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Monday, January 15, 2007
On Jan. 4, 70 people turned out to discuss their concerns over policing in Fort Smith.
Not surprisingly, the biggest complaint was slow response time. It's something heard almost every time there's a meeting about police service.
Mounties can't be everywhere all the time. There are only so many officers to go around. Right now, the Smith detachment is down two officers from its usual complement of nine.
People have to understand that and have patience.
However, some of the complaints need a full investigation.
Most serious was a story about a person who called police regarding a woman being beaten on the street in front of their home. According to the story, the comment from the dispatcher in Yellowknife was to "leave it for 10 minutes and see what happens."
If true, that's unacceptable.
In another instance, a cabbie called police to report an early-morning break-in in progress. Police didn't show up right away because the officer needed to have a shower, the taxi driver said.
Now retired Chief Supt. Pat McCloskey said he takes these complaints seriously and vowed to brief his successor. After 33 years on the job and many years in the North, McCloskey is true to his word.
In the case of the dispatcher comment, it's unlikely we'll ever know exactly what was said or done.
Dispatch recordings are only kept for three months. This incident happened in September so the tape has likely been erased. If it does still exist, it must be reviewed.
The break-in should be easier to discover if anyone was caught and charged in connection with the incident.
Getting answers to these complaints back to the community is the most important step RCMP can take to build the trust police say is so important.
Right now, Fort Smith residents could well believe dispatchers in Yellowknife don't really care about what's happening in Smith.
We believe that's not true, but these incidents may cause people to think twice about calling for help.
A follow-up meeting with results of the police review of complaints is essential.
When there are problems, residents must complain to police right awa and demand answers. Waiting until a public meeting months later will not resolve the problem.
Hold police and yourselves accountable for getting the police service you want and deserve.
Some wounds take a long time to heal.
The forced relocation of Inuit from northern Quebec to the high Arctic in the 1950s is one of those wounds.
It seems unfathomable that the federal government would ship close to 100 people to extremely remote and unfamiliar areas in the name of Canadian sovereignty.
Yet the communities of Resolute and Grise Fiord exist today because of that decision.
Surviving elders and their offspring from those communities are a testament to Inuit ingenuity.
They somehow persevered in that harsh environment, where they were provided inadequate shelter and had to learn to forage for new sources of food.
Now acclaimed filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk is seizing upon the opportunity to document the coerced change of address in his upcoming film High Arctic Exiles.
It will be shot in Inuktitut so all Inuit can understand this shocking history lesson. Everyone stands to learn something from it, and with the publicity that will accompany the film, maybe the federal government will finally see fit to apologize for its egregious mistake.
We all know people who give tirelessly of themselves, without whom some things would simply never happen.
Iqaluit's Marge Lalonde is one of those people.
When thinking of Sport Nunavut, most people envision young athletes, brimming with enthusiasm and vitality.
Lalonde doesn't fit that description, but the elder has demonstrated another kind of stamina that is crucial in the sports world: a vigorous determination to raise money.
Nunavut athletes couldn't make it very far without funds for travel.
When she heard that youth from across the territory were eligible to attend the Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife, Lalonde and a committee of equally generous volunteers set out to build a pool of financial resources through the Nunavut Youth Sports Fund.
So next time you see Marge Lalonde, thank her for her initiative and dig deep in your pockets.
Even better, offer to lend her and her fellow volunteers a hand.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Let me say right from the start, I am a smoker.
I am neither proud of it, nor embarrassed by it, and I have no intention of quitting.
Only a fool would deny the risks associated with smoking cigarettes.
Taxing smokers has become a multi-billion-dollar industry for governments.
Forget the unjustified ostracism levied at smokers.
It's not going to change and smokers accept it.
Smokers accept a lot, considering we're still talking about a legal product.
Nunavut has joined the NWT in having the highest taxation rate in Canada for tobacco products.
In announcing the latest tax hike, Finance Minister David Simailak insinuated that smoking is the major contributor to Nunavut's soaring health-care costs.
As always, with generic statements meant to justify a tax grab to those unaffected, there was no verified documentation comparing the cost smokers have on Nunavut's health-care system to, let's say, medical travel - not forgetting those who travel with the sick to Manitoba and Ontario.
But, let's forget that too and take a look at the numbers Simailak did toss out.
In justifying the tax hike, Simailak alluded to the burden put on Nunavut health care by smokers, saying it was "well-documented."
He went on to say raising tobacco taxes is a proven smoking deterrent, and the reason for the hike is to encourage more people to quit.
Let's take him at his word that the goal of the tax hike is to get smokers to quit.
Funny then, how later on he talked about how the tax increase on tobacco products will result in an annual increase of $2.5 million to $3 million in extra government revenue.
Which leaves this poor scribe to ponder how Simailak is going to rake in an extra $3 million per year if he's successful in his goal to get everybody to quit?
In fact, should this latest attempt by the government to get people to quit smoking be successful, not only would he not have the extra $3 million, he'd lose another $5 million to $10 million a year from the tobacco taxes he's already collecting.
Let's be honest. If this formula concerned anything else but tobacco, would you be buying it?
My opinion is by no means an endorsement of tobacco use, which is risky, risky business.
But enough of the government smokescreens.
Smokers are easy targets now, who risk further ridicule by speaking out.
But is it too much to ask for a little honesty in return for the millions - billions nationally - they shell out in taxes every year?
The tax increase on tobacco products (sin tax) is a way for the GN to raise $3 million against the $8.7-million deficit projected for this fiscal year, and has nothing to do with getting people to quit.
It would be funny, though, to see how the government would react if everybody did quit.
And, speaking of funny, beer drinkers can wipe the grins off their faces because they're next!
Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
You want to know what really grinds my gears? Youth who love to play the blame game. We all know young people who like to get on that soap box and cry about anything to get noticed.
I can't stand hearing about youth and how their cultures were demolished and stolen by industry.
During the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance earlier this week, I heard a girl blame a multi-national corporation and the government for robbing her of her traditions.
Now, while I don't have the details, it sounded like some big company might have developed on her traditional land and maybe her relatives had to move.
But no matter who struck first, no one is to blame for the loss of culture but the family unit.
Learning begins at home, with the parents. I know that the older generation faced some pretty awful things and were stripped of their culture while in residential schools.
But why wouldn't they keep on with their cultural learning once they got out? Why couldn't they just go back to the land that they claim they lost?
I think the taste of apples and meeting southerners was more appealing to some people, which is why there are so many ethnic blends in the modern generation.
Some families did choose to go back to the land and still do. Then on the other side of the coin are the families who adapted to the "southern" life.
To the youth who want to cry and yell about their lost cultures, maybe start by downloading some drum dancing on your iPod.
Better yet, sell the iPod, move into the bush and help an elder cut wood for the winter. That seems like more of a pro-active approach to regaining your lost traditions.
I can't speak for the elders in the region, but I am sure they would appreciate the help, instead of just empty words.
Another youth at the hearing spoke about how the elders wouldn't want this pipeline because all aboriginals were taught to live off the land.
Well, I feel there is nothing wrong with development. I have respect for the elders, but we own this land now and we should do what we think is right.
I want to hear the youth gripe and complain once the Mackenzie Valley Highway is built.
Imagine the possibilities of one day driving straight through to Edmonton with all of your friends! Like, wow. Maybe there is more to this project than a caribou herd that you've never seen.
I'm sure some of you feel that I am being unfair. I acknowledge that there are youth out there doing the right thing.
Keep on keepin' on, young ones. Judging by some of the voices of my generation, we'll need someone to clean up this mess one day.
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
The Northwest Territories is suffering from a multiple personality disorder.
The territory has two distinct interests vying for dominance.
One side is the environment.
With such a vast area of wilderness filled with flora, fauna and fresh water, the territory is looking at its responsibilities seriously. There are a number of environmental boards in place across the territory that are charged with making sure new and continuing developments don't significantly damage the environment.
This is where the disorder comes into play.
On the other side of the coin is natural resource development. Residents of the territory need jobs and, as mentioned above, one thing we do have in abundance is natural resources.
A number of companies would like to develop these resources but they seem to meet resistance on every side. Paramount Resources Ltd. is the latest case in point.
After applying for a land use permit to conduct a small geophysical program in the Cameron Hills area, Paramount has been given an environmental assessment and mitigating measures which they say will make the project nearly unfeasible. They also say they are confused as to just how such decisions were reached.
With all the confusion over a small seismic project, a spokesperson for the company was left asking what would have happened if they'd applied for something more significant, like a new drill site.
Paramount can at least feel some comfort in the fact that its joining a long list of other resource development companies that have become frustrated with the permitting process in the territory.
For an observer looking in from the outside at the track record in the territory, it would appear that for the most part development isn't welcome.
Perhaps this is indeed the case, and if it is, someone should say so publicly so everyone can move on with that information in hand. On the other hand maybe development is welcomed. Either way, a clear message needs to be sent out.
Someone needs to sit down and decide how the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government want to proceed with regards to resource development.
It won't be an easy task and perhaps that is why things are stuck in the muddle we see currently. Two very important issues are being balanced against each other and the scales are barely inclining one way or the other.
Here in the Deh Cho things have an added layer of complexity. With no land claims settlement in place there isn't an agreement on surface and sub-surface rights. If the Deh Cho process is completed and land selection is chosen as a way forward, there will be a whole other set of circumstances to take into consideration with regards to development.
This overall indecision and lack of a clear path forward is apparently what happens in a territory with a personality disorder.
In last week's article on the rescue of the Arctic Sunwest Charter aircraft it indicated that the rescue plane had made it to the crash site in two hours. This was inaccurate. According to Capt. Bryn Elliot who was a navigator on the flight the actual flight time was three hours and 25 minutes.