Features

When it comes to events related to sports, the Deh Cho has an overflowing cup this month.

This weekend the Fort Simpson recreation centre will host two separate sporting events. Approximately 40 young hockey players are expected to arrive on Jan. 11 to participate in the Mackenzie Youth Hockey Challenge. Across the hall and in the warmer gym basketball players will be competing in the TSS Invitational tournament.

The following week students at the Charles Yohin school will be learning skills at a hockey workshop on Jan. 17. Meanwhile on the next day female hockey players will take to the ice in Fort Simpson for the annual Moosehide Mamas Chicks with Sticks tournament. Simultaneously, a soccer tournament is scheduled to take place in Fort Liard at the Echo Dene school.

Wait a week and male teams will take to the ice in Fort Simpson for the annual men's hockey tournament.

The last week brings us to the end of the month when the Fort Simpson Pulsars will be travelling to Yellowknife to compete in the territorials with the hopes of winning the honour of representing the Northwest Territories in the Arctic Winter Games.

It's a full schedule and it doesn't even take into account all of the smaller events, team practices and curling nights that are happening around the region.

While a full slate of sports events usually isn't much to get excited about, it is rather timely.

Fittingly all of these events are happening just after New Year's.

New Year's, besides a time to celebrate the changing of the year, is also a time when people traditionally think forward and make some sort of a resolution. Among the most popular resolutions are to become more fit, lose weight and spend more time with family and friends.

January is also traditionally the time when the resolutions people have made fall by the wayside.

In the Deh Cho, however, there is no reasonable excuse, except for a bad case of the stomach flu that is travelling around, for anyone not to be able to keep their resolution if it's related to physical fitness. With so many athletic events planned there are plenty of opportunities for people to pick up a hockey stick, tie on a pair or skates, hoist a curling rock or grab a basketball.

Athletes across the Deh Cho will be active role models over the rest of the month as they practise and compete.

If you've also resolved to spend more time with family and friends you can do both by bringing those people along to a sporting event even if it's just to cheer.

Whether you rang in the new year with a drink, a smoke or any other party favour, you should now be ready to start the year right.

Within the resolutions and phony promises lay real goals and wishes.

Usually someone makes a resolution to be healthier, by quitting smoking or some other vice they have.

A lot of the time, before you know it, you're back in your old habits.

While I can agree with wanting to make a better life, I don't agree with the way people go about it.

If you want attention drawn to yourself, there are other ways besides some empty promise.

After talking with some friends and people around town, it's become obvious to me that people will say one thing and do another.

Why lie to yourself?

Someone who announces they're going to stop their wicked ways at New Year's just seems ridiculous to me.

If you're going to start living a healthier life, just do it, rather than wave it in the air like some sort of flag. I don't need you telling me that you've quit drinking soda. That can only be proven over time. If you want to start something, like a routine of exercising, then brag about it after you've done it.

Telling people that you're ready to make a change is one thing. Starting such a task then flaking out a week later is nothing to brag about.

For those of you who actually keep their resolutions and make an honest run at changing for the better, congrats.

I don't think resolutions are really necessary. I made some important life choices in mid-December. The original idea was to make a New Year's resolution out of it, but I decided that I should just work hard and make the choice earlier.

It can be hard to imagine, but there are people who live their lives every day to be as fit as possible.

I know, it sounds difficult and I'm sure it was at first.

The cool thing about a routine is that it becomes the normal thing to do.

Wake up at six in the morning and lift some weights for a while. Have breakfast and start your day. After meeting with some of the more active members in the community, I realize I have some common interests with them.

They keep working and participating in sports and I keep writing about them and nagging others to start being active.

There are many families in town who want others to join them in active living. Sign up at the rec complex for a sport, or volunteer to help with the organization.

After experiencing the Sunrise Festival this past weekend, I want to express my gratitude to the Inuvik Volunteer Fire Department and anyone else that contributed time and effort to make such an awesome event possible. Countless hours were donated by volunteers to give a good show to the town.

I was walking to the bank earlier this week and overheard someone say the show was not good enough.

I'm sorry, but in a town where I have to wait weeks for video game releases and pay too much for food, I'm happy to see any sort of lights in the sky.

To Rick, Al, Duane, Scott and everyone else who didn't get to see the show because they were busy running the fireworks, thanks.

I can tell from the number of backed up vehicles after the show that others are appreciative as well.

When Sally Morris and Jason Card's eight-month-old daughter Neveah began vomiting and suffering diarrhea just after they fed her a jar of food purchased from Wal-Mart, the cause was unclear. Neveah's doctor said she may have contracted a virus.

But when her father prepared to feed her the day after her doctor visit, he noticed the vacuum seal on the next jar of baby food from the same batch had already been broken.

A jar's vacuum seal - indicated by a flat, firm lid -- is meant to prevent bacteria from spoiling the food. A popped top means the seal has been broken, and the food may no longer be safe to eat.

It's not certain whether the baby food is what actually made their baby sick but Morris and Card did what any parents would do.

They took the jars with popped tops straight back to Wal-Mart on Boxing Day and told the manager.

So they were understandably furious when they visited the store on Friday, Dec. 28 and found jars of baby food with popped tops still on the shelves.

They phoned Yellowknifer. Our reporter went to the store and checked it out.

Then, realizing the story would not appear in the paper until the following Wednesday at the earliest and worried parents might purchase the product in the meantime, our reporter called Wal-Mart that afternoon and notified them again about the possibly-spoiled baby food on their shelves.

We checked Saturday afternoon. The jars with popped tops were still for sale.

On Monday, the store's manager told our reporter all the baby food with popped tops had been pulled off the shelves.

So she checked again and found three more jars with popped tops. We contacted the Department of Health and Social Services, who told us the best action to take in a case like this is to notify the public health unit immediately.

It wasn't Wal-Mart's fault the tops were popped. A representative from Heinz, the manufacturer of the baby food in question, said the jars may have been handled roughly in transit to Yellowknife. But the delay in removing the product from the shelves was unconscionable.

The facts of this story made two things apparent.

One, that Wal-Mart has shown appalling disregard for the health of its most vulnerable customers. It would have taken somebody - anybody - just a few minutes to check the baby food display and remove the jars with popped tops.

And two, that consumers must be vigilant in checking the products they buy are safe, and take care not only in what they buy but where they buy it.

Hopefully, a sad saga will come to a close with former finance minister David Simailak standing up to apologize during the next sitting of the Nunavut legislative assembly.

Simailak was found to have contravened the Integrity Act by failing to disclose, in his annual public-disclosure statements on four occasions, the name of a subsidiary of a private company in which he had an interest.

The review was conducted by Nunavut Integrity Commissioner Robert Stanbury.

The commissioner made three recommendations as a result of his findings.

He has recommended that (1) Simailak be reprimanded by the assembly, and (2) make a statement in the assembly acknowledging his wrongful conduct, apologize to his peers, constituents and all Nunavummiut, and promise to faithfully fulfil his future commitments under the Integrity Act.

Stanbury also recommended that (3) should Simailak fail to fulfil the requirement of No. 2 within 10 sitting days after the assembly's acceptance of the recommendations, his right to sit and vote in the assembly shall be suspended without indemnity or allowance until the requirement is fulfilled.

While the assembly has the option to accept or reject all of Stanbury's recommendations, there appears to be no reason for rejection.

We tend to side with the commissioner and take Simailak at his word that his failure to fulfil his obligations of disclosure was the result of honest error and not a deliberate attempt at deception.

Only time will tell if that, in fact, was the case.

That being said, a finance minister is expected to understand his obligations under the Integrity Act and fully comply with them.

There are no excuses for failing to do so, whether intentional or otherwise.

What may yet prove itself interesting is what is decided in regards to Simailak's cabinet position.

The situation eerily parallels that of a few years ago, when another minister was removed from cabinet.

As in that case, we cannot see Premier Paul Okalik wanting Simailak to be voted back on a secret ballot, although the premier's wishes hold little sway in full caucus.

But, with the premier already talking about an election this coming summer, the odds are in favour of leaving the cabinet post vacant until Nunavummiut head to the polls, which is what happened in the previous case.

The fact of the matter is, that would also be the best path for Simailak to follow if he, indeed, plans to run again in the next election.

Inuit are well known for their ability to forgive and grant a second chance when a person admits a mistake, apologizes and is willing to work hard to make amends.

Should the assembly accept Stanbury's recommendations, Simailak could make his apology, continue to serve his constituents in Baker Lake for another few months, brush up on political obligations and throw his hat back in the ring come election time.

Should the people vote for a second chance, he could then return to the capital with a relatively clean slate.

That sounds to us like a tidy solution to a messy situation.

Wrong information appeared if Friday's Yellowknifer ("Snowmobiler shares tale of survival," Jan. 4). Henry Catholique was discovered by James Sangris and Julia Lynn. We apologize for any embarrassment or confusion caused by the error.