Friday, September 30, 2005
Yellowknife Minor Hockey needs referees. Men and women, boys and girls are invited to get involved and experience the game from the other side of the ice.
Those who have already donned the referee's uniform say they have gained a whole new respect for officials and, perhaps more importantly, a greater understanding of the game of hockey itself.
In short, it makes them better players.
Along with a general need for refs to officiate the dozens of minor hockey games scheduled throughout the winter, growth in womens hockey is creating a demand for female officials.
Clinics were held earlier this month, a female referee clinic is planned for October and a final clinic will be held in November so there are plenty of opportunities to see what it's all about. It's simple, really. Those who love the game of hockey, and want to continue to see it thrive in Yellowknife, must be willing to get involved.
Mildred Hall is the oldest elementary school in the city, and while the building has been refurbished, the playground is starting to show its age.
A lot of play equipment is older than the teachers who teach there, and the grounds are an unwelcome gravel patch that turns to mud in the spring, while spawning dust devils during the summer.
Principal Yasemin Heyck and a group of parents want to change that. Their vision includes turning the schoolyard into a downtown park that can be enjoyed by all residents.
This kind of initiative is nothing new. Groups like the Evergreen Foundation and Tree Canada Foundation have been promoting greener schoolyards for years. These agencies provide expertise and a little funding as well.
The preliminary plan includes new playground equipment, park benches, grass, and native trees and shrubs. Yk Education District No.1 has already pledged $100,000 towards the project, and proponents predict they will need another $200,000 to bring it to completion.
It's a worthwhile venture. Not only will a park be more enjoyable for the students, it will spruce up a downtown core that is having problems stemming the outward migration of residents and businesses to the suburbs.
This is a project that not only City Hall and the territorial government should get behind, but citizens and businesses as well - particularly those who have an interest in seeing downtown thrive.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
The Oct. 3 regular meeting of Rankin Inlet hamlet council promises to have a few heated moments due to serious accusations leveled against it by a local MLA.
Kivalliq News has obtained a copy of a letter addressed to Justice Minister Paul Okalik, in which Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley raises a number of concerns about a June 1 accident which saw a young boy suffer a broken leg.
The boy, years from being a teenager, was a passenger on an ATV driven by a 10-year-old when it collided with a hamlet vehicle shortly before 6 p.m.
In his letter, Curley accuses the RCMP and the hamlet of failing to properly investigate the accident and raises damning questions about the vehicle driver's behaviour and the hamlet's subsequent actions.
If Kivalliq News was to repeat some of the unproven allegations, this newspaper could be subject to legal action.
Curley would be well advised to take his own advice in checking the facts of the accident before dashing off a letter to the territory's top justice official.
The MLA left out the fact police were investigating the death of a young boy at the time of the incident.
This would go a long way in explaining why it took them about 15 minutes to respond to the scene.
It will be interesting to see how council responds to Curley's accusations.
It has become open season for unfounded allegations against staff members lately, and it's time for council to make a stand and start protecting its employees.
Nobody likes to see a child hurt, but when preteens are allowed to get behind the controls of motor vehicles, it is a recipe for disaster.
Make no mistake about it, this story could have had a much sadder ending.
As for Curley, he's been around long enough to know unfounded accusations are a risky business.
In fact, we wouldn't be a bit surprised to see the next letter in this saga being delivered to the MLA's desk demanding an apology or threatening legal action.
Curley has made serious accusations against an individual, a municipal council and a police force which, at this time, only he knows if he has the tangible proof required to back up such claims.
If so, let justice run its course.
If not, only time will tell if an apology will be enough to end the matter.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
So it seems the wheels are in motion (no pun intended) for construction of an all-weather road from Wrigley to Tuktoyaktuk. It's about time and surely Cece McCauley will be pleased, as she has consistently written in her News/North column about getting it done.
It has been said that the project will take between three and five years to complete, so don't look for a drastic reduction in the price of staple food items anytime soon.
Come to think of it, in five year's time inflation will probably have caught up to the highway's projected completion and it's unlikely grocery store prices will vary much from today's going rate.
That said, anything that can bring the cost of milk down to the range of two-litres worth of soda pop is a good thing because healthy choices should not be dictated by price.
With the prospect of a gas pipeline going through the valley, it seems more than just coincidence that a highway project on roughly the same trajectory is being seriously considered. One has to wonder, if the pipeline project falls through, will the highway to Tuk disappear along with it?
Government can say the road to Tuk is a means to solidify Canadian sovereignty in the region but that is merely lip service. As a community, Tuk itself, along with Holman, Sachs Harbour and many others, assert Canadian sovereignty.
In the meantime, the federal government could park a few submarines in the Northwest Passage on a permanent basis to bolster the country's claim of the Arctic archipelago as Canadian territory... at least until the highway is completed.
Closer to home
With each passing day the mercury drops lower and lower, making the plight of the community's homeless that much more dire.
Last week the Drum received a phone call from a concerned elder, wondering what was going to be done to accommodate those without shelter who have taken to camping out in various locations around town.
The Drum has previously addressed this issue and local efforts to deal with the situation. While some headway has been made, a shelter is still a long way from being realized. Of course, money is what's ultimately keeping things in limbo.
Sure, Education, Culture and Employment coughed up some cash for a planning and management position and other funding proposals are under review but yet another year has gone by with lots in the way of planning but little in the way of concrete results.
On the bright side, things are moving forward and there is a glimmer of hope that something more will be provided in the upcoming GNWT budget.
Unfortunately, the budget won't be debated until the beginning of the new year, well into this winter's deep freeze, which will be of little consolation to those sleeping rough around town.
Last year one fellow froze to death in Inuvik. How many more will have to suffer the same fate before we move from the planning phase to actually seeing a shelter built?
Editorial Comment
Andrew Raven
Deh Cho Drum
This Monday, the CBC labour dispute entered its seventh week and perhaps nowhere is the radio silence more deafening than the Northwest Territories.
Faced with a country-wide lockout of 5,000 workers, the national broadcaster has slashed its news coverage and reverted to a Toronto-centred call-in show.
This development means very little for most southern audiences, who have their choice of sources for local news. And studies show those choices are exercised quite often - in most urban centres the CBC television news trailed competitors like CTV and Global.
The Northwest Territories is a different animal though. Aside from Northern News Services - which owns the Deh Cho Drum and five other publications - there are really no other media outlets that cover the entire region.
Getting your hands on copies of daily newspapers like the Globe and Mail or Edmonton Journal is nearly impossible in the smaller communities.
While the strength of newspapers lies in their ability to provide context and detail, the CBC offered Northern residents immediate news - something that is vital in the fast-paced 21st century.
The national broadcaster also provided aboriginal language newscasts, something elders across the Deh Cho have relied on for years.
Most importantly though, the CBC gave the Northwest Territories what elbow-patched journalism professors call "a diversity of media voices." The concept is simple: the more outlets you have, the more stories that make their way into the public domain.
The media machine is driven by a difficult-to-explain concept called "public interest," something that determines which stories make their way into the news and which do not.
Triple-murder-suicide? Certainly newsworthy. Climate change conference? Probably.
Every single reporter, editor and news organization has biases that affect which stories they cover, though most would probably be loathe to admit them.
Like other businesses, we sometimes make mistakes and overlook stories that should be reported.
Nationally, there is a disturbing trend towards media conglomeration. Three major companies - Bell Globe Media, Canwest Global and Quebecor - control most of the daily newspapers and television stations in Canada, which limits the number of stories that get through the net.
The situation in the Northwest Territories is different, thanks to the open minds of the people behind Northern News Services. They believe in letting reporters cover the stories they think will have the most impact on readers.
At their best, reporters are watchdogs. They make sure governments are not wasting tax dollars, police are not crossing the line and public companies are not hiding massive losses on altered balance sheets.
The more people out there wading through the muck, the better.
In the Sept. 21 issue of the Yellowknifer, the salsa lessons at the Top Knight for Latin Dance night should have been listed as a Thursday, Sept. 22, event. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this error may have caused.
A story appearing in last week's Inuvik Drum ("Cold days ahead," Sept. 22) gave the impression that CBC employees were not locked out in the Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet bureaus. The bureaus are providing scaled back services in Inuktitut, but employees there remain locked out as elsewhere in the country. The Drum apologizes for any confusion caused by the error.