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A shocking revelation coming out of the coroner's inquest into Karen Lander's death earlier this month was that five of the 12 bullets fired struck a neighbouring home while the occupants were inside watching the evening news.

Three of those bullets penetrated the house, one of them smashing through a large bay window and into a coffee table. Another landed in a bedroom, a third flew into the kitchen and into a bookcase. Two lodged in the exterior walls.

The shots came some five hours after the standoff began. Police knew long before that Lander was possibly armed and a threat to her neighbours. Yet the homeowners say they heard not a word from the RCMP the entire time, even though they were only two doors down the street from the Glick Court home where Lander was contemplating her awful choice.

Other residents were warned of the incident by police but none were evacuated, which is what should have happened, according to Staff Sgt. Brent Secondiak of Medicine Hat Police Services, the third-party investigator brought in to study the shooting.

People may debate whether the RCMP had to shoot Lander. But there is no question that innocent people's lives were put at risk that day.

Admitting a mistake is the first requirement of preventing another. The RCMP has yet to acknowledge the serious errors made that day and steps taken, if any, to correct them.

If not for the inquest, it's quite possible the public would have never known about the errant bullets. Police said nothing about it in the days after the shooting or after the Medicine Hat Police Services cleared officers of wrong-doing, despite hints at the existence of a "substantial" but still secret report.

The fact that none of this came to light fuels the perception that police officers investigating police officers is the same as police officers protecting police officers.

In this instance, the police need no protection. They were doing their job to the best of their abilities. When such an effort puts the public in jeopardy, the flawed policies and procedure that were applied must be altered so next time the public is not put at risk. That's truly protecting police officers.

Last month, RCMP G Division Supt. Wade Blake bolstered public confidence by ordering his detachment to reopen an investigation into an assault complaint against a city bylaw officer after Yellowknifer revealed witnesses had not been interviewed by RCMP investigators. His full explanation was printed in Yellowknifer. He has so far declined to comment about this much more serious case.

He did, however, indicate in his press release dated March 7 regarding the Lander shooting, "the RCMP welcomes any opportunity to examine existing procedures and policies as they apply to front-line policing and police operations in order to ensure that the best policing services to the public are being provided. We are also committed to considering the advisability, feasibility and practicality of any recommendations that are addressed to the RCMP."

We hope that he follows through on his commitment, since he also indicated in the same press release that "public confidence in the police is essential to the RCMP's ability to serve the public."

We agree. The public ought to feel assured that when the police are called into action, it's not them that people should be afraid of.

It would be a special and educational experience to be able to look at the world through the eyes and with the experiences of Pauline Bonnetrouge.

Pauline celebrated her 100th birthday with members of her family in Fort Simpson on March 10. Leon Bonnetrouge, one of her sons, said he thinks about all of the things his mother has seen during her life.

Pauline's experiences are an example of just how much can change in the course of a life, particularly a long one. Her century of living is also a cautionary tale of how hard it is to predict what will happen in the future.

Pauline has lived through and seen revolutions in methods of transportation, technology, medicine and culture, among other things. When Pauline was born around 1913, dog sleds, walking and boats were the primary methods of transportation in the Deh Cho. She saw highways roll across the territory and the spreading use of trucks and cars.

Food supply and variety has also changed greatly. When she was young, Pauline and her family would have been primarily self-sufficient when it came to food, relying on things they could hunt and gather from the land with the addition of some store-bought goods such as flour or sugar.

Fast forward to the present when almost the opposite is true with most Deh Cho residents relying on grocery stores and supplementing their purchases with hunting or fishing. Processed, prepared food has become the norm.

Almost every aspect of life has changed during Pauline's 100 years. It's astounding to think of the adaptations she's made and new skills she would have learned throughout her life.

The lesson for us is that there's no real way to know what lies ahead in our lifetimes, let alone those of the children who are born today. When Pauline was a child, who could have foreseen iPods, iPads and iPhones and the way devices such as those are changing our lives and the way we interact with each other.

Pauline has seen drastic changes sweep through the Deh Cho and undoubtedly there will be many more changes to come. The Deh Cho in 100 years may barely be recognizable to its current residents.

There's a brave new world ahead and it will only be with concerted effort that we will be able to shape it in a way that will benefit the coming generations who will call the Deh Cho home.

Like most people last week, I was greatly saddened by the sudden passing of Stompin' Tom Connors.

I don't know whether he played in or visited around Inuvik. I do know the Mukluk Shoe song though, and its references to Tuktoyaktuk.

Now let me make myself clear. As I grew up, the music of Stompin' Tom didn't exactly run to my taste. Like many Canadians, I found his repertoire almost embarrassing, even as it took root at some elusive, almost fundamental level.

It's only been in the last decade or two, largely because Stompin' Tom is a favourite of my wife Charlene, that I've gotten over that aversion to his music and can enthusiastically indulge in it. If I had to be honest, though, my conversion started on the long ride from Moosonee to Cochrane in Ontario, on the legendary Polar Bear Express back in the late 1990s.

A piano player was in the entertainment coach, and he knew a wide variety of the man's songs. A rollicking ride through the endless miles of black spruce forest seemed the perfect backdrop to that evening, and it's one I've never forgotten.

Since then I've travelled a fair bit across Canada, seeing many of the sights mentioned in his songs. That's given me new appreciation for the music I now find poignant.

Yet even in those years where I avoided his music I had a huge and abiding respect for the man for a few simple reasons: the sheer ferocity of his individualism, his refusal to compromise his intrinsic non-conformity, his scorn of walking any company or mainstream line, and his rousing passion for all things Canadian. These things poke to me at some elemental depth.

Here was a man who didn't let self-doubt and concerns about what others thought of him cloud his judgment or alter his behaviour. I cheered back in 1978, when I was barely aware of the Juno awards, as he handed back his trophies instead of shutting up and compromising his principles.

Stompin' Tom might well have been, to use the now-overworked phrase, the most "authentic" person we will ever see in Canadian public life.

We may never see another like him, and that's the real tragedy in his passing. To quote another, albeit much-scorned, Canadian musical success story, Nickelback: "against the grain should be a way of life."

While I'm not a particularly religious person, I take delight in picturing him haranguing God and the apostles in the middle of stomping some heavenly plywood. And if he's gone to the other place, I can picture the devil playing in his backup band and enjoying every minute of it.

Farewell, Tom. Now you've been everywhere.

There was evidence of some right-headed thinking and some wrong-headed thinking at the city's municipal services committee meeting March 4.

City councillors were talking about a proposal by administration to spend $40,000 on an economic development plan when councillor Rebecca Alty suggested the city wait until the territorial government's Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment completes an economic development strategy, which is currently underway.

"I don't know how many reports I have seen done by one department and then done by another department with the first department not knowing about the other's report because nobody talks to anybody," Alty said. She was supported by Couns. Dan Wong and Linda Bussey.

That's an example of right-headed thinking.

The last economic development plan was completed by a consultant for the city in 2006. The New Paradigm for Economic Growth plan called for the city to work toward becoming a cold weather testing centre, research geothermal energy, and develop a diamond and jewelry manufacturing industry.

That's an example of wrong-headed thinking.

We suggest the city can play only a limited role in the development of a diamond and jewelry manufacturing industry, or lure automobile manufacturers to the city to do cold weather testing. And everyone knows what happened to the idea of geothermal energy. It went nowhere.

We're dismayed when we see city council look at problems that are really outside its jurisdiction, decide that they don't have the desired answers and, as a result, hire a consultant to prepare a report that says any action that can be taken is either too expensive or exclusively involve other levels of government.

We'd prefer to see the city play to its strengths. It has established a communications and economic development department, which recently hired a new staff person and wants to develop a five-year plan that will express a vision for tourism, marketing and economic growth. A majority of council support this idea.

That's an example of right-headed thinking.

The city can be effective as a promoter of the things which make it unique - the lakes, the Northern lights, Snowking Festival, Long John Jamboree, Folk on the Rocks and its success in hosting major events like last year's Canadian Medical Association conference.

It can develop promotional materials and reach out to people in regions surrounding the capital, like the Kitikmeot, whose residents already use Yellowknife as a shopping hub, to the rest of Canada, where NWT Tourism says the bulk of the city's tourists originate, to the United States and abroad, to Japan and other Asian countries where many aurora viewers already come from.

The new city council should stick to common sense solutions and put its energy, and taxpayers' money, in areas where it can make a difference.

Judging by the hustle and bustle taking place on Yellowknife Bay over the weekend, the sophomore return of Long John Jamboree appears set for another successful run this weekend.

Trucks and heavy machinery were seen hauling giant blocks of ice from the lake for the ice carving competition; a giant wall of wooden pallets stands ready to burn for the "biggest bonfire North of 60;" next door to the Snowking Winter Festival, an immense clearing on the ice awaits the raising of tents and cook shacks, and the hundreds of vehicles that will be parked as Yellowknifers come for what is hoped to be a long-running event.

The Long John Jamboree rose phoenix-like out of the ashes of Caribou Carnival, the 55-year-old Yellowknife spring festival that ran out of steam for good in 2010 - the same year the long-standing summer tradition of Raven Mad Daze made its pathetic last stand.

The Jamboree can count a good part of its success on its energetic and well-connected team of organizers, led by its president, city councillor Adrian Bell. This is something that Caribou Carnival and Raven Mad Daze didn't have in their final years. The challenge to ensuring the Jamboree has a long-lasting and successful future is making sure the baton is passed to an equally energetic group when the current crop of organizers inevitably tire and move onto other things.

Organizations such as Folk on the Rocks have been managing to do this for more than 30 years.

The key is keeping up the interest - from sponsors and the public.

Canada lost a true iconic performer on March 6 with the death of Stompin' Tom Connors at the age of 77.

The legendary singer was a proud Canadian who penned more than 300 songs during his career, the vast majority of which had distinctly Canadian subjects.

Connors became an icon in this country for the pure Canadiana of songs such as Bud The Spud, The Hockey Song and A Sudbury Saturday Night, among many others.

He never forgot the North, and had a hit song with the Ballad of Muk Tuk Annie, featuring a heroine from then Frobisher Bay.

Pangnirtung was Annie's home in the poem of the same name by Eric Linden.

When heading out on tour, Connors would ask but one question to any artist hoping to be his opening act. If the answer to whether they liked beer was anything less than unbridled enthusiasm to the affirmative, they never landed the gig.

Connors was also an advocate for Canadian artists before the country's radio stations were truly willing to play a fixed percentage of Canadian content.

The MAPL (music, artist, performer and lyrics) system was introduced in 1971, with radio stations being mandated to air Canadian content 25 per cent of their broadcast day.

By 1999, it had increased to 35 per cent.

Many stations tried to circumvent the mandate by airing most Canadian content during off-peak hours, until further regulation made them play Canadian artists between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

At about the same time, in 1971, the Juno Awards were introduced and were to begin being broadcast across the country on TV in 1975.

A scant three years later, in 1978, Connors had enough of how the Canadian recording industry treated its artists and took a stand.

Stompin' Tom was frustrated over the fact Canadian radio stations didn't really want to play Canadian music, and too many Juno Awards were being given to performers who had left their country to work abroad, most notably in the United States.

Connors removed his name from the Country Male Vocalist Of The Year category and, days later, returned six Junos he had previously won. Many Canadian artists, who made it big in their own country in the years to follow, owe a great deal to Connors for drawing attention to the plight of Canadian talent.

I had a chance to meet Connors while writing a feature article on his return to the land of the bright red mud for a tribute to him at Johnny Reid's famous JR's Bar about 20 years ago.

I met him at the airport and he agreed to answer as many questions as I could ask during the time it took us to walk to his vehicle, as long as I carried the luggage.

In the brief time I had the legend to myself, I was impressed by his candour, sincerity and biting humour. In fact, Connors was one of the few celebrities I've interviewed who was all I expected and more.

He was tickled pink to realize I was little more than a cub reporter trying to make a name for myself at the time.

As I packed the luggage into his rent-a-car, while trying to get in one last question, he remarked this was one so-called celebrity I wasn't likely to soon forget.

Hopefully, at the end of the day, Stompin' Tom is one so-called celebrity an entire nation will never forget!

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya recently spoke out against the North's new Northern Studies curriculum, introduced last fall in NWT and Nunavut high schools to educate students about Canada's residential school era. He complained that the Roman Catholic Church's role in the trauma inflicted on students at the government- and church-run institutions was downplayed, if not outright ignored.

Yakeleya said entering the residential school system was "like passing through a door from one world to another world."

Had Yakeleya reviewed the curriculum, he'd see it does indeed present the facts. It teaches the Roman Catholic Church's role in the day-to-day operations of the majority of the schools. It also relays the schools' were not simply focused on education, but had a secondary mission to assimilate aboriginal youth to the colonial culture and convert them to Christianity. The churches involved and the Canadian government achieved this goal by ripping families apart, discouraging the use of language and dismissing culture, messages often reinforced with some form of punishment.

The material spurs critical thinking on all aspects of the residential school system: the bravery of the children separated from families, the bravery of former students who shared a positive story of their school experience, and how hard it must be for other students to reflect back on bad memories.

It's not the job of the school systems to delve into the details of individual traumatic experiences or specific cases of abuse over the more than 100-year history of these institutions. This is the job of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with its mandate to "acknowledge residential school experiences, impacts and consequences."

However an overarching theme in the curriculum is to acknowledge how the history of residential school affected people. This is achieved by analyzing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2008 apology for the treatment of aboriginal children and their families, through personal stories from former students, and through official reports concerning the inadequate government funding, diet, clothing and medical care, all of which is in the school material.

Since education should be presented without bias, the curriculum also includes positive stories from past students. There are those who look back at their residential school years and remember lifelong friendships forged, a place free from abuse, and the ability to return home to their parents. Some priests and nuns did their honest best to educate the youth in religion, arithmetic and reading, as was their mandate.

Indeed there were others who committed unspeakable acts, likely corrupted or empowered by the authoritative and near-absolute power given to them over their charges.

The physical, cultural and emotional wounds inflicted on aboriginal children caused issues that spanned generations. Abusive behaviours learned at the school carried with students into adulthood, into their families and was then passed on to their own children. Addictions became a crutch to silence the nightmares of growing up away from family supports and in an alien culture.

The material presented in this first draft of the resource asks students to look at the complexity of the school system, its history and its legacy with an emphasis on discussing the difficult subject matter in a supportive environment.

This curriculum is introducing a major part of Canadian and aboriginal history into the Northern school system. It is a conversation that has to happen, and the material navigates the waters responsibly.

While the Government of Nunavut has balanced its budget, half of Nunavummiut aren't so fortunate.

Both the government, which relies on its federal transfer money to set its budget, and many Nunavut families, with low employment opportunities and incomes, are forced to work within tight fiscal restraints. The difference, though, is cabinet can decide not to build new homes, as it did last year -- although an extreme need is there -- and then throw a bit of money at it the next year. Nunavummiut can't choose not to pay rent and then slide their landlord a fraction of what's owed the next month so they can use their budget to feed their families.

The GN predicts there is a shortfall of 3,000 to 4,000 houses and expects that need to grow by 90 homes each year. The 2013-2014 budget promises 30 homes to be built, not even a fraction of what is needed to address the annual deficit. How much progress does one make when paying one-third of the interest on a maxed out credit card? When does this become, in the government's eyes, a crisis?

Finance Minister Keith Peterson's touting of the government's financial stability belies the instability of life for ordinary Nunavummiut. Statistics Canada paints a bleak picture of the state of Nunavut. Our homicide rate in 2011 was more than 10 times the national average (seven were killed in Nunavut that year). Nunavut's violent crime rates generally tower above national rates, and this problem is underscored by severe mental health and addictions problems.

The GN's own figures demonstrate a serious need for better housing conditions. Our rate of tuberculosis - a disease most common in developing countries - is close to 65 times the national average (79 cases in Nunavut in 2012), and its spread is helped by overcrowded homes. Our suicide rate is close to 11 times the national average (34 people killed themselves in Nunavut in 2011). Less than half our Grade 12 students are graduating high school each year. Half of Nunavut's tax-filers made less than $26,005 in 2011, despite living arguably the most expensive part of the country.

Peterson acknowledged many of these issues in his budget address, and said he wishes the government had the resources to better tackle them. However, instead of addressing the territory's dire social needs his vision of the big picture is to prioritize the building of cash reserves.

"We can attract partners and financing only if we demonstrate that we can manage our own resources properly," said Peterson during his budget address on Feb. 27.

A government's credibility should be based on the welfare of its people first, not solely on the management of its pocketbook. When the territory's problems are more reminiscent of a developing country than the developed nation in which it resides, is it enough to simply govern and balance the budget? Is it enough to tackle these problems incrementally? This paper is of the opinion it is not enough.

We need addictions centres, new homes and mental health services. Our people need income and access to affordable food. Our MLAs must find the courage and drive to tackle these problems head-on. These leaders must publicly challenge the federal government if the territory does not have the resources it needs to provide the quality of life comparable to that of Canadians living in the provinces.

A surplus of $22 million is money we could have spent on new homes. Breathing room in our debt cap to the tune of $200 million is an opportunity to invest in an addictions and mental health facility. Our government could tackle that project through a public-private partnership, similar to its strategy to renovate the Iqaluit airport - a multimillion-dollar project.

Balanced budgets and a meek attitude towards our federal government might help us achieve devolution in a swifter fashion, but we are balancing these budgets on the backs of the poor, the homeless and the hungry.

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