Editorial

Diamonds gave the NWT economy a kick in the pants, but for all the good things the mines have brought, the cutting and polishing industry has never realized its potential.

The suspension of Aurora College's diamond cutting course is just one more nail in the coffin. The college says there are no students because there are no jobs.

There are no jobs because the government didn't do its job to secure a supply of diamonds. Despite tough talk back in the late 1990s, the territorial government was unable to get guaranteed access to Northern diamonds for Northern cutting plants.

At one point last year, one of the three remaining plants was forced to buy diamonds from Belgium.

A few weeks back, the territorial government trumpeted a deal with De Beers that promised 10 per cent of Snap Lake diamonds will be made available to city firms, as long as they meet De Beers' standards. Once again, however, there were no guarantees.

It would be easy to blame multi-national diamond companies for the lack of cutting industry jobs, but they're doing what companies do: working to protect their investment and get the biggest bang for their bucks.

It must also be acknowledged that they spend millions with NWT firms and charities and provide hundreds of jobs.

However, it is time everyone started to ask how many Northerners are moving south once they've secured jobs at the mines?

The existing diamond cutting plants seem to be doing well, but the failure to have more jobs than we now enjoy lies squarely with the territorial government.

It never understood the power it had to stand up to the companies and force them to guarantee access to our resource, at fair market value. No guarantees? No mines. It's that simple. The government could learn a lot from First Nations because they'll say no unless they get what they want.

Let's hope the millions the college invested in the diamond course wasn't for naught, but don't hold your breath.

If De Beers diamonds will mean increased cutting and polishing, who's to say it won't be easier for cutting houses to simply hire more workers from overseas, rather than wait for Northerners to train.

Time to slam lid on sex crime loophole

Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

With the high rate of sexual activity among teenagers in Nunavut, we should all be concerned with a recent ruling in a Saskatchewan court.

The case saw Jeffrey Kindrat acquitted by a jury in a sexual-assault case involving a 12 year old Aboriginal girl who accepted a ride with three men in a truck, leading to a sexual encounter.

One of the three men was found guilty in 2003 and given two years house arrest.

The third will be retried in October after being found not guilty with Kindrat in a 2003 trial.

An appeals court overturned that decision and ordered both re-tried.

The jury deliberated for 150 minutes before acquitting Kindrat based on his honest-and-reasonable-belief defence, which left the jurors with a reasonable doubt as to whether the man realized the girl was only 12 at the time.

There are many who fear the verdict could have a serious impact on future cases.

The matter was further fuelled by defence attorney Morris Bodnar's statement that he never gets demonstrations when he has an aboriginal client and a white victim, only when his client is white and the victim is aboriginal.

Although our legal system is one of the best in the world, it's not perfect and we accept that.

Sometimes innocent people get convicted and guilty people walk away free.

However we find it strange for a jury to be convinced that a man could not tell that a 12-year-old girl was not old enough to give her consent to sex, even if it would be unreasonable to expect him to know her exact age.

And, despite Bodnar's remarks, this issue has nothing to do with the colour of one's skin.

This is about trying to protect our youth from the sexual predators who are out there and, in the case of those too promiscuous for their own good, from themselves.

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) is calling on the honest-and-reasonable-belief defence to be stricken from the Criminal Code and we support the group's stance.

We find it nothing short of incredulous that the onus of ascertaining the age of someone buying cigarettes in a corner store or ordering alcohol at a restaurant falls squarely on the shoulders of the proprietor.

Yet, in a time when sexually-transmitted diseases are rampant and often deadly, one can have a sexual encounter with a pre-teen under some sort of honest-and-reasonable belief as to their age and consent?

One does not have to be a member of the NWAC or any other organization to be outraged by that logic, simply having morals and/or being a parent will do that.

In an age when so much emphasis is placed on physical attractiveness and youth often appear older than they truly are, it should be paramount within the law for anyone about to engage in sexuality activity to know the person they're with is old enough to give their consent.

The NWAC has correctly referred to the honest-and-reasonable-belief defence as a loophole.

It's a loophole our justice system should move quickly to close in all communities; Inuit, First Nation, caucasian and all shades in-between.

In search of spring

Editorial Comment
Dez Loreen
Inuvik Drum
Friday, April 06, 2007

There I was, standing on top of the sliding hill on Boot Lake, looking far over the Mackenzie River when it dawned on me. This is spring time in the delta.

The sun was rolling over the Richardson Mountains and the sky had an orange glow to it. For that one moment, I was lost in my own thoughts. I felt at peace and really relaxed.

My friends quickly snapped me back to reality with a well-packed snowball to the back. Oh yeah, we were there with a purpose: to bomb down the hill head first without bailing out before reaching the bottom.

Now I will admit that I am not the bravest of souls, especially when it means plowing down this slope. At first I was afraid to jump on the sled, until some little kids ran past me and dove down the hill on their toboggan.

Mind you it was a plastic toboggan that looked like a good safe ride. I remember asking someone next to me about the old toboggans. You know the ones, wooden sleds with strings to hold onto. Those were the days when you could really do some damage.

Another group of kids hit the hill shortly after the first girl had made it all the way to the bottom. These boys seemed more interested in hanging out with the older kids than actually sliding.

Of course we were willing to spend some time wrestling around in the snow and taking turns going down the hill, packed two by two on sleds meant for one person.

One of the kids brought his G.T. racer with him, which was tricked out and modified for what he called "killer fast" speeds. The plastic skis were taken off and only the metal frame touched the snow. This definitely was a machine to be respected. I don't even remember the last time I saw a G.T. that was still intact.

Seeing those kids all playing together with my friends and just letting go for a few hours to laugh and enjoy the sun was nice.

A few days after the sledding adventure I went for a short walk to see the sun. I saw a group of youth playing street hockey in a driveway.

There was a group of 10 kids there. I think some of them may have been sitting out as substitute players. That made the make shift game seem more legitimate and organized. There was no adult in sight, just a bunch of youth out doing what they love, being outdoors.

There must be something in the air during this time of year. The thought of snow melting enough to reveal pavement on the streets and seeing grass growing is enough to thaw the coldest of hearts.

The warm weather can only mean one thing: it's Jamboree time. Ah yes, the sweetest time of the year in our community. The time of year when everyone gathers at the river site to smile and eat doughnuts.

I know I'll be out on a Ski-doo some time during the weekend. I just hope that everyone else will also be responsible enough to stay safe and keep others in mind when you're out bombing around on your snow machine.

This past weekend, someone had a pretty bad spill when their Ski-doo crashed on the river. The fire department was on site, along with many other curious people in vehicles. All that remains of the snowmobile is the hollowed-out metal shell of the frame and engine. It turned the snow a dark colour of brown.

I have confidence that we can make this Jamboree weekend one to remember, so get your big boots on and join the fun!

Edible knowledge

Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum
Friday, April 06, 2007

While graduations are always a reason to celebrate, the recent graduation of eight women in Nahanni Butte from the Aurora College camp cook program was an especially festive occasion.

Hosting a large community feast with specially-prepared delectable food does a lot to liven up any occasion.

A long line formed as community members came out to enjoy the occasion and the food. People with heavily-laden plates filled all the chairs surrounding the tables that were set up in the meeting room at the band office and spilled out onto the floors of the band office halls and countertops, any place that was available to set a plate of food on.

The feast was a tangible and edible sign of the students' success.

Although the end product seemed simple, the process to get there involved many steps.

The women worked in the kitchen for a week to prepare the wide variety of food that was laid out on tables in the meeting room. Baked goods that could be frozen were made first followed by pies.

The assortment of meat was prepared and cooked ahead of time, ready to be reheated on the big day. Parts of the hors d'oeuvres were also made in advance and later assembled.

In the kitchen during the morning and afternoon before the feast, the students were working together like a well-oiled machine. Everyone had their own tasks to complete and everything seemed to fall into place perfectly, a testament to the planning involved.

The food items prepared spoke to both the roots of the women's cooking experiences and the new avenues they explored. Traditional favourites such as moose roast and bannock shared the same table as orange and pecan stuffed pork loin and peanut chicken curry in wonton cups.

If the merit of any community feast can be partially gauged by the number of people taking home plates of food, the graduation feast was a success. People were taking advantage of the leftovers by making up one or two plates of food covered with tinfoil to snack on later.

These eight women have a lot to be proud of.

The three-month course, like the preparation for the feast, wasn't always easy. Early in the process, staff at the band office were sending out encouragement in Community Clips to support the students who were struggling with converting measurements. Two of the original 10 students weren't able to complete the course.

It's never too late to learn new skills or build on existing ones, as the students in the course have shown. By graduating they've joined the ranks of people in Fort Simpson, Fort Providence and Trout Lake who have taken the course.

Hopefully these women will find continued support in whatever they choose to do. There are many options. Maybe some will find work in a camp kitchen, others might start a baked goods business and others may just make even better meals for their families.

The important thing is that these women started a program and saw it through to completion, learning useful skills in the process.

These eight women should stand as examples for anyone who is thinking about furthering their education. You never know what you might learn.