' residents is reprehensible.
The review process should safeguard the North's unique ecosystems and its people, not be a tool for furthering corporate interests.
As a taxpayer, it's absolutely maddening to think I'm subsidizing a superfluous review that only delays a project overflowing with benefits.
He's baaaaaack
Derek has returned from his vacation, so don't hesitate to stop by and ask him about it.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me during the last six weeks, especially Herb Norwegian, Val Gendron and Paul Stipdonk in Fort Simpson.
A mahsi cho also to Joanne in Fort Liard, Tannis in Wrigley, Pamela in Nahanni Butte, Anita and Lloyd in Kakisa and Fred in Jean Marie River.
Incorrect dates were published last week for the Nunavut Youth Academy event in Cambridge Bay (Sport for life, Nunavut News/North, Feb. 16, page 22). The event will take place March 20-23. We apologize for any confusion.