Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The death of a former Yellowknife city councillor has some remembering him as a crusader for democracy.

Dick Peplow died Friday morning after a long illness, according to employees at the online newspaper he started in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., SooToday.com.

Former Yellowknife city Coun. Dick Peplow shows off his camera while working in Sault Ste. Marie. Peplow died last Friday at the age of 63. - photo courtesy of David Helwig

He was 63.

Often a dissenting voice during his term on Yellowknife city council, Peplow was instrumental in the 1998 court decision that lifted the secrecy around committee meetings.

SooToday news director Dave Helwig remembered Peplow as a broadcaster and news entrepreneur.

"He had a real knack for spotting jewels in the rough," Helwig said. "He hired me right out of a hardware store."

From that 1977 meeting in Kirkland Lake, Ont., Helwig and Peplow's paths would intersect several times, including in the North.

In the 90s, Peplow became a Yellowknife city councillor, while Helwig worked as a reporter at the Hay River Hub.

"We were talking across the lake," Helwig said. "It turned out we were fighting the same battles."

Those battles were for transparency in councils on both sides of Great Slave.

While serving as a councillor, Peplow aligned himself with the Yellowknife Property Owners Association in its two-year legal battle with the city.

Peplow went so far as to call the city a "bully" in its attitude towards the looming court case.

NWT Supreme Court Justice Howard Irving eventually ruled in favour of the association, declaring the city's secret meetings illegal.

"I very dearly enjoyed working with him," said Matthew Grogono, who was president of Yellowknife Property Owners Association during the case.

"He was quite inspirational for showing leadership in dealing with municipal corporations in Yellowknife," Grogono said.

"He wore many hats, but that didn't mean he couldn't have an opinion."

"(Peplow) always tried to do the right thing," Helwig said. "He would have been a lonely guy in that battle."

Many in Yellowknife's political scene, past and present, didn't wish to comment on his passing.

"That was a long time ago," said former mayor Pat McMahon, who seemed at a loss for words.