When you head to one of our many territorial or national parks to go camping, respect Mother Nature while enjoying her virtues.
There are a number of forest fires raging around the North and while these appear to have been caused by lightning strikes and dry conditions, it certainly wouldn't take much for a campfire or smouldering cigarette butt to ignite a potential tragedy.
As well, the cost of forest fires can be astronomical.
In 2000, the last year for which numbers are available, the GNWT budgeted $8.6 million for firefighting.
In that year, 276 fires burned 201,000 hectares of forest.
Already in 2004, 137 fires have burned approximately 43,000 hectares of NWT forest -- and the experts agree, we're in for dry summer.
We must also remember what happened around Norman Wells last summer. Dozens of people had to be evacuated to Inuvik to escape the choking forest fire smoke. That was expensive for the government and traumatic for those involved.
Remember, we must be stewards of the land in everything we do. Forest fires are a part of nature and foster new forest growth but man-made fires distort the natural balance.
Do you want your legacy to your great-grandchildren to be a scarred territory of waste or a slice of heaven on Earth?
The choice is yours.
It's simply not fair that government funding requests to help elderly athletes attend the 2004 Seniors Games in Whitehorse were twice denied.
Over 40 members of the NWT Seniors Society will attend games, the first group from this territory to ever attend.
But these senior athletes need assistance with travel costs. And since two requests for assistance from the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services were denied, those dreams of competing for the first time are in jeopardy.
The government is trying to tighten the purse strings, and says money for sports is earmarked for youths and aboriginals.
While it's important to expose young people and aboriginals to sport, seniors should not be left out in the cold.
Most seniors have spent a good percentage, if not all of their lives in the NWT -- living, working and paying taxes. It's hard enough to stay active when you're growing old and grey, so it's important that the GNWT recognizes seniors' dedication to fitness by giving them a little help.
After all, the decision makers of the present will eventually become seniors, too. We don't think they would appreciate being ignored by the government they once served so well.
"We help to make our communities stronger, more vital and more prosperous" – Bank of Montreal, 2003 Public Accountability Statement.
If that's really true, why is the bank quitting Nunavut? Guess they're just words, conveniently erased by the bottom line.
The Bank of Montreal's decision to close its Iqaluit branch as of Nov. 5 and transfer all accounts to Pembroke, Ont. is really all about money.
At BMO's corporate head office, the impact on people doesn't balance the ledger. No amount of names on a petition or posturing by politicians will change that.
So we should just say good-bye.
Before the branch closes, however, the company needs to make it easier on everyone. Instead of going through the facade of transferring accounts 2,000 km south -- might as well put them in a branch on the moon -- let clients transfer their money, loans, mortgages, RRSPs and other accounts to one of the two remaining Iqaluit banks without charge.
That's what a company really interested in its customers would do.
Maybe it's time people in Nunavut, with help from Nunavut Tunngavik, thought about opening a credit union.
Nunavummiut would be the shareholders and directors, investing in themselves and their future. Who better to make decisions for the territory's future?
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
We're more than a little concerned over the manner in which a Kivalliq resident was handled by Iqaluit police this past November.
The person was arrested and detained for more than 12 hours by Iqaluit RCMP under the Mental Health Act, when they determined the man was placing himself in danger due to exposure to the cold.
The person filed an official complaint with the RCMP over the actions of four officers during the ordeal.
The findings of the investigation concerning the two arresting officers were released this past month.
While we have no doubt the officers had the man's best interests at heart, the way the case was handled shows some disturbing trends.
The fact the man was taken to a cell instead of a hospital or medical practitioner went against Section 11 (f) of the Mental Health Act.
More disturbing than the action taken was one of the arresting officer's claim that he believed it to be common practice to not take a mental health patient to the health centre until the morning.
The same officer also did not read the man his rights or allow him to seek legal council, as he, by his own admission, believed those rights did not apply to an arrest under the Mental Health Act.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, however, guarantees everyone the right to seek legal council and to be informed of that right.
Officers need guidance
We were glad to see both arresting officers were found to have acted in an inappropriate manner and will receive "operational guidance" for their conduct in the matter.
That being said, we hope this operational guidance does, in fact, provide corrective action and educates the two officers regarding their actions.
For a peace officer to assume a person, who may be suffering from some form of mental disorder, no longer has the same basic rights as the rest of the population is appalling at best.
No less shocking is the officer's apparent belief that mental health patients should be locked up in a jail cell until it's convenient for the police to transport them to the local health centre in the morning.
Not only are these two officers in bad need of a refresher course on RCMP policy -- not to mention some basic rights and freedoms reading in their spare time -- they are also in bad need of a little sensitivity training.
There are many people in our communities who suffer from one form of mental illness or another.
We would like to think the people we entrust our safety to do not view these individuals as second-class citizens.
In fact, we would like to think understanding and protecting the rights of those who may occasionally need protection -- even from themselves -- would be a high priority among our peace officers.
We can only hope the operational guidance these officers receive gets that message across.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
It's not the first time I've been called jaded or cynical, but the first time in print (see letters to the editor). However, easily surprised is something that I can assure the reader I am not.
At least not at the frequency words in this fair paper are misinterpreted. From a "post-modern" viewpoint, these perceived misinterpretations could be seen as alternative takes; in other words three people may read the same story and have a different sense of what the meaning or events of that story were.
An editorial, however, is the expressed viewpoint of the editor and in the case of the Inuvik Drum, that's me.
A reader citing the Drum's July 7 editorial admonished it -- and its author -- for "telling people how they should vote" in the federal election. This was slightly surprising considering the editorial was written nine days after the election.
This week, the Drum received several letters. I enjoy getting them and as far as I am concerned, unless a reader fails to accord the proper decency or is outright inflammatory, I am pleased to publish each and every one. For this kind of forum is a cornerstone of any democracy, even from the post-modern seats.
Like it or not, we live in an age of what, at times, seems like unlimited choice. Unfortunately, getting the government you want does not come that easily.
But before I risk being misinterpreted or called jaded and/or cynical, I should give credit to the Green Party for its effort. It got its platform together, fielded candidates and captured enough of the popular vote to earn a significant amount of federal funding.
Remember the days...
Friends of mine old enough to relate a time when the "us against them" notion spurned a generation to question "the powers that be" and achieve great things also admit that there came a time when "us against them" didn't quite cut it any more.
People began to realize that working for change from within the system was perhaps a more practical way of bringing about reform. Funny how the "us against them" idea has found its way into the popular consciousness again, albeit in the context of a "war on terror." For the average Joe on the street, working from within to bring reform in that arena could get one killed. In the context of one's career choices, it may result in death from boredom.
The pragmatist may say working for the devil is often the price of change. The rest of us idealists cling to a hope of eternal happiness via personal choice and individuality.
As far as I can tell, the Green Party's pledge of fiscal responsibility is what sets it apart from the public's perception of the NDP and, of course, the Liberals. The rest of the alleged differences are frankly in the fine print.
Would a pupil of common sense be so idealistic as to think they could make the NDP more fiscally responsible by infiltrating its ranks and ascending its hierarchy? Not these days, it would seem.
It's comforting to know there are those who believe democracy will flourish by giving people more choice in the hopes that they will some day see the light. However, the realists among us -- filling their usual seats in the cynic's section of the peanut gallery -- fail to see the common sense in that at all. In the meantime, whether we like it or not, the Western Arctic once again puts its voice in parliament in the charge of MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
There's obviously no bigger topic in the Mackenzie Valley than the proposed natural gas pipeline.
The project was discussed at the Deh Cho Annual Assembly in Kakisa and again last week at the Dene Youth Alliance summit. It regularly rears its head at municipal and band council meetings and it is the subject of numerous workshops and consultations.
We're all consumed by the potential pipeline and its impacts. The problem is that it's so hard to separate fact from fiction on the project. There are several approaches being espoused by political bodies, organizations and consultants, each claiming they know how to truly maximize benefits.
The exchange between delegates at the Dene Youth Alliance summit in Fort Simpson and officials from Imperial Oil was quite adversarial, as many of these pipeline discussions tend to be, particularly in the Deh Cho. Several youths charged that aboriginal people won't realize enough revenue from the pipeline even though the gas is coming from their land. Imperial officials -- Alan Kennedy and Dee Brandes -- countered by pointing out that lucrative exploration and development opportunities will exist for aboriginal companies or aboriginal joint ventures to feed the pipeline. That's in addition to one-third ownership in the pipeline through the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. Then there will be benefits from access fees, a share of royalties through land claims and taxes paid to the territorial and federal government.
One delegate -- Jennifer Sharman -- shamed Exxon-Mobil, the largest corporate stakeholder in the Mackenzie Gas Project, for its poor human rights record and environmental practices in countries like Ecuador and Indonesia.
Then Fort Simpson's Randy Sibbeston took his turn to speak. He made a presentation like no other. Sibbeston said he had confidence in Imperial Oil's judgement and wealth to hire expert engineers. He said his primary environmental concern was the destruction of the "silence of the North," the tranquillity and the singing of the birds drowned out by large turbines at compressor stations.
Sibbeston said young people tend to romanticize the past, especially life on the land. If they want subsist in the bush that option is still available to them, he noted. He challenged the delegates to take a good look in the mirror and decide on a lifestyle they want to lead. Petroleum and its byproducts were necessary to process the Dene Youth Alliance t-shirts that were handed out to all of the delegates, Sibbeston noted. He added that petroleum was also used to make the plastic microphone that everyone was speaking into at the assembly. Other NWT land claim groups have already invested substantial amounts of money in exploration and development, and they are relying on a Mackenzie Valley pipeline to get their gas to market, said Sibbeston. There are many factors at play in this pipeline, he argued.
He's absolutely right about that.